Chapter four
"Allura!" Alfor's soft voice called, seeing his precious daughter racing into his arms.
"Father!!" The girl responded hugging him tightly. Allura's mother strode up to them from the Castle.
"Melenor, my love." Alfor greeted. "How I have missed you."
"You've only been gone a few vargas Alfor." His wife giggled.
"Yes, but it felt like deca-phoebs." The king of Altea grinned mischievously. The two then shared a tender kiss before heading back into the Castle together. The other four Paladins joined them for dinner, as they often did. Alfor had insisted they stay.
"Alfor," Zarkon spoke up mid-way through the meal. "Have I not told you how amazing your ships are?" Alfor took a sip of his glass of Nunville, and shot him a teasing grin.
"Only about a thousand times, Zarkon." Alfor and the other occupants of the dinner table shared a hearty chuckle. Zarkon glanced around, unamused by his comrades' joking. "Oh come now, old friend." Alfor beamed. "We don't mean much by it. Voltron IS an incredible machine. You'd almost swear they were people too." Allura giggled quietly, having heard all about how Voltron and what it could do.
"Yes, they are." Zarkon continued, his gaze unchanging. "No one has seen anything like it. The power Voltron possesses is like none anyone has ever seen. If only there were more of these...trans-reality comets. We could create more ships of its kind."
"But doesn't that make Voltron special?" Alfor's smiled fading a little. "Being the only ships of there kind, and built from the only space rock of its kind?"
"Think about Alfor." Zarkon reasoned quickly. "With more powerful ships, we can defend the universe better than ever before! We'd have a better advantage in battle than ever before."
"Zarkon does make a good point." Trigel, pilot of the Green lion, stated.
"Yes but where would we find another comet. The one Alfor built the lions with crash-landed on Daibazaal a few deca-phoebs ago." Blue Paladin, Blaytz, pointed out.
"We'd just have to searched the universe until we find one." Zarkon decided. "And keep searching until we have enough for Alfor to build new ships, as amazing as Voltron."
"Zarkon... I-"
"Right?" Zarkon cut Alfor off mid-sentence. The look in the Galra Emperor's eyes looked nothing like the Zarkon he once knew. Alfor almost didn't recognize him, with this behavior.
"Perhaps." He said finally. "But as Blaytz said. "We haven't even a clue if another comet exists like that."
"And the best way to know is to start looking." Zarkon reinforced his previous statement.
"But Zarkon." Alfor protested once more. "Haven't you enough things to worry about?"
"I'll manage." Zarkon returned confidently. "I have so far." Alfor just stared at him. Zarkon refused to look at him as he continued to eat...
..."Father why do you have to go?" Allura asked her father, as he tucked her in one night.
"I must, because the universe needs Voltron." He father told her, pulling the blankets up over her chest. "And Zarkon can't defend it without me."
"But must you always." Allura questioned further.
"Allura, as you grow older you'll learn what it means to have the weight of responsibility. As future queen of Altea, you'll discover that your people are more important then anything else. And as a Paladin, to which I hope you one day achieve the honor, will find that the weight of the universe out weighs the needs of any one person. Even yourself." Alfor's tender loving smile reinforced his words. And the two hugged for a moment, father and daughter... together...
"I will never forget that night." Allura finished, shifting her weight forward onto her knees, and bracing her elbows on them. "My father always seemed to have an answer to any question I would ask."
"That's a good thing to have Princess." Shiro signed, as Keith interpreted.
"My dad is like that too." Pidge agreed, grinning at the thought of her father.
"So." Hunk hesitated before continuing. "Do you think there are more trans-reality comets out there?"
"I can't be sure," Allura sighed. "But if there is we cannot let it fall into Zarkon's hands."
"That wouldn't matter though right?" Lance thought aloud. "I mean Zarkon wasn't the one who built the lions,... right?"
"Alfor may have built the lions." Coran confirmed. "But as advanced as Zarkon's technology is, he may be able to find a way to build a comet ship himself."
"I know as much as anyone that, their science is advanced enough that they could very well have the information to build their own Voltron." Shiro signed.
"And how can you be sure." Lance questioned. All Shiro did was activate his Galra arm and held it vertically up in front of him.
"Oh." The Blue Paladin answered with wide eyes. "Yeah." He crossed his arms and looked away, frustrated by his defeat. Shiro deactivated it and laid his arm down across his thigh, as Pidge spoke up.
"It's hard to believe that Zarkon and King Alfor used to be friends." She said, unable to imagine it.
"I know what you mean." Shiro motioned. "After all I endured as their prisoner, it's hard to imagine that it wasn't like that once."
"Believe me. No one saw this coming." Coran agreed. "Alfor knew Zarkon was changing, but he hadn't truly realized how much he'd really changed,... until he did...
...The door slid open, where a Galra soldier stood guard over the chamber.
"Where am I?" Zarkon's low gruff voice asked. His eyes still emitting a yellow, bubbly glow, and his pupils masked by this glow.
"Uh.. aboard your ship sir." The soldier stammered in surprise.
"Take us home." The Galra Emperor's voice remained a one-note tone.
"I-.. can't sir." The soldier responded sadly. "Daibazaal... has been destroyed." Zarkon's eyes narrowed tensely in hearing this, anger bubbling up within him...
...the castle jerked under their feet as shots rained down on the castle.
"Father what's going on?" Allura cried.
"Coran get a visual." Alfor commanded from the teludav.
"Yes Alfor." The royal advisor obeyed, pulling it up on the big screen. A Galra cruiser showed up just in time to see a blast from the ion cannon flash into the cameras lens. The face of the Galra Emperor suddenly took its place.
"Zarkon." Alfor's brows furrowed.
"Your fleet has been destroyed, Alfor." Zarkon reported. "I will there shortly to claim Voltron." Another blast hit the castle directly at them, blinding them all.
"Father we must form Voltron and fight before it's too late." Allura cried. Her father straightened up from supporting himself against the teludav handles, defeat painted upon his grave face.
"It's already too late." He said finally. "We must send the lions away, we can't RISK them falling into Zarkon's hands."
"We can't give up hope!" Allura insisted, trusting her fist down to her sides. Alfor strode to his daughter.
"I'm sorry daughter." Alfor placed a hand on her right cheek. "If all goes well, I will see you again." A tap to her neck sapped her energy as she slipped from consciousness, but not before uttering her father's name; only to hear him say:
"I love you." After that her world faded into darkness...
...The cryopod materialized around the sleeping princess. The king, then, turning to the man accompanying him.
"You must get this castle in the air." Alfor told Caron. "You must run and take Allura as far away from here as you can and put yourself to sleep."
"But what about you?!" Coran protested.
"I must stay here." Alfor sighed, putting on a grave face, sword in hand. "To make my stand." Coran's eyes widened in realization of his meaning. "But there's just one more thing I must do first."
The door to a dark chamber revealed more darkness. Alfor and Coran slowly submerged themselves within it.
"Are you sure about this?" Coran asked, both men staring at something at the center of the room.
"I owe it to her." Alfor responded simply, pain hinting in his tone. Coran knelt down and tapped at the panel, and a large capsule rose from the floor. Alfor stood in front of the capsule and closed his eyes. The castle's crystal glowed on the bridge, as he focused his energies. Extending his arms out he began to glow blue, and this light peeled away from him creating a blue reflection of himself. That blue replica materialized and flowed up and into the capsule. And suddenly the fields of Juni-berries burst into existence. Alfor stood back and opened his eyes again.
"It is done." He said...
...Explosions rang out around the castle grounds. Flames were consuming the Altean home-world, it's king scanned the chaos. The fire flickering his, people screaming and fleeing, There's sounds reached his ears as nothing more than an echo of his defeat. The lights reflected off his eyes, while also displaying the despair stabbing him in his chest.
"You made a huge mistake, Alfor." Zarkon's voice shattered the King of Altea's gaze.
"Zarkon what is the meaning of this?" Alfor questioned, his clenched teeth holding back what anguish he felt. He was biting his tongue, so to speak, for he still thought of Zarkon as his brother-in-arms,... a comrade, a fellow Paladin, and, most importantly,... a friend.
"You know as well as I, that Voltron is the only thing tying the two of us together." Zarkon replied dryly.
"What?!" Alfor staggered, both over his feet AND his words. "Have you gone mad?! Of course their is more to it than that!"
"Only to you." Zarkon's eyes narrowed. "Now where is Voltron?" The Altean King stared at him for a second.
"Why do you need to know?" He responded. "What must you need it for."
"That is of no concern to you." Zarkon snapped. "Tell me where they are, and I'll leave you and your planet alone."
"I.." Alfor drew his sword intently. "Don't know that I believe you."
"I'll ask again. Tell me where the lions are, or be destroyed." Zarkon sneered.
"I can't do that." Alfor returned, firmly.
"Then you have given me no choice!" Zarkon's voice rumbled as his tone increased in volume, has he charged toward the Altean, formerly known as his friend. As he ran the bayard in his hand glowed and became a long Galra sword. Alfor held his blade close, preparing to defend himself. As their swords clang together their gaze stabbed into the other's as well.
"Where is the Black lion!!" Zarkon thundered.
"I've hidden somewhere you'll never find them!" Alfor shouted back, now sounding brave, as well as angry. And flung Zarkon off of him. "Zarkon, stop! After all that has happened, how can you turn your back on us? And all we've been through together. How can you, after all these years, insist, now, on hurting me. And what about our duty to protect the universe for the good of our people?" Alfor's eyebrows furrowed, the tenderness he still felt for Zarkon still poking out on his face. "We had a bond,.. a partnership."
"That partnership died the moment you destroyed Diabazaal." Zarkon snarled menacingly, eyes narrowing to mere slits. Alfor flashed a look of horror and Zarkon came again. The two shared they're biggest battle of swords they had ever known. The clang of their weapons echoed in Alfor's ears.
"Give me Voltron!!!" Zarkon's voice practically shook the ground.
"I will do no such thing!!" Alfor shouted back. "You shall never possess such immense power ever again!!" Rage burned within Zarkon's chest, bursting up from the pit of his stomach. Up and out of his chest, through his throat and out his mouth in the form of a battle cry so loud the mountains themselves might crumble in their midst. The alien Emperor's voice cut through the noise of destruction, as his blade sliced through the Altean King's flesh. Alfor let out a gasp, dropping to his knees,... his body fell limp to the ground. Nothing but another weak gasp was heard from him. And then... silence. All but the crackle of the flames around them remained.
"Lord Zarkon!" A Galra soldier emerged through the smoke. "The day is ours. What are your orders?" Zarkon stood straight up again and turned to peek over at him with his peripheral vision.
"It's is time I repay the favor." He said simply.
Hey everybody what's up?! This part of the story was kinda hard because the battle between Alfor and Zarkon. I had to go back and rewatch a couple of episodes to get an idea of what I needed to do. To get the accuracy of the story and make up some things along the way. So some of the lines and descriptions are from the show, and some are just my own stuff. You guys should be able to recognize which is which throughout. But, I think, Coran's recollection was the hardest with all I put into it. But more chapters will be on the way soon!! Thx!!