Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, everyone. I'll try to have the next chapter up by this Sunday. (No promises, though!) Meanwhile, this chapter's fairly long, so enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

Three hours after being revived, He-Man stood in the Whispering Woods, facing his savior and her colorful steed.

"What did you mean when you called me 'Brother?'" He asked carefully. "And who are you, anyway?"

"I am She-Ra." The blonde woman answered. "And you are my brother."

"Whoever told you that?"

"The woman in the sword."

"The woman in the…" He-Man's voice trailed off as She-Ra pulled the Sword of Protection from her sheath, "The woman in that sword?"

Before She-Ra could answer, the jewel glowed to life, and the face of the Sorceress appeared. The sword floated from She-Ra's hands at the same moment and drifted to a spot between the two warriors; then the Sorceress began to speak.

"Eighteen years ago, twins- a boy and a girl- were born to King Randor and Queen Marlena, of Eternia. The king and queen were overjoyed at the arrival of their children, who they named Adam and Adora…"

The image of the enchantress was replaced by that of an opulent bedroom. A young, red-haired woman sat in a bed, propped against several pillows, while a brown-haired man wearing a crown held her hand in his. Both were gazing adoringly at the two infants lying safe against the woman's side. Adora's heart thudded in her chest as what the mysterious woman was saying sank in: these were her parents.

"…Their joy, however, was to be cut tragically short. The planet was at war with alien invaders calling themselves the Horde. Their leader, Hordak, was determined to rule Eternia himself. The Horde was ultimately defeated, but Hordak had heard that the newborn prince and princess were destined for greatness. He decided that he wanted to control their destinies, so before leaving the planet, he and his pupil, Skeletor, broke into the nursery, intent on abducting the royal infants…"

The image shifted again, and a mother and children in peril replaced the safe family of four. A blue-skinned creature held the woman tight against him, his hand over her mouth, while a younger Hordak lifted a pink bundle from one of the cradles. He-Man and She-Ra drew sharp breaths at the sight of their respective foes, and both watched in horror as the woman managed to escape Skeletor's grasp and hurl herself at Hordak. A second later, men in jade and gold uniforms stormed the room; a second after that, light streamed from Hordak's splayed fingers, and the villain disappeared with the infant and her mother.

"…The people would have been devastated to learn that both their princess and their queen had been taken by the enemy, so a spell was cast, and the Eternians simply forgot that their had ever been a second child. In fact, only three people remembered the infant Adora: her father, the king; Duncan, the king's man-at-arms; and I, the Sorceress of Grayskull. As the years passed, we three grieved for Eternia's lost child. But Prince Adam, ignorant of his sister's existence, lived a happy childhood; and when he grew to manhood, he was given the Power Sword, giving him the ability to transform into the most powerful man in the universe."

She-Ra turned and raised her eyebrows at He-Man. "So, that would make you Prince Adam?"

He nodded. "Sure does. And if she" he nodded toward the Sorceress, whose countenance had returned, "said that I am your brother, then that would make you…"

"Princess Adora." The Sorceress said gently. "Your twin, and the second Champion of Grayskull."

He-Man stared at the woman before him, reeling from what he had just heard. It did not take long at all for the warrior to come to a bitter realization: his father had lied to him. Eighteen years, and Randor had never bothered to mention the fact that he had a sister.

She-Ra bowed her head, fighting back tears as the images she had just seen played over and over in her brain. She thought of the infant girl she had been, taken from a loving family and raised to serve her abductor.

"Our mother?"

She-Ra looked up to find He-Man watching her, a question in his eyes.

"What happened to our mother?"

Suddenly She-Ra was Adora, thirteen years old; and her heart was breaking as Lena reminded her that her mother had died when she was born.

"She died." She-Ra whispered. "Hordak killed her." And I served him. She thought about the young woman who had given her life for her child, and began to quietly weep.

"Oh, no." He-Man said. "Oh, please don't cry." He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around She-Ra. "I miss her, too, and I never even knew her."

"Is our father still alive?" She-Ra asked between sobs. Had she been looking at his face instead of crying into his shoulder, she would have seen his features visibly harden.

"Yes. He's still alive."

She-Ra pulled away, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and sniffled. "I want to meet him. I want to go home, to Eternia. I want to get to know my family."

He-Man smiled down at her, blinking back tears of his own as he finally grasped all that the Sorceress had said: he had a sister. Joy bubbled up inside of him, temporarily chasing away the anger he felt toward his father.

He had a sister.

The warrior ran a thumb gently under She-Ra's eye, brushing away a stray tear, and whispered, "We want to know you, too."

Chief Physician Bridden was in a foul mood.

The infirmary was overcrowded, which meant that he spent more time in the place than out of it. That actually was not such a terrible thing, since he had always taken a special delight in beating helpless people; but then some of the people died, and Hordak punished him. The punishments usually involved a decrease in his pay, and while he had never been paid much for his services, his salary was usually more than enough for him to indulge in his…special interests.

One of those interests was across the room, pouring water into a large black pot. As Bridden watched, the woman whose name he had never cared enough to learn tucked an errant strand of red hair behind her ear. She then knelt down and heaved a second bucket up to the pot, emptied it of its contents, and set it back on the floor. Today was laundry day in the infirmary, which meant that once the woman had the water at a boil, she would be shoving sheets and pillowcases into the heavy container. Bridden feasted on the sight of her thin figure, and imagined the punishment that was soon to be visited upon it.

He looked back at the door from which Hordak's messenger had just exited, and grinned. Apparently, Force Captain Adora had disappeared sometime the previous morning. Rumors abounded of her previous plans to defect from the Horde, and it now appeared that she had done just that. Hordak, for some reason, seemed to think that Bridden's assistant could be used to lure the young woman back. Bridden himself could not imagine what sort of connection Hordak thought the two women might have, except for the seven years that the one had spent caring for the other.

Regardless of whether there was still anything like affection between the two women or not, Hordak would undoubtedly make the older woman suffer for Force Captain Adora's escape. Bridden had beaten this particular prisoner enough times to know that she was far too proud to show pain; but Hordak had at his disposal more instruments of torture than just his hands and feet, and the physician fervently hoped that his master would allow him to be present as the woman who had repeatedly resisted his advances screamed for mercy.

Yes, Chief Physician Bridden was in a foul mood. But as he imagined his assistant's stiff spine curling in pain, and her strong body trembling in terror, the healer's mood began to vastly improve.

"Are you ready?"

Adora smiled nervously at Adam. Cringer and Spirit stood nearby, patiently- and, in Cringer's case, fearfully- awaiting their respective owner's next commands.

It had been a full day since the twins had escaped from the Fright Zone. Since then, they had transformed once more and returned Brightmoon's queen to her realm. Now, as the members of the Great Rebellion rejoiced in the return of their leader, and Glimmer's mother, Prince Adam and Princess Adora stood miles away from the celebration, in the exact same spot where He-Man and She-Ra had learned of their relationship to one another.

Adora still had trouble believing that, in one day, her entire life had changed. She had gone from Force Captain Adora, leader of armies, to Princess Adora, heir to one-half of an entire world. She had spent eighteen years as an orphan, yet was mere hours away from meeting her father. She had once unknowingly served the forces of evil; now she would serve the forces of good, as both Adora and She-Ra.

The princess's nervous smile strengthened into a joyful grin. "I've been ready."

Adam smiled back, and then called upon the Sorceress. A minute later, a portal opened. Adora's heart hammered in her chest; somewhere beyond the circle of shimmering light was the land of her birth.

"C'mon, Cringe," Adam called back to his cowering pet, "Time to go home."

The humans and their animals stepped through the portal. The light was exceptionally bright, and Adora closed her eyes, allowing Adam to guide her. She stopped walking when he did, bowed her head, and opened her eyes. Tears immediately began to flow as she beheld her feet, standing firmly on Eternian soil.

Marlena stared dispassionately down at the man lying at her feet. His mouth was still open in a scream, but his eyes were closed. Marlena knew that they would open again, when his body went into rigor mortis; but she would be on her way to freedom by then.

Less than two minutes ago, Chief Physician Bridden had been gloating that Hordak had summoned Marlena. The captive queen had known then that something was amiss, since Bridden was usually very jealous of her time. If Bridden was happy, then someone was in pain…or about to be.

"Why does he want to see me?" Marlena had asked.

Bridden had simply laughed, and the woman had about decided that she would get no information from him when the man finally allowed the secret to spill forth from his thin, cruel lips: Force Captain Adora had escaped.

"You are going to suffer!" Bridden sang out, clapping his hands in glee. "And, since I haven't beaten anyone to death in the last four days, I might actually get to watch!"

Marlena barely heard him. The knowledge of Adora's escape exploded in her brain like fireworks, leaving behind brilliant shades of renewed hope and fierce determination. She was careful to keep such thoughts from showing on her face, however, and instead struggled to focus on Bridden's words.

"Of course, you're not going anywhere until the laundry is done." The man was saying. "I don't care what Hordak says. I suspect you'll be out of commission for a long time once he's done with you, and I want to get as much labor out of you as possible before then."

"Maybe you could help me with this, then." Marlena returned coldly, nodding to the pot. "I need to put it on the wood to boil, and it is heavy."

Bridden stared at her, his face going red with rage. For a long moment, Marlena thought he would rush forward and strike her, and she was surprised by the lack of fear she felt at the thought. The flush quickly faded, though, and he grinned at her, instead; no doubt envisioning the many ways in which Hordak would soon make her scream.

"Alright." He laughed, and sauntered casually forward, whistling through his teeth. It apparently never occurred to him to wonder why Marlena, who had spent eleven years hauling the same heavy vessel from the counter to the fireplace, should suddenly need his assistance. He realized his mistake seconds later, when the prisoner grunted and swung the full pot at his head. The last sound the man heard was his own scream.

Marlena looked up, and found herself being watched by hundreds of eyes. She stared past them, at the closed door of the infirmary. Had Bridden's scream been loud enough to alert the robot troopers? She doubted it, but knew that she would nonetheless have to be quick in her escape. At least she would not have to spend precious seconds looking for an escape route. In fact, Marlena had known for over two years the exact path she and Adora would take to freedom- and it had, ironically enough, been Adora who had discovered it.

Soon after her promotion to force captain, Adora had stopped by the infirmary, apparently on a break between combat lessons. The woman watched Marlena work for several minutes, pulling on a strand of golden hair, before finally speaking.

"Did you know that there's a secret path out of here?"

"Is there?" Marlena murmured, careful to keep her voice from shaking in excitement. "And where would such a path be?"

"There." Adora inclined her head toward the far wall of the infirmary. "Behind that door."

Marlena knew exactly what door her daughter was referring to. She also knew that the door had always been locked, and had simply assumed that it led to another room. She looked up at Adora, who was smiling, clearly bursting to share her secret.

"How do you know?"

Adora stepped closer, propped her hands on top of the counter, and whispered conspiratorially, "I just saw the ground plans for the entire complex, and those plans show that there is a path from that door all the way down to the outermost caverns. The Fright Zone was built over part of a large river, and the plans I saw show that one could follow the water all the way to the outside."

"It sounds like it would be quite a walk." Marlena said, feigning disinterest by looking back at the bandages she was rolling.

Adora nodded. "Ten miles. But there'd be a constant water supply the whole way." The force captain's brow furrowed in deep thought, and she muttered, "That might be something to consider, in case we ever had to evacuate. Do you know who has the key to the door?"

"Bridden, I would guess." Marlena shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

"I'd like to explore the path sometime. You could come with me, if you want."

Marlena looked up then, the bandage falling from her fingers. "I could get the key from Bridden," she whispered, unable now to keep a small tremor of excitement from tinting the words. "We could go today."

Adora stared at her for a moment, eyes narrowed, and Marlena wondered if she had gone too far. Then the younger woman frowned and said, "I wish I could, but I've got new recruits to train all day today. In fact, I should probably leave now, before I'm late." She whirled away, looked back, and laughed. "Besides, it looks like you're pretty busy, yourself." She nodded toward the stack of bandages waiting to be rolled, then strode out of the room before Marlena could say anything.

Now, Marlena looked at the locked door. Then she looked back down at Bridden, at the ring of keys attached to his belt. She knelt down, quickly removed the keys, and examined them. There were not very many, and she knew that most of them unlocked various boxes of medicine and other medical supplies. One key in particular caught her attention; it was longer than the others, and looked like it had rarely been used. She walked briskly to the locked door, shoved the key into the padlock, and turned it. There was a soft, distinctive click; then the lock separated, and the door shifted ever so slightly. The woman slipped the lock off, and the door swung completely open. The other side was dusty, which pleased Marlena; it meant that the passageway had not been used in a long time. She glanced quickly back at the infirmary door, once again ignoring the staring patients; then she opened the tunnel door wider, and her lips turned in a small smile at the loud sound of running water: a noise that would drown out the sounds of escape.

Marlena strode purposefully toward the silent prisoners. Zolana looked up at her, wide-eyed. No one, not even the madwoman, spoke. Bridden's former assistant surveyed the crowd quickly, but carefully. None of the prisoners suffered from serious ailments, and they were all able to walk; Zolana was the only child among them.

"We are leaving this place." Marlena stated quietly, authoritatively, and gestured toward the door to freedom. "Right now. "