Chapter 131: Spy Games Part 7

Gate Area, PX-812, December 16th, 1999 (Earth Time)

Catra narrowed her eyes. For someone who had something to hide - and she was sure that the Eurondans had something to hide, even if she didn't know yet what it was - Alar had given in a bit too easily. Was he so desperate for supplies? Or was he confident he could keep them from discovering his secret? Or was he trying to betray them like the Russians and Chinese had done? He had been in contact and about to make a deal with them, after all, and they had been his only sources of information about Earth and the Alliance. Who knew what they had told him?

But Adora was smiling at him. "Thank you! We can help you - we can restore your planet's surface once we know what's wrong with it, trust us!"

"Yes!" Entrapta chimed in. "If plants that filter the poison out of the soil and air won't work - or take too long for you - Adora should be able to use her magic to remove the poison. At the very least, a combination of her power and magitech should achieve that result, I think. Although… You said you would restore the surface once the war was over, so you probably have made plans to deal with the poison already, right?"

Alar blinked, then nodded. "We have some plans, yes. In the worst case, we'll wait it out. Once we are safe from our enemies, we have all the time and resources we need to deal with this."

Entrapta gasped. "You want to wait it out? But you said that it lasted for decades already! Oh, wait - is it close to breaking down naturally?"

"It will take a long time to break down, but with our stasis technology, we have the time to wait until we can reclaim the surface and live in safety and peace again," Alar replied. "It is but a small sacrifice compared to what others have already made for the war."

"But you won't have to make this sacrifice," Adora told him. "Trust us, we can help you. But first, we need to end the war."

"Well, offering to restore the planet's surface should be a great incentive for your enemies - the Eurondan Alliance - to agree to end the war," Glimmer said.

Alar frowned at that. "I doubt that they will agree to make peace. And if they do, I doubt that it will last. Until the Breeders change their ways, they will always threaten us."

"People can change!" Adora said, shaking her head. "We know that - we have fought against the Horde for decades, and then we made peace, and now we are allies!"

Catra winced. Peace on Etheria hadn't come until the Horde had changed - well, dissolved would be a better word - once Horde Prime had arrived. And at that point, they had already been pretty much defeated militarily. Of course, if Horde Prime hadn't arrived, the Horde could have fought on with the forces left even after the core of the Fright Zone had been taken by the Alliance, but they would have lost the initiative and the core of their logistics, so the odds wouldn't have been great… She shook her head. Somehow, she doubted that the Eurondans would settle things like the Princess Alliance had.

"But with the Stargate, you can expand to other worlds," Daniel said. "You do not need to compete for your world - not when many uninhabited worlds are left to be settled!"

"We haven't found a world with the resources we need so far," Farrell said. "And we tried all the addresses we found with the gate."

"And we won't abandon our home. Eurondan is our world; We've been fighting for it for decades. To leave would betray all the sacrifices of our people," Alar added.

"You don't have to leave," Daniel retorted. "But you won't need to compete for resources any more."

"We can find a world for you that's not inhabited," Adora said.

Catra suppressed a snort. That was easier said than done, in her opinion. If they found such a world, without any native civilisation on it, then Earth would also want it.

"Though if you manage to survive underground, then you shouldn't have any trouble once the surface is habitable again," Entrapta said. "Especially if we give you a few plants optimised by Perfuma for your planet. Or improved hydroponic cultures - I am sure we can come up with one that makes tiny food!"

Catra snickered at the expression on the Eurondans' faces. Getting used to Entrapta took a bit.

Adora cleared her throat. "Anyway, let's focus on ending the war and restoring your world!"

"Yes," Alar said with a smile that looked as honest as the Russian ambassador's, in Catra's opinion.

"Good. So, let's visit your planet now?" Jack said.

Catra's ears twitched as she heard Daniel whisper: "Jack! That's not how you make what is a state visit!"

"But it is a good way to prevent a trap," Jack whispered back while smiling toothily at the Eurodans.

Catra agreed; it would make it harder for the Eurondans to lay a trap, at least. Sure, they might scrounge up an attack once they were on their planet, but that could be dealt with. Especially if the Eurondans had no idea what Adora could really do.

Although they hadn't reacted to Entrapta mentioning Adora's magic, she remembered. That wasn't a good sign.

Glimmer, though, smiled. "Yes. Unless you wish to prepare for a bigger visit - we could take a ship to your planet in that case."

"But we…" Entrpata, probably about to say they didn't have Euronda's coordinates, was interrupted by Sam whispering to her.

"That won't be necessary," Alar said. "You are welcome to visit now. Although, as you would expect, we cannot offer much in the way of hospitality due to the demands of the war."

"That's not a problem. We can bring our own food," Jack replied.

"Jack!"

"General!"

Catra snickered.

Gate Room, Euronda, December 16th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"Seen one underground bunker, seen them all," Jack O'Neill muttered as he stepped down the ramp in - presumably - the gate room of the Eurondans. The Eurondan Nation, he corrected himself. This was just one country on a planet.

"I'm not quite sure that's correct," Daniel objected on Jack's left side. "There are stark differences between the architectural styles of different cultures, even when it comes to utilitarian buildings such as bunkers. And when it comes to the gate area, we're literally talking about the face a world presents to its visitors."

Jack tilted his head sideways, then made a point of looking around. The room was neither large nor well-lit and lacked any decorations. In fact, it looked pretty new. Then again, Alar had said they had recently discovered the Stargate when expanding their bunker.

"We relocated the Stargate to this room after contact with the Russians and Chinese," Farrell said. "They impressed upon us that the gate presented a security risk and should be housed accordingly."

"That explains the guards," Jack said, nodding at the squad of Eurondans forming a half circle at the back. They looked pretty interchangeable, Jack noted. Alert, but their attention seemed split between their leader and Jack's group. Not much experience handling ground combat then - not unlike an airman fresh out of basic. Jack almost snorted at the comparison when he realised that the Eurondans were like an Air Force with a country, according to Alar.

"The main defence of the gate is a defence field we can raise in the case of an unauthorised activation," Farrell explained, pointing at a large device in the corner, with another guard behind a console next to it. "We adapted this after we heard about your iris."

The Russians and Chinese had been talking shop, then - sharing Stargate Command's experience. Jack hadn't expected them to be that forthcoming with knowledge, even if it was knowledge the Air Force had earned before the two countries had forced themselves into Stargate Command. On the other hand, they might not want to risk the Goa'uld taking the planet before they had gotten all the technology they wanted.

"Oh! Is that a projector linked to your main shield generator, or does it form a defence field independently? Is it linked to your main generator, or does it have an autonomous power supply?" Entrapta was halfway to the thing before Carter managed to stop her.

Farrell raised her eyebrows at that but didn't comment. The guards, though, looked a little twitchy. As did Tralan.

Alar, on the other hand, smiled at their group. "Come, I'll show you around!"

The quick tour didn't much to refute Jack's impression; they passed through narrow tunnels that lacked any decor - and were pretty dark. Either the Eurondans were saving power or lacked the resources to add more lightbulbs. Or both.

But the vault Alar showed them - over the silent objection of Farrell; Jack recognised that expression when the Eurondan leader made a detour - was another thing. Huge, quite well lit - and full of thousands of 'stasis pods' stacked on each other. And each contained a Eurondan, waiting in stasis for the war to end.

Jack felt a shiver run down his spine at the sight. His friends looked queasy as well.

"This is what we are fighting for: Our people. For an entire generation, they have been asleep. They trusted us with their lives and future when they went into stasis," Alar said. "Look!" He walked over to a console and hit a few keys, flipping through half a dozen pictures of frozen people.

"Oh! Is this stasis like stopping time? Or slowing it down? Or did you freeze them?" Entrapta peered at the display, then pulled out her tool. "Oh! They are in a sort of suspended animation, I think - right Sam?" She held the tool out to Carter.

Carter flashed a quick, apologetic smile at Alar before glancing at the recorder-scanner-thingie. "Yes, it looks like suspended animation. Like hibernation," she added for those who weren't up to date on the latest technobabble.

Alar nodded. "Yes. Their bodies have slowed down, and they barely age during stasis."

"But they do age," Entrapta said. "It's not perfect stasis. So, you can't fight your war forever."

"We are aware of that," Alar said. His smile slipped a little.

"Oh, shouldn't I have said that? Sorry! It's still a bit hard to know when I'm supposed to talk about facts and when not. It's pretty confusing."

"Confusing?" Alar blinked.

"The social coding about facts and data," Catra explained - or tried to; Alar didn't seem to follow her.

Adora cleared her throat. "Well, that's varies from culture to culture. But let's talk about how we can help you." She glanced at the rows of sleeping people. "Perhaps in a meeting room?"

Alar nodded. "Oh, let me show you our command room first!"

Ah! Jack perked up. Whether that was their actual command centre or just a fake one, this was bound to be interesting!

Underground Base, Euronda, December 16th, 1999 (Earth Time)

The Eurondan command centre felt pretty packed, in Adora's opinion. A dozen soldiers were staring at screens and brightly lit map tables, barely looking up when Alar entered with Adora and her friends in tow.

"From here, we run the defence of our people!" Alar announced. "Our entire forces are coordinated here."

He didn't seem to mind Entrapta peering at the tables and screens, so Adora took a closer look as well. This was of professional interest, after all. The tables displayed a map of what Adora assumed was the main continent of Euronda. It was easy to see where the territory controlled by the Eurondans was - the entire area, in the centre of the continent, was covered with markers while the surrounding areas had much fewer markers. Their reconnaissance capability must be limited, she thought. They probably had no orbital assets to spy on their enemies' main areas.

Or that's what they want us to think, a small voice in the back of her mind which sounded like Catra's whispered.

But it didn't look staged to her. The people working here seemed genuinely busy and focused - few of them snuck glances at Adora and her friends. Entrapta, her hair lifting her up so she could look over the shoulders of the soldiers at the screens, and Isa, hanging back, her machine gun held loosely, drew the most attention.

"Airstrike detected!" a Eurondan announced.

A jolt seemed to go through the assembled soldiers as the screens flickered and the symbols on the tables changed.

"Bombers incoming."

The enemy symbols were close to their territory - if Adora had guessed the scale of the maps correctly, at least. Another sign that their sensor range was limited. And the poisoned surface would make scouting missions difficult. Surface attacks were impossible, according to Alar. Still, with both sides apparently focusing on the air war, a small surface scouting element might be effective if they had protective suits and the supplies to operate in a poisoned environment.

"Launching interception."

"Come!" Alar said. "Let me show you how we defend us against their bombers!"

He led them to the room next to the command centre - or the other half of the room; there was no clear separation. Several people were sitting in large chairs lining the wall, with some transparent canopies covering their upper bodies and consoles in front of them.

"These are our remote flyers. With them, a single pilot can control an entire formation of aero-fighter," Alar announced.

Adora blinked. So, the command centre wasn't just for the strategic control of their forces - they operated their forces directly from here as well? That was… unique. Not possible for the Alliance forces, though it presented advantages. You could use your best pilots for every attack, shuffling them around. But it also made them vulnerable to a decapitation strike - unless you had alternatives.

"Oh! How do they work? Radio transmitters, no doubt, but the signal density… Look, Sam! That's a magnitude above our own remote controls, even taking the superior data compression into account! That must be a direct neural interface."

"Correct," Alar said. "The aero-fighters are controlled directly by thought. The manual controls are a mere backup. Each pilot controls an entire squadron."

"Oh! And are the aero-fighters able to act autonomously?" Entrapta asked, beaming at him. "Like bots?"

"They cannot execute complex actions such as fighting," Farrell told her. "But they can stay aloft on autopilot. Emergency landings are possible as well, though unnecessary since if the autopilot engages, we can easily have a pilot take control of them for landing." He smiled. "Do you wish to try them out? The controls are intuitive. If you have any piloting experience, you will find them easy to use and effective to fight."

Adora blinked again. "You want us to take control of your craft in the middle of an attack?" He trusted them that much? No, he wanted them to fight their enemy!

Glimmer shook her head and gave Alar her 'I want to tell you what I really think, but I have to be polite right now' smile. "That would be considered an act of war against your enemy. We're here to end the war, not take sides in it."

"Nice try," Adora heard Catra mutter next to her.

Alar remained unfazed. "Of course. I apologise. You seemed so interested in our technology, I merely thought to let you try it out in actual action." His own smile turned rueful. "We've been fighting this war for so long, it seemed normal to me, and I did not think about the political aspects of my offer."

Catra softly snorted, and Adora agreed; she didn't think this had slipped Alar's mind. He was the leader of the Erondans, after all, and used to politics.

"Enemy bombers destroyed," another soldier announced.

"Ollan is one of our best pilots," Alar said, nodding at the soldier sitting in the remote flyer next to them.

"Nice shooting, I guess," Jack said as the canopy rose.

Ollan just stared at him, though, without saying anything. His mouth was half-open, though…

After an awkward moment, Alar spoke up again: "Now, let me invite you to a meal. And, I hope, a fruitful discussion."

Samantha Carter didn't want to have a meal and a discussion. She wanted to take another look at those 'remote flyer' consoles. She was a scientist, not a diplomat or a politician. But they were guests here, and if they wanted to have a chance at ending the war and helping the planet here, they would need the Eurondans' cooperation.

She still glanced back at Ollan as they left the command centre. The pilot was staring at the wall, his face blank.

Sam had seen soldiers before who had cracked from traumatic experiences, but they didn't look like Ollan. The Eurondan pilot seemed functional, but… empty was probably the best word. He was just sitting there, not showing any reaction or emotion. Burnt out, she thought.

She wouldn't have expected this in a war fought primarily by remote-controlled drone fighters. Was the experience of flying a fighter in combat through a neural interface that much more personal, that much harsher and more terrible? She itched to examine the technology to find out.

But Alar led them into a smallish dining room with elaborately carved chairs lining a long table. If not for the darker lighting, this could have been a formal dinner on Earth.

"Oh! There's no chair for Isa?" Entrapta asked.

Sam glanced down the table. Her friend was correct - she didn't see a chair large enough for Isa to sit in comfortably. Not unexpected since all the Eurondan they had seen so far were of average size.

Alar looked momentarily surprised - and concerned, Sam noted. "I was under the impression that the… woman was your guard."

"Isa is assigned to our security, yes," the General cut in.

Isa nodded with a grunt from where she and Campbell had already taken up guard positions at the wall, facing two Eurondan guards.

Alar smiled, apparently relieved. "Good. Please, sit down!"

The meal was worse than Sam had expected. It was a thin soup and a pudding-like substance that made tofu taste spicy. Seasonings and spices would be very profitable trade goods, Sam couldn't help thinking.

"Yeah, should have taken an MRE," she heard the General mutter.

"I've eaten worse," Catra commented. "Back in the Horde."

"The brown rations," Adora agreed. Both shared a smile.

That would mean they considered the grey rations better than this, Sam knew. Damning with faint praise, indeed.

Daniel, though, showed no revulsion. He dug into the meal - though that was likely more his interest in a new culture and civilisation than the taste. Sam hoped so, at least. "I've never had such a meal before," he said, smiling at Alar.

Sha're nodded. "It's exotic."

Alar smiled at Daniel. "As I said, it's a sacrifice we all make for the war effort. A tiny sacrifice compared to that of our people in stasis, though."

"Earth has several examples of meals that were originally the result of poor resources yet became loved cornerstones of a culture's cuisine," Daniel told him. "Like the Italian cucina povera, literally the 'kitchen of the poor'."

"My people would never waste food as long as it was edible, no matter the taste," Sha're added. Daniel took a little while to get used to that when we lived on Abydos.

Daniel beamed at her. "You made everything taste good, my dear."

Sha're snorted. "Flatterer."

Sam's smile slipped when she saw Alar briefly scowl at the couple. Had Daniel managed to insult the man without meaning to? But he hadn't reacted to the General's far more blunt comment…

"Are you… in a relationship?" Alar asked with a strained smile.

"We're married," Daniel replied, putting his hand over Sha're's.

Sha're nodded. "We were separated for years due to our enemies but were reunited some time ago."

"So, it is true - your culture is a 'melting pot', as the Russians and Chinese called it," Farrell said. The woman's smile was very thin as well, Sam noticed.

What was the issue?

"Well, the United States has been called that," the General said with a casual shrug that Sam knew was entirely faked. "We're a nation built by immigrants from all over the world."

"And the Alliance is formed by many countries working together against a common enemy," Glimmer added. "As was the Princess Alliance on Etheria."

"I see." Alar slowly nodded. Then his eyes widened in obvious surprise.

He was looking at Adora and Catra, Sam realised. The two were also holding hands; Catra probably felt the need to show off after Daniel and Sha're had drawn attention.

Alar shuddered. Sam saw him grab his glass and drink deeply from the watered-down liquor served to the meal, taking deep breaths and still barely managing to smile again - politely - when he set the glass down.

He made a point of focusing on the General - and on Sam, she realised with a sinking feeling.

Catra was tempted to smirk at Alar. So, the leader of the Eurondans had a problem with Adora's and her love? Too bad for him! Just like the bigots on Earth, they needed the Alliance far more than the Alliance needed them. The Alliance actually didn't need them at all - well, the medical technology could save lives, or so the preliminary analysis told them, and the data compression had Sam and Entrapta excited, but the Eurondans had admitted that they needed heavy water to defend themselves or they'd lose the war.

On the other hand, Adora really wanted to stop the war here to save lives and restore the planet. Catra understood that. From a certain point of view, the Eurondans looked a lot like the Horde. Terrible rations, surrounded by a poisoned environment, everything and everyone focused on the war, and no civilians to worry about. The Eurondans weren't trying to conquer the planet. Instead, they were defending themselves, but the Horde had been on the backfoot a few times during the war as well.

She blinked, not even pouting as Adora withdrew her hand to continue eating. Who actually had started the war on Euronda? Alar had been a little vague about the whole thing, hadn't he? Just like the Horde instructors, he had focused on the current situation in the war, the Alliance's actions and forces, and what to do about them, not the causes of the war itself. Of course, everyone - except for Adora the dummy - had known that the Horde had started it and was trying to conquer Etheria, so that hadn't been necessary or useful, but… The similarities between the Horde and the Eurondans were pretty striking, weren't they?

She looked at Alar. He was talking to Jack and Sam about aero-fighters. Apparently, they used the same principles as the Air Force planes - no anti-gravity technology or magic. And he wasn't looking at anyone else. Even when Bow added something technical or Teal'c commented on the tactical uses of Death Gliders, Alar barely glanced at them.

That was weird.

"Are you a couple?" Farrell suddenly asked Adora. The woman looked tense - her smile was barely there, her lips pressed together, and Catra half-expected to hear her grinding her teeth.

Adora, though, beamed at her and nodded. "Yes, we are!" Catra's lover reached over again and squeezed Catra's hand.

Catra flashed her fangs at Farrell and leaned into Adora's side to rub it in. Bigots hated that!

"Ah." Farrell took a sip from her glass.

Catra hadn't touched hers since the first sip. She had had better from a still in the cadet's barracks.

"I assume when you're not fighting a war for your people's survival, you don't have to care about having children," Farrell went on.

Children? Was that what this was about? Catra glanced at Adora, who looked taken aback. They hadn't talked about children! Not with each other. And they certainly wouldn't start discussing children with the Eurondans! Catra was tempted to mention Luna as their baby. Entrapta probably had a picture of the kitten at hand in her tool.

Bow, though, must have overheard yet missed the context or tension since he leaned over with a smile. "Oh, if you want kids but can't rely on, ah, natural conception or adoption, you can use magitech to combine your genes and have the baby grown in a womb - artificial or natural. My Dads did that."

"Yes! Etheira had had the basic technology since the first royal lines started - a relic of the First Ones genetic engineering, I think," Entrapta chimed in. "And now, with the Horde clone technology and Alpha's data, we can pretty much combine any genes no matter the species! Hordak and I haven't yet decided if we'll have kids, but we've run a few simulations to check possible appearances and designs." She smiled widely as she pushed a few buttons on her multitool, and a small projection of a child-Hordak with long dark purple hair appeared, followed by a child version of Entrapta with Hordak's skin tone and eyes. "See?"

Farrell gasped. She was staring at the projection as if it was the most horrible thing she had ever seen. "This… this…this is…" She shook her head. "How can you do this?"

"Oh, easily with genetic engineering!" Entrapta replied without looking at Farrell. She was smiling at the projections instead. "That's how a lot of Etheria's population was created, you know? By First Ones scientists combining different species! It's kind of a tradition, you might say - and so exciting!"

The whole table was now looking at them, Catra noticed. Her friends looked a bit annoyed or embarrassed, but all of the Eurondans looked horrified. Even the guards back at the wall.

"Ah…" Daniel cleared his throat. "I guess genetic engineering is not practised on your world?" he asked with a forced smile.

"We don't breed uncontrollably!" Farrell spat. "We maintain genetic purity!"

Wait... Catra blinked. Breed? They call their enemies 'Breeders'. "And your enemies don't, right?"

The table was silent.

Oh, damn! That explained the attitude of the Eurondans that Jack O'Neill had picked up. The way they had glanced at the Etherians. And at Teal'c. And Daniel and Sha're. 'Genetic purity' indeed!

"They breed indiscriminately," Alar said after a moment. "Mixing their genes with no thought! Tainting their own people! Their legacy!" He spat out each word with a sneer. "They are impure!"

Yeah, Jack had heard - or read - that kind of speech before. Just replace 'genes' with 'blood', and it would fit perfectly into the Third Reich.

Daniel had grown pale but was rapidly recovering - and frowning. Sha're looked puzzled. The Etherians looked shocked, but their expressions were changing as well as realisation set in, Jack saw.

Except for Entrapta. "But that makes no sense. That's not how it works. Genetic diversity is a good thing. Otherwise, you get inbreeding."

"Inbreeding?" Farrell scowled at her.

"Yes. That happens when people who are too closely related, genetically related, reproduce. Over a few generations, genetic defects start to accumulate," Entrapta explained. "In extreme cases, you might end up with genetic degradation, like the Asgard, though in their case, it was imperfect cloning that was the source since they had stopped reproducing sexually long ago."

Farrell scoffed. "Such defects are a sign of impurity. Maintaining genetic purity relies on culling any weaknesses to create the perfect people."

Jack wasn't a geneticist, but he had looked into things, a little - after discovering that he had some Ancient genes, Jack would have been a fool not to read up on what it meant - and that sounded even worse.

Entrapta gasped. "But imperfection is beautiful! If everything is perfect, you cannot experiment! Science would be useless!" She shook her head, her hair tendrils flailing. "There is no perfect people; that is not how science works. That's not how life works!"

"What could be considered a weakness in some circumstances might be a strength in others," Daniel added.

The Eurondans were scowling at both.

Jack pressed his lips together and eyed the room. Pissing off their hosts, no matter how much they deserved it, wasn't a good idea when you were in the middle of their base, alone on their world, without a fleet in orbit.

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "You need data for science. The more data, the better! And diversity creates more data! If everyone is the same, you won't have any variance to experiment with! Nothing new to discover! No competition!"

Now, that sounded a little concerning as well to Jack. At least it would if it came from, say, Loki or Hordak. He made a mental note that he would have to check up on what exactly they were doing in their lab with Alpha.

"You are wrong! Strength is found in purity. In unity!" Farrell's voice was rising. Not quite screeching, but Entrapta must have hit a nerve. "Impurities weaken a people! Like impurities weaken materials!"

"Actually, many alloys are far stronger than their pure components," Carter cut in, then frowned.

"The whole is often greater than the sum of its parts," Daniel agreed.

They were correct, of course, but they were arguing with fanatics. And Jack might not be a scientist, but he had experience with zealots. Logic didn't work with them.

And it didn't work here either. "We have maintained our genetic purity for generations and have been proven stronger for it!" Alar snapped. "We know the truth!"

Jack couldn't resist. "Yet, you are losing the war to the 'Breeders', aren't you? Seems to me that they're proving to be stronger."

"They have the advantage of numbers and benefitted from a few miscalculations on our side," Alar retorted. "That is not strength. That is mere luck."

"Sounds like you're making up excuses," Catra said with a snort. "Trust me, that's not going to work. You can't win a war by ignoring facts because you don't like them."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "Data doesn't lie!"

"We will prevail! We almost won the war before, and we will finish it with a victory!" Alar spat. "We will not let the Breeders wipe us out!"

"You'd rather destroy the world than let them win, huh?" Catra scoffed again, shaking her head - and then froze for a moment.

Jack felt a cold shiver run down his spine - the Eurondans were nodding. "Just how did the surface end up poisoned?" he asked. It couldn't… but it would fit. "Was that a 'miscalculation'?"

Alar glanced at Farrell for a moment. "We had no choice. They were breeding indiscriminately. Spreading their taint all over the world. We could not let them take over and wipe us out. And they were not listening. They would not listen - they would not change! My father realised that we had only one choice left. Unfortunately, we were too late, and they managed to preserve enough forces and resources to press us hard."

"You started this war?" Glimmer gasped.

"We had no choice. They were breeding and would have wiped us out if we hadn't acted. The longer we waited, the worse our situation would grow," Alar retorted. "We had waited too long already, or we would have won the war with our preemptive strike."

Hell! They were even more like the Nazis than Jack had feared.

He really wanted to shoot Alar right now.

The Eurondans had started the war? And they had poisoned their own world to kill their enemies? Adora shook her head. She couldn't believe it! It was… monstrous! "How could you do that? Destroy your own world to kill your enemies?"

She saw Catra flinch next to her and winced. Of course, that would remind her lover of the portal that had almost destroyed Etheria! She squeezed Catra's hand but focused on Alar.

"We are facing an existential threat," Alar replied. "If we lose the war, our people will perish. If we had not poisoned the surface, we would have lost the war - and our world with it. Sacrificing what you will lose anyway is not a difficult decision."

Adora shook her head again. Alar made it sound as if wrecking an entire world - poisoning the air and soil - was logical. Rational. Simple. It wasn't! "And you started the war!"

Alar scoffed. "We had no choice. The Breeders were growing stronger and more numerous with every day that passed. What else could we have done but striking as long as there was still a chance of victory instead of assured defeat?"

"Our enemies depended on the resources on the surface much more than we did," Farrell added. "We were prepared for this while they weren't."

"And it still wasn't enough to win," Jack said in a flat voice. "You miscalculated."

"As long as we can get heavy water, we can win this war," Farrell told him. "Our people are in stasis, waiting for us."

"And once you win, you'll wipe out your enemy?" Daniel asked.

"They are trying to eradicate our people. Erase our way of life," Alar said. "If they win this war, they'll do the same to us."

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Jack said. He looked at Adora.

She clenched her teeth. She wouldn't let them murder the Breeders - the Eurondan Alliance. But she couldn't let the Eurondans be murdered either. Everyone deserved a second chance. A chance to change. "The war will end," she said. "Without either side winning."

Alar shook his head. "You cannot end the war like that. It has been waged for decades. Too many have died. It's either the Breeders or us."

"Well, you started it," Jack said.

"Jack!" Daniel frowned at him, then turned to look at Alar. "Peace is possible."

"Yes!" Entrapta said. "The Horde and the Princess Alliance also fought for decades, technically, at least, and now we're at peace! And we're cleaning up the environmental damage done to the Fright Zone, working together. Although the Alliance arguably won the war. But we didn't kill the Horde. We're friends now!"

Adora heard Catra softly scoff at that. But Entrapta was right - they were at peace. And while Adora knew that some grudges remained, the majority of both former Horde and Alliance members were working together now. Of course, many former soldiers of Hordak's Horde had switched sides at a point before Horde Prime's defeat, which certainly helped with that.

But even the Clones had joined the Alliance after Horde Prime's end - at least the Clones they knew about - so it was possible for enemies to become allies. They just needed a chance.

She firmly nodded. "We can and will end this war." Even if they had to send a fleet here. Which they hopefully wouldn't have to. "We'll talk to your enemies. And we'll restore your world."

"And then? The Breeders will wipe us out as soon as they have the chance!" Farrell protested.

"We won't let them start a war. Or you," Glimmer said.

"Left alive, they'll overwhelm us sooner or later," Alar said. "They don't need to wage war for this."

Adora frowned. That made no sense. "What do you mean? They'll destroy you by… living?"

"They will destroy us by breeding uncontrollably," Alar explained. "Mixing genes indiscriminately. Rendering our people impure. We'll vanish, our entire way of life fading as they take over Euronda."

"And good riddance," Jack muttered under his breath.

Adora blinked. Was Alar serious? "Are you saying they'll… force you to have children with them?" That would be rape!

"Of course they will!" Farrell spat.

"We won't let them do that to you," Glimmer said. "What do you think we are, monsters?"

Alar exchanged a glance with Farrell before he replied: "Will you force us to allow interbreeding with the Breeders?"

Oh, no! Adora scowled at them. As did her friends. "We won't let you keep people from loving whoever they want," she said. "If one of your people and one of the Eurondan Alliance want to be together, they'll be allowed to."

"Just as we were warned by the Russians and Chinese! You want to destroy our way of life as well!" Alar said.

"If your way of life means keeping people from loving who they want, then it deserves to be destroyed!" Glimmer spat.

"That will destroy our people!" Alar had stood up and was glaring at them. Then he glanced at the guards behind him. "We have no choice."

What did he… Adora's eyes widened. No!

She jumped up, her chair falling down behind her. "Don't…!"

But before she could finish, Catra pounced on Alar, reaching for his hand.

Adora caught a glimpse of a device he held a moment before the alarm went off.