The clash of battle on Arus had ceased. The screams and moans of the wounded were silenced one by one. The day was quiet and time seemed suspended. The sun shone upon the indistinct horizon, and the Doom fighters were returning to the destroyer, satisfied with their actions. The view port focused in a village, covered with the heroic blood of their inhabitants. Shreds of smoke drifted through the ruins. Drule soldiers had gone in rampaging search for the smallest item of value, and taking people who weren’t able to escape to the caves as prisoners.

I braced my hands on the floor and swallowed back a rush of tears for the deep, tormenting knowledge that our twin planet was being destroyed and many people lay dead upon the earth, and that I was helpless to remedy it. Was mercy so lacking in the Prince of Doom that even now, when his battle was won, he could not let the proper burial of the defeated?

“Why do you make me watch this horror?” I asked Lotor, who was sitting in his chair, keeping his rapt gaze upon the fleet’s progress.

“So you can witness, my revenge,” he said coldly. “I will demolish every building, every tree, and every blade of grass. Every living thing will be destroyed, down to smallest insect. The people of Arus have defied again and again. Now that Voltron is out of the way, they will learn the price of their defiance.” He paused for a few moments, and then added, “But first, I will destroy the thing I hate the most- the castle. I won’t stop, till is leveled.”

Meanwhile, Bandor’s Fleet was trying to pull Voltron out of the comet, by using grip bins. Unfortunately, Lotor had predicted this maneuver and had ordered part of his fleet to attack them. The Eleventh Fleet counterattacked, but they had used most of their energy for the grip bins and couldn’t keep up. In a matter of minutes those magnificent ships were turned into shreds.

But miraculously, the command ship was still linked to Voltron. Was it possible that Master Coran had managed to activate part of the robot’s circuitry by remote control? If that were the case, surely they would succeed.

“Prince Lotor,” the leader of the robot fleet said, “something is protecting the command ship from our lasers, and it looks like they may take Voltron off the Omega Comet.”

“Fools!” he snarled. “Blast their grip bins!”

“Yes sir!”

And I watched in horror as they attacked my brother’s ship, hurling it to the end of the universe. Lotor erupted in laughter. “Haha, Voltron will ride on that comet forever. I have proven once and for all that I’m superior!”

“Superior!” I sneered. “You’re nothing but a monster!”

He growled, and I backed away fearfully as he looked down at me with hatred in his eyes. “Monster.” He tasted the word with his tongue, greatly offended. Then he turned away and said, “I have never liked the word…monster. Robeast, on the other hand has a better ring to it. Don’t you agree, Mogor?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Mogor always agrees. That’s why I have given him the honor of sending the robeast to Arus. A robeast so powerful, that it will destroy everything in the planet.” Then he chuckled. “I wish Voltron was here, so that I could see him turn into little bits of metallic dust.”

Lotor stood and strode toward me. He reached down and yanked me to my feet. “Don’t you think is time I get a reward for my efforts?” he mocked, lifting a white brow.

Hagar cackled her delight, but it was enough to spur my temper, already seething beyond caution. My humiliation was past bearing. My pride burned like a flame, engulfing me, goading me to unreasonable action. With a flare of rage burning within me, I drew back my arm and struck a stinging blow across Lotor’s cheek.

The men and drones in the bridge held their breaths in stunned surprise. They expected Lotor to kill me. Everyone feared his dark moods. When he bent his cold, ruthless gaze upon them, they fled out of his way to safety. Yet this princess, with so much to lose, had braved far more than any other had.

In the brief moment Lotor stared at me, I regained my senses and knew a sudden prickling of fear. I was horrified by my action, as he was astonished. Without a word or warning, Lotor’s hands were upon me, jerking me to him and crushing me against him in a powerful embrace. “Your display of gratitude is strange, princess,” he said. “Do you forget that I could order your father’s execution?”

I gaped at him, unable to utter a plea or an apology.

He laughed shortly. “Do not fear, my sweet. You shall see your father again alive and well as surely as you will share my bed.”

Hagar’s laughter swept the bridge at his words, but my heart gave a sickening lurch. “Bastard,” I hissed in his face, deriving small pleasure from the startled expression on his face.

“Remember one thing, Romelle,” he said harshly, “the next time you hit me you will suffer greater shame than you just have.”

With that he thrust me from him, and I fell upon the floor and lay quivering, my body aching, my shame intense. I heard him move and glanced up to see him take a length of chain from Mogor. As he approached me with it, I cringed in terror. Had my actions provoked him so that now he must beat me to have revenge? He would kill me, I was certain. My heart drummed in my ears, and as he bent to me, I leapt away, kicking at him as I tried to flee his outstretched hands. He dropped the chain and bounded after me.

“No!” I shrieked and eluded him by running under his arm. I darted past him in a spurt of strength and flew to the doors, but to my horror, my foot got caught in a cable and I stumbled. Before I could regain my balance, he dove at me, throwing his arms about my middle. As we went crashing down, he twisted his body so that he bore much of my weight against him and took the full impact of the fall upon himself though if caused him no slight discomfort as his leg was jolted.

My limbs flailed about as I sought to free myself, then I turned in his restraining arms to press a frontal attack. I saw the error of my ways when he laughed and pinned me to the floor beneath him.

“Let me go! Please!”

Surprisingly, Lotor rose and drew me to my feet. He peered down into my face with a twisted smile, reaching up to brush some of my hair from my cheek.

He laughed and taking my hand into his dragged me to a small platform that was connected to the ceiling by a chain, and to my utter amazement, he shackled my waist and ankles to the steel structure. He picked up the chain, and fastened one end of the shackle to the platform and the other around my wrists. Then he signaled Mogor, and immediately I was pulled up, until I was suspended over their heads.

“You cannot be allowed to attack me without being punished,” Lotor said softly. “If you keep still, the chains will not break your skin and seriously harm you. I am being merciful because you are new to my ways, others haven’t had the benefit of the platform.”

“I don’t care what you do to me,” I retorted, anger riding again over my fears. “Your cruelty will not go unpunished, I swear!”

And he grinned like the devil. “Romelle, if you’re my punishment, then the punishment fits the crime.”

To Chapter Four
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