Adora put on her jacket as she watched Catra sleep, her purrs causing the sheets around her to ripple a little. The low light from the early morning gives a warm glow to the fur on her back.
She looks so peaceful, Adora thought as she leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, deciding against waking her up. They had been up most of the night with the majority of it either Catra fussing over her injury or trying to figure out if Bow or Glimmer were more at fault.
Adora closed the door quietly and made her way down the stairs, the closer she got to the bottom the louder the voices from outside were. It didn't take long to find the source.
"Why is he so infuriating?!". Adora heard Thad's voice before she saw him come storming inside, a trail of thick snow falling to the ground matched by the amount of snow that covered his oversized fur coat.
"Thad! I wish you would stop fighting with him". Madelene called out to him as she followed behind him, neither of them saw Adora as she stood on the stairs debating on whether she should see what was going on or not, but curiosity got the better of her.
She made sure to stay out of sight, watching Thad as he threw his coat angrily over a chair and started pacing in front of the fireplace clenching his fists, "Why are you allowing him to stay here?".
"Because he needs to be here for Adora and Adam once we find him",
Thad scoffed, "So he can use them for his vendetta against Belthor just as he used my wife!"
"Thad! That is enough! What if Adora hears you?".
"I hope she does, she needs to know that man only ever does anything for himself".
Adora frowned, there is no way this could be happening again other people determining her fate, maybe she was right to keep her guard up, perhaps the gnawing feeling she has had all this time was a warning.
Madelene stands face-to-face with Thad, "You're old enough to deal with the issues between you and your father on your own, but what I won't allow is for you to poison Adora's mind before she even has a chance to get to know him", she sighs and turns away, "Even if it was his decision".
Adora stood silently fighting the urge to intervene, but after hearing what Madelene said she needed answers, "Tell me right now why you gave me to the Horde?".
Thad looked surprised to see Adora, Madelene looked over her shoulder at Adora. Now that Madelene didn't have her armour on Adora could see the scarred and raised skin that stretched across her shoulders and arms, "Are you suggesting I gave you away? Who told you that?"
"No one had to tell me anything! That has to be what happened judging by what Thad said!". Adora could feel the anger rising in her chest.
"The Horde and Lighthope have already manipulated me for most of my life, so why would I stay here and let people I barely know do it again!..., Adora let her voice trail off because the look on Madelene's face made her almost regret what she had said.
She looked at Thad and the hardness she had seen earlier had softened, "I'm sorry, I may have misspoken", his tone apologetic.
Madelene shooks her head and quickly wipes her cheeks, "You didn't, it's just difficult to find a place to start and I know we didn't have time to talk about anything really since you got here", she walked over to Adora, "The one thing I will tell you is I never gave you away, I wanted nothing more than for you and your brother to stay here with us even though Granamyr had told us you and Adam were the-",
"The twin warriors of destiny". Brendor interrupted.
"How much did you hear?". Madelene asked.
Brendor sighs, "Enough to know my children don't trust me, If you're looking for someone to blame Adora, blame me"
Adora shook her head, "I don't want to blame anyone I just want…to know who I am and why I ended up on Etheria".
Madelene nodded and looked at Brendor, "Can you give us a moment".
Brendor nodded, "We had better get going if we want to get the village on time", he motioned for Thad to follow who looked apologetically at Adora before leaving.
Adora walked over to the fireplace the flames slowly dancing across the blackened and burnt out wood, she was hoping the soft flames could help her form any kind of semblance of a question but everything she had ever felt or wanted to know tried to fight their way to the front of her mind.
"Why couldn't I stay here?". Adora frowned, barely recognising the soft voice that asked the question as hers.
"It became far too dangerous for you to stay here, at least until you were both old enough to come into your power and wield your swords". Madelene said just as softly.
"But you left me there...with the horde, do you even know what they were like?".
"We weren't told Adora, but I had the feeling something terrible was about to happen, so I had to put my full trust in your father, that he would do what's right and that our babies would be okay".
"You never thought about me?!".
"Every. Single. Day. For the last twenty years, I desperately wanted to know where you were, the kind of woman you would turn out to be, I even wondered how long it would be before you came home."
Madelene kneeled to absently stoke the fire, lost in thought.
"I was alone when I came to this world, Adora, a place I never in my wildest dreams thought existed. Even when Thad was born I allowed others to make decisions for me…It doesn't excuse what happened, I just…when I had you and Adam I trusted that everyone knew what was best for you, rather than trusting myself, I'm sorry".
Adora wasn't entirely sure how to make sense of this, even when Madelene's response had silenced some of the thoughts in her head. Surprisingly she found comfort in what Madelene had said. She knew better than anyone what it was like having others dictate your life.
Madelene stood up as the fire slowly came to life again, Adora's eyes drifted across the top of the high stone mantle where several different trinkets were spread out, and in the center sat a framed photo she reached to grab it.
Madelene smiled and stood beside Adora, "That was the last photo we had together".
Seeing the two babies, Adora recognised her own blue eyes staring at her and another baby in the middle of crying, Thad with his blonde hair and gapped teeth, there was a familiarity to him, but it wasn't until she looked at Brendor who was much younger and without his beard that she understood why.
She took the picture without saying a word, Madelene called after her but she was too focused on waking up Catra, she needed to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Making her way quickly up the stairs she missed several on the way.
"CATRA!". Adora said, swinging open the door.
Catra hissed loudly and fell out of the bed, she raised her head over the bed enough to glare at Adora with her mismatched eyes, "A simple Good Morning would have been fine!".
Adora nodded ignoring her protesting and jumped on the bed, "Come look at this".
Catra paused for a moment and Adora tapped the bed impatiently, she crawled up onto the bed and Adora smirked, Catra responded by slapping her in the face with her tail.
"So what is the emergency?".
Adora said nothing and just pointed at the picture, Catra tilted her head trying to figure out what she was supposed to be seeing. It was eerie looking at Madelene just like a different version of Adora holding a small version of herself. Standing next to her was Brendor and her eyes widened, she was right she had seen Brendor face before.
"That's-".
* * *"KYLE! What are you doing?". Lonnie shouted.
The Brightmoon guards watched on, some of them laughing and others just shaking their heads as Kyle tried unsuccessfully to walk with the heavy armour on, he steadied himself before standing up and straightening the helm that was too big.
"These were heavier than I was expecting!". Kyle said breathlessly.
Lonnie rolled her eyes as she turned back around to follow Juliet. How did Lonnie find it so easy to adjust to this, her armour fitted her perfectly, no one would be able to tell the difference between her or any of Brightmoon guards. Rogelio, on the other hand, had the opposite problem with his being too small, Rogelio growled his complaints as he tried to pull his armour down his body but it just crept back up.
"Because Scorpia said Brightmoon needed help". Kyle whispered as they followed Lonnie and Juliet, "Besides you missed her too", Kyle tried to playfully elbow Rogelio but connected with the pointed edge of the cuirass, he winched and started frantically rubbing his elbow.
After Scorpia reclaimed the Fright Zone, she didn't want to leave any of the remaining horde members without a home, so people could leave or stay as they pleased. The great thing was the people that stayed behind were finally able to start repairs that the Fright Zone desperately needed.
Lonnie was the first to leave, she wanted to see Brightmoon, she told everyone she wanted to know what was so special about the Glitter princess, even though Kyle knew she wanted to come here because it was beautiful and Kyle couldn't disagree with that, Rogelio took some convincing but now they both just drift between the Fright Zone and here helping out whenever they could.
They came to a section of the castle Kyle hadn't seen before and stopped at a large set of ornate purple doors with two guards standing outside, "Now these prisoners-". Juliet began.
"This is a prison?". Kyle interrupted. Lonnie responded by elbowing him. Juliet glared at him before continuing.
"As I was saying these prisoners were captured due to their involvement in a kidnapping attempt on the Queen, do not interact with them at all, are we clear?".
Both Kyle and Rogelio nodded, with Kyle's helm tumbling off and making a loud echo as it hit the floor. Juliet narrowed her eyes as Kyle smiled awkwardly, quickly picking up the helm and putting it back on.
The guards open the doors and they walked in, the room was huge, Kyle wondered how many Fright Zone cells could fit in here, the room even had an open balcony where you could see Swiftwind roaming around in the courtyard, for some reason it looked as though he was talking to himself.
"This is still the strangest looking prison I've ever seen", Kyle whispered to Rogelio who nodded and growled in agreement.
In the middle of the room was a large magic prison its purple walls reached up to the ceiling. Inside were three harpies, each a different colour they seemed to be arguing amongst themselves about something.
Kyle couldn't believe his eyes, he had heard others talk about the harpies when higher-ranking Horde officers came back from Talon Mountain but the younger cadets never got a chance to go there.
The white feathered harpy caught Kyle's eye, he was leaning against the cell wall with his arms folded. The rest of his feathers were puffed out, "I don't understand how we could be roped into this, this was your fault mother!". They pointed to the brown feathered harpy.
"Kale please calm down, how was I supposed to know they were after me for something that happened years ago".
The black-feathered harpy groaned, "I'm already in enough strife with Madelene as it is! If I had known this was going to happen I would've stayed in Eternia".
Kyle frowned, Eternia?
Why does that sound familiar?
The brown harpy scoffed and waved dismissively, "You're both acting as if this was my fault! I was trying to be a good neighbour and warn them about the troops camping outside the Half-Moon ruins".
They continued bickering as Lonnie tapped Kyle on the shoulder.
"Did you hear any of what Juliet just said?"
Kyle smiled cautiously, "Yes?".
Lonnie groaned, "Come on Kyle, I appreciate you being here but don't embarrass me in front of my boss".
Kyle smirked, "Oh…Juliet's your boss now?".
That made Lonnie smile a little, changing the subject she pointed to a nearby table, "Those things over there were confiscated from the prisoners they need to be taken to storage".
Kyle saluted and tapped his helm, "label and stored, got it".
Rogelio raised an eyebrow and growled to Lonnie, "Oh it's fine, you're going to help him".
Lonnie smiled and Rogelio's face dropped as Lonnie walked back towards Juliet.
As Kyle walked over to the table with Rogelio dragging his feet behind him, they didn't see Swiftwind outside trying his best to stay out of sight by hiding behind a pillar.
"Ok, Adora the fox is in the hen house, repeat the fox is in the hen house", Swiftwind said as he stuck his head around to survey the room
"Swiftwind, please, no spy talk, just concentrate on getting to Kwyn". Adora pleaded
"Kwyn, right", Swiftwind looked over at the prisoners, taking note of where the guards were standing. There were two standing at a large table and another two standing by the door, he took a deep breath, "Ok I'm going in".
Swiftwind snuck into the room slowly, putting his wings over his face peering through them, luckily the guards weren't paying any attention although his strange behvaiour didn't go unnoticed by Kale.
Kale raised an eyebrow and pointed, "Why is there a dancing horse in here?".
Kwyn looked around and recognised Swiftwind, who had now made his way to the cell wall and peeked over his wings still hiding his face, "Which one of you is Kwyn", he shifted his eyes side to side.
Kwyn casually made her way over and stood next to Kale, "You must be Swiftwind".
Swiftwind gasped, "You know my name! Seems stories of my heroic deeds have reached other planets!".
"Swiftwind! Focus".
"Ok, ok. Adora wants me to tell you she knows who Adam is".
Kale pushed Kwyn out of the way to face Swiftwind, "Tell me!"
"Hey, quiet down", Kwyn said quietly.
Kale shook his head, "No, I will not be stuck out there in that hut with Madame Razz making my feathers into a blanket again!"
"Better you than me", Swiftwind replied cheekily.
"Who let you in here?". Lonnie said as she approached Swiftwind.
Swiftwind shifted on his feet, "Oh me? I'm here because…uh…OH! As a fellow winged creature I might be able to provide valuable insight into why they would…do crime", he smiled awkwardly.
Loonie narrowed her eyes, she was about to interrogate Swiftwind further until they were distracted by a bright light, the source coming from the table of items Kyle and Rogelio were near.
"Really Kyle?!". Lonnie shouted.
Swiftwind looked over with both Kwyn and Kale following his gaze, "That's him, that's Adam"
Kale shared a confused look with Kwyn and looked over at the one called Kyle, he was fighting with the taller green guard, forcing one another to hold something bathed in sky blue light. Kale recognised it immediately, the strange timer that he had borrowed from Madame Razz it was now violently shaking every time Kyle would hold it.
Kale closed his eyes and morphed into a large white bird, "KYLE!", their voice echoed around the room. Kyle stopped immediately what he was doing and stared at Kale almost as if he was in a trance.
Adam, child of Darksmoke and He-Man champion of Eternia...Remember.
Kale could a deep breath and let out an ear-piercing sound. The timer burst open flooding the room in bright blue light, momentarily blinding everyone. Kyle tried to blink the brightness out of his eyes, but as he looked around he wasn't in Brightmoon he was standing near a portal and watched as two small babies were carried by the two harpy prisoners into a portal. Across from him stood a blurry version of Adora, who seemed just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.
No sooner did the vision appear it was gone, there was a sudden ringing in his ears accompanied by muffled voices but they didn't sound like the voices from anyone in the room. As the ringing died down he could hear someone speak.
"What do you mean we have to share this frequency? Telepathic connection is our thing, Adora!". Swiftwind said, sounding annoyed and upset.
Kyle looked around the room, everyone was still trying to adjust their sight to the room lighting.
"Why can I hear Adora's horsey?". Kyle wasn't entirely sure how this was happening, "Wait is this voice coming from my mind?!"
"OK! First things first if you're going to encroach on mine and Adora's personal and best friend space you will refer to me as Mr. Swiftwind, Champion of Etheria, friend and liberator to all horse kind!".
"Kyle? Kyle is that you? Can you hear me?", Adora asked
Kyle looked around the room again frantically, looking for any sign of Adora but she wasn't there, "Yep I'm losing my mind, I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING!"
"OH NO ADORA'S HE'S SPIRALLING!".
"Kyle, listen to me, where are you right now?"
"Brightmoon, why?".
"Good stay there we're coming to you".
"Adora! Please tell me what's happening!"
"I'll tell you everything as soon as we get there".
The ringing in his ears stopped and he looked at Lonnie whose muffled sounding voice became clearer Kyle could hear her saying his name.
"Kyle, are you ok?". Lonnie looked concerned. Kyle sat on the ground and stared at the ground trying to figure out what had just happened.
"I could hear Adora in my head". Kyle said still looking at the ground
"What are you talking about? Adora isn't even here".
Kyle could feel his thoughts starting to shout at him all at once.
"She was talking to me and then the horse was also talking to me and-".
Lonnie grabbed Kyle's face, "Did you hit your head?"
Kyle pulled his face away and was automatically picked up by Rogelio who held him out studying him, he gave a concerning series of growls.
"I'm fine...I think, put me down please". The more he thought about what Adora said the more confused he felt.
Rogelio put him down and stood still for a moment as his mind was still racing with thoughts and questions. He looked over at the strange item he was holding it now laid in pieces on the floor. Amongst them was a perfect oval-shaped sky blue runestone.