Chapter 42: Abomination
Adora hugged the wall as she hurried along the hangar terminal. She wasn't sneaking, not really, but she did her best to keep a low profile. A group of aliens, each a different race speaking a shared language she couldn't parse, walked by and she squeezed the backpack she carrying closer to her chest. Kal had told her to stay put in the hotel room and out of trouble. She had stolen the Eye of Shukra instead, and couldn't stop panicking.
…Bay 10…
…Bay 9….
…Bay 8…
The signposts for each hangar in the terminal passed her by at an agonizing pace, but she couldn't walk any faster without outright sprinting and thus drawing more attention. She'd be discovered any moment now, she just knew it. She had to hurry.
The signpost for bay 3 lay up ahead. That was where the Dzivia was docked, and she again stifled the urge to run toward it. Kal was nowhere to be seen. It was fine. And although she had no idea where he went after telling her he was just going 'out,' a large part of her was paranoid he'd actually anticipated her plan to take the Eye back to Etheria without his consent—was paranoid he'd been following her.
Someone screamed behind her and Adora jumped, spinning around and holding the bag like a shield to ward off whatever was about to attack her. No attack came. Instead, a haggard old man with matted, thinning grey hair and dirt smudging his sallow cheekbones was rocking back and forth, squatted against the nearby wall. His eyes darted every direction, scanning the terminal and landing on Adora for the briefest of moments before moving on as if they hadn't just locked eyes at all. He yelled again—yelled inane, incomprehensible things, and Adora noticed how everyone around them except her were pointedly ignoring him as they walked by.
Is that how I look right now? Adora thought, turning back around to make her way toward bay 3 again. She had the strongest urge to fix her hair into a braid again and she ignored it.
Of course, she didn't actually believe she resembled someone quite possibly going through substance withdrawals and likely on their second or possibly third week without a proper shower, but the fact she saw some small part of her paranoia reflected in that man's wasn't lost on her.
I have no reason to be this paranoid, she thought. None at all.
Kal would be mad if he caught her, sure, but Adora was mad at him. Mad he was willing to put the lives of trillions at risk, and for what? Because he wanted to think a friend—one he abandoned three years ago, mind you—was going to change their mind and come around after giving the clearest 'no' that could possibly be given?
Adora rolled her eyes, shook her head, and walked faster. She was doing the right thing. She had spent years trying to convince Catra to defect with her and join the Rebellion and that never worked. No, there was no reason to feel guilty. She was doing the right thing.
She paused, confused. How had her thoughts switched so automatically from Kal over to Catra? Catra had nothing to do with this…Adora had to get back to Etheria and take the Eye to Entrapta and Salas for study, that was all.
By the time she regained her bearings, she had reached her destination and took a hard left into bay 3 with another forceful shake of her head.
The bay's security control room was on her left—a modest two-story building looking out on the hangar below. Adora had watched Vasher and his team come out the ground floor entrance of that same control room when they landed and had almost gotten shot by security. Now, as Adora approached, she tried to keep as confident a look and stride as possible: whoever was inside watching over the ship would no doubt question why she had come back wanting to take it out without Kal there with her.
No one was inside.
Adora let out the breath she had been holding with an airy curse, pushed inside, and leaned against the door the moment she shut it behind her, trying slow her heartrate. What would cause an entire hangar—a sensitive location with supposedly ever-present security—to be abandoned? It wasn't until she stepped forward far enough to get a clear glimpse through the window she realized she wasn't alone after all: Ly was standing on the ground level alone, weight on one leg, arms folded, right in front of the Dzivia. All Adora could glean was that she seemed contemplative, like she was considering the ship as if it were some enigmatic sculpture at a gallery.
"I have to admit, I'm surprised to see you here," Ly said, once Adora left the security room and approached. She hadn't even turned to look at her. "My first guess was that I'd have maybe an hour here alone while you two argued about next steps, and my second was that I'd meet both of you here already prepping to leave if you hadn't argued and both agreed to get out quick. I hadn't expected only you to show."
"Uhh…I don't know what you said to security to get them to let you in," Adora said, shuffling her feet. Her nerves were killing her all over again, could she just catch a break already? "But no one is up there in the security room anymore. It's empty."
"Who do you think told them to get lost in the first place?" Ly asked, finally turning around to face her. Her eyes immediately went to the bag. She frowned and Adora hugged it even closer on instinct. Would Ly know what she was there to do? Probably, given she was not only a book-smart scientist but also had the street smarts necessary to survive on a place like Eden for years. Ly wouldn't be easy to dupe, either, and Adora already knew she was shit at lying to begin with.
She realized something else the moment after: that if push came to shove, she could probably take Ly in a fight. She hoped it wouldn't come to that, of course, but if it did she'd win. All the street smarts in the world and muscle from pole dancing routines wouldn't hold against the years of military training and conditioning Adora had put herself through.
Ly burst out laughing instead, and Adora furrowed her brow in even deeper confusion. That reaction was far, far down the list of what she had expected to receive.
"Oh…wow," Lysithea said, wiping tears from her eyes and falling into a fresh fit of laughter all over again. "Poor guy. He always seems gets involved with some of the most bullheaded, most stubborn people to ever live. First Evie, then me—probably the worst out of the bunch, really…or maybe Taline takes that one?—then Pip, and now you. She Ra of Etheria." She chuckled again and shook her head as if she were forcing disdain for a terrible joke. "I'm surprised he hasn't thrown himself off a bridge yet, to be perfectly honest."
"What are you talking about?" Adora asked. "What's so funny?" She still couldn't tell what Ly was planning. This whole exchange was throwing her off.
"Let me guess," Ly said, crossing her arms. "You thought it'd be for the best if you took the Eye back to the Enclave so they could work on it since I said no. Kal refused to leave until I had come around, and you decided to take matters into your own hands and try and take both the Eye and the ship back yourself, with or without him. Did I get that about right?"
"No!" Adora said, copying Ly and crossing her arms in front of her chest. Ly's read on the situation was so accurate it scared her. "…Maybe! What are you doing here then, huh?" She jutted her chin out for effect, but only succeeded in feeling more foolish, especially when Ly just laughed at her yet again.
"I was coming to reminisce for a bit before I went to look for Kal and apologize. I'm ashamed to admit it took me a while to calm down and think straight, but I have come around."
Adora blinked at her. "What?"
"I mean that you don't have to worry about taking the Eye back to Etheria anymore. I've changed my mind—I'll look at the Eye myself, I'll see what I can do about fixing Pip too." She paused a moment and then peered past Adora and up to the security building in the distance. "You really did come here without him, huh? He's not trailing behind you or anything?" She shrugged. "Color me impressed, Adora. You have some nerve to actually try and steal the Dzivia from him. Didn't think you'd have the stomach."
Somehow, securing Ly's tacit approval after being proven willing to hijack a starship didn't make Adora feel very proud of herself. This especially in light of the fact her assumptions about Ly never changing her mind and agreeing to help were also dead wrong.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" she asked.
Ly shrugged. "Vasher waited until I had calmed down a bit to remind me that Kal and Evie were—are—our friends. And although choosing to jump ship and leave would be safer for us in the short term, it wouldn't be right." She gave a rueful sigh and turned to run her hand along Dzivia's hull. "We'd all be either dead or in some sort of Imperial gulag in the Heartlands if it weren't for Kal and Evie, and Kal would already be long dead if it weren't for Evie and I. The Heart might still be a safer bet, but I'd never forgive myself if I just turned a blind eye when I could help. I'm not about to spit on Evie's grave and turn my back on Kal like that…it's just not something a friend would do." She turned back around to look at Adora and frowned. "Are you okay?"
Adora was too late to stop the tears. "I'm fine," she said, sniffling and rubbing her eyes. Somewhere along Ly's explanation, a tidal wave of emotion had crashed into her along with a sudden realization: she had turned her back on Catra, all those years ago.
Maybe it was the safer bet, pushing her aside to focus on She Ra and the Heart—it certainly seemed that way at the time. But this was the first time Adora realized it could be both—that it could have been simultaneously the right choice and also an ultimate betrayal of someone she cherished for most of her life…that these things weren't mutually exclusive.
She'd lost faith in Catra, standing there in Bright Moon's hallway years ago, telling her she didn't want to see her again. Adora felt guilty, and she realized then that she had never stopped feeling guilty. Not for three whole years.
She felt sick. Somewhere amidst the mire, she noticed Ly ducking down in front of her, trying to meet gazes.
"Adora?"
Another wave of emotion came and Adora spun away so she didn't have to be seen when the shame and guilt finally toppled her.
Hadn't Catra, for years, undermined her and fought as her enemy? Hadn't Catra, for years, got in the way of every attempt she and the Princess Alliance had made to defeat the Horde? Yes. Yes, she had. She had not only refused every olive branch Adora had extended, but threw those olive branches back in her face and hurt her deeply.
And yet the only thing Adora could fixate on was how she had turned Catra away just as she had her own change of heart. Adora had wanted to prove that people—that Catra—wouldn't change. She wanted to prove that Kal was wrong and that Ly wouldn't come around either. She wanted to prove it so badly that, in a fit of emotion and paranoia, she took the Eye and fully intended to steal a ship in order to do so. But she was wrong. Wrong about Ly, and wrong about Catra.
You are not the person I thought you were. That was what She Ra had said to her back on Prime's citadel, and maybe she had a point. Maybe Kal, who apparently had an unwavering trust in his friends when they had every right to forsake him, would have made a better She Ra.
Two firm hands grabbed her shoulders and spun her around.
"Hey, what's going on with you?" Ly asked, shaking her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Adora said again, taking deep, gasping breaths and forcing herself to look Ly in the face. "I just realized I owe someone an apology as well. And if you're embarrassed about it taking you an hour or two, guess how I feel after coming to the realization three years later."
"Pretty shitty, I'd imagine," Ly said. "Don't feel too bad. Kal left Vasher and I with our pants down on a gig, remember? That was three years ago, too, and I've been mad about it this whole time. Him and I will get through that too. Vasher and I saved his life and pulled him out of hell once, a long time ago."
"She saved my life too," Adora said. "My person. On more than one occasion, I think."
Ly clapped Adora on the shoulders, hard, and winked at her. "Then you have nothing to worry about. Takes more than some prolonged idiocy to kill a relationship like that, trust me." She flashed a grin so wide Adora couldn't help feeling lighter.
"Thank you. Really. I…I don't know what to say."
"Then don't say anything. Can we get out of here now, though? I want to find Kal and take a look at the Eye as fast as I can. The sooner the better. It still boggles my mind he really didn't follow you here, how did you slip away without—"
Ly's eyes again wandered past Adora and toward the security building as she spoke, only to narrow, her expression turning into a scowl as she cut off. Adora turned see what she was looking at and saw six people coming out of the building and heading straight toward them. None were dressed in a security uniform, though she did recognize one of them.
"I've seen him before," Adora said, pointing out the burliest member of the six, standing a full three heads taller than the rest. "Twice. He was in a clinic Kal and I went to when we first landed, and he was harassing me before your show until Vasher stepped in."
"You said you still can't use your powers, right?" Ly said, stepping forward and putting herself between them and her. "I'll take care of it."
Adora gawked at her in surprise. Even with her training, Adora didn't feel confident fighting six people, especially without She Ra. Hell, taking on the brute by himself didn'tseem feasible back before Ly's show. What the hell did she mean she'd take care of it? She was about to pull Ly back and suggest they just make a break for it when Ly called out to them.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice projecting loud enough to echo around the hangar.
They didn't answer, and instead fanned out in a broad semi-circle. They were flanking them, cutting off any avenue for escape. Adora reached for She Ra—she'd only answered the previous time because Adora was desperate, and the panic clawing at her anew at seeing all avenues for retreat blocked gave her a bewildering sense of hope as well: maybe She Ra would come now? The power certainly seemed more energetic, but would anything happen when she tried to grasp it?
"Whoever you are, I suggest you turn around and head back right where you came from," Ly said, tracking those at the farthest ends with her eyes. "We don't want trouble."
"I've come for the stones," the giant said. "The on that girl's arm and the one in her bag…I want them both. You will give them to me, and we will become one."
Adora grabbed her runestone bracer with her other hand on instinct. The giant's eyes darted from Ly to her when she did, and a chill ran down her spine. He could sense the Eye, too? All the way across the hangar? Adora had to hold the thing and concentrate to feel whatever was inside. This was way worse than their confrontation earlier, and it wasn't just because the extra bodies he brought along to intimidate them. The air itself seemed stale now.
"You're not very bright, are you?" Ly asked. "Big as you are, your guys would turn on you if they knew who I was. I'll give you one last chance to leave, and maybe the Vestamid won't hang you to from meat hooks to dry for fucking with me. Take one more step, though, and you won't have to worry about that—I'll drop all six of you before any of you can lay a finger on us."
Adora had no idea how she planned to do that, but she concentrated harder on her powers, straining and poised to plunge in and grasp at a moment's notice. The giant nodded once to the others and all five stepped forward without hesitation.
Ly stilled a moment, like how air and sound still moments before lightning strikes. Then she moved, fast enough Adora almost didn't see it out the corner of her eye. One moment, five were advancing with predatory looks in their eyes, then all five were on the ground with singed holes in their heads, eyes staring without seeing up at the hangar ceiling.
Ly cursed under her breath, holding a sidearm with smoke trailing out the tip of its barrel still trained on the giant. "Vasher's a fucking liar," she said, quietly enough Adora reasoned she must be talking to herself. "It doesn't matter how many nightmare scenarios you've already lived through, offing actual people is never easy."
Blood began to pool under the corpses and Adora winced. Did I really just think to myself that I could take her in a fight if push came to shove? she thought.
Kal had mentioned that only security and people of special interest to the Vestamid got to carry weapons. Vasher had a weapon, of course, but if the Vestamid had hoped to recruit Ly then it also made sense for them to let her as well. She just didn't put that train of thought together until five people were already dead on the floor.
"Come on," Lysithea said to the giant as she reloaded. "Try me, I dare you. I've put down enough thralls in the last war to fill this hangar, and I wasn't even a soldier. You might weigh five of me combined, but that won't help you win a fight if a bullet puts you on the floor first."
The giant, who hadn't taken his eyes off Ly the entire exchange, chose then to look over the bodies of his men. He sniffed in disdain, as if merely acknowledging them was beneath him, before looking Ly directly in the eye again.
"You are arrogant," he said. "You will learn."
He took a step forward and Ly didn't hesitate, firing off one bullet into each of his legs. He didn't stop, didn't even slow, and alarms started ringing in Adora's head when she realized. Even Lysithea took a step back in surprise before firing off another two rounds into his kneecaps.
"What the fuck," Ly said when that still didn't so much as make him flinch.
She pulled her aim up and put two into his chest, then a third between his eyes. Adora glanced away, and heard rather than see him hit the ground.
"Emptying two full clips wasn't exactly how I expected my night to go," Ly said, taking a slow, deep breath. "He was being so nonchalant about his entire team dying before his eyes I wanted to humble him a bit with those rounds in his legs, but the fucker didn't blink. I swear, the kinds of drugs seeping into the underworld nowadays are something else."
Adora looked at her, feeling somewhat shocked at how easygoing she sounded after killing six people, even if they were moments away from likely killing them instead. It wasn't until she saw the worry lines on Lysithea's face and the way her hands shook as she struggled to eject the gun's magazine slide that Adora realized she was likely just as shaken.
"Ly to Vasher, come in," she said into her PDA her wrist. "Vasher, you there? This is Ly, answer me." The worry lines on her face subsided and her features relaxed after a moment: Vasher had responded. "I'm fine, but maybe I should have let you come with me after all. Yes, I'm alright, I promise I just…some goons tried to mug us and I had to put them down." Another pause. "Yeah, you heard right, I did say 'us.' She's here with me. Let me guess, you're with him?"
Adora, feeling strangely like she was intruding on a private conversation by the tone of Ly's voice, busied herself by trying to find something of interest to look at in the hangar other than the bodies. Unfortunately, the moment she inevitably glanced at them, she saw something that made her blood freeze: blood hadn't pooled out from underneath the giant's corpse like they had for his men. Instead, it looked like his shadow had come alive, and it was reaching for each of the other corpses, slow as molasses.
"Ly?" Adora said, edging shuffling closer to her with an edge to her voice.
"You're on your own with that one, unfortunately," Ly said, still speaking to Vasher and not paying attention. She laughed through her nose. "Yeah, well, I'm not the one that made a bet with him that she'd try and steal his ship, now am I? Maybe if you lean into the fact he ditched us on a job he might feel bad enough not to collect—"
"Ly! Something's wrong!"
Ly looked up just as the giant's shadow engulfed the five other bodies and they started to move, picking themselves up of the ground with unnaturally bent and tangled limbs.
"Oh, fuck." Ly rammed a fresh clip into the empty magazine well of her gun. "Vasher, I need you. Now!"
The body of the giant started to reconstitute as well, although it was taking considerably longer. Ly unloaded two rapid rounds into each thrall as the shambled toward them, slowing each one when the bullets struck center mass. Vasher's voice blared through the PDA speaker at Ly's wrist, loud enough Adora could parse out the overblown syllables in between them being drowned out by the gunfire.
"I found the Abomination," she said, ejecting yet another magazine and pulling another from inside her jacket. "Or rather, it revealed itself to me. It's got five thralls as far as I can tell, and you have maybe three minutes max before it starts infecting the rest of the station and we all die." She released the slide and aimed. "I don't have Ignominite rounds so I can't stall it for long. You need to get here, now."
Vasher's voice kept coming through—it was clear they were on their way, but Adora got the sense he didn't want to cut the call until they arrived. The stale feeling in the air from earlier returned then, stronger than ever, and Vasher's voice cut off on its own. The line had gone dead, just as the giant reconstituted himself and rose to his feet.
"Like I said earlier," the giant said, his voice sounding different than before, reverberating like a heavy metal slab being dragged across a cobblestone road might—all croaky consonants and clipped vowels. "You are arrogant. You will learn."
The thralls continued to advance and Ly took aim at the nearest one, still a three dozen paces away. She emptied her entire ten round clip into one of its legs, hitting the same spot repeatedly, stripping cloth and skin and muscle and sinew away until the bone broke in half and the thrall fell to the floor in an awkward heap. It didn't stop, just crawled slower than its siblings toward them on one knee and with two hands.
The giant threw its head back and laughed. "You are at an even greater disadvantage than I'd thought, without ignominite bullets. How many more clips do you have, one? Two?"
Ly's fingers shook so hard she almost dropped the next magazine she had pulled. By the somber look on her face, Adora got the sense it was her last reload.
"I'll try and reach for She Ra," she said, whispering under her breath so only Ly could hear. "I'm sure I can—"
"No, don't do anything," Ly said, cutting her off with a pointed glare.
"But what if—"
"I said don't!" Ly sounded downright terrified. Pleading, almost. And that was enough to give Adora pause, even more so than seeing the dead rise. "Maybe you can call on her if you're desperate, and maybe you could actually put up a fight against that thing, but if you're wrong?" Ly shook her head. "Not yet. Our only is to buy time, and as much of it as possible. Wait to try until you can't anymore."
"Even a thrall missing its leg can rip your face from your head, choke the life from your body,' the Abomination said. "And I have five. You can do nothing, dead girl. Come and join with me."
The four thralls still remaining upright screeched an unholy chorus together and rushed toward them faster than they had any right to move. Adora actually took a step back in surprise, thinking surely they wouldn't have been able to sprint as fast as they were had they still been alive.
Ly stood like she were a boulder against a river current. She didn't move, didn't flinch, didn't blink.
"Dzivia, emergency override code Archanas, zero-five-one-five, The End, Lysithea." The ship hummed awake behind them. "Bogies, thirty-yard enclosure. Activate containment protocol. Execute!"
A turret lowered from the belly of the ship, anchored right next to where the loading ramp would have descended. It swiveled as it unfurled, then railed each of the thralls with consecutive, rapid-fire rounds. Adora clapped both hands to her ears and ducked, watching the thralls explode one after the other in isolated fountains of viscera.
"Don't need ignominite rounds if I have enough firepower to turn a body to dust!" Ly said, shouting at the Abomination loud enough Adora could hear through the ringing in her ears. "You're next, motherfucker!"
The turret, having exploded the last thrall, finally swiveled to the Abomination, who threw its arm forward like it was going for a punch. Its arm to morphed into a thick, black tendril that shot forward, straight toward them. Ly and Adora both dove out of the way and it shot past, piercing the turret clean through. Electricity arced and sparks flew.
The turret guns powered off and pointed down with a depressing whine before the Abomination ripped the whole thing off its installation with enough force the entire Dzivia shifted. It swung for Adora then, using the newly mangled turret like a makeshift flail.
Ly crashed into her from the side, sending both of them sprawling on the floor but letting the turret pass overhead. Before Adora could get her bearings or even take a breath, Ly had rolled off her and into a crouched position, emptying her final round into the Abomination still halfway across the hangar bay.
As disadvantaged as Ly seemed without the right ammunition, it still seemed to have an effect. The Abomination flung the turret away with an annoyed grunt, eliciting a crash when it smashed into the far wall and then another when it hit the ground. Then it disappeared, seemingly morphing into the same material its black tentacle was made of, reforming itself near-instantaneously at the other terminus of that limb—right between Ly and Adora.
Ly rounded on him and it smacked the gun out of her hand with a mighty backhand. Then it lunged, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her off the ground with one hand. Her feet kicked freely, trying and failing to find purchase as she slammed one fist against its hand and tried to pry its fingers apart with the other.
Adora reacted on instinct, rising to her feet with one push, leaving the bag with the Eye where it lay on the ground. The Sword of Protection was already coalescing in her hand. It finished forming mid-swing, and she cut clean through the Abomination's arm, leaving Ly free to land on her feet, gasping for air.
The Abomination roared in agony before quickly reforming its limb. It kicked Ly square in the chest before she had a chance to move, sending her careening backward, smacking into the side of the Dzivia with a sickening, tinny gong that reverberated out from its hull.
"No!"
Adora rounded on the Abomination again, furious anger thrumming through her like a wildfire. She still hadn't unleashed all of She Ra, she could just tell, but she was still powerful.
She and the Abomination sparred, it dodging strikes and stabs from her sword, parrying and riposting with alternating limbs that turned into sharpened black tendrils too. Adora found a pattern in its movements and exploited it, stabbing clean through its chest with a roar.
Their fighting ceased, and everything stilled. Adora thought she had won, until the Abomination threw its head back and cackled.
"The power!" it said. "I knew I could feel something coming from that little wristband of yours, girl, but to think it held enough to do that? I would have never guessed." It smiled, the width of its grin seeming to split its face in two. "I will very much enjoy taking it from you, and then making your corpse dance for the trouble."
Adora tried to pull the sword from its body, only for it to get sucked further inside. She tried again to no avail, and when she thought to let go and try commanding it to reform in her hand as she had done in the past, six new tendrils shot from the Abomination's back like a spider's legs and pierced her from behind.
The air grew thick enough Adora felt like it was drowning her. She opened her mouth to scream and all sounds around ceased except for that of her heartbeat, which now pounded in her ears louder than anything else she might have been able to hear moments earlier.
Her head hurt enough she thought it might explode and her vision swam. The Abomination, from what little she could clearly see of its features, seemed to morph and shift with the distortion. Hot coals felt like they were searing against her flesh at six points in her back, no doubt where the tendrils had pierced her to keep her rooted in place.
When the Abomination's features finished reforming into a new face, Adora recognized who it was immediately.
"Hey, Adora."
Catra stared back at her, each eye like a spotlight shining deep into Adora's psyche. Adora couldn't speak—she feared opening her mouth would only elicit screams. She did her best to project concepts like 'I'm sorry' and 'help' across, reasoning that if she just thought hard enough and wished fervently enough, Catra would understand.
"You said we'd always be together, Adora. You promised. Don't you remember?"
Adora tried to open her mouth and speak the words this time, but she couldn't.
"You won't be able to keep your promise if you let this be the end," Catra said. "Don't let this be the end, Adora. Don't let this be the end…"
Catra's voice trailed off and disappeared into the nothing, like a leaf carried away in the wind. The effect it had on Adora was exactly the opposite.
A fire sparked within her, an unceasing will to fight and claw her way to survival. This wouldn't be the end, and she repeated those words in her head over and over again like a ritual chant done on the eve of battle.
The world exploded back into clarity once more: the smell of burning flesh and death wafting all around, the taste of copper in her mouth, the sound of someone—hopefully Ly, calling her name in the distance. Catra was gone, the Abomination having returned and taken her place. Adora could see every pore and follicle of hair and wrinkle set into its sallow skin. Cracked veins of red creeped the length of each black tendril that held her in place, similarly pulsing like a heartbeat itself.
Fresh power coursed through Adora's veins, far more than before. Far more even than what she had been able to draw on in the Crystal Castle.
"Interesting," the Abomination said. The playfulness had left its voice. Now it seemed begrudgingly impressed, almost respectful. "That much power running through you, it can't just be the stone." It cocked its head to the side, studying her. "You'd be wasted as a thrall. Shame. But we all have to start somewhere, don't we?"
The coals of fire still at Adora's back grew hotter, and she screamed in agony. The clarity and strength she had been building, the foothold she had been slowly digging out for herself, disappeared as quickly as it had come. Whereas her vision swam and changed before, it disappeared entirely now—the Abomination had reimposed its will upon her tenfold and plunged her into darkness right there in the hangar, into a world devoid of any stimulus except for the sound of her heart and the pain ripping across her body.
There was no Catra this time to call out to her. No one and nothing came, except for one hazy image she strained to make out against the darkness. It was a face, androgynous and anonymous, like the features of thousands of beings had normalized into one supremely average, blank slate of a canvas.
… a…
It called to her, a disembodied voice in her mind that spoke without its lips moving, its eyes trained unceasingly on her without blinking.
… a…
… h…
… m…
Fear and remorse, dull and round and edgeless as everything else, whipped at her in the void with every syllable. She'd never get the chance to apologize to Catra for everything, never get the chance to reach out like she now realized she wanted to—like Glimmer had been urging her to for a while now. She realized with another muted blow of formless emotion that she'd never get to see Glimmer again either, or the other princesses. Or Micah, Bow…Swift Wind. She even miss Salas. Sadness and regret suffused her mindscape, and then even that too started to fade.
And then it didn't.
Someone off in the far distance yelled loud enough for it to register, and she had already half come back to the world by the time she noticed.
Something cold lay against her face, and she realized a moment after that it was actually her, laying against the cold floor of the hangar. The Abomination had released her and she had fallen limp to the ground. She no longer glowed, and the Sword of Protection somehow ejected itself from the Abomination's body and returned as a bracer on her arm.
With great effort, she craned her head up and saw why the she had been let go of in the first place.
The hangar was lit in small arms fire. Vasher and a team of twenty were fanned out in a similar formation to the goons from earlier, but in an obviously more controlled manner—they had drilled this.
They advanced steadily forward, firing automatic rifles rounds at the Abomination who had turned to face them with both arms up to shield its face. It yelled and grunted and shied away as the bullets tore endless holes into its body. Bullet wounds appeared and, although they were closing, they did so slowly with the same black substance that made up its tentacles.
"Ignominite…it burns…" the Abomination said, its voice now sounding like a chorus of many disembodied voices instead of one. "You are all so annoying."
More tendrils lanced forward, spearing nearly half the men who couldn't get out of the way fast enough. Those remaining turned immediately toward them and riddled them with holes so the Abomination couldn't take them as thralls, which only seemed to agitate it even further. It swept its extended tendrils across the length of the hangar, cutting six more men clean in half. Vasher and the rest had dropped prone to the ground a split second earlier to avoid death, before rolling again to their feet and continuing to flank.
Someone peeled off from the group, although with Adora couldn't clearly make out who since her vision was still going in and out of focus; all she could tell was this person wasn't part of Vasher's crew, since they weren't wearing the dark blue uniform like everyone else. They moved faster than all the others, flanking almost completely to the side within moments. They weren't firing either, only cradling their rifle with one hand as they ran.
The Abomination tracked them, sending a tendril screaming toward them. Their eyes glowed and they gestured with one free hand, mid sprint. The tendril veered off course as if slapped by an invisible hand.
It was Kal.
No sooner did Adora realize this than Kal changed course again, no longer flanking but now beelining straight for the Abomination.
It growled, turning its full attention to him when Vasher and his men stopped firing. Kal jumped and flew through the air, dodging a dozen new tendrils the Abomination shot forward to intercept him and redirecting a dozen more with invisible magic. He landed only a few feet away and dropped, using his momentum to slide along the hangar floor, ramming both his booted feet full force into the Abomination to come to a hard stop.
The Abomination grunted at the impact and dropped to both knees, its feet having been kicked out from under it. Only then did Adora realize why Kal hadn't been firing with the rest: he wasn't carrying a rifle, but a shotgun. One he already had aimed squarely at the Abomination's chest.
The Abomination's entire back exploded outward like two wings of black viscera when Kal pulled the trigger. It painted Adora. Howls of pain and wet, gurgling wretches echoed through the hangar, chasing the sound of the blast.
Already, the wound was beginning to stitch close, but Kal didn't give the Abomination time to recover. He tossed the shotgun aside and leaptto his feet before grabbing its head with both hands, holding like he were trying to squeeze a watermelon.
Then Kal exploded with light.
When Adora first saw him use magic back atop the Crystal Castle, she was under the impression he had runes imprinted directly on his skin that glowed when he cast. But now, being this close to him, she saw that they were not runes at all, but ley-lines—circuits of blue-hot magic that spread across the entire surface area of his body. She and the rest of the Princesses had this happen to them when the Heart of Etheria first activated. Adora hadn't even considered that a similar phenomenon could show up on someone else.
Kal's hair floated in whisps around his head, like he was submerged underwater. His eyes had turned pure white, like pinprick stars so powerful the physicality of his body was insufficient a vessel to contain it. And when he spoke, blue smoke accompanied the same light bursting from his mouth.
"Revealing yourself was the last mistake you shall ever make. The people of this station, of this galaxy, they shall have lifetimes and generations. I will not allow you to take it from them."
The Abomination screeched. Its tendrils went spastic, flailing without intention or reason before going rigid, bursting into flames, and finally dissolving into ash. It clapped its hands to Kal's own at either side of its head, like it was trying to pry them free, or merely hold its own head in agony.
"What are you!?" It screamed, ten thousand voices as one.
Kal leaned in and the light from his body grew bright enough to wash out everything else around. "You know who I am," he said. "You felt me at the clinic when we first crossed paths. I have come for you."
"But…but they spoke of you as one does a myth! The Shapers are all gone…Corynth is dead. You are dead!"
"You'll feel I'm very much alive."
The Abomnation gave one final scream before its whole body burst into flames, like its tendrils before. Adora reeled from the heat, squinting against the light to catch any glimpse of shape or form within. She saw the two of them blaze for several moments before the flames extinguished and the light dissipated.
Kal—or Corynth, as Adora suddenly realized that's who he really was—stood there, body tense, steam rising off him. In his hands, he held a charred, blackened skull missing its lower jaw. It had detached from its body which lay nearby, charred, also with steam rising from its calcified remains. The Abomination was dead.
Corynth dropped the skull then and it tumbled across the floor. It collapsed into dust just as Corynth stumbled forward, seeming to be on the verge of collapse himself. While the blinding light from earlier had subsided, his eyes still sparked, his hair still floated around him like a halo, and Adora noticed veins of black creeping like vines up his neck.
Vasher hurried over and rested a firm hand on his shoulder, those few others still alive bringing up the rear.
"Corynth?" Vasher said. "Hey, look at me."
The words didn't seem to register. It wasn't until Vasher gave him a slight shake that Corynth seemed to realize where he was.
"There you are," Vasher said when Corynth finally looked at him. The concern hadn't faded from his voice, though. "I need you to dissipate the magic now, okay? Can you do that for me?"
"V-Vasher?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I'm here. The magic, Corynth. Or Kal? Shit, this feels so much like it before that I completely forgot…"
"Vasher…I…I—"
"The magic, Kal, the magic. You need to stop or you're going to burn yourself straight through."
"Vasher, w-where's Evie? I have to…have…"
He went white the moment Evie's name was spoken. "Shit," he said, muttering under his breath before turning and bellowing over his shoulder: "Ly, I need you!"
Ly came running toward them from inside the Dzivia, flying down the now open ramp and across the hangar. Her face was battered and she clutched her ribs with one arm, but she was alive, to Adora's great relief.
"I've got it," Ly said, sliding to a stop in front of them. She had the ignominite cuffs Corynth had once used on Adora and held them up for him to see. "Hey bud, Evie's in her lab working, you know how she always is. I need you to put these on."
Corynth shook his head, seeming more animated than moments earlier despite the look in his eyes suggesting he was even further away than before. "Taline…coming. Have to…explain."
"Shhh, no." Ly shook her head, and Adora could see tears pricking the corners of her eyes. "Taline isn't coming, you already kicked her ass and she still didn't get it. Let me put these on, please."
His eyes drifted down to the manacles and confusion bloomed on his face. "I—"
"Corynth, you just ate an entire juvenile Abomination. I know you had to do it, but there was a reason I made you fucking promise me to never exert yourself like this again after Archanas and this is why. If you can't disengage on your own, I can help you but you have to meet me halfway. If I force it and you aren't here with us…" She shook her head and the tears finally fell from her eyes. "Please. Evie is gone. Everyone is gone, it's just us. I plunged through Taline's stupid fleet blockade and a toxic atmosphere to get you because I couldn't lose another person. I couldn't do it then and I still can't do it now. You left us alone for three fucking years already, don't make it permanent! Kal!"
It was the desperate hoarseness in her voice or the use of his other name—Adora wasn't sure which, but one or both seemed to ground him enough to understand. He nodded then slowly extended both hands forwards palm up.
Ly wasted no time in securing both manacles to his wrists. The moment she did so, the remaining magic flowing through him disappeared, his hair lay flat against his head again, and the black veins inching up his neck disappeared. The next moment, he collapsed unconscious against Vasher, who held him upright against one shoulder while he comforted Ly, who was shaking.
"I'll get him to the infirmary," Vasher said after a pause.
"No, I'll go," Ly said, swallowing and wiping her eyes before stepping out from his embrace. When Vasher gave her a strong loke, she said, "I was attacked too, and so was Adora. Pretty sure I have a few broken ribs at least, and Adora doesn't look like she can even stand without help. We need to make sure this gets cleaned up and that no one comes snooping around to see what happened. There's also a giant hole in the Dzivia that needs to get patched since the Abomination ripped a turret from its installation, and you're the only person either of us can trust to stay here and coordinate all of that right now."
Vasher hesitated and looked like he was about to argue, until Ly reached forward and laid a gentle hand on his knee.
"You got here in time," she said, her voice dipping back into the tone Adora had heard her speak to him with before the Abomination reanimated. "We're all alive. This didn't happen because you didn't come with me to this hangar, and nothing bad will happen because you don't come with me to the infirmary. I promise." She stood without waiting for an answer and turned to help hoist Adora to her feet. "Tell me if you need a break," she said to her. "Or if anything hurts more than it should."
Adora nodded, sweat already breaking out across her clammy skin. She didn't trust herself to speak. Someone brought the bag with the Eye inside and Ly took it with a grateful nod.
Vasher handed Corynth off to two of his men, who he ordered to follow Ly. Then he surveyed the rest of the hangar, looking over the charred Abomination's body, the bits and pieces of his men, the wrecked turret in the corner, and the countless pockets of blood and other bodily fluids smeared about.
Slowly, Ly stumped forward toward the security building in the distance and Adora kept pace, leaning as much of her weight as she dared against her for support. The two men carrying Corynth trailed them.
Logically, Adora knew the fact she had been traveling this whole time with Corynth of all people was a massive revelation, but after everything she had gone through, she didn't have her wits about her enough to feel the emotion that should have been there. All she knew was that she hoped to never face another Abomination again in her life and that she hoped to reach back out and apologize to Catra as soon as humanly possible.
With Ly finally agreeing to look at the Eye and troubleshoot Pip, maybe both those things could actually happen.
