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Catra sighed and scraped the finish of the wooden table off with her claws. Her ears flicked and pinned down to the side of her head, trying to tune out the noise coming at her from every angle, because of course the princesses couldn’t go two seconds without arguing. It was so annoying.
She locked eyes with Scorpia from across the table. Scorpia sent her a sunny smile, and Catra rolled her eyes, smirking at her the tiniest bit. Scorpia giggled behind one of her pincers.
Catra moved her gaze across the table, taking in the scene around her. Adora and Glimmer were arguing with each other, yet still somehow teaming up against Mermista, who was being yelled at by Perfuma, who was being egged on by Frosta. Catra couldn’t even tell what they were talking about anymore. It had started as a simple meeting to discuss allocation of resources and relocation of citizens and blah blah blah post-war cleanup bullshit. Catra didn’t particularly care for the details– they’d give her a place to go to and a task to do and she’d be on her way.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to find Scorpia excusing herself from the table.
Her eyes fell on Bow next, who was biting his nails and looking frantically back and forth between the princesses. She rolled her eyes and continued on to Entrapta.
Entrapta… wasn’t looking good.
Catra frowned, trying to remember where she’d seen this expression on her face before– this strained, uncomfortable, scrunched expression, her worry-bitten lip, her pinched brows, the glazed-over look in her eyes as she stared unblinkingly at some point off in the distance.
She made to stand up, but Perfuma shoved her back in her seat, probably out of a desire to mitigate the conflict than out of anything malicious. She glared, but Perfuma didn’t even spare her a glance.
She stared across the table at Entrapta and tried to put the pieces together. Was she sick? Tired? Overworked? Focusing too hard? She couldn’t tell. Entrapta was hard to read on a good day, and impossible to read on a bad one. It was hard to tell the difference between her excited face and her completely freaked-out face.
Catra caught the sound of something thumping from beneath the table. She shifted her gaze and saw Entrapta’s boots hitting the ground in a staccato rhythm. She furrowed her brow and raised her head back above the table.
She tried to catch Entrapta’s attention, but she seemed to be tuning everything out. Her hands shook as she pulled her gloves off, fidgeting with a tendril of hair. Her eyes shifted, flitting around the room with jerky, uncoordinated movements.
She reached one hand up to her neck and started scratching, and suddenly Catra knew what was happening.
She’d seen it a few times in the Horde. Entrapta had… episodes. She’d told her once that it was like her brain switched off for a bit and went on autopilot because it couldn’t handle all the information it was receiving at once. Catra could understand, at least a little bit– she had moments like that too.
But Entrapta’s were… different.
She’d seen Entrapta bang her head against the metal walls and attempt to strangle herself with her hair. She’d seen her crying and screaming and hyperventilating and rocking back and forth. She’d seen her lash out and throw her tools across the room, sometimes hitting herself with them. The worst she’d seen was when Scorpia had to pry a screwdriver out of Entrapta’s hands to stop her from digging into her own skin.
Catra had never stuck around to help her in the aftermath. Emotions were Scorpia’s thing, not hers. Scorpia was the one who calmed her down while Catra stood uselessly in the corner, or, even worse, left the room.
Now, though, she was sorely regretting it, because Scorpia wasn’t here and she had no idea how to stop it.
She could try, though.
She would try.
She made to stand up again, and was once again blocked by Perfuma.
“Hey,” she scowled, “let me up.”
“You’re not going anywhere. I know you don’t care about this kind of stuff, but you’re not using that as an excuse to get out of it!”
“I’m not–”
Entrapta suddenly stood, chest heaving from the effort of breathing. She tugged even harder on her hair and squeezed her eyes shut. Catra knew it wasn’t long before she tipped over the edge. This was the buildup to the storm, and goddammit why was Perfuma being so difficult?!
Catra watched helplessly from her seat, struggling against Perfuma’s grip as Entrapta hugged her hair around her body. She had a death grip on one of her tools, and Catra was suddenly seriously worried about the possibility of her hurting herself.
“Perfuma, please, just let me up.” Catra eyed Entrapta, watching as she practically sprinted toward the door. Melog’s fur bristled.
“No, I told you–”
“Hey! Geek Princess! Going off to play with your robots again?” Mermista’s voice cut in, and the cacophony of voices in the background cut out. Mermista’s hand clamped down on her shoulder. “I don’t know why I expected anything else from you.”
Entrapta struggled, pushing Mermista out of the way. Mermista yelped and Perfuma shot out a vine to restrain Entrapta, who let out a strangled yell.
“Hey! Let go of her!” Catra used Perfuma’s distraction to her advantage and pushed her aside, uncaring as she floundered for balance. Melog was quick to follow, reaching Entrapta before she did and trying to tear at the vines with its teeth.
“Catra, what–” Adora called after her, but she wasn’t listening.
Catra leapt over the table and ripped the vines off of Entrapta, pulling her away from Mermista. Melog mewled and padded off to the side to let Catra help. “Hey, Entrapta, you’re okay.”
Entrapta shook her head and screamed, thrashing in her grip. “Entrapta!” Catra yelled, “it’s okay! It’s just me. Look, see?” She ran the backs of her claws over Entrapta’s arms, letting her feel the talons against her skin. Vaguely, she could hear the shouts of the other princesses in the background.
Entrapta’s chest heaved, but she stopped struggling so much. Catra wrapped her hand around Entrapta’s forearm and pressed on a specific area of her wrist. Entrapta’s fist involuntarily opened and the tool in her hand clattered to the floor.
Entrapta’s eyes shot open and she gasped, fighting against Catra’s grip. Catra held fast, but let her reach a hand up to her face to scrub it when she started pulling.
Then Entrapta started scratching her cheek, and she pulled her hand back down.
“No!” Entrapta yelled, kicking and pushing her away with her hair. Catra lost her grip and was sent crashing down to the floor with an unceremonious “oof!” Catra leapt to her feet and crept toward her.
“What’s wrong with her?” Frosta yelled over Entrapta’s screams. “Is she going crazy?!”
“What? No, she’s just–”
“Is she being mind controlled?” Perfuma bit her nails.
Mermista scoffed. “I knew she wasn’t right in the head.”
“Do I need to fight her?!”
“Catra, just tell us what’s going on!”
“Relax! It’s fine! She’ll be okay, just give me– argh!- a couple of minutes!” Catra rubbed her stinging cheek– a gift courtesy of one of Entrapta’s ponytails. Melog grizzled and turned its gaze to the other princesses.
Entrapta collapsed against the wall and slid down, sobbing and pulling at her hair. She punched at her skull and threw her head back against the wall. Catra leapt up and, acting on pure instinct, pulled Entrapta into her arms.
Entrapta screamed and pushed, but Catra held fast. She was trying to say something that Catra couldn’t understand. After a few seconds, she realized Entrapta was repeating, over and over in that shrill, agony-filled scream of hers, “help me.”
It was an endless mantra of “help me, help me, help me!” and Catra swore that she would do anything in her power to do exactly that.
“Alright, alright, it’s okay. We’re gonna ride this out.” She slid them away toward the center of the room when she started kicking her legs against the wall. She simply held her and let her cry it out, pushing and pulling and tugging and wailing and kicking all the way.
Catra let it happen. It wasn’t pleasant, but it would be over soon. These things never lasted long.
Sure enough, after a few minutes of struggling, Entrapta went boneless in Catra’s arms, head falling onto her shoulder and face tucking into her neck.
“There we go,” she soothed, “you’re okay.”
Entrapta shook with silent sobs, and Catra stroked her hair. Entrapta reached a hair tendril up and held onto her wrist. Catra squeezed her even tighter. She could feel the frantic fluttering of her heartbeat from where Entrapta’s chest was pressed to hers. After another minute or two, Entrapta tried to move, stilted back-and-forth motions that Catra recognized and mimicked, rocking the two of them from where they sat.
Entrapta let out a shuddery sigh.
“Um, what the hell was that?” Mermista bit.
“Yeah, what’s wrong with her?”
“Frosta!” Perfuma admonished.
Mermista clicked her tongue. “No, she’s right. Something’s obviously not right with her.”
Catra glared. “There’s nothing wrong with her. She’s perfectly fine, no thanks to you.” Melog padded back over and Catra let it snuggle up against her side.
“Um, sorry, how did I have anything to do with her freak-out?”
Entrapta’s shoulders shuddered. She weakly reached up and tried to scratch at her neck again, but Catra caught her hand, holding it tightly in her own.
“Are you kidding me?” She scoffed. “You antagonized her when she tried to leave, and Perfuma tied her up with plants!”
“She pushed me!”
“Because she was trying to get out!”
“Woah woah woah! Hold on!” Adora yelled, making cutting motions with her hands. “Catra, can you just tell us what that was?”
“We just want to help,” Bow added. Glimmer nodded.
Catra sighed. “Entrapta, you okay if I tell them?”
Entrapta shrugged. She turned her head so her other cheek rested on Catra’s shoulder, facing the wall beside them.
“Okay,” Catra said, blowing out a breath. “Entrapta is… she’s different from the rest of us. Not in the weird way– well, kind of in the weird way, but not really– oh, whatever. You know what I mean.” At the prompting looks from Glimmer, Bow, and Adora, she continued. “Her brain’s different. She’s told me before that it’s like she has a completely different set of wiring than the rest of us. Her brain doesn’t work the way ours do. She feels too much, and it overwhelms her.” She turned her glare on the other three. “All the screaming and forced touching probably didn’t help.”
“She was a danger! I subdued her!” Perfuma protested.
“You saw your friend experiencing an extreme amount of distress and your first thought was to restrain her?”
“I–” Perfuma looked around. Mermista’s glare hadn’t let up. Frosta just looked confused. Glimmer, Bow, and Adora were exchanging worried glances with one another. The other princesses just looked mildly uncomfortable. “I didn’t know she was in distress. I thought she was just being difficult!”
“Which wasn’t an unreasonable conclusion to come to,” Mermista drawled.
“Would you have done the same thing if Adora had been the one running out of here? Glimmer? Bow? Me?”
“I–” Perfuma shook her head. “Well, you restrained her too! You’re one to talk!”
“I only restrained her after she became a danger to herself! And I wasn’t tying her up, I was hugging her!” She looked between the three of them, especially focusing her gaze on Mermista and Perfuma. “You two have it out for Entrapta. I’ve seen the way you treat her. You’re mad at her because you think she abandoned you, when in reality, you were the ones who abandoned her. I was the one that got her to stay after you left her in the Fright Zone. You preach about friendship, and yet you’re the ones being terrible friends to her.”
“Catra… it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. You can’t keep letting them treat you like this. They use you, Entrapta! They’ve only ever tried to be your friend when they needed you for something! How is any of this okay?!”
Adora flinched as if the remark had burned her, and all Catra could think was good.
“Really, it’s okay.” She raised her head off Catra’s shoulders and pulled back. Catra let her go, watching carefully as one of her pigtails reached out to grab the tool and shove it back into her belt. She looked up at the people in the room and pushed herself to her feet. “I…” Her face scrunched up as she tried to pick out the right words– something Catra had seen a few times before. “I’m sorry, that I’m a bad friend,” she said, slowly, one word at a time. “But… I’m trying. To be a good friend.”
“Entrapta…” Adora’s voice trailed off.
Frosta stepped forward. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, looking down and grabbing her arm. “I was mean to you. I promise it won’t happen again.”
Entrapta reached out with a hair tendril to pat her on the head. “Thank you.”
Frosta smiled sadly and stepped back, joining the other princesses at the far end of the room.
“Entrapta,” Bow stepped forward next. “What I said to you on Beast Island– about you not trying hard enough– that was wrong of me. I didn’t… I didn’t realize how hard you were trying. I thought you’d just stopped trying, or, or that you never were trying in the first place. And I’m sorry, because you were trying harder than any of us.” He wiped a tear from his eye and stepped back.
Entrapta looked back at Catra, who nodded at her as if to say: ‘This is okay. You need to let this happen.’
Glimmer was next. “You are such a good friend, Entrapta. You made mistakes, but so did I, and I’d say mine were a lot worse than yours. You’ve always been there for me, even if you don’t really know how to do it. I appreciate our friendship. I’m sorry I’ve never said that to you before.”
Adora stepped up after her. “I’m… sorry, that we treated you like an outsider. I see now I didn’t value our friendship enough. I wish I’d gotten to know you sooner instead of just seeing you as what you could do. If you want, and you can feel free to say no, I won’t be mad– but if you want, you can come hang out with me sometime. I’d love to talk about tech with you.”
Entrapta’s eyes glistened. Adora rubbed her neck and cleared her throat, then stepped back to join the rest of her squad.
Perfuma and Mermista exchanged glances with one another. Entrapta shifted uncomfortably.
“I’m not… good with friends,” she said, turning her gaze to the floor. “I’m bad at talking. I’m bad at listening. I’m bad at… being a good friend.” She rubbed her arm with a hair tendril. “But… I’m trying. Can you see that I’m trying?”
Perfuma’s lip wobbled. “I– I don’t– Mermista, I–”
“I’m trying to see, but I can’t,” Mermista scowled. “Whenever I see you, all I can think about is the Battle of Salineus– my entire kingdom burning to the ground, because of your tech. I don’t want to understand you.” Entrapta nodded, refusing to meet her gaze, and Mermista sighed. “But I do want to be a good friend, and I don’t think I am right now. I’ll try to understand you. I can’t say whether I’ll want to be your friend after I’m done, but I will say I’ll try. That sound good, Geek Princess?”
Entrapta shrugged, then nodded. “I… yes. Good.”
“Good.” Mermista nodded and sniffed, running her hands through her hair. She spared Perfuma one last glance and stepped back to join the others.
Which just left Perfuma, who stood quivering in her sandals, staring at the other princesses with wide, watery eyes.
“You don’t have to say you’re sorry,” Entrapta said before she could get a word out. “I know I hurt you before. But…” she looked at the ground, sliding one of her boots along one of the designs in the floor. “I can’t be better if you think I’m not trying.”
“I–” Perfuma’s lip quivered.
She took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling as if to collect herself.
“I don’t understand you, Entrapta!” Tears streamed down blotchy red cheeks. “I don’t understand you at all and I hate you for it! I don’t know why you can’t be normal like the rest of us!”
“Perfuma–”
“Perfuma, that’s a little harsh.”
“Woah, what the–”
“You abandoned us and you hu-hurt us and you come waltzing back in here like you belong, and I can’t even look at your face because of what you did to us!” Perfuma’s voice cracked and she scrubbed furiously at her face. “Your tech killed people and you can’t even see how serious that is because you’re a heartless monster!”
Perfuma stood in the same place, but she might as well have been screaming in Entrapta’s face, too. She ignored the way Entrapta hunched in on herself and said:
“You’re evil, Entrapta. You don’t have emotions, you only care about yourself, and now you pull this? What even is this?! Some kind of plot to get the other princesses on your side?! I’m not manipulated that easily! Nothing you say will change the fact that you’re not human!”
Perfuma panted, tears dripping off her chin, face flushed bright red. There was some kind of strangled noise from the floor, and Catra saw her yanking her feet out from a tangle of vines.
Without another word from either side, both too stunned to speak, Perfuma stormed out.
The room was quiet for a moment or two before the sound of a sniffle broke Catra out of her paralysis. With a few short steps she was at Entrapta’s side, slinging an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into her chest. Melog rubbed its face against her legs and the two held her as she cried.
A pair of footsteps approached the three, and then Glimmer spoke.
“I am so, so sorry,” she said. Her voice was even, but there was the tiniest hint of a quiver at the back of her throat. “None of what she said was true.”
“You’re as human as they come,” said Bow. Glimmer hummed.
“Yeah, and even if it was true on any level, what she said was cruel,” said Adora.
“She’s just a stupid-head!” Frosta piped up. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about!”
“Yeah, that was just… ouch,” Mermista agreed.
“Thank you,” Entrapta whispered into Catra’s shoulder, body trembling in her embrace. “You’re all being so nice. I don’t deserve this.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Mermista shrugged, ignoring the barrage of angry exclamations from the other princesses. “But no one deserves those kinds of words.”
“Yeah dude. That was uncalled for.”
“I don’t even think Shadow Weaver was that obviously cruel.”
Entrapta cried, and Catra rubbed her back.