Author's Note: Now we're gettin' somewhere. I wasn't sure how people would feel about this new relationship that's illicitly brewing, but I think people are actually kind of enjoying it. Or maybe we just enjoy watching a train wreck? The mind reels.

So I would have had this chapter out sooner, but again, these characters dictate what's going to happen. I had a whole other plotline/title for this chapter, and then - BOOM! - Crankypants comes in and decides he's going to take over. And you know what? I let him; I think this chapter is truly that much better for it. Let's see if you all agree.

As always, I own only my characters and whatever crazy things they do. (Prince Erimar, are you listening?)

To Craze - The relationship between Romelle and Erimar is...say, is it getting hot in here?

To Sally On - I don't know for sure if Chris can help Sven out, but at least she can open his eyes. As for Romelle and Erimar...um, why am I all sweaty all of a sudden?

To Emie Mac - Our boy Jeff's showing up!

To bknbu - Lance and Ginger are pretty darn hot, but they don't got nothin' on the sexual tension that belongs to Romelle and Erimar...uh, wait a second, let me crank up the AC...

To Wade Wells - Crankypants needs love! Thanks for your input, too!

Title Song: "Violet Hill" by Coldplay (one of my personal favorite songs)

The base camp on Crydor was just as bleak-looking as the rest of the planet. Christiane wrapped her arms around her torso and shivered, despite the fact that they were in a covered building which was slightly warmer than the outside temperature. Then again, considering that the outdoor temperature was cold enough to give the Arctic Circle a run for its money, that didn't say much.

"Now, let's see if these computers want to start up after all this time," Sven muttered to himself, plopping himself down in front of the control panel. "They've been sitting unused in the cold since I left."

"Well, if it were me, I sure wouldn't want to start up. And besides, they'd still be sitting in the cold, even if you never left." Christiane began rubbing her hands together. As she breathed out, she could see little cloud puffs in front of her. Seven hells, it was cold! "I'm vacationing somewhere really warm after we get out of here. Like, the desert."

The amusement reached his slate-blue eyes. "I'd say I'm going with you, except I don't think Jeff would take too kindly to that."

"No, probably not." She stood behind him, staring at the viewing monitor as it began to crackle an image. "Even if these things aren't shot, there's not much of a chance of seeing anything in these whiteout conditions. Maybe the radio is still working."

"Good call." Sven opened the radio channels to see if he could hear anything or contact anyone. It would be miraculous if he could get enough radio frequency to contact the Voltron Force. Well, he wasn't exactly picky. He would be happy if he could contact any of their allies, even if it did end up being the Stellar Ship Explorer. Sven didn't know if he could deal with being on the same ship as Lenora's husband, but he was willing to try if it meant that he and Christiane would be safe and off Crydor.

"You think we'll get anything?"

"Maybe."

It was several long, agonizing moments before Sven garnered a lock. He was so relieved, he thought he would cry. Not that he ever would, of course - his aura was more ice than water - but the feeling of hope was tangible. Even Christiane let out a suppressed sigh as they found the weak signal.

He held his breath as he awaited a solid connection.

Keith hated the snow. It consistently reminded him of less pleasant things from his past. Most people equated snow with the holidays and school closings, snowmen and snow angels, hot cocoa and sledding. Times of joy and of being with family, the whole "Norman Rockwell" picture.

All of that had been stolen from Keith.

Usually, the first thing that came to mind when he saw snow was the first foster family he had stayed with after he and Christiane had been separated. The family lived in upstate New York, where ten-foot-plus snowdrifts were nothing unusual and the typical college campus had a network of underground foot tunnels so classes didn't need to be canceled. During the first bad snowstorm he encountered there, his foster father threw him outside with only a shovel and a scarf, telling him not to come back inside until the driveway was cleared. Keith might have died of hypothermia out there if it hadn't been for his foster mother, who came out to rescue him. Thinking back on it, that might have been the exact moment when he came to realize that he couldn't trust the people who got close to him. The people who were supposed to know him on an intimate level were the ones he inevitably ended up pushing away - they either left him or hurt him, and usually they did both. Why bother?

The next memory that came to mind was the snow-filled winter during their second year at the Academy. That was the year he and Morgan had suffered their most vicious break-up. They had hurled barbs - and notebooks, and pencils, and one particularly heavy navigation textbook - at each other, always coming back to the same argument: "You don't trust me. You don't let me in. Do you even love me, Keith? If you love me, then let me know, blast it!" They'd sat in the snow for hours until they were freezing and sopping wet, neither of them moving or speaking, until Lenora and Sven recruited Lance and Jeff to help drag them back to the dorm.

The third memory was one from the recent past. One where he and the Voltron Force flew back to this very same planet to chase after Sven. He'd stolen Blue Lion, and they needed to get it back. But it wasn't the chase or Sven's apparent betrayal, it was that moment when Allura dropped out of Black Lion and into the cold, snowy conditions to track down Blue. That was the moment he thought he'd lost her for good; the moment of panic, the moment of breaking, the moment of horror in its purest, most unparalleled form.

The final - and worst - memory was during his fourth year at the Academy. It was another snow-filled day, one where Keith was dragging himself back to the dorm alone, when she showed up in front of him. "Akira-chan, is that you?" she asked, trembling. He saw his reflection in her turquoise eyes - his eyes - and nearly threw up. No. He couldn't handle it; he couldn't handle her. It could not be his sister in front of him, dressed in the same cadet uniform he wore, looking for him. Rejection. He automatically rejected her. How could he possibly let her into his life? Everyone he ever loved, everyone he ever trusted or let in, went away at the end. He'd lost Christiane once when he was twelve years old. He couldn't lose her again. It would kill him. So he wouldn't let her back in - if he didn't let her back in, he couldn't lose her again.

It dawned on him now that the two worst memories of snow were of losing Allura and losing Christiane. Because of his mixed-up feelings for his old girlfriend, he was about to lose Allura for good. How could he even have mentioned those words - "You were my 'one who got away,' Morgan" - in front of Allura? What damage had he done to their relationship, and could he even salvage it now?

Then there was Christiane. He had continually berated himself for being the worst brother in the universe, and perhaps now it was time to make amends for it. Now he had to save his sister; he had no other choice. Now he had to let her back in, he had to make up for lost time. He needed to let her know how much he cared about her, that he loved her and missed her so much that it was exquisitely painful to behold. It was easier to bury that pain, or hide from it, or ignore its existence than to experience it.

He would get to Christiane when they found her. Right now, though, he needed to patch things up with his girlfriend.

Allura spent very little time in contact with Keith. Besides the fact that she was still furious with him, she wasn't sure exactly what she could do to remedy the situation. That was, if she even wanted to remedy the situation. Being the crown princess of Arus, it would be all too easy for her to boot him off the Voltron Force. Then she could claim Black Lion as her own, and choose one of the cadets to pilot Blue.

Snow. There was nothing but snow in her visual field. She had never flown her lion on Crydor before; the last time she was on this planet, the team was in pursuit of Sven after he stole Blue Lion. She had been with Keith. Blast him.

For a miraculously perfect second, there was a lifting of the darkness, and sunlight came pouring in with all its brilliance. The reflective glare was blinding, and as Allura's vision returned, all she could see was the color violet. She blinked rapidly, looking at the hilly - and sometimes mountainous - terrain, and everything was purple. Scowling, it reminded her of Morgan and her violet eyes, and of Lotor with his purple skin. Two people she wasn't exactly pleased with at the moment.

Her intercom beeped, and she noticed that it was the private channel between Blue and Black. Swallowing, she hesitated to answer. She let it beep two more times before she finally opened the communication channel.

"What is it, Keith?" It came out more as a statement than a question, as though he was bothering her. Which he was.

"I'm sorry, Allura."

"What was that?"

"I'm sorry." Over the monitor, he blinked those turquoise eyes at him. She was still unbelievably angry, but she could feel herself softening as he apologized. "I have been absolutely horrible to you. Horrible, thoughtless, disrespectful, and a whole host of other adjectives that I'd need Pidge's help to come up with."

"You have been." She couldn't disagree.

"I never should have said what I said to Morgan, especially not in front of you. Allura, all of our teammates will tell you that she and I had the definition of a roller-coaster relationship. I don't want that back, and neither does she. I guess...I don't know, I am so lost right now. I feel pretty helpless."

She inhaled. Maybe it wouldn't make everything better, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. "Keith, we'll talk more once we get home. But for now, let's focus on finding your sister."

She really, truly meant it.

On the bridge of their ship, Wade joined Cossack and Lotor. The general seemed to be in good spirits, but Lotor was as sullen as always, perhaps even more so. He sat at the head of the bridge in an angry sulk, the Haggarium rage flashing out of his eyes. Wade briefly wondered if the king was the right person to lead this mission, and then decided that, no, he wasn't.

Wade wasn't joking when he told Maahox that he believed the two of them to be the brains of the operation. Lotor, for all of his bragging over his military education, experience and leadership, had been content to allow the Sky Marshal to take the reins on this strategy. And indeed, Wade fully realized that there would be no Lotor at all if he hadn't been revived by Maahox.

Speaking of Maahox, he was hidden away in his lab, busy working on one thing or another for their upcoming battle. Wade didn't know how he knew, but he could feel that there was going to be a full-scale battle on Crydor over Christiane Kogane. He grinned. Perhaps he should contact the Space Marshal again to rub it in. He would thoroughly enjoy taunting that black-lipped witch.

Then again, knowing how Lotor's mind worked, the blasted fool would probably fall in love with her, too.

"General Cossack, how is the search going?" Wade asked the general, approaching his seat on the bridge. He didn't look down at the pilot, he kept his eyes fixed on the monitor and whiteout conditions on Crydor.

"As you can see, Sky Marshal, it's not," Cossack replied grimly, adjusting the scanners. "There's a lot of snow, intense blizzard conditions, and it's a wonder we didn't crash on entry."

"Good enough." He glanced back at Lotor, who scowled. "We'll just keep looking, and hope that Maahox comes up with something spectacular in his lab."

Cossack nodded. For his part, he preferred Wade's cool demeanor to Lotor's impulsive ways. Lotor was always quick to judge, and faster to act without thinking things through. It made for a rough ride, especially when - as usual - things didn't turn out the way the king wanted. Cossack could remember being cursed at and punished a thousand times over for defeats Lotor blamed on him, when he really should have been shouldering the blame himself.

As if reading Cossack's thoughts - or perhaps because he was forming similar thoughts of his own - Wade pressed a button to communicate with the occult scientist's lab. "Maahox," he spoke into the communicator, "how is the robeast situation coming along?"

The Sky Marshal could almost see the grin on Maahox's twisted face. "Sir, I think you will have to see it to believe it, but I have a feeling you will be very pleased."

Jeff was a changed man. Since he'd found out that his girlfriend had been captured by the enemy, he'd proceeded to throw up - in front of Commander Hawkins, no less, which was beyond humiliating - drink absinthe, get drunk on two separate occasions, start a fight with his old roommate and best friend, and practically demolish the control panel in his Command Jet Explorer. Perhaps he hadn't changed for the better, but he was a changed man nonetheless.

One who had been destroyed by the events in his life.

They had to get Christiane back. They had to. Sure, he knew that Keith didn't look like he had a care in seven hells about whether or not they got his sister back, but it meant everything to him. If he didn't get her back, there was no reason for him to keep going in life. He might as well lay down and die.

"Jeff?" Lisa contacted him gently over the intercom. The captain noticed it was over a private channel. "How are you holding up?"

"Haven't killed myself yet," he replied grimly.

"Stop. That's not funny."

"It wasn't meant to be funny, Lis. It's the truth."

Lisa sighed. There's no getting through to him when he's like this, she thought. It made her glad that she was with Aidan now. Aidan was the exact opposite of Jeff - fun and light-hearted, but serious when he had to be.

Jeff knew what Lisa was thinking, but he didn't care. All he cared about was getting Christiane back. He shut off the private channel - incredibly rude, he knew - and began another scan, this one with radio frequency.

No one was more shocked than he was when he got a lock on another frequency.

"Hey, teams!" he broadcasted over a general communication channel, one that went back to the Explorer as well. "I've got a lock on another signal!"

"Rein it in, Aki!" Aidan instructed.

Jeff established a stronger link and began communications. He attempted to share it with the rest of the mecha, but every time he tried to broaden the link, it weakened. So, privately, he sent a message. "This is captain Jeff Aki of the Voltron Force."

His jaw dropped at the accented voice that replied to him. "Hello, Jeffrey. How's the beanbag chair?"

"Viking? Is that really you?"

"If you know anyone else on Crydor with a Norwegian accent who knows that you stole Lance's beanbag chair, I'd like to hear it."

Hope against hope caught in his throat. "Do you find Christiane?"

Sven let out a small laugh. "Your girlfriend's right here with me, Jeff. She's safe. And she wants me to tell you that she loves you. Oh, and that you're vacationing together in the desert after you get off this planet."

Tears blurred his eyes. "Where are you guys?"

"There's a base camp on Crydor. I'll send you the coordinates."

"Fantastic. We'll be there. I'll contact the rest of the teams and let them know." He closed the radio frequency and opened the general communications link. "Guys! GUYS! I just got confirmation from the Viking! He's got Chris!"

"Where are they?" Keith asked. The strain in his voice was obvious.

"He sent me the coordinates of their location. Here, I'll transfer them over." He downloaded the coordinates and sent them over to Green Lion for Pidge, Blue Mecha for Morgan, the Jet Radar Station for Cliff, and the Communications Module for Crik. As an afterthought, he also sent the coordinates to the Explorer, hoping that Commander Hawkins would figure to go there.

"Amazing," Morgan breathed. "Amigo, I don't know about you, but I feel like a weight has been lifted."

"Same here, Morganza. Though I won't totally relax until she's here with me."

"Agreed."

Though he didn't know for sure, Jeff believed that all of the teams felt better about this mission now that Christiane had been found. The dull feeling of dread had just started to lift when he heard Chip's voice over the communicator. "Uh, don't look now, guys, but I think we've got company."

Lotor's command ship.