Chapter 10: Queen's Blade

Glimmer screamed as she ran at Horde Prime, blade gripped tight in her hands. A thrill shot through her chest as she did—a mix of adrenaline and fear. The Emperor hadn't noticed her yet. He seemed preoccupied, observing the battle and commanding his forces from safety behind Salas' shield.

She leapt into the air, poised to strike, when Horde Prime turned and plucked her out of the air by the throat like an afterthought.

"You thought you could sneak up on me?" he asked, voice wild with rage. "I have three eyes on the right side of my head, girl. Three!"

He squeezed and Glimmer pounded against his forearm with her free hand for him to let go, coughing and hacking and choking for breath. Lessons Shadow Weaver had drilled into her over their short time together kicked into gear all on their own, and Glimmer pushed for calm in her mind amidst her panic. She had only seconds at most before Prime cut off enough blood to her head that she'd fall unconscious, and she spent those precious seconds trying to ground herself and feel the knife still held high in her other hand. She aimed the point toward the space where Prime's shoulder met his neck, and plunged down.

Prime caught her by the forearm with his other hand, and all attempts at concentrating fled her. She was going to die.

Her senses dulled like she was slipping into a peaceful sleep, but it was the pain jolting up her limb that kept her awake. Prime was squeezing the forearm he caught, hard, the glint in his eyes turning wilder still. Glimmer heard a snap. She cried out, her voice barely a raspy whisper straining against his hold on her throat. She dropped the knife the when her broken arm could no longer make her hand grasp it. It clattered to the ground, a distant noise against the fog in her brain.

Glimmer forced her eyes to focus despite her tunnel vision growing tighter. Her arm bent in the center at an unnatural angle in Prime's grip, and looking at it sent a fresh jolt of pain shooting through it to her shoulder. She clawed at the arm holding her throat with her other hand, desperate to breathe, and when she finally looked Prime in the eye, it was as if she finally acknowledged who Prime was: a warlord who conquered a galaxy, slaughtering all in his path.

She realized then, finally, that she should never have attacked him. She should have just gone with Taline immediately to push for a surrender, and now everyone would die because she hadn't. Prime squeezed her throat harder still, and Glimmer wondered whether or not her neck would snap before she'd fall unconscious. Her grip on his hand weakened, her legs stopped kicking. It began to feel as if she were staring up at his cold eyes from the bottom of a very deep well.

And then she fell to the floor, coughing and hacking once more, clutching at her throat as she gasped deep raspy breaths. All her senses felt blown out, like they were compensating for having been muted earlier. When she glanced up, Prime was using his arms to shield himself from blaster fire. For a terrifying moment, Glimmer thought him invincible, since none of the blasts left any wounds or marks. But as he continued to take steps back to get away, she saw small markings appear about him like fireflies, intercepting the blaster bolts before they hit—he was wearing a personal shield, on top of what Salas was providing.

Narre came into view, taking confident steps forward as he assaulted the Emperor with bursts of fire from his rifle. The clone soldiers nearby turned to engage him and he pivoted, firing again and putting two, three, four, then five of them down on the ground with smoking holes in their chests. He whirled around to train his sights back on the Emperor, but he had taken advantage of Narre's momentary distraction to close the distance between them. He knocked the rifle away with such force that it flew out of his grip and skittered along the ground.

Narre spun with the momentum and aimed a backhand at the Emperor's head. Horde Prime blocked, and Narre stepped forward and head-butted him. The Sentinel's helmet thudded against the Emperor's skull, but he didn't flinch and it was Narre instead who recoiled in pain. Prime surged forward and grabbed him by the shoulders, crimping his armor and lifting his feet off the ground as if he weighed almost nothing.

Narre gripped Horde Prime by the wrists and strained to force his hands apart. When that didn't seem to work, he head-butted him again, sending cracks rippling through his helmet and faceplate.

"You dare?" Prime seemed unphased in his wrath, still. His tendrils uncoiled and hovered at the sides of Narre's helmet. "You dare join these…these lowlifes fighting in my own throne room? I will enjoy making an example out of all of you." The tendrils pierced through the armor, and Narre went rigid in Prime's grasp.

Glimmer screamed. Miri's knife she had dropped earlier laid nearby and glinted at her again. It was as if it were calling out to her. She crawled toward it, careful to guard her broken arm against further injury, when a massive spike of black energy impaled Salas' shield around them. Hairline fractures snaked along the surface from the blow, and Glimmer watched several of Salas' mages fly backward with the blowback from the blast. Their bodies disintegrated inside their cloaks, fabric floating gently back to the ground. Salas himself stayed alive, but fell to his knees amid the strain of holding back Shadow Weaver's attacks.

Glimmer shook herself back to her senses and grabbed the knife. Narre continued to convulse nearby in Prime's grip. They were right there in front of her, and Prime looked even more distracted than before. She could get up close and thrust the knife into his leg, slash at his heels, drive it deep into the space between his legs, something. The clones weren't dragging her away like they did when Prime tortured Catra, and she wasn't powerless in this situation any longer. She could help. She had to help.

"I can feel your thoughts," Prime said, a rictus grin spreading across his face as he spoke to Narre. "Miri is dead and the only thing you can think of is joining her and the rest of your squad. Let me do you a favor and send you to them!" He leaned in close and whispered at the side of the Sentinel's head. "And especially give my warm regards to Evelyn and Corynth."

Prime cackled and Narre released his grip on the Emperor. He threw his right arm out to the side and a serrated blade extended from his bracer. Narre slashed up and caught Prime's tendrils still latched to his head, severing them. Green liquid sprayed as the tendrils flailed about and Prime reeled, screaming. He made a fist in his agony and rammed it through Narre's stomach. That fist burst out the other side of the Sentinel, covered in blood, and Glimmer and Prime both screamed again, one in horror and the other in feral rage.

Narre stilled, and Prime turned to fix all four eyes on Glimmer, pulling his bloody hand from the man's body and dropping him to the floor with a thump. He advanced on her and she froze, her mind too caught up in fear to react.

Yet another explosion rocked the ground, and the cracks in Salas' shield deepened, before it shattered completely and disappeared in a burst of mist. Salas and a handful of his remaining mages flew backward and landed in an unconscious heap near the throne. Horde Prime stopped and glanced over at them in surprise, then up at the Rebellion across the room. Another beam of Shadow Weaver's magic streaked forth, flying over the small army of clones still sparring with Entrapta's bots. It beelined straight for him, now near defenseless without his mage advisor's magic shield.

A portal flashed into existence in front of him and disappeared almost as quickly as it had come. Taline stood in its place, steam dissipating off her body. She opened her arms to reveal Catra, who she had carried through the portal. She thrust one hand forward and pushed Catra out of harm's way with the other.

Bright spider webs of energy erupted across Taline's body like lines on a circuit board. Shadow Weaver's beam of dark energy struck her bare palm instead of the Emperor and, unlike Salas, she stood firm with her feet planted in the ground as it dissipated. She moved not even an inch backward as her uniform flailed behind her in the blowback. Taline then took a step forward into the magic and physically pushed against it. The beam reflected off her back toward the Rebellion, and it slammed into Micah's shield hard enough the floor rumbled again, forcing everyone on the battlefield aside from Taline to brace themselves once more to retain their footing.

Shadow Weaver's spell dissipated, and Taline took another step forward. She curled her outstretched hand into a fist and held it tight to her chest. Twelve orbs of blue energy crackled into in an upright circle before her, and bolts of lightning shot out from each of them, arcing and buffeting the Rebellion's shield in a continuous attack. Somewhere in the back of Glimmer's mind she realized Taline had done all this without relying on any of the magic runes she had seen Salas and even her father employ thus far.

"Go!" Taline said without looking away. "You have until I break their shield to figure something out."

Glimmer wasn't certain to whom she was speaking, but Catra—who had stood nearby and stared at Taline's display of power in awe much like Glimmer had—startled and hurried over to her.

"Come on Sparkles, on your feet," she said as she wrapped her arm around Glimmer and helped her stand.

Glimmer didn't fight her. Together the two of them stumbled away from the Emperor and, to Glimmer's relief, toward the Rebellion—toward her friends. Toward her father. Catra looked at her with concern as they limped together, obviously trying to assess her. Her eyes darted from Glimmer's broken arm to her other hand, the one that still held Miri's knife in a white-knuckled grip.

"I couldn't do anything," Glimmer said, trying to keep the images of blood and death from overwhelming her. "I was right there, and Prime was distracted. If I had just moved…if I had just done something, maybe he wouldn't have…"

Her throat constricted with emotion and she couldn't finish her sentence. Catra's eyes narrowed at her, as if she had made a decision or came to a realization about something. She pulled Glimmer quickly off to the side and behind one of the metal barriers.

"We don't have much time to save everyone," Catra said, speaking rapidly and cutting Glimmer off before she could ask what she was doing. "I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need your help getting everyone to surrender."

"It's too late for that." Glimmer said. "They've attacked him in his throne room. He said he was going to make an example of everyone, Catra. They're all going to die because I couldn't—"

"Would you just shut up for two seconds and let me finish?" Catra said, shaking her. "You heard Taline. We don't have much time and if we're going to do something, it has to be now before your dad's spell breaks. Did you see how she just threw Shadow Weaver's attack back at them? He's not going to last long."

Glimmer hyperventilated. Everyone was going to die. Everyone was going to die and it was all her fault. If she had just moved, if she had just attacked Prime while he was distracted, then they could have ended all this.

"Glimmer, listen to me." Catra clapped her gently on the side of her head, squishing her cheeks together between her palms and forcing her to focus. "She can bring your mom back!"

That brought everything in Glimmer's head to a screeching halt. "What did you just say?" she asked, focused at last. Catra had never called her by her real name before, and seeing the look of determination in her eyes reminded her that Catra had once been a proud and determined Horde Commander.

"We can get Angella back," Catra said. "She's not dead. Taline can bring her back, but none of that is going to matter if she kills everybody before they surrender. We can't hash this all out right now, but I already have a plan and I need your help."

"I…I don't—"

"Catra squeezed her harder and shook her head. "Look, I know this is probably too much to ask given our history, but we literally don't have any more time. I need you to trust me. Please?"

Glimmer narrowed her eyes at her. Trust Catra? It was true that their relationship had…evolved since getting captured, but to go so far as to blindly trust her and Taline? But what choice did she have? It was either put her trust in Catra, or everyone was going to die. And if they could bring her mom back too…?

Glimmer pushed all reasoning out her head and focused on Catra's eyes. "What do you need me to do?" she asked, praying she wasn't going to regret her choice.

Catra smiled, relief plain on her face. "Hand me that knife, and follow my lead."


Adora groaned and pushed up into a kneeling position, making sure to pick up the dagger laying nearby as she went. When had she dropped it? Her head pounded and everything looked blurry, but soon enough she got back on her feet. When had she fallen unconscious? What happened?

"Adora, you're okay," Micah said, breathing a sigh of relief through the strain in his voice as he shunted more magic power into the shield covering them. Shadow Weaver didn't speak, likely preoccupied trying to bust through the other Horde mage's shield.

"Alive, but far from okay I think," Adora said, dusting off her legs and shoulders and breastplate.

"I'll take it," Micah said. "That sorceress with Catra, she disappeared and took over for the other mage as soon as Shadow Weaver brought him down."

Adora looked and really studied Shadow Weaver now—watched her straining to push her magic against Taline in the distance while Micah defended against the forks of lightning she sent back.

"If she's now over there," Adora said, scanning the room and trying to piece together what had happened, "then did you see where Catra went? She was just behind me, so she couldn't have gotten far." Adora remembered Catra calling out to her, likely trying to warn her before Taline turned on her and…did whatever she did to her.

Micah frowned, sweat running down his face in beads. "I think Catra tipped her off that you were coming."

Adora shook her head, fighting the chill that crept into her mind when she heard that. "N-no, no that can't be it. I got through to her…she was going to help me. I could have sworn she was trying to warn me about something."

"She called out to you and that woman turned around and caught you before you could attack. I only just barely pulled you to safety when you fell unconscious, then she grabbed Catra and they both teleported away." Micah gave her a sympathetic look despite the tension in his face. "I'm sorry, Adora. I don't think she was trying to help."

"She's too strong," Shadow Weaver said, straining. "She redirected my attack at us and is now tearing the shield apart. There's nothing I can do to get through—her defense is maddening."

Adora looked around at the battlefield again, both to assess the situation and to see if maybe she could spot Catra among the chaos. The scattered parts of Entrapta's purple bots littered the field, and the clone forces still between them and the throne stood idle, all of them content to watch, none of them taking cover. It was as if they thought they had already won the fight.

It wasn't until she thought about it that Adora realized they were conserving ammunition, likely until Micah's shield went down. Their predicament all of a sudden felt much more dire. They couldn't actually be losing, could they?

Micah's shield started to crack, and she moved to support him from behind when he started to slide backward.

"I can handle it!" he said between grit teeth. Then he repeated himself, a little softer and with more confidence. "I can handle it. This plan we came up with is dead in the water. We'll have to go with the backup. Shadow Weaver and I will continue to distract the sorceress while you take your shot. Do you still have that sidearm?"

"I've still got it," Adora said, pulling a small blaster out from where she had stashed it inside her breastplate and checking to make sure it was still charged.

"I know you really didn't want to have to use it," Micah said, "but we're really out of options here. Taking Horde Prime alive was always a best-case scenario. I just hope your aim is sharp—you'll likely only get one shot."

"Adora hefted the blaster in her hand to test the weight after moving her knife into her off hand. "One between the eyes, right? I think I can manage that."

Micah nodded, then extended an arm in Taline's direction. "You ready, Shadow Weaver?" At her acknowledgement, he formed another rune in his palm while still maintaining the shield. Taline's lightning cracked and arced around it, sending deeper cracks into its surface. Adora was frankly impressed at how powerful he was, able to maintain such a strong defense while coordinating an attack with a second person.

A beam of purple energy shot forth from Micah's hand, catching and disintegrating several dozen clones before they scrambled back behind cover. That beam intertwined with a fresh beam of dark magic from Shadow Weaver, and the combined attack slammed against a defensive rune Taline threw up at the last minute, before dissipating.

"That did something," Shadow Weaver said. "We'll do it again, but stronger. Blast her with everything we have, and you take the shot at Horde Prime immediately after, Adora. If we monopolize her defense, even for a moment, that will give you the opening you need. Just make sure you're ready to—"

"Wait!" Adora said, heart leaping into her throat at what she glimpsed in the distance.

Micah, face creased and red from exertion, glanced about. "What? What is it?"

Shadow Weaver must have picked up on what Adora had noticed, because she touched his knee, pointed a shaking finger down range, and said, "look over there."

Glimmer and Catra were supporting each other, limping toward them as quickly as they could between cover at the perimeter of the room. Glimmer held one, oddly bent arm close to her body, while Catra looked unsteady on her feet and ready to throw up.

Micah called out to them, and Shadow Weaver sent and a small amount of her black energy to him through her touch. The tension in his face lessened, and several of the cracks in their shield around them sealed up. She was helping support him with her own magic. Glimmer limped toward them faster at hearing Micah's voice, and Catra did her best to keep up.

Adora's heart swelled at seeing them, especially Catra. She just knew Catra wasn't against them. Whatever happened up here on the citadel had shaken her enough that Adora was able to get through to her for once. Who knew it'd only take the threat of impending doom from an extraterrestrial conqueror to get them on the same side again? Whatever. She'd take it. Just as long as she could have her friend back—both her friends back.

"Okay, new plan," Adora said. "Those two get in here safely, and then we do this. We'll have to grab Bow and the others in the fallout, and it'll be easier if Glimmer and Catra are inside the shield while we do. Don't want to corral more people than absolutely necessary when all this goes down."

Micah nodded. "Good idea. That one's powerful" he said, referring to Taline still raining magic electricity down upon them, "but I think we can hold her a little longer. Right, Shadow Weaver?"

"Do I really have a say in the matter?" she asked.

Adora almost laughed at the irony in Shadow Weaver's voice when she saw Catra, not even a half dozen steps away, push Glimmer in front of a wall of upturned metal and press a knife against her throat.

"Surrender Adora!" she said. "Surrender or Sparkles here dies!"

"What?" Adora's jaw hinged open in disbelief. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"I swear to god Adora, surrender now!" Catra pressed the knife harder against Glimmer's throat, and a thin line of blood started to trickle down and stain her shirt. Glimmer pulled back to edge away from the blade and whimpered.

"I don't—" Adora's mind raced. What the hell was Catra doing? Was she really…she couldn't really be…

The shield flickered. Adora glanced to her left and saw Micah, eyes wide in shock, reaching toward Glimmer like he had back at Bright Moon: as if he were trying to physically grab her and pull her out of harm's way.

The shield flickered again.

No.

"Micah," Shadow Weaver said, a warning clear in her voice.

No. This couldn't be happening.

"Surrender now Adora! Do it!"

This wasn't happening. They were about to lose everything because of her.

She heard Catra sob. "God damn it Adora, please!"

"Micah!" Shadow Weaver squeezed the King's knee. "Micah, you have to concentrate. If you don't—"

The shield broke. A deluge of clones poured out from behind cover and pointed their rifles at their now defenseless group.

"They surrender!" Catra said, dropping her knife and grabbing her hair by the fistful. "Oh my fucking god, they surrender."

A high-pitched whine, the sound of hundreds of beam rifles powering up to fire, careened around the room, and Adora saw her life flash before her eyes.

Taline blinked into existence inches in front of her, eyes glowing neon blue. She thrust one hand behind her and caught Micah and Shadow Weaver in some sort of stasis spell. Adora took a step back and raised her blaster, only for it to immediately get ripped out of her hands and tossed aside. She tried to raise the knife next, and Taline stepped closer into her space, snatching Adora's wrist like a viper.

"Drop the knife," she said, voice low.

"I—"

"Don't make your friends watch me kill you." For some reason, her voice sounded desperate rather than dangerous. "You've lost, Adora. Drop the knife and surrender. Please."

Adora swallowed and glanced over at the terrified look on Glimmer's face and was surprised to see it mirrored on Catra's expression as well. Why did she look concerned now of all times? After what she did?

Adora dropped the knife, defeated, and heard it clatter to the ground.

"Lower your weapons!" Taline said, shouting over her shoulder. 'They've surrendered."

The clones complied, then a group splintered off and surged forward to grab them. They weren't gentle with any of them, least of all Adora. They kicked her to her knees and forced her hands behind her back to shackle her wrists together.

"Don't cuff her!" she heard Catra yell in the distance. "Don't! Her arm, it's—"

Glimmer screamed and Adora seethed, fighting against the clones restraining her. One punched her in the face and she saw stars.

Taline gave them all a pitying look as the clones rounded up the rest of them. Soon, Bow, Lonnie, Rogelio, and Scorpia, all unconscious but thankfully alive despite their injuries, lay with them. Glimmer, shaking and pale with her busted arm bent at an even worse angle than before to fit into the cuffs, sat with her back to Catra, who had turned a sickening shade of pale green.

When the clones finished rounding them all up, they parted and Horde Prime stepped through. Two thick, truncated tentacles hung limp from his head, staining his shoulders green. He looked them over with eyes of steel.

"Execute them all," he said.

The clones again aimed their blasters at them, and Taline physically stepped between them as a shield.

"My Lord, they are contained," she said. "There is no reason to kill them."

Horde Prime cocked an eyebrow and took a step toward her, every twitch of his body broadcasting danger. "No reason to kill them? They attacked me in my throne room."

"They have surrendered, sir. We need them to research the Heart."

"They have attacked me, Taline. In my throne room."

"Lord Prime, please. I beg you once more to listen to reas—"

Horde Prime backhanded her across the face hard enough a deafening crack resounded off the walls. Taline stumbled several steps to the side, and Adora saw blood streak the floor.

"You do not speak to me of reason after what these rebels have done." Prime said, voice shrill with hysteria. "To say nothing of your Sentinel who mutilated me." He spat at the ground, "Traitorous blood runs in your veins, Taline. No, you do not speak to me of anything." He turned and roared at the clones. "Kill them all! Kill them now!"

Another whine of hundreds of rifles powering up. Adora squeezed her eyes shut, but not before seeing Taline, four bloody gashes marring the side of her face, reach into her jacket and yank out a red crystal. She squeezed until it shattered in her hand.

Everything went white.


AN: Hi everyone, hope you're continuing to enjoy the story. I have a tumblr! Come check it out and maybe say hello, if you are so inclined :)

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