’What?!' Hordak yelled at his three evildoers, who were now gathered at the base of the steps in his throne room. 'How could you let something like this happen... again... and again and again?!'
'Do forgive us, mighty one!' Shadow Weaver pleaded. 'It will not happen again.'
'That's what you said last time! And all the times before that, as well! Maybe I need to teach you all a little lesson involving a trapdoor!'
'No!' They all said together.
Catra walked forward. 'Please, just give us one last chance, I'm sure we can produce at least one member of the Rebellion.'
Hordak thought about this for a moment. 'Fine. One final chance, but that's it. One more mistake and you'll be cleaning the entire Fright Zone with a toothbrush!'
'We shall set about our task immediately.' Shadow Weaver said.
As Catra, Scorpia and Shadow Weaver went to leave, Hordak called after his witch.
'Weaver, you stay behind.'
She slowly turned around to face him, knowing that she was more than likely in trouble for bungling her chance at capturing She-Ra.
'I'm disappointed in your efforts this time.' he told her. 'The best you could come up with was a bunch of stupid pebbles?'
'I... it did provide a distraction though, did it not?'
'Maybe so, but the point is that they still got away!' He yelled, angrily thumping a fist on the arm of his throne.
The cloaked figure stared at the ground.
'I will do better in the future, mighty Hordak.'
'I'm not so sure on that, Weaver. You've said that many times before, yet your magic seems to keep failing.'
'I apologize profoundly for my past mishaps but-'
'But nothing! You're old fashion magic seems to be of less and less use to the Horde! Our science and technology is by far more superior.'
Shadow Weaver bit her lip to hold back all the nasty things she felt like screaming to Hordak.
'It still gets most things done!' She hissed through clenched teeth.
'Not the important things it doesn’t! Not like capturing Adora!'
Weaver's fuse was growing shorter and shorter.
'Maybe if we could just take our main focus off Adora for just a little while we could get more things done!' She snapped back. As soon as the words left her mouth she knew it was a mistake.
'You dare say that to me, witch?!' Hordak yelled, rising from his throne. Shadow Weaver's heart skipped a beat.
'I did not mean that! I'm sorry-'
'You meant it, don't try to lie your way out of it!' It didn't escape his notice that she had begun to tremble.
'Please Hordak... please have mercy. You know I fear you, I promise my magic will not fail you again.'
'Again you lie to me, Shadow Weaver. I can sense the uncertainty in your voice.' He walked down the steps to where she was standing. The mistress of dark magic wished the ground would just open up and swallow her.
'I should take away your powers this instant!' He said, transforming his arm into a cannon-like device and aimed it at her. Shadow Weaver fell to her knees, her eyes wide. 'Please don't do this, Hordak... I beg of you!'
He stood over her quivering body for a few moments, then roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, transforming his arm back to normal as he did so.
'Be careful what you say next time.' He warned. 'Now get out of my sight.'
Shadow Weaver did as she was told, quickly retreating to Horror Hall, still a little nervous over how close she had come to losing her powers. Her heart beat faster as she felt fear, rage and shock well up inside of her. It had been years since she had first gotten involved with the Horde, and Hordak had hated the idea of using mere magic right from the start. They'd often argue over which is more powerful- sorcery or science. It seemed to Shadow Weaver that she alone was the only member of the Horde who stood up for sorcery... and she was right.
'Machinery, technology... magic will one day prove all these wrong.' She muttered to herself. How she loathed the very thought of being compared to machines. 'If only I could take on Hordak with my sorcery.' But she knew that this would be nigh impossible- he could take away her powers in the blink of an eye, and had just nearly proven it.
Weaver thought and thought for a way to show Hordak just how powerful her sorcery could be, but to no real avail. There were certainly many evil things she would love to do to Hordak, such as blasting him into the next galaxy or destroying his machines...
'That's it!' She cried with delight. 'So, mighty Hordak, we'll see just how powerful your technology can be without electricity!' Poofing a miniature model of The Fright Zone up in front of her, which was suspended in mid-air, the evil sorceress began to cast a spell. In a few seconds, most of the lights around The Fright Zone had gone out and the strange buzzing noise that always lingered ceased. 'There.' She hissed. 'Now we shall see the true reliability of this rusty old tin!'
In a very dark throne-room, Hordak had called all his main henchmen to him, resorting to putting up a few flaming torches around the place.
'There seems to have been some sort of problem with the electricity,' he told his minions, 'so until our workers figure out what exactly is wrong, we'll need to improvise a little. Shadow Weaver, I'll have to depend on you for a while. It appears that we'll need a bit sorcery to help get us through this.'
Shadow Weaver nodded, grinning evilly under her hood.
'My pleasure, Hordak.'
'As for the rest of you,' he continued, 'we'll have to lay off most of our attacks, until the magic kicks in, at least. Maybe stick to attacking simple peasants with your laser guns.'
'Damn... not even a little attack on the rebels?' Catra asked, pouting.
'I said 'no'!' Hordak replied, firmly. 'Until we get the power back on, we'll just have to make do. Dismissed.'
Everyone turned and walked away, some more angry than others. But not Shadow Weaver. She was snickering quietly, knowing she could make this power shortage go for at least a week, maybe even longer. She would draw it out for as long as it took to get Hordak to realize just how wrong he was to rely on science so heavily.
After an entire week with no electricity whatsoever, Hordak was depending more and more on Shadow Weaver. Each day she had to use her magic more and, though not having to use it to its full extremes, all this work was wearing her out.
All of a sudden, Hordak's voice came through Shadow Weaver's communicator, awakening her from a deep, peaceful sleep.
'Shadow Weaver, you must come back to the Fright Zone this instant!'
Groaning, she got up in bed and pulled the gadget out of her robes.
'Yes, mighty one.' She said, groggily. 'I shall be there in a moment.'
'She-Ra has just come and freed at least two dozen slaves and she's not stopping there! She's just entered-'
'I understand.' She replied, getting up.
Weaver appeared in front of Hordak a puff of reddish smoke. As usual, She-Ra had gotten past a multitude of Horde troopers. She now turned her attention to the two figures that stood before her. 'Let these people go, Hordak! They have done nothing to hurt you!'
'Without slaves I have no one to work in my mine shafts or make repairs!' Hordak snorted back. 'Those people aren't going anywhere! Get her, Weaver!'
Shadow Weaver went to work in an instant, putting her shadow coils into action. They shot from her hands like dark snakes, and over to She-Ra, binding her arms tight against her body. Weaver poofed up in front of She-Ra, watching the struggle. After much effort, though, the heroine managed to break free.
Shadow Weaver clenched her fists, her eyes narrowed.
'That's just the tip of the iceberg!' She yelled, shooting powerful bolts of magic from her fingertips at She-Ra. Each time the heroine just managed to dodge them. Then she pulled out her ever-present sword of protection.
'Sword to shield!' She instructed, and in a flash she was holding her defense mechanism. Shadow Weaver was getting more and more angry, as was her master. As Weaver circled She-Ra looking for an opening, the impatient Hordak stood up and fired his cannon. She-Ra looked around just in time and reflected it off her shield. Even though it had been put off-course, the blast did manage to hit someone. Shadow Weaver screamed as the bolt penetrated her mid-section, knocking her flat on her back. She lay on the floor, unconcious.
She-Ra and Hordak both stared, their eyes widened, at the motionless heap lying in a pool of blood. Hordak was enraged- without Shadow Weaver, how on Etheria would he be able to keep The Fright Zone under control whilst the electricity was gone? The entire future of The Fright Zone could be at steak! She-Ra was about to challenge Hordak, but he shot a blast at her. She jumped to the side, but in her haste, landed with her leg in a twisted position under her. She screamed as her ankle crunched. She whistled for Swift Wind, who was within earshot and came running. Hordak raised his 'arm' and fired a shot. She-Ra rolled to the side just in time, and Swift Wind flew in through a large window. Before Hordak could fire again, She-Ra wrapped her arms tightly around the base of Swifty's neck, and the stallion flew out the same way he came in, with her dangling from him. Hordak fired several more shots, not one hitting his target. He cursed, and walked quickly over to where his sorceress lay. He shoved her lightly with his foot a couple of times, but he got no response. He knelt down and held her wrist- her pulse was extremely weak. He could see the wound better now through the tear it had made in her clothing. Sighing, he pulled out his communicator and called for assistance. A few seconds after he signed off, a trooper came in to take Weaver to the medical centre.
Quite sometime later, a very weak Shadow Weaver finally opened her eyes in a hospital bed. She didn't recognize her surroundings at first, but after a few seconds noticed it was the medical centre. It was dimly lit with torches, much like Hordak's throne-room. The next thing she noticed was the tightness around her middle. Weaver correctly assumed it was a bandage. It didn't take very long at all for her eyes to adjust to the rough lighting, which was blocked as Hordak bent down over her. This suprised her a little- it was very quiet, she thought she had been alone.
'What happened?' She asked him, her voice no more than a whisper.
'She-Ra reflected my blast onto you and almost escaped with those slaves. She certainly managed to destroy a lot of my troopers, as well.'
'Damn... how long ago was that?'
'Yesterday.'
Shadow Weaver blinked a few times. Had it really been that long? She tried to sit up, but winced in pain as she did so.
'I'm not a doctor, but I'd advise you not to try that.' Hordak commented. 'You have a few broken bones, and if it wasn't for your sorceress body's advanced healing properties, you'd probably be dead!'
Weaver glanced at where the wound had been inflicted. One of the nurses had roughly sewn the hole in her robe up with white cotton, and there was a large patch of dry blood.
'They said it will be a few days before you completely recover.' Hordak went on to say. 'For the duration of that, The Fright Zone will be very vulnerable without your magics to improvise for the power. No one's been able to fix that damn electricity yet.'
Shadow Weaver had forgotten about that. Now that she was so badly wounded, she was too weak to provide magic for the Fright Zone, or anything else for that matter. 'I'm sure they shall have it working soon, Great One.'
'Yes, well, some of the threats I made to the electricians certainly got them onto the job, anyway.'
She nodded. 'And how long have you been here?'
Hordak tilted his head slightly. 'About half an hour or so.'
'I see.' Shadow Weaver sighed. She felt so tired. Hordak went on to inform her of She-Ra's escape, but she didn't feel like listening. She nestled her head into the thin pillow, and closed her already exhausted eyes. She didn't have the will power to keep them open any longer.
'...And so yet again she managed to get away from us. But next time-' Hordak stopped when he saw that the injured member of the Horde was asleep. 'Weaver are you listening to me?!' He yelled. He shook her a little, but got no response. Hordak stood up and immediately called for the doctor.
Soon, an old man in a white jacket with a stethescope haning around his neck appeared. He examined Shadow Weaver for a few minutes.
'Will you hurry up and figure out what's wrong with her?!' Hordak yelled.
'She's gotten much, much worse- I'm not sure there's anything I can do.'
'Well do something, you stupid idiot, you're a doctor!' he yelled.
'She's slipped into a coma, Mighty Hordak. There's nothing anyone can do to wake her! And in her condition I... I'm not sure that she'll make it through the night.' The trembling physician replied.
'If she dies, the entire Fright Zone will go to the dogs!' Hordak fumed and flung him across the room. He approached Shadow Weaver's bed. Once more he checked her pulse- it was now weaker than ever. He sat down in the seat where the now unconscious doctor had been sitting and held her sweaty hand, pleading with her still body.
'Come on, damn it, The Fright Zone won't make it through this power-out without you, Weaver!' No response. Hordak rubbed the back of his neck. He had to get some sort of reaction out of her, but how? 'Perhaps I should consider you a lost cause... what about your powers? I should just take them away from you now! After all, you did let me down very badly!' He released a dark fog from a device his arm transformed into, and it hovered over her. But still she didn't move. Sighing, he moved the fog away and his arm went back to normal- it had been an empty threat. For three hours he continued to make more such threats, plead, rage and try to persuade. But despite all of his efforts, she didn't even lift a finger. Hordak grew tired as the morning became nigh. He gently stroked Shadow Weaver's hand, and fell asleep, his hand still clasped around hers, as it had been for the past three hours.
Back to Shadow Weaver- the best villain ever!
