The New Prince

Chapter 15

Chapter 15—A Labyrinth of Mysteries

Sven, Allura and Lance sat in one of the conference rooms going over the details of the rescue mission with Erin Hawkins, who communicated with them from Earth. The room had gone silent after she had retold the accounts of that day for the fifth time. Tapping on the table, Sven began speaking, "Ok, let's go over it one more time."

"I don't know how many times we have to go over this again!" Lance countered. "Whatever happened, happened when he went to Erin's cell." Looking back to the vidscreen, the lieutenant asked, "Erin, are you sure you don't remember anything else?"

Erin rolled her eyes again, "I told you Lance, I don't even remember being placed there. The last thing I remember was speaking to Haggar…and even that is hazy."

Lance sighed in frustration, "From what you've all told us, I don't see where he could have been infected or how. Dr. Gorma checked him and there's nothing infectious in his system."

"How about a spell? Maybe Haggar wiped out both of their memories." Sven suggested looking at the group.

Allura shrugged and sighed, "Dr. Gorma is looking into that as well. He's calling a healer from one of the neighboring villages to check Keith over."

"This entire situation smells like Zarkon." Lance leaned his chair back.

"Why not Lotor as you mentioned earlier?" The princess asked, her brow furrowed as she looked at him.

"Lotor would have gloated at this point. Zarkon is more calculating." Lance answered not looking at her.

Sven raised the subject to which all three participants stared wide eyed at him. "He is trying to kill Keith."

Allura's voice rose with panic and anger. "He won't go down that easily…not Keith." She shook her head trying to convince herself.

"He may have a purpose for Keith." The young girl on the vidscreen volunteered her eyes far away for a moment.

"What do you mean by that?"

Shaking her head, she tried to remember, "I vaguely remember Haggar telling me that I was offering Zarkon the galaxy. Maybe they kidnapped me to get to Keith."

"I think they succeeded." Sven answered coldly. Allura looked at him worried. "They may want to attack Arus and take over Voltron now that they know Keith is out of the way. We have to prepare for an attack."

Nodding in agreement, Lance looked at his friend while asking, "Will you fly for Keith?"

"Of course I will. God forbid, Zarkon takes over Arus Pollux is next. I can't let that happen." Sven answered. Turning to Allura, he asked, "Princess, do you mind if I take over Black?"

"Of course not Sven." she replied, but her thoughts lay elsewhere. Just then, her comm. unit beeped. "Allura...come in…"

"Coran, what's wrong?"

"Princess, please report to MedTech." She heard the advisor state. "Dr. Gorma needs to see all of you."

They all looked at each other. "Right away." The princess stated before cutting the communication. She looked up at the young girl whose eyes showed concern. "Erin, we'll contact you soon."

"Let me know how he's doing." the young girl answered worriedly. With that, she disconnected.

"Come on!" Allura immediately stood up and ran ahead of them.

Allura ran into MedTech as fast as she could, almost breathless when she reached Dr. Gorma who was standing outside Keith's room. Lance and Sven quickly ran up behind her.

"What happened to him? Is he all right?" She asked in between her breathing.

Gorma touched her shoulder, sympathetically, "Calm down, Princess." He looked at the rest of them, "He's the same. It's just that he has been slipping in and out of his lucid states less frequently and right now he seems very lucid. I thought you might want to speak to him now before…"

"Before what?" Sven asked.

"His lucid states are decreasing at a rapid rate. I just want to be sure you have all the information you need from him before he becomes completely confined to the other state."

"Shit!" Lance shook his head.

Nodding in disappointment, Allura walked toward the room, "Thank you Doctor. We'll go see him now."

"No," Lance immediately stated. He knew she needed this time with him, "You go. We'll wait outside. Ask him everything you can."

Allura nodded at both of them, "All right." She told them before walking in.

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The room was quiet when she walked in; except for a bit of heavy breathing from him and an occasional tremor that shook his body and made him move around.

"Keith,"

He opened his eyes, and forced a smile when he saw her, "Hey you," he whispered.

"Hey you," Allura whispered back, taking a seat in one of the chairs next to the bed he was in.

"Did they find out…what's wrong with me?" Keith asked, looking at her with fevered eyes.

"No, not yet; but Gorma is still working on it." She tried to comfort him caressing his hair.

He nodded slightly and began shaking, "I'm sorry about…today…I didn't mean to be…so harsh with…all of you."

"We know it wasn't you. Keith... you have to tell me if you remember anything before you got sick. Anything you touched or something strange that happened while you were at Doom. Anything that can help us?"

Keith shook his head slowly, "No…nothing."

"Please try to think, when you were at Doom getting Erin back…did something happen to you?"

Flashes of Erin's rescue rapidly ran through his head. So fast, he closed his eyes to avoid the waves of nausea that began to rip his stomach.

"Erin? That was…real?" he opened his eyes to see the princess studying him tentatively.

Her eyes grew more concerned with shock. "Yes, Keith. That was real."

"Doom," the captain closed his eyes. An eerie smile crept across his lips; the word sounded so pleasing to him.

Suddenly, his eyes darted around under the eyelids; Allura watched him studiously.

"Keith,"

When he began slowly opening his eyes, Allura reached down and pulled on his face to force it up to meet hers, "Keith, look at me damn it! Stay with me."

As he looked at her blankly, the voice coming back in his head…

'There's work to be done.'

'Come back to us,'

There's work to be done.'

'Return to your father!'

He swallowed hard and looked at her, "I have…work to do…I have to return…to Father."

"Keith,"

His eyes closed; Allura noticed the movement of them as his lids closed.

"Fight it, Keith, please fight it."

Sighing harshly, she caressed his cheek once more then walked out.