Several Darksmoke soldiers race through the forest on foot, their large clunky gray armour rattling as they run, some of them start looking behind frantically as they duck and weave through the bushes. Mara and several other Eternos soldiers pursue them on horseback, Mara waves her hand indicating they need to split up and surround them.
The Darksmoke soldiers run into a dead-end when they come to a large cliff face. They turn around and draw their swords backing up to the cliff as the sound of mechanical hooves gets louder.
Mara is the first to appear from the forest; her uniform matches that of her white metallic horse that simulates shaking its golden mane as she approaches the guards.
"Now, why are you all such a long way from home?". Mara says as she gets off the horse.
The soldiers look at one another and remain silent. Mara frowns, "Maybe we should take you all back to Eternos to see if you'll be more cooperative".
As she finishes her sentence a large gray dragon suddenly descends and lands, its claws digging into the cliff face. It looks directly at Mara and roars, sending out a flame that separates them from the Eternos guards. The dragon flaps its wings which makes the treetops bend and sway and the flames rising higher
A woman with long wavy white hair, wearing similar gray body armour popped up from behind the dragon's head.
"Well, Well, Well if it isn't Eternos' little puppet".
"Serenia! You can't keep us from Darksmoke's runestone forever!", Mara shouted.
"Oh I certainly can because...", Serenia disappears and reappears as the dragon's pointed tail lowers her to the ground in front of the other Darksmoke guards, she holds out her hand as a dark gray sword materialises, "...I can't think of anything more fun than wasting your time".
Serenia approaches Mara, flourishing her sword. Mara draws her sword, the light of the flame behind her reflected across Serenia's pink eyes. Serenia attacked first and they began trading blows getting closer to the flames. Mara's attacks become more forceful, eventually causing Serenia to get too close to the flames burning her back. Serenia cries out and falls to her knees.
Mara looks over and sees the Darksmoke guards trying to slip away, just as she sends out a holographic slash, Serenia grabs Mara's ankle tripping her over, the attack misses and hits a nearby tree bringing crashing to the ground.
"After them!". Mara calls out to the Eternos guards as she tries to get to her feet.
Serenia gets up and tackles Mara to the ground, "NO!...TORM!".
Torm immediately lifts its head and lets out a long stream of flame that burns the ground in front of the Eternos guards blocking them from chasing the other guards. Torm then turns its attention to the other guards giving them a toothy menacing grin running its forked tongue over their teeth, this was enough to send the guards fleeing back through the forest.
Mara gets out from under Serenia's grip and forces her head back into Serenia's face causing her to fall backward. Mara crawls over and pins Serenia to the ground.
"I don't need the guards now if I have to Champion of Darksmoke herself", Mara says through gritted teeth.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that", Serenia says, smiling.
Torm descends picking Mara up with their claws and throwing her. She winces as she stands up and catches Serenia flying away.
* * *Adora frowned as she and Bow followed Thad through the forest, "That can't be all there is to the story"
Thad nods, "There is, but I am no historian, I only did an art major. But the one thing I do know is the rivalry between Mara and Serenia ran deep"
"That has to be the same one", Bow muses quietly to himself.
"You mean the one we asked your dads about?". Adora asked.
"Yeah, and the recording they found about the failsafe was recorded by someone called Serenia, so it can't be a coincidence".
They all come to a stop when they hear soft whining coming from a nearby bush. Thad sighs and walks over moving a branch to find Erska lying down with his paws over his face. The sight lightened the mood a little as everyone giggled at the sight of a large snow leopard being scared.
Thad gently pets Erska on the head, "Well I can take you to my father, he knows a lot more about the history of Eternia than I do".
...I can take you to my Father?
Adora froze, the pounding in her chest returned, she looked over to see Thad looking back at her and quickly looking away before getting on Erska's back who still seemed a little startled as he jumped when Bow approached and accidentally stepped on a branch.
"Whoa, It's ok", Thad said gently patting Erska.
Adora tentatively approached, after the way Thad reacted to them sharing the vision she was unsure of how he would react to her especially now knowing she is She-ra. She was surprised when he put out his hand and slid back in the seat a little closer to Bow.
"Erska might feel a little safer if you take the lead", Thad said in such a way that reminded her of the way Catra used to apologise, without actually saying the words.
Even though she didn't need to, she took his hand and climbed up in front. Thad handed her the reins, "Now just give him a soft double-tap behind his ear".
Adora slowly ran her hands over Erska's thick fur and gently tapped, and the animal slowly started to walk, still cautiously looking around as he walked,
"What now?". Adora said, trying to hide the fact that riding upfront was fun.
"Nothing, he knows the way home, just be like your friend here and enjoy the ride", Thad said the lightheartedness in his voice made Adora look around and she could see Bow fast asleep.
Now that the snow had stopped Adora could see the true landscape of where they were, the dark trees that surrounded them differed in size all in different stages of dropping their leaves, their placement however was off-putting, she felt as though they seemed to be aligned too perfectly.
Erska continued along, a herd of curious deers with icicle antlers and matching bright eyes followed alongside walking amongst the trees until they heard voices and ran off into the bushes.
Adora looked ahead to see what frightened them and saw they were approaching a large compound, the outer large stone wall was weathered and aged, the holes and cracks in the wall were iced over, even as they passed under the portcullis Adora could tell had hadn't be closed in a long time by the number of icicles that hang from it.
The courtyard was just as dreary and nowhere near as lively as the village they left, there were barely any people, the majority seemed to be wearing armour. Erska came to a stop as a guard started to approach them, Adora could now see the armour was gray and made out of some kind of bone.
"Wait here a minute". Thad whispered as he slid down to the ground.
The guard bowed, "Welcome back sir, your father has been waiting",
"He's already here?". Thad said surprised.
"Yes sir, he rode in earlier and seemed rather intent on speaking with you immediately", the guard said as he took the reins.
"ADORA!". Glimmer said excitedly as she ran down the stairs leading into the courtyard.
Adora couldn't help but laugh, Glimmer was trying to run with several layers of coats or fur, maybe a mixture of both she couldn't tell.
"Bow told me you weren't handling the cold too well, but this?". Adora said in a giggly voice as she hugged Glimmer.
"Don't you start, the first few days were fine but it's just been constantly cold and snowy the whole time we have been here, anyway how are you feeling?"
"Physically fine, mentally things are a little…strange", Adora whispered.
"Why what happened?". Glimmer said as Bow approached and rubbed his hands together to get warmth.
Adora frowns as she watches Thad talking to the guard, "It's hard to explain",
"Ah, No! You've been out of action for a while and I won't let you get away with telling me nothing!".
"There was something strange going on with Adora and Thad, because of some kind of large bird", Bow said, who gave up rubbing his hands together and stuck them into his pockets.
Glimmer folded her arms, "That wouldn't happen to be a large bird with black feathers?"
Adora's eyes widened, "You've seen it?"
"Well yeah, it arrived earlier with the King".
Adora took off immediately without another word, the long staircase led to a large castle, she realised she had no idea where she was going, but she didn't care how many rooms she looked through she needed to find that bird.
"Adora, wait!". Adora turned around to see Thad running up the stairs behind her.
"Don't try to stop me, Thad. I need to know what is going on", Adora said as she made her way through the front doors.
"I'm not here to stop you, Adora, I'm here to join you for the same reason", Thad stops and points down the long hallway,
"Down there is the throne room, wait there while I find my father".
Thad and Adora split up and she walked down the hallway with intent even though the doors at the end of the hallway didn't stand a chance and they made loud scraping noises that echoed through the room and back down the hall as Adora forcefully pushed them open. The room was large enough to be considered a throne room, but there were no thrones in it, just several chairs and a large round table with a map carved into the surface.
Adora could see a tall black-feathered figure standing at the window and Adora immediately knew who it was and she immediately produced her sword.
"You! You're that weird bird!". Adora lunged at Kwyn.
Kwyn gave a frightened squawk and jumped out of the way as the sword came down and hit the stone floor, a loose black feather landed near Adora's nose making her sneeze.
"Please allow me to explain Adora, I just needed to be sure you were She-ra", Kwyn easily jumped over Adora as she tried to attack her again.
Adora paused for a moment ready to attack again, "How do you know about She-ra?"
Kwyn hangs precariously from a stone archway, "I have always known you were She-ra, it was one of the reasons you were sent to Etheria for your protection"
Adora scoffs as her sword disappears, "Well you did a terrible job!"
Kwyn gracefully jumped down from her perch and closed her eyes, "I know. Just know a lot was happening the day we tried to send you through the portal".
"Kwyn what are you doing?".
Both Kwyn and Adora looked in the direction of the deep velvety voice and beside Thad was a man slightly taller than Thad with his large tattooed arms crossed over his sleeveless brown tunic.
Kwyn bowed, "King Brendor! I was trying to explain to Adora the events of that day".
Adora watched as a friendly smile crossed the man's face under his thick brown moustache.
"Kwyn, you are skipping too far ahead. The first thing to do would be to start with proper introductions". The man locked eyes with Adora and bowed his head, "I am King Brendor, Ruler of Darksmoke, I see you have already met your brother, Thad"
Adora's eyes widened, she wasn't really surprised but hearing the words coming out of the King's mouth made it real, she was right this was her home, but then she stared directly at the King and realised that if Thad was her brother the man that stood before her was...
"Are...are you my father?". Adora said as her voice broke and tears started to well in her eyes.
Brendor nodded, "I know you've already-"
"So you lied to me", Thad interrupted, by the look in his eyes, he was having a harder time simply accepting the fact that Adora was his sister.
Brendor turned to Thad, "There is a lot I need to explain and it will take time for me to explain it all".
Thad gets a little angrier, "Have you always known this? That I have a sister?"
Brendor sighs, "Yes, but you have to understand-".
"So when I came to talk to you about Mara's ship you knew and didn't tell me?"
Brendor raises his voice a little, "I had to, for your protection"
Thad scoffed, "Protection from what! The truth!"
"WE HAD NO OTHER CHOICE", he takes a deep breath and runs his hand over his bald head as he starts pacing the room,
"When She-ra disappeared, she took the champion of Darksmoke with her, for centuries it left Eternia weak. Eternos had lost its greatest weapon and Darksmoke had lost its greatest defender",
He walks over to Thad and firmly puts a hand on his shoulder, "Until you were born, with the champions return we knew it was only a matter of time before a new She-ra would return", he walked over to Adora.
The pounding in her heart increased. She felt like the room was spinning, "What we weren't prepared for was my daughter being She-ra", he smiles at Adora.
There it was, that punch in the guts that Catra had explained to her. Adora thought Catra was overreacting when she explained to her, but she could feel the burning in her lungs from holding her breath too long, her breath staggered as she tried to inhale.
Brendor tenderly put his hands on her shoulders, "I didn't mean to upset you".
Adora shook her head, "You didn't, It's just….too much to take in right now".
Adora had a flashback to where Catra took her hand and ran when she found out about her family. She wished more than anything that Catra was here so Adora could do the same.
* * *It is a warm summer night in Purrsia and Catra sits at the table chasing the food around her plate with a fork, not eating any of it. Kywa notices.
"You've been distracted all day, are you ok?".
"It's been a couple of weeks and I haven't heard anything from Adora"
Kywa and Rogue look at one another,
"The universe here is a big place, if you're worried though we could probably look into it",
Rogue nods, "We could probably contact her if you like"
Catra's ears immediately shoot up, "Really! How?"
Kywa stands up and starts clearing the table, "Give me a minute and we can go visit Uncle Troy. When you left your ship here he fitted it with a tracker like all of our other ships"
Catra gets up from the table, "Can we go now?"
Kywa laughs, "Sure he's usually still up at this time"
Rogue gets up from the table, "I'll take her it's your turn to put the kids to bed"
Kywa salutes and points out her bottom lip, "Yes Ma'am".
The walk across the courtyard was relatively quiet. Even though they had spent time apart not talking but that was very different they were on opposing sides, so there was no reason that Adora shouldn't have contacted her by now
"You're worried about her aren't you?". Rogue asked, breaking Catra's concentration.
Catra blushes, "No"
Rogue raises an eyebrow, "Riiiight"
Catra puts her head back and groans, "Ok fine yes, I am very worried! Before she left things were absolutely perfect and I couldn't shake the feeling that things were too perfect and everything was just bound to fall apart again and it just…"
They arrive at Troy's house and Catra looks at Rogue, "...I'm freaking out over nothing aren't I?"
Rogue smiles and puts a hand on her shoulder, "You're passionate I'll give you that, but the only one that knows Adora better than anyone is you, so if you think she's in trouble then we need to find out".
She knocks on the door and almost immediately the door opens, Troy stands there in his brown leather apron each pocket filled with tools and parts.
"What is going on? Is everything alright?". Troy says frantically as he takes his goggles off.
"Everything is fine, can we come in?". Rogue asks.
Troy steps aside, "yes, yes, please come in".
Catra follows Rogue inside and immediately realises that Entrapta and Troy would get along great, the majority of the surfaces in his small room were covered with either broken parts or blueprints. Troy frantically looks around and moves an armful of stuff off one of the lounges and offers them a seat.
Troy pulls out the small stool from his work desk and sits down, "What can I do for you?".
"I'm worried about Adora she hasn't been in contact for a while, I heard you're able to track the ship", Catra said all in one breath.
Troy takes a moment to process what Catra said and then rolls his chair over to a strange-looking screen and pulls out a keyboard, each of the keys written in First Ones language.
"I can just give me a second",
"How do you even know First Ones language?". Catra asked inquisitively.
Troy smiles as he continues to type, "There are still several planets around us that still use it"
"And a lot of our higher-ranking soldiers have to learn it for diplomatic purposes", Rogue added.
"Oh, that's interesting I guess",
The screen suddenly beeps and Troy looks at the screen as the map zoomed in on the little flashing light.
Troy's ears drooped, "Uh oh"
"Uh oh? What is uh oh?!". Catra stood close to the screen trying to figure out what her uncle was looking at
Troy points a claw at the map, "The signal is coming from Eternia, more accurately from the capital Eternos"
"Why is that a problem?". Catra said sounding a little more frantic
"Considering Adora is She-ra it is going to be a problem for her especially if she ends up in Eternos", Rogue frowned.
"I was right she is in trouble, we have to get there!"
"Whoa hold on Catra, Purrsia isn't exactly on friendly terms with Eternia", Troy said crossing his arms.
"We have a fleet of First One ships, how are we not on friendly terms with them?".
"Because the majority of our fleet came from trading with the Felisians…", Troy's voice trailed off as he leaned on his elbow and rubbed his chin, "...We mightn't be able to get there just yet but I can certainly call in a favour to see what's going on, don't worry we'll find Adora"
Catra gave a weak smile, she couldn't help but worry now she almost lost her once there was no way she was going to go through that again.