Emperor Zeppo waited with infinite patience as he stared at the blank viewscreen in front of him. The man he was waiting for better have an excellent explaination as to why his Drule scouts had been unable to find the Voltron Force and Lotor. Finally, the screen flickered and the human's face appeared. The man looked even older than his actual years.

"Emperor, Zeppo." The man addressed him uncertainly.

Zeppo narrowed his yellow eyes. "Why have my scouts been unable to locate the Voltron Force and Lotor?" The Drule Emperor was in no mood to put up with pleasantries.

"Because your men are incompetent. Contact has been made to Galaxy Garrison by the Voltron Force. They are now in Alliance space, and will reach Earth in a matter of hours. They have reported that a ship did attempt to detain them but they were able to escape under some sort of subderfuge." There was a pause. "I gave you the only information that I had which was that they were on an unmarked freighter. There was no radio communications while they were en route, so there was no way of knowing their exact location. It was up to your men to find and dispose of them."

The Emperor was quiet for a moment. "Trust me, I will find the idiots that let them slip through their fingers, and I will deal with them personally. In the meantime, we must find a way to get to Lotor."

"I've already got a plan in motion that will not only free Lotor, but will neutralize the Voltron Force."

"You do." Zeppo was impressed.

The man laughed. "You didn't think that I would leave this missioin soley in the hands of your goons, did you? I have too much riding on this to let some Drule lackies screw it up."

Now Zeppo was getting annoyed by the human's arrogance. "You do have a lot to lose if this goes bad. I would suggest that you stick to getting rid of the Voltron Force and watch your tongue when you are speaking to me."

"I'm not intimidated by you, Zeppo." The man scoffed. "We came to this unholy alliance because if Lotor is tried and imprisoned, it will be bad for both of us."

"You are right. But keep in mind that if you try to double cross me, I will crush you!" Zeppo threatened.

"And I would advise you to do the same, Emperor."

##################

"Man, it feels good to be back on land." Lance raised his hands over his head and stretched until he felt a satisfying pop in his back.

"Here, here." Hunk agreed. "That felt like the longest trip ever." He picked up his duffle bag and hoisted it over his shoulder.

For security reasons, they had landed at a military outpost just outside of Freetown which was the Epicenter of the Alliance's presence on Earth. They were to be transported into the city to the Alliance headquarters where they were to give their statements to the Alliance Justice Commision.

After quite a bit of arguing with the control tower, Deirdre was finally cleared to land her ship, The Siren, and dock it in one of the facilities. Armed military guards waited on the landing pad. Keith and Allura were the first to deboard, followed by Pidge and Hunk. Lance was the last to make an appearance as they made their way to the landing pad.

Lance shielded his eyes from the sun when he heard a flurry of commotion coming from a nearby dock. There was no question what the ruckus was. They all turned to see a tall, curvy red head, whose hair matched the wildness in her eyes storming to them. She narrowed her green eyes at them. "You know, Keith, you really could have warned me that we would be landing on a military base." She crossed her arms. "I would have made other arrangements for docking my ship."

To his credit, Keith kept a calm demeanor even as the woman berated him. "There was no time for that, Deirdre. The most important thing was to get our cargo here as quickly as possible."

She didn't seemed convinced, but she allowed her scowl to melt into smile anyway. She wrapped her arms around Keith in a friendly hug. "It's good to see you, Keith."

The initimate contact was not missed by Allura, who clearly mistook it for something else. Lance covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. Instead of allowing an already awkward situation to get worse, he cleared his throat loudly. "Deirdre."

The red head let go of Keith and turned to Lance. "Lance McClain." She planted her hands on her hips. "You have gotten uglier since I saw you last."

"And you've put on weight." He shot back.

"Lance!" Allura cried.

Her cry was for naught as the two broke into a fit of laughter. It thouroughly confused Allura. Hunk put a massive elbow on her shoulder. "Don't worry about those two, Allura. They rewrote the book on love-hate relationships."

"A love-hate relationship?" Now she was truly perplexed. "I don't understand."

"They love to hate each other. It's been that way since they were in the Acadmeny. Hey Dee!"

"You know I hate when you call me that, Hunk!" They too shared a warm hug. When they parted, Deirdre turned to Allura.

"Princess Allura." Deirdre nodded courteously to the princess who returned a friendly smile.

"Hello, Deirdre, you're looking well."

The red head laughed. "Well, Lance was right about one thing. I have let myself go a tad since I left Galaxy Garrison."

It was true, since Deirdre had resigned her commission at Galaxy Garrison, she had filled out a bit. But Allura noted that it only added to her already curvy stature. But other than the long braids that fell down her back, Deirdre didn't look much differnt from the woman who had been assigned to guard the princess not four years earlier, just before Keith and his team had arrived on Arus to revive the legend of Voltron.

Before more pleasantries could be exchanged, Deirdre narrowed her eyes as she glanced past Allura toward the control building. "Is that Colonel Wade?"

They group followed her gaze. Colonel Wade, followed by more armed guards, was walking toward them.

Keith stepped to the front of the group and saluted his commanding officer. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge followed suit. Wade returned the gesture.

"Commander, I am pleased to see that you were able to make the voyage unscathed."

"Barely," Lance seethed under his breath. Keith wrinkled his nose at his second in command, but rather than chastise him, he motioned to Deirdre. Lance took the hint and took her by the arm, leading her away from the group.

Wade ignored him and turned his attention to Allura. "Princess Allura, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

Allura couldn't have made herself smile if she had wanted to do so. Keith might say that he trusted Wade, but she knew that he had his reservations, and so did she. "Yes, Colonel. I only wish it was under better circumstances. We were almost boarded by Drules just outside of Alliance space. They knew we were coming, and they knew that we were in a non-military transport."

Wade rubbed his chin. "Yes, I heard. I want a full debriefing once we return to the base."

"If it's all the same to you, Colonel," Keith paused and took a breath. His next statement was not going to bode well with Wade. "I would like to debrief with General Hawkins."

To Keith's surprise, Wade only laughed. "The General is a very busy man, Commander. He does not have time for such nonesense."

"With all due respect, Colonel," The men turned now to Allura who stepped up to stand beside the commander.

Keith nearly smiled when she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. It was a stance that he knew only too well. Allura was in full command mode now.

"Lotor is still in my custody." She stated matter-of-factly. "And I am a member of the Alliance Security Counsil. I believe that there is someone in either Galaxy Garrison or the Alliance who is informing to the Drules, and that puts our mission in danger. Now, if you would like to avoid an interplanetary incident which would include my taking Lotor back to Arus, I suggest that you contact General Hawkins immediately and tell him that we would like to meet with him."

Wade assessed the Princess with a level gaze, and Keith could tell that he was trying to decide if she was bluffing or not. He quickly decided that she was not.

"Very well, Your Majesty." Wade conceded sourly. "I will contact General Hawkins myself. In the meantime, I have a transport ready to take you to Regis Military Base. Your cousin has already arrived. We have accommadations ready for you. You will begin your giving your statements tomorrow morning. Of course, you will be required to have escorts as long as you are on base."

#########################

"Wade, Lance? Really?" Deirdre raised an irritated eyebrow at Lance and crossed her arms.

Lance sighed loudly while silently cursing Keith for making him deal with the hot-tempered woman. Wade had been the reason that Deirdre had resigned her commission in the first place. Although he had not seen her since, Lance could tell that she still harbored resentment toward the man. "Settle down, Dee."

"Settle down?" She growled through her teeth. "You stowed away on an unmarked frieghter with Drule cruisers after you, and now Wade and armed guards? And nobody seems to want to tell me what the hell is going on. What are you guys transporting anyway?"

"I don't have time to go into details right now, Deirdre. But we could really use your help. We need you to trust us." He stepped back and studied her for a moment. "Because right now, you are one of the few people on Earth that we can trust."

Her pensive expression told him that she was mulling it over in her mind. Finally she sighed. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

He smiled at her and realized that Keith had indeed made the right choice in calling her. "Probably."

"What do you need me to do?"

#########################

"Escorts?" Hunk piped up. "What the hell do we need escorts for? Sir."

"For security reasons. Since you have been off-planet, none of your security clearances are up to date." Wade growled.

Keith glanced behind Allura to see Lance and Deirdre returning to the group. Lance nodded to Allura. She returned the gesture. Before they had landed, they had already formulated a plan. "Colonel," She said, "I appreciate your hospitality, but I would feel more secure if my team and I stayed off of the base." She glanced at Keith who gave her the go ahead. "I have accomadations in place in the city."

Wade furrowed his brows. This was apparently not how he had invisioned this meeting playing out, but Keith knew that Allura had the man. She held all the cards at the moment, and the Colonel had no other recourse but to comply. Keith had known Wade since the Colonel had taught him in the flight academy, and Keith knew good and well that the man hated his authority being questioned.

"Very well, Your Majesty." He finally said. "But Galaxy Garrison cannot garantee your safety if you choose to remain off-base."

This time, Allura did smile. "Don't worry, Colonel, I have four of your finest looking out for my interests."

Wade nodded, but made no attempt to return her smile. "Of course."

"Hunk, Pidge, would you please get our prisoner?"

Only moments later, the pilots appeared on the ramp with Lotor between them. He was shackled at his wrists and his ankles. As they moved down the ramp, Lotor sneered at each of them until he reached Allura. He gave her a wide smile, showing his pointed teeth, before blowing her a kiss.

"Who is that?" Deirdre asked.

"Prince Lotor." Allura informed her.

"He's kinda cute."

Everyone standing in the vincinity of her low comment turned to look at her. She only shrugged.

Pidge spoke up. "Yeah, if you're into narcissistic psychopaths."

"It's the teeth," Lance stated matter-of-factly. "She's always been into vampires."

Allura shook her head and decided to ignore the conversation. "We will accompany you and your men to the base where I will officially pass custody of Prince Lotor to you, Colonel."

Wade seethed, and Keith knew that he was getting more agitated as each command from the Princess was presented to him. He wanted to call the shots, but he could not affort to let this opportunity go. "Yes, your Highness. We have a transport ready, but I was not planning on another passenger." He nodded at Deirdre with contempt that mirrored her own.

"No need to worry about me." Deirdre said. "I've got some stuff to do in the city. I'll be taking the Siren to another dock." She shot a look at Keith. "A civilian dock. If your men will give me permission to raise ship." She scowled at Wade.

"I think that we can have that arranged. Well, it seems we have everything covered then." Wade said. "Men, take the prisoner to the transport and secure him. We will be returning to base, immediately." With that he turned on his heel and walked away.

As the guards led Lotor away, Keith motioned for the others to stay back.

Deirdre took a deep breath. "I'm going to get everthing ready. Are there any specific requests, fearless leader?"

"Lance told you what we need?" Keith asked.

She nodded. "I still have some contacts in the city. I can secure us some rooms. They probably won't be the nicest accommadations, but they will be safe."

The commander nodded. "Best if we keep our identities a secret. Pidge, can you rig up something to jam any scans that might be attempted?"

Pidge smiled confidently. "Of course, I can."

"Good, you go with Deirdre. Make sure everything is secure when we're done with Lotor. Send us the coordinates. We'll meet with General Hawkins and rendez-vous with you."

"You got it."

They watched Pidge and Deirdre walk away toward the Siren. Keith let out a deep breath before turning to the others. "Let's go."

Lance and Hunk took the lead while Allura held Keith back a few steps. "Keith, what about Romelle and Sven? Do you think they'll be safe?"

He shrugged. "I'll feel Sven out when we get on base. He'll be able to tell me if they've gotten any threats. Just to be safe, Lance told Deirdre to make sure we have extra rooms for them."

Allura smiled up at him. "You think of everything."

Keith cleared his throat and willed the burning sensation in his cheeks to go away. The truly uncomfortable feeling that arose in his gut when she looked at him like that always made him question his priorities where she was concerned. And he hated second guessing himself.