Chapter 43: Etherial Return

If you've felt an overwhelming sense of grogginess and disorientation from taking an elongated nap during the day, you would scratch the surface of just how everyone aboard the simulation ship felt when they awoke from their simulation pods. Mostly everyone seemed to wake up around the same time.

The first to wake up was Brett who blinked his eyes a few times and saw the glass dome that was above him. Surrounding the chair he was sitting in were various buttons and wires. Brett, being a tech genius, quickly deduced what wires and buttons he needed to fiddle with in order to open the pod. Sure enough; after said fiddling, the glass dome let out a noise similar to when a bus opens its doors, and slowly lifted up. Brett quickly jumped out of the pod and looked around. Surrounding him were a group of pods that were facing against each other, formed in a circle. He could see that everyone was trying to push and kick open their pods…

...Everyone except Entrapta who was pushing herself against the one window in the room, staring wide-eyed at the void outside.

"Entrapta…? Entrapta!" Brett shouted excitedly as he carefully moved over to her, ignoring the protests from the other pods. Entrapta looked back and grinned.

"Oh, hi, Brett! You're awake! I didn't want to wake any of you up. You all looked so peaceful in your pods!" Entrapta exclaimed excitedly. Brett cocked his eyebrow.

"Well, you're definitely Entrapta…" Brett muttered. He then moved closer to her and wrapped her in a hug. Entrapta's mouth went wider than an uppercase O and then she nuzzled into his neck.
"I missed you, too." Entrapta said, reading his mind. Brett pulled back and looked around the room. It was a circular room that was riddled with all sorts of machines, power conduits, tubing, and wires. Most of all, the metal everywhere was completely white. The only other color was neon green that illuminated from the lights and machines. Littering the ground were a few unconscious bodies. Brett moved over to one and kicked it over.

Horror and confusion met with Brett's gasp as he registered what he was looking at. The bodies all looked like…

"Hordak…?" They at least looked rather similar to Hordak, although they were all completely white, including their hair, and they wore a black and white robe with the Horde symbol emblazoned on it. In addition, their eyes glowed a neon green rather than red. Brett then turned to Entrapta, "Entrapta, what the heck happened?" Entrapta grinned as she activated a nearby computer. As she searched through the files, typing with her hair, she came up with a conclusion:

"Well, from what I can deduce from the simulation archives, your sister activated the failsafe of the simulation. Turns out that when that happened, it not only stopped the simulation, but overloaded the system. These three clones of Horde Prime were rendered unconscious from the electromagnetic pulse." Entrapta explained. Brett rubbed his chin for a moment.

"...Which means that they're partially cybernetic." Brett concluded, "that info will come in handy."

It was at that moment that the two heard a crash. Turning to the source, they found that Bow had finally managed to hotwire the system and kick the dome off. Brett grinned.

"Well, if it isn't the only technologically competent member of the Rebellion." Brett joked.

"Ah, and the only competent member of the Horde." Bow joked back, though he felt mean for saying that and quickly added an apology. Brett laughed at the apology but refocused at the task at hand. Between all three tech geniuses, opening the domes was rather easy. Everyone was able to have their little happy reunions. Brittni embraced Brett, Adora embraced Bow and Catra... and then there was Glimmer, still locked in her pod. Frosta stood over it, trying to get it open.

"Someone help me open this!" Frosta growled.

"Coming!" Entrapta squealed as she was about to start her wire work.

"No, wait! Entrapta." Brett protested. Entrapta stopped and gazed at Bow and Brett.

"What?" Entrapta inquired.

"I… don't know if we should let her out." Bow muttered. Adora then stepped up.

"Bow, what are you saying?" Adora demanded.

"What are you talking about?! Open the pod, now!" Frosta commanded.

"Pft, outta the way, short stop" Brett commanded as he began approaching her. Frosta tensed up and began forming ice around her fists.

"Wait, Brett, we can't just leave Glimmer here." Adora snapped

"Yeah, we can." Catra muttered, leaning against one of the pods with her arms crossed.

"Ugh, Catra." Adora grimaced. She then looked to Brittni who was sitting against a pod, "Brittni, help me out here. We can't just leave her, right?!" Adora inquired. Brittni let out a dramatic sigh as she switched glances with everyone in the room. Despite desperately wanting nothing more than to leave Glimmer to her fate… Brittni still felt that it would be wrong to just leave her there to die.

"I…" Brittni began, not knowing what to say. She let out a sigh then said, "Since she was in a pod, I guess the logical thought is that she's no longer working with Horde Prime… I'm sure she could be a powerful ally against him." Brittni reasoned, though she did not completely believe it, herself.

"Oh, come on." Catra growled as she stood up from the wall, "this psychotic, sparkly, emo girl almost killed all of us, and now we're just supposed to free her?!" Catra demanded.

"I'm with Catra on this one." Brett declared.

"If you don't open it, I will!" Frosta growled as she began generating ice around the pod.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Brett threatened as he tackled Frosta.

"Heh, nice one, Brett." Catra jeered.

"Brett! Easy! She's just a little-" Bow started.

"Don't call me little!" Frosta snapped as she was trying to push Brett off. She then glared at Brett, "what? Are you gonna use a chainsaw on me again? To finish the job?!" Brittni's eyes widened when she heard Frosta made that declaration.

"Wait… what?" Brittni inquired, staring hard at the two.

"Enough!" Adora shouted. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to her, "Look, this is the absolute worst time for all of us to be fighting. We don't even know where we are! We need to calm down, shut up, figure out where we are, and then get out of here!" Adora snapped.

The room went silent, inferring an unspoken consent. Adora then took a deep breath.

"I understand what Glimmer has done… but don't we all have blood on our hands? Haven't we all been enemies at one point?" Adora challenged. The room, though silent, was filled with nodding heads. Adora sighed and continued, "so, let's just do it. Please." Everyone looked towards Brett and Frosta. Brett switched glances between everyone and Frosta then let out a heavy sight. After picking himself up off of Frosta, he reached out his hand. Frosta eyed Brett suspiciously and sighed. She then gripped his hand and was pulled up. Brett nodded at Entrapta indicating his consent. Entrapta then went to work opening up the pod.

The high pressure noise indicated that the pod's glass was opening. Glimmer, though her eyes were closed was slowly awoken by the noise. She blinked her eyes a few times and gasped when she realized who was around her.

"You!" Glimmer snapped."How did- where am-" Glimmer sputtered out. Brett was about to reply with something sarcastic when Adora and Bow moved over.

"Glimmer?" Bow inquired.

"B...Bow… Adora... I… I…" Glimmer stuttered, attempting to figure out exactly what she wanted to say. But there was nothing. Between the overwhelming guilt and animosity that was enshrouding Glimmer, she could not say much but shudder. Frosta then pushed Adora and Bow out of the way.

"Glimmer!" Frosta squealed as she reached over and wrapped Glimmer in a hug. A few tears began streaming down Glimmer's eyes when she was embraced. Although Frosta was seemingly the one person that she hadn't hurt in the room, she felt as though she had betrayed Frosta by bringing her kingdom into Night Moon.

"Hey, Frosta…" Glimmer said weakly as she returned the hug. Frosta backed up and Glimmer let herself out. As she gazed at everyone, she could see a mix of unsurety and condemnation. She merely let out a sigh and said, "so, uh… where are we?"

"A spaceship!" Entrapta indicated, "oh, my goodness. I thought I would only dream about this day, but to actually experience it?!" Entrapta let out a pleasant sigh and slumped to the floor, "it's perfect." Catra let out a groan.

"Okay, great, reunion time over. Can we get outta here, now?!" Catra demanded.

"She's right." Brett said as he paced around, "Entrapta, is there a way out of this ship?" Entrapta sat up and used one of her pigtails to rub her chin as she thought.

"Based on the size of this room, I can only assume that an incredibly large power source is keeping this ship flying… which means this must be a pretty large ship."

"And large ships should have some kind of escape pod, right?" Brett inferred.

"Most likely! Let's go look around!" Entrapta said excitedly as she used her hair to pick herself up. Brett, Brittni, and Catra followed Entrapta closely, while Adora, Frosta, and Glimmer stood there as though they were in a trance. Glimmer leaned against a wall while Adora and Frosta beckoned her to come. Glimmer let out a sigh.

"Why did you free me from the pod?" Glimmer inquired with her head down.

"Because… you're our friend." Adora declared. There was a nearby terminal against the wall that Glimmer was leaning on. She grabbed it off its hinges and heaved it at the ground, shattering it into multiple pieces. Adora and Bow stood back while Frosta merely frowned.

"Friend? Friend..?!" Glimmer demanded, "Would a friend try to kill their 'friends?' Would a friend slaughter innocent civilians just because they worked for the Horde? Would a friend lead an army into her Aunt's home and completely obliterate it?" Glimmer began breathing hard as tears began strewing down her face.

"No…" Glimmer muttered, "I'm nothing but a hypocritical, power tripping, psychopath. I became exactly what I tried to stop… I don't deserve your pity, your friendship…" Glimmer began sobbing at this point, "or to even live…" Frosta moved towards her.

"Glimmer…" Frosta began.

"Just… leave me." Glimmer muttered.

"Glimmer, wait." Bow began, "I think deep down inside you really did try to do what's right. Adora told me about the Black Garnet and how it messed with your mind. Shadow Weaver did this!" Bow explained. Glimmer merely shook her head.

"That was only to an extent… I've been feeling this vindictive rage since the Horde conquered Elberon. It seemed like everything I tried to do didn't work… and in my quest for power… I just lost myself." Glimmer then slumped to the floor and hid her head in her knees. Adora moved over and knelt beside her. Glimmer then added, "I'll never be able to make up for everything I've done…"

"Well, you can at least try." Adora said, "you can start by helping us get out of here and helping us defeat Horde Prime. Please, Glimmer. Come with us." Adora beseeched. Glimmer looked up, her sclera completely white and puffy from all the crying.

"We need everyone we can get to defeat Horde Prime." Bow chimed in.

Glimmer looked around at the three faces that were so willing to give her another chance. Though tears were still falling out of her eyes like a monsoon. After a few more moments of self pity, Glimmer picked herself up.

"I don't expect… let alone deserve your forgiveness, so don't burden yourself with doing it… But I will help you all beat Horde Prime." Glimmer indicated. Adora and Bow nodded while Frosta smiled.

"Okay, let's get the heck outta here!" Frosta beseeched as she ran out of the room. In close pursuit, the other three followed.

They did not travel far until they heard sounds of gunfire and clashing of metal. Adora let out a sigh.

"You know, I'd like to go one hour where we aren't being attacked by something!" Adora snapped. Everyone then ran towards the sound. They were traveling down a bright white hallway, adorned with neon green lights. The hallway looked as though a battle had taken place there, though. There were laser burns and cracks in the walls, shell casings, and bits of green blood.

"This looks promising…" Bow muttered. As they moved a little closer a metallic slam followed by a door flying from one side of the hallway to the other indicated something bad was happening. Following the door flying, the Horde group was running out of that room towards the Rebellion/Night Moon group.

"Go! Run!" Brittni shouted as she pushed past the Rebellion group, followed by the rest of the Horde. The Rebellion group looked to what they were running from and realized they wish they hadn't looked…

Following a deafening roar, came some kind of four legged creature. It looked like some kind of white bull creature, though much larger and had tubes of neon green fluid. Its head was also incredibly large and featured razor sharp teeth in its mouth. Most intimidating, however, was its face. It was shaped very similarly to Hordak's skull-like face. The creature gazed at the remaining four with its menacing, glowing green eyes. It let out yet another thunderous roar, reminding the Rebel group to turn and run.

As they ran, Bow attempted to fire his sticky arrows at the corners of the hallway walls to ensnare the creature. It only worked for a minute or so, as the creature was able to force itself out of the sticky goo from Bow's arrow. At the end of the hallway was a fork in the road. Brittni stuck her head out of the corner and shouted.

"This way! Entrapta says she found the escape pods!" Brittni shouted. The group bounded the corner and sprinted to the room that the Horde group was in. Before the group turned the corner, Frosta sprayed a stream of ice at the floor. Once the creature stepped foot onto the ice, it slid ungracefully towards the wall and slammed into it, leaving its shaped indent onto the wall. The group then ran into the escape pod room and Brett closed the door, bashing the controls. While everyone was catching their breath, Entrapta was giddying herself up.

"Wow… I want to know what that creature was! I've never seen a thing like it! It was like some kind of Horde Prime...bull!" Entrapta shouted, excitedly. Brett let out a sigh.

"Whatever it is, it's gonna ram this door down if we don't get out quick." Brett muttered.

"Brett's right. Let's get in the pods and get out of here." Adora added. Per their advice, everyone began piling into the escape pods. Each pod could fit three people. Though, just as Brett thought, they heard a slamming metallic sound banging at the door. Brett took a closer look and saw that the door was beginning to close in.

As everyone got into their respective escape pods, the demonic entity had just broken through. Brittni was just about to get into one of the pods when the bull monster charged at her. She let out a scream and held up her hands in defense. However, the bull never made it to her. When she opened her eyes, Brittni found that the bull was enshrouded in a dark purple aura. Looking behind and to the left, Brittni saw that Glimmer was holding the beast at bay.

"...Glimmer?" Brittni softly spoke.

"Glimmer!" Adora, Frosta, and Bow shouted simultaneously from their pods.

"Go!" Glimmer shouted, "let me… do something… good… for once!" Glimmer struggled saying. Brittni shuddered and stood frozen as the beast continued to break itself out of the aura. Glimmer then again repeated for everyone to just escape. Frosta attempted to open her pod, but Glimmer, standing next to the controls had already locked the pod doors.

Brittni took one last look at Glimmer and a tear came out of her eye.

"Glimmer… I'm sorry for what we did at Elberon!" Brittni quickly shouted. Glimmer smiled.

"I'm sorry for what I did at Elberon, too… and Dryl... and Mystacor" Glimmer said softly, as she sniffled. The aura surrounding the bull began weakening and Brittni quickly jumped into her pod. The protests coming from Adora, Bow, and especially Frosta continued to resonate throughout the room. As Brittni sat in the pod, the door was shut and a click sound indicated it was locked. And not a moment later, the pods were shot off.

The last thing that anyone saw was the aura around the bull demon break… and the beast turning towards Glimmer...

Our heroes make their way back to Etheria, via the escape pods...

It is difficult to describe just how Adora and Bow felt after they had left Glimmer. Brett and Catra did not care at all. Entrapta was sad, but more excited about being in an escape pod. Frosta was absolutely devastated. But Adora, Bow, and Brittni had multiple feelings.

"I... I can't believe she's gone..." Bow muttered with a few tears streaming down his face. Frosta was sobbing uncontrollably while Adora tried to be optimistic.

"We don't know that! There was another escape pod. Maybe she... maybe she..." Adora stopped halfway through her sentence. She knew just how long of a shot it was that Glimmer could be alive.

"She's gone!" Frosta managed to choke out. Her voice then became softer as she sniffled, "she's gone..."

After that emotional interchange, the group in that pod simply remained silent. Nobody really knows what to say after you lose somebody that was once your friend. Even if they did begin performing actions, there is something deep inside of you that reminds you of what that person used to be...

... and how they could have changed.

Despite the desire for simple silence, it was interrupted by a sudden blaring voice coming from a speaker within the escape pod.

"Hey? Everyone there?" Brittni inquired. A resounding yes from every channel came through the speakers. A relieved sigh came from Brittni as she continued, "that's good to hear... Now, Entrapta, do you know where our pods are going?" Entrapta's voice came on the line.

"We all seem to be hurdling in different directions. Brittni's pod is going towards the outskirts of Elberon. Adora, Bow, and Frosta are going towards the Whispering Woods, and my group is going towards the Fright Zone." Entrapta explained.

Overlapping murmuring began pervading the speakers with everyone discussing what to do next. Finally, Adora spoke up.

"Okay, listen up. We all need to stay in radio contact with each other. We're going to have to regroup once we land." Adora declared. Everyone gave an acknowledgement and soon, they were about to land.

Brittni's escape pod lands near her mother's home...

As the escape pod penetrated the inner atmosphere of Etheria, it seemed to fly down at a faster pace. Brittni could both smell and hear the fire that began enkindling around the escape pod. It was going faster... faster... until.

CRASH...

The escape pod ground itself into the grassy hill overlooking Oracle's home. Brittni waited a few minutes for the fire to die down. She checked herself for any injuries and found that she was completely unscathed, thanks to her armor. After a few minutes, Brittni kicked open the door of the pod and jumped out. Brittni took a deep breath of air, grateful that it was true oxygen and not whatever synthetic nonsense she was inhaling on the ship.

Brittni remembered that her mother's house was concealed and so moved over towards the where the house would be. Brittni was about to shout the words, when she heard a voice behind her say them.

"It is I, Oracle. Please reveal yourself." Oracle said, scaring Brittni.

"Ah! Mom!" Brittni said, frustrated as she turned around. Oracle had her eyes closed and had a wide smile. Brittni's frown curved into a grin and she yelled in a much more pleasant tone, "Ah! Mom!" Brittni jumped up, to which Oracle caught her. The two then embraced closely as though they would never see each other again. After a few moments of bonding, Oracle placed Brittni down.

"You know, I regret not being able to rock you in my arms more often." Oracle mused. Brittni blushed, thinking about how nice that would have been. The two then entered Oracle's home and took a seat in the living room.

"I'm glad you're okay, mom… I was getting worried when I didn't hear from you." Brittni said.

"My apologies. While I was in the pod, my powers were not as acute. But I am glad I was able to help you all out of that simulation. Oracle said. Brittni nodded then sighed and clasped her hands together.

"Well… how long were we out? What happened to Mystacor? Is everyone else alright? What's going on with Horde Prime?" Brittni fired her questions off. Oracle sat back in her seat and took in a deep breath.

"In order, you were out… around a week or so. Mystacor, fortunately had a great deal of survivors that were rescued by the Rebellion and brought back to Bright Moon. As for the city itself… well… let's just say that it's going to take quite a while to bring it back to the glory it once was." Oracle muttered, "to answer your last questions… well, it's going to be a bit difficult to explain. You see-" Oracle began before Brittni's radio went off. Taking the radio from her belt, Brittni saw that it was Brett calling.

"This is Brittni."

"Brittni… I…" Brett began, sounding rather dismal. Brittni began feeling her nerves shock her body, starting from her feet, and ending at her heart.

"What? What happened Brett?!" Brittni demanded.

"The Fright Zone… it's… it's empty…"

Meanwhile, back at the simulation pod spaceship…

A slam was sounded loudly in the escape pod room as Glimmer was fighting the beast. It was unrelenting in its charging. Glimmer did her best to use her dark magic to control the beast, but the beast's strength kept breaking through her aura. There was a point where Glimmer had become fatigued from the overuse of her telekinesis that she slumped down to her knees. The beast, across the room began pawing at the ground and puffed out a growl. It was getting ready to charge.

Feeling defeated, Glimmer merely closed her eyes, awaiting her fate. During this moment of acceptance, however, Glimmer began feeling an innervation of serenity, as though she was calm with her circumstances. Suddenly, however, she began to hear a still, small voice begin speaking into her mind.

"Glimmer… do you repent of all the transgressions you have committed against Etheria?" The voice inquired. Not knowing what the voice was, but feeling tranquil towards it, Glimmer simply said in her mind:

"I do… but how can I be forgiven?" Glimmer inquired.

"Because your heart is heavy… you feel true sorrow. You wish to make recompense, and you will have the opportunity. If you promise to overcome your darkness and never surrender to it again, you will be forgiven…" The voice declared.

"I'll do it… I'll fix everything I've done wrong. I'll change!" Glimmer declared.

"Very well…" The voice agreed, "then you will be given your power back…"

As though one hundred tons of weight had simply fallen off of Glimmer's shoulders, she suddenly began feeling like herself again. She felt peace and happiness. And not too soon, as the beast was merely inches from her, Glimmer felt the presence of the Moonstone!

The electronic wind chime-sounding noise followed a poof of purple sparkles, signifying Glimmer had…

Teleported!

And not too soon! The beast rammed into the machine that controlled the escape pods. A voice came over the speakers saying:

"Warning, escape pod ejecting in ten seconds…" Glimmer then had an idea. She jumped on the beast and grabbed it by the horns. With a poof of her sparkles, she teleported with the beast into the escape pod, then quickly teleported out.

"Have a nice flight!" The voice said, cheerfully.

"I'm sure it will…" Glimmer muttered. The beast raved and snarled to no avail. The pod then blasted off, ejecting towards Lord-knows-where.

Glimmer slumped to the ground and sighed.

"Well… that was… crazy." Glimmer said, laughing to herself. She then became serious, "but, I guess I'm stuck here now." Glimmer then stood up and walked around the ship, finding nothing but Horde Prime clone bodies and the one room that had all the beasts caged up. There was one interesting room however…

… The pilot's cockpit. Glimmer grinned at this prospect.

"Time to learn to fly…"