The minute Sven saw Romelle, he took her in his arms and didn't let go. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"I've missed you," she said.

"And I you," he replied.

He led her to the armchairs and pulled her onto his lap. He didn't want to let her go no matter the impropriety of their position.

"Allura just came by to see me," she said.

"Yes, I know. Vat did she haf to say?"

Romelle licked her lips. "I'm...I'm..."

"Vat is it?" he demanded, shaking her slightly as he panicked. "Vat is it, Romelle?"

"I'm pregnant," she said quietly. "It's Lotor's baby."

Sven turned an interesting shade of red as anger and disbelief sank in. He pulled slightly away from Romelle and his movement cut her to the quick. She pulled free from the circle of his arms and stood before him, a slim, shaking girl, again pulled back by the past that she had thought she escaped.

He stared at her. "Vat are you going to do?"

"Am I going to keep it, you mean?" she said. "No. I'm not."

He wasn't surprised at her answer, but he sighed. "Oh."

She frowned. "What do you mean, oh? Do you want me to keep it?"

He hesitated visibly. She leaned forward and looked him in the eye.

"Tell me what you think," she said, but immediately regretted saying it when she heard his words.

"Keeping it would be like showing Lotor dat you're not going to let him defeat you," Sven said quietly, haltingly. "Keeping the child and raising him up to be a good person would be like telling Lotor that you are stronger than he is.

Romelle looked at him, aghast. "What?!?"

"You're giving in to your fear. Do you tink dat Lotor cares wedder or not you kill a child of his? He has hundreds of children from his harem, but if you keep dis child and teach him how to be a good person, you vin."

Romelle walked over to her night table where a vase of red flowers sat. She stared at the blood red flowers, thinking of the way Lotor touched her and forced himself on her. She couldn't even think of the child as a person, but more of a reminder of her past life. If she had been stronger, if they had gotten her out sooner, she might have considered keeping it, but now...

She picked up the vase and fired it in Sven's direction all her frustration and rage boiling over to something she couldn't control. It screamed by his ear, but he didn't even flinch. He looked at her with sad eyes and stood.

"Get out," she said, turning her back on him. "You don't know what it's like to have lived what I've lived. You don't understand that I can't have this child no matter whether Lotor wins or not. I will not go through nine months of discomfort and then pain only to bare the child of a thing that I hate with my whole heart. Your ideas are pretty, Sven, but I will not do it."

He moved towards her, but then stepped back. "I'm sorry, Romelle. I just vanted to tell you vat I tot."

She nodded, her shoulders trembling slightly as she quietly cried. "Go. Please."

He stepped through the door and when it slid shut, she threw herself on her bed.

What else can possibly go wrong? she thought hopelessly.

As much as she hated to admit it, Sven had a point. But she couldn't even consider having the child. She couldn't bare a blue-skinned child with blonde hair and blue eyes and remember what Lotor had done to her every time she looked at it. She couldn't submit it to that.

She put a hand on her stomach.

"I'm sorry, Little One," she said. "I wish it could have been different. If you were Sven's..."

Gwen found Lance in the rec room, Morgan in his arms. He looked up when she came in, her brown hair tousled and her clothes wrinkled. The expression on her face was one of complete anguish as she looked at her baby daughter who would grow up without the love of her father and her grandparents. Lance held out his free arm to her and she went to sit next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"At least we still have each other," he said weakly.

"Yeah," she said hoarsely. "Can I hold my baby?"

Lance handed Morgan over who cooed at her mother's touch. Gwen clucked at her daughter, rearranging the blanket around her and kissing her forehead. She whispered something in the baby's ear that Lance couldn't hear, but from the tears in Gwen's eyes, it was something that he wished Morgan could understand.

"I want you stay here with me, Gwennie," Lance said quietly. "We have to stick together now that we're the only Branegans left."

Gwen smiled a small, sad smile. "Here? You do know that this is a hot spot, don't you? How much safer are we here than we were on Luna?"

"For one thing, we're not blown into little pieces."

Gwen's face darkened with anger and she pulled away from him. "Would it be too hard for you to be a little more sensitive?"

Lance was startled by her hostile tone, but the strain he had been under and the stress he was feeling had taken its toll on him. He couldn't help but feel a matching anger rise up in him.

"That isn't the issue here, Gwenevere," he retorted. "I can protect you from Zarkon. We have the Lions and we have Voltron. We suffered a lot less damage than any other planet in the Alliance."

"There isn't much to damage," Gwen returned.

They glared at each other. Morgan, sensing the animosity growing between the two adults, began to whimper. They didn't appear to notice.

"You want me to raise Morgan on this..this dustball surrounded by mecha and war? I don't think so, Lance."

"You want to leave then? What if I lose you too..." he said, his voice cracking despite himself.

Gwen visibly calmed and put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Then come with us. Resign your commission and come with us to..to some neutral planet in the outer rims."

He looked at her sadly and as she looked back at him, she knew his answer and knew that though she suggested it, she would probably never leave the Alliance either.

"You know I can't just pick up and leave," Lance answered. "The team is counting on me. Would you leave if you were in my position?"

Gwen looked down at her daughter who had stopped whimpering and was now asleep. "No. I probably wouldn't. I can't even resign my commission now. Not when Zarkon is destroying other planets and other families. I can't look at Morgan and not think about other children out there dying or losing their parents because of him. I have to help."

"When did life get so hard, Gwennie?"

"When Zarkon first attacked Pluto Five," she replied. "When a million people lost their lives and this war began."

"So, what are you going to do?"

She stood and went to the window. The Arusian sun was just setting and the sky was streaked with pinks and oranges. A soft light was thrown across the brown landscape, dotted with a few patches of green and Voltronia sprawling across it. It was far different from Luna and its eternal darkness, its blacks and grays. Arus was far from paradise, but for now it would have to do. She was too tired to go anywhere else and set up a new home. Not when they hadn't even buried their dead.

"I'll stick around for a little while," she said, cuddling Morgan.

Lance put an arm around her shoulders. "Good."