I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that everyone on Etheria was watching, the day the sky turned green. All the Spires, left behind by the Galactic Horde and untouched since their defeat, started activating one by one. They each fired a blindingly bright beam of green light up to the edge of Etheria's atmosphere, where the light stopped and split apart, forming a lattice around the planet and effectively caging us in. Hordak said it was there for two reasons: to stop people from escaping the surface of the targeted planet, and to protect any ships in orbit from the wildly unpredictable desolation that was to follow.
Everyone in the war room ran outside to see what was happening as soon as the ground started to shake. The nearest terrace happened to be the gardens, Shadow Weaver's greenhouse of suspicious plants still standing—although now filled with a range of delightful gifts from Plumeria—so that's where we found ourselves.
Netossa whistled admirably, remarking on the size and scale of was she said was effectively "just a big net".
As I watched this happen, watched the sky seal off with a wave of green light, watched as Etheria's potential final moments drew upon us (again), all I could think was: where's Catra?
'The Swarm drones have already descended,' Hordak was saying, 'hundreds of them, maybe thousands. Far more than were present at Erelandia.'
'So they're trapped in here with us?' Micah asked, 'that doesn't seem smart.'
'With Horde Prime gone,' Hordak continued, 'I am unsure as to the motivation behind the activation of the Ember Protocol, but whoever has started this cannot stop it without—'
'It's Prime,' I said, speaking up and interrupting Hordak, 'he's back. Or, I guess he never really left.'
'What do you mean?' Glimmer asked, and rightfully so followed up with, 'you were so adamant that it wasn't Horde Prime! To the point you had a panic attack just thinking about it!'
I felt a reassuring hand land on my shoulder and looked to see Bow smiling at me with a soft expression. 'How about,' he started, keeping his voice low and calm, 'we let Adora explain in her own time instead of losing our cool?'
Glimmer sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, nodding reproachfully, 'you're right, Bow. Sorry, Adora. But, please tell us how you know it's Prime.'
I looked down at my hands, but realised I'd left the tracker pad back in the war room. Only Perfuma and Catra knew about me having seen Prime, and only Catra knew that he actually was in my head. I took a deep breath to steel myself and looked around everyone's patient faces before landing my gaze on Glimmer. 'Ever since I picked up that crystal in Dryl, and up until just before Princess Prom, I could hear and see Horde Prime. But he was just in my head, no one else could hear or see him, so I thought for the longest time that maybe it wasn't real. But it was. He was affecting me, making me scared, making me doubt myself and say and do things I didn't mean. When Catra and I were fighting and you left me in her room to talk to her, she tried to make up with me, but I pushed her away again even though I didn't want to. That was him. He did that. I'm sure of it. I don't know what else he specifically had a hand in, but it took until he brought out She-Ra to attack Catra that I knew how bad it really was.'
'Why didn't you say anything?' Bow asked, voice laced with concern and eyes full of worry.
I laughed dryly, 'he was in my head, Bow! I don't think I could've even if I wanted to. The only people who knew were Catra and Perfuma. I don't even know why he let me tell Perfuma. He could have planted little ideas in my subconscious, and I would have acted on them without even realising it.' I sort of had an idea of the moments when I wasn't entirely in my right mind, but thinking about it too hard is not what we need right now. Not what Etheria needs. I need to—I have to—protect everybody, defend the planet from him, whatever it takes.
Whatever it takes.
I'm ready.
I'm ready to fight him again.
I am.
I am...
But...
"It doesn't always have to be you!"
Catra...
No. I need to find Catra, I can't do this without her.
"—can't believe you didn't tell us about this—!"
"—this really isn't the time—"
"—converging on major settlements around the planet—"
"—going to be swarmed—!"
Everyone suddenly seemed to be talking over one another. Glimmer was talking at me, Bow trying to calm her down, Hordak looking at a holographic map projecting from his arm covered in red blips, Castaspella watching it in horror, Netossa and Spinnerella holding each other while looking up at the sky. I followed their gaze, eyes widening as I was confronted with a familiar yet equally mortifying sight.
Swarm drones. Hundreds of them, descending on Etheria as the barrier closed behind them. They must have been lying in wait just outside the atmosphere, all those drones from all those ships that steadily disappeared off of Hordak's radar.
This was Prime's plan.
Complete and total annihilation.
'Adora! Snap out of it! We need She-Ra!'
"What do you want, Adora? When do you get to choose?"
I blinked, tilting my head down to see an exasperated Glimmer staring up at me. She looked scared, uncertain. I shook my head.
'I don't.'
Glimmer blanked. 'What?' She breathed, her eyes going a little glassy at my sudden curveball.
'I don't need She-Ra,' I repeated, finding my voice and confident in the conviction behind my words. 'I don't need her, but I do need Catra. I have to go and find her; I have to know that she's okay.' I smiled hopefully, extending a hand to the Queen of Bright Moon. 'Will you help me?'
The Queen sputtered for a moment, eyes flitting between me and the cloud of drones above us. After a moment, she closed her eyes, relaxed her shoulders, and took in a deep breath. She released it slowly, her expression blank and mind made up. I saw the flicker of a smile on her lips as she turned to Bow, planting her hands on his shoulders. 'Bow,' she began, 'tell Juliet to equip her troops with the staffs from Mystacor.'
He gasped, a realisation dawning on his face. 'The magic ones!?' Glimmer nodded. 'Yes! Operation: Counter-Drone is a go!'
Bow turned to excitedly speed away to do something with magic staffs, but Glimmer grabbed his wrist and pulled him into a soft embrace. I turned away quickly, giving them a moment while seeing what everyone else was doing.
Around us, Hordak rapidly spoke to Entrapta through a projection on his gauntlet, Micah and Castaspella formed the beginnings of a spell above our heads, Netossa and Spinnerella stepped back from their own embrace, exchanged a chaste kiss, and then broke into a run towards the city to direct and help the people there.
When I looked back, Glimmer and Bow were crying. Crying and smiling; crying and laughing. As Glimmer turned to look at me, I noticed that she was missing her earring, and Bow seemed to be wearing it. Huh?
'You ready?' She asked, wiping the tears from her eyes as Bow kissed her cheek.
I nodded dumbly, not really sure on what just happened between them.
'Then let's find your girl,' Glimmer said, stepping back from her embrace and clearing her throat. 'Bow!' He straightened his posture and saluted, a cheeky smile scrunching his flushed cheeks. Glimmer snorted, 'you're in charge. Make sure the citizens of Bright Moon are safe, keep everyone indoors, evacuate people to the palace if you need to.'
Bow beamed, 'leave it to me. Adora,' he said, turning to me as he dropped his hand to his side, 'find her. Wherever she is, she'd want to be found. Leave Bright Moon to us.' I opened my mouth to reply but was cut short when Bow pulled Glimmer and I forwards into a group-hug. 'Go, Best Friend Squad! We got this, even one member down!'
'But not for long,' Glimmer added, smiling, 'we'll find Catra and then come get you Bow, and then we move on Spikeheart.'
'Sounds like a plan,' he confirmed, kissing her on the forehead. I fake-barfed, which earned a scoff from Glimmer and a chuckle from Bow. 'Now get lost, I've got a city to defend,' he said with confidence, pushing us from the hug and standing with his hands on his hips, puffing out his chest. Glimmer laughed, shoving at his shoulder lightly, without malice.
'I'm sure you do, Master Archer Bow,' she intoned, before turning to me and holding out a hand. 'You ready, Adora?'
'As I'll ever be,' I replied, voice cracking just a little. Bow shot me a thumbs up as well as a comforting smile. We exchanged a nod, a silent thank you and you're welcome that didn't need words for the message to carry. He was doing this for me, so I could go and look for Catra despite the weight of She-Ra on my shoulders and everything that she stands for. I should be defending these people from attack, defending Etheria; but here are my friends, smiling and showing me that it's okay to be selfish, to want things for myself.
It was time to go find my wife.
Future wife.
'Okay. Let's go.'
▬▬▬▬▬▬
Seeing the Fright Zone again was something I thought I was prepared for. I'd been there not too long ago, after all, when we tried to rescue Scorpia from Prime's control. But what I was not prepared for, in any way shape or form, was seeing the Fright Zone look so... different. Gone was the smog. Gone was the unending, incessant clang of machinery, the sounds of constant training. Gone was the errant foreboding that something terrible was about to happen to you. It even smelt better, something I'd never even considered could be possible, the scent of burning garbage replaced with something fresher, more alive.
However, my chosen moment of pause was ill-timed. A nearby explosion showered Glimmer and I in hydrated soil, caking us in healthy ground that I also realised crops were growing in. Another explosion further away caught my attention, as well as the shout of pain that followed.
That's when I felt the tap on my shoulder, stopping me from sprinting toward the shout as my legs had automatically moved to do. When I looked back, I saw Glimmer's shocked face as she looked to the sky.
Green. The sky was green here too. Of course it was, but that wasn't what glued our feet to the ground—we'd seen the hologram in the war room, as well as the skies over Bright Moon. No, what caused us pause was the thick blanket of Swarm drones that convulsed overhead, the green of the Ember Protocol's net only just peeking through the breaks in whatever formation they held. If one can accurately describe utter chaos as a formation.
'There's so many,' Glimmer said simply, her words barely a whisper, 'why are there so many?'
I had no words at first, simply shaking my head in disbelief at the sight developing above me. The drones appeared to be flying in groups, or clusters, soaring high into the sky before looping back on themselves and diving again, beams of hot green energy firing from their cannons, bombs dropping from their hulls.
The Fright Zone was falling.
Despite looking different, despite everything being covered in plants, despite the ground being cleared of pipes and redundant machinery left to rot with nowhere else to put it, the horizon was still red. Red, because the Fright Zone was burning. Why had they attacked here before Bright Moon? Had I not left the tracker pad back in the war room, would Scorpia have been able to warn us about what was happening? Would we have been able to jump into action sooner?
But no, this would soon be happening to Bright Moon too.
A blast of red electricity shot up into the sky some distance away, arcing through a dozen drones at once, their explosions thundering across the war-stained sky, and shook me from my thoughts. I looked to Glimmer, the Queen, one of my best friends, standing stock-still beside me, and grasped at her shoulders.
'You have to go back!' I shouted, pleaded. 'Bright Moon is going to need its Queen. If it's going to get this bad, you have to be there to defend everyone!' I realised that I sounded desperate, suddenly very aware of the danger that this attack meant for Etheria. If we didn't play our cards right, if someone wasn't careful, we could lose before the very ground we walked on was scorched to dust, and we wouldn't even be alive to see it happen.
Glimmer just held my gaze, a stern glare in her eye that told me she'd already made up her mind. 'Bright Moon will be fine,' she said, confidence radiating from her brighter and hotter than the flames of destruction around us. 'I trust Bow, I trust my dad, I trust everyone who's there to defend Bright Moon with everything they have.'
'But—'
'No, Adora.' Glimmer stopped me from protesting, removing my hands from her shoulders with a gentle push to each of my wrists. 'You're here to do what you want, what you need, and that's finding Catra. Go, find her. But don't tell me what I need to be doing, what I want to do. This place, I can see how much it's changed, how beautiful it would look if it wasn't burning down. I want to help protect it for as long as I can. Perfuma and Scorpia are here, I'm going to try and find them, support them. Who knows, maybe I'll even save a few Horde scum soldiers while I'm at it.'
I smiled at her light-heartedness, appreciating the way she tried to reassure herself that everything would be fine. I appreciated it because it worked on me too.
Stepping back, I cast a quick glance around us, scanning the buildings to gauge where exactly I was in relation to where I needed to look for Catra. If she's here, hiding, there's any number of places she could be. I just had to hope that she's okay, that she isn't injured, and that maybe she'll be up to helping us with whatever challenges Spikeheart presents.
'Okay,' I said, turning back to Glimmer. She straightened her back, rising a little taller. 'I trust you.'
She smiled and, pulling me into a hug, firmly squeezed me despite us just sharing a Best Friend Squad group hug a moment beforehand. I didn't hesitate to return the gesture however, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing just as tightly. 'Be careful,' she whispered, 'find that future wife of yours. I have a lot of paperwork from this last week I need her to go over.'
For the first time that day, I laughed, shaking Glimmer with the sudden force of it. 'Paperwork? Are you sure it's not just because you miss having her around? Admit it, she's growing on you.'
Glimmer just huffed, shoving me from the hug and rolling her eyes. 'No!' She protested, 'we just have a few things in common is all. She keeps me on my toes. Although, I can see why you like her – she's surprisingly soft behind that spikey armour she wears.'
I felt myself beaming, inwardly proud of Catra for lowering her walls around more people than just me, trusting my friends with more of her, allowing herself to be. 'You should feel her tummy,' were the words that dropped from my mouth before I could stop them.
Surprisingly, Glimmer just looked thoughtful for a moment, as if the words yeah, I should briefly waltzed through her mind, but the moment ended as quickly as it began. 'Be careful,' were the last words Glimmer said before she teleported away, leaving me standing there in a clearing of fertilised soil and struggling crops as fires raged around me and death circled overhead.
'Always am,' I whispered, to the space where Glimmer had been standing.
Running through the Fright Zone after Glimmer teleported away should have been easy. I knew the way. Or I thought I did. I used to. But Catra was right: everything really had changed so much since the last time I was here. Most of the little shortcuts or faster routes Catra and I used to race down were just gone now, dismantled, most likely melted down to be used for some of the newer buildings that I didn't recognise. The tallest of the Fright Zone's structures still remained, however, and using those to direct myself meant I found the first likely hiding place Catra would choose fairly quickly, despite my initial disorientation and having to dodge around explosions and fleeing civilians (a second glance told me that, no, they weren't civilians, they were just Horde soldiers without their helmets on. The sight almost made me trip over a loose root of a nearby tree).
When I first entered the building where Catra and I spent a lot of our time together, up until I left, I noticed how run-down it was. The walls seemed grubby, doors jammed at odd heights having gotten stuck halfway down, and the lights overhead flickered even without the attack outside shaking the foundations.
I found the training room first, as it was on the lower level. I wasn't really sure why I initially checked there, but something made me stop outside the door and peek inside for the first time in almost four years.
It was exactly as I remembered it: wide, open space with hexagonal pillars forming the unsteady floor. I watched as a few segments fell away and "Hey, Adora. How's it hanging?" closed my eyes as a memory shunted to the front of my mind. It wasn't unwelcome, far from it, but I couldn't afford to be distracted now. Catra wasn't here, time to keep looking.
The locker room was next, being fairly close to the training grounds. There were a few places in here where Catra had hidden herself over the years, having little other options, but it was hard to imagine her actually being able to physically fit into many of them now. Some of the lockers had fallen over, spilling their contents—a few training shirts, armour, and batons—onto the ground. I could tell from how cold the room felt that Catra wasn't here but seeing it in such disrepair sent a pang of sadness through my heart. This room had so many memories within its walls and yet here it was, barely able to keep itself upright as the world ended around us.
But right then at that moment was not the time to wallow in memories of how life used to be. The world had changed a lot since then, Etheria had finally come together. It occurred to me in some random part of my mind that the vast majority of buildings and rooms within the Fright Zone no longer had any actual purpose without a war on. It was as if the whole kingdom had lost its purpose, its function, and everyone here, everyone who'd chosen to stay or moved in since the war ended, was helping to find the Fright Zone's new purpose.
Maybe it would even be renamed.
I moved on, continuing with my initial quest to find the love of my life somewhere in the wreckage of our past, literally represented by this building, its rooms, and all the memories stored within. As I ran down the corridors, ducking and weaving around debris and loose piping, I could almost see a younger Catra and I giggling and running along without a care in the world. We'd been so free, back then, just me and her, young and naïve, thinking we could actually grow up in the Fright Zone and everything would be okay. Looking back, I'm not sure that would have ever happened. Even if I hadn't found the sword, I would have figured it out eventually: that everything the Horde did was evil, bent on Etheria's destruction, on enslaving hundreds of innocent people and forcing the Princesses to their knees.
My thoughts were interrupted by a painfully familiar sight through the next door I stopped outside of. I wasn't quite sure how far I'd ran, but I knew that our old bunkroom was not especially close by and I shouldn't have been able to get here so quickly. As I braced myself against the doorway, leaning down to peer inside, I noticed that my forearm was covered by a shiny gold gauntlet.
I'd managed to unconsciously change into She-Ra while running, so lost in my own thoughts and warring emotions at being back and letting myself think about it. The last time I was here, I didn't let these kinds of thoughts in, too focused on saving our friends. But now, with a weight forming in my chest of still having not found Catra, I could feel my distress rising. Maybe She-Ra had sensed that, coming out to support me as best she could, to stop me from falling and helping me the rest of the way.
The bunk room was dark, darker than I remembered. Many of the beds were in disarray, obviously not slept in for quite some time. Apparently, whatever other accommodations the Fright Zone's new management had set up was far more desirable than this. I didn't blame them.
However I, of course, was drawn to my old bunk. I'd spent so much of my childhood in this very bed, alone or with Catra, and seeing it in an awful state of disrepair kind of made me want to fix it myself. Driven by some unknown force, I found myself bending down to lie flat on the mattress, struggling to fit with my sheer scale as She-Ra. It wasn't comfortable. My bed in Bright Moon was much nicer to my back, not to mention it usually had a certain someone in there too, warming up the sheets.
That's when I happened to turn my head, muscle memory leading me to look at that one place on my bunk that always brought me such a sweet sense of comfort—and held back a sob. We made it years ago, I could barely remember when, but drawing our faces side-by-side on my bunk had always felt far more meaningful than it actually was. In reality, it's just a silly drawing, the idle scribbling of children so bored out of their minds that they started doodling on their own bed. But to me, it was important. It was so much more than a stupid little doodle. I used to stare at it as I would fall asleep, every night, usually with Catra at my feet, dreaming of the day when we could be that happy together without reprimand or a war stopping from just being with one another and enjoying each other's company.
But, as a sharp and painful reminder of the wedge I formed between us all those years ago, four distinct claw marks were sliced through my face, forever breaking the image and threatening to replace the memory of it in my mind with something far more painful. Regret washed over me like a tidal wave, as well as grief and a longing to hold Catra and whisper apologies for what I did back then, even if I knew she wouldn't want to hear it. We both knew, after all, that if given another chance, I wouldn't do a single thing differently. The scratches through the crude drawing of my face sent home just how broken Catra must have felt after I left, for her to do this to something that I knew meant as much to her as it did for me, and I couldn't stop the tears from rolling down my face once they started.
But I wiped at my eyes, getting up from the bed and moving back towards the door. Casting one last glance at my old bunk, a remnant of what felt like a past life, and left.
Catra needs me, and right now, I need her.
The Fright Zone was a mess, every building left behind from Hordak's reign had already looked mangled to the point where you wondered how they remained standing, but now it was a different story. Catra and Hordak's "disagreement" left much more of it in ruins than I thought. Many rooms were distinctly missing their ceilings, were filled with rubble, and the holes melted through walls that still had a set of armoured footprints walking through them was a little disconcerting.
Hordak's Sanctum was not a place I thought I would ever see again if I'm being honest. But, when I walked through one of those perfectly circular holes in the wall, that's exactly where I found myself.
Vats not too dissimilar to those from the First Ones temple in the Crimson Waste dotted the ruined space within, many of them broken, smashed, their contents long since oozed onto the ground around them. Disused machinery, cracked screens, abandoned tinkering, and the remnants of the portal also haunt the vacant sanctum. I had never been invited to see Hordak whilst living in the Horde, not once, and this marked only the second time I had actually been inside.
The first time...
I could distinctly remember the look on Catra's face when she pulled the lever. When she almost ended the world and didn't seem to care. For a long time, I didn't know why she did it. I didn't understand. I do now. She'd explained it to me; how broken she was, how alone, adrift, hollow and shattered to her core she felt after learning how Shadow Weaver abandoned her in the exact same way I did.
If I were to bring that up with her again, now, after all this time, she'd probably argue that I didn't abandon her, I just did what I had to. That's what I used to tell myself too, all those years ago, when the wound was still fresh. The truth of it is that I did abandon her. I didn't mean to, but I did. I left her behind, even though she was everything to me, and let her believe she didn't matter.
I've already resolved to spending the rest of my life atoning, and to never let Catra feel like I don't want her, need her, and love her with all of myself ever again.
To do that, I have to find her first. I have to make sure she's okay.
I left that room, hopefully for the last time, with a heavy feeling in my chest and tears stinging at the corners of my eyes as I made my way through the abandoned halls, the sounds of the battle outside only just reaching me past the sound of my own heartbeat thundering in my ears.
The Black Garnet chamber was empty.
I knew it was unlikely that Catra would be hiding there of all places, but something drew me towards the room anyway, to peek inside. What I found was an echo, ruined and abandoned, left without a purpose by the lack of Scorpia's Runestone.
Catra hadn't mentioned them moving it, but perhaps she'd been so busy that it just sort of blended into their activities.
When I closed my eyes, I could hear the distant memory of cries and screams coming from that room. So much pain, so much fear, so much hatred.
I shook the memories away as I turned and left the room behind, for good. Bow had been right to be cautious when I suggested we come back and look around, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea after all...
Finding Catra's Force Captain quarters should not have been so difficult. I should have asked her where it was while we were talking over the tracker pad if only to give myself some kind of hint as to where exactly her new quarters were located. How did I know Catra's quarter's when I saw them? Claw marks. Everywhere.
From what I could remember of the background from Catra's calls, these were definitely new. The metal was freshly cut, gleaming in the flickering light as another nearby explosion rocked the building. Catra had been here, recently, and she'd been fighting something. I wasn't sure if I'd ever seen Catra claw up a room like this before. A few older instances came to mind, but nothing as severe as this. On the bed, I could see her whip and jacket; on the floor, her old uniform, torn and shredded.
My heart started thumping my chest as thoughts of something happened and Catra's not okay and Catra needs me started thundering through my mind.
I turned on the spot and ran.
Everything I hoped I wouldn't find was there; the place where Catra had been staying, had sworn was safe, was apparently not safe and clawed up like she'd trying to seriously hurt something.
Or someone.
She-Ra is fast, I often forget how fast, but when I finally stopped running and just stared out across the expanse of the Fright Zone below me, I finally allowed my mind to catch up with my body.
Seeing Catra's quarters like that, in that state, confirming in the worst way that something awful could have happened to the woman I love, threatened to break something deep inside of me. Something that couldn't be broken, shouldn't be broken. I had to keep it together. I had to be strong. I had to be brave. I'm She-Ra. She-Ra isn't weak. She-Ra isn't vulnerable. She-Ra isn't—
'Adora?!'
My head immediately snapped up, scanning the rooftop around me for some kind of hint as to where the voice came from.
'Adora, up here!'
I followed the sound of the voice again, standing to my full height and looking up at the antennae that sprouted out from Catra and I's secret place. No-one had known about this place before, so seeing Lonnie of all people up here caused some kind of possessive emotion to flare up within me, as if she was somehow trespassing.
But then I remembered that Lonnie is technically in charge of the Fright Zone now and I, while trying not to focus too hard on the Swarm drones above, eventually registered that Lonnie was literally tied up.
Upside down, swaying from side to side in the wind that was definitely stronger than I remember it, most likely an effect of the Ember Protocol messing with the balance of Etheria, suspended from an antenna by a thick and sturdy coil of vines.
My initial thoughts sounded something like, but why would Perfuma—
But then I remembered.
Catra.
'Lonnie?' I called back, 'what happened, why—'
'As much as I'd love to just hang out, Adora, I'd appreciate it if you could just cut me down already. We don't have time to catch up or chit-chat.' Her glare left little room for argument.
'Right! Yes, sorry,' I mumbled, summoning my sword, then swinging an arc of magic up at the vines, cutting her loose. Lonnie hit the ground skilfully, using a method I recognised from our training, bending her knees, and rolling to prevent any serious injury. She stood quickly, brushing herself off before moving to stand at the railing and watch as Swarm drones dive-bombed the kingdom. Another arc of red electricity shot up into the sky, followed soon after by an explosion of pink, sparkly magic.
'What's the sitch?' Lonnie asked without looking at me. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, suddenly nervous in front of one of my old friends who I'd been fighting against for three years.
'Horde Prime,' I said simply, watching as Lonnie's eyes widened and she looked to me in shock, a million questions on her lips. 'He's back, somehow,' I continued quickly, aware that time was pressing, 'but we're going to beat him. We know where he is I just... I had to come and look for Catra. I haven't heard from her in a day and I'm worried that—'
'Tch,' Lonnie scoffed. 'She's a real piece of work, you know that?'
'Uhm–I–uh...'
'She apologised to us. All of us. Me, Rogelio. Kyle. And then she had the gall to cause a ruckus scratching up her old quarters, running off when I heard and came to check on her, stringing me up, and then vanishing with that cat of hers.'
There was so much in that last sentence that I had to absorb, but I didn't have time to before Lonnie pointed behind me and shouted, 'look out! Behind and up!'
I turned immediately, swinging my sword down and up towards the approaching formation of seven drones, cleanly destroying them with the arc of magic the move created. Lonnie watched, stunned, before turning to me again. 'If you can stop this, do it. I don't know what's gotten into Catra, but we're not gonna last much longer out here if this carries on the way it's going.'
'Lonnie– hang on– what do you mean? What happened to Catra?' I pleaded with the woman in front of me, practically begging for any kind of hint as to where she is, 'why are her quarters like that?'
Lonnie sighed, turning back to look out over the Fright Zone. At this height, with the smog lifted, the horizon was clear. Except for the green that tarnished it, alongside the smoke from the fires that raged under the drone's onslaught. 'We don't have time,' Lonnie began, voice heavy with her new responsibility to protect this place, this newfound beacon of hope for so many displaced souls, 'I have to get down there, to help my people.' She turned to me then, looked me in the eye when she whispered, 'our people.'
I closed my eyes, clenching my jaw to avoid the cry that wanted to escape. The truth of it was that I'd missed my friends. My old friends. Lonnie, Rogelio. Even Kyle. I still cared for them, so much, that was the truth of it. But right then, at that moment, my person was missing, and nothing else came close to mattering to me. 'Catra is my priority,' I said, opening my eyes to stare into Lonnie's calculating gaze, 'we're getting married, Lonnie! I have to find her, just– please, if you know what happened, you have to tell me. I need her.'
We both flinched as a fireball erupted from on of the buildings nearby, a formation of drones flying away from the blast while raining fire on the kingdom below. Lonnie turned to me then, face set with determination. 'You'll stop this?' She asked, 'if I tell you what happened, this stops, right?'
I nodded quickly, sure that with Catra's help, I would be able to think straight, to put an end to Horde Prime's plan once again. To save Etheria, the planet I love, full of the people I love. My home.
'I promise.'
Lonnie nodded. She stretched her hands out in front of her, cracking her knuckles, then set me with a firm stare. 'I followed her away from the celebration last night,' she began, voice sure and gaze unwavering. I felt myself step forward, eager to listen, 'she was holding her head, didn't look too good. I was going to check on her, make sure she was okay. She's been helping out, a lot, since she came to stay, so, I guess I was worried. Anyway, I heard Catra shouting, shouting at something. Screaming, almost. It was terrifying, she was terrified, I've never heard her sound so scared in my life. I heard her yelling for someone to get away, to get out, all while the tearing up the walls of her quarters. I managed to get the door open, but she bolted past me, knocked me down. I yelled after her, but she used this magic wind to get away from me. I followed her, found her up here, which is when I asked again if she was okay. She just... smiled. But there was something off about it, weird. Then she used these vines to string me up before vanishing right after her big green cat showed up. I can't believe no-one came looking for me! Kyle is so dead if he's still alive down there, I swear—'
'Green?'
Lonnie blinked at my question. 'What?'
'The cat... was green?'
'Yeah,' Lonnie said slowly, unsure as to what I was getting at. 'That thing's been changing colours all week while she's been moping and complaining about missing yo—'
'Adora!' Glimmer's voice appeared behind me, snapping me back to reality before my mind became too clouded with the implications of what Lonnie had said. 'We have to go! We're running out of time– where's Catra? Did you find her?'
I turned to see Glimmer standing here, on the rooftop where Catra and I spent so much of our time as kids, one arm linked through Bow's who was frowning down at his tracker pad, the other placed palm-open on the side of Swift Wind's neck.
'Guys—' Bow began, voice breaking with his gaze set firmly on the tracker pad.
'Hold on,' Swift Wind said, voice low and calm, 'something's wrong.' He trotted forwards; eyes locked with mine. I could feel a warmth in the back of my mind, Swift Wind reaching out through our sacred bond, feeling everything I felt in that moment. I watched as his eyes began to water, his face betraying the feelings I was fighting to contain. Anguish. Anger. Fear. Worry. Sadness. An internal, warring desolation that I fought to keep down. I couldn't let myself feel everything he was feeling within me, not if I wanted to get Catra back. I had to keep my head, to not succumb to this weakness, to not get distracted.
So I did the only thing I could; I blocked him out.
'Let's go,' I said, surprised at the conviction behind my own words.
'What?' Glimmer and Bow said in unison, equal looks of surprise on their faces. Glimmer looked back at Bow, around the rooftop, then glanced back to me, 'but what about—'
'Wherever we're going, wherever that signal is coming from; Catra's there.'
Bow looked unsure, 'Adora, how do you—'
'I just know, okay!?' I recoiled, instantly guilty at snapping at one of my best friends in the whole world. 'I'm sorry, it's just, she always is, isn't she? In the middle of everything.'
'Adora,' Glimmer stepped forward, taking my hand in hers, 'what do you mean?'
'She's always where the danger is, right?' I could feel the emotions coming back, tears threatening to escape from the corners of my eyes. I looked back at Swift Wind, who's face was set firm in his determination. I could feel it. He was pushing back against me, trying to fill me with confidence, to make me feel brave, to help me believe that everything would be okay.
I let him back in, and let the tears fall.
Glimmer swallowed, nodding. Bow patted me on the back. Swift Wind enveloped us in his wings. Before I knew what was happening, we had formed a group huddle, arms and wings around one another, heads pressed together.
'We can do anything,' Bow began, his voice sure yet laced with emotion, 'because we're the Best Friend Squad. We're not afraid, because we have each other, and we have love. We'll find Catra together, then we'll defeat Horde Prime together too. I know we can.'
Glimmer giggled, and I found the sound to be a welcome one. 'We've done both of those things before, who's to say we can't do them again?'
'Exactly!' Swift Wind, proclaimed, stepping back from the huddle to spread his wings wide and lift his head to the sky. 'This is nothing! We got this! Right guys? Yeah?'
I smiled, reaching across to pat his neck. 'Yeah, we got this,' I reassured him. This time, I believed the words I was saying. I'd almost lost myself to the thought that Catra was gone, but with my friends by my side, we can find her, we can save Etheria. 'Let's do this. Horde Prime's played his last move, we just have to throw a wrench into whatever it is he's done and get rid of him. For good, this time.'
Glimmer beamed as Bow clasped his hands together to his chest with hearts in his eyes, looking close to tears. I took both their hands as Swift Wind wrapped his wings around us once again.
I heard the faintest 'what the heck was that all about' from behind me before Glimmer teleported us away.
Catra, please be okay.
(A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you for your patience, once again, with me and my month-long writing process of just fighting with my motivation until a chapter appears. Four chapters left... Until next time!)