Lost Time

Eight

Allura couldn't breathe, for a moment. Her father's form was right there, perfectly preserved in the castles memory and staring right at her. "You're finally awake, my dear," he greeted. Allura couldn't help but stare at the man, even as he started to look worried. "Allura? What's wrong?" Alfor reached out for her, pulling on her forearms like he wanted to hug her.

"Father," Allura finally hissed, jerking away from her father's holographic memory. "How are you- Coran?"

"I set it up before I followed you into the cryopods, princess," Coran explained gently. "Your father asked me to help him place his memory into the castle. It isn't much, but I'm afraid this is all of your father I can give you. He told me he'd update the castle's file on him before he left us." Coran's gentle arm wrapped around her shoulders, and Allura found she preferred Coran to her father in that moment.

"Okay. May I- I'd like to speak to my father alone, if it's alright." She smiled at Coran weakly, and despite the obvious concern in his eyes, Coran nodded, and the hiss of the door sliding shut was all that told her she was alone with her father's memory. Again, Alfor stepped forward, and in another world, another time, ten thousand periods ago, Allura would have thrown herself into his arms and cried, too happy to see him again to question him, but that was before he ordered her brother sent away and her frozen in sleep. She stepped back, away from him.

"Allura, darling, why do you avoid me? Didn't you miss me?" He asked, looking genuinely confused. Allura shook her head.

"How could I have missed you, Father? You put me to sleep!" Alfor's smile faltered, his snowy white eyebrows furrowing.

"Now, Allura, you know I was trying to protect you and your brother-"

"My brother!" Allura could hear her voice crack as she confronted her father. "My brother is dead and his body lost to the great unknown!"

"Allura, if anything, your brother will have found Oriande-"

"No, Father! He hasn't found Oriande, he hasn't found anything! He was five periods old, and you took him away from me! He was everything we had left of Mama, of home." Allura threw her arms into the air, hoping to distract the hologram from the tears gathering in her eyes. Her father at least had the sense to look hurt. "How could you put me to sleep here, in the castle, and send him away! I checked the logs while my new paladins were training, Papa, did you? He never made it out of the pod, he's probably floating out there somewhere because your best friend destroyed the so-called haven you found for him! You left me all alone!"

There was silence on the holodeck as Allura finally let herself cry, the fight gone from her- she didn't protest when Alfor gathered her into his arms, instead clinging to the not-quite-there suit her father wore. Vaguely, she could feel a hand in her hair, gently smoothing the stark white curls. Alfor shushed her sobs, a heavy frown on his face.

"I can't give you anything but an apology, Allura," he began softly. "You have every right to be angry with me, really. I thought that it was a better idea to send him away from the warfront, he deserved some semblance of a happy childhood."

"He didn't want to leave." The princess interrupted. Alfor just gave her a nod.

"And I didn't want him to go, but I couldn't knowingly keep him here when every day without casualties in our castle was a gift. Any day, it could have been you, or Lance, and I had already lost your mother. Do you understand?" Allura nodded. "Good. I know it isn't much comfort, but you do have Coran, and me as well, for as long as the holodeck is functional."

"I suppose that's true," Allura hummed in agreement. The intense onslaught of emotion that she'd been trying to work through since emerging from the cryopod had eased, and at least for now, she could think clearly. "You're right. I have my advisor, and the mice, and- and the paladins."