Opening arguments concluded, Glimmer bid everyone be seated.

The Queen shared a brief aside with Bow. "Now?"

He nodded.

"Prosecutor, the floor is yours. Please call your first witness."

Mermista glanced over at Sea Hawk, sitting beside her. "Who was our first witness?"

He checked a list they'd made. "That would be the King, my darling."

"Don't call me darling," she grumbled, standing. "Prosecution calls King Micah of Brightmoon to the stand."

More hushed whispering met this proclamation, as more than a few glanced in the direction of the monarch of the Alliance. For his part, King Micah stood with a natural dignity and grace and made his way down to the stand. With the war finally over, he'd made great strides towards cleaning himself up, his royal vestments were restored and his hair finally trimmed and managed to something a lot less wild looking. There was still a fierceness in his gaze, however, as he settled into his seat at the podium. He spared a glance in Hordak's direction, and the former warlord regarded him cautiously. Finally, however, the two men nodded. Acknowledging if not a liking of one another, at least a healthy mutual respect.

Adora bit her lip, glancing at the judge and the first witness, who seemed to be making Queen Glimmer nervous. This must have been some ploy of the prosecution to put them off-guard at the beginning. She was determined not to let it happen, but it certainly took her by surprise. Just what was Mermista planning? she wondered.

Bow coaxed his future father-in-law to raise his right arm, palm up, like he was back in school at Mystacor.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

Micah nodded. "In fact, I'll do you one better," he said, waving a hand in front of him, index finger extended. A complex runed sigil appeared over him, engulfing him a brief but bright glow. When it faded away, he spoke again. "There. Now I can speak nothing but the truth. Ask away."

Taking this as her cue, Mermista approached as Bow moved out of the way, and Micah took his seat. "Can we, like, get your name for the record?"

"King Micah of Brightmoon," he replied.

"Right, and you... fought the Horde?"

"I have."

"About how long have you fought the Horde?" Mermista asked, deciding to get into specifics.

"Just over... uhm... well, I guess..." he seemed to hesitate with that one, pondering how to phrase his answer.

"Ballpark it for us," she said, wanting to move this along.

"Let's just say thirty years then," Micah replied. "Since I married Angella and joined the Rebellion, up until about three months ago."

"When Horde Prime was defeated."

"That's right."

"And who lead the Horde during this time? Was it Hordak?"

Adora leapt on that one. "Objection, leading the witness."

The Queen evidently agreed. "Sustained... Prosecution..."

Mermista wave a hand. "I'll rephrase. King Micah, when you first fought the Horde, who was leading it?"

The older man briefly glanced over at the accused, again sharing a brief look of shared respect. "Hordak was leading the Horde when I joined the rebellion."

"You were captured by him?"

"By the Horde, yes."

"And did he order you to be sent to Beast Island, which was essentially a death sentence?"

For almost anyone other than the sorcerer, it might well have been. "He did. I survived, howe-"

"No further questions," Mermista said, cutting him off and turning away, pointedly ignoring whatever else he might've wanted to say. "He's all yours," she said to Adora as she passed by the Princess of Power, reclaiming her seat.

Nodding, Adora stood. "King Micah... how well would you say you know the Horde?"

He pondered that a minute. "We fought them on many occasions," he finally said. "I was on the front line of more than a few battles. I battled their soldiers and their machines many times."

"And how well would you say you know Lord Hordak?" she asked, indicating the defendant, who watched with an unreadable expression.

"We only met the once before the end of the war," Micah confessed. "I had been captured and brought before him. He sentenced me to Beast Island."

Adora nodded. Nothing they didn't already know, but if there was one thing she'd learned from her research on trials, part of what helped a defense or prosecution was how evidence was presented. "He could have executed you then and there... why do you think he sentenced you to Beast Island?"

"I... I'm not sure," Micah confessed.

"It is possible he knew you, a powerful Mystacor-trained sorcerer, would survive?"

Now it was Mermista's time to call out Adora's tactics. "Objection! That's totally speculation!"

But Glimmer was less inclined to listen this time. "I'll allow it. Please answer the question."

"It's possible," Micah admitted. "But I can't be sure. Maybe he wanted me to suffer and die slowly."

Adora pressed. "Does that sound like the Hordak you knew? The one you met?"

"... no. When we met, Hordak seemed... cold. Almost uncaring. He seemed more interested in the war effort than in sparing me any further thought. He could have just killed me and be done with it."

"But he didn't."

"No."

"Thank you, your majesty. Defense rests," Adora announced.

King Micah vacated the stand, returning to his seat in the audience, who were murmuring quietly amongst themselves. It wasn't clear which way the audience was leaning towards at the moment, nor Queen Glimmer, who's expression was unreadable. If the prosecution was hoping to blow things out of the water with an opening volley, that's missed their target, and badly. Still, they had other witnesses to produce.

"Prosecution calls... Princess Netossa to the stands."

The dark-skinned princess stepped over the barricade and into the stands, promising before Bow could even ask that she'd tell nothing but the truth. Mostly because lies were pointless. She stated her name and kingdom of origin, and they got underway. Mermista wasted no time in cutting right to the meat of the matter.

"You are not a princess by birth, are you?" inquired Mermista.

Netossa frowned. "What's that got to do with it?"

"Ugh, just answer the question."

"No, I'm not. I was made a princess when I married Spinerella," she said, nodding to her wife in the pews, who waved back demurely.

"The two of you have fought as part of the Princess Alliance since its inception, yes?"

"That's right," Netossa replied evenly.

Mermista hrmed, as if she didn't already know that. "Even during the brief break up of the Alliance?"

"Yup. We stuck around."

"Fought the Horde a long time?"

"I guess," Netossa said, shrugging.

"And your wife?"

"Fight with her sometimes too."

There was a brief outbreak of laughter from the audience, which Glimmer reluctantly silenced with a gavel bang. Mermista rolled her eyes, wondering why this particular witness was proving so difficult to deal with. She decided to cut to the chase.

"Your wife, Spinerella, she was taken by the Horde, wasn't she? Grafted with a mind control chip and used as a weapon against the people of Etheria?"

"Objection!"

Adora was on her feet in minutes. "Your honor, I protest, these questions have nothing to do with my defendant. He had nothing to do with any of it."

"I'm about to get the point," Mermista promised, arms crossed. "If I may?"

Chewing her cheek, Glimmer pondered for a moment, then ultimately ruled. "Objection overruled. But make it quick, Mermista."

The blue-haired woman nodded, glancing at Netossa. "Well?"

"Yeah, that's all true."

"And who did that to her?"

"Horde Prime."

"And did Horde Prime use any sort of mind control technology on any of his clones? The chips on the neck, for example?"

That caught Netossa off-guard, and she pondered for a moment. "Uh... not to my knowledge, no."

"That must mean that Hordak, and the other clones... were acting of their own free will..."

"Objection!"

"Sustained," Glimmer agreed, not even waiting to hear the why, it was plain enough even to her. "Mermista..."

"Withdrawn," she said. Not that she'd even really asked a question, she was just playing for the audience. "I think I've made my point. Your witness."

Mermista took her seat, leaving the witness free. Frowning darkly, Adora took a moment to shuffle through her papers and arrange, then re-arrange them, just to calm down. Finally, she stood up and approached the witness box. "Netossa... you've fought for the Rebellion since its inception. You've seen both the homegrown and the Galactic Hordes in action, is that right?"

She folded her arms. "It is."

"And would you say there is a marked difference between the two?"

"Well, sure," the dark-skinned princess replied. "Hordak's Horde was... well, looking back... a lot more manageable. Prime's army overran most of our defenses within days. They were vastly superior."

"And their tactics? Did Hordak's military burn, pillage, or otherwise threaten occupied territories?"

"Sometimes," Netossa replied. "But overall they drove the people out, secured the territory, and started strip-mining it of all natural resources. Horde Prime didn't do that, he wanted the people under his control."

Adora nodded knowingly. "By mind control chips, if not by outright terror and coercion."

"Right."

"One last question then... I assume you don't hold anything against your wife for what she did under Horde Prime's control?"

Netossa glanced at Spinerella, still sitting in the pews. She shrugged lightly "I might bring it up as a joke occasionally to get out of the chores but... no, of course not."

"Then would you say all of Horde Prime's victims should be forgiven?"

The Princess of Power glanced over at Mermista, expecting her to object, but she seemed genuinely interested in the answer as well. Netossa, unfortunately, looked like she'd been thrown for a massive loop. It wasn't in her nature to forgive and forget, she was competitive to a fault, even with her own friends and family.

"I... I don't know," she said, unsure. "Maybe? I..."

Sighing, Adora shook her head. "No further questions, your honor."

She left Netossa at the stand, looking somewhat dejected, and returned to sit beside Hordak. He seemed unphased by the testimony and accusations delivered thus far, but Adora, who had known him most of her life, knew him well enough to see his pointed ears were drooping and his eyes were unfocused. He was reliving every awful thing he had ever done through this trial.

Some might have called that punishment enough, but the trial was far from over.

The Trial of Hordak continued on like that for some time, as the prosecution continued to bring forth damning witnesses with damning testimony.

Huntara was next, who explained in detail how she'd been a former Horde soldier who'd gone on the run to the Crimson Waste to avoid committing more atrocities in the Horde. Atrocities as ordered by Hordak. Ocellus and Grizzlor likewise had little good to say about their former master. None of them even made an attempt to justify his conquest as good and right, they'd known damn well what they were doing practically from the start. Most had simply wanted to be on the winning side. Others had been terrified of incurring the Horde's (and by the Horde's, they generally meant Hordak's) wrath. When that looked like it was no longer the case and they felt they could get away with it, they jumped ship fast as they could.

Case in point, Mermista's next character witness. She'd let Sea Hawk take this one, lounging in her chair while her on-and-off again paramour prosecuted.

"Name for the record?"

"Uh, just Kyle," the nervous recruit said.

"And your present occupation?"

"Uh... I guess I'm a bit of a... a freedom fighter?" he suggested meekly.

There was an uproar of laughter from the pews, but mostly from those who weren't taking this trial tremendously seriously. The idea of Kyle fighting anyone was laughable at best. Glimmer silenced them with a stern gavel bang.

"But prior to your service in the noble pursuit of freedom, you fought for the tyranny of the Horde, is that right?" Sea Hawk questioned.

"Uhm, yeah... yeah I did."

"Why?"

"I was brought up in the Horde," the young man explained. "We all were. Me, Rogelio, Lonnie, Catra, Adora... we never knew any other kind of life. By the time we were old enough to start questioning things we... just didn't want to. We knew who our friends were and which side we were on. That was really all that mattered."

"Mmmm, so you say, so you," Sea Hawk turned, resting his elbow on his palm as he pushed up his glasses, attempting to look intelligent. Attempting being the key word. "Do tell, how well do you know the accused, Hordak?"

"We never met," Kyle replied, hunching his shoulders as he looked over at the Horde Warlord nervously. "We uh... we were too far removed in the chain of command. He gave the orders to someone, they gave 'em to someone else, they pawned 'em off on me. That's how it tended to work."

Some muted snickers from the audience, and even Catra had to hold back a laugh behind her hands. It was true, which almost made it funnier.

Adora silently shook her head, finding none of this even remotely funny. Especially since it worked against her.

"What sorts of orders did you receive then, down from Hordak himself?" asked Sea Hawk.

"Well, mostly the usual... get equipment fixed, get gear distributed, guard the prisoners, get back to the front lines..." Kyle explained, painting a picture of the average grunt of the Horde. They had no concept of a larger picture or a grander plan, only following orders and doing as they were told. If Hordak was evil, they had very little understanding of it, though it also painted a pretty bleak picture for those of the Horde as much as their victims.

"... some days we had to work double, or even triple shifts. And even if the enemy had us outmatched we had to provide support for the robots. I mean, we were armored, sure, but they don't give us much in the way of weapons."

"No weapons?" asked Sea Hawk, incredulously.

"Just stun batons mostly," Kyle confirmed. "The occasional telescoping staff. Sometimes I didn't get one of those either."

"Hmmm, interesting, interesting," the captain murmured, stroking his moustache. He glanced idly at his Mermista, but she just shrugged. "I suppose we're done here, thank you Mr Kyle... your witness!" he announced dramatically, making his way back to the Prosecutors table.

Adora stood, taking her time approaching the box.

"Hey Kyle. How's it going?" she asked.

"Oh, uh... not so bad," the blonde boy said self-consciously. "I mean, it could be better..."

"Objection," Mermista interjected. "This isn't a social gathering, can we get to the point?"

The Princess of Power nodded, holding up a hand before Glimmer could rule. "Alright, alright," she said. Then she added in a low undertone "We'll talk later, Kyle."

He nodded, grateful.

"So we'll recap, you served in the Horde, and the Horde did terrible things. No need to bring all of that back up. But I do have just one question."

"Okay."

"Do you personally blame Hordak for everything bad that's happened to you in the Horde?"

The question seemed to catch Kyle off-guard, and again he looked to Hordak as if to see what the warlord's reaction would be. Asking for permission. Adora gently side-stepped so she blocked his view, cutting it off. "Please answer the question."

"Uh... no."

Adora smiled and nodded. "That's all I needed."

Dismissed, Kyle returned to his seating with the others, including Rogelio and Lonnie and Imp, who welcomed him back with open arms. The foursome had grown quite close since their defection. Giving Mermista time to find her next witness and bring them up to the stands. Not that anyone could miss the six foot tall warrior woman that was Scorpia.

Prosecution wasted no time cutting to the heart of the matter.

"You say your kingdom simply gave its runestone to the Horde?"

"Well, that's what I was taught growing up," Scorpia replied self-consciously. "Looking back, well it... it might not have been... well, so much given as..."

"Taken?"

"Yeah, that."

Mermista rolled her eyes.

"At the time, I guess I didn't think much of it. But now... well..."

The prosecutor cut her off with a wave of her hand. "Yeah, right, whatever. Look, Hordak was in charge of the Horde at the time, and he took control of your families kingdom, am I right?"

"Uh, sure," Scorpia replied.

"And took you and your family hostage to prevent an uprising?"

"Uh, well, I'm not positive about that..." she scraped a claw against her scalp in thought.

"Doesn't that sound exactly like what Hordak would do?"

Scorpia hemmed and hawed, unsure of how to respond. "I uh, well, I dunno... I mean, I wasn't there or anything..."

"Well, can you tell us about how horrible it was growing up in the Horde?"

"Oh it wasn't so bad," the clawed Princess replied. "I got to meet Entrapta, and Catra, and Lonnie, and Grizzlor (whatever happened to that guy?), and make lots of other friends while I was there... and we got to go on cool missions for the Horde... and on some days we got double rations if we completed training early..."

Mermista cut her off with a wave of her hand, feeling a headache coming on. Her witness wasn't doing much to corroborate the side of the story she wanted told.

"And prisoners? Can you tell me how prisoners were treated in the Horde?"

"Oh, uh, well, that wasn't exactly my department," Scorpia replied contritely. "Sorry."

The prosecution threw up her hands. "I give up," Mermista said dryly. "Your witness."

"We've no questions for Princess Scorpia at this time," Adora announced. "Thank you for your contribution."

"Anytime," the former Force Captain said, rising up and sideways sliding back to her seat. Queen Glimmer sighed, checking the time idly. The clock on the wall said that nearly two whole hours had passed, and this was supposedly going quickly for a trial.

"Prosecution, do you have any more witnesses to call forth?"

"Just one, your honor," Mermista replied. "Prosecution calls to the stand..."

"... Catra."

Ears flattened, body tense, the magicat looked ready to bolt, but Adora gave her a firm nod and, with some reluctance, she climbed up from the pews and made her way to the witness stand, swearing to tell the truth and sitting down. This was definitely not a moment either of them was looking forward to, but it had to be done.

Mermista treated her hostile right from the very beginning. They'd only recently been made allies, after all, and she'd been under Prime's influence during much of that. She had almost no positive experiences to draw on and, it was fairly obvious, if Mermista had her way she'd be having Catra on trial right alongside Hordak.

"You served in the Horde?"

"All my life," Catra confirmed. "Far back as I can remember."

"We've all heard how they teach you to be cruel and ruthless... anything to add?"

Adora bit her lip, well aware of this being an excellent opportunity for Catra to bring up Shadow Weaver and her numerous torments. But to her surprise, the magicat shook her head. "I think that's clear enough."

"And Hordak was your commander?"

"Not at first," Catra replied. "Not directly, at least. I started out as a recruit like everyone else, and then a Force Captain under Shadow Weaver. It was only later I became a Commander..."

"And you worked closely with Hordak during this time?"

"Yes."

"You also helped him with his portal tech experiments, didn't you?" asked Mermista, folding her arms.

"Well, not... closely. Entrapta did most of the tech stuff I just secured equipment for them both. Got them what they needed."

"I see. So you wanted his portal experiments to succeed?"

Catra grimaced. "I didn't give a damn at first," she confessed. "If it made Hordak happy, who was I to complain?"

"But you were told the portal was dangerous, weren't you? That there was a chance of instability?"

Her ears popped up as her multi-colored eyes widened, then narrowed. "Who told you that?"

"I am asking the questions here," Mermista reminded her. "Now tell us, Catra... you were told the portal was dangerous? A chance it could destroy all of Etheria?"

The magicat glanced in Adora's direction, perhaps hoping to find an objection or some way out of this, but Adora could only gently shake her head.

Unable to escape the awful truth, Catra answered, her voice soft. "Yes."

"And you did not tell Hordak this? Why?"

"I..." Catra licked her lips, trying to think of a good way to phrase her answer. But for the life of her, she couldn't.

"You wanted that portal opened, didn't you?!" demanded Mermista, hands on the podium as she stared down Catra, forcing the magicat to shrink down.

"I... I..." She was sweating bullets now.

"DIDN'T YOU?!"

"OBJECTION!"

Glimmer banged her gavel so hard it nearly cracked. "Sustained! Mermista, you are WAY out of line!" she yelled, pointing the hammer at the cerulean-haired princess.

Mermista glared right back up at her, almost about to protest. But then, at a tugging on her sleeve by Sea Hawk, gradually backed down.

"Ugh, fine, withdrawn. No further questions. But I do have a statement to make," she added, pointing dramatically at Catra. "This is exactly the sort of narrow-minded, self-centered sort of thinking the Horde's minions are like... and all of them are that way thanks to Hordak. He made them this way. And that should tell you all you need to know about him."

There was a very tense silence following that, as the nautical captain led his mermaid beloved back to their seats, and Glimmer took a moment to ensure her own hands stopped shaking. She looked over at Adora, who was gazing out into space, possibly reliving the nightmare of the portal activation sequence.

"Defense, have you anything for this witness?"

Adora numbly shook her head. There was nothing she could ask that would not further condemn Hordak, and possibly drag Catra down as well.

"Then you're dismissed."

Grateful, Catra made her way back to her original seat, stopping on the way to lay a comforting hand on Adora's shoulder. She would not look at Hordak, whether out of guilt or shame, none could say.

"Is that all?"

Mermista stood back up. "Insofar as witnesses, yes. But your honor, I submit to you that Hordak IS guilty, and of more than he may claim. Every horror visited upon Etheria is his doing, if not directly, then by his order and his will. The destruction of Salineas, and even the death of Queen Angella."

Even Adora flinched at the mention of that, the wound still relatively fresh. Everyone looked appalled at Mermista for bringing it up. Everyone except Glimmer, whose expression may well have been carved from stone. Adora regretted telling them this, but there was little to do about it now, the event was practically public record, there was no helping it.

"Catra may have pulled the lever and opened that portal, but Hordak was the one who designed it, built it, and made it functional. It was only through Angella's sacrifice that we are even still here. And all of it... is Hordak's fault," she said, stepping back to her seat. "We're done here."

Prosecution's case was closed then. And what a case it was. Hushed murmurs came from the crowd as Catra slunk back to her seat, trying to look as small as possible. In his own seat, Hordak stood rigid, his shoulders squared, but his eyes were closed and his head bowed, as if held down by the weight of his crimes. Adora looked like she wanted to be ill, but she steeled herself all the same. "Your honor, may I request a recess?"

Feeling much the same as Adora looked, Glimmer nodded. "Of course. One hour."

The banging of the gavel felt like it echoed in the silence that followed.

Authors Notes:
Netossa being a princess-by-marriage (nevermind most of the princesses should be queens given their respective kingdoms) is a fan theory I've embraced that Spinerella is the noble by blood/heritage, given her actual elemental powers, to say nothing of a more regal attitude and mannerisms.

I get the impression that, post Prime, Mermista and Catra would get along the absolute least, and not just because cats hate water.

And of course, poor Kyle is again the butt of the joke, but this time with purpose.