Author's Note: Well, just like Keith's words to Morgan bothered everybody, so did the knowledge of Sven and Len being "The One" and, worse, Romelle not being anything at all to Sven. That one, I'm not blaming on my characters - that's all me. Call me a freak, but I genuinely do not like the Sven/Romelle pairing - never have, never will. Yes, I know it's the only canon pairing, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
A huge thank-you to everyone who's reading and following along. You guys are the best! I own nothing except my crazy characters.
To Cha - Thank you for your message. I hope I've cleared up some of your questions.
To Craze - Yes, Allura is definitely mad! I think it will get even more interesting when Christiane comes on board, too. And there's a thought - who is Romelle really supposed to be with, hmm?
To bknbu - Oh, hell hath no fury, indeed. I can't wait for this K/A stuff to come to a head.
To Emie Mac - Here's hoping that some of Christiane's seer abilities can get through Sven's thick Viking skull! And I hope you got my message!
To Sally On - Oh, Keith. Keith, Keith, Keith. I'm pretty sure he knows about Allura's crossbow. At least, I sure as seven hells hope he HASN'T forgotten...
To Wade Wells - Yes, this all went on in front of Allura. And no, she hasn't killed him. Yet. As for Sven and Len, I cannot WAIT for you to expand on your thoughts...
Title Song: "Dark Side" by Kelly Clarkson
Cliff drove through the blizzard on Crydor with his Land Team members closely following. Lance, looking down at his old friend, realized that the Land Team was better suited for this mission than the lions. And everybody else, for that matter.
Then there was Ginger. He couldn't believe that she still had feelings for him, even after so many years and how messed-up their relationship was. He thought about Queen Anadora's ring, and how it would be perfect for her. Perfect. But not as an engagement ring - Lance and Ginger had built an entire relationship around the idea of never getting married.
Not that he was going to give her that ring any time soon, of course.
"Hey, Gin?" Suddenly missing - and worrying - about her, he contacted her privately over the communicator. "How are you holding up?"
"Not so good," she replied from the cockpit of her Falcon Jet Fighter. "You didn't warn me that Crydor's weather was this bad. No wonder you guys decided not to chase after Chris in the dark. You can hardly see anything in the light."
"Yeah." Lance grunted. "Are you warm enough in there?"
"I'm fine. Stop worrying about me, McClain."
He grinned. Hearing her voice made him feel better. "I have to, Ellington. It's my job."
"Oh, it's your job now? In that case, you can warm me up after we're safe back at the castle. In any manner you approve of. Clothing optional."
"Ooh, I will definitely take you up on that."
In the Red mecha, Taye did his best to run a systems scan on their robot in his partner's absence. "Okay, Chris has got this set up so it's pretty foolproof, but still, I could be an idiot," he reported to Aidan. "The temperature here is taking a pretty big toll on the three mecha. Pidge gave me a heads-up and said that interlocking helped Voltron increase power here - we might want to keep that the the back of our minds."
Aidan gave a curt nod. "Keep me updated, Benton. You're in charge of the systems." He opened the communication channel to the Blue mecha. "Feld, what do you see in this hot mess? Anything?"
"Nothing yet, Cap."
"All right. Keep me posted."
When Kelly entered the office early the next morning, a capped paper mug of green tea in hand, she knew that the Space Marshal hadn't gone home the night before. She sat miserably at her desk in front of the viewing screen, her eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.
"Space Marshal, you look like you're about to crash," she observed, placing the tea in front of her. "Here. I picked this up for you at the Tea Shoppe on my way over."
"Thank you, Kelly. And no need for formalities today. I am about to crash." She lifted the mug to her lips. "You know, maybe when Matthias chose me to succeed him as Space Marshal, he didn't realize that I would be too close to the action. I have so many loved ones out there on the field right now. This would be so different if they were just faceless bodies with names attached to them."
Kelly nodded, sitting down next to her friend. "Yeah, tell me about it," she agreed quietly. "It's too much. If you think about it, our entire floor from the Academy dorm is out there, plus Taye, plus Jon, plus David, plus Chris...I could keep going, Len."
"I know, Kell. I could too." She sipped her tea. "Like I said, it's not just nameless, faceless bodies out there."
Kelly wrapped an arm around Lenora. "Then let's just hope that they stay safe and they find Chris. That's really all we can do."
Lenora nodded, too exhausted to even respond. She was tapped-out emotionally at the moment. She missed her husband fiercely, especially in light of the fact that the Explorer had only docked for a few days before taking off again, and she never stopped worrying about him when he was gone. Worse, she had asked Sven to be on stand-by, and she knew that he would do anything she asked of him. She only hoped that he was safe without the veneer of a ship or a mecha to cover him.
Their walk in the underground tunnels consisted mostly of silence. Though Sven had a million questions to ask the seer, he didn't know where to start, or which questions were the most pressing or appropriate. He wished she was a mind-reader and could see what he was thinking, if only to point out the most important pieces of information he should know.
"You know, you have yet to ask me anything," she finally pointed out, "about myself."
"No. No, I have not." A thoughtful look crossed his face for a brief moment. "I've been too busy saving you."
"You mean, you've been too busy thinking about your pathetic self," she corrected him, rolling her eyes. "Gods, now that I've spent some time with you, I can't figure out what in seven hells she sees in you. You have one impressive dark side, Sven Holgersson."
He snorted. "Hmph. Tell me something I don't know, Christiane Kogane."
She smashed her lips together to contain her amused smile. It hurt her bottom lip, but she didn't care. "Wow. You are just like my brother. He's got a dark side too, you know, probably worse than you do." Seeing no reaction from the stubborn Norwegian, she continued. "Did you know that when I was sixteen, I enrolled at the Space Academy, knowing that I'd find him? And when I found him, he more or less told me to get lost?"
That got a reaction. Sven stopped mid-step in surprise. "When did that happen?"
"I was sixteen, he was twenty. It had to have been his fourth year. He had this look on his face - I will never forget that look." She shook her head. "I didn't blame him for it, though."
"But what did he say? Wasn't he happy to know that his sister was there?"
"Far from it." She shrugged. "He looked like he was going to be ill. He was so angry."
"I'm sorry. He never told me about it. I didn't even know you existed until the Space Marshal told me."
"Don't worry. It's not your fault." She looked down at the ground as she relived the experience. "Akira-chan - better known as Keith to you guys - took our parents' death and our subsequent separation very badly. It scarred him for life, and trust me, you don't need to be a seer to know that." She glanced over at her companion. He was looking at her intently with his slate-blue eyes, and she thought for a moment that she knew why Lenora had fallen for him. "He didn't trust in love. Not just romantic love, either - familial love, friendly love, affection, adoration, the whole nine yards. He fell into this habit of pushing away anyone he loved or cared about. From what I can gather, he still does."
"It was like that with him and Morgan, for sure," he agreed.
"Yeah. She told me that a couple of years later."
"Wait...you know Morgan?"
"Of course." Her delighted smile lit up the underground tunnel. "Even though Keith couldn't accept me being there, with his whole mistrust-of-love issues, he did care enough to have Jeff and Morgan watch over me while he was on Arus." She looked almost giddy as she thought about her boyfriend. "I met Morgan through Jeff - they became really tight after Keith left."
"Did they ever date?"
"Seven hells, no!" Christiane laughed, and for the first time, Sven saw her as a person instead of some ward he was supposed to protect, or as a seer with some mystical abilities. "Don't get me wrong, they would've been good together, but she was in a funk for about a year after the final break-up. And then she met David, and the rest is history."
"David Rackens?"
"David Rackens."
"Hmm. Did David ever tell you about how often he used to beat up my roommate in those shooting matches?"
"Sometimes." She shrugged again. "David's the best. I think you'll like him once you get to know him."
Sven smiled. "So then...you and Jeff Aki?"
The adoring expression on the girl's face made him jealous. "Yeah, me and Jeff," she replied softly. "Jeff was always good to me. He always watched over me, always made sure I was okay. And then at Lenora's induction ceremony...I don't know what happened. We agreed to meet beforehand to discuss his concerns, and suddenly I wanted to know if my visions were right. I asked him to escort me to the ceremony, and the rest is history."
"So your romance, anyway, is fairly recent."
"It is. Though I feel like we've been together for a lifetime."
Sven thought about those words. Since he found out that his elskede was alive, every day had seemed like an eternity without her. He didn't know how he would ever make it through the rest of his life if she wasn't by his side.
"You know, I've never been good with babies or little kids, but your son is really cute," Erimar told Romelle as he watched her feed Erik his lunch. The boy was tossing his dry cereal around the room more than he was chomping on it.
Romelle looked back at her guest with a bewildered smile. "I'm glad you think he's cute. When he's acting like this, I find him to be...less cute."
Erimar laughed, leaning over to pick up a few pieces of cereal from off the ground. "Oh, he's fine. From what I understand, all little kids do this. It's nothing unusual."
Romelle smiled, locking her eyes with the prince's olive-green gaze. Gods, he looked like he belonged on Pollux, with his happy demeanor and his auburn hair. And he was so patient with Erik. Not that Sven was a bad father, he was actually an incredible father, but Romelle had yet to meet a man who had no reason to love Erik but did anyway.
Instead, she replied, "That's true." She turned her gaze back to her son to avoid looking at Erimar. "You know, this is usually his naptime - that's probably why he doesn't want to eat. I'll have Rosalie take him to the nursery." She paged her youngest nursemaid, who responded quickly and scooped the child up in her arms. Her expression held the slightest bit of disapproval over the fact that the prince and princess would be left alone together.
Not that Romelle cared. She was interested in spending time alone with Tyvel's prince, though she didn't know why. Yes, she was attracted to him. But it wasn't just that - she was intrigued by him. She wondered what it might have been like if his brother Erkhon had lived, and if Clarissa had married him. She wondered what kind of alliance Pollux and Arus would have forged along with Exxus and Tyvel. They would have been unstoppable.
Once they were alone, she finally garnered enough courage to ask him the question. "Erim, tell me, if your brother and my brother had both survived - if your brother had married Clarissa, and my older brother had never been made into a robeast - what do you think might have happened to us?"
Erimar swallowed, fully considering her question for a moment. "You want the truth, Romy?" he asked. "I can only speculate. But I've had many years to imagine, and I'll tell you how my what-if scenario always plays out." He swallowed back his grief, hard. "I like to think that Clarissa would have married Erkhon, and the two of them would be sharing the throne of Tyvel. That would leave Stephane to rule Exxus, and Emmaline free to marry whoever she chose. Perhaps she would marry Avok. Or perhaps she would still choose to marry Bandor."
Romelle grinned. "Believe it or not, Erim, she and Bandor really do love each other. I've seen it. Emma will be happy here on Pollux, I can assure you of that - she and my brother are very much in love."
Erimar inhaled, tilting his head slightly towards her. "Yes, that's nice to know. But tell me, Romy, are you?"
She felt her breath and heartbeat both quicken. "Am I what?"
Erimar moved towards the princess and grabbed her hand. "Much like your brother and new sister-in-law, are you happily married?" He brought his face within inches of hers, and she felt herself melt. "Is that accented husband of yours the love of your life, or are you putting on a great act? Are you still pleased to be married to him, or are you putting on the best show in the universe?"
Romelle felt herself unable to breathe. "Does it matter? Why would you care?"
Erimar had always been of the belief that it was best not to interfere if a woman's heart was taken. However, if a woman's heart was broken, that was another story entirely. He had sensed that there was some discord in her marriage, in which case, it would be ideal to make his move. Romelle would make an excellent queen - if only he could get her to divorce her non-royal husband. "Because if you are not happy, I can make you happy."
She bit her lip in reply.