Chapter Text
Sparkles and Arrow Boy walked into Catra’s room the next day with a reddish pink t-shirt, maroon leggings, and a can of purple paint.
Arrow Boy spoke first. “Hey, Catra. Do you think we could paint your headpiece purple? It’ll be a clear signifier of which side you’re on and…”
“I mean… do I really have a choice?” Catra interrupted.
Sparkles spoke next. “Well, it is your choice, but… the Horde has hurt a lot of people. People close to everyone have been lost or injured in the war. Like Adora.”
“I’d appreciate it if everyone would stop bringing her up all day every day. There’s other things to talk about, so why dwell in the past!?” Catra shouted. The other two nodded slowly and then glanced at each other. Catra took a deep breath, and then spoke again. “Look, you can paint the headpiece. Honestly, I’ll even throw the thing away anyways. It was a gift from Hordak. Here, it’ll probably make me stand out like a sore thumb no matter what color you paint it.” Catra flung the headpiece at the wall for added effect.
“The… uh… the other thing that we wanted to mention is that the leggings don’t have a tail hole. We’ve got custom clothing being made right now, so this is more like temporary clothes.” Sparkles murmured.
“Yeah, no surprise you don’t have any clothes with tail holes.” Catra responded while walking over. She snatched the leggings and unsheathed her claws. She made a small rip just below the waistline of the leggings, and then retracted her claws. “This’ll do for now.”
“Get dressed, and then meet us in the hallway, and we’ll start the tour.” Arrow Boy stated, before turning to leave.
Catra quickly changed into the new clothes. The leggings were a little bit too long, and the shirt was definitely too big. She tore off the sleeves and then decided the outfit was good enough. As she walked out into the hallway, Sparkles and Arrow Boy’s eyes went directly to the torn off sleeves. They looked at each other, shrugged, and then motioned for Catra to follow them. They led her down a long, long hallway. Occasionally, they would point to a room and identify it. Down one corridor of the castle was Arrow Boy and Sparkles’s rooms. Down another was the “cafeteria” which, to Catra’s understanding, was like the eating quarters in the Horde but with much more variety and the place where she could get herself more milk. This is the first room she was led into. She noticed a few of the guards glaring at her, but nobody said anything. Then, Catra was led to the Conference Room. All of the Princess Alliance with the exception of Fish Princess and the overconfident pirate were present and accounted for. Also, all of them glared at Catra, except for Flower Girl.
“What is she doing here?” Frosta growled.
“She is my new strategic advisor for the time being.” The Queen announced.
“Your Majesty, you can’t be serious!” A female guard shouted.
“I assure you, General, I am not joking. She has a brilliant mind and knows more about the Horde than anyone. She’ll be of great use.” The Queen stated. “And aren’t you forgetting something?”
Lady General growled. “Welcome to the War Room, Catra.” She seethed.
“Let’s skip the awkwardness and get straight to business, okay?” Sparkles asked.
“What a lovely idea, Glimmer.” The Queen agreed. “Catra, what is the best way to disable a Horde tank?”
“The only two weaknesses are the underbody and the cannon itself. In an effort to make them faster, a lot of armor plating was removed from the underbody of the tanks, so if you can manage to get underneath it without getting squished, or to flip it over, you’ll easily be able to take it down. As for the cannon, the barrels are extremely large, and can easily be jammed. I recommend Fish Princess shoot some water down the barrel. It’s the least explosive jamming method.” Catra explained. The others at the table stared at her in disbelief. “That is, while they still use the same model. Entrapta and Hordak were working on a design for a newer model, but it might take a few months for them to get through production, once the design is finalized.” Catra added.
“Pause. Entrapta works for the Horde now?” Ice Child questioned.
“Sort of. She kind of just lives for ‘science’ or whatever and Hordak likes her for some reason.” Catra replied.
“Just to… get things back on discussion, do you have any insight into the future models?” Flower Girl asked.
“No. I was never allowed in the lab for long. I was only supposed to report to Hordak and go, but I caught a glance of some of Entrapta’s sketches once.”
“Can we get back to the Entrapta part of this conversation?” Arrow Bow asked. “What do you mean by he likes her?”
“He likes her. She’s the only person he isn’t cold and heartless towards. She’s the only person he treats with respect. I don’t know anymore than that for certain.” Catra responded.
“For certain?” Sparkles asked. “How about uncertain knowledge?”
“Rumor has it around the Horde that Hordak is planning on… uh… making her his wife. Crowning her Queen of the Horde.” Catra whispered. Everyone kind of just fell silent after that.
/////
Catra was led back to her room after the trip to the Briefing Room. She was told that she was allowed to head to the Cafeteria if she was hungry or thirsty, and her only real boundaries were the castle walls. Other than the eastern wing of the castle, and that was only because Shadow Weaver had free movement of some of that portion of the castle, and the castlefolk were doing their best to keep them from interacting, as was Catra’s request.
She decided the best course of action was to take a quick nap in the midday sunlight pouring through the windows. As always, she kept one ear at attention just in case. The warmth of the sunlight on her fur put her at ease pretty quickly, however. Unfortunately, her nap didn’t last long before a knock sounded on her door. Arrow Boy entered the room and sat in a chair that had been placed near the door.
“What do you want?” Catra asked, without opening her eyes or moving from her position.
“I came to check on you,” he replied.
“I don’t see why. I haven’t been in any sort of physical altercation since starting my stay here.”
“I should have clarified. How are you, like, emotionally?”
“Angry.” Catra replied bluntly.
Suddenly, Sparkles appeared out of nowhere with her trademark flashy entrance. “Well, let’s put that anger to good use! You wanna go find the idiot who threw that grenade and make him suffer?” She shouted.
“Sure, why not.” Catra replied, finally getting up and stretching. “How do you expect to get me out of here without a guard seeing though?”
/////
“ Never again! ” Catra hissed.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think teleporting would freak you out that much!” Glimmer retorted.
“Thinking doesn’t seem to be your strong suit anyways.” Catra muttered.
“Hey, I’m doing this as a favor. I can still teleport you right back to your room and/or report you to the guards.” Sparkles replied.
“Blackmail? Well, at least you’re interesting.” Catra murmured.