Catra's POV

I finish sorting my clothes into the various drawers of the dresser in front of me, looking up into the mirror. My eyes trail over the badge on my shirt. Here I am. Force Captain Catra…

Adora's first order of business upon realizing just how much of the horde she'd now have to manage was to put me in charge of our team. Hordak, unlike Shadow Weaver, acknowledged the efforts I've put into the planning for the attacks on the kingdom of Snows, and Bright Moon. He allowed the promotion to go through, putting me on equal level with Scorpia. Not that Scorpia ever acted as a commander anyway, she followed orders like everyone else did.

It's surreal. I have a room just across the hall from her, and as soon as she decided exactly how much she wanted to pursue conquest, she got handed a higher rank. I guess… it helps to know she kept me in mind, after knowing how much I was worried she would… leave me behind.

I frown slightly as my eyes trail over the chipped part of my mask, laying on my dresser. A reminder of how I messed up, how I let her down… I pull my shirt up slightly, looking at the scar on my waist. I'm not mad at Bow, I understand better than anyone that this isn't childs play, people are going to get hurt. People could… die. I'm lucky the arrow wasn't deflected a few more degrees to my right, or… I might be standing here.

It's been three weeks since the attack. Entrapta and I have been sending probing attacks into the woods to keep the princesses busy, but the truth is that we're as disorganized as they are. Especially with Hordak's… rash decision to hand off Second in Command to Adora. When I brought up Shadow Weaver's lacking performance, I didn't expect that to be the consequence.

Adora herself has been busy, we've barely had a chance to talk. She's been out in the scrapyard training her powers against Horde Bots, or working… with Shadow Weaver as she's handed over everything needed to run this place. I sigh, when I hear a knock on the door that pulls me out of my thoughts.

"Adora?"

"Not quite," a cold voice rings out, as the door opens, and my blood goes cold before I even process it's her. "Hello, Force Captain Catra."

"Shadow Weaver," I respond, slightly brushing back my hair as I put my mask on. "I thought you would've visited sooner."

"Must you always be so flippant? I am not here to berate you."

"Then why?"

"I have been very… busy, with Adora. She does not speak to me like she used to, seeing me only as a means to an end. I am not blind. What is her goal here?"

"Go away, Shadow Weaver," I mutter, turning around.

"Do not disrespect me, Catra. I may not be here to berate you, despite how I am very well aware that it is your fault I have been cast out from Hordak, and-"

I turn around, quickly, and in perhaps a really dumb move, make no attempt to not hide my anger. My hand moves forward, a single claw poking her body under her scarf. "Listen, Shadow Weaver, I don't need to listen to you anymore. You're right, you're not Second in Command anymore, you're barely an advisor! There is no way now, no way ever, that I am going to disclose anything to you!"

"You certainly are a fool to believe I am still without the means to make you suffer if I need to!" She shouts, and I can see the room getting darker as she makes herself appear bigger, by floating upwards slightly. "I still have the Black Garnet, since Adora was so quick to shut that little side project down. I know who she is, what that sword is, from the field reports and other soldiers at that battle. So you and Adora can keep running around planning whatever it is you two are planning, I will find out and remind Adora who she is, without your pathetic little distractions making her weaker!"

"Shut up! You're still not going to do anything, you would never jeopardize her opinion of you, no matter how strained it's getting. And I'm now in a higher position now than you are. If anything happens to me, Adora or even Hordak himself will make sure you're brought down for it!"

"Perhaps it would be a worthwhile sacrifice to finally make you learn respect," the way she says it, so calm and certain of herself…

I don't say anything else, I know better than to try and fight her for the last word. She hasn't won, so I just force myself to calm down. I stand at attention, take a deep breath, and walk past her, out of my room.

"You two will never be equals," she says coldly, not turning back around. I feel my fists clench up, my nails digging into my palms, as I keep walking. I don't give her any sort of response. She doesn't even know what she's talking about. She doesn't know Adora, she doesn't know me, no matter how she thinks she raised us. I sigh as I get far enough away from my room, and keep walking, trying my best to keep myself under control. I need to blow off steam, now, so I make my way down to the cadet training hall.

It's busy here, today. Adora mandated increased training and field patrols, citing how lax the Horde had been outside of special field operation the last three months. But no one seemed to mind, the training sucked but everyone was relieved when the first order she gave was to give increased R&R to those injured in the battle.

She knows what people need better than Shadow Weaver did, anyway.

I immediately see the team running a Princess-simulation, despite how poorly these bots can actually simulate their powers Entrapta made a… slight effort to increase their image projection, so to speak. You can't make a bot teleport, but you can make it squirt water or turn on a fan.

Rogelio and Lonnie are moving forward, taking out a bot each, as Kyle trips and immediately gets fired on by the training bot in front of him, causing an "X" to appear on his gear's chest piece.

"Oh, oh no…" he murmurs.

Ugh. I press a button on one of the back control panels, powering it down, causing the three of them to turn and look at me.

"Who can tell me what Kyle did wrong?" I ask, not moving.

"Oh, hey Catra," Kyle murmurs, tilting his head back to look at me, as Lonnie takes a step closer.

"Where do you start?" Lonnie smirks. I smirk back at her, the last few weeks she gave me a ton of crap for the beatings I took at Bright Moon, despite how hard I was pushing compared to Kyle. But I found myself… laughing with her, which is never how I usually act. I still don't like her, not really, but… she helped me out at Bright Moon. I didn't expect that.

I wordlessly start the simulation up again. Kyle momentarily freaks out, and I step forward. I came here to hit things, after all.

"Princess Glimmer can teleport, but she's predictable and quick to anger." I say, moving for the bot a pale imitation of her is projected over. But as I get close, the projection shifts to another bot, and I immediately turn and drive my foot to where it went to, sending the bot backwards.

"And if you catch her off guard, well, her teleportation doesn't exactly give her a quick reaction time."

Rogelio roars/grumbles something, as Kyle says, "I'm pretty sure we don't all have your reflexes Catra."

As if to prove them wrong, the projection switches to the bot behind Lonnie. I move my thumb, ever so slightly, and she quickly turns and drives her training staff through the bot, shattering it. "I don't know Kyle, maybe you're just slow." Rogelio grumbles something again, and Lonnie looks at him and says, "we know what your strengths are, you don't need to worry about Glimmer."

"Yeah, your main target in the field is Mermista," I grumble, thinking back to how awful that fight ended up for me. I got hit with enough water pressure to feel like the skin under my fur was raw. "Or Frosta."

"The two with the strongest abilities?" Kyle mumbles, looking up at Rogelio in support.

"Pretty much everyone here but you stands a chance against Frosta," I say, holding my hand out to him. "Now get up already."

He takes it, and I pull him up. He gives a dumb little smile at me I refuse to acknowledge.

"I always knew you liked us," Lonnie jokes, lightly punching my shoulder. I turn and hiss at her on instinct. "Yeah you do, or you would've just scratched my arm."

"If you don't stop talking now I'm putting you on latrine duty for the whole team, for two weeks."

"Yeah, Adora wouldn't let you do that, and you also wouldn't give Kyle that sort of break."

I look back at Kyle, and then turn back to Lonnie to give her a small smirk. "Watch it, Lonnie. Adora's not here to keep me from kicking your ass."

"Like you could."

"How's your side?" Kyle asks, motioning down to where the fabric of my shirt is sewn shut.

"Fine, a light scar," I mutter, and for a second I feel almost down that the banter stopped. I'll never admit it to Adora, but after all these years these people really are growing on me. "I'm gonna go make some rounds, check on Entrapta and Scorpia. Lonnie, make sure Kyle stops hurting himself?"

"No promises," she jokes, as I turn and exit the room. The walk to Entrapta's "interrogation room" is a little longer than the one I just took, giving me time to reflect on what just… happened. I went there to hit things, and only went to strike anything twice…

I guess it helped that I no longer see Lonnie as a threat to where I stand with Adora. Adora promoted me, not her. Lonnie no longer goes to question my orders now, and it also helps that the orders I have given these last few weeks have mostly just been, "stay ready but don't let Kyle push himself until he falls over." Maybe it isn't good to think the way I do, was Lonnie ever even a threat to me?

I hated her since we were kids, and every time I looked at her I used to be reminded of this time I lashed out at Adora for making new friends. But now… she's just another person on our team, another person Adora says I need to tolerate and… maybe I do.

It's not like things are perfect, far from it. I'm watching my back constantly for Shadow Weaver now. I've been hypervigilant ever since we got back from the Crystal Castle, and it's exhausting. The only time I haven't been that way was with Adora or Scorpia. I haven't been near Adora, still, but… Entrapta and Scorpia have helped with me not losing my mind.

I make it to Entrapta's room, heading in, and… it's completely different…

"What is all this junk?" I say, looking over at the two of them.

"Isn't it wonderful? The stuff from my castle just arrived," Entrapta exclaims in joy, stepping closer to me. Something brushes against my foot, and I see a small rodent-shaped creature at my foot causing me to momentarily shriek out.

"Yeah, wonderful. What's the report from the woods?"

"Oh!" She jumps in place, excited again, "I just got a report from one of my bots! Did you want the ones fighting the princesses, or the ones She-Ra is currently smashing to bits?"

"The princesses, duh," I say automatically. I don't care much to watch Adora use her new princess powers, it's kind of unsettling. At least Entrapta and Scorpia don't have any.

Entrapta nods, turning on a large screen she had set up against the right wall.

"Ooh, Super Pal Trio Movie Time! Or- um- quad, I guess, Adora is here- sometimes." Scorpia remarks, walking over finally. "Hey wildcat, how's your day going?"

"Fine, I guess. Are you still just… watching Entrapta?"

"She needed help getting everything moved in," she says, leaning in and whispering, "and Adora doesn't fully trust her. I don't think you do, either."

"I don't- she's fine. She unlocked Adora's sword," I say back.

"Yes I did!" Entrapta pops up in between us, "and so much more! I'm working on something even better! Here, watch!" She finally connects to the bot feed, immediately the first feed goes offline as a surge of water cuts through it.

"Oh boy… ouch…" Scorpia comments.

Another feed shows Frosta approaching the bot with an ice-hammer for a hand, and the feed turns to static even faster. "Ooh, wow, that just… fell apart in one hit, didn't it?"

Another bot's feed is shown staring down Glimmer, before she gets close. Suddenly, the bot and her are both dozens of feet up in the air, before Glimmer disappears, leaving the feed to show the rapidly approaching trees and ground before it too powers off.

"Oh-ho, yeah! Game over," Scorpia mock punches forward, they're enjoying watching our forces get ripped apart?

"It doesn't matter, we'll just send out more bots, and more after that. They'll be so busy defending their precious trees, we'll conquer the whole planet before they know what happened. Once Adora actually learns to control what she's doing out there, and not acting on instinct like she did at Bright Moon, they won't really stand a chance."

"Ooh, that reminds me!" Entrapta shouts, holding up the First One's crystal Adora and I got from the Crystal Castle, "I'm working on something huge! She-Ra has been going through so many bots, I've been working on some that even she'll have a real struggle with!"

Struggle against She-Ra, the princess who held off nearly the entire Princess Alliance at the Battle of Bright Moon at once? That's got me interested. "What are you thinking of?"

"Self healing First One's tech powered advanced combat bots! She-Ra can hit them, and they come right back together!"

"Well get on it, because Adora going through our reserve bots means less we can throw at the rebellion. In the last three weeks, the rebels have managed to recapture Thaymor, twice. When we take it again, I don't want to lose it a third time."

"Understood! I'll have these babies out in no time!"

"Oh Catra," Scorpia shouts, "that reminds me, how are you and Adora?"

I look over at her, not really sure how to respond. "What?"

"Well, you know, she's just been busy recently, and you complained the other day about how you've only like, spoken to her twice recently."

"It's fine, don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? You two are my friends, and last I recalled you tried to argue with her halfway back to the Fright Zone as we were retreating."

"Because She-Ra could've finished what she started, she was… too close to give up. By now, they probably got the Moon Stone tower repaired."

"And Salineas, we're still rebuilding our dockyards here-"

"I know that, Adora's been overseeing the repairs and expansion almost hand in hand with Octavia."

"-and the Sea Gate is back online, meaning we lost control at sea."

"We didn't need it before, we don't need it now."

"I know that! It's just… Adora's been focusing entirely on the war recently, aren't you worried?"

So that's what this is about? Another person on the team is starting to worry about Adora… "She's fine. I'll talk to her tonight."

"Okay, cool… Sometimes I worry Adora doesn't like me."

"She likes you more than I do," I joke, but I never actually bothered to ask her opinion on Scorpia. Still, A"dora basically brought her into our team, that has to mean something.

"You don't mean that," she smiles, putting her arm over my shoulders. "We're all friends here, all… seven of us. Super Pal Seven!"

I pull away after a moment, not really bothering to respond. "Whatever, fine, of course we're… friends." I mutter, heading for the exit. "Make sure Entrapta keeps busy and get her whatever she needs."

"Yes, Force Captain Catra!" She salutes me, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Just get it done," I say, heading out of the room.

Bow's POV

"Okay, that's… the third round of bots today…" I say, panting slightly. I look down at the bot in front of me, when Frosta runs up and smashes down on it. "Hey!" I say, trying not to get frustrated with her, "I was looking at that!"

"You're welcome!" She says, heading over to another damaged bot. I stare down at this one… Why did the Horde switch to using unmanned combat tactics?

Glimmer walks up to me, saying, "I'm sure we'll find more, why, something you're interested in?"

"A theory," I say, putting my now collapsed bow on my back.

"A theory…"

"These bots are overwhelming us, I need to… figure out a way to level the field."

"So what's the theory?"

"I don't know, maybe a kill switch." I could do it, maybe. Make something to stop whatever signals are reaching these bots. The Horde has made such incredible progress on these things the last month, it's shocking.

"That would definitely be helpful. Mermista, Perfuma, Frosta, see any more bots?"

"No."

"Not here.."

"Nope!"

I sigh, looking around a bit more. "Then I guess we head home," I suggest, even though I also really want to try and snag an in-tact bot. I'm sure if I explain the idea to Angella, it will be approved. I just need the data to be intact to see the software they run on, but with Frosta and Glimmer Specifically targeting their CPUs and Mermista short-circuiting everything, I'm not exactly making progress.

"Alright," Glimmer says, speaking to the rest of the princesses, "We're heading for Bright Moon, good job for today, everyone!"

"Oh, are we walking back, or can you teleport us?" Frosta eagerly asks, walking up to Glimmer.

"Oh, um… I don't have enough magic to get five people back to Bright Moon, I never even teleported more than like, three people before. And it'd take too long to recharge to make several trips in a timely manner, we'll just walk back."

"Suits me," Mermista says, "I don't even want to know what that feels like."

"Sometimes it tickles, sometimes it's nauseating," I explain, pulling another piece of tech off the bot. Yeah… this doesn't make any sense. The Horde bots were nowhere near this level of complex just two months ago…

"I don't feel anything at all," Glimmer says, summoning a little bit of magic to her palm, "I've been doing it for so long, it's just like… walking."

"Yeah, which is why you stumble up stairs," Mermista quips.

"I- I do not!" She says defensively. It causes a few people to chuckle, and Glimmer quickly starts laughing, too, as she realizes she's not being made fun of. A lot of the princesses have barely known each other, but… almost everyone gets along very well. I mean, Mermista and Perfuma almost went at it earlier when Perfuma almost hit her with a bot, and Frosta seems to be driving Glimmer nuts, but… yeah, we're all friends here!

It isn't long before we get our bearings, and make our way back to Bright Moon.

"Excellent idea, Bow. This could turn the tide of the war for us. Glimmer, you will take your patrol out, and capture a bot for Bow to study and carry out his plan."

Glimmer stands up, clearly happy to be able to head back out into the field, again. The other's are mostly… tired. Except her and Frosta that is. As the room is starting to disperse, Glimmer walks towards me when she's interrupted by Frosta. I don't listen to the conversation though, I'm still running through ideas on how any of this could have happened… Their tech is improving too fast. And without Entrapta-

Entrapta! The horde must be using her datapad, I know they still have it. They must be using her research to make the bots stronger, which would explain a lot, but I can't work off of theories. I'm going to need to capture something and compare it to some of Entrapta's previous work. That might be difficult in and of itself, since the Horde captured a week ago right under our noses…

We've been trading territory left and right, back and forth. And worst of all… Adora and her team haven't been spotted this whole time. Adora seemed really freaked out by the end of the Battle of Bright Moon… They must be planning something big, or… actually, probably just training. Adora clearly didn't know too much about She-Ra, she had the same look of surprise everyone else did- except Perfuma- when her sword turned into a shield.

I look back up. Huh, Glimmer must've left. Frosta looks slightly down, but heads over towards Spinnerella and Netossa.

I stand up as well, might as well go fix up a few more arrows in my "workshop," or small room near Glimmer's that was probably a Bright Moon storage closet at one point. Before leaving, I'm stopped by Mermista.

"Hey, Bow. Sea Hawk said he needed help installing the communications upgrade, he couldn't figure it out."

"Did you look at it?"

"Um, no. I have no idea how that stuff works."

"Well Sea Hawk doesn't either. But it shouldn't be too hard; I sent instructions."

"Yeah, well, he just wanted to ask if you could head up to Salineas at some point to fix it."

"... fix it? Did he break it?"

"I think I'll wait until you're there."

"Fine, I'll add it to the list of things I have to do in other kingdoms."

"Thanks Bow!" Mermista says in a sort of mock cheerfulness, before turning around. I sigh, and turn back to the door when I run into Perfuma.

"Oh, sorry Bow!"

"It's okay, are you okay?" I ask, grabbing her arm to keep her from falling as I stop myself from falling.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to work with me on establishing A sort of Princess-Attended, um… funeral… for Entrapta…" She asks, the guilt immediately making itself known on both of our faces.

"Oh, um… yeah, I can help with that…" I say, feeling my hand tighten at my side. We haven't had a chance to actually mourn, to actually do anything right. As soon as she was gone… It was one thing after another. The She-Ra investigation, the Battle of Bright Moon, the constant defending the woods… This last month in particular has been hard for everyone.

"Okay, I'll find time to talk to you about it later… I was wondering if you'd rather it be held here or in Plumeria?"

"I think we should see if we can get Dryl back… that was her home. I mean, we wouldn't go inside, it's a nightmare in there, but…"

"No, it's okay, I understand. But um… Dryl is really hard to gain control of, they only managed it because we literally had no one there…"

"We'll figure it out. And if we don't… Why not both? We can hold the wake in Plumeria, it's more peaceful, but it isn't able to hold as many people. Plumeria isn't too far from Bright Moon, a few carriages should get everyone around just fine."

"I'll look into it, thanks Bow!"

She turns to head over to Spinnerella and Netossa, and I finally manage to leave the war room.

As I'm walking, I'm left with more time to think. The alliance had a few discussions about how to… deal with Adora. Options that got pretty divisive. Glimmer has ordered that we engage in favorable conditions. She spoke to Light Hope once since the battle, confirming that Adora needs the sword to transform. Assuming Light Hope is right, if we get the sword back we win.

But getting the sword back is the issue. Adora is a really, really good fighter. I'm only alive because as She-Ra, she fought off-balance. But every time we've fought, she got the upper hand. I'm worried more people are going to get hurt…

I reach my workshop, heading inside and get to work tinkering with new arrows. Nothing I have except the flashbang and smoke arrow even seemed like they'd be useful against She-Ra… She-Ra was resistant to everything I threw at her, but Adora wasn't. So the game plan isn't to subdue, but disorient… How do I disorient her without disorienting everyone else? Flashbangs are hard to use…

*Poof!*

"Bow!"

"Agh!" I shout, knocking the arrow casing off my desk as I turn around. "Glimmer? What's up?"

"Who else would it be? Look, I need advice, Frosta is driving me insane!"

"Frosta, why?" I mean, she is a little much, very different than how she was at Princess Prom, but she's not too much, is she?

"She's just- agh! She hasn't left me alone ever since she joined the alliance and I- I'm worried she's gonna get hurt… she's trying to show off and she isn't listening to me."

"Then we'll talk to her… she probably just wants to talk to you. Maybe we could establish some sort of… Best Friend Squad?"

"... Absolutely not. And that sounds dumb. Plus, that doesn't even work, there's two of us."

"I know, I know, it's a joke. Besides, if there was a Best Friend Squad, it'd probably just be us and our horse."

"You mean the Horse no one in Bright Moon has seen for three weeks?"

"Hey, Perfuma said she saw him, once, in Plumeria, eating apples. So he's okay! And can fly…"

"She-Ra magic is so weird…"

"All magic is," I joke, "You can't exactly take magic apart and study it like with tech."

"That's part of the beauty of it," Glimmer says, holding her hand up and shooting a small ball of light into the air.

"I guess so… so when are we moving out?"

"Oh, not today. Probably tomorrow. Everyone is tired, and is just supposed to be on alert in case there are any middle of the night attacks. But get some rest, we'll have a lot of work to do tomorrow."

"I'll head over in a moment, okay? I'm trying to think of something we could use against She-Ra…"

"Bow… She-ra doesn't have to be your responsibility."

"I know that, but… I need to do my part. Everyone does."

"Not if it gets you hurt again… You were out of commission for two weeks, Bow. She could've killed you without even trying."

"I'm fine, it was fine, just… painful."

"Yeah, sure… be careful, Bow."

"I always am," I say, picking the arrow casing off the floor. Maybe I can tranquilize She-Ra?

"Bow, I mean it. Your mission is not to be able to solo She-Ra. We're all in this together."

"I'm not trying to solo She-Ra… I just don't want to be useless in that fight."

"Bow, you weren't useless, you slowed her down incredibly. Even with broken arrows."

"She wasn't trying to hurt me…"

"What? She kicked you several yards."

"Because Catra was hurt."

"What!?" She repeats.

"Glimmer… Adora went easy on us, even if she was simultaneously struggling with something she didn't understand. She didn't start trying until she kicked me. Which means everything I managed to do, she let happen… As the fight went on, she got more serious. If she's ever like that at the start of a fight… I won't be able to do anything at all."

"Bow… you're not useless."

"I know… I know, I just… Spinnerella got hurt-"

"Spinnerella had a mild headache and was sore, she was fine the next day."

"-and She-Ra got to the tower-"

"We got pretty lucky with Frosta, yes, but-"

"-and I could've died several times. What if she didn't aim for my quiver? What if she had Catra's lack of restraint?"

"Judging by what you said, Catra is her restraint."

"... Wait, you don't think-"

"She didn't enrage when we hit Lonnie or the boy."

I look back down at the table I was working on. We already guessed the two were close, but… maybe it goes deeper than that. I look back up at Glimmer. I can tell she has an idea. And based on the context… "No."

"What?"

"Absolutely not. We're not doing that."

"I didn't say anything!"

"But I know what you're thinking."

Glimmer pauses for a moment, looking caught, then says, "okay, but what if we do do it."

"... No. Let's just focus on getting this bot crisis under control."

"You know, I'm the field commander here."

"And I'm basically your advisor. And I advise, no."

"Fine! I'm gonna go make some popcorn, see you in my room."

"Okay, I'll be over as soon as I'm done."

"You're never going to be done inventing this "She-Ra off switch," just finish stocking your quiver and let's hang out."

"... Okay, fine. I'll be right over. Have the popcorn ready."

Glimmer smiles, nodding her head. And she's gone.

*Poof*

Catra's POV

It's a cold, quiet night in the Fright Zone. I'm laying in my bed in my new room, still not used to it… It's different. Even when Adora stopped sleeping in the barracks, there was still some sense of familiarity at night, just hearing the breathing of the other Cadets in the other bunks. But this… It's still so… isolated. It's never quiet here, there's always the hum, the rumble of the factories and the forge, the constant movements of the night-shift patrols… I turn to my side.

After a few more moments, I hear a knock at the door. A familiar one. I sit up instantly, "yeah?"

The door slides open, and Adora steps in. I'm… immediately floored. "I need some help…" she mutters.

I immediately stand up and run over, "what did you do!? Why did you do that?" I shout, closing the distance and moving my hand up to her head. Her hair… it's a disheveled mess. The ponytail is gone, lengths are all wrong and uneven… she looks like an absolute mess.

"I- I wanted it off… and it looked bad, and I tried to fix it, and… can you help?"

I sigh. She should've just gone to one of the people actually trained with hair cutting. "Of course, let's go." Adora smiles, reaching out to hug me, and I jokingly hold my hand up between us, "thank me later."

Adora nods, "yeah, okay, the stuff is all in my room, um… the connected bathroom. I nod, and we head across the hall to her room. Her lights are still on, she clearly hasn't been sleeping at a normal schedule, either. I look over at Adora… it looks even worse under light. We head into the bathroom, and I see the bundle of hair on the floor, held together by a hair tie. And the flocks of hair all over the floor and counter, and on her shoulders…

I sigh. "How am I fixing this? It's too short to go back in a ponytail."

"Just- just get rid of it. No bangs, no length, just…"

"Adora, why? You always took good care of your hair. Well, compared to me, given how you still refuse to take those hair ties out when you sleep."

"I redid it in the morning…" she mutters quietly. Adora seems off. I narrow my eyes at her as she walks in front of the mirror.

"... short short?"

"Short short," she confirms.

I step closer, grabbing the scissors off the counter and get to work. I've cut her hair a few times over the years, even let her cut mine once… that's never going to happen again.

I start clipping whatever length I find, going around the sides and back first. Everytime I move the scissors higher, and look for her reaction in the mirror, she gives a faint nod.

I sigh, again. "Adora… how many inches?"

"Oh um… I don't know, I didn't really think about it… just keep going…"

Ugh. "Why did you want it different?"

"Too much to worry about. I can't keep up anymore."

The answer feels like a weight dropping in my stomach. "Too much? To put your hair up?"

"It isn't that simple," she whispers, as I cut even closer to her skin. She still doesn't stop me. I sigh, and just set the scissors down.

"Then get to explaining," I say, cutting the sides down to only a few inches.

She doesn't object as I hold it near her. "It was getting too long, harder to manage. I need to make things easier where I can."

"Okay, Adora," I feel a little guilty assisting her in what feels like a spur of the moment decision, but hey, it'll grow back if she hates it.

Plus, Shadow Weaver is really going to hate it.

"Keep the top longer."

"I was planning on it, don't want you feeling too much lighter, we're still going to want to leave something reminiscent of your hair poof so your forehead doesn't look even bigger-"

She playfully elbows my side as I quickly move the scissors away from her head "Be nice."

"Careful, Adora! I'm quick but this isn't the time to play rough."

She smiles slightly, her eyes locking with mine through the mirror. I get back to work.

She's silent for a moment, until I'm about done with one side. "Thank you for helping."

"No problem," I say, stepping to her right.

We're there for a while longer, I take my time with it. It isn't like we were sleeping anyway.

It's been another few days, days I spent going back and forth between training and assisting Entrapta and Scorpia. Well, less assisting and more handing Entrapta whatever junk I knew the name of. There was this whole speech Adora had with Hordak that I missed, something about introducing these new bots Entrapta was working on. Emily's Kid Sister.

I've got to say, Entrapta is… driven. This bot is taking a beating. Adora and I are out in the woods, a clearing near the Fright Zone side. Adora, as She-Ra, has been trying to take the bot out, and keeps almost getting it before it reconstructs itself.

I'm just watching, playing at tech support from the side with Entrapta. So as Adora is breaking a sweat- or not, I have no idea if She-Ra sweats- I'm sitting on a fallen log at the edge of the clearing, with a tablet in my hands. There's water and Adora's jacket down at my side.

"Okay, the bot is still functioning at about 80% max capabilities." Entrapta's voice rings out on a tablet next to me. I'm only here to communicate with her, because we didn't want the tablet on She-Ra. And Entrapta… is sort of on house arrest, I guess. She stays in the Fight Zone completely, because apparently the rebellion doesn't know she's alive. It helps to keep their knowledge of us limited.

"She tore it apart like six times, how did you manage this?"

She-Ra swings again at the bot, once again attempting to dismantle it towards its core; she already learned she couldn't break the limbs long enough for it to be useful.

"Well, we only lose matter when the sword literally shatters the material into dust. Everything else, the bot can recover."

"Yeah, I remember your science lesson about matter. I mean, how did you learn how to build this thing?"

"Easy! That crystal was filled with readable code, and with Adora's help to translate some of the more… complicated First One's words, I made breakthroughs! This method of communication would've been impossible a month ago, but now I know how to boost transmissions across Etheria!"

"Good to know…" I say, it's good to know that crystal was actually a good find. That castle was… a stressful experience otherwise.

"Ah! Catra, how much more?" Adora shouts, ducking under a swing from the robot's long, tentacle-like arm. It swings again, and Adora uses her sword-shield to block it, transforming it quickly. She's spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to turn it back and forth after it happened at Bright Moon.

"80%!" I say with a smirk, giving her a thumbs up.

"Ugh!" Adora groans, driving her sword straight into the bot's main body.

"Did she figure it out yet?" Entrapta's voice comes back through.

"Not yet, she's still just hacking and slashing."

There's silence for a moment before Entrapta asks, "Are you going to tell her?"

"Nah, watching her struggle is fun," I say simply, even though it's more a subtle admiration of how Adora is learning to fight as She-Ra. She's still uncomfortable with the outfit, and tried fighting without the tiara once but the tiara actually helped keep the incredibly amount of long, flowing hair out of her face. She gets to have her hair both ways now. But the skirt… she hates it almost as much as I hate the idea of ever wearing a skirt myself. The cape looks good, though…

As for her fighting? Well, it's honestly incredible just how strong She-Ra is. She-Ra is everything the horde claims the princesses are, while simultaneously everything the princesses aren't. Adora's still in her own head about the whole thing, having only recently starting to pull away from Shadow Weaver's lies. I've never really had a reason to hate the princesses myself. It's just business, nothing personal.

Adora finally manages to drive her sword up in a way that tears a large portion of the bot's internal wiring apart. "There!" She shouts, probably way too early. She turns back to look at me questioningly. I swear, I can see the second her eyes look over my smirk, and her shoulders slouch. The bot is repairing, and Adora looks frustrated. She turns back to the bot and drives the sword into the still-repairing hole, and concentrates. She hasn't gotten the hang of it much, at all, but she is able to cause a burst of energy to explode out from the blade.

"And there it goes, the circuitry is completely fried! Good work!"

"Entrapta said good work!" I shout over to Adora. Then back down to the tablet, I say, "and the other three?"

"The other three? The ones for the princesses?"

"Yeah, power them up, and send them out. If one gave She-Ra trouble, they'll be even more for the rebellion.

"Yeah, okay, I guess it'd help to collect more data on how they fight, and the variety of encounters would be good for that…" Yeah, that's right, Entrapta is literally only helping us for science. Which makes sense, of course she'd justify it as a quest for data.

"Adora, we're done here, let's head home!" I shout to her. She pulls her sword out of the bot, laying it against her shoulder when the other three bots wake up.

Adora looks over at them as she keeps walking over to me, "cool tricks, I still don't understand this First Ones tech at all."

"Eh, it's not our job to-" I stop speaking as the other three bots circle around Adora and I. "Uh, Entrapta? Why are they looking at us?"

"Oh, they're… still set to engage Adora… Give me a second."

Adora turns, sighing as she picks her sword back off her shoulder. "Great," she mutters. What I didn't expect for the one robot to hit Adora so far, she flew into a tree behind me, instantly de-transforming on impact as she is left dazed.

I look back at down at the tablet, and when Entrapta's voice doesn't come back through for a moment, I set it down and get ready to join this one. I swear, for a princess that almost certainly isn't trying to get us killed, she sure seems to like trying to get us killed.

Bow's POV

The bots have been quiet today. The one time we go into the field with a specific purpose, and they're nowhere to be seen. The only surprise so far was Frosta showing up. We split up to cover more ground, but we still haven't made much progress. We even passed by the Crystal Castle, which the bots have almost treated as a hotspot in their attempts to sabotage the woods, but no such luck.

It isn't until we reach much deeper into the woods that Glimmer and I notice any sign of something being off.

"Get it off!" "I got you!" I hear sounds of a struggle in the distance. I turn to Glimmer, she heard it too. We start moving instantly towards the noise, pushing through branches and withered bushes. Who could be out in this part of the woods? We're probably in Horde occupation zones by now.

I draw my bow off my back, pushing through the last set of branches before I reach a small clearing, and see four bots of a much larger and more slender stature than the normal ones. One seems completely destroyed. This is new.

The next thing I notice is the one bot has someone pinned under a long tube-arm. I draw an explosive arrow, aiming it for the arm of the bot. "Glimmer, grab them!" I shout, as I fire the arrow. The small explosion tears apart the arm of the bot.

Glimmer is gone and back in an instant, she's panting. "Thanks…" She pants, looking up as Glimmer and I look down at her.

"What are you-" voice slowly trails off as I look over the girl with short blonde hair, "doing-" my eyes look down, "out here…" Her eyes widen as she looks up at us, like she was too tired to realize who we were. And her, well… she definitely looks different. But it's still her, alright.

Glimmer breaks the silence with an, "oh, sh-" as the admittedly very-different Adora snaps into action. She drives her foot into Glimmer's stomach, before moving forward to me. I turn just in time to back up as her fist narrowly misses my face.

"Adora?" I ask. Why is she fighting the bots out here? Scratch that, I don't care. She swings her fist again, and I take another step back as Glimmer stands up.

"Who else would it be?" She asks, still trying to make contact. It doesn't really work for her, as I swing my bow at her once or twice. She goes on the defensive, as Glimmer goes to attack Adora. Instead, however, Glimmer turns her focus and fires a blast behind me, hitting something behind me. I turn around, seeing one of the new bots behind me.

"What are these things?" I ask, turning back to Adora who is straight up sprinting over towards the treeline. Her sword's in the tree… "Glimmer, stop her!"

Glimmer looks at me, nodding once, and *poof*, she's over at the sword, which is embedded in a tree, somehow.

I try to think, but I'm honestly running on instinct right now at whatever is going on here. First things first, the robot behind me is definitely moving again. I turn around, watching as the damage Glimmer did is… repairing itself?

I look back at the other two robots, the one whose leg I destroyed is fixed too… "Glimmer, we have a-"

The robot swings down an arm at me that I barely dodge, scrambling back to fire a much higher capacity explosive arrow. The core 'head' structure of the robot is torn apart, and its legs drop its weight.

This is going to make capturing one extremely difficult.

I start moving for Glimmer and Adora. Glimmer had managed to pry the sword free, but Adora is already on her, wrestling for the sword. I draw an arrow, aiming it for Adora when something hits me hard in the side, causing the arrow to slip and fly off into the trees.

I turn to see Catra, standing next to me with her claws out. Figured, it's always her.

"Focus on the bots, idiots!" She shouts, seemingly at all three of us, which causes Adora and Glimmer to stop wrestling for a second as they each turn to see one of the bots right next to them, poised for attack. An arm comes down on them.

Adora lets go of the sword and pushes Glimmer in such a way that the arm comes down between the two, instead of on either of them.

"Did I interrupt something?" I ask Catra.

She glares at me, then looks like she's debating something as I fire an arrow at bot number three, wrapping two of its legs together with a bolas projectile. It stumbles forward. The first bot is already healed from the explosion, and Adora is struggling with bot two as Glimmer teleports over to me.

Catra finally shrugs, "these four were set to attack princesses and their allies specifically, not your dumb trees. Why do you care?"

I look around, gesturing to the several trees already taken out by either these bots, or presumably She-Ra.

Glimmer huffs, summoning her staff and handing me the sword. "Then turn them off!"

"It's being worked on, they're controlled remotely!" Catra hisses back, then her eyes drift to the sword.

This is not going to be simple.

Catra lunges, claws out for me, and Glimmer immediately swings at her with the staff. There's a short tussle, but Catra doesn't fare too well against the two of us, pushing her off of us with ease.

"That's not yours!" She hisses.

"Do you really think we care!?" Glimmer shouts back, as the three of us collectively turn to the robot staring down at us.

We all move at once. I don't have the sword grip on my back anymore, so I stick the blade into the dirt toI draw a normal, pointy arrow. I fire at the eye of the robot as Glimmer teleports on-top of it, jamming her staff down into it, while Catra moves for me. I barely register Glimmer being thrown off the top of the bot as Catra rakes her claws against my side, before pushing me back.

I groan in pain as Catra draws the sword from the ground. I move to stop her, but she swings it at me. Blocking her swing is easy, she's clearly inexperienced with the weapon. But she buys herself enough of a distraction to kick my leg out, making me lose my balance.

"Adora, let's get this over with!" Catra shouts, doing her best to throw the sword to where Adora is still bobbing and weaving attacks from the one robot. It makes it about halfway. Glimmer is back, on Catra, and brings her hand down into Catra's head, before helping me up.

"You good?" She asks, as I step back to draw another arrow.

"Look out!" I say, as the robot nearest to us has completely readied itself, as has the second one. They're closing in on us, and Grimmer reaches back for me when a massive wall of ice erupts between us and the bots.

Glimmer and I look at the ice, then each other. Glimmer immediately seems annoyed.

"Glimmer, Bow, are you okay?" Frosta asks, freezing over the ground in front of her to 'skate' as she slides over to us.

"Frosta? What are you-

"For the honor of Grayskull!" Oh crap, forgot about that.

Surprisingly, just as the robot tears through the ice wall, the sword comes flying through the air, straight into the body of the closest bot. It's sent flying backwards from the force. Glimmer watches the bot with awe on her face, and everyone turns to She-Ra.

"There's three of you?" Is all she says, as she leans down to help Catra up.

I look over She-Ra's shoulder, the first Bot was broken, too, leaving only one as an immediate threat. How do we capture it with these two here?

Frosta immediately steps forward, glaring angrily at She-Ra. I can't say I don't understand why.

She-Ra looks down, her expression growing just a little smug as Catra pushes off of her, and the tense standoff continues before Glimmer suddenly grabs Frosta, teleporting the two away. It's good she did, because the bot had fired a laser blast at where Frosta was standing. Its eye turns to me. Uh oh…

She-Ra moves between the bot and I, with an incredible amount of precision in her movement. The blast hits a bracer on She-Ra's wrist, and She-Ra is forced back a few inches. But she doesn't stumble, instead her feet slide back through the ground. So this is what she's been doing the last month?

"Quit being dense and move!" Catra hisses at me, as she runs for the bot. Her claws tear through the one limb, as She-Ra moves forward, lifting the entire bot over and slamming it back into the ground.

I stare for a few more moments. Bright Moon was a field test? I almost died and She-Ra was using training wheels.

She-Ra then moves, practically bounding for the bot she skewered earlier, which is already standing back up. "Catra, go ask how much longer we need to do this for?"

"Forget about handling the bots, let's just leave the rebels to deal with it!" Catra yells, running after Adora.

*Poof* Glimmer is back. "What did I miss?"

"Um, not much. We need to stop them from destroying that last bot."

"Seriously? Lets just grab a weaker one! When She-Ra isn't right there!"

"These bots are powered by something strong, I need to figure out what it is. We grab one of these… Where's Frosta?"

"I told her to stay out of danger, she almost just got fried!"

"Yeah, so did I, but we're going to need the help."

"Ugh, fine!" Glimmer charges a ball of magic, firing it into the sky. If Mermista and Perfuma see it, they'll know what it means. Glimmer grabs my shoulder, and we're suddenly over by the last bot.

She-Ra still reaches it first, launching into it to grab the sword from the body, swinging it upward in a way that severs half the body of the bot apart. Yikes… She turns to face us, and now that she has the sword, she smirks. "Still want this?"

I draw an arrow as Glimmer readies her magic immediately. Catra tenses up too, snarling at us, as one of the earlier bots has managed to recover. Those things are starting to be annoying, what are we supposed to do if there's more than three or four of them?

I aim the arrow I have drawn around between the two horde soldiers, and the one recovered robot. Catra's attention turns off of Glimmer and I, and instead looks at the bot. The bot reaches Glimmer and I, firing a laser blast that Glimmer teleports away from as I jump backwards, firing the arrow at it.

"Adora, let's go," Catra's voice calls out.

"And leave them?"

"We'll deal with them later, let them fight the bots before their friends show up."

She-Ra glares at Glimmer and I, her gaze lingering on me, as she starts slowly backing up towards a log at the edge of the clearing. She picks up a tablet and her red jacket. "Change of plans, Catra and I got interrupted. We're leaving, don't change the bots afterall," before pressing a button to hang up on whoever was on the other end of that device.

Catra glares at Glimmer and I, walking over towards She-Ra. "Good, let's go," she says, as the two head off through the trees and I fire another arrow at the bot. Glimmer lands on the robot again, but is prepared for the spike-tentacle arms this time as she drives the end of her staff through the arm that moves for her.

I fire a normal arrow at the same arm Glimmer is struggling with, allowing her to actually pierce the bot's armor. I fire another arrow, aiming my last explosive arrow for the eye. Smoke leaves through the hole in the glass before the bot's weight collapses. It drops to the ground, and Glimmer hops off to stand next to me.

"Is it over?" She asks, panting slightly.

I walk up to the bot, sighing, "Just one in-tact bot."

"Well, why does it need to be intact?"

"To get the source code, to program a kill switch. But… I think I can still learn from this. These things are complicated, definitely more advanced than anything the Horde has built so far. We'll grab this one, and see what I can learn."

"I guess it's better than nothing," she muses.

"We're here. Where's the- fight…" Perfuma says, flowers raised as her and Mermista show up.

"Oh. I guess they handled it," Mermista says. "Wait, wasn't Frosta with you two?"

Glimmer and I share a look. Yes, yes she was. Glimmer groans in frustration, "I'll go talk to her…" she mutters, and then she's gone.

"So what's happened here?" Perfuma asks, walking over to me.

"She-Ra was training against these teched up bots, it turned into a weird three-way-fight. No one really committed, and they just left."

Mermista and Perfuma just stare at me for a while, both in shock and confusion.

"So… what now?" Perfuma asks.

"We get this one back to Bright Moon with us. It's… a little large. Definitely going to be heavy. When Glimmer comes back with Frosta, I'm thinking… Ice sled. With rope vines to pull it. I wasn't expecting something so… big.

"Ugh, great, we're hauling this thing all the way back to Bright Moon?" Mermista complains.

"Well, we didn't exactly bring any horses…" I say slowly, causing Mermista to groan again.

I've been taking this thing apart for about an hour now, no progress on what makes this thing tick. This thing was really difficult to move, it took a lot of Glimmer's energy just to teleport it up into this room from right outside the castle, something about being mass-proportional. Too difficult to teleport all the way when it left her so tired, it would've taken her multiple recharges.

Still, I've been talking into this audio recorder, because that's what Entrapta used to do. Glimmer came into the room at some point, idly helping out. I'd take something apart, hand it to her, and she'd organize it into a few piles. I might not be able to program a killswitch with the source code all friends, but a few things stand out to me. Internal radio devices. These things aren't too common, and where they are, the range isn't that powerful. Adora must've had people nearby her and Catra.

But I quickly put the thought aside as I notice something else that makes that whole theory come apart.

"First One's tech?" I pull a small purple crystal out of a piece of tech from within the bot, showing it to Glimmer.

"Wait, First One's tech? In a Horde bot?"

"But… the only one who knew how to use that was…"

No, it couldn't be. She couldn't- she wouldn't… We couldn't have…

"Hold onto your hat future Bow… Entrapta's alive!" I shout, standing up from the bot and looking at Glimmer. She seems to make the same connection.

"That's how Adora had her datapad at the temple, and it- it didn't burn up in the purge sequence!"

They probably also made her do something to unlock the sword that was supposed to be locked, oh it makes so much sense. I move for Glimmer, wrapping my arms around her. Our friend is okay! Our friend is still out there! Glimmer hugs me back too, when after a moment I pull away.

I look down at the ground, turning off the voice recorder finally. She's okay, but… she's in danger, "and we left her behind…"