Codependency

Chapter One // The Whispering Woods

Adora flung her baton onto the bed she'd been assigned. After a streak of victories in conquering forts in the name of the Horde, this latest defeat had come as a massive shock and a downer for her entire team. Adora felt like a failure and a letdown to her team. Lonnie had picked on Kyle more than usual, and Rogelio hadn't stopped scowling ever since they were ordered to retreat from Thaymor. The only cadet who hadn't seemed to be affected was Catra."It's just another rebel fortress." She had brushed off their massive defeat. "It's not like we haven't taken over dozens of other cities for the Horde."Adora wasn't sure if she admired Catra's confidence, or feared for her recklessness. In fact, it was Catra's recklessness that had gotten them distracted long enough to lose Thaymor. Adora had no idea how Catra hadn't acted even a little remorseful. She never listens to orders. Adora slipped her jacket off and folded it neatly, sliding it under her bed before slumping down onto the hard surface. Once Catra gets it into her head she wants to do something, no one can tell her not to do it. she thought ruefully. It took a few moments of shifting and glancing around before she remembered she wasn't in the Fright Zone anymore. The little scratchy doodles of Adora and Catra that had been on the bunk for years weren't there, this was a different bed after all. A makeshift bed for her to camp out in temporarily. Ever since her team had been promoted to take part in active duty, they had hardly stopped moving. The more territory they took control of outside of the Whispering Woods, the more they had to shift around and make new camps. Adora felt bad for the cadets who had to be stationed at one camp forever. Imagine finally leaving the Fright Zone, only to be stuck as a guard in Drill for the rest of your life. She snorted. Shadow Weaver had made it very clear to Hordak that the Horde stood a better chance of conquering Etheria if Adora and her crew were at the front lines of almost every major battle. Up until now, she had been right. What if they blame me for losing Thaymor, and revoke my position as Force Captain? Adora groaned in frustration."Hey, Adora." said a familiar voice, belonging to a certain cadet that Adora was not in the mood to jest with right now."Catra." Adora said stiffly, sitting up. Catra was slouched lazily against the doorway with that permanent smirk plastered on her face. "What are you so pleased about?" Adora muttered."Lighten up, you big lump." Catra said. "Did you see how angry Lonnie was when we had to retreat? I don't think Kyle will get a break for weeks!" her ears twitched in a pleased way."Well, I'm glad you're finding so much humor in our humiliating defeat." Adora said, disgusted at Catra's care-free behavior. Couldn't she take anything seriously?Catra yawned and headed towards Adora's bed. "Let it go, would you? We're finally out on the field, we're winning battles, we're calling the shots. It's supposed to be fun." her friend said, still grinning."No, it's not supposed to be fun." Adora snapped. "Do you even feel a little bit bad for throwing out my orders and nearly getting our entire squadron wiped out?"Catra's grin faded. "You're still mad about that?" she grunted."Still mad?" Adora stood up and glared at Catra. "This isn't a game! We're adults now, we have to take this seriously or Lord Hordak might-""Might what?" Catra cut Adora off. She bucked up to Adora, her chest pushing against Adora's aggressively as she faced her, now almost equally as angry. "Might revoke your rights to boss everyone around?"Adora pushed Catra right back. "That's my job, Catra! I was promoted for a reason, and your job is to follow orders, especially on the field! You can't even do that, so don't act like-"Catra suddenly had Adora's wrist in a tight grip. Her pupils were slits of cold anger and her teeth were bared in a snarl."Maybe if you hadn't left me, I'd be more inclined to listen to anything you told me to do." she spat.Adora blinked slowly, only subconsciously trying to pull her wrist away. "Left? What? Catra-" she was cut off again."You left, and you STILL think you can make me your shadow? Get over yourself!"Catra hissed, digging her claws into Adora's skin. Her narrowed eyes widened with rage. "You abandoned me for some stupid princesses! Why!?" her words were choked up with anger and pain. Things were beginning to click in Adora's mind, but she was still too confused to speak.Catra shoved Adora back onto the bed and climbed over her, displaying her fangs. "You were supposed to stay with me!" the girl snarled, reaching for Adora's throat. "You don't need them, you need m-"POPAdora had backhanded Catra hard across the face before she realized what she was doing. Catra's wide-eyed face was frozen in shock, mouth open mid-snarl, giving Adora a brief moment to shove Catra off of her and jump to her feet."Ow! What was that for!?" the voice wasn't Catra's.Blinking open her eyes, Adora found herself sitting up, surrounded by blurry greens and blues. The scent of smoke and fire from battle bombs disappeared, replaced with the earthy scents of the Whispering Woods. Adora squinted into the dim light of the thick forest, her blurry, frantic vision gradually clearing as she came to her senses. Of course, she'd been dreaming. She'd had dreams like that more and more lately. Although she'd thought that by now, she'd be able to tell when she was dreaming."Glimmer!" Adora shook herself out of it and found her friend kneeling a ways away from her, running a hand through her pink hair. "Did I hit you again?" she scrambled to her feet and held out her hand for Glimmer to take."No, you shoved me when I tried to wake you up." Glimmer muttered, taking Adora's hand and hauling herself up."Glimmer, I'm sorry, I don't mean to, it was just-" Glimmer patted Adora's shoulder, cutting her off before she could go on a tangent."I know, Adora. It was that nightmare. We really need to do something about that..." Glimmer consoled, keeping her hand firm on Adora's shoulder.Adora never wanted her friends to deal with her problems. Growing up in the Horde made her tough enough to handle it."Where's Bow?" Adora asked, brushing off Glimmer's concern."Tracking some signal." Glimmer took her hand away and pointed in the direction where the sunrise was beginning to gradually lighten the woods. Adora was able to stop squinting as the light filtered down through the thick canopy, making everything more visible as they made their way in the direction Glimmer had made out. Adora could feel Glimmer's eyes on her as they walked. I need to make conversation before she brings up my nightmares again. She thought, her mind racing. Luckily, before either of them could speak, they heard a shrill shriek not far ahead. "Bow!" Adora and Glimmer both shouted, putting on speed and carelessly trampling the undergrowth to find their friend.Crashing into a small clearing, they found Bow hanging upsidedown, one foot caught in a wire trap looped over a tree branch."Guys, get me down!" Bow squeaked out, flailing his arms frantically as he tried to reach up for the wire around his foot. Adora heard Glimmer gasp in horror."It's digging into his ankle!" her friend cried, and Adora didn't hesitate to pull out her sword."For the honor of Grayskull!" she said in a rush, transforming into She-ra and quickly slashing the wire. Glimmer teleported beside her and clumsily caught Bow as he fell. They both lay in a heap on the ground and Adora pulled Bow off of Glimmer. Kneeling next to him, Adora inspected the wire still digging into his skin. It was raw and bleeding, and Bow wouldn't look at it. Glimmer sat up, peered at the wound, and winced. She grabbed Bow's hand and squeezed it as Adora fumbled with her sword, trying to transform it into something smaller that could clip the wire off harmlessly."Why was there an animal trap in the middle of the Whispering Woods?" Glimmer sounded horrified. "We don't hunt the creatures that live here!"Adora had transformed her sword into a dagger, the best she could do for now, and was trying to saw through the wire without causing Bow more pain. "I-I don't know," she began, putting the dagger down as the wire finally snapped. She removed it from Bow's ankle and studied it closely. "It couldn't be the Horde, could it? They have so much advanced technology, and this is... a caveman trick." She shoved the wire under a yew bush and picked up the dagger again, silently cursing herself for not knowing how to heal yet. The circle around Bow's ankle wouldn't stop bleeding, and Bow was hissing through his teeth every time he moved it."M-maybe someone is trying to protect their property?" Bow suggested, his hands trembling as he reached for his trackerpad, a good few meters away from him and cracked from where he had dropped it while dangling from the wire trap. Glimmer handed it to him instead to save him the effort."No, that wouldn't make any sense... the Whispering Woods protects its inhabitants, everyone knows that. If someone ever needed a safe harbor, they wouldn't need to make traps when the woods do it for them." Glimmer explained, a note of anger in her voice.Adora took a small bandage roll out from a sack Glimmer had been carrying and gingerly began to wrap it around Bow's wound. "Maybe someone was testing their trap and didn't think anyone actually came out all this way?" she suggested."Testing it on what, if not an animal or a person?" Glimmer wondered, her eyes narrowing suspiciously."Maybe they were testing it on the idiots who can't look where they're putting their feet." Sneered a familiar voice that made Adora's blood run cold.The cold, heterochromic eyes that she dreaded were fixed on Adora as she turned to face the voice. She kept her hands tightly around the now bloodsoaked bandage as she stared at Catra. Beside her, Glimmer raised her fists protectively, a faint light shimmering around them as she readied her magic to strike. "Don't get your cape in a twist, Sparkles." Catra scoffed, flicking her tail at Glimmer, who glared fiercely in response.Adora couldn't seem to meet Catra's eye. It was too soon after that unsettling dream, everything was fresh in her mind. She tentatively risked a glance back at Bow, who was holding his own bandage now and shaking his head. "I'll be fine," Bow muttered, "you and Glimmer take care of Catra."Adora nodded and turned back to face Catra. Glimmer was already on her feet, and Adora followed her more slowly as they formed a protective barrier in front of Bow. "Why are you here?" Adora demanded. "You know the Whispering Woods are off limits to the Horde."Catra rolled her eyes and began studying her claws as though this interaction couldn't be less interesting. "Who decided that, hm?" Catra asked, "You three idiots? No Princess tells me where I can and can't go." "While the Whispering Woods are under Rebel protection, we do decide who can come here." Glimmer snapped. "You have exactly five seconds to start running before we wreck you."Catra looked up, a spark of interest in her eyes. "You think you can catch me?" She snorted. "I know we can." Glimmer growled.All at once, Catra had leaped onto a low hanging branch of a tree and bared her teeth at the rebels. "You can try." she hissed, before she turned and fled through the trees.Glimmer started after her instantly, but Adora stopped her by grabbing the end of her cape. Glimmer looked back with an enraged expression. "Glimmer, wait! Bow needs you, take him back to Brightmoon and get him to a healer. No one can do it faster. I'll catch up with Catra and see what she's up to, I promise." Adora felt the words spill out of her and she had to pause for a breath after she'd finished.Glimmer hesitated for a moment, then nodded unhappily. "You're right... But when Bow is safe, I'm coming back to look for you." Glimmer promised.Adora smiled at her friend as Glimmer bent down to wrap her arm around Bow's own arm. They were both consumed by a dazzling light, then they were gone with a fwshh sound. Wasting no more time, Adora set forward, following the trail of scratched branches and broken twigs Catra had left in her path. The trail seemed almost too easy to follow, as though Catra wasn't used to navigating through dense woodland. These woods were special, too, as they were a protective magical force that shifted and changed to confuse and trap those who wished to harm it. As She-ra, Adora could see every claw mark on the wood, every freshly snapped twig or bent branch of the trees that Catra scrambled through. Adora knew one thing for sure as she felt Catra's only trail lead her deeper into the woods, as the realization hit her that she was chasing after the one who tormented her dreams.This felt wrong.