Chapter III: "The Shroud of the Dark Side"

QUEEN ANGELLA'S JOURNAL

33rd DAY IN THE THIRD YEAR OF THE HORDE'S OCCUPATION OF ETHERIA

Hours have passed and still we have not heard from Adora, it's not like her to do this.

I have hailed all ships coming to and from Etheria to see if they have spotted her, all reports have come up empty; it is as if she left the Eternian star system.

I sat in the comm. room for hours until I came up with an idea, I will try to contact the Royal Palace of Eternos, maybe she crashed on Eternia and was unable to contact us. Even though she is a trained soldier and could handle anything, I was afraid she was in danger and was in need of help.

I set the dials for the Palace of Eternos; "Eternos Palace, this is the Palace of Brightmoon do you read me" I spoke through the microphone.

At first all I got was static but after a few minutes, the image of Captain Teela appeared on the view screen.

"Brightmoon Palace this Eternos Palace we read you loud and clear," Teela announced.

"Captain Teela, this is Queen Angella, I was wondering if Adora had arrived on Eternia we hadn't heard anything in hours," I informed her hoping she would have heard something.

"No your majesty, our radars have not picked up any sign of Adora's craft, why do you ask is something wrong?" Teela asked worriedly.

"A cosmic storm has formed near Etheria and we're worried Adora got caught in it. I was hoping she crashed or even better landed on Eternia" I told her worriedly.

"That's terrible, we'll keep an eye out for anything over here and contact you if we find anything out," Teela told me, she sounded calm but I could sense her fear, we Angellians are empathic and can sense other people emotions, and I even though she was Astronomical Units away, I could tell she was afraid.

PRINCESS ADORA'S DIARY

33rd DAY IN THE THIRD YEAR OF THE HORDE'S OCCUPATION OF ETHERIA

It has been hours since Lord Vader left the room, and I am still here in this interrogation room.

At least, they left the lights on this time and my migraine has gone away somewhat, I looked around the room, I see all sorts of weapons and artifacts, weapons from a bygone age. It was truly an awesome sight.

While I was looking around, the door opened and Lord Vader entered with two of his troopers.

They untied me and stood me up, then the put some sort of handcuffs on me, and stood on either side of me.

"The Emperor wishes to see you, my dear," Vader told me, he then ordered his men to take me to this Emperor.

We marched for miles, my feet were aching and I was tired, I needed to sit and rest.

"Lord Vader, sir, I need to rest, I'm tired, can we please stop?" I pleaded with him. A few times I had tried to stop and rest but the troopers pointed their guns at the back of neck and forced me back up.

Lord Vader turned to face me and said, "We mustn't keep the Emperor waiting" after that I knew he wasn't going to let me rest until we reached this Emperor.

After marching for miles we finally reached the Emperor's palace, it was the huge palace I saw when I crashed here.

We entered the building and took an elevator to the top floor, when we arrived at the top we entered a massive room. It was dark and the only light came from the large window that at the front.

In the middle of the room there was a black chair that faced the window.

While we were standing there, I heard an eerie voice that reminded me of the Shadow Priests that follow Hordak say, "Welcome my young friend."

The throne turned and sitting on it was whom I presumed to be the Emperor. He was truly a hideous sight.

He wore a long black robe, but his most horrific feature was his face, it was pale white as if he had never seen the light of day and wrinkled with the only specks of color around his eyes, he was like a living corpse and just being in the same room as him sent a chill up my spine

Lord Vader, who was kneeling, got up and approached the throne, "She was found carrying this sword, scanners detected it to be the power source," Vader said as he handed the sword to the Emperor.

The Emperor ran his gnarled fingers across the blade and smiled, "Yes, I can sense its power…" he said with a demonic smile "…and you will tell me how it works" he said as he waved his hand.

I began to feel as if a cloud filled my mind and I felt like I wanted to tell him my secret, after all he is nothing more than old man, and he does seem nice…wait what on Etheria I'm thinking, this man is evil, and I can't explain it but I could 'sense' his evil form the moment I first landed here and he will not learn my secret!

"I'll never tell you anything!" I spat at him defiantly as I did my best to stare bravely into his horrid yellow eyes.

"Really, we'll see about that," he said as he clenched his hand into a fist and raised it in the air.

I felt my feet rise off the ground I was levitating but I was free for I felt as if some invisible power held my hands and feet.

As I hung there suspended a soon began to a strong force tighten around my neck and crush my windpipe and prevent from breathing, this force was so unbearable that began to pull at the collar of my shirt hoping to relieve the pressure and free myself.

The Emperor than jerked out his arm and released his hand sending me flying through the room and crashing against the wall.

My whole body was aching from that trip, I tried to get up, but as I slowly rose the Emperor stretched out his hands towards me and issued bolts of energy from his fingers.

The bolts went through my body sending excruciating arcs of pain throughout my body.

It was sheer torture, it was like was someone was controlling my brain and forcing my muscles to contract and relax at the same time; my heart was beating rapidly to the point where it felt like I was having a heart attack; even my mouth burned as the heat of the energy boiled my salvia burning my tongue and lining of my mouth as the electricity arced from the nerves in my teeth to my tongue.

He continued this for several seconds then he lowered his arms and stopped.

"Still unwilling to tell me the secret of the power source, my dear?" he asked me with a demonic smile.

"You'll never know the secret, you twisted old demon," I spat at him as I fought to get to my feet.

"So be it my friend, Lord Vader take our guest to her cell, let us see how tight lipped you will be after some quality time with the IT-O droids," he ordered as he went back to his throne.

Once he was seated, his motioned to his guards to go over to where I lay against the wall, they pointed their staves at my back lifting me up in the air and pushed me towards Vader's arms.

I crashed into Vader's imposing figure, he gripped my shoulder with such a vice grip that it was impossible me to escape and pushed me to his troops who grabbed my arms and forced me to stand.

Vader then turned to his master and genuflected, "You will be done, my master" he told him as he and his guards led me out of the room.

I fear this will be my final entry, but I if die at least my secret will be safe!