Chapter 7
Like A Rabbit
After the ceremony all the Masters who were in residence at the castle waited in the war room for Man-At-Arms. There was no friendly banter or idle conversation to be heard as they all pondered what had happened at the burial.
Evilyn had arrived in a wheelchair, attended by Ramona. Without her helmet, and with an uncommon aura of vulnerability around her, she was barely recognizable. There had been rumors over the past few days about her alleged relationship with Man-At-Arm's stepbrother, but none of the Masters were willing to believe them since Duncan had yet to verify anything. Yet, she had been there, obviously distressed, if one were to believe her tears. The rumors did not seem contrived at all!
Duncan arrived finally, followed by HeMan. "Let's begin," he started abruptly, trying to forestall any platitudes.
"Where's Adam?" Teela asked when she saw HeMan closing the double doors.
"Adam is on another assignment."
"Another assignment? What could be more important than this?"
"Don't worry Teela, Adam knows how important this is" HeMan answered. She opened her mouth to protest but thought better of it—it would do no good anyway.
"Before you continue Man-At-Arms," Zodac's interrupted smoothly. "We want you to know that we all understand what you are going through. I too have lost a brother but I have also gained a family. You yourself have shown me that there is no need to go it alone." He clasped Duncan by the shoulders and looked from him to Teela. "What I am trying to say is that we are your brothers and we will fight with you to avenge Carr's death."
Duncan was speechless. He looked at his daughter and saw that her eyes were shining with unshed tears. He cleared his throat, and then looked into the face of each man standing before him. All of them friends: old and new; all of them family. The knowledge made it a little easier—just a little. "Thank you…thank you all."
He cleared his throat again, trying to remove the constriction that his emotions were placing on his voice box. "Now…I assume you have all heard about the circumstances of my brother's death."
"We have Duncan, but I don't quite believe it." Mekanek said.
"Skeletor killed Carr because of his involvement with Evilyn?"
"Is it true she is having his baby?" Orko asked floating to the front of the group.
Duncan held up his hands as if to fend off more questions "Yes, yes, it's true, but these details are not important right now."
"I didn't even know you had a brother," Buzzoff said to himself.
"What is important is putting an end to Skeletor's reign of terror. This has always been our goal and I realize that my brother's death has made achieving it more urgent to me. However, this doesn't change the fact that Skeletor has taken a life—he has gone too far."
"You don't have to convince us Man-At-Arms" Stratos offered encouragingly.
"Yeah," Ran Man chimed in. "Just tell us what the plan is."
Just then the doors swung open to reveal Ramona standing behind her patient's chair. She wheeled Evilyn inside. "Well, I brought you here. I'll be back in thirty minutes, not a minute longer." She left and closed the door behind her.
"You have no right to be here Evilyn?" Duncan said angrily.
"You are planning to defeat Skeletor right? Once and for all? Well, I am the only person in this room who knows how his twisted mind works." She stopped and faced the Masters defiantly; matching the fierce glares they were sending her way. "If you think you stand a better chance without me I will go, because I won't trust my or my unborn baby's health to fools who are too stupid to realize they need my help."
This lead to a round of objections as each master told her exactly what they thought about her 'help.'
"She's right," HeMan attempted to reason with them. "Like it or not, she may be the one advantage we need to finally end this."
"I don't believe this," Buzzoff retorted. "Since when do we consort with the enemy? And why are we trusting her word about this baby thing? For all we know that kid could be Skeletor's." They all looked at her after that statement; she could almost see the wheels of suspicion turning in their heads.
"That is not possible." She said coldly.
"Why, he's not your type?" Buzzoff responded sarcastically.
"Skeletor is impotent."
There was silence for a moment after that.
"How do you know?" Buzzoff countered thinking that her lies were becoming grander by the minute.
She sighed and resigned herself to disclosing the whole gory truth.
"If you want to work with a man like Skeletor—someone who likes to take what he wants—and at the same time you are forced to use your sexuality against him in order to further your own agenda, then you have to take certain measures to protect your…virtue."
Buzzoff blinked and swallowed while gathering the courage to ask: "How?"
"Let's just say there is an herb for almost every ailment known to man—or woman."
The room was silent as every man considered just how dangerous this woman really was.
"Diabolical." Zodac summarized under his breath.
"Well, it definitely explains why Skeletor is always so grumpy." RanMan mused while scratching his chin.
Teela almost grinned at the looks on the Master's faces; most holding both hands over their loins in an unconscious gesture of protection.
"Anyway…" Man-At-Arms attempted to take the reigns again. "If you know as much as you claim, now is the time to lay your cards on the table for as we speak, Skeletor is finding out you are alive and making plans of his own."
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"I'm telling you, she's alive." Beastman nervously shifted from one foot to the other. He had just acquired the news from a red wolf that swore that the one known as Evil-Lyn was hiding in a cave in the Moria forest, licking her wounds.
"Well, aren't you going to tell him?" Tri-Klops said while moving upwind of the fur covered dope.
"Me! I'm not going near him, he's crazy!" They both glanced furtively over their shoulders at their liege. He had been sitting morosely on his throne since that morning, having returned from parts unknown and had bid them attend to him. They had no clue why since all he did was sit and stare and fly into a range any time one of them asked him a question.
"Look at what he did to Evilyn, and she was his favorite."
"The witch got what was coming to her, but for once you have a point. Skeletor is a little too volatile right now. You should tell him later."
"Me!"
"Tell me what." The two men actually yelped when they realized that sometime during their conversation Skeletor had moved and was now standing behind them.
"Hmm…uh…" Beastman stammered.
"Well!"
"Uh…Evil-Lyn, she's …uh …alive." He cringed, after a few moments, when nothing happened, he chanced to open one eye.
"How do you know this?" Skeletor inquired.
Beastman quickly told him everything he knew and exhaled in a whoosh when he was finished. Skeletor turned and made his way to his throne. When seated he picked up Evil-Lyn's crystal ball staff from the side of the throne, the one she had dropped a few days ago. He addressed Tri-Klops who hobbled closer, cursing his aching gonads with every painful step—he was still recovering from Orad's attack from a few days ago.
"I want you to find out exactly where this cave is."
"Yes Skeletor."
"We should return this to her don't you think?"
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It did not take long for Tri-Klops to pinpoint an exact location. He found the dark sorceress hunkered down deep within the only cave to be found in the Moria forest. It did not look like much from the outside. The opening, only big enough for someone to crawl through, lead to a short tunnel that opened to a good sized cavern completely furnished with everything one would need to hide out for a while. It seemed like Evilyn had set this place up a while ago. It did not surprise him. He had at least two similar retreats to choose from in the event that his stint with Skeletor proved fruitless—or rather so much more fruitless that he'd rather jump off a cliff than face defeat again.
Now they were zipping off to 'finish Evilyn off'. As if that would do any good in tipping the scales of victory in their favor. What was Skeletor thinking? He could understand wanting the kill the witch. He didn't have enough fingers or toes to count the times he wanted to throw her out a window, or anything that would guarantee an abrupt end to her condescending wisecracks. But, like it or not, she was smart and tough—a rare combination to found among the jokers Skeletor aligned himself with, himself excluded of course.
They landed their speeders in a clearing several feet away from the cave's entrance. Skeletor took point and marched ahead, impatient to see the look of shock and horror on Evilyn's face when she realized that her worst nightmare had returned. His preoccupation with bringing about her demise was bordering on obsession; he could hardly understand it himself. The truth was he did not want to examine his motives too deeply. When he realized that she had been sneaking off to rendezvous with her lover he felt … abandoned. The mere fact that her actions had caused him to feel anything at all was cause for concern, but abandoned? Why? It made him furious that she had could control him like this. Somehow she had made him weak, now she would pay.
"It doesn't seem like she expecting us Skeletor." Tri-Klops remarked as he spied her sleeping form through a doomseeker.
Skeletor contemplated blasting his way in but thought it would be better to stand over her silently so that his face would be the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. So they crawled in through the cave opening: Tri-Klops in the lead and Beastman bringing up the rear. They straightened gratefully to their full heights and looked about the cavern. Skeletor signaled for quiet and moved closer to the narrow bed where Evilyn slept with her back to them. He stopped directly in front of her and her body shimmered like sunlight on water.
"What the hell is this?"
"A hologram? Skeletor it's a trap!"
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A/N Hi again. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.
This chapter 7 has been extended a bit since I was not satisfied with the way I ended it and chapter 8 will be up soon* so keep reading J