Bow rubs his face as he wakes up, trying to keep his movements to a minimum as Glimmer sleeps soundly on his chest, he couldn't help but smile at how adorable she looked, he gently stroked her hair as she started to stretch and stir.
"Good Morning", he whispered against her forehead before kissing it.
Glimmer looked up and gave him a sleepy smile and gently kissed his lips, "Good Morning to you too. Mr Bow"
Bow laughed, "Mr Bow? How very formal of you Miss Glimmer, so what do you want to do today?"
"As much as I would love to do nothing more than lie here with you all day…I should go check on Adora", Glimmer sighs and swings her feet off the side of the bed.
"Good idea, I'll go get a start on our descent into Etheria we shouldn't be far off now",
Glimmer giggles excitedly and kisses Bow again, "I can't wait to see mum again, a few days recharging at home is something we all need right now I think".
Bow gets out of bed and starts to get dressed as he listens to Glimmer's happy humming as she leaves the room. Bow pulls down his shirt as he enters into the dark hallway and looks out the window, they're still surrounded by darkness and stars.
"That's strange, it shouldn't be this dark", Bow muses to himself as he makes his way towards the pilot's seat. He pulls up the map in hopes to see how far they were from Etheria, but as he studied the map he realised they were nowhere near Etheria at all.
"Oh no…"
"Oh no what?", Glimmer says as she enters with a slightly less forlorn Adora trailing behind her.
"So about Etheria, I think...maybe…", Bow's voice trails off.
"Maybe what?", Glimmer said as she sat on the armrest beside Bow,
"I think I made a biiiiiiig mistake", Bow said with panic evident in his voice.
"Mistake how?". Glimmer takes a moment and looks at the map, "That doesn't look like Etheria!"
Adora glances at the map and focuses on the words underneath, making sure she reads them correctly. Her heart starts pounding and she has to remember how to breathe.
Eternia?
"I'm aware of that. I don't even know where we're going!". Bow throws his hands in the air as he tries to figure out the coordinates of their current location.
"How do you not know where we are going! I thought you set a course for Etheria!"
"I thought I did too! But I must have messed something up"
"Well can't you override it or something?"
"No, don't!". Adora's voice booms over them. Bow and Glimmer immediately stop bickering, they exchange a glance as they notice that Adora's face is as white as a sheet. Glimmer goes over and stands beside her trying to decipher what Adora has seen.
"What is it, Adora?"
Bow notices the first ones writing under the planet and immediately clues on, "That's the same word that was written on the elemental we fought at my dad's place".
"Eternia…", Adora whispers as she frowns at the word. She immediately turned around and left, she heard Glimmer call out her name but she didn't respond, right now she needed to think.
She made her way to her and Catra's room and flopped down on the bed, she closed her eyes and inhaled sharply because she was certain there was the lingering smell of Catra on the sheets.
Adora laid on her back and stared at the ceiling, she tried to remember how Catra was acting and how she was feeling when they found her sister Kywa out here completely by accident, Adora started to wonder if the pounding that she was starting to feel in her chest was the same way Catra felt, a strange feeling like a mixture of fear and excitement.
Adora stuck her hand out in front of her and summoned her sword, catching a glimpse of her face in the reflection of the holographic surface.
"I wish you were here Catra". Adora whispered to herself as tears rolled down onto the sheets. She wished that Catra was here to help her deal with this, to help her come to terms with the fact that maybe, just maybe she had a family.
Could they be as inviting as Catra's family was?
Would they even remember me?
Catra was only a small child when they met and she had faint memories of being with her family, but not Adora, she had been in the horde her entire life.
Exactly, how would they recognise you? You need to be logical about this
Adora closed her eyes, as the intrusive voice spoke to her.
You're getting excited over nothing.
Adora sighed, still lost in thought and didn't hear Glimmer come in.
"Adora?".
Glimmer's voice startled Adora and she immediately leapt out of bed and pointed her sword at Glimmer, immediately apologising when she realised who it was.
"It's ok, can I sit down with you?". Glimmer gave her a reassuring smile.
Adora slumped back down on the bed, moving over a little as Glimmer laid down beside her. There were several minutes of silence before Glimmer finally spoke, "So...",
"I'm fine", Adora said with all the false bravado she could muster.
Glimmer raises an eyebrow, "When I walked in you were talking to your sword, that doesn't sound fine to me".
"You're right, I just wish I could talk to Ca...", Adora lets her voice trail off before she starts crying again. Glimmer held Adora's hand just as she was about to say something, Bow's voice came over the speaker.
"Adora...I think….we're here, you might want to see this".
Bow is standing at the window as Adora and Glimmer come in, he says nothing and simply points over to a massive city bathed in bright white light, as the ship slows down Adora couldn't help but notice a familiar colour scheme, white buildings with gold trim, many of them large and cylindrical reaching up into the sky connected by curved walkways.
"What is this place?". Glimmer said, barely able to hide her excitement.
"There's nothing on Etheria close to this place, it's quite impressive, don't you think Adora?". Bow said, equally as excited.
"I guess It is", Adora said cautiously, she couldn't shake the feeling that this place wasn't as inviting as it looked. Adora looked out into the distance as something bright orange shot up into the sky and disappeared into the clouds.
What was that?
She wondered. Adora got her answer as something rocked the ship to descend quickly. Adora looked out the window to the side of the ship and saw part of their wing had been blown away. Bow quickly jumps into action and takes control of the ship.
"Hold onto something!",
He pulls hard on the controls and forces the ship to make a sharp turn away from the city, he tries to steer the ship as it rocks in the sky, they cross over into what looks like an icy grey-looking forest.
Down in the forest below, a long blonde haired man, with an even longer plaited beard, trudged through the deep snow, a large basket of fish strapped to his back, he made his way over to a large snow leopard as it shook the snow out of its fur.
As the man started to harness the basket of fish, there was a loud boom, both the man and the snow leopard looked to the sky and caught sight of a burning craft descending quickly over. The snow leopard growls
"Ok Erska. Quickly let's go".
The man jumps into Erska's back and they immediately race after the shop, watching closely as it tries to remain upright but eventually it starts to tilt, clipping the tops of trees as it falls.
The man falls back a little as the ship makes a full tilt to the side and its wing crumples as it drags along the ground splitting the snow ladened ground open exposing the dark earth underneath.
Finally, the ship comes to a stop when it becomes wedged between two large trees. The man rushes over and gently pats Erska to come to a stop, he rushes over and climbs his way up into the broken ship.
"Hello? Is anyone here?", he calls out, at first he hears nothing but his words echo back at him until he hears faint groaning.
He immediately follows the sound, until he finds its source, the one groaning is trying to sit up, the man rushes over to stop them,
"No, no, no. Don't move. My name is Thad, I'm going to help you",
"I'm Bow…", Bow said through winded breath, "Wait where are Glimmer and Adora?",
Thad quickly surveys the room and sees Bow's friends, "I see them, We will have to move quickly though",
"Why?". Bow asked as he attempted to sit up.
Thad picks up Glimmer first and makes his way carefully towards the exit, "Let's just say whoever shot you out of the sky will be coming to look for you soon, so the quicker we get out of here the better for you and your friends, do you think you can walk?"
Bow unsteadily gets to his feet, nods and starts to hobble across, as he follows Thad out of the ship.
Thad lays Glimmer across the back of Erska and helps Bow up onto the animal, "I will go back and get your other friend".
Thad quickly runs back into the ship and finds Bow's other friend slumped over, he carefully rolls her onto her back she is unconscious but Thad can't seem to shake the feeling of familiarity coming from this woman.
He doesn't have time to think any further about it, he makes his way back outside, as he approaches Erska the snow leopard tilts its head and sniffs the woman's hair poof and growls softly.
"You sense something too huh?", Thad says as he carefully places her on Erska.
Thad pats Erska and jumps on as the large snow leopard slinks into the darkness of the forest. The quiet sound of the forest and the creaking ship was broken as a small army of mechanical horses came through to surround the ship, each rider was adorned in white and gold armour, one rider approached the ship whose armour was more elaborately decorated than the others.
As a handful of other guards make their way into the ship, he gets off his horse and approaches the ship a long dark scar down the left side of his face can be seen underneath his helmet.
"Belthor sir, you may want to see this",
Belthor entered the ship's main room as a tilted scrambled image appeared on the pilot seat. He removed his helmet revealing his jet black hair and his menacing red eyes. He tilted his and narrowed his eyes as the broken image played again.
"Recreant Mara?", Belthor said with surprise in his voice.
"That can't be possible sir, She-ra has been gone for more than a millennia"
Belthor frowns, "long enough for a new She-Ra to have been found...". He immediately puts his helmet back on and makes his way out of the ship.
"I need everyone to get out there and find whoever was on this ship and bring them directly to me!".
