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It was a kiss. It was a kiss she’d longed for, a kiss she never thought she’d get, a kiss she couldn’t believe was happening, and she felt herself shiver as Catra’s hand rested on the side of her face.
“I… wait…,” Scorpia stammered out in the gloom of Mara’s ship as she pulled back a little.
“Do you really want me to stop?” Catra said, her voice low and her eyes, well, those eyes had featured in Scorpia’s nicest dreams and now she felt like she could fall into them as they stared into her own.
“No,” Scorpia said as she pulled Catra tight to her, lifting her off the ground as she did so. It was the same hug she’d given Catra a hundred times before but for once, Catra didn’t complain. She didn’t know how long they stood there in the hall with each other. To Scorpia it was a warm haze of her dreams coming true that was interrupted by a few of their new gang coming out of the party and cheering.
Scorpia blushed at the cheering as she turned, letting go of Catra, but Catra just dropped to the ground with a grin while one of the people said, “Good choice, Boss!”
“It is, isn’t it?” Catra said, looking at Scorpia as she put an arm around Scorpia’s hips. “How about you tell the rest of the party, the bosses are going to be busy planning.”
“Is that what it’s called these days?” one of the other gang members said.
“Alright, enough of that,” Catra said with a laugh that made Scorpia feel light headed. “I’m taking my girl here away for a little bit. Someone throw a little food at the prisoner occasionally.”
Scorpia felt light as a cloud as she heard Catra say “my girl” and started to stammer something out that died on her lips as Catra pulled her arm around Scorpia’s waist a bit tighter.
“Come on,” Catra said and started walking. Scorpia followed her.
Several hours later, Scorpia was drifting off to sleep, a smile on her face. Catra was a warm shape beside her in the darkness, the both of them covered by a sheet from the bed they’d fallen onto. A little voice told her she needed to talk with Catra, find out what all this meant, but she didn’t pay it any notice as she felt Catra move and then carefully sit up on the edge of the bed. Scorpia sat up and by the dim light in the room she saw Catra freeze before she said, “I’m, uh, going to get something to eat. You want anything?”
Scorpia reached forward to run a claw tip down Catra’s back as she said, “Some of that, what did they call it, cake?”
Scorpia tried not to notice Catra standing up from the bed a little faster than seemed normal when Scorpia had touched her.
“Yeah, I’ll see if they have any of that left,” Catra said as she threw on some clothes.
“Maybe something to drink? Please?” Scorpia said.
Catra stopped as she headed towards the door before saying without turning around, “Yep.”
Scorpia rolled over on her back as a little frown developed on her face. It was like night and day with Catra.
That’s just how she is, she told herself. But she’ll get better.
Scorpia remembered how Catra had looked at her in the hall after the first kiss, a look of wanting, and fell back onto the bed with a smile as she waited for Catra to return. She was shook out of her slumber several hours later when Catra came back into the room. Scorpia rubbed at her eyes as she yawned as Catra lay back down on the bed.
“Did they not have any cake left?” Scorpia said.
“No, go back to sleep,” Catra said as she turned her back to Scorpia.
“You sure you want to do that?” Scorpia said, trying to sound seductive but sounding silly even to herself.
“It’s late,” Catra said as she hugged herself tight. Scorpia started to put an arm around Catra and Catra batted her away. “Just go to sleep! Damn!”
“Oh, yeah, sorry, I know you’re grumpy when you’re tired, sorry,” Scorpia said, scooting back a little. “I’m going to sleep too.”
Scorpia spent a long time staring into the dark that night.
A week went by and it was the happiest of Scorpia’s life. That’s what she told herself, often, that she was happy and that she was lucky. Catra didn’t talk about going back to the Horde anymore but she didn’t talk about letting Adora go either. The sword Catra had taken from Adora hung up in the command deck of the ship, where Catra would hold court from the giant command chair. The first day after they got together, someone tried to challenge Catra for control of the gang. He had to be dragged out of the room and Scorpia wasn’t entirely sure he’d wake back up.
Later in private, she’d asked Catra what had been up. She remembered the fight with Tung Lashor. That had been almost funny but this one had just been brutal.
“Needed to be taught a lesson,” was all Catra had said.
The mornings, Catra would get up and leave before Scorpia was up. Scorpia would find her in the command room, sending people out on little missions. She’d barely grunt at Scorpia then as Scorpia took her place on the right hand side of the command chair. Over the next few hours, she’d warm up and soon it’d be great, Catra laughing with her. A couple of times they went on the little missions with some of the gang and that was fun as well, though she couldn’t shake the thought that Catra would throw herself into dangerous situations.
Evenings would be another party and then at some point, Catra would leave without a word and Scorpia would follow her back to what was now their room. When they were done, they’d cuddle together and Scorpia would start to drift off to sleep. When she did, Catra would leave, saying she had one last thing she had to do or because she forgot to ask someone something or whatever. She’d be back several hours later, usually waking Scorpia up when she sat on the edge of the bed.
It was at the end of the week, during the dark hours of the night when Catra had returned, that Scorpia said it.
“I love you.”
Catra stiffened but didn’t say anything and Scorpia felt her stomach clench as she crossed her arms in front of her.
“Should I have not said that?”
“No, it’s fine,” Catra said, not turning around.
“Do you… do you love me?” Scorpia said. Catra said nothing. Scorpia had never felt this vulnerable before and she thought she would fall forever if the silence stretched out any further.
“Catra?”
“You caught me by surprise,” Catra said, looking over her shoulder with a blank expression that changed to a small smile. “Yeah, you’re pretty great.”
Scorpia let out a long breath as she felt the smile return to her face.
“Oh, ok, you scared me there,” Scorpia said.
“Just late, that’s all,” Catra said as she laid down. “Let’s get some sleep.”
As Scorpia fell asleep, she watched Catra, her back turned towards Scorpia, as she started to fall asleep. It didn’t occur to her until later that Catra hadn’t said she loved her back.
It was three more nights before Scorpia followed Catra when she left the room. Normally, Catra would have noticed someone following her but that night she seemed absorbed in her own mind as she walked through the ship. Scorpia watched her leave the ship, to the little camp that had been built outside, and waited a minute before she followed her with a sinking feeling in her gut.
Catra walked right up to a small rock building where Adora had been moved to a few days after she’d been caught. Catra sat down outside the enclosure as Scorpia hid behind a rock nearby.
“Hey, wake up.”
“I’m not asleep, Catra.”
Scorpia could hear the venom in Adora’s voice and was shocked to hear Catra laugh.
“Probably pretty hard to sleep in that. Kind of cold out here.”
“What do you want, Catra? Here to taunt me again about your relationship?”
Scorpia couldn’t help but smile at that. Catra had been telling Adora about them and she couldn’t help but feel happy about that.
“Ah, what’s wrong? Mad that things are finally going good for me?”
“Just leave me alone,” Adora said. “Go play with your toy.”
Scorpia waited for Catra to defend her. All she got was silence.
“What? Why are you still here? Leave me ALONE!” Adora yelled.
“I don’t do what you say anymore,” Catra said.
“You never did!” Adora said. “You wanted to go running off and that’s why we’re in this mess! If we hadn’t gone to the Whispering Woods, none of this would have happened!”
“That was your idea!” Catra shouted back. “You were looking to get rid of me and replace me, even then! Well, I’ve got something now, something without you, and it eats you up! You can’t stand it!”
“I don’t care!” Adora shouted back. “I had a life away from the Horde!”
“Oh, yeah, you had a life, you and your little friends!” Catra shouted. “Is that why you’re always showing up where I am!? You can’t let yourself admit that you need me and that’s why you’re always running after me to screw up what I’m trying to do!”
“You’re hurting people! I can’t let you just get away with that!”
“You didn’t care when you were still there,” Catra said. “Why do you care now?”
There was a short silence followed by Adora’s tired voice, so low Scorpia could barely hear it from her hiding place, say, “Catra, just let me go. Please. I’ll beg you if that’s what you want. Keep the sword. Just let me go. You did it before, you can do it again.”
Scorpia sat up a bit straighter and certain events of the past months, like how Adora and her group had escaped with Glimmer and Bow, started clicking into place.
“I told you to go then but you still had to come back,” Catra said. “You don’t get to go away this time. You’re going back with me to the Horde but it won’t be just you and I. This time, I’m going back with my own army.”
“And your girlfriend?” Adora said.
“Don’t call her that,” Catra snapped.
“Why? Isn’t that what she is?” Adora replied.
“I don’t like the way you say it,” Catra said.
Scorpia was biting down on the edge of her claw as she tried not to shout. Tears were falling down her face as Catra went on.
“Why are you even out here?” Adora said as she leaned into the bars on the door. “Why aren’t you with her?”
Why aren’t you? Scorpia thought.
“That’s none of your business!” Catra shouted.
After a brief silence, Adora spoke.
“I hope she leaves you too.”
From Scorpia’s perspective, there was a sudden silence followed by the sound of rushing feet and a clang from Catra slamming into the bars.
“You take that back!” Catra shouted. “She’s not you! She’s not Shadow Weaver!”
Adora had backed up to the back of the room, just out of Catra’s grasping hand. She looked into Catra’s eyes, her face cold, before she turned her back on Catra.
Scorpia was already heading back to the room though, her mind a rolling mess. She was sitting on the bed, hugging a pillow to herself, when Catra slammed into the room.
“Why are you going to see her?” Scorpia asked and Catra froze for a split second before she stalked to the end of the bed and glared at her.
“How do you know that?”
“I just… I had to know where you went every night,” Scorpia said.
“And you decided you were going to spy on me,” Catra said.
“It’s not like that,” Scorpia said as she scrubbed at the tears streaking her face. “Am I just… what am I to you?”
“Listen, you don’t know what you heard out there,” Catra said. “I’m breaking her down so we can get information from her. That’s how I have to do it.”
Scorpia looked at her. She wanted to believe her so badly.
“It just seemed…,” Scorpia started to say before she trailed off, not sure what to say.
Catra took a deep breath and came around the side, hugging her close.
“I know what it might have seemed,” Catra said. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. Just don’t follow me again.”
“Are we really going to go back?” Scorpia said. “You said we weren’t, that we were going to stay out here for good.”
“Of course not,” Catra lied. “I told you, I’m just messing with her and that’s part of it.”
Scorpia hugged her back.
“OK,” Scorpia said, feeling a bit better. Then she asked a question. “Why are you trying to get information from her then?”
Catra let go of her and said, “Just let it go, alright!? It’s just something I have to do!”
Catra headed for the door as Scorpia said, “Wait! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you mad!”
“Well, you did,” Catra said and was out the door.
The next morning, Catra was apologetic and Scorpia forgave her. The next week went well. Catra stayed at night, Scorpia began to feel better about the whole thing, even though Catra was still moody but that was Catra, and then one evening, in front of the gang, Catra made an announcement.
“You’ve all done well. Tomorrow, we move out,” Catra said. “We go to the Fright Zone, in strength, to take our rightful place!”
The whole gang cheered, even Scorpia because people were looking at her, but she felt her heart sinking. That night, Catra came strolling into the bedroom with a grin on her face.
“I can’t wait,” Catra said. “Hordak is going to flip. He’ll bring us in because he can’t help but do so, especially with a princess and her sword in hand, and then we’ll bide our time until the time is right.”
“But… Wildcat… you said we weren’t going back,” Scorpia said.
Catra’s grin disappeared as she said, “No, I didn’t. I said we weren’t going back immediately.”
“No, that night we first kissed, I said we didn’t have to go back and you agreed. You said we’d stay and we’d rule the Crimson Waste together,” Scorpia said, her memory sharp even as she wondered if she was remembering it right.
“That’s not what I said,” Catra said. “You never remember things right.”
“But…,” Scorpia said and Catra cut her off.
“Do you not want to be with me anymore?” Catra said. “Is that what this is?”
“No! That’s not it!” Scorpia said.
“Then cut it out,” Catra said. “I’m going out.”
Scorpia curled up on the bed and was asleep when Catra came back about an hour later. The next day, the group headed out, a collection of busted down vehicles going along. Adora was in a cage in the back of one of the vehicles, saying nothing as she pulled her red coat tight around her.
Catra carried the Sword of Protection with her, bringing it into her tent at night, and during the day she rode on the same vehicle as Adora, messing with the Sword of Protection in full view of Adora, as she kept up a running monologue to her about how she’d chosen the wrong side and she’d see how that turned out. Then, on their third night out, it happened.
Catra and Scorpia were asleep in their tent when one of the goons came busting into the tent, only to get slammed backwards by Catra vaulting forward and almost clawing him across the face.
“Boss! It’s me! The prisoner’s gone!”
“WHAT!?” Catra screeched as Scorpia hurried out the door of the tent and followed her at a dead run across the sand.
There they found four guards being helped. One of them was pasted to a large stone, an arrow at his feet, two of them were moaning as they rubbed at their eyes, trying to clear the afterimages, and the last was trying not to move since she was surrounded on all sides by cactus that hadn’t been there earlier. The cage had been bent open and Adora was gone.
“What happened!?” Catra said.
“They’re saying they got attacked by princesses,” one of the people said. “They took the prisoner.”
“Spread out! Find them! NOW! STOP STARING AT ME AND GET OUT THERE RIGHT NOW!” Catra said.
“Just let her go,” Scorpia said. “You don’t really need her for your plan.”
Catra whirled on her and even though Scorpia was bigger, she found herself shrinking back.
“You don’t get it. She’s everything,” Catra said with a snarl. “You though, you just bumble along; you just want to sit out here rotting in this nothingness, like an idiot. Just go back in the tent. The least you can do is hold that in place.”
Scorpia stood there as her heart broke, trying to think of something to say, trying to justify why Catra would say this to her and then she thought of how Catra had said that Adora was everything. Catra had never said that to Scorpia or about her. She thought of when she’d say she loved Catra and Catra would just give a weak response or pretend like she didn’t hear.
“I’m leaving,” Scorpia said.
“You don’t have to announce it,” Catra snapped. “Just go back to the damn tent while I sort out this mess.”
An hour later, Scorpia was moving across the dunes in the light of the evening moons, wiping at the tears in her eyes with her bag over her shoulder and the Sword of Protection slipped under the flap of the bag. She avoided the search parties for Adora and in doing so, stumbled across Adora at dawn, along with Bow, Glimmer, Perfuma, and Huntara, hiding in a gully.
The five jumped to their feet and were about to fight, when Scorpia spoke up, “I surrender.”
Then she dropped the sword on the ground at her feet and raised her arms over her head.