"So, how do you feel?" he asked running the back of his palm across her burning forehead.

"They treat me like I'm dying, but I think it's just a chill. Or worn out, nothing serious." she said smiling as she watched her maids meander around her room for no apparent reason. She wished they would leave. What are they doing?

" I see that Coran keeps you busy even when you're ill." he said picking up one of the many books which rested beside her on her bed. It was a text written in another language, political something or another. He recognized a few words, but quickly put it back down glad to be done with that sort of stuff.

"Yes, sometimes I think that I will have to grow a supplemental brain lobe just to remember all of this."

Laughing gently, he looked back up at her. “Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a Princess.” She was a sight for sore eyes, in her silly pink nightgown and bow she was the perfect picture of virginity. He reached out and touched the bow which bound her hair to the nape of her neck. "How was your stay on Yadl?"

"Interesting. They're scared. But, can you blame them?"

"No, I suppose not. But, Coran tells me that you were superb. He's very proud."

"Was your trip to Pollox successful?" she asked beginning to feel the effects of the drug Dr. Gorma had just administered her.

"Yes, in a way. They are very worried about Romelle. She's alive, at least we know that much."

"What a monster..." she whispered with a sigh of relief. Romelle was alive, that was good news. She blinked her eyes as Keith faded from her focus. He looked so handsome sitting beside her in his black pants and white button-down shirt with suspenders. He smiled down at her, eyes shining through his glasses. What a nice touch. She had never seen him wearing them before.

"I think you'll have to go now, Sir” said one of Allura's nurses when she noticed her flailing eyes.

"Sure," he replied raising to his feet. He swiftly removed his glasses and stuck them in his pocket. "Have sweet dreams, Princess." He softly took he book from a top her chest, folded it, and kissed her softly on the forehead. As the door closed behind him the room erupted in giggles. Allura opened one eye to see her ladies all conspiring.

"Oh Mistress!," said Junip running towards Allura in her bed, almost embarrassed for waking her. "He's so handsome!"

Keith sat silently at his chair watching pictures of Arus flash before him. Everything seemed peaceful. Some strange readings from Tanith Forest, east of the castle, but most likely it was just some kids hanging out. He'd check it out as soon as Lance arrived.

"Hey! I'm here." said Lance as he entered the room. "How was your trip?"

"Fine, but I'm glad to be back."

"You were only gone for four days. By the way, have you gone to see Princess? She's sick." he said nudging Keith in the ribs.

"Yes, I saw her briefly."

"Briefly, yeah right."

"Lance, I'm heading out. I'm going in to town and then I'm going to check out some strange activity in the forest. I think it's just some kids, but I want to check it out anyway. If I don't come back you know what to do" he added jokingly. "Avenge death." yelled Lance noticing how Keith seemed to smile more often lately.

Keith sat on his horse at the edge of the forest, debating whether to go in on foot or ride. He glanced up at the darkening Arus sky. How interesting that at this time of year there were two suns. He recognized less than an hour left of light... he would ride. He turned to secure his bundle on the rear of his steed before entering.

Quickly he headed into the forest, the leaves of the trees creating a makeshift canopy for him. Even though the second sun had not yet set, it was rather dark.

He pointed his horse due east, the direction of the disturbance. The sounds of small animals running this way and that filled his ears. They seemed unusually restless tonight. There was another sound too. Something constant. Most people would not have even noticed it, but it did not feel right. He took the light in his belt and turned it on. Someone, or something was ahead. He prodded his horse to a full trot.

Without warning, something hit him hard in the chest. He grasped his breast as he fell back on to the package tied to the horses rear. Another pain in his arm as he fell heavily to the ground, the flowers he had gathered for Allura spread out beneath him on the forest floor. He quickly retrieved his gun from his belt as he realized he had been shot. Unrelenting pain roared through the left side of his body as he desperately searched in the dark for his aggressor. He fired a few shots into the darkness as he unsteadily rose to his feet and staggered to the nearest tree. Grimacing in pain he fired a few shots into the air. Hopefully someone would see.

He turned on his communication unit. "This is Keith. Does anyone read me?" he asked moving to the next tree. He cursed him self for coming here alone, he never would have let anyone else.

"Yes, Sir. We hear you. Proceed." answered a voice from the castle.

"There's something going on in the forest. I've been shot. Send a squad, fast."

He looked around for his horse. Gone. He would have to leave on foot. He heard footsteps near him. He took one last look around before....darkness.

"Sir?.....Sir are you there?"

"Vot iss id has two feet, has fedders all ofer id, und barks like a dog?"

Slowly Keith opened his eyes. Yep ,it was young Sven sitting there in front of him in his academy uniform.

"What Sven? Damnit, sometimes I can't understand a word you say!"

"Vooot - issss id has - twooo - feeeet, has - fedderrrrs - all - ofer - id, und - barrrrks - like a - dooog?"

"What, I give up."

"A chicgen." he said grasping his belly and falling into a fit of laughter. Keith turned up his eye brow. Why was Sven always the only one to laugh at his jokes. " A chicken doesn't bark like a dog!"

"I know id: I chust pud id in to make id diffiult."

"My turn" yelled another kid running up from behind Sven. Was that Hunk?

"No me, let me!" yelled a little girl. The most beautiful blond haired blue eyed girl ran to stand between Hunk and Sven. "Let me help you Keith!" she squealed.

"What has - " her face froze. There was a man and woman nearby arguing.

The room began to spin. The children slowly disappeared. He was once again in his cell. Darkness swallowing him. Why did they leave me my gun he thought as he grasped it tightly.

He heard the door behind him languidly creak open. He spun around and pointed the blaster at the figure in the doorway. The small room lit up as the laser hit it's mark and he naked figure heavily fell to the floor. A pathetic whimper escaped the expiring body on the parterre as he made for the door.

"Keith," she cried.

He froze. Allura! Light drifted into the room and showed him what he feared. Blue eyes staring up in to the darkness. He seized her wrist. A pulse, he must find a pulse. There was none. He cried out in agony as he picked up her lifeless form and held it to him. She was dead and he had done it. He cried into her hair, stained red, as someone outside the door laughed. And laughed.

"Is there anything there?"

"A dead soldier and a ton of flowers." replied Hunk. "There's no sign of him anywhere."

“Can you tell what kind of soldier? Is it one of zarcon’s or Lotor’s?” asked Lance “No. Keith must have shot him at pretty close range. His whole torso is in shreds.”

"Wait look," cried Pidge. "There's blood."

This couldn't be happening thought Coran. "Keep looking-."

"Master Coran! Master Coran!"

"Yes, what is it?" he replied as Allura's maid ran into Castle Control.

"Mistress Allura! She's- she's worse. She began coughing blood and screaming and-"

"Did you call Dr Gorma!" he asked wide eyed.

"Yes sir, he's with her now. I tried to contact you earlier but you unit was off and everything happened so fast! She's crying for her nanny."

"Where is she now?"

"She was taken to the medical wing." she said in tears.

"Lance, you take over here." he gasped running out the door.

The world was spinning. He fought to open his eyes but even the smallest of movements were hard to achieve. He could feel someone watching him.... and he knew he was about to die. Pain throbbed throughout the right side of his body as the day came back to him. He remembered entering the forest, looking for something. He flexed his hand and let his fingers graze his bare legs. He was acutely aware of the wetness that covered his chest. Blood. He had been wounded, in the forest.

The door opened abruptly and five men quickly walked in and roughly took hold of him.

Painfully they lifted him off the cold floor and dragged him into the hallway.

Coran held her frail hand as she lay lifeless in her bed. Her skin had taken on a deathly ivory color, except for the areas that her blood had stained. Her birthrite was even unusually pale. He listened to the raspyiness of her breathing. How could this happen in the same day? Keith missing and possibly dead. Allura's mysterious sickness. What they had first thought only to be a small cold had now become a deadly virus. The people on Yadl were falling ill too, many already dead.

Her forehead glistened with beads of perspiration. Princess' don't sweat, they perspire! he remembered Nanny often saying. She was crying in her bed in the medical wing. Crying for Nanny. Crying at the horror of the blood spilling over her lips, staining her skin and gown. In that moment he realized her overwhelming fear of being alone. She cried and begged him not to leave her, he would not have thought of it any ways. Putting aside their fears for Keith for one moment, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge had even come to see her.

She had become like a daughter to him since her return from Taro. He loved her as a child, too. Never had he seen such devotion between a father and his child than he had seen between Alfor and Allura, not even with his own son.. Alfor would be so proud of her now.

"We won't let you go now, Princess," he whispered wiping her forehead with the wet washcloth her maid had brought to him. Allura's small form shuddered once before her eyes opened to slits.

The light! It hurt!

"Turn it off!," she screamed sluggishly throwing her arms up to shield her eyes. "The lights! They hurt. Turn it off!"

"Turn them off," he yelled for her maids. "Quickly! Light the candles." He turned back toward her as he room went dark. Slowly, one by one, the candles illuminated her chamber casting a soft glow around her canopy.

"What else do you need? How do you feel?" he implored. Her blue eyes were glassy and spiritless.

"Where's Keith?" she muttered as she closed her eyes. "He's hurt. In pain."

He didn't dare tell now that he was missing. Taken captive by King Zarcon, maybe even dead.

"He's busy. He's on watch." was all he could say before she drifted away again.

"Where are you ? I want you. Come back to me before it's too late. Why won't you come back to me?" she cried holding out her arms to him. The tears were beginning to spill over her cheeks. "Where have you been since that last night in the castle when I was taken away from you. You called out to me then. I want to hear you call out to me again."

" I'm glad you've decided to join us." said a soft female voice.

He opened his eyes to see he was in a dim room. The walls were black, the table in front of him was black, his soul was black. He flinched as a stabbing pain shot through his body. The shot wounds on his chest and arms had never been dressed and they still bled freely, even after all these days. His head gently rolled back when he realized he was bound to his chair by arms and feet, naked.

The past few days were a haze of cognizance. He remembered entering the forest alone to check out a strange reading. Allura sick in bed. Being here. The torture. The questions. The hallucinations.

Where is the new base being constructed?...
Take me to your death.
Can you own it? Can you be responsible for it? said that familiar sweet voice....
What is Voltron's weakness?......
What time of day is it?
Where are you?
What's the room like?......
Do it again said the harsh voice.
Screaming. Pain. Numbness, but never breaking.....
How do you look?
Who's there? Am I?.....
Lotor.
You have one more chance. Tell us where the base is.
Silence. So be it. Life hurt to much anyway....
So it's the moment. This is finally it.
She sat cross legged in front of him, elbows resting on her knees, hands folded gracefully in her lap.
What's the last thing you see and the last thing you say?
You. I love you.

There was a long moment of silence while Keith studied the woman standing in front of him. She was tall, slender, very beautiful. She wore long dawn-tinted hair which hung at her sides framing her face and body. He had seen her once, heard her voice once. She was beating Allura, or coaxing another to. He knew this to be Queen Merla standing in front of him. She smiled sweetly as she spoke, her accented voice was warm, but Keith knew better than to fall for it. He remained still. He knew she was a master at manipulation.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Merla," he whispered. It hurt to even speak. She smiled.

"The file I have on you is quite impressive, Captain Keith. An adolescent hero, son of the great General Dewar. Top of your class at the Space Academy. Captain of the Voltron force, and so young. I was hoping that you would indeed live up to it, and I'm glad not to be disappointed. As you know, I love a challenge." She walked closer to him and kneeled down in front of him. He suddenly felt aware of his nakedness, knowing she had done this to make him vulnerable.

"I saw the torture Zarcon subjected you to.," she said runnning a finger over his hard chest looking provocatively into his dark eyes. "I personally think that even he would have broken under such pain, had he been in your place. You bend, but don't break." Merla reached out to run a slender finger across Keith's face. "How is it that a boy has the body of a man?"

He turned his face away once more feeling the humility of his position. She tightly curled her fingers in his thick, unruly locks and pulled his head back painfully, exposing a sensuous neck.

Keith's only response was to blink.

She tightened her fingers in his hair as she pulled herself up, inches from his face and looked deep into his dark eyes. She scrutinized his strong features. Brawny masculine jaw, hard muscled body. The physique of a man indeed. This would be more fun that she could have imagined.

"You are very strong, young one" she said pressing closer to his face, both hands grasping his hair. "Detached. Yes, that was a word that is used to describe you in your file. You have the ability to detach yourself from your emotions. But, I know we all have weaknesses. Maybe, you and Lotor share one." She looked for a response from him, but there was none.

Keith would not let her know how her words had struck him deep in his heart. He would not let this woman in his head. Allura often tried and failed. Merla would die trying too.

"We have something in common, Captain." Her hands loosened from the tight grip she had on his hair and began to slide down his face. She moved her lips within centimeters of his. "You know there's a fine line between ecstasy... and torture. It is a line I think you may know all to well ."

Keith looked away. He could feel her breath on his lips as she spoke. He wouldn't let her know he had any such weakness.

In the back of his mind he heard Merla laugh as her fingers ran gently over his lips. They caressed his chin before grazing his neck. He kept his face an expressionless mask, even as she ran her fingertips over his bare chest, the sculptured lines and curves of smooth skin over rock hard muscle. He knew that the body was a powerful weapon and that the enemy could try manipulation through sexuality. Keith didn't scare easily, though.

"The human body is very fascinating don't you agree?" she whispered into his ear, hands lingering on his bare legs. "Does Allura tell you how beautiful you are? That you have the face of an angel? Probably not. She’s to shy. I had great plans for her, you know. I was going to show her what being a woman was all about." She pulled back to study his face. Still no reaction.

"You know," she said raising to her feet to stand above her prisoner. "They were ready to kill you back there. Lotor would like nothing more than to see you dead. But, I'm not going to kill you. I have other plans for you. They don't understand just how valuable you could be to them. Everyone has a breaking point. I’m here to find yours."

Keith turned his head to lock eyes once more with Queen Merla. He had accepted that he was here to die long ago. She was just delaying it. There was no way he would ever tell them what they wanted to know, he would at least die with dignity.

"I'm sure you would prefer death, you may even beg for it. But, no. Not now. " She slowly began walking around the room. "You know, your pristine Princess has taken a turn for the worse. They're fearing for her absurd life." She glanced toward him. Still no reaction. He was good.

"What's the little one's name? I forget..Sally? No...ah, yes.....Stephanie. What a darling little sister you have captain."

Keith tightened up for one moment. He knew, though that it was standard procedure for the family of a captured soldier to be put in hiding, in case of circumstances such as this. He was not worried about his family. They would be safe.

"I have something for you. It should make you feel better, for a moment." she said after a few moments of silence.

He kept his gaze straight in front of him. There was no need to look at what she was doing. There was nothing he could do about it. He shuddered slightly as something stuck him in the neck.

He felt a cool liquid drip down his neck. It turned the veins in his gorge into ice. He was suddenly aware of the blood pumping through his veins. It made its' way to his arms, heart, legs. His head began to feel heavy as his entire body relaxed. Slowly the pain in his body, head, soul didn’t seem to matter anymore.

"Doesn't that feel better, young one?"

"Do we have to do this? Please, not today...." she begged tearfully.

"Princess, please. We need this to help you." said Coran lifting her up to a sitting position.

She tearfully wrapped her frail arms around his neck and buried her face on his shoulder. She moaned aloud as she felt Dr Gorma unbutton her back of her gown to expose her back.

"It will be over in one moment." He held her tight.

"Please. It hurts," she cried. "No, please. Please don't!"

Coran ran his fingers through her hair to comfort her. Her crying broke his heart. Lance kneeled behind the two and placed a hand on her arm. She raised her head from Corans shoulder to lock eyes with him. She shuddered violently in anticipation.

This had been some of the worse days he had spent here on Arus. Keith was missing and Coran would not allow them to go after him. He said he did not want to risk losing any more of them, and besides, they had no idea where Keith had been taken to. He was right. They really had no idea where Keith had been taken to. He could be on Doom or God knows where on Lotor's cruiser. The best they could do was wait until Keith contacted them. Lance somehow knew though, that if it were one of them captured, Keith would know what to do.

Immediately after his disappearance the Galaxy Garrison had been informed and his mother and sister relocated. It had been three days since Keith's disappearance. Allura was getting worse each day and the doctors had no idea what to do for her. She was kept sedated most of the time to ease her pain and when she was awake she cried. Her crying was enough to put anyone in agony.

No, nothing was going right.

Lance felt his stomach churn when he saw the size of the needle the Doctor was about to pierce Allura with. He searched his mind for something diverting to say, but her crying eyes were all he could see. Her eyes squeezed tightly as she screamed softly. She buried her face in Coran's chest and tightened her grip about his neck.

"Just one more," said the doctor softly.

Allura waited as he prepared the next needle, her body trembling. She quietly cried into Corans chest as the Doctor placed something cold on her back.

"Just relax," he said running his fingers over her upper back. Her muscles were in knots. "We're almost done here."

Allura cried aloud once more as the long, thick probe stuck deep into her back. Lance had rested his hand on her head. She glanced up through tearful eyes to see him kneeling before her. His slightly tanned skin began to change color. He darkened to blue and his brown eyes became yellow. His short dark hair grew long and white. Allura lost her breath.

"No! Leave me alone! Stay away!" she screamed trying her best to push him away. "Don't touch me!" She began panting as Coran leaned her back, cradling her head in his hand. The soft candle lit room was fading in and out.

“Lotor.... make him leave.” she mumbled.

"She's hallucinating. I gave her a sedative. She’ll be asleep in seconds." said Dr Gorma.

“No....no,” she mumbled as her eyes fluttered closed.

Keith had no recollection of how many days had passed. Merla had tried her best to break him. She injected him with her poisonous liquid for days. Three, four, ,maybe five times a day. She pumped him full enough to put him in hell and then leave him alone to wither. Every second of Keith's existence was agony.

Keith was shaking, curled up in the corner, covered in sweat as he gritted his teeth to keep from calling out. The door slowly opened and Merla gently glided in, dressed in luxurious green robes. She set the green cloth, which she held in her hands down in the corner before she made her way to her prisoner. How pitiful he looked curled into a ball in the corner of the room. She gently brushed her fingernails down his bare back before pulling him back into her arms. She looked sweetly into his eyes as she brushed the hair from his face.

"I can stop the pain, my darling Keith," she whispered into his ear. "I can stop the pain and give you pleasure. It would be so easy."

Keith heard the words. They leaped off the walls of the room, but they made no sense to him. She was right about one thing, though. He did want to beg for death, but he wouldn't allow a word to be spoken to this lady. He kept his mouth closed, if he opened it he was not sure what would come out.

"Let me show you pleasure. All you have to do is tell us what we want. Afterwards, you can stay here with me. Be mine. Would you like that?" she asked pressing her lips upon his soaked forehead.

Her sapphire eyes stared at him innocently. He almost expected to see tears in her eyes, but there were none. She looked deep into his eyes and whispered,," You know how it is when you are a child and you cry from such a deep place...." At that moment she slowly brushed the back of her hand against her breast. "You cry and can not find your breath." Allura lifted her eyes up to him, but not her head. He could not take his eyes off her hand, gently brushing against that place so dear to her, and one day someone else.
Allura...

"I have a gift for you" she said reaching for the green cloth that rested in the corner of the room. She let the silk fall greedily upon his bare chest. That smell, that beautiful smell. Only one person could smell so sweetly.

He pulled the silk up to his face glaring at Merla through eyes bleared with unshed tears. If she wanted to drive him mad, it was working. He pulled himself away from her hold and curled back into a ball in his corner. Merla watched the young man's body twitch in pain. He remained silent. Not a whimper or moan escaped him.

She watched him sit huddled in the corner, his knees drawn up to his chin, head down on his knees and his forearms bleeding from the undressed wounds inflicted from days of torture. The laser wounds on his chest and arms had not been taken care of either. Merla knew he would soon bleed to death, maybe before he told her what she wanted to know.

"I did not think Lotor would give up that precious piece of material. He's such a sentimentalist."

She watched as Keith lifted his head. There was a fire in those dark eyes. A burning one. Was that hatred. Was it the flames of hell she peered into. Yet there was something else there. Heavily, Keith's head fell back to his knees. She felt a wave of sorrow for the young man. He was strong, very strong. He could have been very useful to her. He was doomed to die, though. Withdraw would claim him if not the loss of blood.

But, he was their best chance, she was not about to give up on him now.

She continued talking, but Keith paid no attention to her words.

"...from such a deep place....cannot find your breath..."
Nobody knows the thoughts that came over me....
No fears, no tears,
We both had a lifetime of living
We'll be together again....

At the thought of her Keith twitched. But that was all. There were no feeling anymore. No emotions, just pain. He felt him self drifting off again. He did not realize that a single tear escaped his eye and fled down his cheek.

She quietly watched him through the thin drapes that surrounded her bed. She watched, but was hardly aware he was there. He was hard to see in the soft candle light, but she knew when he arrived. He walked back and forth, as if looking for something. She was unaware of how long she watched him. Time had lost meaning to her.

“Lorot...” she mumbled. He didn’t hear. “Lorot...” she cried a bit louder.

He paused for one moment and ran to her bed side. He pushed the material hanging around her bed away and sat at her side.

“What did you call me?” he asked softly. She looked terribly frail. Her skin almost translucent, he could see the blue veins struggling to do their jobs.

Fear seized her. Was he really there. How had he moved the curtains. Had Arus fallen to him while she was asleep. Her breathing quickened as a cry escaped her lips.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m not here...” Lotor ran his hand across her glistening forehead.

“I can feel you.” she mumbled.

“Yes, an improvement. But, I can’t feel you.” He was brushing loose strands of hair out of her eyes.

“Did you do this to me?” she asked slowly. It was difficult to talk.

His brow furrowed at that thought. Did she still think he would harm her?

“You know I would never harm you. How can you ask that?”

Her eyes seemed to focus past him. Her head rolled as if following something in flight across her chamber. It broke his heart to see her look like this. He reached out and grasped the blue bow that held her hair at her neck, but felt nothing. It seemed almost silly that she wore bows with her nightgown.

“I’m dying...” she whispered almost inaduibly.

“No! I won’t let that happen.”

“They haven’t told me,” she continued turning her head back toward him. “But, I know. I can feel it.”

“Allura, I will not let you die. You have to tell me where you’ve been. I’ll find a cure. I searched your - “

“I can’t even sit up on my own. My body, I can’t even feel it at times. There’s blood-” she continued as if not ever hearing him. She was almost oblivious to him.

“You must tell me something I can use to help you.”

“I don’t want to die!” she said bursting into tears. His heart stopped beating for one second. He wanted to take her into his arms and bring her back to his palace. “Not like this. Not here in my bed.”

“I won’t let you die..”

“My father died fighting, my mother died fighting, I would rather die at your hands than left here in this room. Withering.” she cried glareing up at the roof of her canope.

“Allura!” he said harshly taking her face in his hands. Their eyes locked. “Tell me where you have been. I will help you.”

“Yadl. I was on Yadl.” she said almost fearfully.

“Isn’t that my fathers?”

“No longer. We helped - “

“Another disgrace to my fathers name.” he said looking down at her. The more the bettter. He would make his move soon.

Her eyes closed slightly as her body shuddered.

“I love you, my beautiful Princess.” he whispered kissing her forehead. You’ll be mine one day. “There is no time to waste. I’ll return.”

She had already closed her eyes.

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