SEVEN
Outside the castle, Stratos and Orko had their signal. Castle Grayskull's eyes lit with the fury of Adam's summoning. He had retrieved the Sword of Power.
"Let's go get our good buddies out of there," Stratos cheered.
Orko's whole body nodded in agreement. "Right." He paused and brought one finger to scratch his invisible head. "How do we do it?" he asked.
"We attack!" Stratos cheered again, leaving the clearing and soaring into the air without another word.
"Oh, of course." Orko said. "Good plan." He floated after Stratos toward the captured fort.
Two troglodyte guards watched Stratos soar into the air. They mistook him for a giant bird, only realizing what was happening when he swooped down on them and dropped a bomb that sent them flying into the jungle.
The explosion brought half a dozen more of the lizard men out of the fort. They brandished their crude spears furiously at the enemy flying beyond their reach. Stratos had one blast-bomb and on smoke-bomb left. He prepared to swoop down and fire again.
Suddenly, Orko erupted from the trees in front of the small lizard men. "Ha-choo," he said, waving his hands at the troglodytes. There was a puff of magical glitter, then the troglodytes fell to the ground, asleep.
Stratos landed beside him. "That was too easy," he said.
"I agree. These guys have gotten soft. Let me at Skeletor." Orko swung his skinny fist dramatically, spinning himself around.
Stratos ignored him, approaching the fort door cautiously. "You stay here," he advised Orko.
"You need me," Orko said indignantly.
"You're right," Stratos agreed. "I need you to stay here and yell if you see anyone coming."
"All right," Orko conceded. "But hurry."
"That's the plan." Stratos entered the dark fort. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust. His people could see almost as well in the dark as they could in the day if given a chance to adjust to the lighting.
He was standing in small corridor that was used by the guardsmen as a place to shoot through small holes placed in intervals along the wall. There was another door that lead further into the fort. It was partially opened already, so he just nudged it forward, expecting an attack. Nothing.
He pushed the door open the rest of the way. This was where the men stationed here slept and ate. The room had three occupants. Duncan was still attached to the table by a thick chain. A hulking warrior was lying in the corner. Stratos guessed correctly that it was Ram-Man, but he couldn't tell if he was dead or alive. And one troglodyte had been left behind to guard the prisoners.
Stratos smiled. He took a step toward the guard. The troglodyte screamed a hideous reptilian scream, then bolted for the door. Stratos stepped aside, allowing the troglodyte to pass. "One coming your way," he hollered through the door to Orko.
The troglodyte saw Orko and then jumped into the jungle, disappearing into the trees. "All gone," Orko hollered back.
Stratos was bending over Duncan. He noted that the old warrior's shoulder was badly burnt, and there seemed to be several more recent cuts dripping blood down his left leg.
"Stratos," the general said wearily. "I thought this was the end."
"No way," Stratos assured him. "Teela and King Adam are inside, and he has the Sword of Power."
"Teela? Inside? No! She must not confront Evil-Lyn!"
"Relax, Man-at-Arms. He-Man is in there now. She'll be fine."
"No!" Duncan thrust aside Stratos hand. His chain had been cut, but its remnants still hung from his foot. He pushed past Stratos, through the fort door, and hobbled towards the drawbridge of Castle Grayskull.
"Hello," Orko said, seeing his old friend.
"Not now, Orko," Duncan growled, limping towards the castle's entrance.
"Same old Man-at-Arms." Orko shrugged. He considered following his most-grouchy-friend-ever when something caught his eye down the path. He thought he saw one of those troglodytes. Boy, they would be sorry. Orko pushed up his sleeves (they promptly fell back to their place) and floated down the path.
Inside, Stratos bent over Ram-Man's still body. He smiled. The big man was breathing, so he was alive, but there was some kind of energy shield around his body. They locked eyes. Stratos guessed that the shield prevented the otherwise near invincible warrior from moving. How did he break a magic shield? Even though it was Ram-Man, he didn't dare explode his last blast-bomb. Orko! Stratos winked assuringly at Ram-Man and ran out to find Orko.
Meanwhile, the diminutive wizard came to the spot in the jungle where he had seen movement. He drifted forward to the path's edge. "Hello? Surrender?" Orko suggested.
Suddenly, a long, muscled tail shot out from the foliage, hitting Orko squarely and sending him flying into the treetops on the other side of the path. Extremely ruffled, but otherwise unhurt, he flew back down the path to warn Stratos. Whiplash sprung out, his claw grabbing Orko by his robe.
He pulled the wizard in and wrapped his long tail around Orko three times, squeezing until there was very little left of the shrieking magician.
Stratos arrived just in time to see Orko disappear into the coils of Whiplash's tail. He lifted off the ground and flew towards Whiplash. Whiplash smiled, confident that his armored body could handle anything the old warrior could hit him with.
Stratos poured on the speed, covering the distance in seconds. He pulled up at the last instant, Whiplash's claws just missing him. Stratos dropped his last bomb. Whiplash was thrown back, his armored hide absorbing most of the impact, but he was definitely hurt.
Orko felt the coils release just slightly. It was enough. His body was barely physical anyway. He turned to face his captor. "Now sleep, Whiplash. Ha-choo." The sparks lit again. Whiplash blinked, then backhanded Orko, knocking him again into a tree.
Orko spun out of the trees, hardly hurt but feeling worse than useless. "Orko!" Stratos shouted. "Ram-Man needs you inside."
Ram-Man? Orko shot down the path as fast as he could. Whiplash ran after him on all fours, would have caught him again, except that Stratos chose to drop his smoke-bomb just then. The giant lizard man stopped, choking and too stupid to just run through the smoke. He lashed out wildly. Stratos floated above him, smiling. Occasionally he swept down to pick up a rock or a tree limb and drop it where he imagined Whiplash's head would be.
Orko floated next to Ram-Man, eyeing the shield suspiciously. No problem. He rubbed his bony hands over the shield and asked it politely to go to his realm where magic could do whatever it wanted and it could have a jolly good time. The shield grumbled, wavered in consideration, then agreed, slipping into Orko's dimension. It had gotten bored guarding the big man anyway.
Ram-Man sat up immediately. "I can't believe this," he growled. Orko had rarely known the good-natured Ram-Man to growl.
"What happened?" Orko asked.
"I thought I had drowned. But guess what, turns out the armor defends against that too—at the last minute. Go figure." Ram-Man shrugged.
"Wow! Your, like, a human submarine!" Orko squealed. Ram-Man looked at him in confusion. Orko shrugged. "They don't have those on Eternia yet," he explained. Suddenly his eyes went as big as saucers. "Oh! Stratos is outside battling Whiplash. He nearly squished me—Whiplash, that is. Not Stratos. That would be weird. Stratos saved me."
"Whiplash, huh?" Ram-Man stepped outside.
Whiplash, in no danger from what Stratos was carelessly dropping on his head but getting angrier by the second, had the bright idea to spin his tail furiously to get rid of the smoke. It worked, the smoke had already begun to dissipate into the atmosphere anyway. He smiled at his cleverness when the smoke was finally gone.
The last thing he saw was Ram-Man flying at him head first. Then everything went black.
It was raining inside Castle Grayskull. Teela had summoned the elements to help her defeat her sister. Lyn couldn't afford to waste anymore power floating. She was on the ground, hiding behind a powerful shield that protected her from the hail and lightning. She had chosen to launch her attack against Teela's mind. Invisible demons seemed to assault Teela from every side.
Teela had gone through drills like this with the Sorceress. She focused through the imaginary enemies and concentrated on Evil-Lyn. The witch wouldn't expect a physical attack after fighting with sorcery for so long. Teela darted forward, leaving her mind vulnerable for just an instant. She felt the fire of the attack, shattering her will, but she had just enough force to strike Lyn's shield and shatter it. Lyn toppled to the ground, Teela fell backwards, the demons in her head vanished, and the storm dispersed.
They both gasped, fighting for air. "Damn you," Lyn cursed. "You've had everything your whole life. I want this. You've been loved and cared for, Teela. But I have something you're only now coming to understand in your own life. I hate. I have hate. I am hate. I hate you!"
She raised her crystal wand again, slamming Teela with a magical wall of force over and over again. Teela threw up defense after defense, but they crumbled against the display of raw power, and Lyn didn't seem to be tiring. Teela shuttered as the pure force broke through her defenses and slammed her back to the ground. After that, it struck over and over again. Teela felt like her bones were being ground into dust. Blood poured from her nose and ears. She gasped for breath.
Lyn had beaten her. This defeat was the most bitter thing Teela had ever tasted. Her tears mingled with her blood. She thought of Adam. She loved him. She knew she did, but she had felt responsible for so many things bigger than herself.
Lyn came forward to stand over her defeated sibling triumphantly. Teela looked closely at her for the first time. She could see it now, so close to death. This was her sister—there was no doubting that now. She could sense it clearly. And she knew that her sister would kill her now.
Then Teela heard the voice she had always associated with love and safety from some place in the distance behind her.
"Stop, Lyn," her father said. And she did. No one was more shocked than she.
She bit her lower lip, frustrated with her sudden weakness. She shoved it away, back into the dark place where it had laid dormant her whole life. She glared at Duncan. "A family ruin? How quaint. I'm glad you're here, Father. You're just in time to see your cherished daughter die. First her, then you, then my whore mother."
It was all Teela could do to stay awake. She needed to stop Evil-Lyn. Father didn't know what he was getting into. Evil-Lyn had never been like this before.
"Lyn, I'm sorry—for more things than I can voice now, no one knew. It would have been different if we would have known. I know you'll never believe that, but let your sister go. Sate your lust for vengeance on my death, but let her..."
"The Sorceress knew!" Lyn screamed, cutting Duncan off.
"No, Lyn. Something's gone horribly wrong, but the Sorceress never knew you were her daughter. Think. Who told you all this? The Lord of Lies? Skeletor himself? Lyn, for all your corruption, you are one of the smartest women alive today. You know Skeletor is the master of trickery. You can't go on believing his word alone on this."
Lyn was shocked to feel tears welling up in her eyes. She had thought those tears were long dead. She pushed them away. It was easier to hate. That force had driven her her entire life. She didn't even know how to let it go. She wouldn't be judged or punished by these hypocrites.
"You're probably right, Father, but it's too late now." She summoned the wall of force again, this time slamming it into her already weakened father. He fell to the ground, rolled, grabbed Teela's serpent staff and whipped it at Lyn's scowling figure.
The spell died on her lips. The staff, thrown with the passion of a father protecting the life of his child, slid through Lyn's defenses and struck her with enough force to knock her to the ground, stunned.
Duncan crawled, on hands and knees to his long-missing daughter. Lyn growled a feral, dangerous growl and tried to physically lash out at him. Duncan was one of the best hand to hand fighters in the kingdom; he easily dodged the inexperienced brawler's attack, slid into her exposed body, and sadly struck the side of her head with an open chop. Lyn fell, unconscious.
"I'm sorry," he whispered over her.
"How touching," came a hollow voice from the staircase.
"Skeletor," Duncan stood on wobbly legs. He almost laughed at himself. An old, broken man versus the Overlord of Evil? It was preposterous.
Skeletor walked into the chamber, practically ignoring Duncan. "There it is," he said. "How did I miss it before?" The other half of his sword now decorated the top of the Sorceress' throne. A trophy? Skeletor was not amused.
Duncan had no idea what Skeletor wanted, but he knew it couldn't be good. He boldly placed himself between Skeletor and the throne.
Skeletor finally took notice of him. "Fool," he said, as he waved his hand and sent Duncan flying into a stone wall. Duncan felt his right shoulder disconnect, then landed heavily on the stone floor. Skeletor ignored him, continuing toward the throne.
He-Man's deep, booming voice behind him stopped Skeletor dead in his tracks. "Skeletor, when will it ever end? I'm going to finish you now like I should have done years ago."
The evil warlord spun around. The heroic warrior stood beside Teela, muscles bulging, shining with a radiant glow of health. It sickened Skeletor. "He-Man? So the boy and the man are one now. Your friends are dead. Our battle will destroy this place, He-Man."
"Your Havoc Staff is gone. You have only a piece of the sword. Skeletor, prepare to find the death your body has longed for."
He-Man quickly covered the distance between himself and his arch-nemesis. The Sword of Power came crashing down over Skeletor's head. Skeletor lifted his blade, deflecting the attack, but the sheer power drove him to the ground. He cast a spell that turned him into a shadow, slid across the floor, and materialized next to the throne.
He-Man wasted no time. He bounded up the steps after him. Skeletor raised a hand and surrounded He-Man in the same shield that had kept Ram-Man hostage.
The evil mastermind grabbed the last piece of his sword from the throne. It was as broken as the first half had been and he didn't have the time or the energy to fix it now.
He leaped down the stairs, preparing to thrust his sword into He-Man's suspended form.
He-Man pushed his muscles against the constricting shield. The celestial power always gave him as much strength as he needed for any task, but it had to be made aware of the task first. It was in that dangerous moment that He-Man was vulnerable. Seconds passed. He-Man felt the power. He pushed, the shield burst, and Skeletor thrust. He-Man rolled backward just in time. Skeletor pulled his blade back and lifted a hand. Lightning darted from his fingers.
He-Man fell, his muscles on fire with the pain of their sudden forced spasms. He was fighting the battle all wrong. It had been a long time. Skeletor's sword came down again, drawing blood with a shallow cut. He-Man kicked upwards to gain some time before Skeletor's next attack. Luck was on his side. The boot connected. Skeletor's brittle ribs snapped. "Ooooooh!" he screamed.
He-Man stood back, lifted the Sword of Power, crying out, "By the power of Grayskull." The sword changed, the hilt splitting so that the handle crossed itself.
Skeletor lived daily with the pain of a broken body. The new pain of his smashed ribs wasn't enough to stop him. He fired another bolt of lightning at He-Man, who he imagined was defenseless, standing in the open. The sword, now ready, absorbed the magic, captured it so that it couldn't return to Skeletor.
The Overlord of Evil snarled and threw up a wall of force to block He-Man's next sweeping attack. The sword cut through that too, absorbing it.
Next, Skeletor summoned tornado winds, but He-Man's sword unwrapped the spell into little more than a breeze. Now, Skeletor could feel that his magic was not returning to him. If only he had his staff! Sometimes his Havoc Staff could warp the powers of He-Man's sword. Without it, the battle was futile.
Skeletor changed tactics. He created a boulder from the tiny materials on Grayskull's floor and levitated it not over He-Man, but over Teela. He-Man leaped across the room and exploded the boulder with a swipe of his sword.
I'm still on the defensive, he thought. I've got to bring this fight to Skeletor before he gets lucky.
Skeletor had other ideas. He had bolted for the drawbridge. Once outside of Castle Grayskull, he could teleport to safety.
He-Man charged after him. Skeletor didn't get far anyway. Orko and Stratos stood in his way. Ram Man had stayed behind to watch for more enemies at the fort.
Skeletor lashed out with his power blindly. He-Man's sword pulled even that spell away from him.
"Do you want me to put him to sleep?" Orko asked.
"How about a permanent sleep?" Stratos suggested.
Skeletor, cornered on the drawbridge looked for his only means of escape. He flung his body into the moat. He-Man tried to catch him, but failed. The moat gurgled. The fish bubbled. Skeletor was gone. He-Man had no doubts that going in after Skeletor would mean certain death. It probably meant the same for Skeletor.
He had to find the Sorceress.
He-Man didn't have far to look. The Sorceress was sitting on her throne, looking as young and regal as she had always looked. She had emerged from the secret passage that Adam and Teela had used what seemed like days ago.
"He-Man, your victory today has been one of your finest. I am sorry to have failed my watch and brought this down upon all of you." The Sorceress' voice was sad and low.
"Sorceress, you cannot blame yourself for the actions of madmen whose minds are chaos and unpredictability. None of us could have foreseen his escape from Limbo," He-Man assured her.
The Sorceress stood. "It may take us months to figure out how he freed himself, but we will uncover his tricks, as we always have. And besides, we did manage to capture his Havoc Staff." She pointed to a corner where the staff now rested. She had seen Skeletor enter the armory. Powerless to stop him, she did the only thing she could, stole his favorite arcane tool.
The Sorceress spent the rest of the day sealing Castle Grayskull against another attack. She healed Teela and Duncan. It would be weeks before they would be completely back to normal. Teela herself would feel the pain of this battle as a reminder for years to come, and Duncan already had plans for a partial tech-suit to ease the burden of his torn limbs.
Trap-Jaw was dispelled by the Sorceress once again. This time, the parts of his body were cast into the moat. Beast Man and Whiplash were set free after the Sorceress stripped them of Skeletor's power. Beast Man looked lost and confused, with no memory of what had happened to him since the night of the ritual. With the Sorceress' guidance, he summoned a winged beast to carry him across the leagues back to his home in Sahar'iah. Whiplash ran into the jungles. Without Skeletor's power, he couldn't retreat to his former lair where he had mistreated a tribe of troglodyte slaves.
Once Skeletor's other henchmen had been taken care of, He-Man brought Lyn up from the dungeon to face the Sorceress. Her helmet had fallen off at some point during her capture, and her long white hair now cascaded down her back, making her look all the more graceful.
"Lyn," her mother said from the throne, "you are my daughter. Skeletor did not lie to you about that. Zodac, who has no allegiances but his own, stole you from me before I ever knew you. He gave you to Skeletor. I can't imagine why, but you must believe me."
"Liar," Lyn spat. "Lies! You threw me away."
"That makes no sense, Lyn," Teela told her.
"Nothing I say will change your mind, so let me show you." The Sorceress then descended from her throne, all the beauty of her power surrounding her. She bent over and kissed her daughter on the forehead for the first time.
Lyn was flooded with feelings she had never felt. She saw the Sorceress, giving birth alone. Zodac came. "I'll help you or you can die," he had told her. "The celestial forces you were supposed to be guarding during your indiscretion demand a sacrifice."
"Anything," the Sorceress cried in pain. She could feel the life being ripped from her. It felt like some demon had possessed the life growing inside of her and was trying to rip her open. She was on the floor. Blood dripped from her ears and nose, dribbled out of the corner her mouth, and soaked the ground beneath her. "Anything," she repeated in a horrifying shriek.
"So be it," Zodac said. Suddenly, the pain stopped. The Sorceress slept, and when she woke, Teela lay beside her. Zodac was no where to be seen. The Sorceress believed that Zodac had simply saved her and her child. She assumed that the sacrifice had been her pain. She could not have imagined the horrifying truth.
"Noooo," Lyn wailed. It was too simple. She needed to hate someone. She hated this Zodac. She would destroy him.
"No, daughter. Your destroying days are over." The Sorceress said, as if reading her daughter's thoughts. She slowly returned to her throne, but did not sit. "You may go wherever you like. You may even stay here with me or return to your hideout in the jungles of Sahar'iah."
Lyn looked up at her mother, astonished. The fool woman didn't realize that nothing had changed in Lyn's mind. She needed blood to make peace with what had happened to her.
The Sorceress seemed to sense her thoughts again. "You must find a new way to deal with your anger, my sad daughter. When I kissed you, I stole your power. The magic is no longer yours."
Lyn's eyes went wide. Her thoughts fell into herself where she searched for the magic that had been her only comfort since birth. She scratched at the empty void inside of her. "No! No! You can't do this to me. No!" Lyn lunged for the Sorceress. He-Man caught her. Despite all of her furious anger, there was nothing she could do to break his grip. "No! No!" she continued to scream, despair exploding through her.
The Sorceress took a long look inside of her daughter's soul and shuddered. She couldn't help but feel remorse for what had been done to Lyn, but as Sorceress, she had a responsibility to protect Eternia, even from her own daughter. "Let her go," the Sorceress said. He-Man did, trusting in the Sorceress' wisdom.
Lyn looked at them. "I curse each of you" she snarled inhumanly before running away through the drawbridge and into the jungle.
"I'll stop her," Stratos volunteered.
"No," the Sorceress said. "I meant it. She is free now. Unless she does something to hurt someone, let her find her own way."
He-Man stepped up to the throne next. He asked, "Sorceress, why do I still look like myself. I am He-Man, but I look like the King"
"Because, my champion. He-Man was always just a reflection of what you could be. Only the ancient dress and the power are Grayskull's. You have always been the true hero, inside and out.
"And now, I have one last announcement to make," she said, leaving the dais again to stand next to her daughter. "Teela, you are not ready to be Sorceress." Teela opened her mouth to protest but was silenced with a look from the wise guardian. "My desire to be with your father blinded me to my duties. I'm ready to admit that now." She looked longingly at Duncan, who met her gaze and held it, departing to her some of the love and respect he had for her.
The Sorceress smiled. "This mortal life is short, even for me, compared to the one that awaits us," she whispered. Finally, she turned back to Teela, brushing a strand of hair from her daughter's face. "You, my child, may continue your training with the serpent staff. One day you will be the new Sorceress." Then she leaned in, so that just her Teela could hear her. "But first, Daughter, I will have a grandchild, I think."
The Sorceress returned to her throne, sitting regally, and looked proudly on the heroes standing before her. She watched with joy as her daughter's hand shyly reached out and was caught up in Adam's warm embrace.
END