Bzzzzzz!
Bzzzzzz!
Bzzzzzz!
The alarm clock did not get to give out a fourth buzz as Glimmer tiredly shot sparkles at it, destroying the poor alarm clock that was just doing its job.
Poor alarm clock's aside, she really didn't want to get up right now.
But unfortunately for Glimmer that particular alarm was the one that meant she needed to get up or mom would bury her alive.
So with great reluctance Glimmer opened her eyes and got up from her temporary bed.
She was currently in one of the spare rooms in the kingdom of Snows that had been provided for the guests to spend the night in. The room was rather basic with a snowflake theme, but the beds were so comfortable. She was considering asking mom to import some when she got back.
Glimmer couldn't muster up the energy to even teleport over to the bathroom so she pretty much dragged herself over to the bathroom mirror.
Why couldn't she just stay in bed?
Tiredly she started to freshen herself up, brushing her hair, applying some light make up and brushing her teeth.
Once that was done she looked at her teeth in the mirror and-
"I think you missed a spot."
Glimmer gave a startled scream and teleported back into wall by reflex.
"Sorry about that," Entrapta said as she exited the bathroom vent into the guest bathroom. "I didn't mean to startle you, but going in the vents is so much more efficient for travelling, don't you agree?"
"Not really," Glimmer stifled a yawn. "But why are you in the vents, leading to my bathroom?"
"Oh I'm looking for Adora, have you seen her?" Entrapta explained. "She said she just needed some fresh air and I haven't seen her since."
Glimmer suddenly felt much more awake. "What?"
"Yeah, it was very strange. I've been all over the castle looking for her this morning," Entrapta looked thoughtful. "It's like she's just vanished."
"Vanished?" Glimmer repeated. "Are you sure she's not just sleeping somewhere?"
"Oh no, Adora isn't in any of the seventy rooms I checked," Entrapta said cheerfully. "I also checked the gardens and the parking. She just sort of vanished last night."
Glimmer's sinking feeling in her stomach only grew.
"Entrapta, we need to see Frosta now."
"Magic?" Adora asked and Shadow Weaver allowed herself a small smile underneath her mask.
"Yes, magic. I'm going to teach you some," Shadow Weaver said.
"But I'm not a sorcerer," Adora said with confusion. "I'm a Princess and we can't use magic beyond what our runestones give to us, right?"
"Partially," Shadow Weaver said as she drew on her experience of lecturing in Mystacor. "Magic is a natural force of the universe and there are many kinds of magic on Etheria. Magically-gifted people like She-Ra and the Elemental Princesses such as you have an inherent connection to magic. However, others known as Sorcerers, study magic by drawing power from the magic in Etheria's environment and focusing it in by using spells." Shadow Weaver paused to let the information settle in Adora's mind. "I am one such sorcerer, one that was naturally gifted in magic."
"Right… and the elemental princesses and I can't use magic beyond what our runestones, in my case the sword I guess, isn't that right?" Adora rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "I think that's what Micah said at least."
"Micah always was a little narrow minded," Shadow Weaver said with a sigh. "What he told is true from a certain point of view."
"You mean there's a way for me to learn magic?"
"Micah wouldn't like it," Shadow Weaver said with fake reluctance. "And I wouldn't want to sour your friendship with him."
"Well…" Adora trailed off as curiosity got the better of her. "Entrapta always says that knowing something is better than not knowing something."
"Exactly, knowledge is power after all," Shadow Weaver agreed with a tilt of her head. "So, would you like to learn?"
"…Alright, I'd like to learn," Adora said after some hesitation.
"Excellent," Shadow Weaver smiled underneath her mask as she swept around the room. "Now in learning we'd have to start with something basic but practical, it doesn't do well to start too big after all."
"Of course," Adora nodded hesitantly.
"This spell is a two way communication spell, you can use it to talk to anyone without the aid of technology even if they are half a planet away. Even better it is entirely untraceable," Unless a gifted magic user knew exactly where to look, but Shadow Weaver left out that small detail.
"That sounds useful," Adora said. "But how do I do it then?"
"It should be noted that you can only cast magic while you are She Ra," Shadow Weaver informed her. "As simply Adora you have very little magical potential, but She Ra is quite possibly the most powerful force on all of Etheria."
Now it got tricky, for all of her research fact and fiction were very much intertwined where She Ra was concerned. Many of She Ra's reported abilities might well be falsehoods and myths, or they could possibly be not even half of what the Princess of Power could do. Fortunately this next bit would only require an ability that almost every source agreed She Ra had.
"Now according to legend, She Ra was capable of transforming her sword into various items. These varied from shields to bows to even cups. What I need from you is to turn your sword into a staff."
"Alright, well I don't really know how to do that…" Adora trailed off and gave Shadow Weaver a nervous smile.
"Which is why I'll be teaching you how," Shadow Weaver said impassively. "Now grip your sword tightly with both hands and close your eyes."
"Like this?" Adora complied.
"Yes, now you are a Princess, so, you have a Runestone. Yours dwells there, within your sword. With it, you channel the elemental magic of Etheria. Let it flow through the sword and into you. You must learn to concentrate. Focus your power." Shadow Weaver commanded.
Adora did as instructed, and within the next few minutes Adora glowed with raw power.
"Now that you are focused, feel the power flow through you and bend to your will," Shadow Weaver instructed. "Now using that power imagine a simple staff, similar to the types you would use in your training."
Adora's brow was tensed in concentration, some minor sweat was already going down her face as she tried to do as instructed.
Then the sword began to glow, and it's shape changed, turning into not a sword, but a… water pitcher.
…
…
…
"At least it's not a sword anymore?" Adora said weakly.
"We'll work on it," Shadow Weaver said. "Now focus…"
She just hoped it would be soon, they didn't have much time.
"I am Sea Hawk, I am, I am. If you're looking for adventure, Then I am your man." Sea Hawk sang under his breath as he crept through the Fright Zone's many, many, many hallways.
As he anticipated, there was heavy security in the Fright Zone. He'd seen many guards in the last five minutes and he'd only been sneaking around for six minutes. Honestly with the sheer amount of people around it was a wonder that he'd not been caught. The Fright Zone itself was just as scary and industrial as he'd imagined it would be, although it seemed more akin to a patchwork maze than a proper building like you'd find in Salineas or Brightmoon.
"Halt! Who are you?"
Sea Hawk's luck seemed to run out as he whirled around on the spot to see a Horde soldier standing in full armour sans the helmet. Usually Sea Hawk would just attack with his weapons, but unfortunately Sea Hawk didn't have his beloved sword with him, nor a ship that could be set ablaze.
So lacking his usual armaments and with only the clothes on his back, he did the only thing he could.
Improvise.
"Me? I'm the inspector," Sea Hawk claimed with a grand gesture of his arms. "I'm here to inspect all the things."
The Horde soldier looked at him critically for a few moments, but then the soldier's eyes widened comically.
"Oh dear, was that today? I'm so sorry."
"Your forgiven," Sea Hawk said easily. "Now if you don't mind, I've got to… inspect… things."
"Please sir, let me escort you, it's the least I could do." The soldier insisted.
"Alright then, why don't you escort me to the…" Where would they be keeping Adora? "To the prison cells."
"Of course sir, right this way."
Sea Hawk would have patted himself on the back if it wouldn't have aroused suspicion.
…
…
Oh why not, Sea Hawk patted himself on the back for a job well done.
The Horde soldier bought him right to the prisons as requested, and it was an impressive sight. A long vertical tube with hundreds of green cells covering the walls, in the middle an observation tower poised to observe it all.
And while it was impressive thing to see, he had more than his fair share of problems with it.
"Where's the railings?"
"Railings?"
"You know, to stop people from falling over into the abyss down there?" Sea Hawk asked. Every captain of a ship knew that railings were important if you didn't want your crew to fall into watery depths. "Goodness man! It's the most unsafe thing I've seen in all my time as an inspector!"
Granted he'd been a safety inspector for all of twenty minutes, but it was still the most unsafe thing he'd seen ever.
"I'm so sorry, it normally isn't like this, well it is, but that's Shadow Weaver's fault." The soldier was apologising profusely. "Please don't tell her I said that."
"I'll most assuredly be taking it up with her," Sea Hawk assured the soldier. "Especially for the lack of rigging rope to climb and disappointing lack of sails."
"I'll contact the engineers about it right away," The soldier promised frantically.
"I'd shutter to see what the rest of this place looks like." Sea Hawk shook his head, he doubted that they even had proper protection against termites.
"Well the barracks are the next stop sir, I hope it'll be more to your liking."
It may have taken about an hour, but Adora finally managed to turn her sword into a staff, there was a rush of finally when it happened. It took around twenty minutes for it, with considerable frustration on her end but with Shadow Weaver's help she managed to do it.
"Excellent work Adora," Shadow Weaver praised in the same tone that Adora remembered from her time as a cadet.
"Thank you," Adora couldn't help but let some pride filter into her voice.
"Don't worry my dear," Shadow Weaver said sweetly. "Now with this staff casting magic should be possible, although as you grow more experienced you will eventually be able to do it with just your hands." Shadow Weaver started to move her hands. "Now use your staff to copy my motions, focus your magic on them."
Adora did as instructed, but somehow trying to move her staff in the pattern was like trying to push it through a thick porridge rather than the air itself.
"I… the- the magic, it's resisting me," Adora grunted out. "It's like it doesn't want to do that."
"That's natural, the sorcerer's guild always teaches that you should always let magic flow through you, that you should merely guild the magic within you into spells. But my brand of magic, ignorantly called dark magic-"
Adora's concentration broke completely and the glow that had been present around her faded.
"What? Dark magic?!" Adora panicked. "That sounds bad."
"The term dark magic is merely a label, one that is used by fools too afraid to go beyond their comfort zone," Shadow Weaver lectured. "While they are content to only use the natural magic within them, that had been given to them by the universe, users of dark magic simply take the magic of the universe itself and bend it to their will. There are limits of course, some are just naturally more able to wield magic, dark or otherwise."
"And as She Ra, I've got a very high capacity to wield magic," Adora interrupted.
"Precisely," Shadow Weaver sounded pleased. "She Ra is quite possibly the most powerful magical being in all the universe, second to none. With enough willpower and strength you can do almost anything, so please concentrate and focus, I know you can do this Adora."
With renewed vigour, Adora copied Shadow Weaver's motions, gritting her teeth as she pushed through the resistance of her magic.
"Now focus on the person you want to talk with, picture their face in your mind's eye. For this exercise think of me in particular."
Adora pictured Shadow Weaver's face mentally, well it was technically her mask but it was essentially the same thing at this point. Then, there was something akin to a rush, a thrill as the magic worked and bent to Adora's will.
And when she opened her eyes, she could see a circular portal that showed Shadow Weaver but front a different angle.
"I did it…" Adora's voice was filled with awe at actually casting a spell like Micah and Glimmer could.
"Exceptional," Shadow Weaver's voice was similarly filled with awe. "This spell appears invisible to anyone other than you and me, we talk whenever you want. All you have to do is cast it, don't worry it fades after an hour or so."
"Thank you!"
"No problem my dear, I only regret that this is all I have time to teach you."
Adora felt her good mood start to dampen slightly, "What do you mean?"
"Lord Hordak wants to see you by the end of the day," Shadow Weaver revealed. "Most likely for summary execution by sending you back to Beast Island."
Adora's eyes widened, her mind went back to the last time she was in his presence.
"I- I- What do we do?" She couldn't go back there, she will never go back there again.
"Stay here," Shadow Weaver said shortly. "I will be going to find a solution, don't worry Adora, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe."
"What do you mean you've no idea where she is?!" Glimmer yelled at the poor guard in charge of security while Entrapta fiddled with the Snows frankly embarrassingly out of date computer systems.
Entrapta ignored what they were talking about as she took apart the console, really a few adjustments here, and there would make the entire security system much more efficient.
She adjusted a couple of wires and cut a few more, she then soldered a few circuit boards, rewrote a little bit of code. Trivial really, maybe she could add a couple more monitors, or even increase camera coverage. The cold wasn't really helping with her work however, maybe she could ask Frosta to heat up the room?
"I'm sorry Ma'am, but there's no sign of Adora on the premises."
"Is there any way she could have left?" Glimmer asked impatiently, tapping her foot in annoyance.
"Not through the snow, the outer gate guards would have caught her," The guard replied.
It was at that point Mermista burst into the room.
"So uh, where's Sea Hawk? I can't exactly get home without him."
"Sea Hawk's also missing?" Entrapta asked, this could be interesting. Was there a link there?
"Wait? Who else is missing?" Mermista asked.
"Adora," Entrapta replied. "Although if you ask me, Sea Hawk's probably in the Fright Zone."
There was a pause as everyone looked at her, did she say something wrong?
"What do you mean he's probably in the Fright Zone?" Glimmer asked slowly.
"Well last night the Scorpia, that's the Horde's Princess, she helped Sea Hawk onto her ship and seeing as he didn't leave he was probably still there when it took off." Entrapta explained. "It's all on the security footage."
"Let me see that," Mermista pushed her way to the cameras to watch the footage which Entrapta helpfully put on screen as she continued improving the system. "It looks like he was drunk, of course he was."
"And Scorpia took the opportunity to take him captive," Glimmer frowned. "But what about Adora?"
Entrapta fast forwarded the footage, and they got their answer. Some cat lady carried an unconscious Adora over her shoulder.
Entrapta noticed an increase in her heart rate as he watched this, along with an involuntary frowning and the feeling of concern building. She made sure to note this for later.
"No, no, no…" Glimmer looked worried as well. "The cat lady must be part of the Horde, they've got She Ra."
"And Sea Hawk, although I think that was an accident," Entrapta rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Unless they think he knows something."
"They better not hurt him," Mermista looked furious.
"We'll get him back Mermista, She Ra too," Glimmer promised. The princess of Brightmoon's brain seemed to be working in over drive. "In fact, I have a plan."
Catra waited until Shadow Weaver left before she entered the chamber to have a hopefully civil chat where she and Adora would go back to being friends.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
Scorpia's enthusiasm was really rubbing off on her huh?
"Hey Adora," Catra said, trying and failing miserably to sound casual even to her own ears.
"Catra," Adora gave a short nod. "What do you want?"
"To talk to you obviously," Catra ignored how dry her throat felt. "We were friends after all."
"All you ever did was get me into trouble," Adora scowled.
"And you always stuck around, no one else ever did." Catra smiled. "Even when I was being difficult you stuck by me."
"I… I couldn't stand watching someone be left out or bullied, not even you." Adora shifted uncomfortably.
"You never could, like remember that time Kyle ran into those older kids?" Catra chuckled slightly. "You had all of us ambush them later that day and cover their heads with paint."
Adora did smile at that, not the biggest smile in the world but it was still noticeable.
"How is Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio doing these days?"
"Very well," Catra ignored the lump at the back of her throat. " They uh, actually want to meet you."
"Really?" There was no mistaking the undeniable sound of surprise in Adora's voice.
"Yeah, maybe if you and Shadow Weaver are done doing whatever it is we could go and see them?" Catra suggested.
"Maybe," Adora shifted uncomfortably. "It all depends on what Shadow Weaver says when she gets back."
"Okay," Catra felt her tail swish behind her, betraying her nervousness. "Would you mind if I just… hung around? For a while?"
Adora hesitated for a moment. "Okay."
And hung around they did, it was awkward but for the moment Catra was just grateful to have her friend back. There were a lot of questions she wanted to ask Adora about, but each of them turned to ash when she tried to open her mouth.
But it was nice to see her friend, no, to see the person she'd loved safe and well, after all this time worrying about her.
Right now, it was enough.
"Catra," Adora said suddenly. "Are you… are you happy?"
"I…" Catra trailed off as she thought about it for a moment. "I am. I am happy, but it's not the same without you. It's not the same… I just want things to go back to how they were before…"
"I… I don't think things can return to that way Catra," Adora said sounding guilty. "A lot has changed since then."
Catra didn't respond, her mind busy trying to think of a way to make things right, but the task seemed to be practically impossible. It seemed like nothing she could say or do would be able to make up for anything. Even so, she wanted and needed to try.