Hello again, my friends! 😁
Thank you for supporting and enjoying my fanfic!
There are more secrets to be revealed today.
And truths that explain much.
But first, let's recap the events so far of Ep 75:
In Part One, Catra consoles Adora in her worries but cannot foresee her girlfriend's sudden collapse!
In Part Two, Glimmer's happiness at the return of her magic is interrupted by the appearance of a charming but mischievous shape-shifter!
In Part Three, Bow, Glimmer and Catra find Adora in much distress as they learn that Entrapta may have betrayed them!
And in Part Four, we learn that Entrapta is struggling against a previously unknown darkness deep within herself!
This week's chapter is one that I am dedicating to a great new friend, Maymay ( @Maymay175 )!
Among other things, there are some Catradora feels in this, so I hope you will like it. 😊
Now, everyone . . .
Prepare thee for angst.
Bow and Glimmer stand side-by-side, stunned and staring down at Adora in her agony.
Catra crouches next to Adora, the pain of helpless worry written on her face, her arms straining within a few inches from her girlfriends body, cradling her, even without physical touch.
Adora is consumed by a focused inward concentration, trembling and groaning softly with her teeth pressed together.
Bow shakes his head, his eyes wide with fear.
Bow: How? I can’t believe that . . . Entrapta . . .
Adora’s voice emerges as a growl, compressed by a painful tension.
Adora: She restarted the System, and now she’s activating the weapon!! If we don’t stop her, it will destroy everything!!
Adora manages to look up at Bow, her anger tinged with a pleading expression.
Adora: [in terrible pain] I’m trying . . . to stop it. If I transform, then . . . the weapon will fire! [shaking with tears] Pleaaase, Bow! I can’t . . . do this . . . much longer!!
Catra flashes a fierce look at Bow.
Catra: [with deadly urgency] Do something. [desperately] This is killing her!
All at once, Glimmer cries out.
Glimmer: [shocked] Bow!
Bow looks to see Glimmer staring down at her hands and seeing that her entire body is glowing in a strident reddish pink light! She turns her eyes in frightened worry to Bow.
Bow: [with decision] Okay! Hold on! I’m gonna call her.
He strides quickly to the lounge by the circular window of Glimmer’s room and scoops up the tracker pad he left lying there. With several careful touches, he activates it and begins to tune the signal.
The pad emits a few piercing whistles and whines, finally settling into a fevered rush of static.
Adora shudders.
Adora: [racked in pain] Ernnggghh!!
Bow: [urgently] Hang on! Just a second!
He moves back toward the group, lifting his tracker pad up and slowly swinging it around in an arc as he adjusts the settings.
The screen of the pad is rippling with a fuzzy grayness, intersected by moving parallel lines of thin color.
The staticky rush rises and falls in intensity, interspersed with meaningless electronic whines.
Bow: [in frustration] There’s nothing! The signals are being overwhelmed by competing energy waves!
Catra stands up and reaches out a hand for the tracker pad.
Catra: [snapping] Give it to me. I’ll do it.
Bow pulls away.
Bow: [hopefully] No, wait! I think I’ve got something!
As Bow lowers the pad to shoulder level, the static seems to thin, and a hazy picture starts to resolve. It’s the frowning face of Entrapta, emerging through the snowy image!
Finally, the audio hiss diminishes, and Entrapta’s voice can be heard.
Entrapta: [calling through the hiss] Bow! Bowww!
Bow beams down at the screen.
Bow: [relieved] Yes! Entrapta! I can hear you!
Entrapta: [from the pad, sounding pleased] Oh, good! I’m using Darla’s frequency to carry this signal! It’s the only one I could find that can transmit through the energy waves of the First One’s systems!
Bow: [pressing] What’s going on, Entrapta?! Are you okay? Something’s happening to Adora and Glimmer, and --!
Entrapta interrupts him with a sudden note of regret.
Entrapta: [from the pad] I know! I . . . [in a tone of defeat] the Heart of Etheria is . . . nearing activation readiness, and I . . . I’m trying to stop it, but . . .
Glimmer and Bow are staring at the tracker pad screen with looks of intense worry.
Catra is holding Adora tightly, eyes squeezed shut, willing Adora her strength.
Adora, absorbed in her agonizing concentration, is ignoring Catra’s touch. As if it no longer matters.
Entrapta: [raising her voice, sorrowfully] I made a miscalculation, Bow. I thought I understood how to fix everything, but . . . it turns out I can’t!
Bow steadies his voice for Entrapta.
Bow: It’ll be okay, Entrapta. I’m here. Tell me what’s happening, and maybe I can help.
Entrapta: [with sudden intensity] No, Bow! You don’t understand!!
Bow’s and Glimmer’s eyes widen at the harshness of Entrapta’s response.
Bow: [a bit hesitantly] But, as your friend, . . . and as fellow Etherian makers, maybe we can fix the problem together.
The tracker pad vibrates in Bow’s hands, and Entrapta’s voice fuzzes as she screams out of it.
Entrapta: [fiercely] You can’t!!
Halfway across the world, in a chamber of light and swirling brilliance, Entrapta squeezes her eyes shut, releasing two tiny tears of frustration.
Entrapta: [in angry despair] I’M the problem!!
She opens her eyes slowly during the momentary silence, and they are filled with devastation.
Entrapta: [softer] And I should have realized it before.
Entrapta casts her eyes downward, somber and morose. Even the activity of her hair seems to slow down, though it continues to wave around her, interacting with the console and the dancing lights overhead. Wreathing her with a strange sort of beauty.
Entrapta: [reflectively, beginning to tear up] The way science has always fascinated me . . .
Her expression goes dark.
Entrapta: [Angrily] All the times I did the wrong thing because it was easier to work with machines and electronics than to try to understand people! My stupid, uncontrollable obsession with First Ones tech! [taking a breath] Because I AM First Ones tech!!
From the tracker pad, Bow looks up at her in sympathetic distress.
Bow: [his voice tiny from the pad] No. You’re not, Entrapta! You’re --
Entrapta cuts him off.
Entrapta: [resigned] Yes, Bow. It’s true. I am. [rubbing one hand over her arm] It’s everywhere, throughout my entire body. Much denser and far more extensively embedded in me than it is with any of the other princesses. [she sighs, and continues heavily] And now . . . I understand why. I . . . wait a minute. I need to log this.
With a single nimble strand of hair, Entrapta reaches out to the console surface for her recorder, drawing it close to her lips. She continues speaking.
Entrapta: [emotionlessly, with formality] First Ones Tech Experiment Log, Day 347, final entry. [pausing, raising her eyebrow quizzically] Final entry? [considering, she lets her eyebrow fall] Yeah. This is probably it.
In the comforting warmth of Glimmer’s bedroom, Bow unconsciously shakes the tracker pad as he cries out to it powerlessly.
Bow: [desperately] Entrapta! No! Please! [emphatically] Let me help you! We’ll figure this out!
He looks over to Glimmer, whose eyes are closed as she holds her shoulders tensely, breathing deeply through the waves of red-pink light pulsing through her.
Bow: Glimmer?
She doesn’t answer, as a deep intake of breath can be heard from the tracker pad in Bow’s hands, and Entrapta’s voice continues.
Entrapta: [from the pad, as if to herself] I have now discovered my ultimate destiny. [her tone shifts, almost proud] I am a product of First Ones tech: the Maintengineer of the Heart of Etheria, . . .
While Entrapta speaks from the tracker pad, several feet away, Adora stirs, and begins to rise to her feet.
Adora: [groaning] Unnnghh.
Catra stands up with her, her brow wrinkled in concern, her focus entirely on her girl.
Catra: [worried] Adora?
Entrapta’s voice continues.
Entrapta: [from the pad] . . . I am powered by a hidden Runestone, which is protected inside me and inseparable from my body.
Adora’s right arm hangs stiffly at her side, as if injured, but the hand is open wide and shaking. She holds her arm tightly against herself with her left hand, as if restraining it. She opens her eyes and turns her gaze to Glimmer. Catra watches Adora closely, holding her shoulders protectively.
Entrapta: [from the pad, confidently] My purpose as designed is to repair, rebuild, and maintain the system, which I have done, and to re-activate the Heart Weapon, which . . . which I am now doing.
Bow shakes his head at Entrapta’s image on the tracker pad.
Bow: [quietly, in horrified helplessness] No. Please. There’s . . . You don’t have to do this!
Entrapta’s voice becomes almost sweetly nostalgic.
Entrapta: [wistfully] All aspects of my life . . . [she pauses, wonderingly] everything that I am and ever was . . . has been to fulfill this purpose. Nothing else mattered.
She pauses, and her voice changes, beginning firmly, but gradually starting to break.
Bow watches her on his tracker pad.
Entrapta: [with emotion] Except, . . . that it does. I don’t want to be what I am! I have friends now! And once I finish activating the Heart, they will be gone, absorbed into the weapon, functioning as part of its vast circuitry, capable of the destruction of whole other worlds!
Adora begins walking slowly toward Glimmer, her gait stiff, half-staggering, and a monumental strain shows clearly on her brow. Catra squeezes her shoulders to support her.
Catra: [with concern] Adora!
Adora pulls loose of Catra’s grip and shakily pushes Catra away. She continues forward, her arm lifting, reaching.
On the tracker pad screen, Entrapta’s eyes brighten, and she suddenly sounds more like herself.
Entrapta: [in a reverie] The implications are thrilling! [Then, she winces, squeezing tears from her eyes.] But so terrible.
While Catra watches, Adora walks away from her side and stops a few feet from Glimmer, her expression laced with pain.
Adora reaches out her hand and speaks in a strangled, croaking voice.
Adora: [urgently] Glimmer.
Glimmer’s eyes open wide and focus on Adora’s offered hand.
At the same time, Bow watches Entrapta on the tracker pad.
As Entrapta’s eyes open, the tears are streaming down her face.
Entrapta: [despairing] And I can’t control what I’m doing! I need . . . !
Bow watches Entrapta on the tracker pad screen, sees as Entrapta’s gaze shifts out of the frame, and a small tendril of her hair separates from the main masses, reaching out to a nearby control on the console before her.
Adora lifts her hand a little higher.
Adora: [in a pleading whisper] Glimmer. Please.
Glimmer looks at Adora’s hand, frowning. Then she looks grim and nods with understanding.
Glimmer: [to Adora] Okay.
Catra watches as Glimmer reaches her hand toward Adora’s, and Adora’s hand begins to shimmer with a golden glow, as Glimmer’s deep pink glow brightens.
Their fingers are about to touch, and Catra’s eyes widen in realization.
Catra: No!
Catra leaps forward.
Entrapta’s hair touches the control.
Entrapta: There!
Glimmer’s hand touches Adora’s, and their pink and golden glows instantly double in brightness as they dissolve together in a flurry of pink sparkles and then fade away.
At the same moment, the tracker pad screen goes black.
Bow: Entrapta?!
Catra crashes through the glittery air, clutching the space where Adora stood only a fraction of a second before.
She tumbles onto the ground, skidding and striking the wall, sobbing, her arms empty.