Adora's POV

*Knock Knock.*

Two simple knocks on the wall between us and the driver's seat, and it says everything we need to know. Go.

Catra smiles, Rogelio and Kyle simultaneously take deep breaths, and we all stand up. Those of us wearing armor put their helmets on, and Catra, the closest to the door, presses the button to open us up to the action. Immediately, we're out, moving around our side of the vehicle, at Thaymor.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that this is almost exciting, in a terrifying way. I'm here, leading my team, calling shots on a small offensive operation. I'm ready for this.

My second thought is that… There's no one here. I mean, there are people, running from the three different houses that just got hit. But everyone runs away. This is supposed to be a fortress right? Where's the enemies?

Catra turns around to face me. "Come on Adora, don't chicken out now. Let's take down the rebels!"

I nod, swallowing my doubts, and follow after her, the rest of my team behind. Still, I'm supposed to direct. I press the button on my earpiece, and start slinging simple commands.

"Teams 1 and 2, flake left. Teams 6 and 7, flank right. Teams 3 and five, fall into the center with me. We aren't here for lives today, just to make sure we secure the area. And if any princesses are here, you know what to do."

We rush forward, Rogelio announcing a battle cry in his language we can't quite understand, and race into the city center. For a second, all I hear is crying. It's war, right? Then where is the opposition? This place was supposed to be fortified?

Immediately, I receive my answer. I'm knocked to the ground, something hit me in my center torso, hard. Catra turns back around, hearing me shout as I fall, and runs back over.

"A net?" She asks, immediately cutting it off. I look down as she helps me up, seeing a device in the shape of an arrow on the ground.

"Lonnie, where did that come from?" I shout over the noise of the tanks and engines, she points at one of the ruined buildings. The doubt in my mind is there, it wasn't lethal?

A warning shot. They won't get another chance. I glance at Catra, and she nods. We head for the building and hear a noise behind us. There's a girl? She just took out a tank with some sort of energy blast. I recognize her from some of the princess safety videos. The princess of Bright Moon? I touch the earpiece again.

"Sighted the Princess of Bright Moon. Everyone watch your sixes, she can be anywhere at any moment." Catra and I rush back to the house, I can hear Rogelio's footsteps behind me but I don't take the time to check for the other two, they'll be okay. We're ready. Catra gets in first, and takes an arrow herself that knocks her back, covering her in some sort of green gel. She shrieks, and I hope through the rubble. There's a man in a ridiculous outfit. Not a princess. He draws an arrow and aims it right for me. I need to be quick.

I race forward. He lets go. I'm ready for it. He misses. My adrenaline is high. I swing the stun-stuck forward, the archer blocks it.

Close quarters combat. He's trapped. But he's not just an archer, there's a… I freeze.

"Where did you get that!?"

"What?" The archer responds clueless. We're struggling, our weapons pushing against each other.

"The sword! Where did you get that sword!?"

I'm confused. A vision flashes in my head. A woman. No, not a woman. A thing. The robotic voice. "Adora," it says. I take one hand off the stick and grab my head, it's spinning. The archer notices it, and plants his leg forward into mine, and I stumble back.

He goes to draw another arrow, and Catra is there. She swipes the end of the arrow off, and flips up behind the archer, immediately noticing the same sword. She didn't see it yesterday, but she heard me just now. She knows I'm not crazy.

I'm back up, the archer is cornered. He seems unreasonably calm. "You guys know what this is?" He hesitates on firing at me. Catra doesn't move, afraid he'll change his mind. I can't guarantee I can dodge again.

But I can't give him the chance. I do the one thing I can think of, and duck. Catra knew before I did it that I would, and takes the opportunity to stun the archer. He lets go of the arrow, it flies over my head, and he's on the ground. We're all panting, already.

"Adora… is that…"

"I don't know. I don't know." I'm confused, my head still spinning. Unfortunately, I don't have time to process what we're looking at. Instantly, Catra tenses up. I can feel it, too. Static in the air.

"Get off of him!" Before I know it, Catra is hit in the side with a fist of pure magic. The princess of Bright Moon is right in front of me. I raise my stick. We trained for this our whole lives, but she doesn't look at me. She reaches down, touches the archer, and is gone.

Rogelio caught up to us. He wasn't that far behind, but it all happened so quick. Catra stands up, grumbling.

"What in Etheria was that?" She whispers. I turn around, facing Rogelio. He has no idea what just happened, and is staring at us.

Glimer's POV

"Bow! Wake up! I need you!" I shout, tears in my eyes.

"Ugh… I'm fine. I'm fine." He starts trying to sit up, and puts his hand to his back. He's in pain.

"What happened?"

"Just tased. I'm fine." He looks around, dazed. "Is everyone out?"

"I don't know. There's more here than we expected. I only managed to take down a tank, and maybe 3 people."

"I only got 2. The other 2 I hit got right back up."

"The two without armor?"

"The armor probably slows you down. So they're quicker to react." He stands up, I'm supporting his weight. "We need to make sure we buy enough time. We can't fight them for long."

"I know, that's why we're here. Evacuation."

"Alright. Your choice. Get people out, or slow them down? Whichever you do, you'll be better at."

"I'll keep slowing them down, you already got hit. I can buy you enough time." I say, not quite believing it.

"Then go. I got this." He heads out the back door, faster than I think he should be moving, but I don't berate him.

I think back to the room I was just in. I could go for the tanks, I know, but the buildings are done for anyway. These people, though, they can hurt people. And I'm mad.

So I'm back there, and this time there's a lizard in armor, too.

"Behind you!" I hear immediately, the blonde one shouts to the cat.

The cat turns around, fangs bared, and I raise my fists.

"What are you doing in Thaymor? This is a civilian town!"

The cat hisses in anger, "looks pretty fortified to me!"

The two girls immediately charge forward, the reptile seemingly unsure of his actions.

Bow's words ring in my mind. I'm not here to fight. This time. I put forward a burst of energy, blinding all three of them temporarily, and I'm behind the cat. I go to knock her down again, like before, and it works, before turning around the blast the blonde.

She's close already, too close. She's bringing something towards my stomach, and instinctually, I'm on the other side of the room. Too close. I can't keep up this much magic use.

"Stop toying with us and fight!" Shouts the cat. She knows I went light on her.

I squint my eyes. There's a dynamic here, these people have more personality than the horde soldiers I fought last time. The cat is impulsive, the lizard is definitely big, an enforcer, but he seems like he is more worried about staying out of the way of the blonde woman. The blonde is focused. I see the badge on her red jacket. The leader… I teleport behind her, immediately putting my arm around her, and we're outside before she can react or her teammate can finish shouting whatever, "Ado-" means.

She's still quick, her hand was already bringing the taser behind her, but teleporting for the first time is always disorganizing.

"What did you do to me!" She shouts, pushing me back. There are too many other people out here. Both wearing helmets, one helping the other off the ground. They must have tripped, judging by the lack of any other rebellion members here. The tanks are closer now, I hope this is going to work. If the blonde is giving orders, and I keep her distracted, I can buy enough time for Bow.

"You didn't answer me inside. Why are you here!?"

"Like I'd tell you." She gets into a proper fighting stance, no longer dazed.

But I don't need to move, I just need to buy time.

Whoever this is, she's clearly thinking. Her stance relaxes. Either she figured me out, or she's stupid.

"You're stalling. How long until the reinforcements arrive?"

She's close. I can work with this. "You wouldn't like that answer." She definitely would.

The blonde glances at the two behind her. I'm guessing they're a… team within the team? She talks to them, completely ignoring me. "Find Catra. Tell her to call the flanks and approach cautiously." The person in the back who helped the other one up nods, and two head for the building. I can actually make out that the cat is just climbing back outside, but she's too far for me to read.

"You must be pretty confident, announcing your plans like that."

"I don't know what your game is, but I know you're lying. There are now reinforcements."

"You don't know that!"

"You're getting people out. We're not here for prisoners today. Just the land. If you want to keep going, we can. I'd be happy to hand deliver you to Hordak. "

What's her game? If she knows mine, why not speed up the flanks? The horde has never been known to spare the chance of capturing prisoners.

"A horde soldier with consciousness? I don't buy it…" I raise my fists again, charging them with what magic I have left. I know I can't keep fighting though. I've used a lot already.

The girl gets back into a fighting stance, and I see the rest of her team running up to her. "You already lost the land. Don't drag this out."

I grumble. I can not believe I'm about to listen to some horde scum! After everything they did, the people they took, how am I supposed to walk away!

Then again, Bow is right. I didn't come here to fight. I think to the other half of the village. Of course, there are some things my powers can't do. I can't track people, I only can get a… vague sense of the land. But I know he'll be back there, leading people onto the trail towards the refugee camp that will get them sorted somewhere else. They didn't come to occupy the citizens, they only wanted the land.

Fine. Even though I just snapped at my mom yesterday, saying we aren't going to have any land to retreat to, today was not the day to change that. I glare once more at the blonde, her friends now standing on either side of her. And I'm gone.

Bow isn't actually at the village entrance, he's coming out of a building with an older woman.

"Bow! How's it going?"

He looks up at me and smiles. "This might be the last one. She insisted I get the village horses out, first. There are a few of them out into the clearing, being led by a few villagers. Everyone's out."

I relax a little. We.. won, right? Bought enough time? Even if it cost a silent deal with a horde soldier. "Great. And no one's hurt."

The lady speaks up. "Thank you, dearies. I'm not sure I'll make it to that relief station though, I've got a bit of a bad leg."

"Well," Bo says, "We did grab the horses. I'm sure you'll be alright. Glimmer and I will accompany all off you the whole way, to make sure you're all safe."

"You folks are so kind. Shame to lose our homes though."

"I'm sorry, ma'am. We'll get them all back, one day." he looks back up at me, having reached the path out. "Let's get going, then?"

"Alright. I'm probably too drained to teleport home anyway." I turn around, and Bow and I, with the lady, are heading into a small pathway. There are a few people here, where the path widens back up, and a few horses. Bo helps the lady onto on, and we end up on another. It helps after we fell into a collapsing building to not have to walk the whole way.

"Um, Glimmer…"

"Yeah?"

"You know that crash scene near the sword, last night? The one we didn't speak about? I'm sure you saw it."

"Yeah, I made a mental note of it. Something went through the branches. Hard and fast."

"I think… It was those girls."

I pause at this. I have no idea what to say. "What… are you thinking?"

"I don't know. They got confused. Almost like they had no idea what it was either. But the blonde girl definitely knew about it, asking me where I found it."

"How did they happen to stumble upon some magic ancient weapon deep in the Whispering Woods? Are you sure it was them?"

"I have no way to know, but I think we need to be careful."

"You think it's a trap? That they planted it?"

"I don't know. What do you think?"

I think about the blonde girl. I have no idea what her deal was. "She let me go. Whatever her deal is, we need to be careful if she pops up again. There are very few reports of horde soldiers wearing non-standard uniforms, the ones who don't are always important. Like that octapus-lady, or scorpion-lady, from the reports."

"What do you mean she let you go? She had you?"

"No, she just… told the flanks to slow down. She said they weren't there for prisoners."

"That's… strange. I don't know Glimmer. Angella isn't going to like this."

"We'll worry about that later. Maybe we just don't tell her that they recognized the sword, and go back to take it to Dryl?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No, but it's the only one I got right now, other than have her lock the sword in a vault somewhere."

"I guess so. Either way, we'll figure this out. I mean, hey, technically, your mission was a success! And your mom didn't seem upset about you sneaking out last night."

"Yeah… Yeah, we did good today."

The horses keep trotting along, people marching in front of and to the side of us. I already know they aren't coming for us, but it doesn't hurt to be careful in case the blonde girl was lying. If she does have something to do with the sword, we'll figure it out. Eventually.

Adora's POV

"Yes! We totally did it!"

"I know! Not- not like there was much to do, there wasn't very much fighting."

"I think Catra and Adora did most of that, it wasn't as defended as we thought."

"That- that's a good thing, right?"

Lonnie and Kyle didn't stop talking much since the princess retreated. Everyone's happy, except Catra. She mumbled here and there about taking too many hits. You can see the mark on her face from the first hit. Or the dirt on my shirt from when I took the hit from the arrow-rope thing. Or the gunk remaining on Catra's clothes. Or the grime on Kyle's armor from when he tripped.

Messy. We won, but it was messy. There were two people. We had tanks, and 30 men. It should have been easy. We shouldn't have gotten hit.

The truck engine comes to a halt, we're back.

*Knock Knock.*

We stand up, from the same positions as last time, and exit the vehicle. There's only three trucks back, and the two undestroyed tanks. The rest stayed behind to set up occupation. Now, I have to face Shadow Weaver. We're standing in line, but no one is here, so I step forward, and face the group.

"I already gave the victory speech back at Thaymor, so I won't give it again. You all did your part, even if there was way, way less fighting than expected. Head to your quarters, dismissed." It feels weird giving orders. They're superficial. Pre-planned, I couldn't tell them anything that wasn't in the manuals, but still. They listened, and dispersed. My friends are already walking away too, not exhausted, but tired. They're all coming down from the Adrenaline.

I walk up to Catra, and grab her hand. "Come on, Catra. You did fine. Let's eat, we spent a lot of time on the road today."

"Adora, we fought for 5 minutes. Not like we burned a lot of calories." She pulls her hand out of mine, and starts walking. Something is definitely up with her, but I can't place it. Is she worried about Shadow Weaver? That sword? I shake my head, and follow everyone inside.

It isn't long before I do find Shadow Weaver, though. She's right at the entrance to the cafeteria, probably knowing we were heading there.

"Adora, congratulations." She speaks, slowly.

"Thank you, Shadow Weaver." I say moving into the Cafeteria. I really don't want to talk to her right now. Of course, she has to go and grab my arm.

"I want you to give me the report."

"You don't want to wait for the report Lonnie is writing?"

"Oh, I will read that too. I want to hear it from you though."

"Oh. It went great. There wasn't exactly room for anything to go wrong. There was just some princess and her archer friend."

"Really? You were up against a princess? What occurred?"

"Nothing much. There was a fuss with the archer, he went down, and she showed up. She got him out and came back, and separated me."

"You were signaled out? You were separated?"

"The badge, probably. Not that it was a problem. She could teleport, including people she touched. Just took me outside."

"Hmm… and what about your team?"

"Again, there wasn't much fighting. Why?"

"I meant, what about Catra?"

"Oh." Of course. I know what she's doing. She probably watched the whole thing with some dark magic. "She did good, took down the archer, was quick to react."

"I see. Good job, Adora. Your team was not, in fact, "ready," but the mission did suffice. I will have more for you to do soon. Rest up." She turned to walk away, and I shuddered. Maybe she wasn't watching us. I went into the cafeteria and scanned for Catra, she dipped as soon as we got inside and I haven't seen her. Great. I do see Kyle, he must have been the only one hungry, so I go to check in for my daily rations and go to sit next to him.

"Oh, hey Adora. Great work back there."

"Thanks, Kyle. Thank you for being there."

"I-" I think he almost chokes. "Thanks? I didn't do anything. I just tripped…"

"It's okay, Kyle. It happens." I can't bring myself to pick on him right now. He does try, most of the time. I unwrap my bar, and it's the brown kind. It's a bittersweet day. I sit there, slowly chewing it down, Kyle and I not speaking much at all except for a little small talk about the mission. My mind is too preoccupied. The sword wasn't a dream. Something is definitely up, and I'm going to figure it out. Eventually.