Well, you know the drill, all of these Voltron characters belong to WEP and Toei Animation except Masserath; he comes from my own evil and psychopath mind. ;0)))

Chapter 29: Coming back to life

Princess Allura stared at Prince Lotor's body at the far right side of her. He was unconscious but she was still unsure that he was completely well from that weird experience that she had just witnessed. She tried to loosen the ties that bound her to her seat and while she was still struggling hard to untie herself she heard a noise coming from where Prince Lotor was lying down. She looked at where he was and saw some movement.

Prince Lotor felt his body all achy and hurt, even his breathing was forced. But slowly he started to open his eyes. Expecting to see darkness like he had been watching for some time now, he was gladly surprised to see the ceiling of his cabin not from the crystal but from his own eyes. He breathed painfully but deeply just to make sure that he was not inside of another dream but really in control of his body once more. He started to sit slowly blinking fast and panting while tears started to fill his eyes. His father and his military years had always encouraged him to withhold and control his emotions so it had been many years since he last cried. But if there was any moment where he felt it was more appropriate to let out his emotions, this was it.

There was no holding back: spiritual freedom was the ultimate reason to make any strong man fall down to his knees and sob like a child. Every sad and painful memory came flashing through his mind. The witnessing of his mother's demise, the tortures of his father while he was growing up, the hardships of his military training and all the lives he had taken in the heat of war, until this last terrible experience: everything flashed in his mind in a matter of seconds. All of his life he had believed that these experiences were supposed to make him strong but now he knew that all of these hardships made him hurt deeply and acknowledge that he was more human than he was lead to believe. Then he held his arms like embracing himself and silently cried; he felt sorry for all that he had done.

Good and bad, it didn't matter to him…all he wanted was his freedom to live, to choose and to have control of his life…he had been so close to loosing that freedom forever. He felt sorry for not being able to save his mother. He felt sorry for not being able to avoid been possessed by Masserath and not being able to avoid all the harm Masserath had done with his body and not being able to protect Allura. He was sorry because he could never take all the harm and hurt back and he would have to live with the consequence…that's why he cried. He had his eyes closed while his cheeks were filled with tears that were streaming down his face when he heard someone call his name.

He looked back to where he heard his name being called and there he saw Allura watching him with pain reflected in her eyes. She had been watching him all that time while he was crying and her heart was deeply touched. He thought that must've hurt her again and he was so sorry for that. He approached her slowly and started to untie her binds. His tears were still falling while he did so, and Allura kept watching him silently while he said almost in a whisper: "I'm sorry…"

When she felt herself free, she just embraced him and both started to cry. She didn't understand why she was crying with him; all she knew is that she felt her heart break with the sight of his suffering. She could clearly see that he was a broken man that needed comfort. She had witnessed his suffering; his spiritual struggle and now she firmly believed in what he had gone through.

Her embrace was all he needed at this moment. He felt like he didn't want to let her go ever again. They didn't know how much time they stayed embraced, it felt like an eternity but ironically not enough time had passed. But they were calm and just holding each other. Princess Allura let go of him enough to wipe his tears from his cheeks and slightly smiled at him.

"I'm glad that you're free now…"she told him.

"I should feel happy, but still I'm sorry for all the hurt I caused…" he said looking at the floor.

Princess Allura touched his face and made him look straight at her. Then, she told him:

"Prince Lotor, you had no control of your body…that demon did. But now you are free because you didn't stop fighting… you came to me in dreams and helped my people, yourself and me. I don't know if I would've been able to survive what you just went through; but to my eyes, this is nothing less than a miracle…you have nothing to be sorry of… "

"Thank you my princess" he said putting his hands on top of hers, which still touched his face. Then he suddenly made a frown and added, "but my troubles are not over yet, I still have to deal with my father and that witch…"

"Please Prince Lotor, before that let my friends go free…they're here in the ship," she said.

"Don't worry, I don't intend to hand you to my father any time now," he answered. "Come with me so you can go back to Arus and then I will contact you again after I set things right here…I have a lot of damage control to do…specially with Haggar" he mentioned this last part with refrained anger.

Then they both stood up and Prince Lotor tied Allura's hands again after explaining her that he did this to trick the guards so they could both go to the ship's prison cells and free the rest of the Voltron Force.

The prince finished composing himself and then they both started heading through the ships corridors until they reached the prison cells. Lotor gave orders to the guards to leave their post. The guards didn't understand these orders, but how could they question their prince. They immediately left when he told them to. When they left, Lotor freed Allura's hands and proceeded to open the prison cell door.

Inside the cells, the Voltron Force was awaiting to be executed or tortured, which ever came first. But little did they imagine that they were about to be set free by the same person who had put them into custody.

When the prison cell door opened they were about to offer resistance to whoever came to hurt them. They wouldn't go down quietly…but their anger turned to surprise when they saw Princess Allura entering the prison cell with a smile in her face.

"Guys, are you all ok?" Princess Allura said while she was entering the cell.

"Princess! How did you escape?" said Keith while he approached her.

"I didn't…he let me go…"she said this while she looked behind her and signaled with her hands for Lotor to come in. After he did…the negative reactions didn't wait to show up. But before they could start recriminating…Allura said:

"Now before you start saying awful things, I have to tell you that Prince Lotor is not the same person that earlier attacked us…this is a long story and we have no time to explain it now. He's here to help us and we have to go now".

"But princess, we can't trust him…"started to say Lance.

"Oh yes you can and yes you will, because I trust him and now we have to go".

The young pilots looked at each other with incredulity and then frowned at the prince who stood then expressionless and silent until he told the princess:

"I will lead outside and offer a distraction to the guards while you escape through the cargo area and you can head back through the same route you came from. Follow me…"

"Wait a minute…I don't trust this guy," Hunk told Keith holding his shoulder.

"There's no time for discussions, I said…you will follow us now" Allura said decidedly.

The pilots all looked at Keith, and even if he was not happy with this development he finally said to Lotor: "We will do as you say, but at the slight suspecting move we will fight back…"

"Fair enough human…as I said before, follow me," Lotor said.

Prince Lotor kept his side of the bargain; he leaded the Voltron Force to the cargo entrance and sent the guards in that area to another place. Then he lead the young pilots to the area where they could finally escape the same way they had entered the hangars in the first place. When they were out of danger and before they got separated, Princess Allura looked back at the prince while he lifted his hand to bare her farewell. She stopped and ran back to Prince Lotor to embrace him while the Voltron Force reacted with astonishment at this sudden act of affection. Keith was the most eager one to stare at what was going on between Princess Allura and Prince Lotor.

While Princess Allura embraced Prince Lotor all she could say was: "Thank you…"

"No, thank you my princess…"Prince Lotor said while he smiled at her.

Then Keith got closer to the princess and told her: "Come princess, it's time to go…"

While Keith took the princess by her arm and she moved away, she left unaware of Keith's frown to the prince. Lotor just looked at Keith understanding the challenging gaze the captain had given him. And that look was a challenge without words…Keith would not let Princess Allura be related with anyone from Doom, specially the prince. He had no idea of what had happened or why Prince Lotor had changed his mind about killing them but he still couldn't trust him at all.

Soon the Voltron Force was inside their lions heading back to Arus, there was a lot of explaining to do and Allura would have to come clean before her teammates and her guardians once and for all…


To be continued

trueth: Thank you for your enthusiastic review. I'm glad that I still count with you as a reader and reviewer. ;0)))

Christine/darkrosemaiden: Cossack sure was the hero but now he has to fight Haggar. There are still plot in Doom to resolve. I really want to write those parts soon. Thanks for sticking with this story. ;0)))

Lotor Sincline: Thank you, your highness. Your reviews mean a lot to me. Of course I'm faithful to you, sire. You're still my hero. ;0)))

bOtias: I'm so honored that you took you're time to review this story. I hope you keep here until the end of it. Thank you so much. By the way, I love your Prince of Doom page, it's awesome! ;0)))