Chapter 23
31 hours.
31 hours since they'd thrown the drule empire into hell. Lance felt his muscles ache as they begged for his bed, but he ignored the throbs of pain as he watched the delayed feed footage of the monsters' fight and grimaced. The destruction was horrendous and try as he might, he couldn't feel an ounce of pity for the warlords and their families. The images were apocalyptic with much of the thick forests blazing as crimson infernos, tainting the skies above a thick black. Amongst them he could see solid shapes sticking out from pits surrounded by the trees. Warships. And he didn't care. They had turned his heart into ice. They deserve it, he thought quietly.
"Any ideas?"
Turning in his seat, he turned to Kogane's second who'd just joined him in the impromptu voltron force commandeered conference room. They had converted it into their own meeting space away from the oldies, as Lance liked to call them. Or maybe the oldies wanted to be as far away from them as possible if this operation failed, to preserve themselves, Lance deduced as he watched the other man. He noticed blood stains and dirt on the grey combat uniform and smelt the lingering scent of smoke. 'Was he just out there?' Shaking his head, he decided not to ask the crazy bastard. In fact, they were all crazy.
" Not even one. And the brass isn't helping either, so we're all screwed." Lance stated as he closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat and stretched his legs out onto the desk. After minutes of absolute uncomfortable silence, he said:
"You're so quiet it creepy."
" And you're so loud it's annoying."
" You're the one that came in here bud. Let's get that straight. You're like a freaking shadow it's scary."
"Isn't that what a second-in-command should do, shadow his superior?" Grey eyes landed on Mclain, who appeared deceptively relaxed. Sven had noticed that Mclain was disappointingly less serious than his father, but he was no fool. If he had been he wouldn't have caught the witch that every human dreaded. However, to work smoothly with Keith, the guy was going to need A LOT of help. The chances of them both exchanging fists hadn't decreased either. 'Even I would like to kick Mclain's teeth in. Just not today."
"Are you trying to tell me my job, Holgerson?" Lance drawled slowly, crossing his fingers behind his head.
"Yes. I am."
" And just who the hell do you think you are? You're not even a part of the voltron force. Feeling a little left out, aren't we?"
"Feeling a little cocky, aren't we?"
They stared each other down for what felt like eternity in the silent room. The next thing, Lance was slammed onto the cold floor. Holgerson had him in a chokehold, forcing Lance to fight for his next breath. Tapping in surrender, Lance became horrified when the arm around his neck became a steel band, increasing in pressure. Oh fuck! Clawing at the tightening vice around his neck, Lance could only wheeze as darkness started to envelope him. Clawing turned to tapping and after a moment, he tumbled onto the floor, gasping desperately. His strength was sapped and he could barely lift himself up. He realized that he had almost died. Stumbling to his feet, he removed his blaster from his holster and pointed it at Sven, who was folding the sleeve of his shirt over itself.
"You son of a bitch! That was attempted murder!" gasping Lance slammed the alarm connected to Pidge and Hunk's communicators. Fuck this shit, he didn't have time to deal with a backstabbing sonofabitch.
"That's a shame. I'd have thought that you would have studied my work history carefully. I do not make attempted kills. Anyway, cuff me please. But don't expect a quick trial on this one, Lieutenant. Your near murder is not that important. We've all got our part to play at ending this mess. "
"Fuck you! I'm gonna throw you in the deepest cell we've got."
Pidge and Hunk ran into the room to face a very confusing scene. Not sure what to do, they just stood there.
"Arrest that son of a bitch!" yelled Lance angrily, shaking with rage. Sighing deeply, Sven shook his head before he nodded to the two voltron force members. He lifted his arms toward them and nodded again. As he watched the cuffs lock on his wrists, Sven thought that the coat of arms on their Dispa team uniforms was wrong. It should have been cuffs and prison bars.
...
"Are you sure about this?" Sven asked as he eyed the faint image of the man in front of him. The man's resemblance to his friend was uncanny. He hadn't been sure why Keith had entrusted him with his father's remains when he could have laid them to rest himself, but the shaking above ground answered that question for him. He had strapped the coded message onto his body and searched for a shovel. After placing the boxed remains on the ceremonial pedestal in the untouched underground graveyard where Keith's family rested, the apparition had appeared. And he'd nearly died from shock.
"I am. Haggar is important to the drules. And they will contact his majesty to negotiate because she is the only one who knows the most about robeasts. Holding her will serve no purpose, for no human other than the princess can kill her. She, unfortunately, is too weak to do so. Only a Arusian queen can kill an ancient drule queen. And only she can kill noble blood corrupted. '
"Haggar is royalty? Then how did she get so..." failing to choose a better word, Kiyoshi Kogane finished it off for him.
"Repulsive?"
"Yes!"
"Evil corrupts, Lieutenant. It destroys the mind, the heart and the body. The deeper you touch darkness, the more you become indistinguishable from it. She was magnus' wife. One of 14. From our chronicles I heard that she was married off to him. But the challenges, deceptions and competitions that came from trying to be his ultimate wife forced her to start channelling dark magic. Forbidden magic. She suddenly became useful to Magnus, a favorite of his. The price she paid for gaining the power to release the umbra was her womb. Realising this, she murdered each queen viciously and did hideous experiments with their bodies. The 13th Queen was pregnant with Zarkon and she was spared for a few months. Unfortunately, when she delivered, Haggar slit her throat with her claws and declared Zarkon her child. Before she died, the woman cursed Haggar and Magnus who cared not wo gave him an heir, that drule would fall at the hands of humans, that the 13th Kingdom will disgrace the empire like no other and ultimately, that Haggar would never receive the love or loyalty of Zarkon or any of his descendants. They would scorn her for eternity."
"Why are you telling me this?" Sven asked quietly. It was a sad, drule drama. Not uncommon for nobility at all.
" Since no one can kill Haggar physically, kill her with words. Find a way force her to tell you how to weaken Zeppo. An emperor's blood is a powerful tool. Drule royal blood is powerful, and she has a hold over all of them. They murdered all my people in fear of this blood. Sadly, I would know."
"Will you talk to Keith before you leave?" anxiously, Sven waited for the answer.
"If he permits me to. I'm trusting you as my son has always trusted you, Lieutenant. Save Arus, please." The sad apparition disappeared.
Pulling off the gas mask to a very silent prison, he walked over to the unconscious guards and searched for the keys. Pulling them out, he unlocked the 10 lever bolted door and opened the cell holding Haggar. The old woman's reptilian eyes dug into him angrily, hate oozing from her, enough to choke a weaker, less determined man. Oh, was Sven determined.
Kill her with words.
'Easier said than done.'
Haggar hissed as she stared at the human, a different one from the one that had captured her. Others had entered before him, attempting to question her, to scare her. Her. Humans were weaklings, piles of flesh that reeked and were purposeless. They only betrayed the other for minor things, food, water money, women. Purposeless. Compared to the great Drule civilization they were pigs.
'And yet you were caught by those same pigs, stupid witch.' A voice, sneering and mocking, insulted her.
"Get out, you swine, before I rip your heart out and feed it to my pet!" snarling, her arms pulled at the lava chains fixed at the walls in vain. The human ignored her, but he did something strange. Grabbing a folded steel chair from outside the door, Haggar watched as he headed for her. Preparing for the attack, her eyes never left his steel gray ones as he opened the chair smoothly. And placed it beside her. Facing the bare grey, cold wall.
"I will kill you, human. Depart from my sight immediately!"
The human did nothing for a long while. Haggar's scathing comments and remarks glided off him as he just sat stone still, a blank expression on his face . Heaving after her barrage, Haggar was more annoyed than when she started.
'Useless old Hag.' The voice whispered.
"Who dares insult the great witch of the drule empire? Reveal yourself!"
Nothing. Just silence. And the human.
After an eternity, he pulled from his rolled up sleeve a small black device that he pointed at the wall. It was smooth, with a small dial and a couple of buttons. What caused Hagar to still though was not the device, but the images playing infront of her.
The great drule empire...was in flames. She watched as the device zoned out and revealed the full extent of the damage. What had been citadels were now piles of warped metal. What had been airfields for warships were now craters of flames, flames high enough and hot enough to blacken the morning sky. Putrid, chemical filled smoke that blinded fighters as they tried to dodge each other blindingly and fail. Suddenly, a jet black fighter she knew intimately zapped across the screen before disappearing onto the darkness.
'You...you are the cause.' Another accusing whisper.
"I didn't come to torture you, witch. I came to entertain you as the world goes to hell." The human finally spoke, calm and firm. He never took his eyes from the screen.
"Do not waste my time and state your business before I kill you."
"I did come to state my business. How much clearer do you want me to be? The world is ending as we speak. First the drule empire. Then everyone one else. And I am here to acknowledge you as well. Prince Avok's Robeast was strong, but Zeppo, he's a superb monster."
"And what does a human know about my creations?"
"A lot, actually. You are the smartest person in the drule and human empires, Haggar. This genius that pushed the human race on edge. I don't believe you're that appreciated for your work, though."
"Hmm. Baseless flattery. I am too old to be moved by kind remarks, fool."
"Kindness does not equate to acknowledgement Haggar. One can be one of both without compromising their beliefs. You would know, wouldn't you."
'Haggar, please, my son! He needs his mother!'
'I will be his mother. A strong mother!'
"Sadly, your people are going to be destroyed without once acknowledging you."
"My work speaks for me!"
"True."
Haggar watched as Zeppo grabbed a giant tentacle before swinging the massive creature straight into an encampment. Explosions burst from under the umbra, blowing up the side of the nearest mountain. Their energy supply cables used to recharge their proton canons were in that mountain, miles of carefully laid cables under Haggar's instruction that were separated to prevent...
The blast was massive, taking out the mountain range in an earth shattering explosion. The shaking inside the bunker was devastating. Screams could be heard and alarms blared as the blood red emergency lights turned on.
"You know,' Sven went on, "I studied a lot about how drule culture works. Your kind are not afraid of death, but you're more afraid of not having a death that brings glory upon yourselves. Magnus is revered as a hero because of his magnificent death at the helm of an umbra, conquering worlds. I wonder what drules will think about Zeppo? That he died as a puppet of a human he considered beneath him?"
"That research is mine! I created robeasts."
"No, no, Haggar. History will be written by the Victors. Aidan confessed to have made a true robeast. Its on record. But worse than that, i'd forgotten to tell you: Zarkon has been abandoned by the drule kingdoms as the cause of this mess."
"Lies! No greater king exists like my son!"
Clocking on a button, the images of Zarkon on the deck of his warship came into view. He was still. Unmoving as the world burned around him. A trooper wearing a different royal uniform from his own trued to speak to him, but he ended up on his knees, head twisted to the side by Zarkon's blow.
"Here's the footage of the vote." Horrified, Haggar watched as drule king after drule king raised their hand in support of annexing the 13th Kingdom and choosing a new drule Emperor.
"That Magnus murdered our kin, destroyed our authority and raided our fortresses and forges. They deserve to be destroyed!" One king stated snarkly as he watched the battle.
"The images are real, by the way. I specialize in infiltration and extraction missions, Haggar. Planting a few devices and drones, personally made by me, of course, is easy. Especially now when the last thing your people expect is a spy like me."
"That son of his released the umbra he had no control over. He deserves to die with Zarkon as well. I say, let's sit this out until both those fools are dead, then we trade their deaths for support."
"Trading is not our way!"
"If we do not trade with the human Prince who brought that thing here, we will all die. Besides, only the people in this room need know that we require the services of the humans. If we manage to stop the attack or not, it matters not. We still win." Merla added throught perfectly red lips.
"Look at them, Haggar. While you were seeking glory and Zarkon's rise to the throne as Emperor through conquest, you forgot that even drules are cunning politicians. Funny thing is, both drule and the human race have that in common. People who are willing to deceive, plant and uproot for their convenience whilst maintaining facades. Mists and mirrors, if you will. Can't you see that at the end of this, glory unwritten is the same as defeat? Are you willing to let your kin pay the price for drule weakness Haggar?."
Haggar stiffened. Her blood boiled, listening to the Kings plot destruction and fabricated stories about how to end her kingdom. Blood racing, she watched in horror as Lotor's ship fell from the sky amidst flaming debris. The sky should have lit up in lights for Lotor's glory, she mused angrily, grinding her teeth until she could taste blood. Cowardice and blazing glory. Side by side in front of her. She believed in the greatness of Magnus' blood. Her body shook in fury silently when the Kings laughed at the idea of placing Lotor in Merla's harem as a new plaything for the sick Queen. The very thought of Lotor chained by magic by that whore blinded her with rage. No slave would ever rise to rule. Prince or not.
"I believe we're about to witness the end of Lotor. Do you think anyone noticed?"
Horrified, Haggar had no option but to watch as the enormous figure of Zeppo turned. He was facing the direction of the fallen ship.
"Oh. Someone did."
"Release me, human!" screamed Haggar, her scratchy voice echoing even down the hallway.
"No."
"You filthy human! If anything happens to my grandson, I will..."
"Destroy me, disfigure me, torture me, throw me into the pit, blast me with laser canons. Hagar. I'm going to say this once and I hope you never forget it." Coldly, Sven turned to meet the witch dead in the eye. He didn't waver and Haggar flinched at the coldness the human exuded.
"Don't fucking mess with me. You don't know how much i've lost because of you. When did I stutter that we are here to witness the end of your race? I'm making you watch because I want to take the best shots with me when I die. So stop with the curses. They're wasted here."
Haggar broke the stare first as she watched Zeppo's lumbering figure move toward the downed ship. The umbra had been thrown toward the Azure sea, the impact sending a giant waves crashing through the land. Some of the fires were put out instantly, others left as a smoldering mess. The water washed across Zeppo's feet, not deterring him in the least. Horrified, Haggar realized that the salty brine's had washed over the location of Lotor's ship. Water, timber, metal and carcasses had washed over her beloved kin.
"Human. I will agree to your demands. Let me save my prince" the pain that shredded Haggar as she said those words. But the human remained still, eyes focused on the scene.
"Did you not hear me! I said I will tell you how to stop Zeppo!" yelled Haggar desperately as Zeppo's next step placed him closer to lotor. One huge foot spanned 500meters, a few more and Lotor would be nothing but mush.
Sven ignored Haggar as he navigated his drone lower over the disturbed, flooded surface until he stopped at a pile of rubble where a bloody, trapped Lotor fought with the warped steel trapping his lower torso. He was wet, filthy, shoving and pulling at the metal, clawing at everything around him.
An animal.
Sven thought back to when he would sneak outside the bunker to hunt for the kitchens when they had been unfair ration distribution. What had been a pastime had become a survival tactic. Tracking an animal, mapping its routes understanding its patterns, tactics and behaviour. Sometimes for days at a time. Sometimes coming back to sleepless nights without meat to the disappointment of his team. Only to sleep on sandy military rations and water. Every time he caught an animal, he appreciated the hunter's prowess. The drule Prince resembled a deer ensnared by a hunter, his desperation palpable through the footage. His screams were unheard through the drone, but Sven could make out the word he screamed. Haggar!
'This animal ...is the one that killed my sister!
"Human!"
'Sven begged his older sister to hang on as he tried to keep her from choking on her own blood. He was screaming her name, trying to keep her body still as spasms shook her. Keith had run out screaming Aunt Serena's name, calling for help desperately.
"No, Aliya, no! Don't leave me, Aliya! Please!"
Somehow, she had escaped the drule encampment and had dazedly made her way to back home. She had been found by the patrol crew and recognised immediately as lady Serena's daughter, presumed dead at the raids. She had found her way home home, tortured, abused, and alive. But not free. Recounting the horrors of the drule harem of one drule Prince had been torture and the nightmares were shadows she constantly walked with. Her fight for freedom was unseen by the heartless individuals they were forced to live with. The snide remarks of dirty, prostitute and unlovable were whispered in the hallways and caught by Sven. Her mother, Sven, his friends tried to help her to stand up again. But the insensitive treatment by the heartless bunker women had resulted in her drinking poison in her room. She had left Sven with a map of the drule tunnels, the name of the Prince who had killed her body and spirit. And, a tearful apology.
"He has to die."
"No! Not my Prince! No!"
"ALIYA! NO! My baby!"
"He has to die." the human repeated the same statement quietly like an insidious spirit. The darkness of the reality of what was about to befall Lotor shadowed her soul the same way Zeppo's shadow shadowed Lotor. The thrashing of her Prince ceased for a few seconds before it became rapid, blood staining his hands as pushed at the sharp edges of the metal around him, only managing to dislodge it slightly. Waves washed over his desperate form, swallowing him before spitting him out again. Zeppo lifted a heavy foot, preparing to crush what had pestered him for a while.
Sven felt the magic seep from the mouth of the witch as the ancient enchanted words fell from her withered lips. Urgently, their pace increased as she wove a spell that seemed to intensify before it dissipated suddenly.
"No! He refuses my command."
"You don't have authority over it, witch. Lotor is done for." The calm voice of the human cut through her. Mud fell disgustingly from Zeppo's foot onto and around the struggling drule, disgracing him even more before his imminent demise.
One more time, Haggar chanted a series of words, each one building up momentum as she uttered them powerfully. Zeppo began to glow as well as Lotor, Zarkon and the drule Kings that were hiding in their conference room. From the ancient dialect, Sven picked up the words 'release', 'royalty'and 'free'. Zeppo froze, leg raised before he tumbled backwards, as if struck. The glowing drules screamed before they passed out, Haggar along with them.
"Now was that so hard, witch." Sven stated quietly as he watched the unconscious Prince for a moment longer. Sighing deeply, he knew he didn't have the opportunity to kill the Prince at that moment. What he'd done was for their people, not as payment for a vendetta.
"Next time, Sana. I promise." Sven didn't know why, but it wasn't Sana's face that he saw, but the face of the woman he'd carried in here hours before.
...