Allea, not fully awake yet, stretched languorously under the soft blankets that warmed her body. She opened her eyes expecting to see light filling the room, but it was dark, almost fully so. She quickly sat up, remembering where she was. How could she have fallen asleep? The last thing she remembered was being carried…

“Oh no!”

She frantically began searching her robe. If she had lost it, the entire plan would be ruined before it even started. Suddenly, a finger came to rest on the small metal device that was pinned to the inside of her cloak. She sighed in relief. Hopefully, it wasn’t too late. She stood up and straightened her dress before activating the small transmission device.

A familiar, sinister form appeared before her, and she had to keep herself from retching. He looked angry…very angry.

“Your Highness.” She bowed deeply to hide the nervousness she was sure was evident on her face. “I meant to contact you sooner…”

A fierce growl interrupted her impromptu excuse. “Damn you, witch. I don’t want to hear your sorry excuses.”

She waited for the usual lecture on what a failure she was, and how she was the source of all his problems, but for once, there was none. A moment passed, and he spoke again. “Are you inside the castle?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

He nodded. “Do not fail me again, Haggar.”

“I will not, my King. I have been invited to stay at the castle as the Princess’ guest, and I’ve befriended the Voltron Captain, so to speak.”

“Good, Haggar. I hope this plan succeeds…for your sake.” With that, the image disappeared.

Almost immediately, there sounded a knock at the door, causing her to jump. She combed her fingers through unfamiliar hair and readied herself.

“Come in.”

The heavy metal door slid open, revealing a familiar figure. She noticed his eyes briefly scan the room; one could have missed it if they hadn’t been paying attention. “What are you doing in the dark?” he asked.

For some reason, Haggar couldn’t formulate a good excuse. She stammered for the right words. “I, uh, was just looking for the light switch.”

Keith reached out to a nearby wall panel and flipped a switch, activating the overhead light fixtures. Haggar squinted from the sudden blast of illumination. She had always hated bright lights.

Haggar quickly surveyed the room. She couldn’t remember being brought in. The idea that she had let her guard down…she let the thought trail. Her gaze came to rest on the stoic Commander standing in the doorway. She studied his expression and found very little. His eyes held a serene seriousness, but his lips were curled in a slight smile. She wondered for a moment if he suspected.

“You shouldn’t be standing on that ankle.”

“Hmmm?”

He made a slight gesture in the direction of her casted, left foot.

“Oh, this? It barely hurts at all - good as new. In fact, I was thinking I might head home tonight.” She said this with both hands on her hips, offering a challenging stare.

Her attempt at drawing a reaction failed, for his disposition never gave way to his emotions. In fact, he simply ignored the comment, his eyes remaining fixated on her, burning a hole right through her disguise. She found this calm ambiguity of his unexpected, and a bit unnerving. In her limited, previous encounters with the Captain, she had always found him to be rather vocal, but then again, that had been in battle. Haggar was reminded of a certain Doom King who also functioned in the same way. Her King was also quiet and pensive. Perhaps the great ones know to listen and learn before speaking.

Haggar shook herself from the reverie. She wasn’t about to give that much credit to someone not even half her own age. Besides, his downfall was on the horizon, and soon he and his friends would be just a memory. She leveled his gaze and waited.

The slight curl of his lips disappeared. “You have been invited to dine with the Princess and the Voltron Force in five minutes. I’ll wait in the hall to escort you to the dining hall while you fix yourself up a bit.”

“Fix myself up?”

He cocked a deliberate eyebrow. “You might want to run a comb through your hair. It’s a bit…messy.” With that, he offered a subtle, cocky grin and left the room, leaving her to fume behind the closed door.

Who does he think he is, telling me to fix my hair? At least mine doesn’t stick up like a venting geyser!

What was she doing? She was allowing an insignificant, little rodent get to her. No matter, she would soon have her revenge. She would give his head to Zarkon on a silver platter. All of their heads! Then she would take her rightful place beside Zarkon as Queen of Doom. The mere thought sent a chill up her cold, wicked spine.

But to win the prize, you must first play the game.

With a quick wave of her hand, she magically coifed her ‘borrowed’ mane and examined herself in the mirror. She was pleased. If only for a while, it was nice to be pretty again.

She let him carry her without protest, but she had to play along if this was going to work. Soon, she would have the Black Lion in her hands; then Voltron would be finished, and Arus would fall. The Doom army would march across the galaxy in the name of King Zarkon and Queen Haggar. But first, she needed that key, and that wouldn’t prove an easy task by any account.

“Not a bad way to get around,” she said.

“Huh?” She startled him from wherever his thoughts were dwelling.

“Being carried around all day. It’s not a bad way to travel.”

He offered a slight smile but still seemed distracted. “Dr. Gorma is fixing up some crutches for you now. Don’t worry, you’ll be rid of me soon enough.”

“I never said I wanted to get rid of you.”

They made their way through the seemingly endless maze of corridors, heading for where Haggar knew the dining room to be. This was going to be one interesting evening. If she didn’t want to raise suspicion, she would have to watch her tongue as well as her manners. The Voltron Force were not idiots, and they would be mistrustful of her. She would have to be patient in order to get close to that key. In fact, any key would do - whoever was careless enough not to be paying attention. She would just have to keep her eyes and ears open for the opportunity.

“Is she nice?”

That seemed to startle him. “What?”

“The Princess Allura…is she nice? Will she like me?”

“Of course she’s nice. You have nothing to worry about. In fact, you’re only a bit younger than she is. You two might have a lot in common.”

“Probably more than you realize.”

Keith let the remark go over his head. He had other things on his mind. For some reason, he wasn’t at all sure that Allura would like her. For as much as he knew that Allura was a good person, he also knew that she had a jealous streak, especially when it came to him. He hadn’t given the issue any conscious thought in the past, simply because he hadn’t had reason to, but this situation brought it to the forefront of his mind. He chastised himself for dwelling on such a petty issue. After all, Allea was just a girl who needed his help. But then why was he taking this so seriously? Could it be that he actually liked Allea? Was he attracted to her? Anyone would agree that she was a pretty girl, but he had known lots of pretty girls. Why was this one any different? This was ridiculous. Here he had just met her, and he was letting his mind become clouded with non-existent issues. This was exactly why he had vowed to himself not to get involved with anyone while he was on this mission. Too much of a distraction.

“Commander?”

He looked down to find an inquisitive pair of green eyes regarding him curiously. “I’m sorry, Allea. I just have a lot on my mind right now.”

“I would think the Captain of the Voltron Force would always have a lot on his mind.”

Keith didn’t exactly know how to respond, but he couldn’t help but chuckle at the sheer accuracy of that one statement. “Well, here we are.”

Just as soon as they turned the last corner, they were in the royal dining room. Of course, Haggar had been there before, but knowing that it would all soon be hers, she couldn’t help but feel a flutter of excitement from inside her belly. She had to fight just to keep the smile off her face. The Captain eased her into a chair situated exactly where she wanted to be, directly next to the Princess. Somehow, it just seemed more amusing that way. Not wanting to seem conspicuous, Haggar began to rise from her chair in order to offer the traditional bow.

The warm smile on the Princess’ face made Haggar’s stomach churn. “Please, don’t bother with such silliness.”

Haggar forced a shy smile, then she noticed that Keith had remained standing. He gave her a brief acknowledgement and turned to the rest of the table. “Princess Allura, Coran, team - this is Allea.”

Everyone offered cordial nods in greeting, save one. The expression on the face of the Red Lion’s pilot gave way to no air of friendliness. He simply stared, seemingly unconcerned with the ill manners of it all. Haggar expected this from him, for she knew from past experience that he was distrustful by nature. Early on, she knew that he would be an unlikely target. It would be best to distance herself from him.

“Hello everyone,” she faked. “Your Highness, it is such an honor…”

Much to Haggar’s surprise, the Princess leaned over to take one of her hands in her own. “Please Allea, we don’t exercise such formalities within castle walls. You are among friends here. Please, just call me Allura.” Allea offered a weak smile. This entire charade was starting to make her obscenely ill. Hopefully, the plan would move quickly so she could put an end to this miserable sweetness. “Allea, I want you to know that you are welcome here for as long as you wish, and I insist that you stay at least until your ankle has healed.”

“But I…”

“No ‘buts.’ You are our guest, and I won’t hear any more about it.”

The dinner proceeded without incident, and Haggar remained silent for much of its duration. Rather, she concentrated on listening in on conversations going on around her, all the while attempting to ingest a stomach churning Terran dish that the nanny had concocted. She was also forced to deal with the relentless idle chit-chat of the Princess’ royal advisor. He had been talking endlessly about the planned improvements that had been made for several of the surrounding villages, and some other boring plans she could care less about. His noise made it difficult to listen in on the others’ conversations, but from what she could gather, she wasn’t missing much.

The Lieutenant Commander was currently engaging two of his teammates in the telling of some story from when he was at the academy. The large one listened with mild interest, but the small one seemed rather engrossed in the tale, his mouth agape in apparent awe. But Haggar cared very little about what was transpiring at the far end of the table. She was more interested in what was happening across from her.

The entire evening, the Princess and the Commander had been engaged in quiet conversation of a seemingly playful nature. They spoke almost in hushed tones, but Haggar didn’t need to hear their words to pick up on their meaning. She could see it in the way he leaned in her direction when he spoke to her, and how she would find a way to touch his arm and laugh at the things he said.

With every dark secret that she was privy to in the Universe, why had her magic failed to tell her of this? It mattered very little to her plan, but perhaps while she was forced to deal with these fools, she could have a little fun.

The royal advisor offered a smile of thanks to the Princess’ nanny as she removed the empty plate before him. “Allea, would you care for a small tour of the castle grounds after dinner?” he asked her.

Haggar thought quickly. “Thank you, Coran, but the Commander has already graciously offered to show me around.”

Keith glanced up abruptly. He knew for a fact that he hadn’t made such an offer, but since he was the one most familiar to her, he assumed that she was simply looking for a break from all of the surrounding excitement. After all, it was probably just a bit overwhelming to start your day with a broken ankle and end it spending the evening with the Voltron Force and the Princess of Arus. He offered a polite smile. “It would be my pleasure.”

At the far end of the table, Lance pushed up from his chair, creating a resonating screech from the metal legs rubbing across the hard floor. “Don’t keep our Captain out too late. He has practice at 5 am sharp.” He then extended a formal, flourishing bow in the direction of the two ladies across the room, favoring his Captain with a devious grin at the same time. “Bon nuit, Commander.” He then turned and left.

As intended, Lance’s seemingly harmless remark didn’t come off as very ambiguous, and Keith was left feeling a bit uneasy, knowing without looking up that two pairs of female eyes were upon him, waiting for some sort of response. He stole a quick glance to the Princess to see if she had missed it. She hadn’t.

Throughout the entire evening, Keith had been careful to keep his eyes off of their guest. She was indeed beautiful, but it was something else that drew his interest. This intuition that he had met her before was now getting to the point where it was starting to drive him a bit crazy. There was something about her that he couldn’t put his finger on. Much to his own surprise, this sensation was not completely unpleasant. Unfortunately, he hadn’t much of a chance to ponder the issue over the last hour. His attention had been on Allura. His experience with women was limited, but he knew enough about the fairer sex to know what NOT to do in certain situations.

“Well then,” Haggar stood abruptly. “Shall we, Captain?”

Keith offered a reserved smile and stood. He bowed briefly to the Princess and walked around the table to where Haggar stood waiting. Allea linked her arm with his, and while exercising a limp, pulled him toward the main exit. A pair of deep blue eyes followed the couple until the door closed behind them.