CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

"The Edge"

The Sorceress stood atop Castle Grayskull, her eyes yearning outwards into the east. "You can hear them," a voice whispered. "You can feel them. Skeletor is banging the drums of war. The forces of darkness of grows at Snake Mountain."

Sorceress closed her eyes hard. "I did not want this. I hoped the mantle would have been passed twice me and my daughter before this day would come."

"You knew it would," the voice continued. "You knew it would. The power of good and evil could not be locked in a false promise of balance forever. The swords have been drawn. The players are in position. The final battle begins in the days to come."

"Adam will fight Skeletor back."

"Perhaps. But I'm just a casual observer. Please - Sorceress, keeper of Grayskull, Teelana, mother of Teela - prepare yourself."

"Adam . . ."

***

As dawn rushed over Eternos, word reached the Capital of Eternia. Skeletor's army had grown and the Master of Chaos was preparing for an all-out assault.

"I recommend we take the battle to them," said Adora, pointing to Snake Mountain on the large map before her.

"I agree," Adam returned. "We go on the offensive. For years, we've been sitting on the defensive of Skeletor's attacks. It was the same mistake made on Primus. We hit him where he lives and take him out there."

King Randor nodded. "Yes. Man-At-Arms, how quickly can the soldiers be ready?"

"The Defenders are all set for this. When He-Man informed us that Skeletor had returned, I've made sure they were all up and ready," Man-At-Arms told his king. "The Royal Soldiers can be fully assembled by this evening."

"Good. Then we'll follow through. Adam, Adora, I want you two leading the charge. As He-Man and She-Ra, of course."

"Of course," Adam nodded.

"R-right. Of course," Adora said, her fingers touching the hilt of her sword with reluctance.

"We stand at the edge of war," Randor said bluntly. "I feel that whatever occurs from here on out will affect everything that we've ever done."

"Agreed. Let's move."

As Randor and Marlena walked out of the room, Adam stepped over to Man-At-Arms. "Duncan, did you get the Silverhawk up and running?"

"Yeah. I'm glad too. Taking a look at the Primus technology really helped me make some improvements to our vehicles."

"Good. I'm going to need it."

"Where are you going?" asked Adora.

"Paying someone a little visit."

About an hour later, the Silverhawk launched from Eternos and headed towards the energy cloud. The small ship really only accommodated one person, but had a small, sixteen-foot room behind the cockpit. Just enough room, Adam figured.

As it neared the energy cloud, the entire ship stopped dead. Adam nodded to himself and let go of the controls. He walked back into the room and found none other than Zodac standing there.

"Adam. Greetings once again. How was your stay on Primus?"

Adam stepped up to Zodac and punched him in the helmet. Zodac staggered backwards, but very quickly resituated himself. "Well, I do suppose you think I deserved that."

"You deserve more. Do you know many have dead in the name of a lie?"

"A lie? No, not a lie. I prefer manipulation."

"I prefer falsehood. This is foolhardy."

"Is it?" asked Zodac. "Tell me, young Prince, what do you think is going to happen tonight when? The outcome? Hmmm. Because hearing an estimated guess is always fascinating after seeing the result."

"Just tell me one thing, Zodac," Adam wondered.

"Perhaps."

"Tell me . . . why did you do this to my planet?"

Zodac grinned. "Why, Prince Adam, we've been doing it since our conception. My people are still in the child stages. We need to know how to be good and how to be evil. But before we can do that, we need to see how the other side is like. What other way is there than this? Stondar and Rokkon didn't care when we revealed ourselves to their planet. Neither did the Meterorbs. Earth . . . well, Earth will be very interesting. I'm excited. They have technology. We're just giving them magic."

"No . . . don't do this . . ."

"We need to determine what happens here, Adam. We have a lot of time on our hands. When we're finished with our business on Eternia, then it's off to Earth. We'll have to establish a pure, control group. Probably drop them off on Mars or something."

"Why Eternia?"

"You told me you were just asking one question. Now who's lying?"

Adam closed his for a moment, attempting to regain his composure. "Why did you come to Eternia?"

Zodac paced a bit. "Well, Adam, we've been to many different planets before Eternia. It was either Eternia or Cybertron. Cybertron was already busy with their own war or something, so we decided on Eternia."

"You know," Adam began, "you're responsible for thousands of deaths. Any more that day in this battle will be your fault. And when I'm through with Skeletor, I'm coming after you."

Zodac took a breath. "We were at Primus too. We decided against them, but we figured you might be interested in going there. Tell me, Adam, weren't you at all curious how Flipshot and Hydron found you? We gave them your location. We gave them that technology. In fact, after Earth, I think we'll back to Primus and upset their balance too."

"Damn you!" shouted Adam, grabbing the sides of Zodac's armor. "DAMN YOU!"

"Really? Me?" asked Zodac. "Funny. Because all this time you've been telling me that we've been damning you. Now, Prince Adam, go wave your sword around and fight the man with no face, will you? I need some entertainment value."