Chapter 2

Within Lord Hordak's Throne Room, Adora waited to hear of this new plan he had for her. It seemed he was trying to instil fear within her. Shadow Weaver taught her better than to fall for it. She said that fear was just an illusion, the enemies would use it against them so fear must be purged.

She was not fully purged.

Lord Hordak got up from his throne. They went still, Catra and Adora. Each step on the iron sent a harsh echo throughout the room. "The Rebellion is composed of vicious princesses who seek to destroy us. The Horde needs a warrior of great loyalty, strength and pride. I have found a piece of ancient technology that will allow us to fight against the princesses, but only a warrior worthy of wielding it may use it. It is a combination of weaponry, magic and technology. Adora, I want you to wield this weapon, embrace the magic and fight for the Horde on the front line."

A weapon of technology and magic? That all sounded so strange and foreign to her. Catra and Adora have never been outside the Fright Zone. Well, they've stolen a small spacecraft once, used for transporting goods in the Fright Zone, in an attempt to view the outside world but Shadow Weaver caught them. The remnants of that failed attempt still stung her back to this day. They haven't tried to leave since.

Lord Hordak took a weapon from the hands of a soldier and presented it to her. It was an odd looking sword. Its hilt was made from a strange metal, it seemed to have been discoloured to an awful grey. An emerald gemstone was in the centre of the hilt, where two wings jut out. The blade itself seemed to be made of an alien material, it was see-through like glass, yet glass hardly seemed like a good material for a sword. On the surface of the blade was a web of connections as if it was a computer. The connections, the veins on the blade, were bright jade, glowing like Hordak's veins. Although, it was not really 'vein' like on the blade, it was more boxy, robotic.

Adora…

Someone called her name, a distorted voice, and not one she recognised. She was the only one that heard that voice, neither Catra nor Hordak reacted. Adora pressed her lips thin as she examined the blade. She'd been raised in the belief that magic was bad, that it will bring only destruction, suffering and pain. The Horde's purpose was to bring peace, not pain. Gingerly, Adora took the blade from him in acceptance but she had her reservations about using magic and about the strange sword. The metal felt weirdly familiar to her, as if she'd been wielding this weapon for aeons, as if it was made only for her.

Adora had never wielded a single handed sword before, she practised with a spear.

"With this, you will follow every command of the Force Captain's." He said it in a way that suggested the sword controlled her and any command given to the sword by the Force Captain would be followed. As if she had no choice in the matter.

She trusted Catra, she knew she'd never make her do something she'd regret. Can't say the same for the other captains.

"Thank you for the honour, Lord Hordak," Adora said weakly, faint like a whisper as she contemplated what she'd just accepted. "I won't fail you. Or the Horde." She kept her head bowed until they were waved away. Hordak turned his back on them. Quietly, they left.

Catra and Adora didn't say a word, they simply walked away, dodging inspection robots rolling around. The hilt of the blade burned through her hand, sizzling against the skin, the metal unusually hot. She fought against the burn. Once they were far enough away, Catra exploded in an array of joy and excitement. Adora had never seen her so happy before.

"This is amazing! I've always wanted to be a Force Captain!" She hooked her arm into Adora's. "It's always been a dream of mine, the two of us fighting together on the front line against the Princesses."

"I'm so happy for you, Catra. I know you've worked hard for this and you're a great strategist."

She studied Adora's face for a moment too long, having noticed the worry etched within the curve of her eyes. "Thanks. And what of you? Aren't you happy to be the honoured warrior of the Horde?" she nudged me, a giant grin on her face. "You don't look happy."

"Of course I'm happy. It is an honour, truly." Adora looked away from her, unable to stand the happiness. She was happy for Catra, but herself, not so much. Not out of fear, just uncertainty. Who knows what this strange magic would do to her. Will she even survive it?

"Oh, stop being so glum. Come on, we've got a training exercise coming up." Catra pulled her along, towards the training bay.

Adora…

The strange voice called out to her again, amidst a barrage of visions and shadows. She saw places destroyed, burning flames, a glittering white ball amidst darkness, a sea, a sky, a castle. A really big castle made from grey stone, the front door was sitting underneath a giant skull with two long fangs at either side. She saw a shining crystal castle with the same mechanical wiring as the sword. She heard screams, pleas, whispers. She couldn't make sense of any of it, and yet these visions kept repeating all the while there's this voice calling her name.

It's pissing her off.

She tossed and turned to no end, sweat trickled down her back, she's uncomfortably hot. At the foot of the bed rests a giant cat, black strips, silvery fur with hits of gentle hints of saffron, curled up into a little fuzzy ball, a soft purr escaping with every breath. Catra's other form, as terrifying and fierce as her human self. It shocked Adora when she first transformed into a beast such as that, she thought it was some cruel trick by Shadow Weaver. But no, Catra's from a race of shapeshifters and her family were big, scary cats.

Adora, fight for the honour of Grayskull…

The strange voice echoed in her mind again and this time it sounded like it was in her ear. She jolted awake, looking around the dorms for any sign of who it was that whispered to her. There's at least ten other cadets here sound asleep, no way it was just her that heard that. Right? Yet no one was even so much as stirring. Strange.

Also, what's Grayskull? She asked herself. Adora glanced over at Catra in her beast of pray form and nudged her, brow knitted together in fury. She purred, cracking open one amber eye to look at Adora.

"Hey, stop it, it's not funny!" She snapped at her as quietly as she could. Catra tilted her head and then morphed into her human form. It was a grotesque morph, her bones crack and reshape, her hair grows back, her eyes change, everything about it was just awful. She said it used to cause her pain, so much agonising pain as her bones changed size and shape and bent in all sorts of ways, how the muscles pulled and the skin changed. It was not painful anymore, she got used to the sensation.

Catra, in human form, sat on the edge of the bed with an unimpressed look on her face. "Stop what? I haven't done anything."

"You're whispering into my ear." They had a stare down for several seconds before she inches closer.

"You've been paranoid and on edge since you got that sword. You're always claiming that someone is whispering to you. What is up with you?" Adore stole a breath, unable to look away from her captive eyes. In all honesty, she didn't know. Visions and whispers have haunted her since she grasped the hilt of the sword. These whispers are different from Shadow Weavers. Strange, distorted, disembodied voices. It was giving her a damn headache.

"Nothing," she muttered. Catra curled up to go back to sleep and Adora was left sitting there, in that strange void, staring at shadows within every corner. She reached under her bed and pulled out the sword, looking at it up and down. Nothing's changed. Not that she really expected there to be change. She ran a thumb over the smooth surface of the gem in the centre of the hilt. The longer she stared into the gem, the louder the voices git. She couldn't escape them.

Adora chucked the sword back under the bed, the blade whining against the metal plates, and attempted to go back to sleep. The voices thankfully hushed.

When her eyes fluttered open, she found herself floating within a void, a web of purple lines all around her and some strange writing everywhere. When her eyes rest upon the odd lettering, shaped in an odd interconnected wiring style, they formed words. Words she didn't recognise, nor did she know this writing. It was so similar to the pattern on the sword, and it felt so familiar, like she'd read it somewhere before. The writing almost resembled that of constellations.

The stars didn't exist on Etheria, a whisper told her they were stolen a thousand years ago. Taken away.

"Hello?" Adora called out to the abyss. The area lit up upon hearing her voice, yet it revealed no more about that place.

A glitched hologram appeared before her of a woman in a dark blue robe and a hawk-like headdress. White wings protruding from her back. She came and went, her glitches a green colour, much like the jewel on the sword.

"Who are you?"

"Welcome, Adora," the voice said, staggered. "Your destiny awaits." Her speech was broken, not because of another language but the glitch was interrupting her. "Fight with the honour of Grayskull."

"Yeah, you've said that, many, many, many times within the last few hours. Who are you? What's Grayskull? How do you know me?"

"I am not—I am not able to answer your questions. I am being blocked." The woman left and after a few quiet seconds she came back online. "Fight with the honour of Grayskull." Adora groaned loudly, having heard that dumb message over and over.

I get it! Grayskull, honour, blah blah blah. She had said to herself.

"It's useless talking to you."

"You are the pride of the First Ones—" the hologram went dead and stayed dead this time. First Ones? Shadow Weaver had never mentioned First Ones before. She didn't know what that meant. Adora planned to ask her tomorrow if she could get out of that void.

Another barrage of visions bulldoze right into her and all she could do was squeeze her eyes closed hoping it would make it stop. She-Ra, She-Ra, She-Ra, she heard the same name over and over. Her head hurt so much. Even if she closed her eyes, it didn't stop the voices. And when she woke up next, she woke up screaming. Catra backhanded her, which knocked her into her senses. Adora's eyes peeled open to the dawn of a new day.

"Normally, I'd smack you back," she breathed to Catra, "but this time, thank you. I needed that."

"I know, that's why I did it. What was happening to you?"

Adora shook her head slowly. "Just a really weird dream, I don't even know how to explain it to you." She sat up in bed, the dorms were empty of her teammates. It was just her and Catra.

"Pull yourself together, we have training to do. You, who's never held a single handed sword before, are going to need to learn how to use that sword before our first mission in a week." Adora only nodded and got out of bed.

A week. I've got one week to learn how to use a sword.