"That was a long walk last night," Catra commented in the morning while they cooked breakfast over a campfire.

Scorpia shrugged, idly spinning her skewer of meat over the coals. "This place is just so interesting, you know? So many new plants."

Catra snorted. "Since when are you so into nature?"

Scorpia forced herself to look as innocent as possible. Fortunately, Catra's eyes were laser-focused on cooking her meat. "Also cool new animals! Just interested in everything new, you know."

"I really don't know," Catra retorted, "But you do you."

Catra's support warmed Scorpia's heart.

Once the two of them had eaten, Catra handed her some net capsules and told her the plan. "We're gonna split up and take at least one of the animals back to the horde to analyze. Just toss this net capsule near them and then you can drag them back. Be careful though," Catra's voice went down to a conspiratorial whisper, "If you get bitten, you might be permanently infected, and I might leave you here."

"No, I don't think I will be," Scorpia responded automatically, thinking about the antelope she encountered last night, "But thank you for your concern!"

Catra made one of her weird faces. With a groan, she shook her head. "Whatever. Just… use the communicator if you find anything. I'll have mine on me as well. Do you remember how to use it?"

Scorpia nodded and brought out her communicator, pointing at the relevant buttons, "Sure! This is on and off, press and hold that button to talk to you, here's the volume-"

"Good. You go West, I'll go East."

Catra marched away. Scorpia took a deep breath, and traveled West as commanded.

The nature around here was interesting. Although Scorpia was not telling Catra everything, she certainly had not lied. The trees went more vertical than Scorpia was used to, and even the snakes were different. Where home snakes were generally camouflaging textures of browns, pale yellows, and grays, here she could easily catch the bright red, blue, and black scales slithering along the forest floor. She also encountered plants and flowers Perfuma had never introduced her to.

She sighed aloud at the thought of Perfuma. What was she going to do?

Technically, Scorpia herself had not actually done anything other than have some conversations with Perfuma. And had an accidental sleepover. And cradled Perfuma in her arms. Scorpia supposed the kisses were notable, but all initiated by Peffuma, so Scorpia couldn't take responsibility for those.

Technically, Scorpia had not betrayed the Horde. A little bit of friendship never hurt anyone. Isn't that how Entrapta started, after all? Entrapta had been part of the Rebellion, and now she was an invaluable ally. Why couldn't Perfuma defect and join the Horde too?

Scorpia hummed happily. Perfuma would be a powerful ally for the Horde. She could attack many enemies at once, and easily restrain them as well. Scorpia's breath quickened at the thought of being tied up by those vines. She was embraced by something far beyond her power; the show of force was sometimes overwhelming.

The temperature was rather warm in this area. Scorpia fanned her face. She was more accustomed to the cold metal embrace of the Fright Zone, rather than the warm pockets of life in these woods. Scorpia bit her lip. If Perfuma joined the Horde, they would have to incorporate more plants into the Fright Zone. There wasn't much soil there, though, it had all been paved over. The only plant Scorpia had seen there was the rose she had brought in. After Perfuma gave it to her, she kept it in a vase with the stem in water. Unfortunately, the petals had started dropping. In response, Scorpia had been pressing the petals in between the pages of her diary, and pressing it down under her mattress every night. Scorpia hoped she and Catra would get home before too many more petals fell.

"There she is!" A loud, vaguely familiar male voice shouted.

By instinct, Scorpia pulled out a taser and dropped into a fighting stance. Her eyes searched the woods for the source until she saw an archer boy. Bow. Beside him was the Bright Moon princess, Glimmer, who disappeared as soon as Scorpia saw her.

Anticipating her moves, Scorpia turned and caught Glimmer with her taser as she tried to do a teleported rear attack. She heard a whizzing sound from towards Bow, and leaned left to avoid an arrow. With Glimmer temporarily paused, Bow was her main threat. She bolted for him, raising the taser-

Familiar vines wrapped her from below. Scorpia was too surprised to struggle, and let the vines knock the taser out of her hands. Once subdued, Scorpia called out, "Perfuma?"

Perfuma stepped out from behind a tree. "I have her! Glimmer, are you okay?"

Bow rushed to Glimmer's side and helped her up. Glimmer groaned. "Yeah, I'm fine."

While they were occupied with each other, Scorpia stared at Perfuma for an explanation. Perfuma gave her a desperate smile and shrugged. When Bow and Glimmer looked back at them, Perfuma's face transformed into a confident warlord.

"What's this all about?" Scorpia asked.

"Ha! Wouldn't you like to know!" Glimmer shouted.

"Perfuma saw you cure a sick antelope with your venom, so we're kidnapping you to cure some kids," Bow volunteered the information easily.

Scorpia narrowed her eyes at Perfuma. "She saw me, did she?"

Scorpia may have imagined it, but she thought she saw a trickle of sweat slide down Perfuma's forehead. Perfuma coughed. "Yes! You must have been completely unaware, as I was completely silent hiding in the woods, and just happened to witness you stab a sick antelope. Once you left, the antelope got up, completely cured! And knowing that there were people suffering from the disease, I could not keep the information to myself."

So that was the story they were going with. Scorpia sensed that last sentence was the closest thing she would get to an apology for now.


Perfuma was exhausted by the time they reached the village. Why couldn't have Glimmer or Bow have brought along some ropes? Bringing her vines the whole way there was not the ideal use of her powers. She was much better suited to just keep someone still, not transport them.

She glanced at Scorpia. She wondered just how betrayed Scorpia would feel by this. Her face was serious, but not especially distraught. Perfuma felt guilt niggling at her, but she had to! She couldn't stay in this village, knowing she was keeping a cure from them

Once they reached Little Billy and Ari, She-ra was relieved to see them. "Thank goodness you guys are back, I've been trying stuff, but it turns out… I still don't know healing magic."

The children were strapped down, still struggling against their bonds. Their mouths drooled as they snapped at anyone who got close.

Bow clapped his hands together. "Okay, so how are we going to do this?"

Glimmer cracked her knuckles. "Perfuma, loosen the vines around the tail, I'll grab it and poke the kids with it."

"No!" Perfuma responded automatically, thinking of Scorpia's sensitivity. When Bow, She-ra, and Glimmer raised an eyebrow at her, she came up with an excuse, "It's too dangerous. To be near the tail."

Glimmer crossed her arms. "Do you have a better idea then?"

Perfuma brought Scorpia closer to the kids. "I'll put her in a position close enough to get the kids, release only her tail, and she'll stab them."

"Why would she, though?" Bow asked, "We haven't given her any reason-"

"Scorpia!" Perfuma addressed her, "If you inject these two kids, we'll let you go!"

Scorpia smiled. "What a deal."

Glimmer hissed, "What are you doing?"

Perfuma whispered back, "We need her to co-operate."

"Or, crazy thought," Glimmer put a hand on Perfuma's shoulder, "We keep her as a hostage to the Horde. Give us an edge up. Tell Hordak he has to pull back his troops or Scorpia gets it."

"No offense, Glimmer," She-ra cut in, "But I don't think the Horde cares as much about Scorpia as Bright Moon cares about you. To them, if you're weak enough to get captured by the enemy, you deserve to die."

Glimmer smirked. "What about Catra, though? Do you think Catra would just leave her friend without a fight?"

She-ra's opened her mouth with an expression of indignation. Before she could speak, though, Bow put a hand on her shoulder. "Our first priority is to cure these kids. After that's done, we can figure out exactly what we'll do with her."

"I guess," Glimmer mumbled.

"Okay! Great! I guess we can just go with threats for now then!" Perfuma exclaimed while she started to loosen the vines around Scorpia's tail. "No funny business, Scorpia, or I will choke you to death!"

Scorpia chuckled. "Sure."

Once loosened, Scorpia's tail waved a bit. Then, in two swift movements, she pricked the shoulders of the two struggling children. They immediately quieted, closing their eyes.

"Are we good?" Scorpia asked, "Can I like, go now?"

"Not until they wake up," She-ra declared, "And we're certain they're cured."

"I'll take Scorpia away for now," Perfuma volunteered, "You guys should bring in their families. If they're okay, I'm sure the kids would want to see their parents first."

The others agreed readily enough. Despite the energy strain, Perfuma thought it was worth it to pull Scorpia away. To an isolated place. Fortunately, the woods were right behind the building the sick kids were being kept. Perfuma tugged Scorpia through the trees until she couldn't make out the conversations in the village.

Now in relative privacy, Perfuma was not sure where to begin. Apologies? Explanations? She took a deep breath. This was such bad karma.

"Maybe we should try choking," Scorpia began, "A girl I knew in cadet training said it was kinda hot."

"Scorpia!"

"You brought it up."

"As a threat! Not one I would actually do, honestly. Not a-" Perfuma wasn't used to talking to people about things like this, she wasn't sure how to articulate it. "Not a 'suggestion' for us."

Scorpia's voice got quiet. "What is 'us'?"

Perfuma took another deep, calming breath. "This is so complicated."

"That's not what you said last night."

Perfuma's face flushed at the memories. "I was drunk on joyberry juice."

"So are you claiming all of that was a lie?" Scorpia had a furrow in her brow.

Perfuma took a step closer to Scorpia. "Of course not! It means I wasn't thinking about the consequences when I..." Perfuma felt her voice weaken as she admitted out loud, "...kissed you."

Scorpia's voice was achingly gentle as she spoke, "What are your feelings? Right now, here in the daylight?"

Perfuma stared at Scorpia. Scorpia's soft white hair, her kind eyes, her… was that lipstick on her lips? It looked good. She remembered their conversations, Scorpia's gentle claws carrying her home, and the taste of her lips. Scorpia helpless against her embrace, gasping at her touch. But they had barely kissed. Perfuma was haunted by thoughts of what else could happen. She wanted to remove that Horde uniform, along with everything it stood for, and explore every inch. Her heart pumped at the thoughts racing through her head. "I want to be with you." But there was no logical way to justify that with the Rebellion.

Scorpia let out a breath. "I do too, but the Horde-"

At Scorpia's immediate admission, Perfuma decided to ignore logic. They both liked each other. There were a million things against them, so why shouldn't they steal a few moment's bliss where they could? She pulled Scorpia into a kiss.

Scorpia, despite claiming some concern about the Horde, easily acquiesced to Perfuma's advances, returning the kiss with a desperate fervor. How long did it take the antelope to wake up from the venom-induced slumber? Perfuma felt confident the others would not leave the kids at least until they woke up. Surely it wouldn't be too soon.

During a separation for breath, Scorpia whispered, "I wish I could embrace you."

Perfuma loosened the vines around Scorpia. Though Scorpia widened her eyes, she took the opportunity to wrap her claws around Perfuma, and pulled her in for another kiss. The feeling of Scorpia's arms around her were divine. Along with the wrap of a third limb-

A familiar prick in the back of her thigh. Her body went weak, but she caught Scorpia mouth "sorry" with a mischievous face as she collapsed.

Perfuma fell for it again