CHAPTER 9: PUT AWAY CHILDISH THINGS
Soft sobs echo through the empty corridor. The corridor is deserted. It always is when the young one wept. The guards, after all, know better than to be anywhere near the young one at these times.
A set of footsteps, coming from somewhere. The young one could not tell the source. They are softer, lighter, and more rapid than the ones that usually filled them with dread.
It was only a small relief. At least there would be a chance the young one would not face punishment this time.
The footsteps grow louder. The young one muffles their sobs as best they can.
"There you are!" The voice is high-pitched, soft, yet projects through the wide corridors. Footsteps continue, increasing in frequency, until they come to a sudden stop.
The young one looks up and sees a soft face, framed by long golden locks of hair. The tiny mouth is drawn up into a smile, but the eyes, pale blue, reflect no warmth whatsoever. They never do.
Soft hands, with long crimson nails, reach down to cradle the young one's face. Despite the pale whiteness of the skin, the hands feel warm, and the thumbs swipe under the eyes, brushing away tears. The long thumbnails come perilously close to scraping the young one's eyes, but the young one knows better than to flinch.
"Why do you weep, my son?" The voice is high-pitched, smooth, and despite their fear it helps the young one open up.
"I…I…" the young one tries to respond.
The soft warm hands withdraw from the face, and a moment later, faster than the young one can see, one whips across their vision and there is a sudden sharp pain in the young one's cheeks as their head is snapped to the side.
The young one bites their lip hard to keep from crying out.
"Remember - never hesitate," the soft one says, her voice still as soft as before. "A prince does not hesitate. Now tell me what's on your mind."
"I - I don't feel like who I'm supposed to be," the young one says as they rub their reddening cheek. "I try to ignore it, as the man-at-arms tells me, but I can't."
The soft one kneels down and wraps arms around the young one. Tenderly, almost motherly. "What do you feel you're supposed to be?"
"I don't know," the young one says, "but not what I am."
"Then if you are not a prince, if you are not the chosen one, what would you be?"
"I…I don't know."
The soft one pulls away and gazes into the young one's eyes. Suddenly a blur of motion crosses the young one's vision, and their head snaps to the side again as a slap burns the other cheek.
"Well, my son, let us go discuss who you really are, and put your doubts to rest." The soft one's hand grips the young one's mop of blonde hair and, with a strength far exceeding what one would expect from her thin arms, the soft one begins to drag the young one across the polished floor.
The young one screams. Begs the soft one to stop. But the soft one does not stop.
"Let us tell your father this. That his son, his only heir, no longer wishes to be that."
"No! No no no! Please, no!"
The soft one stops. Releases the young one's hair. The young one falls to the hard floor and hits their head.
"No?" The soft one's voice has no edge to it, only passivity. "Then what shall we tell your father, my son?"
"T-tell him…" the young one starts. As the soft one bends down with a hand drawn back, the young one quickly adds, "Tell my father that his son is ready to face his destiny and will be the chosen one for the Empire. I will complete my training. I'll excel at it."
The soft one lowers her hand. "Is that all you wish to say?"
The young one gets to their feet, back straight, chin raised. "I fully accept my role, and my duty, as the She-Ra."
The soft one smiles. As before, the eyes do not reflect the smile. "Good, my son. Very good. That will ensure your punishment is far less severe than it would have been." The soft one snaps out a hand, grabs the young one's hair, and yanks so hard she pulls the young one off their feet. "Your father is waiting."
"Mother no!"
Adam's eyes snapped open. He was breathing heavily, sweating profusely. "What…" he started, but then seemed to forget the question almost immediately. A fog washed over his brain. The memory of the dream was gone almost instantly, and though the unease lingered a tad longer, a giddiness started to fill his stomach. He started giggling despite himself.
Then he felt an urge, down below. It was one he'd known well, and one he'd been trained to ignore as long as possible, but it was making itself known with a vengeance.
He started to get up, but found he couldn't. He looked down, and despite his blurry double-vision, he could tell there were straps binding him. "Ohhhh," he said, giggling again. He turned his head to the side and noticed something moving. Hard to tell what it was. It was a big purple form, slumped over some big white and blue thing.
"Hiii," he said.
No response.
"I'm Adam. Do I know you?"
Still no response.
Adam sighed. "Okay. Say, you wouldn't be able to help me get up to go pee, would you?" After a moment, "Or get an empty bottle or something? My mother used to get mad when I peed in my pants."
Only silence greeted him.
"Fine, I guess I'll just lie here, trying not to think of showers, and waterfalls, and stuff like that." He paused. "Uh oh...now I really need to go."
Suddenly a siren sounded, filling the room. It was followed by a voice:
"Attention! Everyone get up here now! We have a big problem!"
"Okay," Adam called out. "But can I go to the bathroom first?" He tugged against the straps. "And also can you untie me?"
The door at the rear of the command deck hissed open. "Catra?" Bow entered, unsteadily, practically carrying Glimmer over his shoulder. He was breathing heavily. "What…w-what…?"
Catra rushed over and helped him get the mumbling, barely responsive Glimmer to the command chair. Once they got there, Bow practically collapsed onto the chair himself. He was panting heavily. "Catra," he said. "What…what's the…big problem?" He then noticed a hologram standing in the middle of the room. Vaguely humanoid shaped, flickering. His vision was too blurry to pick out any details.
Catra looked down and leaned with both hands on the command chair. Her lip was trembling. "There was a…Adora, she…" She hung her head and shook it. She squeezed her hands into fists, her claws tearing gouges into the exotic alloy. "Darla, play the message again."
"Hey, everyone." The hologram started to move, and Bow recognized Adora's voice instantly. "By the time you see this, I'll be gone. And...you'll never see me again."
There was definite sadness in her voice, even through the digital compression filters.
"I'm sorry. I really am. I - this isn't what I wanted. But I don't…I don't…" Her voice choked. "Darla, pause recording."
The hologram flickered, but almost immediately resumed. "I don't have a choice in the matter." Her voice was much more even than it was seconds before. "I made a deal with Last Resort. She let you all go, and she'll leave Etheria alone. Forever."
Bow's vision finally cleared enough so he could see Adora's face, surrounded by her golden She-Ra mask, in the blue-tinted hologram before them. As he watched, he could see the holographic Adora's eyes shift slightly between red and blue, in cycles.
Adora took a deep breath. "But I had to do something in return." She closed her eyes. "I have to stay on Crelus. I have to...I have to be the She-Ra the First Ones need."
"Wh...What?" Glimmer said. She tried to push herself up into a higher sitting position, but her arms were too weak. "You what?"
Adora's hologram continued uninterrupted. "I diverted us back to Crelus, and I'll be leaving shortly. After I'm gone, Darla will be on course to take you all back to Etheria. I'm going to lock her navigation systems. Also, I'm deleting all data on Crelus, including how to get there, from her memory bank."
With a sudden burst of energy Glimmer shot up out of the seat, though her legs almost immediately gave out on her. Bow helped her sit back down in the command chair. "What? Adora, no!"
"I...this is…" Her voice started to choke, and her pitch raised. "I'm so, so sorry. Glimmer, Bow. I love you guys. You're my best friends, and - I just wish the best for you. Always."
Glimmer glanced over to Bow, who seemed to be staring in shock. Tears were filling his eyes.
The holographic Adora took a deep breath. "Catra. Catra, I'm...I'm doing what I swore I'd never do to you again. And I hate myself for it. I always will. Please...be angry with me. Hate me for it. Don't hate yourself. You are...you're so wonderful, and I hate myself for leaving you again. But please find a way to be happy. You deserve so much more and I-" Her voice cracked. She started again, her voice barely a squeak, "You're the love of my life and my…" She started openly weeping. "My heart is breaking right now and I don't want to go but if I don't she'll come back and she'll destroy Etheria and she'll kill you all and I can't let that happen and I don't want to do this but I can't...I can't…"
She yelped out and threw her head back. After a moment she faced forward again, her eyes now fully red, her expression stony, but the remnants of her tears still on her cheeks.
"This is the last time we will speak," she said, her voice now almost completely robotic, and as if someone else were speaking with her voice and face. "I must fulfill my purpose. As for Adam, he's yours." She pulled a sword from her back, and they could see it was Adam's, complete with red veins running throughout. "I am taking his sword and, with it, his ability to transform into She-Ra. He will no longer be a threat to you or your world. Do with him what you will."
She returned the sword to her back.
For a brief instant, her eyes flashed blue again. "Goodbye...forever. I love you all."
The holographic Adora flickered and then winked out.
Glimmer slid out of the command chair and fell to her knees, and then all fours. After several deep breaths she pounded a fist onto the floor. "No! No! Why...did she do this? Why?"
"Because she was being controlled," Bow said. His breathing had slowed, and his voice less labored than before. "You saw her eyes, right? The red eyes...and how she was acting back on the planet. Something's taken her over. There can't be another explanation."
Catra was still standing at the command chair, shaking. She stretched out her fingers, and then tore new deeper gashes into the armrest. She said nothing.
"But why?" Glimmer said. She took a few deep breaths. "Even if she was being controlled, why would she go back? Why would she leave Adam here?"
"You said she was acting all weird," Scorpia said, causing all three of them to immediately look up at her. "Maybe she wasn't thinking straight?"
"When did you get in here?" Bow said. "How much...how much of that did you hear?"
"I, um…" She rubbed the back of her head. "I woke up and heard Catra shouting on the announcer thingy. You were all in here watching that thing with Adora, and I, you know, didn't want to interrupt."
Glimmer sighed. "She...she took us back to Crelus, left, and now we're locked on a trip back home."
"Yeah, I got that part." Scorpia said. "But you guys...you're not just going to let her go, right?"
"You bet your ass we're not," Bow said. He marched up to the forward console and started punching in commands.
"Access denied," came Darla's voice.
"Oh no you don't," Bow said. He tapped a complex set of key presses with one hand while holding down a single button with his other.
"Manual override unavailable."
"Override it," Bow said. "Darla, declaring emergency situation alpha-three. Engage manual control now."
"Unable. Manual override locked by administrator."
"Dammit," Bow said. He knelt down, opened an access hatch underneath the buttons he'd been pressing, and looked inside. It looked a lot different than the last time he'd tinkered with this panel. "Oh boy. Someone see if you can get Entrapta. I'm gonna need her help."
"I already checked her on my way here," Scorpia said. "She's…she's not ready."
"Not ready?" Catra said, finally looking up from her own hands. "What the hell do you mean 'not ready'?"
"She's...she won't leave Hordak's side," Scorpia said. "She barely even woke up when I tried. Just said his name over and over and went back to sleep."
"Bow needs her," Glimmer said. She stood and put on the regal air she had learned to use when giving royal commands. "We need her. Bring her in here now. Drag her in here if you have to."
"What?" Scorpia said. "You - seriously?"
"Yes, I'm serious," Glimmer said. "She rebuilt this ship, and she can get around that lock Adora put on it."
Scorpia hesitated for several seconds, before finally saying, "No."
Bow peered out from the panel at her. Glimmer and Catra were already staring, confusion on their faces. "No?" Glimmer said.
"She needs…she needs time," Scorpia said. "We need to let her-"
"I'll get her," Catra said, pushing her way past Scorpia.
"No!" Scorpia said, grabbing Catra's arm.
"Ow! What the hell do you think you're-?"
"Stop it!" Scorpia said. "Everyone!" They all stared at her for a moment. "Look, Entrapta's - she's not like us, okay? She…she works differently. Thinks differently. Okay? She can't - sometimes she just has to process things, you know? Not like we do. Okay?" When nobody responded, she finally said, "Just let her be with Hordak for now. She'll come out when she's ready, and if you try to force her it's just gonna make things worse."
After a long pause, Catra said, "You - how do you know?"
"Because I talk to her," Scorpia said. "I listen. Maybe you all should listen to her once in a while and you'd understand her a little more."
There was a long silence as Catra, Glimmer, and Bow all took turns looking at each other, the floor, Scorpia, or at nothing in particular.
"I - I'm sorry," Scorpia said. "But sometimes - a lot of times - she tells me she feels like people just use her for stuff and then ignore her when they don't need anything. She doesn't deserve to feel like that. Especially not from her friends."
Again there was silence. Finally, Glimmer broke it and said, "You're right. I'm sorry."
"Yeah," Bow said, hanging his head. "Me too."
Catra said nothing. She only walked back past Scorpia, her tail curled around her leg, and up to the front viewer.
"I - I'm sorry," Scorpia said again. "But…thanks for understanding." She turned toward the rear door. "I'm gonna go sit with her for a while, see if I can get through to her." She stopped and turned back to the others. "Just me, okay?"
"All right," Glimmer said. She hesitantly sat down in the command chair.
After another moment, Scorpia said, "All right," and then left the cockpit.
"Dammit!" Glimmer smacked a fist onto the command chair's arm, causing a holographic display to appear in front of her. She swiped at it dismissively, causing the display to spin rapidly, various bits of information and telemetry zipping past too quickly for her to see. She closed her eyes, sighed, and leaned forward.
"I'm gonna keep working," Bow said, sliding back into the panel. "Entrapta left some good notes. I'm sure I can...probably figure it out."
"Yeah," Glimmer said. "Great."
Glimmer rubbed her eyes and then stood, the holographic controls vanishing as soon as her backside left the seat. She walked over to Catra. "Catra, did she say anything before we all went unconscious? What did she say? What did she do?"
Catra sighed. "She was feeling sick. Then she went to sleep. Next thing I know I was half-dead and saw her while I was crawling to this room. She was in She-Ra form. She said, 'I'm sorry,' and that's the last thing I remember before waking up, seeing her message, and calling you all in here."
"That's all?"
"What do you want from me?" Catra shouted. "She left us! It's what she does!"
"I want to know why!"
"I don't fucking know, okay? I…don't…fucking...know!" She spun around. Glimmer could see her eyes were bloodshot and the fur around them was soaked and disheveled. "She didn't tell me anything! She just got that red eye thing and she…she…" She grunted in frustration and stormed past Glimmer and out of the command deck.
Glimmer watched her go, and then settled backward to lean against the forward viewer. She lowered her head.
This is all because of me, she thought. My mission, my plan. My mess.
Adora opened her eyes. She didn't remember closing them. Didn't remember much of anything, in fact.
She was standing. It was unsettling to wake up and find herself standing, and in her surprise she had to catch herself to keep from falling. She looked down at her hands and her clothes. She was no longer in her She-Ra form. Instead she was in only the underwear she'd usually worn to bed. She had no shoes or socks on, and the floor beneath her felt surprisingly warm. Almost as if she'd been standing there long enough for her body heat to warm the crystalline material.
Flashes of thoughts began appearing to her. They were brief, disjointed, and difficult to follow. None of them were giving a clue as to how she'd ended up in this place.
"Guys?" she called out. Her voice seemed to vanish the moment it left her mouth; she mostly heard it only as it reverberated through her own skull to her eardrums. "Where-?"
An image suddenly popped into her mind's eye and it stopped her cold. An image of Catra, lying on the floor. Looking up at her. An expression of pain. No, more than that. One she'd seen on Catra's face too many times, and which she'd hoped never to see again.
Betrayal.
It all came back to her. What she'd done. Why she'd done it. Seeing Catra lying on the ground, barely conscious, the accusation in her eyes…it reminded her of the look Catra gave her years before, when Adora had first told her that she wasn't returning to the Horde.
She remembered again. What she'd said to them. How, at times, it seemed like something took over, using her voice to say things. In the end, though, it had all stemmed from a choice she'd made: to leave her friends behind, yet again. Something she'd promised them, promised herself, she would never do again.
But this time it's different. It's to save all their lives, and to save Etheria. She paused. Just like I did when I went to the Heart.
As before, she'd left her friends behind to sacrifice herself for their good. As before, she hadn't even given them a chance to come help her. Never gave them the choice.
I'm really no better than I was before, she thought. And this time I'll never get a chance to make it right.
She looked around herself. She knew she was on Crelus, somewhere in the underground complex, but she had no idea where, nor even how she'd gotten here. There were lights overhead, illuminating part of the room she was in. She could see three solid walls surrounding her, perfectly smooth with no apparent doors or seams.
Where she would have expected a fourth wall was instead a veil of darkness. She couldn't actually see the veil, much less beyond it, but somehow she had the feeling that there was a much larger chamber beyond it. How or why she felt that, she couldn't say.
Last Resort suddenly appeared before her and she gasped, stumbling backward. "It is time." The red-hued clone of Light Hope raised a hand, and as it did so the dark veil vanished and revealed the chamber beyond.
As Adora had sensed, the chamber was much larger than what she'd initially seen. The section where Adora had been standing was a relatively small balcony, overlooking what she could only describe as a massive hangar beyond. She walked to the railing at the end of the balcony and looked down. She could see dozens of translucent cylinders, arranged in diamond patterns, stretching to a wall at least a kilometer away. They each seemed to be glowing with a bluish-green color.
As she observed, she noticed figures inside those shapes were hard to make out, but at least some of them appeared almost human.
Somehow, all of this was very familiar to her.
"This is the future of our empire," Last Resort said. "They will be our army. And you will lead them."
Adora gasped. The dream. The army of She-Ras. Light Hope, and Shadow Weaver, and...and Catra. Catra dying. But wasn't that all just a dream? Or...was Last Resort somehow in her head, even back then? "What...are they?" she asked.
"They are genetic clones. Of yourself. All with the same potential you have, and all directly under your control."
Adora felt numb all over. She had to grip the railing tightly to keep from tumbling over the edge. "They're clones…of me?"
"After we perfected the process with you, we replicated it. One thousand twenty-four times."
"Wait - what?" Adora said. She spun to face Last Resort. "You did…you did what with me?"
Last Resort tilted her head. "The process of successfully synthesizing an Eternian with the potential to wield the power of She-Ra. You were the first to succeed."
Scorpia stuck her head into the medical bay. Entrapta was still on her knees with her head and arms on top of Hordak's arm. While she was facing away from Scorpia, she could tell Entrapta's breathing was slow and steady, and her hair hanging limply from her head. Still sleeping. Scorpia sighed. When Scorpia had checked on her before, after Catra's shipwide announcement, she'd simply shushed Scorpia and insisted Hordak still needed to rest.
Scorpia had no desire to disturb her. Yes, the others wanted her to, but Scorpia knew better that, sometimes, Entrapta needed time without the rest of the world trying to grab her attention. It annoyed her slightly that, of all Entrapta's friends, Scorpia seemed to have been the only one who'd taken the time to actually be her friend.
Scorpia tiptoed into the room, and for the briefest moment she thought she heard whispering. Or maybe murmuring. She glanced over at Entrapta and Hordak. Both appeared to still be out.
"Oh hey, lobster lady!"
The sudden voice calling out shocked Scorpia and caused her to jump. She turned to Adam, finding him still lying strapped down, with his head turned toward her. His eyes were half-open and seemed to be having trouble focusing. "Uh, hello," she said, keeping her voice low.
"Hey can you let me up? I really gotta pee."
"Shh!" she said. She pointed to Entrapta and Hordak.
"Ohhh," Adam said, in a forced whisper. "Sorry. Anyway...what was I saying?"
"That...um...you have to pee?"
"Oh, right!" Adam said, no longer whispering. "Can you help me with that?"
Scorpia opened her mouth, and then shut it again. She remembered what Adora's hologram said, that without his sword he was supposedly harmless. And, to be fair, he reminded Scorpia an awful lot of how Adora was that one time, back in the Reach. Silly, barely aware of what was happening. Harmless.
"All right," she said, "but if you try to get away, or do anything funny, we're gonna have trouble."
"Okay," Adam said. "I don't really like trouble anyway. It's troubling."
Scorpia knelt down and inspected the straps that were holding Adam to the bunk. They were each latched into some kind of buckle on the bunk's underside. There was a release button, but it was tiny compared to her pincers.
"Why do all these buttons everywhere have to be so tiny?" she muttered.
She reached up, as gingerly and delicately as she could, and tried to maneuver the sharp tip of her pincer into place on the button. She missed the first time, instead poking a hole in the metal buckle.
"Crap," she said under her breath. She tried again, this time lucky enough to hit the button the first try. It clicked in and the strap immediately released, retracting across Adam's upper chest and into the wall.
"Phew," she said. "Two more to go."
"You can do it!" Adam said. "I believe in you!"
"Shh!" Scorpia said again. "And, uh - thanks."
She used one pincer to hold the other one steady as she slowly approached the second buckle. She managed to hit the button on the first try, and the strap slid over Adam's midsection and retracted into the wall.
"One more," she muttered, biting her lip and focusing on the last buckle underneath Adam's legs. She approached it slowly…
...and was startled by a moan behind her, accidentally snapping forward and crushing the buckle. "Shit," she said, and then glanced behind her. Entrapta seemed to be stirring. No, not Entrapta. Hordak's arm was moving. Scorpia could see his lips part and heard another low moan flow out from between his teeth, dull gray in the overhead light.
"Lord Hordak?" she said, his former title escaping her lips out of lifelong habit. She stood and ran over to him. "Can you hear me?"
Hordak's eyelids slowly parted, revealing thin lines of his glowing red, pupil-less eyes. Another wordless moan escaped. Scorpia couldn't tell if he saw her; she was never able to tell where he was looking with those featureless eyes. But this was something new. He was no longer lying still, silent, like a corpse.
Entrapta had barely stirred. Scorpia knew how exhausted she must have been after her long vigil over Hordak. That didn't even count whatever it was Adora did to knock them out when she left.
"Hey." Scorpia nudged her with her elbow. "Entrapta. Wake up."
Entrapta moaned slightly and stirred.
"Entrapta!" Scorpia said again, still trying to keep her voice low. "C'mon, you wanna see this."
Entrapta murmured a little, but still didn't seem to wake up.
"Entrapta!" Scorpia said, in almost a shout.
Entrapta yelped and fell back onto her backside. "What? Wh-what?"
"Hordak!" Scorpia said. "He's…he's…well I guess 'awake' isn't the right word, but-"
"He's awake?!" Entrapta said, almost screaming the words. She leapt to her feet and literally shoved Scorpia out of the way. Entrapta placed her scarred, ungloved hands on Hordak's face. "Hordak? Can you hear me?"
Scorpia, now hovering over Entrapta, heard him moan and saw his thin white lips move ever so slightly. She couldn't discern any words, but that didn't seem to be discouraging Entrapta.
"It's okay, you're safe. You're on Darla. And you're alive!"
This time, Scorpia thought she heard the word, "Alive." It wasn't a question, more like a statement. Then again, Scorpia was far from fluent in "semi-conscious Hordak speak".
"Yeah, you're alive!" Entrapta said. She leaned forward and kissed Hordak on the forehead. She then pulled away and stared into his face. "Why didn't you tell me you were dying? I could have helped you before!"
Scorpia felt awkward at the sudden turn this conversation took, and turned away. She glanced back toward the other medical bunk…and then realized with a shock that it was empty.
She glanced around the small room. There was no Adam, nor anywhere for a person Adam's size to hide. "Shit!" she said. "I did it again!"
She glanced back at Entrapta, who was holding what seemed to be a very one-sided conversation with Hordak. After a moment's hesitation Scorpia rushed out the door into the main corridor.
As the medical bay door closed behind her, she realized that every other door in the corridor was also shut.
Oh boy, she thought. She glanced down the corridor, taking stock of the several doors on both sides. Which one could he have fled to?
She crossed the hall to the first dorm door - Catra and Adora's. Please don't let him be in here. She leaned up against the door and pressed an ear to it..
She could hear weeping, and knew it was Catra's. She'd heard Catra crying a few times, back in their Horde days, when Catra thought she was alone. Scorpia immediately thought about hitting the door chime, to go in and try to comfort her, but decided against it. This wasn't the time, and she had to find Adam before he came to his senses and did something to sabotage the ship.
She slid down to the next door, Glimmer and Bow's. She pressed her ear to it and waited. No sound. She took a deep breath and pressed the button to open it.
The door slid open, revealing a dorm virtually identical to Scorpia's. Identical, and with nowhere to hide except underneath the bed. A quick examination showed he wasn't under there.
She shut the door and went to the next one, leading to Entrapta and Hordak's room. She paused, pressed the button, and burst in with an, "Aha!"
From one look she could tell it was empty. In fact, it didn't even look like it had ever been used. Knowing Entrapta, Scorpia wouldn't be surprised if she slept in the engine room. And as for Hordak, well, Scorpia had no idea if Hordak ever actually slept.
She let the door shut, and then moved on to the last dorm room. Her own.
"Ah-ha!"
It, likewise, was empty. The bed was done as her beds had always been done, in tight Horde regulation fashion. It was one of the few things that required fine motor skills that she'd been able to learn to do with her pincers. The regular hits with the stun gun in her youth had been powerful motivators. And that bed was completely undisturbed from how she'd left it.
She saw her communicator on the stand beside the bed and felt a pang. If they couldn't figure out what happened to Adora…if they couldn't find a way to turn the ship around and go back for her…she would have to tell Perfuma. She knew Perfuma idolized Adora, and Scorpia did not want to have to see the disappointment, the sadness, in her lover's eyes when she's told that Adora is gone and will never return.
She shut the door. That was something she'd have to worry about later, so as she usually did, she pushed that dread deep down and sealed it up. She refocused on the here and now, and approached the last door on that side of the corridor. Scorpia had never opened that door, and had no idea what was behind it.
Except maybe Adam.
The door slid open to reveal a tiny room, a closet, really, with various bits and bobs of technological stuff inside.
"Umm, aha?" she said. She couldn't imagine anyone finding a way to hide in this room, between the small size and all the junk crammed inside. Out of curiosity, she pushed aside a large box. As she did so she heard something inside it shift, clang to the floor, and then what sounded like shattering glass.
"Ohhh crap," she said under her breath. "I hope that wasn't important." She slowly backed out of the doorway and let the door close.
One side down, one more to go. She strode, with a false casualness in case anyone happened to see her, toward the door on the other side of the corridor. She hesitated for a moment, and then opened it.
"AHA!"
An electronic garble greeted her. Scorpia yelped and jumped back as she saw Emily 2.0 literally standing in front of the open door.
Scorpia took a breath, and then let out a sigh. "Whew, sorry about that. I'm not used to your new body yet." She stepped back up to Emily ."You know, I was wondering where you were hiding."
Emily tweeted a query and tilted her "head".
"No, I just...You haven't seen a blonde guy walking around in here, have you?"
Emily chirped a negative, and then made another inquisitive series of beeps.
"I...um…" Scorpia leaned in close and raised a claw to the side of her face. "Okay, I lost Adam," she whispered. "I really need to find him. He's not somewhere in there, is he?"
Emily replied with a buzzing that was decidedly a negative response. Despite that, Scorpia stuck her head in and glanced down both sides of the room. She remembered that Entrapta had once mentioned this being the engine room, and as full as it was of various technological thingamabobs, she figured it couldn't be anything else. Despite its size, it was a tight space, walls and ceiling almost completely covered with pipes, cables, and blinking lights were everywhere. A workbench of some sort was to her right, with a floating thing in front of it that almost looked like a chair. Beyond that, through another extremely tight space with more pipes and cables and blinky lights, was another door.
No Adam. Not that there was a shortage of nooks for him to hide in this room, but there was no way she could go after him.
"You're sure he didn't come in here?" Scorpia said to Emily. She pointed to the door at the far end. "Didn't go in there, maybe?"
Emily again replied in the negative.
Scorpia sighed. "Okay, thanks. Listen, you wouldn't mind helping me find him, would you?"
Entrapta gave an excited whistle, and it made Scorpia smile.
"Thanks, I know I can always count on you. Let's go."
As soon as she turned around a voice said, "Hi!"
Scorpia screamed and jumped so high her head almost hit the ceiling. Adam was standing there, legs still wobbly, and he was waving awkwardly at her.
Emily gave a cheerful beep, which Scorpia assumed meant, "Found him!"
"W-where did you come from?" Scorpia said, catching her breath.
"I said I had to go to the bathroom," Adam said. He sighed. "Much better now. I even washed my hands like you're supposed to."
The restroom. Of course. The door just between the medical bay and the cockpit...and where Scorpia should have checked first. "That's - that's good," she said, kicking herself internally. "We, um - we need to go back to the medical room."
Adam shrugged. "Okay." He walked back toward the medical bay, and after staring at him for a long moment, Scorpia followed.
Catra was lying on her bed, curled into a fetal position, and sobbing through clenched teeth. It was all she could do to keep her old darkness from seeping back in.
Again. Adora did it to her again. Why did she always have to be the lone hero? Why did she always have to be the martyr?
Why couldn't she just stay for fucking once in her life?
The first time Adora had left her, she'd taken it personally. Very personally. So much so that she'd spent years convincing herself that she didn't need Adora. Didn't want Adora. Now in hindsight, and with the help her therapist had given her in looking back on herself, she knew she'd been desperate to get Adora back, no matter how hard she pushed Adora away. Even the times she'd tried to kill Adora.
Even the time she tried to wipe out all of existence just so she could get back at Adora for abandoning her.
Those old, unhealthy thoughts kept trying to push their way back into her conscious mind. It wasn't easy to hold them back. The feelings of loneliness, of abandonment. Of not being good enough, never being good enough.
But Catra was stronger now. She knew Adora wasn't abandoning her. She accepted that Adora hadn't left her out of boredom, or contempt, or any of the other justifications of which Catra had tried to convince herself.
That didn't make her any less angry with Adora, though. Once again, without talking to her friends, without talking to her girlfriend, Adora had taken the weight of the world upon her shoulders and insisted she would carry it alone.
"Why do you have to be such a martyr all the time?" she choked out between sobs.
The sound of a yelp through the door snapped her from her introspection. Her fur immediately stood on end and she dropped to the floor on all fours. Her ears swiveled and her tail flipped quickly side-to-side as she listened intently, her worries pushed aside for the moment in favor of her instincts.
She could hear two voices: Scorpia, and a lower voice that she didn't immediately recognize.
And then it occurred to her that there could only be one voice on this ship that she wouldn't recognize. She leaped to the door, mashed the button to open it, and immediately sprung into the corridor before it could finish sliding into the bulkhead.
Scorpia and Emily were standing in the corridor, facing her direction, and with his back to Catra was Adam.
Catra was on top of him in a flash, shoving him against the wall, pulling him to the floor, and pinning his arms and legs with her own. Adam's eyes seemed to focus on her, but then went slightly crossed. "Oh, hi kitty," he slurred.
Catra snapped her head toward Scorpia. "Scorpia, what the hell?"
"Oh, um…" Scorpia rubbed the back of her head. "He...um...had to use the bathroom."
Catra faced her, incredulous, blinking repeatedly. She finally, slowly, turned back to face Adam. Adam had a dopey grin plastered across his flushed face.. "You're a lot stronger than you look," he said.
Catra pressed her lips into a thin grimace and then stood, lifting Adam up by the front of his shirt. Through gritted teeth she growled, "You are going back to that bunk." She glanced over at Scorpia. "And staying there. Next time he needs to go he can just piss himself."
"Oh," Adam said. "Ohhhh. Yeah, that would be lots easier." He giggled. "Thanks for the suggestion."
Catra closed her eyes. She was not in the right state of mind to deal with this. She started dragging him to the medical bay door. Just before she could open the door, though, she thought she could hear voices from inside.
When she finally opened the door, she gasped when she saw Entrapta, again sitting on a seat she'd made with her hair, chatting with a smile on her face and with cheeks reddened and damp.
Hordak was speaking back to her. Catra could hear his voice and see his hand moving, weakly, grasped between Entrapta's own.
"Hordak," Catra murmured.
Entrapta turned to her. "Oh hey, Catra! Hordak's awake!"
Hordak was lying with his head toward Catra. She wasn't surprised that Hordak didn't bother to try to look at her.
"That's...that's great," Catra said, hesitating. "I'm glad to hear it." She then remembered that she still had an intoxicated, depowered She-Ra in her other hand. "I've brought his, uh, roommate back."
"Oh, cool," Entrapta said, turning back to Hordak. "So listen," she said, apparently to Hordak. "Of course I forgive you for not telling me, but I could have helped you a lot sooner if you had!"
As Catra tossed Adam onto the other bunk she heard Hordak mumble his reply. "I wanted...you to...stay happy." He seemed breathless. "Until the end."
"But I didn't want to be happy with you dying!" Entrapta said. "And...I already figured it out!"
Catra couldn't help but continue to eavesdrop as she re-strapped Adam to the bunk.
"I...am sorry. I don't know...how much time...I have left…" Hordak took a few breaths. "I...don't even know...how I survived...my suit's self-destruct."
"I insulated the inside of your new suit," Entrapta said. "When I remembered I'd put in an overload function on the power cell, I figured you might actually use it sometime and it would really hurt you." She paused. "I wasn't actually sure the insulation'd work. I never got to test it."
"But...even with my...organs failing…" Hordak took a few more moments to breathe. "You managed to...bring me back from the dead."
"Well, you were only mostly dead," Entrapta said. She placed a hand on his forehead, brushing a lock of blue hair that was nearing his eyes. "I've been working with Wrong Hordak and some of the other clones, figuring out more about your anatomy. They helped me so much, and even helped me design this machine here. It's like a supercharged life support like the ones I've built into your suits, but bigger." She spread her arms, as if in demonstration. "And it's got tech from Horde Prime's ship cloning chambers that they helped me integrate. It's so much more powerful than anything I could've fit into a suit." She shrugged. "Yet. But you can stay alive in here for a long time! Long enough for us to figure out how to heal you! I hope."
"You mean...I will be...confined to this bed? To the ship?"
"Just for a little while!" Entrapta said. "Now that we're being honest with each other we can get a lot more good work done! Just like good lab partners should! And we can figure out how to fix you properly!"
Catra had continued listening in on this conversation even after securing Adam to the bunk. She was annoyed to find that the buckle for the bottom strap was broken off. Scorpia's work, she was sure. She'd managed to peel back a spike of metal underneath the cot and then hooked the strap's fabric onto it. It wasn't super secure, but since Adam didn't seem too determined to get away she figured it would be enough.
She was now standing behind Entrapta, and realized this was the first time she'd actually seen and heard them together, for more than just a fleeting moment.
Entrapta really did care for him. Hordak really did care for her. She wasn't of the state of mind before, when they'd first started working together, to accept that they had an actual connection with each other. Now, though, she could see it plainly, and it warmed her heart.
It also gave her another pang of regret and shame as she remembered how she had betrayed them both, sending Entrapta to Beast Island and convincing Hordak she had been a spy for the enemy, all for Catra's own selfish ends.
Her therapist had told her, repeatedly, that the past was there for her to learn from but not to live in.
Seeing the slight smile on the face of the being she had once feared, then revered, then reviled, though, drove home just why she had separated them like that. Not only to save her own skin and to keep Entrapta from disabling the portal device, but also because she could not stand seeing the two of them happy together when she herself could not be happy.
After all, if the love of her life had abandoned her, why should anyone else deserve happiness?
That love of her life was the same person who, yet again, had left her due to some apparent need to sacrifice herself.
She squeezed her eyes shut as tears started welling in them.
No, she told herself. No, I'm not going to do that again. Adora left...because she felt like she didn't have a choice. That's how she operates, and I know this. She opened her eyes. But then she came back for me, she and her friends who hated me at the time. If this were me instead of her, stranded on an alien planet and being used as some kind of weapon, and Adora were here, what would she do?
Of course, Catra knew the answer. Exactly the same thing she did before. She would let nothing get in the way of her coming back for me.
"Entrapta," Catra said, interrupting the conversation of which she'd lost track. She laid a hand on Entrapta's shoulder. "Entrapta, we need your help."
Entrapta turned back to Catra. "Hmm? Help with what?"
"Help with what?" Catra repeated incredulously. With irritation in her voice she started, "What do you-" but then she interrupted herself. She glanced at Scorpia, who was shaking her head vehemently. Catra then took a deep breath, and then continued calmly, "Do you know what's going on right now?"
Entrapta shrugged. "We're going back to Etheria," Entrapta said. She pointed to Adam, who was again humming some tune as he rocked his head side to side. "We got the other She-Ra like we planned, right?"
"So - you don't know anything about...about Adora?"
Entrapta tilted her head. "I know lots about Adora. Well, I mean...not like how her powers work or anything, since I never got a chance to analyze that sword before she broke it, but-"
"A lot has happened," Catra interrupted. "And we really, really need your help right now."
Adora was sitting in a simple metal chair at a plain metal table, still clad in only her underthings. Her eyes were closed, but she could still see. The room around her was silent, and yet she still could hear. There was fog in her head, too thick and dense for her to form any sort of thought on her own, but it didn't bother her. She had Last Resort to do the thinking for her.
"Do you feel it?" Last Resort's voice said in her head, almost tickling the nerves in her brain. "The connection between yourself and your army?"
Indeed she could. She could see, from so many viewpoints, through bluish-green filters that she'd learned were the birthing fluid in which the clones were growing. She heard the bubbling fluid rushing through her ears, and her own blood flowing. Dozens and dozens of times over.
The senses of her brothers and sisters.
"Yes," she said. "I can feel them."
"Your interface acts as their nexus," Last Resort's disembodied voice said. "In time these clones will become extensions of yourself. Your experiences, your skills, your power will all be theirs."
"And...my job will be to command them?" Adora said.
There was the briefest of pauses. "Yes. You will lead them to restore the Eternian Empire."
One question, one word, broke out of Adora's inner mind and punched through the fog. "How?"
"By ensuring the universe is safe for our return."
"But...how?" Adora said.
A spike of pain jabbed the back of her head. The fog suddenly washed back over her mind, obscuring all her questions.
"My apologies," she said, deadpan. "I am ready to continue my training."
"Excellent. Now stand."
Adora stood, pushing the metal chair back with a sharp scraping sound.
"Transform."
Adora stretched out a hand and her sword appeared. She grasped it and started, "For the honor-"
A sharp pain in the back of her head forced her to stop.
"You no longer pledge allegiance to that traitor Mara's squadron," Last Resort said. Despite her mechanical voice, Adora was certain she could hear disgust when Last Resort mentioned Mara. "You fight now for the power of House D'Vann. The House whose blood flows in your veins. The House whose superior DNA is your own. You fight by the power of D'Vann."
Adora hesitated for the briefest of moments.
"Do not hesitate!"
Adora stood, sword still in hand, and then raised it overhead. "By the power of D'Vann!"
Light flowed over and through her like tidal waves. It was a familiar sensation. She'd transformed into She-Ra so many times. Yet...this time seemed different. There had always been a warmth when she transferred, like a blanket. Or a hug from a loved one.
This time it was cold, lifeless. Like an incomplete facsimile of all her previous transformations. It felt devoid...of love.
Once the transformation was complete Adora stood there, in the empty room. She was taller, as she always was after transforming... but never this tall. The ceiling, which previously had been several meters above her head, was now brushing against the ponytail that tamed this form's incredibly long, golden hair.
She'd only experienced this twice before - once here on Crelus, and the other time on Etheria just before they'd left the planet.
She looked down over herself and saw her aura was pink, not white. It took her a moment to remember that she'd experienced this before, too. When she'd fought Adam, after she had made her agreement with Last Resort.
"Now close your eyes and concentrate. Focus on the strongest of your army. The one who is most ready."
Adora closed her eyes and visualized the clones. She felt as if her consciousness were jumping between them, tank to tank. Each time she stopped, briefly, and a word prompted her to move on.
Immature.
Unready.
Underdeveloped.
And then she stopped at one, and lingered there. No word came to mind, at first. She could feel the vessel, waiting. Longing to stretch its limbs, flex its muscles. Longing to wield power. Longing to serve its master.
Ready.
She felt a brief shock as the liquid suspending the vessel began to drain, and then the vessel tumbled out of the tube after the side of it opened wide.
The vessel was on the floor, coughing fluid from its lungs, feeling chills like tiny daggers all over its body. The feeling of strength and of longing from a moment before was gone. Now all it felt was cold. Loneliness. Emptiness.
Adora felt herself release some of her strength, using it to fill the vessel. It didn't take much, though she did feel just the slightest sapping of her own strength as she did so. As she did so, she felt the vessel grow warmer, the desire to stretch its limbs grow more irresistible.
It stood against the chill of the air outside its birthing tube, now bravely facing the destiny set out for it.
When she had finally filled the vessel with her own strength, she felt herself pushed from the vessel, her viewpoint split into several pieces. She found herself watching it from various other points of view, all through bluish-green filters.
The naked body was standing there in the dim light, dripping with the blue-green fluid that was pooling at its feet. Through the eyes of the others Adora could recognize her own body, the one she saw every day in the mirror. The hair was shorter, the muscles less defined, and it was missing the many battle scars she had gained from a lifetime of training and battle, but it was her.
The clone Adora raised a hand and a sword appeared in it. The sword appeared very similar to Adora's old Sword of Protection, and in fact she realized it was almost identical to Adam's sword.
The clone Adora raised the sword over its head, and with a voice still clogged with birthing tube fluid, it croaked, "By the power of D'Vann!"
Adora watched as her clone transformed, taking on an appearance very similar to Adora's first She-Ra form, complete with winged tiara, sleeveless armor, and tall flat-soled boots.
Adora opened her eyes, now seeing only the plain, empty room where she'd started. She felt a difference, though. She looked up, and realized that while she was still incredibly tall, the ceiling was now almost a half meter further away from her head than it was a moment before.
"W-what-?" Adora started, but then felt a stab of pain in her head.
"Unhelpful speech," Last Resort's voice said. "You have begun to fulfill your mission. Your power and your experience are now part of that one. As each remaining clone reaches maturity, you will repeat this process one thousand twenty-three times. Once that is done, you will usher in a new golden age for the Eternian Empire."
"C'mon, Darla! Help me out here!"
"Unable. Navigational systems are locked out by the administrator."
"But I'm the administrator!"
Entrapta was buried in the forward panel of the command deck, and from how much her legs were fidgeting, it was obvious she was frustrated. Some kind of mist was hissing out of one of the seams, and from an open hatch on top of the panel, a thin rivulet of smoke was rising. Bow was sitting next to her, head leaning back against the panel. He was nursing both hands, which were scratched and bleeding slightly in a few places.
He'd had zero luck trying to bypass Darla's administrator lock. From the sound of it, Entrapta was making just as little progress as he had.
The command deck door opened and Bow looked up to see Glimmer and Scorpia entering. Glimmer was carrying a tray stacked with white dumplings, steam was rising from them. Scorpia was dangling some kind of metal case in one pincer.
Glimmer walked toward Catra, who was sitting in the frame of one of the portside screens. Catra had come in when Entrapta did, and once Bow let her take his place, Catra had retired to that spot and stayed there, just staring out into the chaotic view outside.
"Hey, Catra," Glimmer said, quietly. She offered the tray up to Catra. Catra looked down, staring at the dumplings for a few seconds, and then took one from the top of the pile. She said nothing, but offered a nod and slight smile. Glimmer returned the nod and smile and then continued toward Bow.
Scorpia, meanwhile, had continued straight to Entrapta. "Here you go," she said, setting down the small metal container she'd been carrying. "We made tiny ones just for you."
Entrapta didn't give a verbal reply, but a hair arm snaked out of the top of the panel, flipped the lid of the container open, and pulled one of the tiny dumplings back into the panel. Scorpia gave a half-smile, and when Glimmer passed behind her she took a dumpling from the tray.
"Tiny ones," Scorpia said. "Good idea."
"Thanks," Glimmer said. She continued toward Bow, set the tray down on the floor next to him, and knelt down at his other side.
"Thanks," Bow said. He had gone back to looking down at his hands, and did not look up either at her or at the food. .
"You need to eat something," Glimmer said.
"I will," Bow said. "In a bit."
Glimmer stared at him for a long moment, and then slid down to a sitting position, sidling up to him. After a few seconds, Bow tilted his head toward her. She slid an arm around him, pulling him closer, and he laid his head on her shoulder.
They sat there silently for a while, with only the sound of Entrapta's arguments with Darla and the humming of the ship's engines pervading their little space.
"We'll figure it out," Glimmer said. "Entrapta will get control of Darla again and we'll go right back for Adora."
"I wish I was that confident," Bow said.
"I'm confident in you. And I'm confident in Entrapta. You two are like technological wizards. If anyone can do it, you two can."
"You're saying that like it's magic," Bow said. "But it's not. It's science. And it's technology. It's not like magic, where it's part technique and mostly willpower. It's all technique. And this ship...it's alien. I mean, yeah, we know a lot about it, but it's still got so much that's just way beyond us. Even Entrapta." He sighed. "It's my fault. I pushed so hard for us to go on a trip, but we weren't ready."
"It was Adora's idea, remember?" Glimmer raised a hand and stroked Bow's hair. "Besides, that was supposed to be a planned thing. A fun trip. This was...it was an emergency."
"I should've spent more time with Entrapta working on the ship," Bow said. "Instead of wasting time…" He trailed off.
"Wasting time doing what?" Glimmer said. "Training with the healers? Bow, that training saved Catra's life yesterday. And Hordak's."
Bow scoffed. "Only long enough for Adora with her healing magic and Entrapta with - whatever all that stuff is in the med bay."
"Okay, stop it," Glimmer said. She moved her arm across herself and laid it on Bow's scratched-up hands. "Bow, you're strong, and you're smart, and you're brave. You're the one that keeps us all from going off all half-cocked all the time." She chuckled. "You're a better leader than I could ever be."
"Now I know that's not true," Bow said.
"Sure it is," Glimmer said. "I'm the one that always goes off and tries to magic or punch everything. Remember that time I tried to punch a Horde tank?" Bow chuckled a little, and Glimmer continued, "You keep making sure I think before I do dumb stuff. That's strength."
Bow chuckled again, and then sighed. "Being strong...gets tiring, you know."
Glimmer leaned over and kissed his temple. "Yeah, I bet. But you do it so well."
Bow sighed. He withdrew one of his hands, reached down, and took one of the dumplings. He took a bite of it, and then his eyes opened wide. "Wow!" he said. "This is...I mean, your dumplings were good before, but...did you do something different with them?"
"Scorpia's suggestion," Glimmer said. "One of the herbs she uses in this tea she makes. I was skeptical at first, but it really brings out the flavor in the other ingredients." She chuckled. "All three of them."
"Wow," Bow said again. "You two make a good pair."
Glimmer laughed. "Thanks, though she's not really my type."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know, I know," Glimmer said. After a pause, she continued, "Know who I think makes a good pair, though?"
"Who?" Bow said. "Adora and Catra? Juliet and your Aunt Casta?"
"No, goofball," Glimmer said. "You and me." She placed a hand on Bow's knee, and he felt goosebumps prick up all up and down his body. "Listen, I - I know this isn't exactly a good time or place for this kind of thing, but…" She trailed off, and then slowly pulled her hand away. She reached up to her right ear and removed one of the two teardrop earrings. They were a pair identical to the ones her mother had always worn, and which she'd taken with her when she became forever lost in that place between worlds.
Glimmer had started wearing these almost immediately after Angella was lost, and it helped her feel close to the mother who was taken from her life far too soon. The mother who was supposed to have been immortal, whom Glimmer had expected would outlive her.
These earrings were the possessions she held most dear, but there was one thing far more dear to her.
She lowered her hand onto Bow's lap and opened it, showing him the lone earring. "You and me. That's the way it's always been. That's the way it'll always be, I hope." She hesitated for a long moment and then continued, her voice shaking. "I love you. Now and forever. Will you be my husband?"
Bow was silent. He seemed to be staring at the earring. His mouth was trembling. He laid one shaky hand over hers, and when he pulled it away the earring was gone. He raised his hand to his right ear, and when he pulled it away, the earring was attached. He looked her in the eye. "I'd be honored, My Queen."
"Smartass," Glimmer said, and then pressed her lips to his.
They kissed for a long moment, and when they separated Bow said, "I...I don't have anything to give you."
"Worry about it later," Glimmer said. "After we get home we'll make it official."
They leaned into each other and touched foreheads, eyes closed. For the moment, it didn't matter what else was happening. For the moment, it didn't matter that they were in an uncontrollable spaceship.
For the moment, it only mattered that they were together.
"Healing," Bow said, after several minutes.
"What?" Glimmer said.
Bow pulled away from her. "Healing. What you said earlier. Can you try your truth magic on Adam again?"
Glimmer's expression fell as she was dragged back into the reality of where they were, and what was happening. "Why?" she said. "It failed, remember? No matter how many times I tried it he was just saying - random things."
"Yeah, but his brain's not...working right," Bow said. "Like a fever, maybe. Like how when someone has a high fever they start getting delusional?"
"But you checked him," Glimmer said. "I thought you said he didn't have a fever."
"Well, he's a She-Ra and a First One, so things probably work differently for him than they do for us. When Adora got infected with that disc thing it didn't affect anyone else who touched it."
"Okay, wait," Glimmer said. "Healing spell. For starters, I don't know if I can mix that with another spell. I've never tried it. And second, why the sudden need to talk to him again?"
Bow glanced over to Entrapta, still halfway buried in the control panel and still struggling. "Because if we want to get this ship turned around, it's looking like we're gonna need She-Ra."
The door to the corridor opened, and Scorpia carried Adam in over her shoulder. Catra followed closely behind, her arms crossed.
Scorpia set Adam on the command deck floor. "Here ya go," she said. She turned to Catra. "Thanks for the help. I was afraid I'd break another one of those strap things."
"So either of you want to explain what we're doing?" Catra said, ignoring Scorpia's comment. She glanced between Glimmer and Bow.
"We're going to interrogate him," Glimmer said. She turned to Bow. "In a healing kind of way."
Catra raised an eyebrow, and her ear twitched. "A healing kind of way. Yeah, you lost me on that."
"Ohhhhh," Entrapta said. She slid out from the front control panel and pushed herself along the floor so she was sitting cross-legged by Adam. "I get it! His brain is all scrambled now, so even if you get him to tell the truth he might not even know what the truth is."
"Yeah," Bow said, a bit stunned, "that's, um, exactly what happened before." He'd assumed Entrapta was paying complete attention to the unconscious Hordak all that time, and not even aware of their earlier failed interrogation attempts.
"But now, if you use some healing magic with it, you might get his brain working enough so he can actually tell you something good!"
Glimmer chuckled. "Right, that's exactly what we're thinking."
"Nice one," Scorpia said. She held up a pincer to Entrapta and Entrapta slapped it enthusiastically.
"Okay, fine," Catra said, sighing. "What are you going to ask him?"
"How to unlock the ship," Glimmer said.
Catra stared at her. "Seriously? Entrapta and Arrow Boy can't figure it out. What makes you think this musclehead - who tried to kill us multiple times, by the way - is gonna do any better?"
"He's a First One," Bow said. "He's been around their technology for a lot longer than we have. Probably." He paused. "Look, we're kinda out of ideas, okay?"
Catra sighed again. "Okay, fine." She glanced around the command deck. "I guess we're doing it in here so there's enough room for us to tackle him in case he gets his marbles back and tries to attack?"
"Exactly," Glimmer said.
"That's a good idea," Adam slurred. "Especially if he transforms into a butterfly and tries to escape." He paused. "I like butterflies."
There was a brief silence, broken when Catra said in a drawn-out voice, "Let's get this over with before he speaks again."
"Here goes," Glimmer said. She traced a glyph in the air, paused, and then traced a second one behind it. She pushed her hand through both of them and they flew toward Adam's face.
"Wooooow," Adam said. "I like fireworks."
"What's your name?" Glimmer said. "Where were you born?"
Adam opened his mouth to speak, but then laughed out loud. "That's weird, 'cos I don't remember. Can I have a hint?"
"Adam," Scorpia said, before anyone could silence her.
Adam blew a raspberry. "That's a dumb name."
"Great," Catra said. She turned and walked away toward her nook at the portside viewer. "So much for truth healing."
"Wait," Glimmer said. "Let me try again,. I think I know why it didn't work." She again traced two glyphs in the air, but this time after she raised her hand she gently moved it forward, slowly pushing the rear glyph toward the front one.
This time, the glyphs flashed white when they met. Glimmer gave a half smile, and then pushed the combined glyph toward Adam's head.
"All right," Glimmer said. "Again. What is your name and where were you born?"
He opened his mouth again, but then the sleepy grin started to vanish. "My name is Adam Glenn of House D'Vann. I was born in the Royal Palace in the capital city Eternos, on planet Eternia."
There was a long pause. "That didn't sound floppy at all," Entrapta said.
"I think it's working!" Bow said. He cleared his throat. "What was your mission on Etheria?"
Adam sighed, his eyelids seeming to struggle to stay open. "My first priority was to locate the Crystal Castle and determine why its supervisory program stopped reporting. Next I was to take control of the Sword of Protection and use it to activate the Heart of Etheria device." He shrugged and yawned. "And as a last resort I was to destroy the planet to keep our enemies from using its magic against the Empire."
There was utter silence for a long moment.
"Wow," Adam said, his voice slurring again. "Did I say that out loud just now?"
Glimmer asked, her voice low and almost growling, "What is Adora's mission?"
"The experiment was supposed to follow my orders and return with me to Crelus."
"Hold on," Catra said, dropping from her perch and walking back over to him. "Why do you keep calling Adora an 'experiment'?"
Adam shrugged. "Because that's what she is. While I was in hypersleep they were using my DNA to try to make a new She-Ra. My parents always said I was a failure, and Last Resort said it too. I guess they wanted one who wasn't a disappointment."
The team all looked at each other, thoroughly shocked. Glimmer finally broke the silence. "You - you mean Adora's a clone?"
"Yeah," Adam said, with another sigh. "The one that worked, anyway. Kinda funny, since you savages have been running around with Horde Prime clones. We were gonna wipe you all out with a clone of our own." He chuckled. "Clone of our own. That rhymes."
Catra turned and marched toward the viewscreen, her feet slapping hard on the deck with each step. She stared out into the hyperwarp maelstrom while the others continued to sit in stunned silence.
"Adam, you're gonna help us turn this damn ship around." Catra turned to face the others. Her expression was so stony that her face could have been carved from solid rock. "You're gonna help us get our friend back. And then we're gonna decide if we have to kill you."