Freedom

A Masters of the Universe fanfic

Dedicated to 2-Bad

Author’s Note: Just a few things before we get into this. First and foremost, the dedication. On “Thanksgiving Eve,” I was driving to and from Beachwood, Ohio (a city about an hour away from my home), listening to NPR’s reports of terrorist violence in Mumbai, India. When I got home and saw that my pal 2-Bad was actually near one of the attacks, I was actually shaken by this news. So, that being said, this story is dedicated to him, his family, his friends, and his neighbors. I am happy you are safe, my friend.

Secondly, on a far less important note, this story does take place in my “Tales of Masters of the Universe” continuity. Specifically, it takes place not long after the events of “Just Another Day” and a few months before “Liberty and Valor.” At the moment, Adam is going out with a farm girl named Kathryn and the story opens and closes with the two in the prime of their relationship. She also accidentally found out that Adam and He-Man are one in the same. Check out the aforementioned stories for more information. The flashback portions take place sometime during Seasons One and Two of the Filmation series.

Disclaimer: “Masters of the Universe” is the property of Mattel; this story was written for entertainment purposes and not for profit. Further – the characters of Kathryn and En-Slave-Or belong to myself. Please e-mail me for permission to use them. Thank you!

One

The summer air was sweet. Outside the walls of the farmhouse, the temperature was slowly lowering, but the humidity continued to hang heavily over the land. Inside, Roman laughed again at his own joke regarding the neighbors seeing a Wind Raider sitting outside his house. Then, with a firm shake of Adam’s hand, he turned and went to bed.

Kathryn stepped outside onto the porch and observed the rising trio of moons among the sea of stars. Adam followed her and Cringer after him. Cringer walked to the edge of the porch and curled up into a ball. Kathryn clicked on a small device on the railing. A small green light came on and mosquitoes suddenly dashed and zoomed away from the porch.

“Dinner was delicious,” Adam said into Kathryn’s ear. He had come up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She smiled.

“Thank ya. I’m just glad the kids behaved themselves.”

Adam chuckled. “I don’t mind it when they don’t, y’know? Your sibs are pretty funny when they get all riled up.”

Chuckling herself, she reached back and patted him on the cheek. “You don’t live with them, dear one.”

The two stood silent for a moment, enjoying the view. A stray breeze swung some of the wheat back and forth. Adam slowly pulled away from her.

“I should go soon,” he said to her.

“Why? Cringer just fell asleep . . .”

Adam gazed at her. There wasn’t any one specific reason to leave yet, but . . . Skeletor had been quiet lately. Too quiet. It was enough to cause some worry at the edge of Adam’s mind. But here was Kathryn, her freckled face and brown-blonde hair glowing in lamplight and moonlight. She was just as beautiful as ever and her smile was melting his heart and turned his feet into lead. He glanced at the Wind Raider. What was another hour? Really?

“We can finish the wine. There’s not much left.”

Adam nodded. “Okay.”

Giggling a little, Kathryn bounded into the farmhouse. She returned with their glasses from dinner and the bottle of wine. There was only enough in there for the two of them to have two glasses each. Kathryn pulled over a rocker from beside the door and set it next to the one that was against the window.

She handed Adam his glass and started to pour her own. “Now,” she started, “I want to hear a story.”

“A story?”

“Yeah. And not like the ones you were telling at dinner.”

Adam perked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

She smiled. “Those were Prince Adam stories. I want to hear a He-Man story.”

Adam looked thoughtfully into his wine as he swirled his glass a little. “Is there a particular one?”

“Oh I don’t know. Anything. I want to hear about you being a big-time hero.”

“Well . . .” He paused and looked back onto the open fields. “There is one mission that’s been on my mind for a couple of days now. It was a few years ago.” He took in a deep breath. “I’m not sure if I should tell you, though.”

“Why’s that?”

Adam looked up at her and allowed himself a smile. “I suppose . . . well, okay.” He sipped the wine. “It was a number of years ago, right? Now, I’m sure you’re aware of the massive swath of land between the Valley of Storms and Goblin lands on the Dark Hemisphere that we don’t have charted. Obviously, there’s a large amount of danger involved in going there. But the Royal Archeologist – Melaktha – insisted that he had evidence to mount a mission out there. He was after a major archeological find . . .”

Two

And he had one. Near the southern coast and about one hundred miles southeast of the Valley of Storms, he had discovered a bizarre find. Word had reached him initially through rumor and then through confirmation from a number of his own sources that there was a place of historical significance to be found.

Obviously, there was a great need for security. King Randor assigned myself and Battle-Cat to accompany Melaktha. Along with the two of us, there was also Man-At-Arms, Teela, Man-E-Faces, Ram-Man, and Lizard-Man. We arrived in secret and for the first day everything was going great. We found the location pretty quickly. It was this series of structures located in the valley of two huge cliffs. According to Melaktha . . .

“There is definitely something,” he said, studying a wall. “It was a Snake-Man village . . . I think.”

“What do you mean by that?” Teela had asked.

“The dates I’m seeing indicate that they didn’t stay here long. In fact, I believe they were attacked.”

“By who?” I wondered. We had encountered enough ancient creatures in old places like this that there might be a threat lurking. Far-fetched, I know, but you never know . . .

“I don’t know. Yet.” Melaktha flashed us all one of those excited smiles he gets when he’s about to find something huge. I never met anyone with such passion for archeology. When he rose from his crouching position, his knees cracked a little. He was getting older, despite his enthusiasm.

“Snake-Men were sometimes very nomadic and before the time of King Hiss, you would see small groups make homes in places like this and then move on a year later. Now, my equipment shows me that these walls were erected during the time of King Hiss’ ancient conflict with the Elders. It wasn’t uncommon to see these groups during that period, but it was certainly less so.” He looked to the sun, which was sinking fast. “I’ll be looking over some of the images we took today tonight and I think after a good nights sleep, I’ll be able to better approach the other wall writings.”

Man-At-Arms and Teela conferred with one another about who would take the first watch that night. Lizard-Man would be first, followed then by Man-E-Faces.

We each had our own tent and the days travel had been difficult. We were all tired, which is probably why none of lasted long after we retired. Even Melaktha, who did his best to stay up late studying his findings, was out before midnight struck.

The first night was simple enough. Lizard-Man got a parameter search going and there was nothing to report than more than a few stray animals. Man-E-Faces would continually switch between Monster and Robot, using the abilities of both to make sure no threat from either Snake Mountain or anyone else would seek us out.

As soon as the sun rose, Melaktha went about his studies. Man-E-Faces caught up on his sleep. Teela, Battle-Cat and I were all feeling restless.

We were promised that if Man-At-Arms portable sensors didn’t detect any significant life-forms in the area, that were could get out of the site for some R&R that afternoon. It was about that time that Melaktha made a startling discovery.

“This place was wiped out by Hordak!”

Back then, Hordak was nothing more than a name of some tyrant. I didn’t know he had captured my sister and I obviously didn’t know that I would face him in battle a few times. I knew my father had fought him, I knew he lead an invasion of Eternia shortly before my birth. I even knew that he had been a spy for the Horde, posing as an apprentice to the Council of Elders a thousand years before my parents even met. Obviously, Hordak had attacked this Snake-Men settlement during his time as a spy.

This was new information. Back then, we had no idea that had ever been a rivalry between Hordak and King Hiss.

“Why would Hordak have attacked this location? Even if the Elders allowed him to attack the Snake-Men, why here? Why hit some location that was barely associated with King Hiss and Snake Mountain?” Lizard-Man questioned.

Melaktha had no answers. “I do not know. I can only theorize that this place was of some significance. Perhaps his long-lost ship crash landed near here.”

While Melaktha and Man-At-Arms went about their work, Teela, Battle-Cat, and I finally got some time to explore the area. Beyond the cliffs were vast open plains, but not much to show for them save for some occasional pockets of sick-looking long grass and horribly misshapen trees. To the east, there terrain got harsher and we could see the vague outline of mountains. We made sure to stay area from there.

About a mile or two out from camp, the three of us stumbled upon a large rock jutting up from the ground. It was riddled with small holes – all of which seemed unnatural. An area just in front of the rock facing us was blank.

“What is this?” Teela asked, stepping cautiously over to it.

“I’m smelling something, Teela. Be careful!”

Teela halted in her walk over to it.

“We’re being watched,” she said.

“By what?” I asked. “By who?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s an animal,” Teela answered. “Battle-Cat? What do you smell?”

“Nothing I recognize.”

“Let’s head back to camp,” I advised. “It might be an animal, but it might not be. One thing’s for sure – I don’t want to be the one to find out.”

I made sure to take a longer way back to camp, just to throw the animal or whatever it was off our trail. We reported our findings to Man-At-Arms and it was decided that we’d leave tomorrow morning – just to be safe.

The rest of the day was uneventful, but were sure to have someone on watch, keeping an eye to the west, in the direction of the rock. Nothing came of it.

Night fell. Teela took up the first watch.

I awoke sometime around two to the sound of my alarm. I arose to take the watch. Teela was supposed to be back at camp after doing her perimeter search. Not finding her there was a little more than shocking. You know Teela. She’s punctual to a fault.

I planned on giving her a few minutes . . . until I saw her staff sitting just a few feet away. I immediately woke everyone.

Man-At-Arms, of course, was bothered by this news.

“Ram-Man, Lizard-Man – remain here with Melaktha. Man-E-Faces, you and I will head out to the east cliff and start our search there. He-Man, you and Battle-Cat go west to that rock you found. Signal me as soon as you find something.”

We split off.

Three

I knew it won’t take us long to get back to the rock, but we didn’t make it that far. Not far from the rock, Battle-Cat caught Teela’s scent and we followed that instead. We found her in one of those sick-looking patches of long grass. She wasn’t alone either.

With her were a pair of strange looking creatures. They were short – no more than three feet tall and very thin. Beady eyes, pale skin, and big hands, feet, noses, and ears.

“He-Man! Thank the Ancients you’re here!”

“Teela? What is this? What’s going on?”

She smiled genuinely. “This is Ashala and Dawniee. Their members of a race called the Foxtans.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I greeted, though to be honest, I was still bothered about Teela’s calm demeanor after all the worry we had all built up with her going missing.

“You are the one!” shouted Ashala, bowing quickly. Dawniee joined in.

“Your reputation proceeds you, He-Man,” Teela told me. “The Foxtans – or at least this tribe – are enslaved.”

“By who?”

The look on Teela’s face was all the answer I needed. “Skeletor.”

Dawniee nodded. “He has us mining this region to use for his monster machines. Many have died in his service. One of our watchers spotted you. He gave his life to help us escape.”

My annoyance was quickly replaced by growing anger.

“He has a creature in his control watching over us. The creature’s name is En-Slave-Or.” I learned later that En-Slave-Or was originally something that Hordak had brought with him a thousand years ago to keep his ship safe. En-Slave-Or was eventually deactivated until Skeletor learned of its existence and proceeded to re-program him.

“If we free you, where will you go?”

“Our people are nomadic, He-Man. We shall find another tribe and continue to flee from the evil one.” Ashala smiled. “Strength in numbers, mighty one.”

Teela looked to me. “These people need a hero, He-Man. They won’t be broken and they won’t be shattered, but they need help. They need you.”

I touched my communicator. “Man-At-Arms . . . this is He-Man. Lock onto my position.”

Within minutes we were gathered at the rock. I knew we were facing En-Slave-Or and a small army of Hover Robots, but there was little to go on from there. Man-At-Arms was reluctant, of course.

“Should we contact the other Heroic Warriors? Maybe get a few of them here before we attack?”

“No,” I insisted. “I will no longer see evil overcome these good people. Ram-Man?”

Ram-Man was launched into the air with those strangely powerful legs, his shielded head colliding with the flat, blank part of the rock. It exploded in a shower of stones and debris and revealed a staircase leading deep underground. An alarm blared.

“MOVE!” Man-At-Arms barked.

Hover Robots were moving towards us, but a few swipes of my Power Sword took care of them. At the bottom of the stairs was a massive chamber filled with scores of Foxtans, with a Hover Robot for each one.

“Just like we planned!” I shouted.

Man-At-Arms was moving fast, blasting as many Hover Robots as he could. Battle-Cat, Teela and Man-E-Faces joined in. Man-E-Faces spun from Robot to help the accuracy of his aim; then spun to Monster to do some more wild damage. Lizard-Man worked to free the Foxtans, who in turn, helped each other.

“RUN!” I shouted to the Foxtans. “OUT!”

“HALT!”

En-Slave-Or appeared pretty much out of nowhere. All of the Foxtans that had started out stopped and looked back. En-Slave-Or was a piece of work, I’ll tell you that much. He was like some sort of bizarre fusion of magic and technology. His skin was completely black and crackled with electricity. His boots, legs, and torso looked like that of a Horde Trooper. En-Slave-Or’s head was framed by a silver and horned crown with two crimson eyes.

“He-Man!” he roared and headed straight towards me.

He produced a whip – it was burning and struck me across the face. The protective field of my Coridite harness plus my general invulnerability protected me from the full effect. But it was enough. The Foxtans had received the full impact of the whip.

So . . . my first step was to take the whip from En-Slave-Or. The next time he sent its end my way, I caught it, wrapped it around my arm and pulled. En-Slave-Or tumbled forward, the whip torn from his grasp. Oh, he had other tricks. Lightning. Energy beams. The works, really, but nothing I haven’t seen from any other two-bit villain. He was nothing, really.

I struck him with the Sword of Power. Once. I hit him in the chest, apparently striking a key robotic circuit. His body exploded. The armor broke down piece by piece, the magic pulled away from his body, leaving him empty.

He was nothing, Kathryn. Just a fool in league with evil, trying to impose his will on a peaceful people. And he failed.

Four

“Once defeated, the Foxtans had their freedom. They raced off to find their tribes. We, of course, high-tailed it out of there as well – only after we made sure the Foxtans were far enough away. We gave them a communicator to get in touch with us if something else were to happen. We then exploded the chamber and got it out of there ourselves before Skeletor showed up. Which, y’know, pretty much finishes up the story . . .”

Adam looked up from the wine. He was almost finished with his second glass.

“Why did you feel like you couldn’t tell me?” she asked.

“Oh. Yeah. That. Well . . . Ashala told us they wanted to remain protected from the forces of evil. They said they never wanted to be involved in any conflicts or wars. Peace was their ultimate goal. So, we told them we’d help in any way we could. That included giving them a map to safe areas of the Light Hemisphere and keeping their people a secret.”

“And now you’re telling me?”

Adam smiled. “I trust you, Kathryn. I love you. And I know they could trust you to keep their secret.”

Grinning, Kathryn raised her glass, which contained just a swallow of wine. “Well now, here’s to trust.”

Adam tapped his glass to hers. “And to the end of terror.”