Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Even with the Moonstone cracked, Brightmoon was a beacon— inviting all who saw it to take refuge from the storm. As the sky fell and destruction rained down, every Rebel, civilian, and even a few Horde soldiers rushed to the rebel stronghold. In the chaos, whatever skirmishes they had been squabbling in suddenly didn’t seem worth the effort.

As Catra and Melog flew in, the palace looked like an anthill Catra had once kicked in the Fright Zone— hundreds of dots rushed in and out of sight, bumping into each other and changing course at random. 

Things didn’t get better when she landed. Bow, Micah, Entrapta, and Marlena were nowhere to be seen. For the most part, guards seemed to just run past her. Some were directing refugees inside; others were desperately carrying supplies out. They couldn’t tell if this invasion called for a siege or an evacuation. 

Catra’s mind raced. She scanned the crowd for any familiar faces. Someone who could help her get control of the situation. “I understand your concern,” Warden Juliet said, raising her voice over the roar of the crowd. “But it has to wait until we’ve regained control here.”

“We need to get to the Fright Zone now, Warden!” She heard Castaspella insist. Not caring how many she knocked over, Catra shoved her way through the throngs. “We can’t make any plans before that.”

“I know this is personal for you,” Juliet responded. “But if we don’t keep these crowds under control, we won’t have a kingdom to defend.”

Catra rushed up to them, Melog at her heels. “Jules, Casta,” she said falling onto old nicknames. “The Heart’s neutralized. Who’s in the Fright-- Ach!”

The mage grabbed her before she could finish asking her question. “Catra! Thank the stars,” Castaspella blurted out before embracing her in a tight hug. “You— Micah’s—“ She pulled back quickly. “Thank yous can wait. We need to get to the Fright Zone. Apparently everyone who could possibly help in this situation decided to get stuck there today.”

“No,” Juliet countered. “We need to secure Brightmoon first. The Fright Zone is practically abandoned. With all the firepower they have, they’re honestly safer there.”

“I kept the Heart from firing,” Catra explained. Juliet’s plan made sense. Contain the panic, then find her friends, read Sparkles the riot act, reunite a few families, and then save the world from the alien invasion. One step at a time. “Glimmer and the other Princesses should be fine for now. We need to . . .”

That’s when she saw the Moonstone. It glowed brighter than ever, but a dark spiderweb of cracks crisscrossed its surface, casting rivers of shadows on the lake below.

“ What did you do, Sparkles?” Catra thought. Suddenly, her mind returned to that awful moment in the Crystal Castle when she almost lost her fight against the Heart. Just before her sword lifted itself above her head, just when the energy coursing through her was at its strongest, it weakened. Like one of the rivers feeding the monstrous flood she was fighting against ran dry. It was just for a moment, but it had been enough to let her rip the Crimson Catseye from the hilt and shatter the runestone.

“See, Catra?” the mage argued. “Glimmer’s in trouble. Micah and Shadow Weaver took the others to the Fright Zone to try and find her, but who knows what was waiting there for them? It could have been one of her traps. Or maybe this new Horde attacked there first. If we wait any longer . . . we could lose her.”

“But now that you’re here, we don’t have to wait,” the warden added. “After everything that’s happened tonight— the lights, the earthquakes, the moonstone, the . . .  Sky! The people are panicking. But they know She Ra. They’ll listen to her.”

A lump stuck in Catra’s throat. “She Ra is gone,” she said, each word coming out like lead. The look of shock and fear on the two women’s faces would haunt her for weeks. It wasn’t the last time she would have to break the news either. “I— it was the only way I could—“

As she spoke, more shadows fell over them— blocking out the stars that had just reappeared. For a moment, it was almost comforting. She could pretend nothing had happened; that the sky starlesses was as it had always been. But then, the green lights on the undersides of the space craft flashed. 

And the bots began to fall. leaving craters in the cobblestone as they landed, unfurling like infernal origami, and starting their rampage.

Because Brightmoon still shone like a beacon, and it had drawn the storm to them.

The first thing they noticed when the light of the teleportation spell was the silence. The relentless rythmless claiming of factories, the bustle of soldiers and cadets, the hiss of steam rushing through miles of pipelines was all missing. For some, like Bow, Marlena, and Micah, whose stays in the heart of Horde territory had been brief, it was just unsettling. For Entrapta, it was nerve-wrackingly wrong.

And for Shadow Weaver  . . . well, she was more concerned with the new presence she could sense. “I didn’t think she had it in her,” the sorceress muttered to herself. “Perhaps the Black Garnet is less discerning than I imagined.” Another quake shook the ground beneath them. A section of some rusted tower on the horizon collapsed into rubble.

If anyone heard her comment, they chose to ignore it. “We need to find our friends now!” Bow declared. “Entrapta, can you get us to the throne room from here?”

“That depends,” she answered. “What’s the smallest vent you could fit through?”

Suddenly, a great laser blast tore across the warped night sky. Another blast erupted from the cluster of ruins up ahead of them. Then another. And another. “Or, we can just follow those,” Micah suggested. 

“That works too,” Bow called as he started sprinting towards the battle. The group followed suit, too worried about their friends and family to notice Shadow Weaver slink away on an errand of her own. 

They dashed across the jagged metal landscape. Hopping from platforms just before they collapsed, dodging bolts of lightning from the twisted sky, hurling themselves over railings as they got nearer to the source of the blasts. It took every ounce of magic, skill, and grit to keep from falling.

As they finally reached the upper levels of the ruined Fright Zone, the sounds of battle ceased. Someone had won. Before they could wonder which side it was, the sky exploded with light— another quake shook the ground. They could hear the planet shattering as tectonic plates crashed together.

Unprepared, and closest to the edge, Micah was knocked off balance. He tried to grab a railing to steady himself, but the rusted metal gave way. In a flash, he was over the edge. Before he could fall any farther, Marlena rushed over and grabbed his hand. 

“Glimmer,” Bow called, panicked as he remembered the warnings he’d read about the Heart. “Hold on! I’m coming!” He started to run, but then turned to the struggling pair.

Marlena shook her head. “Go!” She shouted. “Save them!”

“We’ll catch up!” Micah grunted as he struggled to hold on. 

Following her advice, Bow and Entrapta sprinted through the halls. The roof had caved in in most places, giving them a good view of the end of the world. “Is there any way we could shut off the Black Garnet?” Bow asked desperately. “You experimented with it before, right?”

“Correct,” Entrapta responded. She seemed distracted. “The chamber is close by. It looked like the fighting was there.” A few dozen more turns in the twisted maze and they found themselves looking down on a blasted open portion of the complex. Large piles of debris littered the chamber, casting grey shadows in the strange light of the dying sky. In the center, the Black Garnet was spouting a geyser of crackling red energy into the sky.  

And standing before it, covered in strange glowing runes, was Glimmer. The Queen was shooting so much magic into the runestone that it burned to look at it directly. She stumbled and cried out, falling to her knees. Her magic faltered for a moment, but then she resumed the assault. She was muttering something under her breath, but no one could hear.

The two froze at the sight. The light surrounding Glimmer and the runestone grew brighter and brighter. Even without a runestone to draw power from, Entrapta could feel the magic drain from her— from the whole planet. Bow felt it too. Glimmer was fighting the monster she created, and she was losing.

Then, without warning, the spell broke. The tremors stopped. The twisting colors in the sky vanished, and in their place were countless floating lights. Bow remembered them from his dads’ library. From the ancient temples they explored. “Stars,” he whispered. They would have been beautiful, if it wasn’t for the thousands of Horde ships hanging among them.

And if a light from one of those ships didn’t immediately absorb the exhausted Queen below.

It was a sight that would haunt him for months.

“Glimmer!” Bow rushed forward, ignoring any obstacles in his way, forgetting all the ways he could die in his desperation. If Entrapta hadn’t been close behind— worried about someone of her own— she might have taken notes on how drastically adrenaline altered his reflexes. “No, no, no,” he sputtered. “No!”

When they got to the chamber, not a trace of the Queen remained. She was gone. Bow dropped to his knees where she had last been. “No.” He whispered. “I was here. I made it. I could’ve . . . No.”

For a moment, the two were silent. Entrapta shifted uncomfortably on her feet, not sure how to comfort her friend. Then, a loud clanging disrupted the calm as a pile of rubble toppled over. 

“Ugh,” someone behind them groaned. “Did I go through a trash compactor? How do the Princesses fight like— Entrapta!?” The Scorpini rushed to embrace her lost friend. “You’re back! You’re alive!”

“Scorpia!” The princess shouted with a smile. “You’re not dead or captured! That’s above average performance for today.” 

“No, I’m not but—“ she winced. “Sorry, guys. I think I must have connected to the Black Garnet wrong.” She put her friend down and rubbed the back of her neck. “Unless that whole world ending thing is, like, a normal princess thing?”

“Oh, it’s not,” Entrapta replied. “By connecting to it you activated a high-unstable planetary super weapon and dragged us out of the empty shadow dimension into the wider universe where an infinite armada of Horde soldiers are waiting to conquer the planet. Their weapons are likely far beyond our comprehension if their teleportation technology is anything to go by. It must be pretty advanced to have taken the Queen at such a long distance.”

Scorpia couldn’t quite manage to respond to that, but her last comment made the archer gasp. “T-taken?” Bow stuttered out. He leapt to his feet, ran over to the scientist, and grabbed her by the shoulders. “That beam? It- It teleported her? She’s still al— how do you know for sure?” He asked desperately.

“I recognized the light distortion patterns,” she explained. “Hordak and I built something similar when we were working on the portal. I— I think it took him too.” She quickly pulled her mask over her face. 

Bow and Scorpia shared a look. Before either of them could ask a follow up, Micah and Marlena came sprinting into the chamber. 

“Adora!”

“Glimmer!”

They called out their kids’ names at once. The two survivors looked ragged and exhausted. They hadn’t slept in days or rested well in years, but they couldn’t slow down. They couldn’t even stand still, frantically looking around the ruined chamber as the sprinted towards the group. Their kids were close and in danger. They would run a marathon to find them. 

Bow gave them a pained look. “The Other Horde took her,” he said. “She was too busy fighting the Heart to stop them.”

Micah’s breathing got heavy. His eyes glazed over. Then, he screwed them shut and shook his head. When he opened his eyes again, he glared at the ships above like he was going to knock them out of the sky single-handed. “Any chance that First Ones ship of yours could get up there?”

“Uh,” Bow managed. “Maybe. It would need a lot of work, but,” he met the king’s resolved gaze with one of his own. “I’ll do whatever it takes to bring her home.”

Entrapta flipped up her mask. “We’ll need atmospheric controls,” she said. “Advanced Circuitry too. We don’t have much fuel, so we’ll need to insulate the power cables to maximize efficiency. We can get most of what I need in our lab. If we can get it voidworthy, I can do the rest on the way.”

“What about Adora?” Marlena asked, putting an arm around Micah’s shoulder. “Did they take her too?”

Bow shook his head. “I didn’t see her,” he said.

“Well, she wouldn’t have been here,” Scorpia began. “Last I saw she was—“

She stopped abruptly after getting a better look at the werewolf. Marlena and Scorpia scrutinized each other. “We fought before, didn’t we?” Scorpia asked. “You look familiar.”

“Yeah,” Marlena agreed. “Plumeria right? You and the Bea—“ she flinched. “I mean Adora . . . Oh stars. Uh. Thank you . . . So much for protecting her, back then, by the way. I— I didn’t— I thought she was—“ she shook her head. “Later. Where is she?”

The newly minted princess was a little too dazed to fully process everything that the werewolf had said. “Last I saw she was fighting that Greylock jerk,” she replied. “She lead him towards the old vehicle bay—“

Marlena was sprinting out of the room before she could finish her sentence.

She would find the traces of a battle. She would find drops of blood, scraps of fabric, and pieces of shattered armor. In her desperation, the engineer climbed over the edge— down towards the darkness. She would find what was left of her brother at the bottom of the rusted ravine. But she wouldn’t find her daughter.

If she wanted to do that, she should have been looking up instead.

Three months later...

The generations who had grown up in the shadow of war knew the signs of a Horde raid like the old folks knew the signs of a rainstorm. They knew the sounds a tank made when it approached. They could tell how far away an artillery battery was by counting the seconds between a blast in the distance and a shell exploding. Children imitated the sounds of weapons before they managed to utter their first words.

The Horde was a horror, but at least it was a familiar one. One Etherians understood.

The new Horde was another beast entirely— an ocean of sleek, silent machines all answering to a mad god from beyond the void.

Walled towns that had resisted the Etherian Horde for decades fell in days. Thaymor. Elberron. Dryl. Brightmoon—

Catra shook her head as the list came like an accusation. The Galactic Horde didn’t control the whole planet. Not yet. Hundreds of camps, villages, and settlements small enough to escape notice had remained free.

Now, as she watched a swarm of bots descend on yet another one in the outskirts of the Whispering Woods, she vowed to make sure this one stayed that way.

“Ok,” Bow whispered over his communicator. “They haven’t noticed us yet. I think our best strategy is to—“  Catra was already sprinting towards the bots. “Or we could improvise,” he grumbled as he notched a stun arrow. “That works too.”

She cut the legs out from under the first pair of bots, rushing out the way before they hit the ground. The next one went down sparking after an arrow nailed it in the core processor. “I’ve got these losers handled,” she called back to the other Rebels. “Get the civilians out of here.”

A few dozen villagers raced towards safety in the periphery of her vision. Another squad of bots advanced towards her. She had their attention. Good .

On instinct, Catra raised her sword and cried, “For the pride of Bast!” But instead of the familiar rush of power and warmth, she felt nothing. Just a light breeze before a laser blast caught her in the side, knocking her back twenty feet.

“Right,” she grumbled as she pushed herself up. “Can’t do that anymore.” She looked at the hilt of the scimitar, an empty ring where the runestone had once been. The blade was still a great weapon on its own, but sometimes muscle memory got the better of her. 

When she got back to her feet, Catra saw the knock-off Hordak in charge of the bots direct them back towards the village. Bow ran up beside her. “We got everyone out,” he said. “

“We can’t let them take another foothold in the Woods!” Catra shot back. “We won’t have anywhere to hide if this keeps up.”

“I know,” he admitted. “But we can’t win this fight, and we won’t win the next one if we lose anyone else here now. I’m calling the retreat.”

“Well, I didn’t hear it!” She cried defiantly, turning to chase after the squad. It would have been a heroic moment if a stinger full of venom didn’t immediately catch her between the shoulder blades.

“Sorry,” Scorpia winced. Her voice was distorted in Catra’s ears as the venom took effect. “I mean, I had to but I know you have personal space rules and . . .” The rest of her apology was lost on the Magicat as she lost consciousness. The last thing she registered was getting hauled off the battlefield.

That and a deep sense of shame. She-Ra had been a hero, a leader, someone who the Rebellion could rally around. Catra just couldn’t measure up. In her delirium, she thought she saw a pillar of light appear before her in a dark desert. But it was gone as soon as she passed out.

Queen Glimmer completed the three hundredth circle of her cell. In spite of her best efforts, no new sharp weapons had appeared in the small room. Every detail was the same as it was when she had been dragged in here, still dazed from being a conduit of the Heart. Reflexively she began to rub the scars trailing up her arms. 

First Ones symbols meaning who knows what had lit up her skin as soon as Scorpia connected to the Black Garnet. Then, once she resisted the weapon she had sacrificed everything to activate, the glow had turned into a burn. The worst ones were on the backs of her hands. As they went up her arms, they got lighter. By the time they reached her elbows, they were little more than tattoos, vanishing completely before they reached her shoulders.

She took a deep breath. Even if anything in this room could be broken off and used as a weapon, there was little chance she’d be able to stab Horde Prime with it. Her outfit didn’t have pockets big enough to hide a club from his “brothers.” Still, it would make her feel less . . . useless? Defenseless? Worthless?

Glimmer shook her head. No time for self-pity. Her friends were in danger, and she was in a position to do something about it . . . even if there was only a slim chance they thought of her as a friend after everything she’d done.

Glimmer was alone now, but alone time meant time to plan. She thought furiously as she paced. The guards had given ten meals since she’d been captured. The Horde she knew fed captives twice a day, according to her intel. That meant she had been here—

“Hate to break it to you, princess,” a familiar voice interrupted. “But that isn’t a reliable time keeping method. High Value Interrogation subjects got their meal schedules randomized back in the Fright Zone.” Glimmer whipped around to see a smug blonde face staring at her through the sickly green force field. “And I'm beginning to realize that Hordak wasn’t exactly original in how he ran things back on Etheria. Also, you might wanna try not talking to yourself while you make your escape plans.”

In spite of her apparent new allegiance, Adora was still wearing the civilian clothes she had been when Prime beamed them up here. The only difference was a badge pinned to her belt with Prime’s emblazoned upon it. When she noticed her eyes drifting towards it, she scowled. “I need it to get around. The ship is designed so that only his clones can do practically anything,” she said. “Not being in a cell has its advantages.”

Glimmer marched up to the force field. “Did you come here just to gloat?” She demanded.

“Me? Gloat?” Adora smirked in response. “What about this situation could possibly give me reason to do that?” She crossed her arms triumphantly. “Though, you were right. It is pretty tempting to gloat over the person who held you prisoner when the roles are reversed. I get it now.”

Glimmer flinched at that reminder, but held her ground. “No. You don’t act all high and mighty as long as you’re wearing that, Force Captain, ” she shot back pointing to the badge. “Does your new boss not have anything more useful for you to do?”

The smirk vanished at the reminder of whose ship they were on. “I’ve mostly been settling in,” she said. “Studying the layout of the ship, tracking patrols, learning how the Galactic Horde operates. I decided to visit to give you some news.”

“What news?” Glimmer asked, curious but keeping her guard up.

“I came here to inform you that Lord Prime will request your presence at dinner soon,” she explained. “He’ll send someone else to collect you when it’s time.” Her eyes kept darting to the badge uneasily. Years ago, when she and Bow had captured her— leading to a disastrous attempt at marching her back to Brightmoon— Adora had used her badge to signal a squadron to intercept them. Those things were more than just symbols of rank. They were trackers  . . . and communicators.

“I thought it would be best to tell you sooner,” she continued. “You can use the time to prepare for when you are in his ‘glorious presence’”. Apparently, she wasn’t afraid of air quotes getting detected by whatever might have been listening through the badge.

“Thanks for the heads up,” Glimmer responded coolly, hiding her surprise as best she could. “Will you be joining me, or are you eating with your new brothers?” Adora froze. Glimmer had struggled to put as much meaning as she could into the question. Like she was asking Bow and Catra to sneak out of the castle with her while her mom was in the same room. Does he really think you’re his, or is your cell just bigger? The innuendo wasn’t exactly subtle, but maybe they didn’t have those in space.

“I . . . I don’t know,” Adora answered after a moment of silence. “A clone will either get me or it won’t. Prime sends all his orders through the hive mind, and I'm not a part of it.” A softer smirk crossed her lips. “Hordak must have been so frustrated at having to talk to all of us. No wonder the Horde didn’t have a decently organized shift schedule until I came along. Prime can just cheat.”

Adora looked around the corridor again before leaning in close. “I wanted to ask you something,” she added, crossing her arms.

“What?” Glimmer asked.

Adora paused and put her hand to her belt, wrapping her palm over the badge. “Did you know what the Heart was going to do to Etheria when you set it off?” She asked in a whisper that barely rose above the hum of the force field. “Did anyone know?”

The answer caught in her throat. A thousand excuses flashed in her mind— the ones she had been telling herself for weeks. No one could be sure. It was all speculation. It was a risk worth taking. The Horde’s threat was more certain regardless. But now, they all seemed too hollow to even say. “Catra and Bow,” she said at last in a whisper to match Adora’s. “They warned me, but I —“ The Queen screwed her eyes shut. “I didn’t want to listen.”

When she opened her eyes, she caught a glimpse of the surprise on the Wolf’s face. Then, it slowly turned into something else. Almost like she was looking into a mirror. Suddenly, Adora started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Glimmer yelled.

“Sister!” A clone called from somewhere down the hall. “What are you doing speaking to the Queen?” 

The former soldier stiffened immediately. “She was requesting water .err. . Brother,” she answered immediately. “Good timing. I was just about to look for someone who knew where the rations were kept. Any idea where that is?” To most ears, she would sound confident, but Glimmer knew better. She’d heard what Force Captain Adora sounded like when she thought she was on top of the world with her enemies beneath her feet. She knew what the cocky soldier sounded like bantering in battle with her comrades. 

And she knew when she faking that confidence in the face of a kidnapper.

“Attending to our guest is not your task, Sister,” the clone responded. “Lord Prime will give you your orders when it is time. Prime knows all. Prime sees all. All have a place in his light.” 

Adora swallowed hard, but hid her discomfort with a shrug. “Of course, brother. Of course,” she said. “I’ll head back to my quarters and await his word.” She turned away to leave as quickly as she came, but she leaned towards the force field and risked one last comment.

“Welcome to the club, princess,” she whispered. “You and Me: Etheria’s Biggest Screw Ups.”

Chapter Text

When Catra started to wake up from the effects of the venom, the first sense that came back was hearing. The rhythmic clink of tools reminded her of Bow’s workshop. “Fascinating. So you initially adopted and preferred crystallography primarily for its information storage potential and not its thaumaturgic conductive properties?” She heard Entrapta ask someone. “Because given the runestones, I had always hypothesized it was the opposite.”

“Yep,” Marlena replied. “The Magicats were the first to figure out the energy and magic channeling stuff. I only refined it a bit when I reforged the sword. We just copied their work for all the other Runestones, but we’d been using data crystals for longer than anyone could remember. By the time I started in the Engineering Core those things were a dime a dozen. It was also easier to just grow crystals artificially on space stations without having to go planetside or rely on trading partners for a different resource.”

“That would explain why the Catseye was so much more advanced before Catra destroyed it,” the scientist said matter-of-factly. Catra suppressed a groan and blinked open her eyes. She was lying on a cot in a white tent. The ground was littered with scavenged tools, wires, and circuitry sorted haphazardly onto blankets and tree stumps serving as makeshift workbenches. 

“Did the Magicats adopt any of your technological practices?” Entrapta asked. “Concrete examples of Halfmoon tech are exceedingly difficult to study on account of the Vanishing.”

“I can think of a few examples, but first, your turn to answer,” the First One said. “What did Adora like to do for fun? Assuming fun wasn’t banned in the Fright Zone or something.”

Catra winced at the mention of that name, but fortunately neither had noticed her yet. The remnants of the Great Rebellion were an odd bunch already, but the First One still stuck out. Even if she hadn’t apparently been one of the ‘geniuses’ behind the Heart of Etheria, just being Adora’s mother was enough to freak people out. For so many years, the Beast and later the Lone Wolf - larger than life figures - had stalked the Rebellion’s imagination. 

Having her mother around just made her seem so much more ordinary. Like she was just another person caught up in the war that had touched everyone on Etheria.

Marlena had been the one to provide most of their information on the Galactic Horde. Sure, it was a thousand years out of date, but it was better than nothing. Between her, Entrapta, and Bow, their ship was almost ready for takeoff. Between that, decrypting Horde transmissions, and searching for Adora, the werewolf didn’t seem to sleep.

She’d also made a habit of asking people about her daughter. Micah was doing the same thing. Marlena had found it a lot harder than he did. While he had to deal with some rough anecdotes from the last few months, she had a lot more to get through. She had just stopped asking most people how they knew Adora. She had heard a few stories of the Beast before her exile - before she knew it was her own daughter on those raids - she didn’t care to learn much more than she already had about what happened after. Overhearing the occasional refugee talking about the Lone Wolf would have to be enough.

Entrapta fiddled with a tangle of wires while thinking of an answer. “I had more detailed recordings of her social interactions stashed back at the Fright Zone with the rest of my logs,” she said. “She seemed uncomfortable with most interpersonal activity outside of combat, but she did engage in chess occasionally on Board Game night.”

Marlena nodded vigorously. “Ok!” She exclaimed. “Chess. I think I played a round or two back in the day. That’s a thing we could talk about maybe. . .” She trailed off as she focused again on the project in front of her. “You know, after ‘Hi, kid. I’m your mom. Not dead. Sorry about mauling you that one time.’”

“I wouldn’t open with that if I were you “ the Magicat grunted from her cot. “There’s gotta be a better way of phrasing that.”

Catra hauled herself upright, wincing at the pain in her side. Stars, did she miss She-Ra’s healing factor. She’d forgotten how much it sucked waiting around aching like everyone else had to. 

“Welcome back to the land of living,” Marlena greeted, finally noticing her movements. “I’d take it easy if I were you. Micah put a healing spell on you after the others brought you back. He used it on me a few times on Beast Island, and it was pretty draining.”

Catra leapt off the cot just to make a point. She even kept herself from gasping when she landed. “I’m fine,” she said hotly. “How soon before those charges are ready?”

“We ran into a design snag,” Marlena admitted. “These new Horde bots are bit more advanced than they were in my day. Now they have a varying signal frequency protocol. The electro magnetic pulse could take a couple out of action, but any we don’t take out would be able to adapt and resist. The first batch should let you take down about a dozen in one go.”

“So,” Catra said, rubbing her temples. “About enough to take out, what? A third of one outpost?”

“Hey,” the wolf defended. “Name a fighter on our side who could take down that many bots in one go? I get that being She-Ra raised your standards for what it means to be powerful, but without the runestone--“ Catra growled. “Sorry,” she apologized, putting up her palms. “Sore subject, but it’s true. Beating the Horde is going to take more than brute force. We need to make our own opportunities and take them.”

“Which will be exceedingly difficult. The Hive Mind design really is a fascinating case study in neutral networking,” Entrapta said. “It has a countermeasure in place for everything we could do to try and fight it.”

“How reassuring,” Catra grumbled. “What about the other project? That hasn’t hit any design snags, has it?”

Marlena grinned. “Opposite,” she said. “We should have it off the ground before the end of the week! Can you believe it?”

The Magicat couldn’t. “A week? Seriously? How?” She stuttered. “I thought we still had to scavenge the Fright Zone for more parts. You know, for that cloaking device? Or have I been out for longer than I thought?”

Entrapta jumped up in her excitement. “We tested out some of the scanning devices we scavenged from the bots on the ship,” the scientist explained. “It was more advanced than anything I’d handled before but it didn’t even register that there was a ship! The technology is so archaic that the Horde can’t track it. As long as they aren’t expecting us, we can blast off past the patrols without getting blasted out of the sky. Then, space!”

“That’s great!” Catra said quickly. 

“You’re damn right it is!” Marlena exclaimed. “Being a living fossil can have its advantages sometimes. Bow went out to do some work on the old girl right after he brought you back. Now, uh,” she hesitated. “We just need to decide who’s gonna be on it. Obviously, you and Bow are going but . . .”

Who else could the Rebellion spare? Catra thought. Partially, it was relieving to not have to convince anyone to let her go on this mission. If anyone was going to save Glimmer and then maybe strangle her for what she did with the Heart and Adora, it was her. Bow needed to be there to prevent the strangling from getting out of hand, obviously.

But that petty part of her, the cadet who never heard a word of praise before she met that blonde werewolf cub, stung at how no one was trying to stop her. It missed the time when she was ‘too valuable’ to risk losing on a random mission, ‘too important’ to the Rebellion’s plans to run off on a whim.

Now, she could leave the planet and it wouldn’t make a difference in the war.

“I might be the better choice for technical ship repair,” Marlena continued. “But honestly, I think the princess has the right energy for a life-or-death ‘patch on the fly job’. It’s not a skill you really pick up in the Engineering School. But I do have experience jury-rigging EMPs and hacking devices out of scrap in the Whispering Woods.” She spun a screwdriver in her left hand for emphasis. “And smashing into guarded facilities on full moons of course.”

“Also I really want to go into space,” Entrapta added. “So that works best for everyone.”

“Yeah,” Marlena nodded. “And I can— Uh, keep up the search.” She coughed and fiddled furiously with the circuitry in her hands. “We still haven’t heard of any sightings from the last full moon. We made contact with some wolves out in the Waste. It’s not much, but it’s a lead.”

“Hopefully this one isn’t another dead end,” Catra said as she crossed her arms, wincing at the bruise on her ribs. “If you need an extra set of claws, you know you’ve always got mine. . . for the rest of the week anyway.”

Adora had been missing since the invasion started. The last time anyone laid eyes on her, she had been teleporting off to the Fright Zone with Glimmer and Scorpia. Scorpia had been too out of it after connecting with the Black Garnet to keep track of anything and Glimmer was gone. As far as they knew, the last person to see her alive was Victor Greylock. And he was lying dead at the bottom of a rusted ravine in the Fright Zone.

In the first few weeks of chaos, as everyone started trickling into the Rebel camp from their own kingdoms, Catra had expected Adora to just walk into camp. 

Etheria’s most infamous ex-Force Captain had vanished into thin air.

Everyone in camp had gone with one of two theories. Most of the remaining Hunters believed that Adora had simply gone into hiding. They refused to feel guilty for helping Glimmer kidnap her, but they didn’t seem to begrudge her turning tail at the first opportunity. After all, as far they could tell, the wolf had a pattern of going into hiding when the heat was on.

Scorpia didn’t buy that for a second. The Adora she knew would never just slink off into the shadows when people needed her. Even if she didn’t want to stay with the Rebels, they should have seen the Lone Wolf by now. As far as she was concerned, Adora had gotten stuck as a wolf again— either because of all the wild magic of the Heart messing with her, or because of the stress. 

Marlena didn’t know which theory was worse. Either way her kid was lost and alone in the middle of an alien invasion. 

The wolf hadn’t stopped searching for her. Wherever she was, whatever her reason for being there, Marlena would do whatever it took to find her daughter again. 

“Thanks, Catra.” Marlena said. “She’s lucky to have friends like you.” The determined look in the Wolf’s blue eyes was too familiar to take. The Magicat looked away. 

Before she could say anything else, someone walked into the tent. “Don’t worry, Catra,” Scorpia said, having overheard the conversation. “Glad to see you’re awake by the way. Sorry about the venom. But, anyway, Operation: Finding Adora is a mission for the Super Pal Trio . . . plus Adora’s mom, who mauled her that one time, but thought she was dead. So, you know not OK, but . . . it’s one of those complicated moral things.”

Marlena groaned and covered her face. 

“We were just discussing the possible order of operations for the reunion,” Entrapta said. “Catra suggested a less emotionally devastating combination would be possible.”

Catra snuck out of the tent before they could realize she was leaving. Then again, it had been a while since anyone had kept close tabs on her. After all, no one expected her to save the world. That was what She Ra had been for.

The workshop tent was one of the only ones near the edge of the protective wards keeping the rebel camp safe from prying eyes. They had decided it was better to keep those activities away from where everyone else slept after the second fire. 

Catra started winding through the mess of royal Brightmoon guard tents they took from the armory when they fled the castle, makeshift tarp lean-tos, and reclaimed Horde gear (with the wings scratched up or painted over) towards the center of camp. It was late afternoon, but no one was on the same schedule. Catra passed refugee families sharing out rations, kids playing hide and seek, a handful of soldiers sharpened their weapons. In between all the activity, people were passed out whoever they could find the room to lie down. Sleep was precious these days. Raids could come at any time.

She exchanged nods with a few of them as she passed, but no one was in the mood to chat. Exhaustion had seeped into their bones. Around dinner the spirit around here would pick up. Perfuma would take a break from treating the wounded to lead a drum circle. Sea Hawk would get a shanty going before recounting some clever escape or small victory that had been won that day. And as they listened, people would laugh, warm themselves by the campfires, and rekindle their hopes. 

Catra smiled at the thought, then suddenly groaned as she remembered a promise she’d made last night. “Why did I agree to a storytelling shift?”

“If you aren’t going to sleep,” Perfuma had insisted when she came back from her night watch shift, “you can at least do something a little less stressful.”

“Ugh, because getting up in front of a crowd and talking for twenty minutes isn’t stressful at all,” she grumbled to herself. “I hope the kids are old enough to learn about the Undead Princess, cuz that’s what they’re getting.” She smirked at the memory of when her squad heard that story for the first time. Lonnie not showing any fear during the story but keeping a fork from the mess hall under her pillow just in case. Kyle refusing to go anywhere without Rogelio for a month. Adora climbing up to check on her in the middle of night and cuddling up at the foot of the bed to keep watch—

Catra froze. “No,” she muttered. “Not tonight.”

“May I suggest a tale, my friend?” A chipper voice said. Catra jumped. Melog had appeared out of nowhere to rub against her side. “The First One was saying something about an ancient space pirate the last time we escorted refugees to her old village. I also picked up some myths from the caravan we escorted a few weeks ago. Lots of those have a role for a noble feline steed to take in a dramatic reading.”

Catra gently scratched between his ears. The great blue and purple cat happily ruffled his wings in response. “Thanks. I’ll consider it,” she said, noncommittally. Melog purred as they walked towards the large officer’s tent in the center of camp.

When they entered, Catra suppressed a growl at the thought of who was inside. “Now that the warding runes have been established properly this time,” she heard Shadow Weaver say through the opening. “We should be able to avoid detection.”

The camp was the third they had established since the Fall of Brightmoon. The first had been in Plumeria, but that one proved to be too open. The second had been nearer to Dryl, but the mountains couldn’t provide much cover with the Horde controlling the skies. The Whispering Woods had been a last resort. Coordination with whatever allies they had scattered across the rest of the planet was next to impossible. Finding supplies to sustain themselves was difficult, especially as they accepted refugees. And of course, there was always the threat of local wildlife.

But all that worked against Horde Prime too. Between the two of them, the Rebellion had been better at dealing with them. 

Catra walked in to find the Rebellion leaders gathered around a map of the surrounding wilderness - well, the best map Bow could produce. The Whispering Woods didn’t exactly make itself easy to navigate. “Sea Hawk managed to contact a few of his werewolf buddies from the Salt Dogs,” Mermista began. “Sealineas was already struggling from the old Horde’s invasion, but that also gave us a headstart on getting the Rebellion underground.” 

“Then why haven’t they been fighting back directly?” Frosta challenged. 

“The whole point of being underground is sabotage and subterfuge. The smuggling network can take a team of us anywhere with a coastline,” she said in response. “Plus, you know, getting us supplies and junk. So we don’t starve.”

“On the not starving front,” Perfuma interjected quickly to stave off a fight. “I confirmed with the village leaders in the Meadowlands. Rural areas haven’t seen nearly as much fighting since the invasion started, so their harvest is intact. As long as we’re careful, we should be able to secure enough food for the next season.”

“Would it be easier to just steal whatever the Horde takes from the bots directly?” Catra asked as she strode up to the table. She and Shadow Weaver exchanged a glare. 

Perfuma shook her head. “That’s the weird thing,” she explained. “The new Horde hasn’t been demanding tribute like the old Horde. Their bots strip mine the areas they conquer, and they patrol the streets, but so far they’ve left food supplies untouched. It’s like they don’t need them.”

“So they don’t eat?” Spinerella wondered. “Not even those Hordak knock-offs?”

“As far as I could tell,” Shadow Weaver offered. “Hordak only ever intravenously imbibed an unusual green liquid for sustenance.”

The group shared a horrified look. “Ugh!” Mermista groaned. “Thanks! I could have gone my whole life without learning that.”

“How is this Horde so much creepier than the last one?” Netossa exclaimed. “At least that had people in it.”

“Speaking of people,” Catra said. “Camp is starting to look crowded. I think it’s time to risk another trip to Greyskull.”

“And I still think we’re foolish to let a stronghold be used for charity while we try to wage a war out of tents,” Shadow Weaver insisted. 

“It’s more important to keep civilians somewhere the Horde won’t find them” Micah said firmly. “We’ll make the trip after nightfall. Marlena can lead the way.”

“Besides, your master runes should be enough to keep this camp plenty safe.” Castaspella sniped. 

“We should probably start rounding them up now,” Catra suggested. “Or at least tell the parents so they can get their kids ready to leave. I’ll --”

An explosion from outside interrupted her. Everyone in the tent turned towards the sound. For a moment, nothing followed it. Then, the screams started. “It’s the Horde!” Someone cried. “Run!”

Catra couldn’t even take the time to savor the irony. She’d have to needle Shadow Weaver about this later. “Melog!” She ordered as she rushed out of the tent. “Get everyone moving east. We’ll lead them away and regroup.” 

She-Ra could have sliced through every bot in a minute flat. She could do more than help cover a retreat. Catra no longer had She Ra’s raw strength, but she was not useless. She was a master with her blade and claws. She was a strategist. And most of all . . .

“Hey, pinheads!” She called at the cluster of bots advancing towards the refugees tents. “The scrap yard called! They want their junk back!” 

. . . most of all Catra knew how to push anyone’s buttons. The terror of the Fright Zone’s Junior Cadet program could even get a robot annoyed at her if she tried hard enough.

As she drew a squad of bots back into the Woods and away from the others, she saw Melog pounce on the stragglers. The other Princesses followed her strategy, lightly striking to get their attention and leading the bots into the trees. Once they were in the clear, they let loose. As Catra dodged tree trunks with the bots in hot pursuit, she felt the earth rumble as new roots erupted from it, heard rivers of water and hailstorms of ice crash into metal, felt tempests tear through the leaves, and saw nets flying through the air.

Finally reaching some high ground, Catra squared off against the bots that had followed her. She drew her sword, breathed deeply through her nose, and shifted her weight to the balls of her feet— ready to move. Four bots had made it this far. Two stepped towards her warily.

Catra waited for the humanoid bot to fire. When it did, she moved like lightning. She Ra or not, she was the fastest cadet in Horde history. With a roar, she drove her sword through the first bot’s eye. As it sputtered and collapsed, she backflipped off it, kicking it into the next one as it rushed towards her. The remaining bots paused their attack, almost surprised.

Catra grinned. “Come on!” She taunted. “I thought you were supposed to be more advanced than Hordak’s bots. Is that all you can do?”

The humanoid bots exchanged a look. Then, one stepped forward and brandished its left arm— sharpened to an edge that could slice a boulder cleanly in two. Catra dug her clawed toes into the ground and readied her stance as it charged. It started with a high swing, giving Catra the chance to spin forward and cut through its mid section. The next bot was already on her before it hit the ground. Others were rushing toward them, breaking off their fights with the other Princesses.

Catra lost track of how many had surrounded her. She fell into a rhythm. 

Dodge. 

Block. 

Parry. 

Slash. 

Dodge. 

Block. 

Parry. 

Slash. 

Over and over like a dance.

“Mind sending a message to Horde Prime?” She snarked as she circled another bot. “Leave swords to the professionals. This is getting embarrassing.”

Just after the taunt left her lips though, Catra took another step back to give herself room to maneuver and felt her back hit solid stone. She looked up to see a sheer, wide pillar of stone, a leftover from some ruin. A dozen bots blocked off her other exits. Her blood went cold as the realization hit her. The bots hadn’t just been fighting her. They’d been corralling her.

Before she could react, two bots on the side rushed forward and grabbed her arms. Catra struggled in their grip, but it was no use. One stepped forward and leveled its cannon arm at her face. She saw the green energy build in the back of the chamber, a wave of heat washing over her face. She braced herself for the shot and ---

“Stop! She-Ra is the key to activating the Heart of Etheria!” Glimmer shouted as she jumped out of her seat. “Without her, it’s useless. Please, don’t!” 

If Adora’s heart hadn’t been in her throat since Catra appeared on screen, it would have leapt there at the sight of Horde Prime’s smile. The whole dinner had been torture. The fine food and fancy table settings in the grand room already set her on edge. Every remark Prime made brought the temperature down another ten degrees. Adora had kept her cool, trying to emulate the story of the brave Force Captain who was forced to dine in the lair of the Undead Princess. Apparently, no one had told Glimmer that story. 

Throughout the meal, Prime thrived on their discomfort. Like they were just actors in a play he was watching, reveling in the performances, and now he’d brought the scene to a climax. For a horrible moment, she thought the bot would fire the cannon it had pointed at Catra’s head anyway, but then, the green light faded. Seizing the opportunity, Catra dropped her sword, caught the handle in her toes, and plunged it into one of the bots holding her. It staggered back, and she didn’t waste a second - breaking free, grabbing the blade, and bolting into the treeline.

The bot whose perspective was getting beamed into Prime’s Dining Room turned to pursue, but the broadcast suddenly froze. Or maybe cut off based on the shard of ice she noticed in the corner of the screen. She knew first hand how much of punch the Princess of Snows could pack.

“Your delayed cooperation is appreciated, your highness,” Horde Prime said. “Hopefully, you’ll see fit to provide it in the future with a little less persuasion.” With that, a pair of clones walked over to the table, grabbed Glimmer by the shoulders, and escorted her out. As she left, she looked back at the screen, but soon she disappeared into the maze of corridors, leaving Adora alone.

She stared hard at her plate for a minute to process what she had seen. Half-eaten bits of strange protein and fungi stared back. Then, she felt Prime’s eyes fall on her. She straightened in her chair and turned to face him. Old Horde military discipline rang in her head. Only speak to superior officers when spoken to. Adora couldn’t give the emperor reason to think she was anything but a loyal soldier.

“The inhabitants of my new acquisition are stubborn,” he observed, leaning back in his chair. “Yet they bend so easily when the right pressure is applied to those they are attached to. It would be amusing were it not so irritating.”

Adora nodded. “Etherians are highly emotional,” she responded in her best officer voice, trying to recapture the way she would speak to Hordak as his second-in-command- respectful but strong. No matter how loudly her wolf instincts yelled Predator! , she would not show fear. “Appeals to logic and rationality rarely sway them in my experience, but they will go to extremes to protect each other.”

The emperor sneered. “Yes,” he agreed. “And it seems the First Ones have adopted some of their customs during your stay with them in Despondos.”

Adora gripped her kneecaps to keep steady. “What do you mean?” She asked.

“Come now,” he said condescendingly. “The First Ones I contended with thousands of years ago were a rigid, honor bound, cold race. Too reckless and defiant to be permitted to live in my universe, perhaps, but rarely could they be . . . ‘compromised’ was the term they used for it. But you,” he grinned. “Elevated heart rate. Dilated pupils. This Catra means something to you.”

Adora’s heart stopped beating for a second. Her nails dug into her knees, but she didn’t look away. She had already given Prime too much without even realizing it. Instead, she shrugged and did her best to make it look natural. “We trained together under your brother,” she explained. 

The eyes on the side of his face squinted, but he kept staring her down, mild amusement written on his face. She’d have to give more. 

“We spent a lot of time together,” she continued, trying to be as vague as possible. “The inefficiencies of the Etherian Horde meant we had to watch out for each other. Provide food, auxiliary shelter, medical care.” She gestured vaguely. “I guess I still have some of those . . . positive associations with her.” 

Her description didn’t do justice to the small feasts of contraband on their rooftop hideaway, cold nights cuddled up together, or vulnerable tender moments they had shared, but she hoped it would be enough of an explanation for Prime.

The emperor was silent for what felt like an eternity while her mind spiraled. “I am glad you found ways of surviving my defective little brother’s malformed attempt at imitating my empire,” he said finally. Adora nearly exploded with relief. “Do not let such old associations trouble you,” he continued. “In time, they shall fade. My brothers know a much purer bond in my light than one forged in such compromised circumstances. I believe you shall come to share in it as well, Little Sister .”

In spite of all the control she had maintained over her body throughout this nightmare, Adora couldn’t repress the shudder those last words sent through her.

“It is a pity our guest does not see things as you do,” Prime said, either not seeing her reaction or ignoring it. “If she came into my Light willingly, she and her planet would be spared much suffering.”

Adora cleared her throat. “I could help you with that,” she suggested. “Sharing meals is a common trust-building ritual on Etheria. Perhaps if I was the one who brought her food and . . . engaged with her in conversation, I might be able to help her see how much easier it would be to work with you.”

“An interesting strategy.” Prime stroked his chin. “I’ll allow you to try, Little Sister,” he said. “But I shall expect results. If you cannot provide them, I shall be forced to resort to more . . . time-tested methods of persuasion.”

Adora stood up and nodded. “I won’t fail you, Lord Prime,” she said. 

“Be sure to keep the interactions brief,” he ordered. “Isolation breeds penitence after all.” With a curt nod, he dismissed her. 

The Velvet Glove, as she’d overheard some of the clones refer to it, was a maze. Endless corridors repeating in a perfect, unbroken pattern. It had reminded her of the Fright Zone after she had gotten over the initial shock of being stuck out here. The room they had given her even had the same layout as her officer’s quarters, except for the massive window to watch the stars from. However, it didn’t take long for her to decide this place was much worse. The Fright Zone had been a polluted death trap of twisted metal, but at least it had variety. At least it had life.

On this ship, unless she could directly see a clone, Adora could convince herself that she was the only living thing on board. It was too clean. Unnaturally polished and sterile. The place where her quarters were was practically abandoned. Apparently, she was the first Galactic Horde soldier in centuries who needed to sleep in a bed. But even it was free of any speck of dust. The very architecture was designed to make you feel small and out of place. It felt like a setting for a nightmare, but Adora wasn’t waking up any time soon.

When she finally arrived at the cells to find Glimmer, part of her was relieved to see another person. But the rest of her was too angry to care.

“What were you thinking?” Adora demanded. “Do you know how much leverage you gave him back there?”

Glimmer scowled. “All he knows is that he needs Catra alive to activate the Heart,” she argued. “It’d be better if he didn’t, but we still have time.”

“You could have just told him that!” She countered. “But you didn’t have to be so emotional. Now, he knows how much you care about Catra . Now, he knows how to activate the Heart and how to manipulate you.”

“He was gonna kill her!” Glimmer shot back. “I freaked out. How are you supposed to keep cool when someone you care about is about to --”

“You keep your cool because you can’t let her know that!” Adora shouted, too worked up to keep herself from slipping. “Whatever feelings you show, they can use against you— against her ! You have to shove them all down to the deepest part of your heart and not let them out under any circumstances. Understand?”

Glimmer’s mouth hung open for a second. “Is that . . . how can you live like that?” She asked.

Adora blinked rapidly. “How else could you live?” She answered. “Leaving yourself that open . . . you’re just asking to get hurt.” The wolf turned to walk away again, striding behind the force field to a part of the hallway she couldn’t see.

“Wait!” Glimmer cried. Adora paused. “Please. Stay?” Her footsteps stopped for a moment, then resumed. 

For a few minutes, there was no response. Not for the first time, her regrets came flooding back. You can’t let her know that. It didn’t take a genius to figure out which her Adora was referring to. She had lost track of how many times Catra had warned her about Shadow Weaver. She still thought she could handle her - learn enough about magic to turn the tide of the war without letting her new teacher stab her in the back. 

But she hadn’t realized how much of the sorceress would rub off on her. How many times towards the end had she treated her friends like pawns? Using what she knew about their wants to push them around the board as she saw fit. She wasn’t doing it for her own power like Shadow Weaver had done- she just wanted the war to end. To make sure she didn’t lose the loved ones she still had. 

The Queen slunk down with her back against the force field and stared at the ceiling, curling her knees into her chest. Whatever her intentions, it didn’t make much of difference to the people she hurt. Now they were fighting for their lives on a broken world, and she was here. Alone.

Then, she heard someone settle down on the other side of the force field.

The desert stretched out around her for miles. The impression Halfmoon left behind smothered the dunes, leaving a flat, featureless plain. Stars glittered in the moonless sky.

At the center of the sands, a purple void swirled violently. Guarding it, a being of pure light stood, sword drawn.

Catra walked towards her. “Queen Cyra?” She asked. “Is that you?”

The being stood motionless. Catra chuckled. “Yeah,” she admitted. “I didn’t think so. Why would it be? After all, I’m not She Ra anymore.” 

The behind tilted its head to the side, curious. “What?” Catra asked. “You didn’t notice when I smashed the magic rock you live in?” The being’s tail swished like hers did when she was annoyed. 

Catra smiled. “So you did notice?” She said. “Well, if you’re looking for an apology, you’re not getting one. I’m not the one who hooked us up to a superweapon. I’m just the one who had to deal with your mess!” 

The being didn’t react to her accusations. Instead, it crossed its arms and slowly nodded. Catra waited for it to do more, but it just stood there. Waiting.

“Say something!” Catra growled. “If you aren’t here to yell at me for wrecking the runestone or ending She Ra or letting the Horde invade Etheria, then why are you here? What do you want?”

The being raised her hand. The sand at her feet rippled. The moon turned into a blazing red son. The sand became molten, melting then roiling like the sea. Then, the being lowered her hand, and the sand calmed and cooled into a mirror. The sun vanished, and the starry sky was reflected below them. 

Catra looked into her own reflection. At first, she saw a small kit in a Horde uniform. Then, the image rippled into a teenager in training gear. A senior cadet getting ready to conquer the world. A rebel fighter in Brightmoon clothes. Finally, how she appeared now: long hair in a wild ponytail pushed back with a red mask, a form fitting bodysuit and leather jacket, and a sword strapped to her belt.

When she looked back at the being, she caught a glimpse of its reflection. Instead of another perfect blob of light, she saw someone she recognized. Mismatched eyes. Flowing mane. White robes under light armor. Powerful. Confident, And Strong.

Only it wasn’t She Ra . . . It was Catra. 

The being of light pointed the sword in its hand at the image, tapping the point against the phantom Catra’s heart. “I wanted you to remember,” she heard her own voice say. Suddenly, a fire blossomed in her chest.

“Gah!” Catra jerked awake in the tent she shared with Bow. Wincing with guilt, she looked over to his sleeping bag. She sighed with relief when she realized he was still snoring. Next to her, Melog turned over in their sleep. “Hmm,” the cat mumbled to himself. “I don’t care what the vet says, your majesty. I’ll eat apples if I wanna eat apples.”

As quietly as she could, she crept over Bow and snuck out of the tent. With how hard her heart was pounding, she didn’t expect to fall back asleep any time soon.

She tip toed through the rest of the hastily assembled camp. Motes of magic light drifted around the patch of woods they had hunkered down in like fireflies. They still hadn’t found a place to settle down after the raid. Everyone else was taking the chance to grab some sleep before they had to move on from here. Only one person was on watch duty. 

Catra found her staring out over a cliff down towards a great valley. The wolf turned to greet her. “Couldn’t sleep either, huh?” Marlena asked. “Bad dreams?”

Catra rolled her eyes. “No,” she responded. “Just really weird ones.” She sat down beside her. “Did Cyra ever talk to you about being She Ra?” She asked. “Like anything about all that old goddess stuff?”

Marlena’s eyes widened. “Uh,” she stammered. “Yeah, lots about her magic, her powers, that kind of thing. But nothing you don’t probably know already. You know more about her than any of us.”

The Magicat sighed. “Never mind,” she grumbled. She looked up at the stars. “Any advice for being in space?” She asked, changing the subject. 

“No matter how stuffy it gets, don’t open a window,” Marlena deadpanned. 

Catra groaned. “Who knew a terrible sense of humor was hereditary?” She asked. Marlena tensed up immediately. Catra winced, but then shook her head. “Yep,” she continued. “Before you find her, you should know that Adora loves puns and corny jokes. Groaners galore from that girl.” Catra shrugged. “She’s just always been like that. Can’t be helped.”

Marlena looked over the treetops hazily. “I’m starting to get worried she doesn’t want me to find her,” she admitted. “Why would she? I couldn’t keep her safe. I let the Horde take her. I hurt her.”

Catra punched her in the arm. “Relax,” she insisted. “She won’t blame you. Greylock is the one who hurt her. The Horde are the ones who took her. And as for mauling her, well yeah that was rough, but she won’t hold it against you. She’s fought just about every werewolf, princess, Rebel fighter, and Horde soldier on the planet at this point! I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Marlena was quiet for a long time. “I honestly can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” she said hesitantly.

Catra shrugged. “The point is,” she explained. “You two dorks will work it out. Might not be easy, but it’ll be worth it. Besides, if Adora was that angry at you, she would have stormed one of our camps and tackled you already. Your daughter isn’t exactly the ‘plot my intricate revenge for years’ type. She’s more the ‘punch my feelings out’ kinda gal.”

Marlena managed a half smile. “Thanks,” she said after another long silence. 

“You can still come with us,” Catra said. “In case she’s . . .” Catra glanced again at the stars. “Up there.”

“No.” Marlena shook her head firmly. “Horde Prime can’t have her. I— I just can’t believe that right now. Besides, you heard what Scorpia said, she wasn’t anywhere near the Black Garnet Chamber. And even if she was behind some debris or something . . . Prime would never bring another First One onto his flagship.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Not after what happened the last time.”

“Ok, my turn,” Glimmer said, putting down her tray of rations. “What’s your favorite color?” It had been a few days since Adora had been put in charge of delivering her meals, and they’d developed a routine. Adora drops off the food, walks away, sticks her badge to a cleaning bot, and comes back. After all, as far as Horde Prime knew, she was only staying for a few minutes to extoll the virtues of his glorious Light.

At first, they just sat in silence for hours, relieved to just have another person close by. 

After a while, they started talking. It wasn’t much. At first, they just muttered out the kind of ice breakers that little kids would use getting to know each other. Partly because they were safer, and partly because they were genuinely curious. 

Adora leaned back into the force field as she pondered the question. “Blue,” she answered. “Getting to see it again was my favorite part of leaving the Fright Zone.” 

“Huh,” Glimmer said. “I would have guessed red or black — but I can see how you got sick of those.”

“Not exactly,” she responded. “I used to love wearing Horde colors. Especially after I transformed for the first time, they made me feel like I belonged. It didn’t matter how many jerks said I was just a mangy stray. I was one of them, and they couldn't take that away from me.”

Glimmer shifted uncomfortably. “I knew that the Horde was afraid of wolves,” she said. “But really? They called you that before you deserted?”

Adora chuckled. “All the time,” she said. “I got the ‘stray’ comment a lot more when I was a kid. ‘Fleabag’ was in the mix. ‘Runt’ too. Even after I became second-in-command, I heard people wondering why Hordak put the ‘dumb mutt’ in charge.”

“Seriously?” The Queen said. “How’d those Horde idiots get that idea? Didn’t you get the best test scores in like? everything? Catra never stopped talking about how much of a tactical mastermind you were, and how we could never underestimate you.” 

Adora blushed. “I mean, before I was put on active duty,” she explained sheepishly. “I was definitely a little more . . . distractible when I transformed. I got a bit of a reputation. One full moon session, when we were ten, we were sparring and Catra threw her staff and yelled ‘Fetch!’ And sure enough . . .” She chuckled at the memory. “I never lived that one down.”

“So you really do think differently on full moons?” Glimmer said. “The Hunters always said you did, but you never seemed ‘out of it’ or ‘loopy’ when we fought. Heck, you were the only one who could go toe to toe with She-Ra.”

Adora shrugged. “It was easier to focus on She-Ra then,” she explained. “If Catra had been there, it would have been a different story, but—“

“ If Catra was there?” Glimmer interjected. “She was there. Every time.”

“Oh,” Adora mumbled when she realized her slip. “Well, you see, When I’m a wolf, I mean full-on full moon fever mode,” she explained. “I still think Catra and She-Ra are different people. She does the sword thing, and then Catra disappears and this other person appears. So, I’m all like ‘Oh no! Where’s Catra?’. Even at my worst I couldn’t make myself want to fight her on those nights. I was always just angry that the big glowey monster that made Catra go away.” She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “I mean if Catra had been there instead . . . well, you saw what I was like back in Plumeria that one time.”

“Wait,” Glimmer said, recalling that night in the snow. “Wait. Wait. Wait. You’re saying if Catra . . .  if she just left the sword at home, walked up to you on a full moon without transforming or anything, you would have left the Horde and followed her? Just like that?”

“Yep,” Adora nodded. “Pretty much.” The two sat in silence for a moment before they burst out laughing.

“Can you imagine the next morning?” Adora cackled. “The Hunters are freaking out. The princesses are panicking. I’m either dead of embarrassment or brawling with the all guards at once. Meanwhile, Catra’s just standing there, acting all smug.”

“Are you kidding me?” Glimmer gasped between laughs. “She’d be too busy trying to get the Princesses to stop making popcorn and enjoying the show to look smug about anything.”

“How high up are those castle windows?” Adora hooted. “Because if I can hit the ground without breaking a leg, I’m just bursting through the first one I find!”

“At least you could limp back to the Fright Zone and tell the Horde you finally breached Brightmoon’s defenses,” Glimmer offered. “The guards never seemed to be able to stop Horde soldiers that just walked in like they owned the place anyway!”

“Who says I’m going back to the Horde?” Adora exclaimed. “I don’t think I could’ve shown my face in the Fright Zone after that. You Rebels might have been stuck with me!”

They laughed hard together until they couldn’t breathe. The kind of laughs that can’t really come from a joke, no matter how funny. The kind that come when you’re about to slam into the ground and suddenly learn you have a parachute strapped to your back. When the years of built up pressure finally crack.

“It’s funny,” Adora said after they both calmed down and wiped the tears from their eyes. “Everyone thinks I’m dumber on full moons, but I think the wolf was on to something there. Things like that are just a little clearer when I’m transformed. It’s easier to think without all these,” she waved her hands around her temples, “ thoughts getting in the way. Does that make sense?”

Glimmer huffed and rubbed the scars on her arms. “Thoughts like the ones you had back in the Fright Zone?” She asked cautiously. What are you waiting for? One Greylock left. The utter hopelessness in her voice still haunted her.

Adora was silent for a while. “Not ones like those,” she said. “Mostly just. . . What did our village healer call it? The Plumerians called it the same thing. Ang ZiAtty? Anxiety!” She snapped her fingers. “That’s it. I can’t dwell on one problem too long as the wolf. Or get stuck on one mistake. Or spiral. But no.” She grimaced. “What I said on the ledge . . . That other thought was new.”

“Have you had any others like it?” Glimmer asked.

Adora shook her head. “No,” she said firmly. Glimmer leaned back into the force field. Adora did the same.

“If you need to talk about it . . .” She trailed off. “I’m no Perfuma, but I’m here.” 

Adora nodded silently. “Sure,” she muttered. “Thanks.”

After a while, Glimmer broke the silence. “It’s your turn to ask the next question.”

Adora snapped back to attention. “Umm. Oh! Do you really have individual rooms for everyone in the Rebellion?” Adora asked. “I had my own room back in Greyskull, but I thought that was just one of those weird things only we did — like Signal Night.”

Glimmer smiled. “We do,” she said. “Catra thought it was weird too. She really liked

the fluffy beds, but it was too quiet for her at first. I don’t think she actually slept until Bow and I had a few sleepovers with her.”

Adora smiled softly. “We used to have those too,” she admitted. “I couldn’t sleep well just before full moons, so we’d stay up late, pull pranks, just talk about . . . whatever.” 

As she trailed off, Glimmer bit her lip. That tone was in her voice again. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard Adora talk about Catra like that. It couldn’t just be a werewolf imprinting thing. It ran deeper than that. Double Touble’s wolfish grin as they took on Catra’s form and prepared to lure Adora into her trap came back to her. 

“Did Catra do that cute thing where she put her hands over her face while she slept?” Adora asked before Glimmer could say anything. “Or flexed her claws while she was dreaming? Or curled up into a ball?”

Glimmer smiled, hiding the growing pit in her stomach. “Yeah,” she replied. “Bow has the pictures to prove it too.”

Adora laughed. “She’s even cute when she sleeps!” She exclaimed. “You’ll have to show me those when we—“ Her laughter abruptly cut off. “I mean . . . If we get back to Etheria—“

“No,” Glimmer interrupted. “I’ll show them to you once we get home. We’re getting out of this. Together.” 

The Queen paused and took a deep breath. “Adora,” she said. “For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry for . . . For everything I did to you. I— was cruel and stupid and so out of line to kidnap you and to threaten you and to say those things.” She turned to face her, but Adora was still facing away. “You didn’t deserve any of it. I’m so sorry.”

When Adora did turn to face her, she expected her to look angry. Too little too late, your majesty. Instead, she just looked confused. “You’re . . . apologizing?” She asked. There was no malice in her voice. “To me? But I . . .I’m . . .”

Glimmer nodded her head. “You’ve done so much to make things right,” she said. “And I just . . . I just didn’t want to see any of it. It was easier to listen to Shadow Weaver. To pretend you were still the Beast, but that was never really you. And now you’re stuck on this stupid ship with me. It’s all my fault!”

Adora froze as she took all that in. After a few minutes of silence, her expression changed from shock to something more resolute.

“What would you be doing if you were back on Etheria right now?” She asked. “Perfect day. Debts paid. Forgiveness earned. Go.” The Queen blinked hard. “Just answer the question.”

Glimmer sighed. “Well,” she said. “I’d be hanging out with Catra and Bow, obviously. First, I’d teleport all over Etheria - the Crimson Waste, the Dryl Mountains, the Whispering Woods, the Sea Gate, heck even the Fright Zone. Just seeing everything again, going wherever I want just because I can. Then, when we got back home, we’d steal cake from the kitchen and eat it with our hands like we did on Catra’s first sleepover. Then Bow and I would . . .” She trailed off and coughed. “Have a talk . . . together.”

The wolf smiled at her blush. “I could be showing Catra around the garden outside my old den while you two had your talk,” she suggested. “It’s not much, but I’m proud of what I’ve done with the place.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Glimmer agreed. 

“We’ll just have to get off this ship first.” Adora raised a cup of some bitter-tasting liquid in a toast. “Of course, that will be the easy part. Getting back to ‘best friends’ territory with anyone back home is gonna be a lot trickier.”

“Well, at least I can learn from someone with experience in that department.” Glimmer smiled wryly and raised her own cup. “To Etheria’s Biggest Screwups.”

“To Etheria’s Biggest Screwups,” Adora echoed.

They clinked the cups together against the force field and drained them. Then, they got to planning.

Chapter Text

As Adora watched the drones buzzing into and out of the hanger bay from a catwalk overlooking the cavernous chamber, she couldn’t stop herself from chuckling. The Velvet Glove increasingly reminded her of a bee hive she’d found in a hollow tree somewhere in the Whispering Woods. “No wonder they call it a hive mind,” she muttered to no one in particular. “At least I got some honey after the bee stings wore off.” 

Adora watched the clones and bots below going about their routines, silently coordinating with one another. She wondered how long the average clone could go without having to speak. A couple hours? Days? Weeks? How did they even perceive time out here in space, without a single sun or even a clock to measure themselves against?

Adora brushed off the thought. She was already losing it trying to keep track of time on this ship. Now, she had to focus. So far, this hangar was the only real exit she had been able to find. Ships of all sizes regularly took off and returned there, carrying clones, drones, weapons, and other supplies. Each time, they passed through an enormous green forcefield that served to keep the ship from “explosive decompression”, as she’d overheard the clones call it. 

How they managed to do that when all the lug nuts Adora had tossed into it bounced off was a mystery. Her best bet was that some clone was controlling the flow of traffic from a terminal somewhere, but her searches had turned up nothing. Now, she was just trying to find a blind spot in the clones’ patterns and patrols. A moment where they could slip by and sneak on a freighter bound for Etheria. She was so engrossed in her watch that she didn’t hear the footsteps coming towards her.

“What are you doing here?” A voice behind her demanded. Startled, she turned around to see a clone standing behind her with the usual tray of weird food. Adora mentally cursed herself for getting caught like this, but was grateful at the same time that she was wearing the badge when the clone was sent to her location. At least he didn’t find it stuck to the side of a cleaning bot. She couldn’t let Horde Prime know how often she slipped the tracker and possible recording device off and went exploring on her own.

Lacking a connection to the hive mind, she never knew exactly when mealtimes were - not helped by her suspicion that Horde Prime kept them varied to prevent Glimmer (and maybe even her) from knowing exactly how long she’d been imprisoned. But since he’d decided Adora would be given the chance to convince the queen to see reason, Horde Prime sent a clone to her with the rations whenever he decided enough time had passed.

It was a way of keeping her dependent. The badge on her belt could accomplish the same task of summoning her, but this way she wasn’t even sure where their food came from.

“Unless you were reassigned, Adora,” the clone said, annoyed. “I suggest you make the rations delivery to our guest.”

Adora tensed up from shock upon hearing her name - her actual name - in that voice. She hadn’t heard Horde Prime call her anything but Little Sister, which would never stop being creepy, for weeks at least. The only clone who even knew her as Adora was —

“Lord Hordak?” She asked suddenly, the title slipping out before she could stop herself. A half grin broke out on her face at his horrified reaction. “Who would have guessed? You and me— all that’s left of the Etherian Horde, and we’re stuck on Commissary Duty together. I didn’t know Prime had a sense of humor.”

He struggled to find words, sputtering for a few seconds before shoving the tray into her hands. “I do not know what you are talking about,” he growled. “Only Big Brother carries such a title.”

“Right,” she chuckled. “I guess it’s Brother Hordak now?”

“I have no name, sister,” he insisted. “Cease with this blasphemy.”

“Relax, I won’t tell anyone,” she said as she started to walk away. “Trust me, ‘The Beast’ knows how much it sucks to have everyone call you by a title instead of your actual name.” He still looked confused, but Hordak showed more expression than she had seen any clone offer so far. 

As she marched through the corridors towards the holding cells, she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “You tear a planet apart and spent decades building an empire— all for the chance to be a hall monitor,” she said to herself. “That’s gotta sting.” Adora could relate. She had some personal experience with going from the helm of a mighty army to living out of some ruins she found in the woods.

When Adora finally reached the cells, her partner in crime was pacing furiously. She didn’t even let up when she lowered the one-way transparency layer on the forcefield with her badge. “Bad luck, your majesty,” she said to get her attention. “Mess Hall was out of grey ration bars again.”

Glimmer paused in her pacing to groan. “Are you gonna make that joke every time?” She asked. 

“Yes,” Adora answered as she opened the field just enough to pass the queen’s tray through. “Bad Horde jokes until you swear allegiance to Lord Prime.” Adora placed her own tray of food down, sprinting away to attach her badge to the cleaning bot whose loop she’d memorized, and then returning.

Glimmer was already poking through her food. “Ok,” she said. “Glad to have what kinda looks like weird floppy bread, and I think this shredded stuff was ok last time, but the wood shavings and blue mush don’t really look promising.”

Adora squinted at the same items on her own tray. “I think those are dried meat,” she offered. “Or some kind of protein at least.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Glimmer said, rolling her eyes. “Promise you’ll tell me if Prime actually starts slipping in wood shavings or anything else to mess with me?”

Adora nodded. “You’ve got it,” she said, moving things around until she was satisfied. “Ok, try wrapping the not-wood shavings and the shredded stuff in the floppy bread and dip it in the mush.”

Glimmer followed her advice and took a bite. “That’s actually tasty,” she admitted. “I’m impressed.”

Adora nodded as she wolfed down her portion. “You need to get salt, fat, and acid in the right proportions,” she said smugly between bites. “Now, if we had some peppers or something else to give it a little kick of heat, this would be a pretty good meal.”

“Hold on,” Glimmer said. “I thought your experience with food was exclusively either grey bars or what you could throw together on a campfire. Where did you learn all this stuff?”

“Umm.” The wolf paused and looked off to the side. “From my dad,” she said quietly. Glimmer froze. “Before he met my mom he was a cook in one of the caravans. After he settled down, it was still his favorite thing to do. I used to help him in the kitchen . . .” She smiled sadly at the memories. Looking back, she probably wasn't much help, but he always had something for her to do. "One time," she said. "We spent so much time trying to get this sauce right, we forgot the stove was on. The whole house would have burned down if Mom hadn't been quick with a bucket of sand." She heard Glimmer chuckle. "She built Dad a grill pit for his birthday to keep it from happening again. The sauce ended up being pretty tasty though, so he thought it was worth it." Their family kitchen had been the opposite of the dull, flavorless mess halls of the Fright Zone. It had been easy to shut out those memories entirely while she was there.

“We used to do that too,” Glimmer sighed. “My Dad and I - cooking, I think. I was so little when he . . . maybe I just imagined it, but I remember us making something with dough together. Dumplings maybe.”

Adora leaned back into the forcefield. “Like stuffed pasta?” She asked. “Or a pierogi?”

“No,” Glimmer answered. “Bigger and with more meat and veggies. One or two was enough for a whole meal.”

“They sound good.” Adora sighed. “Maybe we can make the Rebellion dinner as part of our apology tour,” she suggested. "It worked for my dad whenever he set things on fire."

“Speaking of what we’re gonna do when we get back home,” The queen asked after a few moments of silence. “Any luck with the hangars?” 

“Not much,” Adora admitted. “Security is tighter for ships coming in than ships going out, but they have the whole area covered. Clear lines of sight all around. Nowhere to hide. Really impressive design, to be honest.”

“What about waste disposal?” Glimmer asked. “That was how we snuck into the Fright Zone. Maybe the original Horde has the same design flaw?”

“As far as I can tell this place is a closed loop resource-wise.” Adora shook her head. “I can look again,” she said. “But I’m not sure this place has any waste to dispose of. I think we’re the only two eating any real food on this ship.” 

She groaned and rubbed her temples. “I know there’s a way to escape. There has to be. If I was just smart enough to see it--”

“Come on, you threw together plans for all kinds of crazy missions back home out of a cave!” Glimmer insisted. “That didn’t stop you. You’re smart enough to figure this out.”

“What if I’m not?” She asked. “I’ve tried to see all the angles to this problem, some pressure point we can leverage or weakness we can exploit, but I can’t find them. What did you guys do to improvise all those great missions in the Rebellion?”

Glimmer shrugged. “We made plans to start,” she argued. “But they went wrong every time. We just got good at changing our strategy on the fly. Honestly, Catra was better at it than me. I just went in with aggressive face to face sparkles and hoped for the best.”

“Yeah,” Adora sighed. “If Catra was here, she’d probably be running the whole empire by now. Honestly, it’s a miracle we’ve lasted this long.”

Glimmer lightly punched the force field where Adora’s shoulder was resting. “We’ve lasted this long because you didn’t let Horde Prime kill me,” she said. “How about we pick a plan as a starting point? Just whatever we can think of now and build it from there?”

“We could try jumping through when a drone is landing and flapping our arms until we reach Etheria,” Adora suggested sarcastically. “I can’t think of any other way off this damn ship.”

“That’s it!” Glimmer exclaimed. 

Adora tilted her head. “Ok, I know you Rebels had a pretty good success rate by just winging it,” she answered. “But I was thinking we should come up with at least Plans B through F before we go with that kind of Plan A.”

“No,” the queen replied, gesturing wildly with excitement. “The Velvet Glove is a ship right? Like a boat, but in space. Yeah?”

“That’s what all the clones keep calling it,” Adora agreed, unsure where she was going with this. “But it’s not like any boat I’ve seen. More like a fortress.”

Glimmer nodded eagerly. “That’s how we’ve been looking at it,” she said. “But really, it’s more like a floating fortress. Except instead of water, it’s sailing through nothing! Er, I mean the vacuum or void or whatever. That’s why it’s all sealed in, even the docking bay with that force field.”

"Ok, so it's a boat." Adora still looked confused. “If I remember the Sea Gate correctly, you do have some field experience setting boats on fire if that’s what you’re getting at,” she offered. “Not as much as Sea Hawk, but no one is as good at arson as him.”

“As much as I’d love for us to do that, it’s not what I had in mind.” Glimmer shook her head, still smiling. “If this is a space boat ,” she explained. “It has to have space lifeboats ! Think about it. If something goes wrong, they need to have some way of evacuating.”

Adora’s face lit up. “Of course!” She shouted. The wolf immediately covered her mouth and looked down the hallway for signs of anyone listening in. Sure enough, someone’s footsteps began to echo through the corridors. “We’ll talk later,” she whispered, grabbing her tray. “I’ll see if I can find anything.”

“Good luck,” Glimmer whispered back.

The weird dreams weren’t the best at giving Catra information that she could really use - like how to rebuild her runestone - but it did give her an idea. She had a connection with Etheria’s magic, one that went beyond She Ra. Maybe it was worth listening to.

That’s how she ended up leading the remnants of the Rebellion through the dark heart of the Whispering Woods. Following the hum of magic as it grew stronger and stronger. After a few hours of trekking, she wasn’t the only one who could feel it. Finally, they reached a clearing tucked away in the dense green foliage. 

Bright motes of light drifted up from the mossy forest floor as they entered. “Ok,” she called to the rest of the Rebellion. “This is the strongest patch of magic in the most magical forest of this magic-forsaken planet. Unless the Whispering Woods would prefer Prime turn it into charcoal, it should start pulling its weight and helping us hide for once.” The trees seemed to bristle at that remark, but Catra stood by it.

As they started unpacking, though, some of them couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched. After months on the run, it was a hard habit to break. “Hey Entrapta,” Bow asked while pitching a tent. “There’s no way the Horde can track magic specifically right? No reason they’d go looking for us here?”

“Assuming Prime’s tech is similar to the designs the Etherian Horde used, magic will disrupt their sensors. However, I was able to develop methods to trace abnormal sources of magical energy fairly quickly,” she explained. “So, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.”

“Don’t worry, guys,” Marlena interjected before the collective groan could start. “Trust me, even if Horde Prime can sense whatever magic sanctuary we’re heading towards, he’ll steer clear of it. Magic was always the only thing that could put a dent in that body-hopping bastard.”

“Ok,” Netossa interjected. “I have some questions about this whole hive mind thing. I assumed Horde Prime is what the clones call whoever is in charge of the hive mind at the moment, but you’re talking like there’s been one guy the whole time.”

Marlena frowned. “It has been one guy in charge the whole time, she said. “I thought I already talked about that when the invasion started? I made a flowchart and everything.”

“You kinda got derailed in that particular presentation, Relic,” Catra snarked. The First One’s early attempt to explain the Galactic Horde had been overshadowed when one person remarked that the complex flow charts she had sketched out reminded her of a certain werewolf’s method of planning. When she answered, “Oh, you know my daughter?” Suddenly, everyone had very different questions on their minds.

“How can you be sure Horde Prime isn’t just a title?” Netossa asked. “It doesn’t exactly sound like a name.”

Marlena sighed. “Ok,” she admitted. “We might have skipped this part before, but we were always in the dark about him. The conflict with the Horde started before I was born. To most of the intergalactic powers, it just seemed like your regular expansionist empire. The fleets my family was part of organized into the Armada to defend scattered colonies and take in all the refugees the Horde was making.” 

Netossa nodded. “Like the Princess Alliance, then?” She asked. “With more superweapons though.”

“I mean,” Bow added. “We can’t exactly throw stones in that department thanks to Glimmer.” Micah winced.

“The more we learned about the Horde,” Marlena continued, hoping to keep him from dwelling on Bow’s remark. “The weirder it got. Mass brainwashing campaigns, spamming radio frequencies with whackjob sermons about ‘The Light’ . . .” She turned to Scorpia, who was carrying a pile of firewood large enough to keep them warm for the next week. “Hey, the uh local Horde wasn’t doing any of that stuff, was it?”

The scorpion shook her head. “I mean we had some pep rallies when we won a big battle,” she said uncomfortably. “But no . . . nothing like that. Actually, I don’t think Hordak ever talked at those things. Just glared occasionally.”

“Great!” Marlena said, relieved. “One less thing to worry about. Ok, where was I?”

“Giant evil cult stuff,” Frosta prompted. “It was just getting interesting.”

“Right. Thanks,” she said. “Anyway, after all that, by the time we noticed his army was getting replaced with clones from the generals down to the foot soldiers, it almost wasn’t a surprise. But, we figured it was a cult, so our best chance of stopping them was taking out their leader. Hard to keep claiming you’re the universe’s immortal messiah with your head on a pike, afterall. A strike team breached his flagship, confronted him head on, and . . .” She trailed off.

“I take it that plan didn’t work,” Mermista said.

Marlena swallowed hard. “No,” she explained. “They got the job done, but . . . right before they finished him off, Prime just moved his  - I don’t know - soul or mind or whatever to another body - instantly. The soldiers fought to the end, but there was nothing they could do . . .When he was done with them, Prime declared his immortality to the universe. Second worst day of my life.”

It wasn’t hard for anyone to figure out what the worst one was. “He could transfer his consciousness?” Entrapta asked. “How is that even possible? It’s not quantifiable by any means I know of, much less condensable into data of some kind.”

“I didn’t care how he did it,” Marlena answered. “I just wanted to find a way to stop him. He had a counter for every regular weapon we could think of, and none of the other space-faring civilizations were lifting a finger to help, so I decided to look elsewhere. ”

“Etheria,” Bow supplied.

She nodded. “Well, I didn’t make the connection until after the Battle of Krytis,” she explained. “It was one of the only battles we could really call a victory. Prime’s forces were weirdly skittish. The best reason I could come up with was whatever magic was left on that abandoned world. So, when we encountered a new planet with more magic than we’d ever seen before --”

“You connived to steal it,” Shadow Weaver hissed. The sorceress was leaning against a tree, conspicuously not helping. “And shackle our native magic with chains that weigh us down to this day.”

Marlena threw up her hands. “Hey, I wanted to get everyone’s informed cooperation,” she retorted. “But instead Top Brass decided to lie to everyone and take things in a more genocidal direction. I joined the Dianan Rebels as soon as I realized what they were up to, got captured, frozen, and now here I am.”

“So, just to recap. When punching Horde Prime didn’t work,” Mermista asked. “Your solution was to punch his whole empire with a planet?”

“The family resemblance is striking on an intellectual level,” Shadow Weaver muttered to herself in a voice so quiet only Catra seemed to hear her. “Thick-skulled wolves.” Catra suppressed the urge to pounce. Instead, she turned to walk away. She told herself it was a power move. Shadow Weaver didn't have any power over her anymore; ignoring her proved that. It hadn't done much to make her feel better since the witch had shown up to Brightmoon, but it would do for now. 

The First One shrugged. “Hey, it was the best plan we could come up with,” she argued. “I’d like to hear your plan for killing a guy with a million bodies.”

Entrapta pulled out one of her recorders. “New Project: Develop method of isolating and destroying individual consciousness within a hive mind,” she noted. “Assign rank in priority scale between Mass EMP and Getting to Space.”

“Keep me updated on that one, will ya?” Marlena replied.

The chatter faded as Catra strode into the greenery. Voices dampened by the trees. The more she looked around the grove, the more she felt deja vu. Almost like she’d been there before. Probably nothing , she reasoned. Freakiest magiciest part of the freak magic forest. It would be weirder if I felt normal.

After a few minutes, Catra found another clearing in the grove, this one at the base of a hill. An overgrown garden stood out from the grass. A crashed ship was half-buried in the side of the the hill, surrounded by smaller structures hewn from scrap wood and tarps. The Magicat froze at the edge of the treeline and scanned the area. 

After a few moments of searching, Catra approached the repurposed, half-buried ship cautiously, listening closely for any signs of life. But the hull was silent. Slowly, she pushed away the tarp cloth hanging across the entrance and crept inside. 

Having spent some time helping repair Mara’s ship, Catra recognized the style immediately. Low lights lining the walls brightened only slightly as she passed. A thick layer of dust had settled over the surfaces of the main room. Tools and bits of scrap metal were strewn about the floor. The command chair had been repurposed into some kind of message board - covered with slabs of cork with bits of paper stuck all over them.

Catra wondered if some small community had been camping here. Maybe one of the smaller Packs. Then, she noticed the drawing on the corkboard - a child’s crayon sketch of a yellow-haired werewolf tearing down the fence of a Horde labor camp - and realized that she’d been here before.

This was Adora's den.

And it had been abandoned for months.

The Velvet Glove was so open it was claustrophobic. After a lifetime in the Fright Zone, living in the Whispering Woods for over a year had seemed like living on a different planet. But now, looking back on it, Adora realized that they both at least gave her places to hide. 

Ledges and outcrops. Canopies and abandoned storage rooms. Hollow ancient trees and disused concrete cylinders. There were a million nooks and crannies where she could curl up, rest, and just think. She didn’t relax — according to Catra she never did — but it was soothing in its own way. The Woods had been better by a mile, even if she didn’t have anyone to share her hiding places with.

But on this ship, everything was smooth and complete. Whatever pipes and machines keep them floating were hidden behind the perfect polished walls. The storage rooms she had glanced in her search for a way out had been stadium sized. There wasn’t a shadowy spot or corner in sight. In fact, after hiking through what felt like miles of corridors searching for something that could count as an emergency exit, Adora discovered that there wasn’t anywhere to sit down either.

The high ceilings and bright lights made her feel like a patient bound to an operating table. Even in the most abandoned places she could find, like the barracks, Adora still felt like a pair of eyes were boring into the back of her neck with every step she took.

Frustrated, she pulled herself up to one of the port holes lining the corridor back to the barracks, flopped her legs over, and laid back. It wasn’t as graceful as Catra would have been in her shoes, but at least it gave her feet a chance to rest without plopping down in the middle of the hallway like a forgotten bag of laundry.

Adora gazed out of the window and sighed. The stars still took her breath away every time she looked at them. When she had seen the sterile scientific references to them in the First Ones texts Entrapta had taken an interest in, she had just imagined white dots peppering the sky like crumbs on a table. 

Her ancestors hadn’t done them justice. The swirls of colors, the twinkling, sparkling lights— nothing like the cold florescents diffusing Prime’s ship— dancing across the void like diamonds. “I hope you have time to look at them too,” she whispered to someone too far away to hear. She put a finger on the glass, just under a twined pair of blue and gold stars caught in each other’s orbit.

That one was her favorite.

Unfortunately, a flash of light from the planet below interrupted her daydreaming. She frowned. Another bombardment. Even the planets Prime owned - ones he had conquered long ago - weren’t safe from his wrath. Glimmer had been invited to watch a few of these “Correctional Exercises” as part of Prime’s intimidation campaigns. All planets very similar to Etheria - all with rulers who had failed to cooperate in some way.

Adora had to give credit to the queen for having held out this long under pressure. In her cell, she had brushed the horrors off. “If he was doing that to Etheria,” she argued. “The. That’s what he’d be showing me. Prime isn’t going to risk damaging his new toy, especially when that toy is a superweapon.” But her eyes told a different story. All that death, all that destruction, being forced to watch it all helplessly was weighing on her. It was weighing on Adora too.

The longer they stayed on Prime’s ship, the more his poison seeped into them - eating at their resolve like acid. If they didn’t escape soon, there might not be much of them left.

The wolf shook her head to stop herself from spiraling. She hadn’t found any life rafts yet, but Glimmer was right. There had to be something for emergency evacuations. Even the Fright Zone had fire escapes. They were rusty and rickety to have been much good in an actual emergency, but they made races with Catra interesting. Adora smiled at the the memories.

As Adora daydreamed, the planet’s moon drifted into the viewport. She didn’t notice it at first, but after a few minutes her skin began feeling warmer. Suddenly, the hairs on her arms stood up. 

Magic. She realized in an instant. It wasn’t the exact same feeling she got under a full moon back home. The light on her skin felt alien. Not wrong, just unexpected. Like biting into an apple and tasting a pear. The texture was different, but the heat seeping into her bones was familiar. It wasn’t enough to force her to transform, but maybe . . . 

She smiled. “We might have some more assets for this operation after all,” she mumbled to herself. 

The telltale footsteps of a clone interrupted her sudden burst of planning. Adora hopped off the windowsill and started walking in the opposite direction. Knowing this place, there was probably a rule against loitering.

But before she could continue her search for the emergency exits, the clone spoke. “Sister,” he called, freezing her in her tracks. She turned to face him with a frown. “Lord Prime requests your presence.” From his tone, the word ‘immediately’ was implied. 

As she followed the clone, Adora racked her brain for reasons why Prime would need to see her now. Maybe she’d lost track of time and he was hosting another Intimidation Dinner for Glimmer? Maybe he’d noticed her snooping? That was the worst case scenario, but she could explain herself: keeping her muscle-tone by walking, familiarizing herself with the ship’s layout in case of attack, stuff like that. She knew she wasn’t as good of a liar as Catra, but she could pull this off. She had to.

By the time they reached a suspiciously ornate chamber where Prime was apparently lurking, she had a story ready for any scenario. As Adora was marching into the room, Glimmer was being herded out. For a moment, they locked eyes. Adora’s blood ran cold as she registered the panic and shock in her gaze. It was a warning. Before Adora could fully process it, the clones shoved the Queen away. All Adora could do was keep her face neutral as she walked into the lavish trophy room. 

At first, it was almost comforting to be in a room with actual clutter. It was as spotless as the rest of his ship, but not as ruthlessly utilitarian. None of the knick-knacks seemed to serve any purpose other than showing off. Adora realized that was probably why he had brought Glimmer here. The bearded man on the screen lining the back wall was probably the king of some planet ‘very much like Etheria’ who had defied him and met some horrible end. Credit to Prime, he had managed to find someone who looked a bit like the Queen. The outfit he was wearing even had Brightmoon purple and blue in it. Catching sight of the shattered glass by an empty pedestal, Adora fought the urge to grin. Looks like he underestimated her.

Prime turned away from the image as the screen went blank to face her. “Little Sister,” he said. “It seems your efforts to bring our guest into the Light have been unsuccessful thus far.”

Adora nodded. She had a plan for this. “The Queen of Brightmoon’s resolve has been wavering,” she said, “but not as quickly as I expected.”

“On the contrary,” He gestured to the pile of glass on the ground. “It seems almost as if the Queen has grown more defiant. I know this She-Ra is key to accessing the Heart, but even if I were to capture her, I would need to secure her cooperation. And yet the Queen conceals from me She-Ra’s weakness.”

Adora blinked rapidly. “Catra has a weakness?” She asked without thinking. Panic and confusion replaced any plan she had to guide this conversation. 

Adora flinched when Prime responded with a glare. “The same as all weak-minded Etherians,” he sneered. “The person she is most attached to. The one who she would sacrifice everything to protect.” He grinned. “An elegant solution, but one that it seems more direct methods are necessary to uncover.”

The wolf sighed nervously. “That won’t be necessary, Lord Prime,” she said, improvising as best she could on the spot. “Please. Cat— She-Ra has risked a lot to save the Queen before. We already know that Glimmer would do the same for her. They’re each other’s attachments.” Adora hated giving Prime suggestions, but they needed more time. No need to let him know about the Archer if she could avoid it.

“An efficient suggestion, Little Sister.” Prime’s grin grew vicious. “But I shall have to show She-Ra that my warnings are genuine, and I could not risk harming a crucial component of the Heart. Our guest must surely know of someone She-Ra cares for who is more disposable than herself.” He chuckled. “I could tell from her expression that someone came to mind when I asked.”

“No, she doesn’t think like that,” Adora argued. “Even if you tortured her, she wouldn’t give you what you wanted. I know that from experience.” Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to think of a plan. “Please, Lord Prime, I just need more time to talk to her. She’s more likely to slip up if she doesn’t think she’s being interrogated anyway. If you just let me try I—” 

Her pleas died in her throat when she caught sight of a familiar face mounted on the wall. Among broken blades and faded tapestries, a huge wolf head stuck out - stuffed and mounted on a wooden board. The glassy blue eyes were clearly added later, but the greying blonde fur was original. To remove all doubt, etched on the plaque just under the neck in First Ones text was a name: “Admiral V. Greylock VIII.”

The Horde Lord savored her horror. “You have a good eye,” Prime said unctuously. “That is a memento of a bright day in the history of my universe. Eons ago, I had solved the problem every other Illuminator had failed to. So many false prophets have tried to uplift the lost souls of the universe, but all have failed. No matter the virtue of their teachings, all were mortal; all had to leave their work in the hands of the less capable.” 

“The universe will never be uplifted by the blind leading the blind.” He smiled. “I recognized this and confirmed my destiny - and the righteousness of my aims - by discovering a way to transcend the confines of a doomed body, but my early methods were . . . crude.” He gestured to a set of scalpels and wires laid out on a pedestal. “Transitioning from one vessel to the next was far from instantaneous.”

Adora swallowed hard, as Prime’s speech washed over her like cold water, unable to take her eyes off the grisly trophy.

“Your ancestors hoped to exploit that,” he continued. “To destroy one of my vessels before my true self could be transferred into another disciple. Of course, the Light is not so easily foiled. I had been preparing to eliminate the need for such a permanent attachment for centuries. Their foolish attack on my sanctum was just the moment I needed to share the good news with the universe: that no force in the universe was strong enough to threaten the Light. Horde Prime would always be there to guide them.” 

Horde Prime stepped towards the mounted head. “This was their leader,” he explained. “A direct ancestor of yours if I am not mistaken. His children were among those who vanished along with Etheria.”

He turned to her. “Glorious, is it not, little sister?” He asked. “The first witness to my true ascension preserved forever in the moment of realization!”

It was all Adora could do to keep herself from screaming. She couldn’t even put on her usual Force Captain act. “I— I—“ she stuttered. “It’s a lot to take in, Lord Prime.”

“I understand your ambivalence,” he said. “After all, you do not share in the hive mind. You are part of my Light by your own choosing.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “It is a great honor, I assure you. Those who are not born into my care are often so recalcitrant in the face of the salvation I offer. Yet here you are, repaying the transgressions of your forefathers. With the First Ones all but extinct, I had given up my hopes of harnessing the powers they possessed.” 

He looked back at the wolf’s head meaningfully. “But with you, alive and in my service, whatever secrets they sought to hide shall be uncovered. You shall stand as an example to all who come into my Light— a herald. And many more shall soon be joining us soon.”

Adora shook off her panic long enough to notice the implications of his words. “Why is that?” She asked.

“A new revelation for the universe shall soon be unveiled on Etheria, as grand as the one this beast witnessed,” he explained. “From now on, the clones I create in my image will not be the only ones to share in the great chorus of the hive mind. I intend to bring all living things which defy me to heel, without having to resort to the wasteful methods I have relied upon in the past.” His fingertips brushed the scalpels once again. “And our guest shall be the first to join us.”

“Th-that’s great,” Adora stammered through a mouth that suddenly felt like it was full of sawdust. “But surely there is some risk that we’ll lose her or her memories when you . . .” she swallowed hard to keep her panic down. “I can keep trying to talk to her just in case—“

Prime silenced her by digging his claws into her shoulder. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to make her wince. “Your concern for the one I have entrusted you to convert is not commendable by any means, Little Sister,” he oozed. “But it is understandable. Fear not. I am sure there will be many other Etherians for you to bring willingly into the Light. Perhaps your Catra?”

He led her out of the room, steering her through the corridors. “However,” he continued. “I believe the Queen will require my direct intervention.”

Their footsteps echoed throughout the silent ship as they marched. “So, no one else has to die?” Adora asked with what little voice she could still muster.

“I would hope so,” Prime replied. “But I fear some creatures are destined only for destruction. Not all are strong enough to endure the suffering necessary to become pure.”

When he finally stopped, it was in a part of the ship Adora hadn’t discovered in all her wanderings. A humming sound like an engine thrummed through the air. They stood before a door to a vast chamber. From within, Adora heard a droning chant. 

Cast out the shadows. 

Cast out the shadows.

Cast out the shadows.

“Yes,” Prime said, the chanting growing louder as he spoke. “Those who stray from the path can be welcomed back into the flock again, but only after they do proper penance.” Further in the room, a single clone knelt before in the center of the floor. The chanting chorus stretched up to the rafters. A sickly green light emanated from below the kneeling one, but Adora couldn’t see its source. 

“One of my brothers recently confessed to repeating an old sin, Little Sister” he explained. “Giving himself a name. ” Adora's heart skipped a beat.

Prime lightly shoved her into the chamber. “Shall we see what his penance looks like?”

Entrapta would have the ship ready to go at sunrise. All the food and supplies they would need out there had been packed. With their new camp, the Rebellion was safer than it had been in months.

But, when she should have been getting some sleep like everyone else, Catra found herself wandering their new camp. The other Rebels had already begun to take advantage of the work Adora had done. The smoker was preserving some salmon a soldier caught. The worktable was Marlena’s new work station. Even the garden had been tended to.

Even as the clearing was coming back to life, Catra couldn’t shake her worries. If Adora wasn’t hiding here, then where was she? Why hadn’t she come back in so long? As far as almost everyone else was concerned, this just confirmed Scorpia’s theory: Adora was stuck in wolf-form somewhere, but something about that seemed wrong to Catra. 

Warden Juliet quietly agreed. “When ferals get stuck like that,” she had explained. “They seek out familiar places, places they’d feel safe. You’d think that would be here for her.”

As Catra mulled over the problem, her sensitive ears picked up on a conversation from one of the dying campfires.

“I can’t even get Frosta to like me, and she’s fourteen,” Micah groaned. “How am I supposed to connect with a twenty-year-old?”

“I’m sure you two will work it out,” Marlena reassured him. “Everyone I’ve talked to says she turned out brave, headstrong, and stubborn. As someone who got to know you pretty well back on Beast Island, you two sound pretty similar.”

“I’ve heard at least a few people say the same thing about you and your daughter too,” he said. “And you’re still worried.”

“I have a couple extra reasons to be, but point taken,” she responded. “How about we just agree to use Beast Island rules for this.”

“Split up and whoever sees their daughter first yells for help?” Micah asked.

“Yep.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Catra rolled her eyes. She knew there would be fireworks when the reunions happened, but they were worrying over nothing. Sparkles had a lot of catching up to do to get back on her good side, but she’d seen the way she looked at her father’s memorial portrait. She idolized the guy. As for Adora, she was more likely to beat herself up than blame someone else for anything - even literally mauling her. The four would each find a way to work it out.

She found herself stopping by the corkboard in Adora’s den, staring at the picture some kid had drawn for her. “Hey Adora,” she said quietly. “I was hoping you would find us before I left. I’d give good money to see your face when you meet Lena. Or, I guess, re-meet her. Stars, she's a bigger dork than you. I didn't even think it was possible." 

She crossed her arms. “But you never were good at staying with me. Even after you left the Horde,” she gestured around the room to prove her point. “When I let you go, I hoped you’d figure out what you wanted. And you did - you helped so many people. But, deep down, after you pulled that stunt to save me I let myself hope that you wanted . . .” she trailed off and sighed. “The same thing I did,” she finished lamely. 

Catra shook her head. I can’t even say it to a picture and I thought I had the guts to tell her to her face? 

“Whatever,” she sighed sarcastically. “I’m sure you’ll come waltzing into camp the second we leave. That’s the kind of joke the universe just loves to pull on me. But wherever you are now, just promise to stay safe.” She huffed. “And if your hero complex won’t let you do that much, at least stay alive long enough for me to bust in, save you, and never let you live it down.”

As she turned and walked towards the exit, Catra couldn’t stop an old memory from flashing back in her head. You look out for me, and I’ll look out for you. Neither had managed to keep that promise, but Catra was determined to keep this one.

Far above the Whispering Woods, among stars that couldn't even be seen from Etheria, Adora was making a promise of her own. One that she was just as determined to keep.

Chapter Text

Glimmer hadn’t moved since the clones had escorted her back to her cell. She was too restless to collapse in the bed, too exhausted to pace. She just stood in the center of the room with her back to the force field as her thoughts spiraled.

He was alive. Her father had been right there on the screen, fighting alongside everyone else she had let down. It didn’t take a genius to figure out where he must have been. The Queen didn’t know what was worse. 

That it was yet another reminder of how much of a mistake it had been to shut down Catra’s mission to Beast Island? 

That, after getting a good look at Adora and her older scars, she could guess what witch gave him the burns along his arms?

Or that the first moment she saw him, for a fleeting, heartbreaking second, all she could think of was how much she wanted to share the good news with Mom.

Before Glimmer could continue spiraling, she heard a frantic set of footsteps thunder through the hallway. Suddenly, she heard the usual fizzle of the force field going transparent. She turned around to face the newcomer, but her words caught in her throat when she saw Adora. 

Prime hadn’t commented on the mounted werewolf head in his trophy room. She had tried to signal her in the moment she saw her marching into that hall of horrors, but ‘hey, he’s got a head that looks kinda like you on the wall. Be ready for whatever that’s about’ isn’t exactly easy to communicate with eyebrows.

Based on the wild, panicked look in her eyes and heavy panting, she had definitely seen it. Her gaze was unfocused, like she was looking straight through Glimmer and a thousand yards beyond. Her normally neat ponytail had strands of hair sticking out of odd angles. “We have a problem,” she said suddenly. “So many problems.”

“What else is new?” Glimmer half-heartedly joked back. Seeing Adora like this had her heart rate rising, but she tried her best to keep her own panic hidden.

“Prime is going to make you part of the hive mind,” she answered.

Glimmer’s heart sank into her stomach. Her mouth hung open as she struggled to reply. “H-how? What? No,” she stammered out. “I’m not a clone. How would he even . . . “ she trailed off as her imagination supplied several horrific possibilities.

Adora shook her head. “I don’t know how exactly,” she explained. “He just said he has a way. Or he will. He’s gonna try to do it to all of Etheria— the whole universe. And he showed me what he can do to people once they’re in it— to keep them from fighting back, to rip everything out of their heads—“ a choked down sob cut her off.

Glimmer listened for steps coming down the hallway, but the cell block was silent. They were alone. For now at least. “How long do we have before . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the question.

Adora rubbed her temples and paced a few steps. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be here,” she answered. “He would have already done it if he could, but from the way he talked about it — the device or process or whatever is still in development.” As she paced, she moved her hands like she was arranging bits of information. 

“You’re right. Why bother with the whole intimidation game in the trophy room if he could do that?” Glimmer agreed. 

“Exactly,” Adora agreed. “Prime said he was going to show the universe a ‘relevation,’ he wants to put on a show. He wants an audience for this. Something he can hang on on his wall—“ she cut herself off. “The point is, whenever he’s ready, Prime is not gonna do it secretly. Cameras, broadcasting, a light show, hell, he’ll never pass up a chance to monologue. He’s worse than the Undead Princess.”

The causal reference was enough to jolt Glimmer out of the immediate situation. “The what?” She asked.

Adora raised an eyebrow. “The Undead Princess,” she repeated. “You know? From the story. Arisha and Kisa? The evil princess who tormented a village until she was thwarted by the Horde? A bit like the Headless Princess, the Wolf Princess, the Three-Headed Princess . . .” She trailed off. “Wow, the Horde really had a theme going on there.”

“Yeah,”Glimmer agreed. “I think that might have just been a Horde thing.” The two shared a moment of levity before the weight of the Velvet Glove came crashing back down. 

“A couple days our time then?” Glimmer asked. “Until Prime’s . . . revelation?”

Adora sighed. “Yeah,” she said, her unsteady breathing slowing to a normal pace. “I found the emergency exits too. Or something like it: the teleporters that brought us on board. Only problem is like everything else on this ship it takes at least two people to teleport us; so unless I can get one of them to help us, only half our problem is solved.” The wolf rested her forehead against the force field.

“Please, just tell me that you have some teleports left,” Adora sighed after a long silence. As the panic left her, all that remained was exhaustion. “That you weren’t sure about trusting me, and kept it to yourself to save them for an emergency . Please, I— I don’t know how to . . .”

“I don’t have any magic out here,” she said. “Trust me. I’d tell you if I did.” Glimmer wrung her hands. The scar tissue didn’t even hurt anymore. “Besides, when the Heart activated, something happened to my connection with the Moonstone.” She felt herself start to shake. “I don’t know what I’m doing either. I thought I was, but I just made everything worse. For my friends, for Etheria, hell now my Dad’s fighting Prime’s bots because of me!. 

Adora looked up in shock. “Your what?” She stuttered out. “You mean the man in the trophy room? On the screen? He didn’t just look like— That was really your . . .” 

Glimmer nodded. “Yeah,” she confirmed in a small voice. “It was him.” She made a sound that was either a choked laugh or a light sob. “I ruined everyone’s lives trying to avenge him and Mom, and he was alive the whole time somewhere. And because of all the stupid crap I pulled, I’ll never . . . “

Adora was silent for a while. Then, she put her palm on the force field. “Don’t worry, your highness. You’re going to see your Dad again. You’re going to make those steamed dumplings you told me about, and then you’re going to make things right with Catra and Bow.” She said firmly. “You’re going home. I promise.”

Glimmer put her hand to match Adora’s. “We both are,” she insisted. “First Rule of the Rebellion: No Rebel left behind.”

Adora paced alone in her bunk room, letting the light of an alien moon wash over her. “It’s five thousand steps from the teleporter room to the hangar bay,” she said to herself. “That’s two-and-a-half miles. My fastest record time in training as the wolf was thirty-seven miles-per-hour.” She growled in frustration as she did the mental math. “So if I teleport Glimmer to somewhere safe, I can transform, run there, steal a ship, and fly back to Etheria in— arg!” She flopped onto her bed. “Who am I kidding? That would never work. I could only manage sprints that fast, not laps! Even if the shuttles are like skiffs, I’d still need thumbs!”

Suddenly, she heard a giggle from the corridor outside and froze.

“Adora! You’re missing dinner,” Catra taunted as she sprinted past the door. She was much younger— a vision from back when her mane was half her body weight. 

Adora nervously crept out after her, wondering if this was a mind game— some horrible illusion like the ones she saw in the Crystal Castle— or just a hallucination. When she stepped outside of her room, she found herself in the familiar dingy corridors of the Fright Zone, comforting rust and grime staining the walls. The phantom Catra turned a corner into the junior cadet locker room. A rhythmic pounding was coming from within.

The wolf snuck in after her and found the source of the sound: a child struggling against a punching bag much too big for her— three times her height at least. Her face had turned beet red from the effort and her breathing was heavy, but she just kept hitting it.

“Punching practice can wait. This is an emergency,” Catra demanded. “Someone screwed up at the commissary. They’re running out of grey ration bars. Come on!”

“I’m not hungry,” she answered between pants. Her strikes kept landing at a furious pace.

“Liar,” Catra shot back. “You’re always hungry.” She walked up beside her. “Have you been here all day?”

“I let everyone down in training,” she said. “I can’t do that again.”

“Hitting a stupid bag for two hours isn’t gonna help us on the obstacle course, dummy,” Catra retorted. “Neither is starving yourself. Or me. Let’s go.” She put a hand on her shoulder to drag her away, but Adora snarled and shoved her back into the lockers.

“Then go!” She shouted. “Go eat with everyone else. I’m not like you. I’m not supposed to get tired or hungry or hurt anymore. Just leave me alone and let me fix this!”

Catra’s eyes widened for a second before hardening into a glare. “Fine,” she said flatly. “Have it your way.” Then, she stalked out of sight while both Adoras winced.

“Crystal Castle really missed an opportunity with this one,” the elder version muttered to herself. “I guess we gave it plenty to choose from.”

“Stupid freak mutt,” the younger growled at herself as she starting striking the bag again. “Shadow Weaver’s right. Too distracted.” She hit the bag harder and harder until she was sure her knuckles would bleed. The older Adora remembered the feeling, lost in the same spiral as her younger self.

“Catch!” Catra cried, breaking them both out of their trance. The younger Adora turned just in time to see the training staff flying at her face. She managed to fumble a catch. Catra twirled her own. 

“You wanna train? Fine. Instructor Catra reporting for duty, cadet,” she said. The Magicat put her arms behind her back and puffed out her chest to imitate their real instructors. “You need to work on basic obstacle course skills: dodging, jumping, balancing, sprinting—you suck at all of it. Lucky for you I’m the best in the world at all that.”

Younger Adora frowned. “But,” she asked. “Shadow Weaver says you have your own extra training. I’m supposed to—“ Catra cut her off by putting the tip of her own staff to her forehead. Adora blushed. It was the first time she did that, and it turned out to be her off switch, just like it would be whenever Catra touched that spot. 

“I’m your Acclimation Buddy. Making sure you don’t embarrass the Horde is my job.” she said. “Besides, First Rule of How to Be Half as Awesome as Catra 101: Shadow Weaver doesn’t need to know everything.”

“Ok, but the obstacle courses are off limits to us,” Adora protested. “How are we gonna train there?”

“See? That’s your problem,” she said with a grin. “The whole Fright Zone is an obstacle course. You just need to see it like one. Let’s get started.” She sprinted towards the door. “Race you to the Mess Hall!” Older Adora leapt out of the phantom’s way as she barreled past.

Adora left the punching bag behind and sprinted after her. “Wait for me,” she cried.

“How does it feel to the world’s slowest person?” Catra yelled back as she ran. As she looked back to stick her tongue out, she locked eyes with the older Adora and slowed down to a jog. She stopped, and a curious look passed over her face. Adora balked at her gaze, frozen in place until her younger self passed the other girl by. The sudden challenge to her first place finish snapped the Magicat back to the race and she took off sprinting around the corner.

“No! Wait.” The older Adora cried as she tried to follow. But when she turned the corner, the blinding white corridors of the Velvet Glove were all she found. She grabbed the closest wall to keep herself from collapsing. 

Even when I pushed her away, she didn’t give up on me. The thought came unbidden, and she shook it away. “Ok, that was concerning,” she said to herself as she put two fingers against her wrist. “Vivid audiovisual hallucinations, increased heart rate . . .” When was the last time I slept? Her mouth went dry as she realized she didn’t know the answer.

Reluctantly, Adora trudged back to the bunk room and collapsed onto the rock hard bed. She couldn’t risk resting for long, but she could feel her body and brain ramming into a wall. 

The former Force Captain had pulled more than her fair share of all-nighters, but this time no one was around to notice if she pushed too far. Scorpia wasn’t there to talk her ear off until she dozed off, then keep watch for a few hours while she caught up on lost sleep. Entrapta wasn’t there to casually comment into her recorder how many hours she had been awake. Adora winced when she realized that Entrapta probably wasn’t making many of those notes from her unmarked grave in Beast Island. 

If she didn’t find a way to get shuteye, she wouldn’t be able to get through a stroll without passing out, much less an escape attempt.

Her world went black as soon as her head hit the poor excuse for a pillow. It was a fitful half-sleep at first, filled with half-hidden shadows and half-forgotten goals. Mercifully, her mind stayed away from recent memories: the trophy room, Prime’s awful grin, Hordak’s screams in that green pool. 

Instead, Adora found herself in a much older memory. She was in one of the many overcrowded storage chambers in the Fright Zone. Her squad and a few others in their cohort were huddled around an overworked portable heater. Icicles had formed along the exposed pipes running along the walls. They were a few years older than they had been in her vision from before. Maybe nine or ten. Hard to tell when the Horde didn’t precisely track their ages.

They hadn’t graduated to real training yet. The simulator room and sparring matches were years away. But they were still treated like soldiers and expected to act like it. That’s why, at this moment, they were supposed to be running drills with Captain Cobalt out in the freezing cold. 

“Alright, cadets,” Colbat explained, rubbing his hands together over the heater. “If any other officer comes by and asks why we aren’t outside running the course, what do we say?”

“That’s we’re doing Impromptu Wilderness Survival Training,” Kyle recited. “Not stealing the heater from Octavia’s room because we’re really cold.”

“Dammit, Kyle! Leave the last part out,” Lonnie said, exasperated. Rogelio hissed in agreement.

“It’s her fault for not locking her door,” Catra snarked. “Survival of the fittest.”

“Unless you plan on taking out another eye, I’d keep that to yourself,” another cadet sniped. Squad 11’s unofficial leader: Roxie, a gap-toothed goat-kind girl. 

“Yeah,” one of their human squadmates agreed. “You already dodged one ticket to Beast Island for that.”

Adora growled from her perch on one of the boxes. She’d taken that spot to let her squad get more warmth. The kid was still getting used to her hot-bloodedness. “Shut up, Leon,” she warned. Rumors had already started swirling about Adora by that time: the Horde’s only werewolf. 

The squadmate paled at her glare, but the ringleader stood her ground. “Oh, right,” she taunted innocently. “I forgot. Catra can just sic her guard dog on anyone she wants now. Why would she get her hands dirty?”

“Shut up or I’m making you all run the damn course in your underwear,” Cobalt warned before Adora could pounce. “Save the trash talk for the sparring ring. I’m not listening to it on my break.”

The group settled into an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. “Ok,” Catra said. “This looks too suspicious. We need to at least pretend we’re learning something.”

“Anyone know a good campfire story?” Adora offered.

“Well, I am bored,” Cobalt said as he scratched his head. “And I guess we could spin this one as instructional. What the heck!”

It was a dark and cold winter night, far away from the safety of the Fright Zone. A small, solitary fort on the edge of Snows looked over a tiny village. Miles away from each, just on the horizon, was a Spartan way-station. There, a lone officer sat at her watch. Icy winds battered the thin metal walls as she kept herself warm by the heater. A stun prod and a flare gun rested her side.

The outpost stood along the only road in that blasted backwater, winding its way out of the sharp mountains of the Kingdom of Snows. In her weeks on watch duty, the officer had never seen a traveller pass by. The Horde had built the road to bring the village into the modern era (and allow its soldiers and tanks to move more efficiently), but so far traffic was light at best.

That’s why, when a harsh knock suddenly rang out from the door, the officer was shocked. Leaping to her feet and grabbing her stun prod, the Magicat with red-gold fur edged her way to the door cautiously. “Identify yourself,” she called out to the closed door. “Who claims the right to walk on Horde property?”

“A friend,” a gruff voice called back, muffled by the door, the storm, and several layers of wool. “And Horde property myself according to some accounts.” The officer threw open the door. The sudden influx of cold air made her fur stand on end, but she didn’t mind, quickly pulling the traveler inside.

“Arisha!” The officer called out excitedly. Her armor had a thick coat of ice on it. The force captain had clearly done her best to care for it, but the joints were still covered in rust stains. A pair of googles covered her eyes and a scarf covered the rest of her face, but the officer would know her anywhere. “Where have you been? It was just supposed to be a two month patrol!”

The officer ripped the wrapping off her face to reveal a goofy grin, a dusting of freckles, and a cascade of brown hair. “It’s good to see you too, Kisa,” she said. “I got a little held up with the Third Division out in Snows. The Packs were far more stubborn than our scouts gave them credit.” She tapped her badge. “But I think it was worth it.”

Kisa laughed. “I was wondering who would replace that old fool, Captain Dimitri,” she said. “Congratulations, squadmate. I’m sure you have quite a few stories behind that shiny new badge.” The officer pulled a few ration bars and local drinks from the supply cabinet. “You’ll have to tell me all about them.”

And so, the two friends got to talking. Hours went by as they spoke, old jokes passing between them. In between the laughter though, the force captain noticed the officer glancing back at the door, worry clearly written on her face. 

“I’m glad we could catch up, Kisa,” she said as she rose. “But I must hurry if I hope to make the fort before dawn.”

Instead, the officer grabbed her shoulder. “Why don’t you stay the night?” She offered. “It’s dangerous to travel unaccompanied in weather such as this. You don’t want to start your new job with frostbite do you?”

Arisha shook her head. “Come now, Kisa,” she responded. “Good Horde officers do not get sick. And I am expected before sunrise. It’s standard protocol.”

“But these are not standard times,” the officer responded. She pulled the force captain closer to the radiator. “This place has been cursed by dark magic. The town and our forces are under siege by a wicked princess.”

The force captain balked. “Impossible,” she cried. “Just before I left we executed the tyrant who tried to stop us from liberating this valley. Why would any princess return here after we dealt with the last one so effectively? And what kind could stand against our weapons?”

“The one who stalks the valley is the princess we defeated before,” Kisa explained. “Somehow, she returned from the ground where we buried her and escaped death with her vile magic. Each night, she rises from her grave to terrorize the villagers and exact her revenge on any Horde soldiers she finds. Our weapons have not phased her.” She put her hands on Arisha’s shoulders. “But, she has not dared enter our outposts. We are safe here. Our best chance is to hold our ground and call for reinforcements.”

Arisha was silent for a few moments. Then, the force captain laughed. “Kisa, do not be foolish,” she chided. “No magic is powerful enough to cheat death at the Horde’s hands. Some other sorceress must be tricking you all to avenge the fallen tyrant they once served. An illusionist from the cowardly city of Mystacor perhaps?”

The officer stared at the force captain in shock. Then, she released an annoyed sigh. “I see your brain is still frozen from the journey, Arisha.” Kisa said, crossing her arms. “But I suppose that isn’t a change from before, now is it?

Arisha threw an arm around her friend. “Trust me,” she continued. “I encountered such illusionists in the frozen wastes of Snows. They conjured horrors like you couldn’t imagine: giant beasts, walking mountains, three-headed wolves and ogres. They are quite convincing, dangerous even when they had wolves backing them up, but we are the best the Horde has to offer. It’s nothing the two of us can’t handle together, eh?”

“If there is nothing I can say to convince you,” Kisa pleaded. “Then, at least take this.” She shoved a flare gun into her belt. “I’ll watch the valley and come running if you send one up.”

“I would not expect a distress signal if I were you, Kisa,” Arisha said with a smirk. “I cannot be cowed by phantoms in the night. I am a Force Captain of the Horde,” she said, tapping the badge pinned proudly to her chest. “No princess would dare challenge me. Undead or otherwise.”

With that boast, the force captain returned to the cold road. It was difficult to navigate in the dark. The sky above offered no light. The moon was barely a silver sliver, but at least she didn’t have to worry about werewolves. Arisha had seen first hand how the monsters had terrorized their forces up north.

The lack of light did not slow her down. Arisha had spent years in this region as a cadet and had marched on this road many times. Every stone and bridge were familiar. Soon enough, she came upon the old cemetery on the hill, a cluster of moldering stones beneath a decaying castle where the locals laid their dead to rest. She almost passed it without more than a glance, but something caught her eye— a sickly, unnatural green light coming out of one of the tombs.

She approached it cautiously, keeping one hand on her stun prod. Hunched over an open tomb, she saw a strange figure with long white hair in a rotting silk black dress, fiddling with a collection of amulets and charms.

“Greetings, civilian,” she called out on instinct. “What is your business out in this dark, cold night?”

“Good of you to ask, Force Captain.” The figure turned. Her sallow skin was so tightly pulled over her bones that she seemed like a skeleton. Her eyes glowed the same unnatural green as the light from the tomb. She smiled, showing off a mouth full of sharp teeth, turning her face into a grinning skull. The force captain froze in horror at the nightmarish visage. 

Before she could react, the princess glided over and grabbed her elbow. Her skin was clammy and colder than the night air. The scent of the earth still clung to it, as if she had just crawled out of the grave. “There is a wedding in the village tonight,” she said in a booming voice. “I am in the mood for some revelry. Come! We shall be the guests of honor.”

And so, the force captain found herself in the clutches of the Undead Princess. She tried to break free, but her strength melted out of her like water from a broken bowl at the spot where the princess held on to her. Hoping to conserve as much energy as she could, she had no choice but to allow the corpse-like specter to drag her down the valley and into the village.

Once there, the princess led her to a strange gathering in the center of town. Colorful lights had been strung between the buildings and an excessive spread of food had been laid out. However, as soon as they arrived, the villagers ran screaming into their homes. The young couple at the center of the gathering was not so lucky, as the princess cast a spell that forced them both into a deep slumber.

Then, the princess took a knife and two vials from her dress pocket, piercing the palms of both her victims, and collecting a few drops of their blood. When her work was finished, she turned to Arisha with a sickening grin.

“All this fine food would be wasted on the commoners, wouldn’t you agree, friend?” She cackled. “Let us take it back to the castle and have a proper feast. I would be honored to have one of the Horde’s finest warriors as my guest.”

In the face of all this, weaker souls would have lost their nerve, but the princess was right. Arisha was the Horde’s finest— a Force Captain, hard as steel. If the force captain had learned anything on campaign, it was how to keep her cool. Princesses and their magical ilk were always trying to throw Horde soldiers off balance with their petty and terrible tricks. 

And so, Arisha simply shrugged and agreed with her captor, helping her gather the food and carry it back up the road to the rotting castle she called home. Inside, blood spattered tapestries depicting her crimes in life lined the stone walls, muffling the sounds of their footsteps. A fire raged in the musty banqueting hall, but it was colder than the frozen snow drifts outside. 

But Arisha still kept her nerve, waiting for the right moment to strike, as the princess used her sorcery to set up a feast for the two. They sat at the same table, the princess took glee in having a Horde soldier as her guest, asking all sorts of questions about her exploits (and none too subtly adding in references to her other squadmates still huddled in the fort). Arisha answered all her questions nonchalantly, doing her best to play the part of the honored guest.

“So, the thing with the blood,” Arisha inquired, dipping some bread in a bowl of soup. “What did you do to that couple exactly?”

“That?” The princess laughed as she poured another glass of wine. “It’s quite a good joke actually. The two shall sleep and sleep and sleep until they perish. And only the blood I took from them could revive them.” She laughed again as she settled back into her ornate seat. “Oh the villagers will struggle to find another cure, but none exists. Eventually, they will have to come begging. Perhaps I shall be merciful, perhaps not! I haven’t decided yet.”

“So they shall.” Arisha leaned back in her own chair, feigning a casual manner. “Do you not fear one of them will take back the cure by force? Or harm you in the process?”

The princess laughed again, louder this time. “Those weaklings? Harm me? Impossible!” She cried. “I am the Undead Princess. Not even Death herself could keep her icy grip on me for long.”

“It sounds like you are quite unkillable,” Ashira remarked, faking a sip from her goblet. “It must be boring to have no true opponent to face.”

The princess grinned. “Wrong again,” she taunted. “There is one way to defeat me, but it is not easy. In the sunlight, my body turns to stone. At twilight, just as the last of the day fades over the horizon, I become flesh again, but for a moment, before my spirit has returned to this vessel, I am vulnerable.” 

She rose from her seat and stepped towards the fireplace for dramatic effect. “If they were to burn me then, I could not return. But they would have to be quick to gather the ashes before the wind carries them away. For if even a speck were to return to the soil, I would rise again.” 

Arisha placed a hand on the stun prod in her belt and pushed back her chair quietly. “That would be difficult,” she commented. “I can see why you are so secure in your position, princess. This has been an enlightening conversation and an excellent meal, but I do not wish to impose upon you any longer, princess. You have been a gracious host.”

“Indeed, I have. But, the hour has gotten late,” the princess said lightly. “It’s nearly dawn. So I really must be killing you now.” Without warning, she lunged across the table, claws aimed at the force captain’s throat. But Arisha was quicker. 

With instincts sharpened by years of training, she leapt back out of reach and drew out her staff. “For the Horde!” She cried. And then she ran forward.

It was a grueling fight. Wicked, hardened claws sparked as they clashed with Horde steel. For hours, they struggled. The princess’ dark magic was unable to overcome the discipline and precision of the Horde’s finest fighter, but Arisha was mortal, and the princess was not. 

As the hours dragged on, Arisha’s limbs grew heavy and her steps grew slower. Yet, the Princess’ blows came at the same pace, her undead muscles never tiring. Her strikes came closer and closer to the force captain, the tips of her nails managing to slice a great gash into her breastplate. Soon, Arisha found herself blocking instead of attacking. Another strike she was too slow to dodge knocked the stun prod from her off hand and sent it clattering to the floor along with her flare gun.

Arisha was able to hold her off for another few rounds, as they twirled around the room, caught in a deadly dance. At last, the princess sent a bolt of black lightning that struck Arisha right in the chest and sent her crashing to the floor. The impact knocked the wind out of her. She struggled to breathe as the princess approached her, savoring one last chance to play with her prey. The Undead Princess loomed over the struggling, exhausted force captain menacingly.

“I have not been this entertained by a guest in years,” she remarked. “Killing such an excellent fighter would almost be a waste, so I’ll be merciful. Renounce the Horde, beg for your life, swear your allegiance to me, and I shall spare you.”

With the little air she had left in her lungs, Arisha spat, “Never.” She pushed herself up to face her would-be executioner. “Do your worst, you damn tyrant.”

“A shame,” the princess said, raising a fist glowing with magic. “Goodbye, Force Captain.”

Then suddenly, a flash of light cut through the darkness, blinding both fighters. The solid mass of burning phosphorus struck the undead princess squarely in the chest, knocking her back into the wall with a horrible hiss. Arisha looked in the direction of the miraculous flare to find a familiar face.

“Kisa,” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“I got tired of waiting for your flare, dummy,” Kisa explained with an eye roll. “Force Captain or not, I believe a ‘thank you’ is in order.”

“You’ll have it,” Arisha promised, letting Kisa pull her up from the ground. She looked over at their enemy, now protected by a stone skin. “But first, there is something we must do.”

Arisha ordered the villagers to assemble in the town square along with a full complement of Horde soldiers. They were nervous, glancing at their weapons, but Arisha stepped out confidently to speak with them. 

She produced the vials the undead princess had placed in her pockets and revived the young couple from their enchanted slumber. As their friends celebrated the miracle, the force captain addressed the crowd. “Magic has tormented you for too long,” she declared. “But if you swear your allegiance to Lord Hordak, and place yourselves under the Horde’s protection, you shall never have to cower at the hands of Princesses again.”

It was an easy choice. Once the elders gave their word, she ordered the soldiers to bring the incinerator from the fort into the village square and ordered the villagers to go to the castle and bring back the stone body of the undead princess. They had to work quickly if all was to be in place before twilight.

The short winter day passed quickly. By the time they had everything prepared, the sun was on the horizon. Arisha watched the stone figure within the incinerator closely while Kisa kept a hand on the activation switch. The whole village waited, silent but for the howling of the winter winds.

Then suddenly, Arisha felt a pit form in her stomach. Her arm went icy cold where the princess has first grabbed her. In that moment, she saw the stone become flesh. Her voice caught in her throat as she tried to cry out. The princess stirred, ready to lash out with magic, but at the last second Arisha cried, “Now!” and Kisa flipped the switch.

Her screams forced the soldiers to their knees. All the windows in the village shattered. From the Crimson Waste to the Whispering, from the Fright Zone to Brightmoon, from the peaks of Snows to the underwater trenches of Sealineas, her screams echoed. But, it was all in vain, for after a few seconds, her undead shell collapsed into ash. And the screams fell silent.

And the Undead Princess was no more.

Arisha sealed the ashes in a steel box after the villagers and soldiers combed every inch of the soil for spare flecks from the flames. She buried the box deep below the foundations of the fort, drowned in concrete where it could never be found again. She and Kisa remained on campaign there for many years. Eventually, the village was fully integrated into the Horde and forgot all its superstitions and fears of former magical oppressors.

But Arisha and Kisa did not forget. 

And some say, when you stand on guard duty at that fort late at night, when the wind is cold, when the night is dark, and when the moon is just a silver sliver, you can still hear her cackling drifting up from the ground— the undead princess waiting below in that box. Sealed away, but plotting her return. And her revenge.

And some say that if you listen closely, on a quiet night anywhere in Etheria, you can still hear her dying screams carried on the winds.

Bow considered himself to be a chill guy. Whenever life threw a curveball his way, he did his best to respond with a smile and open mind. 

Finding out that the nice girl he met in the woods is the princess of Brightmoon? Ok. They can still be best friends. Meeting a Horde soldier who turns out to be a legendary chosen warrior? Great, now he has two best friends. A best friends squad! 

But, as the archer watched Catra struggling to free herself from a mass of wires while Entrapta floated in a spacesuit outside the window, Bow found himself at the end of his rope.

“Catra,” he groaned. “I told you not to touch anything!”

His friend struggled against the wires. “Hey, it’s not my fault this thing is a hunk of junk!,” she shot back. “I was just putting one back after it popped out and . . . well, this happened.”

Bow rubbed his temples. “Of course, that makes total sense,” he said sarcastically. 

“Look, Arrows, are you gonna help me out or do I need to start slicing wires?” She asked. 

That threat was enough to get Bow moving. “Please don’t joke about that,” he asked while helping her wrestle out of the tangle. “Any one of those wires could be responsible for keeping the engine running. The First Ones were apparently too good to stardize their wire colors by function. I really don’t want to die of explosive decompression.”

The radio at his waist buzzed while Catra slipped out of the wiry net. “Actually if there was an oxygen leak in the exterior it wouldn’t be explosive decompression,” Entrapta explained. “That would only happen in much smaller spaces. We would most likely experience rapid decompression, which would take much longer to kill us through hypoxia.”

Bow grabbed the radio almost hard enough to break it. “Thank you for that, Entrapta, but why are you outside the ship?!” He yelled.

Entrapta drifted by the window while he waited for an answer. “Do I need to explain the decompression thing again?” She asked. “Plus, I had an idea for a way to modify Darla to make her more efficient.”

“Darla?” Bow asked. “What? Do you mean the ship?”

“Yes,” Entrapta responded. “What else would I be modifying out here?”

“But why Darla?” Catra asked.

“She looks like a Darla,” Entrapta explained. She paused. “Do I need to explain how names work?”

“No,” Bow sighed frustratedly. “‘Darla’ is fine. I’ll get the emergency respirators,” he said. He turned to Catra and put his hands on her shoulders. “Do not let Entrapta make any other modifications to this ship while I’m gone. I am putting our lives in your hands, Catra.”

As he left, the chaotic command room, Catra's reply of "No promises" ringing in his ears, Bow found the halls of the newly christened "Darla" too quiet, even with the echoes of his footsteps bouncing off the bare walls. Space travel was up there with the most hectic and stressful things he had ever done in his life, but he was almost grateful for that in a weird way.

Because moments like these, when everything was quiet and calm, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about her. Whenever his mind turned to Glimmer, he found himself facing a truckload of feelings he didn't think he could process if he wanted to. And he didn't want to. Guilt and anger and heartache and annoyance and worry and hope and -

It was just too much. 

So, the Techmaster threw himself into his work as self-appointed Chief of Making Sure We All Don't Die in Space. It wasn't the catchiest name he's come up with, but not everything can be as great as "Best Friends Squad."

And when they did get Glimmer back - he couldn't bring himself to consider any other outcome - well, Bow wasn't thinking that far ahead. Maybe he'd find a way to sort out his feelings and make things like they were before between the two of them.  Maybe he'd just stop Catra from strangling her and go back to work. 

Or maybe, Bow would work up the nerve to say something else.

The Rebel camp was in a brighter mood than it had been in months. Getting the spaceship past Prime didn’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but it was still a victory. Throughout the clearing, small groups had gathered around campfires to celebrate. 

“I’ll be honest with you, Micah,” Marlena said. “I didn’t think you could pull it off.”

The sorcerer shrugged. “I don’t see why you doubted me,” he replied. “Disguise spells may be tricky for some mages, but I mastered them back when everyone else in Mystacore was still struggling to make shadow puppets. Now all the Horde bots won’t suspect that ‘She-Ra’ is off planet.”

“Yeah, I knew you could do that,” Marlena clarified. “I was talking about the skirt. Rags did not do them justice back on Beast Island.”

Castaspella rolled her eyes as the two laughed. “I’m glad you were able to find a kindred spirit at long last,” she remarked. 

“Hey,” Micah defended. “You spend long enough in a life-or-death nightmare with someone, you either bond or murder or each other real quick.”

“And I was a wolf for the first year, so murder wasn’t an option,” Marlena quipped. 

“Thank the stars for that,” the sister muttered. “And thank the stars you got out of that insane stunt you pulled alive.”

It was Micah’s turn to roll his eyes. “Hey, we got away safely,” he defended. “No harm, no foul. Besides, someone had to lead the bots away.”

“It didn’t have to be you,” Castaspella argued. “There are plenty of sorcerers in the Rebellion who could have cast that illusion. You didn’t have to put yourself at risk again.”

“It’s a war!” He returned in a tone that suggested he’d said it many times before. “I don’t need babysitting anymore, Casta.”

“Hey,” she said. “I know you can take care of yourself.  But . . . I already lost my brother once. 

Marlena quietly got up to leave. She knew a “Siblings Only” talk when she saw one.

Micah chuckled. “Trust me,” he said. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

“I was at the battle too,” she countered. “If I had been more prepared, if I had trained my sorcerers better— hell, if I had just been in a different spot— maybe they wouldn’t have got you. I had to live with that for so long and now . . . I don’t want to let you down again, Micah.”

The voices faded as Marlena walked further from the campfire. It was a relief. Not just because she didn’t want to intrude on what was rapidly becoming a private conversation, but also because hearing two siblings talk so honestly with one another, show such concern for each other, brought back too many memories.

As she wandered, Marlena found herself walking towards the den. The one her daughter made for herself - hiding out here all alone for so long. She hadn’t mustered the nerve to explore it when they first found it, when everyone was still around, so she hadn’t gotten a good look at the place before all sorts of changes happened. Even though Catra had insisted on leaving as much in place as possible so Adora didn’t freak out when she got back.

When she pushed past the canvas door, of all places, Marlena found herself drawn to the makeshift pantry.

She took in the rows of neat glass jars and dried herbs and struggled to imagine her daughter’s little hands making all the precise knots and labels. Everything was alphabetized and arranged on the shelf by flavor profile. Just like how Randor used to do it. Had Adora done it like this because she remembered their little kitchen? All the afternoons she spent helping Randy out? All the times they set something on fire while she was in the lab?

Marlena felt the questions come down on her like a tidal wave. She hurried back outside before they could drown her.

This time, she walked further away from the camp, into the still quiet of the woods. At least, it was quiet until she heard a voice coming from one of the cliff sides.

“And there still hasn’t been any sign of Adora,” they said to the sky. Melog, the giant winged cat, had thrown her more than she expected at first. She had called him Ramses a few times by accident. “Don’t worry. This time, when I find her, I’m just going to grab her and fly her back here. Not like last time.”

She crept closer as the voice continued. “Prime really thinks you’re still here,” he continued. “His clones have started putting up wanted posters. You’ll be pleased to hear your bounty is the highest.” He sighed. “It’s sad you’re gone, but it’s nice to know you’re safe for now. Come home soon.”

His ears perked up as he heard her approach. When he turned to see her, he almost looked embarrassed. “Oh, hello there,” he said nervously. “Usually no one comes out here at night. I was just . . . talking to myself.”

“Really.” She sat down beside them. “It sounded like you were talking to someone else.”

Melog’s face dropped. “I haven’t been able to feel the ‘noble steed’ bond since She-Ra disappeared,” they admitted. “But I still think Catra can hear me. At least I hope she can.” Melog slumped down on the ground. “I don’t want her to think we forgot about her.”

Marlena put an arm around the giant cat. “Well for what it’s worth, I think she’ll appreciate the thought,” she said. She looked out at the valley below, bathed in starlight for the first time in millennia. “So, since your She-Ra’s steed and all,” she asked. “Any chance you know what happened to Cyra? I know that Mara . . .” She trailed off. “You told me what she did to bring us into Despondos. But do you have any idea what happened to her and the rest of the Dianans?”

“No.” Melog said sadly. “I’m sorry.” 

They nuzzled her comfortingly. She returned a pat on the head. “It’s not your fault,” she reassured him. “It’s just . . . I know in my head that all this happened thousands of years ago. But to me, it only happened around twenty years ago, and even then it feels like it was a lot more recent. Between being frozen and all the years on Beast Island . . .” She shrugged. “Accepting that I’m the only one left who knew these people, and that no one knows what happened to them, it’s something I could barely manage back in Greyskull. Now, when I’m having a hard enough time believing Adora lost her baby teeth, it’s just too much.”

Melog nuzzled closer. 

“Etheria is so different from how I remember it,” Marlena sighed. “But the Woods are still the same. I feel like any second I’m gonna turn a corner and find Helena giving Mara grief for having a crush on an A.I. Or run into that old hermit lady who used to just find wherever we were hiding and bring pies for some reason.” She laughed at the memories. “I wonder what happened to Ol’ Razz?”

Melog blinked rapidly as he processed that, but chose not to comment. 

“No matter how hard the Armada searched for us, they could never track us down out here. It was like the Woods were protecting us.” She sighed. “Like Etheria was giving me a chance to fix what I did to it.”

“The Woods protected her too,” Melog said reassuringly. “She made her den here for a reason.” They sat up to look her in the eyes. “Because she’s a hero. Just like you.”

Adora stared dumbly at the screen, Prime’s glare boring into the back of her neck. He had summoned her abruptly to his throne room in order to show her this - a blurry set of pictures showing the same spaceship. “Unusual, is it not?” He asked, annoyance peaking through his unnaturally calm demeanor. “Not a single scouting vessel or surveillance station has been able to detect it. My brothers have only been able to catch crude, visual glimpses of it.”

“That is strange, Lord Prime,” she agreed, still wondering why she was summoned but quietly pleased that some aliens were slipping under the radar. So much for Mr. Prime Sees All, she thought.

“It doesn’t seem familiar at all to you, does it, Little Sister?” He asked suddenly. "Does it?"

“Etheria was too primitive for this sort of tech.” She answered tentatively. She frowned and looked closer anyway. If she’d learned anything on this nightmare ship, Prime didn’t ask questions unless he already knew the answer. “But now that you mention it, those colors and the lines make it look a bit like a First Ones ruin.” She shrugged. “I guess they were the same on other planets, and someone out there must like their antiques.”

“I see,” Prime intoned. “Is there any reason to believe this antiquarian is an Etherian?”

Adora blinked in surprise. Suddenly, she remembered why the ship had looked familiar - a rusted out hull in the middle of the desert. No. No. There’s no way. Catra said Bow was working on some project. She hadn’t asked what it was. Their conversations had been all business towards the end. 

“Well, Little Sister?” He asked playfully. “Is there?”

Adora steeled her nerves and turned to face him, prepared this time for the chilling smile that greeted her. By some miracle, she managed to hide the panic on her face. 

“Like I said, Lord Prime,” she answered as calmly as she could. “I saw some wreckage like it on Etheria, but the only person who could have taken advantage of it was your brother.” She fought off the urge to grimace at the thought of Hordak’s punishment. “The First Ones seemed to standardize their ship designs, so it’s probably just the same model.”

“Perhaps,” Prime responded. “But my wayward brother had some interesting memories regarding one Etherian, a particularly mechanically gifted one. Princess Entrapta of Dryl. He seemed to regard her skills quite highly. Could she have restored this vessel?”

Adora’s face fell. At least she didn’t have to lie for this one. “Entrapta is gone,” she answered. “She was sent to a place people don’t come back from.”

Prime raised an eyebrow as he scrutinized her. The tendrils on his head twitched. Finally, he let out a strange hum. “Your candor is appreciated, Little Sister,” he said at last. “I suppose we shall know the truth of this mystery soon enough. If nothing else, I can tell that this strange vessel’s general trajectory, and it is headed towards us.” 

Adora’s heart stopped. 

“Whoever is on that craft,” Prime said with a grin. “They will be here soon.” He turned away and walked back to his throne, clearly dismissing her, but Adora was frozen in place. 

She knew exactly who was on that ship. She knew exactly what Prime would do to her when she arrived. The Revelation. The Green Pool. The screams. 

The wolf took a deep, deliberate breath. With all the resolve she could muster, Adora forced herself to walk out of the throne room calmly and slowly, like a good soldier would. That’s what she had to be right now: a good soldier, but not for the Horde. 

Because she wasn’t the Beast of the Horde. She wasn’t the best Force Captain in a generation or Second-in-Command. She was Adora Greylock, Adora of Etheria and of Greyskull, the Lone Wolf of the Whispering Woods, but those titles weren’t on her mind as she made her way to the cell block. Because before she had any of them, a girl made a promise to her, and she made one back. I look out for you, and you look out for me.

Over a year ago, when Catra had let her go instead of arresting her, she demanded to know what Adora wanted. At the time, she just told Catra that she wanted her to be safe. It was far from the whole story, but it was true. She had broken her promise once when Catra joined the Rebellion. She wouldn’t break it again.

As she rounded the corner and walked into the corridor containing Glimmer’s cell, she couldn’t think of a plan or a strategy or anything as complex and detailed as she usually went into battle with.

Instead, one thought replayed over and over - a loop coming more from her heart than her head. 

I won’t let him hurt you. I promise.

Chapter Text

Prime is going to make you part of the hive mind.

Glimmer shivered as the words replayed in her head. Sleeping in this cage was hard enough with the searing lights that never dimmed and constant buzz from the force field, but it had been near impossible since she’d heard about Prime’s plan. The Queen could almost feel her brain drying out and short circuiting as the hours passed and she stayed awake. But every time she tried to lay down and get some sleep, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Adora had been mercifully light on details. From what the wolf said, Prime hadn’t even shown her whatever machine he was preparing for her. Glimmer wasn’t sure what she had seen. Something Prime did to one of the clones? 

Eventually, her mind settled on imagining a horrible contraption, like one of the old torture devices she’d seen engravings of in the mustier parts of the library. A mechanical monstrosity that could link her to the hive mind. Something that would be able to rip all the memories out of her head— the last few secrets she had managed to hide from him. 

After that, would she just go back to her cell until the next time he needed to pick her brain? How many of her friends would she have to watch go through it after?

A hard slam against the force field jolted her out of the nightmare. The opaque green wall shuddered as something slammed into it again. Then, the whole wall shimmered and vanished, revealing Adora holding an unconscious Horde clone by the arm. “Catra’s coming,” she said. Her voice was urgent but surprisingly calm. “We need to go. Now.”

Glimmer froze. “Catra? What? How?” She stammered out.

“Because she’s Catra!” Adora yelled as if that explained everything. “What? You think space would slow her down?” Before Glimmer could react, Adora grabbed her by the wrist and started running. 

“Ok,” Glimmer managed to say. “We’re doing this. What’s the plan?”

“Don’t have one,” Adora replied as they rounded another corner. “Winging it.”

“You’re really getting the hang of this Rebel thing, huh?” She laughed.

As they sprinted through the corridors, the sound of their desperate footsteps was soon echoed by pursuing clones. 

“Sister! What are you doing?”

“The Queen has escaped!”

“Lock down this sector!”

By some miracle the two managed to make it to Adora’s destination without getting cornered. A circular room with a large elevated ring in the center facing a control terminal. Adora slammed the door shut, then she ripped a metal panel from the wall, bent it with her bare hands, and jammed the handles. 

“Holy— Does this ship have a gym?” Glimmer asked.

“Nope. Wolf stuff.” Adora shook her head. “Turns out any moon will do the trick,” she explained. She rushed over to the console. “Get on the pad. The Fright Zone used the same interface for their terminals. I just need to get this thing pointed at the last quadrant Prime spotted her.”

“Wait? This is the teleporter? I thought you said this could only take one of us?” Glimmer asked. “How are you—“

“I was wrong, it’s fine,” Adora insisted, as she began fiddling with knobs. “I’ll be right behind you.” Glimmer hesitated. “Prime knows she’s coming! We need to get out of here before Catra gets too close. Move!”

The door shook as clones banged on it. Without thinking twice, Glimmer jumped onto the glowing launch pad. A cone of light like the one that had taken her from the Black Garnet Chamber began to sparkle around her, slowly growing thicker which each second.

“Ok,” Adora said, her hand accidentally hit a stray switch as she typed commands. A red light blinked on the console. “I can’t track their ship, but these are the closest coordinates based on their trajectory. The energy burst should be enough to trigger their warning systems. They’ll need to start running as soon as they get you on board. I’ll—“

“Adora?” A familiar voice crackled through the console. “What? How? Where the hell have you been?!”

“Catra!” She cried, with a small smile. “Don’t sound too happy to hear me?” 

Catra sputtered something angrily, but Adora cut her off. “Glimmer can give you the whole story, but Prime knows you’re coming. I’m sending her towards your quadrant, but I don’t think I can get her on the ship. You’ll have to be ready to grab her and get as far away from this ship as possible.”

“And you ,” Glimmer insisted. Adora’s face fell. “Adora,” Glimmer said quietly as a horrified look spread over her face. “No, no you wouldn’t.”

“I’ll try to break for the hangar bay and steal the closest thing they have to a skiff,” she explained. The banging at the door got louder, and the makeshift barricade began to bow in, as if to hammer in how impossible her suggestion was. “Get back to Etheria,” she ordered. “Make things right. Meet your Dad.”

“I’m not leaving you behind,” she yelled back. “I’m not letting you die for me.” A strangled sound came through the communicator.

“You’re not. Prime wants me alive,” Adora insisted, the tightness in her voice made it clear that she was trying to convince herself too. “He’s interested in the wolf. In the First Ones. I’ll be fine—“

“He needs me alive,” Glimmer yelled back, banging her fists against the wall of light. “You go. I’ll stay behind. Don’t do this!”

“I’m not one of the keys to the Heart. And whatever he’s got planned, I have a healing factor and you don’t,” Adora shot back. “If he wants the Heart, he’ll have to go to Etheria. I can hold out until he gets there.”

“You promise?” Catra asked, voice cracking along with the static.

“I—“ the door smashed open. “I’m sorry!” As Glimmer felt herself start to vanish, the first clone grabbed Adora’s shoulder. “For everything.” She knocked it back, but three more had already come to replace him. 

The last thing Glimmer saw before she teleported away, was a golden glow surrounding Adora as she transformed and tossed her attackers aside. 

Then, the void hit her.

Glimmer had still been shouting when she teleported. Her lungs, already burning for oxygen, came into the vacuum empty. The cold was worse than the harshest blizzard she’d endured in the Northern Reach. She could see stars shining all around her, and rocks the size of mountains floated past. It would have been beautiful if she wasn’t dying. 

The last thing she felt before everything went dark was the moisture on her tongue boiling. 

As for the arm wrapping around her waist, she probably just imagined that.

Her nights as the Beast of the Horde were half-remembered rampages, barely controlled by constant shocks and an overwhelming rage. As the Lone Wolf, she felt freer, less guilty about her targets, but she still held back, afraid she would hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

But now, the wolf was in full control and had no reason to hold back. The clones were tough enough to take the worst she could dish out, and every dent she made in the metal maze was another second she bought for them to get away from the Bad Ones.

For Catra. 

And for the Sparkly One. 

She was a friend now.

The clones tried to stop her. They were strong, but she was stronger. One grabbed her arm, trailing for a few feet before falling off. Their claws scratched her hide, but she knocked them back. Nothing they did could slow her down. 

For Catra.

As she rampaged through the halls, her claws shredded the steel shell surrounding her, leaving deep gouges in the walls and floors. It felt good. Better than when she tore apart tanks in the Whispering Woods. She howled triumphantly at the chaos she caused, slicing apart the Velvet Glove’s too neat lines.

For Catra.

More bad ones came after her. Bots — some with slicing arms, sending stinging, shocking bolts into her side; others scrambling like spiders on spindly legs. The barrage of shots made the air thick with ozone and burnt fur. The wolf felt them hit her, but the pain didn’t register. Her blood was hotter than ever.

For Catra.

The wolf leapt over another batch of clones and kept sprinting. She turned corner after corner, running blindly with a vague direction in mind. A blaring, shrill alarm filled the hallways, but the wolf didn’t notice. She didn’t care. All she cared about was doing as much damage as she could. 

For Catra.

The wolf burst out of the tunnels and into a massive chamber: the hangar. The great green wall had turned thick and opaque. The wolf knew what that meant. Nothing could get in. Nothing could get out. She had nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. It didn’t matter. She didn’t matter.

The wolf rushed into the center of the room. The balconies were already lined with hundreds of bad ones. They thought they had her trapped. No. They’re trapped with me.

She howled again as the new barrage of plasma blasts rained down from above. She dodged in between the ships, letting the bad ones tear their own weapons apart. She leapt on them, crushing glass with her sheer weight, digging her claws into the alloyed steel sides, and flipping them over. Engines sparked and burst into flames as the wolf turned the hanger into a scrapyard. Pools of leaked fuel spread across the ground, turning into lakes of fire.

It was exhilarating, but as the minutes dragged on, the pain caught up to the wolf. Her muscles began to ache, then burn. The blasts from the plasma shots, and the stings from the stun prods of the few clones that could get close to her were too much to ignore. Her heartbeat got harder— like punches from the inside of her chest. Her lungs felt frozen as her breath turned ragged.

But she kept fighting. 

For Catra.

For Catra.

For Catra.

Then, a clone jumped on her back. Then another. And another. She couldn’t shake them off. With the last of her strength, the wolf shoved her paws under one of the wrecked, smoking vessels on the ground and lifted it above her head. With a great growl, she sent it flying towards the balcony— sending dozens of clones plummeting, and causing strange gas to leak from burst pipes in the walls.

As the clones finally managed to pull her down, she felt her vision go dark. The smoke and ozone filled her lungs as they restrained her. The wolf was scared, but she was proud. 

They wouldn’t get the Sparkly One. 

They wouldn’t get Catra.

I did it. She thought as her vision got fuzzy. I kept my promise.

Adora didn’t remember shifting back. She didn’t remember anything. Her body and brain were fried and drained of all energy. 

She was dimly aware of the clones hauling her through the repeating corridors. Finally, they dropped her on a cold floor and she collapsed in a heap. Angry words drifted through her ears. Then suddenly, a pair of hands yanked her up to her knees and stretched her arm out straight. 

The world rushed back into focus with a sting as a syringe pierced her skin and a stimulant entered her veins. The fire in her blood dulled the pain and set her heart racing. The rush was artificial, but the rage on Prime’s face was real. 

“I gave you a chance to redeem the sins of your ancestors,” he growled. “To be exalted above the pathetic creatures of your homeworld. And you repay me with treachery?”

Adora tried to laugh, but with her broken ribs, it came out more like a wheeze. “What did you expect?” She replied. “Us Etherians are so emotional, remember?”

Prime’s clawed hand shot out and wrapped around her neck. In a flash, she was off the ground. For a second, Lord Prime’s controlled, benevolent facade cracked and the monster shined through. Then, he smoothed out his features and managed to look disappointed.

“And so after all her trials,” he narrated as she choked. “The troubled warrior makes one last sacrifice to pay for all the pain she’s caused and perishes at the hands of the great villain. Finding peace in the end? Redemption?” 

Prime pulled her closer to his face, forcing her to look him in the eyes as she felt her vision go spotty. “That is the natural order of things isn’t it?” He asked. “You were always destined to be a bittersweet note in another’s heroic tale.”

Just before she passed out, Prime unceremoniously dropped her. She landed face first onto the cold, smooth floor. Adora gasped desperately for air while her head pounded, too weak to push herself up. 

“Through the ages, I have seen the same story so many times.” He explained. “So many sinners who think they can make their own absolution, but nothing they do can wash away their guilt. So much pain. So much waste.” 

He knelt down, gripped her chin, and forced her to look up. “Tell me, little sister,” he asked. “Was it worth it? Are you at peace?”

Adora grit her teeth. “It doesn’t matter,” she answered. “You won’t get Glimmer. You won’t stop the Rebellion. And you’ll never get your hands on Catra.”

Prime smiled. “Oh, your Catra will return here,” he taunted. “I am certain of It. And when she arrives, she won’t find yet another troubled soul who perished seeking redemption.” The world started going fuzzy again as he took his hand away. A pair of clones grabbed her shoulders before she could collapse again.

“You will earn true redemption in my Light. You shall be reborn. Because I will forgive you,” he said, his voice distant as the stimulant wore off. “Once you repent.”

Those words echoed in her head as the clones dragged her back to the cell block. They tossed her in on a concrete floor and raised the forcefield behind her. Powerful lights streamed down from the ceiling like heat lamps. The same weird tingling she felt from the alien moon spread across her skin, but it felt wrong now. The buzz she got from the magic wasn’t warm and comforting. It was harsh, acidic. 

Instead of warm and awake, the strange force made her feel jittery, like when the geniuses at the Commissary tested replacing two hours of sleep with an artificial stimulant on their cadet cohort. Their squad wasn’t able to sleep for a week. The pranks she and Catra pulled were legendary — and single-handedly responsible for getting the Horde to abandon the experiment and give them the two hours of sleep back. 

Adora managed a half smile at the memory; and regretted it immediately. Her whole body hurt. She couldn’t catch a glimpse of her face, but she knew from the pain that she was nursing a pair of black eyes. The bits that weren’t broken and bruised were left tingling and sensitive by the artificial magic streaming from the ceiling. 

“How long have you had this around, Prime?” She mumbled to herself. “If you thought I would bite back, your brothers weren’t exactly ready for me.”

Then, Adora pushed herself up and managed to push herself to a wall to lean against. It wasn’t much, but it was more dignified than staying splayed out on the floor.

The interior wasn’t anything like what she’d seen of Glimmer’s cell. The back wall was a giant window out into the void. A thin blue rug covered the center of the floor, with designs matching intricate patterns of the tapestries on the walls. Instead of a bed, a pile of rock hard pillows was set up in the corner. 

Adora squinted at the designs on the tapestries. Her vision was still hazy, but the lines and circles seemed familiar somehow. Then, the meaning flashed in her head. Words wrought in First Ones text. “Eternia Shall Never Surrender” — read one. “Friends of Mara,” read another. 

More trophies.

Glimmer’s cell had been for a monarch; Adora’s cell was for a soldier. Both were meant to taunt, to play with the prey before the final strike came.

She sighed and settled in as best she could. She could feel the bones trying to fuse beneath her skin, and her skin trying to knit itself together. The strange lights were speeding up the process. Too fast for her to sleep, but she could try. She had to try.

Adora had no idea how long she had to heal before . . .  She shook her head and tried not to think about it.

Instead she stared out the window. Part of her— the selfish part— hoped a ship would appear in it, barreling towards the Velvet Glove like a shooting star. Catra at the helm, swooping in to smite Prime and rescue her like some fiery, avenging angel. 

Adora also wanted Catra to stay as far away from Horde Prime as the universe would let her run; that when this ship did make its way to claim the Heart, all it found was the void left when Etheria retreated back into Despondos. 

She didn’t know which wish was better. She didn’t know which one was worse. Did she want Catra to be here with her or to be safe? To be wanting her enough to risk everything, or finally listening to her for once and staying away?

It was probably just a trick of the light on her exhausted eyes, but Adora thought she could make out her favorite stars — the twined blue and yellow pair — among the twinkling lights. The small sparks held infinitely more hope, more warmth, more light than the heart of Prime’s so-called Empire of Illumination.

Maybe they’d be enough to guide her home.

For someone who had never treated anyone for vacuum exposure before (as far as they knew), Entrapta did a great job. As soon as Bow brought her back into the airlock and she gave Darla the signal to warp out of the sector, she got Glimmer in a space suit she had ready for her and pressurized it to half normal Etherian sea level, slowly increasing it over the next few hours. 

At some point during that time, Glimmer slowly regained consciousness. At first, she couldn’t see anything. She could just feel the vibrations of their footsteps as they paced around the makeshift med bay (a skill she had honed on the Velvet Glove). Soon enough, and after a good deal of worrying, her vision came back. Through the condensation on the inside of her sealed helmet, she saw Bow and Catra looking down at her, lips moving wordlessly. 

Those first few hours in the med bay would be the longest they would manage to spend in the same room for a while. Catra was still seething; and, Bow, he was even worse. Just cold, indifferent. Things between the Best Friends Squad were still too raw for her to make any progress on Adora’s order to make things right.

They still saved you. She half-chided, half-reassured herself. That has to be worth something.

Her regular post-vacuum exposure check ups with Entrapta were the most consistent social activity she got on a daily basis. 

“Have you experienced any lingering damage to your vision?” The princess asked, shining a small flashlight into her eyes as she spoke.

“No,” she answered honestly. “I can still see ok.”

“And your other senses?” Entrapta continued. “Does everything still taste like sawdust or has that improved?”

Glimmer shook her head. “Nope. No change there,” she said. “I thought I could taste the coffee this morning, but that’s about it.”

“Interesting,” she remarked. “Your taste buds are still recovering seventy-two hours after the vacuum boiled them off.” She pointed the flashlight into her mouth. “They are showing signs of regrowth though. Give it another day or so; it’s probably not permanent.”

Glimmer shrugged. “Yeah, hopefully, it’s not,” she agreed. We’re far away from when the Apology dinner will be making a difference, but every little bit helps. 

“Speaking of regrowing vital parts of yourself,” Entrapta continued. “Have your efforts to reconnect with Bow and Catra been successful? I’ve observed far less overt yelling from Catra since you started trying but also fewer interactions overall. I can’t tell if you’re making progress or not.”

Glimmer winced. “To be honest, I’m not sure either,” she admitted. “Things have improved, but I think I plateaued at getting them to tolerate me. I didn’t think I’d be able to get that far after . . . everything I did, so, I guess that’s a silver lining.”

“From my limited data on the subject,” Entrapta offered. “High adrenaline cooperative activities tend to reestablish social bonds. And we should have an opportunity for that coming up. Darla needs an infusion of additional fuel, and the best source I can find is an abandoned planet just off our flight path. Given our track record, the visit should end in near-death peril regardless.”

Glimmer smiled. “I hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said. “But now that you mention it, near-death peril is how Catra joined the friend group. And I did make another friend recently because of that too.” She rubbed the scars on her hands nervously.

“That was one of my data points,” Entrapta said. “Of course, if Catra does start yelling at you again, can you take an exact measurement of the time? During the initial fight, I don’t think she paused to breathe for twenty minutes, which is remarkable, but I wasn’t recording. You make discoveries with data not anecdotes.”

”Right, right I will,” Glimmer agreed, mind elsewhere. “So, when we go get this fuel, I’m sure you know how much we need to get back to Etheria, but if we had to cover a quick bit of backtracking, a little detour, how much more would we need?” 

As they were talking, the Magicat in question was sulking in the command chair, staring at the floating panels in front of her. Alongside the ship’s velocity, dozens of unfamiliar names flashed over the stylized map of the stars. Catra could read the First Ones text, but she was fairly certain the names hadn’t been used in a long time. Either because the First Ones were forgotten, or because the planets were just like the ones they had seen since they’d started this trip— empty. 

The refueling trip Entrapta had set for them would probably be the same. It was hard to stomach the thought of seeing more of Prime’s handiwork up close. Adora would probably say that it was a chance to remind themselves of what they were fighting for — ensuring that Etheria didn’t end up another barren wasteland in Prime’s empire. But thinking of that selfless goof just made the pit in her stomach worse.

Catra put a finger on the control panel. The recording of that last call before she sent Sparkles was there. She had listened to it a dozen times to prove to herself that she heard it right the first time— that it wasn’t Glimmer’s fault Adora stayed behind, that Adora thought she had a chance of—

The doors slid open. She took her hand away before she could trigger the recording again. Bow yawned performatively. “Mornin’, Catra,” he said, approaching the chair. “Anything interesting happen on your watch?”

The Magicat shrugged. So, Arrows isn’t sleeping either. “Nope,” she answered. “Another mind-numbingly boring night in the infinite wonderland that is space.”   She leapt off the chair and stretched. “Entrapta came through an hour ago looking for her. Another check up. I told her I hadn’t seen her.”

Bow hummed in acknowledgment. “There was coffee in the kitchen,” he said. “Didn’t know she could make that.” 

They stood in silence for a moment. It didn’t escape Catra’s notice that Bow had a fresh mug in his hand. 

Catra suppressed a sigh. They were gonna work things out. She knew it. Bow wasn’t the pushover she dismissed him as when they first met all those years ago in the Woods, but she had seen how much he cared about her. And I know firsthand what it was like to forgive someone you lo— she cut the thought off before it go any further.

Catra resolved that she would hold on to the grudge for as long as she could, but even she couldn’t punish Sparkles forever. Since she saw the scars in her hands and heard her try to take Adora’s place back on that ship . . . when Glimmer screwed up, she screwed up big, but she seemed determined to work twice as hard to make things right. Guess Adora rubbed off on her.

She looked out the window at the stars surrounding them. There was one she had seen a few times on this trip — according to Entrapta it was a pulsar paired with a yellow sun. I’m gonna get you back. She swore to the twinkling lights. Just hang in there, Adora. You forgot our promise goes both ways.

Lord Prime was pleased to find the chip working as intended. The device had to be rushed out to ensure his new sister would be prepared for She-Ra’s inevitable return. They had not had time to make significant modifications to account for her unique biology, but so far the connection was steady. 

As she thrashed in the Purification Font, Lord Prime could see all her memories filed out neatly before him. He could feel her struggle against his influence, against the voices of his brothers, of the hive mind. If he wanted to, it would be easy to overcome her resistance. The chip was designed so that the wearer’s individual personality could be suppressed in an instant. Not eliminated outright, but buried so deep that it lost control, allowing the hive mind to take over while still having access to their memories. It was the tactic he planned to use once the devices were deployed to that wretched planet, but he refused to use it against her.

He had decided that the First One deserved special treatment. Taking control of her vessel but leaving her identity intact under the surface would be too easy. He had resolved to truly purify her, to wipe the slate clean and make her anew. And all beings , he thought, must suffer to become pure.

All beings must suffer to become pure, his little Brothers echoed.

Through the chip, Lord Prime felt the fear and rage she directed at him, the contempt she assumed he had for her. Really, he only pitied her. All this suffering she now endured was well-deserved to be sure, but it did not have to be necessary. She had only herself to blame.

Lord Prime would make her see this. She would come into his light willingly. He searched among her memories to pick out an example, something to remind her of how much pain she had inflicted upon herself. A night in some First Ones ruin, with her Catra at her side. A betrayal. Yes, that would do.

“Cats always land on their feet,” Adora said bitterly as she left Catra to her fate, hanging off the edge of the disintegrating room. “Wolves don’t have the same luxury.”

The vision faded, returning her to shivering in the green pool, surrounded by hooded clones, emotionless faces sinisterly underlit with sickly green, and in the center was Horde Prime, glaring down at her with a slight smile on his face. 

She didn’t know how long her baptism had been going on. Between the visions and the strange liquid keeping her conscious despite all the punishment (and at least a hundred hours without sleep), it could have been hours, it could have been days. 

From the sadistic look in his eyes, Prime suspected it had been long enough. He thought she was done, finished. That the Beast would meekly accept her new master; the weird little monitor stuck on the back of her neck serving as a new collar.

Instead, she threw her head back and laughed.

Adora’s laughter echoed off the bare, operatically high walls of the chamber. “Seriously?” She cackled, splashing a hand against the green water. “That’s the best you’ve got? Flashbacks! You’re gonna show me every mistake I’ve ever made? Every time I hurt someone? Like I haven’t done that to myself before.” 

The shocks began again; more intense than before. Her breathing was harder when they stopped, but she still wheezed out a laugh. “And do you know how many times I’ve been zapped in my life? Seriously, I’m asking. I lost count.”

Adora looked up to face the Emperor. “Face it, Prime,” she shouted. “There’s nothing you can do to me that I haven’t lived through. There’s nothing you can do to make me give up.” Her eyes flashed blue as she growled. “You won’t break me.”

Prime frowned. “No,” he said. “You will.” 

He snapped, and the shocks began again. Enough lightning to make the Black Garnet look like a bit of doorknob static in winter. Her heart spasmed; it should have stopped, it did stop—many times— but the green pool kept it going. It didn’t let it give out. It didn’t let her pass out. It kept her suspended in agony for what felt like an eternity.

Then, without warning, it cut off, and Adora collapsed into the pool like a puppet with cut strings. She tried to push herself back to the surface, but the liquid was too viscous. Her limbs were too heavy. She watched helplessly as the last few bubbles escaped from her burning lungs. She was frozen in place, like a waking nightmare. 

This is it. She thought, panicked. No. Please no. I don’t want to—

Suddenly, a clawed hand broke through the surface and grabbed the back of her shirt. The clone ripped her out of the pool and tossed her on the floor, shivering and gasping for air. When she pushed herself up, she saw a familiar planet floating in the window. Etheria? But how?  

“But, you have proven more stubborn than I predicted, little sister,” Prime intoned as he approached. “You’re true conversion shall have to wait until we have dealt with more pressing matters. For now,” he pulled a sleek, white collar out from behind his back and stalked towards her menacingly. “You have forced me to resort to cruder methods.” 

A pair of clones grabbed her from behind and forced her to kneel. Adora shook her head desperately, but she didn’t have the strength to fight back. No. No. Not again. 

“Given your previous experience under my brother’s command,” Prime oozed. “I’m sure your bestial side will take to this task with enthusiasm. The remnants of the Rebellion shall soon be no more than rubble under your claws.”

“Get away from her!” A voice behind her yelled. 

Prime looked up, shocked. “Who dares—“  A golden whip wiped slashed across his face before he could finish the sentence, sending him tumbling back into the green pool. The twang of a bowstring and a sound like shattering glass were all the warning the clones at her side got before a trick arrow and a ball of sparkles knocked them down.

“I dare,” Catra boasted as Adora fell to the ground. Before she could hit the cold floor again, a gentler hand grabbed her shoulder. “Sorry for keeping you waiting, big floof.”

“C-Catra?” Adora stammered out. “How did you— you shouldn’t be here.”

“No,” she answered. “You shouldn’t be here.” A pair of arms turned her around, and she came face-to-face with a familiar golden goddess, flanked by two friendly faces. “Time to come home, Adora.”

“Yeah,” Glimmer agreed. “I told you: I'm not letting you die for me. Time to make good on that.”

Prime struggled to free himself from the pool. Adora knew they had to move fast. She tried to push herself up to her feet, but black spots crowded her vision. Catra caught her before she collapsed.

“Prime really did a number on her,” Bow whistled. “We need to get her medical attention, now!”

Catra hauled her to her feet. “Sorry,” Adora muttered. “My legs— I can’t make them— I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Catra ordered, as she pulled her out of the room. “We’ll get back to the ship, then you can thank me for saving your life.”

As they stumbled out into the corridors, a piercing alarm began to blare. Catra ran as fast as she could, but Adora was slowing her down. Soon, they emerged into the hangar bay. The First Ones ship from the Crimson Waste sat among the white and green drones, engines still glowing hot, ready for takeoff. Glimmer and Bow ran ahead to lower the crew door. 

“Come on!” Glimmer shouted. The clanging footsteps from behind altered them to the crowd of clones surging ahead. “Hurry!”

She stumbled a few steps, but suddenly her legs gave out. She fell hard, catching her chin on the steel floor. Black stars danced in her eyes. “Never were the best at training races, huh Adora?” Catra teased. As she hauled her back to her feet, a lucky shot struck the Magicat in the side. She grunted but didn’t fall. “Come on!”

They limped into the waiting ship together just in time for lift off from the ground. They cleared the hangar quickly, stars blurring in the window as they sped off into space.

“Yes!” Bow cried triumphantly. “The Best Friends Squad does it again!” The command room echoed with cheers and laughter. 

“Prime didn’t know what hit him!” Catra cackled, leaning a bit more into Adora’s side.

“I know!” Glimmer yelled. “The look on his face when you kicked down the door? Priceless!”

“Really wish we could’ve gotten that on camera,” Catra said. 

“He was just as bad interrogating me,” Adora added. “All monologing and grandstanding. I told Glimmer he was just like the Undead Princess.”

Catra laughed again, but it was strained this time. “Yeah, she told me that,” she said. “Sparkles also said you just figured out that the Horde had a theme going with those stories. Seriously?”

Adora blushed. “It took me a while to notice, ok?” She said.

Catra sighed. “Yeah, well, I guess you . . . you were always distracted . . .”

Then, Catra collapsed. Her hand held on to Adora’s shoulder, dragging her down to her knees. The golden aura around her faded; She-Ra disappeared, and the Magicat she left behind was shaking and small.

“Catra?” Adora cried. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

She coughed—hard and wet. Adora put at hand to her side and froze. The shot was worse than she realized. She was bleeding out. Right now. Adora’s vision tunneled. “H-help!” She yelled. “Someone help!”

A rush of footsteps behind her. Panicked voices she couldn’t make out. Her whole world was right there in her arms. Growing dimmer by the second.

“I-it’s ok,” she tried to reassure her. “Just hang on. I’ll make it better. I promise.”

“Sure, Adora. Sure.” Catra put a limp hand on her cheek and smiled sadly. Her pulse was weak. “It’s fine. At le-least I could see you . . .” She trailed off quietly. “One last . . .” Her hand dropped to her side. Her gaze got distant.

A hand rested on her shoulder. “Adora,” Glimmer whispered. “I’m sorry. She’s gone.”

“No!” Adora opened her eyes and found herself violently struggling against bedsheets. 

“Adora?” Catra slurred beside her, still half-asleep. “What’s—“

Adora pounced on her before she could finish speaking, pressing her ear against her chest and wrapping her arms around her. A strong, warm heartbeat greeted her. Steady breathing. 

“Woah,” Catra said, much more awake now. “Shush. It’s ok. We’re safe. We’re safe.” She reassured her. Adora hugged her more tightly, desperate to hear her heartbeat again. “What’s wrong?”

Adora could only manage a few sobs at first. She finally managed to choke them down long enough to speak after a few minutes. “I—I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I—I’m—“

“Hey! No apologizing for this kinda stuff,” Catra muttered, shifting her body up against the headboard of the pair’s bed as she talked to better cradle her. “It’s not healthy, remember?” Catra gently stroked her hair, like Adora used to do to comfort her when they were kids. 

“What was it this time?” She asked. “The raids? Don’t worry. They’re ancient history. No one blames you for those anymore. If they do, tell Sparkles. She’ll bring the royal hammer down on them.”

Adora shook her head. “No,” she admitted through sobs. “I—it was Prime. W—we were escaping his ship and you— he—“

Catra hugged her tighter. “It’s ok,” she shushed. “Remember what happened on the ship. What really happened.”

Adora took a deep breath. The memories came back to her immediately, like a set of flash cards she memorized before an exam. “Prime got control of the Beast,” she said slowly, Catra’s heartbeat grounding her. “He sent me back to Etheria. We fought, just like we did before, but so much worse. The Horde was winning, but they couldn’t get the Heart. So, you . . .” She trailed off. It all seemed so hazy.

“I made a deal,” Catra prompted. “Lord Prime turned out to be pretty reasonable.”

Adora nodded. “You returned Etheria to Despondos,” she recited. “The Heart and She-Ra disappeared from his empire and . . . And Prime let me go.” She didn’t believe it as she said it, but Catra nodded.

“He did,” Catra affirmed. “And there’s no way he got the better deal.” She hugged her closer. “We’re safe now. No one’s gonna separate us ever again.”

Adora let her heartbeat soothe her. “No,” she agreed. “Just like we promised.”

They stayed like that in silence for what felt like forever. Quiet and dark and warm . . . . and off somehow. Adora shifted uncomfortably, trying to make the feeling go away, but it wouldn’t budge. “Everything all right, honey?” Catra asked.

“Yes.” Adora snuggled in closer. “Everything’s perfect.” For a few more moments, that was true. They stayed still and warm and quiet in their own little world. Then, Catra spoke again.

“If only this was real,” she whispered. 

Adora’s heart stopped mid-beat. “You know this isn’t real, right?” Catra asked, her voice was warm and comforting but it filled Adora’s veins with ice. “You don’t think it would be this easy?”

Adora nodded slowly. “I know,” she said softly. “There’s no way— I’m not worth it, but. . . .”

“But you want it to be real,” the fake Catra supplied. “Don’t you?”

Adora couldn’t deny it. Catra fighting for her. Saving her. Sacrificing more than anyone else would for her. All just to be with her. “It’s all I ever wanted,” she admitted. “I know I shouldn’t, but I— I can’t help it.”

Catra sat up and pulled Adora up with her. Their dark, cozy bedroom surrounded them like a cocoon. “It’s okay,” Catra reassured her. “You can’t help it. That’s the problem with this universe. She knows that.”

Adora stared into her mismatched eyes. “Sh—She knows?” She asked.

The fake Catra nodded. “Of course,” she answered. “Why do you think she’s always tried to forgive you? But you couldn’t forgive yourself? Could you?”

Adora shook her head wordlessly as tears began to stream down her face. “I—I didn’t mean to,” she whispered. “I know I’m not supposed to. I just can’t—“

“I know, little sister. It’s not your fault.” The fake Catra silenced her with a fingertip to her forehead. “Don’t you want to be free of this, Adora?” The illusion asked. “Wanting someone you can’t have? Someone you know you don’t deserve?” She brushed the tears from her cheeks softly with her thumbs. 

Adora reached her arms around her and dropped her head so that their foreheads touched. It was an old, intimate gesture for them. For a moment— for just a moment— Adora let herself consider it the offer. Freeing Catra from her dumb hopes, freeing herself from them. It was tempting. But. . . .

A moment was all Prime needed.

 A flood of ice entered through the back of her neck. The vision melted into darkness, and she felt herself fall through the inky void. 

Nothing. Alone. Lost.

Then, a single thread tied to the chip snapped taut and stopped her descent. A smidgen of warmth trickled through it too as it pulled her back up like a broken puppet. 

Many voices filled her ears as the light returned to her eyes. They were welcoming her, another voice among thousands saved by the same Light, the same Warmth. The One that wanted them. The One that freed them. 

She would never be alone again.

And soon , the voices promised, neither would Catra.

Chapter Text

As they raced out of the collapsing mining tunnels, Darla’s crew argued. They were only steps ahead of the falling dust and debris that had hounded them since the central cavern. The same cavern where Glimmer had managed to snag the necessary fuel Crystals from across the ravine and toss them back to Bow, and where she had inexplicably decided to nearly fall to her death grabbing a dozen more.

“Why did you do that?” Catra demanded. “I nearly threw my back out holding the tunnel open while you grabbed all those extras. You could have died. We had all the crystals we needed already.”

“Actually we didn’t have enough including the detour Glimmer suggested,” Entrapta supplied, grabbing a falling rock that threatened to hit them with her hair.

The six spacefarers managed to leap out of the tunnel exit moments before it collapsed, burying the mining network behind them. 

“What detour?” Bow asked, pushing himself off and dusting off the debris.

“I have to go back,” Glimmer blurted out. “Adora wouldn’t be on Prime’s ship right now if I hadn’t kidnapped her. I wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t saved me. I can’t just leave her there.” 

Bow and Catra exchanged a stunned look. The Star Siblings exchanged worried ones. “Wait, who got kidnapped?” Tall Star asked. “Are you kidnappers? Should we be concerned?”

Catra rolled her eyes. “No, it’s,” she sighed. “It’s complicated all around.” She turned back to Glimmer. “You’re serious, though? After everything you think you can just grab some crystals and volunteer for a suicide mission?”

“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” Glimmer said. “You can make a difference in the fight back home; I can’t. I’ll go alone if I have to, but I owe it to her to try.”

“Look, you guys are clearly braver than most,” Starla offered bluntly. “The fact that you’re even standing up to Prime’s invasion is . . . well, let’s just say a lot of people around the galaxy are gonna get a lot of hope from that. But if your friend was on Horde Prime’s ship, there’s not gonna be anyone to save.” She shook her head. “He doesn’t take prisoners.” Her sister put a hand on her shoulder. “We would know. No one defies Prime and survives. Your friend would be the first one.”

Catra was silent for a while, scanning Glimmer’s face for any hint of insincerity. When she didn’t find it, she looked up, eyes fixed on the distant stars. “Well, hopefully any First One will do.” 

She turned to her friends. “No way I’m letting you do this alone, Sparkles. Bow? Entrapta? You in?”

Bow snuck a glance at Glimmer, his cold shoulder thawing a bit. He put his hand out. First Entrapta, then the other two joined him. “The Best Friends Squad leaves no Rebel behind,” he pledged.

Catra looked gratefully around the circle. A mix of hope and dread boiled up within her. She offered the team a confident smirk. “Then what are we waiting for guys?” She asked. “Let’s save the wolf.”

Since leaving the deserted planet and turning back towards Prime’s flagship, the atmosphere on Darla had somehow gotten more upbeat. Maybe it was the looming threat of death making them delirious. Maybe it was because Entrapta’s excitement about having the chance to hack the thing was getting infectious. Maybe it was because Glimmer had done something to get off the rest of the Best Friends Squad’s bad side. Maybe it was all of the above.

Whatever the reason, things were definitely getting better between the three of them. They still had a ways to go, but planning the assault on the Velvet Glove at least gave the Best Friends Squad some neutral ground to speak on. There had been a dozen meetings since they left the Crystal planet. All the conversations she and Adora had had during her captivity had provided Glimmer with a decent understanding of the ship’s internal operations and layout. Pretty soon, they had a plan. A risky, insane plan that had a minuscule chance of succeeding, but a plan nonetheless.

Still, Glimmer found herself sneaking away to be alone at times. The progress she was making with Catra and Bow was a miracle. She had meant every word she said to them. She wanted to save Adora— even if it didn’t change how they thought of her. But, she couldn’t shake the ice that crept into her gut when she looked out of the view port, knowing that every second brought her closer to Horde Prime.

“I thought you’d be here,” Catra said, interrupting her worrying. Glimmer jumped— if she still had her powers she would have teleported. She turned to see the Magicat standing in the corridor. “You’ve got this window. Bow took the engine room. Entrapta has the whole vent system.” She shrugged. “Can’t believe I let everyone claim the best brooding spots first.”

Glimmer stepped aside to give her a better view of the stars. “You can have it if you want,” she said. “I didn’t get time to really look outside when I was . . .” She trailed off. 

“That’s why I wanted to talk. Alone.” Catra took in a deep, steady breath and walked over to join her. “I need to ask you something,” she said. “What exactly am I up against?”

Glimmer sighed. “Well, I never got a solid count of their forces,” she said, stalling for time. “Adora thought there were a few hundred clones on the flagship, a few thousand bots.” She shrugged. “Not sure how she got those numbers, but—“

“Scouting 101,” Catra answered automatically. “Learning Module: Nine— Estimating Repetitive Enemy Forces.” She turned back to the window. “You know what I’m asking, Sparkles. Just . . . just tell me what I can expect from Prime. If he was getting ready for me before, what would he have planned?”

Glimmer rubbed her forearm scars nervously. “Mind games,” she said. “Those were his go-to. When he was interrogating me, he used to show me video feed from his bots on Etheria— and any other planet that looked like it. You, my—my Dad,” she paused. Between the freeze out and now the frenzy of planning, she hadn’t had time to really unpack that with them. “He showed his armies burning villages, raiding your camp, almost killing you.”

Catra dragged a claw against the window. “So, he shows people you care about,” she said mechanically. “He hurts them, and he makes you watch.” 

Glimmer nodded. “Then he gets all smug and tells you how much he hates that you’re making this necessary, how it’s all your fault he has to do this, how it would be so much better for everyone if you cooperated.” 

They stood in silence for just long enough for it to get awkward. Glimmer knew just what Catra was thinking— who she was thinking about.

“We’ll get to her first,” Glimmer said quickly. “But even if we do— even after she’s safe, I wouldn’t put it past him to have something to get under your skin with. . . He had monitors and cameras everywhere. I know he had plans for some device to get information out of me. It didn’t sound pleasant. Whatever he’s done, he’ll try to use that against you. He’ll try to compromise you. Just . . . don’t let him.” 

Catra said nothing.

“I let him get to me once,” Glimmer continued. “I told him that he’d need She Ra to get the heart working. I played right into his hands. Adora wouldn’t let me hear the end of it. She was so much stronger than I was.”

The two friends stared out into the void for a minute, neither speaking. 

“She wouldn’t have let you,” Catra said, breaking the silence. “Trust me.”

Glimmer staggered back. “What do you mean?” She asked.

“Adora wouldn’t have let you stay behind.” Catra clarified, still staring at the stars. “Not in a million years.”

The Queen wrapped her arms around her torso, suddenly feeling very exposed. “Are you a mind reader now?” She asked. “How’d you guess?”

“Adora gets the same look when she’s blaming herself for something that isn’t her fault,” Catra explained. “Prime is the one who’s wrecking Etheria. Prime’s the one who kidnapped you two. Prime is the one who’s— Don’t get me wrong, you aren’t off the hook by a long shot for what you did, but . . .” She trailed off and waved her hand. “We can work that out after we rescue her.” 

Glimmer desperately wanted to reach out and hug her friend. Seeing her like this broke her heart. But, she didn’t want to push it. Catra had already forgiven her more than she had any right to hope for. So instead, she rested a hand on top of the one Catra had resting on the lip of the viewport.

“Attention Crew,” Entrapta’s voice suddenly boomed from the walls. “Darla will be entering the Velvet Glove’s current quadrant in T-minus two Etherian hours. Also, I finally got the loudspeaker system working. Woo!”

Glimmer smiled. “Bow’s not gonna like that,” she observed. “He hates it when she tinkers with this thing.”

Catra returned a small smile of her own. “You should’ve seen how he was on the way out here,” she said. “He acted like if he let Entrapta out of his sight for a second she’d take apart the engine. I thought he was gonna have a heart attack half the time.”

“I’ll go make sure he doesn’t,” Glimmer said, not wanting to overstay her welcome. She walked down the corridor back towards the control room. Before she turned the corner, she turned back to Catra. “I’ll never stop trying to make things right with Adora,” she promised. “This is just the start.”

Catra nodded, eyes still fixed on the stars. “I know,” she answered quietly. “Go suit up. I’ll be ready when we get there.”

For now, she looked at the same pair of stars she had first seen on Etheria, and remembered.

~~~13 Years Ago~~~

Catra shivered and pulled the scratchy synthetic blanket tighter. The Fright Zone was entering Night Three of Victory Week — celebrating some great victory over the Rebellion from years ago by conserving food, fuel, water, and anything else they could. The less they used, the more they had to throw at the enemy to Finish the Fight, as the posters around the halls proclaimed. 

It took all her self control to keep from snarling at those stupid things every time she passed them. She had managed to snag enough extra ration bars that she wouldn’t go hungry, but the heat was a different problem. At least the numbness in her claws made the leftover singes from that day’s magic lessons less painful.

The Magicat kit huffed, pulled her rock hard pillow closer, and closed her eyes. For once, she hoped for one of her weird dreams tonight. Whether she was fighting bad guys or hunting for treasure, Cyra was usually in a hot desert. Maybe some of that warmth would carry over to her.

Then, she heard thrashing from the bunk below her. Followed by a low, sad whine. 

As quietly as she could while keeping her blanket wrapped around her, the scrawny Magicat peered over the edge of her bunk to see what was happening. She saw a large lump in the center of the bed, shaking under a blanket. A small yellow tail stuck out from one corner. 

“Adora?” She whispered. The whining intensified. Catra rolled her eyes and leapt down. The lump under the sheets backed away into the headboard. Catra lifted the corner of the blanket to reveal her friend’s furry, yellow head. “Are you stuck again?” She asked.

The wolf nodded. Catra could feel the magic around her waiver and spike as she tried to turn back. This wasn’t the first time Adora transformed in her sleep, but it had been months since last time. She had even bragged to Catra about finally getting control over her powers on the rooftop last week. She put her paws over her eyes, ashamed.

The Magicat threw her blanket over her head. “Come on,” she said. “Sit up.” The wolf did so, creating a little tent for the two of them with their heads acting as tent poles. Catra pulled out a glow stick from her pocket that she had smuggled out of survival training. When she cracked it, a faint blue glow gave them enough light to see by.

“It’s ok,” she reassured her. “We have four hours until Roll Call. We can get you back to normal before then. No one has to know about this.” 

Her tail thumped nervously. What if we can’t? She seemed to ask. 

“Don’t give me that look,” she said. “No matter what they try to do to us, I look out for you, and you look out for me. Two legs or four, we stick together.”

Catra hugged her. The wolf nuzzled her appreciatively. Slowly, her booming heart rate slowed down and her other form melted away, leaving a scrawny blonde kid behind. 

“You promise?” Adora asked.

“I promise,” Catra replied.

There was a time when reckless heroes from across the galaxy regularly charged their ships towards the Velvet Glove. Countless champions from planets and civilizations scattered among the stars came to strike the tyrant down. In the wake of the First Ones’ Fall, They bore advanced cybernetic enhancements, blades forged in the cores of newborn stars, and armor that could withstand the pressure of a black hole. As the great empire faded into myth and more primitive worlds tried to stand against him, the champions came with prophecies of triumph, blades burning with blessings from their now forgotten gods, and hands glowing with strange spells.

The universe ran out of champions, but Horde Prime remained.

So when a new ship brazenly flew towards the Velvet Glove, the Hive mind was ready. Clones were dispatched to the same posts, primed with the memories of the old attempts by old upstarts.

But this champion was different. When the tractor beam pulled her ship into the hangar bay, she did not open fire. Instead, she lowered the cargo bay doors and walked out slowly, unarmed, hands raised in surrender.

“Take me to Prime,” she demanded coolly. “We have business.”

A pair of clones flanked her while a third restrained her arms behind her back. “Prime is awaiting you,” one said. “Prepare yourself for judgment.” 

Behind them, she could hear the others’ thundering steps as they stomped around the First Ones ship. They were loudest over the hatch where the others were hiding. Catra’s tail involuntarily twitched. Their ears aren’t as good as mine. She reassured herself. They won’t notice.

“You’re wasting your time,” she called back. “The ship is empty. I came alone.”

“Ensure the engine is not rigged to detonate,” one clone ordered the search party as the pair began to march Catra out of the cavernous room. She took the chance to scout out the ship. 

Glimmer was right. This place was too clean. Even the air tasted stale. When she first came to Brightmoon, the neatness had set her on edge. Like she would mess something up just by breathing the wrong way. The Velvet Glove wasn’t the same exactly. For one, there were plenty of cracks she could see under the pristine surface. Huge discolorations from some fire had marred the floor of the hangar bay. She heard drones scurrying just out of sight as they walked. The corridors they passed through were freshly polished, but some spots were getting much more attention. 

After a few minutes of tense silence, a comforting buzz sounded in her ear. “ They’re gone, ” Bow whispered over the hidden communicator. “ Didn’t even get close to us .”

“ I’m headed to the cell block ,” Glimmer added. “ I’ll let you know when I find her.”

Catra sighed, relieved that her friends had made it through Phase One safe but dreading what might happen in Phase Two. Glimmer would find Adora and break her out of Prime’s prison. Meanwhile, Bow and Entrapta would find a terminal to hack - getting whatever data they could steal and setting up a distraction. Once Glimmer and Adora were clear, they’d give them the signal, set it off, and they’d all escape in the chaos. 

Swap a few names around, and it was basically the same plan the Princess Alliance used to break into the Fright Zone after Princess Prom. Catra had the same role as last time — marching up to the front door, throwing everyone off their game, and giving the rest of the team time to sneak in.

If it was enough to fool Hordak, it was enough to throw off the guy he was cloned from.

The clones finally stopped in front of an enormous doorway, opening up to a long catwalk. Catra couldn’t see the end— just a vague light ahead. And to the sides, without handrails to keep her from falling, was just darkness.

Catra chuckled. Might as well start stalling now, she thought, turning to the clones. “So,” she remarked. “This is where Hordak got the whole Impractical Intimidating Architecture aesthetic from. Seriously, this place is a work hazard.”

The clones were unamused. “You are to enter alone,” the one to her right said. The other released her arms. She rubbed her wrists to get the soreness out. Just in case this negotiation went south before the others were finished; she wanted her claws out and ready.

The chamber Catra entered was massive. The domed ceiling stretched up into the darkness. Ahead of her, a harsh glow illuminated her path. A sharp, acidic chemical smell flooded her nostrils— reminding her of a bad week she once spent in the Infirmary back in the Fright Zone. 

When she arrived at the large platform, Catra realized where the scent was coming from. Set against a field of stars and a wall of buzzing computers, the god-emperor of the known universe was reclining on his throne, flanked by a pair of attendants. Thick, green, glowing fluid poured into the braid-like appendages on his head.

Prime didn’t even look up from history’s most disgusting spa treatment to acknowledge her. He let the clones continue adjusting tentacles and fluids for a few moments more before waving them away. “A tiresome procedure,” he said casually. “But a necessary one if I am to maintain this vessel.” He sat up to finally regard his opponent. 

Catra shrugged. “No, I get it,” she replied. “Timing your gross tube thing for when I showed up? Classic intimidation tactic. You’re trying to knock me off my game? Make me feel insignificant?” 

She looked down to inspect her claws nonchalantly. “It’s the kind of game you play when you know all your power is an illusion. I wouldn’t know the feeling, since I have that planetary super weapon.” 

She looked up and smirked. “By the way, I have a planetary super weapon. Hand over Adora, or I’ll show you what real power looks like.”

Prime’s faced was unreadable for a moment. Then, he cracked by raising an eyebrow. “An ultimatum? It has been centuries since I was last given an ultimatum,” he chuckled. “Tell me, She Ra. If you are willing to unleash such destruction upon the universe, why have you hesitated?”

“Just be thankful I have,” Catra responded. “Now, tell one of your Hordak knock-offs to show me where her cell is before my patience runs out, and I’ll get out of your . . . Weird tube hair thing.”

“I am curious why you returned for her,” he said, rising from his throne. “But you and your Adora have never been able to stay away from each other, have you?”

Catra shrugged dismissively. “I don’t like loose ends,” she explained. “I thought that would be obvious. You came back for Hordak.”

“Is that all?” Prime said. “I suppose that would be consistent with your previous actions. Aiding your Adora out of a feeling of obligation.” He smiled. “Of course, you and I both know that was never the real reason. Adora seemed to be convinced by it, tragically.”

“ Catra ,” Glimmer whispered over the communicator. “Don’t panic, but Adora’s not in the cell block.”

She inhaled sharply, but managed to disguise it as a reaction to Prime’s remark. Catra glanced at the monitors, terrified that they may switch from unreadable star charts to something much harder to watch any second. “I didn’t come here for relationship advice,” she shot back, using her fear to fuel her bluster. “Stop stalling.”

“ Prisoner locations are likely recorded in the ship’s logs, ” Entrapta suggested. 

“ Just keep him talking,” Bow said. “ We’ll find her.”

“That poor, misguided soul,” Prime continued. “Always so desperate to please, to help, to be more than a burden,” he said, continuing as if she hadn’t spoken. “That’s what she was trying to do when she invited you for that joyride. My how that backfired. As soon as you found that sword, all you wanted to do was prove you were worthy of their praise, their expectations, of your peoples’ prophecies. You were so empty that you had to be worthy in the eyes of the whole world to be satisfied. She just wanted to be worthy of you.”

Catra grit her teeth. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she growled.

“Don’t I?” Prime grinned. “Do you believe you are the first to find yourself in such a circumstance? I have always found that those most closely involved in such affairs are the least qualified to offer an objective perspective. Though, by my calculations, over the last few days, I have spent more time discussing such matters with your Adora than you ever—“

Catra unsheathed her claws. “Where is she?” The Magicat roared. Her cry echoed throughout the empty chamber.

Prime’s smug expression didn’t falter. He rose from his throne. “Very well then, hero, I yield,” he said. “I shall grant your request, but Adora has spent so much of her life with others making these decisions for her— telling her where to go, whom to serve.” 

A pair of clones began walking up the bridge towards them. The footsteps echoed in Catra’s ears. Two heavy pairs and a lighter set. Someone else was with them. “Perhaps we should ask her what she wants.”

Catra froze as the footsteps got closer. She looped her tail around her waist to keep it from thrashing. 

“Hey Adora,” she said, keeping her back to the walkway. It was a miracle she managed to keep the cracks out of her voice. “Everything’s gonna be fine. You’re getting out of here. I promise.” She wouldn’t crack. She wouldn’t give Prime an opening to attack. She would save her. 

Catra turned around, thinking she was ready to face the scars left by whatever Prime had put her through. 

She wasn’t ready for what stared back at her.

Adora stood upright and at attention like a cadet at roll call, clad in the same white and gray robes as the clones flanking her. There wasn’t a mark on her that Catra could see. Her hair was slicked back and twisted into a tight braid with the tail tucked back in, imitating the slicked back hairstyles of the clones and Prime’s skull tendrils.

For a split second, Catra felt relieved. She expected to find Adora bruised, bloody, and unable to stand. Then, she saw her eyes— solid, sickly green— and her heart stopped.

“Oh Catra,” the puppet said. “Why would I want to leave?”

“Catra, what happened?” Glimmer’s voice buzzed over the communicator. “Is Adora there? Do you need help?”

Prime strode towards his prisoner, and instantly the spell broke. She sprinted towards Adora, but the clones were quicker, catching her off guard and restraining her again. “What did you do to her?” She demanded as she struggled against their grip.

“I have done what you never could,” Prime explained. He caressed her face, and for a second Catra could have sworn she saw Adora flinch at his touch. “I have made her anew.”

“She was afraid in the end,” he taunted. “And she suffered.” Catra thought her claws might just burst out of her hands. “But the results were worth it. Don’t you agree?”

A growl escaped from deep within Catra’s chest. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. With a cry, she broke free of the other clones. “Let. Her. Go.” She snarled. 

“If you really are that selfish, then I suppose I can accommodate your desires,” he said. “But since my power is merely an illusion , as you say, I must demand something in return.” He smiled. “Give me She-Ra.”

Catra flinched. That wasn’t an option, but if it was— her stomach sank at how easy it seemed. Giving up everything— everyone— for her. Prime had seen right through her, but that wasn’t what scared her. He doesn’t know. I have nothing to give. 

The Magicat put on the best hero mask she could muster. “She-Ra’s not a bargaining chip. I’ll never—“

He snapped and suddenly half her head was on fire. “You miscalculated.” The sonic burst from the exploding communicator shredded her sensitive ears, forcing Catra to her knees. “You are nothing more than another false hero, and you have led your followers to their doom.” He stalked past her like a predator, and his clones followed him. 

Catra pushed herself back to her feet and lunged at the emperor. Before she could reach him, Adora tackled her back to the ground, elbowing her in the stomach. Before Catra could catch her breath, Adora unfurled a familiar staff and struck her in the chest, pinning her.

“I shall leave you to consider my offer,” Prime said without turning around. “Though, I suggest you comply before my patience runs out.”

The monster filed out of the chamber, flanked by his cronies. Their heavy footsteps slowly faded, leaving them alone in the smothering silence. 

Catra propped herself up on her elbows and locked eyes with Adora - mismatched blue and gold into unfeeling green. “Adora,” she pleaded. “Whatever he’s doing to you, you have to fight it.”

Adora laughed, her placid expression barely changing. “Don’t you get it, Catra?” She asked. “I don’t have to fight anymore. I’m so tired of fighting!” She leaned closer. “I fought the Princesses, the Packs, the Horde, the whole world — you! And for what? To end up alone. But Prime has given me peace.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “He could give us both peace, if you wanted.”

Catra took advantage of the change in her stance to unbalance her, kicking out her leg and shoving her to the side when she fell. The Magicat jumped back to her feet immediately. Adora was just as quick, regaining her fighting stance in seconds. 

This was bad. With her staff, Adora had the longer range, plus superior strength. Catra had won mismatched fights with Adora before. Her brain fired out a dozen ways she could exploit her opponent’s openings to end the fight quickly, but this wasn’t a normal fight with a bot or a clone. She had to hold back. 

She sheathed her claws and settled on a simple plan. Get that staff. Knock her out. Drag her back to the ship. We can fix whatever the hell this is on the way home. 

The two circled each other, waiting for the other to pounce. “Adora,” she said. “I know you’re in there. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Adora laughed, a cold and unfamiliar sound. “You really think I believe that?” She asked. With that, she launched herself forward, swinging her staff in a high arc. Catra dodged, but the swings kept coming. Suddenly, she remembered the last time she fought Prime’s bots back on Etheria— how they tricked her into lashing out and cornered her. As Adora kept swinging, she started deliberately leading her towards the throne. If Catra could get more vertical room to maneuver, this fight would be over in a heartbeat. 

“It’s just your nature to hurt, isn’t it?.” Adora taunted. 

Swing. Dodge. 

“To shred anyone who tries to get too close.”

Swing. Dodge.

“To lash out at your friends.”

Swing. Dodge.

“To leave them once they aren't useful anymore.”

Swing. Dodge. Almost there. A few more steps and she’d have the high ground.

“Just like Shadow Weaver taught you.”

Catra snapped at that line. Plan forgotten, she aimed a wild right hook at the puppet’s jaw. Her opponent calmly took advantage of her outburst, dodging and planting a knee in her gut. Catra fell to the ground again.

“Don’t take it so personally,” the puppet mocked. “All souls share your poison. Desperate to be heroes, but blundering in the dark, blinded by their base emotions. That’s what’s wrong with this universe. That’s why it needs Prime’s—“

“Shut up, you five-eyed  slime bucket!” Catra yelled as she pushed herself back to her feet. “I know it’s you talking right now, Prime! Your Adora impression needs some serious work if you think she monologues that much.”

The puppet looked offended at her remark, giving Catra the opening she needed. The Magicat leveled a fast left hook at her ribs and ripped the staff away with her right. Adora staggered back at the strike but didn’t fall. 

“And leave the psychoanalysis to the professionals,” she continued. “You don’t me, and you don’t know Adora.”

The puppet regained her footing quickly. When she looked up, a smile was plastered across her face. “So blind.” Adora took a few more steps backwards. She was previously close to the edge. “See how little it takes to unbalance you.” Adora stretched out her arms and fell backwards.

Panicked, Catra sprinted to reach her. The staff clattered to the floor, forgotten. With a second to spare, she wrapped an arm around her waist. Adora hugged her in response. For a moment, as the panic washed away, Catra almost felt peaceful holding her again. “So predictable.”

Before Catra could process that, the puppet buried her fist into her side. Her ribs broke with a sickening crack. Then, Adora shoved her with just as much force, knocking her back to the center of the room. She slammed to the ground, and all the wind burst out of her lungs.

“You made a good choice in selecting your bodyguard,” Prime’s voice taunted, flexing Adora’s muscles as the puppet stalked towards her. “Strong. Agile. Her people made admirabke foes for a reason. Perhaps I will make her my new vessel.” 

Gritting her teeth, Catra forced herself back on her feet. “I went through a phase once,” Prime continued “I made a show of claiming a vessel from my latest conquests. It had a potent impact on the survivors as they became my subjects. Some adaptations would be necessary, but she would last me long. Still, the Beast will be much better suited to the battlefield.”

That's when Prime got greedy. When the puppet tried to strike her again, Catra was ready. She sidestepped, grabbing Adora’s arm and using her momentum to fling her into the buzzing computer consoles surrounding Prime’s throne.

Panting, Catra stalked over to her fallen opponent. “Ok,” she muttered to herself. “One good hit to the jaw to put you to sleep and we’re in the clear.” Catra took note of a sparking device on the back of her neck before pulling the dazed wolf up by her uniform. 

The wolf stirred. Blue, terrified eyes looked back at her. The Magicat froze.

“C-Catra?!” She startled in a weak voice. “You— you’re actually— What were you thinking? I told you to stay away!”

“I never was a good listener,” Catra responded, lowering her fist. “Did you seriously think I was just gonna leave you here?”

“Why did you come back?” She asked. “You have a universe to save. I don’t matter.”

“Screw the universe!” Catra yelled. “You matter to me!”

Adora’s brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of that. She shook her head. “The rest of the Hive hasn’t found the others yet, but they know they’re here— somewhere on the lower decks, quadrant three, not far from the hangar. If we can find them before they do—“ Adora’s voice abruptly cut off as she rammed a fit into Catra’s cracked ribs.

The Magicat staggered back, her vision turning white from the pain. When she looked back, Adora’s eyes were green again. The chip on the back of her neck started to spark. Her eyes flashed back to blue for a moment, but the shocks only strengthened. The veins on the side of her neck bulged as she struggled, but whatever was left of Adora couldn’t hold the transformation back.

The bright golden aura that usually surrounded her as she transformed was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the light around her was pale, green, and thin, like a faded copy of a copy. Catra could hear her muscles tear and tendons pop as she tried in vain to fight the change. Her fur was thin and matted, drained of so much color it almost looked white. 

She howled wildly as it finished, rising on her hind legs and gripping the sides of her head. The beast snapped her head towards Catra. Her glowing green eyes were bloodshot. She snarled and leapt forward. 

Catra just barely got out of the way in time. A sharp, acidic scent hit her like a wave as the air rushed past. The beast’s claws scraped along the steel floor as she landed, pivoted, and launched herself at Catra again. She swung down one massive arm, then another. With her ribs broken, the Magicat knew she couldn’t dodge forever. 

A pounding hit to her gut proved her right. This time, she flew back into the computers. Even then, Catra could feel Adora holding back. She’d taken hits from her on full moons before as She-Ra. She knew how hard she could hit, and this wasn’t it.

A hiss came from the monitors behind her. She felt Prime’s eyes on her, like a mouse sensing a hawk circling above in the dark sky. He really thinks this will get me to transform. She thought. Like if I get scared enough, She Ra will just burst out, like how Adora used to shift when she had nightmares as a kid.

While she was thinking, the beast stalked towards her. Catra tried to get up, but her body couldn’t do it. She grabbed the forgotten staff for some protection, but she knew it wouldn’t do much against her. 

When the beast reached her, she held the staff lengthwise, ready to catch her jaws if she tried to bite. Instead, with one arm, the wolf pushed down the staff, pinning her opponent to the ground. She balled the other into a fist and raised it high. 

But then, the wolf hesitated, like an actor who forgot her stage directions. Her paw hovered in the air wavering uncertainly. “Adora,” Catra said. “Come on, I know you can hear me.”

The wolf stopped snarling, but kept her fist raised. “Yeah,” she said. “You remember me, don’t you? It’s me, Catra.”

“He can’t make you a monster,” she continued. “You’ve never given up on anything in your life, so don’t you dare give up on yourself!” The fist lowered. “I’m not gonna leave you behind again. Whatever Prime’s done, we’ll fix it together. This time, I’m sticking with you, two legs or four.”

The wolf startled at those words. Her tail started weakly wagging. Adora backed away, eyes fading back to blue. Catra could have sworn she saw the golden tint bleed back into her fur. 

The other form melted away, leaving Adora behind. She’d never looked so exhausted before, but there was a new spark in her eyes. “You promise?” She asked. 

Catra used the staff to push herself back to her feet and limp towards her. “I promise,” she said. She reached out her hand. “Let’s go home.”

Adora risked a faint smile and reached out to take Catra’s hand, but just as their fingertips touched, her whole body jerked back. She screamed and stumbled to the edge of the platform as sparks flew from the back of her neck. When she opened her eyes again, they were green and spiteful. 

“She really thought she was saving you by sacrificing herself,” Prime’s voice sneered. “But you were too selfish to let her live with that much.”

Adoracried out in pain as the shocks intensified, then went silent as they abruptly cut off. She went limp. Catra tried to grab her, but like a nightmare the world went into slow motion. She saw her own hand just miss the edge of Adora’s as she stumbled out of reach and fell into the abyss below. 

Catra leapt after her without hesitation. 

Once, when they were enemies, Adora had told her that cat’s always land on their feet. Catra managed to do that much, but felt something snap even as she tried to transfer her momentum into a roll. If she hadn’t gotten a concussion earlier in the fight, she had one now.

The magicat lifted her head and crawled over to the spot Adora was lying. A hundred Horde medic training modules flashed in her head. There isn’t much blood, and her skull is intact so she got a lucky landing, but still took the full force of a long drop. Werewolves are tough, but they aren’t invincible. Add on whatever Prime had put her through beforehand . . . 

Catra finally reached Adora as the sound of heavy footsteps began to echo through the pit. She forced herself to sit up, tears welling in her eyes as she moved her broken body. Adora’s eyes fluttered open. Her chest moved up and down shakily as she struggled to keep breathing. Catra held her hand. Her pulse was weak. 

She kept holding her hand as the clones surrounded them, closing in like the walls of a tomb.

When one spoke, it was with Prime’s voice. “I must admit,” he said. “I expected you to be stubborn, but I never thought you would let your Adora perish so that you could keep playing hero.” 

She gripped Adora’s hand more tightly. “A shame. The Heart would have been a magnificent addition to my arsenal, but I suppose not a necessary one. I possess more than enough firepower to cleanse all evidence of this embarrassment.”

The clones closed in further. Catra spread an arm out over Adora. She deserved a better shield than her useless, broken body, but it was all she had to offer. 

“Of course, not all the remnants need be erased.” Prime’s current mouthpiece stepped forward, drawing a strange curved device from under his cloak. Currents of electricity ran along the blade as it extended towards them. “Perhaps I shall save something for the collection.”

When the clone slashed down, a glowing scimitar was ready to meet him. Catra didn’t have time to question where it came from as she leapt to her feet and knocked it out of his hand. Any trace of pain vanished from her body. The dark chamber lit up like the surface of a sun. The remaining clones rushed at her, but she batted them aside like they were nothing.

This wasn’t like the other times she transformed. She felt stronger. Faster. Tougher. Her bones were steel and her blood was liquid fire. But Catra didn’t have time to think about that. She didn’t have time to think about how this was even possible.

Catra strode out of the abyss with Adora in one arm and the sword in the other. 

Somehow, she knew exactly where her friends were in that massive maze. She could feel each of them glowing like a bright dot on a radar screen. As she made her way towards them, dozens of bots flooded the halls to stop her. They didn’t even slow her down. 

Finally, she could hear their voices, and the commotion of their own fight with Prime’s forces. 

“If you have a way of getting us out, then do it!” Bow yelled. 

“Even if I broke the ‘No Tampering with the Ship’ rule?” Entrapta replied. “Because I —”

“YES!” Glimmer and Bow answered in unison. 

A whistle was all the warning they got before the Velvet Glove lurched to one side and the sound of screaming metal filled the air. Catra turned the corner into a mid-sized chamber where Darla had just made a new air lock. 

“Wait,” Glimmer said. “We can’t leave without–” Her mouth dropped open when she caught sight of them. Catra dashed to close the gap, trying to keep her stride steady for Adora’s sake. Glimmer came out of her shock enough to run up the gangplank. “They’re here! Get us moving!” She shouted back at the control room.

“I’m trying!” Bow called back.

When Catra strode into the ship, the walls lit up in cool colors. She laid Adora down on the floor gently, not wanting to jostle her any more than she had already. Glimmer knelt down to check on her.

Catra could hear the engine struggling and sputtering, but beneath that she could feel the wirings and circuitry of the ship – the same way her ancestors had. The very metals it was made from recognized her. This was a First Ones ship, but Halfmoon tech ran far deeper within it. Cyra and Mara’s last project together.

“Darla,” she commanded. “Get us out of here.”

Immediately, the bay doors closed behind her. The engine purred as the ship dislodged itself from the Velvet Glove. The stars outside the windows turned to streaks of white light as they sped away faster than any other ship in the galaxy could manage.

Bow and Entrapta ran in from the control room, confused. 

“Catra,” Glimmer croaked. She had two fingers resting against the pulse point of her neck. “She’s . . .” The Queen shook her head. The glowing magicat walked over and knelt beside her. Glimmer respectfully moved away. 

Catra cradled Adora in her arms. The cool, focused, familiar magic flowed through the ether, back into her veins, and into Adora. “Come on,” she whispered. “Come on.”

As she lay broken on the floor of the Velvet Glove, with the army of clones approaching, the last thing Adora was Catra’s eyes. She was grateful for that. 

There was a moment of panic as she slipped away. Like taking a step and feeling empty air where the stairs should be. The moment faded quickly, just like everything else around her. With the pain fogging her mind, she couldn’t focus on anything. 

The pain receded, but the fog remained. She couldn’t open her eyes, but she could sense it swirling around her. It was cold, dark, and quiet, but peaceful. Somewhere far beyond, she was aware of something more - phantoms sights and sounds whispered, but they were too far away for her to understand them. In the farthest corner of her mind, she felt like she was being moved or moving or . . . something but the feelings were too faint. Soon, she forgot they were even there.

Then, she felt a faint light flicker against her skin. Adora pushed herself up, feeling almost weightless, and blindly stumbled towards it. With each step, she felt her body turn more solid and her senses sharpen. Yet, at the same time, every ache and pain she carried faded; the soreness from years of fighting melted away. 

The fog reformed around her into towering trees. She found herself at the edge of a familiar clearing in the Whispering Woods, staring at a blazing campfire. 

A handful of werewolves were sitting around it, wearing strange colorful armor. One was tending to the flames with a small stick as embers drifted up like fireflies. She seemed familiar somehow. Adora had seen her before, but not when she was this happy. The image of an exhausted, dying hologram flashed in her brain as the name came to her.

“Mara?” Adora exclaimed, surprised. “You– How? What’s going on?”

The woman looked up from the fire and sighed. “I was worried you’d show up sooner or later,” Mara said, annoyed. “What do you think you’re doing here?”

“Hey, I—“ she responded as Mara tossed the stick in the fire. “Where is here anyway? Where are we?”

“ We are somewhere you shouldn’t be for a very long time, kid,” the hazel eyed brunette at the campfire explained. Adora could have sworn she had seen her somewhere too, a sketch hung up on a wall back in Greyskull.

“It’s her call if she wants to rest or not, Helena,” another wolf argued. “You can’t say she hasn’t earned it.”

Adora’s stomach sank as the realization hit her. “Oh,” she whispered. “No I— I can’t be—“ she whirled around to see where she came from, finding the same swirling void. Other faces were forming at the edges— familiar ones— ones that would make it much harder to leave. “I have to go back!”

“Looks like Marlena’s smarts rubbed onto her after all,” Helana laughed. “Finally, a Greylock who shook off the family death wish. Congrats on breaking that mold.”

“Don’t panic, kid,” Mara reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “See that shimmering out there?” Adora squinted and saw a light sparkling faintly in the distance. A little spark dancing. The more she focused on it, the brighter it grew. And the closer it seemed. 

It made the campfire feel like a candle by comparison. “See?” Mara asked. “There’s someone back there who wants you to stay. Lots of people in fact— more than think. You just have to reach out and let them help you come home.”

Adora did just that, taking a step forward. Suddenly, the light rushed forward to meet her, infusing every atom of her body. The wolves cheered.

“Get back to your girlfriend, Greylock,” Helena shouted as the vision faded. “That’s an order!“

“And tell your mom we're proud of her!” Mara added. "But she's still a dork!"

Without warning, the ground turned solid again, cold metal biting into her joints as she lay prone on the floor. The pain slammed into her again too— sharp aches in every place her body had broken. Nowhere near as badly as they should considering everything she’d been through, and even those where being slowly smothered by the golden light.

Tentatively, she opened her eyes. A shining pair of mismatched eyes, framed by soft brown fur greeted her. “Hey Adora,” Catra whispered. “Welcome back.”

Adora wrapped her arms around her and squeezed tight. She didn’t know where they were, where they were going, or how they got there. For once, she didn’t care. For once, she didn’t need an escape plan.

For the first time in a long time, she felt safe.

Chapter Text

Catra stumbled out of the makeshift bedroom in a daze. She felt drained and energized at the same time - emotionally spent but chock full of adrenaline. She had no idea how much time had passed since they’d escaped Horde Prime. At some point while she was holding Adora, Glimmer tapped her on the shoulder and said they had cleared a room for her. From the way her knees creaked as she stood up with Adora leaning on her shoulder, Catra could have been kneeling for hours as far as she knew.

For her part, Adora hadn’t said a word as they limped to the sleeping quarters. She had fallen asleep – or more likely passed out – as soon as Catra laid her on the bunk. She was still in that white uniform, but Catra had tugged her hair out of the tight, twisted braid. Whatever strange gel had been used to force it into that style kept it clumped and stiff in odd places, but it was better than leaving it in place. They hadn’t brought shampoo on this trip, but there had to be some chemical on this ship that could remove it.

Catra added that investigation to her mental list of tasks, along with finding her some new clothes. It felt wrong enough just leaving in that uniform, but it wasn’t like she could just shred it off with her claws. At least, she forced herself to shut down that line of thinking because with everything else going on it might seriously fry her brain.

The rest of the squad minus Entrapta was waiting for her in the hallway. “How is she?” Glimmer asked. 

Catra sighed. “Passed out,” she answered. “Pretty ok considering . . . everything, but someone should be there when she wakes up. She seemed really out of it on the way down here, even after I healed her.”

“Speaking of that,” Bow began cautiously. “Do you want to tell us what happened with Prime? How did you – you know – get She Ra back without the runestone?”

The Magicat froze. Oh right. That. “It just happened when Prime had us cornered,” she explained hastily. “I must have had some magic left over or something.”

Glimmer shook her head. “No. It was different this time,” she said. “You didn’t just get taller. I could feel the magic radiating off you. And there’s no way leftover magic would have been enough to heal her.”

“Well, I didn’t exactly have time to take notes, Sparkles,” Catra said defensively. 

Glimmer put out her hands apologetically. “Sorry,” she said. “You’re right. We can figure that out later. Does Adora need anything else for when she wakes up?”

“Clothes,” Catra said immediately, grateful for the change in topic. “Entrapta should also be ready to check her out. Prime stuck some weird thing on the back of her neck and used it to . . .” She suppressed a growl. “To control her. I damaged it, but we need to get it off her for good.”

Glimmer’s eyes widened in horror at the mention of the chip, but whatever thoughts she had she saved for later. “I think Entrapta found a stash of First Ones’ clothes somewhere,” she suggested. “She said something about recycling them for our space suits. I can go talk to her about both.” 

“I can take the first watch if you need to get some sleep,” Bow suggested. 

Catra shook her head. “It’s fine. I’ll do it,” she responded. “I’m not gonna be able to sleep for a while after that.”

“And how can I help, brother?” A cheery voice asked.

Catra turned to see a Horde clone had appeared next to her, an eager smile lighting up his face. She blinked twice and turned back to Bow, brows knitting together as she glared. Glimmer took the chance to slip away towards Entrapta’s lab.

He threw his hands up defensively. “We sort of broke him, ok! He’s not part of the hive mind anymore.” He said. “He helped us back on Prime’s ship, and it just felt wrong to leave him there and everything was so crazy when we left that we never really got the chance to.”

Catra rubbed her temples. “You’re sure Prime can’t take control of him?” She said, exasperated. 

The clone choked up. “It is true, brother!” He cried. “Without you, I would be adrift in shadow! Lost in a sea of darkness with no light to guide me home. You’re charity in the face of my pitiful condition is —” 

“Ok! Fine, he can stay,” she conceded. “Just keep him supervised.”

“That will not be a problem!” The clone affirmed. “I find a lack of supervision terrifying.” With that, he followed Bow out of the corridor towards the control room, and Catra was left alone. Just under the hums and clangs of the old ship, she could just barely make out the sound of Adora breathing softly in the room behind her. She sank down next to the door.

When Adora did wake up many hours later, Catra was waiting. She watched as Adora’s eyes slowly scanned her and then turned to the room, inspecting every shadow — for what Catra didn’t know. Cautiously, she sat up and placed a hand on the back of her neck, jolting as it touched the chip. Then, she moved that same hand up to check her hair. It was down, but still crinkled to the touch.

Then, nervously, she met Catra’s eyes again. Guarded but hopeful. “Catra,” she said, her voice scratchy and hoarse but entirely her own again. “It’s really you.” Her words are a statement as much as they are a question. 

“Of course it is,” Catra replied, trying to shrug off her weird behavior to put her at ease. “Were you expecting someone else to pull that stunt?”

Adora smiled at that remark, but she kept her guard up. “How are you feeling? Hungry? Thirsty?” Catra continued. “Sparkles already gave us all the horror stories of what Prime was serving you guys. Darla doesn’t have a lot of amenities, but —”

“Darla?” Adora interrupted. 

“It’s what I named the ship,” Entrapta supplied, peeking in from the hallway. Catra glared at her, and Adora’s jaw dropped. “Oh, do you mind me listening in? I suspected this was a private moment, but I didn’t want such a major hole in my data set on your relationship. Anyway, she just looks like a Darla, so—”

Adora leapt out of the bed and embraced her. The force of the hug knocked the wind out of the scientist. “You’re ok!” She choked out. “I— you— B-beast Island. I thought—“

“Oh, you thought I was dead?” Entrapta pieced together. “Well, I’m not.” She patted Adora on the back with a hair tendril. “It was actually a fascinating research opportunity, except for the part where we almost died. Catra and Bow can tell you all about it.”

“Prime couldn’t have – I never guessed–” she sputtered before taking a deep breath and pulling away. She sank to her knees and wrapped her arms around her chest. “This is real,’ she muttered. “I’m safe. It’s real.” 

Catra rushed to her side and hugged her. She hugged her back, but kept muttering. Catra couldn’t make out most of it with all the blood pounding in her ears. An infuriating combination of rage and helplessness boiled in her gut as her mind went blank. 

What she had seen Prime do to Adora was bad enough. What the hell had he put her through before she showed up? 

The Horde soldier in her was horrified at the display of vulnerability. Adora was supposed to be the strong one – the one who didn’t have to hide her fears beneath layers of armor because she didn’t have any. She had let Catra see her when she wavered before, when she was kid, but she had never just collapsed into her like she was doing now. 

The Brightmoon Rebel in her – the person who knew words like ‘trauma’ and ‘mental health’— was proud that Adora trusted her enough to let down her guard. She felt safe enough to be vulnerable around her. For so long, it's exactly what she had hoped for her to do.

But now that it was finally happening, Catra was terrified. She had waited so long for Adora to come back, wanted so badly to be the one who helped her, and now that she was, all the doubt came streaming back in. She-Ra had healed her body, but the wounds Prime inflicted went far deeper. Who the hell am I to think I can help? She thought. 

Eventually, Adora pulled herself together and sat up. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, pausing and frowning when she noticed the material. “Sparkles is working on getting you some new clothes,” Catra said quickly. “There’s some stuff for your hair too. The showers run on recycled water, but they’re honestly better than the Fright Zone locker rooms.”

“I don’t know if exposing the chip to water while it’s still attached to you is the best idea,” Entrapta cautioned. “Mind letting me examine it? Wrong Hordak has a similar appendage on his neck, but I still need to know what I’m working with before removing it.”

Adora gave her a confused look. “Who’s Wrong Hordak?” She asked. 

“He’s my new lab assistant,” she explained cheerfully. “We liberated him from the hive mind by accident. I thought he was Hordak, but he wasn’t; hence the name.”

Adora nodded. It was just that kind of day. “He wouldn’t include that either,” she muttered to herself. “Definitely real.” They both stood up as Entrapta laid out some tools on the bed. 

“I’ll go see if Sparkles found those clothes yet,” Catra said, excusing herself. As she left the room, Adora reached out her hand and opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself. 

She cleared her throat as she moved to the makeshift exam space. “You wouldn’t happen to have a hair tie would you?” She asked sheepishly. 

“Of course. I always have a few dozen on hand.” One of Entrapta’s hair tendrils immediately deposited one in her hands. She quickly put together a messy ponytail. Her hair still stuck out at odd angles because of the dried gel, but it felt much better. “Now let’s do some science.”

Catra didn’t give Glimmer and Bow the full story when they regrouped in the kitchen and asked how Adora was doing. Even though the rational part of her brain knew that this wasn’t the Fright Zone and telling them that Adora was taking some time to mentally recover from being tortured and puppeted by an insane space dictator wouldn’t lead to them treating her as an easy target for bullying, stealing her ration bars, or reporting her to their superiors, it still felt like a betrayal to share.

“Anyway, Entrapta is checking out the chip now,” she concluded, leaning against the kitchen counter. “Hopefully, she can remove it and stop Prime from being able to get in her head again.”

“Are you sure it’s safe to do that here?” Bow asked. “I trust Entrapta, but maybe Marlena might have some more insights into how this thing works.”

“Wait, who’s Marlena?” Glimmer asked. Bow and Catra froze. “You mentioned her before, but why would she know about this stuff?”

Bow managed to break the silence first. “Umm. You remember how your dad was on Beast Island?” Between the freeze-out and the rescue mission, they hadn’t spent much time talking about Micah, other than to confirm that he really was alive and not just another one of Prime’s mind games. “Well, he wasn’t the only one we found. It turns out that Adora’s mom was there too.”

Glimmer’s eyes lit up. “What? That’s awesome!” she exclaimed. 

“And she was sent there after she fought Adora back when she was the Beast,” Catra continued. “She had no idea Adora was even alive, so they mauled each other within an inch of their lives before the Horde managed to capture her.”

“Oh that’s . . .” Glimmer said, deflated. “She is not going to take that part well.”

“But we still have to tell her,” Bow suggested. “We can’t just lie to her for the rest of the way home.”

“That was our plan on Beast Island,” Catra offered.

“And that ended with us nearly getting murdered by evil depression vines!” Bow shot back. “Besides, it would just be better for the team if we weren’t all constantly trying to keep a secret from her.” He leaned back against the wall. 

Glimmer hesitated for a second and then nodded. “Bow’s right,” she agreed. “I can’t imagine exactly what this is going to feel like to her, but she deserves a chance to process her feelings before she meets her mom again.”

Catra sighed. “Ok, fine,” she said. “I’ll tell her as soon as Entrapta gets the chip off.” Catra paused. “What are the odds Entrapta realizes telling her about Marlena now is a bad idea?”

“Negative,” Bow responded flatly. With that, Catra sprinted out of the room so fast her feet left claw marks in the metal flooring.

He and Glimmer stood silently, each slowly realizing that this was the first time they had been alone together in ages. Glimmer waited for him to leave, but he didn’t. Before she could wonder if she was supposed to go, he spoke up. “So, about your dad,” he said, keeping his eyes on the hallway. “Is there anything you want to ask about him?”

Glimmer blinked in surprise. “Y-yeah,” she said. “I’ve got a ton.” She hesitated. “Why do you ask?”

Bow finally looked at her. “You said Adora needed time to process,” he said. “It made me realize that we – you and I – haven’t really talked about . . . everything. Him included.” He cleared his throat sheepishly. “Do you want to talk?”

“Yes.” She was surprised her chest didn’t explode right there, but somehow she kept it together. “Let’s talk,” she replied. 

Eternia was a strange sight in its heyday. An enormous gas giant, larger than Etheria fifteen hundred times over, surrounded by ninety moons - some barely large enough to be asteroids, some large enough to be planets in their own right. It wasn’t their homeworld. It began as a rest stop for their fleets to refuel, siphoning hydrogen from the gas giant’s thick, swirling clouds. 

The bosses of those fueling stations terraformed those barren moons into a network of self-sustaining colonies, with their technology running through every inch of rock they walked on. The Moon Lords of Eternia rose to prominence among the First Ones. Just about everyone who was anyone in the Armada could claim family ties with them. 

Marlena had spent some time there as a teenager in the Engineering School. It filled her with a sense of pride in her peoples’ accomplishments. A ragtag band of refugees with no world to call their own built a home for themselves in a place no one else even wanted. They saw potential and progress in everything and brought it out. Their technology reshaped the barren, lifeless husks into a paradise.

When she graduated, she had looked forward to the day when she could follow in her ancestors’ footsteps and do something equally great. She was ready to work herself to the bone to keep what they had built safe from those who would destroy it. 

Now, as Marlena scanned the outskirts of a Horde encampment with hundreds of bots dedicated to unearthing her magnum opus, she tried to imagine what she would say to that younger version of herself. Put your faith in the right people? You can’t control what others will do with what you build? Honestly, she would probably be better off with a straightforward Don’t turn planets into superweapons.

She took a few more mental notes on the facility from her vantage point in the woods. The Rebellion had two missions planned for tomorrow’s full moon. Mermista had found a lead on some kind of telepath (“farsight” was the term she used, but Marlena had never been completely clear on how magic worked outside of pure energy terms) in a shady, underwater nightclub. She was taking her pirate boyfriend and the other princesses to try and recruit him. Meanwhile, she and a few other wolves would do their best to slow down whatever Prime and his goons were trying to accomplish here. 

As Marlena looked up to get a sense of the drone presence, she couldn’t help but stare at the stars. A few days ago, Melog had woken up half the camp excitedly yelling that “She-Ra was back” and they “felt the sacred bond again.” She just thought it must have been something in the stew that night. After all, she had her own weird dream where she could have sworn she heard Mara call her dork. 

But maybe there was something to it. Melog was connected to Catra. Maybe their team had succeeded. Maybe they would be home soon. Micah could finally see his daughter again.

She sighed. And maybe this farseer could help me find mine. She thought. There had been no sign of her in the Whispering Woods, in the Meadowlands, or the Fright Zone. The Crimson Waste was still an option, but she would be hunting for a needle in a haystack out there. 

“Stay safe out there, comet. Wherever you are,” she said quietly. “I won’t stop looking.”

Adora would have been happy to just rip the chip straight out of her neck and toss it in the same incinerator as those robes, but Entrapta managed to talk her out of it. Apparently, it wasn’t enough for Prime to use the damn thing to hack her brain, oh no. Obviously, he had to design it to fuse with her central nervous system too. 

Considering that she was attempting pseudo-brain surgery on a hyper-advanced piece of alien mind control technology with whatever spare parts she had lying around, it hadn’t taken Entrapta long to devise a surgery plan. But those hours still felt like an eternity.

The waiting was made worse by Catra being weird. Adora chided herself for showing so much weakness in front of her. It had clearly made her uncomfortable. If she had just pulled herself together and waited to have her breakdown in private like a good Horde soldier, maybe Catra wouldn’t be avoiding her. The most she had seen of her since she woke up was when she rushed in to pull Entrapta away during the exam. Probably some emergency ship trouble or something.

At least one of the previous occupants of this ship had been about Adora’s size. Glimmer had found enough pieces to make a functioning outfit. A pair of gray leggings, made from a durable synthetic material, a soft white shirt made of something more natural and breathable, and a red jacket, tightly woven from silky wool. The jacket was definitely Etherian in origin.

Getting out of the robes had been difficult. The fabric had clung to her like a second skin. She was sure there was some hidden zipper or clasp somewhere, but she had no memory of putting it on in the first place. She had stepped into the pool wearing her own clothes. 

Eventually, Entrapta just lent her a scalpel. After she carefully made a few large cuts, she was able to rip the rest off with her bare hands. It felt good to be free of it and in normal clothes again, but part of her couldn’t help but how much more satisfying it would have been if Catra had sliced it off with her claws and— 

“Blood is rushing to your extremities,” Entrapta suddenly observed, derailing that train of thought before it go elsewhere. “Are you having a negative reaction to the procedure?”

“No,” she squeaked awkwardly. “I’m just blushing because I was thinking about . . . space.”

“Oh. That’s understandable.” She flinched as Entrapta pulled on another wire. “Just a few more and it should be safe to disconnect,” she explained as she worked. “Fortunately, I was correct in my initial assessment. The direct punctures into your skin are miniscule, so there’s not going to be any long term physical damage.” She clipped another wire. “Unfortunately, I believe it will leave a permanent mark. Substantial scar tissue has built up around the edges. It was snug against your skin, so I’m not sure how that happened.”

A green haze flashed before Adora’s eyes. For a second, she could have sworn she heard chanting. 

“After he chipped me,” Adora explained. “Prime forced me into this weird pool. It kept me alive while he . . .” She trailed off. “He called it Purification. It’s how he turned me into that puppet. He does the same thing to his brothers when they step out of line.”

The feeling of wires getting tugged out of her neck suddenly stopped as Entrapta’s hands fell to her side. “All his brothers?” She asked quietly. “He put Hordak through this purification as well?”

Adora’s stomach sank. Right. She remembered. Entrapta and Hordak are . . . lab partners. She, along with the rest of the Horde, never really understood what was going on between those two. Adora had just been happy to have clearer instructions about Hordak’s weird tech-centric missions back when she was Second-in-Command, so she never probed too deeply. It seemed like a personal matter anyway. 

“He went through it twice,” she admitted. “The first time right after we arrived. The second when his personality started coming back.” She gripped the side of the bed. “Prime made me watch that time.”

Entrapta was silent for a few moments. Adora couldn’t bear to turn back and look at her. Finally, she took out a tape recorder. “Update to Main Priorities List,” she said. “New Highest Priority: Develop and Prefect means of eliminating a single controlling consciousness within a hivemind,” she paused before adding, “painfully.”

“I’m sorry,” Adora said. “It was all my fault. If I hadn’t talked to him or called him Hordak, Prime wouldn’t have—”

“You’re doing it again,” Entrapta interrupted.

Adora winced. “Doing what?” She asked. 

“Blaming yourself for the harm caused by others because you believe you failed to stop them,” the scientist elaborated. “According to my observations, you do it frequently. The portal, me getting sent to Beast Island, a lot of things Shadow Weaver did, the list goes on.” 

She started working on the chip again. “It’s an illogical thought pattern that’s clearly been causing you significant emotional distress. I don’t want to contribute to it, so I would appreciate it if you did not blame yourself for what Greylock did to me or what Prime did to Hordak.”

Adora’s voice caught in her throat. Her mind went blank for a second, like an overwhelmed terminal trying to parse a sudden spike of data. What Entrapta had just said made her brain grind to a halt, aware of the words’ significance but terrified to really examine them. Still, as her brain slowly restarted, things seemed clearer. Like she had been handed the map to the maze she had been racing around. 

When she was finally able to speak again, Adora cleared her throat. “I’ll try not to,” she said. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied cheerfully. 

The door slid open, revealing Catra standing behind it, hand raised as if she was about to knock. She looked embarrassed. “I was just heading over to the kitchen to do inventory,” she lied quickly. “Didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll come back when you’re done.”

“Wait!” Adora called out as Catra started to walk away. “Please, stay,” she asked. 

Catra looked surprised, but she walked in anyway, taking a seat next to Adora on the bed. “Still need your Acclimation Buddy to get through check ups, eh?” She asked wryly. 

“Something like that,” Adora admitted. “Plus, if something goes wrong, it might be nice to have She-Ra on hand.”

Catra shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, no,” she responded. “She-Ra and I are having some problems right now. It’s a bit of a long story.” 

She proceeded to get Adora up to speed on everything (well, everything excluding her mother) as Entrapta continued her work. As much as the scientist would have preferred to work in silence, she had to admit Adora’s flinching decreased significantly following Catra’s arrival.

“And then, woosh,” she concluded with a hand flourish. “Suddenly, I was She-Ra again. I think it was just leftover magic, but Sparkles thinks I can do it again.”

Adora started to nod, but stopped herself as Entrapta snipped another wire. “Have you tried?” She asked. “Maybe you still have a connection.”

Catra shrugged. “I don’t exactly want to recreate the circumstances,” she snarked. “Beyond that, I don’t know where to start. Whenever I’ve done magic before, I’ve been channeling power from something else, even back when we were kids. This just came out of me.”

Adora hummed slightly. “Do you remember when I finally got control of my wolf form?” She asked. “Not the full moon one, the normal one.” 

Catra nodded. “How could I forget?” She joked. “You shifted back and forth so many times to show off, I thought you would get stuck with a tail.”

Adora giggled at the memory. “It wasn’t any one specific thing that let me get the hang of it,” she explained. “The magic built up inside of me, and I had to focus it. I tried breathing exercises, tensing different muscles, but it didn’t really click until I started treating it like a feeling. Something that was a part of me, but also a different me.” 

Catra looked puzzled. “This is why I never tried to explain it before,” she continued. “I’m not very good at it. But what you described – the warmth and everything – sounds a bit like what I feel when I transform.” She put a hand on her leg. “Maybe She-Ra is inside you like the wolf is inside me. You just need to concentrate on the feeling that brought her out last time. Whatever it was.”

The Magicat glanced away quickly. “It was a powerful feeling,” she said, her voice carrying a weird inflection that Adora couldn’t place. “I’ll try that though. Thanks for the advice.” She turned back to look at her friend. “But if I turn into a giant werecat instead of She-Ra, I’m blaming you.”

As Adora began to laugh, Entrapta finally yanked the chip free. “Success,” she cried. It weighed a few ounces at most, but Adora’s neck felt at least ten pounds lighter. “Catra, with your medic training, I suspect you can administer post-op antiseptic and bandaging. I’ll defer that task to you so you can have that private talk with Adora about the classified subject matter you told me not to disclose.”

Catra made a horrified squeak as Entrapta rushed out of the room. She hung her head. “That was just . . . the worst way she could have phrased that,” she grumbled. 

Adora raised an eyebrow. “A private, classified conversation, huh?” She said. 

Catra sighed and reached for the disinfectant. She scanned Adora’s face quickly before making up her mind. “You remember the wolf you fought in Plumeria when the rest of the squad was doing wilderness training?” She said, dabbing the liquid on a clean cloth. “Shadow Weaver made me help with her interrogation. She had no idea how young you were. She thought you were just some Cult of the Claw jerk we recruited. They had wiped out her village.”

Adora winced as she applied the wet cloth to her neck, from guilt as much as the sting. Another good Etherian whose only crime was trying to stop her rampage. “She sent her to Beast Island,” Catra continued. “But she survived. We brought her back along with Micah and Entrapta. She’s been helping the Rebellion ever since.”

“That’s good,” Adora said, suspiciously. “Why did you tell Entrapta not to talk about this? If you think it will be awkward to work with someone I fought before, that’s gonna apply to everyone in the Rebellion, not just that one wolf.” She paused for a second. "Unless she's 'kill me on sight' angry, which I guess makes sense--"

“No," Catra interrupted. "She's really eager to meet you, but not in a murdery way. Right before she sent her to Beast Island, Shadow Weaver twisted the knife,” Catra continued as she applied a waterproof bandage over the spot the chip once was. “She thought she was the only survivor from her village, but it turned out her daughter was still alive. Only the Horde had found her first.”

Even as her mind started to put the pieces together, Adora pushed down the thought. “Is it someone we know?” She asked nervously. “Does she want our help tracking her down?”

Catra gripped her shoulders tightly, steadying her. “Adora,” she said, firmly but softly. “She’s your mother.”

Adora had a limited range of responses to bad news. She refused to talk about what was bothering her and found something to punch her feelings out on instead. After wandering the corridors of Darla for an hour, she hadn’t found anything punching bag shaped, but she wasn’t even sure she needed one. This was good news, wasn’t it?

Catra had been quick to cut off her first few trains of thoughts. Her mom hadn’t known it was her. She didn’t blame her for getting her sent to Beast Island. She wasn’t ashamed that she worked for the Horde. In fact, she had been searching for her since the invasion started. 

Her mom wanted to see her again. Her mom. Who is alive. Her mom. The alive one. That was going to take some getting used to.

When wandering around the ship didn’t do anything to help her resolve her feelings, Adora fell back on an old standby: being productive. That’s how she found herself helping Glimmer turn the thousand-year old rations the First Ones left behind into something edible. “Say what you want about the whole ‘nearly destroyed the universe with their superweapon’ thing,” Adora said as Wrong Hordak passed them another barrel of flour. “But the First Ones were pretty solid when it came to food preservation.”

Glimmer smiled. “If rehydrating the vegetables goes well, I think our first Apology Dinner will be a success,” she agreed. She paused for a second before continuing. “How are you holding up?” She asked. 

“It still doesn’t feel real,” she admitted to Glimmer while they assembled dumpling dough in the kitchen. “Not everything on the ship,” she clarified, gesturing to Wrong Hordak as he awkwardly chopped some carrots. “I know this is real. But, my mom. I mean, she’s been alive this whole time. All those near misses.”

The queen nodded as she folded a dumpling closed. “Have you thought about how you want to handle the reunion?” She asked. 

“I don’t know,” she answered. “Every time I try to think about it, I can’t even decide how to feel. My brain just runs around in circles. She’s back, and that’s great, but also I’m the reason she was gone, so that’s bad.” She huffed. “And Catra says she doesn’t blame me, but what if she changes her mind as soon as she sees me again and thinks ‘Oh yeah, that’s the jerk who mauled me!’” 

She pounded her fist into the ball of dough. “Anyway, what were you planning on saying to your dad?”

Glimmer shrugged. “I was thinking open with a hug and wing it from there,” she said, unsure. “We have to find a way past that blockade first.”

Adora sighed. “Entrapta and Bow were talking about something earlier,” she said. “But even if we get past that, we still need to find a way to take out Prime once and for all.” Her hands dropped to her sides. “I was literally hooked into the hive mind, and I didn’t retain anything useful. I can tell you the exact number of fighter drones dispatched to deal with a shipping error on a desert planet last week. Or the gage for every screw on a X-89 Freighter. But I can’t tell you anything that might be actually helpful in taking down Horde Prime.”

“That’s right, brother,” Wrong Hordak chirped. “We do not talk about Horde Prime’s weakness.”

Both women froze and turned to the clone as he obliviously continued humming and working. 

“Right, brother” Adora said. “Say, could you remind me what that weakness we don’t talk about is?”

Wrong Hordak was pacing furiously. “Big Brother knows all and he does not lie to us,” he said. “Big Brother said this planet does not exist, but it exists.” He gripped his temples. “But if he said it does not exist, then he must have been telling the truth. But he knows all. But–” 

Entrapta pulled out a recorder. “Experiment H-11, Hour 35. Subject appears to be at the threshold of questioning Controlling Consciousness’ omnipotence and/or benevolence,” she said. “Implications for additional projects: Positive.”

“Yeah, we’ll just leave you two up here,” Catra suggested as she adjusted her space helmet. 

Adora gasped behind her. Catra turned around. “Your helmet,” she said. “It had little ears.”

“They’re so cute!” Bow said.

“Ok, if we’re going to be doing more missions together, you two need to keep the cute comments to a minimum,” Catra declared as they entered the tunnels. 

“You make that very difficult,” Glimmer observed with a smirk. Catra responded with a crude gesture. “I’m sure they won’t get too many opportunities. We’ll find whatever weapon these guys used to send Prime running in no time.”

After three hours of wandering the weird, maze-like compounds of Krytis, Glimmer appreciated just how wrong she was. Fortunately for her, with the weird alien stalking them, Catra hadn’t gotten the chance to point that out.

“Ok, we have definitely been down this hallway already,” Adora observed when they came to a stop. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“Entrapta,” Catra shouted into her radio. “Have we made any progress?”

“Substantial progress!” She replied excitedly. “Listen!”

“Brothers!” Wrong Hordak’s voice crackled out of the radio. “ Horde Prime is a false leader. We must spread the news across the universe and free those he holds in spiritual bondage.”

“I meant have the four of us gotten any closer to the target,” Catra responded through gritted teeth.

“No, you don’t appear to have moved at all,” Entrapta said. “But there is a strong magical presence close to your current location.”

“Good. Can you give us some directions?” Catra asked.

“It should be right behind you,” Entrapta replied.

The four looked at each other and then turned around. A seven-foot tall, glowing white ghost was looming over them. They screamed and jumped back. It slipped away into the walls.

“That’s it!” Adora yelled furiously. “I’m going in.” Before anyone could stop her, Adora transformed into her wolf form and sprinted after the creature. 

“Adora, wait!” Bow called after her. “We can’t just split up. It’s not how we do things!”

“It wouldn’t be the first time we did that,” Glimmer said. “Actually, we do that all the time.”

“Adora doesn’t know that!” “Adding a new member to the Best Friends Squad is the perfect chance for a reset on some of those habits.”

Their voices faded as she ran through the caverns. As a wolf her senses were much sharper. She could tell with ease which walls were illusions and follow the scent of this strange being that had been taunting them. Soon, she found herself in a massive cave coated in shiny, gray crystals. The fine sand covering the ground muffled her footsteps.

The alien stopped in the center of the sands and turned to face her. It turned its head curiously. Then, it shrank and took on a new appearance - a spectral white wolf with iridescent fur. The colors of its undercoat seemed to shift as the light hit each hair. Its tail was even more colorful, practically a rainbow. The edges of its silhouette seemed less frayed, more solid. Deep down, she could sense that this was how the other creature preferred to appear. It’s true form.

The alien tilted its head to the side curiously. Who are you? It didn’t move its mouth, but a voice floated through the air. Adora startled and looked around. Where were you hiding?

I’m Adora. She managed to think back to the alien. And I wasn’t hiding, I was looking for you. I just got on this planet.

The alien wilted. Oh. Sorry. His tail sank between its legs. So I am the last one. 

Adora walked closer, cautiously . What do you mean ‘the last one?’ She asked. Is there no one else in this . . . She struggled to find the right word for the strange collection of ruins. . . City?

No. The other wolf thought back glumly. And there’s no one else on this planet either. A long time ago, a bunch of scary aliens came - The Magic Stealers. They built all these weird machines to leech off our home. We fought back. To rally the other wolves to resist and harness the swift winds of revolution – that’s what I named myself after, Swift Wind! – to blow down the forces of oppression. Before we could chase them off, the One Who Destroys found them. There was a big fight. In the end, they all left and I . . . everyone else . . . 

The alien glanced around at the crumbling ruins surrounding them. Then, he sank down and curled up into a ball, softly whimpering.

Adora walked over and nuzzled the top of his head, hoping to comfort the other creature. He seemed to appreciate the gesture. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I know a thing or two about losing your home , she said. And a lot about being alone .

He perked up. Wait! You’re not Kyrtan , but you’re still like me. He said, bouncing back to his feet. I didn’t think there were wolves on other planets! Did any of them come with you?

I didn’t come here alone, she responded. But the others from my planet aren’t wolves like me. 

Do you mean the Invaders? He growled. A bunch of weird aliens have been snooping around here. I could smell The One who Destroys all over them. Did he destroy your planet too? Did they follow you here?

No, I — Well, Adora found it hard to stay concise while speaking this way. Horde Prime is trying to destroy Etheria, but he hasn’t yet. And the other aliens you saw are—

Bad guys. He mentally interrupted. You want help fighting them? That’s why you were looking for me! You want to be packmates! His tail started wagging furiously. I haven’t had a pack in so long! This is so exciting! We’re gonna go back to your planet, save it, and be the best pack ever! 

As he trotted happily around his bewildered new packmate, footsteps began to echo through the cavern. A very haggard Best Friends Squad sprinted into view. They froze when Swift Wind snapped his head towards them and barked. 

The Invaders! That’s them. The alien wolf barked again and stepped between Adora and the others. Don’t worry, new packmate. I’ll protect you. 

As Catra looked ready to pounce, Adora quickly shifted back to her normal self and put a hand on his back. “It’s ok!” She said quickly. “He doesn’t want to hurt us.”

You can shapeshift too? The alien exclaimed. 

“Sort of,” Adora answered out loud. “I just have two forms though. Well, two and a half depending on how you count it.” 

And you’re using this form to trick them so they get distracted and I can flank them! He said. Great thinking, packmate!

“No, no, no. No attacking necessary.” She gestured at the rest of the Best Friends Squad. “We aren’t with the Horde. We just escaped from Prime’s flagship. That’s what you were sensing on us.” 

The alien looked between them slowly before backing down. Ok, they’re not Bad Guys. He admitted. But their magic feels different than yours. Can they sort-of shapeshift too?

“I mean, Catra can too,” Adora answered. “But she doesn’t turn into a wolf. It’s just her but taller and shiny.”

“You can understand them?” Bow asked.

“You can’t?” Adora asked back. 

Catra kept her claws out, but started blinking rapidly as Adora continued the conversation with the strange creature. She turned to the others, but they were just as confused as her. 

Wait! The spectral alien’s eyes lit up. Are they your pack? He asked in an awed voice. 

Adora opened her mouth to deny that, but then stopped. Catra, Bow, Glimmer, and Entrapta had just faced certain death to save her. Bow had been eager to reach out to her since that first mission in the Crimson Wastes. Entrapta had been her friend even when she was at her worst in the Horde. Being stuck on the Velvet Glove for months with Glimmer had been one hell of a bonding experience. And Catra was . . . Catra.

If that wasn’t a pack, then what was? She felt her eyes start misting over. After a pause, she cleared her throat to keep the scratchiness from being too noticeable. “Yeah,” she answered. “I guess I do.”

If you already have a pack, then that means . . . I have More Packmates! He rushed towards them and started jumping excitedly. So many packmates!

“So, Spooky Alien Shapeshifter Man is just a big puppy?” Catra summarized as she ducked his attempt to lick her. The alien barked happily as he frolicked around them. “And you can speak Kyrtan now?”

“He’s not really speaking,” she explained. “And it’s more like he’s thinking at me, and I’m hearing his voice in my head. And, his name is Swift Wind.” At the sound of his name, the alien sprinted back towards her, pressing his head into her chest. “I think he just adopted me.”

Chapter Text

The stars shone down on a frigid desert night. 

From the circling First Ones satellites above, the Crimson Waste appeared as dark as the still oceans of Etheria. All except for a single dazzling sight - the City of Halfmoon. A brilliant circle of light and culture amid the barren bronze sands, like the runestone that sat in the hilt of She-Ra’s sword.

A hundred square miles of densely packed palaces and apartment blocks, theaters and dancing halls, open air bizares and underground black markets, universities and coffee-houses. Well over ten million souls lived within its gargantuan walls. Spices and music and conversation filled the air all hours of the day and night. 

But from above, one couldn’t see the City’s greatest asset. The tunnels. Queen Cyra knew them well. She had spent many years making good use of them in the Waste as a no name thief hiding from random thugs looking to scare off the kit who was stealing from their caravans and highly trained mercenaries that the Usurper had promised to pay the weight of her head in gold to whomever captured her. 

In her first year in the run, a bandit actually came close to securing that bounty, but she was so scrawny and underfed that they decided her head wouldn’t weigh enough for the gold to be worth the hassle of keeping her from escaping on the way back to Halfmoon.

Nice lady. Learned a lot about net throwing and pit traps from her.

Even now, as the First Ones’ Armada had begun to map out the invisible roads beneath the desert sand with sonographic satellites, she was confident they would never be able to navigate them as confidently as she could.

In any event, they couldn’t learn fast enough to stop her.

Hidden among the miles of winding tunnels were hundreds of caverns. Some with openings to the surface, most completely cutoff from the world above. While some of the ones near Halfmoon were lit with glowing crystals, the further away from the heart of the Magicat universe you went, the fainter the glow became. Until eventually, whatever creatures called them home went generations without seeing a photon of sunlight.

Many of the caves were only large enough to hold a few crates of supplies. Maybe a sickbed or two for wounded fighters. But Cyra knew of a few that were perfect for the Rebels had planned. And for all their faults, the First Ones knew how to rig an electrical system.

For all the artificial light, it was a remarkably homey secret underground base.  The walls of the cavern were lined with tents— a multicolored patchwork of standard Armada-issue shelters, caravan tents, and even a few hammocks. At least a hundred Rebel fighters from all corners of Etheria were hiding out there, and three times that many could if the need arose. The cavern was like a miniature town. A glimpse into what Etheria could be without Horde Prime or the Armada looming overhead.

In the center of the cavern, a First Ones vessel was dwarfed by the massive walls enclosing it. Walls thin enough for it to burst through when the time was right. A scattering of Rebels from all backgrounds busied themselves retrofitting it for a very specific task. 

“Top Brass suspects something is going on,” Cyra said to the wolf working next to her. “But they can’t prove anything, and they’re too worried about losing She-Ra’s support to press me any harder.” She opened a panel on the side wall and started removing corroded wires. “Still, smuggling supplies out here might get tricky if they increase their presence in Halfmoon.”

She had seen through the goons’ bluster the moment they arrived - saw through their claims of needing to provide additional security in the wake of the current crisis. The Inquisitors hovering around the palace weren’t there to protect her from the Dianans - they were there to catch her in the act of aiding them and uncover their new hiding place after they ripped the location of the old one out of some prisoner’s head.

“I checked in with Light Hope this morning,” Mara said. “Greylock is pressing the higher ups for emergency authority. He already got the engineers to muck around with the Moonstone to try and keep Serenia on side. Hope’s doing what she can to slow their progress, but if you ask me, he wants to move up the timeline on firing the Heart.”

The others working on the ship glanced over at them nervously. Cyra tensed but quickly pushed down her dread. They don’t want to see you worried. She told herself. You lost that right when you picked up the Sword. So, she threw on her best cocky grin. “We’ll have this bird ready to fly before those bureaucrats can finish putting their boots on,” she said. “Glad to hear your girlfriend is doing all right.”

Mara blushed. “We’ve been over this already,” she complained. “I told you; it’s just a rumor. Light Hope and I are just friends. We respect each other as partners and work colleagues.”

The scent of kebabs, well-coated in curry spice and pepper, roasting on the open pits near the tunnel exit drifted by. The natural air currents, boosted by some First Ones engineering for artificial ventilation, carried most of the smoke out through the tunnels and up to the surface. 

“You certainly said a lot of words last time I asked,” Cyra replied. “But none of them were ‘No, I am not dating a robot,’ so you can see why I’m still curious.”

The other workers visibly relaxed at the sight of their leaders bantering like old friends. Mission accomplished. Cyra thought to herself .

Mara responded by curling half the fingers on her left hand together and pointing her pinky and ring finger to the sky. Cyra laughed. “I was wondering how First Ones flipped each other off,” she cackled. “I’ll have to remember that one the next time I see that General Greylock punk.” 

Her smile faded slightly and she got back to work. “Speaking of Greylock,” she said in a lower voice. “Any sign of them?”

Mara sighed. “No,” she answered, fiddling with the wiring. “We know the Armada was sniffing around our old base, so they were definitely interrogated.” She yanked at a tangled cluster of wires she was snapping Greylock’s neck. “The only intel we could get said they were still alive, but the Armada is good at making people disappear.”

“Once they put dissidents into cryostasis, they can keep them anywhere. No need for food, water, guards, or even walls. Just a building to keep the pods in.” She put down the wires as her hands started shaking. “Who knows how many ghost prisons they’re running on Etheria?”

Cyra walked over and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll find them,” she promised. “Bast knows, we’ll have plenty of time to look once we get this ship ready.”

“I sent them on that mission,” Mara whispered. “Marlena’s not a soldier – she’s a nerd! — but I still sent her to get that source code. I should have known the Failsafe was too good to be true. I should have known it was a trap, but I wanted an easy end to this so badly . . . .” 

“You were trying to protect Etheria,” Cyra reassured her. “So were they. If I had listened to you earlier, you never would have had to make that call in the first place. Once we get this ship ready, Etheria will be safe from Prime, and the universe will be safe from the Heart. Then, we’ll make sure whatever the Armada put them through is worth it.”

Mara took a deep breath, then got back to work, pausing only to glance back at her friend. “I still have to make it right to them,” she said, a grim determined look settling on her face. “Whatever it takes.”

The vision ended with a disorienting flash. Catra gasped and suddenly found herself back on the floor of Darla’s control room. She jerked back, but managed to stay upright. Sitting across from her was Adora, watching her intently. Swift Wind was curled up beside her. A rainbow spectrum of colors in its iridescent undercoat pulsed softly as he softly snored.

“You’re getting closer,” she said excitedly. “I could have sworn you were glowing for a second there. Did you feel anything?”

Catra huffed. “I saw Cyra again,” she explained. “First time that’s happened since I broke the sword, but I couldn’t maintain it.” Outside, the stars drifted by the windows as the ship continued on its course back to Etheria. They had left Kyrtis a few days ago and were now twenty-four hours away from their destination and, if Adora and Wrong Hordak had it right, a massive blockade surrounding the whole planet. 

“That’s still progress,” Adora reassured her. “Did you learn anything useful about how she fought the Horde?”

“This ship was part of some backup plan Mara and Cyra had to fight the First Ones,” she explained. “It might have something to do with how Etheria ended up in Despondos. Beyond that, I wouldn’t exactly call learning about Light Hope’s love life useful.”

Adora nodded. “She’s that hologram lady from the Crystal Castle right?” She asked, confused. 

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “She was still with the good guys back then. I wonder what changed.”

Adora shrugged and scratched at the sleeping wolf’s ears. “Who knows? I think Bow is the only one on this ship who hasn’t switched sides at least once. His shift in the command chair is starting soon, so you should be able to ask him.”

Catra rolled his eyes. “Unless he’s too occupied at the moment,” she snarked. “‘Thanks for letting me crash with you last night. The shared bunk room was getting a little awkward.”

Swift Wind yawned and stretched as he woke up. He wagged his tail when he saw Catra and barked happily. Whatever he said made Adora start turning red. She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. Flinching at the feel of the scar.

“Yeah, it’s no big deal,” she said. “It reminded me of the good old days. Or the old days with some good parts, I guess. Or that time I sorta kidnapped you.” Swift Wind insistently tapped her on the shoulder with his muzzle, Adora aggressively tried not to notice. “Hey! We’re even on an old First Ones ship!”

Catra laughed. “Yeah. Stars we’re predictable sometimes. If we do something together we always end up doing it again at least twice.” 

Swift Wind gave up on whatever he was trying to accomplish by head butting Adora and trotted over to the window. 

“I like what you’ve done with the den by the way,” Catra said. “Still think it could use some extra rugs.”

“You made time for a visit while the planet was under siege?” Adora asked. “I know better than most how important morale is in a war, but there must have been other places with salmon jerky and canned tomatoes?”

“I mean, those were a big morale boost,” Catra replied. “But we really just found it by accident. I vibed with the Whispering Woods to find a spot where Horde Prime couldn’t find us. Turns out you picked the hardest spot to find on the planet.”

Adora’s eyes widened. “No kidding,” she said. “So everyone from the Rebellion is just camping out there right now. That’s . . . that’s cool, I guess.”

Catra stood up with a stretch. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I left strict orders for no one to mess with your stuff. Except for the food, but like you said. Morale.”

At the time, Catra had also hoped that a combination of good smelling food and people going through her supplies would draw Adora out from wherever she was hiding, but she kept that detail to herself. 

“And besides,” she continued. “Lena was adamant about keeping your pantry organization intact.”

Adora nodded. “I’ll have to remember to thank her for that,” she said thoughtfully. “Honestly, that pantry might be the best first impression I could hope for.”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. You two dorks will be fine. Speaking of food though,” she said. “I’ll go see what we have left for whatever meal we have next. Breakfast, right?”

“You’ve said that about the last three meals,” Adora teased. “I can teach you to make more than pancakes.”

“Or we could just have pancakes! Don’t fix what ain’t broke.” She turned to go. “Call me if Bow doesn’t show up in time for his shift. I’ll see if Entrapta can turn the emergency sprinklers on in the lovebirds’ room.”

“I will,” Adora lied. 

Bow eventually made it down to the bridge for his shift on watch. He apologized profusely, blamed his alarm clock, and offered to cover her next shift. Adora assured him that she didn’t mind. Time on watch was a good chance to clear her head and get to figure out the psychic alien wolf who adopted her.

Plus, after what they’d been through, she didn’t begrudge Glimmer some personal time with her boyfriend.

Back during the old Rebellion, it had always been too dangerous to travel in the open on full moons. The Whispering Woods distorted the Armada’s satellite monitoring network, but beyond its canopy, the Dianans usually only had an hour before a swarm of destroyer squadrons swarmed their position. They had to plan all their assaults and sabotages around that fact. 

Now, the New Rebellion had to make the same calculation, and the Galactic Horde had gotten that response time down to five minutes. She’d counted. 

So where were they? Marlena asked herself as she sprinted across the meadows. The full moon hanging overhead illuminated the twin peaks of the Scorpion Crater in the distance. The wolf skidded to a stop and looked back at the Whispering Woods behind her. Moonlight caught the smoke rising from the Horde base miles away – the Horde base she and the Brightmoon Hunters had just finished ripping apart. 

The teleportation charm hummed against her chest. She reached a massive paw to her neck and found that the leather cord was undamaged. She could keep running without risk that her escape plan would fall into the grass. At the height of the raid, they had scattered into the safety of the woods. They did enough damage to set back the Horde’s excavation, but left before they could put up a real resistance. No casualties. Thoroughly pragmatic. 

While the rest stuck to the Woods, Marlena had run out into the open. She was supposed to draw the Horde away from them, then use Micah’s charm to teleport back to base camp once they had her cornered. 

The plan had gone off without a hitch. The only problem was, the Horde hadn’t taken the bait. 

Marlena scanned the distant treeline more closely. She looked for distortions against the smoke and starlight, anything to indicate a cloaked drone, but the telltale patterns were nowhere to be found. But then, the wolf noticed something else. There weren’t any ships in the Etherian atmosphere. The sky was the clearest it had been since the start of the invasion. 

Farther out, she could still see the distinctive sickly green lights and sharp lines of the cruisers and battleships, but the only Horde ships in the sky were at orbital distance. Curiously, the wolf scanned the sky. The ships were arranged evenly in a pattern stretching back to the horizon. The image felt familiar. A blockade! She realized suddenly. 

Her own peoples’ ships had once made similar patterns in the sky to protect their final weapon, but the First Ones had to contend with rivals from beyond Etheria. So far, there was no sign that this Horde had anything that could oppose it among the stars. Prime wouldn’t suddenly withdraw ships from lower atmosphere patrols unless that had changed. 

Or unless the mission was a success. Unless Catra and the others had pulled it off - saved their friend from the heart of Prime’s empire - and were speeding back home right that moment. Maybe that was it? 

As much as she hoped the kid had managed to pull off the impossible and save Micah’s daughter, another part of her hoped that they were still making their plans. Or that if they had executed their rescue plan, they did it with help. That by some miracle they had found an army to stand up to the Galactic Horde.

Marlena finally spotted a few scouting drones moving towards her position. She welcomed the excuse to get a good run in while she thought through the implications of this development.

She knew her hope that the kids had found allies wasn’t completely unfounded. After all, she knew first hand that there were still people out there that the Horde hadn’t crushed.

It just had to be a small portal, thin enough to thread a message through and open just long enough to receive a reply. Marlena had managed to pull off the same trick before when the Armada restricted the planet’s portal access during the Rebellion, but back then she had the other Dianans and a backdoor to the network from Light Hope to help. 

“Which one needs insulating?” Randor asked, arranging the tangle of wires on the floor through a concrete pipe. 

“The main thalmo-conductor,” she answered. “The electron redirectors are lower priority, but the cyro-stable coolants should be distributed throughout the outer shell to reduce the chance of burnout.” Her husband stared blankly at her for a moment. “Red wire in the middle, then yellow, then blue,” she clarified. 

“One electro-magic burrito coming up, doc,” he smirked. He turned back to his work, swiftly detangling and threading the wires with ease. “We don’t have to do this tonight if you’re too nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” Marlena countered.

“You forget to translate the technobabble when you’re nervous,” he said. Randor finished his task and walked over to her, placing an arm around her shoulder. Even after helping her in the lab all night, he still smelled like their kitchen— woodsmoke and spices. 

“Unless you were just trying not to get me panicked earlier, from what you said even if we aren’t in this ‘Despondos’ place, Greyskull isn’t going anywhere,” he reassured her. “And I know you were telling the truth because I deal with panic excellently. The last three house fires should have taught you that.”

Marlena huffed at that. “Whatever the jerks did with your machine after they froze you isn’t your fault,” Randor said after a pause, his voice more sincere.

She leaned into his touch. “Isn’t it?” She asked. “I knew I was building a weapon. I gave it to them.” She grimaced. “It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see what the Armada had become - and I was a rocket scientist! I just didn’t want to see it. I ignored it until it was right in front of my face.”

“And as soon as you found out what they were planning, you risked everything to stop them,” he added.

Randor gently took her hand in his. “I know what that kind of guilt feels like,” he said. “I helped prepare dozens of raids for the Cult before I saw one up close.” 

Randor paused for a bit too long. She squeezed his hand to help ground him. “But, he continued. “We both got away from the people who made us like that. We both chose to be better. For ourselves. For this town. For her.”

Marlena stood still for a long time. “I have to know if the universe is still out there,” she said at last. “If it isn’t then . . . I know I can live with that for her, but if it is. If Mara and the Dianans succeeded in saving everyone from my mistake . . . I want the universe to know their names. They deserve that.”

Randor smiled. “I knew I couldn’t talk you out of it,” he said ruefully. “Can’t blame me for trying though.” No matter what you find, I’ll be right here for you.”

She turned into him and fully embraced him. For a few seconds, to each other, they were the only people in the universe.

“Thank you,” was all Marlena finally managed to say. 

“Well, I know you just married me to have a personal chef,” he joked, “but I can be insightful when I want to.”

“I didn’t marry you because you were a good cook,” Marlena countered, pushing away a few inches. “That just got you a second date.”

“Right,” he teased. “You married me to get a lab assistant.” She took his hand. “Well, what do you say, doc? Ready to light this candle?”

She squeezed his hand three times. “Let’s do it.”

After she flipped the master switch, there was a moment of nothing. Then, the whole building shook. Not like an earthquake. Nothing dramatic. A shiver, not a seizure. Lasting only a split second.

In fact, that was what it was. A split second. When she flipped that switch, the machine strained time. At the Engineering Academy, she attended a lecture where several professors debated their theories on portal mechanics. The First Ones had embraced and implemented the technology, but it was still a black box. They knew it worked, but they didn’t precisely know how.

The most popular theory held that portals physically folded space to allow for two distant points to occupy the same space. Others insisted that space wasn’t touched at all. Instead, time warped, allowing for impossible glitches in reality. One of them even suggested that alternate universes collided, overlapping briefly to support each other and prevent a total chronological collapse.

Regardless of which theory explained it, the effect was the same. When a portal opened, its energy rippled through the fourth dimension.

It literally split the second. 

Marlena struggled to imagine what temporal effects opening a portal to Despondos would have had on Etheria a thousand years ago. She vaguely recalled one the more eccentric professors throwing out hypotheticals involving alternate reality collisions and complete reality dissolution.

The effects of her experiment settled after a moment. The larger the portal, the larger the effect. She could only imagine what a portal large enough to shift Etheria into Despondos would have done. 

She had mostly gone to the lecture because the flyers had promised free pizza afterwards, but still, part of her was glad she rode that out in cryosleep.

If we really are in the Best Case Scenario, that is. If the sky is empty because Mara and the other Rebels sent Etheria to Despondos. And not because Horde Prime managed to enclose every star into a Dyson Sphere to power his conquest; or because the Armada found a way to use the weapon she forged from Etheria to silence every imagined threat to its dominance.

She leaned into the makeshift microphone she and Randor managed to set up. “This is Marlena of the Dianan Rebellion,” she said, with a voice that only slightly wavered. “I am calling out from the Village of Greyskull, Planet: Etheria. If you can receive this transmission, respond.” She paused before adding “ Ad Astra per Aspera .” If the Armada had tainted the traditional sign off of the First Ones, she would have to reclaim it.

For the first agonizing minutes, silence was all they got. 

Then, the single white dot rippled. The sound of static and clanging came through first. “Ye— hol—“ a distorted voice came through. “Yes! Yes! Got it!” The voice came through clearly. “Did you say Etheria?!”

Marlena fought back tears. “Yes! Yes, I did.” Thank the stars! There’s still a universe out there! “Where are you receiving from? Eternia or—“

“I don’t have much time,” the voice interrupted. Static broke in again. “If you’re on Etheria then you can help her.”

“Help who!?” Randor answered.

“Do you know someone in the black sites?” Marlena managed to ask. The machine powering the portal was already starting to spark. It had been a long, long time, but she knew some species with long lives. And any First Ones left would have long memories. “We know how to get them out of cryostasis safely.”

“Please!” The voice begged. “Ca— not safe. Some old First Ones—--… ——… ——…a weapon! Hord—“ There was a long string of static before the final frantic syllables. “Tell her I’m sorry I couldn’t protect her.”

With that, the portal blinked out. Along with most of the lights in Greyskull that were still on at this time of night. The spent, melted wires smoked in the darkness.

“I think she was trying to warn us about the Heart,” he slowly guessed. “An old First Ones weapon? For the war against the Horde? That fits what you told me, right?”

Marlena nodded. “I think that’s it,” she said. She still had to process the guilt and dread that had just been lifted off her shoulders. 

There’s still a universe out there. There are still stars lighting up the skies of distant worlds. Still people to gaze at them.

You did it, Mara. You saved them all.

As she and Randor embraced, her mind raced furiously. What did the voice mean by “she?” She knew some people refer to planets with pronouns before. So, it could be an archaic way of referring to Etheria, but it sounded personal. And that part about being sorry. That could be generational First Ones guilt talking, but again, she wasn’t sure. 

And then, there were more questions. Was the Galactic Horde gone? Did the remnants of the Armada manage to pull together an alliance to stop it?

And if it was safe out there, could she bring them back out of Despondos? Could she bring the stars back after all this time?

In a few days, she would forget those questions. 

But many years later, she would get her answers.

Your mate’s magical abilities are improving. Swift Wind thought to Adora as she settled in for the last shift on watch for the voyage. Returning to your home planet should help her progress. I can already sense its magic.

“I told you,” Adora said, as she glanced over the display panels on the command console. “Catra isn’t my mate. We’re just friends.”

The wolf cocked his head to the side. His new packmate was very confusing. At first, he had assumed she simply had a different word for mate. He hadn’t spoken to many aliens, but telepathy wasn’t always the best for getting across loaded terms. However, the more he tried to clarify, the more it seemed that his increasingly embarrassed packmate did know what “mate” meant and didn’t think it applied to her and her mate.

Are you friends like you’re friends with the Sparkly One? He asked. Or the One Who Seeks to Know?

“No,” she answered. “Glimmer and Entrapta are different.”

And you share a nest with her? He asked. 

Adora shrugged. “We did that for years growing up,” she explained, fiddling with some buttons. “Catra only started doing that again because she thought Bow and Glimmer were being too ‘couple-y.’” She glanced up at the stars drifting by

And she rebuilt this ancient vessel and traveled across the ocean of stars to save you from the clutches of the One Who Destroys?

“She thought I was still on Etheria!” She countered. “This trip started out just to save Glimmer.”

But she returned after saving her to save you, yes?

Adora nodded weakly. “I mean,” she said. “She was already in space and close by, so . . . yeah, I guess she just did.”

Just charged into his lair, reawakened the power of an ancient goddess, and raised you from the dead?

Adora blushed. “I think I was just mostly dead to be fair.” Swift Wind was not impressed. “But yes,” she said after a pause. “Those are things she did.”

She is your mate. He said. That is what mates do for their mates. Swift Wind stopped pacing, took several deliberate steps toward the command chair, and half lifted his front paws onto the arm rest to lock eyes with his packmate.

What part of this is confusing for you?

“Catra is just . . . Catra, ok?” Adora said, exasperated. 

Yes! Swift Wind thought empathically. The Brave One is the Brave One, and the Brave One is your mate. We agree, yes? 

“No!” She slumped back in the chair. “Maybe that’s something I wanted, but it doesn’t — she doesn’t. . . It’s just that a lot has happened between us over the years. We used to be close, and then I screwed it all up.” 

She sighed. The light from the console displays highlighted the shadows under her eyes.

Growing up in the Horde didn’t give you many examples of healthy relationships to aspire to. But Adora had known better. Every day back in Greyskull, she had seen her parents support and care for each other, how they bickered and bantered and built a home together. A few times, she had let herself imagine Catra and her building something like that — a dream buried so deep even Prime could only catch a glimpse of it. 

And a glimpse was all the leverage he needed to break her.

“Look, buddy.” She reached over and scratched the side of the alien wolf’s head. “Catra has a big heart,” she explained. “She doesn’t let many people see it, but she does. She’s a hero. That’s why She-Ra chose her. And she saved me because that’s what heroes do.”

Swift Wind looked back at her intensely, then his monochromatic eyes widened. Oh. I think I understand. He said. 

“Good,” she said. “We can stop talking about this and start focusing on getting this ship past the blockade. Now, do you think you could turn this whole ship invisible?”

What? Oh, yes. Of course I could do that. He answered, distracted. Not for long, but maybe for a minute. That’s long enough, right?

“Great!” Adora said excitedly as she stood up. “You think you can hold down the fort here?” 

Swift Wind nodded. Adora couldn’t hear his thoughts, but they seemed elsewhere.

“Perfect,” she said. “Just give me a call if you see anything crazy.” She paused. “And you are a psychic alien shapeshifter, so lower your bar for ‘crazy’ please. I’ll check with Entrapta about that, but I’m sure a minute will be enough time to get past Prime’s creeps. Thanks, Swiftie.”

As she exited the room, Swift Wind didn’t move a muscle. His mind was still reeling from the revelation. She is still courting the Brave One! He thought to himself. And the Brave One is courting her! They both wish to be mates, but they do not know that the other wishes this as well. 

They have failed to officially begin the courtship!

When he was a pup, there was no specific moment when pairs of Krytans became mates. They bonded slowly, then all at once. He had heard that other species were more formal when it came to mating, requiring elaborate rituals to mark the commencement and consummation of a pairing. Those who failed to follow those rites were met with scorn and shunned. 

And when those societies lacked telepathy, great dramas were extracted from pairings that failed to effectively communicate their desires and instead made wild assumptions about the other.

The wolf realized that his packmates must come from one of those societies, and that Adora and The Brave One must have started becoming mates in violation of some rule or ritual. Now, neither could recognize their bond openly, so they pretended it did not exist. 

They both felt guilt for imposing the bond on the other because they assumed it was unwanted by the other. 

He had assumed societies where such problems arose were all full of priggish morons, but seeing the effect it had on his packmates, he realized how deeply ingrained that sense of shame was within them. It was not his packmate’s fault that she felt this way. 

He couldn’t stop himself from letting out a small whine at the pitiful situation, but he quickly changed it to a growl as he found his resolve.

They were lucky to bring me into the pack , Swift Wind decided. Who knows how long they would have gone on like this if I hadn’t noticed. But I will be a good packmate. I will find a way to let them realize that they both wish to be mated.

He just had to learn what Etherian courtship rituals consisted of and herd his packmate into performing them as soon as possible. 

He would also have to nudge the Brave One in the same direction, though the Sparkly One and the Great-Hearted One could help him with that. They already appeared to be mates after all.

Running the blockade was easier than they anticipated. Swift Wind managed to pull off making the whole ship invisible. Darla was invisible to advanced sensors and the old fashioned naked eye.

Seeing the surface of Etheria miles below through the clear floor of their spaceship gave Adora a pretty bad case of vertigo, but she has spent her childhood trying to keep up with Catra in the Fright Zone. She’d conquered her fear of heights a long time ago.

“We’ve officially bypassed the blockade,” Entrapta called over the speakers. No one was entirely sure where she had set up her monitoring station, but it was somewhere in the air ducts and no one wanted to think about it more than that, especially when they were speeding through the upper atmosphere. “Welcome back to Etheria!”

Glimmer whistled. “That’s one hell of a view,” she said. “And it’ll look even better once we clear out all those new Horde bases.”

Catra smirked. “Just the new ones, Sparkles?” She asked. “Don’t tell me you went soft on us.”

“What?” Adora joined in. “While we were stuck on that ship together I might have shared a few ideas on. . . What’s it called?”

“Historic preservation?” Bow ventured jokingly. 

“Yeah,” Adora agreed. “That thing. I can think of a few places worth saving back there.”

“Never know when Death Trap Industrial is going to come back into style,” Catra snarked.

”Mom always said, ‘All workplace safety regulations were written in blood,’” Glimmer offered. “Might be nice to have some non-compliant reminders of why safety rails are important.”

“Attention Crew,” Entrapta said over the speakers. “The secret frequency we established prior to departure is still operational. I’ve just made contact. Waiting for a response.”

Bow pulled up an array at the command console reminiscent of the display on one of his early tracker pads. “We’ll fly low to avoid being traced, but it shouldn’t take too long to get to the rendezvous point.”

“We’ve received a response from the secured frequency. They’re requesting we confirm coordinates.” Entrapta said. 

 Bow frowned. “That’s weird,” he said. “We agreed on the spot where we’d meet before we left.”

“That’s the request I’m getting,” Entrapta said again. “Is it possible we forgot to confirm the precise coordinates?”

“No,” Catra insisted. “And even if we had to change locations, we specifically agreed not to share coordinates over anything Prime could hack. It was your idea!”

“I’ve observed occasions before where people agree to take an information security precaution I recommend and then ignore it,” she explained. “Adora, you can confirm this, correct?”

The wolf blushed. “You try remembering a thirteen character password with letters, numbers, and special characters,” she said. “Having it written down by my work terminal was the best solution.”

“Which defeated the whole point of the enhanced passwords!” She responded. “All the Alliance had to do was make it your room and they could get access to all our systems. Information Security matters.”

“But if they got to my terminal then we’d obviously have bigger problems,” she countered. It was clear they’d had this argument before. “I don’t think looking for a note with ‘B345st$M0d3!’ on it would be high on the insurgents’ list of priorities!”

She turned to Bow. “You guys didn’t happen to spend precious rescue time checking out the Fright Zone computer terminals for passwords, did you?” She asked.

“So that’s how Seahawk got all those Horde bot schematics!” He wondered aloud. “So much for the Master Hacker of the Seven Seas.”

“Hypothesis confirmed.” Entrapta said. “I have no real desire to collect, but you do owe me twenty ration bars. I believe Scorpia was the guarantor for the wager, so we can work that out with her upon landing.”

Catra laughed. “Seriously?” As the woods grew in the view window, she appreciated something to cut the tension. “After I went Rebel you found someone else to lose ration bar bets to?”

“So just to be clear, we’re not responding?” Entrapta asked.

“Roger that,” Bow yelled back. “They must just be testing us. Making sure the Horde didn’t hijack this ship.”

“Or the frequency was compromised,” Glimmer suggested.

“Either way,” Catra said resolutely. “Saying anything is a mistake.” Her tail lashed. “Let’s just stick to the plan and take this one step at a time.”

Adora wrinkled her brow and looked vaguely up, trying to recall something. Her head jerked to the side. “There were thirty-three reports of successful infiltration of resistance cells for the last cycle I was— that I had access to. None were even in this sub-quadrant.”

This wasn’t good. “Swift Wind,” Adora asked. “Think you could give us a few more seconds of invisibility?”

The ship rolled to the side. The metal walls shook and the delayed boom of an explosion reached their ears. “Now would be nice!” 

“How’d they zero in on us?” Bow shouted as he ran to the now smoking panels on the side of the room. Adora ran to help. Swift Wind pulsed with magic, portions of the ship turning invisible in time with his efforts. “This ship is impossible for them to scan for even when it’s not magically translucent!”

Catra jumped into the command chair to take his place. “Like I said,” she cried. “One problem at a time. Let’s just make this a landing we can walk away from!”

Swift Wind managed to turn Darla invisible again just in time for the next barrage. Catra pulled the ship hard right. It still rocked as the missiles sped by, exploding safely somewhere over the ocean.

The spot they had picked was a few acres of truly ancient, old growth forest in the Whispering Woods. The tree trunks towered over the ship like the pillars of a long forgotten, but well-loved temple. Thick green vines draped down from the canopy. A smattering of colored fall leaves speckled the mossy carpet below. As the sun set, the shadows of falling motes of dust scattered the light.

As the crew of Darla emerged, they were met by the silence. After what they had just been through, they savored the peace. 

“I think it’s safe to bet the rest of the Rebels saw our dramatic entrance,” Catra said as she stepped into the grass. No one could ever call her a nature girl, but after all that time in a tin can, the dirt and wet grass felt good on her feet. “I think we can expect them to meet us here soon enough.”

“And let’s just wait for them here until they do,” Bow suggested. “And if we can stick together, and not split up in the meantime, then I’ll consider that a victory.”

Swift Wind raced down the ramp and into the undergrowth beyond the clearing. Adora was close behind.

“Wait!” Glimmer yelled. “Where are you going?”

“Swiftie’s exhausted from getting us this far,” Adora explained. “He’s probably looking for a spot with enough magic to recharge.” She started sprinting towards the woods. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t go too far,” she called back. “We can call it scouting!”

“Aaand she’s gone. Great!” Bow shouted, exasperated. “We immediately split up! 

They were out of sight when the trees charged the rest of the crew. That wasn’t even the weirdest part. 

No, the weirdest part was when Perfuma of all people yelled . Catra didn’t think she had it in her.

Marlena didn’t know what she expected to find on patrol, but a Krytan definitely wasn’t on the list. 

She had never seen one in person. She was still stationed on the moons of New Eternia when the battle of Krytis took place. But she did find zoological reports of the alien creatures when she was looking into the infected data crystal for Mara— The one that had decimated her squad in the final hours of the grueling battle. Not that Marlena had known that when Mara asked her to examine it. 

Neither of them could have guessed where that side project would lead them.

The sprinting, wolf-like creature skid to a halt in the middle of a clearing. She emerged from her side cautiously. The Krytan tilted their head to the side.

The official Armada reports said that the natives of Krytis weren’t sapient. But Marlena wasn’t going to take any chances. Plus, if she looked weird talking to an alien dog like she expected it to talk back, no one was around to see.

“Greetings,” she offered, holstering the reclaimed stun prod she was carrying as a sign of good faith. “I am Marlena of Etheria. Ad Astra per aspera. ”

They sniffed the air and approached her curiously. It was golden hour in the Whispering Woods. “What brings you to this planet?” She asked, still only half-expecting a response. “Did you hitch a ride with someone?”

“Hey, Swift Wind!” A new voice called out from the woods beyond. Marlena slipped back into cover. “Slow down. We can’t go too far from the others. We’re just scouting ahead!” The Krytan turned towards the voice and barked. “Ok, I’m coming!” The voice responded. “Just wait there.”

An off-worlder? Krytis wasn’t exactly inhabitable for anything but its original population after the battle with the Horde, but this person clearly knew this iridescent wolf. Could be a more talkative Krytan? Or maybe another alien who found her way to that tomb world. Maybe the kids did find some help out there?

But she couldn’t take any chances.

The Krytan let out a low whine. The rustling bushes and crunched leaves— giveaways of the runner on the other side of the clearing— suddenly stopped. 

Might as well make the first move. “Hey,” she called out. “You’ve entered Rebel-protected territory. Death to Horde Prime.”

For a moment, the only sound came from the birds flying around the tree tops. “Good to hear,” the voice responded after a few seconds. She sounded uncertain, but she projected confidence. “Think we can make it a painful one?”

“Well, we’re looking for volunteers,” she called back. “Ok, this might sound weird,” she continued. “But I’ll need to see your neck first.” The wolf-like alien growled. “Your Krytan buddy can watch your back. I’ll show you mine after,” she added. “Trust me. It’s important.”

Her enhanced hearing picked up on her sharp inhale. “Why do you need to check my neck?” The voice asked.

“Prime has a new weapon,” she explained. “A metal device implanted into the spinal cord that overrides the victim’s higher nervous system.” She shook her head. No time for technobabble. No telling what kind of planet she came from. “It’s a kind of possession, basically. It lets the Horde control them.”

“Oh,” was the response. The other speaker was silent for a moment. “I think I was the first one he tested those on,” the voice called back. “Don’t worry! Catra broke it, and Entrapta found a way to fully remove it.”

They’d all make it back safe AND had a way to free the people Prime was puppeting? It was the best news she could have hoped for, short of the kids showing up with an army. 

“I’d love to hear more about how they pulled that off,” she returned. “But there’s a phrase on this planet- too good to be true. So, I’m still gonna need to see that neck.”

“No, that’s fair.” The other speaker responded. “Stars above, I know exactly what Prime is capable of. Just give me a second.”

Stars above? Marlena hadn’t heard someone use that phrase since . . . “You’re a First One?”

“Yep!” The other speaker confirmed. “That’s what they told me.” Another pause. “Why do you ask?” The voice was a touch more guarded.

“No, no” she explained. “I’m a First One, too. There aren’t many left on this planet. I just joined the Rebels here a few months ago, after uh . . . They helped me out of a bad place.” No need for too much detail, but enough to explain herself.

A breeze rustled the greenery around them. “I know the feeling,” she voice responded. “New Eternia?”

It almost sounded like a question, but it had to be the name of her colony. She must still be nervous. Marlena was glad that another group of First Ones besides the Cult of the Claw claimed that name. 

“They picked you up on Prime’s flagship, then?” She asked, moving closer to the clearing. “When they were saving Micah’s kid?”

“Well, basically yes,” she said. A figure emerged from the other side of the thicket, walking slowly backwards and holding her blonde ponytail to the side. The Krytan stood guard between them. The young woman was on the tall side, wearing the sort of old fashioned First Ones civilian gear that the Dianans used to wear undercover. A tight knit crimson wool jacket, grey leggings, and a belt with a collection of pouches and spaces for holsters.

Maybe there was a nostalgic boom on whatever planet she had been hiding out on, or maybe scavenged clothes from centuries ago were the best the former ‘Masters of the Universe’ could manage these days.

Even in the fading light, Marlena could make out a fresh, diamond shaped scar on the back of her neck. “But it’s a long story, and I was mind-controlled for some of the important parts, so you’ll have to ask the rest of the squad for the full debrief.”

“No kidding,” she managed. A First One from beyond Etheria! Where had they gone into hiding? Was she from that colony she had contacted decades ago? How did she end up on Prime’s flagship? Was the whole colony captured or just her?

She figured she could save the potentially painful questions for later. 

Marlena pulled her braid to the side and walked out backwards. “My turn,” she said. “See? No tricks. Had a few close calls, but not chipped yet.”

She heard leaves crunch as the other First One turned around. Then, the stranger gasped.

“Something wrong?” Marlena asked.

“No! I-it’s just,” the voice stammered out. “You didn’t tell me your name.” She finished weakly. 

“Marlena,” she answered, confused. She started to turn. “What’s—“ the question caught in her throat the moment she saw the kid on the other side of the clearing face to face. 

Fifteen years had left new scars, thinner, sharper features, and more grief in those blue eyes than she ever wanted to see in them, but that face would never be a stranger to her.

Marlena could see her scanning her face in the same way. “It’s uhh,” she tried. “My name is . . .” She was shaking, but she forced herself to keep going. “I’m A— I’m—“

“Adora,” Marlena said softly. Her heart was pounding so hard she was shocked her ribs hadn’t shattered.

Her daughter stilled. She took a deep breath to steady herself. “Adora,” she confirmed. Suddenly, she couldn’t keep eye contact and stared down at the ground. “Before you say anything,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry, ok! I’m for the Horde, for Beast Island, for—“

Before Adora could finish recounting her sins, Marlena rushed her. In a flash, she had her arms wrapped around her, and he was squeezing tight. Adora braced for an attack out of instinct, but Marlena just kept hugging her. “Comet,” she whispered in a ragged voice. “You’re ok.”

Adora’s shoulders remained raised. Her muscles remained tense. But after a few moments, she returned the hug. “Mom,” she finally managed. 

For all the chaos and suffering on Etheria in that moment. For all the confusion currently playing out at Darla’s landing site. 

At that moment, in that one clearing in a forgotten corner of the Whispering Woods, there was an ounce of peace