Epilogue

Starship Eternia

After picking up Colonel Markson's platoons, recovering the dropships and returning recovered pilots into the care of Major Oran, Jo-jo returned to Castle Brightmoon to await relief from the Val-kyrie team currently en route to assist in putting the heavily damaged castle back in order. She didn't envy them the work required to patch up the structure, much less make it reasonably secure again. Commander Mundu assured her that the engineering crew on the way was one of the best the warrior women had.

Both starships would remain in the Etherian system for several days before the handover; the respite from battle was very welcome. The only action left to tackle was to return Queen Frosta to the Snow People. Unfortunately, the only member of the crew capable of breaking the spell imprisoning the queen in what appeared to be a block of ice was the Sorceress of Grayskull, currently laying in the sick bay with a concussion resulting from Shadow Weaver braining her with a rock during their pitched battle.

After a hot shower and a change of clothes, Adrian made his way through corridors bustling with activity, moving in the direction of the sick bay. He expected to see other members of the platoons looking in on injured comrades, but he frowned when he caught sight of He-man and his sister checking in on the Sorceress. The pair kept their distance, staying out of the way of Doctor Carter and his staff moving about the medical section.

"Well, you've got your swords back. People should start flocking to your banners again once they find out you're back," Adrian stated, flatly.

He-man frowned. "Now you believe in us?"

"I don't," the Guardian admitted bluntly. Nodding to the sleeping Sorceress, he added, "But she does. I believe in her." He moved off across the room before either of the twins could respond. Grabbing a comfortable chair from the back of the room, Adrian set it down left of the Sorceress' bed and settled down for what might be a long vigil.

Adrian was past caring about public opinion. The woman was a part of his little unit and he was their elected leader. To that end, he settled into the chair more firmly and reached out with his right hand to take hold of her left.

The Sorceress was dressed in the normal hospital garb of loose-fitting pants and shirt. Adrian took in the shapely form of the woman outlined beneath the blanket, admiring the physical beauty, with the eye of a connoisseur, not a lecher. He admired her intelligence even more, the perspective she brought to the table meaning a lot to him. She had become the guiding conscience for the Guardians. It was through her that Adrian hoped that they would never succumb to the near overwhelming temptation presented by the growing power of the battlesuits and their sentient AIs. She was by no means immune, but keeping the others grounded kept her grounded, as well.

Hours slipped by slowly, with no one coming near the pair except for nurses making the rounds. Doc Carter's examination had revealed that the concussion did not appear to be that severe. The Sorceress' healing magic was already at work, so she could be waking up at any time. It would likely be a while, though, because of the fighting she had engaged in; the magical energy expended before taking on Shadow Weaver and physical exhaustion meant she probably wouldn't wake up before tomorrow at the earliest. Adrian did not care how long it took. He would be right there by her side when she finally did wake up.

As it turned out, the estimate had been off by a considerable amount. Sorceress roused from her deep sleep, clawing her way upwards to consciousness. Falcon, still in medallion form and resting against her operator's chest beneath the covers, obligingly brought the woman up to speed on what had transpired after the Sorceress had been knocked out by Shadow Weaver. Sorceress grew concerned when Falcon proudly admitted to what she had done to the vile witch in return for daring to try taking control of the AI's power -but decided to leave that for another time.

Cautiously, Sorceress cracked open her eyes and found the lights had been dimmed. She recognized the Eternia's sick bay immediately. She also became aware of someone sitting close by. Her left hand was gripped by another. A male hand. Moving only her eyes, the form of a man slumped slightly in a comfortable chair on her left swam into view; she recognized Adrian Cobretti instantly. It figured that he would be the one sitting vigil, starting with his sense of responsibility. As she watched, his head dropped suddenly and snapped up again. He was struggling to stay awake against the creeping exhaustion setting in from the battle.

"On your right," Sorceress whispered loud enough for him to hear.

Adrian's head snapped up, eyes widening slightly as he turned to look at the woman. He relaxed at the slight smile on her face. Narrowed eyes closed, and the Sorceress relaxed into the pillows. He squeezed her hand. Her return squeeze was weaker, but firm. Adrian dropped his head back and finally yielded to sleep.

Fright Zone

"This will hurt," Modulok warned. He gave the device that would repair Hordak's breached armor one last look-over.

Just get on with it," Hordak rumbled, distractedly. Pain was nothing new to him. The discomfort Modulok's device was likely to inflict would be insignificant to the pain his ego had suffered on the battlefield today.

Hordak had thought these aliens from the backwater world the Horde attempted to invade two years ago would pose no challenge. They had made a surprising counterattack, but it would have been all for naught in the end. Except that He-man had rejoined the fight on Eternia and the fleet at the low-tech world had been the closest one that could respond. Even with the recovery of the long-lost Guardian battlesuits, Hordak still believed that they did not have the will to match his ferocity in a fight.

He had been proven wrong.

The one operating the black and silver winged suit, calling itself War Wing, did have the will. Hordak had no doubt that the suit's AI had somehow augmented the human's shape-changing abilities. An interesting turn since there was no mention of such a thing in the old records. But then, who could have predicted the outcome of the experiment where the organic and inorganic minds operated as one? The suits exhibited abilities that had never been planned for or even conceived of a thousand years ago. Evidently, they were experimenting with the technology built into the suits in ways only primitive people could come up with.

Nevertheless, the shape-changer had willingly met Hordak in single combat. Sought him out, in fact. An act to be respected. Although he'd scorned the human at the time, he had earned Hordak's grudging respect in having met his ferocity pound for pound, even wounding him in the process. No small feat, that.

A commotion at the door to Modulok's laboratory drew Hordak's attention. Apparently, General Narssis was trying to enter the lab despite the currently glowing light outside that signified DO NOT ENTER whenever it was lit. Narssis was growing more and more insistent about delivering a message of some sort.

Hordak overruled Modulok and bade the man to enter and deliver the message.

"My Lord," a harried Narssis said in greeting. He had not bother to clean himself up first upon returning to the command center and still reeked of the battlefield.

"I see you escaped relatively unscathed," Hordak observed.

The man suddenly looked more nervous, if that was possible. "Uh, no. My walker was disabled, and the enemy captured me briefly. I was released with the promise to deliver a message to you from one of those Guardians."

"Indeed," Hordak said, flatly.

"The one called War Wing, the one who fought you in single combat, demanded I relay his message." The man paused to compose himself and remember Adrian's words exactly. Hordak waited relatively patiently. "He said, 'tell Hordak I look forward to the rematch.' He made me repeat it several times to be sure I had it correct."

Hordak nodded absently. He waved a negligent left hand in a signal of dismissal. Narssis moved practically at the speed of light, retreating from Modulok's house of horrors.

"Yes," Hordak whispered to himself while the chief scientist made himself busy elsewhere in the lab. "I, too, look forward to a rematch." The burning in his left side, indicating the nanomachines were hard at work, fed the creature's terrible need to avenge himself on the impudent creature that had forced him to retreat from a battle for the first time in his life. Yes, a rematch was due. Only it would be Hordak who would emerge the victor, regardless of how much that battlesuit AI assisted the human. Hordak vowed to teach them both how terrible his wrath could be.

Elsewhere, another survivor of the battlefield returned to her sanctum in defeat. Shadow Weaver had been retrieved from the field after her battle with the Sorceress. A squad of troopers had been dispatched to get her back before the enemy could capture her. Three-quarters of the robots had been lost in the action, but Hordak's witch had been rescued and returned.

Body aching with every step, Shadow limped her way to her inner sanctum where only Hordak dared to go. And even he announced his arrival ahead of time. Shadow barely took note of the surrounding gloom, flickering torches in wall sconces, or images in the magic pool at the centerpiece of the chamber.

Her mind ran through the battle with the Sorceress, and the encounter with the powerful AI inhabiting the battlesuit she still coveted despite the outcome. Memories of briefly becoming one with the universe gradually faded, despite her best attempts to cling to them. It had been more power then she could have possibly imagined. The experience left her wanting. The need for power she had held prior to the encounter with Falcon seemed insignificant by comparison.

And it was all gone. Shadow Weaver had briefly touched the mind of God, if there really was such a deity, and then had been cruelly ejected from that godhood.

Absently, the witch tugged on the fingers of her right glove. A brief burst of magic had returned the red leather outfit to pristine condition. The glove slipped off easily. Shadow examined the back of her hand. Falcon's promise of a reminder of what she lost came unbidden to her mind. Knowing what she would find, Shadow turned her hand over. Burned into the skin of the palm were the neat outlines of a six-pointed star medallion with the round crystal center.

A solitary tear welled up in the left eye, overflowed and snaked a meandering path down Shadow's left cheek.

End Book 5

The Guardians will return in Book 6: Shadow Demon

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