Hell Hath No Fury
Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron or any of its characters nor any of its alternate universe personas. So sad, I could become fond of a Lotor with green eyes…
Part 5 of the Chivalry story arc: 1. Chivalry; 2. Lion House Restored (& 2A. LHR – Allura's POV); 3. Doomed Quest; 4. Alternate Choices; and 5. Hell Hath No Fury. While some of the stories can be read as stand alone, this one must be read AFTER Alternate Choices for it to make sense.
Rating/Setting: Rating is T, bordering M. There are some topics that could be triggers for some people; I will try to post warnings for those chapters. However, I'm never graphic or explicit in any of my writing. If you've read Alternate Choices, you should know what the trigger topics are. Setting is DotU in flavor.
Chapter 6
***Back to the happenings at the end of Chapter 1 when Allura Alt disappears with Keith***
~Day One in the Mirror-verse~
"Then it's settled," Allura Alt said. "You have one week to find a way to my universe and to the planet Ormond. I will hold off completing the bond-mate process until then, but no longer."
Keith watched his Allura as she drew a deep breath and looked into his eyes. "I'll be there," she said firmly. He knew she had the means and the will power to do everything she promised. It was just his fear for her that made a part of him wish for her to stay on Arus and not make the trip. Then Allura Alt pressed the button and his last image of Arus was of Allura standing strong and conveying her love for him through her eyes, willing him to take that thought with him to whatever awaited him on the other side.
Momentarily disoriented as the ground solidified beneath him in the mirror-verse, he fell forward to his hands as Allura Alt eased her grip on his hair.
The Altean Queen moved around to stand in front of Keith. The disorientation hadn't affected her as much as it had him. Perhaps it was the fact that he had been shot with a stunner not long before the crossing. "Come now, Keith, to be sure, you can't be that affected by the crossing." She waited for him to sit back on his knees and look up at her. She was ready. Quickly swinging her arm, she backhanded him across the face.
Keith's head jerked violently to the side from the blow. When he carefully turned his face back toward her, a large red area marked the side of his cheek.
"You played me, you attacked my empire, and then you left. You have much to answer for, Keith Kogane." The queen almost hissed the words out in her fury.
Keith had been staring at Allura Alt when a cackling laugh brought him quickly from his thoughts about the queen. Scanning the shadows of the room, he found all too quickly the glint of yellow eyes. Keith's blood ran cold.
"Recognize me from your universe Voltron Commander? I have watched events from your world and find that I am not a mirror – but close to an exact duplicate of my alternate." Cackling some more, she moved out of the shadow to stand closer to the queen. The staff in her hand looked identical to the one her alternate used to wield some of her magic.
Keith glanced quickly around the room; it did nothing to comfort him or give him a hint at a respite to his dilemma. The room was lined with shelves. Some contained books, but many contained jars – jars filled with liquids, powders, roots, and disturbingly, several filled with what appeared to be body parts. A jar filled with eyes of varying colors particularly drew his attention. Haggar's lab, at least one of her labs, was where he was now.
Allura Alt looked from Keith to Haggar. "Do you think she'll find a way to come after him?"
Haggar's eyes never left Keith's face. "You found a way didn't you, Queen Allura? I think she's already found a way and will be here before the week is up." Walking forward, she used her cane to lift Keith's head by placing it under his chin. "You say you don't want me to mark his face?" Haggar laughed some more as she noticed Kogane's eyes widen a little.
"I don't want him scarred… anywhere. I don't care what you break, bruise or do to him, as long he is not permanently marked. He also needs to be fit enough to service me in a few days." Allura Alt's voice was calm and dispassionate. She waited for a question that never came from Keith, so she spoke it herself. "What? You're not bringing up the fact that I told your Allura I'd wait a week?"
Moving his head away from Haggar's cane, he turned toward her and said, "I never expected you to keep your word." Keith was actually surprised that he wasn't in the queen's bed right now 'servicing' her.
Almost as if she sensed his thoughts she spoke. "The only reason you're not in my bed right now is that you haven't received your punishment for your past crimes. Those that oppose me need to see that betrayal has consequences. Once Haggar has dealt you your punishment, I'll be sending out a vid announcing that I have brought your traitorous hide back from where you were hiding. That kind of power and determination will cause many to think twice about crossing me." Moving to the door, the queen called back to Haggar. "You have him for twenty-four hours, witch. Bring him to the control center tomorrow for the vid."
"Of course, Queen Allura. I'm sure you'll be pleased with my work." Haggar cackled as the queen left the room.
Keith had thought that being alone with the queen was the worst thing that was going to happen. He had known he was wrong about that the moment he heard Haggar's laugh. It seems that the hell he was expecting to go through was going to take several forms. Keith's attention was drawn from the door where the queen exited to the spot where Haggar was tapping her cane on the slate tile floor. His eyes moved from the spot where the cane hit the tile up to the yellow eyes that seemed to pulse with energy.
"It's time we got to know each other better, Commander."
The guards standing outside Haggar's lab looked at each other when the Queen left. Strange things had been going on that evening. Not that it was all that usual for strange things to be happening in Haggar's lab; however, they didn't usually require guards at the door. Guards had been posted to the door five days ago when the queen entered the lab with Haggar and even though guards had changed, no one had seen the queen exit the room. Then everything changed about thirty minutes prior. The guards had heard voices and when the queen left, they had glimpsed a man kneeling on the floor. The queen didn't say anything as she passed and it wasn't their place to question. However, they were curious as to who the man was and what he was doing in Haggar's lab. Moments later, they realized what he was there for as his screams rent the air around them, traveling easily through the door into the corridor.
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Keith wasn't sure how much time had elapsed since his arrival in the mirror-verse, all he knew was that almost all of it had been spent in pain. There were no windows in Haggar's lab, but she did have some intensely bright lights that she would shine at him from time to time. In the hours he had been there, he hadn't lost any appendages or organs to Haggar's collection, but he had lost blood. The first thing that Haggar had done was paralyze him with a spell and open a vein. He had watched, unable to stop the flow, as blood had run down his arm to a nearby drain in the floor. At the point where he had started to feel light-headed, she had applied some kind of salve to the wound and some kind of pressure bandage. After that, things were a blur of dull and sharp pain. His torso was laced with some kind of burn marks. All she had done was speak words and the raised blisters had appeared as lash marks across his skin. Now she was at the door speaking to the guards.
Keith was unsurprised to see the guards enter his line of vision as he lay on his side on the floor. He hadn't moved when they entered. There was no need to. The witch had effectively weakened him so that he was unable to put up any kind of fight or struggle. The obviously nervous and apprehensive guards lifted him to a nearby table and quickly left when Haggar dismissed them.
Gliding over to the table, Haggar looked at the unresisting man on the table. She pulled a knife from a hidden fold in her robe and began making cuts to remove his shredded clothing from him. His eyes followed her knife with interest, and she knew that he was far from broken. A smile born from the joy of inflicting pain on others appeared on her face. She enjoyed a challenge. The time allotted her might not be enough to break him, but then, perhaps the queen would allow her more sessions….
Several hours later, Keith found himself still on the table. He was clad only in his underwear and lying in a puddle of his own vomit. The witch had injected him with something that had caused hallucinations and extreme nausea. Strapped to the table, he could only turn his head as the meager contents of his stomach emptied out onto the table. Keith suddenly sputtered as cold water was thrown onto his face and body. Opening his eyes as he coughed, he saw Haggar get another bucket of water and come in his direction. Closing his eyes, he was prepared this time when the cold wave hit him. He lay there still trying to catch his breath as she went to the door. Keith was glad the intense smell of stomach fluids was gone, but he had no reason to believe that whatever came next would be better.
Moments later he found himself on the floor, courtesy of the guards. Not having the strength to remain in a seated position, Keith collapsed to the floor on his side. If he was more aware, he might have cared when Haggar handed each of the guards a club and pointed in his direction. But for the moment, he was past caring.
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~Day Two in the Mirror-verse~
At the appointed time the next day, Keith was literally drug to the control center for Queen Allura's political and military endeavors during this time of war. The soldiers put him on his knees. However, he didn't have the strength to keep his body upright and the manacles from his wrists clanked on the floor as he fell over.
Allura looked him over. The traitorous Voltron Commander looked filthy, exhausted, beaten, and bruised. The queen smiled in satisfaction as she looked over to the witch. "Well done, Haggar."
The dark wraith merely smiled and nodded her head.
Looking at the crew that would video the message, she went over the angles she wanted and the timing of the sequences. One of the many things the queen was good at was PR, at least those PR events that were meant to intimidate.
When ready, Allura Alt went into her speech about how the war would only end badly for those that opposed her, that it would be best to surrender now while she would be lenient. For those that betrayed her and those that continued to fight, she had the cameras turn to the man on the floor. She only gave a cursory explanation of how he had betrayed her, but she told everyone that she had tracked him literally across universes to bring him back. Everyone whom she hoped to intimidate with his capture and beating would know exactly who the man on the floor was.
The Queen of Arus looked with satisfaction at the camera. "I will return to the throne of Altea and resume my rightful place there." Giving a glance down at the man on the floor, she said with confidence, "And this man will give me Voltron back. Count on it." The video cut and the staff went to edit and prepare it for the queen's viewing.
Haggar moved over to where Allura Alt was standing, still looking vastly satisfied. "A question, my Liege. How will Kogane give you Voltron back?"
"Once I have disposed of the other Allura, he won't have anyone to go back to. When I become pregnant with his child, he won't leave me. Any threats I make against the child, he will heed. It worked with the other Keith, and I'm certain that it will work with this one. He would do anything to protect what belongs to him." The smile only grew on her face as Haggar nodded.
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A short while later, Orla and the Resistance leaders stood in Altea Castle's control room. As Allura's words came across the screen, "Count on it," they flinched slightly. Orla turned to the men who piloted the lions.
"She did it. She found him and brought him back."
Hunk spoke up, "You know she'll find a way to use him to retrieve Voltron."
"We've either got to get him out or we've got to kill him." Lance was matter of fact as he stood with his arms crossed.
"There's no way I can explain to Jaden that we killed the man that was his father's alternate just because he was inconvenient." It was Lotor that expressed the dissenting view.
Lance interjected back, "But you know Keith wouldn't want to be her bond-mate. He'd rather die than be with her and father her children."
Suddenly, they all began talking over each other.
Orla's voice was calm as she looked at the frozen view of Allura that had been put back on the screen. "I think that all of you have forgotten something." Hearing the silence behind her, she said, "There is another Allura that loves him for who he is, and by this time, I am sure that he has married her." Turning she looked at them all, "She will come to get him back. I think that is what we should count on." A smile spread across her face as she thought of the woman that Keith described as his Allura. Yes, she thought, the Queen of Altea will have a fight on her hands when the Queen of Arus comes to reclaim her husband.