This chapter and the next TWO were written while my internet was out for two days. I think I have finally written it this to where I wrote ahead...which is stuck on my laptop, so it could be a little bit before I post in this again. (Come on, new motherboard!) But, anyway...this is mostly filler (to me, anyway...), but I do hope you enjoy!
I make no claims to Voltron or any WEP characters.
Duvessa awoke to chirping birds singing outside her window and the sound of a band warming up. She slowly sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes and smiled at what she could see and hear. This was what made her proud of her planet. After such a long, hard struggle against the Drules, they still had hope and freedom. She slid out of bed and began to get ready for the day, which she knew would be a long one, but hopefully a joyful one for the people in town celebrating the legend of the Love Bridge.
She pulled the brush through her black tresses and her thoughts moved to the man who would be reenacting this with her. She sighed and lowered the brush. Yes, they had made strides in not feeling awkward around each other last night, but things could change overnight. She sighed and finished getting ready, putting her crown on her head and stepped out of her room in search of her breakfast.
Breakfast was set up buffet style in the dining room of the bed and breakfast and a few other people were already sitting down eating as she walked in. Conversation stopped as they realized who she was. She prepared her plate and turned to the room and immediately blushed at their stares. "Good morning. Please, continue. You don't have to stop on my account," she stated, softly.
Conversations slowly began again as she moved to a table where Keith was sitting sipping his coffee and reading something on a datapad, his plate before him half empty. "May I?" she asked softly, nodding at the other chair.
He looked up at her and stood, setting his datapad and coffee mug down. "Of course. Let me get your chair for you."
"Keith, you don't have to," she stated with a smile.
"I know," he answered and helped her into her seat before retaking his own. "Sleep well?"
"Yes, I did. Thank you for asking," she answered, carefully placing her napkin in her lap. She looked to him. "And you?"
He nodded. "Well, thank you," he answered and took another sip of his coffee. "So, when do we do the reenactment?"
"It will be around lunchtime," she answered. She looked at him. "Why?"
"I was just wondering," he replied. He showed her his datapad. "I'm a little concerned about this weather system that seems to be heading this way. Meteorologists are hoping it doesn't intensify. If it does, it could easily become a typhoon."
Duvessa frowned. "That looks like a – great storm. We didn't call them typhoons when…" She blushed and looked away.
"Five hundred years ago?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at her.
She nodded, her cheeks flushed. "Yes. I see I may have more to catch up on."
Keith watched her quietly as she started eating. "I apologize for making you feel uneducated," he whispered.
She looked at him, startled. "No, you didn't…" She paused. "Ok, yes, a little, but not uneducated. I'm just behind in some things. Who would have thought weather terms would have changed in five hundred years." She sighed and shook her head slightly. "I should have known it would have. It is a part of science."
"Well, I imagine you've had a rather full schedule. Weather terms probably wasn't exactly high on your list of things to do in the time I was in cryostasis," he murmured.
Duvessa's eyes shot to his and her blush darkened. She nodded. "You left me, how did Hunk say this? Some big shoes to fill?"
Keith chuckled and set the datapad back on the table. "I suppose that is the case, yes." He pulled his plate closer. "Let's finish our breakfast and then we can do some official duties."
Duvessa smiled and shook her head before lapsing into silence as they ate.
Maahox launched several probes ahead of Lotor's armada. They streaked into the darkness of space.
Lotor stood behind him. "So, what exactly will those probes do, Maahox?"
"My Lord, they are designed to enter Arus' orbit and block our ships' signatures from their orbiting satellites," Maahox stated.
"To enter in stealth," Lotor murmured, nodding. "Why didn't you create those sooner, Maahox?"
"I didn't realize how quickly the fools of the Force would discover us in their system the last time we attempted to attack. This should eliminate that advantage if not completely negate it," Maahox answered.
"So, you're admitting a failure on your part?" Lotor quizzed, arching an eyebrow at him.
Maahox paused momentarily before returning to his monitoring of the probes. "Yes, My Lord."
Lotor smirked.
Maahox sighed. "These will intercept their satellites in a few minutes and then we can send Sylvan down to the surface to scout for your princess."
"Good. And once he has the intelligence we require, we will launch an assault. Why waste an opportunity?" Lotor stated and strode off towards his command chair.
"Why waste it indeed," Maahox muttered, watching the progress of his probes. Soon his console beeped and he brought up the radar, checking his results. "I believe it has worked, My Lord. We can send Sylvan on his way."
Lotor nodded and send the command down to the hangar bay where Sylvan waited in a small transport to launch. He smiled seeing the transport streak towards the planet. "Now, we wait."
Pidge sat at the main computer console in the Control Room watching the sensor logs. His watch had been uneventful so far until a faint blink on one of the satellites drew his attention to it, but then it went back to normal. Puzzled, he did a couple of diagnostics on it, but everything came back within normal parameters. "Huh," he muttered. He made a quick note in his log about it and returned to his watch.
"Hey, Pidge," Lance stated as he walked into Control. He stopped behind him. "How's it going?"
Pidge shrugged. "Not too bad, Lance. Had a strange blip on one of the satellites, but I ran a diagnostic and the satellite is still in working order."
"Does that happen often?" Lance asked.
"No, not that I've ever noticed. I can look over past logs if you think I should," Pidge stated, looking up at him.
Lance frowned. "Might have just been a meteorite or something burning up. But, if you think it merits investigating, I'm not going to stop you."
Pidge grinned. "Thought you'd say that. I'll look into it later. So, what brings you in here?"
"Any word from our teammates who are out of the Castle?" Lance asked.
"Nothing from Keith and Duvessa," Pidge answered. "Allura and Coran messaged in. The conference was a success and they should be back before nightfall." He shook his head. "Not much of a conference when most of the time was used in getting there and back, hmmm?"
Lance chuckled. "Yeah, which is one of the reasons why I'm glad it wasn't me going. But, Allura said it was a short conference, but important for the sector, so…" He shrugged. "I just hope it was worth it."
"I'm sure it was," Pidge assured him. "You're down here early."
Lance grinned. "Yeah. Hard to sleep with my wife offworld."
Pidge nodded, his one hand bringing up another series of logs. "Sorry to hear that."
Lance watched him. "You're searching through the logs to see if we've had that happen before, aren't you?"
"Yes. It is bothering me," Pidge answered, his eyes intent upon his work. "But, I can multi-task."
Lance laughed. "I know you can. But, I do need some coffee before the cadets come down. I'll see you later."
"Ok. Later, Lance," Pidge echoed, his fingers flying nimbly over the holomonitors before him.
Keith stood on the far side of the bridge from the town of Altuna waiting for his cue. He frowned, not liking that he was this far from Duvessa, but he could see her, knew she knew how to defend herself. She'll be all right, Kogane, stop worrying about her. The mental pep talk wasn't helping him, though. He knew she was safe where she was, but something was nagging at him. A creepy feeling was starting in his gut and it wouldn't let go.
He watched as she picked up a small stone, still smiling at whatever Elder Guinn was saying, then he waved his hand at her.
Duvessa turned towards the river channel, the rock in her hand. He saw her close her eyes, whisper something, then pressed her lips to the rock briefly before tossing it into the river channel as the crowd roared in approval. She moved back to the bridge and faced Keith on the other side and nodded.
"Here we go," he murmured and they both started to jog across the bridge towards each other. The roar of the excited and happy crowd was almost deafening as he ran towards her.
Duvessa as she got closer leapt into his arms.
Keith caught her easily, spinning around, slowing their momentum with her still aloft. Slowly, he slid her down his body. "Hi."
She giggled. "Hi. Well done," she whispered.
Her smile was contagious and he smiled back at her. "Just doing my duty, ma'am," he teased.
She laughed and gently touched his cheek. "Thank you for doing this, Keith."
He nodded. "My pleasure, Duvessa," he answered. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye as a figure moved on the far side of the bridge that he'd been on. He turned towards it as Duvessa gasped.
"Sylvan," she whispered.
"Lotor is going to be very displeased that you're not Allura," Sylvan sneered. "I see you managed to survive the attack on your ship after retrieving the cure for your precious commander here."
Keith quickly shot Duvessa a puzzled look before turning his full attention back to the threat at hand as the crowd behind them realized that something was wrong and started screaming and fleeing in panic. "Who are you?"
"Oh, the great commander of the Voltron Force doesn't remember me? A shame. Especially since you fought me off while you were drugged with my nolatoxin," Sylvan stated.
"He's Sylvan. He was the crown prince of Sylanka until his father disowned him for what he did to us when we were on a mission of peace there," Duvessa whispered. "Before your amnesia."
Keith carefully and slowly kept himself between Duvessa and Sylvan. "What do you want?" he demanded.
"Well, I was sent to lure Allura away and kidnap her, but it appears she's not here," Sylvan purred. His eyes suddenly flared purple. "So, I suppose I must kill you both now."
Duvessa gasped softly at the flash of purple in Sylvan's eyes. Her Voltcom flared to its full size on her wrist and her weapons appeared in her hands. She moved slightly to give herself more room to fight.
"Run, Duvessa," Keith whispered.
"I'm not leaving you to fight him on your own," she retorted. "Especially when I think he's infected with Haggarium."
"Oh, you noticed, hmm? Then you should also know that your precious weapons will probably fail against me, too," Sylvan sneered.
Duvessa glared, but quickly looked behind her. The crowd had seemingly vanished behind them. "Keith, run."
He turned, grabbed her wrist and they ran, Sylvan quickly following.
"Lance, I've checked the logs," Pidge stated as the cadets were on a break. "That is not the normal reading for a meteorite entering our atmosphere and burning up."
"Really?" Lance asked.
Pidge nodded and held out a datapad to him. "The image on the left is a meteorite that burned up about a week ago. The one on the right is the anomaly I picked up earlier."
Lance studied the images. "That's odd. What do you think it could be?"
Pidge shook his head. "I honestly am not sure, Lance. That is what bothers me."
Lance enlarged the image of the anomaly and studied it closely. "Does – does Doom have stealth technology?" he suddenly asked.
Pidge blinked. "Not that I'm aware of, no. My people are really the only ones who have perfected anything stealth-like and they don't do business with the Drule Empire. Not for anything. And they don't release that kind of…" Pidge stopped, suddenly thinking of something. "Oh no."
Lance looked up at him. "What is it, Pidge?"
"When Maahox mined the brains of my people for information on Voltron," he stated, his green eyes wide. "He must have gotten information on how to make stealth technology!"
Lance cursed. "We're in trouble."
Pidge sighed. "You're telling me." He turned towards the Control Room. "I'm going up in Green. Check things out."
"Be careful, Pidge," Lance ordered. "We're shorthanded as it is."
Pidge waved in acknowledgement and left the room.
