|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
 |
at flora-chan@libero.it. colorized by Moira at The Paladin of Arus at http://www.geocities.com/skyvalleydancer/ |
 |
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.
“I can’t believe you and Keith are getting married!” exclaimed Romelle when her and Allura had a chance to talk alone in Allura’s room.
“Yeah,” said Allura modestly. “It’s hard to believe that you and Sven aren’t married yet. How long has it been since you’ve been engaged?”
“Six months, twenty-three days,” answered Romelle very matter-of-factly. “In fact, with you and Keith suddenly getting married, Sven is feeling embarrassed with how long it’s taking us. Actually it’s been my fault that we’re not married yet. I’ve been using the time for planning. You’ve only been engaged two weeks. How’d you pull it all together so fast?”
Lots of good fortune, excellent seamstresses and tailors, and most important – I have Nanny.”
“That’s true. Nanny is amazing.”
The next day, wedding day, Keith was busy getting dressed in a private chamber of the castle. Sven, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge were all groomsmen, but were getting ready together in another chamber in the castle. And, Allura had started getting ready long before Keith in her own room with the help of Nanny and many maidens. Nanny didn’t want Allura chatting with any of her friends while she was trying to get the princess ready. Romelle, Queen Orla, and two maidens that worked in the castle were bridesmaids, and they were getting ready in another room. (With difficulty, Allura had talked Queen Orla into being a bridesmaid).
Keith was just putting on the other black boot that went with his kingly attire when Lotor suddenly appeared in the room (because of Hagar’s witchcraft). Then the door to the room opened and just outside it sat Kitty (which is what Witch Hagar fondly calls of her blue devil cat, Coba) appearing to be intent on watching for what would happen next.
“Lotor, you’re alive!” exclaimed Keith astounded, and he stood up ready to defend himself. He was wearing the boots he had just put on, back pants, and a white long-sleeved shirt with formal looking ruffles down the middle and on the ends of his sleeves.
“Yes, I am,” replied Lotor. “And you won’t be for long.” Lotor drew and activated his laser sword and then tossed another laser sword to Keith which Keith caught and immediately activated.
Lotor continued, “Defend yourself. It will be your end.”
“Lotor, don’t do this,” Keith tried to reason with him, but before he could finish his sentence, he was already blocking an attack by Lotor with his sword. Then he heard an evil familiar cackle.
“Prepare to die, boy,” said Hagar who was now just outside the door holding Kitty in her arms. “Lotor, what’d you give him a weapon for? You should have just finished him off and been done with it.”
“There’s no fun in that, old witch,” said Lotor while continuing his battle with Keith. “I want him thoroughly defeated before I do him in.”
Lance was experiencing a persistent nagging feeling of impending doom. He had briefly experienced a similar but less intense feeling of the same thing just days before (when Kitty was watching Keith and Allura on the balcony, but was not discovered). Then he recognized the feeling as what he usually sensed when Witch Hagar was somewhere nearby. His first thought was of the princess’s safety so he left the others to go check on her. He knocked on the princess’s door and one of the maidens opened it.
“Lance!” said the princess happily from where she was sitting.
“Lance!” blurted Nanny angrily. “You’re not supposed to be here!”
“Wow!” exclaimed Lance, stunned. “Princess, you’re so . . . beautiful!”
“You’re not supposed to see her yet,” said Nanny angrily, and she started to walk toward Lance. “Now get out! Shoo, shoo, shoo!” she said as she turned him around and started swatting him on his behind.
“Gee, Nanny, I’m just a groomsman, not the groom!” protested Lance.
“I don’t care. Now get out!” And with that she had him out the door and closed it.
Well the princess is OK, thought Lance silently to himself. “Keith!” he blurted aloud when he clearly sensed Hagar at the very thought of Keith.
Lance took off down the castle hallway to get to the room where Keith was getting ready. He turned a corner and down the hall he could see Hagar holding her cat just in front of Keith’s room. Immediately Lance drew a laser gun he had concealed in the tuxedo of his formal wear. But by that time, he then saw three Hagars standing by each other, moving from side to side.
“Heh, heh, heh, heh, hehhh,” cackled Hagar. “Which one am I pilot? Did you really think I wouldn’t know you were coming?”
Then all three images disappeared.
Lance began to run toward Keith’s room, laser gun still drawn. “Heh, heh, heh, heh, hehhh,” Lance heard Hagar cackle from nowhere in particular.
As Lance was closer to Keith’s room, he caught glimpses of the battle ensuing between him and Lotor. Keith’s shirt was torn diagonally from top right to lower left, but there was only a slight cut to his skin there. Also there was a deep cut on the side of his right shoulder. Lotor had a gash on his right shoulder and across his left thigh. As Lance was closer, the door to the room slammed down closed.
“Keith!” shouted Lance pounding his fist on the door. Then he looked up at the invisible air around him knowing that it had to be Witch Hagar who made the door close. “Hagar, you old witch!” Lance pounded on the door some more. Then he ripped a panel cover off the wall beside the door and fired his laser gun into the wiring inside in an attempt to short out the door so it would open.
“Lance!” exclaimed Allura, and she picked up the sides of her wedding dress and started to run down the hall toward him, the train of her gown hanging over her left arm. She had talked Nanny into letting her go see the groomsmen. Then she talked the maiden who came with her into staying behind while she went to find Lance.
“Princess!” said Lance, surprised. “Stay back!”
“But the princess was afraid for Keith, and she ran on until she was next to Lance and she stopped.
“Where’s Keith?” she asked, afraid of what the answer would be.
As she finished her sentence, the door to the room opened. Allura saw Prince Lotor and Keith battling each other, and was horrified at the sight of Keith’s wounds across his chest and shoulder.
“Keith!” she shrieked as she immediately rushed forward to get into the room. Just before she had called out his name, Keith’s eyes locked for a moment with the princess’s. An invisible wall blocked Allura from entering the room. Their gaze upon each other was soon broken when Keith had to tumble out of the way of a deadly charge by Lotor with his laser sword.
“Keith!” screamed Allura again, her hands pressed flat against the invisible force field, tears streaming down her face. Then Hagar’s cackle could be heard, seeming to come from every direction around Lance and Allura. The princess glanced behind her, but quickly turned her attention back to Keith.
“You won’t win, you old witch!” called Lance menacingly up into the air, looking all around to no trace of the witch.
“Your pilot will soon perish, Princess, and then you’ll be mine,” sneered Lotor.
Keith then sliced Lotor slightly on his left side just across his lower ribs. Lotor was quickly out of the way. Then he managed to cut Keith slightly across the top of his right hand. Keith’s sword flew across the room over to the door. His hand wasn’t cut too badly, but bad enough that he wouldn’t be using it to hold the sword anymore. Keith leaped over by the door and grabbed up the sword with his left hand. The fight continued with Keith battling almost as well with his left hand as he had with his right. He cut Lotor across his left thigh again.
“Princess, we’ve got to get help,” urged Lance pulling back on the princess’s shoulders.
“We can’t leave him!” insisted the princess and she wriggled her shoulders free from Lance’s hands.
Keith and Lotor struck out at each other only to hit each other’s swords again, but the force of the blow caused both of them to lose their grips and drop their swords. Then Lotor grabbed Keith, and picking him up a little off from the floor, he threw him into a wall by the door. Keith’s sword was also there. He swiftly grabbed it with his left hand, but Lotor already had his sword and was charging forward with it. As Keith was standing up, Lotor plunged his sword clear through Keith’s left shoulder until it was stopped by the wall.
“Ahhhh!” shouted Keith in excruciating pain.
“No!” shrieked Allura.
Lance’s eyes opened wide in horror.
Keith reached out with his bloody right hand, but Lotor grabbed the wrist with his free hand and pinned Keith’s right arm up against the wall. It was all Keith could do to keep his grip on the sword in his left hand, but he wouldn’t drop it.
“Now you perish, pilot,” sneered Lotor.
But, just as Lotor finished his words, Keith used all his effort and strength to lift the sword in his left hand and sliced Lotor’s arm off above the elbow.
“Ahhhh!” yelled Lotor.
Keith fell out of the way to his right side as the laser sword dropped out of his shoulder and Lotor’s arm fell to the floor. Lotor turned and fell forward onto the floor. There he rolled over onto his back, clutching what was left of his right arm with his left hand and agonizing over the pain and loss of his arm.
Keith was sitting up slumped against the wall, his left hand still gripping onto the sword and his right hand covering the wound on the front of his left shoulder. At first he briefly felt a sense of pity and guilt when he saw Lotor lying on the floor. Then memories of another battle he had with Lotor raced through his mind. He remembered how he had rendered Lotor helpless, but spared his life. Lotor took that mercy and used it against Keith, injuring him with a rock causing him to plunge head first down the side of a cliff. And there Lotor left Keith unconscious to die . Or at least it had always been in the back of Keith‘s mind that Lotor had thought all along that Keith was already deceased. Sure, just before Keith had completely blacked out, he remembered Lotor calling down to him, “You’re a fool! The duel was only meant to separate the Voltron force and lull the planet’s defenses. Now everyone and everything on the planet shall be destroyed!” But in the back of Keith’s mind he thought Lotor just did that to satisfy himself over what knowledge he wished he could have tormented Keith with. And he thought right. Keith would never know, but just before Lotor returned to the scene to make sure he had really finished the captain off, he said to himself, “I’ll double check to make certain that Voltron leader is really finished.” Keith remembered it had been Allura’s voice calling his name that first began to wake him back to consciousness. And, that’s when he saw himself faced against lethal laser fire from Lotor’s ship, the Revenge. It was all the more evidence for Keith to add to the back of his mind that Lotor had merely returned to make sure he had perished as Lotor thought he really had. Keith’s memories were over in an instant although it seemed longer to Keith. He glanced at Allura with her tear stained face and the look of fear she was returning to him. Keith looked back at Lotor, his brief expression of pity now an expression of deadly fury.
Witch Hagar suddenly appeared near Lance and the princess as Keith staggered to his feet. Kitty was no longer with her. Lance drew his laser gun, but Hagar already had her staff pointed at him. A beam came out of the staff that hit the laser gun and sent it flying a hundred yards down the hallway. Lance didn’t move to do get it.
“I won’t spare you this time, Lotor. I’ve learned from a time before.” Keith held his sword with both hands pointing it down. He then fell flat forward, aiming to plunge the sword through Lotor’s chest.
“No!” lamented Hagar.
Just before Keith’s sword touched Lotor, Lotor and the sword disappeared. Keith lay there outstretched and barely conscious on the floor. His hands were still together as though they were still holding onto the sword. Also gone at the same time were Hagar, Lotor’s arm, the other sword, and the invisible force field.
Allura immediately rushed to Keith’s side, turned him over, and laid his head in her lap over her white wedding gown. Lance didn’t know what to do. Then he heard footsteps running down the hall. He turned and saw it was Sven, Hunk, and Pidge.
“About time you got here!” complained Lance. “Vhat’s going on?” asked Sven. “Vhere’s the princess? Vhere’s Keith?”
Then Sven, Hunk, and Pidge saw the princess in the room with Keith’s head cradled in her lap.
“Why didn’t you come get us?” asked Hunk.
“I couldn’t leave the princess, and she wouldn’t come with me. I also don’t have my comband on (a communication device on a band worn across the wrist). Do any of you have a comband?”
None of them did.
“Then someone needs to go get help,” said Lance.
Pidge immediately took off to go get some assistance. Then Lance told Sven and Hunk the full story of what had happened while they waited for help to arrive.
When Pidge came back with help, Keith was put on a gurney and brought to the medical room in the castle to be attended to by Dr. Gorma. Nanny and Coran, and Romelle and the other bridesmaids also came back with Pidge. Nanny flipped out over the bloodstains on the princess’s wedding dress and she rushed Allura from the scene. She insisted that the princess change out of her wedding gown right away. Then Nanny hurried off with the dress to personally begin working on getting the stains out. Allura quickly put on her pink dress and immediately went to go see Keith.
Dr. Gorma determined the extent of the injury to Keith’s left shoulder. He said it would heal, but it would never be like it was. Keith wouldn’t be able to fly any of the lions again because of the arm’s loss of abilities and the potential for further injury to the arm.
The wedding of course was postponed for a later date.
Commentary: I softened the language a bit from the first time I wrote this. The information I originally had of Keith’s memories was incorrect so I changed that. Caroline inadvertently found that for me. Thanks Caroline! I added the part about Bandor's illness to clarify why he wasn't attending the wedding. Further clarification can be found in the story Wedding Magic. I don’t know what all sorts of rooms exist in the castle, so I just went with what I figured would exist. In the animated episodes, it seemed to me as though Lance had a “feel“ for when Witch Hagar was around. So I used that in my fiction. The multiple Hagars idea I did get from the cartoon episode where even more Hagars appeared to Sven. In the animated episodes, I’ve seen scenes, such as Keith holding guns in both hands at the same time, that allude to him possibly being ambidextrous. In my stories I decided that he’s close to ambidextrous, but that he is better with his right hand. I wrote this story long before Voltron the Third Dimension came out with their version of Lotor missing an arm. In my stories, that part of Voltron the Third Dimension never happened and Lotor’s face is not disfigured in my stories.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! Don’t know in the animated episode if Keith really did hear Lotor before he went unconscious. Keith’s thoughts and feelings regarding that battle in the animated series are how I’d imagine them to be. Keith’s reaction of deadly fury toward Lotor may seem uncharacteristic of him, but I tried to create a situation in which Keith would feel no mercy for Lotor. I don’t duplicate Sven’s accent exactly, just a little to bring across the feel that he does have that Swedish/Norwegian accent. Nanny’s reaction to Keith’s dire situation may seem too coldly practical, but that’s how I thought she’d react. As for why I have Sven as Keith's best man instead of Lance; I did that because I thought I remembered that in an episode Keith had said something about Sven being his best friend. I have since seen what I think is the same episode again, and actually Keith just calls Sven "My friend," very warmly. But it was that scene that gave me the feel that Keith and Sven were best friends before Sven's disappearance, and then were best friends again -- so I'll leave it in my fiction that Keith and Sven are best friends. And I have Keith choose Sven over Lance for best man at his wedding.
[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]
Next Story Sven's Chice
Go See Pictures
Background Information
Back to Home Page or Stories
Comments? E-mail me or Sign or View My Guestbook