Chapter Text
Adora doesn't have a grappling hook. She doesn't know where to find a grappling hook. She does know where to find Glimmer.
She knocks on the door. After a moment, Glimmer answers.
"I need a grappling hook," Adora tells her.
Glimmer yawns. "Why?"
"I got into a fight with Catra, and I think she's on the roof now, but I can't get up there."
"I'm not sure a grappling hook is the solution to that."
"I can't climb up without one."
"Adora…" Glimmer sighs. "Maybe she needs time to cool off."
"She's mad at me!" Adora says helplessly.
"Do you know why she's mad at you?"
"Because we fought."
"About what?" Glimmer insists.
Adora starts to pace anxiously. "I don't know! I thought she was upset I lied to your mom, and she was, but it was because she was worried about me getting in trouble, and I said I understood and I'd try harder but that made her more upset with me and I think, maybe she doesn't believe me that I'm trying, or she does but it's just not good enough, she was already mad over the trip, I thought it went well but-"
"Adora," Glimmer interrupts. "What do you normally do when this happens?"
"I get a grappling hook so I can climb up wherever she went!" Adora repeats. Isn't that obvious? "And something to make her forget whatever I did if I can, but I don't know what that would be this time."
Glimmer shakes her head. "Adora… Just because she's mad doesn't mean it's your fault."
"It's not always my fault but this time it's my fault, I said the wrong thing."
"I know she's your friend…" Glimmer starts, like Adora hasn't heard this before.
"She is! She's my best friend."
"It just doesn't seem like she's very nice to you."
"No, no, you don't understand, the whole fight started because she was worried about me. She's always had my back, ever since we were little kids."
"We literally met Catra electrocuting you in the back."
"Because she was worried about me! And she said sorry! She didn't mean for it to be set that high! And - and it was just reflex the second time, she said so!" She shouldn't have gone to Glimmer. She's just making this worse. She pleads, "I'm not mad about it, don't be mad about it, it was an accident."
Glimmer huffs. "Are you ever mad about any of it?"
"Yeah, sometimes, but there's no point in staying mad."
"Then the same goes for her, right?"
Adora almost explains that it's not the same at all. Catra always gets in trouble when she does something wrong, so, so much trouble, and how could anyone still be mad on top of that? But Glimmer doesn't know that Catra's always doing the wrong thing and getting in trouble. Nobody here knows that. And maybe if no one knows it's true, it doesn't have to be.
"Look," Glimmer says, touching her shoulder. "Why don't you try waiting for her to come back in her own time? And if she's still mad, ask her why, don't just apologize."
"Yeah," Adora says, managing a nod. "She really - she is a good person. She really was worried, and she was right. I wasn't thinking when I tried to lie to the queen, I was acting like it was how things were back in the Horde."
Glimmer smiles at her. "But you're not anymore. Things are different here."
Adora nods again. "I get that now. It's a bad idea when your mom doesn't like me."
"What?" Glimmer grasps. "Is that what Catra said? It's not true, my mom loves you!"
"It's not what Catra said, it's just - she doesn't! I was a part of something horrible and she knows it."
"That wasn't you. Mom knows that. I know Mom can be...a little intense. But she wouldn't have invited you to stay or to the meeting with the rebellion generals if she didn't like you."
Of course she would. She'd said precisely that, that first night, standing before a picture illustrating exactly why Adora deserved her hatred.
But would saying that do any good?
Arguing with Glimmer won't change her mother's opinion. And what if her mom denies it, responds with the same indignant tone Glimmer just used, "Is that what Adora said?" and convinces Glimmer that they're not so great after all? Or worse...what if Glimmer believes Adora over her mother, what if she gets angry at her mother, and the queen decides that Adora and Catra are more trouble than they're worth?
"I guess," Adora chokes out. "I'll go back to our room. Maybe she's back already."
She is. She's sitting on the sill of the window and Adora nearly sends them both out of it when she runs over to tackle her. She's expecting a shove and complaints, Catra's always happier grabbing than being grabbed, but instead there's just silence.
"I'm glad you're back," Adora says. "I'm sorry."
"It was dumb of me to be mad," Catra mumbles. "You're the same as always."
"I can be better."
Catra shakes her head. "You're already too good." Her tail coils around her feet. "Always making excuses for me. Anyone else would get it by now. You know I'm awful but every time you're surprised all over again, and then you go right back to saying that of course I'm awful but despite that I'm a good person."
"I'm not wrong about that," Adora says.
"I only left to save my own skin," Catra says into her knees. "Shadow Weaver told me to bring you back and I couldn't. I told you, and you still wouldn't believe it."
"But you chose to leave," Adora insists. "It's not like that was safer."
But Catra's just shaking her head. "I told you, I'm telling you, and you still don't. You believe the best of everybody. Me and Shadow Weaver. It's only because I'm disrespectful, because I don't try hard enough, because I provoked her again, she doesn't really hate me, and it's not like she'd really kill me -" Catra chokes. "Would you have believed me when I was dead?"
"She said stuff but - but -" And Adora can almost feel Glimmer saying the next words and stumbles to a halt. "I…"
Catra's silent.
"I didn't want you to give up," Adora says finally. "You're smart, and talented and I was sure she'd see it eventually. And then she wouldn't always be mad at you."
"She was furious. Like it was all my fault, like you hadn't left me just as much as you'd left her."
"I only told you to stay because I didn't want you getting in trouble over me."
"Yeah," Catra says sourly. "That worked great."
"But, it worked out, right? If you'd come with me, we'd have beat Glimmer and Bow easily. And then we'd have gone back. We wouldn't even still be together, because I'd be a force captain and you'd still be a cadet and - and you'd be stuck there no matter what you did. I was acting like it was just for now, I wanted to believe that, I wanted...I wanted to be force captain and it was easier to think things would work out. And you knew better. And maybe it'll turn out the queen will always hate us, but at least she leaves us alone."
"For now, anyway. We don't even know what she can do."
"I think it's the same stuff as Glimmer. She made a light in the hallway. It can't be that terrible or they wouldn't be losing."
"What if that's what happened to Shadow Weaver?" Catra whispers.
Adora generally worked really hard at not thinking about whatever had happened to Shadow Weaver. "Well, now we know we can leave if things get bad."
"Or when they figure out we're using the shower as a shower."
Adora laughs. "Yeah."
But Catra can't let it go. "I just… I always figured Hordak did it to her. Because she's scared of him."
"She respected him."
Adora can hear Catra shaking her head. "Yeah, she respected him even more than I respected her," Catra says, then more seriously, "But we just...we just walked off! We even went back to wreck their stuff and left again! And Shadow Weaver's in charge of like, everything. So why didn't she? Couldn't she? Was making other people miserable worth it? Or are there scarier things out there?"
"Maybe the old kingdom used to do the same stuff as the Horde, and that's why everyone hated them. So they work together because they both wanted to do the same things, but she wants to be in charge instead."
"Maybe… I thought I understood stuff, I thought I knew when they were lying to us, but...there's so much to everything. Etheria's so big and so old and so strange and there's so many people, and…" She sighs. "In training all the princesses were the same. I didn't know that was a lie too."
It's been gnawing at the back of Adora's mind too. "The others must be powerful, or else Glimmer wouldn't want to get the alliance started up again so much. Razz said so too, that the princesses would be protecting everyone normally. And...and it's like you said about retreating. We know Glimmer's right because we know the Horde's afraid of princesses. Why else would we spend all our time training against just them, if they weren't able to beat the Horde?"
"Maybe," Catra says again. "The Horde's afraid of the Whispering Woods too, but it didn't look like the trees were winning."
"We'll convince the rest of the princesses and She-Ra will lead them all to victory, you'll see. Then we won't have to worry anymore."