We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

~Sir Winston Churchill

Chapter Ten

Hagar was in Castle Control. She walked around at her leisure with no one aware of her presence.

Almost no one.

Romelle stood next to Coran when she felt a stirring. Frowning, she looked around the room and aside from having Zarkon and Lotor there, nothing seemed amiss. But she remembered how Allura felt during Lance and Link's wedding. Now with the knowledge of the power she had, she could not ignore what she was feeling.

"Laron, Gena," she said to two Arusian soldiers. "Unholster your weapons and point them at Zarkon and Lotor. If they even so much as twitch, shoot."

They did as they were told. Coran looked up, a question in his eyes.

"Just trust me, Coran," she said. "Something's wrong and I'm not going to let anything happen."

Hagar glared at the Princess and decided that a distraction was in order. She waved her staff in the air and two coffin-shaped containers launched from Zarkon's ship. As those in Castle Control watched the viewscreen, she waved her staff again, and Lotor and Zarkon disappeared, chairs and all.

"What the..." Romelle started, heading for where Zarkon and Lotor were.

Sven entered Castle Control, dressed in a fresh flightsuit, and his eye covered with a clean piece of gauze. His face was white and his mouth was a tight line, but he moved with purpose.

"Vat eez our status?" he asked, going to stand behind Coran and peering over his shoulder at the command console readouts.

"The civilians are in the underground base," Coran replied. "The Lions are in the air and it is looking better."

"And we just lost Zarkon and Lotor," Romelle added angrily. "I don't know where they went. Hagar again, I suppose. It's awfully handy for them to have a witch around."

"Damn...Vat about de rest of the Castle?" Sven asked.

"We've liberated all the other hostages and have placed the Doomies in the dungeons," Gwen replied.

"I'm going out dere," he said resolutely.

"You're blind!" Romelle exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"

"I cannot let dem do dis alone," he said gently, putting both hands on her shoulders. "I am a pilot, Romelle. I cannot stay here vhile dey fight."

"Then take one of the two-man fighters," she said. "You can't fly with one eye."

"I know dat," he said as if he'd thought that all along. "I'm taking Skech vid me."

As if on cue, Skech came into the room with an Arusian-issue flightsuit, a helmet on his head and another tucked under his arm. He handed it to Sven.

"Ready?" he asked.

Sven kissed Romelle and then put the helmet on. "Let's rock and roll."

"What?" Skech said with a confused frown.

Sven laughed. "Let's go."

"Arusian fighters are being deployed," a helmsman said to Graham.

Graham unclenched the fist he'd been holding for so long. "Excellent. What's the count?"

"Roughly sixty of our fighters versus..."

The proximity alarms began going off and Graham watched with morbid fascination as a gigantic Robeast started coming at them.

"KEITH!" Hunk screamed. "Two Robeasts...!"

"I see 'em," Keith replied tightly. "We're going to have to form Voltron. Jeff, can you get that Robeast away from the flagship. Buy us some time"

"I got your back," Jeff said. "You heard him Air Team. Let's go."

"Voltron Force," Keith said to his four teammates. "Prepare to form Voltron. Go to heading one point one-niner. We gotta do this quick."

The other four Lions stopped what they were doing and flew out to where Keith directed.

"Haven't seen the big guy in a long time," Lance said.

"You're not going to start crying, are you?" Allura snorted.

"Activate interlocks," Keith said in a monotone as he watched the mechanics happening before him. "Dynotherms connected....infracells up...megathrusters are go."

"Let's go Voltron Force!" they said in unison.

Keith smiled without humor as Voltron headed for the Robeast attacking the flagship.

"Fire eye beams," he said.

Twin yellow lasers hit the Robeast in the chest, making it fall back. Keith followed it up with a column of fire from the red lion. The Robeast snarled and leapt up, moving too fast for Voltron to dodge it. Its feet landed square on Voltron's chest and they began to fall towards the surface.

"There are houses right under us!" Lance yelled.

Gritting his teeth, Keith fought against a wave of dizziness and pushed the thrusters at maximum power. Voltron grabbed at the Robeast and shot up, away from the houses.

"That was close," Pidge breathed.

"Not over yet," Hunk said.

The Robeast clawed at Voltron, trying to break the robot's grip, but Voltron held it fast. When they were far enough away from the towns, Voltron hurled the Robeast away and shot ice darts at it.

"Form blazing sword!"

The enormous and powerful sword formed between the Red and Green Lions' heads. After taking one practice swing, Voltron charged the Robeast. It tried to run, but to no avail. The tip of the sword pierced its belly and then went in all the way. With one upward motion, the sword cut upper body of the Robeast in half and it exploded.

"One down..." Keith said.

"Keith, Zarkon and Lotor are out," Romelle said. "Hagar must have freed them because they just disappeared."

"Zarkon's ship is at three o'clock," Lance murmured.

"We'll take care of it, Romelle,' Keith said.

Back on Zarkon's ship, Lotor got up from the chair he'd been taped to, rubbing his sore wrists. On the viewscreen, they watched two Voltrons battle with the two Robeasts. They weren't surprised to see who was winning. Hagar's robeasts were nasty sights, but they lacked in staying power.

"Would it have killed you to get us out of the chairs as well?" he asked Hagar crossly.

"I had to do it fast and I couldn't get the tape off," she retorted. "Would you like to go back so I can try again?"

"Enough," Zarkon said, glaring at the viewscreen. "Damn Voltron! Why couldn't you have destroyed him?"

Lotor was shocked to find Zarkon's anger directed to him. "I got a hell of a lot closer to them than you did."

"Then why didn't you use it to your advantage?"

A muscle in Lotor's jaw jumped. "What makes you think I didn't?" He reached into a hidden pocket of his cape and took out a small, flat remote with a single red button it.

"Whatever it is, Lotor, you'd better push it," Zarkon said. "Because Lion Voltron is heading straight for us."

Lotor pushed the button.

There was the sound of a small explosion and then Voltron shuddered. Keith let go of the controls and put both hands on the armrests, frowning in puzzlement.

"Pidge, what's going on?" he demanded.

"Explosions..." Pidge said. "In the Green Lion..."

They watched as the Green broke away from Voltron and started to fall to the ground. Alarms and lights began going off in the Green's cockpit. Pidge scrambled, trying to right Green Lion. The Blue broke away next, then the Yellow, then the Red. Keith braced himself and he heard a popping sound. The smell of smoke filled the air and then his instruments starting going crazy.

"Shit," he swore savagely.

He wrestled for control of Black Lion and managed to keep its nose level. Sweat pouring down his face, he ignored the alarms going off and the lights flashing, concentrating on keeping himself alive. And then in the corner of the viewscreen, he could see the Blue hurtling towards Zarkon's ship. But he couldn't do anything about it. The other three Lions had already crashed and the ground was coming much to fast. Praying silently, Keith braced himself for impact.

"Fire the lasers at Blue Lion!" Zarkon yelled. "It's going to crash into us!"

"NO!" Lotor exclaimed. "Put the tractor beam on maximum power and guide the Lion into the docking bay. We're not going to turn away a gift."