A year and a half...a lot of things have changed. Divorce of four years is finally over. I have my bachelor's. I'm feeling happier. However, the muses...still giving me ideas, but no motivation to actually put them down unless I force myself. Which...I'm not sure I'm fully happy with this chapter or the direction it seems to be going, but...it's what I was handed, so I'm going to run with it and see how it goes. If you're still out there reading and sticking with me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And look! Just in time for the holidays! *snerk*

I make no claims to Voltron or any WEP characters.

Chapter Twenty

As the dust settled, Keith wiped the dust from his face and looked around. His ears were ringing a bit and he'd been flung to the ground beside a tree. He winced. I'm going to have bruises. "Everyone all right?"

Several coughs answered him before voices did.

"All good here. Just bruises."

"I'm all right. Hit my knee a bit hard on the ground, nothing major. Lance?"

"I'm ok. Little dirt. Few scratches. What the fuck was that?"

"Self-destruct, most likely," Pidge stated. He sighed. "Now, we're never going to know what was in there. And I'm uninjured."

Keith looked around, not hearing a response to his question from his fiancée. Fear shot down his spine, seeing her still laying in the grass, not moving. "Vess?" Keith got up and ran over to her. He couldn't tell if she was conscious until he was on his knees beside her, carefully rolling her to her back in the grass. "Vess?"

Her eyes opened, a dazed look in them. "I'm ok, I think. Just landed on my arm." She hissed and looked away as he gently probed it.

Keith grimaced, but he had to be sure. "Sorry. Doesn't seem to be broken."

She nodded and took his offered hand, letting him help her to her feet. "What do we do now?" she asked, looking over at the crater left behind, cradling her sore arm to her chest.

"Well, we can sift through the debris and try to see what they might have been up to, but there's no guarantee we'll learn much," Pidge stated. "But we'll learn what we can."

Several soldiers came running up. "What happened? Is everyone all right?"

Keith turned to the soldiers. "We're all right, Corporeal. We need a team to start sifting through the rubble looking for anything salvageable from the bunker."

The corporeal nodded. "We'll get on that right away, Commander."

"But be careful. We were shot at and it blew up on us," Lance stated, moving up beside Keith. "Who knows if there will be other surprises."

"We will."

Keith turned and looked back at the crater behind them. "Whatever Doom was doing here; they really don't want us to know."

"Yeah, which means one thing. That whatever it was, it wasn't good."

Keith nodded and looked at Duvessa. "How's your arm?"

"I think it will be all right," she murmured. "We should probably head back to the castle now. The soldiers will let us know what they find."

Keith nodded. "I want you to go to MedTech, get that arm looked at." He waited until he got an answering nod from her then looked to the others. "Let's head back."

Xxxxxx

Duvessa sat at her vanity, getting ready for bed when her door buzzer rang. She turned slightly. "Who is it?"

It's me, may I? came Keith's voice into her mind.

She smiled and stood, moving towards the door. Yes.

Keith quickly typed in his override code and walked into her room, locking the door behind him. He turned to face her. "Vessa."

She paused at his tone, the look on his face. "Are you alright, Keith?"

He moved to her, cupping her face in his hands, kissing her roughly.

Duvessa gasped softly, shocked, but surrendered to his kiss, her hands sliding up his chest, fisting the front of his flight suit gently.

"Vess," he growled, breaking the kiss. "Please?"

She shivered and nodded.

He kissed her again, slowly backing towards her bed, his hands roaming over her shoulders to her back, pulling her close.

Duvessa felt his hands gently tugging at her pajamas. "Keith?"

"Please, Vess?" he whispered, his lips brushing against hers. "For tonight. Just us."

She nodded. "Yes."

He growled softly, his lips claiming hers again. He felt her bed behind him and sank down onto it, not breaking the kiss, pulling her along with him.

Duvessa gasped, quickly catching herself as she fell atop him, straddling his lap.

Keith took advantage and deepened their kiss, his hands roaming freely over her back. He gently pulled up on her nightgown, wanting, needing to touch her skin.

She whimpered softly, moving slightly to help him. She wasn't sure what had caused this aching need within him, but she would do anything for the man she loved. She sat up, pulling her nightgown off and tossing it onto the floor.

Keith groaned, watching her. He eagerly pulled her back down to him as she threw the gown away. He rolled her over until he was above her, kissing his way down her neck, shoulder, until he came to her breasts. He cupped the one in his hand and suckled on the other.

She gasped, her back arching off the bed.

He tore himself away from her, urgently pulling down the zipper on his flight suit.

She sat up slightly, helping him unfasten the belt at his waist.

His mouth sought hers out, kissing her madly as they both worked to free him from his uniform. He growled, broke the kiss, stood and quickly stripped his uniform and boots off.

Duvessa helped as much as she could, eager, anxiously waiting.

He moved back to her, hooking his fingers under the edge of her panties and pulled them down her long legs, tossing them across the room. He knelt over her, his eyes dark as he lowered his lips to hers, kissing her again, his fingers blazing a hot trail down her soft skin, teasing over the nipple of her breast, across the flat plane of her stomach, and into the dark curls at the apex of her thighs.

Duvessa gasped into his mouth as his fingers began a steady caress, kneading her sensitive skin.

Keith panted. "Mine," he whispered.

"Keith, what…"

"Shhh," he whispered. "We came too close today. You have no idea how scared I was when you didn't answer right away."

She kissed him hard. "Never," she whispered.

He groaned at that. He moved his hand away from her wetness and slid himself deep inside her with a single thrust.

Her shocked gasp turned into a satisfied moan. "Don't stop, please," she whispered.

He kissed her. "I won't. I promise." He kissed his way along her jaw, his hand drifting to her breast, playing with it.

Duvessa gasped, writhing desperately under him. "Keith!"

He chuckled darkly. "I'm right here, love. I'm not going anywhere."

"Oh, gods…Keith, I…I'm close."

"Good, so am I," he whispered and drove himself harder and faster into her.

She screamed, dragging her nails down his back as her body quaked, lost in the throes of her climax.

"That's it," he whispered. "Yes," he growled as his own hit. He barely kept himself braced above her. "God, Vess, I love you."

She moaned softly. "Love you, too, Keith."

He slowly withdrew from her, drawing a soft gasp from her. "Sorry, didn't mean to…"

"Don't apologize," she murmured. "That was amazing. Just…a little tender, that's all."

He rolled off to one side and helped her get more comfortable on the bed. "I shouldn't have been so rough."

"I loved it," she whispered, cuddling up to him. "Give me a little bit and you can do it again."

He laughed softly. "You are a naughty one, aren't you?"

"Mmmmm. So are you, and I think you like it."

They drifted off to sleep.

Xxxxxx

Duvessa sat quietly in the carriage, looking out the window. She was well north of the Castle of Lions, heading for another small town that Pidge and the military had determined had been locked down by Drule forces. It was an oddly quiet so far. Until it wasn't.

"So, with what happened at the last one, why are we going in alone?" Larmina asked, looking over at her.

Duvessa turned her gaze from the scenery outside the carriage that she, Larmina, Daniel, and Vince were riding in and looked at the younger royal. "A smaller group, like ours, should be able to get in, observe what is going on and report back to the others without being detected."

"Well, you and Larmina going makes sense," Daniel stated, leaning forward, and placing his elbows on his knees. "Why are Vince and I tagging along?"

Duvessa smiled at him. "You have your speed and Vince can get into computers, if we can get him close to any. A form of security and spying, I suppose."

Daniel nodded, looking impressed. He smirked. "You managed to talk Keith into that?"

Duvessa laughed softly and shook her head. "It wasn't easy, but he saw the merits of it."

Larmina gave an unladylike scoff. "You all know that I'm the security here," Larmina stated, glaring at Daniel.

"Naturally," Daniel answered with a smirk.

"Vessa, what exactly do you think we'll run into there?" Vince quizzed, looking nervous and ignoring his compatriots' banter.

Duvessa frowned and shook her head. "I don't know, Vince. We won't know for sure until we get there."

Shouts came from outside and a large explosion rocked the carriage.

Duvessa's hands came up. Elements, protect the cadets… She felt heat bloom around her, felt like she was flying and then darkness.

Xxxxxx

Keith was pacing in front of the main computer terminal, his arms crossed. Was he anxious? How could he not be?

Emerald eyes darted between his pacing commander and the monitors he had up. Satellite images of the carriage's progress to another town that had been locked down. Managing to have reverse detected his own people's stealth technology hadn't been easy, but he'd done it and only one other area on Arus had been confirmed to be locked down and hidden. His nimble fingers tapped out a quick staccato of beeps, refreshing the images and moving between satellites. Pidge's eyes widened, seeing the explosion on the monitor in Control. He slammed his hand down on the comms, alerting the rest of the team. "We've got an explosion along the route they were taking!"

"Do we have visuals?" Keith demanded, moving around to stand behind Pidge as the others raced into the Control Room from other parts of the castle.

"Yeah," Pidge answered, zooming in with the satellite imagery. He cursed softly in Baltan as an image of a crater dominated the screen.

Allura gasped as she stopped behind the two at the computer. "Great Gods. Tell me they're still alive…"

There was a long pause before Pidge spoke. "I'm picking up at least five on satellites, but…only three Voltcoms."

"Only three?" Keith asked. "Did they all take them?"

"They did," Pidge answered. He frowned as the computer told him exactly which Voltcom's he was picking up. Well, this is going to be unpleasant. "I'm not reading Vessa's."

Lance quickly spoke up. "Maybe it was broken in the explosion and she's ok. Either way, we need to get up there. They could be hurt."

Keith nodded, already moving towards Black's chute. "Let's go."

Xxxxxx

"Ugh, my head," Daniel muttered, sitting up. He looked around, puzzled for a moment. "Oh, shit. Vince? Larmina? Vessa?"

"Ugh. What happened?" Vince mumbled.

"Something tried to blow us up," Larmina spat, touching her head and pulling some debris from her hair. She looked around, noting someone wasn't speaking. "Aunt Vessa?"

Vince and Daniel shot each other a worried glance, getting to their feet. "Vessa?"

"This isn't good. Split up, look for her," Larmina ordered, her Voltcom flared to life and her staff appeared in her hands.

With answering nods, Daniel and Vince moved towards the edge of the crater, looking into the bushes along the edges, softly calling for Vessa.

Vince knelt beside the driver of the carriage, checking him over. "Easy, you're all right."

Larmina moved into some thicker trees, looking around. "Aunt Vessa?"

Daniel gasped, kneeling next to the edge of the crater. "Look, part of a Voltcom," he stated, picking it up.

Larmina moved through the brush towards him and saw something sparkling. She moved towards it. "Aunt Vessa?" She froze with a gasp.

Laying on the ground was Duvessa's crown.

"No…" She ran to it, picking it up and looking around. There was no other sign of her.

"Larmina?" Vince inquired, walking up beside her. "What is it?"

She held up Duvessa's crown. "This is not going to be fun to explain."

Daniel walked up, holding up the Voltcom piece. "Nor is this. Unless the two of you have a broken one?"

They checked and theirs were intact.

"Where could she be?"

"I don't know," Daniel answered. He smirked as he pointed up as the Lions appeared overhead. "Maybe they can help?"