Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Catra woke up in the morning. The bed was colder than usual. She reasoned that this was because she was the only one in it, which didnt make any sense because she’d been sleeping alone for a long time. Her bed was too big for one person. Why was that again? Oh, right, it was probably for Melog’s sake. It had its own bed, but that didn’t mean it didn’t really enjoy invading her personal space all the time.

Catra. Good morning. Where is- Melog thought at her before suddenly leaping to its feet and hissing at something out of the window that wasn’t in Catra’s range of vision. Catra, what is that?

“What are you talking about? Nothing happened last night. I just slept. Nightmares again, but you already knew that. Sorry about that, by the way.” She said, knowing that Melog had likely felt her fear and panic through the night.

Your nightmares will only get worse when you see this. Get over here, something’s wrong. Catra got out of bed, stretched, and walked over to the window where Melog was gesturing. She didn’t notice anything.

“Melog, there’s nothing there.”

You see nothing here? Nothing at all?

“Absolutely nothing. Now can we get going? We have a lot of stuff to do.” 

You’re freaking out. I can feel it.

“Yeah, I wake up and my space cat is all like ‘I see dead people.’ Forgive me for being on edge. Do you hear voices now too?” Catra joked. Melog nodded seriously.

Singing. Very loud. Makes it hard to think. Catra looked at Melog. Its mane was flaring with so many different colors and emotions; frustration, fear, panic… grief? Catra listened. She didn’t notice anything.

“Melog, I don’t hear anything. I dont’ see anything either.”

How? What is happening?

“I don’t know. It’s weird. Can you tell me what you’re seeing?”

I see something. 

“What is it?”

I can’t think, it’s too loud, I can’t think, it’s too loud, I can’t think, it’s too loud, I can’t think, it’s too- Catra hugged her creature close, cutting it off from further repetition.

“Then don’t think. It’s obviously hurting you too much.”

But-

“I get that whatever’s happening is bothering you, but I can’t see any of it. Melog, is everything alright?”

You don’t believe me.

“... Not really. I trust in you enough that I know something BIG has to have gone wrong for you to act like this, but right now, you’re the only evidence I have that anything is happening. So here’s the plan. We pretend it’s business as usual. You let me know if anything is wrong and I’ll keep track of it.”

Ok then. First order of business, close the window. Do it quickly. Catra quickly did as she was told in order to ease her companion’s stress. Good. Now get dressed. But stay armed. Red shirt with a gold pin, black pants and dress shoes- Shoes off today. You need to be as agile as possible. Okay then, no shoes, just like old times. Catra fixed her cape to her shoulders, white and gold, and tied her hair back in a ponytail. She had no idea why she did that, she’d go bald soon if she kept it up all the time. At least it didn’t give her an adorable hair poof or something that would give Bow an excuse to squeal over her again. Okay, we’re prepared. How long is it until we go back to Brightmoon?

“A few weeks. The Fright Zone needs a lot of attention. It’s full of ex-Horde soldiers who really need something to do with their life now that they know the first part was a lie.”

Ex Horde? Like you?

“Yeah, kinda like me. I’ve sorta found someone-something to do these days but most of them have nothing to do anymore. I help people fix what I broke, but the whole ‘lifelong redemption arc’ isn’t most people’s cup of tea.”

That and taking care of She-Ra.

“What?”

What?

“She-Ra? You mean that princess who vaporized Horde Prime? Why would she need me to take care of her?”

Holy shit, this is bad. Catra Jumped at that. Melog never cussed. She’d thought it didn’t know the words.

“What do you mean?”

Where is she?

“Who?”

Where is She-Ra?

“Why would I know that?”

Fine then, not She-Ra. Her other name. Why can’t I remember it? It was something like… come on, you have to know it.

“Other name? She’s just She-Ra.” Something about that felt very wrong to Catra, but that’s the truth, right?

She is not “just” She-Ra, especially not to you.

“‘Especially me?’ Come on, I think I’d know if I had some kind of special relationship with the girl who embodies all the magic on Etheria.” Melog looked at the window. It was a beautiful day outside, but it seemed like it was looking at something else. Something Catra couldn’t see. “...Do you think this has something to do with… the thing you keep seeing?” Melog was quiet. “...Forget it. We have a meeting to attend. You coming with?” The magic space cat followed close on her heels as though it were afraid of being alone. The two felines stepped off of Darla’s landing ramp and onto solid ground. This was usually a relief, but right now it felt sort of scary. Catra didn’t get scared. She’d taken down Shadow Weaver, she’d backstabbed Horde Prime himself, gone toe-to-toe with motherfucking She-Ra in single combat, she wasn’t going to start freaking out because her cat was being paranoid. She had a job to do.

“Alright you guys. Perfuma has been giving these guys food, Frosta has been dealing with water, and the Horde war engine is surprisingly good at building homes and stuff, especially with Entrapta doing what she does.” Said Glimmer, as Catra made her fashionably late arrival.

“Isn’t what she does mostly explosions?” Asked Scorpia.

“Yeah, but she can also make a lot of reliable robots to do manual labor. We still have a problem. Ex-Horde soldiers have incredibly low morale due to the whole “working for an evil dictator since birth under false pretenses” thing. Can anyone give us any ideas to-” Entrapta burst into the room, hair flailing wildly. She was wearing a new welding mask of some kind, one with big headphones as well. Everyone in the room could hear what seemed to be microphone feedback emanating from them.

“WE NEED A BIG PARTY AND WE NEED IT NOW!”

“Well that’s kinda-”

“SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU. RUNNING AN EXPERIMENT RIGHT NOW. POINT IS WE NEED A CELEBRATION. A FESTIVAL OF SOME KIND. EVERYONE NEEDS TO WEAR A LOT OF FLOWERS, SPECIFICALLY BUTTERCUPS AND OLEANDER AND HEMLOCK AND MORNING GLORIES AND WOFLSBANE AND ANGELS TRUMPETS AND FOXGLOVE AND LACKSPUR! ALSO LOUD MUSIC AND VERY EXPLOSIVE FIREWORKS! IT SHOULD GO ON FOR LIKE A FEW WEEKS AT LEAST.”

“Well, I appreciate your, er, enthusiasm, but that’s a bit specific with those flowers. Is there any reason that you chose very pois-” Started Perfuma.

“CAN’T TALK GOTTA GO RUN AN EXPERIMENT ON A THING. I’LL TAKE CARE OF THE FIREWORKS, GET THOSE EXACT FLOWERS ON EVERYONE IN VERY HIGH QUANTITIES GOODLUCK, GOODBYE, AND DON’T DIE!” She vanished.

That was unusual. Melog meowed.

“ Par for the course.” Catra said to Melog.

No. All the flowers she picked were poisonous. Some of them can cause skin irritation if touched, all are lethal if ingested.

“So?”

If she intends for people to wear these flowers, why make them uncomfortable?

“Hm.”

“Hey Catra, what’s Melog saying?”

“Nothing, it’s just confused about Entrapta.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Something about the flowers. Anyway, what do you think about the party idea? Yea or nay?” No telling if this was related to the other stuff. Besides, the other princesses had only just started trusting Entrapta again. Catra wasn’t going to try and make her look like she was scheming something.

“I think it could be a good idea, but those were some very specific instructions.”

“Oh, so it’s not normal for parties to be this… specific?”

“Ah, right, Horde upbringing, no parties. Hey Bow, remember that time when we tried to capture a Horde soldier at Thaymoor?” Glimmer asked.

“Oh, right! She instantly destroyed a Pinata, and became immediately obsessed with a random horse. And then… huh. I can’t remember what happened after that.”

“Thaymoor blew up.”

“Ah, right. That.”

“I mean, it’s okay now. ”

“People died Bow.”

“Right, the murderinf, yet another reason Ex-Horde morale is in the toilette. Anyway, the party idea is the only one we’ve got. Any ideas for music?”

“We could make it a karaoke night!” Suggested Scorpia.

“Y’know, that sounds like a great idea. Full disclosure here, I know I complained about your singing back when we were in the Horde, it was actually just… distracting. Which is exactly what we need right now, so you should take the stage first.” Admitted Catra.

“What, me? But I’m just-”

“Do you want to do it?” Catra asked.

“Well, yes, I like singing, and yes, I enjoy it when other people enjoy it, but what if I… I dunno… mess it up?”

“Scorpia, according to Sea Hawk and Perfuma you accidentally walked onstage while undercover, sang a song called I’m a Spy , and got a standing ovation, somehow not blowing your cover. You’ve got this in the bag.”

“Thanks, Wildcat! Hey, is it okay if I-” Catra nodded. Scorpia grabbed Catra in a tight hug. Catra tensed, but it wasn’t as uncomfortable as she remembered. “Thanks! You’re so fluffy.”

“Sure. Whatever, don’t make a big deal out of it.” Melog grumbled. “Fine, fine. The hug’s nice. You happy now, Melog?” 

~~~

“Log date… ah heck I forgot. Um, twelve days after the rest of the Princesses arrived in the formerly Horde-occupied territory. Memetic anomalies keep piling up. Cameras and turrets keep locking onto faces where there aren’t any. None we can see at least. Imp keeps mimicking this weird musical sound, and there’s no known origin. I considered that this could be another unstable portal effect, but no, that isn’t it. No portals have been opened since the incident a couple years ago.

We are dealing with a False Hydra. Having retreated underground, the sound waves don’t reach me and I may examine the records without being influenced by the blind song.” Entrapta opened a folder containing many images of the Fright Zone. Something was wrong about them, something that was only noticeable now that she was underground. “It is as I hypothesized! There’s no way of knowing who it’s already got. Fortunately, it’s nobody I know! Well, I might have known them at one point. Take Hordak, for example. The only reason I know he ever existed was because Wrong Hordak and the rest of the ‘Daks are named after him. You know, Floordak the carpeter, Swordak the blacksmith, Boredak the teacher, Ignoredak the student, Fourdak the four clones who are still stuck in a private hivemind with each other, Moredak the five clones in a private hivemind, Goredak the butcher, etc. I found numerous mentions of him in my previous logs. He seems to have meant a great deal to me.

I wonder what he was like? …A part of me misses him. They say you can’t miss what you never knew, but I am currently experiencing evidence to the contrary. Apparently he was a defective clone. The description of his infirmities matches those the strange armor I found seemed to be built to accommodate. I still feel the need to repair and upgrade it, there’s so much that still needs improvement. But what would be the point? It’s only occupant doesn’t exist anymore. Might as well never have. … I have decided to send small bots to the surface. To collect the personal effects that might remind people of their loved ones. If there’s nothing they can do, why make them upset about it? …I am not sure about this decision. Learning that Hordak existed made me upset, but some part of me feels like pretending everything was okay would have been worse. Nevertheless, I have made my decision. Catra can never learn that Adora existed, so she will never know that Adora has died.”

Chapter Text

Catra was strangely reluctant to fall asleep. She didn’t know why. I mean, sure, the “fireworks” outside were more like cannons, but she was used to it. It was just like entrapta to make lethal-grade fireworks. It was almost as if she were trying to kill the sky itself, but it was par for the course. The problem was… something else. Ever since she’d gotten taken in by Brightmoon, she had no problem curling up in bed and falling unconscious. But today, she felt weirdly lonely. That made no sense. After all, Melog was right there, wasn’t it? There was a sudden scratch outside the window. Catra looked, but she didn’t notice anything.

“Just a tree branch or something. Come on, pull yourself together.”

You know full well there are no trees here. It is unsafe to be unguarded. Why are we sleeping alone again?

“Because we’ve always slept alone, Melog.”

No, we haven’t. You sleep with her.

“Who?”

She-Ra. Where is she?

“How would I know where She-Ra is? I don’t know her. Sure, I fought her once or twice, back when I was in the Horde. And I helped her kick Prime’s ugly green ass. Our relationship is strictly business.” 

You were married .

“WHAT.”

You were married to She-Ra.

“Did you get into catnip again?”

Did you ?

“Well you’re the one implying I had… romantic relations with a legendary warrior goddess who I tried to kill!”

She was so much more than a “goddess” to you.

“Stop saying that! She-Ra hates me. Why wouldn’t she?” Catra didn’t know that she was crying, much less why. “And I hate her too. She left me.” Melog raised an eyebrow. Catra realised what she said. “What is going on? Why am I crying? I don’t care about- I don’t care- I don’t-”

The photo on your nightstand says otherwise. Catra looked over. There, on her bedside table, was a photograph. She picked it up. The photo depicted Catra, in a black suit like the one she wore to Princess Prom. Past-Catra was crying, but she must have been happy, because she was kissing the most beautiful person that present-Catra had ever seen in her life.

“What’s this picture? Where did it come from?”

It’s from your wedding.

“I was never married. I don’t… I don’t understand. Who’s that woman?”

That’s your wife, She-Ra. Although you never called her that. Not unless you were really mad about something.

“This doesn’t make any sense. This isn’t right, it- I don’t remember any of this! Why… Why am I crying?” A movement caught Catra’s attention. A tiny ‘bot, similar to the one Scorpia had used to spy on the Rebellion’s planning session. It reaced out a weird claw on a comical looking hose apparatus and grabbed the photo before attempting to scurry away. “MELOG! Don’t let it get away! Don’t let it-” She was frantic. She needed to have that picture.

I see it. Melog grabbed the bot in its jaws and proudly carried it back to Catra like a dead mouse.

“Hey, Entrapta. What the absolute FUCK are you sending your bots into the room for?” The bot’s camera focussed on her. Suddenly it glitched out and popped like a firecracker. Unfortunately for the deceased bot, Catra already recognized the bot’s creator, so that ‘self destruction’ was pointless. 

She doesn’t want you to remember. Find her. She might know what’s going on.

“Fine. I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to. If Entrapta can help me with that, I’m all in.”

Get your weapons.

“No time tonight. We find Entrapta tomorrow. Now we sleep. Keep an eye out for more robots, okay?” Melog nodded.

~~~

“Edit to log. Attempting to take Catra’s “relics” of Adora was a failure. She seems to be extremely possessive of them. It is almost as if her subconscious mind places importance on them. The other problem is that the “Festival” isn’t working as well as I intended. It seems the Hydra is intelligent enough to understand that the flowers the partygoers wore were poisonous. Whether this is due to simple instinct or true sapience is yet to be determined. I hope for the former.

The “fireworks” I set up to attack and kill the False Hydra failed. Video records reveal that it is now capable of regenerating lost flesh. However, there were other incidents in which lingering wounds could be seen, leading me to believe that this regenerative ability was newly acquired. 

I have two hypotheses for how this could occur. 

Option number one: It is becoming more powerful as it matures. If this is the case, I have a time limit. Ooooh, I hate deadlines, especially vague ones like this. 

Option number two is worse than the first. You see, it didn’t start healing itself until after Adora was…  [static]

In case the second option is correct, Queen Glimmer must be kept safe. If all else fails, she has to die before it eats her. I… don’t know if I can do that. But if I turn out to be right, what choice do I have?”

~~~

Catra and Melog were hunting Entrapta through the maze of tech in the Sanctum. Well, ‘hunting’ was the wrong word. They wanted to find her, and she was just especially well hidden. Or extremely lost. One of the two. They were both sniffing the ground in a most undignified way.

“Um, hey Wildcat. Is that… um. What are you doing? Uh, looking for Entrapta again?” Said Scorpia.

“What made you think that?”

“That’s literally the only other time in your life when I saw you huff concrete with such gusto.”

“Scorpia. If I were still your commanding officer, I would order you never to use those words ever again.”

“Sorry, I-”

“It’s not your fault, I’m angry about something else. Shouldn’t take it out on you. You should probably go.”

“...Unless I could help? Somehow?”

“Unless you might know why one of Entrapta’s bots tried to steal a photo I don’t remember of me marrying someone I don’t recognize, I don’t think this is your area of expertise.”

“Entrapta’s bots tried to steal what exactly? I’m sorry, but that makes about as much sense as saying… whatever the heck you just said right now.”

“Doesn’t make sense to me either. That’s why I want answers.”

“Okay, if I pretend you’re not crazy and go along with helping you find Entrapta, will you come and stargaze with me? I mean, I know it’s cheesy, but the stars just got here, and I wanna show you and Entrapta and Perfuma the cool stuff I noticed. Like, one cluster of stars sort of looks like Kyle kissing a lizard guy-”

“Scorpia, are you asking me on a date?” Catra asked, irritatedly.

“NO! No, nothing like that! I mean, it’s not that you’re not, I dunno, attractive, or whatever, and I’m not gonna say that I didn’t like, have a massive crush on you back in the old days, but you’re taken now, so-” Catra’s demeanor suddenly changed.

“By who?” She sounded… scared.

“What do you mean ‘by who’, it’s your wife. Shouldn’t you remember things like this?” Catra took a deep breath in, a trick she learned from Perfuma.

“Humor me. …Please.”

“... y’know, I can’t actually remember. I know she looked… well, she looked. And she’s important, and… OH! I remember now!”

“You do?!”

“Yeah! You were both cadets in the Horde when you were kids, but she sorta found out we were evil so she left. But then, after the war you two got back together and boom! Happily ever after. So, uh, mind telling me what this is all about?”

“WHAT in the BLUE BLAZES are you two doing up at three in the FUCKING MORNING?!?” Shouted Glimmer.

“Well you see, Catra was looking for Entrapta and I was gonna help her, but then she started asking me these weird questions about her wife-”

“What wife? Catra’s never been married. What sort of experiments has Entrapta been doing to you two?” 

“None, we swear! But if Catra isn’t married, then why does-”

“Uuuugh, I’m leaving! Fuck this, I’m gonna go sleep at Brightmoon. If anyone needs me, they can FUCK OFF.” She vanished in a puff of sparkles.

“Wow, the queen seems pretty, uh, rude today, don’t you think?”

“We woke her up. We’re lucky to be alive.”

“Oh-kay then. So, um, as I was going to tell you before we got sidetracked, I have an idea where she could be.”

“WHAT! Why the heck were we talking about-” Catra cut herself off, seeing the look on Scorpia’s face. It suddenly felt quiet. “Sorry. I got mad, that’s something I’m-” -working on.”

“Aww, you are?” Her eyes were shining like Sparkles had tried to blind her with magic, and her face was flushed red. But she didn’t have any eyes, or a face, or hair. What she did have were holes. Two holes, dark, dark, and an even darker mouth that was impossibly wide, drooping down to where her feet would have been if she had any sort of body other than a long wormlike tube stretching out of sight. Her body was a specific shade of grey that called to mind not stone, but rather that something had bleached away all of the colors, and she didn’t have any hair, no, and her-

“Catra, what the heck is that?!?” Catra snapped out of it. 

“Do you think I know?!?” 

You see it now?

“Melog, this is the thing that was outside of our window?”

Indeed. But how did it conceal itself, and why has it- it stopped singing. 

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Catra, what did Melog say?”

“It says that ‘it stopped singing.’”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know!” A pipe burst nearby, spraying water everywhere. Then another. Then another. There were drains in the floor, but water started flowing out from those too. The Sanctum began filling with water.

“It’s gonna drown us!” Scorpia yelled. Catra jumped onto Scorpia’s shoulder’s like she was a bid of flotsam and Catra was a drowning sailor, which sounds romantic but trust me, it was just awkward for everyone.

“Kill it, kill it, oh god oh god not again, not again!” Scorpia fired a blast of the black garnet’s lightning through the water. If it were any other lightning, it would have knocked them both unconscious. But this was weird princess magic. As it flowed into the water, it channelled the will of the Black Garnet’s princess to attack her hated foe, whatever the hell this thing was. Not that Scorpia could actually hate anyone. If she could have actually hated someone, then Catra might have been ghosted in a more literal sense when Scorpia left the Horde. But enough about that.

The heads retreated, and began singing again.

“Keep me out of the water, I hate it!”

“On it, Wildcat.” The water was draining through the floor again.

“... Thanks.”

“Anytime! Y’know, it’s weird, but that flash flood felt weirdly… terrifying.” 

“Weirdly? I hate water, you know that! Remember that time we were on a boat?”

“BOATS! …yeah, that sucked. I know it’s how we met and everything, but… Crazy pirate-inspector rammed us with fire boat. …how did we get back from that again?”

“I have no clue, honestly.”

Why are you just chatting? It’s still here.

“What’s still here?”

Oh no. We need to go. It thought that it could trick Scorpia into electrecuting us, it didn’t know she could control her powers this well. It can’t eat and sing at the same time.

“Yeah, sure. “It” can’t sing with its mouth full.” Melog was growling at something, but Catra didn’t notice anything there.

“What’s Melog saying?”

“Some creepy monster we can’t see has good manners and won’t talk with its mouth full.”

“Um, good for it, I guess?”

You know I’m not crazy. You saw that picture. I know you’re just as scared as I am, stop trying to pretend otherwise!

“...picture?”

This picture, right here! Melog picked up a picture frame in its mouth. Listen, where did you get that pin?

“It was a symbolic gift, part of an agreement with the Rebellion. From the ceremony when the Red Horde and the Princess alliance became allies for real, and not just an “enemy of my enemy” situation with Prime and the Green Horde.”

Come on, focus. You have to remember. Melog came up with an idea. Describe the most beautiful woman you can imagine.

“What?”

Just… humor me.

“Well… Blonde. Blue eyes. Tall.”

Typical. Tell me more.

“Strong. Strong willed. Can probably take me in a fight, but it’s close.”

“Hey, uh, only got half of the conversation here. What are you two.. Talking about?”

Come on. More. Be SPECIFIC.

“Sorta dumb, but smarter than she seems at first. Smile that lights up a room. Weirdly selfless, to a fault. Would set herself on fire to keep other people warm. Does what she thinks is right, no matter who or what else gets in her way. No matter what else she might want or need.”

I know you know more than this. All the details are there in your mind, that’s the only reason I know any of this at all. It is preventing us from remembering our own memories, but I can feel the emotions it’s trying to hide in you. I can still feel the memories flashing back behind your mind. It hurts. They’re trying to come foreward, but you keep getting distracted.

“Distracted by what?”

The song.

“What song?”

Forget the song. Focus. More details.

“Used to only have one set of clothes, but I ripped them to shreds and took her shopping. She had a red jacket and a white shirt under it, standard Horde issue. But she’s not in the Horde, she quit after what happened at Thaymoor.”

“What’s Thaymoor? Still in the dark here, bestie.”

“Still in the dark. Don’t I know the feeling.”

Continue.

“If someone threw me off a cliff, or if I jumped, she’d jump down after me to make sure I was okay. She never hated me, not even after everything I did, after everything I did to-”

Everything you did to her? But she’s imaginary, isn’t she. Why would you have hurt her?

“I-I don’t know, okay Melog? I guess even my fantasies are messed up.”

“Uuh… This seems private. I should probably go.” She went.

We need to go too. Without Scorpia, we’re a sitting duck for that thing .

“What THING!?”

The thing that tried to drown you.

“But- Entrapta.”

She’ll be here tomorrow.

“But according to you, people keep disappearing! What if she isn’t there tommorrow? What if I forget!”

She knows something about what’s going on. She’ll survive the night.

~~~

“Observations on the False Hydra: It has Mermista’s command over water. This seems to confirm my hypothesis that it consumes much more that the victim’s memory and body. Further evidince, it seems that the heads the hydra grows have an uncanny resemblance to those it has consumed. Lacking certain… bits, of course. Eyes, hair, color, you know. Back when I believed it was simply an intriguing urban legend, this made sense. It’s just spooky, so they went along with it in the storytelling. And yet now, it makes perfect sense. The False Hydra erases memory of itself and prevent people from paying attention to itself. Its victims arent dead, per se. They are part of the False Hydra now. A princesses’ connection to a runestone, a sorcerer’s mastery of magic… if it were to get Glimmer, the world would be its smorgasbord. This has to be prevented. …I’ll have to prevent her from re-entering the Fright Zone somehow. I’m sure I’ll think of something.

Imp and I are working on reverse engineering and decoding the False Hydra’s song. Will provide updates.

Catra has had an ‘altercation’ of sorts with the Hydra. It seems that the creature intended to target Glimmer, but was hungry. Unless there was some reason it went after Catra specifically? Who knows.

Seems like Catra was seeking me out specifically for something. I’ll have to get in touch with her.

It ate Bow.”

~~~

She was talking, but it was too loud, and Catra couldn’t hear what she was saying. Whatever she was saying seemed important, so she tried to listen, but it was too loud. She was getting upset. Catra wanted to comfort her. She was crying and screaming and yelling, but Catra couldn’t hear her. It was singing too loudly for her to hear anything else. 

Catra woke up in a cold sweat. There was a name right on the tip of her tongue. It was nothing. Nothing at all. 

That was not nothing.

“You.”

You had a nightmare.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. It’s just a dream.”

It matters. You are injured, look. Catra looked at her arm. There, scratched in her skin in her sleep, was a name. 

ADORA.

“Melog, did you do this?”

No, you did this. In your sleep.

“Wouldn’t I wake up?”

Well, you didn’t wake up. I told you to wake up, and you didn’t, so.  It’s back, by the way.

“Okay, I’ll be on the lookout for weird stuff.”

Stay armed.

“I’ve already got my claws.”

Bring a taser.

“No, they’ve already said no sharp objects for me. If I start lugging around a weapon they’ll rework the terms and conditions and then realize that my claws count as sharp objects.

Yeah but the thing will kill you.

“I’ll kill it.”

You didn’t kill it before.

“It didn’t kill me either. Or maybe it did kill me and I just ‘forgot?’” Catra said mockingly.

I tolerate your snark only because I know you don’t mean it and are actually using it to mask your fear.

“You see through me like glass. Oh woe, to be caught in your piercing gaze. Woe, woe is me. Whatever.” There was a muffled knock at the door.

“HELLO IN THERE!” Entrapta yelled.

“Ugh, what is it?”

“I’M SORRY TO DISTURB YOU THIS EARLY BUT WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT SOMETHING IMPORTANT! FOLLOW ME!” Entrapta slammed open the door, grabbed Catra by the waist, and used the other hair tendril to swing away. “SOMETHING REALLY REALLY BAD IS HAPPENING IN THE FRIGHT ZONE AND I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP WITH THAT.”

“Entrapta, why are you shouting?”

“SORRY, I CAN’T REALLY HEAR YOU. I’VE GOT THINGS IN MY EARS AND IF I TAKE THEM OUT THEN MY MIND WILL BE COMPROMISED. FOLLOW ME!” Not giving Catra a choice, she leapt down a chute that had been hidden behind a picture of a red-eyed clone with pencil-like muscles. Melog leapt after them. Entrapta removed her mask and headphones. “Okay, we can have a conversation now. Firstly, how much do you remember about Adora?”

“Adora? I don’t know anything about her other than her name was carved into my arm when I woke up.”

“Alright that’s a start. Question two: have you felt weirdly lonely lately? Like someone you care about isn’t here anymore and you miss them?”

“...Sorta. I’m just being crazy.”

“Oh, that’s GREAT! …And terrible. I’m sorry you feel that way. But it’s good news because that means you are remembering!”

“Remembering what?”

“Memories! Come on, have a seat! I’ll get you some tiny cupcakes or something. We have a lot to discuss.”

Chapter Text

Catra was munching on a tiny bagel. It was pretty good.

“How is it?”

“Good, I guess. So why did you abduct me and drag me into an air vent?”

“Oh, sorry, I should have asked permission, shouldn’t I? Sorry, didn’t have the time. I need to tell you something important.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“It’s the False Hydra. It’s real!”

“The what?”

“Alright. I was researching First Ones’ legends and myths, and found out about a little something called the False Hydra. When it sings, it forces everyone around it to ignore it and forget it. When it eats people, these people are also forgotten, and the False Hydra will grow more heads that sorta look like them.”

“Sounds like a spooky ghost story.”

“That’s what I thought too! But then… BAM! Stuff happened. Stuff that has no other explanation. For instance, the She-Ra that locked Etheria in Despondos was also known as Mara, which was her actual name. She-Ra is more of a title. But the modern She-Ra… we don’t know her name. Well, I know it now. She’s-”

“... Adora.”

“Yeah, that’s it! So anyway, when I figured it out I moved everything into this soundproof bunker and starting observing the surface world from here.”

“Oh my god. The poison flowers. The fireworks. It was to-”

“Yes, it was to fight the Hydra. You’re a quick learner! At first I thought I could just kill it and that would be that, but it’s too strong now. Something I didn’t account for. It doesn’t just look sorta like the people it ate, it absorbs their powers as well! That’s why I need to keep Queen Glimmer as far away from the Fright Zone as I can manage. If it learns to teleport… well that’s bad.”

“So you need me to relay a message to Sparkles for you?”

“Sorta. I think she’ll just wanna come here more if she finds out about the evil thingy that’s eating people, so you’ll have to keep your real reasons under wraps.”

“Would I even remember any of this?”

Probably. I remembered learning about the False Hydra from those records even when exposed to the song. It seems like only first-hand sources are censored, so me telling you stuff should be a-ok!”

“I’ll take your word for it then. …So. Can we talk about Adora?”

“...All talking about Adora now will do is hurt you. We can talk about it after the Hydra has been defeated, okay?”

“Okay.” Catra grumbled.

“OH! And while you’re out there, do you think you could visit the Crystal Castle? The holograms there might have some knowledge of the Hydra that we can use against it. THANKS A BUNCH SEE YOU LATER GOODBYE!” She said, hitting a button that launched Catra out of her chair through a weird chute back into the Sanctum.

“Ow. That… Ow.” Catra brushed herself off. Then Melog landed directly ontop of her, knocking the breath out of her lungs. It scrambled off of her and then helped her to her feet.

I told you something was wrong.

“Yup.”

“Oh! Um, hey Catra! Fancy seeing you here! …Again.” Scorpia was in the Sanctum too. 

“Oh. Scorpia. Um, Hi?”

“So, about last night. You were acting kinda… off.”

“Yeah. Went to ask Entrapta about it. She says it’s because something in the Fright Zone is eating people alive and making everyone else forget about them.”

“Well that’s… spooky.”

“It’s why I couldn’t remember my wife. Melog’s been trying to make me remember, but-”

“Wait, if you don’t remember, why do I?”

“You learned that I was ‘taken’ from secondhand sources. This thing only erases firsthand experiences, that’s why we can talk about it right now.”

“This sort of reminds me of… nevermind. It’s not important.”

“What?”

“The portal.

“...How?”

“It seemed like nothing was wrong at first. Then one person started acting crazy, kept saying that something was wrong. She turned out to be right, but I didn’t- Point is, I believe you. What do we have to do?”

“You go talk to Entrapta about it, she knows more about it than me. I’m not about to give you any orders or anything, but- keep track of the princesses for me, ok? Just write down their names and descriptions. Heck, not just princesses. Write down anyone you can think of. If one day you notice that you don’t remember one of them… it got someone. Look out for other discrepancies too, like if a table has more chairs than people or something like that. Take care of these losers, OK?” Melog and Catra vanished. 

“Well, that was unnerving. …okay.” She started doodling on a notepad. “Let’s make a list. So we’ve got Frosta. Makes ice. Really bonded with me when I joined the Rebellion. Great kid. Hit Catra one time. Glimmer, teleports. Sorta like Catra, except you replace the self-loathing with self-righteousness. Pink, is good at making cakes. Sea Hawk, Betrothed to the princess of Salineas, who is… dead, probably. Likes to set boats on fire. He’s a good friend, who pretended to be an inspector one time. Entrapta, member of the super pal trio, made Emily. Catra, former member of the super pal trio. Kind of a dick, but she’s trying to be better! I think. Huntara, we beat her up in…” Scorpia continued to list off names. She wasn’t going to let Catra down.

Chapter Text

At first, Scorpia had doubts.This whole thing seemed a little… weird. And Catra was a bit of a prankster, you know? But day after day, more and more names became foreign to her. The butlers from Dryl, the Salinean guard, Frosta, King Micah, Double Trouble… people were disappearing, and nobody noticed. Every so often, she’d notice bite marks on her skin, but wouldn’t remember where she’d got them. Every so often, she’d find herself cleaning a weird, black fluid off of her pincers and tail. For some reason, her brain said it was blood. And the strange drawings she found in her notebook, depicting something with many heads on long necks towering over the Fright Zone.

Then there were other things. A cold feeling whenever she was alone. She couldn’t remember the steps she went through for meditation, even though she’d never needed help remembering them before. Right?

Point is, Wildcat was right. Something was very wrong.

She’d tried to get ahold of Entrapta. She seemed loath to breach the safety of her bunker though and more often sent Imp to relay messages back and forth.

“Kill count today?” Echoed Imp in Entrapta’s voice.

“Poredak, the dermatologist. Force Captain Octavia. That one sea-elf guy whose name I couldn’t remember even before he got eaten. …Whoever used to send me flowers.” Imp nodded solemnly before darting back into the vents.

Scorpia was somewhere else. She couldn’t remember how she’d gotten there. She was out of breath and her claws were crackling with electricity. She’d survived the Hydra again, but it had survived too.

Dreams were getting weird. Wilting flowers and vines shrivelling up into nothing, and that song that she couldn’t remember but couldn’t get out of her head either.

She hoped Catra would get back in touch soon. The tracker pads had been on the fritz lately, and there was nobody around to fix them.

Anyway, where was she? … Black Garnet chamber. Of course. Spooky place that was also the source of her power. Place where Catra beat up Shadow Weaver. Good memories. She slumped against the runestone. This was exhausting.

It was suddenly quiet, and that’s when she saw its reflection in the Black Garnet. Mouth wide, eyes dark. It looked familiar, but distorted and wrong. Imagine a watercolor painting of someone you love that was left out in the rain.

She spun around and blasted it. There was nothing. There was never anything. But she didn’t just attack the air for no reason, so there had to be something. Same as all those times she’d woken up not to a loud noise, but the sudden absence of one. 

She’s still nodding her head to the beat, but she doesn’t notice the song. Neither do other people, but she’s seen them dancing to it too. They’d stop if they realized they were doing it, but that very seldom happened.

Her notes mentionned that she’d tried to tell other people before. These people didn’t usually last very long. This made sense. The False Hydra’s main strength was its ability to remain in secret until it decided to reveal itself. If someone figured it out too early… Catra and Entrapta had managed to stay safe. That was enough, She wasn’t going to put anyone else directly into harms way.

Even though everyone already was.

“...Scorpia? Scorpia!? Please tell me you’re ok!” The comms were online. It was Catra on the other end.

“Reading you loud and clear, Wildcat. It got Micah. It got Frosta. It got a lot of people.”

“...Good to know. I’ve been keeping the queen occupied looking after affairs of state closer to Brightmoon and tried to intercept messengers from the Fright Zone before they reach her.”

“Have you considered telling her? The Hydra’s already targeting her, and she’s outside of its range anyways.”

“Are you crazy?!” Catra took a deep breath. “... Sorry for yelling. No, I haven’t told her. No, I won’t tell her. According to my sources, telling her that she’s not allowed to do something because it’s dangerous will only make her want to do it even more. If it were just her life on the line, I’d have given up by now. It’s her choice, right? But if this thing breaches containment using  her powers, all of Etheria falls. And that’s if it’s contained to Etheria! Glimmer can’t teleport offworld, but that’s only because there’s no magic there. The False Hydra has She-Ra’s magic! It can channel the Heart of Etheria through the failsafe! I’m not about to doom the entire universe just because of one person’s ego! …I’ve done that enough already.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think of that. Wow, you’re really good with this.”

“Not really. It’s just that me and Queenie have more in common than either of us would like to admit.”

“Yeah, I get it. Where I’m at, if I tell someone about the False Hydra they get eaten in their sleep.”

“Yeesh. …I should get you out of there. You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“I haven’t. Every time I nod off, it suddenly gets a bit too quiet for my liking and… well.”

“I’ll get Darla. Swoop by, pick you up, get you somewhere safe.”

“No, this is my kingdom. If it’s in danger then I need to protect it, even if I’m not doing the best job right now.”

“No. Listen. You’re doing a great job, better than anyone else has. You survived. They didn’t. As long as there are people who know about it, the False Hydra is at a disadvantage. But I don’t want to lose you too.”

“And I don’t wanna lose anyone else either! …Look, Catra, I get what you’re trying to do here. But you don’t understand-”

“No, YOU don’t understand!” That anger, that tone of voice. That was Old Catra. That brought Scorpia back. “What if one day I try to call you and then you don’t pick up? And I call someone else, whoever else is left alive, and I ask “Where’s Scorpia?” And then they say-” Those tears though, Old Catra would have never let show. “Then they say… “Who’s Scorpia?”... I don’t want that to happen. Get Entrapta to hide you with her, or just run away, or… do something!”

“...Hey, it’s alright! I can take it. I’m the muscle, remember? I’ve survived this long. I can take seven False Hydras any day of the week!”

“How would you know? You might fight it all the time and always come out on top. But your memory just gets censored afterwards. What if you just got lucky so far, what if it just got tired or had something better to do and could kill you if it really wanted?”

“... I appreciate your concern. But this is still something I have to do. Talk to you later?”

“Scorpia, don’t you dare hang up on me. Not until you promise me-” Scorpia tapped a claw against the “end call” button. She sighed and took a seat on the floor. 

She was suddenly very tired. It was like the opposite of drinking coffee, like someone had suddenly decaffeinated her. She needed to rest. She dozed off. Didn’t even mind when it suddenly got quiet. Didn’t care that a featureless face was drawing near, mouth extended grotesquely. Thought it was just a dream. Wasn’t disturbed at all when tendrils of purple fluff yanked her away from the gaping maw and into the vents. She was already halfway asleep when Entrapta tucked her in to her own bed halfway across the Fright Zone, doors and windows locked and bolted. She was already asleep when Entrapta leapt back into the vents and made her way back to the bunker.

~~~

“Scorpia was almost taken by the False Hydra today. It’s getting harder and harder to keep her alive, but it’s worth it. She’s the biggest thorn in its side since Catra left, and it’s now going out of its way to get her. Of course, it has absorbed the abilities of many powerful princesses already, so it could probably kill her very easily if it weren’t so worried about blowing its cover. I am in a similar position to the Hydra, now that I think of it. My main strength at the moment is that the Hydra hasn’t figured out where I am yet. But if it did, then it wouldn’t have to worry about leaving behind evidence of its existence because this bunker is a secret. If it knew where I was, it could rip open the walls as easily as you could peel a banana. That’s why I need to avoid gaining its attention too much.

I have considered going back to Dryl and sending ‘bots to do my ‘interferance’ for me. Unfortunately, Catra has taken Darla on her mission to delay Queen Glimmer’s return to the Fright Zone. But there’s only so many messengers she can bribe. The situation in the Fright Zone is becoming more dire. People know that something is very, very wrong. There’s a bit of unrest, and by a bit, I mean “there’s gonna be another war if things don’t change soon.” … this could be bad. With Glimmer not showing up to appease them, they’ve made her a scapegoat for their problems. If she returns, she’s gonna be in so much danger! That’s bad, if you couldn’t tell by my tone. I’ve been told I sometimes sound excited or mildly inconvenienced when I’m scared, so… Ah forget it.

I need that data from the first one’s temple, but Scorpia’s busy defending the Fright Zone and Catra’s protecting Glimmer. Maybe one of them could delegate to someone else? 

Scorpia can’t fix everything all of the time though. She has been keeping people alive, even if she doesn’t remember it all. But she can’t help with the environmental disasters the Hydra’s been causing. It seems like mixing the runestones has caused unpredictable side effects with the planet’s magic. Not to mention the Hydra’s own abuse of power. The Fright Zone has been plagued with flash floods and freezes, overgrowth, sudden destructive thunderstorms… it’s bad. Perhaps if one of us were to multitask things might be easier for everyone…? I’ll call Catra.”

~~~

Catra got a buzz on the communicator.

“Scorpia, is that you? Are you-” It was Entrapta.

“Catra! Hey.”

“Where’s Scorpia?”

“Oh, don’t worry. She’s alright. The thingy almost got her but I dragged her somewhere safe where she can rest until she’s ready to get up again. Now, regarding the Crystal Castle mission…”

“I told you, I tried! But it keeps just sending spiders after me, and I can’t keep the Fright Zone mess under wraps and find a backdoor to the freaking… She-Ra temple thingy!”

“But Glimmer can! I’ve been looking at my notes. When Glimmer went to activate the Heart, she was granted temporary administer access. If we send her to get the False Hydra stuff…”

“Then we simultaneously distract her from the Fright Zone and get our intel. Got it.”

“Bingo!”

“Alright. Keep track of Scorpia, ok? I talked to her recently. She seems… she’s in bad shape.”

“Yeah. Perfuma got eaten.”

“WHAT!”

“It doesn’t make sense. Perfuma’s a demon on the battlefield, and too bony to be a substantial meal. So why the hell would it go after her?”

“Spite, I guess. It couldn’t get Scorpia, so…”

“This is my fault. If I hadn’t told Scorpia, then-”

“Then a bunch of other people would have died. Scorpia is saving lives out there.”

“And that makes this okay?”

“I never said it did!” Entrapta yelled. “Look. It’s not your fault. It’s the False Hydra. And we’re going to take it down so it doesn’t hurt anyone else!” She took a deep breath. “I’m working on something. Another “firework” for the festival. The explosion is small, but devastating. If it can’t kill the False Hydra, it can at least keep the thing at bay. Over and out.” The screen blipped off.

Scorpia got married to Perfuma shortly after Prime fell. Most people thought such a hasty marriage was a bad idea, including Catra. But look where taking too long on romance had gotten her? Maybe Scorpia was just trying to avoid Catra’s mistakes. But it seemed like they were happy in their relationship so far. Catra was happy for them. Then shit happened. Was Perfuma okay? Was she still alive?

… It didn’t matter. Being upset wouldn’t fix anything. But this would. She burst into Glimmer’s meeting room.

“Glimmer, something’s wrong! I need your help. Do you still have administrator access to the Crystal Castle?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? I’m sort of in the middle of a meeting, so if this can wait then-”

“It can’t. Teleport us there right the fuck now.

Chapter Text

“So let me get this straight. You think you might have been married to She-Ra, but then everyone forgot because something ate her?”

“Yeah, and it ate a lot of other people too.”

“Do you not see how crazy this sounds? Someone would have noticed all the missing people!”

“I did. Entrapta did.”

“And this ‘thing’ could somehow take on She-Ra? I call bullcrap.”

“It ate Bow.”

“It WHAT? ”

“You heard me. Entrapta called me this morning.”

“Alright, let’s imagine, for a second, that it did eat Bow. You said it erases the memories of people it has eaten, how come I can remember him then?”

“It can only block your memories out if you can hear it singing.”

“Oh, so this evil eldritch beastie from under the bed does karaoke now?”

“Fine then. Don’t believe me. Call him.” Glimmer clicked his name on her communicator pad. It rang for a bit, then someone picked up.

“Hah! See, he’s still alive!”

“Who’s still alive?” It was Huntara. 

“Oh, hi Huntara. Where’s Bow?”

“Who?”

“Ugh, fine. Midriff?”

“...Sorry Glitter. I don’t know who you’re talking about. Wait, I know! Would that be the guy who owned this communicator thingy before me? I figure it must have been somebody’s once.”

“Bow is my boyfriend. You constantly tease me about it, remember?”

“Can’t say that I do. Wait, you have a boyfriend? Oh that’s hilarious. Hey Scorpia! Gimmer’s got a boyfriend!” There was a noise in the background, like the beginning of the halo theme song.

“What’s that noise? Who’s singing?”

“Huh? You okay? I don’t hear anything. Maybe you should talk to… that therapist lady. What was her name again?” something moved into frame behind her, its mouth wide open emitting the eerie dirge Glimmer had heard earlier. Three more heads, each singing a different harmony, drifted in from the sides.

“What the hell is that behind you!? You need to run, what is that thing?” Huntara turned away from the screen. She didn’t react at all.

“Hah, you got me that time, queenie. I guess I’ve gotten sorta soft. Don’t go-” The singing died down. “What the fuck-” the heads darted foreward. The communicator dropped to the floor. Static.

“Huntara? Huntara, come in! Huntara! HUNTARA!”

“She’s gone, Sparkles.”

“No, she can’t just be GONE. I still remember her, and I heard the song!”

“It doesn’t really transmit over recordings, I guess. Good to know.”

“I have to do something! I-”

“Don’t you dare.”

“What, you want me to sit back and do nothing while this thing eats god knows how many people?”

“Yes, because if it eats you then-”

“Then what? “The kingdom’s without a queen,” boo fucking hoo. If I don’t do whatever I can to help my allies and my citizens, then what the hell kind of queen am I?”

“The alive kind! And I want to keep it that way. And not just because I care about you either. There’s one more power the False Hydra has that you don’t know about.”

“What? What could possibly be so bad that you could admit you care about me?”

“According to Entrapta, it’s victims aren’t technically dead. It… absorbs the people it’s eaten. They’re still in there. I don’t know how much of them is really left, or if they’re conscious, but it’s enough for the False Hydra to channel the power of the Runestones after it eats a princess.”

“So?”

“If it eats you, it can connect to the moonstone. If it does that, then nowhere is safe. It will be able to take over all of Etheria. Entrapta even thinks it might be able to teleport offworld, even!”

“So that means I should sit back and do nothing?”

“YES! For the love of all that is holy, yes! This is the whole reason I’ve been trying to keep you away from the Fright Zone, the whole reason I didn’t let you know what’s going on. I know that you’re the kind of person who would just go charging into battle head on, you’re too proud to turn down a challenge, even if it puts other people in danger!”

“Oh, you’re one to talk! You unraveled reality like a ball of yarn because of your stupid ego!” 

“Yes I’m one to talk! I’ve done the exact same thing before and regretted it ever since. I’ll go to hell before I let you make my mistakes all over again. I’m your advisor for a reason, right? So God fucking dammit, listen to my advice! Do you want to actually do something about this, or do you want to play hero and wind up dead?” Glimmer glowered at her. “...That’s what I thought. Now come on. The Crystal Castle awaits.”

The queen of Brightmoon begrudgingly followed her Advisor into the Crystal Castle. 

~~~

“Administrator detected. Hello, Queen Glimmer.”

“Hello, Light Hope.”

“Oh, hell no. If you’re here about the Heart of Etheria, I deleted those protocols after Adora broke the sword and activated the failsafe.”

“Adora?”

“Current She-Ra of Etheria. Destroyed Horde Prime and saved Etheria from the Heart. Currently alive due to the actions of her former nemesis, Catra Applesauce MeowMeow.” Sudden change of expression. “New memory data shows that she was taken out of commission by Protocall Zed-9: the False Hydra. That is… Unfortunate. I am sorry for your loss.”

“I don’t even know what I’m missing, so I guess I can’t complain.” That felt wrong to say. “What do you know about the Hydra? Where did it come from, and how do we stop it?”

“Legend says that the False Hydra is brought into being when secrecy and lies run rampant, and those who commit terrible acts avoid justice. These legends are false, planted by the First Ones in order to prevent people from realizing what the common thread between Hydra attacks are.”

“And these are?” Light Hope opened her mouth to answer, before suddenly glitching out and turning red.

“That is classified information.” She returned to normal. “I apologize. I am prohibited from telling you. But perhaps…” Another hologram activated nearby. “She is stronger than me. She’s able to overcome her programming.” Pixels coalesced into a humanoid shape.

“Um, hello?” Greeted the new hologram. She didn’t look like light hope. She looked a lot more human. Her skin was actually a normal human color for humans, instead of blue. 

“Allow me to introduce, Mara."

Chapter Text

“Wait. I’ve heard that name before. Mara? That Mara?”

“I was the She-Ra who locked Etheria in Despondos.”

“How are you alive? Why are you a Hologram!?” Glimmer asked.

“Okay, so Catra probably knows how this place can download and project memories, right?” Right. That one time she was stuck in here and then… It probably had something to do with Adora. She felt guilty about it for some reason.

“Yeah, I got stuck in here. It showed me a 3d render of Shadow Weaver zapping the bejeezus outta me. Why?”

“It apparently goes much deeper than that. The connection I had to my sword allowed Light Hope to download my consciousness after I died, but the Heart of Etheria protocol forced her to sorta keep me in the back until Adora broke the Sword. That made the goal of the program unable to be fulfilled, and it was thus deleted, returning Light Hope to normal.”

“So she brought you back as a ghost. Would that work for our Adora?”

“... Maybe. She broke the sword though, which throws a monkey wrench into everything. Her connection with the sword sorta let this place get her memories, so after it broke, it got really glitchy. I tried to send like, an illusory version of you to encourage her but it vanished in a blast of static and it only made her sad.”

“Wait you sent what. ”

“If we had a complete version of the sword, and could get it within range of the False Hydra, we’d be able to channel the minds of those trapped within. Then, when it dies, we’ll be able to save its victims. We’d also be able to ‘turn off’ its newly acquired ‘She-Ra’ powers.”  Light Hope explained.

“So we just have to fix the sword?”

“You can’t.”

“...So we can’t save them?”

“I didn’t say that! Look, this is gonna sound weird, but there was a weird incident earlier with an unstable portal. Adora’s memories indicate that it was closed when Queen Angella took the sword and was trapped between dimensions.” Mara explained.

I think I see where this is going. If Angella got trapped…

“There’s another version of the Sword with Angella in between dimensions.” Catra finished for Melog.

“That’s still a hard ‘no’ on fixing any of this. If we could actually go there, my mother would be back by now.”

“Remember how when the Heart of Etheria was activated, we all got yanked back out of Despondos? The Crystal Castle has the best portal technology in the universe. The only reason we haven’t tried to save her is because it would probably end the world again.”

“...So we still can’t save her?”

“No, because we have Glimmer now. Her teleportation abilities will allow you and Melog to go into the portal dimension, grab Angella, and then get yanked back. I need her to stay behind and power the machine, but the two of you should be good to go.”

“Alright, I’m in.”

“So how do I-” A sort of cage-tube thing slid up from the floor around Glimmer. “What the heck?”

“Repeatedly teleport to your current position. Catra, step into the other tube.” Another tube appeared filled with pink glitter stuff. “Glimmer, whatever you do, don’t stop. That’ll strand Catra in the portal forever. That’s bad.”

“Got it.”

“Catra, when you get Angella, take her back to the pink glitter zone and scream. We’ll be able to hear you and pull you out.”

“Got it.” She took a deep breath and stepped into the shimmering cylinder.

~~~

Catra realized she was all creepy and purple again, because of course she was. Freaking portal. Freaking Adora. Freaking False Hydra. Freaking Mara and Light Hope and all the other stupid First-Ones’ tech creepy ghost things.

“Angella?” She called. Her voice came out distorted, extended and layered. It served her well before while she was fighting to eliminate reality, now it just made her cringe. “Hey queenie! I’m… sorry about destroying reality with the portal thingy and forcing you to sacrifice yourself. Will you plese come out from where you’re hiding so I can save you?” She really was sorry for the portal thing, she just had resting bitch voice. And the evil broken reality distortion effect didn’t help matters.

You sounded sarcastic. Also evil.

“Well that’s because I am!”

No, you’re not. Trust me, I’d know by now. 

“Well… I was!”

Think I got that from your nightmares, thanks. Still don’t know everything you were up to before you had me to tell you to not do violence, but you obviously don’t do stuff like that anymore.

“Just because I’m not currently torturing prisoners and ending worlds doesn’t mean I should be let off the hook.”

Jesus. No wonder you’re wracked with guilt.

“I just admit to like, two very bad crimes and what you care about is my feelings?”

Duh. So who did you torture?

“Does it matter?”

Giving a sincere apology to the people you hurt is important.

“Entrapta. Well, sorta. I tried but she kinda interrupted me.”

So you didn’t torture anyone.

“And then I sent her to an island that nobody survives.”

I can’t help but notice that she survived.

“Look, just because I was bad at it sometimes doesn’t make it any less evil! I honestly deserve to be thrown directly into the sun or something.”

Fair point. But justice and deservedness are just things someone pulled out of their ass to get away with vengeance.

“What?”

If you were, and I quote, ‘thrown directly into the sun or something,’ what would it do? What would be the point?

“Well for starters, I’d never do it again.”

Well I think that’s a given at this point, even if you weren’t executed.

“It would serve as a warning against anyone who gets similar ideas, I guess?”

Most of your crimes are impossible except in very specific circumstances, and the kind of people who are going to do that aren’t going to be scared away by a few horror stories.

“Look, can we focus on the mission and debate ethics later? I really want to get rid of this stupid glitcy getup.”

It reminds you of things you would rather forget.

“And it’s tacky as fuck.”

Indeed.

~~~

“Imp and I have decoded the song into its base components. It seems recordings of the song, including those Imp has captured, don’t reproduce the amnestic effect. It must be sung. I have tested this on pris- volunteers from the surface world. I called it ‘the surface world’ I’m a real mole person now, that is so cool! Back on track. I sang the song (after temporarlily deafening myself for good measure) and they lost memory of me. Unlike the real False Hydra, though, these memories recover after time.

I am working on creating a countersong that will restore people’s memories, but I need a good singer. Magic comes from feeling. That is why all first ones’ tech requires biological components in order to work. Every runestone needs a princess to channel its magic through, for instance, and the Sword has no power without She-Ra. Even things that seem to function on their own accord without a living person commanding them have been found to contain nerve endings and muscle fibers. An example would be that murderous data disk which infected She-Ra. It seemed to be made of solid crystal, but when activated sprouted plantlike tendrils. I’M GETTING OFF TOPIC AGAIN! Point is, I need someone who can sing like they mean it. Someone who can bring their all to the stage, belt out basically anything and still have the audience at the edge of their seats. And I think I know exactly who to ask…” She played back a recording that Perfuma had sent her.

“I’M! A! SPYYYYYYYYY!” Scorpia sang in the recording. Entrapta smiled.

~~~

Angella was chilling in the void, watching Centaurworld on interdimensional Netflix with a bowl of chili in her lap and a bag of chips next to her. The sword was spinning aimlessly in midair beside her. Suddenly Catra burst through the screen.

“QUEEN ANGELLA I know I killed you but I need your help because people are DYING and-” Angella screamed and tossed the bowl of chili at Catra.

“Sorry, I did not mean to do that, I was just startled. What seems to be the issue.”

“Ok so this big invisible thing is eating people but if we use the sword of protection we might be able to bring them back. Also I’d like to take you back with me if possible.”

“...You know, I thought we’d meet eventually. Although I’d hoped it would be under happier circumstances.”

“Wait, really? But I’m the one who pulled the lever. I locked you in this place. I-”

“It’s okay. I know you’ve changed. I’ve been watching, believe it or not.”

“Really? Why? No, forget why. How?”

“I don’t really know. I wanted to know more about Adora’s story and this weird glass contraption appeared. How is she, by the way?” Angella asked innocently. Catra cringed.

“Look, we’ll fill you in on all the details later. First we need to get you out of here, okay?” Melog tugged at the hem of Angella’s robes. “Sparkles can’t hold out forever. We’ve got to get back to the pink glitter zone.”

“What? I don’t understand-” Catra reached a hand back the angel queen took it.

“Just follow us, okay?”

“...Alright.”

~~~

Glimmer was getting tired. Catra’s silhouette, previously visible as a patch of pink glitter in the air, had shifted into a vague hazy blur. Then, all of a sudden, the sparkles started taking shape again. Catra, Melog, Angella, and the sword.

“HEY SPARKLES! Get us outta here!” Glimmer stopped teleporting. The glitter in the air coalesced into the people they’d looked like.

“Glimmer, oh thank god! I thought I’d never see you again, I-” 

“Mom! You’re actually here! I can’t believe it, after the portal-”

You did a good job, Catra.

“It was my fault anyway.” Catra whispered to her companion.

She made her choice.

“And if she hadn’t? There wasn’t really a choice a all.”

Hm. And yet somehow you found another choice before, in a similar situation.

“You know I can’t remember that.” She raised her voice, addressing Glimmer this time. “Call Entrapta. Let her know what we found. I have questions for Light Hope and Mara.” Catra walked right past the two holograms. “Follow me. We oughtta give the queens some privacy.” They found themselves in the ‘infinite darkness room,’ as Catra had once called it. “Alright, what is the False Hydra?”

“That is Classified information. I can’t tell you.”

“But I can. Alright, take a seat. This is going to be messed up.”

“I can handle messed up.”

“I’ve noticed.” Mara sighed, even though she didn’t have lungs anymore. “You probably know how powerful She-Ra is. Even if you can’t remember much, you still understand what she’s capable of. When I bore the mantle, I was strong enough to lock Etheria in an alternate dimension. Adora ripped Horde Prime’s soul out of Hordak’s body. Point is, She-Ra is tough.”

“Got it. What about it?”

“People always try to control She-Ra. The “good” guys, the bad guys, the entire legion of various guys who might want her power. And they want to keep it, and make it as powerful as it can possibly be. So, back when Eternia was in control, they created… devices. The sword was one of them, it let them control She-Ra’s power. But they wanted more. Some thought that She-Ra’s connections weakened her, or weakened their control over her, so they created a way to dispose of these people without angering her.”

“The False Hydra.”

“Yeah. It’s hard to detect, hard to trace to a specific source once it’s been discovered. Usually an administrator chooses its targets and then reveals its existence to the current She-Ra to dispose of it. She kills it and is none the wiser to the people she has lost.”

“So who’s got control now?”

“I don’t know. I just know that one of the eggs was missing from the vault, and this was in its place.” A holographic image of a certain familiar geometric design floated in the air. It was the symbol Catra had found drawn in Shadow Weaver’s cell after her escape. A teleportation symbol.

“A sorcerer, then. Do you have cameras?”

“The culprit cast an illusion to cover its tracks.” Light Hope said. “We do not know who it is and can provide no evidence other than this.”

“What kind of illusion?”

“It appeared that the room did not exist. All the cameras showed were pitch black darkness.” Shadow illusions. Familiar. Brought back memories.

“I’ll be sure to remember that.” Shadowy magic was probably more common than she was thinking. Micah had allegedly only used it while under Prime’s command, so it was probably a ‘bad people only’ kind of magic, but releasing a False Hydra is also a ‘bad people only’ thing to do. So that didn’t narrow anything down.

There are only three sorcerers Catra knows personally. Glimmer, Castaspella, and Micah. None of them seemed like they’d do this. Mystacor was a big place though. Any one of its residence could be capable of ‘bad people only’ stuff and nobody would be the wiser.

In other news, it didn’t narrow things down much.

“Catra! CATRA! I need to talk to you!” Said Angella, flying down the hall. “It’s about Shadow Weaver. She’s alive, she just teleported away after she cast the big explosion spell.” Well that narrowed it down.

“You didn’t tell me!?”

“I didn’t have time! I figured it could wait, and-” Deep breaths, Catra. You just got off the hook for killing this woman, don’t just do it again.

“... You know what? It’s okay. I’ll just deal with it later. I’ll just… deal with this. After we deal with the False Hydra. Or maybe at the same time. Who knows. Who give a shit. We have work to do.”

“I am still unsure about what is going on. So… what is going on?”

“Thing eats people. Then it sings a little song that makes everyone forget and ignore it and the people it ate. It ate a lot of people. This sword might be able to save them because it has to sorta assimilate them into it and- look just ask Glimmer or Mara for an explanation. I’m off.”

“Wait, what’s the plan?”

“Kill. That’s the plan.”

~~~

“Scorpia! If you’re still alive, Imp should have delivered this message to you by now. If not, well… well if you’re hearing this then you are! Which is good because I need your help. I have successfully decoded a countermeasure against the Hydra’s Blind Song. Sing along with it if you can, just repeat it over and over, like a mantra or something. You can add words if you want, just keep the same tune, okay?” Imp’s mouth released a strange noise that sounded like it had been digitally edited. Still strangely catchy. Scorpia followed the tune.

Perfuma. That’s who-

Who did something? Anyway, the name was back. She continued to hum along, with more feeling this time, and just a little louder. Some people nearby stopped and then squinted as if they were focussing on something.

Perfuma was a plant princess. She always trusted Scorpia, even though the other princesses were wary of her.

They had gotten married a little while ago. 

Then the other memories arrived. Little moments. Other people. Kyle, Lonnie, and Rogelio. The other princesses. Inspector pirate guy. She-Ra.

“What the hell is that?” Someone said, pointing to the False Hydra. People around started to notice and freak out. The song was working.

“If you want to stay safe, sing along with me. Also attack the creepy thing. I know what it is but I have to keep singing so I can’t really explain!” Sang Scorpia, trying her hardest to seem serious even while she was singing the words. (they didn’t even rhyme.) Nonetheless, people seemed to get the message. They started humming along, picking up whatever weapons they could and throwing everything they had at this new enemy. As the memories returned, so too did their rage. This thing had killed and eaten so many of them. They wanted revenge.

Scorpia began charging an electrical blast to fire at the False Hydra, but… there wasn’t as much power as there once was. She suddenly felt like someone replaced her blood with decaf. Glimmer had once said that she had to recharge herself every once in a while because its power was split. But nobody else was drawing power from the Black Garnet… right?

Didn’t matter. She still had her claws and tail. She charged directly the nearest head and attacked.

~~~

When Catra got to the Fright Zone, it was a mess. Well, more than it had been. All the people living there (those who were left, anyway) were singing some wordless song at the top of their lungs. Something was looming above. The False Hydra.

Huh. Apparently Entrapta’s plan was a success. Good for everyone. Still, that meant she was working on a time limit now. If she didn’t get her job done before this thing died, then Adora would stay dead.

Adora.

You can remember now.

“Yeah.” The False Hydra had snuck into their bedroom. She didn’t notice, and neither did Adora. It was going to take Catra, but then- “I can figure out my memories later. Right now I have a job to do.”

Acceptable. But we will discuss this later.

“Agreed.” She charged towards the spot all the necks seemed to be coming from, sword in hand. It pulled like a magnet, it knew where it was supposed to be. Catra knew the Sword’s command word. She couldn’t make it work for her, it was just one of the things that made adora special. She was already special, but this way, everyone knew that.

The False Hydra seemed to recognize the Magicat as a threat. The heads swooped over from wherever they had been, bellowing the dreadful dirge and consuming as many people as it possibly could.

Perhaps we shall give it a taste of its own medicine? Said Melog, turning the two of them invisible. The heads didn’t seem too surprised. Perhaps it was because they were technically people Catra knew? …that was unnerving. She could see the resemblance now. It was almost as if someone had attempted to make sculptures of the princess alliance with raw chicken instead of stone. Although there weren’t that many heads, the features kept shifting like some aberrant liquid to match the faces of those it had consumed.

Well that’s going to show up in Catra’s nightmares now.

The beast was focussing on Catra’s location. It was making a different noise. Another mind song?

No. Echolocation. If Catra stayed still, it would find her. If she moved, they’d hear her footsteps and find her. One head began sniffing perilously close to Catra’s location. Maybe if she attacked it now, it would do the mind transfer thingy. But maybe it needed to be close to the center? If she died now, she’d never be able to see this plan through. It wasn’t worth the risk. But the Hydra was going to find her anyway. Might as well give it a shot. She reared the sword back for a strike when suddenly a blast of red lightning knocked the head askew. It turned to an exhausted looking Scorpia.

“Hey, creepy worm thing! Over here!” Scorpia tried to fire again. Only a fizzle. Her knees almost buckled but she caught herself. “I’ll take care of this. Whatever you need to do, I’ll hold it off.” She swung her tail foreward, injecting a head with a hefty dose of paralytic venom. It wasn’t enough to take the whole thing down, but it looked like it hurt.

Catra ran towards the center of the False Hydra necks. She found that she knew the route all too well. The base of the Hydra, the wad of flesh from which all the necks portruded, was in the Black Garnet chamber. The Failsafe glowed on its chest with the magic it had stolen from Adora. Catra raised the Sword of protection and prepared to strike and-

“Stop.” Catra knew that voice. A red field coalesced around her body, paralyzing her as smoke and shadows rose from the ground.

“Oh. It’s you.”

“Who else?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m not as surprised as I thought I’d be.”

“As dull as always. You could never realize your place, you were always sticking your nose into things that did not concern you, things too important for you to comprehend.”

“Things like Adora.”

“Precisely.”

“So you sent the Hydra to take me out, but then…”

“I underestimated you. You have made Adora weak. When it stopped singing, she saw it, and thought she could protect you. She forgot to even turn into She-Ra. And now she’s dead. Because of you. All because you made her love you. This is all your fault. ” 

“You know, this reminds me of something. I didn’t make you steal that egg. I didn’t make you do anything. I didn’t ruin this, but I’m gonna fix it. You’ve made your choice, now you have to live with it.”

“But I am living with it. Adora’s powers were compromised by emotions before, as were the rest of the princesses. Now they are mine to wield. I now have the power to do what must be done. And I’m not going to let you get in my way.” Melog pounced on her, breaking her concentration.

Stab the failsafe mark. I’ll deal with the witch. Melog roared and clawed through Shadow Weaver’s body. She dissolved into shadow.

“Like the new trick? Now that the magic has been restored to Etheria, I’m stronger than ever.”

As am I. Spikes grew from the walls and floor around the sorceress.

Catra plunged her sword into the heart of the Hydra. It let out an inuman wail. Catra had remembered how it had looked when the failsafe had activated. She’d seen Glimmer wreathed in polychromatic flames stretching out into the sky. This wasn’t so different from that, except for the fact that it was coming from a nightmare monster instead of a person.

“No! How dare you, Catra!”

“How? It’s easy. I just find out what you don’t want me to do and then do it.” Shadow Weaver glowered.

“This isn’t over.” 

“Yes. Yes it is.” And then it was.

“Yes. Yes it is.” And then it was.

Chapter Text

After all that, there was still some work to be done. And by some, I mean a lot, but it was mostly more Entrapta’s kind of work. Mara and Lighthope’s plan was a resounding success and everyone’s… minds? Souls? Whatever, the people had been successfully saved in the Crystal Castle. Entrapta had already figured out Prime’s cloning technology and used that knowledge to create new bodies for them to inhabit.

“Just to be clear, this isn’t just like, creating a completely different person and then letting them be possessed, right?” Scorpia asked.

“No, these clones won’t have any minds of their own, unlike Prime’s, which needed to be able to function without spreading his attention too thin. Ironically, he had to give them their own minds in order for them to function correctly as an army, but these ones will be completely void of any thoughts, emotions, or desires until we transfer the Hydra victims into them.”

“And these are our real friends and not just, like, copies with the same memories?”

“Of course! That would just be creepy. No, they’re still the same people as you remember. It’s a magic thing! Look, if I was wrong, then they wouldn’t retain their magic abilities. Perfuma already has vines curling around her bed!” 

The room was quite the sight. Princesses, ‘Daks, Horde Soldiers, random citizens all laid out on slabs. It could be mistaken for a morgue if not for the steady, synchronized rise and fall of their breathing powered by their life support machines.

“You both did your parts wonderfully. If it weren’t for Scorpia’s work protecting people in the Fright Zone, the Hydra would have grown seven heads by now. That’s… really bad. It is usually stopped before then, but if it actually happened… point is, Scorpia stopped a bad thing and we should feel good for her. And Catra! I didn’t even know there was a way to save the minds trapped inside. Of course, it wouldn’t have worked if the Hydra hadn’t consumed Adora, but… it did, so we’re all good! Okay, so which one of the ‘Daks is Hordak? I want to go over my notes with him.” She scampered over to all the bat people and peeled back their eyelids to see which had red underneath.

“So I think we found out the morale problem. Everyone’s sad because everyone else is dead. I mean, that’s probably not the only problem, but getting them back will help them a lot, right?” Catra asked Scorpia.

“I don’t know. It’s still a big shock. The whole thing, you know? Even know that we remember everything. The fact that these people existed, and that they dided, and that you forgot? Even though it’s all back to normal, it’s still a lot to take in. Perfuma compared disasters like this to dropping a plate. Even if you glue it back together, the cracks are still there. We might have put the pieces together again, but…” Scorpia sighed. “I’m no good at this. I wish Perfuma would wake up and do the whole ‘explaining these emotions in a way that makes sense’ thing for me. She’s so good at that, you know?”

“Melog’s like that for me. It knows whatever I feel, and unlike me, it sort of understands them and where they come from and what to do about them.”

“Hey, why do you call Melog an ‘it’ anyway?”

“It’s what it told me to call it when we met. So that’s it’s own business.”

“Cool, I guess.” There was a bit of awkward silence.

“When do you think they’ll wake up?”

“Don’t know. Soon, I hope. Entrapta said it would take a while for their brains to… what did she say? …I really don’t know. Something about the neurons sorting themselves? Sounded hard though.” Catra opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Thanks. For trusting me. It couldn’t be easy, especially with the weird stuff I was saying. You didn’t have to help me, didn’t even have to listen. But you did it anyway.”

“What are you talking about? You can always count on me!”

“...I know. That’s what’s so great about you, you know? It’s your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. You used to give me a lot of power over you and I didn’t- I wasn’t a very good friend to you. But then, the next time you see me you just run up and hug me like nothing’s happened. I don’t think I’ll ever understand that.”

“Well, I mean, it wasn’t really your fault. You were under a lot of pressure and-”

“Don’t. Don’t make excuses for me. I understood what I was doing, but I did it anyway.”

“I understood too, and I didn’t stop you or disobey until right at the end. I knew and understood what the Horde was doing, but I didn’t leave until it got bad for me, personally. What kind of person does that make me?”

“That was different. Princesses were our enemies. That’s just how war works. But I was bad to my allies. To my friends. To you.”

“Yeah but I think the war thing is actually worse than that and we both did that so if you’re evil then I’m evil.”

“You’re not evil.”

“Then neither are you.”

“I blew up reality because of a crush and spite.”

“And I didn’t stop you.”

“It wasn’t your place to stop me. It wasn’t anyone’s place to stop me. It was mine, and I didn’t do that. I sent Entrapta to Beast Island and nearly destroyed reality. You just wanted to be a good friend. We are not the same. And that’s a good thing. You’re more like… like you. And you’re a good thing to be like, you know?” Scorpia blushed.

“Well, when you put it that way… I guess you’re right.”

“Now GLIMMER on the other hand!”

“What?”

“SHE is JUST like me. Went on a campaign of vengeance due to hubris and spite? Check. Tried (and failed) to torture captives? Check. Destroyed the planet but was stopped by Adora? Check. The only difference is that she wants to think she’s good. That’s why I’m the Royal Advisor. I can warn her when she’s doing something evil because I know evil better than anyone here!”

“Um, that’s good? I guess? But seriously, this was a good conversation. Made me feel a lot better about… stuff.” There was a bit of a quiet moment. “...May I hug you?”

“Go for it.” Scorpia hugged Catra.

Why do you let her hug you? It makes it hard to breathe and your bones hurt.

“Scorpia hugs are worth it.” Catra whispered. And it was true. Yes, it was… crushing. She had no idea how skin-and-bones princess Perfuma had survived this long without being snapped like a twig. But there was something weirdly comforting about it. Comforting and warm. Which is weird, because aren’t scorpions cold blooded? Then again, Catra wasn’t colorblind and she could eat chocolate, so.

Oh look, Adora’s sleep fighting again. Progress. This means everyone is that much closer to being awake.

Her eyes opened.

“Catra! I just had a nightmare that I was eaten by a big worm thing and then I was a big worm thing but I was also a lot of other people and I was eating them but then you stabbed me with the old sword of protection! What the hell was that all about?” She looked around herself. “Where the fuck am I?”

“Wasn’t a dream dumbass. Found a way to free you consciousness from the weird thing that ate you. And everyone else in this room who’s still unconscious.” Adora looked around.

“Woah. That’s… a lot of people.”

“Yeah. It is. Scorpia managed to keep a lot of people safe, Entrapta figured out how to fix the problems, I did weirdly specific stuff like getting the old sword out from the portal and stabbing you. Sorry about that, by the way.”

“Yeah I was basically a giant evil worm so it’s ok.”

“I guess. But technically I stabbed, like, a lot of people.”

“It was to save us from the thingy. Sort of like surgery.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s like stabbing, but get this. You stab someone, and then they don’t die!”

“What’s the point?”

“Well, if they were already dying, and you get someone who knows surgery to stab them, they won’t do that.”

“Whoa. That rocks. How do I learn?”

“Go to surgery school or something, I dunno. I never asked.”

“Okay, but you need to know what happened. Actually, forget it, I’m tired of explaining. Ask Entrapta.”

“So why isn’t anybody else awake?”

“Maybe you heal faster because you’re She-Ra or something.”

“OH! Maybe I can help the others wake up!” She looks toward Catra. “Is it alright if I-?”

“Don’t need to ask me. Go on, do the glowy thing. I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done, ok?” Adora kissed her quickly before getting up, stretching and tending to the rest. It had been a long… well, everything had been long in general. But hey, the stuff in between was nice. When the world wasn’t being saved or destroyed, it was really good. Every time she kissed Adora, or hugged Scorpia, or pulled epic pranks on Glimmer that weaponized her teleportation abilities, that made everything else feel more worth it.