It was an ambush.
From the corner of Allura’s eye, she saw one of the soldiers had mounted her maid on one of the remaining horses and hoisted himself up after her.
“Cover them,” Keith ordered, waving the man and the maid on the horse towards the open valley as he continued to fire. The soldier, after a curt nod at him, spurred the horse away from the fracas. None of the Doom soldiers paid any attention to them, concentrating on the main group where the Princess still remained.
Allura knew that she would have been treated the same way summarily if she had not moved so far forward in the line – now, it would be too risky to mount her up on a horse of her own since the laser fire was thickest in the frontline. She fumbled within the folds of her riding habit for her concealed laser, the voluminous skirt making it difficult to find the weapon. Finally, she found it and fired from behind Keith, taking down one of the robots with it.
It was almost sheer luck that none of the men had been stunned yet; it seemed that none of their attackers were interested in seriously hurting anyone – yet. However, Keith, Lance, and the other soldiers from the Castle had no scruples about taking the robots out – they had all been chosen because of their skills in shooting – and one by one the robots fell until none remained.
The other men let out a resounding cheer and emerged from their hiding places behind the trees, but as Keith emerged from behind the trunk he had been hiding behind, he continued to crane his neck towards the trees and shushed them. “That was too easy,” he muttered, keeping his laser cocked and ready. “Stay alert, men.”
“I agree,” Lance said quietly, scanning the trees. The Princess had also stepped away from the tree and into the clearing, turning slowly with her laser aimed at the trees.
Keith turned towards Lance and the Princess, his expression grave. “Lance, I want you to get her out of here now,” he ordered. They both turned towards him, Lance’s expression grim, while Allura’s held a hint of mutiny.
He kept eyes trained on the area behind both of them where the shots had first been fired. “Lance, you know what to do. I have a feeling…” Keith’s eyes suddenly widened. “Look out!” he cried, throwing himself at the Princess and pinning her to the ground while Lance threw himself to the ground and shot in that direction.
The beam whizzed past Lance and hit Keith squarely on the back, a beam that would have hit Allura on the chest had it not been for him.
The Princess eyes met Keith’s pain-filled ones for a moment before he quickly rolled off her, fighting to keep his consciousness in spite of the excruciating pain. Lance quickly scrambled up and over them, pulling Allura up quickly and, between the both of them, dragging Keith back behind one of the trees.
The other men had darted back behind their hiding places, having commenced fire at the new set of enemies, the lieutenant taking command as was agreed upon the night before in case Keith fell. A new volley of laser fire had begun, indicating that there were more robots than they thought there were.
“Lance, get her out of here now,” Keith coughed, calling his friend’s attention back to him as Lance and the other men continued to cover him. “Go back to the Castle. The lieutenant and the rest of the soldiers will hold them off as long as they can…”
“Keith, you’re hurt,” Allura cried, kneeling at his side and trying to push him unto his side so she could examine the injury. “I’m not going to leave without you.”
“I’ll… slow you down. I’ll be fine here. Lance – get her out now,” Keith drew out urgently, his voice still ringing with command, weakly pushing her hands away. “The men – will cover you for as long as they can. They’ll bring me in. As soon as you’re – out of the woods – call for backup…”
Lance, seeing the expression on his Captain’s face, reluctantly pulled the Princess up, but she continued to struggle against him, tears forming in her eyes, determined to take Keith with them. “Keith – no… you have to go with us… Lance and I won’t leave you here…”
He opened his eyes, dark and intense in his pale face, and pinned her stricken blue gaze. “I’m ordering you to go, Allura,” he coughed out gruffly. “Remember your promise.” He paused, seeing her hesitate. “Please.”
At the reminder, she tenderly wiped his sweat-riddled forehead for one last time and stood, tears streaming down her cheeks, allowing Lance to cover her back and slowly usher her away while the other soldiers continued to fire in the direction of the newly materialized robots. Within a few moments, they had disappeared deeper into the trees and away from the site of the ambush.
In the dimming recesses of Keith’s pain-filled mind, he wondered why none of the robot soldiers had followed Lance and Allura away, and why there seemed to be no one leading the robots in this attack. He thought he heard the sound of cheers coming from men saying that backup had arrived.
He wondered why none of them were attending to him if there were indeed reinforcements from the Castle, and in response to the thought he heard an evil cackle ring inside his head, grating in his mind, increasing the pain.
“Oh, my naïve little pilot,” the voice said, and Keith thought he was so delirious with pain that he was hallucinating. His back hurt and his eyes were slowly losing the battle to remain wide open… and through his half-closed lids he saw the amorphous shape of Haggar materializing and solidifying before him.
“No, Captain Keith – you are not hallucinating,” she said softly, pointing her staff towards him and lifting him up with it. “I am really here – and the reason why none of your men are tending to you is because they cannot see you. They think your friend Lance and the Princess took you off the field with them, when the truth is I’ve actually included you in my invisibility spell.”
The witch clicked her tongue against her teeth in a sound of mock regret. “That shot you took for the Princess – I was counting on your usual noble and courageous response to threats on her life – was really meant for you. It was a spell to make you lose consciousness and be easier prey for little old me to carry,” she gleefully explained.
Keith struggled to fully open his eyes and break free of the witch’s spell, but to no avail; the pain was too great and he was to weak. He could feel himself floating away, and he no longer knew what was real and what was not.
“Cat got your tongue, didn’t it, my sweet little pilot?” she continued, grinning sinisterly as she drew Keith into a Doom cruiser ship that seemed to materialize from out of nowhere. “You wondered why it was so easy to get the beautiful Princess away, didn’t you? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret.” She put her face near his, and he almost recoiled at the stench of her breath. “The prize I really came to Arus for this time was you.”
The last thing that Keith heard as he fell into
oblivion was the grating sound of the witch’s glee. Then darkness closed
over him, and he knew no more.
The Worst Enemy -- Guilt and Blame