I have returned! Authors notes at the end of this bunch of updates. Word of warning: these aren't in strict chronological order; consider it a challenge.

7/?: What Randor Said/What Adam Thought.

After the Queen's outburst, it was judged the two would be better off out of the surgery and back to their respective rooms. Randor and Duncan, who found themselves accepting the pair's explanation without the slightest hesitation, had expected some protest from their offspring at being separated so quickly. Oddly, neither offered the least resistance, which in itself was every bit as unsettling as the revelations they'd already endured.

Duncan of course accompanied Teela to her room, Randor trailing behind Adam into his suite. Himon had quietly advised the Queen best be left with him for the time being. The Palace in general had been aware of Adam and Teela 'condition', and how frantic their parents had become; that they were awake now would spread like wildfire, so it would be little surprise that the chief healer would wish to consult with at least one parent in confidence. This would be cover enough for Marlena's temporarily staying behind.

The children themselves were completely quiescent to their parent's attentions. They rather plodded along, their gait a hundred seasons weary. Randor allowed himself a moment to think of the handful of staff who had seen them thus far, wondering if he needed to speak to them in private and swear them to silence. He set that aside and concentrated on what was before him, namely a son he'd misjudged and misperceived so horribly these past few seasons. Worse, in doing he'd unintentionally created no small crisis in Court that would require delicate handling to resolve, and he was feeling far from equal to the task.

"Father?" Adam's voice rumbled through his ears, breaking his useless contemplation. Randor realized only then that they were standing in the Prince's office space, and that his son was watching him closely.

"I…ah…was just thinking…" Randor wanted to bite his tongue in anger at sounding such a fool, feeling unaccountably embarrassed stumbling so before his son.

"About the Court and how to explain all this?" Adam supplied easily with a wave of his good arm (his 'lame' one now in a sling), this causing the King to gape at him with some surprise. Randor quickly shut his mouth, neck and cheeks fairly burning with further embarrassment. Adam continued saying "I've given it some thought myself just now."

"That's…" Randor began, then stopped himself. He'd nearly said 'this isn't your concern', which was about the most idiotic thing he could've said under the circumstances. Adam might well have been a King himself in whatever…place he and Teela had been pulled into. Plus his magnificently successful act had granted him a vista into the workings of the Palace he himself likely missed; many a courtier simply ignored the 'layabout' heir and thus let odd bits slip out that made their way to Randor's ear, via the same heir who – upon reflection – had been busier managing affairs of the Palace than all the Maids combined.

Speaking of that act of his, Randor cleared his throat and said "Adam?"

"Hmm?"

"We…know." His son's only response was to raise an eye-brow. "We…two nights ago we saw you change…"

Adam quickly signaled for silence, Randor frowning and prepared to say more. The Prince gave a single, sharp shake of his head, accompanied by a frown the King recognized and had once dreaded in his long-distant youth. The authority there went far deeper than merely familiar habits, and Randor found himself willing to obey it, at least for the moment.

The Prince's reticence didn't especially surprise him, at least on this subject. He probably would want to have Marlena and Duncan present whenever the subject was brought to discussion. Randor had mixed feelings about it as well, uncertain how far, if at all, he wanted to pursue the matter with Adam. So he let the matter drop and simply allowed himself to be grateful his son was restored, or a reasonable approximation thereof. Elders knew the boy was proving more level-headed and functional than himself right then.

Adam found himself continually surprised and confounded at these changed circumstances, which embarrassed him no end given his age and experience should have left him ample reserves by which to cope. Waking naked in a desert and finding Teela in the same, Teela's seeming death and miraculous resurrection fully ten seasons later, leading armies, planting forests, fatherhood; in comparison, their finding themselves back in Eternia should have proven the simplest of affairs to accept and adapt to.

Except it wasn't. If anything, Adam found himself more confused and outrightly frightened than he could ever recall.

Perhaps he'd seen too many seasons pass in that other land given everywhere he looked was at once familiar and new. More, age had dulled his senses and he'd become used to weaker hearing and dimmer sight. He'd not had a choice there, and he knew damn well Teela herself had been slowing down in her dotage. But now that he was…restored to his youth, or however one might define suddenly finding oneself an age younger?

Youth meant sharper senses, clearer sight, receptive ears, the precise opposite of what he'd lived with in the passing of seasons. He felt a stranger to his own body, and thus trembled on the edge of panic. It was only by great effort did Adam keep this from showing or reflecting in his voice. It was easier to just focus on his father to the exclusion of all else.

Unfortunately, Randor had chosen a topic that – if anything – put Adam even further on edge and ready to (quite literally) jump out the window. Beyond a half-successful gambit to channel his natural energies in their dim past, neither he nor Teela had given much attention to his role as Grayskull's Champion. They'd reconciled themselves to their new lives, somewhere apparently far away from Eternia, leaving that legacy far behind and never once dreaming they would be returned to it.

But returned they were, and Adam was starting to tremble from strains he'd forgotten, made all the worse by Randor's insistence on broaching the very thing Adam had ever dreaded. It was more dangerous than Randor likely realized, given the number of hidden eyes and ears about the Palace, and the ones that didn't belong to Skeletor worried him most. Doubtless they'd been abuzz ever since he and Teela had collapsed, and were doubly so now that the pair of them were up and moving about. The Court had become unsettled and shaky since he'd begun his act of misdirection, and rumors concerning himself and his alter-ego – ones that, despite their best efforts, had entangled Teela as well – were rife enough without further half-baked stories to them.

And here was his father, seeking to talk opening about the single greatest secret within Eternos. The sweat that broke out on Adam's brow was only partially caused by raw fatigue that had set in. He'd never liked having to talk around subjects, especially when it came to his parents. Growing up in court he'd learned the skill early, and honed it throughout his youth. It had become almost second-nature to him, or at least nearly had been when he and Teela had been 'taken'. The seasons since had dulled his skills there, and his thoughts were fairly racing now to concoct a way to steer his father from further talk.

In the end, he settled on something that held more truth than deception. "Father…please, I'm in no …no condition to talk…"

Randor nodded his understanding, taking his son by the shoulders and guiding him back to bed. Perhaps he thought this was the truth, or at least suspected it was just an exaggeration. Regardless, the morning's events had been no less stressful upon him as they'd been for the children, and was more than willing to delay a bit before risking further discoveries. Adam had to suppress a small giggle at the crushing absurdities of all this: he was many seasoned statesman and veteran of wars, and yet here he was, engaging in childish lies for fear his own father would remember how angry he'd been.

Getting back into bed proved a bit difficult with one arm in a sling. Randor silently helped Adam to lie back down, clasping his good in both of his tightly. "I'm so damned proud of you, son," he whispered, voice cracking with remorse.

Adam flexed his own grip and murmured "Everything I am…everything I've done…is because of you." He could only stand holding his father's bleak eyes for a few moments more before having to close his eyes altogether. How he'd longed to tell his father everything. The cities, their nation, the world he and Teela had forged from otherwise barren earth, even if that would take a life and more to tell all.

"Rest," his father ordered, somewhat pointlessly. "I'll look in later." Adam nodded and settled himself back against the pillows, closing his eyes and listening carefully to his father's retreating footsteps. Drained as he was, Adam didn't dare allow himself to drift off lest he wake up back in Aetheria. He wasn't prepared to risk loosing Eternia so soon.

Rather, he lay there and stared at the walls and room that seemed so strange to his eyes. He felt there was something…no, someone who should have been there with him. As if responding to this very thought, the wall near his bed shimmered and rippled like water, Teela walking literally through it a moment later. She hadn't changed from her gown and robe, and gazed at him with pensive eyes.

He was puzzled by this, and by how tentatively she approached his bedside. Nowhere in living memory could he readily recall her demonstrating such uncertainty, and whatever his real age - time had seemed to move strangely in Aetheria - Adam's memory remained as sharp as any newly-forged blade. He opened his mouth to ask her, only to have her lift the bedsheets and settle herself beside him. It had always seemed the most natural place for her, for them, and Adam curled his good arm about her shoulders.

They lay together for many minutes, absorbing the silence around them.

"I shouldn't have betrayed you like that," Teela said suddenly, fingers and palm running over his lame arm.

"No more than I betrayed you," Adam rejoined, his own fingers brushing her now-unmarked cheek and jaw.

"Adam…is this real?" There was a clear plea in her voice, one that had Adam frozen where they lay. For The Queen of Great Serpents to openly express such fearful doubt…

"It has to be," he said, trying to sound more confident than he actually felt. It must not have been that convincing, as Teela tightened her hold on his chest.

"Goddess," she muttered. "This…this is madness, Adam. How…how can this be?"

"I don't know, Tee," was all he could sigh, feeling faintly guilty at enjoying her presence more than worrying over their changed circumstances. Teela herself seemed to feel the same, as she lapsed into total and uncharacteristic silence. Her breathing eventually evened out, but not to the point of actual sleep. Adam felt their hearts begin to beat in-time, chests rising and falling in the same.

"Were they real, Adam?" was Teela's next, near-whispered question, as much to herself as her husband.

"They were," was his ready answer. One that was amended to "They are."

That would be the last words between them for many hours to come. Sleep for them was elusive, even if peace was not, and they accepted the latter for however long the universe allotted them.

TBC...