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Picture from Rachel's site Daughters of Arus at
http://www.geocities.com/lady_shirohana/tascab0.html
Who I believe got the picture for Dani's site at http://www.arus.org./voltron/index.html
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.
The day after Keith’s and Princess Allura’s wedding was postponed, Keith was still weak and was supposed to stay in bed. He lay on the medical bed shirtless with his left shoulder bandaged and his arm stabilized from moving by a sling. Keith didn’t have a chance to protest over being stuck in bed. He was very weak and constantly fading in and out of sleep. The princess was almost always there with him, wearing her long pink dress and smiling down at him whenever he was awake unless it was night and then she was asleep in a chair in the room.
Princess Romelle received a call late that morning from Planet Pollux. She was told that her brother, Prince Bandor, had become very ill the night before, and he was insistently asking to see her. He was moderately ill just before Sven and Romelle had left Pollux to go to Arus, but now his sickness had taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Sven was also there to hear the call. After the call was over, Sven dropped his head in dismay. He knew he’d have grueling decision to make.
“Sven, I’ve got to get back to Planet Pollux right away,” said Romelle. “You’ve got to stay here in case they need to use the lions.”
From the moment they had received the call from Planet Pollux, Sven had had an awful feeling about the whole situation. A feeling that something bad was planned to happen to Romelle. Somehow he had a sense when something dangerous was about to happen to anyone who reminded him of his grandmother, who had been considered a pretty blond all her life, but especially in her younger years. “You’re not going back alone,” said Sven continuing to look down.
“Allura will send some guards to go with me.”
“I von’t let you go vithout me.” Sven looked into Romelle’s surprised eyes. “If something happened to you, I’d never forgive myself. I have to be vhere I can protect you.” Sven dropped his head again. “If disaster must happen, then let it happen to both of us.” He looked into Romelle’s eyes again. “Romelle, I can’t let you go back vithout me.”
“Sven, Arus needs you,” said Romelle gently taking a hold of Sven’s hands.
“I need to be vith you, Romelle. I von’t let us be separated.” Something bad is planned to happen to you. I can feel it.” Sven’s head dropped again before talking on, “You can’t understand. I don’t completely understand it myself. My mind is vell trained, but my training never entailed anything like this. It must be some sort of bond I have that tunes my training into accomplishing vhat it was never meant to accomplish, vhat it was never fathomed to accomplish. I’ve never tried explaining it before, but in all honesty, I think it has something to do vith how close I vas vith my grandmother. I lost her and couldn’t stop it. That must have been the beginning of my mind using its existing training to train itself to make sure that I never lost my grandmother again. That’s not logical, but the subconscious defies logic. That I am trained to understand. And I’ve never lost anyone who even vaguely reminds me of my grandmother since -- because I’ve always gotten this feel for when something bad is going to happen to that person before it happens. I’ve never sensed it this far in advance before,” then Sven looked up into Romelle’s eyes again, “ but Romelle I do sense it, and I von’t let you go back vithout me.”
Sven could see in Romelle’s eyes that she wasn’t understanding the importance of what he was trying to explain.
Romelle believed Sven’s concern was real, but despite what he was explaining about how his fears turn into accurate predictions, she still felt his concern was unfounded. She couldn’t put the safety of Arus before her own safety, especially not based on something that sounded like nothing more than a hunch.
“I’ll need to tell Allura,” she said simply and she let Sven’s hands go back down to his sides. Then she turned and left Sven alone there in the Castle Control room.
“Allura,” said Romelle as she walked into the room where Keith was sleeping. “I need to talk with you.”
“What is it, Romelle?”
“Not here,” said Romelle and she gestured to Allura with her head and with a look that it was something that Keith shouldn’t hear about.
Allura looked down at Keith who appeared to be sleeping. “Very well," she said still looking at him and she slowly set his hand down gently on the bed. Then she stood up and left the room with Romelle.
“What’s wrong, Romelle?”
Romelle explained that her brother’s illness had taken a turn for the worse and that Sven insisted on returning to Planet Pollux with her. She didn’t say anything about Sven’s premonition-like feeling that something bad was going to happen to Romelle while returning home.
“Maybe if you talk with him, he’ll stay here,” said Romelle. “Arus needs him and I’ve got to go back to Planet Pollux to see my brother.”
“Keith knows he’ll never fly any of the lions again,” said Allura. “He was taking comfort in knowing that Sven could be here until another pilot was found. Actually we were hoping Sven would be a permanent replacement for flying the blue lion. Keith knows I can fly the black lion.” Although in Allura’s thoughts and heart, she knew she’d miss flying the blue lion. “Thank you, Cousin. I’ll talk with Sven.”
Princess Allura found Sven still in the Castle Control room. Coran was not there and had let Sven be there by himself. He hadn’t been in Castle Control since he left to give Romelle some privacy regarding her call from Planet Pollux. He had already been informed before Romelle and Sven what the message was. And actually Coran started to return to the control room after Romelle left, but seeing that Sven was still there, Coran decided to leave Sven alone to think.
“Sven,” greeted Allura.
“Princess,” Sven greeted, temporarily looking up at her and smiling a little, and then it faded away just before he dropped his head again.
Allura walked over to Sven. “Romelle says you’re leaving with her today to go back to Planet Pollux.”
“I’m sorry, Princess. I know you need me to fly blue lion, but I can’t leave Romelle. Above all else, her safety my priority. In this case, I can’t trust anyone to take care of her except for me.”
Allura’s eyes were watery as she began to realize the pain Sven was struggling with. “I understand, Sven. You once lived with the feelings that you let down the Voltron force for so long. You couldn’t bear to live with the feeling of letting down Romelle if something ever happened to her. You need to go back with her to Planet Pollux.”
Then Sven broke down into sobbing and fell to his knees onto the floor. “I’m letting the Voltron force down again!” he lamented with his face in his hands. He thought he had conquered his demons regarding when he thought he had let down the Voltron force back when he had found himself as a slave on Planet Doom. But with this new situation, those demons came flooding back to him.
Allura knelt down and put her hand on Sven’s shoulder. “Sven,” she said warmly.
Sven lowered his hands and looked at the princess.
“Sven, you never let down the Voltron force. Never! But you couldn’t have known that you didn’t let us down so to you it felt like you let us down. And Sven, you’re not letting the Voltron force down now. You must stay with Romelle, you’re part of the Voltron force always, and you’ll never let us down.”
Allura knew nothing about Sven’s premonition-like feelings. But her incredible sense of empathy had allowed her to see through to the crux of the struggle Sven was dealing with.
“But Arus needs me and I can’t stay here. I’m no part of the Voltron force. I’m no good.”
“Sven, stop doing this to yourself. You remind me of what I was doing to myself when I thought I was a let down for my whole planet’s chances of ever having peace. But I stopped tormenting myself over the consequences of my actions. I had done what I had to do. Maybe I could have made better choices, but maybe the choices I made were the best choices. Given the circumstances, I did what I had to do. Sven, you have to stay with Romelle. Do what you have to do, and don’t torture yourself over it. You’re not letting us down. While you’re gone, we still have use of four lions. If you have to come back to help us, I know you will. If you have to stay with Romelle, I know you will.”
“You’re right,” said Sven and he sniffled. “Thank you, Princess.”
“Now go,” said Allura smiling and she gave Sven a light friendly hit across his back. “Romelle needs to get back to Planet Pollux. Her brother needs her.”
Sven and Allura stood up at about the same time. Then Sven left the room.
Sven and Romelle went to check in on Keith one more time before they left. Princess Allura wasn’t there, and they didn’t actually go into the room. Sven didn’t want to take the chance on Keith waking up and seeing him and the asking questions Sven wouldn’t want to answer. No one wanted Keith to know that Sven wasn’t going to be available to fly the blue lion.
Keith woke up and caught a glimpse of Sven and Romelle standing by the doorway. They both quickly darted away from the doorway, out of sight. Then they quietly began to walk away from the room.
“Sven?” called Keith loudly, but there was no answer. Keith was perplexed by Sven’s peculiar behavior, but he soon drifted back to sleep.
When Keith awoke again, he saw Allura smiling down at him. Keith found the sight to be pleasant at first. But then he noticed a slightly troubled look to Allura’s eyes.
“Sven and Romelle went back to Planet Pollux,” he said rhetorically.
“Yes,” said Allura, her smile was gone and her whole face looked troubled. “How’d you know?”
“It was a guess. I could see something was troubling you, and Sven was acting strangely last I saw him, and if he had left, that would explain the look you have in your eyes.”
“We didn’t want to worry you about something you can’t do anything about,” explained Allura. Then she briefly told Keith about Romelle’s sick brother and the situation with Sven. “But Keith, everything is going to be OK.”
“Sure it will,” acknowledged Keith and he drifted back to sleep. However, Allura could plainly see that he was very concerned about the Voltron force’s ability to protect Arus being short one lion. She wished he hadn’t figured out that Sven was gone. There was nothing Keith could do about it.
Commentary: I didn’t like how I originally wrote this story. Sven was too weepy over Romelle, seemingly not giving her any credit of her ability to protect herself. In the animated series, Sven gives Romelle a WHOLE LOT more credit for being able to take care of herself. Also, I had overdone Sven’s reaction of letting down the Voltron force. Originally I was basing it on cartoon episodes that showed how reluctant he was to ever fly any of the lions ever again. But in season two of the animations, he seems to have no qualms over flying blue lion. Yet the animated series never really explained how he had overcome his feelings of letting down the Voltron force. So I rewrote this story with explanation as to why his feelings of letting down the Voltron force would return to haunt him. Also I wrote in explanation as to why he’d suddenly seem so over protective of Romelle. I used the theory about how strange it is in the animated series how Sven is the one who knows the exact moment when to save a beautiful blond from immediate danger -- I think I read that theory on Rachel’s site at http://www.geocities.com/lady_shirohana/tascab0.html, and now I’ve used it. Thanks Rachel! The part about Sven’s grandmother and the explanation I came up for Sven’s premonition-like ability I made up. I did base the idea of Sven’s mind training skills off the animated episode where he seems to go through a ritual to figure out which Hagar was the real Hagar, when he faced her in battle and ended up so badly injured he needed to go to Planet Eb. (Yes, in go-lion he really didn’t go anywhere and died). And also mind training skills could explain why he’s such a good navigator. I use all those ideas including his grandmother in a prequel I wrote, but I haven’t typed it yet. I show Allura as having incredible skills of empathy, but nothing beyond what anyone isn’t capable of. In my stories Allura is NOT capable of telepathy like she is in Voltron the Third Dimension, and neither is anyone from Planet Balto. I didn’t like those parts in Voltron the Third Dimension, so I don’t use them. The only backing those ideas have with the animated series that I can think of is the Planet Balto episode (which is Earth in go-lion). In that episode there is a point where Allura hears in her mind exactly what Keith is saying to her while he’s on Balto and she’s on Arus, although he doesn’t realize she can hear it. She talks back to him aloud as if he can hear her back, but he doesn’t . Nanny and Coran were present to witness it, and it was only Allura who heard the message from Keith. My explanation is that there must have been some freak properties about Planet Balto during the time before it was about to explode. And, somehow the bond between Allura and Keith thinking about each other at the same time allowed a telepathic message to get through. To see great Voltron fiction using Voltron the Third Dimension within the continuation, check out Adele's website at http://www.alluraandkeith.homestead.com. Even the elements of Voltron the Third Dimension that I don’t like she writes about well!
[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]
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