Chapter 19: Seen And Unseen

Upon returning to Galra, and after taking a few moments to catch their collective breaths, Zarkon insisted on a full, and un-candid explanation in the throne room. Lotor and Sakura, standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to the throne, gave each other a very nervous glance before doing their best to give their King a properly detailed accounting of everything that had happened from the previous night's infiltration to the disastrous events of the cannon's inaugural firing. Zarkon listened carefully, showing no sign of his feelings on the matter. In fact, after they finished, he was. . . uncharacteristically silent for several moments before he finally spoke.

"All right then. First, I'm not going to blame you for not detecting the girl was a spy sooner than you did," he decided.

"You're not?" Sakura blinked. Spinner was floating just behind her head, and peeked around his mistress, just as surprised. 'Who is this guy, and what did he do with King Zarkon?' she wondered.

"If anything, I'm rather impressed with her," Zarkon admitted. "She's clearly very good at her job, and put on quite the convincing performance. A spy isn't worth their piss if they can't convince those around them they aren't anything other than what they say they are while gathering whatever intelligence they're seeking. Or committing whatever sabotage they intend."

"I still feel kind of stupid about it, though," Sakura admitted.

"As I'm sure I would were I in your place, little witch," Zarkon stated dryly, surprising them further. "Frankly, though, I'm more surprised that she didn't try to stick a knife in one or both of you when she had the chance. She had more than ample opportunities."

"True," Lotor said. "And she had more than enough time to shoot Hallem while they were in the cannon's control chamber, yet never did. I can only surmise that, like Sakura, she has yet to actually take another person's life, and was unable to bring herself to go through with it."

"Possible," Zarkon agreed, then scowled with barely contained rage. "Now, what I can blame you nitwits for is letting the slave have control of the cannon at all!" he growled. "How could it not occur to you he might use it on us instead of our enemies?!"

"I gave him a truth potion!" Lotor cried defensively. "I had every reason to believe he was incapable of lying at that point!"

"Yes, and from the sounds of it, you should have chosen your questions more carefully, tried harder to root out everything he intended to do and what he didn't!" Zarkon snapped at his son, and Lotor, for his part, simply slumped in submission, realizing how correct his father was. Zarkon chastised his son for several more moments before allowing him and Sakura to leave the throne room. While Lotor went off to try and soothe his heavily wounded pride, Sakura found herself fuming for her own reasons, pondering just how much of her interactions with Tomoyo had actually been "real."

Meanwhile, the Voltron Force, mostly Keith and Allura, ran negotiations with the Murans in regards to the Space Cannon. It finally boiled down to Mura pledging their allegiance with Arus and the Alliance. But they would be holding on to the cannon, as it was currently their primary defense until further notice. Allura heartily agreed, and Keith felt obliged to go along. And for Tomoyo, that also meant staying where she was, as Garrison's onsite "babysitter" for the cannon. Especially when they checked in with Garrison and got the "bad" news.

With the Voltron schematics in their possession, Garrison had retrofitted several preexisting exploratory craft to create an effective second Voltron, and had assigned it and the pilots selected for it to the S.S. Explorer for testing, among other things. But less than a week into their mission, the Explorer had had the uncanny luck of crossing paths with a craft from another stellar empire, the Galbestrons. Suffice it to say, it had not been a good first meeting, and now the Alliance had conflicts on two fronts. On the plus side, the new Voltron, nicknamed Vehicle Voltron due to its composing parts, was passing all tests and trials by fire with flying colors.

With both Arus and Mura still being behind Galra lines, however, prudence dictated leaving the cannon where it was. For now.

It was about three days later that Haggar summoned Zarkon and Lotor to the throne room, having come up with something new to try. Lotor stood to Zarkon's side while Haggar stood in front of them next to a five foot tall perch stand, Sakura standing on the other side of said perch. And sitting atop the perch, was a simple Galran falcon.

"What nonsense is this, Haggar?" Zarkon asked. "You summoned me to see a falcon? A screeching bird?"

"Actually, he's just a test subject, sire," Sakura explained, sensing Zarkon's impatience and hostility growing, again. The falcon, uneasy for its own reasons, squawked and waved its wings in agitation.

"Just watch, your majesty," Haggar said, and rose her staff to release a bolt of energy into the bird, which glowed for a moment, then completely disappeared. And yet they could still hear the bird's wings flapping in its increasing turmoil. Zarkon and Lotor stared in surprise and shock.

"It vanished," Zarkon said.

"Incredible," Lotor added.

"Its been implanted with an occult device that allows it to cloak itself in an invisibility barrier at will," Haggar explained. "It took time to craft, and at present we have only one other available. But surely you can see the value of my magic work, yes?"

"Yes, we can implant it in a robeast to do our bidding, and send it to Arus to wreck havoc!" Zarkon smiled gleefully.

"Exactly, sire! An invisible robeast can do more damage by itself than your entire army before the enemy even knows what's happened or can even begin to try and counter it!" Hagger smiled just as gleefully.

"We'll do it at once, no time to waste!" Zarkon declared, then turned to his son. "Lotor, select a robeast for the implantation at once!"

"I believe the one named Bullbar would be fitting," Lotor decided almost immediately. "He's the one with four arms."

"Show me a visual," Zarkon ordered. Lotor tapped a command on the buttons on the armrest of the throne and they all turned to look at the throne room's main view screen as an image of the robeast Bullbar, currently showing off in the arena from the looks of things, appeared on it. "Ah, him," Zarkon purred agreeably.

Bullbar was a brown creature about fifteen feet tall whose legs and arms, four as Lotor had stated, were bare while his body was clothed in a simple black leotard with a grey circular spot on his belly. His mouth sported four fangs, two yellow horns rose out of the top of his head, his two-toed feet each had a yellow spike coming out of the back of his heels, and each of the four arms ended in three fingered hands. He also wore black wrist bands on each of his four wrists.

At that moment, he was holding two bars in his hands, one in his upper hands and the other in his lower ones. A second later, Bullbar bent the two bars like they were rubber. Sakura gave a little whistle, duly impressed.

"Yes, he keeps in shape," Zarkon observed.

"And he never questions orders," Lotor added. "I believe he would be just right for this mission."

"I like him," Zarkon decided, then turned to Haggar. "Fit him with the device at once and send him to Arus."

"It'll be done immediately, sire," she agreed. Haggar turned and started off. Sakura, meanwhile, used her own magic to cancel the invisibility of the bird and summoned a guard to have it taken back to the lab animal holding cages. While all this was done, Lotor smiled to himself gleefully.

'With an invisible robeast I'll easily be able to make a mockery of Voltron, and capture Allura once and for all,' he thought to himself. 'At last she'll be mine!'

"Little witch, accompany Lotor on the mission, and keep his mind on track," Zarkon instructed Sakura, who turned with a surprised look on her face. Lotor also blanched at the order, aghast that his father thought it was even necessary. Sakura thought on it carefully for a moment before replying.

"Knowing Lotor, I can only promise to try," she said. "Sire."

"And that's the most I can hope for," Zarkon stated. Sakura gave a bow while Lotor fumed, his cheeks blushing in embarrassment.

The next afternoon, a black space coffin descended onto an Arusian beach several dozen miles from the Castle of Lions. Moments after its landing, it opened, and a few seconds later tracks formed on the sand leading away from it. Bullbar's mission had begun. A safe distance away, Lotor, Sakura, and Spinner watched on carefully from Lotor's personal ship.

About an hour later, Bullbar was moving quietly through the forest when he spotted the Arus royal carriage moving by, occupied by Allura, Pidge, Lance, and Gertrude on their way back from a fruit harvest. It slowed briefly for Allura to wave to two children as they passed by, mostly due to the kids waving to them first and calling out to her, then moved on. But it was ample time for Bullbar to overhear that his primary prey was in the horse drawn conveyance.

Ignoring the two little ones, they were not his target and of no threat one way or the other, he hustled after the carriage. Within seconds he had caught it, and lifted it into the air before tossing it into a nearby lake. The driver was thrown to the ground and the two horses snapped free in the process, the latter bolting for safety and the former sadly smashing his head against a rock when he landed. Whilst this all happened, Pidge, in an understandable panic, pulled out his radio and sent a general SOS back to the castle. Upon receiving the distress signal, Keith and Hunk launched in their lions straight away.

After the four dunked humans surfaced from the water coughing and sputtering, they wasted no time on words and quickly swam ashore, Lance and Pidge getting out first before turning to help the ladies. But just as they were doing so, to their shock and awe, a jet of water erupted near them and then Allura suddenly rose into the air, seemingly by herself. She gave a scream of surprise, and her arms went to her sides as though pinned.

"I can't move my arms! Something's holding me!" she cried out as she started floating away from the lake. "Quick, Lance, Pidge, do something!" Pidge jumped forward first, pulling a laser pistol and then quickly trying to figure out where to aim. Fortunately, or so it seemed, Allura suddenly stopped moving forward.

"Careful, Pidge, you might hit the Princess!" Lance cautioned, as he quickly pulled Gertrude out of the lake as well.

"Well, duh!" Pidge replied, then blinked as Allura actually started to move back towards them, only to stop again long enough for Pidge to suddenly feel something grab him and lift him into the air as well. Then they both started to float away. "Holy crap!" Pidge cried.

"Oh, no, who could possibly have sent this thing," Lance rolled his eyes, feeling overly annoyed at this point. Pidge, however, took advantage of his current predicament and fired into the air immediately in front of him, causing Bullbar to shriek in pain and momentarily become visible again as he dropped the two and retreated back into the trees. Pidge and Allura quickly rejoined the others and they all beat their own hasty retreat. Aiming in the direction of the castle, they kept going for several minutes before stopping next to a very high rocky outcropping to rest for a minute.

"Pidge, how's your communicator? Can you send another signal?" Lance asked.

"No can do , it's still soaked," Pidge shook his head. "I just hope they got the first one." Unfortunately, Bullbar had gotten crafty, circling around behind them and up to the top of the outcropping, grabbing up a large boulder, and tossing it down at them. The boulder hit the slanted ground and started rolling the rest of the way down toward the four people below. They heard it in time to look up in panic and run forward out of the way, only for Gertrude's legs to suddenly give out on her after just a few steps.

Hearing her fall and cry out in fear, the others turned to look back, and upon seeing her lying on the ground, Allura dove back for the woman with Lance and Pidge just behind her. But as she reached her friend, Allura looked up to see she now had only seconds before impact, and started to scream, her eyes slamming shut. Just then the sound of stone impacting hard metal rang out and Allura looked again, and found the welcome sight of Black lion above her, the boulder having been stopped short by landing harmlessly on Black's back. Yellow appeared a moment later, and all four humans gave a sigh of relief and rejoiced.

Lance and Pidge boarded Yellow while Allura and Gertrude boarded Black, the group quickly filling Keith and Hunk in on the situation. The two lions leapt to the top of the outcropping, and once atop the cliff, searched for their opponent. But Bullbar, now invisible again, had already left. After a few moments the two lions departed to return their passengers to their castle. A few moments later, Lotor's craft flew into the area, Lotor and Sakura having observed all from their hidden vantage point. They were both seething while Spinner watched on more passively. Bullbar himself had quickly shifted back down the cliff side and into the woods below it.

"Blast, so close. He almost had her," Lotor growled.

"He also almost squished them!" Sakura grumbled. "All brawn and very little brain, it would seem. You couldn't have picked a better monster?"

"Change of plan," Lotor decided. "Time for our invisible Bullbar to become an invisible giant, and wreak utter havoc on all in his wake!" And with that, using the implanted tracking device Haggar had installed with the invisibility device in order to locate him quickly, Lotor bathed Bullbar in an Infra Energy Beam, shifting the beast into an enormous behemoth. Albeit one that still couldn't be seen. Bullbar let loose a mighty roar and stomped forward through the now, to him, minuscule forest.

"Now, rampage across the countryside!" Lotor commanded. "That'll draw out the lions, and most importantly the blue lion and Princess Allura!"

"And don't forget to also grab green lion and Pidge!" Sakura added. "If you can remember not to kill them this time, that is!" Bullbar roared in reply and charged forth, quickly coming to a moderate sized town, the beast wasting no time trampling multiple buildings under invisible foot.

At the Castle of Lions, the damage was detected, but not the cause. Realizing the invisible monster was most likely the source, the pilots headed out, minus Allura. Keith reasoned that as Lotor's main target, it would be better for Allura to remain in the castle for her safety. Allura quickly pointed out that Sakura had to have given the monster orders as well, as Pidge had also clearly been a target of the thing. Ergo, by Keith's logic, Pidge should have to remain behind as well, right? Keith countered by claiming that watching one lion's back closely while fighting the monster would in fact be far simpler than having to watch the backs of two, and since he was Voltron's Commander, he got to choose which of the two would stay behind. And since Lotor would be more likely to leave without Pidge than Sakura would be to leave without Allura, Allura therefor got "bench" duty.

The Princess was less than thrilled by this decision, and stated that they would still need her to form Voltron if, nay when, Lotor and Sakura turned the thing giant, but Keith replied that he meant for her to stay in the control room so as to be ready to jump in her lion at a moment's notice if they needed her, not be locked in her room. The last part was said while looking pointedly at Coran, who had the good grace to look briefly ashamed. Ironically, Pidge wasn't too happy about it either, though mostly due to being effectively called the "more expendable" of the two of them.

The four lions launched and headed straight for the town, and Green and Yellow, Yellow hovering noticeably closer to Green than usual, quickly made sure the stragglers made it out to the hillside safely while Black and Red tried to lure the beast into showing itself. Keith fired a random shot from a missile launcher on Black's back just in front of its folded wings. Sadly, it hit only the ground and an already damaged building. Lance then tried firing Red's shoulder canon, the laser cutting across the ground for a few meters before successfully making contact with Bullbar, momentarily forcing him to become visible again before vanishing once more. For the lion pilots, this was starting to get annoying.

Bullbar then upped the proverbial ante by firing an energy shot of his own, nailing Red and taking Lance off guard. After that, Black and Red decided to move things, if only to leave the townsfolk at least something to rebuild. Fortunately, there was no question as to whether or not the monster was following them, as it left enormous footprints behind as they passed over a particularly sandy region. They reached another outcropping, Yellow and Green rejoining them, and they all turned to look for their enemy. They quickly spotted his tracks come to a stop, and Black fired its Black Bazooka, Red its back missile launcher, Yellow its back cannon, and Green a laser from its tail at the location where the tracks halted.

Once again, Bullbar briefly regained visibility, then re-disappeared, his tracks retreating away. The four lions charged after, being lead right to a lake, the tracks dead ending at the shoreline. The lions scanned around a bit, and then Pidge, in a moment of rank stupidity, stuck his lion's nose into the lake to take a quick peek underwater. A second later Green was seized and squirming to get loose. Black jumped over to help, only to suddenly flail in the air as Bullbar grabbed him as well. Red and Yellow leapt forward to help, only to be snagged as well, Bullbar taking the opportunity to smack the lions against each other, Red into Yellow and Black into Green.

Black quickly rebounded, though, bringing out its Black Bazooka again, and flipping it around to fire behind Black at the empty space where Bullbar was. The blast injured Bullbar, who dropped the lions in his pain and stepped back for a second. Black got up quickly, spotted where the tracks stopped, and fired again, getting enough of an explosion that it back flipped back over to the others to avoid it. Black then fired another shot, while Red, Green, and Yellow all fired their shoulder mounted weapons as well as lasers from their tails and Yellow's back cannon.

The multitude of ordinance filled the area with fire, and Bullbar reacted in pain, then leaped through the air, landing several feet away and then retreating once more. Sadly, the lions failed to notice Bullbar's escape, as it was masked by the flame and smoke created by their barrage. They searched around hopelessly for any sign of the monster after the smoke and fire had cleared.

Bullbar, however, was now headed elsewhere, Lotor's ship flying up to where his tracks had resumed.

"Alright Bullbar, looks like Allura is hiding in the castle," Lotor stated. "Attack it at once, and bring her to me!"

"Hey! What about Pidge?!" Sakura glared at him.

"Another time, Sakura, I promise," Lotor answered. Bullbar wasted no time, marching straight to the castle and attacking as instructed, crushing tower tops and smashing turrets and stomping a ground based installation. One brave soldier started firing a mounted laser turret wildly in hopes of hitting the enemy, but one punch from Bullbar ended that annoyance quickly. A few minutes later, summoned by Allura, the lions came flying back to the castle to help. Lotor and Sakura spotted them, however, and quickly chose their next tactic.

"Alright, let's see what you do about this," Lotor said. "Bullbar, go into the lake after the blue lion, and fight the others if they dare to follow you! Their power should be far weaker than yours underwater!"

"And when you beat them, bring the green lion back with you, understood bean brain?!" Sakura added. Again, Bullbar didn't hesitate, jumping into the lake and letting himself sink to the bottom, quickly locating Blue's resting station, the fifth lion still waiting for its pilot. The other lions were just as fast to react, reaching the castle and flying straight into the lake after the invisible Bullbar.

To their surprise, Bullbar was standing over the prone Blue fully visible, and Red and Green wasted no time firing their shoulder mounted weapons, nailing Bullbar easily. But Bullbar quickly vanished, and then began wailing on the four lions mercilessly. With no way to see him, again, and the underwater environment hampering their fighting ability as well, the lions were helpless, Bullbar eventually grabbing each of them by the neck. A light then shot down the tunnel extending from the direction of the castle to Blue's resting station, and a moment later Blue stood up, ready to fight. Allura had rejoined the fray.

But above the water in his personal fighter, Lotor was ready and waiting for this moment.

"Finally, she's come out of hiding!" Lotor crowed. "Bullbar, drop the red, yellow, and black lions, they're of no further interest! Capture the blue lion and Allura, and bring them along with Pidge and his green lion to us!"

"Yes! It's working, it's working!" Sakura beamed. Only Spinner remained mostly blasé about it all.

"You're counting your chickens early again," he warned. Sakura and Lotor, however, ignored him.

Back at the bottom of the lake, Blue swam circles around the empty space between the four struggling lions where Bullbar had to be, then fired its shoulder missile launcher, hitting Bullbar and making him release the others once more. A moment later he went for Blue directly, grabbing it and using it to smack an approaching Yellow away, then he grabbed up Green again, and beat feat for the surface with its catch. Black, Red, and Yellow quickly pulled themselves together and launched after him. A few moments later they all burst out of the lake, and the seized Blue and Green began moving toward the forest.

"Well done, Bullbar! You've got them!" Lotor cackled merrily, then switched the communicator frequency over to connect his ship to Blue and Green. "Resistance is futile, you two. Submit to your fate now!"

"Never, you slime!" Allura's voice snapped.

"Ooh, scathing," Sakura smirked. "How will he ever recover from that?"

"Just wait till we get out of this! Then we'll really give you something to recover from!" Pidge said as angrily as he could.

"Such spirited words, I'm starting to see what Sakura likes about you," Lotor commented idly. Pidge just growled.

The other lions flew close behind, but were hesitant to strike. Bullbar was still invisible and the odds of accidentally hitting Blue or Green were...unpleasant. In desperation, Keith began trying every sensor option available – ultrasonic detection, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray radar, laser sensor. Nothing. Nothing was able to give them a detectable target.

"Keith, we're running out of time! I'm gonna fire!" Lance declared.

"Okay, one last shot," Keith decided. "The thing should still be wet, so I'll have the computer attempt to create a 3D representation using data from water evaporation and mass calculations. If that doesn't work, then go ahead and fire." He set Black's computer to the task, using his best guess at the robeast's mass and having it scan for the evaporating water to run the needed numbers. The seconds ran, the three at liberty pilots feeling very tense. And then the computer finished. Black fired the Black Bazooka one more time.

And nailed Bullbar right in the face, shocking him into dropping his quarries. Just before the two lions hit the ground, the others swept in and caught them, Black and Red getting Blue and Yellow getting Green. After a few seconds they resumed moving under their own power, and the five rose to the air.

"Did they just do what I think they did?" Sakura asked, her voice now tinged in worry.

"I think they did," Lotor gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Told you," Spinner said calmly.

As Bullbar recovered from the last attack, he realized that his opponents had changed things up. The lions had combined into Voltron once again. Bullbar threw an energy blast, but Voltron dodged and then replied with his foot missiles, which arced through the air for a second before impacting on Bullbar. Voltron followed up with a strafe through the air with laser blasts from both his hands, which also landed on its target after a few seconds. After that, Voltron decided to get in close and vent some frustration by pummeling Bulbar with his fists. After a few blows, he lit Bullbar up with his Fire Tornado, then finally broke out the Blazing Sword.

Voltron made a single thrust into Bullbar's chest, then swung upwards before flipping around the creature, who promptly exploded into nothing. Once the dust settled, the Voltron force took a collective sigh of relief.

In Lotor's personal ship, the evil Prince and Sakura were dumbstruck and fuming as Lotor flew them immediately away and back to Galra.

"Damn it!" Lotor cursed.

"How?!" Sakura groused. "How did they see him?! The invisibility should have kept them hopelessly bamboozled!"

"On the other hand, he did do a pretty good job causing damage and havoc," Spinner commented. "While he lasted."

"I suppose," Sakura agreed. "But it could take a while to make more invisibility barrier implants. Mama Haggar told me that one and the prototype weren't exactly easy."

"No, we won't be bothering," Lotor stated.

"What?! Why not?!" Sakura stared in surprise.

"If they found a way to detect Bullbar despite his invisibility, they'll be able to most likely use the same trick on later invisible robeasts," Lotor explained. "In short, that tactic is useless now." Sakura thought about that for a moment, and could find no fault in the reasoning.

Upon their return to Galra, they reported to Zarkon immediately. And to Sakura's surprise, while definitely upset with the latest failure, Zarkon actually agreed with his son's decision not to use more invisible robeasts - at least on Arus. Further use of the invisibility barriers would be saved for other, later, targets. For now, though, it would be shelved. Haggar was also upset to learn that the Voltron Force had somehow figured out how to get around her invisibility plan, but ultimately let it go, commenting idly about another long term project starting to show a glimmer of promise for the future, leaving Sakura more than a little curious.

Sakura tried to ask Haggar what the project was, only to have Haggar wave her off, leaving Sakura to wonder if it was the same long term project Haggar had been checking up on before when she was still finalizing Project Blossom and Operation: Pest Control.

The next few days saw various options considered and dropped, finally leading Lotor to decide to go "Beast Hunting." That is to say, flying out to a few planets to seek new creatures with which to try and create fresh robeasts from. While they still had a fair few available, Lotor wanted to look into finding something with abilities the Voltron Force hadn't faced before, something they might not be able to defend against. And on the off chance he required magical assistance to subdue the creature or creatures they procured, he invited Sakura to come along, which she happily agreed to.

A happiness that was slightly nullified when Zakon decided to order Mogor to go along as part of the bridge crew. Sakura briefly considered objecting, but the sadistic smirk on Zarkon's face held her tongue.

Their journey lasted just over three weeks, and covered nearly a dozen planets within Galran imperial space, yielding little favorable results. While they definitely found a number of promising creatures to add to their dwindled forces, none offered any new abilities or skills that hadn't already been used on, and failed against, Voltron. And then, on the female dominated planet Joketsuzoku, they heard a rumor of a species that had what the natives called a "very scary power"; a race of creatures called the Gorgons who could emit a beam from their eyes that altered the molecular structure of matter itself.

Creatures found only on the planet Medusa.

A two day journey later had them at the planet in question, and the immediate reaction was "disappointment". A probe sent ahead of them sent back imagery of a desolate world, grey and purple plants under a dark purple sky dotting a landscape of grey sand and rock outcroppings and violet rivers. And laying spread out haphazardly were dozens, if not hundreds, of green, seemingly naked bodies. They lay every which way, some in the shallow river waters, in various positions. And not a single one of them moved, not even a twitch.

A quick air analysis by the probe revealed a high bacterium count, one confirmed by a quick examination of one of the bodies. Shortly thereafter Lotor's command ship flew up to hover over the scene below. On the bridge, the sight below was displayed on the view screen, and Lotor took it all in from his command chair. Mogor stood to his left, and Sakura to his right, Spinner laying draped over her right shoulder. None were pleased by the sight of the world below. Data began displaying along one side of the screen.

"Looks like the Gorgons have gone extinct due to a widespread fever of some kind," Mogor commented dryly.

"All of them, just gone," Sakura said. "Such a waste."

"Not even any sign of real civilization yet, either," Spinner observed.

"We came all this way on a monster hunt," Lotor grumbled, then sighed. "Do we at least know anything about that supposed ability of theirs? This 'Beam Eye'?" On the screen, the probe was running an autopsy/dissection of one of the beings, acquiring more data as quick as possible. A few minutes later the data came in, and it wasn't promising at all.

"Looks like there's no immediately obvious physical source for it, if it exists," Mogor stated. "It may be purely mental, brought on by high emotional states."

"Then it won't matter how many we mess with, will it?" Lotor scratched his chin.

"Anyone else getting the feeling we were deliberately sent on a wild goose chase?" Sakura crossed her arms, annoyance filling her face.

"Oh, just getting that now, are you?" Spinner smirked up at her. Before she could respond, a klaxon sounded, catching their attentions.

"Well, what do you know, looks like we have a survivor," Mogor said. "Must be a tough one to live through all this."

"On screen," Lotor ordered, and the view screen switched to an image of a still moving Gorgon, green skinned and apparently nude like all the rest, with short orange hair and solid red eyes with no apparent pupils or nose. Three bony pointed spikes jutted from each of its shoulders and lower legs, and its chest had noticeable swells. 'It' was in fact a 'she'. And at that moment, she was placing something in a hole, then filling said hole in.

"A female, huh?" Lotor commented.

"What's she doing?" Sakura asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Magnify," Lotor commanded, and the image enlarged, allowing them a glimpse of the hole's contents just before the Gorgon finished filling it in.

A dead Gorgon child. And when the adult sat up straight, tears were filling her eyes. Sakura felt her own heart clench a little at the sight.

"She was a mom," she breathed.

"Yes, and combined with the apparent loss of her entire people, she has more than ample reason to be distraught," Lotor commented, then smirked. "She can cry it out on the way back to Galra. Stun her, and bring her aboard!"

"Yes, sire," a soldier responded, and began working on his console. Outside the probe moved forward, and the Gorgon had all of three seconds to notice it was there before it fired a stun beam, laying her out. A few moments later a second remote piloted vehicle emerged from the command ship with extended arms, collecting the Gorgon and bringing her aboard the ship as directed. She was taken through a quarantine, purged of any harmful alien bacteria and viruses, then placed in a cell for the trip back to Galra, the Gorgon finally reawakening just as the cell was locked shut.

On the bridge, upon hearing the new catch was secure, Lotor beamed in satisfaction.

"Very good, the Gorgon's 'Beam Eye' is now at our disposal," he smiled. "Let us return to Galra so we can run a few tests to determine how to get her to use it for us." With that, the command ship set course for Galra.

The return trip took an additional three days, during which time Sakura went down to the holding cells and made some personal observations of the Gorgon. Sadly, Sakura found her to be generally placid and non-violent, showing no sign of the supposed 'Beam Eye' ability. At least until her final visit before the ship arrived back on Galra. After taking her final notes on the creature, she turned to leave, only to suddenly find herself grabbed from behind. Sakura blinked, and after glancing down at the green arm embracing her, she turned carefully to look at the Gorgon just behind the bars who was attached to said arm. The Gorgon's eyes showed compassion and fondness for Sakura, as well as concern.

"Don't leave," she managed to utter in Sakura's ears. "I'll keep you safe. I promise." Sakura thought quietly for a moment, then a soldier came up, a slight sneer on his face.

"Oh, are you going to make her your personal pet, human?" he asked derisively, causing Sakura to turn back around to face him.

"Don't be stupid," she replied. "And remember your place. Or should I tell Lotor of your insubordination?" The soldier growled.

"How dare you refer to the Prince so casually, you...you...worm!" he reacted angrily. Sakura scowled in return. The Gorgon growled in the soldier's direction, and he grabbed his whip, ready to put the monster in her place. But before he could, Sakura noticed a sudden shift in the mass behind her, and the Gorgon's arms suddenly enlarging and changing color, turning into a dark pink to light magenta. The soldier blinked, and then a light shot over Sakura's head from behind her and hit him, the soldier having only a second to scream before it was over.

Sakura turned and glanced at the Gorgon, amazed by her new form even as she returned to her normal one. The Gorgon continued to hold Sakura, and began to lightly pat Sakura on the head with her free hand. Sakura then finally released a small burst of magic, just enough to force the Gorgon to release her.

"I don't need your help," Sakura said calmly as she turned and walked away, briefly glancing at the dead soldier as she passed him on the way out. "But you'll definitely make Lotor and King Zarkon happy."

The next couple of days on Galra went by quickly, as Lotor ran his tests, and then he announced that there would be a special exhibition match in the arena, he and Sakura urging Zarkon and Haggar to join them for the festivities. The Gorgon was sent in, and five other monstrosities of various forms were also sent in for her to fight. Zarkon sat in his seat in the Royal Box, and to his right sat Lotor, then Haggar, and then Sakura. Zarkon looked upon the creature that Lotor and Sakura had brought back with them with interest.

"So that's what you caught on your hunt, Lotor?" Zarkon asked. "Rather repulsive. How does it fight? Viciously, I hope."

"I went all the way to the middle of nowhere and a planet named Medusa to find out, Father," Lotor replied, and signaled for the battle to commence. Sakura smirked confidently.

"I don't know about 'viciously', but it's certainly effective," she commented. Below, two of the five robeasts charged the lone Gorgon, body slamming her even as she timidly rose her fists in a feeble show of defense. The Gorgon fell backwards on the ground, the other monsters moving in to make the kill.

"Tch, it wasn't even worth the trip," Zarkon grunted in annoyance. "That creature is nothing!"

"Wait for it," Sakura couldn't stop smirking.

"Watch your tongue, little witch! That creature will never...WHAT?!" Zarkon started, only to stop short and lean forward as the Gorgon began to metamorphose before their eyes. She gained about four feet in height, her spikes increasing in length by five inches each, and her skin shifting from solid green to light magenta while her eyes switched from red to light blue. An equally light blue stone pad appeared on her forehead, making her face resemble a triclops'. Dark green semi-bony pads formed over her breasts and hips, and a pair of pads formed on her stomach and one on her crotch. A black, bone-like carapace formed over her thighs and shoulders, resembling armor guards; pads appeared on the back of her hands and forearms, and gauntlet-like carapaces forming around her legs just above her ankles. Her nails all turned black and razor sharp like talons. And most prominently, her hair turned into several dark blue serpents, hissing and squirming about.

She used these prehensile snakes as she got to her feet to ensnare and envenom three of her opponents before she turned and clawed open the fourth with a single strike when it charged her. The fifth came at her from the side, and she turned to look at him.

And a beam of light shot out of her eyes and nailed the last robeast, who promptly gave a squeal of pain and terror a second before all that remained of it was a perfect stone statue. Zarkon smiled as he sat back, pleased by what he saw even as Lotor turned to speak to him directly.

"So you see, Father, she really is quite the remarkable creature," Lotor stated confidently. "The power of her 'Beam Eye', as you can see, completely changes the molecular structure of solid matter in an instant." He smiled joyfully. "Not even the 'mighty' Voltron would be able to withstand being turned to stone!"

"And we really only need her to zap one lion to take that option away from them," Sakura added. "Perhaps two."

"Yes, it would seem I reacted prematurely," Zarkon admitted, though the look in his eye warned all not to try and use that admission of fallibility to their advantage if they sought to live a long life. Haggar simply smiled in twisted glee.

Afterward, the Gorgon was prepped and loaded onboard Lotor's command ship, and Lotor, with Sakura along, once again departed for Arus.

Later on Arus, Allura was performing ceremonial blessings on infants at the Castle of Lions while Coran and the other Force members watched. One of the mothers then turned to have Keith hold her child, Coran explaining to him that there was an old belief that if a man of valor held a child, then that child would grow up to be valorous as well. Seeing no harm, Keith obliged the mother, and a few more came over to him, and then some went to Lance and Hunk, who had no issue holding the little ones for a moment whatsoever. One mother then walked over to the Pidge, offering her child to him to hold. As he reached to accept the child, Pidge's hands brushed the mother's, and he found himself thinking of the last time he'd seen his own mother before shipping out on that fateful mission. He couldn't help but feel wistful. And then the alarms went off.

"Incoming! We've got a robeast on incoming! Soldiers to your stations and prepare for battle!" the voice of the man on watch duty screamed over the intercom. Allura, Coran, and the team quickly ushered the women and their infants inside for safety, then scrambled for their lions. In the meantime, multiple turrets, the ones not still being repaired after the last engagement, opened up and prepared to fire.

The Gorgon, already in her "battle" form and giantized, flew down through the air, coming to land in the middle of the nearby forest. The castle turrets opened up, but the Gorgon stayed smartly out of range, making the attack ineffective. The lions flew in fast, and Black fired both of its Black Bazookas, only for the Gorgon to deflect the hit with her snakes like it was nothing. Blue then fired its shoulder cannon while Red fired its back cannon, followed by Black firing again as Blue barely dodged getting tangled in the Gorgon's snake hair. The Gorgon didn't even so much as flinch, her hair rapidly blocking and deflecting every blow. Yellow and Green then fired their own back cannons, and got the same results, some of the snake hairs swatting Yellow and Green back.

"This thing's incredible!" Keith stated. "We need to scan for a weak point."

"I've been scanning, nothing so far," Lance reported.

"It might be vulnerable on its main body, if we could get around the snakes," Hunk commented.

The lions quickly reformed and prepared for another run, unaware of the Galran command ship floating about a hundred meters away, watching the proceedings. The Gorgon then switched tactics, thrusting her clawed hand forward and causing Yellow to dodge aside. She then unleashed her Beam Eye against Black, which managed to evade it, only for the beam to strike a flag atop one of the towers of the Castle of Lions. The flag immediately turned to stone along with its post, which snapped under the massive increase in weight, the now stone flag plummeting to the ground below where it promptly shattered upon impact.

"Holy crap, that was close!" Keith breathed. "And I thought the snakes were the biggest problem!"

"Be careful everyone! You must avoid that eye beam weapon at all costs!" Coran screamed over the lions' communicators.

"Really, Coran?! You think?!" Allura snapped as the lions formed up once more. Just then the Gorgon attacked with her snakes again, the lions all diving aside. This time, however, Green didn't get away quite fast enough and was hit, then the Gorgon thrust her hand forward again and struck Green dead on. The lion went spiraling out of control, Pidge trying desperately to bring it out of its spin. And then the alarm went off.

"Huh?" Pidge glanced at the panel, only to blanch when he read the lit up display showing: 'WARNING – SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. PILOT EJECTION SYSTEM DEPLOYING.' "What?!" Pidge shrieked. "Why am I ejecting?!"

"You're what?!" Lance and Hunk's voices came over the com, but it was too late as the hatch above Pidge opened and his seat, with him in it, launched out of green lion. Green plummeted to the ground, landing with a spectacular 'KA-THUD' near the based of the castle. Meanwhile, Pidge went sailing through the air, the seat's built in rockets slowing his speed some before a trio of parachutes deployed, lowering him to the ground...not far from the Gorgon. Pidge, slightly rattled, fell from his chair, losing consciousness.

The Gorgon glanced at the fallen human, and shot a hand forward. Then, to everyone's surprise, she scooped up Pidge and dropped him into her other hand, looking at the small human carefully; a soft smile gracing her lips.

On the bridge of the Galran command ship, Lotor and Sakura watched everything on the view screen. Lotor sat in the command chair and Sakura stood at his side, Spinner laying lazily on her shoulder.

"Yes!" Sakura clenched her fist. "I have him! Order the beast to bring Pidge to me at...what the?!" Her jubilation suddenly stopped short when the next event occurred.

"NO! It's gonna eat Pidge!" Allura freaked in her lion, pushing it to reach the Gorgon quickly.

"I'll blast it first!" Lance stated.

"No, you could hit Pidge!" Keith snapped, then blinked. "What?!"

To everyone's surprise, the Gorgon, rather than harming Pidge, gripped him carefully to her chest, and then plunged into the ground, leaving a huge hole behind her as she vanished. The lions soared over for a few minutes, before reluctantly returning to the castle. Off in the distance, the Galran command ship quickly withdrew, quietly finding a cliff side well away from the castle's immediate view and landed. Both sides kept a watch out, their scanners running, for any sign of the Gorgon or Pidge. While this occurred, men from the castle quickly came out and retrieved Green and its ejected seat, pulling them in for an examination and quick repairs. Before any of them knew it, night had fallen.

In the command ship, Lotor paced back and forth, agitated, and Sakura sat in the command chair, stewing in her annoyance. Spinner, for his part, sat calmly on the dais the chair sat upon, munching a piece of fruit.

"Damn that Gorgon, deserting the field in the middle of the battle like that," Lotor groused. "What the hell could have gone through its damn mind?" He halted in his pacing to address the scanner operator. "Any sign of her yet?" he asked.

"None as yet, sir," the operator stood and saluted his Prince. "We're still searching."

"Then search faster!" Lotor snapped, then stamped away back toward the other side of the deck. "She's hiding out there somewhere."

"You could send for another robeast to finish the job, you know," Spinner commented idly. Lotor turned to glare at the familiar.

"What?" he asked, his gaze stern, still filled with annoyance and frustration. Sakura also turned her attention to Spinner.

"Well, they are missing Pidge right now, yes? Which, last time I checked, means they're down one lion and can't form Voltron, correct?" Spinner elucidated. Lotor turned that over in his mind for a few seconds before coming to a decision, turning to the communications officer.

"Send word back about the Gorgon's desertion, its capture of the green lion pilot, and request, politely, for another robeast to be sent to us for an immediate follow up attack as soon as possible," Lotor ordered. The officer nodded, and immediately began transmitting the report/request.

"It might actually be advantage us, for once," Spinner smiled before taking another bite of fruit.

"Maybe," Sakura agreed, still simmering over everything. Lotor simply returned to his pacing.

At the Castle of Lions, the remaining Voltron Force members and Coran continued their own scan search for the Gorgon and Pidge. And like Lotor's men, weren't having much luck. Their only solace was that if the creature had wanted to kill Pidge it would have just done it, not run off with him.

"Just keep looking," Keith encouraged. "Its got to reappear sometime."

"I just hope Pidge reappears with it," Allura said. "If it hasn't already hand delivered him to Sakura. By the way, do we know why he ejected yet?"

"The maintenance report came back just moments ago, Princess," Coran replied as he continued to monitor the video screen. "Apparently some old wiring snapped during the creature's last strike, leading to the lion's onboard computer deploying emergency protocols due to what it perceived as the beginning of a cascade failure."

"I see," Allura nodded. "Have them check the others for any similar issues."

"Already in progress, Princess," Coran stated, then grunted in frustration. "Come on, where are you two?"

A few hours passed, and the sun came back up. In a cave in the side of a small mountainous ridge, the Gorgon slept soundly, her hair laying slackly along the sides of her head, resembling simple long blue hair from a distance. Pidge lay on the ground beside her, also still deep in sleep. A moment later, though, he began to groggily return to consciousness, blinking at the seemingly awake snake dangling above him before pushing up to a sitting position and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He took note of the fact that the Gorgon was asleep, and carefully got to his feet. Being as quiet as he could, he crept toward the cave's exit, hoping to get outside and make a mad dash for it before the giant monster awoke.

However, just as he reached the opening and daylight, he felt something wrap snugly around his right leg, halting his progress. He nervously glanced down to see what it was, only to find one of the Gorgon's snakes wrapped around his limb. He let out a quick gasp of surprise, and a split second later the snake had released his leg and snapped around his middle, lifting him through the air and back to the Gorgon. Pidge found himself dropped onto the side of one of her other snakes that was raised into the air horizontally, the Gorgon now fully awake and looking at him, her slight smile once again upon her lips.

"Ah, man, I almost had it made," Pidge groaned as he flopped backward, choosing to lie prone. "Go ahead, just do it! Grill me, boil me, swallow me raw! Do whatever, just do it already!" he told his captor. And then she did the one thing Pidge never would have expected. She moved one of her snakes up to his face and used it to give him a quick smooch on the cheek!

"WHAT?!" Pidge's eyes' bulged in surprise.

Outside, the lions had relaunched, and split into four directions in order to search for Pidge. As Hunk flew Yellow over a heavily forested area grousing quietly to himself about the lack of places to land in his current search area, unbeknownst to him a group of Star Cutters were flying nearby, also searching as hard as they could while maintaining silent running, albeit heading in the opposite direction of Yellow and closer to the ground, skimming over the trees. A few moments later, as they crossed over the mountain ridge, the Star Cutters' scanners, looking specifically for the Gorgon's bio patterns, hit pay dirt. The group Commander did a double check, then hit his ship communicator.

"Group Commander to Prince Lotor! Success! We have located the life signs of the Gorgon monster, and scans indicate the small Voltron Force member is with him!" the Commander reported dutifully.

At the command ship, Lotor, sitting in his seat, grimaced.

"Capture them both at once!" he commanded, pointing toward the view screen. "The Gorgon for 're-education', and Pidge as our prisoner, once Sakura's through with him."

"Should we wake her, sire?" a guard asked as the command ship launched back into the air to head out to join the Star Cutters. Sakura had, after waiting a couple more hours during the search the night before, decided to retire to a bed, grabbing an unused crew room and passing out pretty quickly. At present, she was still slumbering.

"Are you immune to the magic of a grumpy witch who isn't fond of overly early mornings?" Lotor asked the guard, giving him a side-long glance.

"Uh, no," the guard replied. "Sir." Lotor returned his attention to the view screen.

"Then you have your answer," Lotor commented.

Back in the cave, the Gorgon had set Pidge back on the ground, who had opted to sit and wait, his arms wrapped around his knees.

"What the heck is it up to?" he asked himself, still puzzled over the monster's behavior toward him. Just then one of her snakes snapped into the darkness and snagged something, then moved to offer it to Pidge – a now dead Arusian lizard.

"Here, food, you eat," the Gorgon instructed him. Pidge, however, jerked back from the dead thing, repulsed, before grabbing it and throwing it back at the Gorgon, hitting right on her currently huge nose.

"GAH! Cut that out!" he cried as he did so. "What do I look like, some kind of animal?!" After the lizard hit its mark, Pidge winced, jumping to his feet and bowing his head in panic with his hands over his helmet defensively. "Now I've done it..." he moaned, and then blinked when he heard the sad sounds now coming from the Gorgon.

It was crying.

"No way," Pidge breathed, then, not knowing why he did it himself, stated loudly, "I'm sorry." Before Pidge could decide his next move, though, the sounds of laser weaponry firing came from outside the cave, followed a split second later by the inside of the cave shaking and rocks crashing downward from the ceiling. Pidge let out a small cry of alarm as he tried to keep his balance before dropping to one knee. And then the Gorgon shifted to lean over Pidge, her body shielding him from the falling rocks.

"I don't believe it," Pidge stared in awe. "The monster's protecting me." A few seconds later the shaking eased, and the Gorgon stood up and walked to the entrance of the cave and stepped outside, Pidge cautiously stepping up behind her. As soon as he was outside, he saw what had been shooting and causing the ground to shake; a group of about twelve Star Cutters. Several began laying cover fire, Pidge noticing the shots were seemingly missing the Gorgon and himself on purpose, and then four swung around, heading right for them.

Unfortunately for them, the Gorgon saw them, and blasted them all with her Beam Eye ability. The four now solid stone Star Cutters went crashing to the ground immediately, a loud thunderous smash ripping through the air in their wake. In response, the other Cutters fired more directly, a few scoring a hit on the Gorgon, but no blood was spilled. The Gorgon only swayed a little as though suddenly woozy, before turning and "firing" her Beam Eye again, sending another three Cutters the way of the previous four. The remaining ships circled for a moment, then retreated.

"Wahoo! You whipped them! You drove them away!" Pidge celebrated, jumping up and down for a moment before settling down. He looked up happily at the Gorgon, who leaned down, one of her snakes moving in close to him again. Pidge now happily reached out a hand and gave the snake a pet.

"I get it, you're on our side now, aren't you?" Pidge asked. Though he did wonder why the creature would change sides like this. The Gorgon nodded, happy that Pidge was accepting her. "I wonder what I should call you?" he wondered aloud.

"Anga," the Gorgon replied, catching Pidge's full attention. "My name is Anga."

On his command ship, Lotor observed all from a safe distance. And upon seeing the Gorgon turn on and stone several of the Star Cutters, he found himself even more frustrated.

"She defies us?!" he growled. "That bitch. It seems we made a monster with too good a heart." Lotor then paused, and scratched his chin. "But why would it do this now? What did Pidge do to turn her?"

"I don't believe he did anything at all, Prince Lotor," Haggar's voice cut into his thoughts, causing him to blink and look up at the view screen, which had switched to show an incoming communique from the elder witch. "From what I've observed, it would appear that the creature has taken to the boy as though he were her own child."

"What?!" Lotor's eyes widened. "She thinks Pidge is her child? Ridiculous!"

"Not really," Haggar replied calmly. "Maternal instinct is quite powerful. An ant-lion larva and adult are quite dissimilar, and many would not think they were related at all. In short, Pidge looks just close enough to a Gorgon child that she has latched on to him as a surrogate."

"She did what?" an icy voice chimed from behind Lotor, who turned to see Sakura standing there, her staff gripped tightly in her hand, a look of anger and annoyance mixed together filling her face. Spinner floated up behind her a second later.

"Ah, good morning, my darling of darkness," Haggar greeted her. "Did you sleep well? Ah, and I have just demonstrated what I lectured myself, have I not? Though she is not Galran, my own maternal instincts have accepted my dear Sakura as though she were my own flesh and blood. Thus is what is happening between the gorgon creature and Pidge."

"You're seriously telling me," Sakura said, trying not to blow her top, "That if I had just told the thing I would let it protect me when it tried to 'save' me from that idiot in the brig on the way back to Galra from Medusa, then we wouldn't be in this mess right now?" Lotor stared quietly, wondering what exactly he had missed.

"Quite possible, but uncertain, my wonderfully wicked one," Haggar replied.

"And what do you suggest we do now, old witch?" Lotor turned back to Haggar with a growl. "Just turn our backs on that good-for-nothing?"

"Not at all," Haggar replied. "She's only powerful in her current form. With my magic, I can force her to revert to her regular size and form easily. I will be arriving shortly, so leave it to me. The replacement robeast you ordered will also be arriving in a few moments, so use it to attack the Castle of Lions again while Voltron is unusable to them. And don't worry, Sakura, I'll make sure to take Pidge alive with minimal injuries."

"Thank you, mama Haggar," Sakura responded curtly, and the transmission cut out. Sakura closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to keep herself calm as Lotor gave out a few quick orders to the bridge crew. Spinner watched her carefully, then quickly ducked behind the command chair when her eyes snapped open again.

"THAT UNBELIEVABLE IDIOTIC MOPING STONE MAKING NINCOMPOOP!" she snarled, then growled, a burst of magical energy escaping her small frame and visibly denting the deck and shaking the room slightly. Everyone's attention was squarely on her.

"Um, Sakura," Lotor stated as calmly as he could. "I would like us to have a ship to get back to Galra on." She turned her head and glared at him. "Please," he added. Her eyes remained locked on him for a few moments, then she pulled her magic back in, stepping forward away from the damaged part of the floor. "Thank you," Lotor said, Spinner popping out from behind the command chair. The rest of the bridge crew immediately got back to their tasks, the ship moving away from the Gorgon and Pidge's location.

At the Castle, the rest of the team had returned, ascending up the drop shafts, the ones that lead to the transfer vehicles to the lions, and jumping out of them looking gloomy. Coran and Gertrude met them, concern on their faces.

"We've searched for almost five hours, and found nothing," Keith stated. "How about you? Any contact?"

"None, I'm afraid," Coran sighed.

"Poor little guy," Gertrude moaned. "Pidge probably wouldn't even make a bite for that ugly beast." In her upset, Gertrude crossed herself. Before anyone could say anything further, the alarm went off, Coran turning and activating the scanner screen, revealing Lotor's command ship with support vessels approaching.

"Another enemy attack!" Coran stated.

"Damn Lotor!" Lance snarled, clenching his fist. "Just like him to attack when we're missing Pidge and can't form Voltron!" Just then the communication panel on the control console switched on, the signal light blinking.

"Hey, gang, you read me? It's Pidge," the boy's voice came over the line, and everyone's eyes lit up in joy.

"He's alive!" Allura cried in delight as Keith dove forward and hit the transmit button.

"Pidge, we're here," Keith stated joyfully. "Where are you?! We've been searching for hours!"

"Just taking it easy in this big lady's hand," Pidge replied jokingly. "We're inside a large cave somewhere, I'm just not entirely sure where."

"Lady?" Keith blinked.

"Yeah," Pidge said. "She says her name is Anga, and for some reason she really seems to like me. Weird, huh? She even fought off some enemy fighter ships that attacked us earlier." Keith stared incredulously.

"Seriously?" he asked. "Why the hell would it do that?"

"Not a clue," Pidge admitted. The others smirked a little.

"Well, we could use you back at the castle, Lotor's making another move on us," Lance called from where he stood.

"Roger!" Pidge replied. "Uh, just as soon as I can figure out how to convince Anga to let me come back. That, or take me to you."

"Wait, I thought you said she was with us now," Keith felt even more confused.

"Honestly, it's hard to say," Pidge admitted. "She definitely is determined to protect me, but not in a rush to let me leave. That's kind of why I didn't call sooner, wasn't sure if she'd let me or not."

"Fine," Keith sighed. "Just try to get here ASAP, okay?"

"Okey dokey! Over and out!" Pidge replied, and his end of the transmission cut out.

"Alright then," Hunk pounded his fists together with a smile on his face. "We'll just have to fight that much harder without him until he shows up!"

"Right!" Lance and Allura agreed.

Back in the cave, Pidge sat up from his relaxed lying position in Anga's enormous hand, staring up at the enormous creature, who was sitting on the cave floor calmly.

"Anga, I know you may not want to do this, but I really need to go back to the castle now. Please?" Pidge asked as nicely as he could. Anga stared at him, looking reluctant at the prospect, then a noise could be heard outside the cave. Pidge hopped out of Anga's hand to the ground as the gorgon rose to her feet, and he quickly dashed over to the cave entrance in time to see a Galran space coffin coming in for a landing nearby.

"Oh, that can't be good," Pidge said to himself quietly.

At the castle, Lotor's forces were now joined by the replacement robeast, which once again was already at giant size. Primarily dark blue with light blue forearms and upper legs, the beast had three fingered hands that ended in sharp claws, feet that sported three talon-like nails, three white spikes emerging from each shoulder, red stripes around its wrists like wrist bands, a bald bulbous head sporting four razor fangs in its mouth, and six red circles on its somewhat thin torso in two columns of three beginning just below its broad chest, and two more were on its back. Its bright blue eyes momentarily glowed gold as it stared at the looming target before it. It stood upright in the air, where it seemed to be flying unaided.

It roared and shot fire from its mouth into the lake below it, creating a massive cloud of steam that briefly obscured the Galran forces field of view. When it cleared, the black, red, blue, and yellow lions were in front of them, flying through the air toward their enemies. On his command ship's bridge, Lotor watched from his chair, eyeing the situation carefully, Sakura standing at his side.

"Looks like Haggar did some decent work on this one," Lotor commented. "Now, let's see if it can defeat the remains of the Voltron Force."

"Yes, it'll be nice to have at least something go right today," Sakura agreed.

Outside Black decided to try a new, or at least until now unused, weapon, a pair of miniature Spinning Laser Discs, the Black Cutters, firing them from its shoulders. They slammed into the robeast, and bounced right back off, one coming perilously close to hitting Blue on the rebound, Blue pulling up and rolling to its left to avoid the Cutter just barely in time. Yellow flew around behind the monster, then fired a shot from its back cannon, and the robeast responded by turning around and firing several missiles from the red circles on its torso. The missiles impacted Yellow's shot and both exploded harmlessly in mid air.

From the cave's entrance, Pidge watched the black coffin carefully, and shuddered when he saw Haggar emerging from it. The old witch hopped out of her transport, and casually strolled toward the cave entrance. She was maybe fifty to sixty feet away.

"Time to break up this happy little union," Haggar chuckled to herself.

"Why'd it have to be her?" Pidge grumbled to himself. The only plus, from what he could see, was that Sakura wasn't with her.

"Come out, Gorgon! Emerge and I will return you to your proper size and send you to your home!" Haggar called out. Pidge glared at the witch from where he was angrily, not believing a word. A shuffling sound behind him made him turn to look at Anga, who was stepping toward the entrance.

"Anga, NO!" Pidge flipped around and stood in her way, his arms spread to try and dissuade her from leaving. "It's a trap, it's just gotta be!"

"Hurry up, now, Gorgon!" Haggar called. "Grab that little one and bring him out and hand him over, and in exchange I'll send you back to your birth place." Anga stared toward the entrance of the cave, a longing and sadness in her eyes.

"Don't listen to her! She's evil!" Pidge screamed. "She just wants to force all the niceness out of you so you'll be the vicious monster those Doom creeps want you to be!"

"Hurry, Gorgon, and I'll send you home!" Haggar called again, her voice now noticeably, and uncomfortably, closer. Anga glanced down at Pidge, and started to reach for him, only for him to jump back.

"No! I won't let you get taken by her!" Pidge screamed again, then his face turned stern, his mind reaching a decision. "I'll handle this," he stated, and then dashed out of the cave, his laser pistol drawn and at the ready. He spotted Haggar less than twenty feet away, and aimed his weapon. Haggar saw him running up and calmly rose her staff, firing a blast of energy from it that smashed a large rock on the ground just as he started to pass it. The exploding stone sent Pidge flying to the side onto the ground. In the process his communicator fell off his belt and on the ground. A moment later Anga emerged from the cave, coming up next to where Pidge was laying, the boy still shaking the sudden ringing out of his ears.

"Took you long enough," Haggar said, a slight note of annoyance in her voice before smiling evilly. "Now, return to nothing so I can cart you back to Galra for re-training, and the boy back for my evil darling to play with at her leisure." She pointed her staff and blasted the gorgon, and as Anga screamed she shifted back to both her normal size and her original, non-combat form. The gorgon flopped down on her rear next to Pidge. Pidge finally pushed himself up and stared at his erstwhile friend.

"Anga, what happened?" he asked, totally confused.

"Why don't you two sleep on that?" Haggar chuckled and started to charge her staff for another charge, but this time Pidge fired a shot, his laser deflecting her shot as she fired. Sadly, the blast still smacked Anga in the shoulder, and she let out a cry of shock and pain. Enraged further, Pidge fired again, Haggar jumping back and aside to avoid it.

"Why you...!" Pidge growled as he jumped to his feet, and started firing rapidly at Haggar, but due to him not aiming she danced around the shots, aided by her magic, until she reached the coffin again.

"Now, now, little Pidge, calm yourself," she said. "I have no desire to hurt you."

"Die, you old bat!" Pidge screamed, firing again, and Haggar hopped back inside the coffin.

"Not worth getting killed over, I think," she decided. "For now, my evil work is done." And with that she closed the coffin, which promptly launched into the air. Pidge stopped, taking a deep breath, then dashed back to Anga, who was on her knees now.

"Hey, Anga, are you okay?" he asked. Just then his forgotten communicator went off, Keith's voice calling through it.

"Pidge! Where are you?! You have to hurry back now! We need to form Voltron!" he called over the line.

"Oh, no," Pidge moaned. "Why does the universe hate me today?"

Back at the castle, the lions had swung away to quickly regroup, and the robeast took the moment to unleash a double volley of missiles from it's torso launchers, landing several blows against the castle and at least three more of its gun turrets. It then turned to see the lions swinging back around, and fired a blast of fire breath at them. The lions quickly dodged aside, avoiding the flames. Within them, each of the pilots pondered to themselves just how the monster was unleashing so many missiles, given the seemingly narrow space that was its torso. It simply defied logic. Then again, the Galrans did have Haggar and Sakura.

Outside the cave, Pidge had dropped to his knees as he screamed in frustration. The fact that he couldn't hear the battle from where he was proved that he was a fair distance from both it and the castle, and therefor his lion.

"Damn it! The team needs me, and all I can do is sit here on the ground and do nothing, and without me they can't form Voltron, and they'll all die!" he screamed out his despair as he futilely punched the ground. Anga looked at him, then leaned in.

"I can help you, get you to your friends," she said.

"What? You want to take me back to the castle?" Pidge blinked, standing up. Anga indicated her back with her free hand. "But it's so far, and you're hurt," Pidge said. "Maybe if you were still a giant..." Anga set her hands behind her, as though to carry him piggyback style.

"Please, get on my back," she urged.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Pidge asked, still hesitant.

"Don't worry," Anga said, and Pidge climbed on, Anga rising to her feet.

"Thank you," Pidge whispered, and Anga shot into a hard run, aiming right toward the castle. The run lasted for several minutes, and before he knew it Pidge started to hear the noise of the battle he so desperately needed to join. Then, as they rounded a bend in the path, he finally spotted the Castle of Lions in the distance. 'Not much further,' he thought, and then the panting Anga gasped, stumbled, and finally fell to the ground. After catching his breath, Pidge got off her back and moved to kneel in front of Anga, checking on her, seeing to his upset that the place where Haggar's magic had struck her shoulder had started to bruise and, worse, split open.

"Oh, no, that old witch hurt you more than I thought," Pidge said. "You never should have tried this, Anga." Anga simply panted more, utterly out of breath, watching him. Pidge stood up, beginning to turn toward the castle still waiting beyond the woods. "I have to go, but after we defeat them I'll come back to help you, I promise!" he told her. "Just wait till then!" And with that he ran off, Anga dropping her head as she passed out.

It took Pidge almost twenty, maybe twenty five, minutes before he reached the castle, and he charged in, aiming right for the elevator. As he passed some guards, he made a snap decision, and told them to take a medic out to Anga immediately, telling them where to find her. A few more minutes later, he reached the control room, dropped down the transfer shaft, and was rocketed back to his lion, and soon Green flew once again, quickly rejoining the others who were doing their best to keep the robeast distracted.

The lions then broke off, flew up, and combined into Voltron. The robeast shot another fire breath blast, but Voltron quickly flew in circles to create a tornado to put it out and then flew toward his target. The robeast fired another volley of missiles, but Voltron dodged around them and gave the monster a right hook, sending it to the ground. The monster jumped to its feet and fired its breath again, but this time Voltron ignored it and grabbed the beast by the shoulders with both hands, lifted it into the air, and then slammed it back into the ground, stomping it with Yellow for good measure before jumping back and finally forming the Blazing Sword and chopping the thing in half through its waist. A couple moments later it joined all its predecessors in a fiery explosion.

Aboard the command ship, which was already departing in all haste, Lotor and Sakura were seething, again.

"Looks like Haggar screwed up, as usual," Lotor growled.

"She better have a good excuse for this," Sakura growled as well. Floating near the ship's pilot, Spinner watched them both nervously.

"You know what?" he commented idly to the man beside him. "I think I liked it better when Prince Lotor was away and not fueling Sakura's fire." The pilot simply gave a mild nod.


Finally! Yeesh, this chapter was a pain! Between multiple bouts of writer's block and more than a few real life distractions, this one took what felt like forever to get done. But at last I am, and I am sooo glad to put it behind me.

To be fair, episode 26, the invisible robeast, streamlined down quite nicely. Initially I thought to take it down to bare bones, but when I went over it and thought it out, the idea of it trying to grab both Allura and Pidge was just too good to pass up. And ultimately I still told it in roughly only six pages, so there's that. The real problem was episode 27.

I think I can honestly say that ep. 27 is one of, if not the, most significantly altered in regards to both writing and editing in the entire Lion series. First, claiming all the gorgons are "in a deep sleep" when they're dead, subtly removing the dead gorgon child the lone survivor was burying, cutting the, albeit very brief, dissection of a gorgon, and, of course, lying about poor Anga's fate, claiming she "made a full recovery and went back home." Yeah, she's emphatically dead at the end in Golion. That shot Pidge deflected, originally it was a kill shot, and tore open her shoulder a good one, and when she's making the mad dash you can see large splashes of blood dropping to the ground behind her(which WEP also erased with creative editing) until she finally falls down. Yeah, the poor thing bled out. And, yes, there was a funeral for her at the end of the ep., which WEP replaced with the Allura giving kisses on the balcony scene. They really did overuse that bit a little.

They also inanely changed Honerva's commentary about the gorgon reacting due to maternal instinct into some tripe about Anga playing with Pidge before killing him, like a cat playing with its food before eating. And altered Suzuishi's flashback about saying goodbye to his folks before leaving for his mission into Pidge flashing back to being adopted?! For crying out loud, WEP...

Also for those who remember, yes, there was a brief moment during Anga's last run where Pidge/Suzuishi quietly dreamed about getting piggyback rides from his mom that I deliberately omitted, due to it not having any real payoff in either version, and therefor was superfluous.

All this aside, though, my main issue was what to do with it for this story. I wanted to parse it down as much as possible, but ultimately I had to include enough to provide proper context to what was going on. At the same time we had a scene with Mogor/Gobra in it up front I didn't want to skip, and of course the sequence where Pidge shoots at Haggar. For the latter, I did consider having Sakura there, but ultimately nixed it as I didn't want her to lose interest in Pidge just yet, and let's face it, having the person you're trying to win over shoot at you and the person you think of as your parent tends to be a relationship killer, even an unrequited one. But worry not, there will be some repercussions for it, regardless.

As to Anga's fate(her name and dialogue were both from Voltron, by the way, in Golion the gorgon makes noise but never actually speaks), that was left unstated on purpose, I simply hit a natural stopping point and took it. Again, don't worry, it will be commented on next time.

On another note, I added that Pidge's sudden ejection was not his idea to do so and the explanation therefor. In the show he just does it, for no apparent reason, even though the lions have taken far worse hits before and this is the only time, so far at least, that anybody felt like ejecting. Really, Toei?

Finally, I'm so happy I was able to finally mention Vehicle Voltron again organically. And do some more setup for later, since that space cannon is gonna come back into play eventually. And the name Joketsuzoku for the amazon ruled planet that pointed them to Medusa was from me, and a "sort of" cameo for characters from Ranma 1/2(look it up). But enough rambling, it's time to move on to the next episode, LOTOR'S BIRTHDAY! Something I've had plans for since the beginning, and I can't wait to implement them! Final remaining CCS regulars, your entrance has arrived! I'm so excited!

Laters.