Honestly...

Brutally

The plan had been to give Perfuma her sword, and give herself up to Catra. She'd thought things would be like before, and that Catra would take her just to get under her skin. She should have known Catra would see through her, but she hadn't expected Catra to use her feelings against her. It was naive to think so, but Adora couldn't regret telling her.

But she needed to get back at her. Without her sword, she had no hope. Not without the princess alliance.

Adora paced, feeling so vulnerable without her sword. Why had she decided to hide it? Of course Catra would see through her plans.

She should have brought SwiftWind, but he was with Perfuma. She sighed, and leaned against a nearby tree to think.

Wait a minute...

That tree was tall, with plenty of branches. For good measure, Adora shook one. It seemed sturdy to her. Tentatively, she began to climb. Hee foot slipped, and she gasped.

"Hey," she said. "I've flown on SwiftWind before. What's a little zero gravity?"

She used her arm strength to heave herself up the trunk, resting her feet on nearby branches. Her gaze went up, not down, as she slowly made her way up. As She-Ra, she couldn't reach the tops of the trees. That had to mean something, right?

She reached for another branch, and it broke into two. Adora grippped harder onto the other branch in her other hand, like that would make it better. It took all her willpower not to give in and fall. How was Catra so good at this?

Come find me, she'd said. Well, Adora was playing into her stupid game. She was sure that if Catra was watching, she was probably killing herself laughing. That thought made Adora a little more determined, and she took another step upwards.

...

"I'm back," Kyle said. "I've thought about what you said. But I can't let you go."

"Okay, buddy." Bow tried not to look disappointed. "Are you gonna tell Catra?"

"No, way." Kyle scooted next to him. "She'd Be mad, and I don't want to deal with that. It's bad enough when she's-welll, when she's less mad than usual."

"Why do you listen to her then?"

"She's Catra." Kyle shrugged. "She's scary."

Bow could understand that. "You guys used to be friends, right?"

"We grew up together."

"I can imagine that would be...a lot." Bow grimaced. "She seems hard to get to know."

"Exactly," Kyle said. "Lonnie and Adora and Rogelio were much easier to know, but don't get me wrong! We all felt like a family sometimes."

"Sometimes," Bow echoed. "At home, everyone was a family."

"Oh, well that's nice..."

"We all believed in being there for each other in times of need," Bow said. "I know I'm pushing it, but we would welcome you for helping us-"

"Where would you go?" Kyle asked. "There's so many of us, how would you escape?"

"I...would figure it out." He glanced over again at Glimmer, who had somehow slumped over even further, her head bobbing along with the machine. "You're killing her, Kyle. How can I just stand by and watch?"

"They won't kill her!" Kyle had the nerve to look actually appalled. "She'll be good...ransom."

"Ransom," Bow repeated, and he scoffed. "Right. Well, it doesn't matter. I'm sure Adora will be here any minute, here to save her."