* Disclaimer in 1 ***Thanks to Classic Cowboy, PrincessAdora and LadyNiko for the feedback. I appreciate any reviews, good or bad. I need all the help I can get. Thanks and enjoy. I promise something in the line of a fight scene coming up shortly. Just not in this chapter.

CHAPTER 11: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Adora met Man-At-Arms at the stables. He was kneeling down, examining a set of footprints. He was deep in thought; his brow furrowed the way it did when he was working an equation out in his head.

Even though he was old enough to be her father, Adora always thought Duncan was surprisingly handsome for his age and always wondered why he never married. Sometimes he seemed so lonely and guarded, like he didn't want anyone to get too close to him. Kind of like a much older version of her friend Bow. For some reason, Adora felt very protective of Man-At-Arms, but she would never tell him that.

She brushed the thought in her head away and watched as he held up a piece of rock and then dropped it back on the ground. She decided it was time to get down to business, especially since Jerry had been so freaked out that he had to go mark a tree somewhere.

"Well, you've got the most tracking experience here, what do you think?" Adora said matter-of-factly as she placed her hands on her hips.

Man-At-Arms shook his head and stood up. He was visibly concerned and she wondered if he knew something she didn't. He brushed the dirt on his hands off.

"These are Adacan's tracks," he said, rubbing his chin. "But they are so consistent, it looks as if he was looking for something or following someone. He hasn't been outside the palace walls for many years. I doubt he would know where anything really is out there. But by the looks of these tracks, I can tell he was going somewhere specific. Now the question is, where?"

Adora looked over to the stables. Spirit stuck his head out of a window and whinnied at her. She had an idea but she needed to act quickly.

"Hopefully, we can catch up to him," she said as she walked over to the stables and led Spirit out by his reins. "This may go faster if one of us does a ground search and one of us takes to the air. I think that should be me, don't you? I mean, you are the tracker here, not me."

Man-At-Arms smiled at her tenacity. He knew what she was getting at. How was he going to argue with the most powerful woman in the universe, he had a hard enough time arguing with his own daughter.

"What ever you say, your highness," Man-At-Arms nodded his head and stood back with his arms crossed.

Adora took her familiar stance behind a large, nearby tree, raised her jeweled sword and yelled: "FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!"

Man-At-Arms was ready this time, he pulled a set of glare glasses down from his helmet and watched as the Princess became engulfed in rays of gold and transformed into She-Ra. She held her sword up and another ray shot out towards Spirit. The horse bowed his head down as wings sprouted from his sides and a horn grew out of the top of his head.

The warrior princess jumped on her unicorn and took off into the air.

"Call me on the communicator if you find something!" she yelled down to Man- At-Arms who was still standing on the ground.

The she took off above the forest.

" LIKEWISE!" Man-At-Arms yelled back and then sighed. "I hope one of us finds that kid."

He mumbled to himself and scratched his head. He looked around and narrowed his eyes. Something else was very wrong, he could feel it, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. It was making his skin crawl.

"And where the hells is Adam?"

*******

He-Man sat up with a start. He face was covered in a cold sweat. He struggled for a second to get his bearings and then realized where he was.

Grayskull.

The dream had been so real. Perhaps because, long ago, it had been.

He was pulling Teela up from the abyss; they were both smiling at the sight of Stratos taking Adacan away to safety.

Everything was in slow motion. He didn't even hear Skeletor's horrible laughter. Then he saw it again, the flash of light, Erin's face and then her fall.

Then he woke up. He hadn't had that dream in years. He was shaking violently at the vividness of it.

It was still nighttime but the land was dark, all three moons were covered by storm clouds. He couldn't even make out the horizon through the window in Teela's sleep chamber.

Teela.

He turned his head to look at the sleeping goddess next to him. She looked extraordinarily peaceful but it only made him feel worse. He shook his head as if to awaken from another dream.

Or was it another nightmare?

His heart was racked with guilt. He had no idea what he was thinking of when he got into this situation, and now he was more confused than ever. The events that had occurred hours ago rolled through his head. He closed his eyes and wondered how could he do this?

He ran his left hand over the palm of his right one. The scar he considered to be a testament of his loyalty to Erin seemed to burn. He wondered how he could be so careless with his vow to her.

He stood up and got dressed quickly. He then walked to the window and looked out onto the dark land. Thunder boomed loudly, as if the gods themselves were angry with him too.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to no one in particular. He didn't want to be forgiven though. He felt he deserved to suffer for what he had just done, to Teela, Erin, and himself.

A lighting bolt fluttered across the sky, followed by a couple more. His thoughts focused on them for a second. This was going to be a bad storm, and he knew all over Eternia, people were probably battening down the hatches and getting their homes secured to withstand the upcoming maelstrom.

They were all concerned for their safety, and what was he doing when he should've been worried about protecting them?

His shoulders slumped down and he sighed deeply. He wanted to scream, throw things, even jump out of the window into the abyss below. At that moment, he would have done anything for this night to have never happened.

And what of his friendship with Teela? Would this thoughtless encounter destroy their friendship?

A million questions went through his head as he ran his hand through his hair and rubbed his gray eyes so hard they watered.

When he put his hands down from his face he looked out the window again. Something caught his eye. He leaned out the windowsill to get a better look at the flying object in the distance. It bobbed up and down above the treetops and circled around repeatedly.

He strained his eyes a little more before he recognized the flying horse.

"What is she doing?" he whispered to himself.

Whatever it was, he was going to check it out. She-Ra wouldn't be out and about in Eternia unless something was wrong. And if something was wrong, he wasn't going to let her deal with it alone.

He turned to leave and saw Teela still sleeping. Feeling guilt for abandoning her now, he walked over to wake her, but then decided against it and left with his head down.

He realized then that he needed to regain control of his life and there was no time like the present to do so. That meant figuring a lot of things out, but first it meant taking care of this Skeletor business.

"Adora was right," he thought to himself as he left. "I am acting like a schmuck."

*******

Many minutes had gone by but Adacan didn't move, blink or breathe. He just stared at the apparition in front of him.

It had to be his mother, it looked like all the paintings of her, well sort of, and it came from her grave. He couldn't explain it other than his mother had returned to visit him. Part of him wanted to run and hide under his bed next to Cringer.

Another part of him wanted to jump into her arms.

"Mom," he asked again. "Is that really you?"

The ghost continued to hum and smiled as she nodded her head in affirmation. Adacan felt his heart stop. He didn't know what to think or feel.

"But you're dead," he stammered. "Dad and everyone told me you were dead. That you died five years ago."

The ghost just shook her head and reached her hand out to touch the boy's face. He closed his eyes and held his breath. He swore he could feel her cold hand brush his cheek and touch the top of his head.

He opened his eyes in excitement. She was real. His mother was real and she was there with him.

He jumped up and down giggling like it was his birthday. The ghost just kept smiling.

"You've got to come home with me, dad will be so happy to see you! He's just been so miserable and Grandma and Grandpa will want to see you too and Man-At-Arms and Jerry and Cringer and ..." he rattled on and on in excitement.

The ghost pulled back and shook her head. Her smile faded and she looked at him sadly.

Adacan stopped jumping and held his arm out. A sudden fear that his mother would disappear again crept up his spine. He just got her back, he didn't want her to go away again.

"Can't.. go.. to.. Palace," the ghost whispered eerily. "Important....task..to....do..."

Adacan put his arm down and smiled. He wanted her to talk some more, he wanted to memorize the sound of her voice at this moment so he could play it over and over again in his head later, in case this was a dream.

"Where can you go then?" he asked. "We can take a walk and talk about stuff. I can tell you about Dad and Eternia and everything. Although, this is the first time I've been away from the palace by myself, so I don't know that much about where to go, but I read a lot about it."

The ghost sadly shook her head again. Adacan frowned.

"Not..much...time," she whispered again, looking into the boy's sparkling gray eyes. He felt all jittery inside when she did that but he didn't want her to stop. "Have.. to... warn.. the... others."

Adacan was confused, he didn't know what she was talking about, but the sad expression on the ghost's face meant whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"Why?" he asked in a frightened tone. Overhead, the sky was becoming very angry. The ghost floated closer to him and looked into his gray eyes. He marveled at how blue the ghost's eyes were, like tide pools in the ocean. He wanted to help her do whatever she needed to do.

"Grayskull..." she whispered. "Must...go...to..Grayskull.."

******

"GET DOWN HERE NOW!!!!!!!!"

Teela sat up as the booming voice shook all of Grayskull.

"WHERE ARE YOU GIRL?!?! I MEAN IT, FRONT AND CENTER NOW!!!!!!!"

It was Zodac. Teela groaned and wondered what he was doing there at this time of night. She looked around the room to find He-Man was gone. She cocked her eyebrow and wondered where the warrior went and why he didn't wake her. For second she felt a bit scorned by his sudden absence but then she felt relieved.

It was just as well that he was gone, she thought. She wasn't sure why she allowed herself to get all caught up in the moment and she needed some space to think. She wasn't sure what had happened had been for the best.

But right now, she had to deal with Zodac, who sounded plenty angry about something. As she got out of bed and got dressed, she pictured him stomping around downstairs like a little child.

And he was. Zodac was pacing back and forth, nearly wearing a ditch in the floors of the throne room. He was very, very angry, to say the least. Next to him, the advisor stood motionless. Teela wondered again why they had decided to visit so late.

"Zodac what is going on?" she asked with her usual sarcastic tone as she approached the unhappy titan. "What are you so tee-d off about? And why are you here this time of night?"

Zodac wasn't in his usual smartass mood and didn't give her a smartass answer. He looked at her with fury. Despite herself and what she knew of Zodac, Teela was a little nervous.

"You STUPID, STUPID girl!" he yelled in her face. "Do you have any idea what you've done? The irreparable damage that has been done?!?"

Teela put her hands up. She was taken totally off-guard by his rant and tried to calm him.

"What are you talking about?" she replied. "What have I done that is so irreparable?"

Zodac grabbed her arms and shook her, hard. She thought her arms would detach from her body and winced in extreme pain. She knew his strength was tremendous and he could kill her if he wanted to and if he wasn't forbidden from killing anything.

"The Counsel is convening." He roared. "I have orders to bring you in front of them! You are being charged with reckless disregard of the lives you are sworn to protect and of the secrets of Grayskull! Not to mention breaking the sacred rules of your position! They want me to place you under arrest Teela! For crimes against Eternia!"

Teela was dumbfounded and her eyes widened in shock. She had never shirked her responsibilities, not once. She had always put Grayskull, Eternia and her position first. Above her family, her friends, her own life.

"Why?" she glared. "For what possible reason am I being charged with such crimes!"

Zodac waived his arm over her and Teela suddenly found herself bound with chains on her feet and hands. She looked at him with fear and surprise.

"I SUSPECT YOU KNOW WHY!" Zodac continued yelling. "Or should I ask he who carries the POWER SWORD?"

Teela looked at the advisor in embarrassment and hung her head low. She didn't realize that one stupid, hormonal moment would bring this on. She looked over to the advisor with guilt in her eyes. Her cheeks burned red as she wondered what her advisor was thinking at that moment.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to the advisor, who still didn't move as if it were frozen in time. "I let you down, I didn't mean to mess everything up."

Zodac wasn't done with the novice Sorceress yet and he jerked the chains to get her attention.

"I told you not to cross that line!" he yelled. "And you deliberately ignored me! You stupid woman! How could you, YOU be so careless!!!!"

His voice dropped as he saw tears in her eyes. He wished he didn't have to be there, be the one arresting her, but he was bound to his duty, just as she was supposed to have been.

"I'm very, very disappointed in you Teela." He said remorsefully. "I thought you would be more responsible with your stead. I had a lot of faith in your abilities. Now, I don't know what to think."

She nodded her head, and for the first time ever, she was speechless in front of Zodac. He had never been kind to her one day during her tutelage and here he was, acting like Man-At-Arms used to when she broke curfew as a child. This however, was a bit more serious and she knew it. This wouldn't be a slap on the wrist or stable chores for a month.

The titan opened a portal and pulled the chain, leading Teela behind him.

"Come on," he said softly. "They are waiting."

Teela hesitated and her eyes flashed.

"Who will stand guard over the castle?" she choked, realizing that she may never be allowed to return. "Skeletor may be on his way, someone must guard Grayskull!"

Zodac turned, his expression angry again.

"Well perhaps you should have thought about that earlier!" he yelled and pointed to the advisor. "But fear not. SHE will watch over the castle for the time being, until the Counsel decides what to do!" he concluded and started walking in the portal.

Teela watched as the advisor pulled her hood back. Their eyes met just as Teela disappeared into the portal. Both sets of eyes had fear and sadness behind them, but only Teela's eyes had remorse.

*******

The aura around Snake Mountain was apocalyptic. Skeletor could almost taste it. He craved the taste of blood, carnage, and destruction. He wanted to revel in the suffering of the Eternian people and bring darkness down upon all of them. He wanted them all to know the meaning of the word pain.

He didn't want to rule Eternia; he wanted to destroy it. He wanted the smell of death to fill the air.

Five years in the prisons of the inner circle of hell. Five long years spent watching and waiting. Five years of thinking of nothing but his destruction. He, who sentenced Skeletor to five years of indescribable pain and misery. He, who hid behind a woman while another planned the fate for the most evil overlord Eternia had ever seen.

Skeletor fed off of his anger and anticipation though, and became stronger. Now he vowed to destroy his punisher, and everything he held dear.

He stood in the open mouth of Snake Mountain and raised his havoc staff in the air. Lightning and thunder crashed malevolently around him, highlighting his scaly skin. The ground hundreds of feet below him shook and cracked. The lava flowing from nearby volcano outlets turned red as if it were blood.

Skeletor just laughed wildly. The ground cracked open, leaving a wide gaping wound in the dry soil. Wind escaped from it as if it were a scream from the broken ground.

A sinister green light appeared from within the deep canyon and Skeletor smiled maniacally as the first of his army of various demons crawled out from the bowels of the Eternian hells. It's long tentacles leaving acid burn marks on the ground.

He looked in the direction of Castle Grayskull. He felt the time to attack was falling upon him quickly. He knew Evil-Lyn would meet him there, with his latest sacrifice. One that would make Beast-Man and Mer-Man seem like horseplay.

Lightning flashed highlighting his grossly slimy muscles. His red eyes glowed.

"When his blood spills on Grayskull land," he cackled to himself. "My resurrection will be complete. Then He-Man and all of Eternia will pay dearly!"