revivalproject | Some people have a bad day.

"Hey!" Her nose scrunched and Catra scrambled across the mattress to deliver a hard punch to Tony's shoulder, ears pinned back low. "Well, you're a big jerk face. Get out of mine and Adora's bunk," she demaded.

"A-ow!" Tony complained in surprise, flinching away and clutching his shoulder at the shockingly heavy hit when he didn't even know they had come to blows yet. He was just warming up. "I was kidding, geez," he grumbled, carefully crawling his hand behind Catra intent to pluck up the blanket to quickly swaddle her in case she decided to retaliate again. Chances were good because he insisted, "But that look is pretty ugly."

"Heeeey!" She moved to swipe at him with those calls, and fortunately, Tony saved himself the loss of an eye with that crawling hand.

For a moment it seemed as though picking up the blanket had made the world glitch, the setup seemed to switch back to how it had been only a moment ago, that little bundle crying on the low bunk. Only this time a small blonde girl stood in the door way, and she looked anxiously towards her friend.

"Catra?" she called.

Catra continued to sob as the girl approached, and knelt before Catra to tug the blanket gently off from her head. Like with Tony she hissed, and the girl reassured- "Catra, it's okay. It's just me." She sat beside her in the bunk and Catra wiped her tears away on the blanket with a frown.

"...It doesn't matter what they do to us, you know?" the girl offered in a hopeful voice. Catra continued to pout, ears wiggling uncertainly, "You look out for me, and I look out for you." She placed a reassuring hand on Catra's shoulder, "Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other." Those ears finally lifted a bit, and Catra looked to the other girl with hope in her eyes. "You promise?"

"I promise." Catra leaned into to hug her, still not looking sure, and after a moment the other girl encouraged, "Come on, let's go back out," helping Catra to her feet. She takes her hand and Catra finally smiled, walking along after her .

And then- abruptly- everything went back to how it had been, Catra's hand frozen in mid strike. She frowned and lowered it again.

That was such a strangely intimate encounter that, for once in this invasive experience, Tony felt uncomfortable for invading it this way. A couple of little girls taking care of each other had nothing to do with him, or gave him much insight, but it did seem to save him from Catra's wrath, at least. He continued to tug the blanket until he could pull it up around Catra's shoulders again, gently draping her back in its security. "I had a friend like that," he said, realizing only when he was out of his mouth that it was in the past tense and wasn't sure which one of them he considered dead. "He was there to pick me up every time I thought I was done. Do you do the same for her?"

She frowned, but looked a little less hostile, and gripped at the edges of the blanket to pull it closer before giving an uncertain nod.

It was usually more Adora looking out for her than the other way around but- "...We look out for each other," she agreed, "...What was your friend like?"

Tony smiled his proud acceptance at Catra's agreement, relaxing back on his hands again as long as she was going to be a loyal friend, despite the bruise he was pretty sure was forming on his shoulder. "He found me when I was alone and very scared and flew me to safety like a guardian angel," he grinned, a glint of mischief in his eye suggesting the friend would not appreciate that description very much. "And we shared everything ever since. Secrets, french fries, underwear..." Now Tony was looking entirely too innocent as he counted of their shareable things, so the friend definitely had to hate that. "And whenever I couldn't do something, he would do it for me, even when he was really mad at me." Tony's sidelong look Catra's way suggested he knew which of the girls in their relationship had to be the one getting angry, even without knowing the blonde at all.

Catra flushed, eyes skirting away like she had no idea what he was implying.

"...Do you miss him?" she asked, picking at her claws with a frown. She seemed to think she was being subtle, asking these questions as though they didn't relate to her own situation.

It wasn't clear what the best answer to that question when a sniffling kitten asked it. Lying about it wouldn't make Catra miss her friend any less, but it might help her to think there was a chance it could hurt less eventually. The truth was pretty bleak. Eventually, he admitted, "I try not to," because she probably understood that, and offered a grin. "Focus on something else, you know, make some...art." Not his thing, but it did seem to be hers, and Tony ran a curious finger over the marks next to her pillow.

The bunk room disappeared, and Tony found himself in some sort of half wrecked temple hall that looked ancient but with advanced technology, a red light flashing. Large mechanical spiders are advancing on that same girl from before, only she's grown now, and dangling over the edge of a gaping chasm, clutching desperately to a bit of strange webbing to keep from falling.

Suddenly Catra appeared, drawing the spiders away, slashing and crashing her way through with angry pants and growls, and Adora looks relived.

"Catra?" she called. A moment later Catra walked slowly to the edge of the chasm, holding a sword which she runs a claw over with a smirk. "...Hey Adora," she greeted.

"Catra, help me. Please," Adora asks, beaming at the sight of her.

"...This thing wouldn't work for me if I tried, would it?" Catra replied, looking to the sword, "It only works for you." She brandished the sword thoughtfully, "Then again, you're special. That's what Shadow Weaver always said."

"Catra, what are you doing?" Adora pleaded, voice tinged with worry.

"Ah, you know, it all makes sense now," Catra taunted, turning away from Adora, "You've always been the one holding me back. You wanted me to think I needed you. You wanted me to feel weak."

Adora looked hurt, and Catra eventually padded back over, "Every hero needs a sidekick, right?"

"Catra, no. That's not how it was."

Catra laughed, and the world around them almost seemed to be dissolving into blackness. She knelt down to overlook her former friend, leaning on the sword.

"The sad thing is, I've spent all this time hoping you'd come back to the Hoarde, when really, you leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me." She moved the blade to sit at the edge of the webbing a crazed look in her eye. "I am so much stronger than anyone ever thought," she purred, cutting slowly through a few strands, making Adora cry out as they snap and drop her down that much further, left hanging on by only a weak strand now.

"...I wonder what I could have been if I'd gotten rid of you sooner," she mused calmly, before slicing through the final lifeline.

Adora cried out, plummeting several feet into the abyss before she was able to catch a small bit of rock.

"I am sorry! I never meant to make you feel like you were second best!" she called, as Catra stood, watching her hang there. "Please don't do this!"

Catra considered a moment, looking to the sword with a smirk before tossing it down into the abyss, the blackness closing in as the sword clanked somewhere below.

"Bye Adora. I really am going to miss you," she purred, before turning into the dark and walking away.

The bunk room returned before the dark fully swallowed it up, and Catra glanced away with a frown.

Not so much a loyal friend then. And while Tony had pegged Catra for a textbook of unpleasant traits, killer hadn't been among them yet. There wasn't any more forgiving way to interpret that memory; Catra's friend was begging for her life. It was only the image of this little girl, defensive in her blanket, that made Tony hesitate, searching hopefully for some missing fragment, before he had to push himself up off of the bunk, pacing away a few deliberate steps to get the proper space between them.

It wasn't really far enough, stuck between a wall and what looked like a creeping void, without an exit and leaving Tony restlessly stalking the room he did have. "What happened to 'we look out for each other'?" he asked, his sharp stare indicating he wasn't really interested in an explanation right now. Maybe he could hear one from the Catra out there, but this young dream Catra felt like it was designed to manipulate him now. Was this how she saw herself? Innocent and small?

Catra frowned, pointedly avoiding his gaze and hugging her knees to her chest. She wouldn't apologize. She didn't care.

"She left me here," she shot back, with too much emotion to really sell that not caring bit. "She ran off and joined them after ONE day. She was just ready to throw it all away-"

"So you let her die?" Tony interjected, arm out to indicate that pit they had both just witnessed in 4K HD. He was having a hard time imagining a good excuse for what he just saw go down; it wasn't even carefully cleansed for Catra's own memory, and if it was, Catra had a lot of work to do to redeem herself. His sigh of frustration came out as a growl as Tony crossed an arm over his heart to prop up the other, knuckle pressed against his mouth, still glaring at Catra over the ball of his fist. This barren room, the bunks, this part of her life that lead to whatever happened in that temple was part of the calculation, but didn't mean much if Catra was going to excuse it.

"...She didn't die," she muttered, though that didn't exactly make it better.

"Are you going to leave too? Like everyone else?" she accused, narrowing her eyes and lashing out rather than admit she was feeling vulnerable, that she was in the wrong.

Edited 2020-06-22 04:44 (UTC)

That wasn't exactly a relief, not for this argument, because the intent was still there, but it would be a lot easier to start a process of forgiveness if Catra's friend had survived the encounter. "Everyone else?" Tony parroted, hand flying away from his mouth to present this evidence. "Do you think maybe there's a common element at play there?"

That one seemed to cut deep, tears threatening to well up again, and Catra snarled. "I don't care. I don't need them. I don't need any of them. Or you!"

A wispy shadow seems to curl from out of no where, winding its way towards Tony, and Catra flinched, hiding back under her blanket.

While Catra hadn't shown any previous hints of magic-shadow-powers, that punch had hurt enough for Tony to not want to take any chances with this thing, not eager to find out what other sensations could be perfectly replicated in these manufactured dreams. He took a cautious step back, gold melting from under his cuffs to cover his hands as he spread them in front of himself, glancing between the shadow and Catra. "What do you want me to say? Good, I'm glad you let your friend die, good for you? Do you feel better now?" he challenged.

The shadow began to curl around him, imposing and quick to cut him off. Catra whined, ears laying flat, and she crawled further back into the bunk.

"She going to be mad," she murmured anxiously.

Alright, this might have been Catra's head, but it really didn't seem like she was entirely in control of whatever was happening here. "Catra, sweetheart..." he started to caution, not wanting to find out what she might do if she got too worked up about this, no matter what he had to argue with her about, but not sure enough what the threat was either. It was focused on him, at least, despite Catra's reaction to it, so he goaded, "Come on then, gorgeous."

Catra only hid further under her blanket, and the shadow swept into to envelop Tony in darkness. It cleared to deposit him in another memory, a hallway that seemed to be part of this same base, and those familiar girls, just a little older than the Catra huddled up in the bunk room.

Catra ran and leapt, leading the pack as the girls raced through a space that didn't particularly look as though it should have children in it, hanging from wires and flipping to the ground as they laughed.

"Catra, wait up!" Adora called, swinging her weight to try and leverage herself. Catra looked back with a smirk.

"What's it like being the world's slowest person?" she teased, as Adora came crashing to the ground, and the two laughed, resuming their chase.

They came to a sudden halt before a tall imposing door, a huge red crystal emitting a light that lit the whole room.

"Woaaah. It's open," Catra gasped.

"We're definitely not allowed in there," Adora agreed, though there was an eager grin on her face that wasn't quite shared by Catra at first, though in time she mirrored it, chasing after Adora with more giggles.

"You don't have to go in there." That voice wasn't part of the memory, but belonged to Catra, no longer child sized, looking uncomfortable with what was developing.

Prepared for a fight, Tony was still tense with his fists up as the shadow cleared, making him flinch at the sound of the girls' laughter and try to back away. This blonde girl was in every one of these memories so far, making Tony frown after her, starting to feel whatever betrayal happened between these two himself. But then, he also had a childhood friend leave his life just to come back and try to kill him.

Feeling displaced by this memory enveloping him, though, and Catra's transformation next to him, Tony found his frustration with her difficult to hang onto, glancing her way with inquisitive raised eyebrows instead that softened to an apologetic pout for what they both knew was going to happen anyway. "Are you telling me, or her?" he asked, and only gave Catra a beat before welcoming her to stick close to him as he followed the memory through the glowing door.

Her eyes narrowed, not really sure herself, before she padded after him.

"Wow." Catra stares at the towering crystal before carefully approaching it, circling round it before finally daring to try and touch. She tapped it lightly with a claw and shrieked, a red energy crackling briefly around her before she sucked her fingertip into her mouth with a frown.

Adora looked anxious. "...Maybe we should get out of here," she posed, but a shuddering groan from the doorway made the two of the start with worry, running to hide.

A red cloaked figure approached, with a masked face, and long dark hair that floated and defied the pull of gravity. She hovered towards the crystal the girls hid behind, groaning as she moved, and when she touched it the crystal emitted that same electric glow, making her sigh with relief.

She took a moment to steady her breathing, thinking she was alone, and she removed her mask to make it easier.

Adora gave a startled gasp, loud enough to attract the woman's attention, and though she tried to cover it with her hand, the face that spun round on them was truly frightening.

"GET OUT!" she cried, and the girls ran, Catra lagging behind Adora before the way out was obstructed by a wall of shadow.

"Catra. You stay," the woman said in an eerily calm voice, that crackling red energy holding the girl in place mid stride, a terrified expression on her face before she moved to stand at attention with a pained grunt.

"What the hell is that?" Tony asked as he followed the memory of Catra close enough to jump back with her as she was shocked by the crystal. He didn't follow as the girls ran, leaning close to the thing again, head tilted to watch the new figure approach out of the corner of his eye, then Catra curiously. He was moving again with the flurry of motion, watching the girls run by by focusing his scrutiny on this new person, hands held behind his back but sliding up next to her like he could smell her.

"The Black Garnet," Catra supplied, "...It's a Runestone. They're power sources for the princesses. Shadow Weaver figured out how to channel the power for herself though."

The woman- Shadow Weaver- ensured her mask was back in place.

"What do you think you're doing in here?" she purred, waving a hand which turned Catra on the spot to face her.

"We were just playing-" she started.

"Insolent child," Shadow Weaver interrupted, drawing closer, "I've come to expect such disgraceful behavior from you. But I will not allow you to drag Adora down as well."

"Shadow Weaver, it wasn't her fault- it was my idea too," Adora insisted.

"You have never been anything more than a nuisance to me," Shadow Weaver pressed on, ignoring Adora, "I've kept you around this long because Adora was fond of you. But if you EVER do anything to jeopardize her future, I will dispose of you myself," she growled, lifting Catra's trembling frozen form into the air.

"Please, stop," Adora tried again, this time putting herself between the two of them, arms outstretch to act as a shield to Catra. The shadows fell away and back to Shadow Weaver, who straightened with confronted with Adora, eyes softening behind her mask.

She wandered away from the pair of them, holding her head, and Catra gave a small whimper, still frozen in place. Adora ran after her. "She didn't mean to-" she assured, and Shadow Weaver stopped, voice far sweeter as she addressed her.

"Adora," she purred, "You must do a better job of keeping her under control." She released Catra without looking her way, and she fell to the floor with a sigh. Shadow Weaver delicately fixed Adora's hair, tucking it back behind her ear, "Do not let something like this happen again," she admonished gently, giving her a fond pat on the head.

Catra had pushed up onto her knees, holding herself and looking up fearfully, longingly, as she trembled.

It wasn't easy getting a read on who this person was to these children, and Tony ran his close calculations until she was moving away from him. He didn't have to be that close to understand perfectly well that the memory Catra was being restrained and that must have been awful, so he sidled further away from the scene to join Catra on the sidelines, hands still tucked away and in his pockets now but close to her shoulder. His stomach jumped as she fell int he memory, but he otherwise just frowned as he watched until the person gave Adora her pat. He cocked his head closer to Catra then like he was trying to keep his voice down in a theatre and muttered, "So why didn't she turn out to be a murdering asshole?" with a gesture of his chin toward Adora. "You got something better than, we were both abused and she bounced? Please."

Catra's eyes narrowed, skirting away with a frown, and the scene shifted again.

Shadow Weaver peered over a glowing basin, seeming to be working some kind of magic, while Catra leaned against the wall, looking very much like she didn't want to be there. She looked about the age she was now, give or take a year or so, much more practiced in that scowl of hers.

"For the last time, where . is . Adora?" Shadow Weaver demanded, looking to her ward.

Catra looked much more openly defiant than she had as a child, arms crossed. "For the last time, I don't know. You think I keep her on a leash?"

"I know you're lying. You two are close. She would never depart without telling you."

Catra narrowed her eyes, clearly affected by those words. "Then I guess she let us both down, huh?" she continued, refusing to budge.

"Have it your way," Shadow Weaver purred, "I all ready know where she is." Catra looked surprised, approaching Shadow Weaver's side. "We've been tracking her."

"Uh, then why did you ask me?" Catra demanded.

"Because you are going to bring. her. back," Shadow Weaver insisted, rounding on Catra.

"I don't think so," Catra declined with a smirk, and she started to turn from her when she was frozen in place with that same magic, giving a grunt of pain as she struggled against it.

Shadow Weaver only held her under it for a moment before approaching her from behind, catching her by the shoulders in a perverted maternal gesture.

"Your insolence will not protect her," she hissed in Catra's ear, "You will do as I ask."

Despite her trembling, there was still bite in Catra's voice as she spat back, "Yeah? Or what?" And Shadow Weaver grabbed her sharply round the jaw, forcing her to look back at her.

"Or you will suffer the consequences in her place," she warned, staring her dead in the eye.

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