Chapter Eight

The Arusian sun began to lighten the early dawn sky, ribbons of pinks and oranges streaming across the once navy blue sky. But none of this light reached into the cavernous archive of the Castle of Lions. There, everything was dreary and hopeless. It was six hours since they had started their search. They had found nothing.

"We have to look at this from another angle," Keith said, slamming his book shut. "We've got nothing left to look through."

"Definitely nothing on the computers," Mulder said, turning around as he rubbed his strained eyes.

"What other options do we have?" Allura asked, sounding desperate. "Failure is not one of them."

Nanny said something that caused Allura and the others to look shocked. Hunk got up and began speaking in terse tones to the older woman, his face reddening as he did. Keith had to put a restraining hand on his arm to silence him. After a final glare, Hunk walked away, sitting down at a table with his back to them. Allura looked tearful and Keith put an arm around her.

"What did she say?" Scully asked gently.

"We write our own spell," Allura said after clearing her throat.

"Why didn't we start that before instead of wasting our time looking for something that wasn't there," Mulder asked, knowing exactly how Hunk felt.

Nanny's hands cut through the air and tears pooled in her eyes as she began to speak, determined to make them understand. Even Hunk turned around and had the grace to look apologetic as she spoke. Mulder tapped his finger impatiently against his seat as he waited for someone to translate.

"I am not a Spell-Maker," Allura began quietly as Nanny was still speaking. "I was trained only to cast them. Writing spells is dangerous because so many things can go wrong with just one wrong word. I did not tell you because of that and because I did not want to give you false hope. Perhaps, I was mistaken in this. But it was what I believed at the time. And I still stand by my decision. Lance was playing a dangerous game when he read those spells...I do not want to repeat what he has done."

She paused as Nanny did. The older woman wrung her hands and looked at all of them before speaking again.

"There is also another alternative," Allura translated. "We can find another spell...one that will bring someone back through time. Maybe even into the consciousness of their other selves. We can prevent this from happening to begin with."

There was dead silence in the room. The implications of what Nanny said ran deep. Changing what happened went against long-held Arusian beliefs, but there were times when those beliefs had to be put aside so that a bigger purpose would be served. All these thoughts ran through Nanny's head as she sat down on the couch and closed her eyes wearily. She looked as if she had aged years since this whole fiasco started and she felt it as well. She didn't mean to fall asleep, but she did, the hours having weighed in on her exhaustion. A blanket which Lance had been using was next to her, and Allura gently draped it over her.

"Let her rest for a while," she said. "We have an even bigger task ahead of us now."

"What do we do until then?" Scully asked.

Allura rubbed her own tired eyes. "We follow her lead."

Allura walked in her garden, occasionally reaching out a pale hand to touch a bloom as she passed by. She had tried to get some sleep, but all she managed to accomplish was rumpling her sheets as she tossed and turned. She headed towards the center of the garden where she saw that she wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping. However, she wasn't surprised to see him there. She had a feeling that he would be.

Keith was sitting on the grass, his face turned up to the sky, the sun bathing it with warm rays. He was sitting in complete stillness, not even moving when Allura went to sit next to him. She put a hand over his, squeezing tightly. Once, she wouldn't have made such a bold move in her wildest dreams, but now faced with the realization that she might actually lose him this time, all her reservations vanished. She wanted nothing more than to show him how she felt about him. When he turned his hand over to twine their fingers together, she knew that he felt the same way.

"Are you afraid?" she asked, her voice low.

"More than I have ever been in my entire life," he replied, not turning his head. "Not even in our most violent battles have I been this terrified."

She stayed silent, sensing that he wanted to talk and not wanting to interrupt him.

"I can't even begin to describe how it feels knowing that I would never have existed after Lance had saved my life. That was over five years ago, Allura. I've grown so much since then..."--he ran a thumb across the back of her hand--"...accomplished so much, more than most people in a lifetime. But with one sweep of a page...it's all gone. The person I am today would just cease to exist. I would be nothing."

"Never, Keith," she said, putting a hand on his cheek and making him face her. "You will never be nothing because you will always be here." She put a hand over her heart.

He turned his body so that he could face her fully and grasped her upper arms tightly, desperately. "You won't remember me, Allura," he said. "You never will have met me."

Her eyes widened and it was then did she let the tears flow. "No..."

She cupped his face in her hands, trying to memorize the planes of his face, willing herself to imprint it in her mind for all eternity. His bottomless black eyes were filled with sorrow as they met hers. Slowly, his arms encircled her, pulling her closer to him. Her lips parted as her breathing grew unsteady so when he dipped his head to press his to hers, she was ready for it. It was bittersweet and Allura felt her heart break into a million pieces at the thought that she'd never have the chance to do this again.

"Don't leave me," she murmured against his mouth.

"If it was up to me, I wouldn't," he said, resting his forehead against hers. "Allura..."

"Don't say it," she said, in a rush. "Please, I don't think I can take anymore."

He nodded. Their eyes locked and a few seconds later, their lips followed suit.

Scully kicked her boots off and crawled into the soft bed awaiting her. She sighed with contentment as she closed her eyes and welcomed sleep. Her days as a medical intern had taught her the importance of falling asleep quickly and deeply. So when the bedroom doors slid open again, she was oblivious to it. She wasn't used to sounds of the castle, unlike at home where she would have been up like a shot had she heard her bedroom door open.

Mulder stood at the doorway, smiling faintly at the sight of his partner curled up like a kitten on the right side of the huge bed. He crept to the left side, his boots in one hand. If she woke up, his excuse would be the couch was too small for him to sleep on, but in reality, he was just feeling lonely. For her. He couldn't get the talk they had in Lance's room out of his head and he was ready to get some shut-eye when he felt the need to see her. Before he could talk himself out of it, he was standing at the doorway to the bedroom.

Carefully, he lowered himself down over the sheets. He froze when Scully rolled to her other side, but her eyes stayed closed and he let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. He turned so that he was facing her and watched her sleep. He felt sleep come to overtake him and before he closed his eyes, he reached out and took the hand she curled over the pillow into his own.

Scully kept her eyes closed and she had to fight not to open them when Mulder's hand enclosed her own. She hadn't heard him come in, but she had felt his weight press down on the bed and that woke her. Though she didn't let him know that she was awake. Curiousity killed the cat and she wasn't beyond it, so she thought she'd oblige him which was why she moved to face him. When he took her hand, she felt a small smile tug at the corners of her lips.

Mulder saw the smile and moved closer to her. He pressed his lips against her temple and drew her closer to him, his arm around her waist. She tucked her head underneath his chin, her hand resting against his chest.

"Sweet dreams, Mulder," she whispered.

"You, too, Scully."

Lance drifted in and out of consciousness. Everytime he became lucid enough to recognize his surroundings, he saw Nanny sitting at his side, her eyes closed and her mouth moving silently to words that he couldn't catch. She was holding her necklace in one hand and had her other hand resting on his forehead.

An excruciating pain shot through his left hand and that broke him out of his haze. He sat up quickly, Nanny's hand slipping off his head. He glanced down at his hand and a horrified scream erupted from his throat when he saw that his hand was almost completely transparent. With gentle hands, Nanny pushed him back down onto the bed and she murmured more words. He could see now that sweat dripped down the sides of her face though her expression was serene. He looked back down and was relieved to see that his hand was again solid.

"Nanny..." he began hoarsely.

"Rest, Lance," she said, not opening her eyes. "I will make sure you will be alright."

He closed his own eyes and drifted off again. He felt incredibly weak and knew that soon he would be gone.

Hunk found Keith and the Princess in the garden sitting closely together, the Princess' head on Keith's shoulder. He cleared his throat politely and they turned in his direction. He tried not to smile at the sight of their blushing faces.

"Nanny's awake. She wants your help, Princess."

"Ok," Allura said. "Thank you, Hunk."

He took that as his cue to leave. Keith waited until Hunk was out of sight before he took the Princess into his arms. She looked worried as she raised a hand to his cheek.

"You don't look too good," she said.

"I'm not feeling too good either," he confessed. "Especially after hearing Nanny's plan. I'm stuck between a rock and hard place. We are."

"How?"

"If she goes back to fix what has happened, none of this will occur," he said quietly, his arms tightening around her. "But if she doesn't, I will never have met you. Hell..I won't even be alive."

Her lips trembled and she pressed her face into his shoulder, breathing in his clean scent and wishing that they could stop time. Then he wouldn't disappear. Then she wouldn't be alone. Around them, the garden seemed to lose some of its color and the sky was turning a murky gray.

"It's starting," Keith said.

"Without Lance, there's no you. Without either of you, there's no Voltron Force and without us...there's no Arus," Allura said, her fingers clutching his arms. "Keith..."

"I love you," he said. Although she had told him not to say it, he had to. It needed to be said before it was too late.

She was shocked to say the least. She really hadn't expected him to say it and after wishing for so long to hear those words from his lips, she found that she was having a hard time saying something. He smiled, shrugging sheepishly.

"Better late than never. Better now than never."

She hugged him tighter and with her lips brushing his ear, she whispered, "I love you too."