Welcome to the conclusion of this episode, and thank you for reading it! 😊
And I hope you have enjoyed the extra chapters this week!
Previously in Episode 75:
Part One: As Catra listens to Adora's doubts, her forebodings become reality.
Part Two: Bow and Glimmer witness an unusual change in the castle mood, and drama is in the air.
Part Three: Adora calls out betrayal among friends, and Hordak responds to a disturbing sight.
Part Four: Entrapta wrestles with the darkness within.
Part Five: Entrapta reveals the terrible truth about herself to Catra and the Best Friends Squad. Glimmer and Adora leap into action.
Part Six: Adora and Glimmer find resistance to their rescue attempt, while Catra takes off with Swift Wind.
Part Seven: Hordak joins forces with Glimmer and Adora.
Part Eight: Entrapta becomes desperate, trapped by her own power.
Part Nine: Adora, Glimmer, and Hordak find their struggle deepening as the Heart of Etheria asserts its control.
Part Ten: On her own and isolated, Entrapta makes a terrible sacrifice to save everyone.
I want to thank some wonderful friends and faithful supporters of my creativity by dedicating this final part of the episode to the members of the fantastic ✨Artistic Alliance!✨
This is for Kit ( @ArchduchessKittycat ), Vivian ( @FlamingSunsetSecretSpitfire ), Connie ( @BeanieAndTheDucks ), Arcana ( @NerdWhoDrawsAndWrites ), Diamond ( @SimplyDiamond-- ), Cal ( @CallistoArt ), and Noelle ( @WhenYou'reTheOnly1WhoUnderstandsCatra )
Thank you all for being my partners in supporting creativity on this wiki! 🥰
And now, it's time to discover if there is hope for Entrapta.
(And by the way, this overlaps just slightly with the previous chapter, from a different point of view. You'll understand.)
Let's go!
In the cold night at the entrance to the Chamber of the Heart, Hordak stands in stunned indecision, watching his two companions in their suffering, his hands outstretched in impotent concern.
Glimmer winces at the purple-red waves of energy visibly pulsing through her body and causing her to glow.
Adora is struggling with her sword, leaning on the hilt to press the point downward into the soil, and trembling in agony.
Suddenly, Entrapta’s terrible cry of sorrowful pain meets Hordak’s ears, echoing, as if from a distance, and then dies on the air.
Hordak’s eyes widen in distress, and he turns back toward the sealed entrance.
Hordak: [fearfully] En-trapta!
As Hordak presses his hands to the doors, desperately gripping where their edges meet in the center, the glowing energy of the force field fades.
In the same moment, the magenta glow surrounding Glimmer vanishes, and Adora falls to her knees, still clutching the hilt of the sword.
Hordak scratches and claws at the battered metal, desperately trying to part the doors.
Hordak: [calling out] Entrapta!!
Adora shakes her head, blinking to recover her senses. Then, pushing on the handle of the sword, she manages a shift to a half-kneel. With effort, she rises to her feet and turns toward Hordak. Seeing his trouble and distress, she rushes to his side.
In his rage and worry, Hordak nearly pushes her off her feet as she tries to help him.
Adora: [reassuring] Hey! Heeeey.
Hordak pauses for a moment, turning toward Adora with a distraught expression of worry mixed with shock at his lack of self-control.
Adora meets his eyes.
Adora: [gently] The force field is down. I should be able to open it now.
Hordak looks uncertain, but Glimmer steps up and puts a reassuring hand on his arm.
Glimmer: [firmly] She can do it. Let her try.
Hordak regards her briefly, then wordlessly takes a step back.
Adora places a palm on the door and gently intones.
Adora: Eternia.
There is a popping sound as something releases, allowing the doors to part, leaving a gap of a few inches only. Nothing more.
Hordak rushes forward again, fitting his hands inside the gap and pressing to either side. This time, his strength is joined by assistance from Adora and Glimmer, who each pull on one of the doors.
Slowly and with great effort, the doors slide further apart in spurts, a deep whining groan accompanying each small bit of progress.
Finally, Hordak places his body between the doors and pushes them apart with a mighty heave. He rushes into the darkness within.
Adora wrenches her sword from the ground and follows, along with Glimmer.
The light beyond the entrance quickly diminishes to an enveloping blackness. They pause.
With a humming shing, Adora’s sword is aloft and aglow, illuminating Glimmer standing near her and the walls of the corridor on either side of them. The pathway ahead leads to a dim, triangular doorway and an opaque grayness beyond.
A cry of mournful pain emerges from beyond the doorway.
Hordak: Haaaaaaaaaaah!!!
Glimmer and Adora exchange worried frowns and hurry forward.
Entering the room, Adora raises her sword higher, and its light cuts through the shadows.
Her eyes widen as she makes out a huddled form stirring at the base of the wall on the other side of the chamber. She moves quickly toward it.
Glimmer cocks her head and turns in another direction to follow a sound of soft whimpering.
Adora stops to kneel beside a slouched figure as it lifts its head. It is Wink, shakily raising his head and reaching out to her.
Adora: [with compassionate concern] Wink. Let me help.
He places a grateful arm on her shoulder, and she pulls his body against her side so she can bear his weight as she stands.
Wink rises shakily, leaning on her strength until his feet are fully underneath him.
Adora: Are you all right? Where’s --
Glimmer’s voice interrupts her sharply from near the center of the room.
Glimmer: [fearfully] Adora!
Adora tenses at the urgency in Glimmer’s voice, and Wink points in the direction of the darkened control console.
Adora helps Wink as they move to join Glimmer.
She gasps as the light from her sword shines over the area behind the console.
Glimmer is kneeling beside Entrapta, clutching her arm with desperate concern.
Entrapta’s body lies limp in Hordak’s arms, and he is cradling her against himself, moaning softly and rocking her gently.
Entrapta’s skin tone seems to have faded, almost to gray. But most shocking of all is her hair, which splays loosely from her head around her body, completely devoid of life and energy, flowing over the floor like a careless spill of paint.
Wink withdraws his arm from Adora’s shoulders, touching the console for support as he lowers himself to the floor near Entrapta’s feet. He wrings his hands in restless confusion.
Wink: [in a small voice] But, why? Why is Entrapta like this?
Adora touches the console with one hand.
Adora: [in quiet shock] She stopped the Heart. She shut down everything.
Her eyes meet Glimmer’s, and they glisten with tears.
Adora: [with a slight tremble in her voice] She saved us all.
Adora sinks to her knees, shaking her head, looking downward.
Adora: [with a quiet sob] I’m sorry . . . I’m so sorry, Entrapta. I should never have doubted you!
Gently she touches Entrapta’s shoulders, her head bowed, her eyes closed.
Adora: I’m sorry.
Glimmer: Adora, . . . she’s . . .
Adora opens her eyes and raises her head. Sees Glimmer shaking her head, her expression tortured by grief.
Glimmer: [in a voice strangled with emotion] She’s . . .
Glimmer’s voice breaks, and she can’t finish her words.
Adora shakes her head, first slowly and then more vigorously.
Adora: [with building firmness] No . . . no. No!
She stands up and raises her sword, pauses for a deep breath.
Adora: For the Honor . . . of Grayskull!
And the room is filled with light, furious in its defiant illumination.
Wink’s features are lit with wonder, and Glimmer musters a small smile of hope.
The glow softens, and from it emerges the noble and reassuring form of She-Ra. She reaches down toward Hordak with a strong arm, an inviting hand.
She-Ra: [with gentle confidence] Let me help. Give her to me.
Hordak looks up to She-Ra through tear-stricken eyes and meets her steady gaze.
He nods, and stands up, lifting Entrapta in his arms like a child.
Tenderly, Hordak places Entrapta’s body in the cradle of She-Ra’s arms.
She-Ra steps back a pace, holding Entrapta closely to her. She closes her eyes, bows her head to Entrapta’s, and frowns in concentration.
Within the glow that surrounds them, a space of the inner mind begins to grow, and in her vision, She-Ra sees a portal below her, opening into a vast darkness, extending downward, like a deep well.
She peers through, squinting into the space beneath her, searching. Her voice echoes strongly in the emptiness within.
She-Ra: Entrapta-a-a-a-a-a!!
Leaning in further, her head enters the void, and she opens her eyes widely.
Straining to see even the smallest light that remains.
And somewhere in the darkness, there is still hope.
Deep within this expansive darkness, far, far below, a lonely image of Entrapta sits, holding her knees to her chest, shivering, cold and empty.
Solitary.
Lost.
Her eyes stare blankly into the dark nothingness before her. And all sense of feeling and emotion, every spark, is gone, as if her life and will are draining away.
She-Ra finally sees her and calls out to her.
She-Ra: Entrapta! I’m here! Let me help you!
Entrapta blinks slowly. She huddles and hugs herself tightly.
But she doesn’t seem to hear.
She-Ra stretches her body through the portal, reaching out to Entrapta, her fingers open wide.
It looks as though Entrapta could stand up and touch her.
She-Ra: [urgently] Take my hand, Entrapta! I can bring you back!
There is no response.
As if Entrapta doesn’t hear.
Or else . . . she can no longer care.
And the distance to her seems to be stretching, the emptiness pulling her further downward. Away from the light.
She-Ra reaches in further, leaning her body through the portal, desperately trying to close the distance and avoid losing her friend!
For a moment it appears that her efforts are managing to slow the lengthening darkness, halting, or perhaps even reversing it.
She-Ra: [pleading] Entrapta! I can reach you if you just put out your hand!! Please, Entrapta! Please!
But before She-Ra’s voice can penetrate to the inner darkness that envelopes Entrapta, it is consumed, muted and muffled as if pushing through water.
What reaches Entrapta is only indistinct, low, humming tones without meaning.
In her silent world she sits unmoving, unaffected and withdrawn.
And the gulf between them grows, as Entrapta’s form recedes further into the emptiness.
She-Ra: Entraptaaa!!
She-Ra grits her teeth in determination and reaches toward Entrapta with all of her energy and love for her friend.
But it’s not enough.
Entrapta’s form disappears in the darkness, and She-Ra falls back in exhaustion with a frustrated cry.
She opens her eyes, once again in the Chamber of the Heart with the others.
She-Ra: [sighing in frustration] Unnggh.
She staggers forward as she holds Entrapta protectively, dropping to one knee.
Hordak comes to her side, steadying her. Glimmer leaps forward.
Glimmer: Adora! Are you all right? What happened?
She-Ra leans a little on Hordak, who helps her to her feet again.
Her reply is breathless with fatigue.
She-Ra: I-- I couldn’t reach her! I thought I could, but -- I can’t!
Fully standing again, she turns and hands Entrapta back to Hordak. And all at once, she de-transforms back into Adora.
Recovering, she looks to Glimmer, laying a hand on her shoulder, with a tiny smile.
Adora: She’s still in there, though.
She looks hopefully to Wink, then Hordak.
Adora: She’s still there, and I think we can save her! [turning back to Glimmer, seriously] But I don’t think we have much time. And we’re gonna need help.
Glimmer frowns.
Glimmer: What kind of help?
Adora: [definitely] We need the strength of the other princesses.
Glimmer: Okay! I’ll --
She pauses, holds up her hands, turning them over, and frowns.
Glimmer: No magic.
Adora: [inspired] Entrapta’s tracker pad!
Glimmer: Right!
She looks around and spies it on the console surface.
Glimmer: Aha!
Excitedly, Glimmer scoops it up and presses the controls. She stares at the screen, which remains dark. And the monitor is shattered. She sighs and hands it to Adora.
Glimmer: I think it’s broken.
Adora examines it for a moment and nods, sadly, setting it down.
Adora: It is. It’s useless.
Hordak holds Entrapta’s lifeless body with growing agitation.
Hordak: [urgently] If we hurry to my laboratory, perhaps I could repair it! Or, . . . or I could build another!
Adora shakes her head, frowning in frustration.
Adora: But there isn’t enough time for that! And . . . [looking at Entrapta, small in Hordak’s arms] she’s so fragile right now. I don’t think we should move her.
Glimmer: [worried and exasperated] Then, what can we do?! Adora?
Adora frowns, shutting her eyes in frustration and holding her head with one hand.
Adora: Auugh!! I wish Bow was here! Or Catra!
Suddenly she opens her eyes. Her expression changes, a glint of hope emerging.
Adora: [solemnly] Okay. I know what I have to do.
(End of Episode 75)