"Hey Perfuma, want to join us in the Whispering Woods?"

Perfuma startled at Bow's voice. She turned from the flowers she had been checking on to face him. She had not noticed his presence, nor Glimmer beside him, but she had been out of it the past few days. She forced herself to focus on the people that were in front of her and not on a specific woman who had been haunting her thoughts. "Bow? Glimmer? Why are you inviting me out to the Whispering Woods?"

Although Perfuma occasionally joined missions with Bow and the other Princesses, generally only when she was needed. She did have Plumeria to run, after all, she couldn't travel all the time.

Glimmer shrugged. "Is it so crazy to want to hang together with my princess buds every now and again?"

Perfuma wondered if Glimmer would ever think of Scorpia as a princess bud. Perfuma mentally pinched herself, she shouldn't be wondering things like that. "If you want to hang out, we can have a tea party right here without risking any wild animals out in the Whispering Woods!" Perfuma told them, uncertain whether she should go out while so easily distracted.

"Please?" Bow asked while clasping his hands together, "Technically we told Queen Angella we were going to help map the woods, not to visit you, so we thought we could sneak you in while we work."

Bow was using his puppy dog eyes. Perfuma sighed. There was no way she could get out of this without feeling terrible. "Alright."

Bow cheered, and Glimmer grinned. Perfuma allowed some of the tenseness in her shoulders to loosen. This could be good for her. She had been a bit cooped up since her… fight. She needed to socialize, recalibrate, reconnect with people who didn't ally with the horde and then tell Perfuma that certain people aren't as dead as she thought-

"So here's the map so far," Bow brought out a big sheet of paper, folded in a million places and scattered with inked notes.

"And we're trying to fill in some of the east side," Glimmer told her.

Bow folded with practiced ease until only a small section of the map was visible, with much fewer notes and illustrations.

As they walked along, Perfuma got curious. "Not that I'm complaining, but what made you guys so eager to hang out all of the sudden?"

Glimmer shrugged. "To be honest we wanted to check on you a little bit."

"You just rushed out of that party!" Bow exclaimed.

Perfuma smiled, covering for a grimace. "Oh yes! I haven't apologized for that, I'm so sorry for hurrying out without properly saying goodbye."

Glimmer shook her head, "No, we should be apologizing! Us forcing you and your date into the closet like that, asking a bunch of personal questions… you guys must have been uncomfortable, right?"

Perfuma looked away, "Well, I mean, maybe a little bit..."

"We didn't realize it would make you uncomfortable enough to run away," Bow frowned, "We shouldn't have pushed you guys like that."

Perfuma laughed, but could not look them in the eye. They were offering such a tidy excuse, at least she had some luck today. "Don't even worry about it."

"We didn't, um…" Glimmer paused, seeming uncertain how to phrase the rest, "like, 'ruin your chances' with Rose, did we?"

Perfuma could feel her smile get more strained by the minute, so she walked slightly faster so they could not see her expression. "No, you guys didn't ruin anything."

Bow caught up to Perfuma easily and nudged her side. "So is there a chance we can meet her again? Maybe in a bit more sober situation? I promise we'll behave."

Perfuma forced her legs to keep moving. Unfortunately, their path led them to a cliff over a ravine, so Perfuma was forced to stop and turn to face them. She carefully maintained her smile. Don't let them see that it affected her. "I want to assure you guys that it's not your fault, but we didn't work out." Perfuma laughed. "In fact, I don't think we'll ever see her again."

Glimmer convulsed suddenly, with a scream.

Bow and Perfuma immediately jumped into offensive mode, bending their knees and turning towards Glimmer, who was now falling to the ground. Behind her, Catra held a baton, sputtering with electric energy. "Well, well, look what we have here."

As Catra spoke, a broad-shouldered figure came out from the shoulders to respond. She held a strange electronic contraption in her clawed hands, and Perfuma wondered if that was one of the technologies Entrapta was apparently creating for the horde.

When Scorpia met Perfuma's eyes, she smiled, eyebrows upturned as though to apologize. Perfuma pursed her lips, glaring at Scorpia before refocusing on Catra. Catra swirled her baton casually, before moving to shock Glimmer again. Perfuma quickly uprooted the ground between the two of them, using the roots to pull Glimmer towards Bow and Perfuma. Perfuma's breath quickened; if this continued, she would have to fight her ex-girlfriend. Although they were no longer together, the idea of hurting Scorpia physically created a knot in her stomach.

Glimmer groaned, eventually standing back up with some support from Bow. "What do you want, Catra?" Glimmer spat out.

Catra laughed. "No She-ra with you guys today? Must be our lucky day."

"We're doing literally nothing that interferes with Horde business right now," Perfuma defended them, hoping to diffuse the situation, "Do we really need to fight? What about a truce so we can go our separate ways?"

Perfuma dared to look back at Scorpia, who was still staring at her, gratefulness radiating from her eyes.

Catra scoffed. "I know you're going to mess with us sooner or later. It's much better that we take care of you while you don't have She-ra protecting you."

"Miscalculation," Bow countered, "Adora fights with us, but we're plenty strong on our own as well."

Perfuma's stomach dropped as Bow notched an arrow. That movement triggered Catra and Scorpia to jump into action. Perfuma deliberately targeted Catra with a criss-cross of vines, trying to envelope her, but Catra was lithe and dodged every movement with nimble feet. Out of the side of her eye, Perfuma saw Scorpia targeting Glimmer, who teleported away from a tail stab. Glimmer reappeared above Catra, but Catra rolled away from Glimmer's falling body. Scorpia ended up cornering Bow on the edge of the cliff. She side-stepped to prevent him from escaping, leaving him no choice but to engage. With a shout, he charged towards Scorpia as if to tackle her. She responded in kind, outstretching her arms and leaning forward to catch him in her claws.

However, at the last possible moment, Bow dropped into a roll and knocked Scorpia's ankles. Off-balance, Scorpia tumbled forward, directly off the cliff. "Scorpia!" Perfuma shouted instinctively, as though she could call her back from the edge. A burst of emotion coursed through her, flashing her back to the moment when the Horde doors closed on Entrapta…

Perfuma's arms were moving before she realized it, shoving roots through the earth. Aimed just a few feet below the edge, she focused all her energy on creating a barrier between Scorpia and the fatal drop below. Scorpia was now no longer visible, completely over the ledge she fell from, but Perfuma had to hope her plants could hold her. With an aggressive pull, Perfuma forced the plants up from the side back towards the stable ground.

A sigh of relief escaped Perfuma when she saw Scorpia rise with the mass, cradled by curled roots. Scorpia leaned on the mass, eyes wide. Her pupils darted towards Perfuma, and her mouth opened as if to say something…

Something Perfuma missed as she was shocked from behind.