Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s… familiar, somehow, that red hot lightning jolt of pain as Shadow Weaver brings her hands to Adora’s temples, fingers crackling with the power of the Black Garnet, but she can’t think about that, can’t think about that right now, she just needs to keep her out and if not out, then just remember, remember, remember--

Glimmer. Bow. Bright Moon.

Glimmer. Bow. Bright Moon.

Glimmer. Bow. Bright Moon. Glim--

Oh, Adora. Haven’t we been over this before? Such simple things as “repetition” could never keep me out. But of course, you don’t remember that, either, do you, my dear?

She can’t think about that, she can’t even begin to think about that, there’s too much, too many things that are so much more important than that. She just needs to think, just needs to hold on. She needs to keep it, keep them safe no matter what, because some things are just too important to lose--

Glimmer. Bow. Bright Moon.

Glimmer. Bow. Bright Moon.

Glimmer. Bow. Bright--

“AGHHHH!”

Suddenly, Adora screams. Vaguely, she is aware of Glimmer on the other side of the room, shooting sparks and struggling with all her might against the bonds of the Black Garnet, but that’s, she can’t, Glimmer can’t get hurt, this is all her fault, and it hurts, it hurts so much--

And that’s all Shadow Weaver needs, apparently; she merely toyed with her before, let Adora think her stupid little tool was working, even when she’d already been told it wouldn’t, that it hadn’t worked before, that there even was a before, and that it had never worked before and--

Focus! Just focus, Adora! You can do this, you can still keep her out--

Sickening laughter echoes in her brain.

Adora, darling, there has never been a part of you I have been unable to reach. Have I taught you nothing? It is useless to struggle against me. You belong to me.

Get! Out! Of! My! Head! Adora think-shouts.

All she hears in response is more laughter.

Glimmer. Bow. Bright Moon.

Glimmer. Bow. Bright Moon.

Glimmer. Bow. Bright…

Bright what?

What could be bright here, where everything was so dark dark dark and red red red and everything, everything hurt, everything everything everything--

And wouldn’t it be so much easier if she just…. stopped? Stopped fighting, stopped caring, stopped struggling.

Shadow Weaver was here, and she had always cared for her, protected her, molded her into what she would become, helped her live up to her full potential?

What potential? She hasn’t even gone to Force Captain Orientation yet, that's tomorrow but there was something…. important.

A sword. The Whispering Woods. A flash of light, and giant metal spiders, and a…. party, and friends, she had friends, and…. maybe something else? Something warm and bright and so full of life, new and terrifying and unfamiliar but addicting and sweet all at the same time--

Oh my, I had suspected as much. Tsk, tsk, Adora. I had expected so much better of you, certainly after the… scolding I had to give you after that incident with Catra. You know that I have great plans in store for you already, my dear.

Catra? What incident with Catra? What did this have to do with Catra? She wasn’t there, wasn’t part of the… She’d gone back to the woods alone, hadn’t she?

Wait, no she hadn't. She has Force Captain Orientation tomorrow, she wouldn’t dare go off alone, she wouldn’t go anywhere without Catra. And she wouldn’t even dream of sneaking out and disappointing Shadow Weaver, not after the amazing opportunity she’s given her.

Doesn’t she have everything she’s always wanted, ever since she was old enough to want anything?

But there’s something more, she wanted…

There was a… dance, and something called a ‘makeover,’ and she just wanted to get her crush’s mind off of…. who?

What?

There was something, no someone, so important, so very very important, and it was right there, just out of her reach, if only she could just--

Enough of this, Adora! Must we play this game every time? I’ve had enough of your childish obstinance--

Shadow Weaver lets out a choked sound as a… princess suddenly appears at her shoulder and with a battle cry and a flash of light, knocks her out with one punch.

And then she’s sobbing and hugging Adora desperately, undoing the restraints?! Why was she in restraints, and why was this… princess hugging her, and why were they even in Shadow Weaver’s chambers at all? She knew better than that, ever since they were kids she’d known that, it’s a rule, and if she breaks the rules there will be punishment.

“Adora!” the princess cries desperately. “Are you okay? Do you know who I am?”  

“Important,” Adora mumbles, still in a daze. “You’re important .”

“What’s my name? Adora, stay with me, we’ll get out of here, but you have to tell me my name! You still remember me, please say you still remember me!” the princess begs, and Adora wants nothing more than to tell her, yes, of course, how could I forget?

“You’re…” Everything, her mind supplies, but that’s not a name, that’s an...impression, a feeling. This girl, this princess, is so very, very important to her, in a way that’s making her heart clutch and skip in her chest, but there’s nothing else there, nothing more than a feeling. Of warmth, of light, of importance, and a fierce protectiveness that’s suddenly rearing its head.

Safe, this person is safe, and nothing matters more than making sure she's safe--

“You’re hurt!” Adora says instead, stumbling forward and grabbing onto the princess by the shoulders. “I’m so sorry, I--I get the feeling that this is all my fault. And you’re hurt, and that’s--”

The worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life, sinking, sickening dread, her stomach falling into her boots as her heart is leaping into her throat, with anger red-hot like a burning coal with shouts of who did this? Who did this to you, you who is so, so, so precious to me?

“...horrible. You’re so hurt,” she finishes, blinking back tears of her own.

“I’m fine!” the princess protests. “But you’re not! You really don’t remember me, do you!” she exclaims, sniffling and wiping off her face. “She-- Shadow Weaver really did that. I was too late, she wiped your mind, I’m so sorry Adora, I was too late--Are you, are you going to try and take me prisoner now? I don’t want to fight you, Adora, you’re my friend!” she wails.

“I, uh, I don’t think either of us are in any shape to fight,” Adora stammers, stumbling back against the rack she’d been strapped to, head spinning. She wants to comfort this girl, she really, really does, but why? She’s a princess, isn’t she? That means she’s her enemy, but here she is, crying for her, comforting her, and she's calling her by name, calling her her friend . Why?

And… she saved her, Adora thinks. Her head hurts, and everything feels so confusing and wrong, and Shadow Weaver did that, held her against her will and, and did something to her, something awful. And….it wasn’t the first time, either; she can remember that, that Shadow Weaver had gleefully admitted as much.

“We shouldn’t… We shouldn’t stay here. Shadow Weaver’s not… great even at the best of times. We don’t want to be here when she wakes up,” Adora suggests, offering the princess her hand. “I’m sorry I don’t know you. I think I should. I’m Adora, by the way,” she adds, then shakes her head, blinking her eyes tight in consternation. “But you already knew that.”

The princess offers her a sad smile, chuckling softly as she wipes away more tears. “Yeah, I do. It’s Glimmer, I’m Glimmer. And we’re-- we were best friends.”

Adora frowns. Something about what Glimmer’s saying feels right, slots something into place in her chest, but it doesn’t… it doesn’t add up. She shakes her head. That can wait til later.

Adora doesn’t know what to do with that, so she changes the subject instead, taking Glimmer by the arm and leading her out of Shadow Weaver’s chamber.

“You need medical attention,” she blurts out. Because Glimmer is covered in burns, and singes, and tiny scratches, and her dress is in tatters.

Glimmer shakes her head, wrapping her arm around Adora’s waist, leaning into her. (It feels really, really nice.) “That can wait until we get back to Bright Moon. We need to get out of here.”

Adora stops in her tracks. “We? Bright Moon? But that’s the main rebel base, why would we--why did you say we? Why would I be friends with a princess, Glimmer?”

Glimmer’s face falls. “I know you don’t, that you can’t remember but… We’re friends, Adora. You’re a princess, too. And just like me, you’re part of the Rebellion, too.”

“But that can’t be right, I would never--” Adora starts.

“Even after everything Shadow Weaver’s done to you?” Glimmer demands, suddenly indignant. “She hurt you! She just tried to--she just wiped your mind, Adora! And you’re just okay with that?”

“No!” Adora shouts, feeling like her head’s about to burst. “Nothing is okay! And I don’t know--I don’t know you! Except I do! And there’s something about you that I know and that feels right and that I kind of--”

Love, she almost says, but breaks herself off, choking her voice in her throat. Adora sighs.

“Look, I don’t know you. But you… You made whatever Shadow Weaver was doing to me stop, and I’m grateful for that.”  Though she has a sinking feeling that whatever happens once Shadow Weaver wakes up and finds her again, is going to be so, so, so much worse. It always is.

(It is? How do I know that? Shadow Weaver loves you, raised you, made you everything you are. Right? She would never--right? But just now she--)

Adora can’t continue that train of thought.

“I don’t… I don’t not believe you, Glimmer. I’ll help you if I can, because you look like… you’ve been through a lot. And you helped me. But I can’t… I can’t just leave the Horde because you say so, no matter who you are. This is everything I know. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not leaving you here with--with these monsters, Adora. I’m not leaving without you,” Glimmer protests.

“Then I guess you’re not gonna be leaving at all, princess,” drawls a familiar voice. “Because as much as I’d like you gone, it sounds like ol’ Shadow Weaver really did a number on poor little Adora here.”

Catra’s waiting at the end of the hall, nonchalantly flipping her grip around an enormous, teched up sword with a golden, winged hilt. “Hey, Adora.”

Chapter Text

The alarms haven’t sounded yet in this portion of the base, but Adora knows they’re bound to start soon. Shadow Weaver won’t be knocked out forever, and when she wakes up, things are going to get ugly and fast.

But urgency comes second to Catra’s flair for the dramatic, because of course it does. She always has to make an entrance.

Catra flips the hilt of the golden-winged sword again while Glimmer watches her with murder in her eyes. Just when Adora thinks the princess is going to jump her best friend, (and really, she’s not sure whose side she should even take if it came to a fight,) Catra points the sword at her, hilt first, and makes Glimmer an offer.

“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re gonna do, Sparkles. But you’d better do it fast. Either you take Brain-Drain over there and run off with all your other little princess friends, or we’re going to have to come to some other…” Catra runs her claws along the edge of the blade, “ ...arrangement. ”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Adora protests, and Catra spares her another glance just to roll her eyes at her.

“I forgot how annoying you are after your sessions with Shadow Weaver. You’re usually pretty dense but,” Catra cuts her off when Adora tries to protest again, flicking the sword up and holding the point an inch away from Adora’s face, stopping her short.

“You’re always stupider when you come out. So what’s it gonna be, dumbass? Are you gonna crawl back to Shadow Weaver, just like old times, or are you going to listen to Sparkles over here and grow a spine for once in your life?”

Adora shoves the sword out of her face. “What do you mean, ‘just like old times?’ What ‘ sessions?’ What are you even talking about?”

Catra shoves her back, knocking a still-unsteady Adora off her feet. “Poor, sweet, stupid Adora. Shadow Weaver really did do a number on you, didn’t she. You see, things have changed around here. Now I’m the Force Captain, so why don’t you sit down and let the grown ups do the talking?”

She turns to Glimmer, addressing her as if Adora isn’t even there. “Clock’s ticking, Sparkles. The alarms are gonna go off any minute now, and trust me: you thought Shadow Weaver was bad before? You do not wanna be here when she finds out you’ve escaped.”

“What are you up to, Catra? What’s your angle here?” Glimmer demands as she offers Adora a hand up. “This is all your fault that we’re in this mess! Why should we listen to anything you have to say?”

“What is going on?” Adora snarls, leaning on Glimmer’s shoulder once she’s back on her feet, and is once again resolutely ignored.

“Tick-tock, princess,” Catra sing-songs. “Your friends are just outside, and they’re going to get caught up in the zone-wide lockdown if you don’t get them. Think your cute little princess conscience can live with that, if all your friends get trapped or killed here because of you?”

“No!” Glimmer shouts back. She hugs her arms tight to her chest, suddenly unsure. “I don’t--no one else should get hurt because of me. I’ve caused them enough trouble. Just tell me what you want, Catra!”

“Nothing too much,” Catra drawls, slinging the sword over her shoulder and offering Glimmer a hand to shake. “You go out there and tell your friends to go home and to not send your mommy running in after you, and then you and Doofus over there come lay low where I tell you to. Simple enough for you, Sparkles?”

Glimmer glares, but stiffly shakes Catra’s hand anyway. “Fine! Just help me get them out safe! And then… then we can deal with whatever’s going on with Adora.”

Catra chuckles. “I just knew you’d come around, Sparkles.”

She motions down the hall. “Around this corner, there’s another exit to the airfield where your little sidekicks are waiting,” Catra says, just as the klaxons sound and red lights start flashing all through the corridor. “Better be fast.”

No one takes guard duty in Shadow Weaver’s portion of the base, Adora remembers that-- but a base wide alert like this will have at least one patrol heading this way to check, if not more.

“I… I’ll help you with whatever it is you want to do, Glimmer,” Adora says softly. “I think… I think I owe you that much. But I’m not leaving with you, if that’s what you’re after.”

“ARRRRGGHHHH!” Glimmer groans. “No! Fine! I get that! Just… Come with me, and then we’re going with Catra to figure all of this out.” She rounds on Catra. “If you… If you break your word, or do anything weird to Adora, I swear I’ll make you regret it.”

Catra yawns, because of course she does: Catra has one superpower, and it is making herself as obnoxious as possible. “I’m shaking in my boots, princess. Really.” She pauses, making a big show of glancing down at her bare feet. “Oh wait, I’m not wearing any,” she snarks.

Glimmer groans again in exasperation and then starts tugging Adora off towards the exit, stopping only to shout “I hate you,” as she passes Catra.

Around the corner and down a hall miraculously still free of patrols, they come to face a heavy metal door and Glimmer stops short.

They stand in silence for a few seconds before Glimmer sighs and tilts her head toward it, motioning for Adora to open it.

“Oh, um, right. I’ll get right on that,” Adora stammers, immediately jumping to attention. Technically, she’s still betraying the Horde right now.

Technically.

But it’s not like she could just turn on Glimmer after she punched out Shadow Weaver for her. She feels like she owes her something. A… lot of somethings, actually.

It’s a few moments work to work her way around the system and open the first locked door, and then Glimmer’s dragging her at top speed through the series of failsafes until finally they’re out in the open air.

“Bow!” Glimmer shouts, darting around looking high and low, when a skiff swoops down in front of them.

“Glimmer! Adora!” a boy yells as he hangs down off the side, looking almost as rough as Glimmer in his torn up clothes, offering the princess his hand.

“Bow!” Glimmer exclaims running up to the skiff. ‘Bow’ isn’t the only one, there’s a couple princess looking types and a mustachioed man as well, all looking worse for wear and… absolutely crushed despite their weak smiles.

The princesses don’t look like terrifying, chaotic monsters bent on wreaking havoc across Etheria. They just look… sad.

There’s something about them, too, that reminds her of Glimmer--not that they’re all princesses, though that’s probably part of it-- but that they’re… familiar in the same way that Glimmer is, and that seeing them all so heartbroken and worse for wear makes something ache in her own chest, too.

“Do I know you?” Adora asks them.

Bow blinks in confusion, turning his attention to her. “Um, yeah? Of course, we’re all best friends, Adora, what do you mean--”

“You need to go, Bow. Now. We can’t go with you,” Glimmer says quickly, motioning for him to drop it.

“What? Why? Glimmer, we are not leaving you. We already--” Bow chokes up. “We already lost Entrapta. We’re not losing you, too. Either of you.”

“Entrapta? What? Bow, what happened?” Glimmer demands.

Bow’s face falls, and he starts to tear up. “She--she didn’t make it, Glimmer. We watched her get incinerated by the purge protocol. We’ve lost enough people, Glimmer. We’d never leave without you or Adora.”

Glimmer freezes up for a moment, and then just crumples, sagging back against Adora who quickly wraps her arm around the princess’s waist to hold her up. “No! That can’t be right!” she insists.

The princess in blue chimes in sadly, hugging herself and turning away. “We watched it happen. There was nothing we could do.”

“I’m… I don’t really know what’s going on, but I’m sorry for your loss,” Adora adds quietly, clutching Glimmer just a bit tighter.

“That’s… Oh gods, this is all my fault,” Glimmer sobs. “I’m so sorry.”

Glimmer clenches her fists and stands up straight, no longer leaning on Adora, who immediately misses the warmth and weight in her arms. ( Weird. Nice, but weird.)  

“Bow, you have to go . I can’t come with you. I just can’t. Something’s wrong with-- Shadow Weaver did something to Adora, and it’s all my fault, and I need to fix it.” Glimmer’s voice brooks no argument.

What is wrong? Sure, Adora feels… a little weird, but not like the world is ending. Why do these people care about her so much? Why would a princess volunteer to stay in the Fright Zone, for her?

Glimmer’s voice starts to shake as if she’s still trying not to cry. “Tell… Tell my mom I’m okay, that I’m not a hostage. I just… There isn’t time to explain! If you don’t go now, you won’t be able to escape.”

The long-haired princess with the flowers wrings her hands. “But what about no princess left behind?”

“Glimmer--” Bow starts, but Glimmer cuts him off.

“I need to fix this. I’m staying; you’re not leaving me behind. I’m just choosing to stay. And you need to leave now. That’s an order from Commander Glimmer, not your best friend Glimmer.”

“I…” Bow hesitates. “We’re going to come back for you, and you have to be okay until we do, okay? You have to promise me, Glimmer.”

“I promise,” Glimmer replies, wiping her eyes. “Now get going, you don’t have much time.”

Bow and the princesses nod seriously, and the mustached man gives her a salute as he pilots the skiff up, up, and away, off into the yellow-smogged sky of the Fright Zone.

“What now?” Adora asks as they finally lose sight of the skiff.

Glimmer sniffles a bit more, but then the steel is back in her voice. “We go find Catra and make sure she keeps her end of the bargain.”

Chapter Text

Catra’s waiting for them when they get back inside, and greets them by throwing two standard-issue grey-and-black Horde uniforms in Adora’s face.

“Get dressed, grunts. You’re not princesses anymore; now you’re Nameless Cadets 77 and 78, and you answer to me .”

Adora wordlessly passes a uniform to Glimmer and is halfway dressed before she realizes something.

“Wait, why do I have to dress up? I live here.” Sure, Glimmer has to dress up because she’s a princess, an enemy commander. Though what she’s doing here and why she’s insisting on staying are still mysteries to Adora, she’s kind of glad Glimmer’s sticking around, whatever her reasons. The thought of her leaving, or worse, getting turned over to Shadow Weaver is just… unthinkable. Which just can’t be right, because hello, princess! Evil chaotic monsters who abuse their magic to keep Etheria in chains!

But Adora just can’t find it in herself to think of Glimmer that way. She’s just… Glimmer. And she doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her. Ever. Because just seeing Glimmer tear up watching her friends leave, or after she was crying over or hugging her desperately or--

Well. Adora feels like she would do just about anything to keep Glimmer from crying again.

And while Shadow Weaver’s going to be super angry with her if and when they get caught, Adora’s never hidden from that before. She’s taken her punishments just like everyone else has. She’s always done her best to be a good cadet.

Catra scoffs. “Not anymore you don’t. You left us for Sparkles and friends and that stupid sword the first chance you got. Things have changed since you turned your back on us, Adora. So keep your pretty little mouth shut and let me handle things. I’m cleaning up your mess for you. Just like I’ve always had to.”

“What did you do with the Sword of Protection, Catra?” Glimmer grinds out through grit teeth.

Catra examines her claws, giving Glimmer her signature ( obnoxious) smirk. “I’ve always hated that stupid thing. So I took care of it, princess. It’s somewhere neither you doofuses or Shadow Weaver can get it, so don’t get any ideas about trying to use it to brainwash Adora back to your side.”

“Fine,” Glimmer retorts, simmering with contempt and barely contained rage. “I’ll just have to find it after we’ve fixed whatever’s going on with Adora.”

Adora starts to sputter indignantly, because she can think for herself, thank you very much, and no one needs to fix her or try to “brainwash” her into anything, no matter what it is that’s messing with her head right now or how it’s making her feel about Glimmer.

But Glimmer cuts her off with a sigh, effectively stopping her in her tracks. “Just get dressed, Adora.”

Adora finishes getting dressed, but makes her displeasure known, grumbling the whole time under her breath.

Glimmer pauses once she’s gotten her own uniform on, eyeing Catra warily, her helmet (the final and most vital piece of the disguise) tucked away under her arm.

“What do you get out of this? Why are you helping us?”

Catra snorts. “As if I’d miss a chance to boss around you two idiots and make Shadow Weaver look bad all at the same time.”  

Her tail flicks up, nudging Glimmer’s helmet. “Besides, the longer the two of you are here, the longer your precious little Rebellion is short a commander and their oh-so-special She-Ra. It’s a win-win for me.”

Glimmer tenses, biting her lip and glaring daggers at Catra, visibly shaking with the effort of keeping herself from tackling Catra then and there. This was a common enough reaction to Catra’s behavior among Horde recruits that Adora fell into old habits, and was halfway into grabbing Glimmer by the arms to hold her back when the implication of Catra’s remark sunk in.

“Wait, who’s She-Ra?” That sounds… oddly familiar. Was She-Ra one of the princesses?

“You,” Glimmer says at the same time Catra says: “No one.”

Catra smirks at Glimmer, then turns back to Adora. “No one you need to worry your pretty little head about, Adora,” she sing-songs and then gleefully flicks her tail at Glimmer again.

“Now get your helmet on, Sparkles. You two are coming with me.”

***

Turns out, Catra’s master plan is just dressing them up, smuggling them into her Force Captain quarters, and locking them in.

A… strangely friendly Force Captain named Scorpia (who Adora recognizes by reputation, if nothing else) drops by with a first aid kit and a couple sleeping bags for them and is clearly excited about the prospect of their “sleepover” in Catra’s room, but soon enough she joins Catra for their meeting with Hordak once the lockdown is called off.

And then it’s just Adora and Glimmer, left alone to deal with an increasingly awkward silence, Glimmer sitting on her sleeping bag, hugging herself with her knees tucked up to her chest, watching Adora with no small amount of heartbreak on her face.

“Your injuries!” Adora blurts out, eager for something, anything to avoid anymore of this unbearable quiet with Glimmer staring at her like that. “There’s um, there’s a private shower in here so you could get cleaned up if you wanted to, that’s uh, the best way to avoid infection. But if you’re not up for that, or--um, I could just...”

Adora grabs the kit Scorpia left them and waves it uselessly. “I could just help patch you up now, if you wanted?”

“...Okay,” Glimmer says, and Adora scoots closer, opening up the kit and tearing open a sterilizing patch and getting to work cleaning up the scratches on Glimmer's face.

"Just what did Shadow Weaver do to you?" Adora finds herself whispering in worried awe, noticing more and more of the faint, white, lightning shaped marks underneath the grime and blood on Glimmer's cheeks. She's seen Shadow Weaver's work before, and on very rare occasions been lightly zapped herself, but Glimmer's marks are extensive, the worst she's ever seen.

"It's nothing," Glimmer mumbles. "I should have busted out of her trap sooner. Then--then you wouldn't be like this, and we wouldn't be here, and maybe--maybe Entrapta would still be alive."

Adora's heart pangs with Glimmer's grief, and flinches with her when she swabs a particularly deep cut on Glimmer’s face. "You can’t blame yourself for that. It's amazing that you busted out at all. That's... that's more than anyone could have asked for. I've never... I've never seen someone stand up to Shadow Weaver like that before. Glimmer, nothing gets in Shadow Weaver's way. No one gets in Shadow Weaver’s way. But you did. And that's not nothing. I… I really appreciate and admire that you did that. "

Glimmer looks up at her with those wide, sparkly eyes. "But you did. You stood up to her, too, you know? Do you not remember that?"

Adora bites her lip. It doesn’t ring a bell. "I mean... I've tried to keep her from uh, disciplining Catra so harshly before, but it's never... It's never really worked out."

Glimmer shakes her head. "No, I mean, you stood up to her. You stood up to her when we were in Mystacor and saved the day, all by yourself. Everyone else got knocked out and put under her spell, but not you. You stood up to her, Adora. You beat her . You cast her out and told her she didn't have power over you anymore."

"I don't... I'm sorry, I don't remember that," Adora says quietly. She's never even heard of Mystacor, and obviously it wasn’t the case that Shadow Weaver ‘didn’t have power over her anymore.’ She’d literally been restrained in Shadow Weaver’s chambers just a few hours ago, and now here she was, hiding from her punishment like a coward.

They both lapse into silence again after that while Adora helps Glimmer out of her disguise and starts tending to the scratches on her arms. This is familiar, too, somehow, this companionable quiet as she tends to the princess’s injuries.

Well, almost companionable--Adora can just tell Glimmer is bursting with something to say.

It takes a few minutes of Adora gently cleaning and bandaging up some scabbed over cuts on Glimmer’s arms before Glimmer finally works up the courage to speak up again. “Do you really not remember me?”

“I don’t. I’m sorry.” She really, really is sorry.

And when she sees Glimmer’s face fall even farther, her own heart breaks at Glimmer’s despondent expression. Adora then quickly backtracks with assurances.

“There’s something about you, though. Something that feels… right. Something that makes me want to help you. I don’t know why. It feels like I should know you. I don’t know why, or how… But I do know you, somehow.”

Glimmer tears up a bit at that, and it just makes her eyes sparkle even more, which Adora didn’t even think was possible. “You do?” she says, voice wobbling a little bit as she quickly wipes away her brimming tears.

Oh crap, she’s gone and made Glimmer cry again-- all she’s done is make everything worse and somehow even more confusing.

“If not… I think I want to,” Adora says quietly.

She avoids Glimmer’s face, turning away slightly and looking down at her boots as she tries to sort through the onslaught of emotions she’s just triggered.

I want to know why seeing your face makes something slot into place I never knew I was missing.

I want to know why seeing you so sad hurts like this.

I want to know why keeping you safe means more to me than anything I’ve ever wanted.

Even though you’re a princess.

Even though you hate my best friend.

Even though we’re supposed to be enemies.

I want to know you.  

“Then…” Glimmer hesitates, tentatively reaching out to put her hand over Adora’s on the mat. “Adora, are we friends?”

“Maybe we still can be,” Adora says, flipping her palm up so she can squeeze Glimmer’s hand back.

Glimmer’s entire form lights up, and she throws herself at Adora, immediately wrapping her up in the tightest hug she’s ever had. “Then I just know everything’s going to be okay.”

Chapter Text

Main Horde Base, 18:00

Catra smirks, leaning back against the wall and not bothering to hide her glee at the chaos before her. Fully armed and armored cadets scurry about the base like a scattered swarm of ants, illuminated by the strobing lights of a red alert.

Until an inhuman howl tears through the air, louder even than the klaxons, making the walls rumble and every soldier stop in their tracks. Shadow Weaver surges into the main hall on a massive wave of black tendrils, frantic and enraged and red lightning crackling in her wake.

“WHERE IS THE PRINCESS?” Shadow Weaver bellows, her thunderous voice making the lights flicker and the klaxons fall silent.

And Catra grins even wider, slowly beginning to clap. “Bravo, Shadow Weaver. Bra-fucking-vo . You let two tortured and restrained little princesses get away from you, and right in the place where you’re most powerful, too.” She lets out a low whistle. “That has got to sting. Oh well, since I’m not a Force Captain anymore, I guess I should go back to packing my things. ”

Catra’s smirk never leaves her face as she turns to leave, knowing she’s actively provoking Shadow Weaver even as she does it. Even if it gets her the worst beating of her entire life, it’ll be worth it. After seeing Shadow Weaver crash and burn after taking credit for and ruining her plan, Catra feels like she can take on anything.

Shadow Weaver shrieks with rage and surges towards her; Catra can hear her movement, feel the crackle of electricity in the air, and is about to dodge when--

A series of mechanical arms scythe past her and through Shadow Weaver’s sorcery, shredding it like paper, and stops the witch in her tracks.

“Enough of this,” the voice known and feared across Etheria booms. Hordak enters the room, and the mechanical arms retract into his outstretched hand.

Shadow Weaver falls to her knees, the tide of shadow vanishing behind her. “My lord, I was simply disciplining this--”

“Silence,” Hordak commands and Shadow Weaver’s voice dies in her throat. “You, Force Captain Catra, and Force Captain Scorpia will immediately report to the throne room to discuss the abject failures I have witnessed today.”

Hordak pauses, glancing around the room. “...Where is Force Captain Scorpia?”

“Um, right here, sir, Lord Hordak, um, sir,” Scorpia pipes up, dashing into the room that very moment.

“I was just, um, checking the footage to see how the princesses escaped,” Scorpia explains, offering a salute which turns into her nervously scratching her head. “But it’s all been erased somehow! I did find a record of a missing skiff, though, so that’s probably how they escaped--”

Hordak simply holds up a hand, and Scorpia’s rambling immediately stops.

Gee, that’s a handy superpower, Catra muses. She likes Scorpia well enough by now, in spite of the hugging. (And the doodling. And the songs.) But she talks a lot, and sometimes, Catra just can’t be bothered to tune her out.

“The Princess of Dryl was reportedly part of the attack. She is well known for tampering with every piece of technology that crosses her path. Such sabotage is to be expected,” Hordak says dryly.

“Regardless, the events of today have been unacceptable. And there will be consequences, ” Hordak’s voice booms unnaturally, echoing through the hall. He eyes Shadow Weaver distastefully, and she withers under his gaze. “Now come, I will hear a full report of today’s many failures. ”

***

Castle Bright Moon, 03:00

Bow is used to a warmer reception when he visits Bright Moon. Queen Angella, however, is positively icy when they get back. She only spares them a single glance, scanning the skiff for any sign of her daughter, and then her worry is instantly replaced with that barely-contained, furious tone that only parents and queens can muster.

“You did what? You manage to rescue my daughter against all odds, and then simply abandon her in enemy territory? Without recourse, without a plan, without any way of contacting her or--” Angella’s voice cracks. “Without any way of knowing whether she’s alive or dead?

Bow knows he and the princesses and Sea Hawk aren’t exactly ready for an audience. They look like they’ve been through hell; (because they have been, really) and they’re all leaning on each other, barely able to remain standing.

And while Bow wants nothing more than to just collapse into a bed and forget everything exists for a while, Queen Angella at the very least deserves answers about what happened to her daughter.

“We did,” Bow says, tears welling up in his eyes as he bows his head and stares at his boots. “We just… left her. She insisted, ordered us to go, and with everything that happened--with Entrapta, and without knowing what’s wrong with Adora and-- We did. We shouldn’t have left without her, Your Majesty, no matter what she said. You’re absolutely right.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Sure, Glimmer’s the most stubborn person he knows, but they should have at least planned something, found some way to talk her into coming with them . Glimmer’s his best friend, if he’d just tried harder, there had to have been a way to convince Glimmer to come with them.

But no, there was no time, and they were grief-stricken, and tired, and beat up, and stupid.

Queen Angella softens, then, seeing his tears. She offers Bow a handkerchief. “No… That was not right or fair of me, Bow. I know more than anyone just how stubborn my daughter can be when she sets her mind to something. I apologize for speaking to you all so harshly, and I hope you all can forgive me. I am not… I am not in the clearest state of mind at the moment. I appreciate all that you have done to try and save my daughter. And I am truly sorry for what you have lost in the process. Entrapta’s sacrifice will not go unremembered… or unavenged.”

Bow blinks away his tears and rubs his face with the Queen’s hanky, unsure of where Angella’s going with this. “...Your Majesty?”

He finds himself flinching at Angella’s tone. He’s known the Queen for as long as he’s known Glimmer, which is basically forever, but he’s never heard Her Majesty sound quite like this. There’s a steel to her, now. In her voice, in her words, even in her posture.

Mermista catches on quickest, standing up a little straighter and a fire lighting in her eyes. “You’re saying you’re not going to let them get away with this. That we’re going to get Glimmer and Adora back. That we’re going to make the Horde pay. ”

“Yes, Mermista. I think it’s far past time the Rebellion brought the fight to the Horde,” Queen Angella agrees. “Entrapta’s death will be answered for. And if Adora and my daughter refuse to come home under their own power, then they will be brought home to safety under mine. ”

Perfuma sniffles a little and takes Mermista’s hand, setting her shoulders as she meets the fierce gaze of the Queen. “No more!” she proclaims. “No more princesses left behind! We won’t lose anyone or anything else to those, th-those monsters!”

“Yes! Those foul fiends and brigands must be brought to JUSTICE! ” Sea Hawk agrees, taking Mermista’s other hand. (Mermista immediately shrugs him off, but Sea Hawk loses none of his enthusiasm.)

Bow hesitates. “Is… Is the Rebellion really ready to face the Horde head on, Your Majesty? Do we really have a fighting chance here? I mean, I want Glimmer and Adora back, and the Horde brought down as much as everyone else here, but… What if it’s too soon? What if we just lose more of our people?”

Queen Angella turns her attention to him, and Bow suddenly wants to shrink into his boots, or run and hide, or something, because wow Glimmer’s mom is scary.

But then she smiles gently, and Bow is suddenly much less afraid for his life.

“Your concerns are not unfounded, Bow. It has indeed been some time since the Rebellion has engaged the Horde head on. Too long, in fact. But what this means for the Rebellion is that we have spent the past several years consolidating our forces. And with the renewal of the Princess Rebellion, even though we are currently without She-Ra, the Rebellion is still in a far better position to go to war than it has been in many years.”

“Then I’m in,” Bow says quickly. “I’ll do anything I can to help get Glimmer and Adora back.”

“Good,” Angella replies, placing her hand on his shoulder, gently radiating approval. She turns to one of the guards.

“Please alert my general, and the rest of the Alliance, that the Rebellion is going to war. In two weeks time, I want all our forces ready to begin a full scale assault on the Fright Zone.”

Chapter Text

Fright Zone, 21:30, the same day

While Catra’s Force Captain quarters aren’t glamorous by any means, a private room, with a private bathroom is pretty luxurious as far as the Horde goes. There’s even marginally hotter water than the lukewarm-to-icy-cold stuff the taps get in the section of the base Adora grew up in.

Adora still waits until she’s certain Glimmer’s fallen asleep to take a shower. Whatever Glimmer was to her before, they’re kind of friends now, and Adora can’t smother the fiercely protective spark in her chest enough to bear leaving while Glimmer’s looking at her like...

Like whatever it is she’s doing that makes her eyes so big and sparkly and impossible to say no to.

But Adora still doesn’t linger, unable to really enjoy the luxury of a warm, private shower -- she cleans up and gets changed as quickly and efficiently as possible, half-afraid that at any moment, a squad of shocktroopers is going to bust down the door to take Glimmer away and finish what Shadow Weaver started.

So she puts her armor back on, grabs the staff Catra provided her with, and waits, standing guard.

Just in case.

And when the door slides open and Catra swaggers in, laughing, her arm thrown around Scorpia’s waist, Adora’s so on edge she all but pounces on them, stopping just short of smacking Catra’s face with her staff.

“How did it go? What’s going on? Does Shadow Weaver know anything?” she demands, dropping the staff and grabbing Catra by the lapels.

“Whoa! Easy there, Adora,” Scorpia says, grabbing the back of Adora’s collar with one claw and picking her up like a ragdoll. “First rule in Force Captain orientation: cadets don’t attack their captains.”

“Down, girl,” Catra snickers, watching Adora go slack in Scorpia’s grip like a kitten picked up by its scruff.

“Right. Sorry, just a little… tense,” Adora replies. “Can you put me down now?”

“Wait, wait, no, let her squirm a little bit more, this is hilarious. Not the funniest thing I’ve seen all day, since you know, we just watched Shadow Weaver totally get read the riot act by Hordak himself, but this comes pretty close.”

Adora grunts, swinging her arms and kicking her feet a little to try and get some momentum so she can wrench herself out of Scorpia’s grip. After about ten seconds of that, with Catra’s grin getting wider by moment, she gives up.  “Very funny, Catra.”

Scorpia frowns. “If you’re back on our side again, doesn’t that mean Catra’s your captain now?”

“Yeah, Adora,” Catra drawls, crossing her arms over her chest, absolutely loving every minute of Adora’s squirming. “Shouldn’t you show your captains a little more respect?”

Adora lets out a long sigh and glares. “Fine. Force Captain Catra, Force Captain Scorpia, can I please be let down now?”

“Sure!” Scorpia says, setting her down and gently dusting Adora off. “Now that you’re back, I’m sure we’ll all be great friends!”

“Not hardly. Adora’s not back, Scorpia. Not really,” Catra grumbles, sticking her hands in her pockets and pushing past Adora to go lounge on her bed.

Adora blinks slowly, letting that sink in, not quite sure what to do with Catra’s sudden mood swing.

“I guess I’m… I’m not really officially on the Horde’s rolls anymore, am I?”

The realization leaves her cold. She’s always had the Horde; always had Catra. And now…

Catra doesn’t even spare her a second glance, instead staring up at the ceiling. As if Adora isn’t even there. “No. You’re not.”

Scorpia glances uncomfortably between them for a moment, before clearing her throat. “I’m just, I’m just gonna go double check that uh, all the video of today was deleted properly.”

“Good call,” Catra says listlessly, and with a salute, Scorpia’s gone, the door sliding shut and locking into place behind her.

It’s unbearably quiet, with Glimmer sound asleep and Catra doing her best to pretend Adora doesn’t exist.

“So,” Adora starts, when she can’t take the silence any longer. “Force Captain, huh? Petty abuses of power notwithstanding… I’m happy for you, Catra. You deserve it.”

Catra finally looks her way, a self-satisfied smirk flickering across her face. “Damn right I do.”

Adora grins back. “I’m proud of you.” She means every word. While she’s always known that Catra is smart, that Catra is capable, that Catra could do anything, it’s nice to see that now Catra knows it, too.

But she can’t contain her curiosity any longer. Catra just met with Hordak, something Adora has always dreamed of, but never done. ...Will probably never do, now. “How did… How did the meeting go?”

Catra’s grin slowly widens, all teeth and... vaguely threatening. It’s not a look Adora’s seen before, not like the sort of mischief or schadenfreude Catra usually engaged in, like when she’d pull stupid pranks on Lonnie or Octavia.

It’s… different. Catra’s different, now. Catra has never been… soft, so to speak. But her edges definitely weren’t so sharp before.

“Shadow Weaver’s really done it now,” Catra says gleefully, sitting up on the bed and apparently forgetting, if only for the moment, that she’s ignoring Adora. Her shoulders shake with silent laughter. “Oh man, Hordak let her have it. Turns out she’s been keeping secrets, disobeying orders… She’s not the favorite anymore. And soon enough, I’m gonna be taking her place and kicking her down in the dirt where she belongs.”

“That’s… that’s good,” Adora says quietly. She’s not sure how to feel about that. She’s never… well, she would never have described her relationship with Shadow Weaver as an affectionate one, but it’s… She should feel something for the woman who raised her, no matter what else she’s done, right?

Not to mention the look on Catra’s face, and the way she talks about rising through the ranks of the Horde… Something about it just doesn’t sit right with her.

Sure, they’d always talked together about running the Horde one day; they’d even promised each other they would.

This should be news to be celebrated.

So why do I feel so cold?

It must show on her face, because then Catra’s jumping off the bed, landing on a crouch by Adora’s sleeping bag. She flicks Adora’s forehead.

“ ‘That’s good?’ ” she scoffs. “That’s all you have to say? Wow, she really fucked you up this time, huh? Guess that’s what happens when she’s gotta do a rush job on the biggest ‘reeducation’ session she’s had to give you yet.”

Adora flinches away, every muscle tensing and her shoulders stiffening, her back ramrod straight.

“ What did you just say?”

Catra just shakes her head and laughs. “Newsflash, asshole. You’ve been gone for months. You left us. Left me. And Shadow Weaver tried to fix it, fix you , because you’ve always been her favorite little doll. You see, she’s not happy that I’ve had to be your replacement. That I’m the one who’s still here, that I’m the best goddamn Force Captain in the Horde. So she reached into your head and tried to fuck you up until you acted the way she wanted. Just like she’s done since we were kids.”

‘Reeducation?’ ‘Since we were kids?’

Catra scoffs, clearly unimpressed with Adora’s panic. “Guess she didn’t finish the job, though, considering you and Princess Shimmer over there are still joined at the hip. Figures.”

“Glimmer,” Adora corrects automatically, her thoughts racing as she tries to sort out everything Catra just said. “Her name is Glimmer.”

"I know," Catra retorts. "Don't care. Wow, even now, you're still siding with a dumb princess over me. Shadow Weaver really didn't change you all that much at all this time then, huh.”

“Catra,” Adora says slowly, her voice barely more than a whisper as she climbs to her feet. And then she’s grabbing Catra by the lapels again, lifting her up til they’re face to face. “What do you mean, ‘this time?’”

Catra shoves her back and looks away. "This isn't the first time it’s happened, doofus. It's just the first time since you left me,” she grinds out, unable to keep the bite out of her voice. Or look Adora in the eye.  

"It's happened before? Catra, what do you mean it's happened before? It's happened before, and you knew? " Adora’s voice wobbles, and she hugs her arms tight around her ribs, trying desperately to hold herself together. "Shadow Weaver made it sound... made it sound like it'd happened before. A lot before. But you.... you knew?"

Catra scoffs, still turned away from her. "Hard not to. She'd zap the shit out of me every time before she'd do it, and it wasn't hard to piece together what she was doing after the little 'reeducation' sessions she'd have with you whenever you pissed her off.”

Adora’s stomach flips as Catra gives her a knowing look.

“You're a shitty liar, Adora. Always have been. It's not like you could have hidden something like that, even if you did know it was happening.”

Adora doesn’t even know where to begin with all of this. She knows Shadow Weaver was always hardest on Catra, even knows that she would hurt her. But that’s just the way the Horde was, it’s how things had always been. But...

She tentatively reaches out to Catra, trying to bridge the gap. "She'd... hurt you, too? Catra, why didn't you tell me? Gods, Catra, why didn't you stop me, if I was doing things that were getting you hurt?”

Catra swats her hand away. “Because then you would have stopped pissing her off. You were bad enough as it was, always trying to stay on her good side. It was gross.”

“But she hurt you.” Adora’s face falls, and she reaches out again but Catra turns away, curling in on herself, pulling her knees to her chest.

“Yeah, dumbass, and so has every-frickin’-one here. That’s what the Horde does. It’s just how things are. At least you aren’t… at least you weren’t trying to do it, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Adora says dumbly. She doesn’t know what else to say.

After everything Catra’s done for me, I didn’t even have the decency to stay.

She blinks back tears, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry I didn’t know. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you. And I’m… I’m sorry I left you.”

“Save it. I don’t need you anymore, Adora. Yeah, Shadow Weaver fucked us both over. And yeah, you left me. But now I don’t need you or Shadow Weaver, and I’m better off than I ever was with you.”

“Maybe that’s true,” Adora says softly. “Maybe everyone would have been better off without me.”

Shadow Weaver wouldn’t have been so hard on Catra if I wasn’t there to screw things up for her. And Glimmer probably wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for me.

Catra whips around to glare at her and flicks Adora’s forehead again. “Don’t get sappy on me, loser.”

She lays her hand on Adora’s shoulder, her expression softening. “Hey, there were some good bits, too. Like the time Shadow Weaver caught us making out in the barracks’ supply closet. The look on her face was more than worth not being able to feel my toes for a week.”

Adora sputters, immediately pulled out of her shock. “We what?!”

“Keep it down, dumbass! You wanna blow our cover?” Catra whacks her in the face with a pillow. “Yeah, we made out. It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?!” Adora squeaks indignantly, throwing the pillow back at Catra. “You were my first kiss, and I don’t even remember it? That’s kind of a big deal, Catra!”

What else did she make me forget, if Shadow Weaver could just erase something like that?

“It is so not,” Catra hisses back.

And then Catra sighs, curling in on herself again. “ Look. We were just fifteen and dumb. And you decided to get cute and convinced me to ‘practice kissing’ with you. And when Shadow Weaver found us, because she fuckin’ has some sort of tracking chip or homing beacon on you or something, she freaked the fuck out. She went ballistic, ranting and gesturing and waving all her weird shadow things all over the place. It was hilarious up until she dragged us both off to her room and started electrocuting me. And then she threw me out, and you got strapped to that table-rack-thing for your ‘reeducation .’ And then… we just never talked about it again, okay?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. ‘Oh,’” Catra snorts. “I knew what happened, okay? And I knew you’d be like this if I told you about it, which is why I never did!”

“That’s not--”

Adora is cut off by a shriek from the other side of the room. There’s a flash of crackling red lightning that has both her and Catra flinching before they realize it’s coming from Glimmer, not Shadow Weaver.

Glimmer yells in pain again as the sparks finally stop flying… And then the room is still glowing red, two bright circles lighting up a vent above them.

The room is still except for the sound of Glimmer’s ragged breathing, Adora and Catra holding their own breath in shock until Glimmer breaks the silence.

“Entrapta?!”

Chapter Text

A figure in a metal mask with glowing red eyes crawls out of a vent in the ceiling, hanging down by her… purple, prehensile hair, because Adora’s day just wasn’t weird enough already.

“Hi!” the figure exclaims. “Sincerest apologies, short, sparkly one. I didn't mean to startle you! Say, what was that thing with the red electricity you did just now?”

“Entrapta?!” Glimmer exclaims again, shakily pulling herself to her feet and grabbing the other girl by the shoulders.

“Indeed!” Entrapta replies gleefully. And this--” Entrapta pulls out a datapad and taps a few keys, causing the door to slide open and allow a standard Horde warbot inside. “--is my new friend, Emily! I gave her a bunch of new upgrades, I can’t wait to show you all of them!”

The warbot lights up and chirps happily.

“Another fucking princess, of course it’s another fucking princess--” Catra mutters, grabbing her blanket. “I’m done with princesses for the day. This is your problem now, 77 and 78,” she adds, shoving Adora back and retreating under the covers.

“...Entrapta?” Adora repeats, sitting up from where Catra's just shoved her onto the floor.

Wasn’t that the name of the princess that Glimmer’s friends… saw incinerated?

“Yes! Hello again, tall one! It is good that you managed to locate and free Glimmer. And now that you have found me, we can go home!” Entrapta replies brightly. “I can’t wait to introduce Emily to everyone back at the Rebellion!”

Entrapta then does a double take, glancing around the room. “...Oh, it seems we can’t go home yet. Where is your First Ones’ techblade? We can’t leave without the sword of She-Ra!”

“Somewhere else, where people aren’t trying to sleep,”   Catra snaps.

“Why are you gathered in a Horde soldier’s quarters? Is this a new part of the plan?” Entrapta asks, clambering over Glimmer using her giant, prehensile pigtails. (Why does she have those? What even are those?) 

“Um,” Adora starts, glancing desperately at Glimmer for help.

“Yes!” Glimmer yells, seeing Adora’s distress. “New plan! Very important new plan, which I will absolutely catch you up on right now. Over here. In secret.”

“Okay!” Entrapta agrees, heading back over to Glimmer’s corner.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Glimmer says, pulling Entrapta into a hug. “Bow said they all saw you get incinerated! What happened? How did you escape?”

Entrapta squirms a little, face flushing as she pulls away from Glimmer’s embrace. “Oh, um, my hair is pretty much fireproof, since I use it to operate welding tools and such. But what really happened is that Emily protected me!” she exclaims, then clears her throat to explain further. “When the purge sequence started, she used the lasers I upgraded for her to blast out the vent module! But it, uh, kind of melted the door shut too, so it took a while for us to find our way out.”

She pats the bot on the top of its dome. “Emily saved me,” Entrapta says softly, beaming with pride.

The warbot let out a purr-like sound and another chirp, bumping its chassis gently up against Entrapta’s leg in return.

Entrapta grins shyly down at her bot. “Thanks, Emily.”

“Well, um, thanks from me too, Emily,” Glimmer seconds, tentatively reaching out to pat the bot as well, who then turns to her and reciprocates with a gentle bonk of its dome against her leg.

Entrapta beams. “I programmed her to do that! She can understand and demonstrate affection now!”

“That’s um, really great,” Glimmer says awkwardly. “I’m so glad you and uh, Emily are safe, Entrapta. But we can’t go home yet. Or well, at least me and Adora can’t.”

“Why not? Are you still captive? Is the Horde soldier over there holding you captive?” Entrapta demands, and Emily lets out a few angry beeps, the turret rising from her dome and glowing red.

Catra’s out of her bed in an instant, ears twitching as she leaps up to the ceiling and stays there, hanging upside-down from one of the vent pipes while Adora bolts halfway across the room to try and disable the bot--

But it’s Glimmer who stops Emily from attacking, jumping on top of the bot’s gun, shielding it with her own body. “No! It’s fine! Everything is fine!” she shouts.

Emily lets out a few disappointed-sounding chirps, but lowers the gun back into her chassis.

“Fucking princesses…” Catra grumbles, letting go and flipping in mid air, landing back on the bed in a crouch, watching the bot warily.

“Let’s just, um, let’s just… de-escalate here, shall we?” Adora says, quickly putting herself between Catra and the possibly-still-hostile warbot and glancing back and forth between them.

Catra grumbles, but flops back down on the bed and pulls the covers over herself. “Fine. Have your little princess reunion party in my room. What do I care. Ugh. Just keep it down.”

“...Right. Will do,” Adora replies, sitting down on the floor with her back against the bed, eyeing the bot and Entrapta for any sign of danger and feeling something pang in her chest as she watches her interact with Glimmer, feeling like a stranger, like she’s intruding on their moment.

Were we friends once, too? But I don’t know her. She's a princess, I can't know her. She and Glimmer don’t belong here.

...I don’t belong here, either. Not anymore, at least.

Entrapta pats Emily consolingly, quirking her head at Glimmer in obvious confusion. “But if you are not currently held captive, why can’t we leave?" She glances around the room, "...And where are Perfuma and the others?”

Glimmer sighs, sinking down onto her sleeping bag and Entrapta and Emily follow suit, sitting down beside her, the bot lowering its already ridiculously short legs so it can still be at Entrapta’s level.  

“They left without us, Entrapta. I told them to,” Glimmer explains, unable to look Entrapta in the eye.

Entrapta’s lip quivers. “But… why? What happened to ‘no princess left behind?’”

“No princess left behind means Adora, too, Entrapta. And Adora can’t leave right now. So I told them all to go, and I’m going to stay here until we can figure out what’s wrong with Adora and fix it. And I guess… I guess they left you, too.” Glimmer scoots closer and puts her arm around Entrapta’s shoulder.

“But they didn’t mean to! They just, they all just thought you were dead!” she adds quickly, her voice wavering as she pulls Entrapta close in another hug. “But we can, we’re gonna find a way to get you back home.They were all so sad, Entrapta, when they-- when they told us that you were...”

“...oh,” Entrapta says quietly, as her pigtails start flapping agitatedly in tight, circular movements. “I didn’t mean to make everyone sad.”

“It’s okay,” Glimmer assures her, hugging her tighter. “They’re going to be so, so, so happy to see you when you get back.”

Entrapta considers that for a moment, and her pigtails constrict, pulling back to her and wrapping around her. (And partially Glimmer, too, because she still hasn’t let Entrapta go.) “I don’t think I can go back. I don’t want to,” she says finally.

Glimmer pulls back, studying Entrapta’s face. “But why? You don’t have to stay here with us, Entrapta. You don’t need to risk yourself for us anymore than you have already.”

Entrapta shakes her head, and her pigtails restart their agitated stimming. “You and Adora… You were my first friends I made that well… I didn’t make-make, like out of scrap metal and stuff. I can’t just leave you guys. You helped me. And here, I can help, too. So I’m gonna stay here and do that. Help you, I mean.”

Glimmer’s eyes tear up. “Are you sure? You don’t have to do that, Entrapta. You don’t owe us anything.”

“What are friends for?” Entrapta replies, awkwardly giving Glimmer a reassuring hug of her own. When she pulls back, she gleefully rounds on Adora, grinning from ear to ear and brandishing a scalpel in her… pigtail.

“Besides, as if I would miss out on the chance to experiment on Horde tech and Adora at the same time!”

Adora gulps, surprised and more than a little afraid to suddenly be included in the conversation. “Um, you’re not, uh, gonna use that knife for these, um, experiments on me, right? Right?” It comes out as a squeak.

“Right?!?!”

Chapter Text

Fright Zone, 06:00. First Day of the Plan

Glimmer groans at the noise of a door sliding open, rubbing her eyes blearily as she takes in the unfamiliar surroundings and Horde symbols everywhere.

She tenses, instinctively reaching for her powers when Scorpia enters the room… and immediately regrets it. She bites her tongue, eyes tearing up as she swallows the scream boiling up in her throat as red lightning courses down her spine.

It’s only then that she remembers. Oh. Right. No powers. Stuck hiding in the Fright Zone with Entrapta and a brainwashed Adora.

Adora’s on her feet immediately, dashing across the room and crouching down beside her. “Glimmer! Are you okay? Is this normal? I know it happened last night too, but what with everything else I forgot to ask--”

Glimmer puts a finger to Adora’s lips and cuts her off. “I’m fine. And no, it is not normal. You can thank Shadow Weaver for this, too.”

“Oh,” Adora says softly, brow furrowing and looking like Glimmer just kicked her puppy.

At least Adora hasn’t forgotten everything. She still cares. I think. ...And she’s still an anxious, self-blaming mess who’s never relaxed a day in her life.

Glimmer sighs and reaches over to squeeze Adora’s hand, giving her a soft smile. “Hey, it wasn’t your fault, so don’t worry about it. We’re gonna fix it.”

Adora smiles back, and looks like she’s about to say something more, but then Entrapta’s awake. She had been snoring softly beside them, cocooned in her own hair, but now she’s suddenly standing on her pigtails and up in Glimmer’s face as well.

One of her hair-tendrils reaches out and pokes Glimmer’s forehead gently. “Fascinating! Is this new phenomenon actively replacing or merely impeding your teleportation powers? Would you be willing to let me study these new effects?” Entrapta asks excitedly.

“Uh, sure, Entrapta. Maybe later.”

Entrapta squeals in delight and leaps on top of Glimmer, tackling her in a hug. “Thank you!” And then she’s gone as soon as she came, pulling back and bounding across the room to the Emily-bot, who’s stationed in the corner, pulling tools out of her pockets and... cataloguing them?

“Right, um, anyways,” Scorpia says awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot until she seems to remember what she came here for. “Speaking of Shadow Weaver. Uh…”

Scorpia walks over to the bed, where Catra is still curled up and asleep, and shakes her gently. “Hey, uh Catra?”

Catra grunts, opening one eye and nodding for Scorpia to continue.

Scorpia clears her throat. “Might wanna avoid the Shadow Weaver sector today, uh, she’s, uh, not taking yesterday very well. Um. At all. She’s kind of already sent three people to the medbay.”

Catra yawns and stretches leisurely, a satisfied smirk plastered across her face. “Good. The worse she looks in front of Hordak, the better. And the more chaos there is among the recruits,” she jabs her thumb back in Glimmer’s direction, “the less we have to worry about doofuses 77 and 78 blowing their cover.”

Glimmer glowers back at her, and is gratified that at least Adora is glaring at Catra, too.

That, at least, hasn’t changed, she thinks smugly. Maybe Catra will annoy her out of the Horde.

Catra frowns, eyeing Entrapta and seemingly just remembering that she exists. “Or… you. You can do whatever you want, I guess. As long as it doesn’t affect me in any way.”

Entrapta glances back over her shoulder, forming a hair-tendril into the shape of a thumbs up. “I have absolutely every intention of doing that!”

“Sure, whatever,” Catra grunts noncommittally, then turns back to Glimmer and Adora, throwing their helmets at them. “Now, nameless recruits 77 and 78,” she barks, “I want you ready and this room spotless in the next fifteen minutes. And then you, Brain-Drain, are going to spend the day as Force Captain Scorpia’s personal assistant. Anything she says, you do it: no questions asked. As for you, Sparkles,” Catra sneers, jabbing her thumb at her chest. “ You’re with me. ”

***

It’s official: Glimmer hates Catra. Well, she already hated her, for you know, all the other terrible things she’s done, but even without the kidnapping or all the other Horde stuff, she would still hate Catra.

First she’d had Glimmer scrub one of the communal bathrooms, all by herself, with just a toothbrush and a bar of soap. Then she’d had Glimmer accompany her to the most boring meeting of her life, something about Horde policy, filled with codes and jargon Glimmer didn’t understand, and made Glimmer take notes for her. Notes Catra had then taken from her, and without even looking at them, torn into shreds and spread around the room. Which, of course, Glimmer then had to clean up.

After that, she’d been allowed fifteen minutes to sprint to Catra’s Force Captain quarters and back, and to consume what somehow managed to be the blandest and most disgusting meal of her life in the form of gray, sludgy “liquid meal supplement” that Scorpia had smuggled out of the kitchens for her and Adora.

And then... they run into Shadow Weaver, and Glimmer’s stomach plummets down into her boots.

The training hall, previously bustling with life as various Horde soldiers went about their business, immediately falls silent as Shadow Weaver rounds the corner.

Every single soldier stops what they’re doing and stands at attention, saluting the sorceress, and Glimmer hurries to mimic them.

Everyone except Catra, who leans lazily (defiantly? How does someone make leaning look ‘defiant?’) against a wall, giving Shadow Weaver the most half-hearted salute Glimmer has ever seen. (And after just one day in the Horde, Glimmer has seen a lot of saluting.)

“Fancy seeing you around here, Shadow Weaver. Thought you’d be out sulking in the doghouse Hordak put you in last night,” Catra drawls, her tail flicking back and forth.

Shadow Weaver’s voice is like thunder as she reprimands Catra, “Do not speak to me of Lord Hordak’s disappointments, you impudent wretch. You are the embodiment of disappointment, and Lord Hordak is not here to save you now.”

Black tendrils extend from her shadow as she glides forward, leaning in close and grabbing Catra by the chin, whispering in her ear just loud enough that Glimmer can hear it, too. “Angella’s spawn may have temporarily disrupted my connection to the full might of the Black Garnet, but I still have more than enough power at my disposal to put you in your place, cadet.”

“Really now? I don’t think you can,” Catra retorts, idly shoving Shadow Weaver’s hand out of her face. “You see, what I heard is that you let one scared, beat up little princess get the better of you. I heard that she knocked you out with one punch. I heard that you’re losing your touch. So I suggest you get the hell out of my face before it gets back to Lord Hordak that you’re embarrassing yourself in front of all these recruits.”

Shadow Weaver lets out an inhuman shriek , red lightning and black shadows roiling up from her that have Glimmer hastily backing up several feet-- but Catra’s already gone, leaping up ten feet in the air to one of the pipes that crisscross the ceiling, snickering at Shadow Weaver from her perch.

“Your insolence will be remembered and dealt with appropriately, Force Captain, ” Shadow Weaver snarls. She glances back at the hall full of stunned recruits, and without another word she rounds the corner.

The hall remains still even after Shadow Weaver leaves, the cadets all utterly in shock at what they’ve just seen.

Catra hops down from the pipe and snorts, glancing around at the soldiers frozen in fear, her tail swishing irritably.

“Get back to work, you numbskulls,” she barks, and then she’s gone turning down a hallway in the opposite direction, a flurry of activity following in her wake as recruits rush to make themselves look busy.

Glimmer falls into step behind her. Sure, she still hates Catra, but… She can’t help feeling a little impressed with how Catra just dealt with Shadow Weaver.

Did… Did she do that for me? So Shadow Weaver wouldn’t notice me?

“So…” she starts. “That was pretty cool of you.”

Catra glances at her warily, then grunts in acknowledgement, shrugging her shoulders.

Glimmer jogs up next to her, trying again with another question. “Does she treat everyone like that?”

Catra snorts. “Pretty much. That musty old bitch has always had it out for me specifically, but yeah. She treats all of us like garbage, all of us except for her precious little Adora.”

Glimmer runs up in front of Catra, stopping her in her tracks. Yeah, Shadow Weaver is evil and Glimmer’s seen for herself just how awfully she treats Catra. But Catra’s hardly being fair to Adora, either.

She jabs her finger at Catra’s chest. “Considering she just tried to wipe her mind, and according to you, has been doing so for her entire life, I’d say Adora gets included in that category, too. That’s not--that’s not something you just do to a person. Maybe she doesn’t treat her like garbage, but Adora’s just an object, just a, a, a tool to her!”

Catra arches an eyebrow at that. “Sounds like somebody was listening in on conversations they have no business in,” she growls, grabbing Glimmer’s arm and gripping hard enough to bruise.

“Maybe I was. What’re you gonna do about it?” Honestly, if Catra grew up with Adora, she should know that no one can just sleep through Adora’s panic attacks. And what else was Glimmer supposed to do, anyways? It’s not like she could have left the room.

“If you’re so interested in what I have to say, then maybe we should have a chat. Privately, ” Catra says, dragging Glimmer down the hall and back to her quarters.

“You know the thing about garbage, Sparkles?” Catra sneers once they're inside, slamming Glimmer up against the door. “It gets thrown away. And right now, sweetheart, you’re in the trash with the rest of us. So keep your mouth shut before I get any more ideas about shoving you in the incinerator with the rest of it.”

Glimmer shoves Catra back and then pulls off her helmet so she can glare at her properly. “Bite me, Catra. I’d like to see you try it. I don’t like you, and you don’t like me. But face it: you want me here. You want me to help Adora, because you still care about her, and you want her back to normal, even if you have to use a princess like me to do it.”

“You think I want Adora back? Newsflash: she’s already here, princess. If that’s what you’re betting on, why the hell would I want you to fix what’s going on with her head? Why would I want her to remember abandoning us? Why would I want her to remember that she picked you and your dumb, sparkly little friends over me ?”

“Because you love her just like I do!” Glimmer shouts back, clenching her fists. “I think you do want her to remember. Because you care about her, a lot. You want her to remember everything, all the other things that Shadow Weaver took from her, don’t you. Even if that means she remembers me. ”

Catra growls, her claws extending inches away from Glimmer’s face. “Adora’s gone , as far as I’m concerned, Sparkles. All that’s left is some dumb princess who can’t keep her promises. So keep your stupid, mushy feelings to yourself and quit projecting them onto me.”

Glimmer doesn’t flinch. “You know, you’re pretty angry for someone who’s getting everything they want right now. Because this way you do get everything you want, don’t you,” she snaps.

“You think I want you here, Sparkles? Because I can get rid of you and Pigtails anytime I want; I don’t even need to lift a finger.”

“Yeah, big deal. Neither of us want Entrapta and me to be here. But you’re not gonna do a damned thing about it. Because yeah, sure, you have more princesses than you planned on. But that doesn’t really matter that much to you, does it-- not if you get to have Adora here, too. You get to act all tough and important, without her there to ruin it by being Shadow Weaver’s favorite, because Shadow Weaver doesn’t know she’s here. You get to have her nearby, but not close enough that you have to stand in her shadow. Because you want to be near her. Everyone wants to be near her. That’s just how Adora is. ”

That shuts Catra up. She just stares at her for a long time after that--well, it’s only a few seconds, but she’s got those claws in Glimmer’s face, and Glimmer is very, very aware that she just told off the person who’s holding her life in her hands right now--

But then those claws retract, and Catra traces a lazy pattern on Glimmer’s cheek. It’s… surprisingly gentle, sending shivers down her spine that make her want to lean into the touch.

“Hey, Glimmer,” Catra purrs, her voice all soft and velvety and whoa, okay, Glimmer is so not having those thoughts about Catra, definitely not--

And then Catra’s leaning in even closer until their foreheads are touching, and then the moment shatters, as Catra’s eyes narrow, her voice dropping dangerously low.

“You know, if I just…. slipped a little, maybe twitched my hand just so,” Catra murmurs lazily, trailing a single finger down below Glimmer’s jaw. There’s a soft schnick of a claw popping out, nothing more than a tiny pinprick, right on Glimmer’s hammering pulse point. “Just a touch of pressure, and you’d bleed out in seconds. No one would come to save you. You would just die right here, and all because you couldn’t keep your stupid mouth shut. So maybe keep that in mind, the next time you think you know anything about me or what I want.”

Glimmer takes a deep, shaky breath; she can’t help it. “I’m not--I’m not scared of you, Catra,” she says, summoning up all the strength she can muster, giving Catra her fiercest glare.

Catra chuckles. “Really? Because you should be.” And then she drops her hand from Glimmer’s throat and steps back. “You’re lucky you’re so much like me, Sparkles. But don’t keep pushing it. Luck always runs out.”

“‘Luck always runs out,’” Glimmer mocks. “Bite me, Catra, you melodramatic jerkwad. ”

...In retrospect, Glimmer really should have chosen her words better, because before she can even blink, Catra’s back in her space again, nipping her ear just hard enough to draw blood.

“Ow! Hey! What is wrong with you?” Glimmer demands, and Catra has the nerve to laugh at her.  

“What, princess, not used to people actually following your orders? You must make a shitty commander, then.”

“It’s an expression, you, you, you--” Glimmer sputters, rolling up her sleeves as her rage robs her of any eloquence she might have once had. “I swear, I am going to kill you.”

“Awwww, did I huwt the wittle pwincess’s feewings?” Catra croons mockingly, folding her arms across her chest.

“No, but this little princess is going to hurt your fucking face!” Glimmer shrieks, pulling back and socking Catra in the jaw so hard it sends her stumbling back a few feet.

“Don’t! They need to talk this out themselves!” a voice that sounds suspiciously like Adora’s hisses from behind them.

“That doesn’t sound like just talking --” another voice, this one mysteriously like Scorpia’s--

And then there’s a crash as Adora and Scorpia both tumble out of Catra’s bathroom.

“Uh, hi!” Scorpia shouts from on top of Adora (who’s hiding her face behind an ice pack, and at least has the decency to look embarrassed about being caught eavesdropping.) “Please don’t kill each other. Or us.”

Chapter Text

Adora quickly picks up her ice pack, which had fallen out of her hand when Scorpia had tripped and pushed them both out of the bathroom--it’s a bit tricky, holding it to her left eye with her right hand, but with the beating her left arm took earlier she’s not about to risk making it worse just for the sake of an ice pack-- and then glares at Catra and Glimmer with her one good eye as sternly as she can manage.

“Can you two really not go five minutes without trying to kill each other?”

Catra huffs. “You’re one to talk, with that shiner of yours. And what the fuck happened to your arm?”

Adora flushes-- she’d had to strip the top half of her disguise to treat the strained muscle she’d gotten earlier, the lurid purple bruising all the way from her shoulder to her fingertips visible from her undershirt’s lack of sleeves. She’s lucky nothing was broken or dislocated, but it’s hard to feel lucky when she’s so darn embarrassed about the whole thing.

“There--there was an accident. Entrapta shut down the cameras so Scorpia and I could spar, and I just--I just slipped up, that’s all. It’s nothing,” she says quickly. “But you two are trying to kill each other outside of the ring, and that’s not okay. ”

“ Sparkles was the one who had to go and make it weird. None of this is my fault,” Catra snaps.

“Me?!” Glimmer sputters, rounding on Catra again. “You were the one who started it! You threatened to kill me! And then you bit me!”

“Yeah, because I thought it would shut you up! You were the one who started with the weird compliments-psychoanalyzing-flirting thing, dumbass! You made it weird!”

“ You went all weird, husky voice ‘ heyyyy Glimmerrrr.’ That was weird! You went all weird to throw me off so you could hit me before I tore your face off! I swear I’m gonna fucking tear your face off, you--”

“Whoa!” Scorpia shouts, bolting across the room and grabbing Glimmer by the back of her collar, lifting her bodily up off the ground before she can launch herself at Catra. “Let’s all just calm down a little, maybe?”

Glimmer kicks out, trying to wriggle out of Scorpia’s grasp. “Calm down? Calm down?! I’ll calm down after I’ve ripped her face off!”

“I’d like to see you try it, Twinkle-Toes,” Catra scoffs, watching Glimmer’s flailing with more than a little amusement.

“Oh you are in for it, buddy, just as soon as I can get down from here--”

“ENOUGH!” Adora shouts, dropping her ice pack and putting herself between them, trying, and failing, to point at both of them with her one good arm. “Catra, you stop being a jerk to Glimmer, and Glimmer, you stop trying to kill her for it. Catra’s doing us a favor. Let’s not jeopardize that, okay?”

“Fine! But as soon as you get your memories back, I’m going to enjoy getting to rip her face off,” Glimmer huffs, going slack in Scorpia’s grip.

“As if you’d stand a chance, shortstack. I can go toe to toe with She-Ra. A squirt like you is nothing. ”

Adora narrows her eyes at Catra. “Okay, Catra, first of all: not helping. Secondly, who the hell is She-Ra? And why does everyone keep bringing her up?”

“She’s you, dumbass,” Catra huffs. “As soon as you picked up that stupid sword and left me and everyone here at home for Sparkles and Co, that is. You turned your back on everything, on all of us, just for a bunch of princesses and that fucking sword .”

“What do you mean I’m She-Ra? What, she’s like some alter-ego or something?” Adora scoffs.

“No, she’s--okay, well sort of,” Glimmer explains. “She’s… a princess, Adora. You’re a princess. Specifically, She-Ra: Princess of Power.”

Adora arches an eyebrow. “Um, I’m pretty sure I’d know it if I was a princess. ” She wiggles her fingers at Glimmer. “Look-- no magic, no sparkles.”

Saying I joined the Rebellion is one thing-- impossible, but Glimmer being here, knowing me, liking me, is also impossible… But I couldn’t just be a princess, you have to be born one, and it wasn’t like a random orphan picked up by the Horde would just happen to be a lost princess. They don’t just go missing, and it’s not like they grow on trees.

Catra jabs a finger at Adora’s chest. “Turns out you don’t know a lot of things, stupid. You don’t know you’re a princess. You don’t know what the Horde really does. You don’t know anything, Adora, you never did. Even when Shadow Weaver wasn’t messing with your head. ”

“Of course I know what the Horde does,” Adora scoffs, bristling at the implication. “I got top marks in every single policy lecture . ” She didn’t make Force Captain by skipping all her lessons. Unlike a certain Force Captain in the room who would steal her notes right around test time.

Catra sneers, disgust painted across her face. “No, stupid. You know what we say we do here. There’s a big difference.”

Glimmer gasps in mock surprise. “You mean ‘razing civilian villages and leaving no survivors’ doesn’t make it onto the recruitment posters?”

“Oh I dunno about that,” Scorpia says thoughtfully. “I’m sure there’s one out there, that probably appeals to somebody--”

Adora cuts her off. “You’re joking.” They have to be! That can’t--that can’t possibly be right. Glimmer is just biased, she’s a princess, after all--

Glimmer levels her with a hard look. “There’s a reason everyone calls it ‘The Evil Horde,’ Adora.”

“Who calls us that?” Adora demands.

“Everyone! ”

The Horde is her home, the people who took her in when she was just a helpless kid. She can’t even remember a life before it. The Horde raised her, taught her everything she knows. Taught her how to fight people like the princesses who are ruining the world with their magic and the chaos they bring everywhere they go. They just want to protect everyone from them.

Don’t they?

Catra snarls, quickly losing patience with her. “Look around you, dumbass. Do people who electrocute children and rearrange people’s heads to make them more obedient seem like the good guys to you?”

A hand comes to rest on her shoulder, and Adora turns back to see Glimmer studying her sadly. “She’s right. I hate to agree with Catra, but gods, Adora, for once in her stupid life she’s right. Can’t you see? Why do you think you left? Why do you think we’re friends?”

“But that’s--” Wrong. So wrong. I was so upset when I learned Catra was getting hurt because of me, but what about all those other times? When everyone else got punished? Not just Catra. Lonnie, Kyle, even Rogelio, who pretty much never said a word or put a toe out of line. How everyone else always came out of Shadow Weaver’s sessions limping or worse...

Everyone but me.

“But that’s… That’s just how things are here,” Adora says weakly. Wasn’t everything just to make us stronger, make us better? Make soldiers who could stand against the threat of the evil princesses? It’s just how things are done, isn’t it? It’s just… part of life. Necessary. “If the Horde is so bad… Why are you still here, Catra?”

Catra grits her teeth. “Because someone has to clean up your mess, Adora. You may have broken your promise, but I didn’t. I’m going to make something out of this shithole. I’m going to be running it someday, and I’m gonna fix things, with or without you. If handing you and Sparkles over right now didn’t mean giving Shadow Weaver exactly what she wants, I’d have sold the both of you out already. Maybe I still should.”

“That’s really what you want, huh?” If you hate me so much, why bother? Why help me, hide me here at all? Really, Catra? Do we still have to play this game?

“Maybe it is!”

“Sure! Fine!” Adora snaps. “I’ll go turn myself into Shadow Weaver right now so Glimmer and Entrapta can go back to living their lives and not being stuck here because of me. Is that what you want? Would that make you happy? Because I’m getting sick of all this back and forth, hot and cold, holding things against me that I can’t even remember doing! So fine! I’ll go!”

“Maybe it would! My life sure would be a lot easier if I didn’t have you idiots around making a mess of things!”

“Please don’t,” Glimmer says softly. Adora winces; she hadn’t even noticed that Glimmer never let her go, not until Glimmer's obliviously squeezing her bad shoulder again. “I saw what she was doing to you in there, please don’t even joke about going back.”

Adora sighs, Glimmer’s request taking the fight out of her. “So what do you want, Catra? Really want? Because I can’t… I can’t just undo everything that’s happened since… Since before I remember. Tell me what you want and I’ll do it, just… Can we just stop fighting? Please? I don’t want to fight with you.”

“Well that’s fucking new,” Catra snaps. “Because you’ve been fighting everything you used to stand for, for months. I don’t know what I want from you. I don’t know if I can want anything from you, if I can stop fighting you after that. I don’t know anymore. And apparently I don’t know you at all, because the Adora I know wouldn’t be over here whining like some dumb princessy brat. But then again, my Adora wouldn’t have ‘slipped up’ and got a black eye doing something so simple as sparring, either. ”

“That was…” Adora hesitates. Catra being difficult and argumentative was nothing new, but she was right about one thing: fighting came to Adora as easy as breathing. She’d never, ever lost a sparring match before, not even on her worst days--failure was unacceptable for her, and disappointing Shadow Weaver like that was unthinkable. So she’s never really… slipped up like that before. Ever.

It had been strange, nearly getting half her face smashed in with one of Scorpia’s claws. It hadn’t been a pleasant experience, and one that she hoped to never repeat, but it shouldn’t have happened at all in the first place.

But everything had been… wrong. Her arms felt too short, her stance too weak, her reflexes too slow --like everything she did was at half-speed, and unbalanced, and small. And worst of all, she’d thrown her weapon away.

She can still remember the weird wave of confidence as she saw Scorpia’s claw come down. For the first time the entire bout, she felt right. She had felt invincible in that moment, like nothing could touch her. Like she was born for this.

So she’d dropped her quarterstaff when she saw the blow coming in favor of catching Scorpia’s claw barehanded, because she was unstoppable, indestructible, impossible-- and someone like Scorpia would have no idea what hit her after that--

Instead, a fraction of a second after she’d dropped her staff, Adora had realized that the odds of stopping a hit from Scorpia, whose biceps were the size of Adora’s head, with just her bare hands… were somewhere in the range of ‘probably never going to happen’ to ‘absolutely never going to happen.’

Fortunately, Scorpia had realized that too, and managed to pull her blow just enough that Adora's block saved her skull from getting caved in, though it still nearly broke every bone in her left arm, and well. Gave her the black eye. At least the only lasting damage was to her pride. 

Glimmer thoughtlessly squeezes Adora’s bad shoulder again. Ouch. “It’s… it’s because you’re used to sparring as She-Ra, isn’t it? With me and Bow, you’re pretty much always practicing as She-Ra. But you’re smaller when you’re just you, and you’re shorter and slower, too. Normally you’re self-aware enough to account for things like that, but since you don’t remember-- You don’t remember that you’re used to being basically a goddess on earth, so of course you’re going to slip up when you don’t know to do that.”

Catra sneers. “Just one day without your little magical-fairy powers, and you’re already totally lost without it. Is that it? You just forgot that you’re not eight feet tall and immortal anymore?”

“She-Ra’s eight feet tall?” Adora squeaks. As far as she’s seen from all the footage and training sessions, princesses are people-- if magical, chaotic, terrifying people. People are not eight feet tall or immortal.

But it would explain why fighting Scorpia had felt so… weird. Why she’d been so frustrated at her own speed and strength-- if she was used to being some… some kind of monster on the battlefield, of course just fighting like a normal person would feel a little… off.

“Oh yeah,” Scorpia chimes in. “She-Ra’s real tall. She’s pretty strong, too. Slices and dices tanks like they’re nothing, when she isn’t just tossing them around all willy-nilly.”

Adora pales. She-Ra does what now?

“I think… I think I need to see that for myself.”

Chapter Text

It takes a few days of searching, but Scorpia finally manages to dig up all the recordings the Horde has of She-Ra. After a long day of babysitting an undercover Adora and Glimmer around the Horde, she simply hands over her datapad to Adora before heading back to her own room, leaving Adora alone to watch the footage.

Well, relatively alone. Catra retreats to her bed, watching Adora carefully for any sign of recognition, while Glimmer follows her to the corner with their sleeping bags, anxiously hovering over Adora's shoulder as she starts to play the recordings.

There are only a few instances of footage-- shaky, distant things from cameras in the helmets of active duty Horde soldiers, and it amounts to nothing more than a matter of minutes, but the destruction in those short, cobbled together recordings is staggering.

The recordings are as damning of the Horde as they were of She-Ra, in a way-- though that likely hadn’t been Scorpia’s intent. The footage showed the Horde’s assaults weren’t on rebel soldiers, liked they’d always claimed in the propaganda forced down Adora’s throat before she could even read-- but on villages, where entire families, parents, grandparents, even children had fled in the path of blaster fire, defenseless and lacking any arms or armor of their own.

And it was She-Ra who had stopped them, put herself in the path of danger… and raised that enormous sword against the people who had raised her.

Glimmer and Catra were right, and everything I know is wrong.

It was She-Ra who scattered entire platoons of soldiers with a single swipe of that sword, the same that Catra had threatened Glimmer with days before. (Had it really only been that long?)

It was She-Ra who tore and broke and slashed and even threw tanks and turrets and warbots, wrecking entire outposts single-handedly.

And still… She-Ra never seemed to even break a sweat. Even when a tank’s turbolaser hit the princess at point blank, it hadn’t left a scratch on her, though the recording had ended with She-Ra collapsing--

(The mysterious glow leached out of her limbs as she reverted back to a mortal form, and Adora watched herself-- because it was her, it was, it had to be-- fall into the arms of an ancient, purple-skinned woman with enormous spectacles, as the two of them-- and a… horse? Was that the word for that majestic, white-winged thing beside them?-- disappeared in a cloud of smoke.)

It hadn’t been enough to put her down. The tank had stopped her, certainly, but, clearly, She-Ra had survived, because Adora was here to see it.

And She-Ra was Adora-- of that there could be little doubt. There was something eerily, achingly familiar about the images, that made her feel nearly as disgusted with herself as they made her feel right, filling her with that same bone-deep and wholly unearned confidence she’d felt fighting Scorpia, as she watched herself turn a blade on her own people.

And then there was only one recording left, this one taken close enough that Adora could finally make out She-Ra’s face, though it had lasted only a few seconds before being cut off permanently in ear-splitting static as the soldier behind the camera seemed to be thrown back several feet.

But it was enough. There were differences, of course-- she wasn’t eight feet tall, after all. But it was still undeniably her.

She-Ra was all broad shoulders and solid muscle where Adora was wiry and lean. Her hair was paler, and longer, too, reaching all the way down to her waist, unkempt in a way Adora never dared to wear hers even when she slept. The angle of her jaw was sharper, her eyes were brighter, glowing blue and clearly unnatural. Her head was slightly larger, too, as if to better fit the crown she wore-- because of course, Adora notes with disgust, as a princess, She-Ra wore a crown even in battle, though she had little else in the way of armor.

Over and over, she replays the footage until it’s burned into her mind, the images flashing behind her eyes every time she blinks. And she just... she knows, feels the truth of it in her bones even as the realization finally sinking in makes her stomach turn, bile rising in her throat alongside her growing horror.

That’s me.

I did all of that.

Oh gods, that’s me.

“You done gloating over past victories, princess?” Catra sneers, pulling Adora out of her daze.

“Does it look like I’m gloating to you?” Adora snaps.  “How many people has the Horde killed? Gods, how many have I?”

Glimmer cuts Adora off before she can beat herself up over it anymore. “The Horde has been massacring innocents, while you’ve been doing your best to protect them! It isn’t the same thing-- at least the Horde had it coming!”

Adora levels Glimmer with a hard look. “Maybe it isn’t the same. But those people? The ones you say ‘had it coming?’ Those are the people who raised me, Glimmer. They matter.”

“Awwww, trouble in paradise, Sparkles?” Catra calls from across the room. “And don’t you worry your pretty little traitorous head, Adora. You haven’t killed anyone. Yet. Though I’m sure that’s such a comfort to all the folks here at home that you’ve put in the hospital.”

Adora blinks back tears, and then sets down the datapad in favor of hugging her knees to her chest.  “...You’re right,” she says quietly.

“What was that?” Catra goads, leaping off the bed and landing a few feet behind Adora

Adora glares over her shoulder, her eyes still swimming with tears, and snaps, “You’re right, okay?” She bites her lip, suddenly unspeakably angry. About-- about everything. About all that lost time, about all the things she’s done, and about all the things that she’s had taken from her.

It’s too much, it’s too gods-damned much, and she can’t do anything about it.

She can’t--she can’t just fix this, fix everything that’s wrong with the world, fix all the things she’s done to the world, for better or for worse. She can’t, she couldn’t, even if she could remember.

“Both of you are right,” she says, turning back and catching Glimmer’s concerned look.

She closes her eyes, taking Glimmer’s hand in hers and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I’m not… I’m not whoever I was when those recordings were made. But I’m not who I was before them, either. I just… I just want everything to stop. The Horde, the Rebellion, all of it. ”

Catra snorts. “That’s cute, princess. But that’s not how the real world works.”

“Shut up, Catra,” Glimmer says, then turns back to Adora, her expression immediately softening.

“You know... you don’t have to go back to the Rebellion, right?” Glimmer says softly. “I’d never make you do that. That’s why I’m still here. With you. It’s not just because I… well, honestly, I do want you to remember everything, and I do hope you’ll come back home with me. But you’re my friend first, you’re Adora first, and She-Ra second, if at all. And that’s why I’m here. Because even if you’re not coming home, you’re my friend and I want you to be safe. I’m going to keep you safe, Adora.”

Adora flounders, completely at a loss for words at that. She has no idea what to even do with… whatever it is that Glimmer just… offered her? It felt like Glimmer just offered her something, at least. That, or a punch to the gut, knocking all the air out of her chest and making her eyes burn and wow, this was all really uncomfortable--

Glimmer squeezes her hand, flashing Adora a mischievous grin that drags Adora back down to earth and reality. “Hey. Everything’s gonna be okay, okay? Even if I have to stay here with Grumpy Cat and keep kicking Shadow Weaver’s ass, it’s gonna be okay.”

“Thank you,” Adora mouths. She’s still not able to really put her feelings into words, but she returns Glimmer’s smile as best she can.

Glimmer flushes, immediately looking anywhere but at Adora, carding a hand through her hair and laughing nervously. “Oh, you know. What are friends for?”

“Making me wanna throw up, apparently,” Catra grumbles, rolling her eyes and pretending to gag.

“Hey,” Adora chides, laughing lightly. “You’re my friend too, you dork. And I think… I think I know what I need to do now.”

“Oh, yeah?” Catra says, wary, her tail flicking back and forth. “And what’s that?”

Adora reaches out and grabs Catra by the wrist, looking her in the eyes. “Did you really mean it, when you said you wanted to fix things here in the Fright Zone? Is that really what you want to do?”

“I mean, yeah, duh, of course,” Catra scoffs. “There’s a big fuckin’ list of things I’d be doing if I was running this joint.”

“But really fixing things? No more of Shadow Weaver’s games, no more burning villages to the ground--”

“Where are you going with this?”

“If-- if you really mean to fix things, make it better, put a stop to everything that Hordak and Shadow Weaver are doing-- I’ll do it. I’ll help you. That’s what I want to do. I want to do something real, something here. I want to help my best friend, and I want to fix our home together. ”

Chapter Text

A silence stretches between them for a long moment, Glimmer holding her breath while Adora has the same hopeful grin on her face that Glimmer’s been crushing on since forever. Catra stares at the hand Adora’s holding, an unreadable expression on her face.

"For you, it's just that easy, isn't it," Catra finally says, huffing out a resigned breath that's somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "It's always been that fuckin' easy for you. Everyone's always falling all over themselves to have you on their side, aren't they."

Adora looks crushed . "Catra?" she says, her voice as small as Glimmer’s ever heard it.

Ouch. Even though it’s not directed at her, Glimmer can feel the metaphorical punch-to-the-gut Catra just landed. It’s not like Catra’s wrong about that, either.

Once Adora was She-Ra, everyone was on her side. Eventually. (Well. Everyone except Frosta, that is, but Frosta was weird in that respect.) And before She-Ra, it was pretty clear that Adora was a big deal back in the Horde, Shadow Weaver’s creepy obsession with her aside.

Catra huffs again, and then flicks Adora in the forehead. "Don’t get all weird on me, dumbass. I'm just not entirely convinced that I shouldn't be kicking your ass right now.”

...Okay, that’s more like Catra. Maybe this’ll actually go over okay? Please go over okay. Adora deserves something going okay after… after all of this this -ness.

Adora smiles again at that, visibly relaxing as she lets out a deep breath. “Thanks. I know I… I’ve done a lot of things, maybe things that you can’t forgive, Catra. I’m not--I’m not going to make excuses for them. And I know that maybe right now, I can’t do much; I’m not She-Ra, and I’m not a Force Captain, either. I’m really just lucky you haven’t turned me back over to Shadow Weaver--”

Glimmer makes a noise of protest at that, clenching her fists and about to launch into a protective tirade about how there’s no way in hell she’s letting anyone drag Adora back to that evil bitch--  

Adora shakes her head, catching Glimmer’s eye and brushing a hand against hers, a silent plea of ‘not now .’ Glimmer immediately backs down, mouth snapping shut and brow furrowing as she glances down at their hands and then back up to meet Adora’s eyes.

“Thank you for that, by the way,” Adora continues smoothly, brushing the back of her hand against Glimmer’s again and this time, holding it there.

“I had my reasons.” Catra’s gaze flickers between them and down to their hands, eyes narrowed and jaw set in a hard line.

Glimmer bites her lip. She noticed. Catra noticed. And she doesn’t like what she sees.

Adora coughs awkwardly, and reflexively pulls her hand away from Glimmer’s. “Whatever your reasons were, um, are-- you didn’t have to. You had every reason not to, and you still did. I want to prove you right.”

And for once Adora picks up on it. Of course she does. Of course she does, she knows Catra better than anyone, and she’s trying to win her over right now, of course she’s going to cater to her , of course of course of course--

Glimmer screws her eyes shut, clenching her hands into fists.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter! You’re just here for Adora. Even if she doesn’t care. Even if she doesn’t remember. You’re just here for Adora. You can do that, Glimmer. You can do this. Just be there for her, no if’s, and’s, or but’s. Just be there for her, okay--

“Oh yeah? And how do you plan to do that?” Catra’s challenge snaps Glimmer out of it, eyes going wide.

Please don’t ruin this please don’t be ruined, Adora deserves this, she’s trying so hard, she cares about you please don’t throw that away when she at least still remembers you.

“You said it yourself, dumbass,” Catra continues, arms folded across her chest and her tail lashing back and forth. “Over here you’re not even a nobody -- you’re dead meat. One step out of line, one mistake, one wrong move and you go right back to ‘Weaver, and drag the rest of us down with you. So, you wanna, what, make everything right with one grand gesture? Because I’m all ears, princess. That has got to be good.”

“No! I mean, um, yes? Maybe?” Adora flounders.

It’s adorable. This is going horribly, but it’s still adorable. How is she so adorable?

Catra snorts. “Gods, playing nice with the princesses has made you even more of a sap. Of course you don’t actually have any real ideas. How dumb can you get?”

Glimmer fumes at that, brow furrowing and nose wrinkling in distaste, but she bites her tongue.

Adora is trying, for some goddess-forsaken reason, despite how many times Catra’s thrown it back in her face. Adora’s trying so hard, and it’s something to be admired, not belittled.

But Catra’s not finished. Before Adora can stammer some more, Catra flicks her in the forehead again. “You want me to trust you? Fine, that’s cute, I’d love to see how you plan on doing that. But don’t come whining to me about it until you can actually do something, dumbass. Because right now you’re just dead weight, and you’re hanging from my neck. So either give me something worth my time, or sit down and shut up and be a good little prisoner so I don’t get any ideas about sending you crying back to Shadow Weaver to save my own skin,” Catra snaps, already heading for the door.

“I don’t think you mean that,” Adora calls after her. “But I’m going to prove myself to you anyway.”

Catra halts, hand on the door. “Maybe I don’t,” she says quietly. “And maybe you will. Maybe you fuckin’ will.”

Adora sags back against Glimmer the moment Catra’s out of sight. “That went better than I thought it would,” she says, an easy smile on her face as she tries to catch Glimmer’s eye.

“...if that’s better, what were you expecting?” Glimmer teases, grinning right back because gods Adora is so cute and she doesn’t even know it, she can’t not grin back at her like an idiot.

“Remember the other day, when you two were arguing?” Adora teases, bumping her shoulder. “I was expecting maybe a bit more screaming and punching, or something like that.”

Glimmer flushes, ducking her head a bit and self-consciously rubbing the back of her head. Most of the ‘screaming and punching’ and been on her end, after all. “Yeah… Well, of course it went better with you. I only sort of put up with Catra because I care about you, but you and Catra… You both really love each other, you know? Even though you two have a weird way of showing it.”

“I’m not… We’re not…”  All the color drains from Adora’s face, her entire body going stock still. “I wouldn’t--I would never--”  Adora stumbles, her voice wobbling as she begins to shudder, shaking her head frantically and trembling from her knees to her hands all the way up to her shoulders.

“Adora?!” Glimmer panics. What else is she supposed to do? Adora’s panicking, and she doesn’t know why, and she’s obviously just done something awful and she doesn’t know what’s wrong, just that it’s her fault something is wrong and and and--

Adora sinks to the floor, her legs turning to jelly beneath her. “Why-- why would you say something like that? I’m not, I’m not someone who would--who would-- I’m not, I’m not, I’m not…”

Glimmer drops right down with her, falling onto her knees and wrapping her arms around Adora’s shoulders. “Adora? Adora, what’s wrong? What can I do? What did I do wrong? Are you okay? Oh gods please be okay--”

“I’m--” Adora chokes on the words, shaking her head again. “I’m okay, of course I’m okay, I have to be okay, because I’m strong I’m strong I’m strong--”

“Adora,” Glimmer says, hugging her tighter. “You are strong, the strongest person I know, really-- but you are most certainly not okay.”

“No,” Adora insists, all but wailing the word. “No, I’m okay, because I’m strong, because I am, I am I am, because I have to be. ”

“No, Adora,” Glimmer fires right back. “You don’t. And you aren’t. And that’s okay, because you don’t ‘have to be’ anything at all right now.”

Adora just keeps shaking her head. “I do. I do. I have to. It’s--It’s for my own good. It’s for everyone’s own good. It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m strong, and I’m not-- I’m okay. I’m following orders. I’m okay. ”

“Adora, what’s wrong? You can tell me what’s wrong, I promise--” Glimmer protests, as Adora shudders violently in her arms.

“You can’t tell Shadow Weaver, you can’t -- I’m not-- I’m not distracted, it isn’t a distraction--”

“I won’t, I promise you, I won’t.” Rationally, Glimmer has more reason than maybe even Adora does to not go anywhere near Shadow Weaver, let alone report to her-- but Adora’s well past things like ‘rationality’ at this point. “It’s okay, Adora. I’m right here. You’re right here, and Shadow Weaver isn’t. She can’t get to you. She won’t.”

Adora nods, her convulsions dying down to barely a shiver. She hugs Glimmer’s arms to her, and they stay like that, silence stretching between them until Adora calms down enough to try and speak again.

“I would never, ever do something as terrible as love someone.”

I’m missing something here, but I don’t know what it is . Gods, Adora might not even know it herself. What does she think love is ?

“Adora, what are you talking about?” Glimmer asks carefully. “I think I did something wrong, and I would like to not do it again because you’re my friend, and I don’t want to upset you like this. Can you tell me what it was that bothers you so much?”

Adora sits up, shrugging Glimmer’s arms off her shoulders as she straightens her spine, something steel and cold in her expression as she turns to look Glimmer in the eyes.

“I don’t know what the Adora you knew was like, but I’m not the sort of person who would ever do something as terrible as that.”