The meteorites Keith and Lance had fiercely battled earlier that evening entered Arus’ atmosphere in a glorious display of light, simulating a shower of falling stars. However, the stunning beauty of the evening was lost on Lance, who gazed sightlessly out of the window of the Castle rec room, restlessly waiting for Samantha to regain consciousness.
Lance sighed. Even now, he didn’t quite understand what had happened that last night he had seen her almost two years ago, the night of their graduation. She had stunned him with the news that she was not going to the service and had gone the very same night, without giving him a chance to convince her to stay. She hadn’t even told him where she was going. He had felt abandoned and betrayed.
And, most of all, he had missed her.
A hand on his shoulder shook him from his reminiscing. He turned and found himself gazing into Keith’s sympathetic eyes. "Sam’s awake, Lance," Keith said, smiling wearily. "The entire team is already at the infirmary waiting for you. I didn’t think it was right for us to interrogate her without you."
"Thanks, Skipper," Lance replied. He grinned wryly, his dry expression belying his nervous tugging of his jacket. "All these years – and she was on a planet that’s less than five hours of space travel on warp 2 speed? Right under my nose. What was she doing there? Then again, that tomboy was always good at hide and seek, even when we were kids."
"If you had really wanted to find her, you would’ve
moved more than heaven and earth to do so," Keith observed, earning a surprised
look from Lance. Keith grinned back at him, one eyebrow raised in skepticism.
"Just make sure you don’t blow it this time around, Lance, okay?" he concluded
cryptically. And he turned away before Lance could ask him what he meant.
"Welcome back to the world," Allura said, smiling into Samantha’s disoriented gray eyes as she hovered over the hospital bed on one side. "And welcome to Arus as well."
Samantha squinted as the blurry world around her suddenly shifted into focus. Her gaze swept the room slowly, resting on the Keith’s familiar features for a moment then moving on to the even more familiar sight of Lance’s dark brown hair and wry smile, who stood at the foot of her bed. Their eyes met, and she saw the worry and the question in his. She looked away hastily, fixing her gaze at the beautiful blue-eyed woman with golden hair smiling at her reassuringly.
"My name is… Samantha Evans," she said slowly, her words slightly slurred. "I am… a Guardian from the Planet Merion. I have come to seek your help."
"And I am the Princess Allura, ruler of Planet Arus," Allura replied, stroking Samantha’s forehead in a motherly gesture. "I’ve heard from Lance and Keith that you are an old friend of theirs, and any friend of theirs is my friend as well. Of course we’ll help you."
Allura gestured towards the foot of the bed at a small wiry boy with nut brown hair and a huge, muscular man with a friendly smile. "I’m not so sure if you know these two, but they’re Pidge and Hunk, the other two members of the Voltron Force aside from Keith and Lance," she introduced.
Pidge and Hunk nodded at Samantha in welcome. "I was a year behind you at the Academy – and I’ve heard all about you. Just tell us who to pound on and we’ll pound ‘em for you," Hunk growled, flexing his muscles and clenching his fist and earning a smile from Samantha.
Keith came nearer to the other side of the bed, standing beside the Princess’ and took Samantha’s hand in both of his. "Hey, Sammy," he said grinning down at her. "Nice to see you haven’t lost your touch with a space craft."
She shook her head and weakly grinned back at him. "And I see that you haven’t lost your touch for being number one everywhere you go. Can you still dance?" she teased weakly, drawing laughter from everyone and a slight blush from Keith as he let her hand go.
Samantha struggled to sit up, and Keith and the Princess helped her, moving her up on the bed and popping her back with pillows. She smiled her thanks at them before she began. "The truth is, I have heard much about what all of you have done here," she said solemnly. "That’s why I have come. My people need your help on Merion. Just last night, four Battle Ships from Planet Doom landed there, led by Haggar and Lotor, and they plan to steal something of utmost importance to our people’s survival. "
"Lotor… well it figures," Pidge said wryly, approaching the foot of the bed and leaning on it, cradling his chin in his hands. "Hey, isn’t Planet Merion the ice planet just at the edge of this Galaxy? Just five hours away from here. But why would Lotor bother – oops." He trailed off and put a hand to his mouth in embarrassment. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult your planet or anything, Samantha."
"It’s all right, Pidge," Samantha said, shifting position and wincing involuntarily when a sharp pain stabbed at her side. "I know what you all must be thinking – what would be so important on the Merion to merit Zarkon’s attention? Our people are not technologically advanced, and the region of the planet where my people live is bound in ice most of the year. But the secret to our survival is also one of the best-kept weapons in the universe."
"The Fire Rocks of Merion," Keith said slowly as realization dawned on him.
"You know about them?" Samantha asked sharply. All eyes had turned to Keith for an explanation.
"They’re a legend in this galaxy," he said shrugging. "I read about them from one of the books in the Castle library, but I never knew that they actually existed. Rocks that generated heat for the people of Merion, whose chemical and structural composition was so unstable that the slightest impact on a rock the size of a fist would release energy equivalent to 500 tons of lazon."
"That is a lot of energy – could blow us into another dimension," Lance said, whistling in awe and shaking his head in wonder. "And an incredibly powerful weapon, if you knew what to do with it."
"I’ve never seen a compound as unstable as you’ve described that can be solid… how did that happen?" Pidge asked with a frown.
"It’s a mystery – I honestly don’t know," Sam said with frank sincerity. "But trust me – they’re very real."
"Okay, I believe you, but rock that unstable can’t be mined, so how did you find out its composition in the first place?" Pidge continued, forever sharp.
"My father, Rear Admiral Sean Evans, did it while he was there," Samantha said with a rueful shake of her head. "It almost killed him at the time, and it would have served him right for not listening to the people’s warnings. He kept the secret even from the Alliance."
"I never knew Admiral Evans was ever at Merion," Lance muttered, frowning and stroking his chin.
"The rock is the reason why Haggar and Lotor are there," Samantha continued urgently, pleading with her eyes to every person in the room. "Haggar has discovered that the winter on Merion freezes the rock so that it is stable enough to be chipped away and refrozen until it is needed. They plan to destroy Voltron with it." She turned to the Princess, an intent look in her gray eyes.
"My people are utterly defenseless – except for me, no one knows how to fight Lotor or Haggar on their terms. They don’t know that every piece of rock they chip off that rock face could destroy us either by disrupting the balance of the system entirely and causing earthquakes that will make the tunnels we live in collapse upon on our heads."
"Damn Zarkon," Lance muttered, disturbed by the desperate look in Samantha eyes and determined to make it go away as all the protective feelings he had felt for her years ago surged back into place. "As the Princess already said, of course we’ll help. We’ve never let Zarkon get away with any of his despicable plots yet, and we certainly won’t start now."
Keith reached out and squeezed Samantha’s hand comfortingly and nodded his agreement. "I must consult with Coran, but if things go the way I think they will, we’ll be ready to fly to Merion at first light tomorrow morning."
Allura gently pushed Samantha back unto the bed and smoothed the sheets around her. "In the meantime, Samantha, lie down and get some rest. You’re in good hands now. We’ll take care of everything. Let’s let Samantha get some sleep, guys."
"Thank you for your kindness – and for saving my life," Samantha said, smiling and closing her eyes.
Lance exchanged a meaningful glance with Keith, who nodded imperceptibly back at him. Keith gently guided Allura out of the room, his hand on her elbow, and gestured for the others to follow. The room was suddenly empty except for Samantha lying still on the bed, whose eyes were already closed, and Lance, who suddenly found that he didn’t know what to say.
He walked towards the bed as silently as he could, not wanting to disturb her but instinctively knowing that she was not asleep. For what seemed like the longest time, he watched her, her thick lashes fanning on her cheeks, skin as clear and as fair as he had ever seen it, the thick chestnut hair spread on the pillow. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she bolted upright from the bed, wincing in pain.
"Lance. What are you still doing here?" she snapped, trying to sound irritated but sounding hollow instead.
"Sammy, I haven’t seen you in two years. Ain’t
an old friend supposed to be concerned about what you’ve been up to?" He
ran a hand through his hair in a nervous gesture, hating the wary look
in her eyes as she watched him from the bed. "Have you been on Merion
all this time?"
She hesitated, then capitulated on a sigh. "Yes, I’ve been on Merion for the past two years," she said.
"Why Merion?"
"My mother came from Merion. Father and she met when he was on a mission for the Galaxy Alliance and his ship crashed there. During the time he was waiting for help to fix his ship, they met, fell in love, and mother came back to Earth with him." She paused to look at him. "Didn’t I ever tell you this story before?"
"I don’t think so, or I would have thought of it when I was trying to figure where you had gone off to," he said wryly, sitting beside her on the edge of the bed. "I… would you believe I missed you? I guess I missed that old tomboy I used to know who sided with me against my sisters and competed with me at everything, ending up winning half of the time."
She didn’t reply to that, merely looked down at her hands twisting the sheets on her lap.
"Samantha… darn it, why didn’t you even say goodbye or tell me where you were going? As your friend, don’t you think I deserved better than that?" he asked, suddenly frustrated by the way she was shutting him out. He realized that she had begun shutting him out even before the night she had left two years ago.
He saw her wince and laid his hand on her shoulder in concern. "Are you in pain?" he asked, peering at her face and becoming alarmed when he saw the tears standing in her eyes. "Do you want me to call Dr. Gorma?"
Her expression was tight, but she shook her head. "I’m fine," she said in a clipped tone. She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes, heaving a sigh. "Lance – it’s in the past, okay? I just felt I had to get away…"
He sat on the edge of her bed and absently stroked wisps of hair off her forehead. "From what?" he asked.
From you, she thought sadly, hating herself for still feeling so strongly about him even after two years. But then, she had loved him for years before that, and he hadn’t even realized it. "From routine. From military life," she said aloud, finally feeling that it was safe enough to let him look into her eyes again. "Besides, Mother had told me I was needed as a Guardian on Merion, and I knew that was what I wanted to do."
"But without telling me where you were going?" he asked in a pained voice. He didn’t know why it mattered to him so much, but he wanted to hear her explanation. Maybe it would help make the feeling that she had simply walked away without even looking back go away.
"Would it have mattered if I had told you where I was going?" she countered softly, gazing up at him with steady gray eyes. "I told you that I was leaving, didn’t I? I did say goodbye." She sighed, allowing herself to lay her hand on top of his lying beside his hip on the sheets. "We couldn’t play under the illusion that we would always be together. Somewhere along the way, we just had to let one another go."
Lance looked from her eyes towards their hands joined on the bed. She was right, he knew, but her hand… it felt right, and the feeling confused him, the same way his feelings had done the last night they were together.
"You’re right," he finally said gruffly, removing his hand from under hers and standing abruptly from the bed. "It wouldn’t have mattered. Rest well, Samantha – we have a long journey tomorrow." Before she could say another word, he had left the room.
When the door whooshed closed, she slowly rose from her bed and stared at it with tears in her eyes. "If you had cared enough to find me, you would have," she whispered softly. Then she lay back again and closed her eyes, remembering the feel of his hand brushing away her hair from her forehead as she slowly fell asleep.
A Second Chance -- A Restless Night