Chapter 7

A quick shout out to the KA community, I never expected to get such a positive response from the rework on this fic. Thanks specifically to CubbieBlueMako for the'welcome back' to the fandom message. Once I am done with the crazy I'm dealing with at the moment, I have a feeling that I have a lot of great reading to catch up on!

Anyway, enjoy the next chapter everyone!


From inside the crate, Allura could hardly hear what was going on. The one thing that came across clearly was that menacing laugh that haunted many of her dreams.

She knew Lotor was gloating about having Keith – 'for the moment' she reminded herself. Footsteps and movement were also audible, nothing definite.

Holding the blaster at the ready in case someone thought to search the cargo hold, Allura waited. Hearing Selena's promise to return her to Arus did nothing to put her heart at ease. She was on her own to escape and save Keith.

'I can't lose him... I won't lose him.'

A soft rapping of knuckles on the crate made Allura tense.

"We're in a bit of a pickle." Selena's voice came in little more than a whisper. "You have two options and it is totally up to you. I don't know if it is going to be safe here on the shuttle, but you can stay hidden here or come with me pretending to be an officer. I know you really don't trust me at this moment, and I don't blame you... but I'm going to get you out of here and with any luck Keith as well."

The prospect of sitting in the crate was not appealing. Allura tried to weight the alternatives.

"We've been invited to join Lotor while he refuels the ship. I really don't think it's a good idea to stay here. We'll change your appearance so he won't know it's you. I swear on my life, I will die protecting you."

"I'm coming along only because sitting here waiting to be caught will not do Keith any good." Allura responded and opened the crate. Standing tall she looked at Selena with hatred in her eyes. "While we are guests of Lotor, we can try to collect Keith and escape."

"That was my plan your highness. I think maybe a truce is in order. Once we're safe, you can go back to hating my guts. Right now we need to work together." For the first time, Allura saw an expression on Selena that begged to be trusted. She looked sincere, more so than before when she was lying to them all.

Sticking her hand out, Allura offered her hand as a symbol of their partnership.

'She's right, we do need to work together. Unless she is totally under Lotor's thumb, which I don't believe since she did all this to save her father, I should be able to trust her.'

"We've got a lot to discuss when we get back to Arus, and don't think for a minute I fully trust you. The second you double cross me again, I'm going to shoot you."

"Noted. First of all, put this hat on. Your hair is a dead giveaway on who you are, even in that Alliance suit.

Allura quickly did as requested. Moving quickly, Selena gathered a few items and shoved them in a bag.


Keith was thankful that he took the extra strength pain killer from the med kit in the shuttle's cargo hold. His body was pleasantly numb, much like his legs were. While he could now wiggle his toes, the feeling of them had yet to fully return.

It didn't matter much at the moment anyway. His special welcome reception had already begun.

Remembering being chained and then hit a couple of times, Keith accepted the fact that he was knocked unconscious before being dragged to his current location. Lotor knew him too well. If we were awake when transferred, he could at least try and search for a way out or at the very least map his escape route.

"Hello Captain." Lotor's face was directly in front of him. Keith quickly took stock of his position. His arms were now chained to the wall, his legs shackled together barely touching the floor and weighted down by heavy chains. Keith knew the position well, it was mean to restrict movement and eventually break the shoulders of the prisoner, possibly leading to suffocation if he was weak enough.

"So glad you could join me. I had this room prepared especially for you." The blue skinned Prince laughed. "We're going to have soooo much fun."

A swift punch to the face came from the left. Lotor's fist felt heavy and the force of the hit alone was enough to nearly cause his shoulder to dislocate.

Without warning the second hit came from the right. Keith let his body move with the momentum. Nothing good would come from tensing up in anticipation of the blow.

With a smile, Keith spit out some blood towards the Prince. This would not break him. And that was what his nemesis wanted. As long as he had strength in his mind, he would not ever give Lotor the satisfaction of hearing him break.

Soon the punches had little effect, his body swayed with the contact. The laughter became less and less as the Prince became a bit frustrated with Keith's lack of response.

"Why don't you cry out?" Lotor hissed, the frustration growing with every punch. He had tried the commander's face, stomach, everywhere that could possibly cause a great deal of pain. Since the onset of the human's time on Arus and being a torn in his side, he took special care to study human body structure.

While it was a nice way to release his frustrations with the female slaves, it also brought great joy seeing how to inflict all kinds of pain on both men and women as well.

"I think we need to take this to the next level, don't you? Something befitting the Commander of the Voltron Force..."


Lance awoke at 3am before his alarm with a smile on his face. Looking from the clock to the warm body next to him, he sighed not wanting to get up. This was going to be a long day, and even though it was starting out rather nicely, he knew that it was to be another roller-coaster.

Rolling out of bed and grabbing his robe, Lance quickly finished up in the bathroom and dressed. He was on duty in five or so minutes. And since he was not going to be relieving Keith, he could afford to be a little late.

"Carmen won't mind a few extra minutes so that I can get some coffee." He smiled as the set off for the kitchens.

With a steaming mug of coffee and a warm pastry just out of the oven, Lance made his way into Castle Control. The silence of the room instantly told him something was off.

"What the?" He asked setting down his breakfast and looking at the controls. Looking at the entry log, his confusion grew. Keith had entered the room and accessed the central computers.

"What is going on skipper for you to tamper with the security systems? There wasn't any maintenance scheduled... and it looks like Allura came in not long after that. Ah ha!" The Red Lion smiled. "A secret rendezvous off the radar, so to speak. Keith you old dog."

His theory was deflated when a mumbling sound caught his ear. It was coming from in front of the main console. Climbing down towards were the lion shuttle doors would raise, he was speechless to find a guard trussed up and gagged.

Kneeling over the now awake guard, Lance made short work untying him.

"What the hell happened to you?" He asked as the guard groaned in pain from being tied up for hours.

"That new Captain... she came from out of nowhere. Must have knocked me out. I thought she had Keith with her as well, but he was unconscious?" The man sounded confused at the lead up to his black out.

"Shit this is not good." Standing up he ran to the controls and hit the panic button to only have nothing happen. "Son of a... she silenced the alarms. Quick, can you walk?" Lance asked the guard who was finally standing on uneasy legs.

"I think so."

"Good, get your ass over to Coran and wake up the rest of the force. We've got a situation here."

As the guard left the room, Lance started working on getting the communications links reestablished.

Soon a hastily dressed Pidge came in and took over fixing the connections. The castle was back up and in working order within minutes.

"Keith wasn't in his quarters." Hunk said a bit out of breath. "I checked on my way here."

"Well, the log says he was here in castle control. Sounds like Selena knocked him out and brought him here." Lance said rubbing his face, not liking the situation.

"She used his keys to access the system and silence the alarms and com links. I can't find his location at all…" Pidge told Lance as the other man worked looking through video of last night to try and find something.

"I was just informed that the Garrison shuttle is no longer in the docking bay." Coran's voice turned the three pilots away from their work. "And Nanny was unable to find the Princess Allura." The old man looked worried beyond comprehension.

"I'm pulling up the video logs from the bay hanger." Lance mentioned not taking his eyes off screen.

"I heard the alarms. What's going on?" Alex asked as she came into castle control. Seeing the faces around the room, there was no doubt something big was happening.

"Ms. McClain," Coran turned to her, "Were you or anyone on your ship aware of the details of your mission?"

"It was a pretty abrupt departure, that's about all I knew until we got further out into this galaxy." She replied.

"Well, we can assume that she wanted something with Keith." Lance spoke up. "I found some video. Here," he pointed to the screens in the control room. Pulling up the security and projecting the footage, minus the audio, on the screens, the group could clearly see their unconscious commander being dragged onto the shuttle. Selena worked quickly to prep the ship and just before she was going to take off, they saw Allura enter the bay.

"Looks like she went along for the ride." Lance shook his head not understanding what was happening.

"What was she thinking?" Hunk asked.

"I would assume that she didn't want to let him go. Maybe she thought she could help him escape." Alex offered.

"So where are they now?" Coran asked his worry growing by the minute after seeing the footage.

"I'm working on that." Pidge mumbled as his fingers flew over the keypad trying to locate his comrades.

"While you do that, I'm going to contact the higher ups at the Garrison. Maybe they can tell us more about Selena's motives."

"Please do so and keep us posted." Coran nodded as he looked back to Pidge.

"They aren't on Arus that is for sure." Pidge sighed. "I'm going to see if I can trace back the signature and see if I can detect a direction when the ship took off… It might take some time."

"Do it. And until we find out more, I would appreciate we keep this turn of events as quiet as possible." The castle diplomat commanded the group.


"Now, remember that you are an Alliance officer." Selena said after attempting to alter the Princess' appearance as much as possible. Tying up her hair and hiding it under a military hat that she too now wore to not cause the other woman to stick out. "Can you do that?"

"My world has been nothing but military and war. Not to mention having great teachers. I think I know how the military works." She replied with an attitude that told the other woman she wasn't going to be a rookie on this mission.

"Good." Selena sighed finishing up her adjustments on Allura's makeup. "Well, you do look different. Let's hope it is enough."

The two women gathered a variety of random supplies and concealed weapons on themselves as much as possible before walking off the shuttle with the Admiral.

The Drule soldiers surrounded them, ushering them out of the docking bay and into the heart of Lotor's cruiser.

Throughout the walk, Allura did as she was told. Selena was actually impressed at the princess' acting skills, if she had not known better, she would have assumed that the Princess had military training. Even more impressed was the fact that Allura's eyes were taking in her surroundings, something that she chastised herself for not doing a better job at the moment.

Soon they were safely in a guest cabin. The three took stock of the situation before anyone spoke.

"Am I to assume that you had planned to trade Keith for my safe return? That does not sound like any Alliance or Garrison approved handling of this situation." The stoic admiral said crossing his arms over his chest. While the older man looked worn out from his ordeal, the strength in his eyes reminded Allura of Keith.

'This would be Keith in a few years,' she thought with a twinge of sadness. 'Not now. We'll deal with his future later. Right now we need to make sure we all have one to live!'

"It wasn't planned to be like this. Originally a few other officials recommended I enlist Keith, his covert mission experience and his knowledge of Doom to get you. Sadly that was not to be an option due to some… complications."

"We can discuss that later. What we need to do now is find a way to get him away from Lotor." Allura spoke up in a determined voice. "You have no idea what danger he's in right now!"

"Knowing Lotor, he will be back to gloat. We can pump him for information then and maybe gain access to Keith. I doubt they will have any medical staff versed in keeping humans alive."

"Selena, now is the time to shed light on anything else you know about this situation." The admiral sternly added.

"I used Keith as a bargaining chip as a ruse to try and divert Lotor's attentions elsewhere. In conversation it sounded like Lotor wanted revenge on Keith and Zarkon wanted him for other political reasons."

"You mean to try and get Arus to surrender?" Allura angered connecting the dots. Zarkon knew of the importance of the Voltron Commander, hopefully not the more personal ones, but he knew Keith was a vital part of the robot.

"I didn't think we'd fail in the extraction mission." Selena defended herself. "And watch what you say, I'm sure this room is bugged and monitored." She whispered low to Allura.

"So we wait?" Allura asked sitting down at a small desk in their room.

"For now." The Admiral nodded.


Keith found himself lowered to the cold floor. Not going to question why they were giving his battered shoulders a break, he enjoyed the cold against his warm skin.

The pain killers had worn off some time ago, and now he was conscious of all the aches and pains his body had suffered.

He knew that the Drule empire to be experts of pain, but he had never expected the torture to be so… mechanical.

The Garrison had attempted to train their higher ranking officers in ways to survive torture, especially during interrogation.

'When I survive this,' he told himself, 'I think I may need to advise Garrison that their sessions are severely lacking.'

Taking into account his wounds, Keith felt that every square inch of his skin had either been subjected shallow slices of an ornamental blade, lashes of a particularly painful Drule version of a cat of nine tails and Lotor's favorite, a red hot brand iron.

Lotor took great pleasure in marking his left pectoral with a slave brand. Not only did they brand him once again, but they kept the burning iron on his skin to the point of a severe burn. Of all the wounds the burn hurt the most.

Keith let out a groan as he finally turned onto his stomach. The relief he felt from the cold floor to his burn brought tears to his eyes. He was exhausted at the seemingly insignificant movement.

Thankfully Lotor had left tired of Keith's lack of engagement in the torture session. With a promise to return, the Prince had left the room and ordered Keith to be prepped for the next round.

For now he was alone.

In his mind the trained soldier mode was still working. He tried to search the room he now laid in. There wasn't much to say about the square room with no windows and only one means of entrance or exit. Maybe when the guards came in to move him, he could strike.

'I'm still cuffed, but if I can get enough momentum going, it could knock a few out.' He planned, putting his ear to the floor. The hum of the space craft was all he could hear. 'No one is coming, so I guess I should get in a better position.'

Any movement was slow. Keith's body protested his attempts to reposition himself, but after a time, he was satisfied with his progress.

Keith had almost lost track of time when the vibrations of several pairs of boots reverberated from the floor. The door was swung open and Keith waited silently.

He heard two figures enter the room, and approach. Keith remained still, his cuffed arms under his body, ready for what was to come.

Without warning, Keith opened his eyes and struck out. Using momentum from rolling over, he took down one soldier's leg and attempted to use his legs to do the same with the other occupant of the room.

Two Drule soldiers were knocked off their feet as Keith attempted to stand, getting to his knees, he struck out hitting one Drule in the face.

"Trying to get away are we?" Lotor's voice called from the doorway with great mirth. "I'm terribly sorry Captain. But there's no hope for you."

"We'll see." Keith mumbled back forcing himself to stand to full height; his breathing was ragged from the exhaustion and pain. And yet the adrenaline in him and the desire to make sure Allura was safe kept him going.

"I know all your moves. Admit it! You finally lost…" Lotor laughed walking into the room, eyeing his enemy with amusement and a bit of caution.

"So how does it feel like to be a caged animal?" He asked moving his cape to better access a long blade at his side.

The moment was now and Keith decided to act. While Lotor was drawing his blade from its sheath at his side, Keith attempted a jump swing kick. Catching the Prince off guard and amazed at the commander's speed, the sword was knocked to the floor.

The Captain's chained ankles hit the prince and soon both men were on the ground fighting. For a brief moment, Keith felt escape was close - until a blaster fired and hit him in the back.

Searing pain ripped through his body once again.

Lotor rolled away and grabbed his fallen weapon. Now, with at least the one guard on his feet, the Prince had taken control of the situation once again.

Walking over to his prisoner, Lotor pulled back his bade and stabbed Keith in already bleeding shoulder above the brand.

"For that Captain, your remaining time will be spent in the most excruciating pain imaginable. I will enjoy the next few hours until we reach Doom." Lotor hissed pressing the sword through till it hit the floor.

"Nothing to say human?" Lotor asked while looking straight into Keith's wide eyes. The mix of pain, pride and hatred reflected in the pilot's eyes and seemed to taunt the Prince's as they continued to stare at each other.

"I will make you cry out yet."

A swift kick to Keith's head left the commander fighting against the pull of unconsciousness. The last thing he remembered was Lotor's voice yelling at his guards and then nothingness.


Whatever plans Ally and company are devising had better happen fast, poor Keith isn't having a fun play date with Lotor at all.

Stay tuned for more story, 'cause you know things are going to get more messy before they get better, right?

:)