A hole opened up in the ceiling of the dark cave and a long strand of rope unraveled down through the thin beam of daylight pouring in. A small humanoid figure with blonde hair and a red jacket gracefully slide down the rope onto the cold glass floor below. Pulling a long thin tube from her belt, Adora pushed a button on the device and a florescent beam of light shot from it on to the intricate hieroglyphs on the wall.

"Alright, I'm here, Entrapta..." Adora whispered under her breath.

The Crystal Castle gave off a foreboding aura as Adora walked down the now completely dead ruins. It felt like years ago when she was first drawn here, the new up and comer in the Horde ranks, a belligerent Princess commander and the surprisingly friendly rebel insurgent with a bow. It was just as dark as it was back then, but even still, back then it felt like the place was alive... watching over her... But now? The entire complex felt cold and lifeless. Knowing what she knew now, Adora didn't know what she would have preferred.

As Adora made her way through the mausoleum of the First Ones, a tiny *clink* behind her made her stop dead in her tracks. It was the sound of metal scratching against the glass floor. Adora carefully turned around to see eight gigantic glowing red eyes staring back at her.

"SCREEEEE!" the spider roared as it raised it's forelegs to smash the ground in front of it.

Adora rolled out of the way of it's attack, the shock of it's impact causing her to stumble and drop the torchlight. Unable to clearly see her opponent, Adora fell to the ground as the giant metal monstrosity leapt on top of her. Adora felt the crushing weight of cold steel push down against her lower body as she wrestled against slimy, snapping jaws closing in on her head. Adora closed her eyes and looked away as she held the Spider's fangs apart with her bare hands. The two combatants struggled as they both focused intently on overpowering the other. Adora groaned in effort when she heard a familiar voice call out through the darkness.

"No!" shouted the nasally voice of the engineer Princess of Dryl, "Bad Amanda! We do not eat our guests!"

Adora heard the clang of something metal repeatedly striking the spider's metal body and felt the vibrations of its strikes reverberate through her own hands and legs. Before long, she felt the weight lift off her body as the spider backed away from her. Adora opened her eyes again to see a dull purple light illuminate the room, the giant spider crawling up the crystal walls up to the ceiling and its eight red eyes staring down at her, watchful of her every move. Before Adora could even think of what to do next, a metal welding mask with two large purple insectoid eyes was directly in her face.

"Hi, Adora!" Entrapta greeted, standing over Adora's prone body and offering a strand of hair to help her up as she waved, "Sorry about Amanda. I'm still training her on how to act around other people. Are you okay?"

"Entrapta..." Adora gasped as she got up from the ground, wiping the dust from her pants, "I'll be alright. Thank you."

"I'm sooo happy you decided to come," Entrapta cheered, "Hordak didn't think you would make it."

"Riiight..." Adora groaned, "So I'm guessing that means you two haven't broken up yet."

"You know it's funny," Entrapta laughed, "Hordak keeps asking the exact same thing about you and Catra."

Adora cocked her head at Entrapta's uncharacteristically snarky comment.

"Did you just..?" Adora began, "Nevermind..."

As Adora followed Entrapta through the catacombs, she looked at the wall and the ground in thought. After a while, she decided to finally speak up.

"Listen, Entrapta..." Adora called out.

"Yes?" Entrapta replied.

"I'm not here to help you rebuild the Heart of Etheria," Adora explained, "I'm here because I wanted to talk to you personally. Away from Hordak, away from Catra and the rest of the Horde. You need to stop this. People are going to get hurt if you continue. People will die if Horde Prime is allowed to use this place as a weapon."

"People die everyday, Adora," Entrapta commented, only half listening as she tapped happily on their tablet, "It's the one thing everyone eventually does. Until someone discovers a way to stop it, but that's somewhat outside my field of study."

"Entrapta..." Adora pleaded, "No good can come from this place. That is why I destroyed the sword to begin with. You need to listen to me."

"Oh, Adora, I always listen," Entrapta said, taking a moment to turn back and open her visor to look at her, "You just haven't said anything to convince me to change my current course of action."

"Entrapta, why are you doing this?" asked Adora, "What could possibly be worth giving Horde Prime the power to kill trillions of people in an instant?"

"Knowledge is the only true power!" Entrapta replied, "I've studied First One's tech my whole life to make life better for everyone. Do you know how much the standard of living has changed for the average Etherian since the Horde first came to our world? People used to live in huts made out of sticks and mud, starving from poor agricultural practices and dying from diseases we can cure with a pill now. Hordak gave us that! We have industry, medicine and astronomy thanks to him. We can go to other worlds now, Adora! Just imagine how much more we can do when we discover the secrets this place holds!"

"I used to believe that too," Adora said, "Back when I was with the Horde, I thought we were fighting to make Etheria a better place. That we were taking down the corrupt and evil princesses who were holding the rest of us back. But when Bow and Glimmer brought me here, they showed me that all I was doing was hurting and terrorizing innocent people. That Shadow Weaver and Hordak were just using me to take power for themselves, the same way he's using you now."

"The Horde isn't using me," Entrapta argued, "If anything, I'm using them. The Horde has the resources I need to continue my work and I have the skills and expertise they need to turn it into something useful. There will always be despots and tyrants hurting innocent people, but the Horde can at least offer some sort of order after everything is done. Hopefully after today, you'll see that."

"What are you talking about?" Adora queried, "I told you, I'm not helping you fix the Heart of Etheria."

"Oh, we don't need your help anymore," Entrapta explained, "We've already fixed the Heart of Etheria. I just thought you should be here when we turned it on."

Adora stopped walking and stared at Entrapta wide eyed in shock.

"...What?!" Adora shouted, the echoes of her query reverberating through the entire complex.

~*~

Adora and Entrapta passed through one of the six entrances to the Crystal Castle's main hall. Each archway was divided from each other by five obelisks that stretched all the way the the ceiling. Each of the entrances face a wall mural with an inscribed portrait of She-Ra pointing her sword down at a gigantic computer screen surrounded by the misshapen artifacts of Horde technology. Hordak himself was standing at attention next to a computer terminal with a keyboard and a chair when they both arrived, his claws clasped behind his back under his flowing black cape. He turned to face the princesses that had entered, his expression as stoic and unreadable as ever. In that old armor and glowing red eyes, Adora thought he looked exactly how she remembered on the Horde propaganda posters displayed all over the Fright Zone and felt uncomfortable as she remembered how much she used to idolize this monster when she was a Horde soldier.

"Entrapta... She-Ra..." Hordak greeted, nodding politely to the two women, "Horde Prime has given us our first target: Primus, a world in the Trisolar System. The planet's leadership has been harboring known criminals, terrorists and political revolutionaries. We are to destroy this world as an example to any others that dares to undermine our authority. Entrapta, you are to begin at once."

The giant screen turned on and showed the picture of what looked like a blue and green marble, surrounded by what appeared to be transparent plastic sphere. Adora could help but think of how much it looked like the educational models of their own planet.

"Oh..." Entrapta said, her tone deflating as she closed her visor and slowly walked towards her own computer terminal and sat down, "Okay."

"What is the population of Primus?" Adora called out.

"Approximately seven billion sentients," Hordak reported, "Not including the wide variety of indigenous flora and fauna native to that world. Entrapta, how long until the weapon becomes fully operational?"

"I just need to activate our workarounds and the Heart of Etheria should be at full power in 5 minutes," Entrapta reported, "Commencing primary ignition."

"Good..." Hordak grunted in satisfaction, "You may fire when ready."

Entrapta tapped some keys on her keyboard and the giant monitor in front of her displayed the number 5:00 in large ominous lettering with a progress bar underneath. After a second, the screen switched to displaying 4:59 and began counting down. Adora gave an angry glare at Hordak before she began walking towards Entrapta.

"Entrapta, please, you can't do this," Adora hissed into her ear, "You can't let him control you. If you do this, you will be responsible for the deaths of seven billion people. You can't possibly be okay with that."

"Those people are our enemies, Entrapta," Hordak called out, approaching the two women, "They have chosen to ally themselves against the Horde. Continue with the operation."

"No!" Adora shouted, turning back to Hordak, "I am not going let you use me to hurt people again!"

"No one is using you, Princess," Hordak growled, bending over to look Adora in the eye, "Your presence here is merely a formality. As you can plainly see, we have managed to complete this project without your help. Go back to your palace in Brightmoon and enjoy the luxuries we have provided you and your friends and we can forget this small indiscretion of loyalty."

"No! I am not letting anyone else die because of my mistakes!" Adora screamed.

"Princess, cease this childish whining and think logically for once in your pathetic life," Hordak snarled, "This project is the only reason my brother has seen fit to spare your worthless planet, everyone you know and love, everyone you've ever seen or talked to. Would you allow everything here to be destroyed for your moral indignation?"

"And how many other worlds have to die to save our own 'worthless' lives?" asked Adora, "One? A hundred? A million?"

"As many as are needed bring peace to the universe," Hordak answered.

"Not while I'm She-Ra..." Adora growled.

With both hands, Adora launched Hordak forcefully up in the air and through one of the surrounding pillars with a devastating gentle push. His cape fluttered in the wind as the obelisk crumbled under his impact and he limply fell to the ground. Adora then picked up the heaviest thing she could find next to her and threw it at the giant screen counting down, smashing it to pieces.

"Oh... no... not the monitor..." Entrapta groaned with a tone of robotic boredom, as she pulled out and set up a small tablet on her station, displaying the same countdown, "That was the key to our entire operation..."

Before Adora could reach Entrapta, Hordak came at her from behind and tackled her to the ground. Adora grabbed onto Hordak's arm as his claw pinned her on the ground by the neck.

"I'll... never... give in to the Horde," Adora groaned, "I'll die before I let you win."

"As you wish, Princess..." Hordak hissed, his grip tightening around Adora's throat, "Your services are no longer required..."

As Adora felt the metal claw hold her in place, she curled her legs together and pushed them up into Hordak's chest. Adora closed her eyes and she could hear the sound of straining metal as Hordak winced in pain, but she still felt him hold onto her with all his effort. Eventually, she heard a sickening crunch and a pop as her legs fully extended and launched the weight on top of her into the air, but she still felt Hordak's claw on her neck. Confused, Adora opened her eyes to see a dismembered arm leaking black liquid onto her pants from where it was previously attached to Hordak's shoulder. Acting quickly in revulsion, she instinctively grabbed the arm and pulled it off of her, throwing it on the floor in disgust when she saw the claw continue to twitch open and closed. She slowly got up and saw her enemy attempt to do the same from the far side of the room.

"AAAAARRRGGGHHH!" Hordak roared in agony as he clutched the stump on his shoulder leaking black liquid down his side.

Hardening her expression, Adora faced her opponent as he charged desperately at her and was ready for him as he swung his remaining claw at her. Adora grabbed his claw and twisted his wrist with her right hand and pushed away his head by the chin with the other, keeping his gnashing fangs away from her body. Adora gasped in pain as Hordak bit down on her left hand and she reflexively twisted his head... all the way around his neck. Hordak's arm went limp as Adora let the twitching, one armed corpse fall to the ground. Adora drew back, wide eyed and open mouthed in horror, as she realized what she had done.

"Yay, Adora!" Entrapta cheered, clapping excitedly from her seat at the computer terminal as she opened her welding visor, "I knew you could do it!"

Adora turned around and stared at Entrapta with indescribable fury.

"Stop it!" she ordered, "Right now!"

"Oh, yes, of course," Entrapta said, picking up her tablet, "Computer! Turn off kitchen timer!"

"Kitchen timer function disabled," replied a calm female voice from her tablet and the countdown clock turned off.

"I'm so happy for you right now," Entrapta said, running up to Adora to give her a hug, "I can't wait to tell Hordak."

"Entrapta..." Adora said, forcefully pushing her away and shaking in anger, "I... I killed him... Do you... not know what death is?"

"The permanent ending of vital processes in a living organism," Entrapta recited, giving an impressed whistle as she stooped to examine Hordak's dead body, "Let's see: A traumatic amputation of the right arm followed by a comminuted cervical fracture, severing the spinal cord. Yep, you totally killed him."

"How can you be so calm about this?" Adora asked, tears welling in his eyes, "I just killed a man. Doesn't that bother you at all?"

"Nope, you broke a robot," Entrapta explained, "But don't worry I can fix it. Hector! Engage self repair protocols!"

Entrapta's hair tapped on her tablet screen a few times and the image of Hordak's corpse flickered away, revealing a one armed Hordak shaped robot leaking motor oil on the ground. The robot silently sat up from the ground and it's remaining claw turned it's head back into place. The claw then reconfigured into a welding arm and it soldered the broken wiring in it's neck, causing tiny sparks to flicker off of it. Satisfied, it stood up and walked over to it's dismembered arm and picked it up to reattach it to it's shoulder. Adora looked at it work for a moment before turning back to Entrapta. Seething in rage, Adora grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her against one of the sturdier obelisks.

"Oof!" Entrapta grunted in pain.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Adora screamed in fury, "HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK YOU COULD TRICK ME LIKE THAT?!"

"I'm sorry, Adora," Entrapta apologized, closing her visor again to avert her gaze, "But we had to be sure we could trust you. This was a test and you passed! You should be proud of yourself."

"A test?" Adora repeated in shock, "You made me think I just killed someone! I'm going to be sick."

Adora let go of Entrapta and held on to her knees as she hyperventilated in an attempt to keep the contents of her stomach inside her body.

"Yeah, sorry again. I didn't expect things escalate that far," Entrapta said, her hair taking our a dirty rag and wiping the oil off of Adora's pants, "Hordak wanted to know how far you would go to stop the Horde from using the Heart of Etheria. He told me you were much stronger than he expected, so I did everything I could to improve Hector's strength and durability, but it looks like even that wasn't enough. Make no mistake, Adora, if the two of you ever actually got into a fight, you would have absolutely destroyed him."

"Why?" Adora inquired, "Why does Hordak want to know what I'd do to stop this?"

"Because we haven't been working on restoring the Heart of Etheria," Entrapta explained, putting the rag back in her pocket, "We've been trying to figure out how to get Horde Prime off of our planet."

~*~

Kyle looked around nervously as he walked down the dirty streets of the fright zone in the pouring rain. Things had gotten safer since the Horde boosted their patrols over this area and rumors of the Grey Ghost of Hordak haunting the alleyways had scared off most of the criminal element away to the Crimson Wastes. But it was the very thing keeping Kyle safe from muggers that frightened him the most. He just wanted to get this job done and back into Whispering Woods as soon as possible.

Kyle contemplated the irony of that last thought when he came across his objective. A crate left unguarded in the middle of an empty alleyway. On top was a simple slip of paper with the insignia of Hordak's Etherian Horde, a blood red teardrop with large red batwings. Kyle opened the lid and looked inside. Old Horde weapons and equipment left over from Scorpia's disbanding of the Fright Zone's military. Kyle was confused about the change in plans. He was supposed to bring a briefcase of precious stones to the meeting place and trade them for this crate, but no one else was around. Not wanting to anger his client, Kyle left the briefcase lying against the wall next to crate. As Kyle studied how he was going to bring this heavy box back to the resistance, when he felt a tug against his pant leg and was suddenly pulled upside down into the air.

"Aaahhh!" Kyle screamed in horror as he fell up into the sky and came face to face with two red eyes shrouded the darkness.

"Where is the resistance getting it's weapons?" the figure interrogated.

"Oh, no..." Kyle stammered, "Force Captain Grizzlor, he's been selling us his old stuff. It was just going to be thrown away and dismantled anyway."

"You're not very good at keeping secrets, are you?" the figure observed.

"No, I'm not," Kyle agreed, "I am a complete and total coward. Please don't hurt me."

"Tell me everything you know about Hector Malone in Dryl," the figure ordered.

"Nothing!" Kyle pleaded, "I don't know anything about him. You have to believe me."

"Don't lie to me!" threatened the figure, "I know Malone has been trying to get in touch with the Etherian resistance to sell them advanced military hardware! What I want to know is when they plan on meeting!"

"I don't know!" Kyle insisted, "I've never heard that name before. I swear to Etheria."

"SWEAR TO ME!" the figure roared.

Before Kyle could say anything else, he felt his pant leg release and he dropped into another screaming freefall towards the ground below. Just before he hit the ground, Kyle felt his pant leg pull again and he was left swinging upside down above the weapons crate. A second later he heard a click come from his leg and drop him headfirst onto the wooden crate.

"Oof!" Kyle groaned in pain as he rubbed his head while picking himself up.

Kyle looked up to see if he could spot the figure who captured him, only to get the brief glimpse of a black cape flapping from the rooftops above. It only took a moment for Kyle to start sprinting away down the street as fast as he could, leaving the weapons crate and the briefcase behind in the wet alleyway. Hordak watched him carefully from his perch as the scared revolutionary fled in terror.

"Idiot..." Hordak cursed under his breath.

Hordak pushed a button in the arm of his armor and held it up to his mouth.

"Entrapta, are you there?" Hordak asked, "I have finished my patrol and will be returning shortly."

He waited a second for a response

"You must be busy," Hordak theorized, "I'll just leave a message. Testing went well on the new equipment tonight. You were right to lower the voltage on the adhesive electrical discharge devices. As it turns out, the rain tonight has made their use particularly dangerous due to conductivity. It only took a few seconds to achieve total shutdown of the subjects nervous system. I have made contact with the resistance arms dealer and planted him with the disinformation. With luck, the resistance will begin looking into 'Hector Malone's' offer. Make sure they find something appealing. I'll see you soon."

Hordak released the button on his arm and pulled out a gun shaped device from his belt with two clawed hooks where the barrel would be. Quickly taking aim up in the air, he squeezed a trigger on the device and one of the hooks shot out with a sharp bang and a long black cable whirring after it. After the hook hit it's target on a nearby building with a subtle clang, a clicking noise indicated the hook had successfully found it's anchor. Hordak pushed a button with his thumb and the cord slowly whirred back into the device until it was taught. He then leapt off his perch and swung gracefully into the stormy night.

~*~

"And a simple electromagnet inside the projectile allows it to home in on and disable the electronics found in most handheld weapons used by the horde," Entrapta explained, watching Adora examine one of her throwing stars.

To demonstrate her invention, Entrapta took one of them out of the box and threw it towards an empty wall... only for the weapon to arc back around them. Adora and Entrapta both ducked as the First One's shuriken flew overhead and struck Hector the robot directly in the chest. Hector looked down and tried to pull out the sharp object from his chassis only for it to give off an electric spark. Hector twitched and sputtered before slumping over slightly, the lights in his eyes turning off.

"Oh, no..." Entrapta sighed, pulling out the shuriken with her hair and casually tossing it back in the box, "I really hope I remembered to back up his personality files recently."

"Okay," Adora said, moving on to some metal manacles with a computer display on the chain, "So what are these?"

"Restraints set to a timed release mechanism," Entrapta answered, "Since we're testing this stuff by taking down violent criminals, I thought the least we can do is make sure they stay put until Scorpia's guards arrive."

"Uh-huh," Adora grunted, holding up a large furry purple set, "Do these do anything special?"

"No, those are for our private use," Entrapta said, her hair quickly snatching the oddly colored restraints from Adora's hand and shoving them in her pocket.

"So how did you plan on getting these to Bow?" Adora asked.

"Oh, no, we're trying to find a way to get these to the resistance that has been attacking our trade convoys," Entrapta corrected.

"Bow *is* the one leading the resistance," Adora explained.

"Oh..." Entrapta gasped, pulling out her tablet to write down a note, "I have to admit, this is why I wanted your help. I'm not very experienced when it comes to helping plan overthrowing a galactic empire from our world. It was hard enough when it was just Hordak we were fighting against."

"Yeah, about that..." Adora said, "What makes you think Hordak can be trusted?"

"He's my lab partner!" Entrapta shouted, "If you can't trust your lab partner, who can you trust?"

As if summoned by their discussion, a loud ominous roar and the squeal of tires echoed through the chamber.

"What is that?!" Adora shouted, instinctively hiding behind a crate, "Did you tick off another First One's Beast?"

"No, that's the anniversary gift I built for Hordak," Entrapta exposited, letting out a satisfied sigh, "It really sucks that I have to keep wiping his memories to stop Horde Prime from figuring out what we're doing, but one of the perks is I get to surprise him with a new car every night."

A long black four wheeled vehicle inscribed with glowing red neon lines swerved into the chamber and spun to a stop in front of them. The machine appeared have been built around a large jet engine that ran through the center of the car. The canopy opened up to reveal a two passenger cockpit so it's pilot could exit.

"Hi, Hordak!" waved Entrapta, "Welcome home! We were just-Eep!"

Entrapta let out a squeek as Hordak wrapped one of his arms around her waist and cradled her head before dipping her into a passionate kiss. Entrapta held onto him tightly and played with the black tuft of hair on his head. Adora peeked nervously from her hiding spot.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you," Hordak apologized, caressing Entrapta's cheek with the back of his claw, "But I wanted you to know how much I appreciate everything you do for me."

"Right," Entrapta gasped, breathing heavily as she stared deeply into his eyes, "I forget how you get after a long drive."

"Ahem," Adora coughed, standing up to be noticed by the two Horde scientists.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Entrapta told Hordak, "Adora is here, too."

"Oh..." Hordak gulped, his ears flattening and face burning bright red in embarrassment, "Good evening, She-Ra. I did not know you would be joining us."

Adora marched up to her former boss, looked up into his eyes and punched him in the face. Hordak fell flat on his cape and hit the back of his head against the hood of the vehicle with a mighty thump. Entrapta clasped her hands over her mouth in shock as Adora stood silently over her former enemy.

"I understand there are many things I have done to warrant that," Hordak admitted, wiping the back of his wrist over his lower jaw as he picked himself back up, "But I am curious as to what has motivated this particular incident."

"Where do I begin?!" Adora shouted, "After everything you've done, the war, the death, the destruction, the abuse I suffered... You expect me to believe you just suddenly want to change sides now! No... it's worse then that, because apparently I'm the one who isn't trustworthy enough that you needed to trick me into killing you to stop you from destroying another planet."

"She killed me?" Hordak asked Entrapta.

"Oh, yes," Entrapta nodded, her hair tapping the screen of her tablet as she gave him a look of concern, "Please don't fight."

"Impressive," Hordak noted, as the floor below Entrapta's four wheeled gift slowly lowered beneath them, "Most impressive..."

"Impressive?!" Adora repeated, as large trap doors closed over the car, perfectly concealing it, "Is that all you have to say for yourself."

"My apologies," said Hordak, "I felt the deception was necessary to protect my intentions from Horde Prime. Obviously, there appears to be no need. Has Entrapta explained everything to you?"

"Most of it," Adora answered, "But why now? Why not decades ago when it would have actually mattered?"

"Would you believe it if I told you that I have grown weary of conquering worlds in a pathetic attempt to win the approval of my unassailable brother?" Hordak asked, placing a caring hand on Entrapta's shoulder, "That all I want now is to live a life of quiet scientific pursuit with my loving partner free from his oppressive rule?"

"Not for a second," Adora answered flatly.

Hordak sighed and rubbed his fingers over his eyes.

"Then how about revenge?" groaned Hordak, "That after doing everything in my power to return to my brother and prove my loyalty and worth to him, he still rejected me because nothing I could do would ever be good enough for him. And I want to see him lose everything the same way he took everything from me."

"Yeah, that's much more believable," Adora scoffed.

"Good," Hordak growled, "I am pleased we are able to establish how little you think of me. Shall we get started?"

Hordak motioned towards the gigantic broken computer terminal that dominated the room. Entrapta placed her tablet above the keyboard and began typing furiously

"So what do you have planned so far?" Adora asked, looking over Entrapta's shoulder.

"Unfortunately, my condition has precluded my ability to actively scheme against the greater Horde," Hordak explained, "If my brothers find even the slightest whiff of disloyalty in my memories, all of this will be for naught. Everything we are discussing now will be forgotten by me in order to protect Entrapta and our stalling of the Heart of Etheria project."

"The hardest thing about fighting the Horde right now is how much more advanced they are than us in terms of resources," Entrapta commented, "At this time, we can't even reach their spaceships in order to attack them properly."

Adora stroked her chin in thought.

"When I first joined the Princess Alliance," Adora thought aloud, "Our first goal was recruiting allies to a common cause. If we can't get up there, maybe someone else can."

"That would appear to be prudent course of action," Hordak commented, "Entrapta, give Adora a map of the planets closest to us not currently controlled by the Horde."

Entrapta tapped on a few keys and a cluster of primitive holograms surrounded, displaying planets orbiting the center of room.

"You said the Horde is currently stalled against fighting the people of Primus," Adora noted, pointing at the familiar world, "Maybe they would be powerful enough to help us fight the Horde."

"The citizens of Primus appear to be content to hide behind their planetary shield," Hordak explained, "However, they may be amicable to sheltering us if we were willing to abandon Etheria."

"Alright, so that's our plan B for when everything goes completely wrong," Adora translated, walking towards a red desert planet, "Moving on, then... what's this world... Skaro?"

"I would avoid Skaro if at all possible," Hordak warned, "The dominant creatures of that world will seek to execute us on sight. They consider any species genetically distinct from their own to be a infestation to be eradicated."

"Yikes, no, thank you," Adora groaned, walking between a cluster of elaborate hollowed out shapes, "What about one of these planets? They look pretty."

"Those worlds belong to the Gem Empire which is much more... indifferent in it's malice," Hordak replied, "They are inhabited by polymorphic rock creatures that do not consider carbon based life forms to be truly 'alive'. They will not kill us just for existing, only if we do anything to inconvenience them."

"Uh-huh, so no help there," Adora snarked, moving onto a planet more similar looking to Etheria, "This world looks nice, 'Equestria'?"

"Equestria is a primitive world even compared to Etheria," Hordak dismissed, "I highly doubt we would be able to find a way to even contact them, much less expect any useful help from them."

"Okay, then," Adora said, moving over to a what appeared to be a straight line of planets with city sized propaganda billboards orbiting them, "What are these planets?"

"The Irken Empire controls that section of space," Hordak explained, "What they lack in intelligence and basic spacial reasoning, they make up for in stubbornness and sheer numbers. I'm sure if we could manipulate their attack fleet into moving against the Horde, they would be a valuable distraction. Unfortunately, their leadership seems content to simply take the worlds directly in their single-minded path."

"Well, that's something at least..." Adora admitted, before another planet caught her eye, "Wait a minute. Eternia? I've heard that name before!"

"I don't see how you could have," Hordak explained, "It is just another primitive backwater with no strategic or economic value to us or the Horde whatsoever."

"No, you don't understand," Adora said, "I think this is the planet where the First One's came from."

"Impossible," Hordak scoffed, "I have been there myself. Trust me when I say that world is better off forgotten."

"Alright, fine then," Adora groaned in frustration, "What about this world? It looks like it has big cities. I can't make out what it says here... Mondas? Mobius?"

"Now I am sure the robotocized cyborgs of that world would be perfectly willing to assist us in our fight against the Horde," Hordak said in a slightly brighter tone, before returning to his usual sullen self, "If you were willing to allow all of Etheria to be enslaved and assimilated into their hive mind."

"Yes! Of course! Great!" Adora cried out in anger at a completely metal planet, "What about this one?! I'm guessing these guys just want to steal children's souls or drink our brains or something?"

"Cybertron has been locked in civil war for countless millennia, long before the Horde even existed," Hordak exposited, "I would not expect them to stop fighting long enough to help us anytime soon."

"Right, so all I'm hearing are that the only other factions in the universe are either much worse than the Horde or too small for anyone else to notice," Adora complained, "Isn't there some kind interstellar government authority or a united alliance of planets that don't want enslave or kill everyone else?"

"The only ones we have encountered have chosen to completely abandon this region of space, either ascending to a higher plane of existence or simply venturing out to the far reaches of the cosmos," Hordak described, "The Asgardians, the Vorlons, the Q, the Guardians of Oa. All gone. I believe the Timelords of Gallifrey have recently become extinct again, but they bounced back from that before, so I would keep an eye out for their return. But for now, it would appear that Etheria's long exile in Despondos coupled with the presence of First One's technology has made it our best, if only, staging ground for aggressive action against the Horde."

"So that's it then?" Adora shrugged in frustration, "We're all that's left?"

"I'm sorry, Princess," Hordak sighed, "I'm afraid this isn't one of your Etherian fairy tales. There is no alien god in bright blue tights to swoop in from the sky and save us all in the nick of time. No clever wizard to suddenly pop out of a tiny blue box and instantly wipe away our problems with a wave of their magic wand. If we want to save Etheria, we will have to do it alone."

"Well, that's depressing..." Adora sighed, "How can we beat an enemy that has us completely overwhelmed? It's hopeless!"

"And yet..." Hordak said, "We must still try."

"I need to take a break," grumbled Adora as she leaned against a crate, "This is getting to be too much for me."

"Of course," Hordak said, "It is getting late. You are welcome to join us for dinner if you wish. I have prepared an artificially flavored enzyme nutrient paste for tonight's consumption."

"Oh, it's great!" Entrapta complimented, "They're like those ration bars in the fright zone, except partially liquid so I can put them in tiny cups to have while I'm working."

"As... good as that sounds," Adora said, wearily smiling to hide her disgust, "I need to get back to Brightmoon. Catra and Glimmer will probably be wondering where I've gone by now."

"Very well," said Hordak, "Can I at least offer you a ride home?"

"No!" Adora shouted much louder than she intended, "I mean, no, thank you. I'll be fine. I just... need some time alone to figure things out. One thing before I leave though. How did you make that robot look just like Hordak?"

"Oh, I can explain that!" Entrapta offered, "This whole complex is teeming with holographic projectors. It was easy to figure them out once I fixed the computer. She's been super helpful!"

"The computer..?" Adora asked nervously, "She..?"

"Oh, don't worry," Entrapta said, digging out a tiny box made out of first one's technology from a pile of electronic junk next to her, "I learned my lesson from the last time I experimented with artificial intelligence back in Dryl. Oh, hey that was when we first met! Anyways, I installed her on a closed system, unable to access our computer or the rest of the complex, so she can't hack into my robots again. Unfortunately, that also means she can't access most of her databanks, so there's a few limits on how much she can tell us. That's okay, though, I like figuring things out for myself."

Entrapta pushed a button on the tiny box and it projected the tiny holographic image of a blue woman with angular polygonal features in a hooded robe.

"Adora..." Entrapta said, "Say hi to-"

"Lighthope..." Adora interrupted.

"Hello, Adora," the tiny hologram spoke in a calm, if robotic, tin, "It is a pleasure to see you again."

"Oh, have you both met before?" Entrapta asked obliviously.