Chapter Text
Dawn, listen to me, listen. I love you. I will always love you, this is the work I have to do. Tell Giles that... Tell Giles I figured it out... And I'm ok. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now, you have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave, live... for me.
Buffy felt her body enveloped by the portal. A strange numbing sensation enveloped her body as she passed through the shimmering, electric blue field of concentrated magical energy. Buffy felt her body deaden in the air. The sizzling energy bolted through her, and then, all of a sudden, she surged forward again and crashed into what felt like another person’s body.
“Argh!” she yelled out in pain and rolled over to lay down on her left side, relieving the pressure on her right.
When she finally felt she could move again, Buffy raised her head a little so as to see where she was. Her vision blurred out. The world was enveloped in darkness as she slumped to the floor.
No, Catra thought, it can’t end like this!
She lay on her knees, worn and torn by the ensuing damage from her enemies’ onslaughts, the ensuing chaos of both portal generator and Princess of Bright Moon’s teaming up with Shadow Weaver was tearing Hordak’s sanctum apart around them. Glass generators shattering and large chunks of metal debris tossed around like a ball towards Hordak as electricity shocked and surged all around them.
She snarled. No way was she going to fail after coming all this way.
Hordak lifted a huge metal generator and hurled it towards the Princess Alliance - Shadow Weaver and Glimmer each raised an arm, magically halting it in its tracks before casting it aside.
Before they could capitalise on their opening, the roof caved in, and more debris crashed down before the leaders of the Horde and the Princess Alliance.
Jerking her gaze towards the Sword of Protection, Catra saw her chance and rose to her feet, striding slowly towards the lever. Adora cried out for her to stop as she reached out to pull down on it, “Catra! Please don’t!”
She turned to gaze at Adora one last time. A smirk. ‘This time, I win, Adora’. She pushed down the lever.
“NOOO!” cried Adora. The portal ignited, and gravity began to reverse as wreckage arose in the air. The sword of Project suddenly emitted a shimmering, electric blue light which expanded to envelop the room around them.
Catra’s heart raced with joy a. I’ve done it, she thought, I’ve finally managed to- all of a sudden, a distant shape formed in the portal from where the Sword was previously visible, growing ever closer. A stunned Catra stared, only just making out the growing shape - a…. girl? Before she’d fully realised this, the shape burst through the portal along with the Sword of Protection, which sailed overhead, landing the tip of the blade first a mere foot away from where Adora stood bound.
“Eep! Oh, wait-” Thinking on her feet, the Princess of Power outstretched both feet, yanked the sword up from below the guard and hocked it back through the steel panel she was bound to, jerking and slicing through it.
“Adora!” cried Glimmer. The Princess of Bright Moon rushed towards her friend, snatched the sword up and sliced at the restraints binding her hands behind the panel.
“You’re safe now,” she said. CRASH. “Maybe we should hold off on the celebrations till after we get out of here.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Adora replied. Looking up to where Catra had stood, Adora noticed another body laying on top of her former friend. A blonde-haired woman. In all of a second, Adora had lunged across the room, grabbed the girl and hoisted her up over her shoulder. The princesses regrouped.
After a brief embrace, Shadow Weaver was about order them to form a circle, before noticing the girl over Adora’s shoulders.
“Wha- who is that?”
“Nevermind who this is, we need to leave now,” shouted Adora. Not needing to be told twice, Shadow Weaver ordered them all to form the circle, and she and Glimmer held hands, generating the purple aura to envelop them all. Then they vanished, returning to Brightmoon as the Fright Zone collapsed around them.
The Princess Alliance cheered loudly at their success in saving Adora. The Princess of Power and her sword were now safely returned to Bright Moon with not a scrape on her. After a brief calm-down period, they were interrupted by Bow.
“Hey y’all, I’m pleased to have Adora back and all, but, we have one more passenger with us.” The Alliance all turned to see the still-unconscious blonde woman, currently leaning on Adora’s right shoulder. “I suggest we take her and Adora to visit the Queen.”
As if on cue, the sound of wings flapping came into earshot behind them, and they all turned to see a frantic Queen Angella swooping down to meet them on the platform.
“Oh, Glimmer! Adora!” she cried, running forward to embrace both her daughter and the young woman she’d come to view as her surrogate daughter. Adora and Glimmer, both accepted the Queen’s bone-crushing squeeze, though the latter still instinctively tried to push her overbearing mother away. “I am so glad you’re all alright!”
“Mom…” grumbled Glimmer, “, please... ”
Adora, however, simply smiled as she willingly and tearfully returned Angella’s embrace. Her gratitude for having such a Commander-in-Chief was on full display.
The Queen raised her head to observe the surrounding Princesses, Shadow Weaver and another woman hanging loosely on her shoulder. Suspicions immediately peaking over her general relief, she frowned at the two figures in front of her.
“And who is this other person?”
The Princess Alliance seemed at a loss for words, which prompted Angella to press again. Adora answered hesitantly.
“Commander… this woman, fell through the portal and knocked the Sword of Protection free before falling unconscious.”
Buffy lay dreaming of the events that had passed. Her frenzied rushing up the tower to rescue her sister, and her final sacrifice to save her sister. In that instance, she had been prepared to die, finally, at long last freeing her friends from the terror of Glory. Her last words to Dawn echoed through her head as she relived her dive down into the portal.
“The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live."
Immediately, her breath hitched as she hit the ground, and her eyes shot open. She cried out in horror. Her temple throbbed with pain. After a few brief seconds of blinking, Buffy raised her head to find that she was lying on an ultra-soft bed in a dark room. Suddenly, the doors flew open, and a tall, dark-skinned woman in some medieval knight garb came bursting into the room, followed by three other guards dressed in heavier armour.
“Alert the Queen,” called the first guard, “Inform her that our guest has awakened.”
“Wha- What?” Buffy cried out. “What Queen? Where am I?” The guard’s leader entered the room and Buffy bolted to her feet, leaping off of the bed to land in front of the encroaching guard, her hands outstretched to the Slayer in a placating manner.
“Relax, young lady, we mean you no harm. We… found you outside of enemy lines,” she spoke hesitantly, and Buffy wasn’t sure of her tone. “We took you back here for medical treatment, and merely wish to ask you a few questions.”
“Riiight,” replied Buffy. “And where, pray tell, am I right now?”
“You’re at Bright Moon Castle. I am General Juliet, head of the Queen’s Guard. My orders were to stand guard over you, and inform Queen Angella of when you awake.”
“I don’t know where/what Bright Moon is, but as I’m not dead, I can tell you I need to be going.”
At that, General Juliet assumed a more battle-ready stance, her hand reaching for the hilt of her sword.
“That would be unwi-”
Buffy’s head spun around quickly and saw the only sure-fire ways out were the guarded bedroom door and a large open window by the bed. Slayer-fighting instincts taking full control, she positioned herself to aim for the window and charged.
“STOP HER!” General Juliet roared to the remaining guard as she charged in after the Slayer; who stopped just at the window before leaping high up, and back over the head of the guards, bolting out of the doorway.
Buffy ran frantically through the long, brightly coloured corridor lined with stained glass murals, portraits of past Monarchs and famous battle scenes from this realm’s history on every wall.
General Juliet’s distress warning alerted the guards of her escape attempts and soon, she heard more soldiers forming a barrier up ahead.
Alright, well it looks like I’m gonna have to get my hands dirty after all. She seethed with reluctance, not wanting to get too savage with any fellow humans - assuming that’s what they were, and not some new demons -.
She had approached what appeared to be the main entrance to the castle, where a dozen stern-faced guards all flanked her in a defensive formation, spears outstretched and directed at her.
“Halt!” a guard in the middle yelled at her. “Do not move, or we shall have to restrain you with force!”
Too charged to so much as offer a comeback, Buffy squared up in a karate stance and edged forward closer, eyes flashing as she dared her opponents to make a move forward.
“I said halt!”, repeated the guard, and her fellow guardswomen edged forward to match Buffy’s stride; and just when the gap had closed to no more than a foot’s distance apart, the Slayer flicked out a quick, swatting jab that pawed down on the spear’s body, just behind the blade. Stunned, the guard tried to jerk her weapon back out of Buffy’s grasp, only for the Slayer to tug back before letting go, causing the guard to stumble, and Buffy leapt to dive once more over the women blocking her path to the exit.
Outside, Buffy saw that she had arrived at a long, downward-sloping bridge that led across a large estuary of a colourful, mountainside lake. Not stopping to absorb the scenery. The Slayer continued to run down the path to her freedom. She’d strode across the bridge when a flash of some bright glittery magic proffered in front of her, causing her to feet scuffle to a stop.
“Stop!” called a voice, and Buffy raised her head to find her path blocked by three people who looked no older than she was. A dark-skinned boy wearing a light-coloured vest top and blue trousers, a quiver of arrows behind his back stood on her left. To the right, a shorter stocky girl, sporting a messily chopped bob hairstyle that is pastel pink on top and sparkling purple underneath. She had thick, bushy hair, and bangs that curl up, which she wore parted down the left. Her skin was tanned and she had pink eyes topped with long eyelashes and thick curved brows. She wore a dark purple, sleeveless leotard, which stopped at her mid-thigh and lay underneath a light purple tunic with a blue diamond clasp. On her feet were a pair of matching purple boots decorated with white moons on the front and soles, light blue wings on each side, and multiple light blue points. She has light blue fingerless gloves and a long white glove on her left arm. Around her neck was a sparkling blue cape shaped like wings, attached to a circular plate on her left shoulder.
Finally, in the centre stood a slightly taller girl with a slender frame, pale tan skin, dark blonde hair tied into a high ponytail, blue-grey eyes, and narrow brown eyebrows. She wore a long-sleeved white turtleneck with pointed sleeves, and red accents worn over a red jacket with quarter-length sleeves, and a popped beige collar. She also wears grey leggings and a brown belt with a golden wing, a symbol. From behind her back, the girl drew out a longsword with a golden hilt, a turquoise-coloured opal embedded in it. Buffy saw that the blade was light blue with some strange markings running down it.
“Where are you running?” the woman called.
“Away from here,” Buffy replied, “and if you have any sense of self-preservation, you’d get out of my way.”
The taller woman took a battle stance, sword at the ready. “You’re surrounded, and you’re not going anywhere. We don’t want to hurt you, we just need to ask you a few questions.”
“What about?” Buffy shot back, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
“Well for starters, who are you?”
“What’s your name?” chimed in the dark-skinned boy, in a noticeably less confrontational way.
“And where did you come from?” came the shorter, stockier girl her own voice full of distrust.
Buffy hesitated to answer those questions, considering her options carefully before she overheard the sound of descending footsteps down the pathway.
Damn it! She thought The guards have caught up.
She resignedly lowered her fists and replied to the three blocking her path.
“I suppose that’s the best way to resolve things. I have some questions of my own that need answering too.”