A special thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed this story! It's always appreciated! Voltron, don't own them, only wish I did! Now on to the fic!

Chapter 5

As he ran down the castle hallway his communicator beeped. Ricocheting explosions that shook the castle almost made him drop it as he slammed into the wall.

K-Captain Andrews here.

L-Keith, where are you? We need you up here now!

K-I'm on my way now Lance. I'm heading to castle control. Graham is setting up base and their cleaning out the carriers for all available ammo.

L-The alliance team just got up here, but half these guys have no experience except for flight simulator programs. They're all over the place!

K-Damn it! I'll be there in five minutes. I'm out!

Keith ran towards the control room and punched in the access code. He ran in the room and began typing in override commands for the castle guns.

C-Keith, what are you doing?

K-I'm putting the castle guns on auto. Lance just told me that the alliance soldiers can't shoot worth a damn right now. We'll do better if the guns are programmed with radar. Coran, I need you to stay on top of this until Allura gets here.

C-Where is she?

K-The last I saw her, she was helping people to safety.

C-I'll see if I can radio her in a minute. Right now our biggest problems are the shields. They're down to 85%. I have maintenance trying to restore the mother board right now. It took a hard hit. I don't think they know how to fix it though, usually Pidge takes care of that.

K-Have them do their best. I'll contact Pidge to see if he can help.Try to get Allura on guns as quick as possible. Keep me informed of everything. Graham is on his way up here. Good luck Coran!

C-You too Keith.

Keith ran over to his chute and waited anxiously as he was transported to his lion. Within minutes he was in the air with his team trying to help even out the score.

Lance opened up a channel to Keith as soon as he saw him in the air.

L-Glad you could make it Captain, I thought you were going to let me have all the fun tonight!

K-Don't count on it pal. Alright team, what's our status?

P-There's about thirty five doom ship s down, and about eight of ours.

K-Pidge, I need you to open a channel to Coran. Shields are dropping and from what Coran says, they don't have a clue how to bring it back up.

P-Figures, I have detailed instructions in the main terminal, I'm sending them the access codes right now.

L-Did Allura make it back to the castle yet?

K-She wasn't there a few minutes ago.

S-She and Romelle probably took the guests to the basement. It's the safest for them there.

Back in the garden, Allura and Romelle had finally gotten all of the people down to the basement and had them all settled.

A-Romelle, we have to go back out there and help the people and soldiers that were hurt.

R-I can handle that Allura, you have to get to Castle Control and help Coran.

A-No, it has to wait a few minutes, there were too many of them. I saw at least 10 or 12 fall. Come on let's go.

They ran back towards the garden and started checking the people that were lying on the ground. As they rolled over the people to check their pulses, hope of finding any of them alive was quickly failing.

R-Allura, they're dead. Everyone I've checked so far.

A-Same here.

They ducked their heads and dropped to the ground as another wave of artillery was shot down on them.

A-We have to get back to the castle now!

As they started to head back, Allura stopped as she heard the faint sound of children crying amongst all the explosions in the sky.

A-Wait! I hear something!

She looked around and locked in on the source. Several small children were holding each other and crying while hiding underneath one of the dinner tables from the wedding.

A-Over there! We have to get them out of here!

R-I see them!

They ran over to where the children were and they each grabbed on to two of them. One of the kids hid further away from them under the table.

A-I know your scared sweetheart but we have to go now! Please hurry and come with me.

The little boy shook his head no and brought his knees to his chest.

R-Come on, we have to find your parents, they must be worried about you.

Just as the little boy started to crawl out form underneath the table, someone grabbed Allura from behind. As she jolted around, the two kids that were in her arms kicked free and dropped down to the ground. She stood frozen, unable to speak any words. The two children that were in her arms a second ago, were now standing next to her. Only the children were not children. She watched as they slowly changed into Doom soldiers.

Z-My dear Princess. At last, we finally meet again.

A-Zarkon.

The children that were once cradled in Romelle's arms were also soldiers that held her captive with laser guns pointed at her.

Z-It's amazing how easy human emotion can get people in to precarious trouble. People are so gullible when children are involved.

A-But how did you do that?

Instantly as if on cue Haggar appeared at his side. The old witch laughed aloud as the realization dawned on the young princess's face.

H-Your so foolish Allura. My powers are still very strong, even if you did destroy my amulet. After what happened on my ship, I assure you that you will suffer for what you did. You may have turned my son against me, but I promise you will pay for that.

Allura watched as more and more of Zarkon's soldiers surrounded them.

Z-There is no escape. You and your pathetic little planet belong to me now. I thought it was perfect timing and all because of the wedding. I hope you don't mind that we crashed in on your celebration. After all, I was very upset that I didn't receive an invitation. Just look at it as a late wedding gift.

A-You'll never win Zarkon. We'll beat you just as we always do.

Z-Such faith, give it time and you'll see where your faith gets you. Come now, I do believe it's time that you give me a tour of my new castle.

Keith glanced over at his radar. They were definitely making progress against the doom ships, but they were losing fighters left and right. He prayed that they were fairing better at the castle. His lion shook fiercely in the sky as he took another hit from one of the doom ships.

H-Keith, I don't know how much more of this we can take. Our numbers are dropping and there are still over a hundred ships and three robeasts left.

K-Just do your best Hunk. After we deplete some more ships, we should be able to form Voltron and take care of the rest.

L-Keith, watch out, you have two jets on your tail! I don't have clear shot.

Keith slammed on the breaks and dropped altitude. The two ships sprung forward and he was able to lock target and down both of them with missiles.

K-Good looking out Lance.

Keith glanced back over towards the castle and watched as grenades were launched from the view tower, helping to take out a couple more of the ships.

K-It looks like Allura finally made it to Castle Control. They're using the grenade launchers.

L-I bet Graham wishes he would have gotten the ok to send that extra group of a hundred soldiers that got denied.

S- We could have definitely used them. I tried talking to Bandor to see if he would send some troops, but his military is too small. He was afraid of leaving his planet unguarded incase something happened.

K-Yeah, well hopefully Graham called the Garrison as soon as he got to base to get back up.

Allura and Romelle walked slowly down the castle hallways with Zarkon, Haggar and a large group of soldiers closely following. Castle guards quickly dropped their weapons upon seeing them, afraid if they retaliated, Zarkon would harm the two princesses. Allura typed in the access code to the control room and the door swished open. Coran and Marshall Graham looked up from their radar and couldn't believe their eyes when they locked glances with Zarkon.

Z-Well, well, well, it's been to long Coran. Good evening Marshall Graham. I hope you don't mind my unannounced visit, but I figured it was the perfect day to take over the planet.

C-Zarkon, you won't win. The Voltron force will stop you.

Z-Sit down and shut up old man! Guards tie him and the good Marshall to those chairs.

He glanced back to where Coran was being tied to a chair and a maniacal smile appeared on his face.

Z- It upsets me so much that you don't want to take part in my little celebration. Everyone was in a party mood before I got here.

Zarkon turned around to the beautiful princess that stood next to him.

Z-I think it's time that we contacted your husband. He should join us to hear what I have to say.

A-Leave him out of this.

Z-I'm afraid I can't. You see, he is the only person on this planet that I consider a threat. With him out of the way, there would be no one to step in my way.

A-He would never willingly surrender to you. He would rather die first.

Z-That can be arranged your Highness if you like. As far as surrendering, he would do it in the blink of an eye if he thought he could keep you from danger. Now open a channel and get him on the monitor.

When she refused to move to open the connection, Zarkon slapped her hard in the face.

Z-I'm not in the mood for games Princess.

Allura fell to the ground hard and tasted the bitter coppery liquid in her mouth. As he grabbed a hand full of tool from her dress, he yanked her back to her feet. He raised his hand to hit her again, but then Coran came to her rescue.

C-Stop, don't hurt her. I'll open the connection.

Coran wheeled the chair he was in over to the counsel and typed in a communication code. A moment later, Keith popped up on visual. He could tell by the look on the prime minister's face, that something was terribly wrong.

K-What is it Coran?

As Coran started to speak, Zarkon walked over next to him and pushed him out of the way making him flip over in his chair.

K-Zarkon.

Z-Commander, how nice to see you again.

K-Where's the princess?

One of the doom soldiers pushed her roughly towards the monitor. Anger flowed through his body as he saw her split lip and the small trickle of blood in the corner of her mouth. He wanted to tear Zarkon apart for what he was doing to her.

K-I swear, if you hurt her or anyone else in that room Zarkon, you'll pay.

Z- I really don't think you're in the position to be making demands now are you Captain?

K-What do you want?

Z-I want you to come to Castle Control immediately. I have plans for you.

K-Call off your air attack and I'll come.

He yanked Allura by the hair making her cry out.

Z-You will come to the castle now, or I will kill your precious bride. Tell me Captain, does her life mean so little to you?

A-Don't do it Keith! He'll kill us both, and then there won't be any hope for Arus!

H-Shut up you stupid girl!

Haggar then struck Allura with her cane causing an electric shock to flow through her. Her body jerked and convulsed, as she screamed from the intensifying pain. She could hear Keith screaming in the background as she finally fell to the floor on the brink of losing consciousness.

K-No! Don't hurt her! I'll be right there.

Z- Now Commander, it's time for you to hand over the keys to Voltron.

K-Done.

Z-Meet me in the control room. I want the entire Voltron team in here within five minutes with no weapons. If you're not here by then I'll have to decide which beautiful princess dies first.

Keith cut the transmission and opened a channel to Lance.

K-Lance, we've got problems.

L-Yeah, tell me about it, what happened now?

K-Zarkon's in the castle. He has Allura and the others.

L-How the hell did that happen?

K-I don't know. I'm handing over the keys to the lions.

L-You can't do that Keith. You know that it's a trap.

K-I don't have a choice. All I know is that he will pay for hurting her.

He quickly opened a channel to rest of the team.

K-Alright guys, pull back.

H-Keith what the hell are you talking about?

K-Hunk, I said pull back. That's an order. I want everyone at Castle Control right now. You've got four minutes.

P-What's going on? We're going to get our butts kicked if we leave now.

L-Zarkon's in the castle and is going to kill the princesses if were not there immediately.

S-We have to do something. Keith, what's our plan?

K-I don't have one.

To be continued!! Please review, it helps me type faster!!