All right. I love you.

Lotor focused on the words, only the words, trying to block the searing heartbreak he'd heard in her voice as she'd said them. All right. He banked his ship hard to face the gate. I love you. He accelerated past a safe speed for the proximity of his destination. All right. He hadn't said it back to her. I love you. He couldn't have without breaking apart. All right. The gate—his gate—loomed large in his forward viewer.

I love you.

Suddenly, something arrested his ship, decelerating it at too rapid a rate to be a normal tractor beam.

"Going somewhere, Prince Lotor?" Honerva said as her hooded image appeared superimposed over his view of the gate.

Lotor froze in dread. If his mother took possession of his ship, she would have control of the gate, the fathomless well of quintessence it opened into, and the entire reality on the other side. How had she found him? As far as his instruments knew, he was still cloaked.

"I must say, I'm disappointed. You never showed this level of initiative when you served the empire."

Lotor ignored her, tapping quickly through communication channels to try and reach someone from his team.

"Your friends will not be coming to your rescue this time, I'm afraid. I have blocked all transmissions into and out of your ship."

"How?" he couldn't help but ask.

"You didn't think you were the only one advancing in technological skill, did you? We have not been idle, my child."

He needed to stall for time until he could find a way out of this latest snare.

"What do you think will happen when you open the gate, mother? What do you think you will gain?"

Honerva's eyes narrowed. "I studied this rift for decaphebes before you were even born, Lotor. Do not presume to lecture me."

"You are not infallible. You failed to factor in the effects that prolonged exposure to quintessence would have on your neural pathways. You privileged data that corroborated your ambition, while ignoring data that could have preserved your sanity and maybe even prevented the destruction of Daibazaal."

"Alfor destroyed Daibazaal!"

"Your greed destroyed Daibazaal!"

Lotor trembled. He had never confronted either of his parents in this manner. Part of him felt like death doing so now. And though he spoke the truth, he knew it would have no impact on her. She was far too damaged. His purpose was not to convince her, but to provoke her enough to reveal a weakness. The tiniest crack could lead to freedom.

"You think it matters what you believe?" she hissed at him.

"I think it matters what I know," Lotor answered. "As much research as you conducted on the rift, you only uncovered half of the relevant information. Slav and his team completed your mathematical models. We know what will happen when I open the gate again, when the quintessence finishes what it started with you and Zarkon, before the trans-reality creatures interrupted your transformation."

"And what, pray tell, is that?"

"It will cure you of your immortality."

Honerva cackled. "That's what you think? That it will take away our longevity? Go ahead! Test your theory. Or better yet, I will test it for you, as soon as I relieve you of your ship."

Lotor pushed the controls of his ship past their limits, fighting to turn it just enough to fire his ion cannon at the source of the beam. But the hold was too powerful. He would have to reach out to Allura and hope she had the ability to relay a message, though he could see Voltron weakening in its struggle against Zarkon through his aft viewer. Any distraction, no matter how small, could tip the battle against them before he had a chance to open the gate.

A sudden explosion lit up his portside, rocking his ship with its proximal intensity. Stunned, Lotor blinked through the afterimage to see a Galra fighter flying through the flames evaporating into the void of space. It had hit Honerva's battleship a few levels above the beam, short-circuiting it for long enough to release its hold on Lotor's ship.

"No offense, man, but your mom is a piece of work," the pilot said as his fighter shot past Lotor's canopy. The voice sounded like the once-paladin, now Blade, of all people.

Lotor righted his ship and reengaged all thrusters. The thought of a Blade of Marmora actually helping him caused a strange sense of vertigo, but he'd take any help he could get at this point. He had to move quickly. It wouldn't take Honerva long to reset her tractor beam.

"Perhaps an armed escort to this gate thingey wouldn't be a bad idea?"

"I'd appreciate it."

After a tick, the Blade said, "You'd better be right about this, Lotor. We're betting the universe on it."

Lotor plugged in the codes that would open the gate's controls. The interlocking blades sealing the rift were made of steel-reinforced comet ore. The hope was that the thin layer of ore coating the blades would be enough to contain the quintessence when closed and enough to trigger the rift when opened. They had tested the gate only once, and only for a single dobosh before closing, but readings came back positive for quintessence as far out as eighty fathoms.

As he transmitted the codes, the locks disengaged and the indicator lights surrounding the opening turned orange. It would work again. It had to.

Fighters from Honerva's ship swarmed Lotor and the ex-paladin's fighter. Lotor took out as many as he could, but his focus had to be the encryption keys to retract the blades.

"I'm on it," the Blade said. He flipped his fighter into a corkscrew spiral and took out at least ten sentries in a single pass. Lotor couldn't help but be impressed. Maybe earthlings weren't quite as backward as he'd always thought.

With the last encryption key entered, the indicator lights flashed from orange to red and the blades began to retract. Beautiful golden light poured from the open gate, bathing the battle surrounding it in an astral glow.

"Wow," the Blade breathed as the melee ground to a halt.

Lotor's heart soared as the first few waves of quintessence flooded the cabin, washing through his body and extracting…something. He couldn't describe the sensation other than that he felt both less and whole in a peculiar way that nevertheless felt right.

For the first time in ten thousand years he felt peace—total peace.

"Pull up," he said quietly to the ex-paladin. "Your ship will be destroyed if you don't."

"Copy that," he agreed, and his fighter fell away from view.

"Take care of her," Lotor said.

"We will."

Then Lotor set the autopilot to carry him through the gate. He had one more duty to perform on the other side, but for now, he drifted on memories of Sala, of snow battles, of a laugh as pure as the quintessence surrounding him.

I love you, too, he said to the emptiness as the bow of his ship entered the rift.

o~o~o~o~o

Allura felt more than saw the gate open. Voltron was facing away from the rift, still grappling with Zarkon's mech suit. But once the light from the quintessence lit up the ships behind Zarkon, she realized she could feel the frequency of pure life force radiating through every molecule of her body.

This was their moment.

"We need to throw Zarkon into the quintessence," she said to the other paladins.

"What?" Hunk said, just as Lance asked, "Why?"

It was Pidge who answered, though. "The greater the concentration of quintessence, the more powerful the effects."

"All right," Shiro said. "Reverse thrusters in two, one. Now!"

Voltron, which had barely been holding Zarkon in place, suddenly reversed direction, falling backward. Zarkon's momentum launched him over Voltron's shoulder and straight into Honerva's ship, propelling both straight into the fullest magnitude of quintessence.

As Voltron twisted to face the gate, Allura took in the swells of quintessence, the sheer effulgence of which nearly overwhelmed her. Wherever Lotor was, Allura hoped he was feeling as awash in tranquility—mournful though it was—as she felt.

"He did it," Pidge said quietly, awe in her voice. "He actually did it."

"Look!" Hunk said. "Something's happening."

A sea of blue particles seemed to be diffusing from Zarkon's mech suit and Honerva's ship, coalescing into a dark blue blob that shifted and pulled, whirled into and out of shapes. Allura felt a prickle of dread through the radiant glow of quintessence. Something felt familiar about the substance, but she couldn't place exactly what it was.

"Oh, no," Coran said through the communicator, his voice stricken. "The rift creatures."

"What?" Lance said.

"The creatures from the rift that Alfor and the other original paladins fought on Daibazaal, before the war. The ones that—"

"That attacked Zarkon and Honerva when they were in the rift unprotected," Pidge finished.

"The very ones."

"Didn't Voltron destroy them after rescuing Zarkon and Honerva?"

"Must not have, at least, not all of them," Coran replied.

"So…they've been possessing Zarkon this whole time?" Lance said.

"Like, maybe that's why Zarkon and Honerva turned all evil," Hunk added.

"Regardless, the quintessence from the rift seems to be pulling the creatures from somewhere," Allura said. "Should we destroy them?"

But before anyone could answer, the creatures shot as one toward the rift.

"Lotor!" Allura cried out, afraid that he would run afoul of them on the other side of the gate.

But the creatures stopped just before the entrance to the rift and pulsed, releasing a vibration that made Allura's head pound and her stomach roil.

"Ugh, do you all feel that?" she asked.

"Feel what?" Hunk said.

"That frequency. It's hurting me."

"I don't feel anything," Lance said. "But I sure as hell see something. There's more of them pouring in through the rift!"

Allura opened her eyes at once to see an avalanche of the destructive creatures joining with the ones that had theoretically possessed Zarkon and Honerva. They were forming one massive swarm.

"Fan-freaking-tastic," Lance continued. "Now what do we do?"

"Maybe we can reason with—" Shiro started, but he was interrupted by the swarm's sudden reconvergence around Zarkon's suit and Honerva's ship.

"Oh, hell, no. Not again!" Pidge said.

"Form shoulder cannon!" Shiro shouted.

Voltron's sword disappeared, the shoulder cannon taking its place.

"Fire!" Shiro said.

The cannon's multiblast shot a myriad of holes in the swarm. But as soon as the blasts dissipated, the swarm immediately closed ranks around Zarkon and Honerva.

"Hit it again!" Shiro said.

"All right, but I don't think it'll do much good," Hunk said as the blaster ignited and fired a second time.

The creatures filled in the gaps as soon as they were created, and worse, more streamed to join them from the still-open gate.

"We have to do something!" Allura said, frantic. "Lotor's still on the other side. The creatures may be attacking him as well!"

"I agree," Shiro said. "Any ideas?"

"There must be a weapon we haven't unlocked yet," Allura said. "The ore that Voltron is made of came from the same reality as those creatures. There must be something it can do. If we attack, we might trigger it."

"I'm hearing a lot of 'ifs' and 'mights,'" Hunk said.

"The only other alternative is not to try," Allura replied. "I'm not willing to do that."

"All right, team," Shiro said as they sped toward the besieged Zarkon and Honerva. "Connect with your lions, open yourselves up to suggestion. We'll have to act quickly if we want to beat these things for good this time. For now, form sword!"

Voltron crashed into the swarm, slashing with the sword, but as Allura expected, it had no more effect than the blaster had.

"Anyone feeling anything?" Lance asked.

"Not yet," said Pidge as she engaged the shield, trying in vain to block the creatures from swamping Voltron entirely. "Whatever it is, it better happen soon! We're almost as overrun as Honerva and Zarkon."

"We need some way to contain them at least!" Shiro said.

"Honerva and Alfor used a particle barrier," Coran reminded them.

"Would that work?"

"I don't know," Coran said. "But even if it did, it would take time to build and crystals to generate."

"It only worked temporarily anyway," Allura said, sweating profusely as she tried to force her lion through the mud-like consistency of the swarm. "And that wasn't for nearly the number of creatures we're battling now."

"Looks like we're back to forming a new Voltron weapon, then," Lance said.

The creature-blob formed a giant branch of itself and swung it hard at Voltron's head.

With difficulty, Shiro pivoted Voltron to the side to dodge the blow. "We need a giant bowl, or a sphere, or—"

"A net!" Pidge crowed suddenly. "The komar!"

"Way ahead of you, paladins," said Acxa through their communicators.

Then Zarkon's mech suit burst out from inside the blanket of rift creatures, somersaulting through space to fling off the few hangers on.

"Acxa?" Allura said. "How did you get in Zarkon's suit? And where is Zarkon?"

"Oh, he's still here," she said, and Allura picked up a muffled grunt as of someone getting kicked in the ribs. "He's out cold, though. And he looks…different. Older and somewhat shriveled."

"Okay, but how did you get through the creatures?" Pidge asked.

"Same way you did," Acxa said.

"Using a sword?" Hunk said.

"No, literally the same way you did. I followed you as you were making giant holes in it. I figured that you'd need support and that the mech suit was the best support you could get."

"Can you fly it?" Shiro said.

"I can fly anything," she answered.

"All right, Pidge," Shiro continued. "Walk us through your idea."

"The only technology we have that can pull life-force out of something is the komar. Zarkon's suit now has the komar built in. We funnel the creatures to Acxa, and she takes them out!"

"Sounds like a plan," Shiro said. "Form shield!"

And for ten hopeful doboshes, the plan worked perfectly. Voltron sliced the swarm into chunks with its sword, batting the chunks to Acxa to obliterate them with Zarkon's komar-infused mech suit. But the creatures were nothing if not adaptable. One moment, they were cooperating with their destruction, and the next, they altered their strategy in a way no one anticipated.

Allura had thrown up her magical barrier around Voltron again, now that the komar was no longer aimed at it. And once the creatures realized they couldn't combat the mech suit's weaponry, they attacked Voltron full force. But rather than battering the robot with brute strength of the swarm, they blurred their edges and merged with Allura's magical shield.

Allura screamed, feeling the invasion in every cell of her body.

"Allura!" Shiro yelled, but it sounded as if it were coming from the bottom of a deep cavern, or perhaps that she was at the bottom of a deep cavern. Her vision had gone as dark as the rest of her senses.

Her heart pounded in panic for the first dobosh or so, and then she suddenly forgot why she was afraid. It was a silly startle, that's all. Something harmless had moved suddenly in her peripheral vision and made her jump. Nothing at all to be concerned about. She laughed at herself then, and thought she would have to confess to Lotor how soft she was becoming.

The thought of Lotor brought him to her as if she'd called him. He stood before her on a familiar grassy knoll, the sky a hazy, perfect greenish-blue. It was Altea, and she was home. She didn't know why, but her heart felt achy, as if she were only just returning after a long absence. But surely that was ridiculous. Why would she leave Altea? Everything she wanted was right there, especially Lotor.

He held his hand out for her, familiar sardonic smile on his face. She threw herself into his arms, joy nearly lifting her off her feet. She could stay here in this moment forever. She never needed to leave. She never needed to worry about anything ever again.

"Allura!"

She felt more than heard her name called, as if it were coming from a vast distance or as if someone had merely been thinking of her and she felt the echo of it. Either way, she didn't need to answer. The person was too far away, too inconsequential, too unrelated to her to matter. She had everything she needed now.

Lotor didn't speak to her, and he didn't need to. It was as if they shared the same mind, the same soul. He knew everything she felt without her having to communicate it to him, and vice versa. They were so attuned, that they were even feeling the exact same thing from moment to moment. Pure happiness. Content. Peace. No future, no past. Only now.

Then something appeared on the ground just beyond where she and Lotor were standing—a small, white flower. It looked familiar. So familiar, that at first it added to Allura's joy, though she had no intention of moving from Lotor's arms to examine it.

"Allura!"

Again, she ignored the almost-sound intruding on her peaceful moment. It could wait. Whatever it was, it could wait. Hadn't she earned this? Hadn't she sacrificed and worked and delayed her own happiness enough that she could now enjoy it without interruption?

The flower again caught her eye. It had moved. It had risen from the ground and was floating just out of reach. And it was glowing.

Allura…

This time, it was the flower calling her. The juniberry. That was its name. Why would a flower talk to her?

Allura...

Allura stared at the glowing juniberry, suddenly terrified that if she reached out to touch it, this moment, Lotor, would vanish.

"What should I do?" Allura asked Lotor, though it felt more like she was talking to herself.

Lotor didn't answer, merely waited.

"This isn't real," Allura said, her heart cracking painfully at the realization.

It could be real, the juniberry said. You must choose.

NO. No. No. This she would not lose. Not this. But hadn't she already lost it? Hadn't she already said "all right"? And then she felt it. The wrong flowing like an underground river beneath her feet. She could ignore it. She could cling to the unreal. The juniberry had said she could choose.

You must choose.

The 'must' was what made up her mind. She must because others were at stake.

Weeping, Allura crushed Lotor to her, even as she reached out to the flower and curled her fingers around its metallic body.

The petals pierced her hand through to the bone.

Allura felt the pain through her entire body, as if she was being completely remade from the inside out. In desperation, Allura drew on her magical power, shoring up her burning nerve endings, patching the holes in her psyche, using it to see through sightless eyes.

"Allura!"

The voice was closer now, and familiar. She didn't answer it, though. Instead, she did the only thing she could. She reached out with her power, seeking every molecule of pain in the vast ocean of venom around her and suffusing it with compassion. She did not endeavor to destroy but to merely undo, untie, loosen, dissipate.

"She can't take much more of this! There's too many of them! She's trying to take them all on at once!"

The more she picked at the edges of the malice, the more there seemed to be. It was refilling itself, reasserting its will. Where had it all come from? Where had it all started? Was there a beginning or had it always been?

"Her body is turning translucent."

"Allura, stop! Can you hear me? Stop!"

"If he doesn't get that gate closed, there will be nothing left of her."

She ignored the voices hammering at her consciousness. The animus, gelatinous and spiky at the same time, fought against her remaking. It didn't hurt anymore. Nothing hurt anymore. There was no Allura any longer, just a foggy memory of a container for The Quintessence, The Light. The Darkness recognized its antithesis and quailed. The Darkness, much diminished but not gone, felt a cutting, an amputation, and it screamed.

"It's closing! He did it, thank the stars!"

The Darkness whirled, leaping to attack the one that cut, but The Light drew it back, caressing its edges, embracing its atoms. The Darkness shrieked in agony as each particle The Light touched died and was reborn as quintessence.

"She's still fading! It's not working!"

Faster than The Light could move, The Darkness fled, taking with it a host into the farthest reaches of this reality. The Light prepared to follow.

"Honerva's ship—!"

"Let me try something."

"Acxa. I don't think—"

"This is my revenge."

"Acxa!"

The Light felt. It felt. Sadness. Joy. It was reminded. Of something. Something it had once known. It felt a lessening, as of something drawing it away. Power diminishing. Being contained. Braiding into a vessel of flesh and bone. A familiar vessel. A body. A collection of limited senses, of emotions, of compassion. The Light remembered. A name. A family. A home. The Light individuated.

"Allura!"

"Wh-what?"

"Holy crow, it worked! Acxa, it worked! Acxa?"

"What's going on?" Allura's voice sounded scratchy and breathy to her own ears. She struggled to blink. She couldn't see. Her body didn't seem to want to move. It felt foreign, like a badly fitted suit.

"Acxa…saved you," Pidge said. It sounded like she was crying.

"What's the matter?" Allura asked alarmed. "What happened?"

"The creatures attacked us. Somehow they got to you through your shield. And then, I think, your magic took over, joined with the quintessence somehow to save you."

"What?" Allura struggled up to a sitting position. "Where are we?"

"We're at Lotor's base on one of the fragments of Daibazaal," Shiro said, taking over for Pidge.

Allura looked around, her vision still compromised but growing clearer with each passing dobosh. Rather than in a medical bay or a chamber or even a control room, they were huddled on the floor of a giant hangar bay. The lions sat in a perimeter around the paladins, along with Zarkon's mech suit, dark and kneeling lifeless beside Blue.

"What about the rift creatures?" she asked, trying in vain to move her legs.

"After your power took over, they started exploding, one by one, then in masses," Shiro continued. "Clouds of gold dust everywhere. The quintessence acted like the komar, but in reverse. Instead of drawing out life-force, it injected itself into the swarm."

"It was like space fireworks," Lance added.

"But you wouldn't answer us. You were unconscious. Acxa led us to the base to try and help you. When you started fading—"

"I started fading?"

"It was like your body was converting to pure energy before our eyes," Hunk said. He'd clearly been crying, too.

"But then Acxa used the komar to help control your power, to weaken it, to bring you back," Shiro said.

"Acxa?" Allura said, all of it too much too fast.

"We think the komar absorbed her life force when she was using it to rein in your power. She's…gone."

Allura closed her eyes, reaching. "No, she isn't." Then, eyes still closed, she touched Acxa's hand, which she hadn't noticed until now was laying next to hers.

Acxa, you are not relieved of duty, she thought into the void. Then, with her power, she expanded Acxa's lungs, pumped Acxa's heart, and revived Acxa's consciousness from where it drifted toward The Light.

Acxa gasped and coughed beside Allura, rolling onto her side into the fetal position and retching.

"Holy—!"

"What the hell?!"

"Did you just bring her back from the dead?"

Allura opened her eyes, blinking as her magical sight superimposed over her physical sight made her dizzy for a tick.

"She wasn't dead," Allura said. "She was waiting."

Allura leaned heavily against Shiro, exhaustion washing over her. Just sitting seemed like a nearly impossible feat.

"What of Lotor? The gate?" Allura asked.

"He closed it just as it seemed the rift creatures were going to overpower you and the quintessence after all. He saved your life just as much as Acxa did."

Allura closed her eyes again, more tears slipping down her cheeks.

"I need to sleep," Allura whispered. "I can't…"

"Of course," Shiro said. "Coran will be here soon with the castle."

"Honerva escaped. Didn't she," Allura said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," Shiro confirmed as the Castle of Lions gracefully landed just beyond the hangar bay doors.

"And the rest of the Galra army?"

"Are awaiting your command, my queen," said another voice as the door to the base behind them opened.

"What?" Lance said.

Kolivan and the rest of the Blade's commanders, along with Keith, Zethrid, and Ezor came forward and kneeled before Allura as she, with Shiro's support, pushed herself clumsily to her feet.

"You have conquered the conquerors," Kolivan explained. "You overthrew the emperor and sent his witch into an exile so deep, none knows to where she fled. Even the emperor's heir, Prince Lotor, has been vanquished. This, by our law, makes you queen of the Galra."

Before the battle, such an idea would have overwhelmed Allura, or perhaps made her laugh outright. But now, only one thing mattered to her. The rest would be managed as necessary until she accomplished her task.

"Very well," she said finally.

o~o~o~o~o

The next morning, Allura rose early and made her way from Lotor's chamber, where she had spent what little remained of the night, to Pidge's room aboard the castle.

"Lights," she said to the castle walls as she entered Pidge's room. Obediently, the lights blinked on.

"Mmpph?" Pidge said blearily from under her covers. "Wha—? What time is it?"

Instead of answering, Allura rummaged through Pidge's messy drawers to find her a cleanish outfit.

Pidge picked up the earthen contraption she called an alarm clock from the floor next to her bed.

"Quiznaking hell, Allura. I've only been asleep for three vargas."

Allura tossed the clothes she'd picked onto Pidge's bed.

"We have work to do," she said.