Chapter 46: The Traitor
Shadow Weaver! Seacat hissed and unsheathed her claws. There was the witch, standing barely out of the shadows, looking at them! Seacat could see her eyes behind the mask, but nothing else of her face. As always, her body seemed to fray at the bottom, floating and turning to shadows. An illusion, Seacat thought. Or hoped.
"Ambush!" Mermista snapped, water shooting up from the ground and forming a whirlwind around her.
Ambush? Seacat gasped. This was a trap! They must be surrounded!
Brain Boy raised his bow, arrow notched, and the Captain drew his sword, igniting it. Entrapta was fiddling with her device.
"No. Shadow Weaver wouldn't be here if this were a trap," Adora said, raising her free hand. "That's not your style," she added, facing the witch.
The witch inclined her head in return. "Very perceptive, Adora," she said in a voice so low, it was barely above a whisper, yet carried through the hall. "As was to be expected, of course, of my star pupil."
"Why are you here?" Adora replied. She hadn't lowered or sheathed her sword, Seacat noted.
Shadow Weaver tilted her head slightly to the side. "There aren't any bots outside," Entrapta announced. "And the scanners I've placed show no movement, either."
"Yeah, well - she obviously got past them," Mermista commented.
"Yes. How did you manage that?" Entrapta asked. "My security scanners should have detected you. How did you bypass them? Did you freeze their sensors?" She beamed at the witch!
Who, Seacat noticed, actually seemed surprised. "Do you honestly expect me to reveal this?" she asked.
"Yes, of course!" Entrapta nodded, her hair swinging back and forth. "You're here to talk to us, right? This would be a good subject!"
"It would certainly help with any claim that you're not here to trap us," Seacat added, baring her teeth at the witch.
Shadow Weaver chuckled, once, in that infuriating manner of hers that made Seacat want to rip her throat out. "I'm here because our interests overlap," she said. "And the fact that I didn't call the Horde guards down on you as soon as I noticed you sneaking over the border - or sabotaging the bot maintenance building - should be proof enough of my intentions."
Seacat clenched her teeth and claws. The witch was lying, but she couldn't yet tell what she was lying about. She knew their plans - which meant either there was a traitor amongst them, or the witch's magic had let her discover this. She was betting on the latter - none of her friends with them was a traitor; Seacat would bet her life on it. Was betting her life on it, actually.
"What do you want?" Adora took a step forward.
"The same thing you want - Hordak's death. At least I assume you're not merely sabotaging his bot guards to sneak into his laboratory to copy his plans, or anything similarly ridiculous," Shadow Weaver replied. Seacat could almost smell the arrogance dripping from her words.
"You want to stab your leader in the back?" Glimmer sounded very doubtful. "Typical Horde behaviour, I guess."
"I prefer to think of it as defending myself against his betrayal," the witch replied.
"'His betrayal'?" Adora looked confused for a moment.
"You're still alive, aren't you?" Mermista added. "If he wanted to betray you, he could just order you arrested - and executed."
Wait. There was something… "Your gem. It's gone," Seacat blurted out.
And the witch froze for a moment, glaring at her.
Seacat grinned in response. Flashing her fangs. "He took the gem away, didn't he?"
"Oh, right. The gem in your mask," Adora belatedly said. "What did it do?"
"It kept me alive," Shadow Weaver told her. "Years ago, before your birth, a failed magical experiment left me… cursed. Slowly dying, I managed to find a way to stave off my demise using a magical gem. But Hordak decreed that he needed it for his experiments, and I was forced to hand it over. He told me that I would get it back once he was done, before the renewed curse would kill me - but I don't trust him to keep his word."
"With good reason," Glimmer agreed.
"Nor do we trust you," Seacat spat. The witch had to be lying. Besides, dying from a curse would be a fitting fate for her.
"So, unless you get this gem back, you'll die." Adora sounded… Seacat glanced at her lover and suppressed a hiss. Adora sounded as if he believed the witch!
"Painfully, yes." Shadow Weaver nodded. "So, you see - we both have a very urgent interest in killing Hordak. You want to stop him before he completes his airship and starts raining death on your lands. I want my gem back before I die."
"We want to end the war!" Glimmer butted in. "Not just to kill Hordak."
"Killing him will end the war. I don't have any interest in waging war - I only worked for Hordak so I could stay alive thanks to his help and find a way to remove the curse on me. I have no interest in leading the Horde."
Yeah, right. Seacat hissed under her breath.
But Adora was nodding.
Seacat shook her head and scoffed. "As if! You're already planning to stab us in the back!"
The witch turned her head towards her, tilting it a little. As she used to when scolding Catra. Which was always followed by a punishment. "Do you have so little trust in your… allies?" Shadow Weaver scoffed, but so silently, only Seacat heard it as the witch took a step forward. "Four princesses. Two accomplished warriors of renown. And you." She made that almost laughing sound. "You fear such a formidable group wouldn't be able to foil whatever plan I might come up with? And you think me as stupid as to risk my life on such a throw of the dice?"
Seacat clenched her teeth. "You're already risking your life. And you don't have much to lose, do you? This isn't just about survival - it's about power. You never liked even the slightest challenge of your authority!" she spat.
"Not from those beneath me," Shadow Weaver replied. "But I'm not facing a mouthy cadet who couldn't understand discipline and obedience - I'm talking to the leaders of the Princess Alliance."
"Technically, you're only talking to a few members of the Alliance," Entrapta pointed out with a wide smile. "Only two sovereigns are present. That would be Mermista and I. Glimmer's the commander of the forces, and Adora is She-Ra, but Queen Angella outranks both. I think, at least - Glimmer was promoted by the queen, so that's clear, but I actually don't know who promoted She-Ra."
Seacat grinned as the witch seemed to be confused by Entrapta's explanation.
"That doesn't matter right now. We need to decide what we do now." Adora, unfortunately, stepped in.
"Indeed." Shadow Weaver was smiling under her mask; Seacat knew it. "As perceptive and decisive as ever, Adora," the witch went on.
"We can't trust her," Seacat snapped, looking at Adora. Her lover had to see it!
"You don't have to trust my word - but you should trust my intelligence," Shadow Weaver said, looking at Adora. "You don't honestly expect me to have come to meet you like this - alone - without having taken certain precautions, do you?"
"What did you do?" Adora asked.
Seacat hissed. "She left a note with a subordinate."
"Indeed." The witch tilted her head to the side as if she were surprised.
"A classic move!" Sea Hawk blurted out, pounding his palm.
"And one that means we can't just kill her and make the body disappear." Mermista, as expected, didn't trust the witch either.
But Adora… Seacat's lover shook her head. "So we either work together, or we all die."
Shadow Weaver nodded. "And with my help, your chances of successfully killing Hordak and ending the war have just increased significantly."
As did their chances to be stabbed in the back afterwards. But as much as she hated to admit it, Seacat knew that if Shadow Weaver had left a note, then Hordak would have them hunted down in short order.
Damn it.
"We're in agreement then." The witch held out her hand to Adora.
After a moment's hesitation, Adora shook it.
"I'll return this evening with more information," Shadow Weaver announced.
"Why not share your information now?" Glimmer asked with a deep frown.
"I didn't take the plans with me, of course." Shadow Weaver shook her head. "I wanted to avoid tempting you to kill me, take the plans and rush your plans."
Seacat scoffed through clenched teeth. That damn smug tone!
The witch nodded at Adora, looked at the others, and stepped back into the shadows. Seacat lost sight of her a moment later, and another moment later, she could hear the witch breathing or moving any more.
She stepped forward, closer to the shadows - but they were empty.
"She's gone." Seacat glared at Adora.
Her lover had the grace to blush - but still frowned. "What did you expect me to do? She had it all planned out so we had no choice but to accept working with her."
But Adora didn't have to shake the witch's hand!
"Whatever," Mermista cut in. "We now have to decide what we're doing."
"And we have to assume that she can observe us - listen to us - with her magic," Glimmer pointed out.
Right. Shadow Weaver had revealed that she had been tracking them. Damn the witch and her magic!
"Can you block her… whatever she uses?" Adora asked.
Brain Boy shook his head. "I don't even know how she'd do this. Perhaps a scrying spell?" He shrugged.
"She didn't have any sensors placed here," Entrapta announced. "But my detector doesn't work on pure magic. I'm working on another version, but it has been harder than expected to calibrate the device since magic isn't as logical as it should be."
"Let's assume she's looking over our shoulder," Seacat said.
And wasn't that creepy?
"So, we need a way to communicate securely?" Entrapta beamed. "Give me a few minutes! And those pipes over there! And the tarps there! And some… Oh, I got it."
Seacat watched as the princess grabbed the material - she practically ripped the pipes out of Adora's hands with her hair - and bent down, pulling tools and some concoctions from her belt.
"What's she doing?" Adora asked after stepping closer to Seacat.
"No idea," she replied. "But it's bound to be good."
"Ah."
Brain Boy looked confused, but after a few minutes, he perked up and started nodding. Obviously, he had realised what the princess was building. Seacat hadn't, not yet, but she wasn't about to ask him.
Glimmer showed no such restraint - Seacat could hear her ask in a low voice: "What's she doing, Bow?"
"She's making speech tubes," Brain Bow replied.
Speech tubes? Ah. That meant the pipes would be used as...
"What did Bow say?" Adora asked in a whisper, interrupting Seacat's thoughts.
"She's making speech tubes," Seacat replied.
"What?" Mermista was there as well.
"Speech tubes," Seacat muttered.
"Speech tubes? How clever!" Sea Hawk exclaimed.
"Right?" Entrapta beamed at them. "I use them to order tiny food at my castle. And I think I can rig up a network so we can communicate safely!"
And she did. In about half an hour. The end result looked a lot like… well, some of those masks people wore to protect their noses and mouths against sand in the Crimson Wastes. If they also wore a mask over one ear. And all of the masks were connected to a central… thing.
"Everyone, grab one mouth and one ear part!" Entrapta announced. "Only one each - I didn't have enough material for two ear parts. And, I guess, that means we'd hear anyone coming or something."
Seacat reached for one mask, but a strand of hair swiped it away. "Not you, Seacat! Your ears are different, so I had to improvise!"
Seacat looked up and stared at the thing another strand of hair was holding out to her. "That's… a bowl?"
Entrapta nodded. "Your ears are very expressive, so you can put the bowl over your head, and we can still see your ears move! That should help with understanding you!"
Seacat blinked. Adora giggled, and Seacat really wanted to kick her in the shin, but Entrapta was watching with that wide smile of hers that made you feel like the worst Horde scum if you made it disappear. "Thank you," she said, taking the transparent bowl in her hands.
"No problem! It was a nice engineering challenge! And my notes on social interaction came in very handy, or I wouldn't have realised that you used your ears so much to convey meanings."
Seacat hadn't been aware of that, either. Well, she certainly used the ears to fool people when gambling, but she hadn't realised that her friends had picked up on it as well. And speaking of friends… As soon as the princess turned away, Seacat did kick the still giggling Adora. Then she put the bowl over her head. It smelt like leather and some chemical that made her nose itch.
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
"Yes!"
"It seems to work."
"So neat!"
"Ingenious!"
"Your ears are twitching, Ca-Seacat."
And it worked. Maybe a little too well - the noise from the Fright Zone was gone, so the voices felt a little louder than normal. As long as no one screamed, it should work. "Alright," she said, her voice echoing a little. "How do we keep Shadow Weaver from stabbing us in the back?"
"I'll stick with her," Adora said at once. "If she betrays us, I'll put her down." The tubes attached to her masks bobbed a little when she nodded.
"We'll stick with her," Seacat corrected her. Adora meant well, but she might hesitate a little too long to strike Shadow Weaver. "But we need more than that." The witch was far too clever, after all. "And we need something she won't see coming." Literally see, in this case.
"I think I have an idea," Brain Boy said. "It depends on Entrapta."
"Yay!"
Seacat winced - that cry had hurt her ears a little. But that was a small price to pay for foiling Shadow Weaver's plan.
And, she thought as Brain Boy explained his idea, the boy had a very nice idea indeed. Seacat almost wished that Shadow Weaver tried to betray them.
"So… I'll need more materials for this!" Entrapta declared. "The stuff here will do for some, but I need more bot maintenance supplies!" She gestured to the scrapheap in the corner of the warehouse.
"No, what we all need," Seacat cut her off, "is rest. We've been up the whole night."
"Technically, we didn't do much for most of the night," the princess objected. "We waited, which counts as resting time, last I checked."
"Not when you're hiding from the Horde and aren't actually resting," Adora said. She yawned. "We really need to rest."
"One has to keep watch, though!" Entrapta said. "I can do that!"
"And work on your devices?" Brain Boy asked.
"Yes!"
"No," Seacat said. "You need to rest. I'll take the first watch." She didn't yawn. "And once we've rested, we can get the materials for you."
"Oh… alright."
Seacat knew she'd have to watch the princess as much as she had to watch their surroundings.
Eight hours later, Entrapta was tinkering with scraps from the warehouse - and from a few 'rediverted' supply crates. And Seacat stretched out on her cot. She'd slept a few hours already, but a little more never went amiss.
"Ca-Seacat?"
Adora was standing at the foot of her cot. Seacat sighed. "Yes?"
"We have to work with Shadow Weaver."
"I know." She didn't look at her lover - she looked at the ceiling.
"But you're still angry with me."
Seacat pressed her lips together. Yes, she was. It was stupid, but she couldn't help it.
"I'm sorry," Adora said.
"It's not your fault." Seacat sighed again and turned her head to look at her. "I just…"
"You hate it." Adora sat down on the cot, then had to quickly jump up when her weight came close to toppling it. "Sorry!"
Seacat snorted, even though she had to grab the edges of the cot to keep from getting thrown off. "You're too heavy."
"Hey!"
"We're not kids any more - we don't fit on one cot any more." She grinned. Adora pouted in return, and Seacat reached out to pat her thigh. And her butt.
"We really don't have a choice," Adora repeated herself.
"I know. And I hate it."
"I don't like it either," Adora said. She was eyeing the cot, Seacat noticed.
"Come on, sit down," Seacat told her, sitting up and swinging her legs to the side.
Adora sat down next to her, and Seacat wrapped her arm around her shoulder. The cot creaked a little but held. "I'm sorry."
Seacat rolled her eyes and used her free arm to reach over and flick the idiot's nose. "It's not your fault."
"That doesn't mean I'm not sorry."
"You shouldn't be."
"Well, I am."
"Then stop being sorry." Really, it was simple.
"I can't. Not when you're so…"
Ah. "I'll get over it. I'm almost over it already." Leaning into Adora's shoulder helped with that. Though… She slid into Adora's lap and rested her cheek against her chest. Better. Much better, she thought when she felt Adora shifting beneath her and one arm wrap around her waist.
"I know she's got a plan. I'm not dumb," Adora said. She would be pouting, Seacat knew.
"I don't think you're dumb. Just an idiot at times."
"Hey!"
"And we shouldn't talk like this." Seacat glanced at the ceiling. "She could be watching us."
"I can get the masks for us."
"No." Seacat grinned and tilted her head back so she could look at Adora's face. She touched her lover's nose with a finger, then ran it down and over her lips. "We don't have to talk about this. Not right now."
"Oh." Seacat felt Adora's arm tighten around her waist and saw her lick her lips, then swallow while she blushed a little and glanced around them. "But the cot won't, uh…" Her blush grew stronger.
"We don't need a cot," Seacat whispered. "Just a few blankets."
"And privacy! We, uh, wouldn't want to distract anyone from their work. Their important work!"
Seacat giggled. "We can move behind the crate there. I'll hang up a sign so we won't be disturbed."
"But… they'll hear us!" Adora sounded scandalised. But she was intrigued, Seacat could tell. And feel.
She smiled and licked her own lips, slowly. "You'll have to be quiet, then."
"Oh. But..."
"I'll help you with that." Seacat shifted, reaching up, and kissed her. That did silence Adora for a while.
Then she grabbed the blankets and led her lover behind the crate in the corner.
The witch returned in the evening. Hidden on the roof, Seacat spotted her approaching the warehouse. Although that didn't mean anything - Shadow Weaver wouldn't show off if she had a way to approach them unseen. And Seacat assumed that the witch had seen them take up a guard position on the roof.
That was the thing she really hated: She had to assume the worst just so they wouldn't be surprised. Shadow Weaver wasn't perfect. She made mistakes - Catra was the best example of that - but they couldn't plan for that.
But even so, with Shadow Weaver approaching, it was time to swap. Seacat was one of two people in their group who knew Shadow Weaver; she needed to be down in the warehouse when the witch started talking, not up on the roof.
So while the witch crossed the road below, she moved back to the trapdoor in the ceiling and whistled.
Half a minute later, she heard someone climbing through the opening. "Seacat."
"Captain." She smiled wearily at him.
He beamed at her in return. "Take heart! We'll see this through to victory!"
She nodded, and he clapped her on the shoulder as she passed him on the way down.
The witch was already in the warehouse when Seacat slid down the ladder they had installed, landing on the floor in a crouch. She didn't greet Shadow Weaver, and the witch didn't acknowledge her either.
Another mistake, in Seacat's opinion. Adora might have mixed feelings towards Shadow Weaver, but not to the extent that she'd forget that the witch had tried to get Catra killed. Trying to ignore Seacat wouldn't help there, either.
She moved next to Adora, her tail briefly rubbing against her lover's calves and thighs, and grinned when she heard Adora inhale sharply in response. And she hoped that Shadow Weaver was frowning behind her mask.
"Have you recovered your… spying device?" the witch asked.
"No. The bot hasn't been sent to maintenance yet," Entrapta replied. "Another day, I think, if they keep the same intervals."
"Project Omega approaches completion. The longer you wait, the greater the chance that Hordak will be out of your reach - literally," Shadow Weaver told them.
"One more day shouldn't hurt," Seacat said.
"One more day of waiting, followed by how much time spent planning?" The witch sniffed. "By my estimate, the airship will be able to launch, operational, yet not completed, in a week at most. Perhaps earlier.
Ah. She was trying to hurry them along. To make them depend on Shadow Weaver's information - and plans. Typical. "That's plenty of time to make sound plans," Seacat said.
"You would think so," the witch replied.
"Yes, I would," Seacat hissed. She felt Adora's hand on her shoulder just as she realised that she had taken a step forward.
"One more day won't hurt," Adora said.
The witch stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "As you wish. I will return tomorrow evening, then."
"Why don't you stay?" Glimmer asked. "We can start making plans and adjust them once we know more."
"I cannot stay here for too long without drawing suspicion. I will not risk discovery for a mere pre-planning session. I will return when you're ready to finalise our plans." The witch turned and walked into the shadows.
Seacat cocked her head, but she couldn't hear Shadow Weaver's steps. She might be gliding over the floor. After a bit, Seacat sighed. "Well, that was to be expected."
"She has a point - if she's under surveillance, she can't just disappear repeatedly," Brain Boy said. Seacat glared at him, and he raised his hands. "I'm not saying she's right - just saying she has a point."
That was the same! Seacat hissed under her breath. "She just wants us to depend on her."
Adora nodded. "She wants to lead."
"That's probably part of the reason she is willing to stab Hordak in the back," Glimmer said. The princess looked at the tarp under which Entrapata's 'communication network' rested. "We shouldn't discuss this in the open, though."
"Right." Seacat went and grabbed her bowl. At least she wouldn't have to wonder who else had worn it before since it was unique. Her friends, though, spent a little time sniffing and swapping. She grinned when Glimmer took Brain Boy's mask, thinking it was hers.
She didn't grin when Adora was about to pick Entrapta's helmet, and vice versa. "That's yours," she said, grabbing the mask before the princess could take it.
"Thank you!"
Of course, since the others saw it, she had to identify the masks for everyone. At least Entrapta marked them afterwards.
"Hey!"
Seacat slowly raised her head at the guard's call. "Yes?" She was just a grumpy, lazy Horde scumbag.
"What are you doing here? We don't expect a delivery?" The sergeant in charge of the Bot Maintenance's gate had come over.
She shrugged. "Administration is missing some paperwork, and I have to check the inventory here." She presented her fake orders. And ignored the urge to pull off the helmet that was squishing her sensitive ears flat.
"What?"
"Someone misfiled the latest requisition forms, and now we need to redo them."
"We haven't used any requisition forms in weeks! Everything's set!" the sergeant exclaimed.
She nodded. "That's why I said - but the officer wasn't listening. You know how it goes. 'I want everything checked! No magazine left un-inventoried!'," she added in a fake squeaky voice.
The guard chuckled, but the sergeant merely grinned. "You need to do an inventory?"
"Yes. So I can tell my dear superior that no, there aren't any forms missing from this branch." Seacat nodded with a sigh.
"Not your first inventory today, right?"
She shook her head. "Third."
This time, both Horde soldiers winced. "Well, we won't delay you. Just tell us when you're done."
"Will do," she said and stepped inside the hall. She walked - not quickly, shuffling, like a soldier who had spent the day doing stupid jobs for stupid scum - past the line of bots waiting there, tapping on their legs. The bots from Hordak's laboratory area weren't amongst them. Not yet. Plenty of time for her mission.
She had to present her orders to another scumbag waiting at the office area in the hall before she could start her supposed task. But afterwards, it was smooth sailing. She could wander around everywhere in the hall without anyone bothering her. Other than her tail, stuck wrapped around her waist. The things she suffered for the Alliance…
She shoved the thought away. Until the guard bots arrived, she had to kill time. Fortunately, killing time was something any Horde soldier learned quickly - you had to look busy at all times, or some officer would give you more work. So she faked counting the bots, the bot legs, the bot cannons, and then the bots again until she saw the first of the special guard bots arrive, quickly followed by the rest of them.
Then it was time to act her part. She pulled the special sheet of paper Entrapta had given her out from where she had had it stuck between forms and clipped it to her board as she wandered over to the start of the line. Once she was close enough, she faked having to fix her boots and knelt down, putting the board - paper side up - down next to her. Even squished, her ears picked up the sound of the bot's top moving in response.
Then all hell broke loose when the symbol on the paper triggered the changes Entrapta had placed in the bot. It froze for a moment, then started shooting wildly.
"Bot gone crazy! Watch out!"
"Run!"
The maintenance soldiers scattered like a school of fish when a shark attacked, some running screaming outside. Seacat resisted the urge to run as well. Entrapta had assured you that the bot's 'no shooting Horde uniforms' rule was still in effect. And she trusted the princess.
She still clenched her teeth when a shell hit the ground close to her and held her breath when she dashed towards the bot. But she reached its legs without being shot at, and a few quick jumps had her on top of it.
While the bot continued its rampage, she pulled out Entrapta's recording device and stuck it in the… where was the 'port' Entrapta called it? Ah, there!
The shaky movement almost threw her off the bot, but she managed to keep her balance and stuck the device into the opening, then pushed the button Entrapata had told her to push. And held on to the bot as the hall filled with smoke and fire. Finally, the device lit up. She pushed the other button, then grabbed it and jumped off the bot.
And ran as fast as she could towards the exit.
She had barely made it out when the bot exploded behind her.
The area was full of panting, screaming soldiers and officers, none of them aware of what was going on. And it was already night time. Seacat had no trouble at all to tell the sergeant she was done for the night, and the officer could send someone else tomorrow, then slip away before anyone could stop her and return with Brain Boy, who had been watching from the closest roof, to the warehouse where the others waited.
And where Entrapta would check the bot's memories on her device.
"So?" Seacat asked.
"Just a second!" Entrapta replied without looking up. "I'm sorting through the memories."
She'd been sorting through the memories for some time now.
"This won't take the entire night?" Brain Boy asked. "I mean, the bot recorded for almost a day…"
"Oh, no, I can compress the replay, no worry. Oh! That's fascinating!"
"Yes?" Adora leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever Entrapta was looking at on her device.
"The bots have standard patterns, switching through them based on mathematical formulas!" Entrapta looked up and beamed at them. "It's so elegant!" She blinked. "Predictable, but still elegant!"
Adora looked puzzled for a moment, then nodded. "So we could anticipate their positions based on the formula?"
"I guess so. It's mostly elegant." And she was back to looking at her device.
Seacat shook her head and sighed - silently.
"We shouldn't have used a bot going out of control. They'll look into the incident," Mermista complained.
"The charge should have destroyed all traces," Seacat retorted.
"And it also destroyed most of the maintenance building!" Sea Hawk added.
"Which means we'll have to find the new one - and find a way in if we want to use the bots again," Mermista said.
"Well, we shouldn't use the same trick again." Sea Hawk grinned. "We'll find a new trick!"
"You mean we'll listen to the witch and trust her plan?" Mermista was grumpier than usual, Seacat noted. With good reason, of course - Shadow Weaver had pretty much ruined their plans. Even if they found a way to get to Hordak thanks to the bot's memories, they would have to account for the witch's meddling.
"Oh! That's how they get inside!"
"Yes?" Adora looked like she wanted to rip the device out of Entrpata's hair.
"There's a side gate for bots."
"Can we use it? What are the codes?"
"Uh… they just walk up, and the door opens. I think. There's no memory of the bot giving a sign or code." Entrapta shrugged. "It's probably safer that way."
"If we find out who is on guard there…"
"Could be another bot. Or an automated system. Which, kinda, is a bot, of course," Entrapta explained. "Hordak doesn't seem to have many non-bot guards, does he?"
"He doesn't trust his soldiers very far," Adora said.
"Oh. He must be lonely."
The leader of the Horde, lonely? And mostly talking to Shadow Weaver? Seacat snorted. "Don't pity him - he's responsible for the war."
"Right!" Entrapta nodded. "Anyway, now here are the records of his lab. "Oh! That's gorgeous! Such power!" She held up the device. "Look at that power plant! It uses crystals! His lab must be completely self-sufficient!"
Seacat suppressed a sigh. "Could we blow that plant up? Like an enhanced engine?"
The princess blinked. "Uh… in theory. But I can't tell from this memory how exactly it works, so modifying would take some time."
Damn. Time was in short supply.
"Oh! Here are the enhanced engine bombs!"
What?
"He's got bombs there?" Adora said. "Where?"
"Well, they're built here… let me check the map and compare it to the log of the inertial guidance system…" Entrapta trailed off and started muttering under her breath.
Seacat didn't bother following her words - she barely understood the princess when she got into technical details. Unless it was about ships, of course.
Entrapta pointed at a section of their crude map. "Here! That's where he builds or has built the enhanced engine bombs. Now let's see if I can get any details…" She went back to staring at a panel of her device. "Oh! He has bots building them! Or he might be controlling the pincers remotely. But I think they're automated."
"He's got bots manufacturing enhanced engine bombs?" Mermista asked. "Then he could have them build engines, too, couldn't he?"
"Yes," Entrapta replied without looking up. "They seem to be standard bots, just modified. I wonder why - my bots are all customised. Most of them. Does using standard bots add greater flexibility? Although… he still has to modify them for their individual tasks. On the other hand, it might improve their morale if they know they won't be discarded if they become outdated - not that I would discard my bots, ever!"
Mermista looked grim. "If he can automate this, then he can scale up production easily once he has enough raw materials."
"We already knew that we had to take him out," Seacat said. "This changes nothing."
"But others could use those bots," Mermista objected.
"We'll destroy them as well, then!" Sea Hawk said.
Between Hordak, his laboratory, this new manufactory and the airship, they would have to destroy quite a lot of the heart of the Fright Zone, Seacat thought. Not to mention that she was sure that they would have to deal with Shadow Weaver as well…
"So… that's a very interesting setup. Efficient, too! I think I'll build my next workshop like this," Entrapta said.
"You found his workshop?" Adora asked.
"What? No. I just studied the assembly line there. But you're right - Hordak's actual workshop, where he does his research and builds his prototypes, must be even more impressive! Let's hope B-Five took a stroll through it as well!"
"B-Five?" Brain Boy asked.
"That's the bot's name," Entrapta replied.
"Was its name," Mermista added.
"Oh, no - I got its memory saved in my recorder, too!" Entrapta beamed at them. "So, once we're done here, I can give it a new body!"
Seacat winced. Give a new body to one of Hordak's guard bots? She had seen first hand what such a bot could do if they went out of control - even worse, the bot hadn't really gone out of control. It seemed Entrapta was a little too impressed with all this Horde tech…
"But not without, ah, changing its allegiance, right?" Adora asked.
"Oh, that's unnecessary," Entrapta explained. "The bots don't really have an allegiance - they just have parameters according to which they act. I just need to edit out all the 'shoot this' orders."
"Is that the same with your bots?" Seacat asked.
"Oh, no! My bots are learning - they have an improving control and guidance centre. The bots here have the same, but they regularly get their memory wiped, so they can't exactly grow and improve. It's really wasteful and cruel. Well, it would be cruel, but the bots can't develop much, if at all, in a few days doing the same things. But it's wasteful - if they were allowed to learn, they could do so much more!"
"I doubt Hordak wants more underlings that can think for themselves," Seacat commented. Especially if he mostly talked to Shadow Weaver.
"Why? He must be really lonely," Entrapta said. "Bots are great, but they're not good at talking."
"Because he doesn't trust anyone," Adora said. "But it's good that he's lonely - so we won't hurt anyone else when we take him out."
"Except for his guards and guard bots," Memista pointed out.
"Yes, except for them." Adora frowned a little.
"Oh, there's Hordak!"
Now Seacat wanted to take a look herself. But the device was too small. "What's he doing? And where is he?"
Without tearing her eyes off the device, Entrapta grabbed a pen with her hair and marked a door close to the centre of the restricted area. "Here. Oh, there's a glimpse into his lab… but not enough to see what he's working on. But that's great armour he's wearing. Very sleek, and… Oh. He turned and the back… it's technological armour! Look at the pipes and pistons!"
"Can you sketch his armour?" Brain Boy asked.
"Oh, good idea! I could try to reverse engineer it!"
"Or we can look for vulnerabilities," Brain Boy said in a dry voice.
"That too, I guess. I wouldn't want to build a flawed armour. Fascinating!"
Entrapta was halfway through a complicated sketch when Glimmer's voice sounded from above, where she was standing guard on the roof:
"Shadow Weaver's coming."
Great. Seacat clenched her teeth as Sea Hawk scaled the ladder to relieve Glimmer.