Into the Light

Part Two

CONTENT WARNING: This chapter depicts scenes of physical and psychological torture and assault that some readers may find triggering. Please take care when reading. You can find a full list of specific triggers at the bottom of the chapter.

Catra knew she was doomed, but that didn't mean she was going down without a fight.

It took four clones to haul her to her feet and drag her through the corridors of Prime's ship, and that was with her hands still bound. She thrashed and swore and bit and kicked while her escorts silently struggled to maintain their grip.

Horde Prime led the way, his hands clasped neatly behind his back. All the while, he spoke to Catra as if she were a willing participant in the conversation and not simply a defiant prisoner with no choice in the matter.

"In every corner of the universe, creatures of all kinds search for a means to control their minds. They all seek the same thing: the ability to control their thoughts and emotions the way one might alter their appearance, or rid a space of clutter." He waved a hand at the empty halls of his ship as if to emphasize his point. "They long for an escape, they desire inner peace and order."

While he talked, Catra caught one of the clones with her teeth and sank her fangs deeply into his hand. The procession continued as if nothing happened, and so did Prime's diatribe.

"I've encountered all manner of curious remedies on my travels. Most civilizations will chase their thoughts with various inebriating concoctions — a temporary reprieve, if nothing else. Others take more drastic measures, overstimulating or depriving the senses, chemically altering the mind, some even going so far as to cut and shape the brain itself." For the first time since leaving his sanctum, Prime glanced back over his shoulder at Catra. "Of course, all of these practices are imperfect. Limited at best, inaccurate almost always."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Catra snarled as she tried to drive her heel into the knee of the clone to her left. She missed, but it was worth it just to see the clone flinch.

"True peace can only be achieved by those who have first attained a tranquil mind — one free of suffering and worry." Horde Prime stopped walking and turned. "But where these other civilizations have both tried and failed, I have succeeded."

One of the clones broke away from the group. He walked to a door Catra had been too busy resisting to notice. It took her a beat to realize where they were, but when she did, her blood turned to ice. The clone swiped a hand over a control panel in the wall and the door responded, sliding open with a gentle beep. A sickly neon green glow spilled from the chamber and bathed Horde Prime in an eerie light.

"No," Catra said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Prime smiled. He held out an arm toward the open doorway. "After you, little sister."

Catra's memories of her first experience in the cloning facility came rushing back to her. In her mind, she could still see Hordak standing in the green pool that sat in the center of the room. His tormented expression, twisted in anguish, was burned into her brain, as were the echoes of his horrific screams. For all of Hordak's shortcomings—and to Catra, there were many—she had never known him to be weak. Shortsighted and obsessive, perhaps, and certainly more brawn than cunning, despite his genius. But he was not weak, which is why it filled Catra with such visceral terror to see what that pool had done to him.

And now, as the clones dragged her to the same pool's edge, Catra knew she had to fight. She thrashed and snapped. Her loathing of water was nothing compared to whatever horrible fate awaited her in those luminous green depths.