Chapter Twelve

Adora could not remember ever being as nervous as she was right now, not even when she stood before thousands of soldiers and publicly declared her allegiance to the Horde. Every bone in her body was fairly vibrating in anticipation, and she could not stop wringing her hands together.

Adam watched her carefully. "Are you having some sort of fit?" he asked, arching his eyebrows at her twisting hands.

"I'm nervous." Adora confessed. "After all, I've never done this before."

"You've never done what? Walked into a room?"

Adora rolled her eyes at her brother. "You know what I mean!" she hissed, and looked sideways at the men standing before them. They were staring straight ahead, their faces giving no indication that they had even heard the two teenagers.

"Is standing here forever going to calm your nerves?" Adam asked, his lips turned up into that grin Adora knew he used to mask his true emotions.

"No." Adora sighed. "I guess not."

"I didn't think so." Adam said, and caught the eye of one of the men. "So let's do this."

The men snapped into action, and in less than a second began opening the door that they had been assigned to guard. Adora's hands dropped to her sides. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and stepped into the throne room of Eternia's Royal Palace, where her father was waiting.

King Randor's discussion with Duncan and Teela was interrupted by the unexpected sound of the throne room's massive door being pushed open. Randor watched as two people, a man and a woman, entered. He had no idea who the female was, but the sight of the male caused him to rise immediately from his throne.

"Adam!" The king rushed to his son, stopping halfway into the room. "Where have you been?"

The prince shrugged. "I was on a mission for the Sorceress. Didn't Duncan tell you?"

"Well, of course he told me." Randor said, fighting to keep from snapping at the boy who stood so calmly before him. "But he didn't know where you had been sent, or what you were supposed to be doing. I went to see the Sorceress, and she refused to tell me anything useful."

Adam smirked. "Yeah. She does that sometimes."

Randor frowned. "Where were you, Son?" he asked in a low tone. "I was worried."

Adam stared at him for what seemed like an eternity, as if trying to determine what his next words should be. The woman at his side also studied Randor, and the king began to feel distinctly uncomfortable.

"I was sent to a planet called Etheria." Adam said finally. "The Sorceress needed me to find someone very important from Eternia's past."

"I see." Randor said, although he did not. "And did you find this person?"

"Yes, Father." Adam turned his head and smiled gently at his companion. "I found her."

Randor's eyes narrowed as he looked at the woman for the first time since her entrance. She was, the king thought, extraordinarily beautiful. There was something about the height of her cheekbones, and the strength of her features, that reminded Randor of his lost wife. He had to look away then, and when he looked back, he noticed that the girl was trembling. She pressed her arms deeper into her sides, as if she were literally holding herself together.

"Welcome to Eternia, young lady." Randor said gently, hoping to calm her. "Will you be staying here, at the Palace?"

The girl laughed nervously. "I hope so."

"Do you have family joining you?"

She shook her head. "Not…joining me, no. But I have family here."

"On the planet?"

"In the palace, actually."

"Oh?" Randor tried to think of any palace residents who had relatives from other worlds. "What kind of family?"

"A father… and a brother."

"Do they know you're here?"

She laughed again. "I just met my brother yesterday, so he knows that I'm here."

Randor's eyes widened. "You just met your brother?"

The woman nodded. "We were separated from one another as infants."

"What about your father? Have you…met him yet?"

The woman looked straight into his eyes then, and whispered so that only Randor and Adam could hear, "I'm meeting him now."

Randor took a step back, his eyes darting back and forth between his son and the mysterious woman. The two pairs of eyes that looked back at him were the exact same shade of blue, and the same golden shade of hair framed the teenagers' faces. Randor noticed for the first time that Adam and the girl were also of the same height, and appeared to be the same age. They even stood the same way: with their arms down by their sides, and their chins lifted ever so slightly. In fact, the only differences between them were directly related to their disparate genders; otherwise, the two looked so much alike that they might have been twins.

Randor suddenly found it impossible to breathe. He stumbled forward, gasping for oxygen. Teela made noises of concern, while Duncan made no sound at all. Randor ignored them both. For him, at that moment, the only two people in the room were his son and the woman who looked so much like him. He had a sudden, wild urge to pull the woman into his arms and babble into her hair a name he had barely spoken in eighteen years. Instead, he forced his lips to form words- a question that desperately needed to be answered.

"What is your name?"

Tears formed in the woman's eyes, and spilled over as she whispered, "Adora."

Randor never even hesitated. He was hugging the girl in less than a second, and father and daughter wept into each other's shoulders. When they finally pulled away from one another, Duncan and Teela were gone, and Adam was watching them, his own face damp. He went immediately to Adora, who grabbed his hand in hers. She held her father's hand in her other one, and smiled shakily at both members of her long-lost family.

Randor could barely take his eyes off of his daughter. He drank in the sight of her face, having only seen it once before. He had tried to imagine what Adora might look like as she grew older, but was never quite able to envision his daughter as anything other than a tiny baby girl, lying in her mother's arms.

The king looked at Adam. His son was gazing at Adora, but glanced up and locked eyes with his father. He turned away, but not before Randor noticed his son's eyes shining, bright as stars, with anger.

Adam paced the length of his room, unable to remain still. Adora was in one of the guest rooms, having separated from her family long enough to prepare for her first meal as Eternia's princess. Cringer huddled under his owner's bed, whining softly as Adam burned a trail across his quarters.

There were a thousand things Adam had wanted to say to his father in the throne room, none of them kind. It was Adora's presence alone that kept the prince from lashing out at Randor. Adora deserved to have a pleasant reunion with her father, and Adam would have gnawed off his own tongue before causing his sister any discomfort.

In less than an hour, however, Adam would have to sit at the same table as his father and act like he had not been lied to for eighteen years. He would have to smile and laugh and pretend that everything was perfectly fine; and he would have to spend a million other meals doing the exact same thing, because surely nothing would ever be the same if he made audible the rage he felt inside

Adam had always been the peacemaker, the one who was able to charm almost anyone out of a foul mood. Now he was the one with the sour disposition, and there was no one in the world that could ease his pain. He could not talk to Adora, because she might blame herself for this new conflict between her father and brother. Neither could he talk with Duncan and the Sorceress, whose duplicity in the matter of Adora's existence was equal to Randor's. Teela might understand, having never known her mother. That possibility was quickly rejected, mainly because Adam did know Teela's mother, and loathed the thought of whining about liars to a woman whose origins he could reveal in a heartbeat.

The prince was just beginning his thirtieth trek to the balcony when someone rapped on his bedroom door. He sighed, dropped down onto his bed, propped his feet up on the headboard, and called out "Come in," wondering even as he did so why he went to so much trouble to appear so relaxed. The door opened, and Adam sucked air through his teeth when he saw his father step hesitantly into the chambers.

"May I come in?" Randor asked. Adam shrugged, and the king closed the door behind him. He stood there for about a minute, clearly unsure what to say to his son. Adam crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

"You must be so angry." The older man said finally.

Adam lifted his shoulders in another shrug. "Why should I be angry?" he asked flatly. "Adora's home, and everything's alright now."

"Adam…"

"You don't have to say anything, Father." The young man stood and strode to the balcony, his back to his parent. "What's done is done, so why should I care that you lied to me for eighteen years?"

"I can explain."

"I'm sure you can." Adam returned. He stared out the window, mildly curious as to how his father would excuse his actions. Would Randor say that he simply could not bear to speak Adora's name, or that he was only doing what was best for his kingdom?

"I lied because I love you."

The prince turned. "What?"

Randor raised weary eyes to his son's face and repeated, in the voice of a broken man, "I lied because I love you." He stepped closer to Adam, watching the younger man carefully. "I never told you about Adora, because I did not want you to pine for someone you might never know."

"I'll never know my mother, but she was not included in the Sorceress's spell." The words were a clear challenge, yet Adam had trouble looking at his father's face as he said them.

"Erasing your mother's existence was never an option." Randor answered. "She was an amazing woman, and to pretend as if she never lived would have been an insult to her memory."

"But pretending that Adora never existed was not an insult?"

Randor did not respond for what seemed like forever. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft, pleading. "The Sorceress always said that I might one day see Adora again."

The man said no more, and he did not have to, for suddenly Adam understood. His father could not bear to deny Marlena's existence, because it was all he would ever have of her. Randor had lived for eighteen years with the faint hope that Adora would one day return…and with the agonizing certainty that his wife never would.

"Can you ever forgive me?" Randor whispered, his eyes intent on his son's face.

Adam thought about all that his father had lost, and how strong he had remained. He thought of how Randor never hesitated to answer Adam's questions about his mother, even though every mention of his wife's name must have made the man acutely aware of both her absence, and Adora's. He realized that Randor had only kept secret things that would have hurt Adam to know. Adam then thought about the lies he himself had to tell, all for the love of his family and friends, and realized that he and his father were really not so different, after all. He was reminded once again of what the Sorceress had said before pushing him into Etheria, and whispered, "'Sometimes we lie to the ones we love, because we love them.'"

"What did you say?"

The teenager looked straight into his father's eyes, shrugged, and answered, in a voice filled with compassion, "I said, 'What's there to forgive?'"

Adora leaned against the doorway of the Royal Museum, running her fingers nervously over the object in her hands. She watched the man who stood inside the cavernous room, staring up at a massive metal structure. The princess folded her hands behind her back, hiding the object, and cleared her throat. The man turned at the sound, smiling gently as soon as he saw her.

"Hello, Adora."

"Hello, Father. Adam said that I could find you here." The woman walked into the room and came to stand beside the man. "What is this?"

"A spaceship." Randor answered, his voice wistful. "It's called the Rainbow Explorer."

"Who flies it?"

"No one." Randor sighed. "Not for a long time, anyway."

"What happened to the pilot?"

"I don't know." Randor said, and turned to look at his daughter. "I was hoping you could tell me."

Adora frowned. "Why would I know the fate of an Eternian pilot?"

"The person who flew this craft was not Eternian. She was from another planet entirely, and she was your mother."

"My mother?" Adora breathed. "My mother was a pilot?"

"The best there ever was."

Adora reached up with one hand and stroked the silver sides of the craft. She was in awe, yes. But she was also trying to form a gentle response to her father's question. Yet when she looked back at him, she saw that nothing she said would come as a surprise to Randor. He knows what happened to her. Adora thought, blinking back sudden tears. He already knows she's dead, or he would have asked this question long before now. Yet Adora also knew that Randor needed to hear for himself that his wife would never be coming home.

"She died." The woman whispered. She withdrew her other hand from behind her back and held out a gold crown. "I was told that she died when I was born."

Randor took the crown from Adora. Tears ran, unchecked, into his beard as he stroked the cool metal, clearly envisioning the cloud of red hair that the crown had once held in place.

"I know now that Hordak killed her." Adora continued, and began to weep. "He killed her, and I served him."

Randor stepped forward and pulled Adora into a tight embrace. "You survived," he whispered fiercely into her hair, "You lived to return to us, and I know that's what your mother would have wanted more than anything."

"I heard her voice once." Adora confessed into her father's shoulder. "I was very ill, and she was telling me to live."

"That sounds about right." Randor said. Adora thought she heard something like joy in his voice, and when she pulled away, she found that her father had begun to smile, clearly enjoying a private memory of his wife. She was surprised to find herself grinning back, and presently father and daughter began drying their eyes.

"What are you going to do with that?" Adora nodded toward the crown.

"I'm not sure." Randor answered, the joy in his voice fading a tiny bit. "Where do you think it should go?"

Adora did not have to be asked twice. She walked quickly across the room, retrieved an unoccupied pedestal, and carried it back. Randor quickly caught on to his daughter's plan, and silently helped her set the marble piece inside the curve of the spaceship's left wing. They stepped back and surveyed their handiwork. Tears were just beginning to resurface when Adora heard footfalls behind them. She turned and saw that Adam had slipped quietly into the room. He came to stand beside Adora, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. The princess pulled away just enough to lean against Randor, bridging the short distance remaining between father and son. As the guards standing watch over the museum changed shifts, and the rest of the palace residents snuggled eagerly into their dreams, Eternia's Royal Family stood in the bright museum-turned-memorial, separated by their memories, yet united in their grief.

It took two days for the refugees to reach the Whispering Woods. Marlena spent exactly one of those days half-blinded by the bright sun. Her head pounded from the harsh stimulation of light flooding her eyes, which burned and leaked tears of pain. This, apparently, was what happened when one had not been allowed outside in eighteen years.

If Marlena's traveling companions noticed that she was pretty much being blinded by the light, they made no mention of it. Many of them had also been denied recent access to the outdoors, so perhaps they understood a little of what the woman was enduring. No one said much of anything at all, actually. They just walked, following the river. The man who had so vehemently cursed the Horde knew the way to the Whispering Woods, and had taken it upon himself to lead them. Marlena walked beside him, Zolana in her arms. The man's name was Adnan, and he sometimes glanced over at Marlena, as if he wanted to ask her something. He seemed somewhat in awe of her; they all did.

They slept as little as possible, the fear of recapture incentive enough to stay awake and on the move. They drank water from the river, and plucked berries from prickly bushes. The sun beat down on their backs. They all looked longingly at the river; the only exception was Marlena, whose black attire undoubtedly attracted the most heat. Yet she stared straight ahead, toward the direction of the Whispering Woods, and dreamed.

Marlena dreamt of her smart, brave daughter, who had finally discovered the truth about the Horde. She thought about Adora escaping to safety, to freedom. There was no doubt in Marlena's mind that her child would have headed straight for the home of the Great Rebellion. Adora was not one to just slip quietly into obscurity. She would want, need, to atone for the crimes she had unknowingly committed. Marlena's stomach cramped at the thought of her daughter, tormented by a guilt she should not have to feel. Adora had been bewitched for eleven years; she was not responsible for her actions. But Marlena knew that if she could just see Adora, talk to her, she could take her child's guilt away. Marlena was certain that she could make everything better for her daughter; she could make everything right.

She worried about how Adora would respond once she learned that her mother had been alive the whole time, and right before her eyes. Would the young woman be angry at the lies that Marlena had told? Could Marlena make her understand how necessary each and every falsehood had been? The mother told herself that she could endure it if Adora never forgave her, that her daughter's survival was the only thing that mattered. But, oh, how much better everything would be if Adora did not come to hate her after learning the truth!

Marlena imagined a life in which Adora could love her, not as a caregiver, but as her mother. She pictured them working side by side, aiding the Great Rebellion, ridding Etheria of the evil Horde. If the Rebellion possessed anything remotely resembling aircraft, then perhaps Marlena could put her piloting skills to great use; or she could implement what she had learned from her years in the infirmary to aid sick refugees and wounded rebels. Adora would excel in any task involving combat, and the girl was a born leader. As much as Marlena hated the thought of her daughter engaging in direct combat with Hordak or his minions, she also knew that Adora would never be content to sit in the forest while others battled the forces of evil.

So wrapped up in her dreams was Marlena that she barely noticed the foliage changing all around her. It was only when Zolana stirred in her arms that the woman saw, to her surprise, that pastel colored trees now surrounded the band of refugees. She looked over at Adnan, a question in her eyes. He nodded ever so imperceptibly, and Marlena's lips twitched as a smile fought its way to the surface. She had not been this happy in eighteen years. Suddenly she knew that everything would be all right. Adora would understand why Marlena had lied, and she would forgive her. They would be a family. Marlena even allowed herself to believe that one day very soon, Randor would find them, and then they would all return to Eternia, their true home.

By the time they reached the edge of a large camp, Marlena was all but glowing with joy. A winged woman and a lavender-haired young woman who looked to be about Adora's age came to meet them. Adnan spoke for the group, giving an abridged version of who they were and how they had escaped the Fright Zone. He cited Marlena as the heroine of the whole ordeal, and the women smiled at her in admiration. They introduced themselves- the woman with wings was Queen Angella, and the other woman was her daughter, Princess Glimmer- and offered food and shelter to the weary refugees. The band of survivors did not refuse, and began moving en masse into the camp.

Marlena looked carefully around the complex, searching for her daughter. She slipped away from the group, walking amongst rebels, peering into their faces. Queen Angella caught up with her as she was about to peer into a tent.

"Are you looking for someone?" she asked, her voice gentle.

Marlena hesitated. What if her daughter had not revealed her true identity to these people? It would be understandable, especially since she was known throughout the planet as Hordak's most skilled Force Captain. Marlena did not wish to endanger her child. On the other hand, she did not know how else she could find Adora. She had seen enough rebels to know that Adora would not be the only blonde-haired, blue-eyed, eighteen-year-old female in the camp. Besides, Marlena could easily testify on Adora's behalf, and convince Queen Angella that Adora was not the evil warrior that everyone believed her to be.

"I am looking for a woman named Adora." Marlena said slowly, trying to gauge her hostess's reaction to the name. "She escaped from the Fright Zone two days ago, and I believe she might have come here."

Queen Angella frowned and chewed her lower lip in thought. Then her eyes narrowed, and she said, "Are you referring to the former Force Captain Adora?"

Marlena tensed. "Yes."

Queen Angella shook her head. "She's not here anymore."

"What do you mean, 'anymore'?" Marlena asked, her heart beginning to pound in terror. What if these people, in their desire for revenge against the Horde, had hurt Adora? What if they had killed her? Marlena's hands clenched into fists, and she hissed, "Did you hurt her?"

Queen Angella's eyes widened in surprise. "Of course not. We would never do that."

"Then where is she?"

The Etherian queen's eyes narrowed again, this time in suspicion, and she murmured, "Why do you want to know?"

It took Marlena a second to realize why the woman was so being so cautious: she thought Marlena had come to take Adora back to Hordak. The irony of the situation was so rich that she had to swallow back laughter. She forced herself to relax, and then answered, "I was a prisoner of the Horde for eighteen years, and I cared for Adora as a mother would care for her own child. I was so happy to hear that she had escaped Hordak's clutches. I only want to see for myself that she is safe."

"Oh." Queen Angella relaxed a tiny bit. She shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid you're too late. Adora has gone home."

"Home?" Marlena repeated incredulously. "The Fright Zone was the only home Adora has ever known. Surely you do not mean that she has returned there!"

"Oh, no! Of course not!" Queen Angella sighed. "Adora has returned to her real home."

Marlena's brow furrowed. "Her real…" she began, then stopped as realization dawned. She frantically searched for another meaning for what Queen Angella had just revealed. There was none. Had Marlena been a different sort of woman, she might have collapsed in a faint right then and there. Instead, her entire body froze in sudden, psychic pain.

Queen Angella was still talking. Marlena wanted to beg her to stop, but her lips refused to deliver the words her mind was screaming. She could only stand there and listen as Queen Angella continued, "Adora's brother came and found her. They left Etheria two days ago, bound for the planet Eternia."