"We have Intel concerning one Zarkon's generals. According to our spies, the High General Thrack has been more active than usual on the ground than in the air. We've received images from one of our intel pools concerning his activities, even though not recent."

A holoimage appeared at the center of the table showing the image of a number of drule robot soldiers carrying large steel crates, and leading them were two very large, drule soldiers with capes. Their obvious presence could be felt even in the images on the screen, commanding the semi large group of 15 soldiers.

"Cossack." The King said, thoughtfully watching the changing imagery.

"Do we know what they're carrying and what they were doing?" Lance asked Admiral Wade, the person who was explaining the situation.

"No. These images were sent in by a small team working in the outskirt provinces. Apparently these are the only images they could get considering the fact that they were outnumbered. They are hardly reliable now because these images were taken two weeks ago. Those two could be back at the Citadel by now. An educated base would be that they are building a base. Another could be there are doing reconnaissance on our own military." Wade responded quickly, very much annoyed by the Lieutenant's obvious disregard in questioning his superiors.

"Considering the time span, I would assume that they finished what they had to do and left. Currently there has been no increase in drule activity outside of the usual."

"Excuse me, Admiral. But I think you're brushing this aside too quickly." the Princess said, frowning slightly. It was apparent that something did not sit right with her. Her father was apparently not pleased as well.

"When have drule high generals led parties onto our soil, and leave empty handed? They always take slaves and destroy completely, but there has always been a reason to their actions. They usually do this from the comfort of their ships, correct? And for them to set foot on the surface with such few men…What did they take?" she asked him firmly.

"Your Highness, if I knew every little thing behind drule action, we'd have won this war by now. But unfortunately, I do not know drule psyche nor completely understand their actions. As I have said, this information is two weeks old." Wade responded, obviously annoyed by the princess's questioning. He did not like being seen as incompetent, and these brats seemed to always try and bring him down in the eyes of his peers. The atmosphere was undoubtedly tense, all the military leaders uncomfortable with the fact that they were missing critical information.

"The princess is right. This stinks to kingdom come. Those crates can't build swat. I mean, have you seen the size of their ships? And I can understand that we're having trouble with communications, but how can we beat these guys at their own game if we can't even speak to each other properly?" Hunk asked, upset about having to find this out last.

"Not everyone has a Pidge, Hunk. But still, it's troublesome." Hunter Mclain responded.

"Where did the information come from?" the King asked Wade, brows drawn together in obvious concerntration.

"Dispa, Sire."

"Serena." Lord McLain said quietly. "Then this isn't some fluke. There's something wrong out there."

The other military officers at the table nodded, considering that Lady Serena wasn't the type to complain. They had last seen her four years before as she'd holed herself up in her province completely.

"Then, at this table's obvious concern, I will send men to her to clarify on the matter." Wade said, placated.

"No." His Majesty stated firmly.

"You are an Admiral for the men fighting here, and such a matter would be too distracting, even for you. You are right that there has been a time since we've seen any activity outside of the normal pillaging, and for now, we focus our resources on what we urgently need done." The King said, gesturing toward the plans for their next counter offensive. Voices around the table raised as some were ready to protest, but the King raised his hand to quiet them.

" If we receive another message from Lady Serena, I will send one of you to verify the situation. Dividing our man power is not an option at the moment. Right at this moment, we should be multiplying our strength, and that isn't happening. I know we need all the military strength, especially when fighting aerial attacks. These four have been trained for that, but we cannot rely on only them. I am the first to admit that other provinces fell because we concentrated on ourselves as single units, something that our enemy has taken advantage of. What happened to Pollux will not happen here or anywhere else. And for that, we need to know what's out there and as you've pointed out, find a way to improve communications."

"Pidge and Hunk, I leave all engineering issues up to you. Lance, help with the defence and possibly pick out any whom you think can be further trained and upgraded so we can improve in the air. We are failing to gain ground in our air fights and the amount of damage to our anti air weapons is massive. Deal with it. Allura, all diplomatic and humanitarian concerns I leave to you. Until the lions are united, that is all we can do." The King said in finality.

"Yes, Sir." they chorused.

...

"Now this sucks." Hunk whispered, grumbling as he shifted his ruck sack over his shoulder. Everyone knew that the big guy loved to eat. But his love of sleep equated to his love of food.

"I know. Blame it on the old men. Why the hell can't they do this during daylight hours." Lance responded, also upset about having been woken up just an hour after midnight. His patience was on an extremely short leash. As the four of them made their way through the dim caves to the landing dock of the underground shuttles, they were surprised to see the King and Lord McLain waiting for them in pajamas and slippers. If they weren't so tired, they would have laughed.

"Chic, old man. Very chic." Lance smirked at his father.

"You only dream of having such style, little boy." he responded, humor never far away, completely oblivious to his red hair standing in whichever direction on his head. The King on the other hand looked well put together, even though he was wearing pajamas.

"I'm not going to explain why you're leaving for Dispa contrary to what i had told you in the meeting. You're all smart enough to know why." the king said, eyeing each one of them in the eye. He stopped for a bit longer on his daughter, conveying the hidden message again.

Traitors.

"The jamming signal Pidge installed will protect this transport until you are within a kilometer of Lady Serena's bunker. No one here will be able to communicate with the outside until this signal has been turned off for your own safety and in order for us to figure out who's tampering with our communications. Pidge will do it. When this is done you will contact us when it's safe to do so. They won't expect you, so some mistrust is to be expected. Even some resistance."

"Keep your eyes on the ground and be careful whom you trust. Not everyone likes the royal family or the choices that have been made and you might even fight defectors and spies. It's someone else's turf, Lance. So behave." Lord McLain added.

"It'll take you about five hours, so rest up. And good luck." the King said as the four buckled themselves. After closing the hatch, Lance programmed in the coordinates and off they went, unknowingly to a fated meeting...

...

A man shot up in his bed, heart pounding ferociously from the nightmare he'd just had. Brushing damp midnight black hair from his face, he slowly stood up and made his way to the bathroom. Splashing cold water onto his face and bare chest, he willed the distant memory now nightmare from his head.

"Why now?" he asked himself quietly, meeting his own obsidian eyes in the mirror. His heart still ached from the searing pain he felt the day he lost his father, and at 20 years old, the pain still tore him up in his darkest moments. But never had a nightmare been this repetitive or severe.

"Why now? It's been years since dad died. Why am I dreaming of that place?" he asked himself. He went back into his room and sat on the bed, running his fingers through his hair in agitation. Finding no hope in getting any sleep, Keith put on his combat camouflage uniform and left for the command center.

"You're well on your way to becoming an insomniac, my friend." Sven said as he turned to his friend.

"Didn't you get the memo? I was always an insomniac. The very sound of my boots haunts these hallways."

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Even for you.", Sven said giving his long time friend a very pointed look. His sleepless nights were beginning to wear him down and it needed to stop, considering they could be called out to fight at anytime.

"What's eating you, Keith? Don't give me trash like 'nothing, I'm fine' because it not cutting it."

Keith would have shrugged the question off if not for the exhaustion he felt both physically and emotionally. Sven had been his best friend for years, and they'd gone through hell and back together in this war.

This war.

Sven watched different emotions play on his friend's face, subtle enough to barely be recognized by those around him, strong enough for Sven to recognize the slight nuances.

Doubt. Fear. Sadness. Extreme sadness.

Emotions uncharacteristic of the unshakable leader of the Crimson Guard.

"It's a part of my past." Keith said quietly.

Sven hid his surprise for a moment because he didn't expect to get an answer. His friend was adamant that his past remain that, the past. Asking him usually led to him completely diverting the conversation or a cold, frigid stare. Once it almost got him beaten to a pulp. Since it was just the two of them and the answers were coming, he decided to dig more.

"Before you came here?"

A stiff nod was his response.

"Just before I was found I had a normal childhood. Before it all went to hell, that is. My dad used to read this book to me. A heavy black book . He said it was passed down in my family and that everything i needed to know was in that book..." Pacing the floor of the command center, Sven watched as his friend's agitation grew.

"Everything you need to know about what?" Sven asked cautiously.

"My life, my family, my dest... Never mind, I sound like a nut case." Keith said dismissively.

"OK. So you can't sleep because of a book?"

"No! Why do you think it was the fucking book Sven? Don't you understand..."

"No I fucking don't because you've always avoided the topic about your life before you were four. You've always told me to act like it isn't an issue, but obviously it is!" Sven snapped back.

Sven watches his friend's internal struggle reflecting on his face as he paced the control dim control room they were in. He watched him drag his fingers through his already unruly hair. All tale-tell signs of his high frustration level.

"What the hell happened to you, Keith?" Sven asks quietly, unnerved by his friend's condition. Keith stops pacing and leans on the wall before slowly sliding down to sit on the floor, hands still tugging his hair. He sits there so quietly for a while and if not for the steady rise and fall of his shoulders, one would have thought he'd fallen asleep.

"When I can't read it," he continued "he looks at me with such disappointment Sven. I've never seen that look on his face. Then the chair we're sitting in seems like it's been teleported from the library and then we're sitting in the middle of this scorched, burned, lifeless land marred by craters and flowing lava. The sky is pitch black, so black that there are no moons or stars. Just nothingness. And there's this pit right in front of us. There are countless bodies in this pit, rotting and freshly laid copses, one of them a broken body of a blond blue-eyed woman, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And she's just lying there, lifeless. Looking at me. When I look back and beg my father to help her, I see him lifeless too before the chair starts falling into the pit, and I'm screaming so loud as I'm swallowed up by those bodies."

Sven watches his best friend as he stretched out to sit helplessly against the wall. The helpless empty look in Keith's eyes was as frightening as the dream he'd told him. Sven didn't know why, but he felt a shiver run through him.

"Do you know the woman?"

"No. I don't. I don't know why, but i have a feeling I should. That whatever this dream means is tied to her as well. We're connected somehow." Keith said quietly.

"What are you going to do? This woman may already be dead or she doesn't even exist and its likely you may never meet. She could just be a metaphor for something, like light and darkness, you know all that stuff Aunt made us read. It could be residual memories of your mother. Or it might all be in your head, my friend."

"My mother had my eyes. She died after giving birth to me, but my I saw her portrait a lot and my dad talked about her extensively. It's not her." Keith responded lifelessly, eyes looking ata Sven but completely unfocused on him.

"What are you going to do?" a deep baritone asked in his head

"What I've always done. Move forward." Keith responded subconsciously to the voice he'd now deemed his subconscious. If anyone knew that he had conversations with himself in his head, he'd have been locked up a long time ago.

"Hey,Keith!" Sven shouted,a worried look on his watched his friend for a moment, eyeing the man he'd called brother for years, realizing that he hadn't heard a thing that Sven had said completely.

"I need to get that book. And I'm going to need your help." Keith resolved determinedly, standing up informing his friend

Sven gulped as he recognized the determined gleam in his friend's eye.

...

Princess Allura woke up to the beeping of the of their locus indicator warning them of their impending arrival. After buckling down for the trip, they'd all taken turns keeping watch as the others slept that they were heading on the proper course.

"Morning, Princess." a chirpy Pidge greeted her. He was switching off the indicator and tampering with another gadget.

Lance and Hunk were snoring away in their seats, oblivious to their surroundings.

"How long before we get there?" She asked him, securing her ponytail.

"Well, we're at the 1km borderline, so they should have notice of our arrival. If they recognize our codes and don't stop us, we'll be stopping in 14 minutes." Pidge responded expertly.

After waking up their two team members, they watched as the shuttle came to a stop in front of two very large blast doors before they opened slowly. The shuttle continued on before stopping two more times at similar blast doors before they finally saw a landing platform with two dozen or so armed men.

"Paranoid much?" Lance snubbed, eyeing their welcome party.

"We'll see whether they're friend or foe. Remember, no one attacks unless they do." Princess Allura said firmly. As they watched, the soldiers snapped into attention as a slim, tall, silver haired lady stepped to the front with a group of elderly gentlemen. Princess Allura let out an audible sigh of relief as she visibly relaxed. Opening the hatch and quickly jumping out, much to her comrades' surprise, she ran into the lady's arms.

"My, how you've grown!" the older woman exclaimed at the beauty in her arms. The men on the platform visibly relaxed as they sensed no threat from their visitors.

"Aunt, I missed you." Allura told Lady Serena. Aside from her Aunt Orla and Nanny, this was a woman she valued and modeled herself after. She had always admired the strength of the woman in front of her, strong enough to argue with the most powerful men she knew, gentle enough to open her heart to countless orphans she cared for.

"And I you, my dear. But let's do this properly."

Lady Serena took a step back and curtseyed before the Princess in proper court fashion, keeping her eyes lowered as she greeted her monarch.

"Welcome to the province of Clarion, your Highness. The people of Dispa and beyond are honored and humbled by your visit. May the blessing of the House of Ariella grace us during your visit." The other men all bowed after their Lady.

"Please rise, Lady Serena. Thank you for warm welcome and it is I who is privileged to be here."

Lance glanced at Pidge and Hunk, who were also exchanging looks. Their little princess' lessons with Coran had definitely paid off. He would be so proud.

"Come, my dear. I'll introduce you to some very important people. These are the men are in charge of this bunker's safety. Admiral Garrison, Generals Aki and Graham, High Commander Hawkins and Captain Newley.

The five men all bowed to her highness respectfully.

"I'm honored to meet all of you. Thank you for all the hard work. Without you, we'd all be lost." the princess said sincerely.

"This is my company. Lance McLain, Darrell Stoker and Tsuyoshi Garrett. They are here to assist in any way possible at the request of my father and they all possess the heart of a lion, like me."