Unexpected Dividends of Portal Experiments

[somariel]

Title: Unexpected Dividends of Portal Experiments
Rating: T/PG-13
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Characters: Entrapta, Angella, Glimmer, Bow, Adora, Catra, Micah
Summary: Entrapta and Hordak are experimenting with portals when their work pays an unexpected dividend. Glimmer and the rest of the Best Friends Squad get called on to deal with it.
Notes: Set post-Season Five. Hordak is also present, but he doesn't really do anything.

Entrapta was practically vibrating with excitement as she ran the final checks on the new portal machine she and Hordak had constructed. After months of running calculations to confirm that creating portals was safe now that Etheria was no longer in Despondos and then a few more months to build the machinery, they were finally going ahead with the first test. It was only supposed to be a small portal, proof of concept as it were, but still. If this worked, it would open up so many possibilities for travel and transportation.

Pulling her attention back to the screen in front of her, she read the status reports as they came in. When the final one had come back positive, she turned to where Hordak was standing next to the power button and said, “All systems reporting ready. Go ahead and turn it on.”

Hordak pressed the button and the power pole flared to life inside the frame. The glaring white light grew to the programmed size and held steady for a little before starting to pulse. With every pulse, the size of the incipient portal increased a little and a pale pink hue started to spread through the light.

Entrapta pulled up the diagnostics on the pad she was holding to check on the stability. “How interesting,” she said. “The portal doesn’t seem to be destabilizing at all, it’s just pulling power from some other source and that’s causing it to increase in size.”

“Do you want me to shut it down?” Hordak asked.

“Not yet,” Entrapta replied. “It’s not destabilizing, so I want to see if I can find out what the other source is and why it’s causing this.”

As they spoke, the portal had grown to fill the full-size frame and the pink hue had completely taken over. There were also little… sparkles?… throughout the pink light. “Oh!” Entrapta cried. “I think the other power source is some sort of magic!”

The portal continued to pulse gently, more sparkles appearing with every pulse. Finally, there was blinding flash and when Entrapta could see again, there was a person lying face down in front of the portal, which had returned to its programmed size and normal color.

“Shut it down,” Entrapta told Hordak, focusing on the person the portal had ejected. The person had large, translucent wings and pink hair. If she was right about who this was, Glimmer would be so happy.

The person slowly pushed themselves up from the floor and then stood up, letting Entrapta get a look at her face. She was right! It was Queen Angella!

Entrapta watched as Angella slowly looked around the lab, a disbelieving expression on her face. Then she froze, a fierce scowl appearing on her face.

Entrapta followed Angella’s gaze to see what had caused her to freeze and found that the former queen was looking at Hordak. A ball of light appeared around one of Angella’s hands and Entrapta had a single second to realize there was a problem before Angella launched the ball of light at Hordak.

Entrapta immediately reached out with her hair and grabbed the former queen around the waist and both arms before she could attack Hordak any further. “It’s okay!” she cried as Angella started struggling to get out of her grip. “It’s not what you think!”

Angella ignored her and just struggled harder as Hordak retreated to the far side of the lab. Entrapta braced her feet against the former queen’s struggles—she was really strong—and pulled up the communications program on her pad. If Angella wouldn’t listen to her, then she’d just have to get Glimmer to come.

:-:-:-:-:

It seemed like Glimmer had only just gotten to sleep when she was woken by the insistent chiming of her emergency communications pad. If it had been absolutely anything else, she would have rolled over, put her pillow over her head, and tried to ignore it, but everyone, even Entrapta, knew that this pad was to be used only for truly urgent matters. So she sat up, set a ball of light to hovering above her head, and reached for the pad on the bedside table. Beside her, Bow snuffled and rolled over to face away from the light.

When Entrapta’s face appeared on the screen, Glimmer noticed that she seemed simultaneously excited and relieved. “Glimmer! Finally!” Entrapta cried.

“What is it, Entrapta?” Glimmer asked.

“You know how we’ve been working up to doing some experiments with portals again?” Entrapta said.

“Yeah,” Glimmer said, stifling a yawn. She really hoped she wouldn’t have to explain the concept of “emergency use only” to Entrapta again. She had thought that Entrapta had finally gotten the message the last time Glimmer had chewed her out for calling in the middle of the night just to report a successful experiment.

“Well, our first test somehow brought your mom back and she’s sort of panicking. Can you come help, please?”

What?! Glimmer thought, staring at the screen in stunned silence.

Then, from somewhere off-screen, she heard her mother’s voice. “Glimmer!” she cried. “Don’t! Don’t come!”

Hearing that—hearing the fear in her mother’s voice—broke Glimmer out of her stupor. “Of course,” she said. “I’ll be there soon.”

As she reached to end the call, she heard one last cry from her mother. “Glimmer, no!” Angella cried.

Glimmer put the pad back on the bedside table, then turned to Bow and started to shake his shoulder. “Bow!” she said. “Come on, wake up!” She was not going to be able to deal with this alone.

Bow shifted, rolled over to face her, and opened his eyes. “Gl’mmer?” he mumbled sleepily, blinking. “Wha’s up?

“Get some clothes on,” Glimmer said, getting out of bed to find her own pajamas. “We need to go get Adora.”

“’Kay,” Bow said, suiting actions to words as he got out of bed. “But wha’s goin’ on?”

“We need to get Adora first,” Glimmer said, her hands shaking as she pulled the loose shirt she slept in over her head. “I’m not up to explaining this more than once.”

Both of them were suitably dressed in a few minutes and they left Glimmer’s room and headed down the hall to the one Adora shared with Catra. Bow looked at her curiously a few times as they walked, but refrained from saying anything.

When they reached Adora and Catra’s room, Glimmer knocked loudly several times and called out, “Adora? Catra? Can we come in?”

There was a brief wait and then the door opened, Adora on the other side, looking rumpled and half asleep. She stepped aside in invitation and Glimmer and Bow entered the room.

As Adora shut the door, Glimmer moved over to the couch by the window and sat down. Distantly, as Bow sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her, she noticed that her hands were shaking again.

Adora came over and sat down on the bed between Melog, who was curled up at the foot of the bed in their small form, and Catra, who was laying on her stomach, chin propped up on her hands. “Glimmer, what’s wrong?” Adora asked, concern clear in her voice.

“Noth-” Glimmer started, pausing when she noticed how much her voice was trembling. She tried again. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“Then what is it?” Catra asked. “You wouldn’t have gotten us up in the middle of the night for nothing.” Her tone said You’d better not have.

“Entrapta called,” Glimmer said. “Their portal experiment. It somehow brought… brought my mom back.”

“That’s great, Glimmer!” Bow cried, wrapping her up in a hug.

“But what about that requires getting us up in the middle of the night?” Catra asked.

“I- Entrapta asked me to come there. Mom’s panicking.”

“Fuck.” Catra’s face shifted with realization. “She thinks she’s in enemy hands.”

“Yeah,” Glimmer said, leaning into Bow’s side. “I could hear her yelling for me to not come.”

“And you want us to come with you,” Adora said.

“You mean, she wants you to come with her,” Catra said, her tail lashing sideways. “If Angella’s already panicking, having me show up won’t help.”

“Yeah,” Glimmer said. “I just… I can’t do this alone.”

“Of course I’ll come with you,” Adora said. “Just let me put on some pants.”

“Thanks,” Glimmer said. As Adora got up to find her pajama pants, Glimmer looked at Catra and said, “While we’re gone, can you go tell Dad?”

“Sure thing, Sparkles,” Catra replied.

Before Glimmer could say anything else, Adora came back over. Glimmer and Bow stood up, Bow holding onto Glimmer’s left arm, and after Adora gave Catra a hug, she grabbed onto Glimmer’s other arm. Taking a deep breath, Glimmer called on her powers and they disappeared in a cloud of pink sparkles.

:-:-:-:-:

Angella didn’t understand how she had come to be on the floor in the same room as Hordak—she had believed, when she took the sword, that she would be trapped in the portal forever—but she hadn’t hesitated to take advantage of it.

However, she had only been able to get one blast off before something wrapped around her waist and arms from behind and held her back from attacking the Horde’s leader any further. A look behind her had revealed that Princess Entrapta was somehow using her hair to restrain her. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break free of the technologically adept princess’s grip.

Angella knew that Princess Entrapta had been talking, but she hadn’t paid any attention to the words until she heard Glimmer’s name. Another look behind her had shown that the turncoat princess was using a device similar to Bow’s tracker pad. And then she had heard Glimmer’s voice coming from the pad. She paid very close attention to what the princess was saying then.

And when Entrapta asked Glimmer to come to wherever they were—she wasn’t panicking, she was having a perfectly reasonable reaction to being held by the enemy—she couldn’t help herself. She tried even harder to break free from the princess’s hair and yelled for Glimmer to not come. She couldn’t let them use her to capture Glimmer, she just couldn’t. But Glimmer said that she would come soon and Angella cried another warning before the call could end.

As they settled in to wait—and she hoped that they would be waiting in vain—Angella stopped her struggles to free herself in order to conserve her energy for when—for if—Glimmer arrived. However, the turncoat princess seemed to realize that she would still take the first chance she got to resume attacking Hordak and continued to hold her tightly.

As the minutes passed, Angella found herself feeling confused. Hordak had retreated to the far side of the room as soon as Princess Entrapta had restrained her and had remained there ever since. She could understand not wanting to do anything to her while Entrapta was tricking Glimmer into coming, but why had he not even tried to do anything after the call ended? Was he waiting until Glimmer arrived? If Glimmer used the sense Angella had tried to raise her with, she wouldn’t come.

Soon, however, her hopes that Glimmer had seen sense and decided not to come were dashed by a cloud of pink sparkles. When the sparkles faded, not only was Glimmer standing there, she had brought Adora and Bow with her. None of them were dressed properly—it looked like they were all wearing pajamas—and Adora didn’t even have the sword with her.

Before Angella could start trying to break free again—before she could even say Glimmer’s name—Glimmer lunged at her, wrapped her arms around Angella’s torso in a fierce hug, and started crying into her chest. Adora and Bow were not much slower in coming over to join in on the hug, one on each side of her, pinning her arms to her sides.

And then, as soon as her arms were pinned by Adora and Bow, she felt the hair restraining her arms loosen and slip away. Her instincts told her to throw off Adora and Bow and start attacking again, but Hordak… was not doing anything. If he was going to let them have this moment of reunion, she would take the chance to enjoy it. She shifted her arms to return Glimmer’s hug, reveling in the contact with the daughter she had not thought she would see again.

As the moment stretched on and Angella found herself relaxing somewhat, she realized Glimmer was saying something, repeating the same phrase over and over. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.” She did not understand how this situation could possibly be okay, but as she listened to the litany, she found herself continuing to relax.

Then Glimmer shifted, lifted her head from Angella’s chest, and said, “Adora. Bow. Do you have a good grip?” Adora and Bow both replied in the affirmative. “Good,” Glimmer said. Angella felt Glimmer’s hands shift behind her back. “Entrapta. I’m going to give you a count of three and then I want you to let Mom go. Got it?”

“Got it!” Entrapta said. Then, although Angella didn’t hear any countdown, after a brief wait, the hair holding her around the waist loosened and slipped away. But before she could even start to break free of the group hug, there was a flash of pink light and the four of them were… in Bright Moon? It looked like Glimmer’s room, although there were several changes, including a bed that was no longer suspended near the ceiling. She felt her legs start to wobble and let Adora and Bow guide her over to the bed, on which she more collapsed than sat down.

As Bow and Glimmer sat down on either side of her, Adora on Glimmer’s other side, Angella said, “I don’t understand. Why did Hordak let us go?”

Glimmer wrapped her in another hug, gentler than the first one, and said, “The war’s over, Mom. We won.”

“I- But- How- Why-” Angella’s mind was reeling with shock. If they had won, why was Hordak still alive?

“It’s been nearly three years since the portal incident,” Glimmer said, resting her head against Angella’s shoulder. “There’s… a lot of things that have changed since then.”

Angella was sure that Glimmer was correct, but she still couldn’t imagine how things could have changed so much that Hordak survived the Princess Alliance winning the war.

The mattress shifted under her and Angella looked to her left to see that Adora had stood up. “I’m going to go find my girlfriend,” she said. “See how she’s doing with the request Glimmer made before we left.”

“Okay,” Glimmer said. “Let us know how things turn out?”

“Of course,” Adora said. Then she leaned over and gave Angella a quick hug. “I’m really glad you’re back,” she said.

“And I am glad to be back,” Angella said, wrapping one arm around Adora’s back.

After a moment, Adora pulled away, turned, and then left the room.

As the door shut behind Adora, Glimmer released the hug she had been giving Angella and sat up straight, then placed one hand on Angella’s shoulder, tugging gently until Angella turned her head to face her straight on. “On the subject of things that have changed while you were gone,” she said seriously, “there’s one big one that I need to tell you now.”

“Go ahead,” Angella said. From how serious Glimmer sounded, it seemed like she considered this change to be at least as important as the Princess Alliance having won the war, but Angella could not imagine what it could be.

“Okay,” Glimmer said, taking a deep breath. “There’s no good way to ease into this, so I’m just going to say it straight out: Dad’s alive.”

“What?” Angella said. She couldn’t possibly have heard that right.

“Dad’s alive,” Glimmer repeated.

Oh. So she had heard that right. “I- How- Where-“ Angella stammered, tears rolling down her cheeks as the room started to spin around her.

Arms wrapping around her from both sides in a tight hug helped to ground her as her emotions swirled wildly.

“Easy, Your Majesty, easy.” Bow’s soothing voice came from her right. “Deep breaths. Just take deep breaths. We know this is shocking for you.” Angella followed his advice and slowly started to regain her equilibrium.

“Where was he?” she asked once she felt steady again.

“Beast Island,” Glimmer said. “Adora and Bow found him when they went there to rescue Entrapta.”

“How soon can I see him?” Angella asked.

“As soon as Adora lets us know that he’s been told about your return,” Bow said. “Before we went to get you, Glimmer asked Adora’s girlfriend to tell him, so it shouldn’t be long.”

Angella truly wanted to see Micah now—she didn’t think she’d really believe it until she saw him—but she could understand the desire to not shock him too much, if he reacted anything like she did. So she focused on the hug that Glimmer and Bow were still maintaining, reveling in the contact as a distraction.

A little bit later, a knock on the door sounded. “Who is it?” Glimmer called.

From the other side of the door, an unfamiliar voice said, “Mission accomplished. Adora stayed with him at his request.” Was the speaker Adora’s thus-far unnamed girlfriend?

Before Angella could ask the question aloud, Glimmer said, “Great! Thanks for telling him. I’ll take Mom there in just a sec.”

“You’re welcome,” the voice said. “Send Adora back to our room when you get there. I’m going back to bed.”

Then Glimmer and Bow both released the hug and Glimmer stood up. “Get a good grip and I’ll take you right to Dad’s room,” Glimmer said, moving to stand right in front of Angella.

Angella was confused for a moment, then realized that Glimmer intended to teleport her right into Micah’s room. So she stood up herself and wrapped her arms around Glimmer’s shoulders. Glimmer returned the gesture, wrapping her arms around Angella’s waist, and then Glimmer’s room vanished in a flash of pink light.

:-:-:-:-:

Micah was calming himself down after a nightmare when there was a knock on his door. “Come in,” he called, wondering who it could be. It was too late in the night for casual visitors.

The door opened and Catra slipped in, Melog at her side. Catra’s expression was troubled and the way Melog’s mane and tail were flickering between blue and orange only reinforced that.

“What’s wrong?” Micah asked gently as Catra closed the door behind her. “You wouldn’t seek out an old man in the middle of the night without a good reason.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Catra said, padding across the room to sit down next to Micah on the bed. Melog jumped up onto the bed beside her and lay their head in her lap. “It’s just the opposite. Something’s gone incredibly right.” The lashing of her tail made it clear that regardless of what she said, she wasn’t so sure about it.

“Well then, what went right?”

“It’s not possible to ease into this, so I’m just going to say it straight out,” Catra said. “Entrapta and Hordak’s portal experiments somehow brought Angella back.”

Micah’s head spun, his emotions roiling inside him. “Are you sure?” he asked. He couldn’t let himself get his hopes up prematurely.

“Glimmer said she could hear Angella on the call Entrapta made asking her to come there. She asked me to come tell you while she, Adora, and Bow went to get Angella.”

Oh. Well, that was very definite, if Glimmer had heard her. For that matter, Glimmer wouldn’t have asked Catra to come tell him if she wasn’t sure. She wouldn’t want to raise his hopes prematurely, either. “How long do you think it will be until they return?” he asked.

“Dunno,” Catra said. “Depends how long it takes them to calm Angella down.”

“Calm her down?”

“Angella just found herself in the same room as Hordak and Entrapta’s not going to let her attack him,” Catra said. Micah winced. When you put it like that… “What Glimmer said she heard was Angella yelling for her to not come. She’s panicking.”

Searching for something to distract himself, Micah noticed that Catra’s body language spoke of discomfort. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her arms were wrapped tightly around her legs. Her tail was also wrapped around her legs, but the tip was twitching back and forth wildly. Beside her, Melog had pressed their head into her side and was emitting a low, rumbling purr, their mane and tail a solid orange. “How are you feeling about this?” he asked her.

“What makes-” Catra started with a snarl before cutting herself off, Melog’s mane and tail going spiky red and their purr turning into a growl as Catra spoke. Catra then shook herself and took several deep breaths, Melog resuming their purr and their color shifting back to orange as she did so. “Sorry,” she said eventually. “It’s that obvious, huh?”

“To someone who knows you, yes,” Micah said. “And Melog is a fairly noticeable tell.” After a moment of two, he prompted, “Well?”

“I’m scared,” Catra said. “Angella only ever knew the old me. The destructive one. The one who’s the reason she was trapped in the portal in the first place. What if that’s all she sees now?”

“Do you think Adora would let that stand?” Micah asked. “What about Glimmer? Or Bow? The other princesses? Even me?” As he spoke, listing off the people who would defend her, Micah could see some of the tension ease out of Catra. “You have plenty of people who like and even love you now and they’ll make sure that Angella sees who you’ve become and not who you used to be.”

The two of them—three, counting Melog—sat in companionable silence after that, the only sound Melog’s purring, and eventually, there was another knock on the door. “Come in,” Micah called.

The door opened and Adora came in. There was a large smile on her face. “Did you tell him?” she asked.

“She told me,” Micah said. “How is she?”

“Confused,” Adora said. “We didn’t even try to tell her anything before bringing her back here. We just hugged her until she relaxed enough that it was safe for Entrapta to let go of her and then returned.”

“How soon can I see her?” Micah asked.

“Probably as soon as I let Glimmer know that you’ve been informed about her return. We hadn’t actually mentioned you being alive when I left Glimmer’s room, but I’m pretty sure that’s the next thing Glimmer intended to tell her.”

“Could one of you stay with me while the other goes to let Glimmer know?” Micah asked. “I don’t want to be alone right now.”

“You stay, Adora,” Catra said, getting off of the bed. “I guarantee you that Sparkles is going to teleport Angella right into this room as soon as she gets the all clear, so it’s better for me to be the one to go let her know.” Melog jumped down to join her on the floor as she continued speaking.

“All right,” Adora said, crossing the room to Catra’s side. She gave Catra a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then sat down beside Micah.

“See you back in our room,” Catra said. Then she slipped out the door, Melog at her side.

The door closed behind Catra with a click and Micah and Adora sat in silence until the room was lit up by a cloud of pink sparkles. When the sparkles cleared, Glimmer was standing there, her arms wrapped around Angella’s waist. “Angie,” Micah breathed reverently. “Oh, Angie.”

“Micah,” she replied. “My Micah. It really is you.”

Micah stood up and walked over to her, barely noticing as Glimmer grabbed Adora and left in another cloud of sparkles. When he reached her, he just stood there for a minute, studying her. She had barely changed at all, the only difference he could notice the appearance of a few careworn lines on her face. Then he reached out hesitantly, placing a hand on her shoulder. When she did not disappear, he let out a relieved sigh that was echoed by Angella.

“I hardly dared believe it when Glimmer told me,” Angella said, reaching out a hand of her own and placing it against his cheek. “But you’re here.”

“I am,” he said. Then he threw his hesitation to the winds and wrapped her in a hug that she quickly returned. “I’m here and you’re here and we won’t be separated again.”


The idea of Glimmer having an emergency communications pad is borrowed from zozo's fic a land of holidays on AO3.

I honestly thought I'd said my piece on the idea of getting Angella back after I posted my fic To Recover a Queen after getting into the fandom after Season Four. Then someone on the She-Ra Discord I'm on mentioned the idea of Entrapta and Hordak accidentally getting Angella back while experimenting with portals after the end of Season Five and Angella attacking Hordak because, as far as she knows, he's still the enemy, and, well... My brain just latched onto the idea and started adding to it and the next thing I knew, I was having to write this fic just to be able to stop thinking about it.