Author's Note: I think we ALL remember, far too well, the duel between Keith & Lotor which resulted in Keith's chest getting slashed open. (Laser shock? I don't freaking think so.) I spent some time replaying the DotU episode "Summit Meeting" as well as the GoLion episode "The Seven Free Planets" to get Christiane's vision right. I know that my stories are all based in the realm of the Nicktoons' cartoon series, but I've been a Voltron fan since 1984 and my roots are in DotU. So any time I have an homage to pay to DotU/GoLion, I want to make sure I've done my job properly.
As per usual, I own nothing except my characters.
To bknbu - Albegas hasn't been sabotaged, it's just old. Poor Albegas. I'm glad you liked the "Erin go bragh" part - that was too Aidan to pass up. As for Keith & Chris, Lance & Ginger, and Romy & Erimar, they ALL make special appearances in this chapter.
To Emie Mac - Poor Jon. All he wanted was another meal at Per Se. You're right, I don't think he has a clue as to what sort of monster he's unleashed.
Title Song: "Get Yourself Back Home" by Gym Class Heroes ft. Neon Hitch (the "very clean" version A$$ Back Home)
Once Sven left Castle Control in search of a shower, a toothbrush and a change of clothes - Keith hated to admit it, but the Viking did stink, and what was up with the blue in the corners of his mouth? - the captain of the Voltron Force finished the perimeter scan and shut the monitors off. He then felt the familiar numbness come rushing back into his system. He had been able to briefly suspend the feeling with his usual daily activities and Sven's presence. Now that he was done with the scan and Sven was gone, everything came back to him.
He felt horrible.
Allura closing that door in his face last night...well, he was certain that if there was a bottom to how low he could ever feel, that was it. He had blown it with her. She was bound to break up with him. How could she stay with him after how horribly he'd treated her over the past few days? Word was bound to get back to Prince Erimar, and he'd be on Arus in no time to claim his childhood friend as his bride.
Way to go, Kogane.
The feeling was awful. He wanted to crawl into his bed, bury himself underneath the sheets, and sleep until the world ended. Of course, he had his duty and far too much pride and honor to do so, but that didn't mean he didn't feel like it.
He pushed himself up from the chair in front of the computer screens. He had to find something to do. He needed to keep himself preoccupied so he didn't obsess about Allura. If he didn't, he would inevitably make the already-fragile situation worse.
"Ah, Captain Kogane. There you are. I've been meaning to speak with you, but you tend to be a difficult man to catch alone."
Keith's breath caught in his throat as a chill shot up his spine. He didn't even need to turn around to know who was there. He recognized the British accent immediately. As he turned around slowly, the mop of brown hair, grey eyes, and blue Albegas uniform only reinforced who he already knew to be standing there.
David Rackens.
Slowly exhaling, Keith attempted to read David's expression. There was no malice or anger in it, but there was a sense of amusement. "David. Good morning. What would you like to speak with me for?" As he ran out of common courtesies, he added idiotically, "There's coffee if you'd like some."
Great. How much worse can this day possibly get?
"Thank you. I'd appreciate it."
Keith showed him where the coffee was, and David filled a mug with the steaming liquid, then added a small amount of milk. As he sipped it, he looked over the Voltron captain with a discerning eye. Finally, he stated, "I'm trying to figure you out, Keith Kogane. I know how much my wife loved you - seven hells, I see that 'K' tattoo on her lower back every day - and I think I get it. I understand the infatuation."
"Um..." Keith was at a loss for words.
David laughed. "Relax, Keith. I'm not angry, I'm just trying to sort things out for myself." He took another sip of coffee. "You and I are two very, very different people, you know."
"Probably not as different as you might think." He shook his head. "We're both honorable men. We both work hard, we both take our duties seriously. We both love Morgan." His eyes dropped to the floor as he waited for David to cut him off or cut his heart out. He did neither, so Keith continued. "The only real difference between us is that I didn't do right by Morgan. I never have. I have issues, David, lots of them. I'm still trying to work through them. And I'll probably lose Allura because of them."
David placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and Keith suddenly understood why Morgan had married him. David was a good man. Had it been any other man in the Alliance, Keith was sure he would have been on the receiving end of a blow to the face, and yet David was calm and friendly. "We all have issues. You think I don't?" He grinned wryly. "Come with me."
He followed David to the main hall and out the door, into the gardens and sunshine. Keith was now completely sure that all seven hells were indeed frozen over. Between Sven and Aidan getting drunk together the night before, and him walking the gardens with David this morning, he was sure that everyone was ice-skating in those seven hells at this moment.
"Keith, I don't know if you remember my girlfriend Anastasia from the Academy."
Keith wracked his brain. "The redhead? I remember seeing her with you at the shooting matches."
"Yes, that's her. I dated her for seven years. Long story short, she dumped me two years after graduation."
"That stinks."
"It was all my fault." David took another sip. His face was serene as he recounted the incident. "Not to brag, but I am an extraordinary gunner, Kogane. The best the Garrison has ever seen. I lived on my laurels for quite some time, and she got tired of it. She said I'd rather spend my money on shooting equipment than on an engagement ring for her. Sad thing is, she was right."
"I hate it when all a woman wants is an engagement ring."
"Well, I suppose that after seven years, she deserved it." David sighed. "After Anastasia left, I realized that I took her for granted. I was used to having her around, and I liked having her around. Looking back on it, though, I didn't love her. I was settling. Our relationship was just easy."
Keith snorted. "Trust me when I say that my relationship with Morgan was never easy."
"No, I suppose not." David shrugged before he continued. "Anyway, I couldn't think of anything better to do with my life, and if it meant I could still use a gun, then I wanted to teach the Academy kids to shoot. Of course, that meant I had to get a teaching degree, so I enrolled in the graduate courses at the Academy. And there was Morgan, taking the same courses to learn how to teach navigation."
"She's always been a great navigator."
"We knew each other through Lenora - I taught Len how to shoot. So we decided to become study buddies, I guess you could say. At the time, we were both reeling from our recent break-ups. Me from Anastasia, her from you. One night, after we were done studying, we decided to just hang out and have a couple of beers, and that's how we found out that we were both single and hurting. We made a pact that whenever we wanted to call our exes, we'd call each other instead. So we did that for an entire year. That's how I got to know her - and, subsequently, you."
"Uh-oh." Keith braced himself for a smack-down of some sort. Verbal or physical, it didn't matter. Either way, it was going to hurt. "Do your worst, Rackens. I can handle it."
David laughed. "Why should I get angry? I'm thanking you, Keith - you're the reason we're together. Do you know how many times that girl called me? Madness, I tell you." He shook his head, smiling, and for a brief moment, Keith was ragingly jealous of him. "After she'd been calling me for a year, we decided to go to the annual Halloween dance together. Just as friends. No big deal. Just a friendly date. And then she showed up in this silver dress...I don't even remember what the dress looked like on her. I only knew that I didn't want to be just her study buddy anymore. We started seeing each other exclusively, I proposed to her at graduation, and we were married the following year."
Keith stared up into the sky. He wasn't quite sure how he wanted to respond to that, though he supposed he was happy that Morgan was happy. He hadn't been lying when he told David that he hadn't done right by Morgan, and he certainly wasn't lying when he said he loved her. He did. He knew deep down that he would always love Morgan on some level, no matter what.
Finally, he stated, "David, you're a good man. And if Morgan's happy, then I'm happy. I just want her to be happy."
"You're a good man too, Kogane. Now that we've cleared the Morgan issue up, do me a favor and patch things up with your sister. I am very fond of Christiane, but she doesn't need me. She needs you."
Keith knew there would be no further discussion on this topic. David was right; he had to patch things up with his sister. He supposed he would start as soon as he could. There was a lot of lost time to make up for.
Lance rolled over in bed to snuggle with Ginger, but she was sitting upright at the edge of the bed instead of lying down next to him. She was dressed in uniform, and she smelled freshly showered. "Blast it," he whined, half-asleep, "did you take a shower without me?"
"I did," she retorted. "I couldn't get the stench of gin out of my skin." She sighed. "We're too old to still be drinking like this, Lance."
"We're thirty-two. We're not that old."
She winked at him. "Yes, but we're certainly not as young as we were when we caused the Lemon Drop incident, are we?"
He yawned. "Who cares?"
Instead of volleying back a playful retort, Ginger looked sad for a moment. "I went to go get coffee while you were still sleeping," she informed him. "Apparently, the castle gossip has it that Jeff proposed to Christiane yesterday, and they're getting married when we get back home. They made the announcement last night at dinner." She looked down at the floor. "I told you that I dated Jeff for a little while after you left for Arus, right?"
Lance nodded. "Yeah, something like that." He assessed her somber face. "Hey, you're not upset that he's getting married, are you? I thought you were way over him - and I thought you never wanted to get married. You and I, we were never believers in the institution of marriage." He thought back to Anadora's garnet-and-diamond ring. It seemed like forever ago that he and Daniel had been on Planet Brann, where the queen had gifted him with that ring. He thought back to her words - But whoever you give it to, make sure she is worthy of it - and thought that, yes, Ginger was worthy of it. He hadn't planned on proposing, especially since neither one of them was too keen on the idea of marriage, but he would do it for her.
She sighed. "No. I still don't believe in marriage. There's no such thing as a piece of paper that's gonna make somebody stay." She nodded emphatically. "Besides, I think Mae West put it best when she said 'Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.'"
Lance cracked up. "I love you, Gin."
"Love you back, Lance." She shrugged. "I guess I'm just sad that Jeff's getting married because it means we're all growing up. Len's married, Morgan's married, Sven's married, Jeff's engaged, and we're counting down 'til Lisa and Aidan are engaged, too. We're not kids anymore."
"No. That, we are not."
He grabbed her and pulled her back down on the bed to finally get that snuggle he'd been looking for. He couldn't believe how mushy he'd become since Ginger came back into his life. Oddly enough, he felt a little disappointed that she didn't want to get married. For some reason, he found himself wanting to slide that garnet ring onto her finger.
After leaving the breakfast table, Christiane headed directly towards Allura's quarters with Pidge's words ringing in her ears. She was glad that she'd thought to grab the Green Lion pilot for a private conversation over coffee and croissants. Her vision had been nagging her, and she thought that if she could get unbiased facts from one of her brother's teammates, it would help her solve the puzzle.
And when she said teammates, she chose to exclude Allura due to her appearance in the vision.
Pidge was the logical choice. They were both systems analysts and they had been working together on Albegas all morning. So when Pidge crammed half of a chocolate croissant in his mouth ("Hey, I'm Baltan, and we like our sweets," he explained unself-consciously), she told him that she was a seer and that she'd had a vision.
"That's cool," he'd replied. "Tell me about your vision."
She proceeded to tell him about the man with the brown hair and long beard. About her mullet-headed brother laying in bed in a coma, a glowing red gash upon his chest. About the weeping emerald-eyed young woman she suspected to be Allura holding vigil by his bed.
Pidge's face fell. "Christiane, that really happened," he'd informed her quietly, looking pained at the memory. "Keith was trying to rescue Allura from Lotor, and he got his chest hacked open for his efforts. We almost lost him." Then he'd looked up from his croissant. "And how come it was only Allura in your vision? The whole lot of us was holding a bedside vigil."
So now Christiane was headed towards Allura's royal quarters, intent on finding answers. She knew from her seer abilities that there was a special reason that Allura had been singled out in the bedside vigil in her vision. It could only mean one thing...Don't go jumping to conclusions, Eiko-chan. Speak with the princess first.
Her heart pounding, she politely knocked on the door. A moment later, when there was no answer, she knocked again.
"Coming!" she heard a voice cry out, and then Allura opened the door. Her long blond hair was brushed to perfection, hanging down straight and sleek to its full length down her back. She was in her blue-and-black Voltron uniform, with her blue tiara perched upon her regal head. Her emerald eyes flickered with curiosity as she took in the sight of her boyfriend's sister. "Oh, good morning, Christiane. I trust you slept well."
Without thinking, Christiane grabbed the princess's bare hand. The knowledge swept through her, and she smiled. Just as I thought. Allura is The One. She is The One for Keith. "Yes, I slept very well, thank you. I'm sorry to bother you, but I wanted to see if Keith was in your chambers."
Allura scowled slightly. "No. He slept in his own quarters last night. I'm sure he's out and about, doing perimeter scan and the like."
Christiane nodded, then squeezed the princess's shoulder. "Allura, I know I have problems with him right now, too, but try not to be so hard on Keith. He can't handle feeling as though both of us are against him, especially in your case. You don't need to work out your problems this second, but when I go back home, you'll have plenty of time to do that."
She looked confused.
"Trust me, Princess. Work through your problems. Keith's worth it." She inclined her head. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find Dalloway and let him know that we're hitching a ride home on the Explorer."
Allura stared after Christiane as she disappeared down the hallway. Then, as she ducked back into her room, she grinned to herself. She had no idea what had just transpired, but she suddenly felt better about mending the situation with Keith.
As she sat in Erik's nursery, holding her new nephew and rocking back and forth with him, Emma wanted to vomit. Sven was right, there was definitely something comforting about rocking a young child back to sleep. And right now, she needed comfort. For someone who had just gotten married and was supposed to be in a glowy, happy honeymoon phase, it just didn't seem right.
Before the wedding, she had promised Sven that she would take care of Erik if anything happened to either him or Romelle. She hadn't expected anything bad to happen, of course, and this scenario wasn't anything particularly...devastating. But it was certainly unexpected. No one would have expected Sven to rush off to rescue a friend's sister. And certainly no one would have expected Romelle to begin an affair with one of her brother's wedding guests.
Yes, Emma knew that her new sister-in-law was having an affair with the prince from Tyvel. She didn't mean to go snooping, but when Romelle hadn't shown up to feed Erik, Emma went looking for her. She knew that the Polluxian princess had been spending time with Erimar, so she went to the prince's guest room to fetch her. As she stood in front of the closed door, she heard sounds that she knew she shouldn't be hearing - it sounded like a couple in the throes of passion, complete with moans and sighs and creaking bed springs.
She recognized the voices behind the closed door undoubtedly as Romelle's and Erimar's.
Now she sat in the rocking chair in the nursery, trembling, trying to alleviate her jitters by holding Erik and rocking him. The boy looked up at her with his slate-blue eyes - Sven's eyes - in interest, trying to figure out exactly who she was and what she was doing there in place of his mother.
She heard a knock at the door, and Bandor let himself in. Her new husband grinned at her sheepishly, his long dark-red curls grazing his shoulders. "Wow, Em. I love looking at the way you hold a baby."
"Bandor, you are terrible." She stood up, Erik still in her arms. "So what is it? I know you must have come in here for a reason other than to bother me." She shot him a playful smile as she kissed his lips.
"What, I'm not allowed to miss my wife?" he teased. "No, you're right. Sven's on the communicator, and he's asking for Romelle, and I can't find her." He paused. "I was wondering if you could help me out."
Emma bit her tongue. She was going to stay out of her sister-in-law's personal affairs, even if it meant betraying poor Sven. "No, I haven't got a clue where Romelle is. I haven't seen her all day." Technically, she wasn't lying - she hadn't exactly seen Romelle. "But I'll go to the control room and speak with Sven, if you'd like. I'll even bring Erik. I bet Sven would love to see Erik."
"You're pretty good at this, Em."
She shrugged as best she could with the boy in her arms. "I do my best."
In the control room, she couldn't help but notice the way Sven's face lit up with joy at the sight of his son. "There's my boy!" he cried out, and Erik turned his face to the monitor to smile. The event made Emma feel ridiculously happy, but at the same time, incredibly sad and guilty, knowing what events were taking place in Erimar's guest room. "Where is Romelle?"
Emma and Bandor turned to each other and shrugged. "We don't know, Sven," Bandor replied. "We haven't seen her all day."
"Hmm." Sven narrowed his eyes slightly, and Emma swore she saw a brief flash of - something - behind his eyes. "Well then, could you please pass a message along to my wife for me?"
Emma didn't like the way he said my wife, but she couldn't blame the guy for being irritated. "Of course."
"Please inform her that Keith's sister has been rescued. Because I was the one to pull her out of the wreckage on Crydor, Commander Hawkins of the S.S. Explorer has asked me to return to the Galaxy Garrison with the Voltron Vehicle Team and Albegas for a proper reward." He paused, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. "Since it doesn't look like I've been missed on Pollux, I am going to accept his offer and will be going to Earth within the next day or two. I will keep you updated."
Bandor nodded. "Yes, of course. I'll pass the message along to my sister." Emma didn't like the way he said my sister, either, as though there was some sort of threat lurking underneath. She kissed the top of Erik's head to ignore the discomfort in the room.
"Thank you, Bandor. Sven out."
"Good-bye, Sven." Emma took Erik's arm and waved it at the monitor. "Say 'Bye-bye, Daddy!'"
Sven smiled again, a broad, true smile aimed at Erik, as he shut the transmission off.
Once he backed away from the monitor in Castle Control, Sven eagerly went to go find Aidan and inform him of his split-second decision to return to Earth. He hadn't been aware until that very moment - the moment he noticed that his wife couldn't be bothered to show up for his transmission - that he was going to take Hawkins up on his reward offer. And it would be an incredible reward; one that Hawkins himself would never see coming.
He was going back to New York. Back to his elskede and back to his home.