Attention! Important message in the End Notes. Please Read. With that said, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is produced by Dreamworks Animation Television, and both She-Ra and He-Man are owned by Mattel. Blah. Blah. Blah. Enjoy.
Chapter 16: New Families
(Back in Castle Grayskull)
The very instant Prince Adam returned to his body, he fell to his knees in exhaustion. He wasn't quite sure how long they'd all been on that vision quest, but it must've been at least a few hours because his legs felt like jelly.
Putting his own pain aside for the moment, the young Prince took the time to check on the state of his compatriots. As expected, Orko seemed to be doing just fine, at least physically. His species' natural ability to float made it difficult for him to get tired from just standing around. Come to think of it, Adam wasn't sure if the little imp even had legs to stand on.
Anyway, the Trollan Mage was currently tending to Swift Wind, who despite being a horse and therefore accustomed to sleeping while standing up was somehow exhausted from their ordeal.
Battle Cat, of course, was showing no signs of fatigue. He was much too proud and stoic for such things. Which Adam supposed was part of his charm.
But regardless, what really drew his attention was the sight of his sister sobbing on the floor a few feet away. While they had only known each other for about a day and only known about their blood relation for a few hours, Adam still felt a strong obligation to try and comfort her. So, after a minute or so of slowly inching his way towards her, he attempted to do just that.
"Adora… are… are you okay?" he asked tentatively, despite already knowing the answer.
The young Heroine looked up to face her brother; her expression difficult to read. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but somehow she didn't seem sad or angry. Just empty.
"I… I've never told anyone this before, but when I was little, I always used to imagine what my parents were like." She admitted softly; her voice barely above a whisper. "Even before I knew the truth about the Horde, I always wondered what kind of life I would've had if I'd stayed with them instead of being found by Shadow Weaver."
Suddenly, her mask of stoicism began to falter, and her true sorrow started leaking through.
"When I got older, I convinced myself that my parents must've left me behind because they didn't want me, so I could dedicate myself fully to the Horde." She said just before her façade shattered completely. "But now I know… sniff… I had a family that loved me… and that makes it so much worse!"
Acting on instincts he didn't know he had, Adam embraced his sister and began to stroke her ponytail soothingly.
"Not had. Still have." He said to her in the gentlest tone he could muster. "You've got me now. And Mother and Father are at the Palace. Waiting for us to come home."
"But… But what if I'm not what they expected me to be? What if they don't like me?"
"They're going to love you. And even if they don't, you've got me. I love you, Adora. And I always will. You're like… you're like a part of me I didn't even know was missing."
Upon hearing this, Adora returned the hug and said,
"I love you too, my brother."
A short distance away, Orko and Swift Wind were tearing up and holding each other as well; clearly this tender moment was proving too much for them. By way of contrast, Battle Cat just yawned and laid down on his stomach; which was to be expected since subjects that didn't involve food or bloodshed tended to bore him.
But I digress.
The two narrators, who had also resumed their physical forms but showed no signs of fatigue, hung back and allowed this scene to play out for several more minutes. But when it was clear that things had more or less reached their logical conclusion, Shadow Weaver finally spoke up.
"While I hate to interrupt such a touching reunion, I fear we must get back on topic." The dark witch said in as polite a tone as she could manage. "There was a deeper meaning to this little history lesson. I trust you have both deduced it?"
"I… I think I have." Adora replied, gently breaking off the hug and wiping the tears from her eyes. "When Mara sent Etheria into Despondos, she didn't just mess things up on Eternia, she threw the whole universe out of balance. And allowed this Horde Prime guy to takeover."
"So, logically, the only way to fix things is to bring Etheria back." Adam chimed in; apparently sharing his sister's thought process.
"That is… partially correct." The Sorceress answered. "Just brining Etheria back from Despondos won't fix everything. But it is a good enough goal to begin with. You two can figure the rest out as you go."
"Okay… so… how exactly do we bring Etheria back?" Adam asked, suspecting that he wasn't going to like the answer.
The two narrators just looked at each other awkwardly before they answered in unison.
"We're not exactly sure."
Upon hearing this, the twins' faces deadpanned.
"Well… this is a really complex situation. You can't expect to just resolve everything by finding some kind of long lost McGuffin or believing in the power of friendship. This is going to take time and research and meditation." The Sorceress admitted as her dark-skinned cheeks began to burn bright red. "And… admittedly, I wasn't expecting you two to meet until you were much older, so you've kind of caught me off-guard."
"sigh. Great. So we have an impossible problem to solve and no idea where to start." The young Prince griped.
"This is just my opinion, but a good place to start might be returning to the Palace and introducing your sister to the rest of her family." Shadow Weaver suggested. "You've had enough adventures for one week. So why not take a rest and enjoy yourselves? Let us worry about the fate of the universe for a bit."
Adam thought about this. He thought about it long and hard. After everything he'd been through over the last two days and everything he'd learned over the last few hours, home never sounded so sweet. He knew his Mother and Father would be overjoyed to see him; even more so to see Adora. However, this was something she needed to decide for herself.
"Well… what do you think?" he said tentatively to his sister. "Do you wanna… come back home with me?"
The young Heroine said nothing at first; apparently needing a minute to mull this over. But before long, a small smile spread across her lips and she answered.
"Yes."
XXX
(Three days later)
In a small tavern near the base of the Mystic Mountains, Catra was enjoying the best meal she'd ever had in her life. In reality it was just a greasy ham and cheese omelet, some overcooked hash browns and a mug of stale coffee, but to someone who had spent the majority of her life on military rations, it was a banquet.
Sitting opposite her was Leech, her traveling companion / benefactor, who was currently nursing a bucket of cow's blood through the mouth in his right hand. Strangely enough, the waitress didn't even flinch when he ordered it.
"So munch-munch-smack-munch then what happened?" she asked the older Force Captain, displaying her total lack of table manners.
"Well, with the Admiral gone and no way off the planet, we did the only thing we could do. We went underground. Literally. The couple dozen of us who survived Miro's assault took refuge in the Crystal Caverns of Subternia." He replied, his voice hollow but even. "We were all young and idealistic; we all believed that if we could just conquer this planet in his name, then Horde Prime would forgive our betrayal. So for decades we hid in the shadows. Stealing weapons and supplies. Recruiting whoever we could to our cause. Waiting for the perfect time to strike."
Leech paused for a moment to push his bucket aside before he continued.
"sigh. But in the end, I guess we waited one day too long."
"What went wrong?" Catra asked, momentarily forgetting about the food on her plate.
"To be honest, I'm not really sure. By the time we had sufficient numbers and resources to mount a proper campaign, the Great Unrest had been going on for over two years. The Elders were dead and many governments were in ruin, so the timing seemed perfect. But on the night before we were to launch our first strike, something happened… something bad…"
Suddenly, the elder Force Captain's left eye began to twitch; a clear sign of PTSD if she'd ever seen one.
"We… we must've had a mole or something, because somehow Randor found out about us. As we slept, he led the Elder Guard, along with an army of Speleans and Caligars straight into our base. By the time we realized what was happening it was already too late. Randor, the great Hero of the Unrest, ambushed a bunch of unarmed men in their beds, some of them too young to even drink, and slaughtered them like sheep."
His eye stopped twitching, but his expression remained just as horrified.
"There were over ten thousand Hordesmen in that cavern. Only eight of us managed to get out alive. Mantenna… he was with us, but… he didn't last much longer. Took a plasma bolt right to the gut. No medic. No either. He… he died right in my arms."
A single tear ran down his cheek.
"Anyway, after that we all went our separate ways and I've been living like a bum ever since." He said as he regained a bit of his composure. "Meanwhile, Eternia made Randor their new King and according to you the Admiral's been living it up in some other dimension with his false Horde. sigh. Where's the justice?"
"Tell me about it." Catra replied bitterly. "I was nothing but loyal to Hordak my entire life, but I make one little mistake and he threatens to send me to Beast Island. Like he's so perfect. According to you, he's made tons of mistakes. Heck, he is a mistake. He's just a cheap, defective copy of the Horde's real leader. He's a total fraud! Man, I wish I was back on Etheria. I'd break every bone in his smug face."
"Maybe I can help with that." Said Leech, suddenly getting a very serious look on his face.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, when you think about it, all our misfortunes can be laid at the feet of one person; the Admiral, or 'Hordak' as he likes to call himself. If not for him, my military career would've gone without incident and I'd probably be retired by now with a mountain of plunder and dominion over my own planet. And you my dear, I dare say your life could only be improved by the subtraction of his meddling. At the very least, you'd have never been introduced to this Adora person you despise so much."
Catra couldn't deny that there was a certain logic to what he was saying. If traced back far enough, a lot of her problems could be blamed on Hordak. But that still didn't change the fact that they were here and he was there.
"Yeah, so what? It's not like we could ever get to him."
"Untrue." The elder Force Captain replied. "Here on Eternia, there exist many powerful sorcerers with the ability to traverse different dimensions. And I happen to know where one of them lives. Interested?"
"I… I don't know. We'd have to fight our way through the whole Fright Zone just to get close to Hordak."
"My dear, if revenge was easy it wouldn't be worth doing. Listen, I don't know if our meeting was coincidence or divine intervention, but for the first time in decades I have a clear goal other than just survival. And I intend to follow this new path as far as it will take me. What about you?"
Once again, her new companion made a most compelling argument. And much like him, she would never be satisfied with simply surviving on this strange alien world. She was a solider. She needed some kind of mission or goal to strive for, and conspiring to violently murder the man who was at least partially responsible for how screwed up her life was seemed just as good as any.
"Okay, let's say, hypnotically, that I want to go along with this plan of yours. What would we have to do?"
"Well, first and foremost we need money. Lots of it." Leech explained. "Enough to pay off my sorcerer friend and hire some mercenaries to fight for us. It won't be easy, but there are plenty of ways we can earn that much, so long as we're clever about it. But more important than that, you need training. Real training from a real Hordesman. Not whatever slapdash nonsense the Admiral and his followers have cooked up. If we're gonna do this, we'll do it right."
"Sounds good to me." Catra said, allowing herself to flash a toothy grin. "Alright, Pops. You've got yourself a partner."
The elder Force Captain responded with a hideously toothy smile of his own, and he might've said something, had a new voice not intervened.
"Here's your paper, Sir." Said a young Andreenid waitress in a voice that was, appropriately, as sweet as honey.
"What?" asked Leech confusedly.
"Your newspaper, Sir. You requested a copy to go with your breakfast. Remember?"
"Oh, right. Just leave it on the table. I'll read it later."
"Very good, Sir."
And with that said, the bee-woman complied and then went about her business.
Catra had been mildly annoyed by the interference, but was otherwise in too good a mood to care. After a week of living in filth and taking gut punches from crooked cops, her life was taking a dark but welcome turn for the better. For the first time since… possibly ever, she felt completely at peace with herself.
Which lasted until she saw a familiar face on the front page of the newspaper.
"What?" the young feline said disbelievingly as she grabbed said paper and held it up to get a better look. "No. No! It can't be!"
"Something the matter?" Leech asked, but he was promptly ignored.
Catra just sat there, in total shock as her brain struggled to compute today's headline.
Royal Family Restored.
Long Lost Princess Found After Supposed Death Eighteen Years Ago.
And there, right below those two lines of text was a large color photo of her former friend turned archnemesis, Adora, along with an older man and woman in regal clothes and a young boy who was almost her exact double. All of them smiling, and looking so damn happy.
Suddenly, the young Force Captain felt her left eye begin to twitch. Then, without even meaning to, she tore the newspaper in half and screamed at the top of her voice.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"
End of Act I
End Notes:
There, I hope that's enough to keep you all satisfied while I step away from this story for a little bit to work on other projects.
FYI: there will be a grand total of 3 Acts of varying length and a very short Epilogue.
Anyway, here's a little breakdown of what's going to be happening with me from here on out. First, I'm going to be taking a very short break from writing, like a week at most. Then I'm going to throw myself into a brand new passion project I've been planning for months called "Orpheus: the Tale of Marceline". It's a little crossover between Adventure Time and Hazbin Hotel I've had cooking in my noodle since practically the day the pilot dropped. It will be about 20 to 25 chapters long and if all goes well I should, fingers crossed, have it done within the year. After that I'll be taking another short break before going back to work on "Yin-Yang" exclusively until it's finished.
And now for the part that I know will piss a lot of you off. As of this moment, my Star vs the Forces of Evil series is on indefinite hiatus. I don't want to outright cancel it just yet, because I kinda want to finish it someday, but right now it's at the bottom of my do-to list. I know this might come off as kind of a middle finger to a lot of you who have been following that series since the beginning, but this is not something I just decided to do on a whim, I've given this a lot of serious thought. I have a lot of reasons for doing this, but the biggest and most important one is that at this point, finishing my Star vs series feels more like an obligation than a fun side project I work on after work. Which is what Fanfiction is supposed to be; at least from my perspective.
Anyway, I'm sorry if any of you feel hurt or betrayed, but I just gotta do what's right for me. I hope to see some of you following and commenting on my Orpheus project and on future installments of this story.
Until then, I hope you're all doing well in your own lives and I'll see you later.
Peace.
