Keith sprang up, lithe as a cat, and risked a glance at the weapon that had been hurled at him. There was no spearhead and he kept hold of his laser, but the makeshift weapon had made him roll away from a position where he could shoot Allura down from the net and still blunt her fall to the ground.
Damn.
Keith refocused his gaze on his adversary, who was standing high up in the tree in front of him, and trained his laser in that direction.
Keith’s enemy was a tall man, face covered by a thick dark beard. It was no wonder that Keith had not noticed him for he was wearing clothes the same color as the trunk and the foliage of the tree. In the shadows of the leaves, he was almost invisible. The man sprang down from the higher branch to a lower one where Keith could see him more clearly. The man motioned to someone behind and above Keith, and, to Keith’s alarm, he heard the unmistakable swishing sound of the net being drawn higher up the other tree.
The man grinned wolfishly down at Keith, who was still keeping him in his laser’s sights. He leaned insolently against the tree trunk and placed his hands across his chest. “I suggest you put that thing away,” the man suggested coolly. “That is, unless you want the little lady to get hurt.”
“If you hurt her…” The words were said through Keith’s gritted teeth, even if he knew he had no choice but to comply to the stranger’s demand. He put the laser away, risking a look behind him to see what was being done to Allura. Two other men, who were now busy cutting her free, had drawn her up towards one thick branch higher up in the other tree. Keith turned back towards the man. “If they hurt her, I am going to make you sorry you ever met me, I promise you.”
“Ah, she is your woman, I see,” the man said, continuing to grin mirthlessly. “I give you credit for good taste – she is lovely. Did you purchase her from Erinol?” The man laughed shortly, but there was no humor in it. His next words were clipped and no-nonsense. “Who are you, and what business do you have in these woods?”
“Who are you and what right do you have to hold us?” Keith countered just as curtly, his own stance defiant. He had a good idea that this man was part of the Resistance forces they had been sent to help, but the way he was threatening him and Allura grated on his already frayed temper.
The man raised his eyebrows at his temerity. “My name is Lyon, one of the leaders of Aidel’s Resistance movement. These woods are not part Erinol’s domain, boy,” he snapped. “We who live here are freemen – and soon we mean to see that all of Aidel will be.” He glared down at Keith, but the young Captain refused to be intimidated.
“In that case, we’re on the same side,” Keith explained, his voice testy, but relaxing his stance slightly. “We are from the Voltron Force – from the Planet Arus – and we have been sent by the Galaxy Alliance in response to your call for help.” He inclined his head in Allura’s direction. “Let her go, and we will call our other friends so that we can plan strategy. They are waiting at our ships.”
The man’s eyes narrowed at him suspiciously. “You really think it’s that easy? A man in fear for his life would tell any lie if it meant saving it,” the man said, his eyes glittering dangerously. He swung down from the tree with one of the strong vines and dropped right in front of Keith. They stood at a level with one another, being of the same height. The man’s dark eyes bored into Keith’s, made even darker with suspicion.
“I saw your ships as they landed – and they are in the shapes of beasts, like the monsters that witch Haggar sometimes turns one of the slaves at the base into. How do we know that you speak the truth about being from the Galaxy Alliance and that you are not some spy Erinol has sent from Zarkon?”
Keith met the older man’s eyes with a level gaze of his own, his expression not giving anything away. “You don’t know,” he stated coolly. “You have to trust me and my word.”
For a long moment, they locked gazes, none of them giving an inch – until the man laughed. But this time the laugh held a tinge of respect. “You have guts,” he said grudgingly. “I have all the aces in my hand, and you know it – but you stand there cool as ice as if you still have some miracle up your sleeve, and I like that.” He stroked his beard thoughtfully before offering Keith a proposition. “And because of that, I’ll give you a chance to free yourself and your companion completely.”
“Unhand me! Let me go, you cads!” Allura’s shrill demands could be heard from above them. “I’ll push us all off this branch, I swear I will…!”
“Sir Lyon, what do we do with the girl?” one of the beleaguered men holding Allura called out. “She is thrashing around so much that we are all in danger of falling.”
“Try to hold her until the young man and I have settle things down here,” the man named Lyon called out to his two men, looking at the two of them struggling with the slight Princess with some amusement. Keith could very well imagine what was going on behind his back, and he had to resist the impulse to let out a shout of laughter at how Allura was holding her own – and another impulse to tell her to stop risking her neck by thrashing about. It was a long way down.
Lyon turned his attention back to Keith. “That woman of yours is almost as feisty as you are,” Lyon said, shaking his head with amusement. He cracked his knuckles in anticipation, a battle glint in his eyes. “I challenge you to a match of hand-to-hand combat,” he continued. “If you win, I will let you and the woman go and do as you please – and should you chose to stay in these woods, you will have our hospitality… and my humblest apologies.”
“And if I lose?”
The man shrugged. “When you lose, you’ll be too injured to do any harm to our cause – and we will keep the woman. We are in need of another infiltrator – and she seems to be a suitable one,” he said thoughtfully. “And… we want one of your ships.”
“’The woman,’” Keith said in a level voice, “is a Princess of the Royal House of Arus. Let her go now, you have yourself a deal.”
The man raised his supercilious eyebrow again. “Stakes too high for you as they are?” he asked. “Very well. She is free, no matter the outcome of this battle of ours.” He nodded approval grudgingly. “To be honest, I did not expect you to have enough guts to follow through the challenge.” His eyes began to twinkle. “Maybe there is more truth in what you are saying than I believe.”
“Do you want to back out?” Keith interjected smoothly. “You still have time.”
“No,” he denied, laughing once more, an even heartier sound than before. “Even if I already believe you – and I am not saying that I do – I won’t deprive myself of the chance to encounter a worthy opponent. I will enjoy beating you.” He stopped grinning. “We begin.”
Allura, struggling at her perch on top of the other tree’s branches, stopped suddenly when she saw the first movements of battle below her between Keith and these despicable men’s leader. She stooped down, trying to get a closer look, and was immediately held back by one of the two men. She glared up at him. “I don’t have any wings hidden on me, and have no plans of sprouting any, so I’m obviously not going to be going anywhere,” she snapped. “I just want to see what’s going on –“
A loud laugh from below as well as the suddenly awed looks on her captors’ face made her turn to the fight going on below her. The man they had called Lyon had just jumped away from Keith, and he was grinning even as he had his fists in front of him in the ready. Keith’s hands were in the ready position as well, but his hands were open, and he was glaring at the man warily.
“You are good, I’ll give you that,” Lyon conceded with a grin, his breathing only slightly irregular. “You remind me of my fighting style… when I was younger.”
“I was trained by the best,” Keith said, not winded at all, moving towards Lyon and giving a high kick that nicked Lyon on the upper arm as he blocked the kick. “This is ridiculous. We’re on the same side. I was sent here to help you –“
Keith blocked one of Lyon’s strikes with his upper arms and retaliated with a strike of his own. They were evenly matched, with Keith’s advantage in speed making up for Lyon’s advantage in experience. However, in the next flurry, Lyon managed to get a grip around Keith’s neck. Keith backed into him and dug his elbow into his opponent’s stomach, earning a small grunt from him. At the sound, Keith attempted to throw Lyon over his shoulder, but the man evidently knew the move and neutralized it, holding his ground and maintaining his grip around Keith’s neck. As Keith struggled to get Lyon to loosen it, the medallion he was wearing under his uniform was pulled free and dropped unto Keith’s chest.
“Give up?” Lyon asked, satisfaction ringing in his voice.
“Not a chance,” Keith ground out. Ridiculous as this battle was, he was not going to let this overbearing egomaniac win against him without giving him a few bruises in the process. He used his legs to trip the man who held his neck captive, and Lyon toppled backward, taking Keith with him. As soon as they hit the ground, Keith rolled away and sprang up, his arms in the ready position once more as he waited for Lyon to stand up.
“Good move,” Lyon praised. He raised his hands to his eyes as sunlight glinted on Keith’s medallion and blinded him momentarily, disoriented even as he put his hands into the ready position as well. Keith saw his chance and charged in, moving low to the ground and sweeping a leg under his feet. Once Lyon fell again, Keith moved in for the kill, straddling his opponent and raising his fist in a direct line towards Lyon’s face. But Lyon bucked up violently and threw Keith off, and before Keith could struggle up, Lyon pinned him down with his entire body in a wrestler’s move. The action brought Lyon nose to nose with Keith’s medallion, and he froze as soon as he saw it.
Lyon stared at the medallion with eyes widened with disbelief, his mind evidently off the fight as Keith felt his grip slacken slightly. “Who are you?” he asked softly, looking from the medallion to Keith’s face, his dark eyes troubled.
Keith took advantage of Lyon’s distraction to throw him off, rolling away and springing to his feet in one smooth motion. He stood with his arms at the ready position, glaring at Lyon warily as the older man stood up and moved towards him. But there was no battle glint in his eyes, only a troubled frown creasing his forehead.
He held up his hands in a gesture of truce as he stepped nearer to Keith. “This match is a draw – I concede that you are a worthy opponent, though I now believe that you are not an enemy of mine at all.” His eyes remained fixed on the medallion, his hand reaching for it and lifting it from Keith’s chest, studying it closely. He pinned the younger man with the intensity of his gaze. “But who are you? Where did you get this medallion?”
Keith met his glance unflinchingly. “My name is Captain Keith Zachary Montgomery of the Galaxy Alliance, leader of the Voltron Force of Planet Arus,” he answered, searching the older man’s drawn and pale face with a dawning realization and suddenly recognizing his own father’s eyes burning in the man’s face. “This medallion was a gift from my father, Admiral Zachary Lionel Montgomery, and was given to me the night before my parents left for their last mission more than ten years ago – before they crashed on the surface of this planet.”
His words fell into a pool of stillness, as Lyon raked his eyes over Keith’s face, an almost hungry expression in them, for long moments. Hunger – and fear that what was before him was an illusion.
A fear that Keith also felt, his heart thudding loudly in his ears as he waited.
“Keith,” the older man finally breathed. “It is you.” Without further ado, he reached out and crushed Keith to him tightly. Keith did not resist but returned the embrace, in that moment all of eleven years old again. They embraced one another for long moments, as if trying to make up for the past ten years lost.
“Son – God, I’ve missed you,” Lyon said, his voice breaking with emotion. “I’m sorry, Keith. So damned sorry.”
“I know, Dad,” Keith responded just as gruffly. “But I forgave you and Mom a long time ago.”
Zach finally let Keith go, pushing him away with a playful violence, his eyes glistening with happy tears held back. “Look at you,” he said, his voice infused with cheer as he pushed his more turbulent emotions away, realizing that although there was more to be said this was not the time for it. Zach held his son an arm’s length away from him, scrutinizing the changes the years had wrought him. He nodded approval at what he saw. “No wonder I didn’t recognize you. When did you shoot up and grow all those muscles – and thank God you didn’t inherit your mother’s squirt-like height. And what rank did you say you were – a Captain?”
“Yes, Dad,” Keith replied wryly, enjoying his father’s scrutiny. He raised his eyebrow at his father, moving his head to indicate Allura, who was still up in the tree and looking down at the proceedings with wide cerulean eyes filled with dawning realization of her own. The two men there with her were staring at him and his father with expressions of combined horror and bewilderment. “Dad, I know we have a lot of catching up to do, but I have a friend still being held captive by your men up there –“
“Ah, she is your ‘friend,’ is she?” Zach said knowingly, glancing up
at Allura then slapping his son’s shoulder when he noted Keith’s disgruntled
expression. “So that’s what you call each other these days.” He called
up to the trees, motioning to his men with his hands. “Kilnar, Peilor,
get that lovely lady down here at once. These people are our allies.” Then
he looked at Keith with a proud glint in his eyes, putting his arm around
Keith’s broad shoulders. “Besides that, I want you both to meet my eldest
son.”