I do not own Voltron or anything even remotely associated with it. Heaven knows if I did, I would still have the toys. I apologize yet again for the delay. This chapter has been incredibly difficult for some reason. And now, the long-awaited, much anticipated(so kidding)second flashback!

First Farewell

Arms crossed across his chest, Keith lay with his eyes closed, resting against the Black's right front paw. Overhead the sun shone brightly, casting its light across the glittering surface of the lake surrounding the palace. A faint breeze whistled past, ruffling the hair at his collar. Even if he had asked for it, he couldn't have found a day with better flying conditions. Unfortunately his flying days on Arus were over. Well, not technically. Technically he still had up to an hour left on the planet's surface and while that wasn't enough time to take the Black even on one last pleasure cruise, time still remained for him on Arus. Opening his eyes, he watched with disgust as the sunlight gleamed against the surface of the buttons on his Galaxy Garrison uniform. It felt strange to be wearing it again after all the time that had passed. Even stranger was the name written above his left breast, matched by an assortment of ribbons and medals to the right that he was fairly certain he hadn't truly earned. The special Voltron one, depicting the same crest that was on the chest of the Lion towering above him, he didn't look at. That ceremony, of only a few weeks past, was one he would like to forget. Strange to think that it had been only three weeks ago, however, that the Voltron Force had first been split up by Pidge's departure. Hunk had followed a week later and the week after, Lance. Surely it would have been simpler to send one transport for the four of them, but for reasons unknown to Keith, GG had opted to send their new assignments separately. A smile flickered briefly across his lips as he remembered Lance's last night on Arus, so different from his own. Dismayed by the prospect of actually having to work at something, Lance had spent the entire night looking for answers at the bottom of a bottle. He called it one last fling before becoming respectable, despite Keith and Allura's assurance that respectable was something he could never be. Only one other time had Keith seen him as drunk and the experience was not one that he cared to repeat ever again. Part of him almost wished he had spent his last night in the same occupation. Almost.

Shifting his weight more comfortably on the Black's paw, Keith looked up at the Lion's head above him and seriously considered hijacking the craft so as to avoid what faced him. Running away was usually not his choice of action and in this case it wouldn't solve a thing, no matter how tempting it seemed. There was a new Voltron Force now, and a finer group of men he didn't think they could have found to take over their legacy. He was particularly impressed with the Black's new pilot and he believed that the Black was too, though he was reasonably assured that the Black wouldn't share the same bond with its new partner in flight. It was to say good-bye to the Black that had first brought him up here, minutes before he was due to leave on his transport and what he had intended to be a brief farewell had become a refuge. Up here there was nothing but himself, the Black, and the surrounding sky, the feeling one that he liked more that he dared admit to himself. Up here there was no impending farewell or greeting at Galaxy Garrison, though the latter would take at least a week to occur, he was dreading it nevertheless. He could just imagine the hero's welcome that was waiting for him and it made him sick. Keith didn't feel like a hero even though he knew he would always be remembered as one. It had been a job and he had done it to the best of his abilities, nothing more. Beneath him, the metal vibrated slightly as if to scold him and he smiled faintly. The Black knew him far too well...he would miss it.

Below, the first of several figures began to file across the long drawbridge leading from the palace to the landing platform and Keith heaved a sigh. His transport must have cleared the planet's atmosphere and would likely descend upon him at any moment. Watching the tiny procession, he easily picked out the five heads of the new Voltron Force, accompanied by several of Arus' newly elected officials. Though still in its early stages, the new political system Allura and Coran had devised between them, with the help of Allura's fiancé, was off to a good start. Though he had his own reservations about some of the changes suggested, Keith thought the idea was a relatively sound one and had been as surprised as the others when it was greeted with enthusiasm by most of the populace. It seemed Arus had learned a lesson from all of Doom's attacks; it would be better for everyone if their system of power didn't entirely hinge on one individual. Allura and her husband would still retain ultimate control, but should the worst befall them, the planet would no longer collapse in their absence. It was an ambitious system and he truly wished them the best in making it work; unfortunately, he wouldn't be around to see how it panned out.

Grumpily rising to his feet, Keith automatically straightened his uniform in the reflection he cast against the Black's paw. If the transport was indeed as close as he suspected, his time for hiding with the Black had come to an end. Placing one hand against the lion's paw, he looked up at the giant head above and smiled.

"You were a good companion in battle, my friend," he murmured, not caring what anyone thought of him speaking to a lump of metal, however large, though he could just imagine what Lance would say if he were present. "You know as well as I, though, that our time together had to come to an end. Be patient with Kentley. He doesn't understand all the finer points yet, but I know he'll keep his head in battle. I will miss you, more than you know. Watch out for her, as a favor for me, if you can. I know it can't be in the same capacity, but since I no longer can...it will ease my pain if I know someone is looking out for her in my stead. It will almost be like I'm still here if you do. I wish I could say we'd meet again, but the circumstances that would cause that are not ones I would like to see. Maybe in my last days, before death takes me, I'll come for one last flight and we'll explore the skies together once more. Farewell, my faithful friend."

Checking briefly to make certain he wasn't visible below, Keith briefly enclosed his arms as far as they would reach around the Black's paw and then stepped away from the spacecraft. Unexpectedly, something unusually moist descended from above, landing just in front of his feet but when he looked up, there was no sign of its source. The smile that found its way upon his features was a grim one and he saluted the giant Lion's head one last time before turning his back upon the craft that had served him so well for five years. Heading to the ladder on the platform's side, Keith deliberately refrained from looking at the Black and quickly descended. The closer he came to the ground, the easier it was to believe that the structure above him housed nothing more than an overly large statue and not the spacecraft that had become a sort of home to him. Reaching the ground, he had just enough time to readjust his uniform yet again before the slowly marching Voltron Force came level with him. Though he had steadily become accustomed to it over the past few weeks, the sight of other men in the familiar uniforms still struck a chord of discord within him. Stranger still was the sight of the Black's pilot actually in black. When asked why only Hunk and Pidge had matched their lions with their uniforms, both Lance and Keith had shrugged and replied that Sven liked black. Not knowing Sven, the new force hadn't understood and had blithely chosen to match the color of their lions to their uniforms. Privately both Lance and Keith found it ridiculous; part of the point of not matching the colors was to create some question as to which member piloted which lions, at least initially. But Kentley had wanted black and so the team matched for the first time since its creation. In the lead, Kentley stopped abruptly at the sight of the former Voltron Captain Automatically his gaze rose to the platform before returning to Keith and his eyes had an unwanted gleam of understanding as he said,

"Saying goodbye?"

"I take it the transport was cleared?" Keith asked, ignoring the first question. One corner of Kentley's mouth tightened but he nodded and replied,

"Yes. There was some delay given that the transport from Valian arrived earlier than

expected. It seems they won't be allowed to land until yours has departed."

"I'm sorry the five of you have to be present for this. I'd rather leave without any ceremony," Keith grumbled, running a hand through his hair and avoiding the sudden piercing gaze of the newly formed Voltron Force.

"And not give their hero his proper send-off? Captain, you underestimate Arus' sense of propriety. Will you join us?"

"I'll wait awhile longer, thanks, Kentley." One of the young man's brows raised but he saluted Keith smartly and resumed his march towards the landing area. One by one, the new members filed past the last member of the original force, their gazes strangely intense. Keith returned them all as blankly as he could, inwardly cursing the circumstances that had placed him in this position. He knew it was partly paranoia but suddenly it seemed as if everyone in the world knew of his private affairs and was trying to provoke him into some sort of reaction. Who were Kentley and the others to presume that the arrival of the Valian transport interested him? He would have accepted such comments from Lance or the others, but not from the men he had spent scarcely two months training flying the Lions. While he retained a certain closeness with them, it was not one that justified overstepping such bounds and while a rational part of him knew Kentley hadn't really said anything, he didn't care. Why everyone always thought they knew everything about his personal affairs amazed him. They were hisafter all, not theirs, and it wasn't their damned business anyway if the very idea of Allura's husband just hovering within the planet's orbit disturbed him. More than anything he just wanted this over and done with. Once he was on the transport, there could be no turning back and he could finally be alone with his misery. He hadn't expected it to be this hard. Against his will he wondered if the waiting prince found the delay as maddening as he did, anything to keep his mind off of what lay ahead. Dimly he registered the sound of approaching footsteps but he couldn't bring himself to look to see who it was, though he was relatively certain. Instead he remained as he was, with his back to the Black's platform, willing himself to blend into its structure and disappear entirely.

"Keith?" His name was followed by a rather loud sniff and Keith couldn't entirely check a smile as Nanny's disapproval of him continued to make itself known, even to the last. Assuming an almost sheepish expression, he took a step away from the platform and surveyed the latest participants in the ongoing parade past him. Features unusually somber, Coran was studying him almost as intently as the new Force members had, garbed in his usual suit of brown. For what wasn't the first time Keith wondered how old Coran really was; the man seemed not to age or to change in any way. In fact, the rather serious look he was directing at Keith from under his brows was the same one he had cast the former Voltron Captain at breakfast this morning. On his arm was the ever rotund, ever domineering Nanny. If not for her sniff, he wouldn't have recognized her at first. Her brown curls weren't confined by a cap of any sorts and were piled a trifle haphazardly upon her head, but the overall effect was a pleasing one. Gone as well was her customary apron and maid's outfit; instead she was wearing a somewhat fancy(by Nanny's standards)dress of a deep blue. She looked more like the Princess' trusted guardian rather than her nursemaid. Keith suspected she wanted both to make a good impression on Allura's future husband and to prematurely intimidate him into fear of her. Somehow he didn't think anyone would be as much of a match for Nanny as he and his team.

"Is there a reason you're lingering here?" Coran asked again, his tone kindly even as Nanny failed to smother another sniff. The sheepishness of Keith's expression intensified and he threw a glance upwards before answering,

"Just wanted to say good-bye. I'll be along. Nanny, thank you for coming. I can't tell you what it means to me to have you here at my send-off."

"I'll tell you what it means to me. No more snatching the Princess off at all hours of the day and never knowing when she'll come back. Oh how many nights I spent unable to sleep for fear the next time she went with you she wouldn't return. It is all your fault. You and the rest of them. You are the last and I say good-riddance to you."

"I'll miss you, too," Keith replied, unable to keep from grinning. Nanny simply turned her nose up in the air with a rather loud "humph." Exchanging a brief glance with Coran, Keith quickly leaned forward and did something none of the others would have had the courage to do. He kissed Nanny on the cheek. There was a moment of dazed silence before the woman began sputtering and waving her free fist at him without any sense of where he was. Easily dodging her blows, Keith tried desperately not to laugh as she continued to berate him. Even Coran was having difficulty keeping a straight face, though he shook his head openly at Keith's behavior. Upon his departure, Lance had hugged the woman and had promptly found himself on the ground for all his pains. Fleetingly Keith wished that his friend had been present to witness Nanny's latest fit and then suppressed it as Coran began to gently move Nanny onward.

"Now, now, Nanny, he didn't mean it."

"But to presume...to behave so with a nearly royal person...I must wash my face immediately when we return to the palace." Over Nanny's shoulder, Coran threw Keith a reproving glance but the former Captain simply shrugged in response. Even if there was someone like Nanny, male or female, at Galaxy Garrison, he didn't think he would have the heart to torture them so. It seemed that this, too, was over for him. The smile that had been on his lips faded and he sighed heavily before taking a step forward. There was no use delaying the inevitable any longer. From behind him, a slender hand tentatively descended upon his shoulder and any thought of progressing further faded from his mind. Up ahead, the still spluttering Nanny glanced back in indignation and nearly broke free from Coran as she beheld the pair lingering underneath the Black's platform.

"Let me go, Coran! I cannot permit this!"

"Nanny, control yourself. Keith is leaving today and in all likelihood she will never see him again. Let them have a few last moments alone." Opening her mouth as if to protest further, Nanny faltered under the full intensity of Coran's stare and grudgingly allowed herself to be led towards the landing platform.

"He has five minutes," she muttered under her breath. "Five minutes," she repeated, fixing Coran with a glare of her own. Arus' head advisor could only sigh.

The pair they spoke of was not entirely oblivious to Nanny's outburst, however it might have seemed. A small frown had found Allura's features, but her maid/watchdog's obvious disapproval did not stop her from drawing Keith back behind the platform, out of sight from any prying eyes. As for the Voltron Captain, he paid little heed to Nanny's too predictable protest, instead taking in the attire of the woman who was about to vanish from his life forever through no choice of their own. The gown Allura had chosen to wear to greet her future husband was nothing short of breathtaking. Of a silver-white color, it fell off her shoulders, emphasizing her curves in ways that her ordinary gowns never had and sparkling when the sunlight caught its folds. Her hair was pinned up intricately with a few curls deliberately left dangling at her neck, topped off by the unusual addition of a tiara that sparkled as crazily as her gown in the light. Looking at her made a lump rise in his throat and he found himself totally incapable of speech as she suddenly flung her arms around his neck and embraced him. Smiling before he was even aware of it, Keith allowed himself to hold her in return, the part of him that knew this was the last time he would ever do this overpowering everything else.

"Tell me this isn't happening," Allura whispered into his ear some moments later.

"It isn't happening," Keith replied dutifully, still smiling..

"Don't be cute. It ishappening. I wish..."

"There's no sense in wishing for things that can't come true, Princess. There is no changing things."

"I still wish there was a way. Are you sorry?" She raised her head from his shoulder to fix him with a stare, her eyes already beginning to glimmer with the beginning of tears. The smile on Keith's face only deepened and he shook his head slowly.

"No. I would do it again, even knowing that it was going to end this way."

"You might be...years from now when..."

"Years from now it will all be a pleasant memory to comfort me in my certain misery at

GG. I have no regrets, Allura, save one. And there's no helping that." For a moment longer she searched his gaze and then buried her face in his shoulder a second time.

"Coran knows," she said quietly, so quietly he almost didn't hear her. Instantly Keith stiffened and the smile froze on his features as she continued, "He spoke to me before coming...I thought it was going to be one of his usual lectures about greeting my fiancé properly and it started out that way but then...he said he knew it had been a difficult choice for me and not the one that I would have made, had I been free to make it as I pleased. That it took a great leader to be able to sacrifice one's own personal desires for the good of their people and their planet. And then...he said he had never been more proud of me than he was now." Her voice broke and Keith no longer even attempted to smile. "I couldn't even look at him...and he said something about feeling like a father to me, even though he couldn't replace mine, and that it wasn't what he would have wished for me either. And that because he knew it wasn't what I wanted, or necessarily what would make me happiest, that was why he was so proud." She shuddered and Keith tightened his grip on her unconsciously, his own voice uneven when he spoke,

"He said something similar to me after breakfast. Drew me aside even. I never knew he thought so highly of me...but I don't doubt his sincerity. He told me it isn't every man who walks away from something he knows he will never find again simply because it is the right thing to do." Allura nodded against his shoulder and Keith had a suspicion that she was crying even as Coran's image from this morning floated before his eyes. The elder man's expression had been somber as always but lit with an unexpected sympathy and understanding that had unnerved him at the time. After allowing his message to sink in, Coran had clasped him firmly on the shoulder and wished him luck and success at Galaxy Garrison and left him to his own thoughts.

"How much do you think he knows?" Allura asked a moment later, looking up at him briefly.

"No more than the others did. He thinks we're making a noble sacrifice. He doesn't know anything for certain. This isn't fair to you. As soon as I leave, I'll be free of the burden while you'll always have to carry it. I shouldn't have..."

"Keith, you didn't make me do anything I didn't want to do."

"I still shouldn't have..."

"I thought you told me you had no regrets?" She tilted her head to one side and looked

up at him. Opening his mouth to reply, Keith swallowed back his words and smiled down at her.

"I don't regret it..I regret what it means for you."

"I knew what I was doing, what it would mean. I'll be fine."

"I'll still worry."

"I know...you always were good at that. Lance called you..."

"I'm aware of the nickname, thank you. I can't say how much I'm going to miss you."

"I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow when I wake up and none of you are here. It made it easier when the others...I still had you. And tomorrow all I'll have is Coran and Nanny and the stranger I'm going to marry. You won't be there to pass in the corridors or to politely inquire about how the Lions training is going. I don't want to know what it's like to be here without you."

"You'll get used to it," he answered after a moment, his voice sounding quite unlike his own.

"Yes, I will and that only makes it worse. You'll get used to not seeing me, too."

"But I'll never like it."

"Neither will I." Their gazes met then and they shared what was possibly their last

genuine smile before Allura stepped out of his embrace. Arms still extended, Keith looked from where she had been to where she was and clenched his jaw. This was the way it was going to be from now on, he reminded himself, no matter how he hated it.

"We've lingered too long. Coran won't be able to hold Nanny back forever," she said softly, absently rearranging the folds of her dress. Keith simply nodded, his gaze riveted on her movements as he silently committed every facet of her features to his memory. Looking up at him, Allura studied him for several moments, as if to do the same, a slight frown creasing her features at the unfamiliar Galaxy Garrison uniform before she whispered,

"So say good-bye to me here. I don't want them to see what they think they're going to see."

Crossing the remaining space between them before he was even aware of it, Keith looked at her for a moment where she stood, one tear streaking down her cheek despite her efforts to prevent it. Wiping it clear with his thumb, he smiled and kissed her for the last time. This, too, he sought to commit to memory as he kissed her tenderly, conscious of the tears streaming down her cheeks as he did so. Drawing away, he traced the line of her face and murmured,

"Good-bye, Allura."

"Good-bye," she managed to reply, kissing him fleetingly before fleeing the platform. Features contorted with a series of emotions, Keith watched her as she walked to where everyone waited for his arrival, a silver-white form of utter poise and elegance. Her tears would be gone by now, and hopefully all traces of their existence. And while they might suspect, no one would know for certain what had passed between them. No one would know except the two of them. No one but him...and Allura.