Disclaimer in 1-don't sue
***OMG, you guys I am so sorry about the typesetting issues in the last two chapters. Unfortunately I don't know how to fix them with out retyping everything and I don't have that kind of free time. So for now, I'm going to leave it, I hope everyone is able to read around it, but if you want a clean copy emailed to you or something, let me know. Anyways, thanks for the feedback, LadyNiko, I was hoping you hadn't given up on me yet. Here's the next installment:
CHAPTER 9
He was submerged in darkness.
A wave of ghostly images darted back and forth in Damas' sub-conscious. People, places, voices. All were images unfamiliar to him and in the trance of dream-state, he did not try to understand them.
Then there were things he recognized. Events of his past. Battles, destruction, screams. The memories of past crimes engulfed his mind in a torturous attempt of finding some salvation.
If he understood why his conscious was working as so, he might have been confused. As it were, he was lucid to the memories. He floated through them as his body recovered from the sudden attack that literally seemed to come from within him.
Not everything appeared to be memories. Some visions were beautiful and unfamiliar. Some were monstrous and horrifying. Yet Damas slept through it all, allowing his defined body the opportunity of meditation and recovery.
And as he floated, as he gave himself over to the darkness and his subconscious, it happened.
Somewhere, in the recesses of his mind, something... a single forgotten memory, pushed through the boundaries of his self-control. It was not a picture, not a place, but something else. Something beyond who and, more importantly, what, he was.
Although he did not wake, his eyelids flinched and fluttered and his fingers twitched as his mind wrestled with what the memory was.
At the foot of the bed, his rescuer stood watch. Her arms folded, she kept her close and skeptical, but concerned, green eyes on him. Something about this situation sat very wrong by her. The healers found no physical injuries, yet he seemed to suffer so greatly in the market.
"No man bellows like that for no reason," she thought to herself. "Something caused him to act that way. It was like...magic."
Teela cocked an eyebrow as she studied the patient. His clothes lay in a pile on a nearby chair and medicinal clothes draped across his broad chest. Dealing with magic was something she was used to, especially the dark magic that usually came from Snake Mountain.
"Could he be an enemy of Skeletor's?" she considered. "It wouldn't be unlike Skeletor or Evil-Lyn to use magic against someone. And the way he seemed to be tortured definitely looked like their work."
Sighing, she walked over to the chair and fingered his long black cloak. The fabric was dirty yet soft and durable. She wondered if it would be proper to have the servants wash the garments. Hours had passed already and the mysterious stranger would probably be asleep all night, and they would be dry by the morning.
She picked up the cloak and draped it over her arm. She reached down and grabbed the shirt when her eye caught the red symbol adorning it again. She placed the cloak on the bed and inspected the patch gingerly, tracing the stitches with her fingers and studying each part of its detail.
"Blast," she thought. "I have seen this symbol before..but where???"
For several minutes she racked her brain for the memory but it was to no avail. She looked at the sleeping man again and walked closer to the side of the bed.
"Oh for the Elders' sake why am I still here?" she thought half-heartedly.
It wasn't as if she had nothing else to do. She had already missed training that afternoon and was due for rotation in an hour. On top of that, she wanted to speak with her father about his day-long absence. Not to mention the fact that she was supposed to be guarding Adora, who had once again disappeared.
"If I get fired because of her.." she stopped herself from finishing that thought just as one of her unit soldiers entered the room. He nodded in salute and Teela returned the acknowledgement.
"Lieutenant," the young soldier said. "Your father contacted central command several minutes ago. He informed us that he is returning to the palace and wishes to meet with you and Capt. Kelan immediately."
Teela nodded and the soldier turned to walk out of the room. Before he did, he paused.
"Oh, he also informed us that her highness, the Princess, was with him and that she was safe," he said in a patronizing tone before leaving the room.
It was a jab at her and she knew it. Teela's face burned bright red as her frustration built up inside of her. She slammed both fists down onto the side of the bed, paying no heed to its occupant.
"Those two better have a damn good explanation for this," she thought, her eye blazed with fury. "Or so help me elders I'll..."
Her thought stopped as her breath caught in her throat. She looked down to the bed where she had slammed down and saw the man's hand was clutching her own.
Struck by his physical state and the curiosity of the action, she looked at him, expecting to see the same intense blue eyes she saw in the market.
But he still slept, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.
Teela stood there for a second before trying to pry her hand from his. His skin was rough and calloused. He was not royalty of some sort, she determined. All royalty she knew didn't dare get their hands dirty.
She held his empty hand for a moment longer and then put in back down on the bed. In her other hand, she clutched the shirt. For some reason, she had to know who this man was and what the familiar symbol stood for.
And as angry as she was, she knew her father would be the person to ask. That is after she let him have it for taking off without telling her where he was going.
With shirt in hand, she walked quietly out the door of the infirmary and headed for the landing pad.
As the door to the stranger's room latched closed, a green mist floated in under the door towards the patient's bed.
******
"Duncan, I swear, if you don't tell me WHAT the blazes happened back there, I will go mad!" Adora prodded as Man-At-Arms circled the palace in the wind raider.
He wanted to answer her, but he was still trying to figure out what had happened for himself. Regardless, his silence only irritated the princess more.
"What was that sword? Why didn't we bring it with us? What was the Sorceress talking about?" She went on and on, and the more angry she got, the more her voice started to sound of She-Ra. "Who is this Horde the Sorceress spoke of and why do you seem so taken aback by them?"
Man-At-Arms looked at her sternly. Her blue eyes flashed and she had her arms folded across her chest. He sighed and returned his attention to landing the wind raider.
"All you need to know for now is that the Horde is a very powerful, very dangerous entity who nearly destroyed Eternia once," he muttered. "They've caused many people on this planet great pain and suffering."
He frowned.
"Including me, your parents, and you, even though you don't know it," he thought to himself. For all his hatred of Hordak and what he did, Man-At- Arms wanted nothing more than to make him redemptive.
"We must be ready for an attack," he told the furious blonde. "If the Horde is legion, the war will cause great destruction and we can expect many casualties. But right now, we know there are only two here. And the most important thing we can do is find those two soldiers and capture them."
Adora's face clouded from anger to concern. She bit her lower lip and watched as the raider started to descend. Near the landing pad she could see Teela, standing with her arms crossed, looking very unhappy.
"We shouldn't waste any time then," Adora said to her teacher. "We'll need to prepare the Masters and have the Royal Guard on standby."
Man-At-Arms shook his head and set the land gear down.
"Not yet," he replied as he set the raider down on the ground. "Right now the only advantage we have is that they don't know that we know they are here. If word gets out that the Horde has returned, it will be anarchy."
Adora nodded and jumped out of the raider and started to walk towards a red- faced Teela. Man-At-Arms followed resolutely and as he approached his daughter, he knew the tantrum would soon follow.
But Teela, knowing that a few guards were watching her, surprised them both.
"I expect your trip went well," she said calmly, albeit through clenched teeth.
Adora opened her mouth to reply then closed it in an effort not to alienate her friend. Next to her Man-At-Arms shrugged.
"I apologize Teela, but time was of the essence," he replied. "I will explain later, but right now we need to go..."
But the Lieutenant wasn't done yet. She shoved the shirt she was carrying into her father's hands and cut him off at the pass.
"While you were away...doing...whatever, we had a situation in the market," she retorted sarcastically. "A man fell..ill, I guess is the only way to say it and we brought him to the infirmary."
Man-At-Arms looked at her with apathy and grabbed her arm, leading her away from the landing pad and towards his workshop. Adora followed about five feet behind.
"Young lady, I assure you we have something much bigger to deal with at the moment than some fool from the market," he ranted quietly as he pushed the shirt back into her hands. "Believe me when I tell you that..."
Suddenly, however, he stopped dead in his tracks and Teela glared at him.
"What? What now? Are you going to yell at me a little louder so the rest of my unit can hear you?" She seethed, but her father took no notice.
He did take notice of the shirt in her hands, though, and slowly reached out a hand and touched it.
"Teela, where did you get this?" he questioned slowly and softly.
She looked down at the shirt and up again at her father. She narrowed her eyes but inside she felt a big gloat session coming on.
"The injured man you were so quick to dismiss," she said as Adora approached them. "It was the shirt he was wearing."
She held the shirt out in front of her, exposing the full garment. Adora looked at it puzzledly.
"The red symbol looks familiar to me, but I can't place it, father," she said. "I thought maybe you would be able to."
Slowly, Man-At-Arms took the shirt from her hands, and his expression changed from shock to anger. He balled the shirt up in his hands, and clenched his jaw.
Adora place a hand on her teacher's shoulder and took the shirt from him.
"Duncan," she soothed. "You recognize it don't you? What does that symbol stand for?"
Teela, feeling left out again, glared at them both.
"Well, I could ask the man it came off of, but he's passed out in the infirmary and he's..."
Man-At-Arms wheeled and grabbed his daughter by both shoulders and shook her.
"Are you telling me the owner of this shirt is IN THE PALACE?!?!?" he roared.
Teela jerked herself away from her father's sudden outburst and returned fire.
"That is what I was trying to tell you but YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!!!!!" she yelled.
Adora stepped in between the two and put her arms up. She looked at Duncan with an 'I mean business' look.
"I COMMAND BOTH OF YOU TO STOP NOW!" Adora yelled. She rarely used her royal status but now seemed appropriate. The she quieted. "Duncan, what does the symbol stand for?"
Man-At-Arms calmed a little and took the shirt back with a quick, hard yank. He glared at both young women.
"This is the mark of the Horde, Adora," he said flatly. "There is a member of the Horde in the palace as we speak."
With that he took off running. Adora's expression of concern triggered something in Teela.
"I'm guessing he's heading for the infirmary," Teela said as both girls took off after the warrior. "You can explain what the hell is going on when we get there."
***OMG, you guys I am so sorry about the typesetting issues in the last two chapters. Unfortunately I don't know how to fix them with out retyping everything and I don't have that kind of free time. So for now, I'm going to leave it, I hope everyone is able to read around it, but if you want a clean copy emailed to you or something, let me know. Anyways, thanks for the feedback, LadyNiko, I was hoping you hadn't given up on me yet. Here's the next installment:
CHAPTER 9
He was submerged in darkness.
A wave of ghostly images darted back and forth in Damas' sub-conscious. People, places, voices. All were images unfamiliar to him and in the trance of dream-state, he did not try to understand them.
Then there were things he recognized. Events of his past. Battles, destruction, screams. The memories of past crimes engulfed his mind in a torturous attempt of finding some salvation.
If he understood why his conscious was working as so, he might have been confused. As it were, he was lucid to the memories. He floated through them as his body recovered from the sudden attack that literally seemed to come from within him.
Not everything appeared to be memories. Some visions were beautiful and unfamiliar. Some were monstrous and horrifying. Yet Damas slept through it all, allowing his defined body the opportunity of meditation and recovery.
And as he floated, as he gave himself over to the darkness and his subconscious, it happened.
Somewhere, in the recesses of his mind, something... a single forgotten memory, pushed through the boundaries of his self-control. It was not a picture, not a place, but something else. Something beyond who and, more importantly, what, he was.
Although he did not wake, his eyelids flinched and fluttered and his fingers twitched as his mind wrestled with what the memory was.
At the foot of the bed, his rescuer stood watch. Her arms folded, she kept her close and skeptical, but concerned, green eyes on him. Something about this situation sat very wrong by her. The healers found no physical injuries, yet he seemed to suffer so greatly in the market.
"No man bellows like that for no reason," she thought to herself. "Something caused him to act that way. It was like...magic."
Teela cocked an eyebrow as she studied the patient. His clothes lay in a pile on a nearby chair and medicinal clothes draped across his broad chest. Dealing with magic was something she was used to, especially the dark magic that usually came from Snake Mountain.
"Could he be an enemy of Skeletor's?" she considered. "It wouldn't be unlike Skeletor or Evil-Lyn to use magic against someone. And the way he seemed to be tortured definitely looked like their work."
Sighing, she walked over to the chair and fingered his long black cloak. The fabric was dirty yet soft and durable. She wondered if it would be proper to have the servants wash the garments. Hours had passed already and the mysterious stranger would probably be asleep all night, and they would be dry by the morning.
She picked up the cloak and draped it over her arm. She reached down and grabbed the shirt when her eye caught the red symbol adorning it again. She placed the cloak on the bed and inspected the patch gingerly, tracing the stitches with her fingers and studying each part of its detail.
"Blast," she thought. "I have seen this symbol before..but where???"
For several minutes she racked her brain for the memory but it was to no avail. She looked at the sleeping man again and walked closer to the side of the bed.
"Oh for the Elders' sake why am I still here?" she thought half-heartedly.
It wasn't as if she had nothing else to do. She had already missed training that afternoon and was due for rotation in an hour. On top of that, she wanted to speak with her father about his day-long absence. Not to mention the fact that she was supposed to be guarding Adora, who had once again disappeared.
"If I get fired because of her.." she stopped herself from finishing that thought just as one of her unit soldiers entered the room. He nodded in salute and Teela returned the acknowledgement.
"Lieutenant," the young soldier said. "Your father contacted central command several minutes ago. He informed us that he is returning to the palace and wishes to meet with you and Capt. Kelan immediately."
Teela nodded and the soldier turned to walk out of the room. Before he did, he paused.
"Oh, he also informed us that her highness, the Princess, was with him and that she was safe," he said in a patronizing tone before leaving the room.
It was a jab at her and she knew it. Teela's face burned bright red as her frustration built up inside of her. She slammed both fists down onto the side of the bed, paying no heed to its occupant.
"Those two better have a damn good explanation for this," she thought, her eye blazed with fury. "Or so help me elders I'll..."
Her thought stopped as her breath caught in her throat. She looked down to the bed where she had slammed down and saw the man's hand was clutching her own.
Struck by his physical state and the curiosity of the action, she looked at him, expecting to see the same intense blue eyes she saw in the market.
But he still slept, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.
Teela stood there for a second before trying to pry her hand from his. His skin was rough and calloused. He was not royalty of some sort, she determined. All royalty she knew didn't dare get their hands dirty.
She held his empty hand for a moment longer and then put in back down on the bed. In her other hand, she clutched the shirt. For some reason, she had to know who this man was and what the familiar symbol stood for.
And as angry as she was, she knew her father would be the person to ask. That is after she let him have it for taking off without telling her where he was going.
With shirt in hand, she walked quietly out the door of the infirmary and headed for the landing pad.
As the door to the stranger's room latched closed, a green mist floated in under the door towards the patient's bed.
******
"Duncan, I swear, if you don't tell me WHAT the blazes happened back there, I will go mad!" Adora prodded as Man-At-Arms circled the palace in the wind raider.
He wanted to answer her, but he was still trying to figure out what had happened for himself. Regardless, his silence only irritated the princess more.
"What was that sword? Why didn't we bring it with us? What was the Sorceress talking about?" She went on and on, and the more angry she got, the more her voice started to sound of She-Ra. "Who is this Horde the Sorceress spoke of and why do you seem so taken aback by them?"
Man-At-Arms looked at her sternly. Her blue eyes flashed and she had her arms folded across her chest. He sighed and returned his attention to landing the wind raider.
"All you need to know for now is that the Horde is a very powerful, very dangerous entity who nearly destroyed Eternia once," he muttered. "They've caused many people on this planet great pain and suffering."
He frowned.
"Including me, your parents, and you, even though you don't know it," he thought to himself. For all his hatred of Hordak and what he did, Man-At- Arms wanted nothing more than to make him redemptive.
"We must be ready for an attack," he told the furious blonde. "If the Horde is legion, the war will cause great destruction and we can expect many casualties. But right now, we know there are only two here. And the most important thing we can do is find those two soldiers and capture them."
Adora's face clouded from anger to concern. She bit her lower lip and watched as the raider started to descend. Near the landing pad she could see Teela, standing with her arms crossed, looking very unhappy.
"We shouldn't waste any time then," Adora said to her teacher. "We'll need to prepare the Masters and have the Royal Guard on standby."
Man-At-Arms shook his head and set the land gear down.
"Not yet," he replied as he set the raider down on the ground. "Right now the only advantage we have is that they don't know that we know they are here. If word gets out that the Horde has returned, it will be anarchy."
Adora nodded and jumped out of the raider and started to walk towards a red- faced Teela. Man-At-Arms followed resolutely and as he approached his daughter, he knew the tantrum would soon follow.
But Teela, knowing that a few guards were watching her, surprised them both.
"I expect your trip went well," she said calmly, albeit through clenched teeth.
Adora opened her mouth to reply then closed it in an effort not to alienate her friend. Next to her Man-At-Arms shrugged.
"I apologize Teela, but time was of the essence," he replied. "I will explain later, but right now we need to go..."
But the Lieutenant wasn't done yet. She shoved the shirt she was carrying into her father's hands and cut him off at the pass.
"While you were away...doing...whatever, we had a situation in the market," she retorted sarcastically. "A man fell..ill, I guess is the only way to say it and we brought him to the infirmary."
Man-At-Arms looked at her with apathy and grabbed her arm, leading her away from the landing pad and towards his workshop. Adora followed about five feet behind.
"Young lady, I assure you we have something much bigger to deal with at the moment than some fool from the market," he ranted quietly as he pushed the shirt back into her hands. "Believe me when I tell you that..."
Suddenly, however, he stopped dead in his tracks and Teela glared at him.
"What? What now? Are you going to yell at me a little louder so the rest of my unit can hear you?" She seethed, but her father took no notice.
He did take notice of the shirt in her hands, though, and slowly reached out a hand and touched it.
"Teela, where did you get this?" he questioned slowly and softly.
She looked down at the shirt and up again at her father. She narrowed her eyes but inside she felt a big gloat session coming on.
"The injured man you were so quick to dismiss," she said as Adora approached them. "It was the shirt he was wearing."
She held the shirt out in front of her, exposing the full garment. Adora looked at it puzzledly.
"The red symbol looks familiar to me, but I can't place it, father," she said. "I thought maybe you would be able to."
Slowly, Man-At-Arms took the shirt from her hands, and his expression changed from shock to anger. He balled the shirt up in his hands, and clenched his jaw.
Adora place a hand on her teacher's shoulder and took the shirt from him.
"Duncan," she soothed. "You recognize it don't you? What does that symbol stand for?"
Teela, feeling left out again, glared at them both.
"Well, I could ask the man it came off of, but he's passed out in the infirmary and he's..."
Man-At-Arms wheeled and grabbed his daughter by both shoulders and shook her.
"Are you telling me the owner of this shirt is IN THE PALACE?!?!?" he roared.
Teela jerked herself away from her father's sudden outburst and returned fire.
"That is what I was trying to tell you but YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!!!!!" she yelled.
Adora stepped in between the two and put her arms up. She looked at Duncan with an 'I mean business' look.
"I COMMAND BOTH OF YOU TO STOP NOW!" Adora yelled. She rarely used her royal status but now seemed appropriate. The she quieted. "Duncan, what does the symbol stand for?"
Man-At-Arms calmed a little and took the shirt back with a quick, hard yank. He glared at both young women.
"This is the mark of the Horde, Adora," he said flatly. "There is a member of the Horde in the palace as we speak."
With that he took off running. Adora's expression of concern triggered something in Teela.
"I'm guessing he's heading for the infirmary," Teela said as both girls took off after the warrior. "You can explain what the hell is going on when we get there."