"Losing You"

A/N: It turns out this is the tenth Catradora story I've written in the last month. I am beginning to think I may have a problem.

TAP TAP TAP

Adora had just managed to fall asleep when the tapping sound pulled her from her slumber. She groaned as she opened her eyes and gave a cursory glance around her room in Bright Moon Palace, but found nothing amiss or out of sorts. Convinced she was merely dreaming, Adora was just about to drift off once more when she heard it again.

TAP TAP TAP

She sat up this time, wide awake, and finally identified the source of the noise: the window. With a start, Adora leapt out of bed and crossed over to the portal, through which she could see some kind of object hovering in the air. Just before it could tap again, whatever it was, she unlatched the window and threw it open.

It's one of Entrapta's messenger drones, Adora realized as the spherical robot hovered through the open window and into her room before finding an appropriate place to float and wait. She had seen several of them during her time in Dryl prior to Entrapta's ''defection' to the Horde, and had since spied her using them to communicate with Catra and Scorpia in the field on more than one occasion.

But what was one of Entrapta's drones doing here?

Adora knew she should have suspicious; Entrapta was with the enemy now, all things considered, and the drone could easily be armed. Yet, her instincts told her otherwise. Entrapta may have sided with the Horde after believing herself abandoned by the Princess Alliance, but she had yet to personally make an appearance on the battlefield or actively harm any member of the Rebellion, to the best of Adora's knowledge, at least.

Besides, Adora reasoned, she might need help. Or maybe she's trying to come back to the Rebellion and needs help escaping from the Fright Zone!

Thus convinced, Adora confidently pushed the red button on the side of the messenger drone that she knew played the preprogrammed message.

"URGENT MESSAGE FOR ADORA OF BRIGHT MOON," spoke the electronic voice of the hovering drone. "CATRA INJURED. REQUEST AID OF SHE-RA. COME ALONE. NOT A TRAP. COORDINATES 32-446-39."

'Not a trap?' Adora thought to herself with a frown. Well, it definitely sounds like the kind of message Entrapta would write, that's for sure. But even if she's telling the truth and Catra is hurt…why would they need She-Ra? And how do I know I can trust any of them?

In the end, Adora realized, she couldn't. Entrapta and Catra were both allied with the Horde, that much was clear, and they wouldn't be defecting anytime soon. But they were also her friends; in Catra's case, her oldest friend, the one person she used to trust more than anyone else in the world, the one person on Etheria she still loved more than any other. And Adora knew if there was even a chance that Catra might suffer because of her own inaction, she would never forgive herself.

Adora paused only to grab the Sword of Protection and transform into She-Ra ("For the honor of Grayskull!") before she returned to the messenger drone with her answer.

"Lead the way."

They were in the Crystal Castle. Of course they were in the Crystal Castle.

Adora had suspected as much once she and the drone were about halfway through the Whispering Woods and she began to recognize some of the surrounding landmarks. The drone finally came to a stop in the familiar clearing, the one littered with the remains of the First Ones' civilizations, in the center of which stood the imposing crystal fortress. Adora took a moment to note the doorway leading into the castle was already open before heading inside and quickly finding herself enveloped in darkness.

Truth be told, Adora hadn't returned to the Crystal Castle since the Battle of Bright Moon, after Swift Wind had helped break her free of Light Hope's spell. Despite her connection to the place through her role as She-Ra, Adora found the castle made her uncomfortable. It brought back bad memories, memories of being told to let go of all she loved, memories of the one she loved most leaving her behind to die…

Adora shook her head to rid herself of these thoughts as she held up the Sword of Protection and commanded it to provide illumination; she was here for a reason, and she couldn't let her personal feelings about the place get in the way of her mission. The hallway around her came to life as she spoke, illuminating her way.

"Hello?" she called down the twisting corridors, kicking herself for not memorizing the layout of the fortress the last time she had come. "Catra? Entrapta? Anybody?"

"This way! Hurry!"

Adora turned as she heard the voice speak out from one of the corridors to the right, and then took off running, her sword at her side should the Crystal Castle suddenly decide it wanted to test her patience once again. Thankfully, the hallway was relatively straight, without any branching corridors, and within moments Adora found who she was looking for.

Or, rather, they found her.

Adora was only about halfway down the corridor before she ran right into Scorpia, who had been running towards her in the opposite direction. Rather than attack her, as Adora always expected Horde soldiers to do upon making contact with her, she was taken by surprise when Scorpia instead pulled her into a mighty bear hug.

"Adora! Oh, thank Hordak, you're here!" Scorpia cried out as she pulled Adora close and squeezed the life out of her. "Thank you so much for coming! We didn't know where else to turn!"

"Yeah, no problem," Adora managed to gasp out before Scorpia finally let her go. "What happened? And…what are you even doing here in the first place?"

"Entrapta's sensors picked up some First Ones' tech somewhere in here, so we came to find it," Scorpia began to explain as she turned and began to lead the way back down the hall to where Catra presumably awaited. "Entrapta got the door open, but she must have tripped the alarms when she did because we were attacked by these robotic spider monster things!"

"I'm familiar," Adora confirmed as she followed Scorpia down the corridor.

"Catra and I took care of them while Entrapta shut down the security system, but one of the spiders got Catra," Scorpia went on. "It bit her, or injected her with something. I didn't see. But now she's really badly hurt and Entrapta doesn't know what to do!"

"How is she?" Adora asked, almost afraid of the answer. "Catra, I mean. Is she…okay?"

"Ask her yourself," Scorpia said as they rounded a corner, indicating they had arrived at their destination. Adora looked down the hallway and saw Entrapta facing away from her as she appeared to be kneeling on the ground tending to –

Catra!

Catra laid on the cold metal ground, looking for all the world like she was on her deathbed. What looked like a bite wound marred Catra's left shoulder, from which blood and some kind of purple venom poured, but it was the color of her skin that Adora was most worried about; Catra's flesh, eyes, and hair had all taken on a deathly purple hue, as though someone had dropped her bodily into a vat of violet dye. She looked so bad that Adora gasped when she first saw her, and almost dropped her sword in shock.

"Catra!" she cried out as she ran the rest of the way down the hall, finally skidding to a stop and falling to her knees next to Entrapta. "Catra, are you okay?"

"Hey, Adora," Catra answered weakly, attempting (and failing) to flash her usual condescending smirk before wincing in pain yet again. "Uhh! Never…been better. How about you?"

"What were you thinking?" Adora asked, throwing caution to the wind by taking hold of Catra's hand as it too began to slowly turn a deathly purple in color. "You know this place is dangerous. Don't you remember what happened last time we came here?"

"Kinda hard to forget having your entire life thrown in your face," Catra replied, closing her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. "Guess the visions were right, though, huh? Turns out I'm as useless as you always thought I was. Lying here, dying, waiting for you to rescue me."

"I never thought that about you," Adora declared, tightening her grip on Catra's hand. Behind her, she could hear Scorpia pacing back and forth anxiously. "You're my friend, Catra, and I'll do whatever I can to help you."

Catra laughed lightly, despite herself. "You know, Adora, you're really bad at this whole 'war' thing. We're supposed to be enemies, remember?"

"Maybe," Adora admitted with a sad smile. "But I made a promise to someone a long time ago that nothing bad would ever happen so long as we stuck together. And I don't plan on breaking that promise ever again."

"Always the hero," Catra said, smiling again before another jolt of pain wracked her entire body. "Aaaaagghh! Actually, never mind…I could use some of that hero stuff right about now."

"I'll do what I can," Adora reassured her before turning to the purple-haired girl sitting next to her. "Entrapta, what's happening and how can I help?"

"It appears to be some kind of nanovirus," Entrapta explained without even turning to acknowledge Adora's presence. She was busy holding some kind of medical device over Catra, moving it to and fro every few seconds, as though reading her comrade's vitals. "It appears to be of First Ones' origin, not unlike the one I accidentally let loose in Dryl. Probably a secondary defense feature to incapacitate intruders like ourselves."

"I can see that, but what's happening to her?" Adora asked again, this time more forcefully.

Entrapta frowned. "It…appears to be draining her life force. Rather painfully."

"Hell, I could have told you that," Catra commented, closing her eyes and grunting as another shockwave of pain passed through her body. "Damn, that hurts!"

"So…what do we do?" Adora asked. "How do we cure it?"

"I…don't know," Entrapta admitted after a moment's hesitation. "That's why I sent for you. Whatever this virus is, it's beyond any known technology I have access to. I can't heal her. Only someone with a connection to the First Ones would have any hope of stopping it."

"Which means this is a job for She-Ra," Adora realized. "Alright. Let me see what we're dealing with first."

With that, Adora gripped the Sword of Protection in one hand and then placed her other on the bleeding wound on Catra's left shoulder, causing the latter to gasp lightly. For a moment, Adora created a bridge between the two, connecting the runestone in her sword to the virus infecting Catra, receiving information from one on how to eradicate the other.

Then it was over, the connection lost, and Adora gasped as she withdrew her hand from Catra's wound. She took a few moments to catch her breath as she recovered from the flow of information, leaving all three Horde officers to watch and wait with bated breath.

"I'm dead, aren't I?" Catra finally asked, wincing through the pain.

"No," Adora said at last, still regaining her composure. "You're not dead. I can heal you. The nanovirus, or whatever it is – Entrapta's right, it's part of the castle's defenses. That means She-Ra can heal you; I can heal you. But…it's going to hurt. A lot."

"Can't be any worse than what I'm feeling right now," Catra replied, still fighting simply to remain conscious.

Adora shook her head. "Not you, Catra. Me. It's going to hurt me."

"Why's that?" Scorpia asked, kneeling down with the rest of them.

"Like I said…only She-Ra can get rid of the virus," Adora tried to explain. "Not the sword, not the castle. The very essence of She-Ra. Me. In order to destroy the virus, I have to draw it out of Catra…and into myself. All of it. Bit by bit."

"But that means…that means you have to feel it, too?" Catra asked, frowning and still seeking further clarification. Her face was growing paler by the minute, and the purple coloring was spreading. "The virus? All the pain I'm feeling? You have to take it into yourself?"

Adora nodded. "It's the only way to eradicate it completely. Bit by bit."

"Oh," Catra said softly, wincing as she did so. "Then, no."

Adora blinked. "Wait, what?"

"No," Catra reiterated. "I won't let you do it. Answer is no."

"Catra – "

"I said no," Catra repeated, glaring at the eight-foot-tall warrior kneeling above her. She was sweating bullets now, all of her strength being used just to maintain consciousness. "It hurts like you wouldn't believe, Adora. And I…I won't let you. No one deserves this. Not even you."

"And not even you!" Adora insisted, already feeling tears stinging the edges of her eyes as the weight of the situation began to sink in. "You don't have anything to prove, Catra. Not to me. You know that. Deep down, despite everything, you know that. This isn't about you being better than me, or owing me, or whatever! I don't care about any of that! I'm trying to save your life here!"

"I don't want your help," Catra hissed through the pain. "You don't get it, Adora. It's too much for you. You wouldn't make it."

"I've felt worse pain," Adora said sternly, and she said it with such confidence that, were she not in the process of dying a painful and agonizing death, Catra would have believed her.

"You haven't," Catra insisted instead, revealing for the first time that there were tears in her eyes. "Not like this. I won't let you die for me."

SHUNK!

All three Horde officers, Catra included, almost jumped out of their skin as Adora suddenly thrust the Sword of Protection into the floor right next to Catra with all of her legendary strength, tearing into the metal and lodging the blade deep within. Anger flashed in the eyes of the warrior She-Ra as she gripped the hilt of the blade, shoving it deeper and deeper still, releasing her rage the only safe way she knew how.

"Enough!" she declared angrily to everyone present, though her eyes never shifted away from Catra's. "No more talking. No more arguing. You asked for She-Ra…you got She-Ra. I'm healing you whether you like it or not."

"We're supposed to be enemies," Catra reminded her once again, her angry frown finally fading away into the look of concern it was always meant to be. No longer were the tears in her eyes caused by pain; now they were caused by fear. "You're not supposed to help me. We're at war, Adora."

"To hell with the war!" Adora shouted, finally feeling the tears begin to fall. "You're not my enemy, Catra, you're my friend! You've always been my friend, and you always will be my friend. Now shut up and let me save your life."

And that's just what Catra did.

Silence overtook the small group as Adora let go of her sword, still lodged deep into the floor as it was, and instead closed her eyes and focused on her own two hands. As Catra, Scorpia, and Entrapta watched, Adora's hands began to gleam with a gentle golden radiance, one purer and warmer than sunlight, like the light of the heavens themselves. Slowly, carefully, Adora opened her eyes to look down at her hands, and smiled sadly with the realization that she was finally beginning to get a grip of her abilities as She-Ra.

Shame it couldn't have been under better circumstances, she thought to herself as she prepared to save Catra's life with her bare hands.

"No matter what happens, don't separate us," Adora told Scorpia and Entrapta without actually looking at them. "No matter how what you see, no matter much it looks like it hurts, no matter how hard I might scream or cry, do not separate us. Understand?"

"Yes," said Entrapta.

Behind her, Scorpia nodded as well.

Steeling herself for what laid ahead, Adora turned to look at Catra and placed her hands just over the wound in her shoulder in preparation. She could feel the virus through the light in her hands, oddly enough, a foreign body within Catra's own. The virus was a storm of metal filaments spreading throughout Catra's form; her hands – She-Ra's hands – were the magnets through which they would be removed.

"Ready?" Adora asked, looking down at Catra one last time before she began.

"You don't have to do this, Adora," Catra said softly, still tearing up slightly, more afraid for the life of her friend than for her own.

But Adora merely smiled.

"I do," she said gently. "For you, I do."

With that, Adora closed the gap between her hands and the wound in Catra's shoulder, closing her supernaturally large hands over the injury and covering it completely. For a moment, there was nothing more than a slight tingling sensation, as though the light in her hands was somehow interacting with the virus in Catra's veins.

Then came the pain.

Within the span of a single second, Adora went from feeling nothing at all to feeling as though every pain receptor and nerve ending in her entire body had been set aflame. She could quite literally feel the nanovirus being ripped out of Catra's body and pulled into her own, like liquid fire being pumped directly into her veins.

"NNNNNGGHH!"

It took all Adora had not to scream bloody murder, and instead focus on keeping her mouth shut so that her cries of pain would be muffled at best, if not silenced entirely. Nonetheless, the longer the process went on, the more pain she felt, and she was certain at least a few screams escaped her lips despite her best efforts. The hardest part was making sure she was still breathing, letting old air out and new air in, lest she fall unconscious and fail.

Beneath her, Catra's eyes were squeezed closed and she was gasping for air. While not nearly as painful as the agony of the virus itself, feeling it being torn out of her body was still remarkably uncomfortable, and the force of the procedure knocked the wind right out of her. Fear of losing consciousness gripped her psyche, and suddenly she was reaching up for support, any kind of support, just something to tell her it was okay, she was going to be alright, she wasn't alone…

And she found Adora.

Catra's heart fluttered as she felt her hand wrap around Adora's wrist, gripping it as tightly as a drowning person would a life preserver. Suddenly, she didn't feel so alone. It wasn't just that she was holding the wrist of the person healing her, either, but the fact that it was Adora, she realized; Adora's presence, her being there for her, was what truly kept her going. She was just about to catch her breath and let Adora go about her business when she heard the scream.

"AAAAAHHH!"

Louder and more painful than any of the short cries or grunts Adora had unwittingly let loose earlier, this scream was bad enough that it caused Catra to open her eyes and look up at her savior for the first time since the arcane ritual began.

She regretted it immediately.

Whether the virus was being destroyed or not, Catra could not say, but it was clear that its effects were beginning to take a toll on Adora. The warrior's face was red with effort, she was sweating bullets, and tears flowed down her cheeks like waterfalls off a mountain. Her eyes, which had previously been a clear blue in color, were bloodshot and gleaming with a fiery light that Catra knew represented the battle being waged within her between the power of She-Ra and the might of the nanovirus.

"Adora…stop…" Catra gasped, gripping Adora's wrist tighter still, enough to dig her claws into the warrior's skin.

"Can't," Adora hissed back, squeezing her eyes closed as a new burst of pain wracked her form. "Not – rrrrgh – done yet!"

She screamed again after that, a cry of pain and agony so powerful that Catra's heart broke in two upon hearing it. Sobs followed as Adora felt herself giving in to the pain Catra had been suffering from for so long, pulling it all into herself as quickly as possible in hopes of saving her friend from a cruel and untimely demise.

"Please," Catra tried again, digging her claws in deeper still, as though doing so would convince Adora to let go. "Adora…you'll die…"

"Better me…than you," Adora answered simply, her face streaked with tears and strain.

"You can't!" Catra insisted as she finally began to struggle against Adora's grip. "Your friends need you, Adora. The Rebellion needs you. Etheria needs you!"

But Adora just smiled sadly as she looked back down into Catra's eyes. "And I…need you."

Then it happened.

There was a sharp shock as Catra felt the last of the nanovirus flee her body and make the jump into Adora's, quite literally sucked out through her wound and right into She-Ra's glowing hands. Catra gasped for air as though she had been drowning moments earlier, her eyes widening in surprise as she felt the pain suddenly disappear. Exhaustion quickly set in, but Catra welcomed it, overjoyed to feel anything that wasn't agonizing pain.

Catra's relief was short-lived, however, as she looked up to find Adora now suffering the effects of the virus she had pulled out of her friend. Wincing in pain all the while, Adora released Catra's wound and immediately pulled back, as though afraid any further contact would somehow transfer the virus back into Catra's system. Her hands were shaking wildly, their once brilliant light dimming and quickly being replaced by the sickly purple gleam of the nanovirus. For a moment, Catra was afraid Adora had underestimated the virus, that she couldn't cure it at all, that all she had managed to accomplish was to draw the deadly disease into herself rather than let it kill Catra.

Then, as Catra watched, Adora clenched one of her shaking hands into a steady fist…and punched it right into the other with all the force she could muster. A brilliant flash of light burst forth the moment her hands met, so bright that Catra, Scorpia, and Entrapta all had to look away lest they be blinded. Catra looked back just in time to see the last of the light fade away.

She-Ra was gone. In her place was Adora, lying on the floor, unconscious or worse.

"Adora!"

Catra was upon her immediately, her own exhaustion forgotten as fear consumed her every waking thought and instinct. Adora wasn't turning purple, which was definitely a good sign, but neither was she waking up.

"Is she…alive?" Scorpia asked, kneeling down next to Catra.

"I don't know!" Catra replied, quickly growing desperate as she leaned over her friend. "Adora? Adora?!"

No response.

"Adora, please, you can't be dead!" Catra pleaded as her hands rapidly began grabbing at random parts of Adora, as though looking for a pulse or any other sign of life, none of which was detectable considering the rate at which her own hands were shaking. "Please wake up, Adora. Please, please wake up!"

Still no response.

She's dead, Catra thought with horror. She saved my life, and now she's dead. Adora is dead and it's all my fault!

"No, no, no, no, no…" Catra repeated over and over again, pulling Adora closer to her as Scorpia and Entrapta watched from nearby, neither brave enough to interfere. "Talk to me, Adora, please, say something, say anything, just be alive, please!"

Again, no response. Adora was deathly still.

"No, you can't go!" Catra shouted, hugging Adora's seemingly lifeless body to her own as tears began to stream down her face en masse. "I can't lose you like this, Adora. You can't leave me alone. You can't! You're…you're not allowed, Adora! So just…just wake up, okay? Just wake up. Just wake up. Just wake up…"

Anything Catra meant to say after that went unspoken, as she quickly broke down into a series of unintelligible sobs. Scorpia and Entrapta could do nothing but sit back and avert their eyes as Catra howled in pain, clutching Adora close and finally letting out all of the anger and sorrow she had bottled up inside herself for so long. The war, their rivalry, their fractured friendship…it all seemed so petty and insignificant now, and Catra cursed herself for not realizing it sooner.

"I'm sorry," Catra said through her tears and sobs, practically cradling Adora in her arms. "I'm so sorry. I take it all back. Everything I ever said, every time I ever hurt you. I didn't mean any of it. Just come back to me. Please. Please, Adora. Please don't go…"

For several more moments, there was silence apart from Catra's broken cries. Nobody spoke; nobody moved. Then, suddenly:

"Mm, where am I goin'?"

Catra's eyes shot wide open upon hearing Adora's voice, weak as it was, and it was only with a surprising amount of foresight that she managed to pull back and look at her friend without outright dropping her back onto the floor.

"Adora?" Catra asked softly, her eyes still wide and full of tears as she looked at Adora. The blonde girl was groaning lightly and still in the process of opening her eyes, but she was awake and alive, and that was all that mattered to Catra.

"Hey," Adora responded weakly, offering the smallest of smiles. "Did it work?"

Catra didn't even take the time to respond before she brought her lips crashing down upon Adora's, kissing her with everything she had left in her and without any regrets whatsoever. She was pleasantly surprised when she felt Adora return the kiss, albeit rather weakly. Despite her exhaustion, despite her fear, despite everything she was feeling, Catra was convinced she could have spent the rest of her life kissing Adora in that abandoned corridor…had they not been rudely reminded that they were not alone.

"Awwww!" Scorpia cooed, unintentionally ruining the moment. "That is so cute!"

"I'm confused," Entrapta added, an eyebrow raised in confusion. "I was under the impression you were to administer CPR prior to the subject regaining consciousness. Was I misinformed?"

Under any other circumstance, Catra might have groaned loudly or else admonished her friends and comrades for their social ineptitude. As it was, however, catching her breath after kissing the girl who had just saved her life, Catra was willing to be a little more cordial.

"Guys…can you give Adora and I a moment?" she asked, fighting back the very obvious blush that was quickly spreading across her face and doing her best to ignore Adora's own. "Just wait outside for us. We'll be out in a bit."

"No rush!" Scorpia said as she grabbed Entrapta by the hand and began leading her away despite her feeble protests.

"But the relic – "

A moment later, the two were gone, and Catra and Adora were finally alone for the first time all evening. Catra's heart was still racing, both from the kiss and the realization that Adora was going to survive, but even that didn't stop her from frowning slightly when she turned back around to find a goofy smile plastered across Adora's face.

"What?" she asked, suddenly concerned something was wrong.

"You kissed me," Adora responded softly, her voice somewhat hoarse from the strain of saving Catra's life.

Catra blushed. "I…I did not!"

"You totally did."

"Okay, I might have kissed you a little," Catra grumbled, averting her eyes and fighting the heat in her cheeks. "Doesn't mean you have to make a thing of it."

"You liiiiike me," Adora said, dragging out the second word and still smiling her goofy smile.

"Annnnnd you're making a thing of it," Catra said with a roll of her eyes. "Are you okay? You're acting funny. Did that virus give you brain damage?"

"I'm just really happy you're okay," Adora answered her, her goofy smile growing more gentle and genuine as she spoke. "You…are okay, right?"

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"I'm okay. Tired. Sore. But I'm alive. And so are you. That's what's important."

Then they were embracing again, holding one another close and squeezing just tightly enough to demonstrate how badly they needed the other. Weak as she was, Adora returned Catra's embrace as best she could, wrapping her arms around Catra's torso and pulling her close, even going so far as to nuzzle into the girl's neck. Adora could have spent the rest of the evening there in Catra's arms had she not noticed her friend's gentle sobs.

"Catra? What's wrong?" she asked as she finally pulled away from the embrace enough to see the tears in Catra's eyes and streaming down her cheeks. "Is it the virus?"

"It's not the virus," Catra answered after taking a moment to compose herself, smiling sadly as she looked upon Adora. "It's you. I thought I lost you, Adora. After everything we've been through, all the times I've hurt you…and you still risked your life to save me."

"And I'd do it again if I had to," Adora told her weakly, her strength still returning slowly. "It doesn't matter how much it hurts. For you…I would do it again."

"But why?" Catra asked, genuinely confused. "You keep saying that. Before you saved me, you said you've felt worse pain. But how? What could have could possibly hurt more than the virus?"

"Losing you," Adora answered after a moment's hesitation. "That's why I did it. Because I knew that no matter how much the virus hurt…the thought of losing you hurt so much worse."

And, despite the residual pain and exhaustion she still felt, despite the tears streaming down her face, despite everything, Catra nonetheless found herself smiling once again.

"Always the hero," she commented. "My hero, I guess."

Adora smiled back. "Kiss me again?"

"Only if you don't make a thing of it."

"No promises."

A/N: I wrote and rewrote this story like three different times before I came up with an ending I liked. Hopefully you guys liked it, too. Let me know in the comments!