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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.

It hadn’t even been a half-hour since Allura and Mark were sleeping when alarms went off throughout the castle. Allura awoke startled at the sound of the alarms. Mark was also quite startled by the alarms. More than that, they had him terrified. Since he had been born, he hadn’t experienced them going off inside the castle like that.

Allura tried to quickly get up to go comfort Mark. The feeling that gave her head almost put her to the floor. But, she did make it to Mark quite quickly, lifted him out of his crib, and held him close to her while sitting on the floor.

Then Coran’s voice came over every speaker system and comband throughout the castle – anywhere that the intruder wouldn’t hear it, “Emergency evacuation procedures for everyone. Zarkon is inside the castle!”

Allura’s heart leaped up into her throat upon hearing that. Memories of what her own mother had done to save them when Zarkon was inside the castle before so long ago came flooding into her mind. She didn’t really have any memory of it. She wasn’t even two years old at the time. But she had imagined many times what it must have been like for her mother to race down to where her father’s tomb now was and hide in the hidden entrance in the wall. And now it was all happening again! Allura was completely distressed. She wasn’t even sure if she’d be able to stand up with Mark let alone carry him to safety.

Elsewhere in the castle, much of everyone was with Coran in Castle Control: Keith, Darla, Carla, Nick, Pidge, and Tammy. After Coran had announced the emergency evacuation, Keith ordered, “All of you go into hiding immediately! That includes you too, Coran.”

“Lance!” cried out Carla realizing that because of how sick he was, he’d never make it anywhere safe in time.

“I’m getting Hunk,” declared Darla, his pregnant Drule wife. Pidge and Tammy immediately acted on trying to detain her right where she was, telling her she couldn’t go and to think of her unborn baby.

Carla looked for someone to hand Nick off to. She saw Pidge and Tammy were busy with Darla, and she didn’t think that either her brother Keith or Coran would take him, so she simply put Nick on the floor. Then she started to dash out of the room, but before she had taken more than a few steps, Keith caught her by the arm. Carla stopped and Keith ran around and squared off to face her.

Then Carla shot in, “And don’t you dare order me to stay. I won’t listen!”

Keith continued calmly with a sense of urgency in his tone because of the impending danger, “You have to stay with Nick. Don’t do to him what our parents did to us.”

Upon hearing that, Carla’s eyes immediately filled with tears. Her and Keith had lost their parents all at once when they went on the same space mission. The ship they were on was never found again and their parents were presumed dead. Carla was also feeling angry with Keith for using such an emotional ploy. But at the same time, she knew what Keith said was true.

Carla’s stance relaxed almost instantly as she felt a feeling of despair come over her. Keith dropped her arm. Then she turned around and scooped up Nick just behind her and hugged him close.

Just then Darla broke away from Pidge and Tammy, her bad arm screaming in pain over the struggle. Yet she ignored it as if the pain didn’t exist. Fury burned in her red eyes over the idea that anyone would try to stop her from getting to Hunk.

Keith was no longer there to try to stop her. After his sister picked up Nick, he took off to find Allura and Mark. Carla knew he would. She couldn’t hold it against him to risk his life to save his son when at least her son was safe.

Carla reached out and grabbed Darla’s painfully sore arm as she swept past them.

Darla couldn’t ignore the new excruciating pain shooting up her arm. Yet she was too angry and focused on saving Hunk to cry out. Instead she whipped around to see Carla and used every ounce of self-restraint to keep herself from striking out.

Carla saw the fury in Darla’s red eyes like she had never seen fury before. Yet she continued to throw caution to the wind and ignored it.

“Darla, don’t go,” said Carla in urgent sincerity. “You’ve gotto take care of your baby.”

Upon hearing that, the look on Darla’s face immediately softened and her stance relaxed. Carla let go to her arm and hugged it back around Nick. Coming from Pidge and Tammy, the words of caution to think of her baby meant nothing to Darla. But coming from Carla who seldom showed a care in the world for Darla and who also was a mother sacrificing her personal needs and wants to meet the needs of her child, the words meant everything to her.

“Are you OK?” asked Tammy as she ran to Darla and stopped just short of reaching her.

“My arm hurts,” confessed Darla, her voice revealing some of the pain she was feeling. She was making quite an understatement concerning her arm. With her anger gone, she was only reacting a little to the agony she was physically experiencing.

“I know where it is!” piped up Pidge who had been through the underground tunnel leading to the castle before. “Follow us!” he continued referring to Tammy and himself.

“I’ll follow up from behind,” said Coran as he took out a laser rifle from a panel he opened in the control room.

Then they all took off from Castle Control and headed for where King Alfor’s tomb was in the lowest level of the castle. Precious moments had been lost during the brief scuffles between them that happened in Castle Control. They all hoped that too much time hadn’t gone by.

Meanwhile, Keith was racing to find his wife and son. He went straight to their room where he thought they’d most likely be. In fact, Keith arrived just moments after Allura and Mark and Lance and Hunk had come out of their rooms and were all sitting on the floor in the hallway just outside their doorways. All of them (except baby Mark) felt too sick for the time being to move on. Keith stopped just short of his wife and looked at them all.

“Keith, you can’t help us all. Just get the queen and Mark and go!” said Lance.

Keith’s heart sank. He knew he couldn’t help them all. He hoped that if Zarkon came by there, he wouldn’t even bother with Lance and Hunk. But he couldn’t leave Allura behind. She was his wife. Besides that, she was the slave Zarkon wanted most. In less than a second, Keith had decided to bring Mark and Allura to safety and then come back to get Lance and Hunk whether they wanted him to or not. He approached Allura to get her up.

“Keith, don’t!” pleaded Allura. “Take Mark and go. There’s no time!”

Keith saw the fear in Allura’s eyes, but recognized it as not fear for herself. The whole incident of Zarkon invading the castle had also brought to Keith the thoughts of what had happened so many years before when Allura was just a little girl. She had told him before how little time there had been for her mother to get them both hidden. Because of those thoughts, Keith consented to his wife’s plea and snatched up Mark. He knew full well he’d be back to get her, but he first had to make sure that Mark would be safe. Little Prince Mark, so easy to move to safety, and there might not even enough time for that.

While Keith was getting Mark, Pidge and Tammy, Darla, Carla, and Coran were all running to get to safety in the lowest part of the castle.

Somehow the others, who thought they were already running at their fastest, picked up their pace a little bit more. Coran paused just at the top of the stairway leading down to Alfor’s tomb as everyone else hurried down the steps. He had heard that whoever it was coming up behind them was getting closer and closer, no matter how fast they ran to get away. And Coran waited there at the top of the stairs as the footsteps that were following them continued coming fast. Suddenly, Coran thought he recognized whose footsteps they were, but he wasn’t sure. He had his laser rifle ready in case he was wrong.

“Your Majesty!” blurted out Coran when Keith rounded a corner only to be met by Coran’s potentially fatal laser rifle pointing straight at him.

Coran immediately lowered the weapon. Keith then quickly handed Mark off to Coran who held the scared quiet boy with one arm.

“Get Mark to safety,” ordered Keith. “I need to get Allura.” Then Keith immediately ran back the way he came.

"No!" Coran called after Keith, but there was no stopping him. Then Coran mumbled to himself, "You better come back. I wouldn't survive raising another heir to the throne."

Then Coran dashed down the stairs with Mark and joined the others behind the wall where the tunnel leading away from the castle started. They all knew that any noise they made couldn't be heard on the other side of the wall. Much concern was expressed among them over Nanny and the rest of the castle staff. Nanny knew about the hidden entrance, but for the safety of the royal family, the rest of the castle staff did not know and had other designated places of safety to escape to. Everyone was especially concerned about Nanny since she was sick. Coran kept his emotions in check and refused to let himself make an attempt to rescue her to make sure she was safe. Logically such an attempt made no sense. Wherever she was (which was sick in her own bed) she was probably safe since she was an unlikely target for Zarkon and her area of the castle was also an unlikely target. Also, if Coran or anyone else hiding there did make an attempt to go get Nanny, it would create possibilities for being seen and giving the hiding spot away or even drawing attention to where Nanny was, possibly causing both the rescuer and Nanny to perish when they otherwise probably would have been both safe. So Coran did keep his emotions in check and wouldn't let anyone make a rescue attempt to save Nanny or anyone else.

[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]

Sickening Terror