You're Such An Idiot

Chapter Nine-Adora

When we enter the spare room we find Hordak sitting on the magic seal that prevents him from moving away. It reminds me of when Shadow Weaver was there, in the exact same place, confined by the same spell. She was dying, after using all her powers to come to me... And now she's gone...

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I can't let this distract me, not now. We move closer to Hordak and I kneel so that our eyes are on the same level.

"I knew you would come" he says quietly. "I know what you are going to say"

"Oh, but you don't" I reply in a cold, menacing tone. I think I'll never get used to how confident and powerful I feel when I'm this She-Ra. In the previous form, the First Ones sword was probably restricting my powers, because I wasn't nearly as strong as I am now. This, right now, is who I was supposed to be from the start, this is She-Ra's full potential. And it feels awesome.

"I want to make sure you get this straight, Hordak" I continue, narrowing my eyes. "You've spent all these years spreading destruction all over Etheria, killing innocent people, taking kids from their families just to raise them as Horde soldiers. Lying to them. Manipulating them. The cadets in the Horde were never evil people, but you were. You made them feel like they had no other choice, you made them feel like their families had forgotten them and they had nothing, no other home, no other purpose than to serve you. But let me tell you" I lift his chin with the flat side of my sword. "This is over. I will make sure you never get your hands on Etheria again. And if you ever," I lean closer to him, grinding my teeth, "ever touch Catra, I swear to you, it will be the last thing you do"

I can tell from the look on his face that he's quite impressed. Or scared. Or both. Good, this means the message got across.

Glimmer draws closer, looking down on Hordak. Even if she's standing and I'm kneeling, we're basically at the same height. That's funny.

"Listen, Hordak" she says in a tone of command. "I would personally like to lock you up and throw away the key, but I have a feeling that Entrapta would give me a hard time if I did" I notice Hordak's expression slightly softens when he hears Entrapta's name. "And since she thinks that you could be useful, somehow, I will give her a chance to see you, mostly because otherwise she won't give me a break, and I really need that now. But I will have my guards on you all the time, got it?"

"And make sure you don't try any of your games with her" I add. "If you try to turn her against us⸺"

"I understand!" he snaps suddenly. "There is no need to keep threatening me. I have no intention to do harm. I lost it all. My army is gone, the Fright Zone is in ruins. Why do you think I would try anything? My only purpose, this whole time, was to reach Horde Prime to prove him I was worthy. I have nothing to prove anymore. And you defeated him. I am not so reckless to challenge you"

"Good" I say, standing up. "That's very sensible of you"

"But I have a request" he says, standing up in turn. "I would like your permission to work with Entrapta"

"Here we go again" grunts Glimmer. "And what exactly would the two of you work on? A new secret weapon to threaten Etheria, maybe?"

"I told you, I have no intention to do harm"

"And you expect us to believe you??" Catra barges in, coming forward. She looks tense. "You built a whole army from scratch, you had nothing when you first got here, just like now. And still you managed to almost destroy Etheria"

"I could not have done it without your help, Force Captain" he sneers.

Catra freezes and a moment later she extends her claws, ready to jump at him.