These characters don't belong to me. They do, though, belong to Mattel. I'm not making any money off of this and so on.

This fic takes place in the same continuity as "Preludes and Beginnings," "He-Man: Year One," "The Elfsong of Eternia," "The Crossroads of Destiny," "Prophecy & Change," "Just Another Day," "The Final Adventure," "A Winter's Heart," and "The Shroud of the Horde."

It serves as a basic sequel to "Liberty and Valor" and concludes the Destiny series that started with "The Crossroads of Destiny," and continued in "Prophecy & Change," "Just Another Day," and "Liberty and Valor."

Previously:

King Hiss released the Snake Goddess Vipera, daughter of Serpos. Exchanging places with Teela and nearly killing Prince Adam's fiancée Kathryn, Vipera released an army of Snake-Men. Eternos, Snake Mountain, and the Great Towers were all taken by the Snake-Men.

After breaking up with Kathryn because she decided she couldn't handle He-Man/Adam's lifestyle, He-Man teamed up with Skeletor and along with Orko, She-Ra, Battle-Cat and a few others, managed to overcome Vipera and the Snake-Men . . . only to have Skeletor use the Magic Stealer to take a portion of Castle Grayskull's power and bring his Evil Warriors to him!

Chapter One – "Heroes, Enemies, and Emissaries"

She-Ra couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as Swift-Wind bore down on the Magic Falls. Perhaps it was the rush of battle or perhaps it was that Teela's body was still in its transformed state, but something felt wrong as three of them landed on the banks of the Magic Falls.

"Thankssss She-Ra," Teela hissed.

"Not a problem," She-Ra answered.

Teela slide off the pegacorn and landed firmly on her face. She-Ra jumped down to help her up, but Teela waved her hand.

"No. I think I'm getting the hang of this," Teela responded. She straightened herself out, aligning her back, raising her butt, moving the tail that was now her legs. Teela pushed the tail forward and she was snapped upright.

"Nice," She-Ra said, the feeling of dread continuing to mount.

"It's oddly comfortable. And I'm getting the hang of it fast."

Teela slithered over towards the water. Not far away, the Magic Falls crashed loudly, foaming up the water. Hissing unconsciously, Teela slithered into the water. As soon as her whole body was beneath the water, she swung her tail about and pushed with her arms. She moved right underneath the falls and felt the power of the Magic Falls sweep over her transformed body.

The pure magic of the Magic Falls began to roll over her. Teela felt her tail split and regress back into toes, ankles, knees, and thighs. Her legs were back. She then put her hands on her face. Her nose was back. Her tongue and fangs were small again.

Teela broke out from the water. Her skin was fleshy again. She was back to normal.

"Here, Teela," She-Ra said, walking over. She handed Teela her cape. Teela wrapped it around her body.

"Thanks. Oh, Ancients, it feels so good to be back to normal."

"Yeah," She-Ra answered. "Listen, how about you rest for a bit?"

Teela sighed and sat down on a rock. "I thought you'd never ask!" she laughed.

She-Ra smiled and looked northward. Towards Castle Grayskull.

"What is it?" asked Teela.

"I just have a bad feeling, is all . . ."

He-Man's muscles tensed. He held onto the Sword of Power firmly and gazed at the Evil Warriors before him. By his side, Man-At-Arms powered up his laser cannon. Orko gulped. SeaHawk withdrew a sword.

"Orko, your powers are actually working well now?" asked He-Man as he faced off with the Evil Warriors.

"Yeah."

"Get the Heroic Warriors here. Now."

Orko waved his brand-spanking-new wand around and with a loud 'POP' and a flash of light, the entire team of Heroic Warriors appeared.

Fisto smiled and stepped forward first. "We were wondering where your jerks went to . . ."

"From one battle right to the next," grunted Extendar.

They all stood there, all of them fighting alongside each other just minutes ago. Just mere minutes. But now . . . they were locked into their old roles. Battle, war, violence . . . it is sometimes the only language one can understand. For He-Man, knowing that Skeletor was one of those people, took a last shot at peace.

"Skeletor. Just give me the capsule. Give me back that fraction of Grayskull's power you took and let's walk away from this."

Skeletor laughed a little. "You truly think that I will give up a part of that I have wanted for so very long? You truly believe that I will let loose this chance to take the power I just witnessed in full form? Ah, He-Man, I have stood at the throne of Grayskull once and been soaked in the power of the Great Eye of the Universe. I have walked into the Hall of Secrets. I have captured the power of Grayskull once and have known done so again. And while it is far more than before, I have the foothold I need."

Skeletor thin fingers clutched the capsule and he cackled. "Grayskull will be mine once more! Eternia will bow to my will! And you . . . you will crumble beneath my POWER!"

A beam of power fired out from Skeletor Chaos Staff. He-Man lifted his shield and the beam was deflected into the air. He-Man then charged forward, sitting Battle-Cat, who growled as he leapt. Like two great waves, the Heroic Warriors and Evil Warriors collided in the shadow of Castle Grayskull.

Some were weary from the previous battle. Others had too little and were craving for more. A few, like Fisto and Jitsu, and Rotar and Twistoid, were fighting just as much in the name of old feuds as they were in the name of their respective alliances.

He-Man and Skeletor, however, fought with fury and power and exhaustion. He-Man had thought that their time together had really opened his eyes and he had just started to not so much trust Skeletor as understand him. Perhaps even trust and, to an extent, honor him. That was broken as soon as Skeletor managed to steal some of Castle Grayskull's power.

Weapons and energy scoured through the late morning as the forces of good and evil crashed against one another. Swords clanged, punches were thrown, kicks delivered.

No one even suspected that they were being watched.

"The force field is down!"

Flipshot, a young man dressed in a blue jumpsuit, turned to his commander. Hydron, a red-haired man about seven years Flipshot's senior, stepped over to his blond friend.

"So I see," Hydron replied. "Activate the scanners."

Flipshot nodded and started to press a few keys next to the monitor that displayed Eternia. They had traveled so far, these emissaries of Primus. They had been sent to Eternia on a mission of mercy. For the sake of their entire planet, they were in need of help that only Eternia could offer.

"Um . . . Hydron?" Flipshot suddenly asked, confused by the reading he was getting.

"What is it?" asked Hydron.

"I'm getting some strange readings here. Take a look."

Hydron pressed a small button next to the scan readings. A hologram of the Evergreen Forest appeared, with three pulsing dots in two locations. Two of them were right next to each while the third was farther south.

"Three of them?" Hydron questioned. "Zodak told us that the one we seek would be the only one emitting these kinds of energy signatures."

"According my sensor sweeps, each one is different. Now, it looks as though two of them are at that location we told about. Castle Grayskull."

"Yes, I see that," Hydron observed. His fingers pressed onto a few keys. "Looks like a lot of life-forms around them too. All right. I don't think we much of a choice. We can't sit in orbit forever. Not with our solar sail damaged. Make preparations to teleport both those life forms near Castle Grayskull up here. We'll sort it out after that."

Flipshot nodded. "Gotcha. I'm preparing the main sequencers. Locked on. All right. Let's go."

The pair left the bridge, through a sliding door, down a corridor and into a small chamber where there was a large glass square panel and a computer station. Hydron and Flipshot both manned the computer and began to work at the controls.

Light and energy began to sizzle on the pad. As the light and energy started to fade off, two forms appeared. A blond-haired man with tan skin wearing a metal harness and a belt with fur flowing across his thighs holding a sword. The other was another man, this one with a skull face famed in a purple cloak that flowed down to his ankles; his skin was blue and he held in his hand a staff with a ram's skull on the top.

They were both unbalanced as they appeared on the teleporter, as if about to strike at something. Or, as the two emissaries of Primus realized, at someone.

"What on Eternia is this?" asked the skull-faced one, who had a voice that exuded evil.

"Some sort of starship . . ." the tan man replied.

"Greetings!" Hydron exclaimed. "My name is Hydron and this is my second-in-command, Flipshot!"

"Howdy!" Flipshot exclaimed.

"This must have been what the Meteorbs were talking about," Skeletor realized.

Hydron glanced at Flipshot, both not quite sure as to how this was going. "Ah, yes, we passed them on their way here. They managed to break through the force field that was surrounding your planet. We couldn't, though, we didn't have the power."

"The force field is down now," Flipshot added. "That's why we were able to - "

"Is this a large starship?" asked Skeletor. "A warship?"

"Yes."

Skeletor snickered.

"NO!" shouted He-Man reaching towards Skeletor.

But Skeletor was too fast. With the wave of his hand, a stream of lightning blasted He-Man. With the thrust of his Chaos Staff, both Hydron and Flipshot were sent sailing into the wall. Skeletor ran off the pad and out the door.

"Damn it!" He-Man shouted, standing up and chasing after Skeletor.

"Hold on just a minute here!" yelled Hydron, rushing after He-Man. "What is going on here?"

"He's going to highjack your ship!" He-Man shouted.

"What does that mean?"

"HE'S GOING TO STEAL IT!" He-Man yelled and rushed through the doors to the bridge. His shield was raised and it took the brunt attack he knew Skeletor was going to let loose upon him.

Skeletor let loose bolts of power against He-Man, each one striking either his sword or his shield.

"Just give me the capsule, Skeletor!" roared He-Man, swiping his sword out and towards Skeletor, only to strike the Chaos Staff.

"Never, you idiot!" shouted Skeletor

With astounding speed, He-Man leapt up, sword drawn. His feet missed Skeletor entirely, but he got off a blast of power. He-Man easily avoided the strike, but it hit an array of controls. The controls erupted into flames, distracting He-Man and Skeletor for just a moment.

"Stop this!" yelped Hydron.

Skeletor cackled and let loose a dozen streams of lightning. They struck panel after panel after panel.

"If I can't have this ship, no one can!" laughed the villain.

He-Man's fist collided directly with Skeletor's face, sending him flailing back into an elevator. The door slammed shut before He-Man could follow him. As soon as the doors closed, the ship lurched forward, the view of Eternia in the large windows tilting.

"What is going on here?" asked Flipshot, rushing into the bridge.

"The navigational controls are in shambles!" Hydron yelled, trying to press a few of the remaining keys. "So much for our mission of mercy. Flipshot, try and stabilize us! Bring out the secondary units and realign the controls to automatic!"

The ship lurched again.

"I need to find Skeletor and stop him before he can do even more damage," He-Man said, standing by the door.

Hydron pressed a small key, which caused the ships interior sensors to display a hologram of life-forms locations.

"Fourth deck, shuttle bay."

"I need to stop him. Can you help me?"

"Yes. Flipshot! Stablize the ship!"

"Yeah yeah!" retorted the ace pilot, pulling out large devices from beneath the panel of the floor.

He-Man and Hydron ran down the corridor that had the teleporter chamber in it and into a secondary elevator. The doors closed and they went sliding down.

"I'm to guess you're He-Man?" asked Hydron.

"Yes. I'm sorry about this. You picked us up right in the middle of battle."

"So I gathered."

"How do you know my name?"

"We need your help. My planet is in danger."

"We'll have to discuss that after I deal with Skeletor."

The door slid open and once more, He-Man hefted his shield to protect himself against Skeletor onslaught. Once more, he needed it.

"It's over, Skeletor," He-Man shouted, running into a large room, holding four small ships.

"And just how many times have you said that to me?" asked Skeletor, standing next to one of the ships, its cockpit open.

A laser beam fired near Skeletor's skull. Skeletor shifted his head at just the right second and repaid the attacker with an energy bolt from his Chaos Staff. Hydron flew back again at the attack of Skeletor.

He-Man rushed forward. Skeletor lifted up the capsule that contained some of Grayskull's power. A small stream of energy suddenly connected Skeletor's fingers and the capsule. The capsule flashed brightly and then released a screeching beam of white light that struck He-Man square in the chest. He-Man fell to the floor.

Skeletor leapt into the cockpit and waved his hand over the controls. With a simple spell, they were all suddenly translated. He activated the engines, opened the force field protected bay doors and went flying out of the vessel in the stolen shuttle and zoomed towards Eternia below.

As the large bay door shut and the force field dropped, He-Man came to his senses. Hydron was by his side.

"He escaped," Hydron reported.

"Where did he go?" asked He-Man with urgency. "Castle Grayskull?"

He-Man was up on his feet in a second. Hydron had never seen anyone move with such speed. Hydron pulled up a holographic map of Eternia above his wrist and they could see that Skeletor's stolen shuttle was in fact heading towards the Dark Hemisphere, presumably to Snake Mountain.

"All right. That gives me a little bit of time," he breathed. "How is your ship?"

"It looked like mostly panel cosmetic damage up there. Should be stabilizing soon."

"I need to back down to the surface."

"Hold on."

"I don't really have - "

"Our teleporter might have sustained damage and it's going to be a few minutes until we can land. Can you spare us some time? Aren't you the least bit curious why we're here?"

He-Man looked away, sighing. The past 72 hours had been a mess and it was looking like it wasn't going to end soon. He nodded. "Yes. I . . . I'm sorry. Just a little tense."

Hydron gave He-Man an understanding smile. "So I guessed."

"What are you doing here?"

Hydron squared his shoulders and waved his hands out before him, as though he had rehearsed this at least twenty times.

"Let me tell you about the plight of Primus . . ."