Chapter 5

Trouble is brewing for the Castle of Lions- let's continue and see what Selena's motives are and how Allura deals with someone else gunning her for her man :)

Enjoy!

The day was certainly one full of oddities and tension, and yet, it still had enjoyable parts to it that made it hard to write it off as bad.

Allura mused as she walked the halls after excusing herself from dinner and the post dinner game night the boys has suggested. Lance was in full swing with the new female additions to the group. The only thing that was hampering his full on womanizing ways was the glaring eye of his sister, which could not be over looked.

She smiled as she noticed that Pidge had taken a liking to Lance's sister and her mechanical leanings. The princess had to say she was impressed with the girl. She definitely was a McClain with her temperament and smart tongue, and yet Allura could also see the leanings of a cool and collected listener- much like Keith. Alex was an amazing woman, and smart to boot, maybe a bit too smart.

The younger girl had instantly zoomed in on feelings that Allura had not wanted to deal with for some time… Maybe when there was more stability of her planet… or after Keith had made any sort of inkling on how deeply he felt for her.

Allura left the group in good spirits and before anyone could mention anything about her checking in on Keith. If Nanny knew that was where she was going after a little stop at the medical wing, there would be hell to pay.

The poor doctor knew as well as anyone, that the only way to get Keith to do things was to either pull rank with him, or have Allura tell him. Lance had made a comment and a given a sly wink about that what that must mean a while ago, which caused her to blush every time someone mentioned it, even to this day.

Shaking her head, she cleared her thoughts of the others and tried to focus on things that would not bring a blush to her cheeks. It would be nice for once to be alone with Keith and not flush so brightly.

'Things that don't make me blush…' She mused as she looked at the items in her hands. A roll of gauze bandages- looked innocent enough until she remembered him allowing her to help wrap his broad chest. She had never seen a man with so many muscles before.

'Not working, um…' pain killers were the next item she had in the small bowl Dr. Gorma had given to her. She still could not fathom how he would go without or refuse to take these simple pills for any injury at all. There were times she would watch him and see him wince ever so slightly, and yet still suffer rather than 'risk it.' Risk what, she didn't really know.

'Maybe I am just not meant to understand him.' Was a conclusion that she often came to when thinking about Keith. And with that Allura took calming breaths the rest of the way to Keith's quarters.

Allura stood outside the sensor range of Keith's quarters not knowing if she should knock or simply let herself in… if he had locked the door, she could always enter in the emergency key code or have control open it with a quick call.

Deciding that it was proper to knock first, she did so, calling out his name so he would know it was not someone who had come to bug him about earlier. Although she would like to get a chance to ask him a few questions if she could…

When no answer came, she took a step closer and the doors swished open much to her surprise.

"Keith? Are you in here?" She called and looked into the dark room. Looking around, she felt guilty for entering without permission, but soon the feeling left. Worry came instead seeing that Keith was not in his bedroom, although the bed did look like someone had been in there.

Looking closer, she found a towel discarded on the floor not far from the bed causing her head to turn towards the bathroom. A blush rose on her cheeks thinking that she might have caught him while he was in the shower. That thought too was dropped when she saw the door ajar, light still on but no sounds coming from the room. Curiosity won out and Allura moved closer finding another towel placed on the dresser near the bathroom door.

"Keith?" She called out and looked in the bathroom just to be sure he hadn't fallen or passed out in there… nothing. Leaving the bathroom, she looked at his room.

Something was bothering her. She couldn't place it, but she walked back towards the bed one last time before looking for Keith elsewhere. The bed sheets were rumpled and several blankets were on the floor, it looked as if Keith had rolled out of bed or slipped.

A shirt was on the floor as well, Keith normally had the room so pristine that Nanny would make it a point to give him extra dessert as a 'thank you' from time to time. This was just odd. Moving towards the bed, Allura decided to straighten up the sheets at least.

Once that was done, the fair skinned princess decided to renew her search for the mysterious captain. Walking down the hall after checking the rec room, infirmary, and the gym she was beginning to get a little frustrated. Deciding to go to the control room, she figured using the tracker in their com-links would end the cat and mouse game.

Entering the room, Allura found no one at the command. Blinking several times, she wondered what was going on. There had never been a time since the boys had arrived that the hub of the castle was left vacant. Keith had made a schedule that fairly distributed the work load between the Voltron Force, minus herself due to Nanny's fuss with her taking up her studies once again, and several guards that had been thoroughly screened. Even Coran came on from time to time to guard the castle.

Pulling up the log books, Allura became even more puzzled as she noticed Keith's signal gaining access to the command center and Lieutenant Carmen scheduled for duty. It was very unlikely that the solider, who was good friends with Keith would just not show up for duty. Pulling up the castle's com locator screen, the colored dots of each force member and solider illuminated.

"The docking bay?" Allura tapped on the red dot that marked Keith's communicator. "What is going on?" She wondered as she brought her communicator to her lips.

"Keith? Do you read?" She voiced but only got a strange beep sound instead of a response. After trying to contact Keith again, and even attempting to reach Lance, the strange beep continued to block a message from getting out. "Control to docking bay three, do you read?"

Never before had she experienced a castle wide communication block like this before, she knew now, something was very wrong.

Deciding to scout out what was wrong and see if Keith really was indeed in the docking bay, Allura set out in a fast sprint never noticing the soldier bound and unconscious on the floor in front of the communication console.

Disengaging the communicators had been easier than she had anticipated. Expecting Pidge, the computer genius, to have a few unconventional safeguards and finding none, Selena was able to drag her companion virtually unhindered to the cargo bay.

"I figured you would have created a tighter net on security here," she mused as she tied the last guard up. It was easy to get them all by surprise; she was a guest after all. No one would suspect nor did they suspect that a decorated officer would be kidnapping a fellow officer.

Looking down at the large make shift bag made of a folded bed sheet, she knew she had to act fast. Keith would not be unconscious forever, even with the extra potent version of the drug she used. He always had this way of getting out of trouble, or saving himself at the last minute.

"Keith? Do you read?" Came Allura's voice from communicator Selena had taken from Keith's room. It was the only one she had modified so she could be aware of the actions going on within the castle. It startled her at first, but only made her pace quicken as Keith seemed to stir hearing the Princess' voice.

"Shit." Selena voice was louder than she would have liked. "Here's hoping that she doesn't go looking for the rest of the force…"

Pulling the sheet holding Keith's unconscious body inside, Selena slowly made it up the ramp of her ship. Thankfully the Garrison had been kind enough to give her command of one of their newer stealth ships. She knew that in order to get out of Arus space and to her destination she would need not only stealth, but luck.

"Keith, this could have been so much easier. If I would have been assured of your cooperation, I wouldn't have had to drag you all the way here." After getting her hostage up and into the ship, Selena heard the doors open to the docking bay. Noticing she still had yet to load a vital bag onto the ship, she would have to exit the ship and get it.

Taking out her blaster, still set to stun, she walked down the cat walk cautiously.

"I know you're in here Princess." Selena smiled. Since on one had started shooting at her or yelling, she surmised that Princess Allura had come alone to check on Keith's com signal.

"I also know you are alone and maybe only a small blaster. Did Keith tell you to always have a small one hidden in your skirts?"

'She knew it was me already. Maybe I should have told Lance to get over here before coming myself.' On the other side of the room, Allura cursed at herself.

Lifting up her massive skirts, she found the hidden pocket where Keith had indeed told her to keep a hidden weapon.

'Selena underestimates me. I need to use that to my advantage.' Allura took a deep breath. 'Keith would find away to signal for help when outnumbered... the emergency alarm!' Her eyes looked around the room trying to remember where the boys had installed the docking bay trigger.

"I don't have time for this hide and seek Allura. Keith and I are needed elsewhere and we have a schedule to keep."

No response.

Selena had to give the woman credit. She had picked up on stealth moves in the few years the boys had been on Arus.

"I think you are looking for the emergency button. No need, it's been deactivated temporarily. Nothing that Pidge can't fix I assure you." Selena picked up her bag and thought she could hear a light curse at her mention of the panic button.

"I don't want to harm anyone here on Arus. I simply need to leave and finish a mission."

Selena's words were not any comfort to Allura.

'She doesn't want to hurt Arus? What does she think she is doing by taking Keith off planet? We'd be one Lion down not to mention I'd be worried sick about him.'

Moving closer to the shuttle and trying to remain as quiet as possible, Allura knew she had only one shot at overtaking Selena. Especially now since the panic button was out of the question.

Crouching in a position that she could easily spring up from, Allura trained her ears to try and find where

Selena was currently located.

"Nice try" Came a voice from behind her. Allura let out a curse. "You have great potential, I am quite pleasantly surprised. Sadly I have ten times the experience and training at stealth ops."

"Well, go ahead then. Shoot me." Allura said defiantly.

"Like I said, I honestly don't mean to harm anyone. I need to use Keith, complete a mission and then I'll be out of your life forever."

"Where's Keith? What did you do to him?" Allura stood and turned to look at Selena, dressed all in black. She looked like she was ready to wage a war.

"You have two options. You can keep your mouth shut and let me leave or I can tie you up and leave the guards to find you in here."

"I want to come with you." Allura countered. "I need to know Keith is safe and returned home safely."

"Not an option. Where we're going is not very princess friendly."

"Then you better shoot me, because while you may have disabled the emergency button, firing a shot at the right place on the door is the fail-safe we built into the system. The bay doors will seal shut and the castle will be put on lock down. The rest of the Voltron Force will be here with half the guards to stop your ship from even warming up."

"Impressive Princess. I can see why he likes it here. You're as quick a study as you are beautiful. I guess we do have ourselves a stalemate of sorts."

"This is your last chance."

"Don't say I didn't warn you. All you are going to accomplish with your stubbornness is getting us all killed." Selena said putting her blaster back in its holster and motioning for the ship. "All aboard."

Looking back at the docking bag doors, Allura steeled her resolve. This move could very well be a bad one. However, she knew Selena would not be aborting her mission. The Princess picked up her skirts and marched up the ramp and into the cargo bay of the small ship.

Seeing Keith's limp body on the floor in a sheet, she ran to him. Checking for a pulse, she found it strong and his breathing normal.

"Buckle up Highness, we're going be heading out rather quickly if you don't mind."

The doors of the shuttle closed sealing her fate with the group's still secret mission. As Selena approached them, Allura gathered Keith into her arms tightly.

"He'll be awake in about 20 or so minutes. I'll brief you both at that time."

And then the red haired woman slipped behind a door leading out of the cargo bay and into the pilot's seat.

"Keith, wake up soon." Allura whispered as she kissed his forehead. "I'm going to need your help to get out of this."