Keith stood next to the casket. The lid was up and Allura laid inside. She looked as though she were merely sleeping. He touched her cheek, biting back a sob when he felt the chill of her skin. He had lost her. Despite everything they had gone through, he had still lost her. They had been so close to their dream, but it had been ripped from them. A chill wrapped around his heart as he gazed at her face, perfect in its repose. He would never love anyone as much as he had loved her, and he would never honor anyone as he had honored her. He unclipped the insignia that was pinned to his tunic and put in her clasped hands. One by one, he removed the bars that decorated him and the medals that he had earned and placed them in her hands. Buried with her would be his life.

"Never again," he said quietly. "Not if it's not for you."

He took one last thing from his pocket. It was a silver ring fitted for her finger. The design on the band was of two twined vines, a symbol of their lives. He slid it onto her finger.

I love you.

At the doorway, Pidge turned away, tears in his eyes. They had lost the greatest officer the Alliance had ever known. In the end, Lotor seemed to win after all.

Later that day, Keith watched numbly as the royal casket was lowered into the ground. The rain soaked all that stood around the newly dug grave, but no one seemed to notice it. Lance stood next to his friend, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he watched Keith silently bid goodbye to the one woman he had truly loved. He put a steadying hand on his shoulder. Keith looked at his friend, the truth in his face. Pidge and Hunk joined them. The four remaining members of the Voltron Force looked at each other.

"I wish you wouldn't do this," Pidge said. "We need you."

Keith shook his head. "I'm no good to anyone. I let her down."

Hunk threw his hands up. "You did what you could! We all did. But what happened was beyond your control. You can't blame yourself, Keith."

"But I do."

Lance ran a hand through his hair. "Don't do this."

Keith took his hand and put an oval shaped object in it. It was the key to the Black Lion.

"You're the leader now," he said. "I can't be what you need anymore."

He turned and walked away. They didn't try to stop him.

Using all the skills he had learned, Keith traveled through the air ducts of the castle and made his way down to the lower levels of the castle, to where the dungeons were. To where Lotor stayed. The Prince had refused to die and was put in a cell to await his punishment. He was paralyzed from the neck down from the savage kick that Keith had dealt him, but he lived. And that was one thing Keith was determined to end.

He opened the door of the cell he knew that Lotor was in. The sound of the door hissing open made the Prince turn his head towards the opening. Fear shone clearly in his face when he saw Keith at the doorway.

"I-I d-didn't think it would hit her," he stammered. "I didn't want her to die."

Without a word, Keith advanced towards the prone form. In his hand he held a sharp knife. He pressed it against Lotor's neck and ran it down, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Lotor tried to muffle a cry, but Keith heard it. And he smiled grimly. The knife made it way down Lotor's body…stopping near a vital area.

"I wish that I didn't think about how she would have felt like when you forced yourself on her," Keith said nonchalantly. "But every night I hear her screams in my dreams. Every night I see her face calling to me, asking for help."

"I'm sorry…so so sorry," Lotor sobbed. "I didn't mean for it to happen."

"But it did," Keith said between clenched teeth. "And remember that I meant this to happen."

With a flick of his wrist, he sliced off Lotor's manhood. The Prince's scream echoed through the dungeon. Keith watched him scream, feeling nothing. Lotor sobbed and begged for him to leave, but he stood, a silent shadow. He pressed the blade against Lotor's neck and blood began to drip down to the floor. Slowly, the Prince bled to death. He wailed as the pain and the knowledge drove him mad.

For you, Allura.

Keith walked out of the cell, and went back the way he came.

In Castle Control, Coran watched the proceedings from the dungeon. Everything that had occurred had been recorded in the castle's records. With a few keystrokes, he erased it from the computer's memory. He watched as Keith escaped into the cloak of darkness, never to step on Arusian soil again. Keith not only turned his back on his friends and his duty, but also on what the future had promised. Coran mourned the loss of a life destined for greatness, destroyed in the space of a week.

"Good-bye," he said to the image.