Description

Glimmer is trapped on Prime's Velvet Glove, millions of miles away from home with nothing for company but an infuriating Catra and her crushing guilt about what happened with the Heart. But her best friends are determined to go get her, assuming Bow can keep Adora, the rebellion, the ship and himself together long enough to get there.

It's life or death, end of the world kind of stuff! So obviously any confusing feelings they might be having about their best friend are better off shoved WAY down deep to deal with… maybe never. Because even if each thinks they might have accidentally fallen in love with the other, now is definitely not the time to go there.

Author's Note

This is a long self-indulgent intro of why I decided to write this fic, feel free to skip!

I have been jokingly referring to this as my Glimbow Opus because I've already been writing it on and off for MONTHS before I even started posting it here. I finished watching Season 5 of She-Ra in May 2020 and was completely boggled about how we were supposed to read the timeline of that season not to mention when Bow forgave Glimmer and when they got together. I started writing a whole bunch of missing scene fics, trying to make sense of it.

Then Noelle's secret fanfic, Don't Go, was exposed at the start of June where there are several indications that Glimmer and Bow might have been together in some form and had maybe even kissed well before they confessed their feelings in The Heart: Part 1. And at first I was like, whaaaa? But then, the more I thought about it, the more that timeline made sense to me. So I chopped up what I'd written already and starting rewriting it into this fic you're about to start reading. It's taken me so long to post because I kept adding scenes as new dynamics and missing moments occurred to me.

This is a giant mash-up of all my headcanons of everything that happened in Season 5 that didn't make it on the screen and also me trying to make sense of Glimmer and Bow's relationship timeline through the glimpses we get in Don't Go. It's the slowest burn but, in my defense, that's what canon gave me... so.

FYI, the events of this fic happen almost immediately after the Season 4 finale and also right after my other missing scene fic, Shells.

The silence was the worst part.

As they left the throne room, the empty hum of Prime's ship was malicious white noise. It swallowed up the small sound of Glimmer's boots against the metal floor until all that was left was the frantic shush of her own blood in her ears and the steady pounding of her own panicked heart.

Where were they taking her? She didn't dare ask. The feeling of icy fingers still lingered on her chin, a reminder of how close she'd come to… How if Catra hadn't stopped him, Prime would have just…

Her steps faltered and the grip on her shoulder tightened, a threat implied. Two guards moved with quiet menace by her side. Safe as a guest now, allegedly, but the way none of them would even look at her left no illusions about how much her life mattered here. She'd hated these too public months of being queen, all eyes on her, but this invisibility was so much worse.

They guided her down another corridor, this one empty of even the soft footfalls of the other clones buzzing in and out of the throne room. The quiet was suffocating. Unending tension like the moment before something terrible happens.

But what was terrible was already happening and there was no way to escape it anymore than the silence.

Bright Moon was on fire.

Bow thought he'd heard someone shout something that might have been his name, but he didn't stop. Not that he could really make anything out in the riot of screams and blasts. The moonstone loomed far above and looked oddly serene given the absolute chaos happening all around it.

Prime's bots whirred all around them, slicing up the sky with screeching lasers. They hit the main building again with one of the larger ships, and this time a portion of the roof collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust. He forced himself to look away, though even the sound of the old stone as it gave way ached like a physical pain.

But it was just a building. You can fix buildings. Not like people. He increased his speed, keeping his eyes focused ahead.

He was not losing anyone else tonight.

He pushed against the tide of people going in the opposite direction. Castle staff and citizens fleeing for their lives, holding only what they'd been able to grab in the few minutes since Micah had given the order to abandon the castle and surrounding buildings. All around him, people shoved and shouted and children wailing, filling the night with fear and sweat. A few reached out for him, adding their voices to the crush of sound. He was enough of a fixture around here that lots of people recognized him and wanted answers he didn't have, but he couldn't stop.

A tongue of fire licked out of the window of one of the side buildings, and black smoke poured into the sky from everywhere at once. Behind him, it sounded like something large was breaking, but everything was breaking. The entire world was falling apart around them.

He left the crowd at the main path and started racing up the small hill alongside the main building. There wasn't time to go around to the stairs. Besides, once he got up to the next level, he should be able to—

OK, that time he definitely heard someone call his name. A warning. He looked up to see—Oh, no…

This place was like a maze. Glimmer had been trying to keep track of the twists and tunnels, but everything was the same: whites and grays with flashes of green. The air was stale and sterile, tinged with something sour, and it was making her lightheaded. It didn't help that there was nothing to drown out the voices in her head. Screaming fear, guilty fury, and the absolute certainty that this was all her fault.

They'd reached another branch-off, but this one was different from the others. A large painting on the side of the corridor drew her eyes, black and speckled with—wait. She gasped as she realized she was looking at a window that overlooked nothing but endless darkness dotted with white.

Were those… stars? There were so many of them. They were so small.

She shivered, frozen in place. Suddenly all she could focus on was the darkness, cold and vast, squeezing everything out until there were just the barest pricks of light and she was falling, slipping forward, the nothing swallowing her whole.

The hand on her shoulder pushed her forward, rough, and she almost toppled forward as she remembered she was on solid ground. The clones pushed her forward again, and she craned her neck back, trying to get another look. Which one of those was her home? Her friends?

All she saw when she looked back was the ghost of her reflection, small and afraid.

There was a crack like a pop and one of the large stone fins snapped off the main building. It tipped backward and then fell, hurtling directly towards him. Bow threw his hands over his head instinctively, as if that was really going to do anything against several tons of ancient stone, then felt something crackle above him before all that hit him was a shower of rocks and dust. When the air had cleared, he looked up to see…

"Scorpia?" He hesitated, his hand halfway to his weapon. His instincts said Horde equals fight but what really was Scorpia now, enemy or prisoner? Were there really even sides now when everything was under attack? "Uh, thanks."

Scorpia smiled and offered a claw. He took it, letting her tug him up to the next level, adding a new option to the list: ally. Maybe even friend. Everything else was upside down now, why not?

"Oh, yeah, gosh, no problem. I mean, we're on the same side now! It's Bow, right? Because I thought that was it but then I was like, man, that seems a little on the nose for the guy with the—" There was a crack and they both looked up as another fin snapped off and pitched downward towards the tiny cluster of rebellion fighters below. Scorpia pointed a claw at it and red lighting arched out, blasting the stone to dust.

Wow. OK. That was new. And incredibly terrifying. Bow took a large step backwards. But at least she was on their side.

"Ha! Whoo! Still not used to that. Who knew, right? Not gonna lie, kinda fun though. But, I'll tell you what, still got a hell of a headache after that whole Heart of Etheria thing. I mean, whew, what a rush of power, you know, but then it went away, and it was like, dang, a nap right about now would be—"

One of Prime's fighters zipped overhead, low enough that it reversed the part in Scorpia's hair. As they watched, it pivoted in midair, charging its front cannon for another blast. Below them, the rebellion scattered as a small army of bots and soldiers came marching across the water, blasters blazing.

"Tell me about it later. They'll need help down there." Bow had already notched a rope arrow and fired towards the edge of the window in the nearest tower. "I have to go find Adora."

"Your majesty, Lord Prime trusts you will enjoy your stay as our honored guest." The clone's smile was sarcastic, even as his tone was neutral.

Glimmer had barely registered that they'd stopped when they'd shoved her across the threshold. She tensed, expectant, still not entirely sure Prime still didn't intend to kill her after all.

There was a sound like an electronic exhale behind her and she spun around, in time to see a transparent wall of green light form across the entrance to the room. She ran to the barricade, pounding her fists against it, the electricity buzzing against her exposed skin, but it stayed as solid as ever.

So this was it. Her cell. They were going to lock her in. Cage her like an animal.

There was a sound, one it took Glimmer a moment to realize was nails tick-tapping against the metal floor. Great. Embarrassment crept across her cheeks and down her neck that she, of all people, would see her locked up like this.

Catra. No guards, no cell, no fingers digging into her shoulder. Not even an angry glare or middle finger for her former enemy, just a side-eyed glance and the side of her mouth twitching into a smug smirk.

Barely two hours ago she'd been a broken thing in the rubble of the Fright Zone, practically begging Glimmer to kill her. Now she was sauntering down the hallway, her tail swooshing like she owned the place, and Glimmer wished she'd honored that request. When they'd been in front of Prime before, she'd thought they'd had a moment... but it was clear now Catra had only saved her life for selfish reasons, like everything she did.

Gods, she hated her now more than ever! But, still, a leaden feeling settled in her gut as she watched the other girl disappear around the corner without a glance back.

"Adora!" Bow tore through the Bright Moon hallways, his heart pounding. Everything shook as something exploded outside. The floor seemed to tremble under his feet and he increased the pace. With the damage, he didn't know how much time they had until the whole thing went down.

Where was she? What if he was too late? He'd been the one who insisted she go rest while he went to fight, if anything happened to her—

"Bow! Watch out!" Something slammed hard into his middle and he flew backwards just as the section of hallway in front of him exploded in light and stone. The needle-like nose of a Horde ship stabbed through the window, crashing into the wall on the other side, a shard of ice sticking out of the cockpit that looked like Frosta's handiwork. Adora grabbed his hand, tugging him to his feet. "Move move move!"

They sprinted down the hallway, the floor wobbling dangerously underneath them.

"Adora..."

"I know! Just keep moving!" Behind them was a terrible creaking and crunching sound that meant nothing good, the whole tower groaning under the weight of the ship. They rounded a corner and where there were supposed to be stairs there was only a gaping hole, the edges smoking from blaster fire. They were trapped.

Adora grabbed at her wrist for the sword and swore as she remembered it was gone. Bow reached for a rope arrow, but he was out. Shoot. What could they use instead? Maybe a net or—

"Did someone say Swift Wind?"

No one had said Swift Wind but Bow had had never been so glad to see that flash of rainbow wings in his entire life so he let it slide. Adora had already leapt into the open air, trusting Swift Wind to catch her. Bow jumped after, Adora catching his hands and pulling him up behind her. In half a second, they were climbing, flying skyward so fast the bottom of Bow's stomach pitched downward like they'd left it behind.

"Better hold on. Kinda crowded in the sky today!" Swift Wind banked left, sharp, just in time to avoid the searing pulse of energy that blasted right where they'd just been. There was one of Prime's fighters on their tail, way too close. Bow notched an arrow, but it was going to be impossible to get a shot on it from this position.

"Go low." Adora shouted and Swift Wind complied, heading for the beach. The entire thing was overrun with Prime's soldiers, swarming toward the castle, and Bow could only hope Scorpia had gotten the other rebellion fighters out of there in time. There was a low rumble below them and the beach almost looked like it was moving. Prime's forces must be doing something to it. He glanced behind them, trying to find his shot, and noticed the second ship.

"Uh, we've got company!" he called.

Adora swore again and Swift Wind dove automatically, but the ships followed, boxing them in. There was nowhere to go. Swift Wind's hooves were just above Prime's forces on the beach, and a few had already started taking shots at them.

"I can take the ships out if you can get me a shot!" Bow called, a lot more confident than he felt. In theory his shock arrows could take out a Horde bot that size, Prime's ships shouldn't be that different, should they? Gosh, he really hoped so.

"I can do that. But… hold on. Like, really tightly!" Swift Wind shouted. Bow only had one free arm, but he linked it around Adora's waist and used every ounce of his leg muscles to stay on as Swift Wind did a loop-de-loop then twisted so they were going in the opposite direction. They were facing the ships now, and Swift Wind picked up speed.

Bow readied his arrows, trying to shake the dizzy feeling of being upside down. "OK, here goes—"

Without warning, the beach underneath them groaned and then disappeared, the ground itself swallowing soldiers and bots. The rumbling Bow had heard before was now a massive roar. Before he could even understand what was happening, a familiar purple worm-like monster rose from the ground. In a moment, the two ships were gone, the Bright Moon Guardian dragging them back down with it into the massive canyon that now stretched along the front of the castle.

"Finally! About time you did some guardian-ing!" Adora yelled as the Bright Moon Guardian slithered back into what was left of the underground caverns. "We're doing all the work out here!"

"She means, thank you!" Bow called after the giant crystal monster. He lowered his bow and let out a relieved breath that was almost a laugh. Wait until he told Glimmer about… He swallowed, all the tension immediately returning to his shoulders.

"Swifty, what's the situation at the woods?" Adora was already back in soldier mode as Swift Wind took them back up.

"Now that everybody's out, Micah wants us all the shelter there. He thinks the wood's magic might—" Swift Wind's head whipped around as there was a tremendous sound behind them, like a massive sigh, and Bow turned in time to watch the tower they were just in collapse in on itself, the whole top section crumbling down into the base like a badly made cake.

It was like a lead weight in his middle. He knew he should be like Adora, focused straight ahead of her, thinking ahead to the next thing so he didn't go completely out of his mind, but he couldn't stop himself from looking back. And it hurt. This was his home, a place he loved more than anywhere else, filled with memories stretching back across more than half his life.

And it was gone.

It had been different on the ground. Up here, you could see everything, all the beauty and splendor reduced to smoke and rubble. Destroyed. Horde ships still buzzed around it, like flies over a corpse. As he watched, a stray blast sliced off the winged steeple and it fell, smashing to bits in the front courtyard.

It was just a place. Only a building. He repeated it like a mantra, but it didn't work anymore and a sob bubbled up before he could stop it. Because it wasn't just about the place. Bright Moon was completely tied up in his mind with one person more than any other, the one that made it home for him.

And she was gone too.

Glimmer lay on the bed in her cell, her eyes squeezed as tightly shut as she could make them. She wanted to sob, to wallow in self-pity and cry herself out, but she'd decided that she didn't deserve that. Not after what she'd done. She breathed, in and out, until the pricking feeling at the corner of her eyes lessened.

Besides. Prime may have her. He may have her planet and her friends and her pride. But he would not see her break.

That was one thing he would never have.

Once she had control again, she opened her eyes, stared up at the white ceiling and tried to think about nothing at all. Not about what Prime was going to do to Etheria and how it was all her fault. Definitely not about how she was probably going to die out here, entirely alone, and how it would serve her right. Certainly not about how the last time she'd talked to her friends she'd yelled at them, same as she'd done with her mother. Absolutely not about how Bow had still come after her, even after everything she'd done, and she really didn't deserve a friend like that.

His face as she'd disappeared was burned into her memory. The very last thing she'd seen on Etheria before Prime had taken her away. It was painful to think about, but she kept picking at the wound, just to see him again. A reminder that no matter what she'd done, at least someone still loved her.

Loved her, but not like…

Oh, gods, not this again. She slammed the heels of her hands into her eyes before her tear ducts could betray her. Like she needed this on top of everything else? These feelings were supposed to all be dealt with, boxed up and buried down nice and deep.

Absolutely not. Now is NOT the time for this nonsense. She pushed it all back down. Back in the box and then it's going alll the way back there. For a second, it all tried to bubble back up again, but she shoved it back down.

"No. This is hard enough. We're not doing this to ourselves, OK?" She said out loud, even though she was alone. "Not now. Maybe not ever. Please."

She exhaled, ragged, and closed her eyes again. "Let's just… not go there."