Chapter Text
The return to Etheria had been met with much fanfare. Their friends, their family, their subjects all met them at Darla’s landing point, a flat grassy plain just north of the Whispering Woods on the border with the Fright Zone. There had been hugs and kisses. Perfuma had raised vines overhead that spread petals of red and purple and yellow above their heads. Mermista and Frosta had collaborated on an ice statue that proudly displayed the heroes of the mission to stop Adam.
Now, hours later, the sun was setting over the flatlands to the west. Scorpia and Perfuma had stolen away to the woods, and were now were sitting atop a giant vine Perfuma had grown underneath them, giving them the best view of the sunset over the trees. It was red and orange over the Fright Zone’s southwestern marshes and the ocean beyond. Scorpia was lying on her side, her head in Perfuma’s lap. Perfuma was playing with Scorpia’s hair, and occasionally brushing against the grain of the buzzcuts on either side of her head. It was a wonderful feeling, and one Scorpia had so desperately missed just over the scant few days they’d been gone.
“I think I’m done with space,” Scorpia said. “I’ve got everything I need right here. And everyone.”
“I feel the same way,” Perfuma said, gently swinging her legs underneath her and feeling the evening breeze blow through her toes. “I’m perfectly fine staying right here with the plants and the flowers, and you, of course.”
Scorpia smiled, and sighed.
Perfuma moved her hand downward and started stroking Scorpia’s cool, solid pincer. When her fingers reached the missing spike, she stopped. “What happened here?” Perfuma said.
Scorpia looked down at her arm. “Oh, that? Yeah, Adora cut it off while that Last Resort thing was controlling her.”
“Oh my!” Perfuma said, pulling her hand away. “Does it hurt? Do you need to see a healer?”
“Nah,” Scorpia said. “That’s all shell. It’ll grow back the next time I molt.”
“Oh,” Perfuma said. “That’s good.”
Perfuma returned to stroking Scorpia’s hair, now leaving tiny flowers wherever her fingers went. After some silence, with only the birds to listen to, Scorpia said, “I can’t believe I finally got to meet my mom.”
“She’s so nice,” Perfuma said. “And she seems super sweet. Just like you.”
Scorpia chuckled. “Guess it’s hereditary.” She paused. “I wish I could meet my other mom too. And my grandparents. But, my mom survived. My people survived. I guess that’s enough.”
“I think so.” Perfuma ran the backs of her fingers down Scorpia’s cheek. “So much bad happened during the war, but so many good things have come after it. I think that’s the universe’s way of rewarding us. Giving us something to be grateful for. So we can move on, and maybe stop the next war before it happens.”
“I hope so,” Scorpia said. “I…” She sighed again. “What almost happened, what we saw there…it scared me. It would’ve been Horde Prime all over again, but it would’ve been Adora doing it.”
“No, it wouldn’t have been Adora,” Perfuma said. “She had this control chip in her head, right? It wouldn’t have been her. It would have been that computer thing controlling her. But she’s free now. You all freed her.”
“Yeah, I guess we did,” Scorpia said. She chuckled. “Guess that makes us even for her saving all of us all those times.”
Perfuma chuckled and then cradled Scorpia’s chin in her palm. “I can’t imagine how hard it was, going through all that. I’m sorry you had to. But - I think there’s no doubt about it now.” She turned Scorpia’s head upward, and leaned down so she was looking directly into her eyes. “You are strong. Not just your body, but your mind. Your spirit. You never gave up, and you saved your friends more than once even when it seemed like it was hopeless. And you know what else? You believed in yourself. That takes the most strength of all.”
Scorpia smiled widely. “You taught me how to do that.”
“And I’m an excellent teacher.” Perfuma returned the smile. Scorpia rolled onto her back and then leaned upward. Perfuma leaned down a little more, and they kissed.
Then, with a sigh, Scorpia settled back into her lap, gazing upward at the woman she loved. “I could sit like this forever,” she said. “Well, I mean, I’d have to eat, and um…other things, but…yeah.”
“This is nice,” Perfuma said. “And we’re going to have lots and lots of days like this.”
Scorpia’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Me getting back off a spaceship?”
Perfuma chuckled. “I mean you and me, silly. Sitting like this, enjoying nature.” She ran her nails gently under Scorpia’s chin. “Enjoying each other.”
The touch made Scorpia tingle all over. But then a thought invaded and her mood fell slightly. “I’m…worried about Adora.”
Perfuma’s smile faltered as well. “So am I,” she said. “But she’s got the best people helping her right now. We just need to give them time. Adora’s got a strong spirit too. She’ll find her way back to us.”
Scorpia sighed, then nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right. She’s tough.” She then went silent.
They sat there for a while longer, until Scorpia finally said, “They’re gonna be expecting me back at Horror Hall pretty soon. Cobalt said the troops have a big welcome back planned.” She chuckled. “I guess the pep talk thing worked.”
“I told you it would,” Perfuma said. “You’ve earned their respect. You’re a great leader, and the Fright Zone is going to be such a wonderful place with you ruling it.”
“I hope so,” Scorpia said. She paused briefly. “The name, though. ‘Fright Zone’. Kinda…scares people off, doesn’t it?”
“Well…” Perfuma said, her voice drawn out. “I mean, the name does have some…not so happy memories. But hasn’t that been the name for generations?”
“Yeah, but…I don’t know, it seems kinda…dark now, you know? I mean, tied to all the fighting and the war and the death.”
“Well what kind of name do you have in mind?” Perfuma said.
“I was thinking something happy, like ‘The Hopelands’.”
“That sounds like a wonderful name,” Perfuma said. “Especially because it really doesn’t look that frightening anymore.”
“And also…that’s the name my moms gave me when I was born.”
Perfuma gasped. “Your birth name is ‘Hope’?”
“Well, it’s…my mom said that’s what the actual name they gave me translates into. I just can’t remember what that was.” She chuckled. “So - yeah. Hope. I kinda like it.”
“I think that’s lovely,” Perfuma said. “And it fits you perfectly.”
Scorpia turned her head so she was gazing up at Perfuma. Perfuma looked back down from the sunset and smiled.
“What?” she said.
“I love you so much, Perfuma,” Scorpia said.
“I love you too, Princess Hope,” Perfuma replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glimmer had been sitting on the throne for a couple hours straight now, Bow at her side, and her father in the other throne. After the celebration at their landing site had dispersed, her subjects had ramped it back up again here at the castle. She looked upon them with a carefully-crafted countenance of regal satisfaction, which did not at all match how she was feeling inside.
It had been a very tiring flight home, after an already exhausting mission, and Glimmer was positively drained. And, yet, it was her duty as the Queen of Bright Moon to celebrate with her subjects, and to show strength and confidence.
She looked up at Bow, seeing her mother’s earring hanging from his right ear. Bow had recovered fairly quickly on the trip home; it seemed those needles delivered some kind of short-term sedative, likely for intruder control.
Bow noticed her looking at him, and smiled at her. She smiled back, and mouthed, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Bow gave a thumbs-up.
Not long after they’d landed, someone had spied Bow conspicuously wearing one of Glimmer’s earrings. They immediately began cheering the marriage of their Queen and future King. It had been the last thing on Glimmer’s mind to announce their engagement, but in a way she was glad they found out. It let them forget, at least for a little while, that they weren’t seeing their hero emerge from the ship before it lifted off and headed for Dryl.
Of course, Glimmer had called her father during the trip home and informed him of their engagement, among other things. Micah was so excited that he’d immediately offered Bow the King’s throne for this celebration. Bow had refused, though. He wanted to follow the Bright Moon tradition of the grand wedding, not for himself or Glimmer but for the people, to give them something to look forward to after the hellish time they’d experienced the day Adam’s had appeared in their skies. So, in exchange, her father settled for a grand celebration in the castle, with any and all citizens of Etheria welcome.
It was packed almost wall to wall, and despite the music and the sound of tapping feet and the cacophony of voices, it had formed a din that, for an exhausted Glimmer, was actually soothing.
She was having an incredibly difficult time keeping her eyes open.
“Hey, Glimmer.” She felt a hand on her shoulder, and realized her head had been drooping. She looked up at Bow. “Maybe it’s time to turn in,” he said.
“I can…I can keep going for a little-” A yawn interrupted her, and she did her best to hide it behind her hand. “A little longer,” she finished. “I’m more worried about you.”
“Glimmer.” She turned to see Micah leaning over toward her. “Go to bed. The celebration will go on just fine while you’re resting. You’ve earned a rest, and your subjects know that.” He glanced up at Bow. “You both have. Especially after all the tales your future husband has already been telling them.”
“Hey, they’re all true,” Bow said. “Mostly. I might’ve…embellished a little, but you really were awesome out there, Glimmer!”
Glimmer closed her eyes, shook her head, and chuckled. And then she took a deep breath and stood.
Courtiers, villagers, and revelers started nudging each other and gesturing to her, and the voices died down quickly.
“I want to thank you all again for welcoming us home,” Glimmer said, engaging her best precision royal diction. “And I also wish to thank you for celebrating with us, the renewed safety of our home. The people of Bright Moon, as always, have shown incredible resilience and resolve in the face of this threat, but that threat is over. So please, celebrate, and enjoy. You have all earned it.”
She straightened her robe around her shoulders. “But I’m afraid I must leave you to celebrate without me.” She paused. “Your future king is fatigued, so he and I shall be retiring to our quarters. But please, continue with joy, and enjoy all we have to offer.” She glanced back to Bow, who took her side and extended his elbow. She clasped it in a hand and they started descending the steps to the ground level.
“Nice dodge,” Bow muttered under his breath.
“A queen never tires,” Glimmer muttered back, echoing something her mother had often told her, though Glimmer was pretty sure it was sarcasm.
The crowd parted for them, and there were cries of thanks, of congratulations, and many other things that followed them until they had reached the stairwell to the royal quarters. The two guards there parted to let them pass, and then resumed position to ensure no partygoers followed.
Once Glimmer was sure they were out of anyone’s earshot, she slid her hand down and clasped Bows. Then she said, “I’m worried about Adora.”
“Yeah, me too,” Bow said.
“I mean…I trust Aunt Casta, and they really do have the best therapists in Mystacor.”
“Yeah,” Bow said. “They’ve helped Catra a lot. She actually talked to me about it not too long ago, before all this…” He waved a hand in the air. “This mess happened.”
“She’ll be okay,” Glimmer said, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself. “She’ll be okay.”
“Of course she will,” Bow said. “She’s got a wedding to come to.” He smiled, and Glimmer smiled back up at him. They stopped, briefly, and kissed. When they separated, they touched their foreheads together.
They stood that way for a long moment, until Bow said, “Glimmer?”
She didn’t answer.
“Glimmer?”
A slight snore was his response.
He sighed, and then scooped her up into his arms. “Goodnight, my love.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adora screamed. It awoke Catra, as they had almost every night since they’d returned. She sat up on the bed, taking Adora’s hand in hers and placing her other hand on Adora’s sweat-soaked face. This was starting to become routine.
“Hey,” Catra said, gazing into Adora’s wide, frightened eyes. She stroked Adora’s cheek with her thumb.
Adora blinked several times. “C-Catra?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Catra said. “We’re safe. We’re in Mystacor.”
“Mystacor?” Adora looked away from Catra and examined the room. They had taken to keeping lights on as they slept, since that seemed to help Adora both calm down enough to sleep, and to more quickly recover from her nightmares.
“I - I…” Adora stuttered. “I saw…burning people. I think…I think I burned those people. And-and you were there, burning, and Glimmer was burning, and Bow-“
“Hey, hey, hey,” Catra said. She made Adora look into her eyes. “I’m here. Glimmer and Bow are safe in Bright Moon. That was a nightmare you had. It didn’t really happen.”
“It…it didn’t?” Adora said.
Catra leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “You’re a good person. You would never hurt people like that.”
“But…but I wanted to…” Adora said. She was shivering, and tears were running from her eyes. “I… wanted to do it…”
“Let’s go take a walk,” Catra said. She slid off the bed, never letting go of Adora’s hand, and stood. She offered Adora her other hand. Adora accepted it and Catra gently helped her to a standing position. Catra then reached to the wall, grabbed a pair of robes for them, and helped Adora put on hers.
“How about we go to the gardens?” Catra said as she fastened her own robe.
“Okay,” Adora said, meekly.
“Don’t forget your slippers,” Catra said.
Adora looked down at her bare feet. “Oh. Oh, right.” She glanced around for the slippers, and upon finding them, slid her feet into them.
“Okay, let’s go,” Catra said.
She led Adora, slowly at first, out of their suite and into the hall beyond. The ceilings were high, as in many other places in Mystacor. Catra found it unsettling, with so much exposure, but Adora didn’t seem to mind it. Being cooped up in the ship for so long probably helped with that.
The gardens weren’t too far away, but enough so that they’d have a few minutes’ walk in the starry, dewy early morning. Once they left the dorm building, Adora looked up. “Stars,” she said.
“Yeah,” Catra said.
“I like the stars,” Adora said.
“Me too.”
Practically nobody was out and about at this hour. This was the perfect time to avoid people smothering Adora with welcome and praise. And also to avoid the ones who gave Catra dirty looks.
The latter didn’t really bother her much anymore, but avoiding the former seemed to help Adora reduce the frequency of her anxiety attacks.
At the gardens they found a bench and sat. Adora leaned onto Catra’s shoulder, and Catra wrapped an arm around her, stroking Adora’s arm.
“You’re safe,” Catra said. “You’re safe. And you’re loved.”
This was something Adora’s therapist had suggested to her their second night here, when Catra had no understanding of what was happening to Adora, nor what she could do about it. Reassurances were good, but physical touch was an essential companion to them.
“I don’t like being like this,” Adora said.
“Like what?” Catra said.
“Scared. All the time. But I keep seeing these…these things, and sometimes I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.”
“Remember what the therapist said about it,” Catra said. “You’ve got post-… uh, PTSD. Your body is over-reacting because it thinks it has to fight those things, to stop them from happening.”
“But it’s not…why can’t I tell what’s real and what’s not?”
“Because that bitch of a hologram tried to reprogram your brain,” Catra said. “And your brain’s trying to re-learn everything.”
Adora sighed. “It shouldn’t be this hard.”
“Hey, you’re tough,” Catra placed fingers under Adora’s chin and tilted it upward. “You’ll get through this and be your regular old idiot self soon enough.” Adora laughed at that. “Besides,” Catra added, “if therapy works on me, it’ll definitely work on you.”
They gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment, and then touched foreheads.
“Thank you,” Adora said. “For coming back for me.”
“You’d do the same for me,” Catra said.
They sat like that for a long while, as the breeze whistled through the flowers and shrubs, the crickets chittering away from their perches, all providing the perfect serenade for them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Entrapta took Hordak’s hand. “Okay,” she said. “Trial number 4B. Are you ready?”
“I am,” Hordak said. Although anxiety was not in his nature, he was beginning to feel it now. This was the fourth attempt, using the data gleaned from the First Ones’ cloning chambers, to try to enhance the regeneration technology from Horde Prime’s ship. Entrapta had been trying to engineer it so it could pinpoint the specific genetic anomaly in his body and correct it. As with the others, it had worked on cells in a breeding dish, but the earlier results had not translated to an entire living body.
The new machines Entrapta had created for him were remarkable. They fit within the hover chair he’d had to use when they first departed Etheria, and they did a remarkable job of maintaining his endocrine system enough so that he was lucid most of the time. However, his physical strength was essentially gone. He could barely lift his arms, and was unable to sit up from a reclined position without assistance. He knew his time was growing very short, and that he may not have enough time left for many more attempts. And yet, that did not worry him as much as the thought of how failure would affect Entrapta.
She embraced failure in her scientific pursuits, but failure in this case would take him from her. Would she blame herself? Would she return to being alone in her castle? How long would she mourn?
“Okay,” Entrapta said, shaking Hordak out of his thoughts. She touched the end of his finger with a small device, breaking the skin and causing a drop of his blue blood to ooze out. She then took a pipette, drew up the blood, and examined it briefly before depositing the blood onto the white strip she was holding with one of her hair appendages. She then slid the strip into another device and watched the tiny screen as it lit up and several numbers appeared.
She picked up her tablet with yet another appendage and started punching the numbers in. “Copper oxide,” she muttered as she entered one number. “Ammonium carbonate…bursic acid…” She muttered a couple more chemical compounds, and then held the tablet up.
She gasped.
“Entrapta?” Hordak said.
“It’s…I think 4B is working,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. She turned the tablet so he could see it. “Toxin levels are holding steady from the control sample, and your copper levels are going up! You’re making more blood cells again!”
“In…incredible,” Hordak said.
“I mean, this is just the first step,” Entrapta said. “We still have to figure out how to control the chirality of the isomers and get around the oxidation problem with the aluminum particulates…but it’s progress!” She threw her arms around Hordak and then kissed him firmly on the lips.
Hordak could feel her excitement. He shared it. Where before he had resigned himself to death, he now had a chance at a longer life. A longer life with Entrapta, the first to have ever shown him love, and who had taught him how to feel it.
He slowly raised his arms and slid them up Entrapta’s back, using all his strength so he could return her embrace. He was not able to hold her anywhere near as tightly as she was holding him, but just the fact that he could do it at all was gratifying.
Entrapta broke the kiss and hugged him even more tightly, her head on his shoulder. And then she started to shake, and then sob.
“Entrapta?” Hordak said. “Are you…are you all right?”
“Yes,” Entrapta said between sobs. “I’m just…I’m just so happy! We’re gonna be able to save your life!”
Hordak closed his eyes. “I am happy as well. Happy that I will have more time with you.”
They stayed like that for a few minutes before Entrapta pulled away. “All right, partner!” she said. “Let’s do some science!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere, on a distant planet…
A swarm of small creatures hopped across a grassy plain. They made their way to a carcass, already stripped of its largest chunks of meat, but still rife with the tiny morsels they were interested in. They hopped into and around the carcass and used long antennae to pull away those tiny morsels, and deposit them into a mouth centered between three eyes. They made clicking noises as their springlike legs snapped with each hop. They were happy. They were eating well.
Until they stopped. All raised their heads in unison, heads and eyes turning in all directions. A noise, a whine, growing louder. They immediately abandoned their feast and fled for their burrows underneath a collection of squat, broadleaf bushes.
The noise became deafening, and was followed by a dark shadow from above, blocking the light of the midday sun. The shadow grew, and as the tiny creatures watched from their burrows, a massive object lowered slowly from above, angular and with smoke rising from various points on its shell.
The object landed on their feast, crushing and grinding it into the ground. The creatures didn’t care, though. They were more enthralled by this new thing that had appeared in their lives.
There was a loud hiss, and a ramp lowered from the front of the ship to the ground. After a moment, a lone figure in green descended the ramp, footsteps hard on the solid metal ramp.
Adam peeked out from under the ship’s hatch. He drew in a deep breath and let it out. With a nod, he descended the rest of the way and stepped onto the grass.
He definitely felt heavier than usual. The ship’s computer had registered a gravity level of 125% of standard, which would take some getting used to but wouldn’t be terribly dangerous.
There was a good blend of atmospheric gases, the planet was temperate, and it was teeming with carbon-based life. He smiled. This would be the perfect place.
“Adam?” He glanced back up the ramp. Three figures were standing there, all in green fatigues that matched his own. One was a woman with dark hair and skin, another with fair skin and blonde hair, and a man who could have been his twin.
Was his twin.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Come on down. Just be ready for the-”
There was a thump as the blonde woman’s foot slipped out from underneath her and she landed on her backside on the ramp, sliding the rest of the way down to the ground. The other two laughed, and then the one who had fallen laughed with them.
“Gravity’s a bit higher here than on the ship, so be careful.” Adam said. He walked over to the blonde woman and held out a hand. “You okay, Gelessa?”
“Yes,” the blonde woman said, and she let Adam help her to her feet.
“We’ll want to turn off the ship’s gravity field before we wake up your brothers and sisters,” Adam said. “Get them used to it on the ship before they come down here.”
“Wow,” the dark-haired woman said. “So…different.”
“Yeah,” Adam said. “A lot different from what you had back on Crelus. So many more colors.”
“Colors,” the dark-haired woman said. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” Adam said. “It’s beautiful.”
“Bootiful,” the blonde man said.
“Beautiful,” Adam corrected. “Keep practicing, you’ll get it.”
“B-bee…bee-yoo-ootiful,” the blonde man attempted.
“That’s it,” Adam said.
“Adam?” He turned to Gelessa. She was holding up a tiny flower she had apparently picked from the ground. “What’s this?”
“That’s a flower,” Adam said. “There’s lots of those here, looks like.”
“Bee-you-ootiful,” Gelessa said.
Adam smiled. “Yeah. Yeah it is.”
“What…what do we do here?” the dark-haired woman asked.
Adam surveyed around them. “First thing will be to build some shelter. We’ll have to try out a few different things to see what will work. With the heavy gravity, though, I’m hoping whatever wood we find will be plenty tough enough. Next we’ll have to figure out what we can eat and what we can’t. After that, we need to figure out how to make clothes, because I don’t have 20 sets of fatigues on the ship.”
As the three clones wandered about the landing site, Adam could not help but smile. But then he thought about all the ones he couldn’t rescue. Hundreds and hundreds. All incinerated with the facility. He reflected on how he had almost decided to let himself be incinerated too, but looking at these three, his brother and sisters, essentially, he felt like he made the right choice.
For the first time in his life, he felt like he had done something good. Not being asked to do it, not being forced to. He just did it, because he wanted to.
Maybe I don’t have to be a monster after all, he thought. And then when he looked at Gelessa, who was identical in appearance to the experiment - to Adora - aside from her much shorter hair, he felt another pang. All the animosity toward Adora, all the rage…he didn’t feel it anymore. He didn’t feel it, because he finally understood. She said “no” to her destiny, and she broke free of it, not out of malice or spite toward her origins, but out of love for her planet. For her people. For her friends.
Having friends was never a luxury Adam had been afforded before. He’d had servants, attendants, teachers…but no friends. Those were all gone now. No more empire, no more royalty. No more pretenses, or destiny. Just the here and the now, and the future he could make of it.
The future he could make with the help of his new siblings.
And then he thought again of Adora. Adora, the sister he never had. He looked up into the sky. He had no idea where Etheria was. He didn’t really want to know. All he could do was hope that Adora and her friends arrived home, safely, and that Adora was all right after what Last Resort - his mother, had done to her.
Good luck, my sister, Adam thought. And thank you.
THE END