Lance raced to his lion with Hunk and Pidge at his heels. The alarms had gone off all over the castle as soon as Nanny realized that Allura and Keith were missing. At first, Lance had thought they went off to celebrate Allura's birthday by themselves, but a thorough search and finding that Keith's communicator was off led to the chance that they had been taken. Finding Keith's communicator crushed sent Lance running to his lion.

"Scan the area around the castle," Lance told the other two over the comm unit. "I don't think that she disappeared long enough for them to get away without us knowing. Hunk, you've got the north, Pidge, the east, and I'll take the southwest. Keep the frequency open so we can keep each other posted."

"You got it, Lance," Hunk and Pidge said in unison.

They flew in relatively moderate speeds so that their scanners could pick up the smallest signal. Suddenly, there was a flash on Pidge's screen. He stopped in mid air and backpedaled slowly. The blip appeared again. He narrowed his eyes.

"I picked something up and I'm going to check it out," he said.

"Be careful," Hunk warned.

"That's the plan."

Pidge angled his Lion towards that direction and tried to stop from pushing the throttle. The blip grew larger and larger until he could see the outline of a Doom ship hovering above him. He stopped his ascension.

"I found them," he whispered. "Doom ship."

Lance swore beneath his breath and followed Pidge. He picked up Hunk's signal a second later. In silence, the two Lions joined the Green Lion. On their viewscreens, the Doom ship hovered menacingly, a black cloud over Arus.

"Let's go back," Lance said.

"What?!?" Hunk exclaimed. "You're just going to leave them there?"

"We can't just attack now, Hunk," Lance said, staring hypnotically at the ship. "We might hurt Keith and Allura in the process. We need to sneak attack."

Hunk's sigh was audible through the frequency.

"He's right, Big Guy," Pidge said. "We can't risk getting ourselves destroyed, too."

"I know," Hunk said. "It's just that…"

"We know," Lance said. "We know."

Keith leaned on the wall across from the door. His dark eyes were hooded and held a dangerous light that would have warned a wiser man not to provoke him. Lotor was not a wise man. The only thing that was going through Keith's head was that Allura was on the ship and she was with Lotor. He prayed that the Prince had not done anything to her, but it was an empty hope. He knew that whatever innocence Allura had retained was gone now, and his heart broke. He knew that she had never been with a man, and in his innermost thoughts, he wanted to be the first. Now that could never be. All he wanted now was to save her and heal her. He rubbed a hand over his eyes.

He had already gone over every inch of the cell he was in, but with no success. The cell was fortified, probably made just for him. So he waited. Waited until Lotor could come back and he would attack. He was beyond all reason and rationality. He was trapped while the Princess he swore he would give his life for was being tortured. His eyes shined with a wildness that hadn't been there before.

Allura.

He closed his eyes for a brief instant, trying to retain his vision of her, of the last time he had seen her. She was beautiful. To him, she would always be beautiful. But now that beauty would be marred with a pain that no one could ever erase.

Then, the man who had lost his parents at a time when a child needed them most and didn't cry, who had lost more in his young age than people did in a lifetime and didn't cry, released a heavy sob that came from his heart. And he wept.