Before I go to sleep, I decide on a small night walk to breathe a little and get some alone time after all this time spent in a pompous room filled with people; but I accidentally run into Scorpia, who seems to have the exact same project. We walk together in silence for a little, and then stop in the middle of the garden. It is truly a beautiful night, and I am still not used to all the stars. The carefully-groomed bushes smell of flowers and leaves, and a light wind whispers in the faraway trees. She sits down on a bench in the middle of an alley, sighs and holds her head in her pincers-hands.

"So… hem… Scorpia… will you do it?"

I am so terrible at starting conversations.

"I don't know, wildcat. If no one does, I guess I will, but there is so much I want to see of the world! And so much I want to do!"

I realise it is the first time I actually see her sad, and though her wholesomeness often pissed me right, it is truly heartbreaking.

"And what do you want to do, for example? Asking Entrapta out?"

"How…?"

"Why else would a woman with no hands spend all her time and energy holdings tools for this loony in a lab? I might be a mess, but I am not blind!"

I laugh and she pulls a sad smile.

"I think you guys would make a great couple" I add.

"This I am not sure" Scorp' answers. "She's too clever for me. I am a little bit of a dummy, you know."

"Mrrrrr!" I fowl, "Don't you ever say that!"

"You are different," she suddenly says.

"You are the second person today who tells me that," I reply. "I do not feel different."

"But you are. You are much… calmer. And nicer. Much, much nicer."

She is right, I guess. I do not feel the urge to scratch everybody in the face as much as I used to. I am getting old I guess. Or maybe the vegetarian regime I am on since I arrived.

"I met a weird old lady in the woods yesterday night, I guess it may be that."

She laughs heartily and slaps me in the back so hard I nearly choke. Some things never change.

"You are a genius, wild cat. If I ever go up there and kill this Horde Prime, I will miss you the most!"

She does not believe me, and honestly, neither do I. She keeps on laughing for a little while, and sighs again. Sometimes I wish I had her view on existence. Less questions in my mind, less guilt, being more straighforward.

"Scorpia, I need to tell you something."

"What is it you have on your complicated mind, wild cat?"

"I…"

It's harder to say than in my head. I get up and prepare to leave.

"I am sorry I ignored you all this time. You… you deserve better friends."

I turn back to run away from the huge pull of guilt and shame and her forgiveness I know she will give me and that I do not deserve, when I feel her grab my hand and bring me in her arms. She hugs me for an instant, and for once I do not feel the urge to escape it. She then loosens her grip a little and gives me the smallest and softest kiss on the forehead.

"It's okay wildcat." she whispers. "You will always have some room in my heart," she smiles. "No go found your dear Adora. 'Cause guess what? I am also not blind."

I have never been to Adora's bedroom and pray I will not have to ask anyone. I wonder what I can say to her. "I love you" sounds dumb after all this time. "I am sorry"? Not enough. "I want to kiss you and hug you and..." all right let's not get too far.

Fortunately I see her turn around in the corridor as I wander around. I guess she cannot sleep as well. I follow her on the tip of my paws, and let her get inside for a few minutes so she would not see I have been stalking her. Why am I so shy? It feels all different here than in the Fright Zone. Suddenly she got… far. Or maybe it was always this way. Maybe we grew too much away from one another and things will not click the way they used to do. Maybe… Stop thinking.

I take a good look around to see if no one can see me before I knock a worried finger on the wood of the door. This move alone drained all my bravery for the night, so when she opens, I have nothing left to move or talk.

"Oh, it's you."

What is that? She seems disappointed.

"Come in," she adds. "I was about to change for the night."

I hear her but I cannot react. All I can see is her face, her lips, her eyes, her hands, her body from the tip of the toe to the top of the head all blend together and how unique it is when it comes to life, and her voice, how my heart jumps when I hear her voice, how I live for the answers this voice gives to mine, and I just guess my brain went on holidays at this moment because I hopped to her, closed my eyes and kissed her now, and it felt good, so good I could not stop, and she could not stop either, she just kept kissing me and I thought "so she loves me, she loves me, she wants me" and all the guilt and the pain and the anger, everything was forgotten for a small instant, there was only her and me and our lips in the dark.

Coming back to reality felt like a second ship crashed, because she stopped kissing me and pushed me back.

"Oh."

She has second thoughts. I guess she thinks it is not reasonable, and she is wretchedly right.

I fall down on my knees. I guess I am weak after all, because words begin to pour out from my mouth as tears pour from my eyes, and everything that gets out is like a stone flying away from my chest.

"Adora I am sorry for everything I did to you. The truth is… I was jealous. I was afraid that if you went with other people, you would see how… how small I am compared to them. And I hated you so hard I wanted to destroy you, to get rid of this part of me that I trusted you with because I felt like you threw is away. Because… you are my only weakness, Adora. And now I see how stupid I was to hurt you when all I want is you. All of you, with your dumb principles and your softies squad. So this is why I got so scared when you met me in the park. I did not want to fall for you another time… Because the truth is, I do not care if we don't conquer the world together… because you are my world, Adora."

I am fully crying now after this terrible excuse of an apologise speech, and every second she stays silent is an eternity in my heart. After a minute I dare lift my head only to see that she is weeping too.

"It's me… it's me… I am sorry…" she bawls. "I should have seen that you were hurting. I should have known better… protect you more… I don't know…"

"No! You were right. I made my choices and they were… bad."

"It does not mean you are bad on the inside."

Saying so, she strokes my iron limb. Not that I can feel anything but it still touches me. She is the one who comes to kiss me now and hold me in her arms. For the first time ever, I do not only feel happy, but also safe. At peace. I could keep going like this forever, cuddling against her, the taste of her lips in her mouth. Bombs are raining around us, the biggest empire of the universe is ready to swallow us alive, and I am lying in bed kissing Adora. I lived my whole scarred life in a citadel, but we could be in the middle of a battlefield with only the light of the moons to shield us that I would not be better.

I did not see myself fall asleep. When I wake up, the day is still young but already grown-up. I slowly remember the events of the night while I fidget for my removable arm. I guess I removed it at some point to be more comfortable. I notice someone has plugged Tiffany back on me. I guess it was Adora. She has no idea I am much more independent now.

Adora. She must have woken before me. I sleep much, as cats do, and I must say I had not slept that well for a while. I stretch my tail, my limbs and my back. Maybe she left for an early meeting with Glim-Glim. This one is probably looking for a way to impose her plan – also called "let's use magic that does not work in space and see what happens" – onto the group. On her impeccable desk though, I find two startling objects. The first one is a small register disk, the same type Entrapta is always chatting at; the second one is my headpiece, repaired, with a golden like where the crack used to be. I put it on, but it just does not feel the same.

I walk out of the room and hang around the corridors but I meet no one. I finally bump into Flower Power in the garden, who bothers to say a frozen "Hi".

"Hey, have you seen Adora?"

She stares at me in pure horror and all the joy I built in a night bursts in pieces. I guess she notices that I am shattered by her reaction, because her voice becomes much softer and what she has to say is not.

"I'm sorry Catra. She left."

"What… what do you mean, "She left"?!"

It seems everything around me is pulling very, very far and I hear only an echo of her voice uttering the fatal words.

"Adora left this morning with the finished portal and some light weapons she took at Entrapta's lab. She took Mara's ship and did not tell anyone. She is going to take down Horde Prime."