Glimmer's POV

"Move that side a little to the left…" Bow points up at the right wing of the Bright Moon Castle adornment.

*Poof,* I'm up there now, adjusting the position of a forked antenna. Then, I'm back at Bow's side again.

"Okay, that side… out more?"

*Poof,* Now I'm on the left side of the castle, holding the second antenna out a bit.

I watch Bow look down at his tracker-pad, frowning. He's clearly struggling to get this signal figured out. He waves his hand to the left a bit, so I move it out to my right, his left. He shakes his head then and moves his hand the other way, so I move the antenna back to where it was. He waves for me to come back down.

"So," I arrive with another flash of sparkles, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as Bow woke me up early for this, "did you get it?"

"No, I didn't. I only managed a bit, but it's just words. First One's words."

"So let's ask Swift Wind?" I ask.

Bow rubs the bridge of his nose, sighing. "Great idea, if we knew where he was."

"Didn't he say he'd be around Bright Moon?"

Bow shrugs, putting his tracker-pad away. "I'm still getting over the fact that he said anything. But regardless, he still didn't tell us anything specific on where he'd be. I'm sure he'll show up next time he's needed."

"Or show up against us…" I murmur, not exactly trusting the magic talking horse somehow linked to Adora.

"We don't know what's going on between him and Adora. I think we can trust him." Bow offers, trying to keep my thoughts from spiraling.

But they spiral. "That's sort of exactly the problem, we don't know, and you're too trusting."

"Look, we'll add it to the long list of things we need to keep an eye on and constantly worry about. Like if the Horde ever gets it navy rebuilt-"

"Which it pretty much is." I cut him off, given Mermista's reports.

"-or if we have to fight She-Ra again-

"I'm pretty sure we will, unless Adora is going to suddenly switch sides or disappear," I say sarcastically.

"-or the fact that we haven't told the rebellion about Swift Wind-"

"We haven't exactly had time to!" The war has been a constant drain on everyone's minds more than ever now. There hasn't been a week without an incident since before Bow and I found that sword and Thaymor got occupied.

Bow groans a bit, "Exactly on everything. We need to be careful, and there isn't going to be much time to waste. I think I know a way I can get this message figured out."

"Do you have a lead other than Swift Wind?"

Bow rubs his arm for a moment. "Well, we have to find someone who speaks- or at least can translate, the First One's language…"

"Well, we know Entrapta had enough data to figure out a few words, but she isn't exactly… on our side."

"No, I didn't think we could ask her."

"Well maybe we can go to Light Hope? She could probably translate for us."

"I guess we could try, it's better than nothing. She could also tell us why Swift Wind said she's 'freaking out,' Should we tell Angella we're leaving?"

"Oh, she'll be fine," I start pacing a bit, as I talk, "Bright Moon scouts reported seeing Adora entering the woods. My mom doesn't want to risk a She-Ra encounter, even though Adora was completely disconnected from Alwyn. She'd probably tell us no," I muse.

"Yeah, Glimmer, about that…" Bow leans to the right a bit, but I'm not exactly looking at him.

"It's not like I haven't listened before. Besides, what she doesn't know won't hurt us!"

"Glimmer, she's-"

There's a split second where I turn to Bow, my eyes going wide in realization. Unfortunately for me, Bow is cut off by the voice of my mom's, in my ear.

"So, did you two manage to get that signal sorted out?"

I practically leap into the air, looking over my shoulder. "Ah, mom, hi!"

Angella has a slight smirk on her face as she looks down at me. I'd want to call it endearment, but it's more of a smug look. "Heading out again already?"

"Your majesty," Bow starts, trying to pull attention off me, "what brings you out to the courtyard?"

"Coming to see how your little project with the moons goes. Did you figure that signal out?"

I relax a bit, seeing as she doesn't seem to be chewing me out. "Oh, actually, the signal is mostly gibberish…" I look over at Bow, for him to continue.

So he does. "It's First One's in its origin. Like Alwyn, it must've been activated because of the hack. But, I can't read it or figure out where it's coming from."

"And you think this signal will be important?"

"I can't say. There's nothing about this message that says… anything."

Angella gives a small nod, turning back to me. "And you think your 'Light Hope' will help?"

I tense up a bit. She was outside for a lot of Bow and I talking… "Uh, ahahaha… of course you heard everything." I frown a bit. "Um… yeah. Maybe she can help?"

"You never did know how to listen." Angella says, with a slight shake of her head. "You don't have to sneak around me, Glimmer. If you think this is important, go. Just be safe. Adora has been to the Crystal Castle once before."

"We know, mom…" I whine, "we were there."

"Then take care. Will you be back for dinner?"

"I don't know, probably?"

I see Bow at the edge of my vision, taking out his tracker-pad. He looks at it for a moment, confused, before looking back up. "Well, let's get going then."

I nod to Bow, then give my mom a hug. "Bye, mom. We'll be back soon!" I step back, half skipping over to Bow in excitement. Maybe I'm just giddy that I didn't get in trouble.

Bow respectfully bows to Angella. "Bye, your majesty."

"Goodbye, Bow and Glimmer." She says, before turning back around and starting for the castle entrance.

I turn to Bow, immediately grabbing his arm. "Okay, time to speak to Light Hope!"

*Poof!*

All of a sudden, we're in the woods. Not really anywhere, by the looks of it, despite my aiming for the Crystal Castle. I frown, probably due to the shifting landscape. Bow looks down and switches his tracker-pad to the map mode. "Hm, not here." He shows me the screen, pointing at a red dot on the map. "Try here."

I nod, and we're in a different spot again. Except now, we're actually there. On the outside.

"Okay, this should be simple enough." Bow looks up at the Crystal Castle. Unsurprisingly, the building that's been here for hundreds of years looks exactly like it did two months ago. He walks up, I follow beside him.

"Okay, how does this door work again?" Bow asks, mostly rhetorically to no one. "A word…"

I answer anyway. "Etheria!" I say, excitedly, but nothing happens.

"No, no. Close, but… it was a little different."

"Ether…mal? Ethornia?"

My rambling sparks recognition in Bow's mind. "Eternia!" It's definitely the right word, it clicks for me too. But nothing happens.

"Oh, forget this. I'll just use a little more juice." I groan, grabbing his shoulder and teleporting us through the door. I let go of Bow, and start off ahead immediately. I look over the colors adorning the walls, the reflections on every surface. "I forgot how this place is just sort of… pretty."

Bow follows right behind me, as we approach the center room. "It is nice. It's like everything is half mirror."

"It's much better preserved on the inside."

"That would be the lack of interior weather," Bow says matter of factly.

But I can tell it's a joke, so I roll my eyes. "I don't know, maybe the First One's had interior weather machines."

Bow chuckles. "Yeah, I can imagine the rain already."

I shake my head, though my lips are turned up. We reach the center, and I look around. "Uh… Light Hope?"

Unsurprisingly, there's no response.

Bow puts a hand to his chin, "huh. Just like the door."

"Maybe she finally broke?"

"I don't know. The lights are on."

I sigh, this was supposed to give us answers. I clear my throat, announcing our presence again. "Light Hope. It's Glimmer, of Bright Moon. And Bow… also, of Bright Moon? Or the Whispering Woods."

"Glimmer, I don't think it matters."

"Hush," I say in a light tone, before going back to generally speaking loudly. "We… spoke to Swift Wind. We're here to talk about She-Ra."

The lights brighten a little bit, and suddenly Light Hope is in front of me.

"Greetings, Princess Glimmer of- greetings. Gr- gr- greetings, Bow of Bright Woods. What is your query?"

Bow and I turn to face each other. This isn't right. "Uh… is she broken?"

Bow shrugs.

"I am not br- broken," Light Hope answers. "I am merely experie- experiencing difficulties in maintaining normal- functional- optimal operating parameters. The Horde is- Hordak is hurting us- hurting Etheria. She-Ra is hurting Etheria."

Bow steps forward a bit. "Uh… we kind of gathered that."

"I think we know why Swift Wind said she's freaking out…" I whisper.

"Etherian Communication hubs are offline," Light Hope says, not acknowledging mine or Bow's words. "Operating as the planetary direct- facilitator is proving difficult. I am unable- communicate with myself. Operational integrity on Ether- outside of Crystal Castle compromised."

I tilt my head. "What's wrong?"

Light Hope raises a hand, projecting an image of a monument, not dissimilar to the beacon at Alwyn, that then cracks and appears brittle. "My watchtower, destroyed by Mara. Further complicated by Etheria being torn- thrown from balance six weeks ago." The hologram of the tower crumbles to rubble.

"The hacking…" Bow murmurs.

"How do we fix it?"

"You can't. Only She-Ra's status as- connection to- "First One's" can."

Bow frowns. "So you're stuck operating like this?"

"Probabilities of restoring planetary interface- proper inter- interconnectivity are 2.3%."

"I bet Entrapta could fix it…" Bow mutters sadly.

I look over and pat his shoulder for a moment. "Light Hope, we don't exactly understand."

"I can not compute- decide an exact plan- course either.. Without Adora on our side- with the Eternians, there is not much I can do."

"Well, that sounds defeatist."

"Adora- Hordak must be stopped. Beyond that, there is nothing- little to be done."

I groan. "Great, Light Hope broke. Where is this tower?"

"A field, outside the woods, thirteen Miles northwest."

Bow shakes his head. "Wait, we can't just meander about trying to fix a broken communication tower."

"It's a planetary infect- interfacing device."

I cringe a bit at her malfunctioned word choice, turning to Bow. "So what do we do?"

"I don't know. Light Hope, we got this signal. We don't know the purpose or origin. Can you translate for us?" Bow pulls out his tracker-pad.

Light Hope looks at it. "The words are Serenia, Portal, Mara. How did you get this signal? Where have you been?"

Bow suddenly steps back, cautious at Light Hope almost hostile tone shift. "Woah, it was just a random signal. What does it mean? Swift Wind talked about you freaking out about something going on at the Horde, and you still seem to be doing it."

"The Horde's plans are impossible- difficult to deduce. But what little energy readings I could receive- triangulate- deduce the origins of, it seems Hordak is experimenting with- getting close to achieving portals."

"Portals? Like, theoretical portals? Entrapta did work on those, but what does that mean?" Bow asks, sounding more confused.

"Hordak intends to- plans to- will open a portal to bring forth- amass a larger force, dooming- destroying Etheria."

Bow and I turn to face each other. We've spent the last day wondering what was going on, why Swift Wind was making things out to be desperate. I gulp. "Like, he's gonna be able to better move and organize his troops?"

Light Hope shakes her head. "No. Hordak will- is trying to reinforce his army from the larger- Galactic Horde. From beyond the stars."

"Stars?" Bow asks, looking more confused.

"Stars. The stars Etheria lost when it was plunged into Despandos."

I blink, more confused than Bow. "What, what's a Despandos?"

Bow shrugs.

Light Hope continues. "Mara cast Etheria into a pocket dimension, Despondos, out of the wider universe. A universe that is at war. A war with- with- Galactic- Prime- Horde."

"No no no, what does any of that mean?" I ask, raising my voice a bit. "Stop being broken!"

Bow's eyes go wide. "Serenia, Mara, Portal… it's all linked."

"Mara. The last She-Ra, compromised like Adora, cast Etheria- betrayed Eternia- trapped the planet. Hordak must be stopped- defeated- removed from play. Attempting to open- achieving the fabricating of a portal would be devastating."

This makes me even more nervous. "Stop Hordak. You make it sound like that hasn't been the goal for, jeez, years."

Bow rubs his temples. "This is too much. A wider universe… more Horde… stars… Does that mean there are… other places? You keep saying Eternia like it's…"

"The home of the people you call First One's." Light Hope says.

Bow's eyes go wide. "Other planets… Eternia… is a planet!"

"You were not aware of this? Adora is Eternian. She was pulled here as an infant, the only time a portal was successfully opened in a millenia."

I look at Bow, "Adora… is an alien? Like, from those old stories? This is insane." I point at Light Hope, still looking at Bow. "She's broken. There can't be more Horde, Hordak would've brought them years ago."

Light Hope shakes her head. "His progress is- Hordaks accomplishments are recent. Weeks in advancements."

Bow looks down, muttering to himself. "But the only major changes we know of at the Horde in recent weeks, to months, are… Adora, and…" he looks up, "Entrapta.

"Well, then we need to stop them. Light Hope, how do we stop Hordak from opening a portal?"

"Error. I am unable to understand his exact situation, due to a lack of functioning planetary interface devices in the Horde occupation- territory of operation."

"This isn't working," I groan. "We need more information on this stuff!"

"There is not much I am able to give to native Etherians. Information on the working of Portals is classified."

I can feel my eye twitch in anger at this. "Are you serious? You're telling me the fate of the world is at stake, but you can't tell me more?"

"You know all you need to know to stop Hordak: Adora and Hordak must be neutralized- stopped. Additionally, it may be helpful- alleviating for you to know I do not have access- can not read a large portion of my data, with my primary watchtower offline."

I chuckle. "You're as unhelpful as you were last time!"

Bow puts his head in his hands. "Other planets, portals… Mara, Serenia, A… universal, Galactic Horde? Ugh…"

Light Hope's head tits in simulated confusion. "I do not understand your aggression. I am doing what I can."

"Well it isn't enough. Can you tell us nothing else? Any other, 'Adora is an alien,' bombshells we should know about, or are you going to continue to withhold information until the last possible moment!?"

Light Hope stares down at me. For a moment, there's just a staring contest. Then, she simply says, "Hordak must be stopped- Etheria must be balanced." And then, the hologram turns off.

"Light Hope? Light Hope!" I turn and kick a crystal podium or something, I don't care what it is. "Damnit!"

Bow looks aside, then sighs. He turns to face me. "Glimmer, we need to talk. Outside."

I raise an eyebrow, Bow never speaks like this. "What? We're not done here."

"No, we are. She told us enough."

I look back out at the room, then take a deep breath. "Fine." I grab his shoulder, and suddenly we're outside the Crystal Castle. "What is it?"

"I know how we can get more information on all of this. I didn't want to do this," Bow looks down, nervously. "But if this is as bad as everyone says it is, we don't have a choice. And I'm supposed to go there tomorrow anyway…"

"Go where? What are you talking about? That library you mentioned back at Alwyn?"

"Yeah… a library. I can- we can go learn what we need to know. We need to learn about portals, and this Mara person, fast. And also, I guess we need to figure out how whatever a Serenia is fits into all this, too…"

I blink twice. I had completely forgotten he even mentioned a library at Alwyn until now. "Why… Why didn't you mention this before? We had access to a bunch of information we could've used to learn about She-Ra for who knows how long? Why didn't you mention it when we had the sword!?"

Bow puts a hand to his forehead. "Look, I'll explain everything on the way. But we should get going. I can show up a day early, we'll learn what we need to, and convene with the alliance. I know things are tense right now. Let's just breathe, and take the next step forward."

I groan, Bow's right as always. "I just, you're talking about this library like it's an appointment, or something. And you never don't tell me things."

"I know, I know." Bow grabs my hands. "I'll tell you everything. And everything else, we'll figure out. Whatever is going on, whatever it all means… we'll stop it. We always do."

"... I know," my voice is a bit quieter this time. "So… where's this library?"

Catra's POV

"Agh, okay, calm down! You two are going to hurt each other!" Scorpia calls out, panicking.

"Yeah, Catra, calm down!" Adora grunts. She puts her weight on my shoulders, pushing me down and trying to keep me pinned. But while I'm smaller than Adora, I am not weaker. I swipe up at her, pushing her head back and getting her off balance. I get her one arm off my shoulder and roll onto her, flipping us.

But Adora and I know each other well. As we're rolling, she gets a leg between us and pushes enough to separate us. I roll away from her, and Adora gets to her feet. "Are we done?"

"Please," I get back on my feet, my tail flicking behind me as I scan Adora's form for where I can go to get her back off balance. "Are you getting tired already?"

"Not even close!" Adora declares confidently, despite the sweat I can see on her forehead.

I smirk, and pounce. I slam into her waist, and we tumble to the ground again as Adora shrieks.

Scorpia puts her pincers in front of her face, looking worried. "Oh jeez. If this is how you two spar, I'd hate to see an actual fight!"

There's a scramble, Adora and I both trying to grab at either other's wrists, or keep the other pinned.

"Well now it's just grappling," Entrapta says from the chair she's sitting in, although she's only been half paying attention. She's spent the last few days where she isn't in Hordak's lab, just typing away on her datapad. I haven't paid much attention to it.

"Get. off!" Adora pushes me hard, and I stumble off to the side. Adora starts to get to her feet, so I sweep her leg and move back for her. But she manages to roll with my momentum, until I'm against the ground. She grabs my wrists, and half slams them. "Now stay here."

"Not a chance, princess!" I pull my right hand free and swipe at her face. I leave my claws out enough to scratch Adora's cheek, without causing any actual harm. The blow is enough for her grip to slip, and I shove her off of me.

Adora scoffs, landing on her rear, even as a grin appears on her face. "Oh, you're dead."

I stand up. "Try."

"Or, hear me out," Scorpia pleads, "we don't kill each other."

Adora and I still don't listen. She moves for me, and this time the sparring is more direct. Her hand flies towards me, I side step. I swipe at her, she grabs my wrist and half swings me to the side. I stumble, but land well. "She started it."

Entrapta chuckles. "That isn't true." She puts her datapad away, paying more attention to Adora and I.

I roll my eyes. I did start it, definitely. But I'm not going to admit that, "no, she made the first remark."

Adora chuckles, "you're so full of it," moving for a jab again. We resume sparring for a bit, but there aren't any more big moves made, and no one really 'wins' this time. The roughhousing stops when the door opens.

Adora steps aside. "Hey Lonnie. What's up?"

She sets down a box in the corner. "Junk Entrapta asked me to pick up. Cables, wrenches and screwdrivers-"

"The decouplers?" Entrapta turns around, cutting Lonnie off.

"Sure, whatever they are."

"More Hordak work?" Adora asks.

"Yeah, we're getting work done on this portal device." She says, casually. Entrapta then promptly freezes up. "Oh, I was told to not say anything about that, though."

"A portal device?" Adora raises an eyebrow.

Entrapta looks left, then right. "No?"

Adora sighs, "whatever, not worth it."

Entrapta relaxes. "Good. I already got into this whole thing when I accidentally told Hordak you didn't trust him, and-"

"You what?"

I feel my fur bristle. "Entrapta, what did you tell him?"

She slinks back a bit. "Nothing much. Remember that conversation we had before we hacked the planet?"

Adora tenses. "You didn't."

"I did a little…"

I walk up to Entrapta, placing my hands on her shoulders. "What. did. you. tell. Hordak?"

"I-..." Entrapta takes a deep breath. "I didn't mention anything about the not coup. Just maybe that Adora really doesn't trust Shadow Weaver anymore, and also maybe doesn't trust anyone… which by extension includes Hordak."

"I- I don't trust no one!" Adora says defensively. "I trust all of you! Well, most of you…" she looks down, crossing her arms, not directly looking at Entrapta but definitely meaning her, now.

"No, no, it was fine, he reacted fine, Hordak doesn't know anything about you've specifically been training your She-Ra abilities more in case of something going wrong here than the princesses! I think everything will be fine, you and Hordak don't need to dislike each other!"

I blink a bit. "Entrapta, maybe stop talking."

"He's not a bad person! He'd understand. Maybe you can just go and tell him your concerns about him cutting you out."

Adora scoffs, more real now than when we were sparring. "Tell Hordak I'm concerned? What a great idea. Are you sure he isn't ticked?"

"Mostly. Look, he didn't get angry. It's fine!"

"Doubtful." I mutter, stepping back.

Entrapta looks more worried. "Look, we don't need to do anything about this."

"We definitely do." Adora says, walking over to me. "I'm gonna go ask Shadow Weaver if she knows if Hordak is planning anything against me."

"What!?" I turn to her, getting a little too in her face. "How is going to Shadow Weaver about this at all a good idea?"

"She's always known more than she let on. If Hordak has it out for us, she'd know. Entrapta is partially right in… sentiment. We can't just go against Hordak on nothing but conjecture."

"Or," Entrapta raises her hand, "we don't go against Hordak at all, and my friends don't have to fight?"

"I- I'm with that." Scorpia says.

"I'm not. I'm talking to Shadow Weaver."

"Adora, no!" I shout. "I can figure out what we need to know, Entrapta isn't the only one who knows how to sneak around."

Adora shakes her head. "That's ridiculously dangerous."

"I agree, we don't even need to worry!" Entrapta spreads her hands out, her expression twisting up in worry.

"Entrapta, Hordak is not your friend!" Adora raises her voice, causing Entrapta to flinch away.

"And Shadow Weaver isn't yours!" I clap back at Adora. "What happened to overcoming both of them?"

Adora rolls her eyes, and shakes her head. "I never said she is. I'm pretty sure I said this before, I'm not stupid! I just need information!"

"I'll get it without her!"

Entrapta coughs into her hand. "Um, maybe I can put in a good word?"

"If we move against Hordak, now, we're screwed."

Scorpia puts a pincer on Entrapta's shoulder. "They're not gonna listen…" She helps Entrapta up off the chair she was in. Entrapta is guided a bit away from Adora and I by Scorpia. Lonnie is mostly standing behind us, groaning.

"Adora, please listen to me," I start, my voice pleading, "this isn't a good idea. If we go to Shadow Weaver, we're backed into a corner."

"We're already in a corner. But I can get us out of it! I can't do that if you escalate things further by going and doing… whatever it is you plan to do," Adora says sternly.

"And Shadow Weaver isn't escalating?"

"Shadow Weaver is the only thing standing between Hordak and us. Hordak can't move against us without moving against her. If he is escalating, we need her."

"What about going against her too? We can't trust her! She'll turn on us the moment Hordak is dealt with!"

"Then we take her down then!"

"When she'll most expect it? We'd need to get the drop on her. She's still strong without the Black Garnet. And let's face it, she doesn't need to overpower you when she's already in your head."

Lonnie walks up, sighing. "Look, I don't think Adora is in the wrong here. If Hordak is going to be a problem, let's just point the two top dogs against each other and have them tire each other out. We'll clean up."

I step back, of course she'd take Adora's side. "That isn't going to work!" I turn back to Adora. "You're buried so far under Shadow Weaver's shit, you don't see how she's playing you! She's still ticked she got removed from Second in Command, you think she won't just work to get that back?"

Entrapta pushes Scorpia off of her from the side of the room, using her hair to bound over to us. "You're wrong! He wouldn't."

"Entrapta!" Scorpia calls.

"You're wrong!" Adora looks at Entrapta, clearly getting more and more fed up.

"Yeah, you are," I say to her as well. Then I turn back to Adora and cross my arms. "You both are. You can't trust her! She's still using you, you know she is. You know that's all she's ever done!"

Adora huffs, turning to the side. She drives her foot into the chair, causing it to fall back. "I don't care!" Adora snaps, taking a deep breath. A lot of her frustration fades. "I don't care anymore. Everyone out there wants to use me in one way or another. I'm at least going to get the choice of who does it."

The room goes pretty quiet at it, and I feel like those words cause my stomach to twist, and my heart to drop. "Adora… that isn't okay…"

Lonnie puts an arm on Adora's shoulder. "We don't use-…" She turns to me. "We don't. Do we?"

Adora shakes her head. "No. You people are the only ones who don't." Adora looks up. "But the only thing that matters is I get one more person off the list. And if Hordak is going against us, that's what we'll do first."

I sigh in frustration. "But we don't need her to do that."

Adora steps closer, brushing Lonnie off her shoulder. "I'm talking to Shadow Weaver, and that's that." She walks past me, our shoulders bumping as she heads for the door.

No one else in the room says anything. I look at Scorpia and Entrapta. Entrapta looks like she's freaking out, showing much more emotion than I think I've ever seen from her. And Scorpia just looks sad. I turn to Lonnie, who is staring ahead at the door Adora left through. "Go get Kyle and Rogelio. Be ready. If Adora isn't going to listen to me, I'm not going to listen to her." I start walking towards the door.

Scorpia calls after me, "Catra, maybe we should-"

"Try and stop me." I interrupt, leaving the room.

Bow's POV

Glimmer and I stand outside my father's library. Despite having known Glimmer nearly my entire life, I have never been more nervous than the conversation that is about to happen. It feels even more tense than our argument back during the All-Princess Ball.

"Okay, so, this is the library." I motion up at it.

"Wow. It's… big."

"Yeah."

"And tucked away. What is this place to you?"

I rub my arm a bit, looking over at her slowly. "It's… kind of hard to explain." We had gone back to Bright Moon for a quick stop, I needed to grab a few things. I take a backpack off my shoulder, that was kind of awkwardly clashing against my quiver. "This is… kind of my second home."

"Your… second home…" Glimmer says slowly.

I nod. "Bright Moon is my home, don't get me wrong. But in a way, before I grew up there… I grew up here. My dads live here."

Glimmer looks at me. "You almost never talk about your dads."

I groan a bit. I love my dads, and I think about them a lot, but Glimmer is right. It makes me feel a little guilty. "It's complicated. I'll explain everything. Look, I need to get changed before we go in… and there's a bit I have to fill you in on."

Glimmer tilts her head. "What is this about? Do you not like your dads?"

I shake my head, heading for the tree line. "No, I love them, it's just… give me a moment." I slip behind the tree, sighing. How do you tell your best friend about how you're living two worlds, where you've done everything you could to keep those worlds separate? Out of sight of Glimmer, I quickly get undressed and pull my 'student' outfit out of the backpack, switching into it. I groan a bit as I realize this is going to be a very difficult conversation.

I stash my backpack and weapons under a log, hopefully that will keep the mud out of the bow joints. I step out from behind the tree line, "Okay, we're good."

Glimmer turns back to face me from where she was looking at the library. "Okay, then-... what the fuck are you wearing?"

I stop dead in my tracks. "Glimmer, you can't say-"

She waves her hand dismissively. "And you're wearing a shirt. A full shirt. So I think we're both breaking what should and shouldn't be done."

"Those are two very different things! One is a shirt. Another would give your mom a heart attack."

"Please, my mom's heard me curse before. You think I got my mouth from my dad?"

"That's," I think about that and chuckle, looking aside, "actually fair."

"So why are you wearing that?"

"Like I said, a lot to explain."

"Then start." Glimmer says, clearly unhappy.

"I know, I know. It's… look, my dads are good people. But they want a life for me I don't want to live, that isn't me. I wanted to help people, to travel and fight. But they wanted me to be a historian. So… I ran away and taught myself archery and pretended I was at a made up boarding school."

Glimmer looks at me as if I had suddenly grown a second head. "You- you're not kidding, are you?"

"No," I affirm, looking away a bit. "It's serious."

Glimmer walks up to me, looking utterly dumbfounded. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I-... didn't want the worlds to mix."

"The only thing I know about whatever is going on here is that you have two dads, I could barely ever even get you to mention them! You're going to have to do better than, 'didn't want the worlds to mix,' Bow!"

I can see the hurt in her eyes that she's masking with anger, and I can't even say she's wrong for it. "Look, I know, I just… it's complicated. I love my dads, but we haven't always seen eye to eye. So I left. But at the same time, if anything happened… I didn't want anything getting back to them."

"But you didn't tell me anything!" Glimmer shouts. "I can respect it being something dark or tragic, but you just… are lying to everyone!?"

"I'm trying to keep them safe! It's not lying, I'm just, prioritizing rebellion stuff there, and home stuff here."

Glimmer takes a deep breath. "Yeah, I- I know." She looks at the library, then back to me. "I want to see your side in this. I get it. I lost my dad, I understand being worried… that… 'mixing worlds,' could… be bad for them."

I relax a lot, rubbing the back of my hand across my forehead. "Cool, cool… I'm sorry. I know it's a lot-"

"But I'm upset, Bow. I mean, I tell you everything!"

"I know, and I will explain all of this. I have always trusted you, I just… thought it'd be easier keeping it all-"

The front door of the library opens, and Glimmer and I both turn to see my dads.

"Bow?" George asks, Lance walking out from behind him.

"Oh, Bow!" Lance shouts, pushing past George. He runs up, throwing his arms around me.

"H- hi dads…" I say, as Lance squeezes the air out of my lungs.

George follows behind Lance, pulling him off me after a few moments before quickly hugging me as well. "We didn't expect you until tomorrow."

"I wanted to get a jump on things. You know, our break started early… so we started the trek early!" I lie, looking nervously over at Glimmer.

Lance turns to her too. "And who is this? Oh, is this the friend Glimmer you write about!?"

"You write about me?" Glimmer asks me.

"Uh… yeah," I say to her, then turn back to Lance. "This is my friend Glimmer. You know, the physics major?"

George stares intently at me, giving me a look that says, 'we're going to talk about this.' But he decides to drop it for the moment, turning and holding his hand out to shake Glimmer's. "Nice to meet you, Glimmer. I'm George, this is my husband Lance."

Glimmer looks incredibly uneasy, quickly glancing at me. "Yeah, nice to meet you both."

Lance walks up to Glimmer and George, resting his hand on George's shoulders. "Let's go inside. I'll make us tea!"

"Great," I say, walking up to Glimmer. I ignore her side eye, "it took a lot of walking to get here, we could use a break."

Glimmer spits out tea she had in her mouth. "B- brother?" Glimmer asks, setting her tea down on the coffee table and looking over at me.

"He's the youngest of thirteen!" Lance says, proudly. "His older brothers are all off traveling Etheria; researching, documenting, reporting back. We're working on building the world's largest collection of artifacts and knowledge!"

"Bow's working on his history major, he's always been more partial to taking over the library. We can't run this place forever," George says.

"Yeah…" I say quietly.

"Are you two done with the tea? We can start the tour for your friend," Lance offers.

"Well, I was more so hoping to look into something more specific." I say, hoping to avoid a tour.

"Like what? We could certainly help."

"Well, I'm doing a project, for a class on Etherian history… specifically about the First One's! We're in a… mythology section. Moreso, just, ancient history where the sources are scarce. What do you have on… Serenia?"

Lance and George share a look. Lance excitedly looks back, "follow me!" Lance moves over to a row of shelves, starting to pull things off. George, Glimmer, and I follow along. Every now and then, Lance hands different scrolls and artifacts to George, as we snake through the shelves. Eventually, Lance heads to a table, dropping a lot of what he grabbed. George wound up carrying a lot, so Lance and him work on making sure everything is safely deposited and George's use of his arms are freed up again.

"Serenia was the name of a mythical First One's hero."

"Although some of us think she was a real person."

"Mhm. Some of us also think the Elberon vase dates back only one millennium."

I look down at the mess, a bunch of the work is written in First One's language, which is nearly useless to Glimmer and I. "Is this everything you have on Serenia?" This is already a lot of stuff, and Glimmer and I are going to have to spend a lot of time translating.

"Oh, no. I'm so sorry. Haha. Everything from the first floor. There's lots more on the second."

Glimmer's eyes widen a bit, before she leans back and groans. "Ugh, this is gonna take hours."

"Hours, days, maybe weeks. And if you're really lucky, it might take you a whole lifetime." Lance says, leaning in and grabbing George's hands, stepping a little behind George.

I look down, not one to observe my dads' sappiness.

"Ugh, you're so corny," I hear George murmur, but the disgust is faked.

"I guess we should get to work," I say to Glimmer, who looks displeased with this entire situation.

Glimmer and I spend what must be the next two hours, looking through scrolls of information on Mara, Serenia, the First Ones in general, but we can't really find anything useful. And every so often, Glimmer looks over at me like she's upset.

I don't want to get into it. I know I can't keep putting it off, it just sucks knowing that by trying to protect people, I may have hurt them more. I set down a small piece of a First One's tablet. "We're still getting nowhere. What does a mythological First One's hero have to do with the old She-Ra, anyway?" I sigh, then turn back to Glimmer. She's mostly avoiding looking at me. I guess I can't dodge it forever. "Hey, Glimmer, what's up?"

Glimmer sets down the scroll she was using to try and translate a different scroll, looking up at me. "What's up with you? You have a secret family, you're supposed to be a historian, you apparently hate pirates, and you never told me about any of this!" Her voice grows louder as she speaks, clearly unable to hold her thoughts together anymore. "I feel like I don't know you at all!"

That's where I feel the knife in my gut. In one afternoon, I destroyed her trust in me, and I could destroy everything I have with her and my dads over trying to figure this signal out. "Glimmer… you know everything about me. The real me." I turn my body towards her, speaking more directly. "I know it was wrong of me to try and keep these worlds apart, I just… they wouldn't accept me being in the rebellion."

"You're clearly miserable though! You can't just lie to people under the idea of protecting them. I mean, are you actually even sorry, or just sorry you couldn't bury it forever?"

"I didn't lie because it was easier! Keeping everything separate, keeping duplicates of the letters I write so I can keep the story straight, knowing I'm letting my dads down every time I come here and don't tell them the truth… I am sorry. I never meant to make you feel like you weren't worth the truth."

Glimmer shakes her head, growing frustrated but keeping her voice level. "No. Don't even try to play victim with how hard lying is. I mean, what makes you so sure your dads would hate you for being honest?"

"Because you don't know them. They've wanted me to be a historian since I was a baby, they don't listen when I try to tell them otherwise."

Glimmer puts a hand to her face, sighing. "You really think they won't accept you?"

I lean back on the couch, looking ahead at the mess of scrolls and tablets and various artful depictions. "If I did, I wouldn't feel the need to lie."

"So this isn't about protecting them?"

"No, no it is. It's just also… protecting their idea of who I am."

Glimmer turns to face me now. "And not telling me was protecting them?"

I look down. "I… I'm sorry. It was just… so many years… I decided to start all this as a kid. And by the time I was… more mature, I just felt like I was in way too deep."

"So instead of lying to me for a few years, you decided to lie for a lot of years…"

"I'm not… proud… of it…"

"You shouldn't be."

"I know, I know…"

"You're lucky I can't really blame you completely…" Glimmer starts. "I mean, I do lie to my mom a lot."

She said it dryly, but I chuckle a little as if it was a joke. "Yeah, you do," I say, and I see a slight smile form on her face. Maybe… no, I need to make things right, "but you're not wrong. I mean, you don't lie to me."

"No. I don't." Glimmer mutters, the smile disappearing.

"I'll tell you everything, I swear. You deserve as much." I reach over and take her hand. "It's not right to be lied to for years… and I'm sorry. So no more lies."

Glimmer sniffles a little. "I… I don't know if I can just… forgive this instantly…"

I shake my head. "I wouldn't expect you to. All I ask… is you give me the chance to earn that forgiveness."

Glimmer squeezes my hand. "Okay." Glimmer pulls me into a hug, surprising me a little. "No more lies…"

"No more lies," I affirm.

"Yeah, no more lies." There's a scattering noise, and Glimmer and I turn in shock to see George dumping more stuff on the table in front of us. Lance is holding his arm, and George is looking at Glimmer and I with an unreadable expression.

I feel my heart sink to my stomach. "Dads…"

Adora's POV

I can feel my heart pounding in my chest, suddenly everything is something I need to be ready for. Hordak knows… I can't take any chances.

Every other set of footsteps I hear, every troop I pass in the hall. It's a quick trip to Shadow Weaver's quarters, but it feels like it takes five times as long as it does.

It's almost funny. Reaching Shadow Weaver's quarters, the first time I've been here since I've been promoted… I did everything to avoid this hall, only seeing her during training or when she'd randomly pop by Entrapta's lab that we all spend our downtime at. But now, I'm almost relieved when I knock, and the door opens.

"Adora… What a pleasant surprise."

I walk past her, into her quarters. I can feel her stare on me, as she closes the door.

"Well this is new. Did Catra get hurt again?"

I hold my hand up immediately, "don't start. Catra's fine, not that you care. No, I'm here because of Hordak."

Her head tilts a little as she steps closer, "did he tell you to get rid of me?"

"He doesn't tell me anything," I say, not sure why I decided to share that. I shake my head. "I need to know what you know. You're still watching him?"

"That's a dangerous accusation, Adora," Shadow Weaver says with a stern tone.

"I don't care. I need to know if Hordak is planning to get rid of my team."

Shadow Weaver makes a clicking sound. "Hordak plans against everyone, you should know this."

"No, I mean specifically. Is he planning on making a move against me or my friends?"

"Is that what they are?"

"I thought I said don't start," I say sharply.

"Right, right," she murmurs. "So you're worried Hordak found out about your backup plans?"

I freeze a bit, "what?"

"Don't pretend to be shocked, you're smarter than that."

I take a deep breath, and groan. "Ugh… I don't… I don't know… what to do…"

Shadow Weaver steps closer. "Hordak isn't the person you think he is. His only power is in those he employs. He's much too busy with his work."

"I don't even know what that work is!"

"Because you haven't been paying attention."

"No, I- I do. I do know what he's doing, he's building a portal. I don't know why, but it's something. And he doesn't want anyone to know."

"There is a lot Hordak does not want anyone else to know. Fortunately for you, there is not much Hordak is successful at keeping to himself. What makes you sure Hordak is going to move against you?"

"Entrapta."

Shadow Weaver looks off to the side for a moment. "The princess… I take it she isn't good with secrets?"

"Apparently not. What, haven't been watching her?"

"She didn't concern me," she says casually.

"Well, apparently you should have been paying more attention. I mean, apparently you're still watching me."

"Please, I'm not scared of you, Adora. Tell yourself whatever you wish, that I'm someone you'll need to deal with eventually or overcome me." She steps closer again. Usually, I look down at times like this, prepare myself for the manipulation contact and voice I know is coming.

But Catra's voice rings through my ears. "She's playing you." It's always been true. I've always known it to be true. But this isn't a case of me telling myself I can't be manipulated if I know. This is me not caring what she tries. I keep my eyes up, on her unchanging mask.

Shadow Weaver continues speaking, "it is not within my interests to harm you. It is not within yours to harm me. We want the same thing: Hordak gone. He stripped me of the Black Garnet. He fears my sorcery, he fears your magic and raw strength."

"Great, let's have anti-Hordak uniforms made. If you're on my side, you wouldn't be spying on me."

"An understandable sentiment," Shadow Weaver nods a bit, "but unneeded. I have been… betrayed by a pupil before."

"You… you have?"

"Years ago. There was another I trusted, put my faith in in the hopes that he would do what was needed when the time called. Micah. In the end… he failed me. But you, you're different. You're the strongest person I know, far stronger than me. I know you won't fail."

I roll my eyes. "You wanna try that again? Flattery and appealing to ego clashes pretty strongly with spying."

"And your affection clashes with your distrust. I have not sent out my shadow spies, I only know how you and Catra think. I didn't actually know you had been plotting until you just now confirmed it for me. But you must know I'm not working against you. I have done nothing but help to prepare you-"

"To make me a weapon!"

"That's only half true. I made you adaptable, like your sword. A weapon, yes. When needed, like for the princesses or Hordak. But also, a shield. For your team."

I scoff, trying to shut the words out. "No, you didn't make me. I made me. You're just… a piece of how it all fits together. And you have more pieces I need. What's Hordak planning?"

"Clever girl. You always were." Shadow Weaver walks around, circling me a bit. "You've grown so much. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you tried to hide so much from me. The sword, the powers, your feelings for Catra…"

"What?"

"And I have misled you," she sidesteps. "As was needed, for you to become the fighter you are today." She stops in front of me again. "Perhaps you'll never fully understand me, but you have learned so much from me. In a way, you're only struggling to understand yourself. What you get from me."

"Stop talking like that, and just answer what I asked!" I shout, getting frustrated. "Catra is right… I don't need you for this. I don't need your riddles and cryptic comments and manipulation. You're useless!"

"And you imagine yourself as above me. The girl who sees herself as a paragon while telling others she isn't. You truly don't know how much of me makes you who you are, when you speak like that?"

"I don't need mind games right now. You say so much, but it doesn't actually contribute. If you want to help me, do it. If not, then just stop! I'll figure it out, I always do."

"And that I never doubted," she says smugly. "Do you know what a portal is, Adora?"

"Vaguely," I say, gesturing out with my hands."

"Hordak's portal is designed to rip a hole through space, he intends to bring through a large source of armies for the war."

"Stop lying and playing games. If there was more Horde stationed somewhere on Etheria, I would know about it! I do most of the troop planning, with Scorpia and Catra."

She shakes her head a bit, "responsibility you still should never have delegated away from yourself." She leans in a bit. "You're smart. What do my words mean?"

I look down, thinking. Hordak has held a lot from me. But the only way for him to have been hiding a ton of soldiers, was if… "they aren't on Etheria."

Shadow Weaver stops leaning in, standing tall again. "He intends to finish the war swiftly, with aid."

"So… we'll win?"

"No. If Hordak succeeds, you'll stand no chance at securing the safety of you or your team."

"No… no, you're lying again." I turn around, pacing a bit across her room. "I gotta say, you've lost it. There's no way there's more Horde, unless there's more places like Etheria."

"I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner, given your investigations of the First Ones. Surely, it should click that the First Ones weren't of Etheria."

My eyes go wide a bit, and I stop pacing. "I-... Eternia. The password of several First One's systems. Entrapta was never able to figure out what that word meant."

"I can't say for sure, but my guess would be a planet. Their planet."

"Other planets… other worlds. And Hordak… is building a portal to them?"

Shadow Weaver nods, "I hope whatever you're planning with your team will work. But if Hordak is able to open that portal… you lose. We lose."

"No…"

"It really shouldn't be so hard to believe. I mean, you're one of them."

I look up, then turn around to face her again. "One of what? The Horde?"

"A First One."

All of my thoughts stop. Her words repeat in my head, over and over again. I want to say it isn't true, that it can't be true. But it would make too much sense… She-Ra would make too much sense.

"When Hordak began experimenting with portals, there was an instance where for a few small moments, a portal was opened. And you came through. A child, barely born."

"No."

"I gain nothing from lying here, Adora. If Hordak knows about your plans, and is getting close to finishing his portal, then our time is limited. We need to act, or those you care about will be hurt. You will be hurt."

"No, stop! You're lying again, I know it!" I step back, not believing my own words.

She steps closer. "Adora… I don't say this often. I doubt I should. But I care about you, my child. You must trust me on this, on everything. We can fix this."

My breathing is quick. I don't believe her… but what other options do I have? What reason would she have to lie about this? I step aside, then just start walking for the door. I need answers, and I'm not going to know for sure if I stick with her.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know." I say, closing the door and walking down the hall. But in only moments, my body just starts moving, my feet going forward more and more until I'm sprinting through the halls of the Fright Zone. We're running out of time, all of us. But first… I just need to be sure that now is the time to move, so I keep running, and make a turn that heads down to the skiff bay.

Bow's POV

Lance steps forward. "We were on our way back from the second floor… We heard most of this little conversation."

"Bow," George has his eyes narrowed a bit. He's an imposing man, and even though there isn't a hint of hostility or anger it still makes me feel awful when he looks at me and asks, "what's going on here?"

I feel myself panicking a bit. But I feel my hand squeezed again, and it calms me enough to remember to breathe. I do so, looking down for a moment, before looking back up. "Dads… I, uh… I did something a long time ago. Something… that was the right thing to do for me. But I did it in the wrong way…"

"Bow, you can tell us anything, you know that," Lance says, calmly.

"I… I'm… not living at the Academy of Historic Enterprises. I'm living in Bright Moon…"

"Bright Moon…" George murmurs.

"And I'm fighting for the rebellion, and Glimmer is the princess of Bright Moon, and I've been lying this whole time because I was afraid you two wouldn't accept that I don't want to and have never wanted to be a historian!" I speak quickly, closing my eyes and mostly just praying.

"What!?" George Shouts.

"Now, I know that sounds bad, I just felt like Etheria needed my help.

"Your help?"

Lance squeezes on George's arm. "George, hang on… Bow, you're… fighting for the rebellion?"

I nod, not really able to meet their eyes.

"And you're the Queen's daughter?" George asks Glimmer.

Glimmer nods. "Yeah…"

George turns around and starts walking away from the table. I lean a bit forward to look past Lance. "Dad?"

Lance sighs, "one second," he turns and walks up to George.

They start talking, but Lance is ensuring they stay quiet. Everytime George's voice raises, Lance quiets down for the both of them.

I look over at Glimmer. She immediately tries to comfort me, not that I deserve it from her right now. "It's gonna be okay. They'll accept you for being a rebellion fighter, your dads seem like good people."

I nod, looking down, "they are."

From my left, where my dads are, I hear George shout, "I swore on it!"

I don't listen, but I do look back over. Lance puts a hand on George's shoulder, stepping closer. He says something else, then George sighs and nods. I smile a little. George always had a tendency to be strong spoken, but Lance always brought him back. They still bring out the best in each other.

Lance looks over and motions for me. I stand up and walk over to them. "Uhm… hi."

George looks at me. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I tried to. For years… but it was like I was ignored if I didn't talk about being a future historian. And… I know how you'd feel, given… everything you lost."

Lance's expression turns sorrowful. "We… we did?"

"I didn't want to break your hearts… I'm sorry."

George pulls me into a hug suddenly, Lance joining, "you don't need to lie to us, Bow."

Lance continues with, "we raised you to be a historian, but we also raised you to do what's right."

George leans back a bit. "Are you taking care of yourself out there?"

"I am. I've… I've been in a lot of fights. And while I know not to be cocky, I haven't gotten hurt too badly yet." I think back to the battle of Bright Moon, but it is the truth. I recovered fine, with no permanent damage.

Lance nods. "Then keep going, Bow. Several of your brothers would take over the library. Go forge your own destiny."

George looks over at Glimmer, "and your friend will always be welcome here." He looks back at me. "Just be honest, please."

"We're sorry we made you feel like you couldn't talk to us, but you can. We care about you, Bow. You can always trust us, with anything," Lance says.

I wipe my eyes a bit, feeling like I'm being more understood than I deserve. "Thanks dads. I- I'll do better."

"So will we," George affirms, stepping back as we break up. "So I guess this 'project' is something you need to do for the war? What's going on?"

I look at Glimmer for a second. "Can you please grab my stuff?"

Glimmer nods, "any time."

*Poof!*

She's gone and back in an instant, handing me my backpack, bow, and quiver. "Here you go!"

I see George and Lance look at each other, eyes a little wide. Lance shrugs it off, and George just sighs.

I grab my backpack, pulling out my tracker-pad. I open the saved message, showing it to George and Lance. "We got this message when we got rid of enough interference from Alwyn. It's faint, barely detectable. And I don't know where the source is. All it is is three words, the rest just looks too degraded."

"And you know what those words mean?" Lance asks.

"Serenia, Portal, Mara. We aren't sure what everything together means."

"Wait a second. Lance, what does this pattern look like?"

Lance gasps aloud, pulling the tracker-pad closer to look more closely, "oh, I think you're right."

"What is it?"

George takes my tracker-pad and turns it back around. "Look at it, Bow. Really look at it. What do you see?"

I look at it. It's just the words that have always been there, with degraded words around the side. The words can't just mean something else… unless they aren't talking about the words. I look closer at the degraded parts. And… it's not actually that degraded. The dots and lines aren't First One's writing, it's something else entirely! "Those aren't words at all, are they?"

"Oh, now you've got it. George, get the projector!" Lance announces excitedly.

The movement is fast and frantic, George setting up the projector as Lance kills the lights. But instead of displaying anything on the wall, the actual lens is on the top. A projection is splayed out along the roof, white dots over the roof.

George clears his throat, and starts speaking almost excitedly over what we're being shown. "The world of the First Ones was different from ours. Climate, language, even the sky was different, filled with cosmic formations they called…" he pauses, seemingly for dramatic effect.

I kind of shrug, looking up at the projected image of twinkling dots, as does Glimmer.

"Stars. They were called stars," Lance informs us. "The First Ones used them to navigate and named constellations after mythical heroes, including Serenia."

"The constellation Serenia would only appear in summer and only over one place." The projector adjusts, displaying a map of Etheria over itself. But it pans, away from the woods and away from Bright Moon.

Panning straight to, "the Crimson Waste…" Glimmer murmurs.

"Which means the signal we're getting could be coming from there…" I think.

George shakes his head. "I doubt it. The Crimson Waste can't support life, there probably isn't anything out there that could send a signal."

"Then maybe there's something there we need to find," I say, turning to face Glimmer.

"Then that's where we go next!"

"What!?" Lance shouts, his voice shrieking a little bit. "You can't go just into the Crimson Waste. It's a no-man's-land, a giant lifeless desert! No one's ever made it that far and come back alive."

George steps closer to me, turning off the projector. "Promise me you won't go there. No more lies."

Glimmer and I look at each other again. I nod to her, turning back to my dads. "Look… there's too much at stake right now. Apparently, Mara was bad news. And apparently, whatever is going on with this portal is something that Glimmer and I need to stop before it starts. I'm sorry, but we need to go.

It's my dads' turn to glance at each other. "Bow…" George says.

"Be safe," Lance says, pulling me into a hug once more.

"Always am," I say, pulling away and hugging George too. I pull back, looking at Glimmer. "You wanna go now?"

Glimmer steps closer, "You bet. Nice to meet you two."

"Visit again soon," George says.

I look at them and nod, smiling. And we're gone.

Catra's POV

Something is wrong. I know the moment I step into Hordak's sanctum. Hordak doesn't appear to be here, and everything is dark. Not that I can't see, my eyes can pick up every detail just fine. But the fact alone that the only light is coming from a few pods catches me off guard. I feel on edge as I step carefully through the sanctum. There isn't too much to see, nothing stands out.

There's a table, it looks like someone's working on armor. A few crystals of First One data. Something that looks vaguely like a canon. I head over to the desk, opening the desks. There's got to be something here, some file or note on Adora.

I start skimming through the folders, but none of the labels match up. Portal stuff, notes on energy consumption and output, general reports on Horde operations. Nothing specifically on Adora.

There's even reports she submitted, but no comments on them or her performance. I frown, turning over more files when I hear the door to the sanctum slide open. Not taking any chances, I duck under the desk.

Hordak's footsteps are loud, booming through the room. I grab my tail and hold it close, not risking it swaying out under the side or back. He half marches across the room, but also… half stumbling? I tilt my head, watching as he nearly struggles across the lab.

He reaches a table of equipment not far over, panting a bit. Hordak practically tears his cape off his back, as one hand clutches at the armor over his chest.

His pet Imp scurries down from the rafters, a sound I swear I've become familiar with recently. And suddenly, it all dawns on me. The Imp… I knew something was off about it ever since Adora got Hordak's permission for the acquisition of the black garnet. How could I have forgotten? The scratching in the rafters and vents, too light to be Entrapta… was all Hordak's Imp pet.

I narrow my eyes, feeling frustrated. We've been making one careless move after another, and we both probably just made another one. Hordak knows… he's always known. This doesn't explain why he's been waiting on what he knows, though.

I slink out from under the desk, I need to get out of here now and tell Adora we need to move. So much for Entrapta's hope for peace. When it seems like Hordak is too busy struggling with whatever is going on with his body, I turn and start running for the door.

Thankfully, my feet are quiet. I know how to move while being fast and silent. Unfortunately, Hordak's little tattletale decides to turn and spot me at the worst time. The screech is sudden and loud. Normally, I'd be filled with fear. But right now, it doesn't matter. Adora will make her move, it'll be fine…

And then a barrier goes up around the open part of the room, and I stop dead in my tracks. I can feel the air being ripped from my lungs in an instant, and I drop to my knees.

"Hmpf. Catra, yes? I suppose it was only a matter of time before your team got too bold and decided you were above consequence."

I gasp, as he walks into the circle. I hear him behind me, but everything sounds far. Not muffled, not quite, but it sounds like he's echoing, far from me. I struggle to turn around and face him, unable to get air in my lungs.

"Adora. She-Ra. She really thought I would stand by, and let her team work as if they were not under my control."

I clutch at my chest. This doesn't feel like suffocation, it feels like drowning. My vision is starting to blur, and I can feel my eyes watering.

"I'd almost consider it a shame, given the reports suggesting Adora's efficiency. But efficiency comes at a cost. Shadow Weaver was efficient, and she too forgot her place. But I still have a use for Adora."

I try to get up, to stand, but everything burns. I can feel my consciousness starting to slip. I've felt close to death before. I was sure I was going to die in the Crystal Castle, I was worried Bright Moon wouldn't go well due to all the natural disasters, and I felt the possibility when Adora was infected. This is one of those times, where I don't have a way out. Where whatever is going to happen, will happen.

"If Adora gets as bold as you were today, entering where you are not. Allowed. Trust she will meet the same fate. But, perhaps, I'll only have to make this example once," his voice keeps booming, loud and distant and all encompassing as I struggle to breath. I gasp feebly one more time, his red eyes looking at me with an expression that suggests he is only mildly annoyed over anything else.

Maybe Adora was right, maybe she did need her, and this was a bad idea… or maybe I should have gone with her, made sure Shadow Weaver didn't pull her usual tricks. As the darkness expands, filling my vision, I only find myself hoping she'll be okay.