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“Okay, everyone has a map of the Darla, if you need a review it should be on your file. Entrapta fixed the comms so we can speak to each other in case of emergency” Adora spoke firmly, her voice carrying out into the vast caffetteria.
She shifted eye contact as she spoke, looking at each of her crew members directly. The recurring wonder of who could be sabotaging their equipment continuously and putting all of them in harm’s way inched its way forward, but she pushed it away as all of them nodded.
She nodded once sharply in response.
“You all have your vitals wristband. It shows your heartbeat and body temperature so if anything happens to one of us, we’ll notice and alert the others. We’ll check in periodically, just in case”
Adora lifted her arm to look at the small screen on her forearm, clicking it to ensure it was working.
The screen cast a blue light across her face, making her squint her eyes. It showed ten horizontal slots with each individual’s icon. She scanned through the names quickly to see if anyone was missing.
Bow, Glimmer, Entrapta, Hordak, Wrong Hordak, Catra and… Adora herself.
Everyone’s heartbeat seemed steady and their body temperature normal, so she locked the screen and looked up again.
Glimmer and Bow were muttering to each other, Hordak was studying the screen on his new suit as carefully as he would a battle plan and Catra was looking at Adora with a blank expression.
“Wrong Hordak and Entrapta are in the cockpit” Adora said, mostly to herself.
“Entrapta,” Adora said, bringing a hand to the communication device in her ear. “Can you hear us?”
“Loud and clear!” Entrapta replied way too loudly, making Adora wince.
“Wrong Hordak is going to stay with you since he doesn’t have a suit, got it?” Adora asked.
“Yes, although I really don’t understand why you won’t let me work on his suit. If I could just adjust the calibration of—”
“Entrapta” Catra cut in sharply. “Can we focus on not dying first and then worry about Wrong Hordak’s suit?”
Adora heard Entrapta sigh loudly. “Fine. I’ve re-charted the navigation course and stabilized the steering but I need someone to upload the files to the Communication room and the Admin Station”
“Okay, Hordak,” at the mention of his name his head shot up. “You up for it?”
Hordak snarled. “You think I can’t complete a task as simple as uploading files?”
Adora ignored the anger behind his words. “I’ll take that as a yes”
“Anything else, Entrapta?”
“Well, actually, now that you mention it…”
Adora sighed. “Tell me”
“The engines need to be refueled, the output aligned properly, there’s a slight miscalibration in the distributor and the panels need rewiring” Entrapta listed.
“Oh, is that it?” Catra muttered, her hands lifting to wrap around herself.
“Yes, I believe that’s it!” Entrapta replied cheerfully.
“Alright Entrapta, thank you. We’ll turn the comms off, now” Adora said as they all did so.
Then she squared her shoulders. “Okay, here’s the plan. Hordak is going to take care of the files. Glimmer, you refuel the engines. There should be an empty tank you can use in the storage unit”
Glimmer nodded. “Bow, you’re the tech master so you’ll align the engine output”
“Got it” Bow said resolutely.
Adora turned to Catra, whose tail was twitching nervously behind her. “And I guess you and I can figure out who does what when we get to electrical”
Catra’s eyes flickered down. “I guess”
Adora wanted nothing more than to ask Catra what was wrong and comfort her in any way she could, but she knew her girlfriend wouldn’t appreciate it. Not now. Not in front of Bow and Glimmer. Especially not in front of Hordak.
So instead she turned towards her friends, gave them the best smile she could manage — which probably wasn’t the best— and told them to be careful.
“If there’s someone else on this ship,” she started. They won’t hesitate to harm any of you, she thought. “We’ll find them” she concluded.
“We’ll meet back here as soon as everybody’s done with their tasks”
__________________________________________________________
On the walk towards the left wing, Adora found herself missing the constant and low hum of the ship. When they’d started their journey through the galaxy, it had soothed her nerves and she’d found it reassuring. Then, as the days went by, she had gotten used to it and she didn’t even really think about it. Now, in the dark and quiet of space, she couldn’t help but notice its absence.
Her footsteps sounded eerie in the silence and Catra didn’t make any noise as she walked by Adora’s side. If it weren’t for the occasional brush of their arms and the fact that she could see her through her peripheral vision walking a few steps behind, Adora would question if she was even there.
“Hey, are you okay?” Adora said, breaking the silence that was making her more nervous by the second.
Catra didn’t respond immediately. Instead, through a quick glance, Adora could see that her ears were plastered to her skull and her shoulders were tense.
“I’m fine.” Catra’s voice didn’t betray any emotion. Adora knew firsthand how hard it was to break through her facade under normal circumstances, she could only imagine how difficult it would be to do that right now.
She moved her hand blindly to find Catra’s. When she found it, she gently intertwined their fingers and squeezed reassuringly. Catra sighed softly.
They walked like that the rest of the way to the electrical room, Adora eventually trying to soothe Catra’s nerves with light and gentle touches.
Of course when they got there…
“Dammit” Catra cursed. “Of course the goddamn door is locked”
Adora sighed, looking at the white security door blocking their path. “Great”
The blonde brought her hand to her right ear, where her comm sat. “Entrapta? Do you copy?”
Catra snorted. “You love saying that, don’t you?”
Adora scoffed playfully. “Shut up”
“Adora!” Entrapta yelled. “Yes! Is everything okay?”
Adora grimaced. “Yes, everything is fine. Please stop shouting”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure if you could hear me properly” Entrapta said.
“I can hear you loud and clear” Adora reassured her.
“Great. What do you need?”
“The door to Electrical is locked” Adora said. “Can you open it?”
Static. And then, “I’m not sure, but I will certainly try! Although it might take a while”
“We can wait. Contact us when you’re done” Adora said, then switched her comm off.
She turned back to Catra, only to see the feline was looking at her with a raised eyebrow and shaking her head.
“What?” Adora frowned.
“I can hear you loud and clear. Contact us when you’re done.” Catra mocked in a poor imitation of Adora’s voice. “You’re such a nerd”
“Hey!” Adora protested. “We have to use proper terms when we communicate”
Catra scoffed at her. “Sure, Force Captain. Can’t I just claw the door down?”
Adora tried to ignore the way her stomach flipped at the two sentences Catra had just spoken. An image of the Best Friend Squad on an abandoned planet flashed in her head. In particular, the memory of Catra, claws unsheathed as she tore through solid metal to make a path for them to step through.
Up until that moment, Adora had always known just how strong Catra’s claws were. She’d seen them in action more than once: when they were kids and she was still learning how to use them properly — that and her growing canines had been the bane of Adora’s existence— and Adora had helped her with sheathing and unsheathing them, pressing her own tiny hand into Catra’s palm. When they were still cadets in training simulations and combat exercises. She’d felt them on her own skin when they first had become enemies and Catra hadn’t held back anymore. And then on Horde Prime’s flagship when she had been under his influence, his control.
Adora knew oh so well what Catra was capable of, and yet she’d been completely awestruck when she’d used them to literally create a door. She’d felt her face flush all the way up to her ears without being able to do anything about it but step through it and hope Catra hadn’t noticed anything.
(She had.)
The thought of experiencing that again sent a shiver up her spine.
“First of all, I never officially became Force Captain.” She said, shaking those thoughts away. “And second, we should be working on fixing the ship. Not damaging it even more”
Catra groaned. “So what we just wait here for Entrapta to save us?”
Adora shrugged to herself. “Unless you have another option?”
A huff. “I hate Electrical”
Adora chuckled. “At least we’re alone?”
Catra looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “And what did you have in mind, princess?”
It took a moment for Adora’s brain to catch up, but when it did she rolled her eyes. “I meant to talk about what’s bothering you”
“Nothing’s bothering me” Catra said.
Adora knew better. “Uh-huh”
The feline moved to the door in front of them, leaning against it and sliding to the floor. She brought her knees up to her chest in a defensive manner, brought her arms around them and wrapped her tail around her ankles.
Adora moved to sit next to her, sitting so that her bicep was touching Catra.
“You know you can talk to me.” Adora said softly. It wasn’t a question. Adora was sure Catra knew that she could talk to her, sometimes she just needed to be reminded of it.
Catra hummed, but didn’t give any other response. Adora exhaled through her nose and leaned her head back against the cool metal of the ship.
“What if it’s me?” Catra spoke so quietly, Adora feared she would have missed it if they weren’t sitting so close to one another.
“What do you mean?” Adora said, confused. Catra’s grip visibly tightened around her legs.
“What if I’m the… impostor. And I’m the one sabotaging the equipment. And—and what if I hurt someone? You? What—what if he’s—he’s still—” her voice cracked, her hand shot up to clutch at her neck.
Adora turned around to face Catra, bringing one hand to the girl’s face. “Hey, hey. Look at me”
Catra reluctantly gazed up at Adora, heterochromatic eyes filled with unshed tears. Her ears were pressed against her head and her claws were digging into the scar on her collar.
“Catra, he’s gone. You’re okay. You’re safe. He can’t control you anymore.” Adora said, bringing her other hand to the one Catra was still holding to her neck. She pulled gently to make her loosen her grip on herself.
“We’re going to his ship. What if he had a backup plan? A secret server so that he could reboot himself?” A tear escaped its confine and traced Catra’s cheek.
“Then we’re going to stop him a second time.” Adora said decisively. “He won’t hurt us anymore. I won’t let him”
She wiped the single tear away with her thumb as Catra took a shaky breath. “I’ve got you. I’m not letting go”
Adora leaned her forehead against Catra and inhaled deeply. “I promise”
Before Catra had time to recover the lights went out all around them and a red light started blaring in the hallway, making them both jump and pull away from each other.
Entrapta’s voice spoke up over the comms. “Adora! I think we may have a problem”
Adora pulled her hands away from Catra. “What’s happening?”
“I think Hordak’s in trouble. His wristband has gone offline. And his temperature before it did was around 98 degrees, which would be fine if he were a normal etherian subject. But usually his is much lower do to the conditons he was used to living—”
“Entrapta, slow down. What happened to the lights?”
“The lights have turned off”
Adora took a deep breath. “Yes, I know the lights have turned off, but why?”
“There seems to be a problem with the wiring in the second quadrant of the ship”
“Which is?” Adora prompted gently.
“The Admin station, to be exact” Entrapta finished.
“Okay, we’re going to head there. Stay put.” Adora said.
_______________________________________________________
After Adora had checked that Catra was okay (she wasn’t. Well, not really) several times, they made their way to the opposite side of the ship. They passed through the storage room to find Bow and Glimmer fussing over each other.
They called their names in unison when they saw them.
“Are you guys okay?” Bow asked, his face flickering in the dim red light.
“Yeah, we’re fine. Entrapta said Hordak might be in trouble” Adora replied.
“Yeah, we heard through the comms. I ran here as soon as the lights went off.” Bow said.
“How very romantic.” Catra mumbled.
“We better get to Admin” Glimmer said, ignoring her.
The others nodded.
When they arrived they saw the panel right outside of the room had been opened and each of the wires inside of it had been cut right in the middle. One of the red chairs sitting at the computer stations had been knocked over and behind the interactive map in the middle of the room, a pair of legs stuck out.
Adora made her way towards Hordak, who was lying face down on the red carpet. Right next to him sat his vitals wristband, smashed to pieces.
Adora laid a hand on his shoulder, turning him onto his back.
“Is he dead?” Catra asked over her shoulder, not sounding particularly concerned for his well-being.
Adora shook her head. “He’s out cold”
“What happened in here?” Glimmer asked, as Bow focused on the electric wires.
Catra was staring intently at Hordak’s unconscious form. “I guess we’re gonna have to ask him”
_______________________________________
They all gathered in the Med Bay. Bow and Glimmer sat next to one another on one of the beds, Catra sat on another with one of her legs tucked closed to her chest. Adora paced up and down the length of the room nervously. Entrapta stood next to Hordak, who was now awake and undergoing a full scan.
Finally, Adora couldn’t take it anymore. “What happened?”
Hordak’s head turned in her direction. “I was uploading the last of the files Entrapta gave me, when the lights went out and I was attacked. I tried to resist but I was—”
“Electrocuted!” Entrapta concluded.
Adora turned to her. “Electrocuted?”
“Yes!” Entrapta confirmed. “His suit was overloaded by an electric stream that caused his body to go into shock along with it. Now that would be unusual under normal circumstances, but seeing as his suit is what keeps his body intact the amount of—”
“Thank you, Entrapta” Adora said bringing a hand to rub at her temples, trying to soothe her growing headache. “I got it”
“But who was it?” Bow asked. “I looked through the security footage. If there had been someone else on the ship we would have known by now”
“So it’s one of us, then” Glimmer said.
“Yeah, how about the literal colonizer who also happened to be the only one in the room?” Catra spoke up. Adora turned to gaze at her and saw she was glaring at Hordak.
“You wretched—” Adora gave Hordak a look that made him stop dead in his tracks.
“Admit it!” Catra said standing up and taking a few steps towards him. “You were the only one there. You sabotaged the equipment and then knocked yourself out so that we wouldn’t suspect it was you”
“I did no such thing” Hordak snarled.
“Guys, I don’t think we should—”
“We should drop you off on the nearest planet and be done with you” Catra hissed back, interrupting Bow. She was now face to face with Hordak.
“No!” Entrapta called.
“What are you defending him for?”
“Guys, c’mon. I think Bow’s right” Adora said.
“You too?” Catra snapped.
“Hey!” Glimmer yelled, catching everyone’s attention. “We don’t know that it was Hordak. And the possibility that there’s another person on this ship could still be valid. They might just be avoiding the cameras and the scans. We don’t have proof of anything” she said looking at Catra. “And until we do, arguing isn’t going to fix anything. So let’s focus on fixing the damn ship and then worry about it, yeah?”
“And what if someone gets hurt again?” Catra asked.
“We use the buddy system,” Bow suggested. “No one goes anywhere alone. Hordak can stay with Entrapta in Navigation and focus on fixing the lights. Me and Glimmer can work on the engines and Catra and Adora in Electrical. Is everyone okay with that?”
Everyone nodded and Bow let out a sigh of relief.
“Ok, then let’s get to it.”
____________________________
Entrapta had managed to get the lights back on by replacing the wires in the Admin station and also to get the door to Electrical open in the span of an hour. That girl was the most insane person Adora had ever met, but she had to admit she was a genius.
So while Adora tried to get the wire panel by the entrance opened with the set of keys Entrapta had given her, Catra was at the back of the room calibrating the distributor.
“What the hell does that even mean?” she’d asked Entrapta.
“Oh it’s simple, you just need to adjust the three valves that pass electric current to each spark plug in turn” Entrapta explained.
“Alright, I’m going to pretend I understood whatever it is you just said and just wing it”
And she had tried to, except now she sounded like the valves had won against her. Adora heard her groan for the third time in the past half hour.
“This is pointless, she should just come down here and fix it herself” Catra muttered loud enough for Adora to hear. “Maybe her boyfriend can help her”
Adora sighed as she tried to insert yet another key into the panel in front of her. “Catra, Entrapta cares about Hordak. She was just trying to protect him. I would have done the same for you”
“Yeah, except I’m not an evil colonist who steals babies from their families and forces them to become child soldiers and undergo decades of psychological and physical abuse because I have daddy issues”
Adora jammed the last key into the panel. It didn’t work.
She stood up, shoving the keys in the pockets of her suit. “Yes, but you still did bad things. And Entrapta believes he can change and do some good in this world just like the Best Friend Squad believes in you”
No response came from Catra, so Adora figured she must have said something wrong. She always found a way to do that.
“Catra?” she called out. She heard some shuffles but no reply.
She started walking around the main server to where Catra was. “Look, I’m sorry if I upset you. It’s just that Glimmer is right. Arguing isn’t going to help us find the impostor any fas—”
When she rounded the corner, she stopped herself halfway through her sentence. Wrong Hordak held an unconscious Catra in his arms, his claws wrapped around neck.
“Wrong Hordak? Put Catra down” Adora said, her teeth gritted.
“Foolish child, it is wrong to have a name. Prime’s servants are parts of a whole. Once I have destroyed She-ra, the universe will bask in his light once more”
His words made Adora’s eyes widen. “Now surrender She-ra, and your friends will perhaps be spared”
“Prime is gone” Adora said, angrily. “I made sure you would never bring him back. Now put. Her. Down.”
The clone laughed. “Prime is all powerful. He knows all. He sees all. You cannot defeat him”
“What did you do to Wrong Hordak?” Adora asked.
“That traitor got the punishment he deserved in the name of Prime” the clone boasted.
Adora’s eyes dropped to where the clone’s claws pressed into Catra’s throat, her mind racing. She had to get the clone away from Catra before she could jump into action.
“You cannot stop this. I will return triumphant by Prime’s side” the clone continued. “Give yourself up or your companions will suffer the consequences of your resistance”
His hand closed tighter, drawing blood. Adora clenched her fists so tight her knuckles turned white.
She needed to find a way to communicate with Entrapta and send some kind of distress signal.
But how?
While her mind raced for options and ideas, in her peripheral vision she saw the tip of Catra’s tail twitch.
If she was waking up and the clone hadn’t noticed, then Adora had the upper hand.
“Fine” she said, raising her hands up. “I’ll surrender”
“That is a—“
“But first, let Catra go” Adora interrupted.
The clone narrowed his eyes at her, contemplating wether or not he could take that chance.
“Very well. I will release her” he said finally. “But if I notice any mishap—“
“You won’t” Adora said firmly.
After a moment of hesitation, the clone slowly set Catra down without taking his eyes off of Adora.
When he stood back up, Adora raised an eyebrow. “Are you gonna restrain me or…?”
The clone seemed to remember himself and stepped towards Adora, seizing her wrists. “Prime’s light shall graze your soul once you—“
“Wow, don’t you ever shut up?” A voice behind him said.
His head turned around just as two hands grabbed the side of his face and slammed it against the panel next to Adora, making his grip on Adora’s wrists loosen.
The clone screamed in rage and brought a hand up to his face. In that moment Adora yanked her hands out of his clutches, making him stumble sideways, and trapped him against the wall beside the console.
Catra gave the final blow by jamming her fingers inside the hole at the back of his neck. His body tensed up and his mouth opened in a silent grunt of pain. His eyes turned white as he stopped struggling against Adora’s grip.
When Adora let him go, he fell to the floor with a thud, leaving them staring at his body in front of them. They were both breathing heavily from the adrenaline.
“At least he got the panel open” Catra said pointing to the console behind Adora.
Adora mentally facepalmed. “Wrong panel”
“Are you okay?” Adora said stepping closer to Catra to examine her neck.
“I’m fine, it’s just a scratch” Catra replied waving her off.
Adora nodded. “Hey, we make a great team”
Catra smirked. “Yeah, princess. We always have”
Adora grinned at her, making Catra roll her eyes playfully. “C’mon let’s get this guy to the cafeteria before he wakes up.”
______________________________________________________________________________
“So he replaced Wrong Hordak?” Glimmer asked.
They were all seated around the table at the center of the room. The clone tied to one of the benches, still unconscious.
“Well, I don’t think he replaced him since he was with Entrapta this entire time. But I guess he pretended to be him to not be suspicious and used the ventilation system to get around” Adora replied.
“That’s why I didn’t see anything strange in the camera footage” Bow said snapping his fingers together.
“Yeah, I guess he thought I was with Hordak when he got attacked” Adora said.
Catra looked at Hordak guiltily. “Yeah, I’m sorry for accusing you. I guess”
Hordak simply snarled at her. “Entrapta and I have coordinates to set.”
“That’s correct!” Entrapta confirmed. “And we should also find a place for our new guest!”
She looked pointedly at the clone, tapping a finger on her chin. “I suppose he could stay in the med bay until we find a better place for him.”
Bow’s eyes widened and he chuckled nervously. “Uh, Entrapta? Maybe don’t keep the scary clone who is convinced he can bring Prime back with all the medical supplies”
Entrapta looked confused, so Glimmer interjected. “How about he stays in Bow’s room and he can sleep with me until we get back to Etheria”
Catra snorted. “Very subtle, Sparkles”
Glimmer glared at her as Entrapta spoke. “I could time the doors to close for more than just a few minutes in just that quadrant”
“Perfect” Glimmer said.
And with that, Entrapta, along with Hordak and the clone, left the cafeteria. Silence enveloped the room as the four crewmates stared across the table at each other.
“Do you think he was telling the truth?” Glimmer spoke. “That Prime could really…”
She left the question hanging, but she didn’t need to finish for everyone to know what she was asking.
Could Prime really come back?
Nobody answered. None of them wanted to think about it.
Beside her Catra’s hand gripped the bench, her claws leaving marks in the metal. Adora’s eyebrows furrowed in concern.
They didn’t want to, but they had to at least consider the possibility.
“That’s why we’re here isn’t it?” Adora said looking around the table. “We have to examine his flagship to know. Until then, we can’t be sure”
“I guess” Bow said half-heartedly.
“And if he does have some kind of back up server or storage memory, then we’ll destroy it and make sure he can never take any form ever again” Adora said more firmly.
The others looked at her, unconvinced. Bow was the first to speak.
“Adora’s right” he said. “We’ve beaten him once when he had an armada of ships and clones at his disposal. I’m pretty sure we can deal with him when he doesn’t even have a material form yet”
Adora gave him a thankful smile, which he quickly returned.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be fine” Glimmer joined. “We’re the Best Friend Squad after all. And we’re great at quests”
Adora smiled at her, before turning towards Catra. She was still tense and her tail flickered nervously behind her.
Adora laid her palm on Catra’s knuckles gently. Catra’s head turned towards her, her gaze slightly unfocused.
The blonde smiled at her reassuringly. “It’s going to be okay”
Catra’s grip on the bench relaxed, letting Adora hold it. “Yeah, everything’s going to be fine”
A beat and then. “As long as Sparkles and Arrow Boy stop calling us the Sparkly Princess Group. I don’t wanna be a part of that”
Bow looked offended. “We’re the Best Friend Squad and you are officially part of it”
Catra shook her head. “No. No way.”
“Oh yes you are” Glimmer said.
“Since when?” Catra asked, rolling her eyes.
“Since—“
Adora tuned them out, watching as they argued. She couldn’t help but smile. They had come so farm and they still had many adventures ahead of them. She was glad she’d get to share it with them.