He shouldn't be doing this. Glimmer was going to be so mad at him. But what other choice was there?

Bow moved down the hallway as quietly as he could, listening to soft voices of the Bright Moon guards changing shift in the courtyard below. Outside the window, the moonstone hummed peacefully, glowing against the dark sky. It reminded him of evenings not that long ago when he'd have to sneak back in after another fake school break.

Sigh. He really hated lying to people he loved.

He hesitated where the hallways branched. Maybe this was a bad idea. What even was he going to do when he got there? Knock? If Adora answered the door, not only was there no way she'd agree to this, she'd immediately tell Glimmer and that would defeat the entire purpose. He was still worrying how they'd deal with that inevitable blowout when someone materialized in front of him with making a sound.

Catra.

"Wha—" He cut his own sound of surprise short when he noticed she'd also dressed for a fight. She gave him a toothy grin.

"Hey, Arrow Boy. I had a feeling you and I were thinking the same thing at that meeting." She flicked her tail and then started back down the hallway she'd just come from. "Come on. Before anyone figures out we're gone."

He grabbed her arm. She spun around, claws extended, and he let go immediately. Her look was feral and dangerous.

OK, so no touching. Got it.

It had been weeks since the fall of Prime, even longer than that since Bow knew for sure Catra was on their side, and, while he considered her a friend, he wasn't entirely sure how she felt about him. But, at least for tonight, they were going to have to trust each other.

"Too many guards that way. I usually go out a window." He showed her the grappling hook and rope he'd looped around his belt.

"Usually?" Catra raised her eyebrows and smirked, hostility gone. "I love that apparently sneaking out of this place is a regular thing for you. Who knew Mr. Sunshine had it in him?"

He didn't respond, just hooked up the rope and started repelling down the wall as carefully as he could. Had Adora told Catra about the whole thing with his dads? Should he? He wasn't really sure he was comfortable with that. For as much time as the four of them spend together as a group, he really didn't feel like he knew Catra half as well as Adora or even Glimmer did.

He touched ground, surprised to see Catra land neatly on all fours alongside him, the grappling hook wrapped around her arm. He looked all the way up to the window they'd just exited and then back over to Catra. She shrugged.

"What can I say? I always land on my feet." She wrapped the rope up around the hook and tossed it all under a bush. "If anyone had seen that, they'd know something was up for sure, genius. Do you even have a plan for when Sparkles wakes up and you're not there?"

Bow exhaled. Guess it was too much to hope she'd make this easy. "Well, I'm hoping we'll get back before she notices. But, in case we don't, I left a note that I had to go deal with something. Which is not… exactly a lie."

"Right, because that's not suspicious at all. You seriously couldn't have come up with something better than that?"

He pretended to secure his gear. Sure, he could have. He'd lied to his dads for years without them figuring anything out. But he didn't want to lie to Glimmer because he hated it, hated especially how much tonight felt like the night he and Adora had snuck out to rescue Entrapta on Beast Island and they'd fought and then he'd almost lost her forever.

The stupid thing was, they could have avoided all of this if Glimmer had listened to him in the first place! Though that wasn't entirely fair. The alliance meeting had been chaos, heated emotions, nobody really listening to anyone. Plus, he hadn't tried hard enough to make his objections heard; he knew he hadn't. But how were you supposed to tell someone, even though you always trusted them, sometimes they are WRON—not right about something when that exact exchange was this loaded moment from your past?

And that was a big mess of raw emotions he really sort of wanted to talk to someone about, but he just wasn't sure that someone was Catra. So he ignored the question and started moving toward the cover of the woods as fast as he could. There hadn't been stars in the sky the last time he done this. Nights were so much brighter in Etheria these days.

"What about Adora?" He asked when they'd reached the tree line, out of sight of the castle.

"Eh, she sleeps like the dead, anyway. And she knows I like to wander around at night, especially when I… can't sleep." Catra paused, a loaded silence. It made Bow wonder if maybe there was something she wanted to talk to someone about too. In the soft glow of the Whispering Woods, he saw her rub the back of her neck. But before he could even figure out what to say, she continued. "Whatever. The worst that happens is she climbs around trying to find me on the roof or something. If she gets mad at me, I'll deal with it. It's not like it'll be the first time. I'm more worried about Sparkles. If she figures out where we are, she'll teleport there in half a second and—"

"I know. I know." Bow was well aware of how bad this situation could get. "Then let's get going. The sooner we do this, the sooner we'll be back." Maybe they really could handle the situation and be back before either Glimmer or Adora woke up, and then nobody had to be mad at anybody. Though they never seemed to be that lucky. "Should we bring anyone else?"

"Who would we bring? Do we even know any other normal people?" Catra asked.

Bow thought about it. "Sea Hawk?"

"Ugh, no."

General Juliet would just report them to Glimmer. Huntara was busy trying to restore what passed for order in the Crimson Waste. He didn't even bother suggesting the Hordaks.

"Then I guess it's just us. The B Team."

Catra groaned. "Let me guess. The B stands for 'Bow.'"

"I just meant, out of the four of us, you and I wouldn't exactly be anyone's top choice when the other options are She-Ra and the sorceress Queen of Bright Moon."

"Oh, OK. Fine." Catra shrugged.

"I bet we're going to be a great team." Bow hid a grin. It totally stood for Bow. "Ready to go?"

"Just don't slow me down, Arrow Boy." Catra pushed in front of him and then stopped, her tail twitching. "Wait. How are we going to get there? Sparkles was going to teleport us tomorrow, and it'd take forever on a Horde skiff."

Bow couldn't help but smile as he pushed aside the curtain of vines to where Swift Wind was waiting for them. "Did someone say Swift Wind?"

"Hey, Bow! Catra." Swift Wind pawed at the ground, looking nervous. Wow, nervous enough that he hadn't even jump at the chance to use his catch phrase. He probably didn't enjoy lying to the others anymore than they did. "Ready to do this?"

"What? No no no. Absolutely not." Catra rounded on Bow. "Not only did I tell you people that I am NOT getting back on that annoying, loudmouth… thing EVER again, he's magic. Normals only, or I'd be taking Melog. That's the whole point of the mission!"

"Hey, hairball, you got a better way to get there?" Swift Wind glared at Catra. Catra glared back. Bow rubbed his face. Like they needed this right now? The relationship between She-Ra faithful steed and She-Ra's girlfriend was, at best, strained.

"Can we please just get going?" He looked between the two of them. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we're back and the less likely anyone's girlfriend gets really super mad at them and stops loving them and never speaks to them ever again."

Not that Glimmer would do that! Probably? He really didn't want to take any chances.

"Fine." Catra vaulted up off the ground and onto Swift Wind's back. From the way Swift Wind yelped, she hadn't bothered to sheath her claws first.

Bow shook his head and climbed up behind her. Half the time he felt like he was babysitting the rest of them. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Swift Wind rolled his eyes and then shifted his weight, launching them off the ground. All of Catra's cool attitude couldn't hide the way she immediately tensed and gasped as they rose into the air. As much as they didn't get along, she was sure hugging Swift Wind's neck for dear life right now. Why did he have the feeling Swift Wind was taking it just a little bit too fast to spite her?

Catra made a sound halfway between a hiss and a whimper, and Bow tried not to laugh. Poor Catra. He'd ridden on Swift Wind enough times that he trusted the horse not to drop them. Besides, no matter how many times he'd done it, there was still something really thrilling about riding across the sky on a flying unicorn. One of a million things about his life now, he never would have believed as a regular kid.

No, the lurching feeling in his gut had nothing to do with the flight and everything to do with the sight of Bright Moon shrinking below them.

They could pull this off, right? Just him and Catra, no magic? Get along enough to get it all done tonight themselves, so nobody else got hurt?

Yeah, of course they could! Wasn't that what he was always saying, that you didn't need magic to be a force for good? It was all going to be fine.

He repeated it until he almost believed it, and Bright Moon was only a tiny speck.