Chapter 20; The Final defense of the fallen



"Glimmer, you must understand, Adora will never betray us in her heart. She has joined the Horde but in her mind she is still fighting for the same thing she always has.



The unification and freedom of her people." Angella's voice was calm belying the stormy expression of rage on her daughter's face.

"How can you say that mother!" Glimmer spat, pacing angrily, her hands trembling with anger, "she works for our enemy, she betrayed She-Ra, we have no idea how to contact her or help her, our scouts report Horde troops have destroyed all access roads to the whispering woods, effectively cutting them off from any town or village and who knows what else she'll do!"

"That is why her last order as our leader was to disband the rebel camps in the woods and spread our forces outward, tendrils of freedom crossing the world. Glimmer, Adora is fighting apathy, this foe is much more difficult to defeat than the horde."

"Does she expect thanks?" Glimmer demanded incredulous. Angella shook her head sadly.

"Exactly the opposite. She has fought for five years nonstop to rouse the people. She endured the death of Mermista, the capture of her friend Loni, and the loss of Perfuma. When Leech killed those children she realized she could not keep up the fight without their help. Disillusioned by the people she has put so much faith in she is now doing the only thing she can to rouse them. She is conquering them." Glimmer was silent a moment.

"Yes she's been through a lot but you act as if she endured those things alone. As if she was the only one to suffer." Her voice was quiet, tinged with sorrow. Angella sighed deeply, moving to her daughters side. She placed two loving arms around her daughters neck, drawing her into a tender embrace. Glimmer nestled her head into her mothers neck. She always felt so secure with her. Angella was more than simply a mother and queen, she was Glimmer's best friend.

"Daughter, you and I know the masses need a ruler. They need someone to lead them, to teach them, to rule them. We were born to royalty. We understand the burden of that is to take responsibility for the safety of people as a whole because as a whole people cannot do these things for themselves. Either they can not or they simply choose not to. Most are born simply to follow, it doesn't matter if a leader is good or evil, they simply follow blindly. We hope that each leader will be a just and wise and benevolent ruler but it is not always so." Glimmer's brow furrowed.

"What are you getting at mother?" She questioned, drawing away. Angella smiled sadly, cupping her daughters smooth cheek in her palm.

"Adora, though born to royalty somehow was never taught this. She had a faith in humanity, in the people as a whole, many felt that and were thus drawn to her. She believed that they would rise up and claim their lives as their own. Now, she has realized that in order for people to appreciate the gift they've been given in freedom, they need to lose it.

"But what of us mother? What of Bow and Peekablue and Madame and all the other rebels. We have taken the reins of our lives in our own hands, we value our freedom, should we just toss it aside so that others can learn the value for themselves?" Glimmer's eyes were bright with indignant confusion. Angella was very proud of her daughter, she seemed so mature, so different then she had been before. Angella felt a bit guilty. She felt Glimmer may have been acting so immature because Angella did not give her enough responsibility.

Since she had taken command of her own troops she seemed so much more self possessed and adult. Glimmer may have been acting the part of spoiled princess because she felt that was what was expected of her. After all, Angella had a well defined roll as Queen of Brightmoon and Adora took over the role of rebel leader shortly after her defection from the horde and She- Ra rebel champion soon after. Glimmer was left without the surety of her place and now here she was actually struggling to understand one of the saddest truths of human nature.

Angella was saddened at her fast fading innocence but realized in these times innocence was more of a detriment to survival. Gently with an aching heart Angella urged her daughter on to discovery.

"As a ruler I fight the apathy of my people every day. But I am merely responsible for Brightmoon. Adora has assigned herself responsibility for all of Etheria." Glimmer pulled back angrily.

"That doesn't make any sense. Adora is helping no one." Angella laughed softly at her daughter's disgruntlement. Glimmer appeared lost in thought.



"I bet she would not be so angry if Perfuma were still here." It was two years since the capture of the maiden of the flowers and the subsequent death of Mermista. Adora, for some unknown reason blamed herself for their loss, especially Mermista's, even though She-Ra lead the team sent to rescue Perfuma and not Adora.



Octavia, one of Hordack's more gruesome tentacular generals, in a raid against the Crystal falls, though defeated from the water easily by Mermista and her water powers, captured Perfuma on the shores, stealing her away to the island of Misery, a land of perpetual darkness where the sun never shone as the island was inside a dead volcano in the Growling Sea. She-Ra and Mermista left the Crystal falls soon after the raid.



The creatures of the Growling sea told Mermista where Octavia had taken Perfuma and the Mermaid and Princess of Power set off to rescue her. Mermista went because she felt responsible for Perfuma's capture. On the way there as they approached the dead volcano riding Enchanta, Mermista's giant flying swan, Octavia began a laser assault aimed at the Swan and her riders. Enchanta was stunned, as Mermista attempted to guide the beast down Troopers on sky sleds attacked from behind and since they were helpless to out maneuver them She-Ra leapt from Enchanta's plummeting back to one of the sled's. She quickly and easily took out the troopers just in time to see Enchanta plow into the side of the volcano.

Octavia had fired a freeze ray, freezing the right side of Enchanta, throwing her off balance. Valiantly the mermaid woman struggled to guide her steed, refusing to abandon her flying friend to her fate. By the time She-Ra got to her friend's side it was too late. Mermista's back had snapped in two places and she was dead. Enchanta as well. Enraged, She-Ra swam beneath the volcano to the island and found the Horde base inside but no sign of either Perfuma or Octavia. She sank the island beneath the sea. No one was sure how many horde troops were lost beneath the waves. As Glimmer looked back in retrospect she realized Adora had hardened herself after that. She drove herself harder, worked longer and seemed to feel less.

When the Princess of Power returned to the woods Octavia had already taken Crystal falls as her own. Though She-Ra stormed the falls in an attempt to find Perfuma she could not find her friend. Octavia was close mouthed about her whereabouts but promised she would not be harmed as long as the rebels stayed out of the Crystal falls. It was now three years since that horrible day. But not a day went by that Glimmer didn't think of her lost friends. But it only served to strengthen her resolve not to give in!

"I just don't understand her, mother. She was so sincere, as if she believed she was doing the right thing." Angella moved away from her daughter to peer out the window.

"Glimmer let me tell you a story, one hundred years ago Brightmoon was a land of darkness ruled by a tyrant. Your Great-great grandfather tried rousing the people from their stupor, he tried to make the common man rise up against the tyrant and fight to be free." Glimmers eyes were wide, she had never heard this piece of history before.

"Did he succeed?" She questioned eagerly already dreaming of what he'd have looked like and how she was like him. Her elation was swept away as her mother shook her head somberly.

"He was killed, as were his band of freedom fighters. His father, a baron at the time was so enraged at this that he took his own men breaking his oath to the tyrant who ruled over him. They seized this castle, killing the tyrant-king and those who served him, in the wake of your ancestor's army they left a trail of burned towns and dead villagers. Your Great grandfather took possession of the crown and led Brightmoon into a time of peace and prosperity, but he never forgot that though the tyrant killed his son it was the peoples apathy that enabled him to do so. He then took on the task of educating the people, making them aware of themselves and the world and the price of freedom. He was a wise man. He understood that ignorant people are easily led and hard to stir to action." Glimmer thought for a moment realizing what her mother was saying.

"So Adora is right?"

"She's not wrong." Angella responded, "she could easily step aside, leaving Etheria to its fate and we would all eventually fall under the dominion of the horde. After a century or two we might decide to rise up as a people but you and I and our friends would not live to see it. Adora however, is not willing to allow that to happen. Her sense of duty will not allow her to step aside. She is speeding up the process and giving the people a focus for their rage. Herself."

Just then three guards entered the room, a Horde trooper calmly walking between them.

"My queen." The lead guard whispered as he fell reverently to one knee, the hordesman fell to the ground with him. Angella's eyes sharpened as she took in the sight of a trooper standing docilely between two of her soldiers, he was minus a helmet and carried a sack in his hands.

"What is this?" Angella questioned, her wings fanning lightly in agitation as her daughter moved to stand beside her.

"A message, my queen, one I think you should here." The soldier responded, head bowed.

"You have a message for me hordesman?" She questioned. The trooper stood, pulling a head from the sack he carried, tossing it at her feet. Glimmer gasped in horror, Angella cringed away in revulsion, shock etched across both women's features.



"Commanding General Onyx demands your surrender." He spat, "she swears none will be harmed if they surrender to the Horde. This," he said, gesturing to the bloody, smelly object on the floor, "is the fate of all who resist us. Surrender now, or suffer the same fate as Strathmoore."

"Oh Goddess!" Angella gasped in horror.

"Strathmoore!" Glimmer cried. The man smiled at their surprise.

"Strathmoore belongs to the Horde now, soon the other villages surrounding Brightmoon will fall as well, then we will concentrate on your home. My lady demands a response." The trooper stood there proud at the horror he had created. Angella's eyes went frosty, she rose to her full height, staring down at the toad before her. She had failed her people. Shadow Weaver's spell had been a distraction, the troops outside of Brightmoon a diversion from the Horde's true purpose. The head on the floor was one of her own! Rage roared through her blood. Pulling a knife from her boot she walked down the dais, separating her from the trooper, her soldiers seizing him on either side, immobilizing him.

"Your lady, demands a response?" She hissed. "Then I will give her one!" Glimmer watched stunned speechless as her mother, the Queen of Brightmoon cut the troopers tongue from his mouth. His screams echoing loudly through the throne room, before cutting off to an agonized gurgle. Glimmer was shocked as her mother had the man clutch his own tongue in his hand. Her beautifully, elegantly manicured fingers dripping crimson with his blood. Her voice was ice in the echoing chamber.

"Take him out of my city and leave him in the road. He has my response!" She spat.

"Mother!" Glimmer gasped. Angella whipped angry blue eyes around to her daughter.

"She has given the people a focus for their rage. She is succeeding." Angella ground from between clenched teeth. "Go to Spikeheart, ready you rebels, have them prepare for assault. You must not attack directly, your forces are too small for that. You must be the dog nipping at their heels."

"Mother?" Glimmer questioned.

"You will take them out one by one as they sleep, as they relieve themselves, you will take their scouts and hit their foodstuffs, their drinks, steal their stores of food from the towns they will hit before they get there. Your job Glimmer is to go behind them, get more recruits, believe me, you'll find them, see what she's doing, the results of her passing and take out as many troops and robots as you can."

"You can count on me mother. What are you going to do?" Glimmer asked. Her mother had never looked more imposing or regal than she did now.

"I am going to do what a ruler does. Lead my army into a war to protect and defend my people. She will head for Thaymoore next, if she's not already there."

"Everything is different now. Isn't it." Glimmer stated. Her voice was hesitant as if fearful. Angella nodded grimly.

"It is. The battle for Etheria is in earnest now. Her fate is upon her people now. I pray we can keep her alive."

Glimmer left the palace, she flew. The moon was new and her powers were at their fullest, by the end of the month her flying powers would have faded but now she had them, they were needed and so she used them. Her heart beat savagely in her breast as she saw in the distance the light of thousands of campfires. Her mother was right. The war was indeed heating up. She wondered silently if they would make it safely through the long dark ahead of them. Whatever happened she muttered fiercely to herself, she would not go down without a fight. None of them would.

One way or another, Glimmer knew, this was the beginning of the end.