"So… My initial analysis tells me that the subject is under the influence of many electromagnetic waves that are directly affecting her brain even without direct touch with the infected object. It might be some sort of remote connection they share or something like a radio that sends a signal turning her into-"
"Entrapta! Slow it down and explain with proper words!"
Inside of the North Base, Catra was listening to Entrapta's thoughts about the weird condition of their prisoner, but she couldn't get any sense from what the princess was telling her. Normally she would be calmer, but Catra's emotions were overwhelming her since they made it in the base.
"The infected sword… got a code from the disk… and is now making Adora acting all weird."
"Good… now, what can we do to control that?"
"Well, my first plan would be to open Adora and configure her like that, but unfortunately, she is organic. I'm not a doctor."
"So we are stuck with… this?!" Catra pointed at the windowed door, which showed Adora running around the storage boxes while Scorpia chased her without much success. Adora still had the same goofed face since she woke up, not showing any signs of worry or anger from the typical prisoners.
"Yes, maybe, no, actually, there is a way to stop this," Entrapta said, moving her twin-tail to support her chin, "We could just hand the sword to her and she should come back to the violent behavior she showed earlier."
"But how can we be SAFE afterward!?" Catra exploded. She already had her fill with combat against an uncontrolled She-Ra and she really didn't want another one for a lifetime. She tightly clenched the Sword of Power's hilt on her hand to make sure that it wouldn't be anywhere else near Adora.
She observed as Entrapta was in deep thought. For more than this pained her to admit, this was not the usual genius she knew, the one who always had the answer. Even Catra had to recognize Entrapta as a worthy person for the title, even if the person themselves were problematic to work with.
"Well…" Entrapta gathered her ideas and was typing on a monitor, focused on her hands as she gathered pieces of metal on the ground with her hair, "There is a possibility of us creating a robotic armor for Adora that would equip and disarm the sword at the push of a button…" she wrapped the metal like a tube around her hair to simulate her theory "But without data, the armor would crack, releasing the possible most destructive weapon of all times on Etheria!"
Entrapta coiled her hair inside the metal, creating enough pressure to explode the make-believe armor into scraps that flew in the air and landed on a very not pleased Catra's face and fur.
"Great… just, great." Catra quickly cleaned some scraps with her hand, trying to remain calm amidst Entrapta's explanation "Run as many tests as you need to turn her into the best weapo- aaaah!"
Before Catra finished her sentence, she was brought down to the ground by Adora's pounce, taking her by surprise since the said person was supposed to be in a locked room. She remained stunned on the ground as Adora wrapped her arms tightly around Catra's neck.
"What the heck are you doing?!" Catra shouted. She knew Adora would try something while locked away, she always did, but going straight to her right after being brought to their base, trying to fetch the sword in a desperate measure, was not something the Horde Captain expected. For some reason, she didn't hate it. Although still flushed by the sudden touch, Catra pushed Adora's face away with her hands. Her efforts were almost to no avail since Adora's arms still were locked around Catra's neck.
"Tag! You're it!" Adora responded giggling as the confused, embarrassed Catra was lost for words. At that moment the image became clear. Adora was not trying to strangle Catra, she was hugging her gently while nuzzling her face against Catra's fur. "Hi, Entrapta!" Adora waved to the other princess in the room.
"Hi, Adora. Again," Entrapta responded monotone since this was the fifth time they exchanged greetings since entering the base.
Embarrassed by her own assumptions, Catra tried to push Adora's face away with her hands, but her efforts were almost to no avail since Adora's arms still were locked around Catra's neck. Looking behind Adora, Catra saw Scorpia with her claws behind her head, apologetic while doing a wry smile since keeping their prisoner locked was her responsibility.
"Care to help?!" Catra didn't hold back her voice as she directed her words to Scorpia with a glare. Taking her friend's request - outsiders would think this was an order, but Scorpia knew of Catra's style - and managed to hold Adora back into her arms again, freeing her friend.
"Wow… did someone said you are very good at hugs?" Adora said with admiration in the eyes while rubbing her hands on Scorpia's exoskeleton.
"Finally someone gets it!" Scorpia was happy to be praised for - her own words - best quality, even though that praise came from their enemy.
Getting up from the ground, Catra cleared her throat to demonstrate her annoyance and signaled Scorpia to go back to the storage with her very scary, glaring eyes. Scorpia took her message very clearly and made haste with a little flush on her face for being distracted, going behind the door and closing it with Adora still admiring her arms.
"I will not be able to handle this…" Catra sighed and spoke her mind with a whisper.
"Why? Something is wrong with your body?" Entrapta's loud voice startled Catra, who only wanted some quiet time to regroup her thoughts.
"No, Entrapta… I am fine, just don't scream right now," Catra responded with a glare while attempting to remain calm.
"Oh, I get it," Entrapta said while looking at Catra's eye with a serious look. "Anyway! I will need some help to pack up the equipment back into the ship," She raised her voice as if she forgot her superior's request from five seconds ago.
Catra wanted to scream and hit something with all her might. This was too much for her to handle, and she could handle a lot. Being dispatched to this freezing hell that she barely sleep due to the cold, with minimal proper-weather supplies, because of some dumb ancient technology she had zero interest in, living to two loud persons with no regard to personal space for weeks, and now her biggest enemy, Adora, could be the saving grace of this mission is acting like a child. This couldn't be worse. At least, these were the last few hours she would be spending here.
"Ok, grab everything relevant, and let's go. Wake me when you are ready, I need some rest," Catra didn't want to admit it, but she was exhausted. She needed to close her eyes for a while or would lose her mind.
"About that, bad news: I will need help," Entrapta said it like it was obvious.
"For. What?" Catra responded holding back.
"You know the robots we used to excavate the ruins? The ones that were destroyed, you know, by the thing you don't want to know that could be amazing?" Entrapta asked with complaints in her words, "I used some of those robots to move my stuff around but now that they were, you know, destroyed by some unknown force down there, I can't move them anymore, unless we go down there to find-"
Catra let herself go for a second, closing her claws on the wall and ripping off a part of it like it was paper, throwing the crumpled metal to the ground in anger. With a sideways glare, she looked at Entrapta, who stopped talking due to shock by her recent action.
"I will need Scorpia's strength to move some equipment," The princess realized she spoke too much and went directly to her point to appease Catra. "But that would mean, with you resting, Adora would be free to-"
"Just. Do. It. Already," Catra gave the order to Entrapta, who ran away after doing a quick salute, going to her laboratory.
Catra then went to the storage, quickly dialing the code to open the door with no breath to waste. When the doors disappeared within the metal walls, she found Scorpia's back turned to her trying to hold down Adora while both sat on the ground.
"C'mon, you gotta stop escaping. Catra is going to kill me if you keep doing this," Scorpia said to Adora, trying to slip from the Horde Captain's arms that desperately tried to hold her back on each attempt.
"Scorpia, out," Catra coldly told.
"Oh, Catra! Don't worry, I got this unde-" Scorpia was going to say she had it in control but the look on Catra's face silenced her.
"Entrapta needs help in her lab. Go," again, she said coldly.
Like a soldier following orders, Sorpia gently placed Adora on the ground and got up, going to the door. But as she passed Catra, worry flooded her mind and stopped her tracks.
"Hey, wild cat, are you alrigh-" Scorpia's question was answered with a deadly glare, silencing her once again and swallowing her own spit. She resumed her walk and went past the door, trying to once again call out for her friend "Look, if you ever need to tal-"
Catra shut down the door before Scorpia could finish. She could hear her companion walk away after some time standing still, each step getting softer as she went down the corridor. Then, once it became silent, there were only two persons left in the storage: Adora, who was curiously looking around without a worry on her face, and Catra, who narrowed her twitching eyes with anger.