The KOTLC She-Ra AU we all deserve. I'd recommend against reading if you haven't seen She-Ra. I'd also recommend going and watching it if you haven't seen She-Ra.


Maybe the Neverseen isn't an ideal place for children to grow up, to become best friends and fall in love against all odds, but Maruca thinks she would find Biana in any circumstances, any world. Ideal or not. Maybe Vespera isn't a good person, maybe she's in fact cold and manipulative and evil, but she can't hurt Maruca too much, not so long as she has Biana by her side. Maybe if Maruca has Biana, and Biana has Maruca, everything will be okay.

"Hey, Biana," she says, a laugh in her voice. Biana's gaze softens, and she takes that opportunity to pin her to the ground.

Her face falters into shock, but then she grins and flips on top of her. "Maruca." Biana slams the butt of her weapon into her chest, and it buzzes. "I win." She extends a hand to help Maruca up, and she follows her to the locker room, describing the surprised look Biana had when she first tackled her, and laughing. Biana sticks her tongue out, and Maruca sticks hers out right back. Their bickering falls into easy banter as they pretend they aren't training for a war; they're just two teenagers who love one another.

The illusion shatters as Vespera walks in, half hidden by shadows and entirely hidden by her cloak. "Biana," she rasps. Her grip on Maruca's hand tightens. "I need to speak with you."

"Oooh, someone's in trouble," she teases, but stops upon seeing the fear in Biana's eyes.

Shakily, she lets go of her hand and takes a step away. "Okay, Vespera."

She follows her out the room.

Maruca hopes she's okay.

A little while later, Biana finds Maruca sitting out on the railing of a balcony, looking over the land surrounding the Neverseen. She taps her on the shoulder, and she spins around. The badge on her lapel catches Maruca's attention almost as soon as the pride written across her face. "Vespera appointed me to force captain!" Biana announces, and Maruca has to ignore the stupid, selfish part of herself that twinges and wishes, just once, Vespera would be proud of her too- she ignores it and attacks Biana with a hug.

"That's fantastic! We have to celebrate, Bi!"

Laughing, she tangles their fingers together. "How should we celebrate?"

Maruca looks around. "How about we steal a car?"

"Are you kidding?"

"I am absolutely not kidding."

Biana considers her for a moment. "You're insane."

"It's why you like me."

"You're right. Let's do it."

So they do it. They steal a car, and they fly through the Wanderling Woods. It's supposed to be off limits, but right now? Right now, Vespera can't control them. Brant can't control them either. For once in their lives, they aren't pawns of the Neverseen. They're just Biana and Maruca, wind sweeping their hair around, whooping as they soar through the air. Free. Maruca can't remember feeling this free in a long, long-

"Look out!" Biana screams, a moment before they slam into a tree.

Maruca groans, drawing it out as long as possible, and rolls over. "Hey? Biana? You okay?"

"The sword..." she mutters.

No. No. Nope. Nope, she has to be okay. Maruca shakes her shoulder. "Biana! Wake up! If you hurt your head, who's gonna be the smart one in this relationship? It sure won't be me."

Biana blinks, and groans too. "Maruca?"

"Oh, good. You're alive."

"Where's the sword?"

"I'll be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Biana squints at something Maruca can't see. After a long pause, she turns away and shakes her head. "It's probably nothing."

"It's probably nothing," Biana agrees, but she keeps looking behind her at the spot they fell as Maruca drives them home. They act like nothing happened, listening to the other Neverseen members congratulate Biana on her promotion, eating their disgusting ration bars, and whispering good night before they stretch out on their respective beds and go to sleep. The adventure of the day seemed to have achieved something in the way of exhausting Maruca, and she falls asleep quickly.

When she wakes up, Biana is gone.


Biana absolutely can not stop thinking about the sword. Maruca dismissed it as her imagination, and she's probably right. But probably leaves some room for maybe, and Biana can't stand the maybe. After tossing and turning and throwing off the covers one too many times, she scowls and climbs to her feet. After stealing a glance at Maruca, lazily draped across her mattress with her hair in her eyes, she looks away. It's stupid to feel guilty for leaving Maruca. She'll probably be back before she even wakes up.

It's dark, and cold, and strangely peaceful as Biana walks outside, trying to retrace the steps they took earlier. Stupid as it sounds, there seems to be something calling her name- and she has no other leads, so she follows it into the Wanderling Woods, ignoring the voice in her head explaining that this is a terrible idea. Bright light shines out from behind a tree, and Biana looks around it. There's a sword.

"I wasn't making it up!" she whispers, abandoning all caution as she runs.

A voice stops her in her tracks, blood running cold. "Stop right there, Neverseen scum!"

This is what you trained for, she reminds herself, and turns around. She recognizes that face, from the long list of enemies provided in their training. "Sophie? Of Havenfield?"

They step into view, and Biana's first thought is that they're shorter than expected. Shorter even than Maruca, who was five foot three if Biana felt generous. Blonde hair swept around their face, and they held up glowing hands. "And who might you be, Neverseen scum?"

"Soph. Maybe don't provoke them," says a boy standing next to Sophie, with warm brown skin and a bow slung over his shoulder.

They scowl at him. "Shut up, Fitz."

Biana takes advantage of their moment of distraction to yank the sword out of the ground and run for it. "Hey!" a voice calls after her. "Where do you think you're going?" A blast of pinkish light narrowly misses her face, instead slamming into a tree. Smoke rises from the spot it made impact. "Unless you want that to be your face, I suggest you stop running!"

The voice in my head was right. This was a terrible idea. That feeling intensifies when she sees a gorgodon ahead of her, running much too close to Biana for comfort. She's trapped. She's trapped and she knows it. Out of other options, she lifts up the sword.

Words flood her head: for the honor of the moonlark.

Unsure what it means, she repeats them.

And then, her body feels warm. No, that's not the right word. Odd. A sort of tingling sensation. She doesn't know how to describe it, but one moment, she's... Biana. The next, she's taller. More muscular. Her dark hair streams backwards like there's wind blowing, a cape- a cape- billowing behind her. And there are boots. And a crown. There's barely time to marvel at this wardrobe change before the gorgodon attacks, and she has to fight it off. When she's done, she turns to see Sophie and Fitz staring, both of their jaws dropped.

Fitz speaks first. "She-Ra?"

Biana blinks. "Who is She-Ra?"

"Legend has it she's a hero. Meant to save Eternalia and its kingdoms." Sophie sounds breathless. Their cheeks are red.

"Um. Maybe get someone else to do that."

Fitz shakes his head. "You're She-Ra."

"I'm in the Neverseen. Why would I want to help the kingdoms of Eternalia?"

"Maybe because the Neverseen is evil? And She-Ra is supposed to be good?"

"The Neverseen isn't evil," argues Biana. "I mean, it's not great, but- the kingdoms are the evil ones! We're just trying to help the citizens not be under your tyranny!" Everything Vespera taught spills out of her mouth, because there is no way her whole life with them has been a lie. Her life with Maruca can't have been a lie.

"If you're trying to help people, why are you attacking innocent towns!?"

Before Biana can protest, Sophie grabs her hand and starts dragging her through the woods. Fitz takes her other arm and sighs, muttering something about Sophie being an idiot. Finally, after it feels like they've all been near-running for hours, Sophie gestures furiously at the Neverseen squadron; Ruy's forcefields and Alvar shouting orders and Maruca driving a tank. The people fighting against them are just... people. Families. Children.

"This can't..."

Fitz gives her a strange look. "You really didn't know?"

She watches the townspeople clutch their children tighter, try to hide. Everyone there knows it's useless, Biana especially. She knows firsthand how good the Neverseen weapons are, but she never imagined they'd be used for... this. "I can't be a part of this," Biana says, mostly to herself. Then she repeats it, louder, for Fitz and Sophie. "I can't be a part of this."

"Ready to join the rebellion, She-Ra?" Sophie asks.

Yes, Biana wants to say, but then she looks back at Maruca. "I need to do one thing first." Fitz opens his mouth like he's about to say something, but Biana is running towards the tank before he can. "Maruca!"

"Biana?! Hey, Biana. You look... wow. You look... ridiculous. Is that a crown?"

Tightening her grip on the sword, she says "I can't be a part of the Neverseen anymore. The things they do are too awful. I'm leaving, Maruca. Will you come with me?"

She pales, tears up, then turns bright red, face red and contorted. "You're leaving me? Just like that? For someone you met, what, less than a day ago? I can't believe you, Biana, I thought I meant something to you. We had a life planned out, remember? And you're just gonna... you're just gonna leave?"

"You can come with me," she repeats. This isn't going well.

"I can't leave. This is... no matter how awful it is, this is my home. I can't leave." The anger evaporates, leaving only... some sort of broken expression that hurts to look at. "Please stay with me, Biana."

"I can't," she says, and she walks back to Sophie.

Biana is She-Ra now.

Biana is She-Ra, and Maruca is alone.