You must see now, my queen, why I am firm that you do not pursue this avenue of power. As your advisor, it is my duty to warn you of such matters.

❂❂❂

Alura's body yielded to a sickening crack. "Carmen?" Nell asked.

She turned toward him, panic in her blue eyes as she shook her head. "Get behind me," Nell said. "I'll protect you."

The felinetta gave him an odd look. From what?

Nell wasn't sure. But that sound – the way Alura suddenly stopped fussing – made him anxious. She lay motionless on the sand, crystals tangling in her hair, white on black.

Then, to his shock, she opened her eyes and stood. That should have been impossible – her spinal cord was severed when she'd returned. Alura was paralyzed...there was no healing for her...

She stared at him for a while, her normally-white eyes glowing red. Nell backed away, stealing a glance at Carmen's terrified expression. "Alura...please. I did ask Zeka to become you, so I could know what it was like to make love to you. It was the worst mistake - I thought I could never be redeemed from it. I tried to repair our relationship because I wanted another chance. I have always loved you."

Alura lowered her eyes. The air warped around her, ice-cold.

A strange voice overlaid her words when she spoke. "Foolish child – you are too late to stop me. But, though you overcame my hold, she did not. And now, she. Is. MINE."

A booming cackle broke through Alura as she attacked. Nell threw a protection spell around himself and Carmen, who handed him a yellow badge, signaling him to press it.

Call for help.

"This is a soldier," Nell cried, "speaking for Force Captain Carmen from Fort Endlos. Get down here, you lazy chaps – Shadow Weaver escaped!"

"We'll be right with you, Force Captain!" the man on the other end replied. Nell held the spell in place, but he didn't have the energy to keep it up forever – and Alura knew how to hack forcefields.

He teleported them away. With shrieking laughter, Shadow Weaver threw a blast of dark magic at Nell, but he blocked it with a more minor spell. She kept coming at him, but he could dodge her assaults by sheer experience alone. Nell had once thought there was no purpose to his pain. That he was created to suffer meaninglessly.

However much Nell hated him, his father had not just been controlling him. Instead, he was training Nell for this day.

As tears streamed down his cheeks, Nell's power waned. Shadow Weaver threw another bolt of magic at him, nailing him in the thigh. Numbness spread through Nell's body; panic gripped him as she rushed toward him again.

They had to teleport away from her. Nell couldn't make it to Fort Ammeer alone, but they could exit somewhere she wouldn't follow them. "Are you ready?" he asked Carmen, holding her hand. "We've got to get away fast. And we'll help you get your child out," Nell added softly. "I promise."

She gazed at him, nodding with a grieved expression on her face. Finally, Nell configured the spell needed to teleport them away.

But as they faded into the In-Between, Shadow Weaver shot darkness at Carmen. His hand ripped free of hers, and Nell barely had time to scream before he tumbled into oblivion without her.

❂❂❂

Did you know...

- I intended this scene to be a softer, more-sad-than-vengeful parallel of Shadow Weaver snapping and lashing out at Catra in the S1 finale of She-Ra. Nell is finally putting those physical abuse-dodging skills to use.

Tell me what you think...

- Will Nell be able to save Shadow Weaver? Why or why not?

- What will happen to Carmen, and why?