Severed [She-Ra 2018]

III: Stranded

He tried his best to listen, but her whirlwind rambling made his head spin. "And why are you here?" he demanded, a bit more harshly than intended.

Entrapta seemed unaffected by his tone. "I don't know," she shrugged. "They put me in here."

"That is not what I meant. Why have you come here?"

"Oh, that's easy. I came for you."

His eyes narrowed, unwilling to believe her. "What planet do you come from?"

"I'm from Etheria," she answered. "We were stranded in an empty dimension cut off from the rest of the universe, but we got pulled through a massive portal, and then Prime was able to use a smaller portal to take us to his ship."

"Etheria..." The word was very familiar, conjuring the sensation of sights and sounds on the edge of his consciousness. No matter how much he tried to bring these into sharper clarity, they remained firmly out of reach. He did not let this discourage him. At least now he had a place to start. He would search the records on Etheria. Perhaps then, everything would become clear.

Now that he was about to leave, the full weight of what he was doing filled him with cold fear. Horde Prime must never know of this, but keeping such things from him was impossible.

Prime knows all.

The words echoed through his head. His instinct was to rush to Prime's side, confess his grave error and hope for forgiveness, but this time he had so much to lose. He did not want to forget Entrapta. He wanted answers.

I should not want anything, he thought savagely. That strange sick feeling was coming over him again. Closing his eyes, he whirled around and stalked toward the door.

"You're leaving already?"

He stopped, feeling somehow he owed her an explanation. "There is something I must do," he said without turning around.

Her shoes clicked against the floor as she shuffled her feet. "Will you come back?"

Say nothing, he told himself. Walk away... It was a losing battle.

"Yes."

"Well, you know where I am," she said brightly.

He nodded, knowing he could never tell her how much of an anchor that was in recent days. As he took his next step, sudden pain tore through him again and he stumbled forward, barely managing to catch himself.

Entrapta rushed to his side immediately. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Is it happening again?"

About to loose an angry retort, he stopped in astonishment. He slowly turned to look at her, eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"Come sit down first," she said, taking hold of his arm and pulling him back to the edge of the bed. "Sit."

He obeyed with a defiant grumble, flexing his hands in an effort to dispel the lingering numbness. Entrapta was watching him with worry and concern. He could not decide if that made him feel comforted or irritated. "What is happening to me?" he demanded.

"Well, I remember you told me there was a flaw in your cloning."

Though Entrapta spoke in a very neutral way, he flinched as if she had struck him. "What?" he hissed.

"When we first met, your body was falling apart," she said rapidly. "So you made armor to hold yourself together, and that started falling apart too. Then I made you new armor with First Ones tech. I thought the Exo-Suit might have been my best invention yet. It seemed to be working well, but it probably failed because the data crystal got pulled out. I still have it, right here!"