You're Such An Idiot

Chapter 30-Mara

It's like I can't move. Or feel. Everything is fuzzy. It's like watching my life through a looking glass. I see what my eyes should be seeing, hear what my ears should be hearing, but it's not my eyes, and it's not my ears. I can't feel my beating heart, just a flow of energy coming from the sword I wield with my right hand. That's the only thing I can feel completely, with all my senses. The iron. The blade. Nothing else exists outside of it. It's my reality, my core. It's what powers this sort of looking glass I'm seeing through right now. Without it, I'd be gone. I just know it.

All my thoughts have been cleared: I can't seem to think about anything or remember anything. But there's nothing to remember, as my masters always tell me: I am a weapon, and weapons are not supposed to have memories. They're supposed to follow orders, and that's what I do. I follow the sword.

"What do you think about it, Adora?" I hear master Zyan's voice as if it were muffled, just like every other sound I happen to hear. "Let me present you with our greatest experiment: the Heart of She-Ra Project. She's stunning, isn't she?"

I focus my attention on the figure standing in front of me: she looks familiar, somehow, even though I am not supposed to know any other faces except my masters' ones. But she... looks like me? Her long, golden hair, her eyes, her outfit... why does she look familiar?

"What did you do to her??" she cries with a broken voice.

"We simply gave her another chance to serve us as she should have done from the very beginning" master Zyan replies. "We knew about her intentions all along, the Sword was recording everything, every doubt she started to have, every spark of rebellion in her. We traveled back to Etheria as fast as we could, and we managed to reach the planet right before she opened the portal to Despondos. We couldn't stop the ship, but she had left the Sword behind, and that was her greatest mistake. We managed to retrieve the Sword and leave Etheria right before she stranded it to Despondos. She thought you'd be safe from us, and you were, for a long time. But in the meantime, we worked on the Sword Mara left behind. We were able to reconstruct her identity from the data stored inside the Sword. You see, she is a sort of enhanced hologram: we brought her to life thanks to years and years of studying Prime's clones: we were able to recreate her body and instill the fragments of her conscience stored by the Sword. Of course, we didn't store everything. We simply erased what we considered... unnecessary"

"Unnecessary??" cries the girl, who looks... upset. "You mean you erased her memories?"

"She-Ra doesn't need any memories, and neither does Mara. She's a warrior, her skills and abilities are all we need. The rest is useless"

"This can't be real..." says the girl, getting more and more upset. I wonder why she looks so agitated. "Mara! Can you hear me? It's me, Adora!" My ears register her voice, but I can't seem to understand the meaning of her words. Why is she calling me Mara? My name is She-Ra. I have no other name. How am I supposed to know the name of that girl, Adora? It is not familiar at all... I... I don't remember.

"Enough with this nonsense" says master Zyan. "She-Ra, why don't you show my little sister what you're capable of? Attack her. Now"

Those words resonate inside my head, making the hand that holds the Sword vibrate with energy. Without even thinking, I dash towards the girl, ready to strike. She lifts her sword just in time to block my overhead slash. The clash of our swords generates a shockwave so powerful it blows away all the people behind her.

"Stand back!" cries the girl I'm fighting. "Don't hurt her! I got this! You guys attack the ship!"

I keep my attention focused on the girl, ignoring the rest of the enemies going towards my masters. My orders are clear: she's my target, and no one else.