Catra's Pov

It's been a week since the invasion of Thaymor. Not that it was much of an invasion, it was more so a dumb test. I realized as soon as we got there that Shadow Weaver chose that outpost just to hand a win over to Adora, no wonder she didn't want us going with. Not that I could prove that, but my mind has been stuck on it for a week.

I've been avoiding her. I don't know why, not really. I know I shouldn't be mad at her. She didn't do anything wrong. But we've barely spoken a word since we got back. Adora received some praise, they're saying it was an effective display of shock and awe. I even got a bit with how we "won" a fight against a princess, after all.

I was worried Shadow Weaver would be angry, and I still am, but she hasn't spoken a word to me. I think that's why I'm angry. She loves Adora, and all I ever got was thrown around.

Whatever.

I know what this is really about, even though I don't let myself think about it. Something's wrong with Adora, and it has to do with this sword the arrow boy had on his back. She claims she saw it before, and to have seen it myself, with her recognizing it… I don't like it. I have no idea what it means, and it has done nothing but stress me out. I guess there's nothing I can do about it here, it'll get figured out eventually.

I look out over the Fright Zone. It's the best view in this dump, up here. Adora and I have spent many nights alone on this walkway, far above the noise of the constant coming and going cargo ships. It's peaceful, even if it feels wrong being up here alone. I came up here an hour ago, because Adora wouldn't leave me alone. I feel guilty, yeah, but really I just don't know what to do.

We finally got to the field. I was excited, we were happy. Then I took that hit from the arrow, which barely bothered me. I mean, Adora got hit too. Then the sparkles princess got me twice, and took Adora before I could react. How could I have been so slow? She could've gotten hurt. And then… she let her go. It was obvious the princess was tired, she got worn out fast. I didn't hear what Adora said to her, but I know she said something.

Why else would she tell Lonnie to give the orders to the flanks instead of giving them herself? Nobody lost their communicators. She just wanted to talk to the princess. Why?

"Catra? Are you up here?" I hear her voice from the ladder, she's coming up. I sigh, I knew coming up here would just trap me.

"Not now, Adora." I say. I want to tell her to go away, I want to tell her to leave me alone. I try to be nice.

"Catra, come on," I can hear her stop at the top rung of the ladder, I can almost feel her staring at me. I don't turn to look at her.

"I told you, I want to be left alone." I'm trying to keep my cool. Why doesn't she listen? I hear her climb the rest of the way up, and feel the walkway shake a little as she gets closer. I half expect her to grab me and turn me around, but the movement stops.

"Look, I know you're mad at me. And I don't know why. No one else knows either. Is this about your performance? I talked to Shadow Weaver, everyone got good marks."

"I don't need you to smooth things over for me. I can handle it myself." There's a bite to my words, but I'm still careful with my tone. I know I'm not really mad at her. I just… don't know how to talk about why I'm upset.

"I know you can, I just thought, with the mark on your face-"

"It's no big deal, it's already gone."

"I know, but I figured that since you're always worried about how Shadow Weaver will rank you in things-"

"Adora, please! It's fine."

She doesn't say anything for a moment. I can feel her concern. It's only making me more mad, my tail slowly flicking back and forth. "I'm not leaving until you talk to me," she says softly.

I don't say anything. Why does she care so much?

There's silence for a few moments, And Adora steps close to the railing I'm perched on. She leans on it, next to me. "Is it about the sword?"

"No!" I snap, quickly reeling back from it. "No." I shouldn't have yelled.

There's more silence. I hurt her. Should I apologize?

"How's your head?" I ask instead.

"What?"

"Your head? You were complaining about voices, and visions?"

"Oh. They stopped a few days ago. Whatever it was, I think going near the sword made them worse."

"Well, as long as they're gone." I don't know why I'm being weird about the sword. It's probably just a piece of junk. "I just was worried it had cursed you, I guess."

"Catra, that's not why you've been avoiding me."

"No, it isn't," I admit.

"So you do have a reason?" She sounds more hurt now. I'm making it worse. Tell her. Tell her what?

"... What did you say to the princess?"

"Really? That's all?" There's a snark to her voice. Seriously? I'm trying to take this seriously, and she thinks it's a joke? I hop up off the railing, and walk to the far edge of the platform, away from the ladder. She follows me, because of course she does. "Sorry, I meant, I just made a sort of… deal."

"A deal? With a princess? Are you crazy?" I'm shocked, if it wasn't clear. How could she be so naive?

"No no no, it wasn't like that. I told her if she didn't attack, I wouldn't attack. We only wanted the land, right? She wasn't there to fight, or to defend the land. She was there to get the people out. I didn't… I didn't want anyone innocent getting hurt.

"Seriously? Adora, this is war!" I turn around, facing her for the first time. "There are no innocents. We had to leave behind half our men to set up camp instead of leaving a quarter of them to work with the natives."

"Catra, people were going to get hurt? Why can't we do our job and minimize harm!"

"Because that isn't how the horde works! You're lucky Shadow Weaver probably thought it would be too easy to bother watching us, if she knows you made a deal with the princess you'd lose your rank immediately!"

"I just… thought it would be better than way."

"Better for your conscience? Come on, Adora, we can't make a name for ourselves here if we fret over every blade of grass." It's harsh, I know, but this isn't a game. Adora always took training so seriously, but this isn't training anymore. "The arrow boy could've killed the two of us had he not gone for incapacitation. We were sloppy, Adora. We can't take chances like that."

"Sorry, Catra… I know. We can't trust them."

I don't say anything again. She's so dumb! We could've all been torched for that. "It's fine," I lie. "It was just a question. Thanks for answering me honestly."

"I would never lie to you like that." Her voice is so soft. I feel my heart tighten, guilty for raising my voice at her. She just wants what's best for everyone, she only wanted to-

No. She can't put them before us. This is war. "Okay," is all I say. Wrong move.

"Is that all?" She presses.

"Yes, that's all," I lie again. We're very different people.

"Okay," she sighs, relieved. It takes some weight off of my shoulders, too, knowing she'll stop pressing me. "Do you wanna head down now? I have good news for you."

"Yeah sure," I force myself to sound more like I usually do, when I'm not being a jerk. "What is it?"

Adora starts walking towards the ladder, and I follow. "I think I'll tell you when we get there, come on." She motions me down, and I comply, sliding down the old thing probably too quickly, and Adora follows.

"Where are going?" I ask, since I'm in front of her.

"Outside our bunker, Shadow Weaver has an assignment for us." She says, matter of factly. Which is fair, there's honestly no real other way to state it, but the mention of her name makes me pause for a second. If she finds out about Adora's talk… she won't. I can keep a secret.

Bow's POV

Block.

*Ding.*

Swing, blocked, guard, parry.

*Ding. Ding.*

Focus, I can't make a mistake here, not if it comes down to the wire like this. I swing the sword again.

*Ding.*

This time, she doesn't block, and I'm parried. Before I can process it, the sword is on the ground, and her sword is at my throat.

"Better luck next time," General Julliet says, but in a genuinely respectful tone.

"Yeah… Thanks…" I say, panting. I reach down for the sword, but suddenly Glimmer is in between it and me.e

"Bow, that was awesome!" She shouts, wrapping her arms around me.

"But, I lost?" I say, confused.

"It's just sparring. Besides, you made it twice as long this time!" She points out, literally pointing at me with her one hand she took off my shoulder.

"It's not like I could do much else. Your mom put our mission to Dryl on hold, after all." I reach down, grabbing the sword.

"For once, I don't blame her. We fell through a building, Bow."

"I know, I still feel it in my back." And I do.

"Well, when we head back out, we'll be even better than we were at Thaymor! I mean, you're learning a new weapon! I never thought I'd see the day."

"Hey, I'm good at a lot more than just archery! Besides, I know I could keep it in your room or the armory, but last time we were kind of thrown into combat with it still on me. If that happens again, I want it to at least be more useful than a paper-weight."

"Which is a very good idea! Besides, the gold matches your armor, it looks good on you!"

"Maybe if the heart was blue, it would match completely," I note.

"No, never do that to yourself. The red works too well." She seems shocked I even thought of the idea.

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning on it" We chuckle, it's good to talk about nonsense sometimes, especially before a war room meeting. "We need to get going, the meeting starts soon."

"Yeah," Glimmer says slowly, thinking. "I hope my mom lets us back into the field now. I mean, I felt great the morning after!"

"I don't know Glimmer, I took the fall a lot harder than you. You were back out fighting right when you hit the ground."

"Don't worry, we can handle whatever the horde throws at us."

"Glimmer, I went down there. If they were out for blood-"

"Bow, I wouldn't have let that happen. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I do. We'll always have each other's backs."

"Yeah. Alright, let's get to that meeting!" She reaches her hand out, and I grab it. Before I can even blink, we're in the war room. I remember when teleporting was nauseating, now I rarely even lose my balance.

"There you are," the queen starts, "tell me, how did the general you were sparring with make it here before you?"

Glimmer stares for a second, debating a snarky remark, but before she can say anything, the queen starts chuckling to herself.

"I'm kidding, Glimmer. Welcome, we have a lot to discuss."

"Oh… okay." Glimmer relaxes, and I understand why, she thought she was going to get chewed out for talking for a moment. Angella's knowing smile though tells me that was never the case. Glimmer and I take our seats, and look out to see a few Bright Moon guards, the general, and… Spinnerella and Netossa? That's a bit of a surprise.

Queen Angella begins addressing the room, "as you all know the horde has been making quite a bit of ground these past few weeks. Commander Glimmer and I have spoken, several times, about how she believes we are giving up ground too quickly."

Glimmer raises her hand, politely, but I can tell she's bounding with frustration. I think they've argued about this every day since she got grounded, then ungrounded again.

Angella, however, does not call on, "I'm here today to admit that she's right."

Glimmer's mouth drops in shock, and loudly proclaims, "what?"

"The horde is moving too quickly. Glimmer, you think we need to take the fight back to them. How do you propose we do that, when we are outnumbered and outgunned?"

"Oh, I have actually been thinking about this! I have a plan, a good one, I just needed a chance to tell you."

"Well?"

"Okay, remember the old kingdom alliance?"

Angella freezes momentarily, "how could I forget?"

"Yeah," Glimmer pauses, embarrassed. "Well, I was thinking about it. It's been a while, and apparently that alliance was when the Horde was at its weakest, so I wanted to propose that we reach out to the other princesses! If we start working together again, it wouldn't just be Bright Moon vs the Horde, but the Horde vs Etheria!"

"And how do you propose we'd make that work? The alliance fell apart last time without proper leadership," Angella looks down at the table in front of her.

"I think I can work with it. You already approved our mission to Dryl, well, when Bow got better. And he is better!"

"Glimmer.." I say, not wanting her to oversell it. Landing on your back and then getting an electrical burn can really make it hard to work with your upper body.

"Bow, it's okay." She turns back to Angella and continues, "we already have the support of Spinnerella and Netossa, we have a good reason to approach Entrapta," Glimmer reaches down and zooms in the map on Plumeria. "And, I saw the reports that Plumeria is facing crop failure and increased Horde sightings. So, I wanted to propose a-"

"Glimmer, I can tell you put a lot of thought into this, but I don't think the princesses would be willing to abandon what limited neutrality they hold onto."

"Wait, let me finish! I wanted to propose that Bow and I do a diplomatic envoy to Plumeria to reach princess Perfuma. No fighting, and it's a much shorter distance than Dryl! Not to mention, The princess ball is only a few weeks away, and assuming everything goes to plan, it'd be a great way to contact Frosta!"

Angella says nothing, deep in thought, taking a deep breath before asking, "and what about Salineas?"

"Well, we don't exactly have a good reason to go there, but as much ground as the horde is taking, it's only a matter of time before they decide they need control of the eastern Etherian sea zones. They'll be under fire too, and we can get to Princess Mermista first."

Angella relaxes a little, seemingly willing to give the idea thought. Instead, she sighs, and turns to Glimmer. She gives a simple, "okay."

"Mom, please- wait, okay? Yes!" She practically jumps out of her seat, and then teleports out anyway to hug her mom. She looks at me and smiles, before turning to the other two princesses and giving a thumbs up. General Julliet puts her hand to her forehead.

"You may lead the envoy to Plumeria when you see fit, but please, we were keeping notes in preparation to deliver necessary humanitarian supplies."

"We can do that!" I say, instantly putting a plan together in my mind. "I actually rode this horse back to Brightmoon from Thaymor, we can take him, and get him to help carry a small cart full of food and medicinal supplies!"

"So you read the report in preparation, too? Well, today was supposed to be about perimeter defenses of the woods, but this will work, too. Bow, Glimmer, you are to bring the items listed in the report as aid for Plumeria, that is your main goal. As a secondary mission, you may approach perfuma about this new princess alliance."

"YES! Thank you mom, you won't regret this! Bow, let's get started!"

"What about the rest of the-" she already has her arm on me, and we're already down in the supply room. "-meeting…"

"Oh we'll hear the summary later, come on! This is huge! Within a week, you'll be ready for the longer trip, and we'll talk to Entrapta about the sword! Bow, we can save the rebellion!"

I smile at her, she's really excited about this. Better not let her down. I pull up my tracker pad, and we start rummaging through the shelves for everything we need. We'll be out on the road soon.

Catra's Pov

We're standing in a line, in front of Shadow Weaver. No one has said anything, how long has it been? Five minutes? Two? There's tension, and Shadow Weaver is using that. She's glaring at each of us, one by. Rarely Adora, mostly me. I'm sweating.

Does she know about the battle? My mistakes? Adora's deal? Was that the last field op we'll ever get? Adora said it was good news. I sneak a glance to my left, at her. She's a statue, nothing to read on her face, staring ahead. I quickly put my eyes back on Shadow Weaver. She watched me glance at Adora.

My blood is cold. But I hold my resolve. This is a simple scare tactic, it's going to take a lot more to actually cause me to crack. She couldn't know.

Finally, she starts speaking, "as you all surely know, Hordak was impressed with the invasion of Thaymor. You five went up against a princess, and we only lost one tank. That being said, there were… concerns."

She knows. I swallow what little saliva is in my mouth, it's too dry.

"You five have spent your whole lives training to be field officers, or trying to train," she singles out Kyle, who seems to visibly shrink, "or not trying much at all."

She turns to me, and it takes everything to suppress my instinct to push back, to yell, or hiss, or something. But I hold still.

"That being said," she continues, "our manpower in terms of chores and menial labor is stretched thin. We've taken a lot of territory, and haven't had the chance to- persuade- many new Etherians to fight for our winning cause."

Adora tenses up, Shadow Weaver finally said something that caused her to crack. Damnit, why did I put that doubt in Adora's head?

"So we're sending you out on your next mission. Our occupation force near Plumeria is working to stop that princess from being able to use her powers, by destroying her runestone. Of course, going up against princesses is a difficult task, so the team in charge of this operation was off-site, performing a land-contamination procedure. Adora, you read about this in orientation, yes?

Force Captain orientation, Adora had to be out late two days ago going through dozens of menus on certain operations of ours, briefing herself. She straightens up, and answers, "Yes, Shadow Weaver."

"Good. Your mission is to oversee the task, our thin forces are struggling to manage on their own. This should be impossible to mess up. We will have actual field work for your team soon. You know where it is, Adora. Get your team there asap. I will be watching this time. Dismissed." She turns to leave, and Adora relaxes. Kyle, to my right, sighs. I lean forward, Lonnie and Rogelio seemed pretty undisturbed, all things considered.

Lonnie speaks first, "Well, I guess I'll suit up. See you all in 15?"

"Uh- yeah."

Rogelio says something I don't care to try and understand.

"Yeah, Lonnie, see you all soon."

Lonnie looks at me, last. I don't look at her. I don't like how she acts like she's second-in-command here. She's not. Everyone takes off, but Adora doesn't, stepping in front of me.

"Catra, are you good?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I ask, squinting at her.

"Well, you were… squirming."

"No, I wasn't. Let's get ready." I walk past her, then stop. "Adora, she doesn't know. Relax, okay?"

"I- Yeah. Okay." She glances down, but pulls herself together almost immediately. "Let's go, we've got a tree to kill."

"Alright- Wait, seriously?" I turn back around to look at her, but she's already heading down to the armory, given her and I don't exactly go to suit up. This is going to be pretty dumb, but at least we get out of the Fright Zone again. This is going to be a long drive. I should tell Adora to get us a few skiffs, we'll get there faster.

Bow's POV

It's been a long trot to Plumeria. It's definitely taking longer than it did to get back to Bright Moon from Thaymor, Glimmer and I don't usually partake in missions that don't involve us teleporting everything, but the scenery of Etheria is nice for a change.

Also, it's funny. Glimmer has been practically bouncing up and down this whole time, ecstatic that her mom gave her permission for this alliance idea of hers. She's been rehearsing a grandiose speech for princess Perfuma, practically since we loaded up the wagon and attached it to this horse that… doesn't have a name.

"-and with you on our side- no, we shouldn't make it sound like they're the lesser partner.- And with us on the same side- yeah, that works,- The Horde will have a much harder time expanding out of the Fright Zone!- wait, that sounds doomed to fail.- The Horde will have no chance against us! Is that too cocky, Bow?"

"I don't think so, I think it's more inspiring than cocky."

"Great, thanks." She goes back to verbally planning her speech to Perfuma of what the plan is, and I look down at my tracker pad.

We're close now. I hope this trip goes as well as Glimmer made it out to be. I mean, we weren't supposed to fight in Thaymor, and we did. And reports say that there's a horde outpost right outside Plumeria. I'm not against fighting, but I do consider myself to be a thorough planner. And if there's one thing that never looks good when planning, it's the manpower difference. Glimmer said the Horde commander told her to leave, that they were just there for the land. But it doesn't fit the horde's MO. Had they have done what they usually do, and gone for the kill, well, I don't think Glimmer and I could have taken on 30 men. We took down maybe five people before the commander's team made it to my position.

"Bow! Did you hear me?" Glimmer shakes me from behind, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, sorry, no. What's up?"

"I asked how much longer we have. I think I know what I'm going to say, I don't want to lose it."

"Don't worry Glimmer, the first house is just beyond the bend up there. We'll be in and out instantly, just having to stop to help unload the wagon and hand out the supplies."

"Great. I'm gonna teleport in, now, to let them know you're here?'

"Go for it, I'll catch up." In an instant, her hands are off my shoulders and she's gone, and the horse seems to stall for a second. He was confused when she decided to teleport onto him, too. I turn the reins, and we follow the bend in the road. Plumeria is a very different place from Bright Moon. Less mountains, no valley of water, the houses aren't even houses, they're more tents. And the trees are more spread out than in the Whispering woods, but they're huge. I pull into the town center, and a bunch of people are already out and about, even without having been alerted. I see Glimmer come out of a tent near the central tree, followed by the princess of these lands.

"Oh, hello, you must be Bow!" Perfuma raises an arm in greeting, her voice cheerful despite the gloomy situation the report made me believe I was walking into.

I hop off the horse after we stop, and greet the princess. "Hi, princess Perfuma. Yes, I'm Bow. You talked to Glimmer?"

"Yes! She told me that you two arrived with aid from Bright Moon? We are very grateful for your donations! And please, just Perfuma."

"Okay Perfuma. Yeah, we heard the call for aid. We bought a supply of non-perishable food, a little bit of perishables as an added gift, and medicinal aid."

Perfuma nods in an almost bow, and waves her hand. I feel something that almost tickles slightly around my forehead, and I reach up. Petals. She made me a flower crown! "Yes, thank you. We've been experiencing," she pauses, debating her word choice, "difficulties. Thankfully, the universe has come through! Thank you, this will allow us to hopefully have enough supplies to migrate, and find somewhere else to set up."

"Migrate? You're leaving? Why?" Glimmer walks up, concerned. "You can't leave!"

"The Horde is killing us. We don't know what they're doing, but ever since they showed up, their machines have been damaging our land. The tree that gives me my powers is dying, and I can't save it. My magic isn't enough. We were hoping for the universe to send us someone who could help, and heal or land, but I don't think the Horde is going to face its consequences today."

"Perfuma," Glimmer walks up to her, practically in her face, "You can't just run away from the Horde! Believe me, that's all my mom has been doing these past few months. Why don't you come with Bow and I? We can take a look at whatever the Horde is doing, and stop them!"

"Glimmer, we're not fighters. We just want to continue leaving, in peace and harmony. But with our calls for a savior, like the legends of She-Ra, unanswered, there isn't anything we could do."

"I don't know who that is, but I do know that you can't just wait or run until the universe comes to help you. Bow, back me up here."

"Glimmer, we're only here to deliver the supplies. We told Queen Angella that-"

"Ugh!" She shouts. "I don't care, Bow. I told you and my mom, we don't have the land to give up." She turns back to Perfuma, and continues. "Look, I know you aren't used to fighting, but the horde doesn't care. They will keep coming, everywhere you go, until there's nowhere left to go."

"Glimmer, that's enough!" I grab her arm, pulling her off of Perfuma, but careful not to hurt her. Glimmer glares at me for a second, before puffing.

"I… I'm sorry Glimmer." Perfuma says. "There's nothing I can do. You saw my powers."

Glimmer looks at the tree, for a second, and says, "That tree there is your runestone, right? If you let it die here, how can you protect your people in the future?

Perfuma says nothing. This did, of course, not go as Glimmer and I had expected it to.

"Bow, let's go. We can't let these people lose their homes. Perfuma, we could use your help. Please. Your people here can start the unloading while we're gone."

I look at Perfuma. As much as I don't want to go against Angella's orders right now, Glimmer isn't wrong. Perfuma is lost in thought, and looks at the tree, staring at the withering branches.

Catra's POV

It wasn't a long drive, the skiffs really were faster. We partnered up, and Rogelio ended up taking his own. It was an uneasy ride, Adora and I wordlessly thinking about the other day we were on one of these. Except this time, I didn't wrestle for control of the driver's stick.

Surprisingly, this is another easy mission. We're walking around, staring at the grunts as they maintain equipment and pump more of some sort of poison into the ground. Shadow Weaver was right, this isn't something that gets messed up. I run my hands through my hair, making sure it's out of the way.

"Kyle!" I shout, over my shoulder.

"Yes, Catra?" He says, walking up.

"Shadow Weaver said this job is taking too long, but it's routine. Go figure out what happens if we override the pumps, I'm going to talk to Adora."

"Um, okay, on it." He runs off, and I head outside. Adora is standing at the entrance.

"Hey Adora. How's the field work looking?"

She looks up from a clipboard she's holding, and over to me. "Hi, Catra. Fine. To be honest, I'm not sure how we can pick this up."

"I had an idea, put Kyle on it."

"Why would you do that?"

"He's smart, he'll figure it out." At that, Adora takes one look at me, and we both start laughing. Good, a tension breaker, and she loved it. She doubles over a little, steadying herself against the wall, which makes me start laughing more, too.

Eventually, we straighten ourselves up. "Seriously, why?"

"He was following me, since Lonnie and Rogelio were already out back, and I previously told him to let you do your checklist work. But I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh? She sets the clipboard down to her left, on some crates. "What's up?"

"I… I've been weird lately. Sorry."

"Um, thank you?"

"I just, don't worry about Shadow Weaver, okay? She doesn't know, not really, she just has suspicions."

Her expression drops for a moment, but she tries to cover it up. "I'm not worried about her. Besides, you were right. We can't play soft."

No, that is not the takeaway you're supposed to have. "Adora, no… listen. Shadow Weaver-"

A horn, a loud one, is heard from over the walls. It isn't our alarm siren. Which only means one thing: that was a battle cry. Adora immediately draws her stun stick, and I reach back inside the, well, poison pump building, to press the alarm button next to the entrance. The inside lights go red, and an alarm blares. Whatever that was, someone had enough of this operation and-

There's a loud noise, a crash, to our left. Adora turns instantly, taking off towards the sound, and I follow. An entire section of the perimeter wall is gone. There are… flowers?

"It's Perfuma, get ready," Adora says back to me. There are a few other guards heading over, too, and I see Rogelio rounding the corner from behind the base. I assume it's Lonnie with him still, that person already has their helmet on. Again, nothing happens, and another section of the wall comes down on the front entrance. A diversion. Instantly, there's people pouring in through the wall. At least 10, already close to the numbers we have here. They're all civilians, why are they here?

Then, I see them. The boy with the arrows, and the glitter princess. This is a joke, right? I lock eyes with the boy, and he pauses for a second. He probably thought the same thing. Adora looks annoyed too, especially when I see her eyes drift just behind the boy, he still has the sword.

"Catra, defend the machine, I'm going for the archer," she says, already sprinting forward. She's going for the sword, isn't she? Well forget it, I'm following her, I need some payback the hits I took at Thaymor.

I'm following Adora when the glitter princess is in front of me, with a slight poof sound, and a flash of pink. Seriously?

"Miss me?"

"Out of my way, Sparkles."

Her eye twitches, she didn't like that. "Sorry, but you're actually in our way. What's in the building?"

I unsheathe my claws and move forward, I'm not in the mood to talk. I get close, and she's gone. I pivot on my front foot, immediately turning around, and there she is. I was ready this time. She takes a swing, and I duck under it, using the downward momentum to push into a jump, driving my knee into her stomach. Finally, I connect with her, and she goes back. For a second, I consider going back in on her, but I need to back up Adora, so I turn around.

They're fighting, she managed to close the distance on him, and neither one is getting a hit off on the other. Until, a vine wraps around Adora's foot, and she's pulled away. No. But she's fast, already getting herself untangled. She'll be okay. I have a few questions for the boy.

Unfortunately, I was distracted by her, and I get hit by an arrow. This one was concussive, but it hurts, and I place my hand over my shoulder where it connected. I hiss, and close the distance before he can draw another one. Just like last time, I push off my legs and jump over him, this time not waiting for him to be cornered. I turn around, and slash at his back, and his quiver drops to the ground. Good.

He's already around, and sees his arsenal on the floor. He knows he's in trouble. If he knew how to use that sword, he would have when he was cornered in the house. I smirk, but he narrows his eyes and draws it. Okay, I was wrong.

"How do you two know about this sword?" He asks.

"The woods. How did you find it?"

"Why didn't you grab it? You didn't plant it."

"A mistake. Hand it over."

"Take it." He gets into a fighting stance, definitely not one a swordsman would use. I see Adora running up, she must've separated from the flower princess. He's cornered again, until Sparkles is there, because of course she is. They're nearly back to back, in an L formation. Adora shoots a quick glance at me, and we charge forward. Unsurprisingly, the guy has little idea what he's doing, and is using the sword solely defensively, blocking my swipes. I try to glance at Adora, another mistake, and I get hit in the side by the flat of the sword. Stupid, that could've been it.

"What's wrong, too scared to do anything that would actually work?" I taunt, grabbing my side. Adora saw the swing, and moves for the boy, ignoring Sparkles. Another mistake, and she gets hit. We are not going out to these two. I got the boy again, but fake out the claw swipes, knocking him off balance with a sweeping kick, and put my full weight onto him, knocking him over, and I leap at Sparkles. She turns, and since I'm midair, I need to twist to avoid a blast she sends off instantly, and I roll when I hit the floor.

The boy switched his attention to Adora, so I kick my focus on Sparkles, and go for her again, this time dodging her blast without being above ground, and she teleports away. I take a look around, and see that the boy has Adora pinned, and I leap into him, freeing Adora.

The boy reaches for the sword that fell out of his hand, and recovers swings at me, a slow one, but he's tired. He's not aiming with the flatside anymore. I'm still on the ground. No time to think. I kick his stomach since he's practically on me, and he stumbles, but he gets ready for another swing, but from farther away.

This time, Adora tackles him, and the sword goes flying. I go to help, and Sparkles is suddenly in front of me. This girl is annoying. We're all tired, there's been no room to think for a second. I take the chance now, since Sparkles, Adora, and the boy are all panting.

We're losing. The whole of the guard force is being wiped out by the flower princess and her entire town, we're outnumbered. And Adora and I are wasting our time with this distraction force. Shadow Weaver is going to kill us. But we need to get out of here, before the whole of the town comes back here.

The boy moves first, backing up, and grabs an arrow and his bow from two feet behind where he was standing. Adora moves instantly, not wanting to give him time to draw, and Sparkles moves for Adora. So I move for her. She isn't facing me, and I leap at her, managing to wrap an arm around her throat. Everything next happens in an instant.

He draws, she steps close. She smacks the side of the boy, and he drops it, and the arrow. Adora, quickly, grabs the arrow out of the air. No. She drives it towards him, and I push myself off of Sparkles, as she screams. She teleports in between Adora and the boy.

The impact is quick. I slam into Adora, and the two of us roll away from the rebel soldiers. Sparkles looks at me, confused, but they don't make a move.

"Wh- what did you do!?" She screams at me.

"Adora, we're losing, we need to get out of here while we still can. Our team was in the back, let's go." I grab her arm, and pull with as much force as I can to get her to her feet. She quickly glances at the sword, but with those two standing right there, I don't let her chance it.

I know we lost, we let ourselves get distracted with those two, but I've never felt so relieved. In this instant, I don't care that Shadow Weaver is going to kill me. I kept Adora from doing something I know she'd have regretted forever. I should never have yelled at her this morning.

We're running, I quickly knock a random guy out of our way, and we make our way to the back of the building. Thankfully, our team is all still conscious and fighting. Except Kyle, who is already at the skiffs. Looks like they decided to retreat, too.

"Get on the skiffs, we're leaving, now!" Adora shouts. Lonnie looks relieved, and Rogelio throws one more man away from the two as they start following us. Adora quickly shoots me a glance, before getting the skiff Kyle had turned on. Ouch. I hop on another, while Lonnie and Rogelio take the third, and we're off.

I can't believe it. I turn around as I set my skiff to "follow," and look at the wreck of plants everywhere. She took care of most of the base while the other two were busy with Adora and I? So much for a low-level threat princess, we're going to need better intel. I try to shoot a glance at Adora. How can she be mad at me for stopping her like that? She always had a child-like naivety about how the two of us were going to conquer the world and the Horde, so why did she have to let that shatter so quickly? What happened while I was ignoring her this week?

Bow' POV

"So, that's it then?" I ask, holding my hand to my stomach. I took a kick from the magicat back there, and for once I'm feeling the consequences of my abless-shirts life, seeing five parallel scratch marks running down the left side of my stomach.

I reach down, studying the machinery. Yep, it's pumping poison straight into the land. The root network of these trees must be incredible.

"Every single one has retreated by now. The ones that are unconscious probably will as soon as they come to." Glimmer says, taking one last look at the machine.

"Well, I guess it's time to finish this." Perfuma says, visibly coming down from what was probably the most adrenaline she's ever felt. She raises her hands, concentrating, and two massive roots that the machine were pumping into suddenly shoot up, and wrap around the machine. Perfuma rotates both of her wrists, and closes her hands into fists, and the roots start crushing the machinery.

I draw my bow, and knock the explosive arrow I picked up off the ground before coming in here. No one here knows how to work these machines, so we can't afford to try and power them off. So as Perfuma is crushing the pumps, I fire the arrow at the vat of poison to the side, and a small section in the bottom of the vat blows open. I planned the shot right, and it flows straight for the draining system instead of back towards the roots.

Perfuma lets go of the roots after returning them to their near original position, and wipes some sweat off her forehead. "Thank you, Bow. Glimmer. You were right. I still believe the universe is just, but for now, I accept that I needed to step up for my people."

"It was great working with you, Perfuma!" Glimmer says loudly, "I didn't get to see much of what you were doing, I was a little preoccupied, but like, wow! That's some good plant magic."

"Thank you, Glimmer, I really like your magic too. Your energy looks beautiful when it's knocking people out."

"Thanks, Perfuma. Listen… There's a lot more Horde out there. I had this whole speech planned, but basically, we want to enter into an alliance with you, for combatting the horde. Are you in?"

"Would I… get to hit more people with flowers?"

Glimmer tilts her head, smirking. Another mission, successful, even if it didn't exactly go as planned and ended up being a lot more punchy than a diplomatic mission would lead you to believe. I turn around and head outside, leaving Glimmer to discuss alliance terms with Perfuma.

Unfortunately, now I have to go and collect all my arrows, and make a makeshift strap fastener for my quiver. This fight wasn't exactly great in terms of an easy win, that blonde girl was acting completely differently than how she did at Thaymor. And to run into them again… I pull the sword off my back, looking at it. What is this thing, really? I shake my head, putting the sword back. So much for the Horde's change in policy.