For the Love of Honor, Part 3
Disclaimer: She-Ra, Princess of Power belongs to Mattel and Filmation. I make no money from this, and do not own them in any way.
Authors Note: I have tried darned hard to put in some kind of border and will continue to do so. And yes, you are right, I have been going a little too fast in some parts, but I will again try to persevere.
The Sorceress of Grayskull stood inside her home, and cradled the Sword of Protection to her chest. It had just led her to one of the many doors of Mystery that would come and go throughout the castle as the universe shifted and surged, coming into contact with other universes, or sometimes knotting up in itself. Only this time, there was a feeling of solidity, of permanence, like it was going to be here for as long as the stones of Grayskull would last.
Staring deep into the stone embedded in its jeweled hilt, a sharp thread of fear assaulted her. What if she was wrong and it wasn't Adora that the sword was going to? Unlike the Sword of Power, this one would take active steps to find its next welder. While it had been foretold that it would be the twins that would take them up, well, prophecies had gone wrong before. A prophecy only saw one path that the future might take; there were many others.
It didn't matter in the end; she needed to get this Sword to its welder. Smiling slightly to herself, she thought of the perfect man for the job.
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Adam, Prince of Eternia and He-Man's alter ego was in the kitchen.
It wasn't a very well known fact, but he loved this pastime. It was quiet, he didn't have to go smashing villains to do it, and it was some place that Teela would leave him alone.
He sighed softly at that thought, even as he kneaded the dough for the sweet bread. Adam liked Teela. Teela liked He-Man, and thought that Adam was a lazy idiot. That was not a comfortable combination, because Adam and He-Man were the same person, but neither were the whole. It was another thing he was going to have to work out, when Skeletor was finally defeated, whenever that would happen.
"Right," he mumbled to himself," and I'm the queen of Earth."
"Hey, Adam," he heard, and a rather cranky Cringer came into the kitchen.
It startled him out of his concentration on the dough, and he flung his hands up, and reached for his sword out of sheer spinal reflex.
"Geeze, Cringer, don't scare me like that!" he shouted, turned back to his bread, then flung the dough up in the air when the mind voice of the Sorceress called out to him.
"Adam," she said, sounding different from any time he had heard her.
As always, his mind put a picture up of her, one that seemed to float in front of his eyes, and he tried to fathom the sudden change in her tone. Fear? Hope? A strange anticipation?
"Come to Castle Grayskull immediately," she commanded, and their mental contact winked out.
Adam sighed and looked at his dough. He had thrown it out an open window by accident. Grimacing, he turned to Cringer.
"Come on, the Sorceress needs us," he told his old friend.
"Oh no, here we go again," the striped cat whined.
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"I command the Jaw-bridge to open!" Adam stated, as he raised the Sword above his head.
Obligingly, the massive door lowered itself, crossing the gap between the castle and the rest of Eternia. Stepping onto the 'lower lip', Adam walked the huge distance to the castle. He had never quite gotten over the sense of vertigo that came whenever he crossed over. For all the courage that he had, the thought of falling into that chasm still gave him shivers.
The castle loomed, staring down at him. Its gray darkness, the sense of melancholy that pervaded, made him wonder if the ageless stones themselves didn't weep.
It was a short hike, or a long walk, to the Sorceress' throne room.
Adam had expected to find her there, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Sorceress?" he called.
"Over here, Adam," she said from behind him.
Turning, and telling himself very firmly that he was not startled, he saw that she was standing in the shadows of one of the many corridors that branched off from the main hall.
I wonder if she does that just to amuse herself? He asked silently. Well considering where she lived, he could put up with her quirks, especially since did so often with him.
Peering into the darkness, he noticed the bright glint of metal, from a slim, straight shape clutched in the Sorceress' hands. He only got a brief look at it, before he was beckoned to follow her further down the arched, gloomy hallway. They didn't have far to go, even though for someone as acquainted with magic as Adam, it made him nervous. Cringer padded along behind him, silent, but shivering.
They stopped before one of the many doors lining the corridor.
"Beyond this door lies another world," the Sorceress intoned, and paused, like she was searching for the words to say next. "I need you to find someone for me, Adam. I want you to give that someone this," she lifted the slim something up, and Adam gaped. It was a sword, and more to the point, it looked almost exactly like his!
He almost said the obvious, but held back. After a moment to think, he started to pick up a different 'feel' off it than he did from his own.
"It's female," he found himself saying, wondering what that meant.
The sense of femininity that came from it certainly wasn't obvious. It looked like his, save for the jewel, and as he took it from the Sorceress' hand, he noticed that it had the same weight and balance. Yet, it wasn't made for a man's hand.
"Who am I supposed to find?" he asked, hoping that for once, he would get a direct answer.
"You will know," she told him, and Adam swallowed a groan, but she went on, "for this Sword will guide you. It is like your Sword," she smiled, for she could guess what had gone on in her Champion's mind, "in that it has a special purpose, and you must find the one who is destined to weld it."
As she said this, the Door slowly creaked open. Magical force caused a sparkling curtain to obscure the sight past the entry way, so he couldn't even get a good look at the world he was going to.
But then, he thought, when do I ever?
"Come on, Cringer," he called to his friend, and they walked into another world.
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Force Captain Adora stood at the corner of the recently ravaged village, and she wondered why she wasn't gloating in pleasure. They had made a successful raid for information on the "great" Rebellion, and had destroyed many of the suppliers of that band of insects.
Looking at her maps, and snarling in frustration when she realized that they would have to go around a river, because the Rebels had destroyed one of the main bridges over it, she heard a loud crashing from outside.
"Burrrrn it!" rasped the voice of Catra from the midst of a crowd.
They were all holding torches, and Adora looked at them aghast.
"I order you to stop!" she roared at them, using all the authority she could get, using her height, her harsh voice, and all the weight that her battle armor could give.
Catra looked back at her and hissed, while Mantenna and Leech almost laughed. Pulling out her stunner, she spat a beam of energy between Mantenna's eyes.
"No burning," she commanded, her voice cold.
"Oh, come on, Captain," slobbered Leech. He had a torch in hand and a tank of fuel in the other. "Let us have a little fun!"
"I said no. Do you want me to court martial you for insubordination?" she demanded, eyes and voice both cool, her hand lifting the stunner steady.
"Do I have to repeat myself?" Adora asked again, as some of the other troopers edged their way over to the already damaged modest town hall, torches in hand.
Their eyes locked, but in the end, everyone knew who would win this contest of wills.
Retreating to their barracks, the troopers put out the flames. Catra glared daggers, but said nothing. She was the senior officer, and Hordak's favorite. Catra chose to believe that was why she obeyed. She didn't want to admit that it was because she was afraid of her.
Adora finally stood alone, and stared at the place she had just destroyed. There were dead bodies on the ground, some of them killed by her own hand. Her sword was in its sheath, with the blood of her victims still staining the hilt.
"It was war," she said softly, looking back at the fires that hadn't been started for fun, the charred bodies that lay draped on their own front porches.
If only she could make herself believe it.
Wearily she trudged back to her tent. She pealed off her armor without the help of her steward, put it on its wrack, and stumbled over to her washstand. Looking in the mirror, the face that stared back at her was barely recognizable.
A thin, fine training scar slashed down before her right ear, and was not very visible in the faint light. Her hair, which already sported some gray, even at the age of nineteen, was clipped close to her head. Her nose was slightly askew because of being broken when she was thirteen, and the beginnings of lines surrounded her eyes.
"The face of an old campaigner," she said with a faint chuckle, and she splashed the cold water of the pitcher into the basin, and smoothed her aching hands. Looking at them, she saw the rough calluses of fighting.
Only her blue eyes were young, she thought, glancing back up at the mirror. Wincing as bruised muscles protested the long day, she continued to strip off her blood red outer tunic, until she wore only her black body suit. Red riding boots followed as she fell into her cot, and Force Captain Adora was asleep.
She dreamt, and in those dreams, she saw another village, from another lifetime, destroyed, and hearing a voice saying, "We had to destroy that village you were in to get you to come out."
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Adam had walked to a nearby village, one that seemed to be prosperous. He entered an inn, hoping to be unobtrusive, but also hoping to ask some questions.
The silence that announced his entrance could have been cut with a knife.
"Uh, may I help you sir?" a voice asked from the side.
"Yes, I would like some food," he said deferentially. After all, he wasn't a prince here. He was glad that he had some money.
"And I would like some baked fish," added Cringer.
Staring at the green and yellow striped tiger, the inn keeper exclaimed," He talked!"
Acting nonchalant, (who knew that they wouldn't have talking animals here?) Adam commented, "Doesn't everybody?" and tried to keep from laughing at the man's expression.
Sitting down and waiting for their meals, Adam did some crowd watching. For the most part, they seemed like your average peasants. His meal arrived, and pretending to pay attention to that, he took stock of anything that might be unusual.
His eyes were drawn first to the minstrel, then to another man with what looked to be a bird with really big ears. The bird was brightly colored, with rainbow stripes down the sides of those huge ears, and was a bright salmon in color, with a short beak. His companion, on the other hand, was draped in a dark cloak. While that in itself wasn't all that suspicious, there was almost a theatrical way in which the cloaked man carried himself, like he was the villain or spy in a badly written play.
A time passed, and both Adam and the man in the hood eyed each other suspiciously. They came to a silent agreement, and started watching the rest of the crowd. From the idle talk that Adam could overhear, some group called "the Horde" was going to be raising taxes again, and that the weather had been bad for crops, and that those rebels wouldn't last long because Force Captain Adora was coming after them.
Adam's gaze had drifted away, when he heard a door slam open.
In it, were two men, at least he assumed they were men, in armor. The breastplate was blazoned with a symbol that reminded him of a bat, only in red. No face was visible.
They swaggered in, but their dramatic entrance was marred by the start of the minstrels singing.
It was a good song, thought Adam, sung by a halfway descent voice, which should have been what the crowd would expect in a place like this.
Only the Hordesmen didn't like it.
They had sat down to eat, but they listened for a little while.
"Hey, you," one said, gesturing toward the minstrel. "Dance."
"But," the little minstrel said, his voice shaking, "I don't know how to dance!"
"Well, that is your problem, isn't it?" said #2, who picked up the minstrel's lute, and smashed it.
"NO! My lute!" he shouted, and picked up the instrument, and cradled it like it was a child.
"Now, we will smash you!" said #3, and together, the troop walked menacingly over to the little man, who was on his knees, weeping.
Adam innocently put his foot out.
#1 tripped, followed by #2, and #3 was close behind.
No one in the common room could help himself or herself when they saw it. They burst out laughing.
There was something like a mechanical snarl from the troopers.
"Trip a Horde trooper, will you?" said the outraged voice of the leader. "I'll teach you to show proper respect!"
Lifting his stunner, the Hordesman opened fire. Adam narrowly ducked, and the others charged him.
What had started as a silly farce was now deadly serious.
Adam kicked, catching one in the knee, while at the same time, jabbing with his left. Reaching out, he upended the table that he had been sitting at.
He was hit by a glancing blow from a stunner, causing him to stagger, and the hooded man leapt into the fray.
Sweeping the feet from beneath one, the hooded man pulled a bow and arrows from beneath his cloak. Drawing the bow, he fires at one of the troopers, which falls to the ground.
The Hordesmen look at their fallen comrade.
One picked him up, while the other said, "We will remember this stranger. Just you wait, this town will pay for what you have done!"
"What was that all about?" asked Adam rhetorically.
Looking around, Adam wanted to gape at the material damage. No one was hurt, but he could see that it had been a close thing.
The after shocks of battle were settling in, as he realized what could have happened. Shivering, he looked over at Cringer, who, predictably, was hiding under a table.
"Well done, friend."
Looking to see who had said that, he was greeted by the man who had been wearing the cloak and cowl. The hood was gone now, and he could see the man's thick, reddish brown hair, handsome, almost pretty, face, and dramatic mustache.
"I'm Bow," he said, reaching out his hand.
"Um, I'm Adam," he said, taking the handclasp, but not really knowing how to respond.
To Adam's relief, his grip was firm, and the hand itself was callused. This man knew something of what he was doing, anyway.
"I would suggest that you leave," said a soft, furtive voice.
It was the innkeeper. "I thank you, but may have brought down worse upon us. I would ask you to leave."
Looking around worriedly, Adam noticed that the people who should have celebrating the defeat of those bullies were leaving, quickly.
"The Horde troops will be here soon, once they heard about what happened," the innkeeper went on," they will retaliate. They don't allow any kind of resistance, especially here in Brightmoon, since they took over."
Adam noticed that the innkeeper was trembling, and wondered what could be causing such fear.
"I heard that they would be bringing in Force Captain Adora. I guess it could have been one of the other Captains, but still…" he said, looking around like he wanted to run off and cry.
Turning to Bow as the man hurried off, he asked, "What will happen to them?"
Sadness clouded the archer's face.
"They will likely destroy his inn, if not the village, and that would be if he was lucky," he said softly.
"And if he is…unlucky?" Adam asked, dreading the answer.
"He, and likely everyone else here, will be killed."
Adam was shocked. He could see that something was very wrong here, but he would never have guessed…
"What can I do to stop it?" he found himself asking before he realized it.
Bow smiled tightly. Putting out his hand again, he said, "Adam, welcome to the Great Rebellion."
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"Force Captain Adora, come in," said the dispassionate voice of the dispatcher.
"Adora here, go," she replied, after putting down the map that she had been pouring over.
"You are needed to go the nearest village in Brightmoon. It shouldn't be hard to find, it borders the Whispering Woods. There was an insurrection against several troops, and one was injured. You are needed to go put down their rebellion," buzzed her communicator.
"Is there anything else?" she asked. She had been hoping for a free afternoon. It was boring dealing with these hopeless deviants.
"You will report to Lord Hordak afterwards, and he will hear your report on the latest information raid. Horde Control out."
Adora grimaced. She knew that Mighty Hordak would reprimand her for her lack of destruction.
At that thought, an internal battle started.
The majority, the part that always won, was the overwhelming voice that said that she owed the Horde everything, that they were the rightful rulers of this world, and that she had no right in the universe to complain, to think that the Horde was wrong.
Yet there was a small, demanding, wailing voice that would rail against it. It was the part that would steer her away from casual destruction and killing. It was what kept her from jumping into bed with any male that came around, and what made her such a good captain. She had never told Hordak or Shadow Weaver, because that same small voice was what kept her from doing it. It was precious, that voice, because when she listened to it, she tended to be right, and win, which was what the Horde part of her said was the most important thing.
So, even though all the training she had received told her that it was wrong, and that she needed to be rid of it. She hid that small part of her that had the stubbornly annoying habit of kindness, and gave her the understanding of other people, something the rest of the Horde didn't seem to care about.
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"So, where are we going?" Adam asked, wondering why he even bothered to ask. They had been walking on foot for the past several hours through a forest that looked nothing like the pines he had been used to as a child. It was as dense, and as green, but there was a great deal of low-lying shrubs, at least he assumed they were shrubs, and other things that he had never seen before.
"We are in the Whispering Woods, my friend. Here, is a place where evil can never enter."
Bow lapsed into silence after that. They continued to walk, and before sunset, they were able to get to the main camp.
Adam was hoping that he would have some powerful allies to call upon, but from the state of things, they were barely able to survive.
There was one tent that was slightly larger, and that was the one that Bow led him to. Opening the flap, he ushered the Eterian Prince in.
Adam had to squint to adjust himself to the faint light. There was a large table, with a young woman standing over it, looking at maps, charts, and supply lists. Taking stock of her, Adam saw that she was young, possibly younger than he was, with hair that was a faint lavender, but most of it was brown. She was clad in purple, which made him wonder if she was a noble of some kind, with gray trousers.
"Adam," Bow said, "this is Princess Glimmer, leader of the Rebellion. Glimmer, this is Adam. I met him today at the inn." Bow went on to describe what happened with only a little bit of dramatizing.
"I didn't mean for those people to get caught in the middle of this," Adam told her. "Is there any way that we can stop them from harming that village?"
Glimmer looked at him, eyes searching.
"How good are you in a fight?" she asked, sounding like she was trying to figure out a plan.
"I'm pretty good, but I have a friend that would be even better, and he would show up when we needed him."
"How good?" she shot back, eyes skeptical.
Adam met her eyes levelly. "Better than just about anyone you have here."
She closed her eyes, and Adam had to wonder what she had gone through.
Taking a deep breath, Glimmer said, "Well, we are supposed to be the Great Rebellion. I guess we have to start somewhere."
She started calling out orders. The bird, Kowl, that was Bow's friend, started flying to get whatever orders he could out.
Turning to Adam, she said softly, "Here we go."
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"Is that the same town we left?" Adam asked, flabbergasted.
It was under siege. All around it, were Horde soldiers, and all of them had taken up positions around the perimeter.
To his left, Adam heard a sharp hiss from Glimmer.
"What is it?" he asked, alarmed.
"It's her," she said, scowling. She handed him the binoculars she had been using. Putting them to his eyes, Adam scanned the area.
"Who am I supposed to be looking for?" he asked, but then he figured it out.
While there were many colorful characters down there, there was only one that was in command. His first impression of her was that of control. From her black armor with its red symbol, to her short blond hair, she was someone who knew command, and she could take control of a situation like breathing.
He was impressed.
"What is so bad about her?" he asked, but from what he had already heard, he could very well nigh guess.
"She's that good, " Glimmer sighed. "Captain Adora is one of the best strategists that the Horde has, but at least she isn't the cruelest. I think our chances just went down."
"I don't know. Things might change when my friend shows up."
"Just make sure that he does," Glimmer admonished, starting to head down the slope to the town.
Watching the lovely princess scurry down the hill, Adam shook his head. Ducking behind a convenient tree, he pulled his sword free.
"By the Power of Grayskull-"
There was the familiar sight of Grayskull, lending him it's strength, and then lighting split the air-
"I HAVE THE POWER!"
Power and the mantle of responsibility that came with it, settled like a cloak over the Prince of Eternia. Like a cloak, too, He-Man would never be the real person, but He-Man was more needed than his alter ego than at the moment.
Running down to join his friends, he was blocked by a Horde tank. It was easy to crush it in his bare hands.
For a moment, Glimmer was awe-struck.
"Whoa," she said appreciatively, but it distracted her for too long. Leech grabbed her from behind. He put his suckers on her head, and she fell, all her strength gone.
"Glimmer!" Bow yelled, and raced to his fallen leader.
"No!" shouted He-Man.
Grizzlor came up from nowhere, and started to put a bear hug on him. He-Man saw a large black panther hurtling itself at him, and he spun around, making his attacker take the impact.
He could see that the Rebels were getting the civilians to safety, and that Bow was dragging the insensible Rebel leader out of the crossfire.
Sighing with relief, he turned to go, but his way was blocked.
"Already leaving, stranger?" asked Captain Adora, her eyes mocking him.
"What is a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" he responded, matching her tone.
"Defeating you."
"Right," he said, watching her draw her sword.
Pulling his own, he swung, and it cut through hers like it was pot metal.
She was in too close though, because she was able to bring up the hilt, and smash him in the face with it. That was followed with a kick to the groin, and while He-Man was the most powerful man in the universe, he was still male. He groaned, and fell over.
Not for long, though. He blocked her axe-kick, and she lost her footing.
Picking up his sword, he realized that he held the Sorceress' blade instead. In took him by surprise when it glowed with an unearthly light.
The jewel caught him off guard, and even as he tried to figure out what it meant, he was kicked in the face, and knocked unconscious.
Gasping for breath, Captain Adora looked down at her prize.
Picking up her foe's sword, she felt a gentle tingle, and it seemed like energy had jumped from it, to her.
"I'll figure out the mystery of where you came from, stranger," she said, her wind back.
Staring into the depths of the jewel, she added softly, "You, and this…curious…sword."