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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.
Allura continued to have mixed feelings after she and the rest of the Voltron force had destroyed Lotor as a robeast. During the time she had been angry enough to do away with him herself, but after he was gone it pained her greatly. She knew he had good in him. And with his demise, gone were the hopes she had in him that perhaps someday the goodness within him would win out and there would be peace between their planets.
But, that night her hopes were realized in a way she would have never dreamt of -- except that it was all a dream!
That night Allura had an incredibly vivid dream. She dreamed that with Lotor gone, their troubles were far worse than what she ever would have imagined (except that she was imagining it in her dream). She dreamed that with Lotor gone, Merla was inconsolably furious with motives of revenge against the Voltron force. She could clearly see the Queen of Darkness on Doom fuming with vengeance, and could even feel her feelings and hear her thoughts. But like in typical dream style, Allura did not figure out she was dreaming .
Then Allura discovered that the fury didn't stop there as she suddenly found herself seeing and experiencing Witch Hagar who was also on Planet Doom, alone in her dark lab and nowhere near Merla. Like with Merla, Allura could feel her feelings and hear her thoughts. But with both of them there were some garbled thoughts she could not read. She knew they were bent on destroying Voltron and the Voltron force once and for all, no matter what the cost, but couldn't hear what those plans were.
Then, without consulting each other, Merla and Hagar traveled separately to Arus at the same time. Neither one of them was noticing that the other had come. But King Zarkon had noticed the departure of both. He recognized their heading as likely to be Arus. So out of curiosity he followed to see what would unfold.
On Arus inside Castle Control, the Voltron force had been called in to see Merla's star cutter and Hagar's space coffin that had been spotted heading for the planet.
As Allura, actually present within Castle Control, watched Hagar and Merla getting closer and closer, she had horrible foreboding feelings over what was to come. She had experienced first hand Merla and Hagar's intentions to destroy Voltron, but somehow she no longer remembered that just as that sometimes happens in dreams. But, the vague feelings associated with what she had once known about Hagar and Merla were still with her.
"Merla and Hagar," stated Hunk. "What do you think they have planned?"
"Whatever it is, it can't be good," stated Keith "To the lions team. We need to be prepared for the worst."
Keith, Allura, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge took off running for the elevator setup that would take them to each to jet shuttles that took them each to their individual lions. Each lion left its lair and launched into the air. All the lions landed in front of the bridge that crossed the moat surrounding the castle. No attack was initiated against Merla or Hagar by any of them. All of them were ready to defend the castle if Merla or Hagar began an attack.
Allura's dream wandered to Castle Control where, in her mind's eye, she observed Coran and Tammy. No one else was there.
"Coran, what do you think will happen?" asked Tammy, an extra member of the Voltron force who was Pidge's girlfriend and who could fly Pidge's green lion.
"I don't know Tammy. Hagar and Merla have never so overtly approached the planet like this before. But I fear the worst."
"There's no sign of a robeast or military threat. But it feels like something much worse than expected is going to happen."
Then Allura's thoughts returned to where she presently was supposed to be in her dream. Hagar's space coffin and Merla's starcutter were just landing a short distance in front of the line up of the five lions. Then they exited their ships. They'd been so focused on their separate objectives to destroy Voltron that they hadn't even noticed each other during the entire journey to Arus, and somehow were still taking no notice of the other.
Then suddenly Merla and Hagar turned themselves into giant robeasts at the same time. Hagar had tapped her staff three times on the ground before a beam suddenly shot out that enlarged her. Merla raised hands above her head. A smoke-like black ball with a purplish glow to it showed up between her hands above her head. Then Merla's skin turned gray starting at her hands and rapidly traveling throughout her body, with black raised spider-like veins traveling right along with it. Then Merla tilted her head back and while suddenly letting her arms drop to her sides, the glowing smoky ball above her dropped right over her head. Then she enlarged, right alongside Hagar, into a giant robeast.
Merla and Hagar faced off to battle Voltron at the same time. It was then that they suddenly were aware of the presence of the other. The ferocious ladies were then suddenly angry with the other for coming because they each had wanted to finish off Voltron alone.
The sight of a monstrous Merla and Hagar struck terror into everyone in their lions, with thoughts of even if they could use the white lion -- would its magic be strong enough against the combined new powerful magic of Merla and Hagar?
"We need to form Voltron now!" exclaimed an awestruck Keith as soon as Merla and Hagar were at their full size.
All five pilots in their lions responded immediately taking off in formation into the sky.
Merla and Hagar turned away from each other and watched Voltron form. Both of them knew Voltron couldn't be attacked during formation. Both were quite sure that not even magic could disrupt that process, and that a foe of Voltron could lose a battle before it's even begun by attacking during the formation of Voltron.
After Voltron had been formed, Merla and Hagar turned their heads and looked at each other, and then nodded their heads and smiled at each other in understanding. Rather than continue to be angry over the presence of the other, it made much more sense to cooperate together to ensure the certain destruction of Voltron. Then they turned back to Voltron.
"Keith, maybe Hagar's staff," Lance started to suggest.
"Right," agreed Keith. "Form blazing sword."
With blazing sword in hand, Voltron made a rush for Hagar. Merla jumped over Voltron as he came and she landed behind him. Keith continued to advance Voltron, paying little attention to Merla. And Hagar just stood there holding her staff as though for standing support and as if nothing was going to happen. Keith used the blazing sword to swiftly slice Hagar's staff and Hagar herself right in half. But, it passed through her as if she were a ghost.
The Voltron force stared in disbelief at the unscathed Hagar. Then the appearance of her quickly began to look faded and transparent. And suddenly from up out of the ground underneath Hagar, came a solid appearance of Hagar who was the real Hagar. She kept rising up out of the ground until she had exactly filled the somewhat transparent image of herself and then it was gone and her real self remained in its place.
Suddenly a powerful blow hit Voltron from behind between the shoulder blades so powerful it knocked Voltron to the ground. Keith quickly rolled Voltron on his back to look up and see what caused the blow. It was then that the Voltron force saw Merla's waist long braid in her hair retracting through the air and land behind her. Merla approached where Voltron was laying, flipped her head forward, and her braid headed for the center of Voltron's chest like a wrecking ball. Keith had Voltron roll out of the way just before it hit. Her braid hit the ground and crushed right through it creating a deep hole. Her pink braid was like a snake as Merla pulled it back up out of the hole.
Merla then quickly flipped her hair forward again, this time hitting Voltron squarely in the chest, sinking him completely into the ground. The dirt walls of Voltron's imprint were above Voltron all around him at about the height of a one story building.
"Keith," called Pidge urgently. "If she hits us like that again, it'll put a hole right through Voltron's chest for sure."
Merla's braid went flying for Voltron entrenched into the ground.
"I'm cutting that off," stated Lance.
And he swung up the blazing sword still in Voltron's grip, threatening with certainty to do away with a good portion of Merla's lovely pink hair. But instead, Merla's braid snaked past the sword's stroke and grabbed it right at the base of the sword and yanked it right out of red lion's mouth. She let the sword go and it went flying and impaled itself right into the pavement directly in front of the entrance to the Castle of Lions. All five members of the Voltron force let out a gasp. In the next moment, Merla's braid was headed for them again.
"Got to try white lion," stated Keith, actually panicked as he reached forward and pulled the head down on a white lion statue that had risen up out of his control panel. "It's not working!" he immediately stated after he had tried, the panic going through now even in his voice.
Upon hearing Keith say, "It's not working," they all knew it was because Voltron still stood a chance to win the battle on his own. White lion will work by magic only if absolutely needed. And apparently the situation they were in was not one of those times. Yet no one could think of what else Voltron could possibly do to defend himself.
"Oh no you don't!" They suddenly heard the booming scratchy voice of Hagar.
And in the next moment they saw the old witch's staff above them. It blocked Merla's braid which wrapped itself around the staff on impact.
"That's the extra time we need," declared Keith. "Up and at 'em team."
Keith sprang Voltron out of the hole.
"Voltron is mine to destroy," declared Hagar.
"You couldn't destroy him before, old witch," retorted Merla referring to during King Alfor's time when Hagar had disguised herself as a goddess, but couldn't destroy Voltron and instead broke him up into five pieces. "Now it's my turn."
"Not if I have anything to do with it!" warned Hagar, and she yanked back on her staff that had Merla's braid wrapped around it. The witch then proceeded to spin around, spinning Merla's feet right off the ground, dangling along by her hair wrapped around Witch Hagar's staff.
"Duck team!" ordered Keith, and Voltron dropped to one knee, bending his head down. Merla swung around and around above him.
At one point, Merla managed to force her feet down and find some footing. Hagar continued to turn, but Merla was now stationary. She pulled back on her pink hair and Hagar's staff was wrenched away. But before Merla had a chance to grab it with her hands, Hagar, with power from her hands, made her staff slip out of the coils of Merla's braid and return to her.
"I said Voltron is mine!" reiterated an infuriated Hagar. A beam shot out of her staff and hit Merla. The Queen of Darkness fell backwards and hit the ground landing on her buttocks.
Then from out of the sky, came a ship King Zarkon himself was personally arriving in. He had been watching from above, and decided to come down to see the destruction of Voltron up close. Soon the King of Doom had landed and was watching the proceedings as he stood smiling on the ground just outside his spacecraft. He was watching the battle from close proximity, haughtily confident Voltron was done for, that the plan unfolding before him couldn't possibly fail to destroy the Defender of the Universe. He had been oblivious to the fact that the events of the battle had changed with Hagar and Merla battling each other.
After Merla had hit the ground because Hagar had shot her with a beam from her staff, Voltron had stood up and began to back up so as not to get caught up in the "cat fight."
As Voltron was backing up, Hagar and Merla threw magic at each other in the form of incredibly forcible power beams, destroying each other as two immense explosions leaving no trace whatsoever of either one of them.
Just after the King of Doom saw this unbelievable spectacle of his worst defeat ever, he happened to look up and became filled with terror at the sight of Voltron's left foot coming crashing down upon him. It was nothing that Keith (or Hunk) was doing on purpose. He was merely continuing to back Voltron up for safety's sake. And that's all it took for the happenstance of Zarkon's demise to occur. In one fell footstep, King Zarkon of Planet Doom, mighty tyrant of the Drule Empire and its greatest warrior ever, was no more.
With Zarkon, Lotor, Merla, and Hagar as no more, the evil activities of Planet Doom had ceased (or so that's how Allura had imagined things would be in her dream). No one ordered to continue the atrocities. And repercussions didn't stop there. Even the farthest reaches of the entire Drule empire were affected. Logic far outweighed their passion for domination in that not one of their leaders, including the emperor himself, could realistically even hope for further conquests given the udder destruction of King Zarkon's rule, leaving them with two Voltrons to deal with -- including the Voltron who had destroyed their king and all of Planet Doom's control in one fell swoop. And so . . . peace spread across the universe once more. The Drules had been the universe's most formidable threat to peace. And with them backing down, other of what would have been much more minor threats, never occurred either.
Only the Voltron force and onlookers from Castle Control knew the truth that only by sheer chance circumstance of unimaginable unlikelihood (except that Allura had imagined it) had Voltron won.
And with that last realization, Allura awoke sitting up in bed with an expression of shock, looking almost as though she had awakened from a very bad nightmare.
Keith had awoken instantly as Allura was sitting up.
"Allura, what's wrong?" Keith asked.
"I had a nightmare," she answered as though entranced.
"It's ok," he said sitting up and putting his arm around her. "It was only a dream. Do you remember it?"
"Yes," answered Allura turning to Keith and sounding like her normal self. "It was all extremely vivid. And . . . and . . . it shouldn't be a nightmare, yet it all feels like an awful nightmare."
"What do you mean, it shouldn't be a nightmare? What happened?"
"I mean, the forces of Doom were defeated and all oppression everywhere by the Drule Empire ceased. That shouldn't be a nightmare. Yet it feels like the most awful dream I've ever had."
"How can that be?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe if I tell you everything that happened, you can tell me why it's such a horrible nightmare."
Then Allura began to recount her dream starting from the beginning. She even vividly remembered things such as what had happened on Planet Doom, though she couldn't remember those details once her dream had her on Planet Arus. Dreams are strange that way sometimes as to how in a dream state a person forgets what they had just been dreaming about, yet after that person wakes up, it all comes back to them.
"And so peace spread across the universe," Allura concluded her tale. "And that's when I woke up. Hagar, Merla, and even King Zarkon were all gone forever. Why should that be so disturbing? What does it all mean? Do you know anything about interpreting dreams?"
"No, but my mom did some. Wow! I remember that! Mom said most of the time dreaming was nothing more than nervous chatter. And if makes a person feel any better, it's worth it. Otherwise worrying even in your sleep is a waste of time. I wonder if Karla might know how to interpret dreams."
"Uhhhhh," Allura sighed in negative realization. "I think I know what it means."
"What?"
"The death of Lotor. . . What we all witnessed happen to Merla .. . My dream expresses the hopelessness I feel that there can ever be a peace agreement between Planet Doom and Arus. It expresses the hopelessness I feel over the possibility of peace ever spreading across the universe. I had hope of even the smallest bit of hope, for a peaceful agreement while Lotor was alive. But with Lotor gone, and after seeing what had happened to Merla, it seemed that nothing short of Merla, Hagar, and King Zarkon all perishing would allow for peace to happen. Keith, I don't want their destruction. But what other way would there be if there is ever to be peace?"
Then another thought suddenly hit Allura that instantly brought her to tears.
"Oh, Keith! I'm so sorry! It's not true!" she sobbed burying her face into her hands.
"What's not true? What's wrong?" Keith hugged her to him. "It's all right What's wrong?"
Allura hugged Keith back and sobbed on his shoulder for a short while before calming down and pulling herself back to look at him.
"It's not true," she said in a tearful voice as tears were still coming down her cheeks. "What I told Romelle, it's not true."
"Told Romelle? What did you tell her?"
"You are the only one for me. If something would have happened to you, If you didn't want me, -- I had thought I could be happy with Lance, and if Lance didn't want me, maybe even Hunk. But I wouldn't have been happy. I mean, Lance is very special to me. There's a flirtatious spark between us. But, you're my love. No one else compares. With anyone else, there would have been something lacking. A part of me would have felt empty. I'm sorry Keith. I'm sorry I could have said anything like that. It's not true. It's only what I had convinced myself of being true because I ... I didn't dare expect you'd ever want me. I expected perhaps you wouldn't want me. And if you didn't, I felt the need to imagine myself happy with someone.
"Allura..." Keith hugged her to his chest. "It's ok. We have each other. I treasure you. and I have no doubt of your feelings for me. You and Lance have a close friendship. I wouldn't change that even if I could. I'm not hurt over what you told Romelle. If you weren't with me, I'd want you happy with someone else. I'm not hurt you could imagine yourself happy with someone else before you and I knew our feelings for each other. Though I'm warmed your heart finds me irreplaceable. You're also the only one for me. No one else compares. Anyone else and my life would have been lacking. Together we lack nothing."
"I love you, Keith," affirmed Allura hugging him harder. "I love you so."
"And I love you, Allura. Love of my life."
Then Allura's thoughts wandered a bit into deeper thought. Her mood changed to being contemplative and her tears subsided.
"I wonder what it was about my dream that triggered those thoughts?"
Keith and Allura parted their hug and looked at each other.
"I don't know. It does sound like it's more than just nervous chatter. We could ask my sister if you like."
"I'd like that. I feel uneasy over not knowing what the connection is. I'm sure I'll get over it. But if there's a chance Karla could interpret the dream, I'd like that."
"Then let's go rouse her. She should be up by now anyway."
"Yes she would be," answered Allura in a bit of a far off tone as she was thinking about her dream.
While still in their pajamas, they went to Karla's room where Keith then knocked on the door.
When the door opened, they were greeted by the sight of Karla still in her light purple night gown, looking like she had just woke up, which she had.
"Why are you looking so tired?" asked Keith in a tone that implied he suspected the worst.
"None of your business," retorted Karla.
"Out for a little midnight rendezvous with Lance again, huh?" asked Allura knowingly.
"You know me too well, girlfriend," Karla said and smiled.
Keith looked visibly disturbed over knowing that.
"Relax, brother," said Karla. "It's not like we're doing anything indecent. We've never even met in each other's rooms before, not that anything unseemly would happen if we ever did. Come on in and check under the bed if you don't believe me."
Keith looked at Allura.
She answered, "You and I didn't do anything bad together. Why do you think your sister would?"
Then Keith gave Allura a dumbfounded look that she even had to ask that question. "It's Lance," he stated the obvious.
The girls both rolled their eyes and Karla said, "Who obviously thinks more of me than you do." Which was telling Keith that not trusting Lance was also not trusting her behavior with Lance. And it was all over behavior Lance wouldn't do anyway because he thought more of Karla than that.
Allura added, "Really Keith, it's just a time for them to get a little romance."
"Now that the undramatic details of my personal life have been aired out in the open, and I assure you brother there isn't anymore to tell, why are you both here waking me up?" asked Karla.
"Well, ahh . . . You know Mom, ummm . . . ," Keith kind of stammered feeling a bit sheepish over the previous topic that revealed he didn't trust his sister's behavior and the behavior of his best friend as they deserved to be trusted. (Though Sven was Keith's best friend as well as Lance).
"Do you know anything about dream interpretation?" Allura broke in.
Karla looked at Keith. "So you're thinking since Mom could interpret dreams, maybe I can? And it's obvious you can't or you wouldn't be asking me."
"You got me sis -- yes. Well, can you?"
"Can I do what?" asked Karla smirking.
Keith glared at her knowing she was being annoying on purpose. "Interpret dreams like Mom."
"You know, I think I do have a knack for it. So who had the dream?"
"I did," answered Allura.
"And it's disturbing you," said Karla who could tell. "Come on in girlfriend, and let's figure it out."
Karla and Allura had become good friends since soon after Karla had moved to Arus. And in fact Allura and Karla had become best friends despite the fact that Karla knew Allura and Lance had special feelings for each other as close friends as well. Karla draped her arm across Allura's shoulders and led her into the room.
"I suppose you can come in too, Keith," Karla commented as an afterthought without even looking back.
Karla and Allura sat down on Karla's bed while Keith continued to stand.
"So tell me from the beginning," Karla invited Allura. "What all happened in your dream?"
And so Allura began recounting her whole dream with the same vivid detail as when she had first told Keith. And she told Karla how she had awoke from it as if from a nightmare despite what most would consider an overly optimistic happy ending.
"And that's all of it," ended Allura. "Can you tell what it all means?"
"Yes, yes I can," stated Karla while looking straight at Allura and continuing to think at the same time. "And in fact there is a double meaning to your dream. The first meaning is pretty obvious. Your dream presents a drastic ending to a problem that otherwise seems unsolvable. In other words, you don't want peace for the universe at the cost of the lives of some of its greatest oppressors: Queen Merla, Witch Hagar, and King Zarkon. Your hope was for another way to bring about peace. But that hope has recently been lost. And that's what I can tell of your dream. I'm not sure what that hope was. What were you hoping for that has now been lost?"
"Lotor," answered Allura. "As long as there was Lotor, there was a chance the good within him would one day overpower his want to do evil. And before losing Lotor I had seen that even Merla had lost any want for doing good and perfectly despised us. So yes with knowing what I knew about Merla and then the sudden demise of Lotor, it was then I felt most hopeless for peace ever happening without grievous destruction of the key leaders of the forces of Doom. I mean, I've seen the good that is even within Witch Hagar. But I fear with certainty that all touch with that part of her may have been lost with the death of Lotor."
"Well, at least you're not trying to tell me King Zarkon has a good, yet buried side of him as well. But as for Lotor, I'll never believe the supposed good you think you've seen in him. But yes, it'd be on those illusionary hopes that you feel such a despair over the loss of Lotor as expressed by the feelings you had toward your dream."
"Wow -- yes I did suspect that was the meaning of my dream. But, you said my dream has another meaning as well?"
"Yes, it also likely has the flip side of the meaning of what is obvious. The obvious meaning was the worst case scenario of your optimism of there one day again being peace across the universe. That was the most realistic optimistic solution you could come up with. Yet the thought of it for you is dreadful because the realistic terms for the possibility of peace are unthinkable because of the necessary termination of your enemies. You've held out hope that could be avoided, and now that hope no longer seems possible. Now the flip side of optimism is pessimism. There's an issue in your life that you held persistent sense of pessimism over. Yet, the best scenario of what you could barely hope for is what came true. That's the flip side of the worst scenario for peace coming true. You didn't realize it, but in your pessimism it was the only scenario that would have made you truly happy. That's the flip side of your dream which showed you the scenario of peace which would make you truly sad. The dream you had also revealed to you how fortunate you really are to have gotten what you truly wanted, even though you had your heart completely ready to settle for less. That's the flip side of your dream in that although your heart has been completely open for hoping for the many possibilities of much less violent opportunities of bringing about peace, you feel as though those opportunities have vanished leaving one hope left you've barely allowed yourself to ever consider. The feelings after your dream were that of immense dread. Yet mixed with that must have been feelings of guilt over not admitting how necessary it was for your happiness to get what you had barely dared to hope for."
Karla stopped and then commented to Allura, "Wow, by the look in your face I must be right."
"Yes," answered Allura in dazed astonishment.
Karla paused in thought, and then a smile came across her face when she suddenly knew what the "hidden" issue in Allura's dream must be.
"This is about Keith, isn't it?" stated Karla.
Allura gave Karla a look of surprise with a look within it telling Karla she was right yet again.
"You thought you could have been happy enough with Lance," Karla continued. "And when you had the man of your dreams, don't explain to me again why that's my brother cuz I don't think I'll ever understand that, but when you had the man of your dreams, it hurt you a little you couldn't make Lance happy as well. After all, you had feelings for each other. But not to worry. Life is as it should be. You married Lance's best friend, and as it turns out, Lance hooked up with your best friend as well. Now how ironic is that?"
"It goes beyond what I ever would have imagined," answered Allura. "It's yet another example of how fact is often stranger than fiction."
"You can say that again," said Keith, the observer who had gotten to listen in on the whole conversation. "And how lucky for me," he continued as he walked up to Allura and kissed her passionately on the lips. He was of course referring to that he never dreamed he'd on day marry a princess and become king. "How do you feel now my love, now that you know the meaning of your dream?"
"Sad that peace now seems so far out of reach and attainable only by fatal blows to the most formidable of our enemies. Even the slimmest chance for negotiation seems to have completely disappeared. I feel sad over the thought that I may have missed you and once I had you, I didn't want to face how despairing it would have been if I didn't ever have you. But, I'm so happy to face and realize how fortunate I am to have you."
"If you say so sister," Karla commented, playing the part of Keith's jibing sibling since that was the sort of relationship she had with her brother.
Keith and Allura kissed again before leaving Karla's room. She nonchalantly went back to bed to catch a few more winks of sleep before getting up for the day.
As for Keith and Allura, they began thoroughly enjoying the day together without a moment of drowsiness, both feeling so fortunate to have the other.
[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]
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