"Right By My Side."

Chapter 13

Catra groaned in pain as her vision blurred and went in and out every now and again. The pain in her side only worsened as the seconds went by and she definitely had a fever coming on. A thick layer of sweat covered her entire body as she tried to attempt freeing herself once more by thrashing about on the cold, metal table underneath her. But it only inflicted more pain in her side as cried out in pain again. 

She was still tied down tightly to the metal table, the lights were back on in Hordak's domain and the bright light that was once in her eyes was no longer on. She still had zero clue as to what was going on, but she could hear Hordak's heavy footsteps walking around the area. Due to her lack of vision at the moment, she felt uncomfortable and unsettled as the leader of the Horde silently walked about.

Until he finally spoke. 

"I'm genuinely surprised you're still alive Catra, after the massive punishment you received for failing me yet again, I thought you would have been too broken to even make it a few steps out of here. But here you are." He said with a mischievous smirk plastered on his face. 

Catra growled lowly at him as he loomed over her vulnerable figure, her pupils dangerous slits as he stared at the stone that was inflicting the unbearable pain she was experiencing. 

"I'm glad you are alive though, that only tells me that your strong enough to endure what will happen in a day or two." He said darkly. 

Catra barely managed to form a sentence as she spoke, "You.. you said s-something about.. me being a secret weapon... what- what did you mean by.. that?" She grunted painfully as she questioned the evil ruler. 

Hordak seemed to ponder his next choice of words carefully before scoffing and answering the feline, "I guess you have a right to know what will happen within the next forty-eight hours. This stone is a rune stone, and to be more specific, it's your rune stone. The horde attacked your homeland many years ago and managed to save what pieces of the stone was left in the ash and rubble. I wasn't able to conduct much research but I have made a possible hypothesis that because you were so young when we took you in to become a solider for my army and haven't connected to your rune stone, it will corrupt you." Hordak explained, the evil smirk that grew on his face only added on to Catra's terror. 

This was too much for her to take in all at once, when she was young, she never questioned why all the other soldiers looked so different from her or why she was even in the Fright Zone to begin with. Like Hordak said, she was too young to even understand what was happening at the time, she just went with the flow and simply went about her life each and every day. 

But to accept the fact that she was possibly a princess? Of all the things she could have been, a princess of all things? This was just too much for her to process and in her current state, it only made it worse. 

"Only princesses have rune stone's... so if- if I'm really a p-princess... why didn't anyone say anything?" Although it was a somewhat meaningless question, it was still something the feline wanted to know. 

"That is a question that Shadow Weaver will have to answer for you before we ship her off to beast island to end the rest of her days." Hordak said in an icy cold tone. "The only reason I'm telling you any of this is because once this stone does its job, you won't be in control of yourself anymore, nor will you remember anything while your in your corrupted state." He added as he slipped into the shadows to do only the gods the know what.  

Catra shook her head and silently wept, of all the horrible people in the Fright Zone, why did this have to happen to her?

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