Author's Note: Sorry about the late update. No, I didn't die. I had an AMAZING weekend in Vegas with my best friends, followed by a Nor'easter two days later, which left me stranded at work. Thanks to everybody who sent me a message, wondering what the heck happened to me. It's nice to know I was loved and missed!
To Smithy - I agree, I hope the states who got hit the hardest by Sandy will get the help they need. I'm just glad we made it through OK!
To Emie Mac - I LOVE how you always pick up on the minutiae. Yes, Chris has been having some visions of Lotor, but they won't be revealed until Book #3. Hang onto your hat! (And the end of this chapter is for you. I can't wait to hear what you think of it.)
To Sally On - There are only good things in store for Jeff & Chris! So what if they can't have kids? Just because Chris has a vision doesn't mean it necessarily comes true, sometimes it comes as a warning. (BTW, where is that Pollux story? I'm dying over here!)
To bknbu - The hashing for Sven and Romelle will come. I can't promise it's gonna be pretty.
To Wade Wells - I love Jon too. And to make a pun on this chapter title, I know you've always been on his side, too.
Title Song: "Always On Your Side" by Sheryl Crow ft. Sting
It was difficult for Keith to turn his mind off when they left Arus. There were five available Voltron pilots - Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Vince, and Daniel - which was all he really needed to worry about. He knew that he had to take his mind off the fact that pilots and lions were being shuffled around a bit, but he couldn't help his concern. He'd never have risen to his current rank if he could just turn Voltron off like a switch.
Lance in Black Lion didn't concern him. And, in all actuality, neither did Daniel in Red. Vince in Blue wasn't even that frightening, either. It was merely the fact that Keith wasn't there to oversee what was happening. He wanted to see how the different lions would react to the cadets, and how Black would feel about Lance being in the pilot's seat instead of him. Some might call it anal-retentive, or call him a control freak. But, as Keith reasoned, it was better if he knew everything that was going on.
He couldn't do that now.
"Oh my God, Earth is beautiful when you really stop to look at it," Allura murmured to her niece as they stared at the planet from the monitor. She was glad that Larmina had come along with them; she loved the idea of her niece welcoming Keith and his sister into their family. She also loved the idea that she would marry Keith one day, but she put that thought on the back burner. Now was not the time to think about that.
"It is," Larmina agreed, tapping her fingernails impatiently against the glass. "I mean, I always thought Arus was Number One in everything, but Earth's not that bad. There's a lot going on there that maybe even Arus doesn't have."
"True enough," Keith added, wrapping a strong arm around each of them. "But Earth doesn't have either of you. So I suppose I can't go back there for good."
Allura and Larmina wordlessly smiled at each other.
The rest of the descent to Earth was full of quiet excitement. Larmina was practically brimming over with enthusiasm as their space shuttle cleared the atmosphere. The North American continent was exceptionally vivid to her, its greens and browns seeming more alive simply because she was so glad to be there. Because she was so happy to be seeing old friends and meeting up with recent acquaintances.
"So...this is New York," she murmured, staring out the window as the ship approached the ground.
"Specifically, it's Garrison Island," Keith explained, placing a hand on the cadet's shoulder. "It's a small island off New York Harbor. The Space Academy is on the mainland, but the Galaxy Garrison - and therefore the Alliance headquarters - are here on the island. There's a long walkway between the two."
Larmina nodded. "Good to know."
When the shuttle finally landed, the gangplank lowered, and Keith stepped out first, holding a suitcase in his hand. Allura and Larmina followed, leaving their luggage on the ship. There were too many trunks and steamers to carry at once.
Two figures stood before them. Larmina drew in a deep breath and screeched, "LEN!"
The Space Marshal looked shocked that the cadet was there; she had only expected Allura and Keith. "Oh, my Mina!" she cried out, opening her arms to the younger princess. As the girl rushed into her arms, she continued, "I wasn't expecting you, but I'm sure glad you're here."
"Me too."
Allura cleared her throat. "Len, it's good to see you," she interrupted, breaking up their embrace for a hug of her own. "It's been such a long time. Is Morgan around too, or will she be joining us later?"
The Space Marshal raised an amused eyebrow at Keith, but said nothing. "She's teaching Advanced Navigation right now. But we're all going over to her house later tonight." She looked back at the cadet. "I don't think you'll want to stay in the private suite with your aunt and her man, Mina. I'm thinking it's best if you come stay with me."
"Ooh, I'd love that!" Larmina looked near delirium.
Keith turned his gaze away from the scene and towards Lenora's second-in-command. "Kelly Asimov," he stated simply as he took in the sight of his old friend. "It's good to see you in person, finally. I think you're the last one."
"Indeed." Kelly wrapped her arms around Keith's neck and hugged him. "It's so good to see you again, Kogane. It's been a long time."
"I know. It has been."
"Are you ready to see your room?" She turned her head and shot a wicked grin at Allura, her hazelnut eyes sparkling with excitement. It was good to see Keith so happy and properly moved on from his past. He was the polar opposite of Sven.
Ironically, they would be staying in the same room as the Norwegian had.
Lenora and Kelly escorted Keith and Allura to their hotel, and Kelly unlocked the door to their suite. Lenora drew in a breath as she looked at the room - it brought about too many memories of Sven and too many emotions she'd rather not dredge up. Larmina looked up at her as if she could sense what she was feeling, and Lenora gripped her hand. She and the cadet always did understand each other.
"This room is beautiful," Allura breathed.
It was a pretty room, in its shades of black, cream and slate blue; with its petal-decorated hot tub across from the king-sized bed. Kelly blinked at it, remembering how broken Sven had looked when she collected him from this same room not so long ago. It was better not to mention that right now.
Keith nodded his approval. "I like it."
Lenora exhaled, trying to push the Norwegian and their night at the Tea Room to the back of her mind. "I'll have some staff bring your luggage to the room in the next ten minutes. While they're doing that, I'll help Mina get settled in at my place." She winked. "She can help me get the terrace ready for the wedding tomorrow." Looking back over at Keith and Allura, she continued, "You'll both come over later, right? We can go over to Morgan's and David's house together."
"Of course." Allura set her emerald gaze at the Space Marshal. "I would love to see your home. And it will be good to see Morgan and David again."
"Good." She inclined her head, as did the First Officer. "I'll leave you two alone and allow you to get settled in. Your luggage will be coming along shortly." She winked at Keith. "Whenever you're ready to meet up, give me a call. I left my phone number on the nightstand."
"Great. Thanks," Keith offered. "We'll call you as soon as we're ready."
He escorted the trio out the door and locked it behind them, then turned his head back towards his girlfriend. "Wow," he told her quietly, making sure that his friends couldn't hear him out in the hallway, "I thought they would never leave."
"Oh?" Allura raised an eyebrow in interest. "We still have ten minutes before the luggage arrives."
"I know." Keith took his face in her hands. "There's a lot we can do in ten minutes."
"Now you're talking." She kissed him back, ready to make full use of that bed - and, later on, the hot tub, too. If the Space Marshal had set it up for them, well, she wasn't about to disappoint her and waste the opportunity.
Lotor was still screaming as Wade closed the door to the strategy room behind him, shaking his head in disappointment. The Sky Marshal found the king - title used loosely - a joke. He was nowhere near as cruel or as powerful as he used to be, the way he was before his initial defeat at the hands of Voltron.
He used to be so much better at being a villain, he thought with disdain. Now he's more of a parody of what he used to be.
Disgusted, he headed for Maahox's lab. He understood the spindly occult scientist better than the king of Doom. Quite frankly, he liked him better, too. Maahox had the same devious mind and the same drive to defeat Voltron. Lotor seemed to be in it more for capturing a woman. Christiane, Allura, it didn't quite matter as long as his carnal needs were satisfied.
He didn't even look up from his experiment as Wade entered the lab. "Sky Marshal," he said simply, "I trust you have spoken to King Lotor?"
Wade scowled. "I don't know why I even bothered. Lotor is a useless wretch. If we have any chance at all of destroying Voltron, we need him to be tougher and more focused than he is right now."
An evil grin lit up Maahox's face. "And who, pray tell," he smirked, "says we need him at all?"
With those words, Wade understood. He and Maahox were on the same side. Lotor was almost an afterthought. In the end, it would boil down to Maahox against Lotor, and Wade was certain that he would side with the scientist. Maahox was the one pulling all the strings. Maahox was the one with the plans and the brains. Lotor was no more than a puppet on a string, and he was too delusional to realize it.
When Voltron finally fell, it would be at his hands, with much help from Maahox. He was sure that Lotor wouldn't be in the picture at all.
Returning the smile, Wade said simply, "So, tell me more about this Predator Robeast and your Haggarium pods."
It was like a sleepover. Jon could hear the laughter from the living room all the way up in the master bedroom. They must be having a really good time if I can hear them two floors up.
He decided to crash the party.
He hadn't gotten ready for bed yet, though he was certainly relishing the idea. It had been a long day of finalizing wedding details, followed by a family dinner at Morgan's and David's house. Morgan had made enough pasta, meatballs and salad to feed an army, while Lenora brought a loaf of crusty Italian bread and her signature Guinness cake. He was exhausted, and they all had a long day in front of them.
Long in a good sense, of course.
When he made it down the the living room, he couldn't help but laugh to himself. "If this is what you women do to make yourselves look good, I am so happy I'm a man."
Lenora, Larmina, and Christiane sat around the living room, each with hot rollers in their hair. The of-age women sipped from a bottle of sauvignon blanc, while the young cadet drank club soda with a dash of lavender bitters. "It's as close to a cocktail as I can give you," Lenora had told her. Christiane grew pleasantly tipsy as she watched her friend do Larmina's trial run with make-up.
Without looking up from what she was doing, his wife shot back, "Well, I'm pretty happy you're a man, too, mon coeur." Then, shooting a look back over at the bride-to-be, she sniffed, "See, this is the stuff you have to put up with when you're a married woman. I hope you know what you're in for. Remember, you can still say no tomorrow."
Christiane laughed so hard she nearly snorted.
Amused, Jon shook his head. "Don't you ladies think you need to be getting to bed soon? I mean, we do have a wedding to throw tomorrow." His gaze moved to the curlers in her hair. "And please tell me you're not sleeping in those, mon ange. I'll feel like I've got a grandmother in bed next to me."
Irritated but equally amused, she ripped a curler out of her hair and threw it at him. He caught it, smiling, before blowing her a kiss. "I'll see you upstairs. Good night, ladies. I'll see you tomorrow. Sleep well."
"Killjoy," Lenora muttered under her breath, knocking back the rest of the wine in her glass. She sat back to admire her handiwork. "Well, Mina, what do you think?"
Larmina looked at her reflection in the hand mirror. She ignored her dark strawberry-blond hair, set in rollers, and focused on her make-up instead. Lenora had worked her magic, dusting her face with a pearlescent powder and shimmery bronze blush, curling her lashes upward and sweeping them with black mascara. She was still young, only seventeen, and it would have been vulgar to paint her with too much make-up. "I think...I think I like it."
"Good. We'll do it again tomorrow, and figure out what to do with your hair. I can't wait to see your dress." She kissed the top of her head. "You go to bed now. See you tomorrow."
"Sounds good."
"And Chris...I'll see you tomorrow, too."
Christiane placed her empty wineglass down on a coffee table and embraced her friend. "Len, I can't thank you and Jon enough for everything you've done for us. It's too much. And it's better than anything I ever could have wanted."
Larmina joined in on their embrace, just because she got it, too. Sometimes, there was not enough love in the universe to go around. People fought and died. Families were forged and broken. Friendships sometimes transcended to a higher level. No matter what, love in any form was something to cling to, and having lost her own parents at too young of an age, the cadet felt like she was with peers.
With family. Finally.
"Now, tell me that wasn't a head trip and a half," Jeff groaned as he flopped onto his bed for the last time. It made him sad that this would be the last night he'd ever spend in the Rackens' household as someone who lived there; the last night he would call this place his home.
Morgan seemed to feel the same way.
"Yeah, tell me about it, Amigo. Rehearsal dinner with Keith and Allura here? Wow. Whoever thought my ex would be spending time in my house and making conversation with my husband like they were old friends? And that it might actually feel normal?"
"Exactly my thoughts, Morganza."
He hadn't expected her to spend the night, and it wasn't the first time they'd ever shared a bed. There were countless times back at the Academy, then the night before he left on the Explorer for the first time, that they'd spent the night sleeping side-by-side. But somehow he knew that this would be the last time they ever would.
David was not the jealous type of husband. He understood that Jeff - and even Keith - had been there before he ever had. He looked at Keith as the ex-boyfriend that Morgan had done stupid things with, and at Jeff as the platonic male friend who would have had his way with her a million times already if it had been meant to happen. He wasn't worried at all about his wife spending the night with her best friend.
Jeff realized that he and Morgan truly were best friends. Keith, Lenora, everyone else...they were family, and Wifey in Len's case, but not as tight as they were. He was truly grateful that his last night before becoming Christiane's husband would be spent with his best friend.
"You know what I got for us?" she asked.
"Ciroc?"
"Hey, not a bad idea." She paused. "I brought the Ciroc for the night I spent with Chris. But for you, I got something a little fancier." She pulled out a wrapped box from underneath the bed; she must have stashed in there earlier. "Go ahead. Open it."
"If this is some kinky stuff to use in the bedroom, I'm gonna beat you with it. But then again, you might like that." He ripped the paper off and gawked at the box underneath. She'd bought him a bottle of Cristal champagne.
"Shut up and open your gift. Before I take it back and drink it myself."
"Oh, Morganza..."
"Shut up, Amigo. And don't you dare cry, or else I'll start crying, and then I'll find something to whip you with." Her nose and forehead crinkled. "The two of us are gonna kill this bottle tonight, so we can say we had one last night together." She reached underneath the bed for some stemless champagne flutes - blast it, the woman really had thought of everything.
Jeff popped open the pricey bottle and began to pour. "To us," he toasted. "To Morganza and her Amigo. The two best friends that anybody ever could have asked for, and the friendship that everybody else wishes they had."
"Here's to that," she replied, clinking her glass against his.
He vaguely remembered killing the bottle before passing out, his best friend pressed against his body.