Chapter 16: An Unexpected Gift

Glimmer anticipated the morning so much she hadn't slept at all through the previous night. After the festivities ended and she had finished speaking to everyone else, she and her parents had stayed up, enjoying the last moments they would have together for the foreseeable future. Even Bow came. This time, with no tension in his voice or body, Glimmer had been able to pretend everything between them was as it had once been. At least for the night.

When it finally came time for her to meet Taline in the courtyard, she slung the small bag of possessions she had packed over her shoulder and opened the door to her room to find an unexpected visitor standing there in the hallway, poised to knock.

"Hey," Adora said. Uncertainty flashed across her face; they had fought again after Catra nearly planted Glimmer into the floor in her haste to get away at the feast, and it was clear Adora wasn't sure she'd be welcome.

"Adora?" Glimmer adjusted the pack to sit more comfortably on her shoulder and glanced back at Bow and her parents still in the room. Her mom flashed her an encouraging smile, while Bow was too engrossed in conversation with her dad to have noticed them. "I'm surprised you came to say goodbye after what happened last night."

"I know, and I'm really sorry," Adora said. "You're right, I was afraid and overwhelmed hearing that you were leaving, and instead of being a good friend I got confrontational and hypocritical. But I'm sorry. Really, really sorry, and I really don't want us to leave off on a bad note like that. Your friendship means a lot to me too. I don't want to lose it."

Glimmer smiled and opened her arms wide for a hug. "Thank you for saying that."

Adora shuffled into her arms and they pulled each other into a strong embrace. Truth be told, Glimmer was just as relieved as Adora looked. She had worried about their relationship all night after that second fight—she didn't want to lose the friendship either.

"So where exactly is she taking you?" Adora asked, keeping pace with Glimmer after she beckoned to everyone still in her room and their group of five began trekking down the hall.

"Phoenix Station. It's apparently an administrative hub somewhere in one of the more quiet, mid-rim Empire systems." Glimmer heard Bow and her parents chatting quietly from behind as they followed. She felt grateful that they were conscientious enough to give her and Adora some time to catch up alone. "It's supposed to take a few days to get there, even with the FTL drives on the Constable. Space is a lot bigger than I'd ever imagined."

"Well, I hope you get some sleep on the trip," Adora said. "Seriously, you look ready to keel over any minute now."

"You're one to talk," Glimmer said, laughing. "You look half dead. Did you not sleep last night either?"

"I didn't. I was too worried about what happened between us to sleep, and just as I was starting to drift off, Salas pulled me into a very early meeting with Entrapta and some of the engineering team to talk about She Ra and the sword." Adora made a comically pained expression. "They would have gone longer but I cut it short so I could come see you off."

Glimmer rolled her eyes with a smirk on her face and Adora, watching her reaction, laughed. Then, realizing that they had arrived at the castle's front entrance, both of them stopped and the mood between them dampened.

"Hey," Glimmer said turning and taking Adora's hands into her own and running her thumb along her calloused knuckles. "Promise me you won't put too much pressure on yourself? I know your powers haven't come back to you yet, but you can't keep pushing yourself like this. Nonstop training sessions, meetings booked every moment you aren't conditioning yourself… it's not healthy. Promise me you'll cut yourself some slack."

Adora looked anywhere but her. "Would you believe me if I said I will?"

"No, but I want you to tell me you're going to at least try. I know you have an important part to play in this, but don't go placing the entire survival of the galaxy on your shoulders, okay? The Heart will fail all the same if it's you being unable to activate it or Frosta being unable to control her runestone as precisely as possible or Entrapta and the Enclave being unable to stabilize the planet's energy signature. And if you kill yourself from stress then there's nothing any of us can do from there. Promise me."

Adora sighed and finally looked at her. "I'll do my best, I promise."

Glimmer eyed her, not entirely convinced, when Bow came up from behind.

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her," he said, smirking at Adora when she glared at him.

"We all will," her dad said, earning a nod from her mom.

Satisfied, Glimmer let Adora's hands drop and turned to glance out the open door to the castle grounds. The transport that was supposed to ferry them up to the Constable idled no more than a hundred steps away.

"Catra is supposed to meet us," Glimmer said. "Either she's going to come along or decide to stay here, but she's supposed to at least talk to Taline in person. Do you want to come talk to her too?"

Adora's eyes lingered on the waiting transport. Glimmer expected to see anguish or at least surprise appear on her face learning Catra might be leaving too, but the look of conflict that sprung up suggested she had already anticipated this happening and was just struggling with how to respond to it.

Finally, Adora took a step back, hugging herself, still with an uncertain look on her face. "I'm not sure I should. After what I said last night…"

"You were emotional," Glimmer said. "I also kind of forced you into it, which I don't regret by the way, but if things came out wrong in the moment, now might be your last chance to iron things out before it's too late."

Adora bit her lip and thought. "No, I can't do that," she said after a moment, shaking her head. "You were right, I can't keep running away from my problems and, at some point, I have to draw a line in the sand and stand behind it. It didn't come out the way I wanted last night, but I meant everything that I said. I'm not going to be able to stick to anything at all if I tell her to give me space only to go back on that less than a day later."

Glimmer thought Adora was making a mistake. She had caught the end of their conversation and had a sinking feeling the both of them got on separate pages despite having had the same conversation. But Adora had a point, and if she really wanted to focus on the Heart and her powers, who was Glimmer to force her to talk to Catra again? The first time had already been a disaster.

"Okay," Glimmer said, after deciding it would only further damage her already fragile and recently made-up relationship with Adora to push the issue. "If you think that's what's best, then I understand."

Adora nodded and everyone pulled together for a group hug.

"Be safe out there," Adora said. "And as soon as you get some way to contact us, you'd better do it. I'm not going to feel better about anything until I hear that you're doing okay."

Glimmer grunted her affirmation into Adora's shoulder and let her shirt soak up her tears.


Catra scrambled.

Shit shit shit I'm late.

She had woken up when the rays of the morning sun, peeking through the branches of the tree she had fallen asleep under, stabbed her in the eyes. One moment she had laid there boneless, Taline's jacket draped over the front of her like a blanket, and the next she was a ball of speed and adrenaline, sprinting to the castle, hoping she hadn't slept through Taline's departure. It wasn't until she saw the transport still idling on the castle grounds that she allowed herself to catch her breath.

She moved quickly then, heading back to her room and shoving the few belongings she had into a sack. She almost knocked on Scorpia's and Entrapta's doors as she passed their rooms in the castle's guest quarter, but she chickened out and used the lack of time as an excuse to justify heading straight back to the transport. Taline, wearing a long coat that reached halfway down her booted calves, was halfway up the ramp into the belly of the craft as Catra rounded the corner out the side exit back onto the grounds.

"I've decided to come," Catra said, handing Taline back her jacket after taking extra time to fold it as neatly as she could. "Phoenix Station sounds interesting. I'm curious to see what's out there."

"There's still about ten minutes before we leave," Taline said. "Take your time and say your goodbyes, the pilots still need to get through their pre-flight checklist."

Well crap, Catra thought, looking around the grounds anxiously. She had made such a rush to get to the transport it felt like some of the wind had been taken out of her sails having to just wait.

She looked back toward the castle entrance and saw Sparkles, flanked by Arrow Boy and her parents, making their way toward them on foot. They all waved to her and Catra gave an awkward wave back. A thought hit her, and she looked around for Adora, fearing she'd tag along. Catra didn't want to put up with the awkwardness trying to figure out how to act in front of her after what happened the previous night. Thankfully, Adora didn't show, and Catra settled into a half-alert sense of security.

"Sooo," Glimmer said, sidling up to Catra with Bow while her parents went to talk with Taline. "What did you decide?"

"I'm coming," Catra said. "It just makes sense, I guess. And Etheria isn't gone forever. I think being away for a bit might be good for me. I have to say though, I'm surprised you're leaving too."

"Yeah, part of me is still surprised myself, believe it or not. I'll tell you why on the way."

"Watch out for her while you two are out there, okay?" Bow said, looking Catra in the eyes. He seemed to refused to look in Glimmer's direction.

"I will," Catra said, not wanting to chance ruining the moment with some ill-timed deflection. Glimmer had told her Bow's reaction to her apology, that they were not okay, and she was certain Glimmer was just as surprised hearing him say those words as Catra was surprised at hearing them asked of her.

Movement out the corner of her eye drew her attention, and Catra turned. Two people she didn't at all expect to see were running toward her from the castle and waving their hands as if to flag down her attention.

"Scorpia? Entrapta?" she said, taking halting steps around Bow and toward them, not entirely sure she was seeing things correctly.

"Catra!" they both yelled at the same time.

Scorpia waved with even more energy when she realized Catra had seen them, while Entrapta was holding some sort of wrapped box in her hands. Catra glanced behind her to question Bow and Glimmer with a look, but they had both turned and headed back toward the King and Queen, conversing with Taline by the ramp.

"What are you guys doing here?" Catra asked, turning back to the two of them as they pulled up in front of her.

"What do you mean?" Scorpia asked, panting. "We heard you might be leaving, so of course we weren't going to let you leave without at least seeing you off."

"I can't believe you were going to go and not say goodbye!" Entrapta said, her hair flying about. "After everything we've been through."

Catra winced. "Actually, that's uh…well part of the reason why I wasn't sure if I shoul—"

Entrapta's hair suddenly covered her mouth and cut her off. "Oh hush," she said, a mad scientist's grin plastered on her face. "You and I already had our talk and I've forgiven you. I'm just giving you a hard time, unless you have something else you wanted to talk about?" Catra quickly shook her head and Entrapta took her hair away before pushing the box she was holding into Catra's hands. "Here. Scorpia and I wanted to give this to you."

Catra looked down and stared at the box. A present?

She undid the latch and opened it at Scorpia's and Entrapta's excited prodding. Inside, propped up on the velvet-pillowed interior, sat what looked like a large screen attached to red straps.

"It's a PDA!" Entrapta said, practically bouncing on her heels as she took the contraption out of the box. "Hold out your left arm. Wait, you're left-handed if I remember correctly, right? Give me the right one instead. It has to go on your non-dominant arm."

Catra, feeling the effects of years growing up with Shadow Weaver trying to train her out of using her dominant hand, stowed the box under her left arm and reluctantly raised her right.

"I've been working on this baby essentially since I finished helping bring Angella back," Entrapta said, strapping the device to her. "The Enclave has some craaaaazy tech, and their wrist PDAs were just too cool for me to not try and replicate. I couldn't think of anything to give you as a thank you for bringing you-know-who back, and then it hit me. I'll give you my prototype!"

"You don't have to do that," Catra said, feeling awkward about Entrapta's gratitude she didn't think she deserved. Scorpia only watched with glee on her face and her claws pressed to her cheeks.

"I want to," Entrapta said. "Actually, I gave you the second prototype. Mine is the first, just to test out a lot of the features." Catra caught a glimpse of a second, far chunkier looking device under Entrapta's own sleeve.

"I made the straps!" Scorpia said. "Genuine leather, with my own two claws." She clicked them in front of her face and grinned.

"There," Entrapta said, pulling the last buckle tight and turning Catra's limb to expose the screen on the underside of her forearm. She tapped at it and a streamlined interface popped up on the LCD. "I didn't have time to put in the holographic display so it's not as cutting edge as I'd like it to be, but functionally everything is there."

She started flitting through the icons while Catra looked on, overwhelmed both by her friends' enthusiasm and from the fact she had friends like this at all after everything she had done.

"You've got your basic tools," Entrapta said. "Calculator, scheduler, rudimentary speech recognition, picture and video capabilities. Oh! I like this one."

She tapped one of the icons and a light at the front end of the device turned on.

"It's a flashlight! But not just any flashlight." A control widget had popped up when she selected the program and Entrapta slid it all the way to its most powerful setting. Despite it being morning and the daylight being in full effect, Catra had to shield her eyes as the light shooting from her wrist nearly blinded her.

"It's suuuuuper powerful," Entrapta said. "Be careful not to burn anyone's eyes out with it."

"This is…wow this is a lot," Catra said after Entrapta turned off the light.

"Not really," Entrapta said. "I just included the basics and rooted it as much as possible on the Enclave's software infrastructure. I'm not sure what kind of tech and systems they have out there since I haven't ever been to space, but it will theoretically talk to their computers. You should be able to upgrade it and add more software as you need."

"Oh, oh, oh and there are little videos from us!" Scorpia came over and pressed one of the icons, bringing up a recorded video of her and Entrapta sitting in their guest room in the castle. Lamps lit the room and Catra could see stars in the sky out the window behind them. They must have recorded it the previous night.

"Hi Catra!" the both of them said, the excitement in their voices coming through the PDA's speakers. "So, we're kind of recording a lot of this one last minute since apparently you may be lea—"

Scorpia quickly cut off the recording and ran a claw along the back of her head with a sheepish expression. "May want to save that and watch it when you're alone," she said. "I got a little teared up in it, so…"

Catra just stared at the device strapped to her arm, then startled when Entrapta suddenly asked in a small voice if she didn't like it.

"No! I mean…I mean, yes! It's amazing, it's just…wow. You did all this for me?"

Entrapta and Scorpia both nodded at the same time.

"I love it," Catra said, the biggest grin spreading across her face.

Scorpia pulled the both of them into a fierce bear hug, and Catra felt the air squeeze out of her as her legs dangled. Then, giving in to the happiness filling her to near bursting, she wrapped her arms around the both of them before her brain had the chance to put the brakes on."

"Super Pal Trio," Scorpia said, setting the both of them on the ground. "Never forget."

Entrapta and Catra both nodded with big smiles on their faces. "Super Pal Trio," they both said.

The transport's engines surged behind them, kicking up a gust of wind that buffeted the trees and threatened to bowl them all over.

"All aboard!" Taline said, standing tall at the threshold between the ramp and the interior, her long coat flapping furiously against the swell of the jet engines. "Always wanted to say that."

Catra pulled her friends into one last quick hug, waved to Bow and Micah and Angella as Glimmer said her final goodbyes to them, and boarded. Glimmer followed soon after, and the both of them turned and stood on the inside precipice of the vessel, waving to their respective groups of friends as the ramp pulled up.

"I'm with the pilots in the cockpit," Taline said after the ramp fully closed and sealed them in. "You and Glimmer just strap into one of the seats and enjoy the view."

Row after row of austere seats lined the inside of the craft. Catra picked a forward-facing one near a bulkhead window and strapped herself into the full body harness. Glimmer, rubbing her eyes with her sleeve and looking like she was trying as hard as she could not to cry, threw herself into the backward facing chair directly across from her.

The g-forces picked up as the craft lifted off and Catra looked out the window. Everyone was still waving and continued to do so as the ground fell further and further away from them. Catra waved back even though she was certain they couldn't see her, and she pushed away the mounting wave of bittersweet emotions growing inside. She glanced toward the castle's main entrance and swore she saw a red jacket framing a patch of blonde hair, standing half hidden behind the open main entrance. But, when she squinted to take a closer look, they had already pushed high enough into the air she couldn't make out any details.

Clouds blanketed the window for a moment and Catra leaned back into the chair to relax, feeling the vibrations of the ship as it shot through the atmosphere. Her jaw nearly dropped when they came out of the cloud covering and she saw Etheria's curve and the sunrise in the distance. Stars twinkled above the horizon, growing clearer as the sky grew blacker.

"We're really leaving, aren't we?" Catra asked, staring up into space with awe.

She glanced over at Glimmer when she didn't hear a response. Glimmer had her face smooshed against her own window, fast asleep, snoring softly with a bit of drool threatening to spool loose from her mouth. Catra cracked a smile, unable to keep from laughing. Glimmer looked terrible with the bags hanging under her eyes. It was good she was finally getting some sleep.

Unable to calm her own giddiness, Catra turned to the PDA strapped to her arm. She marveled at the gift and thought back on her friends as she flicked through the menus and got accustomed to the device. She finally figured out how to work the camera, and snapped a picture of Glimmer conked out in the chair.

The craft burned through the atmosphere and into space. It made slow, steady progress toward the cruiser idling in orbit, waiting to take them someplace new.

End of Part One