Chapter 28: To Mute the Drums of Fate

"Aratoth!"

Glimmer pounded on the bulkhead door to the Battlemage Commander's private quarters. The HISV Omen-Kador was still an hour away from emerging out of hyperspace. She finally knew where they were going, but Glimmer needed to speak with him before they rendezvoused with the rest of the fleet in orbit above Scavria. She pounded harder on the door.

"Commander Aratoth, I know you can hear me. Please sir, I have to speak with you. Urgently!"

The door slid open and a harried man stood before her, only half changed into his service uniform and in the middle of brushing his teeth.

"Glimmer?" he said, words muffled by the toothbrush still in his mouth. He welcomed her inside before padding back to the bathroom only six paces away. "Why the sudden visit?" he asked, spitting into the sink. "I saw your messages. I'm sorry I didn't have time to see you earlier."

"I can't lead the squad you assigned me," Glimmer said, dancing on her toes and eschewing all decorum.

"I'm sorry?" Aratoth gave her a look that said he already didn't like where the conversation was going.

Glimmer held up the data chip Lonnie had given her several days earlier. "I can't take on this assignment, sir. I can't lead people. Not on a mission like this. Not yet." Glimmer had done her best to pretend like everything was fine after she and Lonnie spoke, but it had been obvious Lonnie sensed something was wrong, and Glimmer had spent the next few days avoiding her supposed new subordinates while she pushed as hard as possible for a meeting with the commander.

"I don't remember asking about your opinion on your assignments, soldier," Aratoth said, putting his toothbrush away and cleaning up. "These are good troops, three of them Vanguard. It's a solid team."

"Sir, I don't think you understand—"

"Are you referring to your panic attacks and night terrors?" Aratoth said. He finished washing up and dried his hands, then walked back out to the main room.

"Yes, sir." Glimmer scrambled out of the way when it was clear he was heading for the standing dresser directly behind her. Despite being of high enough rank that he had his own private quarters, space was still limited on the super carrier, and there were other commanders and people of importance to house too.

"We're fighting the Beast," he said, pulling open the dresser and revealing the rest of his uniform hanging neat inside, its black and silver motif looking stately as ever. "Everyone and their mothers experience varying levels of PTSD on and after these assignments. Hell, even just landing on an infected planet puts some people in the crazy wards. But last I checked, the general consensus from the doctors on your last three deployments is that you are cleared for service."

"That's true, but this is a different matter entirely, sir. Have you spoken with Consular Taline about the nature of my…attacks?"

"No," Aratoth said with a bored tone. "I wasn't under the impression I had to consult with the Seraph—who might I add is retired from active service despite her accomplishments—over actual medical doctors. Not when it comes to your ability to perform." He gave her a look over his shoulder. "You aren't suggesting you require her blessing to do your job, are you?"

"No sir!" Glimmer said, never having shaken her head 'no' so quickly before in her life. "I've just… never lead a squad before and I just think it's a bit premature to be—"

"If you read those command orders," he said, his eyes flicking to the data chip she still held, "and I know you have, then you'll clearly see that you are to be leading only a small team of twelve soldiers. Two Vanguard riflemen, your pilot, and nine regular infantry is hardly a tall order for your first command. This especially since you will be reporting directly under me and learning from my example leading my own men. Compared to Rinne, this should be no problem."

Glimmer flinched, not having expected him to bring up the last time she was put in charge of anything more important than a refugee processing station. Aratoth seemed not to notice. He began putting on the rest of his ensemble, threading his arms through sleeves and adjusting himself in the mirror on the inside of one of the wardrobe doors.

"Those marching orders were designed specifically with your lack of experience in mind," he said. "I'm sure you've noticed the Beast is spreading faster than originally projected—the fact it's cropped up on Scavria of all places is just more proof of that. Between that and those loonies from the Vestamid gumming up the political machine, arguing the futility of fighting their God now that it's returned, we need more talented people who can lead, and we need them fast. You are at the top of that list of talent to cultivate."

Glimmer balked. "Sir, I understand the situation, and believe me, I am the last person who wants to be on the sidelines and not pull her weight, but I wouldn't approach you like this if it weren't serious."

"Are you trying to tell me that we need to bench you, soldier?" Aratoth said, looking Glimmer in the eyes through the mirror while he adjusted the buttons on his service shirt. "Is that the extent of these nightmares?"

"No sir! I can still serve," Glimmer said, trying to keep her mind from racing. "I can still fight. Please, put me on my original assignment. Put me with the evac center so I can still help. If the forward stations get overwhelmed, I can still defend the refugees. I'm not a liability I just…I can't lead the team you've given me."

"If you are in good enough condition to fight and stable enough to function in the evac center, then you are perfectly fit and able to serve on the front lines, under me, with a team. Am I wrong?"

Glimmer was about to lose it. Every instinct in her body urged her to fight harder to prevent this, but her previous experience out in the field had already thoroughly broken any lofty and idealistic notions her younger self might have had about that approach working. If Aratoth still didn't get what the problem was, even after bringing both Rinne and her nightmares up, then Glimmer wasn't in a position to truly educate him. That would skirt dangerously close to revealing information about Etheria and the Emperor's invasion of it, which was still classified above top secret even amongst colleagues in the Enclave. It was part of the reason Scorpia and Entrapta could only send their messages to Catra through Glimmer once a month, with Salas' permission.

Oh, if only he had spoken to Taline! Even though she had warned her about this, Glimmer had no doubt in her mind she would have helped if she found out they wanted her in charge of something now. Hard as she might have been during Glimmer's apprenticeship, Taline understood the trauma seeing Narre and Miri die on the citadel…understood the trauma of all of Glimmer's friends nearly meeting the same fate. Understood how that trauma only compounded after Rinne…

"Speak candidly, Battlemage," Aratoth said.

"Sir, I can't explain why this is a bad idea, but I need to stress how strongly I believe that it is," she said, trying to convey the frantic feeling knocking about inside her head threatening to make her scream without breaking decorum. "I had hoped by coming here and quite literally banging on your door while you were getting dressed and making my case would have shown that. If I lead this squad, people will die."

Aratoth narrowed his eyes at her through the mirror and finished putting on the rest of his uniform. "You are an exemplary soldier and an incredibly promising Battlemage," he said, shutting the dresser and turning to look at her properly. "People assigning you Taline's moniker wasn't just a fluke. You would have likely been given a different nickname, one that wasn't so lofty, should the public have judged you unfit to carry her legacy. Which is why I hope you understand what I'm trying to get across when I say that the Enclave and especially the High Council have exceptionally high expectations from you. Turning to them and saying I cannot put you in command of a squad like they ordered because you have nightmares is simply not an option."

Glimmer feared the conversation had shut and he had overridden her protests with finality. Then, when she thought on the strange way he emphasized the "because you have nightmares" and leaned into the nuance with his posture, it hit her. He wasn't overriding her concerns, he was pointing her to an exit. An option where neither of them would lose face when inevitably forced to explain why they decided to supersede the High Councils orders. Her mind kicked into high gear. He had understood what she was trying to tell him between the lines; she just needed to find words that he could officially accept and use.

"Sir, I was about three hours into my first good night's rest in almost a year when I was pulled on this emergency assignment," Glimmer said, remembering with no small amount of frustration the disappointment she had felt at having to leave Catra and her vacation behind. "This is my fourth deployment without rest. I am mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. And while I agree with the High Council's assessment that we sorely need a strong pipeline of Battlemages with command experience, I wish to make the case that putting an inexperienced person running on fumes in charge of a squad for the very first time—in the middle of the largest Beast engagement in almost twelve years, by the way—is a recipe for disaster. Not to mention the fact that three of my assigned subordinates are personal friends I haven't seen in years. The emotional connection on top of everything else will only serve to complicate an already handicapped attempt to expose me to a first command."

Aratoth regarded her with cool eyes as he adjusted his sleeve cuffs. Glimmer wanted to go up to him, shake him, and yell at him to take her off the command. The thought of leading Lonnie and Kyle and Rogelio would sooner immobilize her in anxiety and fear than prove useful on the battlefield.

"For the record, I disagree with your sentiment," he said. "Everyone has issues and we all need to pull our weight, especially in a war like this." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "But I also trust that you wouldn't be coming to me making excuses if it weren't serious. Lucky for us, despite being such a heavily populated planet, the Beast on Scavria is confined only to the capital city of Tir. Our forces there are already making steady progress pushing the creature back, and we may not end up needing the number of personnel we originally forecasted."

"That's fantastic news," Glimmer said, bouncing again on her toes with a hopeful expression.

Aratoth studied her. "Out of respect for you and for your mentor, I will agree to change your assignment for this deployment. You will be relegated back to the evacuation center and resume normal duties. Your first command will have to wait until your next deployment, after you've taken your already well-earned shore leave. But make no mistake—should things turn south and more leaders are needed, I will reverse my decision and expect to see you on the front lines with your squad. Is that clear?"

"Crystal clear, sir. Thank you."

Aratoth nodded. "We exit hyperspace in an hour and make landfall in two. I want you on the first lander planet-side. You are dismissed."

Glimmer snapped off a sharp salute, barely registering the lackadaisical one Aratoth returned, before she beat a hasty retreat. She hurried down the hall, passing staffers and enlisted corpsmen walking and chatting as they headed from duty post to the mess hall, or from whatever recreation time they had come off of to their duty posts. A shift change was coming soon, and the hallways were more crowded than usual.

She pushed past a pair of ensigns whispering to each other. One of them called out to her in anger when she bumped him. She ignored him and trudged on without looking back, then ignored how his buddy shushed him and started whispering into his ear about who the pink-haired girl that just jostled him really was. Whispers of 'Archanas' and 'Rinne' followed her. She rounded a corner and found the door to her own room, punching her access code into the console next to the door and rushing inside when it slid open.

As Battlemage, Glimmer was afforded her own room as well, albeit an even smaller one than the one Commander Aratoth enjoyed. Heart pounding, head spinning, and thoughts racing, Glimmer headed straight to the bathroom attached to her room. She threw the door to the tiny shower open, barely large enough for her, stepped in, and yanked the 'cold' lever all the way to max power.

Cold showers were the worst. In fact, Glimmer had never touched the cold lever in her life, often waiting until she couldn't see her hand in front of her face from the steam building in the room before letting the water touch her. This time, Glimmer barely registered the cold when it soaked her, uniform and all.

She breathed deep, quick breaths, nearly hyperventilating in her attempt to override her anxiety attack and just ground herself in reality. Finally, she sunk to the ground on her knees and pulled at her hair. And screamed. She screamed over and over and over again, trying to drown out the images of Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio surrounding her, dead on the field of battle because of her failure to lead.

When the Omen-Kador emerged from hyperspace an hour later and the landers in the hangar were loading up the first batch of people to take down, no one asked Glimmer to her face why she was sopping wet standing there in line with the rest of them. They did, however, whisper among themselves and shoot her concerned glances.

She ignored them all, and instead counted water droplets as they fell from her mussed hair to the floor. A puddle of shower water grew ever larger at her booted feet with each drip.

She didn't come out of her stupor until stepping foot on Scavria's surface—when the scent of death in the air gave her more important things to worry about.


Catra hummed and practically skipped along the pathways of the Atrium on her way to meet Diallo. She had asked Hilda where the System Governor had gone when she reached the embassy's lobby, and she had sent him a message on her behalf asking to meet.

She took her time, however, because as she passed little shops and department stores and delicatessens, Catra couldn't help but marvel at the items on display. What used to make her roll her eyes at the luxury of it all now made her want to stop and appreciate them in a new light, all on account of her being in a better mood than she had ever been in since her and Adora had their first secret sleepover as kids.

I still saved money to spend here with Sparkles, she thought as she looked through the window of a toy store, at the diorama of small dolls and trains on display. If it's just me buying something celebratory, it won't be nearly as expensive as a two-week extravaganza with her.

She remembered passing by a tiny specialty butcher not too long ago, thought about how good it smelled. She could have something from there, right? Maybe an expensive cut of jerky or something she could snack on. Boxes of leftovers still sat in Glimmer's fridge, and Catra had been dying to get to them, but the thought of buying something expensive and savory as a present to herself was enticing all the same.

She shook her head. Diallo first, she thought. Give him the drive, buy jerky. In that order, Catra, damn you.

She had no issues finding their meeting spot on the Atrium, primarily because it was in a place she had already been to recently. Diallo sat alone on a bench, and adjusted the spectacles on his face. A great cherry blossom stood nearby, shading the statue of Corynth Catra had first mulled over a few days ago.

"Governor Diallo," Catra said, striding up to him and extending her hand for a confident handshake. "It's me again. Catra. From Taline's office."

"Yes, I remember," Diallo said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose before reaching for her hand. He took it and, despite obviously putting energy behind the handshake, his grip was weak. "I got your message from the d-directory assistant and figured I'd w-wait for you. I hope you don't m-mind meeting here on the ground floor. They've set me up with a temporary office up on the Executive l-level, but the food d-down on the Atrium has always b-been more agreeable with my stomach."

"I don't mind at all," Catra said. She couldn't fathom how someone like Diallo had worked with Taline during the height of the Beast wars, and then ended up in a relatively high-up position like a System Governorship. He was too…frail looking? Frail sounding? She couldn't quite place it, but he gave impression he'd crumble to dust under the slightest bit of stress or pressure. Did his stutter make it hard for him to work with his staffers?

Then Cara considered maybe the fact he lived through the previous war, had helped catalogue Evelyn's Beast research for Taline, and thus was likely exposed to a large amount of the Beast during his life might have contributed to his frailty and she felt bad.

"I hope they don't work you too hard while you're visiting," she said, clearing her throat to hide her embarrassment.

"Not as much p-paperwork compared to being among my constituents, many more skull-numbing meetings that feel like they g-go nowhere," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "What is it you wanted to see m-me for, officer?"

Catra pulled the portable drive out of her pocket and held it out to him. "Taline asked that I return this to you. She apologized, but said she was firm in her decision to return it, and thought it best not to get involved." Catra admitted to herself she had embellished the message to make it land softer. Diallo didn't look like the kind of person whose buttons she'd enjoy pushing. It'd probably feel more cruel than entertaining, if she were honest.

Diallo raised both eyebrows but made no move to collect the drive. "Interesting," he said. He looked from the drive to Catra and seemed to study her.

"Uh…Governor Diallo? Your drive?" She held it a little closer for him, just in case reaching for it from the bench was uncomfortable.

"What were her w-words exactly when she asked you to bring it to me?"

"She said to let you decide what to do with it and that she was done chasing ghosts. Said she had the people on the station to look after and…uhm…." Catra trailed off, unsure if she was allowed to mention the fact Taline had taken her or not.

"V-very interesting," Diallo said.

"What's interesting?" Catra asked, bristling. She wished he'd just take the damn thing already.

"You can k-keep the drive, Catra," Diallo said, shaking his head. "I believe I understand what Taline is trying to s-say. You are going to help me instead of her."

"What? No. No, no, no, that's not at all what she said."

"You w-would understand why the Consul cannot just speak freely about how to handle that device if you knew w-what it contained," he said. "Taline would not send a s-simple errand girl to return it to me, and she certainly w-wouldn't have gotten a member of station security of all people involved unless it w-was specifically to help me in her stead."

"No, that doesn't sound right," Catra said, although she suddenly felt uncertain given how confidently Diallo spoke. How could someone both stutter their words and sound so sure of themselves? "Why would she do that?"

"Because she's taken you on, h-hasn't she? Taline sponsored you into the Empire, and n-now she's taken you on as a Sentinel."

"I…No, she hasn't," Catra said, although she didn't sound as full of conviction as she had hoped. If no one was supposed to find out about this yet, then she was in deep shit. "Look, sir, I'm just here to give back the drive. Please take it."

Diallo grinned wider and Catra whined in frustration. She recognized the look of someone who just hit upon an epiphany.

"T-tell me," Diallo said, suddenly sitting forward with an excitement in his voice. "What exactly did she tell you was to happen n-next after she took you on? Did she talk to you about training, or perhaps a f-first assignment?"

Catra wilted and spoke in a small voice, once again feeling exposed. "She said she'd get a training plan together after she got the paperwork done. She's got a weird sense of humor, and it felt oddly like she was implying this was my 'first assignment,' returning your property. And I'm one hundred percent serious when I say she didn't actually tell me that, and I'm pretty sure it would have been a joke even if she were implying it."

Diallo sat back and slapped his knee in a laugh. "W-wonderful! Absolutely wonderful. Let me guess, she mentioned n-none of the training would likely h-happen until after Moriarty's campaign speech to the station?"

Catra nodded but didn't say anything. She had gone from feeling on top of the world to feeling suddenly entirely out of the loop. She hated it. Diallo seemed to sense her discomfort and instead of getting even more excited, he calmed and patted a space next to the bench. Catra eyed it warily for a moment, then stalked over and lowered herself down onto the bench next to him.

"I take back everything I s-said back in her office," Diallo said, keeping his eyes forward instead of looking at her as he spoke. "With her new responsibilities and the Emperor keeping a c-closer eye on her than before, she doesn't have the freedom to m-move about that she used to."

"Diallo, sir, I'm not sure what you are talking about right now."

"Just Diallo, p-please," he said. "Sir isn't n-necessary. Tell me, Catra, were you ever acquainted with Taline's previous Sentinels? Narre and Miri?"

"Very briefly," Catra said, nodding. "I never spoke or interacted with them, but I saw them once."

Diallo nodded. "Very sad, what h-happened to them. Taline was vague on the details but I understood enough—it's unfortunately just p-part of the job sometimes. Working with a Battlemage is not without its risks. I'm assuming she t-told you what the actual duty of a Sentinel is?"

Catra nodded. "Protect her, both from outside threats and from being corrupted. I'm to kill her before she becomes an Abomination if the Beast were to ever get to her." Diallo didn't respond when she finished, as if he were waiting for her to continue. "W-was there more? She didn't mention any more."

"No, she likely wouldn't have. A Sentinel is not j-just a bodyguard, Catra. I'm assuming she told you how they're handpicked by the Battlemages that f-field them?"

"How do you know about that?" Catra asked, her tail swishing and brushing the floor in agitation. "I couldn't find that out no matter where I looked." She decided to leave Glimmer's name out of it for the time being.

Diallo chuckled. "It's an open secret, r-really. Not written down anywhere but f-freely shared if you only ask a Battlemage or a Sentinel you are on personal terms with. In the past, I worked extensively b-both with Narre and Miri when Taline herself couldn't meet with me. She also frequently sent one of them off to represent her if she were busy and unable to go herself."

"They act in her stead for her?" Catra asked.

"Sometimes," Diallo said, nodding. "Why do you think a Sentinel traditionally shares such a tight b-bond with their Battlemages before being chosen? If a competent b-bodyguard was all they needed, hiring mercenaries or partnering with the Imperial Vanguard was always an option. A Sentinel is given far more trust and r-responsibility in the affairs of their Battlemage than any common bodyguard."

Catra's pride swelled. Even after her heart to heart with Taline, she still woefully underestimated what it meant to inherit the title she just recently earned. Thinking back on it, she felt incredibly foolish for having thought she could just apply and get in.

"That d-drive in your hand," Diallo said, still not look at her. "It c-contains what I believe to be a phantom algorithm. Are you familiar with the term?"

Catra shook her head.

"They're encryption algorithms that are uncrackable by any deciphering s-software we currently possess. They're named so because, to this d-day, no one has come across one. This, despite many purporting to have created one or f-found one of their own when intercepting encrypted messages. Hence the 'phantom' in the n-name."

Catra laughed. "Uncrackable, huh? I'd like to see how it stands up to my precinct's deciphering AI. Nothing we've fed it has ever been able to stump it."

"I guarantee you t-this will be the first to do so. Phantom algorithms are like f-folk tales or urban legends to cryptologists, many of whom just indulge in the fantasy because it p-passes the time and is novel. But to people like Taline and m-myself, we know they exist. And up until Taline got s-stationed here permanently, we'd both hunted obsessively to find one, l-leaping into action at the merest sign one had appeared."

"How are you so certain they exist?"

"There's one already hiding in plain sight, p-protecting us all."

Catra furrowed her brow. "Are you talking about…the Barrier?"

Diallo grinned. "That exactly," he said. "You s-see, despite the Barrier itself being different from an encryption, it is still powered by an algorithm. An imperfect one to be sure, but one that that no current s-system has been able to crack. No one knows how it w-works."

"And you think what's on this drive is encrypted using a similar thing to the Barrier?"

"Not a s-similar thing, the exact same one. There is only one 'phantom algorithm', and if the tests I've ran it through m-mean anything, then yes—a variant of the Barrier n-node algorithm is indeed keeping the contents of that disk under h-heavy encrypted lock and key."

"Why are the both of you so obsessed if someone's figured out that algorithm in the first place? Isn't that a good thing? Doesn't that mean someone could improve it and maybe shore up the imperfections letting the Beast slip through?"

"Th-think about it like this," Diallo said. "The greatest scientific minds in the galaxy have been working nonstop f-for over eight years since the Daiamid started up the Barrier's, trying to understand h-how it works, and they have made n-no progress on it. Its design is completely alien in n-nature, and the processing power needed to execute it, l-let alone analyze it, requires literally hundreds of Dyson spheres s-spread across the galaxy. There's only one plausible answer to wh-who can employ this technology."

Catra tilted her head in thought. "Who?"

"Corynth."

Catra shook her head. "Corynth is dead. Long dead." She glanced over to the statue of him looming over them.

"That's what everyone th-thinks," Diallo said. "That's what Taline wants to th-think too. But if this indeed is the Barrier algorithm, then it's indisputable proof he is s-still alive. He is the only one who would have access to it. Think about it—all the scientists that worked on the project with the Daiamid are either in th-the emperor's employ or dead, and all the Shapers are long gone. No one except Corynth, were he to still be alive, would have ever h-had direct access to the algorithm when it was first developed."

He took his glasses off and cleaned them with a cloth he pulled out from a pocket. Catra waited for him to finish, not sure what to say. When he finally slotted the frames back onto his face, he said, "you tell me what m-makes more sense—that some nobody scientist discovered the answer and is using it to h-help his underworld buddies conceal their messages, or that Corynth actually survived the last battle and he's using it to hide his secret dealings. Why do you think his mask and not the remains of his charred body was f-found on Archanas?"

Catra bit her lip in thought. What Diallo said made sense, but she still didn't want to buy into it so readily. It felt foolish.

"If that w-wasn't enough to get the gears of conspiracy turning in your head," Diallo said, then you should know I intercepted th-this from a messenger meant to deliver the drive personally. It's supposed to go to Moriarty, and it comes f-from the Vestamid."

Catra finally looked at Diallo when he mentioned the two names, and he was looking directly back at her.

"The Vestamid? You can't be serious." Their name had dropped back in Taline's office, but she hadn't thought twice about it at the time. "If this tripped any alarms, they'd have the entire Imperial Armada shoved down their throats in an audit. They're too big a threat to Prime and the Empire to risk drawing this kind of attention."

"Another way to look at it is that's exactly the narrative the emperor w-wants everyone to see," Diallo said. "No one's mind n-needs to wander into colorful territory regarding their relationship if everyone thinks the empire's largest s-supplier of ignominite is chafing the emperor's sense of absolute control."

"You mean they're just pretending to be capitalist religious zealots to hide the fact they're secretly state-sponsored?"

Diallo shrugged. "Again, w-we're talking about phantom algorithms and conspiracies. I know just as much as the average Imperial citizen, despite being p-placed pretty high in the political hierarchy myself."

"And Moriarty?"

"He's been cutting f-funding from dozens of systems for months now with explanations that barely h-hold water. On top of that, he helped f-fast track approval for one of the Vestamid's energy storage p-projects about two years ago. Now they're sending him encrypted messages on a ph-physical drive during a heavily contested election year? I have no idea what the correlation is, but if we were to just p-prove without a doubt that a correlation does indeed exist, Taline would blow this th-thing wide open."

"And this is where I come in?" Catra asked, starting to grow uncomfortable with where the conversation was heading.

"Th-this is where you come in," Diallo said, nodding. "The computer in Moriarty's office should be primed to unlock th-the encoded messages, since they're addressed to him in the first place. I n-need you to sneak into that office and pull those m-messages so we can see what the Vestamid is having him do. Then I need you to get a copy of the pattern used to decrypt the message from the same computer. With that pattern, we should be able to m-map the algorithm used t-to scramble the message in the first place, and determine if it is r-really is based off the Barrier algorithm or not."

Catra balked. "I…I don't know about that," she said. "That really doesn't seem like something Taline would ask me to do."

"It's not," Diallo said. "Just like it's not s-something she would have outright asked Narre or Miri to do either, had they s-still been alive. But remember, you are able to act as an extra p-pair of arms and legs and eyes and ears to do and see and go where sh-she cannot. It's plausible deniability, Catra. Should you get caught, she can tell the truth and s-say she never ordered you to do anything."

That set Catra on edge. "I…I'm still not sure. Let me think about it? Maybe I'll reach out to her and see if that's really what she intended. I don't like the idea of going behind her back to do something like this, especially against such a powerful political elite like Moriarty. I don't want to be the thing that makes an enemy out of him for her."

Diallo nodded. "We h-have time, since Moriarty's speech isn't for a few days. But you're unlikely to get ahold of h-her with everything she has to do to get ready. And even if you were to get a chance to speak with her, she w-would deny everything. For an espionage job like this, she's not going to outright sp-spell it out for you."

He sighed. "Listen, Catra. You and I just met and this is the f-first real conversation we've had, but I've worked with Taline long enough n-now that I know she wouldn't have chosen you if you weren't smart and couldn't read between the lines. She's relying on you to l-look into this, just like I'm relying on you f-for your help. You want to impress her and do a good job on your first assignment, r-right?"

Catra frowned and nodded, slowly.

"Good. Keep the drive, th-think about what I've said. Try and get ahold of her if you want, but I'm telling you, nothing will come of it. Destroy the drive or agree to h-help me, but come find me and tell me your decision before the day of Moriarty's s-speech. Our window to act on th-this will close by then." With that, Diallo pushed off the bench and hobbled over to the far elevator, bidding her a cheery goodbye and saying he needed to return to his work.

Catra's stomach churned. She looked up again at the statue of Corynth looming nearby.

"You're not still alive, are you?" she asked, murmuring as if speaking to herself. "You're dead. You have to be dead."

She sat on that bench and contemplated for a long while. Her good mood never did return. In the end, she made her way back to the leftovers in Glimmer's fridge, all thought of stopping by a shop to buy a gift for herself long forgotten.

End of Part Two


AN:

Aaaand part 2 is done! For those of you who don't want to read a massive deep dive into my thoughts with this author's note, let me just say: thank you as always for reading, I hope you enjoyed part 2, and part 3 begins next Thursdy at it's usual time. There is still no hiatus.

If you're interested in me rambling about the story for a bit, then keep reading.

I'd say at this point the story has hit it's main stride. Yes, part 1 was long and cool, but much of that was to set up the pieces to tell the real story I had built up when first writing World Eater. In fact, the working title for my first draft of part 1 was "Prologue" lol. All 16 chapters and ~70k words of it.

From the start I hammered out a story about the heros coping with their traumas as best they could and making choices that don't work out for them the way the hoped.

Adora is enslaved to her sense of duty-its why she left Catra in the first episode of season 1, and its why she pushed her away near the end of part 1. She struggled to find her identity as She Ra and figure out her powers during the canon show. She doesn't even see "Adora" as seperate from "She Ra" until Mara gives her a talk in Season 5. In this story? She goes three years after sacrificing her relationship with Catra and still doesn't make any progress with her powers, and the weight on her shoulders is more dire than just Horde Prime.

Glimmer dealt with issues being her own person and escaping from under the thumb of her mom and her responsibilities during the canon show. In World Eater, she "ran away" in a sense to train with Taline after seeing real actual death before her eyes, and she blames herself for those deaths because she froze when confronted with an actual bodily threat (Horde Prime). Sure, she's come a long way learning to be powerful again, but completely breaks down and runs in the opposite direction when given the opportunity to lead. Lonnie very clearly idolizes her-you can see that from their one interaction in the last Glimmer chapter. And Glimmer, right now, is someone who begged her superior not to take her on so she could work behind the front lines in the evacuation center. Any guesses on how well that's going to play out for their relationship?

And finally Catra. She's been treated the kindest so far, with Taline, a strong and "good" authority figure going out of her way to nurture her. But even after removing herself from Etheria and spending three years living her new life, Catra isn't able to break away from her low self worth, complete lack of self esteem, and her need to seek validation from her authority figures. That's why her and Taline had such a tumultuous relationship. That's why she stares at those statues of Corynth, who is like a galaxy-wide idol and authority figure. And now, she's caught between a rock and a hard place. Right after breaking through to her and giving her an important position Catra is finally able to accept, she runs into Diallo, yet another authority figure with a close and long-term relationship to Taline, and needs to decide between trusting what he says and acting secretively to help him, or rejecting him and risking being wrong about her role as a Sentinel.

Part 3 is the longest of the 5 parts, because it progresses each of the three main characters' conflicts to the next phase, so to speak. This, and it interweaves with the overall conflict that sits atop each of the three character arcs: The Beast, the Daiamid Shapers, and now the Vestamid, all of which are concepts I've hinted at throughout the three POV character chapters in part 2 :) The Vestamid in particular are interesting. Except for the final scene with Diallo where they are talked about a little deeper, each reference to the Vestamid in previous chapters read more as throwaway lines. If you're like me and go hunting for details, you can probalby piece together a solid picture of who the heck they are and what role they play in the background if you go back and look at each time they're mentioned.

If you've read this whole thing to the end then I commend you. Thanks so much for following along as always, and I will see you next week!