Teela couldn't believe it was actually happening! For years, many of her brothers and sisters-in-arms questioned why King Randor had never simply marched on Snake Mountain with the Eternian Army and conquered Skeletor's forces. They were so few in number in comparison. She knew the answer, and even though some didn't understand it, she did: King Randor was a man of peace. If there was a way to resolve a problem without fighting, he would take that route. It's what made him such a great king. He never involved his kingdom in a war if he could stop it, and he always tried his best to stop all conflicts throughout the entire planet. Until now, they had been successful for the most part. Skeletor got his hits every once in a while, but at the end of the day, He-Man and the kingdom had their final say without any bloodshed.

Skeletor forced the king's hand this time. He had upped the ante, so to speak, and she knew King Randor felt cornered, especially since the villain decided to play his game with Adam instead of the king directly. She couldn't say she was happy that she was finally getting the opportunity to take Skeletor down once and for all, because she was scared Adam would get hurt in the process. She couldn't bear the thought of him spending yet another night in the infirmary. She'd do whatever it took to keep that from happening.

As she rode in the back of the AttakTrak, she charged up every freeze ray and stun gun that she could find. She didn't know if they would be needed since every man and woman was already carrying a weapon, but she had to do something to pass the time. Thinking about Adam being in their enemies' clutches once again and remembering that Skeletor had already tried to kill him once was too much to contemplate before the battle. She couldn't imagine a future without Adam; she didn't think she could go on if that happened, so she understood his father's motivation now.

As she placed another stun gun on the charger after another had finished, the AttakTrak slammed to a screeching halt and she found herself being flung onto the floorboard.

"ADAM!" she heard the king yell.

Quickly, she followed her father and the king outside the vehicle. She scanned the land hurriedly to spot him and didn't see anything until she noticed the king diving and sliding into a hole frantically. He stuck his body half way inside and she heard muffled words being spoken.

Her father and she ran to the king, and she immediately felt relief and angst simultaneously when she heard Adam's voice. Just as she was about to ask Adam if he was all right, she heard the king's command to get rope and people to help pull Adam up. Man-at-Arms looked at her, pointed to the AttakTrak, and yelled, "Rope!"

She nodded and ran to the back of the vehicle. She opened the back door, jumped inside, and rummaged through the guns she had sprawled out everywhere. "Rope, rope, rope!" she kept muttering to herself until she finally found some. "Ah ha!" she exclaimed. She looked up through the windshield to see how the king was doing and immediately gasped. Skeletor! She saw him heading towards the king and there wasn't a soul in sight to protect him. The king, himself, was unaware that danger was approaching. Luckily, Skeletor didn't know she was so close!

Stealthily but quickly, she grabbed a freeze ray, got out, and made her way to the front of the vehicle. She aimed her gun carefully and didn't care that she wasn't giving Skeletor a sporting chance to fight her—he had hurt Adam one too many times and she had the chance to stop him, so she was going to take it. She shot.

Skeletor never saw it coming. He was reaching down to do something…she didn't know what, but she decided it was either to grab King Randor or to push him inside. Regardless, she stopped him! They had Skeletor!

=)=)=)

King Randor struggled to hold onto Adam as Hordak pulled on his son's legs. He could see Hordak, but he didn't know what to do. There was no way for him to stop the other from this end, and with him fighting to keep Adam out of the villain's clutches, he knew he wouldn't have the opportunity to do anything anyway.

Hordak increased the power to his rocket boosters and Adam immediately moved several feet downward. Adam dug his fingers into the dirt that surrounded them but knew the wall would break away soon enough with all the pressure they were putting on it. As for Randor, he was teetering on the edge of the hole with his stomach, struggling desperately to keep a foundation where he could hold onto Adam without falling completely inside the hole himself.

Adam looked into his father's eyes as they slipped a little farther and whispered calmly, "It's okay, Father. Let me go."

Randor was aghast. "What?"

"We can't stop him right now, and we can't stay here forever either. We're simply delaying the inevitable, and I don't want to take you with me. "

Tears flooded the king's eyes and he stated fiercely, "I'm not letting you go through this alone again! I told you I'm not ever letting you go, and I mean that!"

Adam grimaced and whispered, "I'm sorry."

At that moment, Adam started to bring his fingers out of the holes that he had made. He was going to simply let Hordak have him!

"NO!" yelled Randor. He looked around frantically, let go of one of Adam's arms, held onto the other one tightly—almost to the point of cutting off circulation—and slid back up the embankment so that he was only holding Adam by the wrist as the prince let go of his grip on the wall with that one hand.

"What is he doing?" thought Adam as he saw him reaching for something at his waist. Suddenly, he saw it. His father was making enough room to bring out a sword. When Randor moved back down, he saw that it was the Sword of Power clutched firmly in his hand.

Adam widened his eyes and resumed holding himself up with both hands. The determined glare he saw in the king's eyes told him that his father had something planned and it just might save them!

He continued to watch as his father stared at the figure below. He could see the wheels turning in Randor's mind and he was too afraid to speak to break his concentration. "I need a way to hold on," the king mumbled.

Adam was about to lose hope again and resume letting go to save his father when suddenly a rope came down the hole. "Your Majesty! Adam! Here's the rope you need!"

He had never been so happy in his life to hear her voice and Randor had never been more grateful.

"Teela," said Adam with a smile despite his struggle not to fall.

Randor once again moved up a little and commanded, "Captain, tie the rope around my waist."

"What?" she asked.

"Just do it!"

She quickly did as asked and Randor said, "Hold on to me and find a way to not let us fall. There's going to be a lot of weight, and I need to move down farther. Let me go until I tell you to pull us up. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she said, looking to see if she could find something to assist her in holding the king and Adam up and eventually retrieving them. With relief, she saw that her father, She-Ra, and the Guard were heading her way from a distance.

The king quickly allowed himself to slip farther down the hole and Randor said to Adam, "Keep holding on!"

Soon, his father was very close to him. The king's head slipped by his going downward, and there was just enough room where Adam could glance down to see what was happening below him despite his father making things more compact. Hordak was still struggling to hold onto him and he was wiggling him back and forth constantly to try to jar him lose from the wall. The villain was doing a good job, because Adam could barely hold on with the motions of his lower body.

He watched curiously as his father extended the Power Sword. He suddenly knew what he had planned!

Randor paused and seemed to be waiting for the right moment.

Adam looked down again and saw the problem: he was getting in the way. Every time Randor wanted to surge forward, his son's leg would get in the sword's path, thanks to Hordak's movements. He looked back at his father and stated firmly, "Just do it!"

Randor glanced back up and met his gaze. "I don't want to cut you."

"Just do it! We can handle that later if you hit me!"

Taking a deep breath, the king nodded and said a silent prayer. Suddenly, he lurched forward and stabbed the sword downward.

Adam cried out in pain as the sword slid by his leg and cut into the skin.

"I'm sorry, son!" Randor exclaimed and began to pull back.

"No!" Adam yelled. "Do it!"

Randor moved forward again and cringed at Adam's sounds of pain.

Because Hordak was laughing heavily and moving around so much, the Hordesman didn't see the King of Eternia until it was too late. Randor drove the sword downward and stuck it firmly into Hordak's arm where he had a hold of Adam.

Hordak was so surprised that he let Adam go, his rocket boosters turned themselves off, and he fell to the ground.

"PULL US UP!" Randor yelled and Adam repeated the order up the hole.

Quickly, they found themselves rising back to surface at a high rate of speed. Randor moved his body upward as they were being pulled, caught Adam under his arms with his, and held onto him as best he could even though he couldn't wrap the arm that held the Sword of Power around him like he wished he could. Regardless, it was enough.

Randor quickly found himself on the surface and finished pulling Adam up the rest of the way. The king didn't let go once they were on level ground. Instead, he dropped the Sword of Power, slipped his arms around his son's back, and held onto him tightly. "Son, I was so worried!" he exclaimed as Adam hugged him back.

"I was, too," he replied.

Almost instantly, She-Ra dropped the rope she had obviously been pulling with Teela and several other guards to run to Adam. She got behind him, dropped to her knees, and threw her arms around both of them. "I'm so glad to see you!"

Adam widened his eyes at her actions since a lot of soldiers that weren't in the know were present. "I'm glad to see you, too, She-Ra." He put emphasis on her name to remind her that she couldn't act like his sister right now. Otherwise, she would give the guards the impression that She-Ra and he had something going on.

Quickly, she pulled away and mumbled apologies, which he shook his head at. "It's okay," he whispered back.

Randor watched this with a smile on his face. "I don't know how I missed it; it's so obvious," he whispered. The siblings knew he was referring to their secret.

The king then stood and extended his hand to his son. Adam took it, but as soon as Randor pulled him to his feet, he let out a hiss of pain as his weight shifted onto his legs.

"What's wrong?" She-Ra and Teela asked worriedly.

Teela scanned her eyes down his body and then exclaimed, "Adam, you're bleeding!"

"It's not that bad," he said, looking down at the leg and then abruptly bit his lip. It actually did look pretty bad. A lot of blood had soaked into his pants and over his boots, turning the white bright red and the purple almost black.

Randor immediately slipped his arm around his shoulders with every intention of helping Adam get to the AttakTrak, but paused when he saw Skeletor. "We got him?" he gasped.

Teela smiled. "Yes, he was about to attack you when you were helping Adam, so I shot him. He never saw me coming."

Adam grinned mischievously and bragged, "That's my girl."

Teela blushed instantly, and Adam and Randor laughed merrily for a moment before making their way to the back of the AttakTrak for Man-at-Arms to take a look at Adam's leg. Teela and She-Ra followed behind quickly.

=)=)=)

Man-at-Arms grimaced along with Adam as he pulled back his pants from the wound on his leg. The tight-fitting apparel had actually acted as a tourniquet to decrease the flow of blood, so when he pulled the material away it stung a little. As more blood oozed out, Teela gasped and Randor sat on the back of the AttakTrak beside him and whispered, "I'm sorry, son."

"It's okay," he said as he watched Man-at-Arms try to bandage it as best as he could with the supplies they had handy. Just as he was about to say something else, Teela's lieutenant walked up and asked, "What are your orders, Your Majesty?"

The king hesitated. He had Adam back—he had accomplished what he had wanted…but the truth was he wanted to go farther. Despite the fact that they had Skeletor, he wanted to teach all of them a lesson they would never forget. But was that the right thing to do? He knew he got a little crazy when people messed with his kids, and Hordak had basically caused him to hurt Adam himself. He glanced at his son and asked, "What do you think, Adam? Should we go home or march forward?"

Everyone turned their attention to the prince, and he was shocked his father would leave the decision up to him. Regardless, he knew what he wanted to do. He grinned and answered, "March forward."

The lieutenant grinned and ran to tell the others. Once all the soldiers had marched a good piece ahead of them, Adam stopped Man-at-Arms from finishing the bandages. "Stop, Duncan, I don't need it."

"What?" they asked.

Adam then stared at his father and said, "At least, I don't think I do."

They stared at each other for a moment and it suddenly dawned on his father what he was referring to. "Wait right here," he replied.

The king walked back to the hole and picked up the Sword of Power where he had dropped it. He held it in his hand, stared at it for a moment, and then nodded to himself.

It was the right thing to do.

He went to the back of the AttakTrak and held it in both hands: one hand was on the hilt and the other was holding the blade. He stared at it a bit more before meeting Adam's eyes with his. "When I first learned your secret, I wanted to protect you from all of this." He looked around to bring his point home. "But I realize you've been doing this for two years and I know you have done an admirable job as Eternia's Champion. I can only hope that you will forgive me for not recognizing you like a father should have. I also hope you forgive me for trying to take control and stop you from doing what we both know to be right." He stopped for a second, stepped forward, and grabbed his son's shoulder firmly. "I'm proud of you, son. You'll make a fine king one day."

Tears shimmered in the prince's eyes, but he didn't let them fall since they had an audience. "I'll never be better than you, Father." he replied. "I'll never be a better king or a father."

"Yes, you will," Randor insisted with a smile. "You're already a better prince than I was, so it'll happen." He grinned and looked at the Sword of Power one more time. "I think I have something that belongs to you."

He held it out to its rightful owner and Adam took it. He glanced at She-Ra for a moment, winked, and then stood. He limped away from everyone, turned around, and said, "I think He-Man has some pent up emotions he needs to take out on Snake Mountain."

Everyone nodded and watched intently as Adam raised his sword and yelled, "By the Power of Grayskull!

 

=)=)=)

Randor watched in amazement and almost had to shield his eyes from the lightning and shocks that enveloped his child. When his son yelled out "I have the power!" in a voice he had known so well, it was strange to find it now so foreign. He stared at He-Man and saw Adam, so he couldn't juxtapose the image he had of He-Man in the past and the one standing before him now. The old He-Man seemed gone and forgotten, but that did make sense, because that He-Man had been an illusion, but the one standing before him now—his son—that He-Man was real even if it would take him a while to get used to that voice coming from his son.

The king found himself smiling and wiped at his eyes to prevent more tears from falling. "That was incredible," he said to He-Man.

He-Man nodded and glanced down at his leg. Randor also looked down and He-Man turned it to the side where the king could see that no cut was visible. "I suspect the cut will no longer be there when I turn back into Adam," he shared. He grinned at his father and explained, "Recently, my injuries as He-Man and Adam had stayed with me because I was burned out or it was so extensive—I don't know—but thanks to all the rest I've gotten and She-Ra, I have a feeling He-Man is back to his old self. Once I change back into Adam again, I think he will be, too."

Randor shook his head and squeezed the hero's hand. "No, I think that Adam is a thing of the past. I have a feeling things are going to be very different from this point forward."

He-Man acknowledged his father's comment with a nod and then turned his attention to Snake Mountain. He pursed his lips for a moment before turning to the king and said, "I made the threat to Skeletor once, but I think I really want to do it now."

"What's that, son?"

He-Man got a huge Adam-like grin on his face as he replied, "Let's turn Snake Mountain into Snake Valley!"