Chapter 26: A Thief in the Night

Adora crept along the main hallway high up inside the Crystal Castle and tried to make as little noise as possible.

She had already climbed dozens of stories' worth of stairs, bypassing practically every room in the castle in lieu of the one place she knew to look first. If an intruder looking for First One's tech were to infiltrate her stronghold, the first place they'd be most likely to look was Light Hope's central command room near the top.

She rounded a corner and heard a voice echo down the hallway. Heart hammering in her chest, she dashed behind a pillar and pressed her back against it.

"—done getting through the firewall," said a female voice. "The security around the safe should be straightforward enough to expose it, but I'll need to get the castle's avatar booted up again if we're to open it."

"How close did Salas and the rest of them get to bringing it back online?" a second, male voice asked.

"Ehhh, it's debatable. That girl with the purple hair appendages had a pretty good whack at it. I don't think they'd have made the progress they already have without her, but it's still a way's off."

"Good thing I have you then."

Adora came out from behind the pillar and followed the voices to Light Hope's main sanctum, gripping her combat staff tight in one hand. Gear from the Enclave's work and Entrapta's experiments littered the area. A man, dressed in the robes and armor of the Bright Moon castle guard, stood with his back toward her and tapped away at Light Hope's command terminal in the center of the room. His helmet lay upright on a section of the curved console desk to his right, next to a bulky containment box and several more pieces of Enclave tech. A translucent hologram of a young woman with a pixie cut floated to his left like a specter.

"Funny seeing you in a Bright Moon guard uniform," Adora said, circling behind them. "It's Kalanthe, isn't it? I thought you were supposed to be part of the Enclave's security detail. Or was it supposed to be the science staff? That was you unloading Entrapta's deliveries in the Scorpion Kingdom, wasn't it?"

"Adora," Kalanthe said, continuing to work at the console without turning around. "I'm surprised to see you here. Thought you'd be off obsessively training, if not asleep, right now." He reached over to the containment box to his right, undid the clasps, and opened the lid.

"I got two weeks off," she said, keeping up the banter for as long as possible to gauge her plan of attack. "Thought I'd take a walk and clear my head." She hefted the staff in her arms, testing its weight and balance. "Who's your little floaty friend over there?"

The translucent girl with the pixie cut turned to her. Her face lit up and she pointed to herself as if to ask 'are you talking to me?' Then she blinked out of existence and appeared again the next instant, floating right in front of Adora.

"Hi! My name's Pip." She grinned wide and Adora stumbled back, gripping her staff with both hands. "I'd shake your hand but I can't actually physically do that. You understand, right?"

Adora looked her up and down. She could see clear through her, and saw Kalanthe pull a pair of glowing crystals out of the storage box and put them into a circular device up on the console dash. Adora glanced to the side and saw how this 'Pip' made herself corporeal: through the half a dozen holographic projectors littering the room, the ones Entrapta and the Enclave frequently used for various three-dimensional displays.

"I'm so glad those are there," Pip said, following Adora's trail of sight and positively beaming. She flew around the room, twirling and making loops, different projectors activating depending on where in the room she flew next. "Normally I'm not able to manifest like this, but with these projectors here I can go practically anywhere!"

"Can you focus please?" Kalanthe said, slotting a sixth crystal into the machine. He pressed a button and the cylinder holding the crystals rotated up and started to spin. Pip shot Adora an apologetic look before disappearing and reappearing right next to him.

"I can multitask you know," she said to him, pouting. "That's what I was designed to do, remember? The system has recognized the crystals, but I'm still working on getting everything else up and running. You'll know when everything is ready."

"Those guards you left outside behind that tree…" Adora said, inching toward them. "Did you kill them?"

"They aren't dead, they'll be fine," Kalanthe said, returning to the console. He still hadn't turned around. "I suggest you leave. What I'm doing here doesn't concern you. It'd be better for you if you didn't get involved."

Adora laughed and got closer. "You've been sneaking around Etheria for three years. I see you in Entrapta's lab, I see you at the Induction Ceremony, and now I see you in my own sanctuary castle? I have no idea what you're doing, but I think it concerns me very much. Turn around."

"Walk away, Adora," Kalanthe said. He still hadn't turned, but he stood eerily still, not touching the electronics or the computer, as if he were tensing for a fight. "We wouldn't want them finding you in the morning next to the guards outside."

"Out of the two of us, it's going to be you they find out there," Adora said. Then she paused, since that really didn't make any sense. Why would she leave him outside unconscious for hours until morning? "Or…or dragged! Out of the two of us, it's going to be you that's going to get dragged, by me, to the Enclave. To answer for...sneaking about and…"

She trailed off and groaned, shaking her head. Moment ruined.

Hoping to at least catch him off guard, she snapped forward with the staff, thrusting one end up toward the back of his head. Kalanthe leaned to the side, letting the staff zoom past his ear. He spun low and aimed an open palm at her solar plexus.

Adora turned her body to the side and caught him between her abdomen and upper arm. He followed through, stepping into her space to deliver another blow. She met him halfway and rammed her skull into his head before he could strike first.

Stars danced in her vision, but pushing aggressively had taken the initiative away from him. She had the upper hand. Kalanthe stumbled backward, dazed, and Adora pressed the advantage. She stabbed left, then right with the staff, first high at the shoulder before angling it down for a strike at the legs, her hair whipping about with her movements, reminding her she had forgotten to tie it up since leaving Bright Moon.

She let the staff do most of the work, putting the forward momentum from another thrust into a lateral swipe aimed for his chest. She did everything she could to keep the attacks coming as quickly and aggressively as she could. Salas said he was dangerous. She had to keep him off balance.

He surprised her, taking a blow to the side against the plate armor there. Adora thought she had gotten him for a moment, until she realized it was a calculated move on his part.

Kalanthe stepped forward the moment his armor stopped the staff, grabbed it in one hand, and tried to pull it out of her grasp.

Adora let herself be yanked forward, faking being thrown off-balance only to put her forward momentum into a punch she aimed squarely for his head. Her fist collided with his face. She both felt and heard his nose snap under the blow.

Kalanthe cried out, letting go of Adora's staff and stumbling backward holding his face.

"Ready to give up?" Adora said with a smirk, Adrenaline coursed through her. This felt good. She might not be able to draw upon She Ra still, but that didn't mean she couldn't fight. In fact, with the obsessive training she put herself through trying to get in touch with her powers again through sheer peak conditioning alone, she was an even better fighter as Adora than she'd ever been.

Kalanthe glared at her over the top of his hand which he held to his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose and set it. The sound of bone and cartilage sliding across each other sent a wet sound echoing around the room. Adora cringed, but Kalanthe didn't take his eyes off her. He didn't even flinch.

"I have to say," Pip said, floating in a relaxed posture nearby on her back. "I'm somewhat disappointed. Have you gotten slower?"

Kalanthe gave her a look but didn't respond. Turning his attention back to Adora, he pulled a set of pins under the shoulder plates of the palace guard armor and the robes fell to the floor. Then he undid the clasp at the neck and the rest of the ensemble went tumbling to the ground in a clatter. He stood there in nothing but a lightweight shirt and pants, and the pair of muddy boots he had on from the start.

He dashed forward, and the speed with which he did so was such a shock, Adora almost didn't get out of the way in time to avoid his next strike.

So fast, she thought, barely able to keep up with the flurry of blows. Way too fast.

Adora parried a blow and set her feet. Kalanthe had dashed in a small arc in front of her, probably gearing up for a kick, so she aimed a thrust with her staff where she expected him to be. Except he wasn't there, and her staff swished through the air to strike nothing. It shouldn't have been possible. Not even Catra was able to cancel out her inertia like that.

Her leg gave out from behind and her knee slammed to the ground. Kalanthe had struck her there and forced her to kneel, only to reappear once again before her, poised for another strike. Panicking, Adora swung at him with a fist.

Kalanthe plucked her hand out of the air like he caught a ball someone had thrown him and clapped something onto her wrist. She looked up in surprise and saw a manacle attached to her. She twisted her body and moved to strike at him with the staff in her other hand, but he blocked, kneed her in the stomach, kicked the staff out of her grip when she tried to suck in a breath of air, and shackled her other wrist to the first.

Adora yelped and tried to torque out of his hold, but Kalanthe held the small strip of chain linking the manacles together with an iron grip. She couldn't break free. She tried to stand again but he circled behind her and kicked the back of her leg once again to keep her down. He then yanked her arms over back and behind her head.

Adora glared up at him, and he stared back, down the bridge of his nose with an almost imperious gaze. He had stopped attacking her, for some reason choosing to hold her there in this trapped position rather than end the fight for good. Adora decided to take the opportunity to calm down, come up with a quick plan, and capitalize on it once she had lured him into a false sense of security.

Kalanthe stepped away from her, showing that he no longer held her arms back. Surprised and thrown entirely off guard, Adora tugged again and found she still couldn't pull her arms free. She twisted, still kneeling on the ground, and saw a person-sized spider robot directly behind her, gripping the chain linking her handcuffs in its mandibles. It trilled at her and Adora screamed and yanked away from it again with more urgency. The bot held fast, all eight red eyes swiveling to look at her as it refused to let her go. Then six more bots came out of the shadows and joined their brother, surrounding her. These were Entrapta's own security bots! Why were they going against her?

"That's more like it," Pip said, floating next to Kalanthe as he walked to the center of the room.

"Wouldn't have needed to do that if you had cracked the system faster," he said, rolling his shoulder as if it were stiff. "In fact, I wouldn't have even had to deal with her at all if you remembered to shut the door behind us in the first place."

"I'm sorry!" Pip said, throwing her hands up and sounding not sorry at all. "Old Eternian systems are so cumbersome, it just takes a while, okay? You have no idea how many threads I'm devoting to just waking up their administrator protocols right now. Forgetting to close a door here or there is a given, so cut me some slack."

"Fine, fine," he said, waving her off. He didn't even sound winded, just mildly inconvenienced, and that realization infuriated Adora to no end. "How are we coming along on that?"

"Hey!" Adora tried again to yank away from the spider with no luck. At least they weren't attacking her either. "What the hell? Let me out of here."

"You, zip it," Kalanthe said, turning and making a motion across his lips with a hand. "I told you to leave and you didn't. Now just sit there and please shut up."

Adora opened her mouth to protest and one of the spiders in front of her bayed, startling her she clicked her jaw shut instead and flinched.

"Still working on it, Boss," Pip said, when Kalanthe gave her another look. "Maybe another few minutes and I'll have it." He sighed in response and walked back over to Adora. The spider that bayed at Adora scurried out of the way when he approached.

"Why don't you go ahead and reach for She Ra?" he asked, kneeling in front of her so they were eye level with each other. "Should have no problem busting out of those cuffs and trashing these security bots if you can."

Adora scowled at him through the threads of her hair hanging in front of her face. She found it odd that her enemy was not only suggesting ways she could beat him, but also giving her time to actually try it. Part of her wanted to refuse and bust out on her own without She Ra's help purely out of spite, but she tried yanking the chains a third time and decided against it when they still didn't give. It was like she was tied to a concrete post. So, she reached for the power, not expecting to be able to do much of anything with it.

The power wasn't there.

Oh no.

Adora reached inside again, her heart racing, and confirmed her worst fear. Before, she could at least feel She Ra bubbling under the surface despite not being able to do anything with her. But now? When she reached for the power now, she felt nothing. The sound of despair that escaped on its own volition from her lips might have embarrassed her had she not been so swept up in her panic.

"Nothing, huh?" Kalanthe said, shooting her a bored look. "That's a shame. Well, since you aren't getting out of there and you aren't going to call on She Ra any time soon, will you do me a huge favor and just sit here quietly for a few minutes? Thanks."

Adora gaped at him, but was too shocked to respond. Where was She Ra? Why couldn't she feel her at all now? She could sense her just minutes ago while she was wandering through the woods. What happened?

"I'm in," Pip said.

Kalanthe stood and Light Hope materialized next to him.

"Administrator detected," she said. "Hello, Kalanthe."

"Are you kidding me right now?" Adora pulled so hard on the manacles that the spiders yanked her back fully onto her ass, all of them trilling a warning in unison this time.

"What did I just say about sitting quietly?" Kalanthe said.

How did he get Light Hope to work? Entrapta had worked so hard to make any sort of progress with this—it had taken months just to connect her bots to the system to act as security! And he just came along and reactivated her in the amount of time it took for them to fight? Not only that, why did Light Hope recognize him as an Administrator?

"Light Hope!" Adora said, yanking on the chain again. "It's me, Adora. You remember me, right? She Ra?"

Light Hope looked at her then turned a shade of red. "Intruder detected. Beginning emergency interception protocol."

The bugs trilled a third time, and it sounded even more menacing.

"It's okay, Hope," Kalanthe said, placing a hand on Adora's shoulder as he spoke. It took everything in her to not jerk away from him. "Adora is a guest. Please don't harm her." He turned and spoke to her. "I won't ask for your cooperation again. Say something else and I'll have the bots gag you." Two more spiders scurried about in front of her and rattled their abdomens at her as if to accentuate his point.

"I maaaaay have accidentally reset her memory banks when I turned her on," Pip said with a sheepish look.

"Your companion informs me that you wish to access the vault," Light Hope said, speaking once again to Kalanthe after returning to her usual shade of blue. Pip gave a thumbs up, floating off to the side.

"Yes please," Kalanthe said. "I know we just met and it's rude to talk business so suddenly, but this is urgent. You'll see I've already provided the keys you need."

"Yes. Six keys from six kingdoms," Light Hope said, nodding. "All is as it should be, although I imagine it was difficult to convince the rulers of those kingdoms to part with their keys. I do not see them here with you."

"No, it wasn't easy," he said, shooting a glare at Adora when she scoffed. "Three years and a lot of effort went into getting them for you. Some of those dig sites were challenging."

Light Hope nodded. "I can only imagine. I will open the vault for you."

Adora squirmed. "Don't! Light Hope, I don't know who this person is or what he's trying to do, but he's not an Administrator. He's trying—"

One of the spider bots turned around and shot webbing at her mouth. It hardened instantly, preventing Adora from speaking.

"I told you what would happen," Kalanthe said, looking down at her with tired eyes. "Why does no one ever listen?"

A portion of the flooring nearby opened up a pedestal emerged up out of it, turning like a screw as it rose. A large, partially cut amethyst the size of a person's fist lay atop the pedestal, magnificent veins of red and black twisting and curling through the purple. Kalanthe approached it, and the pedestal stopped rising when it reached roughly chest-height.

"The Eye of Shukra is the shining masterpiece of Eternian crystal-work," Light Hope said. "It contains the foundations of our mathematics and new theories of physics that have underpinned our efforts to shape Etheria into what it is today. The work of entire generations of scholars and engineers over millennia is now in the palm of your hand."

Adora tried to yell, but her words only came out as muffled cries. Kalanthe ignored her.

"Can you access this as is or do you need me to hook more tech up for you?" he asked Pip, shooting her a quick look before stooping down and inspecting the crystal from the side. Pip hovered next to him, staring wide-eyed at it.

"Should be fine as is," she said. "It's really pretty."

"It's likely the most advanced of its kind we've ever come across," he said, straightening, "so it will probably feel just as interesting as it looks when you go poking around in there. Have at it."

"Yesser, Boss sir," Pip said, slapping her hand to her head in a cartoonish salute and giggling. She floated closer and plunged both hands into the crystal. Her eyes glossed over, turning an opaque white. Several moments passed, before: "Oh wow. Kal, if only you could see what I see as I go through this thing….it's amazing."

"Don't get distracted," Kalanthe said. "You can tell me all about it later, but the sooner we finish this the better, for everyone."

Pip continued to work in silence, her face taking on all manner of expression—from surprise, to excitement, to wonder as her hands danced around the crystal. Suddenly, her brows knit together and she grunted.

"Uh, Kal?"

"What is it? Did you find it?"

"No I think…there's something." Pip's avatar flickered and stuttered.

"Are you okay?" Kal asked. "What's going on?"

"There's something he—..there's…ca—t…se—se—see—"

Pip disappeared and the lights in the control room shut off with a clang. Light Hope and the eyes of the bug robots continued to glow, the only source of illumination in the room.

"What the hell is going on?" Kalanthe said, his eyes casting about. "Pip? Where'd you go? I swear if this is another one of your practical jokes, I'm going to delete you. And I'm serious this time, I don't care how big you make your eyes this time when you apologize."

Emergency lights came on, bathing them in a sea of red hues. Light Hope turned a matching shade of crimson.

"Intruder alert!" she said.

"Hope, it's me, Administrator Kalanthe. Stand down."

"Intruder detected! Intruder detected!" Hope blared like a siren. "Activating defensive measures."

The spiderbot's eyes glowed brighter and they rattled their frames hard enough Adora thought they'd break.

"Shit," Kalanthe said. He grabbed Adora's staff and destroyed each of them in short order before they could react. Then he ripped the sticky material from her mouth and unlocked her shackles, taking the handcuffs back and stowing them in his shirt.

Countless more red eyes lit up around them, in the shadowy crevices of the ceiling and walls and corners of the room. Light Hope continued to scream.

"Run!" Kalanthe said to her, before grabbing the crystal from the pedestal and making a break for the far exit.

The eyes in the dark multiplied, and the raucous chorus of hundreds of spider bots rattling their abdomens in warning created a thunderous white noise that filled the room, like a furious hailstorm beating down on a tin roof. All of the eyes suddenly surged down the walls like a sea of death coming to inundate them.

Adora didn't think twice. She jumped to her feet and ran after him.