Chapter Text
Adora's never really understood Catra's problem with boats.
"Oh, because you're all furry," Bow says.
"What does that have to do with being stuck in the middle of an endless expanse of water?" Catra says, almost baffled out of her dread. "Do you think being mostly hairless is going to save you? It won't!"
There's so many terrifying things that actually happened to be afraid of but Catra, for some reason, got fixated on something she just imagined would be really terrible to go through. "It's not going to sink," Adora says. "Come on, we both know how boats work." And yes, this boat is exceptionally tiny -
"I also know how waves work!" Catra howls.
- but this man is an experienced sea captain, which means he's been on it many times and isn't dead yet.
"That isn't how statistics work and you know it!"
It's close enough. Adora picks up Catra and staggers into the boat, where the rocking makes Catra kick her way off Adora again and latch all four sets of claws into the wood at the bottom.
Adora considers, and then thinks better of, saying that's bad for the hull's integrity.
"Are you okay?" Glimmer says again. "If you're this scared of drowning maybe you should go back."
Catra's ears flick dismissively. "You can get drowned anywhere and I bet I'm wigglier than you. Only babies are scared of that."
"We have a map, Catra," Adora tells her. "Even if we can't see the shore we know what direction it's in. We're not going to just be lost and you really are a good swimmer. Plus this whole thing is made of wood for some reason and wood bits float, that's what driftwood is, so if it does get smashed up by a wave you'll have pieces to use as a kickboard."
For some reason Sea Hawk thinks this means he should tell them about how his last two boats lit on fire.
"We're going to all die," Catra groans in the bottom of the boat.
Sea Hawk breaks into song.
In the end, they get there without being swamped by a wave or the whole ship burning down or becoming hopelessly lost and slowly dying because seriously Catra, it's not going to happen.
Catra goes still and begins to radiate intent when land finally comes into view.
"Don't swim over," Adora tells her immediately. "You'll be all wet the whole time we're here, and it'll be salty and itchy, and if you try to lick yourself drier you'll throw up, and there's no reason when we're almost there."
Catra makes a exceptionally theatrical groan even for her, then rolls over on her back and mimes being dead, but she does wait until Sea Hawk's ship has almost reached the rocky shore before flinging herself off the prow. She largely makes the jump.
Adora laughs at her as she scrambles out of the shallows and does the wet feet kicky dance of regret.
"Well you're still on the boat so who's the real idiot!" Catra shouts back.
"Still you!"
"Uh, guys?" Bow says. Adora looks to him to see he's glancing around, looking concerned. "Where is everyone?"
This place does seem to be populated more in line with the Whispering Woods than Bright Moon.
"Hm…" Sea Hawk says, stroking his chin. "Very odd indeed. If I know the Princess Mermista - and I, I do! - something's amiss."
"They're probably having a 'party' and left this area unguarded," Catra says disdainfully. "If the Horde had done anything this place would be well-tagged rubble."
There's a bit of motion in the otherwise empty landscape. Someone waves their arms and shouts, "Halt!" before running down and down and down to where they and the boat are. He's gasping by the time he actually reaches them.
"What'd you do to get banned from the party?" Catra asks with interest. "It must have been bad."
"What - party?"
So not everyone has parties after all, it's not just the Horde who's like that.
"I'm Glimmer. We've come to speak with Princess Mermista."
"Tell her Sea Hawk is with them!" Sea Hawk adds.
Catra nods. "Tell her we won't bring him up if she agrees to Glimmer's demands."
"Catra!" Glimmer says.
"Yeah, Catra, they're friends," Adora says. "That was the whole point of getting him to take us."
The still-huffing man looks behind him the way he came and Adora can see him calculating the distance there and back and there again. "Come with me," he decides. "I'll take you to her directly."
That seems promising. Unfortunately, the first words out of the princess' mouth are, "Ugh, who let him back in here," which is not. She's slouched on her throne in a way that makes Adora itch with the desire to tell her to straighten up and not put elbows on things.
"Princess! It has been too long!" he cries, walking right up to her and throwing out his hands.
Catra jumps in his path. "And it can be longer if you agree to talk to Glimmer!"
"Uh-huh," the princess says, dragging the word out like it's an entire sentence in itself. "And who are you?"
Glimmer pushes herself forward. "My name is Glimmer, of Bright Moon. We've never met, but our parents fought in the rebellion together."
Mermista looks to the side. "Oh yeah, I remember hearing about the old princess alliance," she says, voice halfway between another groan and a whine. "My dad said, it was a total disaster."
Glimmer slumps.
For whatever reason, Sea Hawk jumps into the silence with, "I didn't think it was possible for you to be more-"
Catra grabs him by the arm and pulls. There is a very momentary struggle followed by the obedient limpness that happens when Catra reminds the person she's gripping that she has claws. "I will be back shortly, my princess!" he manages gamely, a winning grin on his face.
"Yeah he'll be back if you're done talking with Glimmer," Catra shouts from the corridor, still marching him off to where he can't annoy Mermista further.
And, bonus, that means Catra's away by the time the princess rouses herself to mention that the Sea Gate that's so important to the survival of Bright Moon and Etheria as a whole is crumbling away and all she's been doing about it is watching everyone else flee. Even if she can't do anything, like Perfuma, Perfuma was responsible and asked for help. How is She-Ra supposed to fix things if she doesn't even know they need fixing?
Mermista's just...she's just sitting on a throne with her back to it. She doesn't know why it's happening and she doesn't even seem to care.
"It's getting weaker every day and if the Horde tries to attack us again, we're pretty much dead," Mermista says, sounding like this disaster for her country is just an irritation.
Where did the people even go? They've just come from the opposite direction and it was just water and water and a sea monster.
Glimmer is more restrained than Catra's ever been, but there's frustration bleeding into her voice. "The Horde is the reason we're here. We want to rebuild the princess alliance. None of us stand a chance on our own, but we might be able to stop them together."
The princess gives a soft dismissive laugh. "Sure, because that went so great the first time. Why should I help Bright Moon? It's not like they've ever done anything to help us."
So it's like how Adora has to prove herself to Bright Moon, Glimmer has to prove Bright Moon to Mermista. Maybe when everyone keeps saying the alliance went badly it's because Bright Moon messed it up horribly and they have to prove they'll be better this time.
But now Bright Moon has She-Ra. She-Ra can solve this. Adora looks around for how and the directions are right there on the wall, opposite the Sea Gate itself, have been staring right at Mermista her whole life.
Catra returns, presumably because she saw the 'butler' carrying food and stalked him all the way back, and it's just in time to hear Glimmer making her offer. "Look, Mermista. You need our help and we need yours. If Adora can repair your gate, will you consider joining us?"
It's not very forceful.
"Please?" Glimmer adds.
Mermista just groans yet again, leaning her head back on her throne. "I don't know, I guess," she croaks.
"You guess?" Catra snaps. Glimmer shushes her.
Adora smiles at Catra. "She-Ra's convincing." And really, compared to having to tell the difference between alive and dead plants and fix that, this doesn't seem too bad. The magic wires are corroded or the magic pipes are clogged or the magic operating system needs restarting. She's just got to follow the directions to put a machine back to the way it's supposed to be.
Mermista is at least willing to drag herself out to escort them to the Sea Gate, and if she doesn't seem particularly convinced yet, well, she hasn't seen She-Ra and how She-Ra will fix everything, just like the stories say.
Adora transforms without a hitch. Then she points the sword, closes her eyes, and thinks hard about electricity flowing through wires and how she wants whatever stuttering current is currently dribbling into the flickering gate to become a torrent, and for once, the power of the sword is right there with her. It flows out from the sword and she can feel the network beyond, and it's...dusty? Corroded? Gunked up like a clogged fuel line. She starts to try to push against it...
"Sooo is it working?" Bow says, and she loses her focus and the energy rebounds on her like she disregarded safety protocol and grabbed a live wire.
"Don't distract me. This is a lot harder than it looks!" And she focuses and reconnects. Everything she was working to clear has sprung back - it actually feels a tiny bit worse, like the rebound did even more damage. But she's getting the hang of it now, and -
"Uh, Adora?"
No, this must be what grabbing a live wire feels like. She-Ra lets out a cry as the connection breaks violently and lightning dances across the sword and into her.
"It's the Horde! They're coming for the gate!"
She sees the hole they've blown in the Sea Gate first, then…
It's just one ship. One regular-sized Horde ship. That's not a big deal.
What's important is fixing the gate, doing what she promised Mermista she would, repairing the hole and making sure nothing breaks for good. "I just need a little more time," she tells them. She holds up the sword again and aims it at the Sea Gate. "Keep them busy!"
Catra jumps on the sword. "Has being a princess finally rotted your brain out? You just got fried! We've got to take out the cannon!"
"You guys handle that, I'll -" She's rather undercut by another cannon blast, complete with the backlash frying She-Ra again. This time she can see some of it jolt Catra as well.
"You're not getting anywhere like this!" Catra flips backward to get between the sword and the gate connection, then throws out her arms.
"I said I'd fix the gate!"
"Why are you always like this?!" Catra's voice is even louder over the sound of another blast blowing a new hole in the gate. "You can come back right after and try without exploding!"
She's sure it's better to fix the gate like she said first but now isn't the time to fight with Catra.
"Fine whatever!" is probably not something She-Ra should've shouted. "I'll deal with the dumb boat first!"
"Bet I get there first," says Catra, always having to be insufferable even in the face of agreement. She takes off.
She-Ra responds by grabbing Glimmer, who smirks and teleports them onto the deck.
She goes straight for the cannon near the bow, carving through it with a swing of her sword, then blocks a swing from an unfamiliar force captain and knocks her aside.
"That's what we're supposed to bring back?" quavers Kyle's voice. "It's bigger in person."
There's a moment as she turns when she thinks she's just lost it. The rest of the cadets are just cadets. Shadow Weaver said they weren't ready. They'd only slow her down. They wouldn't be seeing active duty.
There they are.
Lonnie looks up from trying to cave Bow's head in with her staff, looks at She-Ra like the people of Bright Moon look at Adora.
Probably the way everyone looks at Adora now, given that's the name Lonnie hisses at the sight of her.
An instant later Bow's kicked her back and she's too busy fighting him to keep staring like She-Ra's the terrible one. Rogelio charges past the two of them, barreling straight for She-Ra.
What - what do they even think they're doing? There's no military force here. There's almost no one here at all because they all fled because the Horde is evil. How can they be okay with this? How can they act like they've got any right to be mad at her when they're the ones helping the Horde?
She blocks Rogelio with her blade, then swings, tossing him over the edge.
"Adora, look out!" Catra shouts as the forgotten force captain smashes her in the back and sends her to the ground.
She-Ra turns in time to see Catra dangling by the neck from the woman's claw. In that instant, Adora knows she's failed. She can't get up fast enough. Catra will die and there's nothing she can do about it.
Instead the woman chirps, "Kitty!" and abruptly pulls her into a bear hug.
Catra yowls and scrabbles her way loose. "What do you think you're doing?" she shrieks, landing on all fours with her fur puffed and tail sticking straight into the air.
"Ah, Shadow Weaver said you would be here. Said to grab you by the neck and then give you a great big squeeze!"
"ARE YOU INSANE!"
The mad woman regards She-Ra less fondly. "You, though...went AWOL, huh? That's serious."
"We both have!"
She waves one claw. "No, no, I'm sure Shadow Weaver would've mentioned that. Now, if you come quietly I'm - "
Catra shrieks even louder and launches herself at the woman, clawing ineffectually at her shell. "Hey, whoa!" It's enough of a distraction for She-Ra to get in a hit and Catra jumps clear as the force captain is knocked over the edge into the sea.
"I'm blowing this entire thing up!" Catra shouts at the sky. "Adora's AWOL and I'm not?! I'm not?! You're just going to order people to kill me without me even being AWOL first?! Well now you're out a boat! Go tell Hordak a ghost blew it up, see where that gets you!"
There's no sign of anyone on the deck now. Looking over the edge She-Ra can see Lonnie and Kyle, and while harder to identify, there is a green blotch that's presumably Rogelio's nose. He floats a lot lower in the water than anyone else.
In that case, they probably don't need to...oh, Catra's gone already.
Well, at least they're sure to impress the princess now.