With a heavy heart, I watched my wife and my son disappear into the dark skies. I was afraid that I wouldn't see them again. Zarkon straightened and smiled at me, reminding me of the cat that ate the canary. He gestured for me to go back into the palace, but I stood my ground. I heard his guards move behind me.

"I'm not turning my back on you, Zarkon," I said. I put my blaster down and kicked it towards him to show my good faith. I wasn't planning to use it to kill myself anyway. The last pill I had gotten from the doctor on Pollux was known to soldiers as blazing glory, the suicide pill. The second Allura and Keithy got on Pollux, I would end my life.

Zarkon nodded, looking amused. He waved for his guards to follow, knowing that if I ran away or shot him in the back, his fleet would go after Allura. They entered the palace and I moved to follow when the doors began to close. I saw the fury in Zarkon's face right before they shut completely. I immediately crouched down to make a smaller target and quickly looked around me. A tall man standing on a ledge ten feet above the door smiled down at me. My heart leapt into my throat.

"Pidge," I breathed.

Pidge jumped down with the grace that he hadn't lost through all the years. He still wore his glasses and his hair was still an unruly brown, but his face held all the angles and squareness of a man's face. I didn't know whether I should throw my arms around him or point my gun at him.

"Hi, Keith," he said. "Long time no see."

"I thought you were dead..." I began.

"That's a long story that I'm going to have to tell you later," he said.

He began to move, but I grabbed his arm. "Please tell me that you've disarmed their weapons."

"Of course," he scoffed. "I wasn't going to put Keithy and Allura in danger."

He gestured for me to follow. I hesitated, unsure of whether this was really Pidge or not. He threw me a look and fidgeted with his glasses. It was an old habit of his that he just wasn't able to break. I followed him. I didn't know whether this was the Pidge I knew or a good copy, but I wasn't going to stick around Zarkon's palace much longer than I had to.

He led me to a small hole hidden behind a large rock opposite end the door to the palace. I could hear Zarkon's soldiers trying to break open the door. Pidge must have rigged it. I could see a small remote hanging from his belt. We crawled through about ten meters of a tunnel that he must have blasted himself and when we emerged, we were in a clearing amid bones and dirt where a small two-seater ship waited. I climbed on board after him and he started the ship up.

"I turned off his sensors, too," Pidge told me proudly.

We lifted off and it wasn't until we were in the endless starscape of space did I turn to Pidge and said, "You've got a lot of explaining to do."

"The Alliance spies that were sent here to find us found me," he explained. "We orchestrated my death so that I could come back undercover. The guards didn't know I was Pidge, so when they saw me again they didn't think anything was out of the ordinary. Zarkon found out I was dead so I was safe from his searches. He even dug up my grave to make sure I was in there."

I arched an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

He grinned. "Fortunately, we found out what Zarkon was planning to do. I was put in suspended animation and I laid in the cold ground for a week before he finally got around to doing it. He took one look at me and ordered them to just leave me in the ground with the worms where I belonged. The spies came back and revived me a day later and I came down with the worst case of pneumonia..."

His words were cut off when I threw my arms around him at last and stopped him from talking. He patted my back and I could hear the smile in his voice.

"I'm glad to see you too," he said.

I grinned. "I owe y--"

My words were interrupted when the ship was jolted forward and alarm klaxons rang in the small ship. Pidge's fingers flew over the control panel and I took a hold of the manual controls.

"Looks like Zarkon fixed those docking bay doors faster than I thought," Pidge said.

"How many are there?"

"Too many," my friend sighed. "It doesn't look good, Keith."

I gritted my teeth. "It's not going to be over like this, Pidge."

I wove the small ship through the laser fire. It was easy to maneuver since it was so small, but its size was also a disadvantage because each hit we took was crucial. Pidge strengthened the shields as much as he could, even taking some power from life support, but we wouldn't last much longer without help. He had fired and taken down five of the robot ships, but for every one that went down, two went after us.

"Mayday, mayday...Nightwing to Pollux," Pidge said over the communicator. "We are under attack. Special cargo onboard...I am in need of assistance..."

"You want it, you got it," a familiar voice responded. A blip appeared on the scanners. I sighed in relief.

"Lance, don't you dare crack on us now," I warned.

His face appeared on the viewscreen, cocky and smiling. "No problemo, mon capitaine. Me and big kitty here will take good care of the special cargo." He grinned when he saw Pidge. "Welcome back from the hell, Kid."

Pidge chuckled. "Thanks. Nice to see you sane."

"It feels great."

"Quit the yapping, boys. We need to clean up here."

I felt like screaming, but instead I said in a perfectly even tone, "Allura, get that Lion to Pollux."

My Queen's face appeared next to Lance's. "And miss the party? I don't think so, my Love."

"Keithy is with you!" I exclaimed. "You can't fight in this with him there."

"Don't be an idiot," she said airily. "I would never put our son in that kind of danger."

Nightwing buckled dangerously as the robot ships scored another hit. Lance laughed and threw his Lion into the fray. I turned back to Allura as Pidge took over manual controls.

"He's safe, Keith," she told me. "He's with Romelle."

"Where? You couldn't have gotten to Pollux that quickly!"

She grinned. At that instant, several blips appeared on the scanner. I looked down and saw a fleet approaching. My first thought was Zarkon and Allura guessed. She laughed.

"Be positive," she chided. "It's not Zarkon's Fleet. It's Sven's."

I blinked. "What?"

Pidge nudged me. "The cavalry's here."

I saw the white ships of Pollux's space fleet cut through the swarm of robot ships and larger ships that were coming from Doom. Zarkon had released his fleet from deep within the bowels of his castle. Space was lit up with the laser fire. Pidge flew us to safety behind the Black Lion. Allura activated the magnetic links and Nightwing attached itself to the Black's belly. The top hatch opened as did the corresponding hatch on the Black's chest. I shimmied upwards, still unable to believe all this was happening.

I ran to the cockpit with Pidge at my heels. Allura didn't turn around. She was focused on locking on a robot ship and with one blast, blew it into pieces. She made no sound, but only went after the next ship. And the next...and the next. The fight went on for half an hour, as Pidge and I looked on, our part in it over. We emerged victorious. Allura sat still as she stared at the floating debris, lost in her thoughts. I put a hand on her shoulder. She blinked and looked up at me.

"We won," she said with a smile.

"Yes, we did," I said.

The communicator blinked and she received the message. Sven appeared on the viewscreen. He was sweating and flushed from the fight, but he wore a broad grin on his face.

"Ve haf been planning dis fight for months," he said. "Dis was the right time to show Zarkon dat ve vill no longer sit back and allow him to take over any more worlds." He looked at Pidge. "Nice to see you, Pidge."

"Ditto."

"I vill see you all on Pollux," he said.

Allura closed the link and stood. She rested her head on my chest. Pidge took over the controls without a word and I led my wife to the back. I closed the door behind me and took her into my arms. We laid down on the cot and slept.