This sucked. Bow flopped onto his back, but it didn't improve the situation at all. He tried to remind himself that he should be grateful he even had a tent to himself now with an actual cot instead of just a sleeping bag on the floor but since that was only because they'd lost so many people over the last week it was hard to feel like it was something to celebrate.

When he'd first joined the rebellion, he'd assumed he'd be sleeping in a tent. After all, that's what all the other soldiers did. Except Glimmer wouldn't hear of it and had given him his own room in Bright Moon castle with all the comforts of being a palace guest. And now, when for all they knew Bright Moon was rubble and what was left of the rebellion was hiding out in the Whispering Woods, he was actually living out of a tent for the first time in his life. But all those years of living in the castle must have made him soft because he absolutely hated it.

He hated the rock hard mattress of his simple cot. Hated the breeze that got under his skin at night no matter how tightly he tied the edges of the tent down. Hated how it all felt temporary, living out of bags, like he couldn't even set something down casually because at any moment they'd have to pack up and run again. And, most of all, he hated how he was never alone anymore.

Bow was a social creature. He knew that about himself. Other people, especially Glimmer, tired of being around other people way faster than he did. But apparently, even he had his limits.

Days and days of everyone on top of each other. Tensions high, nerves frayed to their breaking point from lack of sleep and watching their world getting destroyed around them while they could barely do anything about it. Losing people and towns every day and never knowing when one of them would be next. They all needed a moment of peace to catch their breath, but peace was the one thing they didn't have.

There was still so much to do with Mara's ship, but he'd had to get out of there. He liked Entrapta. He really did. They'd been working together closely for— days? weeks? He didn't even know anymore—and they'd developed a pretty good working relationship, but her constant running monologue was driving him up a wall. It didn't help that everything you said in that ship seemed to echo back to you twice as loud until it felt like her voice was coming from everywhere and there was just no escaping it. He'd thought maybe he could concentrate on this schematic better in his tent, but the others were talking around the fire outside and it was impossible to tune it out.

"But did Huntara say anything about— I mean, everyone from the Horde had to have gone somewhere!" Adora was getting loud, that same frayed edge to her voice she had nearly all the time now. "You saw her— people— when you went to the Fright Zone, right? When you went with Glimmer?"

Scorpia gave a soft reply, but Bow tried to tune it out and concentrate on the schematic. It wasn't really bright enough in here to be staring at Entrapta's cramped writing and he'd probably be better off going outside to take advantage of the sunlight but for all her chatter and... Entrapta-ness, the advantage of handing out with the nerd princess was that she wasn't always on his case like the others were. If you banged your head on the console, sure, she might as if you were OK but she didn't even seem to notice if he was grouchy as long as he still got his part done and listened to her talk. This was probably why she got along so well with Hordak.

Great. He'd developed the personality of Hordak. That was encouraging.

At least Entrapta got that there was work to do and no time for idle chatter about how they'd get her, don't worry, go get some sleep. Don't worry! Like he could sleep when she was in trouble and he didn't know what they were doing to her! Not to mention the whole reason he had to work on this antique hunk of space junk in the first place, the whole reason he was in this damn tent and fighting for his life every minute, was her.

His hands were shaking, and the numbers blurred together. He finally pulled off his reading glasses and rubbed his face. When HAD he last slept? It didn't matter. He'd sleep when she was safe. He sat up and grabbed his glasses, trying to start again from the top of the paper, but the voices outside the tent were like a drill through his skull.

"That's just it! She wasn't WITH the forces marching on Bright Moon! Perfuma or Frosta would have seen her!" Adora again, her voicing raising to a fevered pitched. Bow sighed and tucked his reading back glasses into his quiver and set the paper aside, giving up. "Mermista, are you SURE, you didn't—"

"Ughhh, Adora! Give it a rest!" Mermista had been even more snappish than usual since Sea Hawk had taken a chunk of shrapnel during the last mission to the Fright Zone. Without She-Ra to heal him, he had a nasty scar across his chest that was slowing him down. The mission hadn't been a total waste— they'd grabbed some supplies and tech they needed to repair the ship— but they all knew the real reason Adora'd risked all their asses that day and nobody was happy about it. "Nooooobody wants to talk about Catra right now."

"I'm just— It's because she's our enemy, obviously! And I want to make sure she's OK and not… plotting something or about to attack us or… I don't know."

There was a small thud, like she'd kicked something. Adora was worried about Catra, even after everything she'd done to them. Anyone could see that. And as much as Bow agreed with Mermista and wished his friend would read the room and knock it off, he knew it was complicated. Catra had done a lot of things wrong, but she and Adora had been friends for years and there was a lot of history there. Even if they'd wronged you, you couldn't just stop caring about someone like flicking a switch.

Yeah, that part he understood really freaking well.

"You don't think she... I mean, the Horde lost a lot of forces that day. Is it possible she's... But, no, Catra's resourceful, right? She's probably fine. We'll all be long gone and Catra will just crawl out from under a rock like a cockroach ready to cause more trouble." Adora laughed, but it ended in a heavy sigh. "Oh, Catra."

He should say something to her. Reassure her. Or go distract her or something. That's what a good friend would do. But he draped his arm over his eyes and tried to block it out. He just didn't have it in him right now.

"Adora." A new voice oozed into the conversation, oily and dripping with fake sympathy. His hands immediately clenched into fists. Shadow Weaver. "Stop being foolish. Whether Catra is alive or not has no bearing on our present situation. Your misguided affection for that ungrateful creature has only ever held you back. What have I always told you about these dramatics? If you had controlled your emotions with Glimmer, we might not have lost one of our greatest assets to—"

"Leave Adora alone." Bow had burst out of his tent before his brain caught up with what he was doing. He found the sorceress and squared up in front of her. "She's under enough pressure without you adding more!"

His whole body was shaking, and he realized it had gotten really quiet out here. He glanced around and noticed everyone left in the rebellion staring at him. Adora was looking from him to Shadow Weaver, eyes wide. She reached for his shoulder. "Uh, Bow…"

He shrugged her off. It was all mind games with this woman and after a year of her trying to make him feel like he was worthless, of driving a wedge between him and the two people he cared about the most, he was sick of it. There was a massive roiling furnace of fury inside him and finally, FINALLY, here was someone he could unleash it at. "No. You have tortured and drained and abused the people I love and I am DONE. You are going to leave Adora alone and you're going to never so much as mention Glimmer again or I swear to every new star up in that sky, I will put an arrow through your head."

"Wow. Way to go, Shadow Bitch. You broke Bow." Mermista clapped slowly, leaning back against a log like she was enjoying the show. "You know how shitty you have to be to get Mr. Sunshine over there pissed at you?"

Shadow Weaver's face was that same expressionless mask she always wore, but she had this dismissive way of holding herself around him as if she were half a second from asking, "And you are?"

"Ah, the boy. Aren't you supposed to be off helping Entrapta fix the spaceship so we can recover the queen?" She sounded amused, like Bow was something she'd found on the bottom of her shoe. "I thought was the one thing you were good at. I can't fathom why they keep you around otherwise."

Bow reached automatically for his bow, but he'd left it in his tent. It didn't matter; he didn't need it. He lunged for Shadow Weaver, but someone grabbed his arms just as a solid wall of vines flew up between them.

"OK! Now I know everyone is a little tense, but violence is not always the answer!" Perfuma was standing alongside the wall of vines, her hands outstretched. Scorpia stood next to her, chewing fretfully on the tips of her claws. "Let's take a deep, calming breath, and remember we're all on the same side now so—"

"No, don't stop him! Let Bow punch her!" Frosta screamed from somewhere, whooping like she was at a sporting event. "Knock her teeth in, Bow!"

"I'm with ice cube on this one!" Mermista gave Frosta a bemused fist bump. "Fuck her up, Sunshine!"

It was the happiest he'd seen either of them in days, but they were only stoking his anger right now. He struggled against Adora and Sea Hawk, still holding his arms. "Let me go!"

"Bow, my good man, she is not worth it," Sea Hawk said from over his shoulder.

"You need to leave. Now." Adora's voice was pure steel as she addressed Shadow Weaver. Bow didn't wait to see if the old woman listened. He shoved Sea Hawk and Adora off and started for the woods. "Not you, Bow, I meant—"

"I'm going to go work on the ship." If he had to spend another second there with Shadow Weaver and everyone staring at him...

When he was far enough from the camp that he couldn't hear them all talking about him in worried tones, he stopped and leaned against a tree. Blood rushed in his ears from anger and shame. He hated himself for losing his cool in front of everyone, for letting Shadow Weaver get to him, and most of all, for that nagging feeling that she was right. Not about Adora, but about him. If he'd controlled his emotions, hadn't yelled at Glimmer like that, would they have still lost her? Would she still have done all of this if he'd stayed by her side like a best friend was supposed to?

No no no. He didn't want to think about this. He slammed the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to push it out. His whole life he'd been afraid if he stood between her and the power she'd always wanted, she wouldn't choose him and now it had happened and he had to live with that every single day.

Damn it. He didn't want to be crying right now. Being angry was so much easier. Blaming everything on a bogeyman like Shadow Weaver was so much easier than blaming himself. Or her.

"Bow?"

"Over here." Bow forced his breathing to slow, pushing the whole roiling mess of emotions back down. He could deal with them later once she was safe.

"Hey." Adora came into view through the trees. They were at the edges of the protected area out here, and the edge of the magical barrier hummed above them. It was getting ragged, holes and tears in the force field as if it was also barely keeping it together. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Sharper than he meant it, but the part of his brain in charge of social niceties seemed to have shut down to support more important systems. He exhaled, going for a softer tone. "Are YOU alright?"

"I'm…" She shook her head. "I'll be OK. But thank you for looking out for me. I appreciate it."

"You know none of that is true, right? What happened with Glimmer was NOT your fault. None of this is."

Adora didn't reply, just stared at the fraying barrier and sighed. "Look, I know Shadow Weaver is…"

"Horrible?"

"Yeah." She laughed, but there wasn't much humor in it. "But she's also… I don't know. Just don't actually kill her, OK? For me?"

He grunted non-noncommittally. She reached over and put a tentative hand on his arm like she wasn't entirely sure if he'd explode on her, too. He sighed and pulled her into a hug. And while it didn't make everything better, it definitely helped.

"At some point, you're going to need to, like, deal with all your… stuff," she said into his shoulder, sniffing.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She held him at arm's length and raised an eyebrow at him. "You know you're full of shit, right? Like, your eyes are all bloodshot. I can obviously see you've been crying."

"It's just because of lack of sleep."

"That's not any better?" She punched him in the shoulder. "I'm going to take a walk, try to calm down. Inside the barrier, don't worry!" She clarified quickly before he could say anything. "Just, please, go… get some rest. That's an order, soldier!"

He actually mustered up half a smile for that. "There is no way you outrank me. I've been in the rebellion much longer than you have."

Plus, you're not She-Ra anymore, but he didn't say it because nobody was in a place where they could joke about that yet. Still, something flashed across Adora's face as if she was thinking it, anyway. "See you later. Try not to punch anyone while I'm gone!"

"Yeah, yeah." He waved her off, watching until she disappeared between the trees. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the exhaustion was like a lead coat. He probably should get some rest. But going back to his tent meant facing everyone else and giving answers and apologies and he didn't have it in him.

He started towards the ship.