Chapter 13: All Cards on the Table
Adora drummed her fingers on the war room's conference table and tried to focus. The princesses all sat around the table, interspersed between the many heads of magic, engineering, and military affairs from the Enclave. Except for Micah and Angella who sat near the head of the table and Taline who sat opposite them, everyone was deep in animated conversation, and Adora was on the verge of snapping. She couldn't string two coherent thoughts together in her head it was so loud.
After nearly a month of nonstop work streamlining Etheria's rebuilding efforts, the "Alliance"—as they had named themselves the week prior, expanding on the old Princess Alliance to now include their Enclave allies—finally reached the point where the princesses could soon return home. They were to oversee the remainder of their respective kingdoms' reconstructions while training under Enclave mentors in advanced forms of magic. King Micah had supposedly been tapped to help as well.
Entrapta, who practically hadn't emerged from her lab since Angella's return, had worked with the Enclave to reforge the Sword of Protection. Adora might have felt happy about that too, if it weren't for the fact she still couldn't connect with She Ra. The sword had reverted to a gauntlet the moment Entrapta pieced it together, and everything Adora tried made neither it nor her transform. She had redoubled her efforts in Bright Moon's gym to help deal with her anxiety, but even coming straight from an intense workout session and shower wasn't enough to soothe her in this particular moment.
Salas and Taline were finally going to brief them on the 'threat'—whatever it was she had seen in her vision aboard the citadel. Whatever that voice she heard and face she saw speaking and looking at her almost every time she closed her eyes to sleep.
Glimmer had mentioned seeing similar nightmares, although she hadn't gone into detail and Adora hadn't pushed for them. Adora could see the bags under her eyes despite how far away she sat, and judging by how far Bow sat from her, it was obvious Glimmer hadn't gotten much sleep and he hadn't forgiven her enough yet to help with that. Bow had always been someone with sound judgement in Adora's mind, but that whole situation convinced her he had a blind spot.
She caught sight of Catra, leaning with crossed arms and legs against a pillar in the far corner, and wanted to scream. Salas was late, seeing Catra just made her feel all the more conflicted, and Adora was doing everything she could to keep from flipping the whole table over in irritation. Could he just get there already and start? She needed everyone to quiet down so she could hear herself think, and she needed to know what this great enemy was they were all apparently conscripted into fighting.
At last, she saw the white and green of Salas' robes as he hurried through the doors to them.
"Sorry I'm late, everyone," he said, finally sweeping into the room with a harried expression. "There was a mix-up with the latest personnel arrivals and I had to sort it out first. Let's begin." He took up a position at the head of the table, nodding to Taline and Micah on either side of him, and keyed up a holographic presentation deck in the center of the table.
Most of what he walked them through initially, the princesses already knew from just existing alongside their Enclave counterparts for some time now: The Enclave was an autonomous Protectorate inside the Empire, blah blah blah. They were generally left alone to do their own thing in exchange for serving that Empire when it came to all things magic, yadda yadda yadda. It wasn't until Salas dove into the next section that a hush descended upon the room.
"I understand many of you have been wondering for some time now why we've taken great pains to help rebuild your world, especially after it was our own Emperor that nearly destroyed it," Salas said, as he flipped through images of ruined civilization after ruined civilization on the slide deck. "This is the reason why."
One of the stills was an image of the hill upon which Adora stood in her vision aboard the citadel, complete with grazing aliens in the distance. She gasped and looked around at her friends, many of who had asked her previously why she had turned so readily from fighting the Enclave one moment, to wholeheartedly advocating they work together. She had only been able to shake her head at the time, unsure of how to explain the vision she saw in Horde Prime's citadel, but the fact the very same world from that vision had showed up on Salas' presentation only solidified her belief she had done the right thing. They didn't have time to fight each other. Not with what was coming.
Thankfully, no one seemed to notice her freezing up in the middle of the room, and Salas quickly moved on with another half dozen images of other worlds.
"Contrary to what some of you I'm sure are thinking," he said, "this is not the work of the Emperor conquering other planets. This is the work of an enemy we desperately need your help in defeating."
The image shifted, and they watched a video of a black, amorphous blob writhe inside a clear box.
"It may not look intimidating in there," Salas said. "But that's just a sample one of our research teams captured back in the early days. If it actually gets free on a planet or in the vacuum of space, it will eat stars and worlds until there's nothing left. Almost did, on multiple occasions in the past. Many ancient civilizations we've come across throughout the centuries reference the creature as well, and even your own ancestors, the Eternians, wrote extensively on a near-mythical phenomenon they named the World Eater."
More images, this time of various ancient texts, paintings, and archaeological digs across barren planets flashed before them. By this point, some in the room had picked up hushed, worried conversations. The princesses looked to one another in confusion while Adora thought back to some of the last words She Ra had spoken to her: about how her power was destined to oppose something far older than the First Ones civilization itself.
"The Eternians were close to finding a way to stop its eventual return," Salas said, "though they unfortunately didn't finish by the time the Emperor conquered them several thousand years ago. We didn't learn of their preparations until the thing suddenly appeared in our galaxy and started eating literal star system outright. By then, we had already given it a different name. The Beast."
Salas flipped ahead, and the next several slides showed the Beast in various stages of agitation inside the containment box.
"Those images of destruction you saw earlier?" he said. "Those were taken before it even arrived on planet. Those were the result of unrest and sheer panic from the populace as they scrambled to evacuate. This"—he tapped at his console and the slide jumped forward—"is what those planets looked like from orbit once the Beast actually reached them."
All conversation in the room died as the princesses gasped and their Enclave counterparts shot each other uncomfortable looks. Even Entrapta, who had sat with rapt attention between Scorpia and Perfuma, now held an uncertain look on her face. Adora felt an icy cold snake through her chest and squeeze her heart.
The writhing mass of black flesh from earlier covered the entire planet. Salas tapped the console again and the view zoomed out, revealing seven other black planets orbiting a black star. He tapped a third time and the image gradually pulled out to reveal a third of the galaxy in a similar state—as if some god had taken a bite out of it. Adora realized with a start that this was, again, the exact view she had seen in her vision right before the creature spoke to her.
"This was eight years ago," Salas said, "at the end of a long campaign trying to stop its advance through our reality. The creature spread exponentially the more ground it covered. It grew smarter and bolder with each planet—with each person—it took. By this point, unless we did something to stop it immediately in its tracks, it would have grown too fast and too smart to stop at all. So, we mustered the entirety of the Imperial fleet and staged an assault. One final, massive stand to save our galaxy."
Another slide popped up showing what must have been tens of thousands of warships against a backdrop of stars, battling a literal wave of darkness raging toward them.
"Even the Emperor, who until that point had stayed away from direct conflict out of fear the enemy would corrupt him, led personally on the battlefront." Salas sighed, fatigue tingeing his voice. "Our victory, if you could even call it that, was pyrrhic at best, and temporary. If it weren't for a breakthrough from one of our science teams, we wouldn't have even had that. You all would have returned to a galaxy devoid of any life at all except for the Beast."
Someone in the room—Adora wasn't sure who, although she guessed Mermista—let out a long and low curse under their breath. It was quiet enough no one would have heard were it not for the complete, near suffocating silence in the war room. Salas ignored it.
"That team had researched much of what the Eternians left behind for us," he said. "They had apparently been working on an ancient interdimensional prison named the Barrier before they fell. Much of the work had already been done long ago, as it already spanned a majority of the galaxy's mid-rim systems. With the power of thousands of 'nodes' powered by stars, the Barrier had the potential to lock the Beast away in between dimensions forever.
"Unfortunately, Horde Prime wasn't convinced that the Barrier was the answer we needed. You see, that same science team had also discovered a different technology earlier in the war. A mineral named Ignominite that could harm the Beast if imbued into munitions, or pacify it within crystals if caught.
"As the war took a particularly desperate turn, a few years before the final battle, they came to the Emperor in the Heartlands to petition him for the resources necessary to finish their research on unlocking and booting the Barrier system the Eternians had left behind. He instead ordered them to abandon the project altogether and focus on further advances with Ignominite. The head of the science team, someone I am forbidden from naming out loud, defied him."
Salas' eyes flicked to Taline, who sat there, stock still, eyes forward, and knuckles white from squeezing her hands into fists underneath the table. None of the other princesses seemed to notice, since, aside from her hands, Taline's face looked like the epitome of calm. But Adora did notice how the other members of the Enclave reacted; some exchanged meaningful looks with one another while others glanced at Taline only out of the corner of their eyes. Each of them, for some reason, seemed invested in how she in particular reacted to Salas' words.
"That would have been the end of it," Salas said, jolting Adora out of her observations. "The Emperor ordered her death, and would have had it if her head of security, a young man named Corynth, hadn't risen to defend her and her team. He, as it turned out, was a member of the Daiamid, a group that, up until the very moment he revealed himself, many had believed existed only in rumor and hearsay—in stories parents told their children to scare them into behaving for them. They were the Emperor's supposed secret police. An ancient cabal of elite mages and assassins that did his bidding from the shadows.
"Corynth rallied the rest of his people and they followed, appearing in the spotlight to defy the very person they had served in secret. They chastised the Emperor for getting in the way of research that was supposedly key to saving our reality, and delivered a humiliating defeat to him at the capital before fleeing deep into the uncharted recesses of space."
The slide skipped forward and displayed two enormous fleets, one of Horde white and green and another, the red and black of the Beast, clashing above a sea of fire and brimstone. It took Adora a moment to realize that sea was actually a view of the surface of an enormous planet, covered in the Beast and marred with massive oceans and rivers of lava along its surface.
"We fought the Beast not long after," Salas said. "Our final stand, as I said. Despite our best efforts, it had taken a major hub world in the mid-rim earlier in the war. A planet named Archanas. It became too smart after that, and even steadfast optimists couldn't bring themselves to still hope after it started outmaneuvering even our most brilliant tacticians. It was there, as we tried to take that world back, that the Daiamid returned."
Another slide appeared, this one of a handful of ships in an impossibly tight formation shooting through the wave of black Beast vessels like an arrowhead through an air current.
"Our fleet above Archanas punched a hole in the Beast's defenses large enough for Corynth, the rest of his Daiamid Shapers, and the lead scientist to slip through and carry a payload directly into the maw of the enemy. Their research on the Barrier had paid off, and with one decisive blow, they sealed the Beast away at the cost of their own lives."
Salas shut off the presentation. "Which brings us to the present moment," he said. "The Barrier and its interlocking algorithm of keys is imperfect. What software the science team had used in that final payload to activate the Barrier was not what the Eternians had originally developed, but only the best approximation of it that could be put together in the intervening years since fleeing the Emperor. Just as you have returned from being lost in a pocket dimension, so too has the Beast begun to seep back into our reality from its prison.
"Your world, your Heart of Etheria, is another Eternian construct. It is repeatedly mentioned in their surviving documents, and just like the Barrier was designed to be the one cage capable of trapping the creature away forever, the Heart was to be the one weapon guaranteed to kill it outright. It is our last hope for survival, and now that you are here, our number one priority is to get it functioning as intended. We must destroy the Beast before it has the chance to fully escape and finish us off for good. Are there any questions?"
He swept the room with steel in his eyes before Mermista broke the silence.
"Are you seriously not kidding me with all this?" she asked. "That's what we're up against? Something that literally eats entire planets and stars like they're lunch? How the hell are we supposed to beat that?"
All eyes shot to her, and Adora was relieved to see many of the princesses and even some younger members of the Enclave seeming to agree with her. Everything Salas said had terrified her. She had no idea how they were supposed to fight. The planet still couldn't even fire the Heart.
"I understand this may be a lot for you all to absorb," Taline said, rising in her chair and speaking for the first time since the meeting convened. "Every senior member of the Enclave here, including Salas and myself, lived through what you just saw. Lived through that war. To us, it wasn't just a presentation, it was another reminder that we lost more than we care to dwell on. But I must stress to you that we are extremely optimistic about this. Our research team has been churning behind the scenes while everyone else has been busy rebuilding, and the preliminary analysis is very positive.
"Engineering fully believes they can get the Heart operationally sound within a handful of years. That includes doing the work necessary to make sure the planet doesn't explode, too. In the meantime, the Imperial Armada is more than equipped to stem the tide of what does slip through the barrier while we work. If everyone keeps their heads down and focused on the goal, we will come out of this alive. Then the galaxy at large, including Horde Prime, will welcome you with open arms as saviors."
The tension around the room lessened with each word she spoke. All seemed to take solace in her words, except for Adora, who only grew more anxious to reconnect with She Ra. Taline was an inspiring figure, and despite their clashing aboard the citadel, Adora held no hard feelings for her. But, functioning or not, the Heart depended on her as She ra to wield. She refused to let herself feel calm or confident until she made certain her connection to the Princess of Power remained unbroken.
Salas prompted further questions, and no one spoke up.
"Very well," he said. "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the mission and the current state of the Empire, Etheria will remain hidden and not all of you will be permitted to venture off planet. Until our work together is done, only certain members of Etheria's homegrown Horde will be allowed to conscript into the wider military and leave, by special invitation. We will break shortly to give everyone time to process what that means, and then reconvene to discuss specifics. But before we do, I think it prudent to mention—next week will be Taline's last here with us."
A low murmur of disappointment rumbled through the group. Everyone knew this was coming but didn't want to face it. The princesses had all grown to like her, and it was obvious both young and experienced Enclave members alike all held some sort of muted reverence for her. Even Adora found herself feeling upset about the thought of her leaving.
"I just want to say it's been an honor working with you all," Taline said, looking them over. "I know some of us got off to a rough start together, but I want you all to know that I am grateful for the hospitality you've shown, and the trust you've chosen to give. Salas, as I'm sure you've all witnessed first-hand, is a fantastic choice to lead the research into the Heart. I'm thankful the Emperor agreed to let him take charge in my stead, and you are all in good hands with him."
A quiet round of agreement rippled through the group, and Adora saw Micah and Angella glance at each other. Then, the room grew quiet as Micah got to his feet.
"I must admit, I knew of this shortly before the announcement," Micah said, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish expression as he looked at Taline. "Angie and I talked it out and we both agreed. Bright Moon will throw a grand feast, both to celebrate a great new partnership with the Enclave, and to thank you for vouching for us to Horde Prime."
Taline blinked, true surprise flashing across her features for the first time in Adora's recollection. "You don't have to do that," she said.
"But we will," Angella said, giving her a smile. "We want to. Everyone here understands that without you personally stepping forward and defending us, then Bright Moon would likely not have lived through Horde Prime's wrath. Please, accept this celebration as another expression of our gratitude to you."
Taline, still reeling, agreed and thanked the two of them for the gesture. Micah returned to his chair and Salas adjourned for a small recess.
As the princesses and Enclave higher-ups turned to strike up conversations or shuffle out of the war room, Adora saw Glimmer get up from her chair and wander over to Taline with a determined expression. Angella and Micah, also watching her, exchanged glances with one another, and Adora wondered why they suddenly looked so sad.
Catra somehow caught Adora's attention immediately after, although she wasn't sure how since she was still leaning against the far pillar, tail swishing low behind her. Then she noticed the look in Catra's eyes, at her with an unspoken question reflected there.
Can we talk?
Adora stood fast enough her chair made an obnoxious squeal as it scraped along the ground and she fled. She knew exactly what Catra wanted to talk about and had to avoid that confrontation at all costs. She made it past the doors and a half dozen steps down the hall when—
"Adora!"
She paused and fought with herself. If she just kept walking, she could pretend she hadn't heard. Maybe it was the fact she felt guilty about the first time she did that, back when Angella first returned, but Adora couldn't bring herself to move. Catra's footsteps hurried after her; she was running.
"Adora, wait. Can we just—"
Adora took off. Whatever had kept her rooted to the spot her in the first place suddenly spurred her forward, twice as panicked as she was moments earlier. She hated herself for it, but she ran away—ran away from someone whose friendship used to mean the world to her growing up, and still meant just as much, if not more so, in the present.
"Adora, please!"
Catra's voice bled with anguish. It echoed down the hall and chased her like a specter. Adora slammed her eyes shut and grit her teeth as her feet pounded the floor. She couldn't face her. She couldn't get distracted, not with so much on the line.
