Serve and Protect

Chapter 34

[CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains depictions and mentions of violence, death, and drug use. Please see the end of the page for a specific summary and take care when reading.]

Adora had long since accepted that she would never be as fast as Catra. Growing up, it didn't matter how hard she trained, she had never been able to match Catra's natural speed and graceful agility. Normally, that was fine — what Adora lacked in speed she made up for in sheer brute strength, and that was okay by her.

But in that moment, nothing was more important than making sure Catra didn't reach the warehouse door first.

Maybe it was desperation, or perhaps it was the undeniable rage that pulsed through every fiber of her being, but by some miracle Adora was able to summon just enough strength to catch up with Catra before it was too late. As Catra reached out for the door handle, Adora closed the distance between them and slammed into Catra from behind, sending them both crashing into the door.

From that point on, everything was chaos.

Catra shoved off of the door with alarming strength. She would have sent Adora sprawling backward had Adora not already had a hold of her shoulder. Adora wrenched her around, bringing them face to face.

"Stop it, Catra!" Adora shouted, shaking her former friend with a force she had never used on Catra before. "Why are you doing this?" Adora's fingertips lay over the scars on Catra's arms. She had never wanted to add to them; she'd wanted to protect her from them. An ember of shame smoldered somewhere at Adora's core, but it was too weak to contend with the rising levels of fury she was feeling now.

The dam was broken. Adora couldn't have contained the flood even if she wanted to.

Catra replied with a wordless hiss and drove her fist into Adora's stomach, hard. Had she been anyone else, Adora may have buckled, but she'd spent her entire life training for fights like this. She twisted and shifted her weight, throwing Catra to the ground. But Catra—who knew all of Adora's moves because they were hers too—rolled into her landing and used the momentum to spring back to her feet.

"I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing," Catra spat back, teeth bared. "I'm doing what you were too scared to do."

The girls circled each other, both watching for an opening in the other's defenses.

"Because it's wrong, and you know it," Adora said from behind her raised fists. "C'mon, Catra. You're better than this!"

"Ha!" Catra barked. "If by that you mean better than you, then you're right!" Like lightning, Catra leapt. Adora managed to block, but she couldn't avoid the sharp sting of Catra's nails clawing against the flesh of her arms, drawing blood. For only a split second, Adora was stunned. Catra had never hurt her like that before, not on purpose.

But then the split-second was over, and the fight was on.

While Adora and Catra sparred, the others waged their own skirmishes with one another. No matter how hard Scorpia tried to come to Catra's aid, Glimmer and her bat refused to give her an inch. Meanwhile, rather than fighting, Bow was trying to convince Entrapta to talk to him. Unfortunately, Entrapta wasn't interested, and Bow was left to chase her as her incessant screaming filled the room.

As worried as Adora was about her friends' safety, she couldn't spare a moment to so much as glance their way, let alone help them. Catra was on the offense, and her attacks were relentless. And yet, despite the sweat that beaded Catra's brow and shimmered along her shoulders, she didn't seem to tire. When Adora blocked one of Catra's blows, the force of her strike sent a shockwave of pain that radiated out from her forearm and rattled her teeth.