Catra's POV

Entrapta's room is a mess. Half the stuff is gone, the boxes we pulled stuff out of not a few weeks ago is now being half packed back up for transportation to an outpost we're establishing at the Northern Reach. Scorpia and I have been helping Entrapta pack for an hour or two, the rest of the team has been coming and going.

Adora's arrival has been less thrilling. When she mentioned that she didn't know why we were going to the Reach to retrieve First One's tech, Entrapta actually had an answer: she needs it to help him.

"What do you mean you're working with Hordak?" Adora says, shocked. "Didn't Catra warn you about going in there?"

"Oh, um… did Catra warn… yes! She did! I just didn't listen."

Adora looks at me, and I shrug. Entrapta is really bad at listening to orders when something she wants is impeded by rules.

"Why did you think that was a good idea!?" Adora asks Entrapta, appalled by her carelessness.

"I never said it was," Entrapta is, at least, a very honest person. Even Adora could lie better than her, I don't think Entrapta has any idea what lying even is.

Adora groans, "are the preparations done?"

"Not even close," I answer for Entrapta. "We still need to load up this drill, but we made progress on everything else."

"Have the others been helping?"

"I… think they just grabbed this massive computer thing," Scorpia says.

"Why do we need anything more than a drill and the scanner?"

"Why wouldn't we!? Data analysis, multiple places to record the discoveries we make, random trinkets to just touch things with and see what happens, tools for handling any possible malfunctions-"

"-tiny mugs for cocoa," Scorpia chimes in.

"- and tiny mugs for cocoa!"

"Why do we need cocoa?" Adora looks confused.

"Again, why wouldn't we? It's going to be cold, right?"

"I tried to tell them it wasn't necessary," I say plainly, putting another box of Entrapta's junk onto a dolly.

"No, no, cocoa is fine," Adora says, "I just feel like we should have left already."

"The Northern Reach isn't going to just unfreeze or implode in the next few hours, we have time," Entrapta says. "That's the best part about making new discoveries, it only stops happening when you're dead!"

"Or if we discover everything," Scorpia says, putting a box on the dolly herself. I fasten the straps, and roll it to the door. One of the other three will be by to move it soon, so I get back to packing more stuff.

"You can't discover everything," Entrapta says while almost chuckling at Scorpia.

"How are we moving the drill?" Adora asks, walking up to it.

I walk up next to her, "probably taking it in two, and finding someone forklift certified to take each half down, so we can fit it through the door."

"How long will it take to disassemble?"

Entrapta moves next to Adora, the three of us facing it in a line, "easy! We just need to suspend the top half from the ceiling and I unscrew a few of the pivot bolts! Slide the base out, then lower the actual drill!"

"You need to rig up an entire pulley system? This looks like an eight person job, you're lucky the door here is wide."

"Relax, Adora, We can make do with a few ropes. I know my knots."

"I have a better idea, get your hand drill," Adora says, drawing her sword.

"I have two!" Her hair moves over to open a toolbox on the side of the room, coming back with an electric drill in each of her hair hands.

"For the honor of Grayskull!" Adora says, the room flashing with a brilliant light. Adora, as She-Ra, puts the sword away, and grabs the top half of the drill.

"Showoff," I mutter with a slight smirk. Her muscles are bulging as she supports the drill weight, Entrapta starting to take out various screws.

"I'm still not used to this," Scorpia says, carrying on with the packing as if nothing is happening.

I just watch as the rest of the screws are taken off, and Adora lifts the drill out of the sockets on the base.

Adora steps backwards, and sets the massive drill-bit on the ground. "Help me with this, Scorpia?"

Scorpia nods, and walks to the other side of the drill. They lift, and slowly back it out of the room.

"I really need to figure out how she works," Entrapta says, watching the two stronger women leave.

I turn to Entrapta, chuckling, and go back to packing up some of her various equipment. "I don't know how she works either," I say, thinking back to Last week. She got weird again, after her talk with Shadow Weaver. She's still talking to me, so they didn't go too badly. I mean, she still didn't make me give the jacket back. Yet, she won't tell me what happened, she won't talk about it.

Which in my mind, only means that Shadow Weaver said something that got to her. I don't know what or how, but… ugh, things just have to stay complicated. I swear things would be easier if Adora just said screw it and told that witch off for real.

"Alright, we're here for the next shipment," Kyle announces, walking into the room. He immediately trips over something, falling forward as Lonnie catches him.

I turn to greet the duo. "Rogelio stayed down at the docks?"

"Yeah, he's loading. We're moving. Y'all are packing," Lonnie answers.

"I guess that works."

Lonnie looks at me, and crosses her arms. She smirks, "nice jacket."

"Oh, you're wearing Adora's jacket?" Kyle says, looking it over as if he didn't realize.

"I- whose else would it be?" I say defensively, glaring back at Lonnie. "Look, we're past the whole being jerks thing, okay? Don't make a big deal out of it."

"That's not what I was doing, I was just commenting. A little too much red if you ask me, but that was sort of already an issue."

"Well, I didn't ask you," I roll my eyes, turning back around.

"Actually, it's cool. You two finally got your act together."

"I wouldn't say that," I sigh, grabbing another box. "I don't think Adora even knows about all that stuff, the devoted one-track-minded rule follower she is."

"Harsh," Kyle says, making sure the straps are right on the full dolly. "But probably fair. I mean, I don't know much about what you two are talking about either…"

"Really?" Entrapta interrupts, "I think it's quite easy to follow."

Lonnie ignores Her. "Of course you don't," she looks down at Kyle with a smug smirk, "I don't think she knows anything beyond 'mom' and 'dad.'"

"Not like any of us had either," I say. Some people have parents within the Fright Zone they'll never know. Some are taken from raided towns. Some are found abandoned in boxes, unwanted in the first place. At least in that case, there was an exception.

"None of you have parents?" Entrapta asks. "That's statistically improbable, oh that is fascinating."

"It's nothing," Lonnie tells her, "just the way things are sometimes."

"I suppose it is, I wouldn't really know. Studying the human condition is fun and all but it's mostly confusing. Machines are easier, when things go wrong you can always tell what it was that happened."

"... Uh huh," I say, only half listening. "Didn't Adora did say you were fascinated, watching people at the ball?"

"Exactly! You would've loved it! Remind me to show you those logs when we're on the boat!"

"Sure…" I say slowly, turning back to Lonnie. "This one's loaded, we've got a bit more to go and the other half of this drill should only take two more trips."

"Good, the docks are far away. We're getting a bigger crew for the return trip."

"If we can find the workforce," Kyle says.

"Whatever, we'll handle it either way. I don't want to keep Adora or Hordak waiting."

"Or the science! There's going to be so much to learn up there, I can't wait!"

Lonnie stares at Entrapta for a few seconds, before she grabs the dolly and motions for Kyle to grab something else and follow. They head back out of the room.

"So…" I say, moving to load up her tool box, "hot cocoa, huh?"

Entrapta pauses for a split second, looking over her shoulder at me. She smiles.

It takes nearly two more days to get the outpost set up, but it goes pretty smoothly with the entire team here. Entrapta has been working non stop since we arrived, with two specially crafted drilling bots using the drill from her lab, as well as a massive industrial one we had shipped alongside us, built in advance. I'm digging through a box, trying to find anything to get warmer.

I had to give Adora her jacket back for now, it seems even Adora has a point where she gets cold. But I don't handle it as well as she does. It isn't helped by how I hate wearing proper shoes and gloves, but I can at least keep my core warm with my coat, and maybe a space heater..

I hear footsteps, loud ones. Scorpia's. She pokes her head into the closet I'm in. "Wow, they really got this place set up fast."

"Apparently the structure of the outpost has been here, according to something Lonnie said."

"I know, I meant the drilling operation. I mean, we got it up and running in like, a day."

"Apparently, again, Hordak really needs this tech," I grumble slightly, annoyed I haven't found anything yet.

"Yeah… listen, I um… wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?" I ask, turning up to face her. I should just give up on not freezing.

"So… you and Adora…"

I sigh, I figured this was coming eventually.

"How are you two?"

"Things are fine. We're good."

"I know, I know! I just meant, like, you know, Adora is always busy, except when she's forcing herself to take time off and even then you two didn't really do much because now she's worried Hordak doesn't think she's doing enough, and I just that maybe you'd want to, I don't know, talk about it?"

I stare at her for a second, processing her very long-form structure of speaking. "Talk about what?"

"You know, I was mostly wondering if you two-" she leans into a crate on her right, knocking over a few boxes, "oop!"

I move my foot away quickly as the contents spill out of the top box. "Ah, come on!"

"Sorry!"

"Ugh, you're fine," I kneel down, putting the few things back into the box, pausing when I see a strange crystal. It looks like First One's tech, but an odd red instead of the normal blues, whites, and purples Adora and I saw all over the Crystal Castle.

"What is it?"

"I don't know…" I stand up, looking it over.

Suddenly, Adora's voice rings out from the closet doorway, "everything okay in here? I heard a-"

"Aaah! Careful with that!" Entrapta pushes past her, bounding over with her hair-stilts quickly. She quickly snatches the crystal from my hand.

I stare for a moment, then put my hands into my pockets. "Something important?"

"I'm not really sure, some kind of… murder virus."

"You brought a murder virus, and not a blanket?"

Adora walks over, looking at the crystal. "It's First One's…"

"Precisely!" Entrapta beams. "It's supposed to just be a data crustal, exactly like the one you and Catra brought me from the tower, but this one… wasn't right. My robots were powered by First One's tech, so they got all evil."

I scoff, "you had that thing in the Fright Zone, in the lab where you put that tech into our bots?"

"Well don't let it get to whatever it is we're looking for," Adora says, "we have enough issues on our hands."

Entrapta nods, putting the crystal in her pocket. "That makes sense, lets go check on the drilling bots!" She walks towards the exit.

Adora follows after Entrapta, turning around and motioning for Scorpia and I to follow.

I nod, turning to Scorpia. "You were saying?"

"N- nothing. I'm happy for you, Wildcat," she smiles genuinely at me, but I can see something else in her eyes, something I'm not used to seeing on Scorpia's face.

"... thanks? Come on, I wanna meet up with the rest of the team." I tell her, walking towards the exit of the closet myself.

Glimmer's POV

"The Northern Reach is nothing but snow and ice. What could they possibly be doing?" Bow asks, looking at energy readings on his tracker-pad.

"Who knows?" I groan, leaning over the edge of Sea Hawk's Dragon's Daughter V. "Whatever it is, it can't be good."

I feel a hand on my shoulder, and look up to see Sea Hawk. "What's even out here?"

I move his hand off my shoulder with a slight frown. "Nothing but snow and ice, I thought. But apparently they don't see it that way. Bow, did you find anything?"

"I mean… There's some interference here, but I won't be able to make it out until we're closer. I don't understand this stuff like Entrapta did- does…"

"You think she'll be here?" Sea Hawk asks.

"Maybe. It's possible this is about First One's tech, since they're using more and more of it to power their tech now."

"Like those regenerating bots we fought…" I look down, remembering that confrontation in the woods. Another close encounter with She-Ra that we scraped by without a fight.

"Then I guess we should be prepared to face the She-Ra," Sea Hawk muses. "I have been meaning to speak my mind to her after she destroyed the Dragon's Daughter III. And- my dearest Mermista's Sea Gate."

"And she ruined princess prom!" Frosta shouts, bounding up onto the deck.

"Ah!" Sea Hawk jumps. "I- I didn't even know- how long were you here?"

Frosta comes to a stop. "What? Why wouldn't we be, we're in the Northern Reach," she points out. "Ice? And snow?"

"Oh, yes," Sea Hawk responds in thought, composing himself. "I suppose that makes sense, don't know why I didn't think of that…"

"Well, the boat has a four person occupancy," Bow points out, putting his tracker-pad away. "This is as close as we're going to get, get ready to anchor down?"

Sea nods, heading over to drop the anchor. I turn to face Bow. "Ready for anything?"

"Ready for anything."

Frosta excitedly says, "lets go kick some Horde butt!"

The boat slowly lurches to a stop as it stops traveling over the water, hovering over the edge of an icy landmass. Devoid of anything but white as far as can be seen.

"Alright, Huddle up-" I start to say, but Bow has already used an achor, and he uses his bow to slide down it.

"To adventure!" Sea Hawk shouts, sliding down it as well using the flat of his sword.

I give a half sigh, half smile at Sea Hawk's excitement, but Bow is strangely quiet. He was always so upbeat all the time, yet he's been almost down lately. I look down at Frosta, who approaches me slowly.

"Not one for the sliding?"

"You said huddle up."

I hold my hand out to her. When she takes it, I make sure to teleport right near where the anchor landed.

"You guys want me to put us out deeper into the Reach?"

"Probably not a good idea, let's conserve that magic of yours," Bow suggests, collapsing his bow. He managed to upgrade it after it was damaged at the valley pass, making it fold up quicker. His tech applications for his equipment are steadily getting better, it's always impressive to see just how far he came from his first trick arrow simply being one where the arrowhead was carved to work as a screwdriver.

As we walk, Frosta is using her powers to harden and compress the snow in front of us, creating a patch that isn't too difficult to shift through. She seems to be doing it pretty effortlessly, too. It's a lot of walking.

"It's eerie, walking through a place as isolated as this. There are terrible stories of people going missing up around here, we need to be careful," Sea Hawk says, lost in thought.

"We are careful," Bow responds. "And we can't exactly get lost, as long as I have this," he holds up his tracker-pad, leading us as best as he can to where we need to be going.

"Anything clearer yet?" I ask him.

"Not much. The readings are getting stronger the more we cut through this snow storm, which is important. We can't be out here for too long before the storm picks up."

"We'll get there. Worse comes to worst, I teleport us further in."

"Can't Frosta here just keep the snow away from us?" Sea Hawk asks.

"I could try, but that'd be pretty difficult, since I'd be fighting against the wind. And with such small particles…"

"What's the difference between what you and Mermista can do anyway?"

Frosta gives a slight shrug. "Probably the temperature. I can cool water in the same way Mermista can warm ice, but I can't move water and she can't form ice."

"Thermal manipulation," Bow says. "Warmer things give off more energy, they might just have different ranges they can actually interact with."

"I only sort of understand what that means, but okay!" Sea Hawk says enthusiastically.

"I don't think it was that hard to understand," Frosta says with a bit of sass to her voice.

"I didn't say it was, only that it isn't my subject of expertise!"

Bow holds an arm out, "I got something, looks like I was right. It's First One's tech after all."

"Then, we better be ready!" Sea Hawk announces, brandishing his rapier.

"Believe me, I really want to get back at Catra after the stunts she pulled at Dryl."

"Careful Glimmer," Bow speaks in a tone that implies he's about to scold me. I shoot him a look of utter annoyance, turning back to the path ahead.

Frosta makes one more push with her powers to level the path as dim lights start to come into view behind the screen of snow in the wind. There's definitely a lot more activity up here than there should be.

Bow preemptively starts to prepare himself for a fight by drawing his bow, same as I summon my father's staff. Frosta doesn't do anything yet, just walking a little forward to stand next to me. Sea Hawk Walks forward and encouragingly places a hand on Bow's shoulder. It's clear everyone is expecting a big fight, after the mediocre showing at the pass. Even Sea Hawk, who hasn't seen combat since Bright Moon, seems focused.

As we step closer, making our way towards the outpost, it's clear there are a lot of people here. And what we find is a massive hole in the ground. Massive is an understatement, it must be several dozen yards across, a metal bridge extended over the diameter of it. We can see them before we can hear them. The entire team. Adora, Catra, Scorpia, the trio, and… Entrapta.

Sea Hawk moves forward quickly, raising his sword. Bow is quicker, and holds him back with a quick and quiet, "no!"

So we carefully approach the center of the bridge, starting to be able to make out their conversation.

Entrapta's voice is by far the loudest, and is the one that becomes clear first. I can only make out what sounds like, "strange happenings in this region…"

Lonnie's voice is the next to come through as my friends and I get closer to them. "Yeah right, I'm not buying it."

Followed by Adora saying. "Well if the bots are offline, we have a problem. Can you figure it out?"

We're closer now, clearly able to make out everyone, most of them looking over the edge. Catra groans, "I already hate this place. I'm going back to look for something to stay warm, I'll-" she leans off the railing and turns, stopping as she sees us.

"Now can I say it?" Sea Hawk asks Bow, and Bow just shakes his head with a slight smirk as if he didn't care now, so Sea Hawk steps forward, raising his sword, and shouts, "ADVENTURE!"

Everyone immediately turns on the bridge. There's a tense stare for a moment as half of them seem surprised to see us. "What on Etheria are you doing all the way up here? It must've taken a lot of work to sail up and around the blockade."

Lonnie is, somewhat surprising to me, the first to say anything, "you think we'd just let our dockyards stay destroyed?"

"We figured you guys were getting tired of losing," Frosta says cockily.

Adora steps in front of the rest of the team, leading them as always. "Funny, I feel I can say the same to you all."

"Whatever you guys are doing here, it needs to stop." Bow says, mustering as much authority as he can.

Catra snarls. "Are you going to make us!?"

Sea Hawk does a sword-spin I'm sure he spends a lot of time practicing, purely for sure. "Well I for one wouldn't be opposed to settling this all over a match of arm-wrestling, but if you want a fight we'll give you one!"

Adora draws her sword as well, her eyes stay focused primarily on me. "I'm done letting you guys get away with messing with our plans. If you don't turn around, I'll make sure this will end more like salineas and less like Dryl."

"That's not the threat you think it is," I lift my staff slightly.

"Um… guys?" Kyle says nervously. "Does anyone feel that rumbling?"

He's ignored in favor of Catra starting to walk forward, "do your worst, rebels. Four on seven are pretty great odds even without She-Ra."

Bow pulls back an arrow, "I dealt with worse before."

Adora tightens her grip on her sword. "For the honor of Grayskull!" The flash of light is exactly like it was at Bright Moon.

"Pfft, ironic," I mutter. This time, we're not avoiding a fight.

I make the first move, instantly teleporting behind their entire line to swing my staff at Rogelio, who was sort of just watching. Come to think of it, I don't think he can speak. I hit his leg before he can even turn around, as the battle erupts.

Being out in the middle of the bridge, Frosta doesn't have much to work with. She starts with a defensive wall immediately after Bow fires an arrow down at the bridge. The arrow releases a patch of oil that She-Ra leaps over. Catra is less lucky as her foot slides out from under her and she falls back with a shriek.

I fight shortly with Rogelio. He takes hits pretty well, but like always he isn't too focused on actually hitting back, and I manage to catch him off guard with sparkles to his stomach, followed by swiftly knocking him down by swinging the staff onto his head.

She-Ra lands in front of the ice, slashing through it instantly. Bow and Sea Hawk share a quick look, and Bow makes a hand sign for me. I teleport over to She-Ra's side, hitting her hard with a blast of magic from each of my hands, channeling it through the staff. As She-Ra stumbles back, Bow and Sea Hawk move forward.

Catra is struggling up, but Bow and Sea Hawk pay her no mind as they move further down the bridge to where Kyle and Lonnie are. Sea Hawk and Lonnie get in a small saber on a stun-baton duel, as Bow fires a rope arrow into the bridge.

She-Ra turns to swing down at me. She wasn't kidding when she was 'done,' but it still isn't a move made to kill. I teleport to behind her instantly, driving the staff into her back. She doesn't even stumble forward as she turns around, swinging again.

Bow holds the rope in one hand, as holds the end out to Kyle. "Hold this for me, will you?" He places it to Kyle's chest, who grabs it in confusion. Bow smiles, and pushes him. It'd be an incredibly risky move if I wasn't here to catch him if he fell. But thankfully Kyle doesn't let go of the rope as he's knocked over the bridge, and left hanging on as he screams.

I teleport again, this time above She-Ra. I fire another blast of magic down that she seems to just shrug off, as I land a few feet from her. She swings her sword instantly, sending out a wave of magic power that is barely blocked with an ice wall. The edge of the beam slash through part of the railing to my right.

"Kyle!" Lonnie screams, making an effort to push Sea Hawk back. She sprints over to the rail, and starts struggling to pull the rope up as Bow runs further down the bridge.

"Entrapta, you need to stop!" Bow calls out, but Entrapta is actively running off the bridge.

Frosta makes a noise of exertion, and the ice wall moves towards She-Ra. The sword hits the ice, but Frosta hardens the ice at the strike point. She-Ra struggles against the ice for a second. I charge up the staff with my magic, aiming it for the ice. Frosta lets her hands fall, and the ice instantly shatters into dozens of large chunks, like hail. I send out a wave of sparkles that acts as a propelling force, the pseudo-hail forced into her. She-Ra stumbles back for a moment, clearly annoyed.

"Guys! There's something down here!" Kyle screams.

"Shut up and hang on!" Lonnie says, still pulling the rope up.

I move forward to keep She-Ra off balance, but she's too quick to recover. I teleport behind her, but I wasn't paying attention. I feel claws rake down my back, slashing through my cape. "Agh!" I groan, turning to hit Catra with all the fury I didn't show her at Dryl, but She-Ra turns at the same time. Her sword connects flatly to my torso, the force of which sends me back over the railing instantly.

"Glimmer!" I hear Frosta shout angrily, seeing Ice shrapnel fly over towards where She-Ra is staring down at me as I fall.

I shake my head, trying to orient myself so I can teleport upright, as my eyes drift down. Sometimes, there are things you see that are just too intense to describe, too out of left field to even process. Eyes. That's what I see, down in the darkness of the massive crater. Two giant eyes. "Ah!" I react on instinct, teleporting back up to the bridge, a little away from She-Ra. I go to catch my breath, but see that Frosta is struggling to hold her ground defensively.

I teleport over to Frosta, grab her, and move us back a few feet from She-Ra with another teleport. "We need to get off this bridge!"

"Sea Hawk!" Frosta points to Sea Hawk, who is struggling against Scorpia. I nod to Frosta, this is going to be exhausting. I teleport Glimmer down to the edge of the bridge on the far side, because I know Bow followed Entrapta down this way. Then I turn back, and teleport to Scorpia's side.

"Potentially!" Scorpia grunts at something Sea Hawk said, and I waste no time shoving myself against her just to disrupt her long enough to grab Sea Hawk, and teleport him off the bridge too.

"I think…" Sea Hawk pants, "we're a little…. Outnumbered."

"We're doing fine. Bow!?" I call out.

I turn to see him and Entrapta in the snow… talking?

I teleport over to Bow. "Hey, I know this is probably important but we really need your help."

"Glimmer, good. Something's wrong out here, whatever Entrapta is doing, something underground doesn't like it."

"Bow, please?" Entrapta pleads. "I need to get this tech, it's important, I'm working on something too big for all of Etheria! Science needs to be explored!"

"Not when the consequences almost destroy your friends and home!"

There's a loud thump, we all turn to see She-Ra has landed not far from the three of us. "What are you talking about? What's wrong here?"

Adora is concerned? This is interesting.

Bow sighs. "I don't know. The First One's energy… It's like something is waking up. Something big."

She-Ra looks down for a moment, turning back to where the rest of her team is getting off the bridge and engaging Frosta. She faces us. "You'll say anything to get us to stop. Not going to happen." She moves forward, and bow and I immediately get ready for a fight.

She-Ra's first move is to leap again, crashing down between Bow and I. Probably to split us up, despite how I can easily rectify it, but it works for a second as I fall backwards. Entrapta falls too, and I notice something fall out of her pocket. Is that-?

There's a small boom, Bow sets off a concussive arrow near She-Ra's head, disorienting her. She retaliates by swinging her sword through the snow, blinding Bow. I look down at the disk. This thing interfered with all the First One's tech at Dryl.

"You repaired it!?"

"There was so much more to learn!"

I groan, and move for it. Entrapta makes no effort to grab it, she's standing up herself. It gives me an idea. If it can screw with First One's tech, it can screw with that sword. I hear a grunt from Bow, just having taken an elbow from She-Ra, and I make no effort to not consider anything that could get her to stop. I teleport over to her side.

She-Ra is fast, and getting better at reacting to my movements. Her leg goes to the side immediately, kicking mine out from under me. I land face down in the snow.

"What, you thought I was kidding about being done with the games?"

"No…" I pick my head up. "Just thought that I liked fighting you better as Adora." I teleport back up and place the disk onto the Runestone of the sword.

"What did you-" She-Ra's eyes go wide as the runestone slowly turns red. Her expression shifts into something I've never seen on her before: fear. Tendrils snake their way out from where the disk made contact, over the sword. But what I wasn't expecting was for it to go beyond the sword. The tendrils snake over her hand, slowly crawling up her arm.

I step slowly. This was supposed to infect tech… She-Ra's eyes turn red, the fear fading for pain as she brings her free hand to her head, screaming in pain.

"What the hell did you do!?" Catra shouts, finally making it over here from the bridge.

"I- I just-"

She-ra screams out again, cutting me off. The red tendrils snaking along both her arms. Then, she goes quiet. Eerily quiet, for a moment, before she turns to face me. She roars, in a way that sounds almost mechanical, echoing within her own throat. Her eyes narrow in rage, and she charges forward with a swing.

Catra's POV

Glimmer teleports out of the way, I watch the sword impacts the snow. The way the snow erupts upwards, the way she turns back around to Glimmer it's almost animalistic. She moves forward again, Glimmer firing a quick blast of magic at Adora. It does nothing as the sword comes down again, and Glimmer teleports off to the side.

"She-Ra?" She asks, hesitantly, as if talking to a scared child or a rabid dog.

I shake my head, pulling myself out of my confusion. "What happened?"

Glimmer teleports over to me. "I don't know, it was supposed to infect the sword, not her!"

I stare at her, looking over the snow. I see it, embedded in the snow between us and Adora. "The First One's murder virus?"

"I- I didn't really know what it was, just that it messed with tech!"

"Clearly, you weren't thinking!" I look at Adora, who is lifting a massive rock out of the ground. She turns and throws it without hesitation. "Agh!" I leap back as a large rock lands between Glimmer and I. "Adora, stop!"

Glimmer was stunned by the impact, I think she actually got hit because she's half dazed on the ground, but I'm not really worried about her. Adora charges for me, and I quickly move to the side. "Adora, listen to me!"

She doesn't. She moves so fast, the pommel of the sword connecting with my chest. I'm knocked down from the force, wind knocked out of my lungs. Breathe, damnit, breath! Adora towers over me, prepared to strike down, when an arrow embeds- no, lands- on her left bicep. She suddenly freezes up slightly, groaning as electricity surges through her. Bow is at my side.

"Get up," he grabs my arm, lifting me.

"Don't touch me!" I hiss at him. Why do these rebels always have to cause problems!?

Adora moves the sword, it slams through the arrow disabling it. She chuckles inhumanely, moving faster than Bow can react, but not faster than me. I push Bow away, while pushing off of him. The sword strikes the snow between us.

"Adora!" Bow shouts, as he stumbles away and readies another arrow. He fires an arrow that ensnares Adora's legs with bolas, but they're effortlessly snapped. "Entrapta, what do we do!?"

Entrapta, who has since moved to behind a rock, simply says, "I don't know, try not to die!"

"Catra!" Lonnie shouts from my side, the rest of the team- as well as the rest of the rebels- have stopped their fight by the bridge. "What's going on!?"

"Get back to the base! Glimmer screwed something-" I take a hit hard, realizing I wasn't paying enough attention to Adora as I'm slammed back into a rock. This doesn't make sense, I never had to watch myself around Adora. She was always the one person I could… I shake my head, clutching my definitely going to bruise side.

"Wildcat!" Scorpia runs up to Adora, getting between us.

Lonnie moves to help, but I hold my hand up. "Outpost, now!"

She stares at me for a second, then Adora, and nods. "Kyle, Rogelio, Entrapta, let's go!" Lonnie commands, moving for the trio to head towards the outpost, as Entrapta sneaks out from behind the rock she was hiding behind- not that I blame her, she isn't a fighter.

Adora swings for Scorpia, who manages to catch the sword with her pincers. She-Ra is stronger, but Scorpia is the only here who could even hope to hold her own in close quarters. It helps when Bow fires another down towards her foot. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it works too well, as it almost seeps down into the snow.

I struggle back to my feet. Meanwhile, Glimmer appears at Adora's side, striking her with that pink staff of hers over her arm. Adora screams in rage, pulling her sword free from Scorpia's grasp. Then, a massive amount of snow pulls up around Adora.

"What do we do!?" The ice princess, Frosta, asks Glimmer. Sea Hawk is cautiously waiting nearby, his own sword drawn. Scorpia looks back to me as Frosta keeps Adora still, continuing to pile and harden snow around her.

"I don't know, I'm running out!" Glimmer shouts, surprisingly admitting it in front of Scorpia and I.

Glimmer and I glance at each other, as I start moving for Adora. "Come on Adora, quit being a pushover and shrug this off!"

Bow picks his head up from thinking. "The disk! We need to-"

Adora breaks free of the show, using her magic to create a sort of shockwave out from the snow. Adora strikes the ground, creating a further shockwave. The ground cracks. Scorpia moves back, Glimmer looks shocked. Frosta tries to use her powers again, when Adora pushes deeper and the ground starts cracking. The snow shifts and disrupts radially out from where Adora is, as if she were creating a mini-quake.

Wow. She still holds back.

The ground starts breaking. I know Entrapta said there's an entire network of caves, and the way I see the ground cave in- we're above one. Scorpia moves quickly, grabbing me, "we need to move, now!"

"No, I need to help Adora!" I shout, but the ground is too unstable and Scorpia pulls me out. Glimmer is the only other one to move, as she lunges for Frosta. The ground comes apart completely, though, as Adora yanks the sword up in a way that directs it towards the rebels. The four of them lose their footing, and fall out from what I can see. The damage to the landscape… it's more than I ever figured she could or would do. "Adora…"

Scorpia groans, "Wildcat, we'll figure it out, let's go!" She pulls more, and I just turn to follow her as she starts pulling me.

"Wait, we need to grab the disk, Entrapta might know how-"

Scorpia gets slammed into from the back, knocked over in an instant as Adora is next to us. She turns to me, laughing as she raises her sword. I step back. Her eyes have none of Adora's warmth or compassion, only unfiltered rage. Yet the chuckling implies she isn't angry- she's having fun. It's sadism in its worst form.

I'm not afraid of death. I see it as inevitable, even probably given how I grew up. I used to worry at night that Shadow Weaver wasn't going to let me wake up. It was never that I was worried about death, just worried what me leaving would do to Adora. And that's what I think now, too. If I'm going to die, It's not going to be in a way that leaves Adora with the guilt.

I put everything I have into moving. She-Ra is strong, incredibly strong. And she's fast. But I'm faster. She swings down, I dodge to the side. She swings to the side, I jump over the swing. She thrusts, I jump again and move over her. Then her hand goes around my leg, and I feel myself slammed down into a rock.

"Ack!" I grunt, the snow doing little to cushion the blow.

Adora laughs triumphantly, dragging me through the snow a little. I twist under her, even though it hurts my ankle, and throw snow up at her eyes. She glares at me in frustration, dropping my leg and placing her leg on my stomach, slowly leaning on it.

"Ah-Adora…" I plead, feeling myself being crushed.

"Get off of her!" Scorpia shouts, slamming into Adora's side. She's knocked over, since her weight was unbalanced, and drops the sword. I gasp, clutching my stomach, as I watch Adora try to break the grip Scorpia has on her. But her eyes flash, going back to blue, before she transforms. The infected She-Ra is gone… She slumps forward, seemingly asleep. I lean back in the snow, breathing out in relief as Scorpia also relaxes.

I slowly sit up, moving back to my feet. My ankle hurts, but it's fine overall.

"That could've ended really bad," Scorpia mutters, as I walk over.

"Adora? You okay?"

There's no response from Adora. "I think she's out."

"Let's get her back inside, then, the rebels are still here and I don't want us getting caught like this, and I can't feel my toes."

Scorpia nods, standing up while supporting Adora by holding her arms.

I walk a few steps away, there's no use in me trying to help carry her. I walk over to where the disk is embedded in the snow. "This is not happening again," I say, picking it up. I put it in my pocket, I'll have Entrapta deal with it later. I reach over and pick up the sword as well. Disgust is visible on my face as I study the twisting red vein-like things. "Let's get moving?"

Scorpia nods, and we make our way back to the outpost. I take a quick glance back at the crater Adora had left, that the rebels fell into. I wonder if they're still alive down there… of course they are. They're fine, they're too annoying to die on us.

Glimmer's POV

I took the hit hard in my shock as I tried to shield Frosta from the brunt of the fall. I don't know how long we were laying on the ground for, but I'm pretty sure I wound up unconscious. Because when I open my eyes, Frosta is on top of me, shaking my arm.

"Glimmer! Glimmer, wake up!"

I groan, sitting up slowly and looking around. We fell? I see Bow and Sea Hawk talking about something off to the side.

"Glimmer, you're okay!" Frosta says, hugging me. After a moment, she pulls back, and extends a hand.

I take it, despite how she definitely can't support my weight, and slowly stand up. "Ugh… Thanks Frosta."

She sighs, relaxing. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop her, I- I have no idea what was going on. Why was she acting like that?"

"I screwed up. Badly."

"Good, everyone's okay," Sea Hawk says. "I'm with Glimmer. That- that was terrifying!"

Bow puts his tracker-pad away. "We need to get back up there. Glimmer, you said you were almost out of magic?"

"Almost, yeah. We should probably not teleport up."

"Easy, I can just make a lift with all the ice," Frosta offers.

"What do we do when we get up there? The energy readings are off the charts now, there's something up there."

"Something big," I whisper, thinking of the eyes I saw earlier.

"I vote we get out of here. I can't do anything against normal She-Ra, that much was made clear at Bright Moon!" Sea Hawk says. "Whatever was going on is not something we should mess with!"

"We can't just let the Horde keep getting away with things," I assert. "We're stopping them. I just… need a minute to rest," I say, leaning back against the wall.

"I- how do we beat her?" Frosta asks.

"We're surrounded by snow. If anyone can do anything to She-Ra, it's you." I say, looking down and smiling at her.

"I tried! She was too strong, I can't do anything against her."

I look around. Frosta and Sea Hawk both seem so dejected. I look at Bow, and he sighs.

"As much as I agree that we might not have good odds here, isn't it sort of our duty to help? Adora isn't herself, and she's a danger to her entire team."

I groan slightly, not having much interest in the safety of the Horde members myself, but Bow isn't wrong. It's the right thing to do. "Yes. We need to figure out what's going on up there, stop She-Ra, and shut down their operations."

"A tall order," Sea Hawk says quietly, quickly going back to his normal peppy demeanor. "But one I'm up for!"

Frosta still seems unsure, so I walk over and put a hand on her soldier. "Hey… you can do it, okay?"

"But what if I can't? What if- what if someone seriously gets hurt? You already took a bad hit just trying to help me during the fall…"

"I still have some magic, none of us are getting hurt. You're more than capable enough, okay?"

She nods. She doesn't seem entirely sure, but she's trying to listen. "Okay… I suppose we should head back up there, then?"

Bow nods, walking over. "We can do this, Frosta."

She nods. When everyone gets into a close square, she concentrates on lifting the ground around us. A sheet of ice breaks out of the ground with a crack forming in a circle around us, and starts sliding up the edge of the cliff. It's shaky, and Bow needs to grab Sea Hawk to stop him from slipping, but we're moving. And a lot faster than climbing.

We reach the top of the crater we fell into, and the snow seems to have picked up. "What's with the weather?"

"I don't know, it shouldn't be this bad!" Bow shouts back out over the wind.

"Well this certainly doesn't help," Sea Hawk mutters. Well, it was spoken like a mumble but he made sure we all heard it over the wind.

"Any sign of She-ra?" Bow asks, looking out towards the impact site.

I look out towards the crater, it looks like something is moving… "No…" I squint my eyes, trying to see more of the slithering mass. When it turns, I can see a red haze from those same eyes I saw falling into the hole. "No She-Ra…" I say, suddenly feeling very nervous that whatever this thing is, it's probably that energy source Bow has been picking up for a while now. "Just a terrifying snow monster!"

The creature is far, so I slowly turn to shoot Bow a worried glance. I see Frosta standing there, looking up in horror at the crater we just lifted out of. My gaze follows hers. "Uh… you guys wanna run for that outpost?"

"What do you-" Sea Hawk turns to face the creature crawling out of the hole She-Ra left us in earlier. He instantly goes silent as its red eyes beam down at us.

Bow is the last to turn. "Okay, run!"

The creature roars, deep and echoing over the plains of the Reach, far above the wind. There's no hesitation from anyone. We run.