Chapter Eleven: Enemies of my Enemy

Adora stumbled back, rushing for her sword. Entrapta did nothing to stop her, as the girl picked up her blade and pointed it at the intruder. "What are you doing here? What do you want?"

"Oh, that's simple: I want-no, I need your help. We need your help," Entrapta said. She showed no fear, not even any wariness or apprehension, towards Adora. "And I feel like you could use ours, too."

Adora lowered her guard slightly, but kept the Sword of Protection firmly in hand. "Now, hang on-you sneak into my tent in the middle of the night just after we've been attacked by shambling corpses, inches away from my face, to ask me for help?"

Entrapta nodded. "Well, I wouldn't call them 'shambling,' but yeah, basically. The way I see it, Skeletor's too powerful for either of us to beat on our own. We'll have to team up if we wanna fight him!"

Adora sighed, rubbed her eyes, and stood up. "Something tells me neither Catra or Hordak sent you here."

"Catra said Hordak wouldn't be too keen on working with the Princess Alliance, so we came here on our own, just the three of us."

"Three?" said Adora.

"Oh, yeah, Catra and Scorpia are here, too!" she said. Adora's eyes widedned at the revelation that Catra was present. "I came in first because I figured I'd have the best luck talking to you. Did it work?"

Whether or not it worked would have to wait, as that very moment Glimmer entered the tent, having heard the noise. "Adora, is something wro-Entrapta!?" Glimmer instantly took on a fighting stance, prepared to do battle against this Horde intruder.

Entrapta held up her hands. "Now, wait a minute! I'm not here to fight, I'm here to talk about a truce! Remember what we were talking about earlier, back on the ship? About teaming up?"

"To be fair, we did talk about a truce," said Adora.

Glimmer's eyes narrowed as she put away her sparkling fists. She was skeptical, but willing to give Entrapta the benefit of the doubt. "Okay, Entrapta...tell me, how do we know this isn't a ploy by the Horde to get us to lower our defenses?"

"If it was, we would have captured you in your sleep," Entrapta said. "But we didn't. Catra and Scorpia are waiting for my signal until they can come out."

"What!? Catra's here!?" shouted Glimmer.

"That's what I thought!" said Adora.

"So, is that a yes?" asked Entrapta.

Once again, her question went unanswered as another person walked into the tent. This time it was Steven. "Hey, is everything okay in here? I thought I heard-Entrapta!?"

"Are we doing this again?" Entrapta said, standing up. "Look, I'm not here because of the Horde. Actually, I might be here in spite of the Horde. But either way, you guys aren't the only ones to have been attacked by Skeletor. He's going after Horde territories, too. Nothing we've done has been able to even put a dent in him, and his undead monster things just keep coming! But I found some information that I think could be helpful, if we work together."

Glimmer pulled both Adora and Steven together into a huddle. "Okay, look: Normally I'd be hesitant to trust someone from the Horde, but she makes a good point. I don't think we'll be able to defeat Skeletor on our own."

Adora nodded. "Besides, it's Entrapta. Coming from anyone else, I'd think it was a trap, but Entrapta isn't the type to lie. I say we go for it."

"And this could be a good time for them to see things the way we see them!" added Steven. "If things work out, maybe they'll even join you guys permanently!"

"Okay then," said Glimmer. The huddle broke, and all three turned back to Entrapta. "We've agreed. We accept your offer for a truce. Now, uh, what did you have in mind, exactly?"

"You'll see!" said Entrapta. "Should I go get Catra and Scorpia?"

"I think it'd be best if we went to them," Adora said. "We may be willing to trust you guys-for now-but some of the locals might not be so quick to accept."

"I'll go get the Gems," said Steven.

"I still don't understand it. We were all on guard. How did you manage to get past us?" asked Pearl.

"Oh, I just snuck by while you weren't looking!" answered Entrapta.

"I find it difficult to believe you just 'snuck by' all five of us!" Pearl continued.

Entrapta shrugged. "I don't know how I did it, I just did it. Oh, here we are!"

Upon meeting up, the nine of them had strolled out into the forest, where the rest of Entrapta's crew were waiting. Both Catra and Scorpia were hidden just beyond the forest's edge, waiting for Entrapta's signal to come out. Rather than receive it, Entrapta had brought everyone to them.

"Hey, Adora," Catra said.

"Catra…" Adora said. "Surprised to see you taking someone else's advice for once."

"Not like I had any choice," she said. "Skeletor's too tough to take on alone. We needed help."

"Entrapta must have done some serious arguing to convince you to go along with her plan," Adora said.

"Oh, no, this whole thing was Catra's idea," said Scorpia. "If anything, she had to convince Entrapta to go along!"

"Really?" said Adora, sounding genuinely shocked. "Well, look at you, playing nice with others!"

"Again, not like I had a choice," said Catra. "And I never said I'd play nice…"

"Soooo...about that plan," said Steven, trying to break the tension. "Entrapta here said she has a way to beat Skeletor."

"Yeah, let's hear it!" said Connie.

Entrapta rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I wouldn't call it a plan, at least not yet. But it is a vague idea of something we could try…"

"Better than nothin', which is what we were workin' with before," said Amethyst. "Lay it on us."

"Okay, well…" Entrapta began. "Once we got back to the Fright Zone, I looked deeper into my research regarding Keldor. Obviously, he's nowhere near as heroic as the writings would have you believe, but there are some similarities. This, combined with what I know about the Staff of Keldor, leads me to believe that the only way to kill Skeletor, for good this time, is to destroy that staff."

"Of course!" said Connie. "Because that's where his soul is! Once we destroy it, he'll have no way to interact with the world of the living anymore!"

"Actually, it's not that simple," said Entrapta. "You see, it's more akin to storing a complete backup of his consciousness within the staff, which he is able to download back into his body-" Upon realizing that everyone was staring at her, Entrapta stopped herself. "...Yes, it's his soul. But destroying it won't be easy. The Staff of Keldor is an extremely powerful First Ones artifact, probably the most powerful one I've seen yet. The trouble is, we'll need one of equal or greater power to destroy it."

"Okay, that's a start," said Bow. "I'm sure we can find something like that. I'll just need to get my tracker pad, and we can get searching."

"But what if we already had one?" said Steven. "Adora's sword is a First Ones artifact, isn't it? And weren't the Gems created by them, too? That would make Gems First Ones artifacts, too, right?"

"I guess they technically are," Entrapta said. "But we need something way stronger than you if we want to hold a candle to Skeletor. No offense."

"None taken," said Garnet.

"Alright then," said Glimmer. "We'll head back to Brightmoon in the morning so we can-"

"Hello? Is there somebody out here?"

Everyone turned towards the sound of the voice. None of them had expected visitors, especially ones as young-sounding as this.

"Was that...a kid?" said Adora.

"Shh, quiet," said Glimmer. "We don't know who it is yet."

"You didn't wake me up, I was just walking out here," the voice said. "I know you said something about the First Ones? Um, I might be able to help…"

Entrapta, despite protests from Catra, made herself known. "You know about the First Ones?" she said. "Yeah, we're over here!"

The source of the unknown voice stepped into view: a young mothkin girl. "Oh, hello," she said. "Sorry if I came out of nowhere, I just heard you talking out here, and I thought I might be able to help."

"And who are you, exactly?" asked Adora.

"I-I'm Flutterina," she said. "It's nice to meet you, She-Ra. I'm such a big fan, I've always wanted to meet you!"

"So, you know who she is," said Glimmer. "And we're supposed to believe you just happened to be walking out in the woods in the middle of the night to hear us talking?"

"Well, not exactly," she said bashfully. "I was, er, listening to your conversation back in town. And then I followed you out here, but I was too nervous to say anything. Until you mentioned First Ones, and I realized I might have something you need."

"Oh, really?" asked Glimmer. "And what is that, exactly?"

"See, I'm not really from Thrush, I was only visiting during the time of the attack," Flutterina explained. "I live over in Mizar."

"Mizar, hmm?" said Bow. "That's Netossa's kingdom."

"Anyway," continued Flutterina, "there's this guy in Mizar who calls himself 'the Surgeon.' And rumor has it that he has a particularly powerful piece of First Ones tech. It's how he...well, you know."

"Wow, thanks for the help!" said Steven.

Connie pulled him aside. "Steven, I don't know about this," she said. "Doesn't this all seem a bit too good to be true?"

"Maybe," said Steven. "But it's the best option we have. And the sooner we defeat Skeletor and save Etheria, the sooner we can go home!"

"He does have a point," said Garnet. "I don't see any futures where this girl betrays us. At least, not yet. If anything comes up, we'll be ready for the worst."

"Alright then," said Entrapta. "Thanks for your help, Flutterina!"

"No problem!" Flutterina walked closer to shake Entrapta's hand (or rather, hair), giving her a better look at the former's red eyes. "I'm just happy to help!"