Eleven
Castle Grayskull
Graylands, Eternia
6 June 2017
She had no idea where she was. It was as if she had been cast into a pit of the blackest pitch anyone had ever seen. The blackness nearly suffocated her. Opening her eyes did little to help the situation. A touch of fear crept into her consciousness at this point. Something about this whole situation just did not feel right. She felt disconnected from the world around her. She couldn't even remember her name.
Time had no meaning in this black world. Because of this, she had no idea how much time had passed from consciousness to the point when she heard a faint sound far off in the void. The sound came again, louder and closer. She looked around with some trepidation. There was nowhere to run. No place to run and hide.
The sound was clearer, now. It was a voice. From the tone, she guessed it to be male. Her next thought was who could know she was here – wherever that was – when she could see absolutely nothing?
Teela'Na.
That word, now discernable with the unknown voice being unnervingly close, sounded familiar. The word sounded again. Again, a stab of recognition struck. She rolled it around in her mind getting a feel for the pronunciation. After several heartbeats of examination, she came to the conclusion it was not a word. It was a name. Possibly, it was the name of the person introducing himself to her. She was sure the voice was male, but the name did not sound like one for a male. It sounded more like a female name.
Teela'Na. Definitely a female name, she decided. Hers? Somehow it seemed to fit.
The white spot she had observed for the past few heartbeats began to grow. It appeared to be a spot of indistinct brightness. At first, she mistakenly thought the brightness was close at hand like a veil peeling back. That opinion changed as the bright spot resolved into a bipedal figure approximately two meters tall. Soon, a handsome man stood before her smiling warmly. Gentle eyes looked her over as if he knew her. The thought that this apparition might know her was unsettling because she had no idea who this person was. She didn't even know her own name!
"You don't know me, do you?" the specter replied. His soft voice was full of warmth and love, and threatened to sweep her away.
She shook her head. "No. I can't even remember who I am."
The specter nodded. "That happened to me, also. It'll come back to you. Perhaps I can help speed things up." The entity before her held out its right hand. "There is no danger. Come with me and I will help you to remember."
"Where am I?"
"Someplace safe. Come. I will show you."
Uncertain as she was about this, she cautiously reached out to the proffered hand. For the first time, she noticed she, too, was surrounded by a glowing nimbus and had a spectral form. The moment their hands touched the black void dissolved in a blinding flash of white light. The flash lasted for only a moment or two before receding.
She found herself in a world of light. There were boundaries here. Stonewalls were bathed in the glow of a blue-white pool twenty meters across. The depth could not be determined from her impossible position above the pool's calm surface. It appeared as if the pool was infused with a life of its own. That thought was reinforced by a rhythmic beat.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
The first beat was a higher tone followed by a lower tone. The twin tempo repeated over and over again. It reminded her of a beating heart.
The specter appeared at her side once more. "Recognize this place?"
She shook her head. "I feel as though I should know it, but I can't think of the name. Where is that beating coming from?"
"A heart. Your heart."
"Mine? I don't understand. What is going on? Why do I feel so strange? You say this beating is my heart yet I don't even feel alive!" She began to weep from the helplessness of the whole situation.
A consoling arm slipped around her shoulders. "Look down," the man replied.
"Why?"
"To answer your question. Look."
She didn't want to, but some need compelled her to do so. Directly beneath her lay the body of a beautiful woman dressed in high-heeled blue boots capped with white fur, and caped costume colored in red, white, and blue accented all of the woman's attributes. A short feather skirt revealed long, shapely legs, and the arms lay at the woman's sides letting the feather cape to fan out beneath her. The headdress she knew the hair should have been transformed into was not present, however.
"I recognize that," she replied, sniffling. "That's the costume of the guardian of Castle Grayskull." She paused to drink in the sight before her.
She wanted to view the woman from a closer distance, but didn't know how to go about it. All of a sudden, she drifted closer until she was standing right next to the unconscious woman. As she thought, the pool was not a pool in that it was filled with water. It was raw energy that felt comforting now that she was submerged in it, as well.
"Teela'Na," she replied, getting a feel for the name. "That's her name, isn't it?"
"Yes," her nameless companion answered. "It is her name - and yours."
"If this is Teela'Na, and I am her, then…"
"Then?"
Realization slowly dawned on her. Fear settled in a sick lump in her stomach. "Then that means I'm...I'm...dead."
Evergreen Forest
It took close to an hour to outfit the search party appropriately for the task on finding Adrian Cobretti. Kodec fussed and fumed the entire time like some wild beast. She provided the necessary clothing and copper pieces for currency. Kodec possessed only sketchy information of the villages in the area. She had no idea which village Adrian would end up in or near, so they would have to search all of them.
The team included Antone Frost, Jake Rockwell, Kodec Ungor, and Privates Johnson and Horwitz. Kodec could have assembled a better team, but she didn't have all that much to work with, in her opinion. Still, it was better than nothing.
Armed only with concealed side arms and plenty of ammo or reserve energy cells, the group set out into the storm's brief lull. The period of drizzle lasted only until the cloaked and hooded party reached the forest's edge, then the clouds burst forth a torrential downpour soaking them instantly.
It wasn't that difficult to follow Adrian through the forest. He plowed through any foliage that got in the way. The few footpaths that existed were littered with prints from the passage of something heavy. The size and shape of the prints matched those of Adrian's armor. The quartet followed the depressions slowly filling with water for nearly an hour.
Kodec signaled a halt to rest for ten minutes before pressing onward. There was a village close to the edge of the forest where they might seek shelter from the rain. Frost and Jake wandered around in the trees while Johnson and Horwitz stamped their feet in a futile attempt to warm them.
Jake stumbled and fell cursing into the brush behind a tree nearly fifteen feet in diameter. Frost hurried cautiously through the growth to his companion. "You all right?"
A sour Jake Rockwell replied, "Yeah. I just stumbled over a root."
"Umm, that's no root, Jake," Frost said, brushing aside a few branches.
Kodec and the others joined them as Jake and Frost peeled back thick growths of moss. They discovered a depression near where Jake fell. The outlines were vague, but it did indicate something heavy and bulky had fallen there. Kodec confirmed this after briefly employing her magic. She confirmed Adrian had been here nearly two hours ago. He had fallen from exhaustion. His mind probably grew too erratic for coherent thought to continue.
They uncovered a rusting metal linkage buried in the dirt. This is what Jake tripped over. Jake and Frost used hunting knives to dig up more dirt and cut away shrubs. The linkage led to the shattered remains of a massive box-shaped object. More digging revealed it to be the remains of a detached leg. Ten feet further into the trees, Private Johnson found the owner of the leg. The parted gathered around the battered and rusting remains of a huge robot unlike anything they had seen before. A powerful energy weapon had holed the burned chest plate. Inside laid the scorched and melted remnants of gears, circuits, and energy cells.
The robot's head was nowhere in sight.
Private Horwitz eyes peculiar depressions around the stop Kodec claimed Adrian fell. Though the rain was quickly scrubbing away the marks, they could still be identified a footprints. These were not like any human print, though they had a similar shape.
"They look human, yet something else," Jake mused.
"They almost look like animal prints," Frost replied.
"Bipedal animals?" Private Johnson scoffed. "C'mon, Frost. Granted this is a weird planet, but intelligent animals? No way."
"Every time you open your mouth you display your level of intelligence," Kodec grumbled.
"Let's get going," Frost suggested, cutting off Private Johnson's heated retort. "I'm cold, wet, and there is nothing we can for Adrian right now except find him. Shall we go?"
Kodec nodded, examined the fading signs of a body having been carried away one last time, and turned away. She set off down the path continuing their journey west. Another hour of dreary trudging through the rain-soaked forest brought the chilled group to the southern edge of the forest. As they approached the tree line, pale yellow lights could be seen almost floating in the distance. The rain had slackened to a misty cloud draped across the land like a shroud, from it shown the lights of a village about a mile distant.
The town didn't look any more cheerful up close than it did from the forest edge. It did, however, offer dry warmth for the night. The tavern wasn't hard to fine. It was the loudest place along the main street. Shadowed forms darted here and there through the rain as the quartet shuffled along toward their destination.
Kodec stopped them outside. "I will make arrangements for our stay. Wait for me in the hall. Get something hot to eat. I will join you shortly. Oh, and try not to do anything – stupid."
"She acts like she doesn't trust us," Private Johnson snorted.
"I don't trust us," Frost replied sternly. "C'mon."
The corporal led the way into the rundown establishment. The atmosphere inside was as rundown as the outside. Dim light from torches in sconces mounted along the walls and in metal fixtures hung from the ceiling cast dingy yellow pools throughout the room. They did nothing to alleviate the gloom.
Few respectable travelers could be found here at this hour. Most stayed away from the main hall after hours when the scum slithered out of the woodwork. Some nursed their drinks in silence at the bar. Several boisterous groups were liquored up and causing minor squabbles amongst themselves. The trio skirted them in an effort to avoid trouble. Ancient planks creaked here and there as Frost led his people to a corner set of tables from which they could observe everything. A tiled window at their backs could be used for a quick escape in a pinch.
A homely serving wench appeared almost as soon as the trio seated themselves. They ordered ale and stew, and said a fourth person would be joining them shortly. Frost shrugged off his soaked cloak and dumped in a soggy lump beside his chair. The wench returned with three mugs of ale, and said the stew would arrive shortly. They passed the time surveying the atmosphere and layout.
To their right was large hearth that did little to heat more than the area immediately in front of it. The embers had not been tended for some time and the fire was in danger of dying out. Between the hearth and the bar that had seen better days was the staircase accessing the upper floors. Frost hadn't noticed the building was a multi-level structure until now.
The patrons at the bar and at the tables closest to Frost's group minded their own business and made a conscious effort to ignore the ruckus on the other side of the room. Even the serving wenches and the establishment's owner shied away as much as possible. Some patrons got up and left in search of quieter surroundings.
The center of attention was a solid man about six feet in height, wearing worn leather boots, brown leather pants, pieces of chain mail hung from a wide, worn leather belt, and a sword hung from each side. A leather tunic matched the man's pants, and covered a well-muscled chest. Gauntleted arms rested lightly on the table, but an experienced person could see he could spring into action in an instant. He had a dark tan from spending the majority of his time outdoors. The most unsettling feature, besides the dark demeanor, was the chromed metal wings fanning up and away along the sides of his skull, and the polarized lens covering the right eye. This gave the boisterous man a most forbidding look people shied away from.
Frost observed him without looking like he was doing so, and knew without a doubt the man knew he was being watching.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer. I believe that is the saying on your world," Kodec replied, pulling out an empty chair. She draped the saturated cloak on the back of the chair, and sat.
"Where did you learn so much about our world?" Private Horwitz asked.
"The Sorceress was my friend long before your grandfather was an itch in your great-grandfather's pants," she replied evenly. "I don't know what she sees in your people." Kodec turned her attention to Frost, lightening her tone. "His name is Blade. He's the most feared mercenary on the planet, to say nothing of this part of the Horde Empire. If I were you I'd steer clear of him while watching your back. Observing him like you are is not to way to do it."
"Too late," Johnson muttered.
The wench arrived with a tray laden with bowls for the four of them and a drink for Kodec. As the girl left, Blade slammed his empty mug down upon the table, wiped the back of one hand across his mouth, and rose. People scooted their chairs noisily out of the way as the mercenary made his way across the room.
"Well, what have we here?" Blade asked, more to himself than the table occupants. "Haven't seen your like around here."
"We're new in town. Just arrived," Frost said around a mouth full of what he classified as the Eternian equivalent beef stew.
Blade dropped the drunken demeanor slightly as he placed his hands in the table and leaned down to speak quietly. "I know you aren't from around here."
Frost's stomach clenched involuntarily, and it had nothing to do with the food.
"Last night there was an assault on Palace Eternia. Rumor has it a sizeable force blasted its way in to rescue imprisoned humans, and then blasted their way out again. Now, outsiders like you are prowling around the countryside." Blade raised a hand to forestall any stupid attempts against him. "I don't care about your grievance against King Hiss. Just stay out of my business and out of my way. And, no, I won't go telling the Snake Men about seeing you here. You've given me no reason to."
"As my companion said," Kodec spoke up, keeping her voice neutral, "we're just passing through. We'll be gone in the morning."
Blade nodded, straightened, and left without another word.
"We had best leave in the morning," Kodec said.
"You believe him?" Horwitz replied.
Kodec nodded. "He may be the deadliest man in this part of the galaxy, but he is not without honor. If we leave as I said we would, he will continue on his way without alerting the Snake Men."
"Sounds like a plan to me. I doubt Adrian is here, anyway," Frost replied. "This stew isn't half-bad."
Johnson wrinkled his nose. "No. It's all bad."
"Earthers," Kodec muttered to herself. She wondered once again what it was the Sorceress found so appealing in them.
Palace Eternia
King Hiss surveyed the carnage wrought by the Earthers dispassionately. This was only a minor setback to him. The losses to his army were a nuisance, but that may change if these Earthers were allowed to roam free for very much longer. To top it off, not only had they rescued the Sorceress; they were now hiding in a place he tried unsuccessfully to break into many times.
Then there was the matter of the freed slaves. Hiss had his suspicions about who helped the slaves and their liberators escape from the caverns. The suspect had done so on several occasions just to annoy King Hiss. Hiss knew he'd have to take care of that particular sleeping problem sooner or later. It was starting to look like it would be the former of the two options.
"We know they are hiding in Castle Grayskull," General Rattlor was saying. "Let me lead a force strong enough to take the castle."
"And how do you propose to lower the jawbridge? Ask them nicely?" Hiss demanded.
"Evil-Lyn claims to be able to bring the bridge down," Rattlor countered, tail twitching back and forth in irritation.
Hiss turned to his most trusted lackey. "Kobra Khan, take a small force to observe the movements of these humans. Do not engage them. They have already proven themselves to be extremely unpredictable. Watch them. Study them. Once you have their weaknesses noted then we will strike." He wheeled suddenly on General Rattlor; who took a reflexive step backward. Hiss concluded, "We will use our Horde allies to gain entry. Then Castle Grayskull and all its secrets will finally be mine."
Teela tried her best not to look unnerved by Hiss' near-proclamation. Much as she despised what she had been forced to do in the interests of saving as many people as she could from the Snake Men, allowing King Hiss to gain the power of the Elders and to possess the vast library of knowledge within the castle's ancient walls, was simply too much for her conscience to bear. She had to do something, but what?
Kobra Khan departed to gather some of the best warriors and head for the Graylands. Workers continued to labor along side human slaves to repair the damage wrought by the Guardian Force in their devastating raid. Teela wandered the corridors lost in thought as she struggled with warring emotions about what to do.
Evil-Lyn trailed Teela until she entered a deserted part of the palace. "Still fretting over the Sorceress?" Evil-Lyn snorted. "She's just one more casualty in this war. I imagine her suffering is over by now."
Evil-Lyn's smug demeanor was more than Teela take at this point. Teela rounded on Evil-Lyn so suddenly; the witch didn't have a chance to stop. Teela grabbed the woman roughly by the collar and hauled her in close. "The Sorceress was a kind and gentle woman who never did anything to you. She didn't deserve to die like that. You wouldn't know what it's like to care for someone, do you? All you know is your petty ambitions. You don't care you gets hurt as long as you achieve your goal."
Evil-Lyn was thrown backward a few steps, as Teela turned away, but not fast enough to not see the tears starting to roll from the warrior woman's eyes. Evil-Lyn made a move to follow, but a voice in her head reined her in.
Let her go. You've done quite enough already. Don't antagonize her further.
"Why not? It's fun. If I can cause enough dissention around here, Castle Grayskull could 'accidentally' fall into my hands."
Be wary of your plans, daughter. They will be your undoing. And the Sorceress isn't as dead as you think. Beware. I won't be there to help you if your plan backfires.
"I don't need your help, mother," Evil-Lyn broke the telepathic link, and set off to plan how she could steal Grayskull from King Hiss when the time comes.
Snake Mountain
Dark Side of Eternia
Colonel Markson made a supreme pain in the butt of himself to Skeletor, but it was all to no avail. Skeletor refused to provide transportation back to Castle Grayskull, or even to the western edge of the Sands of Time desert bordering on the Evergreen Forest. Finally, Jon gave up the fight lest he and his people be thrown out of the only safe haven in this part of the world.
The freed captives were treated for the injuries, fed, and taken to a vast underground complex where they would live until they were transported back to the other side of the planet. The transports must have been running way behind schedule for there were over two thousand people in the Spartan living complex. There was enough room for four times that number.
Shocktroopers moved among the frightened people distributing food, medical supplies, pillows, and blankets. One woman a few inches shorter than Colonel Markson moved with the robots comforting every person she met. She appeared unmindful of the dirty rags that had once been a plain, yet stunning green dress. Red strands of hair constantly drooped into her eyes when she stooped to talk to someone. Despite the disheveled state, the woman projected an air of commanding one usually found in the military or in politicians.
King Randor made his rounds to assure the newcomers they would be going home as soon as possible. Up to this point he had not seen the woman taking such great pains to see to the comfort of others before her. Their eyes met across a sea of people making themselves comfortable on cots. Time slowed to a stop as the pair locked gazes. Jon watched the encounter from a safe distance, perking up as the man and woman made their way toward each other. Their movements grew harried the closer they got to one another.
The pair collided into a loving embrace the likes of which Jon Markson rarely witnessed. This was possibly the opening Jon had been waiting for. He lingered near the entrance to the immense cavern waiting for the pair to approach. Both had tears of joy streaming down their cheeks as the walked toward the colonel, arms around each other's waists.
They halted before the colonel, and an overwhelmed King Randor replied, "I can't describe how I feel at this moment. Colonel Markson, allow me to introduce my wife? Queen Marlena. I thought she had been killed six months ago in a battle with the Snake Men. You brought her back to me. And for that, you have my thanks."
Hesitantly, Jon shook the king's proffered hand. "Does this mean I can get that ride out of here?"
"But where would you go?" Marlena asked.
"Half of my people should be in Castle Grayskull by now. I need to get back to them before those slimy snakes attack."
"No one can get into Grayskull. Even Granamyr could not get in. And he's almost as powerful as King Hiss," Randor said.
"The Sorceress can, if she's still alive," Jon countered.
Marlena looked shocked. "The Sorceress still lives? We all thought she was dead. Where has she been all these years?"
"Why don't we get you tended to first?" Randor suggested. "Take a bath, have some food, and get some rest before you pester the colonel with questions."
Marlena reluctantly agreed. The thought of the Sorceress still living energized her, and it was doubtful she would get any rest until at least a few of her questions were answered.
As the pair stepped past the colonel, Randor whispered, "After you have answered her questions about the Sorceress, and your people, I will see what I can do about transport back to Castle Grayskull."
"Your welcome," Jon replied, though the pair was already out of earshot.
Horde Battleship Hoscar
Deep Space
7 June 2017
General Rongar surveyed the organized chaos that was Sagan's workshop, and the partially disassembled battle suit standing in the far corner. The outer panels had been stripped away to reveal aging circuits, pistons, gears, and biomechanical musculature. Much of it had deteriorated over the course of ages in storage. None of it was beyond Horde science to repair, however. It would just be a matter of time.
Rongar could hardly wait. This suit was a monster. The designs only enhanced that theory. The initial reports on the battle suits recovered by the Earthers increased his opinion that this suit was the only thing that could stand up to the other six. Individually or all at once, Rongar cared little. Firepower was nothing if the man inside the suit could not use the suit's abilities to their full effect. Rongar intended to master this suit before engaging the Earthers. Then he would destroy them, and end their threat to Horde Prime's empire.
Sagan walked out from behind the battle suit, saw his commander and friend, and snapped to attention. Rongar waved off the formality. This was probably the only being in the empire he did not stand on ceremony with. Rongar handed Sagan a data pad containing the latest intelligence reports. Although Sagan was a scientist by trade, he studied military strategy as a hobby. Some of his amateur insights proved more accurate than those whose job it was to study the reports and draw conclusions from them. By now, Sagan was so used to his commander asking for insight on such things, he quit stating for the record that he was not a trained analyst.
After reading the information twice, Sagan replied, "Splitting up is not tactically sound unless you're sure you can get away with it."
"True," Rongar agreed. "However, these Earth people have proven themselves quite capable, more so than many commanders are willing to admit. What do you think they are up to?"
"Well, it's clear they think there is a way to cure the Sorceress in Castle Grayskull. The fact that they gained entry to the castle where Hiss could not is hardly surprising," Sagan replied. He studied the information again. "He's a little arrogant to think his poison killed her when he hasn't seen the body."
"Indeed. His ego is nearly as big as the planet. I'll bet the Sorceress did, in fact perish, but only her physical body. That can be repaired, if the stories of the potential power of the magic contained within Grayskull are remotely accurate." Rongar grew thoughtful for a moment. "Healing the Sorceress can't be the only reason for going to Eternia."
"Maybe they are acting on the information they stole from our computers," Sagan suggested.
"Elaborate."
"Well, they may be trying to piece together what happened to He-Man, his sister, She-Ra, and all their allies. This attack on Palace Eternia could to rescue the Sorceress, while important, may have been a diversion to steal valuable intelligence from the palace computer," Sagan surmised. "We know Hiss has not purged the records like he was ordered to do on several occasions."
"I knew that might come back to haunt us. Horde Prime wouldn't let me send in a specialist team to wipe the computer core. That core was the only one outside of Horde World still containing the planet's location where He-Man and company have been sent." Rongar grew thoughtful again. "It really doesn't matter. Even if Captain Majourny's people do decipher the coded data, it'll do them no good. That planet is so heavily defended not even this so-called Guardian Force could get in there; to say nothing of breaking out."
Ever the realist, Sagan replied, "But there is a chance regardless of how slim it is."
"There is," Rongar mused, "but I think their needs are more immediate than trying to find He-Man and She-Ra."
"I'm not sure I follow. Returning He-Man and She-Ra would certainly give many worlds hope that the Empire could be defeated."
"True, but think about this. Our arrival on their world effectively forced them into a war they cannot hope to win. Even with the mystical armor, they are hopelessly outnumbered. What they need most right now are-"
"-allies," Sagan finished. The reality dawned on him as well. "But how many will be willing to take up the fight against the Empire after having been beaten down and losing their icons of hope?"
"That, my friend, is what will be so interesting to see," Rongar said, smiling devilishly.
"And what of King Hiss?"
Rongar made a face of disgust. "What of him?"
"Are you going to inform him of what you suspect? And what of the garrison commander on Planet Phantos? Surely, he will attempt to capture the Eternia and her crew," Sagan reminded his friend. That's what Rongar liked most about these discussions. Sagan never let him forget details.
"As far as King Hiss is concerned, let his ego do all the work. I'm sure Colonel Markson will embarrass him." Rongar held up a hand. "I know the Colonel is there. The data our spies sent indicates he is very short on diplomacy. It would really break my heart if they handed Hiss his head. All five of them.
"Captain Majourny will likely be tasked with establishing some sort of diplomatic relations with Queen Elmora. Xandran is the garrison commander; a fool of a man who couldn't command his way out of a dark room. I will send an advisory message to him to leave Majourny and her crew alone. I expect he will disregard it and do something incredibly stupid. Jo-jo will likely serve his head up on a platter for his efforts."
They shared a quiet chuckle over that, then turned their attention to the progress of refurbishing the battle suit.