Throughout the war with the Horde and later on with Horde Prime, Entrapta had been a wealth of knowledge and technical insight that gave whoever had her the advantage. It wasn't until the moment she drummed her fingers across her communicator and casually revealed to Bow that she actually had no idea how to draw blood that he realized that she even had limits to her expertise. It shouldn't have been a surprise. All of her training and interest had been in technology – specifically First One's tech - after all.

And just as she said, it was different drawing fluids…or mechanical components…or just about anything from a machine than it was for a living, breathing being.

Bow blanched. "O-oh yeah-I wouldn't imagine it'd be the same!" He watched the syringe flail about in her hair uncomfortably. "Does Hordak know how to draw blood?"

Perfuma could faintly hear the conversation between Bow and Entrapta as she held the sniffling, exhausted scorpion in her arms, but the cracking in Bow's voice drew her attention and she looked over to the group.

"Hmm…he does work with organics more than I do," Entrapta tapped on her communicator. As soon as his silent face appeared, she just yelled her question. "Hordak! Do you know how to draw blood?"

"Of course," Hordak answered, his eyes narrowing in surprise. "Clearly, you plug the syringe to one of the ports in her back."

"That's how you draw blood from iyou/i. She doesn't have ports," Entrapta paused, then looked back at Bow, Scorpia and the others. "…does she?"

Bow didn't have to check. "No, no she doesn't."

Entrapta cupped her chin with her hair. "Maybe we could add some-"

Hordak nodded on the communicator like it was a viable option.

"Or maybe we can find a different way!" Bow's voice cracked. "Or someone who knows how to draw blood?"

"I'll call you back once we figure out something or if we have more questions," Entrapta said as she hung up on Hordak. She shifted to sit on the edge of the bed, next to the embracing group. She turned her communicator to Bow. "So according to data I pulled from Plumeria and Fright Zone's logs, here's a chart of a human's cardiovascular system."

Bow stared at it, easing away from the group hug so he could get a better look. Scorpia had begun to calm down – or had grown too fatigued to continue – and was in good hands with Perfuma, Emily and Frosta.

"According to the data, the best …or at least the most typical place to draw blood…" Entrapta touched the forearm of the figure. She gestured with her hair to Scorpia's closest arm, which was wrapped around Perfuma.

Bow followed her gaze, and her hair. "Exoskeleton."

"The cardiovascular system runs all through the body, but…these other places are harder to reach, and I've never drawn blood from an organic myself. With Hordak we use tech to plug into his back ports," Entrapta straightened, looking to Bow. "And that's even if Scorpia's cardiovascular system works the same way. These don't account for exoskeletons at all, or a tail, much less whatever other differences are happening inside.

Bow dropped his hands onto his knees. "We have to do something… are there any other, ah, *beings* that have exoskeletons that we have any information on? Even if they're not scorpions?"

Entrapta clenched and unclenched her hand repeatedly as she mulled it over. "Mm…Crabs?"

"Maybe?" Bow nodded. He had no idea if crabs were anything like scorpions but they had claws so that was a thing? "We can ask Mermista?"

Come to think of it, Mermista and Sea Hawk had left to get food a long while ago. Where were they?

Entrapta dialed Mermista on the communicator. After a few beats, the water princess' grimacing face appeared on screen.

"Ugh, why are like most of the Fright Zone's food made out of rations? I thought Scorpia liberated her people."

Bow rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh-"

"I asked the lead Chef and he just, like, growled at me."

Sea Hawk's face popped onto the communicator, his cheek pressing against Mermista's – until she leaned away to give him (and herself) space. "How's Scorpia doing?"

Bow glanced back at Perfuma and Frosta, noting Scorpia leaning heavily on them. Perfuma gave Bow a subtle nod. The archer looked back to the communicator. "Scorpia's got a fever, and this whole thing has been taking its toll on her emotionally."

"Oh well that's nothing some shanties can't fix!" Sea Hawk declared confidently.

"And real food, if we can ever find any," Mermista said with a shrug. "This place doesn't even have any ice cream. What kind of Hell have the Horde been living in all this time?"

"Question!" Entrapta cut in. "Salineas! Crabs! Doctors! Do you have any!"

"Wait, what?"

"Do you have any crab doctors in Salineas?" Entrapta reworded the question.

"Uh, yeah. Like, of course we do. We take our marine life very seriously in Salineas," Mermista answered with a raised brow. "Why?"

"Well, we don't know what medicines Scorpia can take for pain or fever-"

"Scorpia's like…a desert bug? Crabs are water bugs? And don't have tails. And aren't human…esque. I wouldn't give her something just because, like, crabs can have it," Mermista stated.

"Oh, we know! We want to draw blood so Hordak can test it with the drugs," Entrapta piped in.

"Oh? What does that have to do with crabs?"

"We're not sure how to draw blood the, uh, I guess human way from Scorpia, so we thought we could see how it's done for crabs?" Bow suggested.

Mermista lifted her head. "Ohhh…I get it. Sure, I'll patch you through to one of our crab doctors. Maybe they'll have something for you. And Bow? Can you have Glimmer teleport us to Bright Moon? Or Salineas? These people are about to learn what real food is."

"Tiny food?" Entrapta wiggled her eyebrows at the communicator.

"Eugh, yes…and tiny real food."

Bow smiled awkwardly. "Thanks, Mermista. Will do!"

In the storage room, Catra sat on the box she had nearly thrown at Perfuma, and had her head in her hands. Melog laid at her feet.

Glimmer and Adora sat on either side of her, on separate storage crates.

Catra hadn't calmed down as much as she was worn out. Despite the comforting words Glimmer and Adora attempted, the magicat both appreciated and hated their attempts to make her feel better. She deserved to wallow in misery. It was all she had caused her friends after all, and just like the scratch scars on Adora's back, some of the damage Catra inflicted would never go away. How could she begin to try and make amends with Scorpia when all she did was continue to hurt her? Why did she even want to continue to go through this? Was she doing Scorpia any favors or would it be better for both of them if Catra stopped trying and let her go?

But…part of her did want to keep trying. She wasn't sure if it was because she felt Scorpia deserved her efforts or if it was because Scorpia had once been ihers/i. Her friend, her companion, her…what had almost been something more. Catra didn't regret keeping their relationship from progressing that extra step. She knew how Scorpia felt about her, had used her feelings as a tool to use and abuse her…to have let their relationship progress as far as Scorpia had wanted would have further hurt them both.

Those romantic feelings Scorpia had Catra imagined were long gone. There should have been resentment in its place – Catra would have deserved no less for the way she treated her. Maybe there was, and this fleeting but incomplete forgiveness was Scorpia's way of punishing Catra, in ways that only she could. Or maybe Scorpia resented her despite her best efforts, and was afraid to admit it so she just pretended that everything was fine? Perhaps the scorpion wanted to forgive her, was trying to forgive her because she was Scorpia and that was what she did. But she icouldn't/i, because Catra had crossed a line she could never return from. She had proven herself to be too cruel to forgive, even from the most forgiving person in Etheria.

Maybe Scorpia forgave her but was nonetheless scared of her? Maybe Scorpia 'forgave' her ibecause/i she was scared of her, and of Catra's reaction if her apology was rejected?

Whatever it was, Scorpia's jumpiness – her fearful reaction, her pleading apologies – those were all things Catra's abuse instilled in her. She hadn't been like that when they first met, at least not to this extent. It had been a progression that Catra hadn't seen until she was looking back on it – when she had gone too far and Scorpia had left the Horde. Revisiting some of those memories fueled many a late night where the magicat was left wide awake and teary-eyed, spooning Adora, tucking her face against the other woman's bare, scarred back and wishing she could take back the horrible things she said and done.

Give Glimmer back her mother.

Heal the scars on Adora's skin.

Give Scorpia back her self-esteem and sense of safety – whatever she had of it before Catra came along was more than she had now.

It was then Catra felt a hand on her back and she looked up to see Adora watching her, a reassuring smile on her face. The magicat hadn't realized she was crying until she felt the chill of the damp fur on her cheeks.

"Do you want to go back?" Adora asked, softly.

Catra reached down to stroke Melog's neck, her eyes half-lidded. Whatever happened after Scorpia was better was what it was. But she couldn't just leave and let that interaction she had with her former(?) friend be her last. She doubted she could do anything but make it worse, but she wanted to try.

Scorpia would have done whatever it took to be there for Catra, however she could, if their roles were reversed. Catra wanted to prove she could do the same. Scorpia deserved as much.

The magicat jumped onto her feet and pawed the tears from her eyes. "Yeah. Let's go."

Crab anatomy was even more different than human anatomy, when compared to Scorpia's body frame.

After speaking with a crab vet in Salineas and downloading a diagram of a crab's cardiovascular system into her communicator, Entrapta tried combining it with the human cardiovascular system to and began to chart out what Scorpia's might look like.

Perfuma finally managed to coax Scorpia to lay down by offering her lap as a pillow. Frosta chilled the wet washcloth and laid it on her forehead.

The flower princess could only watch Bow and Entrapta with concern as they tried to figure a way to extract blood safely. It never really occurred to her that it would be a difficult process – or maybe it was just difficult because none of them were doctors? Yet would even a doctor know how to treat a scorpion?

Other than her claws and tail, Scorpia didn't look inhuman. Could her anatomy be that much different?

Then again, Perfuma wouldn't bet Scorpia's life or safety on it.

"I could ask one of the Plumerian doctors?" Perfuma offered as she watched Entrapta work.

Scorpia who had been mostly quiet until then, suddenly tightened her hug and hid her face against Perfuma's stomach. The luke warm washcloth fell on her lap. "W-wait—it's not—it's not needed! It's not that serious! I'm alright. I'm sure the fever will go away on its own!"

Perfuma looked down to Scorpia with a sad smile, stroking her damp hair. "Maybe, but we can't risk it, sweetheart. And we want to treat your pain, too. Don't worry, it's a doctor's job to be a doctor. It wouldn't be any inconvenience to them at all," Her voice dropped as she noticed the squeeze tighten. "Scorpia?"

As Catra approached the infirmary with Adora and Glimmer, her ears perked as she picked up some of the conversation inside. The magicat blinked her two-toned eyes. Something about drawing blood from Scorpia?

She picked up the pace, passing by her two friends as she gripped the handle to the door. Taking a breath and steeling her resolve, Catra pushed the door slowly open. Whatever she saw inside, she needed to keep collected, this time. She needed to show she could be a good friend.

Upon opening the door, the sight that greeted her was Scorpia laying on her side with her head in Perfuma's lap and her arms tightly around the other woman's waist, Frosta sitting next to them on the bed, Emily sitting on the floor and Bow and Entrapta perched near the foot of the bed.

As Catra stepped in, she picked up Perfuma assuring Scorpia about bringing in a doctor from Plumera.

"iPlease?/i. I…I'll be fine…! I'm feeling better already!" As if to demonstrate, Scorpia lightly thwacked her claw against the bedframe – and immediately tried to (unsuccessfully) hold back a hiss of pain.

Frosta jumped at the sight. "Ah! Don't do that!"

Perfuma caught her claw and gingerly held it between her hands. "Careful! Your exoskeleton hasn't hardened yet!"

Catra winced at the sound and the reaction the strike brought out from the others, her ears pressing back against her skull. She watched as Scorpia shot up to a sitting position.

"S-see…? N-nearly good as new! I don't need a doctor! I'm okay, I'm okay!" Scorpia insisted.

Catra's tail flicked as it dawned on her what was happening. She loosely hugged herself. If they were talking about getting an actual doctor from one of the other kingdoms…she could see why her former underling was panicked.

"Scorpia—" She grimaced as she was almost certain she saw a visible start in Scorpia's posture, but she couldn't tell if it actually happened or if Catra imagined it. "The Rebellion's… a bunch of wimps, Scorpia. They use doctors for everything. Stubbed toe? Broken arm? Belly ache? They care too much about making sure you're comfortable and whatever. It's not like the Horde."

Scorpia looked back at Catra with wide, bleary eyes. Perfuma looked to Catra worriedly, still delicately holding Scorpia's sore claw in her hands.

Adora took a breath as she watched Catra and said nothing as the magicat continued, addressing Perfuma though she could feel the others' eyes on her as well. It made her want to throw herself out the window and high tail it out of the Fright Zone, but she rooted herself where she stood. Her tail swished behind her.

"At the Horde, we don't see doctors like…ever. Unless it's for really serious stuff, like injuries from the battlefield, and they never did pain medicine or whatever," Catra said as she waved her hand. "Usually whenever we were sick or injured, just…dealing with it ourselves was better than going to the doctor, because if we ididn't/i have something serious we're gonna wish we did."

Frosta watched in horror, looking to Adora – and noting her downtrodden, knowing stare – then to Scorpia – her haunted gaze showing no surprise or conflict at Catra's description. She clenched her hands into fists.

Perfuma's eyes widened as she watched. She looked from Catra to Scorpia, her gaze softening. "Scorpia…"

Entrapta's eyes were shadowed as she had listened to Catra. While she had never realized that about the Horde she had been apart of, as she thought back (and especially thought back on how Hordak viewed his own physical ailments as a shame that needed to remain hidden and powered through – at the time he denied himself pain relief the same way he denied it to his subordinates), it matched her 'Super Pal Trio' member's description. It made sense why Scorpia, or any member of the Horde, would be scared to see a doctor. She took a slow breath, then turned to the group and grinned. "We don't need a doctor! We have an Entrapta! Me!"

Scorpia looked to her friend tiredly, as Entrapta pointed to herself.

"I'm not a doctor, but a scientist," She then gestured wide. "-and this is no longer the Horde, but the Scorpioni Kingdom which is under the Rebellion's influence, and their rules!" Entrapta then pointed to Scorpia. "So lay back and I'll figure out how to get that blood drawn in no time!"

Scorpia's eyes wavered. "Entrapta…"

Perfuma smiled softly as she watched Entrapta get back to her communicator, and urged Scorpia to lay back down on her lap. She placed the wash cloth back on her forehead. "You heard the scientist's orders."

The arachnid followed Perfuma's guidance.

Catra let out a slow breath, then looked back to see Adora with a sad smile and a thumbs up. She gave a slight smile back, before turning her attention to Entrapta as she and Bow surveyed the communicator.

"So what's going on?" Catra asked. "Why're you trying to get blood from Scorpia?"

"She has a fever," Entrapta said. "Perfuma brought a bunch of drugs from Plumeria but we don't know what's safe for her. Hordak said he can test it if he had some of her blood, but…" She activated the cobbled image of a crab cardiovascular system and human cardiovascular system merged together to show. "We're trying to figure out the best place to draw blood from, but this is the best guess for a cardiovascular system as we can get for Scorpia right now."

Catra stared at it, blinking one eye then the other. "What am I looking at?"

"It's a working theory," Entrapta said as she laid the communicator on her lap. "And with it, we're trying to find the best place to draw blood."

"Wait, so you don't know how to draw blood?" Catra pinched the bridge of her nose. "You've done surgeries! You were the one who had removed those chips!"

"Well yeah, but those were tech fused with your nervous systems," Entrapta said with a shrug. "The idea was to extract Horde Prime's chips while inot/i touching your nerves, or touching them as little as possible," She rocked in place, drumming her gloved fingers along the communicator's edges to make a rat-ta-ta-ta sound. "I could just give it a go, but with robots I can always put them back together if they break or replace parts if there's a problem, you know? I can't do that, with her."

Catra threw her hands up. "Her whole ibody's/i not exoskeleton! She can bleed just like you or I can? Just find a place that's skin – anywhere - and cut it! If she's getting sick, then we don't have time to screw around."

Perfuma furrowed her brow and the magicat bristled. Her tail poofed and she readied herself for an argument – a reminder of her cruelty. Of icourse/i hurting her would come to Catra's mind. All she did was hurt people! She-

"Would…would that work?" Perfuma asked Entrapta, stroking Scorpia's hair. Catra's posture relaxed a little.

Entrapta lifted the syringe. "We need to extract this much blood. Might be hard to get that much from a cut, but worst-case scenario it's an option." She picked up the communicator, loading the theoretical cardiovascular system for Scorpia. Tapping the back of the syringe against her chin, she studied it for a long moment – comparing it to the human cardiovascular system – and suddenly let out a squeal that startled the group. "Ah hah!"

She tilted the communicator towards Bow. "So if the veins run through here…" Entrapta trailed her gloved finger across the arms, then into the body, then down the legs. "And the best place for blood are the upper extremities. What about the lower extremities? Lower leg? Feet? Veins might be closer to the surface, there."

Bow nodded. He had no idea, but it made sense from Entrapta's explanation. "How can we tell?"

"According to my data, there are some methods to get veins to show up," Entrapta smiled and shuffled onto the bed near Scorpia's legs. Catra winced as she got so close to Scorpia's curled tail, but if Entrapta was the least bit alarmed about it, she didn't show it. Knowing her, she'd probably find getting stung fascinating. "Scorpia! Give me your foot. It's mine now…for a minute, anyway!"

Entrapta yanked the blanket aside with her hair.

A small blush further warmed Scorpia's already hot face as she realized she was in a night gown rather than her usual Horde Uniform (she had been intending to change the uniform eventually, but she was too used to it and had too much else going on to try and design something different). When did that happen? It wasn't so much the amount of skin shown – it went half way down her thigh after all – as it was something especially soft and feminine. Maybe something too soft and too feminine for iher/i. Even when Perfuma first helped her get it made, it felt like something Scorpia shouldn't be allowed to have.

If Entrapta had an opinion on it, she didn't say. Instead, she held the communicator with the information she needed with her hair, skimmed through her notes and research, prepared the syringe, located the vein and where it appeared to be closest to the surface – yes! It looked like her assessment was close enough to work from!

Scorpia tensed her jaw in anticipation…

Frosta suddenly held up Patchy. "Scorpia! What's Patchy's favorite color?"

Scorpia blinked and looked to Frosta. "Wh-what?"

Frosta held Patchy away from her and leaned towards Scorpia and dropped her voice, as if to prevent the plush from hearing her. "What's Patchy's favorite color? I wanna get him a little scarf for holiday!"

Scorpia stared at Frosta for a moment, blinking. It took her mind a moment to catch up to the seemingly random question. "Oh, uh.. uh… red!"

"Ohh! Red like your exoskeleton!" Frosta asked cheerily.

"Uh, yeah!"

"Red! Got it!" Frosta cheered.

"Got it!" Entrapta said at the same time as Frosta, as she grinned and raised the filled syringe triumphantly with her hands. Her hair added a band-aid to Scorpia's foot. "Time to get this tested! Bye!"

In the blink of an eye, the scientist skittered her way out of the room on her hair, cackling all the way.

Scorpia stared at where Entrapta had just been, then at the door where she left from. "Wait… that's it?"

Catra, who was standing nearby, just crossed her arms and shrugged with a slight smirk.

Bow grinned, pumping his fists. "Yes!"

Perfuma smiled and winked to Frosta. "See! It doesn't have to hurt when done the Rebellion's way."

Frosta grinned, making Patchy dance. "Now once Hordak finds out what medicine scorpions can have, then we're in the clear!"

Scorpia tiredly watched the others, feeling Perfuma's fingers gently scratching her scalp, and smiled fondly. Whatever happened next, she really was a lucky bug to have friends like them.

Notes: There goes the blood of the scorpion! This chapter was…interesting to write. Probably had the most re-writes from any chapter I've done thus far. Part of me wondered if I was overthinking the whole drawing blood thing – my first idea was just that Entrapta was just going to do the thing. But as I got closer to this chapter and thought ahead on it, I realized it might not be so easy. At the same time, I also know bits and pieces about medicine myself, both from what I've experienced and what I've seen my grandmother experience at the hospital and doctor's offices the last year or so. I wasn't entirely sure if it was in character for Entrapta to be able to play the role of doctor, especially since she's more like an engineer. She did have those surgeries she did with the chips, which is why at first I figured she could do the work of a doctor here, but again that had more to do with the chip than with organics specifically.

Ultimately I consulted with the awesome GardenofCrystals and another friend of mine, and got some really helpful feedback from them (which ultimately led to Entrapta taking on the doctor role and finding a place to extract blood from the feet)! Also did some general research about crab anatomy, blood drawing (learned a bit about horse shoe crabs as a result, haha) and about the cardiovascular system/different places doctors draw blood when they can't get any from the arms.

Also, I recently read a fantastic fanfic - s/13447399/1/Lots-and-lots-of-challenges - that gave me inspiration about Scorpia (and the Horde as a whole) possibly being afraid of doctors, so I brought that inspiration into this chapter.

Anyway, this chapter ended up being a detour I hadn't originally intended but I think the story benefits from it. Hopefully! Now that Scorpia's getting more cognizant and they're on their way to finding the right drug for bugs, surely only good things will happen from here. Surely… Poor Mermista and Sea Hawk still waiting for Bow to remember to get Glimmer to whisk them to a land of better food (and ice cream).