Serve and Protect

Chapter 17

Catra let out a loud, miserable groan.

"I thought we were supposed to be on Hordak's personal security team," she grumbled.

Scorpia laughed. "We are!"

"Then why have we spent the entire day babysitting Doctor Frankenstein over there?" Catra gestured to the window that separated the small antechamber from Entrapta's lab. As if on cue, Entrapta let out a peal of maniacal laughter from behind her gas mask. The pitch made Catra wince.

"Entrapta recently made a huge breakthrough in her work with Runestone," Scorpia said. She smiled warmly as she watched Entrapta work. "And when you consider that Runestone is one of the Horde's biggest money-makers, it makes sense that Hordak wants to make sure she has protection." She paused and quickly glanced around the room before leaning in and whispering, "And between you and me, I also think he might also have a bit of a crush on her."

Catra rolled her eyes. "Gross."

Folding her arms, Catra leaned back against the window and scowled down at the floor. So far being a Force Captain was just as disappointing as everything else in her life.

The pair stood in silence for a while. Only the sounds of Entrapta's tinkering, punctuated by the occasional giggle, filled the space between them.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Scorpia asked. Despite being much softer than usual, Scorpia's voice still surprised Catra enough to make her jump.

"Talk about what?" Catra snapped.

Scorpia wasn't looking at her. She still gazed through the window into the lab, but her smile had faded. "About your initiation. I know they can be pretty rough. I just figured you might wanna—"

"I don't," Catra said, cutting her off. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself as if she might be able to disappear into it completely.

There was another beat of silence, then Scorpia spoke again.

"Was it the motel?"

Catra's breath caught in her throat. Her heart hammered so hard she thought it might burst through her chest. "How do you know about that?"

"All Horde initiations are awful, but that one..." Scorpia trailed off. She gave her head a shake and smiled softly down at her partner. "You just seem pretty unhappy."

"Yeah, well, get used to it," Catra replied, turning away so Scorpia wouldn't see the way her cheeks burned. "And I don't need your pity, either. There's no way in hell I was going to let anyone do that to me. I beat the shit out of that fucking creep and one of the pricks who set me up."

The sound of Scorpia's reverent gasp made Catra glance back at her.

"Oh, wow!" Scorpia said, her face alight with awe. "I'd heard that you single handedly took out a couple guys, but I didn't realize that's how it happened. You're amazing!"

Catra didn't know how to take that. She shifted awkwardly and dug at the floor with the toe of her boot.

"What's the point of the initiations anyway?" She asked.

Scorpia hummed thoughtfully. "Well, they say it's to prove your loyalty to the gang."

Catra scoffed. "I literally grew up in the Horde — isn't the fact that I'm still here proof enough?"

"Like I said, they say it's to prove your loyalty, but there's more to it than that," Scorpia said. "There's a reason they wait until you're 18 to do it."

"What do you mean?"

"Every initiation is recorded," Scorpia explained. "They wait until members turn 18, and then they make them do something illegal on camera. Murder, assault, sex work, money laundering — anything that would get a person into a ton of trouble if they got caught doing it."