**I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender!
Their walk through the Galran Central Command was an eerily quiet one as Allura and Mari were quickly corralled by Haggar and her lackeys down a series of dark and winding corridors. With each turn that they made and with each elevator they took to a new level, it was becoming harder and harder for Mari to keep track of the way they had come. They had passed by a couple of creepy looking labs and a few control centers, but nothing resembling an aircraft hangar or escape pods. She doubted the High Priestess was foolish enough to take them on a route that revealed such locations anyways. Nevertheless, it was becoming increasingly evident that the facility was massive, much more so than she had expected, and she feared that their chances of escaping on their own were dwindling.
Mari swallowed and quietly took deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves as best as she could. Next to her, Allura gave her the barest of nudges and the most reassuring smile she could muster up in their situation. But the princess was just as scared as her: Allura's smile faded as soon as it had appeared and her jaw was clenched. Her brilliant blue eyes were bright with worry as they glanced about the Galran HQ and her fists were clenched so tightly in front of her, her knuckles were paling.
They were led into yet another elevator and the platform beneath them hummed as it rose up through the floor, bringing them into a vast and long throne room with floor-to-ceiling windows running on all sides. A bulky and broad-shouldered Galran donned in a helmet, cape, and armor loomed in front of them at one end of the room, peering impassively out the glass at the stars. Haggar broke off from their group, approaching him first while her servants stayed back with the human and the princess.
"I have brought them, Sire," she announced once she reached his side, and the massive Galran shifted so he was facing the prisoners. His expression remained unreadable as he just stared at the Altean and the Earthling through glowing emotionless eyes, but the way he stood there at his full height, confidently towering over everyone in the room and radiating power and authority, filled Mari with a sense of unease. This man was incredibly strong and dangerous and he was fully aware of it. He had to be the head honcho, their main foe in this galactic war, Emperor Zarkon.
Finally he drawled out slowly, his voice deep and booming, "Princess Allura."
Allura inhaled sharply and her face contorted in pure rage. "You monster!" she screamed furiously, abruptly charging towards him. "You destroyed Altea!"
Clucking softly in displeasure, Haggar protectively stepped in front of the emperor and lifted an illuminated hand towards the princess, her palm sparking and crackling with magic energy. Before Allura could close the gap between her and Zarkon, she froze mid-step and gasped as her body went rigid and she was lifted at least a foot off the ground. Then with one simple flick of Haggar's wrist, she was roughly thrown onto the floor in front of their feet. Allura moaned as she rolled onto her side to glare at the witch and her master.
"Voltron is going to put an end to your empire!" she growled fiercely, her normally kind and caring eyes now flooded with hatred as she glowered at the enemy.
Her threat didn't even faze Zarkon though, as if he had heard the same spiel from all of his opposers right before he absolutely crushed them underfoot. "No, it will only make me more powerful. Your father knew that as well as I. That's why he led me to believe he destroyed it all those years ago," he assured her, his voice chillingly calm. "But now your new paladins will come for you, and they will deliver Voltron to me, and with it, the key to unimaginable power."
"They won't," she insisted. Her tone remained determined and her voice unwavering, but Mari caught the fear flickering across her features. Allura was lying to them, to herself really. She knew their team too well—Even if it was suicide, the paladins would do anything to try to get to her, to save their princess. Zarkon was right: they were coming whether Allura wanted them to or not.
One of the hooded servants stepped forward and pulled Allura to her feet, dragging her away from the Emperor and Haggar to stand next to Mari again. She was absolutely fuming, the way her body was all tense and her expression twisted into a permanent snarl as she watched Zarkon through murderous eyes. Mari had never seen her so angry before, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little bit scared of Allura right now.
Haggar's yellow eyes flicked to the human suddenly and she gestured to their second captive. "What of the Earthling, My Lord?" she inquired and Zarkon's eyes immediately shifted towards the younger girl. "She has nearly the same quintessence pattern as the Champion. Some similar physical features as well. It has made me rather…curious."
Zarkon stared at her in silence for a moment, taking her in. Mari could've sworn the corners of his mouth twitched upwards into a smirk and an involuntary shudder ran down her spine. She clenched her teeth nervously, her heart pounding inside her chest as she awaited his command.
"Do what you'd like with her," he said finally, waving his witch away as he returned to gazing out the window, and the way Haggar grinned in excitement made Mari's heart leap into her throat.
Without another word from Zarkon, Haggar and her servants pulled Allura and Mari back onto the platform they had entered on and they were lowered through the floor. Stepping out of the elevator, the High Priestess turned to her attendants with a mischievous, if not manic, glint in her eyes.
"Take the princess to a cell," she instructed them, gesturing curtly down the hall on their right. Then nodding to the corridor on their left she added, "And bring the human to my main lab."
Mari could feel the blood rushing out of her face and she looked at Haggar in alarm, her heart rate immediately spiking. "What?" she managed, her voice coming out as a terrified squeak.
The anger distorting Allura's features instantly melted away into fear. "What?!" she exclaimed, panic leaking into her tone as she whipped her head towards Haggar. "What are you going to do to her?"
The ends of Haggar's lips curled up into another malevolent smile as she answered simply, "Interrogation."
Two of the hooded creatures firmly grasped the princess's biceps and began to forcefully guide her down the right hall while Mari was nudged towards the other. She was being sent to a lab for "interrogation"? No good would come from this, she was sure of that. Her survival instincts overriding any sense of logic, Mari thrashed and squirmed against her single guard, kicking him, biting, shouting, and elbowing as she tried to break free at all costs. But his hold on her was like steel and she could feel that strange tingling sensation beginning to seep through her clothes and into her muscles as he used his magic to sap her strength.
Down the other hall, she could hear Allura grunting as she fought against her own escorts. Her eyes were bright with fear and she began shouting desperately for her companion.
"Please! She has nothing to do with this!" the princess screeched, her inhuman strength even posing a challenge to contain by her cloaked captors. "Please, you already have me, just let her go!"
"She is an affiliate of Voltron, making her an automatic enemy of the emperor. Be grateful we are not executing her immediately for her crimes," Haggar spat in dismay. Then chuckling to herself she added, "Besides, her connection to your Black Paladin has peaked my interest. She may be of use to us yet…A new plaything for me to experiment on, perhaps?"
Allura gnashed her teeth and the fury in her tone was overwhelming as she shouted, "She is not your toy! I swear, if you hurt her, I'll—!"
The witch's bitter laughter cut her off, and Haggar just sneered at the princess. "Your threats mean nothing here. You are nothing without your paladins," she jeered. "It will only be a matter of time before they arrive to collect you. And once they fail and all the Voltron Lions are in our possession, they will watch as their pathetic princess is killed. Their surrender will have been a futile one."
"They will never hand over the lions," Allura snarled darkly, but the High Priestess remained unconvinced and she completely disregarded the statement.
"We shall see about that, princess," she replied lowly through another evil grin, and with a dismissive nodded of her head, Allura was hauled out of sight, cursing and screaming and pleading for Mari to stay strong.
Mari was alone with Haggar and the remaining lackey now, the heavy silence blanketing them as they made their way down the hall. The hands holding her were hot and flaring with energy as the fingers dug into her arms, the magic they held sending tingles all throughout her body and depleting her strength to fight. Her own fingers felt numb from clenching them into fists for so hard and so long, and keeping her nerves in check was becoming more difficult with each step they took away from Allura. It felt like a block of ice had settled in her stomach and she swallowed thickly, her mouth having gone dry. Her heart was beating loudly like a drum inside of her chest, and she was sure Haggar and her escort could hear its rapid thrums.
She couldn't remember the last time she had been this terrified. She was at the heart of the Galra Empire, at the mercy of Zarkon's magicians, and she had caught the interest of possibly the worst one of the bunch. Her only ally in this entire damn facility had been ripped away from her, leaving her alone for "interrogation" and whatever torture that entailed. She was facing this predicament alone now. The paladins, Coran, Allura, Shiro…none of them could save her now.
Mari's eyes stung and she glared at the witch's back, channeling all her hatred through her stare and hoping that by some miracle, the woman would spontaneously explode under her gaze. But of course, no such thing happened, and she was led further and further into the Central Command with her energy gradually being drained and her fear building with each step.
By the time they reached their destination—a metal door that looked identical to all the others they had passed on their way here—Mari was dragging her feet, her legs feeling like jello and quivering slightly from lack of stamina and an abundance of dread. The doors swished open upon their approach and she was instantly hit with the pungent, stomach-churning scent of cleaning chemicals she often smelled in hospitals and doctors' offices. Inside the room, a metal slab of a bed sat in the middle with carts full of tools and vials of mysterious liquids flanking it. Blaring purple lights hung overhead and what looked like a cryo-pod sat in the corner, but it was full of glowing, bubbling, translucent pink liquid. The walls were lined with shelves that housed larger containers and heftier equipment—such as saws, and her heart nearly stopped at the sight of the jagged blades—as well as miscellaneous hardware, including some that resembled limbs.
"What the hell is all of this?" The mortified whisper of a question escaped her lips before she could stop herself, and Haggar turned to her with an sinister glint in her eyes.
"That fear in your eyes is so ravishingly familiar," she mused, her voice almost nostalgic. "What is your relationship to the Champion, I wonder?"
Mari pressed her mouth into a thin line and just glowered at the High Priestess, refusing to answer. She couldn't speak, she wouldn't speak. No matter what happened, no matter how much they hurt her, she couldn't give anything away about herself or the team. She can't, she can't, she absolutely must not.
Haggar pursed her lips and her golden eyes raked skeptically over the stubborn human. "Refusing to answer? What a foolish girl…" she concluded to herself with a huff of semi-amused laughter. "No matter. I will pry everything you know about the Voltron Paladins out of you one way or another. Their strengths, their weaknesses, everything. Your interrogation begins now."
"Anything?" Shiro asked desperately for what was probably the hundredth time. He was hovering anxiously behind Lance's chair and squinting at the Blue Paladin's screen. For the past couple vargas, they had been scouring the blueprints of Zarkon's Central Command that they had acquired from their less-than-pleasant adventure to the Galran hub.
"There's just no way in," Lance groaned, sitting back defeatedly. "They'll have us tracked from every direction."
"There's got to be something," Shiro sighed frustratedly, taking a step back to give Lance some space. "Keep looking."
Time was rapidly ticking away. Each second they wasted here, stuck and without a plan, was another moment closer that Allura and Mari could be to death. The thought struck sheer terror into Shiro's heart, and he quickly shook his head and inhaled deeply to steady himself before he had a panic attack. He had already lost it once today back in the Green Lion, he couldn't afford to break down again. Not while they were in the middle of figuring out a plan. Not in front of the others who were already so scared and looking to him for guidance, for stability.
Shiro's eyes flickered to each of his teammates as they worked furiously at their respective stations, trying their best to find some sort of entry point into the heavily fortified Galra HQ. Lance and Hunk looked tired but determined in their search while Pidge just seemed flat out frustrated with her lack of results. Coran stood in front of his control panel, his back to the Black Paladin as he scanned the area around the Central Command. Shiro could tell the Altean was still angry with him and the hot pool of guilt sitting in his stomach only grew—he had lost Coran's princess, one of the last Alteans, to Zarkon's minions, after all. And Keith…Keith had been quiet ever since they boarded the Castle, even more so than usual. He sat on the Red Paladin's chair just glaring at his screen, his bluish-gray eyes narrowed as they swept over the HQ's layout repeatedly. A white metal rod was clutched firmly in his hands, Mari's retractable staff, Shiro realized.
During the remainder of their journey back to the Castle in the Green Lion, Keith had curtly filled him in on what had happened after he had left the base with Allura. Keith had run off to investigate the hub on his own and Mari had followed him in the hopes of bringing him back to the rest of the team. But they'd ended up finding a hidden supply of a material called quintessence—a powerful type of energy, apparently—and they got caught up in a battle with some sort of spell-casting creature wearing a cloak and mask.
Relaying the story to Coran once they were at the Castle, he identified them as Druids. They were Zarkon's servants, more specifically, Haggar's servants. She was the Emperor's right hand and close advisor, a vicious sorceress that Shiro was unfortunately well acquainted with. She had given him the prosthetic now grafted to his right shoulder. Whenever he wasn't fighting in the Gladiator Arena, she had been the one responsible for torturing him, experimenting on him, doing who the hell knows what to him in those awful, awful laboratories of hers. And now, Mari was in the same place as that monster of a woman, and Shiro pleaded to the universe that Haggar would show no interest in her and just leave her alone.
A brief image of his little sister strapped to a bed, her stomach sliced open and blood splattered everywhere along the floor and her body, flashed through his mind. Her usually twinkling eyes that matched his own were now dull and fogged over, the light of life completely snuffed out of them. It made Shiro's head spin and his stomach churn. He felt like he was going to throw up.
Breathe, Shirogane, he hazily encouraged himself, closing his eyes and taking another deep and calming breath to steel his nerves. You've got to keep it together for the others' sakes. For Allura, for Mari. They're both fine, they're both fine. We'll find them before anything bad can be done to them. Patience. Yields. Focus.
Straightening, Shiro reopened his eyes and glanced around the room again at his teammates, their presence giving him courage. At least they were safe. He hadn't lost anyone else in this new family of his, thank God, and he was sure as hell going to get back their missing members.
His gaze landed on Keith again who was still glaring daggers at his screen. He was holding the staff so tightly now his knuckles were turning white. His face softening in concern, Shiro moved towards the Red Paladin's seat.
Keith's eyes instantly snapped up to Shiro in surprise, but he quickly averted them, guiltily staring down at the weapon he held.
"Shiro, I…I'm sorry." His voice was quiet but sincere, still too ashamed to look Shiro in the eyes. "This is all my fault. This is just like that incident on Arus all over again."
"…Keith, no it's not."
But Keith furiously shook his head and plowed on, "I shouldn't have left the group. She would still be here if I hadn't. She wanted to make sure I wouldn't get caught or cornered, but she just got captured instead, and—and now?" He paused, screwing his eyes shut in anger as the scene of Mari's capture played over and over again inside his mind. "She's just…gone."
Shiro sighed softly to himself and carefully placed a comforting hand on Keith shoulder. He could feel the younger paladin tense up beneath his fingers, but Keith made no move to shrug away from the touch.
"Keith, it's not your fault," Shiro said calmly, pushing away the panic that had previously been threatening to boil over and consume him. "It's not, I swear. If anything, it's mine. I let Mari and Allura come on this mission…I was supposed to protect them."
"We all were," Keith said bitterly, finally bringing his head up to look at Shiro. His eyes were sad and full of remorse and fear of…rejection? Was he afraid that Shiro was mad at him? Shiro's heart clenched painfully, but he kept his gaze steady as he looked at Keith. It was true he didn't blame Keith, not one bit. Not even a shred of his being was angry with him. Shiro could never bring himself to be mad at Keith. Never.
"Don't beat yourself up over this, Keith," he said, giving the Red Paladin's shoulder a gentle squeeze and a small and hopefully reassuring smile. "What's done is done. We have to keep looking forward and that means focusing on figuring out how to get them back, okay?"
Keith hesitated for a moment, the worry and self-blame in his expression lessening just a bit. He nodded in confirmation and tried to smile back, but it came out more as a grimace.
"Allura and Mari are strong, they can take of themselves," Shiro murmured, trying to encourage Keith just as much as he was trying to convince himself. "They'll be fine."
Author's Note: So just a heads up: I'm going back to school next week, so my updates will most likely become less frequent than weekly or bi-weekly like they have been this summer. I promise to update when I can though, and good luck to everyone who's already started school!
**Please feel free to leave a comment/review down below! They are much appreciated & encourage me to keep writing this fic :D
**Feel free to check out my tumblr too, which is pufftheninja.