Authors note

This chapter was interesting to write, there's more action and conflicting emotions, it's starting to build up. I hope you all enjoy it, comment and let me know if you like it. It would make my day. Once again I do not own Voltron or any of its characters, I have however made some of my own characters for this story.

In the Life

Chapter 7

"I fully understand and promise to do my best." Sven said in his heavy Viking accent.

"You don't know how much I appreciate this Sven." Keith said. Shaking his hand and meeting his gaze.

They were in Sven's room in the castle, it was plainly decorated,with blue walls and a couple pictures of Sven's small family.

"I have an idea. I can only imagine if roles were reversed and I had to stand by and watch Romelle dance with someone else. It would be very upsetting. Like I said, I will do what I can."

Keith nodded and walked away, he probably had to change for the ball. At least that's what Sven assumed.

Sven paced around his room and thought to himself, Keith had asked him a simple favor. He just wanted Sven to cut in any dance that one of Allura's suitors got to close to her. He knew it pained Keith that he couldn't do it himself but he understood why Keith didn't want the suitors to know about their relationship, at least not yet.

Sven couldn't help but feel bad for his friend. He could feel the haggarium surge inside him when he thought about someone else dancing with Romelle.

He sighed, oh how he missed her! The last time he had seen his wife they were on a ship returning from a diplomatic trip with their son Eric. They were attacked, Romelle had been able to escape on an escape pod and had made it back to their planet Pollux.

He wished Eric could've made it back with her, but as fate had it, he had been the one holding his son. They had made it to an escape pod, but it had been hit and went haywire. They were lucky to crash-land safely on his home planet.

At least that's what he thought until he realized there was no way to leave. It was out of desperation that he made that deal with Lotor. Somehow his friends have forgiven him, but he still hadn't forgiven himself.

He had been told that Nanny had watched his son until Romelle was able to come for him. He longed to see his wife and son again, but with him involved, fate had always been cruel.

Planet Pollux was having civil unrest and his beloved Romelle had to stay there for the time being, and he had to stay here on Arus, until he was cured. He almost laughed to himself, he never really believed after Lotor and Maahox betrayed him that anyone would find a cure.

/

He looked over the tapes once more, in total disgust of the situation. How could Allura ever love a guy like him? He had absolutely nothing to his name.

Whereas he was nobility, he was going to make something out of his life and have total control. If Allura wouldn't fall for him he was going to have to knock the commander out of the equation.

For good.

He stood up and straightened his bow-tie. No one was going to get between him and the queen. He'd see to it, personally.

/

Breath, She thought to herself. Breath. It's only three hours, just three hours and then I can be in Keith's arms.

Allura opened her eyes as the doors opened. Her name was announced, and she placed a gracious smile on her lips and slowly walked down the stairs. Larmina was announced as Allura finished her decent, and then the ball had officially begun.

It was protocol that she danced with the suitor of highest rank first, and then she was to dance with the second suitor of the next highest rank and so on. Hamilton walked to her and they both bowed to each other, he took her hand and then the music begun.

/

Larmina couldn't have been more frustrated than she was now. She had finally found Daniel after ten minuets of searching for him, and now that she had found him he had only been talking to her like he usually did!

She was not going to accept the fact that he didn't have feelings for her, he had to. Now that she accepted the fact she had feelings for him she didn't think she'd survive if he didn't have the same feelings that she did.

The current song finally ended, she knew she had only a matter of seconds before the next one began. She tried to hint at him again to ask her to dance.

"I don't know about you but I'm getting stiff just standing here, don't you think we should do something, I don't know exciting?"

Daniel looked at her and thought for a moment.

"Well I am getting thirsty, we can head over to the dessert line and grab some punch."

Ugh, he was hopeless. Well it wasn't a dance that she got but at least he was kind enough to get her some refreshments with their drinks.

/

Sven didn't need any signal from Keith to know it was time to cut in. Hamilton was back for another dance, five dances was the limit Sven gave him. He would not let him get another one with Allura, his poor cousin-in-law was being suffocated by this man.

"Excuse me, but I would like to cut in." Sven said as he stared down at Hamilton.

Hamilton stared at him, sizing him up, not even hiding the fact. Apparently he judged Sven unworthy because he only stepped closer to Allura.

"And just who are you?" He sneered.

"I am Sven the Royal Consort of Princess Romelle of Planet Pollux, and I would like to dance with my cousin."

Without waiting for Hamilton's answer, Sven stepped in and stole Allura away from the snob. The relief was clearly written across Allura's face.

"Thanks Sven." Allura said becoming more relaxed as they put more space between them and Hamilton.

"It is nothing. Dancing with you almost makes me feel like I will be able to dance with Romelle again."

"You will Sven, just wait and see. Fate will provide a cure in time."

He looked at his cousin, her greens eyes willing him to be cured. He didn't know how she still believed that fate could be kind, her life was hard enough she shouldn't believe that fate would take pity on anyone.

"I don't know how you can believe that fate can be so kind..." He was about to say how she should stop getting her hopes so high and accept reality but he doubled over in pain. His haggarium infection was surging all over his body. He didn't know how long he was going to be able to stay conscious or in-control.

/

Daniel knew that the ball was coming to an end soon, he had been trying to work up his nerve to ask Larmina to dance all night. It's just that she was, well stunning. He had to admit it to himself.

He had always like her, but he always known that she was out of his reach. She had however been throwing him hints for awhile though, so he thought that he would push his luck and find the courage to ask her to dance tonight.

He took a deep breath and promised himself that when the next song started he would ask Larmina to dance. He took another deep breath and suddenly lost all track of where and who he was. There was so much pain, he was so angry. He powered on his Voltcom and charged at the girl next to him, only to be blocked and hit in the head with a stick. Unconsciousness found him fast.

/

Keith stared in horror as Sven collapsed in pain, while Daniel tried to attack Larmina. That could only mean one thing, they were under attack.

Keith muttered under his breath, of course they'd be attacked durning a ball that was the worst imaginable time. Keith didn't hesitate to try to take control of the situation.

"Allura get the people to safety," he barked. "Hunk help me get Sven and Daniel to med-bay. Pidge, you're on castle defenses in the control room. Lance, Vince, Larmina get to the lions, Hunk and I will join you shortly."

The people were confused as to why the Voltron force were suddenly so tense and why Sven and Daniel were acting they way they were. That is until the castle started shaking, the people broke into chaos after that, Keith hoped that Allura would be able to calm down her people. He picked up Sven and Hunk carried Daniel, both of them running to med-bay. They needed to get to their lions as soon as possible, this castle was supposed to with-stand a nine point nine earthquake. The fact that it was shaking did not bode well with him.

After making sure Daniel and Sven were both secure in med-bay he and Hunk ran to their lions, they could hear their team struggling on the voltcoms. This was no ordinary haggarium robeast.

Keith jumped on to the bar that lead him down to Black lion, half way down his lion shoot he heard a beeping noise and looked up in horror as he saw a bomb falling towards him.

In an instant he let go of his bar and plummeted to the ground. He couldn't survive a bomb but he might be able to survive the fall, he hit the button on his voltcom that turned his suit into armor and smashed into the floor.

Everything had gone black.

/

Allura was anxious to hear how the team had been handling things, as soon as she had gotten her people under control and in the safe room she had ran to get her voltcom.

She heard Hunk check in with the team, five minuets had gone by since then and Keith had yet to make it to Black lion. Hunk said that they had both made it to the lion shoot at the same time.

"Come on Keith!" Lance yelled over the voltcom, "Were getting our butts beat over here, we need Voltron!"

There was no response, the only noise Allura heard was the lions being thrown and their impact with the ground. Something was very wrong, where was Keith?

"I'm going to go check on Keith." She said over the voltcom, she didn't care that Coran, the other royal advisors, and the suitors wouldn't like it. Something was very wrong and she was going to find out why.

She stopped in her tracks once she had reached the control room. Pidge was slumped over in his chair, blood coming down from his head, not only that but the lion shoot to black lion had been blown to bits. She reported what she saw over her voltcom and waited for Coran to reach the control room before she took the emergency way down the Black lion shoot. She couldn't leave Pidge alone, not in his condition.

When she made it to the bottom of the shoot she was horrified at the sight that awaited her. Keith laid on the floor unconscious, lying in a pool of blood. She ran to him, speaking his name and gently prodding him, there was no response.

"Keith, please wake up." She begged, tears falling down her face.

"What's going on over there?" Lance asked over the intercom.

Allura repeated the situation to them but the four lions were too busy to respond. She knew she couldn't leave Keith here, but the Force needed Black lion now. She checked his vital levels and had his voltcom give him medicine that would hopefully help. She ever carefully tried to carry him over to Black, but it ended up more like dragging him.

She was finally able to pull him into Black, she checked his vitals one more time to make sure he was doing fine, well as fine as he was when she found him. Satisfied that his vitals hadn't gone down she launched Black lion, her planet needed her now.

This robeast was taller than the castle, Maahox had really out done himself.

"Alright team, I know I'm not Keith but right now I'm the only one who can fly Black. Let's not waste time and form Voltron so we can rid Arus of this evil."

"The haggarium levels on this robeast is insane," Vince stated. "It's almost like it's all haggarium that has chosen a shape of a robeast to fight as."

"In that case you might want to form green center Allura." Lance spoke. "And fast."

Allura nodded, they formed Voltron and she had green centered. Vince was their best shot against this haggarium robeast.

Hours later.

She, Coran with the other royal advisors, and all of her seven suitors stood outside med-bay having a heated argument.

"I can't believe you Allura!" Remily went off at her, "that you would..."

"That I would what?" Allura asked. "Put my life at risk to save Arus, to save my people. How selfish of me."

"It's not that," Hamilton began to speak. "Do you know what you mean to your people, to me? You're too valuable to lose, did you even think what your people would go through if you had died?"

"I don't care what would've happened to me, the people would live, Larmina is my heir. I do however care what happens to my people, and the Voltron Force. They could've all died if I hadn't stepped in!"

Lord Wayne spoke up, "Clearly no one is happy with the situation that happen, but I believe that we can be rest assured that the queen is not going to do something like that again, so could we drop the matter?"

"Only if Allura promises that she gives up flying the lions for good." Remily spoke.

Allura felt very outnumbered and frustrated. "I will fly the lions whenever there is a need for me to do so. I will not sit by and watch my people suffer as I did during the war with Zarkon. It does not matter what happens to me as long as the people are safe."

"Then I will fly the lion instead of you." Hamilton spoke up, trying to be all noble, she shot that idea down right away. The idea of him flying a lion, gave her chills down her spine.

"You can't, you've never been trained, I have. There is no time to train you or anyone for the immediate future. Keith isn't going to be able to fly Black for awhile and neither is Daniel, I've been trained for this, and I am quite capable of doing it."

Coran cut in. "Allura I don't doubt your intentions or the goodness of your heart, but you have so many responsibilities as queen. You simply do not have the time to pilot the Black lion."

"I know Coran, and depending on how long it takes Commander Keith to heal, we may have to request new cadets from the Space Academy, so they could take over Black."

There. The words were out of her mouth and she couldn't believe she said it, Daniel would feel so betrayed. She didn't know how Keith or the rest of the team would react to this news as well, but as for the moment it seemed to calm everyone down.

"If you all would excuse me, I need to have a talk with the Voltron Force." With that being said Allura went into med-bay and gathered the Force, Keith had regained consciousness so they all met around his bedside.

"Well we have a problem on our hands," Pidge said from his wheel chair, he was unable to walk with the concussion he had. He had suffered a serious concussion from the attacker, he just had no idea who attacked him.

"You could say that again." Hunk said.

"We've got a lot to talk about," Keith spoke. His left arm, collar bone and a couple of his ribs were broken. Although they had advance medicine to heal him, it would take weeks till he was fully healed. They would surely face another attack before then.

"You stole the words right out of my mouth," Lance replied.

Keith's eyebrows furrowed, he had entered his no nonsense mode and looked straight at Allura. "One of your suitors is working for Maahox." He ignored all of their outburst of this fact. "Last night was planned perfectly, attack us at a moment when no one is near a lion, then to take out the head before they can reach his lion. Think about it, Maahox knows we can form Voltron with only four lions, but we can't form Voltron without the Black lion. So why not take out the Black lion pilot before he can get to his lion, with the robeast that he sent. He was trying to make sure that the lions -that Voltron- was demolished. He almost succeeded too."

"Maybe," Lance began, clearly upset with that idea. "Instead one of Allura's suitors saw you and her in the control room together and got jealous and decided to take some action against you Keith."

Keith nodded, "I've thought about that and even had Vince check our security system. It's been breached, so that is a likely theory Lance, but you can't deny that the timing was just too perfect."

"Maybe it's both," Hunk suggested. "I mean why would he help Maahox if he wasn't trying to get to Allura?"

Everyone in the room went quiet and looked at Hunk. The thought that someone would hurt Keith, or anyone to get to her, made Allura sick. She didn't want to believe it, but someone had attacked Pidge and Keith, and it had to be someone from inside the castle.

"Allura, before you went to the control room and found Pidge, can you remember if any of your suitors had disappeared from the safe room?" Keith asked her.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember. "I can remember seeing everyone except Prince Hamilton, Lord Wayne, and Lord Errol after I got everyone into the safe room."

Keith nodded. "Not that that keeps any suitors off the list, but we will all keep an eye on those three more than the others. Allura when you have your scheduled dates with them I don't want you to be alone, one of us needs to be there."

"Oh please," She was not going to have everyone go crazy over her protection today. "Like the Thirteen would allow that, you know what they would say if they heard this conversation. They would say we're all overreacting and need to calm down, and that my suitors have the highest reputations in the universe."

She crossed her arms. "I can take care of myself, if it makes you feel better I'll keep my voltcom on me. But that's as far as I'm willing to go, if you guys are right we can't risk letting them know that we are on to them."

"Why don't we all take some deep breaths?" Hunk spoke before Keith had the chance to speak, they could all tell he didn't like her answer, but no one could argue.

"I imagine they didn't like you flying Black either," Keith spoke in between deep breaths.

"No they didn't, they all threw a fit. Especially when they learned that until you get better it hast to be me who flys Black."

Keith had a deep frown on his face he didn't like the idea any better apparently. "There is something I've needed to tell the team for awhile now, and it's best if I do it now."

All their eyes were on him.

"I've told Lance about this but no one else, for awhile I've been feeling like my time in Black is coming to an end. I think it's time we request another cadet who can take my place when my time is over."

Before anyone had anytime to react Daniel exploded.

"What? Why! What about me! I can fly Black Keith, give me a chance this isn't fair!"

"Could you have flown Black last night?"

"No, but..."

"No buts, even if Pidge and Vince find a cure you have yet to displayed the leadership skills it takes to fly Black. You can't lead the Force if you continue to rely on yourself instead of the team. I'm sorry Daniel, I really am, we've waited as long as we could."

"No you're not!" Daniel spat. "You're not sorry, I don't see you trying to find a cure! You're just sitting in a chair saying do this and do that! How do you expect me to be a leader if you never give me a chance? You're just giving up on me so you don't have to watch Allura marry someone else, you speak of how a leader is selfless yet here your are being selfish!"

"Daniel!" Keith tried to call out to him, but he refused to listen, he ran out of the room to heavens knows where. Larmina ran after him, and everyone else was to shocked to speak.

Allura closed her eyes. Voltron survived on unity, that's when they had been their strongest, but right now the Force seemed to be crashing into chaos.

/

If Keith thought breathing was a difficult task, walking was nearly defeating him.

He knew he needed to get rest but he had made a promise, and he always kept his promises.

He found Allura on the terrace watching the second sunrise, he doubt she had slept yet. She heard him come and turned around.

"Keith what are you doing here? You need to be resting."

"I will be, but I came to keep a promise."

"What promise?"

"I told you after the ball I would come find you and dance with you all night."

"Oh Keith," Allura's eyes sparkled and his heart melted. "You need your rest, we can dance later.

"I'd rather dance now."

She smiled at him but went to him when he held out his good arm. It was more than a little awkward trying to dance with one arm, but it was worth it. He hummed a song his mom used to sing to his when he had nightmares, it would help him unwind. Right now he figured that they could both unwind.

"Keith, I feel horrible do you think Daniel is going to be okay?"

"I hope so, believe me I hope so."

He gentely placed his hand on her chin and pulled her gaze to meet his.

"You must know," he said searching her eyes, "that what Daniel said isn't true. I'm not giving up Black to marry you, ever since I took Black back from Daniel, I've felt like my time in it was coming to an end."

"It's okay I understand. We must never put ourselfs before our duty and I know that you'd never do that, you would only leave Black if it was the right time."

"I just feel bad for Daniel, I never wanted to hurt him."

"Fate isn't done with Daniel, he was not brought to us to be taken so quickly. Keith, Daniel still has a huge role to play in the Voltron Force. We just don't know what it is yet."