Magnetic In Our Purple Season Eight

Keith tightened his hold over Lance’s hand as they descended towards the new smoking crater Zarkon had made in their moon. Allura swooped off to intercept Haggar, and Lance rubbed his thumb over Keith’s. Zarkon was going to be unlike anything they had ever faced before. He wasn’t as easy to kill as humans; Lotor had stabbed him and Haggar had just teleported in and picked him up like it was nothing. Lance gritted his teeth. He honestly wasn’t sure what would be enough to beat him, but…the idea of killing someone like that……
Lance exhaled out a harsh breath. He couldn’t risk thinking about that right now, that was something for him to find out with Keith. And he couldn’t afford to place his hand on his co-pilot’s shoulder in their usual check-in, but he could easily lean over and press a kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek as a greeting.

“Hey, we’ve got this,” promised Lance, squishing his cheek against Keith’s for good measure. “He’s just one big grumpy space cat, kind of like Garfield if he was left in space and hadn’t been fed for a while.”

Keith snorted so hard he nearly jerked off the chair, flailing to latch onto his boyfriend as Lance flipped his imaginary long hair and put his nose in the air with a suppressed giggle. “Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all night.”

“What, only tonight?” Teased Keith, knocking his shoulder into Lance’s and catching a deeper breath between laughs. “Don’t worry,” he added, the words dancing between them like butterflies just freed from the cage as he flashed a sunshine smirk at his boyfriend, “I’ll keep you around after we win this war too.”

“Ooooo, now that’s an offer I can get behind,” joked Lance, pressing a final kiss to Keith’s nose before yanking on his helmet. “Now then, Samurai, shall we?”

Keith pulled his helmet over his ponytail and flashed that reckless grin that had braved everything from Robobeasts and the Blade of Marmora to beating up battleships in a fighter craft and battling his mother on the astral plane. The grin that said that, no matter what it took, everything was going to be okay.

“Race ya, Sharpshooter!”

Allura was out of Red before her Lion had even touched down, bayard drawn and eyes catching the light reflected off the moon. Her jetpack flared to life, fingers reaching out to catch the waves of quintessence radiating from the moon, and Red landed behind her with a soft grumble.

“I know, Red,” she replied silently, turning to press her helmet to her Lion’s muzzle and stroke a hand over the thrumming metal, “but it shall be far more difficult to fight a teleporter like Haggar if I am not on my feet to keep up with her. You heard what Pidge said.”

A stab of white-hot rage shot through their bond, memories of the lightning burns littering Pidge’s body as Allura pulled her into the cryopod flashing before her eyes, and her fingers snapped into a fist. “Believe me, they shall not go unpunished for that,” she snarled, “but Pidge said that the only way to win was to keep pace with Haggar or to stop her from moving at all. That is my job. Yours is to destroy her ship and make sure that, no matter what, neither of these monsters can escape from here.”

Red hissed, a sharp nod shuddering through the Lion in front of her, and Allura scratched her under the chin. “Thank you. Now, let us bring this to an end.”

She turned, sunset armor glowing faintly in the moonlight, and Red blasted off behind her towards the dark ship planted on the bright surface. Allura raised her shoulders, bayard cracking into a whip and flowers flashing on her cheeks as she locked eyes with Haggar. The witch’s robes were stained and ragged, tears lining the hem of it, but her eyes were still lit up a harsh yellow and black lightning practically exploding from her fingertips.

“Let us finish this here and now,” challenged Allura, jerking into a fighting stance as a snarl rippled through her words, “Haggar!”

“BLACK!” Shrieked Keith as the Lion spat him out along with Lance, the two of them bouncing along the moon’s surface as Lance gave an indignant cry.

“Dude, not again! You already did this to me last time, knock it off!” Complained Lance, rolling into a fighting stance and whipping around to pout at their Lion as Black powered off. “Not cool, hermosa!”

Keith spun into a crouch, bayard and luxite blade already flashing into his hands and lasilh sizzling on his cheek as his eyes flickered over their surroundings. Lance continued to frown at Black, reaching out and rubbing their nose as thunderclouds descended on his forehead. “Black? You okay?”

Their Lion didn’t respond, not even nuzzling into Lance’s touch like they always did, and Keith tried to ignore the chill that wracked through his veins as he tapped a button on his belt to cancel out the lack of gravity on the moon. Lance bit his lip, the frost of Blue raising her shield to him slapping him in the face all over again, and he spun his bayard into a blaster in the blink of an eye.

“Don’t worry, hermosa,” he murmured, spinning to take in the landscape along with this boyfriend, and raised his blaster to lean against his shoulder. “We’ll protect you!”

Keith snapped his knife into a full sword, advancing as a faint shadow staggered out of the smoking heap of metal in front of them. Lance lined up a shot behind him, the faintest shift of his boots through the dirt sending a flash of warmth racing through his legs, and he dove to the side before his brain could catch up with his body. That turned out to be a smart idea.

A stream of lasers whipped past him, curving through the dust to blast away the cover and dig holes into Zarkon’s armor as the Emperor advanced towards them. He had lost his extraneous armor and quintessence tubes, probably having fully recovered from his near-death experience at their hands and his son’s destruction of the life-support armor, but the murderous glint spitting from his eyes was still stronger than any ion beam Voltron had ever faced down. Lance’s lasers bounced off of his armor, barely so much as denting it, and Lance growled low in his throat. Keith glanced back, indigo eyes meeting ocean blue ones in with a crackle of lightning, and Lance’s lips curled up as a silent message flashed between them. Let’s bring havoc down on this guy’s head.

Keith bolted across the moon, boots ripping through the rocks beneath him and swords glinting as Lance flicked his blaster into a rifle form and dropped to one knee to take better aim. Zarkon tore through the smoke, sword lighting up purple, and Keith’s pupils became slitted just at the sight of him, yellow bleeding into his sclera and teeth extending into fangs as they drew near. Lance unleashed two pinpointed attacks, biting into the shoulder joints of Zarkon’s armor, but the dictator didn’t even blink as he slashed his sword through Keith’s block, throwing his guard aside and kicking him across the battlefield.

“Keith!” Shouted Lance, bullets racing across the battlefield and striking the joints on Zarkon’s armored boots, blasting through the screws holding them together.

“I’m fine, Lance!” Replied Keith immediately, coughing as he skidded to a crouch across the ground and Zarkon charged.

The armor toppled off of Zarkon’s boots, clattering to the ground and burned metal stabbing into the former emperor’s feet while Lance smirked and Keith growled low in his throat. The Black Paladin stood back up, spitting blood from the side of his mouth as he flipped his swords into position. Lance leaned back, tilting his rifle and biting his lip; he just needed Zarkon to turn to the right a little more…

Zarkon whipped towards him, malevolence slashing across his eyes, and all the air dissolved in Lance’s lungs. Keith snarled, exploding towards Zarkon and, as the dictator turned to face him, Lance pulled the trigger.

Allura dove under a blast of lightning, rolling across the flaky ground and sucking quintessence into her fingers as she drove her fist into the ground. A crack exploded across the moon’s surface, biting towards Haggar while the witch vanished into thin air. Allura gritted her teeth, ripping her fist out of the ground and bringing it up to guard her face as her eyes snapped close. In a way, what she was doing now with quintessence was no different than what she had done before. The difference was that, where she had once manipulated the quintessence in her own body, now she had the cosmos at her fingertips.

Still though, as she dug her heels into the ground and let the universe’s power pump through her veins, she could almost hear Lance’s shots echoing through the quintessence field while she rerouted the quintessence through her body to refine certain senses. And, just as she had been sparing in that power, she needed to respect the universe’s quintessence too.

Allura pivoted, smashing a punch behind her, and Haggar’s terrified face vanished into smoke, the faint wisps of her quintessence curling around Allura’s fist. She never opened her eyes, but her lips curled up at the edges, and Red gave a purr that rumbled through her entire body. Then Allura took off.

She flipped through the air, slashing a kick through Haggar’s teleporting head and hitting the ground running. She jabbed a punch into Haggar’s wispy nose, the witch’s lips curling before vanishing, and Allura flung one hand into the ground, ducking her head low as her back leg lashed out, cracking against Haggar’s cheek. Allura spun back to her feet, sweat trailing from her forehead and catching the sparkle of her juniberry markings before being destroyed by her flying roundhouse kick. Haggar snarled, vanishing just a tick before Allura hit the ground, her cackles left fluttering behind for the princess like poisonous moths.

“You are not half the alchemist your parents were,” hissed Haggar, her voice echoing around Allura like a tornado. “And you shall be far easier to kill than they were.”

Allura’s hair stood up on its ends and Haggar unleashed a storm of quintessent lightning down on her horrified face with a shrieking laugh. “Sleep well, little princess!”

Zarkon let out a growl as Lance’s shots found their mark, tearing out the screws holding his breastplate together, and Keith plunged his swords towards Zarkon’s chest as the armor fell away into undersuit.

“You really think such weaklings as yourselves can stop me?!” Bellowed Zarkon, catching both of Keith’s swords with his armored gloves and hurling the Black Paladin into his co-pilot. “I am the greatest emperor this universe has ever seen!”

Keith groaned, and Lance cracked open an eye with a silent scream at how close Keith’s sword was to his face.

“Keith? Bud, I’m going to need some backup here!” Cried Lance, raising his gun just enough to fire a volley at Zarkon’s slowly approaching frame. “He’s just messing with us! We need to try a different strategy!”

Keith rolled off Lance, grimacing as he flicked his swords in front of him.

“Yeah, got any ideas?” He asked, gritting his teeth as a trickle of blood slid from his split lip and flooded his mouth with a metallic tang. “There’s not exactly a lot of terrain here to use to our advantage!”

“Well then,” shouted Lance over the blasts from his gun as Zarkon picked up the pace, flecks of purple hissing off his sword, and Lance locked eyes with Keith, “let’s make some!”

Keith drew in a sharp breath, lightning flashing between them with their shared grins, and their words surged to mind automatically as Lance swung his gun into an Altean broadsword and Keith flipped his sword back into a knife. It was the truth they carried with them in and out of battlefields because, no matter how far apart they were, Voltron always fought together.

I’ve got you.

Their minds flowed over each other’s like waves on a shore, like coming home, like their hands sliding into one another’s after a long day of work, like clouds sliding together to form a bolt of lightning made to strike anyone who dared touch those they loved. Lance grinned as their hearts pounded in unison, his shield materializing between him and Zarkon, and he raised one indigo eye alongside his cerulean one to meet the emperor’s charge. Keith raced off, boots sending clouds of moon dust fluttering into the air as his breathing synchronized with Lance’s, and their emotions exploded side-by-side.

After all, this wasn’t their first mind meld. And they would be quiznaked if it was their last.

Allura screamed as the lightning arced through her body, sizzling atop her skin and digging cracks into her armor. She threw her head back, the pain exploding across her enhanced senses like ion beams, and Haggar let out a cackle above her.

“Do not forget, little princess,” snarled the witch, slowly lowering to the ground as Allura writhed in midair, “I have 10,000 decaphoebs of experience. Teleporting is a mere parlor trick.”

“Oh really?” Growled Allura, and Haggar sneered.

“You are in no position to act tough, princess. Now, while my lightning is focused on breaking your body,” she continued, lips snaking into a smile as she raised two fingers, “let us see how fast I can break your spirit.”

Allura just growled as Haggar snapped her fingers.

“I have bested a fear demon, I truly doubt there is much you can do to faze me.”

Haggar just cackled as black clouds swarmed Allura’s vision, the agony still writhing through every inch of her skin.

“We shall see about that.”

It was as if someone had detonated a bomb inside Allura’s head, images and sounds blurring past in a frantic race that tore all the air from her lungs. Her father’s castle collapsing over her, her mother’s battle cry as she led the royal guards in a charge against Zarkon, Coran’s pleas to remain by his brother’s side even as Alfor shook his head slowly, Haggar’s bolts of lightning decimating any who came near Zarkon, the glint of light in her eyes as she choked the life out of Allura’s mother, Zarkon’s attempts to break into the Black Lion’s room, the snap of Haggar’s wrist that wrenched all of the air from Alfor’s body and watched him turn blue, the satisfied grunt of Zarkon as his former best friend fell dead at his feet, it all moved so fast she could barely make sense of it.

Red growled low in the back of her head, and Allura let out a roar that reverberated through the astral plane as if the sheer force of sound waves could blow away the truths flashing before her eyes. The destruction of Altea, the energy beam that cut through the heart of her planet while the people who had looked up to the royal family to protect them, who trusted them and loved them, were wiped out in a single explosion. A single blast that the next planet over hadn’t even heard. They were all just…gone.

Keith stabbed his sword beneath a giant rock, praying that the moon’s lack of gravity wouldn’t betray him now, Lance spun, ducking beneath Zarkon’s blow and swinging at his exposed side. Zarkon flipped over the strike, using the sword he had casually embedded in the moon as a handhold to arc over Lance’s head and slashing at his back. Lance snarled, spinning as his broadsword glowed black, and smashed Zarkon’s blow aside. The bayard pulsed beneath his hand, and it almost seemed for a tick like Shiro was there grinning up at him from the blade, like his strength was flowing into Lance as well.

Keith tore a chunk of rock from the ground, a quick pulse shooting through his mind link with Lance in warning, and Black’s eyes flashed a searing gold.

Then Keith swung his sword like a baseball bat, the stored quintessence of generations of paladins exploding outward as he let out a battle cry and smashed the boulder towards Zarkon. It whipped through the chair, crashing into Zarkon’s exposed back and throwing shrapnel over him in a spray of biting edges.

“Nice!” Cheered Lance silently, rolling between Zarkon’s legs and bouncing up behind him as his bayard shifted into a gun and he blew a laser directly into the wound Keith had inflicted. “Keep those fastballs coming, Samurai!”

Keith just grinned and drove his sword into the ground again as Lance reverted to his broadsword and flitted around Zarkon’s strikes like a leopard. Black’s armor began to glow a sizzling black, and a faint growl of…pride in the back of her throat. Because they could do this for as long as it took. As long as it took to protect everyone they had ever loved. Lance would dive around Zarkon’s greatest weapons, Keith would upheave the entire moon if he had to, and with every spray of shrapnel on Zarkon’s armor, with every kick or shot Lance managed to get in, with every small victory, the glint in their eyes grew stronger.

They would not lose this.

Allura clenched her fists, exhaling slowly as the cosmos swirled into her, rising like sea levels through her body, and a memory of Melenor reached desperately for Alfor as he burst from the palace doors just in time to watch his wife die bloomed in front of her. Allura slashed her arm through it, dissipating the memory into fragments of light creeping through the air, and she raised eyes of steel.

“Your mistakes are your own,” she declared, striding forwards with the clink of Lance’s barrette against her helmet matching her steps, “but they will not force me to make mistakes.”

A ripple spread through the astral plane, and Allura planted her feet in the ground as light exploded from her juniberry markings in a glowing fountain. “And I am finished with being so trapped in the past that I miss my chance at a future!”

Quintessence overflowed from her fingertips, bursting at the seams as her crystalline eyes lit up like cannon fire, and Red roared through her.

“Ahhhh, but the present is not as kind as you think,” hissed Haggar, and a flash of familiar green nearly strangled Allura.

But then a scream so mangled with pain that Allura would never have recognized it as her little sister’s flooded the room, and Pidge arced off the floor as black lightning ripped through her body. Her fingers were taut around her bayard, flickers of burns winding across any exposed skin, and Pidge’s eyes were jammed closed like her life depended on it. Her mouth was ajar, straining to open wider as her screams grew higher in pitch, lightning searing into her veins and her entire body spasming in time with Haggar’s laughter. Ice spread over Allura like a winter coat, her voice strangled before even touching her throat, and lava boiled in her stomach like a volcano on the verge of erupting.

A single tear snaked down Pidge’s cheek.

Explosions ruptured in Allura’s irises, blazing along her body, and quintessence swirled around her like a tornado of flames. It spun around her as the epicenter, growing constantly faster, a swirling mass of glowing energy with two radiating blue eyes at the center.

“How dare you.”

The words were icicles, points aimed straight at Haggar as Allura advanced through the swathes of memories trying to consume her, eyes overflowing with frost. “How dare you make my little sister cry. How dare you make anyone else cry after having destroyed entire galaxies full of families!”

Allura flung an arm out as the quintessence compressed into her palm, and she raised her chin with a lightning storm pounding through her eyes. “Let everyone know, here and now, that your reign of terror is over!”

And with her tears dissolving in the light off her juniberry markings, Allura drew her shoulders back and blew apart the world surrounding her.

Keith hissed as he dug out the next boulder; they had been at this for ages, and Zarkon’s sword was starting to find Lance’s armor more often. A couple of nicks to the shoulder pads, a graze against the arm guard, and even a stab at his helmet that almost made contact. Sweat was burning against Lance’s skin, his chest heaving and his heart thundering like a hurricane. He couldn’t afford to get hit even once. In the void of space, a single slice to his armor or crack in his helmet would instantly crush his lungs with the pressure difference, and none of them could defeat Zarkon alone.

Plus, Lance had promised to come home to his kids, hand-in-hand with Keith.

Zarkon roared, slicing through Keith’s next boulder, and Lance leapt back, firing off a volley at the emperor’s exposed neck before his feet had even grazed the ground.

“You are nothing!” Growled Zarkon, batting aside the shots with his gauntlets and jabbing a punch into Lance’s arm that sent him flying across the field. “You are all gnats before me; you do not deserve to pilot the Black Lion!”

“Neither do you!” Shouted Lance, skidding to a stop and unleashing a volley of shots to tear away the gauntlets protecting Zarkon’s fists. “Get over yourself! Black has moved on from you, and if you can’t respect your Lion’s decision,” he yelled, shifting to a broadsword and tearing towards Zarkon as Keith slammed the biggest boulder yet at him, “then you’re no paladin!”

Zarkon’s eyes flared, and Keith’s boulder crashed into his exposed back, throwing him to one knee, and Keith yanked out his own sword to charge.

“If you’re a Paladin, communicate with your Lion!” He screamed, closing in on Zarkon as Lance bore down on him. “You two are equals, aren’t you? Then be there for them like they are for you!”

After all, they weren’t the ones who had first realized how to meld their minds like this. Just as they could turn their bayards together and bring about more powerful weapons as Voltron, they could do that outside of their Lions as well. When they were truly in synch, when all of their thoughts burned down to a single endless goal, their bonds responded. They weren’t bonded through Voltron. Voltron was bonded together because of them.

Zarkon let out a howl, catching Keith’s blade and allowing it to tear into his hand as he whirled to slash his blade across Lance’s shoulder and down to his arm, ripping through the armor and tearing apart the undersuit before Lance could pull his arm out of the way with a scream.

“No one tells me how to pilot the Black Lion, especially not scum like you,” snarled Zarkon as Lance’s lips turned blue. “I am the original. I am far more than you will ever be.”

“Lance!” Shouted Keith, wildfire shooting into his eyes as he slammed his luxite blade into Zarkon’s arm, prying a howl from the dictator’s lips as he tore Zarkon away from his boyfriend. “Lance, can you breathe?!”

But, by the time Keith had spun to dash to his lover, Lance was gone.

Haggar howled as flaming red quintessence, veins of blue pulsing through it, snaked along her black lightning, dissolving the corrupted quintessence flickering through the electricity, and swirling over the witch’s arms. Allura’s eyes flew open in twin halos of blue energy, tears dissolving as her flowers exploded from her cheeks, vines and juniberry blossoms forged from pure quintessence pouring down and spinning into bracelets around Haggar’s wrists.

“You will never harm another person as long as I draw breath!” Roared Allura, ripping her arm down and securing the bracelets around Haggar. “And you shall not make a monster of me!”

The bracelets pulled taut, slamming Haggar into the ground, and Allura hovered down in front of her, eyes still flooded with glowing quintessence. She stepped forwards slowly, the tears of her father, pleas of her mother, and screams of her sister still fresh in her mind, and Haggar growled.

But, as the one who had killed her parents looked at her with pure hate, the quintessence flaming in Allura’s eyes burned away the snarling witch in front of her, leaving behind the sobbing Honerva. Her forehead was buried in the moon’s surface, tears streaming from her eyes and hiccups shaking her shoulders as the child she had considered her niece stood in front of her with rage in her heart. Honerva raised her eyes, a single plea in them, and Allura trembled.

Please, begged Honerva silently, hands shaking beneath the gentle bracelets, please kill me. Save my son, save my husband! Please kill me! Don’t let me hurt anyone else!

The quintessence ruptured from Allura’s eyes, leaving only the cerulean irises overflowing with tears as she stared at the snarling witch that her beloved aunt had become. Honerva had been her mother’s best friend and, no matter what, she was Lotor’s mother. She was the one he took pride in. She was the one Allura had loved so deeply as a child.

“You cannot kill me!” Snarled Haggar, a wicked smile crawling up her lips. “You do not have the stomach for it. Not only that, but only I know how to defeat Zarkon. Do you not wish to know the secret, young princess?”

Allura’s heart cracked, and she knelt before the witch who had taken everything she had loved with tears soaking her cheeks.

“Honerva,” she called. “Lotor loves you dearly. Please, believe me.”

Haggar’s lips wavered, and Allura placed her palms together as the cosmos’ quintessence bubbled beneath her skin. It wanted vengeance. It wanted revenge on the one who had corrupted part of it, who had manipulated it to hurt others, who had upset the balance of the very universe for her own gain.

It wanted death.

And, tears streaming from Allura’s chin, she placed her hands on either side of Haggar’s head. Honerva smiled.

Thank you, kind child. You have grown into a fine queen.

Black roared where Lance had been ticks ago, the Lion now made of glowing quintessence and no taller than the ones Keith had known on Earth. Lance crouched beside them, eyes pinched closed while their essence poured over him, and Keith’s breath caught in his throat as his boyfriend began to glow. Lance’s freckles spun into stars across his sun-kissed cheeks, an ocean cloak blossoming over his back with scarlet metal shoulder pads pinning its folds to his armor, and purple lines streaking up his armor. His torn suit knitted itself back together, and Lance’s head tipped back as a golden crown carved itself into the black of his helmet like pure light summoned to the sun, three thin rectangles rising from the drawn circlet as if to pierce the void with the blue, red, and black gems atop each point of the crown. Black’s eyes were a hissing gold, hair standing on end as they growled at the stunned Zarkon, and Keith dashed towards the snarling Lion.

“Lance!” He cried, skidding across the ground to kneel in front of his boyfriend and cup his cheek tenderly, thumb sweeping over his glowing freckles. “Lance, please, talk to me!”

Lance groaned, and a wave of Black’s energy swept over Keith’s head as he cried out for his partner again, gripping him tightly as if he could pull him back to shore with a single touch. “Lance, I swear, if you die on me like this—!”

Lance hacked, Black’s quintessence sweeping into his chest like water soaking into a crack, and Keith dragged Lance into a crushing hug. “You’ve got to breathe,” he pleaded, pressing a kiss into his boyfriend’s cheek as tears forced their way into his eyes, “Lance, I need you here with me. Please,” begged Keith, a single tear dropping onto Lance’s billowing cape as he felt that beloved pulse slow beneath his fingers, “don’t you dare leave me too!”

Allura ripped her hands back, tearing out a swath of wriggling and hissing black quintessence from the witch growling in front of her. It was nothing like the warmth of Lance or Keith’s quintessence, she reflected, and didn’t hold the softness of Shiro’s. It was like a wild animal, snarling and tearing at its bonds, twisting around in a furious hunt for someone to bite, to devour, to corrupt. It was looking to kill.

Allura smiled down at Honerva as her tears were finally allowed to drip down her face, and she etched the symbol for water and fire over the corruption to begin the purification process.

“Welcome back, Honerva,” she said, releasing her lingering rage and hatred in a gentle exhale, and the quintessence in her hand began to glow with a softer light. “Welcome home.”

Honerva stared at the soil beneath her fingers, and sucked in a deep breath like it was her very last. She raised her eyes to meet Allura, tears overflowing as her feet began to turn to ash, drifting away to join in the moon’s soil.

“Thank you,” she breathed, the love in her eyes nearly knocking Allura off her feet because they were so, so, so much like Lotor’s. “Thank you, Allura. Finally, I can pass on in peace.”

“What?” Cried Allura as the water finished washing away the corruption of the quintessence, allowing the fire to dissolve any final traces into steam. “No, Honerva! You have a second chance now!”

Honerva chuckled as the numbness crept up her legs, blocking any pain from filling her body as it returned to the dust that once made it up.

“No, I have had a long, long life with many second chances in it,” she replied as Allura dropped to her knees in front of her, tears filling up those beautiful crystalline eyes so much like Melenor’s that it sucked the air from Honerva’s throat. “Now it is time to pass on to my final chance. Thank you,” she whispered, reaching out to cup Allura’s cheek and wipe away the stray tear slipping past the princess’ markings as the witch’s torso continued to dissolve into ash, “thank you for letting me go as myself.”

Allura bowed her head, the last bit of the corrupted quintessence that had sustained Haggar’s life for 10,000 decaphoebs vanishing back into the cosmos, leaving only a faint golden trail behind it. Honerva chuckled, pressing a kiss to her helmet. “If I may be selfish…will you please allow my husband to pass on as himself too?” She murmured, her hands dissolving and the tips of her hair melting away into dust. “I know I have no right to ask anymore of you, but if you see fit to return him to me…”

A soft smile curved over her lips, and all of Allura’s breath was blown from her lungs as Honerva tilted her head up, a vision of Acxa’s grin flashing before Allura’s eyes, and gave a broken laugh as she spoke. “…I would be grateful.”

Allura could only stare, tears streaming from her eyes and tremors rippling through her shoulders, but she jerked out a nod as a faint whimper tore past her lips. Honerva’s eyes lit up, and she pressed her forehead to Allura’s as she dissolved into dust, her final words slipping through the air like stars.

“Thank you, Allura. Now go; go and be the fine queen you were born to be.”

By the time she had blinked, Allura was left kneeling before a pile of dust and old robes that had once been the greatest alchemist of Altea, the mother of Lotor, the loving wife of Zarkon. And, no matter what she had done since, no matter how badly she had hurt Allura and her family, she couldn’t help but tilt her head back and let a single tear drip into the ash.

“And I hope you find peace, Honerva,” she murmured, pushing herself back to her feet and turning to Red as her Lion flew down towards her, nuzzling into her outstretched hand and allowing Allura to lean against her with flashing crystalline eyes. “Now, let’s go, girl. I have a promise to keep.”