Even though Catra was just there with Adora, visiting Entrapta on her own makes her a bit nervous. Sure, everything was fine when they saw each other a few days ago, but Catra also knows that previous abuse can't be washed away with a few smiles.
For that very reason, Catra finds herself lingering in front of the Crypto Castle. Butterflies pull at her gut, dragging her progress to a halt. It would be so easy to turn away and move on, Entrapta probably wouldn't even notice.
Melog growls softly from its spot behind her knees.
You told Adora you would. It follows up with a soft huff, big eyes staring up at her.
Catra grimaces, her lips pressing into a flat line. She flicks her tail and rocks back on her heels. Melog is right, but she's not quite ready. Her gaze drifts up the castle, to the large satellite resting on its roof. Adora did a great job securing it, it hasn't moved even an inch.
"Alright… let's go." Catra concedes and uses all of her willpower to pick up one of her feet. She takes that first step and puts her hand on the doorknob. Knowing Entrapta, she probably left if unlocked. Sure enough, the door opens easily and Catra's met with a series of long winding corridors.
That's right, the Crypto Castle is a giant maze, how could she forget? Catra sighs and enters the door with Melog following close behind her. Of course she's never learned the layout of this place, she's really only been inside a couple times.
Catra should have called ahead and told Entrapta to meet her out front, but she didn't for the same reason that she was hesitating by the door.
The hallway has five or six additional paths branching from it and Catra lets out a frustrated sigh as she peers down the first one.
On the second thought, if they never find Entrapta then she'll at least have a valid reason to give Adora as to why they didn't meet. She shrugs nonchalantly and speaks, partly to Melog but mostly to herself, "This is a lost cause, we'll never find her."
Melog pushes past her, its ears up and pointed towards the left. I hear voices this way. It brushes its tail gently against her legs and points with its nose.
Melog clearly isn't going to let her off the hook and it leads them down the third hallway on the left. As they walk, Catra also starts to hear people talking. She can clearly identify Entrapta's excited voice, but there are a few male voices mixed in as well. Catra clenches her hands into fists and raises them to her chest as they get closer, could Entrapta be in trouble? Melog senses her trepidation and its fur bristles along its back, stepping gingerly to keep its footsteps silent.
Catra locates the room that the group must be inside; their voices are crystal clear now. Entrapta is clearly laughing at something, but Catra knows first hand that Entrapta can laugh and still be in mortal peril. Catra takes a deep breath and pushes the far side button to open the door, wincing when it screeches open. So much for subtlety. She makes sure to stayed tucked out of sight for the moment.
The male voices fall silent inside the room, but Entrapta continues laughing. Catra steadies herself and then peeks into the room, obviously her cover is blown but she doesn't want her head immediately blasted off.
She instantly realizes she was worried for nothing and all of the tension drains from her body. Entrapta is sitting at a large table, surrounded by little bits of metal and parts. Bow is sitting across the table from her, a large piece of technology in his hands. He looks like he was working on it a moment ago but is now staring towards the door. Hordak and Not Hordak are in the far corner of the room, and it appears that Not Hordak was mixing something in a big bowl, which he's still holding.
A chill shoots up Catra's spine at seeing Hordak. Talk about more bad memories, more bad things that she's done. He's also staring at her, his expression far calmer than she's ever seen on him in the past. He holds her gaze for a few seconds, neither of them wanting to look away.
Entrapta finally stops laughing and glances towards the door, drawing Catra's attention away from Hordak. "Oh, Catra! You're here, good!" She swivels towards Not Hordak. "Are those cupcakes ready yet?"
"Not yet! We're getting close though!" Not Hordak resumes his stirring, "They'll be done in a jiffy!" He stirs faster as he talks.
Hordak turns to fiddle with the oven in the corner of the room, and Catra notices a baking tray on the stovetop. It has twelve slots in the tray for cupcakes.
Catra turns her attention back to the center of the room, where Bow is patiently waiting for his turn to speak. He's put down whatever he was working on and is slowly standing up. "Heyyy there most recent addition of the best friends squad." He walks over to the door in three quick steps, "It's time for your hello hug." He throws his arms around Catra before she can respond, squeezing her shoulders tightly. "This is from everyone."
Catra hesitates for only a moment before half returning the hug. Growing up she did have occasional contact with Adora, but hugs were not something typically exchanged in the Horde. She couldn't even think of someone who enjoyed them until she met Scorpia and Perfuma. She can't say she likes them, but maybe one day. She releases Bow so he can return to the table. He gives Melog a hello pat as well as he goes.
"What're you doing here anyway?" Catra asks as she follows Bow to take a seat at the worktable. "Not like it isn't good to see you, I just wasn't expecting it."
Entrapta interrupts before he can answer, "We're updating the local communications frequency radio in order to increase its range. We're doing so by adding in additional converters, and I'm syncing them with the tower Adora placed. Speaking of which, once we finish I can show you." Entrapta motions towards Bow to resume his previous position.
Bow gives Catra a small smile and picks up the tech he was working on previously, holding it out a few inches above the table. Entrapta has a medium sized tool in her hands, though Catra isn't familiar with it. Both of them lower masks over their faces and get started. The end of the tool is pointy, and when Entrapta places it against the machine sparks fly between the two pieces of metal.
A spark flies particularly close to Catra and she hisses, which of course doesn't do anything. She ends up taking a step backwards to keep her distance and watches as Entrapta draws a line in metal across the surface of the tech. She draws a couple more lines, then turns off her tool. She flicks up her helmet, "This is so exciting! Let's test it."
Bow removes his face mask and flips over the machine, revealing a large screen on its face. He pauses to give Catra a little more information. "We're trying to build a communicator that can reach nearby planets. There are a ton of planets within a few days of flying time, if we could communicate with them we could establish trading groups and new alliances!"
That's actually really cool. She watches in awe as Bow turns on the device and the screen crackles to life.
A loud beep comes from the corner of the room, causing Catra to nearly jump out of her skin. Her head snaps around, and she sees that the oven is done pre-heating, so it was nothing. Hordak is holding a now full cupcake tray. He definitely noticed her jump but opts to say nothing and grabs the oven door. He slides the tray in wordlessly and sets a small timer sitting on the nearby table.
Bow's still clicking around on his screen, his lips turned down in a slight frown. "Dang, it's still not working."
Entrapta looms over his shoulder, a piece of her hair coming up to also prod at the device. She speaks into her small recording device that she always has. "Log 52, device is still not reaching required range, maybe we need another inverter?"
"Hmm." Bow raises one hand to his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe, but I'm honestly not sure. I might want to visit Mara's ship and check the technology on that, it worked so well maybe we can replicate it."
The two chatter back and forth for a bit, and Catra watches silently. She leans down to scratch Melog behind the ears.
"Oh, Catra…" Entrapta draws her attention back, "You're here to learn right? Welcome to science! Isn't this exciting?"
Catra continues to pet Melog as she responds, "Uhh… no offense but I don't understand what you guys are doing at all."
Bow laughs, "if you end up wanting to pursue science there's a lot to learn. I think this is just about observing, right?" Catra nods so he continues, "if you have any questions while we're working don't hesitate to ask." Catra nods and agrees, and the two get back into it. They bring the pointy tool back out and fiddle away while Catra watches.
A few minutes go by, and suddenly Entrapta is looking up at her again. "I just had a great idea." Entrapta drops her tool onto the table and runs off towards a scrap pile to her left. She digs through the scraps earnestly. "A hah!" She exclaims and returns triumphantly to the table. She has two small pieces of metal in her hands. "These will be perfect. Okay Catra, why don't you try welding these together? Then you'll understand."
No way in hell is Catra going to approach the angry spark tool. She shakes her head and tries to think of a polite way to turn her down, "That's okay. I… well, need to stay over here with Melog. Maybe next time."
Entrapta blinks, then blinks again. She's about to say something, but the ding of the oven timer cuts her off. She swivels around towards the oven, eyes lighting up in excitement. "Oh good the cupcakes are done." She pulls a communicator out of her back pocket and calls for her staff to bring, "All of the tiny food in the whole castle," and Hordak pulls the cupcakes out of the oven. They are steaming and the smell of cinnamon fills the air.
Entrapta haphazardly shoves all of the miscellaneous parts off the table with her hair, ushering Catra over to sit down. Catra hesitates, noticing that Hordak is paused by the oven, his eyes locked on her. He might not realize it, but he always stares when he wants something.
"I'll be right back," she promises and excuses herself from the table. Not Hordak is mixing up frosting by his side but is completely absorbed in his task. Catra crosses her arms as she reaches where Hordak is standing, "What is it?"
Hordak glances down at the tray in his hands. He balances the tray on one hand and plucks out the corner cupcake, holding it out towards Catra. "Sorry for trying to kill you."
"It's okay, I betrayed you like five times." Catra reaches out to accept the cupcake, but recoils when she realizes it's burning hot. "Uh, I'll get one in a few."
The two of them come to a silent agreement and walk over to the table to join the others. Catra takes the seat beside Bow. Not Hordak is close behind them, icing and a spatula in hand. Hordak pulls each cupcake from its tray and places it onto the table, which Not Hordak then ices smoothly. "This is my favorite part!" Not Hordak says as he goes.
Melog glances up and sniffs the air. Can I have one?
Catra considers the question, they probably aren't the best as far as health, but all Melog eats lately is fruit, this can't be too bad for it. She takes one of the un-iced ones and places it on the ground. "Here you go. Be careful, it's hot."
Thank you! Melog takes a cautious sniff and licks it once, backing off for the moment when it confirms for itself that yes, the cupcake is very hot. Catra grabs an iced one from Not Hordak, which she also allows to cool for the moment.
The staff arrive a moment later, tiny food and beverages in hand. This further excites Entrapta, and soon Catra is enjoying a full-on buffet of tiny food.
Bow eats his fill as well and takes the opportunity to ask Catra about her trip. The two catch up, and Catra tells him about her sea adventure in Salineas and ice sculpting in the Kingdom of Snows. She leaves out running into her old teammates, but he's pretty excited to hear about her adventures.
Once she's done, she has some questions of her own, "So, once this device is done, what's next for our great inventor?" She motions towards the communication device that they were fiddling with.
Bow's delighted to talk about his work, "Well, since I'm our tech master and all, I'll be flying out to the planets that we connect with. I'll make friends with them and also learn about their technology." Bow gazes wistfully at the communication pad, "I want to get started as soon as I can. I'm so excited to discover other planets. Growing up, my dads always talked about how the First Ones would describe the galaxies, but I never dreamed that I'd have the chance to explore them myself." Bow motions across the table "Entrapta will come too when she can."
"Do you want to come with?" Entrapta cuts in, she's mid chew on some tiny food, but her gaze is piercing and stabs through Catra. Catra winces, even after so much time apart this girl can still see right through her.
Traveling to space does sound fun, but she could never leave Adora. She needs to find something on Etheria, even if it's not quite as exciting. "I uh, appreciate it, but I'll pass. I've had enough space for one lifetime."
Entrapta blinks, eyes still boring into her skull. A few seconds pass and she relents, "Alrighty then, your choice." Entrapta grabs a few more bites of food, dropping the matter completely. "That's Bow's goal, but my next project is much more exciting."
Entrapta points with her hair to the far side of the room, "I've been gathering parts to build a new portal device, but this one will be on a much smaller scale, and much more stable." Entrapta laughs, "Well I'm hoping it'll be more stable anyway. It'll be inner planet travel, and I think it'll work this time."
The thought of another portal makes Catra more nervous than she'd care to admit, but she simply nods and says it sounds interesting. She's sure everything will be fine.
That night, the group makes a small fire in front of Crypto Castle. It's Not Hordak's idea and it sounds fun, so Catra agrees.
Entrapta conveniently has random pieces of wood lying about so they quickly put the fire together and get it started. She also produces tiny marshmallows, which are about as difficult to toast as would be expected. They basically set on fire in twenty seconds, but this doesn't diminish Entrapta's enthusiasm for them. Melog curls up beside Catra by the fire, tail tucked over its front paws.
Entrapta is recounting her time on Beast Island, "… and then, I repaired the bot into near perfect condition. Bow was there he went for a ride with us. Wasn't she great?"
Bow confirms so Entrapta continues, "After that I mostly rode around and stole food from the King, though of course I didn't know who he was at the time. I was working on a few projects when you guys found me. We could have brought them if I'd had more time."
"It was for the best," Bow assures her, "We almost died like three times and we were only there for a few hours! Your robot beast wouldn't have fit on Darla."
"True," Entrapta shrugs, "I just wish I had all my research. It's okay though, it just means I get to recreate those things here."
That does seem like something Entrapta would enjoy. Catra appreciates hearing the stories, she's always felt bad about banishing her to Beast Island, so hearing that Entrapta at least got something out of it eases a tiny bit of that pain.
Bow sticks three mini marshmallows onto a stick and leans over to hold them over the fire. "You're headed back to Brightmoon soon, right?" His question is addressed towards Catra.
She nods, "Yup. I have one more stop in Erlandia, then I'll be going home." Catra leans over and waggles her eyebrows, "You don't uh… know something about my next stop, do you?"
Bow straightens his back and holds up his free hand between them. "Oh no, you aren't getting a peep out of me."
Catra leans in, her lips splitting into a mischievous grin. "Oh, really? So you do know?"
Bow pulls his marshmallows out of the fire, the top one is completely burnt to a crisp. "Nah-uh Catra, you'll just have to wait and see."
"Fiiine." Catra grabs a marshmallow of her own and leans back, enjoying the fire and the company.
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