Chapter 8

                                    

                                          
Lonnie sighed in exasperation while both Kyle and Rogelio looked on in concern. She had just hung up on Grizzlor, unable to take any more of him yelling at her to give him authorization to attack Frosta's castle.
It turned out that the Horde's forces had made excellent progress since leaving Brightmoon. Not only had they crossed into the Kingdom of Snows but they had also surrounded Frosta's castle in the two days that Adora had been in charge. And now Adora was gone. She and Catra had left for an undisclosed location for an undetermined amount of time - and Lonnie was picking up the slack.
She had told Grizzlor all she could: "Adora's gone out. I'll get her to call you when she comes back." But had that been enough for the Force Captain? No! The follow-up questions had been relentless:
"When will she come back?" 
"Will she come back? I knew we couldn't trust Adora!" 
"How could you let her leave?" 
"Why didn't you stand up to her? A real officer would –" That was when Lonnie had hung up, and when her friends had walked in. The new second-in-command had summoned them because there was no one else she trusted to help her right now.
"I think something's wrong. Adora left the Fright Zone hours ago. She didn't say where she was going nor how long she'd be out. She left no orders and we need orders. And until she comes back, I'm in charge. What should I do?" Rogelio tentatively walked over to Lonnie and wrapped her in a hug.
They were currently standing in the empty throne room and the noise of Rogelio's movement echoed comfortingly. Kyle then broke the silence:
"Well... um... what do you wanna do?" Lonnie looked over at him in total surprise:
"M-Me?! What do I want to do? That doesn't matter!" Rogelio then growled in a language only Lonnie could understand:
"Yes it does, Lonnie. We love you and we're proud of you for getting this far! You deserve to call the shots - and we'll stand with you no matter what!" Lonnie sniffled a little and hugged Rogelio tighter. Kyle smiled awkwardly:
"Yeah... what he said!" After a minute of silence, Lonnie wiped her eyes, let go of Rogelio, and clenched her fists purposefully:
"Alright – let's do this!"
***
Catra could not stop crying. It amazed her that she even had this much liquid in her body. She was even more amazed that she was still conscious which, considering her lack of sleep and nourishment, seemed next to impossible. Then again, she had been put through worse by Shadow Weaver.
The magicat desperately wiped away her tears, determined not to crash the skiff as it sped back through the Whispering Woods.
Catra had spent some time figuring out what to do next, processing the fact that Adora was dead and all Adora's friends, old and new, were about to suffer in a battle of her own making. In the end, Catra had decided to do the right thing; she was heading back to the Fright Zone to stop the war. It was what Adora, the real Adora, would have wanted - and Catra refused to let her sacrifice be in vain.
As the skiff finally left the woods, and the Fright Zone came into view, Catra accelerated as fast as she could.
***
When the recorded transmission ended, all of the princesses went white; some with fear, some with fury and others with total despair. Adora was now in charge of the Horde and she was coming to kill them. 
She had sent her message to Brightmoon, meaning that it had taken a while for it to relay automatically to Frosta's castle. Now that it was here, however, it was too late for the princesses to even consider a response.