Author's Note: I really had to hustle to get this chapter out. I'm going on a working vacation tomorrow morning, and I won't be back 'til Wednesday morning, so I'm not expecting to get much writing done between now and then. Thank you to everyone who's been following along, because you all really lit a fire under my keister. I'm not lying when I say I'm really grateful, and I'm doing my best not to butcher anything or disappoint.
As usual, I own nothing except my characters. Thanks to Wade Wells and bknbu for their ideas and input!
To Emie Mac - I know, I know, I've gotta get Aidan's backstory out there. After I finish "Icicle," you'll see a good chunk of him in "Fallen Empires."
To FroofyB - I got this chapter out as fast as I could so I didn't leave you hanging!
To Smithy - I got the idea for Hunk and Cinda from the Devil's Due comic. There's a scene where both Cinda and Lisa are hitting on Hunk. I took that and ran with it!
To bknbu - I adore your idea for Aidan, Lisa and Shannon. Look for it to start in this chapter. And of all my characters, I think Aidan may be my favorite...
To Sally On - I was shocked that Aidan and Sven didn't end up in a fistfight. Really shocked. Really. (Break out the Ciroc.)
To Wade Wells - I adore Hunk! And we all love Crankypants, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Check out your scene as it begins in this chapter!
Title Song: "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons
Christiane had never been dressed so beautifully. She looked almost regal, wearing a long, flowing ballgown of exquisite lavender silk. Her fingers were adorned with rose-gold rings, and her neck was dripping with matching chains. Half of her long blue-black hair was twisted into braids, while the other half rippled down her back. Her turquoise eyes sparkled as the man in front of her reached out for her hand.
"Eiko-chan," his voice reverberated throughout the thick, fragrant air. She had no idea who he was, but she immediately felt calm and safe around him. "Let us go see your brother."
"He is sleeping." She gazed into the man's dark, hollow eyes. He was enshrouded in a pale-blue cloak, and his brown hair reached down to his shoulders. From the looks of his long beard, he was older, but not terribly so. "I do not wish to disturb him."
"Trust me, we will not." She placed her hand in his - since when did she wear frosted nail polish? - and allowed him to lead her down the hallway. The door at the end was glowing ethereally, and she knew that was where her brother was sleeping. "Come. Through here."
The bearded, brown-haired man turned the doorknob without a sound and opened the door. She saw Keith on the bed, laying on his back, dressed in only his pajama pants. It was Keith from a few years ago, she gathered; he looked younger, and his blue-black hair was rippled in a horrible hairstyle. A mullet? she wondered with amusement. Then, as her eyes shot down to her brother's torso, her amusement turned to horror.
As he laid there, Christiane realized that her brother wasn't asleep - he was in a coma. His chest was gashed open, glowing red and angry. She wanted to rush to his side, but the man with the beard held her close, and her feet would not move.
"Do not go near him. You will see."
She watched, her mouth gaping open, as she saw the young blond girl come to Keith's side. She wept openly, her emerald eyes filling with tears as she touched the glowing wound. The love in the girl's heart was tangible.
Was it a younger version of Princess Allura?
Christiane looked over at the man in wonder, drawing in a deep breath. "Is that who I think it is?" she asked him. "Is that the princess of Arus?"
The man gazed back at her, his dark eyes piercing through her. "You are the seer, Eiko-chan. It is up to you to find out the answers which you seek."
Then he disappeared, taking the image of her brother and the young princess with him. She was left alone in a glowing, empty room to wonder what events had transpired and what it all meant. She knew she would need to speak with the other members of the Voltron Force to figure out what had happened to her brother.
Somehow, as she slept, Christiane Kogane knew that she'd had a vision and not just a dream. It was time to find out answers which she could only get from her brother.
Keith was absolutely miserable. After Allura had closed the door in his face, he had wandered back to his bedroom, feeling gutted and helpless. He felt like the most worthless, useless slug in the universe, and he feared that his girlfriend - the woman he'd spent so much of his adult life yearning for - wanted nothing more to do with him.
Not that it wouldn't have served him right. He had been terrible to her, and he knew it. If Allura had wanted to break up with him for good, or at least take a break from him, he wouldn't have blamed her.
After a restless night, Keith awoke the following morning to conduct his usual business: the perimeter scan. Starting a pot of coffee, he took his mug and filled it with the dark caffeinated liquid. Holding it in his hands, he let the steam and aroma blow comfortingly into his face as he made his way through the castle to the monitor at Castle Control.
He wasn't expecting to steamroll over Sven and Aidan, passed out on the floor of the main hall, on the way there. "Um...good morning?"
"Ugh." Aidan gripped his skull between both his hands. "Where in seven hells are we?" He kicked Sven awake next to him. "I don't think we made it back to any of the guest rooms last night." He coughed. "Hey Viking, are you hungover? Or are you actually sober?"
Sven inhaled, rubbing his face with his hands. "I think I'm okay. Just tired."
"Sooo..." Keith began, "I take it you guys went drinking last night? Enough to barely be able to make it back to the castle?"
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Aidan picked himself up off the floor and dusted himself off, then looked longingly at the mug in Keith's hands. "Ooh, did you start a pot of coffee?"
"Yeah. That's how I usually start my day. Black coffee and perimeter scan in Castle Control."
"Sounds good to me. Come on, Viking. Coffee might do you some good after all the vodka you drank last night."
Keith made a confused face as the two slinked away towards the coffee pot. Sven and Aidan, hanging out together? All seven hells must have frozen over last night. He waited for them to return, each holding a mug of steaming black coffee. "Come on. You're both going on perimeter scan with me."
Aidan rolled his eyes. "Joy."
By the time the three made it to Castle Control, Sven had slugged back all of his coffee, and Aidan was hot on his heels. "Wow. You guys must have had some kind of a wild night last night," Keith noted.
"He drank more than I did," Aidan pointed out.
"I'm Norwegian. I can handle it better than you can."
"I gotta give credit where credit is due."
"Oh, enough, before I change my mind and kick you both out of here." With a sip of his coffee, Keith punched a code in the computer keypad and started up the monitors for perimeter scan. The first shot that came onscreen was his favorite: Larmina on the balcony, practicing her Sun Salutations. Though she was on a side balcony, not the main balcony - that was a new one for her.
"Looks like she's spent some quality time with Len," Aidan commented.
"She has," Keith replied.
Sven looked confused. "Did I miss something?"
"Yeah," the Albegas captain explained. "After you guys left for Arus, Lenora took up yoga to balance out the rest of her training. She still practices just about every morning. I always tripped over that friggin' yoga mat in her apartment while we were dating."
Keith put down his coffee mug. "You dated Len, Aidan?" he inquired, mildly shocked.
"Yup. For ten months."
"And you were out with Sven last night, and he didn't kill you?"
"Hey, he hasn't killed Hawkins yet." An evil grin spread on his face. "There'll be time to remedy that later, though."
Keith sighed. "I don't think I want to know."
"No, you don't," Sven agreed.
The image on the screen switched to the main balcony. This view was considerably quieter. At least, it would have been quieter if Aidan Dalloway hadn't violently choked on the last of his black coffee. "Holy mother of pearl! What in seven hells is going on out there?"
The image of Shannon and Lisa came into focus. They were both sitting upright, propped up against the wall, fast asleep. Lisa's body was slumped against Shannon's, her head resting on his shoulder. The Irishman's head laid on top of hers, his arm draped around her and pulling her into his side.
Slowly, Sven and Keith turned their heads to see how Aidan would respond to the image.
The blond man inhaled sharply. "Hey Kogane, which balcony is that?"
"It looks like the main one."
Anger danced around in Aidan's sapphire eyes. "Thanks. Do me a favor and turn the cameras off, will you? I don't want there to be any evidence when I kill Irish."
Sven snorted.
Keith sighed as Aidan stormed out of Castle Control. "Seven hells, just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse..."
It was a beautiful, sunny morning in New York City, and Lenora felt much better. She'd slept through the night, albeit by herself in that large master bedroom, and had gotten caught up on the amount of sleep she'd lost during the kidnapping ordeal. After making herself a mug of green tea, she slipped into Lululemon yoga pants and a baby-blue tank top, then grabbed her yoga mat. She wanted to practice yoga on the terrace.
Jon's triplex on Fifth Avenue - Our triplex, she reminded herself - was magnificent. Lenora couldn't even begin to fathom what her husband's uncle must have paid for it when he purchased it so many years ago. Their home consisted of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth floors of the historic building. Their master bedroom on the fourteenth floor, accompanied by a private sitting room and master bathroom, opened onto a huge terrace with an incredible view of Central Park.
Spring was just about there. She threw a long-sleeved grey pullover on over her tank top and headed outside. The temperature was cool, but it was nothing a few Sun Salutations and Warrior poses wouldn't fix. The sounds of the street - the typical sounds of New York - fell on her ears, and she smiled. No, it wasn't Paris, but it was home. And having spent four years in hiding and away from home, she appreciated the city more than she ever thought she could.
She missed Jon. His forty-second birthday was only a week or so away, and her birthday would follow a few weeks later. She would be thirty-two. As she set up the yoga mat on the terrace and positioned herself in Padmasana, or Lotus Position, she realized it would be eighteen years since her father was murdered, and six years since her mother's death from colon cancer. Thinking about the loss of her parents always - inevitably - led to thoughts about Sven. She hated the fact that she still thought about him, especially since she was happily married.
Sven had been a huge part of her. Had it not been for him, she would have never come out of her depression over her father's murder, and she most certainly never would have been able to endure her mother's passing. He had shown her what real romantic love was all about, and she was grateful that she had spent five years of her life with him. He had helped shape her into who she was, but he wasn't everything that she was.
She wouldn't - and couldn't - change who she was. She was a woman who, admittedly, was still in love with her old boyfriend. Yes, she loved her husband just as much, and most likely more, but she knew she was always going to be in love with the quiet Norwegian. She thought about that as she began her Sun Salutations, thinking that she could never be anything other than the woman she was.
The three Albegas mecha sat in front of the Castle of Lions, and Taye Benton sat in front of them, staring down Red - his and Christiane's mecha - with a bad feeling in his gut. Of course, there were many reasons to be out there in solitude. Some reasons were bigger than others.
The smaller reason was, of course, that it was his mecha, and he knew it intuitively. He'd spent almost a year piloting this vehicle. Despite the fact that most of his piloting had been in practice, he'd spent enough time in the cockpit to know when something was off about his mecha. And there was something wrong. He needed to find it.
The larger reason had to do with the Explorer and Vehicle Voltron. Sure, it had been great to see some of his old Academy classmates, Crik and Marvin in particular, but there was one Voltron Force member he could have done without seeing. That person, of course, was Modoch. He was the guy who cheated on Kelly and broke her heart.
Taye felt that he should be somewhat grateful to Modoch. Had the guy not cheated on Kelly when Wade grounded the Explorer, Taye wouldn't have his girlfriend now. He was crazy about Kelly, but he knew she was a little hesitant about their relationship. Modoch had scarred her, and she was afraid of investing the same amount of time, energy and love with Taye, just in case the outcome turned out to be the same.
It wouldn't. Taye was a good guy, and he had become even more of a man since meeting and falling for the First Officer. Of course, things had only improved further since getting awarded with a slot on the Albegas team. Things were going perfectly for him, if only Modoch would get out of the way.
"Eh, screw it." He climbed into the red mecha to start it up. There was something wrong with it, he just knew it. He didn't know why he knew it, he'd just felt it on Crydor. There was a problem with Red.
As he climbed in, the computer system wouldn't start.
Blast it. He knew there was something wrong. It was time to begin the process to start repairing the old robot.