Chapter 153: The Lost Dimension Part 7

Unknown Location, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Catra cleared her throat. "Angella? We need to talk."

The queen spun around. "You!"

Catra managed not to flinch at the glare aimed at her. Instead, she nodded with a twisted smile. "Yes, me."

"What are you doing here?"

She hadn't called the guards. That was a good sign. Or so Catra hoped. She shrugged and said before she could help herself: "Talking to you."

Angella's scowl deepened. "You?" she scoffed.

"Yes, me." Catra shrugged again and wandered over to the desk - keeping it between her and Angella. "I kind of know what you're going through." At least, she thought so. If she was wrong… well, Adora would be mad either way.

Angella scoffed again. "You dare? You're Horde scum!"

But she still hadn't called for her guards, Catra noted. And she sounded a lot like her daughter right then. Well, except for the slight accent. "I know what it's like to feel guilty." And shame. And embarrassment. And self-loathing. And being crazy.

"Guilty? I didn't conquer a kingdom and then tried to take over the world!" Angella spat. "I defended my world against you!"

Technically, Catra hadn't conquered a kingdom - well, not while Angella had been around. Salinas and Plumeria had fallen afterwards.

But Angella wasn't finished. "I didn't try to destroy the world!"

This time, Catra flinched. She had done that. But she pushed the guilt she felt away and nodded. "Technically, I was trying to change the world - to create a perfect world for me." With Adora at her side, of course.

And Angella flinched. But her glare grew more intense. "You endangered our world! I had to sacrifice myself to save it!"

"And then you created your own perfect world," Catra said. "Only, it's not as perfect as you thought it would be, right?"

Angella pressed her lips together.

"Because no matter how we'd like to fool ourselves, it's a fake world. Not real." Catra nodded once more.

"This world is real!" Angella blurted out. "And I didn't destroy another world for this - this was an empty dimension when I arrived!"

Catra clenched her teeth for a moment. I was crazy, she told herself. "It's not real. It's reacting to our thoughts." She put her hands on the desk - freshly polished, she noted - and leaned forward. "And it won't ever be real. It will always remain a dream." A foolish dream.

"No! This is no dream!" Angella yelled.

"That's why the 'people' here act like bots?" Catra scoffed. "Your fake 'daughter' is only doing what you want her to do. She is barely more than a puppet, isn't she?"

"No!" Angella shook her head. "No!"

Catra drew a sharp breath. Time to get serious. "You knew that, though, didn't you? You always knew she was a fake." If Angella had actually fooled herself…

"No!"

"And now the real Glimmer is here," Catra went on, trying not to show how tense she was. "And she is disgusted by this perfect world of yours."

Angella flung her arm out and swept a stack of books from the desk, scattering them over the floor. "Shut up!"

"And you fear that Micah will be disgusted as well."

"Shut up!" Angella rounded the table and rushed towards her.

And Catra hissed through clenched teeth. Damn! That had been too much!

She jerked back, hands raising to defend herself, but stopped. Fighting Angella would be… Catra managed to turn with the blow but was still sent stumbling. "Did that…" Another blow to the stomach - she had barely time to tense her muscles - interrupted her, pushing her back a few more steps.

Once more, she almost lashed out in reflex but managed to control herself. She did take a few more steps back, though - Angella was stronger than she had thought. Stronger than Glimmer, in any case. Catra had been hit far worse, though. And she deserved it back then, too.

"Shut up!" And there Angella came again, baring her teeth as she wound up another strike.

Catra twitched but stood her ground, catching another blow to the face. She exaggerated her staggering until her back hit the wall.

"Shut up!" Angella snarled.

OK, enough was enough. Catra literally had her back to the wall. This time, she jerked her head to the side, and Angella's fist hit the wall instead of her face - and they ended up facing each other up close. "Lashing out won't solve this," Catra whispered into Angella's face. "Trust me, I know." She bared her teeth in a grin and tried not to wince from the pain of her swollen lips.

"This is all your fault!" Angella drew back her other fist.

Catra deflected the blow. "Not everything. Creating this world is on you," she spat.

"I wouldn't be here if not for you!" Angella's fist was bleeding, but Catra didn't think the tears in her eyes were because of that.

This time, she caught the blow. She couldn't have done that with Adora, but Angella was no She-Ra. "Yeah. And I didn't choose to be raised as a Horde soldier. But I still could have defected." Like Adora did.

Angella was panting - Catra could feel the woman's breath on her face. "You were in charge!"

"Yes." Catra stared at her. "I was." That was her fault. Her guilt. "And you made this world."

"I had lost everyone!" And the tears started to fall.

"And I had lost Adora." Catra clenched her teeth. "It's not an excuse." She snorted. "Trust me, I know."

Angella stared at her. "I'm not like you!"

"No." Catra chuckled. Once. "But you will be if you don't stop… this." She shook her head. "Stop pushing your loved ones away. Trust me, that's the worst mistake you can make." Catra knew that very, very well.

Angella blinked through her tears and took a step back before looking away. "You heard Glimmer. They hate me!"

Oh, for…! Catra scoffed. "They love you, you idiot!"

Angella glared at her. Was that progress? "What would you know about that?"

That was… "They accepted me!" Catra snarled. "At least you didn't kill any real people!"

"And why did they accept you after all you did to us?"

"Because Adora's a much better person than I'll ever be," Catra said.

Angella blinked. "This is not - not just - about Adora. You heard what Glimmer said. I made a copy of her! She thinks I replaced her!"

"You did." Catra snorted as Angella glared at her again. If she could admit her guilt, Angella could own up to her own mistakes. "But that doesn't matter. She's your daughter. Micah's your husband. Consort. Whatever. They love you."

Angella looked away again. "They don't know me. Not any more."

"Glimmer's done things she regrets as well. So did Micah." At least Catra assumed so - she wasn't really that close to him. But he had been controlled by Horde Prime's chips during the war and attacked his friends, and Catra knew how that felt.

Angella didn't say anything. Catra waited. She had said what she had wanted to say. Repeating it wouldn't really help. Maybe…

"I created the Horde just to wipe it out," Angella said without looking at her. "Including a copy of you."

Ah. Catra drew a short breath through clenched teeth. "They weren't real people," she said as nonchalantly as she could. "More like… training bots?"

Angella turned her head to stare at her again. "Training bots don't bleed and beg."

"I wouldn't have begged either," Catra told her. She flashed her fangs. "And I'm not that easy to kill. I let you hit me."

Angella scoffed softly in response, and, for a moment, they looked at each other with matching wry, pained grins.

"So…" Catra trailed off. "Do you really think you are worse than me? Or Hordak?"

"Hordak." Angella pressed her lips together before shaking her head. "No, I don't suppose so." She straightened. "Very well. I shall have a talk with Glimmer. And with Micah."

That didn't sound very enthusiastic to Catra. But it was good enough. The rest was up to Glimmer and the others. Catra had done her good deed for the week or something. Now they just…

She turned her head when a cloud of sparkles appeared on the balcony.

"Mom! We need to talk!" Glimmer exclaimed as she, Adora and Bow were revealed. "I'm… Catra? What are you doing here?"

"Catra?" Adora gasped.

"Hey, Adora!" Catra grinned at her, wincing a little at the pain from her lips.

"You're hurt!" Adora started towards her.

"Mom! You're hurt!" Glimmer must have noticed Angella's bleeding hand. "What… Wait! Did you two fight?"

"No!" Catra said.

"Yes," Angella said.

Catra glared at her. That was the absolute wrong thing to say!

"Catra!"

"Mom!"

"Why did you fight?"

"Let me heal you - both of you!"

"It wasn't a fight!" Catra protested. She had let Angella hit her!

But no one was listening to her.

Jack O'Neill shook his head as he watched the former slaves board one of the skiffs that had arrived at their position. Four survivors of over a dozen. The rest of them had been killed by the very god they had created in their minds. There was probably a lesson here.

He turned and saw that Daniel was on his knees and checking the remains of the campsite, if you could call it that - it lacked even a firepit. "Daniel?"

"Just a few more minutes. I'm checking for any tools that they might have created," his friend replied without looking up from the patch of sandy ground he was searching.

"I think they took everything with them. Not that they had much to begin with," Jack said.

"We're in a special dimension, Jack. They might have created tools and other artefacts without being aware of it." Daniel perked up and raised his hand, holding up what looked like a piece of rock. "Ah!"

"A pet rock?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

Sha're shook her head with a frown aimed at him but didn't comment.

"It's flint!" Daniel replied.

"Yes?" Jack wondered what he was about.

"This couldn't have formed here naturally - the geology is wrong for flint to form," Daniel said. "And it has traces of being worked on. So, either someone dropped it here, or it was created by someone thinking that it should be found here. But according to the local Etherians, this area was never settled - that's why they placed the refugee camp here."

There is probably a lesson here as well, Jack thought. Of course, the camp they had seen - well, its remains - had been very nice, a small village, not some enclosed tents in the desert, but it certainly had been out of the way from the major kingdoms. On the other hand, the Etherians hadn't had the best experiences with visitors. First the First Ones, and then Hordak. And this was a world created by an Angella gone rather… extremist, not the real Etheria. A world where the Horde had been exterminated to the last soldier instead of welcomed with open arms after the war had ended.

He pushed the thought away. "So…?" He cocked his head.

"The only one able to do this would have been the former slaves. So, they expected to find flint if they dug around here - which means they are familiar with such campsites." Daniel beamed at him. "Campsites by fleeing slaves trying to hide from the Goa'uld!"

"Ah." Jack nodded. "You think they have tales of or even experience with slaves fleeting on their home worlds." Daniel looked surprised, and Jack snorted. He wasn't some dumb jock. And he had spent years working with Daniel; you couldn't help picking up some things.

"Ah, yes, exactly!" Daniel recovered quickly. "And they were thought to be the most loyal slaves of Apophis. So, there might be a bigger culture of dissidents amongst his followers than we expected."

"That would be nice." Jack grinned. "I'll pass it on to the intel weenies. They'll want to hear all about it from you."

Daniel smiled, then blinked. "Oh."

Jack smirked a little. Giving a lecture was one thing, being grilled by spooks looking for clues about the enemy was another. Daniel was familiar with the difference from experience. He patted his friend on the shoulder and went to check on Carter and Entrapta.

The two were focused on their gimmicks, occasionally waving around some sort of antenna. Or a magic wand; Jack couldn't tell the difference. "So!" he called out. "How much longer do you need before we can leave?"

"We're almost done, sir," Carter replied, looking up at him. "We've completed the primary scans and are now double-checking some results."

"Then we can compare them to the data from the destroyed village and find out how much the number of minds affects the shaping effect on this dimension!" Entrapta said, nodding enthusiastically. "Well, we should be able to form a hypothesis, at least, but that's still progress!"

"Good." Knowing how dangerous the four rescued former slaves were was important. The last thing Jack wanted was to be caught by another Apophis on the way back to Bright Moon. Or some other monstrosity conjured by someone's imagination. "Don't think about Marshmallow Men, by the way."

Carter chuckled at that, then pressed her lips together and frowned at him. "We won't, sir."

He grinned. He still had it.

"We won't?" Entrapta looked confused. "I'm now thinking about… whatever that is."

Uh-oh. Jack grimaced. "Ah… Carter can explain. Once you have finished your work here."

"Right!"

While Entrapta turned back to their scanner, Carter shot him a look through narrowed eyes. Jack shrugged with an apologetic smile. Yeah, that hadn't been smart of him, but, if necessary, Carter could handle distracting Entrapta until they were back in their home dimension. If Entrapta hadn't seen the movie, there shouldn't be any danger, anyway.

No more than from anyone else having stray thoughts. You apparently needed a very focused mind to create anything like a god here.

Though smaller stuff was a different thing, wasn't it? Jack blinked, then grinned and looked at the campsite again. If this were on Earth, in a National Park, there would be…

"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed. "Someone has planted a park ranger sign here! How could… Jack! You just ruined the site!"

Perfect.

By the time they left the palace, Adora was still angry at Catra. Her love had gone off to talk with Angella! Alone! With the person who had had the entire Horde - including Catra - in this dimension executed! And she saw nothing wrong with it!

"I don't know why you are so mad," Catra said.

Adora turned to face her with a scowl. "You know exactly why I am mad!"

"Everything worked out fine." Catra crossed her arms over her chest and raised her head a little. She did that when she felt guilty and didn't want to show it, Adora knew.

"You didn't know that when you sneaked off and climbed the tower! Like… like an assassin! If anyone had seen you…"

Catra scoffed. "As if the guards could have spotted me!"

Adora glanced at the two guards standing at attention at the gate. They were glaring at Catra.

Catra followed her gaze and snorted. "They're just copies."

The guards didn't react to that at all, and Adora pressed her lips together. That was creepy. And Catra was still wrong. "Angella isn't," she said.

"Angella didn't think I was an assassin either." Cara shrugged.

"She attacked you!" And hurt her!

"It was just a few slaps," Catra retorted. "I've been hit harder in training."

"That was in the Horde!" Adora spat. And they hadn't known how wrong that was.

"Or by a little girl," Catra continued.

"That was Frosta!"

Now, Catra frowned at her. "You healed me."

"That's not an excuse for getting hurt!" Adora clenched her teeth. Catra could be so stubborn!

"Hey! Angella attacked me! I didn't attack her."

"You said you let her hit you!" Adora almost grabbed Catra but stopped before she touched her.

"Well… yes, I did." Catra flashed her fangs. "But I knew I could take it."

"Did you?" Adora narrowed her eyes. They had talked about that in cadet training! "What if she had used her powers? What if she had used a weapon?" Angella could have created anything in this dimension.

"I wouldn't have let her hit me then!" Catra shook her head.

"You couldn't have known that!" Adora clenched her teeth again. Why was her love so stubborn?

"It was a calculated risk."

That was also from cadet training. And the Horde standards for what was an acceptable risk were far below the Alliance ones. "You didn't have to take the risk at all! Or alone!" Catra looked away, and Adora bit her lower lip. "Why did you do it?" she asked in a softer voice.

"She was here because of me," Catra whispered.

Oh… Adora sighed and reached out to hug Catra. And resisted the brief urge to shake some sense into her. She took a deep breath and calmed down. "That doesn't mean you have to get hurt." That was wrong! And two wrongs didn't make a right!

"I didn't plan to get hurt."

"You let her hit you."

"Well… no plan survives contact with the enemy?"

Adora didn't need to see Catra's face to know she was weakly grinning. She hugged her a bit more tightly, though. Just to make her point. "Idiot."

"That's my line."

"Not when you're being the idiot."

"Someone had to talk sense into Angella. And, well…" Catra sighed - Adora felt her taking a deep breath. "...I've been there. I've made mistakes like she did. And worse."

"Oh." Adora blinked. She hadn't considered that. "But we all made mistakes," she whispered. "I did, Glimmer did…"

"Not like mine," Catra cut her off. "And Glimmer? You think she could have talked things out with Angella?"

Adora bit her lip again and felt her face heat up. "She's not a teenager anymore."

"Could have fooled me." Catra snorted again. "And you were feeling too guilty to handle this."

"Me?" Adora drew back and stared at her.

Catra nodded. "You feel guilty for letting her sacrifice herself in your place."

Adora opened her mouth, then closed it again, and glared at Catra's smirk. "You feel guilty as well." Or more.

"Yes. But I don't know Angella. Not like you and Glimmer do. And she doesn't know me. We're kind of… more professional."

Adora snorted. "So professional, you had a fight."

"It wasn't a fight - I let her hit me," Catra retorted at once. "And it worked, didn't it? She's coming back home."

Adora reluctantly nodded.

"Everything worked out fine." Catra's smirk grew.

Adora rolled her eyes. "That doesn't mean you were right to do it."

"Sure it does!"

"It just means you were lucky." And luck ran out sooner or later.

Catra shrugged, still grinning.

Adora again wanted to shake her. She could tell that this was a facade - she knew Catra better than anyone else. "We'll talk about this again, later," she said. When she could prepare better. Catra couldn't go on like this.

Catra grimaced, and Adora couldn't help grinning. A little.

"...so, the Queen's coming back with us?" The General sounded a little doubtful, in Samantha Carter's opinion. Quite justified, of course - when they had set out to recover the missing former slaves of Apophis, Queen Angella had been quite forceful in her refusal to talk, much less come with the group. Things had apparently changed drastically in their absence.

"What made her change her opinion?" Daniel asked.

"We had a talk," Catra said.

"They had a fight," Adora added.

"It wasn't a fight!" Catra protested. "Whatever - the point is, Angella is coming back with us. Probably as soon as she and Glimmer finish their own talk." She shrugged. "Then we can finally leave this dimension behind."

"But it's such an interesting dimension! Anything is possible here! You can alter the very fabric of reality with a thought!" Entrapta piped up.

"Like Jack demonstrated when he created a signpost as a joke," Daniel said with a wry smile.

"Ah." Adora nodded.

"But that's just scratching the surface," Entrapta said. "You could do that with magic in our dimension. Castaspella could probably teach you a spell for that." Sam noted that the General stopped grinning at hearing that. "Or a magitech device that created materials out of the available molecules in the air or something," Entrapta went on. "But here, we can change the laws of physics - the fundamental rules that define the universe - with our minds! Imagine what we could do if we change the gravitational constant into a variable!"

Sam did - and struggled not to wince at the potential consequences. "I fear that we lack the necessary data to conduct such an experiment in a safe manner."

Everyone else except for Entrapta grimaced.

Entrapta, though, nodded. "Yes! Which is why we will have to run many experiments here to gather data - we can build up safely to the major experiments. Well, mostly safely - some risks remain, of course, because we're breaking new ground. And, I guess, because the entire dimension is so malleable. Even small distractions could ruin our data."

Or our lives, Sam thought, smiling weakly. "That would take a long time, though," she pointed out. "And we have many other, urgent projects we have to finish."

Entrapta blinked. "Right. Hordak and Loki wouldn't be happy if we just dropped the research into their projects. And neither would be the Alliance, I guess, if we stopped research and development. Although! If we could use this dimension to research things…"

"That would have to be done safely," Sam reminded her. "Which would take a long time."

Entrapta sighed. "I guess so."

The General clapped his hands together. "So, no unravelling the universe for now! Neither this one nor our own!"

Sam nodded in agreement. Although Entrapta was correct about the potential this dimension offered to research. Maybe once the war against the Go'auld was over, they could pursue this. Although… "We will have to keep this dimension under surveillance, though. We have to assume that Apophis is aware of what kind of research was done here." Even if Taweret might have tried to hide it, he would have had spies amongst the Jaffa to inform him. "And while we have taken control of Beta and captured Taweret, we cannot exclude the possibility that Apophis will attempt to continue those experiments."

"Great." The General sighed. "We'll have to find a way to observe a dimension where our mere presence will change it."

"That's not actually that uncommon," Daniel commented. "Especially when interacting with another culture."

"Or in physics," Sam added. Although the observer effect usually wasn't as massive - and dangerous - as it was here.

"Right. So, let's think about that. Once we are back home," the General said.

"Well, we can keep scanning for foreign visitors to this dimension," Entrapta said. "That wouldn't be very exciting, though - and it would be unfair to Beta if she were limited to observing and couldn't do any experimenting."

"Oh, yeah. We don't want the mad scientist bot to grow bored, do we?" The General nodded.

He was using sarcasm, but Sam nodded in agreement. "I fear Beta might show some, ah, initiative if she were bored."

"Right. Carter, find a way to keep the bot busy without breaking our universe, OK?"

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, there's lots Beta can help us with!" Entrapta cheered. "We've got so many projects, she is bound to find something she likes!"

"Yeah…" The General gave Sam a look, and she nodded again.

Message received.

"Though…" Entrapta frowned. "If Angella's coming with us, what about her people here?"

"They're not real people. They're like dumb bots," Catra said with a shrug.

Entrapta frowned at her. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't care about them! We can't just abandon them!"

The General looked like he disagreed with that opinion. As did Catra. But Sam wasn't sure. "We don't know how sentient or sapient they are," she said.

"Exactly!" Entrapta beamed at her. "We need to know more before we just… leave them to fade." She frowned again. "No one should be left alone to slowly disappear like that."

It might be a case of anthropomorphism, influenced by her contact with Alpha, Beta and Emily, but Sam had to agree with that. And Adora seemed to have some doubts as well.

"They wouldn't be alone," Catra objected. "They would be all together."

"But without Angella," Entrapta retorted, shaking her head. "Their queen. Their mom, in a way."

"If they might be sapient - or even just sentient - then we can't just abandon them," Daniel said. "That would be cruel."

"That's something the Goa'uld would do," Sha're added.

Teal'c nodded curtly.

The General sighed again.

Catra rolled her eyes and leaned against the parked skiff. "Would you want Angella to stay here for the rest of her life then? Huh?"

"Well…" Entrapta frowned. "That wouldn't be fair. But she's responsible for them since she created them. You can't just make a bot and then abandon them."

"She also created the Horde here - and then had all of them executed," Catra pointed out.

Daniel winced at that, as did Sam, but Entrapta nodded. "She did. And that wasn't right. You shouldn't create something just to destroy it. Except when it's a target dummy, of course. But you don't make target dummies that could feel - that would be really wrong. Anyway! Just because it was wrong to create the Horde and then destroy it doesn't mean that abandoning this Etheria is OK."

Adora nodded. "Two wrongs don't make a right."

Catra clenched her teeth. "We don't even know if those people can feel anything." Or if they were actually people. "They didn't react like real people would have - you know that; we fought them."

"People with cognitive limitations are still people," Daniel objected. He pushed his glasses up his nose. "And they did feel pain."

Briefly, Catra thought. She didn't say that out loud, of course. This was already a tense discussion. And Adora was getting worked up - Catra could tell. Well, more worked up; her love was already worked up about Catra's talk with Angella. She pushed the guilt she felt for worrying Adora away. "Or they just acted like they were expected to. Like simulations. For training." Like the enemies they had been facing during cadet training.

"Well…" Daniel smiled in that 'apologetic way of his that told Catra she wouldn't like what he was saying. "If the simulation is good enough to look real, how can we tell it apart from real feelings?"

"That's a good question!" Entrapta nodded. "If they were bots, we could analyse their decision matrices and check if they feel something or just follow their programming. But that's a bit tricky here - we might be influencing the results by changing them as we examine them. Without realising it." She blinked. "Oh, and it would also be difficult since they aren't bots with a decision matrix but people with a brain."

"It would be very unethical," Sam agreed.

"And if we cannot determine if they are sentient, we have to assume they are. Anything else wouldn't be ethical," Daniel said.

"Why is the ethical answer always the one that creates more problems?" Jack complained.

"Do we actually know if they will fade without Angella?" Adora asked, biting her lower lip.

"No, we don't," Entrapta said. "Not for sure. But our data does indicate that without an external, meaning a foreign sapient influence shaping it, over time, this dimension returns to its basic undetermined state. At least, we haven't noticed anyone created here affecting the dimension as we do. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that our scanners aren't calibrated to detect such a hypothetical influence."

"Without proof of that, we still have to assume that they don't have such a stabilising influence on their surroundings." Sam sounded as if she didn't like that any more than Catra did.

And while she was right, the conclusion was still wrong. "Angella is the only one to stabilise this world," Catra said. "Should she be trapped here just because we can't be sure that the people here are people?"

Adora opened her mouth, only to close it after a second without saying anything. Idiot.

None of the others said anything either. Typical.

"We cannot demand this of her," Daniel said after a moment.

"Why not?" Catra shrugged. "If she's responsible for them, and we can't assume that they are just bots, and she's the only one to save them from fading away…?" She trailed off and raised her eyebrows at him. "Or are we just expecting her to sacrifice herself for this world instead of demanding it?" Sacrifice herself again.

Once more, everyone was silent for a moment.

"And what if the people here are just… programmed figments or something?" Jack added. "She'd sacrifice herself for nothing."

"That's a good point," Daniel said hesitantly. "Staying here, alone, surrounded by her own creations, isn't healthy. Would it be ethical to expect Angella to sacrifice her own mental health based on the mere assumption that her creations are sentient?"

No, Catra thought. That would render her efforts to talk sense into Angella pointless.

"But what if they are?" Entrapta asked. "They act like they are."

"We need to find out," Adora said.

"But how?" Sam asked. "This dimension's unique circumstances render a Turing Test useless since the test subjects are directly or indirectly linked to a sapient mind."

"And even if they aren't sapient, they could still be sentient," Daniel pointed out.

"So are animals, but we eat them," Jack retorted.

Catra bit her lower lip. This was… There was something… she almost had it. Ah! "They're not like animals," she said.

"Of course not," Adora said.

Catra frowned at her. "No, I mean… they weren't just created by Angella - they're still linked to her. When we started talking to her, the guards, the copies, they didn't react. Do you think Angella created them like that? With such a… a blind spot? Or did she change them as soon as we started talking?"

"Oh!" Entrapta tilted her head. "She wouldn't have programmed them like that when she created them since she wouldn't have expected such a situation. Or would she?"

"It's not impossible, but… unlikely, I think," Sam said.

Yes. Catra nodded. "So, if their minds, their personality, can be changed on a whim, especially their memories, are they truly people? Or just, like, extensions of Angella's thoughts?"

"Manipulating someone's memories doesn't rob them of their personhood," Daniel objected.

"But what if they don't have a personality without someone imagining it?" Catra retorted. "If they fade without Angella, and they were created by Angella, and constantly adapted by her imagination…" She gestured at their surroundings. "That sounds like a dream that fades when you wake up."

"How poetic," Jack commented. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he shrugged. "But a good point. It's like we're in someone's dream, and talk about not letting them wake up so the dream never fades."

"That's stretching things quite a bit," Daniel said. "A dream we can interact with, and affect without imagination."

"That's still a dream." Jack grinned. "And you can't keep dreaming forever."

"It's still a hypothesis," Daniel pointed out. "Based on our assumptions."

He was right, technically, but the more Catra thought about this, the surer she was that this was sort of a dream. A dimension formed by your imagination, lasting only as long as you thought about it - as long as you were present. As long as your mind was occupied with it.

Yes, that was like a dream. And no matter what you were dreaming, sooner or later, you had to wake up.

"But…" Entrapta looked distraught. "Even if they aren't real people, they still act and think as if they have real feelings, even if they need Angella for that. And they will react to Angella leaving. Especially if it takes time for them to fade."

"Angella can change them so they don't react," Catra said.

"That wouldn't be right either!" Entrapta protested. "They would be left like that for… days, maybe weeks depending on how long it takes established structures and forms to fade here - we still haven't worked out if the age of the changes affects this."

"Angella leaving with us isn't something that they wouldn't expect," Adora said. "Princesses leave their kingdom to visit others. That's normal."

"But they wouldn't be cut off from any contact," Entrapta said. "Not since we invented communicators. Here, Angella would effectively vanish. And they couldn't contact her if they start fading."

"Well, then it would be Glimmer's - the copy's - problem," Catra muttered. "She's her successor."

"That's not how…" Adora trailed off. "What if we copy Angella?"

Catra blinked. Now, that would solve this stupid problem, wouldn't it?

"You want to make a copy of me?"

Queen Angella didn't sound very enthusiastic in Jack O'Neill's opinion. He wouldn't have been, either, if someone wanted to make a copy of himself. Especially if it was a snake or Loki.

Entrapta, though, nodded with a beaming smile. "Yes! So this world still has an Angella when you're gone - I mean, when you're gone with us."

"Just in case your, ah, world depends on you," Adora added. Her smile was obviously forced. "So your copy either keeps it stable, or…" She trailed off and bit her lower lip.

Catra rolled her eyes. "Or keeps them company while they disappear with the entire world."

Jack almost snorted. At least Catra didn't hide what she thought about the entire affair.

Angella glared at her, then at the rest of the group. "And what do you expect will happen?"

"We don't know," Carter replied. "There are multiple potential outcomes and we cannot say which is the most likely."

"So you are hedging your bets?" Angella raised her eyebrows. "Do you think I might not leave if I fear that the entire world will fade without my presence? Or do you assume I will not return if there's already a replacement present here?"

"What?" Entrapta looked genuinely surprised. "No! We just thought about the people here."

Yeah, Jack was sure that this had never crossed her mind. The others, though… Adora, of course, only now realised how this looked, but Catra definitely had thought about this part. Daniel looked guilty and embarrassed for getting caught, not shocked, and Sha're looked as if she expected that.

Glimmer, though, scowled. "What do you mean, returning here?"

Angella turned to stare at her. "Do not take my decision for granted, Glimmer."

"You can't leave us again!" Glimmer blurted out. "You can't!"

Angella flinched. "I am not planning to," she said, sounding more than a little guilty. "I was just commenting on this… plan of yours."

"I didn't know about that plan either!" Glimmer protested.

"We came up with that to ensure that we don't abandon the people here," Entrapta told her. "It was the best we could think of, based on the data we have."

"Making a copy of me was the best you could think of?" Angella frowned at her.

"You made a copy of everyone else," Catra cut in. "So, it's not as if it's something special." Angella glared at her but Catra shrugged. "Goose, gander, you know."

"Do what you want. I will not take part in it." Angella walked past them, to the edge of the small area that served as their camp at Bright Moon.

Glimmer shot them a look and turned to follow her, but Catra reached out. "Stay! You know her best."

"What?"

"We need you to help with this," Catra explained. "Or we'll get a weird copy."

"Making a copy of my mom is weird already!"

"She made a copy of you."

"That doesn't make it any better!" Glimmer snapped.

"Just imagine Angella as you remember her," Entrapta spoke up. "We all do that. Then we should be able to create her."

"Or we end up with a mad goddess," Jack commented.

"That would only be the result if we imagine her as such, Jack," Daniel told him.

Well, from, his brief acquaintance with her, she seemed mad enough for two queens to Jack. He didn't say that, though. This was already taking too long. "Let's do this, then," he said instead.

Most of the others closed their eyes. Jack didn't. He just tried to think of Angella, but nicer. Like Adora. Not as powerful, though. Just in case.

Minutes passed without anything happening. Jack was about to make a comment about plans failing when suddenly, a sparkling cloud appeared in the middle of the group, bright enough to make him curse and shield his eyes.

By the time he managed to see more than colourful spots, Angella stood there. Smiling kindly.

"Glimmer. It's been so long!" And she hugged her. "So, you've finally found your missing mother! And you'll take her home with you! I am so happy for you!"

"Ah, yes…" Glimmer's smile looked more like a grimace. As did Adora's. Entrapta was looking at her scanner. Bow was looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

Well, Jack shared the sentiment. This Angella was creepy. Like some Stepford Wife Queen. He turned and walked over to stand near Angella.

The real queen didn't even glance back at her copy, though he was sure she had noticed her appearance - she couldn't have missed the blinding light.

But she didn't say anything, and neither did Jack. They just stood there, waiting, until he heard steps behind him and turned to see Adora approaching them.

"Uh… we're ready to return. The, ah, copy has gone to the palace," she said.

"Very well." Angella nodded with a cool expression.

"Do you, ah, want to say goodbye to…"

"No." Angella cut her off. "Let us finally be off."

"Yeah." Jack had had his fill of this creepy copycat dimension. "Let's go home."

He was already reaching for the communicator to call the base when they started to walk over to the rest of the group.

A minute later, the world around them faded, and they found themselves back in Beta's main chamber. Hordak was peering at them through some sort of scanner, with Beta hovering behind him.

And Jack had never been as happy as to enter an Ancient research base as right now. The base was run by a crazy and creepy AI, their experiments were morally and ethically questionable, but at least the crew were real people, not figments, and reality wasn't reacting to stray thoughts as if you were God.

Jack had had his fill of gods as well.