"Scorpia!" cried Perfuma from all the way on the other side of the base. In what seemed like less than a second, she had run all the way across the room and enveloped Scorpia in a teary hug.

Scorpia gave a beaming smile as she tried and failed to hug her back with her cuffed hands.

Despara then interrupted the moment:

"What are you doing here? How did you escape?" Perfuma and Scorpia separated and turned to look at Despara simultaneously. Scorpia then came over and knelt in front of her. Using her powerful claws, she ripped Despara's helmet off, revealing to everyone beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was Adora. Her eyes were green as Scorpia replied:

"Catra saved me. I don't know what Horde Prime will do to her for it, but she didn't care." She then stood up and turned to Glimmer.

"She wanted me to tell you that the Horde, or what's left of it, is being besieged by Horde Prime's forces in the Crimson Waste. She asked if you can go and free them, as thanks for her saving you." Glimmer went wide-eyed. With all the drama with Adora, she had completely forgotten the reason that they were on Horde Prime's ship in the first place. Adora then gave an extremely unsettling evil laugh. The mention of Catra had woken something in her that had begun to resist Horde Prime. Not wanting to take any chances, Horde Prime had immediately taken her over. Everyone listened in horror as his voice began to speak through her:

"Hello your majesties. I would not be so quick to try and repay Catra as she is no longer with us. You may keep Despara if you wish – I was getting bored with her anyway. Thank you all for a most entertaining time. I shall enjoy ruling Etheria in your absence or, more accurately, I shall enjoy setting off the Heart of Etheria without you to stop me." With that, Adora fainted and, after a few seconds, woke up again with her blue eyes showing in the artificial light. Before anyone could process this, however, there was a terrific explosion just outside the base.

Everyone fell to the ground as more of the ceiling started to collapse. Once the debris stopped falling, Glimmer teleported outside. It seemed whatever Horde Prime had shot at them had hit about a mile away and completely decimated everything in its path. She stared at the sky in confusion. How could he have missed them?

Catra's vision was blurry and her head felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer. Hordak had just missed her when he fired his arm cannon, but the blast had still hit the side of her face. She could feel a trickle of blood running down her cheek and remained perfectly still. Hordak had not killed her - not yet. Had that been intentional?

Catra tried to focus on Horde Prime, but he seemed to have lost interest in her and was now facing the screen behind him. He seemed to be talking, but Catra could barely make out the words. As her senses recovered, she was able to hear what he was saying through whoever he was controlling in the old pulse-bot factory:

"…I shall enjoy setting off the Heart of Etheria without you to stop me." Catra tried to get up as she saw Horde Prime put the device back on his finger, but she was still being held down by the clones. As Horde Prime snapped his fingers, Catra screamed:

"NO!" Horde Prime turned around in surprise, and then Hordak shot him with his arm cannon.

Hordak had been receiving telepathic orders to shoot Catra for an entire minute before he had actually done so. It had taken all of his strength to miss her head, but he had. There was something about Catra's taunting that seemed so familiar. He felt like he knew this prisoner, and he felt like she had once yelled at him like this too. Memories of a life he had long forgotten had begun to surface – more specifically memories of a girl with purple hair and the most beautiful smile. The prisoner had some connection with her and he needed to know what it was. After he faked killing her, Horde Prime had turned away to talk to the princesses through his screen. As he did so, Hordak had caught a glimpse of the girl of his dreams. He could not let her die. On what felt like instinct, he had done the unthinkable and shot his creator.

As Horde Prime fell to the ground, Hordak quickly shot the control panel behind him. Catra watched in astonishment as the screen showed the "missile" suddenly changing its trajectory. It hit what looked like an unoccupied section of forest right next to the old Horde base. She closed her eyes and sighed in relief. Everyone was still alive. Adora was still alive. The two clones holding her down then leapt up and jumped on Hordak.

Hordak managed to shoot one of them before throwing the other off the platform. Catra stared at him in amazement. Hordak then turned to her. Before either of them could say anything, however, Hordak cried out and his bones started to realign. She then heard Horde Prime's evil laugh followed by his malevolent voice. He had survived and taken control of Hordak.

"Ah little brother! So it's true – you have been thoroughly corrupted!" Catra quickly got to her feet. Horde Prime turned Hordak's body to face her and said:

"As for you, why can't you just be a good little sister and die?" He then shot at her again. Catra rolled out of the way and almost fell off the platform. The side of her head was bleeding more than she thought and the blood loss was beginning to affect her. In an effort to stay awake, she yelled:

"I have a habit of surviving! You're gonna have to try harder if you wanna kill me!" She was slurring her words. Catra was not going to last long.

When Glimmer teleported back the base, she was surprised to see about ten clones standing at its entrance firing at her friends. The members of the rebellion, now covered in dust and bruises from the fallen debris, were hiding behind said debris and were doing their best to fire back.

King Micah was shooting lightning at random intervals and in different directions. He was clearly distracted by Sea Hawk, who was beginning to pass out from blood loss. Mermista was giving it all she had and was throwing all the water she could get her hands on. Unfortunately her supply was running out. Perfuma and Scorpia were engaging in a vicious hand-to-hand battle with no less than three clones. Even with her claws cuffed, Scorpia was a powerful fighter. The squad had also joined in, with Lonnie and Rogelio taking on two clones between them. Kyle ran behind them swinging a stun baton, screaming loudly. Bow had run to the back of the base to protect Frosta and the imp, and had carried both of them over to where Netossa sat with Spinerella, Entrapta and Wrong Hordak. Swift Wind, meanwhile, was posed protectively over a slowly recovering Adora who was still stuck to the floor in Despara's armour. She was the first one to see Glimmer and yelled:

"Glimmer! What is happening?!" Glimmer huffed and began firing sparkles at the clones nearest to her. She was glad Adora was alright and back with them, but it would take a while to get the image of her stabbing Sea Hawk out of her head.

Catra had lost. Hordak's last blast had thrown her right off the platform and she was now dangling from it with one hand. She could not see the ground, and guessed that if she fell that really would be it. Hordak then walked up to her and put his foot on her hand. Horde Prime spoke through him:

"Impressive, little sister, but no one beats Horde Prime." He then forced her hand off the platform.

Catra did not scream as she fell, and silently watched her life flash before her eyes yet again. This time, however, there were a few more good memories: her saving Glimmer, her telling Adora she was special to her, her telling the truth to Octavia, Scorpia forgiving her, her saving Scorpia, Horde Prime's projectile missing Adora…Catra closed her eyes and smiled as she waited for the impact. Then it came and everything went black.

Glimmer grunted with effort as she and Bow tied up the last of the ten clones who had attacked them. By sheer force of will, they had managed to beat them all. Adora was now up and leaning against Swift Wind in a daze. Everything was slowly coming back to her, and each new memory made her sick.

King Micah was still hovering over Sea Hawk as he successfully managed to reverse most of the damage caused by Despara's sword. Sea Hawk himself was unconscious and Mermista was holding him protectively.

In the back of the room, Entrapta was working with Wrong Hordak to try and remove the chip from Spinerella's neck. Netossa was holding her wife and whispering assurances in her ear as they did so. At the same time, Perfuma was trying to use her powers to break Scorpia's cuffs. Scorpia watched her lovingly as she did so.

Meanwhile, the squad stood awkwardly in the corner while keeping an eye on Frosta. She had still not woken up. For a long time no one spoke. Then a voice no one wanted to hear resounded throughout the base:

"So this is what remains of the rebellion? Interesting." Everyone turned to see Shadow Weaver standing at the entrance, followed closely by Castaspella. Before anyone could say anything in reply, she continued:

"We need to get to Mystacor. There we will find a failsafe for the Heart of Etheria."

Catra did not know how long she had been unconscious, but the sharp pain in her back and shoulders told her she was not dead yet. She tried to figure out where she was, but she struggled to move. That was when she realized she was caught in a net. There was a giant net located some distance below the platform of Horde Prime's throne, and she had landed on it. After she had taken a second to process, she let out a cry of both joy and frustration at her seemingly endless luck. Was this because she was a cat? Was the nine lives myth real? She was beginning to believe it was.

As she began to look around her, she saw the clone Hordak had thrown off the platform earlier. He had also been caught in the net and, when he saw she was alive, he growled and moved menacingly towards her. Catra could not believe this. Would she ever stop being attacked? She was then reminded that, not only had she fallen from a great height and possibly broken something, but she was also still suffering from a major head injury. She could not afford to get into another fight.

Catra tried to crawl off the net, but quickly realized there was nowhere to go. She growled in annoyance. Why was there even a net here? Did clones regularly fall off the platform or something? That thought made her smirk. Then the clone jumped on her. Catra screamed as her thoroughly bruised and aching back fell against the net. That really hurt.

The members of the rebellion moved silently through the Whispering Woods. They approached the place where Horde Prime's projectile had hit and stopped to stare at the damage. Thank goodness no one had been living there – an entire square mile of the forest had been completely razed to the ground. Adora was walking at the very back of the group, and, when she finally saw the destruction, her eyes went wide in horror.

Adora was still wearing her armour with her sword attached to her waist, and it was all she could do not to cry. She remembered everything now, and what killed her, even more than what she had done to her friends, was the news out of her own mouth that Catra was gone. She had failed to rescue her - the girl she had made a promise to protect all those years ago – and now she would never see her again.

Shadow Weaver and Castaspella began to lead the group away, followed closely by Bow and Glimmer. Bow was trying and failing to get through to his dads on his tablet. He wanted to know if they were alright and if they knew anything about the failsafe. Glimmer had begrudgingly agreed that Mystacor was the safest place to go anyway (given how it was protected by Etheria's finest sorcerers and hidden from view), so that was where they were currently headed. That being said, she would be happy to go on a quick detour if that was what Bow wanted. She tried to give him a reassuring smile as he failed yet again to get through to his dads

Scorpia followed Bow and Glimmer. Her cuffs were now off and she was carrying Frosta gently in her arms. They had ascertained that the bleeding had stopped and that she was simply unconscious – but they had collectively agreed that a proper doctor should take a look at her when they arrived in Mystacor. Perfuma walked next to Scorpia with King Micah and Mermista close behind. Swift Wind followed both of them with an unconscious Sea Hawk lying on his back. After them was the squad, followed closely by Entrapta and Wrong Hordak. Netossa helped Spinerella along behind them, and then there was Adora taking up the rear.

Adora's feet felt like lead as she struggled to move them. No one had said a word to her yet – presumably because everyone was still trying to get over all the horrible things she had done. Adora shed a tear – she did not even deserve to call these people her friends after the way she had treated them! More importantly, what was the point in continuing this fight if the person who meant the most to her - the person she had effectively been fighting for - was dead? She finally gave up trying to control her emotions and collapsed to the ground. She began to wail like a wounded animal, and everyone in the group immediately stopped and stared at her.

Catra did her best to fight the clone, but he proved to be too strong for her in her weakened state. In addition to this, it was proving very difficult to have a fight on a net suspended several hundred feet in the air. After a few well-aimed punches to the bloody side of her face, Catra passed out once more.

When Catra woke up, it became clear to her that she had been unconscious for much longer this time. This was because she was no longer on Horde Prime's ship. Instead, she was now in a dark cell with a window overlooking a giant lava waterfall. The temperature in her cell was ridiculously hot, and, as Catra examined the landscape around the waterfall, she reached a terrifying conclusion - she was not on Etheria either.

Catra was stuck in one of Horde Prime's outposts on some distant planet far from anyone or anything - condemned to live out the rest of her days slowly burning alive next to a lava waterfall. Upon realizing this, Catra sank to the ground and put her head in her hands. Why did she have to keep surviving?