Chapter 4: Capture, And Escape, Of The Space Explorers

She happily skipped her way down to the spaceport, a grin on her face. She had few friends on planet Galra, mostly because too many feared her powers and those of her "mother", Haggar; not that she blamed them. They should be afraid, she reasoned. After all, she and Haggar alone held the ears of the King and his son without fear of immediate death, unlike the Governor Generals and those below them. But there were a few she could call friend, such as the one finally returning to Galra after far too many months of absence. She also thought over the statement from the stellar communications that came through when they called in to announce their arrival.

"Prison ship to Planet Galra headquarters. We have a full load of captives from Centauri System for your slave force, and an extra added bonus; five human space explorers captured at planet Balto, which has apparently fallen to nuclear civil war with no other survivors," the stellar communications officer had relayed from the ship to the planet as it approached. "We are approaching planet Galra spaceport. Prepare to receive the captives, and prepare a special place in the castle dungeons for the five space explorers. Over and out." She found herself wondering about what these so called "explorers" were like. It would be the first time new human slaves were brought in in many years; at least as far as she could recall, anyway.

She entered the spaceport just as the prison ship finished docking, and her smile widened as Fleet Commander Yurak stepped off the ship, the man almost immediately spotting her as he moved forward.

"We have to stop meeting like this, Witch Sakura," he commented. "Tongues are gonna wag."

"Ah, let'em. I don't care," Sakura replied. Now nearly twelve years old, Sakura, like many, had taken to a nearly constant "look". She wore simple black shoes that could easily be mistaken for boots, a black glitter dress under an elegant black satin vest with a gold branch design on it and blue dots down the center of the skirt, black lacings around her forearms and wrists, and a black cape over her shoulders. She now carried a black staff of her own with a circle on the top adorned with tiny white wings and a silver star in the center of the circle, as well as a silver band around the rod just under the circle and a silver lined bottom.

"Dare I ask how his majesty's doing?" Yurak asked, the two moving off to the side to allow the other guards to begin offloading the prisoners and acquired treasures and supplies. Prince Lotor was leading an invasion force in another part of the galaxy, and wasn't expected back for some time. King Zarkon on the other hand...

"How is he always? Impatient, angry, and scary," Sakura replied. Yurak chuckled, and Sakura glanced behind him as the new slaves were offloaded from the ship. Among them, she noticed the five humans, all looking resolutely ahead, all five of them male. The first had black hair that ended just past his shoulders, and piercing black eyes. He wore a red jumpsuit with white lining and two symbol patches on his chest – a blue square with a diagonal dash on the right and a black oval with an inverted "V" on the left – and white boots. The second had short black hair and black eyes, and wore a blue shirt and pants with black shoes. The third had medium brown hair and brown eyes; he wore beige pants, and a blue shirt under a brown jacket, with brown shoes.

The fourth surprised Sakura – he was a giant, at least as tall as Zarkon! He had messy dark brown hair partially hiding an orange headband on his forehead and black eyes, and wore orange pants, a yellow-orange shirt, dark brown boots, and a brown vest jacket. Sakura couldn't help but wonder how they'd managed to subdue the man. And last, but certainly not least, was the fifth, who, to Sakura's even greater surprise, was a kid! In fact, he couldn't have been too much older than she was. His chocolate brown hair and eyes seemed to meld perfectly with his small, round face, he wore a green shirt and pants with grey shoes, a green headband on the top of his head, and a pair of wire frame glasses on his face. And despite herself, Sakura found herself thinking only one thing; 'He's kind of cute...'

Oh, sure, she had seen human slaves before, in the mines and the pits, but they barely registered for her anymore, most of them having been down there since before she had begun her training under Haggar, others only slightly less so. And even those her own age other than the one girl she'd taken as a personal servant rarely got her attention, mostly through being attentive to their work and never really doing anything to draw said attention. But this time, for the first time she could remember...

"Shouldn't you get back before Haggar starts calling you?" Yurak asked, snapping Sakura out of her thoughts and returning her attention to her compatriot.

"Hm? Oh, yes, I probably should," she replied, and turned and headed towards the hall leading towards the throne room. "See you soon!" she called over her shoulder, and he gave her a light wave. As she reached the hall's entrance she glanced one last time to the five humans. They never once glanced around at their surroundings. They simply walked forward with the rest of the line toward the corridor that lead toward the arena, a certain dignity in their steps. With that, she hurried along to the throne room.

Once there, Sakura took her position quickly. Haggar had formally introduced her to the court and the Governor Generals not long after her eighth birthday, and ever since she would regularly attend the Royal Court alongside her "mother". As Haggar always sat in a chair not far from the throne itself, Sakura had opted to position herself to Haggar's left and just behind her. This had two advantages – a.) it demonstrated that she saw her place as being below Haggar's, which for now it in fact was, and b.) it allowed her a more or less safe distance from King Zarkon.

There had been occasions where Zarkon had in fact asked that she stand between the two for a particular function, and there was no question he was testing her resolve in regards to serving him and being in the same room with him by making her stand within arms' reach of him. And both Sakura and Haggar had no doubt that Zarkon was also delighting in Sakura's fear of him. Though Sakura had learned to expertly mask her discomfort and terror of the man, she would still "slip" every once in a great while, and it seemed to please Zarkon no end. Sakura personally, though privately, longed for the day Zarkon would finally die, and Lotor would take his place, and had even secretly daydreamed, more than once, of concocting a spell to hasten that day's coming. Of course, she spoke of neither of these to anyone; she was no fool, and in no great rush to be tossed into the arena herself.

"Your majesty," she gave a small bow as she took her place beside Haggar. "Master Haggar."

"Hm, you're a little late, aren't you?" Zarkon barely glanced at her.

"Just greeting Commander Yurak on his return, sire," she said. Years of practice had taught her never to obfuscate or attempt to hide anything from Zarkon. Excuses were pointless, and the truth was easiest and fastest.

"All is well, I trust, dearie?" Haggar asked, stroking Cova who sat in her lap.

"Yes, Master," Sakura replied.

"So, did you get a look at them?" a calm, male voice asked, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Spinner Sun, her own familiar, fly in and perch on her right shoulder. Spinner looked like a black stuffed cat toy, with a round head just slightly out of proportion in size to his body with pointed ears on the top, the insides of which were light blue, just like his eyes. He also had two light blue, tiny, insect-like wings on his back, each one in two teardrop like parts, the forward slightly larger than the rear; it was on these, combined with simple levitation magic, that he flew. His tail ended in a noticeable small spiral.

"Yeah, just as they got off and went into the tunnel to the arena," Sakura answered him. "Been awhile since you braved the court." Spinner Sun was known to spend most of his time hiding in Haggar and Sakura's joint quarters, most commonly reading a book as he was quite literate, only rarely coming out to the royal court, or anywhere else. No one knew for sure his reasoning, but most assumed he shared his mistress's fear of King Zarkon, but to a far greater extent.

"Yes, what brings you out today, little toy?" Zarkon actually glanced in their direction, though both expertly showed no outward signs of fear. "Finally run out of books to read?"

"No, sire, merely curious as to the human explorers, as my lady is," Spinner answered quickly and respectfully.

"Heh, you must be to actually show yourself again," Zarkon sneered, then returned his attention to the royal court. Sakura quietly let out a sigh of relief that he was no longer paying attention to her, for now. A few moments later Yurak came walking in and bowed to his King.

"The slaves have been herded into the arena, sire. The blue robeast has never been more ready for combat, and we await only your presence in the royal box to start the festivities," he declared.

"Hurry and have the slaves battle the robeast, his majesty is bored to death!" Haggar urged, and Zarkon's earlier choice to make snide remarks to her and Spinner suddenly made more sense to Sakura – he was using the two of them for cheap, momentary entertainment!

"Ahh, let us go then," Zarkon rose up, as did Haggar, and they headed towards the arena.

"I think I'll pass," Spinner started, but never got to finish the thought.

"Nonsense!" Zarkon waved his empty hand. "You want to see the human space explorers, and you shall, just before the robeast tears them apart!" the old king cackled happily. Spinner just drooped his head in submission, not fool enough to try and argue with the supreme ruler of the Galra Empire.

The arena roared with life that day. It was not Sakura's first time attending the gladiatorial combats, Haggar had introduced her to them when she was seven and a half, and she was now long immune to the slaves plaintive death screams and cries for mercy. She sat next to Haggar, again to her mentor/caretaker's left, in the royal box, Yurak standing to King Zarkon's right. Spinner remained on Sakura's shoulder, having opted to conserve energy by letting her carry him. Yurak rose his energy sword, and in the arena below, the smaller doors were opened, and several slaves armed with swords, including the five humans, were shoved inside.

"Release the blue robeast!" Zarkon roared, and the main huge door opposite the ones the slaves emerged from opened, and the robeast in question stepped out, roaring and ready to go. It charged the victims sent out to it, and the slaves valiantly charged back, swinging their swords in an effort to save their lives. The robeast didn't even hesitate, sweeping with one mighty clawed hand at its opponents, slashing four down quickly, and clipping the brown jacketed human on the left arm. The humans then pulled back and to everyone's surprise quickly organized while other slaves were felled. The little one quickly dashed under the beast's legs, sliding to avoid its hands as it turned its attention to him, while the red and black clothed humans dashed to the side and took a joint slash at its hip, managing to land a blood-drawing blow.

Meanwhile, the brown jacketed human and the giant human each took a different stance, brown jacket – Sakura decided at this point she really should have found out their names – taking to the side and, somewhat futilely, attempting to slice the robeast's Achilles heel tendon, while giant stood his ground in front of the robeast and deflected the beast's swings rather well, though he still took a few hits to his own arms. Then the robeast's eyes widened when the little human stabbed his sword straight up between the monster's legs into its, well...yeah...

The beast let out a mighty yowl of pain and dropped to its knees as the humans jumped back a step. All stared on, and then brown jacket started to move forward, his sword raised.

"Lance, wait," the red clothed one, apparently the leader, said, raising a hand, then turned to the remaining surviving non-human slaves in the arena. "Any of you want a crack at him?" The response was practically unanimous as the other slaves practically swarmed over the robeast, slashing away. Sadly, the human's brief allowed reprieve was all it needed, as it pulled out the little human's sword, discarded as it had apparently been too deeply lodged for him to pull it back out, and tossed it away, slashing with its claws at some of the slaves as it opted to pull back. It recouped briefly, managed to further injure some of the combatants, including the five humans, and killing a few others before it fell back to its gate completely, its own injuries beginning to tire it.

"ENOUGH!" roared Zarkon. "Well, done warriors, you have forced my mighty robeast into a stalemate. For now, you who have survived shall be permitted to live. Remove them from the arena!" With that, the robeast's door was re-opened, allowing it to fall back out of the arena, then the guards came from the other entrances to retrieve the slaves, who were ushered away. Zarkon rose from his seat, and Haggar and Sakura followed suit, the group, along with Yurak, heading down the hallway back into the castle. Sakura let out a breath of relief she didn't even realize she was holding until that moment.

"Oh, did that match actually get you excited over something?" Zarkon asked, an evil leer on his face, causing Sakura to blush madly.

"Uh, no, well, maybe a little, uh..." for the first time in her life, Sakura didn't know how to respond to a question.

"You weren't actually worried about the robeast, were you?" Yurak asked, his own smile more jovial and teasing.

"Of course not! Why would I worry about him?" she asked back.

"One of the humans, maybe?" Spinner queried. "You did seem to pay rather rapt attention to the little one, especially when he did that sliding diversion charge between the robeast's legs." Sakura just knew she was blushing hard now, her tongue tied into too many knots to ever hope to make a truly comprehensible answer.

"Wha...uh...um...well..." was pretty much all she managed to stammer out. Haggar cackled and reached over with one arm to hug her apprentice, Spinner jumping off of Sakura's shoulder and floating behind her and Haggar to avoid getting caught between the two as they did so.

"Oh dear, is my little apprentice finally beginning to blossom into womanhood?" she asked, her smile also teasing. "I knew this day had to come, but somehow I thought it was still years off yet."

"So puberty rears its ugly little head, does it?" Zarkon crooned. "Hahahaha, oh, how sickeningly sweet."

"Now, now, Zarkon," Haggar admonished. "Sakura is a human herself, you know. It only makes sense she'd be attracted to a male of her own kind."

"Umm, if I'm no longer needed, may I take my leave for now, your majesty?" Spinner inquired, attempting to both make an escape and save his mistress from further embarrassment by distracting everyone from the conversation.

"No, you will return to the court with us," Zarkon replied.

"Is that an...order, sire?" Spinner asked.

"Yes," Zarkon answered, and Spinner sighed.

"As you command, your majesty," he said, and stayed with the group.

"Um, mama Haggar?" Sakura whispered to her master a few minutes later. "Do you think I could, maybe, have the little human to, um, play with, before he's killed?" Haggar couldn't help but cackle at Sakura's all but open admission to their suspicions.

"We'll see, dearie, we'll see," she replied.

As fate would have it, the next few days had Sakura bogged down with lessons and a few small court appearances, no time for fun and games at all. The day after that had another slave ship arrive with fresh slaves, and this time when the healthiest and strongest were thrown to the blue robeast, none survived. It was on this day that the once-thought-impossible happened. Or at the very least, before now no one had ever been crazy enough to try it in this fashion.

Sakura was once again at her place in court beside Haggar, Zarkon making some kind of boring speech about the current state of affairs with the Galaxy Alliance, and how he was gloating about withholding information from them about the space explorers. His enjoyment of his deceit was cut short when there was a sudden sound of a great crash, and the whole room shook as if someone had set off a bomb nearby. Small amounts of debris fell from the ceiling around them.

"What's happening?" Zarkon roared. "Were we hit by a bomb?"

"No," Haggar stared up at the throne room monitor screen, which someone had already switched on to reveal the cause of the commotion. " One of our slave ships!"

"Well, the pilots need flying lessons!" Sakura barked, for once too annoyed at the sudden thud to be worried about Zarkon's reaction to her speaking without first being addressed. Ironically, Zarkon was about to let it slide and, in fact, agree with her assessment when Yurak came running in just as the last of the debris hit the floor, terror and disbelief all over his face.

"King Zarkon, the five space explorers have escaped and stolen a slave ship!" he declared quickly, bowing to one knee.

"WHAT?" Zarkon jumped to his feet, more angry than Sakura could ever remember seeing him. At the same time, her own eyes widened in surprise at the news.

"Seriously?" she asked. "They actually succeeded...?"

"Recapture them at once, Yurak!" Zarkon roared. "And don't come back without them! We'll tear them limb form limb as an example to all of the other slaves!"

"As you command, sire," Yurak replied. "You shall have them!" With that he rose to his feet and started to dash out to his command ship.

"Witch Sakura, go with him!" Zarkon commanded, and Yurak halted, turning to look back.

"Sire?" he blinked with his remaining flesh eye.

"Your Majesty?" Haggar also looked up in surprise at this command.

"A..wha...bu..huh...na...whu?" Sakura babbled, suddenly finding herself unable to string two words together if her life depended on it.

"It'll be good field experience, and it's past time you got some without Haggar holding your hand all the time," Zarkon stated, which surprised them all the more. Haggar had taken Sakura off-world on several brief planetary blitzkrieg missions over the past four years, but Sakura had never gone offworld without her before, not that she could remember anyway. And now Zarkon himself was ordering her to go, well, solo? Even as her mind raced, Zarkon noted her lack of movement, and grew impatient. "Get going!" he barked, and Sakura snapped back to reality.

"YES, SIRE!" She snapped, louder than intended, and dashed down to the main floor and after Yurak, who gave one quick glance back to Haggar.

"Don't worry, Witch Haggar, I promise to bring her back in one piece," he told the elderly witch, and resumed his dash to his command ship, Sakura hot on his heals and making the silver star on her staff flash three times with her magic. He didn't question it, as he had a hunch what she was doing. She looked up to her cybernetic companion, curiosity in her eyes.

"So...how did they...?" she asked.

"They made a rope from spare linen they snuck into their cell, and used it to reach the barred window. I can only imagine it was the big one who bent the bars. After that it looks like they climbed down to the nearest pier and hitched a ride with some of the vultures down to the ground somewhere, then simply took advantage of a gap in port security to sneak in and grab a slave ship, killing more than a few guards in the process. I can't believe this is happening!" he explained to the best of his currently available knowledge. At this point they reached the command ship, Spinner flying in from a nearby side entrance and floating over to his mistress. Yurak nodded, having figured this was the point of flashing her staff earlier – summoning her familiar to her.

"Dare I ask what's going on?" Spinner queried. Sakura gave him a quick rundown on the sudden shift of events and her current orders. "Makes sense," he nodded. "You do need some solo experience, and a quick pursue-and-retrieve-escaped-slaves mission shouldn't be too hard."

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly," Yurak agreed as they entered the elevator to take them to the bridge, then he switched on the intercom to bark immediate take off and pursuit orders. The command ship launched and rose out of the castle, blasting into space after the stolen slave ship. The three arrived on the bridge quickly, Yurak taking his command chair and Sakura taking a position next to him, Spinner parking himself once more on her shoulder. The bridge crew gave a brief curious glance, then returned to their work, paying it no further mind.

"How much of a lead do they have?" Yurak barked.

"Not much sir, and the slave ship is slow, we should overtake them quickly," a soldier responded sharply. And so they did, the slave ship rapidly growing on the main view screen. In the process, though, they covered nearly five lightyears.

"Get the impression they haven't completely figured out the throttle controls yet?" Spinner mused, for the slave ship seemed to be only going at about two-thirds full speed. Of course, the command ship could easily go two-to-three times faster than the slave ship ever could.

"Heh, guess their luck ran out on them," Yurak replied, then barked to the bridge crew, "Open fire, all forward lasers!" The command ship's lasers fired, and scored a direct hit on the slave ship, rocking it hard. And then, to everyone's shock, it fired back, scoring an equally direct hit on the command ship. Sakura instinctively rose her staff and cast a shield spell around the bridge to protect all of them as the room shook from the blast.

"Looks like they didn't have any trouble with the weapons systems!" Spinner's eyes were as wide as anyone's.

"Fire all weapons!" Yurak roared. "Open up with everything we've got!" And the order was obeyed, every weapon on the command ship firing at once toward the slave ship. Some missed, but many scored a direct hit, Swiss cheesing the slave ship in seconds, and sending it spiraling out of control, the ship vanishing through the black clouds of the dark nebula that the Galra star system sat within.

"Heh, that got them, that surely sent them to hell," Yurak grinned as repair crews got to work repairing the damage they'd sustained. "That's the end of the space explorers. Zarkon will be pleased."

"Um, didn't King Zarkon want them brought back alive for a public dismembering?" Sakura asked as she dropped the shield spell. "Shouldn't we at least bring back the bodies to keep him from getting too...disappointed?" Yurak scowled lightly, but saw her point.

"Yeah, if only to make sure they didn't somehow survive," he grunted. "Follow them!" he ordered, and the pilots directed their ship to exit the dark clouds of the nebula, and within moments found themselves in orbit around another, green planet. The slave ships debris trail showed it plummeting into the planet's gravity well, falling through the atmosphere to the surface below. The sensors were switched on, attempting to locate the ship, or at least what was left of it, anyway.

"I think we may just get in trouble; depending on how they hit the atmosphere, they may have disintegrated," Spinner commented quietly. Sakura just stared at the planet below them on their view screen.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Hmm, let's see," the navigator checked his star charts. "Ah, the Altea System, we're currently in orbit around Planet Arus."

"Arus?" Yurak blinked. "Haven't heard that name in a long time."

"You know it?" Sakura asked him.

"Yeah," he glanced to her. "The forces of Galra bombed it effectively back to its bronze age about fifteen years ago. Zarkon and your mentor, Witch Haggar, went down to the surface personally to confront its ruler, King Alfor, and his wife, Diana." He looked upward, his eye glazing as he remembered it. "Zarkon had me, a simple Captain in his fleet, personally cut off their heads! Heh, right after his 'highness' gave Zarkon some lip about the righteous triumphing and the wicked eventually perishing. What a fool."

"Whoa, sounds like you had a good time back then, huh?" Sakura commented.

"Yeah, you could say that," he agreed, then returned to the present from his memories, turning his attention back to the bridge crew. "Have you found anything yet?"

"The ship's debris trail seems to lead to a desert area, sir," the sensor officer reported. "We have yet to lock onto any remains, and life signs are fairly plentiful on and below the surface. We cannot yet be certain whether or not the humans survived."

"Send out a few Star Cutters to search for the ship and the explorers' remains," Yurak ordered. "We need to take something back to Zarkon."

"If there's anything left," Sakura stated, the crew quietly agreeing with the assessment.

What none of them yet knew, though, was that Planet Arus held a secret, one that had been waiting to be dug up for almost twelve thousand years.

A few minutes passed, and the slave ship's shattered remains were found smashed into the side of a mountain in an area where the sun was setting, trace evidence indicating the ejection seats had been launched, but it was hard to tell if the explorers actually left the ship or not, it had been so mangled and destroyed upon impact. Yurak had decided immediately the ship was a loss, and ordered the remains be abandoned, a salvage crew could come back later to attempt to save anything worth the trouble, if there was still anything worth the trouble at all. Since it had landed in a desert, it was surmised that the five humans could have ejected semi-safely, then died when landing on the desert floor, a sandstorm burying them before anyone could reach the bodies. But then someone noticed tracks through the scorching sands.

One officer commented that they could belong to anybody, not necessarily the humans they sought. But Yurak was almost sure they did belong to the ones they were looking for, and if nothing else it warranted checking if only to cover all bases, and ordered the search to continue. They would not leave until they had the bodies, in one condition or another. The dense fog that rolled up a few minutes later didn't help matters, either.

" The dense fog is obscuring all scanner readouts, visibility is at near zero, sir," the coms operator reported, relaying from the Star Cutters flying around in the atmosphere below.

"Then send some ships to a lower altitude!" Yurak barked. "We need to determine the survival or demise of the escaped humans beyond all doubt! We can't return to Zarkon without it!"

"I just hope there's something to find," Spinner commented. "If they burned up with the slave ship, or were buried in the desert, or eaten by wild animals, or even desperate natives turned to cannibalism, then we're gonna be in big trouble." He glanced at his mistress, who'd been silent for a while now, her attention seemingly absorbed by the planet below. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Hm?" she blinked. "No, it just feels...like...there's something...I don't know..."

"Hmm?" Spinner blinked. He glanced at the planet below, and opened up his own, limited magical senses, and blinked. It did feel like there was...something...and yet he couldn't quite be sure. "A few remnant untrained magic users subconsciously flaring their power, perhaps?"

"I don't think so," Sakura replied. "It doesn't really feel that way." She stared a moment longer, then shook it off, grinning sheepishly. "I dunno, maybe it's just been awhile since I've seen such a nice, lively world. Hahahaha...," she said, and then forced a small laugh.

Yurak listened to their conversation lightly, but took in everything said, filing both the commentary and Sakura's behavior away. If it was one thing he'd learned about dealing with witches, it was that when something drew their attention, even when they weren't sure what it was that was drawing their minds to it, it could turn out to be something important. Perhaps he'd ask Haggar about it later. He couldn't recall the old witch getting distracted like this fifteen years ago, but then he'd been focused on other things, like conquering the planet and slaughtering the royal family, and as far as he knew Haggar had never indicated there had been anything in particular amiss.

"Take us down into the atmosphere," Yurak decided. "We'll assist in the search ourselves."

"Yes, sir," the pilots responded, and the command ship soon dropped into the planets gravity well, the view outside changing from black void and stars to blue skies, mountains, forests, and lakes. As they flew casually over all this, the many milliard Star Cutters formed up to flank their command carrier, many eyes on the look out for anything that would aid in their quest. A few moments later they passed over a ruined city, buildings and streets still showing evidence of damage from the battle fifteen years ago. There was little indication of movement, and it was determined that if the explorers were alive, they would not have reached these ruins yet. But then Sakura's eyes beheld something she hadn't expected.

A castle, clearly designed and built by humans in classic European medieval style, stood upon a hilltop, and had clearly seen better days. Laser damage abounded, and a large chunk of the back was simply gone, giving it a somewhat upside down reverse "L" shape that seemed to fly in the face of both gravity and the laws of physics!

"Wow, you guys really pounded the crap outta that, huh?" Sakura mused. "What's keeping it up?"

"Grit, spit, and prayer, I imagine," Yurak replied, noting the place. "The so called 'Castle Of Lions;' I'm honestly surprised it's still there."

"Lions?" Sakura blinked.

"Probably for the tacky taste in statuary," Spinner said, pointing with his paw to the statue standing on the pedestal at the end of the bridge that spanned the lake moat to the castle, which resembled a rather large, roaring male lion with a pair of huge feathery wings sprouting from its back. It was actually rather beautiful in its own way. A few other smaller lion statues, some with wings, some without, some with partial wings that had clearly taken damage years ago, dotted the castle itself. Sakura had to admit it did seem a bit much.

"Hm, maybe," she replied.

"Hey, Sakura, wanna nudge the castle to see if it'll finally fall over?" Yurak grinned at her.

"Hmm, maybe later," Sakura smiled back, and the two chuckled lightly. Just then the interstellar com came online, and an unpleasantly familiar voice came over them.

"Attention all attack ships of the Galra Imperial Forces, this is King Zarkon!" Zarkon's voice chimed, and Sakura's face reflexively stiffened for a moment in fear, a small "eep!" escaping her lips. For once, Yurak felt the same way, but he masked it.

"Oh crap," he muttered only. Zarkon's voice went on, unperturbed.

"I command you to locate the five detestable humans who dared flee from us, and drag them back to Planet Galra immediately! Destroy every mountain, every tree, every living thing on Planet Arus if you must, but find them! They will be torn into pieces as an example for all the other slaves to remember the price of disobedience!" Zarkon's voice exhorted over the transmitters.

"You'll have fun then, my evil pet," Haggar could be heard cackling in the background. "You'll have them for dinner!" This was followed by Cova giving out a light yowl.

"I think I'll pass on that meal, myself," Spinner commented dryly. Yurak lightly pressed a switch on his command panel.

"Yes, sire, we're looking closely for them now, and will not return until we have them, or their battered remnants," he declared.

"Yeah, the slave ship didn't land very well, at all," Sakura added.

"As long as you bring them back, Commander Yurak, Witch Sakura!" Zarkon's voice growled. "Don't disappoint me!"

"You're doing well, my apprentice, worry not," Haggar's voice added.

"Thank you, Master Haggar," Sakura beamed with pride. The interstellar com then shut off, and they all took a quick breath of relief. Clearly, Zarkon was getting just a little bit impatient. But then, what else was new?

"How'd they know we were on Arus?" Spinner asked, scratching his chin lightly in curiosity.

"Mama Haggar, probably," Sakura replied.

"That, or he's had someone monitor our progress from the moment we left," a bridge officer offered.

"Continue forward!" Yurak commanded. The bridge crew complied, and the command ship surged onward toward the desert area where the slave ship had crashed, Yurak intent on starting a ground search from there, in case the explorers had in fact been buried, or found some cave or sand hole to run into and hide. From there they would move out and search as far as needed to locate the five escaped humans.

Unbeknownst to them, far below several surviving native Arusians scattered about in panic at the sight of the ships and the feel of the vibrations in the ground the noise of its massive engines caused. And even less did they know that not only had the explorers survived, they had already arrived at and entered the castle below them, and sworn fealty to the local sovereign.

Unaware of these facts, they flew onward, seeking their missing prey. Sakura glanced at the castle one last time as they passed over it, taking in a fairly wide moat surrounding the land upon which it stood, and a canyon curling around behind its hilltop, her face thoughtful.

"I wonder..." she quietly thought aloud, but then dismissed it, having other things to worry about for now.


And voila, episodes one and two, redux! It is interesting to note that in Golion it is stated that our heroes had in fact fought a Deathblack Beastman(a.k.a. Robeast) upon their arrival, and had in fact been in that cell for an indeterminate amount of time before that particular slave ship and its crew of unfortunate prisoners arrived and were thrown into the arena, the marks on their arms around the skull tattoos/brands(Golion never actually makes any comment on them) referred to as injuries sustained in said fight. So, I thought I'd work that in.

Also, the "Arus was attacked by Doom fifteen years ago" also comes from Golion, it being stated that it is Farla(Allura)'s sixteenth birthday when she is first introduced properly.

And in reviewing the first three episodes, I found the main bad guys – Zarkon/Daibazaal, Haggar/Honerva, and Yurak/Sadak - had very little face time in episodes two and three, and since I didn't want to massively gloss over them entirely, I opted to have Sakura join Yurak on the "hunt" for the boys so I could more easily get the action to Arus and the coming rebirth of Voltron/Golion! After all, to reiterate the adventures of the V-Force when at present they aren't yet affected by Sakura's presence would arguably be redundant. (They don't even know about Sakura right now, and won't for a while yet. Fear not, they will!)

On a final note, Sakura's costume originally included a black overcoat with white fur lining, but as my beta pointed out to me it was a bit much, especially for the coming desert scenes, and was thus removed. I came up with her look by using Gaia's Dream avatar maker at , and it can be found, both with and without the coat, on the site, just click "Outfits", then put "Sakura Kinomoto"(minus the quotes) in the seach line and they'll pop up. Mind you, the staff I gave the avatar version of her is not the one described in this fic, it was just the closest available in the program. Her actual staff/wand is a black and silver variant her original CCS dark pink and gold Star Key Wand/Staff, just for clarification.

So next up I'll be mushing the back half of the four part pilot together as well, and a legend shall rise like a phoenix!

Scorpinac

LotornoMiko – I don't actually think of Sakura as being any more intelligent than others her age, per se, but in this reality she did start her education somewhat earlier than most kids would, and so I am merely attempting to extrapolate on how far said education would have progressed over time from that starting point; I hope that makes sense. Otherwise, I'm glad to know you're enjoying this, and hope I continue to please!