AN: More of this! Glimmer is not having this clone's BS. This is also a longer one and I considered splitting it into two, but I figured I would give you guys a treat instead. Enjoy!
"So, why don't we start with your name?" Glimmer sat down in the chair outside the magical containment field. The clone inside scoffed.
"Those born in Prime's image are not tied down by such burdens as names ." He rolled his eyes.
"I see that's how it's gonna be. Fine." Glimmer drew a truth spell in the air, thrusting it through the barrier into the clone. He blinked several times and swallowed hard. "Let's try this again. Tell me your name."
"I have no name."
"What are you called then?"
"I….." his neck twitched. "I am called Romeo. But the other Brothers do not call me that."
"They're not big on individuality, are they?"
"No. Prime's chosen are but parts of the whole. We do degrade ourselves with names, disgraced our Lord who choose the ultimate title for us to share."
"Okay, that's enough about that." Glimmer held out a palm. This guy didn't stop once he got started. Glimmer could easily use that to her advantage. "Why did you attack Catra?"
"The Brotherhood assigned this task to me. Big Brother specifically chose-"
"Who?" Glimmer interrupted. Romeo sighed dramatically and shot her a smug smile.
"There is much you do not know, Queen Glimmer."
"That's your job. To enlighten me." Glimmer quipped.
"Etheria will be enlightened. When Prime rises again, he will bath this world in his light and burn away the impurities. His empire will return to him and the universe will right itself under his good graces." Romeo promised.
"So you went after Catra to try and raise Prime? Why did you think that would work?"
"Traces of his consciousness likely still exist in those he honored by inhabiting. We have checked every Brother, but there is no sign of him within us. We figured that perhaps the Magicat, being Prime's first Sister, might hold some remnant."
"So you tortured her? Seems a little extreme to me."
"The purification process merely appears torturous. In reality, it is a way of connecting the mind from the body. The mind must always be open for Prime to enter and the body ready to enact his will." Romeo shrugged.
"Prime's gone. No one's mind needs to be ready for him, even your tiny one." Glimmer quipped.
"My mind is always open. Brothers undergo purification routinely to keep us prepared."
"You torture yourselves willingly?" Glimmer hated learning about Prime and his loyalists. Every little detail was something she could never forget, even if she wanted to.
"To that level, no. Purification doesn't usually get so…. messy." A small smile crept onto Romeo's face. "I took pleasure in my work, and admittedly it got out of hand. Little Sister was supposed to be delivered to Big Brother to be tested for signs of Prime's consciousness. But I didn't see any signs myself, and I had the sudden realization that the little bitch didn't deserve to live any longer than her usefulness demanded. My only regret is that She-Ra returned home so soon. If I had it my way, you'd be at a funeral right now-"
"Shut your mouth, you snot-eyed sadist." Glimmer growled. "You're lucky Catra's alive because if she wasn't, Adora would have broken your neck instead of knocking you out. She may still if you don't start giving us something useful."
"You want useful?" the smile grew. "I wasn't the only one in the hospital looking for a little revenge."
"What is that-" as if on cue, Glimmer's pad rung. She stared at for a moment, fearing what was on the other end.
"Aren't you going to get that?" Romeo chuckled.
"If your or any of your Brothers did something, I will-"
"Aw, you think the Brotherhood is the only organization out to kill the cat? That's very naïve of you."
Glimmer glared at him and cast a silencing charm on the containment field. With shaking hands, she answered the call.
"Glimmer!" Bow answered. Other voices sounded frantically in the background.
"Bow? What's going on?"
"We've got a situation back in the hospital! It's-"
"Catra!" Adora's voice rose above the others. Glimmer paled. "Don't go, baby, stay with me!"
"What happened?" she demanded.
"Wake up, Catra!" Adora shouted. Another voice spoke indistinctively. "I need you!"
"She suddenly destabilized. We're not sure why." Bow yelled over the commotion. "Is the clone still with you?"
"He's not going anywhere, but I don't think it was any of the Brothers." Glimmer admitted. "He's being as cryptic as possible to get around the spell, but he says he saw someone else in the medical wing who might be after Catra."
"Stay with me! Stay , Catra. Please." Bow winced slightly at Adora's volume. Glimmer could see some of her head bobbing in and out of the picture.
"We're losing her!" someone else cried.
"Catra don't go!"
"We can talk in a minute, Glimmer. I should go. Adora needs….. some support." He decided after a second. Glimmer deduced in an instant he was hanging up to hold their friend back while the doctor's worked. That was usually Glimmer's job, but beating some sense into the clone was going to have to be prioritized.
"Clear!" was the last thing she heard before the pad went dark. Glimmer turned her darken expression on Romeo, an expression of mock impatience on his face.
"Medical troubles?" he asked innocently when the silencer was lifted.
"Who did this?" Glimmer demanded.
"You'll have to be more specific. The spell only works for direct questions, I assume."
"What, you're a magic expert now?"
"No, but I have a cohort who is."
Glimmer filed that away for later and stood up in her chair. She formed a rune around her fist and fixed her harshest death glare on Romeo.
"Who destabilized Catra?"
"I'm afraid I don't know." Romeo shrugged again. Glimmer stepped through the barrier and slugged the irritating clone in the stomach. "OW! Mother of Prime,"
"Fess up." she reared her fist for another strike.
"I'm not lying. I can't remember?" for the first time, a bit of fear crossed his face. "I didn't see who he was. Just the vial of Pooka poison in his pocket."
"Poison." Glimmer's spell faded, and she stepped back out of the field.
"Yes, I would imagine he put it in her IV. The guy was dressed in a nurse uniform, though I suppose it could be a disguise." Romeo mused.
"Tell me any ideas you have on his identity." Glimmer ordered. Romeo twitched slightly at the direct command.
"We're in Brightmoon, a city the Horde almost decimated. Do you think it will be easy to find someone who dislikes the cat enough to take advantage of her vulnerable state? Or maybe some Salinean willing to don some dress-up for some revenge? If he is from Salineas, he's lucky. He gets to avoid the little show later."
"And what do you mean by that?" Glimmer pressed.
"Oh, just the little operation we're preparing against Queen Mermista. No spoilers."
"You are attacking her next!" Glimmer accused. "I knew it."
"Did the little gift I left help at all?"
"Where did you get that trident?"
"Got it from a friend. They took it from the throne room during a scouting mission. Disabled the castle's communication channels while they were at it. You haven't heard from the Queen in some time, have you?" Romeo raised an eyebrow. Glimmer fumed.
"When is the attack?"
"Tonight. You have until moon dawn to get to her before it's too late. Fail, and the Princess is ours." Glimmer stood up and looked out the stable window. Moon-down was in only a few hours; they were nearly out of time. She turned back to the smug clone.
"A few hours is nothing. We have half the Alliance here already and the other half can meet us in Salineas. It'll be a piece of cake."
"Do you really think your precious Princess of Power will leave her wife's side after a third attempt on her life in less than 24 hours?" Romeo challenged. Glimmer cursed. He was right.
"Fine. I'll leave Adora with Catra. And you." he lost a bit of his smugness. "We can handle a couple Brothers. We did three years ago." Granted, Glimmer and all her friends had let themselves go a little since wartime ended, but they were more than capable of taking out a few paltry clones.
"We're sending our entire force after the Princess, Queen Glimmer. Your efforts will be in vain." Romeo warned, regaining his smirk. "By nightfall, we shall have her."
"Shut up." she waved a hand, and the silencer recast itself over the field. She checked it once to make sure it would hold in her absence before grabbing her staff and teleporting back to Catra's room.
"How is she?" Glimmer landed in the hallway, respecting Catra's privacy. Bow and Scorpia lingered outside the closed door. Scorpia seemed a little paler than usual, but Bow just looked relieved.
"Catra's fine. It was touch and go for a minute, but she pulled through." Bow promised.
"Her heart stopped, Bow!" Scorpia interjected. "I haven't been that freaked in my life! Well, maybe once."
"Her heart what?" Glimmer said. Bow took her shoulders in his hands.
"She's fine. The doctor resuscitated her and she went back to sleep. The pain meds knocked her out, so Adora's keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't flatline again."
"I can't believe Catra was technically dead, and I wasn't even here."
"Catra is okay now, Glimmer. What you were doing was helping way more than if you had been here freaking out with the rest of us." He reasoned. Glimmer nodded a little.
"Right. I got some info out of the clone who attacked Catra." she focused as best she could. "We were right, Mermista's next."
"Oh, all my friends in danger." Scorpia buried her face in her pincers.
"Please, we can take these guys and protect Mermista. We know about the attack, so we have the upper hand. They won't be expecting us to be there."
"What about the hivemind?" Bow recalled.
"The field around Romeo cuts off his access. The rest of the Brothers are none the wiser."
"Romeo?"
"It's his name. Apparently, it's a big source of shame for him that he even has a name, but it makes things easier for us." Glimmer shrugged.
"I'll never understand the no-name thing." Bow sighed. "Even the Etherian Horde had names."
"It was probably so Hordak didn't have to go through all the trouble of trying to communicate with someone he couldn't address. The hivemind really takes away any need for names when you think about it." Scorpia mused. "When you can directly into someone's head, why bother calling them something?"
"Yeah, Prime was nothing if not pragmatic to a fault." Glimmer recalled the sleek, lifeless design of the Velvet Glove. It was built entirely for efficiency, comfort for anyone but himself completely disregarded.
"I guess the clones didn't pick that up from him. Hinting at their plans instead of just doing them is far from the logical approach." Bow said.
"Better for us! That way, we can protect Mermista and keep what happened to Catra from happening to her." Scorpia shrugged. "I'm sick of my friends getting hurt."
"That reminds me," Glimmer snapped her fingers. "Adora has to stay here to keep an eye on Catra. Romeo says she was poisoned, which caused her heart to stop. He also thinks it wasn't a Brother. Someone in the hospital wanted to seize an opportunity."
"Do you trust him?" Bow frowned.
"I think the truth spell adds to his credibility."
"Fair." He shrugged.
"So Adora will stay here with Wildcat, and the rest of us can protect Mermista." Scorpia stood up.
"I should probably stay here too." Glimmer admitted. "I need to organize the medical staff and weed out if any of them poisoned Catra. I can get Juliet to help, but the attack is at moon-down and I definitely won't be done with this by then."
"Well, I won't be happy going into battle without you, but if you think you're needed, I trust you." Bow finally released her shoulders.
"I'll go fill in Perfuma and see if I can find Netossa. She's still trying to reach Frosta and Spinny at the Elemental's Conference." Scorpia nodded to her friends and headed back to the main waiting room.
"Thank goodness Perfuma skipped the conference this year, or we'd be down even more Princesses." Glimmer sighed. It was tough, thinking about Bow going into what promised to be a major battle with only a few of their allies.
"Hey." Bow smiled. "It's gonna be okay. You'll find Catra's attacker, we'll protect Mermista, and then we can all rest easy."
"We're going to have to take down the Brotherhood eventually."
"That's in the future. For right now, all we have to do is go to Salineas and protect our friend. We can do it."
"I know. Thank you." she leaned up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss. Bow blushed like a teenager, which he always did, it was adorable, and his smile widened.
"We can do this. We're gonna win in the end."
AN: If you read What You're Worth, there's no chapter this week. Sorry.
Foreshadowing was abundant in this chapter. Let me know if you picked anything up and I'll see you soon! Thanks