Royalty

by Nasha Rei-Kun

Lineage was a big part of Etheria and Naruto Uzumaki was forced into making one of his own. To protect his comrades, his friends, his family, and even people like Shadow Weaver and Hordak. Adora and Catra had a big part in it, too, despite all the pain and trials they'd go through. They were a big part of his 'royalty', in the end.

8. Year Long VI

Current Episode: S2 E2

~NRK~

The 'surprise' was as annoying as one would expect.

"HORDAK-DAMMIT!" Catra screamed as Adora held her own head in thought. "OF COURSE, THIS SHIT WOULD HAPPEN TO US!"

"Catra, wait," Adora said with a thoughtful frown as Catra let out a few annoyed, worried, breaths. "We can't lose our heads, we need to grab what we need and just get out of here," she explained as the cat girl grunted. "Right now, we've got two days to look all over this place with Catty's help. With her flight capabilities, we should still be able to make it."

The other Captain frowned before letting out one more frustrated breath and nodding. "Fine… Freaking fine, let's go and find these damn lenses," Catra said as Adora smiled. "Still, can… Can we find them in time?" She asked.

"We will," Adora said as she tapped her sword. "The thing is, I do have flight capabilities now," she added. "I think fusing with Catty unlocked something within me because I could float in the showers."

"You were floating in the showers?"

"Yep."

'Well, that's new,' Catra thought flatly. "Well… Alright, I guess we can fly up above everything and keep looking," she said out loud, looking a bit relieved.

"Still, we can't be too relaxed," Adora said with a look out into the area. "There are still monsters around here and the heat might get too much in certain areas."

"Then, I can go!" Catty declared with a raised fist. "I can keep on looking over volcanoes and everything!"

"Well… She's got a point," the blonde chuckled. "For now," she raised her weapon.

Shadowy magic flowed down her arm towards her back before floating away from her and forming a familiar cloak.

"I-I guess this is how this works?"

Adora hopped a bit and grinned nervously at her floating form tilting above the ground.

"I-I think I've got it!" She said with growing confidence. "Thank the heavens, Catty gave me a good idea on how this works!"

"What about your sword's charge?" Catra asked as Catty fused into her and had her floating as well. "Mmm, man, this is so easy," she smirked as she floated upside-down.

"You can't ruin this for me!"

"Hah!"

---

During a small break, Catty grinned as she handed her mother and aunt a pair of black headbands covered in glowing gold scripture.

"Dad wants you both to learn how to use energy around us," she smiled. "The thing is, since dad & me can take in energy/magic from his surroundings, we realized we can give you guys that!"

"That makes so much sense, I-I didn't even realize it," Adora said in shock and awe while Catra tied hers around her bicep, leaving it with two trailing 'tails'. "So, with this, we can freely use the energy of our surroundings?" She asked as she put hers on.

"Basically!"

"Alright, how do we start?" Catra asked with a raised brow. "We are on a time limit, after all."

"So, first, you gotta try to feel it out, mom," Catty said, getting a nod from her maternal creator. "Dad didn't think this would happen so he was prepared for us to do a bunch of exercises to feel it out… But we don't have time!" She declared as she held out her hands.

A large ball of shimmering golden red magic formed between the three from the familiar's hands, the two Captains blinking in surprise at it.

"Feel it, you two."

Adora blinked at the energy before reaching out towards it, closing her eyes with a focused hum.

Her sensory vest already allowed her to 'feel' the power, the feeling not something she was unused to.

Catra, meanwhile, felt her fur twitch at the feeling, crossing her arms with closed eyes. 'Feel it, huh?' She had no sensory skill but Catra had always had a sort of 'inkling' for it.

She'd been around magic for years, Shadow Weaver's liberal use of it, Naruto's recent outrageous amount, and even the Corruption Dragon's own made her familiar with it.

So, when she focused on it, she found herself finding not just the powers around but the ones in Adora's sword and their Body Incantations.

"I can feel it…" She said with a focused hum.

"Same," Adora repeated. "I'm more impressed by how you can grasp it so easily," she complimented.

"The thing is, I've been around magic just like yours, Naruto's, and Shadow Weaver's. Think about it," Adora did. "And despite not having the talent for it, I've got senses and experience that let me differentiate it. Well, that and our new enchanted stuff's helped and Catty fusing with me, too. It's honestly not that hard."

Surprising. 'Even with my sensory skills, I can only focus on one thing,' did Catra have another 'physical' affinity besides her chains? "Good," she grinned. "Alright, Catty, what's next?"

~NRK~

Working as they had for the past twenty-four hours, Kyle sat with Lonnie and Rogelio as they wore their jumpsuits half-off.

"Damn thing's a miracle at work, I swear," Lonnie said as they looked at their half-finished tube. "So, we'll put in the hot sand first followed by the water? Wouldn't it be better to have him soaking in some of this stuff in a potion or something, ma'am?" She asked the still-focusing woman behind them a bit away.

"Not incorrect but that will likely mess with all the other healing supplements," Shadow Weaver said as she finally stood up, her thirteen floating arrays, books, and spells shifting into several piles around her. "I can't imagine how such a concoction will interact with the other items."

"That makes sense," Kyle said. "D-Did you find anything? Ma'am?"

"It's sadly not in my skill set to heal, that I've learned long ago. No, what I needed was to find spells and/or books that could help boost Naruto's own soul or elements. Like his purification magic and I believe I might have found the spell… It will be just a smidge dangerous."

The three sweatdropped at her clear sarcasm. "Hmm?" Rogelio raised a brow as she shrugged.

"It's a last resort. For now, I need to make a soul-stabilizing artifact and that will take some time," Shadow Weaver said with a glare. "The issue is, I fear for what will happen on the Moons of Enchantment's alignment."

"What do ya mean?" Lonnie asked as she wiped her brow, a tank top beneath her open jumpsuit. "Like magic kind of stuff?"

"No, the thing I worry about is that we might be giving those horrid individuals too much credit," she explained, confusing the trio. "What will happen if they attack when their magic is also at its peak?"

Kyle paled as Lonnie wheezed out a breath.

Rogelio's eyes narrowed before he wrote in his notepad and showed it.

We can't let them destroy our work OR get to Naruto.

He cupped his chin before nodding and writing something down.

Ma'am, can we move Naruto EARLIER?

Shadow Weaver blinked at his written words, tapping her mask's chin. "We probably can but you all can imagine what the biggest obstacle is, yes?"

"The medbay would alert Lord Hordak ASAP," Lonnie considered. "We'd never be able to do it without him knowin' and we don't know if he won't care enough to not check it out."

"Exactly. Hordak's temperament with Naruto is surprising but it's also become quite the odd obstacle. Right now, we need to finish this as soon as possible."

"Gotcha," Kyle and Lonnie nodded as Rogelio hummed before getting up. "Lio?"

He showed them his vials off to the side being circulated.

"Right, Lio's got his own thing, too," Kyle said determinedly. "We've gotta do our part," he added to Lonnie who smirked.

"Damn right."

~NRK~

Scorpia nodded as she finally reached 'it'.

"Man… I haven't seen this place in a while," she said to herself as she looked over what looked like a barren wasteland.

What with its hazy orange sands, numerous caverns, half-sunk, tilted, broken buildings, and the odd rock here or there, one wouldn't be remiss to say this was nothing but nothing.

Still, Scorpia knew this place better than anything.

'Alright, it's only been a day, I can get back in time,' she thought as she hurried on, a large backpack capsule on her back. 'Now, if I'm remembering correctly, shouldn't the healing sands be from a deep crevice?'

It took thirty minutes to reach one of the four large openings in the ground and as she looked in, Scorpia grinned nervously.

"That is gonna take a bit," she said, noting the hissing green streams down below.

~NRK~

Glimmer, Bow, and Castaspella nodded to the array within the room they'd reserved for this event.

"It's taken a whole day," Glimmer said with an accomplished groan. "B-But we're done!"

"Yes, it's thanks to you having such a knack for this," Bow chuckled. "And with my mechanical know-how, we barely kept up with Ms. Casta!"

"You two did remarkably well, that's no lie," Castaspella praised the two. "Now, this spell's purpose is to strengthen Naruto's connection with your Runestone, Glimmer. I'm still not sure why that's the case but if you can use your connection to help force back the darkness of broken balance, you should be able to overturn his body's woes."

"So, wait, w-why not mom?" Glimmer asked.

"Your mother's too busy, for one, but then people would be asking questions if she disappeared for long periods of time. You're perfect for this role."

The Princess balked before looking down at her hands and nodding. "You're right! Mom's gotta run the kingdom while I've gotta help the people as best I can!"

"Naruto's bound to change things," Bow chuckled. "You might not know it but I know he's waiting for a day to bring his friends over to the good guy side," he grinned as Glimmer perked up. "And, man, who knows the kind of respect you'd get for helping him with that decision."

"FOR BRIGHT MOON!"

~NRK~

Frosta covered her face as the winds of the Northern Reach battered their carts, the Ice Princess peeking out the front. "This is so rough!" She said as Blue nodded, their Hinter Bear powering through without issue. "N-No wonder these tough birds are out here!" She shouted over the blizzard.

"My lady, if you will," Frosty said as he came out from behind Frosta's tiara. "Ahem… STOP SNOW!" He called out to the world around them as he glowed with a powerful blue light.

It spread out and flashed before he stopped, Princess and guard looking surprised by the lack of snow pelting them.

"That's AMAZING, Frosty!" Frosta said with a grin.

"My lady, remember, I am simply your powers in a lesser container, you will one day be greater than I can possibly be," he said with a pleased tone as he moved to float just above her tiara. "Thankfully, the feedback loop from my environment, and my co-creator's assistance, makes this easily doable. We need to thank him properly."

"Yeah."

Blue nodded as he kept them going for a time before, maybe three hours later, they found their location.

Frosta gasped softly as she saw the sheer length of this giant snow pit. "I-It's HUGE! And those birds nest here?" She asked Blue who nodded, cupping his chin as their Hinter Bear stopped.

"The thing is, the birds aren't normal. They've wings, yes, but they're not avid flyers. Icsies are ones who prefer to rest on the ground or in frozen nests," he explained. "For now, we'll have to see if we can't find them over the length of this pit."

Frosta looked nervous before steeling her resolve.

"Alright!" The Princess said. "Frosty, I'm gonna need your help!"

"At a moment's notice, madam," Frosty declared.

~NRK~

Perfuma groaned against a table, all around her odd flowers sat in wood pots.

"Mmmm…" She whined with a pout, twirling her finger against the wood. 'I-I don't think they're strong enough,' odd as it was to think?

With Naruto showing her how damaging, painful, and corruptive the Corruption attacking him was, she had a 'feel' for it. Perfuma knew how dangerous it felt and a smidge of the effects.

Needless to say, she didn't feel confident.

"Think, think, think," she repeated in thought as she looked around for inspiration. 'The Pacifista Lilies are known for their healing powers,' but it wasn't useful as it was.

It needed more… Like to be consumed…

"Wait," she perked up. "Herbs?" Was she thinking too narrowly?! "If he eats them, that might be perfect!" But she needed to know how to make edible ones.

Perfuma swallowed as she looked at the 113 plants she'd made in the past 24 hours.

"T-To the universe," she said weakly.

~NRK~

Their travels around the kingdom of Candila Mountain hadn't given them much in over six hours. In that time, Catra and Adora had decided to do their best to ignore their rations, water, and food as much as they could before they needed to eat.

So, they searched the areas around the mountain's right side first and foremost.

The whole way, they'd found old half-broken houses, fields, farms, and even an odd amount of 'windmills'. Those quotes were there for a reason as they observed one up close.

"Huh, it's full of soot and stuff," Catra said with crossed arms, Adora tilting her head at the windmill's broken-down blades. "Ya think it was supposed to protect 'em from it?"

"... No, wait, I think this was supposed to turn with the soot," the blonde realized with interest. "Look at all the blades. They're so thick, there's no way wind would turn them. Then, there's the nets on them, they're too fine, I think they used the soot to turn them."

"Isn't that crazy dangerous?"

"Maybe? We don't know what it was like for them in the past but it's clear they had a culture."

After that, they'd continued on for another two hours before finding themselves back at their original spot.

Their stomachs growled as evening began to set in.

With Catty's help, they cobbled together some large stones into a makeshift 'tent' through melting though that came with some surprise.

"They're so hard to melt," Catra said as Catty kept laying on the flames at the top of two large slabs into a triangular shape. "... Wait," she squinted as Adora set up their cooking station. "Aren't these metal?"

Looking up from the small can she was heating up, Adora blinked as the two rocks became shiny slag under Catty's power.

"They are," she balked. "In a way, it makes sense, they live near a volcano, there are bound to be tough materials here like Scorpia said," the blonde immediately responded.

Setting up underneath it once everything cooled down enough via Catty's wind powers, they ate their food with gusto but as much control as they could.

"Mmm," Catra groaned under the 'tent', flat on her back. "Dammit, I know we need self-control but I'm still kinda hungry."

Her fellow Captain nodded, messing with her communicator. "Hmm…" Adora hummed softly as she pressed the buttons to no effect, Catty sitting on Catra's stomach.

"What do you think, aunty?" Catty asked Adora who sighed.

"I guess we'd have to go over the divide to get any messages, so… Catty, can you go out there, high up, and see if you can get something?"

"Alright!"

Taking the machine, the familiar girl flew out and then high into the sky over the divide.

As she did, Catty kept messing with the communicator every other second before grinning as, once she reached the other side, it sprung to life.

And found an eating Lonnie on its screen. -Mmm? Glp, Catty? What's going on?-

Catty explained the whole situation at Mount Candila, the others turning on their communicators, sending the screen into a four-way split with Shadow Weaver being their last person.

-I see- The shadowy woman rubbed her chin. -If so, then I'm sure we're all on the same page. We can not trust Chimera's words. Yet, you say that you've got a clear passage to Mystacor? Hmm… I wonder…-

"What about, ma'am?" Catty asked.

-Naruto needs to be treated as soon as possible without a doubt. Any healing that can happen sooner than later is better than none happening at all- Shadow Weaver explained. -The issue is, Catty, we don't know how to do that right now. The tube is going to take more time, the items we can use aren't all ready, and, even then, we can't just take him, it'll attract too many eyes-

Catty considered her words. 'Dad needs healing as soon as possible,' hadn't Castaspella said something, though?

Something about giving him numerous baths…?

"I-I might have an idea," she said unsurely. "What if I took dad?"

The four blinked before considering the idea. -Well… In a way, that'd work, maybe- Kyle hummed in thought. -If we made it out that Catty took Naruto and we went to find her, that might work- He smiled.

-But she'd have to come back and now those two don't have a skiff- Lonnie said, reminding them. -And the fact remains, they don't have enough food for a longer excursion-

Catty blinked at an idea. "What if I brought them stuff!?" She asked, excited by the idea. "I-I can hurry back, take dad and some food!"

Shadow Weaver rubbed her chin at the idea. -Well… It could be played off as you trying to help him, too… But you'll need to inform Adora and your mother, Catty-

"I know! But what if knowing about this makes her think it's a good idea, too?"

Shadow Weaver shrugged.

"Alright! I'm gonna go and see if they're fine with this!" Catty smiled.

-Alright, later, kid- Lonnie nodded.

-Take care- Kyle.

-Hmph- Rogelio.

-Be sure to look out for them, Catty… I'm down enough students as is- Shadow Weaver said. -... Be swift-

The calls ended as she grew determined, flying back down towards Catra and Adora.

When she made it to the front of their tent, Catty sweatdropped as she found the two mid-bite of their third cans of food.

"Mwhoa!" Adora swallowed and hid hers with a weak grin as Catty giggled. "Um… You caught us red-handed," she admitted with a slump.

"Yeppers!" The childish spirit said. "But I've got big news!"

Catra raised a brow, finishing her food as fast as possible and chewing. "Mwhat?" She asked.

Explaining to the two what she'd learned and talked about, they looked pensive.

"Moving him would probably be for the best," Adora said. "It's just… If Catty does go, it'll be, at the very least, an entire day before she gets back to us," she explained to the feline duo. "I'm sure it's for the best but then we're going to be fending on our own and you won't be able to fly anymore, Catra."

"I'll just climb," the feline teen explained. "If Catty's able to go move Naruto to, say, Bright Moon," she emphasized, Adora looking shocked at the idea. "Then, we're good. If the others can follow through and act like they're following her for the Horde, that'd work out in our favor. The only downside is what Shadow Weaver might do to piss off the Princess."

Her fellow Captain paled as she wore a nervous grin, Catra nodding with a flat expression.

"Master has to be on her best behavior. If she isn't, she might blow our chances."

"I-I think," Adora said slowly. "Shadow Weaver cares enough to not start something… While Naruto needs healing," she added a moment later. "I think, if he gets up immediately post-healing, he'll be able to talk her down and… A-And…" Adora blinked as Catra blinked at her. "Hey, Catra… What do we do if everyone's over in Mystacor and Chackles's group attacks the Horde?"

Catra's tail curled up into a question mark, opening her mouth to respond only for her extra limb to go limp.

"H-Huh?"

"I just… If all of us, even Master, is not in the Horde and they get attacked… Should we even go back?"

The tent was silent as Catty perked up at the idea.

"T-That's…" Catra looked utterly baffled as she sat there, looking nervous. "..."

"... I think, if that comes to be… We'll stay with Bright Moon," Adora said with a determined expression. "If those guys have already come to attack us by then," she added quickly as Catra let go of a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "I-It's just, especially if Naruto's awake, what more would we have to worry about? All of us are not at the Horde base, they're currently being attacked, and they might lose."

"W-We'd still need to fight those guys, though."

"Yeah, we would… But we'd all have done it regardless."

Adora let out a deep breath before nodding.

"That's what I think."

Catra swallowed. 'She's right,' her mind said.

They'd literally have all the criteria down to just… LEAVE. Even Shadow Weaver being there might not be the worst thing and even if the Horde won.

Who's gonna leave the weakened bad guys of the planet alone?

"T-That's insane," Catra said.

"I-I know but we'd be able to do good."

They would. "... Fine, if all those things match up," she said, getting a grin out of her friend. "Still, we have to hope to the heavens that everything goes our way."

"Yeah but we know our win condition," Adora smiled.

"Alright, well, Catty," the familiar perked up. "Go on, we'll do our best here, alright, kid?"

She ruffled the child spirit's head of hair and Catty grinned.

"I'll be back as soon as possible!" She nearly squealed.

"Please, be careful in the Fright Zone, we all know you're not built for it," Catra warned as the girl nodded.

"Gotcha! Cadet Catty is off on important business!"

She zipped off into the distance, flying form fast and disappearing from sight in ten seconds.

Catra's shoulders went a bit limp as she considered all of this. '... If this doesn't work out,' she had an idea.

She'd need support, though. And, if from no one else.

She'd like Naruto to help her with this.

---

The next hour, they chose to walk off their food and look around as the weight of their words settled into the back of their minds.

By the end, they began running and flying.

As they passed more and more land, the two winced as they realized what'd need to happen.

"I'll check up top," Adora said as she lifted off the ground while Catra went into any of the houses around the area. "Without Catty, we're cut down on our efficiency," she muttered.

Still, they had to do something.

~NRK~

Catty flew at great speeds, zeroing-in on her father's signature as she passed the desert's sands more and more.

After an hour, she was out of the territory with thirty minutes later putting her above the Whispering Woods.

'I can do this!' She thought with a grand smile, zooming past the trees of the wide territory. 'Get dad to Bright Moon and then make it so everyone follows me!' The child thought as her body glowed like a red and gold comet. 'I know mom said to be careful of the Zone but I gotta hurry!'

Wind pooled around her before the spirit shot off at speeds comparable to a Horde carrier, skipping past land at a frightening pace.

As she did, passing over the Whispering Woods in under an hour, Catty blinked as a small niggling thought rubbed at the back of her mind.

Wasn't she forgetting something?

As she flew closer and closer to the Horde Empire, Catty frowned as she made to simply fly on through-

And hit an electrifying energy wall, the spirit's body spasming as she did.

It filled her entire being with pain and she stumbled away from it before slowly falling towards the pools of green below.

Only saved, at the last moment, by Kyle on a skiff. The pilot grimaced as he held her close.

"SHIT!"

~NRK~

Shadow Weaver had taken Catty upon first sight, the sorceress grimacing vocally as she quickly encased the familiar in a ball of shadowy energy.

'Damn it all!' Those stupid barriers! "... Snnn… We should have remembered," Shadow Weaver stated as the other three grimaced.

"Tsk, I'd totally forgotten about them, they look like our normal spires!" Lonnie kissed her teeth. "Fuckin', how long do you think she'll be out?" She asked, worried, looking at Catty with a sad sigh. "Not that kid, come on."

"Not soon enough. Her spiritual form is, thankfully, still in-tact but her energy network has been disturbed," she hadn't realized how 'impressive' Hordak's engineers must have been. "It's like she's got a fever and needs to sleep it off… Give or take a couple days."

"As in less than eight, right?"

"..."

"... M-Ma'am?" Kyle asked, suddenly very worried.

"It seems, someone's going to need to go and make a supply run to Adora and Catra," Shadow Weaver said, eyes never leaving Catty's unconscious form. "Right now, those two are a day's worth of food away from starving to death, most likely, and now their fast path out of there is unconscious."

Rogelio winced while Lonnie grimaced.

Kyle looked down in thought before considering something. "Wait," he spoke up, gaining the group's attention. "R-Right now, as we all know, everyone is now on-base. No one's outside, not a single person," the human boy said. "So, that means that if someone could teleport out of here…"

The three looked at Shadow Weaver who huffed.

"I might but that requires an array of my powers…" She grumbled before twirling her left hand, a formula forming in the air before vanishing into a scroll that flew into Kyle's hands. "You need to get out of here, that's the issue. That's going to require a bit more than an excuse that we don't have anymore."

"... Wait," Lonnie said, gaining the group's attention. "You might not know it, ma'am, but you know how we have some half-finished ports? They're still being made to give us more ship stations," she whispered. "The thing is, they're not fully up-to-line with all our systems, they need more wiring and shit so they're technologically unmonitored."

Shadow Weaver's eyes narrowed at the emphasis. "... So, right now, we need to distract what guards are there," she muttered. "Do you know how many are…?"

"No…" Lonnie grinned. "But, wouldn't ya know it? People are allowed to grab shifts, ma'am."

~NRK~

When night fell, Rogelio, Lonnie, and a few of their old cadet-mates took the guard duties over at an unfinished port.

… With fucking Lou there as well.

'No plan survives contact,' Lonnie thought as she wore a full Horde uniform, her face covered by her helmet's thick visor. 'Still, this isn't going to end well,' they weren't surprised by Lou's presence, thankfully.

Having convinced some of their old mates to join in on this particular effort, unknowingly, with some vouchers, she'd made sure to know who the commanding Captain-in-charge would be.

Following that up, she looked up everything she could about Lou to be prepared and came away with some worrisome things.

'He's basically a fucking bloodnose,' a specialized animal from some old folk tales they'd been told as kids, still didn't know if it was real, by the way. 'And Kyle's gotta slip through…'

The plan was to have their pilot carry Catty and the teleportation scroll out of there. The supplies would have to wait.

But this wasn't good.

The wolfman looked at the gathered group of young soldiers before huffing as he folded his arms behind his back. "You all know your duties, you're to mind the perimeter," Lonnie perked up at that. "You'll rotate positions on my command and none of you are to leave your position without my word," Lou declared as he paced in front of the group. "You two," he gestured to Lonnie and Rogelio, the first two in the line.

"Hmph?" The young lizard man grunted, gaining the wolf man's interest.

"Ah, you're like Dray," he said, shrugging. "Just grunt, I'm well-aware not all of your species can speak."

"Hmph."

"You two will be guarding the main tunnel," the wolf man explained. "It's thankfully short but it still feeds into our base's main access tunnels. Go through it and report anything back," he ordered as the two nodded, hefting their rifles and marching in perfect step down the catwalk's stairs.

When they reached the bottom, sliding down a ladder to do so, they landed on a half-treaded path that held some loose cords and the like.

"... Um," Lonnie spoke through her helmet's built-in earpiece.

Looking further into the dark tunnel, she saw the small of light glints in a random fashion.

She 'missed' it and focused on the sparks. "Boss man, you sure it's safe for anyone to be down here?"

-Hmph, our armor has gotten a pair of upgrades over the past month, there's some new insulation on the outer edges that'll handle any loose sparks- Lou said, the sound of tapping coming through. -Like I said, anything that comes through that seems odd, report back-

"Alright."

"Hmph," Rogelio nodded to her, tail covered by a black insulated bit of fabric.

They walked down the tunnel.

~NRK~

Razz waited in concern, pacing in her large hut in the woods that Bow and Naruto had helped her 'upgrade'.

"That wasn't my Mara," she realized weakly, the birds in her hair chirping in concern. "But she feels just like her… She's the next She-Ra," Razz considered before stopping with her head down in thought. "I… I-I have to see her again," she muttered softly before gesturing to her birds. "She was in the Horde but her eyes were so bright and full of good & truth."

They chirped in unison before flying around her.

"I-I guess I'll find her… But I don't know where she is at the moment… Ah! That's it, go and find the pilot boy! He might know! Hurry back!"

~NRK~

Kyle adjusted his black cap with a fake Bright Moon logo on it, his all-black outfit hiding all of him, even his skin.

Next to his seat, in a medium-sized basket, Catty laid. The unconscious spirit remained unresponsive as he frowned. "We'll make this right," he whispered to her as he turned on the power in the medium-sized custom skiff. 'This is your test drive,' he muttered.

This had been so last minute, this camouflage project, so he didn't even know if it'd work.

'It doesn't matter, we're helping them no matter how this goes.'

As his ride began to float off the ground silently, he saw Rogelio and Lonnie pass him with dual nods.

"We don't see anything," Lonnie declared into her earpiece. "It's real dark in here even with our lights," she admitted truthfully, the area brightened a bit but was otherwise still dark. 'This is the best we've got,' she thought.

"Hmph," Rogelio sniffed the air.

"Ro's not smelling anything either."

Another thing to focus on, especially with the knowledge of who'd be captaining this situation.

-Hmph, just focus on the passage and come back then- Lou said over the speakers, Kyle nodding to his internal radio.

'It's good we prepared for this, too,' now, all that was left was to leave as fast as he could. "Pheewwww…" He let out a breath before grabbing his steering controls. "Beginning drive in three… Two…"

-Hmm? Hold up, there's some sort of disturbance ahead-

Kyle nearly stumbled before he balked, Lonnie & Rogelio also confused.

"Huh?" Lonnie called back. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

-There's… Is that an enemy attack?- Lou growled. -We have glowing chirping projectiles coming now! Get back here!-

The pilot's eyes widened. 'Glowing birds?' What?

Then, he heard the chirps getting closer and closer over the radio, his eyes narrowing slowly as he listened… And heard something familiar.

---

"M-Ma'am, please," Kyle spoke gently with Razz as he took her back to her home. "I know but trust in them, we do."

The woman looked down as they walked, the birds in her hair chirping in an odd octave that still bore a similar tone.

"Those are some curious birds," he said, trying to take her mind off the lights in the distance.

"... They're Coo-Coos," the woman said slowly, reaching up to rub the head of one of them. "They've been my little helpers ever since Earth Boy arrived. They sing so well, too," Razz admitted with a small smile. "Mara would like them despite how noisy they could be."

---

'RAZZ'S BIRDS?!'

His body set in before he was shooting out of the passage, startling Rogelio and Lonnie.

"W-What the fuck!?"

-Report!- Lou ordered.

"U-Um, sudden… Departure?" Lonnie was confused. 'Why'd Kyle freak like that?' What was going on?

Meanwhile, with Kyle, he raced down the path as the lights, and chirps, grew more intense, the sound of gunfire causing his body to double-down.

He made it out in time with more fire, the blazing lights of the Coo-Coos gaining his immediate attention, his ship's camouflage flickering as he shot out just past them.

Lou's eyes dilated at the sight of a net snatching up the disturbances before shooting out of the Empire.

"WHAT?!" He roared as Lonnie and Rogelio came running out.

"SIR?!" She called out, rifled raised, aimed, but not fired. "What do we do?!"

The wolf man's eyes narrowed as he gripped the railings around him, eyes tracing that odd skiff into the distance. "... We might have another traitor in our midst."

Lonnie frowned behind her helmet but understood this as well.

This was also possible and, unfortunately, they'd have to live with it.

---

Kyle kept going, his ship going down as fast as it could towards the wicked green glows of the Horde base's run-off, thankful for the single weakness in their new spires being that it didn't go all the way down.

He got low enough to skim beneath it before shooting out into the pass between the two mountains, his heart beating in his ears as the Coo-Coos sat on his shoulders.

"I-I know this is sudden but you're with me for a bit," he told them as they shot down the path, the lack of a siren getting a sigh to leave his lips. 'We could be traitors for this… But we also planned for you, Lou,' Kyle thought with a glare ahead.

The former-youngest-Captains-ever duo were noted to have a large amount of pride, they'd never reveal this to Hordak before they could figure out who it was that did it.

'I have to hurry,' to help everyone, not just Naruto, Catra, and Adora. 'I won't be a liability,' they could win on all fronts here.

But he needed to do his job fast!

As he passed miles upon miles of land, the area around him slowly transitioned into a forest.

~NRK~

"Perhaps…" Shadow Weaver said to herself as she felt the blip of shadow on Kyle slowly vanish into the distance.

The trio's planning, understanding of their fellow Horde's mindset, and downright devious natures had truly surprised and yet pleased her.

"These ones are worth something," she considered as a familiar metal bar floated within an orb of energy, the inscription burning brighter and brighter as the item formed into a bangle. "Bah, I'm growing 'tender'," the shadow woman groaned even as she sat there with her eyes closed. "All because of one stupid boy."

~NRK~

"O-Okay," Glimmer swallowed as she looked down at the array, sitting cross-legged within it. "S-So, I just go into the Princess Zo… Um, correction, Royalty Zone and talk to him?"

"You keep bringing up this concept I'm unfamiliar with," Castaspella said with a curious look. "I really need to experience this one of these months, it sounds so interesting!" She chuckled. "And, to your question… Yes?"

"Right, um, let me try?" It came out more like a question but Glimmer figured, what was there to lose?

"I've. Got. Everything," Bow said as he finished putting down ten lit candles around the perimeter of the circle before lighting some sage. "Hmmm~ Relaxing~," he said with closed eyes and a prayer.

"Bow, this is serious."

"I'm being serious. Naruto says that having good ambiance helps with meditation, sometimes."

Glimmer rubbed the back of her head before assuming a generic meditation stance. "Mmm…" She focused inward, brows trembling a bit. 'N-Naruto?' She thought out.

There was something there, something deep she thinks? Yet, it was like it was 'far away' while she was trying to swim towards it.

'What is that?' It felt weird to even do this and yet, here she was, describing something with a whole sentence. 'God, this is weird,' she struggled a bit, body fidgeting.

"Do you think she's doing it?" Bow asked with a whisper. "I-I don't know what it's like for them."

"Meditation is an old art, Bow, it's not necessarily hard for you to get it, yourself," Castaspella said as he blinked in surprise. "Your friend does it, no?" She smiled for him.

Bow blinked once more but in thought, looking down at his hands before clenching them. "Alright, I'm going in," he declared as he marched forward before standing before Glimmer. "... Okay," he took a deep breath before going around to her back and sitting against it.

"B-Bow?" Glimmer asked, confused and worried. "I feel like I'm not doing anything."

"You'll be fine, you're not used to this, most of us aren't," he reminded her. "For now, just… Ah, of course!" He gasped. "Glimmer, you need to try and remember that feeling. The feeling from when Naruto called you."

The Princess looked nervous but his hand on hers gave her strength.

They released and sat back-to-back once more, the young woman taking a deep breath.

"Okay… Remember," she told herself. "Remember," Glimmer said. 'Remember,' the words echoed in her mind.

The phantom feeling of Naruto's mind touching hers, reaching out, connecting their Runestones, she did her best to focus on it.

Castaspella looked on with a proud smile as Glimmer began to glow pink, Bow's still form behind her receiving a bit of that glow.

"Good, you two. Now, focus deeper," she instructed them as the two's eyebrows furrowed while they went deeper.

Deeper into thought. Deeper into their minds.

And then they connected.

---

Glimmer blinked once, twice, and then three times before cheering.

"YES!" She squealed as Bow perked up, eyes opening and looking around them. "WE DID IT!"

"W-Whoa?!" Bow swallowed as he steadied his 'feet'. "Okay! Okay, I'm doing this!" He said in a high octave as he tapped the 'ground' and was left seeing ripples of… Mind water, he decided. "Alright, we're here so where's… O-Oh," Bow began, nodding to Glimmer's own nod and looking ahead.

And finding a green moon the size of a large house, the two teens gaping at the sight before they saw something at its center.

"NARUTO!?" They called out, seeing the seemingly unconscious blonde at the center of that odd sphere with a smaller golden sphere around him.

He groaned silently, the young man's eyes cracking open to look at the duo. "You… You guys?" Naruto whispered as he slowly righted himself before falling to his knees.

"Dude, we're coming!" Bow began to say, running over-

"STOP."

There was a force that pressed back at them, the other teens flinching at it.

It took shapes, an astral toad and fox forming before them.

"You guys can't touch this stuff," Naruto said with a hiss, the green sphere pulsating before releasing several large wisps that began to form shapes of animals of all kinds. "I've… Ohhh," he moaned as his 'protectors' turned before attacking the green animals.

The area trembled at power that left the two sides, Bow and Glimmer's eyes widening at Naruto's spiritual protectors tearing through the horde of opponents but not without taking some blows themselves.

By the end, three of those sickly-green enemies remained as the green sphere began to intensify.

Bow's eyes looked between the three animals and then Naruto's sweaty form-

He'd not even brought the damn thing in here, something he was sure wasn't possible… Yet..

His bow found its way into his hands and the first of three opponents died via an arrow to its head.

Naruto's eyes widened as he let out a gasp, his own sphere of power brightening as he looked up in shock at Bow's grin.

"I'm not letting you suffer in here on your own," he said kindly as he took aim once more, the other two green animals baring their teeth. "If it's just a little target practice, I've got it."

"We got it," Glimmer said with a grin as her childhood friend chuckled with a nod.

"WE'VE got you, we can help, Naruto."

The fox boy's eyes widened at that before he looked down, bashful and full of guilt.

"You're not alone, everyone is helping you," Glimmer said. "We're friends, right? Let us handle some of this. Even you need protection sometimes."

Naruto smiled weakly. "Please, I don't want to hurt anyone."

"You won't," they said before their opponents lunged.

~NRK~

Perfuma's head hit the table as she groaned at all the colors.

"I-Is this the universe's truth?" She wondered deliriously, irises flashing with a different color every blink. "Ohhhhhhh…" The Plant Princess moaned. "I-I can't be distracted," she let out a breath that smelled like a skunk and left her brow twitching. "F-Focus!" She pleaded with herself, grasping the back of her head. "Naruto's… Counting on… Me."

The two Runestones ahead of her glowed softly before releasing a pair of pulses that spread out around her feet.

Perfuma moaned in slight relief as her mind cleared of the herbal fog and blinked slowly, eyes going to the Runestones. "... thank you, I… I can't be the only one who fails him," she told them as the stones' glows fell away. "I'm only a quarter the way through it all," she whined weakly before getting up and clenching her fists.

"Princess, please," a voice came from behind her, startling Perfuma as she turned to see her people, the voice coming from her old attendant. "You can't be the one to suffer alone," he said.

"C-Coarse," Perfuma bit her lip before nodding. "I need to find an herb amongst these ones to help Naruto. He's suffering from a corruptive power and I don't know what to do."

Coarse cupped his chin with his eyes going all around the flowers. "...?" He perked up at one of them, an oddly blue-colored five-petaled plant that stood at five-feet tall. "A Magica?" He asked.

Perfuma blinked, confused. "A-A Magica?" She looked confused beyond measure. "I-I don't understand, that's not what they look like! They're supposed to be so tiny," the Princess said before her eyes widened. "W-Wait…"

Her Runestone glowed as she looked at it, eyes wide as her idea solidified.

"Coarse," she turned to the smiling man. "T-Thank you but can all the potion-makers in the village please come forward? I need your help! And anyone who can find more magic-reducing items would be grand!"

~NRK~

Frosta growled before she unleashed another tower of ice at that odd-beaked bird, its large shadow flying above her before Frosty appeared above it.

He glowed before it was sent tumbling down into the icy earth below with a blue energy wave, Blue's hands releasing a coarse-looking net over it and tightening it at first notice.

For the best as the Icsie screeched in a tone that rattled his body for a moment before Frosta came down from above with a fist of swirling ice.

"Rasengan!"

It slammed down into its head, tossing up a burst of icy magic that cracked the ground beneath the bird but little else.

Frosta let out a few gasps as she stumbled off of it onto her rear, Blue securing the net's perimeter with bone stakes before hurrying to her.

"Fros-Princess!" The hidden king began before quickly fixing his words, coming to kneel by his daughter. "Are you well?" Blue asked as he held her hands and touched her cheek.

"I-I'm strong! See?" She said with a winced at another cut on her face hissed. "... Maybe?" Frosta whined as Blue let out a sigh of relief.

"It's fine, you did amazingly well, we're proud," he said as her familiar came down.

"Very much so, milady," Frosty said, getting a small grin out of Frosta. "Now, I believe we'll need to grab some of its blood before its feathered brethren make our lives a living hell as my creator might say."

The two humans grinned nervously as their eyes slowly went to the side, the sight of a pair of Icsies coming towards their isolated opponent.

"CRAP BASKETS!" Father and daughter flipped out.

~NRK~

Adora let out a sigh as the daytime turned to night, her and Catra staying within a cave in the side of one of the canyons.

Her fellow Captain flipped a small knife up and down in her hands as her Body Incantation sprung out and curled around her mindlessly, her eyes unfocused.

"Something happened, didn't it?" She frowned, eyes focusing back onto her knife-handling. "I've officially bottomed-out and now I'm just pissed without a universal punching bag."

"Yeah, I'm worried, too," Adora's hands clenched as she looked at her sword's handle. "Catty… I hope you just got delayed," she muttered with a grimace. 'Great going, Captain,' her mind hissed at her.

Look at where they were, stranded, already low on food by estimation, and one of their comrades was in a state that they were unsure about.

Yeah, great going.

Her hand clenched against the wall as her worries began to emerge.

What if she'd been shot?

What if she got captured?

Did Catty just slow down? Or had she run out of magic?

Where was she? Was she still moving? Alive?

Would Catra hate her for not doing anything?

Would Naruto never trust her again for basically LOSING HIS DAUGHT-

"Hey," Catra spoke up, snapping the blonde out of her mental anguish. "... Adora?" She got up and walked over to her fellow Captain. "I'm worried as shit, too, but we gotta trust that gal. She's a tough kid and can handle damn-near anything that comes her way."

"... I-I know," Adora swallowed as she faced her with a weak smile. "What do we do?" She asked her for answers.

Catra was alarmed by that, suddenly nervous. 'Shit, I-I thought she had a plan!' Great, was she supposed to have some ideas? "Uh…" Catra tapped her foot. "... Wanna just keep looking?"

"?"

"I just… I don't wanna be here any longer than you do, obviously," she continued, her idea gaining some traction. "The faster we find those stupid lenses, the better, yeah? We can just get over the divide and call the others. Maybe Catty got with them but something happened at the base? Remember, they are dealing with the increased security, after all."

Adora perked up, just now remembering that fact. "You're right… You're right, yeah," she took a few deep breaths before nodding. "And you're also right about how useless sitting down is right now," she said with a smile as Catra smirked. "Still… Where do we begin? The top of the volcano didn't have any Lunar Lenses in it. Casta said that it was in the mountain closest to the moon, right?"

"Yeah, that one kinda has me feeling stupid or something."

Adora's eyes narrowed as she cupped her chin. 'The mountain closest to the moon?' Now that she thought about it… "Wait, so, did she not mean the tallest, or really only, volcano here?"

Catra looked confused. "What?"

"The 'mountain closest to the moon'," she reminded her. "For one, she never even said volcano," Catra whined. "But beyond that, remember, if the Lunar Lenses are like any powerful stone, why would it be up above?"

"What kinda weird-ass riddle did she give us?" The cat teen grumbled. "You seem to have some ideas?"

"Well," Adora looked down at the space below. "Remember, this volcano hasn't been active in a long time and, from Naruto's book," she pulled the item out of her satchel.

Opening it up for Catra to see, the feline's eyes widened as Adora's narrowed.

"There are ice caves here, they sport powerful crystals."

"So, that's what we're looking for? Wait, keep reading!" Catra said in a moment of inspiration, confusing Adora. "What if it tells us about the mountain?!"

Adora's eyes snapped to the pages before she slowly flipped through them.

'Come on… Please,' the blonde thought as she began to go into sections about specific crystals. "Where… It might b-"

"There," Catra said with a grin as she pointed to a bit down the left page. "Look! You read past this part."

Adora's eyes snapped back to the former page. "I-It's said the 'Moon Mountain' resides here. An inverted mountain?!"

The two locked eyes in disbelief. "Wait, how does that work?!" Catra asked, hands in her hair in befuddlement. "T-That doesn't even make sense!"

"I know! Maybe it explains it?"

"Keep reading!"

"H-Here, um," Adora swallowed as she read more. "It's said the volcano's magical density was raised too much by the Fire Princess that it pushed its weight further than it's ever been before and that created it. Moon Mountain was originally visited by mages going through the tunnels from above but, now, those pathways are gone and one must travel lower to reach it."

The two Captains' eyes narrowed in unison as Adora closed the book.

"Thanks, Naruto, you're helping even now," she said as she put the book away before hefting her bag. "Alright, we just need to go in towards the mountain now."

Looking further into the cave's depths, they ran into it.

No time to waste.

~NRK~

Lonnie and Rogelio finally left their station, meeting up with Lou and the cadets.

The wolf man looked pissed. "That fucking bastard! It was a Bright Moon!" He hissed at them, turning to face the others. "This doesn't get out, none of you are to speak of this or else."

The others shivered or flinched while Lonnie and Rogelio nodded.

"Alright, I've been through this rodeo before," she muttered as Lou frowned but looked decidedly less pissed with them.

"It had cloaking technology, no wonder you didn't see it," he grunted as he paced. "This will not come on my record, not so close…" Lou frowned deeply. 'I still need to find out who that was,' but he had no leads.

It was a Bright Moon spy so they had to have slunk in during the return, no? But, then, how had this person learned how to handle such a skiff?

Speaking of, he didn't know of any custom skiffs being made at the moment like that one. 'They snuck parts, that had to take some time,' with inspections, how did they do it?

He hissed out a breath. "... All of you," he turned to the gathered soldiers. "I need to know," he'd start from here, it seemed. "How many people knew you were coming on this assignment?"

The cadet soldiers looked between each other before Lonnie stepped forward.

"We asked them to hang with us for this shift," she said, confusing Lou to no end.

"You? HOW… Unless," he frowned as she sighed, put her rifle on her back, and took off her helmet.

Long dreaded locks fell down around her head as Rogelio removed his own helmet, scaly neck a darker hue. "Because I outrank 'em and promised some vouchers," Lonnie revealed.

The sudden hiss and growl from Lou was expected, Catra had told her about how this guy and Dray acted.

Self-entitled fuck heads, basically.

"You're with those BRATS," he hissed.

She frowned. "Dude, we're, at best, five years apart."

"I'm 28."

"You are?" Lonnie asked in disbelief. "Wait, no, not important. The point remains, I asked 'em to come with us because we were getting stir-crazy and… Well," she frowned deeply. "With our big hitter down and out, for a worrying amount of time, we figured we'd do some stuff to get our minds off it."

Lou's face went blank, a surprising thing to her, before he scoffed softly and walked off.

"I'm doing inspections on all cadets' rooms," he said to the others as Lonnie tilted her head.

"Not us?" She asked him, unbothered by his roll of the eyes.

"There's no point, you'd have been streamlined already by this point. No, that one wouldn't want such attention," he hissed. "And I'm going to find them."

Watching Lou walk off, Lonnie was mentally relieved. 'Thank the Lord that worked,' that was a tight line to walk there, especially with her not wanting her old cadet-mates to get into trouble.

"T-That guy's scary," one of them said, removing their helmet to show their sweaty face. "Lonnie, maybe it's a higher-rank thing but I wouldn't wanna work with him," she said with a relieved look.

"It's part of the job. Now, I owe you guys 15 vouchers each."

"T-That's more than before!"

"I didn't expect this and don't want ya feeling like ya got tricked. I'm not some asshole. Just don't come for it all at once, alright? There are eight of you."

~NRK~

Kyle shivered despite his recent familiarity with the woods' real nature.

'I-I've gotta hurry,' he didn't have much time.

Still, he drove past the many trees with caution and care, minding his altered skiff's angles as he moved at a slow pace.

As he did, the Coo-Coos around him began to glow as the Head Pilot looked around in confusion.

"What? Are we close to Razz?" He asked them as he minded their front.

The birds cooed in unison as they kept going before they all flew to his right side, bringing their drive to a halt.

"To the right?"

They cooed in agreement.

Kyle followed along, minding the trees as he delved further and further into the canopy. "Man, life really finds a weird way to make things exciting," he said with a soft frown, his eyes looking around at everything- "What?" He balked as the birds kept on chirping and chirping. "Why is there a sword in the dirt?"

Going a bit further, Kyle raised a brow at the weapon's root-covered form before shaking his head. "Wait, no, I can't be thinking about stuff like that," he told the Coo-Coos who looked pensive. "Look, Naruto, Adora, and Catra are in trouble. Even my other friends are if I don't find somewhere to teleport back to them," he pleaded.

The birds deflated for a moment before one of them nodded, jumping to his right shoulder and cooing in its direction.

Kyle nodded as he shot off at a faster speed, body settled in as he leaned forward.

"You need to be my co-pilot, birdie," he said as the trees began to come in large numbers.

The Coo-Coo let out a brave chirp.

~NRK~

An hour's worth of travel found the two Captains arriving into a 'hub' of caves in a decently tall cavern.

"This is going to be a pain," Catra said as she looked around and sniffed the air. "It all smells 'hot' if ya get my drift."

Adora nodded as she looked around the area before taking a deep breath. "Alright… I'm going to try sensing it out, I guess," she told Catra as she closed her eyes. 'Focus.'

---

"How to get better?" Naruto repeated her question as the trio of her, Adora, himself, and Catra finished their workout, the young man rubbing at his noggin with a towel. "At sensing? I guess a good answer would be trying to separate all kinds of signals and energies and stuff. Getting good at that was pretty important, especially when it comes to fighting, ya know?"

---

Naruto must have been a damn master of the art because, even now, Adora was nearly blindsided by the amount of signatures around her.

'Categorize, separate what you're looking for… Crap!' She didn't know what she was looking for, now that she thought about it. 'Think, think, think! There has to be some kind of idea,' there was nothing but 'hot' around her but she had an idea.

Getting used to Naruto's, Catty's, her master's, Frost's, and even Glimmer's magic had given her a bit of a repertoire to use as a balance.

Mostly Catty's magic, seeing as the cat girl was able to use fire-based skills so she should…

Adora focused with another deep breath.

Pulling on all the feelings around her, she considered it comparable to smells.

Each 'hot' smell, she tried to swim through to reach anything different but, the more she looked, all she found were 'dimmer' heats.

'Crystals…' The gemstones that had formed here. 'Dammit, I'm letting Catra, everybody, down! Focus!'

Dig deeper and deeper into that flow-

"Hey, Adora?" Catra began as she pat her friend's shoulder, snapping her out of her trance.

"C-Catra! I was getting deeper!" She said exasperatedly as her feline comrade shot her a frown and raised brow.

"You freaking out, you're over here sweating up a storm and I know it isn't just the heat."

Adora flinched as she felt her cheek before her hand came away with copious amounts of sweat. "E-Eww," she shuddered as Catra crossed her arms.

"For me and you, it's real different," the other Captain said as she ushered Adora forward. "I can feel it in my fur but, like this, I can't really separate. It's like I got a general magic sensor. You, meanwhile, can totally focus on the minutiae. Stop being an idiot about it, duh," she said.

"W-What are you even saying?"

"Think, Adora. What do we know about the Lunar Lenses? Hell, what did we just learn?"

Adora stopped and stared ahead, looking at all the caves before it hit her.

"T-The cold?"

"Bingo," Catra smirked as her friend burned, looking embarrassed. "Hah! You got so up in your own head, you're missing the small bits. Instead of digging, just look for it."

Adora nodded before taking a long deep breath. "Thanks."

"Always. Now, please do it already so my fur doesn't become a rag?"

Adora grinned nervously before focusing. 'Remember Frosta's ice magic… Remember what that felt like.'

Her mind conjured up the image and it was like her body felt a 'phantom chill' fill her limbs but she 'held' it. Never noticing her headband's minor glow as she did.

Adora felt it out, every bit of that sensory memory before releasing it, body filling with the heated signatures of her surroundings.

'You know what it's like near magical flames,' ignore it, you're only looking for the colder stones.

The 'heat' began to dissipate from her mind, Adora's brows relaxing as she felt… More.

Well, okay, it wasn't a lot, everything was hot here, but she felt the barest traces of a 'lukewarm' flow and blinked back into the real world.

"I-It's the one on the right," she told Catra who nodded, looking intrigued as she hurried. "I think I'm feeling water," Adora said with a look of wonder. 'And Naruto feels more than this?' He took it in and blended with it? "It's such a beautiful idea."

"Huh? What is?" Catra asked, confused.

"That Naruto can mix with the energies around him and be one. That the world accepts him so much and he does his best for it. It's weird, I don't… Saying all of that sounds right, I feel like that's the best way to put it."

Catra looked more confused as she tried to roll those words around in her head. "I mean… I guess?" She didn't really get it.

Adora just shrugged with a smile as they kept going.

And her new method rewarded them as, soon enough, the heat around them began to dull.

The more they walked, the more things began to cool.

"YES!" Adora cheered with a look of euphoria as they looked down and saw something curious.

A small stream of water, many of them, flowing across the floor.

"I-I am getting better, thanks, Catra!" She grinned.

The feline blushed, clearing her throat. "Y-Yeah, well, you got it. Like I said, we're buds," she told her, rubbing the back of her head. 'Am I about to have a Naruto Situation again?' Man, what'd that say about her?

They hurried with more gusto, their run taking them into cooler caverns that began to be filled with feet-deep water and more blatant energy-filled air.

Catra scoffed atop the laughing blonde's shoulders as she trudged through. "S-Stupid freaking water!"

They got past those parts and, soon enough, things got colder and colder to the point of the floor being frosty.

And then they began to descend, the nearly insignificant change in direction causing the air to chill more than ever before.

Adora adjusted her shawl as Catra tightened her jacket.

"What do you feel now?" The feline Captain asked her. "Anything new?"

They stopped around a smooth-looking bend, Adora holding onto the wall as she took another deep breath.

"Alright, what's new?" Adora asked the air as she closed her eyes.

Slipping into 'that' state of mind was so much easier now that she'd done it once, the blonde teen humming as her senses were flooded with the cold energy of her surroundings.

'This time, how to do this?' She wondered, surprisingly giddy at the idea of concepting a new method. 'I-I think Naruto's gonna be proud,' and she'd bask in it all.

She was getting better!

Still, focus, focus.

"Hmm… Any ideas on how to, like, separate the magic stones from the surroundings?" Adora looked to Catra who hummed.

"Well, they're concentrations of magic, right? Maybe that should work," she suggested as her friend nodded before closing her eyes again.

"Alright."

She sensed the world around her and Adora was surprised as her senses seemingly expanded.

'It's likely because I got better!' She grinned through it all as she took another deep breath. 'Now, can I feel it?' That'd likely be another limit.

Naruto's sensory range wasn't just large, it was downright impossible with the sheer amount of distance he could cover with that alone.

She was sure he could feel across a fifth of the world if she felt like giving him every bit of regard.

So, comparatively, she was like a guppy compared to his giant leviathan of a skill level.

"Hmm… Nope, I can't feel anything," she admitted to Catra with a nervous expression.

"Then, I guess we're just gonna keep going down… Speaking of," Catra said as she jostled her chain. "I can feel this thing getting taut."

Ever since hitting the 'transition', they'd seen fit to make sure they knew their way back.

Aside from holes in the wall, they'd left markings, claw marks, and Catra had done her best to use her Body Incantation to leave a trail of chain as much as she could.

"How far do you think we've gone by this point?" Adora asked her, impressed as Catra shrugged. "Catra, that could easily be a mile's worth of chain, that's great!"

"I mean, maybe?" The feline wasn't so sure about it. "Like, what could this be used for?"

"Obviously, detainment. Imagine if we have to try and restrain one of those dragons?"

Catra's face went blank as Adora's burned at the amount of idiocy she was displaying.

"Right."

"I'm sorry!"

They kept going after that hilarious tidbit, the further down they went the more they huddled together.

"T-This is reaching cold-at-night-in-KINGDOM OF SNOWS level of cold!" Catra hissed out as they kept going. "The only thing making it better is there ain't no stupid wind!"

"Please don't jinx us," Adora whispered back as they kept going. "I'm more worried about potential monsters. We haven't been stopped once and we don't know what could, or is, down here."

They kept going, noting with some interest how the tunnel paths began to grow a bit more… Man-made?

"Didn't that Casta lady say that this was originally the back-up way? Maybe that explains it," Catra said.

They kept going before things reached a crescendo as not only had Catra's chain reached its limit.

They'd found 'The Room'.

"Y-Yes," Adora said with a look of tired joy as Catra pushed her ahead.

"Come on, go and grab… How many do we need?" Catra began to say only to blank. "Shit, do not tell me that we didn't ask."

"Well, remember what Castaspella said? Mystacor has six of them," Adora said as she moved into the large crystal-like icy cavern. "We don't need that much, we just need, maybe, two. Three at worst."

The area was large and cavernous on the sides, the paths towards this area coming from four different pathways that converged onto a large circular platform where seven 'plate-like' crystals sat.

They were long and hexagon-shaped, each one a lavender hue that stood out against the pile of hard-looking snow at the center of it all.

Reaching the center, Adora looked up. "... Oh," she whispered in awe.

At the reflection of the moons above sitting on the ceiling in an impossible display. The entire ceiling being a mirror of sorts whose center sported a long icicle that released sprinkles of glittery snow and, from the feel of it, magic.

"This place is kinda ridiculous," Catra said to herself, looking around with a whistle that echoed. "G-Geez!"

Adora laughed as her comrade jumped, reaching those two-foot tall magic stones. "Okay, this might be rough…" She picked one up and noted its weight. "O-Okay, that might be a couple rest stops," she muttered before taking off her satchel and putting it inside.

Testing its weight, she winced but nodded before hefting a second crystal underarm.

"Catra, we might be taking a couple stops on the way back," she said.

"Not surprised… Actually, I'm wondering something," Catra said as Adora hurried over, releasing the second lens into Catra's hold. "Hmph… Honestly, it's not that bad," she considered as her friend raised a brow before nodding in understanding.

"Right, hammer, you don't even notice its weight anymore."

"That's training for ya. Now, I was just thinking… How long have we been here?"

Adora went stilled at that as the two of them locked eyes. "... U-Um…" She looked down nervously before shooting back into the room, eyes up on the ceiling. "O-One second!"

Reaching the center, she looked up and observed.

She counted, adjusted in her mind the amount of space the moons had moved, and came back to Catra with a pale face.

"C-Catra?" Adora said slowly as Catra's brow twitched.

"Just… Just say it," she hissed.

"I-It doesn't make sense," she said nervously. "I-If those are correct, it's been 24 hours."

The feline choked on her tongue, fur paling. "O-Oh, shit."

"WE HAVE TO GO!"

Adjusting their holds on their loot, they began to run, Catra cursing under her breath.

"H-How?!"

"I think… It's magic bullshit!"

"OF COURSE, IT IS!"

As they kept running, Catra couldn't help but be aware of their weights.

'These are gonna slow us down,' even with their running, what'd happen if they still stayed another weird-ass 24 hours? 'There's gotta be something,' Catra grunted as she looked at her chain.

Observing it some more, her eyes narrowed.

"Adora," she said as she brought them to a halt, sticking her lens in the ground. "Hold on."

"W-Why?! They might be searching-!" Adora tried to argue, looking back at Catra in confusion.

And noticing how she wrapped her crystal in her chain, leaving her utterly baffled.

"Wrap yours up in this," she said. "Hell, just wrap it around the satchel. We need to hurry back to our beginning stake and I got an idea."

Looking worried but curious, Adora did as suggested, tying hers next to Catra's before the feline held her waist and lifted her arm.

"Okay…" She began slowly as Adora looked at the idea with a hopeful gleam. 'Come on, chain, let's see if you can't pull-' Catra thought as she tugged on her chain.

And, soon enough, the two were basically soaring down the corridors at insane speeds.

"SHIT!"

"TOO FAST!"

~NRK~

~Kyle: 18 Hours earlier~

With the bird's directions, they'd made it to a familiar hut.

"Hurry! Hurry!" The pilot hissed out with rapidly pressing fingers, the scroll Shadow Weaver had given him feeling heavy in his pocket.

~NRK~

Lou's eyes narrowed as he finished the last search of the cadets' cabin, his eyes snapping around to see all of them there.

'So, all that's left is those two,' he had a job to do and he'd be damned if he wouldn't lie to get it done. 'I don't trust those little upstarts,' neither he nor Dray had.

Those ones who'd gained so much attention for no reason! That bratty Catra, that dog, ironic, Adora, and that little fucker, Naruto.

And now he learns their whole team got even-leveled?!

FUCK. THAT.

'You'll get what's coming, you cunts,' he thought as he stalked out of the rooms, the darkness of night beginning to turn into day. 'I've gotta hurry,' Lou rushed down the hall towards the Captain barracks.

With the advent of all troops coming back, there'd been a change in sleeping arrangements.

All Captains had a specialized room for themselves built just for them and, from his knowledge.

Those two had a third teammate, no?

'Actually, I need to find those other ones,' where had Adora and Catra disappeared off to?

Glad as he was for it, he'd not seen them over a couple days. Odd.

'Shadow Weaver…' Something about that woman's mannerisms, as well, over that same amount of time bothered him. 'It's gotta be because of that kid,' all of it.

All of this madness that was going on, the blonde was likely at the epicenter.

Chackles, Lord Hordak's interest & favoritism, and their ranks!

It was all that little fox's fault.

Lou grit his teeth, shoulders bulging. "It might be time that I remind them who's the true Captain around here."

His run, a slow thing that'd likely make him faster than any tank, stepped up a 'notch'.

A 'notch' being that he tripled his movement speed, form surpassing even a blur to the naked eye.

'Once I find your little friends, that's it!'

~NRK~

Meanwhile, Lonnie frowned as she finished her shower.

'Come on, Kyle,' she thought to herself as she dried off. 'You've got this.'

There was an urgent knock on her door and she cursed, grabbing her vest on the wall.

Her senses expanded before she paled at Rogelio outside her door… With Lou outside of theirs.

"Shit, he's way too early!"

---

Lou's mouth set into a snarl as he sniffed the air outside of the trio of upstarts' door. 'I don't smell Kyle,' how damning, no?

He had a feeling this would be his lucky day.

"Open up, you three!" He ordered.

Rogelio stepped out and closed the door, a pen and notepad in his hands.

Lou's hackles raised instantly at the lizardman's glare.

Rogelio raised the items, eyes going to them… Before he simply crossed his arms, leaned back against his team door, and stared back at Lou with defiant eyes.

"What are you even doing here?" Lonnie asked through the door. "Lou."

'They didn't trust me at all,' traitorous. "I'm here to perform an inspection," Lou lied simply with narrowed eyes.

"One, we both know that's bullshit," he snarled. "Do you honestly think we weren't given a brief rundown recently? Despite how new we literally are, I know more than enough about the schedule to know you're not supposed to be here today."

"Don't make me repeat myself-."

There was a click from behind the wolf man, Lou's pupils dilating as Rogelio smirked.

"Hmph," the lizardman raised a hand in greeting to this unseen person.

"Now, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Kyle hissed from behind Lou, the wolf man snarling as he turned only to pale.

"Yes, Lou~," Shadow Weaver began with a saccharine tone that made his skin crawl, the shadows on the edges of his vision hissing. "Please tell us."

"..." His fists clenched before his countenance changed. "Inspection," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, immediately looking nonchalant.

"Hmm, curious, I thought inspection was tomorrow?"

"It is, I'm tasked with it and I was getting a head start, ma'am. I'm just doing my job," he declared before walking off with a shrug. "But I guess not everyone's a fan of that kind of stuff."

Watching him go, Kyle sighed in relief in a black shirt and pants, his duffle bag hanging heavily over his shoulders. "S-Sorry for the wait," he whispered, a small Coo-Coo popping out of his collar. "I had to find a familiar spot," he told them as they all went into the trio's room. "Lonnie?"

"Glad ya made it back," the black girl said, already dressed and putting a handgun down. "I might have had to get rough with our senior-Captain over there."

"Glad to not have any trouble. So, I put it down and did as you said, ma'am," Kyle said as the room was bordered in black. "?" He blinked in confusion before his eyes widened.

Rogelio frowned at the door, eyes narrowing before Shadow Weaver shook her hand.

"Ignore him, the fact remains, we now have a way outside of the Empire but this has to be done properly," she said as she paced in front of the trio. "At present, Naruto's life signs are stable, he had an odd sudden jump if you'd believe it," Shadow Weaver said, getting hopeful looks out of the trio. "At present, the tube isn't finished but we're already working on gaining the right things. Rogelio, you need to go out there and find those healing herbs."

The lizard man nodded before looking worried, pointing at the door.

"Ah, yes, Lou is being quite annoying right now and inspection is actually coming up. A little matter on both ends," the teens looked confused as she chuckled knowingly. "I do outrank him, after all. No, for now, you simply need to research where the things you need to find are, exactly, and be quick. At present, no large number of us can leave the base as you know."

"Adora and Catra are still out there, though," Lonnie reminded them. "How do we do that?"

"Now that we have both a way out of here, and a skiff on the other side," Kyle nodded to the woman's words. "We have what we need. The issue remains that we don't know where they might have gone in all this time. We're working with variables and not facts. For now, Kyle, you're going back out there after I do one small thing," she held up another scroll.

"Huh? Another one? What's this one do?" Kyle asked as she offered it to him, his hand grasping it. "?"

Then he winced as it glowed a deep black only to spread out around him.

"Um… Ma'am?" Lonnie asked nervously.

"It's only a moment."

And it was as she said, the glow left Kyle shivering but unharmed. The energy shot ahead of him for a moment before…?!

"A-A clone?!" He squealed as she chuckled.

"It's not so complex, unfortunately," Shadow Weaver shrugged. "It's an idea from one of my new students that I thought I'd take a crack at but I can only do so much," she cupped her chin as the Kyle-copy tilted his head. "No, this is more of an autonomous being with your face. For the next couple of days, I'm going to tell whoever that cares that you're sick from some magic we were testing. That will give you the time to go to Adora and come back."

Kyle swallowed but nodded to his copy. "A-Alright. So, I'm guessing you have all the food-"

A black portal formed beside the woman before cans upon cans of beans, sausage, rice, and pork hit the ground.

It kept going for at least ten seconds before finally coming to an end.

Lonnie started laughing as Rogelio smirked.

Kyle chuckled sheepishly. "Good thing I brought my bag."

~NRK~

~Kyle: 17 hours earlier~

Returning to Razz's shack, the pilot nodded in his fresh clothes, clean skin, and full bag.

"Kylie! You're back!" Razz said with a look of elation as she got off her chair and scurried over. "C-Can ya tell me now?"

"Everything," Kyle said with a now. "Let me tell you how things have gone," he added as he looked to the side to see the still-asleep Catty surrounded by the other glowing Coo-Coos.

Going over all the details of their situation, plans, and whereabouts nearly sent Razz into a tizzy.

"They're lost?!" The old woman squawked before panicking. "Y-You have to bring me with, Kylie! We gotta find Mara and her friends!"

"N-No, wait, ma'am, please!" Kyle held up his hands in worry. "The fact remains, I need to go and come back as soon as possible! I know you're worried but we won't even know how long we'll be out there."

"I can find her with my Coo-Coos! They found you."

"What are… You…" Kyle's head snapped to the Coo-Coo on his shoulder, the bird saluting him. "... In fact! Let's go!" He grinned as the old woman smiled.

~NRK~

~Kyle & Razz: 5 hours earlier~

The trip to the two Captains' former location was long and arduous.

"It took us twelve hours to get here," he groaned with tired-eyes, Razz coming over and rubbing around them with oil. "R-Razz?"

"This helps keep the bags away," the old woman said as she put down the salve, Kyle looking surprised as he blinked and felt how 'fresh' his gaze felt. "You've been working a long time, you need rest, too."

"I know but only after I know everyone's alright. When I'm sure my team… My family is alright, I'll get some, I promise. Naruto's always big on those so I'll make ya a Naruto-level promise."

Razz hummed before nodding, patting his back as she did.

Then, the Coo-Coos began to glow in surprise, the duo of humans perking up and looking out over the expanse of a large bridge.

"They're here, somewhere," he said as they came to a stop. "Catty explained it to us, over this divide, there's some kind of jamming energy here that stops our communications. For now, we need to go and find them. Razz, please lead the way… A-After we get over the bridge," Kyle reconsidered as he pulled out a black wire-like rope from a lone compartment in the back of the half-assed vehicle.

Getting that and a hook, he spun it a couple times before throwing it across the way.

When it latched in onto the other side, the hook glowed before a 'hologram road' formed between both bridge pieces.

"Thank the Lord for Lonnie's genius."

~NRK~

Meanwhile, with Adora and Catra, the two finally reached the 'divide' between cold and hot.

With the feline teen controlling their arrival with a bit of haste and a shiver, they stopped dead center by the stake-like end, the two of them floating in the air via chain.

"O-Okay…" Catra let out a breath and groaned vocally before the two of them dropped onto the ground, Adora whining.

"I-It's better than just running," she told the feline teen as she got up. "The magic density," Adora considered as she looked back behind them. "I think that's the reason for everything, Catra."

"Mmm?"

"Think about it. Our signals, the time changes, the sudden shift in temperatures being sharp. It's likely because of the magical density that we read about, it got compacted and that caused all of this… Maybe most of it."

Catra rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, well, that's great and all but we gotta get out of here. Never mind that I forgot to mark our path from the beginning and we still have a walk to do."

"Maybe not," Adora declared as she hefted her sword, a familiar black mantle forming around her shoulders. "Let's hope I can carry all our weight."

"It hurts like hell," her friend declared as she rubbed her arm. "But I can still just lift our stuff. If you can carry me, I'll do the other half."

"Deal."

Retying their things, Adora grasped Catra's waist this time as she hefted her sword ahead of them, the duo's feet coming off the ground.

"Alright, let's go," Adora said. "I've got half a charge so I'm gonna use over half of it to speed us up."

Catra nodded as she tightened her grip on their things. "Do it."

They began to fly at a good speed, the two of them going down the long stretch of tunnel before beginning arriving at a familiar hub of openings.

"Okay, so, when we arrived I said to go right, right?" Adora asked Catra who nodded.

"Yeah, I think I remember that I was pushing ya until we were in the center of the room?" She offered.

Going there, they did their best to keep their former tunnel in mind.

"Okay, going right from here, let's line it up."

Looking at the old opening, they turned 45 degrees to the left.

"So… That one?"

"We can try."

They began to move down a hole, going through its length… Before ending up back where they started.

"Dammit," Catra groaned as she looked around. "Shit, which did we leave before this?" She asked nervously before blinking as Adora smirked, her sword coming out to mark the side of this entrance with an 'X'.

"I figured this might have happened," she said as they moved back to the center of the room and gestured to something on the ground. "I was prepared for this."

There, on the ground, was a big circle with a thorn coming out of one side that pointed to a cave.

"That's the one we came out of," Adora explained. "And if we mark each of the ones we went into with an 'X', we can get out of here in no time!" She grinned as Catra blinked in relieved surprise.

"T-Thanks," she muttered in embarrassment. 'Totally forgot,' that's why she wasn't the best Captain, huh?

Catra was just… She was… The feline teen looked down in thought as she tried to put herself into words.

'Why am I caught up about this?' She didn't know.

As they flew down another corridor, her mind rolled with thoughts.

They entered another series of passageways with a wince from Adora.

"H-Hold on, dammit," the blonde hissed at this new addition to their problems-

"Just keep going left," Catra told her, confusing Adora as one of her claws marked their path with an arrow going that direction. "I got a good center of gravity, we went right in a bit circle and now we're almost side-by-side with that hub."

"O-Oh!" Adora perked up before they were flying down that left path.

Right back to where they started. For once, something they were happy with.

"Thanks, Catra," she said in relief as her friend shrugged, her sword marking another 'X' by the entrance. "I was freaking out for a bit there."

"Just keep going, I've got it."

They did three more times, each one leaving Catra to help navigate through with her senses before they were back to start but with hope.

For, they'd hit all the caves surrounding one specific one.

"Alright," Adora grinned and Catra sighed in relief. "W-We're finally almost out. It's all thanks to you, Catra," she smiled, confusing the other girl to no end.

"What? The hell are you talking about? All I did was offer directions, you're the one who remembered to mark all that stuff," she didn't get it.

How had she been anything but some dead weight for most of this trip?

"?" Adora looked confused. "I think you let your past get into your head too much," she said kindly as Catra winced at, looking away. "We wouldn't have made it this far without you, your skills, and your level head… I'm not sure how great of a Captain I can be when I was freaking out so much."

"... Can we just go, please? We're both sweaty by this point and it's not great."

"Alright-!"

The two froze at a sound coming from that sole cave, the sound of warbled chirping and some hurried steps reaching their ears along with a trio of glowing lights.

"W-What's that?" Catra whispered with raised hackles, the magic beings coming closer. "Yo?"

"We stand and fight," Adora declared, lowering to the floor so they could stand at the ready. "We won't lose-"

"Adora?!" Their eyes widened. "Catra?! Are you there?!" That familiar voice called out.

"KYLE?!" They shouted back as the familiar pilot grinned once he reached them, the Coo-Coos around him looking excited as he carried Razz on his back.

"YES!" The pilot cheered for joy as Razz gasped with a big smile.

"Mara!" She cheered, confusing the duo completely.

"R-Razz?" Adora balked, confused. "What? Why are you here?"

"I had to see you again and figure ya out!"

The blonde girl sweatdropped as Catra snickered. "W-Well… Alright," she said, still looking immensely happy as they hurried over to the arriving duo. "Thank the heavens we've gotten out of here."

"Y-Yeah, um, please tell me you didn't leave your possibly ship out there in the dangerous desert," Catra said weakly.

"It's at the front of the cave," Kyle said with a prepared nod, getting a sagging feline Captain for his troubles. "I'm just glad you guys are alright," he looked at the chain coming out of Catra's bicep before noting the crystal in its grasp. "Y-You found it?!" He asked, looking excited.

Catra blinked before smirking. "Yep, cold as shit, too," she said as he smiled.

"I'm just glad everything's coming together. We still have a bit over four days left and the tube is still only half-finished."

"Well, we got everything we needed here," Catra said as two of the Coo-Coos flapped around Adora as one stayed atop Kyle's head. "Weird but whatever," she added as she receded her chain and grabbed her lens while Adora grabbed her bag. "Hmph, I can't keep that chain up so can we go now?"

"Hmm," Razz raised a brow at the tired but accomplished Adora. 'She looks like Mara when she's happy, too,' she was sure there was more beyond just their eventual mantle.

She just wasn't sure.

"Wait, shit, where's Catty?" The feline asked a mere breath after her last statement, eyes filled with worry as Adora perked up. "She didn't come back…"

"She's in our ride," Kyle admitted softly. "But… She hit the shields at the Empire and won't be up for a while, at least, that's what Shadow Weaver said," he sighed.

"Wait, what?! Why?!"

"Apparently, the shields disturbed her body's energy."

"That child is a spirit," Razz told the two. "She's got more life in her than I've ever seen but she's still mostly spiritual. Her connection to the world is heavily damaged," she admitted as Adora grimaced.

Catra, meanwhile, let her eyes narrow at an idea, the feeling of the crystal in her hands settling in her mind as well. "Let's go and see her."

The area rumbled as the group blinked.

"H-Huh?" Kyle blinked as the ground began to crack before it settled. "L-Let's get the hell out of here!"

The group ran off, Adora quickly taking the lead even as her mantle flickered a bit.

"Just a bit more," she told it as they hurried. 'We need to be prepared for anything,' Adora thought.

By the time they'd made it out of there, reaching the edge of the cave, they let out sighs of relief… Before blinking at the area across from them.

At the new slant in it that had formed, the ground hissing and steaming.

"What's going on with this place?" Catra asked before noting Kyle's skiff, hurrying over to it before opening the cockpit glass to find Catty 'asleep' by the chair. "Haa… Hey, kid," she whispered to her as she looked between the familiar and her crystal. "I might have some ideas for you, alright?"

Coming over to her, Adora sighed in relief at the sight of the child. "Thank goodness," she whispered as Kyle smiled.

"Come on, let's get out of here," he said as Catra put her hammer down outside of the skiff. "Catra?"

"I think it's gonna be important to get Catty up," the feline said as she pulled her headband off her bicep before tying it around her forehead. "And I have an idea on how to do it," Catra admitted, picking up Catty's basket in one hand and holding onto her Lunar Lenses under her other arm. "I'm going to the middle of the volcano and getting her back to normal."

"... The headbands! Of course!" Adora perked up before touching hers. "I totally forgot about these…" Maybe it had helped her earlier? "Alright, let's-"

"Nope, not you," Catra said as her female best friend choked. "Duh, you're not exactly doing so hot. You've been using your skills the entire time, Adora, your mantle's not even on."

"Huh?!"

Looking behind her, Adora felt her body throb a bit as she saw nothing.

"I-I…" She shook her head as she held up her sword. "Come on," she begged as it glowed… Before its power fizzled out. "Dammit!"

"Catra, are you sure about this?" Kyle asked, worried beyond imagination as Catra nodded.

"Remember, me and Catty are connected pretty deeply, too. I can try and use a resonance skill with my headband… And my hammer," she realized.

Lifting her left bicep, she winced as her chain shot out and grabbed her weapon before wrapping around her abdomen with it on her back.

"Your body's going to get rough, youngin," Razz said as she dropped down from Kyle's back. "Give me a moment."

Watching her come over, Catra blinked as the old woman pulled out a salve and rubbed her biceps, cheeks, and hands with it.

The feeling of lightness in her body made Catra grin. "Thanks, old lady, I'm feeling it."

"It's temporary," the forest woman said. "It's only to keep you going for a bit, youngin. Don't push it too much."

"Gotcha. Alright, I'm heading out."

Catra ran towards the edge of their cave before beginning her climb up the sides of the canyon, eyes narrowed in on the top of the volcano.

'I don't know what good I am,' she thought as she landed above before running off towards Mt. Candila. "I'm decently strong," she said as she jumped atop a large rock before landing atop a building. "Pretty fast."

She lunged atop one of those soot windmills before jumping off it to reach further up the beginning of the volcano, beginning the more treacherous climb.

"I'd say I got some good eyes," her gaze snapped to a heavy-looking rock.

Her chain extended, wrapping around it before pulling her above and then onto it.

"At least, that's what everyone else says."

She continued her climb.

She was also 'brave', foolish more like it, willing, and dreamed big.

She was many things but, amongst all of it, Catra didn't know how to follow through.

Was she those things? Or was she just trying to feel better? She didn't know.

"What would you say, huh?" She asked the air as she kept climbing, goggles blocking any rough debris from getting into her eyes. "... It's honestly a stupid question," Catra scoffed in amusement as she crested the first-half of the mountain, looking up at the tip. "You'd just say something stupid like 'duh, those are all your good parts' like an idiot and I'd just be here, looking like the other idiot."

Her chain shot up towards as far as it could go, the Captain holding onto her weapon and… And her child more tightly.

When the chain latched in, she went soaring up towards it at a powerful speed, shielding Catty's sleeping form from any loose rocks that cut into her arms a bit.

By the end, she reached up a third of the way with a sigh of relief.

She kept going, looking back into the distance to see the others gathering by the other side of the bridge with a nod.

She kept going, body feeling the strain from before returning little by little.

"Just… Just a bit more," Catra huffed as Catty's basket was tied to her back. "Stupid… Freaking… Volcano!" She growled as she got up another large ledge of dirt. "I'm gonna enjoy riding away from you, you bastard. Just gotta keep going."

Her next grip trembled a bit as her eyes widened.

---

"You can do it."

---

Her grip tightened as she pulled herself up.

Weird… What was that warm feeling in her chest?

She blushed a bit at it.

---

"We made it through worse, Catra, even just today. You've got this."

---

Another one of those things, huh? What? Was this that feeling of being supported?

She hated how warm yet light it made her, like she could do everything or something.

She stomped down but stumbled as her footing crumpled with her foot going through it.

---

"Tighten it! Don't lose your footing! Grip the ground!"

---

She almost fell… Before her foot remained stuck to the gravel and neatly-packed dirt below her.

"H-Huh?" What? "I don't…" Her cheeks colored despite the ridiculous reason behind it. "Goddammit," Catra hissed before going forward, running up the volcano's stupid slopes.

---

"Thank the heavens. You've got this!"

---

She kept going and going, 'egged' on by those phantom feelings in her chest.

By the end, she landed atop the… Top. Feeling the horrid heat and the simmering energy from below, inside the mouth of the volcano, Catra let out a breath before putting Catty down beside her.

"Alright, I… I'm gonna hope this works, kid," Catra said as she kneeled down to Catty's still form, her chain putting her hammer down beside her.

Picking up the comatose spirit, Catra held her close in one arm while the other one held her hammer's handle.

Closing her eyes, the intense heat all around her filled her senses as she grimaced.

'Take it in,' she thought to herself as she pulled on the energy of her surroundings. 'Just like Catty told us yesterday, feel my surroundings and pull on it.'

As she did, the feeling of near-infinite heat caused her body to break out into more harsh sweat, the air filling her lungs hot, thin, and dry.

"..." She clenched her jaw, keeping as much moisture as possible. 'I've got, what, five minutes up here?' Catra didn't like her chances. 'It's going to take an entire day to get back, then we'll have to move Naruto, get back to Bright Moon, and more. We won't get another chance like this.'

So, she breathed through her nose and 'pull' in as much energy of her surroundings as possible.

Catty was pretty clear about the 'fire power' around her being good for her body. So, surely, a higher concentration of it would allow her to feel extra boosted, right?

Catra activated her hammer's fire abilities and was alarmed by the staggering human-sized flame that sprouted off of it.

'Of course, fire magic is boosted here.'

Then, the familiar girl began to glow, much to her alarm and yet hope.

"Come on, Catty, we need you!" She told her as she held her daughter tighter, Body Incantation glowing a brighter white that was soon flipping to red on occasion. "Come on, kid! Your dad's gonna wanna see you the moment he gets up a-and even I need you," she clenched her eyes as her body endured the high heat. 'Come on!'

More! She needed more but… Catra could already feel even her senses being frayed by all this heat. The more she pulled in, the more she felt the oddest feeling of literal burnout.

'Hold on!' She begged her body as the sweat around her turned into steam that burned her but she just ignored it. 'Go even further!'

She felt her grip on this 'pulling' ability intensify as more fire magic filled her very body and Catty glowed brighter-

Something throbbed down below as the lunar lens at her side glowed powerfully.

'W-What?'

---

"T-The fuck?!" Catra choked as her eyes opened and she was surrounded by crimson-red… Magic. "What's going on?!" She yelled out as she kept looking around before something caught her eye.

Something orange and crystal-like, the more she looked at it.

"What is that?" Catra blinked again.

Was that a looking-like-a-literal-fire crystal?

It throbbed and her eyes widened at a seemingly cut-off line of energy reaching out towards her but seemingly too weak to make it.

Looking at it, Catra's mind urged her to take it, to use it. Something about this odd gemstone made her mind fill with ideas. Ideas that'd let her 'even the playing field' and never lose her closest friends ever again.

Catra reached out for it, a sort of spiritual line leaving her palm and getting closer to that gem's own.

The closer they got, the less the heat around her bothered her. In fact, it began to grow more comfortable, more relaxing.

More in control.

They connected.

---

Catty's eyelids trembled as she was filled to the brim with energy and power that fit her affinity.

"M… Mmm…"

[You're fine, kid.] A familiar yet distorted voice told her, confusing the awakening familiar whose eyes cracked open to see nothing but a powerful raging red flame. [Hehe, you're finally awake.]

When Catty's mind finally came to, her eyes slowly widened to impossible levels as she looked up at her smiling mother.

And the blazing red flames sitting on the tips of her ears, cheeks, and tail, the one on her extra appendage the size of a tank!

"M-Mom?!" Catty called out as her eyes watered before Catra held her close.

[It's fine, I promise.] The young woman whispered to her as she rubbed her head. [In fact, I think things are better than just 'fine'.] Catra chuckled as the flame behind her died down to the size of a large ball. [You finally woke up.]

"S-Snff," the spirit child sniffled a bit as she hugged her back, confused. "Y-You're different… What happened?"

[Nothing to really worry about, for now." Catra said as her features began to die down, leaving her looking mostly normal save for the new flame-like tip to her tail. "Alright? Come on, we need to go back down, we have to get back to the others," she said, her chain sprouting from her bicep and picking up her hammer and lunar len- "Oh… I-I guess this is how it did it."

Looking to the Captain's side, Catty blinked at the two-foot tall orange hexagon crystal. "Is that a lunar lens?"

"It… should be."

Picking it up, Catra nodded before turning around and crouching with a bright grin.

"Hold on and don't let go-"

"I-I can just fly us, mom."

"... Oh, right," Catra looked sheepish as Catty flexed her wings, her new red wings. "I guess that's my fault," she muttered as her spirit daughter blinked, confused before noting her new changes.

"... Let's just go," she said, going along with it without issue.

She flew to Catra's back and lifted her up, the two beginning to float in the air before they took off towards those signatures in the distance.

As the familiar looked more and more confused the whole way, looking down at her mother's head in complete confusion, Catra grinned as she clenched her fists, her hammer and altered lunar len behind her.

'Yes,' she now had something.

MAGIC. Or, really, hah!

A Runestone!

She felt her connection with the crystal behind her and the one back in the volcano, a fact that surprised her only for a moment.

'It's not the real thing,' she realized. 'If I want that kind of power, I need to go and find the real thing, don't I?' Well, she still had something more to her own merit.

And now she had another option to get stronger.

As they began to descend towards a familiar trio of cheering people.

Kyle smiled in relief as Razz tilted her head with a confused smile.

Adora, meanwhile, felt her senses pique. 'Wait… W-Why does it feel like Catra's got magic in her?' Maybe she was a little tired, she might have needed to literally lay down.

Landing, Catra grinned at the others, clothes tattered and scorched but the young woman was fine overall.

"Alright," Kyle chuckled as Catty waved at him with a grin of her own. "Catty, I can carry back a few of us but Catra's hammer is gonna make a mess of things so…"

"I've got it!" The energetic girl declared, warming his heart.

Thank the heavens for normalcy returning!

~NRK~

Perfuma smiled on the fourth day, grinning even as they finally made it.

The Potion!

All it took was a couple days' worth of stomach aches, too!

"Y-Yes! Thank you, all of you!" She said to her people, half of whom were whining against the ground. "I know this is going to be… A bit much but I'll repay you all when I can! For now, I need to get this taken to… I DON'T KNOW!" Perfuma realized with a pale expression, her smile frozen on her face. "CARP!"

"M-Ma'am," Coarse began to say, the old man more recovered than all the others. "Perhaps you should try and contact that young man? You spoke of how he spoke with you through the energies of magic, why not that?"

Perfuma's skin color returned as she perked up. "Of course! Alright," she hurried over to the Runestones before sitting within that small field of light-bouncing flowers., right in front of that giant sunflower.

Taking a deep breath and meditative stance, Perfuma focused inward.

'Naruto? I may need some help.'

---

"T-That's the last of them today," Bow said as he wiped his chin of mental sweat, Glimmer hitting her rear-end next to him. "You alright, Naruto? Everything alright with Catra?"

The blonde boy in a golden moon sat on his knees, looking utterly confused beyond reason.

"Um… Yeah?" He said unsurely.

"You seem confused," Glimmer said before gasping a bit, rolling her shoulders and hearing a satisfying crack. "Oohhhh."

"It's just that," Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Nevermind, I'll talk with her later about it," he said as his orb of influence grew in size once more, now half the size of the Corruption's own. "Thanks, I mean it," he said gratefully to the smiling duo.

"It's fine, this is kinda weird training," Bow said as he rubbed his bicep, 'releasing' his bow into the ether. "We feel just as tired outside after we're done with stuff like this for some reason."

"Yeah, aunty told us that we got bruises, too," Glimmer said. "Isn't everything in here mental?"

"Maybe it's because of my powers," Naruto said. "Time here passes a bit faster, too, remember? It's been at least a week since we started, mentally."

"That's crazy," Bow said. "So, for now, we'll head-"

"Naruto?!" Perfuma popped into existence with an urgent smile. "I… W-What's going on?"

"Just some stuff with me, unfortunately," Naruto answered her, concerned. "Everything alright?"

"Yes! Um, well, I need to know where to bring the elixir we made."

Naruto was touched but also unsure, turning to Bow and Glimmer with a curious look. "Guys?"

"Four days from now, we're going to Mystacor," Glimmer explained with a smile as Naruto balked.

"Wait, you guys know where it is?!"

"Oh, right, I forgot you didn't know," she chuckled. "Naruto, my aunt is the headmistress of Mystacor."

Naruto's jaw dropped, stunned. "WHAT?!"

"Yeah, it would have been as easy as asking," Bow said with a smile as his friend slumped. "So, Perfuma, can you make it in that amount of time?"

"I think so?" The Plant Princess looked worried. "I believe I can but isn't it dangerous?"

"Right, we don't know where those guys are," Glimmer frowned. "If they're around, it'll be bad."

"But we'll have to get to Mystacor the normal way," Bow reminded them. "It won't matter by that point."

"NARUTO!" Came a shout from a far-off side, a small running figure coming up to the group. "I did the thin-WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Frosta began to say before she shrieked. "T-The heck is this?!"

Naruto sweatdropped.

Explaining the entire situation to both Princesses, they gasped.

"I guess I'll have to come down with a Hinter Bear," Frosta said with a nervous look. "It's just that, can I even make it in time?"

"We'll have to try," Perfuma said with a determined expression. "So, we'll meet at Bright Moon," she nodded as she shot Naruto a worried look. "We'll help you, Naruto."

"Thanks, I'll be eternally grateful," Naruto said with a bow. "I know this is a lot to ask."

"No, please, you've done my people an honor already! The least we can do is help you live to see tomorrow!"

"Yeah!" Frosta said with a determined pout. "I-I gotta make sure to go soon, I'll see you soon, Naruto!" She said.

"Alright, thanks, Frosta. Also, your Rasengan was pretty good, you just need some more control."

She gasped before popping out of existence, much to Naruto's amusement.

"Alright, thanks, guys," he said to the others as Perfuma vanished with a grin. "For everything."

"Always," Bow and Glimmer shot one back. "See you soon, in your time."

They vanished as well, leaving the blonde alone to meditate.

'One day,' he smiled softly. 'You'll all be on the same side, I promise,' Naruto thought.

~NRK~

Lou watched the blonde from within the medbay, his eyes going to the many IVs in the room that kept him stable.

Of the ten machines pumping a saline solution into his veins, one of them glowed with a red flow compared to the others.

The wolf man smirked, slinking out of the area through a hatch in the ground, unseen by Shadow Weaver's little familiar or any cameras. 'A little craziness never hurt anyone,' he chuckled mentally, making it back to his room and appearing in his bathroom.

Sometimes, people should really learn to listen to orders. The pecking order that is.

~NRK~

Naruto slept within his orb of influence, never noticing the sharp flash of red that covered the Corrosive moon around him before it vanished.

The green energy bubbled viciously.

~NRK~

Scorpia grinned as she returned to base with a large tank of sand, appearing in Shadow Weaver's office. "I'm back!" She declared as she saw a familiar duo putting together the middle of the pod. "How's it looking?"

"So far? Pretty good," Lonnie said with a smile. "Kyle should be getting Adora and Catra right now. We're just waiting for 'em to show back up. We've still got three more days."

Shadow Weaver had been flipping the metal ring she'd made when she felt it, sitting up in alarm and yet relief as a black portal formed in front of her desk.

And deposited a familiar group of people. "YES!" Catra grinned, relieved, as Kyle chuckled.

"We're glad to have you all back," he said, a Coo-Coo still in his hair as the others gathered around.

"Nice! The gang's all together!" Scorpia said as she hugged everyone she could, Shadow Weaver slinking away before she could be crushed.

"S-Scorpia, herk?!" Adora tried to say something but soon found her spleen near her lungs. "O-Ow."

"Oh, sorry!" The tall woman said with a sheepish grin, Catty giggling on her shoulder before laughing as she was given a big hug. "Oh, it's been a while, Cattwo! How's life been?~"

"Weird, aunty!" Catty said as the others untangled themselves. "How's dad?"

"Well, I just got back so, ya know, I don't know. But we can change that pretty easily!"

"Yeah, actually," Catra cracked her back as Adora smiled, rolling her neck. "That'd be good," she smiled as the collective group hurried out of the study and down the hall. "Haven't seen 'im in five days, anything change?"

"Apparently, he's had some minor jumps in stability," Lonnie explained as Rogelio nodded. "Apparently, from what ma'am says, his spirit's being reinforced by someone and that's helpin'."

"We've got help from all over," Adora smiled happily. "Naruto's effect on people is pretty far-reaching, ya know-?"

They'd been halfway there when the whole world went to shit.

"!"

The noise rocked the air, cracked the nearby windows, and caused all their skin to drop several shades.

They were running soon enough, worry and concern painted over their faces.

"E-Even now?! Come the fuck on!" Catra cursed powerfully as Catty fidgeted as she flew.

"S-Something's wrong! D-Dad's signature is being corrupted!" She held her sides as she began to fall before Rogelio caught her in alarm, eyes snapping up to the coming-up corner-

An explosive amount of flames tore past before a familiar figure slammed into it, bloody, bruised, and snarling.

"You little shit!" Lou growled as his body grew to twice his height, form becoming covered in fur as his features changed. "COME AND GET ME!" The now-werewolf roared back at an unseen figure.

And, only then, did the startled group note the sound of hissing steps.

Each one seemingly caused the air to vibrate and thicken before it was nearly unbearable.

Then, a clawed hand gripped the corner with an emerald glow, a hissing animalistic figure peeking past it… A FAMILIAR ONE?!

"NARUTO?!" The whole group choked as one as that red-eyed being turned his head their way, the hissing green bestial cloak around him bubbling.

Catra's tail went limp as Catty trembled.

Shadow Weaver's arms went slack as Adora's heart went cold.

At the look of murder and malice in the blonde's gaze.

And then he roared.

~NRK Out~