CHAPTER 5: LOSS
Teela was still reeling from what she had learned. She felt as if her whole life had been some kind of joke and the punch line just bombed. She stood in the window of Castle Grayskull looking out onto the horizon; a wind blew through her red hair and dried the tears on her cheeks.
"You will now have to learn how to master your magic," the Sorceress had told her. "I will be with you for as long as I can, but you will find your own way through study and concentration. However, taking on this responsibility means you will never be able to travel outside the realm of Grayskull in your human form."
Teela took that to mean that she could never go home again and that, more than anything upset her. She had never been separated from her father for very long and now, the only time she would see him is when he came to Grayskull.
For a second she thought about telling the Sorceress "No dice," that she would not do it. But how could she? The Sorceress was her mother and had sacrificed their relationship to protect the castle. How could she not take over knowing that the secrets within these very walls were so powerful that a mother could turn her back on her child in order to protect them?
The events of the day had been too much for the Sorceress and her father and He-Man had escorted her to her sleep chamber.
Teela squeezed her eyes shut as anger flooded her body.
He-Man. He-Man was Adam. Adam was He-Man.
She couldn't believe this new revelation. She thought about all those years where she scolded Adam for not being able to defend himself only to for her to turn around and have to be rescued in battle by He-Man.
She wondered if he ever laughed about it.
Then she thought about the Princess. She now had both men Teela had ever had feelings for. She wondered if Erin knew Adam's secret. Of course, she did, she would have had too, and the two of them were so close that something this huge couldn't have been a secret for long.
She envied that, and thought that she and Adam had been that close too, but apparently, she was wrong.
And as much as she wanted to hate the Princess, she couldn't because she understood what it felt like to be so consumed by love. She just never let herself give into it, and now, she would never be able to.
Teela's head spun, she felt like she was going to vomit.
He-Man emerged from the shadows behind her. He had never felt such sympathy for his friend.
"Teela?" he reached out to touch her arm but she jerked away quickly.
She looked at him with so much emotion that he didn't know what she was feeling inside.
"Don't," she blurted out. "Please He-Man or Adam or whatever. Just don't right now. I need time to think."
He-Man looked down and nodded. He wanted so much to help his friend through this time and it bothered him greatly that he was the partial cause of such pain. He wondered if she understood that at one time, his feelings for her had been so great that he would have given up everything for her. But now, he really understood why that could never be.
He looked out the window as Teela started to walk away. In the distance he saw what appeared to be a Wind Raider coming towards the castle.
He put his hands on the windowsill and strained his eyes to see what it was. Before he could get a good look however, he heard a crashing sound coming from the other way. He looked to see something big moving through the trees, something that was heading toward Grayskull.
"Man-At-Arms!" he yelled as he ran back into the main chambers of the castle.
*****
Erin could see Skeletor's army advancing on the castle and cursed the stupid Wind Raider for not being able to move faster. She picked up the radio and called back to the palace.
"Guards, you must alert the Defenders to Castle Grayskull, it's under attack!" she yelled into the receiver.
"Ai, your highness," the guard replied and then there was static. The Raider started to land on the outskirts of the castle. In the mouth of the jawbridge, Erin saw Man-At-Arms and her husband in full He-Man mode watching the events. They were transfixed on the approaching army that they didn't even see her land.
She jumped out of the Raider, stun ray in hand, and ran as fast as she could to the castle's entrance. He-Man looked at her with great surprise as Teela appeared behind them.
"Your highness, what are you doing here?" Teela yelled at her, saying exactly what He-Man was thinking. "You're in great danger, you must go back to the palace!"
Erin figured by now Teela knew about Adam since he was He-Man and grabbed her husband's mighty arm. She fought to catch her breath.
"Evil-Lyn..has our...son," she told him, her eyes wide with fear.
He-Man's mouth dropped in shock.
"What?" he grabbed her by both arms, his eyes more frightened than she had ever seen before. "How did that happen?"
Erin started to explain but was cut off as Skeletor's army rolled up to the clearing in front of Grayskull. The four looked at the new improved Skeletor in terror. In his arms he cradled Adacan, who seemed to still be asleep.
Erin's knees wobbled at the sight of her son in that monster's arms. Her husband tried to steady her as she screamed: "You monster!!!!!!! Give me back my child!!!!!!!!"
Skeletor laughed, more demonically than ever and stroked the child's head. His rough hand left a gray streak in the sleeping prince's hair.
He-Man felt as if he was going to explode as he held onto his wife who was still struggling to get away from his grip.
On the other side of the clearing, the Defenders started to arrive. Stratos was the first to see Skeletor's hostage.
"He has the prince!" he yelled to the other Defenders. "We must save the boy!"
Skeletor raised his havoc staff, which glowed a bright green. His bony face still managed to muster an evil smile as his blue muscles flexed in anticipation of the upcoming melee.
"ATTACK!!!!!!!!!" he yelled to his robot troops and minions. "ADVANCE UNTIL GRAYSKULL IS OURS!!!!!"
He-Man drew his sword and went running into the fight, as did Teela, Man-At- Arms and the other Defenders. Erin looked up and saw the Sorceress standing in the window of the castle.
"Sorceress!" she yelled as she also started running into the fight. "Close the jawbridge!!!"
The Sorceress nodded and the mighty door began pulling up before Erin could get off of it. She ran with all she had and jumped, as the bridge was halfway up. She remembered what Teela had taught her about such high jumps and tucked herself into a ball, only coming out of it until she was closer to the ground.
She landed perfectly, but in the midst of a dozen robot soldiers, who all noticed her very quickly.
She took out her stun ray and started blasting with all she had.
On the other side of the clearing, He-Man and Trap-Jaw were locked in battle, sword to arm claw. Beads of sweat ran down Trap-Jaw's face and red metal mouth as he and He-Man stood face to face in battle.
He-Man finally managed to push him back and gave his a roundhouse kick to the mid-section, sending him flying. The mechanical man landed in a heap on the ground and didn't move. He-Man started to move towards Skeletor when Mer-Man jumped in front of him.
"I thought I smelled catch of the day," He-Man said sarcastically as Mer- Man came at him with his tri-dent.
Behind him, Man-At-Arms had his hands full with Beast-Man, literally. The two were wrestling to the ground, and Beast-Man should have been surprisingly stronger than the aging warrior, but the red oaf's big size made his clumsy and that gave Man-At-Arms the upper hand. The two finally separated and circled each other, staring one another down.
Suddenly, a shot hit the big ape in the back and he went down like a ton of bricks.
Man-At-Arms stared as he saw Teela lower her stun ray and smiled as she winked at him. He had taught her that.
His smile quickly turned as he saw Evil-Lyn appear behind his daughter.
"Behind you!" he yelled as he held his mace up.
Teela spun around only to be met by a swift crack to the head by Evil-Lyn's wand. It sent the General flying, but it didn't keep her down. She quickly jumped back up and ran right for the witch, cobra staff fully extended and returned the favor before Evil-Lyn could blink another spell.
She looked over and saw Erin still blasting away, Ram-Man at her side pounding robot troopers right into the ground. Above her, Stratos and Buzz- Off were in full force aerial attack. Man-E-Faces and Mekaneck also had their hands full but were handling it with great skills.
She looked at He-Man who was busy throwing Mer-Man against a tree. Despite her confusion about him, she smiled. Skeletor saw the muscle bound warrior coming at him once again and decided it was time to pull out the big guns. He lowered his havoc staff and fired directly at He-Man. The warrior deflected the shot and four more shots after that with his sword.
"He's still pretty handy with that thing," Skeletor mumbled to himself. Then he noticed the Princess in the midst of battle and remembered how fond He-Man appeared to be of her last time they fought. He waved his hand and the sleeping child in his arm awoke and rubbed his eyes.
Skeletor cast a spell that made the child see Prince Adam instead of the dark overlord standing over him.
"Hi daddy," the child yawned.
Skeletor set the child down and created an image of Erin standing every close to the edge of the abyss around Grayskull.
"Run to mommy," he seethed, but the child only heard his father's voice and started towards the image of his smiling mother, who was holding her arms open to him.
Skeletor then jumped off of Panthor and approached He-Man who was watching his son run towards certain death.
"ADACAN, STOP!!!!" he yelled but before he could rescue the boy, Skeletor hit him with a powerful blow to the chest that sent the hero flying backwards. If he hadn't been the strongest man in the universe, that blow might have killed the warrior, but instead it just dazed him.
Erin heard her husband yell and turned to see what was happening. She watched in terror as her son walked closer and closer to the edge.
"No!!!!!!! ADACAN STOP!!!!!" she yelled, turning her back to the battle. She was almost hit from behind by a robot trooper but Ram-Man got to him first.
From her battle, Teela was closest to the child and started making a run towards him. Adacan was nearly to the edge when Teela caught up with him and scooped him up. The child struggled and reached out to the image of his mother.
"Put me down," he yelled. "I want my mommy."
Teela started to walk towards He-Man who was just beginning to get off of the ground when Evil-Lyn made her next move. She sent a shockwave into the ground that knocked the boy out of Teela's arms and sent them both flying backwards into the abyss.
"ADACAN!" Erin screamed and started running toward the edge.
He-Man jumped and grabbed his friend's arm before she could fall much further. He reached out for his son but missed the child by an inch. He watched helplessly as Adacan fell further down but was instantly relieved when Stratos swept down from above and caught the boy.
"Take him back to the palace," He-Man yelled as Stratos flew away from the fighting, the warrior's only child tucked into his winged arm.
He looked down at Teela who was smiling at him as she dangled in mid-air.
"That was a little too close for me," he said to her.
Erin watched as her son was flown away from the fighting and a sense of relief washed over her. It was short lived however as she saw Skeletor raise his havoc staff towards her husband, who had his back turned while pulling Teela up from the abyss.
The monster laughed loudly and aimed directly for He-Man. Erin ran towards them.
"Look out," she yelled as she sprinted towards He-Man.
"Say goodnight, He-Man," Skeletor cackled as he fired another, equally strong shot towards the unsuspecting warrior.
He-Man turned just as Erin jumped in front of him. He watched in horror as the blast hit her with full strength and knocked her to the ground. She made no sounds nor did she move at all. She just quietly fell in a heap to the ground. Her shining brown hair covering her face.
He-Man knelt down to her as Skeletor prepared to fire again.
"One down, one to go," he laughed maniacally.
He-Man looked at him with fury and picked up his sword. Before he could swing it at the evil monster, a flash of magic came from Grayskull and Skeletor disappeared. Behind them, the Sorceress disappeared into the castle. She had used what was left of her magic to vanquish Skeletor from Grayskull and she had no more left. It was over for her.
Outside, the remaining lot of Skeletor's minions saw what happened to their leader and pulled back in retreat. The Defenders gathered around He-Man as he examined Erin's broken body, brushing her hair back from her peaceful but dirty face.
Teela lowered her head as He-Man fell back and raised his arm to his mouth. He wasn't prepared for this, and didn't believe what his instincts were telling him. He felt his world start to crash around him.
Man-At-Arms knelt down on the other side of the fallen Princess, checked her pulse then checked to see if she was breathing. Finally he laid his head on her chest to see if there was a heartbeat.
"Father, is she..." Teela started as he hung his head down.
"She's dead," he said slowly, then looked up to the vacant window in Grayskull where the Sorceress once stood. "As I feel the Sorceress is too. I'm sorry."
Teela's eyes widened. How could her mother be dead so soon?
He-Man just squeezed his eyes closed as tears streamed down his cheeks and let out an inaudible yell of grief and pain that was heard around all Eternia as the realization hit him with both barrels.
His wife and the mother of his child, was dead.
Teela was still reeling from what she had learned. She felt as if her whole life had been some kind of joke and the punch line just bombed. She stood in the window of Castle Grayskull looking out onto the horizon; a wind blew through her red hair and dried the tears on her cheeks.
"You will now have to learn how to master your magic," the Sorceress had told her. "I will be with you for as long as I can, but you will find your own way through study and concentration. However, taking on this responsibility means you will never be able to travel outside the realm of Grayskull in your human form."
Teela took that to mean that she could never go home again and that, more than anything upset her. She had never been separated from her father for very long and now, the only time she would see him is when he came to Grayskull.
For a second she thought about telling the Sorceress "No dice," that she would not do it. But how could she? The Sorceress was her mother and had sacrificed their relationship to protect the castle. How could she not take over knowing that the secrets within these very walls were so powerful that a mother could turn her back on her child in order to protect them?
The events of the day had been too much for the Sorceress and her father and He-Man had escorted her to her sleep chamber.
Teela squeezed her eyes shut as anger flooded her body.
He-Man. He-Man was Adam. Adam was He-Man.
She couldn't believe this new revelation. She thought about all those years where she scolded Adam for not being able to defend himself only to for her to turn around and have to be rescued in battle by He-Man.
She wondered if he ever laughed about it.
Then she thought about the Princess. She now had both men Teela had ever had feelings for. She wondered if Erin knew Adam's secret. Of course, she did, she would have had too, and the two of them were so close that something this huge couldn't have been a secret for long.
She envied that, and thought that she and Adam had been that close too, but apparently, she was wrong.
And as much as she wanted to hate the Princess, she couldn't because she understood what it felt like to be so consumed by love. She just never let herself give into it, and now, she would never be able to.
Teela's head spun, she felt like she was going to vomit.
He-Man emerged from the shadows behind her. He had never felt such sympathy for his friend.
"Teela?" he reached out to touch her arm but she jerked away quickly.
She looked at him with so much emotion that he didn't know what she was feeling inside.
"Don't," she blurted out. "Please He-Man or Adam or whatever. Just don't right now. I need time to think."
He-Man looked down and nodded. He wanted so much to help his friend through this time and it bothered him greatly that he was the partial cause of such pain. He wondered if she understood that at one time, his feelings for her had been so great that he would have given up everything for her. But now, he really understood why that could never be.
He looked out the window as Teela started to walk away. In the distance he saw what appeared to be a Wind Raider coming towards the castle.
He put his hands on the windowsill and strained his eyes to see what it was. Before he could get a good look however, he heard a crashing sound coming from the other way. He looked to see something big moving through the trees, something that was heading toward Grayskull.
"Man-At-Arms!" he yelled as he ran back into the main chambers of the castle.
*****
Erin could see Skeletor's army advancing on the castle and cursed the stupid Wind Raider for not being able to move faster. She picked up the radio and called back to the palace.
"Guards, you must alert the Defenders to Castle Grayskull, it's under attack!" she yelled into the receiver.
"Ai, your highness," the guard replied and then there was static. The Raider started to land on the outskirts of the castle. In the mouth of the jawbridge, Erin saw Man-At-Arms and her husband in full He-Man mode watching the events. They were transfixed on the approaching army that they didn't even see her land.
She jumped out of the Raider, stun ray in hand, and ran as fast as she could to the castle's entrance. He-Man looked at her with great surprise as Teela appeared behind them.
"Your highness, what are you doing here?" Teela yelled at her, saying exactly what He-Man was thinking. "You're in great danger, you must go back to the palace!"
Erin figured by now Teela knew about Adam since he was He-Man and grabbed her husband's mighty arm. She fought to catch her breath.
"Evil-Lyn..has our...son," she told him, her eyes wide with fear.
He-Man's mouth dropped in shock.
"What?" he grabbed her by both arms, his eyes more frightened than she had ever seen before. "How did that happen?"
Erin started to explain but was cut off as Skeletor's army rolled up to the clearing in front of Grayskull. The four looked at the new improved Skeletor in terror. In his arms he cradled Adacan, who seemed to still be asleep.
Erin's knees wobbled at the sight of her son in that monster's arms. Her husband tried to steady her as she screamed: "You monster!!!!!!! Give me back my child!!!!!!!!"
Skeletor laughed, more demonically than ever and stroked the child's head. His rough hand left a gray streak in the sleeping prince's hair.
He-Man felt as if he was going to explode as he held onto his wife who was still struggling to get away from his grip.
On the other side of the clearing, the Defenders started to arrive. Stratos was the first to see Skeletor's hostage.
"He has the prince!" he yelled to the other Defenders. "We must save the boy!"
Skeletor raised his havoc staff, which glowed a bright green. His bony face still managed to muster an evil smile as his blue muscles flexed in anticipation of the upcoming melee.
"ATTACK!!!!!!!!!" he yelled to his robot troops and minions. "ADVANCE UNTIL GRAYSKULL IS OURS!!!!!"
He-Man drew his sword and went running into the fight, as did Teela, Man-At- Arms and the other Defenders. Erin looked up and saw the Sorceress standing in the window of the castle.
"Sorceress!" she yelled as she also started running into the fight. "Close the jawbridge!!!"
The Sorceress nodded and the mighty door began pulling up before Erin could get off of it. She ran with all she had and jumped, as the bridge was halfway up. She remembered what Teela had taught her about such high jumps and tucked herself into a ball, only coming out of it until she was closer to the ground.
She landed perfectly, but in the midst of a dozen robot soldiers, who all noticed her very quickly.
She took out her stun ray and started blasting with all she had.
On the other side of the clearing, He-Man and Trap-Jaw were locked in battle, sword to arm claw. Beads of sweat ran down Trap-Jaw's face and red metal mouth as he and He-Man stood face to face in battle.
He-Man finally managed to push him back and gave his a roundhouse kick to the mid-section, sending him flying. The mechanical man landed in a heap on the ground and didn't move. He-Man started to move towards Skeletor when Mer-Man jumped in front of him.
"I thought I smelled catch of the day," He-Man said sarcastically as Mer- Man came at him with his tri-dent.
Behind him, Man-At-Arms had his hands full with Beast-Man, literally. The two were wrestling to the ground, and Beast-Man should have been surprisingly stronger than the aging warrior, but the red oaf's big size made his clumsy and that gave Man-At-Arms the upper hand. The two finally separated and circled each other, staring one another down.
Suddenly, a shot hit the big ape in the back and he went down like a ton of bricks.
Man-At-Arms stared as he saw Teela lower her stun ray and smiled as she winked at him. He had taught her that.
His smile quickly turned as he saw Evil-Lyn appear behind his daughter.
"Behind you!" he yelled as he held his mace up.
Teela spun around only to be met by a swift crack to the head by Evil-Lyn's wand. It sent the General flying, but it didn't keep her down. She quickly jumped back up and ran right for the witch, cobra staff fully extended and returned the favor before Evil-Lyn could blink another spell.
She looked over and saw Erin still blasting away, Ram-Man at her side pounding robot troopers right into the ground. Above her, Stratos and Buzz- Off were in full force aerial attack. Man-E-Faces and Mekaneck also had their hands full but were handling it with great skills.
She looked at He-Man who was busy throwing Mer-Man against a tree. Despite her confusion about him, she smiled. Skeletor saw the muscle bound warrior coming at him once again and decided it was time to pull out the big guns. He lowered his havoc staff and fired directly at He-Man. The warrior deflected the shot and four more shots after that with his sword.
"He's still pretty handy with that thing," Skeletor mumbled to himself. Then he noticed the Princess in the midst of battle and remembered how fond He-Man appeared to be of her last time they fought. He waved his hand and the sleeping child in his arm awoke and rubbed his eyes.
Skeletor cast a spell that made the child see Prince Adam instead of the dark overlord standing over him.
"Hi daddy," the child yawned.
Skeletor set the child down and created an image of Erin standing every close to the edge of the abyss around Grayskull.
"Run to mommy," he seethed, but the child only heard his father's voice and started towards the image of his smiling mother, who was holding her arms open to him.
Skeletor then jumped off of Panthor and approached He-Man who was watching his son run towards certain death.
"ADACAN, STOP!!!!" he yelled but before he could rescue the boy, Skeletor hit him with a powerful blow to the chest that sent the hero flying backwards. If he hadn't been the strongest man in the universe, that blow might have killed the warrior, but instead it just dazed him.
Erin heard her husband yell and turned to see what was happening. She watched in terror as her son walked closer and closer to the edge.
"No!!!!!!! ADACAN STOP!!!!!" she yelled, turning her back to the battle. She was almost hit from behind by a robot trooper but Ram-Man got to him first.
From her battle, Teela was closest to the child and started making a run towards him. Adacan was nearly to the edge when Teela caught up with him and scooped him up. The child struggled and reached out to the image of his mother.
"Put me down," he yelled. "I want my mommy."
Teela started to walk towards He-Man who was just beginning to get off of the ground when Evil-Lyn made her next move. She sent a shockwave into the ground that knocked the boy out of Teela's arms and sent them both flying backwards into the abyss.
"ADACAN!" Erin screamed and started running toward the edge.
He-Man jumped and grabbed his friend's arm before she could fall much further. He reached out for his son but missed the child by an inch. He watched helplessly as Adacan fell further down but was instantly relieved when Stratos swept down from above and caught the boy.
"Take him back to the palace," He-Man yelled as Stratos flew away from the fighting, the warrior's only child tucked into his winged arm.
He looked down at Teela who was smiling at him as she dangled in mid-air.
"That was a little too close for me," he said to her.
Erin watched as her son was flown away from the fighting and a sense of relief washed over her. It was short lived however as she saw Skeletor raise his havoc staff towards her husband, who had his back turned while pulling Teela up from the abyss.
The monster laughed loudly and aimed directly for He-Man. Erin ran towards them.
"Look out," she yelled as she sprinted towards He-Man.
"Say goodnight, He-Man," Skeletor cackled as he fired another, equally strong shot towards the unsuspecting warrior.
He-Man turned just as Erin jumped in front of him. He watched in horror as the blast hit her with full strength and knocked her to the ground. She made no sounds nor did she move at all. She just quietly fell in a heap to the ground. Her shining brown hair covering her face.
He-Man knelt down to her as Skeletor prepared to fire again.
"One down, one to go," he laughed maniacally.
He-Man looked at him with fury and picked up his sword. Before he could swing it at the evil monster, a flash of magic came from Grayskull and Skeletor disappeared. Behind them, the Sorceress disappeared into the castle. She had used what was left of her magic to vanquish Skeletor from Grayskull and she had no more left. It was over for her.
Outside, the remaining lot of Skeletor's minions saw what happened to their leader and pulled back in retreat. The Defenders gathered around He-Man as he examined Erin's broken body, brushing her hair back from her peaceful but dirty face.
Teela lowered her head as He-Man fell back and raised his arm to his mouth. He wasn't prepared for this, and didn't believe what his instincts were telling him. He felt his world start to crash around him.
Man-At-Arms knelt down on the other side of the fallen Princess, checked her pulse then checked to see if she was breathing. Finally he laid his head on her chest to see if there was a heartbeat.
"Father, is she..." Teela started as he hung his head down.
"She's dead," he said slowly, then looked up to the vacant window in Grayskull where the Sorceress once stood. "As I feel the Sorceress is too. I'm sorry."
Teela's eyes widened. How could her mother be dead so soon?
He-Man just squeezed his eyes closed as tears streamed down his cheeks and let out an inaudible yell of grief and pain that was heard around all Eternia as the realization hit him with both barrels.
His wife and the mother of his child, was dead.
