What if Adora never let anyone touch her back like it triggers her fight or flight response when someone is even looking at her back. Like how messed up would that be? When on the battlefield now she never lets Catra get behind her, always has her where she can see her, unless either Catra’s defeated or she’s been defeated in the fight and even then she makes sure to be as difficult as possible until her back is covered. If Catra tried to expose this Adora loses it and reacts on basic instinct. Because she can’t trust Catra. Her back is scarred by Catra. And she doesn’t want her behind her anymore because she can’t, won’t trust her again. She won’t let Catra near her back and fights 5x harder to keep her away. She’ll bite, kick and snap until Catra’s no longer near. If she’s been rescued she’ll cry about it later in the privacy of her own room. If not she won’t react to Catra’s taunts either that or she reacts differently than the “old” Adora. She’s sharper, colder. She shuts down Catra’s attempts to taunt. She gathers so far into herself it’s like she’s not even present. Because the old Adora is tired. She’s exhausted. She cares but it’s never enough. She’s never been enough as herself and it makes her bitter on the inside. Makes her angrier. The Rebellion just want She-Ra. The Horde just wants a soldier. Catra’s the only one who ever wanted her to be Adora. But Catra’s trying to kill her. She’s hurting her and something snapped inside. Because she never dropped Catra off a cliff. She never tore into Catra the way Catra tears into her all claws and blood and rage. Enough is enough when she’s infected. Because she can feel everything. She remembers exactly how it felt. The singing power and rage in She-Ra’s form. An eye for an eye. Retribution paid in full. For every slash of those claws, for every word. An eye for an eye, She-Ra’s spirit tempts in her mind. Doesn’t Adora want to just let it all go? Just this once? And in that moment of rage she feels nothing but. Boiling, bubbling over. She wants Catra to be just as afraid as she’s made her. For every twist and pull of the knife Catra deems as her fault. Every piece that Catra denies she’s had a hand in. For all the stress and pain and anger. She wants it to hurt the way she does. She gives in one time to She-Ra’s words. She gives up. But afterward she’s come to, her head heavy and her body a minefield of pain and aches, and she searches Catra’s gaze. But what she finds makes her cold, makes her frozen. And that ice doesn’t leave. She’ll never let Catra behind her again. She’ll never trust her again.