A/N: Sorry this one took so long. I've been having some mental health issues and I was away travelling for a bit, and also I've been working on a new fic. It's a high school sports AU and very different in tone, a lot more fun, but many of the same issues are (or are going to be) addressed, like Shadow Weaver's abuse and Catradora's dysfunctional relationship. It's called Hail Mary, go check it out if you're craving more of this content, you just might like it. :)

This chapter is not traumatic but it is certainly dramatic. No content warnings apply.

Where previously there was chaos, there is only focus.

Adora's pupils dilate, her brain quieting as it latches on to the blaring alarm. She can hear shouting behind her as the others struggle to hear each other over the racket. To her, it's a siren song.

This time in Dryl has been difficult, to say the least. Feeling useless, disconnected from her routines and her very sense of self. The cycles of conflict with Catra that leave her guessing, desperate to make things better but not knowing how. She's learning, but it's not in her nature.

This is.

Stepping up to the computer, Adora pokes Entrapta to get her attention and draws a finger across her throat. Entrapta nods right away and slaps a button on her console, muting the shrieking siren.

The sudden silence halts the conversation behind her, everyone groaning and sighing in relief. Before anyone (particularly Swift Wind) gets the chance to start talking again, Adora swivels and marches up to them, fully in battle mode.

"Bow, get Glimmer on the comm," she orders. While he nods wordlessly and reaches for his tracker pad, Adora does a bit of math. How fast the signal is moving, how far the other kingdoms are. "Any other princesses in Bright Moon right now?" she asks him. "Spinnerella and Netossa?"

"Nah, they went home." Bow's brow creases as he frowns. "Said they needed a mental health break."

"Don't we all," snorts Adora.

"Oh, but Mermista's there!" he adds hopefully. "After the meeting she offered to stay for moral support."

Adora scoffs. "Mermista, moral support?"

Chuckling as he taps away at the screen, Bow remarks, "Apparently Sea Hawk's camped out in Salineas and they're in an 'off again' phase."

"Oh, that'll do it," mutters Adora, huffing out a laugh. Bow moves away as the pad rings, giving himself a little privacy, and she returns to Entrapta and asks, "You set off the distress beacon yet?" Even if the other princesses can't get here before the Horde arrives, having backup come in late is still helpful. The Battle of Bright Moon proved that.

"I'm not sure we need to," muses Entrapta, tapping her chin as she stares at the screen. "It's just one machine." Adora turns her head to look and she continues, "A large one, based on the readings. Probably a tank." Squinting at Adora, she asks, "Three princesses can handle one tank, right?"

Technically they would have five princesses, but Adora knows what she means. Three princesses with powers. Still, she reckons even the technically powerless Scorpia could handle one tank. She could probably throw it off a cliff. But that can't be what they're dealing with, it makes no sense.

Eyes narrowing at the single marker on the screen, Adora shakes her head. "Tanks never get deployed alone, they're only used in large-scale attacks. Transports will, sometimes. Could it be a transport?"

"Possibly! I guess we'll find out when it gets here, it's headed straight for us!" Entrapta chirps excitedly. Noting Adora's sober expression, she adds, "...which is a bad thing."

Drumming her fingers on the desk, Adora considers their options. Given the tension within the Alliance, she doesn't want to ask too much of the other princesses if it's not necessary. If they all show up for nothing, she'll never hear the end of it. "Okay," she sighs, "let's wait and see if any more join the attack."

Just as she says this, the marker disappears off the screen. Her eyebrows shoot up. "What the fuck? Did you develop cloaking tech for them?"

"It's just out of range of the sensor now," Catra explains from behind her.

Adora's stomach drops, a cold feeling sliding down her spine. She just… oh no. Catra's next words barely even register. "The early detection system is just a perimeter."

"Don't worry, Adora," says Entrapta, squeezing her arm as she examines her suddenly pale face. "I have more sensors set up closer to the mountains. We'll still be able to see them coming."

Unfortunately, that's not what has Adora worried. Her whole body feels heavy with dread as she turns to face Catra, wincing in preparation for the look she might find on her face.

Watching Adora's suddenly tense body language, Catra raises an eyebrow as Adora slowly lifts her head. The expression on her face as she makes eye contact is only more concerning. She looks like she just got caught with her hand in a ration jar. Catra's just about to ask what's wrong when Adora suddenly starts rambling.

"Catra, I am so sorry," Adora bursts out when she sees Catra open her mouth. "I know you're running the defenses here, I didn't mean to take over like that. I'm just used to fending off Horde attacks, and…" Adora's eyes widen in alarm as she hears herself, cheeks flushing crimson. Why is she bringing up past battles with Catra? What the actual fuck is wrong with her?

Scratching the back of her neck, she mutters, "Uh, never mind." Despite much trepidation, she dares to meet Catra's gaze again. Her expression is unreadable, other than staring at Adora like she's grown two heads. Clasping her fidgeting hands behind her back, Adora quickly concludes, "If you want to change anything or have any other ideas, I'm all ears."

Catra's heart is slowly sinking into her stomach as she witnesses this beginning of a meltdown. Adora is afraid of her. Yes, there was a time when she wanted Adora to be afraid of her, but not now. That's supposed to be over and done with.

Forcing a grin onto her lips, Catra tries to reassure Adora with a joke. "Come on, now. I'm the one who's all ears." She flicks her own massive ears, letting them flap fully open for a second before flopping over again at the tips.

Adora chuckles sharply, a little tension bleeding from her shoulders, and Catra grins for real this time, relief flooding her veins. Hoping to soothe Adora further, she adds, "And I think you've got it handled. Me and Scorpia will go alert the troops and civilians." Her eyes flick to Entrapta. "Unless there's sirens outside the castle."

Entrapta's face falls, one finger tapping against her chin. "Hmm, no. That was an oversight on my part."

"Good thing we noticed when it was literally only one tank," remarks Catra. Elbowing Scorpia, she turns for the door. "C'mon, let's go."

Once she and Scorpia are a safe distance away, Scorpia demands, "Uh, okay. What was all that about?"

Catra's ears flick absently. "Huh?"

"You were weirdly cool about that," specifies Scorpia. "You hate it when Adora bosses you around."

Smirking into her collar, Catra remarks, "She wasn't bossing me around." Honestly, it was kind of hot now that it wasn't being directed at her. Knowing Adora has the respect of everyone and can give them orders but will ultimately defer to her, well, that's enough to make heat simmer in her cheeks and low in her stomach. Maybe Adora's only acting this way because of their location, how it's Catra's domain, but she'll enjoy the role reversal for as long as she can.

On the other hand, Adora being afraid of her reaction is... not great, to put it mildly. Catra tucks that away as something to work on.

"True," muses Scorpia. "Was she always that bossy?"

Brow scrunching, Catra says, "I mean, she comes by it naturally, but Shadow Weaver definitely made it worse. Putting her on a pedestal all the time and all that." Frowning at the floor as they walk, she muses, "Maybe she didn't even want to be in charge. She just can't stand inefficiency so she has a tendency to take over." She nods confidently as the right words come to her. "She's the doer, I'm the planner. When she listens to me, anyway."

"She's not very good at that, is she?" remarks Scorpia, and Catra's head tips back with laughter. Understatement of the century.

"No. No she's not."

***o***

It's a good 45 minutes before Glimmer shows up. Adora was honestly starting to think she'd blown them off. But then she hears the familiar twinkling sound and her heart jumps, breath catching as she whirls around to face the noise as Glimmer apparates in the middle of the lab, a startled looking Mermista in her grasp.

"A little warning, next time?" snarks Mermista, shrugging off Glimmer's arms.

"Glimmer!" Entrapta calls excitedly, bounding over on her hair. "Welcome back to Dryl! I promise none of the robots will try to kill you this time."

Licking her dry lips with an even drier tongue, Adora inches closer and chimes in, "Thanks for coming."

Glimmer turns her head, and Adora's heart sinks when she sees the hurt and resentment still plain as day on Glimmer's face. She braces herself for a nasty comment, but Glimmer's only response is a grudging "You're welcome." At least that's progress.

"Uh, hi, I'm here too," mutters Mermista. "No big deal or anything."

"Thanks, Mermista," Adora quickly concedes. "Glad you happened to be in Bright Moon."

"Yeah, what can I say? Salineas is boring right now. And super annoying."

Shifting her weight, Adora clears her throat. "Well, uh, I hope you start to feel better about 'Salineas' soon."

"Ugh."

Stepping into their little circle, Bow interjects, "Sorry to interrupt, but we don't have time for pleasantries. You guys took longer than we expected."

"Yeah well, with Swift Wind off on a field trip we had to take regular old horses," Glimmer remarks pointedly. "We got here as soon as we could." Eyes sweeping the room, she asks, "Where is he, anyway?"

"Doing recon to see what we're dealing with, make sure there's no tech cloaking going on," says Bow. "He should be back any minute now."

Glimmer doesn't respond right away, her eyes locked on something beyond Adora's shoulder. Adora instinctually follows her gaze, swallowing when she sees Catra staring back with equal intensity from her spot next to Scorpia on the couch. Catra's schooled her expression into blank annoyance, her tail flicking irritably, but Adora recognizes the apprehension in her tight shoulders.

Just when Adora is about to step between the two of them, Glimmer breaks the silent showdown on her own. Her eyes narrow slightly in warning before she turns away from Catra, moving to the screens. Peering up at the blinking energy signal on the map, she asks, "How long do we have?"

"Maybe five minutes or so before they're in cannon range, if it's a tank," says Entrapta, the group following her over. "But they'll still be pinned at the bottom of the mountain, can't do too much damage from there with just one machine."

The back of Adora's neck prickles, a chill running down her spine. "This doesn't feel right," she says, hands fidgeting at her sides. "Like a trap or something."

A moment of tense silence passes before Bow breaks it. As gently as possible, in true Bow fashion. "You know Hordak best, Catra," he states. "What do you think?"

So much for breaking the tension. Glimmer's purple eyes go back to boring into Catra's, tempting the Magicat's claws to extend. She fights them deeper into their sheaths with as blank an expression as she can manage given the discomfort it causes coupled with her hammering heart.

"Yeah, what do you think, Force Captain?" Glimmer sneers, but it lacks fire.

Ears perking up in interest, Catra scoffs, "Is that supposed to be an insult, Sparkles? You've gone soft."

"Ugh, can we not?" groans Mermista, echoing Adora's thoughts. There was enough bickering at the meeting the other day.

Catra stands from the couch, tail swishing as she closes in on the group. "Hordak didn't want to rush any attacks. Or at least, he didn't want me to. He wanted to wait until the Alliance had fallen back into complacency so we could catch you off guard, and he wanted contingency plans for if more princesses showed up, like last time."

"So why would he send only one tank?" presses Bow.

Catra's brow creases as she frowns. "I don't know. He was fine with wasting bots on tech-scavenging missions but he's usually more conservative about deploying soldiers, they're a more limited resource. And it's not like tanks drive themselves." She rubs at her cheekbone with a scowl, the bruise gone but the memory still clear. "But he does have a temper. I could see him doing something stupid because he's pissed off. But not 'drive a tank over here and start shooting up the place' stupid. He would have backup if he did." Tapping her chin, she concludes, "Could be he's testing us. Seeing how we respond so he knows what to do if he attacks for real."

"So what do you suggest we do?" asks Adora. She hears Glimmer scoff to her side but ignores her.

"We don't show our cards," says Catra. "Hordak doesn't know you're here, or at least he shouldn't. Who knows if he thinks Entrapta's back with the Alliance. I think we should have me and Scorpia show our faces, see how he reacts. We'll have the troops try to take the tank out with our cannons on the parapets if it fires on us."

"So we came here for nothing?" demands Glimmer, pitch rising irritably.

Turning on her with a smirk, Catra needles her, "What, Sparkles, mad you're not getting to be the star of the show?" The princess's mouth drops open indignantly before flapping a couple times in silent protest. Ears pricking up smugly, Catra turns her attention to the others.

"The rest of you can be our backup. Mermista, there's a stream you can use just north of the castle. Adora, hide behind that big boulder at the base of the mountain." Seeing Adora about to argue, she interjects, "I know you don't have time to get there. Sparkles can take you, assuming she's not out of magic juice." Pausing, she points an idle claw back and forth between Bow and Glimmer. "You two set up wherever's good for you, just don't show yourselves unless Scorpia and I ask for help. We'll take the skiff in case we need to jump into battle."

"I'll stay back and monitor the sensors?" Entrapta presumes.

"Yes, please," Catra agrees with a grateful nod.

"What about Swift Wind?" asks Bow.

Catra scoffs. "Just keep him out of sight. Hopefully they didn't already see him flying around up there. Whose dumb idea was that, anyway?" When Adora raises a shy hand, her smugly cocked eyebrow falls along with her lips. "Oh. Sorry."

Fiddling with the cuff of her sleeve, Adora mutters, "I didn't know what your plan would be."

"It's okay, neither did I," Catra assures her. Adora dares to meet her gaze and finds no hostility, only a sheepish smile and earnest eyes. Suddenly unable to look away, Adora feels her own lips creeping up into a smile too. Finally Catra releases her with a cheeky wink before jerking her head at the door on the way out. "C'mon, Scorp."

Catra disappears out the open door of the lab, but Scorpia neglects to follow her right away, opting to stay and point a threatening pincer at Glimmer. She's been giving the princess a pretty permanent glare since she arrived, though Adora's not sure Glimmer ever noticed what with her blinding hatred for Catra and all. "Don't try anything," Scorpia warns her, voice uncharacteristically deep and serious. "If you touch her, I'll end you."

Rolling her eyes, Glimmer assures Scorpia, "Trust me, I'm not here for her."

With Scorpia gone, a fraction of the tension bleeds out of the room. A very small fraction. Clearing her throat, Adora turns to Glimmer. "Take me down to the boulder?"

"What am I, a packhorse?" snorts Glimmer. But she latches on and teleports them down in a series of short hops to more familiar locations. Adora expects Glimmer to ditch her as soon as humanly possible, but the princess lingers a moment once their feet are solidly on the ground. Frowning in what appears to be concern, she asks, "Hey, can I talk to you?"

"It's none of your business, Glimmer," snaps Adora, shutting that down immediately.

"What?" Glimmer's eyelids flutter for a second before she catches on. "Oh, no, not about you and Catra," she clarifies, waving Adora off. "I don't even wanna know."

"Then what?" demands Adora.

Glimmer's eyes narrow slightly but she doesn't take the bait. "Look, the team is still working on digitizing Shadow Weaver's files," she says. "And, uh, they found something a little disturbing."

Adora snorts, loudly. "Just one thing?"

Pressing her lips together, Glimmer blinks away. "No. Lots, actually."

Adora's eyes narrow accusingly, arms crossing over her chest. "How much have you seen?"

"Not much," Glimmer says quickly. When Adora doesn't move, her eyes drop and she mutters, "Enough."

"Great," huffs Adora.

"I, uh…" Glimmer scratches her flushing neck. "I didn't know, about Shadow Weaver. I mean, I remember what she did in Mystacor, but I didn't realize how terrible she was to you." It looks like it pains her to say it, but she adds, "Both of you."

Icy dread washes over Adora, crashing heavy on her shoulders and making her eyes pop. "Can this wait until we're not being attacked by the Horde? Shadow Weaver is the last thing I wanna think about right now."

"This isn't about Shadow Weaver," pushes Glimmer, urgency seeping into her tone. "Or, kind of, but…" Maybe she finally notices Adora's tense posture and panicked eyes, because her gaze softens and she relents. "Okay, we'll fill you in at the next meeting. Or, whenever you're in Bright Moon."

"Am I allowed back in?" snarks Adora. She can't help herself.

Rolling her eyes slightly, Glimmer counters, "You were never banned, Adora. And the guards are mostly for show, so the people don't think we let you off the hook."

"Well they sure don't make me feel welcome, either," grumbles Adora. "And neither do you." Glimmer's face hardens and her mouth opens to protest, but Adora cuts her off with a raised hand. "You know what, forget it. We're not here to fight. Not with each other."

"Right," sighs Glimmer. "I guess I'll go put Bow in a spire." Then she poofs away, and Adora is left on her own. Again.

*o*

Several hundred feet above, Catra peers over the edge of the cliff, frowning as the princess disappears. If Sparkles was giving Adora shit again, Catra has some words for her. Choice words, many of them four letters long.

"Still no sign of any more, Entrapta?" Scorpia radios in as they watch the singular tank roll into view.

"Nothing!" confirms Entrapta.

And so they wait.

The tank slowly rolls forward and pauses halfway across the clearing, rather than beelining for the path up the mountain. When the sights and cannon start to tip up, pointing directly at them, a jolt of fear and adrenaline shoots through Catra. She refuses to react visibly, give anything away, but her grip on her shock baton tightens as she waits for Hordak to make his move.

The barrel lowers itself again, and a mix of relief and confusion floods Catra's body. That goes double when the machine shuts down entirely, leaving her squinting out into the clearing for any sign of what the hell is going on. Then the hatch opens and a pair of empty hands peek out, followed by a familiar voice. "We come in peace!"

All the air rushes out of Catra's lungs. Shaking her head in disbelief, she shouts, "Lonnie?!"

Poking her head out of the safe zone, Lonnie hollers, "Hey, Catra. That invite still good?"

With a delighted chuckle, Catra hops on the skiff and zooms down the cliff's face. By the time she reaches the tank, Lonnie is standing on top of it and hoisting Kyle out by his armpits, aided by Rogelio from beneath. Catra hops up to help, taking Kyle's casted leg from Rogelio as Lonnie walks backward, dragging him out of the hatch.

Helping Lonnie lay Kyle down on the roof, Catra remarks, "I thought you were giving him time to heal." Then she notices the way Lonnie's wincing and favoring her injured ankle as she straightens up. "Not to mention yourself."

"Things got worse after you left," huffs Lonnie. "Hordak's mad, Catra. Real mad. He's planning another big attack."

"On Dryl?"

"You think he'd tell me?" Lonnie sasses her. "All I know is training's gotten harder and supplies and troops are being moved around. What's that sound like to you, second-in-command?"

"Alright, alright. I gotcha," concedes Catra, raising a placating hand. "So if things are so rough, how did you sneak away?"

"Figured with all the chaos they'd be slacking on double-checking their paperwork, there's a lot of commands coming through at once," explains Lonnie. "I handed over orders to deliver a tank to the ninth battalion. It was an order from five months ago, wasn't hard to forge the date."

Catra nods, admittedly impressed. It's not surprising, though. Lonnie was always smart. Capable. There is one thing she may have forgotten to consider, though. Nodding down to the metal under their feet, Catra says, "You know they can track this thing, right? Entrapta can track it. We knew you were coming like an hour ago."

Shrugging demonstratively, Lonnie counters, "What's it matter? Hordak already knows you're here."

"And now you have a tank," Kyle pipes up.

Sparing a mere glance to Kyle, Catra points down at him as she asks Lonnie, "Why is he talking?"

Kyle shuts up immediately, shrinking in Rogelio's arms. Catra shoots him a smug little smirk, considering going so far as to call him a good boy. Then she remembers all the times Shadow Weaver called her a good girl in the exact same context and is suddenly fighting the urge to rip her own hair out. Thankfully she's saved from that impulse by the feeling of Lonnie stiffening, and she blinks up to find her squadmate's eyes wide with alarm.

Looking over her shoulder, Catra spots Adora approaching. Or rather, She-Ra.

"Hey, guys," she says, waving with a shyness so unbefitting of her towering frame, apparently oblivious to how this looks.

"Uh, Adora?" Catching her eye, Catra nods downwards.

It takes Adora a second, but she clues in when she sees the way the whole squad is recoiling at the sight of her. Even if they're mad at her, they would never react to Adora that way. But even Catra has barely seen her in She-Ra mode as an ally, let alone the rest of the squad. Quickly detransforming and placing the vambrace version of her sword on her arm, she raises her now empty hands. "Sorry, I forgot."

"How can you forget you're eight feet tall and your sword weighs nothing?" asks Catra.

"No, I mean- I, uh, I forgot you guys would be scared of me. Of She-Ra, I mean."

"I'm not scared of She-Ra," Lonnie says flatly. "I just don't like her."

"Ah," mutters Adora, eyes falling to the ground. "Yeah, sometimes I don't either."

"You're okay, though," adds Lonnie, a small smile peeking through.

Adora's heart flutters. "You're not still mad at me?"

"Didn't say that," replies Lonnie. Taking a moment to catch the boys' eyes, she adds, "But I think we can all agree you're basically family."

Sighing in relief, Adora can't help but smile. She's missed Lonnie, her sturdiness and her sass. "The feeling is mutual. And, thank you. For leaving, I mean."

"Well, we didn't do it for you. We did it for ourselves," Lonnie informs her pointedly. "Lucky us, Catra offered to take us with, told us where we could go to be safe. Very considerate of her."

Adora's face burns. Ducking it into her collar, she mutters, "Right. Yeah, sorry about that."

"Are you?" asks Kyle.

Looking up in surprise, Adora finds him peering over the edge from where he's still lying on the roof of the tank. He's not exactly glaring, but he's not cowering in fear, either. Maybe he's finally growing a spine.

Choosing her words carefully, Adora answers, "I wasn't thinking clearly at Thaymor. Or at least, not about the consequences of my actions on other people." Her eyes flick over to Catra, who's been watching the whole exchange rather impassively, before returning to Kyle. "It's something I'm working on."

"Good," snaps Lonnie. "It needs work." Adora doesn't know what to say to that, so she says nothing.

Catra finally intervenes, breaking the quiet tension. "We should get back up there."

They load Kyle and their possessions onto the skiff and Catra activates the booster, achieving the height needed to land on the cliff's edge without dumping everyone off the skiff on the way up. Most everyone has already regrouped by the time they get there, the Bright Moon contingent eyeing the new arrivals with ill ease.

"Oh, more fugitives," drawls Mermista. "Nice." Suddenly her eyes narrow in recognition. "Hey, weren't you guys on that boat…?"

"You mean, did you almost drown us?" Lonnie sasses her right back. "Yeah, thanks for that, by the way."

"Uh, you were kinda attacking my gate."

Just then Entrapta bounds over to the group, propelled by a set of very eager pigtails. "Hello, friends!" Entrapta greets the newcomers with a wave. As Mermista rolls her eyes and retreats to her own faction, Entrapta continues, "What are you doing here?"

Brow furrowing, Scorpia wraps an arm around her waist. "Uh, babe? Catra told us she'd offered to let them defect and stay with us. Don't you remember?"

"Ohhh, right." Lowering herself to her feet, she turns to the squad and smiles sheepishly. "My bad. When I start thinking about too many things at once, I forget stuff. The human brain is sadly imperfect, but I'm working on solutions! Only on consenting subjects, of course." When everyone who's listening just stares at her blankly, she shifts her weight and gestures at the castle behind her. "Uh, I mean, welcome to Dryl!"

Lonnie replies with a stiff nod and Rogelio with a grunt. Kyle waves and speaks for all of them. "Hi, Entrapta. Thanks for taking us in."

"You're welcome, there's lots of room for defectors in Dryl." Suddenly her eyes light up as she puts two and two together. "Wait, if you're defecting, does that mean we get your tank?!" Pressing her palms together, she begs, "Catra, can we please keep it?!"

Catra snorts. "Of course we can keep it. We're gonna need all the firepower we can get against Hordak. Tinker away."

"Yes!" shrieks Entrapta, punching the air.

Lonnie winces at the excessive pitch and volume, making Catra chuckle. Half at her expense, and half in sympathy.

"You get used to it," she assures Lonnie.

Making a face, Lonnie nods at their host, who is now sharing a celebratory kiss with her girlfriend. "Will I get used to that, too?"

Watching the scene, Catra shrugs. "Eh, it's no worse than the boys."

"At least they don't do it in front of me. Usually."

"Apparently people do that all the time outside of the Horde," remarks Catra. "I guess 'cause it's not against the rules."

"Weird," mutters Lonnie, but she doesn't say anything more.

In the relative quiet that follows, Catra's ears turn to the Bright Moon contingent, easily picking up the faint strains of their ongoing conversation.

"Okay, but someone has to take the horses," says Bow. "We can't just leave them here."

"Yeah, I am not riding back on your bird horse," says Mermista. "I'll take the scenic route."

There's an obvious relieved smile in Bow's voice as he says, "Thanks."

"Can we talk about how I'm not a bird?" says Swift Wind.

"Really?" asks Mermista, her tone somewhere between deadpan and amazed. "Entrapta said you are."

Catra laughs under her breath, lips turning up in genuine amusement. If they weren't still borderline enemies and all, she thinks she'd get a kick out of hanging out with the water princess and trolling people with her. People and bird horses.

"What's so funny?" asks Adora, eyes narrowed but intrigued.

"Swift Wind," whispers Catra. "I'll tell you later."

Stepping into the no man's land between the factions, Bow at her side, Glimmer announces, "Okay, well, we're heading back to Bright Moon." Making eye contact with Entrapta and Adora, she attempts a smile. "See you guys at the next meeting."

"See you then," Adora replies almost on autopilot, her voice hollow. Her body and mind feel suddenly numb, and she couldn't produce more emotion if she wanted to.

Giving her a tight but warm smile, Bow silently closes the gap to wrap his arms around Adora. She relaxes into the warmth and pressure of his touch, eyes fluttering shut with a sigh. His chin rests on her shoulder, throat bobbing against her collarbone. "I miss you," he murmurs. "See you soon?"

"Yeah." Adora gives him an extra squeeze in promise. "I miss you too."

When he steps back, her eyes involuntarily flick over to Glimmer and she's served an immediate gut punch. Glimmer looks… not defeated, exactly, she's too proud for that. But she does look sad. Hurt, just like she did when she arrived, but there's something else in her expression now that Adora can't pinpoint. Regret? Longing? Nah, Adora's probably just projecting that because that's what she wants to see. But Glimmer also looks small, in a way that has nothing to do with her stature. Her fists squeeze and feet shift awkwardly, and for a second Adora wonders if she's going to try to hug her too. Adora also wonders if she'd let her.

Entrapta intervenes before Adora has to find out. Hopping out of Scorpia's arms, she pats Glimmer on the head with one of her pigtails. "See you then, Glimmer. Thanks for coming!"

"Any time," says Glimmer, weight shifting again as she forces a smile. "I liked it a lot better without the murderous robots." Turning back to Adora despite how it appears to pain her, she gives her a small wave. "Bye, Adora."

Swallowing hard, Adora reciprocates. "Bye, Glim."

She and Bow hop on Swift Wind and Mermista walks off, presumably to gather their horses. Adora's watching Swift Wind disappear into the clouds when she feels a pair of arms wrap loosely around her waist.

"What's with her?" asks Catra flatly. "She's being less of a bitch than usual."

Choice words aside, Adora can hear the sincerity in her question. But it's a question Adora doesn't know the answer to herself. Or at least, not in its entirety. And what she does know, she's not certain she should pass on. Catra probably wouldn't want to know that the Alliance knows… well, Adora's not even sure what they know. She's barely even scratched the surface of the data they have, let alone Bright Moon, and what she did find was horrifying enough. She's not sure she wants to go any deeper.

Choosing to deflect instead, Adora jokes, "She's not always a bitch, Catra, believe it or not."

Warm, wet breath hits Adora's ear as Catra snorts. "I'm gonna stick with 'not.'"

A/N: Next chapter we get back to the trauma, hooray! The next 2-3 chapters are mostly written already so they should in theory take a lot less time to get published. We shall see.