The New Prince

Chapter 31

Chapter 31—A Darker Abyss into the Self

Inside the lab, Zarkon stared at his puppet with an actual look of concern. His suspicious were on target. He knew he had seen something transpire during the ceremony between his son and the princess of Arus. Then, those suspicions came into fruition when he watched the prince make love to the princess. He knew the chip would eventually stop working. The commander was slowly coming back and he could not allow that to happen. He would soon put an end to that and to the princess of Arus, who seemed to be the chaos among Zarkon's prodigy.

The witch's procedure had taken a couple of hours, but the king thought that the recovery would be immediate. He sighed in frustration when that did not happen.

"Haggar, I hope you knew what you were doing." Zarkon shook his head in frustration as he looked at Keith's still form sitting in Haggar's lab chair.

"Don't worry Zarkon. Everything is how it should be." She answered him calmly, putting the remaining instruments back in their place on the table next to Keith.

Keith stared at the wall in front of him, seeing nothing, unaware of those around him, completely distant.

"He's been like this since you finished the procedure ten minutes ago." Zarkon argued as he continued to look at him.

"The new chip I inserted has all the elements of Dr. Marseilles old one, but I added elements that he will need to make sure he's aligned with our goals."

"How come he's still in this state?"

"The new program currently feeds all the information that the previous had as well as the new messages we need him to have." Haggar explained. "Right now, it's like he's being reprogrammed, but it should end soon."

Moments passed and Zarkon began to know grow angry. If that bitch did anything to ruin him, I'm going to break her apart, he thought as he continued his vigil. Another fifteen minutes had passed. About to argue with Haggar, the king suddenly stopped when Keith blinked rapidly for a couple of seconds and then looked at Zarkon curiously, "Father, what happened? Why am I here?"

Zarkon smiled and patted Keith on his shoulder, "Sorry son, just making sure you were feeling alright. Haggar told me that you were in pain. Feeling better?"

"I feel...different." is all he managed to tell him.

As both king and son continued speaking, Lotor hid by the entrance of the laboratory, listening to the conversation taking place. He had heard part of it from the beginning, but as he felt more comfortable approaching the lab without being noticed, he heard much more.

"Can you come with me for a moment?" Zarkon asked, looking at Haggar. She nodded in approval.

"Sure," Keith nodded as he stood up.

"Follow me son," Zarkon then answered as they began walking out.

The fallen prince quickly hid by the pillars that had no lighting, hoping that as they passed they would not see him. As he hoped, Keith and Zarkon were unaware of his presence. He wished he could follow them, but that would not be a good idea. He could not risk it. Instead, he turned and looked toward the lab again to see what the witch was up to.

Curiously, his eyes followed her as she walked to a cabinet. Using a key, she held around her neck, she opened the cabinet and took out some sort of amulet that began to glow on her hand. Lotor's eyes widened, The Amulet of Amerlek!

He had heard the tales of the amulet from the witch herself. It had the power to heal and the power to kill those the keeper of the amulet decided were not worthy of existence. The amulet also had the power to transport whoever wore it from one place to another. Those were the only powers he had heard of! Haggar raved about the amulet whenever the conversation came up, but Lotor never imagined she actually possessed it. All this time she had it! What are you planning, witch?