Epilogue

Perched on his throne, Skeletor looked towards the door as King Hiss walked in. Swiftly, Skeletor dismissed Evil Lynn and Beast-Man from the room so that both he and Hiss could have these moments together. Evil Lynn quickly assumed that there would be a fight, but was certainly looking forward to a good ol' fashioned surprise from these two.

"Skeletor," Hiss addressed. "What have you got to say for yourself?"

Skeletor leaned back in the throne. "I was the one that enabled Hordak to channel the power of the Elders. After what you did - kicking me out of MY fortress - you deserved as much."

Hiss squinted at his one-time ally. "And you did it to access the power of Grayskull."

Skeletor nodded. "That as well."

Hiss shrugged. "I suppose that makes us even."

"Yes. I does," Skeletor replied. "Let me tell you something, King Hiss." With this, Skeletor stood up from the throne. "I have touched the heart of Grayskull, but I only scratched the surface of its power. Now, more than ever, I shall go to any and all lengths to take ALL of the power of Grayskull. And that includes forging a truce between the two of us."

King Hiss was a bit surprised by this, but nodded. "We have our own separate agendas, but I can not see why they can't parallel each other. All right Skeletor. You have your truce."

"Excellent. Now one last thing." Skeletor walked up and over to King Hiss. "You had me look into your eyes last we met in this chamber. Now, it is your turn. Look deep into my eyes, King Hiss."

The King of the Snake Men stared deeply into the darkness of Skeletor's eyes. At first they were cold. Like two pieces of ice, turned black. And then heat - terrible, awful heat. Like . . . an inferno . . . and then the terrible blackness.

King Hiss broke the gaze, shaken by this. "I . . . I understand, Skeletor."

"We understand each other fully now, King Hiss."

"Yessss . . . we do."

With that, King Hiss left Skeletor's throne room. Skeletor eyed the passageway and then sat back down. "Grayskull will be mine . . . this I swear."

***

It felt good to home again.

Those were the first thoughts she had when she woke up in her room at Castle Brightmoon. This was her new home. Her new family. The Great Rebellion. As she finished getting ready for the day, she called Kowl and asked him to assemble a meeting of the Great Rebellion.

She thought of Adam, Randor and Marlena as she entered the throne room. Having them back in her life was nice, but it was also nice finding her place in life. As she stood among Bow, Madame Razz, Broom, Frosta, Glimmer, Kowl, and Queen Angella - Adora knew this was right where she belonged.

***

He-Man stood at the entrance of the Great Towers and saw Teela. His heart skipped a beat and he found himself nervous about this up-coming conversation. She was about train some new recruits, but he hoped to catch her before hand.

"Teela . . . do you have a minute?" he asked.

She nodded and pointed to her trainee squad. "Take five," she ordered, then turned to He-Man. "What is it?"

"It's about . . . you and me."

Teela looked surprised. "Oh?"

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Teela. I care very much about you, but I can't . . . I can't have a relationship with you."

She hung her head suddenly and frowned. "Why?"

He-Man put his hand on her shoulder. "Because . . ." Because I love you as Adam. I am Adam. Tell her.

"Because why?"

"Because . . . well, Teela . . . the risk would be too great. I mean, look what happened! You were sliced open by Beast-Man first, and then blasted into a coma by Skeletor, then King Hiss tried to seduce you. I can't . . . I can't let anything happen to you. You mean too much to me."

Teela nodded and seemed to comprehend. "I understand. To be brutally honest, I've been really rethinking . . . well, everything. I've got a lot of feelings mixed up right now. And, you know, I think I was actually expecting you to say that. I just want you to know, though, that I do care about you deeply and that I still love you."

He-Man gazed at her, then leaned forward and gave Teela strong hug. "Thank you," he said into her ear.

"For what?" she asked.

"Thank you for being such a good friend."

Teela smiled and broke the embrace. "It's funny, you know, because Adam said the same . . ." she began to trail off and then stopped. For a second, something very odd happened. A funny, funky little thought. There was something going on here, but she couldn't quite but her finger on it.

"I've gotta go," He-Man said. "I'll see you later."

Teela smiled. "Okay. You, um, take care, He-Man. I'm sure I'll you soon."

He-Man nodded. "No doubt about that.

With a genuine smile on her face, Teela faced the troops. "Alright, you kids! Quit your slacking! Let's get back to work!"

As they did, Teela took one last longing look at He-Man, and realized that she was onto something here . . .

Not far away, Battle Cat was grazing under the sinking sun. He snapped up as He-Man grew close. The warrior tiger walked over to He-Man and smiled. "Where to now, He-Man?"

"Huh?" asked He-Man, looking down upon his old friend.

"Where do you want to go now?"

He-Man thought for a moment and looked towards the horizon. He then smiled, eyes locked onto the twilight. He hopped onto Battle-Cat's back and made up his mind.

"Battle Cat, old friend . . ."

"Yeah?"

"Let's go chase the sun."