The Last of Your Kind

Chapter Three: Skin

In the end, there were seven tests taken over the span of three days. Adora had been so physically and mentally exhausted by Entrapta's torture methods (tests, Adora) that by test five she'd already lost all her resolve to even fight it anymore.

("You're such a baby," Catra rolled her eyes at her girlfriend who was lying curled up in their bed. Even so, she set down the bowl of soup on the bedside table, knowing the smell of warm broth would likely rouse Adora to her senses sooner than later.

"She took fifteen blood samples, Catra. Fifteen!"

"She only took thirteen," Catra gently reminded her. "You were poked fifteen times because you were squirming so much. You realize you're not allowed to do that during the x-rays, right?"

"They use magic for that," Adora pouted, pushing herself into a sitting position. "I'm fine with magic. I'm not fine with stabbing.")

Blood work. Needles. Full body x-rays. Physicals. Toxicology testing (no one except Entrapta seemed to be very thrilled about that one).

Test after test and Adora seemed to have all the wrong answers. With each pending result, Adora felt like she knew less and less about herself.

It had been easier before she was made aware of it. Most of her anomalous behaviors she could write off as She-Ra or simply growing up different in the Horde. But with each lab report that showed up on her desk, Adora felt an ever-growing sense of disconnect between herself and her body.

Not to mention, she really didn't have the mental stamina to really understand the science behind all of those reports. Entrapta usually sent her a watered down version, but she couldn't help skimming the official findings. Words like "abnormality" and "alien" often stood out.

One night, Catra tried her hardest to get Adora to come to bed. Just a few more pages until I'm done with this one, Adora had said, squeezing Catra's hand before turning back to the report she was annotating. It wasn't until Catra woke up the next morning to see Adora still staring hazily at those papers, eyes bloodshot and hands trembling from lack of sleep, that she decided there needed to be an intervention.

"Perfuma said that it's important to re-channel our negative outlets into a positive form or something," Catra had said as she dragged Adora through the woods. "So, we are done obsessing over Entrapta's data."

"But-"

"Just trust me, okay?" Catra said. "I'm not saying to drop the whole thing. I'm just trying to get you to explore all this junk in a healthier setting."

"The...middle of the woods?"

Catra grumbled something oddly reminiscent of the word 'patience' and Adora was about to tell her how hypocritical she was being as she dragged her through the woods, but they soon entered a familiar area. If Adora hadn't been fighting it so much, she probably would have realized where they were going much sooner.

Adora stared up at the library that also doubled as Bow's childhood home. Recent were the memories of the many nights she'd spent with Catra there. This place was already full of some of their happiest moments post-war (if not largely due to George and Lance's excellent hospitality). Even though they'd been researching the disappearance of the magicats, a...difficult subject matter, Adora had come to miss the late nights huddled by the fireplace, cozied up next to each other in comfortable silence as they read from their respective books or files.

"I think I get why we're here," Adora said, more willingly following Catra inside. The other woman had knocked but didn't wait for a reply as she entered.

"Glad you're up to speed," Catra quipped. "This place is full of first ones junk. If we're going to find out anything about you, it's not going to be from some lab report." Distractedly, Catra added, "Not that Entrapta doesn't know what she's talking about, but you don't know what she's talking about, so until we get some actual answers that we do something with-"