Horde Prime's ship had always been unpleasant. The curved, walls seemed to close in on you, and the putrid green lighting hadn't helped matters. It was almost satisfying to see the once grand monument to a dictator's power torn to shreds by nature, its once spotless walls now buckled and ruptured by roots and branches.
Right now though, Glimmer had to admit that she would have appreciated some more functional lighting, and fewer obstructions blocking her way through the corridors. Entrapta had packed the group a selection of what could only be described as the world's most dangerous gardening tools, for the purpose of clearing their way through the roots that now filled the majority of the corridors of Horde Prime's ship old ship.
Even with their gadgets though, it was slow work, with the party having to stop every twenty metres or so to burn or cut their way through a new wall of leaves and wood. After many hours of work though, it seemed as though they were finally getting lose to their goal.
"Hmm" Entrapta muttered as she consulted the map on her data pad. "We've got a pocket of breathable atmosphere ahead. Based on the floor plan Hordak was able to program in for me, I believe that it's the chamber where Horde Prime stored his old bodies."
"Good" Glimmer sighed in relief "because I'm getting really sick of the sight of branches"
"Not to be the bearer of bad news" Hordak interjected "but there is no guarantee that there will be any less foliage in the chamber itself. Prime kept that area of the ship well shielded yes, but given the extent of the damage to the other areas of the ship, it would be foolish to assume that it will be in pristine condition. She-Ra appears to have been rather… comprehensive in her transformation of the structure."
"I know" Glimmer replied, failing to prevent her face from falling. "I just hope we can still get what we need."
She remembered all too well the satisfaction she had felt watching She-Ra turn Prime's ugly, menacing warship into a beautiful source of life. Adora had clearly wanted to bring as much new life into the world as possible; anything to counteract how much death there had been since Prime's crusade had begun. It was a lovely idea, and even now Glimmer agreed with the sentiment, but the thought that Adora's spur of the moment decision might have unknowingly ruined their chances of rescuing her mother sat heavily in her chest.
"Buuut we won't know until we try, will we?" Bow cut in, sporting a grin that seemed ever so slightly artificial "so how about we get in there and have a look? Prime had so many bodies that even if we don't find the exact knowledge we're looking for, something in there is bound to make our jobs easier, right?"
Hordak opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal, but Bow gestured subtly in Glimmer's direction, and shot the former Horde ruler a glance that told him that this clearly wasn't the opportune moment. Instead, he opted to simply say "Very well" and resume cutting without another word.
It took another thirty minutes or so for the group to clear their way to the entrance to the 'vessel storage chamber' as Hordak called it. By the time they cut away the final bundle or branches from the doorway, they were all very relieved to see the empty space that greeted them on the other side. The chamber was so vast that, without power, the walls and ceiling were shrouded in darkness from where they stood. The centre of the room though appeared to be mercifully clear of foliage.
After a brief, apprehensive glance at one another, the group crossed the threshold in unison, Glimmer and Bow hand-in-hand. They trod lightly, as though their presence risked setting off some sort of trap or defence mechanism. They knew this wasn't the case; Darla's preliminary scans had been more than enough to confirm that the Glove's defences were entirely inert; but the imposing atmosphere on the chamber had them on edge regardless.
Once they were positioned in an open enough area, Glimmer conjured a few orbs of light, sending them floating up in various directions, hoping to clear the oppressive darkness. The sight that greeted her almost made her wish she had kept the lights off. The chamber was vast, ascending so high that the ceiling was invisible even with the added light, and descended so deep as to make looking down over the edges of the walkways a stomach-churning experience. Every available bit of wall space was covered in storage pods. Some were empty, but substantially more than half were decidedly not. The old bodies lining the walls were so numerous that they had to have carried Horde Prime through hundreds of lifetimes, perhaps thousands.
Glimmer swallowed the lump rising in her throat, and tried her hardest to tell herself that the daunting sight was actually good news. After all, if there were that many bodies, that meant there was a good chance that at least one contained the necessary knowledge to aid in the construction of a portal device, right? She glanced over to Hordak, who didn't meet her gaze. The clone's expression was steely, and focused exclusively on the pods lining the walls. If he was feeling any of the inner turmoil she was, he certainly wasn't showing it.
Hordak's eyes scanned the expanse of pods. None of them were in any way signposted, but having formerly been a part of the Horde's hive mind meant that he still possessed all the requisite knowledge to locate the ones the group needed. Cast in the light of Glimmer's orbs, the pods seemed to take on a violet hue, but the memory of the sickly green glow that they once gave off was still fresh in Hordak's mind. It still felt like only yesterday that he had last stood in that very chamber, waiting at Prime's side as the tyrant probed one of the vessels for knowledge of She-Ra.
Feeling Glimmer's eyes on him, Hordak supressed the urge to shiver, and focused his mind on the task ahead. There was no telling how many of the pods would need to be sorted through, even if he did succeed in narrowing their search to the correct subsection. There was no sense standing around worrying about ghosts from the past while there was work to be done, and if he knew one thing, it was how to dedicate himself to a purpose.
"Come" Hordak instructed as he set off, gesturing to the others to follow. "I will direct you to the correct group of pods."
The group followed wordlessly, though Glimmer noted that Entrapta's face had lost its characteristic enthusiasm. After a short trip, they arrived at the section Hordak assured them coincided with the era in which the Horde's portal tech was in regular use. Glimmer had had to teleport them up to the correct level, as the lifts that had once been used for access were long since offline. Even having narrowed the search down, it was clearly going to be a long day… or perhaps week. The walkway that stretched out in front of them must have had around two hundred pods lining the left side. The right side overlooked the abyss that was the rest of the chamber. Glimmer was very thankful that there was at least a safety rail between her and the drop.
"Entrapta, if you will assist me" Hordak began, thankfully distracting Glimmer from the dizzying height "I am ready to interface with the first vessel."
Entrapta gave a silent nod, putting on a forced smile as she started hooking up the mental interface. For the next few minutes, the princess of Dryl scurried about to and from her backpack of tech, pulling out bundles of cables and hooking them up between her machinery and the first of the storage pods (Glimmer sincerely hoped that this level of setup wouldn't be necessary when checking every pod, or their task was going to take even longer than she had anticipated).
Once Entrapta was done, and she could find no more final checks to distract herself with, she let out a sigh and turned to face Hordak, who was already sat waiting to be hooked up. "Y'know you don't have to go through with this, right?" Entrapta asked, a slight tremble creeping into her usually cheerful voice. "If you're scared, or you just don't wanna do it, I'm sure we can find another way to-"
Hordak held up a hand, cutting her off. "I… appreciate the thought Entrapta, but I would like to proceed. As unpleasant as the thought of once again sharing my headspace with Prime, even a part of him, is, this is something I must do. I should like to repair some of the damage my war did to this planet, and rescuing the queen is an important part of that."
A small part of Glimmer wanted to rush over and hug the former Horde leader for those words, but she resisted the impulse, knowing that it would likely be even weirder for him than for her.
"All right then, if you're sure" Entrapta replied reluctantly. "I just hate that you have to go back in there after spending so long getting used to your mind being a private place again."
"I know" Hordak murmured, allowing his mask of confidence to slip for the first time. "I do not look forward to the experience. However, I also do not fear for my safety in the slightest. After all, you will be watching over me."
Entrapta stood open-mothed, momentarily at a loss for words. After a moment, she collected herself enough to offer a smile as she wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. "You know it" she grinned, still sniffling a little. "C'mon, I'll get you hooked up."
Entrapta lifted the largest of the many cables now snaking out of the pod, and carried its unused end over to Hordak. "If I've configured this cable correctly; and I almost certainly have; this should allow you full interfacing capability with Prime's vessels."
She hesitated for a moment as she brought the end of the cable up to the port on the back of Hordak's neck. The only time said port had been used before had been by Prime. It had been an act of enslavement; violation. She was surprised when Hordak took her by the wrist, and slowly guided her had towards its destination. "It is alright Entrapta" Hordak said, more softly than she had ever heard him speak. "I trust you."
Resisting the urge to start sobbing again, Entrapta plugged the cable into the back of Hordak's neck with a hydraulic hiss. Hordak was surprised at how… non-invasive it felt when Entrapta did it, in comparison to Prime. Her every movement had been hesitant, silently asking for permission even when the course of action had already been agreed upon. Not too long ago, Hordak might have considered such a gingerly approach a waste of time, but now, he found it reassuring. He even ventured to think that allowing Entrapta access in future might be… enjoyable. He filed that particular thought away for later; right now he had a mission to complete.
"When is the link going to-" he began, before being cut off as a tidal wave of memories poured into his brain. For a moment, it was like he was flying down a tunnel of sickly green light; the next, he was in Prime's throne room, sitting in his brother's chair as two reverent clones delivered a morning report. Those reports had always been pointless, given the hive-minded nature of the Horde. Hordak suspected his brother has just enjoyed making his clones jump through hoops for his own amusement.
Before Hordak could ruminate further on the matter, he was pulled away again, this time to the battle bridge, watching on the viewscreen as a verdant planet below was transformed to a blackened wasteland by the Horde's ground forces. Hordak felt his pulse quickening; he had experienced shared thoughts within the Horde before, but this was another experience entirely. Prime wasn't inside his head; it was more like the other way around. Even then, that descriptor felt wrong. Hordak wasn't spying on Prime's thoughts; he could tell even without knowing that his brother's consciousness was not present; the memories he was experiencing were entirely empty, vacant of any consciousness. It felt more as though he himself was Prime, experiencing it all just as the Horde's fallen leader had all those centuries ago.
Hordak hated everything about it; the way 'his' clones looked at him with a mix of adoration and unacknowledged fear; the way 'his' body arrogantly lunged in his seat, treating the destruction of a civilisation as so much light entertainment; it made him sick. Clenching his fist, he willed himself to bear it; he had to keep searching until he found the information they needed. If this experience enabled him to undo even one of his sins, it was work all the discomfort. He turned his thoughts to the portal device, trying his best to probe Prime's memories for anything useful.
"How is he doing?" Bow asked Entrapta as she scampered from screen to screen, checking everything from the machinery's condition to Hordak's vital readings.
"I'm getting some elevated stress responses, but that's to be expected" Entrapta replied, failing to keep the nerves out of her tone. "I have no way of telling how well he's able to navigate Prime's memories, but at least the process doesn't seem to be putting excessive strain on his own brain."
A sharp intake of breath from behind her made her spin around on the spot. Hordak had shot awake, and was now pulling the cable from his neural port with a frustrated expression on his face.
"Hordak!" she yelled, rushing to his side "are you okay?"
"I am fine Entrapta" he grunted "but I was unable to find anything of use in this particular vessel. We shall have to move on to the next one."
"Wait, you already searched through every memory?" Glimmer enquired. "But you were only in there for a couple of minutes."
"Brains work a lot faster than the conscious mind can perceive" Entrapta offered, lifting her fingers as though she had the explanation pre-rehearsed. "What would take us weeks to sift through while awake can be done almost instantaneously in the mindscape!"
"Oh… well, that's good at least" Glimmer replied, frankly out of her depth. "At least that means this won't take too, too long, right?"
"Correct" Hordak replied "though given the quantity of clones in this section, it is still a substantial workload, so I should continue as soon as possible. Entrapta, if you would?"
Things went much the same for the next couple of days or so (the lack of a day/night cycle on the ship made it difficult to tell). Hordak gradually worked his way through row after row of vessels, discovering enough knowledge to keep Etheria's scientists and scholars busy for generations, but finding little of use on building a portal device. After every unsuccessful link he would wake up irritated, but all the more determined to continue. And so it was, after another busy day, that Entrapta, Bow, and Glimmer once again found themselves sitting around an unconscious Hordak, waiting on his latest results.
"Urgh, how many things did Horde Prime forget over the years!" Glimmer exclaimed from inside her sleeping bag as Bow handed her a ration bag.
"More than most of us will know in our lives" Entrapta answered absent-mindedly, her attention still on the screen bearing the unconscious Hordak's vitals.
"Most?" Glimmer asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, I hope to know everything someday" Entrapta shrugged "though I would hope that I'll be able to come up with a more efficient storage system."
Before Glimmer could formulate a rebuttal to that latest piece of Entrapta weirdness, Hordak shot awake with a gasp. Unplugging the cable from his neck, he spun around to face Glimmer.
"Hordak, what is it?" she asked. "Do you have something?"
"Yes" Hordak exclaimed in an almost excited tone. "I saw all of it. I saw Prime's memories from when the Horde's portal technology was developed. He was present as the machinery was conceptualised, constructed… even tested for the first time. I had no idea that so much of the knowledge required had been scavenged from conquered worlds but… I believe I now know enough to create a similar device."
"Hordak that's… that's amazing!" Glimmer exclaimed, this time allowing herself to pull Hordak into a hug, awkwardness be damned. "Thank you so much for this!"
"Do not thank me yet" Hordak responded as he extricated himself from Glimmer's grip. "Constructing and fine-tuning the device will be a lengthy process. We cannot afford for a single calculation to be off, lest we suffer a repeat of the last portal failure."
Everyone present collectively shuddered at the shared unpleasant memory. "Say no more" said Glimmer. "Take as much time as you need. I don't want to risk Etheria, or my mom, by rushing this. It may take a while, but know you three can pull it off."
Bow, Entrapta and Hordak exchanged a determined nod, as Bow wrapped his arm around Glimmer's shoulder. "Then let's not hang around in this creepy place any longer" he grinned. "We've got work to do."
The group packed up Entrapta's equipment as quickly as they could, their earlier lethargy having vanished in the face of their success. As happy as they all were to have taken a step forwards in their plan, they were equally happy to be leaving Prime's ship behind. Before long, they were all back aboard Darla, ready and eager to get back to Etheria.
"Everyone strapped in?" Bow shouted from the pilot's chair.
"We're good back here!" Glimmer yelled with a smile. Bow fired up Darla's engines, and the ship disengaged from the Velvet Glove's docking bay with a clunk that reverberated through the entire bridge. Glimmer brought up a rear view on her console, so as to watch the giant tree shrink into the distance. It was in a low enough orbit that it would was visible even from Etheria's surface, but it was reassuring just to see it far enough away as to not fill the entire sky.
As Darla descended into Etheria's atmosphere, the sky outside turned from black to blue. Glimmer felt her heart grow lighter as the rolling fields and forests became visible below, and, before long, Brightmoon Castle itself. The ship touched down on the same balcony from which it had lifted off, and Glimmer was surprised to see an entourage there to greet them. Mica, Adora, Catra, and a slew of Brightmoon guards were stood awaiting their arrival. Glimmer glanced over to Bow, who shot a cheeky smile back; the sweetheart must have called ahead to make sure their arrival was expected.
The ship's doors hissed open, but Glimmer had no need of them. She teleported right outside, into the waiting arms of her welcoming party.
"So, what did we miss?" She asked Adora with a smirk.
"Oh, y'know, nothing much" her friend chuckled. "We… all kinda held a funeral for somebody. Long story. Anyway, how did it go with you guys?"
Glimmer decided not to pry into what she'd just heard; Adora would talk about it when she was ready. Besides, she was too eager to gush about the P.A.L.S' progress. "Oh, it went great" she began. "Bow and the others have a little project planned. Walk with me; I'll tell you all about it."