A light knock woke Lotor from an even lighter sleep.

"Come in," he said, rising to a seated position on the edge of his cot.

Slav's mournful head poked past the cracked-open door. He looked even more worried than usual, if that were possible.

"It's time," Slav said.

Lotor nodded. He could have delayed it, asked complicating questions, verified and triple-checked all the equations. He would give anything for it to not be time, to never be time. Which was ironic, given that, not even a year ago, this moment couldn't come fast enough. That had all changed when he'd made a gut decision to go back for an unmarked rebel ship fleeing a moon base near Sala.

"Thank you, Slav," he said.

"Do you need—?"

"You have a job to do, do you not?"

Slav left without another word.

It took everything in Lotor's power to not reach out to Allura. Just once more. To hear her say his name would give him the courage he needed for what would have to happen next. But it would also make it immeasurably harder. For both of them.

So instead, he initiated one final experiment on their telepathic bond.

He blocked her.

Within seven doboshes, he was dressed and had gathered his gear. He headed to the hangar, hoping Acxa wouldn't be there. It wouldn't be any easier to say goodbye to her than it would to Allura.

"Are you sure about this?" Acxa asked him as he entered the hangar. So much for that hope.

"We have been over this, Acxa," he answered with a sigh as he began prepping the Sincline ship for launch. "It has to be closed. There is not enough ore to close it from this side. The only trans-reality material of significant size we have left is the ship." He stroked the hull as lights flicked on in the cabin. "Someone has to pilot it. And that someone has to be me."

"It doesn't have to be you. It could be a programmed sentry."

Lotor sighed. "Sentries malfunction. All the time. Even if it didn't, the programming required to close the gate is intricate and could easily fail. We have one shot at this, Acxa. One. I have to be there to adapt the plan if something unexpected occurs."

"Then let me go," she said, her voice projecting louder than usual to cover her fear. "You are the heir to the Galra throne. Our people will need a leader when Zarkon is gone."

"Acxa," he said, gripping her shoulder. "You are the finest warrior I have ever trained. If I would trust anyone with the fate of the universe, it would be you. But you know why it has to be me."

"Because of the quintessence," she said, reluctantly. Then, mutinously she added, "But you are nothing like your father."

"I have almost been my father many times," he corrected her. "And if I live another ten thousand years, who's to say that I wouldn't end up with the same disease as my parents? No one should live beyond the natural limit of their species' normal lifespan." He smiled, a half-turn up at the corner of his lips. "Not even if they are somewhat tolerable and rakishly attractive."

His attempt at humorous deflection failed, however, if Acxa's grave expression was anything to go by.

"Have you told her?" she asked.

To avoid answering, Lotor stowed his gear behind the pilot's seat, hoping he wouldn't need it. A quick death would be preferable to the alternative.

"You haven't told her," Acxa said, her tone accusatory.

"There is nothing to say that has not already been said."

"If this weren't possibly the last time I was going to see you, I would tell you I was disappointed in you," she said.

"I don't mind if you're disappointed in me as long as you follow your orders."

"She deserves to know."

"She would only try to stop me."

"I would stop you if I had the power to. With more time, we might get lucky and—"

"Every moment we don't act is a moment that an interspecies couple is murdered, leaving their daughter an orphan to fend for herself."

She gaped at him as if he'd slapped her. "That is not fair, Lotor. You have never used that against me before."

"I'm not using it against you now. It is just the truth."

"There will always be some measure of injustice, anguish, and loss in the universe. Ridding it of Zarkon will not change that."

"Perhaps not, but it would greatly reduce the amount of each. Besides, the longer we sit here debating, the longer Honerva has to sniff out our secret. If they find the gate, we're finished. It's over."

Acxa had no answer for that. But she wasn't moving out of the way, either.

"You know all this already, Acxa. Why are you dredging it all up again now?"

Acxa sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Isn't it obvious, sir?"

"Clearly, it isn't obvious or I wouldn't have asked."

"I'm stalling," she said, her tone irritated at his obtuseness.

"What? Why?"

"Because I told her," Acxa said. "And she's on her way here now to talk some sense into your thick, rakishly attractive skull."

Lotor stared at his second in command for a full dobosh without moving. Acxa's betrayal raised the specter of Narti between them. She must be wondering how he would react this time. She looked nervous, but she didn't draw a weapon to defend herself. She stood with her chin high, daring him to punish her for trying to save his stupid life. She should know better by now. She did know better, which was why she hadn't drawn a weapon.

"Fantastic," he said, finally, glaring at her. "I suppose I should thank you for making at least one goodbye a little easier."

Her lips tightened, but she nodded. "Yes, sir."

He slammed on his helmet before he had the chance to say anything else he'd regret.

"Get to your stations, everyone," he said to his team, aside from Acxa, through the helmet's communicator as he climbed into the ship's cockpit. "Zarkon's fleet will arrive in 19.8 doboshes. And it appears that the paladins will be paying us a surprise visit as well. Let's extend them a warm welcome, shall we?"

To her credit, Ezor only hesitated a tick before answering. "Readying the ion cannons now, sir."

"Brilliant," he said as he piloted the ship out of the hangar and engaged the cloaking device.

o~o~o~o~o

Allura was about to commit her first murder. She had killed before, of course, in battle, defending herself and her people against tyranny and death. But she had never been so overtaken by rage that she had fantasized about killing any specific person, not even Zarkon. Until now.

"It isn't like you to rush headlong into battle without a plan," Shiro reminded her. Needlessly.

"I just pulled the man out of death's gaping jaws. I am not about to let him dive right back in," she said as she snapped her gauntlet into place and checked that her repaired bayard was ready for use.

"But it's not just Lotor we're up against," Hunk chimed in. "Acxa said it's Zarkon's entire army. If Lotor really did rebuild a trans-reality gate, and he has a ship that can navigate it, Zarkon doesn't really need Voltron anymore to have access to all the quintessence he could ever…"

Pidge looked up from the data she was pulling from the castle's nav system to give Hunk a meaningful glare.

"Oh, wait," he said. "I think I just argued us back around to going, didn't I?"

"All right, I'm in," Lance said with a devilish smile. "As long as there will be shooting."

"Thanks for the vote, Lance," Allura said and meant it.

Shiro sighed. "We're going to need backup. Lots of backup."

"I'll get on the horn and round up the troops," Coran said, twirling his mustache.

Pidge rolled her eyes. "Who gave him access to Earth's old war-movie channel?"

Hunk and Lance shot guilty expressions at each other, but Coran had already left to warm up the teludav.

The others left the lounge soon after to suit up, leaving Shiro and Allura alone.

"Allura, I get why you want to save him, I do."

Allura had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she would not entertain it.

"Believe it or not, I want to save him, too," Shiro continued. "He seems like a decent guy, despite everything, and that's saying a lot, given his history."

A decent guy. Without question, the earthling characteristic that drove her most to distraction was their complete lack of perspective. Allura continued to ignore him as she rounded up her gear to head to the bridge. But as she tried to pass Shiro to leave the room, he stopped her.

"All I'm saying, Allura, is that of course we will try to save him. But—"

"But what?" she snarled at him.

"You hold on so tight. To all of us. To everything. And I get why. But at some point, you're going to have to let go of something. Maybe it's not Lotor. Or maybe it is Lotor, but it's not today. Either way, I want you to be— No, I need you to be prepared if and when it happens. You are too important to lose. And your power…"

"What about it?" Allura said, defiant and dying inside at the same time.

"Frankly, your power scares me. What happens if you lose yourself? If you lose control of your emotions? What if you are so stricken by grief that you go off like a bomb? What then?"

Allura resisted the urge to snap a rebuttal, taking a long, measured breath instead.

"I understand what you are saying. And it is your duty as leader of this team to protect it—"

"And you," he interjected.

"Yes, I know," she gave him a small smile that did not reach her eyes. "But I do not know how to answer you. I don't know if I can…" She paused, waiting for her voice to steady, the prick of tears to recede. "I don't know if I can withstand losing him." Her gaze flicked up to Shiro's, assessing his response.

"There has to be a way," Shiro said softly. "Find it."

Less than a varga later, the lions pulled out of the wormhole and into normal space next to the ruins of Daibazaal. It made sense that Lotor had chosen the location so near to the original trans-reality gate. He could reuse materials from what was left of the original gate.

But it still hurt her to see the planet in pieces. Her father had done that. He'd thought it was the right decision at the time, but Allura wondered if she would have chosen a different path in his place.

"Looks like we're the first ones to the party, but that won't last long. Let's get in position," Shiro said.

Allura flew Blue closer to the others who were setting up a perimeter around the new gate, which Allura could see even from this distance. It was massive. It dwarfed the battle cruiser floating just outside of Daibazaal's orbit, looking easily as large as Zarkon's citadel ship, if not more so.

"What's he planning?" Lance said. "To suck Zarkon through the gate and trap him on the other side like space garbage? Because we kinda tried a version of that already, and it didn't work out so well."

"Acxa said that they intend to flood Zarkon's ship with pure quintessence."

"That's crazy!" Hunk said. "Won't that just make them even more immortal than they already are?"

Lance scoffed. "You can't get double-immortal." He paused. "Can you?"

"Actually," Pidge chimed in. "It sort of makes sense, from a string theory perspective. It seems counterintuitive, but when you factor in the vibrational state of the particles in relation to the gravitons—"

"It doesn't matter," Allura interrupted, as she brought Blue around to face the monstrosity that threatened to take Lotor away from her. Again. "We're destroying it, so his theory will never be tested."

Then she opened a frequency to hail Lotor's cruiser.

"Prince Lotor. I demand an audience at once."

Her view screen lit up with Zethrid's face.

"Prince Lotor isn't here right now, Princess Paladin. May I take a message?"

Allura wanted to scream at the woman, demand his location, basically throw a complete tantrum. But she took a breath. Acxa had told her it wouldn't be easy.

"I demand that you destroy that trans-reality gate immediately."

"Uh, seeing as we just finished building it, I'm going to say no."

"Destroy it now, or we will!" Allura said, her anger flaring.

"You'll have to go through us, I'm afraid," Zethrid said, almost apologetic.

"Do you really think you can stop Voltron with one paltry Galra cruiser?" Allura demanded.

"Do you really think you can destroy a ship full of your friends and allies?" Zethrid shot back quickly but without ire.

For her part, Allura's anger flickered out in an instant, her stomach sinking. Could she follow through on her threat when the people on that ship had risked their lives, losing comrades in the process, to save her team?

"The gate must be destroyed before Zarkon arrives," Allura said in a calmer tone. "If he gains control of it, we will never be able to defeat him."

"Lotor thinks it's the only way to defeat him."

Allura paused, finding Zethrid's use of the words 'Lotor thinks' promising. "What do you think?"

Zethrid looked momentarily taken aback. "I believe in Lotor," she said finally. "You should, too."

"Even if it means we lose him?" Allura said, her voice breaking.

Zethrid didn't answer for several ticks. Then she said, "We are moving forward with our plan. You can either help us or get out of our way."

"I want to talk to him. Please."

Zethrid sighed. "I'm sorry, Princess. I only have a vague idea of where he is, and he's not talking to anybody."

"There must be some way to contact him."

"Don't you have some kind of, I don't know, mind-connection you could use?"

Allura scowled, feeling the beginnings of irritation again. "He's not answering. And it feels…different. Like I can't reach him. Like he's blocking me."

"Well, then…" Zethrid glanced swiftly to the side. "We'll have to wait for him to contact us."

"But it may be too—"

"We will have to wait for him to contact us," Zethrid repeated forcefully and with a meaningful look, as if trying to convey some kind of message.

Puzzled, Allura turned over the sentence in her head, trying to see what Zethrid was getting at. 'Waiting' wasn't it. She had emphasized 'him' and 'us.' In a flash of insight, Allura caught on.

"Copy that," she said in her most disgusted voice to cover for Zethrid. She didn't want anyone else on the cruiser picking up what Zethrid had meant and punishing her for it.

Allura closed the channel, her brain spinning.

"What was that about?" Hunk asked.

But before Allura could answer, Zarkon's army arrived.

Allura stared, horrified, at the sheer number of ships suddenly clogging the space around Daibazaal. She thought she'd seen them all when she'd rescued Lotor from Haggar, but that had been a fraction of what they now faced. She couldn't see to the end of the battleships, that's how deep the full compliment appeared.

"Holy crow," Lance whispered.

"We are so screwed," Pidge said.

"We've faced worse," Shiro said, though he hardly sounded convincing.

Allura's pulse quickened. "We need to form Voltron. Now. We have to destroy that gate."

"You heard the lady," Shiro said, flying the black lion into position. "Form Voltron!"

A few ticks later, Voltron accelerated straight toward the gate, sword and shield at the ready, and met with instant resistance from all sides. The battery of laser blasts enveloped Voltron like a cocoon. The shield was worthless against the onslaught. Allura tried to erect a shield of magic around Voltron, but the blasts were so relentless that she couldn't concentrate enough to more than sputter through a few false starts.

Then suddenly, their right flank cleared enough for Allura to take a breath and erect a barrier.

"We heard you could use a hand," Matt said through Allura's communicator.

Allura opened her eyes to see a substantial battalion of rebel ships already engaged with Zarkon's fighters. It was not nearly as many as Zarkon's army, but it would give them enough breathing room.

"Woohoo! Thanks, Matt!" said Pidge.

"Anything for my little sister," Matt replied as he narrowly dodged an incoming fighter. "Whoops. Better start paying attention. Later gator."

"Lotor's cruiser is under attack!" Hunk yelled. "There's no way it's going to make it without help."

"But we need to tear down that gate," Allura reminded him. "If Zarkon takes control—"

"You were the one who said we owed Lotor's people our lives," Pidge reminded her. "We can't abandon them."

"They'll just shoot at us after we save them," Lance pointed out. "But…you're right. We can't leave 'em."

Allura struggled internally between her desire to save innocent people and her need to save Lotor. She knew she couldn't do both.

"All right. Cruiser first. Then the gate."

As one, the paladins raced toward Lotor's cruiser, lions roaring as Voltron sliced through one of the attacking Galra battleships with its scimitar. The ship exploded as fighters scurried around it like fleas.

Another ship shifted its attack from the floundering cruiser to Voltron. Fighters shot ion blasts at Voltron's head, trying to blind them.

"They do know that's not how that works, right?" Hunk said.

"Hunk, form shoulder cannon," Shiro said.

"On it," Hunk said, as he slammed home his bayard, creating the cannon.

Voltron fired the cannon's multishot beam and took out nearly all the engaging fighters at once.

"Couldn't have done it better myself," Lance said. Then, "Pidge, look out! It's going to ram—"

But before he could get the words out, a third battleship slammed into Voltron's left side. Allura felt it hit her energy barrier and cried out at the sudden pressure. She lost hold of the barrier and it disintegrated, taking part of the battleship with it. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.

"Pidge?" Allura said. "Pidge!"

"Number Five, are you all right?" came Coran's voice through the communicator.

"Coran, you're here! Thank the stars," Allura said. "Did you convince them?"

"He made a solid effort," Keith said through the communicator as well. "Kolivan was a tough sell, but in the end, he didn't want to miss out on a major battle."

"'He' is sitting right here, you know," Kolivan grumbled from a separate fighter from Keith's.

"Pidge?" Allura tried again. "Are you still with us?"

"Mmmph?" Pidge said. "Ugh, ouch. What hit me?"

"A battle cruiser," Shiro said. "And it looks like it's gearing up to try again."

"No, thank you. I'd like to not, if that's all right." Then the green arm of Voltron raised high and smashed the top of the cruiser, overpowering its propulsion system and smashing it into the fourth battleship, which had been maintaining fire on Lotor's cruiser.

"All right. Now the gate," Allura reminded them, hope returning. Maybe she could save everyone this time. Maybe Shiro had been wrong.

Plus, maybe if she attacked the gate, Lotor would try to stop her.

"Gate it is," Shiro said, and again, Voltron turned toward the gate.

Before they'd gotten halfway there, though, something unseen buzzed past Voltron's chest, firing a single shot at where the red lion connected with the black to form Voltron's arm.

"Argh!" Lance yelled. "My lion is beeping at me. Why is it beeping?"

"He's attacking the connection points," Pidge said, sounding impressed. "That evil, genius bastard."

"He's keeping us occupied so we don't destroy the gate," Allura said, erecting the magical barrier again to stop him from succeeding. "Ignore him."

"That seems overly harsh," Lotor said through Allura's communicator.

"Lotor!"

Zethrid's hint had been right—push him to initiate contact by annoying him out of hiding.

"Finally," Allura said. "You..." But now that she had him, she had far too many things to say, all of them crowding her brain at once.

"I'm not letting you destroy the gate, princess," he said. "Just a few more doboshes, and it will all be over."

"I don't want that!" Allura shrieked at him. "You don't even know if it will work."

"Slav thinks it will."

"Slav thinks he could drown in a puddle!"

"Allura. I wouldn't do this if I didn't know it would work."

"Hoping is not the same as knowing."

"It's a risk we have to take."

"Oh, please," Lance scoffed. "Get a room."

"Shut up, Lance," Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro said simultaneously.

"I'm not letting you do this," Allura said. "I'm just not."

Then with more magic, she pushed Voltron in the direction of the gate.

"Um, maybe we should hear him out," Pidge said.

"What—?"

But something slammed into Voltron again, this time from the back.

"That wasn't Lotor's fighter!" Pidge said. "And it wasn't a battle cruiser either."

Voltron swung around just in time to dodge another blow from Zarkon's flail.

"Sweet mother of milkshakes," Hunk said. "He's got that quiznaking mech suit on again!"

"That might not be so bad. It nearly killed him last time," Lance said.

"It nearly killed us last time, too," Pidge reminded him.

"Pidge! Get that shield up!"

Electricity tore through Voltron as the flail impacted Pidge's shield. Allura screamed as her nerve endings burned. Then Zarkon pulled the flail free, and the power released them.

"Allura," Shiro croaked. "Can you reconstruct the magical shield?"

"I don't know," she said, coughing into her sleeve. "There was something about that blast. I think Honvera's found a way to feed the komar through Zarkon's suit."

"Oh, quiznak," Lance muttered.

"Form scimitar," Shiro said. "When you haven't got a good defense..."

"Go on offense," Pidge finished.

"That's right."

Voltron and Zarkon whirled around each other, trading blows, blocking when possible and suffering when not. Each blow left Voltron weaker, but Zarkon didn't seem to be so much as winded, let alone diminishing in strength. The bout continued for several doboshes in silence as the paladins worked together to stay in the fight.

"We're barely even touching him," Pidge said as she dropped the shield to catch and hold Zarkon's swinging arm away. "Our sword is practically bouncing off."

"We're stronger together," Shiro reminded them. "We're stronger than him."

"Someone needs to tell him that," Lance said wearily as he tried disarming Zarkon while Pidge held Zarkon's arm.

They seemed deadlocked, equal in strength, and without Allura's power to tip the scale, she wasn't sure how they could win. The rebels were overwhelmed, their ships exploding as often as Zarkon's fighters as they tired. The Blade was busy on the far flank and suffering almost as great of losses. Lotor's cruiser was doing what it could, but it had been crippled in the last attack. Even the castle was surrounded, its particle barrier sustaining hit after hit. They were running out of options. And there was no more backup left to intervene.

"It's time, Allura," Lotor said softly in her ear.

"Lotor, no!" Allura begged. "Please, don't do this. There has to be better way."

"This is the better way. I promise."

Tears streamed down Allura's face as she recalled Shiro's words.

"I want you to know," Lotor continued. "That I understand now—the story about the juniberry."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"On Sala. You told me it was your favorite flower, because it wouldn't bloom if even one plant struggled. Remember?"

"I don't. I don't remember that, and I have no idea how it has any bearing on you throwing away your life—our life."

Lotor ignored the comment and continued. "You said the juniberry understood that there was no purpose without…something. You lost consciousness before you told me what it was. But I finally figured it out. You were saying, 'there is no purpose without the people.' And you were right. That's what this is, Allura. It's me fighting for the people."

Battle raged within Allura as desperately as it did between Zarkon and Voltron. She knew what he meant. She knew they couldn't win without something turning the tide. And apart from that, she trusted Lotor. She believed in him.

"I don't want to do this without your assent, Allura," he said. "Please. That's all I'm asking—just for you to say that it's all right."

Allura wept, her spirit shattering into a million shards of icy glass.

"All right," she said. And then, "I love you."