Serve and Protect

Chapter 26

The cool outside air did little to pull Catra from her daze.

With her arms folded tightly across her chest, she kept her head down and hurried briskly down the street. She moved as fast as she could without running; the last thing she needed right now was to draw attention to herself.

Catra wasn't exactly sure where she was going — she had no friends and next to nothing to her name. But she had a bit of money hidden away, probably enough to buy a bus ticket. She wondered how far it would get her. Anywhere had to be better than here.

She had only made it a few blocks when she heard a passing car hit its brakes. Tires screeched across the asphalt, making her wince. Assuming it was some creep who had stopped to leer (something that seemed to happen a lot more now that Catra's figure wasn't obscured by layers of ill-fitting clothing), Catra kept walking.

"Catra!" Scorpia's voice rang out. Surprised, Catra looked up. Scorpia hadn't even bothered to pull over — she idled in the middle of the street as if she owned it. "Where are you going?"

"None of your business!" Catra snapped back. Now that she wasn't trapped in the endless loop of her own thoughts, Catra felt fresh panic creeping up her back. She was supposed to be watching Shadow Weaver. Had Hordak already realized she was missing? Did he send Scorpia to find her? She had hoped to have a bit more time before anyone realized she was gone.

Scorpia pulled a u-turn and pulled her expensive car up to the curb beside Catra. She unfolded her hulking frame through the driver's side door and came around to face her partner.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"What did I just say?" Catra spat. "It's none of your fucking business."

She swerved around Scorpia and kept walking. She was barely two steps away when she heard Scorpia say, "Hordak told us about Shadow Weaver. Do you want to talk about it?"

Catra whirled back around. "What's there to talk about, Scorpia? My plan worked, just like I knew it would. This is a good thing."

"Then why do you look like someone just ran over your cat?" Scorpia asked.

A flurry of excuses and insults rushed through Catra's mind. Any of these biting remarks would have been enough to put Scorpia in her place and end the conversation. But faced with Scorpia's painfully obvious concern for her, Catra found herself unable to say anything at all. Every time she opened her mouth, her venom seemed to evaporate into a choking breath.

She was so, so tired.

"Hordak wants me to kill her," Catra managed at last. Her voice was small and quiet. "Tonight."

Scorpia exhaled sharply. "Oh, Wildcat. I'm s—"

"Don't," Catra cut her off. "I don't need your pity."

"I didn't—" This time, Scorpia cut herself off. Maybe it was the furious scowl on Catra's face that shut her up, or maybe she was just a quick study. Either way, Scorpia cleared her throat and changed tactics. "Are... Are you leaving?"

Catra didn't answer. She wasn't sure if she could trust Scorpia not to rat her out. Not that it would really matter — Hordak would figure it out eventually. Scorpia's face fell, and Catra looked away, ashamed.

Rubbing her hand across the back of her neck, Scorpia sighed. "I don't blame you, Catra, I really don't. But... you know what they'll do if you leave, right?"

It was a thought that Catra had been trying to ignore from the moment she crept out the back door and into the alley behind the garage. Hordak wouldn't make the same mistake as Shadow Weaver: the moment he realized Catra had deserted the gang, he'd leak her initiation video. Not all of it, of course. No one would see one of Etheria's finest pushing her back onto a nasty motel mattress. The video would be trimmed to make it look like she had savagely beaten a man within an inch of his life. And when word got back to the Etherian Police Force that the victim was one of their own, there would be nowhere for her to hide. And all of that assumed the Horde didn't get to her first.