Disclaimer: Voltron and all related characters (Lotor, Allura, Keith, etc.) are property of World Events Productions. Any original characters can be used with my permission.
************************Two sets of footsteps could be heard echoing off the cold metal walls which lined the hallways of the great fortress. Both of them were moving at brisk place, as if the people causing them were angry or trying to avoid something.
�Hazar, stop!� cried one of the two making the individual stop abruptly. It was a woman with long black hair and light blue skin. Her command was both a demand and a plea, and her expression was determined and desperate.
�Why do we continue to fight the Doomites? They just want their freedom and, like any people with a sense of pride, want glory for their kind. Why waste resources needed to fight Galaxy Garrison on people who are not different from us?�
Hazar stopped and looked sadly at the woman who was his sister. He understood her words perfectly, and a part of him wanted to agree with her, however his duty to the empire and his ruler came first.
�I�ve explained it to you before, Dorma,� Hazar replied sternly. �Those Doomites are getting in the way of us expanding our empire and gaining the resources needed save our dying mother world. Unlike the humans of Garrison, they would be completely opposed to sharing those resources and working with us. Furthermore, now that they have invaded the Eight Kingdom, we have no choice but to crush them.�
Dorma�s stare suddenly became frightfully intense at those words. Within an instant, she had seemed to have transformed from a small, lovely young woman into an unstoppable warrior filled with passion for its cause.
�That is only because we enslaved them and stripped their world of all its resources for nothing but our own selfish cause! Now, like us, part of the reason that they conquer other worlds is for the resources to save their own. You want to know why? Because we are alike! It is because both races love their world no mater how decayed it is! And speaking of humans, they once had the same problem that we did, but they managed to save their world. Rumor has it that the human home world of Earth is unsurpassed in its beauty. It�s also said to be a world of endless green and blue. Is that not the same dream we have for planet Drule? If we just made peace with the humans, they could help us obtain that dream!�
Hazar stared at his sister in a stunned silence for a moment before slowly shaking his head. Though her powerful love for her planet and people was much admired by others, her desire for peace had no place in Drule society. Couldn�t she see that peace would only prevent her people from gaining the glory that was destined to be theirs?
�Yes, the rebirth of a new Planet Drule is a goal for our race, but you are also forgetting our other dream,� Hazar lectured, as he stood directly in front of his sister and attempted to stare her down. �You know it is the destiny of the Drule, as the master race, to rule over the entire universe. The gods decree it. Once we finally conquer those humans, they will have no choice but to revive planet Drule with their knowledge. Soon our world will be a green and blue jewel, tenfold more lovely than Earth, that will guide all other worlds with its blinding light!�
Though Hazar had forcibly described this dream with flowery and grand words, the passion with which he spoke was just a cheap imitation of his real emotions. Dorma knew her bother did not put his heart behind what he was currently saying. He was just acting out the fervour that he was told to have for some else�s dream. It was heartbreaking that her brother had been reduced to this level.
�And that hubris and greed is what destroyed this world in the first place! Our race squandered all it had, and all it has gained through conquest, to fuel the emperor's war machine. Then you talk about making planet Drule a gorgeous jewel! But how beautiful does a jewel have to be when all it has to outshine others are people with crushed hopes and dead husk of planets?�
Hazar�s clenched fist began to tremble and his face turned dark blue in anger at Dorma�s defiance. �Be careful what you say, sister. Your words are bordering on treason against our emperor and blasphemy against our faith. Besides, I need to get a meeting with the other commanders. Nerok claims to have stumbled upon a way to crush Doom once and for all.�
The Drule commander then stormed down the rest of the hall, entered the double metal doors at the end, and violently slammed them behind him.
Dorma, who was struggling desperately to fight back tears of sorrow and hurt, just stood there silently in the middle of the hall. She too had a dream for the universe. Many would say it was idealist, nothing but garbage thought up by the mind of a hopeless romantic, but she felt it was what was meant to be. She wanted a universe where all the races worked to help one another reach their full potential. With everyone united, there would be no limit to what they could achieve. The whole universe would shine with a light that would shame the gods themselves.
Dorma suddenly felt herself filled with new determination.
Well, if Hazar was going to the puppet of foolish fantasy that would destroy them all, then she could certainly take a shot trying to make her heart�s impossible dream come true. Right there in the cold of a fortress of war, Dorma vowed to herself to do everything in her power to unite the universe. When she got the chance, she would leave planet Drule and try to unite people who might share her dream. These would be people who had the inner strength and the will to make the dream a reality. Of course, she was not naive enough to think that her dream would be accomplish in her lifetime, far from it. But dreams had to start somewhere, and hers might as well begin now.
********Captain Mongo cast a worried glance at the empty chair on the left side of him. It was almost time for the meeting to begin and Hazar�s seat at the great table still remained vacant. This meeting was important, and if he was not here soon, Hazar could end up in a lot of trouble. Mongo looked up at Captain Twila, who was sitting directly across the table from him, as if he was expecting her to do something to remedy the problem.
�Where�s Hazar?� whispered Twila, confirming that she was wondering the exact same thing as him. �It�s not like him to be late.�
Mongo just shrugged his shoulders in response. No sooner then he had done that, the sudden sound of a door loudly slamming shut almost startled Mongo out of his seat.
�So nice to see that you could make it here today, Commander Hazar,� said Captain Nerok, with a confident smirk on his face. The chubby Drule was not seated at the table like the others, but instead he stood before the large screen at the front of the room.
Hazar, on the other hand, wore an angry scowl on his face as he took his seat. He then folded his arms across his chest and looked straight at the front of the room with a steely glare. It was obvious to everyone that now was not the time to ask what took the Drule commander so long to get there.
�What is this plan of yours that you called us all here for?� snapped Hazar. He, like many of the other Drule commanders, did not trust Nerok and was sceptical whenever he claimed to have something important to say. The man was notoriously untrustworthy, a scheming little toad with no merit. The main reason why he had his current position was because he knew how to suck up to the people more powerful than himself. �This had better be good.�
�Oh, trust me, this is very much worth every minute of your time. You see, I have recently made a very important contact on Doom who will surely be able to help us,� replied Nerok, his grin getting even boarder. Taking the small remote that he held in his left hand, Nerok pointed it at the screen and pressed one the buttons. The eyes of the other people in the room went wide in surprise at what appeared on the screen before them. The image was what appeared to be a younger, scrawnier version of King Zarkon.
�Crown Prince Tunar of Doom?!� asked Commander Vargo. His shock at this sudden turn of events reflected the feelings of everyone else present in the room.
�In the flesh, gentlemen,� said Tunar in a nasal voice, laced with amusement. He leaned back into the large cushioned chair he was sitting in, and flashed the Drules a lecherous grin that made him look like a shark.
�No doubt you are wondering why he was decided to cooperate with us,� said Nerok beaming in pride. �Let�s just say that he has realized that the grass is in fact greener on the other side.�
Nerok did not have to explain the situation any further than that for Hazar to figure it all out. He had worked with many people like Tunar, so he knew exactly how they operated. Nerok most likely baited him with a position of great power to lure him into destroying everything King Zarkon had built. Of course, there was no way they were going to keep whatever promise Nerok had made to the Prince. They were not going to haul the weight of someone as pathetic as Prince Tunar for the rest of his wasteful existence.
�And what convinced him of that fact?� asked yet another leader warily.
�The throne of the Ninth Kingdom, the newest addition to our majesty's empire,� replied Nerok. As he spoke those words, he was visibly fighting to keep himself from laughing at the fact the stupid prince was actually buying this. There was no doubt that there would be a Ninth Kingdom, but it was a well known fact among the military leaders that Emperor Zheppo already had someone else in mind. It was only a matter of time before that person agreed to the position.
Hazar had to admit that this time Nerok�s methods, as disgusting and lowly as they were, actually had accomplished something possibly worth while this time around. True, Prince Tunar was definitely not the best catch, but if used properly, he could prove very useful.
�Prince Tunar, how exactly do plan you to be of assistance to us?� asked Twila, her tone demanding and impatient. She knew about Tunar�s legendary laziness and astounding incompetence in all areas. How this spawn could be of any help in accomplishing the task that they were asking of him was beyond her. �Taking down your father will take more than simple tricks and back stabbing. He�s a military genius and hard man to touch. The same goes for that half brother of yours. He is not even on Doom right now and I seriously doubt you could defeat him in battle.�
Tunar glared coldly at her, the pout on his face made him look a like an overgrown spoiled brat. How dare anyone, especially a woman, tell him what to do? Not only that, but imply that he was inferior to his half brother! He was definitely going to have to teach that woman her place someday.
�For your information, Lotor is back here on Doom. In fact, he is in the throne room, where the nobles are putting him in his place as we speak,� he whined in a failed attempt to show how ignorant Twila was. �Father plans on having attack Arus tomorrow.�
Everyone at the table looked at each other expectantly, Tunar but a distant thought in their minds. This could prove to be the opportunity they had been waiting for.
�If he is going to Arus, that means that he will be fighting that other Voltron,� stated Mongo as the possibilities sped through his mind. �He would be distracted, and we could possibly ambush him. But then again, there still many probl-�
�Then you can kill him!� Tunar squealed in delight as he rubbed his hands together in glee. Tunar wanted to see Lotor dead more than anything at the moment. All that abomination had ever done was make him look like a weak fool in front of all of Doom, but now Tunar finally had a chance to get the best of him once and for all.
His smile fell at the sound that Twila made when she swiftly pounded the table top with her fist. She, like the rest of the Drule, was already sick of him. She was about to give him a piece of her mind when Hazar calmly raised his hand to silence her.
�Prince Tunar, despite your wishes, we want to capture Prince Lotor alive if possible,� Hazar calmly explained as he looked at Tunar�s image on the screen. �You do not need to know our reasons, and seeing how you and your people view him, I doubt that you would understand them anyway.�
He then turned back to face his peers.
�Now, as Captain Mongo was saying...�
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