Three drops: that was all she had been able to give him. She was supposed to slip the whole bottle into his drink, sending him into a slumber from which he would never wake, yet when she finally had his goblet in her trembling hand, her heart managed to momentarily usurp her mind and seize control of her body just long enough to force her to reseal the vial while it was still fairly full and shove it back into her pocket before serving the tainted wine to Lotor. It had been almost a varga now since their meal had ended with her pretending to doze off, but as she lay swaddled in the warm, cushiony embrace of Lotor's bed, the vial still seared spitefully hot against her leg as a relentless reminder despite the efforts of the countless beads of cold sweat that dotted her shuddering body like pox marks.

Although she appeared fast asleep aside from the slight crinkle of her forehead, Klara's whole body felt like it was on fire as her heart raced at an alarming pace and her stinging lungs struggled to gather enough oxygen, leaving her feeling breathless and even more dizzy than she already did. Tumultuous chaos dominated her mind's landscape as dozens of anxieties and doubts competed for her attention, converging into a collective, overwhelming storm as they struggled against one another. What if she hadn't given Lotor enough of the draught? Although she knew very little about the elixir her mother had given her, she knew enough about it from her people's defensive uses for it to understand that it was kind of sedative and only became lethal if given in a large dose. Would three drops be enough to at least render Lotor unconscious? What was she supposed to do if it wasn't? Why hadn't she just given him the full bottle in the first place?!

Biting her lip, Klara opened her eyes ever so slightly and slothfully sat up in the bed, faint, unintelligible groans resonating from her lips as she pretended to stretch while sneaking a glance around the room. She found Lotor lounging on the couch where they had taken their meal earlier, his face turned away from her as his tousled, snowy locks formed messy but beautiful patterns on the pillow beneath his head. Aside from the slow yet steady rise and fall of his chest, his body was entirely motionless, but skepticism still lingered in Klara's mind. After all, she knew firsthand how easily something like slumber was to fake. She needed to be certain, but in order to obtain that assurance, she would have to take a risk.

With a deep, bracing breath, Klara gradually slid out of Lotor's bed and crouched low against the ground, cringing every time the fragile silence around her was pierced by a rustle of the sheets or a creak of the bed frame. Her heartbeat seemed to permeate her entire body until it felt like every fiber of her being was pulsating with such force that she feared it would shake the floors and walls as she crept forward, her tentative footsteps sounding more like the thunderous stomps of a clumsy, massive beast to her own ears. Although the journey from point A to point B probably only took her a few dobashes at most, to her it stretched on for an eternity as she kept her eyes fixed unwaveringly on Lotor out of the worry that he might suddenly spring up at any moment catch her, leading her breath to catch in her throat any time the prince made even the slightest twitch, but soon enough, she found herself kneeling alongside him, her entire body rigid with dread as she gently cupped his cheek in her head and apprehensively turned his face towards her.

Her insides lurched sharply. He looked so….serene. The guardedness that usually painted his face was nowhere to be seen, leaving his features looking much softer and more alluring in the faint purple glow of the room. Guilt gnawed savagely at her core, but she tried to ignore it as she lightly dragged her fingers over Lotor's face and then his neck, watching attentively for even the smallest reaction. However, the prince did not move, and when she found his pulse, its drummed at a leisurely pace against her skin, a rhythm that couldn't be faked. Klara should've felt some relief, but as she sat there gazing into Lotor's slumbering face, her innards condensed themselves into a painfully compact, fleshy ball that hung inside her like a lead weight, anchoring her to the floor. Not once had she ever seen him look as vulnerable as he did now, and she knew there was a reason for that. Her heart screeched shrilly in protest, hoping to dissuade her from performing what it deemed to be a shameless misdeed, but this time, her mind remained firmly in control.

It took her a few tries, but eventually, Klara managed to rather gracelessly drape Lotor against her and lug him off of the couch, her wings flaring outwards partially to help support some of Lotor's weight and partially to steady her own balance before the uneven distribution of mass sent her careening to one side. Making sure to give a wide berth as she passed the low-rising table still littered with the dishes from their meal, she dragged Lotor towards the door only to pause uncertainly when her fingers hovered mere centimeters away from the control panel directly next to it. Once she passed through this door, there would be no changing her mind. If she were spotted, her intentions would be unmistakable and Lotor's favor would no longer provide her with any protection. Beyond this room, either the promise of her freedom or the guarantee of her demise awaited her, and she would not know which she would greet her without surrendering herself fully to the mercy of the unknown. She could not leave until she was certain in her decision.

Her eyes flitted to the dishes on the table and then to her pocket where the vial still smoldered. She had already made her choice. She was already too far along to turn back. She had chosen her path. Inhaling deeply to try and calm her frantic nerves, she returned her attention to the door and pressed the control panel without any further hesitation.

The hallway was eerily still, a silent void where even the shadows on the walls were rendered entirely motionless. It was as if Klara had stepped into some great vacuum, for within moments she felt as if all the air had be sucked from her lungs, leaving her dizzy and breathless. Not even her ragged breathing or the shuffling of her feet appeared capable of overpowering the silence, and while she supposed she should view the barrenness of her surroundings as a blessing, in reality it left her feeling extremely paranoid, her eyes restlessly searching for even the faintest signs of life out of excessive precaution. Even though she had been impeccably discreet and strategic, she could not shake the irrational fear that some way, somehow, there was someone on this massive ship who knew what she was up to and was merely waiting for the most opportune moment to thwart her.

Though she tried to move quickly along the route she had chosen and rehearsed in her head many times throughout the night, the collective weight of Lotor and her own emotional baggage combined her extreme and rather self-detrimental caution definitely slowly her down, dragging out a journey that should've taken a few dobashes into a unnecessarily tense and lengthy quarter of a varga. Nonetheless, she still seemed to round the last bend all too soon, and as her eyes located the hanger door several yards ahead of her on the left, her heartbeat and breathing both hitched, a polar mixture of fear and excitement bubbling in her veins. Instinctively, she readjusted her grip on Lotor to ensure she had the most secure hold on him, and after glancing back over her shoulder one final time in order to be absolutely certain that she had not been followed, she scurried the rest of the distance as fast as she could, adrenaline reinvigorating her weary muscles. There was no one else in sight but that was what she had expected; in truth, her crew would have to be quite stupid to wait for her in plain sight. Fortunately, as she drew closer, the clack of other footsteps soon mingled with her own and familiar faces began to emerge from the shadows.

The sight nearly broke her. While she had had a few tactful interactions with Reiya and Widget, she realized she had not been face to face with one of her crew members, much less all of them, in phoebs. They tried to carry themselves with the same dignity and pride that they had before their capture, but she could still see the toll their imprisonment had taken on them. For some, their trauma appeared physically in the form of scars and disfigurements that would never fully heal. For others, the darkness in their faces or the subconscious trembling of their hands alluded to damage that laid beneath the surface, and for Coban, the lack of his presence itself attested to the pain he had suffered. They all stared at her as they drew near, their eyes conveying messages that couldn't be transformed into words, and it finally dawned on her that they were waiting for her. She had led them into this mess, and they were now waiting to see how she would guide them out. Suddenly, her screaming remorse was reduced to little more than a muffled whisper, and in its place, something new, something resolute, something angry, took hold of her. The Galra hadn't taken pity on her people, so why should she pity them?

Drawing herself up to her full height, she looked each of them in the eye and offered them a small smirk that she hoped they found reassuring, "Glad to see you all got my code. You all enjoy your meals?"

At first, awkward silence greeted her, but just as she began to question her choice of words, a few of her comrades began to snicker while others even dared to smile. Apparently not even Galra torture was capable of completely stripping away their senses of humor.

"Good. Our ship is towards the end of the hangar; given that the Galra have taken the liberty of using it for their own devices, it should be fully fueled and up to date on repairs. I'm assuming the cameras have been taken care of?" she purred smoothly, hoping her voice exuded more confidence than she actually felt.

"Based off of the intelligence of the average Galra footsoldier, I estimate we have about another half a varga before they realize the footage has been looped." Widget answered, obviously rather proud of herself.

"Even so, we can't afford to waste even a single tick. I'll take the prince to the control room and get the bay doors open, and when I join you on the ship, you all need to be in your places so we can bolt out of here and put as much distance between us and this mothership as possible before anyone realizes we're gone."

An uncomfortable hush fell over the crew as they all shared a collective glance and then turned back to Klara.

"What are we going to do with him though?" Widget inquired dubiously, jerking her chin in Lotor's direction. "He'll surely come after us once he wakes up, but if we take him captive again, he might just cause us unnecessary grief, not to mention we would then have the entire Galra empire after us-"

"No matter what we do from here on out, the Galra will be after us. We are fugitives." Klara cut in coldly, her eyes fixed unwaveringly on Lotor's expressionless face. "I will take care of him; you all focus on readying the ship."

The chill in Klara's voice latched its icy claws into the spines of her men, rendering their tongues as useless, numb lumps of flesh in their mouths, so they instead nodded their heads in understanding, notably rather stiffly, and shuffled out of the way to Klara could approach the door panel. Swallowing another bracing breath, Klara cupped her hand around Lotor's and pressed his palm against the scanner, and after a moment full of silent, desperate pleas and staggered breaths, the click of the lock coming undone and the swish of the door sliding open tickled their ears like the sweetest of songs. In a powerful yet nearly noiseless wave, they surged into the hangar, their hearts all drumming the same mad beat in their chests as Klara broke from the group and hauled Lotor towards the control room while the others barreled towards the vessel that would be their salvation. Though hope burned fiercely now in their hearts, they quarantined the reach of its flames and heat to their chests alone so the smoke and warmth wouldn't cloud their minds; even this close, they knew better than to carelessly let down their guard.

Only one soldier was present in the control room and he was luckily already fast asleep when Klara snuck up behind him and struck him hard on the temple to ensure that he didn't wake up any time soon. Slipping her hand over Lotor's once again, she placed his palm firmly on the scanner again before carefully lowering him down onto the ground beside her, his back propped against the console, as soon as she was inside the system, and although she could read about as much Galra as a small child, her limited vocabulary proved to be adequate enough for deciphering what she needed to do. With a few rapid taps, the entire hangar was bathed in the faint, pinkish glow of the now active, semipermeable energy barrier followed by the bay doors slowly drawing apart to reveal the enchantingly beautiful expanse of star-studded space beyond. Though she had seen it many times before, this time the sight momentarily robbed Klara of her breath; only once in her life had the cosmos appeared more brilliant to her than they did now.

"You mean you didn't always want to lead the Galra?"

"Not at all. For much of my youth, I yearned to be an explorer and travel to the edges of the galaxy on a quest to discover as much of its secrets and beauty as possible. Even now, part of that young child still endures somewhere inside me, but I have resigned myself to the fact that such ambition can be no more than foolish fantasy in light of my life's demands."

"That's...sad."

"Perhaps it is."

Space was beautiful but it was also mercilessly cold, and though the protection of the energy barrier over the doorway was supposed to be absolute, some of its bitter chill somehow managed to pierce the small of Klara's back and set about invading every nerve and cell of her being as her earlier conversation with the prince echoed hauntingly in her mind, his voice so sweet and gentle yet also so harsh and unforgiving. Slowly, her eyes dropped to Lotor's limp form just as the iciness seized hold of her lungs, making them unbearably tight. There was still one more thing that she had to do.

Phantoms clawed at Klara as she knelt down beside Lotor, ghosts of his lips pressed delicately against her own and his strong arms wrapped tightly around her as he chivalrously carried her to his bed when she pretended to be deeply immersed in the waters of dream, and though her hand was already tightly wrapped around her mother's vial, ready to complete the work from which she had deviated before, it took her a great deal of strenuous effort to actually take it out.

"Maybe…Maybe I don't have to give him all of it." she mused to herself as she gazed down at the bottle in her hand, the toxin inside now appearing jarringly similar to fresh blood, "If he drinks at least half of the bottle, perhaps he will enter a coma of sorts from which he will not wake till I am long gone. He will surely realize pursuing me after so long would be a pointless waste, or perhaps by then, the empire will have finally crumbled and he will not have the means necessary to come after me."

No sooner had those thoughts crossed her mind did Klara realize how truly frivolous they were, misleading delusions fabricated by a reluctant heart. Lotor knew her too well, and he would never stop searching for her once he woke. The only way she and those she loved could have even a marginal chance for lasting freedom was for the prince to never again open his eyes; he had to die so they all could live. Trembling, she clutched the vial to her chest and gripped the cork between her fingers, her lip quivering as she glanced up at Lotor one final time.

"You have to do it! Quit hesitating! He doesn't deserve your pity! Do it now!"

She couldn't move, and that hesitation was all it took. Klara nearly dropped the bottle as the deafening scream of the ship's alarms reverberated through the air, rattling her brain inside of her skull. To her horror, Lotor's brow wrinkled followed by his eyes slowly fluttered open, and though he was obviously groggy and disoriented from just awakening, the look of sheer and somewhat naive confusion he gave her pained her more than a stab beneath her ribs.

"K-Klara?"

Somewhere deep inside herself, a small voice pleaded for her to apologize to him, but by that point, her throat had already swollen completely shut. With nothing to say, she did the only thing left that she could do: she ran as fast as her feet could carry her. As soon as she was out of the narrow confines of the control room, she spread her wings and took to the air, heading straight for the far end of the hangar where she knew her friends were waiting. The previously vacant area was now teeming with activity as droves of soldiers and robots poured in through every door and surged in the same direction she was headed. One glance at the sea of silver armor foretold what would happen to her weary, half starved, broken men if they engaged; they wouldn't stand a chance.

Suddenly, everything became very quiet for Klara, her ears automatically tuning out the roar of the chaos around her. She knew what she had to do, and for the first time that entire evening, her heart and mind finally seemed to be in alignment with one another. As she soared through the air, steadily gaining speed, everything around her seemed to melt away, her eyes fixed not on her ship or the stars beyond the gateway but rather something else entirely. As she sailed right past her ship, a faint prickling sensation managed to get through to her, and she knew that her crew was watching her, bewildered and afraid. Momentarily sweeping lower to the ground, she snatched a spear from the hands of one of the many soldiers before racing back out of reach, miraculously managing to dodge the gun blasts aimed at her without even thinking about it. Clenching her jaw, she raised up the spear as she barreled towards the object of her eye, one of the generators responsible for powering the energy shield, and without an inkling of reluctance, she rammed point of the shaft into it with as much force as she could manage. A second alarm now screamed out in time with the first, but its cry had barely sounded before a force more powerful than anything Klara had ever felt dragged her out of the ship.

Space was supposed to be cold, but Klara hardly felt anything at all as she floated weightlessly amongst the nothingness. A strange haze had enveloped her mind and body now, making it difficult for her to think, but she managed to withhold enough of her senses to smile as her dimming eyes watched her ship tear away at amazing speeds, carrying her crew far away. Though it was hard to move, she stiffly dragged her frozen fingers over the glass of the vial, which she had somehow managed to keep grasped in her hand this whole time without shattering it. Through the numbness, she could feel her heart beginning to ache again.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry."

Slowly, her vision began to blur and darken, but rather than the dazzling twinkle of the stars, the last thing she saw was the flash of a silver mask and the gleam of glowing, golden yellow eyes.