The Right Thing

Chapter 2

Shadow Weaver sat sullenly upon her throne, watching uninterested as her minions paraded in front of her. To be honest, there was not much else to do in the Fright Zone aside from march around in carefully choreographed movements.

The Horde itself was never designed to be an invading force. It was created by Hordak, a marooned clone of a great intergalactic emperor, in order to try and escape the planet. Hordak had shown insolence by renaming himself and the emperor had banished him to Etheria: a cursed artificial moon which had belonged to the empire the emperor had defeated.

Hordak had been alone at the beginning, in a barren wasteland made of nothing but cold hard metal. But he was resourceful and, using his knowledge of the ancient empire's technology, he had been able to take apart bits of the planet itself to make what was intended to be a teleportation device. He was certain it would work and had activated it without any hesitation. That was a very unwise decision.

Not only did the explosion scar him terribly but it set off an incredible chain reaction where all kinds of alien life from across the galaxy suddenly manifested on the artificial planet. Suddenly, there were trees, animals, water, and all manner of different people and cultures, now all trapped just like Hordak. The machine had teleported life to him but had failed to send him to a better one.

Instead of embracing the beauty which now surrounded him, and celebrating the fact there was now hope for survival, Hordak's heart grew even darker. He began kidnapping the numerous souls who now found themselves trapped on the planet. He imprisoned some, brainwashed others, and forced every single one of them to build him great and terrible machines which would one day, hopefully, allow him to finally escape. He never succeeded, however, thanks to Shadow Weaver.

Shadow Weaver was a sorceress from a planet of witches. Unbeknownst to anyone else, she had been banished by her people as well; sent into exile for trying to take power from her fellow sorcerers. Hordak's machine saved her life as well as his. It gave her a fresh start with new power to steal. She deliberately sabotaged every mechanical atrocity he built, all the while manipulating him into believing it was the fault of others. She needed him to stay on the planet to help her gain control of it, and the best way to do that was through military conquest.

Seeing that the prisoners were likely to rebel the second they were given weapons, Shadow Weaver turned to the brainwashed younglings to create the army which would become known as the Horde: a fearsome technologically advanced group whose only goal was victory. However, there was something Shadow Weaver had not considered.

While Hordak had captured a lot of people, he had not captured everyone. Those who escaped him rallied to Angella, an angelic alien from an immortal race, who quickly took it upon herself to become queen of the free kingdoms and to protect its peoples against the attacks of the Horde. Shadow Weaver had never thought much of these 'savages' as she called them, but was soon proven very wrong in her assumptions.

There were a great many battles, some extremely bloody and fierce. None ended in victory for the Horde and soon Shadow Weaver was forced to retreat. It had been at this time that Hordak had finally gotten wise to the witch's schemes and there had been a great and glorious fight for ownership of the Horde. This was the fight which Shadow Weaver had won, and Hordak was never seen again.

Or so the legend went.

The reality was far more sadistic and involved two small girls: Catra and Adora. Both had been young, promising brainwashed cadets in Shadow Weaver's army. And both had skills which surpassed those of their peers.