"Good evening, Your Highness," Keith said formally, greeting Lotor in the docking bay.

"Good evening...and please, call me Lotor," Lotor said graciously.

"As you wish, Lotor."

Lotor waited for Keith to extend the same request to him, but it didn't come. He hid a smile, and followed the other man to the dining room.

"Everyone is waiting for you in the dining room," Keith explained. "We expected you to be earlier."

"I apologize. I was held up by some business onboard my ship. Apparently, one of my men decided he was going to try to sabotage our peace talks with a well-planted bomb."

That seemed to render Keith speechless for a moment.

"Fortunately, he had a big mouth so he was found out rather quickly. I am lucky to have such a loyal crew."

"Had a big mouth?" Keith's eyes narrowed. "What did you do to him?"

"Executed him."

Lotor didn't like the dangerous gleam that was in the Commander's eyes. "Is something the matter?" he asked.

"No," Keith replied, one corner of his mouth turning upward. "In fact, everything seems to be the same as always."

Gritting his teeth against a slew of curses, Lotor forced a pained smile on his face. It wasn't hard. The man standing before him was irritating to say the least.

"What must I do to convince you that my intentions are pure?" he demanded, allowing just the right amount of frustration to seep into his voice.

His question must have reached Keith because the other man looked a little uncomfortable, but they'd reached the dining room and Keith didn't bother to answer.

Lotor turned his smile towards the occupants of the room and opened his mouth to greet them when he was interrupted by the loud blaring of the castle alarm. Before he knew it, everyone had brushed past him and were running to Castle Control. Smiling, he followed them.

"What the hell is going on?" Keith demanded when they entered Castle Control.

"Doom forces, sir," a young officer replied. "They're coming in hard right above us."

"My ships just left two days ago," Alderain exclaimed, slamming his fist on the command console.

"Your personal ship is still here," Keith said. "Get her up in the air."

"They have engaged Prince Lotor's ship," Gwen said, manning a console.

"I must go," Lotor said, his cape swirling as he turned around.

"Wait," Allura called out. "Lance, escort the Prince back to his ship."

"Aye-aye," Lance answered, his expression grave.

Within minutes, Red Lion and Lotor's shuttle were in the air, heading for his ship. Behind them, Arusian fighters, Alderain's ship, and the other four Lions were being launched. The Doom fighters had infiltrated Arusian airspace and were wasting no time in causing as much damage as possible.

"When you get him to his ship safely, get right into formation," Keith ordered Lance.

"Acknowled...SHIT!"

Right ahead of the Red, a crippled Doom fighter broadsided Lotor's shuttle and together, they fell towards Arus. Acting quickly, Lance blasted the Doom fighter, succeeding in separating it from Lotor's shuttle.

"Mayday...Lotor's ship is going down...I need backup..." he cried.

"We're too far!" Pidge responded.

Lance pushed the throttle as far as it would go, but to no avail. The shuttle hit the surface, exploding, but he could see that Lotor had ejected. A narrow black pod with two thrusters was slowly lowering itself back to the Arusian surface.

Relieved, he headed for the other Lions. "Castle Control this is Red Lion. Send out a med team to coordinates..."

"We have it, Red Lion," Allura replied. "Get into formation, now!"

Lance pushed the Red through the battle until he reached the rest of the team.

"Standard formation," Keith said when he took his place. "We're going to do this the old fashioned way."

And in unison, they fired their lasers.

The nightsky was lit up by the lasers shot out of hundreds of fighters. Allura could guess that there were at least a thousand Doom ships and her gut tightened. The Lions were cutting through them quickly, but it seemed like when one ship exploded, three more would take its place. Yet, she still wished she was up there with them. Her hands clenched into fists.

"Castle Control, this is the Lotorian," said a mechanical voice over the speakers.

"We receive you Lotorian," Coran said.

"We will be sending out our own fighters, but as they are identical to the ones you are fighting, we ask you to upload a program we are going to send you. It will identify which ships are ours on your scanners."

"Go ahead but hurry it up, Lotorian," Allura said tightly. She turned to Gwen. "Make sure they don't download anything."

The other woman nodded and moved to a console. When the program was received, Allura opened a channel.

"Arusian forces," she said. "Lotor's forces are going to engage the enemy. On your scanners, they will be the yellow dots. Do not fire if you only have visual contact. I repeat..."

Keith's jaw clenched. "Dammit."

"They better not try anything," Hunk muttered.

"If they do, we'll take them all out," Lance said, his words more confident than he was.

The yellow dots on the screen increased steadily. Lotor had only one ship with him, but he brought many fighters along just in case. It was only a matter of minutes before the Doom forces were defeated. Still reeling from the battle, the Arusians returned to the castle.

"That was exciting," Lance said wryly as they reentered Castle Control five minutes later.

"Ve haven't had a goot battle for a long time," Sven said, a bemused smile on his face.

"Looks like Lotor is trustworthy afterall," Pidge remarked.

"Speaking of which...how is he?" Lance asked.

"He's in the medwing," Allura replied. "His escape pod malfunctioned and it pretty much crashed instead of landed, but Doctor Gorma assures me that he'll be alright.

"What's the final count?" Keith asked, walking up to the command console.

"The numbers are still coming in," Gwen answered, her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. "But it looks like we lost about fifteen fighters, but fortunately, no casualties. We would have lost a lot more if Lotor's men hadn't helped."

Allura looked thoughtful. "I know. I'm going to mention this to the Senate. It'll help in their deliberations." She glanced at Keith. "What do you think?"

They exchanged a look.

"I think that he has deserved it," Keith replied, though it pained him to say it. "Tell them."

"Allura...Alderain is in the medwing," Gwen said worriedly.

Allura frowned. "Why? His ship came in fine."

"Yes, but it was hit, although I didn't think it was bad," Hunk said.

Her frown deepening, Allura headed to the medwing. Upon seeing her, one of the nurses gestured towards a room and inside, she saw Alderain on the bed, as pale as a ghost, but unscathed.

"Are you alright?" Allura asked, going to his side.

"I thought I was going to die," he said, his voice hoarse. "When I heard the explosion, I thought that was it. I was going to die."

"You've never been in a battle before, have you?" she said, slightly amused at how overwrought he was getting. She, on the other hand, was an old pro.

"No," he answered.

"It happens, Alderain. But you'll be fine."

"My life flashed before my eyes," he said, ignoring her. "I knew then that life was so precious--too precious to be wasted the way we have been wasting it."

Allura looked at him suspiciously, not liking where this was heading. "We'll talk about this later, Alderain. I have work to do."

He looked put out, but didn't press the issue. She could only hope that his 'epiphany' would be as short-lived as the bruise on his forehead.