Chapter 3: Queen of Oneself

The Key

"Okay," said Adora as the girl stepped through the portal. "I don't know who you are, but let's keep things…"

"Who are you and what do you want? How do we know you're not a spy for Horde Prime?" screamed Frosta, edging around from the other side of the portal.

"I'm… who is that?" stuttered the woman.

"Don't play dumb with me," said Frosta.

"Frosta, that's enough," said Adora. Frosta opened her mouth to object but Adora shushed her. Remarkably, she listened.

"Well, who are you?" asked Adora.

The woman glared at Frosta, flexing her fingers, before turning her gaze directly to Adora. "You can call me…" She hesitated. "Amelia. Amelia Dallon Lavere, I guess." She paused for a second, brow furrowed "Or Red Queen," she added belatedly. "I'm from Earth Bet," she said, more calmly.

Catra leaned forward to whisper in Adora's ear, "You know, I never really paid attention in geography class, but I don't remember a place called Earth Bet. With the portal, we can figure she probably isn't from around here."

Glimmer stepped forward to stand side-by-side with Adora. She still held her hands up, prepped with glowing balls of pink energy.

"Do you know where you are right now?" Glimmer asked.

Amelia seemed nervous, her face flushed red. "No, I don't. I mean, it doesn't look like any place I've ever seen before."

"Do you know who Horde Prime is?"

"The loud one asked that before. I don't know. Never heard of them." Her gaze, as it wandered over to Frosta, had molded into one of contempt.

"Would you say that you're friendly?" asked Adora.

Amelia took one of her hands and began to rub the back of her neck with it. Adora could see Bow tense up, and she lifted a hand to calm him.

"I am. As long as you don't do anything bad to me, I'll say." She gave a weary smile at Adora.

Adora shimmied over to Glimmer. "Can we let her come forward?" she asked. "I don't think she means us any harm. I think she really is confused."

Glimmer sighed, heaving her shoulders up and down. "It seems like the right choice. But Bow, keep your arrow aimed at her." She paused. "That's the net arrow, right?"

"It is," said Bow. "I swear, I only mixed them up once , you don't need to double-check."

Glimmer snorted, earning a resigned look from Bow.

"Amelia Dallon Lavere," she intoned. "You can place your hands down and approach us."

Adora could see she was mimicking Angella. Her cadence was the same, slipping into a formal tone at odds with her earlier interrogation.

"Thank you," said Amelia, lowering her hands. She breathed a sigh of relief and stepped away from the portal, towards Adora.

Adora heard something, her ears barely noticing it.

"Do you hear shouting?" she asked loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Even as she asked the question, she could tell the answer. Those were definitely voices, and they were definitely getting louder.

"Oh crap," said Amelia. "I think I know who those people are."

"Is it too much to hope for them being friends of yours who are deeply worried for you but also very calm?"

"I wouldn't call them friends," said Amelia.

"Listen," Adora said. "You do know them?"

Amelia nodded wordlessly.

"Then let's think this through,"

"We don't have the time," snapped Shadow Weaver, apparently having decided that it was her turn to control the situation. "It is very simple, Amelia. Can you talk them down? If not, Frosta, seal up the portal. Perfuma, be ready to do the same on the other side. Entrapta, get away from the portal. Catra, go find Melog."
"I'm not—"
"Catra," said Bow. "I think you should go get Melog. It seems like the right idea."

Catra hissed at Shadow Weaver, but scampered off as she'd wanted.

"So, can you talk them down, Amelia?" asked Shadow Weaver.

"I think I can keep them from shooting, but I can't make promises."

Adora was just about to say something, although she wasn't really sure what it would have been when the first man appeared in the portal. He was dressed in a dull outfit, something dark with only some emerald-green highlights to liven it up. He raised something in his hands that looked like a weapon, and screamed something Adora couldn't understand.

"Well, Amelia," said Bow. "Now's the time."

"Listen, they're friendly," shouted Amelia. "They don't mean Shin any harm."

The soldier kept his weapon pointed squarely at Bow, who in turn had his weapon aimed squarely at Amy. Adora could see other men in the same outfits filling in behind him.

"I think you should stop aiming at Amelia," said Glimmer.

"Okay," said Bow. He swung his aim around. Right towards the men on the other side of the portal.

Adora heard a crack of some sort in the air, followed by Amelia yelping and shouting at the man not to shoot in a pleading voice. Adora rushed in front of Bow, her sword turning into a shield. Her view obscured, she could catch Shadow Weaver yelling to seal the portal. The temperature of the air rose as Frosta summoned ice, which surged towards the portal. For several seconds, there was the sound of men screaming, ice scraping along the ground and grass growing to great heights.

Afterwards there wasn't quite silence. Adora could hear the muffled sounds of men speaking at high volumes through the portal as well as several of those same cracks.

"Wow. That was nasty for a second," said Adora. It was then she noticed what had happened to Bow. His breaths were ragged and shallow. From a wound in his chest, blood pulsed. He fell to the ground wordlessly.

Adora, in spite of herself, screamed. To see the red pulsing from him like that was horrifying. In all their fights with the Horde, against bots and enemy soldiers, she had never seen Bow injured like that, gasping feebly.

But her shock only lasted for a second. She was She-ra. She had healed an entire land before, and she wasn't going to let a single wound take a friend away like that.

As she leaned down over Bow, Amelia jostled past her, almost shoving her to the ground. "What do you think you are doing?" screamed Adora. She turned the Sword of Protection back to a sword from the shield, leveling it at Amelia's back.

"No, trust me," pleaded Amelia. "I'm a healer. Just let me do this. I have experience."

Amelia placed her hands on Bow's exposed stomach. Within a second, Bow's wound began to close. In another second, it was gone. There was still a hole punched through his shirt, and blood sticking to it, but the skin was unharmed. Bow's hands reached up to feel his chest, fingers running along the sealed skin. There were tears in his eyes as he looked up at Amelia. "Am I okay?"

Amelia nodded. "You're okay," she said quietly.

"Then thanks for that," Bow said, sitting himself upright. "I mean it. I'll have to do something for you later."

Beside Adora, Glimmer broke down into tears, hugging Bow and squeezing him until he begged her to stop.

"I think," said Shadow Weaver, her voice measured and cool, "that you have some explaining to do." At an angry scowl from Glimmer she added, "Although we are all very grateful, of course."

Amelia glanced at Adora again. "I have a power. It looks like some of you do too. I don't know if that's what you call them here. But I am Amelia, the Red Queen, and I make life do what I want… I heal. I guess I should fill you in on some of this."

….

Amelia sped through her story. Her telling was rushed, leaving gaps, but there was one conclusion that could be drawn from her ramblings — what had just happened was weird.

"And, that's that."

Despite almost losing Bow, Amelia's miraculous restoration seemed to have put everybody in a fine mood, and there were naturally questions from the crowd. Or rather, there would have been if Entrapta hadn't enthusiastically hogged Amelia and refused to let anyone else squeeze in a single word of inquiry.

Entrapta rushed Amelia. Warding off anyone else with half her hair, she held in the other a recording device. "So, does your healing only work when touch is applied?" she asked. Amelia barely squeezed in an affirmative answer before moving on to the next question, effortlessly holding a charging Frotsa in place with one hand of hair.

Eventually, Adora was able to divert her attention from Amelia and towards the task of monitoring the portal just as she asked a bewildered Amelia some incomprehensible question about "deoxyribnuke repetition."

"Well, there haven't been any shots since the barriers were first put up," Entrapta said. "But there are still people on the other side. Emily's got the equipment needed to keep an eye on them even if we can't see them, which is wonderful inadvertent planning on my part."

"Great. Then I think that you can have her keep an eye on the portal while you do... tech stuff that helps her out," said Adora.

With a vigorous nod, Entrapta ran off to find Emily, returning with her and sitting herself down in front of the portal.

Once Entrapta was occupied, those who had been denied the opportunity to interrogate Amy surged forward with newfound strength. Frosta's hostility from earlier had melted, and she bombarded Amelia with questions about her power ("Can you make someone who is dead alive?) and the gaps in her story ("Do you have a Runestone? Are you the queen of a kingdom, or is it just a cool name?"), while Castaspella unsuccessfully tried to pose her own questions. Netossa, meanwhile, tried to ask about whether or not Amelia could remove technology from someone's body.

Maybe Adora should have made them ask questions one at a time. And let Netossa go first. At least Perfuma was quiet.

And Shadow Weaver was approaching. Wonderful .

"She's clearly going through a lot. She deserves some time to herself, right?" Adora asked.

"Yup," said Glimmer.

"You wanna grumble about people's expectations of you when they look up to you after?" asked Adora.

"Sounds good," responded Glimmer.

"I think you and Bow can take care of the crowd. Me and Catra can take her to some place where she can be alone for a bit."

"Don't you think Shadow Weaver will want Catra out here to stay with Melog?" asked Bow.

"Yes, and I don't really want to listen to her," said Adora. "Besides, Melog knows what they're supposed to do. I think at least. It's a little hard to tell what they think when they're not just copying Catra. But it's fine."

Adora flagged over Catra while Glimmer and Bow went to work shepherding Amelia out of the surrounding throng. "We're just going to give her a little time for herself," she explained. "If this is a tough experience for all of us, imagine how she must feel. Ah, look, she's coming right now."

"I guess we're okay with her?" said Catra, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes slightly.

"I think she's earned it. At least until we can smooth things over with those people on the other side of the portal," said Adora. Besides, if we can all get along with you at the moment, I don't think she'll have any problem fitting in.

"Huh."

Amelia had stepped right up to Adora and Catra, Glimmer and Bow on either side of her, with the others watching from a distance.

"'Huh what?" asked Catra.

"Oh," said Amelia. "I was just wondering what you meant by 'if we can all get along with you at the moment."

Catra stiffened, the claws on her feet shooting out and digging into the dark soil underneath her feet.

"It's a pretty long story," said Adora. "If she wants to tell it to you, I won't stop her, but it's a bit of a sensitive spot. I probably shouldn't have even brought it up."

Catra blew some air up out of her mouth.

"You can probably take that as a no. Anyway, Glimmer, Bow, can you keep everyone calm? I know you got them to leave Amelia here alone, but I just need you to make sure they stay that way. Mostly, I just want you to keep Shadow Weaver away for as long as you can."

"You got it, Adora," said Bow. "Oh, Amelia. I know I already said this, but thanks for what you did. I wasn't expecting you to save my life when I first saw you, that's for sure." He laughed and turned to run off, while Glimmer nodded and disappeared in a flash, reappearing right next to a startled Netossa.

"Okay, Amelia. We're going to take you to a tent and let you lie down for a bit. Oh, if you want it, of course," added Adora, blushing sheepishly.

"Yes, that sounds nice."

Adora walked ahead to lead Amelia to her tent, Catra keeping pace alongside her.

"We'll try to fix this. For now, the portal is safely covered by Perfuma and Frosta's barriers, and we've got Entrapta keeping an eye on things across it. Once you've recovered a bit from all this, we can start putting something together to fix this mess." Adora paused. "But, we don't have that much time. We will need to patch this up quickly."

"So, there is a bigger problem."

"Yeah," said Catra, giving a quiet snort. "You could say that there is, in fact, a pretty big problem hanging over our heads."

Adora opened the flap to her tent, letting Amelia duck in. Catra followed and Adora stepped in behind her.

"What is it?"

"Do you really want to hear all about the impending doom we face while we try to give you some time to recuperate?" asked Adora.

"I guess being able to relax can be important," said Amelia. She stared at her hands, covered in red designs, including a flower with deep crimson petals.

Glimmer appeared right in front of Adora, accompanied by sparkles of pink.

"Is it Shadow Weaver?"

Glimmer gave Adora a look of deep pity. "It is. She absolutely wants to talk to you, and I'm not managing to keep her down."

"Okay," said Adora. "Catra, stay here with Amelia. Amelia, feel free to talk about anything you want with her while I go sort out this evil witch's hunger for power."

Glimmer put her hand on Adora's shoulder. "To think I once thought I didn't need any help being Queen." They teleported.

The Red Queen

She wanted to know more. Catra ( what sort of name was that. It was like a toddler had named a cape) hadn't explicitly said no to explaining her story with Adora.

Time to ask a question.