Well here we go again with another She-Ra story!

But unlike the last two, this one will be a multi-chaptered story. So hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own She-Ra and never will

Twice Bitten

Change.

It was perhaps the one thing that irked Catra more than anything.

Growing up in the Horde had presented Catra with an unchanging and predictable schedule that she had come to expect.

Wake up, pass morning inspection, eat breakfast, perform several training exercises, eat lunch, more combat training, eat dinner, shower and sleep.

Rinse and repeat.

But although this particular routine was far from exciting, there was one constant thing that Catra always looked forward to.

Adora.

Whenever she woke up at the foot of the bed, Adora's face was always there to greet her. Whenever she was expected to eat her tasteless gruel, Adora would always be there to sit with her. And when combat practice came, you could be sure that Catra would pick Adora as her sparring partner. Sure they played pranks on each other and made fun of each other's personalities, but they always managed to share a good laugh about it later and carry on like nothing happened.

That was until two months ago, when Adora first found the mystical sword in the woods and became the legendary She-Ra.

From then on, everything in Catra's world changed for the worst. Her best friend betrayed their cause, abandoned her for the Princess Alliance, failed to protect her from Shadow Weaver's wrath and had defeated her in battle time and time again.

All the while, Catra found herself waking up alone, eating alone and simply being more alone. This, along with Shadow Weaver's increasing wrath against her, made the poor girl pray that this whole thing was just one bad dream and that she would wake up by Adora's side yet again.

But as the weeks passed, Catra slowly came to a realization that hardened her heart and destroyed her soul.

Adora was never coming back.

These changes and more had greatly troubled the young feline and had caused her more than one sleepless night.

But she couldn't deny that there were some changes that had worked in her favor.

With Adora gone, Catra had been able to achieve the rank of Force Captain, rope Entrapta into the Horde's army (allowing for their tech to become far more advanced); remove Shadow Weaver from power, as well as her power from the Black Garnett, and achieved the title of second in command from Lord Hordak himself.

The role of second in command had undeniably granted her more than her fair share of perks. These included her own private quarters, more generous and better tasting foods, an endless supply of alcohol and the ability to participate in Hordak's various meetings where she could cast her opinion on how they could overthrow the Princess Alliance.

But perhaps the one thing she liked most about the new position was the respect (or was it fear?) she garnered from her once former comrades.

Growing up, Catra had always been the subject of ridicule from others. When she was a child, the other children would pull her tail, rub her fur the wrong way or even put gum in her fur when she was asleep. Thankfully these incidents stopped once she and everyone else reached adulthood. Having Adora threaten everyone with a broken jaw if they touched Catra again hadn't hurt either.

But even after reaching maturity, Catra still felt like an outcast among her peers. Whenever she passed by them in the halls, or even in the locker room, she could feel their judgmental eyes stab her in the back. Her enhanced hearing made her overhear their hushed whispers.

"God what a freak!"

"You think she'll return to her home planet soon?"

"Did you hear that she eats mice?"

But after achieving the title of Second in Command, Catra felt the air around her change. All of a sudden, everyone she passed by immediately threw up their hands in salute and pressed themselves against the wall. Their faces were always forcefully smiling and although she couldn't prove it conclusively, Catra never heard a single person talk behind her back when she was around.

"Now this is the kind of change I could get used to," Catra thought to herself as she walked down the hallway.

Although being Second in Command involved having way more responsibilities than a Force Captain, Catra found that her schedule was far more relaxed than before. No longer did she have to wake up at the crack of dawn or go through several mandatory training exercises. Her new schedule allowed her more freedom to perform tasks that she deemed necessary.

And checking to see if any of Entrapta's toys could win the war sooner rather than later seemed to be a worthy venture.

As the doors slid open, Catra caught the genius in question welding two pieces of indistinguishable tech with her human hands. Her hair hands meanwhile were typing at rapid speed on a computer nearby.

Scorpia meanwhile was standing on the other side of the room, scribbling furiously in her notepad.

"Probably another stick figure family," Catra rolled her eyes before she cleared her throat.

This simple action caused the two to immediately stop what they were doing and run towards Catra.

"Good morning Second in Command Catra!" Scorpia and Entrapta said in unison as they saluted.

Catra smiled slightly. She personally didn't give a damn if they saluted her or not but she loved having the extra power.

"So what's the 411 on this new weapon you're working on?" Catra asked Entrapta as she walked past Scorpia.

"Oh I've made great strides so far!" Entrapta cried as she raced over to her workstation. "In fact you're just in time to witness my baby's first trial run."

Entrapta pulled out a blueberry muffin (from where Catra decided she didn't need to know) and placed it through a small hole. The purple haired genius closed the lid and pushed a small button.

Catra shielded her eyes as a bright flash filled the room. When the light dimmed, Catra lowered her arms to find Entrapta taking out the muffin, which by now was 1/3 of its original size, before throwing it into her mouth. Catra stared dumbfounded as Entrapta pulled out a recorder.

"Fright Zone Log day 137, Operation Tiny Food has been a complete success! I think with time I can…"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" Catra yelled.

Entrapta reacted to Catra's outburst like a fly buzzed past her face. "The angry cat lady seems aggravated by something, although I'm not sure by what."

"You were supposed to use your knowledge of First One's Tech to build us another super weapon! One that can allow us to overthrow the rebellion like today!"

"Well we were," Scorpia added. "But then Entrapta started going on about tiny food and how that's the only thing she eats and I thought 'Hey I'm trying to watch my weight so maybe if I just eat tiny food I could eat less calories. Then I asked her if she could make a device and…"

"I get it!" Catra shouted, desperately trying to avoid using her claws on the two Princesses.

Catra pinched the bridge of her nose and controlled her breathing as she paced back and forth.

"Of all the people I got working for me I had to get the absent minded professor and a happy go lucky scorpion."

Catra finally slowed her pace and glanced back at the two females who by now were slightly cowering back in fear.

"Look," Catra quietly spoke, her anger bubbling just below the surface. "I know you love to play with your little toys Entrapta but you work for me now. I'm the boss and what I say goes. And right now I'm telling you to stop this tiny food bullshit and BUILD SOMETHING THAT WILL ALLOW US TO CONQUER ETHERIA!"

While Scorpia cowered further in terror, Entrapta blinked her eyes rapidly before she turned to her recorder again.

"The loud furry raises some very good points. I feel that following her directions will prevent her from developing an aneurysm." Entrapta turned back to Catra. "Consider it done! I promise you something that will blow your mind by the end of the day."

"And I promise that you won't be disappointed!" Scorpia added as she pulled Catra into another bear hug.

Catra pulled herself out of Scorpia's grasp and started walking towards the door. Entrapta suddenly leapt out in front of her, holding a regular sized cupcake.

"Are you sure though you don't want a mini cupcake though? I can arrange the frosting to look like a smiley face!"

Catra ripped the cupcake out of Entrapta's hands and threw it across the room. It flew towards a table with various items scattered about. The speed of the cupcake had been so fast that it caused several trinkets to be knocked off.

Catra was about to leave when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It appeared to be a data crystal, similar to the one she had retrieved from the temple, only this one was green in color and had several white markings adorning its surface.

"Um…what is this?" Catra asked.

Entrapta's face glowed like a child on Christmas morning. "That happens to be First Ones Artifact No.58! The residents of Dryl found it in the mines several months ago. I analyzed it shortly afterwards and the amount of First Ones code on it was unbelievable!"

"First Ones code huh?" Catra replied as her interest peaked.

"Uh-huh! At the time I was analyzing it I was on the brink of translating a whole plethora of code that could've explained so many secrets of the First Ones!"

"Ooh secrets?!" Scorpia squealed. "I love secrets! What kinds were on there?"

"It could have been anything from where they came from, how their technology works or even just how far their influence was felt across the universe! Of course I would've known for sure until…"

"Until…" Catra waved her hand impatiently.

"Until my data crystal inexplicably infected all of my robots with some kind of virus. It turned them against me and my staff. They wouldn't stop until we were all alienated. Luckily, Adora happened to be there along with Glimmer and Bow. And even though Adora was out of commission, we managed to overpower them and Bow destroyed the crystal with his Sonic Arrow. I then agreed to be part of the Rebellion and afterwards…"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Back up! What was that about Adora?" Catra asked trying to stop the genius from going off on a tangent.

Entrapta retraced her mental steps. "Well She-Ra, I mean Adora, tried to save me from one of my robots. But when she stabbed one of the crystals; the virus spread into her sword and…infected her with whatever was within the crystal. When she reverted back to her…less tall self…it significantly reduced her mental capacity and made the simple action of standing difficult."

Catra listened to the whole explanation with a smile that grew wider and wider.

"So you're saying that Adora was…incompatible?"

Entrapta laughed. "In her state I think my robot with no arms and legs was more useful than she was."

Catra was about to inquire further about Adora's condition when Scorpia spoke up.

"Wait if the crystal was destroyed, how is it still in one piece?"

"Oh well," Entrapta rubbed the back of her neck. "The crystal's fragments were all still in one place so I just fused them together again."

Catra and Scorpia's expressions were blanker than an empty page.

"I just thought that whatever virus was in the crystal was neutralized after it was destroyed the first time," Entrapta replied before smiling ear to ear. "Plus this crystal holds so much potential data that we may never see again! The secrets that I could decipher from this crystal could help us determine everything about the First One's!"

"Wow that sounds great!" Scorpia cheered before she grew puzzled. "But if this all happened at Dryl, what is the crystal doing here?"

Entrapta laughed. "Oh I had one of my drone bots fly over to my lab and grab some of my equipment. I intended to analyze it sooner but then Catra gave me that other data crystal and she wanted to hack the planet and…"

By now the conversation became all but white noise to Catra as she continued to entertain a particular thought.

"If what she says about this crystal junk is true, I could make it so that Adora would be useless to fight! I could just infect Adora with the crystal and she would literally walk back to the Horde base with me hand in hand. No Adora, no She Ra. No She Ra, no Rebellion. No rebellion…victory"

Catra eventually came back to her senses and found Scorpia and Entrapta staring at her in confusion.

"Catra are you alright?" Scorpia asked. "You seem so…distant."

Catra smirked and stepped over to the cluttered table. "Oh I just thought of a way that we could get Adora and that damned sword right in the palm of our hands."

Scorpia grasped her claws together. "Really?! Wow I wish I thought of it! Uh…what did you think of anyway?"

"Just something that will make sure that little Miss Perfect never bothers us again," Catra replied as she picked up the green data crystal. "And it will be all thanks to this little rock."

Entrapta slowly nodded before the realization hit her. "I never did understand how the virus made She-Ra sick when it generally affects machinery! This will be the perfect opportunity to find out once I've dissected her!"

Catra snapped her head back in shock, walked over to Entrapta and pointed a claw directly in her face.

"Adora is a person, not a frog. You do not lay a finger on her understood?"

Entrapta nodded slowly in disappointment, remembering how Glimmer has very much against the idea as well.

"I can still take apart the Sword and look at that right?!" Entrapta asked excitedly.

Catra expression lightened. "It would be my honor."

Entrapta laughed crazily as she began typing furiously into her computer.

"Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! This is the most exciting day of my life! I can crack the code and study a virus all in the same…"

Entrapta paused as she suddenly thought about something that she just couldn't shake off.

"Uhh…how exactly are you going to get Adora infected again?"

Catra smirked as she began combing Entrapta's hair with her claws.

"You just leave that to me."

Yes I know there's not much happening so far but the next chapter will definitely have more action in it!

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter though and please feel free to leave me a review, I always love reading every single one of them!

Until then: Peace!