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Chapter 141: The Secret Base Part 1
Chapter 141: The Secret Base Part 1

Outside PU-9623 System, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)


Catra stared at the display floating in the middle of the room. "That's not really detailed," she complained. It really wasn't. It was a very rudimentary 3D-model.

"That's the best we can do with our scanners from orbit," Sam replied. "We extrapolated some structures, but… we'll need a magic scanner close by to get more details." After a moment's pause, she added: "We only got those results after we adjusted the bot's sensors with the data from Alpha."

Catra hissed again. "That's a First Ones base?"

"It's a possibility," Sam replied.

"I don't know what would be worse," Jack said. "Apophis having technology to block our sensors, or Apophis having access to an Ancient base."

"The second," Jakar said. "I consider it most urgent that we take out both his fleet and his base. This takes priority over confirming Taweret's position."

"Yes," Glimmer agreed. "We can't let Apophis get his hands on such a base."

"He might already have his hands on the base," Jack said, pointing at the structures directly above the underground's base. Those were standard Goa'uld fortifications. "You don't throw up that kind of base in a day or two, and that mound next to the base doesn't look natural or old."

"Our scanners don't show a shaft leading to the base," Entrapta objected. "And that would show up - unless he managed to build them using First One materials. Though even then, we should have detected the effects of such a structure on the surrounding earth and stone."

Jakar nodded. "Yes. Even with our digging technology, we cannot build our bases without leaving such traces. Though detecting them is beyond the standard Goa'uld sensors."

Or so you think, Catra added silently. But that was a discussion for another day.

"They could be using a ring transporter," Sha're pointed out.

"Yes," Sam agreed. "We have to assume they have access to the base, and for a while at least - we don't know when he first discovered this system."

"That makes it even more urgent that we strike as soon as possible," Glimmer said.

"The task force stands ready to launch an attack on the enemy fleet at a moment's notice, Supreme Commander," WrongHordak said. "We are plotting their courses and adjusting our calculations so we can drop on them from hyperspace."

That would ensure they would surprise the Goa'uld - since they could only jam their comms for a short while and couldn't block them from entering hyperspace, that was essential if they wanted to take the Goa'uld out without allowing them to alert Apophis by comms or couriers. But it was dangerous. The risk of colliding with an enemy ship upon exiting hyperspace was low - though not zero - but the task force would be dropping into knife-fighting range. Even technologically inferior ships were dangerous at such ranges.

But that wasn't Catra's primary concern. "Even if we take out the fleet in the system, the base will be able to react."

"We can destroy them from orbit," Glimmer retorted.

"Quickly enough to stop them from contacting Apophis? Or activate a Stargate they might have?" Catra shook her head.

"We don't have the planet in our data banks," Sam said. "But they could have brought one to the planet."

"Apophis probably doesn't want to spend weeks on every booty call," Jack said.

"He would not want to leave Taweret so far out of his reach, lest she might turn the forces guarding her," Teal'c agreed. "He would want to be able to reach her - or have her reach him - through a Stargate. Though that could be inside the base or in the flagship of the fleet - either offers advantages and disadvantages for him."

If he had the Stargate on a ship, it would allow him better control over it - and over the ship's crew. But he would need a shuttle or a ring transporter to reach the base. And more people would know when he arrived - or Taweret took off. And Catra had a feeling that Apophis would want direct access to the base. It just seemed to fit the snake better.

"Even if they do escape, they'll report that a Horde fleet attacked them. Apophis has no reason to suspect the Alliance," Glimmer pointed out.

"Yes. But if we just destroy the base, we won't know what they worked on there - and whether or not they managed to flee with completed projects," Catra said.

"And Taweret would escape," Sha're said.

Jakar slowly nodded. "Yes, I think we should ascertain what kind of research they are doing in the base. And whether or not it is functional."

Adora nodded. "Yes. We don't want them to panic and open a portal to another dimension."

Catra clenched her teeth. That had been her lowest point. She had almost destroyed Etheria - killed everyone - through her obsession. If there was a risk that Apophis was working on a similar project… "We need to find out what they're doing there - and stop it." Permanently.

Adora nodded again. "And we need to take the base and destroy their fleet at the same time." She looked at WrongHordak. "This will require close coordination."

"And a trip in a stealth shuttle," Jack added as WrongHordak saluted Adora.

*****​

PU-9623 System, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Enemy patrol approaching."

Adora turned her head to look at the screen in front of her at Sam's report. Yes, there was a patrol of two Death Gliders on a course that would take them closer to the shuttle. Not very close, though - certainly not near enough to risk a collision. And with the stealth generator active, they had no chance to spot the shuttle either.

She still tensed up for the next few minutes while the two Death Gliders passed the shuttle. She trusted her friends with her life, and she knew the stealth shuttle worked, but you could never be completely sure.

"I feel like I'm in a submarine with a destroyer passing above us on the surface," Catra whispered.

"We're not in a submarine," Jack, predictably, complained. "This is a stealth shuttle."

Adora frowned at Catra - she was sure that her lover had just said that to rile up Jack.

"Feels like a submarine running silent," Catra retorted.

"It's more like a stealth fighter. Submarines don't fly," Jack said.

"Stealth fighters generally don't transport more than a pilot. Unless it's a movie," Daniel pointed out.

"We don't talk about that movie!" Jack snapped.

"What movie?" Sha're asked.

"A stupid action movie made by a guy who had no idea about planes!"

"A popcorn flick."

"I believe they are talking about 'Executive Decision'."

"We aren't talking about that movie, Teal'c!"

"My mistake then."

Catra snorted. "We really need to watch that at the next movie night. It sounds like a riot."

"No, we don't!" Jack protested.

"I believe I can acquire a copy for such an occasion."

"I think we have that movie on file somewhere," Bow added. "We have a lot of military movies on file to, ah, study."

"It's not a military movie. It's a disgrace."

Adora looked at Catra. "What kind of movie is it?"

Catra shrugged. "I never watched it. I only know Jack hates it."

"Any Air Force member hates it!"

"Ah, Jack, I don't think that's correct. I am sure there are at least a few airmen and officers who like the movie despite any, ah, artistic liberties the producers might have taken." Daniel smiled a bit apologetically.

"There's nothing artistic about that movie! They…"

"The Death Gliders have passed," Sam reported.

"...right. Continuing towards our destination."

Adora looked at the screen again. The system's habitable planet was coming up. Too far away still to spot with the naked eye, but the sensors were covering it already. And updating their information.

"Two Ha'tak's in orbit. One geostationary over the base, the other above the planet's north pole," Sam summed up.

"Weird arrangement," Catra commented. "What good is the one at the pole?"

"We don't know. There's nothing on our scanners in that area," Entrapta said. "It's… Oh!"

"'Oh'?" Adora winced. When Entrapta sounded like that, it usually wasn't good news.

"Look at the power readings, Sam!"

"Oh! Those are… I didn't think a Ha'tak had so much power available," Sam said.

"They don't," Entrapta said. "At least, they can't generate so much power. But…"

"...they can receive so much power from the ground," Sam finished for her. "From the base."

"Microwave-based power transfer? But our scanners would show that…"

"Something similar, probably. There is feedback on another frequency… Look at this readout!" Bow cut in.

"Oh!"

Again! Adora twitched.

"So, what is going on?" Catra bluntly asked.

"Oh! It looks like the base is feeding a lot of power to the Ha'tak above it. The readings are getting clearer as we close in," Entrapta replied. "Look at the stress the ship's suffering!"

"Those vibrations aren't good for its structural integrity," Sam agreed.

"But why are they doing this?" Bow asked.

"It's a test," Sam said. "They're testing power transfers."

"What for?" Jack asked before Adora could ask the same.

"Possibly as an experiment, sir," Sam told him.

"Related to the dimension travel thing?"

"We have yet to confirm that, sir."

Bow nodded. "They're testing power transfer. What are the odds that they are testing a new weapon system as well?"

"Oh! Like a dimensional cannon? Ripping open a dimensional rift to damage your target? Or move it into a pocket dimension like Despondos?" Entrapta perked up.

"If they are experimenting with a weapon like that, we must stop them at all costs!" Glimmer snapped.

"And we need their data to know what they have done so far."

"Proceed," Adora said. "But avoid the Ha'tak - and don't fly through the area below it." She didn't feel like risking being imprisoned in another dimension. Like Angella…

"Yeah, that wouldn't be a smooth ride," Jack said as he changed course. "Would be damn embarrassing if we get taken out by accident without the snakes meaning to attack us. We could never live that down."

"I think the more important problem is that we wouldn't survive it in the first place, Jack."

"Power spiking!" Sam snapped.

A moment later, the shuttle's alerts went off, and Adora's screen flickered - followed by the entire shuttle shaking.

"That was… a multidimensional release of power," Entrapta reported. "I think."

"A what?" Jack asked with clenched teeth. Several of the alerts on his display were still lit, Adora saw.

"They vented that power into what might have been an attempt to create a rift, sir. That's only a hypothesis, though."

"Great. Whatever it was, it played haywire with our systems. The Stealth generator was just flagged as damaged. Won't last much longer."

Adora drew a sharp breath. They were too close to the enemy to withdraw easily. Too close to the planet to survive another. She could call in the task force, but that would leave the base untouched during the attack. And they were so close… "Take us down in the target area. Quickly."

They would continue with the mission.

*****​

PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

They entered the atmosphere at high speed. Not quite dangerous, not fast enough to risk losing control, but it was a rougher ride than recommended and would require a thorough maintenance check afterwards, according to the manual even though the inertial compensators of the craft did their job.

Samantha Carter knew that very well since she had written part of the manual for the stealth shuttles and knew its specs by heart.

Not that the craft wouldn't have gone into maintenance anyway, what with the damage it suffered because of its proximity to whatever experiment Apophis - or Taweret - was running on the planet. Entraptra, Bow and herself were struggling to keep the stealth generator running while they plunged towards the planet's surface. Between the stealth field and the effect from the radiation released by the dimensional venting on all sensors, they would hopefully remain undetected - Sam had charted a course that had them on the side opposite to the base for the re-entry and on the southern half of the planet so the thermal effects of the manoeuvre would not be too obvious to any close observer.

But there was always a risk, and they would have to find a hiding spot for the shuttle - one close to the base so they could reach it on foot. The special coating and shielding could only do so much, and Sam didn't think that Apophis had sent Jaffa to this planet who were lax in their duties.

So, while the General brought the shuttle down, she left handling the sputtering systems of the shuttle to her friends and focused on the sensors, scanning the area near their target for caves and valleys with cliffs. Anything big enough to hide the shuttle from above. She already had an earlier overview from the spy bots and the shuttle's sensor readings on approach, but that was not up to date and left a lot of area to cover,

The shuttle levelled out a few yards above the surface of the planet's main ocean when she found a narrow gorge with dense vegetation that should fit their shuttle. She plotted a course that would lead them over rougher terrain to make them harder to detect with sensors and sent it to the General. "This is our destination, sir."

"Good work, Carter!" He flashed her a quick smile as the shuttle shifted and adjusted its heading.

She nodded, hiding her own smile, and went back to helping the others keep the shuttle's system working. It wasn't looking good. Whatever backlash that experiment had created had overwhelmed their shields, and even hardened systems had suffered. She ran a quick calculation. It wouldn't have affected a frigate or other capital ship, even the Flower II classes entering the Royal Navy would be fine, mostly, but it would wreak havoc on any smaller craft, such as shuttles and fighters. And destroy spy bots.

She checked the network. Yes, most of the bots near the planet had been destroyed or rendered inoperational.

"The stealth system is not going to hold for much longer!" Bow called out from the aft. "Its power supply is fluctuating. I'm manually compensating, but I can't keep that up forever!"

"I'm switching the system to the main power. It'll slow us down some, but the fluctuations will stop," Sam retorted. They were still too far from the target area to lose their stealth. Rerouting the connections didn't take long. "Switching in three… two… one!"

Done.

"The fluctuations stopped. Stealth field holding."

But it was weakening anyway - the projectors had to be damaged. It could be just some misalignments from vibrations, but the power fluctuations likely had done more serious damage. Sam would have to check later. And think of a way to harden the systems further. A lot of missions would be affected if they couldn't trust the stealth shuttles.

"Alright, folks!" the General called out. "It's not going to be the Beggar's Canyon, but it's going to be close enough, so hold on tight!"

"What do you mean, 'close enough'?" Glimmer asked just as the shuttle sped up again - and entered a narrow gorge for the last leg of their trip.

The General was a good pilot. Even though he spent most of his time on the ground, he requalified regularly. And ever since he had received his personal stealth shuttle, he had taken it out whenever he could find the time. He knew the shuttle probably better than most pilots.

Sam told herself that, repeatedly, but she still felt her stomach sink when she glanced out through the cockpit and saw the steep walls of the gorge loom far closer than she was comfortable with while the shuttle wove through tight turns with more speed than she thought was safe.

She had to trust the General. And even if they hit the walls, the shuttle was sturdy enough to survive a glancing contact. And the inertial compensators should let them survive a frontal collision as well, provided the General managed to slow down enough in time…

It doesn't look as if he's even trying, a small voice in the back of her head added as she looked away and focused back on her screen and data.

Minutes that felt like hours later, the noise from the engines changed - they were finally slowing down. Sam looked up again and saw that they were hovering, slowly gliding below a slight overhang, brushing aside dense foliage until they were above solid ground. Right on top of the marker she had set on the map.

"Welcome to yet another snake planet!" the General called out with a smile that almost managed to hide his own exhaustion.

"Switching off the stealth system and powering down," Sam announced before she took a deep breath.

They had arrived. Now, they had to reach the base and deal with whatever was going on inside. Without being spotted by the guards. But at least they weren't depending on a failing shuttle any more.

*****​

Near Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Catra glanced up, checking the sky - or the canopy of dense foliage, in this case - above them. "Sloppy," she commented as she jumped over a fallen tree trunk, landing lightly on the soft soil behind it.

"What is sloppy?" Adora asked as she - with slightly less grace - jumped over the trunk as well, her boots leaving deep imprints next to Catra.

"This." Catra motioned with her head at the trees around them. "In Apophis's place, I would have cleared the entire area of the jungle around their base. Clear the lines of fire and remove cover." Sure, it would make it obvious where the hidden First Ones base was - unless it was a hidden Horde base - but Apophis had built a damn base above it, so that was no concern any more.

"Ah." Adora looked around as well as their friends caught up.

"Are you having flashbacks to the Whispering Woods?" Glimmer asked while she struggled to get over the tree herself until Bow gave her a boost. "Ugh. We should restore magic to the planet."

"Just so you can teleport past a tree?" Catra snorted.

"We're gonna save the magic light show for emergencies," Jack said as he quickly climbed over it. "Like turning a dangerous snake or Ancient contraption into a potted plant before it destroys reality."

As it had almost happened before. On her orders. Catra pressed her lips together.

"I'm not sure feeding so much magical power into a potential threat is a good idea," Glimmer retorted. "We don't know how it would react. It might trigger the very effect we want to avoid."

"Yes. We had to use magic to power the gate on Etheria!" Entrapta had no trouble having her hair carry her over the trunk. "It wouldn't have worked otherwise. On the other hand, without magic, it shouldn't be threatening reality as we know it. Probably."

That wasn't very reassuring, in Catra's opinion.

"The Ancients were magitech users," Sam added, climbing with the help of Entrapta's hair. "So, they might have left artefacts able to power whatever experiment they are doing with magic or similar energy."

"If you tell me that we can't blow it up because it could absorb that power, too, I'm going to be annoyed," Jack said.

"Welllll…" Entrapta cocked her head and shrugged. "We don't know? We need more data!"

"Great," Catra heard Jack mutter. "I'm not carrying all that C-4 back to the shuttle."

"I'm sure we can find a use for it, Jack," Daniel said.

Catra snorted and went ahead again. She had a base to sneak up to - they were halfway there, so they had to look out for patrols now. Their Naquadah-scanner might show every Jaffa and Goa'uld, and the odds of Apophis using humans on patrols were very low, but that didn't mean Catra could be sloppy.

Moving through the woods as if it was an obstacle course, jumping from trunk to trunk, her claws leaving gashes for the others to follow, she quickly put some distance between herself and the rest of their team.

The planet apparently had no birds or other flying animals, so she didn't have to worry about giving away her presence by disturbing a flock of those, but several small tree-dwelling animals scattered at her approach. She managed to grab one as she landed on a larger branch and quickly studied the squirming beast. It looked like a squirrel with longer claws. On Earth, no one would bat an eye except, perhaps, a biologist. It was nothing like the vermin she had seen in the Whispering Woods.

Probably a clue that this world hadn't been used for genetic engineering experiments, but Catra wasn't an expert.

She released the animal, waited until she spotted Adora catching up to her, then moved ahead again.

Half an hour later, she encountered the first sign of a patrol - tracks left in the dark soil. She didn't know how old they were, but Bow would be able to tell. But it meant they were now in the area the base guards patrolled.

Her ears twitched but caught nothing but her friends behind her.

Once more, she waited for them to catch up, then pointed the tracks out. Jack, Teal'c and Bow all knelt down to take a look.

"This was made by a guard wearing standard armour for Apophis's Jaffa," Teal'c said.

"Four of them, a day ago," Bow added.

"I'll take your word for it," Jack said. "So, how often do they run their patrols? And how often do they vary their routes?"

"Warriors are supposed to take different routes each day and have one patrol out in every sector at all times, based on the size of the garrison," Teal'c said.

Catra could hear the 'and woe to anyone who failed his false god' added without it spoken aloud. Teal'c had probably punished more than a few in his time as Apophis's Prime. "But this is a safe world, unknown to anyone, they have a fleet in the system and two Ha'taks in orbit. What are the odds they feel safe enough to get sloppy while slogging through the jungle?"

"I doubt Apophis will send any but his best, most loyal troops to guard his queen," Teal'c replied.

"For several reasons, not least because he wants them to guard him against betrayal by her," Jakar added. "But even so, in my experience, even the best troops tend to follow the same routes."

Catra shrugged. "I'll hear them before they spot us. Let's go."

She did spot a patrol on the last leg of the trip, but it was easy to keep out of their way - the Jaffa were limited to their eyes and ears, and those were not nearly as good as hers. Catra watched them from a hiding spot in the canopy while her friends hid a bit away. The Jaffa did look smart, all clean and tall, but they also looked a bit… tense. Not as tense as Horde scouts in the Whispering Woods, but those were warriors on a routine patrol where they didn't expect any trouble. Something had them on edge.

But Catra couldn't think of what that might be - there were no monsters in this jungle. At least none that she could spot.

*****​

Jack O'Neill couldn't help grinning while he studied the base in front of him through his binoculars. How he had missed sneaking up on a snake base, hiding under their very noses while plotting to blow it up! He had been behind a desk for far too long!

He inched forward a little more, a number of the thorns of the bush he was using as cover snagging on his fatigues, and used the button on the side of the binoculars to zoom in. Built with some fancy tech by Carter and Entrapta as a prototype, the binoculars allowed him to zoom in to almost magnifying glass level and switch between different vision modes, including thermal and low-light. And they were working great - he would have to light a fire under procurement's butts so they approved it for manufacturing at once. His troops needed this!

But that could wait. The mission came first. He studied the base. Massive walls that looked like they were taken from the set of Cleopatra, Jaffa in heavy armour patrolling on top of them between staff cannons mounted for air and ground defence, Death Gliders waiting on the pads inside… pretty standard snake stuff, except for the palace in the centre.

He zoomed in on it. It was a blocky structure, looking more like a bunker someone had gilded than an actual palace, rising higher than the walls around it. It was prime bombardment bait. But it also had balconies built into the front wall, and the top was covered by a pavilion, including a pool and lounge area. "Talk about lipstick on a pig…" he muttered.

He heard a snort from his left, where Catra was studying the base as well. "It makes Horde construction look fancy," she said.

Daniel would say something about different cultures having different styles and aesthetics, but Jack nodded. "I bet some billionaires without taste would love that style." And would probably add more gold to it.

Catra snorted again. "Good defences, though. And it's sitting right on top of the First Ones base."

As they had expected - the snakes preferred to keep tight control over crucial assets. Jack flipped through a few modes on his binocs until he reached the one he wanted. "Ah! There's the big reactor!"

"We already knew that from the orbital scans," Catra commented.

"But now we know where it's relative to the rest," Jack shot back. "And we can see the shield projectors. Now, if I were a ring transporter, where would I be?"

"You? In the living room so you didn't have to move to get a beer from the fridge," Catra said. "But a snake's transporter?"

"Taweret would want it close to her personal quarters but not inside them. She would not tolerate others walking through her rooms every time they needed to enter the base beneath." Jakar the snake commando cut in. "And her quarters will be near the top. She will want private access to the roof."

There spoke the snake expert. Though Jack had come to the same conclusions. Placing your quarters underground would be safer, but that wouldn't allow the snakes to look down on everyone else. He zoomed in on the roof. "Yeah, there it is - door in that fake tent on the side. I bet if we wait long enough, we would see her making a big entrance there." A bit far for a sniper, but Jack was sure he could do it. Not that he would - the odds of hitting the actual snake were slim, and killing the host wouldn't do anything but warn them of their presence while they possessed the next spare host. But it was a nice thought to have.

"You want to enter through the roof?" Catra asked.

If the stealth shuttle still worked, that would be ideal. Fly in, hover above the roof and drop down. "Unless Adora restores magic and Glimmer teleports us there, Or Carter and Entrapta somehow find a way to get the spare parts they need to repair the stealth system, I think we'll have to pick the side entrance," Jack replied.

And that meant getting through the gate - or over the walls.

"I guess we can't ambush a patrol and take their armour," Catra joked.

"Nope." There were few slaves around, Jack noted. The base didn't look old - he could see signs of recent construction, actually - and it must have been built quickly, meaning with lots of hands, so where were the workers responsible? Jack pressed his lips together. Apophis wouldn't move the workers constructing his secret base back to his other worlds. That would risk the base being revealed. So… What would a megalomaniac snake with no morals do to keep such a secret?

The answer was obvious and nauseating. Jack quickly scanned the area, but he didn't see any signs of mass graves. Or other possible disposal facilities.

And that was even more worrying.

"Let's look for blind spots and other weaknesses," he said. Before they looked for unconventional solutions. Jack would prefer to do this without magic. If they had to restore magic, Adora would probably wipe out the Goa'uld base by accident anyway, and while that wasn't exactly a bad thing, it would also alert the Ha'taks in orbit and the rest of the fleet - and the Ancient base deep underground.

No, they needed a more subtle way inside.

Fortunately, Jack thought as he zoomed in on a small ditch near the base of the walls, I might have found our way inside.

*****​

"You want to sneak in through the sewers?"

Adora winced at Glimmer's comment. They were out of earshot - Apophis's Jaffa had cleared a lot of the area around their base - but they were trying to stay hidden.

"It's not actually a sewer," Jack replied. "More like… a stream flowing out of their base."

"It's still a sewer - it carries all their waste away!" Glimmer retorted.

"And it is fed from a spring inside their base," Sam added. "There's no stream entering the base."

So much for using a clean body of water to sneak in, Adora thought.

"Can't be worse than infiltrating the Fright Zone," Catra said. "Or sneaking around there."

Glimmer glared at her. "We didn't sneak through the sewers when we did that!"

"We did, actually. When we went to rescue you and Bow," Adora corrected her.

"You didn't actually swim through the sewers!" Glimmer shot back with a glare.

"You couldn't have - some of the sewers there were so toxic, you needed protective gear," Entrapta said. "That's why the standard Horde uniform included a fully enclosed helmet."

Adora nodded. "And uniforms were resistant to environmental dangers."

"Is that why you're still wearing your old uniform?" Jakar asked.

"Ah…" Adora smiled at him, feeling a bit embarrassed. She didn't actually need that kind of protection as She-Ra. "They're also very durable and comfortable!"

"If you match the general body type they're made for," Catra added. "I always had to customise my uniforms."

It had been more a want than a need, as Adora remembered it, but that wasn't important right now. "So, infiltrating through the stream."

"Open Sewer," Glimmer said. "Perfuma would loath this."

"Anyone with a bit of common sense would loathe it." Catra snorted. "That's a disease outbreak waiting to happen."

"And you want to swim through it to get into the base?" Glimmer asked Jack.

"Well…" Jack shrugged. "We've got these fancy new fatigues, with masks that double as diving masks…"

"Not all of us have those," Glimmer said.

Adora wouldn't have any problems thanks to She-Ra's armour, but the others… Not everyone had the new fatigues, and even there, the masks wouldn't cover more than their faces. They were meant to be worn with a hood for full NBC protection.

"You'll survive," Catra commented.

Adora glanced at her lover. Catra's feet, hair, ears and tail would be exposed. And she knew that.

"It's not going to be worse than sneaking around in the seedier parts of the Fright Zone as cadets," Catra said with a snort.

Glimmer glared at her before scoffing. "Let's go then."

"Alright. We'll have to deal with sensors in the stream and the grate at the wall," Jack said.

"We can handle that!" Entrapta beamed. "We can hack the sensors - if they have any that resisted the effects of their experiments - and bypass the alerts when we cut through the grate. As long as we're not seen."

"Fortunately, the water's muddy," Jack said. "And we're going in at night."

"Muddy? More like shitty," Catra commented with another snort.

Adora didn't think it was funny, but Jack laughed at it.

*****​

The stream was shitty. Adora didn't want to take a closer look at what exactly floated on the surface as she approached the stream and watched the bot Entrapta, Sam and Bow had rigged up disappear in it. Peeking over Bow's shoulder, she could see the feed from the bot - or the sanitised overlay from its sensors depicting the stream's bed as it started moving upstream.

"Alright… now… where are the sensors?" Entrapta mumbled as she stared at her own tool.

"It doesn't seem that there are any," Sam said.

"So, they cannot protect their own sensors from their own experiments?" Jack shook his head. "I don't think Apophis will accept that."

"I concur," Jakar said. "Though that won't keep him from deploying a new weapon system if he deems it effective enough."

"We'll stop him before it comes to that," Adora said.

"We've reached the wall - well, under the wall," Bow reported. "Doesn't look like there are sensors either."

"But the grate itself is powered - a low current, but if it's cut, that will be noticed," Sam added. "Scanning the array."

"We need to cut here to reach the control module."

"Yes. But that's hardened material. We should access it from the side."

"Yes! Like that!"

"Drilling."

"Oh, look at that - it's a simple but working design! Tiny crystals!"

"Easy to circumvent, though. Just let me run a few calculations on my tablet… Yes. We'll need two of the thicker wires, and about… this long."

"Yes, I concur with Bow."

"Me too!"

It didn't take the three more than a few minutes to bypass what security there was and fix the cable the bot had trailed to the grate. And then it was time for them to start swimming. In the 'muddy' stream.

Just dive down and try not to think about it, Adora told herself, trying not to grimace. This was important. She had to do this. She was She-Ra.

She took a deep breath, grabbed the cable the bot had laid, and entered the stream. As soon as she was completely underwater, she started pulling herself forward, following the cable to the grate.

Five minutes later, she reached the grate. "I'm there!" she said through her communicator.

"Good! Cut the grate along the sides we marked!" Bow told her.

She summoned her sword and did so. "Done."

"No alert. We should be safe to follow you then." Catra said.

"OK."

Adora just had to wait for her friends now. And try not to think about what kind of stuff was floating in the stream.

*****​

Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

While their small infiltrator bot went ahead to explore the rest of the base and they waited in the stream, Samantha Carter made a mental note to build a prototype uniform that doubled as a drysuit with full-body protection as soon as she found the time. The odds of it getting approved were zero - the cost alone doomed any such proposal; the new spacesuits had been a struggle to get through procurement even though the need for such suits was obvious - but Sam would be able to use the prototype herself next time she had to swim through a sewer.

She shuddered and suppressed the urge to run her gloved hands through her hair. Focus on the mission, she told herself. This was just like having to crawl through mud in basic. Only worse.

The spy bot was circling the central bunker - or bunker/palace, as the General called it - and Sam was, hidden by the thick wall above them, watching its feed to mark potential entry points. Main entrance - too big to open without anyone noticing even if the squad of Jaffa guarding it were dealt with. Goa'uld megalomania working for them this time. Side entrance - small, heavily armoured, likely an air lock. And two guards in front of it. Second side trnance, other side… That one was a bit larger, with tracks of heavy machinery left on the ground in front of it. Still guarded, though. The roof was a possibility. But scrambling up the walls would leave them exposed to any guard watching from the perimeter or yard. There were gaps in the coverage by the patrols - she had analysed the pattern already - but they were not long enough to allow the group to reach the roof in time.

That left the balconies. Without sensors on them, they would provide cover and concealment while they dealt with the doors, and they were close enough to the ground to be reached quickly. Adora could probably throw people up to speed things up, and Entrapta's hair, while not long enough to reach the balcony from the ground, would further facilitate this.

Entering the private quarters of Taweret was a problem in itself, but securing or neutralising her was a mission objective, so they would have to deal with her anyway at some point, even if the Ancient base was more important. If the best way inside was through her?

Well, Sam had no problem with that. And there was the possibility that, Goa'ulds being Goa'ulds, they could access the ring transporter from her quarters, or close enough, to achieve the primary objective of the mission as well.

The final decision was Adora's - and the General's - of course, but Sam was sure they would agree with her reasoning when she motioned and held her screen out to the others to check.

She wasn't wrong. A few minutes later, with the spy bot tracking the guards, they rushed to the wall below the balcony, Adora in the lead. A running jump took her to the top of the balcony, trailing lines behind her. Lines Sam and the others attached to the harnesses built into their fatigues. Or just held onto, in some cases.

"Everyone ready?" The General asked in a whisper through their communicators. "Go!"

And the line went taut, then dragged Sam upwards as Adora heaved. Sam barely had the time to get her feet against the wall and push off before she was pulled over the railing and rolled over the balcony's floor. Entrapta had an even worse time - Sam's friend would have hit the floor head-on if not for her hair, legs twitching for a moment before she managed to straighten herself. She was smiling widely, though, and already reaching for her tool when Teal'c, the last of their group, smoothly slid over the railing.

"Clear!" the General announced.

"Working on the door," Sam replied.

"No sensors here either," Bow whispered.

But the door was armoured. They would have to work to crack the locks. At least it was an automatic door. If the Goa'uld had skipped any servos and just relied on servants to pull it open, this would take far longer.

As it was, thanks to Jakar's help - the agent had the most experience with the electronic locks on such doors - they cracked it in less than five minutes.

The quarters behind it were as luxurious as Sam expected. Not quite an exact copy of Amaunet's quarters on Saqqara, but they came close enough.

They quickly spread out through them, covering all rooms. There were no guards, and they found only two servants working in a side room. Teal'c and Catra stunned them before they could react.

And no Taweret.

"Aren't queens supposed to laze around and have grapes fed to them in their rooms?" the General asked.

"If she's not here, she's either somewhere else in the bunker - or in the base below us," Jakar stated the obvious. "We would have noticed her guard detachment moving outside."

"Unless she's in a ship," Teal'c objected.

Jakar inclined his head. "True."

"Well, wherever she is, we need to get a move on," the General said. "Where's the ring transporter?"

"Outside the quarters!" Entrapta announced. "Well, that's where our scanner shows an amount of processed Naquadah that matches the amount used in a transporter."

The General nodded. "Good enough for me. Let's go. We have a base to take over. Or blow up. Whatever it takes."

Catra was already moving towards the exit.

*****​
 
Chapter 142: The Secret Base Part 2
Chapter 142: The Secret Base Part 2

Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)


Catra stopped and cocked her head at the door, but she couldn't hear anything from the area outside Taweret's quarters.

"Anything?" Adora asked.

Catra shook her head. "She's got good insulation. Probably paranoid about spies overhearing her," she said. "Any cameras you can access?" she added, looking at Entrapta, Sam and Bow.

"Nothing," Entrapta replied. "The electronics they use here are pretty simple."

"Anything more complex probably does not survive the experiments," Sam said.

Right. This feels like infiltrating a Princess Alliance stronghold, Catra thought. Just without the magic defences. "So… we just open the door then and deal with whatever guards are placed outside?" She flexed her claws in case anyone had any doubts about what she meant.

"There will be guards outside," Sha're said. "And they will be familiar with Taweret's servants. We can't fool them with a disguise, either."

"Yes," Jakar agreed. "I fear subtlety won't help us here."

"Then blunt measures will." Jack grinned. "That's more my style, anyway. But we should try not to alert the entire base."

Catra looked at Adora, then flashed her fangs and nodded. "No problem."

They positioned themselves, Jack and Bow behind them, zat ready respectively arrow notched, and waited for Sha're to operate the door. The servos whined - Entrapta mumbled that they were just a tiny bit underpowered - and the door started to slide open.

Catra dashed forward as soon as the gap was wide enough, then jumped to the side, vaulting over the guard to the left of the door. She twisted in the air, head pointed down, and lashed out, slicing into the man's throat with her claws, and whatever he had been about to scream turned into a wet gurgle as blood shot out of his mouth.

On the other side, Adora tackled the guard into the wall, knocking the breath out of him, then smashed his head into the floor, helmet still on.

Catra landed on the floor, legs bending, gathering power to pounce - but an arrow hit the third guard, glue covering his entire head, and he stumbled, trying to rip it off, only for his hands to get stuck. A moment later, he dropped, shot with a zat - like the fourth guard.

"Clear," Jack whispered.

Catra nodded and moved ahead, jumping over the growing pool of blood around her target. Her ears twitched, but she didn't hear any alerts going off or anyone moving nearby. That was… suspicious. Shouldn't the ring transporter be guarded as well if it was nearby? She reached the corner and stopped, crouching low on all fours to peek around it.

There was a door, armoured, but she couldn't see any guards. Was Apophis trying to hide it in plain sight? She moved past it to check the next corridor but found no guards there either - though she could hear a patrol below her.

The others had reached the door in the meantime, so Catra doubled back. "Careful," she hissed. "There should be guards here. And if they aren't outside…"

"...then they are inside," Jack finished.

"Peekablue would be very useful right now," Glimmer commented. "But we can't linger. Let's go in before we draw more attention. We can take out any guards inside."

Probably. Catra still had her suspicions.

But Jakar was already cracking the lock, so she moved to get ready for another charge.

When he stepped back and to the side and she heard the servos starting to work, she tensed, ducking low so the others would be able to shoot over her head. Almost… now!

She launched herself forward, landing on all fours, claws digging into the floor as she whirled, ready to launch herself at… nobody? She sniffed. The air had a touch of… locker room smell?

Before she could narrow it down, the others rushed in, weapons aimed, and came to a stop as well. The room was, but for the controls for a ring transporter, empty.

"Well…" Jack shrugged. "I guess even we get a break sometimes. Unless it's a trap. It's probably a trap."

"Scanning!" Entrapta announced. "I don't detect any explosives. Or poison. Or anything else."

"The controls are secured with a code, but I can crack it," Jakar announced. "It's not very sophisticated."

Catra expected that. Any security measures on stuff you used every day had to be easy to use, or half the troops would end up skipping them just for convenience.

"And done… It's set to automatically pick one pre-programmed location," Jakar said.

"Alright. First wave: Me, Adora, Catra, Glimmer and Bow," Jack said. "The rest of you come down once we give the clear."

That sounded reasonable to Catra, and she stepped into the transport area. The others followed. Sam looked as if she wanted to argue, but she held her tongue.

"Beam us down, Scotty!" Jack said.

Catra snorted, and Jakar nodded. A moment later, the transporter started. Rings rose around them, and Catra felt a tingling sensation while her surroundings faded away.

And then she had to suppress a sudden urge to retch. It stank. Worse than a cadet barracks a month without any inspection. Glancing around, she saw the source - they were in a large room packed with people. People who shied away from them. People dressed in rags.

"I guess that's where the slaves disappeared to," Jack muttered next to her. "Should have taken Daniel with us."

"Yes," Adora agreed. She smiled at the slaves, but they looked even more scared. "Let's call the others and…"

A rumbling noise, quickly replaced by a whining sound that kept growing stronger, drowned her out. Then, the entire room trembled, and Catra's ears were assaulted by shrieks of panic. She clenched her teeth and slapped her hands over her ears, hissing with pain. What the…

It stopped as soon as it had started. Replaced by a buzzing in her ears - no, near her ears.

Her communicator had frizzed out.

"My tablet!" Bow complained. "They must have run an experiment!"

Hell! Catra bared her teeth. That meant half their gear - if they were lucky - just got fried.

"Carter? Carter?" she heard Jack snap.

No answer.

They had lost contact with the rest of their group.

*****​

Holding Area, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill stopped trying to use his communicator. It was obviously broken. As were all the communicators on them. It wasn't a catastrophe, though - they might have lost contact with half the team, but Carter and the others were at the ring transporter controls. They could just get them out again. And would as soon as they figured out that their comms had been wrecked. Which would take Carter about a fraction of a second.

Actually, she should have already used the transporter to get them out again. She would have tried to contact them after they had arrived - certainly after the experiment went off. That meant… "What are the chances this wrecked the transporter?" he asked.

"Uh…" Bow sounded evasive. That was a bad sign. "I don't think it would be destroyed. They wouldn't risk that, I think, would they?"

"I don't think they would keep doing those experiments if they wrecked their transporters every time," Catra said.

Jack agreed with that. But why hadn't the others transported them back yet? Had something happened to them?

"They're afraid of us," Adora whispered.

Right. They were surrounded by slaves. Jack looked around. The people were trying to put as much distance between them and Jack and his friends as possible - pressing themselves against the walls in some cases. At least there were no kids here - just adults. No older people, either. Yes, those were the missing workers. And they looked maltreated - gaunt in most cases. Starved.

"You don't need to be afraid of us!" Adora spoke up before Jack could think of the best way to handle this. "We're here to help you!" She smiled at them.

But the slaves just cringed and looked even more afraid.

That didn't deter her. "We're here to save you!" she went on.

Jack suppressed a groan. They had to find a way to save themselves first.

"I am She-Ra, Princess of Power. These are my friends: Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon, General Jack O'Neill of the Tau'ri, and Bow and Catra. We've been fighting the Goa'uld."

Jack winced. That could backfire - had backfired in the past. Some of the snakes' slaves took their religion seriously.

But there were gasps.

"She-Ra? The goddess?"

Adora winced at that. But before she could deny that, Jack whispered: "Don't deny it. They need to trust us." If they suddenly swarmed them…

One of the slaves - a young woman - slowly approached, almost crawling on her knees. "We've felt your blessing, goddess! You healed us!"

And speaking of healing… She had a barely healed wound on her leg, Jack saw.

"Please help us!" A middle-aged man added. He was cradling his left arm.

"We will," Adora said. " Ah… you don't need to kneel. We'll get you all out of here."

"As soon as our friends get the transporter working," Catra muttered under her breath.

"I still can't reach them," Bow said. "And my tablet is…" he trailed off with a grimace.

Broken beyond fixing, then. Jack nodded. Most of the slaves still looked afraid. Or knelt. Or both.

"If needed, Adora can restore magic to the planet, and then I can teleport us back to the others," Glimmer whispered.

Jack nodded. And Adora could blast a way to the surface with all the magic.

"Uh, that might not be the best idea, guys," Bow whispered. "That experiment broke my tablet and our communicators."

"Yes?" Jack looked at him.

"It broke the magitech in both," Bow said. "I checked."

Jack frowned. That meant…

"But the magic hasn't been restored to the planet yet," Glimmer said.

"They're experimenting with magitech," Bow confirmed. "Must be First Ones technology."

"Like the portal in the Fright Zone," Catra whispered.

"But… magitech works well with or without magic on a planet," Adora said.

"Yes. Normal stuff. But these are dimensional experiments…" Bow bit his lower lip again. "We don't know what they'll do with magic available. If the First Ones built whatever the Goa'uld here use with magic in mind, the experiments could have vastly different effects."

Jack grimaced. Things were already dicey enough without such a boost. "Let's save that for our Plan B."

"Yes." Adora nodded. "But we need to get those people out. We can't leave them here to suffer."

Jack looked around for a door or anything. They wouldn't just use a transporter to access this room, would they? Sure, it would improve security and make escaping all but impossible without outside help, but… None of the slaves were avoiding parts of the walls. They would, if they had ever seen such a door. "It looks like the snakes really limited access to the room to the ring transporter." Damn. Jack hated it when his enemies played it smart.

"Yes, they did," Catra agreed. She looked around as well. "But this doesn't look like First Ones style."

She was right! The walls were built in the same style, from the same material, as the base. "This was built by the snakes," Jack said. "And I don't think that they worked through the transporter for that." He didn't think they would have been able to start working in the middle of the solid rock and soil here. So… "They must have dug a tunnel from which they excavated the room," he said.

"And that might still be around - just sealed off!" Catra grinned and looked at the walls. "Time to check!"

*****​

Adora clenched her teeth and tried not to show it; these people were looking to her to be saved, and she couldn't do anything for them. Some were even praying! And their expressions… She didn't know what was worse, the fear or the hope.

She was such a fraud!

"Adora! Come here!" Catra called out, interrupting her thoughts. Her lover was standing at a wall, waving, while the poor people nearby were moving away - slowly, on the ground, as if they were afraid to stand.

Which they probably were. Adora clenched her teeth again and joined Catra. "What did you find?"

Catra grinned, flashing her fangs, and rapped her knuckles against the wall. "There's a hollow space behind this wall!" she announced with her ears twitching.

Oh. Adora couldn't hear anything like that, but she trusted Catra. "So Jack was right."

"I knew it!" Jack grinned and walked over to them, followed by Bow and Glimmer. They caused more movement amongst the prisoners - some cringing away, others slowly following them, shy, scared smiles on their faces as if they didn't dare to hope.

Adora had the sudden urge to crush every Goa'uld here for doing this to them. She struggled not to show her anger, though - the prisoners would be scared even more.

"So, do your thing, holder of the holy drill!" Catra quipped.

But the prisoners around them gasped, repeating 'holy drill', and more started kneeling.

Adora shot her lover a glare. That was her fault!

Catra snorted in return, apparently unimpressed.

Sighing, Adora changed her sword into a pickaxe, prompting even more gasps and prayers. She ignored them and stepped up to the wall. Glancing around, she made sure everyone was far enough away so they wouldn't be in danger of being hit by fragments, then raised her pick and hit the wall. Hard.

The wall all but exploded in a cloud of dust, and she felt shards and pebbles hit her. She drew her weapon back and watched the dust settle, revealing a crater almost a foot thick.

Behind her, Catra whistled, Jack made a comment about anger management, and the prisoners' prayers increased in volume.

Sighing, Adora swung her pick a few more times, opening a hole to reveal a wide tunnel. Wide but rough, she noted.

"That doesn't look very structurally sound," Jack commented.

"No, it doesn't," Bow agreed, moving forward to peer into the tunnel. "Most of the support struts look haphazardly placed."

"Guess they weren't meant to last long," Catra said. She cocked her head, frowning. "I think I heard some crack from them."

"Maybe Adora opening the hole has put more pressure on them," Bow guessed. "Or the experiment - the tremors we felt might be building up tension in the rock."

"And they probably have been running a lot of them - this was the second in a day," Jack added. "Better hurry up and get us out of here."

"And them," Glimmer said, nodding at the room.

Of course. Adora nodded, then turned to face the prisoners. "Stay here. We'll open a way and then get you out."

"Yes, goddess!" a young woman said, bowing her head amongst whispers and murmurs.

Adora wanted to correct her, but this wasn't the time for that. Instead, she turned and looked at the ceiling. If she restored magic and used the power it granted her, she could blow a hole to the surface. Like she had done in the Eurondan bunker. But that would endanger everyone above them, and if the whole thing collapsed… Better save that until they had no other option. She nodded, pressing her lips together. "Let's hurry!"

She stepped into the tunnel, but Catra dashed past her, leaving small tracks in the dust on the ground. Ahead of them, the tunnel turned, and Catra stopped at the corner, kneeling and touching the ground.

"It's wet," she said, rubbing her fingers and looking back at them.

"That's probably why they changed their heading," Bow said. "If there's a water vein ahead, they could have flooded the tunnel if they had kept going straight ahead. They also treated the walls here with some sealant." With an almost sheepish smile, he added: "My brother Dig is a miner."

Ah. Adora nodded and eyed the walls of the tunnel there. Yes, she could see some sort of coating there - but some water was still seeping through. On the other hand, there was no pool on the ground. Maybe it evaporated? The tunnel was pretty warm.

Catra, meanwhile, was already moving around the corner. "Damn! They collapsed the tunnel!" she hissed.

Adora followed her. She was correct - debris, rocks mostly, filled the tunnel. They were trapped! She would have to use magic to get them out!

Catra moved forward, picking up a rock and looking at it. "Blast traces."

Jack peered at it as well. "Yeah. Looks like from a staff weapon." He glanced at the ceiling, then at the rocks ahead of them. "If they shot the ceiling to collapse it, and the rock ended up here, then the blockade can't be too large."

Adora nodded. That made sense. "So, I could dig through it."

"You might bring down the ceiling if you do it, though," Bow pointed out. He glanced around. "We need to support the ceiling before you start digging."

"With what?" Jack asked. "Adora can't keep it up if she's also supposed to dig."

Bow smiled. "We can build stone arches. Like for bridges. Adora can cut the pieces from the walls of the prison."

That sounded doable. Jack looked sceptical, but Adora was already headed back to the prison. She trusted her friend.

And they had to hurry. People depended on them. The prisoners. And their friends back in the base.

She wouldn't let them down.

*****​

Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter resisted the urge to once again try to raise the General on the comm. The communicators were fried - she had checked herself. Crystals shattered by whatever exotic effect those multidimensional energy experiments caused. It was almost certainly a magical effect - based on magitech, of course, since there was no magic available to directly power the technology used - to affect the crystals like that, although it was theoretically possible that a wave interacting with the crystals on just the right frequency would have worked as well. Theoretically. But that wouldn't have affected the other crystals in their gear, which had also broken when the entire room shook.

Maybe Apophis had realised that they used magic and was working on a countermeasure to counter their magitech-based weapons and sensors? And not merely their magitech gear, she added silently as she looked at the controls of the ring transporter.

"The transporter is out of action," Jakar said, straightening from where he had been bent over the console. "According to the readings, it's 'resetting'."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded emphatically, her hair fanned out, holding up panels from where she was looking at the interior components of the transporter. "The crystal matrices have been knocked out of sync. Resynchronising will take some time, but I didn't find any critical damage. Except for serious wear on many components, though that's still within safe parameters. Just that they could really use some maintenance and replacements soon."

"It seems that the multidimensional energy discharges are severely affecting their own technology as well," Sam said. That wasn't a sign of a mature - or safe - technology.

"We knew that already from the way they avoid using sensors in the base," Jakar said.

"We suspected. We still suspect - this is just more support for that hypothesis," Entrapta told him with a grin. "But it looks sound. Although we still don't know what they are trying to do! We really need to sneak into the research base!"

We really need to contact the General and the others, Sam mentally corrected her friend. They were cut off, their only way back disabled - temporarily disabled. But they just had to wait, she reassured herself. As soon as the transporters finished resetting, they could get them back.

As long as the group stayed within the transporter area - the ring transporter swapped the entire area between the rings with the target area. But what were the odds of the others staying put? Sam clenched her teeth. After losing contact for too long, they would assume the worst and try to get back on their own. Probably fearing that Sam's group needed help. Any second those transporters took longer to reset increased the chance of their friends leaving the transport area. "We need to prepare a message in case they have left the area," she said. If only they could repair their communicators - or their radios. Those hadn't survived either. They needed tougher, hardened comms. With more redundancy. Keep backup systems turned off. That should render them more resistant to such attacks.

"Someone is coming," Teal'c interrupted her thoughts.

"Guards?" Sha're asked, zat'nik'nel ready.

"I presume so." Teal'c cocked his head. "Several walking in step."

A squad, then. Sam clenched her teeth. They should hide - if they were discovered right now, the mission would fail. And they would be caught in the middle of a base, with half their group missing, including their strongest. But hiding would mean abandoning the others… She pressed her lips together. She hated it, but they had no choice. "We need to leave," she whispered.

"But…" Entrapta started to say.

"Now!" Sha're cut her off. "We cannot get caught."

No one else argued. Jakar was already moving to the door where Teal'c stood. Sam could hear the steps herself as she joined them - still a bit away but closing in.

"This way." Teal'c led them into a side corridor.

Sam let the others pass, then followed them. Right before she turned the corner, she caught a glimpse of a Jaffa patrol walking past the side corridor towards the transporter room.

That had been close. Too close.

She could hear them talking but couldn't make out the words.

"One is complaining about the smell," Teal'c said in a whisper next to her.

Her eyes widened. The smell? They had cleaned up some, enough not to leave tracks on the floor, but… She felt herself blush, silly as it was.

"They blame it on the 'prisoners' - and someone not airing the room after the last transport," Teal'c went on.

Oh? Sam blinked. That smell - the stench of the air that the transporter had brought back when she had sent the General's group down! After swimming in an open sewer, it hadn't seemed too bad, but the Jaffa had noticed. And if there was no transport scheduled…

"They might blame it on a lazy slave," Jakar whispered.

Might. Or, if they were diligent, check the transporter logs. What were the odds for either? Should they take the guards out? Sam tensed.

Teal'c shifted next to her. "They said the transporter is now working again."

Sam gasped. That soon? "We have to take them out and secure the transporter!" she hissed. And then save the others!

But she could hear the transporter activating on the way to the room, and when she entered, the last ring was just vanishing into the floor. There was no sign of the guards.

"It smells different," Teal'c commented.

Then the Jaffa had chosen a different destination than the one the others had gone to. Well, that didn't matter - they still had the old destination in the memory banks of the transporter and could…

She blinked, drew a sharp breath and rushed over to the console. A quick check confirmed her fear: The memory banks had reset as well. They had lost the transporter's addresses!

Sam felt the sudden urge to shoot whoever was responsible for running these experiments under such conditions.

*****​

Holding Area, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Bow's idea had worked out. Or was working out - Catra watched as Adora finished the last support arc under his direction. Glimmer, holding a flashlight to illuminate the entire operation, was beaming as if she had come up with the idea, of course, but that was to be expected.

Catra glanced back towards the holding area, where a few of the slaves were peeking in. From their spot, they couldn't see anyone except Catra since she was standing at the corner - the perfect place to keep an eye on them and her friends. Well, almost perfect place; the wall was a bit too wet to lean comfortably against.

Two of the slaves realised that she had seen them - they must have good eyes since Catra was quite a bit away from them and the tunnel didn't have lighting installed - and ducked out, but the woman who had greeted Adora first stayed, staring straight at Catra.

Catra grinned and waved, and the woman bowed her head. She didn't try to enter the tunnel, though, so she wasn't about to disobey Adora's orders. Good. They couldn't fight whatever guards were in the area ahead with a bunch of poor slaves behind them.

On the other side of the corner, everyone took a step back as Adora started on the last part of the mass of gravel and rocks blocking the tunnel. A few hits with her magic pick reduced the stuff to rubble, which she scooped up after changing her pick into a huge shovel and spread it along the tunnel's walls, leaving a narrow path in the middle free. Catra would have to tease her about being a magical construction worker later. Once they were out of this pit.

She moved forward before Adora had finished fully clearing the blockade, quickly climbing over the remaining rocks and squeezing through the narrow opening on top.

"Catra! We don't know what's on the other side!" Adora complained.

"That's why I am going in," Catra replied, looking around.

"It's not safe! It could collapse!"

Catra eyed the ceiling. It didn't look particularly unstable or stable, so that was good enough for her. And it was only a few yards to a door - Goa'uld style, she noted - in front of her.

It should be safe enough.

She slid down the rubble on this side and approached the door. It was covered in dust and apparently hadn't been opened since the roof had collapsed. She could see where whoever had closed it had pushed back more rubble and rocks that must have fallen into the area behind the door. That was a good sign - it meant this part hadn't been abandoned. And the walls next to the door looked different. Familiar. She had seen that kind of metal before.

Behind her, she heard magic metal strike rocks, followed by a familiar grunting noise, then some huffing. Adora must have cleared away the last of the big rocks blocking the way and was squeezing through as well.

"Catra!"

"Just doing some recon," Catra told her with a grin before nodding at the door. "Look at the walls."

Adora peered at the metal, her armour shining brightly enough so even her eyes could see it, and frowned. "First Ones architecture."

"Yeah." Catra nodded. "Looks like we're at the underground base."

"Let's hope it's the right one!" Jack joined them, followed by Bow and Glimmer.

"Ring transporters don't have the range to reach other systems, and we didn't pick up any other potential bases in the system," Bow pointed out.

Jack grumbled in return. "So, can you crack this, or do we have to use my universal door opener?"

"Uh…" Bow smiled weakly and glanced at the ceiling. "I think we better don't use explosives." He moved to the lock. "I should be able to open this even without my tablet. It's pretty simple. Like the ones above."

Catra frowned. "So simple, the dimensional effects didn't wreck it?"

"Probably, yes," Bow replied, fiddling with the lock before he pulled off the dusty cover. "Yeah, definitely."

"So, they installed this after the experiments started?" Glimmer asked.

"Or they just didn't want to waste a better lock on a door leading to a tunnel they would collapse anyway," Jack suggested. He shrugged. "Whatever. Let's go through and see what we can do to ruin some snakes' day."

"And save their prisoners," Adora added, nodding firmly.

"Right."

"Let me check first if I can hear anything," Catra said, leaning forward to brush the dust off the door before pressing her ear against it. "No, nothing." Again, good insulation.

"Guess it'll be a surprise, then," Jack said.

Hopefully, for the snakes and not for us, Catra thought as Bow pulled out some more tools from his belt and started working on the lock.

A minute later, the door chimed and started sliding to the side - only to get stuck almost immediately. Catra heard the servos moving it whine as they strained.

"Ah… it looks like they blocked the door as well…" Bow said.

Adora scoffed and stepped forward. She grabbed both parts of the door, clenched her teeth and pulled.

Screeching, the metal bent as she tore it open, revealing a corridor behind it that looked very familiar indeed. First Ones style.

Catra cocked her head, listening. That noise would have alerted all guards in the vicinity. Though, depending on how big the base was, they might have gotten lucky and escaped notice.

Or not, she corrected herself when Adora stepped inside, and a figure appeared in front of her - no, a hologram. She scowled at the sight.

"Greetings, visitors. Please identify yourself," the hologram said in Light Hope's creepy voice.

"Ah, damn, here we go again," Jack muttered behind her.

*****​

Jack O'Neill was a human. Not an alien. That he had some alien genes that made some broken-down robot think he was an alien didn't change that. He wasn't a witch, either, but that didn't apply here. He had known meeting another Ancient AI was a possibility, but he had hoped it wouldn't happen.

Adora, though, was smiling. "Hello! I am Adora - She-Ra. These are Catra, Glimmer, Queen of Bright Moon, Bow, General O'Neill and Jakar/Mats."

The hologram bowed. "Greetings, Adora, General O'Neill. Welcome to Research Station Beta."

Jack sighed. Once again, the damn robot was ignoring everyone else but Adora and Jack. Wait… unlike Alpha, this bot hadn't told them that the station was at their disposal. "Who is in charge of the base?" he asked.

"That information is classified, General O'Neill."

Damn. Jack glanced at Adora, who was frowning. As were the others. Someone else had already taken over the base?

"There's a First One here?" Adora asked.

"That information is classified," the bot - presumably Beta - repeated itself.

"I'll take that as a yes," Jack said. "Whoever's in charge is working with the snakes," he said in a low voice.

Catra nodded and whispered: "Can't trust the bot."

Adora cleared her throat. "What about the prisoners in the room behind us?"

"Those are test subjects."

Test subjects? Jack clenched his teeth. So that was how Apophis was disposing of the slaves who knew too much!

"Test subjects?" Adora sounded livid.

"What experiments are they running here? More genetic engineering?" Catra asked.

The bot didn't react until Adora repeated the question: "What experiments are you running here?"

"That's classified as well."

"I don't think this is going to get any better," Jack said. "We should…"

"We want to talk to whoever is in charge," Adora said, taking a step forward. "I assume you have already informed them of our arrival."

"That is correct."

"How long until the guard spider bots arrive?" Catra mumbled, looking around. Before Jack could say anything, her ears twitched, and she hissed: "Incoming!"

"Take cover!" Jack waved, falling back to the door.

Adora, of course, took a step forward, sword changing into a shield. "We haven't attacked them," she said.

The hologram tilted its head to the side. "I'm following my orders."

"It's Light Hope all over again!" Catra snarled, moving to the side as Bow and Glimmer fell back.

Jack could hear running steps now - several of them. He crouched down and aimed his gun down the corridor.

"This is not necessary. We just want to talk to whoever is in charge of the base!" Adora said, raising her voice. "We don't want to fight you!"

The bot didn't reply.

A few seconds later, the first rank of the Jaffa rushed around the corner, and Jack greeted them with a burst from his carbine that struck the leading Jaffa in the chest, punching through the armour.

The Jaffa went down while his comrade fired his staff weapon.

Adora caught the blast on her shield and charged. She crashed into the Jaffa in the lead, sending him flying back - and into the second rank, who was just getting over the fallen Jaffa. All went down, and before they could get up again, Bow hit them with a glue arrow.

Then Catra landed next to them, claws slashing down. Blood flew, and she dropped to the floor a moment before a volley of blasts flew over her head. One blew a hole into the wall behind her, the others were caught by Adora.

Jack snapped off another burst but then had to hold his fire while Adora made short work of the rest of the Jaffa in close combat.

"I think we need to have a talk with the guy in charge about his hospitality," Jack said. A quite serious talk. Probably dead serious.

"Yes. And about their treatment of prisoners," Adora agreed, then turned and started running down the corridor.

As the rest of them followed her, Jack hoped she had an idea of where she was going.

He caught the bot's hologram fading out, smiling in that creepy way of hers, when he glanced over his shoulder to check their rear.

That rust bucket also needed a serious talking-to.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

The centre of the base had to be somewhere ahead of them. And there would be its current commander. Adora was sure. Pretty sure. She knew the layout of the base from their scans - approximately, at least; First Ones technology made scans from a distance a bit tricky - and Research Station Alpha was built similarly.

It didn't matter that much, anyway. The base wasn't that big, and as long as they kept moving, they would reach the command centre sooner or later. As she had been taught in cadet training, it was better to make a decision and act than do nothing.

She turned around the next corner, shield held in front of her - and caught a volley of staff blasts from a squad of Jaffa waiting in ambush on it. Clenching her teeth, Adora rushed them. They got off another, more ragged volley before she bowled them over.

Behind her, she heard a scream cut short, followed by a zat going off twice, and then Catra was at her side. "More incoming." She nodded at the corridor to their right.

"How many Jaffa are down here?" Jack complained as he joined them.

"As many as Apophis thinks are needed to keep our mysterious First One in line," Glimmer replied.

"Well, he's rapidly losing his safety margin," Jack commented, crouching to aim down the corridor.

"They've stopped!" Catra hissed. Her tail swished behind her.

Adora sighed and moved forward. If the Jaffa didn't charge in screaming praise for Apophis, they would either prepare an ambush or throw grenades around the corner. Neither would help them. This was a senseless waste of lives, and once Adora met whoever was responsible for this…

She heard a staff weapon going off, and a Jaffa was thrown out of cover, crashing against the wall to her side - hit in the back, she realised.

More shots followed, and she ran forward, turning the corner - just in time to see one Jaffa smash the face of another with the butt of his staff weapon, sending the warrior reeling, before flipping the weapon and firing point-blank into the man's chestplate.

Most of the gore and blood splattered against her shield. A few shards of the Jaffa's armour bounced off her own as the victim collapsed - on top of another corpse on the ground.

Before she could say or do anything, the remaining Jaffa dropped to his knees.

"Goddess! Please spare me! I have rejected Apophis for your wisdom and mercy!"

What? Adora blinked.

"I have seen your fury and felt your blessings on Saqqara when you showed your might against Apophis!" the warrior continued with his face pressed against the floor - halfway into a pool of blood, she realised. "Please accept me in your service!"

"Ah…" Adora hesitated, then forced herself to smile at the man even if he couldn't see her. "What is your name, warrior?"

"Atak, Goddess!"

"Killed his own squad," Catra commented in a low voice behind her.

That was true. Could they trust him? Could this be a ploy? Adora didn't know. But if he was genuine… Would Apophis really try such a trap? After going to such lengths to hide his defeat? And would the Goa'uld think of such a plan when they didn't trust each other at all? She didn't think so.

She slowly nodded. "Welcome to the Alliance, Atak."

"Thank you, Goddess!" the Jaffa loudly said.

Adora heard Jack groan behind her but ignored him. "Stand up and face us, please."

"As you command, Goddess." Atak slowly rose, averting his eyes.

"I am She-Ra, Supreme Commander of the Alliance," she told him, trying not to wince at the blood on his face. She could sort out that she wasn't a goddess later. "These are Glimmer, Queen of Bright Moon, Bow, Catra and General Jack O'Neill."

Atak bowed towards her friends. "Your chosen companions. I saw them fight at your side against Apophis."

So, he must have been among the guards they fought on Saqqara. And she probably healed him afterwards, when she restored magic to the planet.

"Yep. Our little dust off with dear old Apophis. How is he doing, by the way? And what are his people doing here?" Jack asked.

"And who's in charge here?" Catra added.

"The Goddess Taweret has joined Apophis as his queen," Atak replied. "She rules this world - and commands this base." He bowed again. "Apophis bade us to obey her as we would obey him. I have rejected her as I rejected him."

"Good," Adora said. But Taweret was in command here? She was a Goa'uld, not a First One. That made no… She blinked again. "Does the base - Beta - answer to her?"

"That's the blue glowing hologram," Jack added. "Talks about orders a lot and is generally annoying."

Atak nodded. "Yes, Goddess. The base answers to her."

Catra cursed next to Adora, as did Jack.

Adora wanted to curse as well.

Taweret must have a host with the First One gene. Or a First One.

Things were far worse than she had thought.

*****​
 
Chapter 143: The Secret Base Part 3
Chapter 143: The Secret Base Part 3

Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)


Samantha Carter faced her situation in a calm and logical manner. They had lost the address of the transporter to which the General and the others had gone. And they had no means to reestablish communication with them. In addition to that, Sam's group was currently trying to avoid detection in a Goa'uld base manned with elite troops since, with the absence of Adora, they didn't have the means to fight their way out of the base, much less take it over. And the multidimensional energy experiments the Goa'uld were running on the planet had wrecked half their electronics and all their magitech gear, making it impossible to call for help from the fleet outside the system and severely hampering their ability to subvert the enemy systems. Those were the negatives.

On the positive side, between her and Entrapta, they should be able to come up with ways to compensate for their current technical difficulties. If their own gear and tools didn't work, they would appropriate the enemy's, which, presumably, would still work. Even though, Sam had to amend that thought, not perfectly, as the wiped memory of the ring transporter had illustrated. Further, they weren't completely helpless. Teal'c was one of the deadliest fighters Sam knew and, as importantly, intimately familiar with the enemy's troops and tactics. Sha're had inside knowledge of the enemy's strategy and planning habits, and Daniel was not only an expert in Goa'uld history and culture but also a savant when it came to interacting with different and alien cultures. Although Sam wasn't quite sure yet how that would help them in their current predicament, she had been surprised by him before. Positively. And they were currently in the ring transporter room of the base, without guards to worry about.

All in all, their situation was far from the worst Sam had ever experienced. Critical, no doubt, but they weren't doomed. Of course, as a member of SG-1, her standards were probably a bit skewed…

"Do we have any clues to find potential addresses in the memory banks?" she asked. Randomly trying addresses had been a staple at Stargate Command at the beginning, and even after they had acquired lists with the coordinates of gate systems, they had been looking for more systems - especially systems unknown to the Goa'uld, in the hope of finding allies against them. Which actually had worked out beyond their wildest hopes when they had stumbled upon Etheria's Stargate. But that didn't work with ring transporters - the coordinates for those had to be much more precise than those for a Stargate, where you just had to 'hit' the stellar system, and the Stargate would do the rest. Which could cause problems by itself if there were more than one Stargate in a system, but… She focused on the problem at hand.

"No," Entrapta replied. "The energy used by the transporter could narrow the potential destinations down, but we don't have enough data to correlate anything. We would need to observe a lot more uses. And compensate for the energy loss caused by the slight damage to the transporter. So…" She pouted. "... it's not going to work well enough for this mission."

"And we can't follow the smell," Daniel said with a rueful smile.

Sam snorted, more to reward his attempt to replace the General's dark humour than because it had been a good joke. "Let's bug the transporter so we can record the next addresses," she said.

"But didn't you lose most of your tools?" Daniel asked.

"Most but not all," Sam replied.

"Yes!" Entrapta beamed. "And we're limited to very simple, sturdy systems. But if we make them tiny enough, and add a non-crystal or chip-based way to store data, it should work!"

"'Non-crystal or chip based' data storage?" Sha're asked.

"A tiny printer!" Entrapta was already bent over the open console controlling the ring transporter. "I saw an ad for a printer and bought one to check the mechanics. If we use thermal printing - well, the principle, it'll be more like branding - we should be able to rig something up to transcribe the addresses and coordinates the transporter uses!"

"Yes." Sam smiled. It would be a challenge, but if they repurposed a soldering tool and constructed some sort of controls from composite metal that bent when heated, they could make this. They just had to…

"If I may make a suggestion," Teal'c interrupted her thoughts. "Since the Jaffa working for the false gods have used the transporter after its memory was wiped, they must have known the address and entered it."

Sam grimaced as she finished his suggestion. "And they will have that written down so it won't get erased when the transporter's memory bank suffers another wipe due to accumulated damage. We just have to find those notes and take them."

"Indeed." Teal'c inclined his head.

Sam tried not to feel stupid for missing the obvious solution to their main problem. At least the General wasn't here to tease her about it.

On the other hand, if the General were here, she wouldn't have had to come up with such a plan in the first place.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Great. Just great. A Goa'uld with a First One as host. In full control of a First One research station, aided by a crazy bot. "That explains the stupid experiments," Catra muttered. "But why haven't they released their guard bots yet? We've just been facing Jaffa." And they could handle the Jaffa in their sleep. Maybe even without Adora.

Adora looked at Atak, but the Jaffa defector shook his head, bowing deeply. "Forgive me, Goddess, but I do not know what Taweret is planning. I am merely a guard; I was never taken into her or Apophis's confidence. Not even before the defeat he suffered at your hands."

Catra snorted. With two of Apophis's Prime going rogue, it made a lot of sense that Apophis wouldn't trust them, much less the rest of his guards.

Adora smiled at the Jaffa. "There is nothing to forgive. You did not offend me - in fact, I am proud that you rejected Apophis and Taweret. I don't expect you to know all their plans."

But it would have made things easier if you did, Catra silently added.

"Thank you for your mercy, Goddess!" Atak bowed so quickly, drops of blood were sent flying from his face.

Catra leaned into Adora and whispered: "Maybe add some divine decree about washing your face?"

"Catra!" Adora shook her head. "But we need to find Taweret. Do you know where she is?"

Atak straightened immediately. "Yes, Goddess! In her command centre! I can lead you there!" he said, nodding.

He didn't move, though. What was he waiting for, a written invitation? Catra blinked. Damn - he was waiting for orders from his goddess! She glanced at Adora.

Her lover was nodding. "Please do so!"

"As you command, Goddess!" Atak turned and started marching back from where he had come.

"I can't wait for him and Priest to meet," Jack muttered. "They'll probably debate the proper titles of their goddess for days. Or have a schism over it."

"Jack!" Adora hissed while Catra chuckled.

But she was already moving faster to catch up with Atak. He seemed genuine, but as the humans said, better safe than sorry. If this was a trap, then she wouldn't let him lead them into an ambush.

Though as loud as his steps were, he might lead them into an ambush anyway without wanting to. On the other hand, the Jaffa would expect them to sneak, so this might actually be quite cunning - if he had thought about it. She would have to ask him later.

They reached another T-junction. No guards here - but Atak stopped before leaving their corridor. "The command centre is to our right. It is heavily guarded."

Catra cocked her head. She couldn't hear anything from that direction… Wait! That sounded like metal faintly creaking. Someone must be shifting in their armour.

Behind them, the others arrived. "Command centre to the right," Catra whispered. "Probably guarded."

"Goddess!" Atak bowed again.

"Let's take them down." Adora was mad, Catra could tell.

But Catra also knew her lover could control herself. At least enough not to kill Taweret's host, who was, probably, innocent. Though if they were a First One, that was more of a maybe - Between the Heart of Etheria and Research Station Alpha, Catra had seen enough to know that the First Ones hadn't been nice people. Or good people. She-Ras were the exception, of course.

"Let's go!" Adora nodded, changed her sword into a shield, and stormed around the corner.

Catra was hot on her heels. She heard cries of surprise and alert a moment before the first staff weapons fired, clenching her teeth as the wall next to her exploded from a hit that had missed Adora's shield.

They never learn, she thought as Adora crashed into the Jaffa formation, sending them scattering. One spun away and crashed into the wall next to her from the impact. Catra quickly veered off, slashing her claws through his neck guard and kicking the staff weapon he was still holding away.

Another had managed to keep standing even though he had been pushed to the door at his back and was swinging his staff to aim at Adora. She simply moved her shield, and the explosion from his own shot took the idiot out.

It barely scratched the door, though - obviously, the First Ones had taken care to protect their command centres.

"Let me check if there's…"

But before Bow could finish, Adora had stepped up to the door, pushed the slumped-over body of the Jaffa aside and rammed her newly changed sword through the gap in the middle.

Yeah, she was mad. Using - and killing - slaves as 'test subjects' would do that to her, Catra knew.

But just when Adora was starting to twist her blade to open a gap in the door, Catra heard a humming, steadily increasing noise again, and the whole room started to tremble. "Another experiment!" she spat.

"But… there was none scheduled!" Atak blurted. "I heard no order to fetch more test subjects, either, since the alert."

They were using the slaves for experiments when their base was under attack? Catra shook her head. That went beyond stupid! Even for Goa'uld. But maybe not for First Ones.

"We have to stop them!" Glimmer gasped.

"We will!" Adora spat as the sound grew louder and the vibrations stronger. With a guttural grunt, she leaned in, reached into the gap - and tore it open.

And Catra jumped on her head, then pushed off, to the side, into the room. There was a line of Jaffa firing at Adora and behind them a woman wearing more gold than fabric - Taweret!

Catra flashed her teeth as she twisted, touching the ground, launching herself at the Goa'uld, her claws digging into the ground. This was…

Everything turned white.

*****​

"CATRA!"

Jack O'Neill was still blinking, trying not to get blinded by the sun that had suddenly lit up the room or hit by the staff weapons he heard firing when Adora's scream made his ears ring.

"CATRA!"

Jack heard heavy footsteps, followed by more shots and screaming. And screeching metal.

He should have expected this. Or something like it. Still blinking rapidly, he cursed himself as he followed Adora into the room - just in time to see her grab the last Jaffa standing and lift him over her head.

The snake - Taweret - shot her with a ribbon device, repeatedly, but Adora just snarled, then hurled the struggling Jaffa at the Goa'uld with enough force to throw her several yards back, into and over a console.

"Where is Catra?" Glimmer asked next to him.

Jack glanced around. He saw a snake and a dozen Jaffa on the ground, dead or unconscious, several weird Ancient devices, but no cat woman.

"Where is CATRA?" Adora screamed. She strode forward, grabbed the dazed snake by the throat and lifted her up. "What did you do to her?"

"Adora!" Glimmer blurted out.

"What did you do to her?" Adora repeated herself, shaking the snake like a ragdoll.

"Adora!" Glimmer ran towards her. "Stop!"

Jack clenched his teeth. That was why you didn't date your fellow team members. Adora was losing it in the middle of their mission. "She can't answer if you choke her to death," he said - and tried not to flinch when Adora turned her head and glared at him with an expression that made a shiver run down his spine.

This is Adora, he told himself. She won't turn on her friends even when mad with grief. Or so he hoped.

"Please, Adora. Jack's right," Bow said.

"Don't kill her - you'd kill her host," Glimmer added.

Adora froze for a moment, then drew a sharp breath and released the snake.

Taweret fell down to the floor, wheezing and coughing, collapsing to her knees. Before she could recover, Adora grabbed her arm and tore her ribbon device off, crushing it in the process.

The research heads back home won't be happy about that, Jack thought. He pushed the thought away. He had to focus. "What did you do?" he asked.

Taweret didn't even look at him. She was staring at Adora, who was towering over her. "Who… who are you?" the snake asked, then coughed. "What are you?"

"This is Adora."

Jack whirled, raising his gun to his shoulder. Beta's hologram was floating there, smiling.

"She is the new commander of Research Station Beta," the bot went on. "The station is at your disposal, Adora."

"What?" Jack blurted out together with everyone else - even the snake.

"You are no longer in charge of this research station, Queen Taweret," the bot said.

"Traitor!" the snake spat. "I am your commander! A First One! You said so!"

Beta's smile didn't change. "Your mental state is in doubt. Adora is the obvious replacement."

"I am your goddess!" Taweret screeched before starting to cough and holding her throat.

"What are your orders, Adora?" Beta asked.

"Ah…" Adora blinked. "What did she do to Catra?"

"The subject used the station's experimental dimensional gate projector in a misguided and fairly desperate attempt to trap you in another dimension. Predictably, it failed, but your friend was caught in its effect." The bot lowered its head. "I attempted to stop her, but I could not countermand her orders no matter how wrong. I am sorry."

Jack narrowed his eyes. The bot tried to stop the snake? Yeah, right.

The others looked shocked, though.

"Catra's trapped in another dimension?" Adora gasped.

"Like…" Glimmer trailed off.

Jack winced. Yeah, that would hit a nerve.

Taweret tried to scramble away, but Adora grabbed her head before she could scoot more than a yard. "Where did you send Catra?"

The snake must have found her spine again since she spat at Adora. "You'll never find her! None of the slaves ever got back!"

For a moment, Adora looked like she would murder Taweret on the spot. But she shook her head and scoffed. "That's what you think." Turning to Beta, she said: "How many Jaffa are still active in the research station?"

"Two squads of four each are securing the power generator and the dimensional gate projector, Adora," the bot replied.

"We need to take them out. And we need to secure the entrances," Jack said.

Atak nodded. "We can turn off the ring transporter we installed in the base, Goddess."

"That would cut off our friends as well," Bow said.

Jack pressed his lips together. What were Carter and the others doing, anyway? They should have gotten the transporter working by now.

Adora hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Let's secure the base and lock Taweret up somewhere. Then we'll find the others and take out all Goa'uld forces in the system." She turned to Beta. "And then we'll get all our friends back. No matter the cost."

Beta beamed. "Research Station Beta is at your disposal, Adora."

Jack couldn't help thinking that she looked like a scientist who had just gotten an unlimited research grant from the government. And why was she ignoring him? It wasn't as if he was an alien, but she had addressed him as one before, like Alpha, hadn't she?

*****​

"The research station is secure. The transporter has been deactivated."

Adora nodded at Beta's report. She had taken out the remaining Jaffa while Bow had disabled the ring transporter with Glimmer and Jack. The survivors were now secured in a 'holding area' Beta had opened. Taweret herself was locked in what Beta had called a 'containment field' - force fields like those the Horde had used in their cells, just without actual walls. They had stripped the Goa'uld of all jewellery beforehand, of course - Goa'uld liked to hide their weapons and tools as jewellery. Or they liked using their weapons and gear as decorations. It was hard to tell.

Adora glanced at the woman glaring at her from her 'cell' in the corner and sighed. She had almost killed - murdered - Taweret's host. A victim of the Goa'uld - and a prisoner of war. Technically, at least. Adora shook her head at her own… lapse. She should have known better than that. She was the Supreme Commander of the Alliance. She would have to do better than that. Even after what the Goa'uld queen had done to Catra.

She clenched her teeth, struggling with the rage and desperation filling her. Catra was… trapped in another dimension. And it was all Adora's fault - she should have expected a trap instead of rushing in.

But she would save her love. And everyone else that Taweret had used in her evil experiments. She would get Catra back! She had done it before, she would do it again!

But you haven't been able to save Angella, a small voice whispered in the back of her head. It sounded like Shadow Weaver.

She pushed the thought away. She couldn't dwell on that. Not now.

"We've disabled the transporter," Bow announced when he returned with the others. "Temporarily. I can easily turn it back on, but I can't do it by remote - not without my tablet."

Which had been damaged by the multi-dimensional experiments. Adora nodded. "That leaves the ring transporter in the holding area." Where the slaves were.

"That's where the others will head to," Jack said. "We can't disable that."

"They would have reached us already if they could," Glimmer said. "They must be unable to use the transporter."

Adora pressed her lips together and looked at Atak. "You said it usually takes a few minutes for the transporter to reset after an experiment."

"Yes, Goddess!" Atak bowed his head instead of nodding. "But it doesn't usually take this long."

"It might have been damaged by the experiments," Bow said. "If it gets reset by the effects, then it is affected. It could have accumulated minor stress damage with each experiment until something serious got broken."

If the transporter was damaged, Sam and Entrapta should be able to repair it. It might take them a bit of time, though, depending on how severe the damage was. That was the best case. "We need to contact them. Can you control the ring transporters here?" she asked Bow.

"Once I crack Taweret's controller, yes," he replied. "But that will take a while."

"So, we'll disable the ring transporter in the holding area until you can control them," Adora said. "And evacuate the slaves to the station here." She turned to Beta's holographic projection, which was floating nearby. "Do we have sufficient quarters for them?"

Beta nodded. "Yes, although with limited comforts."

"What does that mean?" Jack asked.

"They will have to stay in crowded quarters with limited supplies."

"Is it better than their current, ah, quarters?" Adora asked.

"Yes."

Adora nodded. "Good. Prepare the rooms. We'll fetch them."

"As you wish, Adora." Beta faded away.

Adora turned to the others. Bow would have to come along to disable the transporter. And she wanted to keep Atak close to her. Just in case. But someone would have to stay here and both guard Taweret and the control room of the station."

"I'll keep an eye on the snake," Jack said with a wry, humourless smile.

He was the best choice - he had the Ancient gene. Although… "Beta," Adora spoke up.

Beta's projection reappeared. "Yes, Adora?"

"Jack's in command until I return."

"I assumed that already, Adora." Beta glanced at Jack. "But it is good to have confirmation about your chain of command."

"He also outranks Taweret," Adora added. "Actually, she has no authority over you."

"I also assumed that."

Jack frowned. "Speaking of Taweret, are you aware that the real Taweret is a parasite controlling a First One host and not a First One?"

"Yes." Beta nodded.

"And you let her take over the station?" Adora blurted out. How could Beta have allowed this?

"I surrendered the station to the First One Zahra. She then voluntarily surrendered her body to Taweret," Beta said. "Apparently, she considered that a great honour and ordered me to obey her religious figure as if she herself were giving the order. Since that order was given before she became a host and I lacked any other legitimate authority figure to countermand it, I was bound to obey her."

That explained it. Zahra must have been a slave conditioned to worship Taweret.

"Just following orders, huh?" Jack commented.

"Yes." Beta smiled. "That was what I was built for."

Adora grimaced. On the one hand, she knew that blind obedience was a terrible idea for any organisation. Especially if the First Ones were involved. On the other hand, having the bot in control of a First Ones research station acting on their own wasn't a good idea either. Not at all. And if Taweret's host was a true believer in the Goa'uld's divinity… Well, that could wait for a moment. They had to finish securing the station,

She nodded. "Let's go. And once we're back, you'll tell us everything about those experiments."

"Yes, Adora."

*****​

Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Alright! We've hacked the security system! As far as you can call it a security system, of course. It's more like a bunch of sensors that all report to one central authority, though as far as we can tell, at least, the readings aren't integrated there."

"It's probably just guards watching screens," Samantha Carter summed up Entrapta's explanation for the others.

"Yes. Their experiments must really handicap their security," Entrapta agreed. "That's why setting up a proper lab and testing grounds is so important!"

"Their loss is our gain," Sha're said.

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded slowly. "But it behoves us not to underestimate Apophis's guards. They will be very alert - as soon as they suspect our presence, they will put the base on alert and mobilise all available warriors."

"So, we best not get noticed." Daniel smiled, but it looked a little forced.

Sam could understand that - they needed to either steal the coordinates the guards used from under their noses or ambush a patrol with them. Either was a challenge. Ambushing a patrol without alerting anyone might be easier, especially with the security sensors under their control, but sooner or later, the rest of the guards would notice the missing patrol and react accordingly. Sam would really prefer to avoid that until they had linked up back with the rest of their team.

She looked at the feed on the screen Entrapata and she had cobbled together - 'sturdy enough', according to her friend, to survive the next experiment. Unfortunately, the security centre wasn't covered by the cameras. But the two corridors connecting to it were, and when the doors opened, parts of the interior were revealed.

And that didn't look promising. Sam had spotted at least three guards inside. Probably more - the room was large, and a decent part of it was not visible from the cameras' angles, even with the doors open.

"They might be keeping the guards ready at the security centre," Teal'c said, "in order to direct them to any possible security breach at once without interference." He looked at Sam. "Taking all of them out without raising an alarm might be difficult."

And if Teal'c said that, it meant impossible - at least for the team they had available. Unless… "The security centre is supposed to be protected against gas attacks, right?" Sam asked.

"It's a standard precaution," Teal'c replied.

"Yes. Poison gas used to be a staple for assassinations and coups in the past until most System Lords adapted," Sha're agreed. "It hasn't been used much lately, as far as I know."

"That means they will have an internal oxygen supply," Sam said. "But will they have adjusted that for the interference from the experiments?" The base was rather new, after all, and people tended to cut corners when rushing things. The security system showed that already.

"Oh!" Entrapta smiled. "But where do we get poison gas?"

"We don't," Sam replied. Not technically, at least. Then she started to explain.

*****​

Samantha Carter looked up at the ventilation duct's opening. Entrapta's hair was waving at her. So, everything was ready. Good. She checked her screen. She couldn't see any patrols in the area. And they couldn't wait any longer any more - the risk of being detected was too great. She tugged twice on the strand of hair and watched the screen again.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the doors flew open and a dozen Jaffa rushed out of the centre, followed by a cloud of smoke before the doors closed again. An alert sounded in the base as well, and Sam tensed. That was the largest weakness of their plan. If the Jaffa were too stubborn or suspicious…

On the screen, she saw two patrols rushing towards the service centre. They were carrying firefighting gear. She smiled and took a deep breath - it seemed their plan was working. Now, if everything else worked out…

She pressed her lips together as the seconds passed. On the screen, the Jaffa gathered in front of both doors, extinguishers ready. Sam made a mental note to study the gear afterwards - this would also give them intel about the damage control skills of the enemy fleet.

Then the doors opened, and the guards, wearing full-face helmets, rushed in to fight a fire that had never been real. And as she had hoped, the Jaffa seemed to assume that the life support unit had simply broken down - at least they acted like that was the case; Sam was sure that if they suspected enemy action, they wouldn't stand around complaining.

"All done!" Entrapta's voice sounded above Sam's head. "The unit was easy to sabotage!"

She looked up and saw Entrapta wriggle out of the ventilation duct. Even a person as small as her friend had trouble fitting through them. Without her hair, she wouldn't have been able to move quickly enough through the ducts - or at all. But she had managed. And now the Jaffa would be busy airing out and repairing their security centre.

"I got pictures off their sheets!" Entrapta announced as her hair tendrils set her down on the floor. "It felt like back in the Fright Zone! We should travel through ventilation ducts more often! It's efficient and fun!"

Sam smiled. "I'll take it under consideration. But let's head back to the ring transporter." And get the others back, she added to herself as they quickly moved along the planned route back to the others.

Her good mood vanished as soon as she tried to use the transporter, though.

The receiving transporters were not active.

*****​

Unknown Location, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

When Catra finally could see more than blurry spots, she found herself floating and staring at nothing. "Adora?" she asked, turning around. Adora had been right behind her. And a bit to her left.

But Adora wasn't there. Her head swivelled frantically while she looked around and above and below. Nothing. Just white emptiness. She was floating in…

She drew a sharp breath when she realised what had happened. She had charged into a trap, foolishly thinking she had the drop on the enemy, and now… Was this the afterlife? Dying was supposed to hurt, though. On the other hand, if she had been killed so fast, she didn't realise it until now, would it have hurt?

But what would have killed her? Some disintegration ray? The Goa'uld had the technology, zat'nik'tels proved that, but they took three hits to completely dissolve your body. But they might have improved on that - this was a research station. And they had used slaves as test subjects…

Her eyes widened. This wasn't a Goa'uld research station but a First Ones! And one dealing with multidimensional energy discharges or whatever Entrapta and Sam had called it. And she had heard the sound of another such experiment when they had breached the room, and so…

She closed her eyes and hissed through clenched teeth.

…she was probably in another dimension. Or dead. Couldn't exclude that.

Not that it mattered, Catra guessed. Not when she was stuck floating in nothing. At least it was bright and not dark. Being lost in total darkness would be worse. Much worse.

Not that she had much to look at - just herself.

She looked down at her body, wriggling her toes for a moment, unsheathing and sheathing her claws. She didn't feel dead. Or weird. She cocked her head, moved her ears and tail, stretched. Everything felt like it should.

And yet… She sniffed the air. She smelt her sweat, but only traces of smoke, dust and the stench from the slave area. But nothing else. This weird space where she was floating had no scent of its own. And no sound - her ears didn't hear anything.

Maybe she was dead, and this was the light you supposedly saw when dying. And the afterlife was an eternity floating in nothing.

She hissed again and forced the thought away. She wasn't dead. She was just… trapped in some dimension. The others would come for her. Adora wouldn't abandon her. She would do everything to get Catra back. They would have taken control of the research station now. Soon, they would bring in Entrapta and Sam. And call in Hordak - he had experience with dimensional travel.

No, it wouldn't be too long before Catra would be saved. She just had to be patient and wait. She could do that. Just do nothing. Enjoy the quiet. Relax. Rest.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Still no scent. No sound other than her breathing. It was peaceful. And the temperature was fine. Not warm, but not cold either.

She stretched again and shifted around. It was like being out in space. Just without a spacesuit. But the lack of gravity was the same.

Still, it wasn't the best spot for a nap. She didn't need a bed, but a patch of sunlight would be nice. Floating in the sun, warm and comfortable… She sighed at the thought.

And felt her skin grow warmer.

She opened her eyes with a gasp. What the… There was a sun? She turned her head, then had to jerk away, closing her eyes. Yes, there was a sun. But how? Had she been moving all this time? Or had she travelled into another dimension? Or…

A soft sound made her ears twitch, and she turned. Another light, a bit away, not nearly as bright as the sun, had appeared - and was fading. Replaced by… a glowing person?

She squinted. The person was floating like Catra was - and turning around. As soon as they saw Catra, they flew straight at her.

Catra blinked. That was… Her eyes widened. That was… "Adora!" She had found her! Just as Catra had known she would.

Adora came to a stop in front of her. "There you are! Don't be afrai… Catra?"

"Adora!" Catra beamed at her. "You found me!" It was her. Although she was wearing her old outfit, Catra noticed. The one with the skirt and shorts.

And she was glaring at Catra with an expression that made her flinch.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Carter and the others were still out of contact. Not missing - they were probably raising hell in Apophis's base on top. Just unable to contact them for technical reasons. Jack O'Neill was sure of that. Pretty sure.

Besides, if the Jaffa had fought the others, or even just detected them, they would have contacted her scaly majesty at once, and they hadn't received a call on the station's comm so far. Unlike the snake's comm, or the Etherians', the station's FTL comms had been 'specifically hardened to resist the experiments' side effects', as the bot had described it, and Taweret had had a set of those comms moved to the base on the surface. Unfortunately, it was in the security centre there, so the odds of Carter and the others being able to use it weren't great - and if they managed to get control of the comms, they wouldn't take the risk of trying to contact the underground station and alert Taweret.

It was really annoying that they had comms back and still couldn't reach the others. At least they had been able to use the station's FTL comms to reestablish contact with the task force outside the system.

"...so, stay ready to launch the prepared attack on our signal," Jack heard Adora order in the background.

"As you command, Your Divine Highness!"

"It is remarkable that you have been able to subvert our ancient enemies." The Bot's projection appeared next to Jack, almost startling him.

"They've seen the light," he replied with a twisted grin.

"The task force is ready to take out the Goa'uld forces in the system," Adora announced, walking over to them. "Now, Beta, tell me everything about the experiments you were running here!"

"Yes, Adora." Beta nodded. "As you are already aware, this station - and myself - were built to conduct multi-dimensional research. As you likely know, bridging alternate realities is possible, but travelling there is quite dangerous due to the entropic cascade effect. Because of this, this station was tasked with finding safer ways to reach alternate universes and came to build the Dimensional Gate Projector."

"Yep, of course, entropic cascade stuff, we know everything about that." Jack nodded, then glanced at the others. They seemed as lost as he felt.

"Good." Apparently, the bot wasn't programmed for sarcasm.

Wait! Jack blinked. "Are you talking about the Quantum Mirror?"

Beta cocked its head, looking confused. "I am not familiar with that designation."

"That alien device that allows travelling to an alternate reality," Jack said. "Daniel used it once and went to a universe where Earth had fallen to the Goa'uld. That was why he could warn us about Apophis's attack. It kinda looks like a mirror. Sort of." He made vague motions with his hands to show the outline.

"I am not familiar with such a device," Beta said.

That was weird. Shouldn't an Ancient bot know about that device?

"Where is it? This could significantly advance our research!" Beta had an almost eager expression.

Scratch that, Jack amended his thoughts as the bot leaned in, definitely eager. He had seen housewives looking more distant while pressed against Target doors on Black Friday.

"It was destroyed, actually," Bow said. "Because it's so dangerous. The energy needed to breach the dimensional barrier is so massive, a containment failure could have wrecked reality itself."

Beta glared at him. "That's not a reason to dismantle it! That's a reason not to fail an experiment!"

Jack couldn't help thinking that he wasn't really sad that the people who programmed this bot were gone.

"What's done is done," Adora cut in. "What exactly were you doing here? What did happen to Catra?"

"Your, ah, friend was targeted by a portal that was part of an experiment using unstable dimensions as a travel medium to reach alternate realities," Beta replied.

"Unstable dimensions?"

"Proto-pocket dimensions," Beta explained. "Generated but not yet completed. The theory is that they will be able to bridge alternate realities that are so close to ours, that the entropic cascade effect will not appear. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to verify this so far." The bot frowned. "But recently, Taweret had changed the parameters of the experiment. Instead of retrieving test subjects to refine the mechanics of safe dimensional travel, she wanted to focus on its use as a means to remove starships and other objects from our universe - even though this had already been demonstrated successfully during the war against Horde Prime."

Jack blinked. They wanted to weaponise this? Wait - the debris they had analysed earlier! "You've blown up Horde frigates?"

"Yes." Beta nodded. "Although it was an unsuccessful test for transporting starships, it worked as a weapon and removed a threat to this station."

Damn! Jack clenched his teeth. If they had attacked right away with the task force, they would've run straight into this…

"If it already worked as a weapon, why were you doing more experiments with it?" Glimmer asked.

"The power requirements and side effects of dimensional travel prevent its use as a ship-based system, especially when installed on a vessel using inferior technology such as a Ha'tak, though Taweret was determined to change this. So far, she hasn't succeeded." Beta sounded actually smug about this.

"The power transfer to the Ha'tak in orbit!" Bow exclaimed.

"Yes. The damage to the ship has been more limited than in her first attempt."

First attempt? The missing Ha'tak! Taweret must have blown it up in an experiment. So, they didn't have to worry about Ha'taks sending Horde frigates into other dimensions. And if Jack had anything to say about this, they would never have to.

"This ends now. Your only goal is to find Catra - and the others - and take them back!" Adora ordered.

"This will require more experiments, Adora. With test subjects as before."

Beta sounded too eager again, in Jack's opinion.

*****​
 
Catra blinked. That was… Her eyes widened. That was… "Adora!" She had found her! Just as Catra had known she would.

Adora came to a stop in front of her. "There you are! Don't be afrai… Catra?"

"Adora!" Catra beamed at her. "You found me!" It was her. Although she was wearing her old outfit, Catra noticed. The one with the skirt and shorts.

And she was glaring at Catra with an expression that made her flinch.

Oh dear. I can think of a few posibilities here, most of them are not particularly good for Catra.
 
Chapter 144: The Secret Base Part 4
Chapter 144: The Secret Base Part 4

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)


"We're not using people as test subjects!" Adora snapped at Beta.

The bot's projection frowned. "But how else do you suggest we develop the technology necessary to recover your friend? As I explained, since Queen Taweret had ordered the experiments' parameters changed, we have made no progress with the recovering part of the project."

"We'll find another way!" They had to! And they would! "We'll get Entrapta and Sam working on this. And Hordak."

"I am not familiar with any of these people," Beta replied.

"Smartest women in the galaxy," Jack commented. "Except for Hordak, of course."

Beta cocked her head sideways and looked at Jack. "If Hordak is not as smart, why would she be included in the research?"

"I meant he's not a woman," Jack explained.

"Ah."

"He has experience with transporting people into other dimensions," Adora said. That was how Hordak had arrived on Etheria while it had still been trapped in Despondos. Oh. "We'll also have to go through the databanks on Etheria that remained from Light Hope." She clenched her teeth at the thought of Light Hope's actions, Mara, and everything else that had gone so wrong.

"Light Hope? I am not…"

"...not familiar with that person, yes, yes," Jack cut in.

"She was a bot like you," Adora explained. "She transported me from this dimension into Despondos when I was a baby."

"Oh. Another like Alpha and myself?" Beta perked up. "And you have access to her data about dimensional travel?"

"We don't know. She was destroyed during the war against Horde Prime," Adora said. "But she wasn't in control of a research station like you and Alpha are."

"And yet she managed to transport people to and from other dimensions? We must recover as much of her data as possible! This could massively advance our research here!" Beta nodded eagerly. "And, of course, this could be crucial for recovering your friend."

Yes, of course - Adora should have thought about this immediately! Mara had been able to transport the entire solar system of Etheria into Despondos! Adora should be able to recover Catra. Especially if she had the power from restoring magic to this world at her disposal.

But she didn't know how to do it. She bit her lower lip. If she tried this and failed, wielding the power of a world's magic, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Then I can't fail, she thought, nodding again - before remembering what Beta had said about not failing experiments. Maybe…

"Adora?"

She blinked. "Yes, Glimmer?"

"You were kinda… zoned out." Glimmer smiled a little weakly.

"Sorry!" Adora matched her smile. "I was… thinking about alternatives." She shook her head. "First, we need to contact the others. And quickly." Before something else went wrong.

"You could use the dimensional gate projector to deal with Taweret's guards," Beta suggested. "The coordinates of their base are known. And this would net us more data about dimensional travel, potentially facilitating your friend's recovery."

What? Send more people into another dimension? Even if they were working for Apophis, that would be cruel. Even if, once they could save Catra, they could save everyone, it would be…

"Our friends are also in that base," Jack reminded her. "We don't want to accidentally transport them into another dimension, do we?"

Right. Adora shook her head. "We're not using the dimensional gate projector on anyone."

"That will severely hinder our research into recovering your friend," Beta said.

"We'll manage," Glimmer told her.

"Yes, we will." Adora looked at the others. "If we can't contact the others, then we'll have to clear the base ourselves. The guards still haven't tried to contact Taweret, so they haven't been caught."

"Using a transporter requires an active transporter as a destination," Beta told them. "Otherwise, the energy used will be released in an uncontrolled and usually highly destructive manner."

"We're aware of that," Jack said. "Don't worry."

His smile was a little too toothy. It reminded Adora of… She didn't want to go there. "Let's go," she said. "Jack, stay here."

He didn't like that. Not at all - his expression told her that. She understood, of course; she wouldn't want to stay back when they were going to save Catra. But he was the only other 'First One' here with them, and while Adora didn't think Beta would betray her, there was just something about the bot that made her wary.

And judging from the glance Jack sent at the bot before he nodded, he felt the same.

"Yeah, right, sure."

"Let's go!" Glimmer was already moving.

Two minutes later, they were at the ring transporter, and Bow was checking the controls.

"The transporter in the Goa'uld base is active," he reported.

Adora nodded and drew her sword. "Send me up first." She could handle staff weapon blasts from an ambush. The others couldn't. "Give me a minute to get clear before you follow." And to clear the room if necessary.

Glimmer frowned at her but didn't argue. Bow nodded, and Atak straightened. "Yes, Goddess!"

Then Bow pushed a button, and the rings rose around Adora. She took a deep breath and tensed. If this was a trap…

The world shifted, and she appeared in the base transport room - surrounded by her friends, all of them aiming their weapons at her.

"Uh… Hi! Sorry for being late!" She smiled at them.

*****​

Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter lowered her weapon and nodded at Adora. And tried not to feel slightly annoyed at the fact that her plan to get the coordinates for the transporter had just been rendered redundant. "What happened?"

"Adora! You're back!" Entrapta. "How are the others? Did you find the base?"

"Yes, we did," Adora replied. She lost her smile, though, Sam noticed. "We captured Taweret, dealt with her guards and secured the research station. But we lost Catra - Taweret used an experimental gate projector to transport her into another dimension, and we need to get her back!"

Sam drew a sharp breath. Lost in another dimension? The odds of Catra surviving that weren't good. Not at all.

Entrapta gasped. "Like Angella?"

Sam winced. Glimmer's mother had sacrificed herself to stabilise an interdimensional portal that had threatened to unravel reality.

"We don't know. Not yet. Things are different," Adora said as she left the transport area. "The others are fine. Ah! We also met Atak - he's a former guard for Apophis who deserted them and joined us." She winced. "He, ah, worships me."

Sam glanced at Teal'c. That was his area of expertise. Well, Jaffa deserters, not the religious part.

"I see." Teal'c slowly nodded. "He was on Saqarra then when we raided Apophi's palace?"

"Yes!" Adora nodded, then checked her watch. "The others should arrive shortly."

As if they had waited for a cue, the rings rose again, and the rest of Adora's group appeared. Except for the General, though.

"Jack's, ah, keeping an eye on Taweret and Beta, the bot controlling the station" Adora must have noticed Sam's reaction.

"Like Alpha?" Daniel asked.

"A bit too much like her, yes," Adora said, wincing. Then she straightened. "So! We've reestablished contact with the fleet. We can coordinate our attack on the base with the strike at Apophis's ships in the system."

"We've temporarily sabotaged their security centre," Sam informed them. "But that won't last."

"We don't need much time." Adora checked her watch again. "We'll take over the security centre; there should be a working FTL communicator there so we can contact Jack and the fleet and coordinate our attacks." She looked at Atak. The Jaffa was staring at Teal'c. Both nodded after a second. "Teal'c and Atak take the lead. Once we have taken the security centre, Sam, Entrapta, Daniel and Sha're guard it while we attack the rest of the base," Adora went on. "Everyone got that?"

"Yes," Sam said in unison with the others.

"Alright! Let's go!"

They followed Teal'c and Atak out of the room and quickly reached the security centre from which some smoke was still escaping. Despite that distraction, one Jaffa noticed them. His alert was cut down by Teal'c shooting him with a staff weapon, but the rest of the guards whirled and grabbed weapons.

It didn't do them any good, though - Adora charged ahead and smashed into them before they could form a line, continuing into the security centre.

Atak and Teal'c finished off the survivors before Sam could line up a shot. Adora had been more brutal than usual, Sam noticed as she stepped past the crushed and blown-up bodies. Sam did not doubt that Catra missing was the reason for that.

Inside the security centre, the smoke was on a nuisance level.

Adora finished the last guard as they entered and turned toward them. "Contact the fleet and Jack. Tell the fleet to initiate the attack so they strike in three minutes."

Sam didn't quite run, but she made sure to get to the comms first, then opened channels to the General and the Task Force.

She reminded her to stay professional when talking to the General and informed him of the plan before contacting the fleet.

Meanwhile, Entrapta had taken over the FTL scanners, and while Adora led the others out and Daniel and Sha're stood guard at the entrances, Sam watched the display of the system and Apophis's guard fleet while she mentally counted down.

Almost on the mark, the first wave of the frigates dropped out of hyperspace and immediately engaged the enemy. A few seconds later, the display was filled with emergency alerts and damage notices, followed by Ha'taks disappearing.

No surprise there - a Horde frigate outclassed a Ha'tak, and even with the frigates serving as troop transporters and their escorts hanging back, the task force significantly outnumbered the enemy. The outcome was never in doubt. One by one, the Goa'uld ships blew up or were crippled under the coordinated fire.

The two Ha'taks in orbit were no exception - the one in geostationary orbit over the base was literally shot to pieces that burnt up in the atmosphere while the remains of the one above the pole crashed into the main landmass of the planet.

And then the second wave, transporting the troops, moved in, entering the planet's orbit, shuttles detaching and heading down.

Sam didn't think they would arrive in time to contribute to the taking of the base. But they could secure it so Sam, Entrapta and Bow could start looking into what experiments the research station had been running - and figure out how to undo them and get Catra back.

*****​

Unknown Location, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Catra!"

Catra's ears twitched, and she drew back a little at the venom in Adora's voice. Her lover didn't show any relief at having found her - or any worry. "Ah… yes?" She managed to smile a little and started to raise her hand to wave. "It's…"

In the blink of an eye, Adora was in her face, one hand gripping her wrist like a vice.

"...me-OW!" Catra hissed through clenched teeth and resisted the urge to claw at Adora's arm. "Adora! What are you…"

"No more!" Adora buried her fist in Catra's stomach.

Eyes wide open, Catra coughed, almost folding around the blow. What the…?

"No more talking!"

The hand that had been holding her wrist now closed around her throat, preventing her from breathing. Catra gripped Adora's wrist with both hands but couldn't budge it.

"No more hurting!"

I don't know - I'm hurting badly right now. Catra would have laughed at her own thought if she'd had the breath for it.

"No more fighting!"

Don't claw her! Catra told herself as she struggled to loosen Adora's grip enough so she could breathe.

"It's over! You lost!"

No. Please. Adora… Catra moved her lips but couldn't talk. Couldn't get her throat free. Could only stare at Adora's furious - no, scornful - expression as she slowly started to fade.

And she couldn't help wondering if she deserved this.


*****​

When Catra woke up, her first reaction was surprise that she was still alive. Or was she? Then she felt the pain. Her throat, stomach and wrist hurt. Breathing hurt. She coughed, which hurt some more, and tried to breathe as softly as she could as she gingerly touched her throat with her good hand. Damn, Adora had really put the hurt on her.

She looked around. She was in a large room. In a force field inside a large room. And the style of the room…

"Bright Moon," she whispered, wincing at the pain.

She was in a cell in Bright Moon.

But how? And Adora… She had been wearing the wrong uniform. And… she had acted so… Was she in some alternate universe, as Sam and Entrapta had speculated about sometimes? Or… Had she somehow been transported back in time to the Horde War? And displaced to Etheria? Was that even possible?

Of course, it is possible! This was a First Ones research station. She scoffed at her own doubts, then clenched her teeth at the pain. Damn. If she wasn't dead - she still wouldn't rule that out - then she had come damn close. And at the hands of Adora. An Adora, at least. Not her Adora. Her Adora wouldn't do that to her. Not even if Catra deserved it.

She slowly got up, wincing at the pain in her lower body. Her fur would hide bruises, but she would still feel them. She hoped she wasn't bleeding internally. Though… If she had been taken prisoner, wouldn't Bright Moon's healers have looked her over? If only to ensure she didn't die before she was interrogated? Or judged?

But wouldn't they have fixed her throat, at least? She used her good hand to check her uniform. Of course, they had taken all the gear she'd been carrying. But they had left her the armoured uniform. Not that it would do any good against Adora.

She almost snorted but managed to control herself before she hurt her own throat some more. She was standing on a mattress. Just like she liked it - thin and solid, not like the fluffy pillows that Bright Moon's people called beds. But was that a kindness, or did her captors think it would be uncomfortable for her? Adora should know better than that, should she?

If this was a sign that her lover still cared about her… She smiled at the thought. Then frowned at her own foolishness. That expression on Adora's face… There had been no love. No care. No regret. Only judgement.

And Catra deserved to be judged. Especially if she was back in the Horde War. The things she had done…

The door sliding open interrupted her thoughts. She turned, clenching her teeth at the pain in her stomach and trying not to show it as she faced whoever had entered.

Adora. Or maybe She-Ra was more appropriate.

Catra swallowed - which hurt - as the other woman approached the force field. "Hey, Adora," she said without thinking.

She earned a glare and a deep scowl in return. "The Queen will see you. Don't even think of trying to escape."

She wasn't stupid. This might not be a dungeon, but the odds of escaping She-Ra here, and in her present state, were too low to risk it. If she was even going to try, of course. It wasn't as if she was innocent. And she had nothing to flee to - certainly not the Horde.

"The Queen? Glimmer?" Catra asked as Adora reached out and deactivated the force field.

"What? No. Queen Angella, of course!"

Oh, fuck!

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Enjoyed taking over the base, Carter?" Jack O'Neill grinned when he saw her enter the command centre, hiding his relief. Getting split up - unintentionally, even - was always bad. If Carter had gone missing… Well, she hadn't. But if she had, Jack would probably have reacted… badly.

"Sir." She nodded at him. Curtly. But he thought he caught a smile there. Good.

"Oh! This is a nice laboratory!" Entrapta said as she joined them. "Like Alpha! Did you standardise your research stations, Beta?""

The projection slightly turned. "Within reason. Depending on a station's purpose, customised equipment and layouts are required."

"Of course!" Entrapta nodded. "And this station was made to research interdimensional travel! How fascinating!"

"Yes." Beta barely nodded. "I hope that with the change of command, serious research can finally be resumed."

"Of course! We will do science to save Catra and the others!"

Jack winced. Entrapta's enthusiasm paired with Beta's attitude was a concerning combination. They'd have to keep an eye on them. Carter would be on the ball, though - he could trust her.

"Jack!" Daniel smiled at him. "Troops are landing and taking control of the base."
"I know, Daniel," Jack replied, nodding at the communication console. "I'm following the chatter."

"Oh, of course." Daniel looked a little sheepish for a moment. "You're going up, then?"

Jack hesitated a moment. He wanted to go up and handle the landings, but someone Beta accepted as its superior had to stay here. Just in case. "When Adora relieves me." On the other hand, Adora wasn't completely herself right now, with Catra missing. If the bot pushed the right buttons, things could turn bad as well. He'd have to trust Bow and Glimmer to handle her if that should be the case.

"Taweret." Sha're walked towards the force-field-thingie that kept the snake prisoner.

The snake glared at her. "Amaunet. You're working with the Tau'ri."

"No." Sha're's smile reminded Jack that she wasn't the sweet girl who had fallen for an awkward archaeologist on Abydos any more. "I am Sha're."

The snake bared her teeth. "That won't fool…" She trailed off as her eyes widened, glancing at the others in the room. "You're the host?"

Sha're nodded. "I am free once more."

The snake drew back a little before narrowing her eyes. "How? You would be… The Tok'ra!"

Jack pressed his lips together. That was the kind of information the snakes really shouldn't have. If Taweret escaped and told Apophis that they were working with the Tok'ra, that would complicate things. Although Taweret had also seen She-Ra in action and knew that she was a First One. Well, the snake wouldn't be allowed to escape anyway.

"Amaunet is still alive. If you wish to survive, you will cooperate," Sha're said. "If you kill your host, you will share their fate."

"The Tok'ra don't take prisoners - they kill us!"

Sha're shook her head. "You can see Aumanet yourself."

And now the snake would know that the Tok'ra weren't calling the shots in this alliance. Well, if it was to save the poor girl serving as the host of the snake, that was OK.

Jack ignored the small voice in the back of his head telling him that the host was apparently a true believer and might turn traitor on them. This wasn't how the Alliance did things.

"Can you modify the force fields so Taweret cannot hear us?" Carter asked.

"I can," Beta replied, then looked at Jack.

Right. Of course. Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, do that."

A moment later, the force field turned slightly opaque. "The prisoner cannot hear or observe us any more," the bot announced.

Beta could have done that before, Jack knew. And he was sure that the bot was smart enough to think of it - or suggest it, just as it had made suggestions before. So, why hadn't it done so? Was this a ploy to ensure Taweret knew too much to be allowed to live? Or some sort of twisted test to judge how smart they were? In case Beta had another option to take over the lab?

Whatever the answer, they couldn't trust the bot. Not too far, at least. It had an agenda.

"So…" Entrapta glanced up from where she had been staring at one of the holoprojectors serving as screens. "You have a projector that transports a target area into another dimension. And you can vary the size of the target area and deploy it within a long range - not enough to reach another planet in the system, but if this planet had a moon, you could reach it."

"That is correct," Beta said.

"And you have been using it as a weapon against ships and were researching a way to install it on a ship," Carter added.

"Yes."

"But you're struggling with the side-effects destabilising the ship itself as the dimensional breach weakens the fabric of reality." Entrapta nodded. "It's not much of a structural problem unless you dial up the power used, but it wrecks the crystal matrices controlling the portal - and most electronics. And since the target area is variable, you can't install fields to block that interference because the field projectors don't have that range."

"Yes." Jack wasn't sure, but Beta looked more attentive now. "You have experience with this technology."

"Well… kinda? I helped build an extradimensional portal. But it wasn't stable, so the first test run kinda almost destroyed the entire world." Entrapta looked a bit sheepish. "We haven't done much work in that area since that. It was deemed too dangerous."

"Until now." Beta smiled.

Jack frowned. He really didn't like that smile.

*****​

Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"We've finished taking control of the base, Ma'am!"

"Thank you, Major." Adora nodded with a smile. Her smile slipped at the thought that if Catra were here, she'd make a comment that the base was already secure and the landing forces had just to walk into the base and reach the key locations. Depending on her mood, it would be a quiet whisper to Adora or a comment to the Major in charge of the troops - well, under Jack, of course; those were his people.

But since Catra was missing, Major Martin merely nodded again - Jack had drilled all his people to avoid saluting in the field even though anyone could pick out Adora as the leader here - and left for his command post.

That left Adora to check the reports from the task force. They had secured the planet's orbit and finished boarding the enemy ships that hadn't been destroyed outright in the battle. Fortunately, the Jaffa in the crippled ships hadn't managed to blow up their vessels to deny them to the Alliance, but as far as Adora could tell from the first reports, the reason for that success was that the task force's frigates had destroyed the main reactors of the ships in question at the same time the engines had been hit. That probably meant that repairing the ships wouldn't be cost-efficient unless the Alliance wanted a Ha'tak for a special operation. Operating Goa'uld ships would also strain logistics for no real gain, and if you refitted them with Alliance tech, you might as well just build a new ship.

But that wasn't important right now. The system was under Alliance control, as was the planet - not that there was anything to control except for the base and the research station, anyway. And the camp they were setting up for the freed slaves, though that would take a while.

Still, things were in hand. And communications had been restored as well, though as soon as they used the portal to get Catra back, their comms would be down again. Well, if they didn't figure out a way to shield their regular communicators from the effects of the projector, they would just have to replace them again.

Anyway, it was time to get Catra back. Or, Adora corrected herself, to start getting her back. She looked at the soldiers in the security centre. "I'm returning to the research station. Major Martins is in command."

"Yes, ma'am!"

She walked - even though she wanted to hurry, running would have sent the wrong message to the soldiers - to the transporter room and told the officer in charge there: "Take me to the research station."

"Yes, ma'am."

A moment later, she was back in the station and on the way to the command centre. She passed a set of guards - Campbel and Isa - and entered the room.

"Supreme Commander Adora, you've returned!" Beta addressed her. "Research Station Beta is at your disposal."

Adora frowned. The way everyone else was glaring at Beta before looking at her was a sure sign that something was wrong. "So… what's going on?" she asked.

"Beta insists on using people as test subjects!" Sam blurted out.

What? Hadn't Adora made it clear that they wouldn't use people for their experiments?

Beta nodded. "Without using appropriate test subjects, the odds of recovering your friend are significantly reduced. I've explained this, but your subordinates do not accept it."

"We can use bots as test subjects. And animals," Sam said.

"Neither bots nor animals are an adequate substitute. The experiment requires a sapient mind to align with the target dimension," Beta retorted.

"What?" Adora also stared at Beta. "But you've used it on ships!"

Beta nodded. "When used as a weapon system, such as against ships, recovering the targets afterwards, or ensuring that they were not destroyed in the process, wasn't a consideration. Unlike when transporting people."

"Doesn't sound as if recovering the 'test subjects' was a priority either," Jack commented.

"Not under the prior commander," Beta said.

"But why do you need a sapient target?" Entrapta asked. "Don't you just connect two dimensions? We didn't need anything like that when we created the Portal."

"And Mara transported an entire solar system to an alternate dimension," Adora pointed out.

"That is very impressive. Any data from her experiment would be critically important for our research here," Beta commented.

Adora shook her head. "All the data was destroyed in the process. Now explain why you need people as test subjects."

Beta hesitated a moment, and Adora narrowed her eyes. That was suspicious! Then Beta inclined her head. "The projector does not target alternate dimensions directly. It uses a different dimension to reach them. One that is very receptive to alterations caused by people's thoughts. Only sapient beings can be prepared for this."

"That makes no sense!" Sam objected. "Why would you set things up like this? We've checked the data - the computer controlling the projector is perfectly capable of selecting alternate dimensions. You don't need to go through this hypothetical transfer dimension."

"The First Ones who built this station set the parameters for the experiment," Beta replied. "I lack the authorisation to change them."

"Well, so Adora can change them, right?" Jack said.

Beta turned to look at Adora. "Doing so would render the goal of recovering your friend impossible since she went missing in the original target dimension."

"Oh." Entrapta blinked.

Adora clenched her teeth. She couldn't abandon Catra. But she couldn't sacrifice others to save her, either. What should she do? What could she do?

"Why did the First Ones pick that special dimension?" Bow asked.

Beta didn't answer him.

Adora frowned. "Answer the question, Beta."

"Very well." Beta almost seemed to sigh. "This research station was built to find an alternate way to ascend."

Adora blinked. What?

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Ascend?" Samantha Carter hadn't heard this term before - not in relation to alternate universes.

"What is that?" Adora asked a moment later.

"To ascend is to reach a higher plane of existence, leaving this universe behind. According to my data, ascension grants the subject undergoing it great knowledge and power and eternal life," Beta replied. "However, the process has strict requirements - mental, spiritual and evolutionary. And once ascended, the subject cannot interact or influence this universe ever again."

"That sounds like the kind of promise made by a cult leader - if there's no way to report back, no one can prove it's a scam," the General commented.

Sam had to agree - this seemed to be a rather questionable process.

"It doesn't sound very different from what several major religions on Earth proclaim," Entrapta pointed out.

"That's different," the General snapped.

"How so?" Entrapta asked. "Many of them seem to promise a life in paradise after death."

"The existence of Ascension has been proven, and the process has been observed many times - most of the Ancestors of the First Ones ascended," Beta said.

"If it exists and works, why do you need an alternative?" Daniel asked.

"Fulfilling the requirements is challenging, and the Ascension itself is a lengthy process," Beta told him. "My creators wished to facilitate it. Another goal was to find a way to reach the higher planes without eliminating the possibility of returning to this universe."

That sounded like the Ancients might have had doubts about the entire process despite Beta's claim that it was proven to work, in Sam's opinion.

"Well, according to one of Earth's religions, finding enlightenment is supposed to be a process that takes several lives," Daniel said. "And, err, this sounds like a similar process. There might be shared roots, actually, for the concepts."

The General snorted. "So, the First Ones didn't want to abandon all earthly desires to ascend, huh?"

"I cannot comment on my creator's goals except for what I was told," Beta replied.

"I'll take that as a 'yes', then."

"Jack!"

"I'm calling it like I'm seeing it."

Daniel shook his head at the General. "You can't just assume that the Ancients were like us - they had a vastly different and more advanced culture. You shouldn't project our own morals and way of thinking on them or you'll make incorrect assumptions."

"Didn't seem like they were too different from us," Glimmer commented.

"Well, technologically, they were far ahead of us," Entrapta said.

"We're talking about their morals," Glimmer retorted. "They were willing to destroy Etheria to beat Horde Prime."

That was something many humans would have done as well, Sam had to admit. Some would have done it just to deny the world to the enemy. But Daniel was also correct - they couldn't just treat the Ancients as humans with better technology.

"Did you send Catra to those 'higher planes of existence'?" Adora asked.

Sam glanced at her and winced - her friend looked like she wanted to break something. Maybe Beta.

"No," Beta replied, seemingly unaware of the tension. "The experiment is still in the early stages. The dimension focused upon shares some characteristics with the higher planes of existence, according to our data. Mainly, that sapient minds can easily influence and shape it when exposed to it."

Sam frowned. She couldn't help doubting this.

Bow asked: "Why would sapience be required for that?"

"Lesser life forms are ruled by instincts and emotions. In order to ascend, you have to overcome both," Beta said.

"That sounds like straight out of a self-help book," the General said.

"It has been verified through experimentation, General O'Neill," Beta told him.

"I wonder what kind of experimentation that was," he retorted.

"Do you wish to access the data?"

"Ah… maybe later." And now he looked sheepish.

But Sam understood the reaction - some of the Ancients' experiments were beyond the pale. And she still hadn't heard a good reason for not using animals as test subjects. "But even if you need sapient minds to influence the dimension, you could use animals to test the transporting process."

"They would not deliver any new data. In order to retrieve a test subject, the projector relies on finding them through the changes they effect in the dimension compared to the base parameters."

"You're using their effects on the environment to find them?" Bow asked. "Like, tracking their steps?"

"It's a crude approximation, but essentially, yes," Beta replied.

"Well, finding Catra shouldn't be hard then - she tends to leave a huge impact wherever she goes," Glimmer joked.

Adora didn't laugh, though. "What is the problem then? Why do you need more test subjects?"

"While we have managed to track such changes, we have not yet managed to find a test subject to recover. The current hypothesis is that the process of tracking them takes too long to lock on to them."

Entrapta cocked her head. "I think we need to see the data for that."

Sam nodded in agreement.

*****​

Unknown Location, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"You know, I'm not going to run," Catra commented, trying to sound far more confident than she felt, when Adora grabbed her upper arm and all but dragged her towards the throne room.

"Yeah, right."

Catra suppressed a wince at the cold tone. "It would be pointless, wouldn't it? With you here, surrounded by guards, in the middle of Bright Moon…"

"That never stopped you before!"

That was true. The stupid things Catra had done in the past… "I've changed," she replied.

Adora scoffed in return. "I know you. You won't ever change."

Catra pressed her lips together and tried not to show how that hurt. This wasn't her Adora. She had to remind herself of that. She was in some alternate dimension or whatever. Her Adora knew her. Loved her.

She tried to shrug while they turned a corner. "I changed my hairstyle."

Catra almost stumbled when Adora stopped walking and turned to look at her. "That doesn't change anything!" she spat before turning away and continuing on.

That's weird, Catra thought. Adora had acted as if she hadn't noticed Catra's hairstyle before. Of course, it was just a new hairstyle - and she had lost her Horde headgear, couldn't forget that - but still… Catra would have noticed any change in Adora right away. And had as soon as she had seen this Adora.

Maybe this Adora didn't care enough about Catra to pay attention to such details. That hurt a bit more.

Maybe she's not as obsessed with you as you are with her? Maybe she has finally realised how worthless you are? a voice that sounded like Shadow Weaver whispered in the back of her head.

Catra clenched her teeth and hissed under her breath. She wasn't worthless! And Adora wouldn't do that!

Adora snorted. "Realised you can't escape, huh?"

Catra pressed her lips together. Adora had misunderstood her reaction. But she wasn't about to correct her. "I realised that from the start," she replied.

Adora just sneered in return.

They reached their destination before Catra could think of anything else to say. The guards at the entrance stepped to the side and opened the doors, revealing the throne room, and Catra had to suppress another hiss.

Angella was sitting on her throne, Glimmer standing at her side, both wearing… full regalia, was the term, probably. A dozen guards lined the carpet leading to the throne. And most of the Princess Alliance seemed to be clustered on both sides of the throne. Bow, Perfuma, Mermista, Spinnerella, Netossa and Frosta, who was still a preteen brat. No Entrapta, though. No Scorpia, either, but that was to be expected. Yeah, this must be before the portal. So…

Catra froze as she spotted another figure there, back in the corner to the side, flanked by two guards.

Shadow Weaver.

"What's she doing here?" she hissed halfway to the throne.

"Silence!" Adora spat.

She wasn't going to stay silent! Not with that snake in the room! But Adora tightened her grip on Catra's upper arm and pulled her along.

As soon as they reached the throne, Adora pushed Catra ahead. "I've brought the prisoner!"

"Thank you!" Angella smiled at Adora before scowling at Catra. Like everyone else here.

Catra clenched her teeth and straightened. She couldn't lose her temper. Not here. She had weathered worse. Those weren't the princesses she knew, anyway. Unless this was the past, of course. She focused on Angella and bowed her head. "Your majesty."

"Catra."

Catra suppressed a wince at the icy tone. So much scorn in a single word! "Yes." She swallowed a quip about not wearing out her name. She had to be diplomatic. This wasn't her world. Not her Adora.

Angella sniffed and went on. "The leader of the Horde. The woman who commanded the invasions of our kingdoms. The fool who almost destroyed the entire world in her crazed lust for power!"

Catra flinched - she had done that. And more. She swallowed, then straightened again, She could man up to her past. "Yes."

"You admit it."

"No point in lying." Catra managed to shrug. "I know what I did."

"And you're proud of it!" Angella spat.

"What? No!" Catra shook her head. "I'm not proud of it."

"Liar."

Catra jerked - Shadow Weaver had spoken up. She had forgotten about the woman's presence for a moment.

"I know you," Shadow Weaver went on. "You're full of pride even if the only thing you've achieved is hurting people."

"You don't know me!" Catra spat.

"I raised you." Shadow Weaver glided forward. Even with the mask, Catra knew she was sneering at her. "I know you better than you know yourself. I know what a failure and disappointment you are."

"I'm not a failure!"

Catra only realised that she had taken a few steps towards the miserable old witch when Adora's hand closed around her arm again. It took all of Catra's self-control not to curse at Shadow Weaver. She was better than that.

"Enough. You've admitted your guilt. We will decide on your punishment." Angella nodded at Adora. "Please take her back to her cell."

Catra's eyes widened. That was far too quick! "Wait! I'm not the Catra you know!" she blurted out. "I'm from another dimension!"

Adora didn't stop dragging her away, but when Catra looked over her shoulder, she saw Angella gasp and stare at her.

"You've got the wrong Catra!"

Adora snorted at that. The entire Alliance present laughed. Except for Angella. The woman didn't say anything and just kept staring at her until the doors closed behind Catra and Adora.

*****​
 
Chapter 145: The Secret Base Part 5
Chapter 145: The Secret Base Part 5

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)


The more he heard about the Ancients, the less Jack O'Neill liked them. Well, it would be more honest to say that he liked them even less - he hadn't had a good opinion of them for a long time now. That some of their robots thought he was one of them didn't change that. Quite the contrary. Between their crazy experiments and dangerous tech thingies that they just kept lying around, it was a wonder that the Galaxy was still standing.

And he couldn't help feeling that Beta here was working on changing that. "So… if I remember correctly, the last time someone tinkered with a portal like that, they almost blew up reality, right?"

Judging by the looks from Carter and Daniel, his Columbo impression needed some work. Or it was because Entrapta cringed at his comment, he realised with a wince. He hadn't wanted to hurt her - criticising her, even when it was perfectly justified, made Jack feel like he shot Bambi's mom. Well, when she actually took his criticism to heart and didn't misunderstand it.

"Well, it's debatable how far the effect would have spread, but as far as Etheria in Despondos was concerned, reality would have been destroyed, yes," Entrapta said after a moment. "Though since that was an alternate dimension, it might have been contained." She blinked. "Actually, if we take the new data from Beta into account - though we still need to study it; we just got the synopsis from Beta, so to speak, even though I trust her - then this might not have been the end of reality but more a merging of the two dimensions and the aspects of the other dimension dominating Despondos's reality. Of course, that would require that we connected to the same or a similar dimension as the one Beta is targeting."

Jack almost snapped that experimenting further was too dangerous and they should destroy the lab. The only thing that held him back was knowing that Adora wouldn't abandon Catra. And suspecting that Beta would use that to influence Adora and sideline Jack. Also, taking risks to save a friend was not the same as risking the galaxy to become gods or whatever - he wasn't Daniel, but Jack knew what Ascension meant in that context. And Carter would probably never forgive him if he destroyed the lab here.

Still, someone had to point out the danger. "So, what are the odds that we get another such merge here?" Jack asked.

"We don't know if that happened back in Despondos!" Entrapta pointed out. "It's just a possibility. Of course, we did use a lot of First Ones tech there, which probably came from this lab, but we also used Horde tech, so we need to examine the data here and compare it to what data we have left from the Horde to tell!" She perked up. "Oh, we really need to get my science buddy here! He might remember more because it was his project at the start!"

Yeah, the clone of a warlord with a god complex is just the thing a laboratory where aliens planned to get an easy way to become gods is missing, Jack thought.

"Yes!" Adora nodded firmly.

"Indeed," Beta agreed. "Horde Prime displayed and deployed very impressive technology in the war against our people. It would be only fitting if that technology would be used to continue the experiments here."

So much for Jack's hope that the Ancient bot would make Adora and Entrapta mad by trying to oppose Hordak coming here. That would have made Adora distrust the bot, at least. "That might take a while," he said. "We shouldn't run experiments without him, then."

"We need time to review the data here anyway," Carter added.

He could see Adora biting her lower lip. She obviously didn't want to hear that but didn't want to object. Good. The last thing they needed was a crazy bot running experiments that could ruin reality itself. Jack liked his reality being real.

"Yes!" Entrpata nodded emphatically. "Let's start on that! Beta, can you point us to a data terminal with enough workspace?

"Yes. Please follow me." The projection turned and led them towards one of the doors in the back.

Jack looked at Bow, but the boy was already following them. Good. Jack trusted Carter, of course, but she could get caught up in her work sometimes. Another grounded tech head helping them wouldn't hurt.

"Don't worry - we'll get Catra back," Glimmer told Adora.

"Yes." Adora nodded, but her expression belied her words.

"We're like the Marines in that - we don't leave anyone behind," Jack added. And hoped he wasn't lying through his teeth.

Though he hoped even harder that the whole thing here wouldn't end in a catastrophe.

*****​

Captured Base, PU-9623, January 30th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Adora had to be patient. Rushing things would not help anyone - would even endanger everyone since they were working with dimensional portals. Entrapta and Sam were geniuses who knew what they were doing, but they needed time to study Beta's data before they could start the recovery operation.

Adora knew that. Knew that very well. But the longer they waited, the longer Catra was missing, the greater the danger was that something would happen to her. Something else. Something more dangerous than being transported into a weird dimension. They had to save her, as quickly as possible.

But she also knew that Beta had lost track of every test subject the bot had sent into the other dimension - and had lost track of Catra as well. Even if they were willing to risk it, they couldn't just start the recovery attempt. It wouldn't do any good.

And yet, waiting, unable to do anything for Catra, was unbearable.

Adora clenched her teeth. She should sleep - it was past midnight, at least according to Alliance Time on Earth, and Glimmer had already taken over Taweret's bedroom while the others, except for Bow, Entrapta and Sam, had found places to sleep themselves - but Adora knew she wouldn't be able to rest. Not with her lover missing. She had to keep busy until her friends finished - there was no time to lose. And she was She-Ra; she could handle an all-nighter.

Also, it wasn't as if there was nothing to do - as Supreme Commander of the Alliance, she always had paperwork to do. And thanks to the spy bot network, it followed her onto missions such as this as well - sometimes even in actual paper form when they used Stargates.

But having the work and doing the work were not the same. Leaning back in what apparently had been Taweret's office in her quarters, Adora sighed. Reading reports that were mostly updates of earlier reports, and generally confirmed the projections, wasn't helping much. Especially since the lack of scathing commentary reminded her of Catra's absence with every report she read.

There were several important - or more important - reports, of course, some concerning the latest fleet trials, but none of them required immediate action except for referring them to her staff for analysis. The British were making more progress, the Americans were still dealing with problems with their 'light battle carriers' - a designation for the design Adora didn't think would last much longer than its predecessor 'light multirole cruiser' - and the French were a bit behind because they were leading the shared European design for a frigate and just coordinating half a dozen requests and requirements apparently took a lot of time even if they were mostly copying the British designs.

Perhaps she should have insisted on launching more Horde frigates instead of everyone designing their own ships. But everyone wanted the ability and knowledge to build spaceships on their own, so…

A beep announced another E-Mail. She checked it - ah, the first formal after-action report from the task force had arrived. A bit of skimming later, she winced. She would have thought that any of the mistakes made in the first landing operation wouldn't be repeated, but she had been wrong. The need for more training, especially coordinating between different forces, was evident.

She wrote a quick memo and sent it to her staff to check, then went over the supply requests - just to check that nothing was being forgotten; Jack's people were handling that.

And as expected from Jack's force, everything was in order. Maybe she should check up on the news from Earth…

Or she could check on the prisoners. The Jaffa, as expected from the most loyal and fanatical of Apophis's forces, had usually fought until death, but there had been exceptions. Some were knocked out, but others had surrendered when facing her. Adora should see how they were doing.

But what were the odds that some of them would pray to her? Atak did, and the way a few of the prisoners had looked at her when they had been taken, Adora didn't think Atak was the only one mistaking her for a goddess here. Maybe she should sleep on that before meeting them.

Stifling a yawn, she started on the rest of the paperwork - mostly informative, non-crucial messages and memos. Like the food consumption reports - with the usual complaints about the MREs that made her roll her eyes; if those people had ever eaten Horde rations…

Another message interrupted her. Oh! It was from Sam - they had finished reviewing the data!

Adora jumped up and rushed toward the transporter room.

Catra, we're coming to save you!

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 30th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"You finished going over the data?"

Samantha Carter turned and looked at Adora - her friend had blurted her question out as soon as she had entered the main laboratory of Beta. "We have finished our preliminary review of the research data," Sam corrected her.

"Oh."

"Yes. But we already have a lot of ideas!" Entrapta added, nodding with a slight smile.

"Speculation," Beta said. "But well-reasoned speculation based on the analysis done. I cannot disprove the conclusions."

"It's fascinating data." Entrapta grimaced. "Although there are also a few concerning data points. Kinda."

"Concerning?" Adora's eyes widened as she approached them at a fast pace. "How concerning?"

She must not have been resting, Sam realised. Not that Sam could throw stones here - she had worked through herself, as had Entrapta and Bow, who had gone to personally wake up Glimmer.

"Well…" Entrapta started to say, wincing under Adora's stare.

They should wait for the others, in Sam's opinion, but with Adora in such a state… "We analysed the data of the past tracking attempts, and there might be outside interference," she explained.

Adora gasped before pressing her lips together for a moment. "Outside interference?"

"Yes," Beta said with a deep scowl. "They're interfering with the experiment!"

Sam rolled her eyes at the bot's apparent priorities. "The data indicates that tracking - albeit indirectly - works at the start, I mean, shortly after arrival at the destination. And there's no sign of the compiled tracking data deteriorating over time - while the original effects on the environment recorded by the station's sensors seem to fade in time, they are continually renewed and partially replaced."

"As predicted," Beta cut in. "Though due to outside interference, we lack the data to track long-term effects of sapient minds - where the effects can stabilise or even become self-sustaining is still in doubt."

"The data tracks until it stops and vanishes," Entrapta added. "And it always happens after about the same time has passed there - except for the first few attempts, where it took longer."

Adora didn't look reassured. "But you need a sapient mind to affect the dimension, right?"

"Yes." Beta firmly nodded.

Sam had her doubts that this was entirely correct, but this wasn't the time to discuss this. But Adora had raised another point or seemed to be about to. Best nip that in the bud. "We don't think that this means the people transported there die at that point," she said. "They disappear too quickly for environmental influence."

"And there's a spike right before the effect ends and starts to fade - a very distinct spike," Entrapta added. "One that looks almost identical in over a dozen cases. The pattern is clear and nearly identical, while the patterns generated by the test subjects often vary significantly."

"The most probable explanation is that someone is removing the people from the dimension we're tracking or from their location there," Sam took over again. Or, though she didn't say that, someone was hunting down new arrivals and killed them very quickly.

Even so, Adora looked grim. "Removing them - for what reason?"

"Perhaps they want to save them?" Entrapta's hopeful smile slowly died as Adora looked at her.

"We don't know yet. But barring some truly exotic environmental effect, we believe this is outside interference," Sam said.

"And it shows that recovering people from that dimension is possible." Entrapta was really trying to console their friend.

Adora slowly nodded. "Did that happen to Catra as well?"

"Yes. We've analysed the data from the attack, and while it's not as detailed as the other readings, it tracks as well," Entrapta said.

"I couldn't use the sensors to the best of their capabilities since I lacked the necessary preparation time for the experiment." Beta inclined her head. "The prior administration was not overly interested in proper documentation." Her tone made this sound like the worst of Taweret's crime, Sam noted.

"So, what can we do with this?" Adora asked. "How can we get Catra and the others back?"

Sam suppressed a wince at her friend's expression. Adora looked both hopeful and desperate.

"Now that we have identified the interference, we can plan to deal with it," Beta said.

"We haven't actually identified the interference," Entrapta pointed out. "We just know that something is interfering."

"And we need to recover the people who vanished from wherever they happened to be taken to," Sam reminded Beta.

"Yes, of course." Beta nodded. "But that will require dealing with the interference as well. I suggest sending an armed test subject next, to see if they can fend off the interference. Even if unsuccessful, the data should reveal if they can temporarily delay the interference."

"We're not using people as test subjects!" Adora snapped.

Beta looked puzzled, cocking her head to the side. "I was under the impression that volunteers would be acceptable. And from what I gathered, many of your followers would volunteer to help recover your consort, Adora."

Adora gaped. "That's… That's… I won't ask that of them!" she blurted out.

Beta looked confused. "Would you refuse their help to save your consort? Even if freely offered?"

"That's… why would they offer in the first place?" Adora asked.

"It's an obvious solution to the lack of test subjects," Beta replied.

Before Sam could think of what to say to that - and how to deal with her suspicion that Beta had been busy gathering as much information about Adora as possible - the others arrived, led by Glimmer.

"You finished going over the data?" Glimmer blurted out, mirroring Adora.

"I told you that!" Bow said behind her.

"We did," Sam told them.

"But we have a problem," Adora said. With a glance at Beta, she added: "A bunch of them."

*****​

Unknown Location, January 30th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Look, I'm not your Carta! I'm from another universe - or another dimension!"

A scoff answered her. "Really? That's the best you can come up with?"

"It's the truth!" she insisted.

"Is that why you cut your hair? To make us believe you?"

"My hair was cut by Horde Prime!" She shivered at the memory. Or not-memory - it was a bit hazy.

"Horde Prime?" Another scoff. "Making up Horde members now? It's not working."

"Horde Prime was Hordak's leader - his commander. He was the leader of the entire Horde. He had a fleet of spaceships and tried to destroy Etheria. In my universe."

"Really, Catra, this is just pathetic. Bad lies and a bad haircut won't save you from the consequences of your actions."

"Bad haircut? Adora - my Adora loves it!" She did! She knew it.

Laughter. They were almost back at her cell now. "It's ugly. And you claim 'your Adora' loves it? Is she a Horde Adora, huh?" The eyes narrowed into a glare. "Wait… Are you talking about your perfect world? The world for which you almost destroyed Etheria? That's pathetic, Catra."

"No!" She shook her head and clenched her teeth. She wasn't pathetic! "In my universe, things went differently. We defeated the Horde. Adora saved us all. She saved me!"

More scoffing followed. "Now you claim you fought the Horde? While still wearing their uniform? Catra, Catra, Catra… No one would be so foolish as to believe this. Just stop and show some dignity." Laughter briefly filled the hallway. "No lies will save you. No one will save you."

"Adora will," she spat. She would! "She loves me!"

Wide eyes stared at her before the surprised expression turned into a sneer. "No one loves you, Catra. You're a monster without a conscience. And you will be punished for what you did!"

She gasped at that. It wasn't true. It wasn't! Adora loved her! "I'm not your Catra!"

But they were at the cell, and she was pushed inside with enough force to send her stumbling into the marked area in the centre. She looked over her shoulder, turning, as the force field sprang up around her, to appeal to Adora again, but she only saw the back of her as Adora walked out the door, leaving her behind.


Sitting in a corner of her cell, Catra took a deep breath. She should sleep instead of running through this in her mind. This hadn't been her Adora. She had to remind her of that. Her Adora would have listened. Her Adora loved her. She knew it. Her Adora would do everything to save her.

Catra just had to wait until she did. And survive. And she would. She could take whatever this world threw at her. She would. She would…

Her ears twitched, and she turned - the door was opening. In the middle of the night? She suppressed a gasp as hope filled her. Adora? Had she reconsidered Catra's claims? "Hey…"

She trailed off, her forced smile vanishing. It wasn't Adora who entered. It was Angella. Alone, without guards. And staring at her with a cold expression.

Catra had weathered worse, though. Much worse. Like Shadow Weaver. Or… Whatever! She rose and cocked her head to the side. "Visiting prisoners in the middle of the night, Your Majesty?"

Angella didn't say a word. Instead, her mouth twisted into a slight sneer for a moment as she approached until she was standing directly before the force field.

Catra frowned, pressing her lips together, and raised her head to meet Angella's eyes. The queen was far too tall for Glimmer's mother. "Come to pass the sentence? I thought you would have wanted to do that in the Throne Room. Make a spectacle," she said as dismissively as she could. She wouldn't beg. "Maybe followed by a public execution?" she added in a mocking tone despite the fear making her stomach clench. If they killed her… Bright Moon doesn't kill their prisoners, she reminded herself. Not even this Bright Moon - not when they didn't have actual dungeons here, either.

Angella still didn't answer. The queen walked around the force field, and Catra turned her head to follow her. Her back itched when the queen was directly behind her, but Catra didn't move except turning her head. She had to stay calm. Collected. In control. Even though she wasn't.

Angella completed the full circle, facing her again, then scoffed and slightly shook her head. "How did you end up here?"

Catra almost said: 'You had Adora lock me up here. Did you forget already?' before she managed to hold her tongue. She frowned instead - something was odd here. Wrong. But she couldn't tell what. So, best play along. Shrugging, she said: "I was shot with some First Ones weapon that threw me into this dimension. By an alien."

"Fitting."

Catra shrugged again. "I got a bit too cocky. We've been rolling up their forces easily, too easily. Charged straight into their trap." Better her than Adora, though. But she would have to do better next time. She couldn't get sloppy.

"Typical." Angella sneered.

Catra suppressed a scowl. She was better than that - she wouldn't lose her temper at some petty comments. She had taken much worse from Shadow Weaver. "I blame hanging around with the Alliance for too long. It wouldn't have happened when I was still leading the Horde. But you know Adora - always charging in headfirst and making it work somehow. She's going to save me, by the way." She had to.

"Adora? Save you?" Angella sneered even more.

"Yes." Catra nodded and tried to show as much confidence as she could. "She saved me from Horde Prime before. You know her - she never abandons her friends."

"You? Her friend? Liar!" Angella spat. "You hurt her - you hurt all of us. You are no one's friend."

"That wasn't me!" Catra snarled. "I hurt my Adora, not yours. I'm not your Catra!"

"So you claim." Angella drew back with a haughty expression. "And yet… You are the same, aren't you?"

Catra narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"You said you hurt 'your Adora'. You did the same deeds, didn't you? You didn't deny it earlier, either, did you?"

Catra clenched her teeth. "That was in the past. I changed." She had. She really had. Even if Angella wouldn't believe her.

She frowned. Why was Angella here, alone, anyway? Why hadn't she taken Glimmer with her? Or Adora? Adora knew her - or the other Catra - best. She would have helped a lot with the interrogation. Why had the Queen of Bright Moon come to her cell at night, alone, like… Her eyes widened for a moment. "You are hiding something! From everyone! That's why you're here alone, at this time of the night!"

For a moment, Angella looked surprised. Then she straightened, and her lips twisted into a tight smile. "You are different. You aren't from here."

"I told you that," Catra spat. "I'm not your Catra!"

Angella's smile widened. "That still remains to be seen."

Catra stared at her. What? What did she mean? This was… She drew a sudden, sharp breath. It couldn't be! But the woman hadn't doubted her about the First Ones weapon… "You stepped into the portal, didn't you?" she whispered.

Angella flashed her teeth at her as she nodded.

Damn. Catra felt a shiver run down her spine as her fur bristled. If this Angella was the one from her universe, then Catra was the one responsible for sending her here. "But the others…" She trailed off. This Adora wasn't her Adora.

"They're native to this dimension," Angella replied. She narrowed her eyes. "But they have suffered at the Horde's hands as well."

Catra flinched at that. Yeah, she wasn't proud of what she had done in the past. And yet… She frowned. "But what happened to the Catra from this dimension?" Her eyes widened. "And what happened to the Angella from this dimension?"

"They're gone," Angella replied. "The entire Horde is gone. Only the memories of the war remain."

"Gone? You defeated them?" Catra leaned forward, almost touching the force field. Sure, the Horde had been in a bad spot after the portal, but they had recovered and almost beaten the Alliance. "How did you do that? What about Horde Prime?"

"Who?"

Damn! "Horde Prime. I told Adora about him - he's the one who created the Horde in his own image - Hordak is a clone of him. He destroyed the First Ones," Catra explained. "The portal alerted him to Despondos, and he invaded." Right after everything had gone to hell. Right after the Alliance had taken the Fright Zone. "He didn't arrive here?"

"No." Angella shook her head.

"So, you beat the Horde and the war was over? What happened to Scorpia and Entrapta?"

"The Horde is gone," Angella repeated herself in a flat voice. "Only the memories remain."

Catra flinched. That sounded bad. Really bad. "Did Adora…?" She trailed off. If this Adora had completely wiped out the Horde using her power... "What about the Heart of Etheria?"

"What is that?"

Catra tensed and wanted to curse some more. They hadn't dealt with it yet? "It's the First Ones superweapon meant to be used against Horde Prime. It would destroy Etheria when used - and it's controlled by She-Ra's sword. And it has been gathering magic power from the entire sector for a thousand years. If it's not stopped, it will destroy Etheria. It's activated when all of the Elemental Princesses connect to their runestones."

Angella looked as if she didn't believe her. "That's not a problem in this world."

"What? All it takes is the Princess of the Scorpion Kingdom connecting to the Black Garnet, and everything goes to pieces!" Catra blurted out.

"There is no such princess. The Scorpion Kingdom was destroyed by the Horde."

"You haven't restored it? But…" Right. 'Gone'. Scorpia was gone. But her family! "What did you do to the people? In the Horde? In the Fright Zone?" Catra asked.

"I told you - they're gone."

Catra found herself kneeling on the floor, staring at Angella. "You… you killed them all?" That was monstrous! How could they do this?

"They're gone," Angella said again. Catra could see her jaw muscles twitch as she clenched her teeth. "Only the memories of the war remain."

Catra shook her head, blinking. "No wonder this Adora's so different. She must be traumatised by this." Her Adora would have never done that. To kill so many people… She gasped. "Entrapta! What happened to her? She was on Beast Island, not in the Fright Zone!"

Angella frowned but didn't answer.

Catra blinked again to clear her eyes. They couldn't have wiped out the island if they didn't know about it, could they? "Beast Island! The place where the Horde banished the worst prisoners! Entrapta's there - and Micah!"

Angella recoiled as if Catra had struck her. "Micah's dead!" she yelled. "Killed by the Horde! Killed by you!"

"No! He's on Beast Island. Adora and the others found him there when they rescued Entrapta!" Catra retorted. "Send them there and look for Entrapta and Micah!"

"You lie!" Angella spat. "Micah's dead! You killed him!" She turned around and quickly walked to the door.

"They're on Beast Island!" Catra yelled after her. "Save them!"

Angella didn't answer and didn't look back.

*****​

Captured Base, PU-9623, January 30th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill felt as if he was back at Stargate Command during a crisis. He was trying to keep busy while Carter worked desperately on alien technology to save the day. Only, he wasn't the leader of SG-1 any more, hovering around her lab and trying to ensure that she didn't work herself to death. He was a general in charge of Special Forces Command of the Alliance - and the second-in-command of the entire mission to this planet.

Of course, back in Stargate Command under General Hammond, he would have been in charge of the entire mission as leader of SG-1, but the mission here was a tiny bit bigger. SG-1 hadn't done any planetary invasions.

Well, it meant he didn't have to feel completely useless while he waited for Carter, Entrapta and Bow to find a way to get Catra and the 'Test Subjects' back from another dimension. He had to turn the fortress they had taken from Apophis's forces into an Alliance base that could protect the research station below it. At least until the Alliance found some other general to take over. Jack and his people were Special Forces, not garrison troopers.

Still, watching as combat engineers tore out the snake queen's luxury furnishings to install proper quarters and offices was satisfying. All the pomp and waste finally… "Hey!" he snapped. "Put that into the crate! No souvenir hunting!"

The soldier who had been about to palm a golden trinket flinched. "Yes, sir!"

"That goes for everyone!" Jack snapped. He had said that before! "Don't take anything here! First, you never know if it's trapped. Second, thanks to our magic scanner, we'll find out anyway, and then you'll be in trouble."

He turned around to watch the balcony for a moment and pretended not to hear the sounds of more trinkets being thrown into the closest crates. Soldiers were the same whatever their nationality or age. Send them into a palace, and they'll try to loot it.

After a bit, he turned back to watch them work again. Some idiot would still try to sneak something past the scanner, Jack was sure of it, but that was better than half the soldiers. He'd still feel better once all the gold stuff was safely stored on board a transport.

And, speaking of transports… He cocked his head when he heard the sound of a shuttle descending on the base, then quickly ran the numbers in his head. Yep, unless this was some unscheduled supply drop that no one had bothered to tell him about, this would be Hordak, ferried here by a frigate from the closest Stargate to help with the whole portal stuff.

Jack just hoped the clone wouldn't blow up the planet.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 30th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Hello."

"Science buddy!"

Adora wasn't jealous - or envious, or whatever. She shouldn't feel bad watching Entrapta's face light up when Hordak entered the research station just because Catra was still missing.

But she did. She missed her lover. Dearly. And seeing others reunited with their loves didn't help. She reminded herself that Hordak was experienced with portals to other dimensions and should be able to deal with the problems they were having here and managed to smile somewhat honestly when she nodded at him. "Hello. Good to have you here." Neutral. Professional.

"I came as soon as I heard," Hordak said, nodding back.

"And we need you!" Entrapta said, voice slightly muffled since she was still hugging him, and her face was buried in his chest. "I missed you!"

"I see," Hordak said in a bland tone, but Adora could see he was blushing slightly.

"Fascinating." Beta had appeared, peering at the couple. "I was not aware that different species felt attracted to each other. Or that Horde clones actually felt attraction. None of the data we gathered during the war indicated any such inclinations."

Entrapta frowned as she released Hordak - somewhat; one hair tendril stayed wrapped around his waist - and turned to face Beta. "You didn't really gather enough data then! Once freed from their mental conditioning by Horde Prime and given enough time to grow, the clones are just like everyone else!" She blinked and cocked her head to the side, scrunching her nose. "Which should have been expected since Horde Prime was an Asgard, kind of."

Beta looked surprised for a moment. "But the Asgard have abandoned sexual reproduction long ago. Why would one of their offspring develop such instincts?"

"Well, Loki wanted to revert the damage the Asgard genetics had suffered, and so it makes sense that that also included the capability for sexual reproduction," Entrapta replied.

"I see." Beta nodded. "Although I think I should exchange data with Alpha to update my memory banks about the biological sciences. While not essential for my own research, biological aspects could play an important role in the project, and Alpha should have the most advanced data on the subject."

"Yeah, that's just what we need - a network of mad scientist bots," Jack muttered next to Adora.

She winced a little. Jack wasn't exactly wrong - Alpha and, apparently, Beta had some slightly worrisome tendencies when it came to their research. Loki, too, of course. But calling them mad scientists was a bit much. They were more like Entrapta - sometimes, they went too far in the pursuit of their research because they didn't consider all the consequences, but not maliciously so. Of course, they were a bit worse at weighing the consequences than Entrapa was, but that was a work in progress.

So… "We can do that once we have recovered everyone," Adora said.

"Right!" Entrapta nodded and turned back to Hordak. "I sent you our data. Did you find anything?"

"I went over it during transit - I could have done more if the vessel had had a dedicated laboratory," Hordak replied. "Unfortunately, despite his heritage, Horde Prime did not deign to add such a functionality to his fleet."

"Yeah." Entrapta nodded. "We should design a science vessel. Or maybe a science module we can add to a frigate - if we replace a shuttle with it, it should fit into a hangar bay. Oh! A science shuttle! Every ship could carry one if it were needed! Maybe we could make them specialist science shuttles, one type each for all the various fields!"

Adora cleared her throat. Case in point, as Mermista would say. "That sounds like a project for later," she said.

"Ah, right." Entrapta nodded. "Saving people first, then pushing science!"

"Yes." Adora nodded firmly - just in case Beta might disagree.

*****​

"...so I found no fundamental fault in your methodology and came to the same conclusion as you did after analysing your data: Someone is removing the test subjects faster than you're tracking them."

Samantha Carter nodded as Hordak finished his summary. Part of her was disappointed that Hordak hadn't found anything that would allow them to recover the missing people, but another part of her felt vindicated for not having overlooked a solution. "That leaves us with the problem of finding out where they have been taken," she said.

"Yes." He nodded. "And it is doubtful that not enhanced sensors and searching methods will be enough for that - we would have to search an entire dimension, potentially an alternate universe, for that."

"Light Hope managed to find and snatch Adora from our universe while Etheria was still in Despondos," Entrapta pointed out. "And we have all the technology she had access to, and then some more!"

"She did," Hordak conceded. "But she might not have been searching for Adora specifically but merely for anyone who matched her criteria."

"That still means she could search another universe for such an individual," Sam said.

"But we don't know what exactly she did to achieve that," Hordak retorted. "The data died with her. Although I consider it likely that she used She-Ra's magic to find her - She-Ra's power would have been seeking a worthy vessel, and as Mara's moving of Etheria to Despondos proves, She-Ra's power can cross dimensions."

"Well, we have Adora here!" Entrapta said.

"But she already has She-Ra's power," Sam retorted.

"Well, yes. And she can wield it." Entrapta beamed.

Oh. "You want her to use her power to track Catra?" Sam asked.

"Yes! If she restores magic to this world, she should have enough power to cause a portal into another dimension."

Sam bit her lower lip. That could work… or it could cause a lot of damage to the world - and to reality itself. But were there viable alternatives?

Sam couldn't think of one. "We'll have to be very careful with this," she said. "We'll only have one shot for this. We can't afford to miss."

Entrapta nodded emphatically. "Right! Let's gather more data, science buddies!"

*****​

Unknown Location, January 31st, 2000 (Earth Time)

A nice cell was still a cell. Catra was very aware of that. Most of the 'guest room' was cut off by the force fields, anyway. And from her spot, she could only see part of the sky outside - the angle to the window didn't allow her to see the walls or the ground. If she didn't know better, she would have assumed that this was by design, to prevent prisoners from gathering intel - or snipers to silence them.

But she knew it was mostly coincidence - she had asked Glimmer after the war was over. Bright Moon just wasn't really used to holding prisoners. Catra's Bright Moon and this Bright Moon seemed to share that.

Though this Bright Moon was far more ruthless than Catra's. All of the Horde, the entire Fright Zone, gone?

She shivered. It was almost ironic that she had thought Glimmer was ruthless and brutal compared to Angella. This Angella… She closed her eyes and leaned back against the force field. Was this Catra's Angella? She didn't know. But did it matter? This Angella had perfectly inserted herself into this world despite knowing that she wasn't their Angella - she had said she wasn't native to this dimension, unlike the others. Had she even told them? Or was she pretending to be their Angella?

Pretending to be someone's mother - or lover - without telling them that the real person was still missing… Who would do such a thing? Well, Double Trouble would, of course, that piece of scum would find it amusing, but who else would be able to do that? Just thinking about talking to this Adora, or kissing, or having sex, pretending to be their Catra made Catra feel sick. Angella couldn't be doing that, could she? She was supposed to be that great Queen, all noble and self-sacrificing, a bit too protective, and a bit too afraid of losing people, but to lie to this Adora, to this Glimmer, and pretend to be their Angella?

Catra shook her head. She couldn't believe it. But she couldn't believe the Angella she had heard so much about would wipe out the entire Fright Zone with everyone inside and be proud of it.

And this person was now deciding Catra's fate - and had made no secret of her hatred for Catra. Damn.

Even worse, if this Angella was lying to everyone else here, she wouldn't want Catra to reveal that both of them were from another dimension. Certainly not to Glimmer, her 'daughter'.

Catra clenched her teeth and couldn't help looking at the windows. If this Angella wanted to keep this secret, the best way would be to silence Catra permanently without giving her the chance to tell anyone. Was that why she had visited last night without anyone with her? If Catra hadn't mentioned Micah, would Angella have killed her?

Too many knew about Catra - the entire Princess Alliance - to disappear her, but if Angella could pass for this dimensions' queen, framing someone else for her death or arranging an accident or suicide wouldn't be difficult.

And Catra was helpless to stop her. She couldn't escape this force field - not even her claws would cut it. But the floor? She looked down, hesitated a moment, then pulled the thick carpet up and stared at the stone below. Marble. Her claws could cut it - a quick test confirmed it. Depending on how thick the floor was, she could escape. At least to the floor below. And she knew Bright Moon - once she was out of the cell, she could flee. Not even Adora would be able to catch her if she had enough of a lead.

And they would be looking for the Catra they knew - a person Catra wasn't any more. They would be working from all the wrong assumptions. Evading them would be child's play.

So she could escape. Unless there was another force field below the stone. Even so, if the floor was thick enough, she might be able to squeeze through between both force fields if she removed the stone - like digging a tunnel. That would take longer, of course. Something best left for the night.

Of course, the question was: Did she want to escape in the first place? That would make it harder for Adora - her Adora - and the others to find her. And kind of sour relations with this Bright Moon. If they just imprisoned her, Catra could stand it. She had been a prisoner before. And Adora and the others wouldn't take too long to find her. Probably.

They haven't found Angella in years, a small voice whispered in the back of her mind.

That was different! She told herself. They couldn't replicate the portal - but they had surely taken the base with the weapon that had hit Catra. Entrapta, Bow and Sam would be able to use that to find Catra.

She just had to wait. Survive and wait. She could do that.

But if Angella wanted her dead…

Catra clenched her teeth. She wasn't going to let herself be killed here. Certainly not so Angella could keep lying to everyone.

Maybe she should just risk it. Better safe than sorry? She had received breakfast a bit ago, so she wouldn't get lunch for a few more hours. Plenty of time to cut through the floor. In a pinch, she could cover a hole with the carpet. So…

The door opened, and Catra hastily dropped the edge of the carpet and stood up to face whoever was entering.

It was Angella. And… Micah and Entrapta! Angella must have rushed to the island right after leaving Catra to have made it back with them so quickly.

Catra wet her lips and drew a deep breath. "I told you they were alive and on Beast Island." Then she nodded at Micah and weakly smiled at Entrapta. "Hello."

All three glared at her, and Catra winced. That wasn't how her Micah and Entrapta would have reacted. "I guess you were right about the portal's danger," she told Entrapta.

Instead of agreeing - or sneering at her - this Entrapta looked confused. "What do you mean?"

That was… Something was wrong here. "You warned me not to open it," she said.

"I did?" Entrapta cocked her head to the side.

Catra clenched her teeth. "That was why you were sent to Beast Island," she said, her stomach twisting with guilt at the memory.

"But… I was banished to Beast Island because I tried to sabotage the portal."

That wasn't how it happened. But had that happened here? Had Entrapta gone further than in Catra's dimension? Were there other differences?

She glanced at Angella. How was Angella able to fool everyone else if there were more such differences?

The woman scowled and turned away. "Let's leave the prisoner. She will get her just punishment soon enough."

"I'm not your Catra!" Catra snapped. Should she accuse Angella of not being their Angella? Would Angella kill her with witnesses here?

She hesitated, and then the door closed, and she was alone again.

*****​
 
Interesting. Angella's been alive in this alternate dimension ever since disappearing and wasn't aware that it is actively drawing in more "nearby" sentients instead of just its local inhabitants. If it was patterned after Desperados during the portal incident it would make sense that it would have secrets Angella didn't know (Micah on Beast Island) but be strange that it is drawing in outsiders. If it wasn't patterned based on Desperados itself but by its original independent sentience's (Angella) beliefs then Micah should've been dead. So the dimension is probably still morphic, subtly changing to conform to sentient beliefs, has added multiple non-Desperados inhabitants who had no beliefs specific to the locale (making changes even more subtle), and now has Catra who has MANY Desperados specific beliefs that have been refined by so very many events in the place. This place is gonna start tripping up Angella's expectations so hard.
 
Chapter 146: The Secret Base Part 6
Chapter 146: The Secret Base Part 6

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 31st, 2000 (Earth Time)


Jack O'Neill liked watching Carter work. Especially if she was so focused, she forgot that she was being watched - in a way, the tension and complete focus on the task emphasised everything about her. It made her more… honest. There was no room for her polite, professional act. Just her and the task.

And she looks hot when she…

He pushed the utterly unprofessional voice away and ignored it. Carter was a fine officer, and both of them were members of the United States Air Force, anyway. Chain of command or not.

He leaned back against the wall in the main lab of Beta and watched Carter work on the laptop she had connected to the crystal array thingie. She was a faster typist than anyone else he knew. Well, except for Entrapta, but having magic hair that could use half a dozen keyboards at the same time, as she was demonstrating right now, was cheating, in Jack's opinion.

"OK! If we extrapolate the data gathered with this setting, then we should be able to narrow down the specific frequencies resonating with the background of the target dimension. And based on that, we should be able to detect frequencies that differ in crucial patterns from that," Entrapta announced.

Jack looked at Carter and raised his eyebrows.

"We will be able to detect people who aren't native to the target dimension, sir," Carter explained.

Jack nodded. He had suspected that - he wasn't a dumb marine; he was Air Force - but it was best to check.

"So, you'll be able to find Catra!" Adora leaned forward. She looked almost feverish - she hadn't really rested enough since this whole mess had started, in Jack's opinion. But good luck trying to tell her that when others - like Carter - were pushing all-nighters as well.

"In theory, yes. We still need to test it," Bow cut in. "It's not that easy."

"It would be easy if we were dealing with an actual parallel universe - the beginning of entropic cascade failure would give off specific radiation that we could detect," Carter added. "Although that's only if that theory about entropic cascade failure is actually correct. Of course, Beta's data supports that."

"Ancient records mention such cases, yes." Beta had popped up next to them, and Jack barely managed not to jerk. "That's why we were using a specific transfer dimension as a target. The fact that the dimension is influenced and even formed by sapient minds guarantees that you will not meet a dimensional analogue, reducing the risk of fatal consequences related to dimensional travel. Of course, that is merely for research; the actual value of travelling to such dimensions is debatable. There are no resources to be extracted or knowledge to be gained since everything depends on someone imagining it."

"Not a good spot to found new colonies, huh?" Jack asked.

"Exactly!" Beta smiled at him - he had to work on his sarcasm. "Nothing created in such a dimension could survive the return to our dimension - the central laws of nature work differently there. Even the simplest material gathered in such a place might suffer rapid entropic decay once introduced to a less metaphysically unstable universe."

"Is that the kind of decay that makes it crumble to dust or go critical?" Jack asked.

The way Carter, Entrapta and Bow blinked and glanced at each other wasn't very comforting.

"That's an excellent question." Beta nodded approvingly in that condescending way of hers. "We should find out."

"Only under the strictest security, of course," Carter added.

Entrpata nodded in agreement, but Jack still didn't trust the glint in her eyes.

"No blowing up the planet by mistake!" he told them with a frown.

"Of course not!" Beta frowned at him in return. "That would threaten the research station itself and all our work!"

"And kill us all," Jack added in a flat voice.

"And prevent us from saving Catra and the others!" Adora glared at everyone. Or she was trying not to fall asleep - it was hard to tell.

"Right!" Entrapta nodded. "We'll have to do that in space then - and on the other side of the planet so any exotic radiation generated by such a decay won't affect the base."

"But first, we need to test our new sensors," Carter said, bringing everyone back on course.

"Yes!" Once more, hair tentacles flew out, and keyboards started to sound like automatic weapons.

Jac slightly shook his head. Before he could make a comment - or tell Adora to catch some sleep - his communicator vibrated, indicating someone wanted to talk to him. "Work calls," he said, leaving the lab to check who thought they had a problem only he could with this time.

Some people really needed to show more initiative. As long as they weren't researching potentially planet-wrecking superweapons, of course.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 1st, 2000 (Earth Time)

Taweret glared at them when Adora had Beta depolarise the force field that kept her locked up. She should have done this earlier, but between ensuring that her friends had everything that they needed to get Catra back and sorting out a few issues with the occupation of the planet, there hadn't been time for that. And Taweret had been safe and comfortable, sort of, in her cell anyway - not as comfortable as she was used to, of course, or if she would have been held in Bright Moon, but it wasn't as if she was in a Horde cell.

"Hello, Taweret," she said with a nod and a smile. "Hello, Zahra," she added for the host the Goa'uld was controlling. "I am She-Ra, Princess of Power." She gestured at the others. Taweret had already met them, but she might not remember them. "You already know General O'Neill and Sha're. These are Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon and Dr Jackson. And Jakar and his host Mats."

Taweret nodded curtly after standing up from her cot - she was still shorter than Adora but a bit taller than Glimmer, Adora noted. She didn't miss that the Goa'uld ignored the Tok'ra, either.

"I'm sorry it took a while to get around to you, but we were kind of busy taking over your bases and dealing with your ships," she said.

"I hope they accounted themselves well," Taweret said with a toothy smile.

"Not really," Jack drawled. "Paperwork was more challenging than your guards."

The Goa'uld sneered. "Apophis assured me that he sent his best warriors with me."

"Well, if they were his best, this would be a short war," Jack replied.

"You defeated one fleet of his. He has more. Many more," Taweret retorted. "More than enough to destroy the Tau'ri and your new allies."

"Ah." Daniel raised his finger. "That's a bold statement, but since you don't know how many forces our Alliance can field, it's just a boast."

The Goa'uld glared at him. "The Goa'uld Empire rules the galaxy, and Apophis is the most powerful of the System Lords. No force can stand against him. Certainly not the Tok'ra, who only survived by hiding in the shadows for millennia."

That sounded like empty bravado to Adora - the galaxy was far too large to be ruled by the Goa'uld. And Apophis wasn't the most powerful of the Goa'uld any more.

"And yet, you never dared to intrude into Horde Prime's territory - or challenge the Asgard," Sha're said.

Taweret tensed, glaring at her, then raised her chin and scoffed. "If either of those powers were allied with you, where are they? Do you expect me to believe that they would let their clients deal with me?"

"We might need to get a bigger cell for her ego," Jack muttered next to Adora.

She chuckled at that while she pushed the button on her communicator. "Hordak?"

A moment later, Hordak walked into the hallway facing Taweret's cell, and the Goa'uld queen recoiled, gaping.

She recovered quickly, though. "That's not Horde Prime."

"You are correct," Hordak told her. "I am Hordak. The first of his clones to gain my freedom."

"So, you're a deserter." Taweret laughed, though it sounded a bit forced. "What will you do once Horde Prime finds you?"

"Horde Prime is dead. I killed him," Adora told her.

"An empty boast!" Taweret retorted with a sneer. "This is a farce! Will you claim to be a Gate Builder next?"

"It is the truth," Adora said. "Horde Prime attacked our home and we defeated him - and freed his clones from his control. They joined our alliance."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Actually, no," Jack said with a grin. "We don't. But it makes telling you the truth more fun."

Adora resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. "We want you to understand your situation. And your options."

Taweret narrowed her eyes. "You need my help. That's why you are doing this… production! To impress and fool me!"

"We don't actually need your help," Adora said. "Beta already told us that you don't know anything useful about the experiments here."

"But you want my knowledge of Apophis's court and his plans!" Taweret scoffed. "You expect me to betray him because of such a transparent lie!"

"We expect you to betray him to save your own skin," Jack told her. "Or because you want to usurp him. Or just because. You're a Goa'uld."

"Cooperation is your only chance of survival," Jakar spoke up using his Goa'uld voice, and Taweret flinched. "If you kill your host, you die. If you let yourself be removed from her without killing her, you'll live."

"Traitor!" Taweret hissed in return. "I know what you do to those you capture."

"We would like to mete out the punishment you deserve, but our allies do not condone that," Jakar replied with a glance at Adora.

She nodded. "Yes. We don't kill prisoners. Cooperate, release your host, and we will guarantee your life."

"You will meet Amaunet and the other Goa'uld prisoners who can confirm this," Sha're told her.

Adora tensed. If Taweret decided to kill her host… They could stun her, of course. If they were quick enough, they could keep her sedated until the Tok'ra could remove her. But it was dangerous. It was better to persuade her to cooperate.

"You made a lot of fantastic claims. Who are you?" Taweret was sneering again.

"I told you already - I am She-Ra, Princess of Power."

"And I'm Glimmer, Queen of Bright Moon. We represent the Princess Alliance of Etheria."

"That means nothing!"

"We defeated Horde Prime. We freed his clones. And we're restoring magic to the galaxy," Adora said.

Taweret gasped at the last part. Oh - of course! She was old enough to remember the time before the First Ones stole the magic from the sector for the Heart of Etheria.

Adora smiled at her. "We did that to Saqqara. You probably noticed that." Well, they had been forced to, as a last resort, but she didn't need to know that.

Taweret stared at her. "An empty boast!" she spat - but it sounded hollow.

*****​

"Hordak! You're back! How was the talk with Taweret?"

Samantha Carter looked up at Entrapta's comment. Indeed, Hordak had returned.

"It went as expected. Without proof, Taweret did not believe our claims - or professed such doubt, at least. Although since she seemed unsettled at the end, I believe we had a conditional success," he replied. "Whether it was worth my absence from our work, time will tell."

Sam swallowed a comment about self-importance; Hordak had been absent for less than an hour, and while he was a great scientist, even double that time wouldn't make much of a difference, if any at all, in their search for a way to save Catra and the other missing people. They had to take longer breaks to eat and sleep, after all.

But provoking an argument would be wasting time and creating friction; Hordak was quite prickly. Not as bad as some of Sam's colleagues from Earth, but he wouldn't shrug off such a comment as easily as Entrapta or Bow.

So she focused back on her sensor analysis while Hordak returned to studying the remote projector's focusing crystals with Entrapta. Their last experiment had proven that their idea could work, but they needed to refine their approach to get the details needed to actually track non-natives in the other dimension by the changes they caused. And improving the sensors to that point not only required improved computing power, which they had acquired by linking advanced machines from the lab and the fleet above, but also better algorithms.

And coding those, especially so they could run on a hodgepodge of different operating systems, was a challenge. Even for someone like Sam, who had a lot of experience linking First Ones, Horde and Earth technology thanks to her research with Entrapta.

A challenge she would beat, Sam reminded herself as she adjusted her code a bit more, then ran another test on the raw sensor data. If only she had a way to make the computers copy her own thoughts… She blinked. Maybe she needed a break if she was thinking about things like that.

The test would run a few minutes, anyway, producing thousands of individual analyses and compiling them into one data set so she wouldn't waste time either way. "I'll be right back," she announced before leaving the room.

When she entered the secondary control room serving as a break room, the huge holoscreen there was showing a comedy from Earth - Entrapta had linked it to the spy bot network so they could get a feed from Earth. The lag was bad, but that didn't matter when you were merely watching media instead of communicating.

Sam used the remote on the table - like the rest of the furniture, it was from the expeditionary force meant for a field headquarters and looked a little out of place in the room - to switch channels. No one else was present, and she preferred the news over some sappy Hollywood movie. Especially if it was a sappy Hollywood movie featuring a scientist in too-tight clothes flirting with a dashing military officer and a plot with holes large enough to fly a frigate through. At least there was no love triangle with an alien this time.

"...and despite the mounting pressure for transparency, Alliance Command insists that they cannot reveal the files from Stargate Command for military reasons. So, fact-checking claims remains a challenge, which is why we have invited two experts to the studio to discuss this."

Sam closed her eyes and sighed. She was tempted to switch channels again, but it would be useful to keep up with Stargate Command's media reputation in the public. Getting blindsided once by rumours about a - completely fictional, thank you - near-catastrophe featuring black hole research had been bad enough.

So she sipped coffee and nibbled on a pastry while watching two 'experts' discussing her former team.

"...and while there was a civilian on the team, that doesn't change the fact that it was a military team, led by an officer, and part of a military operation. That will have coloured their interaction with the galaxy at large. A civilian team would have reacted quite differently to alien cultures."

"But that is understandable since we were already at war with the Goa'uld. You have to consider military necessity in such a situation."

"The war was started by a clandestine program of the United States Air Force, funded from black accounts, without more than perfunctory oversight, and focused on developing advanced alien superweapons."

"To defend Earth."

"If it had been about defending Earth, Stargate Command would have recruited the best and brightest scientists for their research, regardless of their nationality. But they stuck to the military instead."

"Samantha Carter is amongst the world's foremost physicians."

"And a Major in the Air Force. That has far more weight than…"


Sam sighed. In a way, it was ironic that after years of having to struggle against the perception that she owed her commission to her scientific expertise and wasn't a 'real officer' despite having more combat experience than most of her peers, now people were using her military rank to disparage her scientific credentials. Although it was hardly surprising - some of her colleagues in the field had massive yet very vulnerable egos and would latch onto any excuse for their lack of success in research. At least the experts hadn't claimed that she had slept her way to the top here.

"...and rumours of her close relationship to Princess Entrapta remain in light of Etheria's known stance on such things and…"

Sam clenched her teeth. That should teach her to taunt Murphy. She shook her head and left the room. The test should be finished by now, and if the results matched projections, they should be ready for another experiment soon.

*****​

Unknown Location, February 1st, 2000 (Earth Time)

Catra eyed the door and held her breath, ears twisting. She couldn't hear anything or anyone outside. Of course, the doors were thick - she knew that from her Bright Moon - and so that didn't mean the coast was actually clear.

She clenched her teeth. She couldn't wait any longer. This Bright Moon was too different, this Angella too messed up and dangerous, for Catra to risk waiting any longer in the hope that her friends would find and save her. At any moment, Angella could decide that Catra had to die. Either for her past crimes or to keep her from telling everyone that Angella was not this dimension's Angella. Or both.

Catra had to save herself.

She resisted the urge to look once more for hidden cameras observing her - she couldn't do anything about them, anyway - and lifted the carpet, revealing the lightly scratched stone floor below. "Here goes nothing…" she whispered as she unsheathed her claws, then slashed down.

It took a bit more swipes and slashes to cut through the stone than she had expected, but it was fast work, and she soon had the stone cut and broken into pieces she could easily lift out of the growing hole.

And then her claws cut through stone and found nothing - not a force field painfully stopping her swipe, but empty air. She grinned, dug the claws of one hand into the stone and cut around it with her other hand, then lifted with a grunt.

A hole. Not yet large enough to fit through, but she could see the floor below her in the soft light of the moons that shone through the windows. Perfect! Now she just had to…

Her ears twitched as she not only heard a waterfall but also breathing, and her eyes widened. That wasn't an empty room below - someone was sleeping there! Damn! In her Bright Moon, those rooms weren't occupied!

She dropped the stone on the floor of her cell, next to the other pieces - no sense in trying to hide them - and quickly enlarged the hole by cutting off another piece. She could squeeze through now, though it would be a tight fit. Better widen it some more.

Then she was done. Taking a deep breath, she laid down on the floor, frowning at the dust covering the carpet and getting into her fur, and pushed her head through the hole to take a peek.

There, at the wall, was the waterfall she had heard. There was also a big window facing East, a balcony to the south, vanity and armoires, a half-open door leading to a huge bathroom, and a massive canopy bed in the off-centre that looked vaguely familiar. This was a guest room, and a first-class one.

She held her breath and looked around for a sword. If this was Adora's room… No. No sword. But she saw a trident peeking out from under the bed and had to swallow a curse.

This was Mermista's room! She cocked her head and eyed the bed, whose occupant was hidden by the curtains. She didn't hear two breaths and saw no clothing strewn around the room, so Mermista hadn't been busy with Sea Hawk and was now exhausted and sleeping deeply.

Well, that wouldn't stop Catra. She could sneak past an alert awake Mermista; a sleeping one was child's play. Baring her teeth, she pushed headfirst through the hole and dug her claws into the ceiling below before swinging through and letting go, landing on all fours on the thick carpet in the middle of the room with barely a sound.

Perfect!

She grinned as she moved past the bed towards the balcony. She could easily climb down from there to the yard below - she knew that from experience. It was a little hard on the wall there, but Catra didn't give a damn about this Bright Moon's appearance.

She brushed the curtain half-covering the door to the balcony aside and slipped out, peering down at the yard. Yeah, she recognised the location. From here, she could easily slip out of the palace, and then she had multiple routes to the fields surrounding the town. If she went all-out, she could reach the whispering forest before the sun rose and anyone would notice her absence. So, she just…

Something was moving down there! Hissing under her breath, she moved back and ducked, waiting for an alarm to be raised, ready to scramble down the wall and fight her way out.

But instead of yelling, she heard a grunt, followed by something flying over the balcony's railing and hitting the floor next to her with a thud.

A grappling hook? She stared at it, blinking, while it was pulled back, then got hooked over the railing. Who would…? She closed her eyes and stifled a groan when she realised who would scale the wall like this.

"Oh, my love, I'm coming!"

Yeah, the whisper confirmed it. Sea Hawk was visiting Mermista at night. Judging by the slightly slurred words, he probably carried a rose between his teeth.

Catra glanced back. She could hide - perhaps under the bed - and just let him and Mermista get it on, then sneak out and climb down. But if either Sea Hawk or Mermista spotted the hole in the ceiling…

And hiding under a bed while two people had sex on it wasn't exactly how Catra wanted to spend her time, either. Not with her sensitive ears and nose.

Screw it! She moved back, then dashed behind the curtain at the door, her back to the wall, and peered through the small gap facing the doorframe.

"Oh, my dear Mermista! Your love is coming!"

Catra saw a hand grip the railing and heard a grunt. Then Sea Hawk pulled himself up and swung his legs over it. And he really was holding a rose between his teeth! Catra resisted the urge to shake her head and held her breath while he straightened, then walked into the room.

Now!

As soon as he was past her, she slipped out behind his back, vanishing around the corner.

"My Love! I've climbed mountains to reach you!"

"Ugh… What the…? You're late!"

Catra shook her head and ignored the couple's greeting as she gripped the rope dangling from the grappling hook and started to climb down. At least they seemed distracted, so she would…

"Look at the ceiling! Sea Hawk!"

"My love!"

"Not that - the ceiling! Someone broke into the room! That's… the prisoner! She escaped!"

Damn! Catra clenched her teeth and dropped the rest of the way down, then started to run.

Catra's Mermista was loud enough 'to be heard through a hurricane', as Sea Hawk had once described it at an Alliance dinner, and this Mermista was no exception. Catra knew the palace guards would be on alert in moments. Her original escape plan would need to be adjusted - she couldn't count on sneaking out into the town. Not with the palace lighting up as guards - and soon princesses - started looking for her.

She changed course and headed to the corner of the yard, running straight at the wall to the outer part of the palace, dropping down to all fours to pick up speed. One, two… She launched herself into the air and hit the upper part of the wall with her claws extended, shredding the surface as she scrambled the last few yards up.

She slid over its top, trying to flatten herself to minimise her silhouette to anyone looking her way, and dropped down on the other side. She tore up the lawn as she landed, but that couldn't be helped. Though she could use that to lay a false track.

She tore off, claws ripping chunks of earth and grass, towards the gate to the side, but changed direction as soon as she hit the stone-plated path that led through this ornamental yard. Let the guards think she still wanted to escape to the town.

But her real destination was the back of the palace. She moved a bit slower, without her claws granting her traction at high speed, and vanished between two rows of bushes with fancy flowers, then ducked under a fence and dashed past an empty stable - had this Glimmer also had a pony in the palace once? It seemed like it.

And the original Angella hadn't skimped on pasture for the poor pony either - the fence reached all the way to the outer wall of the palace. It was high enough to shield the entire princess playground from view and would do the same for Catra now.

Until she went over it, of course. She could scale it easily using her claws, but if anyone spotted the traces that would leave before she could get away from the palace, she would likely be caught halfway down the cliff on the other side…

She should have taken Sea Hawk's grappling hook and rope with her. Hissing at her mistake, she eyed the wall, then the tree next to it. It had been carefully trimmed by the palace gardener into a decoration, but it was still tall enough to reach halfway to the wall's top. It would have to do.

And while climbing the tree, she would be covered from view by the foliage. She quickly went up, weaving around the many branches, until she reached the top, which was slightly swaying under her weight.

Glancing back, she could see the palace fully alert - all the lights were on, and she could hear more shouting and yelling and see movement behind windows. Yeah, operation 'Catch the Cat' was in full swing.

But Catra hadn't almost beaten the entire Alliance through dumb luck. Scoffing, she shifted her weight, causing the treetop to sway even more. Back and forth, back and forth, back and… She jumped, holding her breath, reaching out as she stretched her body. Her fingertips clamped down on the edge of the top of the wall, and she clenched her teeth as she resisted the urge to unsheathe her claws and get a better grip.

Instead, she pulled herself up, shifting grips to find better purchase on top, and swung her legs over the wall, followed by her body until she was hanging by her fingertips on the other side - straight above the cliff overlooking Bright Moon's lake.

Exactly where she wanted to be right now, she reminded herself. If not for long.

On this side, she had no choice and had to use her claws to descend; the wall ended where the cliff began, and there was no ledge to drop down on. If she fell, she would bounce off the cliff a few times until she hit the water at terminal velocity, as Entrapta would say.

She wouldn't fall. Digging her claws into the wall, she let go of the top and started her descent.

She clenched her teeth at the sound her claws made as they slowed her down until she hit the base of the wall. If anyone heard that… But she was committed now.

The cliff itself was steep but far from smooth, so she had to start climbing down instead of sliding. That slowed her down some. She still made a good pace - thanks to her claws, she could make her own hand- and footholds.

But when she was still halfway to the ground below, she heard a familiar and thoroughly unwelcome sound: Flapping wings. Large wings. A quick glance around confirmed her fear: Adora was riding Swift Wind - and headed to the cliff.

Catra looked down. She was still too far up to risk jumping into the water below her. Going up was out of the question. And she was too exposed on the cliff to hide.

Damn.

Maybe if she hid herself in a crook in the cliff, Adora might miss her in the dim moonlight. But where was such a spot? Pressed against the stone, Catra had trouble seeing a good hiding spot. And if she moved, she would draw more attention to herself.

She muttered another curse. Move and hope to find a hiding spot before Adora found her? Or stay still and hope Adora missed her in the middle of the cliff? No, this Adora wasn't her Adora, but she was likely as stubborn - or more so.

Catra slowed down a little bit, though, and tried to keep an eye on Adora. If she moved smoothly and not too quickly, and timed her faster movement to the moments when Adora wasn't looking in her direction, she might escape notice.

Adora swept past her - and above her. She was starting her search from the top, then. Not the bottom, to cut off any escape. Did she know Catra hadn't had time to reach the bottom yet? Or was that because Adora wanted to be able to swoop down once she found Catra instead of having to climb up?

It didn't matter why, just that she did. Catra clenched her teeth and kept climbing down. There! That might be a hiding spot - a small gap between a protruding rock and another, just large enough for her to fit in.

Baring her fangs in a grim smile, Catra started making her way to the spot. A glance up confirmed that Adora, while closing in, was still about two passes away from her height. That should be enough time to slip around the rock in the way and hide.

She held her breath as she waited, in the barely-there shadow of the rock, for Adora to pass above her. Almost. Almost. Now! Swift Wind swept past, and Catra pushed off, claws digging into the hard rock as she traversed the rock as fast as she could. She only had a second or two… She panted for breath when she slid into the narrow gap, pressing herself against the stone. Now she had to wait until Adora passed this spot, then wait some more until they finished here and went away to search the stables or something. Then Catra could finish her descent and disappear into the forest below.

Her ears twitched - Swift Wind was approaching. Catra resisted the sudden urge to turn and face the rock, not looking until she heard the flying horse pull away. She had to see what was happening. She wouldn't cower like that.

So she watched Adora fly towards her. It wasn't her Adora, but it was a beautiful sight anyway - Adora's outfit shone in the moonlight. Almost ethereal. Even Swiftwind didn't distract from it - his white fur and wings caught the light as well.

Then the two were past, and Catra sighed with relief. That was… She froze. Adora was turning early - and coming back. Had she…?

She must have - she was coming straight at Catra! Damn. Catra looked around. Still too high to jump. Hell, she was so high, if she jumped, Adora could easily catch her before she hit the… Catra's eyes widened. It was a foolish idea. Stupid. But… even if this Adora wasn't her Adora, she couldn't be completely different from her Adora, could she? Not if things had happened more or less like in Catra's dimension.

It was the best shot she had. If she was recaptured, she would be put in a cell from which she couldn't escape. Or killed.

So she pushed herself out of the gap, only holding on to the rock with one foot and one hand, and turned to face Adora. Familiar eyes widened with surprise before they narrowed again.

Smiling, Catra closed her eyes and jumped.

"CATRA!"

She didn't open her eyes and let her body go limp as she fell, the wind tearing at her as she picked up speed. If she had misjudged this Adora…

"CATRA!"

Closer. And she sounded a bit concerned. Catra's smile widened a little, though she kept her eyes squeezed shut. Yes!

Then, an arm wrapped around her waist, fingers digging into her side, and she was pulled into Adora's side. A moment later, her stomach lurched as Swift Wind started to pull out of his dive.

"You idiot!" she heard Adora yell as they slowed down and levelled out. "Trying to kill herself?"

"Without wings, you cannot fly," Swift Wind commented.

And now they were above the lake at the foot of the cliff. Far above it - but not so far that a fall would be fatal.

Catra twisted in Adora's grip, turning her head to face her. "I'm sorry about this," she said, smiling.

Adora's expression darkened. "Oh, you will be…"

Catra wriggled - her arms were caught by Adora, but she was flexible, and Adora was so close… She twisted, then leaned forward and cut Adora off with a kiss.

And when Adora froze, gasping with shock and surprise, her grip loosening, Catra bent her knees, brought her feet up, and jumped out of her grip, diving for the lake below.

This time, Adora wasn't quick enough to catch her before she hit the water.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 2nd, 2000 (Earth Time)

"...and while the actions of SG-1 are undoubtedly heroic, one has to consider the situation during which they were taken: They were active during a war that only started because the United States government tampered with an alien relic in secret."

"I'm not sure it's 'heroic' to visit another planet with a group of soldiers and a nuclear bomb in tow and then blow up the government there when they take exception to that, Jim."

"It was an expedition to another planet - of course, they had to be prepared for the worst. Matter of fact, the worst case happened, and they dealt with it, Frank!"

"And they weren't all soldiers - Dr Jackson was with them."

"He was in uniform!"

"But he's a civilian!"

"That's a technicality. He looked the same as the soldiers. And during his time with SG-1, he was armed and fighting like any other member of SG-1."

"But he was still a civilian!"

"As much a civilian as any other private military contractor!"


Jack O'Neill turned to Daniel, who was staring at the screen with his mouth hanging open. "Did they just call you a mercenary?"

"They… they did! But that's preposterous! I am a consultant!" Daniel shook his head. "A scientist!"

Jack grinned. "Well, you have taken part in pretty much every battle we've been involved in. And you did get combat pay, didn't you?"

"I didn't get combat pay!" Daniel protested. "That's reserved for members of the Armed Forces. My recompensation was just adjusted for hazardous duties."

"Potato, potato," Jack retorted, still grinning. "The media thinks you were a mercenary."

"That's not the media! That's just the most extreme bunch of pundits they could throw together for a cheap rating boost!" Daniel shook his head. "Why are we watching this.. this sensationalist drivel?"

"Because Carter wanted to know what people back on Earth were saying about us," Jack replied as he grabbed another soda from the cooler they had installed in Beta's new break room. Not that Daniel was wrong - this talk show was more 'Jerry Springer' than anything else.

"...and all that still doesn't make SG-1 any less heroic! They've saved Earth from alien invasions long before the princesses arrived, Robert!"

"As part of the United States Armed Forces! They aren't some… some superhero team operating outside the law!"

"Stargate Command was operating outside the law!"

"It was not! The operation was covered by regulations."

"Regulations that obviously need heavy revisions!"

"You want to hamstring our military in the middle of a war?"

"Accountability for the military is most needed in the middle of a war! That's when rules and laws are in danger of being ignored in the name of expediency!"


Jack nodded. The guy was a genuine frothing-at-the-mouth lunatic, but he was right about that. Pretty much only about that, though. At least, even here, the majority of the 'experts' seemed to have a pretty positive view of SG-1, so…

"Or in the name of love. We've all heard the rumours about what SG-1 did when operating on alien planets."

"Oh, yes."

"Are you serious? We are talking about Stargate Command, not a Hollywood romance!"

"Dr Jackson brought a war bride home from the very first mission!"


Scratch that thought! Jack pressed his lips together. He glanced at his friend. Daniel was glaring at the screen. Probably not a good time to ask whether Sha're got a green card yet through their marriage. Though Jack better checked up on that before some bureaucrat with delusions of importance tried to make a fuss. He'd have one of his staff look into that.

"So much for the rally behind the flag effect," Daniel muttered as the pundits descended into another loud argument about the legality of Stargate Command and its actions in the past.

"For most people, it hasn't really sunk in that we're at war. We don't have a lot of casualties, and all the battles are fought off-world, without press coverage. So…" Jack shrugged.

"So that," Daniel said, nodding at the screen again. "Let's change the channel. I don't want to watch this any longer."

"Alright." Jack reached for the remote when the door opened, and Glimmer stuck her head inside. "There you are! We're about to start the experiment!"

Right. Jack got up. He wasn't going to miss that. If only to make sure Adora didn't try again to volunteer herself as a test subject. They couldn't risk her with the first experiment. They couldn't risk her with the second or third experiment, either, but Jack had a feeling that Adora wouldn't let that stop her if the first experiment succeeded.

*****​
 
Interesting. Angella's been alive in this alternate dimension ever since disappearing and wasn't aware that it is actively drawing in more "nearby" sentients instead of just its local inhabitants. If it was patterned after Desperados during the portal incident it would make sense that it would have secrets Angella didn't know (Micah on Beast Island) but be strange that it is drawing in outsiders. If it wasn't patterned based on Desperados itself but by its original independent sentience's (Angella) beliefs then Micah should've been dead. So the dimension is probably still morphic, subtly changing to conform to sentient beliefs, has added multiple non-Desperados inhabitants who had no beliefs specific to the locale (making changes even more subtle), and now has Catra who has MANY Desperados specific beliefs that have been refined by so very many events in the place. This place is gonna start tripping up Angella's expectations so hard.
Well, that would lead to a rather unstable dimension.
 
Chapter 147: The Lost Dimension Part 1
Chapter 147: The Lost Dimension Part 1

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 2nd, 2000 (Earth Time)


Finally! This had taken much too long! Adora bit her lower lip so she wouldn't say that out loud. She knew her friends were doing their best, and she also knew that dangerous experiments shouldn't be rushed. Even more so if it involved dimensional travel, which was extremely dangerous, and not just for the ones doing the experiments.

But knowing this didn't make waiting for her friends to find a way to save Catra any less stressful. Catra was lost in another dimension - a dimension they didn't know anything about except that it was shaped by people's thoughts and feelings, which didn't sound very safe at all. What if it reacted badly to Catra? Adora knew that her love still had some issues - despite Adora and her friends' help. What about all the other poor people who had been sent there by Beta on Taweret's orders?

The sooner they could go and get Catra and the rest back, the better!

Now, if only her friends would hurry up - safely hurry up, of course, without rushing things. Just… put a move on, or something.

"You didn't start without us, did you?"

Adora turned and refrained from glaring at Jack. Even though his joke was terrible.

"We're still running our last set of checks, sir," Sam told him. "Then we can use the projector to open a dimensional portal to the target dimension and send Atak through."

Adora felt a pang of guilt. She should be going through the portal, not Atak. Catra was her love - and this was her responsibility; she was the Supreme Commander of the Alliance. And she was She-Ra, Princess of Power - out of everyone here, she was the hardest to kill.

But Entrapta, Sam and Bow had told her that She-Ra's power would add another variable to the experiment that might throw off their calculations. Even when she entered as Adora - she had asked. Well, they were the experts. They and Hordak, who hadn't said anything - he had scoffed, though, in his grumpy manner.

She looked at Atak, standing inside a yellow-painted round area in the centre of the room. He bowed his head as soon as he noticed her, and she struggled not to wince. He was risking his life for Catra; the least she could do was to show support and trust. At least he was well-prepared for this. He was wearing a space suit Entrapta had modified for him and was loaded down with all kinds of sensors - he looked like he had a spy bot strapped to his back. And a line was tethering him to a hook in the testing room. It would likely snap when the portal opened, but it might hold. Either way, they would get more data, Entrapta had said. Probably in case they had to lasso Catra and drag her back through the portal or something.

"Good, good." Jack nodded and walked over to Adora. "Don't worry, we've got this in hand." He smiled, but Adora couldn't help feeling that he might not be entirely honest. If this were easy, they would have done it already.

"The probability of success has been greatly increased compared to our last test," Beta said. It wasn't nearly as reassuring as she probably thought.

Adora nodded and smiled anyway. "I know."

"Alright!" Entrapta looked up from her tool. "Everything checks out! We're ready!"

And everyone turned to Adora.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "Let's start."

"Yes!"

Entrapta moved over to the main console, where Sam, Bow and Hordak were already seated.

"Charging up the primary and secondary power banks," Sam said.

"Projector crystals aligned with the target solution," Bow added.

"Shielding within expected parameters." Beta, of course, wasn't looking at any screen - they were inside her body, so to speak.

"Dimensional sensors tracking." Hordak sounded almost bored. Wasn't he nervous at all? The last time he had dabbled with dimensional travel, they had almost destroyed Etheria.

"Sensor lock achieved! Opening portal!" Entrapta yelled as her hair tendrils flew over two different consoles. "Stay away from the marked transport zone!"

Adora clenched her teeth as a humming noise filled the room. A moment later, Atak vanished, and the line that had been connected to his suit fell down - cut right above the edge of the affected area.

"Sensors working… searching," Hordak announced. Still sounding bored.

"Secondary power banks active."

Adora drew a short breath through her teeth. The longer this took, the bigger the risk of losing Atak was. And then they would…

"Target locked."

Yes!

"Target solution generated. Crystals aligning."

"Power banks ready."

Come on! Adora silently urged her friends on.

"Opening Portal!"

Once again, the humming noise came - but it sounded slightly different. Or that was just Adora.

And Atak reappeared in the marked transport zone - and promptly fell down since he had appeared about two feet above the floor. But he had made it back! They could get people back from the other dimension!

Now they just had to find Catra!

*****​

"What do you mean, you can't find Catra?"

Samantha Carter winced a little - Adora was loud. "We can't track Catra, so we can't open a portal to her," she repeated herself.

"But… You have her scans! All her data!" Adora protested.

Sam nodded. "But that's not enough to track her in the other dimension."

"We can track the effects non-natives - those transported there from here - have on the dimension," Entrapta cut in. "But we can't track individuals. Well, we can track individual signals, but we don't know who they are. Our sensors aren't able to track their biological data."

"We managed to retrieve Atak because we knew exactly where he was since we sent him there," Bow added.

Adora frowned at each of them. "But we have all the data from the experiments!"

Sam pressed her lips together. They had gone over that before. "Yes, we do - but we know that they moved after arriving there." Or had been moved.

"Then can't you reconstruct their, ah, routes?" Adora looked almost desperate.

"Well… we weren't tracking them afterwards, so we kinda lost their trace. So, we can't really tie the effects we can track to anyone specific," Entrapta said. "Sorry, but that data was never recorded - quite a mistake on Taweret's part."

And on Beta's, Sam added silently. Although with Beta's attitude toward the 'test subjects', one couldn't be sure that it had been a mistake or just indifference. Sam wasn't quite convinced that Beta had been 'just following orders' - the artificial intelligence had proven to be quite flexible in how she interpreted her orders.

As if she had read Sam's thoughts, Beta's holoprojection appeared next to them. "Unfortunately, Taweret was only interested in our research's potential as a weapon despite the obvious alternative uses dimensional travel offers."

Alternative but dubious uses. Indeed, contacting alternate universes to gather information - or resources - sounded tempting, and some Stargate Command analysts and scientists had proposed that after the incident with the Quantum Mirror, but they obviously hadn't considered the risk any such venture would carry. Even if they found a way to travel to alternate dimensions without destabilising their own, they would have to deal with the reactions of the natives of that dimension. The General had commented about Star Trek's mirror universe, but Sam knew that such extreme examples were not the only potentially hostile results of dimension travel. Not by far. The Alliance certainly would react a little concerned if other dimensions started to mine their worlds.

Not to mention that the only dimension they had been able to reach so far was a very unstable dimension instead of an alternate universe. Beta insisted that it was merely a transitory choice, a way to travel to actual parallel dimensions - or higher planes of existence, though the Artificial Intelligence had been a bit quiet about the original aim of the research station since the Alliance had taken over.

"Then we can just open a portal to everyone we find!" Adora blurted out. "We need to find everyone anyway!"

Sam winced. This was possible, of course - a simple brute-force solution. But it wasn't advisable, in her opinion, at least. "We would have to do that blindly - we would target anyone fitting the target data and then forcefully transport them to our dimension without knowing their identity - or willingness to be transported - until after the fact." That would be kidnapping people.

Adora bit her lower lip. "But…" She trailed off.

"Also, each such portal will affect the target dimension and make it harder to track the changes from others. The bleed-through from the portal is vastly stronger than the effects from individuals after the fact," Entrapta added. "And the effects of She-Ra's power might amplify that."

Sam nodded. "And we already cannot track everyone who's missing." Of course, some of them could have died - that would explain the missing number.

"Worst case, we'll completely lose track of people," Bow added. "It's already hard to track some of them."

Sam was aware of that. "It might be related to how foreign they feel, which would depend on their respective environments. If they don't feel out of place, they might not cause a lot of changes." Or any at all.

"Whatever! But you can track people we send over, right?" Adora asked.

"Yes." Sam nodded. It wouldn't be easy either, but they would be able to reliably track anyone they transported to the other dimension. As long as nothing went wrong with their sensors or computers.

"So, we can send a search party to the other dimension!" Adora smiled. "One portal, that should be manageable. And when we find Catra and the others, we open the next portal."

"Oh, yes! We can do that!" Entrapta nodded enthusiastically. "Though we'll have to find a way to communicate."

"After a few more tests," Sam quickly added. "We still don't know how the entire process and the target dimension are affected by magic."

"Yes," Bow agreed. "We don't want to mess this up and lose any more people, right?"

"Of course not." Adora nodded, though it was obvious that she wanted nothing more than going to look for Catra right this moment. "How long will that take?"

Sam took a deep breath. "It will take a few more experiments. We need to test the process with magitech first and then scale it up."

"Working up to She-Ra," Bow said.

"We're not going to test this with princesses or sorceresses," Adora said, narrowing her eyes. "When we reach that point, I'll be going through."

"Of course." Bow smiled weakly, though Sam understood - she knew Adora well; her friend wouldn't budge on that.

"OK!" Entrapta beamed, of course. "We'll run a series of tests - we should have most magitech devices for testing available."

"And I will gladly carry them for you, Goddess," Atak said.

"You don't have to, Atak!" Adora said at once.

"It is my honour to help you, Goddess." Atak bowed his head.

"And since you have no potential for magic, you won't affect the readings!" Entrapta nodded.

"And we kind of need a sapient tester to retrieve them," Bow added before Adora could object. "Otherwise, we can't retrieve them."

Adora grimaced and almost pouted but agreed - after a moment.

And Sam softly sighed with relief. They really couldn't rush this. Though they couldn't take too long, either, if what she suspected was true - the data potentially showed that the effect of non-natives on the target faded faster than expected. If the dimension or the intruders adapted to each other, then they would lose the ability to track the missing people - and the search team they apparently would be sending through. And they still had to find a way to communicate with anyone they sent over - a search party wouldn't be of much use when they couldn't tell the research station when to take them back.

Fortunately, Sam and the others had a few ideas about that.

*****​

Unknown Location, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

Catra really didn't like the Whispering Woods. For years, the stupid forest had been a thorn in her side. It had shielded Bright Moon from the Horde's advances. Scouting parties regularly vanished without a trace - and not just because of Alliance ambushes. Catra had checked after the war. Armoured thrusts ran into bogs and terrain so rough and dense, even hovertanks had trouble advancing any further - and any column stuck in the woods just became easy prey for flanking attacks by Alliance forces. Or for some of the nastier monsters hiding in the cursed forest.

But right now, she loved the Whispering Woods. If not for them, she would have been recaptured already. Just getting away from this dimension's Adora had been tricky. If she had decided to fetch Mermista at once, instead of searching for Catra herself at first, Catra wouldn't have managed to leave the lake she had fallen in before Salineas's princess turned it inside out.

Hell, the river Catra had been swimming inside had flown backwards for a few minutes. If she hadn't managed to grab a root at the riverbank and pull herself out, she would have been carried back to the lake.

But Catra had escaped. The lake, the river, and the manhunt in the fields that followed - Jack better certified her for passing SERE training after this - evading half the Princess Alliance's army was like the final test from hell, even if most of the princesses hadn't shown up in time to do anything.

Of course, if Bright Moon's farms had been a little bigger, with fewer hedges and small patches of woods separating them and little creeks leading from the woods to the river, Catra wouldn't have managed it. Not with Adora on Swift Wind flying overhead.

Whatever. She had made it into the woods. Now she just had to survive until Adora - her Adora - showed up with the rest of their friends. She froze for a moment, one hand on a huge tree trunk that had fallen over and barred her way. How could they find her? Catra didn't have her communicator any more. And she was currently in the middle - well, on her way to the middle - of the Whispering Woods precisely because not even the entire Alliance army would be able to find her here.

She muttered a curse under her breath as she climbed over the trunk - without using her claws; best not leave any tracks this dimension's Bow could find. How could her friends find her? She hadn't thought about that when she escaped. Not that she had had a choice. If she had stayed, she would have been at the dubious mercy of Angella.

Should she turn around and head to the edge of the woods? No. She would just make it easier for her pursuers. And without a communicator, she wouldn't be able to tell if her friends had arrived until she saw her Adora as She-Ra.

But if she just hid in the woods, no one would be able to find her. Not even her friends. Of course, if her friends found this dimension's princess Alliance first, Catra might not have to go to the edge of the Whispering Woods to hear the explosions.

Wait! Catra tensed. This Adora had found her very quickly - relatively quickly - after she had arrived in this dimension. So, there was a way to track people!

She looked over her shoulder. And if they used that, they could find her here. Only… it had been hours now since her escape. The sun was up. If they could track her like that, wouldn't they have done so already? Adora could travel the Whispering Woods without a care; nothing there could really hurt She-Ra. Hell, Light Hope's base had been in the Whispering Woods, and Adora had visited regularly.

Catra sighed. No, however they had managed to track her before - probably by tracking the dimensional transport - they couldn't use it on her now. She was safe!

Then she heard a clicking noise, followed by the sound of breaking wood and rustling leaves. Something big was pushing through the underwood. And it didn't sound like a Horde Hauler - those were legs she heard. Many legs.

She flashed her fangs. She could take any monster here in the woods. And she could use the stress relief. On the other hand, any pursuit might find the monster's carcass, and it wouldn't take a genius to figure out who had killed it once they saw the claw marks.

Damn! She clenched her teeth and started to move away from the approaching creature. A little detour sounded like the best choice. Not that she knew where exactly she was going, anyway.

But as she climbed over a few more fallen tree trunks, the noise of the monster behind her didn't fade. The thing was tracking her! And probably leaving a trail even Kyle could follow.

No choice, then - the stupid thing, whatever it was, had to die. She just had to make sure she wouldn't leave an easy track to follow afterwards.

Catra bared her teeth and looked around, checking the trees - there! She quickly dashed over to the tallest, sturdiest trunk she could see and launched herself up, reaching for the lowest branch. A quick grab, swing and a series of jumps later, she was crouching on a thick branch and staring in the direction of the approaching monster.

The trees shook in the thing's wake, birds lifting off in swarms and ripped foliage carried away by a breeze, but she didn't see many trees being toppled - just a few smaller ones. Then, she spotted part of an armoured shell through the gaps in the canopy. Ah - a giant bug.

That was annoying. Even with her claws, it was hard to get through their shells, and they took a lot of damage to finish off. On the other hand, that made for a very good stress relief - she could go all-out.

Although… why was the thing tracking her? The bugs generally didn't do that back home. They tried to eat you if they found you, and they chased you if you tried to run, but they didn't follow you through half the woods for so long - not without having attacked you before, at least.

She shook her head and focused on the fight at hand when the bug broke through another large bush and stopped, antennas twitching as the head slowly turned and rose to look at Catra.

Catra hissed at it, and the bug clicked its mandibles in return - and charged at her.

The tree on which she was crouching was probably large enough to withstand the bug's attack, but Catra wasn't going to find out the hard way if she was correct. She raced forward on the branch, claws tearing up the bark, then pounced on the monster with a yell.

The thing dug its legs in and reared, leaving furrows in its wake, but it was too slow and too late - Catra hit its body, claws slicing into the shell as she slid down its side, before it finished raising its front legs.

And as it turned, trying to bite her, Catra slid underneath it and slashed at the thing's softer belly. The shell wasn't as thick and hard here as on top, and Catra's claws left behind cuts that bled ichor.

The thing roared and turned around itself, legs ripping up the earth as it tried to hit her. Catra hissed again as she dodged the closest leg, then lashed out at the joints, another weak point. A few frantic swipes later, the lower part of the leg crashed to the ground, and the monster cried out even louder.

But it had a dozen more limbs, all trying to crush Catra underneath it. She cut down another leg, a bit higher, but almost got clipped by its forelegs when that slowed her down a little. She also had to dodge more ichor from the wounds in its belly. And the stench…

Gagging, she rolled out from underneath the bug right when it tried to lean on one side and then squash her flat using its whole body. It couldn't stop itself in time, and the earth shook a little when its belly hit it.

Catra was already moving, dashing around the monster, avoiding the flailing limbs as it tried to stand up again. She dodged left, then right, as the barbed tips slashed down, impaling themselves in the ground near her, then jumped and sailed over the monster's mandibles when it tried to bite her and landed on its head.

"Game over!" she hissed and raked her claws over its eyes, then through the base of its antennas.

The monster's scream almost deafened her, and she was flung off its head when the bug started convulsing, but the bush behind her cushioned her fall. "No more tracking me!" she spat as she got up.

The bug tore up the earth around it, then crashed into a tree - and started to batter it with its remaining limbs, sending chunks of bark and wood flying through the air.

Catra was tempted to put the thing out of its misery, but she had spent too long already - and their fight might have already drawn the attention of anyone hunting her.

So she booked it on all fours, dashing through the underbrush to gain some distance. She jumped on low-hanging branches to change direction and throw off any pursuit, taking random turns until she was so far away that she didn't hear the monster's cries any more.

And had gotten thoroughly lost in the process. Though that could be easily fixed by climbing a tall tree and looking for landmarks. Or just for the sun's position. A rough idea of her location would be enough, anyway - it wasn't as if she was going to call in artillery barrages or air strikes.

But just as she was about to climb the tallest tree in her vicinity, she stopped and sniffed the air. What the…? She blinked. That smelt like… fresh pie? In the middle of the Whispering Wood.

Oh. That could only be one person. Madame Razz.

For a moment, she hesitated. Madame Razz was… 'weird' was the most polite way Catra would describe her. She had only met the woman a few times, with Adora, but that had been a little disturbing. Maybe a bit more than a little. Madame Razz lived in a different world - maybe literally, if what Entrapta had once speculated. Something about experiencing multiple times at once. Of course, the old woman could simply be senile and mix up the past and the present. That would explain how she kept calling Adora 'Mara'. But if Madame Razz had actually met Mara, Adora's predecessor as She-Ra, then that would mean that she was as old - maybe older - than Angella.

And a woman who had lived that long, in the middle of the monster-infested Whispering Woods, going senile was a scary thought. Hell, a woman who had lived that long was scary enough without mixing up people in her brain or living in multiple times.

So, it might be better for Catra to head in the other direction, away from the smell of fresh pie, and not risk even more trouble. On the other hand, maybe this Madame Razz could help her? Did she know that Angella wasn't the original Angella of this dimension?

And hiding from an old woman who spent her days baking pies and carrying a broom with her wasn't really Catra's style, no matter in which dimension she might be.

Scoffing, she started to follow the smell of pie.

It didn't take her long, of course, to find the small hut in which the woman lived - Catra's nose was good but not good enough to smell pie from a mile away. She just had to move through a number of denser bushes - picked clean of berries, she noticed - and travel along a small creek. No traces of animals, much less monster tracks, as far as she could tell. That was a good sign, right?

Whatever.

Stopping at the edge of the small clearing in which the hut stood, she cocked her head to the side and listened. She could hear a faint mumbling from the hut. So, Madame Razz was home.

Catra stepped into the clearing and approached the hut. "Hello? Anybody home?"

The mumbling stopped, and Madame Razz's head appeared in the small window to the side, above the cooling pie. "Oh, Mara, dearie! No, you're not Mara."

"I am Catra," Catra said, smiling without showing her fangs. "But I'm not the Catra from this dimension. I accidentally was transported here when I helped Adora fight evil aliens."

The woman stared at her. "You're Horde."

Catra clenched her teeth. "Not any more." She wasn't in the Horde any more. She wasn't that Catra any more. She wasn't.

"Horde." Razz was scowling at her. "In my forest!"

"I am not Horde any more!" Catra snapped. She blinked. Right, the clothes. "I'm wearing these like Adora does - because they are practical and comfortable. But I am not Horde. I am not from this dimension at all!" And because you're used to them, a small voice in the back of her head whispered.

"Horde!"

"NO! I am not Horde!" Catra took a deep breath. Calm. Keep calm, she told herself. Stay polite and friendly. Explain things. "I am from another dimension - another world. Like… You know Mara took Etheria into another dimension?"

"Mara dearie! My Mara was so brave!"

"Yes, she was." Catra pressed her lips together. "And I am from another dimension where we saved Etheria from the Heart of Etheria. And from the Horde."

"Horde!" Another scowl and broom-waving followed.

Catra raised her arms. "No, I'm not Horde. I am not from here." How often did she have to repeat that? "The Horde here was defeated anyway!" With extreme prejudice - Angella had said so.

"Horde!"

This was… Catra narrowed her eyes. "Mara came from the First Ones."

"Mara, dearie! My Mara was so brave!" Razz was smiling.

"And she fought Horde Prime."

"Horde!" And Razz was scowling.

This was… This Razz was not acting like the Madame Razz Catra knew. Not at all. Madame Razz was weird, yes. Maybe senile. But she did listen to people. She answered questions or ignored them; she didn't just spit out words like this.

Catra frowned. Something was wrong. Very wrong. And… "Where's Loo-Kee?" She hadn't seen the little cat pixie at all so far, she realised. And back home, he had been fascinated by her - apparently, Catra had been the biggest cat he had ever seen, so he had come out of hiding. He hadn't done that for Adora, Catra knew.

Razz didn't answer.

"Loo-Kee. Your friend," Catra prompted her.

Razz still didn't answer. She didn't react at all.

"Did the Horde capture him?" Catra asked.

"Horde!" And there was the scowl and the broom-shaking. Like before. Exactly like before. If Loo-Kee had been captured or killed by the Horde, wouldn't she have reacted more strongly? Differently? "Mara was brave, wasn't she?"

"Oh, Mara, Dearie!"

Catra felt her stomach drop. Something was very, very wrong here. Sure, it was possible that this dimension's Loo-Kee simply had never met Madame Razz. And that this Madame Razz was different from the one she knew. Different dimension, different people.

But somehow, Catra suspected this wasn't the case. Madame Razz felt just too… wrong. Off.

Flat.

Like a bot of sorts.

Catra clenched her teeth and moved away from the hut. She had to think about this. But not here. Not when she had no idea how this Razz would act. Or what she could do.

*****​

Alliance Base 'Gateway', PU-9623, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

"I should have gotten veto powers for naming bases," Jack muttered as he skimmed over a report and saw the official name of the newly-christened base they had overtaken.

"Hm?" Daniel asked, looking up from his own work.

"Nothing." They had already discussed the name. Daniel saw nothing wrong with it.

"Ah." And Jack's friend went back to reading whatever files his tablet had received with the latest update, leaving Jack to return to his paperwork.

Which mostly consisted of reports and notices. Lots of long, detailed reports and notices. "I can't believe Hammond complained about me not writing lengthy reports," Jack said. "I was saving him so much time."

Daniel didn't react.

Jack sighed - loudly - and skimmed the next report. Oh. He groaned. Space Systems Command - Jack liked to call them Spazzies - wanted a detailed report of the current operation in PU-9623 in order to reevaluate troop transport capacities for the Constitution II-class of frigates. Carter wouldn't like that. Not at all.

"What's wrong?" Daniel asked.

"The Navy pukes want to know if their boondoggle of a frigate design can be turned into a landing ship," Jack explained. "Without sacrificing any other capabilities it's supposed to have."

Daniel blinked. "I thought they were already building the ships? Sam mentioned that a while ago."

"They are." Jack bared his teeth in a twisted smile.

"Oh."

"Yeah. They probably plan to adjust the next batch." At least, Jack hoped the Navy pukes weren't as crazy as to redesign the ships already close to launch.

"Ah. That sounds… sensible?" Daniel smiled a bit weakly when Jack frowned at him. "I mean, incorporating battle experience is supposed to be a good thing, right?"

"If done right," Jack said. "After what Carter told me about the design process so far, I doubt they are doing it right." he shook his head. "We are getting dedicated troop transports - we don't need our frigates to be able to double as landing ships. In a pinch, Horde frigates can use their shuttles to land troops."

Daniel nodded. "So, tell them that?"

"I will." Not that it would help. Jack expected them to ignore his opinion just as they ignored Carter's opinion. Worst case, they'd try to enlarge the next batch of ships and end up with even worse designs. He checked the names of the admirals involved. Just in case they might end up involved with a combat mission of his command. "Some officers are only fit to command museum ships," he muttered.

"The Navy actually doesn't run museum ships," Daniel told him.

"What?" Jack stared at him.

His friend blushed. "Ah, I once asked when my class visited one."

Ah. Jack nodded. "Good. Some people - like Kearsy - would probably manage to sink a museum ship."

Daniel snorted.

And Jack adjusted the report's priority. Carter was already busy with the portal projectors; she didn't need any distractions, especially not something as dumb as this request.

No, he could take care of that. It might even be fun to find the best ways to call everyone behind this an idiot without violating the Alliance regulations…

*****​

Outside Alliance Base 'Gateway', PU-9623, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

Adora crouched down at the base of the wall and checked the material. It was solid. And the former creek facing it was dry. As it should be - there was no need to run a stream through the base in the first place. It only made the base more vulnerable. And it wasn't hygienic at all. She had to suppress a shudder when she remembered how they had infiltrated the base through that creek.

But they had fixed that - the creek was rerouted around the base, and the base itself had a decent sewage system now - one that wasn't a security weakness waiting to happen. Tok'ra technology was very good for that stuff; their allies knew all about building secure bases.

"There you are!"

Adora turned and stood, facing her friend. "You told me to go outside." And to stop bothering Entrapta, Sam, Bow and Hordak while they worked.

Glimmer nodded with a wide grin. "I wasn't sure, though. That you'd actually do it, I mean. So, I first checked if you were not trying to hide in the lab."

Adora glared at her. "I'm not that bad!"

"You're worse!" Glimmer snorted, then grew serious. "We'll find her," she said.

"I know," Adora lied. Her friends were geniuses. They had a lot of experience with this kind of project. And they had made a lot of progress. Adora knew all that, had seen them at work, and yet couldn't help worrying.

Glimmer twitched for a moment - probably unconsciously tried to teleport - and then walked up to her and put her hand on Adora's shoulder. "Hey, you know Catra. She's tough. And smart. You know how much trouble she gave us." With a laugh that sounded a little forced - Adora could tell - she added: "If whoever is living in the other dimension tries anything, she probably will conquer half of the world there before we arrive."

Adora chuckled weakly. "Yeah. Like in the Crimson Waste." Scorpia had told her about that trip.

"Well, let's hope she doesn't take over bandits this time," Glimmer said. "Or starts a war."

"Catra wouldn't do that!" Adora protested. "Not without a good reason, at least," she added.

Glimmer giggled. It sounded more honest this time.

And Adora felt a bit better.

But she still worried. Catra was alone in an unknown dimension where people disappeared - a dimension that reacted to your thoughts, according to Beta. Catra had changed, but… Some of her thoughts could be pretty dark.

*****​

Refugee Camp, PU-9623, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Goddess!"

"Goddess!"

"She-Ra!"

"Your Divine Highness!"

Adora couldn't help grimacing as the slaves they had saved and freed from Taweret surrounded her. She wasn't a goddess. She was just doing what she could to save and protect people in need - as everyone should.

Still, she smiled. "Hello, everyone." At least they had stopped kneeling. But Adora was pretty sure that had only happened because the clones had told them that she didn't like it, not because they had stopped worshipping her. But she'd take what she could get. And the slaves had been abused so much, literally left for dead and used in experiments by someone they worshipped as a god - even the workers had, apparently, been amongst the most loyal of Apophis - Adora couldn't bring herself to rebuke them again. It would be like breaking their trust as Taweret had done. Once they had recovered a bit more, she'd address the worshipping problem.

"Did you find our missing people, Goddess?" Kuta called out.

Adora smiled at him. Kuta was always respectful and he called her Goddess, but that was it - he didn't bow and scrape as much as many of the others or prayed to her. "We are working on it," she told him. "We'll soon launch the first attempt to save them from where Taweret sent them."

Kuat scowled at hearing Taweret's name but nodded. Adora couldn't tell if he believed her, but that was kind of reassuring as well.

She didn't want blind obedience, much less blind faith.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter frowned as she adjusted the Portal Projector's power controls again. They had managed to change the settings to narrow down the projector's area of effect to what was effectively a micro-portal - so small, apart from air molecules, not much else would be transported, but it would be usable for communication, at least for electronic bursts as long as they were perfectly synchronised. Two-way communication would need not only a longer duration but an actual portal, not just a transport effect, though, and the power requirements for that were off the scale, even with a reduced area of effect. But maybe, if she managed to raise the efficiency a bit more…

"Check out the new readings!"

Sam looked up at Bow's exclamation. He sounded concerned - and he didn't get excited easily, unlike, say, Entrapta.

Sam's friend was already moving over, carried by her hair, to look at Bow's console. "Yes? Oh! That's unexpected!"

Sam joined them and took a look at the latest sensor readings from the target dimension. A moment later, she pressed her lips together so she wouldn't curse.

Usually, they detected foreign sapients in the target dimension by the small changes caused by the other dimension adapting to them as their minds affected it. Effects akin to small ripples that quickly vanished the further they went.

Now, it was different. If the changes had been ripples before, then they were waves now. And they were spreading without vanishing - and amplifying each other, it seemed. "Bring up the earlier data!" she snapped.

"Already on it," Bow replied, and the data on the screen expanded. "Putting it on the main screen."

Sam turned as the holographic display in the centre of the room changed, the depiction of the local system vanishing and being replaced by sensor data. "Cascading changes…" she muttered.

"What is going on?" Entrapta asked. "It's like… like an entire area of the dimension is changing drastically!"

Sam didn't know what was happening, but she doubted it was a good thing. "Let's call the others!" she said. "They need to know this!"

*****​

Unknown Location, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

What was wrong with this Razz? Even after a few hours pondering the question, Catra hadn't found an answer. She took a bite out of the fish she had caught and grilled and sighed.

Was the old woman actually a bot? Some sort of decoy? But if she had been a bot, who would have created her and why? Or was she just going senile? Was that going to happen to Madame Razz back home as well? But if that were the case, wouldn't this dimension's Adora have done something? You couldn't leave a senile old woman in a monster-infested forest by herself, no matter how much some of the creatures there might like her.

And what about Loo-Kee? The Razz back home considered him a friend, but this Razz didn't seem to know him at all. Was that just a difference between their dimensions? And what effects would that have had? It wasn't as if the little pixie had been crucial for the Horde war, so things would have still worked out the same. Probably. On the other hand, Loo-Kee had been important for Razz. And Catra had kind of liked the little tyke herself - she still needed to introduce Luna to him. If he were here…

She blinked as she heard a familiar noise. Think of the devil? Turning, she spotted a small face staring at her from the underbrush. "Loo-Kee?"

He smiled and jumped out of the bush, approaching her. "Hello!"

He sounded like Catra's Loo-Kee. And he was as friendly as she remembered him - once he had overcome his shyness. And she was meeting this dimension's Loo-Kee for the first time… This was too much of a coincidence. Something was very wrong here.

She narrowed her eyes when whatever this creature was eyed her fish like Loo-Kee would have. "I caught it," she hissed before she could control herself.

In return, the pixie made the most pitiful expression at her, sniffling as his big eyes started to grow wet.

"Oh, for…" Catra rolled her eyes and ripped off a piece of her meal. "That's all you're gonna get, though, you hear?"

"Thanks!" Loo-Kee started munching on it, and Catra studied him some more. He looked like she remembered him. Exactly like she remembered him, down to small details.

And only those, she realised. She didn't spot anything she might have forgotten. Oh. Was that…?

The sound of an explosion interrupted her thoughts. That had been… either too close or too powerful. Either way, it sounded like bad news. Catra stuck the rest of the fish in her mouth and jumped up the closest tree trunk, quickly climbing up.

She had to jump to another, taller tree but quickly found herself above the canopy, overlooking the forest. A huge cloud of smoke was rising from the edge of the forest, where Plumeria was located. And floating in the smoke, slowly emerging…

Catra hissed. That was a Ha'tak! In this dimension?

Her ears twitched as she heard a voice from the ship. A familiar voice - a Goa'uld. Amplified enough so her ears could pick it up even at this distance.

"I AM YOUR GOD! BOW TO ME!"

Apophis.

*****​
 
Chapter 148: The Lost Dimension Part 2
Chapter 148: The Lost Dimension Part 2

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)


"...and that's the situation."

Jack O'Neill nodded when Carter finished. "So… the dimension we're trying to reach is changing massively, and we don't know why."

"We have several theories, sir," Carter replied. She sounded a little annoyed. Probably both at his flippant summary and the fact that she didn't have an answer.

"And the changes have actually stopped - kinda," Entrapta added. "Well, they aren't accelerating any more. And it seems as if they are kinda fading again."

"Ah." Adora nodded. "So, things are going back to normal?" She looked relieved.

Jack could understand that. He felt better at hearing that as well.

"That depends on how you define normal," Entrapta said.

And Jack was back to worrying.

"It could be that the changes recede," Bow said, pointing at a wall of numbers and tables that Jack didn't bother studying. "But it could also be that the changes are settling in, sort of."

"One possible explanation for the fact that we cannot detect any more changes after a while is that the changes caused by sapient visitors become the norm in the target dimension after a while," Carter said.

"So… a huge part of the dimension just changed completely, and that's now normal for the dimension?" Adora asked.

Glimmer shook her head. "How can anyone live there?"

"The target dimension is greatly and easily affected by sapient minds. We already knew that," Hordak cut in. "That malleable reality is the norm for the dimension. As far as native life is concerned, sapients would likely be able to form their own area of control and create a stable zone to inhabitate." He paused for a moment and cocked his head. "That is if there are actually native sapient life forms. Given what we know about this dimension, we should have detected constant changes on a much larger scale. Although if all sapients of the dimension are brought in line with each other, so consensus about their reality is achieved, the dimension itself would be quite stable, I assume."

That was… A world where reality only remained real while everyone agreed that this was the way it should be? Jack grimaced. "I don't think that would work. There's always someone who disagrees with how things should be."

"Perhaps amongst humans. But not every civilisation follows your example," Hordak retorted. "When Horde Prime ruled us, none of us would deviate from his wishes. Not for long, in any case."

"Only until you got mindwiped or chipped," Jack commented. He ignored the frown on Hordak's face. The former warlord had spent decades trying to conquer Etheria for Horde Prime; he could take a reminder about how wrong that had been.

"In theory, such a society could be formed without mind control," Carter said. "For example, a hive mind species would naturally form a consensus. And such a species would be adapted well to a dimension where reality itself can be changed by your mind."

That sounded logical - as expected from Carter. Daniel nodded as well, in obvious agreement. And yet… Jack frowned. "And how would such a species deal with, ah, visitors from afar who aren't connected to their hive mind?"

Judging by the grimaces on everyone's faces, the answer wasn't going to be 'nicely'.

*****​

"They're going to mind control Catra?" Adora gasped. She wouldn't let that happen again! The first time had almost destroyed Catra - would have actually killed her, if not for She-Ra's power!

"It's a theory," Sam said. "We don't know if the dimension has native sapient life."

"But since it has, you know, kinda fixed structures as our sensors tell us, and is not constantly changing randomly, I think there are sapients there," Entrapta pointed out. "Someone has shaped the dimension so we can track changes to it. And someone clearly was fetching everyone who arrived away - at least, that's the most likely explanation for their rapid change of position after arrival."

Adora clenched her teeth. Someone was rounding up the people who entered the dimension. And for what? To control them? To keep them from changing the dimension? If they did anything to Catra, she would… Adora drew a deep breath. She had to control herself. Catra was tough and smart. She wouldn't let herself get caught easily. Adora had to trust her lover. Even if it was hard. "So, when we enter the dimension, we'll meet whoever is collecting visitors."

"That's what we think, yes," Bow said. "All the data points to that."

"Good. Then we can talk to them right away and get Catra and the others back." Adora nodded. And if they didn't want to listen, then she would make them give everyone back. Even if there was no magic in the dimension - they hadn't checked for that yet - she would still have She-Ra's power.

Nothing and no one would stand in her way. She'd save Catra. And the others.

"Ah." Daniel cleared his throat. "I have a question."

"Yes?" Entrapta turned to smile at him.

He nodded. "If we arrive there as a group, how will that affect the target dimension?" He smiled a little sheepishly. "I know we are on the same wavelength, so to speak, so would we affect the dimension more strongly than a single visitor?"

"Probably yes," Sam said. She frowned. "We haven't tested that for obvious reasons. But we would likely have a bigger impact on the dimension than if we arrived spread out. In fact…" She trailed off.

"Oh! If we create an amplifying effect, we could probably start a huge change as well!" Entrapta beamed.

"Or we should take precautions so we don't start changing someone else's dimension," Bow said. "They might see that as an attempt to attack them."

He was right. But should they split up?

"Never split the party," Jack said as if he had read Adora's mind. "We can't let them pick us up one by one."

Adora nodded. They could always apologise to whoever was concerned. And, she thought, feeling a bit guilty, it might help them get their people back.

*****​

Samantha Carter took a short breath. "We don't have a way to mitigate our impact on the target dimension yet, sir. We don't know enough about the mechanics of the entire process." Nothing beyond the fact that sapient minds affected the dimension, but she didn't say that. "We don't know what triggered this massive change. Was it a critical mass of aligned minds? Or is there a build-up that reaches a trigger step over time?" In which case they might be able to enter the dimension and stay for some time before affecting it on such a scale.

"Although we're pretty sure that the changes originated from the people who were sent there from Beta," Entrapta added. "The changes grew from previous, weaker effects that we picked up on our sensors. Probably - we still need to confirm that with another test. It could also just be a correlation."

"And correlation does not imply causation," Daniel said, nodding. "Ah… it could just be a coincidence that the effect started where previous, ah, travellers were."

"Ah."

"In theory," Entrapta said. "Our sensors weren't calibrated precisely enough to discern that when it happened. But they will be next time!"

"We're not going to wait for a next time," Adora said. "We can't."

Sam knew that. But she also knew that they shouldn't be blindly charging in either. But it was obvious that Adora's patience was running out. And neither the General nor Glimmer was trying to step in.

They needed more data and more time to analyse this new development. But Sam didn't think they would get it. The best she could probably do was to ensure they were not rushing things too much - she could at least make the actual translocation as safe as possible. "We'll need to run a few tests so we can confirm that we'll be able to retrieve the rescue party," she said.

"Do it," Adora said.

*****​

Unknown Location, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

Plumeria was burning. Even from this far away, it looked worse than when the Horde under Catra had taken it. Of course, Catra had been limited to Horde ground forces and air support, not a Ha'tak floating above the kingdom while Death Gliders and Al'keshs strafed and bombed what the ship's cannons had missed.

She shook her head, clenching her teeth when another pillar of smoke rose on the horizon. It didn't look as if Apophis was planning to conquer the kingdom - it looked as if he wanted to wipe it out. And was doing a good job of it. Probably trying to make an example out of it to impress the rest of this Etheria.

But Plumeria wasn't a good choice for that. From a military point of view, it was the weakest kingdom of the Princess Alliance. Not the least important - Perfuma alone was crucial for the logistics of the Alliance - but as far as defences and combat capability were concerned, it was a pushover, at least if you had operational surprise and the means to move enough forces in before the rest of the Alliance could react. Catra had proven this.

So, this wouldn't scare the princesses into surrender. Not that anything would - they had not surrendered to Horde Prime either. But it would enrage the princesses. Maybe even this dimension's Perfuma and Entrapta. But Glimmer, Frosta and Mermista would be furious and mobilising their forces.

At least Angella would prevent reckless attacks that would only play right into Apophis's hand. But even so… Catra looked at the floating spaceship again. The princesses here had no idea what they were facing. If they treated this like another Horde invasion, not knowing what the Goa'uld could do, things could end in a catastrophe. And if Apophis or one of his underlings managed to possess a princess…

Damn! She hissed. She knew better than anyone else here what the Goa'uld were like. She had to warn the Alliance here.

Turning, she took a look at Bright Moon, visible in the distance. That was too far to reach on foot in time. But Alliance soldiers must have been sent to look for her. And they would be in contact with Adora and Angella.

She snorted as she jumped from branch to branch towards the ground. All that effort to get away, and now she had to double back and hope that her pursuers were close.

And that they didn't try to shoot her on sight. Not that they would succeed, but if she had to take their communicator by force, it would complicate things with the Alliance even further.

She reached the ground and looked around. "Loo-Kee?"

No answer. The little pixie was gone. Probably scared into hiding. And Catra had no time to waste on looking for him. He should be safe enough in the woods here, anyway.

*****​

The explosions had stopped about fifteen minutes after Catra had started running and hadn't picked up for the next hour. So, Apophis was done with Plumeria. But the Death Gliders and Al'keshs would be spreading out already, doing recon if he was cautious. Or attacking targets of opportunity if he was reckless and thought all the kingdoms on Etheria were as easy to destroy as Plumeria.

She almost hoped it would be the latter. It wasn't a nice thought, but a few bombing runs on other kingdoms would make the Alliance focus on defence instead of launching an attack on the Ha'tak. And while they were protecting their people, they were not trying to charge an enemy they knew nothing about.

Which should make it easier for Catra to help them with defeating Apophis. And to stay out of Angella's dungeons. Or so she hoped. Angella might think that this was all a ploy of Catra - probably cite the timing of Catra's escape as suspicious or something.

Maybe Catra would have to shoot down a Death Glider or board an Al'kesh to prove her goodwill. Though either would be hard without a plane of her own. Or at least a heavy weapon.

Her ears twitched. That sounded like a pair of Death Gliders passing overhead! Headed in the direction of Bright Moon! She didn't hear more craft, though. Recon then - even Apophis wouldn't expect two Death Gliders to defeat Bright Moon.

But after this, attack runs would follow. To probe Bright Moon's defences, possibly to degrade them before the main attack was launched.

She hissed under her breath as she jumped over a fallen tree that looked vaguely familiar. She had to reach Bright Moon before Apophis launched a full attack. Trying to talk to the princesses would be impossible in the middle of a siege - especially if she couldn't get through the shield.

So, where were the Bright Moon soldiers hunting her? It would be ironic if she had managed to lose her pursuers when she needed them to find her.

She kept running, though not all-out. She had to pace herself. Worst case, she had to run all the way to Bright Moon. And she'd probably arrive just in time to see the Ha'tak start bombarding the palace…

Another explosion interrupted her thoughts. Close or just massive? It had sounded close, but… She looked up but could only see the dense foliage above.

Wait! She blinked - that was the sound of a Death Glider pulling high-g turns! Over the Whispering Woods? She had to check what was happening!

Snarling, she changed course towards the thickest tree trunk she could see nearby. Bark flew as she scaled it as quickly as possible, her claws ripping into the wood and through foliage and branches.

As she raced upwards, she heard more explosions - and staff weapons firing. No doubt, someone was fighting the Jaffa!

She reached the top of the tree and peered up. Where…? There! A Death Glider was turning, trying to shoot… Swift Wind?

Catra stared. The flying horse was dogfighting the Death Glider? "If my Swift Wind ever tries that with Adora in the saddle, I'll kill him myself!" she spat as the Death Glider pilot overshot Swift Wind again. And what was Adora doing? Trying to hit the thing with her sword?

Catra blinked as Adora tried to do exactly that. "Oh, for…!" she exclaimed. "Why don't you shoot some magic beam at it?"

Adora didn't reply - hadn't heard her. But the Death Glider decided to stop trying to dogfight and broke off, easily leaving Swift Wind behind. Fleeing? A Jaffa?

No, not fleeing. The Death Glider turned and started an attack run. So, the pilot knew how to zoom and boom, as Jack called it.

And Adora met him head-on, sword flashing as she deflected the blasts aimed at her! Catra held her breath. It wasn't her Adora, the outfit was wrong, but… She couldn't help smiling at the sight. Still, deflecting staff weapon fire, while impressive, wouldn't defeat the Death Glider, so…

She gasped. Adora jumped off Swift Wind, directly into the path of the passing Death Glider, blade held in both hands. The Jaffa pilot tried to dodge but was too slow - and Adora's sword tore off its wing, sending the craft tumbling into the forest below.

Catra barely registered the explosion that followed - she was watching Adora fall. Of course, She-Ra was tough, but from that height, even her Adora would feel it. Although if the trees broke her fall…

But before Adora could hit the canopy, Swift Wind swept in, catching her on his back as he pulled up from a dive that should have carried him straight into the woods.

Catra took a deep breath. They had done it. But if the Jaffa pilot had been a bit better, or kept his distance more, if he had caught Swift Wind catching Adora… She clenched her teeth and yelled: "You idiot! What were you thinking?"

Swift Wind jerked to the side, then turned around.

Apparently, they had heard Catra.

Well, she had wanted to make contact with the Alliance anyway, hadn't she?

So she stayed and put on the best, most confident smile that she could as Adora approached on Swift Wind.

"Catra!" The scowl on Adora's face made Catra reconsider her decision, but the die was cast or whatever the saying was.

"Adora." She nodded, shifting her weight slightly so she could jump off the branch if she needed to. "What were you thinking, trying to dogfight a Death Glider? If the pilot had been halfway competent, Swift Wind would have been dead."

"I am She-Ra's loyal steed! We are bound together!" Swift Wind protested. "No enemy can match us when we are fighting together!"

"Someone needs to tell that to Apophis over there in his Ha'tak," Catra commented with a snort.

"So, you're behind this!" Adora spat, pointing her sword at her.

Catra tried to ignore the blade, which was a bit too close to her - especially since it bopped up and down; Swift Wind's hovering was not exactly that stable. "You idiot! I've told you before, I'm not your Catra. I'm from a different dimension, where we - the Princess Alliance and others - are fighting the Goa'uld." She pointed at the Ha'tak, which was still hovering over what remained of Plumeria. "That's Apophis, one of the Goa'uld System Lords. He is an alien snake that burrows into you and takes over your body."

"I'm not falling for your tricks again!"

Oh, for…! "It's not a trick." Catra cocked her head. Time for a little gamble. "Didn't a bunch of people arrive like I did, sent here by Taweret? Apophis's Queen?"

Adora blinked. "They mentioned Apophis… But they said he was their god. They didn't say he'd attack us!"

OK, this Adora really was an idiot! "The Goa'uld pose as gods and use technology to fool their slaves and followers." Which were slaves in all but names, but best not to confuse this Adora further. "We've been fighting them to free their slaves. We've already defeated many such ships."

Adora narrowed her eyes at her. "I don't believe you! You're a liar! Always were!"

"You don't know me!" Catra spat. "I'm not your Catra, and you're not my Adora!" She glared at Swift Wind for good measure. "And you're not my dimension's Swift Wind. He's busy freeing horses."

"She-Ra and I share a sacred bond!"

That was… stupid even for Swift Wind. Like… She closed her eyes. Not again! "Whatever!" She turned back to Adora. "Take me to Angella so I can tell her about Apophis before he starts destroying the next kingdom." The Queen at least knew that Catra was from another dimension. Catra hoped that Angella was smart enough to realise that she needed Catra's help more than she needed to keep her quiet about Angella's own extradimensional origin.

"Are you surrendering?" Adora was still frowning, with that mulish expression she sometimes had when things were not going her way.

"I am telling you to take me to Angella so I can give her crucial information about this new enemy," Catra retorted. "If you want to call that surrendering, be my guest."

Adora scoffed. "Don't try anything!" Then she reached over - faster than Catra expected, but not fast enough that Catra wouldn't have been able to dodge if she had wanted to - grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and pulled her up. "I'm watching you!"

Catra froze for a moment. This was… not her Adora, she reminded herself as she was sat down in front of Adora on Swift Wind's back. Not my Adora, she silently repeated herself when she felt a muscular arm wrap around her stomach and hold her in place - with a familiar body pressing into her back.

"Let's fly back to Bright Moon!"

"Away we go!"

Not my Adora, Catra told herself once again as they flew off. Even if she feels and smells like her.

She couldn't let herself relax and enjoy this.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

Technically, this wasn't Jack O'Neill's decision. He might be a general now, in charge of Alliance Special Forces Command, but Adora was the Supreme Commander of the Alliance, and she had decided that they would enter the 'target dimension'. They really needed a better name for it, actually. He couldn't just keep calling it that. Daniel said to wait until they knew what the natives of the dimension called it, something about not presuming to name another dimension, but even a string of letters and numbers would be OK as a temporary measure.

Anyway, this wasn't Jack's decision, but if it were up to him, he'd make the same decision. You didn't leave your people behind or give them up - you got them back. And that was what they would be doing. No matter the cost.

Though the cost might be high in this case. If their arrival caused one of those cascading change thingies, and the natives thought this was an attack, then this could mean war. War with an entire other dimension, even if it wasn't particularly large. And a dimension where your thoughts could shape reality. Whether you wanted it or not.

Heh, if it came to war, could they imagine a big honking spaceship to appear on their side? That would be a novel way to fight a war. People were always trying to outthink the enemy in war, but to out-imagine the enemy was new.

Unless you counted some of the research proposals he had seen submitted to the Alliance. Those were so outrageous, they were clearly the result of an overly active imagination. Or greed.

Whatever. Jack checked his gear again, then checked his tab for urgent reports. Nothing.

He had nothing to do but wait for Carter and the others to finish their setup.

Well, he could check up on the others to keep busy, at least.

*****​

Adora knew she should be doing something helpful. Maybe talk to the freed slaves again, help them get adjusted. Inspect the base above. Make sure that everything was going well. Check the reports and files sent from Alliance HQ.

But she had already done most of the paperwork - well, the important parts. OK, the really important, urgent parts. And Glimmer had told her that she was just stressing the Alliance soldiers if she kept checking things. And heading to the freed slaves again… Being worshipped and thanked was embarrassing on a good day, but being fawned over while she couldn't save her lover? No, thanks. She didn't need that.

"Here you are!"

She looked up from her tablet - not that she had actually been reading whatever file was on the screen - and frowned at Jack. "You know that this is serving as my office." He also had an office in the research station, even if he spent more time in the break room.

"Yep. But I figured you were in the labs, ready to jump into another dimension as soon as Carter and the others finish the thingie." He grinned.

She frowned some more. "I would just distract them." Bow had told her so discreetly. Hordak had done so not so discreetly.

He shrugged and sat down on the chair in the corner of her office. "Someone has to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't push themselves too hard."

But Catra was in danger! Adora pressed her lips together and swallowed her words. It wouldn't do anyone any good if her friends hurt themselves by working too hard. Or too much. "Glimmer's with them." And she wouldn't let them do anything stupid.

"Yeah. She shooed me out." He rubbed his neck as he moved his head. "They're doing what they can," he added in a quieter, more serious tone.

"I know." She narrowed her eyes. "You don't need to keep an eye on me."

He smiled, not showing any embarrassment at being caught. "Doesn't hurt, though, does it?"

Of course, it didn't.

He leaned forward, hands on his thighs. "Want to talk about it?"

No need to mention what he meant. Or whom. "No." She didn't want to talk about it. She just wanted to go and save Catra. As soon as possible.

"OK." He nodded and leaned back, pulling his own tablet out of his pocket. And ignored the frown she aimed at him.

She didn't need a watcher. But if she said so, she would sound childish. And having someone else here was… well, not bad. Kind of nice.

She went back to staring at the file before blinking and looking at Jack again. The way his hands were moving… "Are you playing a game?"

"Yep."

"On your tablet?"

"Yep."

Oh. She hadn't known they had games for their tablets - they were compatible with Earth computer files, but that shouldn't include games. As Entrapta had explained once, adapting text files and other data was easy, but they had to basically copy the word processors and other programs Earth used to run on Etherian systems. So… She groaned. "That's what they call piracy on Earth." Glimmer had complained about that. As had Sea Hawk, though he had been offended for the sake of 'real pirates'.

"We aren't on Earth, are we?" His grin widened. "And rules are always less strict in the field."

She snorted and shook her head, then went back to her paperwork.

"We'll get her back. Safe and sound."

She smiled without looking up again.

*****​

"Alright. The latest batch of tests looks good!" Entrapta announced. "We did manage to confirm that communication is possible through micro-portals as long as we rig the communicators to broadcast before the portal opens." She beamed.

Samantha Carter nodded. "We'll need to calibrate the systems to start broadcasting a bit before the set times, to compensate for any delays."

"And if we improve the compression algorithms, we could have two-way verbal communication!" Entrapta nodded enthusiastically. "It'll be lagged, worse than talking over the spy bot network, but it would be possible. With enough power, we could project a microportal every ten seconds."

"That would require more power than we currently have available here," Sam pointed out. And the side effects from working the projector constantly would be nasty. Probably not strong enough to affect the seismic stability of the region - they were microportals, after all - but she would have to study the exact effects of the vibrations caused by the projector in more detail to exclude that danger.

"The strain on the systems operating them continuously during the mission would generate are unlikely to be worth it," Hordak commented. "We might have equipment failures at the worst possible moment."

Entrapta pouted. "And I guess we don't have the time to construct a secondary projector for communication."

"I don't think so," Bow said. "But this is good enough. With the text-to-speech and speech-to-text routines, we can use verbal communication anyway."

"It's still going to suffer from a lot of lag," Entrapta complained.

That couldn't be helped, in Sam's opinion. "We have a working system. That's good enough."

"Does that mean we're ready to go?" Glimmer asked.

Sam drew a short breath. She would prefer to run a test with several travellers, sent to a remote location, to check the system before starting the mission. But Adora had made it clear that she wouldn't let anyone else take that risk, so they might as well not bother.

"The projector needs some maintenance," Beta replied. "To ensure it will run perfectly after the latest tests. Then the mission can start." Sam wondered if the bot would insist on such checks if it weren't Adora going through.

"How long will that take?" Glimmer asked.

"About one and a half hours," Sam told her. She had done that maintenance a lot over the last few days.

Glimmer nodded. "Alright. I'll tell the others."

And they were committed.

*****​

Unknown Location, February 3rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

Catra was glad that they didn't have to tangle with another Death Glider on the way to Bright Moon. This Adora might try to dogfight it again, and unlike her, Catra was not staff weapon-proof. At least, she didn't think Adora would drop her off without landing if they were attacked. Though she couldn't help wondering about that until they reached Bright Moon.

The shield was up - Catra saw it catch the light of the Third Moon of Enchantment - but as Adora approached, an opening appeared, and they could pass through. As they circled above the central yard before landing, she looked up at the moon. "I wonder if Alpha's on that moon as well."

"What?" Adora spat.

"First Ones research station in my world," Catra explained. "Alpha's the bot running it. Like Light Hope, but more Entrapta."

"What?" Adora repeated herself.

Swift Wind touched down amongst the guards who had gathered, and Catra snorted. "If Entrapta and Bow can repair Darla, we might visit." She blinked and turned her head to look at Adora. "Wait! You got her back before you destroyed the Horde, right?"

But Adora scowled and grabbed her arms. "I don't even know who Darla is!" she spat, then lifted Catra up and slid off Swift Wind's back.

"Mara's ship," Catra replied, staggering as she was pushed towards the waiting guards. She saw Adora freezing for a moment, mouth half-open. That wasn't a good sign. "The Horde recovered it in my world. Did you check if it's still in the Crimson Waste?"

"Why should I bother?" Adora said, scowling even more.

"Because that's our best chance to fight Apophis!" Catra blurted out. The guards grabbed her arms, and she squirmed for a moment, suppressing the urge to break their grip.

Adora scoffed. "Yeah, right."

Catra clenched her teeth together. Why was this Adora such an idiot? "Do you have another spaceship on Etheria? Or are you trying to fight the Ha'tak with Swift Wind?"

"Our sacred bond allows us to defeat any foe!"

Catra ignored the fool and stared at Adora.

But the other woman scoffed. "We defeated the Horde. We will defeat those invaders as well!"

Catra groaned. "Let me talk to Angella." Hopefully, the queen was not as stupid.

"She's got other things to do than listen to you! Take her to the new cell!"

"Wait! I have critical intelligence about the enemy!" Catra dug her claws into the ground, making the guards trying to drag her away stumble for a second. "Have you forgotten your training? Intel is everything!" The Horde instructors had been quite clear about that.

Adora frowned again, looking confused for a moment.

Catra hissed under her breath. Adora couldn't have forgotten her cadet training! "Just ask her if she needs intel!"

Adora narrowed her eyes but nodded. "I will."

Catra started to relax - to think this idiot would have dropped her in a cell in the middle of a Goa'uld attack! - but was startled again when the two guards dragged her after Adora.

She considered scratching the floor inside the palace just to make a point - she was going along with this when she could have shredded those two - but decided not to push her luck. It was clear that her fate was hanging by a thread.

It didn't take them long to reach the Alliance meeting room.

"I've taken down one enemy flyer and captured Catra!" Adora announced as she entered.

"I walked up to her and told her to take me here." Catra stared at Angella. "I know this enemy. We've been fighting him in our world."

"Her world? What?" Glimmer blurted out.

"She's with them!" Frosta jumped off her chair - still a bit too big for her - and started to walk towards Catra, ice appearing around her fist.

The other princesses whispered amongst each other.

Catra ignored them all and focused on Angella. She was the only one who mattered. Well, the Snow princess about to hit her with fists made of ice was a problem as well, but Catra knew she could take a punch from the shrimp, and Angella was calling the shots.

The queen glared at her for several seconds, then raised her hand. "Stop, Frosta!"

"But she admitted to working with the enemy!" Frosta whined. Hadn't she grown up at all since the Princess Prom?

"Mom?" Glimmer looked confused. As did Adora, but that was nothing new.

Angella rose from her seat and walked toward Catra. "You know our enemy."

"Apophis. We - the Princess Alliance and others - are fighting him and his fellow Goa'uld in our universe." Catra grinned. "We've kicked his ass on his throne world and destroyed entire fleets of Ha'taks."

"Oe of those razed Plumeria, and you claim to have destroyed fleets of those things?" Glimmer shook her head, then winced when Perfuma sniffled at hearing that.

Angella seemed to ignore both. "I find that hard to believe myself."

"Well, we've got ships of our own." Catra tried to straighten to face Angella on a more equal footing, but the two guards were still gripping her arms. "Better ships than Apophis has. Unfortunately, the only spaceship currently on Etheria is Mara's old ship. In my universe, the Horde tried to recover it, but you got it back. But it seems that you forgot about it here."

Angella drew a sharp breath - Catra caught her flinching for a moment - but when she spoke, she was all calm and collected. "The ship was not recovered here."

"Then it's still in the Crimson Waste," Catra said. "You need to get it and repair it as soon as possible. Apophis won't limit himself to destroying one kingdom. He'll keep doing that until you surrender or are destroyed."

Angella inclined her head a tiny bit. "He has sent us his demands."

Catra wanted to shrug, but she was still held by the guards. "Well, play for time. It'll take a lot of work to get Darla in the air again."

"You don't give us orders!" Glimmer spat.

Others agreed with her, but Catra glanced at Entrapta. The princess was rather quiet, which was a surprise. Ah, she was busy with her tool! Probably already planning the recovery operation.

Catra turned her head and met Angella's eyes again.

The queen glared at her again, then turned to face the others. "She's our enemy, but she's correct: We will need a spaceship of our own to battle this new enemy. We'll stall Apophis and recover She-Ra's ship."

"Yes!" Entrapta cheered. "More First Ones technology!"

Catra snorted. At least this Entrapta and her own were the same.

"And what will the spaceship do?" Glimmer asked, still frowning. "I remember it - it wasn't nearly as big as the one that… is attacking us," she added with a glance at Perfuma.

"It might be enough to get a boarding team inside the Ha'tak," Catra replied. "It's First Ones technology, and even a thousand years ago, they were better than the Goa'uld. If it's not enough, you can use it to get to Alpha on the Third Moon of Enchantment. It's a First Ones research base, and there should be shuttles in the hangar there." This Entrapta might not be able to turn them into stealth shuttles, but they would be very useful in dealing with the Death Gliders and Al'keshs and offer quick transportation. "You could…" She trailed off as she realised that Angella had frozen up again.

"Alpha…" The queen shook her head, then stared at Catra with an unreadable expression. "You know about that?"

"Mom?" Glimmer sounded concerned.

"Angella?" Adora as well.

"A First Ones research base on a moon?" Entrapta sounded enthusiastic.

But Catra had, apparently, stumbled into another minefield. And it was all her fault - of course, Angella would be aware of Alpha! She had been created in the lab! "We found it in our world," she said.

"What is it? Mom?" Glimmer asked.

Catra clenched her teeth so she wouldn't blurt out the answer. Revealing the origin of the princesses in the middle of a Goa'uld invasion? As a suspected enemy? Yeah, right! They had to focus on the war at hand.

"It's where I was… born," Angella said.

Catra suppressed a groan as the room fell silent for a moment.

"You were born on the Third Moon of Enchantment?" Glimmer didn't quite screech, but it came close enough to hurt Catra's ears.

"You're a First One?" Adora blurted out.

"That's why Bright Moon lays claim to the moons!" Mermista apparently needed to work on her priorities as well.

Angella turned to look at Glimmer. "Yes. In the First Ones research station." She turned to Adora. "No, I am not a First One." She pressed her lips together. "Alpha made that very clear," she added with a glance at Catra.

Catra winced. "Yeah, that figures."

"What are you talking about?" Glimmer pouted at both of them. "I don't get it! Who is Alpha?"

Adora shook her head. "But… does that mean that Catra told the truth?"

"Don't act so shocked!" Catra hissed. Really, she wasn't that bad.

Angella straightened. "It's not important right now. We're in the middle of an invasion and must focus on that. We need to recover that spaceship and then board Apophis's ship. Before he destroys another kingdom." She turned to Glimmer. "You will lead the recovery operation. Take Bow and Entrapta with you. And Adora," she added.

"Alright, Mom."

"The rest of us will do our best to stall the enemy," Angella went on.

"Let's hope our best will be enough," Mermista muttered. "We don't have flying ships."

"Apophis will only reach Salineas over my dead body, my love!"

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Angella? Maybe I should stay as well. I can engage their flyers with Swift Wind," Adroa suggested.

Oh, for…! Catra opened her mouth to tell the idiot off - she should know better! - but Angella shook her head.

"You need to go. It's She-Ra's ship," she said. "And you're a First One. You will be needed to take control of it."

Yeah, she definitely knew Alpha, Catra thought. Probably far too well.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill suppressed a yawn as he approached the transport area. He should have slept a bit while waiting. Maybe if he hadn't raided Danel's coffee supply… But what was done was done.

Adora was, unsurprisingly, already standing there, in full She-Ra uniform, sword out. And she looked eager and ready, not tired at all despite the early hour. Of course, she was cheating with magic.

Glimmer yawned as she joined them, almost dragging her staff along the floor. But Teal'c looked alert as ever - of course, Jack's friend cheated with his Jaffa meditation thingie.

And Daniel was still hopped up on coffee, it seemed. Then again, he was always eager when it came to meeting new people. At least Sha're seemed to be sufficiently wary to keep him out of trouble if Jack was too busy.

"Alright!" Entrapta walked over, followed by Bow and Carter. "Hordak will be using the projector as soon as we're ready!"

Jack would have preferred someone else, but since Bow, Entrapta and Carter were coming with them, Hordak was the only choice left. Someone had to keep an eye on Beta as well, even though they had moved Taweret off-planet already. Just in case the bot got ideas about subverting authority again, what with both Jack and Adora going off-dimension.

He looked at the group. "Everyone ready?" They looked ready, at least. "Remember: No thinking of Marshmallow Men!" Daniel chuckled, and Carter rolled her eyes with a wry smile, which was about the best he could have hoped for, but the others looked lost. "We'll have to watch Ghostbusters together," he said.

"But Jack is correct - we'll be shaping the dimension around us with our thoughts, so we should, ah, control ourselves," Daniel said.

"The effects should be fairly limited according to our projections," Carter said. "At least at the start."

That was reassuring. "Then let's keep it that way," Jack said. "Let's go."

"Alright! Science Buddy, go!"

A moment later, Jack heard a humming noise, and then everything went white.

And then he was standing on grass. Tall grass. Vaguely familiar, he had seen… He trailed off and then cursed. They were on a hill, looking at a Ha'tak attacking Bright Moon, cannon fire splashing against a magic shield covering the entire town. Jack recognised the markings on the ship. "How the hell did Apophis arrive here before us?" he spat. "And why are we on Etheria?"

"Oh, no!" Daniel shook his head. "Uh. I don't think he arrived here before us, Jack. And this is probably not Etheria."

What? Jack turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"This dimension is shaped by our thoughts. And Taweret sent over a dozen of Apophis's slaves over. Slaves who considered him their god." Daniel grimaced. "They might have created their god here."

Jack blinked. That… made a lot of sense. But it also meant they were screwed.

"Fuck!" he spat.

*****​
 
Chapter 149: The Lost Dimension Part 3
Chapter 149: The Lost Dimension Part 3

Unknown Location, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)


Apophis was attacking Bright Moon! Adora took a step forward, brandishing her sword, before she registered Daniel's words. Turning to stare at him, she asked: "The slaves created Apophis here?"

"Ah, probably? We know that thoughts shape this dimension, and if over a dozen people believe Apophis is their god…" Daniel grimaced.

"But… could they create an entire Ha'tak?" Sha're asked.

"We don't know," Entrapta said. She was not looking at them or at the Ha'tak but staring at her tool. "In theory, anything is possible here - even the laws of nature might be changed through thought. But without testing, we don't know how much effort that takes." She finally looked at them. "Maybe if we try to change the world together?"

"Great. We'll defeat the enemy through the power of shared delusions," Jack muttered.

"Do you want to tackle a Ha'tak with your gun?" Glimmer shot back. "It doesn't look like this Bright Moon has any active defences that can take it, either."

She was right. Adora couldn't see any guns returning fire at the Ha'tak as it kept firing at the magic shield protecting the town. It looked like Bright Moon at the start of the Horde War.

"Other question!" Bow spoke up. "Why does this dimension look like Etheria?"

Adora blinked. That was a good question! The only person who knew Etheria in this dimension - before her friends and herself had arrived - would be… "Catra!" Her lover was stubborn to a fault, wasn't she? She might be able to create this.

"You think Catra imagined this?" Glimmer sounded sceptical.

"Who else could it be?" Adora asked.

"If it were Catra, why don't we see Horde frigates pound Apophis's ship to dust?" Jack asked.

Another good question.

"Look at the Whispering Woods!" Glimmer exclaimed. "That smoke…"

Entrapta lowered her visor and leaned forward. After a moment, she straightened. "That's coming from Plumeria."

Adora drew a sharp breath. So much smoke… the whole kingdom must be burning! Apophis! And now he was trying to destroy Bright Moon! "We have to stop him!"

"Unfortunately, I forgot to pack a frigate into my pocket," Jack said.

"We could imagine one!" Bow said. "Just think about one appearing and blowing Apophis to bits!"

Adora immediately thought about a Horde frigate just doing that. One from… Second Fleet. Not Third Fleet. She didn't need Priest here. Oh! "Make clear that it's an allied Horde frigate!" she said. "Second Fleet!" Someone snickered, probably Jack, but she ignored it and just thought about a frigate from Second Fleet. One to defend this world against Apophis. To save everyone. Just a single frigate!

"I don't think it's working," Jack said after a while. "Carter?"

"We don't detect any substantial changes in the vicinity, sir. Or in orbit," Sam replied. "If this Ha'tak was the result of a shared conviction by Apophis's slaves that he was their god and would arrive, then it might take several weeks to show such a significant change - and we have fewer people here than were sent to this dimension by Taweret."

So, it wouldn't work! Adora gritted her teeth. "Then we have to get into the ship and just defeat him!"

"Oh!" Glimmer disappeared and reappeared a moment later in front of Adora. She smiled a little sheepishly. "I almost forgot to check - magic works here! I can teleport us inside!"

That was great news! Adora beamed at her friend.

"But can you teleport us all inside? And off again, should Apophis suddenly decide to blow up his own ship and escape?" Jack asked. "Or display whatever god-like powers his slaves think he should have?"

Right. "Just get me on the ship. I can take him," Adora said. She had defeated Horde Prime. She could take Apophis.

"Are you sure?" Bow asked. "We don't know how strong this Apophis is."

"Yes." She had to do it. She had to stop Apophis before he destroyed Bright Moon here.

"Ah. Shouldn't we try to contact the locals first and coordinate?" Daniel said. "And find out why this dimension looks like Etheria?"

Adora pressed her lips together. The longer they waited, the greater the risk that the shield failed. The Horde had almost broken it once through continuous bombardment. And they hadn't had the firepower of a Ha'tak.

"If there's another She-Ra here…" Bow trailed off, and Glimmer nodded. "Yes. Let's go to Bright Moon. I can teleport us there!"

"All of us?" Jack asked again.

"I can recharge at the Runestone," Glimmer said.

"Shouldn't the stone be linked to the local Queen?" Sam sounded surprised.

"I can recharge there even without being linked to it," Glimmer said. "As I did before I became Queen of Bright Moon." She held out her hands. "Let's go!"

"Ah… we should make sure that they don't mistake us for attackers," Daniel said. "We are strangers - and you might be mistaken for, ah, doppelgangers."

Oh. Adora clenched her teeth. Being mistaken for Double-Trouble would be bad indeed. "We'll have to be careful."

"I can demonstrate my power," Glimmer said. "Double-Trouble can't copy that. And if I have a double there, she'll listen to us if she's anything like me."

Ah. Adora exchanged a glance with Bow. It seemed he didn't share their friend's confidence either.

But she didn't think they had a choice - the shield wouldn't last forever.

*****​

Samantha Carter wouldn't say she was easily impressed, not after everything she had seen, but this dimension was incredible. It looked like Etheria - or, rather, the region of Bright Moon, the Whispering Woods and Plumeria; she hadn't seen the other regions yet - and yet, the resemblance was only superficial. Her instruments and sensors showed differences that made it very obvious that they were in a dimension where the laws of nature differed significantly from her home dimension. Not a parallel dimension or universe at all.

Sure, she had known that from the sensor readings she had seen back at Alpha, but the difference between seeing the data and actually experiencing it in person was stark.

"Oh! I think we're starting to affect the dimension!" Entrapta said next to her as they waited for Glimmer to return. "Look!" Her hair turned her multitool towards Sam.

Sam glanced at it. "The tree changed density… far faster than would be possible."

"Yes! I imagined it being less dense, and it started to change!" Entrapta beamed. "We can change the world!"

They could. In very small ways, so far, but to think that reality - this dimension's reality - was theirs to change on a whim… It was a daunting prospect, but Sam couldn't help feeling excited. The possibilities were endless! They could create the perfect environment for an experiment. No - the nature of the dimension would preclude running experiments since their expectations would absolutely affect the outcome. But they could create environments that would offer the exact effects they wanted for any given task.

Well, they could once they had dealt with Apophis, Sam reminded herself, feeling a little foolish, when she heard another rolling barrage of blast cannon fire hit the magic shield in the distance. She should focus on that problem instead of getting distracted. On the other hand, to defeat Apophis, they needed all the data about this dimension that they could get.

"Alright! I'll take us inside the palace!" Glimmer announced. "Adora! Bow!"

Both reached out, and a moment later, all three disappeared in a cloud of sparks.

"I really hope that the shield keeps holding up," the General muttered. "Or this will be the shortest rescue mission in Alliance history."

"The readings we took show that while it is degrading, it's a linear process and, barring any significant changes, it will take at least another hour to reach the point of collapse - though there's a bit of guesswork involved when that point arrives - we never got the data we need to calculate it precisely," Entrapta announced.

"That's very reassuring," the General replied.

"I know!" Entrapta beamed at him, completely missing his sarcasm.

Sam frowned at him, and he had the grace to look sheepish.

"Well, one hour should be…"

Glimmer's arrival cut Daniel off. "Alright. I've dropped Adora and Bow off. Entrapta! Sam!"

Sam took her hand, Entrapta latched onto the other, and then Sam's stomach twisted a little as Glimmer used her power.

A moment later, they were standing in one of the courtyards of the palace - and facing several guards.

"Princess! Wait!" the officer in charge yelled.

"No time!" Glimmer replied - and disappeared again.

Sam wasn't as skilled as Daniel in such matters, but this wasn't the best way to enter a foreign nation's seat of government. Especially a seat that was currently under attack - she could see and hear the Ha'tak's guns hit the shield above her, a constant, unnerving sequence of impacts and explosions. If the shield suddenly collapsed…

"Who are you?" the officer turned to frown at Sam.

"That's my other science buddy, Sam!" Entrapta told him. "Hi!"

"Major Samantha Carter," she informed him. "Alliance Military."

"Alliance Military?" He looked confused.

"Not the Princess Alliance - not yours," Adora told him. "Ours."

"But…"

Once again, Glimmer appeared, dropping off the Daniel and Sha're.

"Princess!"

And she was gone.

"Ah… Hello?" Daniel smiled at the guards.

"Let's just wait until all of us are here," Bow said. "Then we can explain. OK?"

To Sam's surprise, the guards seemed to accept that. She would have thought they would be more suspicious - or on edge - during an attack on the palace.

But then Glimmer returned with the General and Teal'c and all but collapsed, panting. "That… took a bit more out of me than I thought," she managed to say as she bent over.

"Princess!"

"Glimmer!"

"Glimmer? Adora? What are you doing here? Entrapta? Bow? Why did you return?"

Sam had never met the woman standing in the doorway behind the guards, but she recognised her immediately.

"Mom?"

"Angella?"

Queen Angella. Glimmer's mother. Sam pressed her lips together while Adora and Glimmer gasped and paled. They should have considered that this Bright Moon was still ruled by Queen Angella. How this would affect Glimmer, Sam didn't know, but it would surely complicate matters.

"Ah… we can explain," Bow said, grimacing.

"We're not from this dimension," Entrapta spoke up. "We're from another dimension. And we're here to help. And to save Catra. And to gather data!"

Sometimes, Entrapta's bluntness could be very helpful. Sam hoped that this would be one of those times.

Angella had gone pale as well. "Glimmer?" She sounded… hesitating, not doubtful, Sam noticed.

Glimmer grimaced. "I'm from another dimension. I'm not your Glimmer," she said.

"Your daughter and our, ah, counterparts are still… wherever they are, I guess, Your Majesty," Bow said. "And… ah, these are our friends. Allies. General O'Neill, Major Carter, Doctor Jackson, Sha're. Teal'c."

Angella barely glanced at him and ignored the others. She kept staring at Glimmer instead as if she were shocked to see her.

"So…" Adora started to say after an awkward moment but was interrupted by a particularly loud impact on the shield.

"I don't want to alarm anyone," the General said, "but how much longer is the shield going to last?"

"It will last long enough for Adora and the others to return with She-Ra's ship," Angella stated.

She sounded confident, but Sam checked the data from their sensors anyway. It showed some degradation of the shield, although at a stable and very slow rate. Still, it wouldn't last forever - at this rate, it would collapse in a bit over six hours.

"Oh! You're recovering Darla?" Entrapta beamed. "Do you need help? I've restored Darla before - and we modified her once; we can do it again! Although we might not have the time to do that before the shield falls here," she added, biting her lower lip.

And even with upgrades, Darla didn't have the firepower to shoot down a Ha'tak, Sam knew. She could outfly it, of course, and a hit-and-run strategy might prove effective in some circumstances, but Bright Moon couldn't run. And that was based on the known capabilities of a Ha'tak in their home dimension. They didn't know what this Ha'tak could do.

"I can teleport us inside the Ha'tak," Glimmer said. She was still glancing at Angella even as she addressed the others. "Once we're inside, we can take out Apophis - and we can sabotage his ship." She straightened. "But I'll need your permission to recharge from the runestone for that. Your Majesty," she added after a moment with a weak smile. "I'm kind of exhausted right now."

Angella tensed at the address. "It's too dangerous to enter the enemy ship like that."

"It's our best chance!" Glimmer retorted. "We have done this before."

"Not against an actual god," Daniel pointed out.

"Apophis is a false god," Teal'c objected.

"Not in this dimension," Daniel retorted. "We don't know how powerful this Apophis is."

"It doesn't hurt to try!" Glimmer said, then blinked. "I mean… It could hurt, of course, but we've done this before, without magic."

"Glimmer!" Angella snapped. "The ship is protected!"

"Not against magic!" Glimmer retorted.

"Actually…" Daniel winced when both women turned to glare at him. "Our Apophis couldn't protect himself against magic, as far as we know. But this Apophis?"

"Let me try! What do we have to lose?" Glimmer said.

"Your life!" Angella spat. "And the shield does repel magic attacks. We tried that."

"What kind of magic attacks did you try?" Entraptra asked.

"Everything we could," Angella replied with a frown. "We couldn't stop it. We couldn't even slow down its approach."

That didn't tell them much. In order to estimate this Ha'tak's capabilities - and weaknesses - they needed more information.

But before Sam or Entrapta could ask for details, Adora spoke up. "Ah. As Entrapta said, we're looking for a friend of ours - our Catra. Have you seen her?"

Angella tensed again and looked at Adora with a frown. This time, Sam was sure that it wasn't a good sign.

*****​

The constant barrage was unnerving. Even in her cell, Catra could hear every impact against the magic shield protecting Bright Moon, and there were a lot of them. Probably more than during the Horde attack, which had almost brought it down in her dimension, and that had taken most of the artillery parks of an entire front and strained the logistics of the Fright Zone. Apophis obviously didn't have to worry about that.

Maybe I should escape, Catra thought, not for the first time. If the shield fell, then the force fields holding her captive in her new cell wouldn't last a second. Unfortunately, her odds of escaping a second time weren't good - unlike her first cell, this cell had force fields covering the roof and floor as well. And they were claw-proof. Although Catra hadn't gone all out. Even though her claws might not be able to scratch the force fields, if she applied enough force…

Her ears twitched as she picked up voices. Familiar voices.

"...can't believe you locked her up!"

Adora? Catra blinked. But this Adora was supposed to recover Darla. Was she back already?

"She was the Horde leader."

And that was Angella. But why was she saying this? Adora had been the one to put Catra into this cell before leaving for Darla. Why would…

Her eyes widened as she heard more people. More familiar people. Jack, Sam, Daniel…

She gasped and jumped up, pressing herself against the force field facing the door. Her Adora was here! And her friends! They had come for her! They hadn't abandoned her!

She drew back and straightened just in time for the door to open, then flashed a grin.

"Hey, Adora."

"Catra!"

Adora's face lit up with so much relief - and love - that Catra swallowed her comment about how it had taken Adora long enough to find her and just smiled and nodded. And blinked so her eyes would clear up.

A moment later, Adora was pressed against the force field, and Catra could almost feel her lover's eyes go over her body, searching for any signs of wounds or bruises.

"I'm fine," she told her.

"You're locked up!" Adora protested. "In a cell!"

"She was the leader of the Horde," Catra heard Angella protest.

"Was. She joined the alliance," Adora replied before turning to look at the queen. "Let her out now!"

Angella hesitated for a moment, and Catra saw her frown at her and glance at Glimmer before she pushed a button on the wall to deactivate the force field.

And then Adora's arms wrapped around Catra, and they embraced. And kissed.

And Catra relaxed with a shuddering breath. Adora was back with her. They were together again. For a moment, she didn't hear or feel the impacts from Apophis's barrage. Didn't think about their situation, this dimension. Just held Adora.

Someone cleared their throat.

Catra ignored them.

Someone cleared their throat again.

Catra still ignored them.

"So, that's the second time we had to save the cat, huh?"

With a scowl, Catra pulled back from Adora and released her - mostly. She kept an arm wrapped around Adora's side and her tail brushing over Adora's leg. "I could have escaped any time," she told Glimmer. "I actually did, and only came back to save… them," she finished with a glance at Angella. The queen was alone with them in the room, she noticed - no guards were present. No locals were here at all.

Interesting.

"Sure you could have teleported through the force fields here," Glimmer retorted, shaking her head. She was smiling, which took the sting out of her comments, but Catra didn't miss how she kept sneaking glances at Angella. Right. She should have expected this. After losing her mother, meeting another Angella would shake up Glimmer.

So, Catra let the matter drop and didn't mention her options to get out of the cell - mostly centred on luring the guards to lower the force field to get the drop on them. Besides, it was best to keep that a secret, just in case.

"Any news from the recovery mission?" she asked instead.

Angella narrowed her eyes at her. "They have found the ship and are in the process of repairing it."

"Darla. She has a name," Entrapta objected before blinking. "Well, our Darla was named Darla. You probably should ask her if she wants a different name."

"Ships are female," Jack added with a grin.

"Actually, that's not a universal custom," Daniel cut in. "The Russians, for example, use a male gender while in German, a neutral gender is used."

"I don't think the gender of the ship in question is important," Jack said. Daniel opened his mouth, likely to point out that Jack started it, but Jack cut him off. "What's important is whether or not the ship can get us inside Apophis's floating palace."

"It should," Catra said. "It's only a Ha'tak." Horde Prime's flagship would be different, but Darla's shields should be able to get them through a Ha'tak's protections. She wasn't a scientist, but she knew the capabilities of both ships by heart. She had to, to make proper tactical decisions and plans.

"Ah, we actually don't know that," Daniel said with a weak smile. "That this is a normal Ha'tak, I mean."

Catra narrowed her eyes. "It looks and shoots like a normal one," she said.

"Yes, but it was created by the thoughts of the slaves of Apophis displaced to this dimension. They consider him a god," Daniel explained. "So, depending on their imagination, we could be dealing with a literal divine vessel."

Catra blinked. What was he saying? "The slaves created the ship?" she asked out loud. That was insane!

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded emphatically. "Well, that's our hypothesis, but the sensor readings we took looking for you and the data we have of this dimension support it. This dimension is affected by the minds of its inhabitants. Or shaped - it's very malleable; even the laws of nature here aren't fixed. It's one of the most interesting places we've ever seen! Can you imagine living in a dimension where you can alter reality with your imagination?"

Catra couldn't help thinking that sometimes, Entrapta looked rather scary, in a deranged way. This was one of those times. If they were a dimension defined and altered by your imagination… She gasped and stared at Angella, then back at her friends. "Do you mean that not just the ship but Apophis himself might have been created by those people Taweret sent here?"

Entrapta nodded.

"That's our running hypothesis," Sam confirmed. "We noticed a massive change in the dimension's structure, and it seems to correlate with the Ha'tak's appearance, although we have yet to confirm it."

"So, we're fighting a god imagined by his brainwashed followers?" Catra shook her head. A dimension where people could create a god just by believing in them? Wait! Did that mean… "Can anyone do this? Imagine a god? Or other people?" she interrupted Sam's explanation about how time might play a role, and the accumulation of like-minded individuals or whatever affected the process.

"Ah… theoretically, yes," Sam told her.

"The only theoretical limits are your imagination!" Entrapta added. "It's so fascinating!"

Catra felt her stomach drop. You could create people by thinking of them? And your only limits were your imagination? Or… your knowledge? It would explain a lot. She turned to glance at Angella. The queen was glaring at her, but also… nervous? Catra shook her head. This was a bad idea, but… she had to know. Had to ask.

"Did you create all of this?" She gestured at the room. "Bright Moon, Etheria? The people here?"

*****​

What did she mean by that? Jack O'Neill tensed and glanced at Catra, then at Angella. The queen had frozen for a moment, and he felt his stomach drop.

"What?" Adora asked, sounding confused.

Angella was still not saying anything, just staring at Catra.

And Catra was staring straight back. "Angella isn't from this dimension."

"What?" Half the room blurted out the same question.

Angella didn't deny it, Jack couldn't help noting. Though her stare turned into a glare.

And Entrapta was already running with it. "Well… that is a new theory. We thought that the dimension's native inhabitants - sapient inhabitants - had formed a meta-consensus that allowed them to stabilise a core part of the dimension thanks to a shared view of how reality should work. And we thought that this would likely be a sort of hive-mind, though that was speculation based on human mental structures. But if this stabilised area was the result of one mind… it could work. We already know that there's a temporal component to the shaping effect, and if you had enough time, you could likely influence a significant part of the dimension, especially if there were no other minds attempting to shape it. And! It would explain why this dimension looks so much like Etheria! The odds that the natives of this dimension would form a world like ours despite the drastic differences in how the dimension works were pretty much zero, now that I think of it. I should have thought of that myself, but I was distracted by the new dimension's data. Sorry!"

Jack blinked. He wasn't a scientist, but he was used to listening to them, and that sounded like Entrapta thought this was a valid theory.

He glanced at Carter, who slowly nodded. "It would explain several things we noticed," she said.

"But…" Adora looked around, then settled on Catra. "How do you know that?"

"We talked," Catra told her without looking away from Angella. "She told me. This is Etheria how you think it should have been, huh?"

Angella still didn't answer, but Jack could see she was starting to scowl at Catra. He clenched his teeth. The last thing they wanted was a blow-out between them and the queen - and possible creator - of this land right in the middle of a Goa'uld attack.

"But… if you're not from this dimension, where are you from?" Glimmer asked, almost hesitantly.

Jack swallowed a curse. It didn't take a genius to realise what she was thinking, hoping, right now.

Angella turned to look at Glimmer, and her expression softened somewhat. "I came from Etheria - my Etheria. I stepped through a portal, sacrificing myself to save it." She narrowed her eyes, scowled at Catra and spat: "A portal she opened to conquer Etheria!"

Catra flinched at that and seemed to shrink in herself.

Ouch, Jack thought.

"She changed!" Adora spoke up, wrapping her arm around Catra's shoulders. "We all did. We made peace with the Horde - and we defeated Horde Prime together. And now we're fighting Apophis and the other Goa'ulds. Together."

Right. Couldn't forget the snake trying to kill them all. The snake that was potentially a god-like snake thanks to a bunch of brainwashed slaves.

Angella didn't take that well. "She almost destroyed Etheria, and you forgive her?"

"I thought forgiving was the thing on Etheria," Jack said before he could stop himself. He didn't flinch when Angella glared at him, though. She might be queen of a land she had created and have magic powers, but… well… in for a penny, in for a pound. He shrugged. "People can change. Teal'c was Apophis's First Prime before he defected, saving us all."

"Indeed." Teal'c, of course, just inclined his head in his usual way when Angella turned to glare at him.

"The Horde seems to have settled in well, the clones working hard to fight the snakes," he went on. No need to go into details.

"And Hordak threw off Horde Crime's mind control!" Entrapta contributed.

"Hordak!" Angella hissed. "You are allied with him?"

Right. He had been the main enemy of hers, hadn't she?

"People can change!" Adora said, not letting go of Catra, and Jack resisted the sudden impulse to add 'for better or worse'. This was a very delicate situation, but if they could defuse this and focus on defeating the freshly created Apophis II…

"Are… are you our Angella?" Glimmer asked in a very soft voice that still made everyone tense up again. She moved her mouth, adding something in a whisper that Jack didn't catch.

And Angella drew a sharp breath and closed her eyes before slowly turning to face Glimmer. "I… I don't know." Shaking her head, she added: "I don't know any of you. I don't understand how you could… be like that."

"Uh…" Bow grimaced when most people looked at him. "If you're not from our dimension, then something should show up on a scan… I think. But we probably need better instruments to tell."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded emphatically. "Since no universe is exactly the same, there should be discernible differences even between parallel universes with closely-matching history. If we get enough data, we should find them!" With a frown, she added: "Although proving that you're from the same universe would be a bit harder, since even if we don't find any differences, we could not really be sure that we just lacked the instruments to find them. We don't have a lot of data on multi-dimensional differences."

"And we don't have a lot of time to deal with Apophis," Jack cut in. This was all getting far too technical or philosophical for him. They were still under constant bombardment, for crying out loud! "So, let's focus on that? We can sort out the rest afterwards."

At least, he hoped so. In any case, you had to be alive to sort things out.

*****​

Angella had created this world? This area of the dimension they were in, Adora corrected herself. It was incredible, but she trusted her friends. And Angella hadn't denied it. And she was not from this dimension, either. So, she could even be their Angella - the one who had sacrificed herself to seal the portal, saving Etheria from destruction. And Adora from sacrificing herself.

Glimmer's mom.

Adora desperately wanted to find out if this was true. She wasn't sure, though, if she wanted to find out what it meant for the people they had seen - guards she knew back home. And Catra… she had to talk to Catra. Her lover was shaken by this; she was putting up a good front, but Adora could tell.

But Jack was right - they had to stop Apophis first.

She nodded. "Glimmer needs to recharge at the runestone. And we need to know if we can get inside the ship with magic."

"It's protected against magic," Angella said.

"Did you try teleportation magic? Did this dimension's…" Glimmer trailed off, and Adora saw she was clenching her teeth.

"That would have been too dangerous to attempt," Angella retorted.

"So, you didn't let her." Glimmer scowled. "I'll try it!"

"No!" Angella blurted out.

"You can't stop me!" Glimmer spat.

"I won't let you recharge!"

"Well, they don't really act like family," Catra mumbled next to Adora.

Adora pressed her lips together. Catra had never seen it, but Glimmer and Angella were acting exactly as they had during the Horde war. "We need to know. If we can teleport inside, we won't have to risk a boarding action."

"And we won't have to wait for Darla to be recovered," Bow added.

"The shield will hold," Angella said. "I know it."

"Because you want it to hold?" Catra asked in a clipped tone. "You alone, against a god imagined by over a dozen people?"

Angella glared at her. "It will hold."

"Uh… Your Majesty, what exactly did you do with the people sent here before us and Catra?" Daniel said before Catra could push Angella some more.

"Adora collected them before they could get lost, and we put them in a small village in Bright Moon."

"Near the border to Plumeria?" Glimmer asked.

"Where the Ha'tak appeared?" Catra added

"Yes," Angella said, pointedly looking at Glimmer, not at Catra.

"Did Apophis pick them up?" Jack asked.

Angella frowned. "I don't know. We were focusing on evacuating the villages in the ship's path and trying ways to attack it."

"Would Apophis really have left his faithful?" Bow asked. "They're the source of his power."

"He might not be aware of that," Glimmer retorted.

"But they might imagine their god taking them with him, and so that is what a god created by them would do," Bow pointed out.

That made sense to Adora. But that didn't mean it was true - religion seldom made sense in her experience. However, she also had to admit that she was a little biased there.

"They also know that Apophis is a cruel god," Jack said. "They built his secret base, and as a reward, he got rid of them and let Taweret use them for experiments."

"That doesn't mean that they would have lost their faith in him." Daniel shook his head. "Many religious people are perfectly capable of finding explanations and excuses for their deity letting them suffer even though they should be able to help them. The former slaves could think this was a test of their faith. Or that they had failed Apophis or disobeyed him, and this was their punishment."

"What if he killed them with his bombardment? Wouldn't that, uh, unmake himself?" Jack asked.

"Eventually, probably," Sam replied after a moment. "But changes aren't instantaneous here, and we have not observed the constant changes you'd expect if the reality was reacting at once to any stray thought - or to the creator of the change falling asleep. So, there has to be a stabilising effect. Even if the people who thought up this Apophis were dead, I would think the Ha'tak would not be affected for several hours, or even longer."

"So, no killing the slaves to kill Apophis," Catra said. She was grinning, but Adora had a feeling that at least a few people here wouldn't have been joking about this.

"What would happen if we left, and Apophis would end up alone with his slaves here?" Sha're asked. "Would he or his faithful be able to find a way to reach our dimension?"

That was a very good question, in Adora's opinion.

"You mean if we all left?" Daniel looked at her.

Sha're nodded.

If Apophis were trapped here, could he escape? But could they leave everyone except for Angella? If the people here were just imaginary people… Adora shook her head. "We would have to rescue the former slaves as well."

Catra scoffed but didn't contradict her.

"Mission creep."

"Jack! We always planned to save everyone!" Daniel protested.

"Sometimes, that is impossible," Teal'c commented.

"We're not leaving anyone behind," Adora said. Never again. "We'll destroy the Ha'tak and Apophis." She looked at Angella again. "We need to test Glimmer's power against the Ha'tak's defences."

Angella jerked a little as if she had been struck, and Adora felt guilty for asking this.

But Glimmer nodded. "Yes."

And she and Angella were staring at each other again. At least they weren't shouting, though.

*****​

Samantha Carter half-expected Glimmer to yell 'you're not my mom!' at Angella. Despite the seriousness of the situation - they were under constant bombardment, and the magic shield would not last forever - the confrontation between the two queens left an impression of a family spat on her.

Which hinted at implications Sam didn't want to go in right now. Not when they had an Apophis powered by faith to defeat. And speaking of that… "We need to test something else," she said, interrupting the confrontation. "We need to know if anything taken from this dimension will last in our dimension."

"Oh, yes!" Entrapta was quick to agree. "We cannot exclude the possibility that this Apophis could create a way to travel dimensions - it's actually quite likely since the people believing in him were transported across dimensions, so they know it's possible - but we don't know if anything created here - or anyone - could survive in another dimension where the laws of nature are different. It depends on the exact properties of the way things are created here. If you think something into existence, does that create something permanent that won't change again unless there's someone else influencing it, or is anything here just the base energy, sort of, of this dimension, and without thoughts stabilising it, it will return to its base form? The lingering effect we theorised would indicate it would last at least for some time, but we don't have any exact data!" She beamed. "But! We can find out. We just need to call Hordak and then have him transport something from here back."

"We need to be very careful, though," Sam quickly cautioned. "If the matter taken from here returns to energy almost instantaneously, the consequences could be drastic. Explosive," she added for those who didn't immediately catch the implications.

The General winced. "If Apophis here could send nukes over to our dimension by chucking rocks through a gate, that could be a bit of a problem," he said with a twisted grin.

Adora nodded with a firm impression. "It doesn't matter. We'll stop him here anyway and save everyone." She looked at Entrapta, Bow and Sam. "Set up a safe way to test it while Glimmer recharges."

Sam saw Angella stiffen, but to her surprise, the queen didn't object. And Glimmer didn't gloat but looked at Bow. "Bow?"

"Ah, I'll stay here - we need to know what happens if we take stuff from here back," Bow said with an apologetic smile.

Glimmer nodded, and she left with Adora, Angella and Catra.

"Alright! I'll call Hordak and check where we can dump a potentially huge bomb without destroying anything important!" Entrapta announced.

"And we'll gather an appropriate sample," Sam said. Small enough so the potential energy was manageable.

"I'll prepare a sensor suite for the transport." Bow took out his tools. "So we don't need to use fixed sensors."

Which meant they could use a greater distance from the planet as the arrival point and still get all the data they needed. Sam nodded and looked around in the yard. Any rock would do, but something more complex might be more useful. Although anything complex would be big enough to pose a substantial risk should it explode.

Best start with a rock, then scale it up to more complex devices if the first experiment went well. And then try it with animals.

Sam didn't add 'and then with people', not even in the privacy of her head. Not even if those people might just be figments of Angella's imagination.

Five minutes later, everything was ready. A small rock rested in a box Bow had put together, surrounded by a sensor suite, and Entrapta had finished coordinating with Hordak.

"Alright! Hordak says the target area is clear. And that he has a lock on the beacon, though we should evacuate the area anyway so none of us gets caught up in the effect. That would be bad without a spacesuit," she said.

Sam nodded, suppressing a wince, and they retreated out of the courtyard, leaving the box on a small support made from material from their own dimension.

"Go-time!" Entrapta announced.

A moment later, the area around the box warped - and it was gone, with the support.

Sam immediately turned to her laptop, set up in the room next to the yard. The communication lag meant it would take a few seconds for the data to arrive. They felt like hours.

Then the data came back. The rock was stable. Sam drew a breath through clenched teeth. That meant they didn't have to fear a barrage of transdimensional nukes from a victorious imaginary Apophis. And that the air in their lungs was safe as well - replacing that with air from home would have been a bother.

But it also meant that Apophis could form an army here and invade another dimension if his creations lasted at least a little while. And it opened ethical questions about this world's people. What would happen to them if Angella left? Would they stay or fade into energy? And what if by transporting them to another dimension, they could become stable? Could they leave them to fade away if they could save them?

More data came in.

"Oh! It looks like there's some small degradation of the rock's structural integrity," Entrapta said. "It's losing mass."

"It could fade?" Bow asked. He sounded happy about it.

Even though she felt guilty for it, Sam shared his feelings. That was one potential very messy problem avoided.

*****​
 
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Chapter 150: The Lost Dimension Part 4
Chapter 150: The Lost Dimension Part 4

Unknown Location, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)


Standing near the huge recharging station below the runestone - Glimmer didn't like that name, but it was a recharger - Catra and the others were waiting until Glimmer finished recharging. Angella, too, was standing here - after dropping Glimmer off above.

Catra kept her distance from the queen. Whether this was the Angella from Catra's home dimension - or universe; the differences weren't quite clear to her - the woman had created the entire world here, and if that was her dream world, then it was obvious that she had issues. Wiping out the entire Horde… Catra suppressed a shudder. And this Angella had had Catra imprisoned even though Catra had returned to help save the world. Talk about carrying a grudge!

But that was moot now. Adora, the real Adora, was here. Had come to save her! Catra smiled as she leaned into her love. "Missed you," she whispered.

"Missed you too," Adora whispered back.

Catra didn't miss how Angella stiffened. She almost smirked. It must hurt to realise that the copy you had imagined wasn't even close to the original. The real Adora was so much more than She-Ra. And she loved Catra! "I hope that won't take long," she said.

"She needs to recharge fully," Angella said - without looking at them; Catra checked. "It's foolhardy to attempt this at all; it would be suicidal to do so without having fully restored her power."

"Glimmer can do it!" Adora said. "We've been through worse!"

Catra had her doubts - they were dealing with a Goa'uld turned into a real god, or what the slaves thought a real god was - but kept silent. This was not her world or dimension, and if thoughts could change the world here, then she couldn't damage Adora's trust in Glimmer.

Though with Angella herself being so pessimistic… Catra clenched her teeth. "Yes, Glimmer can do it. This Apophis was created by people who grew up without magic and won't know what it can do." And what you didn't know, you couldn't counter or stop.

Angella winced, and Catra grimaced. "Don't tell me… You gave them lessons?"

The queen glared at her as if this was Catra's fault. "When we found and saved the first arrival, we welcomed them - and showed them Etheria."

"And magic." Catra sighed softly. And refrained from making a comment about the fact everyone here was a creation of Angella's imagination. There was no real 'we' here to speak of for the queen.

"And magic." Angella scowled. "And this is how they repaid our hospitality: By launching an attack on us with their imaginary god!"

An imaginary god attacking an imaginary world, Catra thought but - once again - didn't say. She couldn't help glancing back, though, at the guards lined up at the end of the bridge leading here. Imaginary people. The whole world was just… made up. Created according to the desire of Angella. Her perfect world.

Catra felt her fur bristle at the thought.

Glimmer appeared in a cloud of sparkles in front of them. "Done!" she announced. Her smile faded as she glanced from Adora and Catra at Angella.

The queen straightened. "I have to, once again, caution you against this. The risks are too high, and it is not necessary. Soon, Glimmer and the others will have restored She-Ra's ship and return to take down this false god."

Glimmer clenched her teeth, and for a moment, Catra's ears picked up a low whining noise from her. But then Glimmer raised her chin and spoke in a prim and proper tone. "We cannot trust that everything works out with Darla - or that she will be able to penetrate the Ha'tak's defences. Any good plan needs contingencies to withstand the test of the battlefield."

Angella deeply frowned at that, and Glimmer's lips moved into a hint of a smug smile. She probably had quoted her mother here.

If this Angella was actually their Angella - Glimmer's mother - things would become very awkward back home. And not just because Glimmer was now queen of Bright Moon. Had been queen for years, actually. But the family dynamics… "Poor Micah," she whispered.

"What?" Adora turned to look at her.

"Nothing," Catra said.

Glimmer and Angella continued to stare at each other for a second before Glimmer turned away. "Alright. I'll test if I can get into the Ha'tak. Assemble the others - if I can do it, I'll get back at once and take you up!"

"Alright. Let's go to the yard," Adora said.

Catra nodded. "Yes. Better not try anything so close to the recharger."

Glimmer frowned at her - as did Angella - but she didn't care. It was a recharging station.

Five minutes and an explanation about how stuff taken from here would fade back home from Entrapta later, they were ready.

Glimmer hugged Bow, glanced at Angella again, then nodded and turned to look at the Ha'tak. It was still firing all its guns - Catra hadn't noticed any of them slowing down or falling silent. Of course, imaginary ships never suffered malfunctions…

"I'll be back!" Glimmer announced, then disappeared.

A moment later, Catra saw a flash above the Ha'tak that wasn't a gun firing. She hissed and squinted - there was a speck falling towards the ship - no, towards the ground. Damn!

But then the speck disappeared, and Glimmer reappeared in front of them, falling to her knees. She was panting and looked roughed up. "I couldn't get through the Ha'tak's shields," she said with a deep scowl as Bow embraced her.

"Guess we're back to Plan Darla," Catra said. Imaginary Darla.

Damn.

*****​

Jack O'Neill had suspected that it wouldn't work. The easy plans never worked. Something always came up that prevented you from just going in and shooting the bad guy. Well, mostly. Sometimes, stuff came up afterwards. But if teleporting didn't work, there were other options. "So, we need a spaceship. Any chance that we can get one from home?"

Carter shook her head. "Unfortunately, sir, the dimensional portal projector can't manage the mass of a space-capable craft. It would be destroyed by the attempt, as the data from Beta has shown."

Jack had known that. But it never hurt to ask - sometimes, scientists forgot to mention things. Even Carter. "Would have been nice to call in a frigate."

"We don't know if a frigate is enough to deal with this Ha'tak," Bow said. "It was created here and is resistant to magic. It might be more powerful than a Horde frigate."

Jack frowned. "And yet we'll place our hope on Darla II."

"She won't let us down!" Entrapta said. "Especially if we overhaul her!"

"We might not have time for that," Bow pointed out. He glanced up at the shield above them.

Jack looked up as well. He might be mistaken, but the flashes from the impact of the Ha'tak's cannons seemed to have grown stronger - or the shield had grown weaker.

"Even without an overhaul, Darla will get us through." Entrapta showed no fear at all.

"Let's hope so," Jack said. If the shield started to fail, they would leave. That would leave Apophis in charge of this dimension, but they could and would return as soon as possible - and better prepared.

"Yes," Daniel said. He didn't look quite as worried as Jack expected. Something must have shown on his face since Daniel nodded. "It's a different dimension, Jack. Belief matters here - probably more than anything else. Darla here is not merely an Ancient ship but also likely the embodiment of the hope of the world - she is She-Ra's ship."

Adora winced at that, Jack noticed. She didn't say anything, though.

Catra, on the other hand, snorted. "The hope of a world created by a single person. Against a god created by a dozen faithful."

"Well… Angella has been here for years," Carter retorted. "If our theory is correct, if the impact of someone grows stronger with time, then she has left a lasting impact on the world, enough to outweigh the larger numbers of Apophis's former slaves."

If. Jack suppressed a wince.

"Angella didn't imagine a god - or goddess - though," Jack said.

"She imagined She-Ra, though," Daniel said. "And from what we know, she saw She-Ra as the protector and saviour of the world. That adds a lot of power - probably."

"I guess we'll find out the hard way," Catra said.

Jack nodded. The whole situation was weird - and making him uncomfortable. Sure, Napoleon had said that the moral was to the physical as three to one, but he didn't mean people's imagination. Wishes didn't wars. Or shouldn't. The universe shouldn't work like that. It was unnatural. And he didn't give a damn that it was natural in this dimension or whatever! Shrugging as casually as he managed, he said. "So, I guess we relax until the local She-Ra arrives with her ship."

As if the snake had heard him, another volley hit a particularly close spot on the shield, and most in the courtyard glanced up worriedly.

"It's not as if we can do anything else," Catra said, scoffing slightly. "We can't 'direct the defence'."

"It's not our world," Adora said - but with a glance towards the door leading into the palace, where the guards waited. And where Angella had gone to take command.

"It's not much to direct, anyway," Glimmer said. "Bright Moon has no way to strike back at the Ha'tak, so we can't even prepare a sally."

"You could prepare an evacuation," Sha're suggested.

"What for?" Catra snorted. "Angella is the only real person here, isn't she?"

"Catra!" Adora hissed.

"What? She admitted that she created this world."

"But that doesn't mean that the people aren't real. They act like… real people!" Adora objected.

"They don't," Catra disagreed. "You haven't talked to them enough to tell, but they're… more like bots. The way they talk. Dumb bots, not Emily," she added.

"Ah." Entrapta blinked, closed her mouth and nodded. "OK then."

"But…" Adora trailed off. "We still can't let them die!"

"Are they alive?" Catra shot back.

"That is an interesting question. Leaving biology aside - we can't really use that given this dimension's nature - and assuming they act like a bot, could they still be considered alive? Can they learn things? Evolve? If they are not people, could they become people?" Daniel shook his head. "Ethically, it's a very difficult question."

"You need to talk to this dimension's Madam Razz," Catra muttered. "She makes our Madam Razz sound like… Sam."

"What do you mean?" Carter asked. She was a bit tense, Jack noted.

"Crisp, precise, smart," Catra said. "This dimension's Madam Razz sounds like a dumb bot with bad programming."

Entrapta perked up. "Oh! Do you think we can fix that? Usually, we couldn't, since they're not really bots, but since we can change them with our thoughts, it should be possible, theoretically, to change them."

"I think our presence is altering the world here," Carter said.

Jack knew an evasion if he saw it. But he also knew that he didn't want to make the entire mess even worse. And trying to change people or potential people was not going to help anyone, as far as he was concerned.

Before Carter could nip Entrapta's plans in the bud, the door to the interior of the palace opened, and Angella stepped out. "Adora and the others called. They have recovered She-Ra's ship and are returning."

"Great!" Jack smiled. As dangerous as attacking a magical Ha'tak with a thousand-year-old small ship was, he much preferred that to discussing whether or not imaginary people were people.

*****​

"There she is!"

Adora narrowed her eyes as she squinted after Catra's announcement. Yes, she could see Darla. Flying low - nap-of-the-earth flying, Jack called it - the ship rapidly approached. She craned her neck, trying to see if Death Gliders were closing in, but it seemed Apophis's troops had missed Darla. So far, at least. It wouldn't last forever.

She glanced around. Angella had chosen the ruins of Thaymor as the meeting spot since they couldn't have Darla land in Bright Moon while it was under attack. Angella had claimed Thaymor was the closest spot everyone knew, too far away for the Ha'tak's guns and an immediate strike from the Death Gliders but still close enough to be easily reached by Glimmer without exhausting herself again. Catra was sure it had been chosen because of her own actions in the Horde War, when she had destroyed the village and faced Adora as an enemy for the first time.

But this Thaymore had been rebuilt, like the one back home, but then destroyed by Apophis, so… Adora dropped the thought. This wasn't the time to worry about stuff like this. Not when they had an evil god to defeat.

And were about to meet their counterparts from this dimension. In the ruins of Thaymor. She winced. Maybe Angella had picked this meeting spot with that in mind? No - Angella knew how important it was that everyone worked together. But she also had created the people they were about to meet.

She straightened as the ship touched down and the ramp opened. And tensed when she saw the people at the top of the ramp. Glimmer, Bow and Adora. They looked so young - like they hadn't aged since the early part of the war. This Adora was still wearing She-Ra's first uniform. And holding the original sword. The sword made by the First Ones to control the Heart of Etheria, Adora thought and clenched her teeth at the memories that brought up.

Glimmer - this dimension's Glimmer - started down the ramp. "Mom? Why did you call us here? Are you joining us in the…" she trailed off when she saw Adora and her friends. "What?"

"We have… allies from another universe," Angella told her.

"Allies? Catra?"

Adora winced at the loathing in her counterpart's tone. No, that wasn't her.

She felt Catra's tail wrap around her leg as her lover leaned into her side and flashed her fangs at this She-Ra. "Yes, as I told you before. Several times."

"That… that's a lie!" this She-Ra spat. "You're the enemy!" She glared at Catra - and then at Adora.

"Was the enemy. We're allies now," Catra retorted - and leaned into Adora's side.

"We don't have much time," Adora said before her counterpart could say anything else. "We need to stop Apophis before he breaks Bright Moon's shield. And we need to attack before he notices our ship."

"My ship!" the other She-Ra spat. "It's She-Ra's ship."

"Oh! You already enhanced the engines!" Entrapta exclaimed.

Adora turned to look at her friend and saw her held up by her hair tendrils, staring at the ship's engines through her visor.

Entrapta turned her head to look at the other trio. "Did you enhance the shields as well? We'll need them at full power to break through the Ha'tak's shields. At least according to my data."

"Mom?" This dimension's Glimmer asked. "Are you sure about this?"

Angella nodded with a firm expression. It wasn't the kind of reassuring smile Adora had hoped to see. "Yes. Let us be off."

"You're coming with us, Mom?"

"Yes."

That was… Adora bit her lower lip. On the one hand, Angella being with them was good since the others would be listening to her. She had created them, after all. On the other hand, Angella coming with them would leave Bright Moon without its leader. And Angella had almost never been at the frontlines in the Horde War. Not while Adora had been in the Alliance. The only time Angella had fought directly had been… the day she had stepped into the portal to save Etheria.

"Yes, let's go. Not even his divine snakeness will miss a spaceship so close to his floating palace," Jack spoke up.

"And who're you?" Glimmer said, frowning at him.

Enough! Adora took a step forward. "That's General Jack O'Neill. He's with our Alliance against the Goa'uld. And these are Major Samantha Carter…"

"My other science buddy!" Entrapta piped up.

"...Dr Daniel Jackson, Sha're and Teal'c," Adora went on. "Teal'c defected from Apophis to our side," she quickly added.

"Another 'defector'?" the other She-Ra narrowed her eyes.

Teal'c didn't even flinch at her glare. "I oppose the false gods," he said, tilting his head slightly.

"Sir! We've detected two Death Gliders headed towards us!" Sam announced.

"Time's up! Everyone on board!" Jack yelled.

"It's my ship!" The other She-Ra moved to block the ramp.

"Adora." Angella smiled at her.

After a moment, the other She-Ra nodded and walked inside, followed by Angella.

"I can already tell that we'll be working well together," Catra commented behind Adora as they quickly rushed up the ramp.

"Yeah, Apophis has already lost," Jack agreed, his words dripping with as much sarcasm as Catra's.

"We'll pull through," Adora said. But she wasn't quite sure. Catra had been right; their counterparts felt off. Weird.

Unnatural, Adora couldn't help thinking.

*****​

"This is fascinating! It's like our Darla, and yet not! The interior is completely different!"

Because Angella only heard reports covering the ship's appearance but never received any information about the interior of the vessel before she stepped through the portal, Samantha Carter thought as she and Entrapta followed the others to the bridge. Sam had to fight the urge to run and drag Entrapta with her, rushing after the rest of the group. This wasn't the Darla she was familiar with; she wouldn't be able to do anything in the upcoming fight. She might make things worse, actually.

Potentially without doing anything, even. Would the ship adapt to their vision of Darla? They hadn't been in this dimension long enough to leave an imprint, at least as far as they knew. Certainly not long enough to effect major changes. Creating Apophis must have taken weeks to months. But smaller changes would be possible - if Catra had created Loo-Kee subconsciously, that would mean a few days were the threshold for sentient or sapient creatures.

Although there were many factors that they hadn't accounted for. Was it easier to create something new than to change something created by someone else? Did the creation's sapience or age matter? Or its power to affect the world?

"And those doors… they look more like the doors in Alpha than in Darla!" Entrapta ran a few hair tendrils over the door in the wall, prompting it to open as they stepped past, revealing a quite austere cabin.

Right. Angella had been born - or created - in the research base on the Third Moon of Enchantment, Sam reminded herself. She was familiar with Ancient architecture and technology - at least with its style.

The ship vibrated, then Sam heard the engine power up - they were taking off. "We should hurry," she said. "They will engage the Death Gliders soon." And Sam would rather be on the bridge for that. Even if she couldn't do anything, she wanted to see what was happening.

"Right! We'll be able to check how the weapons differ from ours!" Entrapta switched to walking using her hair, and the much longer steps quickly carried her ahead, forcing Sam to run.

The bridge didn't have enough seats for them - just the one for She-Ra, actually, Sam saw when they arrived a few seconds later. Everyone else was standing. And they were already pulling high-g manoeuvres as the sight out the bridge windows showed; the inertial compensators were working better than she had expected.

"Oh, hello, Entrapta!"

"Oh? Hello!" And there was the second Entrapta, staring at them with a puzzled expression.

"Did you modify the engines?" Sam's Entrapta went on. "Or were they already different? How fast can they go?"

"We fixed them to the original specs - I didn't have enough time to modify them."

"Oh! So the original specs differ as well!" Entrapta nodded. "Another difference between our worlds."

"Death Gliders in range." Bow interrupted them - this dimension's Bow, Sam reminded herself. He sounded tense.

"Shoot them down," She-Ra ordered.

A moment later, Darla's guns fired, and both Death Gliders exploded.

The General whistled. "Good shooting!"

It was. Better than she had expected, Sam had to admit. This was the first time the locals were flying Darla in combat - their second time flying her at all - and scoring hits at that distance was not easy, even for an experienced crew. Though she couldn't tell if the guns were more or less powerful than the guns on Darla back home.

"Well done!" Angella nodded with a faint smile. "But those were just the first line. We need to board their flagship."

"And we will!" She-Ra said with a grim expression.

"More Death Gliders incoming!"

"Shoot them down!"

The next engagement went as quickly as the first, the squadron of Death Gliders blown up in short order, and Darla flew on, towards the Ha'tak.

"Entering in range of the enemy's main guns!" Bow reported.

"Evasive manoeuvres!"

Once more, the inertial compensators worked perfectly. The ship was moving erratically, twisting and turning to evade the barrage from the Ha'tak, and yet Sam felt as if they were standing still. It was slightly disorienting.

Then a blast landed a glancing blow, and the shields flared up - and the ship lurched.

"That was close!"

"Shield holding!"

Sam glanced at the screens. How much had that taken out of their shield? She couldn't see the relevant data. How could you fight without that knowledge?

The enemy fire increased in volume as well, and more Death Gliders arrived. The Ha'tak in front of them was growing larger every second. Soon, they would hit the ship's shield…

"Open a hole!" She-Ra ordered.

Darla fired again, rapidly, all blasts converging on a single point ahead of them, causing the Ha'tak's shield to flare up - and ripple, forming a… hole?

"That's not how it works!" Sam blurted out moments before Darla punched through the hole, followed by a Death Glider - with two more smashing against the shield to either side of the opening and blowing up.

"Someone tell Darla that. On second thought, better don't tell her!" Catra said, baring her teeth as Darla twisted, flying alongside the Ha'tak for a moment, evading a volley from the Death Glider behind them.

"Shoot it down!"

Sam's stomach rose as Darla flipped around, cannon fire from the Ha'tak missing her as the Death Glider rolled in an attempt to evade her volley.

But one shot clipped a wing of the craft, and it spun out of control, detonating against the Ha'tak's side.

"Now let's go in!" She-Ra snarled.

Darla turned again - and Sam gasped when the ship flew straight at the Ha'tak's hull, accelerating as much as possible.

*****​

Catra hissed under her breath and held on to Adora when the ship suddenly turned from flying along the Ha'tak's hull to diving at it. This was wrong - Darla didn't feel, didn't fly like that. "Shit!" she cursed, a moment before they crashed into - through - the hull, bracing for a shock that never came.

Instead of being thrown off her feet and across the bridge, she barely felt the ship coming to a stop after having torn up two decks of the enemy vessel.

"Wow! Your inertial compensators are much better than ours! We have to check them out!" Entrapta's voice cut through the sudden silence.

"Later!" Adora snapped. "We have to take out Apophis!"

"I'll cut him down," her copy yelled, rushing towards the door.

Catra heard Adora mutter a curse under her breath as her lover sped after the other. No choice now - she ran after them as well, dropping on all fours to keep up. The two idiots were racing each other, jumping down the ramp before it had reached the bottom and barrelling through the squad of Jaffa gathered there.

Adora rammed her shoulder into the first on the left, smashing him into the next one, both ending up crashing against the wall with enough force to bend and shatter their armour. The copy cut the other two apart with a single swing of her sword, cutting through armour and flesh. Neither the copy nor Adora slowed down.

Catra jumped over the spreading pools of blood and dug her claws into the floor to keep from losing her footing, cursing some more. "Don't just run off!" she yelled as she rounded the next corner and spotted Adora and the copy ahead of her.

"We can't let him get away!" Adora yelled back. "We need to keep the pressure on!"

"Do you even know where you're going?" Catra was slowly catching up to the two She-Ras, jumping over the remains of another squad of Jaffa splattered against the walls - it looked like neither She-Ra had bothered to use their blades here.

"Not the lift!" Catra spat as she finally reached them. "That's a trap!" Or would become one.

"The shaft will take us up to the bridge!" the copy spat, then jammed her sword through the gap and twisted, forcing the door open.

Catra blinked. "You want to climb up?" A lift shaft? That was a killing zone!

The other She-Ra didn't answer as she stepped inside and looked up, then down before grabbing the ladder set into the wall. Obviously, this idiot was doing this.

And, Catra realised, her idiot was eyeing the shaft as well. "No!" she snapped. "Let's take the stairs!"

"But… I can climb as well as she can!"

"And I can climb better than either of you, and it would still be stupid! Let's go!" Catra didn't even try to pull Adora with her but whirled and ran towards the stairs, hoping they would be in the same place as in other Ha'taks. The former slaves thinking this up had been on Ha'taks before, hadn't they?

"Catra!" Adora ran after her. As planned.

Catra sliced the door into pieces with her claws, then had to jump to the side as two blasts tore through the opening. Ambush!

But Adora was already moving. She caught the next blast on her sword-turned-shield as she charged past Catra. Grunts and the sound of crushed metal followed.

When Catra rounded the corner and entered the staircase, two Jaffa were dead, one half-embedded in the wall, the other on the ground with his head smashed in, and Adora was already speeding up the stairs.

"Come on! We can't let the other beat us!"

"It's not a competition!" Catra yelled back, jumping up the first flight of stairs, then at the wall, and up the next.

"Tell that to her!"

Catra couldn't help but hope that if there had been another Catra here, she would have handled it better. But it would have been Angella's creation…

They ran past two floors, then a third, as Catra's ears picked up the sound of running Jaffa. "Stop!" she yelled. "Behind us!" She whirled and jumped back to the last door, claws out, just as it opened.

As the first Jaffa charged through, she grabbed his staff weapon's shaft and pulled, jerking him forward. Her free hand slashed through his neck guard, and he fell down, blood pouring down his back. The next one swung his staff at her, but Catra ducked and sliced through his armoured lower legs, cutting muscles and bones.

The Jaffa screamed and went down as well - but still tried to grab her. Catra twisted out of the way and smashed her foot into his helmet, then dug her claws into it and swept him past her.

That left…

"Duck!"

She dropped down to the ground at once, and a piece of cut metal as large as her torso flew over her head and into the two Jaffa left with enough force to cave in their chest plates. And their chests.

"Come on!"

And Adora was already rushing up the stairs again. She really wanted to beat her counterpart.

Well, at least that would show Angella that you couldn't beat the originals, Catra consoled herself as she followed her idiot.

*****​

"Didn't I say you never split the party?" Jack O'Neill complained as he rounded the corner, his M4 ready, but only saw another massacred squad of Jaffa and no sign of either Adora or Catra. The three had vanished in the Ha'tak's interior. Of course, he only had to follow the trail of dead Jaffa to find them…

"She-Ra can handle Apophis - or anyone else!" Glimmer said.

No, not Glimmer. Her copy. 'Local counterpart', Daniel would say, but Jack knew they were just a copy. And a bad one, at that. Not only was she panting and obviously not used to running after She-Ras, but she also was far too optimistic for an officer in a war.

"We don't know that - we don't know how powerful Apophis is," the real Glimmer said. "He's supposed to be a god - and his ship was more powerful than a regular Ha'tak."

"But so was ours," Entrapta pointed out.

"Nothing and no one can stand up to She-Ra," Angella stated. The queen didn't look out of breath. Or as if she had run at all. "She is Etheria's protector."

"Well, not even She-Ra is unbeatable," Glimmer retorted. "As we know."

"Oh! It's like the unmovable object meeting the irresistible force!" Entrapta looked around. "We might find out if multiple minds working together for a short time are more effective in shaping this dimension than one mind with a lot of time to work!"

"What do you mean?" Glimmer's copy asked with a frown.

"Nothing," Angella said with a glare aimed at Glimmer. "We need to focus on the task at hand - which is defeating Apophis."

"I thought She-Ra would take care of that," Glimmer spat back with a scowl. "Suddenly, she's not good enough?"

"Glimmer…" Angella's scowl deepened.

Jack cleared his throat. Maybe they should have left all the copies back in Darla, not just Entrapta's and Bow's. They were already too bunched up here for his taste. At least Daniel and Sha're had stayed back as well, and… He cocked his head as he heard boots pounding the floor. "Incoming!"

Teal'c was already moving past him, staff weapon out, and fired a moment before the first Jaffa guard squad rushed around the corner. The blast took the leader in the chest and threw him back, toppling two more.

Jack shot the last one standing, placing a burst in his chest and throat, then double-tapped the two remaining before they could get up. "It looks like the first shock and confusion has worn off, and they are rallying - and moving to cut us off," he said.

"We need to follow She-Ra," Glimmer's copy said at once. "She's going to Apophis."

"We need to stop the bombardment and secure the ship," Jack retorted. "That means taking control of the reactor and engines." And ensure that Apophis couldn't blow up the ship with them on board.

"This path leads to engineering," Carter said with a nod. "If the layout at least roughly conforms to standard Ha-taks," she added with a small frown.

"Well, the reactor and engines are where they should be! Our sensors show that." Entrapta smiled. "Though they are much more powerful than the ones we know."

More good news. Jack suppressed a sigh. "Then let's go. Apophis dying won't serve anyone on the ground if Bright Moon gets destroyed."

Angella nodded after a moment, then turned to Glimmer's copy with a smile. "We have to trust She-Ra to deal with Apophis."

"Yes, mom!"

Jack glanced at Glimmer and saw that she was clenching her teeth and balling her hands into fists.

He turned away, covering the hallway ahead, and repeated himself: "Let's go!"

Teal'c took point, and they followed the route Carter had chosen. Halfway to the stairs leading down, they had to deal with another squad of Jaffa charging at them. Bow covered all of them in glue with one arrow, and Teal'c Jack and Carter shot the Jaffa before they could wrench their weapons free of the sticky mass.

"That was too easy," Jack muttered as they reached the stairs. "They just rushed us blindly. Apophis's guards should be better than that."

"We've fought many of them who did that," Glimmer objected, peering downstairs while Jack checked upstairs.

"But not quite that rashly. They didn't even try to use cover or ambush us." And their aim sucked. For Apophis's best, they were rather bad.

"I would never have accepted this performance when I was Apophis's Prime," Teal'c agreed.

"The faithful might not have the knowledge to create guards who can use more sophisticated tactics, sir," Carter suggested.

"Let's hope that's true," Jack said. It would be great if things were going their way for once.

They climbed down the stairs without further resistance, and the squad guarding the exit on the reactor level was dealt with with another glue arrow and a grenade. Jack didn't bat an eye at the mess that left, but he saw Bow and Glimmer wince. Not Angella or Glimmer's copy, though.

That said something about this world. Something Jack didn't want to think about right now.

They moved on towards the reactor room. Once they were in control of it, they could cut power to the guns. And to a number of other systems the snakes would rather see working.

*****​

She wouldn't let that… that other She-Ra beat her. Not to Apophis, not in anything. Adora clenched her teeth as she raced up the stairs - towards the Ha'tak's bridge. Not because she had anything to prove. But she was more experienced than the other Adora, and this was too important. They had to defeat Apophis before he destroyed Bright Moon and took over this dimension. And Adora couldn't trust the other She-Ra with this - the woman was far too…

"Watch out!" Catra yelled from behind. "Incoming!"

Adora changed her sword into a shield and immediately moved it to cover the door ahead of her - Catra's ears were much better than hers. A moment later, the door blew open, pieces bouncing off her shield, and four Jaffa charged through the thin smoke.

Adora swung her shield and smashed all of them into the wall, not bothering to stop before she took the next flight of stairs. A scream cut short, ending in a coughing noise, told her that Catra had taken care of any survivors.

The Jaffa guards here never seemed to learn. They just charged at her, weapons firing, squad after squad. Without flinching, without faltering. Without any thought. Like… bots. Dumb bots.

She pressed her lips together as she reached the next floor. They - and Apophis - had been created by the former slaves of his stranded in this dimension. Was this how they saw the Jaffa? Real Jaffa would adapt, at least somewhat. Even Apophis's most loyal guards would change tactics instead of charging to their doom. And at least some of them would flinch at some point or even retreat. Or surrender and call her a goddess, an unwelcome voice sounding like Priest added in the back of her mind.

Not these Jaffa, though. They showed no emotion. No thoughts.

"This is the deck where the bridge should be," Catra announced.

Adora nodded and stopped in front of the doors, glancing back.

Her love caught up, panting slightly. Her ears twitched. "I don't hear any guards on the other side."

That didn't mean there were no guards - Jaffa could stay silent and wait to ambush them. But these guards?

Adora nodded and stabbed her sword through the door, then moved it in a half-circle, cutting an opening wide enough for both of them into it. A swift kick sent it inside, and Adora followed, blade first, with Catra a step behind her and to the side.

The hallway was empty. "Unguarded?" Adora asked.

Catra cocked her head, then dashed forward to the closest corner.

"Catra!" Adora ran after her - why did Catra have to be so impulsive? - but Catra had already stopped. "We're too late," she said.

Adora reached the corner as well and saw what she meant - the hallway there was filled with dead Jaffa, cut to pieces. And the doors to the bridge had been torn open.

Catra leapt over the pools of blood on the floor, touching down on a clear spot, then jumped up and bounced off the walls twice before landing in the doorway to the bridge.

Adora clenched her teeth and ran, jumping over the last half of the hallway.

The bridge crew had been killed as well, half the screens and consoles smashed. But the other half showed that the Ha'tak was still firing at Bright Moon - and the shield was flickering even more under each impact.

Catra dashed to one of the intact consoles and started pushing buttons before shaking her head. "I can't stop the bombardment. Or redirect it." She moved to the next console. "And I can't move the ship either."

"The other She-Ra must have smashed the steering and controls," Adora said.

"Or these things never really worked as they should," Catra said, looking up at the ceiling.

Adora frowned. "A decoy?" Apophis was paranoid, as most Goa'uld, so she wouldn't put it past him to build a fake bridge as a decoy to fend off coups and boarding attempts.

"Or the ship directly answers to Apophis." Catra shrugged. "It's not as if the ship is any more real than anything else in this dimension."

It felt pretty real to Adora. But she knew what her lover meant: This was a figment of someone's imagination. "Now…"

Catra interrupted her, looking at the ceiling again. "The throne room!"

There was a throne room on this ship? Adora bit her lower lip. Stupid! Of course, there was a throne room on Apophis's ship! "The other She-Ra!" she gasped. She had beaten Adora to the bridge, but Adora wouldn't let her beat her to the throne room! "Let's go!"

They ran out of the room and then to the right as Catra informed the others over the communicator of the bridge status. Ahead of them was a hole through which Adora could see a scorched lift shaft. The other She-Ra must have come through here!

Catra peered inside and sniffed the air, wrinkling her nose. "Up!"

"So, now we climb?" Adora asked, already gripping the ladder.

"Obviously, the Jaffa here aren't as skilled as the ones back home if your copy made it through in one piece. Now climb!" Catra retorted in that slightly annoyed tone of hers she used when she was proven wrong.

She was always a little prickly. Adora smiled and kept climbing.

At the top of the shaft was another hole. They must be on the highest deck of the ship. Not the safest location for a throne room - but would the former slaves have known that?

Adora grabbed the ragged edge of the hole and pulled herself through, her sword appearing in her hand. She was in a huge entrance hall, facing a massive gate seemingly made of solid gold. It was closed, and there were no dead guards on the floor - had they beaten the other She-Ra here? But the hole…

Catra appeared next to her, and Adora turned to ask her: "Do you hear anything?"

Catra cocked her head, ears twitching. Then her eyes widened, and she turned to stare at the gate.

Adora grabbed her and jumped to the side.

Just as she landed with the protesting Catra in her arms, the gates were smashed open from the inside, and a white blur crashed into the wall, creating a crater.

A person-shaped crater, Adora realised, with the other She-Ra embedded in it. She slid to the floor, coughing up blood, and stared at the gates with bared teeth.

And from the throne room, a booming voice rang out.

"FOR DARING TO ATTACK YOUR GOD, YOU WILL SUFFER UNTIL YOU BEG FOR DEATH!"

"Looks like this Apophis is tougher than the original," Adora heard Catra mutter another curse under her breath.

She nodded in agreement.

*****​
 
Chapter 151: The Lost Dimension Part 5
Chapter 151: The Lost Dimension Part 5

Unknown Location, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)


"We're at the reactor room. Going in," Samantha Carter heard the General's voice through her communicator as she studied the lock on said door.

"We're at the throne room. Engaged with Apophis." Catra's voice sounded far tenser than Sam had expected.

She also heard some crushing and grunting noises, followed by some booming boasting and mocking laughter. Things apparently weren't going well for the other group.

"They'll be fine!" Entrapta said. She sounded honest, but Sam had her doubts. The real Apophis would not last long against one, much less two She-Ra's. That meant they had to adjust their estimates of this Apophis's power upwards. Far upwards.

"What's the holdup, Major?" the General asked.

"The lock is more difficult to crack than expected, sir," she replied with a frown. None of the usual approaches were working - she hadn't even found the lock's power supply yet. She would have assumed that it was entirely mechanical if not for the fact that she hadn't found any couplings or other ways to move a bar. It was like the lock was… "...a magic lock," she whispered, her eyes widening.

"Oh! That would explain the data we got!" Entrapta beamed. "How interesting!"

"Magitech?" the General asked.

"No, sir. Magic. I doubt there is any technology in this lock," Sam corrected him.

"Well, technically, magic is still technology," Entrapta said. "Although magic in this dimension might not fit the scientific definition, seeing as the laws of nature are so flexible here. On the other hand, we simply might not yet have discovered the underlying physics of this dimension."

"Magic or magictech - can you crack it?" The General sounded impatient. He would be tense with half their group fighting a battle that sounded more and more desperate the longer Sam heard it play out over the comm.

"Not unless you mean it literally," Entrapta replied, saving Sam from having to admit her failure. "Glimmer? Can you use your magic?"

Glimmer took a look at the lock and shook her head. "I am not as good a sorceress as Dad. Or my Aunt. And this is a completely different dimension, with magic made up by people who have no idea how it should work. I can't control such an enchantment."

"Then I guess we need the universal door opener mark IV," the General said.

"Oh?" Entrapta blinked. Then she saw him pull out a pack of C4. "Oh! That's what you meant!"

Sam was already moving back - the General was an expert on demolitions, but she expected him to err on the side of more blasting power in this situation. "Take cover!" she said, then snagged a tendril of Entrapta's hair to gently pull her friend with her.

Glimmer and the others were already behind the closest corner. Sam had barely hunkered down - keeping a hand on Entrapta to prevent her friend from moving out of cover to take a look - when the General dashed around the corner and crouched down. "Cover your ears!" he said, raising a detonator.

Sam quickly slapped her hands over her ears and opened her mouth. A second passed. Then another.

"Entrapta!"

"Sorry!"

Then, a loud explosion made her ears ring for a moment, followed by a shockwave that, even blunted by the distance and the hallway's corner, felt like a blow to her chest.

The General was already moving forward, straight into the cloud of dust and smoke that filled the area ahead of them, and Sam caught a glance of Teal'c's form even further ahead before the smoke hid both men from view.

She pulled her goggles down over her eyes and ran after them. The cloud was already thinning when she reached it, but she still almost ran into the remains of the door after half a dozen steps.

Stumbling and cursing herself for it, she made it past the bent and twisted metal into the reactor room - and stopped at once, blinking.

"That's… not a Goa'uld reactor," she said. Nor was it an Ancient model. Or a Horde core.

"Looks very snakey to me. All that gold and hieroglyphs," the General commented. with a wave. "Just their style. Too much bling even for the worst gangsta rapper."

"Yes, sir. But that's purely aesthetics. The whole design doesn't conform to standard Goa'uld reactor technology," Sam said, taking a few steps closer. And that was a mature technology. This was… something else. Impressive, certainly, and it fit the aesthetics perfectly, though…

Her eyes widened. "Where are the powerlines?" she muttered. The huge, vaguely cylindrical construction was a monstrosity of gold and inlays, and she could see sparks and lightning flash through small gaps in the ornaments, but she couldn't see any lines connected to the thing.

"Oh! The power generated is immense! That's better than our own designs!" Entrapta gushed. "But what's the source? It can't be an antimatter plant, there's no fluctuation - the power is far too steady for that, and yet where is it coming from? It has to be…"

Sam pressed her lips together. Outdone by the Goa'uld? Worse, by an imaginary Goa'uld, thought up by his faithful to… She gasped again.

"Magic!" she breathed together with Entrapta.

"Magic?" the General repeated.

"It's a magic reactor - it runs on magic," she explained. Or divinity, maybe.

Well, what else should she have expected if a group of people deliberately kept ignorant of technology of any kind were imagining a spaceship for their god? They had no idea how things should work in their universe and assumed it was magic controlled by their god's whim. The whole ship was just a facade. An illusion. Unburdened by knowledge, science and the limits and demands of known technology.

"The whole ship must be running on make-believe," she said.

And in a dimension shaped by one's belief…

She winced. This Apophis was an even greater threat than she had imagined.

As if someone had read her mind, another scream cut through the communicator.

"ADORA!"

*****​

"ADORA!" Catra screamed and rushed towards her love.

"I'm OK!"

Adora was lying, Catra knew - her love was struggling to get up from the ground after she had left a hole in the throne room's wall and a crater in the Ha'tak's hull.

Catra dropped on all fours and dug her claws into the steel to stop before she rammed into Adora. "Don't…"

"TREMBLE BEFORE YOUR GOD!" Apophis appeared in the hole in the wall, floating a foot above the ground, power crackling around his hands. "I WILL…"

"FOR THE GLORY OF GRAYSKULL!"

So, the other She-Ra wasn't dead yet. Catra helped Adora up while her lover's braindead copy charged at Apophis from the side.

Apophis snarled and turned to face her, hands raised, and a gleaming force field appeared in front of him a moment before the local idiot crashed into it.

"We need to attack together!" Adora blurted out, but before she could get moving, the other She-Ra was sent flying by a burst of power from Aphophis and crashed into the wall on the other side. Like the last half a dozen times she had attacked him.

"She isn't listening," Catra spat and tried to drag Adora to the side, out of Apophis's field of view. "We need to find another way to beat him ourselves." At least the idiot didn't seem to stay down no matter how often she was hit by Apophis.

Unlike Adora, Catra added silently. Her love was battered and bruised from that single blow.

"But… Watch out!"

Before Catra could react, Adora pulled her to the side and raised her sword, turning it into a shield to catch a bolt of lightning Apophis sent at them. The energy crackled as it hit the shield, and Catra felt her fur starting to rise, but Adora stood her ground, baring her teeth at the snake.

"YOU DARE TO DEFY ME?"

"Took you that long to notice?" Catra muttered, quickly glancing around. If the copy managed to distract Apophis again, and Adora could handle another few attacks, Catra might be able to use the wall and one of the holes to get at the snake's back.

"You'll never win!" Adora spat, taking a step toward Apophis, shield held high.

Another lightning bolt flew towards her, and the shield stopped it again. Adora wasn't even pushed back, Catra noted. And yet the same attack had thrown her through a wall just a moment before…

"FOR THE GLORY OF GRAYSKULL!"

Apophis didn't even bother to turn around - he simply flicked his wrist, and the copy was sent flying again.

"If we keep this up, we'll wreck the Ha'tak," Catra whispered. She moved a few steps to the side, closer to the wall. Almost there… She caught Apophis's eyes turning towards her and dived to the side.

The floor where she had been standing exploded before she hit the ground, lightning sending shards of metal flying. Catra ducked her head and covered it with her arms as they hit her. Most were stopped by her uniform, but one left a cut on her arm, and she hissed with pain when another pierced her tail.

"Catra!" And Adora the idiot rushed towards her, changing her shield into a sword to send a bolt of magic at Apophis that fizzled on his shield.

Apophis didn't waste the opportunity and hurled another lightning bolt at Adora. It caught her right before she reached Catra, sending her flying again - into the wall next to the lift shaft.

Catra gasped and scrambled up. Adora was… Apophis was… she jumped, dodging another attack, and twisted in the air so she landed on all fours on the rubble left behind by one of the lightning bolts. Her claws dug into the metal and propelled her forward moments before the next attack struck, and a quick dash avoided another, but she couldn't keep this up forever.

"RAHHH!"

She didn't have to - the idiot copy's next attack was as ineffective as the ones before, but while Apophis was blasting her into the other wall, Adora had managed to get up and back into the fight.

"I'm your enemy!" she yelled, advancing toward the snake. "Fight me!"

"YOU ARE A BUG I SHALL CRUSH!" Apophis spat back, followed by two more lightning bolts.

Again, Adora wasn't moved by the blows she caught on her shield. She wasn't even slowed down - she kept advancing even though her legs must be hurting.

Catra was missing something. This made no sense. The copy was getting up from blows that should have shattered her, and Adora either shrugged off the attacks or was sent flying by them. The shield alone couldn't be the reason…

"INSOLENT VERMIN! DIE!"

Apophis unleashed a veritable lightning storm - and Adora stood her ground even as electricity crackled around her body and made her hair stand up - and Catra's nose smelled an overpowering ozone stench.

The shield couldn't do this… Catra's eyes widened. This was a different dimension. Different laws of physics. And magic. "Keep the shield up! He can't hurt you as long as you have it!"

That was it! They couldn't fight this as they would fight back home - they had to fight it according to this world! A world created by Angella and a bunch of former slaves.

Catra snorted. All they had to do was think like… Her eyes widened when she saw Apophis turn towards her with a deep scowl and lightning crackling around both hands. She had to dodge! Had to run! Had to get aw…

"DIE!"

She screamed when the lightning storm hit her, pain filling her, and she smelt burning hair before everything went dark.

*****​

"CATRA!"

Jack O'Neill winced at Adora's scream coming through the radio - communicator. Things were not going well at all. "Adora? Adora?" he asked.

No answer.

"We've lost contact with them, sir," Carter announced.

That was even worse news. "We need to get up there," he said, turning to look at Carter. "Can you do anything with the reactor here?"

She pressed her lips together, a scowl appearing on her face for a moment - annoyed at herself, no doubt, even if it wasn't her fault at all that they were in some magic spaceship. "No, sir, I…"

The entire ship shook, sending everyone stumbling. "It seems their inertial compensators aren't as good as Darla's," Entrapta, caught by her own hair, commented in the sudden silence.

The ship hadn't stopped shaking. It felt like a weaker earthquake - but it wasn't stopping. Jack quickly checked that everyone present was OK - no one seemed hurt, even those who had fallen - and then looked at Carter again.

She had gone pale staring at her tool, and Jack felt his stomach drop. "What's going on?" Was someone else attacking the ship? Or was it sabotage? A malfunction?

"There's a massive discharge of energy at the top of the Ha'tak!" Carter blurted out. "A sustained one!"

"Oh…!" Entrapta cut in, her hair tentacle holding out her own tool to Carter. "Look at this! It's out of sync!"

The ship was still shaking. Jack wasn't a tech, but he knew enough about planes to know that this wasn't a good thing. Magical ship or not, that kind of stress tended to literally shake things apart.

"It's Adora," Glimmer said in a struck tone, looking at the ceiling. "Apophis must have… hurt Catra. Like Horde Prime did."

"Oh." Entrapta sounded scared.

And that scared Jack.

Something cracked behind him - in the huge magical reactor.

That scared him even more.

"Change of plan!" he snapped. "We rig the reactor to blow and return to our ship!"

"But Adora needs our help!" Glimmer said.

"She-Ra will save us all!" the local Glimmer said. She didn't sound worried at all.

Angella, on the other hand, didn't seem nearly as confident. She looked like she wanted to say something but stayed silent, staring at the ceiling.

"Teleport the others back to the ship!" Jack said, looking at both Glimmers as he pulled out packs of C-4 from his pockets. "Hurry!"

Glimmer nodded, but her copy scowled and looked at Angella.

This time, the queen did react. "Do it, dear. There's nothing we can do here."

And Jack turned to look at the reactor, wondering where to put the explosives. And whether or not the reactor would explode before he finished.

*****​

"DIE!"

With her magic forming a blaze around her, Adora barely noticed the lightning bolt fizzling out against her shield. Catra was hurt! Again! Adora cradled her limp body with her free arm, staring at her love. She was breathing, but barely. And her fur was singed - burnt - in many spots. This was Adora's fault. If she had taken out Apophis right away, if she had been stronger, quicker, better…

She shook her head, sending tears flying, and pulled Catra close to her chest. "Not again!" she whispered and willed her power to heal her love.

"YOU CANNOT STAND AGAINST A GOD!"

A hail of lightning bolts hit her shield, but she didn't pay attention. She was watching while Catra healed in moments, fur regrowing, twitching muscles relaxing, chest rising smoothly - Adora could feel Catra's heart beat steadily.

"FOR THE GLORY OF GRAYSKULL!"

"STOP PESTERING ME!"

A white blur flew past her and hit the wall in the back. Adora didn't care. Catra was safe. Unconscious but safe. Alive and healthy.

And Adora would make sure that she stayed that way. She slowly raised her head and stared at Apophis over the edge of her shield.

"DIE! CRUMBLE BEFORE MY MIGHT!"

Another lightning bolt hit her shield. She didn't even feel the impact. Apophis couldn't hurt her as long as she had her shield.

Adora took a step forward.

"DIE!"

And yet another lightning bolt uselessly struck her shield.

Adora took another step forward. And one more. She saw Apophis scowl turn into a snarl, exposing his teeth.

He threw a lightning storm at her. She kept walking. Through it. The energy tore up the ground - and sent her counterpart flying again - but didn't touch her.

"I AM YOUR GOD! DIE!"

His eyes flicked to the side for a moment. Just a hint of fear before she sneered at her.

"You are no god," she told him, narrowing her eyes.

"I AM YOUR GOD!"

More lightning lashed out.

"You are just a figment. A fantasy." She shook her head. "You're not real."

"I AM YOUR GOD! BOW TO MY MIGHT!"

"You're a false god!" She glared at him. Just a bit closer…

He started to float back, and she scoffed. "A real god wouldn't flee!"

He froze for a moment. "I AM NOT FLEEING!"

He flew at her, lightning crackling around both fists, eyes glowing with power, as he lashed out.

"DIE!"

She caught his attack on her shield. This time, she felt the impact, felt the pressure, felt his power trying to push her back, trying to overwhelm her.

But she was She-Ra, Princess of Power. Protector of Etheria. She wouldn't falter. Wouldn't fail. She would save her friends and everyone else.

Clenching her teeth, she pushed back. Her boots left dents on the metal floor.

"YOU WILL FAIL! NO ONE CAN STAND UP TO A GOD!"

"I. Will. Not. Fail!" she spat through clenched teeth. She met his eyes and pushed.

His force field broke, and she saw his eyes widen a fraction of a second before her shield smashed into his face and sent him flying back - and to the ground.

He slid over the floor, rolling twice before he was stopped by a piece of the torn gates embedded in the metal, and stared at her as if he couldn't believe what was happening.

"This is impossible! You cannot defeat me! I am a god!"

"You are a fake god!" she repeated herself as she advanced on him.

"NO! I AM…"

"FOR THE GLORY OF GRAYSKULL!"

What? Adora glanced to the side, just in time to see her counterpart charge in again, sword held in both hands. "Wait!"

"DIE!"

Another lightning storm erupted around Apophis, and the other She-Ra charged straight into it, screaming about Grayskull.

Adora hunkered down behind her shield, pressing Catra to her body to protect her as electricity raged around her. This was…

The storm vanished. After a moment, Adora peered over her shield.

The other She-Ra was on the ground, smoke rising from her twitching body. But Apophis was on his back, She-Ra's sword sticking out of his chest - piercing where the symbiont was located, or would have been located back in Adora's dimension. A pool of blood was spreading beneath him. His mouth was moving, trying to form words, but only blood came out.

His eyes met hers, and before Adora could think of what to say, they glazed over, and he grew still.

*****​

The reactor was damaged - malfunctioning. Or should be. The cracking sounds coming from it couldn't be indicating anything good. Or shouldn't. Samantha Carter couldn't tell.

She was really sick of dealing with make-believe technology. She should be able to assist the General in placing the charges so they were most effective, but all her knowledge was useless here - the reactor didn't work according to any physics, any principle she knew. Not even magic, at least not as far as she could tell. Magic had rules.

Glimmer - the real Glimmer - appeared next to her and yelled: "Hold on!"

Sam barely managed to grab the woman's hand when everything disappeared in a cloud of sparkles, and she reappeared in the middle of Darla's bridge. No, in the middle of the bridge of a ship that looked like Darla but was also just a figment of imagination.

Glimmer, panting, disappeared again to fetch the General.

Sam turned to look at her friends. The only ones missing were the General. And, of course, Adora and Catra.

"The enemy ship is turning on its axis!" the other Bow announced.

Sam gasped and checked her tools. And cursed - the Ha'tak was listing to the side, the angle steadily growing. The engines must be struggling.

Through the bridge windows, she saw debris left from their violent entrance, as well as Jaffa corpses, starting to slide down the hallway in front of the ship. The artificial gravity of the Ha'tak was failing, then.

And yet, the artificial gravity and the inertial compensators in this Darla were working so well, Sam hadn't noticed any change inside.

Glimmer reappeared with the General and bent over, chest heaving from exhaustion.

Sam checked her readings. The listing had increased even more - but it was still manageable. At least in theory. This was a spaceship, not a naval vessel.

"Adora! Catra! Where are you?" Bow spoke into his communicator. "We need to leave!"

Sam didn't hear any reply. The others must have lost their communicators. Or their lives… No! That was…

"The enemy is still firing on Bright Moon," the other Bow reported.

"The shield is starting to fall," the other Entrapta added. "It cannot resist much longer."

"Trigger the charges!" Angella told the General.

"The others are still missing!" Glimmer protested.

"They're She-Ra," Angella retorted. "They'll be fine."

She sounded so confident, Sam couldn't help worrying that she was delusional. Not that she hadn't doubted the woman's sanity before.

"Adora! Catra! Where are you?" Glimmer all but screamed into her communicator.

"They're still firing."

"Detonate the charges!"

"We don't know if blowing the reactor will stop the guns!" Sam blurted out.

"But it will do something," Entrapta said. "Probably."

Sam looked at the General. He was clenching his teeth - she could tell from the twitching of his jaw muscles - but slowly nodded. Then he raised the detonator. "Get us out of here!"

The other Bow moved his hands over the console, and the ship took off - Sam could only tell from the way her viewing angle of the area outside changed.

"Full speed reverse!"

And they shot out backwards.

"Here we go!" the General snapped.

Sam heard a dim explosion. Then her tool beeped an alert - and a series of explosions went off.

"Secondary explosions! The reactor is going!" Entrapta announced.

"The Ha'tak's starting to fall!"

A screeching noise filled the ship - Bow hadn't been able to compensate for the movement from the Ha'tak and keep them steady, so they were now flying backwards through walls and decks, leaving a trail of debris in their wake that was clearly visible through the bridge windows.

Sam held her breath. It was insane! They should be dead, their ship crushed! Physics didn't work that way! Darla's shields shouldn't be able to hold out!

And yet, they did. Suddenly, they were outside the Ha'tak. Sam caught a glimpse of two Darla-sized holes close to each other in the hull before Bow turned the ship around.

And the Ha'tak was descending while venting smoke from several gaps in its hull and listing to the side.

"Adora! Where are you?" Glimmer sounded desperate.

"Adora! Come in!" Even the other Glimmer sounded concerned.

And Angella had grown tense, Sam noted - staring at the top of the Ha'tak, which was starting to fall now.

"Adora…" Glimmer whispered as the Ha'tak dropped below them.

"Look!" Bow - their Bow - suddenly yelled, pointing ahead.

Sam squinted - and saw a bright light appear a bit below the top of the enemy ship. Was that…?

The light turned into a beam, widening, then vanished, leaving a smoking hole in the hull. Was that movement?

The wind ripped the smoke away, revealing a glowing figure in the hole. Sam used her binocs.

"Adora!" Glimmer yelled.

It was her! And she was carrying Catra and the other She-Ra!

And she was standing on a crashing capital ship.

"Get them!" Angella snapped.

"Glimmer!" Bow blurted out - but both Glimmers had already disappeared, leaving two clouds of sparkles.

And reappeared below, next to Adora. Sam saw them move, reach out - and then the Ha'tak hit the ground and everyone disappeared in smoke and fire.

Sam held her breath. Were they…?

But then the bridge sparkled, and five people appeared. Adora, holding the unconscious forms of Catra, with Glimmer. And the other Glimmer with their She-Ra, also unconscious.

"I did…" Glimmer collapsed.

Adora caught her before she hit the ground.

"Glimmer!" Bow rushed to her side.

"Adora!" The other Glimmer was holding on to their She-Ra.

And in front of them, a mushroom cloud of smoke and fire rose from the Ha'tak's crash site.

*****​

When Catra came to, the first thing she saw was Adora's face. Although from an angle - she was in Adora's arms. Bridal-style. And Adora wasn't looking at her but at someone else.

"...and we should… Catra's awake!"

That was Glimmer's voice.

"Catra!" Now, Adora was staring at her. Smiling. And trying to crush her ribcage.

"Hey, Adora… bit tight," Catra told her in a whisper.

"Oh!"

The arms holding her relaxed - slightly. They still held her tightly. She smiled at Adora, then noticed that her love had tears in her eyes and reached up to brush them away.

Someone made gagging noises next to them, and Catra scowled. Who was… Ah. Glimmer's copy. Catra should have known. They were on Darla's bridge, she realised a little belatedly, with the others.

Acting as if she hadn't noticed Glimmer's copy, she moved her hand from Adora's cheek to her neck and pulled her love in for a kiss.

"I can't believe it!" Glimmer's copy complained.

"That's… how can you do that?" That was Adora's copy. She sounded shocked. "That's Catra!"

Catra sensed Adora tensing up - probably about to tell the others off - and squeezed her neck slightly, preventing her from breaking off the kiss.

"Gah!"

She smirked when she finally drew back and saw the outraged expressions on the copies' faces - and the mix of embarrassment and amusement on her friends' before she looked at Adora again. "So, you got the snake?"

"Yes."

"I killed Apophis!" Adora's copy cut in.

"After I already defeated him," Adora retorted. She narrowed her eyes at the other. "He always beat you away before I struck him."

Adora's copy scowled at her. "You didn't even use your sword!"

"Exactly!"

"Ah… the main thing is that Apophis is dead, right?" Bow asked with a weak smile. "And his ship is destroyed."

"Yep." Jack nodded.

"And Bright Moon is safe." That was Bow's copy.

So, the smoke in front of the ship was not the kingdom burning but the Ha'tak. That was good news - not that Catra had doubted that Adora would defeat Apophis. But it also meant that Angella didn't have to worry about the snake any more. And that probably wasn't good news.

Catra sighed and wriggled out of Adora's arms. "So, what happened to the former slaves who created Apophis?"

"We don't know their status," Jack said. "If they were on the ship…" He shrugged.

Catra took a closer look at the screens showing the crashed Ha'tak in more detail. The ship had been ripped apart, either from the crash or internal explosions. Several larger parts remained somewhat intact, but between the impact and the fire, anyone who had been inside them was probably dead anyway.

"I've sent troops to their former camp. And we'll search the wreck as soon as it's safe. We have to be sure that they are dead," Angella said.

"What?" Adora turned to gape at the queen. "They're victims brainwashed by Apophis! If they're alive, they need our help!"

"They created this!" Angella snapped, gesturing at the burning wreck before them. "They are responsible for the destruction of Plumeria, and it's only thanks to She-Ra that Bright Moon still stands! They are too dangerous to be left alive!"

Thanks to She-Ra indeed, Catra thought as she saw the copy nod. My Adora.

"We can't let them summon their god again!" Glimmer's copy said with a scowl that matched Angella's.

'Summon their god again'? That was an odd way to word it. Did she think that this Aophis had been the real one, summoned and now returned to his home dimension? Was she aware that they were in a dimension where you created everything, even gods, with your imagination? Was she aware that she was such a creation?

Catra narrowed her eyes as she looked at the copies.

"You can't kill them! This wasn't their fault - they were sent here against their will! Once we take them home, they won't be able to create their god any more!" Adora said.

"They are a danger! And traitors - we took them in, helped them, gave them a home, and they tried to destroy us all!" Glimmer's copy protested.

"It's not their fault - they were raised from birth to worship Apophis!" Glimmer cut in. "You can't expect them to change without telling them the truth about the Goa'uld!"

"The first thing their god did when he appeared was to attack us and destroy Plumeria. Since he was their creation, they would have known that would happen," Angella said - with a frown aimed at Glimmer.

The copies nodded again. Did they know they were created as Apophis was? Or did they think they were real? Could they influence this world as the former slaves and Angella - and Catra's friends - could? If so, did they know that? Or were they just ignoring everything that would make them question themselves?

Catra couldn't tell. But she was sure they had to find out. This was the key to sorting out this whole mess. If the copies were just figments, the only people who mattered - the only real people - in this dimension were Angella and the former slaves, if they were still alive. But if the copies were people…

That would be an even bigger mess. Especially if they depended on Angella's imagination to exist.

*****​

Jack O'Neill really wanted to leave this dimension. Ideally before someone else summoned another crazy god. Or something worse. Or the weirdness started to affect himself.

And he very much wanted to leave before they started a fight with the locals. That was never a good idea, no matter whether you were on a black ops mission in another country or on a rescue mission in another dimension.

Doubly so if the fight was about saving a bunch of people who had tried to kill you and your friends pretty damn hard for quite some time. Jack couldn't really fault the queen for her attitude - if those former slaves had summoned Aphopis and his magical Ha'tak to Earth and might try again, he would want to put a few rounds into each of them himself - brainwashed former slaves or not.

Of course, other opinions differed.

"They were raised to obey their god blindly!" Glimmer protested. "Of course, they would pray to him. That this dimension reacted to their prayers and created Apophis wasn't their fault!"

"This dimension gave them exactly what they asked for. They are responsible for the destruction caused by their god!" The queen glared at Glimmer.

In fact, the two queens were facing each other rather closely. Not very queenly at all. It looked more like a family spat than a diplomatic disagreement.

"They were raised like this from birth! Indoctrinated! Under pain of death! Did you expect them to abandon their religion?" Glimmer spat. "Just like that? That's not how it works!"

"It is true that many of the False Gods' slaves, both human and Jaffa, blindly follow what they were taught from birth," Teal'c spoke up. "However, their minds are not held in thrall. Only their own choices prevent them from questioning their false gods dogma."

Jack nodded. Like Teal'c had done. And Bra'tac.

"That's not entirely fair," Daniel spoke up. "It takes a lot of strength to abandon the society you were a part of since birth. Even more so if it involves cutting ties with your family and friends. And, of course, risking death by doing so - or, if you are religious, your very soul."

"They were not at risk here!" Angella retorted. "They were safe from their god. They chose to bring their evil god here!"

"That's because that was all they knew!" Glimmer put her hands on her hips. "Did you even talk with them? Explain that their god was fake and evil? Try to help them change?"

"Why would I? I had no idea that their god was like this!" Angella scoffed. "They told us that the goddess Taweret sent them here to die but that their god would save them."

"Well, it doesn't look like that worked out for them," Jack commented, glancing at the smoking remains of the crashed Ha'tak.

"We don't know that they were on board! They could have stayed at their camp!" Glimmer snapped.

"Then they are likely dead - killed by the guns of their own god." Angella sniffed. "In either case, they must face the consequences of their actions."

"They need help! We need to deprogram them! Show them that their god was a lie!" Adora shook her head. "Like the Horde - either Horde - they didn't know any better!"

Catra coughed. "Most of us in the Horde knew that what we were doing was wrong," she said in a low voice. "You were kind of the exception."

That earned her a glare from Adora. "We were taken in as babies and raised as soldiers!"

"And you defected as soon as you had the opportunity," Catra told her.

"Because I met Glimmer and Bow and found the Sword of Protection." Adora shook her head.

"And because, well, you're Adora," Glimmer added. "We can't expect everyone to be like you."

"When we had the opportunity, after meeting you, we rebelled against Ra," Sha're said, looking at Daniel.

"Well, yes, but those were special circumstances. Would you have rebelled without our arrival?" Daniel smiled. "Those people never had that chance."

"We welcomed them," Angella said. "We cared for them. We provided them with food, shelter and any help they needed to start a new life. And yet, they chose to summon their evil god and attack us."

"Can't argue that," Jack said.

"That doesn't mean they cannot change!" Adora retorted. "We need to talk to them, explain things, and give them a chance!"

"We need to find out if they are still alive first," Catra said. "If they are all dead…" She shrugged. "No point arguing in that case."

"Yes!" Adora nodded firmly. "Let's check the crash site. And their former camp. And no killing them!" she added with a frown at Angella.

"We cannot risk them repeating their deed," Angella protested. "I cannot put Etheria at risk."

She had a point there as well. But Jack knew Adora. She wouldn't agree. "Then let's hurry," he said. "We shouldn't waste time." They had already wasted enough time.

Jack wanted to leave this dimension yesterday.

*****​

This was all wrong! You shouldn't kill people just for being a threat - and without even talking to them! Adora couldn't believe this Angella wanted this - it went against everything the Alliance stood for. Either Alliance. Adora shook her head as Darla closed in on the burning wreckage of the Ha'tak.

At least the queen had agreed to order her soldiers to check for surviving former slaves and capture them instead of having them killed. That was something. For a moment, it had looked as if they would come to blows - or worse - over that. Glimmer had been spitting mad - Adora's friend was still fuming, actually, and keeping her distance from this Angella as much as possible without leaving the bridge.

And this Angella was ignoring her. And everyone else, it seemed - even her Glimmer and Adora. Angella was just staring at the wreck or at the soldiers surrounding it.

"Oh! Mermista is here - look at the fire she just put out!" Entrapta piped up. "She must have transported the water all the way from the lake!"

"Or created it on the spot," Catra muttered next to Adora.

Adora frowned at the reminder that this wasn't an alternate Etheria. They weren't in a parallel universe but a different dimension with, as Sam had put it, 'completely different laws of nature'. Reality wasn't real here - or only as real as you wanted. And that included the people.

She glanced at the other Adora, who was standing next to Angella. She looked like Adora had, years ago. But she didn't act like Adora would have, now or back then. She was far too… brutal. And… stubborn wasn't the right word. Single-minded? Even at her worst, Adora hadn't been like that. Not at all.

Maybe that was because the other Adora didn't have Catra. This dimension's Catra was dead. Killed by the Alliance. Maybe even by this Adora. Personally.

Adora shuddered at the thought. If she had killed Catra… She didn't want to imagine what that would have done to her. To kill your love… Could there be anything worse you could do?

She wrapped an arm around Catra and pulled her close. Catra made a surprised noise, squirmed a moment, but then settled. Good. Adora wouldn't let go of her. Not ever.

The bridge was silent on the final approach to the wreck. Even Entrapta didn't say anything as she and Sam were fiddling with the sensor they were setting up. That was actually a bit weird, wasn't it? Adora considered checking up on them, but that would have meant releasing Catra.

Then the ship touched down - far smoother than their own Darla would - right in front of the largest piece left of the Ha'tak - the remains of the top. Where they had fought Apophis.

"We'll need to stop the fires before we can search the wreckage," Angella said. "Mermista is working hard, but that will take some time. I'm not going to risk my soldiers' lives."

"You won't have to," Adora told her. "We can check ourselves - with our scanners." This Darla might fly much more smoothly than hers, but her friends had the better sensors. As far as they could tell, at least, with how easily things could change here.

She looked at Entrapta and Sam. "Can you detect any survivors?"

"Ah…" Entrapta trailed off and looked at Sam, biting her lips. That was a bad sign.

And Sam looked like she had just been told she would have to eat Horde rations for a week. The brown ones. But she nodded anyway. "We had to recalibrate our scanner. The way we detected dimensionally displaced people before, looking for the changes they cause in the environment, was not a viable way to find them since the entire wreck is such a change."

"Yes." Entrapta nodded. "So, we had to find another way to find them. Something that set them apart from this dimension's native people." Adora felt Catra tense up and hugged her more tightly as Entrapta went on. "We picked constants that differ between parallel universes - we had data about that from Beta's earlier experiments, before the war with the Horde Prime. So… we found a constant that seems unique to our dimension by cross-checking with the readings from us and what data we had from the Quantum Mirror."

And she trailed off again.

"Carter?" Jack sounded concerned. He must have picked up as well that something was wrong.

"We only detected one such constant outside our own team in the vicinity, sir," Sam replied.

"One survivor?" Jack frowned.

Adora frowned as well. If all the others had died, they must have been very lucky to survive.

"In a manner of speaking, sir." Sam sounded tense. And she was… glancing at Angella?

"Shit!" Catra whispered next to her.

Oh.

Adora blinked. Then she got it. And stared at Angella. She was…?

"NO!" Glimmer yelled. "She can't be my mom! Mom would never do what she has done!"

Oh, no!

*****​
 
Chapter 152: The Lost Dimension Part 6
Chapter 152: The Lost Dimension Part 6

Unknown Location, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)


"Mom would never do what she has done!"

Samantha Carter pressed her lips together as she listened to Glimmer's outburst. That was exactly what Entrapta and she had feared would happen when they revealed the results of their scans. But trying to hide this would have made things even worse - you didn't try to 'manage' your friends like that.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps they should have attempted to inform their friends, especially Glimmer, in a more discreet manner, Sam added when she saw Angella turn to glare at her apparent daughter.

"You claim to be my daughter?"

"No!"

"Um." Entrapta raised a hand. Both Queen Angella and Glimmer turned to glare at her, and Sam saw her friend flinch. But Entrapta slowly nodded and went on: "It's not a claim - data doesn't lie. Your dimensional constants match, so you're from the same dimension. Theoretically, one of you could be a clone or impostor, but we check regularly for that in case Double Trouble tries to infiltrate the Alliance, and so we can be sure that this is our Glimmer. And who would have made a clone of Angella and left her in this dimension, way before we even knew about it?"

"Loki," the General said in a flat voice. "That's the kind of thing he would do."

Sam couldn't really argue that. Loki wasn't quite as bad as the other Asgard and the General and several others who had met him claimed, but Sam would be lying to herself if she tried to pretend that Loki wouldn't be able to conduct this kind of irresponsible, unethical and semi-random experiment.

But she also knew that the odds that Loki actually had done this, and then kept it secret, were about zero. If he had had the kind of access to Etheria that he would have needed to clone Angella and know enough about her to imprint on the clone, their encounter with him and especially their deal would have gone far differently.

So she nodded in agreement with the General. "In theory, yes. But in my opinion, Loki didn't have the opportunity or motivation to do this."

The General pouted at her for a moment but didn't contradict her.

"Anyway!" Entrapta said. "If we can safely dismiss Loki as the one responsible - and we absolutely can - who else could have done this?"

"I am not a clone!" Angella snapped.

Entrapta looked at her. "That's what I am saying? Kinda?"

Angella didn't stop frowning, not that Sam had expected her to. But She also hadn't expected the local Glimmer to stay silent - or the local She-Ra. She would have thought they would react to the claim that this Angella wasn't their Angella but a visitor - or impostor - from another dimension.

Unless, of course, they were created by Angella not to question Angella. Consciously or subconsciously. And that was a tangent that Sam wasn't sure she wanted to explore.

"I am not a clone. And you are not my daughter," Angella said. "Glimmer would never work with the Horde - the same criminals who almost destroyed our entire world if not for my sacrifice!"

Glimmer actually flinched at that. And Sam saw that Catra's ears were lying flat against her head.

Adora shook her head. "How can you say that? Years have passed since… that day. People changed. We changed."

"I grew up," Glimmer said, straightening. "I am Queen of Bright Moon now. Have been for years." She took a step closer to Angella. "My Mom would know that. And my Mom would never kill people without giving them the chance to change."

"Nor would my daughter leave threats to our world be!" Angella retorted.

"But this isn't your daughter, is it?" the General cut in, pointing at the local Glimmer, Adora and Bow.

"How dare you say that!" the local Glimmer spat at once. "I won't let you insult us like that!"

"Yes!" the local She-Ra moved forward, sword in hand. "We won't!"

The General took a step back. "Didn't you listen to what Angella just admitted? And implied? That she isn't from this dimension?"

"Liar!" the local Glimmer spat.

"Liar!" the local Adora chimed in.

The local Bow didn't say anything but did draw his weapon.

"Stop!" Adora stepped in front of the three… people? Sam was really starting to doubt that they were sapient individuals. "There's no reason to fight." She turned to Angella. "Calm them down."

Angella frowned, her eyes scanning the room, then slowly nodded - although with her lips twisted into a scowl. "Do not start fighting them," she told them.

The local Glimmer nodded at once and took a step back, lowering the staff she had been holding at the ready. The other two followed her example, and Sam sighed silently with relief.

They had to avoid that at almost any cost. A fight against Angella, in a dimension she had been shaping for years, would be a catastrophe. Sam cleared her throat. "We need to check the camp where the former slaves had been as well. We have to be sure that they aren't hiding somewhere."

Angella stared at her before slowly nodding, and Sam felt relieved again. Almost as relieved as if she had disarmed a bomb. Which was a rather fitting comparison, she had to admit.

*****​

So, this Angella was their Angella. Catra had… not suspected. Feared it? That would fit better. The one who had created this weird, mad version of their home world and had become its queen, the one who had the local Horde wiped to a man - with the exception of Shadow Weaver, for some reason - was the former leader of the Princess Alliance and Glimmer's mother.

"Figures," she muttered under her breath as she watched Angella on Darla's bridge.

"Hm?" Adora turned around and looked at her. "What did you say?"

"Nothing," Catra replied reflexively. "Just… thinking how weird this is," she added after a moment.

Adora nodded with a sigh, then glanced at Glimmer, who was standing next to them and glaring at Angella. Though the way her eyes shifted, she was probably glaring at the other Glimmer as well.

Damn, Glimmer must be going through hell right now. She found her mother thought lost forever, only to realise that Angella had gone crazy and had replaced Glimmer with a copy she made up in her mind. A copy with a pretty simple mindset. Or a pretty simple mind - the copies here certainly didn't act very independently.

In a way, it was a blessing that Angella had killed off the entire Horde here. Created, then killed off, actually, which was messed up in a lot of ways, but that was another topic. But Catra was quite relieved she didn't have to look at a copy of herself made by Angella. It would probably be a blood-thirsty, cruel, and stupid madwoman bent on hurting everyone else - a crazy killer.

She clenched her teeth at the thought. Adora and Glimmer might be disturbed by the caricatures Angella had created in their image, but neither had been like those versions standing next to Angella.

Unlike Catra.

She pushed the thought away. She had changed. She was changing, still. And this wasn't the time to dwell on that, anyway. Not with the current problem they had to deal with. "So…" she trailed off, nodding in Angella's direction, then looked at Adora and Glimmer.

"That's not Mom," Glimmer hissed.

Adora winced. "But Entrapta and Sam checked."

Glimmer scowled.

Ador went on: "And Bow went over their data." At Glimmer's request. And he had confirmed it. Twice.

"I know," Glimmer spat, and Catra put her hand on Adora's shoulder and squeezed gently.

"Ah." Adora winced again.

Catra didn't say anything.

"It's… Mom never acted like that, like… some bloodthirsty bitch!" Glimmer spat.

"Yes," Adora said. "Angella was kind."

"People can change," Catra said. She didn't have to add 'for the worse' - her friends understood what she meant.

"But not like this!" Glimmer shook her head. "And even if she changed, why would she make everyone in the world like her?" She shook her head. "Is that how she saw me?"

Was she about to cry? Catra pressed her lips together and tried to ignore it.

"I don't think so," Adora said. "She didn't want you to risk your life, but…" she trailed off.

"Really?" Glimmer scoffed through clenched teeth. "Then why is she happy with a daughter who's all 'rah, rah, fight'?"

Adora didn't answer that, so Catra sighed and said. "She must have changed."

"A lot," Adora agreed. "She was alone for years. No friends. No one. That's… not healthy."

Catra nodded. She knew what having no friends any more felt like.

"Then why didn't she create a world where everyone is happy? Instead of bloodthirsty?" Glimmer asked. And those were tears on her cheeks.

"They probably were happy before, ah, this happened," Adora said.

And after they had killed the Horde, Catra added silently. But it was a good point - Catra showing up would have made them fear another Horde attack. And then Apophis actually invaded.

"So, she was happy with that Glimmer?" Glimmer spat. "Her obedient daughter?"

Oh. Catra winced. She wasn't touching that. Not even if she could do it in a hovertank.

Adora grimaced as well but bravely tried to console her anyway. "Uh… She was happy with a daughter willing to fight, like you were?"

Glimmer scoffed again. "Then why wasn't she happy with me while she was still with us?"

Catra wasn't touching that either. At least, Glimmer seemed to have accepted that this was her mom. Even if that didn't seem to help their situation.

Or answer the big question in the room: What do we do with Angella?

*****​

Jack O'Neill wasn't a coward. He had faced death without flinching before. He had told off Goa'uld who held him prisoner and risked his life many times over doing missions for Stargate Command (and before that, for the US government, but those missions were still classified).

He hadn't volunteered to escort Carter and Entrapta to the former slaves' former settlement because he was afraid of becoming collateral damage to a blow-up between Glimmer and Angella escalating into the use of magical weapons of mass destruction, or whatever this messed-up dimension would create for them. The odds of that happening weren't as low as he would like, but he still wouldn't bet on them. And if anything like it happened, he'd bet on Adora settling matters, She-Ra style.

That he was glad that he hadn't stayed on the ship, where the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife - probably thick enough you needed a really sharp one - was because he didn't like family drama and all the awkwardness it brought up. If anyone doubted it, they could ask his family. There was a reason he hadn't attended any family holiday for the last decade. And hadn't bothered to return any calls after Stargate Command had gone public and his position with it.

Also, Jack could claim without lying or bragging that he was a good officer and knew how to lead soldiers, and he might be a bit more skilled at the whole staff rank politics than he would like to be, but family counselling wasn't one of his strengths. Again, people who doubted him could ask his family. As long as they didn't pass on any messages from them.

"Alright! We've set up the scanner!" Entrapta announced, and Jack focused on the mission.

"Good," he said, walking past the still-smoking ruins of a nice little cottage-style building to join her and Carter in what used to be the centre of a small village before someone had wrecked it - using rather personal means; there weren't any craters left by heavy weapons, much less a Ha'Tak's main guns. No, the buildings had been wrecked with small arms or just set on fire. "The perimeter's clear." Neither Jack nor Teal'c had found any enemy - or survivor - hiding nearby. And Daniel hadn't stumbled on any hidden survivor while looking for clues about the local culture or whatever, and he was usually a decent tripwire for such things. Teal'c had found tracks leaving the village, but he hadn't been able to tell if they had been laid before the attack or during it.

"Let's see what the scanner will show, then!" Entrapta sounded as enthusiastic as ever, at least to Jack - her mood had improved significantly since they had left the ship.

"Initiating preliminary scan," Carter said, pushing a button.

Jack saw a few lights flash on the scanner, followed by a distinct humming noise. Either would make using the scanner while hiding from the enemy a risky proposition, he noted. Then again, this wasn't a finished model but just what the two - and Bow, who had stayed with Glimmer to keep her company and keep her from starting a pseudo-civil war in alternate Bright Moon - had thrown together on the fly.

"Multiple traces of extra-dimensional influence detected," Carter reported.

Well, they already knew that the former slaves and test subjects of Apophis had been settled here.

"Initiating primary scan," Carter went on.

"That will take a while," Entrapta said. "We have to check for minor variations and continuing effects before we can check for the different constants. Sorry, but with the processing power available to us, we can't speed up the code to recognise patterns."

"That's OK," Jack said.

"I've tried to create better matrices and crystals by thinking about them, but it didn't work - we haven't been here long enough yet to sufficiently influence the dimension," Entratpa went on.

That… wasn't OK. Jack forced himself to smile and nodded, then glanced at Carter and raised his eyebrows. She should know better than to attempt to use their imagination to create anything in this crazy dimension. A bunch of former slaves had created their evil god, and Jack was sure that their imagination paled when compared to what Entrapta could think of.

Carter straightened, but her expression was a bit too controlled and bland to be genuine. "We have detected no sign that we're in danger of accidentally influencing the local dimension in a dangerous manner, sir."

What Entrapta had mentioned hadn't been accidental, but before Jack could make a properly sarcastic comment about that, Entrapta piped up again. "Oh! We've got a contact! And it's an active one!"

"A dimensional traveller still actively influencing the environment," Carter explained.

"I understood that," Jack commented.

"Sorry, sir."

"Oh! The secondary scan revealed that it's not one, but several contacts!" Entrapta cheered.

"Checking for dimensional constants," Carter said.

Right, best cover all bases. Sure, those 'travellers' were almost certainly the missing former slaves, but this was such a weird dimension, Jack would rather check before making assumptions that might end up biting him in the ass.

"Constants confirmed to be identical to ours, sir," Carter said after about half a minute.

"So, our missing snake-worshippers did survive. At least some of them." Jack nodded. "Let's go gather them up before they summon another god-snake." And before some locals found them and decided to 'disobey' Angella's orders.

"Yes, sir. I've sent the coordinates to your tablet."

"Right. My tablet." Jack pulled the tablet out of his pocket and opened it in map mode. He would prefer an actual printed map - despite the destructive testing done on them, those gadgets just felt too flimsy, no matter if they were magitech or not - but he couldn't argue that they were useful when they worked.

A map of the surrounding terrain appeared, with coordinates and symbols blinking, indicating their position and their targets'. The map wasn't perfect, nor as detailed as Jack would like, just based on their scans, but it was better than nothing.

"Let's go. We'll gather Teal'c, Daniel and Sha're on the way. Provided we can pry Daniel away from the 'cultural artefacts' left behind in the rubble here."

*****​

Jack and the others had discovered the missing former slaves and were on the way to recover them. And Adora was standing on the bridge of this Darla and doing… nothing.

She pressed her lips together. She felt so useless! Glimmer was so angry - and hurt - and Adora couldn't do anything to help her. They had found Angella, who had sacrificed herself to save Etheria - and had prevented Adora from sacrificing herself - but she had changed so much, Adora wouldn't have recognised her.

No wonder the world Angella had created was so different. No, so messed up - the Angella Adora had known wouldn't have wanted to kill helpless people who didn't know any better and just followed what they had been taught since they had been children! And she wouldn't have treated her daughter so coldly! Certainly not after having been missing for years!

And the Angella Adora had known wouldn't have replaced Glimmer - and Adora, and everyone else - with some copies who acted so strangely. She had been kind, not cruel. And she had loved her daughter! What had happened to Angella? How could she have changed so much?

"I think it's because she was lost for years in an empty dimension that changes according to your whim," Catra said in a flat tone.

Oh. Adora must have said the last line out loud - or whispered it; Catra was so close, her ears would pick it up anyway. She glanced at her love, about to agree, then noticed Catra's expression and the way her ears laid flat against her head. Oh. "That wasn't your fault."

That earned her a glare. "The hell it wasn't! I opened the gate that she closed."

"But…" Adora pressed her lips together again. Catra isn't wrong, there. But Catra had changed. For the better. And Angella had changed for the worse.

And Adora didn't know why. If Angella could change like this, could anyone else? Could Adora end up like this dimension's Adora?

If someone killed Catra…

She drew a sharp breath through her clenched teeth. If anyone killed Catra, Adora would kill them. Was that why Angella had become like this? Why she had created and then wiped out the Horde in this dimension? Because she had lost her family? Though she had known that Glimmer, Adora and her friends were alive - Angella had sacrificed herself to save them.

Or was Catra right, and Angella had gone mad in her isolation here? Mad enough to recreate a warped version of Etheria? A world changing according to her whims?

Adora's eyes widened. Did she know she had created the world? Wait - Angella obviously knew that; she had said as much when they had been talking about the former slaves. But had she known that when she had created the world?

"I have to ask her," she muttered, glancing at Angella again.

"Ask her what?" Catra cocked her head at her with a frown.

"Why she changed."

"You think she'll tell you?" Catra scoffed.

Adora wanted to say that asking wouldn't hurt, but… It would probably hurt. On the other hand, Glimmer was hurting. She was still standing with Bow in the corner, all tense and ready to bite off anyone's head.

"We need to know why," Adora said. She wouldn't be able to help anyone if she didn't know why things had gone so wrong here. She nodded firmly at her own words.

"Well, I'm sure we can…" Catra started to say, then added: "Wait! You mean right now?"

But Adora was already halfway to Glimmer. "Glimmer!"

"What?" Glimmer spun around, glowering at her for a second.

Adora nodded at her. "Come! We'll find out what happened to your mom!"

"What?" "What?" Glimmer and Bow said together. "Right now?" Glimmer asked, glancing at Angella.

"Shouldn't we wait until we have recovered the surviving former slaves?" Bow asked.

"Apparently not," Catra said. Adora didn't need to look at her to know her expression.

She shook her head. "No more waiting. We'll find out what happened to your mom." What changed her.

"Here?" Bow looked pointedly at the other people on the bridge.

Catra shrugged. "It's not as if they are real people. You saw that. They ignore whatever Angella said if it doesn't fit them."

"They don't ignore us the same way, though," Bow said.

He wasn't wrong, but Adora was done with waiting. And they could take their copies, anyway - the other Adora had been useless against Apophis until Adora had broken the fake god's shield.

"Besides, they'll probably get upset anyway once we take Angella home," Catra said.

Adora gasped. That was… She hadn't considered that. But it was obvious, wasn't it? Whatever was the reason for Angella's change, staying here wouldn't help her. And Adora would help here. She owed Angella far too much to abandon her.

"But what if she doesn't want to come home?" Bow asked. "We can't exactly force her to come with us, can we?"

"Of course, we can," Catra replied.

Adora nodded. Catra was right. They would take Angella home no matter what.

Glimmer nodded as well.

Angella turned to face them before they reached her and narrowed her eyes at them. Adora pressed her lips together and kept walking. "We need to talk."

"Leave her alone!" The other Adora moved between her and Angella, followed by the other Glimmer and Bow.

Had she really looked like that, years ago? Adora pushed the stray thought away and focused on Angella. The others don't matter, she told herself. "What happened to you?"

Angella pressed her lips together for a moment, and Adora managed not to flinch. Then the other woman straightened, and her expression smoothed out before it turned into a faint smile. For a moment, she looked exactly like the woman Adora remembered - but her smile was polite, not warm. "You know what happened to me. You were there."

Adora had been there. At the portal. The memories were painful, but she wouldn't ever forget how Angella's last words before she stepped into the portal. "Not that. What happened afterwards?" What did change you?

"What did change you?" Glimmer asked, echoing Adora's thoughts as she moved to stand next to her - and a little in front.

Angella glared at her. "Change me?"

"Yes!" Glimmer blurted out. "You weren't like this!"

"Oh, great!" Adora heard Catra mutter on her other side.

"Like what?" Once again, Angella looked like the Angella Adora remembered - when she was arguing with her daughter.

"Like some bloodthirsty maniac!" Glimmer snapped. "The mother who raised me wouldn't have killed the entire Horde!"

Angella bared her teeth for a moment. "Really? I remember a daughter who always wanted to go and kill the Horde scum!"

Adora winced and glanced at Catra. Her love's smile had worn very thin, and while she was showing a bland expression, her tail was swishing back and forth, showing how agitated she was.

"I wanted to fight the Horde, yes! But killing them all? We took them prisoner when we could!"

"In a war, you kill your enemies before they kill you!" Angella spat. "I would have thought you'd understand that."

"No! You defeat your enemies!" Glimmer retorted. "And once you've won, you make peace!"

"Peace that will be broken as soon as the enemy recovers enough to fight again." Angella scoffed. "You can't be safe until your enemy is dead. If you leave them alive, you put your friends and families at risk."

"That is wrong! You can make peace with your enemies! Turn them into allies and friends!" Adora spoke up. And more than friends and allies.

Angella narrowed her eyes at her. "How naive. If you trust your enemies, they will exploit this."

"I was a Horde soldier myself!" Adora told her. Angella couldn't have forgotten that, could she?

"You never fought us." Angella scoffed again. "You switched sides as soon as you had the opportunity. You didn't wait until you were defeated to abandon the Horde."

Adora glared at her. "Catra risked her life to save Glimmer from Horde Prime! And he was about to defeat us all!"

Angella drew back, eyes widening, but quickly recovered. "A likely story!"

"I was there!" Glimmer cut in. "And you don't have a leg to stand on - you trusted Shadow Weaver!"

"I did not trust that… woman," Angella retorted. "I used her knowledge against the Horde. But trust her? Never! Did you think I was such a fool?"

Adora winced when Glimmer drew back. That was a sore point for her friend.

But before she could say anything, Glimmer blurted out: "You trusted her to lead us to the Portal!"

"I did. But if you had killed your enemies when you had the opportunity, the portal wouldn't have been built in the first place," Angella replied with a sneer at Catra.

What? Did Angella expect Adora to kill Catra? She stared at the woman. She couldn't mean that, could she?

"We don't kill prisoners!" Glimmer spat. "You taught me that!"

Prisoners? Oh. She must be talking about the time Glimmer and Bow had captured Catra!

"So you took that to heart, even though you complained about everything else I did in the war?" Angella snorted but without any humour. "If you had killed your enemies at the first opportunity - if I had killed them - we would have been safe. Etheria would have been safe. I learned that lesson, but it's obvious that you never did."

"Because it's the wrong lesson!" Glimmer yelled.

"It's the truth! You cannot trust your enemies! The only way to be safe, to keep your family safe, is to kill them all! If we had done that, I wouldn't have lost you or Micah!"

"I told you, Micah's alive," Catra spat.

"You lie!"

"No! Dad's alive! We saved him!" Glimmer shook her head. "And he'll be so disappointed in what you have become!"

Angella froze for a moment, gasping.

As did Glimmer.

And Adora heard Catra hiss a curse.

Angella stared at Glimmer, lips moving for a moment, forming words without sound.

Glimmer grimaced but straightened her shoulders and met her eyes defiantly.

Both stared at each other, and Adora drew a slow breath. She had to say something, anything, to… fix this. Somehow. But before she could think of what to say that wouldn't make things worse, Angella turned and walked away.

"This isn't over! You can't just walk away!" Glimmer yelled. She tried to rush after Angella, but the other Glimmer appeared in front of her.

"Leave Mom alone!"

"She's not your mom!" Glimmer snapped.

"She is my mother!"

"Well… in a sense, Angella created her…?" Bow trailed off with a wince at the glare he received from Glimmer.

"That would make her everyone's mom!" Glimmer scoffed.

"Congratulations. You just got fifty million siblings," Catra said.

"Don't joke about this!" Glimmer snarled, turning to face Catra.

"Why not?"

"It's not funny!"

The other Glimmer didn't react to their bickering. Nor did the other Bow. Or anyone else Adora could see. Like everyone else had ignored the entire conversation with Angella. No, Adora corrected herself. They weren't ignoring them - the others showed absolutely no reaction. It was as if they didn't hear anything. Or couldn't hear anything.

This wasn't the first time Adora had seen this. Had Angella created them like that? Unable to even notice anything that would question her or the world she had made? She looked at her counterpart - or copy - and couldn't help wondering if the reason this She-Ra was so… so weird was because she couldn't question Angella.

Like a dumb bot unable to disobey its programming. Like Light Hope, Adora thought, remembering her and how she had been forced to act by her creators. But despite her programming, Light Hope had been a person, hadn't she?

Were those people here like Light Hope in that way? Were they people?

*****​

Even with the map created by the scanner, it took them an hour to reach the area where the surviving former slaves of Apophis were. By the time they crested the last hill on the way, Samantha Carter was feeling a little nostalgic - it had been a while since she had hiked like this on an alien planet with the rest of SG-1.

"They should be straight ahead - well, straight down, in the valley below!" Entrapta announced. Her visor hid her face, but her voice clearly showed her enthusiasm.

"Great!" Daniel sounded happy as well, though part of that was likely because he was relieved that they had reached their goal; he had stuffed his rucksack with all the artefacts he had found in the ruins of the village, and while he hadn't exactly gone out of shape, as the General had joked, Sam had no doubt that he wasn't as used to marching on foot as he had been back in Stargate Command.

Sha're, on the other hand, showed no sign of being winded. Amaunet had kept her host in perfect shape. And she had been possessed for years, so some of the effects of that would linger.

"So, anyone spot our missing god-creators?" the General asked, looking down into the valley. "Smoke from a campfire?"

"I do not think they would risk detection by making a fire," Teal'c commented.

"Let me scan for them again!" Entrapta said. She wasn't exhausted at all since she had used her hair for walking.

Sam nodded and pulled up her tool. This shouldn't take too long.

"Ah, there they are!" the General announced before she could finish her scan.

He was pointing ahead at… a small clearing? Sam raised her own binocs and saw movement there - someone was walking through the underbrush.

"Let's go and get them before they move again!" The General started down the hillside at a quick pace.

It took them about ten minutes to reach the forested area, at which point Teal'c and the General pulled ahead, vanishing in the bushes. Sam and the others followed them, but a bit more slowly.

Still, they were close enough to hear when the two made contact.

"The God's guards are here!"

"Mercy, my lord!"

"Mercy!"

"I am not a follower of the false god Apophis. You have nothing to fear from us," Teal'c announced in the kind of voice that carried over a battlefield.

"Oh, no! It's the Betrayer!"

"Mercy!"

"Stay faithful, brothers! Our Lord will protect us!"

The General's voice cut through the desperate cries: "Kind of famous, are you, Teal'c? Or should that be infamous?"

"Oh, no! The God-Killer is here!"

"SG-1!"

"We are doomed!"

"Merciful God, save us!"

Sam couldn't help grimacing when she rounded a particularly large tree and saw the clearing - where four men were on their knees, begging, in front of the General and Teal'c.

"Well, that brings back memories," Daniel commented behind her. "You really need to stop making such bad first impressions, Jack."

"Hey!" the General protested. "It's not my fault Apophis made us the bogeymen!"

Daniel nodded and walked past Teal'c and the General to address the terrified former slaves. "Don't be afraid! We won't hurt you - we're here to help you."

One of the men looked up, a hesitant smile half-forming on his lips. Then his eyes widened, and he gasped, staring past Sam.

She glanced over her shoulder. Oh. Of course, the most loyal slaves of Apophis would be familiar with his former queen's host.

"I am no longer Amaunet's host," Sha're said as she stepped past Sam. "Taweret has been taken prisoner and the slaves she had been keeping prisoners have been rescued."

Another of the cowering men looked up. "They are alive?"

"Yes." Sha're nodded. "Apophis intended to silence them - and you."

"We… we knew too much. Secrets that could threaten our god, should his rivals get their hands on us," the man said.

"You knew that, yet you still summoned him?" The General shook his head.

"We prayed to him." A third man was raising his head. "And he answered our prayers."

"By shooting at your camp. Did you flee?" Daniel asked in a soft voice.

The three men lowered their heads again, and the fourth whimpered. "We were… weak. The others stayed and faced our god's judgement. We ran," the first man whispered.

"As soon as we saw the divine ship," the second added.

Ah. That explained why they had survived.

"You did nothing wrong," Daniel told them as he crouched down next to the first man. "Apophis didn't have the right to kill you."

"He is our god! Our lives are his to use as he deems fit!" the man protested.

Daniel shook his head. "No. Your lives are yours to live. No god has the right to take your lives."

"He is our god! We belong to him!"

"If he cannot protect his faithful from being taken by others, he is a weak god," Sha're said with a sneer. "He has been beaten by SG-1, he has lost his heir and both his queens, and he was defeated in this world as well and his flagship lost." She pointed in the direction of Bright Moon. The crash site wasn't visible from here, but with good binoculars, you could make out the smoke still rising from he wreck. "He has lost any claim he had on you."

That seemed to rattle the men. Sam saw them exchange glances while they still had their heads lowered. Of course, Sha're would be familiar with Apophis's most loyal slaves.

"Did… you defeat him in this world?" the third man asked.

Sam pressed her lips together, and Daniel and Sha're seemed to hesitate as well.

"The false god was defeated by She-Ra. She challenged him in his palace and killed him to save this world," Teal'c told them.

"She-Ra…" the first man whispered as he glanced at the others. "We've heard of her."

"The goddess who stormed his palace on Saqqara…" the second man breathed, and the other two slowly nodded.

"She healed everyone, friend and foe alike."

"Yes, She-Ra did," Sha're said. "She protects everyone."

"And she wants to take you home to your friends and families," Daniel added. His smile looked a bit embarrassed.

Sam could understand that - Daniel knew as well as she did that Adora wouldn't like this.

"If the goddess who defeated Apophis commands it…" The first man took a deep breath. "...then we obey."

The others nodded.

Sam winced. Yes, Adora definitely wouldn't like this. But trying to tell the former slaves, all of them indoctrinated from birth, that She-Ra wasn't a goddess could wait until they had taken them back to their home dimension.

*****​

Catra eyed the tower in front of her, especially the balcony three-quarters to the top. She could easily climb up there - her claws would leave some cuts and gouges on the surface, but Angella could probably wish the damage repaired, so that was no big deal.

The question was: Should she be doing this? She had never really met Angella before the… Portal. Angella was Glimmer's mom, and Adora's… foster mom? Or something. In any case, Catra should just call Adora and let her and Glimmer know that she found the queen who didn't want to talk to them.

On the other hand, what would Adora do? Stand at the bottom of the tower and yell up? Bring all guards running and her copy? Just demanding to meet Angella hadn't worked when they had arrived at the palace gates, and Catra didn't think it would work now either.

Glimmer could teleport up there, of course. But Catra doubted that she would - Once she had stopped bickering with her copy, she had gone off to, well, the closest to her cabin on this Darla. To cry, unless Catra's ears were lying to her, which they weren't. Which meant Bow would be useless as well.

Which left Catra. The former Horde commander who had almost taken Bright Moon once and waged war for years on the Alliance. The one responsible for Angella being here in the first place.

But also the first who had met her and the first who had talked to her since the Portal. And someone who had screwed up far worse than Angella had.

So, Catra had an obligation to help fix this. Even though there was a decent chance that showing up in Angella's second office or whatever was up there would end with the queen having her imprisoned again - well, trying to, at least - and a hundred per cent chance that Adora would be mad at her for doing this.

Sighing, Catra walked up to the wall and unsheathed her claws.

Less than thirty seconds later, she pulled herself up and over the railing of the balcony and peered through the open door. Ah - it was an office. She saw Angella standing at the desk, one hand moving over its surface. Though… Catra narrowed her eyes. That didn't look like an office in use. There were no papers on the desk. And the style of the furniture looked a bit off compared to what Catra was familiar with at the palace. Wait! Those books and memory crystals on the shelf looked familiar. She had seen them before somewhere…

Oh. Her eyes widened. This was Micah's office. That made sense.

Catra nodded and stepped through the door. "Angella? We need to talk."

*****​
 
Chapter 153: The Lost Dimension Part 7
Chapter 153: The Lost Dimension Part 7

Unknown Location, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)


Catra cleared her throat. "Angella? We need to talk."

The queen spun around. "You!"

Catra managed not to flinch at the glare aimed at her. Instead, she nodded with a twisted smile. "Yes, me."

"What are you doing here?"

She hadn't called the guards. That was a good sign. Or so Catra hoped. She shrugged and said before she could help herself: "Talking to you."

Angella's scowl deepened. "You?" she scoffed.

"Yes, me." Catra shrugged again and wandered over to the desk - keeping it between her and Angella. "I kind of know what you're going through." At least, she thought so. If she was wrong… well, Adora would be mad either way.

Angella scoffed again. "You dare? You're Horde scum!"

But she still hadn't called for her guards, Catra noted. And she sounded a lot like her daughter right then. Well, except for the slight accent. "I know what it's like to feel guilty." And shame. And embarrassment. And self-loathing. And being crazy.

"Guilty? I didn't conquer a kingdom and then tried to take over the world!" Angella spat. "I defended my world against you!"

Technically, Catra hadn't conquered a kingdom - well, not while Angella had been around. Salinas and Plumeria had fallen afterwards.

But Angella wasn't finished. "I didn't try to destroy the world!"

This time, Catra flinched. She had done that. But she pushed the guilt she felt away and nodded. "Technically, I was trying to change the world - to create a perfect world for me." With Adora at her side, of course.

And Angella flinched. But her glare grew more intense. "You endangered our world! I had to sacrifice myself to save it!"

"And then you created your own perfect world," Catra said. "Only, it's not as perfect as you thought it would be, right?"

Angella pressed her lips together.

"Because no matter how we'd like to fool ourselves, it's a fake world. Not real." Catra nodded once more.

"This world is real!" Angella blurted out. "And I didn't destroy another world for this - this was an empty dimension when I arrived!"

Catra clenched her teeth for a moment. I was crazy, she told herself. "It's not real. It's reacting to our thoughts." She put her hands on the desk - freshly polished, she noted - and leaned forward. "And it won't ever be real. It will always remain a dream." A foolish dream.

"No! This is no dream!" Angella yelled.

"That's why the 'people' here act like bots?" Catra scoffed. "Your fake 'daughter' is only doing what you want her to do. She is barely more than a puppet, isn't she?"

"No!" Angella shook her head. "No!"

Catra drew a sharp breath. Time to get serious. "You knew that, though, didn't you? You always knew she was a fake." If Angella had actually fooled herself…

"No!"

"And now the real Glimmer is here," Catra went on, trying not to show how tense she was. "And she is disgusted by this perfect world of yours."

Angella flung her arm out and swept a stack of books from the desk, scattering them over the floor. "Shut up!"

"And you fear that Micah will be disgusted as well."

"Shut up!" Angella rounded the table and rushed towards her.

And Catra hissed through clenched teeth. Damn! That had been too much!

She jerked back, hands raising to defend herself, but stopped. Fighting Angella would be… Catra managed to turn with the blow but was still sent stumbling. "Did that…" Another blow to the stomach - she had barely time to tense her muscles - interrupted her, pushing her back a few more steps.

Once more, she almost lashed out in reflex but managed to control herself. She did take a few more steps back, though - Angella was stronger than she had thought. Stronger than Glimmer, in any case. Catra had been hit far worse, though. And she deserved it back then, too.

"Shut up!" And there Angella came again, baring her teeth as she wound up another strike.

Catra twitched but stood her ground, catching another blow to the face. She exaggerated her staggering until her back hit the wall.

"Shut up!" Angella snarled.

OK, enough was enough. Catra literally had her back to the wall. This time, she jerked her head to the side, and Angella's fist hit the wall instead of her face - and they ended up facing each other up close. "Lashing out won't solve this," Catra whispered into Angella's face. "Trust me, I know." She bared her teeth in a grin and tried not to wince from the pain of her swollen lips.

"This is all your fault!" Angella drew back her other fist.

Catra deflected the blow. "Not everything. Creating this world is on you," she spat.

"I wouldn't be here if not for you!" Angella's fist was bleeding, but Catra didn't think the tears in her eyes were because of that.

This time, she caught the blow. She couldn't have done that with Adora, but Angella was no She-Ra. "Yeah. And I didn't choose to be raised as a Horde soldier. But I still could have defected." Like Adora did.

Angella was panting - Catra could feel the woman's breath on her face. "You were in charge!"

"Yes." Catra stared at her. "I was." That was her fault. Her guilt. "And you made this world."

"I had lost everyone!" And the tears started to fall.

"And I had lost Adora." Catra clenched her teeth. "It's not an excuse." She snorted. "Trust me, I know."

Angella stared at her. "I'm not like you!"

"No." Catra chuckled. Once. "But you will be if you don't stop… this." She shook her head. "Stop pushing your loved ones away. Trust me, that's the worst mistake you can make." Catra knew that very, very well.

Angella blinked through her tears and took a step back before looking away. "You heard Glimmer. They hate me!"

Oh, for…! Catra scoffed. "They love you, you idiot!"

Angella glared at her. Was that progress? "What would you know about that?"

That was… "They accepted me!" Catra snarled. "At least you didn't kill any real people!"

"And why did they accept you after all you did to us?"

"Because Adora's a much better person than I'll ever be," Catra said.

Angella blinked. "This is not - not just - about Adora. You heard what Glimmer said. I made a copy of her! She thinks I replaced her!"

"You did." Catra snorted as Angella glared at her again. If she could admit her guilt, Angella could own up to her own mistakes. "But that doesn't matter. She's your daughter. Micah's your husband. Consort. Whatever. They love you."

Angella looked away again. "They don't know me. Not any more."

"Glimmer's done things she regrets as well. So did Micah." At least Catra assumed so - she wasn't really that close to him. But he had been controlled by Horde Prime's chips during the war and attacked his friends, and Catra knew how that felt.

Angella didn't say anything. Catra waited. She had said what she had wanted to say. Repeating it wouldn't really help. Maybe…

"I created the Horde just to wipe it out," Angella said without looking at her. "Including a copy of you."

Ah. Catra drew a short breath through clenched teeth. "They weren't real people," she said as nonchalantly as she could. "More like… training bots?"

Angella turned her head to stare at her again. "Training bots don't bleed and beg."

"I wouldn't have begged either," Catra told her. She flashed her fangs. "And I'm not that easy to kill. I let you hit me."

Angella scoffed softly in response, and, for a moment, they looked at each other with matching wry, pained grins.

"So…" Catra trailed off. "Do you really think you are worse than me? Or Hordak?"

"Hordak." Angella pressed her lips together before shaking her head. "No, I don't suppose so." She straightened. "Very well. I shall have a talk with Glimmer. And with Micah."

That didn't sound very enthusiastic to Catra. But it was good enough. The rest was up to Glimmer and the others. Catra had done her good deed for the week or something. Now they just…

She turned her head when a cloud of sparkles appeared on the balcony.

"Mom! We need to talk!" Glimmer exclaimed as she, Adora and Bow were revealed. "I'm… Catra? What are you doing here?"

"Catra?" Adora gasped.

"Hey, Adora!" Catra grinned at her, wincing a little at the pain from her lips.

"You're hurt!" Adora started towards her.

"Mom! You're hurt!" Glimmer must have noticed Angella's bleeding hand. "What… Wait! Did you two fight?"

"No!" Catra said.

"Yes," Angella said.

Catra glared at her. That was the absolute wrong thing to say!

"Catra!"

"Mom!"

"Why did you fight?"

"Let me heal you - both of you!"

"It wasn't a fight!" Catra protested. She had let Angella hit her!

But no one was listening to her.

*****​

Jack O'Neill shook his head as he watched the former slaves board one of the skiffs that had arrived at their position. Four survivors of over a dozen. The rest of them had been killed by the very god they had created in their minds. There was probably a lesson here.

He turned and saw that Daniel was on his knees and checking the remains of the campsite, if you could call it that - it lacked even a firepit. "Daniel?"

"Just a few more minutes. I'm checking for any tools that they might have created," his friend replied without looking up from the patch of sandy ground he was searching.

"I think they took everything with them. Not that they had much to begin with," Jack said.

"We're in a special dimension, Jack. They might have created tools and other artefacts without being aware of it." Daniel perked up and raised his hand, holding up what looked like a piece of rock. "Ah!"

"A pet rock?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

Sha're shook her head with a frown aimed at him but didn't comment.

"It's flint!" Daniel replied.

"Yes?" Jack wondered what he was about.

"This couldn't have formed here naturally - the geology is wrong for flint to form," Daniel said. "And it has traces of being worked on. So, either someone dropped it here, or it was created by someone thinking that it should be found here. But according to the local Etherians, this area was never settled - that's why they placed the refugee camp here."

There is probably a lesson here as well, Jack thought. Of course, the camp they had seen - well, its remains - had been very nice, a small village, not some enclosed tents in the desert, but it certainly had been out of the way from the major kingdoms. On the other hand, the Etherians hadn't had the best experiences with visitors. First the First Ones, and then Hordak. And this was a world created by an Angella gone rather… extremist, not the real Etheria. A world where the Horde had been exterminated to the last soldier instead of welcomed with open arms after the war had ended.

He pushed the thought away. "So…?" He cocked his head.

"The only one able to do this would have been the former slaves. So, they expected to find flint if they dug around here - which means they are familiar with such campsites." Daniel beamed at him. "Campsites by fleeing slaves trying to hide from the Goa'uld!"

"Ah." Jack nodded. "You think they have tales of or even experience with slaves fleeting on their home worlds." Daniel looked surprised, and Jack snorted. He wasn't some dumb jock. And he had spent years working with Daniel; you couldn't help picking up some things.

"Ah, yes, exactly!" Daniel recovered quickly. "And they were thought to be the most loyal slaves of Apophis. So, there might be a bigger culture of dissidents amongst his followers than we expected."

"That would be nice." Jack grinned. "I'll pass it on to the intel weenies. They'll want to hear all about it from you."

Daniel smiled, then blinked. "Oh."

Jack smirked a little. Giving a lecture was one thing, being grilled by spooks looking for clues about the enemy was another. Daniel was familiar with the difference from experience. He patted his friend on the shoulder and went to check on Carter and Entrapta.

The two were focused on their gimmicks, occasionally waving around some sort of antenna. Or a magic wand; Jack couldn't tell the difference. "So!" he called out. "How much longer do you need before we can leave?"

"We're almost done, sir," Carter replied, looking up at him. "We've completed the primary scans and are now double-checking some results."

"Then we can compare them to the data from the destroyed village and find out how much the number of minds affects the shaping effect on this dimension!" Entrapta said, nodding enthusiastically. "Well, we should be able to form a hypothesis, at least, but that's still progress!"

"Good." Knowing how dangerous the four rescued former slaves were was important. The last thing Jack wanted was to be caught by another Apophis on the way back to Bright Moon. Or some other monstrosity conjured by someone's imagination. "Don't think about Marshmallow Men, by the way."

Carter chuckled at that, then pressed her lips together and frowned at him. "We won't, sir."

He grinned. He still had it.

"We won't?" Entrapta looked confused. "I'm now thinking about… whatever that is."

Uh-oh. Jack grimaced. "Ah… Carter can explain. Once you have finished your work here."

"Right!"

While Entrapta turned back to their scanner, Carter shot him a look through narrowed eyes. Jack shrugged with an apologetic smile. Yeah, that hadn't been smart of him, but, if necessary, Carter could handle distracting Entrapta until they were back in their home dimension. If Entrapta hadn't seen the movie, there shouldn't be any danger, anyway.

No more than from anyone else having stray thoughts. You apparently needed a very focused mind to create anything like a god here.

Though smaller stuff was a different thing, wasn't it? Jack blinked, then grinned and looked at the campsite again. If this were on Earth, in a National Park, there would be…

"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed. "Someone has planted a park ranger sign here! How could… Jack! You just ruined the site!"

Perfect.

*****​

By the time they left the palace, Adora was still angry at Catra. Her love had gone off to talk with Angella! Alone! With the person who had had the entire Horde - including Catra - in this dimension executed! And she saw nothing wrong with it!

"I don't know why you are so mad," Catra said.

Adora turned to face her with a scowl. "You know exactly why I am mad!"

"Everything worked out fine." Catra crossed her arms over her chest and raised her head a little. She did that when she felt guilty and didn't want to show it, Adora knew.

"You didn't know that when you sneaked off and climbed the tower! Like… like an assassin! If anyone had seen you…"

Catra scoffed. "As if the guards could have spotted me!"

Adora glanced at the two guards standing at attention at the gate. They were glaring at Catra.

Catra followed her gaze and snorted. "They're just copies."

The guards didn't react to that at all, and Adora pressed her lips together. That was creepy. And Catra was still wrong. "Angella isn't," she said.

"Angella didn't think I was an assassin either." Cara shrugged.

"She attacked you!" And hurt her!

"It was just a few slaps," Catra retorted. "I've been hit harder in training."

"That was in the Horde!" Adora spat. And they hadn't known how wrong that was.

"Or by a little girl," Catra continued.

"That was Frosta!"

Now, Catra frowned at her. "You healed me."

"That's not an excuse for getting hurt!" Adora clenched her teeth. Catra could be so stubborn!

"Hey! Angella attacked me! I didn't attack her."

"You said you let her hit you!" Adora almost grabbed Catra but stopped before she touched her.

"Well… yes, I did." Catra flashed her fangs. "But I knew I could take it."

"Did you?" Adora narrowed her eyes. They had talked about that in cadet training! "What if she had used her powers? What if she had used a weapon?" Angella could have created anything in this dimension.

"I wouldn't have let her hit me then!" Catra shook her head.

"You couldn't have known that!" Adora clenched her teeth again. Why was her love so stubborn?

"It was a calculated risk."

That was also from cadet training. And the Horde standards for what was an acceptable risk were far below the Alliance ones. "You didn't have to take the risk at all! Or alone!" Catra looked away, and Adora bit her lower lip. "Why did you do it?" she asked in a softer voice.

"She was here because of me," Catra whispered.

Oh… Adora sighed and reached out to hug Catra. And resisted the brief urge to shake some sense into her. She took a deep breath and calmed down. "That doesn't mean you have to get hurt." That was wrong! And two wrongs didn't make a right!

"I didn't plan to get hurt."

"You let her hit you."

"Well… no plan survives contact with the enemy?"

Adora didn't need to see Catra's face to know she was weakly grinning. She hugged her a bit more tightly, though. Just to make her point. "Idiot."

"That's my line."

"Not when you're being the idiot."

"Someone had to talk sense into Angella. And, well…" Catra sighed - Adora felt her taking a deep breath. "...I've been there. I've made mistakes like she did. And worse."

"Oh." Adora blinked. She hadn't considered that. "But we all made mistakes," she whispered. "I did, Glimmer did…"

"Not like mine," Catra cut her off. "And Glimmer? You think she could have talked things out with Angella?"

Adora bit her lip again and felt her face heat up. "She's not a teenager anymore."

"Could have fooled me." Catra snorted again. "And you were feeling too guilty to handle this."

"Me?" Adora drew back and stared at her.

Catra nodded. "You feel guilty for letting her sacrifice herself in your place."

Adora opened her mouth, then closed it again, and glared at Catra's smirk. "You feel guilty as well." Or more.

"Yes. But I don't know Angella. Not like you and Glimmer do. And she doesn't know me. We're kind of… more professional."

Adora snorted. "So professional, you had a fight."

"It wasn't a fight - I let her hit me," Catra retorted at once. "And it worked, didn't it? She's coming back home."

Adora reluctantly nodded.

"Everything worked out fine." Catra's smirk grew.

Adora rolled her eyes. "That doesn't mean you were right to do it."

"Sure it does!"

"It just means you were lucky." And luck ran out sooner or later.

Catra shrugged, still grinning.

Adora again wanted to shake her. She could tell that this was a facade - she knew Catra better than anyone else. "We'll talk about this again, later," she said. When she could prepare better. Catra couldn't go on like this.

Catra grimaced, and Adora couldn't help grinning. A little.

*****​

"...so, the Queen's coming back with us?" The General sounded a little doubtful, in Samantha Carter's opinion. Quite justified, of course - when they had set out to recover the missing former slaves of Apophis, Queen Angella had been quite forceful in her refusal to talk, much less come with the group. Things had apparently changed drastically in their absence.

"What made her change her opinion?" Daniel asked.

"We had a talk," Catra said.

"They had a fight," Adora added.

"It wasn't a fight!" Catra protested. "Whatever - the point is, Angella is coming back with us. Probably as soon as she and Glimmer finish their own talk." She shrugged. "Then we can finally leave this dimension behind."

"But it's such an interesting dimension! Anything is possible here! You can alter the very fabric of reality with a thought!" Entrapta piped up.

"Like Jack demonstrated when he created a signpost as a joke," Daniel said with a wry smile.

"Ah." Adora nodded.

"But that's just scratching the surface," Entrapta said. "You could do that with magic in our dimension. Castaspella could probably teach you a spell for that." Sam noted that the General stopped grinning at hearing that. "Or a magitech device that created materials out of the available molecules in the air or something," Entrapta went on. "But here, we can change the laws of physics - the fundamental rules that define the universe - with our minds! Imagine what we could do if we change the gravitational constant into a variable!"

Sam did - and struggled not to wince at the potential consequences. "I fear that we lack the necessary data to conduct such an experiment in a safe manner."

Everyone else except for Entrapta grimaced.

Entrapta, though, nodded. "Yes! Which is why we will have to run many experiments here to gather data - we can build up safely to the major experiments. Well, mostly safely - some risks remain, of course, because we're breaking new ground. And, I guess, because the entire dimension is so malleable. Even small distractions could ruin our data."

Or our lives, Sam thought, smiling weakly. "That would take a long time, though," she pointed out. "And we have many other, urgent projects we have to finish."

Entrapta blinked. "Right. Hordak and Loki wouldn't be happy if we just dropped the research into their projects. And neither would be the Alliance, I guess, if we stopped research and development. Although! If we could use this dimension to research things…"

"That would have to be done safely," Sam reminded her. "Which would take a long time."

Entrapta sighed. "I guess so."

The General clapped his hands together. "So, no unravelling the universe for now! Neither this one nor our own!"

Sam nodded in agreement. Although Entrapta was correct about the potential this dimension offered to research. Maybe once the war against the Go'auld was over, they could pursue this. Although… "We will have to keep this dimension under surveillance, though. We have to assume that Apophis is aware of what kind of research was done here." Even if Taweret might have tried to hide it, he would have had spies amongst the Jaffa to inform him. "And while we have taken control of Beta and captured Taweret, we cannot exclude the possibility that Apophis will attempt to continue those experiments."

"Great." The General sighed. "We'll have to find a way to observe a dimension where our mere presence will change it."

"That's not actually that uncommon," Daniel commented. "Especially when interacting with another culture."

"Or in physics," Sam added. Although the observer effect usually wasn't as massive - and dangerous - as it was here.

"Right. So, let's think about that. Once we are back home," the General said.

"Well, we can keep scanning for foreign visitors to this dimension," Entrapta said. "That wouldn't be very exciting, though - and it would be unfair to Beta if she were limited to observing and couldn't do any experimenting."

"Oh, yeah. We don't want the mad scientist bot to grow bored, do we?" The General nodded.

He was using sarcasm, but Sam nodded in agreement. "I fear Beta might show some, ah, initiative if she were bored."

"Right. Carter, find a way to keep the bot busy without breaking our universe, OK?"

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, there's lots Beta can help us with!" Entrapta cheered. "We've got so many projects, she is bound to find something she likes!"

"Yeah…" The General gave Sam a look, and she nodded again.

Message received.

"Though…" Entrapta frowned. "If Angella's coming with us, what about her people here?"

"They're not real people. They're like dumb bots," Catra said with a shrug.

Entrapta frowned at her. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't care about them! We can't just abandon them!"

The General looked like he disagreed with that opinion. As did Catra. But Sam wasn't sure. "We don't know how sentient or sapient they are," she said.

"Exactly!" Entrapta beamed at her. "We need to know more before we just… leave them to fade." She frowned again. "No one should be left alone to slowly disappear like that."

It might be a case of anthropomorphism, influenced by her contact with Alpha, Beta and Emily, but Sam had to agree with that. And Adora seemed to have some doubts as well.

"They wouldn't be alone," Catra objected. "They would be all together."

"But without Angella," Entrapta retorted, shaking her head. "Their queen. Their mom, in a way."

"If they might be sapient - or even just sentient - then we can't just abandon them," Daniel said. "That would be cruel."

"That's something the Goa'uld would do," Sha're added.

Teal'c nodded curtly.

The General sighed again.

*****​

Catra rolled her eyes and leaned against the parked skiff. "Would you want Angella to stay here for the rest of her life then? Huh?"

"Well…" Entrapta frowned. "That wouldn't be fair. But she's responsible for them since she created them. You can't just make a bot and then abandon them."

"She also created the Horde here - and then had all of them executed," Catra pointed out.

Daniel winced at that, as did Sam, but Entrapta nodded. "She did. And that wasn't right. You shouldn't create something just to destroy it. Except when it's a target dummy, of course. But you don't make target dummies that could feel - that would be really wrong. Anyway! Just because it was wrong to create the Horde and then destroy it doesn't mean that abandoning this Etheria is OK."

Adora nodded. "Two wrongs don't make a right."

Catra clenched her teeth. "We don't even know if those people can feel anything." Or if they were actually people. "They didn't react like real people would have - you know that; we fought them."

"People with cognitive limitations are still people," Daniel objected. He pushed his glasses up his nose. "And they did feel pain."

Briefly, Catra thought. She didn't say that out loud, of course. This was already a tense discussion. And Adora was getting worked up - Catra could tell. Well, more worked up; her love was already worked up about Catra's talk with Angella. She pushed the guilt she felt for worrying Adora away. "Or they just acted like they were expected to. Like simulations. For training." Like the enemies they had been facing during cadet training.

"Well…" Daniel smiled in that 'apologetic way of his that told Catra she wouldn't like what he was saying. "If the simulation is good enough to look real, how can we tell it apart from real feelings?"

"That's a good question!" Entrapta nodded. "If they were bots, we could analyse their decision matrices and check if they feel something or just follow their programming. But that's a bit tricky here - we might be influencing the results by changing them as we examine them. Without realising it." She blinked. "Oh, and it would also be difficult since they aren't bots with a decision matrix but people with a brain."

"It would be very unethical," Sam agreed.

"And if we cannot determine if they are sentient, we have to assume they are. Anything else wouldn't be ethical," Daniel said.

"Why is the ethical answer always the one that creates more problems?" Jack complained.

"Do we actually know if they will fade without Angella?" Adora asked, biting her lower lip.

"No, we don't," Entrapta said. "Not for sure. But our data does indicate that without an external, meaning a foreign sapient influence shaping it, over time, this dimension returns to its basic undetermined state. At least, we haven't noticed anyone created here affecting the dimension as we do. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that our scanners aren't calibrated to detect such a hypothetical influence."

"Without proof of that, we still have to assume that they don't have such a stabilising influence on their surroundings." Sam sounded as if she didn't like that any more than Catra did.

And while she was right, the conclusion was still wrong. "Angella is the only one to stabilise this world," Catra said. "Should she be trapped here just because we can't be sure that the people here are people?"

Adora opened her mouth, only to close it after a second without saying anything. Idiot.

None of the others said anything either. Typical.

"We cannot demand this of her," Daniel said after a moment.

"Why not?" Catra shrugged. "If she's responsible for them, and we can't assume that they are just bots, and she's the only one to save them from fading away…?" She trailed off and raised her eyebrows at him. "Or are we just expecting her to sacrifice herself for this world instead of demanding it?" Sacrifice herself again.

Once more, everyone was silent for a moment.

"And what if the people here are just… programmed figments or something?" Jack added. "She'd sacrifice herself for nothing."

"That's a good point," Daniel said hesitantly. "Staying here, alone, surrounded by her own creations, isn't healthy. Would it be ethical to expect Angella to sacrifice her own mental health based on the mere assumption that her creations are sentient?"

No, Catra thought. That would render her efforts to talk sense into Angella pointless.

"But what if they are?" Entrapta asked. "They act like they are."

"We need to find out," Adora said.

"But how?" Sam asked. "This dimension's unique circumstances render a Turing Test useless since the test subjects are directly or indirectly linked to a sapient mind."

"And even if they aren't sapient, they could still be sentient," Daniel pointed out.

"So are animals, but we eat them," Jack retorted.

Catra bit her lower lip. This was… There was something… she almost had it. Ah! "They're not like animals," she said.

"Of course not," Adora said.

Catra frowned at her. "No, I mean… they weren't just created by Angella - they're still linked to her. When we started talking to her, the guards, the copies, they didn't react. Do you think Angella created them like that? With such a… a blind spot? Or did she change them as soon as we started talking?"

"Oh!" Entrapta tilted her head. "She wouldn't have programmed them like that when she created them since she wouldn't have expected such a situation. Or would she?"

"It's not impossible, but… unlikely, I think," Sam said.

Yes. Catra nodded. "So, if their minds, their personality, can be changed on a whim, especially their memories, are they truly people? Or just, like, extensions of Angella's thoughts?"

"Manipulating someone's memories doesn't rob them of their personhood," Daniel objected.

"But what if they don't have a personality without someone imagining it?" Catra retorted. "If they fade without Angella, and they were created by Angella, and constantly adapted by her imagination…" She gestured at their surroundings. "That sounds like a dream that fades when you wake up."

"How poetic," Jack commented. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he shrugged. "But a good point. It's like we're in someone's dream, and talk about not letting them wake up so the dream never fades."

"That's stretching things quite a bit," Daniel said. "A dream we can interact with, and affect without imagination."

"That's still a dream." Jack grinned. "And you can't keep dreaming forever."

"It's still a hypothesis," Daniel pointed out. "Based on our assumptions."

He was right, technically, but the more Catra thought about this, the surer she was that this was sort of a dream. A dimension formed by your imagination, lasting only as long as you thought about it - as long as you were present. As long as your mind was occupied with it.

Yes, that was like a dream. And no matter what you were dreaming, sooner or later, you had to wake up.

"But…" Entrapta looked distraught. "Even if they aren't real people, they still act and think as if they have real feelings, even if they need Angella for that. And they will react to Angella leaving. Especially if it takes time for them to fade."

"Angella can change them so they don't react," Catra said.

"That wouldn't be right either!" Entrapta protested. "They would be left like that for… days, maybe weeks depending on how long it takes established structures and forms to fade here - we still haven't worked out if the age of the changes affects this."

"Angella leaving with us isn't something that they wouldn't expect," Adora said. "Princesses leave their kingdom to visit others. That's normal."

"But they wouldn't be cut off from any contact," Entrapta said. "Not since we invented communicators. Here, Angella would effectively vanish. And they couldn't contact her if they start fading."

"Well, then it would be Glimmer's - the copy's - problem," Catra muttered. "She's her successor."

"That's not how…" Adora trailed off. "What if we copy Angella?"

Catra blinked. Now, that would solve this stupid problem, wouldn't it?

*****​

"You want to make a copy of me?"

Queen Angella didn't sound very enthusiastic in Jack O'Neill's opinion. He wouldn't have been, either, if someone wanted to make a copy of himself. Especially if it was a snake or Loki.

Entrapta, though, nodded with a beaming smile. "Yes! So this world still has an Angella when you're gone - I mean, when you're gone with us."

"Just in case your, ah, world depends on you," Adora added. Her smile was obviously forced. "So your copy either keeps it stable, or…" She trailed off and bit her lower lip.

Catra rolled her eyes. "Or keeps them company while they disappear with the entire world."

Jack almost snorted. At least Catra didn't hide what she thought about the entire affair.

Angella glared at her, then at the rest of the group. "And what do you expect will happen?"

"We don't know," Carter replied. "There are multiple potential outcomes and we cannot say which is the most likely."

"So you are hedging your bets?" Angella raised her eyebrows. "Do you think I might not leave if I fear that the entire world will fade without my presence? Or do you assume I will not return if there's already a replacement present here?"

"What?" Entrapta looked genuinely surprised. "No! We just thought about the people here."

Yeah, Jack was sure that this had never crossed her mind. The others, though… Adora, of course, only now realised how this looked, but Catra definitely had thought about this part. Daniel looked guilty and embarrassed for getting caught, not shocked, and Sha're looked as if she expected that.

Glimmer, though, scowled. "What do you mean, returning here?"

Angella turned to stare at her. "Do not take my decision for granted, Glimmer."

"You can't leave us again!" Glimmer blurted out. "You can't!"

Angella flinched. "I am not planning to," she said, sounding more than a little guilty. "I was just commenting on this… plan of yours."

"I didn't know about that plan either!" Glimmer protested.

"We came up with that to ensure that we don't abandon the people here," Entrapta told her. "It was the best we could think of, based on the data we have."

"Making a copy of me was the best you could think of?" Angella frowned at her.

"You made a copy of everyone else," Catra cut in. "So, it's not as if it's something special." Angella glared at her but Catra shrugged. "Goose, gander, you know."

"Do what you want. I will not take part in it." Angella walked past them, to the edge of the small area that served as their camp at Bright Moon.

Glimmer shot them a look and turned to follow her, but Catra reached out. "Stay! You know her best."

"What?"

"We need you to help with this," Catra explained. "Or we'll get a weird copy."

"Making a copy of my mom is weird already!"

"She made a copy of you."

"That doesn't make it any better!" Glimmer snapped.

"Just imagine Angella as you remember her," Entrapta spoke up. "We all do that. Then we should be able to create her."

"Or we end up with a mad goddess," Jack commented.

"That would only be the result if we imagine her as such, Jack," Daniel told him.

Well, from, his brief acquaintance with her, she seemed mad enough for two queens to Jack. He didn't say that, though. This was already taking too long. "Let's do this, then," he said instead.

Most of the others closed their eyes. Jack didn't. He just tried to think of Angella, but nicer. Like Adora. Not as powerful, though. Just in case.

Minutes passed without anything happening. Jack was about to make a comment about plans failing when suddenly, a sparkling cloud appeared in the middle of the group, bright enough to make him curse and shield his eyes.

By the time he managed to see more than colourful spots, Angella stood there. Smiling kindly.

"Glimmer. It's been so long!" And she hugged her. "So, you've finally found your missing mother! And you'll take her home with you! I am so happy for you!"

"Ah, yes…" Glimmer's smile looked more like a grimace. As did Adora's. Entrapta was looking at her scanner. Bow was looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

Well, Jack shared the sentiment. This Angella was creepy. Like some Stepford Wife Queen. He turned and walked over to stand near Angella.

The real queen didn't even glance back at her copy, though he was sure she had noticed her appearance - she couldn't have missed the blinding light.

But she didn't say anything, and neither did Jack. They just stood there, waiting, until he heard steps behind him and turned to see Adora approaching them.

"Uh… we're ready to return. The, ah, copy has gone to the palace," she said.

"Very well." Angella nodded with a cool expression.

"Do you, ah, want to say goodbye to…"

"No." Angella cut her off. "Let us finally be off."

"Yeah." Jack had had his fill of this creepy copycat dimension. "Let's go home."

He was already reaching for the communicator to call the base when they started to walk over to the rest of the group.

A minute later, the world around them faded, and they found themselves back in Beta's main chamber. Hordak was peering at them through some sort of scanner, with Beta hovering behind him.

And Jack had never been as happy as to enter an Ancient research base as right now. The base was run by a crazy and creepy AI, their experiments were morally and ethically questionable, but at least the crew were real people, not figments, and reality wasn't reacting to stray thoughts as if you were God.

Jack had had his fill of gods as well.

*****​
 
Hmm I wonder if tying the universe to itself like this might have just unintentionally created a self aware simulacrum of etheria....

Edit. Just remembered how the Ori work, I think She-Ra the not goddess just created an afterlife....
 
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Chapter 154: The Lost Dimension Part 8
Chapter 154: The Lost Dimension Part 8

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)


They were back in their home dimension! Finally! Adora almost sighed with relief as she looked around, but she noticed Angella was looking like she was frozen except for her eyes darting back and forth as she took in the room. Oh - Angella had said that…

"According to the scanners, there is no residual extra-dimensional energy," Hordak announced.

"Hordak!" Angella spat, tensing up.

Adora winced. They had told Angella about Hordak, but maybe they should have prepared her a bit better for meeting her old enemy. On the other hand, what if she had refused to come?

"Queen Angella." Hordak nodded at her, then looked at his display. "The data explains several of the readings we got from the dimension. And the timeline checks out. It seems that time isn't amongst the constants affected by the dimension's nature, then."

"Oh?" Entrapta quickly moved to his side. "You managed to get data about the dimension's past?"

"I extrapolated a ripple effect from the divergences in the base readings," Hordak started to explain.

"Oh!"

Both seemed to be ignoring Angella, who was glaring at them. Adora saw that Sam looked like she really wanted to join them but didn't dare to. What a mess! At least the former slaves were taken away by the guards.

"Welcome back, Adora, Jack O'Neill." Beta appeared in front of them and bowed.

"Alpha!" Angella tensed up even more, almost snarling at the projection.

Right - she knew Alpha. Both the base and the bot. And she probably didn't have good memories of either. Adora winced.

But before she could say something, Beta spoke up. "I am not Alpha. I am Beta. Alpha is in charge of biological research. I focus on extradimensional research." She cocked her head sideways. "Are you one of the original test subjects of Alpha? The data I was given seems to indicate that."

Angella's glare intensified, and Adora saw she was clenching her bared teeth.

"What data?" Glimmer asked. "We didn't have any idea… Hordak?"

Hordak looked up. "When I was informed about Queen Angella's presence in the other dimension, I requested all the data we had on her. If it became necessary to extract her in an emergency, the data might have been helpful for calibrating the system."

Extract her… "You planned to kidnap her?" Adora blurted out. Like he had - with Light Hope's help - kidnapped her?

Hodark frowned at her. "Only on your orders as the Supreme Commander of the Alliance."

Ah. Adora nodded, then winced again. That still sounded bad! And now it made her look like she would have kidnapped Angella!

"Not on mine?" Glimmer asked, glaring at Hordak.

He faced her. "Your rank relative to Angella's is a little doubtful at the moment."

"What do you…?" Glimmer blinked. "Oh."

And next to Adora, Catra sighed. "Did you really only realise now that with Angella back, there are two Queens of Bright Moon?"

"I did!" Glimmer protested.

"But you did not consider all the implications," Angella said, in a tone that took Adora back to one of Angella's lessons at the start of her time in the Alliance.

"I was more concerned with getting you back home than politics!" Glimmer spat, and, for a moment, she, too, reminded Adora of that time.

"I see."

And now Glimmer was clenching her teeth. This was all going wrong! They had found Angella, saved her - from Apophis's attack - and were taking her home; they should celebrate instead of fighting!

"Royal family drama!" Jack muttered. "It's a good thing we didn't take any journalists with us!"

"Journalists?" Angella was quick to turn to him, Adora noted.

"People who report the news to the public," Jack explained with a too-innocent smile.

Angella frowned at him for a moment. "You talk as if you would take such people with you on a combat mission."

"Well…" Jack's smile widened. "On Earth, we're used to journalists reporting from war zones. Unlike the Princess Alliance. So, there's a bit of a dispute about the whole thing."

"I thought you liked not having to deal with the press, Jack," Daniel commented. "Did you change your opinion?"

Jack frowned at him. This was just him being contrarian, then, Adora realised.

"I see." Angella didn't scoff, but her expression showed what she thought of that. She turned to Glimmer. "Nevertheless, we should discuss this in private."

Adora suppressed another relieved sigh.

Then Angella continued: "And with Adora, of course."

Oh, no!

*****​

"...and the readings here indicate that the other dimension - we really need to find a good name for it, I think, but we probably should ask Angella what she wants it called since she basically created its most distinct area. It would be rude to name it ourselves, wouldn't it?"

"Yes." Samantha Carter nodded at Entrapta's question, even though she doubted that Angella really cared about the dimension she had been trapped in. Although she could be mistaken - she hadn't met Angella before this, and any second-hand information had obviously been voided by the changes being stranded in another dimension had inflicted on the woman. In any case, it wouldn't hurt to be polite. And it could hurt to be rude, a small voice added in the back of her mind. Angella had wiped out the Horde in the other dimension, after all. To a man.

"OK! Anyway, the data indicates that the other dimension is free from foreign influences now - we haven't picked up any changes induced by travellers. Unfortunately, we can't tell yet if the area that forms Etheria is stable or if it's started to fade but at such a slow rate that we cannot detect it at this point. And unless the fading rate is growing exponentially, it will be a while until we can detect it. It's not helping that we lack a solid base rate since it was in constant but minimal flux before this. Actually, this might be the first time the dimension hasn't been influenced by a sapient mind from another dimension since Angella appeared there, so this might possibly be totally unprecedented! And given how malleable the entire dimension is, it's theoretically possible that by creating a second Angella, and the desire to stabilise the dimension, we might have changed the constants of the dimension so that's actually possible - a sort of self-sustaining change lasting past out departure. We might not have created a new dimension, but we might have irrevocably altered one!" Entrapta beamed.

Sam blinked, sorting out the relevant points from her friend's slightly rambling talk. "In theory, it might be possible." Mainly because anything was possible in the other dimension.

"We lack the data to tell for certain. And barring positive proof that the affected area is reverting to its basic, undefined state, we will not be able to exclude the possibility that the decay rate is too low to be detected by our scanners," Hordak pointed out.

"If the rate of decay is so low that we can't detect it, then for all practical purposes, the dimension would be stable," Sam retorted. Civilisations could rise and fall - alien civilisations - in such a timespan.

"Unless there are trigger points after which the rate sharply rises. Or cascading effects," Hordak said. "Just because a system looks stable for a long time does not mean that it actually is stable."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "But we can probably improve our scanners if it takes so long!"

"Even that still would not provide us with proof but merely increase the probability that the dimension's changes are stable," Hordak said.

They were mincing words and technicalities now. Sam was familiar with that kind of argument - and she didn't like it. "We should focus on the practical side."

Entrapta nodded. "Yes! Who knows, maybe we'll detect changes soon - although that would be bad, of course."

"If that turns out to be the case, would Angella be available to return to the dimension to restore it?" Beta asked. "That would result in far more useable data, I believe."

"Oh… We can ask her, I think," Entrapta said. "But Glimmer was kind of mad at the idea." She bit her lower lip. "So… I'm not sure?"

"She might mistake such a request for an attempt to banish her again, especially in light of the current crisis of succession," Hordak said. "It would remove her as a claimant to Bright Moon's throne."

Entrapta frowned. "I don't think Glimmer wants her mom gone so she can be queen."

Sam shook her head. "I don't think so either." Sam was sure Glimmer wouldn't want that. A number of kings and queens, historical royalty on Earth, at least, would have jumped at such a ploy, but not Glimmer. Sam might not know Angella, but she knew Glimmer.

Hordak nodded, but Sam couldn't tell if he agreed or merely acknowledged the statement. "It would be better if they could come to an agreement supported by both," he said. "Disputes over the succession often have a disruptive effect on a kingdom, and since Bright Moon is the leading kingdom in the Princess Alliance, with proportionate influence in the Alliance against the Goa'uld, any such disruption would negatively affect the war effort."

Sam tried really hard not to answer that statement with a comment the General would have made about 'realpolitik'. Hordak might not be a warlord anymore, but while he might have lost the ambition, he hadn't lost the cold calculating views fitting the position. He wasn't wrong, though - if Angella replaced Glimmer as Queen of Bright Moon, who knew how that would influence the Alliance? Her actions in the other dimension might lead to a push for a much harsher way to wage war - something many people on Earth and in the Alliance would agree with, Sam knew. Maybe even the General.

But she had no doubt that Adora would disagree, quite strongly, with such a push. And that would cause more issues.

If Bright Moon were a democracy… She shook her head. They had to deal with the world as it was, not as they would like it to be. She could only hope that Bright Moon had procedures in place to settle such a situation. If not, things were bound to get messy; history provided countless examples of how monarchies fared in such situations.

*****​

Alliance Base 'Gateway', PU-9623, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Why did we have to leave the research base?"

"Because I am not holding a private talk where Beta can overhear everything we say, Glimmer."

Catra nodded in approval. Angella might be… traumatised, but she wasn't stupid.

Glimmer clenched her teeth and turned to frown at Catra. "And why are you here?"

"Because I'm not letting Adora deal with this by herself," Catra told her with a toothy grin.

Glimmer frowned some more and then looked at her mother.

"She might have some insight to offer about some of the matters we are to discuss." Angella didn't shrug, but she sounded as if she had.

Catra had to give her props for managing to dismiss both Glimmer's unspoken appeal and Catra's presence.

"I'm not sure we should discuss politics here, or now," Adora said. "That seems something we should discuss back home - in Bright Moon." Her expression was bland, but Catra could tell that she was not comfortable here. Well, she shouldn't be.

"Yes!" Glimmer agreed at once, smiling at her. "We need to discuss things with Dad. And we need to look for precedents in the archives."

"There are no precedents," Angella told her. "I founded the kingdom when I became its first queen." 'And you should have considered that before you spoke' was left unsaid, but Catra heard it perfectly anyway - in Shadow Weaver's voice.

She clenched her teeth. Shadow Weaver was dead. And they weren't discussing her and Adora's upbringing here.

Bow nodded. "Yes. A unique situation on Etheria."

"But the coronation we attended after you were gone… that was a tradition," Adora said. "Wasn't it?"

"I set the tradition," Angella told her. "Back when I ascended to the throne. I didn't expect to rule as long as I did. Things were… more dangerous back then. And I wasn't aware of everything Alpha had done to me."

"Oh." Adora closed her mouth before saying anything else.

Glimmer pressed her lips together. "Dad should get a voice anyway."

"We're not deciding anything without him," Angella told her with a sigh so soft, Catra's ears almost missed it. "But we need to discuss the salient points of the matter so that I can consider it properly. I shall not be rushed into such decisions while missing crucial knowledge."

Catra nodded in agreement again. That made sense. A few of her more… questionable decisions would have been different if she'd had better intel.

"What do you want to know?" Glimmer crossed her arms with a slight huff.

"Do you wish to remain queen?"

Glimmer blinked, apparently surprised. "I am willing to do my duty," she replied after a second. "For our kingdom. I have done so ever since you… disappeared."

"That doesn't answer the question," Angella told her. "I've never doubted that you'd do your duty; I have raised you, after all. But do you want to be queen?" Glimmer hesitated, and Angella went on: "Back during the war against the Horde, you preferred commanding and fighting in the field to ruling."

"I can do both - I did both!" Glimmer protested. "That's how things are done. A princess defends their people with her power - you taught me that!"

"It is not about what you can do, or what you should do, but what you want to do," Angella corrected her.

Catra glanced at Adora. Her love was frowning, but probably not because she had realised that this was a lesson she needed to learn as well.

And Glimmer wasn't happy. "Oh, now what I want is suddenly important? Before, it was always duty this, responsibility that, and suddenly, you want to know what I want?" She glared at Angella with bared teeth.

Adora grimaced at that. Bow did as well, and Catra managed not to wince. Maybe she shouldn't have insisted on tagging along. Bow seemed like he wanted to be elsewhere as well - but he stood behind Glimmer, one hand on her shoulder.

Angella pressed her lips together, probably reining in her temper - the similarity between her and Glimmer was quite obvious right then. After a deep breath, she replied: "Based on what I heard so far, you did well as queen, handling both Bright Moon's internal affairs and foreign diplomacy."

"The kingdom's still standing," Catra added. Both of them glared at her, and Adora frowned, but it was worth it.

"We beat the Horde and we'll beat the Goa'uld," Glimmer said.

And figure out how to deal with Earth afterwards, Catra silently added.

"I'm still waiting for an answer, Glimmer. What do you want?"

Glimmer ground her teeth. "I don't know! I want you back, with me, with Dad! Like it was before!"

For the first time since they had arrived in this room, Angella looked taken aback. "Glimmer…" she whispered, then straightened and nodded.

"And I don't want you to go back to that stupid fake world with the stupid fake copy of me!" Glimmer spat.

Angella frowned in return. Once again, she seemed to struggle with her temper. "I see."

"Do you?" Glimmer scoffed. "You said you might return to this dimension!"

"I said that the possibility shouldn't be excluded," Angella retorted. It sounded like an excuse.

"Always keep an escape route open," Catra said. Angella glared at her again, but Catra met her eyes with a smile. She understood wanting to be able to retreat, to go back to a safe place, where things made sense. And where you didn't have to face your past mistake - or the threat of making new ones.

But she also understood that whether Angella was doing it deliberately or not, she was also threatening to leave Glimmer again. And she knew what that kind of threat did to you.

So she bared her teeth. "But you can't escape this. We won't let you."

Angella kept glaring at her for a moment longer, then looked away.

"So, how are things in Bright Moon? I assume even though the Alliance was victorious, there were significant changes as a result of the war against the Horde."

Catra grinned as Angella changed the subject. She couldn't escape this discussion, but they could continue it later.

*****​

Refugee Camp, PU-9623, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Alright!" Jack O'Neill nodded at the guards stationed at the entrance while the gates swung up before turning to the four former slaves standing behind him. "Sorry for the delay, but checking you for any transdimensional sickness took a while." He smiled. "But your families are in the camp here." With guards placed nearby, both for their security and the Alliance's - these were, after all, former slaves Apophis had picked for being loyal. Not even Adora had argued much against keeping an eye on them in case they were still loyal to their false god.

The men slowly nodded to him - none of them tried to bow, which was good, though a few dipped a bit low - but clearly were already watching for familiar faces amongst the gathering civilians.

And so were the people inside the camp. "Mata!" one cried out. "Mata!"

"Ahak!"

One woman ran toward the group - toward one of the men - Jack had brought, and there came the hugging, crying and babbling. Jack smiled at the display. It was similar to seeing released P.O.W.s reunite with their families.

"Kuni!"

"Sirtak!"

And others found their loved ones thought dead. More tearful reunions with the people they had managed to bring back from the Bizarro Dimension. Which was a fitting name, even if the others disagreed.

But Jack also saw others look around, hopeful smiles fading, turning to grief and tears, when they didn't see their missing loved ones, and his smile turned a little grim. That would hurt the most - realising that your family was dead as you had believed, right after you got your hopes up that you had been wrong. That must feel as if you had lost them twice.

"We should have handled this better," he muttered as he watched dozens - mostly women with children - turn away from the laughing lucky ones. Not that there was a good way to tell people their family member had died. But there were ways that weren't as bad.

"Yes, we should have," Daniel agreed next to him. "I should have predicted this."

"It's not your fault," Jack reassured him. Jack might not be Daniel's official team leader any more, but he was still responsible for him and the others. Especially with Adora and Glimmer distracted by the mess with Angella. This was Jack's fault.

Daniel looked like he disagreed but slowly nodded. "We need more people with the experience and training to handle traumatised victims of the Goa'uld," he said. "And we need to take them with us on such missions."

More people to lift, feed and protect, in other words. But Daniel was right - they needed specialists for that. Combat troops weren't trained for this. On the other hand, Jack wasn't sure if he wanted more civilians on combat missions. That tended to create friction no one needed. The Peace Corps had no place in the Marine Corps. Although… "We'll have to check with the Princess Alliance."

"Oh, yes!" Daniel nodded. "They probably have people with the experience in their forces. And the princesses are expected to handle both combat and such matters. Well, the ruling princesses, at least."

Using heads of state for handling rescued civilians in a combat zone… As much as it made sense, it still felt weird to Jack. Not that he'd mind having another magical powerhouse along on a combat mission.

He shrugged. "Well, we're done here." The crowd was dispersing, splitting up into the different families clustered around the survivors. "We should…" He trailed off as he saw a group walking towards him, Kuta, one of the unofficial leaders - or were they official by now? - amongst them.

"General O'Neill." Kuta addressed him. "As the goddess promised, you brought our missing people back." He bowed deeply. "Thank you."

"Ah, yeah…" Jack grimaced as the others with Kuta bowed as well. "I'm sorry we could not save everyone."

"It is a miracle anyone survived the anger of Apophis," Kuta said. "The goddess brought him low, though."

"She-Ra cut him down," Jack agreed. "Though that wasn't the Apophis you knew - the Apophis here is different." Much weaker, for one.

"Taweret sent your people to another dimension, one filled with people very similar to us yet different," Daniel added. "Their Apophis was defeated, but ours still remains."

Jack didn't think the people surrounding them understood what alternate dimensions were, but they nodded anyway.

"They entered the realms of the gods," Kuta said. "They told us so. And they saw the gods wage war against each other as their carriages clashed."

That was… not quite what had happened. But not entirely wrong, either. "Something like that," Jack said. "It was complicated."

"Divine matters are always such," Kuta said. "Incomprehensible to mortal minds."

"I wouldn't say that," Daniel objected. "Apophis wanted to conquer the dimension - the realm - and he was defeated and slain by its defenders who wanted to protect everyone from him."

"Pretty straightforward," Jack agreed.

"And the ruler of the realm returned to this realm," Kuta went on. "To reunite with her family. As the goddess has reunited our families, she reunited hers. Praise to the divine She-Ra!"

"Praise to the divine She-Ra!"

Jack winced. They needed better opsec on such missions. Just because those people had been raised as slaves of the Goa'uld didn't make them stupid, he reminded himself. Obviously, the freed former slaves had picked up more about the mission's background than Jack and the others had realised. Or wanted them to. This complicated matters.

And that more people were treating Adora as a goddess wasn't helping, either, but Jack was kind of used to that by now. It was Adora's problem, anyway.

*****​

PU-9623 Orbit, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"This planet doesn't have a Stargate - Apophis didn't want to risk someone else finding it by accident - so we have to take a spaceship to the closest system with a Stargate," Adora said as their shuttle closed with the Horde frigate in front of them.

"You've explained that already," Angella replied.

Adora pressed her lips together. Yes, she had done that. But the way Angella stared at the frigate, ignoring everything else around her, and the way she had tensed up when she had seen the shuttle itself, it had seemed as a good way to distract her. At least to Adora. They hadn't thought that Angella didn't have good memories of First Ones shuttles. Or First Ones bases. Or First Ones anything.

No, that was unfair - Adora was a First One, and Angella didn't have a problem with that. Or hadn't had a problem with it. Maybe that had changed after her ordeal. Or after she had realised that the portal that had almost destroyed Etheria had been based on Beta's research. Angella hadn't said anything, and she had been more distant than before to everyone, even Glimmer, but Adora couldn't help wondering.

In any case, staying here wasn't helping. Angella wouldn't feel comfortable, much less happy, here, not with Micah on Etheria and Beta's presence bringing up so many bad memories.

"Shuttle D-One requesting permission to land," Bow spoke up from the pilot's seat.

"Permission granted," a Clone's voice answered through the comm, and the frigate's hangar opened up. "We are at Her Divine Highness's command!"

Adora winced.

"So it is true," Angella commented. "Hordak's people revere you as a goddess."

"Not all of them! Only a part," Adora defended herself.

"Technically, Hordak's people don't," Catra cut in with a smirk. "Most of his followers are in First Fleet. It's Third Fleet that's full of her worshippers. Though they proselytise."

Angella frowned but otherwise didn't acknowledge the comment.

"They don't listen to me when I tell them that I am not a goddess," Adora said.

"How can they claim to follow you if they do not heed your command?" Angella asked.

"Earth people do that all the time," Catra said, stretching in her seat as the shuttle entered the frigate. "They claim to follow a religion but only follow the rules that they want to follow anyway. However, to be fair, their gods don't talk to their worshippers. Or do anything. Or appear anywhere. So, it's easy for Earth people to claim anything they want about their gods."

"Priest and his people do obey me," Adora said, pouting a bit. "They're just… stubborn about their belief in me. And it's not as if I can forbid them from believing in me."

"Why not?" Angella asked. "They lay claim to you and you don't want it."

"That would violate their freedom of religion," Adora explained. "It's an Earth concept," she added. "We cannot force people to believe or not believe in a religion."

"What about your freedom not to be worshipped?"

"Ah…" Adora grimaced. "It's complicated."

"Besides, it's better if they worship Adora than any other god," Catra said. "If they decided to worship Horde Prime again, or picked someone else who would abuse the power such worship granted them…" She shook her head.

"Like a Goa'uld?" Angella asked.

"That would be very bad," Adora said, shuddering a little.

"Or any religion on Earth," Catra added. "Earth's history is full of atrocities committed in the name of their religions - long after they had expelled the Goa'uld who had either founded or taken over most of them."

The shuttle set down, and Bow started to turn the systems off.

"If you consider them atrocities, I assume they were worse than anything that happened on Etheria," Angella said as they rose from their seats.

Adora saw Catra flinch at that, and she clenched her teeth.

"Mom!" Glimmer, who had been quiet so far, hissed.

Angella cocked her head and looked at her without saying anything.

Catra shrugged as she didn't care, but Adora knew she was putting on an act. "As far as I know, yes. Though I don't know what you princesses did when you established your kingdoms, back in the day."

"The history records are a bit spotty," Bow said with a slightly forced smile as they walked to the back of the shuttle. "And Dad always says that the documents we do have were written by people with a hefty interest in legitimising their actions to strengthen their rule."

Angella snorted at that. "Indeed. Our history was not quite as noble as many of your peers proclaim. Though given our creators, that shouldn't come as a surprise, even if many of us tried to be better than them."

Adora pressed her lips together. The First Ones had been planning to sacrifice Etheria to destroy Horde Prime. She wasn't responsible for that - she had stopped it - but they were her people. Had been her people.

But they had reached the aft of the ship, and Adora saw that the clones were waiting for them, lined up on each side in neat rows. Someone had even laid down a red carpet, perfectly aligned with the ramp.

Angella didn't comment, but Adora couldn't help blushing when the other woman glanced at her.

"I didn't ask for this," she muttered as they descended the ramp.

But she still smiled when the ship's captain bowed to her. She might not like being worshipped, but she wouldn't be rude to the clones. They had been raised, created, to be unquestionably loyal by Horde Prime and were still learning how to be free. So, she wouldn't hurt their feelings.

"Your Divine Highness, my ship is at your command! It's an honour to serve you and your companions! Whatever your orders, we will lay down our lives to obey!"

Even if it was hard at times.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"So… Here is the latest data from our transdimensional sensors!"

Samantha Carter nodded at Entrapta as she skimmed over the readings.

"Still no conclusive results concerning the dimension's stability," Entrapta went on.

"It's only been a few hours," Sam replied. "We can't expect to detect significant changes so soon."

"It was theoretically possible," Hordak disagreed. "If we detected solid signs of the dimension destabilising at this point, it would have facilitated matters, of course."

Sam frowned at him. That was a very cold view.

"But that would have meant that the entire world Angella had created would be fading - including the people!" Entrapta protested.

"Yes." Hordak nodded. "But if it turns out to be stable, the Alliance will have to deal with it and all the ethical questions that will cause. Given the nature of the world Queen Angella created, that could be a distraction we might not be able to afford in the middle of the war."

Those were a bit too many 'might' and 'could' for Sam's taste, even if Hordak was likely correct. It was one thing to be able to reach a parallel universe, it was another to be able to reach a copy of your world and yourself created by one of your own in another dimension. Sam wasn't an expert on Etheria's politics, but she knew enough to know that the princesses wouldn't just shrug off such a development - certainly not the ones in the Alliance. And if Princess Sweet Bee and her allies heard about Angella having copied them - Sam was pretty sure Angella had done that - then things were bound to turn very complicated.

Entrapta was frowning at Hordak. "Just because something is difficult to handle doesn't mean we should wish for it to disappear!"

"I am not wishing that the second Etheria disappears; I am merely stating that if it did, it would remove potential problems." Hordak sounded more than a little defensive. "In fact, the dimension provides us with a host of interesting data. Losing that would be a blow to several avenues of research."

"Right!" Entrapta smiled again, and Sam suppressed a sigh.

At least, her dealing with the other dimension - she wasn't calling it the funhouse mirror dimension, which was the General's latest proposal - would be limited to the scientific and technical aspects; others would deal with the politics and ethics of it.

And that suited her just fine. Sam was a scientist, not a philosopher or politician.

*****​

Gate Area, Near Bright Moon, Etheria, February 5th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Angella had weathered her first trip through the Stargate better than most, Catra noted when they walked down the ramp. She wouldn't have expected that, especially after Angella's experience with the portal that had sent her into her exile. Then again, Angella had kept Bright Moon going during the war against the Horde even after all the first Princess Alliance had fallen apart, so the queen - or former queen; they still hadn't settled that - was tougher than most assumed when they compared her to Glimmer.

Angella looked around, frowning as she took the sight in. "It looks like a Horde base."

"We used their expertise to build the base," Glimmer told her.

"And their style." Angella pressed her lips together.

Catra almost quipped about picking the best people for the job but managed to hold her tongue. This wasn't the time to needle Angella.

"Well… it works well?" Adora smiled weakly. "The Horde prefab elements allow for quick construction and can be customised to many tasks. If was the fastest way to secure the Stargate location."

"It also means that the first thing visitors see of Etheria is a Horde base," Angella retorted.

Catra smirked at that, but Glimmer nodded. "That was actually a point in its favour - no single kingdom can claim precedence this way."

She was leaving out that the Scorpion Kingdom still heavily used Horde structures, Catra knew, but it seemed to mollify Angella - she was frowning slightly less.

"I guess hosting the Stargate in a base built by Bright Moon might have led to grumblings from other kingdoms," Angella said as they passed through the scanners.

"Oh, yes!" Glimmer sighed. "Some of them would have never shut up!"

Angella snorted and started to say something in return, but the door opened, and she trailed off, gasping softly at the man standing there. "Micah."

"Angella."

Angella started to walk towards him, first slowly, hesitatingly. But suddenly, she rushed forward, faster than Catra had ever seen her moving, all but jumping into Micah's arms.

Yeah, that explained where Glimmer got it from.

*****​

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, February 5th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"So. Now that things have settled down, let's talk about politics."

That's a nice, bland way to talk about Micah's and Angella's emotional reunion, Catra thought as she leaned back in her seat in the private meeting room. Although she couldn't help contrasting it with Angella's reunion with Glimmer. Granted, that had been under very stressful circumstances, and Angella had thought for years that Micah had been killed by the Horde, but seeing this - the two were still sitting together very closely, and glancing at each other far more than at anyone else - had to sting Glimmer more than a bit. If someone had done this to Catra… Well, Shadow Weaver would have done this in a heartbeat.

She clenched her teeth. Yeah, she wouldn't want to be in Glimmer's place. But she would ask Angella after this - sometime after this - why Shadow Weaver had been still alive in the other dimension.

"Yes," Micah said after a moment, nodding and smiling widely at Glimmer.

Angella nodded. "There are several questions to be discussed. And the most important one still needs an answer." She inclined her head at Glimmer.

Glimmer pressed her lips together in response, and from her angle, Catra saw Bow place his hand on hers under the table. Yeah, the tension between the two queens hadn't improved at all since their return.

But Glimmer controlled her temper - mostly. "You want to know whether I want to stay queen," she said in a slightly clipped tone.

"Yes." Angella nodded. "We cannot discuss how to handle this without knowing what you want, Glimmer."

"No pressure," Catra muttered under her breath. Only Adora heard her, though - she glanced at Catra with a slight frown.

Glimmer frowned as well. "Shouldn't we focus on what's best for Bright Moon and the Alliance?" she asked, raising her chin.

"You're the current Queen of Bright Moon," Angella replied. "Forcing you to serve against your will would be as detrimental to either cause as trying to oust you against your will."

Putting Angella back in charge would definitely be worse, in Catra's opinion. Even if the woman was stable - Catra wasn't sure about that - how she handled the Horde in the world she had made showed that she shouldn't be ruling Bright Moon or anyone else right now. The inevitable conflict with Adora, the meddling by Earth and Etherian rulers trying to exploit that… No, that wouldn't be a good thing. But Catra saying so, at this point, would likely not be productive.

"I wouldn't be so petty as to sabotage our efforts just because I didn't get my way!" Glimmer protested. "I didn't do so during the Horde War, either!"

"You did not," Angella agreed - although after hesitating a moment. "And yet, there was a lot of friction caused by our differences, friction which hampered the Alliance's efforts."

"Is that why you created my copy to be so obedient?" Glimmer blurted out. She drew back right afterwards, looking almost as if she were surprised at herself, but Angella flinched as if she had been struck.

"I believe every parent wishes at some point that their children would follow their advice," Angella said with a very bland expression.

"I don't think they want mindless bots that follow orders to the letters," Glimmer spat.

Catra pressed her lips together and glanced at Adora. Her love was biting her lower lip and looking from Glimmer to Angella and back. And Bow was useless as well.

Damn. It looked like Catra had to step in between the two queens. She'd rather charge through a minefield. But needs must, and…

Micah spoke up before she could think of the best way to intervene. "When I was on Beast Island, I was… all alone." He wasn't looking at anyone in the room, Catra noted. "There were no other prisoners on the island I could have talked to. Only monsters that wanted to kill me. And the island itself." He took a deep breath. "I had to struggle to survive. Other prisoners arrived after me, but not many, and none of them lived long enough for me to meet them - I only found their remains. After a while, I don't know how long it took, I stopped looking for them. Or for anyone." He sighed. "I only had my memories - and I could really trust them either. I don't know what I would have done if I had had the opportunity to change things." Now he looked at Glimmer and then Angella. "I wasn't myself."

Angella slowly nodded, reaching out to hold his hand.

And Glimmer was still pressing her lips together, but she looked less angry.

Then Angella started talking. "I expected to die when I stepped through the portal. I hoped to die since the alternative was… being doomed to be lost forever. And I thought of you." She glanced at Glimmer, then turned away. "And then I found myself in a void. Floating in nothing. The fate I had feared the most. I don't remember how long it took for things to change - but I know the first things changed, appeared, without me realising I was doing it. Flowers and grass, a patch to sit down. For some time, I thought I was seeing things - that I had gone mad. And I… didn't mind so much. It was better than just floating in the void." She snorted but without any humour. It sounded more like a sob. "I was a coward. I chose to live in a dream rather than face reality. And in a dream, there are no consequences. Why not indulge yourself? So I did." She was staring at the desk in front of her. "I could have everything I wanted. My kingdom. My friends. My daughter. My revenge. As long as I was fooling myself." Another almost-sob. "I knew - thought - that Micah was dead, but in a few years, maybe I would have fooled myself that I had only dreamt his death."

That was far too personal for Catra. This should have been between Glimmer, Angella and Micah. Catra wasn't part of their family. And she didn't want to be reminded of her own attempt to fool herself into having a perfect world. Her failures. Her crimes. Her…

Adora's hand squeezing her thigh made her look up. Her love shook her head.

With a wry grin, Catra slowly nodded.

"Mom…" Glimmer's voice cut through the sudden silence. A sob followed. "I didn't… I didn't think." She sobbed once. "Sorry!"

"I should be sorry," Angella replied. "I made so many mistakes, even after I realised you had found me."

"I should have known that. After the war, after Dad had returned…" Glimmer shook her head. "I'm sorry."

Catra clenched her teeth and grabbed Adora's hand. She really wanted to be anywhere else. Especially when Glimmer and Angella got up and hugged each other, and Adora, Bow and Micah beamed at them.

*****​
 
Hmm I wonder if tying the universe to itself like this might have just unintentionally created a self aware simulacrum of etheria....

Edit. Just remembered how the Ori work, I think She-Ra the not goddess just created an afterlife....

Nope. They can't create an afterlife like that.
 
Chapter 155: The Double Cross Part 1
Chapter 155: The Double Cross Part 1

Alliance Base 'Gateway', PU-9623, February 5th, 2000 (Earth Time)


"We can't keep the refugees here," Lieutenant Colonel Barnet said as he pointed at the map projected behind him. "This planet is bound to become a battleground as soon as Apophis realises that we have taken it."

Jack O'Neill nodded in agreement, leaning back in his seat. Technically, he was merely an observer at the staff meeting. As of 08:00 today, Barnet was the base commander. His troops, a battalion from the British Army with a fancy name Jack didn't care about very much, had formally relieved Jack's own forces and taken over the base.

But Jack was a general and, with Adora and Glimmer both gone back home to Etheria, he was both the highest-ranking Alliance officer on the planet and the one left in charge of the over-all mission. Which meant dealing with the aftermath of their invasion was his task.

Not that Jack did care too much about formalities. Well, less than the stuffy Brits did.

"General orders prohibit removing native people from their homes unless there's a clear military necessity," Major Smith-Barnesby, Barnet's second-in-command, cut in.

"I don't think the former slaves fall under the definition of 'natives'. They were forcefully moved here to build the base by Apophis," another officer, Captain Thorne, piped up. The guy was a bit young for his rank, in Jack's opinion. Then again, a lot of the officers in the British Army were; they had been expanding their forces by quite a bit gearing up for the war. That kind of build-up put a strain on the officer corps. Last Jack had heard, they were asking retired officers to return.

"I would concur, but that's not something we can decide," Smith-Barnesby replied. "However, when it comes to judging the situation here from a military aspect…"

Jack realised that everyone was looking at him. He refrained from sighing too loudly. "Those people were picked for their loyalty to Apophis." At least, they had been faithful enough to recreate their god even after his queen had used them as test subjects for her experiments. That took a lot of loyalty. Or fear. "So, we can't exactly trust them, and they represent a potential threat to our forces should Apophis attack this planet." A very theoretical threat - a bunch of former slaves in a refugee camp didn't have a prayer of actually threatening, much less damaging the base. "So, we'll move them off-planet to a safe location." One someone else could pick.

"That will require another frigate as transport," Smith-Barnesby pointed out. "That would reduce our naval forces."

"Not for long," Jack retorted. And they had handled the entire guard fleet here easily. Missing out on two or three frigates for a day or two wouldn't make much of a difference.

Everyone nodded at that.

"So, check with our friends in the Navy and get the refugees off this planet. We don't know when Apophis will counter-attack," Jack went on. It was too bad that the planet didn't have a Stargate; with that, it would have made a great staging area or forward base.

"Yes, sir."

Jack nodded and leaned back again. Not too much - couldn't rile up the limeys too much.

"Now, the next item to discuss is the supply situation," Barnet went on. "We have enough food and ammunition for an extended period of combat, but we don't have spare parts for the more exotic machinery in use here."

"You mean the research base," Jack said.

"Yes, sir."

"They've got that covered." Between Carter, Entrapta and Hordak, they could probably rebuild the entire research base from scrap.

"Yes, sir." Barnet nodded and made a check on his list. He was probably just covering his ass anyway, in case someone wanted to blame him for any trouble in the research base. That kind of stuff wouldn't fly under Jack or any of his people, but it was common enough in the army.

"Next item. The mess hall. There have been complaints about the menu selection."

Jack sighed under his breath and refrained from commenting about offering the complainers to eat MREs instead. As soon as the fighting was over, the tedious paperwork began.

*****​

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, February 5th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Whew! Glad that's over!"

Adora frowned at Catra's outburst and checked that the door behind them was closed. If Glimmer, Angella and Micah had heard that… "It's great to see them doing so well," she said.

"They still have to sort out politics," Catra said, stretching her arms over her head and craning her neck. "Glimmer's got to man up and tell Angella that she'll stay queen."

"You think she should stay queen?" Bow asked.

"You don't?" Catra shot back, raising her eyebrows.

"It's her decision," Bow replied. "And she hasn't made up her mind yet. So much happened since we found Angella…"

"What's there to make up her mind about?" Catra snorted. "You have met Angella. Do you think she could be the queen Bright Moon needs right now?"

"Well… we haven't really talked to her that much about that," Bow said.

Catra rolled her eyes and then looked at Adora.

Adora coughed. She didn't like to be put on the spot like this. Glimmer was her best friend, and Angella was… Angella had welcomed her into the Alliance despite her origin. And Angella had sacrificed herself so Adora hadn't done it. "We met Angella under very special circumstances. We can't judge her for that."

"What circumstances? An attack by Apophis?" Catra scoffed. "We're at war with the Goa'uld. Angella doesn't know anything about them. And she doesn't know anything about Earth. Even if she hadn't been isolated for years, she would have trouble adjusting to the current situation."

That wasn't wrong. And yet… "It's Glimmer's choice," Adora said. She wouldn't stab her friend in the back.

Catra narrowed her eyes, then snorted again. "Then let's hope that she makes the right decision."

*****​

"So… Mom and Dad have 'retired for the evening'. They've got a lot to talk about. And stuff."

Adora nodded at Glimmer's comment. They had a lot to talk about, indeed. They hadn't seen each other for so long - almost twenty years. Well, closer to twenty than to ten, at least. They must be very… She felt her cheeks grow warm.

"Yes, that." Glimmer rolled her eyes before she sighed and sat down on the couch in Adora's room, next to Bow.

Adora glanced at Catra, expecting a comment, but her lover just nodded and curled up a bit more on the armrest of Adora's seat. Turning back to Glimmer, Adora nodded again. What should she say about that? It was natural, after all. Perfectly fine. She'd do the same if she had been separated from Catra for so long. She had done the same after they had returned to Bright Moon today.

She felt her cheeks heat up again, and Catra snorted.

"Anyway," Glimmer continued. "That's not a problem."

"Of course not," Catra muttered under her breath.

"The problem is the succession question." Glimmer shook her head. "Mom said it's my choice. Well, she said what I want is the most important thing about it. But not everyone thinks so."

"Oh?" Adora frowned. "It's an internal matter of Bright Moon, isn't it?" Other kingdoms didn't meddle with each other's internal matters. Especially not with each other's royal family matters. That was a fundamental principle since the Princess Prom had started.

"Yes!" Glimmer blurted out with a frown.

"But?" Adora leaned a bit forward, and Catra slipped an arm around her shoulders from behind and the side.

Bow cleared his throat. "Well… it's a basic principle of Etherian politics and diplomacy not to interfere with questions of succession. But every rule has exceptions."

"And the first rule is: Don't get caught," Catra added with another snort.

"Did any other Alliance member else actually… try to interfere?" Adora couldn't imagine any of their friends trying to meddle in this matter.

"They only sent their well-wishes," Bow said after a glance at Glimmer. "But they also stated their intention to come by as soon as Angella was up to receiving visitors."

Well, that was only natural - all of the other princesses knew Angella well. Some of them had known her much longer than Adora.

"And once they arrive, they'll want to know if they're visiting the former or current Queen of Bright Moon," Glimmer added with a scowl.

"And if you wait too long, they'll suspect that there's trouble," Catra said. "And Sweet Bee will spread rumours that you've got Angella locked up in a dungeon because she disagrees with your policies."

Adora gasped. Her lover couldn't be serious, could she?

"Something like that," Glimmer grumbled. "And even if we can handle the other kingdoms, there's still Bright Moon itself. The servants already call Mom 'Queen'."

Adora blinked. "Ah… That's kind of… they don't want to presume?" she guessed.

"Some slipped and called me Princess." Glimmer was scowling now.

"That's a presumption, yes," Catra said. With her lover pressed into her side now, Adora felt her nod. "Though… what do you call former Queens?"

"Generally, former rulers are called by their last title," Bow said. "Though since for everyone else that's generally 'Princess', it's not really helpful." He smiled weakly. "Bright Moon is unique in that the title of our ruling princess is 'Queen' and not 'Princess'."

"Something Mom set up," Glimmer said. "And since she founded the kingdom, there hasn't been another queen so far, so there's no precedent. And everyone's used to her being queen, anyway."

Adora could see the problem. But she could also see the solution. "So, it's up to Angella to set a precedent, then."

Glimmer frowned at her as if she had said something wrong.

"Both Glimmer and Angella have to set the precedent," Bow said.

Ah! Adora grimaced at her faux-pas.

"Yes. And Mom says it depends on what I want." Glimmer pouted again.

"So, what do you want?" Catra asked. That earned her a glare from Glimmer, which she shrugged off. "It is your decision," she added, echoing Adora's earlier words.

"Yes." Glimmer sighed and leaned back on the couch, looking at the ceiling. "I want to stay Queen."

Adora started to nod. That was settled…

"But I don't know if I want to stay queen with Mom looking over my shoulder," Glimmer went on. "Watching me make mistakes, criticising me…"

"I don't think she'll do that," Bow said.

"If she didn't say anything, it would be even worse!" Glimmer spat. "Imagine her silently judging me!"

"Ah…" Bow grimaced. "But you've been a good queen! You've ruled Bright Moon fairly and well."

"I was the only queen," Glimmer said. "It's not as if there was anyone else to take over. Dad's the king, but only because he married Mom. He's not in the royal line. So, it's not as if there was any alternative."

Oh. Adora could see her point, but this was far too pessimistic. Or paranoid, Catra would say. "But you are a good queen," she said. "You handled the Alliance - both Alliances - and the Stargate well. And you've been running the Princess Alliance in the war."

"And without making any blunders," Catra added.

Glimmer looked surprised, then sighed again. "But who's to say I couldn't have done better? Mom's got much more experience!"

"But not with the war against the Goa'uld - or with other planets," Catra said.

Adora nodded with an encouraging smile. "And Angella knows that. Or will know it once Micah tells her."

Bow nodded as well. "Yes. If Angella didn't trust you, she wouldn't have said that what you want matters most."

Glimmer slowly nodded, but she didn't seem convinced. Adora could tell.

*****​

Research Station Beta, PU-9623, February 6th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Due to its special nature, conducting experiments in the target dimension requires sapient test subjects or researchers. Therefore, until such are available - volunteers, of course - I suggest switching the research focus of this base to another dimension."

Samantha Carter narrowed her eyes at Beta. The bot's 'volunteers, of course' sounded like an afterthought at best - more like a formality. Sam had no doubt that Beta only said it because she was aware that the Alliance wasn't like the Goa'uld and wouldn't tolerate using humans as test subjects. On the other hand, Beta was correct that all transdimensional research currently planned was limited to observing the target dimension.

Behind her, she heard Entrapta gasp. "Oh, no! We forgot about how Angella returning would affect you and your research! We're so sorry!"

Sam wasn't sorry. While she could understand very well how it felt when your research project fell victim to a change of policy or budgeting, Beta had, and eagerly, Sam was sure, been sending people as test subjects to another dimension - one dangerous and unstable - against their will. That was unacceptable, and as Alpha's example showed, this blatant lack of ethics couldn't be blamed on the Goa'uld. She didn't say so, though - at least, Beta had abandoned Taweret when Adora and the General had arrived. As long as Beta didn't attempt to sway Entrapta to her way of thinking, Sam could keep her thoughts private.

"What dimension do you suggest?" Hordak asked. He sounded interested. Of course, he had pursued interdimensional travel for decades, but that had been back when he had desperately tried to return to Horde Prime's side. But maybe he still held some passion for the subject? More than he held for the research into stabilising and reversing the genetic degradation of the Asgard, which Loki was pushing back at Alpha?

Beta nodded at him. "The target dimension was always meant to be a transitional target, a step between our dimension and the actual goal of the research done here - Ascension." Sam could hear the capital letters. "So, it would only be logical to switch the focus from exploring the target dimension to directly looking for the dimension inhabitated by those who have ascended."

Sam pressed her lips together. She hadn't explored that specific area very thoroughly, but she had studied the material available and what she had found… "As far as I know, travelling to that dimension is irreversible. And that includes scans" At least, all the Ancients' data agreed on that - they had only indirect data about the dimension, extrapolated from examining adjacent or related dimensions, models, and what scans could be taken when an Ancient had ascended. And claims from Ancients before their ascensions, which were obviously of dubious veracity.

"Oh!" Entrapata beamed. "That sounds fascinating! Almost like trying to visit gods!"

"Gods?" Beta cocked her head to the side in an almost human gesture. "Like Adora?"

"Oh, not like her!" Entrapta shook her head. "I mean the kind of gods worshipped on Earth that are intangible, invisible and cannot be perceived or contacted by any means that would result in factual data."

Beta nodded. "That would describe an ascended being somewhat adequately if one lacked actual data."

"It would also fit a fictional being," Hordak commented in a dry voice. "Though most proponents of the Earth religions based on these kinds of gods insist that their deity of choice is able to both physically and mentally affect them despite a profound lack of evidence for such."

"That doesn't sound very scientific," Beta commented. "Although this might be based on past tales of Ascension and, therefore, might be of historical if not scientific interest."

Sam shook her head. "I think we should focus on more practical research." Instead of poking that particular can of worms. The last thing the Alliance or anyone needed was Beta trying to examine religion. Not that trying to reach a dimension populated by the kind of ascended beings Beta described was much better. Sam couldn't help thinking of ancient myths about mortals visiting Olympos. That kind of venture rarely ended well for the mortals.

"Of course," Beta agreed. "We cannot squander our means."

"If we're talking about practical aspects of research into transdimensional travel, I would suggest renewed research into using other dimensions as a way to travel faster than our current methods," Hordak said. "If we succeed, our fleet would benefit from unparalleled strategic mobility."

"Oh, yes! We could use other dimensions as shortcuts!" Entrapta nodded enthusiastically.

Sam nodded as well. If they could move fleets around much faster than with their current methods, the greater numbers of ships fielded by the Goa'uld Empire would become all but irrelevant since the Alliance could concentrate the bulk of their forces and strike faster than the Goa'uld could react.

"I see the potential applications." Beta didn't seem very enthusiastic about it, Sam noted. "Although…" She suddenly trailed off. "We've received a message from the former commander's ally, Apophis. It is addressed at Taweret."

Sam drew a sharp breath through clenched teeth. "What does it say?"

"As far as I understand it, it's a request for a meeting over faster-than-light communicators." Beta played the message.

A demand, actually, Sam thought. Just more politely worded since Taweret was - had been - Apophis's queen. And while they could stall a bit, Apophis would likely know that a dimensional experiment would render communication impossible for its duration, they would be expected to answer before long.

Beta cocked her head to the side again. "Commander O'Neill has called for an immediate meeting."

As expected.

*****​

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, February 6th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"We really need to collect a few Stargates to mount on frigates," Catra commented as she sat down in her usual seat in the meeting room. "This would be so much easier if we had a mobile gate in the PU-whatever-system. And we need a better name for the system as well. Who exactly is in charge of that?"

"The Stargates, or the naming?" Adora asked as she joined her, almost sitting down before standing again. "Bow, do you need any help?"

"No, thanks, Adora," he replied. "Just running a last check on the projector and communicator array here before the meeting starts."

"We don't want a technical problem to delay this." Glimmer must have caught the last part when she entered the room.

Catra cocked her head. Her ears twitched, but she didn't hear any more steps from the hallway.

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "Mom and Dad aren't coming."

"Oh?" Adora blinked.

"This is an Alliance matter," Glimmer said. "And they aren't up to date about our military situation."

"Ah."

Catra wasn't so sure about Micah being out of the loop - that didn't sound like him - but he was probably focused on Angella. And Angella definitely was out of the loop. The last time she had been on Etheria, the world had still been stuck in Despondos, and the most advanced military technology on it had been Horde Bots and Hovertanks. Another reason why Glimmer should stay queen.

"We're ready!" Bow announced as he got up and walked over to his seat.

"And just in time!" Adora smiled.

"Connecting," Bow announced, pushing a few buttons on his tablet.

Catra's ears twitched again as the projector started to hum, and several screens appeared around the table, lighting up one after the other and showing the rest of the participants. Jack, Sam, Entrapta, Hordak, Daniel, Sha're, Teal'c. And Beta appeared inside the room as a holoprojection.

On the screen in the centre, Jack's eyes darted around for a moment, then settled on what must be the camera facing him in his meeting room. "So… you've heard the news? Apophis is making a booty call."

"Jack!"
Daniel protested.

"He wants to talk to Taweret. You know what the king and queen get up to," Jack replied.

Catra chuckled at that - and even more when she saw Glimmer's grimace.

"Jack!" Daniel looked aghast.

"General!" And Sam looked annoyed.

"Sorry." Jack didn't seem to be sorry. "Anyway, Apophis called half an hour ago, demanding to talk to Taweret. We've got about an hour to decide how to handle that - that's how long an experiment usually blocks communications according to Beta."

The bot's projection nodded. "Past records show that this is roughly the time passing before Apophis will resend his message."

"And we can't get Taweret to answer it - the snake's already with the Tok'ra to get separated from her host,"
Jack went on.

"Can we fake such a call?" Glimmer asked.

"Technically, yes," Entrapta replied. "At least for the appearance on a screen. We have to tweak the records we made, but that's just data."

"However, faking her speech patterns for a call…"
Sam winced. "That's a bigger challenge. We don't have enough records of her talking, and most of them are from when she was already a prisoner. Apophis likely will see through such a ruse."

"Even Double Trouble would have problems impersonating Taweret convincingly under such conditions," Bow added, nodding. "Not that we would consider that," he hastily added.

Double Trouble would be as likely to join the Goa'uld as to stick to the script if only to cause more chaos, Catra thought with a scowl. And the question would not be whether but when they'd betray the Alliance.

"Of course not," Glimmer agreed with a scoff.

"So, fooling Apophis into thinking all's going according to plan is out," Jack said.

"It would only have been a temporary solution anyway," Sha're added. "He would check with his commander and his spies in the guard fleet afterwards even if he were fooled."

"So… do we call him out and taunt him about having taken another queen of his prisoner?"
Jack was joking, but Catra had no doubt that he would love to do it.

"That would reveal our Alliance," Adora said with a frown. "And an attempt to pose as a rival System Lord would require more Ha'taks than we have access to. We have to either stall for time and evacuate the entire planet or pose as a Horde task force."

"We have to assume that Apophis knows about Horde Prime's demise," Hordak pointed out. "So, it would have to be a rogue Horde task force."

Even a rogue Horde task force would probably be impressive enough to keep Apophis at bay, Catra thought. "Going after their old enemy?" She shrugged. "Could work."

"Why not inform him that the research station has been returned under the control of its original owners?" Beta asked.

Pose as First Ones? Catra blinked, then glanced at Adora. That would mean her love would have to play the part of the First Ones - the kinds who were experimenting with people and willing to sacrifice Etheria to win their war. Catra didn't think that would be good for her. Or that she'd be good at it. But she knew Adora would still try it if she thought it would be the best solution for their problem. Though it wasn't, and not just because Adora was really bad at lying. "We don't have First Ones ships," she pointed out. "And claiming we took over the Horde would probably not sound too convincing. Even if it's actually true," she added with a grin.

"We only have Darla. And a few shuttles," Entrapta added. "That's not enough for a fleet."

"So, Plan Horde it is,"
Jack said.

No one disagreed.

*****​

PU-9623 Orbit, February 6th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Open a channel to Apophis using the relay in the base. I will inform him that this system is no longer under his control - or of his concern."

Hordak was better already getting into his act, Jack O'Neill thought as the Horde clones on the bridge complied. Because the tone of the order reminded Jack a bit too much of the snakes. Uncomfortably so, especially in light of what Hordak had done in the past. Sure, he was reformed now, and apparently loyal, but…

Jack had heard that before. Usually from intel weenies about local 'allies' on missions that never showed up in any official files. Well, he was keeping his eyes on the guy. Which was why he was here, on the frigate serving as flagship, instead of in the base on the ground. Just in case.

"Communication established."

Hordak straightened, and Jack checked again that the 'flag room' in which he was observing wasn't visible on the camera feed covering the bridge. Just in case.

Then, the big screen on the bridge changed from showing the planet below them to Apophis. "Finally! I was…" He trailed off, mouth half-open for a moment as he stared at Hordak, and Jack had to snort. Carter would have to make him a copy of that picture. He checked the feed from Bright Moon - yeah, the princesses were snickering.

"Apophis, I presume," Hordak said, seated on the captain's chair on the bridge in full armour.

"You are not Horde Prime," Apophis spat. He had recovered quickly from his surprise, Jack had to admit.

"I am Hordak. Leader of the Horde. Conqueror of Etheria."

Apophis wasn't in his throne room, Jack noted, but in his private quarters. Same amount of gold and other bling, but no guards and flunkies lining the walls. "You're using the communicator in my base." And there was a familiar scowl. Snake boy didn't like this at all.

"Your base was protecting an installation of our enemies," Hordak said. "I took it."

Apophis tilted his head slightly and his eyes narrowed. Props for self-control. Jack saw him glance to the side, at a screen next to his seat. Probably checking the status of his guard fleet. "You attacked my fleet," he said a moment later, confirming Jack's guess.

"None shall stay in our way to obey Horde Prime's orders," Hordak went on. "Our holy duty shall be done."

And now he was channelling Priest. Jack grimaced,

Apophis frowned for a moment. "Horde Prime was fighting the descendants of the Gate Builders."

"We call them the First Ones. Horde Prime vanquished them, but some of them yet remain scattered in their former realm. Hiding amongst the lesser species." Hordak scoffed. "None of them shall escape our wrath, as the one on this planet found out."

Apophis jerked, and on the screen in the flag room, Jack saw his jaw muscles tense as he clenched his teeth. So, he had known that Taweret's host was a descendant of the Ancients. That had been assumed, but confirmation was always good.

Yet the snake didn't rant or threaten after hearing that his queen had been supposedly killed. He merely nodded. "I was informed that Horde Prime had met his end."

"Horde Prime is eternal," Hordak replied at once, straightening. "He sees all, knows all, and controls all."

Apophis nodded again, and Jack thought he saw his eyes narrow just a bit more. "And he tasked you with hunting down his enemies in my realm?"

"Wherever they are hiding," Hordak said. "None shall escape their fate. Such Horde Prime decreed, such shall happen."

"Such Horde Prime decreed, such shall happen," the clones in the background repeated his words.

Definitely too many Priest vibes for Jack's taste. He glanced to his side and saw that Adora was grimacing on the screen showing Bright Moon's meeting room. But they were counting on Apophis being more cautious when he thought he wasn't facing a warlord, but a zealot.

"I see." The snake nodded. Then his lips twisted into a faint, nasty smile. "Are you aware that there is a planet full of descendants of those First Ones?"

What? Jack drew a short breath. Was Apophis…?

"What is this planet?" Hordak asked.

"It's populated by billions of the lesser species you are already familiar with, with the First Ones hiding amongst them - ruling from the shadows. Building up their forces and technology to use them in war. And I think we both know who they will wage war against."

Oh, that bastard!

Apophis's smile grew wider. "It's called Earth. I can give you all our data on it."

*****​

Hyperspace, On the Way to PU-9623, February 6th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"He didn't even ask what happened to Taweret." Adora shook her head as she paced in their cabin - the captain had tried to get her to use his cabin, but she had put a stop to that.

"He's a Goa'uld. They don't care about others," Catra said, looking at her upside down - she was sprawled on her back on the bed, head hanging over the edge.

"I know that," Adora replied. "But she was his queen. Without her, he can't supply his Jaffa with symbionts. That will cripple his recruitment if he can't replace her."

"True. But he replaced Amaunet with Taweret," Catra pointed out.

"I don't think there are too many Goa'uld queens left who aren't already attached to a System Lord," Adora said. At least, the Tok'ra didn't know of any.

"We thought that back then as well." Catra snorted. "I'm not holding my breath. He probably has some contingency plans already lined up. Never underestimate your enemy. You saw how quickly he adapted to Hordak's claims."

"Yes." Adora sighed. They had hoped that losing his queen, his base and his forces in the system would unbalance him.

"For what intel he had, it was quite a smart plan he came up with in the middle of the call," Catra went on. "Set the new enemy on your old enemy and let them fight."

"No matter who comes out on top, he wins," Adora agreed.

"And he'll be waiting and checking if he can mop up the survivors with his forces." Catra shifted around a bit. "Or ask for a favour if Hordak wins. Like getting Taweret back."

Adora nodded. "It was weird, though, that he didn't ask about her," she repeated herself. "Her host was a First One, not her." Apophis had to know that the Horde was aware of the Goa'uld and how they took over people.

"He probably didn't want to mention his close association with an enemy of a religious fanatic in charge of a fleet," Catra said. "I wouldn't want to do it either. And he might fear that Taweret threatened Hordak with his retaliation."

"Maybe." Adora shrugged and sat down at the desk. "It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. He'll likely adapt his reaction - or has done so already. He might even ask for a meeting."

"Would be an ideal opportunity to ambush him," Catra said.

What? Adora drew a sharp breath. Catra had done exactly this at the Princess Prom! She knew better than that! "We won't break diplomatic conventions and abuse a meeting under truce!"

"It wouldn't be a meeting between the Alliance and Apophis, but one we duped him into," Catra retorted. "We would crash a meeting between Goa'uld System Lords to take them out - even if we had to infiltrate the meeting under a false flag," Catra said. "Didn't you wear Horde uniforms once to infiltrate a base?"

"That's not the same!" Adora shook her head. "We have to draw the line at posing as someone else to lure someone into a diplomatic meeting so we can ambush them. If we do that, no one will trust us - or the clones - any more."

"I'd say it depends on if there are witnesses left afterwards, but I guess some idiot would leak it to the press." Catra shifted and lay on her side, one hand propping up her head. "But I bet you that Jack will propose such an ambush if Apophis wants a meeting."

Adora pressed her lips together. Jack would indeed propose such a plan. Quite passionately. But the Alliance didn't work like that. Morals aside, the diplomatic and political costs would be too high. How could your friends trust you if you used such means? She changed the subject. "Anyway, Apophis will have to be ready to invade Earth. He can't leave either Hordak with Earth's resources or Earth with Hordak's knowledge."

"He'll first have to confirm whether Horde Prime is dead or not," Catra said. "In his current delicate situation, with his rivals ready to pounce him, he can't risk angering Horde Prime by attacking his task forces."

Adora nodded. They had some time. "And we can use this to make it look as if Hordak has taken over Earth." As long as they hid Earth's new ships-

"Yes." Catra nodded, then blinked - and cursed. "I just had a thought. What if he plans a false-flag operation to hit Earth and hopes that the Horde goes after a rival of his? He probably wouldn't risk it if Horde Prime were still alive, but if he thinks this is just a splinter group…"

"That sounds like something he'd do," Adora agreed. "Or he tries to manipulate a rival to strike."

"If he could do that, I think he'd have done it already to his rivals," Catra said.

"Never underestimate your enemy," Adora quoted her - and grinned at her scowl.

Her mirth didn't last, though. They had to deal with Apophis before things took a turn for the worse. The last thing they wanted was for the Goa'uld to find out the truth about the Alliance and unite in response. And using a fictive Horde remnant to guard Earth in the guise of having conquered it came quite close to revealing that truth.

*****​

Alliance Base 'Gateway', PU-9623, February 7th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"We really need to get a Stargate here. Apophis wanted to hide the location from his rivals and probably wanted to isolate Taweret so she couldn't easily go and meet others, but neither is a concern for us. And the research station is too important to abandon," Catra said as she took her seat in the meeting room. "And having to spend a day travelling here every time something happens is a waste of time."

Samantha Carter agreed with the proposal. "Yes. We could relocate the base, but it would take a significant effort and spacelift capacity to move and reinstall all the dimensional portal projectors."

"Protecting the system here also requires significant, potentially crucial forces," Captain Thorne pointed out. "And aren't we getting dedicated Fleet Transports?"

Sam gave the man props for speaking up as the most junior officer at this gathering, but he was wrong. "Due to the nature of the transdimensional experiments, we can't run them on either Earth or Etheria - the effects on advanced technology would be nigh-catastrophic. Not even Etheria's magic or Earth's native technology could mitigate the effects of regular suppression of key pieces of advanced technology."

Thorne blinked in obvious surprise, but his expression quickly changed to a frown as he defended his idea. "Couldn't you install the lab on some moon?"

"The moon would be too close to Earth," Entrapta spoke up. "Like any of the moons of Etheria. We could pick another planet, I guess, but Mars has a base already, and we'd interfere with them. Maybe some of the moons of Saturn or Jupiter?"

"Those would require dedicated defences as well," Sam pointed out. Sure, the task force protecting the Solar System would cover that as well, and could focus on an attack on such a moon, but they couldn't leave Earth unprotected and so were not able to respond with the full force to an attack on the base.

"And we might not want a portal to alternate dimensions or universes that close to a populated planet," the General pointed out. "Or add more strain to Earth's Stargate. The schedule is crowded already - Hammond is giving me the evil eye whenever I want to take a trip," he added with a grin.

He was making light of it, but he was correct - between the Alliance's ever-increasing needs and the United Nations missions, Stargate Command already had to draw up schedules that showed similarities to those used to handle traffic at major train stations or airports.

"But if it's in another system we'd still have to travel from Earth to it, so wouldn't that actually be a wash for additional gate trips?" Thorne wasn't giving up. At least he didn't seem to be the type who just couldn't accept a woman's opinion no matter how well-founded since he was arguing against the General as well.

"I think we should discuss this at a later meeting," Lieutenant Colonel Barnet stepped in, giving Thorpe a look that made the young man wince.

"Yep." The General nodded. "We're here to discuss Apophis's attempt to set the Horde against Earth. Did you finish analysing the data he sent to Hordak, Carter?"

Sam straightened. "Yes, sir." She used her remote to activate the holoprojector in the room. "While the navigational data is correct, as expected, there are significant discrepancies in the data covering Earth's defences compared to Apophis's confirmed knowledge and most of his data covering the supposed influence of Ancients on Earth seems made up."

"What a surprise!" The General snorted. "Apophis is not being honest? Who would have thought?"

"What kind of discrepancies?" Hordak asked.

"His data claims a scouting force of his fleet was ambushed and destroyed by unknown means," Sam explained. "He didn't give any details at all about his intrusion."

"A vague warning?" The General frowned. "Does he want the clones to be paranoid so they shoot first and ask no questions later?"

"Horde doctrine would be to send a small scouting flotilla into a new system," Hordak said. "Horde Prime generally preferred to use overwhelming force after he was sure about a target's defences."

"Apophis might not be aware of that," Adora said.

"Or he just didn't want to tell people about his defeat," Catra added.

"Well, as far as Apophis knows, we were working on anti-ship missiles, and we've had a few years to develop them further. So he probably hopes we'll take out a few ships at least," the General said.

"Prompting retaliation," Catra added. "And then he sweeps in and destroys the survivors if they seem weakened enough. But can he spare a fleet large enough for that?"

"Intel from the Tok'ra and our own analysis would indicate he can't," Sam said. "Although as the situation changes, so do priorities."

"And Apophis suffered another loss. He might be in a tight enough bind to take a riskier gamble," the General said.

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded slowly. "The experiments Taweret ran here were an attempt to find a superweapon to win against his enemies. With that spoiled, he must find another way to triumph or risk defeat at the hands of his numerous enemies. Acquiring Horde technology might appear tempting to him."

"And if he can snatch it from a drifting hull wrecked by us while fighting is still going on…" The General nodded. "And he can probably spare a few cloaked ships much easier than he can spare a fleet able to take out a Horde force." He frowned. "But it's still a massive gamble. He doesn't know if we successfully upgraded our missiles so they can deal with shields, and he doesn't know what the Horde would do. Desperate or not, that seems a bit too risky for Apophis."

"He would prefer to operate with more information," Teal'c said. "But that's not always possible."

"That's why data is so important!" Entrapta nodded emphatically.

Sam was about to agree when her computer lit up with a priority message. She opened it and gasped. "Adora? Sir?"

"Yes?"

"Carter?"

"Alliance Headquarters just informed me that Stargate Command was contacted by rebel Jaffa through the Stargate. They sent a warning about an impending attack by 'the Horde' against Earth."

*****​
 
Chapter 156: The Double Cross Part 2
Chapter 156: The Double Cross Part 2

Alliance Base 'Gateway', PU-9623, February 7th, 2000 (Earth Time)


"Do we know if those 'rebel Jaffa' are actual rebels?" Catra asked after checking the message on her pad. "If Apophis is trying to make the Horde run into a prepared ambush by Earth, this would be an easy way to alert us."

"Well, it's kinda hard. They don't carry badges to prove their identity," Jack replied with a shrug. "And we haven't had contact with many rebel Jaffa."

"Rebels are often isolated. At best, they are organised in cells, but they are slow to trust anyone due to the danger of encountering a spy for the false gods. Bra'tac knew a number of rebels and sympathisers within Apophis's ranks, and even he, a known dissenter, was not trusted by many," Teal'c added. "Unfortunately, a lot of his knowledge died with him."

"He couldn't risk that knowledge falling into the wrong hands should any member of SG-1 become captured and taken over by a Goa'uld," Sha're said. "Apophis discussed your possible capture several times with Amaunet, and finding out if there were other traitors like Teal'c was one of his priorities. He assumed that your successes were at least partly due to such traitors."

"Well, looks like you left a lasting impression on him, Teal'c," Jack said with a grin. "Even though I'm a bit annoyed that he thinks we only kicked his ass thanks to inside help."

"Several of our most important successes were only achieved thanks to Teal'c and Bra'tac's help," Daniel pointed out.

"Yes, yes. But this makes us sound as if we're just spooks," Jack retorted.

"Having the enemy underestimate you is a great boon in war," Teal'c said. His expression didn't change from his usual stoic one, but he did sound a little smug to Catra's ears.

"So, we don't know if we can trust them," Adora summed up.

"If we can have Melog meet them, we should be able to find out if they wish us ill," Catra said. Melog should be able to sense their feelings somewhat, at least. "But even if they're genuine, they could still be duped by Apophis."

"While Apophis is fond of executing rebels, it is not beyond him to have spies infiltrate a rebel cell and then use that to root out more potential dissent," Teal'c said.

"Yeah, standard spook practice. Use the known spies to find their contacts," Jack said.

Catra nodded. "And you can feed them the information you want the enemy to have. Such as a warning about a coming attack by another enemy of yours."

"Ensuring that they run into a prepared enemy." Jack shook his head. "We'll have to put on a good show back home if we want to fool Apophis."

"Do the Tok'ra have any information?" Adora asked.

Jack glanced at Sam, who shook her head. "We haven't received any information from them about this."

"We'll ask them to look into this," Adora said.

Catra narrowed her eyes. "The talk between Apophis and Hordak was a private channel. If rebel Jaffa know about it, they either have tapped his private communications or Apophis shared the news with at least one of them."

"I do not think any rebel Jaffa have penetrated his communications to that degree," Teal'c said. "I was his Prime and did not have such access, and Apophis will have increased security after my defection."

Catra agreed with that. Not even the Tok'ra had managed that, and they had thousands of years of experience infiltrating the Goa'uld. Then again… "They could be lucky," she said. "But I think it's more likely that Apophis deliberately let that information leak."

"If he does, he risks his rival System Lords hearing about it as well," Sha're pointed out. "Although that, too, might be intended if he has plans to set them up as well."

"Send them after the Horde?" Jack snorted. "That would allow us to fight them with our forces while hiding the involvement of the other members of the Alliance."

It would also alert the Goa'uld that the Horde was attacking at least one of them, but they knew that when they started Plan Horde, as Jack called it. "We'll have to make efforts to show that this 'rogue Horde task force' is not going to indiscriminately all Goa'uld, or they might unite."

"Yes!" Adora nodded. "If they think this is between us and Apophis, they might stay out - or stab him in the back."

"Apophis knows that," Sha're said. "He might plan to use the threat of the Horde as a way to force the other System Lords into a truce and alliance against them. It would give him breathing room to consolidate and restore his forces while his rivals suffer losses."

"Every one of the false gods will attempt to use such a war to weaken their rivals," Teal'c said. "However, they are all aware of this and will plan accordingly. Overall, it will diminish the effectiveness of their forces, but we cannot count on them fracturing in a suicidal manner in the face of a common enemy."

"The System Lords aren't stupid," Daniel said. "They are used to each other." He took a deep breath, then bit his lower lip for a moment. "We might consider diplomatic approaches to prevent them from seeing us as a threat to all of them."

"Sounds good," Jack said with a grin. "If we can divide them, we can mop up the rest more easily."

Catra agreed but winced slightly. It was a good plan, but…

"We can't do that!" Adora blurted out.

…Adora wouldn't like it.

*****​

"Why can't we do that? It's a legitimate ruse of war." Jack O'Neill frowned. Fooling your enemy any way you could was a basic principle of warfare.

"You don't abuse diplomatic customs like that," Adora retorted. "Who could trust our word if we break it like that?"

"There's a difference between breaking your word or treaty and posing as someone else to fool your enemy," Jack pointed out. "That's like spying on your enemy or feeding them bad intel."

Catra nodded in agreement, Jack saw, but her expression looked a bit too resigned for his taste.

"It would not be dishonourable. Technically," Teal'c added, though his expression didn't make it clear if he approved or not.

"That's not the same. If we make a treaty under false pretences to entrap our enemies, it might be technically different, but it still casts doubt on all our treaties," Adora said. "Other people will always wonder if we're about to betray them as well."

Jack snorted. "We're talking about the Goa'uld. Anyone who's ever met them knows they aren't trustworthy and will betray you as soon as they think they can get away with it."

"Yes." Adora nodded. "But we're not the Goa'uld. What will the Asgard think? Or the Tok'ra?"

"The Asgard have made a treaty with the Goa'uld as well, Jack," Daniel butted in.

"And they know the Goa'uld would break it if they could or knew they could. They didn't build a snake maze on Cimmeria because they trusted them," Jack said. "And the Tok'ra are all about underhanded spy stuff."

"I'm not saying we should trust the Goa'uld. But we have to maintain a higher standard," Adora insisted with a frown. "We don't want a reputation for such treachery when we deal with other species. We want others to trust us."

"We also don't want to lose the war," Jack said.

"We won't lose the war if we respect the customs and the spirit of diplomacy," Adora said.

"But it could prolong the war and cause more casualties," Jack countered.

He saw Adora flinch at that. But a moment later, she shook her head and raised her chin. "In the long term, we lose even more if people don't trust us. If they expect us to stab them in the back, they'll react accordingly if there's a conflict - or a misunderstanding."

And that made Catra flinch.

"I have to agree," Daniel said, stabbing Jack in the back. "It's not just an undercover operation scaled up if you actually make a treaty under false pretences. That would be seen as dishonourable by many cultures." Jack frowned at him, but he shrugged. "It might be a double standard, and only gets applied if someone gets caught, but you can't ignore that such, ah, ploys tend to undermine your reputation as well as weaken the general trust in diplomacy."

Jack scowled. That made some sense, but it still felt like voluntarily hobbling yourself. It wasn't a war crime like murdering prisoners of war or civilians - which made things worse, anyway - but it would make it easier to defeat the snakes with the least number of losses.

He glanced at the others in the room. Daniel clearly thought Adora was correct. Catra seemed to disagree, or at least have some doubts, but she clearly wouldn't go against Adora's wishes either. Teal'c's expression was unreadable, and Sha're hadn't said anything yet so her scowling could be aimed at anyone. Both wanted the snakes to be crushed, of course, but Teal'c prized honour, and while Sha're wouldn't blindly follow Daniel, she might weigh the political cost of such a deception as more important than the military advantages it might provide. And Carter would claim that she was a scientist and not a spook. Jack didn't count on Entrapta to take a side in this anyway.

Not that the Alliance was a democracy, of course. Adora was the Supreme Commander, and you'd need a lot of political support in the Alliance to force her to adopt such a plan. If the princesses agreed with Adora - and Jack was pretty sure most would - then that wouldn't happen.

He sighed. "Let's discuss this when we know more about the situation. We have a few rebel Jaffa to contact."

"They are currently on PZ-9132, an uninhabited planet according to our files," Carter said. It had a breathable atmosphere, at least.

"We don't have spy bots there, but if the Jaffa dial in, we can route the comm to us here," Entrapta added, "and talk to them with some lag."

"Giving away that we're not near the Stargate," Jack said.

"We don't want to give that kind of intel to people who might be working, knowingly or not, for Apophis," Catra said.

"Then we travel back. We need to know more about this," Adora said.

"And we need to decide how we play the Horde attack on Earth," Jack reminded her. "Before Apophis's stealth ships arrive there."

She frowned but nodded. "We can do that on the way. Let's go."

*****​

Alliance Forward Base, PU-9841, February 8th, 2000 (Earth Time)

The forward base securing the Stargate hadn't changed since they had passed through two days ago. Prefabricated walls surrounded a bunker containing the Stargate and several auxiliary bunkers housing the garrison, supplies and command and control structures. There were no heavy weapon emplacements - the ground forces' task was to keep intruders away and handle assaults through the gate, not defend against a planetary invasion from orbit. That was what the flotilla in the system was for.

Still, Adora knew that while it wasn't a huge commitment, it was still a sizable force just to secure a quick way to reach PU-9623. Relatively quick - it still took a ship a day to make the trip. And while the flotilla wasn't expected to defeat an all-out attack by a major Goa'uld fleet, it still had to be large enough to be able to stall such an invasion long enough for the garrison to evacuate through the Stargate - provided said Stargate wasn't blocked by another gate dialling in, of course.

All in all, it tied up a significant number of forces and logistical efforts just to cut down on travel time for key personnel such as Adora and her friends to PU-9623 and the bases on it. That hadn't been too much of a concern when the Alliance had expected the operation to be a temporary incursion, perhaps a large-scale raid to destroy whatever Apophis was preparing there, but now that they had to protect Beta, things had changed.

"We need to move this Stargate," Adora said as the shuttle carrying them touched down on the landing pad inside the base.

"I've been saying that for some time," Catra commented as she got up from her seat. "As have others."

Jack made an agreeing noise, and Adora rolled her eyes. He had been less chatty than usual during the trip. He was probably still annoyed about her stance on diplomacy.

"But we'll have to thoroughly check if there really are no natives on the planet," Adora went on.

"Scans didn't show any settlements or other signs of a population," Sam said.

"They could be hiding - they're close to the Goa'uld Empire and might even be refugees," Daniel added. "If they don't use Naquadah or other advanced technology and are a small community, they would be hard to detect, right?"

"Yes," Sha're agreed. "The Goa'uld would usually not care much about a few slaves fleeing, at least not to the point of expending a significant effort to track them down. If they hide underground or under cover like in forests or jungles, they would be safe from anything but a dedicated hunt."

Adora pressed her lips together as the ramp was lowered. To live like that, in permanent fear that ships descended on you from the skies, that soldiers would come to hunt you down, should you be detected… That would be worse than growing up in the Horde.

"Even with our best sensors, it will take a long time to check the planet," Sam said.

That didn't matter. They had to do it. They couldn't take the Stargate if there were people it belonged to. Adora returned the salute of the officer in charge of the base - Major Hawthorn, an American - and started formulating the orders for the flotilla and garrison to search for natives.

*****​

Samantha Carter was secretly quite glad it wasn't up to her to scan the planet for natives. It wasn't that difficult, but it was very, very tiresome to run scans covering an entire planet. Scans detailed enough to find not only humans but potentially other sapient life forms took time. Sure, you could do something else while you waited for the scanners to finish their work, but only within limits. There were always checks and adjustments to make. Potential hits to examine further before they could be dismissed - the software was good but not perfect, and Sam knew you couldn't fully trust any automated system for such tasks. Not all the checks were strictly necessary, of course, but Sam would feel as if she was neglecting her duties if she didn't focus on the task.

No, it would be up to the clones in the ship to handle this, with support from the ground garrison. However, if they found something out of the norm, Sam knew she would be called in if she was still on the planet. If it was something dangerous or exotic, she'd be called in even if she wasn't on the planet.

And that suited her just fine.

In the meantime, she focused on the Stargate ahead of her. It was, as usual, blocked to prevent unauthorised access. Not with something as sophisticated as the iris back on Earth, but by being mounted on a frame that lowered it to ground, face down, when not in use. Simple and efficient, perfect for such field bases.

But if they wanted to talk to those Rebel Jaffa - well, if they wanted to let them call in, at least - they needed a barrier that allowed the wormhole to form but prevented physical travel through it. And lacking an iris, Sam would have to install the next best thing - a force field strong enough to handle that.

Fortunately, Entrapta and Sam had already solved that problem - a bot of Emily's size could handle that with a modified force shield projector. At least long enough for all practical purposes. All Sam had to do was to check if the field was properly placed and stable.

And it was. She switched it off, then turned to the General and Adora. "Force field ready to deploy."

"Alright!" The general nodded. "Dial in."

Sam pushed a button and the Stargate rose into a vertical position, the force field already securing it.

Daniel started entering the address on the D.H.D., and soon, the wormhole formed, then stabilised - and Sam deactivated the forcefield. With the wormhole active, travel to the gate here was impossible so the field was not needed right now. "The Stargate is open."

"Let's call our rebel Jaffa," the General said.

"Opening a channel," Sam replied. The communicator quickly established a connection with another on the other side. "Frequencies and codes match," she reported.

The General nodded and turned towards the screen linked to the communicator. "Put them through."

Sam did a last check to ensure Adora, Catra and Melog weren't visible on the camera feed - they were known to Apophis after the raid on his palace, but they didn't want to show their hand at the start of the meeting - then accepted the video connection.

A Jaffa with a scar across his forehead - a wound from a blade or claw, Sam noted, not from removing a brand - appeared, in front of a landscape without any signs of inhabitation and only a few scraggly trees. He inclined his head. "Greetings, Tau'ri. Teal'c."

"Hello," the General replied.

Teal'c nodded as well but didn't address the Jaffa by his name. So, he didn't recognise him. That meant the Jaffa hadn't been a high-ranking member of Apophis's forces when Teal'c had been his First Prime.

"Hello." Daniel smiled.

Sha're, however, had narrowed her eyes and took a step forward. "Kul'et."

The Jaffa - apparently Kul'et - tilted his head to the side. "I know who you are, but I do not know your name."

"Sha're."

Daniel reached out and caught her hand, Sam noted.

"So…" The General looked at Sha're, then at Kul'et. "You know each other."

"He was a guard at Apophis's palace. A low-ranking guard," Sha're said. "He often punished slaves."

"On my superiors' orders," Kul'et replied, looking at her steadily.

"Just following orders," the General said, baring his teeth.

"Like others." Kul'et nodded towards Teal'c.

Teal'c returned the nod. "Indeed." He didn't flinch.

Sam saw that Catra tensed up, though, and Adora patted her shoulders while Melog pressed against her leg.

"But now you've rebelled against Apophis," the General went on.

"Yes." Kul'et straightened. "I had the opportunity to desert when I was sent to serve on another world. I and a few others took it."

Sam frowned. A demotion? If he had served at Apophis's palace, he might have been amongst those Jaffa punished after the raid that freed Sha're. It wouldn't be an unusual reason for someone to switch sides, though it didn't make for the most loyal allies.

"And you've heard about a threat to our world as well," the General went on with a polite smile. "Quite fortunate." He didn't bother to hide the scepticism.

"It was fortunate indeed," Kul'et replied. "A friend of mine overheard Apophis's orders to his Prime and told me. News of a new enemy spread quickly."

Sam glanced at Teal'c, who inclined his head slightly again in apparent agreement.

"Apophis needs to work on his opsec," the General commented with a grin. "I won't complain though when it makes our life easier."

"Then you are prepared for this attack?" Kul'et tilted his head to the side.

Is he fishing for intel, Sam wondered, or is this mere curiosity - or even genuine concern?

The General snorted. "We've been expecting an attack ever since we sent Apophis running last time."

"According to what I heard, this enemy destroyed a far more powerful force than two Ha'taks," Kul'et said.

"Thank you for the warning. We appreciate it." The General's confident smile didn't change. "But enough about us. What about you?"

Instead of responding, Kul'et raised his eyebrow remarkably like Teal'c liked to do.

"What are your plans now?" the General elaborated. "You've deserted from Apophis and warned us. We owe you for that. What do you want?"

Kul'et stood ramrod straight. "We wish to know where we can find the Goddess She-Ra so we can enter her service. She has proven to be far more deserving of our worship than Apophis."

Sam glanced at Adora and saw that she was sighing. Catra was smirking, though - and Melog had changed colour, indicating amusement as well.

The General glanced at Adora as well, and, after a moment, she nodded, expression firm again.

He grinned in return. "Well, you're in luck, Kul'et."

Adora stepped into the field of view of the camera. "Hello."

And Kul'et dropped out of view of his camera. "Goddess."

"Did he just kneel down?" the General asked.

"That would be an expected reaction to meeting a goddess, Jack," Daniel said.

Adora sighed again.

*****​

Catra snickered at the sight of an empty screen, but it wasn't that funny. Well, it was pretty funny to see Adora's reaction - her love was muttering about not being a goddess as if that would impress anyone - but Kul'et dropping to his knees didn't actually prove he was honest. Apophis knew about people worshipping Adora as a goddess after his palace had been raided and she had healed half his capital when she had restored magic to the planet. It didn't take a mastermind to connect Adora to Earth when she had been with SG-1. So, 'pretend to worship She-Ra' would be a no-brainer for any spy of his trying to infiltrate the rebel Jaffa - or Earth. But that didn't take into account that there were ways to check if the faith was genuine.

She glanced at Melog, who remained at her side.

Funny.

That made her snort again. "We'll have to meet them." If only so Melog could take a closer look at them - he couldn't sense their emotions through a Stargate.

"If this is a trap…" Jack whispered.

Adora meanwhile took a step forward. "Please rise, Kul'et."

"As you command, Goddess."

Catra resisted the brief urge to tell him that 'Your Divine Highness' was the official address in the Church of She-Ra. She'd let Priest do that if the guy turned out to be an honest deserter. Heh, what if there was a schism in the Church over how to call Adora? It wasn't as if they listened to Adora's wishes in the matter, so she wouldn't be able to settle it…

On the other hand, church schisms tended to become very violent according to Earth history, so maybe that wouldn't be funny at all.

"I am She-Ra, Princess of Power. I am no goddess," Adora said.

Kul'et didn't even flinch. He bowed his head instead. "There is no need to test my faith, Goddess. Your deeds prove your nature."

Catra narrowed her eyes. Priest and his missionaries went on about how you couldn't have faith without doubt, so Adora denying her divinity was necessary to have faith in her, but how would Kul'et come up with this by himself? If Apophis knew about the Church of She-Ra, he'd also know that the clones were allied with Earth. And if Priest had somehow sent undercover missionaries to Apophis's realm, the Alliance would know about it. Probably.

She made a mental note to look into this.

Adora sighed, and Catra reached over to squeeze her hand while the tip of her tail ran over the back of Adora's thigh.

"How many are in your group?" Adora asked.

"We are but three, Goddess, but we know that there are others still within Apophis's ranks who worship you as well, and their numbers are growing. We decided to desert to warn Earth about this new threat while they stayed. If all of us had attempted to desert, it would have been too great a risk."

A likely story, and yet… Catra couldn't help thinking it was a bit too smooth.

Explains too much.

Melog agreed, then. Of course, Kul'et had grown up in Apophis's service. He probably had to quickly learn to come up with excuses for any potential failure when facing his god - or goddess. Still…

"Let's send in the spy bot and check for an ambush," Catra whispered.

Jack nodded and turned to Sam. "Send in the scout."

Outside the camera's field of view, the spy bot waiting next to Sam started to hover, then flickered and vanished as the stealth generator went active.

Catra watched and caught a slight ripple when the invisible bot passed through the gate.

"Who else is with you?" Adora asked.

"Man'ot and Bre'kul, Goddess," Kul'et replied.

Catra glanced at the screen in front of Sam. The bot was transmitting, and she could see two more Jaffa waiting, one on each side of the gate.

They stepped into view, bowing their heads. They looked a little younger than Kul'et. And a bit more nervous. "Goddess."

"I'm not detecting any other life forms nearby nor any hidden energy signatures in the vicinity," Sam reported. "The bot doesn't detect any ships in orbit either."

That didn't have to mean anything, of course - the bot's sensors were good, but it wasn't a deep space spy bot meant to spot enemy vessels.

But it was, as Catra had known, good enough for Adora. "I'm coming to meet you personally," she told Kul'et, already walking towards the ramp.

"Goddess!" Kul'et fell down on his knees again - Catra watched it on the feed from the bot - as did the others.

Then Melog and she went after Adora. She might not be She-Ra, able to tank whatever the three Jaffa were carrying, and probably whatever might be hiding in orbit, but she wouldn't let Adora alone on another planet.

The air on the other side was dry and smelt slightly stale, somehow. Which was strange since they were on an open plain surrounded by desert. Well, they weren't here for that. All three Jaffa were still kneeling, not even looking at Adora.

"It is an honour to meet you, Goddess. We have dreamt of this but dared not hope…" Kul'et said.

Hate and fear.

Melog softly growled at Kul'et, then turned to the other two.

Happy. Relieved.

So, one spy and two dupes.

Catra bared her teeth in a smile and stepped closer to Adora.

*****​

Gate Area, PZ-9132, February 8th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive when he stepped through the Stargate. Sure, Carter had scouted the other side with her spy bot and found nothing, and Adora had already stepped through the Stargate and nothing had happened, but you could never be completely sure there was no trap. Especially when it came to the snakes. And this Kul'et just was a bit too smooth for Jack. So, he was prepared for an ambush when he walked down the ramp.

Not that he would show anything but confidence, of course, the better to unnerve his enemies and bolster the morale of his troops. "So… nice place here. Love what you did with the porch."

The three Jaffa blinked, confused, Adora frowned at him, and Catra snorted. She was tense, though. And so was Melog - the alien's illusionary fur was bristling, and they were glaring at Kul'et as if they wanted to pounce on the Jaffa and savage him.

Which meant that Catra was feeling the same. So, Kul'et was a bad guy - Melog had come through. Fortunately, Kul'et wasn't aware of Melog's powers or he'd probably realise that the jig was up.

"Just a joke," Jack said.

"A bad joke," Adora added.

Jack made a point of pouting but used the distraction to make eye contact with Catra and raise his eyebrows.

She nodded at Kul'et and signed 'one enemy' behind her back, then signed 'two' and 'friendly'.

Jack kept smiling. So, Kul'et was a spy. And didn't know they had seen through his act. Any spook back home would claim that spies you knew about must be left in place so you could feed them misinformation. They loved playing such games.

But this was a bit bigger than the Cold War. The stakes were a lot higher, and the most crucial information - the Alliance with Etheria - couldn't easily be hidden from someone you supposedly trusted. They would have to keep Kul'et away from any important base much less Earth. And they would have to keep such tight control over what and whom Kul'et could see that, as a trained spy, he would very quickly realise that he had been made.

So, time to do the fun thing. Jack bared his teeth in a wide grin. "Say, Kul'et, did you get a cool secret decoder ring when you were trained as a spy by Apophis? I've always wanted one, but I never got one as a kid."

The two other Jaffa blinked, mouths hanging open. Kul'et did the same but blurted out: "What? I'm not a spy. I was a guard."

Adora frowned at him, and Catra said: "We know you're a spy. You can't hide your true allegiance from us."

Kul'et face twisted into a snarl and a zat appeared in his hand, but before he could raise the weapon, he was buried under about two hundred pounds of alien cat. Three hundred if you included Catra breaking said arm a moment later.

The other two Jaffa were frozen, then dropped to their knees again. "We didn't know, goddess! He fooled us!"

"Please believe us!"

And Adora, as expected, turned to beam at them. "Don't worry - I know you two are honest."

Relief - and awe - appeared on their faces for a brief moment before they bent down again, pressing their foreheads into the ground.

"Yes, Goddess!"

Jack shook his head as he moved to search and cuff Kul'et. Adora really needed to learn how to talk to impressionable Jaffa and other people without making them think she was a goddess who could see into their souls or something.

"And she wonders why people worship her," Catra muttered as they went through Kul'et's clothes together, removing several hidden gadgets.

Jack snorted again, then took a look at a miniature communicator that actually looked a little bit like a secret decoder ring if you squinted. "Looks like Apophis did hand out the good stuff to his spies."

He tapped his radio button. "Anything we didn't find, Carter?"

"No, sir. You should have everything according to our scanner."

Jack grinned. It was good to know he could still search an enemy without a high-tech scanner to help. "Let's get him back through the gate so we can interrogate him properly."

Kul'et gasped. "Praised be Apo…urk!"

Jack drew back - Catra had just broken the Jaffa's jaw and was pulling it open, revealing blood and… foam? Kul'et was jerking, and his eyes were rolling back - and then he went slack…

Jack cursed under his breath. Secret communicator rings and hollow teeth filled with poison - Apophis was hitting all the cliches.

"No!" Adora yelled, raising her sword - but not to point it at the spy. Instead, she raised it to the sky.

"No!" Jack spat, tensing. "Not again!"

But he could already feel her releasing the magic of this world.

And there it came. Jack clenched his teeth when Adora pointed her sword at Kul'et, bathing the spy in golden light that left him staring open-mouthed at her. The foam was gone as well, vapourized, Jack noted.

And then Adora turned, and Jack felt and saw the magic rush out of her, like a flood washing over the ground - and shooting into the air. And for a moment, he felt as if he could lift the Stargate and carry it around.

Then the desert around them changed, plants shooting out of the ground. Grass, bushes, flowers. Trees. Instead of in the middle of a desert, they were now standing in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by a thick, lush forest, and the stale, dry air was now a gentle breeze with a flowery scent.

"All it lacks is Bambi and Disney would sue," Jack muttered as he took a few deep breaths.

Catra's ears twitched. "What about birds?"

"Birds?" Jack blinked, then frowned. Now that she mentioned it, he could hear birds chirping. So, maybe there was an alien Bambi in the woods as well.

The two other Jaffa stared at the sudden change of scenery, then went back to pressing their foreheads against the ground.

"Goddess!"

"Praised be She-Ra!"

But Jack looked at Kul'et. The spy was trembling, his lips moving without making a sound, and his eyes darted around until they locked on Adora, who was lowering her sword with a sigh before turning to frown at Kul'et.

"We don't torture prisoners. We don't kill spies, either. You will be treated humanely. There is no need to kill yourself."

Kul'et was staring at her with wide, frightened eyes.

"And we won't let you kill yourself," Catra added.

"G…. goddess," Kul'et whispered.

Melog changed colours and looked at Catra, and Jack heard her chuckle for a moment. "Looks like you converted him, Adora."

Adora blinked at her, then looked at the trembling Kul'et, who was trying to bow but was still held in Catra's grip, then at the two other Jaffa on the ground, and finally at the forest surrounding them.

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'Oh'," Jack commented.

*****​

Alliance Forward Base, PU-9841, February 8th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"You partially terraformed the planet." Sam sounded fascinated, in Adora's opinion. "The forest covers a similar area as the original Fright Zone on Etheria, as far as we can tell - the spy bot's sensor range is a bit limited at the moment, I've requested more bots to explore the planet but they will take some time to arrive. More importantly, it seems that you changed the atmosphere. It's now much more humid as before, at least in the gate area. We need more readings, though, and samples to check if it's a lasting change and what exactly happened. If the oceans are affected as well, for example."

Adora winced at Sam's words. She hadn't meant to do that. "I only wanted to save Kul'et's life," she whispered. She hadn't been sure her normal healing magic would've been enough, but the Jaffa shouldn't have to die because he was ordered by Apophis to avoid being captured.

"Well, you did. But I think you went a bit overboard," Jack said in a dry tone. "Changing the entire world to save a spy is a bit much."

"It is an uninhabited world," Adora defended herself. "I didn't alter someone's home without asking them."

Catra snorted, leaning against the console next to the Stargate. "You wouldn't have let him die anyway."

Adora pouted at her. "Well, no, I wouldn't have." That would have been wrong. Besides, they had to restore magic to all the worlds from where the First Ones had taken it away anyway. And there had been something wrong with the planet's atmosphere. Adora didn't know what exactly, but most of the magic had gone into healing that.

"But all that magic…" Jack trailed off with a frown, and Adora saw him rub his arms.

"Are you OK?" she asked. Had the magic she had done hurt him?

"Peachy," he quickly said. "Just a bit tingly still from all the magic thrown around."

"Oh?" Sam looked up from her screens and turned to Jack. "'Tingly'?"

"Just… a figure of speech," Jack said, looking warily at her.

"You might have been more seriously affected by Adora's magic, sir," Sam said, taking a step towards Jack. "We need to examine you."

"I'm fine, Carter." Jack crossed his arms.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I think that remains to be determined, sir. Healing magic - shouldn't have any adverse effects on your health, but there could be some changes."

"Changes?" Jack looked very wary, and Adora bit her lower lip. She hadn't meant to hurt anyone!

"Changes. Adora seems to have created an entire ecosystem on the planet, including animals," Sam explained. "We need to get genetic samples for analysis so we can determine if they're copies of existing species or new species - maybe evolved from present species, though we don't know what those are either. I assume that biologists will be busy for years on the planet."

Catra snorted again, and Adora blushed. She hadn't meant to do that. She had just wanted to save Kul'et.

"Maybe we should name the planet 'Adora's World'," Jack suggested. "If it's going to be so important."

"I think we should leave that to whoever eventually settles there," Adora said. A world named after her? That was… too much.

"Jack's just trying to distract Sam from scanning him," Catra said.

Adora frowned at him. As did Sam. He grinned, though it looked a bit weak.

"Sir…" Sam shook her head. "We need to know if you were affected."

Jack sighed. "Alright. Do your thing, Carter. At least you don't use needles."

"I'll need to take blood samples as well, sir."

"Gah."

*****​
 
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Nothing says chill totally normal girl like resurrecting your dying enemies and creating an entire forest ex nihlo.


Also I just realized there is some terrible plausibility in a a shera kim possible cross over
 
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Adora: Is that sarcasm? I think it is sarcasm.



How so?


Adora desperate to be seen as herself and not an extension of She-Ra reaches out to the most normal girl she can find. Local cheerleading Captain Possible. If anyone can teach her how to balance saving the world and being a mundane person it would absolutely be the girl with her own theme song... Right?
 
Adora desperate to be seen as herself and not an extension of She-Ra reaches out to the most normal girl she can find. Local cheerleading Captain Possible. If anyone can teach her how to balance saving the world and being a mundane person it would absolutely be the girl with her own theme song... Right?
Adora would focus on saving the world first, though, before worrying about herself.
 
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Adora would focus on saving the world first, though, before worrying about herself.
I'm kind of imagining more of an Adora that doesn't have a single looming threat to deal with, so post war. Sure there may the occasional thing that crops up, but who is she when she doesn't have a cause to sacrifice herself for. I'm thinking dealing with protracted periods of peace would kind of cause her to rip herself apart looking for new conflict, add in Catras tendency to shit stir by reflex even when she wants to help. Very different kind of story from this one, a lot more lost in the woods.
 
But Kim Possible is fighting threats, isn't she? I assume Sdora would focus on those threats.
 

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