Chapter 2: Comparing Notes
It took so long to get to the Fright Zone. So, so long. At least it felt that way, but every second during an emergency felt like an eternity.
Was it even an emergency? Perfuma didn't know but…the more time passed, the more concern ebbed into dread. She could be wrong. She hoped she was wrong. Maybe Scorpia was busy, maybe she was overwhelmed and afraid to ask for their help. Maybe they were overwhelming her. Perfuma found that hard to believe without direct evidence – Scorpia so, so cherished her friends, and clung to whatever affection was offered to her. She would never ignore them, not without a good reason.
Perfuma hoped to find answers at the Fright Zone.
After meeting Frosta at the entrance, Perfuma first asked the inhabitants. One of them, who identified herself as Lonnie and expressed familiarity with Scorpia, regarded Perfuma with a raised eyebrow as she held Imp on her shoulders.
"Thought Scorpia was with you?" Lonnie answered.
Frosta held her hands out. "Well, she's not!"
"Why did you think she was with me?" Perfuma asked. "Did she say she was going to Plumeria?"
"No…she just said she had to go for a bit and she trusted me as captain while she was gone," Lonnie said as she rubbed the back of her neck, a slight smile. "I have eyes and I can see how much you two have been hanging out, and how many trips she's been taking to Plumeria, so I figured that's where she went."
Perfuma blushed slightly, the tug of a smile at her lips but worry kept it at bay.
"So she's not in the Fright Zone…? When did she leave? Did you see what direction she was heading?" Perfuma asked, clasping her hands as she shared a worried glance with Frosta.
"To be honest…I never actually saw her leave. After we talked, she went into the base," Lonnie said as she gestured to the old Horde fortress. "I figured she went in to touch base with Entrapta. They've been testing out new tech to help lizard folk communicate better." Her slight smile grew more genuine. "It's done wonders for Rogelio and Kyle. Who'd think better communication would make such a difference…" Lonnie trailed off as Perfuma stared past her, focusing on the fortress. "Ah, nevermind."
Lonnie followed Perfuma's gaze, then looked back to her. The young woman's smile faded into a look of concern. "Scorpia's…kinda weird…she always sort of kept to herself growing up…so much so that the guys and I sometimes forgot she existed. It kind of surprised me how… uh…" Lonnie rubbed the back of her neck. "…sweet…? Clingy…? I don't know… How her she was when we got to know her. But we really don't know her, do we? Maybe she's in a keep to herself mood right now and doesn't want anyone bothering her? Though…". She pursed her lips, as her voice trailed off.
Perfuma's brow furrowed with concern. "I have a feeling it's not as simple as that."
Lonnie nodded. "…honestly I don't think it is either. I hope you find her." She smiled a little, clasping Perfuma's thin shoulder. "And whatever it is, if you do find her let her know Captain Lonnie's got it covered."
Perfuma smiled brightly, touching Lonnie's hand and giving it a squeeze before shifting to head towards the fortress.
Lonnie released her shoulder. "and, uh…thanks."
Perfuma paused and looked back to her. "Oh? For what?"
"For taking care of her," Lonnie said with a smile as she backed off. "Call me if you need anything, alright?"
Perfuma smiled warmly. "Yes, Lonnie, we will."
Frosta had run ahead into the base with Perfuma a few steps behind.
"You talk to Entrapta! I'll check Scorpia's room!" Frosta yelled as she picked up the pace into a run. Perfuma nodded to the child's receding back and headed straight for the lab.
Entrapta and Hordak had remodeled Hordak's Sanctum into a lab less fitted for war and better fitted for creating contraptions and supplies to help former Horde members and whoever else decided to relocate to the Fright Zone start their new lives.
Perfuma wasn't sure she could ever feel comfortable around Hordak – he was the cause of so much grief and strife in Etherea…but he was trying to make amends, wasn't he? In the way he knew best – by the science that brought him and Entrapta closer together.
Truth be told, Perfuma was never fully comfortable around Entrapta either. She had technically betrayed them, created weapons and robots that could kill them, all because her love for science trumped her concern for her friends. But that life path brought her to befriend Scorpia, and to be betrayed and sent away by Catra, which led Scorpia to defect from the Horde specifically to save Entrapta. Things hadn't worked out the way she had planned, but that didn't change the fact that Scorpia labeled Entrapta her first real friend. The scorpion loved Entrapta, and the mad scientist shared that platonic love in the way she knew best – using her technology and dedicating hers and Hordak's services to Scorpia's Kingdom.
With that, and with everything that Entrapta did for them against Horde Prime, Perfuma would push through her discomfort and talk to them with her usual airy cheerfulness…as much of it as she could muster under the circumstances, at least.
"Entrapta!" Perfuma called out with a wave and a worried smile. She wasn't about to converse with Hordak if she didn't have to.
Entrapta and Hordak were hovering over some kind of…glowing thing that Perfuma couldn't identify. A power source? A pretty jewel? She had no idea. She could use technology at about the level of a normal person with proper instructions and that was about it.
Entrapta raised her hand to shush Perfuma, before speaking into her recorder to register the results of the test. The technobabble went right over the flower princess' head, but then soon Entrapta hopped onto Emily and slid on over right in front of her face. Perfuma stepped back to give them space, raising her hands.
"What can I help you with?" Entrapta asked.
"I'm looking for Scorpia," Perfuma explained, tapping her fingers together. "I was hoping that she was with you?"
"With me?" Entrapta used her long, prehensile hair to change the head of a screwdriver, watching it with intense focus though she had listened to Perfuma's words. "I thought she was with you? She said she'd be gone and trusted Hordak and I to finish sending power to the rest of the Fright Zone."
Perfuma bit her lip, stepping back to lean her lower back against the table. She hugged herself loosely. "Do you know when you last saw her?"
"Ah…" Entrapta paused, then checked her audio recorder. She skipped back to a previous recording, then back, then back, then back… Emily beeped quietly, shifting slightly in place.
Perfuma watched the older woman in silence as she listened to Entrapta's voice start a new log, chronicling each day and time. As soon as the voice recordings would start and it was obvious that it wasn't one that would include Scorpia, Entrapta would hit back to an earlier one. Perfuma counted the days back as each date changed. Two days.. three.. four.. five..
Her stomach churned. Perfuma herself had spoken to Scorpia more recently than Entrapta had. Where was she?!
"AHA!" Entrapta said with an enthusiastic smile as she held up the recorder. In it, Scorpia's voice could be heard.
"Do.. do you and… …and … Hordak need.. anything else for your power grid…? From me? You're… okay on supplies?" Scorpia's voice sounded…distant? Confused? Perfuma could understand the confusion regarding technology – Perfuma could imagine she herself would sound perpetually confused trying to discuss power grids, but there were long pauses and a quiet, distant softness to her voice that put the flower princess on edge.
Scorpia had sounded that way with her, too, in their last calls, hadn't she? They had been late and Perfuma had chalked it up to tiredness, but hearing a recorded playback made her fears all the more palpable. Was she sick?
Entrapta merely kept her bright smile, which also reflected in the recorder as she piped up. "Oh no, not for a while anyway. We might need you to get some first one's tech to help generate a stronger charge if we get enough people but that won't be for a while, and besides Adora and the others might bring some power sources back from their Space journey like I asked them to!"
The scientist shook her hands, her fingers clasped over the recorder as it continued playing. "Oooh I wish I could have gone with them! Think of all the data they could be collecting right now!"
"We'll go after we're done fixing the Fright Zone," Hordak's quiet voice startled Perfuma – he had been working in silence up to that point and on her train of thought she had forgotten he was there.
"Ah yes yes! Fix Fright Zone first THEN space!" Entrapta said cheerily as she turned off the recorder. "So.. six days ago!"
Beads of sweat formed on Perfuma's brow, and she took a slow, grounding breath to try and settle her nerves. So that was after Scorpia had stopped talking to Frosta, and…maybe around the time she stopped doing video calls and only switched to audio? What was happening?
"How did she look?" Perfuma asked.
Entrapta stared at her. "…like Scorpia?"
Perfuma hugged herself. "I mean…did she look okay? Did she look sick at all?"
Entrapta continued to stare at her. Her head tilted slightly.
"She was paler," Hordak answered. "Her demeanor was nervous, and she was appeared to be trying to get in and out as quickly as possible."
He paused when he noticed both Entrapta and Perfuma staring at him. "…Scorpia has a tendency to…draw out her meetings when she's here." He gave a slight gesture towards his beloved lab partner. "Bring tiny food, ask about our day…casual…social interactions unnecessary of a Queen but that is the type of leader she chose to be. It's noticeable when she doesn't do it."
Entrapta stared at Hordak, then looked to Perfuma, and after a pause her brows furrowed with concern. As if reading her thoughts, Emily headed for a table with communication devices. Entrapta snatched one up and drummed her fingers on its surface, her red eyes searching through the settings. "Does she wear anything we can track?"
"No, she doesn't wear the horde badge anymore, or anything else we can trace that I know of," Hordak answered.
The two lab partners continued their discussion, but their voices grew more distant to Perfuma as panic began to settle in. She took out her own communicator and quickly began dialing anyone she knew who Scorpia could have contacted.
First was Catra, who picked up right away.
"What is it?" Catra asked as her face displayed in the monitor, her brow furrowed as she looked at Perfuma expectantly. Not the warmest of greetings but Catra wasn't the warmest of people. And Perfuma didn't usually call her to chat outside of guided meditation and therapy sessions.
"Have you heard from Scorpia recently?" Perfuma had tried to keep the quiver of fear from her voice but it must have been there, as she could see the shift in Catra's demeanor – she could feel the energy shift even from their long distance.
"Kinda, yeah? Why?" The fur on the back of Catra's neck stood on end as her tail twitched. "What's wrong?"
"When was the last time you spoke with her?" Perfuma asked, her voice growing more urgent.
"I don't know! I don't keep track like that! We're in space, Perfuma! You're lucky we even have reception right now! It's.. whenever."
Perfuma pinched the bridge of her nose. "Did she seem okay when you last spoke? Everything seem alright?"
Catra's tail twitched again, and she shifted her gaze nervously. "Ah…" She frowned. "No, not really."
Perfuma looked to her with worry. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened, just…she seemed off when I last talked to her but, well you know, things have been weird between us.. since.. you know…since everything happened at the Horde. I figured she …wasn't feeling up for chatting."
"Did she have video on? How did she look?" Perfuma asked.
"Um, tired I guess? What is going on?!"
"Catra?" Adora's tired voice could be faintly heard from behind the magicat. "Coming to bed or what? Who're you talking to?"
"Hi Adora!" Perfuma called out with a slight wave, though Adora likely couldn't see it and all she had was Catra's perplexed face staring back at her.
"I'm talking to Perfuma," Catra called out.
"Scorpia's—Scorpia's missing," Perfuma stammered the words – afraid to acknowledge them lest it make her disappearance more real but…it was the truth, wasn't it?
Catra's face fell, her voice dropped. "…how long has she been missing?"
"Wait," Perfuma could hear the sound of shuffling, before Adora squished her face onto the screen, her cheek pressing against Catra's. "Why is she missing?! Is she captured?!"
"I-I don't know. I don't think so?" Perfuma stammered, taking a breath to steady herself. "And I'm trying to find out how long she's been missing. I haven't heard from her in two days, but for everyone else it's been longer." Tears stung her eyes as she tightened her grip on the communicator. "I knew it…I knew something was wrong."
"Do you need us to come back?" Adora asked, seemingly wide awake now. "We can head back. A few jumps and we can be in your quadrant."
"I-I don't know, I don't want to drag you back here if it's nothing," Perfuma murmured. She was certain Scorpia would feel horrible if her actions caused her friends to end their trip early.
"It's not nothing," Catra said quietly, her voice low. "Scorpia doesn't leave for nothing." Her ear twitched.
"Let's go talk to Bow and Glimmer," Adora suggested, and without a goodbye Catra hung up the communicator.
Perfuma pressed her back against the table, quickly calling Mermista and Sea Hawk and finding that it had been even longer since either of them had heard from Scorpia. Other than what Scorpia had said to Lonnie and Entrapta, there were no other clues to where she could have gone. Frosta soon returned, her hands clenched into small fists.
"I checked her closet, under her blanket, under her bed, no Scorpia anywhere!" Frosta declared. "What about—" She paused, dropping the question as soon as she saw Perfuma's wavering gaze. "Oh man…". The girl's face fell. "Oh man…! Is she captured?! Is someone hurting her?! WHO DO I HAVE TO KILL?!"
"The concensus has been so far that she seemed pale, tired and distant…maybe she's sick?" Perfuma took a shakey breath. "Okay…well, if she wasn't feeling well, where would she go? Could we check the infirmary?"
Though if she had gone to the medic then her location would be known, right? If the Queen of the Fright Zone had fallen ill surely word would travel?
But where else could they check?
Emily let out a sharp beep, drawing Frosta and Perfuma's attention. Entrapta, still perched upon her companion's chassis, also looked down at her.
"You think you know where she might be?" Entrapta asked.
"You do?!" Perfuma's words fell somewhere between a question and a plea.
Emily's legs clicked along the ground as she walked towards a wall, Entrapta's long hair trailing behind them. She then lit up a display along the wall. From her perspective, in the Black Garnet chamber back before the Fright Zone fortress was decimated by Hordak and Catra's fight, Scorpia was regarding Emily with a disconcerted expression buried under a forced smile.
"C'mon, I know where we can hide—think. We're totally not hiding, we're… thinking," Scorpia insisted, before walking past Emily. Perfuma's brows raised as she watched.
The scene flickered into a new location, one Perfuma hadn't seen before though the architectural style was clearly still Fright Zone. From Emily's perspective, the camera view looked up at Scorpia, watching her as she explained the location – Horror Hall. How she always came to hide there as a kid.
Hordak didn't watch the display but he listened, his eyes half-lidded as he worked quietly.
Entrapta curled her legs under her as she watched. "Oh, Horror Hall. Scorpia sealed off that place saying she didn't know what to do with it yet."
"So it'd be unoccupied," Perfuma said quietly. And still available as a hiding place, should she choose to use it.
Frosta wrinkled her nose as she watched the visuals. Her small fingers tugged at her coat. "She liked to hide in a broken throne room of her dead Kingdom…?"
If she was raised as an orphan by the horde, did Scorpia even know any of her people? Frosta at least remembered her parents, even if those memories had grown more vague and fuzzy with time.
To some extent…the other princesses were beginning to feel like the family she had lost. Scorpia and Perfuma especially she felt a fondness towards. They really needed to find her.
"Let's go," Perfuma rushed to the entrance of the lab, gripping the door frame, before pausing and looking back to the others. "…where is it?"
Entrapta hopped off Emily and gestured towards Perfuma. "Emily, go show them!"
Emily immediately skittered after Perfuma and Frosta, and the two princesses followed the robot to Horror Hall. It was closed off, but simply with tape and signs – easy enough to move past should one choose to do so.
Perfuma and Frosta followed Emily into the throne room. It was relatively empty, the broken throne, rubble, the pillars along the wall and the portraits of past scorpions – Scorpia's biological family, Perfuma assumed as she regarded the portraits sadly – were all that remained of this Kingdom.
Emily slowed to a stop, watching Perfuma as she looked at the portraits. She then turned and lit the wall next to Perfuma's line of sight with a projection of when Scorpia explained the portraits to her.
"Pointy, Captain Pointy, Count Pointessa."
"Nah I'm just kidding. I don't know their names!"
Perfuma looked to each portrait as they were 'identified' by Scorpia's given name, her hands clasped together against her stomach. She couldn't imagine how it must have felt to see this grand display of…Scorpia's whole heritage and life forcibly taken from her. She looked to the large horde symbol painted in red, undisturbed, along the wall of the throne room as she listened to the recording of Scorpia recount her upbringing. How the scorpions had let the Horde stay, and willingly gave the black garnet, and Scorpia, to the Horde without so much as a thought.
Eyeing the large red symbol and the rubble gathered along the ground, Perfuma found Scorpia's story hard to believe. She didn't think her companion had lied, not on purpose. Lying wasn't Scorpia's forte. If it was a lie, what an awful one to live with growing up in this awful place.
However, it was then she noticed against the farthest pillar, not far from the garishly painted Horde symbol, was a small table and some rubble. The table looked out of place, like it was dragged from a different location – a dining room, though it seemed too small to be a table fit for a dining hall but maybe a cafeteria? There was rubble also piled around the table, arranged in a way that felt more strategically placed than randomized. Perfuma blinked, then made her way towards it.
Frosta stood next to Emily, watching the recording of Scorpia as she clasped her hands behind her back and quietly admitted that things hadn't worked out for her people, but that her grandad was loyal to the end because that was what scorpions do best. The little girl's eyes wavered, then watered. What if they couldn't find her?!
"Frosta! Emily!" Perfuma called out.
Emily beeped and the display shut off. Frosta wiped her eyes with her sleeve. The two quickly turned to Perfuma, who was shifting to kneel next to the table.
As the flower princess drew closer, she could see the bulky silhouette of a large figure, the form's long, curled and pointed tail unmistakable…
Notes: And she's found! Surely all will be fine now. Totally.
