The crystal ball. One of the few mortal myths concerning witchery that could be deemed accurate. It is a magic doer’s most necessary tool, serving as an omnipotent connection from this dimension to the universe that lies beyond. It acts as a window to the mortal mind’s conscious and subconscious. It invades those deepest of dreams; it learns of the darkest fears; it listens to the most morbid of thoughts. It can even influence the mind’s will, making its person act and say as it usually would not. It does all this, but not with the intention of creating mere mischief. No, the crystal ball beholds a purpose that is far greater.
The witch’s glass (as it is commonly called) is lifeless, but the source of its knowledge and endless power, is not. It is this entity which lies somewhere between the flesh, mortal death, and the earth’s dark soil. It is real, but it does not exist in the most traditional sense of the word. Rather, it moves between and among all that is inanimate and all that lives. What is it exactly? No one knows. The source of its power - its heart - is now only a matter of ancient myth and speculation, even to the witches that covet it. But what is known is that it lives, breathes, listens, and feels - just as a human does, although its soul is far from that of one.
The power of the witch’s glass is neither good nor evil, acting with a will that is unclouded by a human desires and wants. However, it is not at all indiscriminate in function. It has a respect for all human life that is worthy, both criminal and saint. It will kill a rapist or wife-beating husband without care, but it will also waste a life full of promise, all because it is best for the Greater Good. It is friend to the Fates and helps them to maintain the universe’s delicate balance within the mortal world. And it will kill, help, or hurt anyone or anything that stands in the way of universal harmony, including its master. That is why the glass must be respected, used only for the purposes for that which the first magic doer intended it. It is the witch’s aid, not her slave. The glass will symbiose with the witch for greater mortal vision and will aid her with knowledge in return, but it remains completely independent in its own selfish, necessary purpose.
Haggar sat motionless, hands neatly folded in her lap, eyes intently transfixed on the small, glass sphere which set before her. She spent much of her time doing just this – listening to changing dimensional tides - but in the past two days, she hadn’t moved from the glass once.
Ever since the Voltron captain arrived, Haggar couldn’t shake the feeling that something dreadful was looming. However, the concern was not for the safety of Doom or its masters. Rather, her unease was more artificial in nature; a “bad feeling” as humans call it. In a vision, she had seen that the earthly elements were aware of what was happening within the realm of good and evil, and they weren’t at all happy about it.
In the vision, the wind was blowing fierce and loud, aggravating the water, which in turn was flowing up onto the land and flooding the soil. Darkness engulfed the sky, and there was chaos everywhere. She had seen this vision once before, right before the death of Alfor. And now she was having it again, but this time, it was more frequent and somehow, more real.
But despite the constant visions, the glass had remained strangely quiet. Perhaps because it was sulking, as it often becomes angry when it sees that humans are interfering with the harmony of things. Haggar couldn’t tell for sure, but she knew that something with this plan of Zarkon’s was not right. The Commander did not belong here. The gods didn’t like it, and they wouldn’t allow it to continue. Before the chaos reached the mortal world, something would have to be done; Haggar knew that much. Even she was no match for the power of the gods. And an angry god? Forget it. It would punish her soundly for her ambivalence toward this mortal affair - a punishment much worse than death itself. She didn’t have a choice; she would have to figure out a way to restore things as they had been before this all got started.
“Am I interrupting something important?”
Haggar jumped at the voice behind her. She had been so involved with her own thoughts, her witch’s seventh sense had failed to advise her that someone was near. She quickly pushed up from her chair and turned toward the tall, dark figure standing in the entrance way.
“No,” she stammered, quickly composing herself. “Not at all. So, I see you have finally decided to venture out of your room.”
Keith was in no mood to small talk with a “woman” he had very little tolerance for. His head was pounding, and he knew that his mind would soon be entering the dark fever of withdrawal. He would have to find his way back to his quarters soon, or collapse right here on the floor.
“Zarkon told me that you would deactivate the isolation chip.”
Haggar motioned for him to sit. “This will be painful,” she said dryly.
She retrieved a blunt metal instrument from a nearby drawer. One end of the apparatus beheld a pair of crude tweezers with the other end having a sharp blade – one used in the incision most likely.
“I thought that it was just going to be turned off,” he said promptly. “Or do you simply enjoy inflicting pain unnecessarily? Don’t answer that – I forgot who I was talking to for a second there.”
Haggar’s tone remained unaffected. “If it’s deactivated, it can be re-activated on a whim. Any more complaints?”
Keith was surprised but said nothing. He shook his head and closed his eyes to block out the impending pain.
When she moved toward him, Haggar immediately noticed the sickened pallor of his sweaty brow, and the manner in which his body shook from under a struggled effort to keep it still. It took her only a moment to deduce what fever had come over him; she had seen it one too many times before. And although she had been told nothing of the plan, she knew what Zarkon had in mind for his captive. He intended to bleed the Voltron Captain’s soul until he felt nothing - until his will collapsed from under him, and his precious morals were nothing more than a pleasant memory. Zarkon was drugging the hell out of the boy.
She fumbled with the rusty, metal instrument. “You’re addicted to it, you know.”
“What?” He opened his eyes to reveal a set of tell-tale, dilated pupils.
“The red wine of Tyrus is very similar to your terran narcotics, but more addictive and much more dangerous. It also has a unique characteristic in it that the affects become much worse during withdrawal.”
“What kind of ‘affects’?”
Haggar put down the instrument. “The red wine of Tyrus has the ability to cause great anxiety but create much physical and mental pleasure at the same time. Its victims experience a marked level of euphoria, along with…other voracious appetites. It basically brings out the worst in its victim. It is a very difficult habit to break.”
“But Zarkon and Lotor both drink it. We took from the same vat at dinner.”
Haggar shook her head. “They drink until its influence begins to control them. They then take the antidote made from a berry that only grows on Arus.”
Keith couldn’t help but laugh. Just his luck that his only chance was in the one place that he could never go.
“Well, I guess that explains some things.”
Haggar took a step back. “Yes. Now you see Zarkon’s plan for you. If caught early, the affects are reversible. If not…well, you will be lost forever. Your anger will soon come to control you, and you will become your own enemy. You will become one of them.”
She then picked up the instrument, walked behind his chair, and with one swift motion, incised the skin at the base of his neck and pulled out the small metal chip underlying it.
A knife was being plunged deep into his spine, but he refused to jump. The only sign of his discomfort - a pair of watering eyes and a stifled a groan that was more of anguish than of pain. Instantly, he felt something soft on the back of his neck.
“Hold this. It will stop the blood.”
Soon the stinging pain was replaced by one of a duller, more manageable intensity.
He stood to leave, but a curious thought came to him, and he stopped. “Haggar, if I didn’t know you better, I would think that you were trying to help me.”
Her expression told of an emotion that he would only know later as fear. “You don’t belong here,” was all she said before turning her back.
As she heard the door close behind him, she exhaled a breath that she had been holding for the last two days. Only know did she know for sure - this was all going to end badly.
Keith stumbled through the side corridor leading to his chambers. He already knew that sleep would not come tonight, but at least he could go through this hell in private. Hopefully, whatever it was that was happening to him would pass as quickly as it started, because for once, he didn’t think he could take much more.
The shaking was now getting worse and his eyesight was so blurred that he feared he might not make it. He fumbled the access code to the door, having to re-enter it twice, setting the key pad to lock behind him until morning. That way, he wouldn’t be able to do anyone any harm, even if he wanted to. Sick and weary, he stumbled into the darkness of his chambers.
Through the fever, he didn’t see his attacker. From the shadows, a fist reached out and hit him square in the jaw. A foot then swooped out to trip him, but that was their first and last mistake. Keith quickly swept out the other leg, knocking his assailant to the ground. Unfortunately, he found himself too weak to catch his balance, and he fell directly onto his attacker.
As his eyes adjusted, he was met with a horrible realization. Splayed out on the floor, he saw the bright gold hue framing a set of familiar blue eyes.
Please God, no.
“Keith?”
He quickly got up and switched on a nearby lamp, hoping all the while that his eyes and ears had deceived him. They hadn’t.
“Allura! What in the hell are you doing here?!”
“Keith!”
In an instant, she quickly jumped to her feet and lunged forward, wrapping her arms around him with the force of someone twice her size. He did nothing in return.
“Oh, Keith! We’ve been so worried! I’ve been so worried! You’re alright! We feared the worst, but I knew - I just knew that you were okay. I could feel it in my heart.”
At first, she thought he was shaking from the shock of seeing her, but after a second look, she made the horrible realization that something was wrong. In the dim lamp light, she could see the sweaty glisten of his brow. She touched his hands - they were ice cold. She then became frightened, but she instantly reminded herself to remain calm.
“Keith, what’s wrong? What have they done to you?”
He held her back at arm’s length and bent down to the level of her gaze. “Allura, I asked you, what are you doing here?”
She examined the dilated pupils, his sweaty, white pallor. Other than looking ill, there was something else different about him. He looked distant and cold, but when she looked deep into his eyes, she saw something else.
“Answer me!” He demanded.
The outburst startled her, but she quickly recovered. “I came to find you, but…I think I was captured.”
“You think you were? And I bet you didn’t even tell anyone where you were going either.”
She wasn’t used to this type of sarcasm from him. Keith wasn’t happy in the slightest to see her, and that was strange. Considering the circumstances, she thought that at least he would have been relieved to see that someone had come for him, but it was becoming painfully obvious that something was going on that she was not aware of, something that was causing him to look…panicked. She actually felt a sense of relief when he released her from his grasp.
Keith pulled a com link from a hidden pocket and spoke into it with a barely controlled anger. “What is she doing here?”
A muffled, eerily familiar voice responded after a long pause. “I assumed she was looking for you, and she was simply put where she wished to go.”
Keith’s agitation increased. “I’m sending her back – right now.”
“The Princess shall be returned tomorrow morning,” the voice from the other end replied.
“They’ll come for her before morning.”
There was another pause from the other end. “We’ve taken care of that little problem. Her friends have been informed that she will soon be returned safely, but only if their lions stay put. Besides, we told them that she was with you. At least they know that she’ll be safe. Isn’t that a fair assumption, Commander?”
Keith swallowed hard against his thirsty palate. “Why are you doing this?”
“Think of it as a favor. Goodnight Commander, and try to get some sleep. You have a mission in a couple of days, and you don’t want to be tired out for it.”
Static signaled the end of the conversation.
He lowered the com link, a resigned expression of defeat on his face. He shook his head as if to clear it of a most unpleasant thought. “Allura, you have to get out of here.”
“Of course we will! We have to escape!” But her excitement froze in the air and shattered like broken glass when all he did was laugh.
Wiping the perspiration from his brow, he drew in a haggard breath. “Allura, darling, even after hearing that exchange, you still think we can make it out of here? Well, I’ve got to hand it to you, you’re definitely optimistic.”
“I remember when you used to be,” she replied, her anxiety mounting.
Allura was in awe of the man before her. Only gone for a short while, but somehow, he was already different.
Keith tried to compose himself. Time was short and his last coherent thought was spent trying to think of someway to get her out of danger…away from him. Why did he have to lock that damned door? Well, if he couldn’t get her out, at least he had to warn her. It was her only fighting chance.
“Allura, listen carefully; you have no idea what’s going on here. You have to stay away from me. I would trust you more with Lotor tonight than with me.”
Allura couldn’t help herself. She wrapped her arms around him and wept, her pleas surfacing between sobs. “Keith…please…what have they done to you?”
“Honey, this isn’t helping.”
He suddenly felt the heat come on like a dry fire. It spread from his chest to his fingers, and finally down to the tips of his toes. The last thing he remembered as it engulfed his brain was the sheer terror of knowing that things were never going to be the same.
Allura then felt his shaking stop, which she took as a good sign.
“Keith, I love you.”
She looked up to find that a slight grin had replaced the previous frown on his face.
“Allura, my love – I feel the very same way.”
She was relieved when he finally took her in his embrace. It made her feel so safe. Here was her perfect knight in shining armor, always there to save her. They would get out of this because they were together. They were indestructible when they were together. She let herself get lost in the moment until she realized that his hold was maybe just a little too tight.
“Uh…Keith? I can’t breathe.”
His response was only to increase his hold.
“Ouch! Keith, you’re hurting me!”
“You’re hurting me!” he mimicked in reply.
She looked up to find unfamiliar eyes staring down at her. Panic overwhelmed her like none she’d ever known before. This was not the man she knew. The eyes staring back at her held an angry, lustful fire. She had seen that same expression before…in Lotor. Whoever it was that stood before her, she knew for a fact that he was dangerous right now. If she couldn’t reach him, she would have to fight him.
“Let me go!” she ordered.
Allura quickly pulled herself from his grasp and slowly backed away toward the door. She knew it would be her only way out if only she could get there with enough time to open it.
He slowly crept after her, an evil smile playing across his familiar, unfamiliar face.
“My dear, the more you fight me, the more I’ll like it. Why don’t you make things easier for yourself and just come here? I promise I won’t bite…too hard.”
Allura needed to distract him. If she was to get to the door, she needed more time. Her thoughts then came quickly.
Attempting a more casual stance, she swallowed her fear and took a few steps toward him.
“Well then, maybe I am being a little unreasonable.”
“Maybe,” was all he said as he approached her, suddenly looking very pleased.
He bent down and inhaled a whiff of her long, flowing mane, finding that it pleased all his senses. She was emitting something that he couldn’t get enough of. Was it lust? Fear? He didn’t care - he just wanted it. Perhaps later he would even taste it.
While he seemed to be distracted, she seized the opportunity and quickly raised up her knee to hurt him where she knew it to be most effective. Keith had actually taught her the trick if the situation were to have ever arisen with Lotor. But the teacher had once again anticipated the student, and he quickly shifted to block the maneuver, barely losing his balance in the process. If she had a chance, this was it. She ran for the door.
It was locked.
“Tisk, tisk. The door’s locked from the outside. How unfortunate for you.”
She could hear him right behind her, but she dared not turn around.
“You see, my lovely Princess, it’s impossible to get out.”
Her mind struggled again to find the right words. Something had to get through to him. Her Keith was not this weak. “Keith, I know you’re in there. You need to fight this thing that’s hurting us.”
She felt his hot breath on the back of her neck.
“Keith, stop it.”
She cringed away, but his insistent hands prevented her from going anywhere. From what she could make of it, she was pinned. If she fought him, he might actually become more forceful. She would have to move with caution if she were to have any chance of getting out of this situation.
“What’s the matter, Allura? You’ve never wanted to get away from me before. Why now?”
She turned in his grip to face him.
“I just…I just don’t think it has to be like this.”
“No, but you tried to escape, and that’s against the rules,” he whispered, waving a disapproving finger as if she were a child being scolded.
Suddenly, his smile fell. “Bad idea, Allura.”
She wasn’t sure what happened next, but she felt the force of being thrown into a nearby hard piece of furniture. There was a crash, that of the only lamp illuminating the room when it fell to the floor and broke. It was suddenly pitch black and completely silent. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she heard the rustling of carpet. Footsteps.
She sat in stunned paralysis. No matter what was happening in that head of his, she never in her wildest imagination would have dreamt that he would intentionally hurt her. She was convinced - this wasn’t him, and if this was his body, the soul was missing.
A moon glow soon flooded the room, revealing the stoic, hardened form before her. He stood emotionless, seemingly in another place. She hoped that wherever he was, he was fighting this. Still afraid to move but feeling defenseless, she lifted herself from the floor to meet his gaze evenly. It was a terrible sensation to be afraid of him.
After a moment, he took a step toward her and ran a tender finger down the tip of her nose and over her trembling lips. Because of the darkness, she could not make out the expression on his face. Maybe he had control now. Maybe not.
He suddenly began to shake violently, suddenly falling to his knees before her and moaning in agony.
“Fight it, Keith! You can beat this!”
After several minutes, he looked back to her, tears streaming down his hardened face. Having never seen him cry before, she was compelled to hold him. Perhaps if she held him, she would force the pain away.
“Stop it.”
She barely heard his whisper, but she immediately released her hold.
“Get away from me. Now!”
Stumbling backward, she rose and took a few steps away. The portrait of the tormented Captain was ironic considering that she knew him to be the embodiment of self-control.
He got up, his pain-filled eyes looking as if they agonized over something.
“Allura…get away from me. The other room. Lock the door. Oh God, please!”
He stumbled to a chair, but quickly fell from it to the floor. “Oh God! I’m trying, but it hurts!”
“Damn it, Keith. I love you.”
Both hands went to his head simultaneously, and then suddenly, his trembling ceased as quickly as it had come.
“Oh, you do? Then why don’t you show me just how much?”
With that, he lunged at her before she was able to back away. Knocking her to her backside, he straddled her from above. From the look in his eyes, she could see that he had lost the battle with the devil, and it was looking right at her.
“Get off me!”
“Why should I? We’re engaged, aren’t we? It’s just as good as being married, so why don’t we just throw caution to the wind and act like it?”
“You’re not my Keith! He would never do this to me!”
“Oh, I’m not? Well, let’s see; your favorite color is blue, you’d rather eat ice cream for dinner than anything else, and you told me once that you’ve always wanted to be a professional ballet dancer. Would I know that if I wasn’t him?”
“Keith, I know you’re in there somewhere.”
“Allura, you know what? I think he is inside here…and soon, he’ll be inside of you too.”
He then wrapped both arms around her mid-section, easily picking them both up from the floor. Walking over the bed, he tossed her down carelessly.
Allura thought to stall, but she wasn’t given the opportunity. He forced himself between her legs, holding her arms above her head with one hand, unfastening his pants with the other.
A sense of sheer panic engulfed her, as she quickly thought out her options. She began to struggle but to no avail. She knew that Keith held back during their hand-to-hand training, but she never knew how much until now. With her entire strength, she kicked up hard against him. He barely moved, and he almost seemed to enjoy the maneuver.
And then everything unfolded faster than she could realize what was happening. Electricity ripped through the air, lighting the room with a brief but bold illumination. A crackling noise accompanied the flash like that of lightening in the near distance, and then if she had imagined it, they were both gone as fast as they had come. There was silence. But what remained was that familiar smell, like burnt toast. Keith now lay collapsed on top of her like in a dead weight, his head just to the side of her own.
She soon felt the weight lifted off her, and an arm reached out from the darkness. All she could see at first was a white glove, but as he pulled her close, she could see the face. Lotor!
Too stunned to say anything, she found herself looking to him, and then back to where Keith lay motionless.
“We have to get you out of here,” he said, but as of yet he made no effort to move, his eyes reflecting his own internal conflict.
“You…you killed him.”
“No,” he replied, “Although it would have brought me much pleasure. Father would have my head.”
He said nothing more and began pulling her into the hallway corridor.
“No! I’m not leaving without him!”
Lotor then stopped suddenly and took firm hold of both her shoulders. “That is not the person who you think it is! Can’t you see that? Think about what just almost happened!”
Allura could barely think about it. He wasn’t the man she knew, but it wasn’t his fault. “What have you done to him?” she demanded, attempting to break free of his grasp. “This is not his fault! I’m not leaving without him!”
Lotor ignored her pleas, and all but dragged her down the hall by the arm. “It’s not safe for you here. Trust me, Allura. I’m doing this for your own good.”
And as they turned the first corner heading for the docking bay, he heard footsteps. Quickly, he pulled them into a side corridor and covered her protesting mouth with his own hand. Together, they listened to the handful of unaware soldiers approach and pass them. Slowly, he released his hold.
“Ask yourself this, Allura,” he whispered. “Why would I let you go if I knew that you would be safe here? Why would I sent you back to Arus if I knew that I could keep you? Your Captain’s life is not in danger here. Yours is. Believe me, I know what that stuff can do to a person.”
“What stuff?”
“Nevermind. What’s important now is that he is dangerous to you, whether you want to believe it or not.”
Allura broke free of his insistent grasp. “You’re out of your mind!”
“Am I? Look at your own face if you don’t believe me!”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
Lotor spoke with a tone that was uncharacteristically gentle. “Allura, you’re going to have a black eye, and a few bruises maybe.”
Horror washed over her like an unholy bath. How would she explain this to the rest of the team? If she told Coran, she would lose Keith forever, no matter what the outcome of this was. And Keith would lose everything - his job, his mind, his future. Correction…their future. It wasn’t his fault, but no one would understand that.
She unconsciously raised a hand to her cheek, an act that put Lotor into a fury.
“I will kill him with my bare hands for what’s he’s done, no matter what father does to me! I’d kill him now if we had the time. Come on! We have to get to your ship before someone catches on to this little escape party. We only have a short while before the guards turn the sensors back on. I’ve had to threaten a lot of lives to buy us just five minutes.”
For once, she let him take her hand. The halls of Castle Doom seemed even more a rat’s maze than back home. She never would have made it without him. As they reached the landing platform, he finally relented to release her.
“Lotor…thank you. I know our history is not good to say the least, but what you’ve done today on behalf of my planet; I thank you.”
She thought about giving him a kiss, but instead, she reached out and squeezed his hand, offering a smile. Without turning back, she walked up the plank of the ship. Again, she was leaving Keith in the clutches of her enemies. The next time she would bring him home, no matter what.