Interlock 3 : Circle In The Sand

by Gojirob

The two Voltrons have known victory in their spheres : The Lion Force defeated Planet Doom, and The Vehicle Force has saved the Drule People from extinction. But mistakes and missteps may allow their enemies to rebuild, while Keith is tormented by what could be visions of another life. Set after the conclusion of Vehicle, and inbetween the two Lion seasons.

2. Chapter 2

1

A PART OF SPACE SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE ORBITS OF ARUS OR POLLUX

Prince Lotor bowed before his father, a more sincere bow than either had seen for many decades.

"You've given me the answers I needed, Father. My obsession with Allura is explained, and it is done with. In fact, my prior foolish distraction by her has given me an idea for a truly evil plan!"

It could be said in a very off-putting way that Planet Doom and its Galran Dynasty had no concept of evil before encountering the Galaxy Alliance. It was not that they weren't exactly as barbaric and murderously expansive as they were known to be. No, this lack of the dark concept was a simple matter of labeling, of ideas focused and codified. The Terrans and their allies had done so long ago; the Galrans never had, and their contact with their Drule cousins was far too limited for their notions on the matter to take hold. when they learned of what evil was in the view of most, they delightedly embraced the practice they had always thought of as just how things were. If it seemed odd for someone to actually call themselves evil, that someone was not a Galran. They knew what evil was, and they joyed in it. To be fair though, the first Alliance spies ever to witness the Galrans talk about evil openly were questioned as to whether they had somehow been misled with the audio for an ancient children's animation. On hearing a conversation between Lotor and Zarkon, one senior admiral asked if they needed the Voltron Forces or an able platypus. Absolutely no one got the reference.

"The past is always a distraction, my son-it is also our strength. It is our primal connection to the Galra that was that makes the miracles and monsters that serve us possible. In your case and mine, it also haunted us with a conflict that has not mattered for uncounted centuries. The old witch has cleared us of it, now. You are still an ambitious prince apt to seek my throne, and I am still apt to crush any such effort. We are Galran, after all. Such is our nature. Now old dust no longer clouds our vision and infests our lungs. Old Witch? Why did you not spot this out sooner?"

Witch Haggar did not have her usual confident swagger. Nearly killed in the taking of Planet Doom, she found herself reverting to the weak sorceress she once was, and would be forced at some point to become her once again, merely to push that one away for all time and seal her identity. Yet her answers would satisfy her King.

"A thousand apologies, My Liege. We three form a unique triad; the rebirth in core spiritual essence of three Galrans so powerful, their spirits formed our very looks, even to Father and Son and my current appearance. You look as you do, Dark Sire, even though pure-race Galrans have been extinct for many millennia. Prince Lotor duplicates his forebear, even though the Altean blood in your line is even more distantly removed than the Galran. I myself was so transformed after trying to call on the spirit of she who I once was, lifetimes ago."

Zarkon already seemed bored, as he often got. Haggar knew his bratty, cowardly persona was the result of massive inbreeding in the Galran Dynasty, in an attempt to craft an heir such as was produced in Zarkon, a birth his parents regretted well before he was of age.

"Yes, Yes. I am the rebirth of Daibazal The Great Serpent, Lotor was once Sincline Of The One-Day Reign, and your past self was Honerva The Bad Star. That Father and Son hated each other unreasonably, and this infected my relationship with my son. I just hate it when old business never gets settled. Someone tell these spirits to take a nap and sleep off the headaches they give us."

Lotor nodded.

"Yes, Father. Those two rulers hated each other far beyond what mere throne-seeking could ever explain, and for reasons listed in no legend, Honerva despised Sincline to the point of sabotaging his last fight against his enemies. That almost sounds like you and me recently, Old Witch. Have you no clue why these three fell out past common sense and uniting against a wolf at their door?"

Haggar had never told of the horror she encountered when summoning up the part of her that was still Honerva, and horror was the word she herself used to describe it-though again, only to herself.

"I fear Prince Lotor, that my efforts to speak to Honerva have never been successful. Then again, I wouldn't really relish talking to myself. People like that are crazy."

Father and Son chuckled, and while they spoke of a plan to use an evil ally as a pawn to greater things under the banner of a grand deception, Haggar thought back to what happened when she did in fact speak to Honerva. Again, this was not a pleasant memory.

2

*Who summons me?*

**Mighty Honerva, Bane Of The Space Goddess. I am your current life-self, called Haggar in this skin. I wield the dark arts in service of my lover, Zarkon, who walked for you as Daibazal Of Serpents, Lord Of Vultures. I wish you to instruct this poor stupid magic-user in your Dark Arts and Icy Sciences, so that the path of our lives may continue as before.**

The phrase went, 'They Were Once Quite A Looker', and this applied to Haggar. That would change.

*You-you are his LOVER?*

Honerva pointed at Haggar, a look of true fury emerging and looking all the worse on a thing several aeons dead.

*FIEND! There are lines even such as we should never cross. How-how can you be his lover?*

Haggar tried joking the moment away, hoping to break the angry spirit's focus.

**Well, to be perfectly honest, we have talked about seeing other people...**

Lightning struck the corrupted beauty down, and winds battered her form as Honerva raged.

*You both defame who you once were! What kind of pathetic fool lays down with her own so-*

Seizing on the dark energies that bombarded her, Haggar cut Honerva off and bombarded her until she could maintain her separate presence no longer, and the two reunited. a glance into a mirror to check for wounds revealed the price she had paid for asking questions the dead wished not to answer.

**No-no-NOOOOO! I look like her, now! WHYYYYYYY!?**

For three weeks she wept openly. At some point, she either went insane or came close enough that it didn't matter. She looked at her new form again, and this time chuckled.

**Well, at least this leaves my Saturday nights open. Maybe I should get a cat- just one. I may be an evil Witch, I don't want to end up becoming one of THOSE ladies.**

3

"Lost in thought, Old Witch? Have you no comments on Lotor's rather clever plan?"

In fact, Haggar hadn't caught a word of it. She knew enough to fake interest-among other things.

"Sire, among the survivors of Mighty Voltron's invasion was a Commander Cossack. Bright enough to get needed tasks done, doesn't take setbacks as personally as Yurak did. He would be an excellent stalking horse for the Prince's schemes and distractions."

Lotor actually seemed appreciative.

"Good thinking, Witch. Yes, Cossack would do well in that. Tell me, have you ever learned the name of the enemy that brought our remote ancestors low?"

Haggar saw the same question on Zarkon's face, and grew honestly confused.

"The enemy? Why, it was Lion Knight, of course. Who else could it have been?"

Zarkon laughed.

"Silly Witch-tricks are for children. Lion Knight never existed. His story is just propaganda Alfor created to justify the expense of building Voltron to his people-actually an admirable moment for him. Small wonder he held out as long as he did, with a mind that sharp."

Lotor chimed in.

"Think, Haggar! Voltron is only a few decades old. We know King Alfor built him. This Lion Knight goes back thousands and thousands of years-maybe tens of thousands-and the heroes of his story somehow sound like our sworn foes. Alfor obviously gave Allura the materials needed to make it seem like Keith and his miscreants were creatures of prophecy, once she had their information. Father is right-an admirable lie, well told. I give her credit. While it may fool the rubes, I'm from Planet Doom. You have to show me."

Haggar sighed silently at the information her rulers would never act on, out of blind ignorance.

**You can fly a Vampire Steed to a river of blood, but he'll only want it from a living neck.**

"Of course, my Prince, my King. Your royal insight is as always, superior to mine. I-wait! Everyone in the court fall silent!"

If they mocked her before, the royal family members now did exactly what Haggar directed. Her staff twirled, aimed at a vase full of thorn-flowers, then fired a beam that broke open the pillar it rested on. From this, she pulled a small square.

"Sire, may I recommend whoever sweeps this room for listening devices have their head placed on top of this vase?"

Zarkon knew a listening device when he saw one, He slammed down his hand on his new throne.

"Count on it! Who-who would have the nerve?"

Lotor folded the bug up in a cloth, though he did not crush it.

"Father, we both know their agents aided in my coup. This is just like them. instead of getting angry or even-may I suggest we regard this an opportunity?"

Zarkon smiled.

"It's good to have you back, my son. You always have a nasty angle to work."

Haggar looked at Lotor's cloth.

"My Prince? What do you intend to do with that?"

Lotor placed the cloth in a transmission-blocking container.

"Why, Haggar-I intend to place a long-distance call to end all long-distance calls-and I'm reversing the charges!"

4

PLANET DEEVA - THE FAR FRINGES OF THE FORMER DRULE EMPIRE

They had just enough troops and weapons to cause ten hours worth of trouble, and they would make those ten hours count, when the time was right. That time was not yet.

"So they've discovered the listening device, not destroyed it?"

Viceroy Throk nodded at the much-reduced Emperor, Zeppo Xram, and still showed him full respect, his blunders aside. After all, the old man had once been the youngest of five brothers set to inherit the throne : Yet the Princes Iulius, Eonard, Dolfo, and Notilm had all fallen to their much wilier 'baby' sibling, and his daring had in times past yielded better results.

"Yes, Sire. We have others, far better embedded and hidden than that one. Yet if they are to bring up this nonsense of past lives, then our distant cousins may be of little use, except as an ammo cache for us to raid on occasion."

Throk had known his failures, too. if Zeppo was apt to threaten underlings for this, he was still not like to do this with Throk. A lackey obedient enough to trust and yet smart enough to innovate was a rare enough prize.

"Don't be so quick to discount their odd beliefs, Throk. Yes, talk of reincarnation and rebirths makes me chuckle, when it doesn't bore me silly. Yet if believing that they have hashed out their differences in this way has Zarkon and Lotor truly putting aside their differences, this could be a game-changer. We always kept the Galrans in line by playing father and son off each other-subtly, of course. If they are now getting along-at least as far as that bunch can-we may have to reshape many plans of ours."

Throk put an emphasis on his next words he might avoid in any other time and place.

"Sire, your loyal forces remain ready to strike and rebuild the Great Drule Empire."

A glare leapt from the old man's eyes, and suddenly Throk was an ensign apprentice all over again, and this was his Emperor's wish.

"Tell them and yourself to be patient, Throk. Just as this plan enabled our fleet to escape the destruction of our world, all while getting the Alliance to kindly transport our subjects for us to a new one, so do my next string of schemes set us up to be in an unstoppable position upon our true return."

Throk had mistaken the webs in his Emperor's mind for cobwebs. In fact, he realized, it was more like a computer network. He doubted that all that had happened was part of Zeppo Xram's plan, but it now seemed enough of it was that he should continue to serve happily in his shadow.

"My apologies, Emperor. Even if part of an imperial scheme, running and hiding like this without a direct target is against my nature. I will try to be better than it."

The surveillance console lit up like a Terran Christmas Tree, or so Throk had heard it said.

"There's suddenly a lot of buzz from the Galrans! It's like every last bug we placed on them is receiving intelligence, all at once."

The voice of the heir to the Galran Throne boomed out, assaulting the Drules everywhere on the escape vessel.

*WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT INTELLIGENCE, THROK, IS VERY QUESTIONABLE INDEED!*

Zeppo uncovered his ears and yelled.

"The Old Witch-she must have used her gobbledygoo magic to use the bug they found, and thereby seize control of every last one we planted!"

Throk pointed at no one and nothing and shook with fury at the same.

"LOTOR! You dare assault your Suzerain and Overlord with these obnoxious parlor tricks?"

Lotor's image appeared, speaking at normal volume.

"You're one to talk, Throk, bugging my Father's domains when we're supposed to be allies. But rather than trade accusations and faked outrage, let me pose a riddle to you."

Throk uncovered his ears entirely, but they and he were still sore.

"I'm listening."

Lotor grinned.

"How do you get rid of a meddling Super Robot? No answer? Well, try this one : With a combining Super Ro-Beast. We have differing methods of making them, but if we join those and an appreciable fleet I have set aside, we can cross Voltron off the universal list, near and far. Interested?"

Throk found a way to briefly mute Lotor's enhanced feed.

"My liege-it's another one of Lotor's grand schemes. These tricks never work."

Zeppo got a playful gleam in his eye.

"Throk-you said you needed a direct target to strike? Maybe you two will get lucky and wipe out the Super-Robots. In any event, by the time you are done, my own plans will have begun to coalesce. And Throk?"

"Yes, Sire?"

Again, that gleam, which Throk now found as unsettling as the old man's glare.

"Take-copious notes. There could be a test upcoming."

Throk bowed.

"I always take notes, sire. It's just good business."

5

PLANET ARUS

He was unable to move as the horrors he saw assaulted him.

"What - what are they doing with those prisoners? Even Zarkon and Lotor wouldn't-ahhh!"

As the grisly feast played out on a nightmare version of Planet Doom ( despite his pain, Keith was somewhat impressed that such a thing could even exist ), Keith saw the images shift.

"Sven-dying in my arms? Then again in Romelle's? How can a man die twice?"

Keith now saw more recent events, leading up to the all-too brief taking of Planet Doom.

"But Zarkon faked blowing up that ambassador, relishing the fear that he created by showing that he could pull such a thing off. 'Death ends the game' - that was his boast against the peace conference."

It made sense in a sick way. Zarkon wanted living subjects, all bowing to him in tribute and fear, and able to work themselves to death for his pleasures. It was even why the royals on Pollux had endured as long as they did - Zarkon preferred the rulers to be helpless examples of the consequence of trying to play him.

"Zarkon is cruel beyond words, no doubt, but practical? Yeah. He allowed Yurak an insane amount of chances before doing what he did. Oh, Please. Don't make me see any more of this."

But it was as though the visions had a sense of humor as twisted as Zarkon's, for Keith's plea was only half-answered. In this new vision, a resolute, coherent Lance without an ounce of sarcasm in his voice sat in the smoking cockpit of Red Lion.

*They've won. They smashed through everything and everyone-even us. I sign off now, asking that whoever hears this message someday, let them know that hope was once real, and so was Voltron. May both rise once again. Lance, once pilot of the Red Lion-over and out.*

Keith screamed as the life support ran out and Lance simply went still for all time. His screams stopped, though, as he heard words in the void he fell through endlessly.

*THE HEIR MUST BE SAVED. THE CORRUPTION MUST BE EMPTIED OUT, THE CORRUPTION OF THE BAD STAR. IN THE LION'S DEN THEY WALK, BUT IT IS THE LIONS WHO MUST NOW FEAR THE BROKEN HEIR. ACROSS LIVES WRIT LARGE, KOGANE MUST GO. THE HEIR MUST BE SAVED.*

Keith still found himself unable to move, though he struggled with all his might.

"You're not making any sense! Who is the heir? Who is in the Lion's Den?"

6

His vision cleared, and he saw Coran standing before him. Keith realized he was bound by restraints in a hospital bed.

"Coran? Why am I tied up?"

The minister raised his hands in a calming gesture.

"Keith, whatever nightmares seized you, they had you thrashing about like a madman while you slept. The restraints were solely for your protection, and since you are awake, I will now undo them."

Coran pressed a button and did just that. Keith got up and stretched, feeling only somewhat better than when he fainted. He asked a question.

"Is Allura all right?"

Coran saw this query as not odd at all. He wasn't blind to the potential couple in front of him. He doubted anyone was.

"The Princess, except for worrying about you, is fine. Keith? Were your nightmares about her being harmed?"

Keith sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"Not specifically. But a voice cried out in them that The Heir Must Be Saved. I don't know what it might mean."

Coran considered mentioning that their world currently hosted several heirs, including those of Pollux and perhaps New Drule as well, but thought better of it owing to Keith's condition.

"Well, even on Arus, some dreams are just that. Keith, you have been on high alert for a small matter of years now. Perhaps your body and mind simply demanded the rest that you would not give them."

That was actually an answer Keith could live with, and one he vastly preferred. But being on Arus, the feel of dark things and visions meaning something could not so easily leave him.

"Coran, do you remember when Lotor and Haggar made us think that the Princess had died?"

Coran nodded.

"I certainly remember that they tried to. Luckily, you four sniffed out their scheme rather quickly, and laid a successful trap for that sneaky pair."

Keith shook his head.

"Coran, what if I told you-that none of us have any idea why we were able to figure out their scam so easily-and that maybe what I saw in my dreams makes me wonder about a lot of things?"

Coran sighed a bit.

"Keith, we live on a world where the ghost of my king and my friend can be called as though we had a comm service to the other side. A world where a super-robot at times seems to run as much on the will of its gifted pilots as on anti-matter and cold fusion reactions. A world where the spells of an actual witch must be taken into account as much as enemy fleet strength. A world where the most mundane coincidence is that our Princess has a twin on a distantly related world."

Keith nodded.

"So you see where I'm going with this?"

Coran shook his head.

"I do, but I can say I do not approve of it. There is enough of the supernatural about us that we should seek no more of it. I have always felt, if there were a supreme being or simply higher beings truly outside our scope, their nature should be declared by the wise to be unknowable. What do we on this side of the veil know of what they want, or if anything we know even applies in their realms? For all the fantastic things in our lives, some things have simple explanations that we should accept. My son was cloned, and that clone used against us. He and my wife may be alive in another dimension, saved by the happenstance incursion of dimensional explorers who aided them and withdrew, fearful of the war Zarkon waged upon us. Those things are science. We should be mindful and accepting of higher powers and truths, but to lean too much on them is a crutch that will rob us of our sureness of foot, and firmness of resolve."

Before Keith could counter, Coran finished up.

"You are a driven young man who collapsed from exhaustion, and had some bad dreams while out for an extended period. Throw in the disappointing news from Earth, and those dreams are doubly explainable. You four ciphered out Lotor's false murder of Allura because you have sharp minds and knew your enemies, motive and method, both the schemes they'd laid out in the past, and the kinds of things they might do in the present. Why, even many of Haggar's worst plans involved more beakers than broomsticks. We pay homage to the spirits and their place, Keith. But this is a war of the rational over the irrational, and our core success has come from our choosing the rational."

Keith conceded that Coran would not hear any more of his words. Likely, the revelation of his wife and son's possible survival had caused him as much pain as joy, and allowing the false Garrett the free run he did almost caused him to resign his post. In such a situation, a man might not wish to even ponder the role of beings and purpose above them.

"Maybe you're right, Coran. But I think I'll be a while shaking this one off."

Coran immediately softened back to his more avuncular self.

"Of course you will. It would be foolish of me to think you would do so too easily. Hmm. Maybe from the tone and tenor of my speech-making, I may have hit my limit as well. Keith, I think we may have three months before the Galrans are able to bother us again in even the most limited way. May I suggest we all stand down for at least six weeks? We can be on call without pacing the halls and climbing the walls of this castle. In addition to our own forces, the Free Drules are also patrolling the skies and space above us, while Hazar is with us. I worry less about your question than my own response to it."

With none of his questions answered but with a good suggestion in hand, Keith started to make the arrangements he knew full well might lead to trouble, but that he also knew were needed. A chance to truly relax while the enemy inevitably regrouped might as well be taken, he reasoned, if they could not stop Zarkon and Lotor from retaking their homeworld. Even if seemingly killed, they and Haggar could fake it or perhaps even come back from it. Sometimes, Commander Hawkins had taught them, a hard fact could be something to rely on, as much as scorn, and Keith was taking that to heart.

"Team, we've earned a rest. I needed Coran to remind me of it, but really, it just makes sense. But even at rest, I want us in position to meet up and fight together, if our intelligence about Planet Doom and its rulers is wrong. Hunk, how's that turbo assist coming?"

The big man folded his arms and nodded.

"A lot better than any efforts at stealth technology. That Drule Captain Haramos is a certified genius. But since we've never been able to crack Voltron's core code, his suggestions mean taking a year to fully enter even one line of the cloaking tech program he's developed."

Pidge grabbed the side of his own head.

"Wow! At that rate, it could take thousands of years to even see test results. If it were anyone but Hunk on this, I'd say they were slacking off. Hey, Keith? Where are we all supposed to go? I'd love to visit my brother, but the Explorer Group is too far away right now to even try it."

Keith saw that at least the idea had no opposition. He was grateful for that.

"I've actually thought about that, Pidge. Now, this part is not an order..."

"Heh! One of Keith's non-order suggestion orders."

"Not this time, Lance. I want you guys to pick a corner of this world, or the space around it, and explore as you see fit. No direction from me, except that you each pick a different location. The Princess has to leave soon with Romelle and Bandor, to see King Coba before he dies. Allura, I want you to take Black Lion. You're trained for it, and with three planetary rulers in the mix, you all are one big tempting target. I'm going to visit your aunt, and on your behalf congratulate her and her husband on the birth of their first child. That region is far enough away from here that I can check out the odd corners where Zarkon's plans like to grow in."

Pidge's jaw dropped.

"Queen Orla had a baby? How long have we been fighting for, anyway? Ummm-at the risk of being hit, isn't she a bit-mature to have a child?"

Allura mock-frowned, but cleared things up fast.

"Orla is my late mother's youngest sister, Pidge. She's really not that much older than me-or do you think I'm that mature-hmmm?"

The way Allura leaned in on Pidge was playfully done, but still gave him the shakes.

"NO! NO way, Princess! You-you're completely immature-aaaahhhh!"

Allura had wanted to keep the pretense up, but Pidge's reaction had her laughing too hard.

"You and the Mice, Pidge. You always know how to cheer me up. Sorry. My Aunt does seem a bit mature for her age. I think serving as Arus' provisional Queen during the worst of the hard times put some lines on her. I'm happy my emergence enabled her to stand down."

Lance shook his head.

"Wait a minute, Princess. If Queen Orla is your mother's sister, then how'd she get to be queen? Wouldn't that go to one of your father's siblings?"

Allura closed her eyes. Lance's question was understandable, but brought back painful memories.

"My Father lost all his siblings long ago, Lance. He-would never talk about it. My aunt was the closest thing to an heir the exiled council had, so she was named to be a monarch, at least in name, till someone of royal blood could be found."

Lance was not being his usual sarcastic self. Keith saw his penchant for seeing holes in a story was in play, though he questioned the wisdom of the timing.

"Sorry, Princess. I guess I just find it odd that no cousins of yours, however distant, were around to take the title. I guess since we weren't here for the invasion, we didn't see how thorough Zarkon was in wiping out your clan. I am really sorry for bringing all this up."

Allura seemed to be recalling something, but then nodded at Lance.

"It all still surprises me, Lance. All right, I'm off for Pollux-after Keith and I have a private talk. Just need to nail down a few details about the trip."

Keith turned to his crew.

"Okay, guys, pick a corner and explore."

Lance got back on his verbal feet.

"I want to hit every mountain range and valley on this planet. Just bound through them in Red Lion, and see what turns up-besides Lotor Scheme # 4-2-Z. I've heard tell some isolated Arusians still don't know we have a government again-let alone Voltron."

Pidge looked up.

"I'll take the skies and stars. You don't really know a world till you've approached it from all angles. Plus, when the quasars are spouting, I can use them to maybe bounce live transmissions to Chip on the Explorer."

Hunk pointed down.

"I'll have my free time right here. We still have Hazar, not to mention Sven and Nanny, all laid up. I can work on Yellow Lion, and see if we can't prove Pidge wrong about his thousands of years on that stealth tech-though I'm not too hopeful. Problem is, Voltron is so much like a living being, it might take a living being to really speak to it. Last I checked, no one here can do a Super-Robot Mind-Meld."

7

With their directions decided and with all caution urged, the team seized a unique opportunity in a unique time and went their separate ways. Allura and Keith spoke in private, not realizing each now had questions about the very foundations of their reality.

"Allura, I don't mean to pry, and if it's none of my business, that's fine. But why would King Coba wish to see you? His children I get. But I don't think you so much as spoke with him when we first went to Pollux."

Romelle and Bandor's message had no answers for any of them in it, so Allura had speculated.

"Perhaps he just wants to end the war between our worlds officially before he dies, or he wants a planetary peer to bear witness to his end. But Keith? I have to ask you something. Coran mentioned you suddenly had questions about one of our missions."

Keith fought back a sigh, certain he knew what was coming. Certainty, unlike faith, is an easily shattered thing, and once vanished, never comes back.

"It was just a question, Princess. I was-a little punchy from my fainting spell."

Keith learned anew he should always have faith in his nearest and dearest friends.

"I wasn't trying to talk you out of it, Keith. My question is, are you possibly talking about reincarnation?"

Keith almost felt himself swept back. He now wanted to kiss this young woman independent of his other feelings for her.

"I guess maybe I am. But I've never been what you'd call a spiritual man-aside from ghosts, witches, space angels, and archenemies who look vaguely like the Biblical demons of my world -aside from all that-"

They both began to chuckle, till Allura caught herself.

"I guess the beliefs of my people bear a similarity to that of Hunk's family's church, based in Rome on Earth. Hunk said that, far from just declaring any old happenstance a miracle or any good person a saint, there is a harsh, at times based more in logic than dogma process that vets each occurrence and asks frankly if there is any other explanation to be had. While I doubt that process is always obeyed strictly-here or there-it instructs us to look for the trail of snake-oil, and for the snake leaving it. For those of us who interact directly with the other side of existence, it becomes even more important to question what is and isn't from the divine. That advice I gave our Drule guests came from bitter personal experience, after all."

With a sense of profound relief, Keith retold his new view on the faked murder of the Princess, some months ago, this time to an audience both more receptive and he now realized, was only hearing about some of this for the first time.

"Coran has a point. Their tactics may be clear as mud, but Lotor, Zarkon and Haggar are insanely predictable in their goals. Maybe you four did figure them out pretty quickly, but I think you would have done so before they got me off-planet."

Keith nodded.

"In the dream I had, we did just that at the last minute. But it isn't when or how we figured things out that bugs me, Princess. It was our unanimous thinking. I mean, Lance always disagrees with the first idea anybody puts out. Hunk and Pidge aren't so contrarian, but they also usually don't go for the first thing said either. I thought sure when all that went down, that someone would just tell the others to face what looked like the truth-that you weren't coming back. I know part of it is we just didn't want it to be true-but I've never seen us that unified first thing. I know I'm offering up my own counter-arguments, but at the same time-it was like we just knew-because we knew."

Keith now turned the tables on Allura, though this was based on curiosity, not one-upmanship.

"Allura, I had a chance to read a little about the Lion Knight legends. What I don't understand is why, if those characters seem so similar to us, you never brought them up, even in passing. You said part of it was you assuming we already knew, but this one is just so big and encompasses so much of what we've known and seen."

Allura restated and clarified her earlier answers.

"Faith and reason should walk hand in hand, Keith. One of the most dangerous traps for either path is fitting findings made into pre-existing thinking. I thought about us living lives like those legendary warriors and rulers, but I also thought better of it. Whether we were all some kind of chosen or fated ones, trying to make hay out of those vague myths and stories would likely make hash out of us. We'd end up doing what we think some possibly mistranslated or misunderstood campfire tale wants us to do, instead of doing what we know needs to be done. That is the essence of the Voltron Force, Near and Far. There is spiritual belief, and then there is just superstition, jumping at shadows instead of realizing the part we play in casting them. A higher power may at times literally guide our hands, but I for one want those hands and the mind that usually controls them capable of acting on our own, using the gifts that higher power possibly instilled in us. I think maybe I held back on Lion Knight-if I did-for fear of just this kind of talk."

Keith looked at her, and Allura briefly feared being called out for dismissing his questions, even if she really hadn't done that. But Keith made no move at emotional hurt. In fact, he did the exact opposite.

"You are amazing."

She blushed openly as he took her hands in his.

"Can you forgive me for so often forgetting that the mind of a true leader is always moving behind that pretty face?"

His comments were vaguely sexist, and Allura could not possibly have given less of a damn about this.

"I-forgive you."

She hoped he would forgive her for breaking the moment, but some very improper thoughts (like how long she had before she had to board Bandor and Romelle's ship for Pollux) began to pop into her head. Suffice it to say these were the kinds of thoughts that made her very glad Nanny was not a telepath. Perhaps a time to let these thoughts free would come around, but other business guided her mind back to the path of a proper Princess.

For the most part, anyway.

"But what I really want right now is to understand you, Keith. So tell me more of what you saw. Because I may have something to aid your quest."

Keith trusted this woman, and she trusted him, as she did them all. Allura, at first infuriated when her bathing suit top fell off after a dive in front of the boys, later realized that while they'd teased her, not one of them had peeked beneath the water. That was what they had together. A bad or weak moment would not be used for advantage, only to offer a hand up.

Keith sat down, and began his recall of the sometimes-hellish visions.

"It was all our lives, and the events we've known-though some of us weren't there, and I can't recall just who right now. But it was also all wrong, Allura. Zarkon, Lotor, Haggar-even Yurak was a hundred times worse. Many of those we've loved or protected or saved, we simply failed to in the world I saw. The Earth itself died in a pointless nuclear conflict, like the one we had in 1999, but full scale. And-and poor Romelle. I-I saw tears in her eyes that made me think Lotor actually-"

He turned away from her and closed his eyes, perhaps to fight back tears. To save him from his own pride, Allura risked much and broke a confidence.

"He didn't, Keith. Romelle told me he contemplated it, but the Old Witch stopped him. Apparently, she fears certain atrocities strengthen their enemies, rather than giving them pause. I guess even an evil witch like Haggar fears Karma, at least a little."

Keith gave her a thankful look that also conveyed the understanding of his silence on this matter.

"Bad as that was-things got worse, or in that place, it always was worse. Sven didn't get wounded by Haggar-he died. Cannibalism was rampant, on Planet Doom, on worlds it conquered and broke-even here on Arus, before our team started making things better. Even after we brought back Voltron-or was that Voltron, the lives on the people on Aru-on this world were often a living Hell. Those firestorms we turned back? It wasn't just a few unfortunates we lost-the casualties were massive, and this was a regular thing."

Allura shook her head, though not dismissively.

"Keith, many here have died anyway. Those firestorms, the gravity shifts created by the Omega Comet-almost every time Planet Doom has made even the most middling incursion. Are you saying that this version of things that you saw was worse than all that? I just find that hard to believe. My people have suffered so much. I don't like thinking that somehow-it was lessened from something even worse by those fiends holding back."

Unstated feelings aside (for the moment), Keith respected his friend and teammate too much to hold back.

"Maybe infinitely worse, Allura. To the point where I find it hard to imagine there were any people left, after a while. Not just decent common folk, but people close to us. I saw you confirm the death of Coran's family. I saw Sven die-again. Na-Nanny fell when Garrett killed her. There was no coma for Romelle and Bandor's kin-thankfully it was quick. People we'd saved from the schemes of Planet Doom we instead were forced to mourn. Add to all that, an oddity I can't explain."

Allura doubted there was anything easily explained about all this, but felt saying so would weaken Keith's resolved to unburden himself, and so merely nodded for him to continue.

"Thanks. This may seem trivial, but-Sven, Pidge, Hunk, Lance-they all spoke fluent Japanese."

Allura found this oddity actually made her believe more in his story, rather than seizing on it as evidence of dream logic.

"Okay, that is odd, whether it was from your mind or caused by another force. Hunk loves Sumo, but he admitted to me he knows no Japanese words not taken from the sport. Pidge can read it, but his pronunciation is higher-pitched than his loudest bouts with Nanny and the Mice. Lance said he'd rather not butcher a friend's language. I studied it because Coran was determined I learn as many languages as possible, but I have trouble keeping the honorifics straight."

Keith shrugged.

"I have no preference. Even my grandfather mostly spoke English, out of his love for Shakespeare. It was then in my visions I felt like I was starting to go mad, so I turned away from them-only to see things even more inexplicable. Sven alive, but corrupted and hating us all. Lance the last of us, dying alone but bless his soul, defiant to the end. The five of us-I can't believe I'm saying it-destroying Voltron-I think on Zarkon's orders. At the end of it, a Bad Star was rising, spreading corruption and evil everywhere it went-and we were at war with Earth!"

Allura did not speak of nightmares, though part of her suspected that Coran was correct, and that Keith's physical exhaustion was matched by a mental one, with dreams being a psychic filter requiring not interpretation, but putting aside as the system flushing they were. This was not merely out of affection for Keith, as he would now learn.

"I have to go soon. So let me offer up what I have, which may or may not help you. While equally strange, this information comes from the oldest friends I have, so I trust it as I do them."

Keith was not so caught up in himself as to miss who she had to be talking about.

"The Mice? Allura, are you serious? I'm not mocking you, but..."

"I'm not mocking you either, Keith. When you fell ill, Cheesy said to Gouda that you had tripped over the lives you had led before. Gouda said that Humans sometimes do that, and that maybe those lives were calling out to you. I was so stunned that they could understand such a concept, and so worried about you, I let it go till just now."

Keith remembered a concept once prevalent among his grandfather's people and many others.

"Reincarnation? So, in a past life-we were ourselves? Princess, how would the Mice even see this as a possibility?"

Keith was not denigrating the Space Mice. They had shown both their intelligence and their worth. Allura understood his question in that light, and was in fact equally as stunned at her companions' insight.

"Well, they are the oldest surviving species on Arus. As you know, they were here when the Castle Of Lions was built. What's more, bits of stone they hoarded for centuries and possibly millennia are the only verifiable proof we have of the existence of the Altean civilization. It was from reassembled pieces of that stone that we learned of the legend of the Gradam Warriors - those who guided the mighty hand of Lion Knight. Keith? Those warriors were said to have come from a world in final twilight, and to have spoken the tongue of The Star Ascending."

Keith's heart began to pound.

"Allura? The Rising Sun! It has to be!"

She grabbed him by the shoulders, and tried to calm him.

"Do you see now why I didn't tell you any of this?"

Keith breathed in, and regained control of himself in a way Allura both admired and envied.

"Yes. It's like the Zodiac, or Old Earth prophecies of doom. It's too easy to take bits and pieces of things like this and see yourself in them. Good call, Allura-though I still wonder about all of this. Alright-we'll see if I have any more visions, and if our lives truly meet up with what's known about the Gradam Warriors. Maybe if I'm rested and less frenzied, it won't all seem so eerie. My Grandpa used to say, all war stories blend together, and its only when we deglamorize it that we can end it."

But now, having found the courage to face the irrational and unknowable, Keith found the courage to do something else once thought unthinkable.

"Allura, please take care of yourself while you're away."

His words had a tone she hadn't heard before. Almost emulating Lance, she tried to joke off what she felt was coming.

"I know, Keith. You can't form Voltron without me, or Black Lion. What will you boys do without me?"

But Keith was in no joking mood.

"I don't ever want to find that out. In my visions, no matter how harsh or wild things became, you were always there-and-"

Actually looking nervous, an already brave man went that one step further.

"-and lately, I've been thinking that I'd like for you to always be there. With me, by my side, and me by yours. Not as a friend, or a teammate, but as something more. A lot more."

He stopped short of saying the three words. Allura felt this was from not wanting to overwhelm her, rather than just hesitancy. But in fact he had overwhelmed her, because some lines are crossed simply by walking up to them, or even in sight of them. As Keith now learned, as she slapped him across the face.

"You idiot! You say this to me now, when so much is uncertain? When we don't know anything of what the future holds for us, our friends, or our foes? When you are at the very least seeing hellish visions of another existence? How do I know all this isn't just the strain of whatever you've gone through? Where will I be when you suddenly regret your words?"

As most anyone who's ever heard a tale of two passionate young people could predict, he chose that moment to kiss her. It was brief, and he allowed her to pull away, though not in revulsion or anger.

"My only regret is feeling I couldn't say all this sooner. You're right, Allura. My visions have prompted me, and forced me to care all the more about the ones I hold most dear to my heart. About the one I hold most dearly of all. I know that there are all kinds of reasons why we shouldn't pursue this now. But if something were to happen to either of us, and let's be honest, something easily could-I couldn't lose you knowing that duty mixed with cowardice let those things go unsaid."

Allura had just seen one of her dreams come true. Not that you could tell it by looking at her.

"You have rotten timing, you know that, Keith? You're right, there are lots of reasons why we can never be. Tensions within the Voltron Force. Coran and Nanny insisting I marry for alliance or at least within nobility-though finding surviving non-tyrant royalty is no easy task, to hear them tell it. I have to consider my people, and their feelings if I take a consort who isn't of equal rank. Not to mention putting the entire sector on Red Alert when Lotor found out."

She now tenderly cupped the cheek she'd slapped.

"But it's a funny thing being a planetary ruler. Certain things, you do get to choose for yourself. I choose you, amidst taunts, shouts and threats. But for now, I want this to be your and my secret. I will gladly fight those battles with you, but I can't do it right now. Will it be enough for you, having each other's confessions?"

She kissed him this time, and when they were done (though no one from Lance to Haggar burst in on this scene) he nodded.

"It will be. No resenting me, for playing 'Mister Aloof' in front of the public?"

She shook her head.

"No. It's what we need to do. We should try and win Coran and Hunk over first, then Pidge. Nanny and Lance are going to be a problem. Maybe I can have my Aunt talk to Nanny, and you can have Hunk and Sven corner Lance-ooohhh, listen to me! We haven't even had our first date. Keith, I have to go. Romelle and Bandor must be wondering where I disappeared to."

Keith smiled.

"I'll give Queen Orla your regards-and I promise plenty of pictures of the new baby."

8

A much briefer kiss saw them off, and four space explorers who came to stay went off to temporarily resume their core mission, in the possibly-illusory respite their enemies' defeat had earned them. Allura saw the prince and princess of Pollux waiting by the pod that would take them to Black Lion.

"I'm so sorry. Keith had to give us instructions on what to watch for as we go. But I think we can make it to Pollux on time with some extra speed."

Romelle had her arm on her little brother's shoulder.

"It's all right, Allura. I can honestly say, love and respect aside, we're not overly anxious to do this. But since we can't know how much longer Father can hold on-Bandor, are you ready?"

Bandor's eyes looked reddened.

"No, Sister. But I'll go-though I almost hope Zarkon tries something. I'll stick that crown of his where the sun don't shine-with his head still in it!"

The prince's heartfelt boast lightened their moods only a little, and what awaited them on Pollux would change all their moods forever.

9

"As a wise and august philosopher once put it, A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action, Please-please!"

Lance cared for his best and oldest friend, and few breathed more easily than him when Keith emerged from his sudden and savage fainting spell. But spinning tales and stories, talking of feelings, and speculating on legends and past lives-well, anyone who knew Red Lion's pilot had to know that just wasn't him.

Yet chatterboxes that Keith and the rest were, none of this was their fault. It was hard to engage an enemy that was rebuilding on their home turf, turf that was still dangerous enough that anything less than a fleets-strong quarantine/attack force was a viable option in rooting out the cancer that was the Galran regime.

As he saw the mountainous area he was told of in the horizon, even an action-loving man knew that this time would pass. Left alive by their propensity for quick flight and left to rearm by Alliance priorities that needed to be set elsewhere, the rulers of Planet Doom would attack again, and likely more cleverly than ever.

"But if you want to be waiting for me when I disembark, Lotor old chum-you just go ahead and present that arrogant glass jaw."

Had any of his friends been present, they would have rapidly pointed out that only Keith had ever turned the evil prince back in hand-to-hand combat. Lance would have told them in turn that taking a swipe at Lotor was lots more important than actually beating him.

"Granted, that would have been a lie, but hey...Hey!"

Lance slowed Red Lion to hovering mode, as both his keen eyes and the recognition-software Pidge had installed on their separate consoles caught the very item he was looking for.

"If I can't love beating down bad guys, then Lance loves a mystery."

It looked like a grave marker, yet in this case it marked off the passage of the living to safety, though under the most bizarre circumstances imaginable. He used cabin cameras to snap a few pictures for Coran. When Allura had been through, only a few months before, her need to get back to the battle had precluded her remembering to do so.

Landing, Lance checked his gear, and locked down Red Lion in a way that simply turning his key would not casually undo. It wouldn't truly stop someone determined to gain control of Red Lion, but it could buy Lance time to kick out or send a vital message.

"I still can't believe what Allura told us. But here it is."

Lance offered his own prayer in front of the marker, one of thanksgiving for the miracle it recalled, and for the possibility it could one day be completed and joy restored to Coran's life. Lance, never truly religious or anti-religious, classified this prayer under 'why not?/better safe than sorry' when it came to the unknown and the known that was still more extreme than he cared for.

"It seems like, every time we run into something from the spirits, we find a scientific explanation, and when we rely on science, only spirit stuff even begins to explain what we find next."

Lance had very rarely been alone in his life, and unapologetically talked out loud like this even when there was no one around. Yet in this case, it seemed there really was no one around.

"Allura said there was a village elder who told her what happened to the real baby Garrett and Lady Tarine. So with a Voltron Force Lion landing, just where is everybody?"

Lance thought this through, made his way back to Red Lion, opened the hatch and climbed in-or at least he made a show of this. In fact, he used the hatch opening and closing to duck behind his ship, falling and moving softly, hoping to draw someone out of hiding. He didn't have to wait long. Voices were heard, and Lance's Known-Languages earpiece confirmed one of his worst fears.

"Is he coming back out? Taking that ship is paramount, if we are to erase the traitor Hazar."

The other voice, more brusque, snapped back at the first.

"Find one of the villagers with the most small children. They can be coerced into being our bait. It was foolish to have no one out here, when one of them arrived."

Lance, from his hiding place, saw the Blue Berets on the heads of the equally blue-skinned invaders as they went back into hiding. He knew, then.

"Drule Assassins."

10

Pidge broke the bonds of Arus' gravity and arced around the world the ship called home and birthplace.

"Wow! The stars are beautiful, when there's no enemies or Ro-Beasts or whatevers lying in wait-oops-don't wanna get like Lance. Ohhh-but there's no one to talk to-ahhh-computer, begin recording journal."

The scientist in the young man had already set Green Lion's built-in as well as his own installed scanners to maximum. In theory, not so much as a micro-meteorite could slip by him. For all that, he physically sighted Black Lion as it moved towards Pollux.

"I just remembered - it won't be long before the orbits of the two planets start to move apart again. It won't mean much in emergencies, with ships as fast as they are now-except that regular trips back and forth between Arus and Pollux will get that much longer. Sven said he's moving there. He'll have his own estate, for saving Romelle from Lotor-says he'll make it a farm. He's always liked quiet."

Pidge, on the other hand, hated too much quiet. Quiet was the quiet of his original parents' death. Quiet was not hearing from his brother Chip often enough. Quiet was waiting in the slave dungeons of Planet Doom for freedom or death. Quiet was a little guy just not being heard, even by his dearest friends.

"But I like quiet just fine right now. The end of a war is noisy-or I hope it will be, when we actually end this. Wonder when that might be."

Because always being on guard was getting tiresome. The term 'never-ending battle' was a great one for a certain fictional alien hero, whom both Pidge and Chip adored, but for a real person it was draining.

"Probably end up training my own replacement, we do this long enough...whoa!"

Pidge saw it, and it was simultaneously the most heartening and the most terrifying sight a member of the Voltron Lion Force could possibly see.

"It's-her!"

The figure indeed appeared to be female, but if that mattered for a being of this sort, no one knew. The entity was in shadow, but that shadow was produced by the brightest, most beautiful light imaginable. It cascaded around the figure in tones subtle and nearly hypnotic.

"Yeah-hypnotic. Space Angel - because I really don't have a better name for you - if that is you out there, I love you, because when the Omega Comet warped us to the ends of creation - you pulled our sorry butts out. But you showing up could also mean one other thing, so I say to you now, if that is you out there -"

Weeping openly, Pidge took the chance of his lifetime, and slammed all weapons into activation. Targeting sensors locked, and automatic systems fired on the figure.

"FORGIIIVVVVVE MEEEEEEE!"

Pidge briefly wondered if he could be broken up into five pieces and live. This thought was terminated when explosions spread across the field before him. The 'space angel' faded away entirely, exposing a Drule vessel, and not one sporting the emblem of the Free Drule Republic. Pidge's existential horror turned to deeply felt anger at his full realization of the scam he very nearly fell for.

"I get it! Green Lion is piloted by the shorty, right? Take me out, dazzle me with a cosmic pretty face, then steal my Lion and take out Hazar? Well, forget it. If this was the entirety of your plan, then it was pretty stupid, wasn't it?"

Pidge saw the now-crippled vessel, taken unprepared for someone they thought was firmly in a trap, and noted that the departure bays were wide open.

"Then again, what if this wasn't the entirety of their plan? What if this ship was mainly a relay for other assassins?"

Pidge sent a message to the Castle on the planet below, and decided to scout out the remaining space-lanes around Arus. But an image again stopped him.

"They're not trying this again, are they? Guys, give it up! A gag's a gag, but I'm awful busy."

Yet this time, Pidge found his weapons' activation stayed.

"It's really you this time, isn't it? Are you angry for me firing on your image?"

The being gestured, and light appeared in Pidge's cabin console. When it passed, two pieces of raw metal appeared.

"Huh? Tin-and Platinum? Not-getting this, but thanks."

The voice that it was both hard and soothing to hear spoke.

*Pidge-tell Kogane-the Heir In The Lion's Den and the Quiet One in a frozen Hell both need his aid. Gold will quintuple, as will Black and Red. Tell Himmmm-*

Pidge now felt as great a sense of urgency as he had ever known.

"I Will! And-uhh-good seeing you. Now don't be a stranger celestial being-ok, that was awkward."

11

Keith arrived at Queen Orla's estate, still secluded if no longer truly hidden. It at times merged with the forest around it, but with neither the natural or the artificial overwhelmed by each other. Keith felt like an Elf City from Tolkien had been built up for real.

*Yeah, right. All I need is another vague lost legendary past on my mind. But it is all so beautiful. Then again, there's a lot of places here for an enemy to hide in.*

He no longer fought back this part of his personality. As was once said, it isn't paranoia if in fact there are people out to get you.

"Commander Kogane?"

A man who looked vaguely like a younger Coran in a regal uniform stepped out of the shadows to greet him. Keith knew from Allura's photos that this was Orla's husband.

"Duke Raimon? It's a honor, your Grace."

He waved a hand in the air.

"My wife is your grace, as will be our powerfully-lunged newborn. I am merely Raimon. Duke is a title I inherited by surviving Zarkon's purges when many family members above me in succession didn't. My mother always reminded me of that. For example, take my name itself."

Keith shook his head.

"Not following you, sir."

Raimon caught himself.

"Ah. Then you from Earth don't know the legend of Lion Knight?"

Keith badly wanted to roll his eyes. An awkward smile was all he allowed himself.

"I'm pretty rapidly becoming familiar with it. Your name is from there?"

As they walked, the Duke nodded.

"The name, at least in certain transliterations, of the father of Fala The Steadfast, and the one who harnessed the broken pieces of Lion Knight so that the later Gradami could revive the giant warrior. Basically, if I had been born closer to the line that would likely inherit the title, I would have been given one of the great family names, not one from an obscure character in a classic epic."

In preparation for their initial journey to Arus, Keith had studied Kings and Queens of Earth's antiquity. The British Queen who began her reign in Old Earth 1952 had not had Victoria among her given names for a similar reason, so Keith better understood what Raimon had been driving at.

"Okay, Raimon-but it's only a deal if Commander Kogane becomes Keith."

"Done deal, Keith. Later, remind me to show you our multi-tiered holo-billiards table. It can be quite challenging-ehh?"

A flashing light on his wristband had Raimon breaking into a run, and Keith kept pace with him.

"Trouble?"

Raimon was either in very good shape, or very badly concerned, or both, because it was all Keith could do to keep up with him.

"Possibly so. Hopefully, it's the already-averted kind."

A room requiring a body scan, a handprint and a retinal scan told Keith that something precious was in there, and it surely was. To be precise, that precious something was cooing in its mother's arms. Raimon closed the door behind them. Orla turned and smiled.

"It's good that you're here, Keith. This panic room is perhaps the most secure on Arus, but having the commander of the Voltron Force here still makes me feel better."

Far from being unattractive due to age and stress, Keith saw Orla as how Allura might one day look, and to this he had no objection. He bowed to her and waved at the baby.

"Glad to be here, Queen Orla. Your niece sends her regards, and regrets that state business keeps her from being here to see her new godchild."

Orla nodded.

"Well, we have peace not to mention alliance with Pollux after generations, and it wouldn't do to refuse a request from its dying King. Besides, even if the baby's godmother can't be here-"

She smiled at Keith.

"At least the godfather made it-and just in time, too!"

Keith wondered about this choice, but did not ask about it then and there.

"Your Grace, why are you in the panic room? Why did that alarm sound?"

Orla handed the baby to its father and pulled up a surveillance screen. Enemy soldiers darted about and fired at Arusian troops.

"They're not from Planet Doom, yet they're definitely Drule. Are they after us, as a way of hurting the remaining Royal family?"

Keith observed their progress and shook his head.

"Coran regrets keeping secrets from you, Queen Orla. But Commander Hazar of the Free Drules is being treated at the Castle Of Lions. These are likely assassins working for Emperor Zeppo and Viceroy Throk. They may be after me, to try to steal Blue Lion, so they can infiltrate the castle and get to Hazar. We're lucky, so far. No DeathBlack Beastmen about."

Raimon caught what his busy wife did not.

"Keith? Did you just say DeathBlack Beastmen? Like the evil titans Lion Knight fought against?"

Orla looked up at this. Keith tried to lie his way out of this corner, something a blunt and honest man found both difficult and repulsive.

"Sorry. Allura and I got into a debate on how much the legend seems to resemble parts of our lives. It got stuck in my head. Of course, I meant to say Ro-Beasts. Orla-permission to go out there and rout these attackers?"

Before a concerned Orla could respond, Raimon raised another point, looking suspicious as he did.

"Keith, you said they wanted to steal Blue Lion from you?"

This time, Keith needed only to clarify.

"Allura took Black Lion to Pollux, with Prince Bandor and Princess Romelle. With three leaders on that ship, I didn't want to take any chances."

Raimon nodded, but fell into thought.

"Darling, with no chauvinism or disrespect to your niece intended, if our attackers think that the recently-trained Princess is here, rather than the most formidable hand-to-hand combatant this world has, could we use that to our advantage?"

Keith winced at the praise, but Orla showed she agreed with all her husband's sentiments.

"We surely could! Keith, get out there, but be careful for yourself-"

She winked almost playfully.

"-after all, if Nanny's information can be trusted, I'll be your Aunt before long, too."

Keith was now nearly flabbergasted.

"Nanny said that-about me?"

Raimon sighed.

"She goes on endlessly-and I do mean endlessly-about how proud she is of 'her boys'. Don't you all get tired of it?"

*Why, that dear old so-and-so. She keeps her secrets well enough.*

"I suppose. But let's not think these Drules will go scampering off if they see me. At best, using their possible mistake against them might give us a thirty-second advantage."

Orla looked at her sleeping child awaken.

"Then let's make sure to stick that thirty seconds in their craw. I had never wanted this little one to see the inside of this panic room for years to come. I even had dreams of my child growing up on an Arus not at war."

Keith slipped up once again, though this one would be less noticed.

"Your daughter will grow up in just such a world, Queen Orla-I swear that the Voltron Force will make this happen."

Orla and Raimon looked puzzled. Raimon seemed to recall something.

"That's right! We didn't announce the baby's gender in the rush of things."

Orla held the baby up, and it smiled at Keith.

"Keith, Larminius is a boy. Though I guess until we told you, how could you know?"

Keith looked at the little boy's tuft of red hair, and forced a smile back.

"Weird. I-somehow thought he was a girl. Shows what I know!"

*Larminius? Not-Larminia? Why would I even think that?*

He got back to business he had a better track record with.

"I'll need to get to Blue Lion. You two will need to work the power relays beneath the floors, the air-filtration systems-and get your soldiers clear."

His plan given and accepted, Keith was stopped on his way out the door by Raimon.

"Keith? Sorry about not telling-or asking-about you being the godfather. My wife-well, she is determined to see you and Allura together. New mothers sometime get like this, so I'm told."

Keith nodded.

"See to it that a new mother is also around for her son's growing up, Raimon."

He went to seal the door.

"Count on it. This room is carved out of the mountain on all sides, and the door is plenty tough all by itself. This entire estate is an ancient holdout against invaders, perhaps even back to The Great Serpent Daibazal himself."

The signal was given to the estate's defenders, who covered Keith's dash to Blue Lion.

"Here's hoping this works!"

As Keith and Raimon had hoped, the absence of the Princess and the presence of the leader who was not to be casually underestimated gave the attackers pause. But it also lead to a consequence no one had predicted, as Keith listened to the enemy chatter while running.

"The Princess must be the one who went off-planet. Tell our transport to attack full force, after they secure Green Lion."

Keith knew that underestimating either Pidge or Allura was foolish, but a concentrated attack on the Black Lion's high-ranked passenger list was not even allowable as a possibility. So he staggered his gait while picking up the pace, to reach Blue Lion faster while the enemy increased fire from the corners and arched stone entryways. He made his final run for the cockpit entry, till he breathed in and stopped.

"Why don't I just go ahead and make that assumption?"

Keith didn't see the Drule assassins smile as he entered the cockpit hatch. Then again, he didn't need to. The enemy team leader nodded.

"I know one fool who'll be getting a surprise soon..."

Truer words, for one by one, three of the enemy attackers were hurled out of Blue Lion and bodily towards their fellows. The second of the team yelled.

"He's as good as Lotor said. I thought he was just bragging to excuse his many defeats."

Lotor was an unashamed braggart, but in this case, he was offering up gospel truth (though Keith later wondered if he did this, knowing the Drules would disbelieve him.) The leader pointed at Blue Lion's mouth opening.

"Idiot! What weapon can he fire into these enclosed spaces? Friend and foe alike will fall, and that's just not their way. His super-weapon is all but useless."

Yet Keith had just such a weapon, which he fired now. It was the very substance of life itself, both for organics and for Blue Lion. The Drules began to slip and slide, the marbled floors and columns not really made for gaining purchase if someone was upended.

"Raimon? Tell your people to stand clear, then expose the circuits."

In fact, the estate's elite guards had pulled back the instant they saw the water flow, knowing how slippery the surfaces were to start with. Raimon did as he was asked, with the Drules receiving a decidedly stunning dose of electricity arcing through their soaked uniforms. Yet while victory belonged to the heroes, another unintended consequence came into play.

"They exploded? Some kind of suicide to avoid capture? Huh?"

Keith saw the goopy substance, and immediately pulled away in Blue Lion.

"So they had the same last-ditch weapon as the Red Berets. I wonder if Haggar and Lotor even told them."

The immobilizing dust was simply washing away with its dead hosts ashes, and Keith felt decidedly uneasy. Not so uneasy that he forgot his duties.

"Raimon-Queen Orla? As a designated Arusian Emergency Commander, I order you in Allura's name to stay in that panic room till we can really give the all clear. I will stay and reconnoiter the area, but I also need to contact the others."

Keith thought of what to say, so as to be brief and yet fully informative, in case the others just couldn't respond.

"To The Voltron Force : By now you may have already engaged Drule Assassins who have infiltrated our world. Be aware that these assassins are equipped to release upon death the Lion-disabling mesh/mist that was previously used by the Red Berets. My orders are that, even after you resolve this situation - and I have full faith that you will - stay in the area and look for any extras our attackers leave behind. If a Ro-Beast is sighted, inform the rest of us immediately. On my end, a misfired plan of theirs caused their deaths, but I am staying on alert."

The comm signal went out, and one reply came quickly.

*Keith? This is Pidge? I don't think we're going to see a Ro-Beast. I took out what I think was the transport these jerks arrived in. It was intact, but I took out all the launch bays, till the stupid thing blew up on me. I think now maybe they were about to launch a Ro-Beast, but I blocked it, so that it grew super-size inside the ship-yeah, I see its remains now. Split in two when the ship went up. Wow-wasn't planning to kill them unless we had no choice.*

"You didn't kill them, Pidge. Their warlike ways and their poor planning did that for us. Anyone else?"

Someone who avoided much of this adventure would soon have one all her own, and though not a shot was fired in that one, she would almost wish for combat right after.

*Keith, this is Allura. All I saw were a few mid-sized ships. I think they thought I was you, because they only harried us and kept us slowed down. With Romelle and Bandor's safety on the line, I rammed most of these, and left the rest to be picked off by the Pollux Orbital Sword Division. Black Lion took no noteworthy damage. Final approach to Pollux confirmed. Allura out.*

"Good work, Princess. You used the extra power to your advantage. You've really come a long way. Hmmm-still haven't heard from Hunk or Lance."

At least one of those questions would be quickly answered.

*Keith! Lance here-I'm at the village where Coran's family vanished. They've got me pinned down, and they've got hostages. While I'd like some help, I'm afraid of what these clowns might do if they see any kind of back-up, let alone another Lion. Make sure Hunk seals Red Lion's chute, in case I fail.*

Keith shot back with the kind of reassurance he would only dare try with Lance.

"You won't fail, Lance. Because that's not like you. Maintain radio silence after this, but watch for a signal that we're coming. We'll figure out a way to sneak in-somehow. Keith out."

While Keith's mind worked on this dilemma, he also openly wondered and worried about the silence from the Castle Of Lions.

12

Hunk sealed the hatch while Haramos and his men kept watch over any and all areas they could even conceivably be approached from.

"Hunk, the castle is in lockdown, this chamber is in lockdown, Hazar is inside Yellow Lion, with all of us keeping watch. We've even faked the video feed to make it appear as if Hazar is in Coran's Control Chamber."

Haramos shook his head.

"So why am I so nervous?"

At least some of the novelty of chatting up a Drule officer the way he might his friends, near and far, was still with Hunk. But the current circumstance meant he had to put even that little bit aside.

"Because you're good at your job, Haramos. These are the worst of your people, trained by Zarkon and all his funhouse crew. Me, I'll drink smoothies made out of anything you can name. But a mix like that, I'd just as soon dump down the drain."

Haramos removed his helmet, and wiped the sweat from his brow before restoring it.

"Growing up, Emperor Zeppo was my hero. But then, during multiple encounters with Jeff and company, his commanders directed that we should blow up worlds rather than let your side have it-at least once after you agreed to give it up! To say nothing of supposedly having Zarkon on a leash, yet seeing none of the worlds he took come our way. It's one thing to sell your soul; it's yet another to get less than nothing for it all. For all their peacock strutting, Zeppo and Throk are nothing but pirates and gangsters, and the Drule people are well rid of them."

Hunk reset the sensors to do alternating sweeps, still feeling he was missing something. He turned to shore up Haramos' resolve

"When it's time to leave your home and your way of life, it's the hardest thing a man can ever do. You pray that you're gonna find better than what you were forced to leave. But you're just not sure what's waiting there for you."

Hunk finished his statement.

"You and yours took the gutsiest stand possible. I only hope, if some little tin dictator ever set himself up on Earth, that we here would have the courage to go up against them. That's not a given, pal. That kind of resolve, you have to pull up from the bottom of your..."

Hunk looked down, a sick look on his face.

"Aim the force field at the floor!"

But while the field's build-up was well along in a heartbeat, that proved half-a-heartbeat too long. The drill-ship burst through the floor of the maintenance chamber, giving Hunk a headache on more than one level.

*They knew. We had all kinds of layers and misdirects, and they came right here. Sorry, Haramos. But there's only one way this could be-and I think I see it.*

Spying someone trying to force open Yellow Lion's hatch, Hunk fired, and they fell to their death. Haramos stared in horror.

"Hounryan? A spy? Our band had extensive codes. We knew each other from before boot! He could not..."

Haramos drew his pistol and fired at the attackers with hideous accuracy.

"...and yet he was, and yet he did. Barring a good reason, I damn him now."

The attackers did not respond as ones pinned down, even in apparent retreat.

"Our drill can burst through anywhere in this castle! For the traitor and those that aid him, there is no safety. No safety at all!"

But as they piled back into their breach-maker, the lack of safety was on their part. Eye beams from Yellow Lion melted ship and assassins alike, till their own craft became the means by which the hole they made was sealed. Inside Yellow Lion, Hazar shook his head.

"I know you men were only doing your duty, even if for our wicked former rulers. I have no desire to spill more blood, especially that of my people. But I promised my people-and my sister-that I would return. They value my life more than I do. You have my regrets, and my prayer for your souls."

Hunk fully allowed the novelty of a Drule Commander piloting his lion to save him, but moved quickly to get to the still-unsteady Hazar as he exited the cockpit.

"Hey, Haramos? Let's keep those fields up, till Coran's guards give the all-clear. I think Hazar will be all right. The effort just drained him a bit."

Haramos nodded, and then threw down his pistol in front of his remaining men.

"If anyone else wants to betray Free Drules, then start by shooting me-right here, right now. I won't stop you, and I'm hard to miss at this range!"

The youngest of the soldiers shook his head.

"Sir-how did they get to Hounryan?"

Hunk thought he had an answer.

"If they were trained at the behest of Zarkon, then maybe Hounryan had a spell cast on him by Witch Haggar. Ahhh, but she has to be able to exploit some flaw in the person, like she did with the Princess' grief over her parents."

One of the other soldiers whispered to Haramos.

"I see. I wish I'd known this sooner. Hunk, it seems Hounryan had severe doubts about his performance. So there's your exploitable flaw. Odd. I considered him most reliable. What someone thinks of themselves can override all else, it seems."

Hazar's eyes opened.

"Doubt when resolve is needed may be a worse enemy to us than all the evil leaders combined. Yet my thoughts turn selfish now. It seems Sven's grandmothers sent Nanny a recipe for something called Swedish Meatballs. I for one am famished and can't wait!"

A mild chuckle in the midst of peril and the taking of life, even in self-defense, passed between them. With their 'secret' location compromised, Hunk was able to break comm silence and respond to Keith, from whom he got the lowdown.

*What hard luck. Keith is protecting royalty needed in case anything ever happens to Allura. I'm protecting Hazar, who is needed if this galaxy is ever to know a lasting peace. Princess is where she needs to be, seeing to Pollux. Pidge has no choice but to keep patrolling nearby space-there could easily be more than one ship. So Lance is on his own. Buddy, I know you can pull it out-still, I'd just as soon be there with you. I just hope nothing more goes wrong.*

Hunk recalled an old saying about wishes, hopes and prayers. In all those cases, sometimes the answer is a hard, flat 'No'.

13

"Space Explorer! We have a number of this village's little ones, lined up, and ready to be executed. If you do not want their blood on your hands, surrender yourself and your Lion."

Lance wanted to tell this arrogant monster that his was the last group, and that the Castle would not allow Red Lion near enough to get to Hazar.

*Problem is, I do that, who knows what they'll do next? These thugs mean business.*

They did indeed mean business, but as they showed next, they handled their business neither wisely nor well, and this was something all would regret.

"Do you doubt our resolve, Human? We're not dumb robots, or common soldiers. We can innovate. Our lessons on our fallen homeworld and on Doom have shaped us to do as your world's Alexander did, when he faced a knot unable to be puzzled out. Your people have so many wondrous innovators-Capone, Stalin, Khadafy, Colonel Green-but you foolishly reject their educational examples. It is why you will fail in the end, and why you fail here and now."

The words were said.

"Kill the children!"

Lance's heart froze. His mind did not.

"All right, I'll surrender-myself and Red Lion. Just don't hurt the kids!"

Lance reasoned that Hunk would know to check Red Lion before allowing it access, and that maybe this could buy time for a rescue.

"Too late, Space Explorer. You were given a chance to surrender immediately. Let the lives of these innocents be an example to all who would trifle with us. Your surrender now only saves the parents who will scorn you forever!"

Lance had reasoned wrongly. Yet as it turned out, so had the enemy leader. With them pressing the detonator, not merely the targeted room in the captive temple exploded, but the entire structure, killing hostages and hostage-takers alike.

"No! It can't end like this-it just can't!"

Lance had been shaken by the impact, but standing behind Red Lion, he had been insulated. He did not look like a man who'd escaped a tragedy.

"They're dead-they're all dead!"

His mind on automatic, Lance searched for any survivors. Only one was found, a Drule assassin who stood away from the blast with denser body armor. The man wouldn't last long, and Lance had no desire to be gentle.

"What happened?"

"Deton-ator-faulty. But-checked it, so how? It was supposed to blow one section at a time-but the last readout said 'Arm All'-cheap Galran junk!"

Lance found the detonator, which was surprisingly intact.

"Not so cheap. Take it back for analysis. In a nice lead box I'll load into an ejection chute. None of your tricks, Haggar-though I guess you and yours are still laughing, right about now."

Feeling sick, Lance climbed back into Red Lion, and ordered one last task performed, ironically the task he'd come there for.

"Scan surrounding area, both for any other Drule and on a secondary spectrographic level, for residue of dimensional breach. Maybe I failed these people, but I can help Coran learn what really happened to his family."

Lance also recorded a message to Keith, who later responded that Arusian forces would arrive soon to reconnoiter the scene and bury the dead. Yet by that point, Lance was fighting off tears, rifling through his immediate memory as to what he could have done differently. A man who made mistakes and learned from them finally saw no path that could have saved his charges, barring early arrival or intelligence.

"I hate Zeppo, I hate Zarkon-"

He opened his eyes and allowed the tears to flow.

"-but most of all, I Hate Giving Up!"

He had not given up, but for a good twelve hours, nor did he move from his cockpit.

14

As Black Lion touched down on Pollux, oddly, it was the two siblings about to grieve for their father who were more concerned about the one who brought them there.

"Wow, Allura! You sure tore through those Drule ships. You even pursued the retreating ones. Guess Zeppo's crew knows what Zarkon's bunch learned a while ago. Don't mess with the Voltron Force!"

When Allura did not respond to Bandor's chatter, Romelle attempted to draw her out.

"They didn't give us much choice, did they? Serves them right, especially for redoubling the attack when they learned you weren't Keith."

Bandor tried again when Romelle's talk failed.

"It's funny. I don't know a single woman who can't kick major butt. I guess to some of the Drules, it's an alien concept or something. I heard only one of their commanders was a woman. Lady Dorma should set them to rights on that front."

Allura fought off showing annoyance, but only just.

"They were rank amateurs, trifling with us, and they were fools for dealing with Zarkon! Anyone who would trust him, Lotor and Haggar should get exactly what they-"

Allura caught herself, remembering where she was and who she was talking to. She stopped and breathed in.

"I'm sorry. I so wanted our victory on Planet Doom to be a final one, instead of just a summer hiatus from the war. Now to learn that the peaceful villagers who helped Coran's family have been slaughtered in a sloppy raid? Look at me, lashing out at allies and family because I'm feeling down."

Romelle put a hand on one of her shoulders.

"What else are allies and family for?"

Bandor nodded.

"Heck, I think that doing that is what makes us family. Well, that and some random DNA making you two practically twins despite multiple generations apart for our clans. I asked some of our scientists about that. They said it was possible, but with some pretty decent odds against it."

The small talk was done, and it needed to be done, even if it wasn't. The venting and light joking would not be any part of what they had to do there. For Allura, she would, unlike Lance, be facing only one death, this one expected and braced for. Yet death comes not only to living beings, but to all that one once knew to be true. In this respect, she would be hit even harder than Red Lion's pilot.

The guards guided the princely trio to the King's chambers. King Coba looked as frail as a man might possibly get and still be alive. Romelle noted open sores and burns.

"Father! Weren't you treated for the explosion of your gunnery position?"

Bandor shook his head.

"Yeah! I know you were. It didn't improve your overall condition any, but the outward radiation burns were healed."

Coba dismissed the servants, and had the guards stand well outside the room, with the door closed. He looked at his children, and then at Allura.

"You have your father's fighting spirit, Princess. You all show the strengths of our family line. But know that what I have to tell you now will not go down easy. You may even end up resenting me-me, and my twin brother-known to you as Alfor Of Arus."

Allura thought surely the old man had gone mad, but kept her silence. Romelle was slightly more forward.

"Father, you and King Alfor were distant cousins, separated by centuries. Allura and I are almost physically twins, true. But I think you're mixing up the situations."

Bandor made his face a steel mask, determined not to cry anymore while his father still lived.

"Father, if you're not up to talking, it's alright. Just being here with you at this time is enough for us."

Coba took and squeezed his son's hand.

"I am not that unwell, my son. As to these burns, they are not from Lotor's attack. No, this radiation sickness you see is from Earth's Third World War. My old body is simply wearing a bit thin, now, and cannot fight it off any longer. I have lost the will to heal, or go on. It is using up all my remaining health just to talk with you now, but this must go forward."

Allura now felt that Coba was not insane, yet still challenged his story.

"King Coba, that war was on Earth, and nearly seven centuries ago-and my father had no living siblings. He wouldn't talk about any that he lost."

Coba sat up, showing strain but also remarkable stamina for one in his state.

"Our falling out hurt him badly. He was always the better brother, more caring and willing to adapt. When I spurned him, he said a brother's love could not be unmade. I told him I would see all he did unmade, and that I would do anything I had to in order to make this happen."

With his audience stunned into silence, King Coba began his tale in earnest.

"The war of 1999 had many casualties, but thankfully nowhere near what it could have been. Yet casualties are not only the dead and the maimed, but those who find themselves changed forever beyond recognition. So it was for the two billionaire genius brothers, Charles and Alfred Forest. But we found ourselves in a situation where our money meant very little, and we realized we had to be truly smart, in order to make sure our race and civilization did not become extinct."

15

EARTH, 1999

*So that little lunatic actually attacked China? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.*

This snarky bit of talk-show banter was the last that many around the world heard. When a leader no one had liked, no one had trusted yet all had treated with used his miniscule nuclear arsenal in a petulant suicidal fit of pique against the one power most seen as his direct sponsor, the first thought was, a divided peninsula would soon be reunited, the sponsor's patience done.

That was not how it worked out. For that one power's response included a missile that struck in the vast once-superpower to its North. This power assumed that the (at the time) sole remaining superpower had sent this. To call the exchange that followed World War Three was inaccurate. To call it nuclear war was not.

"Interlocks are go. Dynotherms connected. The Ark is ready."

Alfred Forest had been called the man who saw the future and was swerving to avoid it. For ten years, since avoiding the Market Crash Of 1987 by four months, he had gathered every sort of artisan. From the sharpest, most cutting-edge masters of the highest technology imaginable to the people capable of blowing glass, shoeing a horse and digging a proper well, he had gathered about eighty-thousand people in a colony meant to preserve the progress of humankind, ultimately with the aid of his more rail-riding twin brother Charles. Alfred had the vision, but Charles knew how to get the people to listen.

The problem in the end was not the nuclear missiles, or even their dreaded, hyped-past-reality side effects, the EMP's. No, the problem came that the damage in each place the missiles fell was a tipping point. In short, all of mankind's markers were called due after a one-day war, and civilization was fraying in a way that could not be bought off.

Alfred Forest predicted the resurgence of Human civilization, but only after an ungodly period of pain, misery, and plain old Luddite thinking, times in which the artisans he gathered would be prime targets for a variety of reasons. Removing some of the best of them would, he predicted, make all but the most insane protective of the ones that stayed.

"The arks, Alfred. Arks, from the plural. We did build more than one."

The great ships launched, and, both sadly and joyously, the predictions of Alfred Forest would all come true. By 2200, the Earth they left behind began exploring the stars in earnest, its old feuds left behind in the silos than now served as irrigation centers. But for all this, it would be six centuries before cosmic refugees and those who stayed learned of each other, and by that point there would be-complications.

During the opening months of the journey, the two brothers, so steadfast in aiding their passengers as the irradiated winds spread across the globe and the hungry mobs came ever closer to breaching their protected colony, learned they had complications as well.

"What is our prognosis, Doctor?"

The doctor, the head of a very dedicated team of former specialists that had taken hard-reset crash courses in radiology and oncology, told it plainly.

"I admit I was among those who thought of you two as deep pockets and purses, trying to buy survival in the face of what could be our race's last folly. But my admiration is our people's admiration, for how you brothers stood behind until all the ark-ships had launched, defending us against other attacks and then joining us in velocipods. But those pods were not as well-shielded as the arks. During your stay in the degraded Launch HQ, and later as your pods rose to join us, you took in enough hard radiation to make the mere warts you've developed a miracle by themselves. All I can say is, you don't have long before both your appearance and your health irrevocably decline, until you finally die. The same odd genetic quirk that let you hold together this long likely means those deaths will be in prolonged and profound agony."

Alfred Forest closed his eyes.

"In my arrogance and hubris, I thought I might be like Moses. Yet Moses never saw the place he led his people, only glimpsed it. It seems I'm unlikely to get even that, and my brother with me. Charles, perhaps you were right. I should have trusted the auto-pilot on the arks."

Charles Forest was very much the sort for 'I told you so's', But not on that day.

"That's Bull, Alfred. I saw you were right the first time we had to guide a ship from HQ, and then the hundredth time as well. You were also right in building the damned things in the first place, while I complained of lacking money for takeovers that would be pretty meaningless when the bombs fell. You are also wrong to give up now, when our people really need us. For the first several years of our journey, they will need the leaders who started this exodus. Doctor? Can you give us that handful of years?"

The Doctor sighed.

"The amount of radiation you took in both closes most windows but opens others wide. The answer is, we can give you years of life, but mostly in appearance and hardly free of pain. In fact, the treatments we have in mind, should they work, will mean almost all painkilling medication will have no effect on you any longer. This is Human experimentation, taken from experiments conducted in some of the most loathsome eras in Human history. It can be an extender, but it cannot be a cure."

Alfred knew what the choice was.

"Charles, you're right. We are needed. Not for ourselves, but for what people see in us, whether it's there or not. Doctor Jones, give us those few years, and let's see if we can't bargain out a few more as we go."

2100

Carl Furst and his twin brother Fred, senior administrators in the Ark Hierarchy (who apparently had ties to the reclusive founding family, though no one was sure exactly how) were given the news. Fred thanked the medical liaison.

"Doctor Noah Jones was a great man, who aided our founders in that hardest of all times. Make sure everyone knows his story, Lieutenant. We'll let the remaining founding family members know the sad news of his passing, tempered by the joy of his long life and service."

The door closed, and brothers still amazed by their longevity and the longevity of their masquerade breathed a sigh of relief. Carl smiled.

"Pity the founders had to go and die like that."

Fred shook his head.

"They were too old, and worse, too revered. No one wanted to so much as take a bathroom break without consulting us. This way, we're still here to guide them, but they're also able to make their own way at last."

Carl laughed a bit.

"I wasn't disagreeing with you, brother. But I do have to ask-just where are they making their own way to? Our plans left us with self-sustaining space colonies, but our goal was always supposed to be a new world. If Earth still exists as anything like what we knew it, by the time we reach a new planet, they will have forgotten even any legends about us."

Fred pulled up a holo-map, one of many innovations developed along their journey.

"See? In this system, I see twin worlds. I call them Castor and Pollux, after the twins of myth. I see us settling Castor, and preparing Pollux for colonization by Earth once we contact them again. Best not to call on the old homestead without gifts."

Carl stared at the map, trying to hide how impressed he was with sarcasm.

"How about-Paris and Rome instead? Or-Thor and Heracles? Heh! How about Romulus and Remus? Admit it, brother-we'd be the only two people left in creation who'd remember what that joke once meant-"

The smile faded and the joking stopped.

"Do you suppose we'll ever be able to pass on what we have to any of our children? I have grown ones I now can't even say hello to-because I look less than half their age!"

Rather than chastise Carl for opening old wounds, Fred let his own frustration out.

"Acquired mutations are hard to pass on. Carl-I've decided not to have any more children until a way can be found to undo our 'cure'. I've buried two of my own-a terrible thing for any father."

Carl allowed the words to break his mood. He nodded.

"I have to agree. Now-how long to Castor and Pollux?"

Fred crunched some numbers.

"Assuming we get nearer to the light barrier as we hope, it will still take fifty years. That means-"

Carl sighed.

"That means 'Carl and Fred' should probably 'die' on the way there, right?"

Fred shrugged.

"We learned from this time, right? Practice makes perfect. This time, we can create the identities well before we assume them. Still, it does give a whole new meaning to the words 'identity theft' - assuming you can even steal your own ID."

2150

By some accounts, it was nearly the dawning of the Age Of Aquarius. Whether this old astrological account had any validity, a new age would in fact dawn that very year.

But love, for all its power, would not yet steer the stars.

It all started when the refugees encountered refugees of another kind. Carroll O'Glenn looked to his brother Alfie before responding to the first message the expedition had ever received.

It would also be the date of Human first contact with alien life, and more's the pity.

"Would you mind repeating that request, friend?"

Perhaps an utter unfamiliarity with Humans meant that the craggy-skinned being had 'Carroll's' suspicious tone go right over its target's head. Then again, perhaps the alien understood him just fine.

"Of course, good sir. We are refugees, cast outs from the Mighty Drule Empire, turned away because of our spiritual and cultural beliefs. We seek aid from any who approach this system, hoping to build up our world into one where we may know true religious liberty. You are free to turn us down, of course. We understand that you are refugees yourselves, and may have little enough for your own. But we are desperate folk, and will take whatever you wish to give us, cheerfully and gratefully."

Carroll muted the feed and blanked the monitor as well.

"Alfie, I don't trust them. First of all, this appeal to religious liberty. The Puritans in Old America wanted the same-but only for themselves. Typically, that's how it worked on the old homestead, in all four corners. Plus, some charity cases only know how to ask for more, once you give them so much as a scrap."

Alfie almost seemed to be ignoring his 'older brother' (the twins had learned to change that up as well, planning to be cousins in their next forged identities), instead checking their supplies manifest.

"Carroll, Ship 75 has long needed repairs. It is barely habitable, and actually wastes energy by needing to be towed quite often. Instead of giving them loaves and fish, I say, give them this fishing rod and reel, and the seeds of higher technology than they currently have."

Carroll wasn't hearing any of it.

"Remember, the good man who gave out fish and loaves had the power to make it happen, to transform common drinking water, and you know what? He still got a lot more people needing help than he'd planned. Add to that, none of those people were local scam artists with a hidden agenda, ready to pounce on new visitors to the neighborhood. Or do you want us and our people to become the fishes?"

Alfie had always felt the divide between them. It was rapidly starting to become something they could not joke away.

"Carroll, you don't know any of that about these people and their appeal. Also, don't we want friends in this region of space, when we're only months away from seeing our new home?"

Alfie saw Carroll turn away from him, folding his arms and closing his eyes.

"Friends - are best obtained from a position of strength, with those new friends at least knowing that your home is not a flop house, and your icebox not a free grocery store. If you do this, and you may mark my words, you will one day see your new friends standing over you and yours with a sword, demanding a steak be made from your head."

Alfie was resolute, but preferred to avoid a simple clash of wills.

"We will put it to the people of this fleet. Let them decide. We may have bankrolled all this in another life, but it now largely belongs to them. So it is, even for a broken down ship whose skeleton crew would likely cherish reassignment."

Carroll agreed to the common vote, and suffice it to be said, it did not go his way, close though it was. Even those who regarded the 'Drule castoffs' with suspicion agreed Ship 75 was no loss, and so it was decided, along with a lot of other things. Alfie gave the news to the two alien leaders. The male (seemingly) nodded with a broad smile on his face.

"We who sought the old ways over the cold stale rote science of our brethren thank you kind folk. Know that you will always have the gratitude of the Children Of True Galra, and their humble prime sage, Zarkon."

The (definitely a) woman bowed and smiled.

"From studying your ship, we will gain the means to make certain no one tries to force their beliefs on us ever again. You also have the gratitude of Priestess Haggar. Perhaps one day, we will be carry our word to the world you kind travelers seek."

2165

Three-hundred years prior on the departed Planet Earth, a great nation had ended a civil war. Now, above a world that yet had no name, brothers would once more raise arms against each other.

"You would divide our people? Charles, the world below is a paradise, waiting to be opened up. The other world is far harsher, and vastly more unforgiving."

Charles looked at Alfred. Both had revealed their secret to select followers, and these followers in turn persuaded others. Years without ageing had only sharpened the two former fast-food-patty cookery makers sales skills, but not so much as for one to prevail over the other.

"It's you whose divided our people. Alfred, your foolish choice in aiding Zarkon has already cost countless worlds in the Great Dark Nebula their freedom. What more can we bear of your misplaced good will? As to the conditions on Pollux, recall your Milton. I don't have the people to prevail here, so we will build the fortress needed to thwart Zarkon, and maybe beat him at his own game."

Alfred realized the cause was lost, but this was still his twin, and his only constant companion for over two centuries.

"My mistake I admit and confess. You were right in that, Charles. But you are wrong in thinking that you can beat a thug like Zarkon at a game he is insanely good at. I swear that, if you follow his example and make war upon our undiscovered neighbors, this will be seen as war upon our new world as well."

Charles grabbed and threw Alfred against the wall.

"So be it! If you are not with us, you are against us. Be certain that one day I will repay this betrayal, brother-and on that day, don't worry about Zarkon or any other foe-the one who takes you down will be the one who always could and always will!"

Not from the shove, but from purest love, Alfred sank to his knees.

"Brother!"

Charles left, and the two semi-immortals would never see each other in person ever again.

"We-are not brothers."

16

King Coba began coughing, and this time, the coughs were more frequent and filled with blood.

"Your father, Allura, simply altered his name to one that combined his given and family names. I know that he was reluctant to become a king. There are some things you'll have to ask him about-I wasn't there any longer to verify them, though I had spies in his court. You, like Romelle, Avok and Bandor, were the first children either of us had in many centuries, and despite deep enmities, sincere congratulations were sent when the joyous news was heard. But I was still determined to be the strongman ruler-the Coba. My name derives, sadly enough, from a Russian dictator of Old Earth named Stalin. Huh. I chose a monster's path, and reaped such rewards. Allura-say hello to your father for me. I have-a sad feeling my sins mean I will not walk where he walks, in the world after this one."

Allura was fighting off tears, not to mention a true fainting spell. Through this, she managed a question.

"But-you were right about Zarkon."

Coba shook his head.

"Yet I did not choose to trust him for the reasons I gave then. I mistrusted Zarkon simply because he looked different from us. I thought Humans were inherently superior to such trash. It was this arrogance that caused me to think I could do any better treating with Zarkon than my brother did. Another, greater sin I must answer for occurred nearly twenty years ago. My brother sent me a coded message containing what he said was a powerful weapon, though it was never unencrypted successfully. He also sent a plea for aid, if only to see you and your mother off of Arus before it was too late. Some days later, I learned that Zarkon's energy-blades could cut through even a supposed immortal's neck, and certainly that of his mortal wife. In my grief-I suppose a stupid man simply became even more foolish. If only-if only I hadn't laughed along with all the others when Alfor said he had found proof of-Altea-Go Lion Knight-Five Gold Knights? Allura-Romelle-Bandor-tell Kogane the corrupted heir who stalks the Lion's Den must be saved from the touch of the Bad Star. He must rejoin the herd! My children-my niece-farewell."

With long-held beliefs shattered or at least in question, the three departed the bed-chamber. Bandor prepared to sit down, but Allura stopped him.

"Your Majesty - it falls to you to tell your people the sad news."

Bandor closed his eyes.

"Either I just became king of a long-time dynasty, or there never was a king before him. I almost wish he'd kept all that to himself. I mean, on the one hand, it kind of makes sense. On the other, you could pilot both Voltrons and all their Ro-Beasts through the holes in that story. I-I know what I have to do. Sister-cousin-removed or First-will you stand by me?"

They did just that, and in the castle yards, the assembled people applauded as they saw their rulers and steadfast ally. Bandor raised his arms, just as he had been taught, saying the words that were dreaded and needed.

"MY FATHER, COBA THE SEVENTH OF POLLUX, HAS FINISHED HIS JOURNEY AND GONE TO THE REST HE EARNED! THE KING IS DEAD!"

Bandor now realized that 'Coba The Seventh' was possibly a great lie, perpetrated by a man who periodically faked his own death and came back as his own heir. But telling the people that was simply out, at least till they knew more. The people cheered what the trio realized anew was possibly the first true royal succession in the planet's history.

"LONG LIVE THE KING! LONG LIVE BANDOR THE FIRST OF ILLUSTRIOUS POLLUX!"

Bandor lowered his arms.

"Our grief is great. I declare that it will be one year before I accept the crown. Until then and I hope ever after, I will rule as Regent while this world mourns its loss, with the aid and advice of my sister Princess Romelle, and our cousin, Princess Allura of Arus, second leader of the mighty Voltron Force. My people, we withdraw for a week in preparation for our father's funeral. Pollux, like Arus, has taken a beating from Zarkon. While we no longer war on each other, let us here not allow our sister world to beat us in remaking the strong place we have known and cherished! For My Father!"

"FOR COBA! FOR BANDOR! LONG LIVE THE KING! LONG LIVE THE KING! LONG LIVE THE KING!"

Pulling back from the spectacle, the three now felt only numb. Romelle and Bandor understood all too well when Allura said only a few words before leaving.

"Black Lion needs to be back on Arus, as does its Princess. Listen, you two. Whatever the real truth is, we are cousins. In that, you can always count on me, as well as the Voltron Force. Romelle-we'll see if Sven if well enough, then he can travel here, to be with you."

There were no hugs, and all were drained beyond tears. As Allura made her way back, she almost wished that anyone would attack, yet no one did. Within sight of the homeworld she was no longer certain was ancestral, she muttered three words she had heard Keith say before he fainted.

"Drifters From Earth. Is that all that we really are?"

Allura would indeed talk with her father, whether he was Alfor Of Arus, or Alfred Forest of Earth. The answers would not be entirely to her liking.

17

Hazar was a happy man, and he was perhaps the only happy one there.

"Here I thought that effort had strained me, but it helped show that I'm finally ready to go home-or back to the Explorer, for now. Commander Hawkins and I can treat and war over a chess board, and that's the only war I ever want to see again."

Hunk had carefully asked about Hazar speaking of food after killing assassins from his own people. He had been informed that among Drules, far from showing disrespect, a hearty meal after someone's death was said to show their spirits that life continues, despite it all.

The unexpected visit had been a pleasant one, but only Hunk showed real joy at this moment. Hazar and Haramos for their part took the glum looks of the others as battle weariness, and forgave it without comment, owing them for drawing off the other group of assassins, as well as their hospitality. Hazar turned to each of his six new young friends in turn.

"Keith-Jeff said it was rising to your challenge at the Academy that made him the leader he's become. Your quick thinking saved Queen Orla, her family, and likely myself in the process. Your training in non-lethal subduing of opponents gives my men a gift that will keep on giving, as we transform what was once a corrupt culture."

Keith saluted a former enemy.

"Hazar, Commander Hawkins once said it best of all. He usually does-it's that voice of his. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. In my opinion, a people as proud and anxious for freedom as yours didn't need any Voltron to aid you-but I'm glad Jeff and Cliff and Cric and-and the rest-were there to do what was needed to help."

All six Lion Force members would later admit in private that try though they might, they simply could not remember the names of all fifteen Vehicle Force pilots.

"Princess Allura-it is my privilege to now know two strong female leaders ready to step up and save their people. I hope one day my sister Dorma can meet you, and I hope she may look to you for guidance as she emerges further to lead the Free Drule people."

Allura had learned many things in her sheltered but royal upbringing. One of these was definitely how to best wear her 'happy face'. She was glad for this at that moment, when perhaps everything she had known was at least in question.

"Well, Hazar-I plan to have some sort of Girls Only event, so your sister and all the ladies on the Vehicle Force are invited. Though to make it a decent event, we may have to cast a wider net. You and Dorma already have embraced the advice my parents gave me : That a leader is first and foremost a servant. Packed among your things is some formal wear of mine that can be customized for Dorma-including a tiara that's more functional than valuable. I would have done better than my cast-offs, but trade routes closed by Planet Doom have only just begun to reopen."

Hazar knew Dorma would almost squeal at the sight of such a gift, hand-me-down or not.

"I think that she will like it, Allura. Hunk-all I can say is, if we had you before Drule exploded, we would have kept the planet alive perhaps a full decade longer-assuming you didn't eat us out of house and home!"

Hunk laughed, but surprisingly, he was feeling almost as restive as his team-mates. Working on Drule tech had reminded him that his main job was as caretaker of a technology he did not understand entirely, and often as not had literal magic as a driving force. He had worked as hard as he had with Haramos and his team as much out of boredom and a feeling of running in place as out of new friendship.

"Just for that, Hazar, I'll double the amount of corn dogs I'm sending your way. They're great treats for a people on the go, as they start a new life on a new world."

Hunk hated making small talk at such an auspicious moment, but it was all he had, and luckily all Hazar needed as he turned to Pidge.

"We did not have a chance to really see you much, Pidge. But your analysis of the assassins' efforts and their strategies will really help us in keeping any effort by Zeppo or Zarkon to interfere in the lives of my people as they make their way. Add to that, you turned back their main ship all by yourself, and saw straight through their trap."

Haramos revered his leader, but took this moment to interrupt his goodbyes.

"Forgiveness, Commander. But Pidge? Do you believe the assassins were undermined somehow?"

The assertion was of far more interest than Haramos' possible breach of protocol, so the stunned assemblage listened intently as Pidge nodded.

"Yeah, Haramos, I'd say it was a given. For some reason, Zarkon betrayed the very men he trained as super-killers-or wannabe super-killers. They really didn't end up doing much. On Keith's front, those guys' equipment was neither water-proofed nor ruggedized against sudden energy pulses. In Princess' case, who thought sending a tiny force to distract Black Lion was a good idea? The guys who attacked you and Hunk here were right within sight of Yellow Lion! Myself, I've never heard of a Ro-Beast Launch Bay that jammed, And Lance-Lance, I think their detonator wasn't faulty, except that it was made that way."

Lance was still silent, and Hazar bowed to him.

"The horror my people, even the evil, have visited upon you, cannot be forgotten or forgiven. The dead attackers have families among the Free Drule, and they have sent a message begging your forgiveness to be made witness to such a slaughter of the innocent."

The other team members weren't sure if Lance would yell at Hazar or even risk a war by attacking him in anger and grief. Lance being Lance, the expected was just not his thing.

"Allura, maybe you, Hazar, Coran and Dorma can work out a visit some day by those good family members. Let them mourn their corrupted family, and pay tribute to those they killed. I-I can't say any more. Commander, people have told me I'm not responsible for what happened. I don't know if I can accept that, but I know for certain that you're not responsible."

Hazar closed his eyes, and shook his head.

"We are made too much alike, Lance. It was my life those fiends wanted, when they took the lives of others. That is with me, as much as my early support of and loyalty towards Zeppo. Let's both honor all these good people by vowing to make that remote village the last such one to be visited by such misery."

Hazar composed himself, and said one final goodbye.

"Sven, I'd swear you were a Drule, but for your skin and that accent. To lose so much and yet keep on and keep returning for more is an attitude that made my own being laid-up a good deal more bearable."

Sven, who still needed to heal further before going to Pollux, shook Hazar's hand.

"Hazar, vwe are both men united by a fate that seemed bent on striking us down, yet somehow vwas averted entirely. Vwhen interstellar terrorism is replaced instead by tourism, I vwill take you and your family on a tour of The Scandinavian Union. I vwarn you, though, the reindeer are not these cuddly toy deliverers some speak of."

Hazar laughed.

"Don't tell the children that. Jeff and Cliff are trying to pressure Rocky into playing Santa Claus this year."

Some of the older Drules had questions about celebrating a very specific Terran Holy Day, but decided the children needed something to look forward to, after all that time. The promise of egg nog had sealed the deal.

Keith shook the hands of all their guests.

"With the castle on standby and Pollux keeping an eye on Planet Doom, the Voltron Force-well, this Voltron Force-will personally escort you to the rendezvous point with the Explorer."

Haramos bowed, ready to begin prep for leaving.

"Keith-will this meeting place be a secure one? The commander's enemies will almost certainly be lying in wait."

Keith's beliefs, like all of theirs were being challenged in ways they never dreamed. In this answer he had confidence.

"Believe you me, Haramos. It's at a spot that no one outside the Alliance even knows to exist. Even watching our ships will give them nothing."

But like all the answers the Voltron Force thought they had, this confident response would also fall into question. After their Drule guests had left the room, the team started speaking of things they were now much less confident in.

Things like history and reality.

18

Each had their turn relating the weirdness they now wondered about. But when Pidge spoke, Hunk's jaw fell wide open, and his eyes were even wider.

"You saw the Space Angel?"

Pidge paused, waiting to see if Lance would repeat his near-mantra that they had to find a better name for that entity. That he didn't say anything at all perhaps doubly indicated his sour mood.

"Well, I sort of saw it twice. The first time, it was an illusion used by the Drule assassins. I saw through that, though don't ask me how. Then, as near as I can tell, the real deal showed up, and left me with a message in that shimmering voice. It was a message for you, Keith."

Keith leaned forward startled, despite himself.

"For me?"

"Uh-huh. She said : tell Kogane-the Heir In The Lion's Den and the Quiet One in a frozen Hell both need his aid. Gold will quintuple, as will Black and Red. Weird, Huh? Me and the Princess getting those same words?"

Keith shook his head.

"Weird, yeah, Pidge. But what's even weirder is, most of that message is the same one I heard in my dreams."

Lance almost seemed to force himself to full alertness, in order to respond to this new turn.

"Do I need to say it? We're all under the influence of the Old Witch! This is almost classic Haggar."

Before they could respond to their friend, the renewed Lance waved his hand in the air and kept on.

"Look at it all. Keith sees some kind of weird past life that's a bloodbath version of ours. Well, hooey on past lives! In past lives, everyone is Arthur or Cleopatra. No one is ever the dishwasher or the waitress. Allura hears some insane version of her family history that somehow never came up before that happens to upend everything she believes in. Pidge sees an entity that now twice and again shows up first as a honey-trap, then second for real, and it gives a weirdzo message that seems to tie into Keith's acid-trip, just like the Princess did. I get depressed by a mission failure set off by assassins who kill themselves along with innocent people, by the way, set up by Planet Doom. Hunk here gets a break from the same ole tech, but it only reminds him of the limits of working with Voltron. Even Sven here-he's out of the loop, but he gets set next to another committed warrior who's also laid up, as though to rub it in."

Allura wanted Coba's message to be a spell, or even a last hateful stab at Arus. She still had to speak to her father's spirit, to be sure.

"Lance may be on to something. It would be something Haggar would relish doing to us."

Sven was less sure.

"I vwas raised in my faith, but taught to be suspicious of random mysticism. I have to believe that even Haggar could not injure myself and Hazar at the exact same moment in time and have us both end up here, vwhen he just as easily could have been taken to Earth. Besides, Lance. Since my attack, I have a sense of the vwitch's activities-I can almost feel vwhen she or that rotten cat are about. For these oddities, I feel nothing of her presence."

Keith took note of this small revelation, but kept things on topic.

"Alright. We know that the mystical is a two-way street, when it comes to good and evil, and we also know that many times, the only way to counter a trap is to walk into it with all six senses on high alert. If this is Haggar, or if it has nothing to do with her, we'll know soon enough. Until we do know, no keeping anything to ourselves. If Hunk's late uncle walks up trying to sell one of us a used Ro-Beast, we all tell the others, got it?"

Pidge nodded, and added his two cents.

"The video off of Green Lion confirms both the fake and the real Space Angel. Problem there is, you can take that either as proof of it being real, or proof it's all a big fake, cause Space Angels shouldn't be able to be recorded-I think."

Hunk was definitely put off by the events his friends had experienced, and tried to joke his way past it.

"I haven't had any visitations or haunting. I almost feel left out. I might be able to find evidence of how long Human life has been on this world. Would that help you, Princess-"

Hunk felt a sudden fever, and pointed at Allura.

"Princess-"

He pointed now at Keith.

"Chief-"

At Lance.

"Moody."

Before Lance could retort at this label, Hunk pointed at Sven.

"Quiet."

"I have been called that, yah."

Pidge.

"Shorty."

"Sure, rub it in!"

At last, Hunk pointed at himself.

"Hothead."

Once again, the normal Lance shot through his pain and grief.

"Okay, so you have a temper. Who doesn't?"

Hunk shook his head.

"Nobody ask me why I just did that. It felt right-but wow. I think I just joined the club. Not one I wanted into."

They would all leave with Hazar within three hours. For then and there, Allura journeyed with Keith to visit her father's tomb. Keith nodded optimistically.

"If there is an evil spell, he'll break it, or let us know how to."

Allura gathered her courage.

"Hopefully, the first thing he does is admonish me for believing something so foolish and stupid."

Somehow, both knew this would not be the case, and this was confirmed by the first words uttered by King Alfor's spirit.

"My daughter - I thank you for standing at my brother's side, as he faced his final destiny."

Allura stiffened, and started to fall back, but Keith caught her. Fighting off her chills, Allura spoke in tones normally not even in consideration for her father's shade.

"We have to escort Hazar to his people. But when I get back, Father, I have a very basic question that I demand you answer."

Allura looked at the ghost with eyes both pleading and piercing.

"Who Am I?"

19

Throk was unsparing towards his host.

"Admit it, Lotor! You undercut our assassins. You ask for a direct alliance now, but you barely met up with the terms of our last treaty, not to mention all the worlds you and your father kept away from us."

Lotor wouldn't even turn around to look at his arguable peer.

"Stop whining, Throk. You're beginning to bore me. The fact is, you dropped those assassins in our lap at a time you knew our resources to be strained, for just that reason. Just who was undercutting who?"

Lotor countered Throk's second point as well.

"Also, many if not most of the suitable worlds we found were very much inhabited, and if we gave them to you, the odds are your people or the defending natives would have blown them up the way you did so many of the planets you found. That includes a few those foolish Earthlings ceded to you. What an amazing strategy, to destroy something rather than let someone else give it to you!"

Throk actually seemed embarrassed by that last part.

"A few of our commanders were on the trigger-happy side, I'll admit. But what of all the worlds you conquered, before you replaced poor Yurak?"

Lotor couldn't resist the opening.

"Alas, poor Yurak. Did you know him, Throk? Unfortunately, a great many of those worlds had local rulers, appointed by myself, who were no more trustworthy than either of us. They tried to seize my ships and weapons when Voltron dealt us that recent sharp setback."

Throk now struck back.

"You mean when they overthrew your outcast dynasty!"

Lotor immediately had Throk at sword point, but then pulled back.

"Watch yourself. Be reminded that a Viceroy is still a commoner, after all. But two more things about those turncoat rulers. One, I have recovered my ships from that region, and they will be distributed to form our giant fleet, and the super weapons they were developing will instead go to building our Voltron-Breaker. Two, I have planted evidence in a Galaxy Garrison intel drop site that told their spies that these local tyrants all still had their weapons. Many of them have already been dealt with by Alliance spies and special forces. That should also make them easier to re-conquer, once Planet Doom is back on its feet."

Throk's silence and an appreciative nod to the deception involved seemed to end the confrontation, so Lotor showed a holo-map.

"This is our prize. Seemingly a nondescript, uninteresting part of space. Until we use the information gathered by the purposeful sacrifice of living beings-your unlucky assassins, Throk-with a few innocents thrown in for fun. That dark energy was used by Haggar to scry where the Alliance's greatest treasure lies. If allowed to come on line, The Multi-Relay will power their ships and stations from Earth to Arus, and all points in the Middle Universe as well. It will have a shield, powered by the Relay itself, that a million Ro-Beasts couldn't punch through. If we can gain it for ourselves, all the better. If we have to destroy it, that's still almost as good."

Lotor now looked directly at the Viceroy, whose interest he did not seem to have.

"By the way, did I mention, as an added bonus, that this is where the Alliance plans to transfer Hazar, after his recuperation on Arus? With us giving you a chance like that, don't dare tell me we ignore our obligations. What say you now, Throk?"

Throk shook his head.

"I must have one more guarantee, Lotor."

Lotor smiled.

"That's brass for you, but I like brass. Go ahead and make your demand."

Throk knew he was wading into dangerous territory, but felt he had no choice.

"Please assure me and my Emperor that this nonsense talk of reincarnation plays no part in our plans."

Lotor at no time lost his smile.

"You and Zeppo probably would be brought back as toads, if that. But I can do better than assure you past lives play no part in our schemes. For it's by confronting these past incarnations that my father and I are now free of them."

This intrigued Throk enough to put aside - for the present - the insult to his ruler.

"And how does that work? It sounds like this oddball religion from the Terran history files."

Lotor accepted as a given that Throk would meet his end in the rebuilt Ro-Beast arena, so any insult was taken in stride.

"It's quite simple. I am the rebirth of Sincline The One-Day Emperor, who fought constantly with his father, Daibazal, who was reborn as my father. As it turns out, Sincline was a stupid weakling obsessed with his mother, who resembled our own foe Allura. It was this deep-seated Mommy complex that brought Sincline low, and in turn had me obsessing over a Princess I should have just taken, used and killed for her throne. It also amped up the natural feud between a King and his heir, to the point we both failed to see larger, more important issues. Witch Haggar showed us how our useless hatred was getting in the way of our useful hatred. Tell me, Old Witch, do we have to be nice to our enemies again?"

Haggar, who had stood silent while the two rulers traded insults, shook her head.

"Enemies slain in fair combat have no claim on this plane, my Prince. But if we create too many unjustly slain, their spirits can cause us trouble, trouble even I can't easily undo. The dead demand their due, Prince Lotor, and even you and your father dare not forget that. Remember, I may be an evil witch, but first and foremost I am a Necromancer. I deal with the dead. Sometimes, they even come back, and when they do, they are almost always hungry. They're never very good conversationalists, though. Have you ever tried talking to a corpse? It's BO-RING!"

Throk was still not satisfied just yet.

"Old Witch! Can you assure me that Lotor's obsession with the Princess of Arus is over and done with? I can't have it playing havoc with our plan."

Haggar smiled at Throk.

"You needn't worry, Viceroy Throk. That obsession is in the past, where it should be. At the very least, Prince Lotor no longer lets his desire for her upset his thinking. Also, even if it were to be an issue, my own part in this should eliminate her-and possibly another member of the Lion Force-forever. Though they've all been acting odd lately. Can't figure it. Still, though. This plan will go forward with only three of the Lions trying to aid the weaker of the two super-robots."

Throk surprised even himself with his response.

"The Vehicle Force is not weaker! They are a highly disciplined , cohesive fighting team you would do well not to underestimate. Your enemies may be stronger technically-when they can manage to pull it together."

Lotor fell into a trap that would disturb them all for hours to come.

"You're insane! Lion Voltron is awesome to behold, and it's unity is second to none. There is no greater commander than Keith. Lance keeps him on his toes, and always steps up. The Princess has grown as both a warrior and a leader. Pidge's courage belies his size, and he can even be terrifying when he's upset. Hunk is a flying brick with savvy and cunning. Those weird little runabouts you call ships can't even come in anything but a very technical second."

Throk cut one corner in his response.

"I...will choose not to list all the members of my enemy's team. But perhaps that is because they are soldiers, and not maverick glory-hounds who have no purpose except combat. My enemy space explorers actually explore space. Can yours even lay claim to that mantle?"

As Lotor was about to respond again, Haggar raised her staff to gain their attention.

"May I suggest we stop this conversation? It's embarrassing and not a little fanboy-ish."

The two leaders blushed, and Throk gave a slight bow.

"With all my questions answered, I offer myself and my men to these plans and schemes, and will work to our best success, and the destruction of our powerful, crafty enemies."

Lotor brought out two goblets, and drank half of each one, offering them then to Throk, who did the same, an ancient assurance of no poison. They then spoke as one.

"TO THE FLEET OF DOOM, AND THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE VOLTRON FORCES!"

20

SS EXPLORER, ON ROUTE TO THE MULTI-RELAY RENDEVOUS

Chip read the letter from Pidge, and when he got to a certain part, Rocky's jaw fell wide open and his eyes went even wider.

"Geddoutahere! He like, saw the Space Angel again?"

Across from them, they spied Ginger and Jeff talking. Ginger nodded, and walked away. She looked alright. Jeff didn't look as good. Seeing them watch the pair, Lady Dorma, taking a rare break, inquired.

"What's happening with those two?"

Chip said it plainly.

"We think they finally broke up. Jeff's Admin duties under Commander Hawkins leaves him no time for someone not as committed."

Rocky snorted.

"Hey, he oughta be committed, letting a looker like Ginger slide. But maybe he is too intense for some girls, you know?"

Dorma had to eat her meal then make sure her people got all of theirs. But she added her two cents before moving on.

"Intensity-is not a bad thing."

NEXT CHAPTER : It's that Other Voltron Force-and the retold events of The Fleet Of Doom

Author's Note : Normally, this chapter would have been around 15,000 words, my usual self-imposed limit. But in September, I was ill for three weeks. Then in October, my computer went down for the count. These past couple of weeks, I was waiting on file recovery and was forced by a major renovation project to leave my home. Well, I'm not ill any longer (at least with vertigo), I have a new computer, my files are back, and my bedroom is done, with new flooring, new insulation and new drywall. God Willing, my fic schedule should at last resume, and I mean that. If any of you are praying sorts, shoot one my way, because this year has felt like one long delay in what had been a productive schedule.

And yes, everything you read in this chapter is leading somewhere. I hope you'll like where that is.

Voltron, Defender Of The Universe, will return in...more than a moment. But it will be worth it.

One last note : The stuff about Arus and Pollux origins came from an old fanboy script idea I once had for a Live Action Feature Film. Since Hollywood isn't currently busting down my door, I thought I'd adapt it here.

'Goji' Rob Morris, Monday, November 10th, 2014, 2:01 AM EST