Return to Castle Crypto
He felt happy to be coming home. Although he wasn't entirely sure if Castle Crypto could be called that, but he had nothing else that resembled him. At least he will rest in warmth after the hardships of this expedition. He had to admit that it was the most difficult adventure of his life. And what's worse, it's not over yet.
He looked at the sword hanging at his side. He didn't have a decent sheath for him, but he knew they'd have no problem getting one for him once he got back to the castle... Though he wasn't entirely sure he'd want that. All the way there he considered throwing away his sword. It would be so easy. It would be enough to throw it into the depths of the ocean while they were sailing on the ship or give it to one of the inhabitants of the settlement where they were staying, but he couldn't bring himself to do that. This sword was the first truly valuable gift he had received in his life, apart from the love of Lonnie and Rogelio , of course . And what would Messrs. Lance and George think if they found out he just threw it away like garbage? But it was actually about something else.
That little moment when he became that big guy was wonderful. He felt strong and wonderful, practically invincible. For as long as he could remember, he felt like a failure. The one who always lets everyone down and is never good at anything. No matter how hard he tried, he knew he would never be as good as Lonnie and Rogelio. They cared about him and didn't make him feel that he was in any way inferior to them, but he knew it. He could only hope that they would never get hurt because of him. But now he had a sword. A real magic sword that gives him power! If he could control it, he would become a great, mighty warrior, as powerful as Adora... Like She-Ra...
And that was what made him now live in constant fear. He couldn't say it out loud or even formulate it in his mind, because the truth was too terrible. But in the end he had to accept her, even though she terrified him. He was someone like Adora, one of the First Ones, perhaps even a relative of his old friend. He didn't know much about this ancient race, except that they had built many amazing devices, including the Heart of Etheri, which almost killed them all... And now they turned out to be his race... He didn't know what to make of that fact. He had always thought of himself as an ordinary boy, quite weak and clumsy, but just like Lonnie, Rogelio, or even Scarlet... though maybe the latter wasn't the best example... He looked nothing like Adora, apart from the color of his hair, of course. He admired her and even had a crush on her for a while… Until he realized that she and Catra were into each other…. Which was noticed by absolutely everyone except them two... Why would he be someone like her. He remembered how betrayed everyone felt when she became She-Ra and then defected to the Rebellion. When it turned out that she was one of the First Ones, he was practically not offended, unlike Lonnie. His girlfriend found herself personally hurt by having to compete with someone who had an unfair advantage over her from the beginning. In her opinion, both Catra and Adora had always been Shadow Weaver's protégés, though he didn't understand how being the object of the dark sorcerer's attention could help anyone. He couldn't imagine what would happen if Lonnie found out the truth about him. She would probably exile him, or even try to kill him, Like Catra wanted to do to Adora. He doesn't want to wander around the galaxy alone, even with this wonderful sword, or fight against his friends. But there was another possibility, maybe even worse. What if Lonnie wants to use his power in her war against Catra. She would definitely want him to do terrible things, and he didn't like hurting others, even though he did it during the war. But with this much power he could spread death and destruction… No, there's no way Lonnie can't will find out.
The trip back was surprisingly quick, or maybe it was just their imagination? He wasn't sure. All the way, he, Rogelio, and the Imp remained silent and sullen... Though the Imp had always been silent, but now he was clearly sullen. Everyone was worried about Lonnie. The wound of the Comrade General looked really bad, and the chariot that Scarlet had summoned didn't inspire the least bit of trust... But he Scarlet didn't trust either... Even before he knew the truth about her, he didn't like her, and now that he found out who she was... Although he wasn't really sure what she was. Maybe she was one of those monstrous doppelgangers who stole people's identities by devouring their brains. Shadow Weaver liked to tell them stories about these monsters serving the princesses, and so they would report to her about all the strange behavior of the inhabitants of the Fright Zone. Until now, he thought it was just another of the Dark Sorcerer's stories. But now he was starting to believe in her. If that monster had devoured Scarlet during the war... That would explain everything... Why she was so different from the cadet who they remeber, why she suddenly learned magic... Was Lonnie to be her next victim? Probably not, because then she would have to give up Pretending to be Scarlet. Unless he took her to another monster, and together they would devour their girl and another creature would take the place of the Comrade General... But that thought was too terrible to contemplate.
But this creature looked so familiar. There was something too familiar about her... She looked a bit like one of the clones, but she also had a lot of Shadow Weaver in her. Was she their child? If so, how they made it… He didn't want to imagine it. While he understood that clones could be quite attractive, the Dark Sorceress was the scariest and most horrible person he knew. Compared to her, even Scarlet didn't seem that bad... In fact, if you think about it, she wasn't that terrible... Compared to Shadow Weaver, almost no one was terrible... It's a good thing she was so dead.
Rogelio sensed that something was wrong with him and invited him to the tent several times, but each time he refused, claiming that he was not in the mood, which was actually true. He couldn't make love to him while hiding such terrible truths... Dr. Moors, on the other hand, didn't shut up at all. He talked almost constantly about the ship he and his allies had found. He had to admit that the ship looked like something truly amazing, but he had absolutely no idea what they could do with this. They were a People's Rebellion, not space pirates. None of them would even know how to fly it, let alone get it out of the ice, though... He had a strange feeling that Doctor Moors didn't care much about it, as if he already knew how to free this ship. It even seemed to him that there was some kind of agreement between Lonnie and the eerie scientist, which weighed heavily on his girlfriend... Even Scarlet, who probably suspected something, was disgusted, although she didn't tell anyone. Another reason to worry.
When they reached the coast, Octavia was already waiting for them, and she did not hide her joy at the absence of the Comrade General. He didn't like it very much and they glared at each other the whole way back. I mean, he, Rogelio and Imp watched, and Dr. Moors thought aloud about their last trip. He also seemed oddly interested in Catra. He asked them about his former friend quite intrusively, and they tried to give him the most perfunctory answers possible. They had no idea why the brain in cylinder was interested in their feline friend, even though they were now on opposite sides of the barricade.
Once they disembarked, they headed towards Castle Crypto . On the way, they stopped at a settlement called Rush Valley. The residents were loyal to Lonnie and welcomed them with what they had, although everyone tried to keep a healthy distance from Dr. Moors, but the children were delighted with the Im . There they learned about Frosta's dethronement ... At that moment he felt like a traitor and a bastard. Frosta, together with her rather terrifying friend, saved their lives in the underground, and now she has lost her throne. He was sure it wasn't the Comrade General doing. It wasn't like her to plot and intrigue, let alone have time to do it. However, he was sure that they were responsible for removing the ice princess from power. He felt bad about it. However, they did not receive any news about Lonnie's health, and they preferred not to ask too much, so as not to reveal too much of what happened there, in the ruins of that damned city...
In the morning they continued their journey and arrived near a landing pad that had been built here some time before they took over Castle Crypto and All Dryll. Since then, very few people have used it, because they had no ships of their own, and others were afraid to come, although they did not cause any problems for those who wanted to go there. Once they were visited by a nice Eridian who gave him a pendant that was supposed to belong to Shelynia or something like that. He didn't quite understand what he meant, but he kept it because it was pretty... Now it turned out that there was a quite large ship here. He couldn't recognize where it came from, even though he didn't know much about spaceships. After a short discussion, they decided not to sneak past the ship, but to remain vigilant.
As they got closer, they saw that most of the crew were young people, not much younger than him, who were looking around. There were also two elderly Saihe women, one dark-skinned and silver-haired, the other with green hair and terribly gloomy, who wore sorcerers' robes. Although he had never heard of sorcerers living outside Etheria, he knew very little about other planets in general. There was also a clone dressed in colorful clothes, quite an unusual sight in an area controlled by the Rebellion. Lonnie wasn't oppressing the clones, but she was letting everyone know that they weren't welcome here. Small reconnaissance drones spotted them first, but not until they got closer. Then a cheerfully smiling girl approached them and started waving her hands at them, and a voice began to come from her gloves.
„Hi! I'm Rossie. Very nice to meet you. We are looking for a way to Castle Crypto. We would like to stay there for some time."
The girl looked friendly. He once had a deaf friend named Kate. She was one of the cadets, but she couldn't hear the orders, so she was sent to the technical department, where apparently a nice family adopted her, and for Scorpia's wedding, she made a mural of a young couple. Actually, she was lucky. She escaped training from Shadow Weaver. Why had he been thinking so much about the cursed sorceress lately? It's probably because of Nightgale.
„Of course, but now it's the headquarters of the People's Rebellion and we are in conflict with the queen, so you know." he replied, smiling equally friendly. Her companions turned to him. Most of them didn't look that friendly, especially the short but muscular redhead girl with the large axe. He noticed that as soon as he spoke, the sullen Saihe stood up, and for a moment he felt as if he knew her from somewhere, because the way she moved seemed disturbingly familiar, but then he heard a voice behind him.
„Hey Blond Boy, Are you accepting new members to your Rebellion? Because there is a VERY serious conflict between me and the Hag Queen, and you will need such an absolutely perfect, awesome person."
Frightened, he jumped and screamed, then turned around and was speechless. Catra was standing in front of him! How on earth did she find him here! And so fast. He was about to apologize to her, but then the girl said in a slightly irritated tone.
„Yes, I know, I'm a lot like her. For Daemons and Asuras. Does everyone on this damn planet really need to know her? Damn celebrity." the girl snorted and now he realized that it was not Catra. At least not completely. They were very similar. He didn't have time to think about it, because then he heard the voice he had heard so often in his nightmares.
„Kyle was your sister's friend, just like Rogelio. They were nice kids. But what are you doing near Castle Crypto? And above all, what is this People's Rebellion all about?" Shadow Weaver said in a surprisingly gentle voice. He started to tremble. Rogelio drew one of those strange weapons given to them by Migu. He tried to find his weapon, but he was so terrified that he couldn't remember where he had hidden it. He considered reaching for his sword, but that would probably make things even worse. The others also drew their weapons. The tattooed Saihe summoned a translucent blue blade out of nowhere, the redhead grabbed her axe, and the Silverscale Lizard drew his blaster. The white-haired woman looked at him in surprise, but then took a fighting stance. Why did they want to fight for Shadow Weaver. As he struggled to draw his weapon, the cat-like girl placed a heavy metal hand on his shoulder.
„Don't be afraid, Blond Boye. It's not undead, just good old Grim, alive as always. Although, actually, I don't know if she's alive at all." she said and started rubbing her chin with her leather-gloved hand, as if she was thinking.
"Good old... Shadow Weaver," he tried to understand who could possibly think of such a combination of words, and then he saw the symbols of the First Ones on his hand and felt himself fall helplessly against the stone.
Eti looked at Blond Boy, who suddenly fainted. With a loud growl, Vesk ran up to the boy and hugged him tenderly, like a best friend, or even someone more. "Alatar would probably like to hold Itel in his arms one day," she thought, somewhat unconsciously. She hadn't slept since yesterday, and during that time she broke into the castle, was imprisoned by the Hag Queen for no reason, and made a daring escape... And she met her. Yes, it was the longest day of her life. And it wasn't over yet, They had to get to this castle as quickly as possible. Not out of fear of the queen. Despite her obvious problems with controlling emotions and aggression, she doubted that she wanted to hurt them. But if she tells her father where they are hiding, then... He will want to get them and hurt them... they have to hide, and Grimmy claimed that this was the only really safe place. After all, Grim knew this planet better than all of them.
It was Grimmy's planet ... Actually, she should have been angry at her for not telling them the truth, but... She didn't feel angry. The Dark Mystic could have saved them a lot of worry, especially Itel, but then again she probably wouldn't have accompanied them and it would have been much harder for them to hide now. They could no doubt need someone who knew this planet right now.
Moreover, she also knew her sister... She even raised her. That was why she was so interested in her, and not because she liked young girls like Itel claimed... She probably didn't know her sister's parentage and she was shocked to learn that the Lord Admiral was their father. But there was something else here... The way she described her relationship with her sister... there was something else hidden there... An understatement, as if she wanted to put something very important into words, but made them understand that she hadn't told them everything yet. She just wasn't sure whether she was motivated by fear of what they would do when they know the truth, or whether she had some dark plans for them. However, she was sure of one thing. Whatever her intentions were towards them, they could not be worse than what Lord Admiral Anteres wanted to do to them.
Sparkle Paw smiled at Vesk again, and lowered her hands, then said.
„Will you let me see your friend? I think he just fainted... from the impression, but I think I should watch it. I have first aid training."
However, when she approached him, the lizard backed away from the white-haired girl and growled at her menacingly.
„I'll try his language.„ interjected and translated what Sparkle Paw said, but Vesk only widened his eyes in surprise.
„ Wrgagh?!" He growled in a confused tone.
„ his Vesk doesn't seem to speak Vesk. Alatar said with surprise, and Grim nodded and said.
„The local Vesks, like most elves, do not speak their native language, but Mr. Rogelio, due to... a congenital condition, does not speak at all."
Then she saw a black metal cylinder moving towards the dark mystic, moving on long metal tentacles with grippers at the end. It was a very spooky Droid.
„Interesting, I expected the dragons to be bigger, although it may be only an apparent similarity, after all, evolutionary convergence is a very common phenomenon in the universe." he said in a strangely metallic voice, and Alatar looked at him scowling at the suggestion that he was a small dragon. But the strange Droid didn't pay any attention to him and just approached Grimmy.
„Ah, so we finally meet. I heard rumors... But you survived...„ he said, staring at her with eyes attached to the tentacles.
„I survived... You can put it that way. And who do I have the pleasure of talking to?" Gloomy replied to him in an extremely serious voice, and the shadows around her deepened ominously.
„True, I forgot that the last time we saw each other, I looked a bit different." he laughed so ghastly that even her hairs stood on end. "Mi-Go can be really good friends.„ he spread his tentacles wide, but seemed alert. She had the impression that there was a relationship between him and Grimmy. A small winged creature sat on a nearby escarpment. For a moment she thought it was Imp, one of the smallest, but also the meanest, devils, but he looked slightly different, completely unlike these fiends. He actually looked like a Wrongdak child , did they ever have children?
„If someone's dream is to have their brain locked in a can, Mi-go can truly be considered the greatest friends. Oh, I know who the fungi from Yugoth are, I've learned a lot in the meantime.„ The Grim woman smiled contemptuously and continued. "However, this is not the time for malice and verbal quarrels. Important things are happening, much more important than our previous conflict, and if either of us makes a mistake, the price will be terrible."
"Grimmy can be quite melodramatic sometimes," she thought and went to Blond Boy, who was just waking up, and said.
„ Listen, Blondie. I don't know how you lived with Grimmy , but for me she's fine. Save your fear for our Father, I mean my father and Catra's, because he's a bigger son of a bitch than anyone you've ever seen. Come on, don't faint again, okay?"
Lonnie returned to work as soon as she was well enough to speak, although pain shot through her face with every word she spoke. However, she did not want to let anyone know how much she was suffering. She knew it was a habit from the Fright Zone, instilled in her by Shadow Weaver. The Dark Sorceress did not tolerate weakness. Even though she had been dead for years, her spirit lived within them. I wonder if she would be proud of herself?
Returning to work was a strange experience. In her absence, everything, the entire Rebellion, functioned without problems… as if she was completely unnecessary… She should feel proud, because it showed that the Rebellion, her Rebellion… Their Rebellion would survive if she was gone, but it made her feel mortal. For the first time in her life she realized her mortality. That the world would continue when she was gone and all memory of her would pass away... Then she felt an overwhelming longing for Kyle, Rogelio, Imp and even Scarlet. The Sorceress had to leave her because of her cover as Castaspela's assistant. She felt so alone then.
Shortly after waking up, Scarlet reported to her about her negotiations with the Chancellor, one of the Star Sisters, and someone who was apparently Shadow Weaver's sister... She was initially angry at her deputy for conducting the talks on her behalf, but had to reluctantly admit that they had gone terribly wrong. well, and their result was probably the overthrow of Frostas, which was probably the greatest success of the Rebellion, to which none of them had a hand, probably the first such case in history. However, she had to admit that their trip to this strange city turned out to be extremely fruitful. Not only did they get the device they came there for, but they also found proof, very tangible proof, that what the Overseer said was true, which, however, did not fill her with joy. This meant that she would have to keep her contract. She will have to give the innocent woman to the monsters so that they will condemn her to a fate worse than death.
It was already after noon when Grizoll came to her , even more grumpy than usual.
„Kyle and Rogelio are back." he said sarcastically. She felt the warmth of relief spread through her heart.
„That's great!" she screamed and smiled regardless of the pain that shot through her body, but Grizoll looked at her gloomily.
„Great? We'll see what you say when you see who they brought with them." he said and motioned for her to follow him. When they reached the courtyard, she saw that all the rebel members who did not have activities that did not allow for a break were standing in a not very neat line. It was nice that everyone came to greet her boys... But why was everyone so tense, so alert, as if they were ready to fight. What's happening here?
She saw Kyle, Rogelio and the imp. She was relieved to see that they were all right, although Kyle looked strangely pale. Dr. Moors also looked safe and sound, though she wasn't sure that statement was appropriate for someone who was a brain in a metal can. The first person she saw was a clone, judging by the painfully colorful outfit it was a local clone from Etheria. Have they caught a spy? That's probably a good thing... In addition to them, there were several young people here, the age they were when Catra took over, and two slightly older Saihe women. The young people were armed and looked fierce, and the women wore Sorcerer costumes. If Kyle and Rogelio recruited them, they did a great job. But why was everyone so…scared? Something was wrong.
„ Hey Scar! You know the recipe for this stew, because it's great!" she heard a voice coming from the side. She turned around and saw Catra eating stew straight from the pot where one of her subordinates was cooking dinner over a fire.
Catra... Ate... Stew... In Her Castle.
„What are you doing here!„ she exclaimed in disbelief, and Catra walked up to her and said.
„I'm eating stew You do not see? Do you have vision problems? You should eat more carrots. It's supposedly good for your eyesight. There's a lot of carrots here. Eat that!" she put the spoon into her mouth. Now she realized it wasn't Catra. Different voice, eye color, hair color... But who the hell was she!
„What the fuck does that mean!" she exclaimed, and the girl looked at her resentfully.
„So this is how hospitality looks like here. I say right away that I will not give away the food." she walked away from her and started looking menacingly through narrowed eyes.
„Miss Eti hasn't eaten anything warm for a long time, and from what I've noticed, she gets extremely grumpy when she's hungry."
Her heart stopped at the sound of that voice. However, she overcame her fear and looked at the Saihe woman, who spoke to her.
„Shadow Weaver." she just whispered, and Hordak's former right-hand man nodded and approached her. She tightly gripped the metal staff Mi-Go gave her, ready to desperately fight for her life, but the dark sorceress simply said.
„You've gone high, Lonnie. I underestimated you, even though I have done so with many people... But this is not the time to dwell on past mistakes, for Etheria is surrounded by dark powers and we must stand against them together. But first... „ and then the Dark Sorceress, Lady of Darkness, Hordak's second in command the woman they had been afraid of like nothing else in the world for almost their entire lives, knelt down on one knee in front of her and said in a serious but also humble voice. „I would like to ask Comrade General Lonnie for shelter for me and my wards. I stand behind them with my head and swear that we will obey all the laws and orders established by you and will not do anything that would endanger you or your subordinates."
She stared at Shadow Weaver for a few moments, speechless, completely unsure of what she should do. This woman has never had an ounce of humility in her. She was the embodiment of arrogance, just like Catra. She was only able to humble herself before Hordak, and only because she was afraid of him. "Will I be the new Hordak now if I accept her?" she thought, but... Shadow Weaver was kneeling in front of her... Wasn't this the greatest success she had ever had?
„Agreed, I accept you. But don't try any tricks. I now have allies that even you could never dream of." she said, trying to sound as authoritative as possible,
"You mean Mi"Go. You won't see such creatures even in my dreams... Not in my dreams. With such allies, there is no need for enemies." Shadow Weaver said in a strangely sad voice.
