piper90 | 🟆001🟆 VIDEO

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🟆001🟆 VIDEO

[Well, someone's seen better days. The harsh fluorescent lighting of medical already fails to do anyone any favors, but for someone in Tenten's condition, the negatives are probably a little more accented. The right side of her face is covered in fading yellow and green bruises and almost-healed cuts. The left is simply bandaged over, like a mask. Beeping sounds in the background confirm what the awful looking paper gown and the pathetic pillow under her head hint: she's still undergoing treatment.

She reaches up with a hand and adjusts the screen she's viewing on. Her comm was destroyed, so she's using Medical's screens to broadcast. Whether or not this is allowed might be in question, but sharp eyes might spot the reflection of someone in the room with her in the highly polished surfaces around her.]

Lady Fifth. [Her voice is still off. Words slightly slurred. And her eye isn't quite focused on the screen, more like she's staring through it. Those must be some hefty painkillers.] 'm ready for debriefing.

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[The lights are out in the closet, but that's fine. The hall has plenty of incoming illumination to reveal a woman standing over a shadowed body of an executive of some sort, pulling her hands out of the water. One of them holds a no-longer-sparking electrical cable torn from the wall. It seems she was holding the manager's head underwater before her attempt at rewiring led to this electric mishap.

She's wearing a business suit, black hair done up in a bun, tinted glasses over her eyes, but her sleeves are rolled up to keep them from getting wet. There's no mistaking the red dragons trailing down her arms or the thorns wrapping around them.

As for how she's taking this sudden discovery? A clear look of irritation crosses her features, followed by a shake of her head and then a 'Oh, very well' sort of shrug. And then one of her arms whips behind her and she's throwing a jug of bleach at Catra's face.]

[ Oh. Shit. That has to be the freak out here just murdering people. For a brief moment, Catra panics. Then instinct and training kick in and there isn't time to panic. As the woman hurls the jug of bleach towards her Catra hurls herself to one side of the doorway, out of sight for a brief moment. She has to get help. She glances down towards the infirmary and decides against it. She can't go that way--there are people there who would be helpless. No. It has to be away.

She drops to all fours for a moment to try and get an extra burst of speed and launches herself down the corridor away from the infirmary. Deeper into the bowels of the rig. As she goes, she clumsily tries to key her communicator. Without thinking, she calls the first person who comes to mind. ]

Adora! Pick up!

[ Adora hasn't been sleeping well. She hasn't been doing much of anything but patrolling or preparing to patrol ever since she found Setsuna and Tenten. She picks up. ]

Catra? What's going on?

[ She can hear the alarm in Catra's voice. She doesn't like it and she's already moving. ]

[She must have called more than one person. There's an echo from the woman, somewhere in her clothes. Funny how no one thought to look for Setsuna's communicator during that whole mess. Everyone must have thought someone else had done it.

The woman pauses, giving Catra a head start. Once her fingers flick ten times, she's off, chasing the magikat. What's worse, she's gaining. Rapidly. At one point, she puts on a burst of speed, cutting Catra off from a specific wing of an intersection, then giving her time to get a lead again.

It's not until they're a fair bit away and in a nice, straight hallway that the redhead makes another offensive move. And this time, it's no bleach bottle. She whips her hands up, then down, a small swarm of shuriken whipping towards Catra with each movement.]

Shut up!

[ There's no time for this. No time, no time, no time. She's moving almost entirely on instinct, darting down corridors and around corridors as quickly as she can manage. Which is pretty damn quick. ]

I found her--we're on the infirmary level! I'm---

[ A pause as Catra leaps upwards from the floor, ducking away from the woman as she tries to cut off Catra. The feline woman scrambles down a narrow gantry. ]

I'm leading her away from the infirmary! Down! Go make sure they're all okay!

[ With that, she shoves the communicator into one of the pockets of her jumpsuit, not bothering to try and end the call. Down another corridor, feat pounding almost as fast as her heart. Catra is planning her next move when she feels the sharp sting of blade biting into skin and muscle. ]

Fuck!

[ She winces, ignores the searing pain in her left shoulder-blade and goes doggedly onwards. She scurries down a passageway and tries a random door, bodily checking into it and forcing it open with a grunt. Hide. She needs someplace to hide--

And she scrambles to a stop in front of yet another door, jerks at the handle to find it locked. Tries the one next to it only to find that she's run herself into a cul-de-sac. ]

Shit.

[ Catra doesn't want. Immediately she turns back the way she came. Maybe she can still double back and get past her pursuer. ]

Catra-! Catra!

[ There's a rising note of panic in Adora's voice, even through the distortion of the communicator. She's come a long way to find Catra, to finally think of her as a "friend" again, only to... what? Maybe lose her right here and now? There's adrenaline thrumming in her veins and her eyes are wide. She has to go down. She has to get Catra out of there. ]

Catra, I'm coming down to you right now! Hold on!

[ Stairs. More stairs. The pounding sound of boots on metal and none of it feels like she's moving fast enough. She can hear little bits and pieces through the call and she's reading the level numbers off as she goes.

Almost there, right? Almost there. ]

Catra, talk to me!

[Doubling back was a mistake. Of course, so was letting the woman guide her into a practical cul de sac like this, but she was fast enough to catch Tenten. When she spots Catra, she shifts, blocking her way, and hurls another blade. Not at Catra, this time, but neatly into her communicator, sending a nasty squeal to anyone listening.

There's a pause as she clicks off the racket coming from inside her suit, and then she reaches into an inner pocket, coming out with a pair of small, egglike objects. Pins are pulled, then hurled at the ground in front of Catra.

One's a simple flashbang, to blind and disorient. The other starts spewing smoke, threatening to fill the corridor with a sharp, stinging odor. The woman, of course, seems to have no issue with this. After all, to her, mustard gas may as well be a fresh morning breeze.]

[ Catra bares her teeth and draws herself up, ready to fight. One arm is already partially disabled, though, and so she only has the one good arm. She flinches at the impact of blades into her communication device and then lunges forward, heedless. Her right arm shoots out, claws like razors.

The blinding flash and the choking gasp disorient her. Choking, gasping, she lashes out around her blindly with a flailing arm, desperate to give at least some sort of trouble to her assailant. she has no illusions, however. Catra knows she can't win this fight. This is a good death as any, she supposes.

Maybe it might make up a little for the things she's done. ]

[She swats aside the flailing claw like it's an irritant, then grabs Catra's head in both hands. Her thumbs pause over the Magikat's eyes.

She could string things along, but... No, the girl's had a lethal dose already. Short of a miracle, she's already another notch on the murderer's belt. Still, these New Hires were being irritatingly consistent about surviving when they shouldn't. So, no, unlike the ninja girl, she's not going to press any harder on those little mismatched eyes.

Instead, she simply starts squeezing with her hands on either side of the girl's skull. There's no 'try' about it, if this lasts any longer Catra's going to develop some serious fractures. Or worse.]

[ To Catra's credit, she doesn't give up, even when things seem hopeless. If she must die, she's planning on selling herself as dear as she can manage. She's hacking, coughing. Her throat and lungs burn, her eyes water. When her flailing hand is knocked aside and hands grip her head, she lashes out again, trying to at least dig her claws into a shoulder, an arm, anything. She can't see. Everything hurts. ]

Fuck... You...

[ The words are wet, bubbling from lips damp with bloody froth as she coughs and shudders. As hands squeeze against her skull she screams, throat already ragged. Flecks of bloody spittle land on her assailant. The pain is excruciating, her head caught in a vice that grows ever tighter. Her vision, already blurred by tears, swims and grows indistinct.

Goodbye, world. Catra never liked you much anyways.

Adora...

She's sorry, Adora. ]

Edited 2020-10-14 04:52 (UTC)

[ Adora feels like she can't move fast enough. She knows Catra is in trouble somewhere ahead of her. The burst of static cutting them off from one another just reinforces that. She pushes through a door, silently cursing the fact that this place is aaze. She hears a distant pop or exosion that echoes through the corridors. ]

Catra! Catra!

[ She's in danger. The one person in the universe who Adora is sure she can't do without. And she's not fast enough or tough enough and now she's going to lose her because Adora just isn't pushing hard enough.

She can't let that happen.

She won't.

Adora reaches out for - something. The magic she's sure she's lost, but she she has to try, and suddenly it's there in a surge of power that is both familiar and unfamiliar ]

For the honor of Greyskull-!

[ Blinding light. But now she still has to find Catra. She still has to save her. Her booted feet pound on deck playing. She'll be there in time. She has to be. She turns the corner in time to see a woman standing over Catra, hands clamped against her skull and her blood boils. She sees red. ]

Get your hands off of her-

[ She-ra charges, sword gleaming with an inner light. Hell, she's glowing (and eight feet tall). ]

[Just a little more and-oh come on. She rolls her eyes to the ceiling and huffs.

Stealthy, She-ra isn't.

The woman flings Catra aside like so much dross, then pulls a small, curved dagger and steps to meet the warrior-hero's charge. The fact that she's up against an eight foot tank with a magical sword doesn't seem to concern her.

Her dagger meets the sword and, while her stance doesn't change, the impact's enough to slide her back a little. The high heels might have something to do with the overall lack of traction there. She twists her blade up and around, and away from her, and steps into She-ra's range, slashing at her belly with the dagger in a shot meant to disembowel.]

[ Catra isn't really conscious of what's happening around her any longer. Breathing hurts. Existing hurts. When she's flung aside, she crumples into a small, limp, bedraggled heap.

She is horrifyingly still. ]

Edited 2020-10-14 05:16 (UTC)

[ Adora notices the way that Catra crumples against the wall, but she doesn't have time for that right now. There's a threat in front of her and she's going to deal with it. Their blades clash and then the woman tries to step into her and Adora throws an elbow-slash-body-check to get inside of the strike before it connects, doing her best to bull the woman into the wall. ]

[No dice on gutting the hero, apparently she's not as clumsy as her initial charge had lead the woman to believe. There's a slight grunt as they slam into the wall, the metal surface deforming under the power of She-ra's tackle.

Unfortunately, She-ra lacks the full range of her power, but even so, being slammed into a wall by eight feet of angry blonde tends to jar the brain a little. The redheaded woman shakes herself slightly, then coils an arm around She-ra's waist, taking advantage of their close quarters to stay close and inside that sword's reach. She draws a leg up, then lashes out at the side of She-ra's knee, trying to shatter the joint so she can be picked apart at will.]

[ Adora's trained for this sort of thing her whole life. It's what she does. She knows that even though this woman is inside her guard, she's bigger, she's stronger, and she has weight advantage. So she uses it. She lifts her leg to block the incoming kick and then half-turns to bodily hurl the woman back across the corridor.

Start running. ]

[The woman could kill She-ra. She knows it as easily as she breathes. But here, now, with the risk of other people following the noise, it would take too much time. She needs something different for the Princess of Power. A different tool, something that those otherworldly energies won't be so resistant to.

Her lips curl into a knifelike smile and she stands, then turns and walks away. Casually, even.

After all, there's something more important for the blonde to deal with.]

[ Catra is probably that more important something. She's still laying where she fell in the corridor, eyes closed and her breath shallow. Each one is raspy, bubbling, and labored. That she is still somehow in the world of the living is a miracle. ]

[ Adora takes a half-step after the woman and then she grits her teeth. She's not leaving Catra. She can't. She turns back and crosses the distance to Catra in an instant, kneeling to cradle her in her arms. ]

Catra? Catra - come on - talk to me. You're gonna be OK, alright? We're both going to go home. We're both making it off of this rig. Come on, Catra, don't give up now-

[ Catra feels tired. So, so tired. More than the pain, the overriding sensation is of bone deep weariness. She is ready to slip away into sleep, to rest. She is halfway there when she feels arms wrapping around her aching, battered body and holding her up. Eyelids flicker and then mismatched eyes finally open so she can stare up at the blurry shape that has to be Adora. ]

'Dora?

[ Her voice is raspy and weak, wet with blood and phlegm. She can't move. Her head aches with the light and she wants to close her eyes again. Let her rest. It's okay to rest, finally, right? She tries to form words but they don't quite manage to eke free of her mouth. At least in the end she is here, with Adora. It's more than she asked for. More than she deserves. ]

'M...

[ To call this sound a whisper would be grossly underselling it. It's a gasp, a weak sound that could barely be called speech. ]

'M sorry...

[ She tries to smile but that hurts too much and it barely reaches her face. Catra wants to reach up and touch Adora's cheek. Wants to reassure her that it's okay. At least she gets this in her last moments, she thinks. At last she has balanced the scales in some small way. ]

For... for everything.

It's fine, Catra. It's fine. You're going to be OK-

[ She says that like she can will it to be true. She can see the way that Catra's starting to fade. She can feel it with every breath through her body, raspy and weak. She can't lose her now, not after all this time. Not like this. ]

Don't you go anywhere-!

[ She lifts Catra, hugs her close, and this time - this time she feels the power flowing out of her and into Catra. A stream of magic that she can't quite control, but she somehow knows is going to help. It has to, because the alternative is losing her and she can't face that. Not here, not now.

Everything hurts. ]

[ As Adora speaks, Catra's eyes flicker closed again. They had already felt too heavy to stay open much longer and she can feel the calm lassitude of sleep starting to creep over her even as Adora demands that she stay. It's alright, she wants to say. It'll be better when I'm gone. Of course the words don't come. It's too much effort to make words.

As She-Ra lifts her closer, the magic flows into her, through her. Around her. It is not as powerful as it would have been at home. There it would have healed her almost entirely, save only for a need for rest. Here, though, it is limited, constrained. While it can mend some of the damage and take her free of immediate danger, it can only act as a stopgap to her serious injuries. The rainbow glimmer of She-Ra's magic fades and Catra takes a breath, suddenly able to breathe easily once again.

And then everything falls away as she passes out into the comforting embrace of unconsciousness. ]

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🟆001🟆 VIDEO

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