Chapter 24

At the same time...

"He's burning up, doctor Gorma! Why aren't the ice packs working?" the concerned nurse complained as she changed the melted gel packs heaped onto of the voltron captain, who was shirtless and barefoot in the bathtub. It felt like an eternity since the voltron force returned, and in every corner there seemed to be one crisis or another. They had moved the treatment to the private quarters since everyone was swamped. And the exhausted doctor was kneeling beside the captain's makeshift tub, measuring the captain's racing pulse.

"If we don't lower his temperature, it'll destroy his brain. We can't let him have a seizure at any cost. I don't care if you freeze those packs in space, just keep them coming!" Responded an annoyed doctor Gorma. The lions were beyond him, and the sicknesses affecting them was beyond him. There was only one hope. And she was sitting by the wall quietly. Uncharacteristic of the princess of Arus. To everyone else, she seemed to be thinking or was trying to be out of the way, but he knew better: she felt helpless. The tenseness around her, her fists clutched tightly on her lap. Her stillness. Desperately, she had called out for her lion, bewildered to the point where the nurses had run to find him. Her highness' lion had disappeared from their presence hours ago, too weak to maintain its physical form. Weeping bitterly, the princess had searched for the other members of the force, finding them worried sick about their ailing beasts. Why hers alone had disappeared, she couldn't fathom. Breathing deeply, doctor Gorma turned as the officer rushed breathlessly in.

"Reporting! Haggar released her spell on the drule royals ! Zeppo won't regenerate anymore."

A wave of excitement and hope filled the air as some of their dashed hope returned. They were close, they could all feel it. The key to Haggar's power lay in her constant manipulation of drule royal blood. Separated, the gruesome bond could not be reformed. They were virtually mortal now. In their history, the human race had only been this close once. Just once.

"Excellent! We're really close. Concentrate people. Their orders?" enquired the exhausted doctor. As much as he wanted to share in their excitement, he knew how perilous the situation still was. He was a few steps away from a self imposed leave, dammit!.

"Princess Allura." The room became quiet as every eye turned to the solitary, quiet young woman in the corner. They needed the young monarch, their expectations glistening in their eyes. Grieved, Allura looked at the people in the room, failing to understand how all of this could fall on her. Her head pounded, her eyes were cloudy from crying. Was it for the loss of her lion, her husband, or herself? All she wanted was to rip her heart out and show them how pained it was. Instead, she said nothing.

'Just as I thought.' Sighed Doctor Gorma as he felt the excitement in the room turn to anxiousness. One nurse squeezed the life out of a gel pack, shaking as she watched their broken monarch.

"Everyone heard the king's orders, right. You all did a great job. Go rest up. Let's leave it to her highness."

Doctor Gorma tried to think of the best way to start the conversation as everyone marched out of the room until it was only the three of them left. Thuds, running and shouts could be heard through the walls as the citizens raced through. Suddenly, the room was immersed in darkness as the emergency lighting gave out. Screams soon accompanied by wailing added to the myriad of sounds that broke the princess' heart. Helpless, she continued to look intently at the commander, measuring his weak breaths as he clung onto life.

"What if I fail to break the connection? He'll die, doctor." She had never felt more useless in her life. Correction: she had. When she couldn't help her brother as the witch had plunged her filthy claws into him. His shallow breaths, his paleness...all of them paralleled her captain's. Just a different place and time, still the same drule problem.

"And if you don't try to fight for him, that result is all but certain, your highness. Loss is a valid risk in medicine and in war, no matter how much we prepare to prevent it. But we fight either way. The magic of the umbra is only contained in Aidan and the Captain now. As you heard, as long as that connection remains, he can continue to hurt your husband. The umbra needed a mind to control it, separate from Aidan's control its clinging onto his highness, fighting him. It is no different to an infection. The lion's presence here still means he is still fighting. Please, fight."

"I don't think I can lose someone close to me again." She whispered, tears flowing from her blue eyes. She tried not to cry in front of the people who mattered to her, her tears reserved for her pillow or shower, but the toll of the war had finally caught up with her. Her fate was to fight the evil that had taken so much of what she loved, now it was trying to take her destined partner. It felt like a stranglehold that would never loosen, filled with nightmares and death. All she wanted was to breath again.

"Not a lot of people can say they know what its like to be in your shoes, your highness. But this man does. I'm afraid the problem you've found yourself in is that you've become too sensitive to the needs of those around you. You're strong for others, Princess. You fight for others and the possibility of their future. You refuse to fail them. And the result is you cannot be selfish. You cannot pursue your happiness because it hinders your idea of righteousness for the love of your people. I've seen you grow up, Princess. Since I caught you straight from your mother, you've been nothing but selfless. It's breaking you. The fear of losing to the unknown is crippling you."

"Every time there's hope, it's dashed, doctor. My mother was taken, they took my brothers, they took my freedom, the people I could have called friends. Yes, I've made bold statements to Lotor before, but how can I sustain, doctor?

"Did you lie when you said those things?"

"No! I... but something like this could happen and jeopardise every step we make. I get it now when Keith said we shouldn't look at ourselves as special because we're chosen. We have to sacrifice everything helplessly!"

"You have the wrong idea about your husband, Princess. If it were you, do you think he'd consider what other people thought about if it came to saving you? You talk of sustaining, yet how did he do it for so long? He has had to make tough choices, be resilient, courageous, be a quick thinker and compassionate, all the while considering the people around him were probably his enemies. This is just him. How did everyone do it for so long? You do what you must, then what you can. And sometimes, Sometimes you really need to be selfish and damn the consequences, don't you think?" asked the doctor as he left the room. After what felt like an eternity, she made her decision.

Keith groaned as the cold, slithering coils tightened around his trapped body, tightening ever more slightly the more his muscles jumped from the pain. His body was screaming for sleep but his heart remained hopeful that someone would come, something would change. His weary eyes searched for his lion that had been unresponsive since he'd called out to it. Its fur was wet where the coils embedded themselves into the Black, sapping its life force through them. They had fought for hours until they had lost their stamina, too weak physically to resist. Somehow, he knew that if he gave up his will to this thing, it would be all over. For everyone. The umbra was trying to reabsorb the magic from the lion. Its magic. Split off over a millenia ago, converging into the mystical lion spirits. The 'death' of one lion was the death of them all.

He had to wait. Desperately, he hoped that the slowing of the tightening meant that help was near.

'What is it you're holding on to?' hissed the shadow through the haze. That same shade had tormented him for hours, questioning him, insulting him, weakening him.

'I told you to shut up!' Keith yelled, throwing his head back wearily.

'Do you want to live? Live for me. Become me. Why run with a poor,weak counterfeit when I can give you glory...submit.' The shadow flicked its hand, throwing the black lion up into the air before slamming it down, denting the grey earth. What had been clear, sweet air had been replace by a fog so thick it turned the air foul. His throat burned as he gulped more of the foul air helplessly.

'No!'

'Yes! The lions are us! You're a part of us...submit."

'Keith!'

Freezing in his restraints, Keith tipped his head forward quickly, straining his ears so that he was sure he'd heard the voice he'd been hoping for. He tried to locate that voice above the rapid beating of his heart, but he couldn't. Chuckling came from the haze as the hissing stopped in the dancing cloudiness a few feet in front of him. His mind suddenly went on high alert, every cell in his body waiting in anticipation. He knew what he had heard was her voice.

'I know what you want, Keith.' Allura's soft voice graced his ears, his heart beating a mile a minute. He swore he could feel himself sweat under the tight grip.

Like a mythical beauty, Allura emerged from the ashy cloudiness, magnificent in her beauty as walked confidently toward him,. Draped on her body was a grey one arm shift that danced lightly in the air as she moved, dropping seductively to her knees. Her eyes met his seductively as she placed a hand on his chest. Catching his breath, Keith focused on the barefoot ethereal beauty in front of him.

'Is it me you want, my love?" she asked softly as she trailed her other had gently from his hair to his cheek.

'Stop it!' he ground out painfully. The creature in front of him was not his Allura and at the same time, she was. His body wanted to yield, to rest now that she had come but everything in his soul refused. The pain of rejection tore through his chest like a wound slashing his heart.

'Why must I stop when I belong to you. Only you.'

'You're not her! You'll never be her!'

'But you want me to be, don't you? I won't reject you for eternity, Akira. You and I can stay here together. No fighting. No pain. No distractions. I want to give you everything you want as your wife. Submit." The faux Allura let her dress fall to reveal herself to Keith before she placed her arms around his neck, ready to kiss him. His gut recoiled at her touch, the now familiar heat of his mate absent in the vision in front of him. He was fighting consciousness , her touch causing him searing pain. His head pounded painfully, making him groan out helplessly.

'Submit and i'll give you pleasure like you've never seen. All who looked down at you will burn. All who took from your will hand everything and more back to you. Women will be yours at your command. Even me. Submit to my will, Akira.'

'I...I..'

Allura screeched as a sword pierced her heart, staining the front of her body a dirty green. Falling as the sword was ripped out, she screamed as one of her arms were cut off, more putrid green blood flowing from her, bathing her naked and now scaled body. She rolled away from the two, giving an opportunity for Allura to deal with her husband. His eyes were glazed over, his body pale and supported by the coils around him which had slackened slightly.

'Keith. I'm here! Stay with me, please!' she begged as she touched his face. She hugged him and kissed his cold lips but he barely recognised her as he tried to pull away.

'No!'

'Yes!' she cried as she grabbed his cheeks, pulling him for a deeper kiss, letting the heat within her burn, letting her mate know it was truly her. She wouldn't let him slip away from her again. She kissed his lips, his cheeks his eyes. The heat ignited around the both of them, consuming the coils trapping Keith, releasing him into her arms. Groaning Keith landed on his knees with Allura as the coldness of his binds disappeared from his body.

'I'm here.'

...

I will not die!

Clawing his way through the murky, deep water, he felt his lungs burn from the strain of holding his breath for so long. Pain shot up his left calf, nearly claiming his consciousness again as he pulled himself up toward the amber light. Breaking through with a shout, he desperately reached for the warped metal closest to him. Shocked to the core, he saw the remnants of their forces retreating away from the gigantic body of an unconscious Zeppo. Confusion, disgust, venomous hatred, couldn't even begun to describe his present state of being.

'The cowards are retreating! No!'

Swiftly opening the hatch of on his left, the emergency hatch of his ship that he has never used since he'd begun his conquests. Emptying it out of the irrelevant material, he grabbed the grayish radio, searching for a signal.

'Queen Merl...unresponsive...confused...orders...'

'The second flee...help...king unconscious...'

'Anyone...wake the...up!'

'What is happening! Our liege is slumped on th...deck. Anyone, respond.'

Grinding his teeth, Lotor quietly thought his way through the information.

The army is in shambles. The monarchs are not responding, unconscious. Father. Unconscious. That disgusting monster is also unconscious . Everyone else is unaffected. Only I am conscious.

The static messages continued as he waited for any movement from Zeppo. A wicked grin slowly graced his face as he realized what had happened. His heart had begun to race again as he realized that truly, this was it.