Unbroken: Rise of the Horde

Chapter Eighteen

"Something's wrong!" Entrapta cried, racing toward the machine.

Hordak found himself back at the portal's first test. The blue and green gateway twisted and swirled inside the frame. Alarms blared so loud it could demolish his eardrums.

"I'm shutting it off!" she announced.

The clone grabbed her arm. "No you fool!" he yelled. "It's going to..."

He gasped as a blinding wave of heat burst through the room. The explosion knocked Hordak senseless. When he raised himself from the floor, the ringing in his ears began to die. He should have felt pain, but the only thing present was a tense emptiness.

Suddenly, he remembered what this was. Panic blazed through him as he searched through the rubble for his lab partner. In this reality, he could not shield her from the blast.

The clone thrust a metal beam aside to reveal a Princess underneath.

"No," he whispered as he fell to his knees. Dread replaced the fear. 

The Princess lay motionless on the cold floor. Her hand was still stretched for the switch, but she  never reached it. The beautiful magenta eyes she once had were glassy and filled with stars. Entrapta's skin was burned to a crisp. On her face, Hordak could see bone underneath the charred flesh.

"No, Entrapta." He knew  this was a nightmare, that it wasn't real. He knew he had to wake, but he couldn't.

A dark pit had formed in Hordak's stomach. He carefully reached down and pushed a strand of her once purple hair out of her face.

"Entrapta... I am so sorry."

Hordak bolted awake. He squeezed the vision out from behind his eyes and clenched his fists. A chasm split his soul. It's better to forget.

Little did he know, a few hundred miles away, a magenta-eyed, robot-loving Princess was telling herself the same thing.

. . .

Hordak burst into his sanctum, fuming. He stormed over to where Catra was studying a set of giant screens. She didn't seemed indifferent at his presence.

"The Rebellion is dismantling our northern perimeter," he announced. Ever since Catra had become his equal, she'd been incharge of the defences. This was a mistake if she was going to simply allow their troops to be taken out by Adora and her gang. "Why are our outposts unprepared for an attack?"

Catra moved some things across the screen without looking at him. "Because," she growled plainly, "they're skeleton crews. I called back the main defences."

"What?" Hordak seethed, not believing what he was hearing. She had been the most valuable asset to the Horde yet and she refused to continue with their conquest? "Why?"

The Force Captain began to laugh like it was the most hilarious joke in the world. Hordak's claws balled into fists. She finally turned around to face him. "The Princesses have no idea what's coming." She gestured toward the coordinates behind her and put her hand on her hip. Once again, her tone darkened. "Let them waste their time on some useless outposts. We are saving our resources for the big mission."

Hordak furrowed his brow. Yesterday, Catra had revealed her plan to take down the Rebellion and capture Etheria once and for all. He had to admit, she had incredible skills for war strategy. Easily, he decided to go along with it. Now that the portal had been a bitter sweet success, Hordak could move all of his attention back to the field of battle. It was odd, after almost thirty years of being a scientist, to suddenly go back to being a war lord. Alas, this was the final push he needed to take over the planet.