Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish

~John Adams, 1776

Chapter Four

Quickly, Pidge set up a private channel that was undetectable to any of the scans coming from Castle Control.

"What do we do?" Lance asked frantically. "Lotor has Castle Control and majority of the towns are open to enemy fire."

"We do what they say," Keith replied calmly. "What other choice do we have?"

"We have to alert the Alliance Fleet," Hunk said.

"Do it, Pidge," Keith said. "Alright everyone, we go in. Do not draw your weapons and do not show any aggression. Just do what Lotor says. We don't want any more deaths this week, alright?"

"Right," Lance said. "Let's get this over with then."

The fighting stopped as quickly as it started. The Arusian fighters went back into the Castle and the Lions went back into their lairs. When the Voltron Force emerged from the access chute, they were greeted with blasters held by the Lotor's helmeted troops. Keith put his arms up slowly, trying to look as calm as possible. He quickly realized that the only occupants in the room were several Doom soldiers, Romelle, Bandor, Sven, Gwen, Morgan, and Allura. His blood ran cold when he saw Allura in Lotor's arms, her own blaster pointed at her head. She met his eyes steadily, but he could see the fear even from where he was standing.

"We're not going to shoot," he said to Lotor. "Tell your men to put their blasters down."

Lotor smiled at him and nudged Allura's temple with the nose of the blaster. She didn't flinch though her lips tightened slightly. "I want to see your weapons and communicators on the floor."

Keith reached for his blaster and communicator. He tossed them at the soldiers' feet. He turned his head slightly and looked at his friends, flicking his head in the direction his blaster went. Their own blasters followed suit.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Lotor drawled.

A beeping sound came from the command console. Lotor looked at Pidge.

"Answer that," he said.

Pidge looked at Keith who nodded his assent.

"I need to get the access chute back down," Pidge said to Lotor.

"So do it."

Pidge pushed a button and the chute slowly began going down. The beeping persisted and they could see Lotor was getting impatient. Keith watched the Prince's trigger finger twitch and his heart skipped a beat.

"Lotor, if you want a hostage, take me," he said, putting a hand out. "I'm an officer in the Alliance and if you have me talk to them, they'll listen."

"Why have you, when I can have everyone?" Lotor said, shoving Allura hard towards Keith.

Keith caught her in his arms and pushed her behind his back. "Let the others go," he said.

"Keep us," Lance said, stepping forward and gesturing to men in the room. "Let Romelle, Allura, Bandor, Gwen and Morgan go. You'll have a bigger chance of getting what you want if you don't have innocent people at gunpoint."

"I already have what I want," Lotor said. "Stop trying to play diplomat with me, Boys. I know all the tricks. You forget, I've been your constant companion for more than a month. I know you." He glanced at Pidge who was finally at the command console. "Who is it?"

"Space Marshall Graham," Pidge replied.

Lotor went up to the console, putting one hand on Pidge's shoulder. The younger man flinched and Lotor grinned.

"Put him on the viewscreen. I want him to see this."

Graham's face appeared on the large viewscreen, looming over those who watched. But the color drained from his face when he saw who was answering his call.

"Lotor..." he breathed.

"Hello, Space Marshall, Sir. I'm sorry we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances. Well for these people anyway. I suppose I don't have to tell you not to fire on the enemy ships you see. Because for everyone you shoot down--well I'll kill them all."

"The Alliance doesn't deal with the enemy, Lotor."

Without blinking an eye, Lotor pointed his blaster at Morgan. Gwen screamed and was about to turn her back on Lotor when soldiers came and held her still.

"GRAHAM!" Keith yelled. "Don't..."

"What do you want?" Graham asked.

"I'll get back to you. Just don't fire is all I'm asking for now."

The screen had just faded to the Alliance logo when the console beeped again.

"It's Zarkon," Pidge said.

Lotor slapped him on the back of his head. "That's King Zarkon. Put him on the console screen," he said. "Don't worry, Pidge. I'm not going to kill you now." He turned to his soldiers. "Put them all in the conference room. Their stench is making my head ache."

They were herded without difficulty into the conference room. One soldier stayed in the room with them while another stood at the door.

"Where's Coran?" Keith asked as they sat at the conference table.

"In the medwing," Romelle replied. "Bandor and I were taken from there a few seconds into his treatment. I don't know what's happened to him."

"Is Link alright?" Lance asked.

Bandor nodded. "She's completely healed."

"Are there Doom soldiers all over the Castle?" Pidge asked.

"Enough to keep everyone where they are," Romelle answered.

"Lotor's thought of everything," Keith said angrily. "We've been duped."

"We never really trusted him," Lance pointed out. "We just let him get too close."

"That was enough," Gwen said grimly, her hold on Morgan tightening. Her face was white and she was trembling as she remembered Lotor threatening to murder her little girl. Morgan was quiet, knowing how serious the situation was, and how scared her mother had been when the bad man had pointed his shiny stick them. She held on to her mother tightly, her chocolate brown eyes big on her small face. Hunk slid his chair towards them, and put an arm around Gwen and Morgan tenderly. Gwen kissed his cheek.

Keith rolled his chair closer to Allura's and put a hand over hers. Frustration boiled up inside him at the injustice of it all. Their love had been born at a time when love was the last thing on people's minds. It was certainly last on their minds. But like a beacon, it called to them and although it had taken some time, they had answered. He had known happiness with her for only a moment. but he knew he would remember it for the rest of his life--whether he lived another hour or another decade. He took her into his arms and held her tightly.

"Keith," she whispered. "We can use the screens on the table to communicate without them knowing."

His eyes darted to the small screen in front of her. There was one at each seat. Her hand was already at the keypad and he put his over it to cover what she was doing.

"Are you alright?" he asked audibly.

"Yes," she answered. "Are you?"

"Yes."

"When this is all over, remind me to ask what happened between the two of you," Lance said with forced cheer.

He leaned back in his seat and looked at them. It was then did he notice the face peering at them from a small opening in the corner behind Allura. It was barely visible because of the poor lighting in the room and because the ceiling was black. The kid was a young Arusian soldier named Skech who had been working in Castle Control. He nodded slightly when he saw Lance had seen him. Lance caught Keith's eye and then looked back at where the soldier was. Keith followed his gaze and a small smile curved his lips. The hand he had over Allura's began to move though Lance didn't know why.

"We have to get what little happiness we can, Lance," Romelle was saying, her hand creeping into Sven's. "Especially now..."

"Don't talk like that," Gwen admonished. "We're going to make it through this."

"We have to," Allura said harshly, pulling away from Keith and standing. "We can't let them win. You said it yourself, Romelle. We can't surrender because we worked hard to build this. Arus has been defeated once, but I will not allow it to be defeated again."

They stared at her silently then with curiosity when she tapped a finger on the conference table. Hunk was the first to look down and his face showed no emotion when he noticed the writing on the small screen under his nose.

Sven, and Hunk on my signal, take out the guard as quietly as you can.

Hunk looked up to see if Sven had seen the screen. He had and was now watching Allura carefully. She nodded slightly and in unison, the three men jumped up and knocked out the Doom soldier. There was hardly a sound. With a quick twist, Hunk broke its neck. They couldn't risk a blaster shot being heard. Sven picked up the blaster and stood at the door in case the other soldier entered.

"Lance, help me get him down," Keith said, pulling a chair underneath where Skech was.

Together, they managed to help Skech down. The hole he'd been peering from wasn't very big, but then neither was Skech. He was a few years younger than Pidge and looked even younger than he was with big blue eyes and messy blonde hair. The young soldier brushed himself off and smiled at them.

"Nice move, Skech," Lance said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"I wasn't going to sit around and do nothing while Lotor was in here," Skech said.

"Gwen, Romelle, get the gear off the Doomie," Allura said, looking from Skech to the soldier.

The two women worked fast and stripped the Doom soldier. They handed the helmet, body armor, and undergarments to Allura. She took them and held them out to Skech, thanking her lucky stars that he was just the right size. He was a little shorter than the average soldier, but that couldn't be helped. She doubted anyone would notice.

"Feel like playing dress up?" Allura asked with a small smile.