Chapter Text
As much as she hates it, Marlena can barely remember her daughter. She had a puff of blonde hair and blue eyes and rosy-red baby cheeks, but that’s it. Her daughter loved to give toothless smiles and giggled at whatever nonsense Marlena whispered, and was entranced by the countless toys and stuffed animals Randor brought home after diplomatic missions.
She also remembers her daughter’s name: Diana . Randor had let her name the children. After all, Marlena’s family would never be able to visit. She’d never be able to show her children the beaches of Jacksonville where she’d grown up, nor would they know about Christmas and Mickey Mouse and Star Trek. Their names would be the only piece of her home she’d be able to give them.
It was easy to name her son. Adam , the first man, the king who would guide Eternia onto a new path. But her daughter went without a name for several days. Eve would just be weird, Amelia didn’t sound princess-y enough, and the names Randor suggested were too ridiculous for her to handle. Who names their kid Veena ? The name came to her after she’d visited the wreckage of her ship locked away in the palace’s museum. She stared at the broken vessel, and remembered that all the souvenirs she’d brought hadn’t survived the crash. The pictures of her family, a keychain her brother had bought for her birthday, and a beat up Wonder Woman comic that she’d owned since she was little. She remembered flipping through the pages, flashlight in hand, as Wonder Woman beat up bad guys and saved people.
Marlena didn’t recall much of the comic’s plot, but she remembered the hero’s name. Diana . It was a good name. A strong name. Her daughter would be just as brave, just as heroic, and just as strong as the hero Marlena grew up worshipping. And so, the princess finally got a name. A name that still haunts Marlena whenever she falls asleep, or whenever she drifts near Adam’s old room. The purplish light of a portal flashes in her eyes when she closes them. It is a curse; a burden she must bear for the price of her failure.
The day Marlena lost her daughter, it was snowing. It rarely snowed on Eternia- the technology keeping the planet in between dimensions didn’t create any variation in weather. It was always sunny, even when Eternians inevitably had to sleep. Her husband had seemed alarmed when they’d woke up to tiny flakes drifting in the air.
“There’s a rip between dimensions,” he’d explained. “A portal will probably open soon.”
“A portal?” Her heart sped up. Portals were not just tiny holes in space, they could fling someone across dimensions with no way back home. It had been a portal that had brought her to Eternia. “Who's trying to open it? Has the Horde found us? Randor, the children-”
“-Will be fine.” He kissed her, brushing her hair away from her face. “Marley, the Horde has no idea we still exist. Besides, most portals form naturally and disappear within seconds. It will probably appear in the sky. It is far more difficult to generate one on the ground.” She relaxed, though her heart still pounded. She should listen to Randor. She didn’t know anything about portals, anything about the technology that kept their planet hidden. She had to stop worrying.
A baby’s cry stopped her train of thought. Soon, another infant’s cries joined the commotion.
“Twins,” Randor said. “It’s like they’re connected.”
Randor went to check on Adam, and Marlena raced to comfort Diana. The twins had been put in separate rooms in a desperate effort to keep them from always crying. It didn’t seem to work. If Diana cried, Adam would soon follow. If Adam cried, Diana showed no hesitation in joining her brother. It annoyed Marlena, but she secretly found it charming. Her children would be so close. There was nothing that would keep them apart.
“Oh, Diana,” she whispered, leaning over her daughter’s cradle. “What’s wrong?” Her daughter stopped sobbing and reached out towards her mother. “Is it the snow? It’s not scary, I promise. Look.” She raised her daughter toward the window. Diana pressed a hand against the glass, smiling at the sight of snowflakes. “You know, I haven’t seen much snow either. Do you know how warm it is in Florida?” Diana stopped smiling, and Marlena put her back in the crib.
“Oh, don’t be like that,” she said. “There are worse states.” She turned around, satisfied that her daughter was calm. Perhaps she could get a little more sleep before getting ready for the day. Being queen was not an easy job. A part of her was glad that Diana wouldn’t inherit the throne. Her daughter was free to forge her own destiny.
She opened the door when she saw a flash of light. Diana screamed, and Marlena just had time to see her daughter fall through a portal before it closed. She lunged and crashed into the crib. “No,” she said, “no, no, no. Randor! Help!”
The guards found her collapsed on the floor, crying and shouting her daughter’s name.
The first months after Diana’s disappearance were the worst. She cursed Randor, she cursed Eternia, and she cursed herself. How could this have happened. Portals were natural, random occurrences. How could one have opened in her daughter’s bedroom, far away from the chaos of space?
“It was deliberate,” Randor said, rubbing circles into her back as she cried. “Marley, I am so sorry. I thought- I thought we were safe.”
“So she is lost to the Horde?” She faced her husband. “Forever?”
“Perhaps,” Randor murmured, his eyes glazed over. Then, he froze, dropping his hand. “No-”
“What is it?” she demanded. “Who took Diana?”
Randor didn’t answer.
Her next step was easy. It was easy to slip away from her and Randor’s bed, put on her cloak, and sneak out of the palace. It wasn’t as easy making the walk through the forest to Castle Grayskull, an old castle hidden by trees. She breathed in the thick scent of ozone and knew she was close. Lightning crackled as she pushed past the final branch to reveal an old building made of stone, with a skull carved into its entrance. Stepping through the door- and the mouth of the skull by extension- she called out, “Sorceress! I demand you speak with me!”
She’d only met the Sorceress once, right after she’d crashed on Eternia. The woman hadn’t changed at all. She still had the same fiery red hair decorated with feathers, and the same sad brown eyes. According to Randor, she wasn’t really a Sorceress. Magic had disappeared from Eternia a long time ago. Marlena had a feeling that wasn’t the case. The Sorceress radiated power. The queen bowed, not wanting to make an enemy.
“Please,” she said, forcing her voice to be soft, “My daughter was taken from me. I need you to get her back.”
“My queen,” the Sorceress responded. The woman waved her hand and moved. Marlena followed. “I have heard what has befallen your family. A tragic twist of fate. What do you wish for me to do?”
Marlena blinked. Hadn’t she already said that? “Find her.”
“I cannot. My power only extends to Eternia. I cannot reach across dimensions as you wish for me to do.”
She grit her teeth, but she wasn’t done. “Tell me the truth then,” she demanded. “Who took her? Surely you of all people should know that.” Randor had to know. She’d seen the look on her husband’s face: the frown, the tenseness in his jaw, the furrowed brows. Marlena loved her husband, but she did not trust him. There always seemed to be something missing with his stories of old Eternia, of his ancestors, and of the Horde. There was some piece to the puzzle she was missing. “Was it the Horde?”
“No.” Marlena sighed in relief. “It was us, Your Majesty. The old Eternians. The First Ones, as they called us.”
“You took my daughter? Where is she?”
Before Marlena could attack, the Sorceress raised a hand. The queen found herself frozen, unable to move. “I am sorry, Majesty. Let me explain. Randor says his ancestors were explorers. They were not. They were conquerors.” Images bombarded Marlena’s mind of people- Eternians- invading new planets, stealing relics and destroying cities. “They sucked magic out of every place they went to, wanting more of it for themselves. Of course, it wasn’t enough for them to have more magic. They wanted to have the personification of magic itself.”
“I-” This was too much. Marlena’s mind was like mush as she tried to process so much information. “What are you talking about?”
More images. This time, of a woman with flowing white hair and brown skin holding a sword, shouting ‘ For the honor of Grayskull! ’. The woman, now with brown hair, exploring a new planet, admiring the golden wisps of magic that played in the forest. “She-Ra,” the Sorceress explained, “is magic . Her power transfers from woman to woman, traveling the universe with each life. Finally, she was born an Eternian, a woman named Mara.”
The Sorceress shook her head, smiling, like she was reflecting on an old memory. “With She-Ra now an Eternian, our people constructed a sword and told Mara it was the only way to access her power. And Mara believed it. She believed it so strongly that she thought the sword was the only way to become She-Ra, so She-Ra ’s magic believed that to be true as well. Only an Eternian could use the sword. So-”
“Only an Eternian could be She-Ra.” Marlena wrung her hands. She had a feeling where this story was headed. “What does this have to do with my daughter, Sorceress? I don’t-” she stopped. “I care about Diana. Not Mara.”
The Sorceress frowned. “Then you are more like your husband than I suspected. Our rulers were delighted. They could have all the power in the universe, and none of the people they oppressed would ever be able to fight against She-Ra. They’d even constructed a weapon out of the latest planet they discovered, Etheria. With it, they’d have the power to destroy the universe.”
She closed her eyes. “So Randor is a liar, then. I am a queen of monsters.”
“No, Marlena,” the Sorceress said gently. “No Eternian is born evil. Mara turned against our people. She hid Etheria in another dimension- a dimension I cannot find. She was a hero.”
“That’s where Diana is, isn’t it?” She wanted to sob. “Etheria. She’s lost in some other dimension forever.”
“I am sorry, Majesty.” The Sorceress placed her hand on Marlena’s shoulder, and the queen could move again. “You will return to your husband. He will tell you that remnants of the old Etheria, before we had to hide ourselves, took your daughter. He will tell you that she is She-Ra, a monster who cannot be saved. I’m afraid Eternia has never forgiven Mara for her betrayal. But that is not the truth.”
Marlena glared. “I’m going to-”
“Your husband is not lost, my queen,” the Sorceress said. “He is not a liar. He just says what he believes to be true. Your daughter, the first She-Ra in a thousand years, will defeat the Horde. She will free Eternia from its hiding, and she will guide our people into a better future.”
“Will-” she swallowed. She thought of Diana- beautiful, perfect Diana- as She-Ra. “Will I ever see her again?”
“Yes, Majesty,” the Sorceress said, and then said the words that gave Marlena the tiny sliver of hope she needed to survive: “It is just a matter of time.”