So, not much to say this time. Thanks to all for your encouragement. Enjoy!

"What happened?" Keith demanded.

In the darkeness he heard Hunk's massive movements. Then there was a loud crash. A steady beam of light shone from a nearby wall right into Keith's face. Hunk had smashed the glass plate that housed the emergency equpiment, including two hands free flashlights that attached to the wrist. He tossed the other light to Keith before quickly moving back to the main computer. His fingers flew across the console. Nothing happened. He brought his fist down hard on the keys.

"You told me that you fixed those damn circuits!" Keith growled at him.

"I did, Keith, I swear." Hunk tossed the chair out of the way to climb under the console.

"Well? What the hell caused the black out, and what happened to Blue Lion?"

There was a loud thumping on the other side of the door leading to the outside corridor, and Keith could hear Lance's frustrated calls. "Hey, anyone in there?"

"Yeah, we're here. You'll have to use the manual switch to open the door."

"The what? What the hell is the manual switch?"

"Move out of the way!"

"Ow! Take it easy, Pidge."

"I can't believe you don't know how to open the door manually."

"I never had to, Pidge."

"Typical."

"Shut up, Deirdre."

The door gave a great whine and slowly moved to one side. It took both Lance and Pidge to force it all the way. They tumbled in followed closely by Deirdre who was wielding two hand held flashlights. When the two pilots had picked themselves up off the ground she handed one to Pidge, but refused to give Lance the other one.

"I guess I know who I want to be stuck with in a crisis. The one who can open the door."

Lance stuck his tongue out as she moved away from him and toward where Keith was standing still shining his light down so that Hunk could see. She walked passed the console to the window where nothing was visible through the soupy fog that had surrounded the castle.

"Hunk, what happened?" Pidge leapt into the chair and began fiddling with the buttons.

The large man's head reappeared from under the console. "I don't know. Everything looks like it's in order. Even the emergency generator is out." He stood up and looked at Keith. "We gotta find out what happened."

"Do you think that might have something to do with it?" They all turned to look at Deirdre who was still standing in front of the window, staring out. Keith shined his light on her. She pointed to the thick fog swirling around the castle.

Frowning deeply, Keith went to stand next to her. "What is it?"

"It's magic."

"How do you know?"

"Can't you feel it? Something dark is surrounding the castle."

Keith stared out the window at the clouds moving in. There was a different feel to the climate. Like electricity in the air.

Hunk climbed out from under the console. "Whatever it is, it's affecting the castle's circuitry."

"The castle and the Lions are bound together in a symbiotic relationship." Pidge said, "One cannot function without the other. If the castle's main system has been taken offline by magic, it's a good bet that is what is affecting the Lions."

Lance's heart stopped cold in his chest. "Where's Allura?"

"She was still out on your patrol." Keith stated matter of factly. "We lost contact just before the power went out."

"Well, we've got to go find her." Lance said firmly, blatantly ignoring Keith's accusation that he might some how be at fault for Allura's disappearance. "If the Lion's are down, she'll be a sitting duck out there."

The normally reserved Pidge grunted loudly. "And how do you think you're going to do that? In case you haven't noticed, we don't have any functioning ships."

"Yes, we do." Deirdre said. "Siren. She's not connected to the castle. With the mods Hunk's been helping me put on the scanners, I should be able to manuvuer through this mess." She pointed to the fog out the window. She looked to the large man for confirmation.

Hunk rubbed his chin. "Sure."

"Good. Then I'm going to look for her." Deirdre started toward the door with Lance on her heels.

"I'm going with you."

"Wait," They both turned to look at Keith. "I'm going. Lance you stay here."

"No way, Chief," Lance had a good argument ready to unload, but it died on his lips as he met Keith's set expression. Instead, he crossed his arms and pouted. "Fine."

Keith gave him a grateful nod as a sign of mutual understanding. "Take care of things here."

Lance watched frustrated as Keith and Deirdre left quickly. As soon as they were gone, he turned to Hunk and Pidge. "Alright guys. I want any power you can get to set up some kind of communication with The Siren."

"How are we suppose to do that?" Hunk complained.

"I don't care, Hunk. Rub two sticks together and make a spark, anything you can do."

Hunk was thoughtful for a moment, then a grin spread across his face. "I think I have an idea."

Far above Arus, in the bowels of the Drule command ship, The Inferno, Lotor all but skipped down the darkened corridor. Their progress was remarkable. One of the lion ships had fallen from the sky. There was no energy signature coming from the castle. Invasion was all but inevitable now. His swagger slowed when he finally reached his destination.

Hagar's laboratory was just as anyone would imagine. Dark and dank, littered with various plants and creepy crawlies that she used in her potions and spells. Bookcases lined the walls and were weighed down with stacks of books, some standing at attention with their spines out, others leaning or laying flat. Hagar had in no way inherited an organization gene. Lotor found her at a makeshift alter of sorts at the back of the room. She was hunched over an oversized book that looked as if she couldn't even lift it. Rather than traverse the mess, Lotor remained at the open door, leaning casually against the frame.

"Well, Hagar, it appears that your magic has worked."

"Yes, Lotor," she said as if it was obvious. "my hypothosis was correct. The castle and the lions are bound together by the same source. If one loses power, the other will fail as well. A simple spell to disrupt the energy flow to the castle has done the trick."

"Yes," Lotor agreed, "and with the lions out of power, they have no way to rescue their fellow pilot. I will take them one by one, if I must." What Lotor did not want to vocally acknowledge was that he secretly hoped that the down pilot was Voltron's own commander. Keith Kogane had been a thorn in Lotor's side for far too long – standing in the way of everything that Lotor truly desired. Lotor would make him suffer more than any of them. He would break the commander until he was completely undone, then he would kill him slowly.

Lotor was giddy at the thought of complete victory over his enemy. He was so close. But he would not make the same mistakes that he had made in the past. He would not declare victory until every last one of them was in his grasp, and Voltron was under his power.

While Lotor was sure that Hagar's magic did not include telepathy, sometimes it seemed as if she could read his mind. "Patience, Lotor, you will have them all to do as you wish soon enough." She left her alter and moved to another table where she stood in front of a microscope. "Come see this."

Lotor leaned over to look into the microscope. A droplet water was magnified significantly and he could see tiny organisms that resembled a common dirt worm racing around frantically under his gaze. He looked back to Hagar. "What's this?"

Hagar held up a small bottle for him to see. "They are called Sorcas. They are microscopic parasites that render their host completely suseptical to mind control. In spite of their size, they are highly efficient and very powerful magic users. Once inside the host, they attach themselves to the lower part of the brain and begin to grow. They feed off of the host's energy potential and turn it into pure magic."

She allowed Lotor to peek inside the bottle. All he saw was a green liquid. He wrinkled his nose. "They're in there?"

She nodded. "Yes, the liquid is native to the planet where I found them. It is the only way they survive if they are not implanted into a host."

"Mind control, huh?"

She nodded. "Just a small drop in the ear, nose, or eyes. The process is almost immediate."

"What happens to the host? Does it die?"

The witch shook her head. "Until now, these organisms have been isolated on a distant planet so not much is known about them. But I have been experimenting on certain animals. So far I have discovered that the worms will keep the host alive, if the host dies, so does the sorca."

Lotor's mind began to swim. Mind control! Oh, the possibilities...

Deirdre powered up the engines of her ship, foregoing the usual preflight checks. They were, after all, in a hurry. She pulled the ship into the air and moved into the dense fog. She had been right. The modifications that she and Hunk had made seemed to slice right throught the fog, allowing them to see fairly far in front of them. Soon they were skimming the surface of Arus, looking for any signs of the Blue Lion.

The pair fell into a silence as they focused on the task at hand. They were so engrossed in the scans from the ship that a voice over the intercom made them both jump. "Anything yet?"

"Lance, how?"

"Hunk really outdid himself this time, Keith. He used the battery packs from the flashlights to give us just enough power to keep communications on. Still no lights yet though."

"I'm working on it!" Hunk's voice came through.

"Have you seen anything?" Lance asked.

"Not yet. Wait a minute..." Keith pointed to the scanner in front of him. "That could be it."

Deirdre nodded and adjusted the flight pattern until they were almost directly over the dot on the screen. Keith's heart fell as the Blue Lion came into view. It had crashed on the flat plains that were just a few miles from the castle. But it wasn't alone. Surrounding the crash site was a half a dozen short range Doom vehicles.

"What the hell?" Keith stared at the scene, not believing his eyes.

"What is it, Keith?" Lance got his attention back.

"Blue Lion's down. Drule ships surrounding it. No sign of the Princess."

"Look," Deirdre adjusted the view screen to magnify. Three Doom slaves climbed out of Blue Lion's mouth and they were carrying a forth person.

"Allura." Keith breathed.

"What do we do?" Deirdre looked at Keith, who was frozen in place. "Keith. " Nothing. "COMMANDER!" She bellowed finally snapping him out of his trance. He blinked at her. "You can not go loony love bird on my now. What are we going to do?" The Siren rocked hard pushing them both against the console. "Guess that answers my question."

She punched the contols of the ship rocketing it forward. Keith was scanning the feed in front of him. "We've got two on our six." He said. "They're sending rockets our way." She nodded and twisted the contols hard to the right sending The Siren spiraling forward. The two rockets tried to twist with their target but ended up running into each other causing a large explosion.

Lance and Hunk sat in the dark control room helplessly listening to their friends evade the barrage of fire from the enemy. Lance kicked the console hard then stood up. "Damn it. I can't believe this is happening."

"Isn't there anything we can do for them?" Hunk slumped in his chair. "They're all alone out there."

"I know, big guy." Lance watched Hunk, his face illuminated by the one flashlight that wasn't being used to power the communications with The Siren. He didn't have the heart to tell him what he was really thinking.

Scuffling down the corridor just outside the control room caught their attention. A moment later, Pidge ran in followed by Coran and Rebecca. Each of them had a handful of flashlights.

"We got all the flashlights we could find around the castle." Pidge breathed deeply. Hunk grabbed the bundles from them and began taking the flashlights apart.

"Everyone seems to be okay and accounted for." Coran added.

"Lance," Keith voice was strained over the intercom. "We could use some ideas here."

Pidge and Coran looked at Lance who answered their silent questions. "The Siren is under attack. They're on the run."

"I have an idea!" Pidge yelled. He pushed everyone out of the way and went to Hunk. "Hunk, can we get enough juice from those battery packs to send a signal to our long range satellite?"

"Should be able to. What do you have in mind?" It took Pidge only a few seconds to fill Hunk in on his idea. Hunk whooped loudly and began digging around under the console again.

Pidge grabbed the microphone. "Keith, you there?"

"We're here, Pidge. What have you got?"

"With the scanner distortions in the atmosphere, can the Siren find the long range satellite? I'm sending the coordinates to you."

"Stand by." Those observing from the control room listened in nail biting silence. "We've got the satellite on our radar, Pidge. Shit!" There was commotion on the intercom followed with Keith's voice barking orders to his pilot.

"Keith," Pidge yelled. He knew they had very little time. "Head to the dark side of the satellite. We're going to send a signal to the satellite to create a temporary gravity field. If you let the ship get pulled into the gravity and reduce your engines to impulse, you should be able to hide behind it. The gravity field will mask their detection devices. At least long enough for us to find a long term solution."

Keith glanced at Deirdre whose knuckles were white on the controls. "Did you get all that?"

"Yeah, set the coordinates." Her teeth were clenched as she evaded another round of laser fire. "This baby's not going to hold up much longer."

"Coordinates set." Keith announced.

She yanked hard on the controls pulling them into a steep upward climb toward the outer rim of the atmosphere. The two Doom ships that were on them followed suit. "Oh no you don't." Pushing a numbered sequence into a keypad, the Siren lurched forward as the modified boosters kicked in sending them rocketing toward the satellite. The short range Doom ships were unequipted for such speed and finally fell back. As they moved skyward, Keith saw another a large command ship, flanked by two more and an army of smaller fighters, moving into the atmosphere. There was no mistaking it.

"Drules." Keith growled.

"What?"

"That's a Drule command ship, and I bet I know who's at the helm. Lotor. That must be where they're taking Allura." He banged his hands on the console. "Damn it!"

"Take it easy, Keith." Deirdre was still focused on the viewscreen in front of her. "Look, at least she's still alive. At least we still have a chance to rescue her."

Keith's voice dropped to such a low calm that it sent shivers up her spine. "She'd rather be dead than be delivered into the hands of Lotor."

"What the hell is going on down here?" Lotor watched from the bridge of his ship as the two Doom fighters fell back from their pursuit of the unfamiliar ship. "Why are they pulling back?"

"Sir," his pilot addressed him. "it is too fast for our ships. They are short range fighters, not equipped for such speed." His fingers flew across his console. "I can track the ship while we launch the long range vessels, Your Majesty."

Lotor templed his hands thoughtfully. "Do it. I don't want any ships leaving Arus." He was so close to victory, he could taste it. The last thing he needed was letting a ship slip through to get help. He had to contain the glee he felt when he had received word that Allura had been captured and was being transported to his ship. And the Lions were effectively out of commission. It was a good day for Doom.

As if able to read his mind, Hagar shifted uncomfortably in her seat next to him. "Don't get too cocky, Lotor. Voltron is not ours yet."

"But it will be. Hail the other ships!" He ordered.

The Drule, who Lotor recognized as Captain Ruzian, appeared on the screen in front of him. "Yes, My Lord."

"Is my fleet ready?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Ready for your orders."

Lotor smiled. "Order them to proceed with the invasion."

Deirdre had no response to Keith's statement, but she didn't need one. "There it is." The large, moon shaped satellite came into view.

Keith pulled himself back to the matter at hand. "Pidge, we're circling the satellite. Are you ready?"

"Ready when you are, Chief."

"When I give the signal, activate the gravity field. Deirdre, you cut the engines. Everyone got that?"

Everyone answered an affirmative. Keith waited until the Siren was clear on the other side of the satellite. "NOW!" he barked.

Deirdre cut the engines, and Siren floated, suspended in space by the satellite's gravity.

The pilot on The Inferno almost choked at the readings in front of him. He began to sweat with fear as he turned to Lotor. "Your Majesty, we've lost tracking on the ship."

"WHAT?" Lotor bellowed nearly ready to strangle his own pilot. "Where the hell did it go?"

"I-I-don't know." His fingers punched a number of buttons. "One second it was there, another it was gone?"

"A cloaking device?" Hagar suggested.

The pilot shook his head. "My readings didn't show any cloaking technology on that ship."

Lotor was thoughtful for a moment. "What about hyperspace capabilities?"

"No evidence of hyperspace activity showed up on my scans, My Lord."

The Prince allowed himself a small smile. "Alright. Forget about it for now. Let's focus on Arus."

"Sir?" The pilot seemed concerned.

"Do you think it's wise to let them go so easily?" Hagar rustled next to him. "They might go for help."

Lotor chuckled. "With no hyperspace capabilities, it will take them a while to reach any neighboring outposts. By then, it will be too late."

The cockpit of the Siren was dark save for the reserve lights that cast an eerie glow on the tense faces of Keith and Deirdre. To save energy, they had cut communications with the control center until they could formulate a plan. They appeared to be safe for the moment. But the energy being used to support the gravity field would drain quickly. They had to find another alternative.

Keith had fallen into a thoughful silence. He was running various scenarios in his head. Trying to make it back to the surface was not a viable option at that moment. Neither was trying to fight for they were severly outnumbered. They could try to make it to the nearest outpost, but it would take too long. Of all the options he had come up with, they all contained one component that he could not, would not, avoid.

Deirdre, finally bored of the silence, inturrupted his thoughts. "What's the plan, Fearless Leader?" He turned to look at her, a worried expression painting his handsome features.

"I can't leave her." His voice was almost a whisper. He watched Deirdre's tense expression soften.

She nodded in understanding. "Alright, let's go get her." Before he could respond, she reached up and opened the com channel. "Lance, you there?"

"We're here."

"We've got a plan." She glanced at Keith to make sure this was really what he wanted to do. He nodded. "In few moments, we're going to leave the gravitational field and move back into the planet's atmosphere."

"They'll spot you right away." Pidge said.

"We know. We're going to surrender to Lotor."

"WHAT?" A chorus of voices echoed through the cockpit. Then Lance spoke above them all. "What the hell are you thinking?"

Deidre almost smiled at his concern. "I'm thinking, Lance, that you better come up with a plan to rescue us. Because if Lotor turns me into a robeast," then she did allow herself the smallest smile, "you're the first one I'm coming after."

"Keith, stop this. DEIRDRE!"

She pushed a button and Lance's voice was cut off bringing them back to silence in the cockpit. She began the sequence to power up the engines and the entire console lit up. "Engines on online. We're pulling out of the gravitaional pull."

The Siren moved away from the satellite and began it's revolution to the other side. Keith watched Deirdre as she moved them into position that would most likely lead them to their certain doom. All the years he had known her, Deirdre had always been a fiercely loyal friend, and now was no exception. She was putting her life on the line for someone that she barely knew, just because he asked her to. He was overwhelmed by emotion for his friend. Having no other words to express his feelings, "Thank you." was all he could say.

She glanced away from the console just long enough to give him her best comforting smile. "You owe me big time for this one, Keith." She was thoughtful for a moment before she spoke again.

As the Inferno came into view, they both took an unconscious breath. Keith gripped the armrests of his chair as Lotor's ship loomed before them. "Hail them."

Excitement buzzed on the Inferno as Cossak led the Doom fleet out of deep space into Arus's atmosphere. Everything was in place to invade the now defenseless planet. And Lotor had just recieved word that Allura had been delivered safely aboard. He practically jumped out of his command chair and moved toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Hagar asked, already knowing the answer.

He only smiled wickedly at her. "I'm going to welcome our new guest."

"Prince Lotor," The Inferno's pilot said excitedly. Lotor gave an irritated growl and turned to him. "we've got the ship back on our radars. It appears to be moving toward us."

"Really." Lotor was intriqued now.

"It's weapon systems are offline. They are making no move to attack." He watched to screen intently, expecting some sort of trick. Then the console let out of loud beep. "They are opening a communication channel, Your Majesty."

Lotor frowned. He really just wanted to blow the small ship apart and be done with it. He was on his way to greet the object of his obsession. Now was not the time to deal with meanial things. "Well, by all means."

"Lotor,"

The Prince's pointed ears perked up at the familiar voice.

"This is Commander Kogan."

"Commander Kogane," The name dripped with contempt as it left Lotor's lips. "what can I do for you before I blow you out of the sky?"

"I want to surrender. Our weapons are powered down and we have no intention of resisting."

This statement left Lotor dumbstruck. Could he have heard right? The Commander of the Voltron Force was surrendering to him? Why now?

"He's come for the Princess." Hagar stated matter of factly, as if reading his mind. He hated when she did that. But her deduction rang true.

Allura. Yes, that was it. Keith must know by now that he had Allura. Lotor had always suspected that the Commander had a thing for her. The great commander thought that he would be able to save his precious princess. It was laughable. His instinct was to order his men to fire. On the other hand, finally having Keith, the bane of his existence and the one thing that had always stood between Lotor and victory, in his hands made his mouth water with bloodlust. He would break the Commander and crush him like the insignificant human that he was.

"Very well," Lotor finally said. "I accept your surrender. Prepare to be brought on board."

Keith and Deirdre had little to say to each other as they prepared for what was coming next. They sat in silence even as they the jolt of a tractor beam rocked the ship. Deirdre cut the engines and sat back as her ship was gently pulled toward the Drule vessel.

"Keith?" Her voice was soft. "With all the bad blood between you and this Lotor guy, aren't you afraid he's going to just kill you?"

He continued to stare out into space with a solemn expression. "Lotor and I have been playing this chess match for four years. We've learned a little about each other in that time. Each other's stregnths. And weaknesses."

"Allura."

He glanced at her suddenly, and she was surprised when he nodded. "Yeah." His admission was so soft that if she hadn't been sitting right next to him, she wouldn't have heard him. He cleared is throat as if cominng out of some distant memory. "Lotor's also got a large ego. He won't want to kill me right away. He'll want to gloat. To break his enemy before he kills me. I know that Lance will figure out a way to get us out. But we need to be on that ship when that happens."

As they neared Lotor's ship, Keith felt his heart pounding in his ears. He had no idea how they were going to find Allura or how they were going to rescue her. But he knew one thing. He was not leaving that ship without her. The Inferno's docking bay yawned opened and became an ominus reminder of what was to come.

"I can't believe this!" Lance bellowed. "How could they do this?"

Coran, who was trying to remain calm and rational, though it was difficult with Lance steadily losing his composure, was still shocked by the whole ordeal. He found it difficult to believe that the Commander would do something so irratic and irresponsible. "Yes, I would expect this kind of reckless behavior from you. But Keith? What's his motivation? How does he think he's going to help Allura from a cell?"

The royal advisors observations stopped Lance's tirade. Coran was right, of course. Lance would do something that incredibly stupid in the heat of the moment. Not Keith. Keith was the sensible, rational one. That's why he was in charge, and Lance wasn't. But, in the end, Lance knew exactly what Keith's motivation was. "I guess people do a lot of out of character things when they're in love."

It was the sound of Hunk dropping a wrench to the floor with a loud clang that made Lance realize that he had spoken out loud. He clamped his mouth shut and looked over at Coran to see if maybe by some chance that he'd not heard. He knew it was a futile hope as the advisor stared at him in surprise.

"In love?" Coran raised an eyebrow.

Lance's brain began working in overdrive as he tried to figure out some damage control after his admission. What had been obvious to him all this time, had apparently not been so to others. In his opinion, one would have to be blind not to see the growing attraction between Keith and Allura. Or be blissfully ignorant. He decided that Coran had opted for the latter. Either way, Keith and Allura had yet to make their feelings public (including to each other), and Lance had no intention of being the one to out them.

The excuse he had formulated for Coran was a moot point as the lights suddenly blinked to life, blinding the unsuspecting group.

"HA!" cried Hunk proudly. "We've got power."

"Thank the Maker." Coran said. "What systems can we get online?"

Pidge sat at the console, his fingers already flying over the keys. "Looks like we only have power to the control room. The rest of the castle is still blacked out. With what limited power we do have, I can get short range scanners, and the security system up and running. At least we'll know if someone tries to get into the castle."

"Can we get the Lions up?" Lance was anxious to wreak some havoc on Lotor's ship.

"That's a negative." said Hunk.

"Got it!" Pidge yelled suddenly. The viewscreen began to flicker and came to life. They stared unbelieving at the scene that was unfolding in front of them. Dozens of Drule ships had entered the atmosphere and were landing on Arus.

"It's begun." Coran said hoarsly. "I can't believe it. The invasion has begun."

Thanks for reading. Please review (remember, it makes me a better writer). Until next time...