#lotorweek

***

Keith, apparently, was nowhere to be found. Correction, Keith was nowhere to be found where anyone could directly get ahold of him. Judging by the looks on the team’s faces, and even by the frowning, disapproving visage that Kolivan’s face currently sported, everyone knew where he probably was.

“At our last correspondence, he said that Voltron would need him for the next quintant.”

Lance snorted, “Yeah, and the last thing he told us was that he was going back to you guys for a mission.”

“So the Coalition has lost track of your most valuable Paladin. Are we going to continue discussing what he told all of you, or are we going to go find him?” Lotor said, loftily impatient.

Lance flinched before turning to face the (really fucking unwelcome) commenter from the peanut gallery. He really didn’t like that guy, something Lotor had made clear was mutual in that annoyingly posh way of his. He wished that Allura and Shiro didn’t insist on including him in things like this. Weren’t prisoners supposed to be locked up in cells, where they remained hidden away from the people they could annoy? But, ‘Lance, Lotor’s an ally we need to be careful with, not a prisoner!’ and ‘Lance, please stop being rude to our guest.’ and ‘Lance, if you can’t be respectful, then please be silent.’

Lance respected Allura more than he could say (she was so, so amazing!) and only about a tenth of that was because he wanted her to be his girl, but sometimes… sometimes he just didn’t agree with her choices.

Especially since-

Wait.

“Most valuable Paladin?!” He burst out, unable to keep the incredulousness out of his voice and interrupting the conversation that Allura, Shiro, Kolivan and Lotor were currently having. “Keith?! He’s not even a Paladin anymore!”

Lotor’s glance at him was about as warm as an iceberg’s, “He is capable of piloting both the Red and the Black Lions, so yes, still a Paladin. As well as being one of the youngest members the Blade has ever had, completing missions that would give even experienced Blade’s trouble. You may try to compete with his talent, but even you cannot deny that it exists.”

Lance drew himself up in righteous fury, ready to let loose his response to all that, when Shiro broke in.

“Guys, this isn’t a popularity contest. It doesn’t matter who the supposedly ‘most valuable Paladin’ is, what matters is that Keith is our friend and could be in trouble right now, so please.”

Well that took the wind right out of Lance’s sails.

“Fine.” He muttered, crossing his arms and deciding to take the high road of ignoring Lotor’s existence.

Shiro turned to Kolivan and continued their discussion, “So you said that the plans were abandoned because of the high risk factor.”

“Yes.” Kolivan said, face still set in disapproving lines, “While the battleship is itself unaccompanied by other ships, it does contain a high number of sentries and drones. However, those aren’t the problem. The problem is the druid on the ship, one of Haggar’s top officers and one who is very good at sensing when traitors to the Galra Empire are near. This druid has some sort of ability that psychologically breaks any who is on the receiving end of it, and the Blades that have encountered him… the few that came back did not do so mentally sound, and they all died shortly afterwards. While the intel on the ship would be invaluable, the risk with low chance of success was far too high to carry through with it.”

Well, fuck.

That actually sounded… really bad.

Lance’s arms uncrossed subconsciously as worry became his strongest emotion.

And Keith was planning on throwing himself at this guy?

“Alzak,” Lotor growled from beside Allura, “I’ve come into contact with him before. His ability traps the recipient of it in a hellish mindscape, where they are tortured by creatures both of the druids design and by their own minds fearful wonderings. He takes pleasure in watching them suffer until they break. If we’re going to go save Keith, we need to do so now.” He finished grimly.

For once, Lance agreed with the jerk, and he was relieved to see Shiro nod.

“I think we’ve prepared as much as we can for now. Kolivan, how many of the Blade will be able to join us?” Shiro asked.

Kolivan grimaced, “Too few, many are currently engaged in missions elsewhere. Ten, at the most. I’ll have them meet you there.”

Shiro nodded, “Thank you.” He said, before ending the transmission and turning to walk toward his Lion, Lance and the other’s quickly following suit.

“I’m going as well.” Lotor interrupted, starting toward the door.

“What! Uh, yeah, no. The last thing we need to worry about while we’re saving Mullet is you stabbing us in the back!” Lance burst out, worry and frustration waring within him.

“I am the one that knows best how to deal with Alzak, and thus am the most likely to be able to bring Keith back without his mind in tatters. Please. Try to stop me if you wish.” Lotor snapped, open hostility uncharacteristically in place as he regarded Lance, a freezing, deep anger present in his eyes.

And was… was that worry in his eyes, as well? Holy shit, what had Keith done to get Lotor to worry about him. He knew that Keith had been spending a lot of the time he was on the Castleship with Lotor, but enough to get Lotor- Lotor!- to care about him? What the quiznack?

“Enough.” Shiro interrupted once more. “We don’t have time for this. Lotor, thank you for the offer. We accept. Lance, get to your Lion.”

Lance hurried to his Lion, for once being willing to leave the situation without the last word. He may not like or trust Lotor, but Keith was his friend, and Shiro was right when he said they didn’t have time for arguing. Maybe trusting Lotor was going to be a mistake, but it was one they were apparently going to make.

***

Hunk’s mind was practically swirling with worry, even as he determinedly forced himself to focus. This was really bad, and with no way to contact Keith without potentially putting him in danger, there was also no way to know what they were going into. Was Keith okay? Were they going to get there in time? What if they got there just in time to see the druid use his ability on Keith and they couldn’t stop it?

Coran and Allura had moved the Castleship as close as it could get to the battleship while still being outside the ship’s radar, and they were halfway to said ship when the Red and Black Lion’s abruptly went dead.

“Guys?” Hunk exclaimed, instantly pulling Yellow to a stop beside them.

“What happened?” Pidge asked, doing the same with the Green Lion.

“I don’t know.” Shiro replied, “Black just… stopped responding. I can’t connect to him, he feels like he’s somewhere else.”

“Red, too.” Lance replied, before adding angrily, “Lotor, if this is something you did-“

“I did nothing.” Lotor snapped, voice openly annoyed, “If the two of you are unable to continue, the rest of us should go ahead.”

That… was a bad idea if the ship had something that could invisibly take out two Lion’s, and he was surprised that Lotor, of all people, was willing to risk it. Hunk didn’t really trust the guy, but… he really did seem like he wanted to get to Keith as soon as possible. (Of course, Lotor could just be trying to betray them, but Hunk determinedly kept his mind away from that thought.)

“That’s a bad idea.” Pidge said, echoing his thoughts, “We don’t know what we’re going into or if they can disable our Lion’s just as easily. We need a plan.”

They argued back and forth about it for a few doboshes, before the Red and Black Lion’s abruptly came back online to Lance and Shiro’s exclamations.

“Everything okay, you guys?” Hunk asked, confused yet relieved to see the Lion’s working again.

“It seems to be, but let’s be cautious. We don’t know why they stopped.” Shiro replied.

“If we can continue, now.” Lotor interrupted, and the team nervously began moving toward the battleship once more.

***

Pidge wasn’t sure whether the drones floating lifelessly around the battleship were a good sign or a trap, and she didn’t like being unsure of things.

The rest of the team seemed similarly nervous, slowing their Lion’s to a slow glide as they approached the darkened battleship.

“Anyone else feeling really nervous about this?” Hunk asked.

“Their lack of response is concerning. We should approach with caution.” Allura said, her voice that careful cool it got sometimes when she was preparing herself for things to go sideways.

“Agreed.” Shiro replied, moving his Lion in front. “We’ll continue as planned, but keep aware of your surroundings. The Blade joining us are still ten doboshes away, so we can’t count on them for backup right now. Pidge, are we still in route to the ship’s main control room?”

Pidge checked the readouts, “Yeah, all we have to do is go to the right a bit and we can break into the ship. Then two rights and a left down the hallways and we’ll be there.”

“Good. Let’s go, team.”

Breaking into the ship was almost frighteningly easy once they reached their drop point, and even Lotor seemed, not exactly nervous, but like he was expecting a difficult fight ahead.

The way that sentries peppered the halls here and there, slumped over like someone had cut their power off, still didn’t put their minds at ease.

Until they reached the control room.

And there was Keith.

At the main computer, typing quickly at it while disabled sentries and a gasping, twitching druid lay beside him.

“Son of a bitch.” Lance cursed from beside her, and Pidge silently agreed.

Keith had given her one of the most frightening scares of her life, and he was apparently fine? And had apparently managed to take on an entire battleship by himself and win?

What the fuck?

She was simultaneously filled with the urge to run up to him and hug him, and run up to him and slap him on the head for taking that huge of a risk.

Keith had stiffened when they entered, and he whirled to face them at Lance’s exclamation, before relaxing at the sight of them.

“You’re early, I’m not finished getting the data yet. The cloaking you added to the ship and my suit works great, Pidge.” He added casually, like his team wasn’t currently freaking out while trying to get over the amount of worry he had put them through right in front of him.

“We’re- Cloaking- What the fuck Keith?!” Lance growled from beside her.

Shiro stepped forward then. “How did you manage to keep the druid’s power from trapping you?” He asked, sounding relieved yet confused.

Keith frowned back behind his shoulder, where his Marmora Blade lay beside the control panel. “It was the Red and Black Lion’s, and… the Blade, I think. They were able to help me reverse the druid’s powers somehow, turn it back onto him rather than having it trap me. After that, I was able to turn off the ship’s security before too many sentries got in.”

Pidge opened her mouth to ask a question, but then Lotor was moving toward Keith, his strides almost predatory as he walked. He reached Keith within a few tick’s time, and before anyone could say anything, he-

Well, he-

He jerked Keith into a deep, intense kiss that wouldn’t look out of place in a porno.

Pidge let out a choked sounding cough before abruptly turning her eyes anywhere that wasn’t their resident Galra prince trying this best to massage Keith’s tonsil’s with his tongue. And from the sound of things, to Keith’s enthusiastic appreciation.

Her eyes awkwardly met Hunk’s, and they stared at each other in shared trauma for a bit before she bit her lip to repress a sudden burst of laughter. It was just so awkward, so incredibly awkward. Did they even realize the rest of the team was still there? She winced at the sound of ruffling clothing, Please don’t let them get undressed, please don’t let them get undressed, please…

Well, at the very least she didn’t have to worry about Lotor’s intentions. After the way that Lotor generally was with Keith, and how he had been acting today…

she was pretty sure that he had it bad for her friend.

***

Keith groaned into the hot mouth that was consuming him, knowing that he needed to pull back but not wanting to. The team was there, the team was right there, probably shuffling around and avoiding looking at Lotor and Keith while they… were busy. Keith should definitely stop this, now. He moaned as Lotor’s mouth attacked his neck. In a dobosh. He should stop it in a dobosh.

***

Allura coughed politely into her hand as she considered her options. She really couldn’t think of anything she’d rather be doing less right now than listen to Zarkon’s son… express his attentions on her friend, but, as Lance sometimes said, there she was.

Doing exactly that.

She probably really should think more kindly of Lotor, as he had been of great service to the Coalition so far. But it was hard, having to work with the son of the man that killed her father.

It was even harder seeing her friend dance around a relationship with said son.

She turned her eyes to the couple (were they a couple now?) in front of the control panel with a frown. Lotor and Keith had actually stopped their activities and were just… looking at each other. Keith was staring up at Lotor with a million different expressions, the strongest a desperate hope, and Lotor…

Lotor was looking at Keith like he was something precious. Like Keith was the most amazing thing he had ever seen, and he was awed by it. Like Keith was something he treasured enough that he would fight the universe to protect and keep it.

Like he was in love with Keith.

Her mind now decided, Allura began to collect and nudge the other Paladins out of the room. She may not know everything in this new, strange universe so different from her home, but she did know one thing.

There was not nearly enough love in the universe, and there was no one more deserving of love than Keith. And she would protect her friend’s right to it, no matter her own feelings on the matter.

Besides, she thought as she risked a glance back and watched Lotor run a tender thumb over Keith’s cheek, I think… I think someone like Lotor might actually be something that Keith has needed for a long time.

And Allura shut the door behind her to give the two the privacy they needed.

End

***

Notes:

This was started a bit ago and finished now. I think it counts as an entry to Lotor week (it's meant to be), but it's definitely not entirely Lotor focused, so if Mod's want to not count it, that's okay!