A/N: Ya girl is back from the dead with her fix-its because screw season eight, that's why. This will be a six-part series. Reviews are appreciated. Updates will probably be sporadic, depending on the length of the "episodes" and my work schedule. That said, here's what to expect:

Episode Eight: Clear Day - The entity calls out for Allura, trying to take her under its control. But she refuses.

Episode Nine: Trial by Weblum - With the Atlas grounded after a Robeast fight, tensions get high. Acxa and Keith are forced to confront their shared pasts.

Episode Ten: Friends Like These - When the paladins find a familiar face in the pod of a Robeast, the whole crew struggles to trust him.

Episode Eleven: Green Light - Some old friends arrive to help Pidge build an energy sensor that can track Honerva.

Episode Twelve: The Last Battle - Our heroes take the fight to Altea, where Honerva threatens to tear a hole in all reality.

Episode Thirteen: The End Is the Beginning - After a battle with Honerva at the beginning of all reality, the universes begin to rebuild.

Episode Eight: Clear Day

Allura was exhausted. She should have been in bed—asleep. Resting. Anywhere but here.

But no. Instead, she stood on unsteady feet in front of the sickly green light of a containment pod, staring into the thing that whirled around inside as if it were alive and yet seemed to be a deep, black void, like a small black hole to nowhere, more than it was an actual thing.

It took. All it did was take. She could feel that, as she lifted a shaking hand toward it. Something heavy and dreadful pulled her closer, sucking her in, worse than the cold vacuum of space and far, far deadlier.

"Take it," Lotor was whispering in her ear. "It will give you the power that you need."

The power...they were powerless. They were adrift and helpless, with no hope of salvation against an unstoppable enemy. If she could only have more power...if she could be their salvation...

A quiet part of her brain whispered, "It's not true. It can't be true. Lotor is far away. He is not trustworthy. He is dead. He's not here."

But Lance was on her other side. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded. "Take it."

He could be here. She'd urged him to go to Clear Day without her, but maybe he'd decided against it. She trusted Lance. She knew he'd never steer her wrong.

"And he'd never push you, either," the quiet whisper continued. "He's kinder than this. It isn't right. It isn't true."

But her mother—her mother was on the other side of the room. Pleading. Begging her to save their race. How could she turn her away? She missed her so much...

"Allura. Allura..."

"She's dead," said the whisper. "It is sad, but it is true. You have moved on. Remember. Remember. It's a lie. It's all a lie."

Allura drew in a shivering breath, her eyes bloodshot and wide. It all came back to her in a blast, what this thing had done to Tavo when the witch discovered his betrayal. It had attacked him from the inside, ripping him apart from the mind outwards, almost killing him—his screams...his screams...!

"Take it, Allura.

"Take it."

"Take it."

No. She could feel the draw, the powerful vacuum, and if she managed to focus for just one moment she could hear sinister, distorted voice under the voices she knew so well. The voice of the Thing.

The voice of the witch.

"Take it!"

"No!" Allura covered her ears and dropped to the hard, cold floor. Her voice was hoarse in her throat, rough with struggle and disuse. "No, I will not!"

The Thing shrieked and began to bang against the walls of its container, as if to break out—as if to get to her.

"Take it, Allura!" Lotor shouted into her ear.

"What are you doing?!" snapped Lance. He sounded upset and angry. "How could you be so stupid?"

Allura shuddered and shut her eyes tight. Tears trickled down her cheeks and splattered on the floor as it tilted underneath her.

"I won't. I will not. It's a lie. It's all a lie! Leave me!" she cried.

Shrieking, pounding, pulsing in her ears...

Her head hit the floor.

The spinning stopped. All was quiet. Nothing and no one was there but a quiet ache in her head, the soft overhead lab lights, and an angry little thing whirling around in a jar.

The lab door slid open. "Princess Allura!" cried a new, worried voice, followed by footsteps. "What happened? Are you hurt?"

Two thin arms lifted her off the ground. Allura had a shaky view, for a moment, of a human's face with glasses and white hair—"Pidge's father," her tired brain supplied—before her eyes fluttered closed, exhausted.

"Get a stretcher in here," cried Sam Holt, his voice far away as if underwater. "We have to get her to medical!"

Allura fell asleep.

She awoke surrounded by pillows and clean, white sheets. The room was under-decorated and sterile, and monitors beeped softly by her bedside.

Ah. The med bay. Of course.

"Hey," said a soft voice at her side.

Allura almost recoiled when she saw Lance—"don't you dare say what you said in that room," a part of her mind hissed—but ever so slowly, she relaxed, as she stared more into his shaky smile, as if he was trying to hide his fear and be strong for her sake.

Yes. Yes, she thought with a smile. This is the real Lance.

"Hey," she whispered. Her voice sounded thin.

"It's good to see you awake." Lance pulled something out of his blue coat pocket and put it in her hand. "I didn't find anything sparkly, but...I got you this."

It was a tiny plush of the Blue Lion. Allura held it between her hands and felt a flutter of joy in her chest. "This is perfect," she whispered, cradling it close. "Thank you."

Lance's smile fell. "Allura..." He picked up her hand on the bed-sheet and squeezed it. "What happened? They said they found you passed out in a lab. I felt terrible that I wasn't here to help you, I...I could have stopped this if I'd just—"

"Please," she interrupted, squeezing his hand, "don't blame yourself. None of us could have seen this coming."

She sank further into the pillow, the exhaustion of the mental battle returning. "Honerva tried to reach out to me through the entity we captured. It made me hallucinate people I that l—that I care about, urging me to take it. Perhaps," she said wearily, "so that I could be controlled."

Lance's eyes were wide with horror. "You didn't, did you?"

Yes, Allura thought with an internal chuckle. Most definitely the real Lance. "No," she said with a smile. "It is still in its containment. I refused."

Lance gave a small laugh in relief. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "Of course you did." A little glint came to his eye. "You're strong, Allura. Even stronger than Honerva."

Allura laughed weakly. "Oh, I don't know about that. I only resisted her."

"Well, that's all we can do, isn't it?" Lance smiled. "And maybe if we can just keep resisting her—we'll actually win this."

Allura had to smile. "Yes. Perhaps we will."

Next up - Episode Nine: Trial by Weblum