1423/Snatch and Gab

Snatch and Gab
Date of Scene:	18 April 2024
Location:	Pikarigaoka Ward
Synopsis:	Glimmer and Catra lure Sayaka into a trap to interogate her about... BOW! Unfortunately for Glimmer, she finds out that an old friend is attached to her BEST friend. This calls for drastic action! Like trusting Riventon with this information!
Cast of Characters:	Sayaka Miki, Glimmer Brightmoon, Catra
Tinyplot:	Crystal Nope

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Sayaka Miki has posed:
It is a warm spring day, the inviting weather motivating people to enjoy the outdoors. On a bench at Penguin Park, Sayaka is sitting with a history notebook open on her lap, the rectangular blue schoolbag open just next to her, a few more textbooks visible from inside.

A pair of headphones rest on her head, the Andante Spianato in G Major Op. 22 by Chopin faintly heard by those bystanders with a good enough hearing. The bluenette's eyes are only barely focused on her surroundings, reading and re-reading the same passage over and over.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer was ready. She'd given Catra a picture of the target, so knew where to go. It was a bright day, sunny... and she'd seen the girl leave the school and head to the park. From there it had been simple.

Grab Catra (actually warning her this time, a new experience for the cat girl), head to the park, scope her out. Easy. As. Could be. Now she was just a bit down from her, behind some trees, in her leather jacket, toothpick in mouth, a smirk on her lips. She'd told Catra to take her time, grab the bag, lead her down here...

And she'd already gotten distracted.

Which was why, when Catra returned with the bag... There was going to be an ICE CREAM COOOOOOONE FOR HER! Yes, that's right. Glimmer actually left to get *ice cream* for them. She didn't know Sayaka well, but got her an ice cream too. she was happily eating her own, while the other two were in a little holder. She hoped they'd get there quick, though. She didn't want it to melt.

Oh. Also. She'd told Catra today her secret spy name... was GLORIA MOONHAWK! Badass exchange student from the country of Maine!

... Geography from another planet was not her strong suit!

Catra has posed:
Catra is walking around, with a picture of Sayaka printed on a piece of paper -- largely because her phone is in service at the moment, blasting out some Epica for it to be obnoxious to anyone withing about ten feet of her. It's possible that Sayaka might even hear her coming, even over her own music; but all she'd see is a grumpy looking American girl in a torn hoodie and equally damaged jeans, with the hood drawn over her head and her hands in her pockets. She walks in front of Sayaka, looks back and forth between her and the picture a couple times; then as she passes the bench she crumples up the picture and throws it away (littering!) and loops around behind the bench.

"Finders keepers!" she announces, more than loudly enough for Sayaka to hear her; the aim is to be followed, afterall. Even if being deliberately non-stealthy ought to be the antithesis of everything it means to be feline. She snatches up the bag, leaving it open with textbooks precariously exposed as she slings it over one shoulder and walks off, heading away in Glimmer's direction. She lifts one hand to wave as she goes, "So long, sucker!" she calls over her shoulder.

She walks along purposefully, but make sure to stay visible in the crowd, at least until she angles into the alleyway, and casually backs up against the wall to sandwich the bag between herself and the bricks.

"...Alright, points for being fast with the ice cream," she adds, accepting the cone and giving it a lick. "What flavor is this? It's not bad."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka does hear the obnoxiously loud music of the 'american' girl, especially since her own was set low enough that your hearing would have to be quite good to hear it in the first place (it also helps that it wasn't a very loud composition to begin with, since it was meant to help her phone), so she spares her an annoying before trying to focus on her notes. Perhaps she should consider investing in noise-cancelling headphones.

She registers the careless throw of the crumpled paper first, about to avert her gaze from her homework to set right the destination of the other girl's trash. This is a park, bins are always close by, how careless could you possibly be. "Hey you", she starts saying, intending to give Catra a piece of her mind over the littering, but then the feral girl makes off with her bag!

Jumping upright with indignation over the three discourtesies Catra has already marked herself guilty of, the bluenette is quick at rushing behind her, the chase well and truly started in the hopes of recovering her belongings and give Catra a piece of her mind. Or ten.

Which is how she finds herself in the same alley Glimmer is, and upon noticing the thief has an accomplice, the bluenette keeps her distance from the two, on her guard, catching onto she was being led here when she sees Catra has nonchalantly leaned against the wall. "What it this about?" she glares at the two.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Gloria Moonhawk gave a small grin to Catra once she arrived and... "Neopolotin. One of, if not the, best flavor you can have for ice cream. The chocolate mixes with the strawberry to give it some nice bite, then the vanilla can tone down chocolate and strawberry. Best. Flavor. Ever."

And then, well, Sayaka joins them. Glimmer glances towards her and... "Oh ho ho ho ho! It seems you've fallen right into my trap... Sayaka," Glimmer said with a knowing smirk, before reaching up to pull out the toothpick and flick to the the side...

... Then taking another lick of her ice cream.

"Also, there's a third cone here for you if you want it. Sorry about the methods, daaaaahling, but I had to make sure you came to me alone... without a bunch of magic do-gooders following you. You see, you and I... need to have a talk. And it was this method, or kidnapping. Which, frankly... considering the short duration of our parley, seemed a bit... excessive." Another small lick.

"I have many names, but you may call me... Gloria today. And, despite my namesake, I'm *not* here to cause you trouble. Your bag will be returned to you shortly, by my purrrrrrrfect associate." Oh gosh she was going to use puuuuuuns. Even if Catra wasn't 'Catra' right now.

"I need to talk with you... about a close, and personal friend of yours. Bow. And, more importantly... a bit of neck jewelry he wears. Tell me, does the name Horde Prime mean anything to you?"

... She did not have a future in acting.

Catra has posed:
"...And you'd better answer, or I'm gonna set your stuff on fire." Catra keeps her voice entirely deadpan. Hey, between her and Glimmer she actually has vastly more practice at being a villain. Maybe it's hard to be villainous while threatening to incinerate a small amount of Yen worth of personal belongings, but hey, you work with what you've got.

And then she licks her ice cream.

"Yeah, this is pretty good, but I don't think it quite tops salted caramel or mint chocolate for me," she muses. Apparently Catra has been to the ice cream shop more times than she's let on, since Glimmer first abducted her to one, more or less, with surprise-teleportation. Still, this flavor is pretty good. Definitely one for the repeat pile.

She lets the pun pass un-retorted to. It's ridiculous and Sayaka won't understand unless she drops her disguise, but whatever, she's being paid to be here so she'll let Glimmer have her fun. Even if she is watching Sayaka intently for the answer.

Also, what the heck is a Horde Prime? Have to ask about that later, and how that fits into the fanfic.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka had gotten perfectly well that this was a trap without the pinkette spelling it for her. And her name already being know doesn't really help put her at ease any. Does 'Gloria' really expect her to come close enough to grab that ice cream. "You can keep it, and really any other bribe you may try to offer me", Sayaka snorts, wondering what the two delinquents may want front her, especially once the purple girl mentions magic. A glance is spared to her Soul Gem ring when Sayaka starts accounting for the eventuality she may have to transform.

"You... have many names?" Sayaka repeats that superfluous bit of info, wondering why she may want to specify something like that. "If you aren't here to cause me trouble, you could have just come up to me, and asked me then. What makes you think I won't just retaliate?" she asks pointedly.

The bluenette crosses her arms when she hears all of this is because they want to ask her question. A look of surprise passes onto Sayaka's face when she hears this is about Bow and moreover Horde Prime, whose control chip currently rests on Bow's neck. "You set my stuff on fire, and my friend sets you on fire", Sayaka threatens back to Catra. Not that she intends to actually follow up on such a deadly threat, but Catra doesn't know that.

She doesn't intend to reply to Catra's silent question, but the catgirl gets an answer anyway when the bluenette replies to Glimmer. "Horde Prime is this villanous conqueror that makes use of control chips to conquer and subjugate the places he invades, and yes, Bow has one of those on his neck. Are you an Etherian?" she asks back to 'Gloria'.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Gloria Moonhawk cringed when Catra just went full pyromaniac. But wellll... she didn't disagree. This was Catra's field of expertise. Right? She'd done work with that...

But hey, Sayaka didn't want the other ice cream, so she shrugged and motioned to it. "Well, okay, you can have the other one then too," she offered to Catra. "And really? I never would have thought you as a 'Mint Chocolate' sort. Bow likes it too, heh."

She then glanced back to Sayaka. "And of course, dahling, any performer must have more than one name, no? For there are many roles I may need to perform at any time. None know when they will happen, but they may~" she said in a perky, amused tone. "And because it wouldn't have been dramatic enough, Sayaka. Besides, this... was funner." She took another lick of her ice cream.

Her eyes narrowed, however, when she saw that look on Sayaka's face. "Yes. He is. WAS. He *was* a villainous conqueror. But he's gone now." Adora made sure of that. "And you know what an Etherian is. So the important question I have for you... is why does Bow have something *that* dangerous on his neck? Those things almost destroyed all of Etheria and there's no telling *what* might happen if they're out there. Even Entrapta and Hordak probably wouldn't tamper with those things, let alone put one *on*."

She then stood up a little taller and smirked. "Can you not tell, dahling? I am the greatest of all Etherians, surely Bow told you about me?" She then took a bite of hjer ice cream and smirked... then...

"OW OW OW OW BRAIN FREEZE OW!"

Catra has posed:
Catra takes the second ice cream without hesitation. Two ice creams? What cat in the world is going to say no to that? Dairy is almost as good as fish, afterall. Almost. Not quite. ...But almost.

"Second greatest," she mutters as a correction, apparently unable to resist getting that one in. So now she stands there, still enjoying the first ice cream while holding another, and she tilts her head to Sayaka and shrugs. "You'd try," she says, with a smirk. "But if you're dating Bow then I highly doubt you have it in you to actually follow through, so you should probably stick to threatening things you might actually do. Because you're not very threatening."

Not that Catra ever would admit to being threatened even if she was.

Still. Against Catra's narrative, that she destroyed Etheria when she opened the portal, there is definitely a mounting pile of evidence to the contrary. Adora's here. Bow's here. Glimmer's here. Double Trouble's here... though she was able to write her off as just weirdness before, since she'd never met her in her own timeline. But now there's this blue-haired girl talking about stuff like Etherians and control chips and this Horde Prime whatever, like she knows all about it.

Probably it's all just a trick. That's right. It's nonsense. Adora and Glimmer hit their heads, and Bow's humoring them, because he's Bow. Or they're just trying to hide the truth from her. That'd make sense. It's not like any of them ever liked her anyway, even Adora neer stoof up for her. Not really.

"You sure you don't want this?" she asks, offering the un-licked ice cream at arm's length. "It's almost as good as Mint chocolate."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
It doesn't take Sayaka any additional second to get the gist of all the insinuations that Gloria is sending her way, though all she needed was the implicit confermation that she is an Etherian. "So that's you. Bow did warn me against you, and I don't know why I should tell you anything about him when you may use that to hurt him."

She continues on. "Those control chips are dangerous, and I don't really trust the one Bow has entrusted his to, but you are just as dangerous, imitating his and Adora's best friend to further your own ends. Why should I believe a word of anything you say?"

Sayaka doesn't really comments on Catra's reaction to her threat. Let her wallow in uncertainty. And besides, just because she is not willing to try and kill her, doesn't mean she is not willing to hurt her. She is not like Bow to that point. "Yes, I am sure", Sayaka remarks to Catra. Like she would ever approach them.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Gloria Moonhawk glanced back to Catra and sighed. "You know, you should be careful with that. You used to underestimate me all the time, too. And that didn't..." she trailed off. "Actually, that worked out pretty well for you a lot more than it should have. You really *are* kind of annoying like that, you know that?" she asked, glaring. Before turning back to Sayaka.

"Wait, entrusted his to? Horde Prime is *dead*. Nothing should be in there. We-- They destroyed him, for good, in the final battle against him and his fleet. And... I guess you don't have to believe a word I say." She pushed off the wall. Then groaned. "Wait. Is ENTRAPTA using them? Oh gosh. Bad enough she tried to dissect Adora to see if she was tech, but if she's... no. Not with Hordak. Even she'd know better. Considering how many times she had to take those things off and..." She sighed and shook her head.

"Sayaka, those chips are dangerous. Horde Prime used them to almost take over a planet. You... can't trust me, I guess. At least, in a lot of things. But on this? I *need* you to trust me. They are *bad*. The only person I've seen actually resist one was..." She trailed off and glanced to her colleague before shaking her head. "The only one I've seen resist one for any length of time was Catra. And I don't know if that was because Horde Prime was new to Etherian people or we just got it off in time. Horde Prime should be dead, but well... I don't know what brought all of us here. Catra's memories are all messed up, if he is *actually* alive, if he *chipped* Bow, I need you to tell us. If not for his safety, then for yours. Then for everyone on this world. You don't know me, but I know a *lot* about him. Horde Prime is a monster. A real monster. He wipes out entire *planets* and *civilizations* just so he can throw dinner parties *on their tables*. Whatever he's offered, whatever he's said he'll do, he *cannot be trusted*. About the only person who can be trusted less than him is Light Hope and in her case at least she doesn't seem to enjoy the destruction she causes."

And her talents for acting seem to have been forgotten, alas.

Catra has posed:
Catra has so, so many objections to all of this, but for the moment she is succeeding at biting her tongue. Well, mostly, anyway.

"Hey, under my leadership the Horde almost destroyed Brightmoon," she points out. "They were lucky Puddle Girl and Captain Seagull showed up with Flower Girl and Icicle Baby and all their forces or we really would've done it, and smashed that stupid Runestone to pieces." Might as well get in a few licks while Sparkles gotta stay in character and can't get too upset, right? The feline flashes a grin at Glimmer, and licks the hitherto un-licked ice cream.

"Look, if we're doing the good cop bad cop routine, I'm definitely the bad one, and I will absolutely break everything you hold dear and not care in the slightest. But her," she gestures with the half-eaten cone that she's not currently licking towards Glimmer, "Might actually care enough to do something. Maybe." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "So, you could let her help you, or I'll absolutely be there to laugh and say I told you so when that chip takes over Bow's entire brain and turns him into a pyscho-killer or something."

That, and if she can recover a control chip, maybe Takashi will stop being an aloof dork towards her. Miracles could happen.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka is thrown off by the suddenly earnest speech Gloria has for her, and the fact it's all very sincere. She knows Double Trouble is a really good impersonator and that flawlessly imitating others is his specialty, but the panic she hears in their voice, it's all too real and everything they say make too sense. If nothing else, she gets the sensation that for some reason they really care about Bow. But that's impossible.

"Are... Are you really Double Trouble?", Sayaka asks, still trying to put herself together after that alarmed and all too effective speech. "Why do you care so much about Bow? That's... Bow fears you, he warned me to stay on guard against you. Why are you speaking like you are his friend? That makes no sense. After the end, you joined a theater company. You never became Bow's friend." Sayaka stumbles as she tries to rationalise that deeply emotional speech in her head. Are they really that good at acting? Is this really the extent of what Double Trouble can do when they get serious.

She doesn't get it. The weird switch of personalities. The completely exaggerated and tacked on acting from earlier. It disappearing in favour of a completely earnest and worried. "Are you really Double Trouble?" she asks again, staring in obvious disbelief at Gloria. Something there just doesn't fit.

What makes her relent is hearing that Light Hope can be trusted even less than Horde Prime, playing into her own fears and suspicions, fitting all too well with the dislike Scorpia had demonstrated too. "It's her", Sayaka says. "Bow brought Light Hope here with, reformatted into a version he calls Crystal Hope. She really is dangerous, then? She has constantly been trying to hide information about the First Ones whenever Bow has tried to tell me about Etheria, she has been trying to dissuade him. I just don't get the feeling she cares about him."

Sayaka doesn't really has it in her to formulate a response towards Catra's attempt at establishing a 'good cop, bad cop' routine while she tries to deal with Gloria's speech. Not that it matters, since she ended up revealing everything anyway.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Gloria Moonhawk blinked a few times before *glaring* at Catra. "Yeah, I *remember*. That was quite a fight at the end. Wasn't the only time we came that close, either. When you--" Then stopped, turning to Sayaka... And then face palmed. "UGH! This is why I always hired Double Trouble. No, I'm not really them. But... listen. I'm Glimmer. The ACTUAL Glimmer, the Queen of Brightmoon. Bow... can't know I'm here. Because if he knows I'm actually here, he'll do something reckless. And if Adora knows I'm here she'll do something stupid. She's already probably planning a dozen stupid ideas because of a certain *cat*," she said, glaring at Catra... before sighing again.

"Not that I can blame her... To her, everything was probably just. So. Perfect. That's the most obnoxious thing about her, you know? She's so hard headed and focused on Catra. Right, focus. BOW! Wait."

And then her mouth fell open. "Did you say *Light Hope* is in that *CHIP?!* Bow has LIGHT HOPE connected TO A BRAINWASHING CHIP?!" she actually yelled that.

"Light Hope is INSANE! She'll say anything, DO anything, in order to get what she wants! She tricked me into activating the Heart of Etheria and I almost destroyed Etheria and the rest of the universe because of HER! SHE--"

Then stopped. Blinked... Took a slow, deep breath. "Right. Right. Calm, deep breathes. What. Would mom do." She started pacing. "Light Hope can't activate the Heart of Etheria. It isn't *here*. The Moonstone is gone. Scorpia is here too and if the Black Garnet is here, then that's that. Etheria can't have a Heart anymore. That magic was freed when Catra and Adora..." She stopped and glanced to Catra. She finally sighed.

"... We need Entrapta. She's the only one I know who could remove something like this. We need to plan. Right. SAYAKA!" 'Gloria' said, turning to the girl.

"You need to keep an eye on Bow. If he does anything that seems... weird? Call me. Uhhhhh..." She took out her phone and brought up the number. "I think... it's this? Works like this? Call me. Don't tell him I'm here. The LAST thing anyone needs is Light Hope knowing I'm here. Between me, Adora and Scorpia that's like... three out of the six pieces she'd want. If Perfuma, Frosta and Mermista are here somewhere, then she's likely looking for all six of us. Who knows what kind of... whatever she could be plotting. Catra!" she said, looking to Catra... and then sighing.

"Right, you think it's all insane. Well, great..." then paused. "Wanna help beat the thing that made both me and Adora look like fools? Is... there anyone in Obsidian who you'd say is as good with weird alien tech as Entrapta?"

Well, that was a lot to get... disgorged on all of them in ten seconds. But hey, queen was here.

Catra has posed:
Catra has by now finished one ice cream cone, and is about a third of the way through the other one. She's mostly letting Glimmer do the talking -- and she's just speaking up here and there to be annoying or rude or threatening or all three, albeit just mildly so far. Well, mildly so far anyway.

"Light Hope?" She spffts, just about spitting out a mouthful of ice cream. "I hate that stupid hologram! The one time we met she tried to kill me with giant robot spiders. But, hey, I guess I should realyl thank her; she made me realize I was better off without Adora and didn't have to be in her shadow all the time. I don't need her and never did."

But then there's that mention of Scorpia. Again. And she's here. This time it's not just implied, it's directly stated, but still, she doesn't want to comment on it. She doesn't need Glimmer to know how much she needs to see her Horde-mate. How badly she needs someone to be here who was on *her* side through everything that happened on Etheria. Well, everything she remembers of it, anyway.

"We do *not* need Entrapta, that girl is weird and annoying and her voice hurts my ears," she grumbles. As she speaks, she steps forwards from the wall enough that she can shrug off Sayaka's backpack, and then toss it on the ground at her feet. "Looks like we don't need to keep that any longer and it's not like I want your dumb books," she drawls. "Seriously, you didn't even need to follow me, I'd have just ditched them if this plan didn't work out. ...Humans are so predictable." She shrugs her shoulders, and jerks a thumb at Glimmmer. "Not that Etherians aren't, I guess. But hey, what can you do." She shrugs her shoulders emphatically.

"Weird alien tech? Talk to Riventon. He's the best nerd I know of around here. Of course, he won't have answers right away and he'll probably want to lead a mission to retrieve something, so you might have to let him operate on Bow." She flashes a grin, "I'm sure he won't kill him or anything, but it'd probably hurt. But hey, if you want the chip off..."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
The revelation that Double Trouble/Gloria is actually Glimmer makes much more sense in Sayaka's mind while she works on it, and at the same time, there is one last kernel of resistance. "So, all this time you were Glimmer pretending to be Double Trouble pretending to be Glimmer? What kind of twisted behaviour is that?"

Sayaka takes a deep breath as she tries to keep calm while she deals with the new revelations. "It probably wasn't true all the time, though, right? You just took over from a certain point, right? I don't know you all that much, but I don't want to believe you would try to mess with your friends", the bluenette considers, refusing that the Glimmer she saw in that video and heard about could behave like that.

And then there is the reveal of what Light Hope actually is. "She did that to you, for real?", Sayaka bites her lower lip, realising the huge trouble they are all in. "I was always thinking she was trouble, and I guess I was really afraid everytime I compared her more to Kyubey, but I didn't really expect to see my fears become reality." That's a whole other thing to deal with compared to potential things.

"Yes, you have my word that I will keep your identity and presence a secret and will keep you updated on anything weird that happens to Bow. My number is XXXXXXXXXX. Just be careful, he doesn't really want to listen to reason regarding Light Hope. Not to me, not to Nurse Meiou. And Light Hope is only connected to the chip, but isn't actually in there. Bow keeps her in his earring instead."

Sayaka picks up the bag with a scowl when Catra tosses it. "And leave it who knows where so it takes me hours to find it? I am not that interested in wasting so much time."

But then she turns to Glimmer again and starts vouching for Riventon. "Riventon is actually honourable in his own way", Sayaka says, recalling the time he brought Hinoiri back with no ulterior motive she could discern. "And while I don't know how deep his knowledge goes, he has his own research team, so I think he is dependable on that too."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Gloria Moonhawk nodded to Catra. "Yeah, she's a real pain in the butt. She made me blow through like... fifty of her stupid giant spiders last time I saw her. I thought she was dead. Ugh. And how are you ever in Adora's shadow?! All you ever seemed to do was cause us TROUBLE! If anything you were the tree that--"

Then stopped herself. Put her hands together. Deeeep breathes. "Catra. Is my friend. I will not murder the cat. No matter how much I desire to. It will just cause more problems in the end and I will feel bad about it. She is, deep down, a good person. Deep. Deep. Deeeeeep down. Right. Where was I?"

"And don't even try that with me, Catra. I know exactly how you feel about Entrapta. So does she. And it's fine. Riventon. Can he handle something like this? I thought he was more kind of... you sure he's not a Horde Prime clone? Ugh..."

She gently rubbed her forehead. Then ended her henshin. Standing there in front of Sayaka and Catra and everything as herself.

She then held her hand out to Catra. "I'll take us back to the tower and find Riventon, see if he can do... this."

She then glanced back to Sayaka... and... while she almost hadn't answered the other questions, she finally relented. "It's... complicated. Very complicated. Just... trust me. This is what's best for now. If they knew I was really here it'd cause a lot of problems. For them, for us. I can't explain it right now, but trust me. Them not knowing I'm here is what's best for all of us. Besides. Someone needs to be there to help Catra if she gets in over her head and I've always wondered what it was like being the villain. Oh ho ho ho ho!" she said, moving her hand up to her mouth and doing *the* laugh. "But... yeah. For now? It's better he believes that Double Trouble is pretending to be me. Ohhhh, I wonder if I can get that other girl to help... Maybe Scorpia could help, too. I mean, of all of us she was the only one I know who WAS chipped. If anyone can tell you how dangerous they are, it's her. Thanks, Sayaka. Just... keep an eye on him. Bow's a great guy, but he's a little... too trusting sometimes. Catra, ready?" she asked, glancing back to the other girl.

Catra has posed:
"Riventon's a jerk, but he's smart," Catra states in a very... banal tone of voice. "And yeah, he's got his own way of doing things, but whatever. He gets results." She shrugs, rolling her shoulders dismissively. "He's not a Hordak clone. Trust me, I grew up around Hordak, they're nothing alike." She actually grew up around Shadow Weaver, but close enough. Ish. In her mind.

Whatever.

The disguised feline finishes most of the second ice cream, and tosses the remnants of the cone into the alley somewhere. In hre mind, she's chewing on yet another mention of Scorpia. So, she's here. But she's not at Obsidian, or at least if she is, Catra hasn't seen her yet. But if she's not at Obsidian, there where on Etheria is she? Well, where on Earth, really, Etheria no longer exists. It doesn't. It *doesn't*. Catra's eyes narrow as she thinks about it, and almost misses Glimmer holding out her hand.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," she mumbles, reaching out to clasp hands with the princess. Seems like she's even missed everything about Catra, deep down, being a good person. Her brow is knit with deep thoughts.

Somewhere in her brain, there's this annoying voice asking the question that has to be asked; what if, maybe, Scorpia is here, but is no longer on Catra's side? What if she's on--

No.

That's not possible. It's not.

"Let's go, I'm done with this," she mutters, her voice instantly becoming darkly impatient.