Chapter 9: The Lion Flies Again

The castle alarms went off suddenly, startling awake nearly everyone currently living within. Of course, "everyone" was currently limited to the four surviving space explorers, who now called themselves the Voltron Force, Princess Allura, Allura's advisor Coran, and a handful of service people. Though many Arusians had come forward to volunteer to man the castle's defenses, they were taking a little time to actually move in due to the need to properly move all their personal belongings, such as they were, to the castle itself, which was requiring more time than originally expected. In fact, for the moment a fair number were setting up home in the city just beyond the castle to the south, which they were also attempting to rebuild. What few that had already moved fully into the castle were set up in the top most floors or towers, well away from the main entrance.

Regardless, the alarms woke them, and, being the first up and the closest to the main entrance, the Voltron Force was the first to respond.

"Huh? What's...the alarm?! Is Doom attacking again already?" Keith jumped up and quickly grabbed his clothes. He briefly wished for a cup of coffee to help clear his tired mind as he headed out the door.

"What? The alarm? Jeez, can't a guy get any sleep?" Lance groaned as he rose and quickly dressed. He stepped out of his room slipping into his jacket as his commander arrived.

"You ready, Lance?" Keith asked him.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Lance replied. "Let's go get a workout." The two dashed down the hall, stopping at Pidge's room, popping in to find him still asleep. Keith dashed over and gave him a quick shake, rousing him.

"C'mon, Pidge, we've got a job to do!" Keith told him as the youngest member of the Voltron Force rubbed his eyes and grabbed his glasses from the side table. In Hunk's room, however, a very different reaction was taking place.

"Huh? The alarm?" he blinked, still half asleep. "Mm, must be a short circuit. Someone remind me to fix it in the morning..." And with that, Hunk drifted back off to sleep.

The awake, dressed, and relatively alert members of the force stormed down the hall toward the entrance, finally locating their intruder in a darkened part of the passage. They halted, as did the figure a short ways away.

"Who goes there?!" Keith snapped out. The figure gave a what sounded like a silent chuckle, and the three blinked.

"Who are you?!" Lance asked, but the figure still didn't respond save to take a nervous step back, and Pidge proceeded to lose it.

"I got out of bed for this?" he muttered, then roared, "Defend yourself!" He leapt through the air in a flying kick, landing the blow, which was responded to with a female scream of shock as the figure crumpled to the floor while Pidge jumped back to the others, a purse and suitcase flopping to the ground as additional lights finally came on to illuminate the corridor. The woman before them was plump, middle aged, with short brown curled hair and dark grey eyes. She was dressed in a simple dress in shades of brown and a brown cap, and she did not look happy as she turned to her assailants.

"What are you doing? Thieves! Ruffians! Help!" she screamed.

"What? Are you nuts?" Keith blinked.

"Could be a disguise," Lance said, his voice and eyes hard. For a moment, all he could see was Sven's bloody body on the ground. "She could be the old witch, Haggar!" He kneeled down and grabbed the woman by her dress collar, and stared her right in the face. "Admit it, witch! Drop the disguise!"

"Witch?! I'm a royal governess and official!" she belted back, and Lance released her, pulling back.

"Uh. oh..." Pidge moaned, suddenly feeling like he may have made a mistake.

"I think she's telling the truth," Lance admitted. "She's not Haggar." It in fact only now occurred to him there was a noticeable lack of a young girl who could maybe be a disguised Sakura, though there was no real guarantee of the two working together on everything. Still, something about this woman felt genuine.

"Then who is she?" Keith asked. Just then Coran came dashing down the hall to where they were, the older man needing to catch his breath slightly. He wore his usual white shirt, grey pants, brown boots, and long brown coat, but his curly, light brown hair was still mussed from sleep and fell into his brown eyes.

"I heard the alarm, what's going..." he started to ask, then turned and saw the woman on the floor and blinked in surprise. "Gertrude?! It's Gertrude! Oh, Gertrude, you're a sight for sore eyes!" he declared as he turned to kneel down and help her.

"Coran, I'm so glad you're here to help! How long it's been...," she said.

"Too long, old friend," Coran agreed.

"I heard the rumor about the new castle and Voltron's restoration, and rushed to see as fast as I could," she told him.

"When did you hear?" Coran asked.

"The news reached me just two days ago, but it took me longer to get packed than I expected," Gertrude replied.

"What's the deal here?" Pidge finally asked his comrades. "Is she a friend?" This, however, got Coran and Gertrude's attention, and Gertrude finally got back to her feet.

"Coran, these are thieves and ruffians!" she pointed at the three, who found themselves unconsciously taking a step backward. Coran rose and calmly addressed the woman.

"Gertrude, these are Keith, Lance and Pidge," he introduced them. "They are not of royal blood, but they now serve the Princess to rebuild the kingdom."

"This kingdom?! These ruffians?!" she gasped, then blew into a storm in front of the boys. "They should learn to look before they leap! Attacking helpless people before they have a chance to defend themselves! To think of such low born rabble protecting our kingdom is...mortifying!" Gertrude stepped back at the end to have a quiet sob, her hands pressed against her face. Coran placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Excuse me," Keith said, a bit put out, "but you were sneaking into the castle in the middle of the night. Why wouldn't we assume you were a dangerous intruder? Especially after all of the attacks from Doom in the last few days; we were ambushed just recently and it cost us dearly."

Gertrude looked affronted for a moment, and seemed ready to retort, but then pulled back a bit. "I suppose I should have knocked properly, considering the late hour," she conceded. "But the castle was my home long before it was yours, and I saw no reason to wake everyone. And really, how could you think I was an intruder from Doom? I've never been so insulted! Such poor manners you boys have!"

"It's all for the restoration of Arus," Coran told her, trying to distract her before she began ranting again. "More importantly, I trust you will return to your duty as Senior Lady of the court?" Gertude looked up in joy at that. "The Princess will be pleased when she awakes, and needs her royal governess."

"Of course I will!" Gertrude replied. "I'll devote myself mind and body to the job!"

"Sheesh, what is she, bipolar?" Lance asked, starting to turn away.

"Glad she's not my governess," Pidge muttered in agreement. Gertrude growled in their direction.

"I heard that!" she snapped. "As part of my duties, I'll be teaching you lot proper manners and etiquette!" The Force looked at her, then beat a hasty retreat down the hall.

"G..g..good night, old lady. Bye!" Pidge called over his shoulder as he escaped. Gertrude just stared for a moment, then snapped out an angry retort.

"A hundred spankings the next time you call me 'old lady'!" she snapped at him. A few moments later and three corridors away, the three team members finally stopped to catch their breath and assess their new situation, which pretty much came down to 'not good'.

"Great, a governess, that's all we need," Lance moaned.

"And Senior Lady of the Court, to boot," Keith agreed. "I can only imagine what's in store for us now."

"I say we just give her a wide berth until we know her better," Pidge suggested, and then a loud bang sounded from outside followed by the alarm going off again.

"Now what?!" they exclaimed.

Out near a forest some distance from the castle, two small beings sat upon a hilltop, awaiting orders, one peacefully, grabbing a catnap, or trying to, and the other somewhat grousing.

"Seriously, why do they even need us to get intel for them? It's not like these guys are going to be able to do anything when the ships and robeast come this time, anyway," Spinner grumbled. "Or are we just here to allow his 'majesty' to get a free glimpse of what's going on down here during the curbstomp?" Cova gave a brief growl in response, which Spinner glared at him for. "Not helping, Cova," he hissed. Cova started to meow back again when a sudden loud BANG came from nearby, and they turned to see a pair of trees topple over. A few seconds later something came whooshing by, knocking over a few more trees. Something decidedly blue.

"Was that what I think it was?" Spinner asked. They stared after it for just a few moments before looking at each other in concern. "Crap..." Spinner moaned as they jumped up and took off after it to see what was going on, observing as the Blue Lion smashed its way through more trees before lifting up into the air, and then plummeted back down. A sound from behind made them glance back, and then duck under the nearest cover – some convenient boulders – as the Black, Red, and Green Lions suddenly came flying in towards their friend, which a moment later apparently remembered that it was a flying lion and pulled up, smacking a few rocks atop another hill before dropping into a valley just behind it, the other three following. Spinner and Cova quickly took off and reached an outlook overlooking the area in question just as the lions settled to rest. Cova gave a sharp meow in upset at these new events.

"Agreed," Spinner said. "This is bad. Zarkon won't be happy when he finds out." Cova meowed again, and Spinner's ear snapped up as his eyes widened in fear. "Oh, yeah, I forgot," he said. "He already knows..."

In the throne room of Castle Doom, Sakura was starting to sweat, a lot. Haggar was concentrating on her own familiar, and Zarkon was noticing how both looked nervous – very nervous.

"Is there a problem?" he asked. Sakura gave a slight jump from where she sat on the floor, her staff across her legs.

"No!" she snapped out, but then calmed herself before she continued. "Not at all, everything's fine, just some rank novice trying to...is that the Princess?"

"Apparently," Haggar agreed, her own nervousness lightening considerably. "Seems the foolish child got silly ideas in her little head."

"What kind of ideas?" Zarkon asked menacingly. "What exactly has the Princess of Arus tried to do that your mangy familiars just happened to spy?"

"Nothing they're likely to let her try again, sire," Sakura answered. "They must have been utterly desperate to let her give it a shot." Especially after flying like that – she's lucky to still be alive! Sakura thought with a tiny wince.

"Give what a shot?!" Zarkon demanded.

"The lion, sire," Haggar replied. "And from what we've seen through Cova and Spinner, as my wicked apprentice says, she's not likely to get another." Zarkon was less than satisfied, but if the two witches were convinced the problem was handled, then he would let it go. For now.

Sneaking unnoticed up to the castle proved to be a slightly more interesting challenge than the two familiars had banked on. Somehow they managed to avoid the newly appointed security guards, and could only guess that any high tech security systems had yet to be properly activated at that point – that, or they had several bugs in them – because early into the next morning, Cova and Spinner managed to reach the castle and sneak their way to a fifth story ledge from which they could quietly snoop around the windows for more intel on what was up with the Blue Lion situation.

"Of course, it would help if we knew which window to peep through," Spinner admitted aloud, and Cova gave a light mew in reply. Just then a voice carried over to them.

"Unless someone pilots the Blue Lion, we won't be able to form Voltron, and Zarkon will have us at his mercy! And the restoration of our kingdom that you hope for will be impossible!" a female voice stated firmly. "So I'll do it!"

"I think we have our winner," Spinner sing songed, and the two quickly sneaked around to peer through the next window, seeing within an opulent suite, the Arusian Princess staring outward with a man and a woman unknown to them behind her.

"Now see here, Allura," the woman chided. "Battle is no place for a Princess, and we can't restore the kingdom without the sole surviving heir! Up in the Pierrane mountains there are surviving villages where we can hopefully find a qualified pilot, a good strong man!"

"An excellent idea, Gertrude. I'll send someone at once," the man agreed, and the Princess, Allura, was clearly grinding her teeth at this. The man started to turn to go, but the woman, Gertrude, stopped him.

"Please, allow me this task," she said. "I have some friends who live there now that I've kept in touch with who might be able to help pick out a good candidate or two." The man nodded, and the woman left the room quickly.

"Are you so desperate that it's making you mad?!" the Princess snapped at the man. "Seriously, Coran, what makes you think anyone on Arus is any more qualified to pilot the lion than I am?! Where do you suppose they got their training, hmm? Gifts from heaven?!"

"Do try to calm yourself, Allura, this is for the best," Coran tried to mollify her. Spinner and Cova, though, had heard enough, and quietly retreated before their luck ran out.

"Personally, I have to agree with her Highness," Spinner said. "They're betting on some seriously high luck. What do you think?" Cova meowed in response. "That's what I thought."

"They're trying to do what?" Zarkon asked as he munched on a drumstick.

"Trying to find someone other than the Princess to fly the Blue Lion," Sakura stated.

"Hmph, so they still dare to defy the mighty Zarkon? How annoying," Zarkon grunted.

"Yes, they are incorrigible fools," Haggar agreed. "I believe Yurak is ready to commence his attack at any time, Sire."

"Mm, yes, tell him to make it stand out," Zarkon commanded. "The bigger and louder the example he makes of them, the better!"

"I can't believe they seriously think they could ever find anyone on Arus who can actually fly the stupid thing any better than the Princess did," Sakura thought aloud. "And she damn near crashed it!"

"I think the question we should be asking ourselves, my evil dear," Haggar replied, "is can they possibly teach a replacement pilot sufficiently in time to actually renew Voltron's threat to us?"

"Pff, yeah, right," Sakura replied back. "We'll smash them and their shiny new castle into nothing first. Then we can take the time to collect the lions for ourselves, if we can figure out where Red, Green, and Yellow are hidden."

"Hm, be that as it may, best to make sure they learn their lesson regardless," Zarkon stated. "Tell Yurak to launch the attack!"

In the Pierrane Mountains of Arus, less than two hours away from the Castle of Lions, Gertrude was steadily hiking her way up to the first village. She'd taken a horse drawn carriage up to this point, but the final pass was too narrow for the carriage, so she had opted to walk the final two and a half miles to Crown Village, walking stick in hand, while the coachmen watered and fed the resting horses. She stopped for a moment to wipe her brow and catch her breath, staring ahead at the village a mere handful of meters away.

"Almost there," she huffed. "Soon I'll find someone we can train to fly the lion and Allura will be safe." She thought about her headstrong liege, shaking her head with an exasperated sigh. "Sending the Princess into battle, how could I ever do such a dreadful thing?" she asked herself. She began moving forward again when lightning cracked the sky, followed by a massive shaking of the ground. "Better hurry," Gertrude said to herself, then the shaking worsened and she found herself dropping to the ground and desperately crawling to the nearest cover to avoid large chunks of falling rocks.

She had barely reached shelter when a jutting stone a short ways away cracked and came apart, the robeast Mogyula rising up as if from within the rock. Actually, his coffin was just behind it, and it had reflexively torn the mountain jut apart as it was enlarged from a blast from Yurak's command ship, safely hovering just out of sight of the village, and therefor Gertrude. Still, from Gertrude's perspective, it appeared as though the monstrous robeast had somehow been hidden inside the rocks, and had exploded out of it. Regardless, more stone was now flying through the air and smashing back down to the ground for a few moments, and a robeast was once more on the attack.

Mogyula's hands and feat were solid black, as was his head save for his yellow eyes, brown Frankenstein-like neck bolts, and four horns. Two of the horns jutted straight out the top of his head, while the other two came out the sides, going horizontal at first before having a sharp right angle turn straight up, bull-like. Another two blade-like protrusions emerged from his back, curving upwards. His shoulders, lower legs, and arms were predominately brown, looking as though adorned in armor, emphasized by the white bone-like crest on his chest. His abdomen was red, almost resembling muscle, and his upper legs were blue, as though wearing skin tight pants of some kind. In his belly and near his shoulders and feet were what looked like circular openings or vents, their intended purpose for the moment unclear. Finally, four curved blades emerged from each of the four sides of of his wrists, and two more from his ankles, as well as three curved spikes from the outer side of each thigh.

Mogyula raised his arms and roared, ready to attack and kill. On the ground in the pass below, Gertrude stared in terror and shook in fear. The beast then moved forward toward the village, unaware or uncaring of her presence.

"Oh, no, a robeast," Gertrude uttered. "It'll kill anyone we might have gotten to fly the lion!" As if to prove her right, it reached the village and immediately stomped two buildings flat under it's foot. Many people were out and about on their daily activities, and had frozen in fear when the beast appeared, but now were screaming in panic and running for their lives. Sadly, this attracted Mogyula's attention, and he turned after them, smashing people underfoot, and even bending down and swiping a few aside with his mighty hands and smashing one hapless man with his fist. Then, with a twisted smirk, Mogyula scooped up a couple people and shoved them down his spike toothed maw, devouring them. Gertrude could do naught but stay in her hiding place and watch, helpless to do anything else.

"Ohh, those poor people," she moaned.

Nearby, Cova and Spinner watched the carnage rage on, knowing their mistresses, and therefor Zarkon, watched all through them.

"Well, this is going well," Spinner observed. Cova mewed in response. "Think they'll send any of the lions? Or just cower in the shiny new castle all scared?" Spinner asked. Cova rowled. "Heh, yeah, goody goods are kinda predictable that way, aren't they?" Spinner agreed. "Always gotta try and save the weaklings and 'innocent people' from danger, even when there's no hope of really doing so." Cova meowed and purred, then sniffed the air and turned toward the direction of the aforementioned castle. Spinner turned as well, and gave a light smile.

"Ah, and here come the noble morons now," he quipped as he saw the four lions flying in Mogyula's direction. "How long do you think Mogyula will take to smash them to bits?" he asked. Cova gave a meow and a light growl in response. "That quick? Three snacks says he takes at least three more minutes just to play with them first," Spinner replied. Cova gave a more sly meow, accepting the bet.

In his command ship, Yurak noted the approaching lions with a dark laugh.

"A Voltron that can't be formed is nothing but a joke," he sneered. "They're no threat to us, anymore. Attack, Mogyula! Destroy them all!"

In the Galran castle throne room, Zarkon observed his witch and her apprentice as they lit up with glee of their own.

"And now Voltron will perish," Haggar cackled.

"So much for the great legend," Sakura agreed. "Guess we'll just have to settle for studying the scraps."

"Ah, good news at last," Zarkon grunted, a particularly evil smile on his lips. "I do hope it's a wonderfully painful demise for all of them."

"Indeed, sire," Haggar agreed, and Sakura simply gave a quick nod.

As the four lions approached, Mogyula scooped up a large boulder and chucked it in their direction, the stone hitting the ground and smashing into a cloud of dust several meters short of its intended target. Undeterred, Mogyula began charging forward, ready to attack up close when something dashing away from it drew its attention. It was Gertrude, making a mad dash for safety, and the monster swung for her. At the last second she dove for another boulder for cover, and conveniently slipped down a hole, just barely evading the beast's swinging hand. Before it could reach for her again, though, a mechanical roar drew its attention away a second time as the lions emerged from the fading dust cloud.

The lions formed their mouth-held blade weapons, and Yellow leapt into the air, bouncing off of Black's back and throwing itself straight at the robeast. Mogyula was unimpressed, and batted the lion aside like a toy, Yellow flying backwards into the nearby mountain face. The others charged in next from all sides, aiming for the legs, but Red and Green were similarly kicked aside by the giant monstrosity, Red falling on its back, Mogyula roaring the whole time. The beast then caught Black in its huge hands, squeezing down on it. The lion wiggled desperately to escape, but hope for the stalwart heroes of Arus finally seemed to be at an end.

"Hah, it's not even a fight!" Yurak gloated. "Now finish them, robeast!" He noted the other three lions regaining their feet, but paid it no mind. This battle was already determined, and nothing could save the humans now.

"Hm, hm, hm, looks like I win, Cova," Spinner chortled. "At least the show was entertaining." Cova meowed in response, and then another mechanical roar echoed from the distance, drawing their attention. "Huh?" Spinner blinked, and then his eyes widened in terror. "Oh, no. OH CRAP!" he snapped, and Cova gave a distressed yowl in agreement as their ears shot straight up. For flying in from the direction of the castle was Blue Lion, and this time the new pilot seemed to at least know how to keep the lion flying steady, if nothing else. Then they heard another noise and turned back to the battle at hand, and gleeped when they realized that the sudden approach of the fifth lion had also distracted Mogyula, allowing Black the opening it needed to nose butt the robeast, momentarily knocking the monster off balance while simultaneously loosening its grip on the lead lion.

From the ground, having gotten herself out of harm's way and joined up with other survivors, Gertrude saw the lion as well, and feared the worst.

"Princess, stop this! Come down from there at once!" she screamed. The Blue Lion did not heed her, but instead joined up with its brothers, and they quickly launched into the air in formation. It was time, once more.

"Oh, no," Sakura whimpered. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"What is it?!" Zarkon growled. "What's happening?!'

"Blue lion has returned, Sire," Haggar admitted, also dumbstruck. "They're forming the robot."

"WHAT?!" Zarkon snapped to his feet. "NO!"

By the time Mogyula had properly recovered, it was done, and, his four lion headed limbs roaring in challenge, Voltron had returned! From his hands, Voltron unleashed a flame and tornado combo against Mogyula, his feet quickly following suit with more flames. Mogyula pulled back in pain, his body quite literally on fire, and that was all the opening Voltron needed. Voltron formed the blazing sword, and jumped forward, swinging a single blow as the fire consuming Mogyula went out, the robeast having all of about three seconds to realize what was coming before Voltron's sword took off the monster's head. Mogyula's body fell to the ground, spasming for a moment before going still forever. Voltron had won, again.

"How can this be?!" Yurak grunted. "How can Blue Lion be back? How do I tell Zarkon?!" He immediately ordered a retreat to Galra, quietly trying to think of a way to give his report. His mind then recalled the two familiars out on the surface. "Crap...he already knows..."

"So...race you to the space coffin?" Spinner asked as he and Cova watched Voltron park himself on the ground for the moment, a short way from the dead robeast, one eye warily on the quickly retreating, and now quite visible, Galran command ship. Cova just mewed in agreement, and they bolted for their semi-private craft quickly.

"They managed to form the robot?! Even after you eliminated one of the pilots?!" Zarkon roared, his ire at an all time high.

"So it would seem, Sire," Haggar nodded. "The robeast has been destroyed, too." Zarkon let out an unintelligible yell.

"Now what do you propose to do?!" he demanded. "Slay another of the pilots?"

"No, sire, that will clearly only delay them a short time, at best," Haggar stated calmly. "And they are unlikely to ever fall into the same trap twice."

"And what of you, little witch?!" he turned on Sakura. "What do you have to say?!"

"I...I...I don't know, sire," she stammered out, having moved closer to her master for whatever fleeting protection that could potentially provide. Zarkon slammed down his hand, growling in rage. Sakura suspected that some slaves, or worse, some loyal soldiers to the empire, were going to die before much longer, and she could only hope not to be included in the pending massacre.


And finally I'm done! This one was as annoying as it was unavoidable! And before I forget, the name "Gertrude" for Nanny/Hys(Yes, I know her original Japanese name, I just don't particularly care for it) is from LotornoMiko's fics, and is used with her permission(I asked her ages ago and got it). As to why I found this one particularly annoying, well, in case it isn't pretty obvious, the bad guys have almost no scenes in it! Seriously, I made up a large chunk of them just to get things to flow properly. I'll just let you all be the judges as to whether or not I did a good job on that(personally, I'm fairly satisfied with the results.).

Welp, onward and upward, and now for some arguably pointless filler! See y'all there! Remember to leave a review in that provided space down there, 'kay?

Scorpinac