SILENT AS A SHADOW, Lance edged around the low wall of the garden, realizing with consternation that he was unarmed. Nevertheless, he crouched low, ready to spring at whatever emerged from the bushes…

     A slender shadow muffled in a long cloak slipped from the rose bushes and without a sound, Lance sprang. He heard a scream of surprise and alarm as his arms went tightly about the intruder, and with an astonished cry of his own, he spun the figure around, and jerked back the cowl roughly, to reveal the wide-eyed face of Princess Romelle!

     “Lance!” she gasped, clutching at his arms to steady herself. Once righted, she threw him a furious glare.

     “Well, how was I supposed to know it was you?” Lance demanded, indignant. “You didn’t say you were coming, and who the hell goes sneaking around the castle at night except an intruder?”

     “I might well ask you the same question!”

     “Yeah, but the difference is, I live here. How did you get here, anyway?”

     “I am a princess, Lance. I can find a ship to get me someplace if I want to.”

     “A princess, huh?” Glancing down, Lance saw that, instead of her customary royal gown, Romelle wore plain brown slacks and boots and a russet-colored leather jacket, rather flattering but hardly befitting a royal princess. He raised one eyebrow questioningly.

     “Lance, shut up. No one knows I’m here.”

     He blinked in mild astonishment. “Are you sure you’re related to Princess Allura?”

     Romelle put her hands on her hips and regarded him witheringly.

     “All right, all right,” Lance said, hurriedly. “Sorry ‘bout that, but you could easily have been a Doom spy, sneaking around like that!”

     Instead of taking offense, Romelle’s eyes widened and she looked at him intensely. “Then you do believe Doom has not been completely defeated?”

     Lance sighed. “The guys think I’m completely crazy, but I just have this feeling we haven’t seen the last of Lotor and Zarkon. Don’t ask me where these notions come from, but they have yet to be proven wrong.” He rolled his eyes. “And the guys have yet to take me on faith for anything.”

     Romelle seized his hand again, this time to emphasize her next words. “Lance, for whatever it means, I believe you.”

     “Because of Sven?”

     “How else explain his actions?”

     Lance realized with no small measure of amusement and admiration that Romelle had never considered Sven’s coolness proof of his indifference toward her. He wriggled free of her surprisingly strong grasp and clasped her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes-which were nearly level with his, for Lance was not tall, and Romelle was.

     “I know he’s hurt you, Princess,” he said in a hushed voice. “But I think-and I think you think-that something’s very wrong, something that has nothing to do with how much my friend cares for you.” His expression softened at her sharp intake of breath. “I would almost say the guy who ditched you and has been acting weird around Arus is a robot, except how could a robot know as much as he did? He knew exactly how to pilot the Blue Lion, and that’s no easy feat! And he knew who all of us were…” He was rambling, voicing thoughts as they came to him, but he could see Romelle was following.

     “Yes, yes!” she exclaimed, “I’ve felt it, too. Something is very wrong, something-”

     She gave a startled exclamation as Lance gave a sharp cry of surprise and whirled suddenly away. Romelle spun to see what had alarmed him, and they both watched in horror as the Blue Lion burst through the surface of the lake and silently launched itself skyward.

     “Is that Sven?” Romelle gasped, whirling to face Lance.

     Lance still scanned the sky, watching as the metallic lion got smaller and smaller in the night sky. “Where in hell is he going?” he said, through grated teeth, one fist clenched at his side, the other still on Romelle’s arm.

     Abruptly he turned on his heel and began running for the castle, nearly knocking the startled princess off her feet. Romelle hastened after him, calling hoarsely, “Wait-where are you going?”

     “To the Red Lion!” Lance called over his shoulder. “Come with me-there’s no time to wake the others.”

     “Will we be in time?”

     “Oh, I can find where he’s going, now hurry!”

     It is one of the great mysteries of the universe just how the Voltron Force changes so quickly from their street clothes into their riding gear when they get into their Lions. This humble scribe couldn’t tell you, and neither could Princess Romelle, for though she was there, it all happened very quickly and in such a blur, that she could never quite remember it afterward. One moment she was clinging desperately to Lance’s shoulders as he rode down what resembled an elevator shaft from ancient Earth on what looked somewhat like a trapeze, wondering wildly what would happen to you if you fell, and the next moment she and Lance (already in uniform) were riding underground in a little transport shuttle to the bottom of the lava lake in which the Red Lion rested. An instant later she was ushered hurriedly into the cockpit of the Red Lion, urged to hold tightly to something, and then she was slammed hard against her seat as the Lion, at Lance’s command, reared up and burst from the lava with tremendous force and took to the sky. She glanced over at Lance, but saw the hard, set expression on his face as he scanned the view screen, and she kept her comments to herself.

     “Where are you, where are you, dammit,” Lance muttered, fingers flying over the control panel. Just as a cold and sinking feeling was beginning to creep into his heart, the Red Lion’s scanners began beeping like crazy and Romelle gave an exclamation of excitement.

     “Gotcha!” Lance cried triumphantly, and the Red Lion hurtled ever upward at incredibly velocity. Romelle, no stranger to space flight, could not contain a gasp of amazement at how quickly they were in outer space. “There! There he is,” Lance shouted, jabbing at the light on the scanner with one finger, his eyes never leaving the view screen. “I’m gonna hail him. Hold on.”

     Romelle’s hands clutched at the armrests on her chair as she watched Lance try to raise the Blue Lion on the com. After a few minutes of repeated attempts, Lance ground his teeth furiously. “He’s not the hell responding, and I know he can hear me!”

     “Where’s he going?” Romelle gasped.

     “How should I know? I’m just following him-I’ve never seen these coordinates before in my life.”

      Across the galaxy the Red Lion chased the Blue, never slackening its pace, though Lance was completely confused as to just where they were headed. Stars hurtled by like thin streaks of light, but Lance seemed unaware of anything but the faint speck that was the Blue Lion, never quite out of sight.

     “Try raising him again,” Romelle said urgently, her hand on his arm. “He must know we’re chasing him.”

     “Oh, he knows,” Lance said angrily. “Fine. Here goes. Sven! Blue Lion! Dammit, come in, will you?”

     “Sven!” Romelle cried into the com. “Please listen!”

     Just as Romelle’s heart was sinking, the com suddenly crackled to life and they heard Sven’s voice, from what seemed like a very great distance.

     “Turn back, I’m warning you!” he shouted savagely. “If you continue to follow me you will find reason to regret it!”

     “Sven, what the hell-” Lance began, then his jaw dropped and his eyes opened-wide. “Oh my god, he’s turning around! He’s assume attack position!”

     Romelle stared in horror as the Blue Lion seemed to stop, then flip over and around, and began hurtling toward them at tremendous speed!

     “I think I’m ready to buy that robot theory, now,” Lance muttered as he quickly maneuvered the Red Lion out of the path of the charging Blue Lion. “My GOD!” he shrieked, face drained of all color as the Blue Lion dove past them and both saw it held a gigantic blade in its mouth. The Lion paused a good distance away from them, then swiftly came about for another charge.

     “If I didn’t think Allura would skin me for blowing up her Lion, believe me…” Lance muttered.

     “Is he really trying to kill us?” Romelle gasped.

     The Blue Lion stopped.

     For a long, exceedingly tense moment they sat in utter silence and it seemed to Romelle as if the entire universe had gone as brittle as glass. Without, the indifferent stars hung, cold and waiting. Hardly aware of her own shallow breathing, or the man sitting rigid beside her, it was as if there were a great, long, transparent channel between her eyes and the robot lion they were locked on. With all her heart, with all her being she called out to the man behind the two unseeing eyes of the Blue Lion, called him to her and begged him not to do this.

     How long they stayed like that, neither of them knew. But suddenly the Blue Lion was coming forward, gaining speed, and Lance, with a horrified cry, scrambled for the controls. But as the Blue Lion drew near, Romelle saw that the blade had disappeared. Before Lance could react, the Blue Lion opened its mouth and spewed forth a giant net of solid ice, entrapping the Red Lion and rendering it immobile.

     Lance cursed and Romelle watched in horror as the Blue Lion sped away. “Please tell me there’s something you can do,” she said urgently.

     “Of course,” Lance muttered. “This Lion controls fire. I can melt through this net in a minute,” he said, hands flying over the controls. A long spume of fire issued from the Red Lion’s mouth and Romelle watched as the icy net melted before them.

     A minute later and they were on their way again, Lance glowering over the controls and Romelle puzzling over what Sven’s actions implied.

     “We’ve lost time,” Lance muttered. “But we can still find out where he’s going!”

     And so they followed, cautiously, the Blue Lion never quite in sight, but they were always aware of its location thanks to the Red Lion’s scanners. Past nebulae and countless planets and star systems they traveled, until at last a small, bluish world swung into their view and here their chase ended.

     “What is that place?” Romelle wondered aloud in a hushed voice. There was something ominous about that little world.

     “I have no clue,” Lance replied in an equally low tone. “I’ve never been in this part of the galaxy, and I don’t think it’s ever been fully explored and charted. Looks like there’s a storm of some kind going on on the surface. Why is he going there?”

     “I don’t know,” Romelle said firmly, “but that’s where we have to go.”

     Lance gave her a sidelong glance. “It’s a good thing Keith the Voice of Reason isn’t here,” he breathed. “Okay. Let’s go.”

     They plunged downward toward the small planet and when they came in contact with the atmosphere it was as if an enormous hand seized the Red Lion and smashed it down ruthlessly toward the surface. The robot lion and its human occupants were buffeted mercilessly by the icy, impenetrable winds that howled and raged all about, turning their world into a chaotic cyclone of ice and snow. Romelle screamed and Lance struggled wildly with the controls, but to no avail. The ferocious storm had them in its grasp and as the Red Lion plunged ever downward, Romelle and Lance were jostled violently. Romelle scrambled to remain upright, was thrown forward and struck her head with tremendous force against the control panel. Then there was nothing.


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