Chapter Text
The battle started as battles do; Wimborne was small and prosperous, full of hard-working people and peaceful exchanges with the other towns around their portion of Etheria.
They were simple, as most of the Whispering Woods villages were. Coups of chickens lined each cobbled road, and strawberry plants grew so abundant and wild that the berries looked like rubies against the earth. They didn’t notice until too late the red symbol of the Horde rising above sloped rooftops.
Why they were a target, no one really knew, but the Horde didn’t make much sense to anyone. The sounds of splintering trees hit the town first, and then the bots. Waves upon waves of First Ones mecha. Each one razed the round beneath it and sent women, men and children running for their lives.
Despite the suddenness of it all, the princesses did not take long to catch up.
Glimmer was, unfortunately, used to war. She was used to fighting off Horde bots in the Whispering Woods and was even used to the way that the soldiers fought. With Bow and Adora at her side, most battles felt more annoying than anything.
“Remember, Glimmer,” She-Ra planted the butt of her sword into a nearby mecha, which sparked and crumbled, “most Horde soldiers are better at hand-to-hand combat, so use the woods to your advantage!”
Bow, who was perched high in a tree above, shot a net arrow to a nearby soldier and gave them a thumbs-up.
Protect the civilians. That was the mission.
They usually never called for backup. Often, the group of princesses was enough to fight them off, but this time felt much different. How were there so many live Horde soldiers alongside the bots? They were usually focused more on the princesses than anything, but this time they had no bias.
Lulls came between waves of opposing soldiers, but luckily, Bright Moon had enough trained arms that they held their own.
Bow leapt from his tree and landing between the two others, panting. “I couldn’t tell exactly,” he braced his hands on his knees, “but it looks like the Horde was trying to chase retreating civilians. They’re not interested in us at all.”
It would appear that way.
People all around them were running east, scrambling to get away from the onslaught. Some Bright Moon soldiers were helping by leading them away, but it almost seemed like too much.
“We just need to get them all to safety,” Glimmer said over the chaos, leaping on top of a Horde soldier who was poised to shoot a civilian in the back. “Where are all these Horde soldiers coming from??”
We don’t have enough. To her left, she saw a body in the soot and she pointed for She-Ra to aid.
A mecha answered instead, clambering with such abandon that it crushed—
Glimmer nearly threw up.
“People are dying, Adora,” she cried.
There was too much madness, with the screaming and the gunfire and the horrible roars of the mechas. Soldier after soldier marched, bots plowed houses down like they were made of paper.
The Bright Moon soldiers tried their best, but it was a losing battle.
“Hordak isn’t the type to take prisoners. He must have an ulterior motive.” Even Adora as She-Ra looked exhausted. She had a smear of mud across her neck and held her sword point-down to the grass. “There has to be something we missed.”
In that moment, two separate things happened. The first that Glimmer noticed was a sensation in her bones like the ground being electrically charged. It sent a hum up side of her body, and she noticed a huge flock of birds evacuate an area near the west.
The second thing that happened was much more pressing.
“Fire!” She-Ra grabbed Bow and Glimmer’s arms and bolted, nearly tearing her friend’s arms off.
This fire wasn’t a wildfire, but a sudden blast so forceful and hot, Glimmer could feel sparks burning holes into the back of her shirt.
Even the sound alone was a roar so deafening.
The heat, it was unbearable.
They ran, dodging broken buildings and mecha that had been torn apart. Fire behind them chased, incinerating all in its path. It felt like an incredible tsunami, but a wall of flames two stories high and glowing brighter than the sun.
Adora, still in the center of their running trio, suddenly screeched to a halt. She whipped her head around, back and forth. The blond hair, glowing in the white of the fire, looked like fire itself.
“I hear something,” she yelled over the noise.
We don’t have time, we don’t have time. Glimmer’s heart raced, and she instinctively reached her hand out.
“We have to go.”
Without much warning, She-Ra dashed from their group and began running perpendicular to the wall of flames, forcing her two friends after her. They struggled to keep up, but in a second they realized what they were running after.
It was a kid, trapped under a fallen wall. Her face was covered in soot and looked barely alive.
Adora ran to her side and starting lifting.
“You go,” she shouted at her friends. “I’ve got this, don’t worry.”
They couldn’t argue; nothing matched the strength of She-Ra, truly. She could handle everything.
Glimmer ran, holding Bow’s hand as tightly as she could. It took less than thirty seconds to escape the perimeter of the town. Cobblestone turned into moss, but the wall of fire didn’t lessen until many yards later. After that, the noise died down just as fast as it erupted.
The following moments brought an endless stream of questions without answers.
Chaos seemed to be over, but she wasn’t sure at what cost. Much of the town had been evacuated, but it couldn’t have been all. The Horde seemed to have vanished, too, leaving only traces of destroyed bots. No soldiers, no working mechas, nothing.
It only took a few hours for the Rebellion to regroup afterwards.
Mermista helped put out fires while others took the injured to Bright Moon in a caravan. Those who were left either helped the surviving civilians gather what they could before joining the caravan. Some people also had the misfortune to be in charge of gathering the deceased.
Glimmer couldn’t do much of anything. On the edge of the burnt land, Bow had to hold her hair back while she threw up. She couldn’t even cry.
“How did this happen?” she coughed.
Rain began falling. It hissed on the hot ground around them, mixing steam into the smoke.
“Let’s get back.” Bow squeezed his arm around his friend’s shoulder. “Queen Angella is probably worried sick about you.”
All Glimmer could move was her head, which shook back and forth. “But who…who won? What happened?” Vomit and rainwater dribbled down her chin. “We need to wait for Adora.”
“The Horde is gone. No one has seen any of them since the fire started.”
“But Adora—”
“Adora can take care of herself, Glimmer. Let’s go.”
It was horrible, leaving the scene of such tragedy, but Bow was right.
With such horrible thoughts and fresh memories, they left.
The battle was worse than Adora had ever seen, yet she hardly remembered any of it. For minutes, hours, she felt the sting of smoke in her eyes and a horrible ringing in her ears. In all honesty, she was grateful for the ringing because it covered up the sounds of every scream and moan across the burning forest.
How could She-Ra have failed? It wasn’t like her to feel such heavy defeat, but nothing could’ve prepared her for the kind of advanced weapons the Horde brought to this stand.
Even with most of the princesses rearing their powers, nothing was more powerful than the technology of the First Ones harnessed into killing machines.
No time, no time. Adora wasn’t sure if it was blood in her eyes or just hot tears blinding her as she stumbled over the bodies of townspeople. Wimborne didn’t deserve this. She tried to keep concentrating. This is all so wrong. How could I have done this?
While the fire got ever closer, She-Ra hurried over to the trapped person she saw, and using the last of her strength, lifted the pile over her head. There, covered in soot and injuries, lay a child. Her braids still smoldered at the ends while she cried.
Adora pulled her out gently and did her best to soothe the crying girl. It was clear her legs were hurt.
“I’m going to get you some help,” she whispered, and looked around frantically for the Bright Moon soldiers which were supposed to be toting the injured away mid-battle.
No-one.
Some say that in the most important moment of your life, you can see other moments counting backwards. You may even hear voices of loved ones.
This was not one of those.
Smoke surrounded them.
Visibility is low.
Adora, limping, carried the child she held down the broken road that once was a main street of the town. There really wasn’t a place that was obviously safe to hide this girl, but she had to put her down somewhere if she were to go find help.
We’re not winning.
This was painfully obvious.
The Horde had been too silent the previous months. They’d hardly sent so much as a spy bot to the rival cities, and yet.
This can’t be over. It can’t be.
Adora struggled to find meaning in the sword that hung by her side. What honor has Grayskull deserved that merits taking the lives of innocent people? She heaved the girl into her arms and began running as fast as she could.
The smoke continued to crawl.
At some point it became rain.
No one is coming, Adora convinced herself, closing her eyes for a brief moment.
Are they all gone? Glimmer? Bow? She had told them to go on without her, she can’t worry about them right now.
Her hearing returned.
Sometime between then and now, the world grew to a bit of standstill. She couldn’t hear the groans of the injured anywhere, nor could she hear the grumble of the Horde’s war machines.
It was easy to wish for death. Sleep, at least, Adora begged. She was covered in blood and undoubtedly broken bones that She-Ra couldn’t feel yet from adrenaline.
Pit. Pit pat.
A tree burning nearby gave off intermitted hisses.
Pitter patter.
Rain fell gently onto the burning town. It put out the remaining fires and dampened the dust of rubble. It felt like a blessing, but she knew better than to trust Etheria to grant such relief in a time like this one.
When she got far away enough from the burnt town, she paused at a clearing and set the child down. She ripped a strip of fabric from her shorts and began working to set the girl’s broken legs.
Adora stared into the smoke surrounding their clearing. It hugged the trees like a comforting blanket. However, it could not cover up the ringing sound that returned with a vengeance. It made her ears feel like they were splitting.
Suddenly, like an arrow loosening from a bow string, the noise took form.
It was not a ringing, but a howling of sorts, taking shape just beyond the wall of smoke.
The rain stopped.
Rising from behind the fog grew a shadow. Twenty, thirty, fifty feet tall.
Adora couldn’t stop watching. She couldn’t even blink.
The howling turned into a grind of mechanical gears: a song no one should ever have to hear.
As a corpse would drag itself along the ground, two impossibly-long legs of a robotic beast reached into the clearing and sank through the dirt, pulling behind them an image of nightmares.
If she could be honest. Adora couldn’t remember much from that point. She remembered fear that turned her tongue to metal and her feet to stone. The injured girl beside her started to cry.
She remembered the glow of the bot’s laser gun powering up.
She remembered throwing her body in front of the girl.
She remembered…she remembers a light brighter than anything she’d seen before.
And then nothing.