Etheria

It was so quiet in this world. No cars or sirens. No familiar hum of the air conditioners hanging out of everyone's windows or the fitz of the faulty wiring on the electrical pole across the street. The only sounds were the soft shush of water running outside, distant voices and the sound of their own footfalls as they made their way down yet another corridor.

"This is all Bright Moon?" Glimmer's arm was linked around Bow's and she edged a little closer as they passed yet another intimidatingly grand room lined with murals of battles, a crystalline chandelier as big as her entire apartment back home hanging in the center. Bow was moving fast enough that she had to power-walk to keep up with his longer stride, but they still hadn't reached the room with the runes. "This place is gigantic."

"Yeah." Bow glanced around as if seeing it for the first time, but didn't slow. Must be crazy to reach the point where you get so used to all this splendor that you don't even really notice it. "Though it sure doesn't feel like it when we're trying to get a minute alone."

Wow, ok, what does THAT mean? She turned to look out the window so he wouldn't see her blush. Bow had closed his hand over hers as they walked down the hallway and she knew it was just part of the act, that he was literally speeding across the castle with the express purpose of getting rid of her, but walking arm and arm like this, it was hard to not get caught up in the lie herself. Why did this adventure have to end so soon? Especially when the world outside this castle was so profoundly like nothing she'd ever seen outside of a book. She couldn't help but wish she didn't have to leave so soon without getting to see any of it. "Is that still Bright Moon, even all the way out there?"

Bow followed her gaze to the tall tower just visible at the edge of the woods. It was a similar ornate style as the Bright Moon buildings but slightly different with sharper edges instead of the rounded style of everything here. But there was something almost slippery about how it looked, like her eyes couldn't focus on it properly, and that made her uneasy.

"Uh, no. That's…" Bow hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "A strategic compromise."

She gave him a quizzical look, and he sighed, leading them down the next corridor.

"The first wave of Prime's invasion were spires, these tall needle-like structures that came preloaded with tech and barracks for his invading army. They drilled right down into the planet, draining Etheria's life force to power his empire. That was his whole thing, sucking worlds dry, killing everyone on them and claiming the dead husk of a world as a victory for peace in his name."

"Wow. What the fuck?"

"Yeah. It wasn't great. Luckily, we've disabled them so they aren't draining the planet anymore—which was a PROCESS—but they're hard to fully remove, so we haven't gotten them all down entirely. On top of that, lots of the clones prefer to still live in them, I guess because it reminds them of home. But while Prime's former soldiers find it comforting, it's obviously pretty upsetting for everyone on Etheria who lived through the war to look up and see those things looming over them every day. People were really mad about it, saw the spires as monuments to Prime, wanted every last one torn to the ground. And, of course, the clones fought to leave them up, said they were an important part of their history."

Bow exhaled, and she noticed lines on his face she hadn't before. As much as he seemed like her Bow, they'd all been through so much more here than she could imagine. This place seemed so idyllic, it was hard to wrap her head around the idea that only a few years ago they'd been fighting a war straight out of a sci-fi pulp, running for their lives and fighting their own mind-controlled friends. Was that why everything was so much quieter and still than back home in the city? Maybe after all that fighting, everyone just needed some rest.

"So we... well, mostly you, compromised," Bow continued. "We'd leave a few up for the loyalists to live in if they wished, but the outside had to blend in so it was less traumatic for the people of Etheria. You had Entrapta and I rig up this cloaking device based off the one on Darla. It's basically a really realistic hologram that overlays the entire tower so it looks like it's some distant kingdom and not... a reminder of a horrible invasion that everyone will be recovering from the rest of their lives."

They passed another window, and she looked at the tower again, feeling like she could almost see the real thing underneath the illusion, like bones nearly visible under thin skin. Even if they'd shut off the magical planet fracking, the thing still felt sinister, the horizon forever marred by this structure that represented so much suffering. It reminded her of those cell towers they tried to disguise as trees. A nice gesture, she supposed, but was it actually fooling anyone?

Even harder to wrap her head around was the idea that she herself had left those towers up, sided with the leftovers of the invading army when her people so clearly wanted them down. She glanced at Bow. Even walking at this clip there was this stillness about him, a way he carried himself, that was different from at home. More careful, more deliberate. She supposed the King of an entire planet was used to being watched and judged.

A compromise, he'd called it. How many of those had they had to make?

"Anyway, this is part of the problem we're dealing with today. The loyalists have started activating the old— Hold on." There were footsteps coming around the next bend. Bow lowered his voice. "I'll tell you more later. It doesn't look good if people see us talking negatively about this, esp because the NewsVids hear everything. We have to kind of walk a fine line."

Before she could ask what that meant, a guard appeared around the bend. Glimmer tensed automatically, but apparently her disguise held because all the guard did was give them a quick bow. "Your majesties."

Bow bobbed his head to acknowledge the greeting without stopping while Glimmer mumbled an awkward, "Uh, hi."

The king and queen thing? Extremely fucking weird. The circlet on her head was an unfamiliar weight, but the comforting warmth of Bow's arm locked against hers more than made up for it. She kept getting distracted by the single pearl earring swaying from her right ear, but couldn't help but feel giddy every time she looked over and saw Bow's matching one.

Bow was her husband. Her HUSBAND. It was probably not queenly to squeal and jump up and down like a crazed teenager, but she couldn't stop grinning, a giggle bursting out of her randomly. She stifled it, but not before Bow looked her way with concern.

"Are you OK? Is it the magic? Shoot, I didn't even think about that. If your world doesn't have any—"

"I'm fine!" she blurted, feeling foolish.

"Are you sure? When we have visitors from non-magic planets, sometimes they have a reaction to all the power in the air here."

"Like an allergic reaction?"

"Yeah, kind of. Catra even has a slight one. Too much concentrated magic makes her sneeze."

"Bet that's cute," Glimmer prompted, thinking about the time Catra had gotten a face full of dust while helping Razz clean out the garage and Bow had taken his life in his hands by giving her shit about how cute it was for the rest of the day.

"Oh, it's ADORABLE." Bow added, a twinkle in his eye that brought an immediate smile to her face. "But if the atmosphere bothers you, let me know. I'll grab you a blocker band. Entrapta invented them. Just a simple wrist band but they block some of the magic, give the person with the allergy a little relief."

"Well, thank you for the offer but I'm fine." Blocker bands. The phrase triggered a memory, words she'd seen written somewhere. It was at the edge of her brain, something about—

"Hold on. Did we—" Bow stopped short, letting go of her arm. He doubled back a few paces before stepping forward again, a panicked expression on his face as he scanned the wall of the hallway. "Uh oh."

"What is it?" Glimmer looked around the section of the corridor they were standing in and realized she knew where they were. Someone had righted the small table again. The goopy vase she'd knocked over earlier looked lopsided and hastily repaired, the bowl filled with glowing shards of colored glass. She followed Bow's gaze to the wall opposite. "Oh, that's right! The door disappeared right after I went through it. Should I have mentioned that?"

"No, that's what it's supposed to do but..." Bow was worrying at his lip, staring at the blank wall. He looked around them as if checking to make sure the coast was clear and knocked on a random spot. He stepped back as if he was expecting something, but then his shoulders slumped. "Crud. I didn't think about this. You— she didn't want anyone else knowing, so she magic-ed the door. Normally I'd just wait until the hallway was empty and knock and you'd make the door appear so I could get in. But if you're not in there, there's no door."

"Well, can't we just cut a hole in the wall or something?"

"Unfortunately, no. The room we're looking for isn't actually here, just the door. I don't think the actual room is even in this wing."

"Uh, how does that work?"

He exhaled, rubbing his face. "It's a magic thing that I honestly don't completely understand. There's a lot of magic stuff around here I kind of take for granted because you usually have all that handled."

"Okay… So if I usually let you in, how do I get in?"

"You teleport."

"Whoa! Like on Star Trek?"

Bow furrowed his brow. "I don't know what that is."

"It's a... silly thing. Never mind what it is." The best thing seemed to be to go along with whatever was happening. It had gotten her this far, hadn't it? "OK, so we go to the transporter room. You beam me into there, I'll make the door appear, presto!"

"What? No. There is no transporter room." His shook his head, getting agitated. "Or, rather, there is, but it's over in Entrapta's lab and still about a year away from being stable enough to transport people because so much of Prime's technology got destroyed when— Look, it's not important. We're not talking about a transporter, like beaming in with a machine. We're talking about teleporting yourself, with magic."

"Wow. And that's thing people around here can do?"

"No, not people! Only you. Her. Glimmer." He'd started chewing his nails, which was a sign that he was really freaking out. "It's a unique ability granted by the moonstone to the princess of Bright Moon that— Look, I'm sorry, but we don't have time for this. It's something Glimmer can do, but you obviously can't!" He considered the wall for another minute and then turned to her. "Can you?"

Whoa, wait. She could teleport? That was just a thing that her body could do, like sneeze or jump? "Uh, how would I know?"

"Well, you'd be able to sense it, I guess. You've described it as you're aware of... places? And you can… pinch?… the space between them and jump... but you need to take yourself apart first, so it's like you concentrate and... poof? Stars, you'd be giving me such a hard time right now if you could see how badly I'm explaining this." He rubbed his face, looking desperate. "The stupid thing is that I have done it with you a million times but, like most things in our life, you're the one actually doing it. I'm just along for the ride. Did any of what I just said make sense?"

"Not... really?" She tried concentrating, on pinching and poofing and taking herself apart or whatever but just felt completely ridiculous. "Do I need to do a spell or something to do this?"

"No! You—" He groaned. "I don't know how to explain it. I've never had to." He grabbed two handfuls of his hair and mumbled under his breath. "I wish Glimmer was here."

Well, fuck. That hurt. A stark reminder that as nice as Bow was being to her, all he really wanted was to get rid of her and get his "real" Glimmer back. Shitty fake Glimmer wasn't enough, so she didn't count. She blinked back tears and pretended to consider the wall so she wouldn't have to look at him.

"I wonder. If you went to the moonstone, would it—" Bow brightened for half a second but then seemed to think better of it. "No. No, that's a terrible idea. Even if it would work, which I'm not even sure it would, it took you years to master your powers, years full of terrifying near accidents and nearly lost limbs and we don't have years. I want her back SO badly but it's too risky." He leaned his head against the wall, worry etched across his face. "No offense, but sometimes I really hate magic."

She let out a small laugh, gesturing out the window to where chunks of rock hovered casually. "Then why did you marry a magic queen who lives in a magic castle?"

"Because I love you."

Oh.

It was like a knife to the gullet. He said it so casually, those words she'd been waiting most of her life to hear him say. But he didn't mean her. He meant the other Glimmer, the one that was better than her in every single way.

She laughed again, but this time it was bitter. "Mine doesn't."

"Hmm?" He looked over at her.

"My Bow. He doesn't love me. Not like that anyway."

He tilted his head at her. "Are you sure?"

Of course she was! But she hesitated. Because her Bow was awfully cuddly when they were watching movies or on those winter nights when she pretended her room was too cold and crawled into bed alongside him. And as much as he seemed in tune to her emotions most of the time, he'd also been completely oblivious to what Adora had dubbed her "psychotic jealous meltdown" that time Perfuma asked him to the campus formal. But that was years ago, and they lived together for fuck's sake! She dropped hints all the time! If he had feelings for her, he'd say something!

Wouldn't he?

She shook her head. "Yeah. I'm sure."

"I suppose it's possible it's just..." Bow crinkled his brow and tapped against the wall with his knuckle. When he looked back, he grinned, all bashful and adorable. "I find it very hard to believe there is a universe where I'm not completely in love with you."

Wow. What was she supposed to say to that? He held her eye contact for a second and then they both seemed to remember at the same moment where they were and who the other one was and WASN'T. She looked away as Bow cleared his throat.

"Anyway, yeah… we need to find another way in so we can switch you two back."

"Well, you said that pullback thing would switch us back eventually anyway, right? So I guess we just hang out until then!" Oh, darn, she'd just have to stay here a little longer in this perfect life and play house with the boy she'd wanted her whole life. She linked her arm back around his like they'd done when they were walking down the hallway before, but this time, he didn't close his hand around it.

"But that's hours from now! And we're still not sure if it's even going to work!" There was so much despair in his voice she felt instantly guilty. Of course, he wanted his wife back. His awesome magic queen wife, who could do magic and poof into rooms with no doors.

Argh! Was it normal to be this jealous of yourself? After all, they were the same person, weren't they? When it came down to it, that Glimmer wasn't really any better than she was, was she? They'd just had different lives! Probably if she had magic, had a little time to get used to this world and the whole queen thing, she could slot right into this life and nobody would be able to tell the difference between them.

Not even Bow.

OK, so maybe she'd been pushing it with the haircut but, in her defense, she had been left unsupervised.

Bow had been busy rummaging around the bedroom, trying to see if the other Glimmer had left herself some kind of note about the location of the room and the scissors were right there on the edge of the little desk. And no matter what Bow said, she hadn't just been chopping at her hair randomly! She'd been trying to give herself the haircut from the wedding mural of the two of them they'd passed on the way back, but considering the murals around here were little more than faceless cartoon drawings you'd think he'd excuse her for not getting it exactly right. After all, Bow was the one who'd said that her hair would give her away to people who knew the real her and if she was going to be sticking around a little longer, it only made sense that she needed to look the part!

Unfortunately, Bow had been more irritated than impressed by her initiative. He'd fixed her hair into a sassy undercut that she absolutely ROCKED and decided that she should stay back here while he went to the castle library to check the plans from the castle renovation and find their missing room. Which, at first, she'd been pretty disappointed about since it felt like she'd been grounded and sent to her room for bad behavior.

She was dying to see more of the castle, but she contented herself with rooting through her— the other her's stuff. An entire closet full of rompers that were almost exactly the same. Lots of magic stuff that made no sense to her at all. A small statue of an angel on her end table with pink skin whose face looked weirdly like her mom's. A collection of doodles and notes from Bow in the top drawer that were so cute they made her want to die.

What was the most interesting was the stuff that wasn't here. No cell phones, though Bow had some kind of chunky tablet thing on his side of the bed. No collection of ratty, oversized clothes for when she felt like a gross potato and wanted to hide from everyone. No sex toys in her end table, which seemed to imply something (or someone) was meeting her needs here and had put the good old reliable Might Pink Schlong out of work.

THAT was an interesting line of thought. The whole idea that she and Bow were married here was still so new she hadn't really fully thought about all that might mean. She had just started to slide her hand across the impossibly soft sheets and think about how this was where the other her slept with Bow— with her HUSBAND Bow— and the sort of things they might get up to here when there was a knock on the door.

Should she answer it? Bow had been very clear about her staying in here and not going anywhere alone, so maybe it was better that she pretended to not be here? She knew almost nothing about this world, after all, and she didn't like her chances if she didn't have him as her guide.

There was a second knock, a big more forceful than the first, and a familiar voice called, "Glimmer?"

Adora? Of course! If Bow and Catra were here, it stood to reason Adora would be too, right? She debated internally for half a second before jumping to her feet and pulling the door open, the curiosity to see what this version of her friend looked like too much to bear.

"Adora!" Glimmer opened the door and was pleasantly surprised that her other best friend looked... pretty much like she always did. Sure, Adora's hair was longer, pulled back in a simple half-ponytail, and she was wearing some kind of terrible red jacket / blazer thing over a white turtleneck that made her look like she was about the drop the gayest synth hit of the 1980s, but Adora's sense of fashion had always been incomprehensible. But after cat!Catra and Disney Prince Bow there was something incredibly comforting about how utterly normal Adora looked.

"There you are!" Adora pulled her into a hug, which Glimmer returned, missing home with a sudden fierceness that surprised her. When they finished, Adora plopped herself down on the window seat as casually as if she hung out in here all the time. "I just got back! Would have come to check in sooner, but I had to help Catra with the whole scuffle outside. I'm surprised you didn't poof down there and join us. Help us bash some heads in for old times' sake!"

"Oh, Bow and I were... busy." Glimmer waved her hand vaguely, not really sure how to explain what she and Bow had been up to when they were specifically supposed to keep the whole swap a secret.

Luckily, Adora seemed to have her own ideas about what had been keeping them busy, judging by the dumb smirk on her face. "Yeah, I'll bet. You know, you two still owe me a little nibling to cuddle."

"Oh? Well, uh... We'll get on that. I guess?" Was Adora just talking shit or were she and Bow actually trying for kids in this world? The sudden mental image of Bow as a dad, as a dad of THEIR child, was all-consuming. Fuck, why did this Glimmer get everything when she got nothing? "How was your... trip?"

Fortunately, Adora didn't seem to think it was weird that her best friend didn't know where she'd been. She flopped backward on the window seat, playing with a fringed pillow. "Weird. It's always weird. I wish I could convince Razz to come with me. She's bizarre company, but she gets it, you know? But even with all the changes Huntara has made, the Wastes are still a lot, and she hates leaving the woods, so I get it." Razz? Adora's foster mom? And the only Huntara Glimmer knew was the bodybuilder from the campus gym Adora had been lusting over their freshman year. What either of them would have to do with that seedy nightclub where DT used to work was behind her. Glimmer made a generic noise that she hoped Adora would take for understanding and not a desperate plea for no response required on her part. "But Perfuma did an amazing job. I had no idea it was even possible to get that many plants to grow in the dessert. Last year, it was just this tiny little memorial at the crash site and now it's this whole oasis exploding with color, all the weird old magic stuff Mara adored about this planet. I just know she'd love it."

Adora sniffed, blinking back tears, and Glimmer grabbed her a tissue from the bedside table. Adora must be a lot closer to her sorority sister in this world than she was back home. But, memorial? Did that mean Mara was dead here? Glimmer had been taking for granted that there was one of everyone from her world here. That someone might be alive in her world that was gone here was... unsettling. She shivered, not really sure why.

"Anyway," Adora said, sitting up. "I wanted to tell Bow the hologram he restored worked perfectly. Where is he?"

"He's, uh... getting ready for the big meeting thing!" Glimmer said quickly, inordinately pleased with herself for thinking of a believable excuse.

"Don't you need to do that too?"

"Oh, uh…" Did she? Shit, as much as she wasn't in a rush to leave, the idea of having to run some big, high stakes meeting for her other self was terrifying. "I do, but I was… resting. Because I didn't feel well."

"Yeah, Catra said something about you acting weird before." Adora stared at her and Glimmer resisted the urge to slouch, trying to hold herself tall and still, the way this world's Bow did. "Now that you mention it, no offense, but I see what Catra meant about you looking like shit. You're dulled. No sparkle."

It was not great for her ego how everyone was acting like she looked sickly compared to the Glimmer who belonged here. But maybe it was better to play along with the illness thing so she had an excuse for any weird behavior. "I just feel a little off. Like I'm not quite myself."

"Do you need to recharge?" Adora cocked her head. "If you even still do that, I mean. I've actually been meaning to ask if your stronger connection to the moonstone means your powers just automatically—"

"Yes! Get powers from the moonstone! That is exactly what I need to do!" Of course! If she could find this moonstone thing, she could get magic, show everyone that she was just as good as the Glimmer that belonged in this world, even if she didn't have a fancy title or life. Then she could teleport into the room and help Bow switch them back!

Or…

Something ugly twisted inside her gut. If she had magic, would they really even need to switch back? Why couldn't she just stay? If the other Glimmer was so good at everything, maybe she could use all that magic and queen know-how to sort everything out back home with Bow and her mom and her entire disaster of a life. Meanwhile, she could just stay here where everything was already figured out and shortcut herself to happily ever after. She could be happy, right now, without having to deal with all her shit.

"Glimmer? Are you OK?"

"Me?" She laughed, a little too loud and fast, matching the racing of her heart. "I'm fine. Wonderful! I just need to go to the moonstone, like you said." Except she didn't know where it was or how she'd get magic from it once she found it, but she hadn't gotten this far by thinking things through ahead of time! She was just wondering how she could convince Adora to tell her where it was when her friend solved that problem for her.

"Well, do you want company? 'Cause then we can head over together!"