"I've done all I can, but that's definitely going to scar." Perfuma said, wrapping bandages around her arm. "Dark magic like that often leaves a mark."
"There's nothing you can do?" Light Spinner poked concernedly at her bandaged forearm, the edges of the raw, open wounds poking out of the edges.
"They'll fade with time, but there's nothing else we can do. You're lucky it wasn't able to corrupt you." Castaspella said. "Why did you do that? Why did you step in and save... everyone?"
"I would die to protect Mystacor, and... my friends." She replied honestly. "I have never had a true friend before, and the Princesses, they've given so much in order to make me feel at home here, in this time. It was all I could do to repay them."
"Do you really not remember anything?" Castaspella asked.
Light Spinner looked up at her, confused. "What do you mean?"
"Never mind. Forget I said anything." Castaspella stood up and left.
"Don't mind her." Perfuma said, applying a salve to her skin. "Her brother was almost killed by that monster as a child, so- Is your skin always this dry?"
"It's not dry." Light Spinner replied. "My father was a changeling. It's natural for my skin to be slightly scaly."
"So can you...?"
"Unfortunately, I lack a natural penchant for transformation magic. I am limited to simple spellcasting at the moment." Light Spinner replied.
"That's unfortunate. It would be interesting if you could shapeshift." Perfuma replied.
"Interesting?" Light Spinner laughed. "I agree, it would be interesting. But I cannot channel that magic any more than you can harness Scorpia's Runestone."
Perfuma was silent for a moment. "I hope your arm doesn't hurt too much."
"It stings, but the salve helps." Light Spinner admitted. "I was a fool for trying to face that thing alone."
"You were trying to save everyone. It was a selfless decision, even if it was a little rash." Perfuma replied, growing a bunch of daisies in her hands and handing them to Light Spinner. "Get well soon."
What do those do? Glimmer asks, pointing accusingly at her garden. Shadow Weaver sighs.
They're daisies. I find them cheerful. She replies exasperatedly, passive-aggressively snipping a rose stem. She will find a way to twist Bright Moon's princess to her will, and when she does, there will be a reckoning.
When she flashes back to the present, the vision is surprisingly clear in her mind. Was it possible? Was she somehow, in another life, the cruel Horde second-in-command that had caused so much pain and suffering to the people she now called friends? No. She refused to be that person. Even in the impossibility that she was Her , she would not be that person. She would rather die.
"Would we still be friends, if I wasn't a good person?" Light Spinner asked.
"I mean, sure, if you were willing to change. Adora, Scorpia, Catra... Even the Hordaks were able to change, to become better people." Perfuma shrugged. "With some of them... well, Hordak mostly- it's harder to trust. But they're showing that they're trying to change, and slowly, it makes it easier to trust them."
"Speaking of Hordak..." Entrapta poked her head into the room. "Say hi, Ron!"
The Horde Prime clone followed Entrapta in, carrying a tray of tiny cupcakes. "Hello. I don't believe we've met. My name is Ron. Ron Hordak."
"Yeah, we heard you got injured by a... thing, so Ron wanted to make his get well recipe." Entrapta explained.
"Enjoy!" Ron said, then winked.
Light Spinner looked at the cupcakes suspiciously. "Why is he winking? He didn't put anything in these, did he?"
"Naw, he's just like that." Entrapta brushed it off. "He's still learning how to have a personality of his own. Sometimes, people say he comes off as weird, but I like having him around."
"He is strange at first." Light Spinner said through a bite of cupcake. "Though also quite endearing."
"That's what I like to hear!" Ron grinned, somehow cute even with his skull-like appearance and jagged green teeth.
You have betrayed me for the last time. Light Spinner grabbed her head, reeling with the entity's voice in her mind. You will not escape. There is no way you can weasel your way out of this one. Not this time.
"No. No, no I can't." She whispered, a strange feeling like floating taking over.
<><><>
"This is not good!" Perfuma yelled, watching as her friend's eyes rolled backwards, her body floating in the air, held up by puppet strings of shadow magic. The shadows started to pull her away. Perfuma tried to grab Light Spinner's leg, but the magic burned her, searing deep into her skin. Instinctively, she flinched, accidentally letting the magic take her friend.
She sprinted after Light Spinner, trying in vain to catch her in webs of tangled vines, but the magic was just too powerful, and it burned right through them. If the magic can burn through her plants like that, it could burn right through-
"Scorpia!" Perfuma yelled, seeing her girlfriend walking down the hallway. "Get down!"
"Huh?" Scorpia looked up from her book. Seeing an unconscious Light Spinner flying at her, she ducked down, grabbing the sorceress's arm in her pincers. Immediately, she cried out in pain, the magic searing her carapace, the exterior of her claw turning a mottled black.
"What is this?" Glimmer teleported in, Micah's staff in hand. Castaspella appeared at her side, blasting Light Spinner with a banishment rune. The shadows pulled away, Light Spinner's body slumping into Scorpia's arms.
"I... I remember. I remember everything."
<><><>
Catra looked up at Adora, pain and hate in her eyes. "You're telling me that we were wrong? That we've been going all buddy-buddy with Shadow Weaver ?! Are you crazy?"
"I should have known." Adora muttered. "I thought- I thought she was our friend. I thought that it was just a different person with the same name. She passed the truth spell. Why didn't it work?"
"Truth spells are relative. You only speak what you believe." Catra replied. "She was telling the truth. She didn't know who she was. Being reborn... I'm guessing it rebooted her brain or something."
"It doesn't change the facts. Why come back? Why now? She had been dead for months when she showed up in Mystacor, so it doesn't make sense." Adora thought for a minute. "I know she didn't know who she was, but it still hurts."
"That thing is going to attack again." Catra muttered.
"What?" Adora asked.
"It's going to attack again. This time, I say we let it have that awful woman. It's the least she deserves." Catra crossed her arms.
"I hate to say this, but she's our best bet for defeating it." Adora replied. "Shadow Weaver was the one person who knew that... thing, more than anyone."
"I don't know how to feel." Catra admitted. "Part of me wants to rip out her windpipe for how she always treated me, and the other part reminds me of how well me and Light Spinner got along. I just have to wonder... Was Shadow Weaver right? Are we really that similar?"
"Honestly? I think she was wrong about you. You both were broken and power hungry, and you hurt people you cared about because of that, but here's the difference. You chose to change, Catra. You made that choice before it was too late." Adora explained. "Shadow Weaver didn't realize what she had done until the end. Her sacrifice was noble, and yet it was selfish, a complete cop-out from redemption."
"I need to talk to her." Catra said. Adora grabbed her wrist.
"No!" She shouted. "She'll manipulate you!"
"I'm an adult now. I can take care of myself, don't worry. I promise, I'm going to be okay."
"Take care of yourself, Catra. You don't have to do this." Adora let go of Catra's hand.
"I know. Don't worry about me. I know how she is. I won't let her get to me."