Fear Incarnate

Fear Incarnate Potion 8

Catra, her name was strange to Innoak. Every time he practiced with Adora he saw Catra in her mind, so far his attempts to understand were thwarted. He decided to join Adora on her quest to find and secure the Princess Mermista, he had wrongly assumed spending more time with Adora would allow him to understand his charge. It was a mistake, he found himself enduring thousands of questions from Glimmer. It was a verbal battle with a sparkly brick wall Innoak realized. And there was no way for him to easily brush her off.

"Why are YOU helping Adora?"

"I was ordered to by your Queen."

"Why did she let you?"

"I showed her my worth."

"How?"

At this Innoak paused, He was fully armed and armoured again. Innoak closed his eyes and reached out to Glimmer, before drawing back and deciding on a more theatrical approach. They were still on the trail to the port, all around them warp energy coursed through roots and stones. Innoak drew on the power there, he molded it to shape an image. Golden wings of fire unfurled from Innoaks power pack, a radiating halo materialized above his sneering skull helmet. "Stare upon the perfection of the Emperor Princess Glimmer." he said, smirking at the title she possessed. Glimmer was shocked and frozen, and she remained frozen until Innoak let the image fall. "Wow." was all she said when Innoak finally decided to walk past.

"Adventure!" the young sea captain had yelled as the party had boarded his bizarre ship. Innoak despised the man, his confidence melded into arrogance and his pure unchained ability to annoy everyone save for the infatuated Bow gave Innoak profound dislike for the man. Innoak watched as the sea captain ran around excitedly while Adora and the others sighed and went to work. Innoak chuckled, their research into how to use a boat had paid off. And Sea Hawk, or so he called himself, was shocked by the sudden revelation. Soon Innoak found himself losing interest in the current affairs, so he closed his eyes and reached out. A technique he learned from his mentor, the ability to communicate with his Psychic hood and project his very soul into the tides of the warp. The warp that encircled Etheria was positive, made from the collected happy thoughts of the populace. He noticed many other emotions that were negative, all arising from places under Horde control. The incompetence of the Horde made Innoak almost laugh aloud, the first thing any respectable invader would do was crush the populace. Propaganda campaigns, brainwashing and fear mongering were all tactics he himself had seen used to great effect by the Imperium. The Horde had not even set up a religion to control people with. Innoak moved past the Horde and found the silhouette of his objective, deep within the Horde's base of operations was a single soul. One full of conflicting loyalties and deep erstwhile desires.

Catra yawned loudly as she stalked the many many halls of the Fright Zone. She wondered what prank she may pull on poor Kyle today, but even as she actively resisted her mind brought her straight back to Adora. Always Adora, She wanted ANYONE but Adora. Her thoughts more and more circled around Adora, the subtle pushes and thrusts of old dusty memories racketeering her psyche. Catra roared in anger and expended her fury, the wall beside her soon covered in a lattice of renting claw marks. "My My, you are far more unstable than I ever believed. You are a delicate balancing act teetering over the edge of a cliff of your own making." Catra looked around, desperately not wanting the voice to be Shadow Weaver. When her eyes registered a figure made of golden light she wanted it to be Shadow Weaver very badly. "W-Who are you?" She croaked out, the figure in gold only laughed. "A figment of your imagination, a creation from a tortured mind." The figure grew closer and Catra gasped, it was the massive armoured knight thing who devastated their assault on the south border of Bright Moon. How could someone so big sneak into the Fright Zone? As though reading her mind, which she later realized it did, the figure spoke. "I am not here, I never was. I have projected a piece of myself out to you, I wished to see why Adora thinks so highly, or was it badly? of you. I forget." The golden light dimmed as the apparition laughed. Catra never let her guard down as the figure disappeared, but she was left in a far worse state than before. 

"I am not delicate." she said softly. 

"No, but you are a mess." voice harshly whispered in her ear. 

Catra reared up and slashed out with her claws, but she hit nothing but air and the echoes of malignant laughter.