A/N: Me, four months ago: gee i wonder what would happen if Adora got sword-infected again and was just, like – all over Catra? *starts writing fic*

Me, after seeing the trailer: oh HELLS YEA

Me, now: *has written most of a fic that will be canon-divergent in T- 5 days* so...

I'm just so unprepared a show that's delivering on its set-ups already, like thank you Noelle this is the dream :D

Anyway, here's my take. Enjoy!

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Catra has to come up with another plan.

It's been three weeks since the battle of Bright Moon, and the Horde's forces are battle-ready again, but the Black Garnet is encased in some sort of force-field they haven't been able to penetrate. Hordak is getting impatient. And so far, all Catra has is a broken First-Ones disc that Entrapta had found before she joined the Horde and is now tinkering with day and night.

"Explain to me again," Catra says, speaking with exaggerated slowness as she paces the length of Entrapta's lab, "why we're just studying the disc and not actually using it in any of our systems? Like, our weapons systems, for instance?"

"Well," Entrapta responds, turning from a work table and raising her welding mask, "Because I tried that. Experiment F37 Alpha 1. It was a seventy-eight per cent failure due to the fact that the disc" – she holds up the welded chunk of green crystal with her hair – "infected all of my systems with some as-yet unknown virus that caused a variety of malfunctions in different –"

"Entrapta," Catra interrupts, stomping over and placing a foot onto the generator next to her. "Translate."

Entrapta's eyes glaze over for a second, then clear again. "It made all of my robots evil," she says, with the same exaggerated slowness. "They were violent towards me, which they're not programmed to do, and – oh! They cooperated with one another is ways they also hadn't been programmed to do!" Her eyes shine. "It was fascinating."

"Hmm. Violence," Catra repeats, narrowing her eyes. "And that's a bad thing to put in our weapons systems, because...?"

"Oooh, are we talking about violent weapons?" Scorpia chimes in as she strolls into the lab behind them. Catra looks over her shoulder to see her putting a claw to her chin. "I mean – I guess all weapons are violent, by definition... But we could definitely use ones that are more violent!"

"But they didn't follow commands," Entrapta explains, walking between them and sitting on her hair. "In fact, if the symptoms that manifested in Adora are any indication, it would seem that the virus attacks key functionalities and –"

"Wait." Catra's ears twitch. "You're telling me that Adora caught a tech virus?"

"Yes!" exclaims Entrapta, clapping her hands together. "Despite your continued instance on using laywomen's terms, your ability to understand tech jargon is improving!"

Catra rolls her eyes. "Whatever! Focus: Adora. Can get sick. From First-Ones tech?"

"Yes," Entrapta repeats. "Well, from this specific piece of First-One's tech, anyway."

Intriguing.

"What does it do to her?" Scorpia asks, sounding – ugh – concerned, because that's just how things come out of her mouth. And Catra once saw her interrogate a prisoner by holding him upside down for three hours straight. She just doesn't get it.

Entrapta sighs. "I didn't get a lot of data on the virus' effects on Adora. Glimmer wouldn't let me open her up to find out..."

Catra's stomach freezes. That would have been – gross.

"...but she seemed physically and mentally incapacitated. Glimmer had to sort of carry her around, and she had very little cognisance of her surroundings."

Catra starts pacing again.

"How did she get better?" Scorpia asks.

"The virus died when Bow broke the disc carrying the infection, which is why I got to put it back together!" Entrapta waves the crystal around in a lock of her hair again, grinning from ear to ear.

"So destroying the source destroyed the virus..." Catra muses.

"Incapacitating the disc wiped the virus from its most recent hosts," Entrapta corrects, though Catra can't see the difference. Entrapta drops the crystal into her hands. "But upon reconstructing it I have discovered that the virus is in fact still contained within."

Catra stops. "So we have the virus?"

"Yes."

"And we can use it to infect whoever we want," Catra continues.

Scorpia sits down on the bench that they stole from the cadet training room. "But how did Adora get infected in the first place? She's not a piece of machinery."

"Her sword is First-Ones tech, though!" Entrapta enthuses. "It spread to her through that."

Catra's heart jumps. This is her chance. "Adora stabbed the infected tech, didn't she?" she says, smirking.

Entrapta nods.

"So all we have to do to take down She-ra," Catra surmises, prowling close to Entrapta again, "to make her too weak to fight – is get her to stab something with this First-Ones virus on it?" Her tail flicks.

Entrapta beams. "That is a solid conclusion, yes!"

Catra straightens. "I think we can manage that."

"Yes, we can!" Scorpia cheers, and she pulls Catra and Entrapta into a hug, because she's always ruining moments like this.

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A long, long hallway. Shadows, creeping closer. The backs of her friends, walking away. Adora tries to reach for them – someone is screaming her name. Someone is clinging to her arm. Claws. Pain. The sound of something shattering –

Adora wakes with a sharp inhale, every muscle pulled taunt and still – a habit formed through years of knowing not to show weakness around her comrades. When they were little, Catra used to have to muffle Adora's nightmare sobs with her hand. Adora stretches her legs, searching for warmth at the end of the bed...

That isn't there. Catra's not there. Because Adora is in the Castle of Bright Moon and not in her old bunk. Obviously.

Bow's snores drift over from the couch, and Adora feels her limbs ease back into her mattress. Bow doesn't have his own room here, which she's never really understood, so he's often grateful to take up her standing offer of bunking in hers, and Adora's always grateful for the company. Glimmer still joins them a lot of the time, but Bow had explained that Glimmer also needed Space sometimes, and Adora is trying to work with that.

It's a work in progress.

Adora sighs and rolls over, staring at the moonlit ceiling. Bow would tell her that rest is important, and Glimmer would tell her that she's safe here in the Castle, but the problem isn't that she disagrees with them. The problem is...more complicated than that.

There's a sharp beep to her left. Adora leaps to her feet, arms in front of her in a fighter's stance. "Who's there?" she demands.

Another beep sounds from the foot of the couch, where Bow's stored his bag. Right. His gadgets. Adora crouches down and rifles through the bag until she finds his tracker-pad. Pulling it out, she sees a pink diamond icon flashing on the screen. It beeps again.

"Hmuh?" Bow rolls over, his eyes still closed. "'Dora? Wha's goin' on?"

"Bow," Adora says, marching over to him. "What does a pink diamond mean?"

"A whaaaaa...?" Bow asks, rubbing his eyes. He leans forward on a pillow and his elbow slips off the couch. "Wah!"

Adora catches his arm with one hand and waves the tracker-pad in front of him with the other. "A pink diamond alert is going off. What does that mean?" she asks.

"Adora," Bow groans, pushing the tracker-pad away from his face and sitting up. "What have we said about using our Interrogator Voice this early in the morning?"

Adora pauses, looks out the window at the moons' positions. "It's only about 1:00 hours. You've never had lessons that lasted this late?"

"I hate the Horde and everything they stand for," Bow sighs, but takes the tracker-pad from her, blinking down at it. "A pink diamond alert means it's detecting First-Ones tech." He sits up straighter, frowning. "And this tech looks like it's in the middle of the ocean?"

"Near Salineas. Wouldn't you have noticed it when we were there?" Adora asks.

"Not if it's showed up since we've been there," Bow suggests. "First-Ones tech is scattered all over Etheria, and now that the rebellion knows we can use some of it, maybe Mermista has been keeping an eye out."

Adora squints at the tiny pink diamond icon flashing on the tracker-pad's map of the coast. "But Entrapta has been keeping an eye out for it, too," Adora argues, and Bow flinches. They'd come across her the last time they'd gone out looking for tech. It had been – uncomfortable. Adora clears her throat. "Why wouldn't Mermista have told us if she found something?"

"We'll call and ask her when the sun is up," Bow tries, smiling at her. Adora doesn't smile back. "You think something bad is happening," he surmises.

"It just doesn't make sense," Adora frets. "The Rebellion isn't focusing on First-Ones tech because we don't know how to use it, we fixed the Sea Gate months ago – why would this appear now?"

"For a lot of reasons, Adora. Something changing doesn't always mean that the Horde is up to something."

She narrows her eyes at him, crossing her arms.

"...though I understand why that would be the first explanation you come up with," Bow continues diplomatically. "But seriously, Adora. We can call Mermista tomorrow, when the sun is up, and find out. If it is the Horde, then it's almost definitely a trap, which means we should definitely not run into it uninformed and poorly-rested."

"But they could be in trouble right now!"

"If they were, we would be receiving their distress signal, and our scouts would be reporting troop movements," Bow reasons.

In a flash, Glimmer shimmers into existence right between them. "The Horde!" she hollers, grabbing one of Adora's arms and one of Bow's. "Our scouts just sent a report that a small unit is moving in on Salineas!"

Adora raises her eyebrows at Bow.

"Okay, okay, don't be smug about it," Bow relents. He turns to Glimmer. "What's our plan?"

"I'm taking a small team with me to intercept – that's you two, Netossa and Spinerella," Glimmer explains. "Perfuma is on standby in case we need backup. Now get dressed! We leave in ten minutes!"

And she shimmers away.

"Seriously, does no one else think this is a trap?" asks Bow, putting his pack together. "Does no one else remember the last time it was a trap?"

"This time, we're ready," Adora counters, pulling on her red jacket and lacing her boots. "This time, we know they're there and we have backup. This time, you and Glimmer aren't going to get separated." She grabs the Sword of Protection from its bracket on the wall and stares down her reflection. "This time, I'm going in as She-Ra, and she will tear the trap apart before it can hurt any of her friends."

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A/N: So, I'm not gonna be able to get this whole fic out before season 2 drops and we find out how Adora being infected goes down in canon. I have this whole story outlined and half-written already though, so it's just going to have to be AU soon. ¯\_(ツ)_/

More She-Ra in 5 dAYS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!