Chapter Text
The light was strong. Squint. Adjust. Reconditioning room 449-2A. The screen was blank. Stand. Unable to stand. Straps.
The screen was on. Processing.
Processing.
Processing.
Function activated. Obey Horde Prime.
Stand. Follow units. Decontaminate. Injection. Collar. Weapon.
Wait.
Wait.
Board transport. The screen was on. Exoplanet (88705) Etheria. Units deployed.
Atmospheric entry. Heat. Pressure. Darkness.
Transport returned. Alone. Stand. Unable to stand.
Weakness.
Weakness.
Infirmary. Table. Function end. Injection-
“I see you can’t even die properly little brother. I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Horde Prime.
“But perhaps this will work to my advantage-I may have a use for you yet.”
Function activated. Obey Horde Prime.
Follow. Assist.
“What I saw intrigues me. A…princess who managed to build a working portal on this tiny backwater. One who worked for the Horde.
“These other princesses are willfully ignorant, childishly disobeying their betters. But are essential to the weapon- you can see my problem, little brother?”
Lips pulled back. Green teeth. Sharp.
“Why deal with the unruly masses when perhaps a more subtle approach is warranted? Ah, Catra.”
Etherian.
“Wait, is that really?”
Claw tipped finger pointing.
“Hahaha! This is too perfect!”
“…I am glad you are amused.”
Kneeling.
“I-I only meant-.”
“Oh, it rather amuses me too. However, I grow impatient. And impatience is such a curse. It makes me simply vicious.”
“This plan will work.”
“For your sake I hope so.”
Etherian gone.
“I would say the same to you, little brother, but the words would be wasted. Now to see if our little feline’s claws are as sharp as her tongue.”
Follow. Assist. Wait.
The screens were on. Etheria. Weapon. Horde.
Etherians.
Blink.
Wait.
“The day has come.”
Hand on chest. Pressure. Heavy.
“Let’s see if these little schemes work.”
Cell. Door open.
“-just stay put for once! Horde Prime isn’t Scorpia.”
“Because you haven’t betrayed him yet?”
“That’s not-This is serious!”
“I am serious!”
“We aren’t discussing Scorpia! You have to listen!”
“Why? So you can manipulate me again?”
“Look, I know what it looks like…”
“Then you’ll know why this is a bad idea!”
“It’s our- your only chance! You can figure out something here better than anywhere else.”
“…This is the most technologically advanced cell I’ve ever been in… No! I’m not listening!”
“Fine. Don’t listen. Just take this.”
“…How… how do you have this?! Why?!”
“That’s why.”
“…”
Assist Etherian.
“…Hordak…?”
Hair. Touching. Stand back.
“Geeze, I can barely tell them all apart.”
“That’s enough, Catra. You can go.”
“Hmmph. Remember what I said, alright?”
Etherian gone. Wait.
“…I… what… what happened to you?”
Nothing.
“You don’t remember anything, do you?”
Remember. Unknown.
Function. Obey.
“That’s… alright. I can remember for you, for now. Until I fix this, you, the world. It’s the biggest experiment yet!”
Hand opening. Crystal.
“-So I saw the six sided hex driver in your sanctum- I never did tell you how classy that sounds!- and then the power source for your portal. But the cables weren’t insulated! So I just had to fix that obviously when you showed up! You kicked me out, but a scientist’s lab is sacred- oh is that why you called it a sanctum?”
Device closed. Switch flipped.
“That should do it. We have to run the aux output to the ship mainframe to backup the data… now where…?”
Cord.
“Oh! Thanks! It’s… just like old times, lab partner!”
Assist.
“I mean, well…”
Cord plugged in.
“I miss you.”
Blink.
“Princess, how is our little project coming along? Well I trust?”
Horde Prime. Stand.
“Oh! Just finishing the weapon energy rerouter! Using a combination of the First One’s tech and one of your ship warp drives we can create a stable unstable warp bubble around the runestones-”
“Yes, yes, the details do not concern me. Only speed. Do you require more assistance?”
Face shield down.
“No.”
“No? Truly? The vast resources of the Horde are at your disposal. Perhaps some of my scientist drones? I must admit one of those units would be more… useful.”
Turn. Unable to turn. Horde Prime.
“No thank you!”
“Though, I suppose this unit has… sentimental value, if nothing else. A primitive concept.”
“…”
“And one that can be easily discarded if your project is unsuccessful.”
“What kind of scientist do you think I am?”
“A successful one. And how I hate to be wrong- makes me rather eager to make sure it never happens again.”
“This will work.”
“Then there is nothing to fret over, princess.”
Bow.
“Hand me the multi use omnitool. This will be perfect.”
Follow. Operations Bay 68E-F. Device installed.
“Amazing! Having it all together is really impressive!”
“Yeah, yeah, can we hurry it up?”
“Once I get the signal, I’ll start it up.”
“Are you sure this is going to work? If it doesn’t… ”
“For someone who asked me to trust her, you sure don’t trust me.”
“…Just hurry up, okay?”
“I need you to stand here.”
Stand. Wait.
“Now, this is going to be, probably, extremely disorienting and painful. So… sorry in advance.”
Hand on chest. Crystal.
“Here we go.”
Lever pulled.
Noise. Light. Gravity. Stagger.
“It’s working!”
Pain.
Pain.
Eyes close. Chest burning.
An expansion, like the beginning of everything.
Decanting. Conditioning. Function activate. Duty.
Duty.
Duty.
Weakness. Pain. Inferior.
Failure.
Failure.
Function end. Portal. Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
Thought. Idea. Purpose.
Purpose… without function. Purpose…for… himself…
Hordak.
Etheria. Horde. Fright Zone. Portal. Failure. Body. Failure. Runestone. Rebellion. Princess Alliance. Portal. Failure. Body. Failure. Failure. Failure.
Sanctum. Lab partner. Exoskeleton. Worth. Portal. Advancement. Imperfection. Beautiful.
Betrayal. Despair.
Despair.
Despair.
Blink.
Hunched over on one knee, the pain coursed through him like a wave, overwhelming and cleansing. Leaving behind only himself.
Himself.
He remembered.
“Entrapta?” he asked shakily, smoke rising in lazy curls from the joints of his armor, “You are.. Alright…”
Her eyes widened, sparkled, it was like coming up for air, “Hordak! It worked!” she came to him, tips of her hair brushing over him to make sure he was real. To be honest he could hardly believe it either, “I mean, that was the plan but running the numbers…”
She trailed off, the glow of his- her- crystal soft between them, his claw came up to it as it had often did before, “I missed you too.”
Entrapta stared, her eyes boring into his before her hand, not her hair, came to cover his own. Slowly, with a slight tremble.
An alarm blared, casting the operations bay in red, “They found out!” Catra shouted.
He scowled as Entrapta turned away, “Time for phase two!” the tech princess swept away on her hair tendrils, “Hold tight everyone!” she opened a panel and slammed a button.
The operations bay shuddered and tilted, Hordak grasped for something anything to hold onto as the whole room ejected from Horde Prime’s ship.
It was a marvelous plan, one he could now fully appreciate. Play Horde Prime’s plans against him, use his lust for power and take it away. Hopefully they would live long enough to appreciate it, but even if he didn’t… knowing the perfect emperor of the universe was just as fallible as the rest of them was enough to soothe the worst of his insecurities.
“Hordak, here,” Entrapta helped him to the side where several sturdy pipes could be gripped onto, “Couldn’t quite build real restraints when this place wasn’t supposed to be space worthy!” she laughed and stayed with him, “Oh, you hanging on Catra?”
“Yes!” through gritted teeth and claws screeching on the metal wall. He paid little attention.
“The virus will only give us a short window of escape,” the aux connection to the mainframe, ingenious, “And I couldn’t put in the thrusters or artificial gravity,” no that would be a dead give away, “But we’ll be back on Etheria soon.”
Etheria would have it’s own issues, but anything was better than being on Horde Prime’s ship. Anything. “It was a dangerous plan,” and for what? Him? Hordak looked away, he had always been a failure- to Horde Prime, to himself, but failing her was the worst.
“I know! Amazingly dangerous!” she gushed.
“…”
Entrapta tilted her head, and then leaned around to look at him, “But very worth it! I wasn’t going to leave you behind!”
Oh.
His chest burned, no one had ever.. He had never needed…
He did now.
“I will not doubt you again,” he said like a vow, a promise.
His trust was well placed, when they landed on Etheria and were surrounded by angry princesses it was Entrapta who came to his aid, again, “You can’t imprison him! He’s mine!” surely she didn’t mean it like that, even the others were looking a bit awkward, “And he’s going to help me with the device!”
The boy with the arrows looked a bit disappointed at that, but Hordak didn’t care, “I am the only one capable of assisting Entrapta.”
“Weren’t you like mind wiped or whatever?” Queen Glimmer, “You probably have some tracking device or something too!”
“Oh, I fixed all that!” Entrapta waved her off, “And I looked for a tracker,” she did, Hordak remembered with a touch of embarrassment, “We’re past that part of the plan, pay attention.”
“No we aren’t-”
“Look, just let her do her thing,” Catra from between two Brightmoon guards, “Her device is the only way you’re going to defeat Horde Prime.”
“I am not listening to you!”
“Hey!” Force Captain Adora came between them- strange, her sword was not on her, “You can hash it out later, we’re too exposed out here.”
This was true, they had only brought the bare minimum escort and they all were currently in some field outside Brightmoon. An interrogation could wait until the prisoners were properly secured. At least someone in the rebellion had some sense.
“Fine! But she’s getting the smallest spare room! With no cushions! Or even a chair!”
Surprisingly no one had pressed the issue of him and he was left mainly alone with Entrapta. Or perhaps they had, but the tech princess was rather immune to intimidation as he well knew. Either way, work on the device commenced.
It was a marvel, with the raw materials stolen right from under Horde Prime’s nasal slit, it was unlike anything they could hope to accomplish in their sanctum in the Fright Zone.
Another runestone.
Or more accurately, a device that simulated a runestone- throwing the balance of the planet out and preventing the activation of the Heart of Etheria.
Unknown to Horde Prime She Ra’s sword was broken, the energy could not be directed. He would spend his time and effort trying to hunt her down while they hacked the planet with their new runestone and used it’s power to destroy him and his fleet.
It may have taken him a long time, too long really, to see just what Horde Prime was. But now, now…
It would work, it had to.
Any day now, the device would be activated and all their fates would be sealed. Questions and doubts plagued him, weighing even more heavily on his deteriorating body. Left in a limbo, Hordak could only just follow in Entrapta’s wake.
Not even the end could faze her it seemed, “-with the altitude and clear weather it will be ideal… Hordak?”
He straightened, “Yes?”
She fully faced him, whatever she was working on put aside, “The observatory?”
Ah, she would think of such a place, for the future, “To see the stars, yes. You have spoken of it before.”
“You remembered!”
“Of course,” he sputtered, he could hardly forget anything about her now.
“But you’ve been distracted,” she tilted her head, “You usually hold up your end of the conversation- I had Emily run the numbers once-” an affirmative beep, “46% of the time.”
“What do you wish to know?”
“Oh, everything!” she swirled around on her hair in a dizzying display, “But for now just how to plan the observatory. When we get back to Dryl I want to start right away!”
Hordak’s body stilled, decrepit thing that it was, as his feelings grew too big too much for it. Overwhelming.
But perhaps, perhaps this was supposed to happen. When you…
“’We’?” he choked out, eyes big and wide and vulnerable.
“Were you planning on going somewhere else?”
“No! I just-”
“Good, because then this would be reeeaaally awkward,” she said, rising up to his level and pressing her lips to his.
She was warm and wet and soft and he didn’t know what to do. How to move, where to put his hands. His mind, even if there had been anything to help him at all, blanked and he stood motionless.
Entrapta pulled away, too soon, not soon enough, “…that was awkward, wasn’t it…”
“I…”
She glanced down, expression pained, “I got overeager, without- without checking all the variables and…” trailing off, “You can still come to Dryl…” she started to shrink away.
He would not let her. His hands shot out of their own accord, gripping her shoulders, “Stop, wait!” she stilled, but it was a hesitant thing, flighty, “You were not…” how to explain when he could hardly understand himself, “You were not unwanted.”
“Oh,” she breathed out, relief flooding her features before a confused frown appeared, “Then why-”
Hordak reddened, flustered, “I have… little experience in such things…” as a clone it was supposed to be engineered out, as a drone he had felt nothing beyond his function, as… as himself he had only now begun to…
Entrapta smiled, like everything had clicked into place, “I get it! I don’t really either, not with other people, unless you count the robots. But then you don’t kiss the robots so this is a first for me too!”
His brow ridges shot up, mind going to interesting places.
“So let’s try that again!” she continued enthusiastically, “For science!”