Adora shifts into planning mode immediately, dialing someone on her pad before the door even shuts to her room that night. When Catra wakes up the next morning, she's instructed to report to General Juliet following lunch. She spends her free time finishing the history book from the previous day, Melog dozing lazily at her feet. After lunch she heads to the front of the castle.

General Juliet is waiting for her, arms crossed and tapping her foot impatiently. They haven't even spent time together, so Catra wonders how she's already so irritated. Juliet huffs at the sight of Catra. "You're late." She scolds, eyes intense as if she can see straight into Catra's soul.

Catra's gut reaction is to be defensive, her blood starting to boil beneath her skin. "Uhhhhm…" She crosses her arms and raises her left eyebrow, "I was told to come after lunch, so here I am." Catra narrows her eyes, mirroring Juliet's body language to a tee.

Juliet purses her lips as they stare at each other silently. For a tense minute neither give on their position; Catra's certainly not about to concede. Juliet holds her gaze for a moment longer before finally looking away. She inhales and exhales with a deep sigh. "Okay… I guess it doesn't matter. Let's get going." Juliet spins on her heel and walks quickly into the castle. "Follow me."

Still somewhat annoyed, Catra trails after her, her tail swishing back and forth as she follows. "Aren't you going to tell me what we're doing?" She asks as they move into the throne room.

"Guard duty." Juliet replies curtly, "Actually let's stop here for a moment." Juliet comes to a halt at the war table. "Please take a seat." She motions for Catra to sit and starts pressing a few buttons on the side of the table.

A map of Etheria pops up, then flickers and changes to a 3-d blueprint of what Catra assumes is Brightmoon castle.

Juliet points towards a large room near the front of the castle. "This is where we are now, and we started here." Juliet moves her finger to the entrance and continues to point at spots as she speaks. "At all times, we have 6 guards on duty. Two are posted at the front entrance, with one at each additional entry point into the castle. Our main responsibilities are to keep unwelcome visitors from entering the castle, and on occasion keep prisoners from leaving." Juliet presses another button to show a schematic of the town. "We also patrol the town and mitigate disputes between civilians."

Catra stays silent and listens, quickly realizing what Adora signed her up for. Juliet had summed it up with her first sentence, though she was missing a word. Boring guard duty.

Juliet clicks back to the blueprint of the castle, "We are going to join another prospect at the garden entrance. Do you have any questions before we go?"

Catra considers the question, her eyes still locked on the map. She finds it amusing that three years ago she would've killed to get her hands on this information, now it's readily available and barely holding her interest.

She realizes she's leaving Juliet waiting, the taller woman once again tapping her foot and staring at her expectantly. Catra clears her throat, her cheeks heating up in embarrassment, "Sorry, no questions."

"Perfect, let's keep moving, we've kept her waiting long enough." Juliet turns the war table off with a few button presses and directs for Catra to follow her.

Catra rises and trails after Juliet down the hallway on their left. As they near the garden, Catra squints and peers around Juliet to try and get a glimpse of the other prospect. She wonders if it's one of Adora's friends, maybe the spunky ice one.

She can't get a good look, but after a few more steps the two of them enter the garden.

Catra turns to greet her fellow trainee, "Hell…" The word dies in her throat as a flash of red and white enters her vision.

Catra barely comprehends what's happening before she's crushed in large, familiar arms. The embrace is warm, and though Catra's internal train of thought is still doing gymnastics, it's not unwelcome.

"Catra! Ohhhhh my, it's so good to see you." Catra's hoisted off the ground by her shoulders, pincers squeezing her tightly. "Oh, I'm so excited. This is great!"

Catra's lips turn up in a small smile, "Hey Scorpia." Her arms are still trapped at her sides, so she's unable to hug Scorpia back. "How's it going?"

Scorpia finally places her down with a nervous laugh, "Good! Aha, sorry if I went too far. I know you aren't the biggest fan of hugs." She raises one hand to scratch the back of her neck, the awkwardness between them tangible. "I'm good anyway, did I already say that? How are you?"

Catra's heart falls at hearing the apology come from Scorpia's lips. It's true that she's never responded positively to Scorpia's over enthusiastic physical contact, but she knows her reactions to Scorpia back then were over-reactions to say the least. "No, it's uh.. it's fine. The hugs are fine." Catra's pitch rises on the final words and then comes back down. "I'm okay I guess, It-it's good to see you too." Catra winces at her own voice betraying her emotions.

Scorpia's pincers come up to her own chin, eye's sparkling. She seems not to have noticed Catra's nervousness. "OOoooooh. I've missed you Wildcat. Can I have another hug?"

Juliet clears her throat, posture stiff. "How about later." She gives them both a stern look. "Was there any activity at this entrance?"

"No Ma'am!" Scorpia straightens her back and salutes with her right claw. "No one has come in or out since your departure."

"Good." Juliet replies. "You can relax." She waits for Scorpia to drop her arm before continuing, "it seems no introductions are needed, so I'll cut right to the chase. As I described earlier, one part of the job is guarding the entrances to the castle. If we determine your abilities are sufficient and you desire to join us, this is the main job you will be doing. Once you have more experience, you'll start venturing into town and even leaving Brightmoon on missions as required."

"Ooh, the dastardly duo back at it again, this is so exciting!" Scorpia says, energy clear in her voice.

Catra notices a dark expression setting in on Juliet's face at being interrupted and remains silent. Her eyes flick to Scorpia and she tries to send a silent warning to not say anything else, flicking her tail against Scorpia's wrist and then pointing it towards Juliet. The taller ex-soldier glances down at the touch and follows where she pointed, apologizing sheepishly when she realizes what she's done.

Juliet's lips flatten into a thin line. "Ignoring that outburst, I'll leave the two of you here for the next hour or so while I check on the other entrances. It should be quiet, but if you get into trouble use your pad to call for me."

Catra smirks, "I'm sure we can handle it." She flashes her nails at the general, "We've been in a few fights."

Juliet gives them unamused frown. "Call me if there's trouble."

Catra's grin droops into a light grimace, "Yes Ma'am."

"Good," Juliet nods at them both. "If you want to proceed, after this we'll do a combat test and go from there."

After confirming they're all set, Juliet sets off back into the building, leaving Catra alone with Scorpia.

Catra shifts to stand to the right of the entrance, with Scorpia already standing at the left. Her eyes are locked on her hands, which she twines together nervously.

The last time she was alone with Scorpia was after she'd been given the broken recording from Emily, when Scorpia called her a bad friend. The two had spoken briefly after the defeat of Horde Prime, but Catra had avoided her during the following party, it was cowardly she'll admit it.

Shame for her previous actions causes her shoulders to slouch, ears laying back on her head. She needs to make things up to Scorpia, no better time to start than now.

Catra finally glances up, her embarrassment getting worse when she realizes that Scorpia is kindly looking away, staring into the garden.

Catra opens her mouth to speak, then closes it again. Where should she start? How can she even begin to apologize for her negligent and abusive behavior? She inhales deeply from her mouth and after a moment exhales through her nose. She can do this. "Uh… Scorpia?"

Not an amazing start, but it does get her ex-friend's attention. She turns as if startled. "Yes? I mean… yes, what's up?" Scorpia twines her claws together in front of her.

Despite the initial warm welcome, Scorpia's words give away her nervousness. She's probably also thinking about their last fight. Catra holds eye contact for a moment before glancing away. "I'm sorry." She speaks too quickly, the words falling out of her mouth. "I'm sorry for how I treated you in the Horde, for not being a good friend. I'm learning, and I'm trying to be better."

Scorpia barely hesitates before responding. "Of course I forgive you." Scorpia breaks her position to finally claim her second hug, this time only embracing Catra for about ten seconds. She releases her with a smile and returns to her spot by the door. "I'll hold you to that though, I've also learned a bit more about friendship."

Catra's pleased to hear that, she knows Scorpia's spent a lot of time with the Princess alliance. "You'll have to teach me what you've learned." Catra jokes weakly, "I meant what I said, it really is good to see you."

"Right back at you Wildcat." Scorpia smiles warmly. "I'm actually really surprised to see you here."

If Catra's being honest, she's surprised either of them are there. Two high ranking and active Horde Force Captains settling down to stand in one place for 8 hours a day. It feels weird. "I'm trying it out, for Adora" she admits. "What about you, is this really the life that you want?"

Scorpia merely shrugs. "I don't know. I love being a Princess. Oh yeah! I'm a Princess now. Anyway, I'm not really sure what I want to do. Glimmer mentioned they were looking for a few extra helping hands, and you know how much I like to help." Much to Catra's surprise, a light blush dusts Scorpia's cheeks, "Perfuma would be furious to see me being the muscle again, but maybe this is where I'm meant to be."

Where she's meant to be… it doesn't escape Catra that they're looking for the same thing.

Her protective instincts kick in, "Well don't settle." She turns away grumbling, "You can do better than this." Her arms cross in front of her chest, her ears twitching when she realizes the insinuation of what she just said. "Well, maybe better is the wrong word." Catra hesitates. "This just isn't what I've pictured for you."

"I know what you mean." Scorpia spares her further explanation. "I honestly need to think about it more." Scorpia breaks her station for a second time to walk over to Catra, one scorpion pincer rising to land on Catra's shoulder. "I appreciate the concern, thank you." The two share a smile before Scorpia turns to step back in place. "I think you can probably find something else too, something with more adventure."

Catra sighs, "Yeah, I don't think this is for me." She leans against the castle wall. "Tomorrow I'm setting off on my Adora-designed road trip, so we'll see how that goes."

This peaks Scorpia's interest, "Oh? That actually sounds super fun, where are you going? I'm assuming Adora's going with you, that'll be nice." If they were standing next to each other, Catra imagines Scorpia would have elbowed her gently in the side.

She shrugs, "Honestly, not sure yet. Adora is still working out the details." Catra stretches her arms over her head with a loud yawn. She continues speaking once she's done, "I'm actually going alone though." Catra pauses as Scorpia shoots her a worried look, "I'll be fine." She hurriedly adds.

Scorpia accepts her words easily, the same way she always did back in the Horde. "Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything."

"I won't." Catra promises.

The two fall into a relaxed conversation, Scorpia telling her the story of what she's been up to since the defeat of Horde Prime. An hour goes by before they realize it and Julia returns. She debriefs them and asks if either would like to proceed to the exam.

Catra passes; this is definitely not for her. She wants more adventure and excitement. Scorpia hesitates and asks if she can spend some time thinking it through, to which Juliet agrees.

Catra wants to tell her to just reject Juliet outright, but she manages to hold her tongue this time. They wrap up, and Juliet takes them back to the entrance of the castle.

Catra is of course staying on the grounds and Scorpia lets her know she's staying at a small tavern in the city. Juliet leaves them at the entrance with a brief and still somewhat annoyed goodbye, and Catra's original nervousness returns at their impending parting.

Scorpia seems uneasy as well and lingers on the landing in front of the stairs. "I guess that's my cue." She laughs lightly. "I'll see you around Wildcat."

"Yeah…" Catra swallows the lump forming in her throat. "See you."

Catra watches as Scorpia gives her a final nod and turns to walk down the stairs leading away from the castle.

As she walks away, a feeling of dread settles in Catra's stomach. She's not sure why, but she's not quite ready to let Scorpia go. "Hey, Scorpia." The words come out barely above a whisper, if Scorpia doesn't hear her then it wasn't meant to be, Catra's holding her up for almost nothing at this point.

Scorpia's tail twitches as she stops mid step and twists her neck to glance back. "What's wrong?"

Catra's heart lifts at her concern. "Uh.. nothing. Just let me know what you decide on, okay? With what you're going to do next."

Scorpia beams, her smile brighter than the sun, "Of course!"