Hi, everybody. Here is chapter two of the story. Happy reading.

Prisoners

Merla watched how the Voltron force landed in their lions. They probably hoped to find a way to quickly get back into them once the hostages were free. But she had planned for that. She wouldn't be stupid enough to underestimate any of these people. She watched how the Commander of the Voltron Force squeezed the Princess's shoulder, probably to give her some courage for what was going to happen. Well, while the Princess was a nice price, she actually didn't have much use for her, beyond trying to make her into a puppet ruler for her plans. It had worked out many times in the past already, when she had left the previous ruling family in official control over their planets. It was why many planets had surrendered with little trouble. And her mind control, if used over a prolonged period, would make them obey her orders as if they had always believed in her way of doing things.

It was very simple to manipulate people. Most were unwilling to fight, if the gain wasn't big enough. Sure, they all wanted to be free, but if freedom was too highly paid for, they would accept as much freedom as they could get, but the highest degree of safety. Arus wouldn't be different. She had offered a deal that the people would be glad to accept over time. Lotor and Zarkon had one flaw, their conquests were bloody and cost lots of people's lives. They also threw anybody's life away without care. Not that she cared about other people too much, but she knew how to use psychology to her advantage. People knew she could be cruel and merciless. But they also knew that if they just complied and let her rule, she wasn't too concerned about the details.

The planets were hers to rule, but who wanted to be trapped by planetary politics all the time? That could be left to others and as long as the results were right, she had no trouble letting previous leaders stay in position. Princess Allura just needed to be broken a little before she would defer to Merla. Nothing too difficult. Her main concern were her people and if they were safe enough, she would do what she was told. As long as she took away her strongest defender. And, seeing him in person, she had to make sure to not betray her plans for the handsome human male. He had an aura about him that screamed that he was a natural born leader, a true warrior. Yes, if she would let things continue without her interference, he would probably prove himself enough to even overcome that silly little rule about the princess having to marry a prince. How Lotor would react to that, she had to grin. He would have a temper tantrum of epic proportions. And perhaps she could contribute to it as well, well she had the means to at least make sure. It would be poetic irony.

"I see you were reasonable," Merla stated.

"We will accept your conditions, but we demand that the people are sent here before we send Commander Keith and Princess Allura," Coran stated.

"No, we will do an exchange at the same time. The two will lay down all their weapons on your side of the field, including their keys to the Voltron lions. Once that is done, they will walk towards me while I at the same time send the whole group of hostages to you. Should any of them try anything, I will have my soldiers fire," Merla declared, "The other pilots of the Voltron Force will stay out of their lions until I have left with my prisoners."

As they didn't have any other choice, Keith and Allura handed their keys to Coran and put their blasters onto the ground. Then they walked towards the middle of the field where the exchange was taking place. The hostages looked at the two with sad faces, but they didn't look as if they had been hurt, which was a relief to Keith and Allura.

"At least she didn't torture them," Allura sighed.

"I know, but we have to be vigilant. We don't know much about her," Keith whispered to Allura.

"You're right, but we will get through this," Allura showed a brave face.

Keith nodded and they reached the group of female robot soldiers.

"Search them for hidden weapons," Merla demanded and soon enough the result was negative, "Very good. Tie their hands up and bring them onto the ship, we are leaving."

Keith and Allura had to let the robots put handcuffs onto their wrists behind their backs before they were led into the ship. The other pilots watched with clenched fists how the door closed behind the last soldiers and the ship took off.

Keith and Allura found themselves sitting in Merla's command centre, both tied to chairs that were welded to the floor, making it impossible to move from them. Once they had been inside the ship, they had been hit with stunners and lost consciousness. The awakening to their new situation, especially as they had been put into different clothes, ones that clearly didn't have the tracking devices in them anymore, was worrisome. The cuffs enclosed their lower arms and legs, making movement quite hard.

"I have to say, I didn't expect the plan to work this well," Merla grinned at them evilly, letting her eyes roam especially Keith's body and features.

Then another Drule woman entered, wearing a medical coat.

"I have the drug you wanted, Queen Merla, and the tests are prepared," She informed her.

"Very nice. This will be interesting," Queen Merla stated.

"What do you plan?" Keith asked.

"Oh, just some things I am doing regularly. You see, I have noticed some interesting parallels in many planets that I conquered. Those that give me the greatest trouble are normally those where some old and powerful line is working against you. I know from hacking into Zarkon's systems that your father, King Alfor," She looked at Allura, "had some magic to him. The lions are also not your standard robots, but have some sentience to them. But nothing about that explains enough how just five people could oppose the full power that Zarkon threw against your planet, Princess. No, until the space explorers arrived, your planet was incapable of getting back to its feet. Five young men, trained to be pilots for Voltron. But among them, even if they are all brave, which I will freely acknowledge, he stood out constantly. Which is why I am going to have his blood tested against my files of known old lines that have special abilities."

"Old lines?" Allura asked surprised.

"You would be surprised, Princess, how many times a royal family managed to hide their last members among the commoners, which nearly always comes to bite you in the end. It isn't always the case, but too often to not be prepared for. And, should it be the case for him as well, I have some use for it," Merla grinned predatorily.

"My family wasn't royal," Keith stated.

"We will see, Commander, if that's true. You were orphaned at quite a young age after all, before you joined the Alliance. And once there, you aced one test after the other, standing out clearly against all others in your year and the ones above and below you. While your other pilot, Pidge, was found out as a genius early on, which made him enter way earlier than others, even his intelligence doesn't manage to outshine your results. Take the samples you need, Antaria, I think the princess and I will just watch. The view will definitely be worthwhile."

Allura looked between Keith and Merla, not liking at all how predatorily the Queen looked at Keith. She had to watch how that other Drule woman, Antaria, took off Keith's clothes, leaving him in just his boxer shorts. Keith seemed to be able to ignore all this, even if she knew that he hated being exposed like this. The looks Merla gave him were as bad as the ones she regularly got from Lotor. She only hoped that Merla wouldn't do more than look, but with Drules you never knew. And Allura felt quite angry for the way Merla commented on Keith's physique while she couldn't do anything to prevent it.

"I have all the samples I need, Queen Merla, do you want me to proceed now or later?" Antaria asked.

"I think later. We should give our two guests some time for themselves," Merla stated with a grin, before she ran her hand over Keith's shoulders and traced one of the scars he had got, Allura knew it was from that one time Lotor had hit him with his laser sword while he came to her aid, with her slander finger, "I truly hope that the tests are positive, Commander," She whispered into his ear, "We will have a lot of fun then."

She saw the stormy look on Allura's face and just smirked at the clear jealousy the younger woman showed. This was a lot of fun. The princess was already being broken, she just didn't know it yet. She had noticed the liking that the Princess showed the Commander of the Voltron Force, which was why she played this openly. She had fun showing her that she wouldn't hesitate to take something that Allura clearly wanted for herself. And you could manipulate her with his well-being as easily as the other way round.

Keith let out a shudder when the door was finally closed. He hadn't liked the conclusions he got to from what Merla did.

"Keith, are you okay?" Allura asked concerned.

"As well as possible," Keith answered, "Now I know how creeped out you always are when Lotor goes after you."

"She's horrible. We really need to find a way out," Allura stated.

"The problem is, these cuffs are solid and we would need to get to the computer to open them," Keith stated.

"I know. But I hate how she treats you," Allura admitted, "And I don't know what she intended with her talks about finding old lines."

"I heard rumours, but I didn't know if they were true," Keith admitted.

"What rumours?" Allura asked.

"How the Drule Empire ensures their hold over the number of planets that they control. You know how they invade planets and try to take over control," Keith started.

"Yes, they destroy everything, with the main target always being the royal family, if there is one, to get them out of their way," Allura nodded, having gone through that herself.

"They also attempt to capture at least one member of a royal family to get their own descendants onto the thrones, preferably a weak member to have an easier time. Which is why Lotor is after you so much, you are the last member of the royal family of Arus. Should he manage to capture you and force himself upon you to have his baby, he could legally take over Planet Arus, acting as the guardian of your child until it was old enough to rule as King or Queen, and they wouldn't need to keep you alive anymore then. His obsession for you aside, it is what I heard was standard to mostly legally gain control over other planets. No matter how the child was conceived, it would be the rightful heir to the throne, as long as all others with a claim were dead by then. And raised by the ideas of the Drules, well, you can see how those planets will be ruled," Keith told her.

"That's evil," Allura cried out.

"Yes, it is," Keith agreed.

"Why did you never say anything?" Allura asked.

"To protect you. It was obvious enough what Lotor wanted, there was no need to warn you what would happen, should he succeed. Burdening you with the knowledge that they always did this would only have given you more nightmares," Keith admitted, "And I wanted to spare you that."

She admitted, he had a point there.

"Thank you. I hate how Lotor considers me his property. To think that others suffer as much from this kind of thinking, it makes me sick," Allura commented.

"I know, it makes me sick as well," Keith admitted.

They stayed silent for a while. They could only hope that the others would find them soon.

Merla looked at the results of the tests with glee.

"Now this is a pleasant surprise. I truly thought Zarkon had got them all," She licked her lips at the ideas she got.

"Well, the files confirmed the deaths of the King and his family down to the last known member. But the DNA test clearly confirms that he's the son of the King's youngest daughter. No known match for the father so far, which could mean that he wasn't a noble, or one of the lesser lines. But, by default, he has a claim to that throne," Antaria.

"Perfect. Another planet that I can add to my collection. While Fanos doesn't have any resources left that are worth harvesting, Zarkon was thorough in plundering the planet, there are probably some accounts left on other planets that I could make use of. And the royal family of Fanos was known for very good-looking members," Merla stated.

"Will you force your will upon him? In front of the Princess?" Antaria asked.

"Yes, I will. It will be delicious seeing her forced into watching how I have my way with him. She likes him very much and not being able to prevent that I basically rape him, with him participating willingly, as he can't resist my mental control, will break her even further," Merla stated, "And in case that doesn't work, we can still put him under drugs."

She loved being evil.

Allura and Keith were brought out of their silence when the door opened again, Merla standing there in her armour with several papers in her hands.

"Well, I love being right," Merla told them, "Congratulations, Commander Keith Kogane, you are actually descended from a royal line."

"What? That's impossible," Keith declared.

"No, it seems your mother was the youngest daughter of King Rolmon of Fanos. King Zarkon attacked the planet twenty-one years ago, killing the whole royal family, or so it was believed. Your DNA is a match to Princess Hecate of Fanos being your mother. As your father's DNA isn't in any of the databases of royalty that we have, I can only assume that you weren't really a planned child. Happens even in royal families. And Fanos, from what I know about the planet, was quite strict about the royals marrying royals rule. Should the youngest princess really have had an affair with a commoner or something like that, it might have been the case that you were given up for adoption. After all, you would only have been about sixteenth in the inheritance line," Merla commented, "And according to the few files on King Rolmon that I so far managed to look over, he would have done anything to hush up a scandal like a bastard child of his line with all means necessary."

Allura and Keith looked at each other in absolute disbelief.

"Wasn't Fanos plundered by Zarkon?" Allura asked, wanting to win time.

"Yes, very thoroughly. The planet is little more than a husk now. The only value that your Commander might have in terms of power coming from his noble heritage could be old accounts that were off planet," Merla nodded.

Allura saw much more value of this revelation. This would solve her problems with Coran and Nanny being against her loving Keith. For Arus it wasn't important that he could bring in power for some Empire, he had proven how much he was worth so many times already.

"But still, I think I'm going to have some fun," Merla stated, 'Keith you will surrender to my will and sleep with me in front of the Princess.'

Keith stiffened when he felt something trying to control his mind. He shut his eyes, trying to fight against the command. He didn't want to do that. He didn't want to hurt Allura. She would be incredibly hurt, should it appear that he liked Merla. His military training wasn't any help in this case. But his love for Allura allowed him to get over the command. But perhaps this was also a chance to break out. Merla would have to free him for this after all. He pretended to slump into himself after struggling for two minutes.

"He's strong mentally, but in the end, men always fall to my mental powers," Merla informed Allura with a very pleased smile.

"What did you do to him, Merla?" Allura asked angrily.

"Oh, I just gave him a mental command that he was to follow my wishes and sleep with me," She answered wickedly.

"No, you can't do that!" Allura protested horrified.

"I just did. I don't have anything as stupid as morals hindering me, Princess. And soon you won't have them either. I might even let you have him once I'm done. Nice of me, right? As far as potential mates go, well, he is handsome, but he doesn't have the kind of power that I would want for my future king. I'm quite picky about who I allow to sire my children. So far, I didn't find anybody worthy enough for that honour. As he's under my control already, I will probably just let him empty the accounts and hand their contents to me, before I'll see about his future uses. I had actually hoped for another, more useful, line to be found in his pedigree. But well, you never know what you find before you do the test," Merla stated and with a few pushed buttons, Allura's chair was moved to the side of the room and she was forced to watch how Merla forced Keith's head up and kissed him passionately.

Keith didn't react to the kiss, he had to suppress his reaction of gagging actually. But he played being under her control until she took off his cuffs. After a while, during which she also caressed his naked chest with her hands and let them roam over his body, she seemed to be satisfied that he wasn't giving her any resistance.

"See, Princess, this is my power. He didn't want to do this, he actually fought me quite long, but in the end, those without mental powers don't have a chance to defend themselves against me," Merla said, superiorly, before walking over to the control console to unlock Keith's cuffs, "And even if he could have resisted my mental powers, I have drugs that make all men my willing slaves."

He stayed in his position, as he would only have one chance to get both him and Allura away from here.

"Stand up, Keith, come over to me," Merla purred.

As if following her orders, Keith pretended to be in a daze and walked over to Merla, hating how hurt Allura looked. He didn't want to do this, but he needed to quickly overwhelm the queen before she could trigger an alarm, which would call her soldiers onto them before they could flee. Finally, she put her arms around him, claiming his lips again, and he quickly hit a pressure point on the back of her neck with his fingers, which made her slump down unconscious.

"God, I never want to be in that situation again," Keith brought out, repulsed from the way Merla had groped him and kissed him.

"Keith?" Allura asked hopefully.

"Yes, I'm in control," Keith confirmed, "Just a moment, I'll free you from your cuffs."

He only needed to switch the control panel that Merla had used to Allura's chair and then her cuffs opened. She got up from the chair and flew into his arms.

"I feared she had won," Allura admitted, shaking in his arms, "I was so furious that she would do that to you."

"I felt revolted having to let her believe that she had got control over me," Keith admitted, "I hated it so much."

"Let's get out of here quickly, before anybody comes inside," Allura decided, "We can talk later. I don't blame you for anything. Your quick thinking got us freed after all."

Keith nodded, not feeling like arguing, even if he felt horribly guilty of having to pretend he was under Merla's control. He found his clothes and put them on again, no way was he staying nearly naked while being on an enemy ship. He saw that Allura collected all the print-outs of the test, next to anything else that was inside the room. A good idea, as they might win some valuable information from it. While she was doing that, he put Merla onto the same chair Allura had been on and locked the cuffs again. She wouldn't be able to get out of that without help and he changed the password to the system to win time for their escape. And to add to it, he gagged her to win time until she was found.

"Okay, let's get out of here," Keith said once he was done.

Allura nodded and they went to the door, which opened easily. Seemingly Merla hadn't believed that they could escape from her clutches. They managed to sneak into the hangar where the starfighters and shuttles were kept. They got into the shuttle that had brought them to the star cutter and found that it was keyed to a specific kind of pilot. Female ones.

"Good thing I'm here then, Keith. That's actually a neat trap to keep your prisoners. All her staff is female after all," Allura commented.

"True. Well, then you will have to fly us out of here. The others are hopefully close by to give us cover. As soon as we are out of the ship, I expect somebody to attack us. They won't want Merla's fury directed at them," Keith stated.

Allura agreed with that assessment and started the machines. They shot out of the hangar and not much later some starfighters were launched after them.

"Planet Arus, can you hear me?" Keith called over the com-system.

"Keith, is that you?" He heard Hunk's voice.

"Yes. The princess and I managed to flee, but we are hunted by Merla's starfighters," Keith answered.

"We are close to your position. We'll fight them back," Lance now spoke.

Allura piloted the shuttle as best as possible to not be hit by the lasers and rockets until the three lions of the Voltron Force appeared on their screens. The guys immediately went to work and made short work out of the starfighters, allowing Keith and Allura to direct the shuttle to Planet Arus and safety.

That was it for this time. Until next.