Chapter Text
Glimmer startled at the soft knock on her door. It was already four in the morning, and she should be asleep but her mom had a briefing tomorrow. While the queen had technically told Glimmer that she couldn’t step a foot into the meeting, Glimmer had some battle ideas and suggestions she wanted to pitch. Besides she wouldn't be able to sleep anyways. The desk she was sitting at was covered with papers and diagrams that were scribbled and crumpled up showing her lack of progress.
She quickly teleports to the door expecting it to be Angella telling her to try to sleep, but to her surprise it was "Adora!" Glimmer exclaimed. "It's four a.m. what are you doing up?!"
The blonde was in pajamas and was rubbing her neck sheepishly. "Uhm, couldn't sleep." Glimmer opened her door allowing Adora to come in and she perched herself on top of her desk while Adora sat cross-legged on the ground.
"What about you?" She cocked her head to the side, ponytail swinging with the motion. "Why are you up?"
Glimmer picked up a package of sweets on her desk and started chewing. "You know how my mom has that meeting tomorrow?" She held the bag out for Adora.
"Oh! No actually I forgot." Adora took a handful. "Isn't it with the other leaders of the rebellion. Like mayor's of towns and stuff?"
Glimmer nods. "Yeah, the Princess' Alliance can't come due to the 'possibility of backlash',” Glimmer imitates her mom’s stern accent horribly and Adora snorts. “But," she gestured behind her at the chaotic desk. "That doesn't mean I can't give my mom some ideas."
"Do you need help with any? I don't think I can go back to bed for a while." Adora offers.
Glimmer shrugs and moves herself, the bag of candy, and the piles of papers to the floor. She and Adora start working, bouncing pitches off one another and comparing formations. There's a lapse in conversation until Adora speaks again, this time sounding serious.
"Do you ...think people can change?" Adora's staring down at the floor as she continues. "Truly I mean, like no wanting the old way of life back or anything?"
Glimmer looks up to meet Adora’s eyes but they stubbornly stay on the ground. Glimmer gives up after a few seconds and quips back. "You did, didn't you?"
"I mean yeah but I still feel kind of lost, ya know? Like something is just gone." Adora picks at her nails while speakings, still not looking in Glimmers eyes. When she finally looks up her eyes are shining. "I don't regret leaving the Horde, they did so many awful things and are still killing people but... I just wish things could be different.
"I never got to grow up out of war, and I don't know who I am, but I feel like She-Ra is who I was meant to be. So once the war ends... T-there would be no more use for me." Adora shifts away from Glimmer to hide the wetness in her eyes gathering but the tears won and she collapsed into small sobs. “I-I’m sorry. I d-didn’t want to burden you with this and I’m supposed to be the strong one-”
“Adora!-” Glimmer tries to interrupt but Adora rambles on.
“How can I save anyone if I’m so weak, theonlythingIwasmadeforandIcan’TEVENDO IT!”
"Adora, that's not true at all!" Glimmer takes Adora's hand in hers and gives a comforting squeeze. "You are useful. You’re allowed to show emotion and after the war, if nothing else we'll still be friends!" She starts to rub Adora’s back to calm her down and loosen up her stiff muscles, slowly but surely her hiccups calm down a little and her breathing is only a bit raspy.
Glimmer takes a minute to think of what she wants to say before talking again. But when she speaks she says so with such finality that Adora can't help but listen and hopefully believe.
"Look," she begins, "I don't know what it was like to grow up in the Horde, and I never will. But I know what it's like to grow up in a time of war, and I know what it's like to mourn someone lost in that war. The Horde killed my father and I promised myself that if I ever saw a Horde soldier I would kill them on sight.
"But then you came along and showed me that not only was the Horde hurting those who opposed to them, but they were abusing and manipulating their own people. Anyone under the Hordes rule except that damn bastard Hordak himself can change. They just have to learn that what they are doing is wrong, and that isn't that hard of a thing to do. I mean you did it!"
Adora chuckles at the diss and throws a wrapper at Glimmers head. "You're right. I did."
Adora leaves a while after that, despite Glimmer telling her it’s okay to stay the night, but stays long enough for them to talk and gossip, the work forgotten on the floor.
When Glimmers door shuts she finds it alot easier to fall asleep and silently thanks Adora for being a friend with her despite both of their flaws.
The next morning, after she dropped the papers of to one of her mom's correspondents, Glimmer makes her way to Adora's room. She walks with Bow and they converse back and forth about anything on their minds.
“How’s Perfuma, by the way?" Glimmer asks. "I haven't seen her since the battle recon."
"She's okay, still dealing with Entraptas death though." Bow sighs and slumps his shoulders. "I wish I knew how to make her feel less sad, you know? I don't know what to say or do, nothing ever feels right."
"Hmm, I'm sorry. Next time you talk to her you can tell her to reach out to me. I haven't had to deal with loss often and everyone experiences it differently but I might be able to help."
Bow brightens up immediately. "Really Glimmer? I'm sure that would help!" He stops outside of Adora’s door and knocks as chipper as usual.
"You know what they say, 'any girl friend of Bows is a girlfriend of mine'". Glimmers face turns red once she hears what she said. "I swear that sounded better in my head…”
Bow snickers at her expense and Glimmer just blushes harder. "S-shut up!" She knocks on the door a little forcefully wondering why Adora hasn't answered yet.
After about thirty seconds, which in their defence felt like an eternity, the duo is both impatient and worried. Worried enough to open the door without permission.
"Adora?" Bow hesitantly called out as Glimmer creaks open the door. “Are you awake?”
Glimmer gives him a look after there’s once again no answer. Both Bow and glimmer had to deal with Adora being woken up at every little sound, it’s insufferable at sleepovers, and her outbursts when she’s surprised.
(Glimmer almost had a nose fraction for walking up behind her. They teased Adora about it for weeks but she knew Adora didn’t mean to hurt her.
“Adora, it’s reflex. I don’t hold it against you or anything!” But she wouldn’t listen to her and forced Glimmer to sit down so she could clean the blood off and “make sure it wasn’t broken”.
She ended up nursing over her so much that she teleported out of the bathroom.)
The silence is incredibly out of character and Glimmers mind jumps to the worst case scenario: she was killed or kidnapped by the Horde. For a second she considers the possibility that this was a trap and entering the room would trigger some sort of reaction but her reckless nature won out.
Bow didn’t have his weapons on him and after Glimmer’s exasperated look he took one of the spears off the castle walls and nodded. Energy crackled around Glimmers wrists and then she teleported into the room, Bow entered the door behind her spear ready.
What the two found was shocking to say the least. Adora was sleeping on the floor, not a first time occurence, and was snoring, again not a first time occurance. Glimmer’s eyes rushed to Adora only to find that she didn’t have any injuries and her chest was moving.
“Oh thank god!” Glimmer near-shouted in relief.
“Oh my god!”
Glimmer looked towards the frightened shriek to find Bow’s eyes comically wide. She followed his gaze and-Oh my god is that blood.
There was a trail of bloody clothes, footprints and the sticky substance itself all around the room. The most of it was concentrated around the bathtub in the corner of the room-thank god!- but the sight was still sickening.
After making absolutely sure that Adora was alive and unharmed, Glimmer and Bow slowly made their way to the blanket on the floor. Not wanting to sustain another injury due to waking her up Bow pokes her with the dull side of his spear.
Adora shoots up, making Bow and Glimmer scream at the suddenness and the steel staff that was in Bow’s hand was now bent in half. All of them breathe heavily for a minute before Adora bolts to her feet looking around the room. She sees the blood and relaxes a little, why is a mystery. Who would relax when they saw that much blood, Glimmer says to herself.
Before Glimmer could finish the thought Adora grabs her sword and runs out of her room, almost flattening herself against a wall. Bow and Glimmer stare after her in shock than look at eachother.
“What is her problem?” Bow asks as Glimmer says “Is she okay?”
They both run after her down the long hallways.
They don’t necessarily catch her. Adora skids to a stop when they are only a few yards behind her and gazes at the door with a fear in her face. She grimaces while looking at her sword looking like she’s psycing herself up to do something. She transforms into She-ra just as Glimmer and Bow finish their dash down the hallway.
She-ra takes a deep breath and enters the room, Bow and Glimmer walked behind her. Glimmers eyes scan the room and she finds that the entrance they made wasn't exactly the most subtle and they had eyes on then from all directions. Her mother cut off what ever she was saying to reluctantly look at them.
The silence dragged on before Glimmer realized they're supposed to introduce themselves and Adora cuts her off before she could.
"Excuse my tardiness. I am She-ra Princess of Power." She points to her and Bow. "This is Princess Glimmer, Field Marshal. And Colonel Bowingtin. I felt I should be present to this meeting along with my comrades." She-ra finds a place to sit and Bow and Glimmer follow her.
"Now that there are no more interruptions..." Her mom starts talking again and Glimmer notices with pride that she's using the graghs she made last night. Glimmer times in to what she's saying and realizes she's using her strategy too.
She focus' back on Adora though quickly because despite the act she pulled while introducing them her hands in her lap won't stop fluttering and her eyes kept scanning the room. When a member of the neighboring cities council asks a question, Glimmer takes the opportunity to ask one of her own.
She leans in and whispers, "What are you looking for?" into Adoras higher than normal ear. She-ras eyes stare back at her.
She gives a slight shake of the head and all Glimmer can do is trust her judgement. She relaxes into her seat and tunes back in before immediently getting bored again and starting a tic-tac-toe game with Bow. They were on their third game (a tie breaker) before the door slams open once more.
"Why does the universe not want me to have this meeting?" Queen Angella muses before turning around and seeing who barged in. She drops the pointer she was using to gesture.
"Guards!"
Catra is standing in the doorway, completely calm despite having spears and swords pointed at her neck. Glimmer looks at her incrediloisly before immediently looking away face red.
She's wearing one of the castle robes with NOTHING UNDERNEATH IT. Granted it was closed and went to mid-knee but Glimmers face still lit up bright red and she imagined it stayed that way for quite awhile. She-ra stood up next to her. "Your majesty," She addressed Angella. "You may want to hear this."
The queen looked at her sceptically before yelling at the guards. "Cuff her then search the castle for any sign of the Horde, I am not having another invasion—"
"Your majesty," Catra drawled moving closer despite the guards' weapons. "I wouldn't bother. I'm on the Hordes hit list just as much as you. I have some information I risked my life for. About their plan and how to stop it. At this point you should just hear what I have to say."
The queen glanced around the room once more before deciding. "Fine but—the order still stands. Demobilize her and search the castle." She looks at Catra. "If the Horde knows your here, we're double the target. It cannot come to that."
Catra grins while the metal slabs get locked on her wrists and then onto a chair.
"I think it's time we talk."