Chapter Text
Adora struggled fruitlessly against the ropes around her wrists as she was lead through the Whispering Woods by an entourage of soldiers. From behind, Catra planted her chin on her shoulder and grinned wickedly.
“What’s the matter? Not so strong without your little prop?”
Adora clicked her tongue. “What, like you’ve never been captured?”
Catra growled under her breath and shoved Adora forward. “Yes, well, unlike your lot, the Horde aren’t in the habit of letting our captives go.”
Adora rolled her eyes. She was doing her best to keep her cool, but she could not help tugging at her bonds a bit harder as she imagined what might be in store for her if she made it back to the enemy headquarters. The worst case scenario was that they would have shadow weaver wipe her memory and have her fighting for them as if she had never left. Even worse, they might turn She-ra’s powers against the Alliance.
Adora decided there was no use in waiting. If she was going to escape, now was the time. She kicked over the two nearest guards. After a few hours of walking, most of the others had grown complacent. She took out one more. Then another, and another, all with only her legs. In total, seven were down before they managed to restrain her again. She heard Catra’s voice once again, so close that she could feel her breath against her ear.
“I don’t know what you expected to happen there, but I’ll give you an A for effort.”
With that, Adora felt a blinding surge of electricity run from the small of her back through to the rest of her body. She went limp and began to collapse, but Catra scooped her up mid-fall and started carrying her.
“Now, behave yourself and I’ll make sure you get a really nice cell, okay?” Catra cooed with her usual mocking affection.
Adora reluctantly complied. Without her sword, there was no chance she could take out the whole squadron of soldiers escorting her.
“Good girl,” Catra teased, combing her clawed fingers through her former ally’s hair.
Pretty soon the forest’s clear blue skies and vibrant plant life made way for the looming crimson clouds and craggy landscape of the Fright Zone. Adora looked back ruefully as Bright Moon shrank into the horizon.
She was carried up through the hallways of the base that she used to call home, straight past her old sleeping quarters and into the prisoners' sector. A massive mechanical door rose up into the ceiling, to reveal where Adora was to be held.
She was thrown to the soft, cushioned floor. Looking around, Adora could at least conclude that Catra was not lying about it being one of the nicer cells. It matched the size of her room in the castle and it was equally luxurious. In fact, it was almost a 1:1 recreation, though it lacked any windows and traded out the pastel pinks of Queen Angela's sensibilities for the dull, dreary green that characterised Horde architecture. Still, it had all the essentials; an en suite bathroom, a fridge, a king sized bed, a wardrobe and a love seat far too big for just one person. One thing that the room actually had over its alliance counterpart was a massive television screen which took up the entirety of the back wall. Adora was struck by both relief that she would not be deprived of basic amenities and the dawning realisation that she would not be leaving this room for who-knows-how-long.
With Adora in captivity, most of the soldiers dispersed to deal with the less exciting tasks that needed attending to around Horde HQ. Catra, however, chose to hang around the doorway a little longer.
“Now just keep yourself entertained while figure out figure out what to do with you, okay?” Catra sang, giving a small wave and tossing a remote into the room.
Adora scrambled to her feet and charged at her, letting out a battle cry all the way there. The door slammed shut before she could reach her target though, leaving her to slam her fists against nothing but metal.
Meanwhile, Catra made her way to the war room. Entrapta was typing away at the computer as usual while Scorpia watched over her.
“So, any luck recreating the disk?” Catra asked, perching herself on a seat behind the other two.
“Not exactly. I actually got a little sidetracked…” Entrapta admitted sheepishly.
“Why am I not surprised?” Catra sighed.
“I did come across something useful though!”
“Uh-huh...”
“See, I was looking into how the disk’s virus affected her the way it did. From what I’ve gathered, it somehow bombards her sympathetic nervous system with perceived threats, causing an acute threat response whilst also-”
“Yes, yes, as fascinating as that all is, can we get to the useful part already?”
“Ah, right. Uh, essentially, the virus works by hampering her conscious mind and then messing with her subconscious. I found a way to do something similar, though slightly less extreme, using TV screens.”
“So you’re saying we can control She-ra?” Catra asked eagerly.
“Yes. Well, no, not exactly. We can’t shut down her conscious mind like the disk does, but we can bypass it. We just type a message right here and it’ll flash on Adora’s TV screen for less than a second. She won’t know it, but it should be able to subtly influence her. Nothing as blatant as ‘rejoin the horde’, but we could probably alter her habits, her mood, stuff like that...”
“Alright, I think I get it…” Catra replied, a massive smile crossing her face as she pushed past her two underlings and quickly started typing. “If She-ra’s a tool we can’t use, we might as well break her…”