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Hordak was sitting on the docks, his dress billowing in the wind. For perhaps the first time in his life, he liked being in the sun. Tomorrow, he and Entrapta would leave for Beast Island. They were going to rebuild Etheria, piece by piece, starting by retrieving her robot. It was going to be quite the experience, he supposed. Hands clasped over his mouth, he looked into the water. He saw himself in the shimmering water, his red eyes reflected in it. For a moment, there was a temptation to lament the power he had lost in pursuit. Then, however, he thought of all those whose loyalty he had gained. Most of all, he thought of Entrapta, who was so loving and kind to him.
“Hey,” said a flamboyant voice that Hordak immediately recognized.
“Double Trouble,” Hordak said, even himself unsure of his tone. “I remember that last time we spoke, you pitted me against Catra.”
“Yeah,” said the shapeshifter, dipping their feet in the water. “That was fun.”
“I do not see how it is ‘fun’ to turn peoples’ wrath against one another, and to destroy lives as you do.”
“Now, in fairness to me, all I did was tell you the truth. Catra, too, for that matter. If it’s any consolation, you should’ve seen what I did to her. You got it easy.”
“When I met her aboard Prime’s ship, she seemed shaken.”
“Oh, ‘shaken’ is an understatement. Broke the poor cat’s worldview. Still, without me she wouldn’t have changed, and without me, you wouldn’t have been saved. I’d say you owe me.”
Hordak looked at his reflection, now accompanied by that of Double Trouble, who had the same smile on their face as was typical.
“I suppose I do,” he said.
“You’re brooding as ever. I checked out your trial. Drama event of the century. I was pulling for you, you know.”
“That is not what others have told me.”
“Oh, I set some roadblocks in your path for sure, but it was all in the name of building character. Besides, I wanted to spice things up. I wanted you to win the whole time, I just wanted it to be, you know, a moment you earned.”
Hordak growled at that. The transforming mercenary looked at him.
“Your temper’s flaring up again,” they casually said.
“Do you have any idea of the pain I suffered, shapeshifter? The trauma I witnessed as one of Prime’s countless clones? The way you turned the people against me was not some dramatic obstacle. You do not get to simply play with peoples’ lives!”
“Oh, my,” Double Trouble said. “To see the leader of the Etherian Horde taking the moral high ground. Tell me, how’s the view? Bet it’s good, standing above all those burning villages.”
“You played your role in the sacking of Salineas as well.”
“Oh, absolutely. That’s the difference between us, Hordak. I have never, not once in my life, thought about anything I’ve done as wrong. Call it confidence.”
“I would call it an acute lack of self-awareness at best and a borderline psychopathic superiority complex at worst.”
The shapeshifter laughed as though he had told some hysterical joke. Hordak didn’t understand. He placed his hands on his thighs and looked at the two of them in the water.
“First off, leave the psychoanalysis to me. I’m better at it. Second, I’m not a psychopath. It’s not that I don’t have empathy. It’s merely that I understand what the world is. One big show, Hordak.”
“You are toying with lives, Double Trouble. Your emphasis on dramatics cost people their lives in Salineas.”
“I wasn’t the one who razed the city. I was just doing my job.”
“As was I, mercenary. As was I.”
“Oh, you’re not gonna pull the ‘we’re a lot alike’ card, are you? That’s just trite, and not even true. I’m a free spirit. You’re more uptight than a priest locked in a broom closet. Besides, I didn’t come to argue. I came to talk.”
“You can understand why my feelings toward you would be rather sour, to say the least.”
“True, true. Anyways, how have things been? Heard you hooked up with Princess Entrapta, that’s a fine woman. Pretty ironic that you’d get with a Princess, though. After all, didn’t you think they were scary, evil monsters?”
“I’m still convinced most of them are,” Hordak said.
“Oh!” Double Trouble exclaimed. “Was that snark? Well, that’s new! Still, you seem contemplative. You didn’t seem contemplative back when you were working in the Horde. You seemed more like… well, I can give you a visual demonstration.”
Suddenly, Double Trouble took the form of Hordak, placing a hand upon his forehead. “Alas, Entrapta! You have abandoned me!”
Then, suddenly, the form of his beloved Entrapta, posturing and posing, lifting their hair due to a lack of cybernetic enhancements. Their motions were extravagant, yet in a way they did remind him of Entrapta in more than just appearance. Their technique was admittedly somewhat impeccable.
“Ah, Hordak, you big, strapping space vampire man! Come save me from my imprisonment on Beast Island!”
Then, the scratched and scrappy form of Catra.
“Hordak, I desperately long for your trust and approval, but I’ve also sent your girlfriend to a place that’ll probably kill her! Oh, how I thirst for the love of Adora, whose life I have tried to destroy!”
Then, the form of Hordak again. Passersby stopped and looked upon the meeting of two Hordaks in shock, but then supposed it was probably just a typical occurrence. After all, now that the clones had arrived upon Etheria, there was no doubt there were some styling themselves after the former overlord of the Fright Zone.
“Oh, Entrapta! We are at last reunited! I love you so much I almost forgot to brood!”
Hordak was simply staring by this point.
The form of Entrapta once more.
“Oh, Hordak! How I love you! I’m gonna literally marry you and make you the Prince of all Dryl!”
Then, the form of Hordak. The actual Hordak was, by this point, on the verge of laughing himself. At first, he had found such a display offensive, but now he was somewhat enraptured by its open absurdity.
“Oh, yes, Entrapta! We will get married and read romance novels and probably make robot babies! I just assume you read romance novels, you seem like the type.”
“I do not read romance novels,” Hordak said, lying through his teeth.
“Sure you don’t,” Double Trouble responded, not changing their form. “Wait, wait, give me a minute.”
They cleared their throat, and looked to the rest of the dock.
“ATTENTION, EVERYONE AT THIS DOCK! I, HORDAK, KNOWN WAR CRIMINAL AND TRUE SCOUNDREL, LOVE ROMANCE NOVELS! I LOVE THEM ALMOST TEN PERCENT AS MUCH AS I LOVE MY SCIENCE WIFE! THAT SEEMS LIKE A LOW NUMBER, BUT WHEN YOU CONSIDER HOW MUCH I LOVE MY SCIENCE WIFE, IT IS ACTUALLY A VERY, VERY LARGE NUMBER! I ALSO RESPECT NON-BINARY PRONOUNS! THANK YOU VERY MUCH.”
Hordak gasped. “Why are you doing this?”
Double Trouble collapsed against the dock, shifting back to their normal form and dipping their feet in the water again.
“I mean, beyond the fact that the look on your face is always priceless? I don’t really have a reason. I am an expert in my craft, an actor, and every actor needs an audience. Oh, you should have seen how I fumed when I tried to infiltrate the Galactic Horde. Those brothers of yours? Even you can take a joke better than that. Except the one I named Groucho and followed for two hours. That stopped being fun very quick.”
“I take it you decided to leave around that point?” the former conqueror asked.
“I mean, I spun that whole yarn to the Rebellion about how it was all about having an unreceptive audience, but seeing him, the way he does things, I have to admit I was scared, you know? I love an audience, and he seems a connoisseur of the arts, but it felt wrong to perform for someone after seeing them do that.”
“Horde Prime is a connoisseur of the arts in the same way he was a kindly brother. He cared only about art as a means to an end. He wanted it not because he appreciated it, but because he wanted the knowledge, the value of owning it when others did not. If he had not considered someone like you beneath his notice, he would have made you perform for him in a glass bottle, and that is if you caught him in one of his ‘merciful’ moods.”
“He’s controlling,” Double Trouble said. “I felt that aura off him, but I thought, you know, that was the aura you got from that sort of guy. But you were never that sort of controlling.”
“He took pleasure in it,” Hordak said. “The power. I saw it as a burden, but him, he saw it as an opportunity. Any chance he got to feel more powerful than someone else, he took it. When it comes down to it, there was not a shred of benevolence to him. He relished every moment of what he did. He was a sort of astounding evil. You should be grateful that he never decided to pick at your mind.”
“I saw those chipped Etherians. Creepy.”
“More than ‘creepy.’ He invades your mind. It’s like a prying sensation, and you feel him conquer you, tear you apart, piece by piece. The worst part is that for years, we subjected ourselves to it.”
Hordak clenched his fist. In a moment of surprising earnestness, Double Trouble had a look of remorse on their face. They extended a hand as though to pat Hordak on the back, and then pulled it away to avoid unnecessary, unwanted contact.
“You didn’t know any other way,” the mercenary said. “You never did. Still, it’s over now. He’s gone.”
“He is,” Hordak said. “Yet I cannot help but feel a sort of pity for him. As cruel as he was, as vile, as much as he abused me. I wonder sometimes what it would be like to become him.”
“Well, I could answer that,” the shapeshifter said. “I won’t, though. That’s a pair of shoes I never want to step in. Not to mention the risk of method acting. I’ve gotta say, pretending to be a clone was probably the worst week of my life.”
“Being a clone is my life,” Hordak said dryly.
“I know! I say this with all the empathy and pride I can, Hordak, I am so glad I’m not you!”
Hordak chuckled.
“It’s interesting, though. In a lot of ways, you and Catra were alike. Both of you were conditioned in a way that caused you to do terrible things. Can I ask you a question?”
“I don’t believe I have a choice in the matter.”
“Would you have opened the portal? I mean, Catra did it.”
Hordak took a moment to ponder that, again looking at his reflection. This time, it was diluted by the ripples of the water. He looked deformed, almost. It was an odd sensation, and he chose to look upon that visage no longer.
“I cannot say for certain, but in the end, I wanted nothing more than to get back to Prime, to be welcomed somewhere. I must admit I think Catra was the same in that regard.”
“What do you mean?”
“Catra wanted something she could never have, just like me. She thought that if she destroyed Adora, if she won, Shadow Weaver would finally approve of her. Even when Shadow Weaver was gone, that never left her mind. She didn’t understand it, because she’d never understand it. I played a role in such a cruel upbringing as well.”
“So, you want revenge? Was it cathartic to see Catra face some of the public’s ire?”
“It was, for a moment. That’s the thing. Hurting people, it gives that momentary catharsis. It is as she said. I think you would understand that on some level, shapeshifter.”
“I’m not about sadism. I’m into the art of the performance. The play is the thing for me.”
“No,” Hordak said.
“No?” Double Trouble asked, seemingly bewildered at the word itself.
“You care about the attention you receive from your performance. You desire validation and affection, yet you seek to gain it by taking the form of others. The latter element shows to me, and I’m not experienced in this field, I hardly understand social dynamics when they are present, but it shows to me a level of insecurity.”
Double Trouble blinked a few times.
“I--”
“You desire little more than applause and adoration, but it never satisfies you, does it? Not for long, at least. You are in that desire insatiable.”
“Well, yeah. We all want something in the world, and people aren’t satisfied. Tell me, would you have been satisfied if Prime stopped by and told you how much he loved you?”
“I suppose not.”
“Exactly. That’s all it is, really. It’s that little ping! of emotion you get, that nice hit, and then you’ve gotta do it again. For me, it’s acting. For you, it’s probably hair cuddles or something.”
“True enough. It is a chemical response.”
“Right. When it comes down to it, life is less like some beautiful story with a happy endings and more that we just do things and then die.”
“Still, it is better to relish the good things you do have.”
“Agreed. That’s what I’ve done my whole life. I’ve got another question, this one might be uncomfortable.”
“Go on, mercenary.”
“Do you think that’s why Prime did what he did?”
“No,” Hordak said. “Prime was, on a fundamental level, motivated by fear. Fear of the First Ones, fear of Krytis, fear of She-Ra, fear of himself. He desired to control everything because only once he controls everything is he safe. He trusted only himself, so he tried to make the entire universe himself. At least, that’s my interpretation of it.”
“Do you ever wonder what turned him into what he is?”
“Oh, I do. It hardly matters, though. He made his choices, and I my own.”
“So, do you think Prime could have redeemed himself?”
“Redemption is not a concept I believe in.”
“That’s really interesting,” the mercenary said. “I mean, considering you’re basically the peak of it.”
“Redemption is arbitrary. It is created to ease guilty consciences or to punish others. Do I think Prime could have changed his ways? Perhaps he could have attempted to, but it does not matter. His deeds had already been done, and on such a grand scale that it did not matter whether he was trying to change his ways. Do I believe in executing him, in punishing him? No, I do not, in the end, for I know its pain, and Adora believes in it even less. However, the only moral choice was to keep Prime from hurting anyone else. Were it a possibility, I would have done so without killing him.”
“That’s a dangerous idea. You want someone who caused that much pain hanging around, still alive after it all?”
“Killing would not solve the issue of men like Prime.”
“What would?”
“Nothing. There will always be people like Prime. In the end, another will rise, and we will see them cause suffering.”
“You make it all sound really, well, pointless.”
“In the end, it is not. Just because another like him will rise does not mean we did not vanquish him. And when another rises, we will stop them as well. The problem was not me, and it was not Prime. It was hatred. It was evil. Evil is indomitable. It cannot be tamed or restrained.”
“I don’t know,” Double Trouble said, raising an eyebrow. “I’d say you got plenty tame. Not gonna pretend I don’t miss old Hordak on some level. The new you is so, I don’t know, out of season? Like, it’s great development, broody, it really is, but I don’t know, I think you were a lot more fun when I could send you into a rage with ease. Like, you sure you don’t want to threaten Catra again? For old times’ sake?”
Hordak blinked. It seemed that whoever taught Double Trouble social etiquette was a complete failure. They said such things with astounding confidence, but if someone else had said them, they would be a pariah.
“Evil people can be tamed. Evil itself cannot. It comes in many forms. Light and darkness, chaos and tyranny. Often, it comes in different forms at the same time. It is a corrupting force, so tempting to succumb to so often. It is easy to succumb to evil, and so hard to stop being there.”
“Well said, but are you sure you don’t want to blow up a village?”
“It is not a matter of not wanting to, although I am disgusted by how juvenile my actions were in nature.”
Double Trouble stared at them.
“And unethical. I’m definitely not in approval of their ethics either.”
“Right,” the shapeshifter said.
“Once I was defective, it became much easier to do things I thought were heresy. I was already defective, already worth nothing, so why would I work to improve myself? While that was not among the worst things I did, it was what evil is like, on some level. Once someone like Prime knows that they are evil, which I believe he did on some deep, suppressed level, they can go down two paths. I went down the former, the path of taking up evil as your ally. Prime went the latter, cloaking it in blinding light. Both paths lead to worse and worse deeds as you come to justify more. For Prime, it was that he was good and thus could do no wrong. For me, it was that I was evil… and thus could do no right.”
“Oh, bravissime, that was excellent. Soulful, darling, simply moving. Well, not that moving, actually, it kind of mixes its messages and isn’t great. Actually, it sucked. Do you take constructive criticism? Because your delivery wasn’t very good and you were looking at the ground. Would you do a redo on that one? I mean, it’s a nice premise and I’ve already got it memorized, so if you want me to spruce it up I can give you a demonstration, but I mean, it’s not really important.”
Hordak blinked a few times, and then heard footsteps. Instinctively, he felt a chill down his spine. Rising to his feet, he looked, and felt a cold wind blow his dress backward. Behind him, in her red jacket, her hair hanging loose.
“Ooh! Got over your hair envy, I see. Nice character development on your part too. Truly, the arc we all asked for.”
Adora just blinked at them a couple times.
“Double Trouble. Do you have any idea how much harder you made my life? And Hordak’s?”
“Only because you pardoned me, darling!” the mercenary exclaimed. Adora growled in response.
“Sit with us, Adora. We’re talking.”
“Why are you talking to them? I mean, no offense, Hordak, but Double Trouble did try and ruin everything for us.”
“Nothing they did in the trial is any worse than the things I did. Besides, I’m quite sure they’ll reform once we get theaters up and running.”
“Well,” the mercenary said. “I think I ought to bid you both adieu.”
With a blown kiss, the shapeshifter plunged into the water, and swam away, tail of a mermaid manifesting along their back. It was as performative as always. Replacing the mercenary was Adora, and quickly, Catra as well.
“So,” Hordak said. “I am to take it that Bow and Glimmer were indisposed and you have chosen to sit with me instead?”
Catra shook her head. “We came to see you off, buddy. It’s probably the last time we’ll be seeing you in a while.”
“Catra, I…”
“Look. We’ve had our ups and downs. We really have. But in the end, I think we walked the same road. We went through the same journey.”
“Humorously enough,” Hordak said, “that was actually the topic of discussion with the shapeshifter.”
“Oh, Double Trouble was here? Nice. They taught me a few lessons. Tough love and all that. I mean, everyone else stepped around my feelings because they were afraid of me, which is my fault, obviously.”
“In that regard, we are very much the same. I closed myself off to everyone.”
“It’s alright,” Catra said. “We’re different people now. Well, we’re not, really. We’re the same people, just with some parts of ourselves changed.”
“Should I leave you two alone to talk?” Adora asked.
“Please?” Catra asked. “I haven’t gotten to spend much time with clone man here. Hey, you wanna take a walk?”
“Yes,” Hordak said after a bit of thinking. “I could indeed use some light exercise.”
So they walked. The sun was beginning to set, which cast an orange hue across the skyline as though a painting. The two former Horde leaders took a walk together, across a city which despised them. Few were out tonight. Catra did, however, swipe a few apples for the both of them from a nearby cart. Hordak, despite his reluctance to commit further crimes, had to admit it seemed rather harmless. Bright Moon was bountiful and rich at the moment, and there was nothing wrong with them taking what they needed.
Hordak bit into a juicy apple, savoring its taste, as Catra started talking.
“So, Beast Island, huh?”
“Not for long,” he said. “We are going to retrieve Entrapta’s machine from it and return with the machine. Then, we will set ourselves to work fixing what we have destroyed.”
“Yeah, me too. I mean, Adora and I have a lot of work to do.”
The two looked at one another, and then turned away.
“Do you get the looks? The stares?” Catra asked.
“All the time.”
“Well, makes sense. Big scary guy in a suit of armor and a nice dress, that’s really easy to notice. Still, it’s been weird getting them, because normally I don’t. I mean, I didn’t before. Then I admitted I killed Angella, and now, I get the stares all the time. I mean, I get it. It has to be hard for them, you know? Knowing that you’re walking a street across from the woman who killed the queen of your entire kingdom.”
“The worst part is knowing that you’ve been forgiven for it all by a court of law, but not by the people who’ve suffered thanks to you. It will be a long road to repairing this world.”
“You know what I think sometimes? Something that haunts me?”
Hordak looked to Catra. Indeed, in her eyes there was a certain specter. The two stopped, and sat down in an alleyway.
“What if I had succeeded? I mean, failing wasn’t good either. I killed Angella, but these people, they know what I did, but they’ll never understand like Adora and I do. They weren’t really there, you know? It’s not just killing Angella that’s bad, it’s knowing that if I had won, I would’ve killed everyone else. And for what? For spite? To one-up the person I thought I loved?”
“We do not always know what we truly want. At times, we try to conceal it, and in concealing it, we often do awful things. When I at last took to the field again, I razed villages, destroyed homes and ran people out of their normal lives, and all to pretend I did not simply want Entrapta back. Of course, most people have coping mechanisms like ice cream baths. Not nearly as destructive as ours.”
“Lame, though,” Catra said. “I mean, c’mon! When you get mad, it’s inherently wrong not to blow some things up.”
The two chuckled together. Such jest was not due to lack of regret, but rather due to it. It was a way of easing the discomfort, of reminding yourself yet not falling into grief.
“So,” Catra said. “Wrong Hordak told me your people don’t age. What’s that gonna mean for you and Entrapta?”
“Nothing,” Hordak said. “I intend to keep a normal Etherian lifespan. I intend to keep these ‘defects,’ and, beyond the easing of my pain, to bear them with pride.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Catra said.
Hordak’s eyes dimmed. He looked down.
“Double Trouble asked me a question, and I wanted to ‘run it by’ you, as the people of this civilization say.”
“Hit me,” Catra said.
Hordak recoiled, appalled.
“It’s a euphemism. I don’t want you to actually hit me. Ask me your question.”
“Double Trouble asked about the idea that I would have opened the portal, that I would have destroyed the world in my attempt to get back to Prime. As an apparent expert on the subject, do you think I would have done so?”
Catra nodded for a moment, clearly thinking. Then, she spoke.
“Yeah, I think you would’ve. But it’s more complicated than that. I don’t really understand why I did it, to be honest. I just… I wanted to win, you know? I spent my whole life beneath Shadow Weaver, and beneath you, and it felt like I could finally be above you both if I beat Adora at something. I was going mad, not thinking about the costs of my actions. Not that it justifies it, obviously.”
“Why do you think I would have done it?”
“Well, the way I see things, I’d just made you think the only person who really loved you had betrayed you. You weren’t exactly in a good mental state. I think that even if you knew, if I’d told you, you might’ve opened the portal. The truth is, I honestly didn’t expect to come out of that. The way I thought it was gonna go, I thought it was the end, and I was going to make it big and scary. I was so self-absorbed that I wanted the world to feel my pain for a minute. For you, I think you would’ve done it just because you’d think it was your only way home. What was left for you on Etheria? It was worthless to you, a backwater planet, and now Entrapta had seemingly turned on you. I mean, go home and finally be accepted at the risk of destroying the universe, or stick around on a planet that hates you where the only person who ever cared about you just turned on you. Hurt as you were? Wouldn’t have been much of a choice.”
“Alright,” Hordak said. “Now, another question. Why did you not simply leave? Abandon the Horde, go be happy with the one you loved?”
“Because,” Catra said quietly. “Because I didn’t know another way in life. The Horde seemed like they were gonna win, and besides, how could I trust the Rebellion? Someone like me, Shadow Weaver conditioned me into thinking nobody cared, you know? She taught me that if I went over to the other side, they would never forgive me for what I’d done. That they loved Adora because of what she could do for them, and wouldn’t love me because I could never do the same. I didn’t really get the Rebellion, that they would accept me even if I wasn’t of use to them.”
Hordak clenched his fist. He looked to the side, and tapped his fingers against the brick wall behind him. It was a tic of sorts, a reflexive response.
“You know, it is not as though your fears were entirely unfounded. The Rebellion, the Princesses, they can at times be small-minded. They are good people, I believe, but they live in this bubble outside the rest of the world. They are the beautiful elite, and they at times do not understand the plight of others, others unlike them.”
“Yeah, you’re speaking from experience.”
“Oh, no, I was put on trial for my crimes. They had every right to call my nature into question. It was different, however, with Entrapta.”
“Entrapta worked for the Horde.”
“Oh, doubtlessly and hardly with regret. When it came down to it, however, Entrapta was treated with disrespect from the very beginning. The Princesses didn’t understand her, and made little effort to. It’s little wonder she perceived them as having abandoned her. It seemed as though they never liked her at all.”
“It’s funny,” Catra said. “When it comes down to it, that’s what half the motives were for this massive, destructive war. The sort of thing that could be sorted out with a few years of counseling.”
“The Rebellion is not entirely blameless in their actions. Say what you will of the Fright Zone, but it was a place of progress, at least technologically. Thanks to the progress the Horde brought Etheria, we can repair the damage we did to it as well. Not to mention that the Horde was, if we are to be honest, more welcoming of some than the Rebellion was.”
“Yeah,” Catra said. “Still, all those people, all with those different things. It was an incredible assembly, even if it was really just about resolving all our issues.”
“Well, it was for us. On the whole, however, it was like a debate. The Horde against the Rebellion. It was a clash of ideologies, really. The Horde represented that sort of rebellion. If we are to be honest, while I take responsibility for my actions, the Horde was inevitable. It would perhaps not have carried that name, nor the same people, but the fundamental forces of it were always present on Etheria.”
“That’s really fair,” Catra said.
“For now, at least, we have peace. In the end, it was the merging of Horde and Rebellion that Etheria needed to be repaired. The kindness, generosity, magical touch of the Rebellion, and the technology, the persistence of the Horde. The only fault was that the Horde misunderstood their opponents just as much as you did. I came from a galaxy of war, ruled by an Emperor who despised magic and extolled its evils every day, and stated it needed to be purged, for it was unforgiving and cruel. I fell upon a world where magic was beloved and used by countless. I drew the exact conclusion one would expect.”
“Yeah,” Catra murmured. “And then you made the entire Fright Zone see the world through your eyes. In a way, you shared your pain too, as much as you tried to hide it away. We’re really a pair of disasters, huh?”
“I suppose we are,” Hordak said.
The two rose from the alley wall. It was now the night, the only time Hordak truly felt safe. They reached the docks, where this small walk had begun, and they sat down just as the former warlord and the shapeshifter had.
“Thank you,” Hordak said. “Thank you for standing up for me in that courtroom. That took great bravery.”
“It wasn’t right to watch you suffer like that. To watch you get torn apart. I decided that if you were gonna deal with that, I was gonna stand for you. That kind of hypocrisy from the Rebellion, putting you on trial and never me, I’m not a fan of it. I mean, whether or not you would’ve, you never tried to wipe out all of reality.”
“No, I suppose I did not.”
“I have nightmares about it sometimes. Watching them all drift away. Wondering what it would’ve been like if I succeeded. I would’ve been gone, I wouldn’t have been able to witness it, but in those dreams, I see it. Just an empty galaxy. No stars. No people. No Adora. I would’ve won, but I never would’ve been happy having won. Sometimes I think about the more mundane stuff too. Like, what if Adora had come back to the Horde when I asked her to? She would’ve been miserable, and I would’ve been miserable because she was miserable. It would’ve been an utterly pyrrhic victory.”
“Or if I had successfully conquered Bright Moon and summoned Prime, only to find that he never loved me.”
“That’s the thing about being the bad guy. It’s pyrrhic if you’ve got even a bit of a conscience. Only a real, stone-cold monster can be as awful as we were and not regret it.”
“You speak of Prime, of course?”
“Yeah,” Catra said.
“We should not speak of him any longer. He is nothing but memory now.”
“Yeah,” Catra said. “You know who I miss, though? And this is pretty damn rich coming from me? Shadow Weaver.”
Hordak shook his head.
“That was a mistake. I never should have employed Shadow Weaver to condition children. I simply did not believe I could do it myself.”
“Shadow Weaver was the worst. She was horrible, but she was horrible because of the same reason as the rest of us. After casting the Spell of Obtainment, she killed Norwyn. An impulsive decision made her a murderer, and there was no going back. That’s the thing, you know. A lifetime of good, and a split-second choice just ripped it all away. So she became a self-proclaimed wielder of darkness. Even changed her name, left her old life alone.”
“True, but that did not justify her mistreatment of you.”
“Oh, are you kidding? Nothing Shadow Weaver ever did was justified. I mean, she crossed the ‘justified’ bridge when she became a murderer.”
“There is no justification for the things we have done.”
“Yeah,” Catra said. “Still, all we’ve got is the future. A lot to look forward to. A lot of hardship, for sure, but a lot of good stuff, too.”
“It is true.”
“So, when am I gonna be getting an invite to the wedding, Prince Hordak?”
Hordak blushed. His ears drooped. He looked away.
“Silence,” he said.
“Oh?”
“H-how many people did she tell?”
“Oh, nobody. In fact, the only one who’s mentioned it is you.”
“Oh,” Hordak said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep it under wraps. You know, it’s honestly really nice to talk to you again. I mean, no offense to Adora or to you, but she does this thing where she, y’know, cares about my feelings and gets worried for me. It’s nice to talk about someone who doesn’t have a huge reaction when I say alarming stuff.”
“I cannot help but agree. For all we have put each other through, it is indeed nice to speak with you so cordially again.”
The two looked at one another.
“Okay, let’s be real, though. If not for Double Trouble, we totally would’ve conquered Etheria.”
“Oh, absolutely, they were doomed. In fact, the only people in Etheria who ever stood a chance of defeating us were ourselves.”
“Yeah, they’re all really lucky we’re such a mess. You, me, Entrapta, Scorpia, if we got our stuff together, I’d give the Rebellion a month tops.”
“Rebellion,” Hordak said. “Do they still call themselves the Rebellion? Even though they aren’t rebelling against anything?”
“We’re looking at name changes. ‘Alliance’ is a little generic, and isn’t ‘Horde versus Alliance’ a little trite, anyways? Federation, we’re looking at.”
“Hegemony?” Hordak offered.
The two laughed uproariously at such a stupid suggestion.
“Well, that doesn’t even really make sense. The Rebellion is, like, an indirect faction. We don’t even sign confederation papers. Technically we’re just a bunch of kingdoms with some trade deals.”
“How did we ever lose to these people?” Hordak asked.
“Power of friendship. Power of love. Magic.”
“They had an estimate of eleven proper warriors, and that is including the literal child and the mole infiltrating their ranks.”
“How did we beat Horde Prime?” Catra asked.
“I shot him in the back.”
“You know, that’s funny when you think about it. Double Trouble, who turned us against each other? Probably saved the world there. If we’d just stuck together, we probably would’ve won and Prime would’ve taken over everything.”
“In fairness, our conflict was an inevitability. Our worldviews conflicted. Also, you tried to kill my lab partner.”
“Hey! Okay, that’s entirely fair, I’ll give you that one.”
The two exchanged an awkward look.
Catra talked. “We’re gonna do this, Hordak. We’re gonna fix the world.”
“We have the resources. We have the minds.”
The two rose to their feet. The mighty former warlords. The two who had once ruled most of Etheria were now reduced to two weary travelers on a dock, and they had never been happier or more contemplative. The two looked at their reflections in the water, and then Catra crushed the core of her stolen apple in her hand.
“Is it true?” she asked. “What Adora says about what you tried to--”
“I would rather not talk about it,” Hordak said.
“Yeah, fair enough. Hey, anyone hook you up with a therapist yet?”
“In time, we will.”
“Beast Island’s not a good place to go.”
“It will be alright. I will have Entrapta with me. We will face its perils together. Besides, Entrapta has Adora on something she calls ‘speed dial.’ We will have extraction methods if we require them.”
“I can’t believe I sent her there.”
“I can hardly believe there was a time I suffocated you.”
“Damn, remember that time I ripped out your power crystal? That was rough, even for me.”
“I did shoot you with my laser cannon after.”
“Yeah, but then I kicked you in the face.”
The two looked at one another, and then away. It was a combination of shame and ingrown hatred. Hordak clutched the wooden dock tightly, feeling pieces of it break off in his hands.
“We’re horrible people, aren’t we?” Catra asked.
“We are,” Hordak said.
“Just the worst.”
“Zealots and brigands. We hurt people, and in the end, it was all for nothing.”
“Not for nothing,” Catra said. “Say what you will, but without this suffering, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
“Was it worth their blood? Their suffering?”
“You and I both know the answer to that. We’re bad, but… we’re going to be better. We’re going to slip. We’re gonna stumble, and we’re gonna fall. But in the end, we can be better.”
“You’re right,” Hordak said. “I do not know why I have received so many visitations today.”
“Well, I wanted to see you off. No idea what Double Trouble’s thing was about.”
The two looked at one another. These two people, their relationship so complicated and their minds so broken. They were wrathful, ruinous people who so openly conflicted with one another, who had done battle for leadership of the Horde. They were spiteful and hateful toward each other, yet through the flame and the chaos, through the trauma, through the conflict spawned of juvenile, small things, Hordak had seen a new path forth, better than the old one. A path not of light, nor of darkness, not of damage and destruction, of fear and hate, but a path of accomplishment and mending, of healing and repairing.
Opposite him, the woman who would have slain the world. Catra. She was a complex woman, yet no longer did she seek to harm. The two looked into the night sky, and saw the stars. So many foul things, their conquest had wrought, yet it had brought those very stars to Etheria. Hope. For all the Horde had committed harm, they had also brought hope.
“Catra, I have no words for you. None of value.”
“You don’t need them,” she said. “We understand each other.”
“Indeed. It appears we do.”
“Although, some words that are necessary, since I know you’re not good with physical contact. May I give you a hug?”
Hordak thought on that.
“Someday, perhaps.”
“Cool,” Catra said. “That’s fine.”
“I suppose this is goodbye?” Hordak asked.
“For a while,” Catra said. “Still, we’d better get used to seeing one another. We’re gonna be doing it for a long time for the rest of our lives.”
“Agreed,” Hordak said. “I look forward to working with you… Catra.”
No title. No rank. No scale of power between the two, no conflict. Not Force Captain and Overlord, not prisoner and guard, not soldier and leader. The two were illuminated for what they truly were in the starry night sky, as they prepared for the former warlord’s parting.
Just Hordak and Catra.
Just two friends.