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Glimmer was frustrated. The war wasn’t going well for the rebellion and things were seemingly falling apart. No matter what she did, the Horde was always one step ahead of the rebellion and things were becoming dire. Her relationships with her friends were strained and if things kept going the way they were, the rebellion was deeply at risk of losing the war.
But Glimmer knew why the Horde had the advantage. They had Catra on their side. The catgirl was practically a tactical genius, always using sneaky, underhanded tactics to come up on top. And they’d always been able to work without fail. Under her leadership, the Horde was conquering kingdom after kingdom.
But Glimmer also knew that without Catra, the Horde would likely begin to fall apart. She knew enough about Hordak to know he was a leader who didn’t go out much into the field and despite his recent actions in Salineas, knew he alone wouldn’t be able to lead his armies to victory.
So as such, was her current plan, to find Catra and capture her. She’d made the mistake before of letting Catra slip through her fingers when she’d fought her before, but that wasn’t a mistake she was going to make again.
In Shadow Weaver’s greenhouse in Brightmoon, Glimmer paced as the sorceress prepared a spell to locate Catra’s exact location. Though Glimmer wasn’t exactly being patient about things. Far from it. She was stimming constantly, letting sparkles of magic dance between her fingers to occupy herself.
“Are you done yet?!” Glimmer snapped.
“Patience, your majesty,” Shadow Weaver spoke in her deep voice. “Spells like this cannot be rushed.”
“It didn’t take this long last time when I asked for your help,” Glimmer remarked.
“It is easy to find someone’s general location, but to find them precisely, well, that does take a great deal more effort.” The sorceress then reached into her robe and pulled out a small lock of hair and held it above her cauldron.
Glimmer blinked as she looked at the small brown hair. “Is that… Catra’s?”
“Yes, I was saving it in case the runt ever tried to escape from the Horde,” Weaver said. “I probably should have done the same for Adora but well… that’s all in the past.”
Part of Glimmer knew she should have been unsettled by all of that, but right now, she didn’t care. She wanted Catra found, now, even if it took a deal with the literal devil herself to find her. She watched as Shadow Weaver dropped the hair into the cauldron, adding a vial of a strange purple liquid to her concoction.
The witch began to chant, in a strange ancient language that Glimmer could not even begin to comprehend. Her hands danced above the water, Glimmer watching it bubble and ripple, shapes and scenes appearing in the water below just like before when they’d located Catra’s base near Brightmoon.
Then, the shapes in the water stopped shifting, as Glimmer finally saw the image of Catra, riding on a Horde speeder bike through a forest. She recognised it, it being not that far from Elberon.
“Looks like she’s on a scout patrol,” Shadow Weaver mused.
“Good, so she’ll probably be alone,” Glimmer stated, summoning her staff. “This should be a piece of cake.”
“Do not underestimate her, your majesty,” Shadow Weaver cautioned. “You may have been able to beat her before but-”
“I’ll beat her again,” Glimmer insisted. “And then I’ll bring her back here and this war can hopefully come to a swift end. That’ll prove to Adora that I can handle things better than she can.”
Weaver nodded. “If you say so, your majesty. But heed my warning."
“I’ll be back shortly,” Glimmer replied, before teleporting away.
When she reappeared, Glimmer was on top of a small hill in the forest near Elberon. As she got her bearings, she prepared herself for what was to come. She relished in how powerful she was now. Since fully connecting to the Moonstone, her magical powers were growing stronger with every passing day.
Yet Adora and the others would constantly worry about her or want to keep her at the sidelines. But she wasn’t a weakling anymore. She was a warrior and nothing was going to stop her. She wasn’t her mother, she was going to take action, and with any luck, no one else would have to suffer as she’d done.
As she raised her staff, she quickly teleported down behind a nearby tree. The sound of a pulse engine whined through the woods, Glimmer knowing Catra’s speeder was close. She clutched her weapon tightly, magic flowing through every vein in her body. Finally, it was time for her revenge against Catra.
Catra’s speeder rushed by, the felid completely unaware of Glimmer’s presence. But that proved to be her downfall as Glimmer then leapt from behind her hiding spot and fired a kinetic blast right at Catra’s speeder. The blast hit the speeder’s rear, Catra screaming as she tried to stay in control.
But the speeder careened into the woods, knocking Catra off it and onto the dirt below, as it crashed into a nearby tree in a fiery explosion. Catra grunted, pulling herself to her feet, as Glimmer approached her. Her headpeice had been knocked off, but the felid still glared angrily at Glimmer.
“Well, aren’t you a surprise,” Catra snarled.
“Save the snark, Catra,” Glimmer said sternly. “I’m through playing your games. I’m finishing this now.”
“Fine by me, I’ve been looking forward to this!” Catra roared, unsheathing her claws.
Catra lunged at Glimmer with her claws, the pinkette blocking it with her staff. She created an energy shield for herself, protecting against Catra’s strikes. Once she saw an opening, she blasted Catra back with a kinetic blast. The felid grunted, feet skidding across the dirt, but she didn’t fall.
Glimmer raised her staff, casting a spell on Catra to try and slow her movements, but Catra dodged the energy circle before it could hit her. Catra then pulled out her whip, throwing it at Glimmer and lassoing around her staff, pulling it clean from her hand.
“That’ll level the playing field,” Catra rasped. “What’s the matter, Sparkles? You scared to fight me without your magic?”
Glaring at her opponent, Glimmer knew she wasn’t going to back down. If Catra wanted this fight to be hands-on, she was more than happy to oblige. “Fine, you want my fists and not my magic? Have it your way, I’ll still kick your fucking ass.”
Charging at Catra, Glimmer tried to swing a punch at her enemy, but Catra dodged her attack, slashing her stomach with her claws. Glimmer grunted in pain, blood oozing from the wound. She then kicked Catra square in the leg, knocking her enemy off balance slightly before hammering her in the face with her fist.
Snarling, Catra kicked back at Glimmer, before climbing behind the pinkette and grabbing onto her back, digging her claws into her flesh. Glimmer grunted, trying to shake Catra off, before the felid dug her teeth down into GLimmer’s neck. Glimmer cried out in pain as Catra bit down.
Eventually, Glimmer had had enough and grabbed Catra by her hair and tossed her off her. Catra wiped her lips of the blood they were covered in, panting.
“Yeah, you still taste like fucking glitter.”
“And you’re a fucking mangy animal that needs to be put down!” Glimmer roared, holding her hand over the wound on her neck. “Fuck fighting fair, I’m taking you down.”
She summoned her staff back into her hand and started teleporting all around the forest, blasting Catra left and right with her magic bolts. Catra ducked and leapt around the blasts, her feline agility providing her with an edge, but Glimmer knew Catra couldn’t dodge her forever. Using a spell Shadow Weaver taught her, she suddenly glowed with purple magic, before she spilt into dozens of copies of herself, all of them surrounding Catra.
“What the heck?!” Catra exclaimed. “You couldn’t do that before?!”
“I’ve been practising, Horde Scum!” the Glimmers called out in unison, Catra not sure which one was the real one.
Then, each one of the Glimmers lunged at Catra, some kicking her, some punching, some blasting her with magic. Catra could barely counter them as they seemed to be coming from every direction possible. Then after one of them kicked her in the stomach, one of them, the real Glimmer teleported behind Catra.
“This is over!” Glimmer roared, knocking Catra down with her staff. Catra grunted, blood spewing from her lip as she was knocked onto the ground. As she fell down, her Force captain badge fell off.
Glimmer slowly walked towards Catra, sternly glaring at the bloodied and beaten felid woman. This was over, she was triumphant and Catra was completely and utterly beaten. She watched as Catra tried to reach for the force captain badge, groaning weakly as she tried to move.
But before she could press it and call for backup, Catra watched in despair as Glimmer then crushed it under her foot.
“No backup for you this time, Horde Scum,” Glimmer argued. “And just so you don’t try anything.” She quickly flicked her wrists, a magical energy field surrounding Catra, chains made of pink, sparkling light wrapping around her enemy’s wrists and ankles, completely binding her.
Grunting, Catra tried to break free, but the chains were much too tight and she was much too weak to do anything about it. She just glared at Glimmer, enraged that the pinkette had actually managed to beat her.
“Those chains can’t be broken, Catra,” Glimmer stated. “You’re mine now.”
Sighing, Catra looked up at Glimmer, accepting her defeat. “Fine, you got me, Sparkles. You happy?”
“Actually, yes, I am,” Glimmer said. “I’m about to do something even Adora couldn’t do. With you as our prisoner, the Horde will have lost a great tactical advantage.”
“You must have a screw loose if you think Hordak’s gonna surrender because you have me as your prisoner,” Catra snarked. “His plans are already well underway. You can’t stop them.”
“No, but I’ll feel better once you’re in our custody. I’ll make sure justice is done… for what you did to my mother.”
Catra’s eyes widened, before looking down. “At least you had a mother, Sparkles. I never knew mine.”
“Don’t try and play the sympathetic act. Adora told me how you were so far gone now.”
“Says the girl trying to play Shadow Weaver’s new favourite!” Catra snarled. “I may be evil, but how can you let that woman run around your castle the way she does!”
“How do you-” Before Glimmer remembered how Double Trouble was currently the Rebellion’s prisoner. “Your spy Double Trouble told you, didn’t they?”
“What can I say, it pays to have eyes everywhere,” Catra stated. “Seriously, I’m the bad guy here, but after all that woman did to me, to Adora, you’re just letting her run around and help you?”
“She helped me capture you!”
“She’s using you! She used me! She used Adora! Hell, she used Adora so well that Adora chose her over me!”
“Maybe she’s at least giving me the respect I deserve!” Gimmer shouted. “Maybe I’m tired of everyone thinking I can’t handle things because of what happened to my mother! Maybe I’d rather be treated like an equal!”
“And what will you get when you hand me over to that bitch? Because you know she’s not exactly gonna let due process go through.”
“I..” Glimmer just pulled out her staff and pointed it at Catra’s mouth. “Just shut up! Shut up or I’ll shut you up myself!”
“I’m just saying the truth, Sparkles,” Catra said before she laughed. “Whatever you want to do with me, it’s not getting you what you want?”
“And what do you think I want?”
“You want… You want your mother back,” Catra replied. “You think that by stopping me, you’ll be avenging her. But it’s not gonna do you much good. I thought I knew what I wanted, but I’ve already lost everything!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I… Scorpia left me… she left the Fright Zone, probably the Horde too and I… I drove her away. Just like I drove Adora away.”
Glimmer put her staff down. In a way… she felt sorry for Catra. Despite the fact they were enemies, a part of her, the part of her that was compassionate and caring lamented Catra’s situation. “I… I didn’t know.”
“Figures.”
“I… I feel like I’m driving Adora away too… with how things are going, part of me is worried I’ll lose her and Bow and..”
“Well, well, well,” Catra then chimed in. “Always knew you and I were two peas in a pod.”
“No, I’m not the same as you! I wouldn’t destroy the world just because I snapped!”
“Really?” Catra remarked. “Because I see someone who’d be desperate to do anything to gain the upper hand. If you could trust that bitch, Shadow Weaver, whose to say you couldn’t stoop to my worst.”
“You’re… You’re wrong!”
“Am I, Sparkles?” Catra asked.
“I… I…” Glimmer wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Catra grunted. “We’re two peas in the same fucking pod, Sparkles. We’re both assholes who drove those we love away and now look at us, practically killing each other here.”
Glimmer shook her head. “I… I won’t kill you. Not even after all you’ve done.”
“Could have fooled me with that funhouse mirror trick you pulled,” Catra rasped as she curled up next to a tree. She started to laugh, Glimmer wondering how she could find any of this sorry… but then, Catra’s laughter turned to tears, tears that streamed down her cheeks. It was then that Glimmer truly saw how broken she was.
“You’re… You’re hurting a lot, aren’t you.”
“Yes…” Catra whispered. “Just end it. End me. I’ve got nothing.”
But instead of doing that, Glimmer just curled up behind Catra and hugged her tightly. Her own mortal enemy, and yet, looking at Catra to Glimmer was like looking in some kind of strange mirror in a way. She’d come here wanting revenge, payback… but it was clear now no matter what she wanted to do to Catra, it wouldn’t be nearly as worse as what Catra had done to herself.
And now all that she felt was guilt and regret. Both she and Catra were being drawn to do the worst things. Catra may have chosen to stay with the Horde, to turn against Adora, but it was clear now those were actions she regretted, even if she wasn’t going to say those words outright.
Catra opened her eyes, the tears still streaming from her cheeks. “Are you… hugging me?”
“Yes. You looked like you could use one.”
“You beat the shit out of me and now you’re pitying me with your damn hugs?” Catra said, surprised.
“Hey, you’re still chained up, you can’t stop me giving you these hugs,” Glimmer argued. “And don’t say you don’t need them, because you do. You’ve been in pain for so long and I… I shouldn’t add to that.”
“You sound pretty damn hurt yourself,” Catra admitted, before Glimmer rolled her around. Both women looked at the other and despite Catra’s bruises and cuts on her face… Glimmer had to admit she was rather beautiful in her own strange way.
Thoughts went through Glimmer’s head about how she’d really felt about Catra. Was she really the cause of her mother’s sacrifice? Or was it her mother’s own choice? And did she and Catra really have to fight? Was this war all that really mattered? Would her mother want this in the end?
So many questions… and Glimmer realised that she herself was being consumed by all this pain, this anger, and that Catra was right. Shadow Weaver had taken advantage of that and she had gone down a dark path. But she could pull herself out of that… and if she could do that, she could also do the same for Catra.
Glimmer reached forward, gently wiping the blood from Catra’s lip. “I… I’m sorry, Catra. For everything.”
“I am too,” Catra whispered. “I… I don’t know what to do.”
“Neither do I but… maybe we can help each other instead of killing each other.”
“I’d… I’d like that very much.”
And then, Glimmer leaned in… and she kissed Catra’s lips softly. Catra whimpered as she surrendered to the kiss, her body going limp in the chains she was still bound in. Both of them suspected the other might have been faking it but… there was an honesty about the kiss, about the bond the two shared.
As Glimmer deepened the kiss, she realised that fighting had been pointless, war was pointless. Perhaps fighting wasn’t the way to end this godforsaken war… and perhaps love was the answer instead.