I in no way own any of the original characters in this story and Voltron is the property of World Events Production, ltd. (So nobody sue me okay ^^;;) The new characters on the other hand are mine and under no circumstances are they to be used without my permission.
Here is the next installment of New Beginnings...
Chapter 4
By Cindra
Edited by Christina Bryan
"What's wrong girls can't you keep up with a recovering man?" Keith teased as he raced Night, his jet black Arabian, along the lakeside while Allura and his sisters trailed behind him.
"Keith, Slow down!" Cassie yelled, as she desperately tried to stay seated on her mare.
"Are you kidding?" Keith yelled back at them, "I'm tasting my first breath of freedom in four weeks!" He had to however, slow his mount down to a trot as they reached the picnic spot; that his parents, his friends, Nanny and Koran had chosen and were already enjoying the warm summer day.
Keith gazed longingly over at the Black Lion as it gleamed in the sun. "Cassie do me a favor." Keith hissed at his sister as she had reined her horse to a stop beside him.
"Name it big brother." Cassie smiled up at him.
"Cover for me while I go take Black Lion for a short flight." Keith eyes her with pleading chocolate brown eyes.
Cassie gazed at her and sighed, "Boy, big brother, when you ask for a favor; you really ask for a favor!"
"Thanks Cassie, I owe you one for this." He grinned at her, "Allura, come on lets go!" He motioned for his princess to follow him, as he returned the wave that his parents were giving him.
Allura smiled and waved back at their family and friends, "Where are we going." She asked him softy. "We can't just ditch them like this!" She hissed at him.
"Yes we can love, besides I want to take my lion up for a flight." He turned to look at her and gave her the same pitiful look that he had given his sister.
"Don't pout, you big baby," Allura tried not to giggle as he continued to pout at her. "Let's go before one of the guys sees you."
Keith bent over and gave her a nice long kiss as a reward for going along with him and not forcing him to stay at the boring picnic. "Let's go before mom goes all maternal on me again." Keith grinned at her and they both headed their mounts towards the castle.
"Have fun you guys, we'll try and save you some leftovers!" Cassie shouted after them and gave them both the thumbs up sign in approval.
Zandra walked over to her daughter and glared regally up at her, "Exactly where are those two off to?"
"To be alone mother, they haven't spent any time alone together in weeks." Cassie rolled her eyes in frustration.
"Excuse me you highness, I need to speak with your daughter." Lance gave Zandra his winning smile and led Cassie away from the picnic.
Cassie smiled at him and planted a quick kiss on his cheek; "You wanted speak with me?"
Lance had to fight to remember just what he had wanted to talk to her about, "Where did Keith and the Princess go off in such a big hurry?"
"Keith said, something about wanting to fly his lion' and he wanted me to cover for him." Cassie smiled at him.
Lance was not at all pleased that his two friends had ditched him, "If he wants to take his lion for a flight, then he should at least include the rest of us." Lance growled.
"Will you lower your voice." Cassie hissed at Lance. He was all but dragging her with him as he made his way towards Hunk and Pidge, who seemed to have acquired a shadow by the name of Myria. "Myria, mom wants you."
Myria frowned at her older sister in annoyance; "I didn't hear her call my name."
"Do not start with me, baby sister," Cassie glared down at her; "Now go see Mom!" She ordered.
Myria didn't want to cause a scene in front of the love of her life so she reluctantly did as she was told. "I'm going Cassie. See you later Pidge." She sighed dreamily and went to find out what her mom wanted.
"Thanks Cassie, I really owe you one." Pidge just didn't know how to avoid his constant shadow and was relived that she had been called back over to her parents.
"Keith went to go fly Black lion and it's our ticket out of this boring picnic." Lance grinned at them.
"An escape away from the brat? Count me in Lance." Pidge was more than ready to leave the picnic.
"Yeah lets go." Hunk finished off his huge hero sandwich.
"Great! I always wanted to see one of the lions up close." Cassie smiled up at Lance.
Lance glared down at Cassie's smiling face, "Where do you think that you are going?"
"I am going with you guys." Cassie glared at him.
"No you're not!" Lance growled.
"If you think that I'm staying here, while you guys are all off having fun then you can just think again!" Cassie hissed at him in annoyance.
"Will you two quit arguing we are starting to draw a crowd!" Pidge glanced over at Myria who was heading their way.
"Fine, you can come with us, but if anyone finds out this was all your idea." Lance gave up and they all headed towards the castle.
"Yes!" Cassie squealed happily," You won't regret this I promise." She gave Lance a big hug and kissed him on the cheek.
"Your brother is going to kill me." He said though gritted teeth, he just had a feeling that this was not a good idea.
~~~
A spacecraft is in route to Arus, with Cassie's betrothed as its passenger. He was on his way to collect his reluctant bride to be.
"Soon Cassandra you and your kingdom will be all mine." Prince Devon vowed as they finally reached the Planet Arus.
"Shall I inform Arus of our arrival, sir?" The Captain of his ship asked.
"I want to surprise her, so do not even attempt to announce our arrival." Devon all but snarled at him.
"Fine, but it's your funeral." The Captain muttered under his breath and did as he was told.
~~~
Down on Arus Keith and his team were all showing off for his parents and the people celebrating down below. Their fun was cut short by a call from the castle, "Castle of Lion's to Black Lion. We have just picked up an unknown space craft on radar."
"Did you attempt to hail the pilot of the craft?" Keith was now in Captain mode.
Yes sir, and we received no response." Was the castle's reply.
"Alert Koran, while we go and investigate." Keith ordered the radar operator. "Well you heard him team. We have a possible unfriendly in the area so lets all try to stay alert."
"Since when are we ever not alert fearless leader." Lance teased his friend.
"This is so exciting! I can't believe that I get to experience an actual battle!" Cassie squealed with excitement, which earned her a glare from Lance.
"Oh, Lance, tell my sister that; when we get back to the castle, her and I are going to have a nice long talk about how she ended up in your lion." Keith was clearly not pleased.
"Keith I can explain..." Lance tried to explain but Keith cut him off.
"Save it! We've got work to do and tell Cassie to make sure that her safety harness is fasted securely, because it's going to be a very bumpy ride." Keith snarled.
Cassie glared at her brother's image on Red Lion's computer screen. "Very funny big brother!" She hissed.
"Who said that I was joking." Keith glared at his sister.
Cassie finally realized just how serious the situation was; "I should have stayed with Myria." She moaned.
"Too late now, sis, and by the way black is most definitely your color." He teased and she glared murderously at him.
"Very funny, big brother, I happen to think that this uniform that you guys have to wear is boring, even if it does look good on me." She added smartly.
"This is not a fashion show Cassandra! We are not in this for the fun of it! This is reality, Cassie, physical combat with actual weapons! Now lets cut the chatter and proceed to our target!" Keith all but roared at his little sister in frustration.
"Well, you didn't have to yell at me." She shouted back.
"Uh...Cassie, I'd be quite if I were you." Lance warned.
"Why? I was just giving you my opinion." Cassie glared at Lance for taking Keith's side.
"Cassie! Shut Up!" Allura ordered her friend knowing that Keith was about unleash his fury on his sister.
"But," She started to protest once more but was cut off by Keith's angry roar.
"Cassandra!" He roared glaring murderously at her image on his screen effectively shut her up.
"Keith!" Hunk shouted into his Com link.
"What!" Keith snarled.
"I was just going to tell you that the unknown spacecraft is right in front of us." Hunk said warily.
"Sorry, Hunk, Pidge have you tried to make contact with the craft?" Keith was once again in full control.
"Sorry, Keith, they don't seem to want to talk to us." Pidge frowned.
"Attention unknown spacecraft, this is Captain Keith of the Voltron force, identify yourself or we will be forced to shoot you down." Keith's ordered them to respond.
~~~
"Sir, we must respond, the Captain of the Voltron Force never gives a warning more than once." The captain of the ship warned Devon his voice shook with fear.
"I told you that I want to surprise Cassie, so do not answer him." Devon snarled at him.
"Yes sir, but you do realize that you have just killed us all." The captain snarled back.
~~~
"Keith, they still are refusing to answer our hail." Pidge reported.
"Alright, if they won't talk to us, then we will just have to make them." Keith growled, "Lance, Allura, Hunk I want you to fire a warning shot across her bow."
"No problem Keith, one warning shot coming right up." Lance grinned and fired his stingray missiles.
"We did warn them." Hunk smirked as he fired his rotor missals.
"Your wish is my command." Allura winked at Keith trying to break him out of his mood and fired her ion darts at the ship.
"I repeat identify yourself or next time we will not miss." Keith ordered the ship.
Clearly fearing for his life the Captain of the craft finally answered Keith's second warning. "I'm Captain Trey of the Ziare planetary fleet. My passenger is from Triton, and did not wish announce his arrival."
Captain Trey, I order you to land and report to King Oran at once! If you ever pull something like this again, I will personally make sure that you are demoted to K.P. for the rest of your career." Keith snarled at the man on the screen.
"How dare you speak to my pilot like that; you will be lucky if you ever fly that Lion again!" Devon roared angrily at Keith's image on his ships main screen.
"Just who the hell do you think you are! You invaded my airspace and refused to identify yourself," Keith snarled back at the stranger.
"I am Prince Devon of Triton and you Captain almost created a planetary incident!" Devon glared regally at him.
"So your Prince Devon, are you? My sister, has told me all about you and none of what she has said has been good." Keith glowered at the prince on his screen.
"Just who the hell do you think you are, to call Cassandra your sister?" He snarled back at Keith.
"Well, smart ass, if you must know! My full title is Crown Prince Keith son of King Oran and Queen Zandra, heir to the throne of Zaire!" Keith stated smugly loving the shocked expression on Devon's face.
"You lie! Their only son was killed when his shuttle crashed on Earth and there were no survivors." Devon snarled back daring Keith to challenge him.
"How would you know any of that information? My father told me that only he, my mother, my sisters, and Lotor knew how I was suppose to have died." Keith was now aiming all of his weapons at Devon's ship.
"Cassandra told me, that she was the true heir to the throne of Zaire and I plan to rule by her side. We will combine our two planets it will be glorious." Devon was slowly digging his own grave.
"Wouldn't you have to wait until the reining King and queen step down to rule beside my sister?" Keith had his finger on his weapons switch and waited for Devon to respond.
"Of course, but I won't have to wait for very long. Kings get ill and sometimes illness can lead to an untimely death." He continued sign his own death warrant.
"How do you see the King, who is only in his early forties, getting sick?" Keith wanted Devon to dig himself in even deeper so he switched on his Lion's outside Com, so that everyone on the ground could hear every word that Devon was saying.
"Let's just say that there are many ways to take down a King and at that my father has taught me well. After all he was the one that made sure that King Oran would have no choice, but to unite our two planets." Devon sneered at Keith.
Keith now had his entire Lion's weapons targeted and locked on to Devon's ship. "And how exactly did your father manage that?" Keith tried to keep his cool.
"By destroying the young prince's shuttle, as it tried to land on Earth." Devon had just made the worst mistake of his life.
"Well Devon, may I call you Devon? Your father made a terrible error, because here I am eleven years later, finally reunited with my family and with my rightful title. You however, will never get to tell him about it because I plan on blowing you out of existence!" Keith had heard more than enough and had murder on his mind.
"You can't shoot me down; you happen to be one of the good guys!" Devon snarled back at Keith.
"Why shouldn't I blow you away? Your family took away my life and for that you don't deserve to live." Keith prepared to destroy Devon's ship.
"Keith! You can't just blow him away!" Allura tried to reason with her man. "That would make you like Lotor and his father."
"This is in no way like Lotor, princess. He clearly stated that his father tried to kill me, at the age of ten. So that his father could have his son marry my sister, Which in turn plans to murder my parents and take over the kingdom. That in my books is premeditated murder and the penalty for that in every planetary system is death." Keith glared at Allura's image.
"Did anyone actually die, Keith?" Allura stated softly.
"No, but that isn't..." He started to protest what she was saying but Allura cut him off.
"Besides Keith, if you hadn't crashed, you would never have come here to my planet and I would have ended up as Lotor's slave." Allura was on the verge of tears.
"I would have saved you anyway." He smiled at her image and regained control of his temper.
"This is all very touching Captain, not saying as I am as evil as my father, I will just have to finish what my father started." Devon's Ship fired direct hit, after direct hit at Black lion.
"Look out big brother!" Cassie screamed into her Com, but it was to late.
Allura watched in horror as Black Lion took hit after hit. "Keith!" She screamed.
"Keith, answer me!" Lance yelled into his Com as Black lion fell towards the planet's surface. "We've got to try and get to him before he hits!" Lance yelled at Pidge.
"We'll never catch him in time. He's falling to fast." Green lion dove after Black Lion.
"Keith!" They all shouted in horror as Black lion crashed into the hillside.
"That does it!" Hunk roared in fury as tears streamed down his face. "No more mister nice guy!" He began to fire relentlessly at Devon's ship.
"You'll pay for this you monster!" Allura screamed and blue Lion began slicing at Devon's ship with her ion knife, easily disabling all of its weapons.
"Now Devon you have one choice! You will land or we we'll force you to land." Lance snarled at the evil prince.
"Very well, my job is finished, your brother my dearest is finally dead." Devon grinned evilly at Cassie's image on his main screen.
"Murder! I'll kill you myself!" Cassie shoved Lance out of his seat.
"Cassie what are you doing!" Lance snarled at his princess as she flew red lion towards the ship.
"I'm avenging my brother!" She screamed at him, before she fired every weapon that red lion had at Devon's ship.
"You Bitch! What have you done!" Devon snarled at her.
"I, have taken out the trash, you murdering monster!" Cassie cried angrily through her tears, as Devon's ship blew into a million pieces.
~~~
Meanwhile, on the ground Koran was trying to calm down Keith's parents, as they heard and watched as Keith's lion plummeted towards the planet's surface.
"My Baby!" Zandra screamed in horror.
"Keith!" Oran roared as his son crashed so hard that the ground shook beneath them.
"No! I can't lose him again!" Zandra felt like she was dying inside as she ran towards her son's fallen lion.
"I need a medical team out here immediately Black Lion is down!" Koran shouted into his Com.
~~~
"Keith answer me, please open your eyes." Allura begged, but got no response from the unconscious man lying in the bed. His head, arms, hands and legs were all covered with bandages.
"Please buddy wake up." Lance ordered his fallen friend. He had his arms around Cassie's shoulders, as she held Keith's other bandaged hand.
"If only I hadn't stopped him from killing Devon." Allura sobbed as she clutched at Keith's hand.
"It's not your fault Princess. You did the right thing and Keith would not have wanted you to do anything differently." Hunk tried to calm her down.
"NO! He'll hate my forever, because of what Devon did to him! This is all my fault!" Allura wailed at her friends, not noticing that Keith was now firmly grasping her hand.
"Allura look!" Lance cried in relief as he pointed to Keith's hand.
"Keith, I am so sorry." She whimpered.
"Why?" Keith asked her softly barely awake.
"This is all my fault." She sniffled miserably.
"No, love, this is nobody's fault, but my own." Keith tried to soothe her.
"Oh Keith!" Allura sobbed laying her head against his chest.
"Easy Allura, watch the ribs." He chuckled but winced as pain shot through his ribs.
"Sorry" She whimpered snuggling even closer to him.
"That's okay Allura." He tried to place his good arm around her and held her in his arms. He also noticed that his little sister was sitting beside his bed and was still bawling her eyes out." Cassie, I'm going to be fine, so please do your older brother a favor and stop crying.
"Keith, something happened after that creep shot you down." Lance tried to explain why Cassie couldn't stop crying.
"Cassie?" Keith reached over and brushed a tear from her cheek, but she said nothing.
"Well it's like this, after we saw you crash all of us kind of went crazy." Lance tried to find the right words.
"Go on." Keith frowned at his friend.
"Cassie sort of went a little crazy and blew away Devon's ship." Lance finished his little story.
"And just how did my sister manage to gain control of your Lion?" Keith asked calmly.
"She just sort of went nuts and pushed my out of the way, flew red lion like a pro, and then blew Devon away." Lance couldn't believe how calm his friend was about all of this.
"Cassie, are you alright?" Keith tried to get a response from his sister.
"She hasn't said a word since she blew up Devon's ship." Lance stated warily as he gazed down at the woman in his arms.
"She's in shock Keith. She was so mad at Devon, that she did the only thing that she thought she could do and that was to avenge her big brother's death." Allura tried to help explain her friends behavior." We all thought that he had killed you and were trying to shoot him down anyway. Cassie just beat us to it."
"You're not the only one that thought that I was a dead. All I could feel was intense pain and then everything went dark. Were there any survivors or did they all go up with the ship." Keith frowned at Lance.
"Everyone except his highness had managed to get to the escape pods in time." Hunk answered before Lance could say anything.
"Poor kid, killing someone no matter what the situation is tuff on a person." Keith really felt for his sister and what she was going through.
"I had to kill him. He was killing you." Cassie mumbled to herself as she slowly came out of her trance like state.
"Cassie, we understand completely." Lance tried to reassure her.
"You don't understand Lance, it felt good to watch him die like he did." Cassie whimpered.
"Everyone please leave, Cassie and I need to have a talk." Keith ordered softly.
"Okay, but you need your rest." Allura reluctantly crawled out of his arms.
"Yes dear." Keith grinned at her; "I love you too."
"Come on Lance, we need to let them talk." Allura pulled him away from Cassie and led him out of the room.
"Come here Sis." Keith ordered softly.
"Oh Keith!" Cassie sobbed and crawled into her brother's arms.
~~~
A few hours later their parents had decided to check on their son once more, just to make sure that he was going to be fine and found that both Keith and Cassie were sound asleep. Keith was holding Cassie in his arms.
"He's so good with her." Zandra sighed lovingly as she gazed down at her two oldest children.
"Yes, just think he's going to be a wonderful father." Oran said as they left the two of them to their slumber.
"Just think we're going to be Grandparents!" Zandra all but shouted with glee as they entered the hallway.
"What!" Keith shouted and sat straight up in bed causing himself to experience extreme pain.
"What's wrong?" Cassie yawned sleepily.
"Nothing, I must have been having a nightmare." Keith muttered sleepily.
"OK." Cassie smiled and drifted back to sleep.
"Suddenly I don't feel so good." Keith moaned as his stomach began to roll.
Cassie sat up stared worriedly at her brother. "Keith, you look really pale."
"I never get sick like this." He wheezed as he tried to calm his rolling stomach.
"Here try munching on these." Cassie handed him some crackers," Nanny must have thought that you need some soup, but didn't want to wake you."
"Thanks." Keith eagerly munched on the crackers.
Cassie glanced at the beside clock and started to giggle, "Keith it's 6am."
"So?" Keith snarled at her for thinking this was funny.
"You said, 'that you never get sick like this' right?" She tried to keep a straight face as she looked at him.
"What is your point, Cassandra." Keith glared at her, as he continued too much on his crackers.
"If I didn't know any better I would say that you were suffering from some sort of sympathetic morning sickness." Cassie broke into a fit of giggles at the look that Keith was giving her.
"That couldn't be possible." Keith growled at her.
"Is it?" Cassie pinned her brother with a knowing look.
"Well...Oh great now Koran is really going to kill me." Keith felt like panicking.
"Well, don't just lay there and panic big brother! You need to find out if its true or not." Cassie was really enjoying this.
"And just how do I, may I ask, am I suppose to do that!" Keith snarled at his sister pointing to the casts on his leg and left arm.
"Well, what do you think that sisters are for, big brother. I'll just go get Allura, so that you and your wife to be can have a heart to heart chat about the little one on then way." Cassie got out of the bed winked at her brother and headed for the door.
"Cassie!" Keith bellowed.
"Yes?" She turned on her heel and smiled at her brother.
"Just tell her that I want to talk to her and say nothing about this to anyone." Keith gave her orders, "Not even to Allura."
"Not even to Mom and Dad?" She frowned. "Or Lance?"
"NO, especially Lance, Koran, Nanny or any of the guys!" He snarled.
"Boy, your no fun." She pouted.
"Cassie!" He was not amused.
"I'm going! Gees are you bossy!" She snapped at him before she left the room.
"I'm doomed!" Keith moaned as he reached for another cracker.
~~ On To Chapter 5 ~~
I know what your thinking and no I do not hate Keith!^^;; So how did you like my surprise? How will Allura react to the news? Will Koran kill Keith? Can Cassie keep a secret? All that and more!! The royal wedding Of Keith and Allura!! Next time in chapter 5!^^
Tell me what you think of this chapter ^^
See ya later
Cindra
