Rankin crawled to Paget and clutched her to his chest.  He rocked back and forth, his heart pounding erratically.  He couldn't talk, he couldn't think, he couldn't breathe.

            "I'm okay," she whispered into his chest.  "I'm okay, Rankin, I'm okay."

            He pulled back and looked at her.  Her dress, her face, her hair were all splattered with blood.  "Where were you hit?"  He asked, running shaky hands down her arms, over her face.

            "I…I don't think…I was."  Paget's voice quivered as her body shook convulsively.

            "But the blood…" Rankin's gaze fell to the figure on the ground behind Paget.  Lotor was lying on his stomach, half his face blown off.  He gathered Paget close, pressing her face to his shoulder to block her view. 

            "We need to get you to the doctor," Rankin rose, holding her in his arms.

            "Rankin."

            Lance and Keith were standing over Lotor's still form.

             "She wasn't hit, but I'm taking her to Dr. Gorma anyway."  He told them.

            Lance nodded and watched them head toward the castle before turning to Keith, "Why don't you go see Dr. Gorma too."

            "I'm fine.  I want to know what happened to the guards we had posted around the perimeter."  Keith was pale, the strip of fabric Allura had wrapped around his hand was soaked through and blood dripped onto the ground.

            "Go, Keith.  I can take care of this, you look like hell."

            "Alright."

            The fact that Keith was agreeing with him worried Lance, "Dante!  Come here."

            "Yeah, Lance?"  Dante jogged over from where he was talking to Hunk.

            "Take Keith to the hospital wing.  Once he's settled in there, come right back."

            Dante nodded.

            "I don't need help.  Dante, you stay here."  Keith walked slowly toward the castle.

            Lance turned to the new, young pilot, "I want you to keep an eye on Lotor."

            "He's dead, isn't he?"  Dante looked down at the unmoving Prince of Doom.

            Lance nudged Lotor with his boot, "It looks that way, but we can't take any chances.  Hunk, come here."

            The big man made his way over from where he had been talking to two of the guests, trying to assuage their fears.  "What's up?"
            "I need you to find rope we can use to restrain Landor."

            "Where are the guards?"

            "We don't know, but the second you see any of them, send them straight to me.  Where's Allura?"

            "She's talking to some of the guests.  She told them they were safe to go home, but some want to know what's going on."

            "Tell her I need to speak to her."

            They both jumped at the sound of a blaster.  Lance and Hunk whirled around, weapons in hand.

            Darcy was standing with Sven over Landor.   A small smoking hole was shot into the ground about two inches from where Landor cowered before them.

            "I said don't move!"  Darcy warned.

            Lance swore under his breath, "Go find some rope and tell Allura I want to talk to her."  He walked over to Darcy and Sven.  "Sven, go see Dr. Gorma and have your arm checked out."

            Sven was about to say something when he saw the look on Lance's face.  Instead he nodded and walked toward the castle.

            "Did you just fire at an unarmed man, Sergeant?"  Lance asked.

            Darcy looked at him, noticing his soldier mode, "Sorry, sir, my finger slipped."

            Lance had to fight back the urge to smile, "You can't do that.  We have protocol we have to follow and that includes not shooting at unarmed prisoners."

            Landor slowly slid his hand toward the knife he had hidden in his boot.

            Without taking his eyes off Darcy, Lance raised his arm and held his blaster level with Landor's forehead, "Don't even try it, you little shit, I'm not in the mood."

            "Lance?"

            They turned to see Allura and Hunk, who held a length of rope.

            "Hunk, tie his hands behind him.  Then you and Darcy escort him down to the dungeon.  Stay with him until I send guards to relieve you."
            "Yes, sir."  The two soldiers replied in unison.

            "Where's Keith?"  Allura asked.

            "I had him go to the hospital wing so Dr. Gorma can check his hand."
            She nodded.

            "Most of the guests have left."  Lance commented.

            "They were upset and I told them they could go home."

            "We need to question them, we have to know if anyone saw anything.  Something strange is going on here.  We should have been warned, but the guards in Castle Control said they hadn't seen anything all day and none of the guards posted out here can be found."

            "If anyone had seen anything, they would have told us.  They're upset, Lance, they just had to face their worst fear."  Allura said.

            "I understand that, Allura, but we have to know what happened and the best way to figure that out is to talk to potential witnesses."

            "I'll make an announcement," Allura promised.

            "Tell them to come forward with any information they may have.  Any little thing could be important."  Lance turned to see Hunk helping Landor to his feet.  He had tied the boy's hands together behind his back while Darcy kept her blaster trained on him.

            "We're taking him in now, Lieutenant."  Darcy said.

            He nodded, "As soon as I can send guards down to relieve you, I want you both back up here to help me secure the area."

            They nodded and headed toward the castle, each holding one of Landor's arms. 

            Before Lance could turn around, there was a muted flash and Landor disappeared.       

            "What the hell?"  Darcy looked down at her empty hand.

            Lance whirled around and saw Dante standing over a pool of blood where Lotor had lain.  He swore savagely.

            "Haggar."  Allura whispered.

            "Yeah, Haggar.  She did this.  She got them here and now she rescued them."  Lance ran his hand through his hair.

            Moments later, dozens of guards began walking out of the woods.  They all looked around, wondering why half the guests were gone and the rest were standing in a cluster.           

            Lance grabbed a guard who walked by, "Where have you been?"

            The young man looked up at him, "Excuse me, sir?"
            "I asked you where you were."

            More guards gathered around.

            "We were securing the woods."
            "Well, that's great.  But while you all were bird watching, Lotor and his brother invaded the picnic."  Lance snarled.

            "What?  But…but we were only in there a few seconds."  The guard stammered, bewildered.

            "Sir?"

            Lance turned to see a familiar face, Sgt. Holzer, the leader of the castle guards.

            "Yes, Holzer?"

            "I saw a flash of movement in the woods and I went to examine it, before I could do or say anything, everyone else had followed me.  We were only gone a few seconds.  We didn't see anything out of the ordinary."  Holzer explained.

            "A flash of movement?"  Lance asked.

            "Yes sir."

            "What is it, Lance?"  Allura asked.

            "A flash of movement in the woods, that's what Keith and I saw."

            "Haggar?"

            "What else could it be?"

            "Sir?"  Holzer asked.

            "I want a full sweep of the area.  Cover the meadow and the tree line.  If any of you can think of anything else, tell me right away."  Lance told him.          

            "Yes, sir."  Holzer brought his hand up in a salute and turned to his men.

            "Let's go tell Keith what we found out."  Lance said to Allura, taking out his communicator and opening channels to everyone in the Force.  "I'm going to talk to Keith.  I want you all to do a perimeter check.  If you find anything, let me know immediately."
            "Yes, sir," five voices replied in unison.

            "Lance, you're bleeding!"  Allura grabbed his arm.

            He looked down and noticed the dark spot spreading down his sleeve.  There was a small cut in his uniform where Lotor's laser had grazed his upper arm.  With all that was going on, he hadn't even noticed it.  "I'm fine, it's nothing."

            "But…"
            "Really, Allura, I'm fine.  We have to get to the bottom of this."

            The waiting room in the hospital wing was empty, but there was a flurry of activity within the examining rooms. 

            Romelle had left Erik in the capable hands of Nanny and sought out Sven.  Nurse Helene was stitching up his arm.  He was lucky in that it wasn't too bad of an injury, he would be sore for a while and there would be a scar, but he would be fine.

            Another nurse was in with Rankin and Paget.  They were both shook up, but physically they were fine.  Dr. Gorma agreed to give Paget a sedative to help her sleep.

            "Where's Keith?"  Allura asked the nurse at the desk.

            "Dr. Gorma took him in to surgery."  She told the queen.

            Allura paled, "Surgery?"

            "Yes, Ma'am, some of the bones were shattered, Dr. Gorma is trying to reconstruct his hand."

            Lance took Allura's arm and walked her to the chairs, "Are you okay to stay here?"

            She nodded.

            "I have to go to Castle Control. I'll be back as soon as I can."

            Allura nodded again.

            Lance squeezed her shoulder, "He'll be fine, Allura.  Page me if you need me."

            "I know, Lance, I'll be fine.  Go, do what you need to do."

            It was a busy afternoon for the Voltron Force.  Lance stayed in Castle Control and studied all the logs from the previous night through that morning.  He could find no discrepancies.  Not one of the guards had reported anything out of the ordinary. 

            After Sven was stitched up he went to see what he could do to help.   Lance asked him to speak with the guards who had been on duty outside and see if they could remember anything else.  After securing the perimeter, the other members of the Force helped him interrogate the guards and the few guests who thought they might have seen something.

            Evening arrived and the sun began to lower.  After getting everything they could out of the guards and guests, Sven, Hunk, Pidge, Dante, Caleb, and Darcy made their way into Castle Control.  Lance was standing over a monitor, talking to one of the guards who had been on duty all day.

            "How's Keith?"  Pidge asked.

            "He's recovering from surgery.  Dr. Gorma had to reconstruct some bones in his hand.  Allura said she'd let me know as soon as he wakes up."

            "Have you found anything out?"  Hunk asked.

            "I'm going over all this now.  What did you guys find out?"

            Sven looked down at the clipboard he held in his hand, "Vell, de guards still claim dey vere only gone a few seconds.  A few of de guests also claim to haf seen de flash and dey all described it de same vay, like somevone in a vhite cloak running past very quickly.  Two of de guests said dey saw a man in a dark cloak, who ended up being Lotor.  He snuck up behind Paget and Rankin vhile dey talked to a couple of guests.  He grabbed Paget from behind and a voman screamed, you know vhat happened from dere."

            "Do you think that flash we all saw was some kind of a hypnotic device?"  Caleb asked.

            "That's a possibility."  Pidge said.  "There is a phenomenon called 'Lost Time', it's where people think they are gone for only a few seconds when in reality they have been gone for minutes or hours at a time and they have no idea where the time has gone or what they were doing.  It's usually associated with alien abductions.  Maybe Haggar was able to do that to get the guards out of the way.  It was a spell she put on them."

            "What was Lotor trying to do?"  Dante asked.  "It was just him and Landor, no army, no robeast.  They had to know there was no way they could win."

            "He's insane."  Pidge mumbled.

            "This was more about revenge.  When Rankin and Paget helped all those slaves escape, it humiliated him.  He wanted them to pay, he was toying with us."  Lance said.

            "He's given up on Allura?"  Hunk asked.

            Lance shrugged, "Who knows.  But he does know that she's pregnant and that could be a problem."

            "If he's even alive."  Caleb pointed out.

            "He seemed pretty dead to me." Dante added.

            "If he is dead then we're clear but if he was near death, there's a possibility that Haggar can save him."  Lance told them.  "Until someone remembers something or we find something, we're at a standstill.  I was able to contact the men who sent us the intel reports about Landor.  They're going to let me know as soon as they find out anything about Lotor.  So I guess you're all dismissed for now.  Stay on castle grounds, we're on high alert for the time being.  I'll need those notes Sven, I'm going to type up a report tonight."

            Darcy watched as Sven, Hunk, Pidge, Dante, and Caleb left the room.  Lance jotted a few things down on the clipboard.  She crossed over to stand beside him.  "How're you doing?"  She asked.

            Without looking up he replied, "Oh, I've been better."

            "What can I do to help?"

            He raised tired eyes to her, "I don't know, Darcy.  I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing.  It's like they appeared out of nowhere.  How am I supposed to report this to the Garrison?  Poof …Two bad guys appeared out of thin air, killed one of our guards, took the bride hostage, I shot him in the head, and then…Poof…they were gone.  They're going to want more details."

            "You're doing a good job, Lance."  She whispered.

            He gave her a tired smile.

            "I mean it, you have it in you to be a great leader."

            "Thank you, Darc, but I will be a lot happier when I can go back to being just a pilot."

            "How long will Keith be out?"

            He looked back at the pad in front of him, "I don't know, I haven't heard from Allura yet."

            "Maybe I'll go see how she's holding up."

            "I'm sure she'll appreciate it."

            "I'll talk to you later."  She turned to leave.

            "Uh, Darcy," he looked up.

            "Yeah?"

            "Are you, uh, are you okay?"

            She smiled at him, "I'm fine, Lance. You know where I am if you need anything."

            Allura was at Keith's bedside.  His hand was thickly bandaged and an oxygen hose was strapped across his face.  He had been in surgery for four hours; it had been a lot of slow, intricate work.

            Darcy quietly pushed the door open.  Allura sat with an opened book on her lap, but she was staring, unseeingly, at a spot on the wall opposite her.

            "Allura?"
            She looked up and saw Darcy, "Hi, Darc.  How're things going?"

            Darcy crept silently into the room, "There really isn't much to report.  How's Keith?"

            "Just waiting for him to wake up.  Dr. Gorma said he's going to need physical therapy to regain complete use of his hand again."

            "Have you heard from Rankin and Paget?"

            "Dr. Gorma gave Paget a sedative and they retired to Rankin's bedroom a few hours ago."

            "I can't believe this happened.  After all they've been through they deserved a beautiful wedding."  Darcy said.

            Allura nodded, "Lotor has a terrible habit of ruining things."

            "We may be done with him for good."

            "You think he's dead?"

            Darcy shrugged, "Lance is having it looked into."

            "How's he holding up?"
            "Good.  He's been working to collect information so he can type up a report for the Garrison."

            Allura gave a small smile, "He's a smart man, I have no doubt he can handle this."

            "If he couldn't he wouldn't be second-in-command."  Came a hoarse whisper.

            Allura jumped to her feet, "Oh, Keith, honey, how're you feeling?"

            "Like I just had my hand shot off."

            "I'll get Dr. Gorma."  Darcy volunteered, slipping from the room.

            After informing the doctor of Keith's awakening, Darcy found her way to the kitchen.  Hunk had whipped up a quick dinner for everyone of sandwiches and various side dishes he found in the refrigeration unit.  They sat and talked while they ate, trying to figure out just what Haggar had done and speculating whether Lotor was alive or not.  When Sven left to find Romelle and Erik, they all decided to make it an early night and went their separate ways.