The Bad Guy

Chapter 2

"Yes!" Bow punched a fist skyward, which he then stretched behind him to pluck an arrow from his quiver.  "Wanna work on some target practice?"

In her perch, Catra seethed. So fiery was her rage that it was a wonder the tree beneath her didn't go up in flames.

How could she? This is our place. And now she's just going to let them in here?

As far as Catra was concerned, the clearing was sacred ground. The ghosts of their meetings lingered in that space, and to have them disrupted by the likes of Glimmer and Bow, of all people, was almost more than she could bear. Catra added this transgression to Adora's already long list of betrayals.

Meanwhile, Adora was already laughing with her friends. Catra sneered as she watched them jostle playfully. Not that long ago it would have been her shoulders that Adora's strong, protective arm was draped over, not Glimmer's. It would have been her, not Bow, on the receiving end of Adora's brilliant smile. She wondered if it would ever stop hurting, knowing how easily she had been replaced.

"Okay, are you ready?" Adora asked, reaching back behind her head.

Bow grinned in reply. "You know it."

Off to the side, Glimmer dropped down in the grass. She crossed her legs and leaned back, planting her hands in the grass behind her. Catra's glare burned into the princess with a savage intensity she hoped Glimmer could feel. But judging by the contented smile on her face, it didn't seem to be working.

With a powerful swing of her arm, Adora raised the Sword of Protection over her head as she called out the five words that changed everything.

"For the honour of Grayskull!"

Catra flinched back from the flash of magical light that followed. The radiance of the transformation was hard to look at, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the result. When the glow faded, She-Ra stood in Adora's place, all golden hair and towering muscle. For all the ways Catra longed for Adora, she loathed the Princess of Power. She-Ra stood like the pinnacle of light and justice she was, and it made Catra want to vomit. Or break something. Quite possibly both.

"Woo!" Glimmer hooted from her seat on the ground. "Let's go, She-Ra! Let's go!" She punctuated each syllable with a clap of her hands.

"Oh, give me a break," Catra hissed. She curled her twitching tail in closer so it wouldn't accidentally rustle her leafy camouflage and inched back along the branch. It would be too risky to try to sneak off with all three members of the Best Losers Squad right there. If she had to keep hiding in this dumb tree, she figured she may as well spy so the evening wasn't a total loss.

She-Ra planted her feet squarely on one end of the clearing, only a handful of paces from Catra's tree. Bow claimed the other side and, without a word of warning, let an arrow fly. Not that She-Ra needed a heads-up – with an effortless swing of her sword she knocked the pointed projectile right out of the air, even managing to spare it in the process. Again and again, arrows flew faster and faster. And every time, She-Ra knocked them aside like they were nothing more that pesky insects. Catra tapped a clawed fingertip to her lips; She-Ra was getting faster. It looks like there'd be more training in her future if she wanted to keep her edge.

Glimmer let out a satisfied sigh. Her glittering eyes tracked the arc of each arrow.

"Now this is a much better use of my time," she said.

"As opposed to what?" She-Ra asked, launching forward to chop at another arrow. This one didn't survive her swing. "Sorry, Bow!"

"As opposed to sitting through another lecture from my mom."

"What happened this time?"

"Ugh, nothing!" Glimmer threw her hands up and let herself flop back onto the grass. "It's always the same thing – she says she trusts me to lead the rebellion, but you wouldn't know if by the way she nags me sometimes."

She-Ra struck a pair of closely spaced arrows with a dexterous twist. "But she's not really mad at you." Another arrow, another swipe. "You know she's just nagging because she loves you. She worries."

Glimmer shimmied up onto her elbows, looking bashful. "Yeah. I know..."

"I wish I'd grown up with someone nagging at me," She-Ra continued. It was clear from her casual tone that she wasn't trying to be condescending – more than anything, she was just talking out loud. "It's way better than the alternative."

Lowering his namesake, Bow held She-Ra in a caring gaze. "Was there a lot of the, uh, alternative growing up with the Horde?"

"Sort of." She-ra dropped her eyes and focused on the blade of her sword. "I guess it kind of depended."

"On what?"

"On who was the one in trouble," Catra whispered to herself. Her claws dug reflexively into the tree's bark as she shook her head, trying to dislodge the memories of what She-Ra wasn't bold enough to say out loud. In the Horde, there was no one worrying about your safety – there was only disappointment, and the punishment that came with it.

Not that She-Ra had any idea about just how bad it could really be. She had never been on the receiving end of Shadow Weaver's fury. She had never missed days of training to heal after beatings so fierce she couldn't even get out of bed. Until recently, Adora hadn't even known what it was like to have their de facto guardian's dark magic coursing through her system.

But Catra did.

When She-ra didn't answer, Glimmer got to her feet. "Whatever they did to you... You know it wasn't your fault, right?"

"Oh, I know." She-Ra forced a laugh. She looked up at her friends and smiled. "I mean, it definitely could have been worse. I didn't have it as bad as–"

She froze. Bow and Glimmer did too. The three of them held their breath in uncomfortable silence.

Don't you dare, Catra thought. Her hair bristled and her heart raced. Don't you fucking dare.

She knew the name on She-Ra's tongue. They all did. That's why the air in the clearing was so thick with tension Catra thought she might choke.

You don't get to tell them my story.

There was a rustling in the leaves somewhere to Catra's left. Her ears quirked and she checked her tail just to be sure her anger hadn't gotten the better of her.

In the split second her eyes were trained away from the clearing, something crashed through the boughs. Before she could react, Catra found herself encircled in netting and pulled from the tree.

She fell.

And she hit the ground. Hard.