Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Adora had a problem.
A huge problem.

And as her former medical sergeant, now chief physician at one of the most renowned hospitals in Weavery Falls, reminded her several times since she'd met him, "The problem wasn't the problem itself. But the attitude of her in front of it."

She and Micah had met in the intelligence district known in the slang as Beast Island, because very few were said to return from those missions, whole, that was, when Marlena had just returned to work after breaking her collarbone and she had accompanied her mother to be examined before taking back the badge.

Asking Adora, she ever since then would have loved to return to the service.
Details she was barely 9 at the time.

At the moment, however, we could have talked about rather than attitude towards the problem...

"Cheeky dickhead impertinence, which one you are.
Dearest, beloved sister."
Adam wasn't her brother, especially in those situations, Adora knew it well.
He was a spy, after all, too.
And he and Marlena had never had the best of relationships after Teela.
Him and Adora neither. Even though they were both Capricorns, born on the same day of January, at the end of a bad storm in all Eternia, even though Randor Grayskull would play his cards on both of them blindfolded, to say they were this close to slitting each other's throats was an understatement.

He sat on the chair, spreading, ankle on the other knee, boot swinging, his Burberry polo shirt undone and snug as he brought his hand with the gold bracelet dangerously and bastardly close to her thigh.
Broken thigh.

"Sweet. It's open."

Adora painfully sat on the pillows.

"You here to gloath? Mock me?
To remind the old tiny me how much better you were than her down in Bologna at defusing that attack before unleashing a heavier war than the last? 'Cause, ow!" Adora cursed at the abrupt and underestimated movement under the blanket
"You know better there is a war. Undergoing in our Organizations.
William."

"No wonder! With an ass crazy Force Commander on the field! By the way, tell my sister she's Captain now.
At most. Will you?"

He pushed her hips down, knee on the nail in the leg.

"Ahaaaaaahh!" Adora screamed, growling.
"Below.
I'm done with our conversation now.
I'll take your cover for the next 4 months. And november too, Adora Jane.
Now turn around ... Oh! You can't!"
"Ugh! Bastard! Noo! No, no, no, no, A'am, we're the same rank! You can't! I'm not crazy!"
"Oh, but I did, sorry for the spanking. It's for your own good.
By the way I'm half an hour older ... besides not that you ever cared telling me anyway.
You prefer Brightmoon and your new friends!"
He grabbed a hold of her poof and her cheeks, squeezing.
"Pathetic!"

She didn't answered, slapping him.
More a Horde punch in a slap disguise.

"You never asked me, Adam."

She winched herself up and Adam pushed her down, with one slight touch on her forehead.
Then laughed, touching his broken lip with a smile.
A satanic one.
"Easy, 'Door. Marlena is at stake with the undersigned. Again."
He identified the organization after the mother. Or at least that was what Adora still believed.
"Oh pity" she stood his obnoxious gaze on a cursed smirk was the same as hers, unfortunately.
And in a particular painful way.
"Should have asked for shots before talking to you, ouch! Shit!"
"I will tell you only once so we hope this will be clear to you: let me get another report on your suicides and you are done with us."

Adora's blue lace eyes shattered between the ugly bottles on the desk before her bed and the door, slowly pushed open and closed by "the asshole she was sure had ruined more than her stupid career, but couldn't prove it".

As hard as it was to believe, anyway, Adora had even bigger problems at the moment.
And again. And again. And again.

"Мама Люба давай, давай, давай!
Мама Люба давай, давай, давай!
Мама Люба давай, давай, давай!

Adora gasped at Ol'ga Serjabkina and Elena Temnikova's voices booming from her Gold Iphone13 Pro Max 256 GB.

One could have state she was very lucky, born with it, but for Adora wasn't much 'cause her family got 2 billion each year for her job and she still got a stupid 1099 $ phone.

She was Princess of Power, eбена мать!

However, what was really strange was why she hadn't turned off the ringer yet, since she was working.
And why Adam had stolen half of her inheritance and title.
Again.

Then she remembered.
Light Hope and Adam were always together.

"Oh no..."
She clutched on the iphone remembering what it really, really was.

She answered the call with trembling hands and the same expression she had when her mother walked into her room after work with her belt or brush in hand. She felt the same sensation in her stomach and the same pain in her butt.

"It's the third time this week."
"Yeah, I know, if only you let me explain..."
"There's nothing to explain. I talked to agent F this morning, he said he would have provide you the next steps of the job."
"I didn't know it was Adam. Light Hope.
Why didn't you tell me? Auntie?"
There was a huge, terrible pause and the line fell as well as her cut, trembling hands on her wound.

She cursed again, smacking her phone to the other side of the desk, while wincing in pain over the pillows and under the blanket.

"Ouchie..."

Major Hope wasn't only her aunt, or at least a sort of aunt, given her wife Mara was her mother's sister - Adora still wasn't so sure what an aunt was - but she'd had never thought her badge would be at risk.

Despite all of her tempts more than attempts she wasn't aiming for making herself fired that way.
She was unsure, for the first time in her life really she was, she thought moving her knee up and down while the other leg was practically impaled.

A shooting, from which she was miraculously saved by ending up on a tangle of medium voltage cables. She had broken her leg immediately after she got the shock, in an attempt to warn the local Weavery Falls coffee shop of a potential robbery.

As someone in her Organization young recruits curse would have loved to state, she was "so very predictable with her feelings".

Adora didn't even remember the last time she had saw her.
Salazar. That's what they called her, Catra Salazar.
First class asset spy before, Force Captain after Adora's latest suicides and all that was left of Adam's insomnia, she was or had been Adora's only certainty 3 years before.

Before she leaved for Thaymor and her first missions under the bad influence of Major Hope.
Her mother's badge, her aunt Mara's "sword of protection".

Maybe in other times Adora would have wanted to live and quit with the foolishness of sacrificing herself in totally foolish ways to force them to let her go.
But that day she finally was getting the hard lesson on her own ass. They'd never would have let her go.

Because sadly, she was the best in that field, as Micah with his ward before, hospital after.

As Catra with guns the last time they had seen each other.

As her mother not being a good one as Razz was doing for her lately, before Adora leaving on an ambulance.

𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛.

For the third time that week, the forth that month.

"Miss Grayskull! How kind of you to join us again right before July."

Shadow Weaver, as all in that ward used to call her for her bad manners and even worst tact and delicacy when it came to treating cases that were self-destined for her workforce, Commander Beatrix Duck, and by all means, sorely and keenly for both Salazar and Adora still Doctor Weaver now, after her first student Micah had succedeed in becoming chief physician under her wing and dark magic cursed name, wasn't exactly your average, sweet maternal nurse.

Nor as she used to say before a disciplinary action
"𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎 𝑓𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐹𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑂𝑑𝑑 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠."

Adora held back a laugh, in her best brat expression.
"Missed me already, Trixie? I thought they had given you the right to a hairdresser by this time."
"Insolence is never appreciated in my ward, Miss Grayskull and it's Mrs. Weaver.
Especially for you."
"Of course it is! But then again, how could I miss the chance to ruin your vacation, Ma'am?"
"𝐀𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐚?"
"Shit! No, no, no, go on, please! I was starting to forget I have a broken femur. And like second degree burns between the shoulder blades. But really it's fine! Never been better!
Is there any butter left in the cafeteria? Is Nancy still on by this time?"
"And will you ever understand your place is not here and start working not as the failure you exhaustingly obsess to be?
Raise your ankle, please."
"Can't. It's broken."
"The other one, brat."
"Oops! My bad!"
"Why you keep hurting yourself this way? You think it's a pleasure for me having to patchwork my own daughter?"
"I am not your daughter, Mrs. Weaver.
We never were.
And given it's not a death mission for you to work with me..."

In that moment she realized that she had really pissed her off.
As it was usual when she and Salazar were Cadets.
She saw her former commanding officer narrow her eyes in such a hideous way she would have been sure if she were a witch she would have devoured her alive with her magic.

Luckily Shadow Weaver wasn't and that place wasn't a fairy tale.
Sometimes it was a nice plus, noted Adora.

"Oh it wasn't! Until today."
"What's that supposed to...?"
"My shift ends now, my holidays start tomorrow morning and I have no desire for it to be my last job.
But, since I have always promised Marlena and Micah, which is currently in Florida, to take care of you unfortunately, I am happy to inform you that I will leave you in the delicious care of my intern."
"But I said Razz I'd be home by this even..."
"This is not my problem anymore, Adora."
She said slapping her medical record on the poor girl's butt a bunch of times, as Adora shifted aside on the pillows with every stubbornness in her possession to turn her back to her.
"Great."
"Catra will replace me all week.
Be nice with her, please, it's her first time.
And oh, how I'd wish I could fire her!"

The Doctor slammed the door and while she was still asking herself why the hell she had done such disgrace, Adora noticed Micah wasn't there that day.

Maybe it was the summer, maybe he had already started his vacation time, but still, something, given Adam's presence that morning near her bed was awfully missing.

She couldn't remember a single time that it hadn't driven her to despair.
Right after visiting her.

Anyway, the right thigh started to throw her tantrums and all of her back hurt so much to have the strenght to move again towards the door when she heard squeak again.

Maybe it was a mouse.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?"

Maybe it wasn't that, maybe it wasn't a dream.
Maybe that intern's name wasn't a coincidence after all.

"What...? Ow! Damn it! Ow, ouch! I ah shit I'm sorry, I was... I didn't mean too!"
She gasped in pain at all the desperate attempts to sit upright again at the sight of that nurse.
"No, hey, hang on, please, I can move to the other side of the bed!"
She almost scolded her pulling the stethoscope out of her small, slender throat like it was a necklace.
Or a water gun.
Adora wasn't sure when she saw her throwing it over the window handle to keep it open.
"Pretty cool trick, uh?
They still think it's useful in other ways.
Ah.
Guess what?"
After which she took off said coat and also the short-sleeved shirt under it, to remain in her bra lenght undershirt tank top.
"Fuck that doc-patient confidentiality, isn't it, Adora?"
She frooze in place immediately.
"Sorry, I was boiling alive in here!
So. It's Adora, isn't it?"
She read again on her record.

Yeah. Me too.

C. Elizabeth - apparently that was her name, Adora was forcing herself not to make her know she was actually staring at her boobs.
Mainly the problem was her tag on the white coat that was onto her right boob.
But Adora wasn't sure she would have been the left alive in the conversation or in the battle, anyway.
In response the brunette placed the tag on the edge of the tank top, like a clip, then climbed like the cat she was on her own bed, to overhang her and turn on the light bulb on the other side.

"Catra, do you have to sit right there?!"

By the time Adora realized what she had said it had been too late.

The brunette smiled.
So it was her.

"So. You called me Catra.
None of these stupid people 'round here call me that. Actually mom calls me that and aunt Juanita calls me that."

She circled Adora like a tiny shark startling her prey covered in blood, licking her lips and biting her lower one.

"Who are you?"

The blonde held her breath, letting it out all at once in one embarassed one mouth sentence.

"It'ssostrangeIactuallythoughtyouweremyexcomradebutIwaswrongcauseyousharethesamenameI'mAdorabythewayyeahnicetomeetyouElizabeth"
"It's odd, really."
She clipped her short hair in a tiny ponytail and bit the pen writing the stupid module on the last page of Adora's medical record.
"Anyway, back to business, you an agent, aren't you? Eternia, Grayskull.
Agent F and stuff. People really don't know how to keep their mouth shut down here.
What ya doing in the big apple, Adora?"
She gulped realizing then she was in a gown with only her lilac boxers on.
"It's Weavery Falls. Vacations."
"What, you cheated on the owner of the travel agency?"
"My body is betraying me..."
Catra chuckled, then sat dangerously close to Adora's fine leg and began to check her blood pressure, pulse with only two fingers on her throat, then put a thermometer in her mouth.

"I thought you were going to..."
"Unprofessional ways, sticking the thermometer up your bum?
No we don't do that anymore, actually."

Adora's cheeks were the same shade of the bedsheet.

"Who use a red one in this hospital?"
Catra added taking it out and reading the temperature.

"It's my lucky one."
"I see. 37.9 C°."
"I'm ok."
"You have some second and a third degree burn on your shoulders, lower back region and upper left bumcheek. Professional term.
The definition of ok!"
"What's with the fever and the leg?"
"Current health guidelines advise that anyone with a temperature of 37.8°C or more should be considered to be potentially infected with COVID-19 and should self-isolate."
"Please don't. Not that shit."
"It's my job. Are you vaccinated?"
"I just need some sleep... but yeah. Yeah."
"Let me guess, bad flu trauma? They had to drag you out of the bed to get your shot, princess?"
"Are you a wizard or it's just the pain?"
"On debate. Sure thing with me you won't even manage to get under the bed.
Speaking of which, miss Grayskull"
"It's Adora. Really! Or ahm, Force Captain Adora."
The nurse bit her lips again, smiled and tossed all the window open, giving her back to her while smoking a tiny cigarette she then left still on the marble sill.

"Hey Adora."
She turned again, elbows on the window sill.
"Are you trying to set my room on fire?"

Adora, concentrate!
She could almost hear in her mind her own diabolical conscience advise her to start flirting right away.

And the nurse seemed to hear that.

"Yeah, Adora, concentrate!"
She smiled again, though, crossing her arms on her chest.
"It's miss Grayskull."
"Really now?"
Catra frowned, puffing white smoke from her nostrils.
Adora's eyes went widen and she almost screamed at her like a teacher rather than a sergeant.
"Are you smoking weed in a hospital?!"
"It's personal use."
Catra said again, putting on the gloves and pulling the whole blanket away from her waist.

"Any last words?"

Hardly.
She wasn't even afraid of nurses anymore, mostly the syringe hanging on the side of that nurse cart scared her a little, but it was just the idea she was about to touch her like that with nothing more than some small talk before that made Adora cringe so bad her fever would raise just for it.

"I'm sorry for my attitude and reputation, miss Salazar, it's just that I had a bad day lately and a bad week too.
And y-you reminded me of someone I once used to know."
"Gnow! Too bad I don't care."
"Excuse me?!"
"I don't care, miss Grayskúll" Catra teased her.
"Your bandages need changing and I can already see Micah wasn't there when they fixed your leg with these fracture nails.
I don't dare ask you if Shadow Weaver put you on painkillers because I already know the answer, your blood pressure is good, but you may have cheated with pills as you are a spy and that brings me back to the other question I wanted to ask you. Besides the fact that your pupils are dilated and your heart rate is skyrocketing.
Other than that, I need your weight, a blood sample and! A written apology.
Before I get the ER ready again to fix those because your reckless behavior has exasperated the head physician's substitute.
So then back to my other other question, Adora.
Any last words?"

She thought that was a real nightmare.
Her old roommate threatening her with bad meds under the really good cover of a stupid sexy nurse with a spanish accent and a strong dislike for coats, Adam smacking her family badge in the face and now Shadow Weaver lying about her former occupation?!
What was next to come, spiders on her bed?

Adora didn't want to imagine that.

"Y-You're head physician's substitute?!"
"Well. Technically!"
Catra crossed her leg, tying the tourniquet to her left arm, while Adora tried so hard to hide she was wincing inside like a kid at the mere thought of the needle.
"Doctor Old Lady is. But as my intern Scorpia loves to state when praising poor old me, she's a woman of court."
"Owie!" Adora closed her eyes.
"And she loves Mystacor vacations.
All done!"
She then rubbed her arm and looked outside the window while Catra threw the cigarette on the street below.
"What?"
"Nevermind. "
"Really." Catra sat again, pushing aside a lock of hair that escaped from Adora's poof tail behind her ears.
"I wanna know."
"You really wanna know?"
"Wanna bet." Catra smiled.
"What's somebody like you, Adora Jane Grayskull's doing in a place like this?
Given Major Hope has declared the Organization closed for the moment and mister Adam is gone too."

So it was her.

In other circumstances Adora would have had more than one plan.
Agent Salazar was an old enemy and this Elizabeth definitely wasn't a homonymous one.

To kill her. That was.
There was the trolley, the syringes, the classic blow on the back of the head, even the cigarette that in fact she had thrown away, when everything fell into the insignificance of her if she thought that her career had been ruined once again.
And that she could always have her poisoned with her chloroformed swordshaped lipstick after her or during a good fuck.

Order was something that had never belonged to her.

But anyway, strangely enough, Adora just grabbed the wrist that Catra was about to use to take off the bands twisted around her torso and back.

And just stated.

"Oh, Catrina Applesauce MeowMeow.
I could ask you the same question."

She smiled, saying nothing more and closed the record.

Then tapped her nails on it, reopening it.
Where the hell was Micah?

"It's an open fracture."
Adora almost choked from sarcasm.
"Yeah! I know!"
"Dh! IhI can't transform!" She sang.
Yeртовский torture!
"Ah. That's why you're here!"
"No!" Adora's voice sounded 10 years younger and crying.
"Where's Micah?! What did you do to him?"

"I did nothing. He's on vacation.
On the other hand!"
Catra read in disbelief.
"You smashed three covers and an electrical system?"
"You could say that. Adam did worse this morning."
"Aha, Ah Adoor, Adoor Adooora, shall see, so! Second-degree burns involving the epidermis and part of the dermis layer of skin, burn site appears red, blistered, and may be swollen and painful."
"Oh no, have my ass on a pillow!"
"Really?"
"I fucking fell! Ohww! On the cables! Cука блять!"
Catra bit her lower lip.
"Third-degree (full thickness) burns. Third-degree burns destroying the epidermis and dermis. May also damage the underlying bones, muscles, and tendons. In fact you have your supraspinatus slightly damaged.
Ouch."
"What?"
"Nothing, it's just that the "use of an ultrasound probe positioned on the lateral shoulder directed in the plane of the supraspinatus tendon to guide the injection is recommended." "
"I ah dh scary horror hospital injection what?!"
"Mh! Let's go childish!" She hummed.

Adora was praying God. "I'm trying to help!
Why are you stopping me?!"

"Aaaand you broke your right femur on, what was it" she read again
"Oh. The trellis."
"Right. It hurts! But ahm nobody asked me since this morning so thank you.
I guess. Good to see you anyway, thought I was going crazy."

She stated again, while Catra moved to the cart of horrors and started pouring meds and alcohol on some sterilized cotton discs.
"You're not using vodka to waste on my wounds, strange! What a nice thought, Catra, thank you!"
"Mhmh, always so dramatic with you, isn't it Adora?"

She smiled devilishly again and motioned her to turn on her stomach on the bed.

"I can't, bad thigh, you know."
"Sigh. I hate patients like you.
Open fractures are those that have generated a laceration of the skin, are visible and at a high risk of infection. Highest grade, thank you, yes i cheated, no I don't mind, but you should. In normal conditions this would require a 3-4 months out and you're still shocked they practically fired you?"
"They didn't fire me. And I'm not crying, I have allergies in the summer."
"Right! Your record says you haven't. And I never said you were crying."
"I I wanna sleep."
"Too easy, isn't it? You see, the intervention takes place according to the minimum standard recommended by the International Guidelines, at the latest within 24-48 hours of admission to the hospital."
She sat behind Adora with one leg under the other.
"Could also require a psychological support or some so very painful knee infiltrations to do after surgery. Or cefazolin injections in your butt twice a day."
Adora almost jumped.
"Twice a day?!"
"I mean i would say three times, but here they are all afraid of drugs. Boomers. How tall are you again?"
"Absolutely not, I won't let you stab my ass three times a day! With that shit, nonetheless, it hurts like a bitch!"
"Me? Ah! I would let Scorpia doing it, you know. And by the way very princess vocabulary."
"Catraaaa?!"
"Yes, you'll have to pay for that. I'd say 75/95, 132 mg at most, in a medium lenght horse needle, you like horses, don't you? So be a good girl."
"Fuc... I mean fool me! Ah! You're kidding."
"Why would I, Adora?"
"Even worst! Ahohuch! Stab my ass thrice a day having your ex doing it. Ohuu! It's a fucking nightmare! And it's humiliating!"
"Gnoww, poor baby!"
"I'll make you call by my lawyer!"
"Uh. The Sparkles! Spicy!
Cefazolin and Ciproxin. In one shot, easy!"
"That shit gives sinew!"
"Well, Adora, bullshit. Would you rather die from gangrene and tetanus? And I am the physician by the way, so one er I mean two shot.
Well, twice a day.
That makes 4! Like your bum sections to do it on!"
"Grrrrrrrrr! You can't give me sinew on purpose to keep me here, I am Shera! I have to fight!"
"It's some shit they say over the production, Dummy! Not true! It's like aspirin!
Recover time unspecified."
She blinked, smiling. Again.
"Grrrrahaaaahh, Catra, please!"

She was begging, it wasn't a dream.

"Prosthetic replacement is required too to correct proximal and distal intracapsular fractures. Depending on the damage to the knee or hip joints, the orthopedic surgeon can choose to implant an endoprosthesis (partial) or an arthroplasty (total). The use of artificial prostheses allows the patient rapid mobilization and a significant reduction in pain. In case the fracture is..." Catra kept going as an hologram while tagging her hospital gown up to uncover her back.

Adora begged everything in the sky to die, closing her left eye in a tic and bumping her good knee up and down.


"Could I have a second opinion?!"
"No."
"Ow! What. Do. You. Want?"
"Offering you a cure within the next week and some drinks on a date maybe?
Adora took her iphone and found it dead, she threw it on the small metal tray Catra moved.
"Shit it burns! Go on. Coff ehm!
What hell of a cure? And why?"
"You could have been in my place, you know."
She started dressing the burns while the blonde tried all of her efforts to stay calm and focused on the number of tiles on the wall.
"Quitting your filling assignment."
"Mhgrrr"
"Quitting your family, Shadow Weaver.
Micah always said you were a clever one.
Maybe he was dragged to by the name itslef."
"Shut up, Catra."
"Oh but I won't!"

She slammed her cotton ball onto the
the lower part of her back, causing poor Adora to howl like a wounded warewolf.

"What were you thinking?!"
"I-I just thought A'am would have sent me away like in Alaska or or I don't know, Italy? Not fire me and then and then..."
"Oh please! As if you didn't know he couldn't wait for you to escape from here as you ran from me back for Thaymor.
You left me. Adora. With the enemy.
And your damn parents Organization alone. 'Till the Horde arrived "rescue" me with a stan baton pointed on my ass."
She slammed the disinfectant on the highest part of one of her bumcheeks this time.
Adora gritted her teeth.

"I'm not here to talk about Thaymor!
And I'm definitely not here for you, Catra, ouuch! Would you just stop torturing me?!"

Catra sighed, standing up and shaking her head.

"So. Moscow. Was you, wasn't it?
Were have you been for 3 damn years, Salazar?"

"You know damn right I couldn't believe your lies anymore, Adora.
And not that we could be partners anyhow.
Last time I was in Russia Hordak's brother offered me a position.
Power. To be ahm exalted, raised above the other wretched creatures of my worlds.
But it didn't end well when I had to save a former agent of my old comrade new loose-screw squad.
Hostage. Took me 444 millions of dollars cash and 200 in actions.
She sure is extra, but you know her:
The judge and chief's daughter.
A lawyer."

Adora frooze again, very narrow pupils.

"Fold 499. Glimmer.
But Entrapta said they ah he he planted a chip unity into her ..."
"Vertebral column. Direct connection with the hypothalamus. Yes. And really bad haircut even more by the Doctor who had lost his wife on my claws, I mean gun. To save my life.
But I'm ok. Plus I lost 10 pounds. Eating whatever I want! Happy me!"
"Catra, that agent had she was on the news, it was a tragedy case ahm she had to had a brain surgery and she was a doctor but... I-It was you.
Oh no..."

She barely sighed.

"My friend Entrapta, you know. That cure I was telling you about."

"But why ..."

"But!" She sat again, cheerfully, this time oddly caressing her shoulder while Adora was turning on her side, her features wincing in pain.
"I lived, nonetheless, thanks to your friend's daddy Doctor's help and ahm...
I have something here since yesterday night. Must admit I had a bad feeling when I read your name, Adora, but.
You know. Whatever."

"Mh. I see.
You thought why not? Risking my old comrade life on it, given she already attempts on it herself and it's so very usable!"
Catra grinned while Adora narrowed.
"You know me too well, Mimi."
"Catra... Picci, we haven't known each other ever since then, I thought you were in Toronto, by the way or"
"Dead?"
"What else you have left? Horde Prime, you survived that maniac and you come here telling me, I didn't even know you had a mother, Cat!"
"Yeah. Me neither."
"Ouch!"
"Owie. But i know you still know me so much better than anyone else.
And I know you're the best on the field who could take me at my highest point with this mission. Your SheRa cover among the ranks still borders on legend as much as General Marlena and your Aunt Mara."
Adora let out another sniff and a tear this time.

"We have to cooperate, Adora! It's your doing! You can't give up!"
"Mhmmm"
"Grayskull, you've never given up on anything in your life. Not even on me. Dare start now on my insanity?!"
"Marlena spanked me in front of the all department one time. Of Adam. With one of her schedules and her hand. I mean the binder felt like a belting and ... She said l needed to learn not to put me in danger.
The daughter, you know. Destiny. People are always expecting on me, Catra, but I never get a say in what's happening to me. A choice."
"Everyone does, Adora."
"Not me. That was the first time I ever cried in public.
I remember her yanking my pants and panties down my ankles, though I was 11 already and all the other adults passing by her office. The door left open. On purpose.
Oh, I was begging so hard on her knees.
It's still a nightmare.
The next day she was all back. Sweet. Elegant. Proud.
I asked her ahm when she came back that night "Mommy, are you still angry?". She said no.
Slept with me, snuggled, baked me cherry pie with lollies and stuff. Then ah ... the next morning she was getting ready for a job, gun on her belt, daggers.
The sword. She was a pretty, pretty lady."
"I heard about that."

Catra just slowed down with the gauzes on her shoulders.
"Ok, up for the good part, now I'm done with the first part, putting some cream here, wrap you and then I go down. Princess Adora.
Remember how Randor called you? And Mara?
Princess Adora.
I only ever said princess.
Hey? Adora? You good?"

"I remember.
Mom used too.
Not that day. She said "Adora, come here." Lowering her tone.
When I did she showed me the sword and Mara's sword looking at me and Adam, while he was sleeping on the couch. I still ..."
"Let me guess, she said she would have you bawling spanking the rainbow out of your cute bummy again?"
Adora turned around, glaring.
"No. She said "One day these will be yours.
It's your destiny.
I won't be here spanking you forever, Adora Jane.
But as long as I do, you're going to get it twice your brother. If you are bad. Because I choose my destiny and I won't let you ruin yours, young lady.
Come here. Turn around."
Then ahm I said no, I tried to go away but she grabbed me by the ponytail, then the waistband.
She spanked me again over my pajama on a sore bum and then I was on her knees. With my bare red, so red skin out. Naked. Again.
Waking up Adam and ... I mean she barely made it to 15 strokes after the day before.
I began screaming, saying terrible stuff, scaring them. "I don't wanna die, mom, I don't want you to die! I don't want you to die!" "
"She really gave it to you, uh? What is it that you did that was so bad, Adora?"
Other times she would have lied.
Maybe extreme synthesis was the best lie.
"I stole her cover and had a p-plan crushed cause I used her sword."
"Adora?!"
"I wanted to help. Mara understood me.
I couldn't transform yet, a Rebel tried to shoot me, then Randor shoot him and took me and Marlena faced them with Era.
I had never seen her so mad. I never thought I couldn't transform as auntie.
As Her.
But not that she had told me anyway.
Still remember those agents faces when she said: "You miscalculated!"
She had, the day of the second spanking she had already killed 18 of them."
"Fuck the war. But I mean, then wasn't now.
Isn't. Hold still, it will bite a bit. A bitty bite!"
Adora sighed, her lips in a small attempt of a smile.
"When she grasped me by the waist tight with her claws, the slaps. Catra. Those slaps!
I was back at 3 years old again when she grabbed a hold of my panties and yanked my hips up to basically kill my sit spots and my thighs.
I just cried so hard for her to stop, hugging her, crawling over her like a baby!
That night I had to stay in bed and for three days later too. I mean dad read me stories and she did me Babka too, but I felt humiliated and a disaster, I thought I was a shame cause I had never been spanked before.
Adam had. By dad too. "
"I wanted to be spanked by your mom just for the goodies!"
"You're so professional!"
"And I bet that day a tiny brat came throwing rocks to your window asking:
"Hey, mrs. Lena, can Adora come down?" "
"Eheheh! "
"Hey, I remember too. I had it two times that day, your mom's slap on the face and! Weaver's cane for missing soup."
"Oh, Catra! Why didn't you tell me?"
"She was your mom, Dummy! That's what mother's do! She was trying to protect you, baby Adora.
And you guys are russian."
"What that has to do with it?"
"I do didn't know the whole story, however."
"I would have told you. I mean it. "
"Guess I was afraid to ask. Entonces? How did it end?"
"Malamente. Muy.
I scared them that day. Then she did it again as a mom, other times, but not like that, she ahm, called me in her office, asking me if she..."
"Omg delayed spanking appointment. I'm dead!"
"Pity I never dared answer no."
"But why?! Why letting her tanning your hide if it was your virus?"
"Cause Catra, I ...
I couldn't breath. I had a panic attack, almost fainted to the hospital, cause my mom said she would have gave it to me from that day on.
Yep, my first one that time. But not for the pain.
You'll think i'm crazy now."
"It's not my field, Adora, I'm not Perfuma.
Besides you really are not."
"She kissed me and hugged me. Lulling the pain away. Dad too.
"We love you, princess, this is not on you! It's over." He said
"Mommy's little Captain Shera!" Said Marlena.
I went to bed crying all week in her arms."
"But it wasn't over, that is, was it?"

Adora would have laughed like a maniac but her leg and brandings by the electricity just pushed out a muffled gasp. And a tear.

"It's never over. Lizzy.
"Solve a puzzle, train, let go. " I do everything they tell me, waiting for answers and all I'm left with it's nothing but a ..."
The words died in her mouth when she thought about Salazar.
The fold. The morgue.
"A dead end. I know."
"Y-You're not! Ok?! I am.
When she was alive I felt like a tiny cub.
Those nights she entered my room with the hairbrush, hand on my right thigh, saying:
"I hate it. But I have to."
She was always out in the field. I was a cub and she was the lioness I would have never be."
"Well from someone who's been belted when she was 8, you're a pretty damn Marlena too now.
Lioness."
"They went to work that day and the next and the other.
And my anxiety was born. Merely aunt Mara had got something but I was young.
It's normal, I never would have thought about therapy then. And they were good parents.
I eh lost them 2 years later, but I mean I can't talk, you had Shadow Weaver, not cool mom spy General. Ahu ow!"
"Well, she didn't exactly hug me or bake me pie, Adora. If I was Adam Fairchild I'd say that."
"He still uses that dumb name.
I'd kill Beatrix, you know. For what she did to us.
To me. You."
"Guess that's why she disciplined you with her files during Horde years.
Sorry about Marlena and that, Dummy. All of that."
"You mean Moscow?"
"Still.
My offer stands. And I say this for my Adora, not her Majors moms or SheRa auntie."
"Can I ah have some morphine or chloroform? Please?"
"What about a kiss?
So back to my other.
Other. Other. Question."
She stated every word with a step further behind her, circling the bed with a huge syringe in her right hand.

"I mean do I... is that really my only option here? Really inevitable?"
"Turn around.
No, really, turn around, this one goes in your bum."
"No."
"Adora?"
"Can i get one choice around my fucking self?!"
"You like worms in your thigh?"
"Ahaahhooohoow!"
Adora shifted again, gulping conspicuously at the sight alone.
Catra tapped the vial of the syringe, with one of her long nails, sucked in the green, bubbly medicine.
"How much?"
Adora held to the pillow.
"Come on, I'll be gentle like a kitten, I promise. It'll do you good. Weight?"
"Like 132, 136 lbs"
"Mh. Thought more of all that!" Catra gestured to Adora's butt, sliding off her boxers a bit.
The blonde shifted on her side, turning to the left, with a hand on her bum, blocking Catra's one.
"Lilac. In palette."
"I hate you."
"Adora?"
"You can't do that!"
"Then we pretend I already did. There. There. Some water?"
"It's fine, I mean rum would be..."
"Right, Adora. On antibiotics. Ah! Too good! Now, deep breath.
It's gonna sting a bit, bad wound, bad potion. You have a really cute butt, by the way."

Adora frooze her with a look and Catra had to held herself to all of her deceiving talents when the blonde girl in the ponytail poof squeezed the pillow like a kitten and just shouted:
"If you make me cry or make me a welt I will murder you with my sword!"

Then. Silence.

"Yeah, Adora. You said it out loud."

"How was it?" she blushed and asked Catra.
"What? My booboo? Thsk, Adora! I'm not sappy like you. Scorpia and Trap bunked me in the bed for weeks.
Carena, I have to admit, did spanked me when I got better.
But I had my prognosis back in the villa with my little feet in warm half socks and even without warm socks and my peachy bummy on 8 pillows, more naturally had the girls feed and cuddle me to cheer me up.
In very, very explicit ways. I binged stuff on Netflix, especially Shera and Grey's and ER."
"Euphoria?"
"No that one I started it today!
Had nightmares, really bad Fentanyl addiction, I admit I ran under the bed too for so very painful bum shots, Carena had to chase me and had a lot of black cherry icecream.
And tequila.
And Serebro on the speakers. "
"Mh! You? I'm proud."
"The nurses were hot women, though."
"I'm so sorry!"
"I mean Perfuma has to work too! Therapy, got it?
Ok, time to pinch!"
"I really don't wanna do this to my bum twice a day..."
"You want some toys in exchange, lolli... I mean a gym? What? Children love that! Raise your ass a bit more, very good, just like this!"
"I'm gonna cry."
"Not on me! I am the best, Micah aside. I mean I don't work in that field but you know, intern stuff, got promoted and have to keep it."
"Congratulations.
Picci."
"It's just a badge, Mimi."

Adora frooze her with a look. Then turned again to the window.
She sighed and stammered something, shifting her hands between her thighs, nervous and even turned on?! By that?!
She thought she was going crazy and spaced out at the feeling faint at the very thought of the needle.
"There was a couple of girls taking cherry frappes near the window. The guy had a gun.
A blondie and a brunette."
Adora jumped again, biting her fist.
"It's just the disc. 'Ts cold, isn't it? Good, so your nerves are fine. We gonna do it here, ah? So you can seat on the other one, or it hurts for the thigh? Adora?"
"Yeah, no, ahm ... Catra, please! It's my only weakness! No shot, please! I'm a good girl!"
"I know, but it's not a punishment, ok, babe? Relax. Is the right cheek ok? Adora?"
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. No, no, don't! Please don't, pleahaase! Please!"
"What? I'm not doing anything! Just fixing your waistband threads, Dummy. It's ravelling."
"Really? Promise?"
"You won't feel a thing, princess, I promise.
So. They caught him?"
"Yeah."
"Good.
"Noooo... don't..."
"Shhh. Got you, princess.
It's just Tylenol for now. No sinew."
"Cause I'm a baby and the Betotal was over?"
"Yeheah! You like candies or syrup?"
"Syrup. It's like honey."
"I know. How's it now? Still too cold?"
"Better. "
"Baby Ado...
"Don't call me Baby Adora, Salazar!"

With her free one Catra held her right hand while Adora trembled and lulled her a bit.
"Hold on, Tiger."
"I just hate needles. I mean I I missed you and even though we're not ... anymore I ah.
Really I hate needles! Because when I was 6 Shadow Weaver ..."
"I missed you too. And I know.
But you know, Adora" Catra pitched her voice as a squirrel while squeezing her thigh and hip.
"I am a sssilly ssstupid mosssquito and I'd never hurt youuu! I'm jussst thirsssty! And youu princesss! Ssso good!"
She didn't laugh, but finally remained still, smiling a bit and kissing Catra's hand blowing a raspberry on it, as she did when they were kids.
Making her laugh too.

"Why do you still want to die so bad, Adora?"

"I don't. Ahh!"
"Shh! Still the disc. Not going anywhere without your word. Captain."

"I almost did, though. I'm so sorry!"
"You have Razz's phone, I mean? I have unilimited minutes. Scorpia's birthday gift."
"Thanks."
"Need anything else?"
"Anything?"
"I mean no one's gonna be there all July except Scorpia. So."
"Do they still got ice candies at Sander's?"

Catra just wanted to hug her.

"Need some icepack as well or some local anesthesia for your bum, princess?"
"I'm gonna kill you"
"Not if I poison you first! Other?"
"I ah "
"I am not taking a gym rack here, Adora. Ready?"
"Nooo.
Can I have pants and uhm a shoulderpads red coat? Gown? As... psychological support?"

Catra laughed, pointing the syringe on her white skin with one hand and holding hers and her waist with the other, to keep Adora in place.

"Ow, ow, ow!"
"Love, you, Idiot. I got you."
"Mhm." Adora winced then giggled at Catra tickling her side.
"I'm not letting go."

She closed her eyes, counting the seconds, holding the tears, while Catra with a claw on her forehead even forced her to turn slightly towards her as she stabbed her.

It was going to be a very long week.

"Adam and Hope are working onto something.
And Hordak's brother disappeared last april. I need a badge, you need evidence."

Catra grinned viciously, slamming down the needle.

"Precisely."

Five seconds later a loud scream was heard in the corridor, though the ER was empty and closed.
"Promise my ass! You lied to me!
Ow ow ouuuuchh! IT BUUUURNS!"
Catra lowered her ears pavement level.
"Agent S, note 1: it is the real Adora."
"Ahaaaahahohohww! It hurts so much! Fuuuck!"

"You're such an Idiot."

* * *

"Organization Horde Cover Crush, number 2.
Major Light Hope speaking."
"Let the villains be on the paper.
What she did this time?"
"The shooting as a trap was a success."
"I mean she broke a leg."
"Very funny. Sir?"
"Yes, Hope?"
"You and Adora are related. Are you sure about plan Legacy, Captain?"
"As long as my name is kept secret and Adora and Catra are close we'll have enough time.
And Hope."

"Sir?"
"When we are done you can kill Salazar.
But let Adora.

To me."
"Received."

* * * * *

"My Lord."
"What is it, little sister?"
"I called the morgue at Jasper's hospital."
"Ah. Yes. My favorite elimination."
"General Prime.
"Speak."
"Apparently the corpse disappeared. Evidences on someone named ... Grayskull. Adora Grayskull and another one named ..."
"Entrapta. And how exactly does a firm double lobotomy with electroshock walk still alive, Major Skađi?"
"Apologies, my Lord and brother. I pledge my life in return to ..."
"Enough. The file.
Catra Salazar.
Grrrrrrrr..."