The Only Way || She-Ra

Chapter 12: The Secret Weapon

"No, no, no!" Entrapta shouted, racing around her makeshift lab, flipping switches and hitting things with her wrench when they would spark.

Upon hearing all the noise, Bow, who had fallen asleep in the hallway, shot up and barreled into the room. "What's happening?"

"Get down!" Entrapta shouted, taking cover herself under one of the desks. Bow fell to his stomach, curled into a protective position and holding his head in his hands.

The portal in front of them was making a high pitched ringing sound, growing in frequency, and was sending sparks into the air. The middle of it was flickering at random. 

"How do you turn that thing off?" Bow shouted over the noise.

"I think it'll do that itself!" She yelled back. Just as she did, the portal sent out a wave of energy, creating a loud boom, before shutting down.

Bow looked up, breathing heavily. His ears were ringing and he had the worst headache of his life but he was happy to see both him and Entrapta were unharmed.

"Time travel test seven...inconclusive," Entrapta said groggily into her recorder. "Portal could not withstand a complete jump."

Bow rubbed his ears, examining the lab. Luckily the portal frame itself hadn't been damaged but some of the surrounding parts and papers were singed from the heat of the blast.

"What was wrong this time?" Bow asked, not realizing he was shouting.

"Im not sure," Entrapta responded just as loudly. "I thought the machine would've been able to handle the force of the time flow. When I pushed into the stream, the portal was fine, but it couldn't push through the barrier to the other side."

Bow nodded. He only really understood half of what Entrapta was saying. His brain had been so preoccupied with the mechanics of everything that he didn't have much time to ponder on the movement of time itself.

Through their research, and Catra's retelling of her experiences, they were able to find out that time was indeed all around them. The portal itself just acted as a gateway into the stream, opening a hole from one moment to another. They weren't controlling it so much as surfing it. The problem was just not getting drowned in the waves, these ones being made of pure light matter instead of water.

"Do you think we need a greater power source?" Bow tried to be helpful. "We have some expeditions scheduled tomorrow to scavenge a ruin near Alwyn. Maybe we can find something useful there."

"I don't need more technology," Entrapta said, tapping her wrench on the table distractedly. "I have more than enough. I just need a different perspective. Someone who's studied portals just as long as I have."

Bow figured out where this was going. "You don't mean Hordak."

"He was my lab partner," Entrapta defended. "He and I made more progress with inter-dimensional travel than I've been able to ever replicate."

"Maybe we can do something about that," Someone interjected. Bow turned to see 6-32 standing in the doorway.

"Do you think you could bring a message to Hordak?" Entrapta asked excitedly.

"It's possible..." 6-32 trailed off when he saw the look Bow was giving him. "Maybe. I mean, honestly I really don't know actually."

Bow turned to Entrapta sincerely. "We'll figure something out but let's just consider all the options first, alright?"

Walking away, he pulled 6-32 into the hallway. "Can we talk for a moment?"

"We're talking right now."