One Good Turn
Part Two
By Cheezey
As he sat motionless on the thin mattress upon the cot in his cell, Lotor mused that no matter how "humane" the Galaxy Alliance prison was compared to the festering stone dungeons on Doom, imprisonment was still a miserable situation. Strange as it was, he would have felt more at home—and at ease—in one of his father's dark hell-holes than he did in the Garrison complex. At least on Doom they made no pretense about being noble and good when they held someone they intended to kill. Suffering the sanctimonious and self-righteous attitude that seemed to pervade the very air of the Alliance base was to him almost worse than the sentence that hung over him like a foul cloud.
That was, if the incredible boredom did not kill him first. Because he was such a high profile, high security prisoner, Lotor was not included in the general prison population expected to do heavy labor to make productive use of the time they held him captive. Instead he had to sit in his cell staring at the walls all day with only conversation with the guards that stopped by as a source of entertainment. The guards, of course, were Galaxy Alliance officers and for the most part took pleasure in belittling him and making his life miserable simply because they could. He was not surprised; it was not every day that an inferior worm—most often a human—had the chance to feel superior to someone of Drule descent, and royal blood at that. Lotor took solace in the fact that guarding an enemy prince of his station was probably the most important thing that the majority of the insignificants that kept tabs on him would ever do.
Over the past several days he had almost learned the guards' schedule by heart, therefore when one came in at what seemed like less than an hour after the prior guard change, he knew something out of the norm was happening. He turned toward the cell door and stared as two armed escorts appeared and unlocked it. "'Afternoon, Princey," one of them, a tall and skinny human, sneered. "You got lucky today. You got a visitor."
Lotor blinked in surprise, for he had not expected that. If he had a visitor, and it was someone who would use legal channels to get into the Alliance's barracks, then it had to be…
Allura, he thought, barely able to conceal his smile. She came to see me again.
She came to see you, but does she care enough to save you? A nagging voice, one reminiscent in a very unpleasant way of doubters such as his father and Merla, spoke up inside him.
She came because she loves me, his thoughts—his hopes—argued back.
Lotor stared down the guards with a surprising amount of authority considering his circumstance and demanded, "Who is it?"
The other guard stepped into the cell with a heavy duty pair of handcuffs while his companion kept a rifle pointed precisely at Lotor's head, ready to kill him in an instant if he tried anything. "Some lady," he answered with a shrug as if it was completely unimportant while he slapped the cuffs roughly on the captive prince. "Not that you deserve any visitors, lowly slime that you are." Once the restraints were fastened, he gave Lotor a hard shove to the back. "Probably the mother of someone you killed in one of your attacks."
"Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll be an assassin," the first guard remarked snidely. "I know I'd look the other way if someone tried to take you out. I'd do it myself for what you did to my world if I didn't pride myself on being above your type."
Lotor sneered, thoroughly unimpressed at the posturing of armed men taunting a bound prisoner, even if that was the only way they could give him a fair fight. "The best Alliance soldier is little more than a bug to be squashed upon the shoe of any Doomite or Drule. Fools like you serve only two purposes—free labor and robeast food."
The other soldier hit him hard with the butt end of his rifle. "Shut up and walk! And keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you."
"What will you do if I don't? Shoot me?" he retorted arrogantly.
"Not for a few more weeks," the first soldier snapped, and kicked him hard in the shin. "Until then, you're our slave."
"You should know all about how a slave is treated, Princey. You took enough of them from my planet before Voltron freed it, and I want to make sure you suffer for every damn one of them."
Lotor growled as he felt the man's boot connect with his lower back, and he shuffled to keep his balance with his hands bound. "Which planet was it? If you're going to be a cowardly cur and hit me in the back in its name, I'd like to know what world you're so spinelessly avenging."
The soldier's response was to cock his rifle and put it to back of the prince's head. "Pollux," he hissed with unbridled contempt while his partner looked at him with a bit of alarm. "I'm from Pollux."
A cruel sneer crept across Lotor's features as he felt the barrel press roughly through his white hair against his scalp. "Oh, Pollux. Do give Princess Romelle my regards, then. As I'm sure you heard, she and I were very intimate…"
"Don't you speak her name!" he raged, his hand twitching on the trigger.
"Draex, don't!" the other soldier said, and pushed the rifle out of the way before any harm was done. "It'll be done soon enough. Don't let him have the satisfaction of ruining your life like he ruined so many others."
Lotor's cold smile only hardened at the humans' exchange. "Pathetic. I knew you didn't have the stomach for it. That's why you'll never be able to defeat my father's empire. One of us would have killed a prisoner like me by now."
"Don't mistake common sense for mercy," the intervening soldier snapped. "And don't think for a second that if you resisted we wouldn't—"
"Oh, I know you would. That's one thing you humans are good for. Like the trained monkeys you're evolved from, you follow orders quite well. That's why you make such excellent servants."
A look of intense hatred crossed both of their faces, and the one who had been arguing with him retorted, "Just move."
"Very well," Lotor said condescendingly. "I wouldn't want to keep my guest waiting." The remainder of the walk passed in silence while Lotor thought about Allura, about what she might be there to say or do, and how delightful it would be to see her lovely face after days of misery in the Alliance prison. It therefore came as quite a shock to him when the guards sat him down on a chair in front of a thick plastic window facing into an identical room with only a hand-sized slot and some air holes for contact and sound, and he saw not Allura there but…
"Merla!" he gasped, his yellow eyes wide with surprise.
The pink-haired queen smiled as he approached. "Nice to see you too, Lotor."
Recalling her last words to him, a telepathic taunt at his sentencing, his features tightened into a dubious glare as he settled in his seat. "Why are you here, Merla?"
She pouted. "Now is that any way to greet an old friend?"
If you're so friendly, then get me out of here, Lotor thought sullenly, but with a verbal reply of, "I wasn't expecting you."
Get you out of here? Merla's voice sounded in his mind. Now why would I want to do that? I saved you once already and look at the good it did me. You know the saying—fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. "Who were you expecting? Princess Allura, perhaps?"
She'll save me if you won't, Lotor projected back with some bitterness. Though I'd expect someone who was embracing the virtues of goodness these days would want to help an old friend.
Merla chose to address both points verbally. "Ah, you were expecting Allura. And you're right—she is more the type to show up and try to bail you out some way. I on the other hand, much like your father, am not sure it would be worth it."
"And you said you hated my father and everything he stands for."
"Ah yes, that was a little melodramatic of me, wasn't it? But you know how it is when you care about someone… it leads you to do irrational things for them." She gave him a pointed look. "But I'm feeling much better now."
"So is that why you're here, Merla? To gloat?" He sneered at her. "Some reformation of character."
Merla's eyes narrowed. "You're a fine one to make character judgments. And to answer your question—yes, I suppose so. I came here to see if even the face of certain death could humble you." And I might've been inclined to pull a few strings if you demeaned yourself properly to me, she added telepathically.
I'd sooner take my chances with the firing squad than beg for anything from you, Lotor thought back angrily. If you hate me because of what happened on the asteroid then so be it, but I won't give you the satisfaction of humiliating myself any more than I'll give it to them.
Rising to her feet in light of that mentally loud but verbally silent answer, she gave him a long look. "Prideful to the end, hmm? Well I'm sure Zarkon will at least be proud of you in death even if he had little of it in what you did with your life." She shook her head, the end of her pink braid swaying slightly with her motion. "For what it's worth, I am sorry it had to turn out this way. I never did want to see you dead, Lotor. I'd hoped better for you. Had things worked out differently, I could've saved you, you know."
"How? A 'good' Alliance-friendly Drule Kingdom queen can't very well turn against her new friends by bringing an envoy of ships here to free me by force, now can she?" he said sarcastically. His belief in Merla's so-called reformation ran about as deep as Castle Doom's nonexistent moat.
If she was affected by Lotor's attitude, she did not show it, rather her lips tugged subtly toward a smile. "Of course not. Much like our esteemed First Kingdom associate Commander Hazar, I would like nothing more than to see peace between the Drule Empire and Galaxy Alliance. Actually I was referring to one of the older Alliance laws on the books—that planetary rulers in good standing with them can demand a reprieve and sanctuary for their family members under certain conditions. How unfortunate that Zarkon agreed to annul our marriage… had you still been my husband, I could've brought you out of here with no trouble at all."
Lotor regarded her arrogantly. "Marry me now then."
At that she let out a hearty laugh. "My, how romantic! But no, I'm afraid I'll have to turn down your charming proposal." She flashed one of her delicate hands in front of the window, which now sported a beautiful bejeweled ring of gold and platinum interwoven around several precious gemstones that Lotor recognized immediately as a marriage adornment. "I've already found my 'Prince Charming.' It's a real shame, Lotor. We could've been something, couldn't we?"
His shock temporarily overrode his urge to be snide. "Who did you marry?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she responded mysteriously, and then turned and left without another word.
Scowling in aggravation, Lotor also rose to his feet and glared at the guards who had brought him there. "Take me back to my cell."
Princess Allura's arrival at Galaxy Garrison headquarters in the black lion happened with little fanfare. If her outburst at Lotor's trial had lost her any favor amongst the officials of the organization, it was not reflected in the way she was treated when she gave her name to the security guard at the door. She was admitted to the non-restricted areas of the complex with no question, and the sentries on duty pleasantly directed her to the corridor in which the public access LADs were located.
After selecting an available unit, they went to a private chamber to discuss her situation. Allura sat down in one of the chairs and folded her hands upon the table, trying to think of the best way to explain what she wanted to do. The LAD kept its ocular units fixed upon her as she gathered her thoughts.
"I—I need to know if there's any way to stop the Alliance from killing Lotor," she said bluntly, finding no pleasant way to explain it. "Can his death sentence be overturned?"
"If the prisoner you are referring to is Lotor, crown prince of Doom, first son of King Zarkon and the deceased Queen Altora of royal house Dar'skel'Ayr of the Ninth Kingdom of the Drule Empire sentenced in Case 423923-XM-01, the verdict and sentencing are final. As a prisoner of war and not a citizen of a Galaxy Alliance world, he is entitled only to trial. Appellate rights are reserved for Galaxy Alliance citizens."
Allura's eyes widened. "What? He can't appeal? But that's not fair!"
"That is the law," the LAD replied impassively in its mechanical voice.
"What about me? I turned him in. I'm the princess of Arus—don't I have any rights?"
The LAD's eyes flashed. "Princess Allura, you have the full rights and privileges granted any citizen and governing authority of a world in good standing within the Galaxy Alliance."
"Then why can't I free Lotor?" she pressed. "I know I turned him over to Space Marshall Graham and signed something that gave them the authority to try and sentence him, but I can't do anything else? Nothing at all? Can't I put in an appeal on his behalf or something like that?"
"You do not have the legal authority to request an appeal for anyone but a citizen of planet Arus."
She was struck with sudden inspiration. "What if I declared him a citizen of Arus? I can do that as a princess."
"The prince was a citizen of Doom at the time of trial and is therefore subject to the regulations applied to an individual of that status for the entire process. Only a trial initiated after citizenship is established and documented would grant him the rights of an Arusian citizen."
She frowned. "Is there any way I can reclaim him? To nullify what I signed turning him over, or to overturn that? Something I could file to request that I get him back?"
"The custody discharge is legally binding, Princess Allura. It can not be invalidated without full consent of each party on the original document."
Allura's hopes fell further. There was no way Space Marshall Graham would agree to that; she knew that without even bothering to ask. "Is there any other way Lotor could be freed or pardoned?"
The LAD was silent for a moment as it processed the request, and then it presented its answer. "The council that passed sentence on the prisoner has the sole authority to grant a pardon. A request can be filed with them prior to the execution of sentence."
"More paperwork!" Allura exclaimed in frustration. "That's all? That's the only way to free Lotor?"
"If the prince has a family member in the governing body of a world in good standing with the Galaxy Alliance, they have the authority to intervene and reclaim him to their world as specified in Code 630; Section B, provided they agree to adhere to the conditions specified therein."
"But he's from Doom, and they're from the Drule Empire," she said with a sigh, before remembering that there were a few Drules who were on good terms with the Galaxy Alliance. "What about Commander Hazar? Is he related to him, or any of the Drules we're in negotiations with?"
"Negotiations do not qualify as good standing, as their worlds are not registered in the Alliance. Legally there is no obligation to honor such a request. It would be at the discretion of the council passing sentence."
Allura frowned. Everything kept coming back to the council that sentenced Lotor, and she had already been down that road. "Is there anyone in the Alliance that could free him with that code?" Perhaps if Lotor had a relative somewhere she could convince them where she had failed in convincing Space Marshall Graham and the others…
The LAD's eyes flashed again while it searched its memory banks. "There are no qualified candidates for Code 630; Section B for the defendant of Case 423923-XM-01. Regulations stipulate the familial relation must be within two generations or lines."
"Then there really is nothing I can do…" Allura's voice trailed off sadly.
"Unless you can present someone with a documented qualified familial relation not currently in the database, Code 630; Section B is inapplicable."
"Documented? You mean if I find someone, they have to have some kind of proof?" I wonder if Merla could help him, Allura mused. She could have her world join the Alliance…
"Legal documentation of their status on a qualifying world, and either DNA or legally certified evidence of the relation in the cases of non-genetic relationships such as marriages and adoptions," the LAD explained.
It was then that the perfect answer struck Allura in all of its irony—marriage. She did have the power to save Lotor after all. She only had to marry him, legally bind herself and by corollary, her world, to him to do it. To save the man who tried to save my life while taking over my world, I'd have to give myself and my world to him to do it.
"I don't believe it…"
The LAD clicked inquisitively at the princess. "I do not understand the request, Princess Allura."
"I—I need some time to think," she said softly as she rose to her feet. "Please wait here, and keep what we discussed confidential."
The droid's response came automatically as she drifted off into even troubled and torn thought. "Yes, Princess Allura."
On a ship drawing closer and closer to the Galaxy Garrison complex, Cossack glanced over at the old witch that had brought him on the impromptu mission into enemy airspace. She had her hands spread wide over her scrying crystal and stared intensely into it, presumably trying to divine the whereabouts of their captive prince.
"You find him yet, or are you spying on the naked men in the prison showers?" the commander quipped from his chair.
Haggar's hooded head whipped up and cast an unamused glare in his direction. "He seems to be in transit. They have him in a hallway with a couple of armed guards. I thought they'd have him in solitary confinement."
"So just disguise yourself as a guard or something, blip in, pay him a visit, and blip out. That was your plan anyway, right?"
The old witch let out an irritated sigh. "Cossack, let me explain something to you. Teleporting is not just a matter of 'blipping' as you call it. It requires heavy concentration. Moving two bodies back will require even more energy. That means I can't waste a lot of time blasting guards out of my way or changing illusions too much. I'm powerful, but I don't want to attract the attention of every soldier and guard in the complex. I was hoping to find Lotor alone for that reason. I want to get in and out without being noticed."
Cossack double-checked that the cloaking device on their ship was engaged as they drew within detection range of the Galaxy Alliance base. They had been traveling invisibly ever since crossing into Alliance airspace, but now that they were within spitting distance of the fortress, he did not want to take any chances. "We got plenty of fuel. We'll just hang back here until it's safe for you to go in." He looked over at the robots manning the console and told them to run a silent surveillance scan, which was to intercept any passing signals without projecting any of their own.
Haggar nodded, but kept her eyes on the crystal, while a robot looked up from the console and turned toward Cossack. "Commander, the survey scans indicate a familiar pattern."
"Yeah well, we've dealt with GA ships before, I'm not surprised they're familiar," he retorted sarcastically as he put his feet up on the console, waiting for Haggar to do something, his part of her little rescue mission mostly done.
"No, Commander, one has the energy signature of a Voltron lion."
His feet were back on the floor in a flash. "You have to be shitting me."
Haggar also frowned, and waved her hand over her crystal to change what she was looking for while the robot keyed its findings up on the main view screen.
"Black Lion," both Haggar and Cossack said simultaneously, and exchanged looks.
"The Voltron force is there?" Cossack asked, while Haggar brought the image of Allura in conversation with the LAD into focus on her crystal.
"No, just Princess Allura," she muttered with a touch of disgust before straightening and stepping away from her crystal. Raising her staff, she murmured an incantation and suddenly her appearance changed from that of Haggar the witch to a Galaxy Alliance soldier in uniform, complete with a gun, which happened to be her staff under illusion. With a surprisingly masculine voice, the disguised witch looked at Cossack and said before disappearing, "You might have to put in some overtime on this after all."
While Haggar "blipped" out of the battleship and into the Galaxy Garrison complex, back on Arus dawn was breaking over the planet while alarms blared throughout the Castle of Lions. Flashing lights and annoying klaxons jolted the Voltron force members out of their sleep, and half awake and panicked the four young men ran to the control room still in their pajamas.
"What's going on?" Keith demanded of Coran, who stood at the console looking rather distressed.
Right on his heels, a sleepy Hunk skidded to a stop. "Is Zarkon attacking?"
"Coran! Where's the fire?" asked Lance, while Pidge joined his friends and eyed the castle keeper expectantly for an answer. The green lion pilot briefly glanced over his shoulder and wondered where the princess was.
"The black lion is gone," Coran informed them in a somber tone.
"What?" the male Voltron force members exclaimed in unison. They exchanged looks, and it suddenly dawned on them that Allura had not shown up.
"The princess—" Keith began.
Lance looked at the corridor through which they entered. "Yeah, where is she?"
"I hope she's all right," Hunk said, a worried note creeping into his voice before he punched one hand into his other. "If one of those Doom creeps has hurt her—"
"I have no reason yet to believe that she's been abducted, nor that the lion was stolen per se," the royal diplomat stated in a serious, but not quite panicking tone. "But I wanted you all alerted and brought here immediately so that you could tell me if you knew anything. Did she say anything at all about leaving and taking the black lion with her? Discuss any plans?"
The Voltron force members shook their heads to indicate that she had not, while a frown crept across Keith's face. Though he was worried about Allura, he also knew that it was not the first time the princess had taken the black lion for an impromptu fly, although he liked to believe that after how the last incident had turned out she would not do that again without very good reason. "She didn't say anything to me."
"Me neither," Lance said with a shrug.
Hunk glanced at the monitor. "Did you try contacting the lion?"
Coran nodded. "No answer." He turned and faced the console. "I wanted to ask you all before I contacted Galaxy Garrison and other planets in the system to see if they've either seen or heard from her."
It was then that Pidge noticed the family of space mice huddled inconspicuously near the wall on the west side of the room. "Actually," he said, and looked deliberately in their direction, "before you get on the horn to them, maybe you ought to ask everyone in the castle."
"I didn't think Nanny's fat butt was up yet," Lance quipped with unfortunate timing—for the governess had also heard the alarms and had just arrived in the doorway.
"Rude young man!" she exclaimed, and waved her hand angrily in Lance's direction. "For your information, Nanny and her backside were both up in the kitchen helping to cook breakfast for the bunch of ill-mannered, disrespectful young pilots that wouldn't know politeness if it bit them on their own!" She let out a second disapproving huff. "And for the love of Arus, hike up your pants! A proper young man doesn't show off his either, especially when he can't even put on a robe first in proper company!" She then looked to Coran. "Now where is my baby?"
The red lion pilot could not help but get in one last retort before Coran could answer. "Sorry lady, I didn't have time to dress up before checking to see if the castle was about to get blown sky high."
"Enough!" Keith interjected forcefully, before turning to the mice that Pidge pointed out before Nanny's arrival. "What about it, guys? Have you seen her?"
The mice exchanged uncertain looks while Pidge pressed them. "Yeah, she tells you guys everything! You must at least know when she left or if she was the one who took the black lion."
Two of the mice squeaked back and forth, as if arguing in mouse-speak, until Cheddar hesitantly stepped forward. "You know where she is?" Pidge asked.
Cheddar nodded, but his posture was visibly anxious.
"Is she safe?" Hunk asked.
The mouse nodded again.
"She took the black lion with her?"
Cheddar answered Pidge's question with another nod.
"Where did she go?" Keith asked, trying to force himself not to feel ridiculous for asking something so serious of a rodent. He knew Allura and Pidge found the mice to be great conversationalists, and even he could admit that they were fun at times, but he still felt silly talking to them.
Cheddar looked to his companions and there were a few more squeaks back and forth before the mouse let out a heavy sigh and squeaked, gesturing heavily as he did so, to Pidge. The green lion pilot's eyes went wide. "Oh!" he said with a measure of relief. "Well at least that's not an emergency."
"Since not all of us are fluent in mouse-mouth, can you translate?" Lance asked the younger pilot with a bit of sarcasm.
"Cheddar said she was feeling bad about what happened to Lotor, and went to Galaxy Garrison to check on the laws to see if there's any legal way to stop them from executing him."
A collective sigh of relief went through the room, followed by grunts and additional sighs of resignation, that-figures, and irritation. "All that worry for that scoundrel, oh my impulsive little baby," Nanny muttered with a shake of her head. "Why can't she get it through her pretty head that he's not worth it?"
"She certainly had no right to run off in the lion without telling anyone," Coran said with evident disapproval in his tone.
Cheddar squeaked up again, that time somewhat indignantly. Pidge nodded and conveyed the message. "Cheddar just said that Allura figured you wouldn't understand and that was why she left without saying anything."
"We understand just fine, but that doesn't make it any less irresponsible!" Keith pointed out irritably. "What if Zarkon had attacked?"
The mouse let out another squeak. "That's why he spoke up," Pidge translated.
"I'm more worried that she's going to see that jerk and he's going to upset her again and make her think she did something bad by making him account for all the no-good things he's done over the years," Hunk grumbled. "Wish we could get her to understand that the Galaxy Alliance wouldn't sentence him to a firing squad if he hadn't earned it!"
There was another series of squeaks, and Pidge sighed and looked at the mice. "Yeah, I know," he told them. "But I don't want to argue about it."
"And I don't believe we are arguing with a mouse about it," Lance said with a bemused shake of his head.
"We aren't anymore," Keith said decisively, and nodded to the mice. "Thanks for the information, Cheddar." He turned to Coran. "If she's at the Galaxy Garrison complex, we should go there and make sure she's all right. Even if Lotor can't physically harm her behind bars, he's likely to do a number on her through manipulation, and I don't want to see that."
Hunk glanced in the direction of the chutes to their lions. "I'm all right with that, but we still only have 3 lions. Who gets to double up?" He frowned slightly as he imagined squishing two people into the cramped quarters of the lion cockpit.
The four men exchanged looks for a few moments until all their gazes settled on Pidge. "Aw, c'mon!" the green lion pilot protested. "That's not fair! You're just picking on me because I'm short."
Lance grinned. "Height has its privileges!"
Keith also smiled. "Besides, I've flown the green lion before. Remember the first time we took them out against a robeast, back when the black lion's key was still missing?"
"Maybe we could stuff you into the mouse plane and let you fly that," Hunk teased him good-naturedly.
Pidge pouted and played along as they made their way to the chutes. "Oh fine. Even a short skinny guy like me probably couldn't fit in next to your fat gut!"
"Better a fat gut than a fat butt," he said, and glanced at Nanny, which caused each of them to snicker, except the stoic Keith, who only cracked a slight smile.
While Nanny narrowed her eyes at the near-insult, Lance helped to ensure that it fulfilled its destiny to become a real one. "Here's looking at you, Nanny!" he cracked jovially before hopping into the chute. A look of outrage flashed across the staunch governess' features, and the Voltron Force could still hear her exasperated voice echoing through the tunnel about what a disgrace they were almost the entire way down to the lions.
Continued in Part Three