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The following is a story of Voltron I made up based on the T.V. cartoon Voltron by World Events Productions. I did not have World Events Productions' permission to do the story and therefore it does not have World Events Productions' endorsement.
After Merla had used her own guardian vulture to create a robeast powerful enough to destroy both Voltrons, her vulture instead had been almost destroyed. He had been by far the most difficult robeast for either of the Voltrons to defeat, because he could read minds. Before he was a robeast, the vulture always knew when someone was thinking bad thoughts about Merla. But as a robeast, his powers of mind reading had been greatly intensified and then he could read all thoughts of those he chose with great ease, even to the point of reading the thoughts of many individuals at one time!
With Sven's skills to shield his own thoughts, he joined up with Vehicle Voltron in Ginger's red falcon, giving the Voltrons the extra edge of strength needed to increase the odds of having a chance to overpower the robeast. At a moment when the Voltrons using their blazing swords had managed to almost slash the robeast's wings clear off, Allura suddenly realized that the immense bird was Merla's vulture. Her feeling over this realization was heart felt sympathy for Merla. The vulture robeast couldn't help but feel moved by Allura's incredibly kind thoughts toward Merla. It was Allura's thoughts that weakened the robeast's determination to destroy the Voltrons. The robeast's resistance to the blazing swords was severely hampered, and then the Voltrons were able to completely sever the bird's wings. The robeast lost the will to continue, shrank to normal size losing all his weaponry augmentations, and plummeted to the planet's surface. Allura used her lion to catch the vulture's wings, while the rest of the vulture crashed nearby Merla. The Queen of Arus found the Queen of Darkness and gave back the wings while offering help to heal the bird. Merla refused assistance, and compromised herself by using the powers of darkness to make herself and her guardian vulture disappear. They reappeared on Merla's star cutter and left Arus to return to Planet Doom.
Merla wept bitterly the entire trip back, often times silently though sometimes sobbing.
"Merla . . . " spoke the bird finally after being halfway back to Doom.
"What must you tell me?" asked Merla tenderly after she turned and looked at him, choking back the tears that had been streaming down her face.
"I'm sorry," was all he said and then looked completely lifeless.
Merla turned away and broke down and sobbed.
Once they were back on Doom, Merla cradled her vulture along with his wings, and brought him straight to Witch Hagar. She set him on a table before the ancient crone inside her dark laboratory.
"Ahhh!" exclaimed the witch in her scratchy wicked sounding voice, actually appalled by the sight presented to her.
"What can you do to heal him, witch?" requested Merla in a demanding tone.
"I . . . I . . . I will use my darkest powers, I assure you Queen Merla," stammered Hagar who was still taken aback by the sight of the vulture.
Then, after taking closer notice of the details of the injuries, Hagar suddenly knew what happened.
"You sacrificed him in an attempt to defeat Voltron!" exclaimed the witch.
Kitty then meowed. Hagar looked over at her own guardian animal, a creature who could not speak as Merla's vulture could, and yet was just as dear to the witch as what the vulture was to Merla. Coba had no need for speech. Unlike Merla, Hagar had long ago sacrificed herself to darkness. She understood with complete ease anything that the blue devil cat expressed in his feline language. Hagar couldn't fathom ever sacrificing her "pet" by making him into a robeast, even if Zarkon ordered her to do it.
"Ahh," hesitated Hagar and then she said, "I'll do it right here, right now, with just my staff in hand. All I have here more ancient than that would be King Zarkon, or the planet itself! The darkest magic available to me is through my staff."
"Then use it!" demanded Merla.
"Thank you for your temper. It only helps," commented Hagar.
Merla was still close to her bird, her hands on either side of him holding his wings on. Then Hagar began her spell, "All powers of evil darkness appear unto here now. Make whole your spirit creature entrusted to keep the Queen of Darkness. All evil powers come forth to make this creature whole!"
Like smoke, dark shadows arose from the floor, evil powers coming from a force unseen. The shadows arose from right through the floor, surrounding the square table in a perfect circle with the appearance of a solid black wall. Merla's arms were still outstretched with her hands touching her vulture, right through the solid blackness of evil. she was determined not to lose her guardian.
Then suddenly, there was a sharp spot of a little light. Just as suddenly, it was gone, and so was Merla's vulture! Then the evil black powers present dissipated into nothing.
"He's gone!" shrieked Merla.
She turned, grabbed Hagar by front of her clothing, and hoisted the old hag off the floor.
"What'd you do with him?" she demanded of Hagar.
"I didn't do anything with him!" answered Hagar in shock, both over the event that had just happened, and also over Merla's actions. Then Hagar warned, "And you better put me down before you're sorry for it."
Merla put the witch down. Then she turned back to the table where her bird had once been. Tears began to flow from her eyes. Then in a cold steely voice she said, "You must know what happened to him, witch!"
"I can tell you that he's not gone. He's still here, even in this dimension -- somewhere."
"And how can you tell? I don't sense his presence anywhere!"
"Ah, that's because I am more in tuned to the powers of darkness than you are, Queen Merla. For I belong to darkness and you do not -- not yet. It is darkness that knows he's still here, and yet for some reason, cannot touch him."
"Find him, Hagar."
"I will try."
Hagar went to her crystal ball and attempted to locate the vulture. She soon confessed, "I'm not able to find him. I only know he's here somewhere -- somewhere in this dimension. It appears as though we won't be able to go to him unless he comes back to us."
"You're tying to tell me he left me?"
"No, he was taken, but we can't find him."
Meanwhile, back on Arus, Allura and Keith had finished eating their evening meal with everyone and were taking a stroll together around the castle enjoying the greenery and the moat lake. They were walking silently hand in hand, just enjoying each other's company when suddenly, Merla's vulture appeared just a few feet in front of them on the ground. No flash of light, he just suddenly appeared. The bird writhed about on the ground as though he couldn't stand. His detached wings laid lifeless on either side of him. The sight shocked both the king and queen.
"Keith!" exclaimed Allura. "It's Merla's vulture!" And she rushed forward to aid the bird.
"What's he doing here?" asked Keith incredulously. He quickly added, "Careful, Allura. It could be dangerous."
"He's hurt, Keith. We've got to help him," Allura told him as she cradled the vulture and his detached wings in her arms.
Keith then walked over and crouched beside her, and then also touched the bird. They weren't thinking about it, but their rings had no affect on healing the vulture. As severed up as the bird was, there was no visible blood.
"What are we going to do to help him?" questioned Keith.
"I don't know," answered Allura getting teary. "But we've got to try something. Hold his wings against him and help me take him to see Dr. Gorma. Maybe he can help."
Keith did as Allura requested and together they carried the bird inside the castle. Keith could have just as well just carried the wings while Allura carried the vulture, but it seemed more dignified for the creature to be holding the wings on him where they belonged.
Dr. Gorma examined the vulture thoroughly as Keith and Allura watched. After a brief but thorough examination, the doctor informed, "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do. The wings are dead. I could re-attach them, but I may as well be attaching a couple of tree branches to his body for all the good it would do."
"Please try doctor," insisted Allura.
"Very well."
Keith and Allura watched on as the doctor began his work of re-attaching the wings. When the doctor was finished and the bird stood up, the wings sagged on either side like a couple of dead weights, tugging down where they were attached.
"I'm sorry, Doctor," apologized Allura as a few tears trickled our of her eyes.
"Highness?" the doctor questioned.
"I just don't understand. It's like he was brought to us for a reason. But I don't understand what we're supposed to do to help. There must be something we can do."
Suddenly a globular white glow enveloped the vulture, surprising the three onlookers. Mysteriously, the vulture had gained back control of his wings. The transformation became apparent when from within the white glow, the bird spread his wings and launched himself straight for the ceiling. Then meeting the ceiling, the vulture and the white glow around him went straight through as if it didn't exist.
Back inside the castle, Keith, Allura, and Doctor Gorma stood there stunned as they all stared at the spot where the vulture had disappeared through the ceiling.
"Did either of your rings have anything to do with that?" the doctor asked.
"No," the king and queen answered at the same time.
Then Allura continued on, "No, that was something all together different that caused that to happen."
The vulture continued on soaring straight up into the sky. And in fact, he didn't change his angle of assent until he was beyond the boundaries of Arus's atmosphere and was in outer space. Then white glow disappeared and was gone. Strangely, he didn't die there, and found no need to breathe. He began flapping his wings and gliding through space as if it were an atmosphere.
Then a mechanical purring like voice of a female spoke. The vulture couldn't hear it, but his subconscious understood the message. It was the voice of the same angel-like creature the Voltron force had met at the end of the universe, after they had died. But this time the voice spoke of the vulture and said, "When that which is not yet evil can be rendered harmless by doing good to it, it's life worth saving. Fly back now then dear creature to the one you protect. For, now you are incapable of causing harm by evil means ever again. Goodness has rendered you forever untouchable by evil from the moment you allowed it to pierce your heart almost causing your utter destruction."
Her final words were referring to the time during which he had been a robeast determined to destroy Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron and all the pilots within them. It was during that time that he had read the caring thoughts of Allura for Merla, his mistress he was entrusted to protect. Those caring thoughts of goodness by Allura he had allowed pierce his heart. The moment that goodness pierced his heart, the spell of darkness that had transformed him into a robeast had been broken, and the weakened state it returned him to almost destroyed him. It was the angel-like creature who had been allowed to snatch the vulture from the grips of darkness which could not touch him anyway. Merla's concern for her bird was extremely strong for holding him back, and the natural pull of concern strong enough to release the vulture was that of the King and Queen of Arus, especially Allura's concern for wanting there to be some way to make Merla's vulture whole again. And so at the feet of the King and Queen of Arus was where the vulture had reappeared. And it was especially because of Allura's hope in that something could be done to heal the bird and because of the deep empathy she felt even after she had lost that hope, that had allowed the angel-like creature to be granted power to make Merla's vulture whole once more.
Just after the angel-like creature had finished speaking those words, a white glow enveloped the vulture again, shining brighter and brighter until in a sudden instant it shot into space, carrying the bird with it. The speed transcended time and space. It all traveled through both, but was affected by neither and had no altering affects on either.
Once Merla's vulture had reached the atmosphere high above Planet Doom, the white glow disappeared and the bird was left alone to fly the rest of the way on his own.
Merla had left Hagar's dark laboratory and was standing on the wasteland not far from Castle Gray Stone on Lonely Hill. She had been standing out there for sometime trying to search the universe for her vulture with the powers of her mind. It was a feat far beyond her skills and wasn't working at all. But her determination to find her vulture drove her to keep trying. Her mind couldn't even touch him after he had entered the atmosphere of Doom.
The vulture could have been seen as a small dot in the distance when he spotted Merla, except that she was facing the opposite direction and didn't see him at all even as he came closer and closer. Finally, the vulture reached Merla and landed on her left shoulder.
Merla recognized the touch right away. Immediately she looked over at him and broke down in tears of joy at the sight of him.
"You came back!" she rejoiced. Then she fell to the ground and getting the vulture off her shoulder she hugged him close. "I thought I had lost you!" Her whole show of emotion was so uncharacteristic of her, but never in her life had she faced losing her guardian whom she had known all her life.
Suddenly Merla felt abhorred and she fell backwards away from the bird. She continued to stagger backwards on her hands and feet in a sitting position as she stared back in horror at the vulture.
Then the vulture spoke and said, "Merla, I will always be nearby to protect you. I will always know when someone is thinking bad thoughts about you."
"But . . . I can't touch your thoughts. What's happened to you?"
"A better question would be, what's happened to you."
"What do you mean?" asked Merla as she crept forward toward her bird on her hands and knees, starting to feel trustful of him again.
The vulture didn't answer for a moment and then said, "Merla, it doesn't matter. It won't change anything. I'm back to protect you. That's what matters."
Merla stood up and said with cold emotion, "Yes, you're back and that's what matters."
The vulture then flew up and landed on her left shoulder. Then she trekked back with him, back to the castle of Planet Doom.
Commentary: This is a continuation of what happened in the story Battle of the Minds. In the animated series, Merla has referred to her Vulture as "he" before, but in another episode she had referred to the bird as "she." I know she has said that only females are allowed on her planet, Darkness, but for my stories I've decided that she was referring only to people and that of course there were female and male animals on the planet. And, I've decided to go with that the vulture is male. I have the vulture talk in this story and also in the stories Merla’s Sacrifice and Battle of the Minds. The vulture also talked to Merla once during one of the animated episodes with what sounded like a male voice to me which helped me to decide that Merla's bird is male, and that there are situations during which the bird would talk. In the cartoons, Merla did say that her vulture knew when someone was thinking bad thoughts about her. That's why I show him as being able to read minds in this story. The meal that Keith and Allura had finished with everyone before they went on a stroll together and found Merla's vulture, was the same meal they started in the story Insolence and Consequence. When I wrote this story I felt compelled to have Merla's vulture survive, though I had also imagined another scenario of the bird simply perishing as a robeast at the hands of the two Voltrons. I also felt compelled to write that somehow Keith and Allura would be a key factor in healing Merla's bird, but only after Merla discovered she didn't have the means for healing her vulture. So I came up with a story that fit those parameters. I mention the rings of the king and queen in this story to make it clear that they don't have an effect of healing Merla's vulture. When I introduced the rings into my stories in the story Rings of the White Lion, I meant for them to be no more useful most of the time than any other ordinary set of wedding rings. So this story demonstrates the unpredictability of the rings' magic by showing that most of the time they won't work for healing anything. I find it strange myself even as the writer that Keith and Allura can tell when the rings have used any magic or not, but I decided that them having the ability to tell fits the stories well. The angel-like creature mentioned in this story is the same one from the episode about the Omega Comet in the animated series. The Voltron force had her met at the end of the universe after they had all died but then were given the choice of coming back to life. The name "Castle Grey Stone" and that it's on " Lonely Hill" is information I used from the animated series. As for how Merla has known her vulture all her life, that's a story I've created about her, but I haven't typed it out yet. It was a bit of a hard decision for me to decide whether Merla would still be able to read the thoughts of her vulture and whether he'd be able to read thoughts. I decided that because of Merla getting more closely entangled in darkness, she'd no longer be able to touch the thoughts of her vulture who was forevermore untouchable by evil, but he could read her thoughts because he was above the powers of evil causing him harm. Kind of like you can step on ant, but an ant stepping on you has no affect.
[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]
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