Author's note: HAPPY NEW YEAR! ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* \(Φ ω Φ)/ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
This chapter was supposed to drop on the 30th or 31st, but I ended up losing about 3000 words of progress when my PC bluescreened on me so I had to do it all over again. ಥㅅಥ Anyway, nothing much to say this time around except for thank you once more to all the beautiful souls who keep supporting this story. :) You guys make my day.
Now, the chapter most of you have likely been waiting for: answers ahead! Woo! xD I'm sorry in advance for the info dump, but I've given my best to hopefully make it as enjoyable as possible. Chapters 5 and 6 mark an important point in Return of the Dragon: the point where Ixis stops being such a mystery and the actual plot of the story begins to slowly unfold. It turned out pretty long in the end and I had to divide into 2 parts otherwise it just would've been way too much info for one chapter. The second one isn't completely done yet so you'll even get a bit of a break to process everything you'll learn in chapter 5. So prepare your brains, get comfy, buckle up and let's go. Hope you enjoy this one!
Chapter Five
A much needed talk, part 1
[Bright Moon Castle, late night]
"Catra!"
The sight of her limping, exhausted girlfriend being guided out of Juliet's airlock with Entrapta's help felt like a kick in the gut to Adora. The notoriously overprotective blonde forgot everything else around her and ran up to the pair, closely followed by an equally worried Melog and Glimmer who had waited for the group's return together with Adora, Micah, Castaspella and a few guards in the courtyard under the starlit nightsky. Catra could barely even stand on her own. She had one arm draped over Entrapta's shoulders to take some weight off of her own feet. Her whole body ached and she groaned in discomfort with every tiny, careful step she took. At least she was doing better than Scorpia though. The tall princess was still out cold and being carried off the ship by Hordak. Adora immediately grabbed Catra's other arm and put it over her own shoulders to help her. That's when she noticed that the side of Catra's body that now touched hers was soaked with oil. The substance stuck to her short hair and tail as well and traces of it were on Catra's face, too. It looked like one side of it had probably been completely covered in it not too long ago, but it had been wiped off with a dry towel or something at some point. Adora briefly looked over to Hordak and saw that Scorpia was similarly filthy. Her former leader's white robes and skin were smeared with oil from carrying the Scorpioni.
"What happened to you guys?" Adora asked, ignoring Melog who walked next to her and kept mewling at Catra to try and get her attention.
Of course Catra had heard Adora and she heard Melog just fine as well. Still, she couldn't yet find the strength to answer with anything but a pained groan. She had her hands full just trying to stay conscious.
"I will explain, but it would be best if we could get these two to a place where they can rest first."
The strangely familiar voice made Adora stop dead in her tracks, forcing Entrapta and Catra to stop walking as well. Almost in slow motion, Adora turned a bit to get a clearer look at the owner of the voice behind her. A voice she's been faintly hearing in her dreams for a week now. Just barely controlling the overwhelming urge to transform into She-Ra, Adora watched as Ixis fully stepped out of the ship and into the gentle, blue and silvery light of Etheria's night moons. Their eyes met... and Adora felt her knees get weak from the sudden wave of joy and relief that crashed down on her from deep within.
"Ixis..." she whispered the name like she had known it her whole life, eyes glowing bright azure.
"Hello, She-Ra," Ixis greeted her with a gentle smile on her face. "It's been a long time."
"Okay, what's going on? You two know each other?" Glimmer asked, looking back and forth between Ixis and Adora.
"I know her too," Catra hissed through her pain. "Don't ask me how, but I do."
Adora and Glimmer both looked at Catra in confusion after she said those words. Only Melog seemed able to somewhat understand the situation. Her curious gaze wandered slowly from Adora and Catra back to Ixis and stayed fixed on the winged woman for a while, as if she was looking at something only she could see. Ixis noticed the creature she had never seen before studying her and greeted her with a smile as well before focusing her attention on the three girls again.
"It's all a very long story, but don't worry. I promised I'd explain and I will."
"With respect, it will have to wait," Hordak interrupted the conversation. "Scorpia and Catra need medical attention. It might be wise for you to get yourself looked over, too." He glanced at Ixis, who nodded her head in response.
"Of course." She looked at the guards standing further in the back. "Excuse me, would you go get whoever is in charge here, please? I'd like to formally request their assistance."
Several pairs of eyes gave Ixis strange looks in response to her request.
"Word doesn't exactly travel fast where you live, eh?" Glimmer giggled, amused by the woman's ignorance. "I'm the one in charge. My name's Glimmer, queen of Bright Moon."
Ixis's eyes widened in shock for just a second. She had met many kings and queens before, but this was the first time she'd ever seen one so young.
'Moons above, she looks even younger than Cora when I first met her...'
"I... see." Ixis blinked a few times. She found it a bit hard to believe her own eyes right now. After a couple seconds of being stunned she shook her head, deciding to brush it off so she could get her thoughts back on track. She walked towards Glimmer, stopped right in front of her and bowed before the young queen.
"Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon, it's an honor. I am Ixis, Prime Guardian of Etheria."
The girls couldn't see it since the siblings stood a few yards behind them, but Micah's and Castaspella's eyes quietly went wide as wagon wheels after they listened to Ixis introducing herself. They stared at each other in total disbelief, not sure if they had really just heard what they'd heard. Ixis meanwhile straightened her back again and looked Glimmer in the eye before continuing to talk.
"I'll be completely honest. I'm to blame for the condition Catra and Princess Scorpia are currently in. As I mentioned before, I can and will explain everything. For now, just know that I'm not your enemy and if you let me attend to them, I can make sure they'll be back on their feet and free of all aches by morning."
"...Are you serious?" Glimmer went from amused to anything but in a fraction of a second. "You just told me you're responsible for my friends coming home hurt like this and you expect me to let you near them!?"
"Queen Glimmer." Again it was Hordak's voice that cut through the conversation like a sword through silk, only this time he sounded a lot stricter and more demanding than the first time he had interrupted them. "Could we please get Scorpia to the infirmary before this squabble continues?"
"Right, right..." Glimmer snapped out of her anger and went to stand between Hordak and Adora. She put one hand on Adora's shoulder, the other on Hordak's lower arm. "C'mere you two. And you!" She shot Ixis a cold glare that didn't allow even the slightest hint of challenge or defiance. "Stay right where you are. I'll be back to deal with you in a moment."
And in her signature flash of pink sparkles, Glimmer disappeared along with Adora, Hordak, Scorpia, Catra and Entrapta. Melog blinked at the spot where her friends had just vanished and made a sound that was probably her cat alien equivalent of a sigh. Looks like she'd have to get to the infirmary the old fashioned way. For now though, her immense curiosity overpowered her concern and she turned around again to observe Ixis some more. The redhaired woman noticed the attention she was receiving instantly and reciprocated it. She smiled at Melog and went down on one of her knees to be on eye level with the unfamiliar creature.
"Why, look at you. Such a curious soul. Do you want to come here for a moment?" she offered and reached out one of her hands towards Melog. "I'd love to say a proper hello to you."
Melog hesitated though and stayed where she was, preferring to keep her distance for the time being.
"Melog here is a cautious one," Micah said as he and his sister walked up behind their alien ally and briefly petted her on the head. "As is the queen. I hope you can forgive her temper." He looked at Ixis with a pleading smile. "We've all been through a lot not too long ago. Etheria was almost completely destroyed and many people were lost because of it. Glimmer had to watch a lot of her friends get really hurt. She's still coping with it all."
Ixis got back up to stand on both feet and nodded in understanding at the master mage. "I could feel the planet being almost torn apart by unbelievably hot fire even while I was still in my prison at the bottom of the sea. The people who had to go through this up here on the surface... It's horrifying to imagine how you must have felt, the things you must have seen... Besides, I did openly confess that I'm responsible for her friends being in the shape they're in. Frankly, I'm pleasantly surprised I only got an icy stare and some strict words in return. I was prepared to have to defend myself against much more."
"Thank goodness, you understand." Micah felt his heart take a relieved breath. "I was worried my little girl had offended Etheria's one and only Red Dragon. Now that would have been bad news right there."
In an instant, Ixis's eyes began to sparkle like the stars themselves and her lips curled into the biggest grin when she heard what Micah had just called her. Apparently, Etheria still had a shred of mercy left for her.
"You remember me," she whispered, utterly unable to keep the joy out of her voice.
"We both do," Castaspella confirmed with a warm smile of her own. "I'm Castaspella, this is my brother Micah. He and I grew up surrounded by all sorts of things to learn and study. We had access to a library that had records on you which we were able to see when we were students. Granted, they were old records and there weren't many of them to begin with, but we never had a reason to question their authenticity."
"In short, Casta and I have basically known who you are since we were kids. It's an incredible honor to meet you in person, Ixis."
Castaspella and Micah both bowed respectfully before Etheria's Red Dragon - a gesture Ixis happily returned.
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well. You have no idea how good it feels to meet someone who hasn't forgotten me. Thank you."
"You're welcome. My sister and I aren't the only ones who remember you, by the way. Most sorcerers on Etheria know who you are."
"Exactly. It's just... Well, most believe you to be nothing more than a myth."
"A myth? Me? ...Moons, I must have been gone longer than I thought."
Micah looked at the winged woman with a look of quiet worry on his face. "Ixis... How long did you think you were away?"
"I'm... not too sure. I haven't been able to check yet. I guessed perhaps around three centuries? Long enough for the people to clearly not know who I am and for Etheria to suffer a lot of damage in my absence. But if I was gone long enough to become nothing but a myth, it was probably closer to five."
"Unfortunately, as far as we know... it was closer to ten."
Castaspella's words, careful as she had delivered them, knocked Ixis's ability to speak right out of her.
"Ten..." Three little letters had never sounded so terrifying to her. "Ten centuries... I... I was gone for a thousand years!?"
"It might have actually been even longer," Micah said softly, trying to give her the news as gently as he could. "Unless younger records that we don't know about yet showed up somewhere, the youngest ones so far where your name is mentioned are roughly a thousand years old and even those speak of events in the past. We don't exactly know if they refer to recent or distant past though. All we really know for sure is that you, She-Ra and the First Ones all disappeared around the same time and... Well, we know She-Ra vanished roughly a millennium ago, so..."
Ixis felt like the weight of the world had just been dropped on her head out of the blue. So not only had she been gone for such a long time, but She-Ra too? Etheria had been without its two primary protectors for a thousand years or longer. The realization hit Ixis in the gut like a freight train. Gingerly, as if she was afraid she was going to fall apart if she moved too fast, Ixis walked over to one of the trees in the courtyard and leaned her entire weight against its trunk. Her whole world was spinning. She instinctively wrapped her tail around herself in an effort to comfort and ground herself, but right now it'd probably take a small miracle for her heart to calm down.
"A thousand years... Goodness..."
It was now that Melog decided to join them. She walked past Micah and Castaspella, neither of whom seemed to really know what to do right now, and stopped next to Ixis. With her head tilted to the side she watched the clearly distressed woman for a second before leaning in and gingerly licking her hand. But not even Melog's careful attempt at affection would work. Trapped in a trance of total shock and disbelief, Ixis moved away from the tree again, her steps uneven and unsteady.
"This can't be," she whispered to nobody as she paced blindly back and forth. "It can't be true..."
Next thing the siblings knew, Ixis spread her wings and took off into the nightsky before either Micah or Casta could stop her.
"Ixis, wait!" Castaspella called after her, but Etheria's Red Dragon was already little more than a shadow in the moonlight. "Damn it. We shouldn't have told her."
"I don't think it would have made much of a difference if we hadn't. She would have needed to know the truth sooner or later," Micah tried to soothe his little sister.
"We just gave her a panic attack, Micah! Think whatever you will, but this wasn't a good move."
Before the two sorcerers could end up arguing, Glimmer reappeared next to them in another flash of bright pink.
"Dr. Erin and the nurses still got all their hands full tending to the injured from Prime's attack, so we took Scorpia and Catra to Adora's room for now. She's taking care of them there," Glimmer informed her dad and aunt before immediately spinning around and glaring at the spot where Ixis had stood before, only to discover that she was no longer there... or anywhere else in the courtyard.
"Uhm... Where's the winged lady?" she asked and turned back around.
"Gone. We freaked her out and she left." Angry at herself, Castaspella spat the words without any of her usual concern for her favorite niece before she turned on her heel and stomped inside. Mystacor's head sorceress had enough for the day. Tea, bath and bed it was.
"Okaaay, what happened exactly?" a clearly confused Glimmer asked her father.
"Casta and I told Ixis something that probably confused her a lot and she left."
"What? What do you mean? What did you say to her?"
"Glimmer... Sweetheart, while you grew up here, has Angella ever told you about the Red Dragon of Etheria?"
"Red Dragon of Etheria? Nope. Doesn't ring a bell."
"Then it's best if we leave this story for another time."
"Dad... you know you don't have to protect me from the truth, right? I'm the queen. I have to know what's going on here."
"I know, baby. I know. I'm not shielding you from anything, I promise. It's just that this is a long story and if I tell you now what Casta and I told her, you'll have questions that we won't finish answering until moonrise and that won't help anyone. We all could use some good sleep after today."
"Yeah, I guess. ... I mean I already have enough questions what with the new moon that popped up in the sky, her calling herself Etheria's Prime Guardian and stuff. I'm not sure how I'll sleep at all, but best try before it's too late, right?"
"Exactly," Micah smiled lovingly at his daughter. He put his hand on her cheek and kissed her on the forehead. "Good night, sweetie. I'll see you tomorrow."
"G'nite, dad."
Glimmer watched for a few moments as her father walked back towards the castle before dismissing the guards, taking one last look at Nox and finally teleporting into her own room. Tomorrow when Perfuma's group returned from Plumeria, she decided she would gather the rest of the alliance and have a chat with everyone about what they thought was going on and how they would handle it. But for now, her father had a point. She should at least try to get some shut eye before dealing with whatever was going on. And so, Glimmer flopped into her bed, dragged her favorite fluffy blanket all the way up to her nose and patiently waited for Señor Sleep to come pick her up.
[The next day
Bright Moon Castle, late morning]
"Uuuurrghh..." Glimmer groaned while she rested her forehead on the war table.
Señor Sleep had stood her up last night. Typical. Whenever you needed him the most, he'd decide to be a no show. What an absolute douche.
By far not as used as other people to pulling unintended all-nighters, Glimmer had completely transformed into a glittery ball of total misery after spending what little energy she had managed to squeeze out of her breakfast on picking up Frosta and Mermista and getting them to Bright Moon. Bow, Perfuma and Wrong Hordak had returned from Plumeria with Darla's help in the early morning hours and Spinnerella and Netossa had been on their own way soon after Glimmer had given them a call in the morning and asked for their presence in the war room. By now everyone was gathered there and Glimmer learned the hard way that she did not have the head to deal with everyone's energy today.
Once the topic of the new moon in the sky and the strange, scaly lady came up, Frosta wasted no time telling everyone exactly how the invincible Winter's Bane would fight and punish anyone who was planning on causing more trouble for Etheria now that they had finally managed to get rid of Prime. Entrapta meanwhile threw herself right into a science rant about all the readings and data she had gathered yesterday and what it may or may not mean, which managed to grab Bow's attention and had him start a full on brainstorming session with his favorite tech colleague. Mermista was busy complaining about it being way too early for crisis meetings and being awake in general, provoking Perfuma to try to cheer her up which ended with them in a loop of complain, lighten up, repeat and eventually led to Scorpia, thankfully being fully recovered, ever so carefully trying to get both of them to back off once they had inevitably grown frustrated with each other's attitude. With all of this chaos happening at the exact same time, it was only natural Spinnerella and Netossa soon looked done with everyone's crap and like they were about to leave. Usually, it was Adora who would get everyone to quiet down and focus on the task ahead, but she and Catra were locked in their own conversation which, if the expression on their faces was any indication, was quite serious. Which was why Netossa, who was about to stand up and try to get everyone on track, found it a bit odd when she saw the couple stop talking at the exact same time and turn their heads to look at the door in silence.
The net princess quietly looked towards the war room's magnificent twin doors as well and lo and behold, they opened a moment later and in walked Castaspella and Micah... followed by Ixis. Everyone immediately went quiet when they saw the two master mages and the winged woman enter the room. All eyes stayed locked on Ixis for a few moments of deafening silence until the guards outside the room closed the massive doors again.
"Well. Look who's back after she left yesterday when I specifically told her to stay." Glimmer was the first to speak. Though the exhaustion was evident, somehow her stare now felt even colder to Ixis than the one the queen had given her yesterday.
"Your Majesty, I apologize," Ixis respectfully bowed her head. She was painfully aware just how thin the ice she was treading was at the moment. "I was... I needed a little time for myself yesterday. I'm sorry I went against your orders."
Glimmer wanted to stay mad and give the woman a piece of her mind, but she simply didn't have the energy for it. With a sigh, she signaled for Ixis to come closer and asked the guards to bring another chair. While they did so, Ixis went to stand at the table as Glimmer began to introduce everyone in the room, giving Ixis her first shock of the day. All of the princesses were barely even out of their childhoods, with the exception of Frosta who was still a literal child. She couldn't take her eyes off of the ice princess for a good while until Catra, whom Ixis stood next to, poked her in the side.
"I wouldn't stare too hard if I were you," she whispered. "You don't wanna piss that one off. Trust me."
Adora snickered at her girlfriend's very valid advice. The images of Catra's first "friendly" meeting with Frosta were still as vivid in her own memory as they probably were in Catra's.
Ixis accepted the advice with a subtle nod and averted her gaze, choosing to look at Glimmer instead.
"Thank you for welcoming me," she said and sat down in the chair the guards had just put down behind her. "I know I certainly didn't start things off with the best first impression yesterday, which is why this means all the more to me."
"Don't start feeling too comfy. The only reason why I'm not having you thrown in a cell right away is because I, or rather we, want answers and this is the easiest way to get them."
"Well... That, and the castle doesn't actually have any cells, so..."
"Bow!"
"What? It's true!"
"Yeah, but she doesn't know that! Ugh..."
It took all of Ixis's willpower to not laugh at the antics of the queen and the archer.
"The point is! You're the reason She-Ra had to fix up two people who mean a lot to all of us yesterday. So you better have a good explanation why that happened or else your temporary welcome in this castle will be revoked faster than you could be ready for it."
Ixis took a deep breath. The queen's warning certainly hit home. She could feel the unamused gazes of everyone in the room on her, the only exceptions being Micah, Castaspella and, surprisingly, Scorpia, all three of whom helped her lessen the burden on her soul by gifting her small yet encouraging smiles.
"To really understand what happened yesterday... you need to know who I am first, and what happened before I got here. So, unless anyone in this room has more pressing questions that need to be answered first or urgent matters to attend to, I'd like to start at the very beginning. If that would be alright?"
Glimmer slowly looked at everyone at the table. When nobody spoke up, she looked back to Ixis and gave her a nod. "Looks like we got time. Go on ahead."
Ixis closed her eyes. A shudder escaped her nostrils. The room plunged into silence again for a bit. Then, Ixis's body wrapped itself in a silvery-white glow and when she slowly raised one of her hands above her head and snapped her fingers, the light spread out and conquered every corner of the war room. Everyone's jaws dropped when the light faded and they suddenly found themselves sitting at the table in the middle of a thick, primordial forest. Trees of all sizes and shapes and flowers dressed in the most beautiful, lively colors surrounded them. A sea of pink, purple, yellow and blue blossoms mingling underneath massive, winding tree trunks that were wrapped in exotic vines and chosen as homes by the most curious looking, tiny animals. A quiet concert of birds none of the princesses had ever heard before created the cherry on top of the spectacular scene.
"What the... Did we just teleport?" Catra managed to ask.
"No..." whispered Glimmer. She tried to pick up one of the flowers on the ground and found her hand went right through the petals. "It's an illusion," she realized.
Ixis didn't bother explaining that her current proximity to the Moonstone allowed her to project the images inside her mind and simply focused on doing it instead. With her body still glowing faintly white and her eyes remaining closed, she jumped back in time inside her own head. Far, faaar back to the first memories of her long life.
"At the very beginning of time, when Etheria herself was still young and ignorant, she had one wish that she wanted desperately to come true," Ixis finally began to speak, successfully grabbing everyone's undivided attention. "She wanted to be a mother. Determined as she had always been, she eventually fulfilled her own wish and gave birth to the first five, truly cognizant beings to ever step into her benevolent light. Beings born to eventually understand their own existence, purpose and place. She named those beings... dragons."
Five orbs of light appeared in the forest all around the table as Ixis spoke.
"Each of the dragon siblings had different attributes that made them unique and distinct from one another. Throughout their whole lives, their mother would watch them closely to determine which of her children's traits was desirable and which wasn't, so she could one day bear more children in the image of her five firstborn. There was the eldest brother, Arxius, whose power could not be measured." One of the orbs transformed into a being that looked strikingly similar to Ixis, only that this one had dark blue scales and was clearly male. His wings were white instead of black and the shape of his white horns was different from Ixis's as well.
"The eldest daughter, Joxyr, who could not be harmed or killed." Another orb turned into a rather short female with orange scales, blonde hair, no horns and two tails.
"Lyxon, who knew everything there was to know." White scales, red wings, no hair, tiny horns and a third eye sitting in the middle of his forehead.
"Moxil, whose beauty could never be matched." Instead of scales, this one was covered in light pink fur. She had visibly silky, chestnut hair that cascaded down her whole back in long, luxurious curls and a pair of light brown, angelic wings with golden tips graced her back.
"And lastly, the youngest daughter. Ixis, who possessed something neither of her older siblings had: a soul."
On cue, the last orb turned into Ixis herself right before the whole scenery warped and changed to show the five dragon siblings sitting next to each other at a beach, watching the moonset with happy smiles on their faces.
"Go, our mother would tell us. 'Live to your heart's content.' So, we would do just that. Of course, as is the case with most siblings, we certainly were no perfect team. We always respected each other, but we did have our differences given that we all felt like we had different places in the world and different purposes to fulfill. We ended up disagreeing on things. Sometimes, we would make up. Other times... we wouldn't. Eventually, one of our disagreements would turn into an argument. Then, that argument turned into a war."
Instead of continuing to tell the story, Ixis decided to show everyone what happened next instead. Once again the scene in the room changed. It now showed Arxius standing on a massive rock at night, calmly watching the ocean as it was battered by the furious storm that was going on. Sounds of howling wind, crashing rain and thunder filled the room as the scene played out like a movie.
"Arxius!" Ixis's voice echoed through the room, but the woman herself hadn't said a word. It was the only hint everyone needed to understand that they were currently watching the past as it had happened directly through Ixis's point of view.
Arxius made no move to greet or even acknowledge his sister as the Ixis of the past landed next to him and looked at him.
"I spoke to Joxyr. She agrees with me," he said without a speck of emotion in his voice.
"I know. I talked to her as well," Ixis replied. "Brother, please. I beg you to reconsider. You're mistaken on this."
"The world needs a leader, Ixis!" Arxius growled. He finally turned his head, showing the pure anger in his blue eyes. "You heard Lyxon! What Mother is planning... To share our greatest gifts with each of the children she still wants to have... The five of us barely get along! How do you think this world will look with hundreds of thousands of others wielding powers similar to our own living in it? It'd be constant fights, constant destruction! We'd never have peace!"
"I understand your concern, but... an absolute ruler? This can not be the answer."
"Why not? If this was not the purpose I was made for, why else would I have all this power to begin with? Who are you to stand in my way, sister?"
"And who are you to stand in everyone else's? All of our soon-to-be-born siblings, who are you to choose your own purpose so recklessly without any consideration for theirs? What gives you the right to declare yourself master of their destiny!?"
Arxius turned away from his sister with a huff. A bolt of lightning struck the roaring ocean as he did.
"Arxius, please. Listen to yourself. You're out of your mind, brother!"
"Jox has already offered to share her immortality with me. Nothing else matters anymore. Not your thoughts, not anyone else's. I will become Etheria's Prime Guardian. Eternal, omnipotent, invincible. The spirit of everlasting order and balance. You will submit to me, Ixis. It will be your destruction if you don't."
There was a pause. Then...
"If I can't live with you in harmony... then I will gladly embrace my doom. Farewell, Arxius."
A pained sob and the flap of mighty wings could be heard before another bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and the scene faded to complete white. Everyone at the war table looked at each other with all sorts of different emotions on their faces. Shock, sadness, disbelief, confusion, it was all hanging there in the thick, tense silence nobody seemed able to break.
"We... tore each other apart after that." It was present Ixis speaking again this time, the one that sat at the table with them. The room remained pure white for the moment and everyone turned their heads to look at the winged woman.
"Arxius has had this idea for a long time," she explained with a trembling voice and shaking hands. "All of us except for Lyxon were against it at first, but eventually he managed to convince Joxyr that he was doing the right thing, causing her to change her mind. Moxil and I were always firmly against his idea, Lyxon stayed as neutral as he had always been until the end. He only eventually took my side after... after Arxius killed Moxil in front of our eyes when she threatened she would never let him rest easy if he were to go through with his plan."
Ixis couldn't hold on anymore. She dropped her head into her palms and cried into her hands when the fresh pain of these ancient memories stabbed her right in the soul all over again. Adora couldn't take how much the desperate sobs of the woman next to her hit her in her own heart. Answering She-Ra's desire to be there for her, she scooted closer to Ixis in her chair and put her arm around her to comfort her. Melog was the next to react. Expressing what Catra wouldn't at the moment, she left her place next to Catra's chair and shuffled next to Ixis's instead. She stood up on her hind legs, put her front paws on Ixis's thigh and gently headbutted her cheek.
{Shhh, it's going to be okay. You'll be alright,} she mewled the words only Catra could hear as such.
Squeak also tried his best to comfort his friend by climbing out from under her hair and onto her shoulder where he could begin to lick away the tears that made it past her hands, but it seemed every attempt at comforting Ixis only made her cry harder instead.
"Maybe... we should take a break?" Castaspella suggested after a few moments had passed.
"No, no. It's fine," Ixis protested through uneven breaths as she tried to put an end to her breakdown.
"Are you sure? You don't seem fine," asked Bow.
"Bow's right," Glimmer agreed. "We do want answers, but if it's really this painful for you-"
"Those memories specifically will always be painful for me, Your Majesty," Ixis interrupted her. She pulled her face out of her hands again and began to unconsciously scratch Squeak's back, managing to smile at the additional headbutts and almost aggressive face licks she immediately received from Melog. "The truth is I had to experience pain and misery in order to become who I am today. To truly understand why suffering should be prevented, I had to suffer first. Speaking of which..."
Ixis finally managed to compose herself again. She allowed Melog and Squeak to continue cleaning the leftover tears from her face while she closed her eyes again and mentally travelled to a calmer, happier place. Again the scenery in the war room changed. From pure white it now warped into a clearing in a stunningly beautiful forest. The leaves above danced to the rhythm of a soft breeze while the gentle light of Etheria's night moons shined down on a creature sleeping peacefully in the middle of the clearing. Adora, who still had her arm around Ixis's shoulders, could feel the woman take a huge breath and relax considerably.
"Apologies for the scene not matching the words, but I need to take myself to a happier place to finish the rest of the story."
"It's alright," Perfuma reassured her. "We don't want you to put yourself through any pain, so whatever helps you avoid it is perfectly fine."
Ixis smiled at the genuine warmth in Perfuma's voice. "That's very kind of you. Thank you, princess."
'Moxy made an excellent choice picking you as her new bondmate...'
Another deep breath later, Ixis was done steeling herself.
"As I said before, Arxius killed our sister Moxil for voicing her defiance," she continued telling her story. "Him murdering her over a few words said in anger enraged Joxyr so much that she attacked him without any warning. Lyxon and I decided to leave the two to fight it out on their own while we went to properly bury our sister. Still, despite neither one of us having any desire to get involved in their argument, we would soon realize that we had no choice but to put an end to it. With Arxius being immeasurably powerful and Joxyr's invulnerability, there would be virtually no end to their battle unless someone forced them to stop. When we found them again, their war had raged on for weeks already. They had devastated an entire continent when Lyxon and I arrived just in time to watch Joxyr try to deal the finishing blow to Arxius. Lyxon... tried to stop her, but it only ended in him taking the hit for Arxius... and dying in his stead... Lyxon's death was enough for them to end their idiotic fight and while he watched me and Joxyr mourn our brother, Arxius had the decency to feel guilty for the destruction he had caused. Joxyr was equally burdened by her own contributions to the pain they had caused. And then..."
Ixis closed her eyes and the until now peaceful scenery in the war room changed yet again, this time to show a scene of pure destruction. Huge fires burned in a barren, endless wasteland of deep craters and crevices. Only a few leftover, broken off tree trunks here and there allowed an educated guess of what had been there before. Thick, black smoke completely covered the sky as a sobbing Joxyr knelt on the ground and desperately held the unmoving corpse of her brother close to her chest. Arxius stood a few yards away, covered in sweat and wounds, wearing an expression of complete shock on his face.
"What... what have I done?" he whispered.
"What have you done!?" the disembodied voice of past Ixis yelled at her brother, sounding broken and uneven from grief and rage. "You murdered our sister! You and Joxyr tore up an entire continent because neither one of you fools is capable of any restraint and because of you two, Lyx is now dead, too! You've ripped apart your family, that's what you've done! You selfish, obstinate idiot!"
Arxius's eyes went wider and wider with each word his younger sister spat at him. Eventually, he fell on his hands and knees, tears dripping onto the hot, dry ground underneath him. "I'm sorry..." he sobbed. "You're right... I'm so sorry."
"Sorry won't fix this, Arxius," Ixis mercilessly reminded him. Whatever love she may have at one point had for her older brother was pretty clearly gone at this point.
"No... but maybe... maybe you can."
Arxius stood back up, wiped the tears from his face and looked his younger sister in the eye.
"You can make this right, Ixy."
"You can not honestly expect me to fix your mistakes for you," Ixis hissed.
"Look around you, Ixis!" Arxius roared.
"This!" He gestured at the burning, torn up land all around them. "This is what I do when I try to protect something! And you're right, Joxyr isn't much better! Her and I did this together! But you... You and Lyxon, you've always stayed out of our quarrels. No matter what, your interest first and foremost has always been to avoid conflict instead of causing it. You especially, you've always been the mediator, the voice of reason ... Moons, I really am a fool. Etheria doesn't need me to be her Prime Guardian. She already has one. You."
"... What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you are already much better at being what I hoped to be, and you never even actually tried. So perhaps... Perhaps my purpose isn't to become Etheria's chief protector, but to support the one that's been there the whole time. The one I truly was too selfish and obstinate to see."
Arxius closed the distance between himself and Ixis and put his bloody hands on her shoulders.
"Sister. My power isn't safe in my own hands. Please... Do you think you could forgive me enough to accept this burden for yourself instead?"
The scene stopped, the room faded to pure white again and finally shifted back to its original design. The glow engulfing Ixis's body disappeared. The vivid journey into her past was officially over.
"My first instinct was to turn him down, tell him to not be a coward and take care of his own failure instead of expecting me to do it," Ixis continued telling her story while absentmindedly petting Melog, who at some point had shrunk herself down to the size of a house cat and curled up on Ixis's lap.
"I was... so unspeakably angry at him. All I wanted was to hurt him as much as he had hurt our family. However, when he looved into my eyes and asked me to take his burden from him, I could hear a definite voice inside my mind telling me he was right. That I was Etheria's Prime Guardian, not him, and that I should accept his offer. In that moment, I understood that I had finally found my purpose and place in life. ... So, I accepted. Arxius transferred a part of his power to me. Once he had done that, he bid me and Joxyr farewell and went on to entirely dissolve his physical form. Once only his raw power was left of him, he split himself into 11 separate parts and left the planet to make sure his power would never be found and misused by anybody. But Mother Etheria caught Arxius's spirit as he tried to leave. She was of course very displeased with him and created 11 new moons, one moon from each of the parts Arxius had turned himself into, and decreed that these moons would forever orbit the planet and provide it with power, thus forcing Arxius to eternally repent for his transgressions and punishing him for trying to run away. Joxyr was ordered to completely give up her immortality and gift it to me instead, but she was allowed to keep her invulnerability. She would go on to help me protect Etheria for several centuries before time eventually took her. As for Moxil and Lyxon... Mother mourned their senseless loss greatly. She rewarded them in death by keeping their spirits alive, but in different forms. Lyxon would become the avatar of knowledge itself. Mysterious, quiet and elusive and only ever truly in reach for those who are willing to work hard and prove themselves worthy. And Moxil... she received the greatest gift of all," Ixis smiled softly.
"For having been killed so brutally and without any reason, Mother bonded her spirit to Etheria's original moon - Amarus, the Great Architect. Through her new bond with him, Moxil gained the power of creation and was reborn right here in Mother's embrace as the physical manifestation of all beauty and life, a pure spirit of warmth and light. She became Etheria's very first and until this day most powerful runestone. The Heart Blossom."
Perfuma's jaw dropped straight to the floor. Everyone else stared at her with equally stunned expressions.
"Alright, time out," Bow made a T with his hands. "Does anyone else need a break? Cause I need a break. Excuse me a minute," his voice cracked when he said those words. The poor guy got up from his chair and dizzily walked out of the war room, looking like he had seen several ghosts at once.
"Bow? Are you okay?" Glimmer asked as she followed her boyfriend out the door.
"Deeefinitely need a break," Mermista agreed and walked out as well.
"A break absolutely sounds great." Spinnerella and Netossa left next.
Eventually, Ixis, Adora, Catra, Squeak and Melog were the only ones left in the war room. Everyone else had decided they needed a little fresh air after everything they had just learned. Ixis giggled quietly at the empty room.
"Thank goodness I'm not a bard. I would starve to death with everyone running away from my stories," she tried to lighten the mood. The little joke easily hit home for Adora, making the blonde laugh out loud.
"You two sure are having a good time with the truckload of bombshells you just dropped on us," Catra commented, sounding anything but amused.
The shift in Catra's mood caused Melog to wake up in Ixis's lap and look at her, concern written all over her face. Ixis and Adora looked equally worried.
{What's wrong?} Melog asked her chosen partner.
"Everything! Everything is wrong!" Catra all but jumped up from her chair and started pacing back and forth.
"How are you two so calm after listening to all of this!? I mean... Did you hear what she just told us? How are you still okay after all that?"
That's when the memory hit Adora like a bag of bricks: big revelations of any sort had only ever meant bad things were about to happen for Catra. Really, really bad things. Things that would hurt for months and leave horrific scars.
"Oh, Catra," Adora whispered and got up to walk over to her girlfriend.
She successfully managed to get her to stop her anxious pacing by standing in front of her and grabbing her wrists to anchor her in place. The effect was instant. Catra stopped, and though she was still shaking from all the nervous energy that tried to find an outlet, she leaned her head against Adora's chest and allowed herself to be comforted. Adora let go of her wrists then and wrapped her arms around Catra's back instead, making the embrace as tight as she could without freaking her out. Melog joined the hug in her own way by rubbing against Catra's leg and purring as loudly as she could.
{You're fine, Catra,} she mewled softly. {Everything's okay. You're okay.}
Simple as the words were, her deep connection with Melog made them feel like a soothing salve on the wounds on Catra's soul. She eventually managed to close her eyes and relaxed into Adora's arms. Ixis quietly got up from her chair once it seemed like Adora could handle the situation. She made eye contact with the blonde and pointed at the door before raising one of her eyebrows in question. Adora briefly glanced at the doors, then smiled apologetically at Ixis and nodded. With a quiet smile of her own and a brief pat on Adora's shoulder, Ixis silently excused herself and gave the couple some privacy.
They stood in each other's quiet embrace like this for a good while longer until Catra had finally managed to beat her demons back into their place. When they eventually let go of each other again, Catra couldn't help the blush that crept onto her cheeks.
"Um... sorry about that," she said, awkwardly scratching her arm. "And... thank you."
"Of course," Adora smiled at her, her own face sporting a hint of red as well.
"Right... So uh, should we get the others back in or-"
"Catra?"
"Yeah?"
Adora took a step closer to her and grabbed both of her hands, and though her cheeks were red as tomatoes, there was a fierce determination burning in her eyes that Catra knew all too well. Still, even after the millionth time, being at the receiving end of that gaze never got any less disarming.
"I'm not leaving."
"...What?"
Talk about left field. Catra raised a brow at Adora, not quite sure what she was on about.
"I mean, you know... Ixis, our weird connection with her, the new moon that appeared in the sky, all that stuff. Something clearly pretty huge is going on and, well, I'm She-Ra so I'm gonna have to deal with it. But... I'm not leaving. Okay? I'll stay. No matter what."
Catra would laugh at the blonde awkwardly fumbling for words if she wasn't so touched by them.
"You promise?" Catra smiled, her eyes glowing with a thousand emotions that were reserved for one person in her life: the woman currently in front of her.
"I promise," Adora smiled back.
"Good."
They sealed their new promise with a kiss. Short and simple, just to put that small crown of perfection on a moment that already meant the world to them. They pulled away and walked back to their chairs moments before Glimmer teleported herself and everyone else back into the room. Adora called Ixis back in as well and Glimmer had the guards bring some drinks and snacks. Everyone took a few moments to gather their thoughts and mentally get as ready as they could for whatever else was still to be revealed before Glimmer finally gave the go ahead for Ixis to continue.
to be continued
Author's note: And that's it. I hope it was a bearable read. I'll try my best to avoid chapters like these in the future cause I myself don't like reading them, so I can only imagine that some of ya'll probably didn't like the ride this time around. Still, I'm not good enough of an author to think of other ways to smoothly include this much information without totally breaking my head on trying and I don't wanna lose my motivation to stubbornly trying and ultimately failing at something I know I can't pull off, so unfortunately for those who aren't into it, part 2 of this will be pretty similar. I hope it won't ruin the experience for you. Anyhoo. I think I'm going to stick to this update pace of about once a month for now. It's nice and easy for me to pull it off and with everything that was difficult recently, I could need some easy. So ye be warned: it do be slow round here for a while now.
That's it for this one. Hope I'll see you again next time. Til then!