The feeling was abrupt and intense, so much so that Adam popped his head away from Teela's shoulder in an almost violent motion. He ceased all movement and focused within himself. He felt uncomfortable, like he was doing an activity he would have preferred to avoid all together. Then, he felt lonely and worried…

These emotions were coming from Adora.

He didn't know what was wrong exactly, but he could take a guess. His parents were having a dinner party with a lot of their extended family present at that very moment. Without a doubt, his father wanted to introduce Adora to everyone, and he knew how much she worried about those occasions. She always felt uneasy and out of place when meeting new relatives or people he was close to. He could understand why: she would feel pressured to be liked and accepted by everyone she was introduced to since they were close to her twin or her parents. She wanted to fit in on Eternia.

Of course, that didn't explain why she felt lonely. He knew the room would be filled with people, so why would she feel alone? A possibility wiggled in the back of his mind and as it worked its way to the forefront of his thoughts, he frowned and exhaled sharply. Maybe it wasn't loneliness she felt—maybe it was abandonment. She felt abandoned by him. Adora had visited Eternia only a few times since he had brought her home for the first time, and during those times, he had been with her ninety-five percent of the time. He knew he was a comfort to her while on Eternia…or any time really.

His thoughts were interrupted by Teela's sharp cry, "Adam, answer me! What's wrong?"

He realized she had been asking him for almost a minute now, so he swallowed roughly and stated, "We have to go back to the palace. Adora needs me."

Her eyes immediately widened more than they already were. "Why? What's going on?"

He shook his head and answered honestly, "I'm not sure exactly, but I think she's feeling a little overwhelmed at the party. I know she'd feel more comfortable if I were there with her."

"Oh," she replied. She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed but she understood. When it came to the twins, she realized she would have to be patient about a lot of things. First of all, she knew Adora was still adjusting to Eternia and meeting new people. Of course, she would want her brother with her. After all, if she ever met her mother's family, whoever they were, she would want her father right there with her the entire time. Also, she knew Adora was still worried about Adam and as he explained earlier, she didn't want him out of her sight for too long. He had spent the better part of the day away from the palace, so she should have expected Adora to call out to her brother, especially when Adam told her of this ability.

Regardless of her disappointment, she knew she had to put that aside for Adam. He wouldn't like having to choose between his girlfriend and his sister. He definitely wouldn't like them competing for time with him. She put on the best smile she could manage, got to her feet, and exclaimed, "Well, we better hurry then, so you can help her!" She pulled him to his feet and pushed him along. She was trying to be as supportive as she could be.

Once they were standing in front of the spot where the gate had been earlier, Adam called out, "Sorceress." Just like before, the gate appeared instantly and they both walked through it.

=)=)=)

Stepping out of the portal, Adam turned to Teela and stated, "I'm sorry to have ended our dinner so abruptly. I should have thought things out a bit better. I was only thinking about spending a little time with you."

She smiled and replied calmly, "Well, I can hardly get mad at you for that. Don't worry about it, Adam. I understand. You explained to me how things are with Adora, and if you know what she is feeling right now and you know you can alleviate it, how can I be selfish and stop you? We'll have plenty of time to be together, especially when we go to Etheria."

He nodded as he pulled her into his arms. He kissed her softly on the lips and then pulled back to stare into her eyes. "Thank you for being so understanding."

She pushed on him a little and ordered teasingly, "Go on! Get into that dining room with all the other royals! Save your sister, hero!"

He grinned and laughed a little in reply. "Yes, ma'am," he said. He then proceeded to walk down the hall to do exactly that. Just before he turned the corner, though, he turned to look at her one more time. She simply smiled at him and made a shooing sound and motion with her hands. He widened his smile and then left. As soon as he was gone, her smile disappeared with a sigh.

=)=)=)

Adam stepped before the dining room doors and immediately heard all of the chaos going on inside. Predictably, his family was being loud and celebratory, and of course, to a person who hardly knew anyone, especially those that were her own age, that had to be a little intimidating. Sighing to prepare himself for whatever response he would get from Adora and his parents, he stepped inside.

No one else seemed to notice he was there. Everyone was lost in their own loud conversations…everyone except his father and Adora. They were currently walking around the end of the table to go onto the ladies' side. He grimaced as he realized his father had probably introduced her to every guy in the room. While he could understand his father's enthusiasm and desire to do so, introducing her to this many people was a bit much. How would she ever keep it straight? It would only make her feel worse when she saw these people again and didn't remember who they were.

Walking farther into the room, he slowly made his way to the end of the table and tried his best to remain unseen. As soon as he stepped to the corner of the ladies' side, a few of his cousins, aunts, and uncles saw him, but he held a finger to his mouth to keep them quiet. He stepped right behind Adora, plastered a smile on his face, and whispered in her ear something that he had said to her a couple of times while helping her with Hordak: "Don't worry, your brother is here."

She jumped but that didn't stop her immediate response afterward. She turned around and threw herself into his arms. "Adam!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head under his chin. "I'm so happy you're here!"

He squeezed her tightly as he watched his father turn around and also grin at him. "So, you decided to show your face after all, huh?" asked King Randor.

He nodded and didn't explain his real reason for showing up. He knew if he stated the truth, it would hurt his father. Instead, he pulled back from Adora a little and when she pulled her head away from his chest to look up at him, he whispered softly, "Are you all right?"

"Of course, I am," she replied with a forced smile.

He looked at her a bit skeptically and replied, "You can't lie to your twin brother, you know. Why do you think I'm here? My sister calls and I come running—that's kind of how this has always worked, after all." He grinned at her playfully.

Happy that he didn't seem annoyed with her, Adora smiled and hugged him again. "Thank you so much for coming. I didn't mean to take you away from Teela, but…"

She couldn't finish her statement because Adam shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it. Teela understands far more than you know. I had a talk with her this afternoon about you and me." He paused, looked around, and then whispered, "But we'll talk about that later. For now, let me rescue you!"

He stepped back and exclaimed, "Wow! It's getting late! I bet everyone is ready to eat!"

When he heard several people agree, he smiled at his father as he wrapped an arm around Adora's shoulders. "Well, we can't starve our guests, Father. Adora has met enough people for one afternoon, don't you think?" He didn't wait for the king to respond. He pulled Adora to the head of the table and pulled the chair out for her.

When Adora sat down, she turned to him and mumbled, "Thank you."

"Anytime," he replied with a wink.

=)=)=)

Even though Adam had already eaten with Teela, he picked at the food the servers had placed before him. He hadn't finished his earlier meal thankfully, so he wasn't overstuffing himself now.

Things had calmed down significantly for Adora once he had arrived. He no longer felt any anxiety coming from her and she didn't seem upset that he hadn't been there earlier. For that, he was grateful, because he had actually worried about it after he realized what he had done inadvertently. His father had stated that he wanted to talk to him a little later about his decision to take Teela to dinner, and while he knew his father was slightly annoyed by his actions, he could tell that the king had no intention of blowing up at him. Luckily, things had calmed down since everything had started. His father and he were no longer on a short fuse and ready to go off at any second. That seemed to be true for everyone right now.

Truthfully, he wasn't sure why everyone was so amenable when things had seemed so unbearable not so long ago. He had wondered that since things had gotten better, but he hadn't had the time to ask or think about it. Now, he could. Did everyone simply calm down on their own or was it something else? Really, he wondered if everyone was going out of their way to be happy or civil because of what had happened to him at Snake Mountain…or any of the other times earlier or later. Maybe it was a combination? That's what bothered him now.

Regardless of the reason, everything kept going back to the moment he had supposedly died, or so it seemed. At first he had wanted to forget about it ever happening, and he had done a fairly good job, but it kept getting brought back up by people again and again. He couldn't blame them, though. He knew they had been worried about him and that they still were.

The truth was he didn't remember what had taken place all that well despite having talked about it with Adora and Teela recently. He did remember seeing Skeletor aim his Havoc Staff at his father and realizing that he had never felt so scared in his life. He had known at that time that it was probable that he would one day have to live without his father…but he hadn't wanted to face that so soon. The inevitability of losing him had always frightened Adam and he had wanted to do anything at that moment to prevent it if he could.

And, he had. He just hadn't realized the cost would be so great. Truthfully, he hadn't even thought about it much beforehand. He just knew he had to protect his father and that he would be able to withstand the hit better than him. Of course, now he knew he hadn't been able to withstand it at all either. He had heard the story several times now from the perspectives of his father, Adora, and Teela. All of them seemed to be traumatized by the event and that was readily obvious by the looks they kept flashing his way every second of the day while he was in their presence, which was most of the time.

Adam realized he needed to stop thinking about the event while he was at the dinner table and in his family's presence, because he knew he was upsetting himself a little. Unfortunately, he found himself remembering more and getting more upset by the second...

He remembered staring into his father's eyes, feeling relieved that he had saved the king. Shortly thereafter, he had noticed the lack of pain throughout his body despite the massive hit he knew he had taken. He then remembered trying to hold on to his father to continue to protect him before he fell to the ground…

He squeezed his eyes shut as he relived his fall and unbidden, his thoughts turned to the memory of his father holding onto him desperately a few days later as Hordak tried to pull him back underground. At that particular moment, he had been ready to let go, so he wouldn't drag his father down with him. Who knows what would have happened after that! Hordak would have either caught him or he would have fallen to his death or at least a very bad injury.

He honestly didn't know why he was thinking about all of this now. He was beginning to feel a little ridiculous worrying over things past, and again he attempted to stop himself. He opened his eyes and stared straight ahead of him trying to think of a different topic to contemplate, but he found it difficult. He now had to wonder if it was all finally hitting him that he had almost lost his father and died multiple times in a very short span of time. He rubbed his face with his hands and tried to calm himself. He couldn't allow everyone's worries and memories to drive him to a breaking point and he knew that's probably what was happening now, because he finally had the time to think about everything that had happened and what everyone had told him about their feelings and reactions to everything. His "holiday" seemed to be working against him now.

He took a deep breath and dropped his head to his hand which was propped up on the table when he heard someone call his name. He closed his eyes again. When he heard his name once more, he realized it was Adora. He opened his eyes when he felt someone grab his hand and squeeze it tightly. He turned in her direction and saw that both of his parents were looking at him worriedly, his father was the one who was grabbing his hand, and Adora was walking to him hurriedly.

"Adam, what's wrong?" they all asked simultaneously.

"Nothing," he answered as Adora bent by his chair and gripped his forearm. "I was just thinking."

"Thinking about what?" Randor asked.

He didn't want to tell them—he didn't want to upset them and he knew that's what would happen. He shook his head again and repeated, "Nothing."

"Adam," stated Randor sternly.

Knowing that he was about to upset everyone with his silence, he knew he had to tell the truth. Only, he would try to downplay it, so they wouldn't worry so much. "I was thinking about those times when I almost…died," he replied calmly.

His family immediately gasped. "Why would you think about that?" his father inquired fretfully.

Adora simply stood and then bent over to hug him tightly. He hugged back and assured them, "It's not a big deal, really. I just remembered Adora and Teela talking about it earlier and my memories just sort of came to me."

"You don't need to be remembering that, Adam," his sister whispered as she kissed him on the cheek. "I remember enough for the both of us." She hugged him again and he could hear her begin to sniffle.

"Oh, no! I'm not making her cry, am I?" he thought to himself. He saw out the corner of his eye that she had brought her hand to up to wipe her face. Yep, he had upset her. "I'm sorry," he stated to all of them. "I didn't mean to upset any of you or remind you of what happened."

Adora shook her head and stated firmly, "Don't apologize. I know it's unreasonable to ask you not to remember. Just know that I'm willing to lend an ear if you ever want to talk about it."

"Right back at you," he replied with a small smile. "Seriously, I'm okay."

As they all nodded at him, Adam blushed when he realized most of the table were looking at them. Fortunately though, everyone became distracted by an officer running into the room. "Your Majesties!" the soldier exclaimed, approaching the table rapidly.

"Yes, Geno, what is it?" the queen asked.

"One of the guards stationed on Etheria just arrived a few minutes ago to give us our status report. There seems to have been a bit of unexpected trouble outside the Whispering Woods."

Adam and Adora immediately stood. "What happened?" they asked frantically.

The guard turned to them and replied, "There was an ambush while the rebels were getting supplies in Thelmore. They've caught several our men, as well as members of the Rebellion."

Adam and Adora looked at each other for a moment before the prince turned to his parents and announced, "I'm afraid we don't have a choice. Adora and I have to go to Etheria now." He locked eyes with King Randor and said softly, "I'm so sorry, Father, to cut our time short."

The king immediately stood and looked from his son to his daughter and back again silently. As the tears gathered in his father's eyes, Adam bowed his head a little and grimaced. He didn't know what his father was about to say or do, but he knew it was going to be heartbreaking one way or another. It couldn't be helped, though. Adora and he were needed on Etheria and there was nothing any of them could do to change that.