Adora leaned against Darla's control panel, pressing her fingers against the metal until the tips were white. This was taking too long and they still didn't even know if it was going to work. Behind her, Entrapta was making an incredible amount of noise, banging around on the ship's innards and humming happily like she hadn't had this much fun in weeks.

In the captain's chair, Catra stirred in her sleep and Adora turned, watching the familiar way her tail switched as she slept. Curled up against herself in the chair like that, she looked so small and venerable. Especially without all that hair. That she could even sleep through all this noise was a painful reminder of everything her friend had been through. It would take a long time to recover from her ordeal on Prime's ship, both physically and mentally.

She thought, unbidden, of Glimmer and Bow, her body tensing up again. She went back to staring at the small diagnostic Entrapta had pulled up on the screen before her. Her friend's vitals, numbers, colors, and pulsing lines alongside tiny little stick figures of Bow and Glimmer. It was part of the transporter system, something to do with the way the DNA Entrapta had "borrowed" locked into their unique signals. It was a little creepy that she hadn't asked permission but considering it was the only thing Adora had right now to tell her that her friends were still alive, she wasn't going to make a big deal about it.

She had no idea what most of the numbers or lines meant, only that Entrapta had said as long as the big line was still in the green section Glimmer and Bow were still OK. Yellow was less good but if it got down to red, they had to lock onto their signals and pull them back whether they'd gotten the transporter working properly or not. Which considering how the last few tests had gone, was a terrifying prospect.

"Alright! I should have worked out the kinks this time." Entrapta appeared at her elbow, wiping grease on her overalls. "Let's fire it up and see what we've got!"

"Are you sure we should even be doing this, Entrapta?" There were still scorch marks all over the bridge from last time's aforementioned kinks. "It's not that I don't have faith in you, but this whole system is really old and kind of busted and if it fails—"

"But failure is how you learn!"

"I don't want to learn! I just want Bow and Glimmer back in one piece!"

Entrapta ignored her, flipped her mask down over her face, and started talking into her recorder. "Commencing test 137, transporter system upgrades... now."

The geek princess initiated the test. Adora turned to watch the small cluster of apple slices floating just outside the window. It was the last of the fresh food they'd brought with them from Etheria but it was the only organic matter they had to test this system with unless one of them went out there. A slice glowed a pale blue and she crossed her fingers.

Maybe it would work this time. Gods, she really hoped it did. As much as she hated relying on this unstable old technology, she didn't have a better idea for how to get her friends back.

The area on the bridge they'd marked off for testing was glowing now with the same faint blue and it looked a lot less… glitchy?… than the last time but Adora still took two big steps back just in case. She allowed herself a burst of hope as something started to solidify in front of them. If they could get this to work, they could just snatch Bow and Glimmer back out from under Prime's nose and get the hell out of here. But then the air was filled with the distinct smell of burning and they only had a second to react before charred bits of apple spattered everywhere.

"What the hell?" Catra shouted, starling awake. "If we're just going to blow Adora's friends to bits, maybe we're better off letting Prime have them!"

"Ha! Got it inside this time! And it wasn't entirely pulverized!" Entrapta wiped applesauce off her mask and opened it to reveal wide eyes and a big smile. She hair-walked over to the small smoking lump in the center of the testing area that was all that was left of the original apple slice. She held it aloft and it immediately fell apart in her hands. "Hmm. Do they really have to be in one piece?"

Adora stared at Entrapta genuinely not sure if the geek princess was joking or not. Entrapta tossed the bit of former apple back to the ground and let out a little chuckle. A moment later she was back to banging and working on wires. Adora brushed fruit off her, burned beyond recognition, and tried not to imagine her friends ending up in bits just like this.

"This is not good," she said to herself.

"What are you so worried about?" Catra rose from the chair and shook herself off, looking irritated. "As long as Entrapta gets them on the ship, can't She-Ra just… fix them or whatever? I'm going to go wash this gunk off."

Catra wouldn't look at her as she left the bridge but everything unsaid still hung between them. Catra had been all but dead and She-Ra had managed to bring her back from just that one little spark of life left in her. But admitting that meant acknowledging what had happened between them and saying things Adora didn't think she was ready to say yet.

Certainly not now.

Maybe not ever.

But Catra's words sent a new fear creeping through the tangled mess of worries already in her head. She couldn't just slip She-Ra back on whenever she needed her like she used to. She still had no idea how she'd managed to call her up when she was with Prime and, even then, she'd only been able to do it because it was Catra. Because Catra was more than just her friend and there was so much there between them, behind them and now maybe even ahead of them. It was a whole different class of feelings than she had for anyone else.

Mangled, messy feelings but all of them strong.

But Bow and Glimmer? She loved them. She loved them like the family she'd never had and she would do anything for them but it was nothing like she felt for Catra and... would that be enough? She'd done it for them once before, in the cave, but it was only for a moment. She looked at the charred chunked of apple all over the bridge. She'd need so much longer than a minute to heal something like this.

But she had to try. Adora took a breath, steadying herself like she used to do in training exercises in the Horde. She focused on the thought of her friends, her best friends, the whole beautiful new world they'd brought her into, and held out her hand. She cleared her mind of all thoughts of destiny and She-Ra, of who she was supposed to be and what she was supposed to do. She focused only on the warm feeling of love she had for her two best friends.

Come on. For a minute, she almost thought it worked. Something fluttered against her palm, solid and real, and she closed her hand around it. But then the panel next to her beeped and it was gone, her hand closing in on her palm. She squeezed her hand into a fist and pressed it against her forehead.

Why couldn't she do this?

She looked back at the screen and the little stick figures of Glimmer and Bow, their heart rates erratic in a way that could only mean they were in danger. From inside the controls, something sparked and Entrapta mumbled something that sounded discouragingly like, "Well that's not good!" As Adora watched, Glimmer's line fluctuated and then dipped precariously close to yellow before pulling back up to the bottom of the safety zone.

Adora opened the hand that had managed to conjure the sword again even if just for a second and stared at it. She tried to call She-Ra but this time there was nothing, not even the feeling of a spark. She closed her eyes and leaned against the control panel again.

She just had to hope it would be there when she needed it.