Chapter 5

He-Man and King Randor landed hard on the cold rock floor of Snake mountain at the feet of the evil villains.

"Sire, are you alright?" The warrior had a worried look on his face.

The king stared down at his scraped knees and nodded. "I've had worse He-Man."

The both turned to the sound of an evil chuckle.

"Ha, I've captured two for the price of one! I didn't expect you to be in the throne room He-Man, but you always seem to be near the castle, and I see you are without your sword as well." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "You must work closely with the royal family." The blue villain pointed his havoc staff at the two men, "Either way you are both now my prisoners, and I have a feeling He-Man will gladly to tell me the secrets of Greyskull once he hears your screams your majesty!" He glanced at Trap Jaw, "Take them to the dungeons!"

"Keep dreaming Skeletor!" The king yelled as they were led away, the warrior did not look quite so convinced.

They were tied and bound in a cell to a wall opposite each other in a sitting position, the king bound with rope, but He-Man was bound with some sort of glowing magical lasso that even his super strength could not break. The blonde warrior expected thick chains, which he may have eventually broken, but apparently Skeletor had been paying attention to his weaknesses this past month.

Evil-Lyn lifted the warriors chin. "I'm sure you'll like those new bindings He-Man, I had them made especially for you from magnabeam particles, even your gorgeous muscles can't help you out of this one. In an hour or two you'll be as week as a kitten," She tuned to the king as he glared at her from his seated position, "And we'll see what Skeletor has in store for you."

They left laughing.

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He-Man stood and tried to struggle for several minutes whilst calling the power sword to appear from his back where he left it when jumping into the portal. He could push a mountain with He-Man's normal strength, so this rope should be child's play. The sword in its invisible stage was not responding either. If he could reach it, he could make short work of the lock on this door. The rope must be blocking Greyskull's power and with his already weakened state from the past month's attacks, his body's energy had taken a hit.

"He-Man stop, obviously they spelled that rope, you are only injuring yourself." Seeing the red gouges in his arms from the spelled rope the blonde sat down in frustration, eyes roaming over the room searching for anything he could use or reach to free themselves.

The monarch saw He-Man's eyes searching the cell for a way out. "Just like old times, eh He-Man? Except the situation was slightly reversed. As I recall you broke me out. At least this time I have interesting company."

The prince in disguise grinned, "You wouldn't have a hidden mesotronic bomb on you by any chance, would you?"

"No but that's not a bad idea. It seems like something Duncan would come up with for royal security."

He-Man grinned but his smile faltered as his eyes started getting droopy and his head started aching. "I think I wouldn't mind seeing Man-At-Arms about now."

"You know him well don't you?" Adam's head popped up to look at the king with narrowed eyes. The monarch had never really had a chance to ask him questions as He-Man. Unfortunately, he was literally a captive audience at the moment.

"I do sire, he showed me much of Eternia when I arrived five years ago. He's a good fighting partner." Hoping that was the last of the king's questions the warrior said nothing else.

"And my son, is he a good fighting partner?" He-Man thought carefully how to answer and swallowed before speaking. He didn't know who might be listening.

"Let's just say your son is not as defenseless as he would have you or others believe."

The king nodded, "Nor as clumsy and dimwitted, as I have come to find out. He is helping Eternia somehow isn't he? He runs to summon help doesn't he? I also suspect he is closer to someone else than he is to Duncan." The king said the word "help" and "someone else" with an inflection that was hard to miss.

He-Man could only stay silent, which the King took as confirmation.

"I believe my son knows some very sensitive information. I think he let all of us believe the worst of him to protect Eternia (nodding towards the tied warrior), I believe I know whom he met with when he went missing, and I believe I let him down in the worst way imaginable as a parent. He was always a good man, and I was blind." The monarch looked down into his lap. "Promise me you will not let Skeletor gain power over Greyskull and promise you will tell my son I have loved him no matter his subterfuge and have always been proud to call him my son. Nothing he did or allowed us to believe about him ever changed that fact."

Adam could not help the single tear that trailed down his cheek along his jaw as he held his breath trying to stifle his reaction to the very words he'd needed to hear from his father for the past five years.

The warrior said softly, "We will get out of here for you to tell him that yourself sire. It would mean the world to him to hear that from you."

"Marlena always said I was too hard on the boy, and now he's courting, he's more intelligent than any of us dreamed, and can fight. At least I know the kingdom will be in good hands." He-Man tilted his head back against the wall at that statement eyes threatening to run over with unshed tears he looked at the ceiling. He'd never once believed his father thought the kingdom would flourish under any rule of his.

The king watched the champion and noticed the tear as it dropped onto the warrior's knee. He'd never seen the fighter shed a tear before. He and Adam must be the best of friends to react as such. In fact, He-Man and Adam share many of the same mannerisms and speech patterns, very similar to he and Man-At-Arms when they were young. Why had he never seen it before?

The silence stretched for several minutes while the warrior stared at the wall, it surprised the monarch when he spoke again. "So, you're not angry to learn Adam may have been keeping some things from you?"

"No, well maybe at first, but I am worried about any danger this knowledge puts him in. Which makes me glad he has had certain friends to protect him and encourage him, when I could not or would not."

"He loves you your majesty, I know that much; and all the subterfuge killed him most days…It still does."

The king stayed silent contemplating his fun-loving, kind-hearted, happy jokester of a boy, silently cringing inside while plastering a goofy grin on his face chattering on and on about fishing and napping…all for the good of Eternia while his father berated him and thought him useless.

The men were silent once more, neither willing to say anymore lest the walls have ears.

He-Man's head was growing lower and lower, the warrior's eyes losing their luster. His head began to ache enough that he moaned at the slightest sound in the cell. King Randor became worried.

"Buck up son, Man-At-Arms and Teela will tear this place down looking for you."

"Yes father." The warrior replied softly in a higher pitch than normal, he seemed delirious. He sounded alarmingly similar to Adam.

Randor's eyebrows went straight up and eyes widened but quickly assumed He-Man thought he was talking to his own father in his delirium. He could not help but think the warrior sounded eerily like Adam. "Don't talk son, save your strength." He shushed the blonde man into silence when the cell door swung open. "Oh Ancients." He whispered as a blue clawed hand came into view.

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Teela could not believe what she just witnessed. Anyone in the room could see the immaculate speed in which the prince just summoned Eternia's champion. He-Man must reside in the palace, he must be someone Adam sees every day, someone even she possibly sees every day, and now he's been taken with the King. She concluded without a doubt, Adam knows He-Man, and she'd bet anything her father knows as well.

The guards finally appeared in the throne room and took Beastman from the grips of Man-At-Arms. "King Randor and He-Man have been taken! Notify the queen we will be planning an immediate a rescue mission, they can only have gone one place." Duncan nodded to Teela in a steely gaze, "We have to get them back. He-Man is not at full strength."

The woman blanched with understanding that the blonde warrior may not be able to take on the villains in snake mountain. Time was of the essence. "I'll meet you in the workroom." Her father nodded back.

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The blue skinned villain grabbed He-Man by the leather and metal harness on his chest and lifted the almost unconscious man off the ground.

"Evil-lyn you fool, he's too far gone! How am I supposed to get him to divulge the secrets of Greyskull now! I'm constantly dealing with incompetence!"

"You said would wanted him weak my lord…"

"I said weak, not catatonic you blundering fool." Skeletor finally turned to look at the king.

"Well your majesty, we meet again, and your favorite hero is in no state to help you. I believe I will start my questions with you." He nodded back to Evil-lyn, "Untie that muscle head and put him in normal shackles, I need him awake."

The King was taken away and beaten by numerous henchmen and a complaining blue skinned villain on the fact that the king knew virtually nothing about the secrets of Greyskull. The only thing wrung from him was that the original King Greyskull was an ancestor with great power and the beaten monarch did not know where He-Man comes from, his identity, or how he was summoned. Randor was thrown back into the cell floor barely breathing and bloodied, the villains not even bothering to tie him to the wall.

The blue skull faced warrior muttering to himself as he slammed the cell door. "How can that man be king, he doesn't know a thing about his kingdom."

He-Man opened his eyes slowly at the sound of the slamming cell door, his head pounding but at least he was coherent, and his arms were no longer bound by the magnabeam rope. He looked around him and saw the black outline of a person on the floor in the center if the cell.

"Father!" He cried, "Father can you hear me?" He pulled on the shackles bound over his wrists with all his might, his head screaming in pain and his thoughts fuzzy, but his strength was even less than human. "Father please answer me."

The king opened his eyes but could not move.

The warrior kept asking for his father with tears in his eyes, pulling on the chains that bound him. "Father, please."

Randor noted the blonde warrior struggling and was glad that lasso hadn't killed him. But the way he was calling for his father and were those tears? Why?

He-Man whispered, "Father, you have to open your eyes and tell me you are alright, you have to. Please!" He stopped struggling and starting breathing deep in agony, tears streaming. "Sorceress, Greyskull, please help me." He begged.

He tried speaking with a throat raw from screaming through Skelator's torture. "He-Man?"

The blonde looked towards the black mass which still hadn't moved. He swore he heard something. "Father?"

Randor saw He-Man's head immediately pop up and swivel towards him, but what he saw was Adam's worried eyes and what he heard was Adam's voice calling for him on nights he was scared of the dark.

He closed his eyes and whispered, "Adam?"

He heard a sigh of relief and the warrior sagged in relief, "I'm here father, you're alright, I'm here."

The monarch kept his eyes closed tightly and concentrated. He heard his boy clearly, My son. My sweet boy. He sobbed clenching his eyes tightly shut with this new found knowledge.

The pain in his heart was now outweighing the physical pain of his body. He cried with knowledge and possibility that his boy was somehow this grown man chained to the wall. He cried over how unfairly he'd treated his only son these past five years. He cried now knowing the tremendous responsibility placed on one so young, and most of all he cried knowing his boy was next in Skeletor's hands and he could do little to protect him.

Adam could hear his father sobbing silently, thanking the Ancients he was alive. He would never have forgiven himself if he remained helpless while his father was killed by an enemy he had let get away numerous times. Skeletor had been escalating his violence recently and he must do everything in his power to stop it. He sent a silent prayer to the spirit of Greyskull to give him full strength, his mind still in a fog. This ends now.

The beaten king slowly made his way to the wall where the blonde was struggling with his shackles, still processing the fact that this man may very well be his son.

Seeing the king crawling towards him, the youth wept, "Father just rest, don't try to move."

Randor ignored him. He made his way to the man and sat next to him leaving heavily on the wall. In the dim light he could still see tear streaks on the man's face which was not his sons. He stared in confusion until closing his eyes again and reaching out to touch the warrior's hands. Those hands closed over his own and held them tightly like Adam did when he was a child. He-Man brought the king's hands to his face and bowed over them touching his forehead, "I will end him for what he's done to you, this I swear."

Again he heard Adam's voice, but with a vehemence he'd never before heard from his kindhearted child.

"I'm alright, just a little worse for wear."

The warrior looked up at him with sad eyes still having trouble focusing. "I'm so sorry, this is my fault."

"Look at me boy. This is not your doing. This is the result of a power hungry mad man."

Both men sat in silence lost in thought, hoping for rescue before someone else came back to the cell. He-Man started gaining back his strength and his head started clearing up slowly. He silently wondered what he may have said to the man sitting next to him now that he was able to focus better.

Why were they holding hands again? He vaguely remembered calling him father.

Oh, Ancients did anyone hear? What did my father think of that one?

He looked down at his shackled hands no longer restrained by the magnabeam ropes.

I can reach my power sword now and break out of these shackles, but can I break out of this cell with He-Man's strength? Am I even back to full strength.

He-Man stood, the pounding in his brain throbbed slightly with the movement, started testing his muscles while pacing the cell looking for the best spot to break out.

Randor just watched silently noticing a million details in the warrior's movements now that he was aware of the possibility. He tried to re-adjust his sitting position, wincing as a pain spasmed in his back.

"Sire, are you alright?" Adam rushed to his father, "Don't move too much more, I'll have us out of here in no time."

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Teela busied herself buy reading the attack track when Man-At-Arms entered the work shop with Cringer.

"I've readied the track with your guns, ammo, and fuel enough to get to snake mountain. Have you found Adam?"

"The prince knows everything." The woman nodded confusedly wondering who told him of all that's transpired. "Is he coming? We, could use the help.

The man scowled, "As the future ruler of Eternia he cannot. But Orko and Cringer will assist us."

"But it's his father! And his friend! And you choose those two, are you serious?" She stopped what she was doing to stare at her father.

"You said yourself, we could use the extra help. Masters Ram Man, Sy-Klone and Fisto will meet us at Snake Mountain with a larger transport in case…." He didn't finish the sentence.

The redhead strapped herself in. "Then let's go!" Cringer and Orko met them outside the workshop and they raced to save their hero and their monarch.

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He-Man stood tall as he grabbed the sword from its invisible scabbard on his back. Randor could only watch in awe as the large man swung the sword with all his might at the lock on the cell door and cringed at the sharp tang it made as it fell apart to a million pieces.

Randor cringed, "All of Eternia heard that son."

"Then let's not be here when they arrive" He re-sheathed his sword and lifted the monarch over his shoulders. "I've got you sire, we are leaving this party."

"Thank the Ancients." He moaned.

The blonde ran into the dark corridors, thankfully he'd been to Snake Mountain several times and felt he was headed in the right direction, but his thoughts were still not one hundred percent. Suddenly a loud explosion and light came from a tunnel to their right.

"What do you suppose that was?" The king whispered weakly.

"I am hoping it's our escort home sire. Man-At-Arms is tenacious when there is an obstacle in his path, and the explosion I am guessing is a very angry Ram Man." He-Man strode carefully towards the melee.

Sure enough, Man-At-Arms and Orko were dealing with a very irritated Trap Jaw which somehow had flowers sticking to his face and eyes, most likely courtesy of the Trollan. Teela seemed to be holding her own against Evil-lyn delivering a flying sidekick to knock the staff from the foul woman's grasp while Fisto was preparing to throw a punch into one of Skelator's beams. Sy-Klone and Cringer seemed to notice He-Man and the King almost immediately. The samurai like blue skinned warrior had always seemed to know more than he let on.

"He-Man, let me take him, we will get you to the transport and a healer immediately." The big man lifted the king from Adam's shoulders and they beat a hasty retreat out of snake mountain. Their comrades following closely behind.

Once on the transport He-Man finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, all my friends. I am in your debt." Adam found a nice spot to sit next to his father, holding his hand the entire time back to the castle. Occasionally the king would open his eyes and stare at the warrior close to him without making a sound. The rest of the Masters didn't say anything but thought the exchange extremely odd, never having seen such intense emotion from the hero before.

Teela most of all. What happened to those two in there?

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The king was rushed into the infirmary to a private room where the doctors could examine him, He-Man watched through a window in the hall with a worried expression on his face and running a hand through his hair in a vaguely familiar nervous habit.

Teela watched the warrior closely tentatively offering advice, "He'll be alright He-Man, you should probably find Adam."

The big man's gaze turned sharply to hers searching her eyes. "Yes, you're right, please accept my apologies for not being able to prevent this. Tell his majesty I will do everything in my power to prevent this from happening again." He turned and left, leaving a stunned set of Masters looking on.

He-Man stopped short as her father came into view, "Don't worry He-Man, you did what you could." Duncan placed a hand on the warriors shoulder, the same way he would Adam's. Teela's brows knit.

The queen entered several minutes later and went to sit silently next to her husband who was resting quietly. Dr. Samuels spoke softly to her as Adam slowly and somberly entered the room walking through a gauntlet of waiting Masters. Everyone held their breath at the prognosis.

"He has several broken ribs, he was whipped several times across his back causing mostly superficial lacerations which we have treated and wrapped, and we stopped the internal bleeding in his abdomen caused by possible kicks to the stomach. The rest are surficial bruises which will heal on their own. He will be fine with some rest milady and will recover fully in the next thirty days or so." The Dr. turned to the queen. "He will not be able to serve in any official capacity for weeks."

Adam whispered, "I understand doc, I'll take over for a while." The doctor looked closely at the twenty-three-year-old youth who he knew took on more than met the eye. The blonde looked tired, haggard, and the doctor could see the slightest shake in his step.

"Fine, but only after several days of rest for you both, the Kingdom can wait." After seeing the doctor's scrutiny Adam only nodded seeing the wisdom in his statement.

"I'll stay with him for now son, you go get some rest. You have a long couple weeks ahead of you. I'll send word when he wakes up."

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The prince left the infirmary with Teela on his heels, she put a hand on his arm while walking, "Adam are you alright?"

"No Teela, I am not. This is my fault, I was with my father right before the throne room, If I hadn't argued and thrown a pity party and left him, I would have been there to defend him, to protect him." He ran a hand through his hair in a familiar gesture she'd just witnessed only moments before in a blonde warrior of similar height and build. Her eyes went wide.

"Humph, And do you blame He-Man as well? For not being able to go up against half a dozen enemies by himself?"

"Of course, I do! With all his strength and powers He-Man could not even fight in Snake Mountain. They had him trapped with a magnabeam rope that suppressed his strength somehow. He-Man needs to be stronger, and more available, so this never happens again!"

They walked along the corridor nearing one of the palace fountains where they had their first date after the ball. Seeing a bench along the walkway, the prince plopped down on it hard. Hoping to hide the fact that his legs were so weak he could not make it back to his room without a rest. Teela was not fooled.

Teela put her hand on both of his shoulders, "Adam, He-Man is human, am I correct?" Adam nodded. "And he doesn't know everything does he?" Adam shook his head, fighting back the tears of exhaustion and emotion threatening to consume him. "And he can't be in two places at, once can he?"

"No, he can't." He agreed.

"Then I suggest He-Man goes back to his room, gets some rest, and in a couple days shows his father a thing or two about running a kingdom, and when our resting monarch is back on his feet. He-Man will show Skelator the egregious error in judgement he made in harming our beloved king." Adam still staring at the fountain in remorse didn't catch the full weight of her statement for a few seconds. Then turned to the Captain who was regarding him with amusement.

He eyes cleared from that glossed over look she'd seen before when he was abnormally tired, "Wait, what did you say?"

"I said He-Man needs some rest, he tries to take on too much." Adam looked at her with confused piercing blue eyes into her amused emerald ones. "Being a hero, fighting off goons several times a week, always saving the day…" Adam seemed to start to relax, "Not to mention being involved in the day to day running of the kingdom, hiding his disappearances from prying eyes, dodging courtiers, reading thick tactics books, training sessions with a talented Captain of the guard, and romancing said Captain of the guard several nights a week. I mean who wouldn't be exhausted?" She threw up her hands in mock exasperation. "I don't know how you do it."

Adam blanched not knowing how to react. Teela looked at with an expression daring him to confirm or deny her little "suggestion".

He sighed and leaned back in the sunlight with his eyes closed expecting a very angry red-headed tirade soon. "How long have you known?"

She smiled sweetly, "Hmm, around two seconds." He chuckled softly.

"Teela" He looked to her seriously now, she placed a hand on his thigh showing support. He saw no anger in her face, no blame….nothing but love.

The prince placed his hands on both her cheeks, "I love you Teela Duncan."

"I know." The red-head said coyly. "How about I help you to your room, no more pretending." Adam was hoping to hear it back, but guessed she wasn't ready. Not after that revelation. He just wished he had the energy to ask her how she felt about everything, about him. He tried to stand with her help.

"We still need to talk." He said with furrowed brows as she put her arm around his waist making it look like a lovers walking embrace, hiding the fact that she was basically holding him upright.

"Later," was all she said.