Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the cartoon series "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", and I am not profiting from it.

A/N: I realize it is pointless to keep apologizing for my very late updates because I don't think I can change. I just have to trust that my readers (if there are any left) are gracious and understanding folk. (please me gracious and understanding)

Chapter 11

Braun blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Aron pushed him out of the way and hurried over to where the queen lay, half atop her husband. He dropped to his knees beside her to check her wound and felt a little weak at the sight of her. He knew some people dreamed of being this close to royalty. On the other hand, being within spitting distance of half-dead queen and king had rapidly turned into his worst nightmare.

"Get me something to stop this blood." He heard his brother scurry off to do what he said, and continued to check the wound. "The poison may have slowed her heart enough to stop her from loosing too much blood," he muttered to himself, recognizing the irony. Aron looked down at the piece of cloth Braun dropped into his lap for a spit second before tossing the filthy rag back at him in annoyance. "How about something a little cleaner," he snapped. Aron ignored his brother's answering snarl. They had spent way too much time together already. In normal circumstances they would have already been at each other's throats . Braun quickly found a cleaner alternative, brought it to his brother then let his body drop back to the floor where he looked on morosely as his little brother, once again, tried to fix the mess he made.

Aron didn't bother to look at his brother once during the time it took him to clean and bandage the wounds on both the king and the queen. He was done with him. "Find some transportation and bring it here. Then you are going to get as far away from here as possible." He looked at him then. "I never want to see your face again. You hear me?"

Braun nodded.


The air in the cottage was close; claustrophobic. The woman felt it too because she moved away to open a window.

The sorceress was now past the initial shock that the woman's unexpected presence had caused. It was not everyday that a former sorceress returned from the dead. Her name was Tah'na, and she had been one of the first, one of the most powerful until she had lost sight of her purpose and was ostracized by the Ancients. A century had past since that time, and to her successors, her name had become a metaphor for the ruin that could overtake them if they became too enthralled by their own great power.

The sorceress gazed upon the woman standing by the window. She understood that the woman was her ancestor, which was why she looked so much like her daughter, Teela; however she was still an enemy. A fact that could escape her easily especially at that moment. She was watching Tah'na's troubled features as she stared unseeingly through the open window.

"Hate doesn't look good on you," the sorceress heard herself say.

The blond woman laughed softly. Tah'na did not answer right away. She was tired. She supposed it was a product of being away from Galen for so long.

"I don't hate you. I hate them—the Ancients. I am trying to help you, Teela'na."

The sorceress' eyes narrowed. It had been so long since anyone had called her by her given name that it sounded odd when she said it. "How…"

"How do I know your name? The tradition among our people still stands does it not? Your daughter is named after you, as my daughter was named after me. If things had been different a century ago, I would be calling you 'Tah'na'." Her smile was pure evil. "Why do you look at me like that?"

"I am marveling at how low you have come. You've used black magic to prolong your life by joining your soul to a human's. You are nothing but a common witch now."

"You dare judge me, when you're the one who abandoned your own child. Poor unwanted Teela," she mocked mercilessly.

"You are not allowed to say her name!"

Tahna drew back at the sudden but unmistakable hostility she heard in the sorceress' voice. "That's a sore spot for you isn't it? It's a good thing you're tied up, little fire." Tah'na grinned and moved closer. This was turning into a game she could enjoy. "If you believed you did the right thing for your daughter and for Grayskull, I don't understand why you couldn't stop moping about it. It's been…how old is Teela?" She stopped for a moment to consider."Almost twenty years!" She looked at the sorceress with mock disgust. "If you didn't want to do it then you simply shouldn't have. Maybe you should just let it go."

"You first." The sorceress replied coolly. "You are here now because of your century old vendetta against the Ancients. Why don't you let that go?"

The woman's eyes turned icy. "Yes, but your daughter was not killed, was she?" she hissed bitterly. "You never woke up one morning to find your baby dead in her crib, did you?"

Tah'na was shaking from head to toe. To this day the memories still shook her. She remembered holding her daughter's lifeless body in her arms; asking, no begging, the Ancients to bring her back, something she knew they had the power to do. Most of all, she remembered their denial. After that, she spent many long, dark days grieving; bereft—a kind of acute suffering she, thankfully, had not known since. She also spent the time trying to understand. After all she had done for Eternia, after all she had given up to fulfill her duty as Sorceress, they still would not help her. She decided that if they would do nothing, she was left with no choice but to the access their power and do it herself. She was the Sorceress after all. The day came when she went back to the castle, clutching her daughter's tiny, cold body, still wrapped its blanket. She got as far as the throne room before the Ancients discovered her plan. They stripped her of her powers and banished her.

"Tah'na, it was not the Ancients' intention to spite you. They could not bring your daughter back, don't you see. Her time here was short, but it was her time, and she died in peace. It would be irresponsible for them to alter her fate. And you killed many innocents that day at the castle; they had no choice but to punish you." The sorceress looked at her sadly, pleading with eyes. "I can only imagine the pain you have suffered, but it is time to face your grief. She cannot come back."

"No! Be quiet!" She did not want to hear those lies again. That's what they had told her all those years ago, now the same trash was spewing from this woman's mouth. "How can you defend them, when you basically have nothing as a result of all these years of doing what they told you to do? They vanished and left you utterly alone? Do you think they care, do you think you are special to them? The one thing I learned from all of this, is that everyone is replaceable, even the Sorceress of Grayskull. Do you know what they did after they threw me away? They went and got my sister to take my place." Tah'na was still angry, and the sorceress' pity was making it worse. She wanted to image her pain? Well she was going to do her best to give her a taste. As authentic as she could make it.

"If I were you I'd be more worried about my own daughter, because Teela knows."

The sorceress' wide eyes stared up at her from the bed.

"She knows that you are her mother. So you don't have to worry about keeping this weighty secret any longer." Teela'na continued to watch horrified as the woman arced her body in a catlike stretch and let out a satisfied groan. "There, you see. Even I feel the better for it, and it wasn't even my problem."

"You lie."

"Oh no. Galen saw her running out of at Grayskull today about the time when you and Master Duncan were talking. She did not look happy. I think she may hate both of you. You could even say that she feels like an orphan now."

The sorceress did not answer, instead she seemed to retreat into herself. Tah'na sighed. She still wasn't any closer to getting at the power stored inside Grayskull, and now she had lost her, at least for the time being.


It took Aron ten minutes to fly to the royal palace in the speeder his brother had found for him. He and Braun had said their goodbyes. Braun even tried to throw in an apology for what he had done. As awkward as it was, it still meant something to Aron. It was probably the last time he would see his brother, but he knew it was for the best.

The guards at the gate were appalled when he revealed who his passengers were and before he knew it, they had gathered up the still unconscious king and queen, and at the same time, had him hauled off behind them. For one fleeting but horrific moment, he was sure they would take him straight to the dungeons, no questions asked, but this was Eternia, right? Instead, he had ended up sitting at a table in a brightly lit room, surrounded by five scowling guards. He guessed that the news of his arrival with the missing royals must be passing through the proper channels right then. All he had to do was wait until the news reached the person to whom it mattered the most.

Not three minutes passed before Aron heard the rumble of half a dozen booted feet striding purposefully toward the room where he was being held. The door opened to reveal the Masters, led by Eternia's Prince who looked angry enough to rip someone's arm off. Mine, mostly likely, Aron thought grimly.

Adam had just returned from the infirmary and the doctor's news about his parents was not good. His parents' wounds were not usually life threatening, but they had lost a lot of blood, especially his mother. Besides that, the doctor was certain his father had not lost enough blood to explain his symptoms. The blood loss also did not explain their lack of response to stimuli. Adam was relieved that his parents were home but if he didn't get some answers soon, they could die anyway.

"What did you do to them? Why won't they wake up?"

"It wasn't me, I swear. It was my brother." Aron swallowed hard before rushing on, time was of the essence. "Your parents have been poisoned. My brother used blackroot. I only became involved in this when he brought your parents to me because he though I had the antidote. That was almost an hour ago."

Adam raked a hand through his hair, which he then balled into a fist because it was shaking so badly. A Master cursed behind him.

"Where is the antidote?" He heard Man-at-arms ask. Adam hadn't asked because he suspected he wouldn't want to hear the answer.

Aron looked at them nervously, "I don't have it."

"What is it then? Where can we find it?"

"I don't know that either."

"So what good are you?" It was Buzz-Off.

Like a deer trapped in a circle of lions, he sensed that he was about to be attacked so he rushed to explain. "I come from a long line of …of, well, criminals. My father hopped my brother and I would follow in his footsteps so he gave us each certain tools of the trade. Among other things, Braun got the poison, and I got the jar containing the antidote. But that was a long time ago. I never paid any attention to the contents of that jar, nor did I take it with me when I moved out here from Batsto ten years ago. I haven't had any interest in that life for a long time now. The only reason I am risking being thrown into your dungeon is to save the only remaining members of my family that I care about. I am hoping that you will let me leave with my sister's husband. He's the one you captured today."

"What! If you think we're going to let you off that easy you must have been smoking something really strong before you came over here!" Buzz-off yelled. Aron cocked his head; the man-bug wasn't too far off.

"The one who did this, your brother, you wish to save him too? You haven't told us where to find him," Adam said, his voice was eerily calm.

Aron shook his head. "Braun is dead to me. Besides, he doesn't know anything, and I have no idea where he's gone." That was the truth. "He didn't know what he was doing. He swore he was hired to kill them by some man claiming to be a merchant. It was only after he let his arrows fly, that he realized that the man had tricked him into doing this." Aron realized that even now, he was still defending his "dead" brother. Some habits were hard to break.

"How long do my parents have?"

"I'm not sure, maybe a day."

"You sure you can't remember anything about the antidote. The name, what it looked like."

"I was ten when my father put the bottle in my hands. I …I just don't know."

"Don't let him leave till I get back." Man-at-arms said.

"Why?"

"We don't have the time Adam. Just wait for me." Adam watched Man-at-arms rush out of the door. A beat passed before he rushed after him.


A/N: If you like it, review. If you don't, still review, I don't mind.