As Allura drew closer to her planet, she found herself torn. Part of her was relieved to be home. After all, they must be half out of their minds with worry by now. The other part of her, the larger one, felt as if she needed to turn around and go back to Doom. For now, she wouldn’t allow herself a minute to think about what had just happened, for that would be one more minute wasted while he drifted closer to whatever it was that had infected him.
As Allura picked up three blips on her scanner, she knew that this might be the most difficult test she had ever faced. She was going to have to lie to her friends and herself; she had to - a life in the balance. In this one ironic moment, Allura suddenly became aware that it was truly love that she felt for him, simply because she could think of nothing more important than saving his life. At the very least, her planet owed it to him try with everything it had – everything she had. As to the fate of something that was once pure and safe, that remained to be seen. For now, she would have to salvage what remained of her sanity and deal with getting him back home first. Then she would face her other demons.
“Princess? Are you all right? Princess?” The familiar voice coming over her communication link was frayed with worry.
She reluctantly opened the channel and cleared her voice. “I’m fine, Pidge.”
“Princess, we were terrified,” came another, more solemn voice.
Allura swallowed back a sob that wanted to surface. “I know, Lance. I’m sorry.”
Allura brought her ship in for an easy landing, escorted by her three brave lions. Through the ship’s cockpit view screen, she could already see Nanny and Coran running from the castle. Nanny seemed to outpace Coran easily. No doubt she would be in for a lecture and a good fussing from her over-zealous governess. Allura put a hand to her eye. She hoped that Lotor had exaggerated the marks on her face. Actually, she found that physically, she was hardly in any pain at all. How could she have gotten a black eye? He was forceful, but he hadn’t hit her.
Then she remembered the table. It must have happened when he threw her into the table.
She breathed a sigh of relief. At least he hadn’t meant to do it, or so she hoped. Unfortunately, she doubted that anyone else would see things the same way. She was going to handle this delicately, even if it meant lying through her teeth. She couldn’t afford to jeopardize their focus in getting him back home.
She took a deep breath and opened the hatch of shuttle.
“Oh! My dear Princess! We were so…”
Abruptly, Nanny reared to a halt, her mouth gaping in horror. A sudden collective gasp was followed by the most uncomfortable silence that Allura had ever known. Suddenly, she felt flush and nauseous. What if they somehow knew? Her gaze traveled over the stunned expressions her loved ones, coming to rest on the pale face of her most trusted advisor. Of anyone, she hated lying to him the most.
“I got into a little scuffle with a guard.” She laughed nervously, trying desperately to lift the weight of their stares. “You should see the other guy.”
No one made a move save for Coran. He turned to Nanny, whispering hoarsely. “Get Gorma.”
When she didn’t move, he yelled. “Get him!”
Nanny jumped and ran back into the castle moving faster than Allura had ever seen her.
Lance was the first to move toward her. He walked up the ship’s plank where she was still standing and carefully took her hand.
His voice was soft and thick with worry. “Let’s get you inside.”
Allura allowed herself to be escorted to the infirmary on the condition that once they got there, she would be brought up to speed on new developments, if there even were any.
“Did Zarkon attack while I was gone?”
Coran and Lance lifted her to a gurney in the main medical wing.
“No,” her advisor stated flatly, “But…”
When he paused, she found herself unable to control her fraying self control. “But what, Coran? I have a right to know what’s happened here!”
Lance picked up where Coran couldn’t finish. If anything, Lance had a duty to tell her. “Allura, we didn’t find out that you were missing until morning. By then, Zarkon had already sent a message that you had been captured. He told us that you were going to be sent back…at Keith’s request, but if we were to even leave Arus, he would kill the both of you immediately. We were going to send someone anyway, but then…”
“Then what?”
“Shortly after, we received another message from Doom - a highly coded transmission.”
“I’m listening.”
“We don’t know who had sent it, but the message said that Zarkon spoke the truth about your release, and you indeed would be returned unharmed. It message also read that Keith was being sent on a mission.” Lance paused. He didn’t want to spring all this on her considering her present condition. “Princess, maybe you need some rest.”
“Or maybe you need to finish what you started, Lieutenant.” She was insistent. He knew she would be in lieu of what was at stake.
“Zarkon is sending Keith on a mission to oversee some sort of slave reorganization on the planet Nebus in less than twenty-four hours from now. The message said that it might be our first and last opportunity to get him back.”
“I’m going,” she stated flatly.
“Absolutely not!”
“Coran, you are my advisor only. I’m choosing to override your advice in this case.”
Before he was able to object, Lance silenced him with a nod. He leaned forward, taking her hand in his.
“Allura. Sven and I are going. This is going to a delicate situation. Any more people and we risk breaching the entire mission. The message warned us that he would be heavily guarded.” He looked deeply into eyes that reflected his own emotion. “On my life, Princess, I will bring him back.”
Allura thought for a moment, finally nodding in agreement. Maybe this was the one time that she would have to put her entire faith in someone that wasn’t Him.
“When are you leaving?”
Coran exhaled.
“In just under ten hours, Your Majesty.” Lance paused. This was going to be a difficult question, but they needed to know for the sake of the mission. “Allura, the message said that Keith might not go willingly. Did you…see him while you were there?”
Allura swallowed hard on her own heavy knowledge. “Yes.” She hesitated. “They’ve done something to him.”
The worried looks on the other’s faces almost brought her to tears, but they had to know. “He’s not himself. They’ve done something to him, Lance. It was like…he recognized me, but he didn’t care about me. He was…mean, I guess you’d say. And he looked sick - very sick.”
“The red wine of Tyrus.”
They all turned to face the source of the new person in the room. Dr. Gorma had been preparing an injection and listening in on the conversation. Now he had stopped, his face a paler shade than what it had been a moment ago.
At their looks of behest, he continued. “The red wine of Tyrus is used very commonly within the Drule culture. It is an addictive narcotic of sorts, much more controlling and mind-altering than any known Terran drug. It has the unique ability to bring out the worst in its victims by lowering their inhibitions and…” He glanced at Allura for only a second. “And it tends to bring out more violent tendencies, along with an intensely consuming sexual drive. It is very dangerous, and if I’m right that they’ve gotten Keith addicted, we don’t have a lot of time left.”
Lance was the only one in the room to form a semi-coherent thought. “What should we do, Doctor?”
“Luckily, the antidote for this illness comes from a berry grown here on Arus. I can easily develop some, but if it’s been too long, there’s really nothing that we will be able to do for him.”
Allura could hardly ask. “He’ll die?”
The doctor shook his head. “Worse, he’ll be lost in his own dark world forever, soulless - only a shadow of the man he was.”
A heavy silence filled the room, everyone lost in the same fear. Lance took a deep breath and rose to his feet. “I need a minute alone with Allura.”
Coran was the last to leave. There was still much that they did not know about what had happened to her, but he knew it might be better to wait. She looked exhausted, and he didn’t want to push her. The most important thing was that she was back home. Hopefully, everyone would soon be under one roof again. He put a hand on Lance’s shoulder as he turned to leave. “Not too long, okay Lieutenant?”
Lance nodded and turned his attention back to Allura. When he heard the door close behind him, he sat down on the bed next to her and considered the tormented thoughts that were running rampant in his mind. For the sake of the mission, he needed to know everything.
“I hate it that I’m able to do this.”
“Do what?”
“I always know when people are lying,” he replied.
Allura took in a sharp breath and shifted under the covers to avoid his gaze.
“Allura, I need to know what happened there.”
She tried to improvise some sort of clever lie, but she knew it would be no good. She knew that Lance would see through it. She suddenly found herself exposed and unable to conceal what had been brewing silently within her. All she could do was shake her head in resigned despair. “Lance,” her voice whispered just above threatening sobs, “he didn’t mean it.”
As his fears suddenly materialized into an unbelievable reality, he found himself without words. No longer was it just as simple as bringing him back. No matter what happened from this point on, life was never going to be the same, for any of them. His heart ached violently for his two dearest friends. They deserved better than to have their fate sealed by the hand of evil. All he could do was reach forward and pull her into his embrace. “Did he hit you?”
“No, not directly.”
Lance almost couldn’t bring himself to ask the next question. “Did he…force himself on you?”
The tears then came like rainwater. “He tried, but…”
That’s all Lance needed to hear. He crawled into bed and held her as she wept in his arms.
The King and Prince of Doom sat silently in the main throne room, each contemplating their own thoughts.
Lotor could barely sit next to the man who had betrayed him for his worst enemy. At first he had denied the feeling to be jealousy, but now he didn’t care. He was jealous. His own father had cast him aside for the man he hated most in the entire Universe. Lotor would’ve rather fallen at the hand of his own father than live to watch the entire event unfold.
The old bastard gets off on watching me drown in misery. Well, that will be his last mistake.
As if the Prince’s morning couldn’t get any worse, the very object of his hatred blew into the room in a fury, cape blazing behind him.
“Where is she? What in the hell did you do with her?”
“What are bitching at me for? Father was going to send her home anyway!” Lotor stood from his throne to look down at the pair of smoldering eyes glaring up at him from the bottom of the staircase.
Keith’s eyes fixated on his white-haired foe, and he slowly began to ascend the great steps that led up to the royal thrones.
“Stop! It is forbidden! Father, he’s on the staircase!”
Zarkon rested his head on his hand as if unaware someone was speaking to him.
Keith stopped just a few steps short of the platform and turned toward the larger throne. “Why did you allow her to be taken from me?”
Zarkon desperately tried to conceal his amusement. “I was simply holding up my end of the bargain, Commander. You wanted her returned immediately, and you did get your wish…in a roundabout way.”
Keith turned his attention back to an annoyed Lotor. “But I didn’t even have a chance to kiss her good-bye.”
Lotor growled as he sat back into his throne.
The King sat up, shifting his weight over the massive thrown. “Are you changing your mind about our little agreement, Commander? Would you seek to have the Princess Allura here at your side?”
“Well,” the former captain pondered, “I wouldn’t mind having her around. She’s rather…fetching.”
Zarkon cocked a curious eyebrow. “Pleasure runs rampant here on Doom, Commander. Perhaps…” He stopped. “If you do a good job on the mission, I’ll see what I can do.”
Keith seemed pleased. “Thank you, Your Majesty.” He gave a brief, slight bow and quickly descended the steep staircase. Before leaving the chamber, he paused and turned.
“Your Majesty?”
“Yes, Son?”
“When I get back, can you make sure that Lotor’s not sitting in my chair?”
Zarkon smiled. “As you wish.”
Lotor said nothing. He descended the throne platform and disappeared into the dark corridors of a castle that was never to be his.
Through the near darkness of his chambers, Keith made his way over to the window and found the switch that opened the blinds. Blackness still surrounded him, but at least now he could see.
He glanced over to where a broken lamp had been strewn about earlier that morning. The mess had been cleaned up in his absence, but it had not yet been replaced. It didn’t matter. He was getting used to the dark.
With an exhaustive sigh, he sat down on the bed that hadn’t recently been slept on and lowered his head. What was he thinking? How could he have done that to her? He wanted to kill himself for what almost happened the night before. If it would have happened, he definitely would kill himself rather than live with that kind of guilt. It was for this reason that he didn’t have Lotor’s head. The Prince had done him a favor. He had stopped him from committing what would have been, the biggest sin a man could commit.
Keith mindlessly rubbed the sore spot between his shoulder blades where the stun wound was still very fresh. He hoped it would ache forever if just to remind him of what atrocities he was capable of when he let his emotions run free. The Princess was not some rag doll that could be thrown around carelessly. She was like the small crystal angel that she kept on her dressing table, capable of shattering into a million fragments if handled incorrectly. No, he would have to use a soft touch with her if he were to gain back her trust. After all, they were to be married. As the future king of Arus, he had a responsibility to protect her and keep her happy.
Keith leaned over and picked up the half-empty wine bottle that he had left earlier that morning. Even the smell of it calmed his nerves. Everything that happened the night before - the anger, the lack of control, the physicality - everything happened because he thought he could beat this illness on his own. He didn’t take any of it when he found her in his room, and his body punished him for it. Now he realized that it was for the better that he continue to drink it, at least temporarily. Soon enough, he would find out a way to overcome its hold on him. Maybe the witch knew more than what she told him. Maybe she had a cure.
He set the empty bottle down, rested back against the soft, silken sheets, and closed his eyes.
If only she understood that he was doing all this for her. Everything had always been for her. Planet Arus was existing in the peace she had always dreamed for it, and she was safe. In time, she would realize that this was all for the best. And when they married, and Arus was brought into the Empire, she would come to know that Zarkon’s great plan is what is best for the galaxy. Only now, he could see how disjointed and unhappy the Alliance planets were. Zarkon merely seeks to bring a sorely lacking unity and harmony to those planets that need guidance. His methods might be a little unorthodox, but it is all for the Greater Good.
But she might never see that. He himself had been blind for so long to what was best for universal peace. It would not be easy to convince any of them of Zarkon’s vision. He would have to talk to her alone. If she switched over, the others would follow suit. But he needed the chance to speak with her privately. The others would mistrust him, and no doubt, they would never let him near her…particularly if she told them what happened.
Suddenly, a tortured gasp came up from somewhere deep within his chest. The thought of her tormented him. He needed her…he missed her…it was killing him. The guilt was killing him. He needed to see her and quickly. He needed to make things right.
Keith closed his eyes to sleep but to no avail. The need to see her…to touch her was overwhelming. There was so much he needed to say. It couldn’t wait.
With a new energy, he sprang to his feet and headed for the docking bay.