Serve and Protect

Chapter 46

The sound of Shadow Weaver's voice in her earpiece made Adora's blood run cold. For a split-second reality slipped and the moment felt more like a nightmare. It took the warm and steady hand of Bow gently squeezing her shoulder to bring her back to reality.

"Just breathe, Adora," he whispered. "It's going to be okay. Glimmer and Catra have got this."

Adora swallowed the lump of fear in her throat and glanced around nervously. She and Bow were roaming City Hall, stacks of pizza boxes held in each of their arms. They had needed a reason to be in the building so they could be close by — just in case. Pizza was what they'd come up with. The guy at the front desk hadn't batted an eye when she announced that they were there to deliver an order to the accounting department.

"Looks like someone's having a party!" Bow chirped, smiling widely over his stack of boxes.

"I guess so," the guy replied. "Tell them to let me know if they have any leftovers, okay? I forgot to bring my lunch today."

"Sure thing, pal!" Adora called over her shoulder. She was already half-way to the elevators, almost sprinting to catch one before its door closed. Once inside, she held the door open with her foot while Bow scampered after her. They rode it up to the second floor in tense silence, shielding their faces from the watchful eye of the security camera beneath the brims of their borrowed baseball caps.

No one seemed to notice or care as the pair of them wandered through the building, which made it easy for them to monitor Catra and Glimmer's progress via the surreptitious earpieces they all wore. Outside, in a van parked along the street, Scorpia and Entrapta were monitoring the video feed as it transmitted from the miniscule camera hiding in Catra's jacket. Up until that moment, everything had been going so smoothly that Adora almost didn't care that the audio was her only connection to Catra and Glimmer.

But Shadow Weaver hadn't been part of the plan. Adora could feel the adrenaline spiking in her system; an old familiar response to the sound of a voice that still haunted her nightmares after all this time. She could imagine how Catra must be feeling in that moment, unexpectedly face to face with their life-long tormentor. It killed Adora to not be there with her now, and it took every ounce of willpower she had not to throw her decoy pizza to the ground and race for the top floor. Instead, she chose to trust Bow. She kept her head low, followed Bow up another flight of stairs, and listened to the drama unfolding in her ear.

"What are you doing here?" Catra demanded. She was doing an admirable job of acting hard and collected, but Adora knew her better than that — she could hear the subtle note of alarm around the edges of Catra's voice, that she was fighting to stay calm. "Last I heard, you were behind bars."

"I posted her bail," drawled Prime, his velvety tones making the hairs on the back of Adora's neck stand on end. "She isn't much good to me in prison."

Of course, Adora thought bitterly. Leave it to Shadow Weaver to still be playing both sides. She felt foolish for having ever believed that Shadow Weaver had her best interests at heart, embarrassed by the part of her that had always wanted to measure up to her expectations. The only person Shadow Weaver cared about was herself.

"That's bullshit!" Glimmer spat, feisty as ever, even under the circumstances. "I know for a fact that she wasn't up for bail. What did you do, play your mayor card to arrange a jailbreak?"

Cupping a hand over his earpiece, Bow grinned. "That's my girl," he whispered. "Call it what it is: political corruption!"

Adora was grateful that Glimmer still had the presence of mind to gather evidence. Catra was painfully silent. In her mind, Adora could perfectly picture the panic-stricken expression that was no doubt cemented to Catra's face — the one that anyone who didn't really know her might mistake for bored indifference.