WARRIORS

Chapters

We feel the evil coming
And shadows all around
Danger surrounds us, but won't bring us down
We're on the edge of greatness

We feel the evil coming

On the mystical and mysterious planet of Etheria, another beautiful morning was about to begin. The big bright sun had begun to rise in the east, the birds were chirping with excitement, and there was a light soothing breeze in the air. Needless to say, it was a truly peaceful period of time for everyone currently residing on the planet.

Well, ALMOST everyone currently residing on the planet.

Making their way through the Whispering Woods was a band of thugs led by Catra, a ferocious feline warrior and a Force Captain under the service of an oppressive intergalactic empire known as the Horde. She was accompanied by a humanoid goat, a four-armed humanoid lizard, and Catra's partner and fellow Force Captain, Scorpia, a normal human equipped with a scorpion-like exoskeleton. All four of them were headed towards the Horde's base of operations in Etheria, known as the Fright Zone, while also transporting a gagged prisoner with bound hands named, Adora, a Horde deserter and the latest reincarnation of the protector of all Etheria, named "She-Ra".

As they continued to walk towards their destination, they started pondering on both what had happened in the past few days and what would happen once they would reach Fright Zone. Catra could not wait for their arrival as, in that moment, she wanted nothing more than making Adora suffer by giving She-Ra's sword to the Horde's leader, Hordak, so that he could use it to open a portal and bring the rest of the Horde forces to Etheria, allowing both him and Catra to conquer the entire planet and eliminate every single one of Adora's friends in the Rebellion. Even though Catra and Adora used to have a strong friendship since childhood, Catra had recently become very enraged by Adora leaving her in Fright Zone all by herself, her constantly preventing Catra from achieving her true potential by beating her at everything, and most recently, their former commanding officer and mother figure Shadow Weaver leaving Fright Zone to find Adora and thus, causing Hordak to severely punish Catra for it. As a result, Catra had simply no semblance of love for Adora at that point and all she wanted to do was to to return all the pain Adora had caused her whether it was intentional or not.

As for Adora herself, she was extremely afraid of what could happen when the Horde would manage to open a portal. Before being captured by Catra's crew, she had listened to an ominous message left behind by her predecessor, Mara, which explained that death and destruction would follow if the sword is ever used to open portals. While she did not quite understand what exactly Mara meant to say with that message, she was thinking that it could be a warning about the Horde using a portal to send the entirety of its army to Etheria in order to conquer the whole planet, kickstarting global devastation in the process. Therefore, she was feeling even more guilty than before about causing the huge rift between herself and Catra, and the fact that Catra was willing to commit such a huge atrocity to the entire world due to her thirst for vengeance was making Adora question whether or not she was really worthy of bearing the title of She-Ra.

Meanwhile, Scorpia was actually conflicted about her and Catra returning to Fright Zone. The few days they had spent in the vast desert known as the Crimson Waste fighting thugs, forming their own gang, and throwing a party for their victory against Adora was the only time she had seen Catra genuinely happy. The fact that they were leaving all of that behind and going back to a place where Catra was constantly abused by both her peers and superiors was really making Scorpia concerned about her friend's mental state. Even though Catra had said numerous times that she did not consider Scorpia as a true friend, it did not really matter to Scorpia all that much. She was greatly enjoying Catra's company and was trying very hard to be closer to her. In fact, she had pleaded with her to let them stay in the Crimson Waste with their gang so that both of them could be happy there for the rest of their days. However, since Catra was so obsessed with getting her revenge on Adora, Scorpia was forced to follow her back to Fright Zone and despite her being saddened by this turn of events, she still wanted to keep Catra out of harm's way however she could.

By the time the sun was halfway to its peak, the band had arrived to the very edge Whispering Woods and were almost at the borders of Fright Zone. Then, as they finally got out of the forest, they suddenly encountered a sight none of them were ever expecting to see.

The entirety of the base was covered in a thick wax-like substance and there were several large objects resembling cocoons attached to each building. By far, the most heavily affected structure appeared to be the main operations building and on top of all that, there seemed to be strange winged creatures perched up on rooftops and flying around the cocoons. While the band could not exactly make out what these things were from a distance, they did see that the creatures were rapidly flapping their wings like bees and that their bodies looked like that of small horses.

Gazing at all this insanity had caused the jaws of Catra, her followers, and even Adora to instantly drop. It was extremely hard for them to comprehend what was going on and all five of them were struggling to come up with theories on what might have caused all that. A handful of seconds later, however, Catra did come up with a theory and, unsurprisingly, it had something to do with her rivalry with Adora.

So, while Adora was held by Scorpia's claws, she shot a fierce look at her former friend, removed the gag on her mouth, and exclaimed, "Start talking! What are those things? Did you send them to attack Fright Zone while you were snooping around in the Crimson Waste?"

"What? What are you talking about? I've never seen such creatures in my whole life", Adora confusedly replied.

However, this just made Catra even angrier and she grabbed Adora's throat before shouting, "Don't you dare lie to me! How am I supposed to know they're not some kind of First Ones monsters you found in another temple and unleashed them to wreak havoc on the base, huh? I still remember those bugs in the temple we found in the middle of Whispering Woods, you know."

"Um, Catra? You told me those were large spiders and technically, spiders aren't bugs. They're arachnids", Scorpia suddenly interjected. "Also, while I haven't known Adora for as long as you have, I don't really think unleashing bugs or any kind of monster on the Horde is something she would normally do."

Though she was initially bewildered at her partner defending Adora like that, Catra did think on her words and eventually came to the realization that they were true after all. Therefore, she let out a deep breath, released Adora's throat, and said, "You're right. This isn't Adora's style at all. With that said, we still have no idea what those things are and how they managed to take over the entire Fright Zone while we were away. I guess we need to find out the old fashioned way."

Upon hearing that, the other two members of the band looked at each other with immense shock before the humanoid goat asked, "Boss Catra? Are we seriously walking into that place? I'm not questioning you or anything, but how do we know those creatures won't attack us as soon as they see us?"

In response, Catra let out an irritated sigh and declared, "Just follow my lead and don't make any sudden moves or loud noises. These things are animals and an animal only attacks when it's provoked. You got that?"

Both goons nodded in approval and began following Catra as soon as she started to walk towards the now-infested Fright Zone. As for Adora and Scorpia, they briefly gave unsure expressions to one another before rejoining the group on their new quest. They continued walking until they reached the perimeter of the base and quickly looked around to see if the road ahead was safe to cross. To their surprise, there was not a single creature on sight and even the ones that were flying around the structures a few minutes ago had mysteriously disappeared.

The band nevertheless decided not to lower their guard and started moving with caution towards the main operations building while continuously looking around to both examine the damage the creatures had caused to Fright Zone and see whether or not they were still lurking in the shadows. Even though none of them were in sight, Catra could still feel their presence around every corner due to her feline nature granting her senses of smell and hearing far superior to an average human. Despite this, she continued to move as quietly as possible so that she would not attract any unwanted attention or provoke the creatures into attacking her group. As for the others, they were trying their best to walk as stealthily as her, though it was quite challenging. The humanoid lizard even accidentally kicked a tin can, which caused the rest of the group to immediately stop moving and look around for a short while with immense terror before letting out deep sighs, briefly glaring at the lizard, and continuing onwards.

Several minutes later, they finally reached the main operations building, made their way inside a large hall, and quickly saw that the situation there was just as creepy and disgusting as it was outside. The wax-like substance had spread to every single one of the walls and, upon closer inspection, the group, to their absolute shock, discovered that each of the cocoons (which were also on both the ceiling and the floor of the building) were, in fact, occupied by an unconscious Horde soldier. While her companions continued to gaze at this horrifying sight before them, Scoria noticed a certain young woman trapped inside a nearby cocoon. She had olive skin, long lilac-colored hair, heavy gloves, steel-toed boots, arm covers, a welding mask with red lenses, and a pair of overalls worn like pants.

As soon as Scorpia realized who that was, she dropped Adora to the ground, and rushed towards the cocoon while shouting, "Entrapta! Just hang in there, okay? I'll get you out of there!"

Unfortunately, the moment she tried use open the cocoon with her claws, the ceiling lit up with dozens of blue lights and each one of them turned out to be the eyes of a creature as a large swarm of them rapidly descended upon the group and pinned them to the ground. Even though Catra lasted the longest and put up a short fight, she was nevertheless subdued like her companions.

While they were held captive by the creatures, the group managed to get a good look at just how disturbing their appearance really was. Every single one of them had moderate arctic blue eyes, dark arctic bluish grey neck fins, sea greenish black chitins, and dark blue carapaces. On top of all that, each of their mouths had a pair of white razor-sharp fangs, there was a single curved black horn on each head, their legs were full of holes, and as they violently hissed at their captives, their tongues appeared to be similar to that of a snake.

As the band unsuccessfully attempted to escape from their predicament, their captors suddenly became silent upon noticing the arrival of a creature with a slightly different appearance. Unlike the others, this creature had moderate blue violet eyes, deep crimson neck fin, very dark grey chitin, and dark violet carapaces.

As soon as he landed near the prisoners, he asked with a gruff voice, "What in blazes is going on here? Her excellency is greatly disturbed by the commotion here and demands to know the reason behind it."

Then, one of the creatures stepped forward and explained, "Apologies, General Pharynx. We caught these Horde soldiers trying to free their comrades. At first, we chose not to attack them, because we thought they had come to surrender. In fact, one of them has her hands bound by a rope. Turns out, it was all a ruse to get inside the hive and make a rescue attempt."

Upon hearing all this, Pharynx briefly examined the prisoners before looking back at the soldier and replying, "I see. Take them to the throne room, then. Queen Chrysalis would like to see them before she passes judgement."

The soldier responded with a nod and gestured at his peers to get the prisoners up. They immediately did so and right after that, they started pushing them towards the corridor that was leading to the chamber where Lord Hordak's throne and laboratory were supposed to be. However, once they reached that chamber, they found out that the throne had been completely changed and that something that was not resembling Hordak at all was sitting on it.

She looked similar to Pharynx and the other creatures, and yet, she was much larger than all of them and had some very distinct features. Her eyes were moderate harlequin with dark grayish opal pupils, her mane was dark cerulean, her chitin was very dark grey, her carapaces were gradient from dark arctic blue to moderate green, and her eyeshadow was very deep opal. Moreover, her horn was longer and less curved than the others, and her mouth contained four fangs instead of two.

The moment she laid eyes on the prisoners brought before her by her minions, a wicked smile appeared on her face and she asked, "Well, well, well... Now, what do we have here?"

"Trespassers, my queen", Pharynx replied while he and the other soldiers were bowing before her. "They were caught trying to rescue their friends in the feeding area."

Then, Chrysalis let out a laugh that sounded so sadistic that Adora and Catra gave each other horrified expressions, both of them really afraid of what was in store for them in the near future.

And shadows all around

As soon as Chrysalis finished laughing, she flew towards her guests and landed right in front of them.

She then said with a rather condescending tone, "Horde soldiers tresspassing into my kingdom pretending to have come to surrender to us in an attempt to rescue their captured comrades? Why, this is one of the most ridiculous scenarios I have ever heard! I know the Horde's tactics all too well. During our battle with them, they tried to use every little trick they could think of and sent every last soldier they could spare to their demise no matter how dishonorable those actions were. If these creatures before me were really Horde soldiers, they would've tried to tresspass into here with the intention of ending my life, not to save a bunch of prisoners. So, the question is, what exactly are they?"

"To be honest, I haven't the slightest clue, your highness", Pharynx commented. "I mean, some of them are wearing the Horde insignıa, but it could be possible that they stole those badges from the actual Horde soldiers that they've taken down. With that said, it doesn't really matter whether they're allied with the Horde or not, does it?"

Chrysalis thought about that question for a few moments before replying, "No, I suppose not. The fact still remains that they're tresspassers and they shall receive severe punishment for this crime. But, before that can happen, I must check to see if they have any amount of love inside them. After all, we need every single ounce that we can find in order to ensure the survival of the hive. Wouldn't you agree, general?"

"Of course, your highness. Please, don't let me interrupt you in any way", promptly said Pharynx before taking a bow in front of Chrysalis and starting to hover in the air, allowing his queen to examine the captives more carefully. She decided to do the processing from right to left, walked right towards the humanoid goat and the humanoid lizard, moved her head closer to theirs, and began to gaze directly at their utterly terrified eyes.

A short while later, she turned to half a dozen of her soldiers standing behind the prisoners and announced, "I can't sense a single amount of love inside these two. Bring them to the execution chamber and I'll deal with them later."

The soldiers bowed before the queen and started dragging the captives towards the corridor that they had originally been brought from despite how much they struggled and how loudly they screamed. Soon enough, they disappeared from sight and the remaining prisoners were left with horrified expressions on their faces from watching it all happen.

Then, Chrysalis started to closely examine Scorpia the same exact why she had examined her teammates. A hanfdful of seconds later, she declared, "Well, you do have some love inside you, it's really your armor that's fascinating to behold. Therefore, while I won't execute you or drain your love, I will tear that armor off your body and see if I can use it to further strengthen my legions."

While Scorpia was left creeped out by that remark, Chrysalis moved towards Catra who was giving defiant looks at the Changeling queen. However, Chrysalis was rather amused by this sight and began caressing Catra's cheek with one of her hooves while saying, "Awww... Look how cute you are! Even if you don't have any love inside you, you'd make an excellent pet. What's your name, sweetie?"

Upon hearing that, Catra tried to bite Chrysalis' hoof, but she pulled it back just in time before letting out a sadistic giggle. Then, she moved on to Adora, but when she tried to examine her, something very peculiar happened. Her eyes widened in shock, her mouth started watering up, and she began to feel so dizzy all of a sudden that she could not help but lose her balance and fall to the floor.

As two of her minions rushed to her aid and began helping her get back up on her hooves, she managed to say, "So much love... All for one individual? How could this be?! It's as if she is cherished by every single citizen from all the kingdoms."

Right after that, Pharynx landed right beside her and explained, "She must be either a princess or a hero in order to possess that much love. She could even be both of those things. Do you realize what this means, my queen? We have found the motherload. Just imagine how strong our people could become once all that love is extracted and then consumed."

Chrysalis took a moment to consider everthing that Pharynx had just said before an extremely wicked smile appeared on her face. She then turned towards her subjects and excitedly announced, "Yes! YES! The means of feeding the entirety of the hive and making all of us strong enough to conquer every single one of the kingdoms is finally MINE! This sad pathetic little planet will soon hear my name and TREMBLE BY THE MERE MENTION OF IT!"

As soon as she said all that, the entire room was filled with the sounds of several dozen Changelings happily cheering for this wonderful news. While Chrysalis herself was gazing at this sight with pure delight, her remaining prisoners were just becoming more and more agitated with each second. Shortly afterwards, the Changeling queen pointed right towards Adora and shouted, "Take her immediately to the feeding area! I cannot wait to see how delicious all that love really tastes!"

Upon hearing that order, a handful of her minions quickly grabbed Adora, and began dragging her back towards the chamber that she and the others were previously captured in. However, they and everyone else in the room were suddenly startled by sounds of fighting and explosions that were coming from the corridor leading to the feeding area.

"What is going on NOW?! MORE tresspassers?!", furiously asked Chrysalis. "UGH! Very well, then. Stay here and keep watch over the prisoners, general. I shall deal with this new nuisance myself."

Pharynx gave her a salute and she flew towards the entrance to the corridor before landing right in front of it and lighting up her horn in order to prepare herself any oncoming intruder. Then, after several seconds of waiting and standing guard, not just one but two intruders arrived at the same time by teleporting before here. One of them was a short stocky girl, sporting a messy chopped bob hairstyle that is pastel pink on top and sparkling purple underneath. She had thick, bushy hair, and bangs that curled up, which she wore parted down the left. She also had thick sideburns and thick, curved eyebrows, tanned skin, and pink eyes with long eyelashes.

As for clothing, she was wearing a dark purple, sleeveless leotard, which stopped at her mid-thigh, and laid underneath a light purple tunic with a blue diamond clasp. She also wore matching purple boots with white moons on the front and soles, light blue wings on each side, and multiple light blue points. Moreover, she had light blue fingerless gloves, a long white glove on her left arm, and a sparkling blue cape shaped like wings, attached to a circular plate on her left shoulder.

In stark contrast, her companion was a lot taller than her, was concealing her face with red mask, and had long and flowing black hair that flowed after her like a sinister shadow. She was also cloaked in a maroon dress with dark red and pink details that has a sleeve on her right arm.

As soon as both of them appeared, Adora happily exclaimed, "Glimmer!", right before Catra asked with both anger and confusion, "Shadow Weaver?!"

Then, Glimmer shouted, "Adora, just hang in there! We'll get you out of there in no time!"

This caused Chrysalis to growl like a wild animal and say, "FOOLISH CHILD! If you and your accomplice wish to get to them, you'll have to first get past me, the almighty queen of all Changelings!"

"Challenge accepted", replied Shadow Weaver. "Now, Glimmer, show her what you and I can do."

Glimmer nodded with determination and sent half a dozen photon blasts towards Chrysalis with her hands. Unfortunately, the Changeling queen created a dome-shaped shield around her with her magic and casually deflected every single one of the blasts. She then made the shield disappear and fired a huge beam of magic right towards her attackers before they teleported away just before they could be hit. Afterwards, they reappeared behind Chrysalis and managed to strike her in the head with a photon blast, even though it did little more than irritate her. She attempted to destroy them with another magic beam, but she teleported away again, reappeared beside her, hit her in the head with a photon blast, and the whole sequence started all over again.

This continued in a loop for more than a few times until Chrysalis became so furious that she yelled in pure rage and created a gigantic shock wave of magic so powerful that it knocked down both Glimmer and Shadow Weaver right after they had just reappeared behind her once again. As they struggled very hard to get back on their feet, Shadow Weaver commented, "Incredible power... I have never seen anything quite like it."

Chrysalis responded by first snickering and then explaining, "I'm glad you're impressed. Honestly, I even managed to impress myself with this attack. My magic was never this strong before I came to your world. I guess feeding on the love of both Plumeria's citizens and its weakling princess has given me more power than I had anticipated."

Upon hearing that, both Adora and Glimmer gasped in utter horror, before a tearful and enraged Adora yelled, "YOU HORRIBLE MONSTER! What have you done to Perfuma and her people?!"

In response, Chrysalis turned towards her, let out a loud maniacal laughter, and revealed, "Oh, nothing really. They weren't exactly competent fighters, so my troops and I conquered their kingdom without much trouble shortly after we arrived to this world. Then, we drained all the love inside them and, as a result, we grew so strong that we were able to defeat the Horde in mere hours. As you can see, their former headquarters is now our new hive and soon, all the remaining kingdoms will share the same fate as Plumeria!"

She continued to laugh maniacally for several seconds until she was hit in the face by an arrow that exploded upon impact and blurred her vision for a while. When Adora, Glimmer, and Shadow Weaver looked at the direction that arrow had traveled from, they saw a tall young man with a darker complexion, curly dark brown hair in an Afro buzz hairstyle, and black eyes. He was wearing blue pants, a brown belt, a matching golden buckle, a silver armor under a small golden cuirass (a form of armor that includes the breastplate and the back piece) embellished with a red heart which exposed his midriff. On his left arm, he wore a golden spaulder (a metal sleeve) on his shoulder, which was attached to the cuirass, and a golden forearm guard.

He also had a quiver of arrows is attached to his back, which was both brown and gold. His boots were nearly knee-high but designed into a 'V' shape at the front and on the sole of the boots was a heart, so that he leaves a heart imprint wherever he walks. At the tail of the heart above the laces of his boots were two stitches leading to the toe. The heels were golden, along with the soles and the toes.

Even though his entire body was covered in cuts and bruises, he was still holding his bow with a firm grasp and shooting at the nearby Changelings with a determined expression on his face, even succeeding in knocking out Pharynx with one hit to the head. When Adora and Glimmer noticed him, both of them immediately exclaimed with great excitement, "BOW!"

He then looked at Glimmer and announced, "Glimmer, come on! Grab Adora and let's get out of here! The others won't last much longer!"

"Got it!", replied Glimmer and after holding Shadow Weaver's hand, they both teleported right beside Adora.

However, as they were about to grab her and teleport her out of there, Adora said, "No, wait. We can't just leave Catra and Scorpia here. We need to need to get them out of here too."

"WHAT?! You can't be serious!", Glimmer blurted out. "They're with the Horde, remember? They're the ones who brought you here in the first place."

"I don't care!", retorted Adora. "If they stay here, they'll die!"

"Can we please make a decision as soon as possible?!", Bow interjected as he came over to their side. "Our friends are getting a serious beating back there and I'm not sure how much longer they can keep fighting. Plus, I think the queen is about to regain his vision soon and when that happens, WE'RE TOAST!"

Bow had made a correct assumption and Chrysalis' vision was about to return to her. In fact, she was able to make out the shapes of Bow, Glimmer, and Shadow Weaver, and had started charging up her horn with the intention of striking them all down once and for all. When Adora saw that, she grabbed on to Glimmer and extended her hand to Catra, who was initially very reluctant to take it. Then, she took a few moments to consider her options and even looked at Scorpia who gave her a nod of approval. Consequently, she took Adora's hand, Scorpia held on to Catra before all six of them were teleported out of the room. Even though Chrysalis attempted to shoot a beam of magic at them, she missed her shot just as the teleportation occured."

As a result, she became so enraged that she loudly screamed towards the ceiling. This caused the Changelings in the room (including Pharynx) to start waking up and get back on their hooves. When Chrysalis noticed that, she loudly exclaimed at them, "SPREAD OUT! FIND THEM! BRING BACK THE BLONDE ONE ALIVE!"

A legitimately frightened Pharynx quickly bowed before her and declared, "Yes, of course, your highness! At once!"

He and several soldiers immediately began to fly through the corridor and began searching the entire hive for any traces of the captives and any clues in regards to where they could have gone to. Meanwhile, Chrysalis started pacing back and forth inside the throne room, taking deep breaths in order to calm herself, and thinking out loud, "They think themselves so smart! They think they can get away from me so easily! Well, they'll soon realize just how wrong they are! I'll hunt them all down, drain that girl's love, and use it to conquer every inch of this world! Then, they'll finally understand why I am the one true queen here!"

Danger surrounds us, but won't bring us down

Some moments after they teleported out of Chrysalis' throne room, the group collected their remaining members who were fighting entire hordes of Changelings in the feeding area. Immediately afterwards, they all instantly teleported right outside the royal palace in Bright Moon.

One of the said members was Princess Mermista of Salineas, a dark-skinned girl with a thicker body type, black-painted nails, brown eyes, and deep teal hair with a pattern that had a close resemblance to a wave, referencing her powers and kingdom. She was wearing a tracksuit with teal and turquoise scales and a gold collar, gold and turquoise pauldrons, golden bracelets, golden ear cuffs, and gold, teal, turquoise, and blue high-top sneakers.

Another member was Seahawk, Mermista's eccentric ally and companion. He was a fair, well-built man with dark burgundy tousled hair (held back by a black headband), black eyes, and a "naturally shiny" handlebar mustache. He wore a white shirt with a square collar and a triangular cutout, a red neckerchief, a blue jacket with gold accents, brown bracers with gold accents, dark grey pants, a brown belt with a holster and golden buckle, gold trapezoid-like earrings, and thigh-high cuffed leather boots with golden tips on the sole.

Then, there was Frosta, who had a short cobalt blue bob cut, blunt bangs and two strands of hair that were hanging in front of her ears. She also had almond-shaped black eyes, blue triangular eyebrows, and wore a three-pointed ice crown that sat like a hairband. Her round face and short stature lent to her young age of 11 and 3 quarters, a youth she resented amongst the older princesses. Moreover, she was wearing a blue jacket lined with white fur, a dark slate blue belt, light khaki pants and fur-lined boots that were cerulean, light blue, and dark blue.

The last (but certainly not least) was Huntara, a mercenary Adora and her friends had met during their adventure in the Crimson Waste. She had lilac-coloured skin with white hair styled in a tight ponytail, and also greenish yellow eyes. She appeared to have a spiral shaped marking on the top side of her head, and two stripe markings on her right thigh. She had a very muscular body. She wore two red bands with a gray purple waistcoat with gray golden details. She also had gray purple gloves with gray golden details, and some gray purple shorts with gray gold pieces from the sides. Moreover, she was wearing golden knee pads and Horde uniform boots with white bands.

Before the group could get a chance to take a breath and relax, the front gates of the palace suddenly opened, and the ruler of Bright Moon, Queen Angella, appeared.

She had long, dual-toned hair of both pink and purple. Her skin also had a tint of purple to it. She possessed a pair of translucent shimmery wings. Her outfit consisted of a long, blue cape, pink leotard and light purple leggings with purple boots. An opalescent gem adorned her forehead, matching her pearl-drop earrings. She wore special gloves that were white to make her royal personality stand out more.

In addition to all that, she had a very stern expression on her face and upon seeing the group, she furiously asked, "Glimmer?! What is going on here?!"

In response, Glimmer stepped forward, let out a small nervous giggle, and replied, "Hi, mom. I... I can explain everything."

Soon enough, all of the former Horde members were imprisoned inside the guest room while the Resistance members argued amongst ourselves what they were going to do in regards to both their prisoners and the Changeling situation. Needless to say, there was a whole lot of tension inside the guest room due to everything that had happened in the last few days. Catra was still furious with Shadow Weaver for betraying her trust and so, she was standing beside the door with her arms crossed and staring at the ground with a huge frown on her face. Shadow Weaver, meanwhile, was meditating on the ground about a dozen feet away from Catra. As for Scorpia, she was standing right in the middle of the distance between them, constantly looking back and forth between them with an uncertain look on her face.

After about five minutes of this awkward situation, Scorpia finally took a deep breath and tried to fill in the silence by saying, "Uhhh... Catra? Have you thought about what are we gonna do once we get out of here? I mean, we ARE getting out of here at some point in the near future, right? I'm sure you'll come up with a brilliant escape plan very soon. I know you will. Once you do, we'll bust out of here in no time. After that, we can go back to the old gang at the Crimson Waste and stay there as long as you want. Wouldn't that be great? Now, of course I don't wanna confuse you if you've already decided on a different plan. I'm just saying- "

"We're taking the fight to Chrysalis", Catra suddenly said, causing Scorpia to give her a very confused look.

"Um, what did you just say?", she asked.

Catra replied without looking at her, "Like you said, I'm in the middle of coming up with an escape plan. Once I do, we'll break out of this cell and go to the Crimson Waste. Once there, we'll gather the gang and then we'll attack the Changelings with everything we've got. Fright Zone will be ours again and I'm going to tear Chrysalis apart limb from limb."

Even though Scorpia was visibly creeped out by this plan, she once again became confused when Shadow Weaver interjected, "This is a task too difficult to complete with just a band of mercenaries. You'll need more help."

This finally caused Catra to look at Shadow Weaver and she said with utter irritation, "From an old hag like you? Forget it!"

"Actually, I wasn't referring to myself", replied Shadow Weaver. "I mean you need Adora's help. Only she can give you the strength to stand a chance against Chrysalis."

Upon hearing that, something finally snapped inside Catra and she let out a dry laughter before furiously declaring, "Yeah, right! I should just let her lead the charge against the Changelings and even let her be the one to finish off Chrysalis! Is that it? Well, I have news, you dumb witch. I am no longer that weak cadet who constantly relied on Adora for protection! I am no longer that weak cadet whom you constantly punished for being sloppy or irresponsible! I am strong now! I lead my own army! I need no one's help or criticism to take care of myself! You got that?! NO ONE! Not Adora and certainly not you!"

As she started breathing very heavily, Shadow Weaver let out a deep sigh and finally stoop up. She then placed her right hand on Catra's left shoulder and said, "You don't have to like each other, but you both need each other tin order o take down Chrysalis and her army. If you attack them head-on with your mercenaries, you will most certainly be outnumbered a hundred to one. Maybe even a thousand to one. We both know this to be true. We've seen the hive with our own eyes. Only with the help of someone as powerful as She-Ra can you end this threat. Think of her not as a friend, but as a temporary ally. Can you do that?"

Even though Catra looked away from Shadow Weaver's eyes and even pulled her shoulder away from the sorcerer's hand, she actually thought hard on her words. Then, several seconds of contemplation later, she came to the realization that there was indeed some truth in the Shadow Weaver's words and therefore, she looked back towards her eyes and gave a small nod.

Just then, the noises from outside became quiet, the door opened, and Adora entered the room along with Bow and Glimmer by her side. Both her group and Catra's group then started walking towards each other and met at the center of the room. Right after that, Catra asked, "You're ready to stop Chrysalis by any means necessary?"

"With the means at hand", promptly replied Adora.

This caused Catra to become a bit suspicious and inquire, "What's your game? You're always three steps ahead."

"Saving the planet is enough for now", Adora announced and then, she extended her hand towards her former friend.

Catra looked at that hand for a few seconds before looking back at Adora and deteminedly saying, "I am NEVER going back in this cell."

Although this made Adora become a bit uncertain about the whole deal, she nevertheless declared, "We'll cross that bridge later. Right now, the world needs us."

Upon hearing that, Catra looked at Shadow Weaver behind her and the sorcerer gave her an approving nod. She then looked at Scorpia who, despite being briefly nervous about the plan, eventually nodded in approval as well. In response, Catra looked back at Adora and proceeded to shake her hand.

Unbeknownst to all of them, an eagle was observing everything that had happened inside the room from a tree beside the balcony. The moment Catra shook Adora's hand, it took off and began flying towards Fright Zone at full speed. About ten minutes later, it finally spotted its destination: the Changeling hive.

Therefore, it transformed back into Pharynx and proceeded to enter the complex. As he flew towards the castle, every single Changeling he passed by saluted him as a sign of the great respect they had for him as a leader. However, he did not salute any of them back and hurriedly entered through the castle gates and made his way into the queen's throne room. Once there, he found the queen pacing back and forth, and she only put a stop to it when she saw him come in.

Right after Pharynx bowed before her, she commanded, "Report, general."

"There has been some surprising developments, your highness", explained Pharynx. "The escapees have allied themselves with the kingdom of Bright Moon. I fear they're planning to launch a massive attack on the hive soon."

Chrysalis looked at him in a suspicious way before saying ,"Really? I'm not so sure about that. If any of them are smart, they wouldn't dare come near ten miles of this place, even with an army at their disposal. My guess is that they're going to try either sneaking in here or trick me into leaving the safety of my hive. I can assure you that neither of those tactics will be successful in the slightest. When they fail, the blonde-haired girl will be mine once again and the love inside her will make our soldiers so strong that they'll be able to conquer every single one of the kingdoms."

Thorax then took a deep breath and declared, "I understand, my queen, but I also believe that to make sure the hive is completely safe from any further intrusion, we must attack our enemies before they could get a chance to attack us. Even without the love inside that girl, we still managed to take over the entirety of Fright Zone in just a couple of hours. Imagine how easy it would be for us to do the same to a kingdom as weak as Bright Moon."

Upon hearing all that, Chrysalis began thinking about Pharynx's proposal. Then, a handful of seconds later, she announced, "Very well. Assemble the troops, then. Make sure they're ready to mobilize at sundown. However, I want you to stay here along with a batallion made up of your finest soldiers to protect the hive during the attack. Don't worry about the rest of the army. I shall lead them myself."

This prompted Pharynx to hover in the air and reply, "As you command, your majesty."

Afterwards, he quickly flew out of the room to carry out her orders.

We're on the edge of greatness

Nearly an hour later, every member of both the Resistance and what was left of the Horde was gathered around a round table in the council chamber of the Bright Moon castle.

In addition to the primary members of the Resistance, there were two additional princesses who had not participated in the rescue operation in the Fright Zone: Spinnerella and Netossa.

Spinnerella was a wide-hipped woman and had a larger build than most of the other people in the room. She had blue eyes and light pink skin that contrasted her regular long lavender purple hair held in a ponytail. She wore a dark purple/magenta leotard over a light purple jumpsuit as well as sandal-like boots, a light blue cape, and a silver choker with a blue gem in the middle around her neck.

Then, there was Netossa, who had black eyes and dark skin with silver hair. Her hair was fluffy and wavy and cut shaved on the left side. She wore a short-sleeved full white shawl that covers her otherwise exposed shoulders. On her fore-arms, she had on grey metal vambraces with blue stars that matched her chest plate and boots. She also wore tight blue leggings with some sort of belts around hips and a purple choker around her neck.

Needless to say, the overall situation in the room was rather tense due to the fact that neither side was completely ready to choose the other. It was the main reason why they were sitting at the opposites sides of the table, trying to avoid eye contact with each other, and repeatedly whispering amongst themselves.

This tension continued until Queen Angella suddenly entered the room and took her seat at the table. She then cleared her throat and announced, "Greetings, everyone. Sorry for the delay, but I had to check in with the guards stationed at the castle entrance. Anyway, let us start the meeting, shall we? I think the first order of business is acknowledging the presence of a few Horde members sitting at the table today. Let me assure everyone else that their stay here is only temporary. Once the current situation is resolved, they shall be dealt with in accordance to our laws. Speaking of the current situation, we need to come up with a strategy on how to repel the Changeling incursion into our lands as soon as possible. If anyone has a suggestion on this matter, please speak up immediately. If we ever hope to save the remaining kingdoms and restore order, we simply must move quickly."

Instead of speaking up, everyone silently pondered on what to do, looked at each other for support, and even continued to exchange whispers with the other members of their respective factions. This went on for several seconds until Adora took a deep breath and declared, "Your majesty, I think I do have a plan. A direct assault on the Changeling hive would be suicide. Even though Catra, Scorpia, Shadow Weaver know the Fright Zone like the back of their hands (in Scorpia's case, claws), Queen Chrysalis would've surely increased security around the place since our escape. Especially, inside her castle. So, I suggest we draw the queen out by attacking another stronghold and by another stronghold, I mean the occupied kingdom of Plumeria. When we take it back and free the cocooned citizens with a small invasion force, the Changelings will surely inform their queen and when she comes there, we'll launch a full scale attack on her. Without a queen to lead them, the rest of the hive won't stand any chance whatsoever."

After everyone took a few moments to quietly discuss this plan amongst themselves, Angella replied, "Hmmm... This does seem like a sensible strategy, Adora. However, it also raises a question. Who exactly will participate in this small invasion force you speak of? You can't take everyone in this room as some of us will have to stay here and help with the defense of Bright Moon in case Chrysalis decides to attack during your absence."

"Well... uhhh... I know that Bow and Glimmer will come for sure, but I don't really think just the three of us will be enough for a mission like this", Adora revealed with uncertainty. "So... I'm not really sure who-"

"I'm coming too", Catra suddenly interjected while standing up, causing the entire room to both gasp and stare at her in utter disbelief.

A few seconds later, Angella asked, "You? Why would you of all people gathered here today would want to go on this mission? As I remember correctly, you and your soldiers have tried numerous times to eliminate Adora."

"Two reasons", Catra determinedly began to explain. "One, I really want to avoid jail time and this looks like a good opportunity for me to prove to you that I can be trusted. Two, She-Ra is the most powerful weapon we can use to take down Chrysalis and she has a way better chance of staying alive if I'm around to keep her away from any harm."

The moment she said that, the entire room erupted in yelling as everyone started arguing with each other on Catra's proposal. While most of them were heavily against her joining Adora's mission, there were actually some (including Adora herself) who were willing to give her a chance.

As for Angella, she both facepalmed and let out a deep sigh before banging on the table a couple of times in order to silence everyone. Once she succeeded in doing so, she announced, "While it's true that a single good deed can't make up for all the crimes you've committed, helping us accomplish this task can indeed reduce your sentence a bit. With that said, you have a long way to go before you can earn the complete trust of anyone in the Resistance. That's why I'm sending your associates with you just in case you had been planning to take over Bright Moon during Adora's absence."

Right before Catra could object to this plan, Shadow Weaver stood up and said, "A most sensible decision, your highness. After all, your daughter has not yet mastered her abilities and thus, she would definitely need my assistance for it."

Upon hearing that, Angella shot a brief glare towards Glimmer, who sheepishly giggled for a few seconds. Then, Adora interjected, "It's settled, then. I'll take Bow, Glimmer, Catra, Scorpia, and Shadow Weaver to Plumeria and liberate it from the Changelings. Once that's done, we'll send a message here and request reinforcements for the final fight with Chrysalis. The rest of you should stay here and defend Bright Moon until then."

Immediately afterwards, she gave a fierce look to all three of the former Horde members and declared, "Remember. Out there, there's no Horde. Not anymore. So, we do... NOT... kill."

Although they gave each other uncertain looks, Shadow Weaver eventually nodded in approval, prompting Adora to nod back and announce, "Let's go, then."

While everyone else left the room in a matter of seconds, Catra came close to Adora's face and revealed with a menacing tone, "I don't care what you say. As soon as we beat Chrysalis, I WILL finish her."