The trio had walked into the large room that everyone had been in yesterday while trying to keep her alive.
Tigra couldn't help but wonder if it was personal reasons or political.
Just like the Princesses, Tigra is a powerhouse of the Horde and has grown important to the Horde.
While not important enough that the Horde would be in serious trouble without her, it would demoralize those that saw her as an 'idol' or someone placed on a pedestal. Someone that should be nearly invincible or an example of how far a soldier can get through hard work.
If she were to die in a place not publicly seen, like a major battle, most wouldn't have believed it until Catra and Hordak confirmed it for the kingdom.
On the other hand, it would call a few who were close to her for vengeance. Vengeance against those that may have killed her and may also refuse to even entertain diplomacy.
Squadron Alpha would definitely want blood. Scorpia was a toss up between wanting revenge - as unlikely as she could think - or wanting to avoid conflict. Entrapta would likely throw herself into her work.
Lucy and Serena may be upset, but they would focus on improving themselves and the soldiers under their command. General Judai may be saddened to see the rookie she took under her command fall.
Hordak likely wouldn't care. He'd be more focused on whatever he does up in his Sanctum or with the war.
Weaver would scoff and ask if she should be surprised about such a thing. That the mangy stray was and always would have been a mistake in her eyes and had simply lived up to her name: being a mistake.
Tigra shook her head lightly to stop that train of thought as thinking like Weaver always either upset her, angered her, or just made her feel exhausted with her.
She looked around before spotting an open box labeled "Rations."
"Either of you good for a ration?" She asked, walking over and looking in the box.
She counted about 100 rations based on how they were packed.
"Considering that these are likely all we have to eat until we leave? I'll take a red one." Catra answered.
Tigra grabbed a 5 pack and sliced it open and handed a red one to her.
While there weren't really any differences between them, they each had a color they liked more than others.
"I'll take-"
"Gray?" Tigra asked, already holding it out to her. "Or is it no longer your favorite ration?"
Adora took it with a smile before biting into it.
Her face immediately turned into a grimace.
"You got too used to non-ration food." Tigra pointed out, taking a bite out of a blue ration.
She could withhold the grimace as she still ate these often enough to still be slightly used to the taste.
"How often do you still eat these? Catra wondered, wearing a wince on her face from the taste. "I try to eat only two a week as prescribed by my medical personnel, but I still don't like the taste."
Tigra took another bite.
"Depends. If I spend my day just doing work via tablet or paper, usually only 1 every other day as long as I still eat 'normal' food."
"And otherwise?" Adora asked.
"If I'm training physically, magically, or just healing, I can sometimes end up eating 5 or 6 of them a day alongside my other food."
"Seriously?" Catra asked in disbelief. "That's like a total of 7-8 thousand calories a day like that!"
"How isn't your stomach being pumped due to the excess?"
"High metabolism and magical burning of calories." She shrugged. "My body keeps itself running at its best as long as it can. Did you think that all my quick running and magical abilities didn't come with its tradeoff?"
"But, isn't it the work of your sheet?"
"Power. Sheet is part of it, like how fire magic needs magic to be used. But kinda?" She tilted her hand back and forth.
"It definitely isn't that big of a drawback considering all of the things that this lets me do. Getting me from graduation to where I am now in just a year and a half at the cost of an extra 2 thousand calories on average a day?"
"Why did you jump so quickly after the Academy?"
"Quests. I level up and can do various things from it. After the Academy, I acquired several quests that let me level up fast enough that I can now leave me from Graduation in the dust, even if she could move 1500x faster."
The duo watched as Tigra finished her ration before grabbing another.
"How many are you going to eat now?"
Tigra took a bite before thinking.
"I'll need…maybe 5? I used almost all my magic and healed a lot yesterday." She shrugged.
"Tigra!"
The trio looked to the side before Tigra exclaimed as a purple figure slammed into her, causing her legs to go in the air.
"You're walking around!" Entrapta exclaimed, looking her over. "No aches? No remaining injuries? Almost as if your injuries never happened."
She continued moving around her, checking her body while holding a recorder.
"Leg seems back to normal with no indication of the femur being broken in three places." She poked her hip. "No sudden jolt from a cracked pelvis." She moved up her side and poked her ribs. "No sharp breathing that would indicate several broken ribs. Move your legs?"
Tigra complied, causing Entrapta to hum while Archer sat down next to Adora.
"Separation of the spinal cord seems to be fixed. Take off the shirt."
Tigra rolled her eyes before looking over at Catra and Adora with an exasperated look while Archer's eyes were wide.
"How about I let you check me out later? I'm fine and the girls can confirm that I don't have any wounds on my upper body."
Entrapta looked at the two of them while Archer seemed intrigued about something.
"Yeah, she's fine." Catra answered. "Besides scaring us to death, she seems back to normal."
"I will be doing check ups back in the medical bays when we return." Entrapta declared.
"Very well. How have you been holding up, Archer?"
"It's Bow."
"Wait, is it actually Bow?" Tigra asked. "I thought that was a cover name."
"Nope. It's my name. So, can I ask what the other side looked like?"
"Bow!"
"An unending darkness with small specks of light surrounding an ethereal body of yours." Tigra spoke with a smirk.
"I can't tell if you're being serious or if you're just messing with me."
"Sounds like a problem for you."
"Anyways, has anything happened while we've been out?" Adora asked.
"Sea Hawk and Scorpia have been hanging around-"
"Who?" Tigra asked.
"Sea Hawk? The other guy who was with us?"
"Is that what "Inspector" calls himself? Or is his name actually Sea?"
"It's…his name." Bow spoke slowly. "Do you not know any of our names?"
"Flower Power, Crystal, Shimmer, Archer, Tide, Nets, Spinnerella, and Dora." Tigra listed off.
"Only one of those was right, and it wasn't mine." Bow muttered as he came to his own conclusion.
"Did Spinnerella do something for you?" Adora asked. "She's the only one without a nickname."
"Can't think of any good names." Tigra shrugged.
"Good to see she's up." A voice spoke, causing Tigra to look over. "We have a few things to clear up regarding the next day or so."
"Shimmer! Wondered how long until I saw your sparkles."
Glimmer huffed. "What is it with the Horde and not knowing my name?"
"Oh we know it. We just don't care."
"Great."
"What needs cleared up?" Catra asked.
"A full agreement of a ceasefire until the blizzard clears up enough for all of us to return to our kingdoms. Everyone here basically agreed except for your General."
"Is that it? I'll agree to the ceasefire. Despite what you may think, I know how not to piss off several kingdoms at once."
"Either way, are you good after that wound?"
"Yes."
"Good to see that She-Ra was able to heal you when you were on the edge."
"Act-"
"50/50." Tigra cut off an Adora who started to speak who widened her eyes at almost speaking without thinking.
"Really?"
"Her healing definitely helped fix my body but it also supercharged my healing." She finished her second ration. "Also need to thank Rani for putting me under stasis."
"Wait, how do you know about that? You were unconscious since we recovered you." Glimmer asked.
Tigra went silent before everyone there saw her shadow darken before a small, black cat with golden eyes hopped out of her shadow.
"This little guy lets me see events through their eyes. Granted it is only able to move about 100 feet away from me, but it's good to use if I'm not planning on moving too far." She lied.
"So, it doesn't need you to remain conscious to continue being used?" Adora asked.
"As long as I give it enough magic, no. It will simply keep using the energy I gave it before it would eventually run out like a battery."
"So you know everything that happened while you were out?"
"Everything that Entrapta was a part of."
Several heads looked at Entrapta as the cat sat next to her.
"Oh yeah, the cat. I wondered where it went after we left to check on the robots." Entrapta commented, working on her tablet now. "I assumed that they stayed behind. But considering that it came out of your shadow, I'm assuming that they could also go into shadows."
"Correct."
"Interesting."
"Tigra."
Everyone - bar Entrapta - looked over and saw Rani.
"Rani, right?"
"Yes. May I have a moment of your time?"
Tigra stood back up before holding a hand out as Catra started to stand.
"I'll be fine. How about you make sure Dora doesn't accidentally break something." She suggested while grabbing the next Ration bar.
"Hey! I won't-"
Something made a metallic sound as if something fell to the ground away from the group.
"You can't blame me for that."
"Uh huh." Tigra followed Rani as she brought her away from the group.
Rani messed with her tablet as Tigra sat down on a box.
"So what did you want to talk about? Considering that you took me away from the group, it's something you may not want them to hear."
"Partially. How much do you know about Halfmoon?"
"Capital of the Magicat Kingdom, destroyed by the Great Flame, Etheria believes that only 0.25% of people may have survived but in reality, around 30% were likely able to evacuate. Etheria believes that the Spirit Ember overloaded and nearly swallowed half of the Crimson Waste. The real cause is potentially tied to the Princesses Rey and Luna, who had fought and they caused the overload."
Rani blinked.
"Wow. You know a good amount of the cause. Especially since we did our best at keeping half of what you said underwraps."
"I found something interesting that had been left behind and is now in my possession."
"May we have it back? That information could-"
"Over my cold, dead body." Tigra narrowed her eyes, taking Rani back. "It is connected to my family. That's all I will say."
Rani gained a slightly understanding look, before looking at her gently.
"Alright. But the main reason I started to ask is because our Queen decided that we needed to start reaching out to any remaining Magicats that had been left behind when Halfmoon fell.
The Queen wants to know if we could convince you to come see our homeland. If you continue working with the Horde during this period of time, we will have to blindfold you as we want to remain neutral during this war."
Tigra waited for her to continue, but she stopped.
"Alright, get on with it."
"Huh?"
"You wouldn't have dragged me away from the group for most of that. You haven't said where the new kingdom is, haven't confirmed how many of us escaped, and you wouldn't have dragged me away from the wielder of She-Ra and another Magicat to tell me that the Queen wants me to return.
But while we are on the subject, I have to point something out."
Tigra held up three fingers.
"Before we started fighting, you told Adora that you both had your own missions and to leave me to you. That implies that you came along because you either knew that I was heading Northwest to the cold or that you suspected I would be coming along, which doesn't make much sense considering I've been out of the Horde 5 times since the Battle of Brightmoon.
Second, you assumed I was immune to Fire and Ice just because I was immune to Lightning. To come to the conclusion, you must have figured that my immunity to Lightning was not natural. If it wasn't, you then assumed that I must have my own method to become immune. Your logic depends on me only being able to be immune to spells I know. Who's to say that I don't know all types of spells?"
"There's a limit." Rani shook her head. "The most different types of spells learned by one person are 6 with them being fire, water, ice, electricity, earth, and light. Even then, they only got to expert level spells in 5 of them."
Tigra withheld her scoff. She had plans that would lead her to having spells in a wide range of spells and that isn't something you proclaim to someone who is currently an enemy.
She's had to say too much to Shimmer already around her Shadow Spy spell. Only Adora would know how far they can go, considering that attempt with Mystacor Weaver tried.
"Then third, you have been saying me. The Queen is inviting me. You wanted to talk to me. This entire time, you have been trying to convince me to follow you to an island that I would not know how to leave and return to the mainland. If I were to be trapped there, I could go the wrong way and end up falling into the ocean after exhausting myself. Yet not once, have you said you would convince Catra to join us. Not once convincing me that Magicats are being invited, but that I am being invited."
Tigra pointed a black claw at Rani.
"So tell me the real reason why you are trying so hard to convince me to follow you to an undisclosed location."
Rani appraised her before smirking lightly.
"Very well. The Spirit Ember. You connected to the Runestone that we had to leave behind, else we could destroy the only place we had readied in case something happened. You are connected to the current royal family, which is shown through your connection and blue flames. There are two Princesses at the moment and we need confirmation of whose child you are. Not to mention, you'd be able to see your parents again."
Tigra studied her before a flame clone appeared next to her with a snap.
Rani stiffened before returning to a loose stance.
"Look us in the eyes and tell us that you don't know who my parent is? Because I've seen their pictures. I know who my parents are. I know that I am part of the Sol family."
"...Very well. We know you are the daughter of Princess Rey. The real problem is who the other parent is. Princess Rey took two mates about 22 years ago, but one of them turned criminal. We believe that your other parent is Silva Brayz."
Rani held out her tablet, which Tigra took and looked at it.
Long, white hair greeted her. Almost as long as her own. Replace Tigra's orange fur with light gray and her golden eyes with ocean blue, and it was practically an older her if you ignored the nose and how Silva's claws weren't black like hers. Granted, Silva is wearing blue armor and black gloves, but the relationship between them would be hard to deny if they were next to each other.
While Tigra would like to know more, she is more curious about something else at the moment.
"And her other…mate?"
"That's who we are worried about."
She took the tablet back before swiping a few times and holding it back out.
A woman with long red hair, yellow scleras, and a smile with orange fur met her. She wore gold, red, white, and black armor with a picture of two daggers on her hips that looked familiar. Her claws were black.
Tigra knew who it was before Rani said anything.
"Vi'ra Shal. She had been childhood friends with the Princess and they eventually decided to become mates alongside Silva. Officially, after the destruction of Halfmoon, Rey was not supposed to be meeting anyone without permission for the next 8 years as punishment. Then, one day, a royal guard caught sight of Rey holding a small kitten with her black hair and orange fur.
Before an investigation could be done to determine who the parent was, Vi'ra took you and ran. Rey and Silva were devastated and the Queen sent our second fastest person to retrieve you, seeing as she could not just leave her kingdom alone. It took nearly 3 and a half years before Vi'ra was found.
However, before they could retrieve you and bring you home, Vi'ra performed a teleportation spell on you and we lost you. When questioned, she stated that she had sent you to where La'nu - our figure of destiny - decided that you should be. You weren't sent back to Rey and we could not find you anywhere in the kingdoms."
"What…what happened to her?"
"Vi'ra was locked in our prison for life or until she would give up your location. She never did, not even when Rey or Silva visited her." Rani looked hesitant. "Until 5 years ago. The Queen had enough of her silence about your whereabouts and had declared that she was to be exiled from the village and never allowed to return so long as she reigned. No vessel leaving the island was to take her with them, else they would be hunted and executed for helping a criminal escape. She would have her magic blocked through a manner that would be impossible to remove without the blessing of the Spirit Ember and the Royal Flames."
"But wait, what prevented Rey from undoing them?"
"Rey may be connected with the Spirit Ember, but she did not gain the Royal Red flames of Rao. Silva does not have either of their connections. Your aunt, Luna Sol, has been blessed by the Royal flames and Spirit Ember, but would not help Vi'ra due to her taking away her niece and abandoning her with no way to reconnect with her previous family. Queen Selina can undo it, but will not due to having a distaste with Vi'ra and it would be a bad precedent with her ruling if she took something back where she declared she wouldn't as long as she reigned."
"So you want me back to tidy up the loose end when it comes to helping Vi'ra?"
"It is…one of the reasons."
Tigra raised an eyebrow.
"Luna and Selina would love to see you, but it is also to give the Royal family another member. Rey has declared to the kingdom that she would not take another mate besides Silva. Silva can not bear any more children if you are hers due to biological issues. Luna had been cursed by a wretched witch of shadows that weakened her body enough that she can no longer have a child without exchanging her own life. Sydia has not awakened the Royal Flames.
As of now, you are the only descendant of the current generation to have both and could continue the lineage. The Queen's main job is to keep the citizen's safe, the Royal Family secured, and to prepare the next generation."
There it was.
She was going to be used to keep this 'royal family' in charge and they were already trying to set up who would likely be her Chosen without her consent if they were worried about these Royal Flames.
Yet…something didn't seem right.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not going alone. If I am to be visiting a random place with no idea of where it is, I will be bringing Adora and Catra with me. No ifs or buts. Especially since you say a ruler is interested in me." Tigra finalized. "Now then, I'm going to spend time I haven't been able to with Adora and likely be hugged to death."
Tigra turned around and walked away, leaving Rani alone.
Rani watched as she left after denying their offer to return to her family.
Her understanding smile slowly turned into a dark frown.
She messed around with her tablet before holding it in front of her.
It rang for a second before Nari's gray furred face appeared.
"How did it go?"
"Py'ra saw through it easily. The cover story focused too much on convincing her to come with us through her connections that she pointed out we weren't trying to get Catra on board as well. The idea of seeing her family again didn't take her off guard enough to ignore different things. She also knows that there was a fight between the Princesses."
Nari frowned before looking to the side.
"That was one of our main worries. We had created that story before we became aware of her attachments. It was too late to try and change the story so quickly. What did you tell her?"
"Vi'ra was exiled, Rey and Silva are devastated, and that she's the last of the Royal Blue Flames. She heavily questioned Vi'ra's condition while not caring about the Royal Flames. Didn't ask one question about them."
Nari huffed before narrowing her eyes.
"That's not all, is it?"
"Py'ra likely believes that we have a spy around her. Stated how it would be strange that I knew she would be here after I let a statement slip about how dealing with her was my mission."
"Her capabilities?"
"If she was on the island, she would be the third or fourth fastest magicat. Take away her magic though, and she would likely fall to 86th. While I wasn't able to get an accurate reading due to dealing with a light injury, she was moving faster than Mach 150 with the amount of afterimages she was leaving behind and the lack of sonic booms. She can use high leveled spells such as Armor for Lightning, Fire, and potentially Ice. Her healing factor is strong, but it looks like it can be overdone or suppressed through some facet of magic, seeing as She-Ra can do it."
"What are our chances of getting Py'ra back to the island without an interloper?"
"Willingly? None at the moment. She has chosen Catra, a relationship similar to choosing someone as their mate. She hasn't declared it, but I can see that she likely cares about Adora nearly as much."
"And not?"
Rani went quiet for a moment.
"I'd either need 3 months to get more information and plan from there, or I'd need Luna, you and I, or Queen Selina to be certain of it if it comes down to a fight."
"You're certain of that difficulty?"
"Py'ra could give me a good challenge should I be given permission to go all out. As of now, she can keep up with me when I limit myself to only Electricity to increase my speed while only attacking with Light. Other than that, she is heavily dependent on Electricity and Fire spells. Disable those and you just need to deal with her natural speed, which all of the top 20 speedsters could do."
"...Very well. We'll wait for a moment when Py'ra is alone and has no need to worry about others. As of now, you will be able to use 50% of your power in a normal conflict and all of it should your life be in danger."
Rani smirked.
"Understood. Rani out."
She hung up before putting the tablet back up while chuckling lightly.
"Oh, Py'ra. You're too confident in being the fastest. That was first challenged by Bolt, but he showed you how to get better through Armor spells. So I wonder…"
She walked back to the group's area with one final comment.
"How will you deal with something you can't hit?"
Tigra tried to breathed but found it hard with two muscular arms around her body.
"I'm so glad you're alive!" Scorpia exclaimed, swinging her side to side.
"Uh, Scorp, you may need to let her breathe?" Catra suggested.
Scorpia looked down at Tigra, who was faking as if she was about to lose consciousness.
"Oh, Lord!"
Scorpia let go and Tigra landed back on her feet and took dramatic breaths.
"You good?"
"Yeah. Scorp just has the strongest hugs you'll find in the Horde. But how are you holding up? I know the sight must have worried you on top of the cold?"
"I'll speak to Seraph when we return home."
"Seraph?" Catra and Tigra asked.
"My therapist."
"You have a therapist?" Adora asked, not understanding.
"Yeah? Doesn't everybody?"
"Nooo." Tigra drawled.
"Well, they should. Therapists - yes, even the few in the Horde - aren't allowed to speak about anything you say unless it sounds like it will be harmful to your wellbeing to anyone. Not even Lord Hordak is allowed to know what I tell Seraph."
"Huh. See Dora, even Scorp has one." Catra nudged her.
"Yeah. It means that all of us have the option." She threw back.
"Uh, yeah? The Rebellion has them too, right?" Scorpia loudly whispered to Glimmer.
"Yeah, but from what I managed to get from the two of them, yesterday was highly traumatic for all of them. They made a deal where each of them may get a therapist as long as the others did as well."
"What's the problem then?"
"Vulnerability." Tigra interrupted them, walking next to them. "I don't know if it's the same for you Scorp, but there's a difference between telling someone who understands your problems because they have been beside you for years, and talking to someone who is looking at you as a project to fix. Telling some random person about parts of you when you're weakest? That's largely frowned upon in most of the Horde."
"We should change that." Scorpia declared.
"We will. It will likely take a decade or two to tear down that mentality, but we'll get there."
"You know, maybe you'll be a better Horde Lorde than Hordak if you're that focused on the people of your kingdom." Glimmer mentioned.
Tigra watched as the two groups practically melded into one with conversations and slight teasing each other.
"Yeah…my kingdom."
Quest [Northern Reach] Completed!
Entrapta stated that she found a strong signal that could easily be useful for their First One projects.
Objective: Retrieve the First One relic
Hidden Objective: Defeat/Kill Rani
Hidden Objective: Defeat Infected She-Ra (Failed)
Reward: 5,000 EXP, 2 skill points | 10,000 EXP
…
Leveled up! LV 62 → 63
15 Attribute points and 3 skill points awarded!
…
WIS increased by 15
WIS: 277 → 294
MPR: 3745 → 3974
…
5 skill points turned into 1 Trait point,
Trait points: 1 → 2
Skill Points: 7 → 2
Tigra hummed to herself as she finished up her report about the Northern Reach. After they had called a ceasefire, not much happened for the rest of their time together.
Sure, she and Catra kept messing with Adora but nothing big happened, other than her talk with Rani.
She never really thought about how she is the Princess of another kingdom. Sure, she's known that she isn't from the Horde but never truly thought about how a Kingdom lost a Princess.
"Not that it matters that much." She muttered. "I may be Princess Rey's child, but I'm currently working for the Horde. I'm a Force General who plans on becoming a Horde Lorde. I don't think they want someone like that on their island."
Her shadow darkened before 4 cats came out. After a few seconds, they split up and left her.
She walked down a hallway, passing cell after cell.
'Skill Shop - Pure.'
Skill Shop - Pure Spells (2 points available)
Weight, Regenerate, Mass Heal, Shield, Charm, Fear, Blast, Sense, Missile
…
Regenerate purchased!
…
[Regenerate LV 1 (0/250) - With this spell, magic is imbued into a target's natural healing rate. This increases their healing rate by LV/150 %. Due to [Brilliant], this is increased to (LV*1.25)/150 %. MP: 10/s
Current boost: 0.83%]
…
Trait Shop - Maniac opened! (2 points)
Electromaniac
Cryomaniac
Umbramaniac
Aeromaniac
…
Electromaniac chosen!
[Electromaniac - All Electricity based spells gain 2x more EXP]
…
'While I'm curious about a few of those, increasing my HPR is always welcomed. Mastering that spell will also do good for Armor spells in the future.'
Tigra's mind went back to She-Ra practically cutting her leg off with the only reason it was still attached was because Phoenix activated and healed it right after her sword left her leg.
'I also need to either increase my CON or find another multiplier for just HP. Her one attack did so much damage in one go that it didn't matter how high my HPR was if it reached 0 in less than a second.'
She looked at her newest trait right after though.
'Yet I'm now immune to most non-magical attacks. The problem is, She-Ra usually does magical damage as well as physical damage. What if the She-Ra I fought then was only using her strength with little magic to enhance it.'
Tigra shivered at that thought.
'I can't imagine how powerful Adora will be once she truly masters that form.'
She reached her destination before looking in the cell.
"Prison life isn't for you, is it?"
In front of her was Shadow Weaver, who's hair just laid down due to gravity and no longer using magic to keep it floating.
"Oh great, the other failure." She grumbled.
Tigra activated Shadow Mask.
She needed to keep her emotions in control but would use this in the event that she couldn't keep her emotions completely in check.
"So you managed to get into my old spellbook." She hummed. "I shouldn't be that surprised. You always did have a strange resistance when it came to lightning. I can assume that you are at least completely resistant to electricity based spells and attacks, seeing as you took a powered lightning blast to distract me from the other stray. It was also likely that it was developed and you weren't born with it."
"Oh? How did you determine that verdict? Usually you only pay attention to me when I'm better than your 'prodigy' or She-Ra's vessel."
"Please. All I did was correct your outrageous behavior before someone else could. You should be thanking me for that. If I hadn't, what do you think Hordak would have done?"
"He would have made it clear what would happen should I do it again while having words with my commanding officer about my behavior. Oh wait, that would have been you. However, I learned that you don't really care about things like that."
Tigra leaned closed to the energy barrier separating them.
"I know what you did with Adora. How you managed to find a loophole to our deal. How you threatened Adora with punishing me and Catra. How you knew that as long as you didn't harm her, I would be none the wiser. Just as how if you 'punished' me away from her eyes, Adora would believe you were keeping your end of the bargain."
"But, for once, I'm not here for them. No, Adora and Catra can handle themselves now. They don't need me to protect them from you anymore. Not when you're like this. A sad, miserable old woman who is either waiting for a moment to escape or has accepted that you have no allies here who would risk their lives to help you escape.
What I'm here for is hopefully a few answers."
"Fine. What questions will I need to waste breath to answer?"
"Why do you hate me?" Tigra wondered. "I know you dislike Catra, but you seem to hate me."
"You're disrespectful towards your superiors. You barely listened to your betters and proclaimed yourself the best at magic in this magical backwater kingdom. A student at Mystacor would be a better magic user than anyone here. The sight of you infuriates me the likes I have only felt decades ago. But more than that? I loathe that I made the mistake to pick up two flea ridden strays that will never be more than a grunt in an army that is being led by an incompetent leader." She spat.
Tigra's face gave nothing away to what she was feeling thanks to Shadow Mask.
"I hate you for causing me pain with no real reason." She started. "I will always hate you. While Catra may be forced to see you as our mother figure due to her not knowing any other parent or guardian, I know my mothers. I know how a parent is supposed to keep you safe, even if it gets them hurt. I didn't listen to my 'betters' because I was already better than them. I learned everything they could teach me within two months. The rest of the time while learning under them, I was helping my Squadron.
Proclaim myself as the best at magic? I never made that claim until you were in a cell with your magic being siphoned off due to some curse. Saying a student being taught magic in a magical kingdom would be better than me? That's like stating the Horde soldiers would know conflict more than Plumerians. It's likely a fact because we have been taught while the others haven't.
The sight of me infuriating you is probably stimulated from an encounter with other magicats. Perhaps, you know another magicat by the name of Luna Sol?"
"Of course you would learn of that Royal tick. I shouldn't be surprised that you managed to find other flea strays. I don't know what you read or were told, but that woman deserved it. Turning me away from their society just because I'm not a practitioner of "light magic" and that my magic had been tainted. She deserved the curse for turning me away."
Tigra's mask cracked for a moment.
Weaver could practically see an inferno in her eyes before being replaced by the moonrise eyes.
"That right there, is why I will gladly be rid of you in the future. You justify a curse like that because she turned you away? You hate Catra and I because of such a reason as that!?" Tigra's voice raised as fire sparked off of her.
"I see you haven't matured either. Hearing something you don't like-"
The barrier turned off.
Weaver found herself slammed against the back of the cell with a clawed hand around her neck. If she hadn't done a ritual in the past when she started working with the Black Garnet, she's sure that she would smell burning flesh.
"You don't understand who is above who." Tigra growled. "You are nothing without the Garnet. You are nothing with your magic. You . Are . Nothing . "
Weaver couldn't say anything due to the grip on her neck.
"The only thing preventing me from removing your head from your body is the fact that Hordak would give some kind of punishment to me and I'm still working through his punishment of being unable to leave the Horde without someone requesting me for the next month."
Weaver felt the claws prick her skin and knew that they would easily pierce her throat.
"But do not test me." She growled. "You keep calling me stray and a mistake. Yet, you should know the first thing about strays is that they often lash out with their claws or bite. While I have made many mistakes up to this point, removing you from Etheria will not be one of them. If I must get in trouble for removing the threat of a rogue second in command, I'll likely get a pay deduction and maybe be put back down to Force Captain."
Tigra leaned forward.
"But it will be worth it . To know that you will never be able to hurt us again. To know that you will never be able to hurt anyone again. To know that in your last moments, you will have realized that you created the monster that will have ended your life."
"And you'll…take my place…as the monster." She gasped out.
Tigra raised an eyebrow.
"You think I care? I've killed hundreds already. I'm a monster to Brightmoon and Plumeria. Salineas has issued an 'on sight' order against me should I ever show up in the kingdom. I have the power of the Spirit Ember flowing through me. I can move hundreds of times the speed of sound." She listed off.
[Shadow Weaver Age: 62]
[Level 31* (95) Relationship: -18 [Hated], -27 [Nemesis] ]
[HP: 472/3200**]
[*Cursed]
[**Cursed - Due to not having enough magic to fight off the Curse, [Shadow Weaver] is losing 15 HP per day and can not be healed unless the curse is broken]
…
Tigra did pause at that.
"You're dying." She muttered. "You're dying because of some kind of curse." She loosened her grip.
"The Spell of Obtainment." She grumbled. "A spell that I required another individual to perform it with. They messed it up, leaving me a husk of the sorcerer I used to be. It granted me the ability to absorb magic and be able to use Dark magic at a high level. The problem is that, since it was ruined by another sorcerer, it drained me of my magic. Without the Black Garnet to keep refilling my magic, it is draining me of my body."
Tigra watched her before letting go of her grip and landing a weak kick against her leg, causing Weaver to fall to the ground with a cry.
"Pretty bad knee you've got there." Tigra mentioned, walking back out of the cell.
She reactivated the barrier and turned her head to the side to look at her.
"I could do worse. You pride yourself on magic. All it would take to remove that pride is to remove your arms from the shoulders. Doing that removes a large amount of spell capability. But I doubt I need to threaten you."
Weaver started to chuckle lightly, barely reaching Tigra's ears.
"After all, threatening someone who's going to be dead in a month leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But after a month, Etheria will be free of you."
She started to walk away.
"And that's a future I look forward to."
________________________
Tigra stared at the Black Garnet in front of her. The red glow emanating from it seemed to dye the room a light red.
A stray crimson bolt would come off of it every few seconds while machinery was connected to it from the top and bottom.
"Weaver was using your red lightning when she was about to attempt to wipe Adora's memories. You provide electrical energy, not dark magic." She spoke aloud.
She laid a hand on it and could practically feel the electricity inside of the Runestone, wanting to be freed and used.
She let some of her yellow electricity connect with the Runestone before dragging her hand away. Red electricity connected with her yellow and followed the arcs that she had created with her own magic.
"You mix with my electricity too well to be anything but electricity. So how did she use you for such a thing as memories?"
She isn't sure what happened, but she felt a tingle go through her magical paths.
Spark. Brain. Neuron.
Tigra blinked as the feeling went away, joining her pathways as her own magic.
"Sparks can be created and manipulated, but the brain? Neurons are how the brain sends messages throughout the body but…does it mean manipulating the neurons inside the brain? If so, I'm nowhere near that level yet. But the knowledge and application? I could do that in a month if I focus enough."
Quest Created!
Electric Path
You have determined to become proficient enough with electricity magic to eventually manipulate the neurons in someone else's brain. If you're proficient enough, you should be able to go through memories.
Objective: Master 20 Electricity Spells [4/20]
Reward: [True Heir] updated
…
'Heh? The heck do you mean [True Heir] updated? That's a racial trait.'
That connected you to a royal family and gave you the ability to connect to a Runestone. It can be improved.
'Does that apply to all of them or just Electricity spells?'
For now, you will either unlock those missions when it is within reason or an event could have been triggered. Such as when you touched the Black Garnet.
'You mean, True Heir could be updated if I master 20 spells of each type? I could connect with more of them?'
True Heir allows a maximum of 1 connection per parent. After that, it needs to be evolved.
This will create changes in your background, so be sure which extra Runestones you want to attempt this with. Such as choosing [Moonstone] would force one of your ancestors to be related to the main family of Brightmoon or any other kingdom like that.
"Right. Well, I really should train a bit more." She thought before creating a clone of lightning.
She sat down away from the devices before using Stream out of both of her hands. To prevent the water from getting close to the mechanical parts, the lightning clones were channeling a stream of lightning between them that would evaporate the water upon continuous contact.
Of course, this meant the water became highly conductive and the lightning made its way to her.
Luckily, she was immune to electrical attacks for a long time now.
By doing it this way, she would gain 200 EXP for Stream and 8000 EXP for Lightning Clone every minute.
'Doing the math, I need…19,000 EXP to max out Stream and…about 3 million for Lightning Clone.'
Doing that math had taken her about half a minute to do.
'So it would take 95 minutes to master Stream and about 6 hours for Lightning Clone.'
She then trained there for the next 95 minutes before she mastered Stream and cut off Lightning Clone.
Stream gained 19,000 EXP!
Stream mastered!
[Stream LV MAX - You can create a continual stream of water out of your hands. MP: 5/m]
Magic Control increased by 5% and WIS increased by 2
Magic Control: 204% → 209%
WIS: 294 → 297
Lightning Clone gained 2000 [MP_USE] * 4 [Genius and Electromaniac] * 95 [Minutes] = 760,000 EXP!
Lightning Clone leveled up! LV 90 → 112
[Lightning Clone LV 112 - You can create up to 8 clones that have access to your Electricity spells and abilities. They have 1/3 your HP and MP.]
…
Tigra cut off the water magic before heating her hands up on fire before evaporating the water.
She stood up and started to leave before her tablet went off with a message.
Lord Hordak has asked for your input regarding an internal matter regarding someone in the Horde.
"Huh?" She muttered, creating 5 Lightning Clones with one having a dark shadow who immediately left her.
They were heading to the gym that she had set a time for in order to continue teaching her students. They would be focusing on Electric spells the next month or two, depending on how fast the students go through her spells.
In the meantime, she'll be able to get some good EXP for Shadow Spy and Lightning Clone.
'I should have mastered them long ago. I've had Shadow Spy for over half a year and it still hasn't been mastered.'
The last time a spell took this long for her was when she was beginning her magical journey into the elements.
She began walking to Hordak's Throne Room for a minute before finding herself there.
The door didn't slide away immediately before she knocked on the door.
"General Tigra!" She announced.
A few seconds went by before it slid to the side and she walked into the room.
Hordak was sitting on the throne before his red eyes went from his several monitors to her.
"You arrived here quickly."
"You requested me and I was relatively close by." She shrugged. "Your message said something about an internal matter?"
"Yes. Tell me, what would you recommend should be done if there is a risk of someone exposing the secrets of the Horde?"
"Subtly find out what the risk is, how big the potential risk of information leak is, who is the one who may leak it, are they loyal, and, if need be, eliminate the risk before it can happen." She laid out.
"Not trust that everything will be fine?"
"Sir, the Horde works on facts and limits. We know how quick we can reach other soldiers because we know the limits of our Skiffs. We know how many soldiers are needed per Princess as they tend to leave a battlefield if there are more than 1,000 soldiers in one place.
An information leak? The last time one of those happened, a Princess and a member of the Elementalists confronted me in battle at Tyde. If it was any other General besides me, it likely would have failed."
She saw Hordak start to speak.
"Not boasting sir." She quickly added on. "I was fast enough to be able to keep up with 2 large threats at the same time and take down over a dozen Royal Guards as well."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Yes, I remember that being in your reports. The issue though, is your response to an actual leakage of Horde information."
"What do you mean?"
"Despite everything you have said, you have continued to let a threat to the security of the Horde continue their work."
Imp, his little pet(?), floated down to sit next to him on his arm rest before opening its mouth.
"Yes, that's correct." The voice of someone she didn't know came through. "Force General Tigra submitted a report to watch a Settler known as Lukan Lyle after she became aware that the forces at Tyde were likely made aware of their movement. She exercised that we shouldn't capture him yet but suggested he may have been the reason for the fall of the Plumerian outpost and how he had knowledge pertaining to Tyde before the Settlers were supposed to know. It has also been found that he had been to Thaymor twice. Both times were taken days after he had returned to the Fright Zone."
'So General Tigra knew about this leak in security and didn't bring it to my attention?'
"I suppose not, if this is your first time hearing about it."
Imp closed his mouth.
"What did you say? 'Eliminate the leak if needed?'"
"Correct." Tigra stood her ground. "At the time, I only had a high suspicion of him being a spy. I did not have concrete proof other than potential coincidences. After all, Everyone who returned from Thaymor may have been a spy. Anyone who was at Thaymor when it fell could have been a spy. The point I'm making is that I had no proof that Lukan was the spy and not simply having bad luck for a while now."
Hordak continued to look at her.
Before giving a small smirk.
"Good." It took her back slightly. "You did the correct thing in alerting our counter spy agency. While you focused on your own missions and teachings, we had half a dozen members going through all of Lukan's communications, his locations, his superiors, his fellow Squadrons, and you know what we found due to you suggesting on holding off on capturing him?
We found another spy. One who had been helping him ever since he had been injured in the Academy. One who had invested themselves in being a good role model as a soldier. One who did their best to gain the trust of other soldiers that could become influential in the future."
"May I ask who?" Tigra's eyes narrowed as she tried to run through who it could be.
"You will know, as you are the one who will be capturing them for high treason against the Horde."
Her tablet beeped but before she could look at it, Hordak spoke again.
"This is also a test for you, General Tigra." He gained her full attention. "While I am glad that you took your punishment for not choosing a mission to fulfill for two months, I will admit that I may have been hasty.
Yet I believe it was the correct choice. While I will never understand the view you have of magic instead of science-"
"Sorry to cut you off," She started. "But I do prefer science over magic. I'm just…really good at understanding how magic works and using it to my advantage."
He narrowed his eyes again, causing her to tilt her head downward as an apology.
"As I was saying, while I will never understand your view of magic, I can't deny its effectiveness. In the brief time you have been a teacher, the latest group of soldiers in the Academy has been growing at an astonishing rate. What took other teachers months to do, you have been doing in weeks. On top of that, the newer Cadets have been improving as well.
But enough about that. This test is seeing how well you can follow my orders, even if you may not believe who a spy may be. What I have sent you is someone who has interacted with you in a friendly way and seems to have gained your trust. You are ordered to retrieve said person, bring them back to the Fright Zone, and place them in a cell or execute them, should they be more trouble than they are worth."
Seeing him pause, she looked down at her tablet and opened the image.
She breathed in sharply before looking up at him.
"Their background was doctored and has been indirectly linked to the potential help of removing Harold Bre'ka from the Horde. They, however, have been directly linked to the death of Medical Apprentice Susan." Hordak started before two other images appeared on her tablet.
The first showed a masked medic helping Rebellion soldiers after a battle in Thaymor. They were clearly pointed where they wanted another medic to take a body or an injured soldier.
The second showed the same medic maybe minutes later, having taken off their mask next.
Revealing shaggy white hair hanging around their blue eyes.
"But…the reports…" My Power…
"Were tampered with. We aren't sure by who just yet, but we know that they were Captain or higher based on the ability to tamper with it in the first place. We can track tablets and identities based on logins, but this person used the identity of a Force Captain a day before they were declared KIA."
Hordak leaned forward.
"It is believed that Force Commander Lucy Waterscale has been a Salineas Spy and has managed to cover up the dissertation of Senior Cadet Harold Bre'ka as a death. As such, if this is found to be true, Harold Bre'ka will be stricken from the Codex and be forgotten from the Horde."
He leaned back in his seat once more.
"With your abilities, you have a week to capture/eliminate Lukan Lyle. Two weeks to capture/eliminate Lucy Waterscale. Dismissed."
Quest [Find the Rat] Completed!
Rewards: 4,500 EXP, SPY [Moonshifter] identified
Quest [Slippery Spy] Created!
Slippery Spy
Lord Hordak has declared that Lucy Waterscale may, in fact, be a spy working for Salineas. She was found directly linked to the death of Medic Susan. He has tasked you to find and capture/eliminate Lucy within two weeks.
Objective: Capture/Eliminate Lucy Waterscale
Hidden Objective: ???
Reward: 7,500 EXP, Removal of SPY [???] | ???
Failure: Decrease of REP with Hordak, Escapes the Horde with information
Time Limit: 335:59:55
Quest [Put Down] created!
Put Down
You have correctly identified who Moonshift is - Lukan Lyle. Lord Hordak approached you and has declared that you are to capture him within a week.
Objective: Capture/Eliminate Lukan Lyle
Hidden Objective: ???
Reward: 7,500 EXP, Removal of SPY [Moonshifter] | ???
Failure: Decrease of REP with Hordak, Escapes to Brightmoon with information
Time Limit: 167:59:46
Quest [From the Other Side] created!
From the Other Side
Lord Hordak has shown you an image of Harold Bre'ka still being alive and working for the Rebellion as one of their medics.
Objective: Find Harold Bre'ka
Hidden Objective: ???
Rewards: 5,000 EXP, Questions answered | ???
Failure: Never have questions answered until after the war
…
Tigra left the room.
'How then…did they disappear from my Relationships?'
Tigra had a lot to think about.
The first one?
Where the hell is Lucy and is she still with Kyle and Rogelio?
'If she is…She'd better have done nothing to them.'
Tigra walked with her steps echoing through the halls.
'Or I'll make sure that there won't be a single record of her left in any kingdom.'
Lucy: 23 [Family], 37 [Acquaintance]
________________
Tigra
Age: 18
Level 63 (4905/15750)
HP: 6980.....HPR: 3141
MP: 6000.....MPR: 4005
SP: 3490...SPR: 1571
STR: 152.....DEX: 579
CON: 349...INT: 300
WIS: 297...CHA: 108
Skill Points: 1
Trait Points: 1
Upgrade Trait Points: 0
Speed: 80.4 MPH
Magical Control: 209%
Skills:
[H2H LV (3)96], [Run LV 74], [Dash LV (3)87, [Blades LV 96], [Spear LV 40]
[Dodge LV 41], [Reading LV 75], [Writing LV 105], [Sneak LV 48]
[Light Res. LV 4], [Air Res. LV 2], [Water Res. LV 18]
[Magic Res LV 42], [Earth Res LV 4]
[Program. LV 35], [Security LV 18], [Hacking LV 27], [Strategy LV 61]
Spells [Tigra still uses]:
Fire Step, Fire Clothing, Fire Breath, Flame Dive, Flame/Lava Armor, Flame Charge,
Flame Fists, Fireball LV 23, Fire Dagger, Fire Arrow,
Fire Falchion, Fire Spear, Fire Clone, Fire Augment
Lightning Armor, Lightning Claws LV 11, Lightning Clone LV 112
Chill, Ice Armor
Darken, Shadow Mask, Shadow Ball LV 1, Shadow Spy LV 48, Shadow Armor, Dark Pulse LV 19
Breeze,
Bubble, Stream
Haste, Heal, Regeneration LV 1
Traits:
[Night Vision], [Magical], [Obsidian Claws], [Huntress], [Primal Instincts]
[You are the Weapon - Multiplies H2H bonus by 2]
[Lightning - Multiplies final DEX by 1.5]
[Smart - Multiplies final INT by 1.15]
[Wise - Multiplies final WIS by 1.15]
[You are Speed - For two minutes a day, your DEX is multiplied by 3]
[Omni-Regeneration II- Multiplies all Regens by 3]
[Pyromaniac - EXP for Fire Spells is doubled]
[Hydromaniac - EXP for Water Spells is doubled]
[Unimaniac - EXP for Pure Spells is doubled]
[Electromaniac - EXP for Electric Spells is doubled[
[Unburnable - You can't be hurt by fire or heat through fire]
[Physical Proof - You can't be hurt by physical means with ill intent]
[Electric-proof - You can't be hurt by electricity through natural or unnatural means with ill intent]
[Ice Proof - You can't be hurt by ice through natural or unnatural means with ill intent]
[Shadow Proof - You can't be hurt by shadow/darkness through natural or unnatural means with ill intent]
[Phoenix - Once a month, if your HP is reduced to zero, you return to 75% HP once with a 25% increase in stats for the next 10 minutes]
[Raiju - Multiply your movement speed by 3x for 90 minutes within a 24 hour period. Lightning attacks do 100% more damage but water damage hurts you thrice as much as normal]
[Grimm - Decreases damage taken by 75%, regenerations increased by 200% but Light attacks deal 3x their regular damage. Works for 30 minutes a day]
[Yuki-Onna - Touching something with HP will do INT*100 ice damage per second. Can be used for 10 minutes a day]
[Fueling the Fire - Increases Damage for Fire attacks by 50%]
[One with Fire - Fire spells take 25% less MP than normal]
[One with Lightning - Lightning spells take 25% less MP than normal]
[The Myth is Real - You have 7 spare lives and will restore you to 50% HP, MP, and SP upon resurrecting 4 minutes later]
[True Heir - Allows you the ability to connect with the Runestone of your home kingdom, or a Runestone should there not be one]
[Over Killer - Due to your ability of overkilling, your threats are more likely to succeed as warnings towards enemies]
[6th Sense [Catra] - You now will know when your fellow Chosen(s) are in trouble]
[Recovery - Your Regens are increased by 50%]
[Control - Allows the use of 4 continuous spells without causing pain]
[Princess of Fire - Multiplies MP by 2, MPR by 1.5, and Fire spells gain 4x EXP]
[Azure Flames - You can use 50% more MP to increase a fire spell's power by 100%. Doing so turns your flames into a brilliant blue]
Milestones:
[Genius - All EXP for spells is doubled]
[Brilliant - All spells do 25% more damage]
[Hare - Increases movement speed by 25%]
[Cheetah - For 30 seconds every 2 hours, your DEX is increased by 50%]
[Eagle - You can now run on air as long as you remain undisturbed]
[Steel Body - Decreases damage taken by 40% after resistances]
[Meditated - MPR remains active at 15% while using spells continuously]
[Confident Aura - Those around you will think you know what you are doing]
[Strong - Increases non-magical attacks by 10% and carrying capacity by 25%]
Weapons:
Dark Flame - A Jian that can channel fire magic to increase its power ~ 3700 damage with no added MP
Shadow Piercer - Dual Daggers dark enough to be hidden in shadows ~ 3500 per dagger