Two years later

Allura checked the algorithm Pidge sent her three times before entering it into the newly modified console. Slav had been working on the data streams for eight moon cycles, so she was fairly certain the algorithms would work. But she avoided blinking as she typed to prevent herself from making a mistake entering the numbers.

Her fingers faltered as a strong memory overtook her of the moon base at Sala. She'd been doing a similar task at a different console then, the moment everything changed. For the space of a breath, an image of that moment superimposed itself over the dash in front of her, and she paused to reorient herself.

Memories of the moon base quickly led to the memories that came after, though, and the grief that had permanently lodged itself beneath her sternum made its presence known. She acknowledged it, then ignored it, conjuring the sound of Lotor's voice in her mind. It's irrelevant, focus on the present.

It was difficult to concentrate. The ambassadors from every Galra-occupied realm were making the pilgrimage to Daibazaal to ratify the governing agreements it had taken them the better part of two years to negotiate. Despite being at the center of the effort, Allura felt impatient at the disruption. She would be far happier once everyone had gone home again and she could return to the task that consumed every other waking moment, and many of the sleeping ones as well. The longer it took her to find Lotor, the more challenging it became to pay attention to anything else.

Regardless, the heads of planet and system would be displeased if she neglected her host duties. And worse, Kolivan would give her another lecture. If he weren't so quiznaking brilliant at interplanetary relations, she would have dismissed him from his role as first chancellor to the queen within a few quintants of appointing him. He was mostly insufferable, but he was also mostly right. And unfortunately for Allura, the insufferable and the right usually went hand in hand.

Allura gazed through the bridge's crystal windows toward the gate—immovable, unyielding-the opposite of what its name implied. It was the first thing she saw every morning and the last thing she looked at every night. She had stationed the castle here, because she simply could not stand to be anywhere else for long.

The paladins were most often occupied mediating border disputes, redistributing ill-gotten goods from Galra storehouses, offering restitution where possible and charters for future dealings where not. Shiro, Acxa, and Zethrid served as viceroys for the three major sectors of the Galra empire that had the largest populations, greatest number of occupied planets, or the highest level of unrest since the empire had changed hands. Ezor had agreed to a position as acting commander of the Galra army, just under Allura herself, until, she said, Lotor had returned and could take the position. The person she saw most, besides Kolivan, was Slav, but even he had been absent of late, visiting the Olkari for help with Allura's desperate plan to rescue Lotor.

Allura tore her gaze from the gate, returning her attention to the console where it belonged. She tapped in a few more number sequences, checking her work as she went. A few more modifications, and they would be ready to test the transponder, Pidge's genius contribution. It was not without its risks, but it would be worth it if it worked. When it worked, she corrected herself.

Her friends might be far flung to the edges of the universe, but they were all returning today along with the ambassadors for the ratification, and for testing the transponder after the ceremony. She had asked them all to come, even though she really only needed Pidge and Slav, because she wanted their support. They were still her family, though their relationships of late had been more correspondent than close.

"My queen," Kolivan said as he entered, fist over heart.

"Kolivan," Allura said, not looking up from the console. "I have told you 348 times not to call me that in chambers. You are my head chancellor. You may call me by my name, at the very least when no one else is around."

"Yes, my queen," he answered with an expression that was as close to a smirk as Kolivan ever came. "You asked me to remind you when the ambassadors' arrival was imminent. They are due to enter the system in one varga."

"Thank you, Kolivan," she said, holding in a sigh. She saved her work and shut off the displays. "I will prepare and meet you in the council chamber."

"I know I do not need to tell you that this meeting—"

"No, you do not," she answered. "And I know I do not need to tell you that I will be present and attentive."

Kolivan's expression softened. "I realize this is difficult for you. You didn't ask for any of this, but you have navigated the murky waters of restoring balance and freedom to the universe with savvy and grace, and, by and large, without complaint. You are a good leader. Probably the best leader the Galra has ever had."

Allura stared at him. "Thank you?" she said with a question at the end. Where was this magnanimity coming from? Then she narrowed her eyes. "Are you flattering me because something terrible is about to happen?"

He laughed. "Savvy, as I said," he remarked. "But no. You may rest assured, my positive outlook is genuine. I believe the ratification will be successful, and then we can all take a much-needed break."

Allura stared at him even more. "Of everyone I have ever met, you are the last person I could imagine taking a holiday."

Kolivan looked momentarily abashed. "Ezor and I were thinking of heading to the Tula quadrant for a few quintants, but if I am needed…"

"Don't be silly," Allura said, smiling, genuinely happy for Kolivan while simultaneously envious of his easy ability to spend time with his partner. "You should go. After the ratification, it will be almost eerily quiet around here. No reason to stay."

"We will, of course, be here for the transponder test," he assured her.

"I appreciate that."

"Sir?" A voice Allura didn't recognize interrupted them through Kolivan's communicator. "The Gelgrethi ambassador would like a word."

"She's here already?" Kolivan responded.

"Yes, sir. She and her entourage are docking at the council ship now."

"On my way," he said. Then Kolivan turned to Allura. "I will see you in the council chamber, my queen."

Allura opened her mouth to correct his manner of address again but thought better of it and said instead, "Understood."

After Kolivan's departure, Allura made her way to her room and changed into her regalia, frowning at the overly formal robes Coran insisted she wear for the occasion. They were heavy and slightly gaudy, in her opinion. But it was a small price to pay to see a smile on his face.

Coran had taken control of the logistical side of running the empire. As chamberlain and chief steward, he planned the empress's official events, kept the storehouses stocked (with legally traded-for goods), and generally took care of the castle of lions, the newly built capitol structures and stations that crisscrossed the space surrounding Daibazaal, as well as managing other, miscellaneous domestic administration. He was so busy that Allura barely saw more of him than she saw of the viceroys, who traveled so much within their own sectors that she'd nearly forgotten what Zethrid looked like.

As if her missing him had lit a signal beacon in his brain, Coran popped his head through Allura's open doorway at just that tick.

"Ah, princess—I mean, empress. Sorry."

Allura waved in dismissal of the apology. "I'd rather hear 'princess' from you, actually. It reminds me of the past, and I was feeling nostalgic," she said smiling.

"You mean, the past where Zarkon was trying to kill us every other quintant and we were running for our lives?"

Allura laughed. "I suppose you have a point. Still, I miss seeing everyone."

"They're all coming tonight."

"I know," she said with a smile. "I can hardly wait."

Coran's expression turned concerned. "If I may, your highness…you…don't look yourself."

Allura spread her arms and looked down. "Too fancy? I was thinking I might change it for my paladin suit after all," she joked.

"The dress is lovely," Coran said. "I meant you. You seem distant, your spirit diminished."

Allura supposed this was true. Her spirit certainly felt diminished. It was unfortunate that the condition was visible to others, though.

"I am seeking the cure to my ailment even as we speak, and I have hope that it will prove successful."

Coran sighed doubtfully. "If you say so, princess."

Allura was suddenly feeling slightly irked rather than nostalgic. She smoothed her robe to hide her shift in mood.

"Did you need something, Coran?" she asked.

"Just you," he said. "I'm to escort you to the council chamber."

"Ah," she said. "I am just about ready."

She unclipped Lotor's juniberry from her bun and let her hair cascade down her back unbound. She retrieved the Galra ceremonial crown Kolivan had dug up for her from the top of her dresser—a twisted, knotted sickle of metal that somehow managed to be beautiful despite its gnarled, oil-slicked appearance—and placed it over her brow. Then she cupped the juniberry in her palms, envisioning it in its staff form. Obediently, the juniberry transformed into her ceremonial staff, stem lengthening to the floor, petals and pistil forming the tip and radiating a soft, glowing light.

"After you," Coran said, gesturing her through the door.

The work for the ratification had already been done—tedious negotiations, coalition building, gaining consensus on every minor nuance of language, reining in her temper, which grew shorter with every passing varga—it had been exhausting. All for a governing agreement that was only enforceable if a star system chose to enact it.

Many star systems, once released from Galra rule, had returned to their original systems of government, reinstating the heirs of rulers or holding elections or fighting duels for dominance. Allura actively encouraged them to do so, arguing that it was their right as free planets to choose for themselves.

But many other star systems had nothing to go back to, or had been under Galra rule so long that they no longer remembered—or wished to remember—what it had been like before they were conquered. These systems needed a template of sorts to restart their own government. Hence the ratification.

It had taken Kolivan a year to convince the already self-ruling star systems to help create such a template. They were so fearful of a new Galra empire that they balked at the idea of lending their support to such an initiative, even if it were backed by the heroic and beloved empress-paladin who had freed the universe from its malevolent dictator. But Kolivan's determination paid off, and each system finally made it to the negotiation table to contribute ideas, and in some cases resources, to the more floundering systems.

Unfortunately for Allura, though the negotiation itself had proved at times frustrating, the tedium of the ratification ceremony was infinitely worse. She forced herself to smile at every passing dignitary and toast to the honor of each system in turn, alphabetically according to the Galra spelling (which in itself had taken a moon cycle's worth of negotiation, but which logistically made the most sense, since everyone spoke Galra).

The one concession to happiness the evening allowed her was to see her friends at a distance or in passing. It was the closest she'd felt to home since Lotor disappeared through the gate. It was nice to see the paladins in particular, wearing the lion-appropriate formal wear that Coran had picked out for them—Pidge with green accents, Hunk with yellow, Lance with red, and Keith with black.

At one point in the evening, Keith and Lance walked by Allura's table, heatedly whisper-arguing with each other about something Allura couldn't make out. Whatever it was, though, Allura was sure it was just another thinly veiled expression of their obvious attraction for each other, which had been growing since Shiro had stepped down as black paladin to take the viceroy position and the black lion had chosen Keith in his place. She sighed wistfully, watching them.

Allura wished Keith and Lance would allow themselves to admit their feelings and stop wasting the precious time they had together. Maybe she should advise them to learn from her experience. Life was unpredictable. One could lose everything in a single heartbeat.

As the evening wound down, Allura found herself tired but also excited and nervous. Every varga that passed was one closer to testing the transponder. If it worked as it should, she might be able to locate Lotor tonight. It would take another device entirely to breach the barrier between realities to get to him, but in many ways, that would be the easier part.

They couldn't open Lotor's gate, because he had locked it on the other side of the rift. But a few modifications to the blue lion's teludav using the trans-reality properties inherent in the lion's construction made trans-reality travel without a rift possible. She had tested that functionality a few times, and had returned to her own reality successfully, thanks to Pidge's alternate-reality mapping system. In fact, the transponder Allura would be testing tonight was simply a sub-routine of the same mapping system.

Unfortunately, that was where the science ended. The rest depended on Allura's mystical abilities and her inexplicable connection with Lotor. And truthfully, she'd been avoiding using her power since she'd regenerated Acxa. To say she had been unnerved by almost becoming pure quintessence herself during that last battle was to understate her feelings on the subject by a factor of ten at least. And since the powers she'd needed since the battle had been of the more mundane variety, she simply hadn't made use of the mystical one. She was concerned that her inattention to it could hinder her ability to use the transponder effectively, but there was nothing she could do about that now.

In any case, she set the fear aside as she made her final farewells for the evening and headed back to her room to change into her paladin uniform. She breathed a sigh of relief as the suit slid over her skin, her gauntlet settled into place. This felt familiar, comfortable, dear even. With restored resolve, she marched to the hangar where Blue and the transponder and all her friends were waiting.

She hugged each person in turn as she saw them, tears hovering just behind her lashes through most of it. She loved these people. Even the strange earthlings.

"Thank you all for being here," she said. "I don't anticipate success on this first test of the transponder, but it comforts me to have you all here, since there is some amount of risk involved."

"Do you have an exit strategy, if the machine doesn't work?" Kolivan asked.

"Yes," Allura said. "Pidge and I have agreed upon a mathematical sequence, which we have encoded in the transponder and in my memory. It should act as a tether that she can use to pull me out if I get lost. Also, my body is a physical tether. If I stop communicating with the transponder, you can call me back to my body by invoking sensation."

"What kind of sensation?" Kolivan asked suspiciously.

"Pain," Pidge said. "Electrical shock, specifically."

"I am suddenly liking this idea far less." Kolivan folded his arms. "Cannot someone else attempt this experiment?"

"I am the only one with a connection to Lotor on the other side. It has to be me. But it is statistically possible that—"

"Ha," Slav said, folding his arms as well. "Barely."

Ignoring him, Allura continued. "It is statistically possible that this solution will work."

"Allura," Shiro interrupted. "How do you know he is even still alive?"

"The same could be asked in reverse. How do we know he is not alive?" She smiled slightly at him. "I have to try, Shiro."

Shiro took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "All right. What do you need us to do?"

"Just being here to support me is enough. I couldn't do this without you."

Then Allura joined Slav at the console to calibrate the last few measurements and frequencies.

"I don't get it," said Lance. "Aren't there an infinite number of alternate realities? How do we know which one Lotor is trapped in?"

Pidge answered, tapping the console to project an image for the others to see. "Our theory is that alternate realities overlap each other, sort of like the scales of an onion," she said pointing to the image. "If that's true, then it makes sense for rifts between realities to lead to the nearest reality layer or the next, but not much beyond that. If that's true, then Allura will only need to search the few layers next to our own, which is a finite number."

"Okay, but, like, how does the search part work?" Hunk asked.

Pidge cast a worried glance at Allura that Allura pretended not to see. "We're less sure about that," Pidge admitted. "Allura will have to figure that out once she's in."

"It is similar to how you located Lotor when Honerva held him prisoner," Acxa observed.

"That is my hope," Allura said.

As silence fell, Slav said, "It's time," and gestured to the reclining captain's chair connected to the console.

Obediently, Allura sat in the chair, and with a deep breath, closed her eyes.

A curious sensation of cold suffused Allura's veins as she tapped into her power while cocooned by the electromagnetic energy surrounding the chair. The cold was the last physical thing she felt, though, as her consciousness wandered away from the room, from her friends, from her duties. She felt free. Almost as free as when she'd left her body to battle the dark rift creatures. The feeling terrified her. She concentrated on the mathematical tether she and Pidge had created. It held fast and comforted her. She would have a way back if she needed it.

Lotor?

No answer. She increased her range as much as she dared, recalling the sensation of telepathically conversing with him from Earth. That had been the upper limit of their range. If he was anywhere within that range, he would be able to hear her—assuming he wasn't blocking her, assuming he wanted to be found, assuming he wasn't… She tore the thought from her mind before she could finish it. She would not consider the possibility. She would not.

She called again. Still no response. Then checking the tether first, she passed into the next alternate reality.

Lotor?

No response.

She could feel herself tiring, as if maintaining two separate identities, one in this reality and one in her reality, were exponentially more taxing than existing in one reality. Her mind wanted to drift away from conscious thought, but she couldn't allow it. If she gave up her connection to consciousness she may never get it back. She had to hurry.

She pressed into another alternate reality, this barrier harder to push through. It seemed the farther she strayed from her own reality, the less familiar it was to her consciousness, and therefore, the harder to integrate with. She was barely holding on to the tether now, and she was only three realities deep. She was desperate to hear him. What if he was in the fourth reality and she couldn't pass through to him? Her heart quailed, but her resolve doubled. She had to retain hold of her consciousness.

Lotor? Lotor!

Still nothing.

She forced her consciousness to press into the next boundary, and it hurt. Mentally, she screamed, and she imagined her throat feeling raw from it, though she didn't have a throat to actually scream with. The tether disintegrated from her consciousness. It was the first thing to go, but other things were disappearing as well. Like her purpose. Why was she here? Why was she? Why was? Why?

Lotor?

She drifted, awareness dissipating, thought dissolving. Light. Darkness. Light. Light. Darkness. Light. Darkness. Light. Light. Darkness. Light. Darkness. Light. Light. Darkness. Light. Darkness. Light. Light. Darkness. Light. Darkness. Light. Light. Darkness.

Pattern.

Thought.

Pattern.

Thought.

Awareness.

Pulling. Stimulus. Pain. Pulling. Pulling.

Allura?

Electricity coursed through Allura, making her scream. Her eyes popped open and the electricity stopped.

"Oh my god, Allura! Are you all right?" The voice. Pidge?

Allura coughed and sat up fast. "I heard him!" Or at least, that's what she tried to say. It took several ticks for her tongue to catch up with her thoughts. "I heard him. Where is he?"

Pidge blinked at her worriedly through her glasses. "You lost the mathematical tether. Where were you?"

"I was in the fourth reality when the tether broke. I don't know where I was when I heard him respond."

"You were in the fourth reality?" Pidge shrieked. "You weren't supposed to go past the second! This was only a test!"

"I didn't hear him in the second reality, so I tried the next one, and the next. It…hurt…" Allura admitted.

"Are you insane?" Kolivan yelled at her, apparently having gotten over his own shock. "Your duty is to your people! Your empire! You almost killed yourself looking for the impossible and endangered all of our progress toward bringing peace to the universe in the process. How dare you!"

"But I didn't kill myself," Allura protested. "And I found him!"

"We saw your consciousness dissolving," Slav broke in. "As I warned you it would if you went too far. The odds of you finding the prince decrease by 98,953 percent with each layer you attempt."

Allura frowned at him and pointed to the poster she'd affixed to the wall just above the console last year when Hunk had brought it back from Earth as a present for her. It featured a scruffy-looking space smuggler with the caption, "Never tell me the odds."

Slav hmphed, and then continued. "If Pidge had not sent that brilliant binary code of light and darkness, we might not have salvaged enough of you to pull back."

"Thank you, Pidge," Allura said humbly.

"I'm sorry, princess," Shiro said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I know you had hoped for a different outcome. Maybe this is the universe's way of telling you it's time to let go and move on."

"What do you mean?" she asked incredulously. "I found him! I distinctly heard him in my mind as you were pulling me back. I can use the coordinates in the transponder now to go get him in Blue."

Shiro shared a concerned look with Pidge.

"What?" Allura asked.

"I don't know what you heard," Pidge said. "But the transponder didn't record anything. There aren't any coordinates."

o~o~o~o~o

Allura rolled out of bed two vargas before everyone else awoke. She knew she had a small, almost nonexistent, window in which to try again. Kolivan would not let her near the transponder if he could help it. In fact, unless she was much mistaken, he had probably already ordered sentries to dismantle the console and the chair first thing in the morning. And even if he hadn't, the paladins were not likely to sit idly by while she threw herself into danger again. No, if she wanted to find Lotor, now was her last opportunity.

She snuck through the corridors of her own castle like a thief, dodging from shadow to shadow and avoiding cameras where she could. She reached the hangar at the Daibazaal base in record time, despite her skulking, but when she entered, she drew her bayard. Someone had beaten her there.

"I thought I might see you," Acxa said.

"I am getting in that chair," Allura said icily. "And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Acxa smiled. "I'm not here to stop you, empress. I'm here to help you. I figured you would need someone on this end, monitoring."

Without another word, Allura threw her arms around Acxa and hugged her close.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Acxa patted her back awkwardly. "It's all right," she said. "I would do the same."

"I know," Allura said, wiping her eyes as she pulled out of the hug. "We don't have much time."

Within a few doboshes, Allura had explained the basics of operating the transponder and what to look for with the tether and the coordinates. Acxa took it all in quickly, and Allura resumed her position in the chair.

For the second time in as many quintants, Allura tapped into her power. When she felt the now familiar cold suffusing her veins, she reached out and pushed quickly through to the next reality. This time, she traveled more extensively within the second reality, pushing her call more thoroughly through as much of the dimension as she could reach within a handful of doboshes.

She heard no replies, though, so she pushed to the third reality, feeling the pressure to let go of her consciousness again. This time, her desperation was more acute. She couldn't mess up this chance to find him. She wouldn't have another.

Allura?

Her joy at hearing the word in her mind—so clear, so distinct—was so profound that she nearly lost hold of her consciousness again.

I'm coming for you! she thought back quickly. Where are you?

There was no answer this time, but it didn't matter. She knew where he was. Third reality. It was all she needed.

She raced back to her body, arriving almost instantaneously as the thought occurred. She leapt out of the chair, startling Acxa.

"What happened? You didn't lose the tether," she said.

"I found him!"

"You did?" Acxa said, confused. "But there were no coordinates."

"I don't need them," Allura said, heading toward Blue.

"Wait!" Acxa said, hurrying to catch up. "What do you mean, you don't need them? How will you track him?"

"I know where he would go in any reality. If he is still alive, then he was able to maneuver away from the gate. If he was able to leave the gate behind, then there is only one place he would go."

"Where?" Acxa said. "Daibazaal?"

"No," Allura said, grinning like a lunatic as she jumped into Blue's mouth. "I'll be back."

"What do I tell the others?"

"Nothing. I will tell them myself when I return." Then she put on her helmet and prepped Blue for flight.

As the lion burst out of the hangar, Allura gave her dashboard a loving pat, saying, "Let's go get our wandering prince, my friend."

The lion responded with a deafening roar. Then a trans-reality wormhole opened to the third reality and Allura piloted Blue into the temporary rift.

A few doboshes later, Allura and Blue exited the wormhole into an ocean of light. Allura tapped the dashboard, scrolling through readings.

"This must be the quintessence Lotor released to help us defeat Zarkon," she whispered to herself. "How odd."

She had never seen a pool of the substance hovering in space like this before, but she supposed it made sense. She scanned the area for the dark rift creatures, but none appeared on Blue's scopes.

Blue swam through the liquid-like pool, swirling, flipping, and shaking like a kitten playing in a blanket.

"Yes, yes, I know," Allura said, laughing. "But we have work to do, love. Time to go." She entered the coordinates for a normal space wormhole to Sala. "Let's hope I'm right about this."

By the time Sala loomed large in her port viewer, she was starting to doubt herself. What if she was wrong? Part of her desperately wanted to reach out with her connection to reassure herself that she hadn't imagined it. But a larger part was terrified that she had imagined it and wanted to confirm it with her own eyes if indeed she had. So she aimed Blue at the desolate wilderness Allura and Lotor had first crashed in and prayed to the stars that Lotor was there.

Blue flew low over the landscape, skimming just above the ground. Allura saw packs of koti and snow and not much else, which meant that Sala was pretty much the same in this reality as it was in hers. No sign of Lotor, though, which made her stomach ache as much as her heart. If she didn't find him…

Then she saw a shape in the snow that looked too intentional to be a drift. As they flew closer, she saw it was dome-shaped and definitely not built by nature. She landed Blue and nearly threw herself out of the cockpit, fumbling to pull off her helmet, despite the freezing wind. She took a few steps toward the doorway, sensing movement inside. She held her breath.

Lotor.

For a moment, she wasn't sure if she'd said it out loud or to his mind or both. But either way it was definitely Lotor who had emerged from the shelter to stand in the snow. White hair, purple skin, flight suit that seemed worn but in good repair. And he had grown a beard.

She wanted to speak, but the sight of him—alive and beautiful—had taken her breath away. She seemed frozen to the ground from more than just temperature.

For the first time since she had given him the shuttle to escape the Blade's tribunal, she felt uncertain of where she stood with him. The beard had triggered it. He had obviously changed. What if he no longer wanted to be rescued? What if he no longer cared for her?

I love you, he said directly to her mind without uttering a word.

Tears slid down her cheeks, freezing before they had the opportunity to fall.

"I promised myself that would be the first thing I would say if you ever found me," he said aloud, sounding uncertain himself. "It seems silly now, since it's been two—"

Allura flung herself into his arms, crushing him with a strength she couldn't seem to moderate.

"I love you," she said aloud, sobbing. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

Her joy reached such a fervor that her power reacted before she could stop it. A pink burst of light shot outward from her in all directions, obliterating the hut Lotor had been living in, though mercifully passing through Blue without much affect.

"Oh, no!" Allura said, pulling back, mortified. "I am so sorry!"

"Allura—"

"I didn't mean to. Shiro warned me I might lose control due to grief, but I never thought I might from—"

"Allura—"

"I am so sorry about your house. I can help you rebuild it."

"Allura!"

"Yes?" she said, distressed.

"I don't care about the house," he said, laughing. "Unless you intend to settle down here, I hadn't really planned on staying."

"Oh!" she said. "Right."

He pulled her into his arms again, cradling her face in one of his gloved hands.

"I hardly dared hope I would ever see you again outside my dreams. I never gave up, though I wanted to a few times last winter."

Allura pressed her face into his hand. "I am so sorry it took me so long."

"Well, it's not as if it weren't my fault for leaving in the first place."

She glared at him unblinking as she said, "Don't ever leave me again. Ever. Promise me."

He sighed, but it sounded relieved, happy. "I promise. Not even for a mission. You are entirely my mission now."

"There is no more mission," she said. "Zarkon is in custody, Honerva in exile. The Galra empire is peaceful and safe. Everyone is safe."

Lotor shook his head in disbelief. "You are a wonder."

"You are a wonder," she said back to him, reaching up to trace his cheek with her finger. "With a beard."

Lotor laughed and pulled her closer. "I can shave it off. It was just warmer."

"It doesn't matter," Allura said. "I love it. And I would love you without it."

He pressed his forehead against hers.

I want you, he said into her mind, causing her to shiver in places the wind couldn't touch.

She moved slightly, drawing in a breath, and kissed him. He made a sound of surprise and desire that drove all thought from her head. Looping her arms around his neck, she pulled him deeper into the kiss. She would never stop. She would never have to.

He pulled her body flush against his, as if he couldn't get close enough to her. She echoed every hungry, possessive thought he spilled into her head right back at him.

She finally broke the kiss to steal a breath of air, and he attacked her neck with more kisses. She momentarily lost all sense of where they were and what she was supposed to do, almost as if she were losing her consciousness again. But this time she wanted to let go. To drift into him and let him drift into her.

My spirit found your spirit.

Lotor broke contact from her skin long enough to grin adoringly at her. "Yes, it did," he said. "You did."

Several long doboshes later, she heard the hunting call of the koti across the snow-swept plain.

"We should go," she said, reluctantly, her body cold and hot at the same time. "It's getting dark, and I destroyed the house."

Lotor chuckled, finally releasing her, though he took her hand as consolation. "I suppose you are right."

"The others will want to see you."

"I will be happy to see them as well," he said. "It turns out that, despite what you say, I am very boring to talk to."

Laughing, Allura intertwined her fingers with Lotor's. "Well, I will allow a brief visitation only. I must have you all to myself for a moon cycle at least."

Lotor squeezed her hand as he followed her toward Blue. "I think that can be arranged."