Chapter Text
Catra sighed after the latest meeting with her detectives. She had been trying to track Shadow Weaver for over a year and a half but it seemed as if she just disappeared in thin air. No seething, no traces, nothing at all. She could’ve opted for just letting the matter go and live her life forgetting about the woman to tutored her in the past, but Catra couldn’t live peacefully until she knew what had happened to that monster exactly.
“I’m taking it that it didn’t go well.” Adora said as soon as she saw her face when she got out of the room.
“She’s just… invisible or something. She’s probably living underground in my opinion, there’s no other explanation. Maybe I should hire earthbender detectives for this job.” Catra sighed again, defeated as she welcomed the warm embrace offered by her partner.
“That wouldn’t be a bad idea. Let’s ask Bow for some help, I’m sure he knows someone who can help you.”
“That’d be good, thank you.” Catra expressed her gratitude with a soft -and quick- kiss on Adora’s cheek.
Their relationship wasn’t open to the public, just known among their friends and no one else. They couldn’t risk rumors about Adora always agreeing with Catra because they were a couple -she was the Avatar, a being known for its neutrality.
Such scandal would’ve probably caused riots all over the world, especially in the Fire Nation, where half of the citizens still believed in Prime’s empire.
Catra was… very unpopular to the public eye; her own people didn’t want her to ascend to the throne because of the decolonization politics she applied, impoverishing the State with the loss of raw materials necessary. Aside from that, everyone outside the Fire Nation feared that she could turn out to be like her father.
To be honest, Catra couldn’t really blame neither party. With all the violent protests happening inside the Fire Nation she had to take some security manners, which included hiring guards to guarantee security for everyone. Unfortunately, some of the soldiers abused their power one day and attacked civilians, which concluded in a riot full of victims. Catra fired the responsible and reformed the training program for the new troops, but the damage was already done; the rampages became even worse and the other nations looked at her as if she ordered for such thing to happen, painting her as a Prime 2.0.
She had been so stressed lately, her father absolutely did not prepare her on how to rule a country, and she ruled over one in the verge of a civil war.
But Adora was there, offering her the support she needed so badly. And right in that moment, with her hands rested reassuringly on her tense shoulders, Catra swore she had fallen in love all over again.
Seeing no one in sight, the Firelord held her hand and guided her in their room, the only safe place where they could be their true selves.
“Would you like some tea? Scorpia taught me how to make the jasmine kind. I know it’s your favorite.” Adora softly spoke her proposition, not really waiting for an answer before heating up the kettle on her own. All those years spent travelling with a tea enthusiast definitely rubbed on Catra. She always drank it whenever she felt nervous or stressed –so, multiple times a day. Adora was always happy to help her in any way possible, whether that’d be preparing a warm bath, cooking for her, or simply cuddle her in bed at night.
Catra painfully groaned as she sat on a rocking chair. Inside the palace there was peace, no yelling, no riots, everything was silent. But outside... outside was hell. How was she supposed to fix all that mess in the most peaceful way possible? Perhaps maybe she wasn’t fit to be the Firelord. She was supposed to be the one to bring peace in the nation and yet things had only gone south ever since she took the power.
What was she meant to do?
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“Leave us alone.” Catra ordered the guards, who hurriedly closed the door behind her. The room was extremely cold and the metal bars allowed for her to see her father sitting on the floor, murmuring nonsense to the decomposing body of his brother.
She wasn’t joking when she declared his sentence. It was cruel and heartless, but she doubted if it was even enough for someone as someone as inhuman as that chained beast.
Prime turned his head to look at her, his cloudy eyes lit up at the sight and smirked. He was used to his daughter’s constant visits. Sometimes she just sat in front of him and looked at his eyes for hours until she rushed out, other times she yelled at him for all the things he had done in the past. He had always stayed silent.
This time though, it was different, they both knew it. Instead of standing proud, she slumped down until her knees touched the metallic floor.
“I need your help.” She timidly announced, eyes stuck to the ground.
“I think we are about to enter a civil war. Your soldiers keep attacking civilians and people fight amongst each other because part of them still wants you to rule them. Tell me how to fix the mess you created.”
The man who was supposed to be weak had the nerve to scoff at her, turning his attention to Hordak’s body. The stench would’ve been unbearable for anyone, but he had grown used to it, almost fond of it.
“Can you believe this, little brother? Our little girl has come to talk to us. Isn’t that hilarious?”
Catra swallowed the lump in her throat, ignoring the sensation of fear and disgust rising in her stomach. “Cut the bullshit. I’m the only one fit to rule over your precious empire, I just have to erase what you’ve done in the most diplomatic way possible.”
Prime’s audacity had no limits as he burst out in one of his controlled laughs. “My child, you can’t. You’d have to get rid of all the population to achieve order, but I doubt you’d be able to do that, you’re too weak-minded. You say you’re trying to have a peaceful transition from what I’ve built and your silly fantasies, but you can’t do that in such short amount of time. Not even centuries will be enough to destroy what I have created. You can’t achieve harmony, you never will.”
Catra growled as she angrily threw herself against the bars, her hands gripping the railing with so much contained heat that it turned red, ready to melt.
Prime did not move, though. He didn’t even flinch. Such vulgar scenes coming from his seed were not unusual, especially in the past year and half, almost two.
“You are a pathetic man, destined to grow old and die in a rusty cell while I’m gonna dissolve your empire. We have entered a new era, my era!” Fire exited her nostrils as she hurriedly went out of the lonely room, but the man’s laughter started again, this time louder.
“The throne comes with a pressure that is meant to change you, but if you can stand the heat, you’ll become something more. Of all the people in the world, I have the wisdom you need, the wisdom of experience! Do you really think you can handle it all on your own? You’ll be back, and I’ll be waiting for you. My dear daughter.”
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“With the removing of the last colonies our plan will be over.” Bow announced happily as she showed the map to the leaders of the nations and the Avatar; the only exception was Frosta, she found herself there since her parents were letting her take more of a serious role in politics –although young, the princess had a natural affinity for leadership.
“Five in the earth kingdom, one in the southern tribe and two up north. Seahawk should have enough boats to take them all over to the Fire Nation, at home.”
Catra listened to him talking and looked at everyone else: they were smiling, happy to send the enemy away, but was it really like that? The real villain was Prime, he got defeated, so why did civilians have to pay? The colonies had been there for over a century, those people were born and grew up surrounded by the culture of the tribes and kingdoms they found themselves in, so why take them back to somewhere they had never lived in? Just because they were Fire Nation citizens didn’t mean that they had to live in the Fire Nation, not when their ancestors contributed in building the colonies on their own blood and sweat. They had the right to be there just as anyone else.
She couldn’t allow it anymore.
“I don’t have any more housing.” Catra found herself saying, but didn’t stop there.
“I’m not taking any more people in.” She declared harshly. The air in the room suddenly shifted into something heavier until Adora laughed nervously.
“What do you mean by that? We literally opened two housing buildings last Friday, don’t you remember?”
“I can’t have more people against me. There have been already five attempts on my life since I took the throne, endless riots and even more victims because of this! My people are not moving out the colonies, end of story.”
“Catra, you’re exhausted.” Glimmer simply stated, maintaining a poker face. Her hands though were curled in tight fists as she tried to contain her anger.
“We’ll talk about this in the morning when you all will be well rested. Maybe having a meeting just as you came here in Ba Sing Se was a bad idea. You’re tired and irritable. If you’re worried about your security, I can send you some Kyoshi warriors outside of your room, I’m sure Lonnie won’t mind taking a night shift.” The new monarch stood up from her seat and walked out without saying another word, quickly followed by a pleading Bow. If Catra was breaking under the pressure of keeping a nation afloat, Glimmer was shattered into pieces under her parents' expectations for her. Angella and Micah retired from their roles and went on to live on Kyoshi island to make up for all the lost time, leaving their daughter in charge of the Earth Kingdom in a post-war scenario.
Frosta looked around, sensing the tension growing. Without saying anything, she yawned and left the room as well, quickly followed by Perfuma, leaving Catra, Mermista and Adora alone.
“Dude, you’re joking. Right? This is simply stupid. Do you have any idea of the damage your people did to mine? They are stealing our resources.” The leader of the Southern Tribe crossed her arms over the chest, looking more annoyed than usual.
“I know it’s not perfect, but everyone is better off today than they were a hundred years ago, including your people.”
“I don’t care. If you retire from this, you’ll start another war. We defeated the Fire Nation once; we can do it again if it comes to it.” Her tone was menacing as she walked away as well.
Once in their assigned room, Adora opened her mouth.
“Please tell me you weren’t being serious.”
“You don’t agree with me?” Catra scoffed as she stripped herself from her royal armor. How could Adora not be on her side? She had always been in the last year and a half.
“Of course not. Harmony requires four separate nations to balance each other out. You can’t have balance if one nation occupies another.”
“Light Hope told you that separation is an illusion. All nations are really one and same.” She countered back, growing more frustrated with each passing second. How could no one understand the situation? Were they blind, or had she gone mad?
“It’s not the same. You know that our people are better off than people from the earth kingdom, or the tribes they’re in. You saw it: whenever two nations come together, the stronger one can’t help but hurt the weaker one. They’ll conquer, or burn or, at the very least, make a joke of the weaker nation.” Adora said softly, trying to be reasonable. Her hands rested on Catra’s waist and she nuzzled her face into her brown curls. Catra though, did not want to hear another word coming out of her mouth.
“Just please, rest. I think Glimmer is right; you do need to sleep.” Angered, Catra pulled her away from the embrace and sat on the bed, bouncing her leg.
“It’s like Mermista said: you have defeated the Fire Nation, that’s for sure, but... my people still deserve respect. It’d be disrespectful to take from them a life they spent generations on building.”
“She’s wrong, okay? Catra, look at me.” And so, she did. Adora stared at her with so much worry that it scared her. Perhaps she was the one in the wrong here... but no, no she wasn’t. Her arguments did make sense. It was a logical choice, she was right.
“I defeated the Fire Lord , not the Fire Nation . You have to understand, separation is necessary to achieve pea-”
“We will never achieve peace! You’re just- Agh!” Catra’s hands were enlightened by blue light and smoke. The angrier she got, the more difficult it was to restrain herself.
“Why can’t you get it?! You are the Avatar; you’re supposed to know what’s the right thing to do... but no! You’re just useless, worthless! So stupid. Why can’t you understand that I’m right?!”
The blonde’s eyes widened in sadness, then disappointment. She looked down, a tear streaming down her face. The Firelord groaned in exasperation as she understood that she had crossed the line.
“You know what? I’m not sleeping here tonight. I need to relax a bit.”
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.” Adora whispered, exhausted from the exchange. Only when Catra heard her sob did she calm down. She should’ve said sorry for snapping at her like that, comforted her. Except, she found herself shutting down her emotions completely, excluding Adora out of her life again.
“Very well. I hope you come to your senses soon. Sleep tight, Avatar.”
Catra could not bring herself to ask for a new room, especially not after the scene in the meeting room with Glimmer. Instead, she opted for walking around the halls of the enormous palace for hours until her rage boiled down, allowing for her to think with more clarity.
She was still convinced about leaving her citizens live in the colonies, that was something she was sure of. However, the way she snapped at Adora was completely unacceptable, especially after all that she had done for her. She just had to talk to her calmly to make her understand her point of view, Adora would’ve definitely made up her mind then.
But first, she had to apologize.
Feeling defeated, Catra dragged herself until her feet took her to the front door that led to their room. Outside of it was Lonnie, whom had to blink a couple of times before recognizing the familiar face in the dark.
“Catra? Aren’t you supposed to be inside?” She asked incredulously as the other woman yawned.
“Move. I have to talk to blondie.”
“ Hi Lonnie, how are you? I haven’t seen you in a while. Oh, I’m doing great, thanks for asking. How are you, Catra?”
“I don’t have time for this, just let me in.” The Fire Lord complained. Although she was happy to see her old… something? Flame? It didn’t matter. There were more urgent things to do.
“I can let you in if you sleep . It’s late at night, do you really wanna wake up your girlfriend from her beauty sleep to talk?”
Catra stayed silent. It was partially true: she had to apologize to Adora, but maybe it was better to let her sleep for now. She would’ve talked to her in the morning, though.
“Listen, whatever it is, I’m sure it can wait until morning. Just because you’re a bit sleep deprived doesn’t mean that everyone else should be too.”
Defeated, Catra looked around the hall until she spotted an armchair and decided to sit there.
“By the way, it’s good to see you.” She mumbled to Lonnie before closing her eyes.
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Adora couldn’t sleep, not after that argument. Her eyelids remained sealed, but she couldn’t bring herself to doze off. There were so many footsteps in the hallway and then she heard some voices, probably guards talking. Irritated, she covered her head with a pillow in hope to eliminate the sound, but it only muffled it a little bit. Still, it was enough to calm her down until Swift Wind decided to chirp uncontrollably. Feeling angered again, Adora sat up and tiredly threw the pillow at him, only to notice that there were people staring at her right outside of the large window.
Four people. Four people observed her with wide eyes as they realized they had been noticed.
One of them kept his focus on her while the others started running towards her. Feeling the danger coming, Adora hurriedly stood up, ready to fight. Her body however, decided to not move accordingly. She couldn’t move freely anymore. Her limbs twisted and painfully stiffened as she forced herself to the ground.
Adora couldn’t look up, but heard the sounds of the balcony door being forced open until heavy footsteps made their way inside.
“Adora, you okay in there?” Lonnie’s worried voice asked as she knocked on the door that Adora closed after her argument with Catra. Fuck , how much had she regretted the decision in that moment.
“Help!” She managed to shout against the pain endured by that strange force that had been hurting her.
Then, she felt a needle on her leg and the world fell black.
Catra didn’t waste any time at all. As soon as she heard her partner’s cry, she pushed Lonnie aside and kicked to door open, finding Adora being held by a boy with black hair while his two other friends assumed a fighting stance, ready for the inevitable.
“Let her go!” She demanded furiously as she threw fire blasts at them that were quickly extinguished by one of the girls, who used her staff to airbend the flames away from them. Catra remained shocked for a quick second, it was extremely unusual for air nomads to be outside of their temples, let alone participate in a kidnapping. She didn’t have tattoos and actually sported long, brown hair instead of the usual baldness, typical of the monks. She looked like she was in her early twenties, very tall, extremely lean figure.
Then, the other woman raised a wall between the two parties, but Lonnie took it down again with a small bomb she carried around. She had dark hair and amber eyes. Her pupils were so shrunk that she looked borderline crazy with that wide smile on her face.
Okay, one airbender and one earthbender. The only one missing was the boy, who had all of Catra’s attention since he held an unconscious Adora on his shoulder.
“I called for backup; they’re coming soon!” Lonnie explained as she charged at the older woman, but a gust of air threw her against the wall.
Catra took advantage of the distraction to run towards the boy that was getting further away from reach, but her feet got stuck to the ground as she slowly sunk down, much like it happened when they traveled over Fong’s Fortress.
With an unconscious Lonnie and an immobile Catra all hopes were lost if only it weren’t for the many guards that showed up, accompanied by the earth queen and their other friends.
Glimmer tore the ceiling down to the ground, closing their only escape by confining them in the large room.
It all seemed over for them, they were surrounded with no escape, that was until every soldier started falling senseless, as if they had all fainted or worse.
The earthbender then positioned her hands to the ground, which started to melt before turning red. It looked like lava, but how could that have been possible?
The created pool managed to put distance among them, but Catra wouldn’t give up. With Glimmer’s aid, she got propelled in the air to reach the trio’s safe place. While in mid-jump, her fists lit on fire, ready to strike again, but just as she was about to pounce, the boy moved a bamboo stem onto his mouth and shot a sleeping dart on her right shoulder. She dived in to the ground with a loud thud of her body slamming against the floor.
She couldn’t stay awake anymore. The desperate voices of her friends got weaker with every passing instant while her heavy lids were about to close. Just as she was about to give up, she looked at Adora, whom seemed to be starting to wake up, but still too dazed to understand the situation.
She had to save her. She had to save Adora.
She didn’t know how much time passed, but she figured it couldn’t be much since she could see that they still hadn’t left by counting the feet, in fact, a new pair of shoes appeared before her eyes as all the voices and screams stopped. Against every odd, Catra slowly stood back up, her movements lazy and heavy. She still couldn’t hear and her right arm felt paralyzed, but she was ready to keep on fighting.
“You’re not taking her from me!” She yelled impulsively. With newfound rage, she created a thin blade of fire that resembled a dagger on her left hand, and prepared to stab the boy with dark hair and green eyes.
The group looked astonished as the scene unfolded before their very own eyes.
Just as she was about to hit his throat, the same thing that happened previously to Adora and the guards, also happened to her.
Catra reluctantly knelt to the ground, her body aching even more. Another man walked up to her with a cold expression. His icy blue eyes indicated boredom towards her, but his polite smile said otherwise.
Why was all of the attention shifted towards her? Weren’t the others fighting?
“I put your friends to sleep, not permanently though. They have just passed out.” His calm voice informed, as if he had read her thoughts. And then everything clicked inside Catra’s mind: he was a blood bender, a psychic one to be more precise. That explained why she felt prisoner of her own body and why his eyes were so focused on her.
“You know, I’d be easy for us to take you all out right now, but your time has yet to come. Everything must be done according to our plans, although, you are making it a whole lot easier.” He stopped to think for a moment, then resumed talking.
“Still, I’m very surprised that you are still awake. Perhaps we should’ve paid more attention to that old woman’s warnings, you truly are an underdog. Born weak and yet look at you know, still conscious after all the damage you have taken. Truly impressing.”
Despite following someone else’s desires over her own body, Catra brought her left hand up to the chest, pointing her middle and index finger at him. She had been training on how to generate lightning for the past year and a half, and intended to use the technique right there. During her training the move worked most of the times, and that was when she had full control over herself. But in that situation, she had to concentrate even more in order to not create a full-on explosion.
“Who… Who are you?” She asked so that her movement wouldn’t seem too suspicious. The man stared right into her soul before giving her a subtle smile.
“We are the Red Lotus. We believe in true freedom, which can’t happen in a word where the Avatar lives. Not to mention all the unjust monarchs, including you, your highness.” Catra’s blood froze as she understood the implications of that sentence; they didn’t want to kidnap Adora, but wanted to kill her. Not only her, but also Glimmer, Frosta and potentially Mermista and Perfuma.
She couldn’t allow for that to happen.
With all the talking that the man had made, she had enough time to recharge. With an aching grunt, she positioned herself straighter as the lightning bolt exited the tip of her fingers and right into the man’s body. Even though he suffered the pains of electricity, his bloodbending only got crueler.
Catra couldn’t even breathe anymore, but the more he persisted, the more power she released in a desperate attempt to make it out alive.
But then her arm bent elsewhere, causing greater pain to shoot across her body. Already at her limit, she couldn’t control herself anymore: the bolt exploded in a powerful explosion that sent everyone flying away.
As Catra laid on the ground, she spotted Adora on the floor, slowly sitting up. Rotating her head, she also noticed that the group had suddenly disappeared, meaning they were gone.
Catra finally closed her eyes.
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Adora was sitting on a chair right next to the bed she was lying on when she dizzily woke up again. Her brown eyebrows were knitted together in worry as her hands ran through her curls lovingly.
“You’re awake.”
Catra realized she didn’t deserve Adora in that moment. How could she worry for her even though she was the one being kidnapped? But Adora was like that; selfless, kind and loving. Simply perfect.
Ignoring the pain, Catra launched herself towards her girlfriend and hugged her tightly, pulling her down towards the bed with the weight of her body. Her lips desperately kissed every inch of her face: her cheeks, temple, nose, forehead, lips –especially the lips.
“I’m so sorry.” The Firelord begged time and time again as the embrace turned tighter to prevent Adora from pulling away from her. She trembled in fear of rejection as tears streamed down her crying face. Adora didn’t say anything back at first, but reciprocated the hug in order to soothe her.
They didn’t know how much they had stayed like this, but an uncomfortable cough was enough to pull them away, making Catra notice that Glimmer and Bow were also in the room.
“Don’t get me wrong, I hate interrupting your reunion but we need to know what happened exactly.” Glimmer explained, clearly in distress.
“We all fainted and you were the last one standing. Did they tell you anything? And how did they get away?”
“Glimmer, she literally just woke up. Let her have a drink of water at the very least.” Catra gave Adora one last kiss before letting her break off the clutch between them.
“It’s okay Bow, I understand the gravity of the situation. But can you get me that water?” The man nodded and left the room. Catra waited until the door closed before starting to speak.
“They are part of some organization; it was something like... like the Red Lotus, yeah. One of them was a bloodbender, that’s why everyone fainted. He probably stopped the blood circulation.”
“That explains why I couldn’t even defend myself when they attacked me.” Adora thought out loud. For a quick moment she imagined that she had gone crazy from the fear.
“Why did they try to take Adora?”
“They said that they are trying to free the world, which they can’t do with the Avatar alive.” For a quick moment, the words got stuck in her throat. Just thinking of an existence without Adora made her choke up. Somehow, though, she believed that they were not only going to kill Adora, but wanted to break the Avatar cycle for good.
“Then they’ll try to kill each one of us: Frosta, you and I. At least we are on the top of their list. Perfuma is not really a princess per se and neither is Mermista, but they want to get rid of the main world leaders, that’s for sure.”
Glimmer gasped in worry for her parents. They weren’t king and queen officially anymore, but their lives were still at stake. Their location however, was hidden from the public and kept on having a low profile. Maybe it was for the best for them to not know anything about this or they would’ve come back. Glimmer couldn’t allow for that to happen; she could handle it on her own without risking them.
“I won’t let that happen. I’ll protect all of you.”
“No.” Catra decided for everyone in that moment. Her glare turned harsh as she looked at Adora. She was talking to her as the Firelord in that moment, not as her girlfriend.
“You are not a bodyguard, but a human being. Plus, all of us live in opposite parts of the world, how could you possibly do that? Not to mention that you’re their main target right now. We have to protect you instead.”
“Catra, this is my job. I am meant to-”
“You’re not meant to die!” Glimmer reproached angrily, stunning the couple with the sudden outburst.
“You’re the Avatar, not a fucking human sacrifice. If something happened to you, we’d have to wait more than a decade before another person takes your place and actively helps maintaining peace. Right now we need you the most, but what you have to do is to find somewhere safe so that we can protect you .”
Catra nodded in agreement. She couldn’t have said it better.
“She can stay with me for the time being. With all the riots at the capital and the amount of guards in my palace it’d be impossible for them to make it in. Not to mention I’ll be there if anything happens. I gave them a tough fight.” Catra joked to ease the atmosphere. She agonizingly flexed her right arm, showing off her muscles. The jest however did not seem to have had any positive effects. She received death stares from both women.
“The same applies to you, y’know. You don’t have any heirs to the throne in case you... you die.” Catra looked down, concealing her growing blush at the thought of forming a real family, hopefully with Adora.
“Neither do you, Sparkles.” She spat back, but the queen smirked.
“My mentally stable parents can take my place in case anything happens to me.”
“Still no excuse to put your life in danger.” Adora warned, but her friend shrugged it off.
“Hey, I’m just saying. After all I’m not the one who just yelled: I’ll protect all of you because I am the Avatar and that is my duty!”
Adora rolled her eyes, growing annoyed at the both of them. It was her job to maintain balance among the four nations, even if it meant sacrificing herself. She was born to do that.
She looked over at her partner and wondered a million of question about the past twenty-four hours, starting from why the hell she didn’t want to remove the colonies anymore to how was it possible for her to be the last one standing the previous night.
“How did they get away? The last thing I remember was seeing you kneeling on the ground before I actually woke up.” She asked as she slowly caressed her cheek affectionately. The other woman nuzzled at the touch and sighed in relief at the sweetness of it.
“Believe it or not, I threw a lightning at that bloodbender until it literally exploded. I don’t think he died, otherwise we would’ve found his body. I think the blast hit them too. The guy carrying you probably lost his balance and that’s why you were scattered on the floor.”
“With one of them down, they had to retire.” Glimmer analyzed carefully the situation. With such powerful enemies she had to hire more guards for protection, and not only that.
“From now on all of us aren’t allowed to be in the same place or we’ll be an easy target. All of our diplomatic meetings will be made through letters. Hopefully someone won’t make things more complicated than they already are.”
Catra didn’t reply, only smiled proudly.
In your dreams.
Notes:
Welcome back! I'm so excited for this sequel and I have been writing it for months now! As some of you might've already guessed, this arc is insipired by the Promise comics and season 3 of the legend of Korra. Don't worry, though, this will be much more chaotic. You have no idea on what's coming next ;)
Let me know if you liked it and comment theories/what do you think it's gonna happen on the next chapter and follow my twitter here for sneak peeks and Q&A's