Birthright: Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Above and Beyond


Alana watched as the two teams were ready to square off. She then turned to her mother, where she was sitting beside Kelar and noticed that he was holding her hand, most unusually. And when her mother turned to meet Kelar's gaze, she could see a slight pain in her eyes. This caused Alana to be alarmed, but at that moment, Kelar had called for the fight to begin.

-Milady._

Alana turned to her side seeing Xue standing near her. She looked up at the foreboding dark creature as he laid an hand on her arm.

-Please come with me, milady- he whispered as he bent toward her. -It's very important that you do.-

"Xue-"

He shook his head as he placed his finger to her lips. -Anything you say now, could cost the life of your mother, as well as your brother,- he stated. -Please, follow me.-

Alana slowly nodded as she quietly got to her feet. Xue opened a door behind a hanging tapestry, and they quietly snuck out of the spectator box they were in. She didn't say a thing as he led her through a maze of hallways and it seemed as if they were descending as they walked.

"Xue," she repeated once they came to a junction. He signaled for her to remain quiet, and as he peered around a corner, he turned to her.

-Milady,- he said. -A little farther.-

Reluctantly, she continued to follow him and soon, she could barely make out the hallways they were in. She looked around, hoping to find some kind of clue as to where they were and where they were going.

They then came upon a door. Strange place to put one, Anala immediately thought. Xue signaled for her to follow him as he opened the door. Once they entered, he closed it behind them and lit a small torch that was hanging by the door.

"Where are we?" Anala finally voiced.

-We are in the bowels of the where the old castle once stood, milady,- he stated.

"The old castle?"

-Before, Kelar took over,- he said. -It took me a long time for me to find it.-

Anala looked around and slowly, under the dust and crumbling walls, she could make out the indentations of once where bricks and mortar were laid.

"Why are we here?"

-To return Vallis to the rightful heir, milady- he said as he placed his hands to the hood he wore. -To you.-

Anala's eyes widened as he slowly lowered the hood he wore, to reveal someone she had only seen in her dreams.


"I don't like this," Lance said continuously as he out maneuvered one of the robeast's attacks. "We should have received a signal from Anala already."

"I don't like it either," Keith muttered to himself. "Pidge, scan the spectator box to see if Anala is still there?"

"Already on it, chief," Pidge said. "She's not there, captain. In fact I don't detect her anywhere near this arena."

"What?" Keith asked. "Scan again."

"Twice already, Keith," Pidge came back. "Though I am sensing an unusual build up of energy."

"Build up?" Allura asked. "Where?"

"Strangely, under us," Pidge said.

"Allura, raise Lotor," Keith ordered. "We have to make a change in plans. quickly."

"I'm already on it," Allura said. "Patching in."

~~You finally detected that energy build up as well?~~ Lotor asked as he appeared on the view screen before them.

"You could have told us," Allura retorted.

~~Tsk , tsk,~~ Lotor replied. ~~My sensors are detecting a huge object below the arena floor.~~

"Do you think its some kind of weapon?" Lance asked.

"One way to find out," Keith said. "Hunk, would you do the honors?"

"With pleasure, captain."

"Keep up the act guys," Keith added. "Hunk, make like you are trying an attack against the robeast."

"Will do."

~~What do you propose to do?~~ Lotor asked.

"A little game of tag."


Anala could only stare at Xue as he changed into a much more casual outfit than the long robes she was accustomed to see him wear. She was at a lost for words as he readied himself.

"I know you have a lot of questions, milady," he said as he turned to her. "So if you have any important ones, ask them. We do not have much time."

"Who..who are you?" she stammered. "I mean.you.you look like."

Xue smiled as he turned to her. "Your father?"

She nodded. "Are you?"

"It's a harder question to answer than you think, milady," he said. "Without going to great detail..yes and no."

"Yes and no?"

"As I stated, it's a hard question to answer very quickly," he said. "Come, we must go. Your friends are in danger."

"In danger?"

"Kelar hid a large weapon under the Arena floor," he said as he walked over to the door. "It slowly takes the energy away from any combatant, and siphons it to his own robots and weapons."

"So is that how he has been winning all those challenges?"

"Do you honestly think he plays fair?"

"What will this weapon do?"

"Well, it will weaken your friends Voltron, robot," he said simply. "And Kelar plans to test his weapons against the winner."

"But the winner was going to be Lotor."

"But you didn't give them their signal."

"Which means that they are going to change their plan." Anala slowly realized. "And they will change it either both of them winning or."

"Voltron."

"We have to get to that weapon," she said. "Is there a way to shut-it down."

"Yes," he said. "But we have to get going. It's a long ways down."

"Lets get then."


Alysson watched the fight, noticing that their tactics had changed. What cause them to change their plan, she did not know, but what worried her most was what Kelar had planned next, no matter who the winner was.

"Your friends fight well," Kelar commented. "Too bad I did not have them fight for me."

"Is war the only thing you can think of?" she hissed.

"That and money," he said. "Something that your short-sighted father did not see."

"You killed him because he did not want to build weapons of mass destruction to sell?" she asked.

"I killed him because he was a threat to Vallis," he said. "He wanted to negotiate trades. Our technology to help other planets, in favor of getting supplies."

"That's how you run a planet, Kelar," she said as she turned to him. "Selling weapons to further the cause of another warring planet is not something my father wanted or intended to do."

"When you sell to both sides, nothing matters, my dear," he said simply. "Money is to be made every where you turn."

"Destroying lives is what you do best, Kelar," she said. "You destroyed mines."

"On the contrary, I gave you a new life, my dear," he said. "Which brought you straight to me."

"Only to see that your power is ultimately destroyed," she said.

He smiled as he squeezed her hand tighter in his own. "Do you want to know how I killed him?"

Her eyes widened as he turned to meet her gaze.

"I didn't have to do much," he said. "Such the old fool. His last words was knowing that you were safe. Which is how I learned where you were. He practically threw himself on my blade when I told him that I would see to your death."

"You threatened him with my life," she said.

"He gave himself to save you," he said.

"But you decided to send an assassin anyway."

"I do have the future of this planet to look after."

"By stealing it away."

"By removing someone who was unfit to rule."

"Then hope to all heavens, Kelar, that no one finds you unfit as well."


"Set the bombs for 3 minutes," Xue instructed. "That will be enough time to get out of here."

"When the bombs explode, wont the arena come tumbling down?"

He slowly nodded. "But at least it wont allow Kelar to win this battle this time around."

Anala nodded as she set her charge. They quickly set ten total, around the machine and as quickly as they arrived, they ran out of the room they were in.


"Hunk, on 3, dive for the robeasts and head toward that energy signal."

"Right!"

Keith looked up at his view screen then turned his lion toward the spectator box. He silently hoped that everything would go right from this point on.

"Hunk, ..3..2.."


A loud explosion ripped through the arena, causing Kelar to quickly jump to his feet. The first one came, knocking Lotor's robeasts tot the ground as another 3 explosions ripped through the ground. One explosion threw Red Lion into Yellow Lion as 4 more explosions came. One of them knocked Green Lion into Black, causing both lions to tumble away from the center of the arena floor. Lance quickly righted his lion to check on Pidge as Allura pulled her lion forward to check on Black.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Lance, watch out!"

Another explosion came, knocking the exasperated pilot back, hitting Pidge in Green Lion. Before Allura could recover, a final explosion came, that caused the ground under them to crack open. And before anyone could react to what was happening, both blue and Black lions fell through the open fissure below.


"Here's the last of them."

Kelar stood from where he was sitting, as his guards escorted the shakened pilots into the throne room of the castle. Alysson stood quietly by as she watched as another guard escorted Prince Lotor into the room as well.

"Your little charade has ended, Voltron Force," he said. "I hope that you're happy for what you have tried to do today. Not only have you destroyed a perfectly well built arena, you have now lost two of your pilots."

"We didn't set those explosions," Lance said as she stepped forward. "We did detect an energy build up before that happened. Care to enlighten us as to what that was?"

"Opening a challenge to me, my friend means that you must expect the unexpected," he said. "Do you honestly think that I would let you win?"

"You were sapping our energy!" Pidge exclaimed. "So when you had your own weapons challenge us, you would have won."

"How perceptive," he said. "But too late. Even now, your Lion ships are being studied to find out they work. So I wont be needing you to give me those secrets after all."

"Operating Voltron is more than just those Lion ships," Hunk said. "Without the five of us, you have nothing."

"We shall see."


Allura slowly opened her eyes, as the faint ray of light shined down on her. Her vision started to clear she stared up into the heavens above her.

She let out a moan as she slowly sat up, and when here vision cleared even more, she saw that she was sitting on an outcropping, at least 300 feet down from where she could see the light above her. She looked around, wondering how she ended up here, and as she looked up again, she saw her lion ship, lying on its side on a ledge 200 feet above her. The pilot hatch door was open. She then assumed that when her lion hit the ledge, it caused her to eject out of her lion, but to land on a ledge a 100 feet below it, on the other side without getting hurt?

Another moan caught her attention and she quickly turned around. She let out a gasp seeing the familiar red and white uniform, and quickly made her way to where Keith was lying. She looked up seeing Black Lion resting on another ledge higher up than her own, but it was on this side of the crevase they were in.

"Keith," she said.

He slowly sat up, as she helped him to sit.

"Why does it feel as if 2 tons of rock just landed on me?"

"Close," she said. "More like a ton. Are you okay?"

"A little dizzy," he said as he removed his helmet. He looked up as he saw the fissure above him. "Damn, we fell a long way didn't we?"

"Enough to knock the wind out of us," she said.

They got to their feet, dusting off the dirt from their uniforms. Allura turned to examine the ledges and the sides of the rock wall to see if there was any footing they could use to get to at least one of the lions.

"Nothing," she said to herself, out loud.

"What?"

"There's no way we can get to our lions," she stated.

Just then, Keith noticed some crumbling and he quickly pulled Allura toward him, then shoving her against the rock wall as he shielded her. The ledge on which Black lion was resting, suddenly broke away, making it slide into Blue Lion, and soon, both Lions fell deep into the fissure below. This caused the ledge they were one, to break away slightly, leaving them only with a couple of feet to spare.

Allura slowly opened here eyes as the dust settle, and she looked down to see that most of the ledge they were on now, was gone. She flattened herself against the rock wall facing as she tore her gaze away, swinging her head up, only to realize that Keith was only inches away from her own.

"What an odd predicament we have just fallen into," she said breathlessly. "Don't move."

"The ledge is already crumbling under my foot, Allura," he whispered to her. "I can feel it."

Allura closed her eyes as she thought to herself. "Can you see the bottom?" she asked.

"No," he answered. "I watched as the Lions fell, its deeper than you think."

She opened her eyes again. "So what shall we do now?"

He met her gaze, as he felt another part of the ledge under his right foot start to give way.

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

"Trust you?" she asked. "What the hell kind of question is that to ask at a time like this?"

"Close your eyes, and slowly wrap your arms around my neck," he said.

"Close my eyes?" she asked.

"Just do it Al," he said sternly. "WE don't have much time."

She slowly nodded and raised her arms as she held onto him.

"Hold your breath," he instructed as he held her against him with his right arm.

"And what are you..."

Her voice was lost as she felt the ledge finally give way under her, and all she could do was scream.