Pain of Heart and Soul
She watched the fight on the roof, her clawed hands clenched angrily. She knew what Calamity was capable of. Her ward could be cruel in a way beyond imagination, the Grayskull family experienced it firsthand. But what was happening now... Calamity was chasing Captain Moonshadow, smiling madly and singing.
"Swallow: Black dagger, torn from the breast of the wind." sang the blond-haired creature, and carried out subsequent attacks, which the pirate captain barely avoided. She had no idea what had gotten into Moonshadow's mind… or rather Queen Angela, that she was trying to kill Adora. Apparently, she did not remember the existence of She- Ra , although it must be admitted that even she did not realize the full capabilities of her ... daughter. At any rate, in her infinite poetic meanness, Calamity had decided to take the opportunity to murder Glimmer's mother, and all she could do was watch helplessly through the eyes of her shadows.
"Swallow: Black diamond, thrown here by the devil." shouted her ward , when she once again cut the pirate's clothes, leaving another bleeding wound. They were standing on the roof of a tall building right now, and Moonshadow had nowhere to run.
"For not knowing the nest, for cursing beauty" she sang the last verse and was getting ready to deal the final blow when suddenly an energy weapon blast hit her knee, and the former queen fired a Solarian flare into the face of the aristocrat. And then she wrapped herself in wings and disappear in a flash of light. Calamity roared in impotent fury as she realized she was left alone in the pouring rain...
But unfortunately, she wasn't alone
"Was it magic?" asked the boy who was hiding during the storm in a booth made of corrugated metal that was placed on the roof. Lady Cala turned to him, the flare scorching half of her face, but the wounds were already healing up at lightning speed.
"Yes, it's a powerful and ancient magic, but you know? I'll show you something just as wonderful" Calamity said , intending to do something terrible. She could do nothing, nothing, if only because of her deal with Nyarlathotep . All she could do was witness his death, which was another crime that weighed on her conscience.
Eti came to her friends before the blonde managed to return, or rather the BLONDE. She hoped that Stinka wouldn't come back, after the shots she'd been inflicted with the winged captain , it would be a miracle if this bitch could walk. Although in her experience the gods usually sided with such bitches, there was little she could do about it.
All her friends were alive and well. Lilka was doing the classic and traditional orc victory dance, or so she called it, which was jumping up and down and shouting random things. Alatar was showing something on his datapad and explaining something to the Sting, and Bina was talking about something with the Veggie , gesticulating chaotically as if she was explaining herself. Something similar was done by the Smarty and Steeleyes only with the commander of the guard. Even the itel looked pleased. Fist knelt worriedly at the Sparkle Hand, which seemed to be frightened. The others acted as if they had triumphed, even though they had lost the great captain Wingy. She turned off the cloaking field and walked over to her friends.
"Where have you been?" Bina asked as soon as she saw her.
"Well, in the city, and where else would I be?" she replied in an innocent voice. Their captain looked at her suspiciously, but then waved her hand away. Paying no attention to her at all, she walked over to Sparkle Hand and asked her.
"Are you all right, Sparky?"
The deaf girl shook her head
"Yes, but when the explosion flashed, I lost my sight for a moment and I was very afraid. It's so stupid to be blind and deaf" the girl said and laughed nervously.
Itel snorted contemptuously.
"If you hadn't been standing like that idiot and staring at Adora... That She-Ra... if you hadn't been staring... You'd be fine." Itel said. Fist and Bina gave her a reproachful look, but the elf made little of it.
"Leave her alone Itel." she growl surprisingly sharply at the solarian. Alatar said to Sting "It's complicated" thinking she couldn't hear him, but she got up and turned to Dragonkin and said in an offended tone.
"It's nothing complicated. I like Sparkle Hand. Itel likes me and is jealous of me, and Alatar likes Itel, but he got something like a brush from her... " when she said that, both girls turned red and Dragonkin straightened his tail in embarrassment. She didn't understand what they meant.
"Yes, it's very complicated. Even more than with Rogelio , Kyle and Lonnie, or with Adora and Ca ..." she did not finish because the thunder struck the not so distant temple. "Jeez, when I throw them, they don't seem so loud."
"Is she always like this... Luminous and Rainbow, so amazing." Fist said with reverence. For follower of Iomadae, BLONDE must have looked to her like an incarnation of an Inheritor, an avatar of the Goddess walking the earth. It must have been a huge shock for her.
"Oh, when she defeated Horde Prime she had much more power." Perfuma said. The Wrongdak nodded and said with delight, though not with religious fever as with the mercenary .
"She banished Horde Prime from my brother's body and annihilated him... And changed Velvet Glove in a big tree…"
""That last one sounds strange..." Bina said carefully.
"She is at her strongest when she is with her beloved, Cat ... " Perfuma began explaining, but did not finish, because BLONDE and Stinkaemerged from between the streams of rain. They both looked shocked and distraught. Though most likely the aristocrat was only pretending. Then she saw what Odor was holding in his hands ...
"Angela... Queen Angela. She... did something terrible." BLONDE said in a broken voice.
Calamity learned what fear is. No, not fear, but horror. Horror of what might happen when Nyarlathotep finds out how much she has jeopardized his plans. Though most likely the Great Outer God, Creeping Chaos was fully aware of what she had done. Well, chasing Moonshadow wasn't the best idea. She acted on impulse, after all, she hated Glimmer far less than she hated Catra and Adora… Though making her suffer the loss of her mother again was such a tempting prospect.
In fact, she was afraid of She- Ra . She had no idea she had so much power. And with power aimed directly at beings like her. She felt a piercing pain, also for the first time in her life, piercing her wonderful and perfect body as soon as she got close to She-Ra. If she were a worse creature, like those Icari cubs she carried in her arms, she would scream in agony. But the suffering was more than compensated by the despair of Adora walking beside her, and she had a lot more surprises in store for her, oh yes ...
As she stood in front of everyone and the vile usurper said in a broken voice that "Queen Angela has done something terrible," she stared at the disgusting feline creature that gave her an unseen glare behind her tinted goggles. She knew she had shot her in the leg, and she knew it too, but neither of them could do anything about it, the vile cat out of fear, and she because of the ridiculous deal Shadow Weaver had made with an Outer God.
"What, but... How?" said an twisted woman called Scorpia .
"Normally, the way you kill meddling brats, " she wanted to yell into that dumb snout, but instead she smiled sadly, as befitted a righteous and concerned aristocrat.
"I fought her on the rooftops, trying to disarm her, but… She grabbed that boy and covered herself with it, then threw him down off the roof and ran away… I wasn't fast enough and couldn't save him." She lowered her eyes and laid the body on the cobblestones. Then suddenly Adora remembered something and walked over to the boy and touched his forehead with her hand
"Once it's worked, maybe it's not too late either." she said, and she shone with a bright and warm light that warms souls, but she felt as if someone had set fire to every cell of her body. It was only with the greatest effort of will that she managed to stop herself from howling in anguish. And then the boy's chest began to move, and his body wasn't so scarred anymore. Everyone, even her, took a deep breath for the sake of it all, but Adora looked exhausted.
"That's amazing even for you." Scorpia said delightedly. Meanwhile, she experienced a new feeling, another one that day, panic. If the kid says who hurt him... He won't win against She- Ra. Maybe against these two... Although the idiot with the sting was strong and had really great power, so she could be dangerous. However, for all her perfection and unrivaled power resulting from the gifts of the Key and the Gate and the Creeping Chaos, she would not have the slightest chance against the princess of power. She decided that if she was to die fighting She- Ra, she would kill as many as she could first, let Adora's conscience bear it. First, he'll start with the feline freak
However, when the boy opened his eyes and looked at her, she realized that there was nothing to worry about. He did not recognize her, probably lost his memory as a result of the impact or simply death. From what she'd heard, it was common in these situations. He won't remember what happened for a long time, if ever.
"Only the greatest mystics can bring the dead back to life." whispered Rechiza in astonishment.
"Do these things happen in yor part of the galaxy?" Perfuma asked incredulously, but Lashunti shook her head.
"Very rarely, except in the Eoxian way" Rechiza explained, and when the three women looked at her without understanding, she added. "You know, necromancy, undead things like that." she explained.
"Lady Rechiza, this kind of thing was not practiced here." Wrongdak interjected.
"Unless in the Shadow Weaver fairy tales... She was my... teacher... terrible person, but she's gone now." she sighed and said. "Someone take care of him, and we need to talk about what happened here." said Adora, returning to her natural form, worthy only of sheer contempt.
They stayed under the roof. All but Eti, Dilayla , and partly Adora were soaked, but that could wait. Bina had sent all her charges to their wacky armored personnel carrier, though the spoiled solarian protested. Now they could discuss more important matters.
"Did the Queen… Did you know who Captain Moonshadow is?" Adora asked with pain painted on her face, which made her almost attractive.
"I don't know what you mean by 'who Captain Moonshadow is' and forgive me, but I don't think we know the context..." Bina explained with her arms crossed over her chest. She clearly didn't want to be here, which was hardly surprising.
"Maybe I'll explain it first, before we get to other things, who Captain Moonshadow is, or what you call her, Queen Angela, and what we have in common with her. Captain Moonshadow was a prisoner of the Azlanti Star Empire, a powerful Empire that is based on the Idea of the supremacy of the human species, like me, Adora, Perfuma, Bina, or Rosie…" she said, stretching a few details a bit. Now the happy moment was approaching." she had to describe everything in such a way as to cause as much pain as possible to the vile usurper. "They sent her, for reasons unknown to us, to the prison planet Jadehell, to a labor camp. It's a scary place, where every plant produces some toxic fumes, and fungi spray deadly spores there." She was pleased to see that the Perfuma was slightly green. "Prisoners work there without protective clothing gathering rare plants, and they don't survive there more than a few months, although at the end they are said to pray to all the gods for death." She added some color to the story, for educational purposes, of course. "Such a place will rob the heart of even the noblest person. I wouldn't wish this fate even on my worst enemy. Moonshadow managed to get out of prison, although it cost her damaged lungs and most likely the loss of her arm. She became a ruthless pirate, imprisoning and torturing her enemies. She is merciless and cruel, instilling fear throughout the galaxy. Mr. Arkan Tar can confirm my words because it was from him that I learned all this." She looked meaningfully at Verthani, who coughed nervously and quietly confirmed her words. "Though she was probably a wicked woman by then anyway, because it takes something really awful, like betrayal by those closest to her, to bring her down to that level of wickedness." She shook her head in mock regret. Joyful choirs played in her heart as she saw the spasm of pain on Adora's face, a little justicefor such a vile thief of destiny. Bina gave her a suspicious look but only shrugged and said.
"I haven't had a bad word to say about her so far. We met on Saltmarsh, it's such a backwater world. She wanted to see Wrongdak there, then offered us protection on the flight here. So far, she has performed well with our agreement. She even saved my kids once. I can't say much about her past. All I know is that she had a husband and a daughter, but she lost them. Well, such experiences will change everyone, and for the worse."
"Wonderfully, though unintentionally, you helped me in my quest for justice," she thought as she saw Adora's face and barely suppressed a joyful smile.
"They are alive. Her daughter is my friend Glimmer, Queen Etheri Brightmoon. And her father is the widower king Mikah ... I mean, not the widower king anymore. Queen Angela... she led the Rebel against the Horde and then there was...a terrible accident that almost killed us...She sacrificed herself for all of us...We thought she was dead and she...is alive, but all that has happened to her is just me wine." She buried her face in her hands and began to cry, Scorpia and Perfume hugged her.
"I… didn't know it was her. I've never seen her before, not even in a photo. She was a bit scary so I never thought it could be Glimmer's mom. If I had known that…" said Wrongdak and almost cried too. "By Shub- Nigurath and Glaaki , is being a crybaby contagious?" she thought with contempt, but also walked over to the woman and put her hand on her shoulder.
"Ehem, I know it's not the best time, but it's time for us." Arkan-tar interjected. Verthani adjusted his glasses and continued. "We're not princesses or anything, but we're connected to a pirate who tried to destroy this town and practically murdered a child. Even with your intercession, we may be in serious trouble, at best they will stop our ship for a few weeks." When he mentioned it, Bina suddenly turned pale. Very interesting. "Anyway, we'd better get out of here quickly. And to Mr. Wrongdak, I also advise you to join us. They don't like clones here." he said, and Bina nodded her head.
"Yes, that's a good idea... Let's go!" Bina tugged at the dull clone's shoulder with a hint of panic in her voice.
"But I have to..." Wrongdak said, but Adora looked at everyone with strangely absent eyes.
"I can't stay here either... I was supposed to beware of the shadow of moon and... Catra!" she cried out in fear and transformed into She- Ra again and stuck the blade into the ground. A multicolored light flashed, and she again felt as if someone was burning her alive. When the light disappeared, Adora was no longer here either.
"Oh, that Catra is her fiancée..." Bina laughed and pulled Wrongdak out of the room. The others left as well, leaving Scorpia and Perfume behind .
Itel felt an excruciating pain in her heart as she saw Eti and Rosie talking in sign language. She loved the cat girl, but she couldn't give her what the deaf girl could give her. Joy of life, positive attitude to life, joy and serenity. She pursed her lips tightly and thought. "Okay, so be it. I still have a mission. She's the only one that matters." And she walked out of the crush unstoppable.
She had to admit that she had perfectly managed to maneuver Bina into sending her to the vehicle. She looked for one of the local interplanetary newscasters. The building was new, but mostly used Prime's technology . She handed the sender the equivalent of two hundred credits in Vescarian coin.
"Broadcast it on the given frequency every eight hours for ten days in the given direction. "Shadow cats welcome. The Treasure is guarded by Skittermander- hearted dragons . But beware of marauding wolves," she commanded. "The Shadows of Taraku will come."
As soon as Calamity entered the ship, along with the rest of the crew, she ordered her charge to go with her to their room. As soon as the blond woman closed the door, she tried to slap her, but the young woman grabbed her hand in the air, holding it in an iron grip. Calamity wagged her finger and said.
"Be careful my dear, I'm not like one of your wards who you could beat over the head when you weren't in the mood." Her voice was wonderfully clear and gentle.
"Every one of my wards, even Kyle, had more sense than you. In your childish sadism, you have jeopardized the mission." she snarled , but Calamity just rolled her eyes.
"He's just a dead kid, no big deal, anyway, he's alive thanks to your She- Ra's power. And you shouldn't be following anyone with those your shadows, because, you know, someone might notice." The girl explained with an indulgent smile.
What Calamity said threw her off balance for a moment, but then she regained it. She- Ra's power must have been immense to defeat Horde Prime , and she knew a great deal about coming back from the dead, after all, and by her own experience. She smiled nastily and spoke in an almost affectionate voice.
"If you've had to kill the kid, and it wasn't necessary because it was enough to intimidate him, at least you could have disposed of the corpse instead of blaming Glimmer's mother. For her, this is a personal matter and believe me, she will not fail to investigate, and then the truth may come out. Not to mention all your chasing… Fortunately, I'm not the one you have to explain to." She made a mystical gesture and the whole room was enveloped in darkness. She moved aside so that her ward could see what was in the middle of the room. From the obsidian tabletop rose a dy that slowly formed into the form of Carsai called the King. Calamity fell to her knees, and the figure spoke in a voice that withered the soul.
"We feel so disappointed in you Calamity ..."