We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

~Winston Churchill

Chapter Six

Zarkon walked down the corridors of the Castle of Lions. It looked so different from when he used to visit regularly. Then it was a stone castle, drafty, but beautiful. The place never felt as empty as it did now for people were always going to and fro, their expressions happy. He had hated them for their happiness, unable to share in it. There was too much darkness in his soul and despite the beauty that had surrounded him, he could not break free of it. Alfor and his queen had tried to ease his suffering. They surrounded him with it, giving with love and caring without hesitation, but it hadn't worked. Not at the end.

The King of Doom touched a wall, memories filling his mind. He remembered that an extraordinary tapestry depicting the creation of Arus had hung there. In fact, tapestries had hung from most of the walls.

He wondered what it had looked like when they all burned.

"This way, Your Highness," a soldier said, breaking into his thoughts.

Nodding, Zarkon followed him, but again, something caught his eye. They had passed the rec room, for even though the castle changed aesthetically, its floor plan hadn't. He walked in and remembered a time when he and Alfor had played Lian, a game that resembled the Terran game, Chess. Queen Carina had sat on the couch playing with her daughter. Allura had been a year old then, already strongly resembling her mother. She had stood, using the back of the couch for support, and she had grinned at Zarkon...

"Looks like the little Princess is a charmer," Zarkon said to Alfor.

"She's only trying to charm some cookies out of her favorite godfather," Alfor answered, his brown eyes warm as he smiled at his only daughter.

"I'm her only godfather," Zarkon said with a laugh.

Carina put Allura on the floor and she crawled to Zarkon, holding out her chubby arms. He picked her up easily and held her to his chest. She rested her head against him, trusting him wholeheartedly...

"Sir, we must go," the soldier said worriedly. "Prince Lotor is anxious to have you with him."

"Leave me be," Zarkon said, sitting down on the couch. "I'll go when I please."

Pidge's fingers flew over the keypad without fear of detection. He'd put the Castle's computer system together and like the hacker he was, he'd put in a backdoor in case of emergencies. It was a command embedded in the system that allowed him full access without alerting any security precautions that he had installed. Allura knew about it because Pidge had an attack of conscience, but only he could get into it. No one else knew and they were shocked when Pidge told them. But they didn't yell at him. It was useful now.

"Hurry, Pidge," Keith said.

"Go away," Pidge said, his tone curt. "Can't think."

Keith began to pace the room and so did Lance. The others sat at the table, tensely waiting for Pidge to get the Princess out. At least one of them glanced at the door every other second, expecting Lotor to walk in, guns blazing.

"What if we don't get her out," Lance said as he passed Keith.

"That's not an option," Keith replied. "I told her to blow the goddamn door off if she had to."

"I think she'd rather take her chances in there rather than put us danger," Romelle said.

"She's putting us in danger just by not being here," Gwen said.

Pidge reached for the communicator and said, "Got it."

"Thanks," Allura said. "I'll be there in a bit."

The others breathed a collective sigh of relief save for Gwen.

"She's not here yet," she reminded them.

"She's probably in the vent right now," Lance said. "What else can go wrong?"

To the soldier's relief, Zarkon finally stood and made his was back down the corridor. But despite the escort's quick steps and constant hints to hurry up, Zarkon refused to speed up his leisurely walk. He even paused once and a while to reminisce.

Almost directly above his head, the Princess of Arus was crawling back to the conference room. Her breath came out in gasps and sweat covered her forehead as she pushed herself to the limit trying to get back in less time than it took to get to the kitchen. She was five minutes late and every second that ticked by made her panic level rise a little bit more.

Lotor paced the length of Castle Control, unknowingly moving in pace with Keith who was still pacing in the conference room.

"It's just like him to keep me waiting," he groused to no one in particular. "What could he possibly be doing? His ship landed nearly half an hour ago and he's wandering around the castle while I'm waiting."

Fed up and impatient, the Prince headed straight for the doors to find and drag his father to Castle Control. He ran into him just outside it and Zarkon smiled pleasantly.

"Nice place, Son," he said cheerfully. "I can get used to visiting you here."

"Visiting? I don't think so, Father. I'm going to raze this castle as soon as we're finished here."

"But it's quite a masterpiece of architecture," Zarkon said, waving his hand around. "I would like to keep it. As a symbol of our triumph, perhaps."

Lotor nodded. "Actually, that doesn't sound half bad."

They walked into Castle Control and Zarkon's smile turned wicked. "So where are these hostages of yours?"

The Prince grinned and gestured towards the Conference Room. "Right this way."

Allura saw the light streaming in from the opening and rushed to it. She peered down and saw the relieved faces of her friends.

"All clear?" she gasped.

"All clear," Sven said, holding out his arms.

She dropped the bag of rifles and then waited for Keith to help her down. She hung down from the opening and he got her by the waist, easily guiding her. She faced him when her feet were on the ground. He quickly mopped up the sweat on her face with his sleeve as Romelle rearranged her hair, still wearing the Doom helmet. Hunk began to strip the dead soldier. Allura had her hands in her pockets and she handed the blasters she had to Bandor. He started to give one to Lance, but then Romelle gasped.

"Zarkon's coming," she yelped, taking the helmet off and tossing it to Skech.

He hurriedly put it on and stood at the door. Hunk pushed the soldier into the opening in the ceiling. After tossing the Doom blaster to Skech, Bandor shoved the others in the bag with rifles and tossed it after the soldier. The others rushed to their seats and sat down just as the doors opened.

Zarkon and Lotor entered the room and found nine pairs of angry eyes focused on them. Ignoring the others, Zarkon's gaze fell directly on Allura.

"Ah Princess, we finally meet," he said. "Your father would have been thrilled."

"He's rolling over in his grave most likely," she retorted.

"Not very diplomatic, is she?" Zarkon said to his son as if he was speaking of a puppy.

"No," Lotor replied, his eyes appraising her. "But she'll make a very nice addition to my harem."

At her side, Keith stiffened, but he didn't say a word. However, Lotor's ever observant eyes caught his movement and he smiled.

"Didn't like that idea, did you, Commander? Well, no matter," he said airily. "You'll be dead then anyway."

"What is it that you want?" Romelle asked calmly. "You have us all here, but all we've done is wait."

"Patience is a virtue, Princess," Zarkon said and then he turned to Lotor. "I believe that the Drules want to speak with us."

"If you'll excuse us," Lotor said, a mocking smile on his face.

"Don't let us keep you," Allura snorted.

They left the room and when the doors shut, Lotor paused. He pictured them in his mind and wondered if he missed anything. He had the soldier inside check the room just a few minutes before and nothing was out of the ordinary. There was no way any of them could have gotten out. But something niggled at him.

"What?" Zarkon asked.

"Something's not right," he said.

"You're just not used to them," Zarkon said. "Open a channel. We can't keep them waiting."

But Lotor was staring at the closed doors.