Hordak was out of patience. He'd pulled an all-nighter trying to figure out where the coding for the portal had all gone wrong, but still hadn't found it. If anything, it was worse off than when he started. Now it had been forty five minutes since Entrapta was supposed to have woken up and gotten here, and she still hadn't turned up. She wasn't usually on time, but the latest she'd ever been was ten minutes, because she'd grabbed coffee from the kitchens beforehand.

What could possibly be her excuse this time?

The more he thought about it, the more his anger and frustration started to melt away, to be replaced by genuine concern. His mind started conjuring up scenarios:

She liked to travel by vents. What if she was stuck, or lost?

What if she'd gotten hurt?

What if she was sick?

He hadn't officially released any news about their partnership, though rumors were rife among Force Captains... maybe she'd been spotted by an uninformed cadet, who recognized she was a princess, but didn't know she was his princess? And what if they tried to hurt her?

He was shocked at how fast the worry built. It was now fifty minutes past the usual time of her arrival. He couldn't stand not knowing anymore. He slammed his work down onto the desk, and strode out of the Sanctum.

Entrapta had recently taken up residence in the Force Captain's barracks. When Hordak found out she'd been living in a storage unit, sleeping in a nest of her hair, he'd felt... bad about it. His partner shouldn't be uncomfortable. He found an empty bunk, that might have been Adora's if she hadn't defected. Or might have been that one green haired kid's, if he hadn't flunked the entry exam. She slept there now, and Imp regularly spied on those barracks to make sure she wasn't being bothered in any way.

He didn't bother knocking on the door. No one should be in the barracks at this hour anyways, they should all be busy training or working. Down time wasn't until after lunch.

Sure enough, the only bunk with someone still in it was the princess's. As he got closer, Hordak noticed something... off. Etherians did not usually sleep flat on their backs, though there were some exceptions. And although sleeping with eyes wide open was common for the lizard like species of this planet, Hordak had never seen any other type of Etherian do it.

"Princess Entrapta?" Hordak gently waved a hand in front of her face. She didn't respond. She laid there still as stone.

Blind panic gripped Hordak's heart. For a moment, he feared the worst, and brought two fingers to the artery in her neck to check for a pulse. When he made contact with her, she gasped, sitting up. A strand of hair wrapped around his neck, and he threw his hands up in surrender.

"It's me- it's just me. You weren't responding," he croaked. She loosened her grip on him at once, lying back down. She was breathing heavily, running her hands nervously through her hair.

"Hordak?"

"Yes?"

"What time is it?" When he told her, she blinked in surprise. "Really? Oh. Thanks... for waking me up."

"What was that?" Hordak's ears were pinned back in alarm. "Why weren't you getting up?"

"I couldn't. I mean, I was awake, but I couldn't move, couldn't speak..."

She was shaking, even as she tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. Hordak almost reached out, but remembered that she didn't like being touched. "Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

Entrapta shook her head. "It just happens sometimes. Sleep paralysis." She tried to make it sound like nothing, but she sounded shaken.

"I've... never heard of it."

"It doesn't usually last that long. Most of the time it's just a few seconds." Entrapta pulled her knees up to her chest. "It's when some parts of your brain wake up before others. And- then there are the hallucinations..." She trailed off.

Hordak sat down on the edge of the bed. "Go on. I am listening." If any of his recruits had experienced this, he certainly didn't know about it. The hallucinations were concerning. Maybe, he thought, this was where the ghost stories that scared young recruits stemmed from.

"If I'm unable to move for a certain amount of time, things start walking around just out of sight." Entrapta sat up and shivered. "And they get closer, and- I know they aren't real, but... it's stupid."

"I assure you, it is not. Why does this happen?"

"It's probably my sleep schedule. It's not great, and it's never been. Sleep deprivation... but I'm usually fine with five hours. Stress... I'm fine. I'm not stressed." The way she was fidgeting said otherwise.

"Are you feeling at home here?"

"Huh?"

"In the barracks. In the Fright Zone."

"I'm fine."

Imp crawled out of the vents, chittering. He landed on the bed. "Hordak's new pet," he repeated in Catra's voice.

Hordak's ear twitched. "They dare say these things to your face?" he frowned.

"It's harmless teasing," Entrapta said, pulling Imp into a hug. The creature squawked, but didn't bother struggling.

Maybe she'd missed the apparent sneer in Catra's voice. Was it possible the Force Captain held a grudge against Entrapta? That made sense. Entrapta had effortlessly become very important to Hordak (though even Hordak himself wasn't sure exactly how) and Catra had been working to climb the ranks almost her entire life.

Instead of pressing the subject, Hordak circled back. "So, there is no way to prevent this?"

"I just have to wait it out. I could try to program Emily to recognize when I'm- oh, but I'd have to get data on my heart rate and breathing patterns, who knows when another episode will come around..." She kept muttering, pulling back the blankets to search for her recorder.

"No one here could wake you?"

"I can wait them out. I don't want to bother anyone. Scorpia always wakes up an hour early for training, she's very... ambitious." Entrapta stood up and stretched. "Speaking of, it's been over an hour since we should have started work." One of her pigtails pulled her clothes out from under her bed.

Hordak stood. "I will be in the Sanctum. Do you wish to discuss this more later?"

"Not really."

"Alright."

Entrapta hadn't told Hordak that the hallucinations had gotten worse after the princesses left her behind. It had all gotten worse. She was paralyzed several times a week now, instead of an odd few times a month. Her eyes were open more often. Sometimes, she felt vines creeping up over the bed, around her waist, over her mouth and ears and neck-

He didn't need to know. He didn't need to take care of her. She could wait out the paralysis like she always had.

At least, that was what she thought until tonight.

She'd seen the shadow man before. He liked to watch her until she could move again. He would lean over and show his teeth. But never before had the shadow man actually touched her.

This was new. Completely unexpected. A scream rose in Entrapta's throat, but she couldn't do more than a few puffs of air out of her nose. Everyone else was sleeping, blissfully unaware of how the shadow man's hand raked over Entrapta's chest. Lower... No no no no no-

Catra rolled out of the top bunk, and hit the floor with a thud. She landed on some of Entrapta's hair, yanking her head to the side. The shadow man disappeared and Entrapta could move again. Both girls yelped, waking Scorpia up.

"Wha- oh no! Are you okay, Wildcat? Traps?"

"I'm fine," an embarrassed Catra huffed, climbing back into bed as quickly as possible.

Entrapta held up a hand to give Scorpia a thumbs up, and realized she was shaking. If Catra hadn't woken her up, what else might have happened? The thought scared her. The shadow man had never ever touched her, so why now?

She found herself not wanting to go to sleep. That was new. None of the sleep paralysis episodes had left her shaken like that. Now she would lay awake for hours and hours, sometimes getting less than three hours of sleep before getting up and going through her regular work day. The more tired she got, the easier it was to slip into negative trains of thought that left her feeling gutted.

Hordak noticed she was late to work, made more mistakes, rambled into her recorder less, and kept nearly nodding off.

One night, she snuck back into the Sanctum when she thought Hordak was gone. She would work quietly, she decided. He wouldn't know that she definitely wasn't getting sleep.

Someone cleared their throat. Entrapta dropped the tool she was using and slammed her mask over her face as if it would disguise her. She turned to see Hordak standing in the doorway, frowning. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"I... forgot something."

"You've been acting very odd lately." Hordak drew closer, trying not to let too much concern escape into his tone. "It's affecting your work."

"I'm sorry. I should get caught up on-"

"I'm not concerned about the projects," Hordak snapped. "I'm worried about you."

Entrapta froze for a moment. That was very... blunt, at least for him. He was trying to hide his shyness with a stern expression now, his ears dipping low, betraying him. Slowly, she pushed her mask up, and opened her mouth to tell him she was fine. Instead, she abruptly burst into tears, burying her face in her hands.

"Wha-" Hordak was at a loss. What did Etherians do when one of their own was emotional?

He put his arms out, and she plunked her head down on his chest. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around her as she continued to cry. "Um... was it something I said?"

"They left me." This hit Hordak harder than it should have. He knew she'd been left behind by the Alliance; that's why she was here in the first place. But she'd never spoken to him about it. He didn't know it bothered her this much. "I waited for hours and hours, almost two days." The front of his dress was growing damp.

"Is this... why you aren't sleeping?" Hordak was still confused.

"They didn't want me, and now I don't think Catra likes me very much. I think I made her mad, and- it just keeps getting worse."

"The paralysis?"

"Yes. The hallucinations are learning new tricks." Entrapta sniffled, trying to get ahold of her emotions. She found it impossible. She was crying so hard it made her dizzy. "I can't- I don't want to go to sleep but the more tired I get the worse it will be which makes me afraid to go to sleep and I just feel terrible all the time." She pulled out her chart. "Over the past seventy two hours, I've gotten five hours of sleep total."

Well that wasn't good.

"Did nobody do anything to help you at all, even when you were back in Dryl?"

"I've always just waited them out! I could deal with them! They weren't this bad, ever, before now."

"Come on. You're getting some sleep."

"Is this okay?"

Entrapta blinked. Hordak was lying behind her, so she couldn't roll over onto her back, and Imp was curled up by her stomach so she didn't roll forward onto her front, the two positions that made her more likely to wake up paralyzed. He'd really done his research. "Um... yes."

"You said your breathing patterns change when you start to hallucinate?"

"Yeah." Her eyelids felt so heavy. It was getting hard to concentrate.

"I'm a light sleeper. I'll wake you as soon as I feel a change."

"Thank you."

Hordak wasn't sure how to respond.

"I'm sorry I broke down like that."

"It's fine. It's... really no problem. Go to sleep now."

It didn't take long for her to finally surrender to unconsciousness.

True to his word, when Entrapta's dreams took a hard left turn into territory she didn't want to be in, she was gently shaken awake.

"Are you alright?" Hordak asked, taking his hand off of her as soon as she was awake, so he didn't cause her any discomfort. Entrapta turned over, making a little whining noise that made Hordak blush. She snuggled into his chest, already nearly asleep again. She really hadn't been sleeping, he'd never seen her this exhausted.

He wrapped his arms around her trembling frame, combing his fingers through her soft hair. "I've got you," he murmured.

If it were anyone else, under any other circumstance, Entrapta might have been offended that she now had a bedtime. Well, Hordak insisted upon calling it the 'start of her sleep cycle', but bedtime was just easier to say.

A consistent sleep schedule had many benefits, but it had always been hard for her to maintain. She would set alarms for the time she wanted to get to sleep, but it was so easy to just dismiss them and keep working. Now there was someone there to make sure she didn't brush it off.

Entrapta knew it did Hordak good as well. He tended to run himself ragged as well, and she had a feeling two hours wasn't quite enough sleep for him despite what he claimed. Since they started this routine, she noted a rise in his oxytocin level, and less tension in his shoulders.

He didn't roll his eyes or get annoyed when she woke up crying.

He didn't check to make sure she was still alive and then shut down for the rest of the night.

Sometimes, he would talk to her, tell her stories. Sometimes, she would tell him things, and he would listen.

Was this what it was like to share a bed with someone? Entrapta wondered why she hadn't done it before.

Catra was getting suspicious of her absence from the Force Captain's barracks. Entrapta saw no reason to lie to her, so she told her she was sleeping closer to the Sanctum, with Hordak.

"You- you're sleeping with him?"

"That's what I said," Entrapta sometimes wondered if Catra had some sort of hearing problem, maybe from explosions during battle, since she often asked Entrapta to repeat things she had said very clearly.

"I can't believe you."

"You can't? I guess you'll just have to ask Hordak then."

"No, I can't believe that's what it takes to be one of his favorites."

Hordak came back from one of his meetings, the door automatically sliding shut behind him. Catra immediately turned on him, furious. "Hordak! I cannot believe you're boning a princess!"

"I'm what?"

"Wait, what's... oh," Entrapta flipped her mask down. "Catra, that's not what I meant. I meant sleeping. The natural state of rest all Etherians enter when-"

"Well, why didn't you say so?"

"I- I did say so. And then you got mad. Why are you mad at me?"

"Barely three weeks working with him and you're already indispensable. And you're a princess. It's not fair!" Catra fell silent, breathing hard.

"Oh. Well actually it's been well over five weeks since-"

"Force Captain, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Hordak said.

"Princesses don't stay. They never stay. Eventually, she'll run off to Bright Moon with some sparkly friends and you'll be left in the same position I was," Catra spat, before turning and leaving.

"Entrapta, are you alright?"

Entrapta lifted her mask. "I think Catra needs therapy. Maybe I should find her someone."

Hordak arched an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Adora ran off with two sparkly friends. She thinks this is a similar situation. I think she's hurting?"

"You aren't angry with her for speaking to you like that?"

"I'm... confused still. But that's okay. I'm always confused with people."

"Oh."

Entrapta checked the time. "It's almost bedtime."

"It's not-"

"I'd better get changed." She zipped up into the vents. Hordak sighed, unable to keep a smile off of his face.

All beings must suffer to become pure all beings must suffer to become pure all beings must-

Hordak woke, gasping for air.

"Hordak?" His lab partner asked. "Is something wrong?"

"I- it's- nothing. It's nothing."

"Did you have a nightmare?" Her voice was even cuter when she was sleepy, slurring together her words and trying not to yawn.

He settled back down, and she cuddled back into her familiar position. "It's okay. I've got you." She echoed his words.

"... Thank you."

He wasn't sure if she heard, because she was asleep again, face tucked into his neck and one arm thrown protectively over him.