Chapter Four
“I hate this…I hate it,” Bethie muttered over
and over as she pounded her fist on her control panel.
“We
all do,” Matt said, his eyes on the shrinking blue dot that was Arus.
“We’re
running away and leaving them when they need us the most,” Jordan said.
“This
is what Mom and Dad wanted us to do,“ Ethan said. “We do as they say.”
“This
is a goddamn risky plan,” Bethie spat.
“They
had no choice,” her brother argued. “The
Lotorians, whoever the hell they are…they had
us. You saw it, Bethie. We didn’t stand a chance of winning this one
and they would have been willing to wipe us all out—we can’t let that happen.”
“We
are going to make this work,” Matt said, his voice low and tired. “We have to.
They’re counting on us.”
Jack
listened to them talk. He took his
helmet off, his movements slow and deliberate.
The battle had been draining but the situation was unbearable. He felt the same as he did, and in the past,
he would have ignored their orders and stayed—and gone down in flames. When Keith and Allura told them what they had
been planning, the reactions of the Voltron Force had
been an understandable outrage. To
abandon Arus was impossible to understand…then the
King and Queen explained the rest of it.
The
lack of knowledge about the Lotorians was their
biggest weakness, a weakness that only had one remedy. Keith and Allura had sacrificed themselves
and their people in order to give the Alliance and the Voltron
Force the time to learn more about the Lotorians’ abilities. It didn’t take a genius to know that the Lotorians would come to Arus with
their guns firing. According to their
reasoning, Arus would always remain a target if Lotor wasn’t stopped and his obsession was their
weapon. It came at a great cost to Arus, but it ensured the safety of the billions of citizens
in the Alliance and more importantly, protected their future. The Lotorians would
have come no matter what and by acting quickly, they ensured that Arus would have a chance…a glimmer of hope.
That
is if their goddamn plan, as Bethie had so eloquently put it, worked.
“Ease
up,” Jack said. “We’ve got a bit to go
before we get to our destination and even when we get there, this journey is
far from over. I’ve got first watch. Go into hibernation.”
It
didn’t surprise Jack that five minutes after he gave the order, the Red Lion
opened a private channel to the Black.
“The
responsibilities just keep adding up, don’t they?” Bethie said.
“One
day, you’re defending Arus, the next you’re supposed
to save it from a seemingly unbeatable enemy,” Jack said.
“How
are you holding up?”
“If
I ever get a good night’s sleep again, it’ll be a miracle.”
Bethie
recognized the changes in her friend, saw how much he had grown up in the last month,
and though she had been sorry to say goodbye to the boy her best friend had
been, she admired the man that he had become.
She should not have been surprised that Jack’s broad shoulders could
carry the responsibilities that the Black Lion brought, but she had been. Jack, who had been the first to disobey a
direct order from the King of Arus when he stubbornly
refused to stop running in the castle, who had chafed under the authority of
those above him at the Academy and had enough demerits to paper the walls of
his room, fit much better behind the controls than she ever did.
“You’re
going pretty good so far,” she said.
“Thanks
for the vote of confidence,” he said sarcastically.
“I
mean it, Jack,” she said a moment later.
“If there’s anyone who can pull this off, it’s you. Mom and Dad knew it would take someone truly
off-kilter to see their crazy plan to the end.”
He
snorted.
“Modest
for once. The Black is getting to you.”
“Must
be. Get some rest, Bethie.”
“No,”
she said easily. “You might be the
leader, but technically, as Heir, I outrank you.”
“Nice,”
he said wryly. “Don’t let Ethan hear
that. I don’t need two upstarts—one is
already too many.”
“Don’t
worry. He’s too much of a stickler to
even consider it.”
“Thank
Riaru for small miracles.”
Bethie
leaned back in her seat, hugging her knees to her chest. “What I wouldn’t give to be in Castle Control
right now,” she said quietly. “Our
parents…they’re all there.”
“Heroes
no matter what,” Jack said, an edge in his voice. “I talked to my mom before…before it
all. To Jay, too. Dad…he was out of range, but he left me a
message telling me that he’d see me again soon and to not let you boss me around.”
“We’ll
see them again,” she reassured him. “We
will.”
“It
won’t be the same. It’ll never be the
same again.”
“No…no,
it won’t.”
“Bethie?”
“Yeah?”
“I
really need a hug right now.”
At
that, Bethie let out a short laugh. “You
always know the right thing to say.”
In
the Black, Jack smiled, but it was fleeting.
“We’ll make it.”
“I
know. And you know, as scared as I am,
I’m glad it’s us out here. I don’t think
I would have trusted anyone else.”
“Me,
too.”
The
woman that walked through the burned doorframes of Castle Control was tall,
blue-skinned, and wore armor that somehow managed to cling to her curves. She wore a headpiece that framed a face
breathtaking in its beauty, her yellow eyes cat-like and sensual as she looked
around the room. She was at least as old
as Allura but she moved with an ease that belied her years. Then, she smiled, and it was pure evil.
Keith
and Allura were shocked to see that she had a group of ARF soldiers behind her,
being forced forward by the Drules behind them,
rifles held at ready. Among them was Skech, battered and bloody, but his head held high. He nodded at them in acknowledgement before
he was forced to his knees along with his fellow prisoners. They had held out as long as they could, but
Oceania Base was overrun and they were part of the few that had made it out
alive. It was the same story all over Arus and the enemy had finally made its way into the heart
of the planet after five hours of futile battle. It showed in the faces of all the Arusians present, born and bred as well as adopted.
The
heels of the woman’s boots clicked as she slowly walked to where Keith and
Allura were standing, five rifles pointed at their backs. They had held out in Castle Control as best
they could, but the thick steel doors had given way to the laser cannons the Lotorians had stationed outside. Neither of them had any intention of dying
that day so they had ordered their soldiers to put down their weapons, and they
had surrendered. Keith and Allura had
hated it, but then again, they hated everything that was happening.
“Who
the hell are you?” Allura spat.
“Do
you really think you want to take that tone of voice with the woman who
controls the ships that can shoot Arus back to the
desolate planet it was when Zarkon owned it?” the
woman said, her voice low and smooth.
“Sometimes your pride overshadows your obvious intelligence, Your
Highness. But to answer your question,
my name is Merla.
I am Lotor’s second-in-command.”
Merla looked beyond them to the handful of officers
who had been stationed in Castle Control with them. They were on their bellies, faces on the
ground, as her contingent of Drule soldiers pointed
their rifles at them. Not that they
really needed the rifles; Merla’s experienced eye saw
that the young soldiers were held prisoner by their own fear. She turned her gaze back to the Royal couple
and her smile widened. They were not
afraid in the least—not that she expected anything less from them.
Allura
snarled as Merla shoved her roughly, forcing her to
her knees. She signaled for the soldiers
to do the same to Keith. Neither of them
showed any change in demeanor when two rifles were pressed against the back of
their heads.
“Where’s
Lotor,” Keith demanded.
Yellow
eyes slid slowly to Keith and Merla took a single
step to stand in front of him. With one
long-nailed finger, painted red for the occasion, she tilted his chin up so
that she could get a clear look at his defiant expression.
“You
are a pretty one, Porterfield,” she purred, full red lips pouting
playfully. “How old must you be now? Fifty?
The years have been kind, but oh, to have had you twenty years ago. I’ll have to make do with your son. He did, after all, inherit your face and I’m
sure, your stamina.”
Keith
bared his teeth and moved as if to rise, but the rifle pushed hard against his
head, reminding him that he was not as free as he would like to be. Merla laughed and
took a step back.
“Interesting
maneuver sending them off,” she remarked conversationally as she walked around
Castle Control, her hands caressing the control panels that she passed. “Sparing Voltron
from our control won’t help your situation in the least, judging by the
difficulty your young pilots had with just one of our ro-beasts.”
Walking
back to Keith and Allura, Merla unholstered
the wicked looking gun strapped to her thigh and she shoved its nozzle into
Allura’s forehead. Blue eyes steady,
Allura did not so much as flinch. It was
Keith that did.
“Ah,”
Merla said, pleased
“The great Queen of Arus does not fear
death. I’m not surprised. In that, we are the same, Your Highness.”
Turning,
she went back to Keith. Crouching, she
waved the soldier behind him away. He
stared at her as she tipped his chin up again—except with the gun.
“Where
we differ, Allura, is that I am not attached to anyone in particular,” she
continued. “As fearless as you may be
about your own death, somehow I doubt you’ll feel the same way if this shot
burns through your husband’s brain. How
long have you been married? Nearly
twenty-five years? That’s touching.”
Keith
met Allura’s anguished eyes. In that
second, a lifetime’s worth of memories passed between them: saving her life from a traitor in the
underground base, teaching her how to fly the Blue, standing before the council
shoulder to shoulder when they fought for the creation of the IAF, holding her
that first night when they finally let all their barriers down, their wedding,
the births of all their children…it all went by in the blink of an eye.
Merla tapped him lightly with the barrel once and
straightened, making her way back to Allura.
She stared down the barrel of her gun as she pushed it back against
Allura’s forehead.
“Then
again, once he’s gone, you’ll just want revenge and I doubt that you’ll be more
cooperative,” she said. “I think I would
have a better chance of getting what I want from Porterfield.”
Allura
didn’t break eye contact, but she was aware of Keith leaping forward and being
caught by the Drule soldiers. She hoped that he would have the chance to
kill this bitch the first chance he had.
“Don’t…”
he yelled.
And
then, Merla pulled the trigger.
