AWOL

Lets Go

For the Sake of a Promise

~ Forenote ~

Okay, So I know it's been done... But what if Catra went with her?

Fact is, I don't like ANY of these 'What If's' that are out there at the moment and I know I can do one better!

Previously

After returning from their joyride, Adora attempted to sneak out of the barracks. Unaware that Catra had followed her out.

It was one thing for Adora to sneak off in the middle of the night… It was another thing entirely for her to try doing so without at least telling Catra not to follow.

It wasn't like her to leave Catra behind in the first place...Not that it hadn't happened before. Like when she was sick, and threw up all her rations. Or like when she messed something up and wanted to go fix it before it was noticed...Or when Catra was the one to mess it up… Okay, that was more often the case…

But, the blonde had always told her she was leaving, for whatever reason.

Catra could out sneak her anyday. She proved it once they reached the cross corridor between the Cadet quarters and the rest of the base. Adora was turning toward where the skiffs were kept.

"Hey, where are you going?" Catra whispered from just behind the newly promoted force captain. Watching her jump felt so good after the mouse taunt yesterday.

"Back to the woods, there is something I need to figure out." Adora replied with a glare.

Before she could begin her arguments against this, Adora pulled them both out of sight of the passing bot, her hand covering Catra's mouth preventing her from speaking.

But the moment the coast was clear Catra shoved her away and let into her. Grabbing her head to look closer into the girl's eyes for any sight of brain damage… Not that Catra would be able to tell… But she had to try. Right?

Adora insisted that she had to take another look. And realizing she wasn't going to let this go, Catra did a 180° and agreed to go. Only to be jerked back when Adora grabbed her shoulder.

"No Catra, I don't want you getting in trouble on my behalf." Adora turned and began to walk away, "Just cover—"

"Hey, how much trouble do you think I'd get in if Shadow-hag found out I let you go alone, even though you could be brain damaged?" It was Catra's turn to yank Adora back. "Besides, Nothing really bad can happen to us if we stick together, remember?"

Reminding her of their promise was not one of the things Catra would normally use to win an argument, in fact this might have been the first time she was the one to use it. Normally it was Adora who had to convince her not to run off alone.

But this wasn't stealing extra rations.

This was leaving the Fright Zone! And there was no way Catra would let her only friend go alone!

It worked.

"Okay Catra, you win… just be quiet and let's try not to crash the skiff this time!"

"Still up for debate on who actually did that…"

They retraced their route back to the woods alot faster than when they were just out for a ride. And this time they didn't fight over the controls once they actually entered the woods.

Catra spotted the tree first and when Adora said to land, she said it would be faster to use the skiff to search. After a round of 'I'm right's they agreed that Adora could look on the ground, tracing the steps she thought she took last time, while Catra followed on the skiff to save the return time.

And again, Catra was the first to spot what they were looking for. It was some kind of bright light shining from between the trees. Well I guess maybe she wasn't brain damaged, Catra thought. Out loud she shouted down to Adora, "Hey, I think I see something up ahead of you, I'm going to do a pass over just to be sure it's safe."

Before Adora had a chance to argue, Catra was gunning it for the light. She almost had a clear view of it when the controls of the skiff stopped responding and the throttle opened up.

The skiff launched itself skyward as it's forward momentum upended it. Catra had no choice but to bail out.

She attempted to catch herself on one of the massive tree branches but only managed to get one of her claws ripped off after first slamming her gut into a smaller branch she hadn't seen. Bouncing off the larger one she had been aiming for and hooking on for the brief second it took for the claw to snap.

Her landing on the ground wasn't as bad and she managed to roll the momentum off, before curling her body around her wounded left hand. Luckily, only the external shell of splintered claw had ripped off. It would feel like a broken tooth for a while, but as long as the phalanx hadn't been torn out, the claw could regrow.

Unlike Adora's nails that were unattached… and painfully detachable, her claws grew directly out of the bone. Something she had only learned because their foster-hag hated her.

Distantly she heard the explosion of the skiff finally colliding with something in its path. The thunder of the blast echoed just long enough for Adora to finally catch up.

"Catra! Please say you're okay!" Adora called out as she chased the skiff's path towards the fallen girl.

As the blonde dropped over a large root and into the blinding light being emitted from whatever that thing was, Catra tried to uncurl only for her ribs to protest just loud enough that she could feel them hurting over the pain in her hand.

They didn't feel broken…

Catra pressed her good hand into her side as she held her wounded one to her chest. "Whatever that thing is, it just overloaded the skiff's control board!" Catra accused.

She expected Adora to argue, but the girl nodded as if she already knew. "I saw the engine flare. It looked like it ignited all the fuel in the tank at once!" The blonde finally reached her and dropped to her knees beside the curled form of the feline. "You're lucky the throttle opened when it did or it might have just exploded!"

Adora wasn't trained for field medic duties, but all of the cadets had the basic survival training. Going over Catra's sides with a gentle and unsure hand, Adora pressed slightly on each rib. Then took Catra's hand in her own. "Your ribs took a beating but they aren't broken. This looks a lot worse. Your finger is broken, and not just the claw tip."

Catra groaned, "And, we don't have anything for the pain."

The medical pack and emergency supplies were still on the skiff. Not to mention they had lost their transportation home.

0o0o0

"Bow! Are you absolutely sure we're not lost?" Glimmer asked again.

Bow had the trackerpad in his hands and was fiddling with it as carefully as he could, trying to get it's display to clear. "Don't worry, this thing is just acting up. It looks like it's getting overloaded by the Tech's signal! We must be getting close!" He decided, as he turned and walked in the other direction. He had zigzagged back and forth way too much to convince Glimmer that they weren't actually lost.

With a suppressed groan, Glimmer looked around them, hoping to figure out where they were, when she caught sight of light coming from off in the trees. "Au~ah, I think it's that way." She pointed towards the light.

As Bow looked towards it too, there was a large flare of light, and a loud thrum of a Horde machine!

A sharp yelp from near the light followed by a small crash, like someone falling out of a tree, sounded off and then they saw the skiff rocketing into the sky above them, then shutting down and careening into one of the larger trees way behind them.

Both of them hid within the brush as they looked where the exploding vehicle had crashed. They whispered together, deciding whether or not to investigate, when they heard a girl calling out.

Turning back to where the light was still coming from, Glimmer realized that the Horde was here to steal the tech too! "Come on! We can't let them get away with this!

Bow had to scramble to keep up, as Glimmer teleported from behind one bush to behind another. She wasn't slow, but at least she was trying to stay hidden until they could spot the enemy.

0o0o0

Having looked at Catra's wounds Adora finally looked towards the source of the light.

The sword.

"I knew it! See Catra, I knew it wasn't brain damage!" Adora bragged, pointing at the glowing weapon and rushed over to get a closer look. Just before reaching it she slowed. Last time she had touched it, there was a blinding light and she woke up where she had landed… What would it do if she touched it this time?

Gesturing Catra over, Adora took a breath and reached for the sword's handle.

There was a bright sparkling poof and a little girl was standing in front of her, the girl grabbed the sword and poofed away in another flash of sparkling light.

Suddenly she was several meters away. Adora lunged for her, "Bow! Catch!" The girl shouted and threw the sword towards a boy who was busy arming a... Bow. With an arrow…

Turning for the sword, Adora raced towards Bow. He caught the sword and Catra beat Adora to him.

The sparkling girl appeared on Adora's back riding her and pulling her hair. Meanwhile Catra had tackled the boy to the ground and was trying to yank the sword from his grip. She had one foot on his chest and was pulling with both her arms, the boy twisted his grip and his hand wrapped around one of the feline's, the one with the broken finger. She howled and dropped the sword, then slashed her good hand at him, leaving a bright red set of rips in his shirt. At the howl both Adora and the girl looked at their friends and then the girl poofed away, just as Adora launched herself towards Catra's fight. More sparkles appeared between the two and a flash of blinding light sent Catra stumbling back. Her arms covering her face.

The boy turned and ran.

Adora snared him with her bola, and tackled the girl. Catra, finally able to see again, pounced on the boy before he could untangle himself. Then snatched the sword, only for the sparkling teleporter to pop from Adora's grip right in front of Catra with a ball of bright sparkling light in her hands. She let out a scream of attack and shoved the ball in Catra's face, the flare of light it released on contact stunned the feline as the girl slammed into her, knocking her over and forcing her to drop the sword.

Catra yelped, and curled holding her side. Adora raced to her and kicked what could only be a princess away from her friend. The kick sent the girl to the ground. "Glimmer!" The boy shouted as he finally untangled himself and rushed towards them. Adora decided it was time to retreat "Catra, let's get out of here!" She reached to take hold of the sword as she prepared for a headlong sprint from the fight, but the moment her fingers touched the sword, there was another blinding light.

0o0o0

When the light disappeared Adora was on the ground, as if she had fainted. She planted herself face first into the dirt. Catra winced at the sight. Uncurling she sprung over Adora's body and slashed at the boy as he approached. Her hackles were raised as far as they went and she hissed menacingly. "Adora, this is no time to take a nap! Come on! We gotta go!" She pleaded as she shook Adora with her bad hand. Her good one was still raised in front of her to ward off the attackers.

The girl slowly got back up, holding her chest where Adora had kicked her. Glaring at the two of them the princess began to sparkle again. "Hand over the sword, horde spy!"

"Hell no! This thing crashed our skiff! I'm not gonna let a princess find out what it'll do to a person!" Catra snapped back, her breath was coming shorter and her arm was beginning to shake.

"So you don't deny that you're from the horde!" The boy accused. Immediately followed by the girl demanding a series of answers. "How did you get into the Whispering Woods? What are you after, why are you trying to steal our Sword? Who are you working for?!"

"Uh, Glimmer, I think we answered that last one already." The boy, Catra thought he'd been called Bow, replied to the princess.

"We just flew in. It's not like you guys have a border garrison stationed out here. We snuck off for a joyride, and that thing overloaded the control board on our skiff. It's not yours, we saw it first! And if we were supposed to be here, we would have come with an army!"

Catra hoped that getting them talking would buy time for Adora to wake up.

"Ha! The Whispering Woods is under the protection of the rebellion! You were lucky to make it as far as you did! And anything in the Whispering Woods, belongs to us! Now hand it over!"

This was bad. This was really really bad! Shadoweaver was going to be furious already because of the skiff. But getting captured? Getting Adora captured?! The Shadow-hag was going to kill her!

"Glimmer, do you really think the sword is the most important thing right now?" Bow asked. "I mean, we cornered two horde soldiers! Bu~t what are we supposed to do with them?! It's not like we can drag them all the way back home, and besides, what will your mom say when she sees how beat up we look?!" He emphasized this by waving a hand over the bleeding claw marks on his chest.

Glimmer put her hand on his chest, just below the slashes, pushing them back a few steps and whispered back to him. Catra could hear the whole conversation… and was a little ashamed. This little girl had never actually fought before. And they were just supposed to be a prize to give her mother? Catra tried to picture a Shadoweaver princess. Threatening all the little princesses to keep them in line… she couldn't do it.

Worse, her adrenaline was wearing off and the pain in her side was growing. She could ignore the finger, it wasn't life threatening, but if one of her ribs had finally broken…

They looked at her, and Bow pulled an arrow out of his shoulder pack thing. Glimmer popped away and back handing him his bow, and he took aim. "Sorry, but we did give you the chance to surrender on your own!"

With a snarl she readied to snatch the arrow before it would strike. But instead of coming within her range so she could deal with it, the arrow turned into a net wrapping her in threads that stuck to her like they were covered in glue! No matter how she struggled she couldn't get loose. It wasn't long before they had Adora's unconscious form tied as well.

The boy picked her and the sword up and the Princess glared at Catra. "Are you going to walk? Or do I have to drag you?"

Catra just went limp in answer.

~ Note ~

~ This story has been done before. I know. But I'm certain I can do it better.

~ I know I ended it before the Episode would have, but that felt like a good spot.

~ They left the Fright Zone, the sword thingy messed up their skiff, now they're stranded, captured by a princess, and to top it all off, Adora's out cold! Worse, Catra has no idea why she's out cold. How will they get out of this?

~ Find out next time!

~ Please show your support & review. Help motivate me to keep my momentum going!

~ You can find me on FB /Jordan. Tesla. 1