Chapter Text
The training regimes had only increased in their difficulty and intensity since Scorpia joined the team, and even with the Sword of Protection, the squad was hard pressed to prevail against the bots thrown at them. Adora was still trying to figure out the magic that Shadow Weaver had been teaching her. She tried to summon a bolt of energy to strike down the bots coming for them but nothing nothing happened and she got blasted away by their lasers, with only the supernatural toughness of her current state stopping her from being knocked out. She landed on her feet some distance away and looked around to see how the others were doing. It wasn’t looking too good, the swarms were bearing down on them and there were too many of them for each to handle on their own. She rose up to a standing position and sprinted forward to join the fray again, but before she could do anything more, all of the machines suddenly powered down. She looked around to see what had caused the sudden end to the training session, the answer to which was made readily apparent in the darkness encroaching on the room. “Shadow Weaver.” She did a salute and turned back to her normal self.
“Adora,” Came the faux-motherly voice of the one who had raised her. “Why are you failing? You have so much power, yet you allow yourself to be distracted by the others.”
It took everything within Adora not to sigh at this, she had heard it quite too many times by now. “They are not distractions. They’ve helped me out on multiple occasions, I need them. I just need to master what power I have. Give me time.”
“I am afraid that I can not do that. You have new orders.” This made Adora perk up from her previous exasperation. “There has been a very peculiar change in Dryl. Abandoning her previous neutrality, the Princess of Dryl has sent out armies of robots against us. And against her fellow Princesses. It would seem that her ambitions far exceed what we’ve anticipated and she needs to be dealt with before she becomes a greater threat. With her conflict with the other kingdoms ongoing, however, you may strike without intervention and seize Dryl for the Horde.”
Adora did vaguely remember Dryl being mentioned during Force Captain Orientation. It was a small and isolated mountain kingdom ruled by a mad scientist Princess. Entrapta, she believed that the Princess was called. Very dangerous if allowed to use her technology, but one of the easiest Princesses to beat in a straight-up fight, supposedly. “Yes, Shadow Weaver. I will lead the squadron to take it if that is asked of me.”
“No, Adora. You will not. Force Captain Grizzlor will lead the forces to hold back the robot attack. You are to take a small strike team to get behind the enemy lines and capture Princess Entrapta of Dryl. Take out the head and the attacks will end, and Dryl will be ours.”
Adora nodded, “Understood. I’ll prepare the team for it.”
Carrying Perfuma through the Whispering Woods had been an arduous task, but the trees had finally come to an end, replaced instead by cliffs and plateaus. While this only made the task of carrying the stretcher made of plants that had been created for Perfuma harder, at least Bow and Glimmer knew that they were nearing the end of their journey. After a little more walking, they, at last, reached the cliff edge where, below them in the clouds, they knew that a great floating rock lay hidden. If they got onto it, then it would transport them to Mystacor. That was when they realised that they had yet another obstacle to clear before they could reach the veiled floating kingdom of sorcerers.
“So. How. Do. We. Get. Perfuma. Down. There?” Asked Bow between pained breaths, it had taken the last of their energy to climb the cliffs required to reach this place.
“I don’t know.” Answered Glimmer, who had sat down to recover her physical energy. “Give me a moment to think about it.” While the two of them could just jump down, doing so while they were bringing Perfuma, or worse yet throwing her down first, would risk hurting her more.
“Maybe you could teleport us down there?” Bow suggested half-heartedly.
“Not enough energy to teleport three that far, and it’s hard to aim it right when I can’t see it. Do you have any trick arrows for this? Something with rope, I don’t know.”
“Nothing safe enough while Perfuma is unconscious.”
“Oh, of course.” Glimmer rose up and felt the need to smack herself for not realising the obvious solution sooner. She blamed tiredness. “You jump down and get the cliff up to us, and I’ll teleport Perfuma and myself over.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” Bow nods and takes a few more breaths to gather himself, “Well, wish me luck!” And he jumped down from the cliff into the clouds below, where sure enough the rock to transport them over was hidden, and levitated up to Glimmer’s height upon Bow touching it. The gap between it and the cliff was still too wide for her to safely jump over to it while also carrying Perfuma, but with a final teleportation, she got the two onboard it. As much as Glimmer was tired from the journey to Mystacor, the sight of it remained as breathtaking as always. The rock ferried them over the clouds, and soon they saw the floating island upon which the kingdom of sorcerers lay. It was there that they would meet Glimmer’s aunt, Castaspella, who could hopefully arrange for healers to help poor Perfuma. She felt sorry for her when she saw her body lying there, scratches and bruises all over her. It was yet another thing that she would take revenge on the Horde for one day, and this wrong She-Ra especially.
It didn’t take long for Aunt Castaspella to come and greet them when they got over to Mystacor. They had barely gotten off the rock when she rushed over to hug her niece. “Glimmer? My Glimmer! How I’ve missed you, it’s been so long since you last came over. And you brought Bow too! And... Who’s this?” Her eyes fell on the lying Perfuma.
“Aunt Casta. This is Perfuma, Princess of Plumeria. She got wounded in a Horde attack upon her kingdom and we took her here to get healed. After all, you've got some of the best healers in Etheria.” She added the last part to try and butter her up before her inevitable dismay.
“So you’ve not come over to just visit your dear old aunt?” Casta’s voice was one of exaggerated disappointment, “Well, well, if it’s just business I’ll make sure that she’s tended to. But while you’re here, why don't you come and eat with me, and we’ll catch up?”
There wasn’t much that Glimmer could say in response to this that wasn’t rude so she went with “... Sure, Auntie.” She found it typical that Castaspella would be so sentimental even when they were dealing with matters of grave importance.
Bow looked quite pleased with the thought of dinner after their journey however, despite Glimmer remaining in a somewhat downbeat mood. “That sounds great!”
“Oh, such enthusiasm! You really could learn something from him, you know, Glimmer. No need to be such a downer all the time.”
“Yes, Aunt Casta.”
In the end, Adora had selected Catra and Scorpia to come with her on this mission since they were her strongest warriors; Scorpia was a fellow Force Captain (though she was not quite sure why she kept the title outside of tradition when she was usually put under the command of another Force Captain) and it would feel weird to leave Catra behind. The way to Dryl wasn’t the easiest, and not just because of the murder robots that seemed to lurk around every corner. Still, they were getting there and so far none of the bots that they had run into had fazed them much. They had taken the route that would get them past most of them after all, the better to pursue their stealth mission. As they were getting within sight of Castle Dryl however, they found a most peculiar sight. Princess Entrapta was sitting out in the open, tinkering with a fallen robot, equally oblivious of and unconcerned with the new arrivals. “This feels a bit too easy,” said Adora, to which Catra only gave a shrug.
“Maybe she’s out repairing her bots?” Suggested Scorpia.
“Perhaps…” Adora approached the Princess with her sword raised, “Princess Entrapta, you are under-” She didn’t get further than that, however, because the Princess noticed them for the first time and sprung up into the air. Quite literally in fact, her hair gave her quite the extra height when used to move.
“At last! Thanks for coming over here. Could you please help me out with this teensy weensy issue that I’m having?” She opened up her welding mask to give them a cheerful smile.
“Uh…” This was not the reaction that Adora had been expecting. “What issue?”
“Well you see, it would seem that my castle has turned a tiny bit… Evil, in my absence. I’ve been waiting for someone to help me get inside and none of my robots are responding to me. It’s really fascinating, just look,” She picked up the one that she had been inspecting and shoved it into their faces so that they all took an involuntary step back. At the core processor of it, some strange red tumour seemed to be growing, with red veins stretching out from it. “It looks to have been infected with a virus! Oh, this is so amazing, if my theories are right then we are witnessing a magnificent, unstoppable spread of an ancient malign code capable of self-reproducing and transmitting itself to all First Ones tech it comes into contact with! Ha ha ha!” She gave a mad cackle.
All three just looked at Entrapta for a few moments, not sure what to say about all of this. Adora was the first to speak up, “So… Can you shut down your machines, where’s this virus coming from, and who are the First Ones?”
“The First Ones? They were this huge, technologically advanced culture that ruled Etheria a millennia ago. They had mastered both science and magic in ways that we can only dream of.” She looked enraptured at the thought. “Compared to them, most modern technology is nothing. Your sword is First Ones tech,” she seemed to have noticed it for the first time despite Adora having been pointing it at her and got closer to inspect it, against all common sense. “May I inspect it? Touch it? Take it apart to see how it works?”
“Uh, no!” Adora quickly withdrew it out of reach of Entrapta’s “And you didn’t answer the first two questions. Where’s the virus coming from and how do we end this?”
“Oh, the virus? I would need to get closer to be sure but my hypothesis is that it came from First Ones Artifact 58. It contained a remarkable amount of data that I didn’t have the time to properly study before I was taken for the Plumerian research. If you take me inside I’m sure that I could fix this.”
Adora felt Catra tug at her arm to take her away to discuss this among themselves. “Just a moment, Entrapta, and we’ll be right with you.” She and Scorpia followed Catra a few meters away from Entrapta, who went back to tinkering with the bot like they were never there. “So, what should we do about this?”
“Simple. We take her captive, shut down her machines and return to the Fright Zone.”
“I don’t know, wildcat.” Adora hadn’t quite understood why Scorpia had started using a nickname on Catra. “She seems pretty harmless, if we just ask her to help us out I’m sure that we’d be done with this easily.”
“Uh, have you forgotten that she is our enemy? Besides her rampaging machines she’s the one who helped the rebels win at Plumeria, are we just forgetting about that?”
Despite significant reservations about the Princess though, Adora was forced to agree with Scorpia. “She has a point though, Catra. If we can get Entrapta to help us willingly, taking the castle would be much easier. She knows the place better than we do, after all. We can worry about taking her captive later.”
Catra looked a bit grouchy at this, not having forgotten when she was dragged halfway down into the earth thanks to Entrapta’s presence, but didn’t have any real counterarguments to this, so she let the issue go without another word.
“I won’t trust her unreservedly if that’s what you’re worried about. She’s still a Princess.” Adora returned to Entrapta, “We’re willing to help you, Princess of Dryl, provided that you end your attacks upon the Horde and swear to take no further hostile actions against us.”
“Great!” Entrapta got up and began leading them towards the castle, “Just be careful,” she told them while her back was turned towards the castle, facing them instead, “I may have left a bunch of traps around here that will also try to get rid of us.” As she said so, a spike pit was opening behind her, and Adora had to drag her back so that she didn’t walk into it. “Like that one! Good work.”
“Just… Watch where you’re walking, please?”
“Absolutely!” She led them into the courtyard. “Just follow me and I’ll lead you to the lab.”
They followed, against their better judgement, the Princess as she led them into the castle.
Dinner with Castaspella was quite pleasant, even if Perfuma weighed on their minds to a greater or lesser extent. Aunt Casta was quite easy to entertain, Glimmer only had to nod and agree every now and then while she chatted away about how she’d really love to have her over more often, maybe even for training, how she really hoped that Angella would come over and meet her as well one of these days and so on. Glimmer did tune out after a while, focusing on the food instead, when something Castaspella said caught her attention. “... And don’t you worry Glimmer. We’ve had worse cases here. Perfuma will be back in full shape in a month.”
“A month?! Auntie, the Horde are besieging Plumeria right now, we can’t wait a month for Perfuma to get back.”
“Now, dear. I hope that you don’t expect her to go out and fight in her current state. That would only make matters worse. She needs rest.”
“But her people need her. Please, Aunt Casta, is there anything that we can do to help her?”
“Well, I suppose… If you two don’t mind running an errand for me. What do you know about Magicia’s Pitcher?”
“... That it will help Perfuma recover?”
“Well, yes. But aside from that it is a rare flower that grows within the Whispering Woods in places of magical power and its nectar has some remarkable healing properties. It’s said to live on the small balls of light that can be found in parts of the forest, catching them in its pitcher and digesting them.”
“Alright, Aunt Casta. We can do this, right Bow?” This did make Glimmer rather excited, having something to do again, a quest to complete.
“Eh, sure. Just… Do you know where this flower is, Castaspella?”
“If I did, I'd already have gotten some of its nectar. You’ll recognise it based on its blue pitcher. And make sure that you don’t damage the flower in the process. Just take some nectar, if you uproot the flower it will dry up in a minute.”
“Yes, it’s just that… the Whispering Woods are quite large, how will we find it if we don’t know where to look?”
“Ah, of course. Sorry, I’ll try and bring you a map of likely locations, but my suggestion is that you try to look for the golden spheres of light that they seem to feed upon.”
“And if we get it Perfuma will feel better?” Asked Glimmer.
“Oh, much better. It really has some fascinating properties, I could give you a book about it to read from the library.”
“... That won’t be necessary, but thanks, Auntie. We’ll make sure to get it for you, won’t we, Bow?”
“Yeah, just leave it to us and we’ll find it, eventually.”
“Excellent! And do be careful while in the Whispering Woods, won’t you?”
“Of course, Aunt Casta.” Glimmer makes a dismissive gesture with her hand. “We’d never get lost or run into trouble there.”
Unsurprisingly, there continued to be robots around seemingly every corner as the Horde strike force made their way further into Castle Dryl. Entrapta was guiding them through it, with limited success. Catra had been muttering about her treachery at first, but it genuinely seemed that she was as lost as they were in her own abode. Eventually, after they passed by the same painting for the third time, Catra had enough.
“Why did you design this place so confusingly?!”
“Well, I wanted it to be a labyrinth so that I was the only one who could navigate it.”
“The first part of that plan certainly succeeded.” Muttered Catra through gritted teeth.
“Yes… I’m afraid that my electronic map has also gotten infected with this evil virus.”
”Can we just focus?” Asked Adora, who herself had started getting a bit terse out of frustration, “We don’t want our voices to attract any more…” They turned around the corner “... Robots.” She sighed, for there indeed there stood a large group of them, turning their red eyes toward the group. “Alright, that’s it. For the Glory of the Horde!” There was a blinding light as she turned into the taller woman and charged at them. Catra was still not quite used to the changes in Adora, even if she did admit that she liked her hair better this way.
“Should we… Help her?” Asked Scorpia, uncertainly, as they watched Adora tear into the robots in a frenzy.
“Eh, it’s fine, she got this.” Catra shrugged, while Entrapta took out her recorder as she observed the carnage.
“Notable property of the sword is turning the wielder taller. And also glowing.” She turned to the others, “Does she normally do that?”
“Yeah, it’s kind of become her thing now,” Responded Catra, as the last of the robots fell down and Adora turned around to face them. It was then she noticed that Adora now sported red eyes as well, and her sword looked infected by the same corruptive influence that had claimed the robots.
“Uh, Catra?” Said Scorpia, uncertainly. “Is she meant to do that?”
“No…” Adora had begun to run towards them with murder in her eyes, “Run!” Catra turned tail and ran in the other direction as Adora swung her sword at her with enough force to cut deep into the wall. Scorpia had to grab Entrapta as she ran after Catra, the Princess being too focused on studying the effects to realise when to flee.
“So what are we supposed to do?” Asked Scorpia as they ran back the way they came from, Adora tight on their heels.
“I don’t know, I’ll think of something.” She jumped up to the ceiling where Adora couldn’t reach her. “Maybe try to knock her out.”
“But won’t I get into trouble for that?” Even parried by her claw, a hit from Adora forced her back several steps and made her drop Entrapta.
“Fascinating,” Spoke Entrapta, lifting herself up into the air with her hair, before being kicked away by Adora. She didn’t seem to mind, instead speaking into her recorder to make notes out of what was happening.
“Just use your tail! If you’re so afraid of being in trouble, say that it was my idea.” Catra jumps down from the ceiling to pounce on Adora while she had her back to her, causing her to stumble forward. Right towards Scorpia.
“Sorry, Adora. I hope that you won’t be mad at me for this afterwards.” She sent the tail forward, stinging Adora, who crumpled back on the floor, going back to looking like her normal self.
“Think that we’re getting close?” Asked Glimmer as they made their way through the thick forest. Despite her shorter stature she still had to duck under branches every now and then when they strayed from the path.
“Well, probably. We should be in the general vicinity if the map your aunt gave us is right.”
“ How general?”
“... Maybe a mile here or there away.”
Glimmer groaned, “I really don’t want to get lost here again.”
“It’s fine, Glimmer. We’ll find it and we’ll help make Perfuma alright.”
“Yeah…” This did make Glimmer feel better, “And maybe I can talk to her about reforming the Princess Alliance? We need each other, now more than ever.”
“Sure, that sounds like a great idea.” Bow continued to take a supportive tone to keep her spirits up. “I’m sure that your mom will be impressed with your initiative, and it will be a great help to the rebellion.”
Glimmer smiled at that, “We just need to… Wait, is that someone ahead?”
They heard a bit humming in front of them, and moving forward they saw a peculiar sight. An old woman, with purple skin and a long mane of hair, carrying a basket and broom. She didn’t seem to have noticed them yet, and they shared a look between one another before deciding to walk up to her.
“Oh dear me, Mara is that you?” She turned around to look at them, adjusting her glasses. “No… You’re not Mara, are you?”
“Eh… No. Who’s Mara?” Glimmer wondered if Mara might be a daughter of hers.
“Oh but you know Mara, don’t you? I can tell.”
“We actually don’t,” interjected Bow, “Was she supposed to meet you today?”
“Well, no, but she was supposed to meet me… Let’s see...“ She started counting on her fingers, “A while ago. But she is lost, the poor girl, and confused. You’re friends of Mara, could you help me find her?”
“But we don’t know who she is!” Glimmer had begun to suspect that the woman may have become a bit senile from old age.
“Of course you do, silly, you just don’t know it yet.”
“That… Doesn’t make any sense, but okay. Could you start by telling us who she is?” Asked Bow.
“She’s a friend of mine. Was supposed to come and help me pick berries but couldn’t show up. If you see her, will you tell her that Madame Razz is waiting for her?”
“We’ll be sure to. Now what are you doing out here alone in the woods?”
“Oh, but I am not alone, I have Broom, and Loo-Kee. And you two of course.”
“We’re just passing along. How do you know that we’re going in the same direction?”
“Because you are also looking for the nectar, silly boy. Does Razz need to explain everything to you?”
“... How did you know what we were looking for?” Asked Glimmer, who all of a sudden felt far less sure of her previous assessment of the old lady.
“Because you need it, why else? Now come along, we don’t have all day.” She started leading them along, with both Bow and Glimmer looking a bit sheepish as they followed after her. The terrain was difficult, but Razz seemed to know the way and led them through it with purpose. Soon enough they were in a glen where the small golden lights, like disembodied firebugs, that Castaspella had described, were floating. And in that glen, glowing faintly, there was a blue pitcher plant, one that could only be…
“Magicia’s Pitcher.” Said Glimmer, somewhat breathless at the shock of actually having found it.
Scorpia had been carrying the unconscious Adora over her shoulder as the group made their continued way through Entrapta’s castle. She had just begun to stir when Entrapta gave an “Aha!” at having found the right door. “We’re here!”
“Wait, I think that she’s waking up.” Scorpia put Adora down against the wall, while Catra looked over her shoulder. “Sorry, for stinging you, but you left me with no choice.”
Adora blinked as she looked up at them. “Hey guys! What are we doing?”
“We’re… infiltrating Castle Dryl, remember?”
“Ooh, are we like secret spies right now?”
Catra gave Scorpia a look. “Does it normally have this side effect when you sting people?”
“Not that I’m aware.” Scorpia looked concernedly at Adora. “I hope that it’s not permanent.”
“Stop worrying about me, I’ll be fine!” Adora did a very wobbly attempt to stand up, having to be steadied by Scorpia before she collapsed on the floor again. “See? Perfectly fine. I’ll just… What were we doing again?”
Catra sighed and turned to Entrapta. “Let’s just get this done with. Entrapta, open the door.”
As the Princess started pressing the code to it however, a shock went through her. “Oh wow! The door is infected too! I can’t open it. This is incredible.”
This caused Catra to give another sigh and facepalm herself. “Alright, new plan. I’ll take care of Adora. Scorpia, you get that door open.”
“Right on it, wildcat.” Scorpia let go of Adora, who collapsed into Catra’s embrace.
“Hey, Catra.” Adora started to hug her, causing Catra to feel rather awkward all of a sudden. She turned her face away so that the others couldn't see her blushing.
Scorpia meanwhile was sizing up the door. “Alright, here we go.” She charged it and grabbed it with her pincers, trying to rip it loose from the wall. The door gave her a zap like it had with Entrapta, but Scorpia seemed barely bothered by it. The thing was heavy, being made entirely out of metal, but as she strained herself, it broke free, falling backwards from her and into the other room. “Whew! That was tough, but Force Captain Scorpia is ready to do anything!” Then she and the others saw what was inside the room, and her triumph proved short-lived. The entire room was completely covered with the red growth, spreading from the far wall all over the place. It looked like a giant organism had grown to encompass it, with a great glowing heart from which it had expanded. What space was left was crawling with robots.
Entrapta took out her recorder once more, “First Ones Artifact 58 appears to have built a protective shell around itself. Removing it will be more complicated than anticipated. It truly is a marvel of technology.”
“Whatever, how do we fix this?” Catra shook Adora off from herself and put her down, before extending her claws in readiness for the fight ahead.
“Well, you should be able to shut it down by removing the artifact.”
“Right, Scorpia, with me. Let’s destroy these bots, it’s no different from training.”
“Right on it, wildcat.” The two began tearing into the robots, while Entrapta walked up to the growth to take notes and Adora stood up again, walked a few steps, then collapsed and fell asleep.
“How do we even get to it?” Catra jumped around the small mountain of red corruption, trying to find a weakness by which to get to the heart, but to no avail. That was when a massive robot that appeared to have originally been made for cleaning purposes broke through the wall. “Question asked and answered. Scorpia, get Adora and Entrapta out of the way of that thing!” Scorpia did as she was told, allowing Catra to jump down in front of the robot. “Hey, you, ugly!” It roared at her in response. “Yeah, you heard me! What kind of overdesigned piece of junk are you even?” It charged forward towards her but Catra jumped out of the way of it, causing it to crash into the growth. “That’s what I thought!” She was now sitting on top of the red structure. “That’s all that you are good at, crashing.” It repeatedly tried to roll back, then at her again, aiming its appendages at her, but she was just out of reach, causing it to fruitlessly crash into the structure she was on. “You were a failure at cleaning and are now a failure at killing!” She jumped behind it, causing it to roll back further to try and roll over her, only for her to climb up on top of it and land in front of it again. “Come on, big guy! Prove that you’re not completely useless!” It did a final charge at her and as it did she jumped onto it and ripped off its head, causing it to do no slowing down of its momentum, crashing into the thing with enough force to destroy itself and crack open the shell around the data crystal that formed the heart. “Your turn, Scorpia.” Catra sat down on the robot to catch her breath. “Destroy it.”
“Aye, aye.” Scorpia smiled and made her way to the crack, where she used her own strength to force it large enough to allow her through. With a bit of work, she made her way to the data crystal, and there she started hammering at it and forcing it loose with her pincers until it finally broke in half. And everything went back to normal.
Razz hummed to herself as she walked up to the plant and began to gently extract its nectar. “Don’t worry dears. I just need a little bit for Loo-Kee. You know how he is. You can have the rest of this.” She handed over a small bottle of the extract to Glimmer.
“That’s very kind of you, Madame Razz.” She said, quite taken by the old lady’s helpfulness.
“Oh it’s the least I can do for friends of Mara. Do tell her to come and see me when you next meet her, won’t you? She should have been here already.”
“I’m sorry, but we still don’t know anyone called Mara.”
“No?” She looked confusedly at them. “But I could have sworn…” She suddenly cheered up again, “Now, now, don’t you try to play tricks on old Razz. You know Mara, and Mara knows you. Just remember, she’s a kind girl, but she does not understand. You’ll help her, I know you will.”
“Wait, I don’t understand, how-” But the lady was already departing with surprising speed for someone of her age. Glimmer looked at Bow. “Do you know what she was talking about?”
“Maybe Mara is someone she lost in the war and wants back?” He suggested. “Seemed harmless but she probably expected us to bring news about her.”
“Maybe… But how did she know that we were after Magicia’s Pitcher?”
“... Might be from Mystacor and overheard it there?” He didn’t sound sure of the answer himself.
“Well, we’ll just tell this ‘Mara’ that Razz wants to see her when we next meet her. How hard could it be? Now let’s head back, we have what we need and Perfuma is counting on us.” They made their way back through the Whispering Woods, confident that whatever Razz had said probably wasn’t too important, and if it was they’d know what to do with it.
When she woke up again, Adora felt much better. “What happened? Why are we here?” She looked around the place. It seemed to be the lab that they had been searching for and they were surrounded by destroyed or deactivated robots.
Catra approached her, “You went berserk when fighting those robots. Looked like your sword had gotten infected as well. We took care of things in the meantime.”
“That’s… Good.” She got back to her feet. “I didn’t know that the sword could get infected like that.”
“Oh, it’s simple.” Entrapta joined the conversation. “Much like the crystal and my bots, the sword, being First Ones tech, must be vulnerable to the virus. I really have to study this closer to achieve greater understanding.”
“Next time, please make sure that we don’t get an army of killer robots on our hands. Still, I’m glad to have been of help. I guess that not all Princesses are that bad.”
“Oh, I’m not a Princess in the sense of having a runestone that I’m connected to. Not like you.” Entrapta said this casually, but it still made Adora cringe a bit at the underlying suggestion that she was a Princess.
“Well… Like I said, I’m glad to have helped make things right. So if we can just go…”
Catra coughed loudly, “Adora, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Oh, right. So, Entrapta, we were kind of meant to take you back to the Fright Zone when we came here.”
Entrapta looked befuddled at that. “Thank you for the offer but I’d rather stay here where all of my tech is.”
“... The Fright Zone has a lot of technology for you to tinker with if you come with us.”
She considered it for a moment. “But my lab is here, can’t you send it over to me and I’ll experiment with it?”
Both Adora and Catra stared at Entrapta, impressed despite themselves at this remarkable combination of boldness and obliviousness that could go into the suggestion. Then Catra was struck by a thought. “Why of course, Entrapta. If we send it over to you to improve you’ll send it back to us when you’re done, won’t you? We wouldn’t be able to just give it to you, but we could lend it and let you experiment, and then you’ll give it back.”
“Great! Thanks, guys! You’ve really helped a girl out here, and thank you for giving me more to study.”
Scorpia went over to give Entrapta a hug, one which she reciprocated heartily with her hair appendages. “Take care of yourself, and don’t unleash an evil robot army upon everyone again.”
“I’ll make sure not to! Thanks again, you’ve been great friends.”
“That’s what the Horde is all about. Friendship, loyalty, hugs.”
“Yeah, right, can we just get going?” Said Catra. “We’ve done what we needed to.”
“Bye, Entrapta. It was, uh, nice meeting you.” Adora led the group out of the castle, leaving Entrapta to her own devices. “I thought that you wanted us to take her prisoner?” She said to Catra.
“That was before I realised what she could do. Think about it, Adora. Did you see what she had achieved?”
“... An army of murderous robots?”
“Why yes. I want one of those at my side. If she can help us with our own robots…” She smiled, “Then I’m willing to leave her be.”
Adora thought about this. “You want to see if her experiments will be useful to us.”
“Exactly. Maybe nothing comes out of it, but if it does we’ll have more use out of her as an ally than a captive.”
“Not worried that we’re disobeying Shadow Weaver’s command?” Adora’s voice was sarcastic, she did not believe for a moment that she was.
“Well, I could say something about how she didn’t know about the circumstances on the ground, and this is actually in the spirit of her intentions. But you know what? If Shadow Weaver wants us to do it I think that’s a pretty good reason not to do it.”
“Careful, Catra.” Adora laughed. “Don’t say things like that within earshot of others. Shadow Weaver won’t like it.”
“I don’t remember the last thing I did that she liked, I’m beyond caring by now.”
Already, Perfuma was looking much better, sitting upright in her bed when Bow and Glimmer came to visit her with Castaspella to see how she was doing. “How are you feeling?” Asked Glimmer as she entered.
“Much better, the balance of the body has been restored, thanks to you.”
“Plumeria is safe, but the Horde remains on its doorstep. The people need you, Perfuma, they need you to fight for them.”
“I know,” she smiled slightly. “I’ve realised that sometimes I can’t wait for the universe to stop evil. I have to help it along. I will not stand back and expect others to fight for me.”
“That’s great to hear, because I was wondering if you’d like to reform the Princess Alliance with us?”
“Really? I thought that the last one went horribly?”
“Defeat is not a reason to stop fighting. Our parents sacrificed themselves to hold the Horde back, are we to let them continue to destroy our lands without a fight? And if we fight, should we do so alone without the strength of unity? If we give in we trade uncertain victory for certain defeat, and dishonour the memories of those lost in the process.” Glimmer's eyes glowed in her zeal.
“I guess you’re right. Alright, if the Princess Alliance wants Plumeria they shall have it, and me with it!”
“Thank you so much!” Glimmer gave her a hug, before Castaspell pulled her away. Perfuma grimaced a little bit at the pain but looked like she appreciated it nonetheless.
“I don’t suppose that you’re going to invite your dear old aunt as well, Glimmer?”
“Of course, Auntie! If you want to.”
“I do. You’re right. My brother would have been disappointed in me if I let his daughter fight the Horde without my help. If you continue to be so keen to resist them… Well, I could hardly stop you, now could I? And then the only options are to bring the sorcerers of Mystacor to your side or leave you alone. I choose the former.”
Glimmer beamed at them, and gave Castaspella a hug as well, and then Bow for good measure. She felt enthusiastic again, for the first time in a while. There was hope for the Rebellion still, and the false She-Ra of the Horde would be cast down. She would make sure of it.