Bow's POV
It's been a long few days. Ever since the Sea Gate fell, we've been struggling to maintain any sense of defensive ground against the horde. They haven't dared to partake in a land invasion of Salineas, but their ability to transport supplies between the northern and southern seas has gotten much more efficient now that they can't enforce a blockade, allowing their front to be much better equipped whenever they plan an invasion.
We've been struggling. Mermista has been doing what she can to get the gate fixed again, but none of us know what we're doing. It got Angella to finally send us out to Entrapta, hoping that since she's the best First One understander there is, that she might be able to figure out the technology that is powered by Runestones.
The trip up here has been exhausting, Glimmer and I have both been on edge ever since we realized we were being tracked. Angella was initially incredibly worried, calling all stops to figure it out. She's still looking into it now, actually, but approved the mission anyway after pointing out that the horde vehicles won't be able to effectively transport any troops up these mountains.
So Glimmer and I have been slowly making our way to Entrapta's castle, taking time here and there where needed to keep the path from falling apart. It took a while, and Glimmer and I are already feeling the pain in our legs, but Glimmer is in no rush to be caught without magic again. At least I was able to restock my trick arrows after using most of them at Salineas, but Glimmer doesn't think my sonic one would be very useful.
We round a quick turn on the cliffside, and see Dryl in all its glory. I'm immediately greeted with something I've never seen before, as lightning strikes the top of the tower, some sort of attracting rod.
"Whoa, she's got lightning!" I exclaim, Entrapta is someone I've been dying to meet forever, now. The things I could learn from her…
"Something's wrong." Glimmer teleports away, and I see her appear on top of the castle's gate walls. " The castle's distress beacon is lit. Was that Adora girl able to beat us here?"
"I don't think so, it isn't like they can fly," I raise my voice, so it can carry to her.
"Either way, we need to be careful. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."
"Of course, I'm not going to let them get the jump on us if they are here."
"I'm sure you are, now come on, let's get in there." She teleports off the wall, somewhere into the city square, when suddenly I feel the floor shift below me. That means…
I stop moving immediately, and in front of me the ground opens up to a pit with spikes in it. Of course she would build defenses for when the castle was on lockdown. I need to warn her.
"Glimmer! Okay, we need to be careful. Entrapta has traps set up all over her castle." I run into the clearing, stopping to take a deep breath, and straighten up again. "They're supposed to be really cool."
Just then, I see a sewer drain pop up from the ground. That's strange… A head pops up, but I can't make it out. "They're coming, get out of the square!" Just like that, the head slides black down, leaving only more questions.
"So… someone is here?" Glimmer asks, confused.
"I'm not sure, but we definitely need to be careful now."
"Ugh, this was supposed to be a simple, safe, mission." She pauses, turning around quickly. "Did you hear that?"
"No, what?" But I see it as I look past her. A bot coming out of the shadows. I try to get a look at it, but it starts moving forward, and I guess the noise Glimmer heard must have been it trying to exclaim an attack noise, because that is not friendly bot-demeanor. I draw my bow right as Glimmer readies her fists. She puts a concussive blast into it, knocking it back, and while it's down my arrow finds its target in the robot's core.
"One of Entrapta's? Why would it attack us?" I ask, able to look at the thing, now.
"I don't know. Let's just try the door, maybe find her?"
"Yeah, but we still need to be careful." I turn to walk towards where Glimmer is, and as she approaches the door, I notice how her foot sinks slightly into the ground. Uh Oh. I run forwards, grabbing her arm and pulling right as the ground opens up to a hole that seemingly goes much deeper, before it's already closed.
"Geez, thanks Bow. That was close."
"I told you, be careful. Now let's get in here and find Entrapta, this can still be an easy mission."
Glimmer smiles, and I approach the door from the side. "No real way while it's in lockdown, Glimmer, think you take us to the main tower?"
"I don't know, Bow. Something's wrong. There's something here interfering with my magic."
"Interfering how?"
"Everything is a little more blurry than normal, I think if I teleport, we're going to need to keep it short-ranged."
"Alright. Just the other side of the door, then?"
"That, I can probably do. Let's go."
Adora's POV
I'm no closer to figuring it out. I've spent all of my free time, when I wasn't training with my team or reporting to Shadow Weaver, on figuring out this sword.
It was easy to get all the files I needed. I have papers on what limited knowledge the horde has about Runestones, as well as everything Shadow Weaver was willing to give me on her Black Garnet. She didn't want to, but I learned a thing or two about persuasiveness from her.
I lied, with partial truth. I told her I believe Glimmer's plan is to bring the princesses together for some sort of alliance, according to Shadow Weaver it's been tried before, when she was younger. What I didn't tell her is that I don't care about the princesses right now, and this information won't help me beat them.
It's always the sword. Every time I see that thing, I have visions and dreams for the next few days. I need to figure out what it means. I could go to Shadow Weaver, and tell her about it, but… I'm worried about the repercussions of that. Instead, Catra is helping me. I can tell she doesn't want anything to do with the sword, but she's helping me, and I'm grateful for it.
So far, we haven't managed to get much of anywhere.
"Runestones seem to be connected to princesses, in all cases except the Black Garnet. And this sword." Catra says, holding up a file on the Black Garnet.
"I don't think that's true. The Black Garnet has a family tied to it, they just don't show any of that connection."
"Who is tied to the Black Garnet?"
"Um, Force Captain Scorpia?" I answer, putting one folder down and moving on to another.
"What? How?" She shouts, shocked.
"You'd have to ask her, I don't know the details."
Catra goes through he Black Garnet file more "No, there it is. It belonged to her family, alright. We're fighting on the side of a princess?"
"I don't know if it counts, with the whole no connection thing" I look closer at what I'm holding, information on the princess of Dryl. Her hair contains fine nerves and motor functions? "But this Entrapta doesn't have an elemental power either, and she's still a princess, so who knows… I think that sword has a princess, and we just don't know who it is."
'Pfft, maybe it's you. It'd explain the visions."
"What? No. I am not a princess."
"Hahah! Imagine it, you in a tiara!"
"Please, it'd still look better than whatever that thing on your face is."
"Hey, you told me you liked it!"
"And I do, it suits you well."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Catra has dropped all pretense of reading anymore, intently watching me. Her tail is swishing back and forth behind her.
I put down the document on Entrapta. "It means, take that back."
"Heh. You're a princess…" Catra smiles, she shifts her posture, no longer sitting on the ground, and I do the same. I know what this is, a game we used to play when we were younger.
"Hey, Adora, you be the evil princess, and I'll be the brave Horde Captain!"
"It's Force Captain, Catra. And why would I be the princess?"
"Because you're always getting pampered by Shadow Weaver, and it seems like everyone loves you despite how evil you are."
"Catra, if the horde loves me, that'd make me the Force Captain. Hahahaha, Princess Catra!"
"No!" She'd scream, throwing her weight onto me. "Take that back!"
"Okay, okay! I'll be the Princess. But only this time."
Catra's expression changes into a smirk. "Then I already have you beat!" She says, all of her weight on me, still.
"Not likely!" Thus, the thrashing and rolling would start. Usually, I'd end up on top. Catra was faster than me, but I was always stronger. Sometimes she'd give up and let me have it. Sometimes…
"No!" Catra maneuvers her leg free, and drives it into my stomach. I don't feel her claws, but the impact still reels me. I stumble back, and she's on top again.
"Cheater…" I whine. I'm not really in pain, but seeing her eyes flash for a split second always helps to remind me it isn't real, that I don't need to win this time.
"You're a princess, remember? Princesses always cheat! I'm just leveling the field!"
"Got you!" I shout, keeping Catra's arms to the ground.
"Ugh! Fine! You win! You're not a princess," Catra shouts.
"Thank you," I reply, smiling, backing off of her. It's been a long time since Catra and I have done anything like that. One time we were messing around like this, we got caught by Shadow Weaver. Catra took all the blame that day… We haven't done it since. Until now.
There's a look in Catra's eyes, almost soft again. But also, like she genuinely wants to say something more about what we were doing, but she goes back into the papers.
I do the same. So, if the sword has a princess, who could it really be? Entrapta's? Maybe Peekablue? There are a lot of possibilities here. Who knows, maybe Catra's right. It would explain the visions… No. I put the files down again, and stand up. Maybe we just need to get the sword, it'll make figuring all this out a lot easier.
Bow's POV
Panic. Shear, unfiltered, panic. The good news: Glimmer and I found Entrapta very quickly. The bad news: Entrapta was experimenting with something that corrupted all First One's Tech in Dryl. Why is that bad? Entrapta's robots are powered by minimal amounts of First One's Tech, her being the most advanced tech-creator on Etheria, she's the only one who understood their tech, and now we're fighting everything she's built, on our way towards her main workshop, to destroy it.
Glimmer is genuinely annoyed, too. Even when it isn't the horde, we still have our, "simple easy plans," ending up going haywire. Oh well, at least we're getting good at improvising and adapting.
However, things get even stranger the longer we're fighting, and the closer we're getting. A lot of my incapacitating arrows are useless, and I've already fired off a stun arrow and net arrow that proved to be completely ineffective, and then the three of us came across this massive… cleaning bot?
"Okay, run!" Glimmer shouts, and we take off down the hallway behind us."
"Isn't it adorable!?" Entrapta asks, beaming with excitement.
"I don't this it the time-" I'm cut off as the bot starts making some sort of noise, but I have no idea what it could be.
"What… is it speaking?" Glimmer asks, unsure.
Entrapta pulls out a voice recorder, speaking into it. "Fascinating. Bot 329 is attempting to communicate…" As she talks, the bot's spinning brushes under it trap her hair, and Glimmer and I move forward instantly. I draw the sword off my back, swiping at the brushes, and Glimmer pulls Entrapta back. I drive the sword into the bot, and something happens that nearly horrifies me as a red… something- spirals out of the gem on the sword.
"What in the…"
The bot takes a hit from Glimmer, straight into the hole I made with the sword, and the bot powers down.
"What happened to the sword?" Glimmer asks, as I pick the sword up.
"I… don't know…"
Entrapta comes up to it, moving her hair towards it to grab it, and I let her. "This is incredible! The sword must be First One's tech!"
Really? I know the symbols on it matched the patterns that were on the Sea Gate, but Mermista didn't really know what that meant. I resolve to talk about it more later, but there are more bots coming, and we need to destroy that disk.
Grabbing the sword back, we continue moving through the halls. Entrapta doesn't seem to have any idea where we are, and Glimmer is still struggling to focus on her teleports, probably due to whatever energy interference this disk is throwing off. This is going to be a long mission…
After a few more encounters with random bots, we reach the outside of Entrapta's lab.
"Oh, we're here. I mean, uh, of course we're here. We were never lost." Entraptra doesn't really try to mask how not serious she took that sentence, and Glimmer just stares at her.
"I'm really tired of always being down to the wire like this," Glimmer complains, and understandably so.
"It's okay Glimmer. We'll break that disk and do what we came here for, we just need to get in there."
Entrapta goes to open the door, and the panel electrocutes her, sending her reeling back in shock as she recovers her senses.
"Entrapta, are you okay?" I grab her as she falls back, keeping her up.
"Wow," she starts, "the door is infected too, it won't let us in. That is so smart. And awful. We're all going to die."
"No. We're going in, how bad could it be?" Glimmer places a hand on mine and Entrapta's shoulders, and focusing a little bit to grab all three of us, we *poof* and are inside of the workshop.
I look up. The bots are over on the other half of the room, and slowly, it starts to dawn on me just how many of them there are. I draw my bow, and one of my few remaining arrows. "Glimmer, they're no noise activated, how much magic do you have left."
"More than enough this time, I was careful."
"Can you draw them away from that computer?"
"Of course. Good luck, you two."
She teleports off to the side of the room, throwing a burst of magic into the air, and Entrapta starts moving forward. "How fascinating," she says, looking at what I'm assuming is the disk. It's covered in a system of red spiraling roots, like on the sword. "It has completely protected itself!"
We run up to the disk, and and unsurprisingly, I can't use an arrow or the sword to pry it off of the computer. "This isn't working. Entrapta, how do we shut down the computer?"
"The power conduit, over there!"
I look at a cable running into the side of the computer, the roots have completely surrounded it. Sorry Entrapta, I owe you a cable. I draw the last pointy arrow I tried to pry the disk out with, and fire it at the cable, severing it. Suddenly, A loud noise rings out from the disk.
"No, wrong way! Bow, look out!" I turn around, Glimmer was warning me that some of the bots have started moving to the disk. The disk must have its own distress beacon.
"It's not turning off!"
Never a good thing to hear, Entrapta starts laughing, before collecting herself. "It's running on its own power now! That's it. We need to get outta here and burn this place to the ground. Experiment officially failed!" She wraps a length of hair around me, putting the other half up to the roof and pulls us away.
"Wait!" I draw my last trick arrow, aiming it at the disk. The robots are attracted to noise, right! "Sonic arrow, don't fail me now!" I let go, and the arrow flies into the disk. Immediately, the bot that was closest to me starts slamming into the disk, its programming overridden to see it as a threat, not a request, and the disk smashes under the intense pressure of the hydraulic arms.
Entrapta sets us down near Glimmer, all the robots ceasing their hostility.
"Well…" Entrapta starts, the relief audible in her voice. She turns to face us. "You mentioned recruiting me for the rebellion, right? I'd be honored to join you, princess and fan of my work."
"Um… you're welcome?" I respond, completely unsure how I should feel about that.
"Actually, we have a few questions for you, too, if you wouldn't mind."
"Really? What with?"
I pull the sword back out, handing it to Entrapta, the red roots continuing to disintegrate. "We… We found this sword in the woods. We think… We think it has something to do with the Runestones, and it's powerful, but we have no idea how to use it."
Entrapta takes it out of my hands, studying. "Well, A Runestone that is also First One's tech? There's not much information on these things that aren't myths, but… well, my computer is offline, but I have some ideas." She pulls out a data pad, a very similar design to my tracker pad, as I actually had mine inspired by hers. "How'd you find it?"
"Energy signatures, it just started throwing off a ton of energy a few weeks ago, and Glimmer and I immediately tracked it down a few hours later. We think some people in the horde were looking for it."
"Well… This is interesting. I can see the readings you're talking about. Wow, I'm going to have to tune out those frequencies just to keep using this." She is studying her data pad, already collecting a lot of information on the sword.
"Yeah, I had that issue, too."
"Well, there are actually rumors of Runestones created by the First Ones. Have you two ever heard of the myth of the Spirit Ember?"
"Oh, I know that one!" Glimmer shouts. "The story of the corrupted Runestone and the fire princess?"
"Exactly! I have reason to believe that the issues that arose from that Runestone connection is that it was artificial, a prototype for something bigger that the First One's were working on!"
"Wait, you can do that?" I'm confused, "I thought the runestones were like, always here."
"Most of them were. There are the major one's like the Moon Stone, and the lesser ones, like what Spinnerella draws her power from. But there were also at least 2 that the First One's made. The Spirit Ember was a prototype, an excuse for the First One's to experiment with the connection between Runestone and Princess."
"Wait, are you saying this sword-" I start
"Is an artificial First One's Runestone!" Entraptra finishes.
"So it isn't, like, powered by a Runestone like we thought?" Glimmer asks, for clarification.
"No! The amount of energy this thing is throwing off, it's something special. I don't have much data on it, mostly because I always wrote it off of myth, but it's entirely possible that this sword belongs to a forgotten, "honorary" princess."
"Who… who could that be? I mean, there aren't many princesses that don't have Runestones," Glimmer further questions.
"Technically, there's no way to know who it is for, if I'm even right. If it was for a First One, it is entirely possible that they disappeared with the rest of their people."
"So where do we start?"
"The First One's supposedly had a strong ally on their side back when they were here. Have you ever heard of the legend of She-Ra?"
"I… I don't think so?" Glimmer thinks.
"Wait, I do! Well, not really, but I heard the name before. From Perfuma."
"Okay, well don't worry, I never looked into it, either. Scientific theories are one thing, legends are another. But… if this sword is really as powerful as these readings suggest, it would need someone pretty strong to be able to use it. I'll keep running research on this data, are you… keeping it?"
"I, well… never really thought about what to do after we asked you about it."
"Well, I'd love to study it more. How about you leave it here? I can drop it off for you at the Kingdom of Snows, assuming the princess here and I both are invited and it doesn't get rescheduled, in two weeks."
"Um, my name is Glimmer…"
"I think… that is a very good idea. Sure. Just let me know what you can figure out then, okay?"
"Okay! This is going to be awesome!"
Entrapta holds out her hair, as hands, for us to shake, and glimmer and I both accept.
"Welcome to the rebellion, Entrapta," Glimmer says. "I guess we can officially chock our win-rate up to 50 percent?"
"I don't know, we did what we set out to do at Thaymor. 75?"
"Alright, fine, I guess we aren't doing too bad after all."
"No, not at all. Now, about that sonic arrow…"
Notes:
I really struggled with making this one interesting. How do you write a compelling narrative around a story that all of your readers will already know? I don't have an answer, but I'm trying a strategy of changing the order of information, waiting to see how long it takes the characters to catch up to what the reader's know. This chapter was pretty hard to write for. Nearly all of Dryl would likely remain unchanged, and all I had to work with was why Glimmer struggled to teleport out of that cage and back to Bow in the show. I heavily debated just cutting out the Takeover plot, but again, contrivances. I have a plan for how this world's Northern Reach event would unfold, which means the disk needs to be in play. Also, I normally don't post notes on this site, but this time I felt like I needed to.