Stardust (A Voltron Fanfic)

Surprise in Store

Word Count: 1,522

I had no idea how much time had passed, only that I woke up to being jarred roughly awake.

I came to slowly, the sound of shouting reaching my ears and my eyes flew open realizing that the shouting was coming from Keith.

"Leave her alone!"

"Silence, mutt! You have no right to speak against your superiors."

"You touch her and I'll kill you," Keith growled, the sound was almost animalistic, and I looked up drowsily to see his teeth bared and I could've sworn that his eyes flashed yellow for a moment. He struggled against the two guards' who had him firmly pinned against the wall trying to shove them off, biting and scratching anything within reach, trying to get to me.

Lotor smirked and, very slowly, raked a purple hand across my cheek. Keith went even more ballistic, trying to push the guards away even harder to no avail. "Leave her alone!" He cried again, growling and biting against his captors, a helpless look in his wide, violet eyes.

"Don't touch me," I growled, a little less menacing than I had liked, but it was enough to get Lotor's attention away from Keith.

"Good you're awake," he purred, leaning closer to me, I tried backing away from him as quick as I could only to find that when I had been snuggling with Keith, we had apparently been in a corner and my heart hammered harder against my chest, "we're going to go have a little fun." He whispered in my ear.

Across the cell, I could hear Keith's struggles and curses until someone hit him on the side of the head with the butt of their gun. His yelling suddenly cut short with the hit. I craned my neck past Lotor to see that Keith wasn't unconscious, but he was silent, watching me with worried and panicked eyes.

I turned my attention back to the prince in front of me. "Fuck you," I said, my voice a deadly low.

Lotor smirked.

"My prince, the arena is ready," Grey spoke dully from outside of the door.

My eyes widened in fear, my stomach plummeted as my brain registered what Grey had just said. Memories of metal and blood flooded my brain and I whimpered fearfully.

"No, please no," I begged softly, finding strength to try and push Lotor away from his grabbing hands, but I was too weak and starved to do nothing but lightly hit him in the chest and he had me dragged to my feet with my hands pinned behind my back in only a matter of minutes.

"The arena missed you, Jewel. They want you back." He whispered in my ear and he pulled me out of the cell with hard, jerking movements.

"Let me go!" I fought against his iron grip, but he only squeezed hard against my injured arm making me cry out, tears of pain coming to my eyes.

"Acira!"

My eyes found Keith and I could see my reflection of fear in his. We were both terrified of what was going to come.

The cell door clanged shut and I was dragged away, listening to Keith's curses filter through the closed door.

"No! Stop, please, let her go!"

After Keith's cries finally fell, Lotor stopped for me to finally get my feet under me, I began to recognize the hallways that we turned down, and the left we had just taken and the dread in the pit of my stomach grew with each step we took. My legs faltered an I stumbled a step when the familiar shouts of the bloodthirsty crowd reached my ears.

I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. My tongue felt eerily dry that had nothing to do with the lack of water.

"Did you really think your days as an arena fighter were over? Believe me, Jewel, you were the star of the show." Lotor cackled, enjoying the sight of seeing me weakly struggle against his hold on me.

We came to a stop in front of a set of double doors, and I could only watch in horror as one of the guards standing at the doors place his hand on the scanner. The sound that the door made already wired into my brain from fighting so many times. I couldn't go back in there, I couldn't kill again, because some rational part of my mind that was still working through the fear I felt, knew that this battle would be a fight to the death.

With an effortless throw, I was tossed onto the hard metal floor, my arms reaching out to catch the worst of my fall, but I still cried out in pain when my injured arm hit the cold surface.

I turned around and looked up to meet Lotor's gaze, anger surged through me that he was actually smirking. "See you on the outside." He said, the door clanging with a hollow echo that reverberated through the room.

I could hear my own ragged breathing as I sat up in the empty waiting cell. I pulled my knees up to my chest, my arm throbbing in protest, my heartbeat seeming to rise and fall with the almost deafening of the roaring crowd just above my head. I put my hands over my ears in a weak attempt to block them out.

The metal wall on the far side of the room slid up to reveal the arena in all of its horrific glory and I whimpered, scooting myself away from the iron bars that were now the only thing separating me from the arena.

I could see the guards in the pit already cleaning up from the previous bout.

All of the blood spilled onto the sand, staining it red. The roar of the crowd growing louder at the fall of yet another gladiator, leaving one victorious once again, me.

I shook my head, trying to clear it of all of those memories coming to the surface again.

What I had done every day.

Clark.

What had happened to me.

Everything.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, that was quite a fight, wasn't it?

The crowd roared and I weakly pressed my hands harder against my ears in a useless attempt to drown out the noise with silence.

"But, what if I told you that we were only warming up?"

The stands above my head shuddered as thousands of feet pounded into them, and I was surprised that they didn't crash to the ground.

The announcer was silent, most likely pausing for the effect it would have on the thousands of Galra waiting impatiently in the stands.

"Our victorious gladiator, Moragna, has returned!" He bellowed into the mike with glee.

"Moragna! Moragna! Moragna!" The chanting was so deafening, I covered my ears even harder, squeezing my eyes shut, feeling a single tear fall to the ground at my feet. I didn't hear the guard approaching behind me, hauling me to my feet and shoving me into the now open stadium, I heard the clang of the blade being thrown nearby, and I opened my eyes and looked behind me just in time to see the iron bars fall to the ground, locking me into the massive arena. My arms fell to my sides and I barely felt the pain ring through my injured arm, smothered with the numb feeling of helplessness instead.

"Welcome home, Moragna." The announcer chuckled into the mike as the crowd around him went nuts at the sight of me. I glared at the announcer's podium, wishing my eyes would burn a hole right through his face. "We hope you had a pleasant time of freedom," the announcer's tone went serious, "because you won't be having it again." His voice dropped an octave on the last part and I imagined strangling him by his neck until his purple face turned an even darker shade.

"But, that's not all!" He said, addressing the audience once again. "Please give a warm welcome to the first ever paladin of Voltron to step into this stadium, who has not only been stripped of his duty as a paladin but is the first ever known half-breed to the Galran empire!"

'Boo's' echoed around the stadium while junk of all sorts was being thrown at the figure being pushed into the arena against his will. Scratching and scraping at anything he could get at, hoping to slow down his progress into the arena.

With a final shove from the guard, he was pushed to the ground and the bars behind him clanged shut. I winced a little as some kind of food hit him in the face. He looked up at me, his anger that had been directed at the guard melted from his face, turning into confusion, then realization, shock, and finally horror as his frantic eyes looked at the crowd and the arena, finally settling on me again, his eyes wide as he backed up a step.

I tightened my fists at my sides, my jaw set. I wasn't going to do it. They would have to kill me first.

I wouldn't fight Keith.