🟆001🟆 VIDEO

[71lines]

[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.

Comments

[piper90npcs]

[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.]

[heterochrocatic]

[ 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. ]

[princesspower]

[ 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). ]

[piper90npcs]

[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.]

[heterochrocatic]

[ 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. ]

[princesspower]

[ 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. ]

[piper90npcs]

[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.]

[princesspower]

[ 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. ]

[piper90npcs]

[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.]

[heterochrocatic]

[ 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. ]

[princesspower]

[ 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-

[heterochrocatic]

[ 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.

[princesspower]

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. ]

[heterochrocatic]

[ 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. ]