"Keith — Haggar just summoned up another batch of insects." Pidge reported, opening up a group channel on his communications' monitor. "I'm going in now. I want to try to distract her before she manages to order up some more."
"Hold on! Let's go in together," Keith ordered, frantically checking the readouts on his screen. "Hunk and Sven are on their way. They'll be with you any second now. Lance and I will join you as soon our last batch of villagers unload."
The young space explorer listened to the captain's lecture quietly while eyeing a wire dangling from his console. Yanking the wire out of its jack, he watched with satisfaction as his screen erupted in random lines of color. Electronic noise reverberated through the lion cabin.
"What did you say, Keith?" Pidge asked, miming confusion. "I can't hear you. My comm system's on the fritz. The insects are generating some sort of static, I think. I'm going in now. Send backup as soon as you can. Green Lion out."
The insistent drone of aircraft engines shook Haggar out of her reverie.
Looking up, she recognized the flash of emerald as one of those accursed lion ships. Her wrinkled face filled with rage. She lifted her staff, loosed a sizzling bolt of pure energy in the direction of the Green Lion and directed her horde of insects to swarm it.
She smiled balefully, knowing from her experiences with the Voltron Force that the youngest space explorer piloted the Green, the lion of the wind. Did he have enough experience to know NOT to summon the wind currents that were his to command?
Probably not, she decided. Her smile widened in anticipation as she imagined the chaos and confusion that that would follow after her insects covered Arus, one village after another, engulfing it in a blanket of living twilight.
Her eyes sparkling with amusement, the witch laughed out loud at the delicious irony of the situation. Not only was she using the body of the Princess of Arus, she was also going to use one of the lion ships to destroy it as well.
The Green Lion dodged her energy blast with ease, but its attack trajectory faltered as it was set upon by millions of insects. The wind caught Haggar's triumphant laughter in its blustery grasp and threw it against the mountains, where it echoed, growing stronger and stronger with each repetition.
So intent was Haggar on her imminent victory, so fascinated was she by her twisted creations that she paid no attention to the rumbling that came from behind her. Her distraction nearly cost her life as a well-placed missile blast exploded on the ground near her feet.
Her golden eyes dark with anger — at herself for her abstraction and for whoever had the temerity to dare attack her — the witch glared at her attacker from behind the magical shield she had thrown up to protect herself. It was another lion — the red one this time.
She glared at it balefully, the words of a spell rising to her lips. A putrid green ball of witchlight formed in her hand, glowing malevolently. Cupping her hand around it gingerly, Haggar prepared to hurl it at the red lion, muttering another incantation to imbue in it all the destructive energies at her command. "Qw'sua, Mish'uya, Aashiya, Ooopiaaaaaaah!"
Her spell fizzled into nothingness as she lost her footing and slipped ignonimously down the suddenly frozen ground. The purr of the engines of the Blue Lion, its mechanical jaws parted in what almost looked like a grin, greeted the witch when she looked up.
More lions — the Black and the Yellow approached from different vectors. The Green Lion, ignoring the insects that swarmed around it, followed closely on the Black's tail. Joined by the other two lions, they arranged themselves around her.
Haggar's lips twisted in a feral snarl of rage. Surrounded on five sides, the witch cursed her lack of foresight, for having forgotten to prepare a ro-beast to distract the space explorers while she made her escape.
"HAGGAR!" A voice thundered out of the Black Lion. Amplified by the communication systems of his ship, the captain's voice was almost deafening in its intensity. "We have you surrounded. Tell me where the Princess Allura is and surrender immediately."
"Your wife is closer than you think, young man." Haggar said in a voice that was almost tender. Relishing the moment, she fingered the edges of the concealing hood of her cloak and slowly pulled it off.
The golden hair of the Princess of Arus flew freely in the breeze.
Keith couldn't get enough air. A wave of dizziness and an awful sense of unreality washed over him, blurring his vision around the edges. Where did the nightmare end and the reality begin? He gripped his control yoke with white-knuckled intensity, not wanting to believe what he saw in his monitors.
He felt the same sense of deja vu he had experienced when he met Romelle for the first time. Familiar but not, Allura's beautiful face looked back at him with wearing an expression that could only be described as malicious pleasure.
"I think you will find it in your best interest to let me go," Haggar continued speaking, in her pseudo-gentle voice, a small smile blossoming on her face. "After all, whatever you do to me, you do to your precious princess... You wouldn't want to do anything to hurt her, would you?"
"No, I wouldn't." Keith agreed at last, reestablishing a fragile control over himself. He miraculously managed to keep his face expressionless even though his eyes were dark with suppressed anguish.
"I thought as much." Haggar nodded approvingly. Taking advantage of the confusion her revelation had cased, she decided to make her escape. She waved her wooden staff in the air and a small portal appeared in response to her spell. "And now, it is time to bid you farewell. We will meet again, Space Explorers. You can count on it!"