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With a crack and splinters, a sharpened blade slashes against a wooden training dummy that had since been recovered from the Fright zone. The War was long over, but that didn't stop her. Every day at 8:30 am exactly Adora woke up, got dressed and trained against a few combat dummies. There was no war. There was no fight. That didn't stop her from feeling like it could all come crumbling down everydays. The galaxy was at peace. Horde prime was no more. So why couldn't she relax?
Slice, dash, cut, weave, drop to one knee spin around and slash. It was a simple routine. The attack routine always came easily even if the transformations stopped coming these days. It was all she could do to keep her mind sharp. It was all she could do to make sure the kingdom would remain safe. After all she was the only one who could-
“Adora! Good morning!”
Her body tensed at the sudden noise interrupting her mental descent. She turned around at the familiar voice and her shoulders relaxed.
“Oh, hey Glimmer, you're up early.”
Glimmer woke up at exactly 11:30 on most days. Fell asleep with bow around 12 am after a nice round of tinkering. Something was off.
Glimmer yawned and took a look over the room Adora had fashioned into a training room, “Yeah, I had a nightmare, woke up in a hot sweat and decided to take a walk around the castle.” she paused. A look of concern fell across her face, “I… didn't know we still had this room set up. What's the occasion?”
Adora nervously laughed and her sword disappeared in a sparkle of magic, “Oh I always wake up early to get in a good training session. Gotta keep the sword skills sharp just in case.”
“In case of what?”
Adora froze. She didn't really have an answer, “Uh… Just in case Brightmoon is attacked. Or anywhere really. Gotta make sure Swift Wind and I are ready at a moment's notice.”
It was a lie really. She didn't know why she had kept it up. There hadn't been an attack on Brightmoon in the last 5 years. At some point it just became routine. At some point she craved the feeling of thrusting that sharpened blade deep into something, anything just to feel something. At some point she stopped questioning it. At some point she started going out into the woods to find things to hack and slash at. At some point she dived into the fright zone to find old combat dummies and programs and filled the entire room with-
“Adora did you hear me?”
Adora's reality snapped back to the present, “Huh?”
Glimmer took a step into the room and took a look around, “I said, when did you start doing this?”
It had all started in the Fright Zone really. Shadow weaver took them and made them all train since they were young. 8:30 am sharp, Catra was always late because she slept in. she had never stopped. Even on the ship when tehy were traveling around the universe she hadn't stopped. Even when she got back and there were no more wars she hadn't stopped. Even when all was said and done and no one else trained and Bow finally stopped maintaining his Arrows she didn't stop. It was like second nature, hard coded into her body was some kind of fight response.
“I don't know.” Was the only answer she could give.
glimmer took a look over the slashed up combat dummy, “I don't… Adora where did you get this? Like im genuinely surprised we even have this. I know there was hologram tech in the ruins of the First Ones and bright moon but those were all sanctioned off as non tresspassable.”
Adora chuckled, “Oh I went down there and retrieved them myself.”
Glimmer pointed, “Into the Fright Zone?”
“Yeah.”
“Where Hordak and Entrapta have holed up?”
“Yeah.”
“I see.” Glimmer paused, “Adora, I'm worried about you.”
Adora scoffed at the notion, “Don't be, I'll be fine.”
***
The fright zone was filled with tunnels and mazes. Adora scrambled down one corridor, moving to the mess hall. Left, right, then left again and then finally, a dead end. Strange.
Adora doubled back, retraced her steps and then… another dead end. God this was getting weird. Adora wasn't sure where she was at this point, maybe another go around, maybe another attempt. She placed a hand against a wall and-
BANG.
Adora bolted up, sword at the ready in seconds, combat mode activated. Her body was a mess of adrenaline and sweat as she took a look around and realized that a window she had left open had slammed against the wall. Breezy night, she supposed.
She took a step out of her bed and walked towards her window. She paused for a moment and looked up at the space station turned tree hovering in the sky. Her heart hadn't stopped racing.
It was going to be a long night.