Chapter One

Keith paced the length of Castle Control. Allura followed his movements with the slightest shift of her eyes, her fingers tapping the control panel's surface lightly. It was the only indication she gave of her growing apprehension. Pidge fiddled with a Rubix cube as Hunk and Lance silently played a game of chess. There was nothing like nervousness to make them all sit still and use their brains for once. Coran sat next to the Princess, monitoring the castle and the villages around them as he usually did, but once and a while he would look over to Allura's screen to see if they had gotten any more responses. The castle seemed silent because everyone was somber as they waited. Nanny hadn't even yelled at them about being boors since the day before.

It was two hours until the deadline for the other Alliance leaders to give their answer. With Arus or against. They had heard from some of the leaders and so far it was forty-three with, and thirty-one against. They had a hundred and thirty-eight more planets to hear from.

Allura's monitor beeped and they gathered around her to see what was happening. The Princess slammed a fist on the screen and let out a hissing breath.

"Atlantia has decided not to join us," she said, her tone annoyed. "That pompous, pinheaded...!"

"He's only looking out for his planet," Keith soothed.

"Which is why he should be with us," Allura retorted. "No matter. We still have a hundred and eleven more to go."

The seconds ticked by and turned into minutes which turned into an hour. They had heard from four more planets, all deciding to side with Arus. Allura leaned back in her seat, her head pounding as the stress got to her. Lance threw a small rubber ball on her lap which she picked up with a question on the tip of her tongue.

"It's a stress ball," he told her before she could ask. "Play with it. It'll make you feel better."

"I doubt it."

She played with it anyway, finding that he was right. Keith threw her an amused glance and she just shrugged as her fingers kneaded the soft rubber. Still, her shoulders were hunched near her ears and she was unconsciously grinding her teeth. Her monitor beeped again. Letting out a yell, she hurled the ball at the monitor, causing it to bounce back at her face. They were all too shocked to laugh at the picture she presented as she stood from her seat and began to pace as well.

"Amideia of Planet Kilarie has decided to stay neutral," she said. "And Crushan has decided against us."

Keith ran a hand through his hair, his lips tightening. He and Allura paced in opposite directions and he looked at her face as they passed each other. The lines around her eyes and mouth seemed to have deepened in the last day and her blue eyes were huge on her face as she had lost a lot of weight in the past week. Since their wait had begun. Keith himself avoided mirrors so that he could remain happily unaware that he was turning into a ghost as well. He had thought that his last mission in the Yari Sector had been stressful, but it couldn't even begin to compare to what he was going through on Arus. He had a very active role in the government, being the Princess' informal right hand man. He was as much as advisor as Coran was, if not more because of his steadier grasp of what was happening within the Alliance's leaders.

Lance watched Allura and Keith move up and down the room as he waited for Hunk to move. He didn't know how it happened but those two had become inseparable. He knew Keith still considered him and Sven his best and closest friends, but he had something else with Allura. They were like two halves of a whole, at least in Lance's opinion, but he was still unsure as to why they fit. It wasn't apparent whether it was a mutual attraction or simply because they got along and he silently vowed to figure it out. If it was an attraction, he saw nothing but hurt for Keith. The Princess was a strong young woman, but when it came to affairs of the heart, she was as clumsy as Hunk was.

Allura's monitor beeped, but she didn't run to it. The others reached it before she did and she visibly relaxed a fraction when she saw what was on it.

"Three more planets are with us," Keith said.

"Strong ones at that," Coran said. "Myori has the strongest space fleet in the Alliance to date, even after Zarkon's attack."

Allura nodded and went back to her pacing. Keith stopped and sat in the seat she had vacated. He leaned back and closed his eyes. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.

"Did the Great One actually fall asleep right in the here and now?" Pidge said, amusement in his voice.

Allura stopped next to Keith and leaned down to look him in the face. She smiled a small smile. "I think so. Let him rest. He deserves it."

"So do you, Princess," Hunk said. "Why don't you join him in Slumberland and we'll alert you of the final count."

She shook her head. "I can't sleep at a time like this. I'll just make myself crazy if I even try."

"Suit yourself," Hunk said with a shrug. "I'll just say 'I told you so' when you pass out where you stand."

"Thanks for the support," she said dryly.

The last hour sped by with the monitor beeping every five minutes to give the decisions of the remaining hundred and two planets. Allura shook Ketih awake after the last reply came through. He opened his eyes to see her grim expression. He sat up, his eyes shooting to the screen. His face brightened as he saw the final tally.

"One hundred and seventy-one for and thirty-eight against, one neutral. That's eighty percent for us, enough to make our plans work," he said.

"I wanted more," she said.

"We'll work with what we have," he said.

"So, what's this brilliant plan of yours anyway?" Lance inquired. "You never told us. Never told anyone but each other from what I hear. Do you even know, Coran?"

"No, I don't," the advisor replied.

"We didn't want to say until we were sure that it was going to happen," Allura answered.

"We're going to replace the heads of Galaxy Garrison with a representative from each of the Alliance planets as a make-shift council, with a non-biased leader presiding over all to keep the council on track," Keith said. "We are not going to be held together by a bunch of military men anymore. We are going to have politicians there making sure that GG is making the right decision concerning our planets.

Pidge shook his head in disbelief. "That's going to be close to impossible. They're not going to leave. The heads of GG have had ultimate power for nearly a hundred years. They're not going to give it up because ask them to."

"Things have got to change, Pidge," Allura said. "If the current head doesn't leave..."

"We force him out," Keith finished.

The others stared at them in disbelief.

"You are both nuts," Hunk said.

Keith and Allura looked at each other. He nodded. She took a step forward, towards where they sat.

"We know that this is very risky. It could cause Arus to be kicked out of the Alliance at the least or the breakup of the Alliance at the most. But something had to be done. We understand if you do not want to be part of it. You can leave if you wish, at any time to return to Earth. We won't think badly of you."

Hunk, Pidge, and Lance exchanged glances.

"I don't know about you guys, but I lost my family because of them. I'm not going anywhere," Lance said resolutely, his brown eyes glinting with fire. "I'm with you all the way."

"Too many people died," Pidge said quietly. "I know how it feels to lose everything you had. I'm with you, Princess."

Hunk looked at the pair, and then at Pidge and Lance. "So many things can go very wrong but we have to fix what GG destroyed. I'm staying right here."

Keith smiled at them. "I knew I could count on you guys."

He then dug into his pocket and took out a small gold pin. It caught the light and they saw that it was the Galaxy Garrison insignia that he usually wore on his flightsuit's collar, something each of them had. He put it on the console.

"What are you doing," Lance asked.

"Until Galaxy Garrison is under new management, I'm not going to be any part of it," he replied.

Lance took off his own pin from his flightsuit. He put it next to Keith's. The other two followed suit.

"We're making history, Gentlemen," Allura said.

"I always knew making history would give me serious heartburn," Hunk muttered.

At that moment the castle alarms went off. Allura's heart jumped in her throat as the images of a fleet of Doom fighters entered Arusian airspace. They raced to the chutes and to the Lions.