91She-Ra and the Crystal Gems: Legends and Lies
Chapter One: Hostile Takeover, Part 1
2 weeks ago…
When Catra had arrived with more prisoners, Shadow Weaver had thought nothing of it. The Horde was at war, after all, and prisoners were an inevitability of such a conflict. She had thought it odd, however, that all but one of these prisoners seemed to be gemstones. Why Catra would think to put gemstones in prison cells was beyond her, though she was sure her surrogate daughter had her reasons.
Before long, the pink boy had woken up, and struck up a conversation with the princess that the Horde had captured the day before. Shadow Weaver could not make out what they were saying; nor did she care. Soon, more voices joined in on the conversation. As they had to shout to be heard, Shadow Weaver had no choice but to listen to them. From what she could tell, the boy was named Lars, and the gemstones were sentient beings named after actual gems. Throughout all her years on Etheria, both on Mystacor and in the Horde, she had heard nothing of beings such as this.
Cadet Lonnie cut their conversation short, for which Shadow Weaver was grateful. She no longer had any interest in the goings-on of the Etherian populace. However, she was interested when the sound of an explosion rang out in the distance. It seemed Adora and her princess friends had come to rescue their accomplice. Shadow Weaver couldn't quite see what was going on from her cell, but it seemed somebody was working to deactivate one of the cells.
Shadow Weaver had not expected all of the prison cells to deactivate at once, including her own. Numerous Horde soldiers, including Catra and Scorpia, had arrived to fight off the princesses and quell a potential prison riot. Everyone was too busy focusing on these 'Gems' to pay any attention to her. Silently, she slunk out of her cell, sneaking outside through the shadows.
As she crept slowly through the Fright Zone, her gaze was drawn skyward to Etheria's trio of magical moon. They would be in alignment soon. If she was to regain her power, that would be the perfect time to do it.
Present day…
"Our scouts have reported a small Horde squadron setting up camp near the Citadel," Angella had said. "It is one of the most ancient First Ones constructs on Etheria, built when they first arrived here. No one had ever been able to determine its purpose, or even its true nature, but one thing is certain: it is connected to the entirety of the planet. With Princess Entrapta now among the Horde's numbers, I can only assume they have set their sights on this ancient site. We have to stop them before we run into a repeat of Entrapta's last planet-wide scientific endeavor."
And so, Adora, Glimmer, and the rest of the Princess Alliance headed out to put a stop to Hordak's latest scheme. All seven of them soon arrived at the Citadel. It was truly a massive building: located in southern Etheria, the whole of the Citadel was nearly the size of the entire Fright Zone. And yet, despite the place's size and apparent importance, Adora found it odd that Light Hope had never once mentioned it to her.
"That's odd," Bow said quietly. "This place is supposed to be a First Ones ruin, but I'm only getting one signal. A pretty powerful signal, but it should be much stronger, given how important this place is supposed to be."
"About that…" said Adora. "Don't you think it's a bit weird how this Citadel place is supposed to be super old and stuff, but we're only just now hearing about it?"
"I knew about it," Glimmer said. Bow nodded in agreement. "It's been here for years. Nobody ever talks about it because nobody knows what it's for."
Frosta was peering over Bow's shoulder at his tracker-pad. "Are you sure it's calibrated properly?" she said suddenly, startling the trio. "Maybe it's scanning something wrong. Try reversing the polarity, that usually helps!"
"Frosta!" cried Bow in alarm. "I thought you were supposed to be keeping watch for the Horde."
"I was," she said. "But then I got bored, so I came over to see what you were doing. Now, about that signal…"
"It's not that, Frosta," Bow said. "This thing is working just fine. I even recalibrated it before we left. Like I said, there's only one First Ones tech signal, and it's coming from that way." Bow pointed west, just past the Citadel.
"Why would it be over there?" wondered Glimmer.
"I don't know, but that's where the Horde will be!" said Adora. "Come on, let's go get the others."
"Are you sure this thing is going to work?" asked Catra warily.
"Of course it's going to probably work!" replied Entrapta. "I didn't spend all day tinkering with it for nothing!"
The three Horde soldiers were currently standing on a hastily-constructed tower. This construct was a giant portal frame of Entrapta's design, using the power of the First Ones artifact to open a portal to Earth. Specifically, the Crystal Gems' temple.
"Why are we here again?" said Catra.
"You're the one who said you wanted to go somewhere remote. Somewhere the rest of the Horde would never figure out about our deeds-"
"I. Know. That," Catra groaned. "I mean, why are we next to this giant eyesore?"
"Oh, the Citadel," said Entrapta. "This is where I first found the Staff of Keldor. I figured it would be a good a place as any!"
Scorpia walked up a flight of stairs to their level. "Uh, I hate to interrupt," she said, "but one of our bots just went offline."
"And?" said Catra. "It probably just broke down." As Hordak had specifically refused Catra to go back to Earth, she had to do so in secret. As such, the three of them had to salvage some second-hand bots. They did their job, but they weren't exactly reliable.
"Uh, about that…" said Scorpia. "This was the last image it captured before it went dark."
Scorpia showed the two said image. It clearly showed She-Ra about to strike the camera with her sword. To her side were Sparkles and the arrow kid, and behind them were the hippie princess, the ice princess, the mermaid, and the mermaid's plus-one.
"Figures," growled Catra.
The three prepared their defenses. Their defenses, of course, being the army of shoddily-rebuilt robots they had brought with them. All twelve of them. They hadn't expected to have to fight off heavy resistance, but if this machine worked how it was supposed to, they would not need to. Because other than creating a gateway to Earth, the tower had another function:
"So, I was looking over the data I collected with my Science Bu...the Gem I brought here," Entrapta had explained before they had left. "You remember how I said they were near-identical to the Runestones?"
"Uh...okay," said Scorpia.
"Well, I looked over it a bit more, and the coding is far too similar to be a coincidence! Peridot and the Black Garnet share the exact same physical structure!"
"So, what does that mean?" asked Scorpia. She tried her best, but she really was lost here.
"It means it's not a coincidence!" she said. "Don't you see? Gems aren't like First Ones tech: they are First Ones tech!" Entrapta spun excitedly in her chair. "Which means, using the Staff of Keldor as power source...I just might be able to figure out a way to hack them!"
Back in the present, Catra was prepared for an all-out assault by the princesses. She was not, however, prepared for a vine to suddenly wrap itself around her ankle. With a yelp, she was pulled into the air, dangling by her leg.
"I've got her!" Perfuma shouted. "You all go stop this machine!"
As Catra reached up to cut herself free, she caught a glimpse of all the others running towards the tower's controls. Her claws sliced through the vine, and she landed on all fours, facing towards Perfuma.
"What was that you were saying about having me?" she said. Perfuma sent more vines towards her, but she nimbly dodged all of them, tackling the Plumerian princess and pinning her to the ground.
"Halt, villain!" a voice called out behind her. She turned around to see the mermaid princess' accomplice. "I won't allow an evil-doer such as yourself to bring harm to our world or my friends! En guarde!" He pulled an energy saber from his coat, the blade glowing with yellow energy. He ran towards Catra, but an impact from behind stopped him dead in his tracks. He instantly collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Scorpia stood behind him, her stinger dripping with venom. "Yes! First notch on the belt!" she said. "I've been meaning to break this baby in!"
In all the excitement, Perfuma had pulled herself out of Catra's grasp. Before either her or Scorpia could react, the Force Captain was knocked off her feet by a wave of water, and Hordak's number two avoided an icicle that came within an inch of her face, embedding itself in the wall behind her.
Catra turned to see the Princess Alliance standing before her. All four of the princesses wielded their respective elements menacingly, while Bow readied his...well, bow. And in front of them all stood…
"Hey, Adora," said Catra.
"So, answer me this," said Scorpia, who was lying on the floor, soaking wet. "Where exactly did you get all that water from? We aren't even near a lake." Mermista ignored her.
"Catra!" said Adora, now in the towering form of She-Ra. "I don't know what you're planning to do with the Citadel, but we won't let you pull this off!"
"The Citadel?" said Catra. "Adora, you think too small! My plans are much bigger than this hunk of outdated architecture. Much farther away, too. Much, much farther."
"Farther?" said Bow. "You don't mean...Earth?"
"You're about to find out!" said Catra. "Is the machine ready?"
Entrapta peered around the corner. "All ready!" she said, giving a thumbs-up. "Fire it up!"
"Scorpia, if you would?" said Catra.
"With pleasure!" said Scorpia. She pulled out her communicator, which had been wirelessly linked to the tower. "Eat this, Princess Alliance!" she said, dramatically pressing a button.
For the first few seconds, nothing happened other than the communicator ringing. Everyone sat in silence, waiting for something to happen.
"It's ringing," Scorpia felt the need to explain. Catra massaged her temples, silently praying something in her life could go right just once.
After far too long of waiting, someone on the other end picked up, leading Scorpia to hold a conversation in the middle of battle. "Hello? Who is this? Callix? As in, Force Captain Callix? ...Yes, this is Scorpia. ...No, actually, it's a wrong number, I meant to call Catra. What do you mean you owe Octavia a drink now?"
"Scorpia!" Catra yelled.
"Oh, right!" she said. She hung up, pressing the button a second time. This time, the tower began to whirr and hum as it came to life.
The princesses were caught off-guard. Before they could react, a blast of blue light shot up from the top of the tower, exploding like a giant firework some fifty feet in the air. The energy sparkled and rippled up there, before a beam of energy shot down from where the blast had exploded. The whole tower, and everyone in it, began to glow with a bright blue light; in a flash of light, the entire structure vanished, leaving only a growing wave of blue energy in its place.
