She-Ra: Broken Reflections (CH 3)

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Catra was quietly pissed— and keeping it quiet was not easy. There was a polite smile on her face and her posture was impeccable, but she couldn't keep her tail from lashing like a whip.

There were a lot of reasons to be angry at the moment. The pettiest was probably that she was stuck being nice to this jerk while her sister got to show her cute daughter around, but that wasn't fair because the only reason she didn't like Light Spinner was because she had the gall to blow Scorpia off. Scorpia, who spent weeks agonizing over every little detail and would do nearly anything if she thought it would make someone happy!

Her stomach growled and she realized that, on top of everything else, she'd forgotten to grab her pear from the dining room. She was hungry and it'd be forever before they’d be having supper. Queen Mom probably threw it away, she grumbled in her head. She hated wasting food. Queen Mom didn’t understand, couldn’t understand because she’d grown up in the palace instead of the streets. Captain Mom, who had spent more time on long, poorly supplied campaigns, got it. She always knew what Catra meant.

Light Spinner walked behind Catra, stepping so smoothly that it looked like she was gliding over the floor. Catra wasn’t used to seeing someone wear so many layers; the only thing visible were her eyes, a bright green several shades brighter than her olive skin. Her pupils were diamond-shaped, and Catra couldn’t remember what species she was meant to be. As a whole, she found Light Spinner a little eerie and difficult to read.

Catra took a deep breath as they entered the Black Garnet chamber. It was always warm in here, but it was a very strange, comfortable sort of warmth. It could be below zero or over a hundred, and the air in the chamber was still pleasantly toasty like she was coming in out of the cold.  Whatever it was, it always made her feel more awake, energy tingling in her claws, but in her foul mood that just made her feel edgier. 

The room itself was surprisingly cheery, too. Most of the room was occupied with arcane technical equipment, but the room had been cleared for a small dining table and a shelf of desert flowers along one wall. The walls of the chamber had been painted soft reds and oranges and rich browns to match the rest of the castle interior, in contrast with the traditional, harsh scarlet and black of the old Fright Zone on the facade. Light Spinner’s pale Mystacorian robes looked out of place against the scientific equipment, like she'd been cut out of the picture from a different book and pasted here.

Catra waived the technician on duty away and stepped up to the main control console where it sat in the corner of the room. As Princesses, both Catra and Scorpia had been trained to work both with and on the machine since they were little. The output the Black Garnet gave had to be monitored closely; after all, it powered every machine in the city.

Nevertheless, Catra frowned at the controls. The console had been designed for creatures with Scorpioni claws and super strength, with no concessions for a Magicat such as her. Everything was analog; all levers and dials and weathered metal. It was all easy to replace too; if you tore off a dial or button on accident, you could just go dig a replacement out of the boxes along the wall and screw it in. They even had a silly-looking pair of tongs called pinchers that fit overtop of normal Scorponi claws for repairing the delicate parts of the console.  

Catra cracked her knuckles, grabbed a lever to one side of the console, and hauled down on it, cranking a gear mechanism and rotating a ring of scanners slowly around the Black Garnet. She leaned over, checked the readouts, and nodded; everything seemed safe.

Light Spinner took a step closer and pulled a scroll out of her robes. She traced a simple, glowing symbol in the air and then stuck the scroll to it, and it hung floating above the ground.

Catra watched her push up her sleeve and point a golden bracelet at the Runestone. A blue light shone from inside the bracelet, making it glow like a gem, then a beam burst towards the Black Garnet. 

“What are you doing?” shouted Catra.

The beam never reached the crystal. Instead, it stopped a few feet before it, then spread and arced across a square of empty air like it had struck an invisible glass wall. Soon, a dense network of lines glowing like silver spiderwebs hung in the air before the crystal. Light Spinner put her other hand on the bracelet and the lines began moving; some rotating to cross other lines and some disappearing. Symbols began to take shape from the chaos. 

Suddenly, the lights all snapped back to their original places, and Light Spinner’s frown deepened. "Access, child," she breathed, as she started over again.

Catra expected her to elaborate, but the older woman didn't continue. "Hey!" Catra snapped. "This is our Runestone,” she snapped. “Maybe explain a little?"

Light Spinner waited a moment longer, just enough for Catra to begin to wonder if the woman was ignoring her, but she finally relaxed her magic and turned to face Catra. “How would you feel,” she said slowly, “if you could use magic as easily as your sister does?”

Catra froze, her eyes wide. Light Spinner smiled under her mask, then continued. “Long ago the Runestones were free and could choose anyone of any stature to be a Princess. It was the First Ones who bound them, created the Runestone Network—”

“—Network?” 

Light Spinner hesitated. “Ah. My apologies. What I believe to be a network that bestowed that power to a dynasty instead." She gestured to the Black Garnet towering over them. “The First Ones choose your family’s ancestors to rule over the Light Zone, and it’s been passed down to the firstborn child of each family for thousands of years. I may be able to access its controls and grant your family more control over it, perhaps even unlock new powers.” She gave Catra a long, evaluative glance out of the corner of her eye. “You could even choose someone new to take on the power,” she said slowly, “should someone unworthy take the throne one day.”

Scorpia’s not unworthy.

The older woman turned back to her work, but Catra was more distracted by the comment than the dismissal. Her hands and claws flexed unconsciously. She’s not unworthy, she thought again, and it was true. Scorpia was a hard worker who cared about being a Princess more than anything.

I care about it too.

Catra forced her hands to relax in a semblance of calm, but she couldn’t stop her ears from twitching. She knew just as much as Scorpia, if not more. It wasn’t like she wanted the throne, anyways. All Catra wanted was to be taken seriously. Scorpia always was, just because she belonged. 

All of a sudden, Catra wanted to hit something. Queen Mom and Captain Mom loved her, Scorpia loved her, so of course she belonged! It was a hurtful thought, hateful even. She didn’t want it, but it stayed anyway— and with it came memories; her mother said she was sweet because she was determined to work as hard as Scorpia, to that one teacher who’d said she wasn’t the important princess, to her earliest memories of not getting to sleep indoors because she hadn’t stolen enough—

What is wrong with me today?

Catra closed her eyes and breathed out. Repressed anger surged up and down her body, making her tail jolt back and forth and claws flex. She squared her shoulders and strode over to the control console, wanting to distract herself. Catra knew better than this. She was loved, and love was too important for her to let it be poisoned by jealousy.

A blinking red light caught her attention, and she zeroed in on it. She grabbed a lever and heaved, moving the scanners back around to get a better look. There was an odd energy signature resonating with the Runestone, but Catra couldn’t get a good read on it. It wasn’t Light Spinner’s magic, and it looked nothing like anything else she’d seen from the Black Garnet. 

It was almost like something from outside the room was trying to connect to it.

---

Now that she was actually working, things were going better than Light Spinner had hoped.

First Ones’ technology was locked behind a special, hieroglyphic language that no one alive knew how to translate. But Light Spinner had the First Ones’ false person working for her now. All she had to do was arrange the shapes into the password and it would be wide open. Vulnerable.

And yet, even if she could pry loose the Black Garnet’s secrets, she wouldn’t be allowed to do anything with them immediately. They might even stop her research once they understood what Light Spinner was capable of, though she’d be surprised if Princess Catra let them do so without a fight. She knew the look in the young girl’s eyes; an aching frustration Light Spinner had felt for herself back in school. 

“Hey,” Catra said, “you said that the Black Garnet was a part of some kind of network?”

“...Possibly,” Spinner replied carefully. It was one of the things Light Hope had told her, something she couldn’t have guessed on her own. The glowing interface took too much concentration for her to come up with a convincing lie, so she simply asked, “Why?”

“I’m getting some kind of... signal,” Catra said, “One I haven’t seen before. The Black Garnet is reacting to it, but I think it’s coming from outside.”

Light Hope. The computer had promised to aid Light Spinner, and this must be what she meant. “I wouldn’t worry, Your Highness. I can take care of whatever it is.”

Catra didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. Light Spinner could feel the girl’s skeptical glare as it bore into the back of her skull. She ignored it and twisted the last of the lines into place, and something clicked. The interface cleared. The Black Garnet was open to intrusion, a pale blue light beginning to shine from deeper inside.  

Catra pulled her lever again, examined the results, and frowned. “Are you still good?” she asked Light Spinner with a sidelong glance.

“Better,” Light Spinner breathed. “It worked.”  

She glanced at Light Hope’s scroll again, suddenly not sure what to do. It showed her an input pattern, something to link the Runestone to Hope directly. The machine was so easy to manipulate, she thought to herself with a smile. That was likely by design, she was sure. It wouldn't do to have your tool getting opinions.

She suddenly thought of Adora again and shook her head in irritation. Adora isn't a tool, she's…

Light Spinner hesitated, trying to find an end to the sentence. When nothing presented itself, she opted to simply let it go. Her daughter was a problem that could wait until later. Now, she had work to do. 

Light Spinner drew a line in the air, and, as she watched, the symbols on the scroll began to morph and shift. She’d cleared the last of the barriers, and now Light Hope could connect to the crystal, reading its thoughts, plumbing its depths, searching out power untold—

Before she even knew it was happening, she could feel it— a great river of magic, pouring from the Black Garnet, surging out of the crystal and into her body, filling her up with light and power, the light she could spin, more than spin, a power that would make her a goddess—

And then everything went to hell.

There was an awful silence that struck like the crack of a whip and then the light within her was just gone. The glowing screen before her lit up again, patterns shifting and reforming on their own. She frowned, reaching out to try and reassert control, but the lights ignored her. The pale glow inside the crystal grew brighter, electric-blue shining through the inky purple of the stone and bathing the room in icy light. Red lightning arced up the Runestone and into the machinery near the ceiling. Spinner jerked her hands back from her controls and took a frightened step backward.

"This is going too far," Catra said. "Turn it off!"

Light Spinner cut the magic coming from the bracelet, but the screen remained in place. Lightning shot through the crystal again, ice-blue mingling with and then overtaking the blood-red. It arced from the crystal to the screen, then back down the glowing beam to the bracelet. Light Spinner tried to yank her hand back, but the bracelet was frozen in the air. She stared in horror at the pulsing, flickering light. “I— I can’t!” she stammered.

"No, you cannot."

Light Spinner froze, her face slack behind its mask, as the lines on the screen twirled and formed the harsh, angular face of a blue-skinned woman.

“Light Hope,” she murmured.

"You have caused enough trouble," She said, looking very angry for an expressionless machine. 

The lightning, now entirely blue, struck the equipment surrounding the Black Garnet. Lines of blue light ran across and through the machinery, and down towards the floor. The wires shone blue as power began to flow down them, though to what end she didn’t know. Catra growled, low and fierce, and the primal part of Light Spinner urged her to move before she was mauled. "W-what is the meaning of this?!" Spinner demanded, trying to regain control of the situation. What had she done to set the machine off? She had to turn this around, before—

"You know me," Light Hope stated. "I am the source of all your research into the Runestones; and had you not gone back on our deal, I would not be here."

Light Spinner stared. A thought crossed her mind, but she was too stunned to acknowledge it until it came back around the second time. 

She's double-crossing me, Light Spinner thought numbly. 

Her eyes narrowed. Her fist tightened. What little magic she had thrummed through her body.

She is double-crossing me, she thought again, much less numbly.

Catra was growling now, and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Spinner said quickly. She had no idea how she was going to fix this but she couldn't let the machine just out her. “I’ve never seen this machine before in my—”

“Machine?” Catra demanded, stepping closer. “What makes you think she’s a machine?”

Light Spinner shook her head wordlessly. She was sure she could think of an excuse, but before she could speak Light Hope interjected. "You promised to tell Adora of her destiny as She-Ra," she said, "and give her the Sword of Protection."

Spinner tried desperately, "What sword—" but that was as far as she got. Light Hope couldn’t do a proper smirk but still looked quite satisfied as with a flash the bracelet returned to its original shape. Spinner clutched at the Sword of Protection but the lightning jerked it out of her hands. She froze as the tip angled itself at her throat. 

"Hey!" Catra snapped. "I don't care if she's a fraud, she's still under our protection."

"You are irrelevant," Light Hope stated. "I am already using this resource to seek out Adora. I have put too much trust in you people already."

Catra’s eyes darted back and forth between the two. “Us people?” She asked. “We’re not with Light Spinner. Whatever it is she’s done, it has nothing to do with us."

Light Spinner sucked in a breath. She had to find some way to interrupt, to take charge away from that worthless contraption, but the sword pressed very close against her throat.

"Neither of you is a First One," Light Spinner continued, "That is the only distinction that matters. Adora will take the Sword and release the Heart of Etheria to destroy her people's enemies."

"You—" Light Spinner took a step back, but the sword followed. "You can't listen to this— this mere machine—"

“Shut up,” Catra said as she slowly unraveled Spinner’s life. “Adora's... people?" 

“Adora is from Eternia.” Light Hope said it casually. Like it was something everyone already knew, and she was just getting it out of the way. “Her destiny is to take up the Sword of Protection and become She-Ra, a noble warrior.”

“She’s an alien,” Catra said, eyes distant and body still. Her voice sounded like it had been flattened by shock. “She’s… how…”

“We brought her here as a baby so that she could fulfill her destiny.” Light Hope continued to rip Light Spinner apart,  apparently unaware of what she was doing. “The enemies of the First Ones will be destroyed.”

Catra took a step back. “Enemies? How do you define an enemy?"

"None of the races of Etheria are categorized as an enemy," Light Hope said. "In fact, Adora’s destiny will bring balance to Etheria."

"How?" Catra demanded. "What does that even mean?"

"That will be made—" Light Hope froze in place. "I have located Adora," she said. "She will appear to me soon."

The screen disappeared. Light Spinner took a step away, heart hammering before she found herself knocked on her back. Light Spinner’s head painfully smacked against the stone floor Her head  The pricking of the Sword of Protection was replaced with the pricking of a cat's claws and the Princesses eyes shone inches above her own.

The thing that she'd called Catra stood low and hunched over, tail thrashing like a bullwhip. Her mane of hair stood on end, the slit-pupils of her eyes were wide and staring, her fingers bent and claws extended. Something inside Light Spinner— the small, furred something that scuttled through the undergrowth, running for its life from the shadows that stalked the night— told her that she needed to shut up right now.

Catra slammed her head against the stone floor. Stars blossomed behind her eyes. “What have you done?” The Princess demanded.

Light Spinner squirmed, unconsciously pressing her body into the floor away from Catra. “It, it was that machine,” she said desperately. “She's responsible, she did—”

“With your help,” Catra growled. “Explain.” 

An odd light suddenly flickered below her, near their waists. Catra turned to see Light Spinner finish casting a spell and her magic yanked Catra some paces back. Catra dug the claws in her feet into the ground for leverage and pushed back, growling. It felt like she was pressing against something made from cold metal, shoving it back inch by inch.

With a free hand, Spinner began casting a second spell; Her fingers traced out a second glyph, square this time, and the air between them grew thicker as it transformed into glass. 

She barely finished reinforcing it before Catra pulled herself free of the weak spell. The Princess dove towards Light Spinner, throwing her shoulder against the walls to no effect. She took a step back and slashed the glass wall, but the gouges glowed and began to seal themselves. Catra growled as she lurked around the walls, glaring.

“I…” Light Spinner said. “I don’t owe you anything.”

“After what you’ve done to us?” Catra demanded.

“I did nothing, fool!” Light Spinner said. She leaned against the glass wall feeling remarkably light-headed. “Light Hope betrayed me. She’s the one at fault—”

“You were working with her,” Catra shot back. “You let her in, didn’t you? That’s how you knew how to do that stuff to the Black Garnet.”

Light Spinner did her best to glare, but the sweat dripping into her eyes kept making her blink. Grasping at this much magic was exhausting; her heart hammered in her chest and her arms felt heavy as lead. “It should have worked,” she said, rasped really. “I knew what to do, I could feel the power, taste it even—” She slammed her hand against the wall, barely mindful of the pain. “I had it!” she snapped. “I finally had it and now it’s gone again!”

“Is that what this was really about?” Catra asked. “More power? More magic?”

Light Spinner turned and stalked to the other side of the glass cage she made for herself. She had to get a grip, had to regain control over herself. Her hands were shaking, and wouldn’t stop. “I’m… less than any other sorceress at my station should be,” she whispered. “The power I have I’ve earned, I’ve sacrificed for, and yet it’s nothing compared to my fellows.” 

Breathing slowly, she turned back to face the Princess. The girl was no longer stalking back and forth and now stared at her, mismatched eyes wide. There’s a hook, she thought to herself. Use it.

“All I wanted was what I’d worked for,” Light Spinner said aloud, “and the machine double-crossed me. She could have killed us. We must stop her before whatever she’s planning comes to fruition.”

Catra crossed her arms. The girl was too clever to simply trust her, but the antagonism was disappearing. “What, exactly, are you saying? She asked suspiciously. 

“We should attack Light Hope, to protect the Light Zone from future incursions,” Spinner said. “We can take her power for ourselves and ensure everyone's safety.”

Catra shook her head. “We don’t exactly have a standing army,” she pointed out.

“You don’t need one,” Light Spinner pressed. “Just a handful of Scorpoini can wreak devastation and you’re fast enough to take care of yourself. I can handle any mystical traps inside. It’ll be easy; the machine is arrogant and careless.”

“She got the drop on you once already,” Catra pointed out, but she didn’t sound malicious. Light Spinner smiled underneath her mask; the girl was thinking it over. 

“I’m ready for her this time,” she smoothly replied. “She won’t catch me unprepared again.”

“And your daughter?”

She blinked, suddenly off-balance. “I’m sorry?”

Catra leaned forward, mismatched eyes glowing in the dim light. “You agreed to take her from Light Hope, right?”

“...Yes,” Light Spinner said slowly, “I didn’t think a machine would be a good caretaker…”

“—What are you planning on telling her,” Catra asked quietly. “About all this, ‘destiny’ and whatever?”

She froze.

Don’t stop, she thought, you have work. Keep moving.

She didn’t move. 

“...Nothing," she tried. "Right now she's just—" This wasn't the right angle. She tried again. "She doesn't need…"

This wasn't working. Light Spinner closed her eyes and concentrated, harder than she should need to for a simple query. What do I need from Adora?

"...nothing," she finally decided, "or as near as I can manage after whatever Light Hope's told her."

"You're not worried about her?" Catra asked.

"She's better out of the way," she replied. "I don't need her getting hurt." Light Spinner's fingers tightened; she knew the girl wanted to say yes, she was almost there. Catra just needed a reason, an excuse to listen to Light Spinner and they'd be off. "I don't know what Light Hope is doing," she said, "but if she's willing to attack a Runestone there's no telling where she'll stop. Not just your kingdom— every Princess in Etheria could be in danger."

Catra held her gaze, and Light Spinner didn’t let herself waver. She could almost see the cogs in the girl’s brain turning, driving her towards the correct conclusion. "We can't give her time to regroup," she said softly, like Light Spinner wasn't even there. "She could come back, go through the Runestone again."

The jubilation that she didn't dare show flowed through Light Spinner. She had her, she had the girl and now everything was going to be alright "Her connection to the Runestone Network makes her an unprecedented foe," she agreed. 

Catra nodded to herself. "Queen Mom and Scorpia can handle any machines, but we should bring some of Hordak's old bots just in case," she said distractedly. "And one of Hordak's old scanners should be enough to find the place.

Light Spinner hesitated. "I am fully capable of guiding you too…"

Her voice trailed off as Catra turned back to look at her. She tilted her head and raised her hand in a show of compassion that was betrayed by the malice glinting in her eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, "did you think I was including you?"

“You—! You're making a mistake,” Light Spinner snapped back. "I've been working towards this for years, I know how to unlock it for everyone—

"But especially you, right?"

"For us," Light Spinner insisted. "For those who actually unlock the Heart. It's only fair, given that we're doing all the work."

“No, I’ll be doing all the hard work,” Catra said as she turned away. “After all this,” she pointed to the twisted wires and sparking equipment, “you get to watch.”

Slowly, Light Spinner shook her head. "This… this is my whole life," she said. "All of it." She wasn't even trying to speak, the words just appeared. "I don't… I won't have anything important without it. You mustn’t take it, please—"

Catra spun around, fur standing on end and glaring. She stared down at Light Spinner and asked the question that damned her.

 "There's your daughter," Catra snapped. "Don't you think she counts for something?"
Light Spinner didn’t move, didn’t think for a long moment. The thing was that it didn’t make sense. What Catra said didn’t make sense, because this was for Adora as much as it was for her, she deserved more than…

What does Adora want?

...than to be some more than a common worker, and…

Isn't this the only thing you've worked for, your whole life?

…and being important mattered, even if Adora didn't appreciate it, because if people needed you they'd have to stay, and…

If you don't have anything to show for it, then what good are you?

Inside Light Spinner's mind, a fraying string that had been holding things together for years quietly went snap.

Light Spinner pulled a small vial out of her robes and smashed it against the floor. Inside the vial had been white dust from the training halls of Mystacor, which carried power from the spells that had been cast over the years in those hallowed halls. She could tap into it for one spell, but only one.

Light Spinner knelt and began to draw in the dust, marking glyphs for her location, then where she was going, then for how she wanted to get there. The dust began to rise around her, multiplying and filling the air like smoke. It surrounded her, blinded her, invaded her lungs and engulfed her completely. She coughed and fell, but the floor wasn't in the right place and she kept falling and falling and she couldn't breathe, and then—

Suddenly, she was there. The air was all clear. There was light and a breeze. Panting, she looked up.

The entrance to the Crystal Castle stood before her.

Gritting her teeth, she stood. There wasn't a lot of time before Catra caught up with her and stole her life's work. She still had the Sword of Protection, and one way or another she was going to get the Heart.