Princess Glimmer and the Day of Many Choices: Follow Catra to the portal world (33/?)
"CATRA!" Glimmer cried, and - just a moment before the portal closed behind her lover - grabbed Adora's hand and teleported the two of them into the closing portal.
"No!" Perfuma gasped, white in her face.
"Well then…" Corrupted Catra said, looking at Shadow Weaver with downright gleeful expression. "Seems like we have some catching up to do, mommy."
- - -
"Catra!" Glimmer yelled the moment they materialised, but no one answered.
"Where is she?" Adora gasped, holding Glimmer's hand tightly.
"I don't know." Glimmer gently let go of Adora's hand. "Let's figure out where we are."
She summoned an orb of light and they looked around. They were surrounded by crystal, sparkling and bright in Glimmer's light. But at the same time there was something wrong to the way the light fell.
"Brightmoon…" Adora said, voice shivering.
"Brightmoon," Glimmer grimly confirmed. "Or whatever shadow of it we will find."
She started to walk along the corridor, with Adora following her
"Last time I was here, this place was perfect…." Adora said with low voice.
"No, it wasn't," Glimmer muttered, walking with brisk steps without looking at Adora.
"Your parents were still together…" Adora mumbled. "The three of you were happy. The Horde had not destroyed everything… until I came and took your…"
"I know!" Glimmer snarled. "I know what happened. You told me. And I know you will twist it to make it your fault somehow."
"It was my fault," Adora insisted. "If I hadn't looked for you and Bow, Angella would not have…"
"…stopped you from sacrificing yourself," Glimmer retorted. "Which is the only thing your fucking guilty consciousness will accept, isn't it?"
Adora gave her a hurt look.
"Glim, I try to apologise here."
"Well, maybe I don't want you to," Glimmer snarled. "Maybe I don't want to accept that responsibility."
Adora said nothing. After a moment, Glimmer took a deep breath.
"Sorry, Adora," she muttered. "I'm on edge and I take it out on you. Again. Sorry."
"It's OK," Adora mumbled, not looking at her lover.
"It's not," Glimmer sighed. "The truth is, I'm scared of what we will find here."
"Maybe your father…" Adora begun, but Glimmer violently shook her head.
"You don't get it," she spat. "Sorry, Adora, but that's the truth. You have never got it."
"Got what?" Adora asked, bewildered.
"Me," Glimmer said. "You think of me as that perfect, magical girl that saved you from the Horde and brought you to a place full of rainbows and waterfalls."
"That's what happened," Adora protested.
"And you blame yourself for ruining it," Glimmer went on without taking any notice of the interruption, "which was absurd before and even more so now when we met Horde Prime. He made Hordak what he was. He started the war."
"I know that," Adora said. "I just…"
"'Should have made more to stop it'," Glimmer said with mocking voice, causing Adora to flinch. "Sing a different tune for once, hero."
"Glimmer, what are you saying?" Adora whispered, eyes full of tears.
"That perhaps I never wanted you to stop the war," Glimmer said, voice full of self loathing. "That perhaps I never wanted to be the happy little mommy's girl you saw in the Portal world."
Adora stared at her.
"I never got a say," Glimmer snarled. "Neither of us did. I was born into war just as the rest of us. But if I had had a choice… I would have chosen war. I would have chosen all that death, all that strife, all of the Horde piece by piece destroying our world. And do you know why?"
Adora numbly shook her head.
"Because then I could win," Glimmer whispered. "Because I needed a great enough foe to make my victory count. How fucked up is THAT?"
"Glimmer…." Adora tried.
"That's who I am," Glimmer spat. "You think you are bad because you were not enough of a hero. Well, I wanted a whole world plunged into a generational war just to prove that I'm not my mother. How is that for a monster?"
"But you didn't cause the war either," Adora gently said. "Even if you think of yourself that way…"
"You don't get it," Glimmer forcefully interrupted. "This world, this place… whatever it is. It's a place for second chances, right?"
"Um, I guess…?" Adora begun.
"Like, Catra had her little dorm room fantasy with the two of you back in the Horde," Glimmer interrupted. "And mom had the dollhouse idea of a happy family with dad alive and me and Bow as her cute little dolls."
"I don't…" Adora tried.
"Well," Glimmer shot back. "We're here. We are in the portal world version of Brightmoon. What do you think my messed up wish fulfilment looks like?"
She more or less dragged Adora into the throne room, glaring at the short figure who sat on the throne, regarding them with an amused expression.
"My, my, my," Evil Queen Glimmer said from her throne. "What do we have here?"
This one is for @jidblogger :-)
Part 32 is here: https://baggebythesea.tumblr.com/post/727960676590600192/portal-world-episode-next-installment-will-beup
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