CHAPTER 10: Confrontation at Castle Grayskull
Outside the Royal Palace...
The Defenders, Man-At-Arms and Teela all waited in the courtyard with sky sleds, wind raiders and the attack trak.
"Is she going to make an appearance for this or what?" Teela snapped impatiently. "It has been WAY more than 10 minutes."
Man-At-Arms shook his head.
"Patience is a virtue, daughter," he chided her.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she breathed.
Soon He-Man appeared from the palace entrance followed by Battle-Cat, Jerry and Erin.
"Okay, we go to Grayskull," Man-At-Arms said waving his arm.
Teela's face burned with envy as she watched He-Man help Erin and Jerry into the attack trak. As she mounted a sky sled, she leaned over to her muscular friend.
"You have lipstick on your cheek," She whispered.
He-Man blushed violently. "Um, thanks," he said wiping his face.
Erin heard the exchange and smiled remembering how the lipstick got there in the first place. As the attack trak started moving, she looked out the window to He-Man riding on Battle Cat's back. He met her gaze and gave her a quick wink.
Jerry saw the action going on between the two.
"If you don't stop, I swear I'm going to cough up a hairball the size of your head," he whined.
Erin turned in her seat, and exhaled deeply. She tried to grasp what was going on around her, and her thoughts soon went back to Marlena and this trip to some castle.
"What's next?" she asked herself.
At Snake Mountain..
Beast-Man sat outside the dank prison cell that Queen Marlena had been placed in deep in the hollows of Snake Mountain. He was hungry and his rear end hurt.
He stood up and looked into the cell where Marlena sat with her head in her hands. He growled a little when she looked up and gave him an icy glare.
"What are you looking at, fuzz face," the Queen smarted and flipped him the bird.
True it was conduct unbecoming of a queen but she felt if anyone deserved such treatment, it was this flea-bitten moron.
Beast-Man growled. "Watch it, your highness, that clock is ticking awfully fast and Panthor is looking awfully hungry."
He turned and sat back down. He couldn't wait to torture her, and he started thinking of ways to make her scream.
Upstairs, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn plotted their next move.
"So, if this visitor can only be killed by an immortal, how I am supposed to destroy her, Evil-Lyn?" Skeletor seethed as he paced behind his throne.
Evil-Lyn waved her staff and a book appeared in front of her. She flipped through the pages.
"If the legends of the messengers hold true, you can't kill her," she said.
Skeletor fired a shot at her from his havoc staff, but missed.narrowly.
Evil-Lyn picked up on his displeasure of her answer.
"You can't kill her, but if we can find a way to control her, we can use her power to destroy Grayskull," Evil-Lyn compensated. " Inside, you can discover the secrets of the elders and find an ancient spell that will make you immortal, then nothing can stop us.I mean you."
Skeletor stopped pacing. "Immortal? I like that. I could take over the whole universe, nothing could stop me, not even that muscle head He- Man...but how can we control her, you said she couldn't be controlled."
Evil-Lyn frowned. "That's the hard part."
Another shot was fired, again, narrowly missing her. This time, she didn't flinch.
"No ordinary spell will work," she said trying to calm her master. "And she's too novice to use her powers to their full potential but, she has a great willpower. This will be a problem. But if we can break her willpower, make her give into us, I can take control of her mind and then she'll do whatever we tell her."
Skeletor sat down and leaned forward.
"And just how do we do that?" he prodded.
Evil-Lyn stood up and raised her arms. After saying an incantation, she was surrounded by a magical burst.
Skeletor started to laugh as Evil-Lyn started to explain.
"I told you, I read her mind when we first met," she laughed. "I know who she trusts."
She put her arms down. Instead of the dark witch's outfit and blue skin, she looked like an average middle-aged woman, in blue jeans and a checkered shirt. She flipped her gray and brown hair and smiled malevolently.
"Her mother," she said in a sweet voice.
At Castle Grayskull..
The jawbridge dropped with a thud that made Erin jump a little. She smiled uneasily and looked over to Teela.
"That's not exactly the kind of castle that were in all those fairy tales when I was a kid," she said meagerly.
Teela rolled her eyes, and muttered something under her breath before she walked away.
Confused, Erin looked at He-Man with a "What did I say?" look on her face. He just smiled and walked forward into the castle. The others followed.
The Sorceress was waiting for them.
Man-At-Arms tried to explain what had happened but the Sorceress already knew.
"We have little time to waste," she commanded. "Erin, please, tell me of your parents. I need to know of your lineage."
Erin looked down and tried not to choke up.
"My mother died years ago, while I was still in college," she said. "She had an illness that ate away at her body but her soul was very strong."
The Sorceress seemed impatient but listened intently.
"I see, and what of your father?"
Erin frowned. This was a subject she didn't like. She never forgave him for abandoning her and her mother. She wondered if he even knew of her mother's death.
"He left, when I was eight," she started. "I don't know much about him, my mother never spoke of him and frankly I didn't care to either."
The Sorceress looked at Teela for a second then back to Erin.
"Go on," she urged.
"I don't know where he is or where he came from," Erin continued. "I don't even remember what he looked like. Just his name."
The Sorceress stood up.
"What was his name child?"
Erin looked down again and took a deep breath.
"Thaddeus..Thaddeus Welles," she spat out.
The Sorceress sat back down and hung her head low. She knew in her heart that Erin had no real idea about why her father left. She also knew what she was going to tell this girl would break her heart, maybe destroy her spirit altogether, but she didn't know how else to do it.
"My child," she started. "I knew your father. He was from Eternia, he was a messenger of the elders. Despite your memory, he was a good man with a pure soul and beautiful heart."
Erin's suspicions were confirmed, although not exactly how she thought they would be.
"You see, when the elders left the physical world, the messengers could not go with them, so they scattered throughout the universe. But they were forbidden to interfere with the lives of the inhabitants of the worlds they were on."
Erin looked at her. The mystic woman continued.
"Thaddeus went to Earth, and must have he broken the rules. He must have fallen in love with your mother and they were married. And then you were born.."
Erin didn't like where this was going.
"However, what you father didn't realize, what none of us knew, was that the elders were connected to the messengers in more than a spiritual sense, their existence was the very life of the messengers. It was discovered when the few remaining messengers left on Eternia started to die, even though they never left. It was concluded that even though the power of the elders was still on Eternia, without the physical presence of the elders, the messengers' life forces dwindled, slowly. You father probably had no idea that he would die when he met your mother. He was incapable of cruelty, intentionally, that is."
Now Erin really didn't like what she was hearing because it meant that she grew up hating a man that didn't deserve her ill feelings. She started to feel sick. Her whole had been some strange fabrication of what it really was.
"When your father realized his time was limited, he most likely left to die somewhere where it would not be questioned. It was the only way to protect who he was and who you would become."
Erin was blown away by the rush of emotions swimming around her. She felt all her strength draining and wondered what would happen to her now. She was lost in the story of her father, her life, and all that she ever knew being false. This made her angry.
"But, if I have his blood, if I'm one of these messengers, how could I live on Earth all this time?" she asked, her eyes flashing.
The Sorceress stood up and walked towards her.
"Because you are also half human," she said trying to calm the agitated woman. She knew what she was about to tell Erin may drop her right at her feet.
"But I believe your time on Earth was becoming limited and you were brought here by the portal, but I don't know by whom the portal was opened."
Erin became more agitated. She caught on to what was being said to her.
"But the elders aren't on Eternia anymore, right? Physically that is.so who's to say I won't die here?"
The Sorceress looked at her and put her hand on her shoulder.
"There isn't anything to say that. If the legacy of the messengers holds true, you will eventually die, here on Eternia. That's all I can tell you now."
That did it. Erin stumbled backwards. Her legs felt like jelly. She looked up at the Sorceress once again.
"I'm dying right now then," she asked.
The Sorceress looked at her with compassion.
"Yes child, I believe you are dying. Slowly. If you use your powers as a messenger, the legacy will go into full effect and the process will speed up. With all my knowledge, I don't know how to stop it."
That did it, Erin fell to her knees. Jerry rushed to her side but to her surprise it was Teela that helped her up.
She looked around her. Everyone looked down, no one made eye contact with her.
"I need a minute alone guys," Erin asked her friends, trying to catch her breath. She started to cough so hard she couldn't speak. "Please..I have to figure something out."
The Defenders all turned to leave. All except He-Man who stood leaning against the wall, looking as miserable as a person with a heart could.
"We can find a way to stop this, can't we Sorceress?" he pleaded. "I mean, there has to be something we can do."
The Sorceress shook her head. She looked deep into the warrior's soul and saw what had transpired. He was in love, and he was being told his love would die, soon. She felt an immense pity for him and for the woman who held his affections.
"With all that I am, I wish I could do something, but only the elders have the power to do anything," she explained. "I will consult Zodac and the universal counsel to see if there is a solution. But be warned, this may not end the way you want it to. Your both must prepare yourselves."
Erin nodded. She wasn't going to let it all end this way. She felt her blood begin to boil as she suddenly became aggressive. She clutched her hands tightly and looked at He-Man.
"If I'm going to die anyway, then I will die trying to save your mother, I owe HER that. I owe YOU that," she blurted out before she looked at the Sorceress. "How do I use this power?"
The Sorceress nodded and gave into the woman. She motioned for Erin to follow her down a long hallway.
"Come," she said. "We don't have much time."
"You can't do this, Erin, you could die before anything gets accomplished!" He-Man yelled at her. He wanted her to conserve her energy so they would have more time to find a way to save her from this fate she never knew existed for her.
The Sorceress paused, as if unsure what to do. Giving it one last try, she looked at Erin who seemed more content than ever.
"He's right," the Sorceress said but then realized there would be no changing Erin's mind. "All right, I'll teach you to use your power, but once it's unleashed, it will be a race against time, so you must hurry and make use of the time you'll have remaining."
He-Man walked up to Erin's side and placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't want to look at him. Inside, she felt her heart being ripped out. She knew if she looked at him, she would lose all the strength she had mustered up to that point and then it would all be for nothing.
"How much time?" he asked the Sorceress sadly.
The Sorceress looked into his heart and saw it breaking. She hated to see this happen but it was all out of her hands.
"A day, maybe," she said. "24 hours at the most from the first time she unleashes her power."
The two women started to walk away, the Sorceress turned around, but Erin didn't.
"He-Man, I need you to wait outside with the others," she instructed.
Erin felt her stomach drop.
"I just need you," she thought to herself.
Outside the Royal Palace...
The Defenders, Man-At-Arms and Teela all waited in the courtyard with sky sleds, wind raiders and the attack trak.
"Is she going to make an appearance for this or what?" Teela snapped impatiently. "It has been WAY more than 10 minutes."
Man-At-Arms shook his head.
"Patience is a virtue, daughter," he chided her.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she breathed.
Soon He-Man appeared from the palace entrance followed by Battle-Cat, Jerry and Erin.
"Okay, we go to Grayskull," Man-At-Arms said waving his arm.
Teela's face burned with envy as she watched He-Man help Erin and Jerry into the attack trak. As she mounted a sky sled, she leaned over to her muscular friend.
"You have lipstick on your cheek," She whispered.
He-Man blushed violently. "Um, thanks," he said wiping his face.
Erin heard the exchange and smiled remembering how the lipstick got there in the first place. As the attack trak started moving, she looked out the window to He-Man riding on Battle Cat's back. He met her gaze and gave her a quick wink.
Jerry saw the action going on between the two.
"If you don't stop, I swear I'm going to cough up a hairball the size of your head," he whined.
Erin turned in her seat, and exhaled deeply. She tried to grasp what was going on around her, and her thoughts soon went back to Marlena and this trip to some castle.
"What's next?" she asked herself.
At Snake Mountain..
Beast-Man sat outside the dank prison cell that Queen Marlena had been placed in deep in the hollows of Snake Mountain. He was hungry and his rear end hurt.
He stood up and looked into the cell where Marlena sat with her head in her hands. He growled a little when she looked up and gave him an icy glare.
"What are you looking at, fuzz face," the Queen smarted and flipped him the bird.
True it was conduct unbecoming of a queen but she felt if anyone deserved such treatment, it was this flea-bitten moron.
Beast-Man growled. "Watch it, your highness, that clock is ticking awfully fast and Panthor is looking awfully hungry."
He turned and sat back down. He couldn't wait to torture her, and he started thinking of ways to make her scream.
Upstairs, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn plotted their next move.
"So, if this visitor can only be killed by an immortal, how I am supposed to destroy her, Evil-Lyn?" Skeletor seethed as he paced behind his throne.
Evil-Lyn waved her staff and a book appeared in front of her. She flipped through the pages.
"If the legends of the messengers hold true, you can't kill her," she said.
Skeletor fired a shot at her from his havoc staff, but missed.narrowly.
Evil-Lyn picked up on his displeasure of her answer.
"You can't kill her, but if we can find a way to control her, we can use her power to destroy Grayskull," Evil-Lyn compensated. " Inside, you can discover the secrets of the elders and find an ancient spell that will make you immortal, then nothing can stop us.I mean you."
Skeletor stopped pacing. "Immortal? I like that. I could take over the whole universe, nothing could stop me, not even that muscle head He- Man...but how can we control her, you said she couldn't be controlled."
Evil-Lyn frowned. "That's the hard part."
Another shot was fired, again, narrowly missing her. This time, she didn't flinch.
"No ordinary spell will work," she said trying to calm her master. "And she's too novice to use her powers to their full potential but, she has a great willpower. This will be a problem. But if we can break her willpower, make her give into us, I can take control of her mind and then she'll do whatever we tell her."
Skeletor sat down and leaned forward.
"And just how do we do that?" he prodded.
Evil-Lyn stood up and raised her arms. After saying an incantation, she was surrounded by a magical burst.
Skeletor started to laugh as Evil-Lyn started to explain.
"I told you, I read her mind when we first met," she laughed. "I know who she trusts."
She put her arms down. Instead of the dark witch's outfit and blue skin, she looked like an average middle-aged woman, in blue jeans and a checkered shirt. She flipped her gray and brown hair and smiled malevolently.
"Her mother," she said in a sweet voice.
At Castle Grayskull..
The jawbridge dropped with a thud that made Erin jump a little. She smiled uneasily and looked over to Teela.
"That's not exactly the kind of castle that were in all those fairy tales when I was a kid," she said meagerly.
Teela rolled her eyes, and muttered something under her breath before she walked away.
Confused, Erin looked at He-Man with a "What did I say?" look on her face. He just smiled and walked forward into the castle. The others followed.
The Sorceress was waiting for them.
Man-At-Arms tried to explain what had happened but the Sorceress already knew.
"We have little time to waste," she commanded. "Erin, please, tell me of your parents. I need to know of your lineage."
Erin looked down and tried not to choke up.
"My mother died years ago, while I was still in college," she said. "She had an illness that ate away at her body but her soul was very strong."
The Sorceress seemed impatient but listened intently.
"I see, and what of your father?"
Erin frowned. This was a subject she didn't like. She never forgave him for abandoning her and her mother. She wondered if he even knew of her mother's death.
"He left, when I was eight," she started. "I don't know much about him, my mother never spoke of him and frankly I didn't care to either."
The Sorceress looked at Teela for a second then back to Erin.
"Go on," she urged.
"I don't know where he is or where he came from," Erin continued. "I don't even remember what he looked like. Just his name."
The Sorceress stood up.
"What was his name child?"
Erin looked down again and took a deep breath.
"Thaddeus..Thaddeus Welles," she spat out.
The Sorceress sat back down and hung her head low. She knew in her heart that Erin had no real idea about why her father left. She also knew what she was going to tell this girl would break her heart, maybe destroy her spirit altogether, but she didn't know how else to do it.
"My child," she started. "I knew your father. He was from Eternia, he was a messenger of the elders. Despite your memory, he was a good man with a pure soul and beautiful heart."
Erin's suspicions were confirmed, although not exactly how she thought they would be.
"You see, when the elders left the physical world, the messengers could not go with them, so they scattered throughout the universe. But they were forbidden to interfere with the lives of the inhabitants of the worlds they were on."
Erin looked at her. The mystic woman continued.
"Thaddeus went to Earth, and must have he broken the rules. He must have fallen in love with your mother and they were married. And then you were born.."
Erin didn't like where this was going.
"However, what you father didn't realize, what none of us knew, was that the elders were connected to the messengers in more than a spiritual sense, their existence was the very life of the messengers. It was discovered when the few remaining messengers left on Eternia started to die, even though they never left. It was concluded that even though the power of the elders was still on Eternia, without the physical presence of the elders, the messengers' life forces dwindled, slowly. You father probably had no idea that he would die when he met your mother. He was incapable of cruelty, intentionally, that is."
Now Erin really didn't like what she was hearing because it meant that she grew up hating a man that didn't deserve her ill feelings. She started to feel sick. Her whole had been some strange fabrication of what it really was.
"When your father realized his time was limited, he most likely left to die somewhere where it would not be questioned. It was the only way to protect who he was and who you would become."
Erin was blown away by the rush of emotions swimming around her. She felt all her strength draining and wondered what would happen to her now. She was lost in the story of her father, her life, and all that she ever knew being false. This made her angry.
"But, if I have his blood, if I'm one of these messengers, how could I live on Earth all this time?" she asked, her eyes flashing.
The Sorceress stood up and walked towards her.
"Because you are also half human," she said trying to calm the agitated woman. She knew what she was about to tell Erin may drop her right at her feet.
"But I believe your time on Earth was becoming limited and you were brought here by the portal, but I don't know by whom the portal was opened."
Erin became more agitated. She caught on to what was being said to her.
"But the elders aren't on Eternia anymore, right? Physically that is.so who's to say I won't die here?"
The Sorceress looked at her and put her hand on her shoulder.
"There isn't anything to say that. If the legacy of the messengers holds true, you will eventually die, here on Eternia. That's all I can tell you now."
That did it. Erin stumbled backwards. Her legs felt like jelly. She looked up at the Sorceress once again.
"I'm dying right now then," she asked.
The Sorceress looked at her with compassion.
"Yes child, I believe you are dying. Slowly. If you use your powers as a messenger, the legacy will go into full effect and the process will speed up. With all my knowledge, I don't know how to stop it."
That did it, Erin fell to her knees. Jerry rushed to her side but to her surprise it was Teela that helped her up.
She looked around her. Everyone looked down, no one made eye contact with her.
"I need a minute alone guys," Erin asked her friends, trying to catch her breath. She started to cough so hard she couldn't speak. "Please..I have to figure something out."
The Defenders all turned to leave. All except He-Man who stood leaning against the wall, looking as miserable as a person with a heart could.
"We can find a way to stop this, can't we Sorceress?" he pleaded. "I mean, there has to be something we can do."
The Sorceress shook her head. She looked deep into the warrior's soul and saw what had transpired. He was in love, and he was being told his love would die, soon. She felt an immense pity for him and for the woman who held his affections.
"With all that I am, I wish I could do something, but only the elders have the power to do anything," she explained. "I will consult Zodac and the universal counsel to see if there is a solution. But be warned, this may not end the way you want it to. Your both must prepare yourselves."
Erin nodded. She wasn't going to let it all end this way. She felt her blood begin to boil as she suddenly became aggressive. She clutched her hands tightly and looked at He-Man.
"If I'm going to die anyway, then I will die trying to save your mother, I owe HER that. I owe YOU that," she blurted out before she looked at the Sorceress. "How do I use this power?"
The Sorceress nodded and gave into the woman. She motioned for Erin to follow her down a long hallway.
"Come," she said. "We don't have much time."
"You can't do this, Erin, you could die before anything gets accomplished!" He-Man yelled at her. He wanted her to conserve her energy so they would have more time to find a way to save her from this fate she never knew existed for her.
The Sorceress paused, as if unsure what to do. Giving it one last try, she looked at Erin who seemed more content than ever.
"He's right," the Sorceress said but then realized there would be no changing Erin's mind. "All right, I'll teach you to use your power, but once it's unleashed, it will be a race against time, so you must hurry and make use of the time you'll have remaining."
He-Man walked up to Erin's side and placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't want to look at him. Inside, she felt her heart being ripped out. She knew if she looked at him, she would lose all the strength she had mustered up to that point and then it would all be for nothing.
"How much time?" he asked the Sorceress sadly.
The Sorceress looked into his heart and saw it breaking. She hated to see this happen but it was all out of her hands.
"A day, maybe," she said. "24 hours at the most from the first time she unleashes her power."
The two women started to walk away, the Sorceress turned around, but Erin didn't.
"He-Man, I need you to wait outside with the others," she instructed.
Erin felt her stomach drop.
"I just need you," she thought to herself.