I don't own Voltron or anything even remotely associated with it. Heaven knows if I did, I would still have the toys. I apologize for the long delay, yet again, but this is most definitely worth it. The moment of truth, heh heh. Hopefully it won't disappoint you. :)

Confession

Keith stared up at the computer screens, occasionally changing the view presented by the monitors with the stroke of a key. Sleep had not found him on this night, he hadn't really expected it to, and so he did what he had always done when he was unable to sleep. He went on his patrol three times and ended up in the control room, dismissing the guards and watching over the palace while everyone else slept. Or so he presumed. Lance had been absent from supper and when Keith left the lounge, he still hadn't put in an appearance. Suspecting that he was either with Calinda or trying to drink the palace dry(possibly both), Keith hadn't gone to look for him. All signs indicated that his rooms were occupied, however, that much the security system could tell him. He didn't really fear for his second-in-command. If he had learned anything over the years, it was that Lance could take care of himself. Allura had also been absent from the lounge, not even stopping by to say good-night as she most often did. Her whereabouts Keith didn't want to determine. Part of him hoped that she was trying to make peace with her husband, for Cael's sake if not their own, while another hoped she was only saying good-bye to the home she might never see again. In a way it was foolish for all of them to believe this was her last night with them. Lotor might not want her handed over to him tomorrow...but he most likely would. If he intended to repeat history, he would come for her at sundown and Keith was more than certain that he would. Of that sunset, however, he did not like to think and so he focused his attention again on the monitors.

One screen never changed of the ten that were in front of him. It was the screen watching over the item they had created from the pieces of their lions. Five guards also stood in attendance, standing in shifts that lasted only an hour before a new man was rotated in so as to make certain they did not grow careless. Keith was taking no risks with the sword Pidge believed to be magical. If it was magical or not, Keith couldn't say. They had gone to the spring, the five of them, each bearing a piece of their Lions. The five robots had remained in their lairs, however, the Force members instead taking a palace shuttle that had both Keith and Lance swearing under their breath at its blatant inferiority. Avoiding Lotor's notice had been their prime concern, however, and the shuttle had appeared to be nothing more than a transport of tourists. Once at the spring, Pidge had set up his video equipment and dictated almost thirty minutes' worth of notes before allowing them to begin. One by one they had each placed the item from their lions into the spring. From the Blue it was a chip from the tip of it's tail, from the Yellow, part of a tooth, from the Red, a claw, and the Green part of its eye. Lastly Keith had dropped in part of the Black's crest and watched along with the others as the spring began to bubble and steam. While the four of them had simply looked on in amazement, Pidge was furiously recording, talking all the while. Once the steam had cleared, a sword lay in the spring's depths, its blade glistening with a light all its own. For a moment even Pidge was silent and then he was ordering Keith to take it. Why he had to be the one, Keith still didn't understand but he knew, just as the others had, that the sword would suffer no one's touch but his own. It had felt strangely right in his hand and it pulsated faintly with an energy all its own. That, perhaps, more than anything else, suggested to Keith that the sword was indeed magical but he didn't dare to venture an opinion either way. Pidge had been unable to keep quiet the entire ride home, studying the sword from all ages and alternating between writing furiously or talking a mile a minute into his recorder. Apparently this was the one thing Pidge had needed to lend credibility to his research and Keith was glad for his sake...he just wasn't certain the sword would be able to live up to its reputation.

The sound of footsteps echoed behind him and he didn't even bother to change the screen to see who approached. He had known she would come, just as he had known ten years ago. He couldn't see how she would have been able to stay away...though this time, he didn't know what had to be said between them before she willingly handed herself over to Lotor for the second time. Even the first time, he hadn't been able to say what needed to be said, nor had she, but they had silently acknowledged it.. He hadn't tried to hide it, for even that brief moment that they were alone and that had been enough of a change. This time...this time he didn't know what good it would do either of them to make any sort of confession. There was still Liran and a hundred other obstacles between them...did it really matter if he still loved her and she still loved him? Possibly not. But even he, as cynical as he had become, didn't want to say good-bye in front of everyone else and tomorrow there would be no time. Her steps grew hesitant, almost timid as she moved further into the control room and finally paused a few feet from where he sat. It was so like it had been that night, ten years ago, that Keith almost thought if he closed his eyes, the years would vanish and he would be twenty-five again. If only it was that easy. A faint smile found his lips without his awareness of it and he turned his attention away from the monitors and rose to face her.

Hair tumbling freely down her shoulders, Allura was once again wearing the pale green robe she had donned upon Frank's awakening, though this time there was something underneath it. Judging by the strained look to her features, he gathered that she hadn't attempted to sleep for very long and had most likely been up pacing the length of her rooms for most of the night. Her gaze avoided his even as she seemed to seek it and he felt a lump unexpectedly rise up in his throat. What if this really was the last time he ever saw her alone? The fact that he had contemplated this question before he ignored as the reality of the moment faced him. If things went as he suspected they might...this would be the last time...and despite everything, he didn't want that. Stepping towards her, he waited until she couldn't avoid his gaze any longer and raised his arms only slightly. Her eyes widened and he was acutely conscious of the years slipping away as she accepted his silent invitation and willingly went into his arms. He could feel her trembling even as she clung to him and he found himself trying to memorize the feel of her just as he had before. Stubbornly a part of his mind insisted that she should have gone to Liran for comfort before he silenced it by tightening his hold on her. Liran be damned, tonight she wanted him and he wasn't about to deny her, even if he knew it was wrong. It hadn't stopped him before.

Pulling away from him abruptly, Allura looked up at him with eyes that were beginning to glisten with tears even as she smiled and whispered,

"I'm afraid."

Keith's brows arched and the past merged with the present again as he replied,

"He won't harm you."

"That's not what I'm afraid of. I'm never going to see my son again." She turned away from him and the past shimmered away into the present. Brows drawing together, Keith moved to stand behind her, close enough so that he was almost touching her and said,

"You have to believe that you will."

"What if you can't save me?" Wishing that she would stop saying exactly what she had before even though he knew she couldn't help it, Keith drew in a long breath and said,

"Someone will, even if it isn't me. Do you think any of us could rest knowing that you were his prisoner?"

"Being Lotor's prisoner isn't so very bad, if you can stand him," she said, a trace of humor creeping into her voice. Keith didn't smile.

"You didn't have any trouble the last time." Allura's features drained of all color even though he couldn't see them and she turned to face him, her gaze earnest as it met his.

"I'd tell you it was only to keep up the ruse, but you wouldn't believe me and I'm not sure if it's really the truth. He isn't entirely unattractive...and he can be very persuasive. I wasn't going to let it go as far as it did...and I will always be sorry for that. But he knew you were coming. His

finding the tracking device didn't give you away."

"If I hear another word about that damn tracking device..." Keith started, his features darkening as Allura quickly put a finger to his lips.

"Then I won't mention it again. I just wanted you to understand that I...didn't mean to betray you."

"You didn't betray me, Princess," he said quietly. Her brows arched and she shook her head slightly.

"Yes, I did. Perhaps not entirely, but in some way, I did, and I'm sorry."

"Is this why you came here? To apologize for something ten years past?"

"Do you want me to go?" Hurt blanched briefly across her features and she took a step away from him. Reflexively Keith reached out to stop her, his hand closing over her arm and pulling her gently back towards him.

"No, I don't want you to go," he said simply. Allura stared at him for a moment and then looked away, realizing his true meaning and feeling all the worse because of it.

"Keith, I have to tell you something," she said brokenly, her face still turned away from his.

"Princess, you don't have to tell me anything. I..."

"It isn't that and I have to tell you...just not here," she said quickly, looking up in time to see the spasm of pain that flickered across his features. Meeting his gaze steadily, Allura looked up at him for several moments, wishing that she could have told him some other way. She still wasn't certain how she was even going to accomplish it...he thought she had come to say good-bye properly and she wanted to, but not until he knew everything. Keith studied her as she continued to look up at him, the earnestness to her features striking him as odd. Uneasy from his own ego in thinking she wanted to confess what she hadn't been able to ten years ago, he couldn't fathom for the life of him what she could possibly have to tell him that was so important. And, despite everything that he had thought, now that the moment was here and she was alone with him for possibly the last time, the fact that she was another man's wife was the farthest thing from his mind. Sighing, he managed to smile and nodded faintly at her.

"I'll meet you there. I'll have to call back one of the guards...we can't take the risk of..." He was abruptly cut off as she unexpectedly and swiftly embraced him and left the control room in a swirl of pale green fabric. Staring after her for a moment, Keith wondered for what wouldn't be the last time what she wanted to tell him so desperately and went to call the guards he had dismissed barely an hour ago. He knew he was being overly cautious and that there really was no way that Lotor could even know of the sword's existence(unless he had spies among the palace)but he couldn't justify taking even the slightest risk. Folding his arms, he leaned back against the control center panel and waited for the guard whose sleep he had interrupted to stumble in through the doors. He still couldn't even imagine what she had to tell him.

Pacing back and forth across the length of the balcony, Allura waited for Keith to arrive with steadily accumulating nerves. Certain that if he didn't show up soon, she would stop breathing, she made herself stand still for a moment and rested her hands against the balcony railing. Every possible scenario had already played itself out a dozen times or more in her mind and she still didn't know how she was going to tell him. It was all well and good for Lance to insist that she tell him, but he wasn't the one who actually had to do the confessing. He was going to be furious with her. She knew it with a certainty that frightened her. Keith had never really been angry with her in all the years she had known him. Irritated, yes, and frustrated, but never truly deeply angry. He would be now and she wouldn't blame him. She should have told him the moment she first suspected it, but...she hadn't wanted to burden him with it and for awhile, just a little while, she had been glad. If Cael had really been Liran's son, she would have loved him no less, but the fact that he was Keith's made him all the more beloved. It had been consoling, too, in its own way for awhile. The first few months after she had become certain, she had cradled the knowledge to herself whenever Liran had been too overbearing or demanding, comforting herself with the thought that she still had a part of Keith other than her memories with her. Shortly afterwards it had become hard, however, watching Cael grow more and more like the man he would never know while the man he believed to be his father continually hurt him with his expectations. And soon Keith would know what Liran had always suspected...she only hoped he could forgive her for lying to him. She wouldn't be able to bear her captivity with Lotor otherwise.

"Princess?" Keith called quietly, stepping out onto the balcony. Turning, she simply looked at him, fear silencing anything she could have said. Brows drawing together in concern, Keith moved to stand in front of her and touched her arm.

"What is it?" She nearly burst into tears at the concern in his voice and she turned away from him, unable to speak. She couldn't do it. She had lured him out here with the specific purpose of telling him and she still couldn't do it. Studying her for several moments, Keith leaned back against the railing and crossed his arms.

"You used to be able to tell me anything," he remarked idly, still watching her as she half-laughed and shook her head emphatically.

"Not this. But I have to. Talk to me about something else, please, just for awhile." It was the same request she had made of him ten years ago and it was no less difficult now than it had been then. Sighing, Keith stared up at the sky as if it held the answers he sought and said finally,

"Does it ever bother you that everything is just like it was before? He couldn't have scripted it better if he tried. Sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm in the past or the present."

"I know. But there's Liran," Allura whispered, closing her eyes against what she was certain he would say next.

"And Cael." Keith smiled faintly at the thought of the young prince and prayed anew that Lotor hadn't permanently warped the boy's mind during his captivity.

"Keith...will you...look after him while I'm...until you...he'll need someone to talk to and he thinks you understand him. Just until...you rescue me," she stumbled over the words, still avoiding his gaze.

"Of course. If he'll let me, I'll be there for him. Shouldn't his father..."

"No. Liran can't...he'll just make everything worse. He'll need Lance, too...he'll need all of you. Try to explain it to him why I had to...you're the only one who can." She looked at him fleetingly and Keith nodded in what he hoped was his most reassuring manner. She was strangely agitated all of a sudden and he stepped towards her.

"He'll be fine, Princess. Lotor won't have done anything other than try to brainwash him and he's far too stubborn to listen to anything he says."

"I know he's fine, it's not that," Allura replied, wiping at her eyes and forcing herself to face him. Features filled with concern, Keith simply looked at her and the caring in his expression was nearly her undoing. Taking a deep breath, Allura didn't take her eyes from his as she said quietly,

"Keith...there's something you need to know...about Cael."

"I promise I'll do everything I can for him, Princess."

"I know you will," she replied, still looking at him even though the effort was almost too great for her to bear. Keith's expression flickered from concerned to puzzled and back again as she struggled to say the words that would change everything between them forever.

"What is it?" He asked a second time, wanting to touch her but refraining.

"Cael...he's not Liran's son...he's yours."

"What?"

"You're his father."

"How..."

"We slept together more than once that day, if you recall."

"But..."

"Liran is sterile. To be fair, he wasn't completely certain when he married me. The doctors never gave him a straight answer and told him that there was always a chance, however slim, that he might be able to father a child. He assumed Cael was that miracle. And I didn't think...I married Liran barely a week after you and I...I simply assumed it was his. One night, five years ago, Liran got very, very drunk. He normally doesn't drink and I can't remember what his thinking was, but he was trying to drink the palace dry and while I was trying to convince him otherwise, out came the whole story of his consultations with the doctors, his buying their secrecy, his failure to have an illegitimate child with any of the maids he had seduced. And for the first time I wondered if Cael really was his child after all...or if he could possibly be yours."

"Allura," Keith managed to say, the fact that he used her name an indication of how truly shocked he was. He looked as if someone had knocked all of the wind out of him and Allura was fairly certain that he wasn't remembering to breathe.

"I should have told you then...or at least found a way to contact you, but I wasn't certain and Cael could have been a miracle. So I kept my suspicions to myself and watched...watched as he grew more and more like you and less like Liran every day. And then Lance came to visit. He knew the moment he looked at him. The few times Pidge saw him, he seemed to suspect something, too, but he would never do anything other than look at me. But Lance...Lance confronted me and since that night, he's been after me to tell you. So I started inviting you here for anything I could possibly think of, anything that you might want to come to, on the off chance that you would. But you stuck to our agreement and all I got were polite refusals. And it wasn't something I could write you or tell you by hologram, it had to be face to face and when this happened...I still couldn't do it."

"Princess," he breathed, staring at her as if he really didn't see her at all. Taking another deep breath, Allura continued onwards, determined to say everything she had to while she still had the chance.

"I don't expect anything from you...legally he's Liran's son and Arus's heir. I can't take that away from him...and the people love him already...I can't take him away from them. Liran knows...and I think Coran suspects but he understands the need for an heir better than any of us. Cael doesn't even have to know...someday, I hope, I can find a way to tell him, but...it was just so you knew before...I'm so very sorry, Keith. I should have told you the moment I first thought it...I should have told you the day you came back instead of letting you go on thinking that he was another man's son. But he is yours...I can see it in everything he does, especially now that you're here again. And I'm sorry...I'm so very sorry that I couldn't tell you."

"Cael is...my son?" He sounded as if he was trying to wrap his mind around it, as if he still couldn't believe it, even after everything she had said. Miserably Allura nodded.

"Yes."

"And you're telling me this now when he's...and you're..."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to, Keith, but I couldn't...and you said you never really wanted any children of your own. I couldn't tell you."

"I wish you hadn't told me," he said suddenly, a darkness overcoming his features. Instinctively Allura drew away from him and retorted,

"Why? Because suddenly it's not so easy for you to go marching off to your death?"

"No. Because I can't be his father, even if I fathered him instead of Liran. I have no place in

his life once this is over."

"You could make a place in it. I'm asking you to."

"I can't, Princess, surely you can see that. Liran won't stand for me being a frequent visitor and I don't blame him. I couldn't idly stand by and watch another man take over my role, even if it was one I didn't want, it's still his. He's lost out to me too many times before."

"Once a year, Keith, that's all you'd have to..."

"Ah but that wouldn't be enough, Princess. It would never be enough. If I allow myself to care for that boy as a father should, I'd want to be around him as much as possible and I can't."

"You really are a coward," Allura said suddenly, her eyes narrowing as she turned away from him in disgust. Keith's features blanched and he stared at her rigid back for several moments.

"I am?"

"Yes, you are. Anytime anything gets a little bit harder than you want it to be, you come up with all sorts of reasons not to try to overcome it. You're nothing like this in battle but as soon as it has to do with you personally...you're afraid of everything. Of loving me, of being Cael's father, of Lotor's power over you. Wouldn't you rather have a chance to know him than not know him at all?"

"Don't use that reasoning on me again, Princess."

"You said you weren't sorry."

"I'm not sorry, I wouldn't take it back, but..."

"Don't regret me my son. Do you have any idea what my life would be like without him?"

"No, but Princess..."

"If you're going to be mad at me, then be mad, but don't punish Cael. He deserves the chance to know you."

"He sees me only as the hero of all his stories come to life. He'll be far happier if I stay that way."

"You really think that boy isn't crying out for some kind of father? Liran has never been a real one to him and he can't count on Lance or any of the others. He could depend on you."

"But I don't want to," Keith said furiously, surprising both of them. Allura blinked rapidly and moved towards the door. Putting a hand to his forehead, Keith couldn't decide who he was more furious with, her or himself as she wrenched open the door to the palace.

"If you don't want to, Keith, I can't make you. But I know that you care about him...more than you want to...and that's not going to go away simply because you want it to. You don't have to be his father, you don't even have to pretend to be...but don't walk away from him just because it'll be too difficult for you." Against his better judgement, he turned to look at her and Allura smiled faintly, the light flooding in through the door flooding her features and illuminating the tears streaking down her cheeks.

"And, not that it matters anymore, but I still love you. I always will." She looked at him for a moment longer before going inside, slamming the door behind her. Keith winced at the echo, certain that it had been heard throughout the palace. Running his hands through his hair, he stared out into nothingness for several moments before heading back into the palace himself. Even though he knew he shouldn't, that tomorrow was perhaps the most important day of his life, Keith fully intended to get himself rip roaring drunk.