Chapter Four: An Uneasy Alliance

Of all the people our heroes had anticipated coming to their rescue, the off-colors were quite low on the list. As such, they were quite surprised to see the Sun Incinerator landing. Even more so when the Horde cadets stepped out, as they were even lower on that list. For many of our heroes, i.e. the Crystal Gems, they didn't even register them as a factor.

"How did you even manage to get this thing flying?" Entrapta asked. "This technology is way beyond what most of you in the Horde are used to! ...No offense, of course."

"Well, it just so happens that you aren't the only one who knows a thing or two about First Ones tech," Lonnie said. "I-I wasn't referring to myself, I meant Hordak. He hooked up a new control panel to this thing so we could fly it."

Entrapta examined said panel. "Ooh...I may have melded Gem and Horde tech before, but never this seamlessly! I'll have to ask to see his notes when we get back!"

"If he takes us back,"Catra said. "Something tells me he won't be too happy about us losing the Staff."

"Ah, no worries! We'll just explain what happened," said Scorpia. "Then we'll all just go back to our regular, everyday lives."

"The sad thing is, you probably believe that, don't you?" Catra said. "In case you forgot, that staff is in the hands of a power-hungry maniac intent on destroying anything in his path. Even if Hordak lets this whole thing go, we still have to deal with Skeletor."

Lonnie gave them a weird look. "Skele...who now?"

"Oh, right, him," said Steven. "Long story short, we wanted to bring the staff back to this wizard guy called Keldor so he could help us, but it turns out he tricked us, and stranded us on that planet with the intent on...doing something evil, we aren't sure exactly what his plan is yet."

"But whatever it is, it can't be good," Adora added. She approached her old friend. "That's why we can't worry about Hordak right now. We haven't seen much of Skeletor, but we know he's powerful."

"Crazy powerful," Amethyst added. "He handed us all our asses without even trying! I mean, we didn't know what to expect, but still."

"Right," Adora said. "Look, I know it doesn't sound appealing, but we'll need to work together to have any hope of taking him down."

Catra replied almost immediately: "No."

"Aww, come on, you guys!" said Bow. "What about our truce?"

"That was a temporary truce while we were all stranded on that wasteland of a planet!" said Catra. "But now that we're headed back home, the truce is off. And the only place you're going is the Fright Zone prison block."

"But aren't you the least bit worried about Skeletor?" asked Steven.

"Not really," Catra said bluntly. "He's not even on Etheria, so I don't care what he does out here."

"But what about all the planets out here?" said Steven. "What about Earth?"

"What about them?"

Adora sighed. "Catra, please. It doesn't even have to be a truce, just a temporary ceasefire until we deal with this problem."

"I think that's the definition of a truce," said Pearl.

"Whatever. All we need to do is not fight each other until we deal with Skeletor. Then we can go back to hating each other. We'll even let you take us prisoner without a fight, just to prove we're not enemies."

"We will!?" cried Glimmer.

"Now, hold on one minute," said Bismuth. "Blondie here doesn't speak for me. I don't know what the 'Horde' is, but I'm sure not letting you lock me up without a fight!"

"Well, you want a fight?" said Scorpia. "Because I'd be happy to give you one!"

"I don't like your odds," Garnet said. "Even with the princesses out of power, we still have almost twice as many fighters as you do." She summoned her gauntlets. "Choose your next moves carefully."

"Ooor, instead of letting loose inside a crowded ship out in space, we could wait until we land to start fighting," Connie said.

"I'm with Connie here," said Steven. "Except instead of fighting when we land, how about we don't fight?"

"Yes, let's do that!" said Adora.

"Hmm...Catra, they're making a lot of sense," said Entrapta. "This is some sensitive equipment, and it could be damaged in a fight. The last thing we need right now is to be stranded just after we got rescued from being stranded!"

After much deliberation, Catra finally relented. "Fine," she said with a huff. "I guess we can talk about this once we land."

Garnet's gauntlets disappeared. "Good choice," she said.

Entrapta turned her attention back to the control panel. "You know, there's something I've been wondering ever since you first showed up. How did you manage to get out of Despondos?"

"Easy. You can thank Hordak for that one," Lonnie said. "He didn't give us the exact details, but he said he attached some sort of a wormhole generator to the hyperdrive. I don't pay attention to the technical stuff unless I need to, but it lets us open a portal that only this ship can use."

Entrapta thought for a moment. "Wormhole generator...Wait a minute, wormhole generator! If I'm not mistaken, this is a modified version of the device we first used to bring this very ship into the Fright Zone! Oh, Hordak, you beautiful genius, you've saved us again! Can I fire it up? Please?"

"Sure," Lonnie said. "Knock yourself out."

"Hordak, here we come!" shouted Entrapta. "Er, I mean, Etheria, here we come!" With the push of a few buttons, the ship's hyperdrive kicked into full gear. Only with the modifications made, rather than propel the Sun Incinerator at faster-than-light speeds through the universe, it instead opened up a miniscule tear in time and space, big enough only for the ship and its passengers, and open only long enough for them to slip through.

Entrapta was quite excited. "We did it!" she said. "I knew we could!"

"Uh...do what, exactly? Get back home?" said Kyle.

"No, I meant open a portal between dimensions," said Entrapta. "By 'we,' I meant me and Hordak.

"Hmm...didn't you guys already do that, though?" said Scorpia.

"Yes, but now we have a way to get back and forth!" she said. "And this one isn't broken yet!"

Having traveled to Despondos, Etheria was in view. The new crew piloted the ship towards the Fright Zone, where their prisoners would be detained.

"Hang on...something's wrong here," Lonnie said.

"Wrong? Wrong how?" asked Kyle nervously.

"Let me take a look," said Entrapta. "Ah, I see. Some sort of gravitational anomaly is pulling us closer to the planet's surface. Odd, it only seems to be affecting our ship…"

"I don't like where this is headed," said Connie.

"Are you sure it's a gravitational anomaly?" asked Bow, checking out the data for himself. "It looks to me like it's something else."

"Like what?" Glimmer asked.

"Hard to say. Almost like a...oh, no." Whatever was causing the anomaly nearly tripled in power, causing the ship to tremble.

"Yeah, I really don't like where this is headed," said Adora.

The Sun Incinerator was yanked out of its slow descent and towards the ground by the unseen force as warning sirens blared. The Gem ship was able to withstand the heat of reentry just fine, but it was colliding with the surface that would be a problem.

"Everyone out of the way!" shouted Pearl, running over to the console. "Let's see here, uh, w-which one is…?"

"Pearl, what's wrong!?" asked Connie.

"I don't know how to work this Horde tech!" she said.

Entrapta pulled herself up to the controls. "What do we need to do?" she asked.

"We have to counterbalance this force with our thrusters!" Pearl replied. "Take off straight up at full speed!"

"On it!" Entrapta entered the commands into the console, causing the ship to turn itself towards the sky. The thrusters turned on full blast, but the force was still stronger. Fortunately, this last minute fix saved them all from literally crashing and burning.

The ship itself was mostly intact, if a little banged up. Coughing, Connie stood up from the floor, waving smoke out of her face. "Is everyone alright?" she said.

Perfuma did a quick headcount. "Mermista, Sea Hawk, Frosta, Bow, Glimmer...where's Adora?"

Garnet looked around. "I don't see Steven, either!"

Looking around, to just about everyone's horror, the door was opened.

"It must have been broken open by the crash!" said Entrapta.

"Steven!" Quickly, all five Crystal Gems hurried outside. They were followed close behind by Glimmer and Bow. Scorpia lay not too far from the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine too, thanks for asking," she said.

Fortunately, Steven and Adora hadn't been flung violently from the ship during the wreck. Both of them stood not far from the crash site, unharmed.

"Thank stars-Steven!" Pearl yelled, running towards him. However, it soon became apparent that the both of them were transfixed by something up in the air. Pearl and the others looked up at what it was that could possibly be so troubling.

Skeletor levitated above them, his body crackling with raw magical energy.