Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron or its original Japanese version Golion. Both are the property of their original creators and/or importers/dubbers. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

The Sindariin

Chapter Twenty-Six:

Amue tilted her face up to the shower's welcome spray. She savored the feel of the warm water as it dampened her hair, making the long blond tresses stick to the curves of her shapely body. Turning, she moved so that her back could appreciate the same soothing warmth and she sighed as she felt some of the muscle fatigue from her training session that day relax out of her. After this she planned on filling her tub and taking a long luxurious soak. There was nothing better after a rough day than a clean shower and soft bath.

She rubbed foamy sweet-smelling soap over her breasts and shoulders, massaging her neck as she did so. As she worked her way around the tips of her delicate well-manicured fingers brushed the edges of scars she had there. Amue never spoke of her time as Sincline's prisoner, no one knew of the kind of treatment she had received from him, they could only guess. She had not been intimate with a man since Sincline and often wondered if she might never find pleasure in a man's touch because of him. Not even Ryou, as kind and attentive as he was had ever been able to warm her enough to put aside her memories of Sincline's 'affection'. But more than that, she didn't want him to see her scars.

Sincline had been very careful not to leave any permanent mark in a place that might be visible on a daily basis. She supposed that some version of thanks was owed to him for that. But her back still sported the criss-crossing lashes of a riding crop, a cruel little toy he liked to use on her whenever he'd returned from a defeat at the hands of Golion. He would tie her down on her belly, naked, and strike her while lamenting that his beloved Fala whom she was just a replacement for didn't accept his offers for her and her planet. How she was always forcing his hand, making him the bad-guy when if she would just let go of her silly pride long enough she would see that it was in both their kingdoms' best interest for them to marry.

All his frustration over it was vented on Amue.

And then, when his anger was spent he would untie her bleeding and whimpering form and force her to sit up and look at him. They would sit there like that for some time. Her sitting with silent tears of pain and humiliation running down her cheeks, wincing every now and again as the other slaves tended to her injuries; and he studying her face, almost as if he were looking for something that he already knew wouldn't be there.

"You look so much like her." He would say. It was his favorite thing to say, it seemed. "You have her cheekbones and her eyes. But you're not here." That also was one of his favorite lines. 'You look so much like her. But you're not her.' And, last but not least, "You're just her replacement."

Just a replacement, a stand-in until he was able to get his hands on the real Princess Fala. And now that he had her, would he be subjecting her to the same treatment Amue had suffered? Or would he deal her worse? Because she had fought against him for so long, because she not only spurned his offers but actively fought against him as the pilot of Blue Lion, would he give to Fala ten fold what he had given to her? Or, would he finally be satisfied now that he had the woman he actually wanted rather than just a look-alike to tide him over? Amue didn't know and neither could she hazard a guess. But she was sure of one thing, no matter how Sincline treated her, they had to get Fala out of there and away from him!

The Heraclesian princess puller her hands away from her shoulders and let the warm shower water wash the soap away.

'Months…' Suzuishi had said. It would take months for him to reproduce five working distortion field generators to equip to the Lions. It would take them months to rescue Fala. Amue had spent months with Sincline, she knew just how much damage could be inflicted in that time. It was something she never would wish on her worst enemy. (Well… her worst female enemy.) But Fala was her cousin and ally… and she was trapped there for months while Shorty tinkered with his machines.

Finally rinsed off, the princess shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. Her long damp hair dripped a sizable puddle onto the bathroom tiles as she wrapped a towel around her. Amue caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the sink and she turned to face her reflection.

"I have her cheekbones and her eyes." The Heraclesian princess muttered. She studied her eyes, big and round and blue. The looks bright and inquisitive staring back at her. Fala had that look sometimes, when there was something new but trivial to learn she gave it her full attention with twinkling passion. Amue shifted her focus to her high cheekbones that gave her face a delicate yet elegant quality. They did look a great deal alike, she and Fala, they had both noticed it the first moment they'd met, back when Heracles was still allies with Galra and Altea had been their common enemy.

But now Amue was looking for their differences. The things that separated her from Fala, made them different and individual (personalities and temperament excluded). Amue's chin was sharper, here eyebrows thicker both of which added an intensity to her features that Fala did not have. Fala's brows were thinner, her forehead higher and her chin slightly more rounded, all combining to give her face a gentler more cherub-like look. Fala looked sweet and kind, Amue looked fierce and independent.

"I'm not like her." She informed the mirror. "I'm just her replacement. Even… even to the Golion team, I'm just her replacement."

Amue felt the familiar pressure of tears building behind her eyes and fought the urge to cry. She removed her towel and used it to rub her face vigorously until the desire to cry had passed. Then she stepped out of her bathroom to get dressed.

She always dressed herself now. Since she had escaped from Sincline he never allowed and of her servants to help her. She had never told anyone about her time as his prisoner and she did not want anyone to see her scars. She didn't want to see pity in her maids' eyes, she did not want to over-hear gossip about it in the halls and she definitely did not want word of it to reach her little brother. Alor was still so young and innocent. Amue knew he would have to face the ugliness of the real world when he came of age and was crowned King, but from now, while the Steward was handling the local politics and she was fighting the war against Galra, for now she wanted to shelter her brother as much as was possible. And so he was aware that Sincline, whom the young prince had once idolized, had hurt her gravely but he did not know the nature or extent of that harm and he didn't need to know.

No one needed to know.

'I might be able to help.' Ryou's words echoed through her mind.

"Ryou…" The princess whispered to the empty room as she struggled with the lacings of her bodice. (This really had been easier with other women to help her.)

Ryou was always there for her, it seemed. From the moment of her rescue to when he suggested she pilot Blue Lion in Fala's stead. He was her strong arm of support, he was her shoulder to cry on, he always had her back in a fight, she could always depend on him. But what would he think of her if he knew everything Sincline had done to her and made her do for him? Would he look at her differently? Would he think less of her? Thing she was dirty, a worthless whore?

She liked Ryou, liked him allot. In fact, Amue was rather suspicious that her feelings for the Earth-born rebel might even be love. She loved him and she wanted to be with him, to trust him wholly and fully. But she just couldn't. When he had so suddenly and awkwardly confessed his own feelings to her she had been elated. But when had tried to reciprocate she found that the words just refused to pass her lips. She couldn't tell him that she loved him too and it had hurt him. She had seen it in his eyes. He loved her and was hurt by her lack of requitement.

This train of though was interrupted suddenly by a respectful knocked on her chamber door. The princess rushed to pull on a robe over her half-clothed form before calling, "Enter."

She had expected it to be one of her maids come to offer her services in helping the princess dress already knowing the offer would be refused but needing to ask anyway or else risk being called remise in her duties. Instead, it was a castle message runner. He looked breathless and flustered as if he's run strait from the landing pad to her chanbers and he held in his hands an autoreader.

Amue's eyes focused on the tiny device.

"Message from Galra, Your Highness." The man gasped out and offered the autoreader to her.

She accepted the device and dismissed the man with a business-like, "Thank you." Before shutting the door in his face.

A message from Ryou! An update about Fala! Amue flopped down on her bed to watch and tapped the 'play' button on the machine's side.

The small holographic image of Ryou flared to life. He was only visible from the waist-up with wet hair that clung to his neck and forehead. He must have recorded this shortly after a shower, Amue thought it was almost poetic that she was watching it now also shortly after a shower. His eyes were troubled and he fidgeted in his seat before beginning…

"This is the hardest message I've ever had to send and, Kogane, I'm sorry. Really, really sorry. But there's really no way of keeping this from you, you would find out eventually when you rescued her, so… so this way you'll have time to prepare and the news will come to you from a friend."

Ryou paused, as if collecting himself for whatever he was going to say next and a sharp stone of dread sank into Amue's stomach. Fala was dead. That was it. Sincline had killed her in a fit of passion. Or maybe she wasn't dead but maimed somehow. He had never been very gentle in anything he did.

"Fala's pregnant." Ryou's voice held the empty authoritative tone of a commander addressing another commander. It was business-like, as if he did not want to add any emotion of his own to the ones that the news would produce in the one hearing it.

"What!" Amue dropped the autoreader in shock. "No! That's not possible! Sincline can't… its not his! Fala must have… but…"

"I realize this will come as a sock to you all and for that I'm sorry. This also throws extra complications into the war. With Sincline's child as Fala's first born, the heir of Galra will also be the heir to the throne of Altea. Even if we do manage to get Fala away from him it won't matter because in another generation Altea will be back under the Empire's control and the Alliance will have lost one of its members and possibly the Lions forever. Unless…"

Here he gave another pause. Drew a breath and began again.

"Kogane-kun, Kurogane-kun, Seido-kun and Suzuishi-kun, we're all from Japan where abortion is a common contraceptive practice. I realize that such a thing is looked down-on on Altea, in that respect they're much more like most of the West, but I think that this would be the best course of action for the war. When you rescue Fala, please urge her to agree. We cannot allow Sincline any avenue through which he could lay claim to Altea or the Lions."

Ryou's image flickered and then the message began again.

Amue switched it off and sat on her bed, thinking. Of all the news that could have come from Ryou and his on-planet militia, this was not even the last thing she could think of. This wasn't even on her list of things she could have thought would happen. Sincline was supposed to be sterile! He was supposed to be infertile! He wasn't supposed to be able to have children! That was, like, one of the major rules of biology: cross-species hybrids were infertile. It couldn't be his. If Fala was pregnant it had to be someone else's.

Amue chewed on her lip and pondered this startling new revelation.

…

(A/N: Short chapter is short.

An up-date on me if anyone's interested. I have settled into my new place in TN a little awkwardly but I'm settled. The overall tone and 'personality' of this town is so strikingly different from what I'm used to in CA that I feel awkward in my own skin (it a little like being back in high school in that respect) but my cat is loving it. She has discovered the joys of mice. Not the fake plastic and nylon mice I got for her back in LA but real country mice that get into everything! She has brought me a new mouse corpse every morning as a wake-up gift. My little huntress.)