A/N: Thank you Jinsukeollie, piece of energy, midnight4568, violetroseofdarkness, and all the rest of you who commented! You guys are the best!

Chapter Three

Allura and Lotor had been in the lab all day, working with the quintessence. Lotor had already laid out all the plans, of course, and Allura fit perfectly into the equation just the way Lotor had planned that she would. Her knowledge in Oriande had given her many magical abilities that she hadn't had before, and manipulating quintessence was much easier under her now-well trained hands.

Later in the day Allura was working with a very specific problem. She was trying to purify the quintessence into a more purified form. It took a lot of concentration, but she was able to do it, pulling the contaminating material away from the pure quintessence. Lotor watched her intently as she did so, tracking the data in his tablet. After a while of doing this, Allura's mind began to drift. She thought of their trip into Oriande, and his marks. They were a unique shape, she thought. They suited him quite well. She also thought of his remarks about her magical ability. She had told him, sometime after they met, that she possessed magical ability, and he wasn't surprised. After all, King Alfor was one of the greatest altean alchemists in all of history. It made sense that his daughter was magical as well.

Allura thought about Oriande for a while, and how the ancients had chosen Lotor. Coran hadn't been chosen. She knew that Lotor had some magical abilities in him, some intrinsic sense told her so. Otherwise the gods wouldn't have chosen him for such a mission, she was sure.

"Lotor, you can help with this as well," Allura said, referring to the quintessence purification. Lotor scowled from where he was standing, a few steps away.

"What?" He looked at her oddly, "How?" Allura smiled a little.

"You were chosen to go to Oriande. That means you have magical abilities. That's why Coran couldn't go." Lotor looked down at his screen before setting it down on the console.

"I failed their test," Lotor rebuked, "I did not gain the knowledge of the ancients like you did." Allura sighed.

"That doesn't matter. You still possess an ability to channel altean magic. It's in your veins…" Allura muttered. Lotor turned his head away from her to look down at the floor.

"I can't, Allura. I never had a teacher," Lotor replied, his voice quiet. He seemed disappointed with himself. She knew he was still hurting from his failure in Oriande, and she didn't blame him. Allura reached out and touched his hand in a placating gesture.

"I'm here, Lotor. I can teach you," she offered. Lotor looked back at the princess, wide-eyed and curious. He never thought she would offer.

"You can?"

"Yes. After all, you and I are the only magical alteans left," she explained, locking onto his gaze. For a moment Lotor and Allura simply stared at each other, considering their circumstances. Allura studied his eyes. They were so unique; not galran, and yet not entirely altean either. They were a harmonious blend of bluish purple and yellow. They were really very beautiful. After a while she noticed Lotor raise his eyebrows. She was staring. How embarrassing.

"I'll teach you what I know," she said, moving to sit down on the couch.

"Now?" Lotor asked curiously. Allura nodded, gesturing for him to sit with her.

"If you want," she offered.

"How do we begin?" Lotor asked. Allura exhaled, thinking.

"Well, the first step is simply being able to sense the energy itself… What you asked me to do earlier when we were in Haggar's lair." Lotor's expression turned to one of disbelief.

"You think I can do that?" He sounded a bit incredulous.

"If I teach you how to pick up the signals, yes. I can produce them and you can learn to pick them up." Lotor was silent for a tick.

"So I should simply close my eyes and try to feel the energy? Believe me, Allura, I've tried that before. I can't sense anything," he admitted.

"No, we won't start with that. We can start with something much simpler than that. Really, I don't think anyone can pick up signals like that without proper training. I have to teach you the signals first." Lotor was interested then.

"How?" He asked eagerly.

"We'll start with the physical signals. I'll produce the energy and you can simply concentrate on sensing it," Allura explained. She shifted closer to him on the couch, tucking her knee underneath her so she could turn towards him.

"We'll join hands so you can feel it… you should take off your gloves," Allura said, looking down at his hands. Lotor looked at them too, a bit apprehensively, and then he acquiesced, taking the gloves off and laying them on the couch. Allura realized she had never seen his hands before. They were purple, of course, like the rest of him, but his nails were completely unfamiliar to her. They were claws, sort of, but they were retracted, barely extending out at all, ending at the tips of his fingers. She didn't even know galrans could have retractable claws.

Well, they weren't really claws. The nails themselves were thin, like an altean's. She had never seen that before. It was a strange sort of fusion of galran and altean, just like his eyes were. After a few ticks of looking them over she could tell Lotor was uncomfortable and perhaps a bit embarrassed. Allura looked at his face but his gaze was averted, flicking from one place to another. Allura pursed her lips and reached out, taking both of his purple hands in her mocha-colored ones.

He looked up at that, and then back down at their joined hands, silent. Allura smoothed her fingers over his palms and locked them in between his own. She was incredibly surprised with how soft his skin was. It took her completely off guard, actually. Galran skin was rougher than altean skin and much thicker. It had an entirely different feeling. His skin was remarkably altean, despite the coloring.

"You have Altean skin," she said soothingly, watching his reaction. She was holding his hands face up in hers, her fingers smoothing over the supple skin of his palms. Galrans had tough skin on the top of their palms, but Lotor didn't have any. It almost gave her a homesick kind of feeling to be finding Altean traits in him.

"Yes," he said, very quietly, "that's why I wear gloves." Allura scowled a bit.

"You don't like it?" She asked. Lotor blinked and met her gaze.

"People think I'm weak… They think my Altean heritage makes me weak – incompetent on the battlefield." Allura scowled. He obviously wasn't.

"Alteans aren't weak. We're fighters too." Lotor looked up at her, not debating the subject at all.

"I know. But since Altea was destroyed so long ago there's no one around to remember them. All people know about them now is what they learned from legend or history… And the history books don't do Alteans justice, Allura. The books are quite ethnocentric, of course. And the legends… well, my father started them and I'm sure he twisted the truth in them quite a bit. The only thing that galrans know now about Alteans is that they are weak and their civilization fell at Zarkon's hands some ten thousand years ago." Allura let go of his hands then, and her expression fell. She was repulsed by the truth of his words, and the darkness of it. The fleeting moment of happiness was gone again and she turned away from Lotor.

"I know it's not the truth, Allura. When I see you, I know in my heart that what I was taught was wrong." Allura turned her head and Lotor was sitting closer to her. She considered his words, sighing deeply.

"I'm sorry for distressing you," Lotor muttered. Allura turned back around.

"No, it's alright. You were just telling me the truth. Let's get back to the sensory training," she said. Lotor looked her over for a moment. Her face was still a bit solemn. But then, he thought, it was his fault. He mentally berated himself for saddening her. He never wanted to do that again.

"Of course," he acquiesced. They joined hands again, and Allura laced her fingers through his. She exhaled, pressing her fingers into his skin.

"Now, close your eyes. Focus on the energy. It feels like a pulse. Almost like a… heartbeat." Lotor closed his eyes and did as he was told. He sighed, trying to concentrate. They sat there for a minute or so, breathing together. Finally, he started to feel something. It was a strange sensation, pulsing every tick or so, flowing up from the connection of their hands down through his arms. Lotor smiled a little.

"I can feel it, I think," he said.

"Good. Concentrate on it," Allura said. The feeling started increasing gradually, and as Lotor concentrated on it he could sense it more and more.

"There. You're doing it, Lotor," Allura said, looking at him.

"Open your eyes," she said. He did, and when he looked up Allura's marks were glowing.

"Your marks are back again," Allura said, smiling.

"So are yours," he responded. Allura leaned in a bit closer to him, and for a while they only looked at each other. Lotor focused on the energy in their hands and then he could feel it flowing throughout his entire body, the sensation pulsing through him intensely. Allura focused on it too, exhilarated at the sensation flowing through them.

"I haven't felt this for ten thousand years," she said, breathlessly. Lotor was growing more used to the sensation and as time went on it only got better and better.

"It's blissful," Lotor sighed. Allura chuckled and opened her eyes. They were sitting very close together, then, more closely then what was appropriate. Their gazes met. Suddenly, Allura realized how close they had gotten, not just physically but spiritually as well. She gently let go of his hands and they locked eyes once more. Lotor was positively beaming, it seemed. Allura watched his marks fade away gradually. He touched his face.

"They're gone," she muttered. She had an urge to reach up and touch him, to feel the supple skin where his marks used to be. She restrained herself. He was the emperor now. It would be highly inappropriate.

"Thank you," he said. Allura smiled.

"Of course. I told you you could do it." Lotor chuckled.

"I'm sorry I doubted you," he teased heartily, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. Allura tried not to swoon at his voice. Its depth and eloquence did things to her head. He stood then.

"We should probably get back to the project," Lotor said, a faint smirk still on his face. Allura nodded, standing up as well. The sensations from before were still coursing through her in low, intrinsic pulses.

A/N: Here's another chapter! If anyone wants to beta read this story for me, please let me know. Thanks. Please leave a comment!