A hushed silence filled Castle Control. The huge monitors showed scenes of destruction and death that struck a chord of remembrance. The Lions helpless. Arus in flames.
The nightmarish images were culled from the collective memory of everyone in the room. Commoners, aristocrats and a princess, each could remember only too well the terror of Zarkon's invasion years ago.
Despite the danger to themselves, the members of the Voltron Force fought bravely, setting themselves up as targets to draw the battle away from populated areas.
Because of the affinity for magic that the princess had inherited from her ancestors, she could sense the influence of the dark forces that made monsters out of what were once men — a blight on their souls, turning what was normally shimmering and radiant into something murky and dismal.
But despite the witch's best efforts, she had never succeeded in completely corrupting her ro-beasts. Each one of them had a stubborn spark of humanity that refused to be extinguished.
This spark of humanity reasserted itself in critical moments during battles. When what-was-once-human grasped the magnitude of the atrocities Haggar and Zarkon forced it to commit; the ro-beast simply refused to serve them, choosing to sentence itself to death at the hands of Voltron's Blazing Sword, rather than live with the knowledge of what it had done in Zarkon's name.
Allura's face was carefully expressionless as she watched the five battles rage on the screens of the monitors, but her tear-darkened eyes were filled with mounting horror. There was something different about the ro-beasts that her husband and friends fought. Haggar's corruption of their souls was complete. Nothing would stop the ro-beasts from killing her friends if Haggar willed it.
Her lips moved silently, mouthing half-forgotten childhood prayers, begging the gods who watched over her people to protect the men who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in their defense.
Sven. Hunk. Pidge. Lance. Keith.
One by one, the screens flickered to static as the lions were shot down, yanked from the safety of the open sky by the ro-beasts that they fought despite the valiant efforts of their pilots.
Her face pale and stricken, Allura tore her anguished gaze away from the monitors, unable to bear the almost physical pain of watching the chaotic patterns of defeat for another second.
In her despair, she didn't notice the murky shadows in the corner of the room swirl, coalesce and materialize into the sinister form of a cloaked figure.
An obscene burst of delighted laughter replaced the silence that hung over the control room like a shroud.
Allura sprang to her feet and whirled around to face the intruder. The tingle of power rose unbidden within her, sadness and fury feeding it and making it stronger than any she had ever felt before.
Two soldiers started forward, placing themselves between the Princess and the all-too-familiar figure of Zarkon's witch. Another two, on either side of Haggar, drew their weapons, fixing Haggar in their sights.
"You are not welcome here, Haggar," Allura announced, her voice ringing with regal authority, even as her pulse shuddered with fear. "I order you to leave."
"You are in no position to order me to do anything, Princess," Haggar cackled, stroking her ever-present blue cat. "Do you think to scare me with your petty threats?" Without warning, the witch lifted a gnarled hand. A gust of wind lifted the soldiers off their feet and throwing them towards the armored walls of Castle Control with incredible speed.
But before Haggar could hurl the men against the wall, a second spell — an invisible cushion — slid between them, softening the blow of the impact. The unconscious bodies of the soldiers slipped to the floor.
"Perhaps I can defend myself, Haggar," Allura taunted the witch, the tips of her graceful fingers glowing blue with power. "After all, have you ever known a Daughter of Cador to be helpless?"
The witch's golden eyes flashed with what might have been a glimmer of respect. "Perhaps I discounted your magic, Princess," she said grudgingly, "but you will yield to me."
"I think not," Allura burst out defiantly.
"Even when the price of your refusal to surrender is the lives of your husband and friends?" The witch asked, waving her staff in the air. "Why, with one thought, I can order my ro-beasts to kill them."
As if on cue, a single monitor flickered to life. Allura's hand reached out instinctively as she recognized Keith's form, slumped over his controls in the Black Lion.
The darkened cockpit was lit by the jolts of energy that arced through everything — including Keith's barely conscious form. Clenching his jaw, he fought to keep from crying out with pain, even as his breath came in short, ragged grasps.
"Stop it," Allura whispered, reaching out a slender hand towards the monitor once again as her tear-filled eyes sought out the witch. "You're killing him."
Delighted with Allura's reaction, Haggar laughed again, with genuine amusement this time. "But of course, Princess. Didn't I tell you I was going to do that?"
Allura flinched as a groan of pain filled the comm channel. "Give me your word, witch," she said, unable to tear her eyes away from the monitors. "Your ro-beasts will release him — and the rest of the Voltron Force — if I yield to you."
"I give you my word."
"Your word means nothing." Allura laughed scornfully. "I want you to swear it, invoking the names of whatever gods you worship."
The gleam of triumph glowed in Haggar's eyes even as she began to speak. "I give you my promise on this, Daughter of Cador. May Xosw'aa, Qui-aza and Yoaz strike me down if I break my vow to you."
Waving her staff in the air once again, Haggar conjured up a dimensional portal and stepped into it. Her voice echoed in the silence of the room. "I have given you my word, Princess. Now, I bid you to enter my world."
Allura's shoulders slumped as the fiery defiance that had carried her through the previous scene began to fade. She turned to her prime minister and governess, standing frozen by the master control station.
Raising a hand, she silenced them when they would have spoken. "I know what you're going to say, but you cannot stop me. I know that what I am doing is foolhardy and dangerous, but I have to do this."
"Haggar is the key to all this. I can feel it," Allura's eyes shifted from her governess to her prime minister, silently pleading with them to understand. "If I go with her, perhaps I can convince her to join us and turn her back on Zarkon."
Lifting her head proudly, the princess shot a final sorrowful smile of farewell to her prime minister and her governess and she stepped into the murky, opalescent depths of Haggar's portal to disappear without a trace.