"Ok, Ok, run me through this one more time. What happened to Shiro?" Lance asked.
"We think he's in the spirit realm." Allura said, not looking up from her console.
"Uh, huh," Lance said, unconvinced, "And that is?"
"It's a higher plane, the source of mystical energy and the place where the link between Lions is-"
"Forget all that, can we get him back?" Keith asked.
"Well, it's complicated, The priests and priestesses kept all the information about the spirit realm close to the chest. Now that they're all gone, we don't have a whole lot to go on."
" Don't be so sure about that." Coran said, entering the room holding a box, "I've got something that could help."
He placed the box on the console next to Allura and she peered into it. "Oh, Corin, I don't know about using that."
"What is it?" Pidge asked, pulling the box off the console to look in.
Hank glanced over her shoulder and pulled out a hand console, Corin pointed at it.
"That is used to locate the three parts of a portal to the spirit realm. One of the portals, one of them in in the Black lion, but we can't get it to open up."
They had all attempted to get the Black lion to pull out the black bayard but she refused. They reasoned that she was refusing to open up because she felt her paladin was the only one who had the right to ask for it.
"Why would they put that in there in the first place, what's the point of stranding your pilot?" Hunk asked.
"The black paladin is supposed to be able to ask the Black Lion to bring him back. unfortunately, Shiro doesn't know he can do that, which means we have to assume that he doesn't know how.
"Ok, so let's just use this thing and get him back already." Keith said.
"Only priests and priestesses of the spirit realm were allowed to use these. They had to go through rigorous training, the contents of which were known only to them. You see this?" Coran said, pulling out a black band from the box.
"That hand tracker Hunk is holding needs psychic energy to run. So one of the priestesses would supply it by wearing this band on their head. They'd supply the energy themselves, but they had a lot of rules, like you can't take the headband off until you'd found what you were searching for or it would stop working."
"Unnecessary superstition, "Pidge said grabbing the band out of Corin's hands," I bet I can get this to work easy."
Pidge put the headband on. They watched the hand console eagerly. Nothing happened.
"Oh, let me try." Hunk said, picking up the band and putting it on his head, Lance glanced at the console excitedly. Nothing happened.
They all deflated.
"Stop that, stop that, " Coran said, "That's not a toy, it's a sacred artifact of great power."
"Doesn't look like it's got a lot of power to me," Keith sneered, he turned to Allura, "Please tell me you've got a better option for getting Shiro back."
"I'm piloting us over to a planetary cluster that used to hold an Altean outpost with an order of priestesses there, hopefully we can find something there that can help us." Allura said, before looking horrified. " Oh no, what happened!"
They looked at the screen, there was a planet alright, a big one, but only one, surrounded by several moons.
"It looks like a few planets intercepted each other in orbit and smashed apart, looks like they've reformed as smaller moons around the remaining planet." Hunk said.
"That's a disaster! What are we going to do now?"
"Don't panic yet, " Lance suggested, " We can still check the last planet, maybe there's something there we can use to Shiro back."
"You're right, that's exactly what we should do, buckle up team, we're going in."
When they found out that the remaining planet was the one they were looking for they were ecstatic, when they found out that the history of the post had been carefully preserved they were even more eager to find out what they could.
That's why it was so disappointing when they found out that information was classified.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but only historians of some note are allowed to learn about that point in history."
"I am a historian, I literally lived there."
"Perhaps, but since you don't have the doctorate I'm not allowed to accept that answer."
Allura continued to attempt to convince them to open the files while the paladins milled about in the waiting room.
"I spy with my little eye, something that begins with b." Hunk said.
"Is it something with a weird technical or Latin name that I'll never be able to guess in a million years?" Lance asked.
"... Yes." Hunk admitted.
Keith ignored them, he'd been listening intently to conversation between Allura and the delegate and he was very displeased about the contents.
"We need to know that you won't damage the artifacts, or lose them."
"How would we lose the artifacts?"
"We have a very intricate system in place to protect the artifacts, even the Galra have been unable to find them we need to make sure that anyone we give this information to can keep it out of the Galra's hands."
"The Galra have magic users, if they haven't found them yet it's because they've never had any reason to look until now. We have fought the Galra many many times and won-"
"A beginners streak can't be trusted."
"You think we can't protect the artifacts because we're weak!" Keith screamed, getting the attention of the other paladins.
"I'll show you weak!" He pulled out his bayard and charged the delegate.
He felt a split second of satisfaction seeing the fear in eyes of the person that had insulted him before a great weight pulled him down to the ground and crushed him against the floor.
"What are you doing!?" Lance asked.
"This is not how you make friends, Keith." Hunk chided.
They both dragged him out of the building while Allura tried to apologize profusely.
"Uh, I think I'll just go about town, coming Coran?" Pidge asked.
"Uh, I think I'll come with you." Coran said uneasily.
They darted away.
"What were you thinking!?" Lance asked, " How could you-"
"up, up, up." Hunk tittered, " Let me handle this." He requested.
Lance went slack jawed for a moment, then stomped off.
Hunk turned back to Keith. "Ok man, what was that about?"
Keith broke away and turned his back to Hunk, clutching his fists.
"I need him. OK, I know I can lose it when I'm by myself but it's different around him. He's like a rock, whenever I can't chill out i just concentrate on him and it's like some of his calm just rubs off on me. Sometimes I worry the reason I'm like this is, because of my Galaren half, and I worry I'll lose control. But I know he won't let that happen."
"You're afraid your alien half is going to make you evil without him. OK dude, what are we? Chopped liver, you know we wouldn't let that happen."
Keith inhaled then let out his breath in a rush. "I'll just feel better when we get him back."
"We'll get him back." Hunk said, gesturing to Lance that he could come back.
"So are you all good now?" Lance asked, coming over.
"Yeah, Yeah, I'm good." Keith said.
"Great, Let's find someway to pass the time then." Lance said, brightening up. Keith was a little surprised that the other boy was able to get over his anger so fast. It was testament to how much he trusted Hunk's judgment.
"I've got an Idea, Let's play king of the hill, we've even got a crown." He plucked the band off Hunk's head. Keith had forgotten the other boy was wearing it, going by the way Hunk rubbed his head in wonder, he'd forgotten about it too.
Lance put his headband on. " I'll start, who wants to go first?"
"That is the stupidest - woah." Keith said, distracted by the way the band began to glow as it was placed on Lance's head.
Keith pulled out the hand console and examined it, " look, there's something on here now, It looks like it's on one of the moons."
"Guess something in that head of yours did the trick Lance." Hunk said.
"Yes! Perfect!" Keith exclaimed, "now we can go get those artifacts without interference."
"I don't know if that's a good idea." Hunk said, thoughtfully, " Didn't Arulla say we didn't know anything about these things and you can't take them off once they go on? What if it does something funny to his head?"
"We can't take the chance, because we could lose our shot forever if we take it off." Keith said.
"I've got more faith in Allura's diplomacy skills then that, but I guess I get what you mean. so where too?"
Keith checked the console. " The first moon."
Pidge and Coran walked through the city market place. There wasn't really anything Pidge wanted but they enjoyed listening to Coran tell them about the things that were in the stalls.
Pidges attention drifted across the glass windows that lined the store fronts, something in the window's reflection caught their attention, they glanced discreetly into the next window pane they passed.
"Coran." They said, " We're being followed."
"Are we? Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
"Wait, no." Coran leaped into the alley.
"Heyah!" Coran kicked the surprised Galra soldier in the face.
The soldier bounced off the wall and straightened, snarling, "You wanna go creep?"
"I'm warning you, I'm a master of mixed Altean fighting arts. Only two of which are purely ornamental. You come at me at me now and I'll give you some of this, HeeYA, and some of that hyooo!" Coran said, striking poses and showing off some fancy kicks.
BZZT.
The solder collapsed, Pidge stood behind him holding up their stunner.
"Thanks for distracting him, Coran."
"My pleasure."
The two slammed him against the wall and held him in a pin.
He met their gaze unflinchingly. "I'll tell you nothing."
"If he's spotted us here then that means either they had a way to track us here, and rather quickly I might add, and get a tail on us. Which is improbable. Or they have a base near here and he just happened to spy us by accident, which is more likely."
"Alright, leave this to me, I've interrogated many a spy in my day, and I know just how to get them talking." Coran said grimly, cracking his knuckles before pointing a finger at the spy's face.
"You will tell us where the lair is!"
"Will not."
"Will too!"
"Will not, will not, will not-"
"Will too, will too, will too."
"Will not."
"Will not, infinity."
"Will too, infinity plus one."
"I demand you never tell us where the base is!"
"If I say I'm going to tell you where the base is them I'm going to tell you where the base is! It's a quadrant 4-3 on the fourth moon hidden behind the forest and in front of the mountain!"
The Galra soldier paused in confusion. "Wait..."
"Alright we've got the information, let's go spy on those spies!" Coran announced.
"Way to go, Coran!" Pidge cheered, then sobered up, "I think you should wait here, Coran, I can spy more easily on my own and I don't want to worry about you getting hurt."
"But then I'll worry about you getting hurt." Coran countered.
"Don't worry about me, I'll have Green to watch over me." Pidge said.
"Hmpth." Coran crossed his arms, " I could watch too." he said, sulking.
Pidge ran to go get their Lion.
"Not a good backup?- Do they think of me as some old timey has-bin who's too on in his years to handle a little spy mission? Well, surely it can't hurt to tail them at a distance." Coran said to himself, before heading for the castle to get a ship, saying. "Sneak, sneak, sneak."
Pidge parked her Lion far enough away from the fortress that they weren't too worried about it being spotted, but just to make sure, they had the Lion cover herself in ivy, just like she was when Pidge found her..
Pidge tried to figure out a plan of attack. They were surprised to find that there was a grate that lead to the moat, going from the smell it was where they routed the plumbing through.
They groaned internally at the realization that this was probably the only way in. Psyching themselves up, They pried the grate loose and climbed up.
They made into the bathroom that way, glad to see that there was a bath. It was not a good idea to waste time washing, but they couldn't stand the smell. And if they couldn't stand it then the Galra would smell it and out them immediately.
Fortuitously no one discovered them. And- stroke of luck, they even found an abandoned robe hanging off the back of the door rack.
They hide themselves in it and skulked through the castle halls, they peered over a railing and were surprised to see a large crowd moving into a room below.
They ducked down and darted down the stairs and hid themselves in the crowd.
The crowd pushed them into a set of stands overlooking a caged stadium.
They were looking at a grey alien that looked like the same species as Zarkon, the young man(at least, they looked male) stood in the middle of the cage looking up at a stand.
A woman wearing a cloak was occupying the stand all by herself, it was elevated above the others, so that was obviously where their attention was supposed to go.
"Lotor, you stand accused of challenging the rule of Zarkon. how do you plead?"
"I stand by all I said, he's a relic, too blind to the passage of time to realize the way he does things is not the best."
"You understand the punishment, even for you?"
"12 rounds in the ring." Lotor said, "yes I know, don't stall."
A bunch of doors opened up at the corner of the cage, a bunch of the Galra guards flooded into the doorways, Pidge noticed a bunch of chests handing from the top of the cage.
They nudged someone next to them and pointed," what's in those?" They asked, before remembering themselves and hiding their pink fleshy hand in the folds of their robe, fortunately, the soldier next to them didn't notice their lack of fur.
"Could be anything, could be acid, could be weapons. You never know if it's something you want to be next to or not until it falls."
One of the chests was released, falling into the ring, it burst open, letting several guns go flying out into the ring, the Galra closest to them snapped them up.
Lotor dodged them, jumping upward and kicking out both legs, slamming his feet into two different Guards at the same time.
Lotor landed and weaved in between more blasts.
He rolled behind a weapon's rack to block the gun blasts. Using the rack as a shield he crawled over to a cage embedded in the wall behind the rack and started to pick the lock.
The Galra started to converge on him, nearing his hiding his spot. He managed to unlock the door and threw it open before hiding behind the bars as a large black inky monster threw itself out of the cage and began to rip into the soldiers.
Ignoring the screaming, he used the cage door to climb up the wall to the criss-crossing metal bars that wrapped around the dome to form a roof and began to use them as monkey bars as he made his way over to a chest hanging from the top of the stadium. He shimmied down the chain over to the chest and began to pick the lock,
The lock opened up and began to dribble before flinging itself open and dropping a cascade of acid on top of the ink monster.
Lotor swung back and forth before leaped on the other side of the acid puddle and looking up at the booth overhead, " I've managed to defeat a monster from the higher levers, I believe a Skitar is a level 15 monster, that should count for my trials."
The witch looked grim, "Don't let your ego get to you, your maverick tricks will only get you so far, you are not ready to take Zarcon's mantel."
"Maybe if Zarcon was willing to inject a few more maverick tricks into his strategy he wouldn't have been defeated by a bunch of earthlings that are willing to be a bit more creative."
"You are not capable." The witch said.
Pidge leaned over the edge to get a better look, "who is that?" They wondered.
They hurried down in an attempt to eavesdrop on what what was going on.
"Are you alright my-"
"Don't bother me with pleasantries. What is my mission?"
The guard shut up abruptly and pulled out a hand console. " We have reason to believe that the black paladin is stuck in the astral plane, we will need to collect the items necessary to bring him back so we can capture him."
Lotor grabbed the console, " Out of my way, I'll have this done before our king awakes"
Pidge noticed a large grate behind a shelf, they shoved the shelf out of the way and unhinged the grate, crawling through the vents to follow Lotor into the other room, bypassing the guards.
They found the room that Lotor was in, and watched him equip himself with equipment for his mission. The alien began to shift shape. it grew long white hair and started to look more Altean.
"Who is that?" Pidge wondered, " They must be more important to the empire then the average soldier, not just anyone is allowed to backtalk Zarkon and have a fighting chance. But why?" They peered through the vents at the strange character underneath them.
"Who are you, mystery man?" They muttered to themselves.
They felt the grate give under their weight.
"Oh no." They muttered.
Suddenly the grate gave out from underneath them and Pidge tumbled into the room in front of the mystery man.
Lotor spun on them and held out a halberd in front of himself. "Who dares?"
"Gah!" Pidge exclaimed, scrambling to their feet. " Don't mind me, I'm just the vent cleaning servant, looks like the vent above your supply room is kind of bent out of shape, going to have to get my tools and tighten those screws, haha...ha."
"What happened to your ears?"
"Oh uh, plastic surgery, it's a new trend among the empire's youths."
Lotor began to circle them, studying them intently. "I've seen that suit before." He mummered.
"This is a new trend too, I'm sure you've seen someone wearing it in your peripheral vision or something."
"You're one of the paladins."
"No, I'm not." Pidge insisted.
"This is... perfect." He pointed at Pidge, " You! You will help me overthrow King Zarcon."
"Eh, wait? You want to stop Zarcon too?"
"Indeed, I suppose you saw my humiliation earlier?"
"Looked like you handled yourself all right."
"This time, but I refuse to be make into a spectacle anymore, Lotor is no man's show pony."
"hmm." Pidge put their hands on their hips. " So what do I get out of it?"
"I imagine you've come here for this." He showed them the console. " This device will allow us to find the ancient artifacts that will bring back the black paladin, I have been ordered to capture him. If you help me overthrow Zarcon, I will aid you in finding the black paladin."
"And you'll let me take Shiro home?"
"Yes."
"Alright, tell you what, Shiro's the team leader, so if you help me find him, I'll introduce you to all the other paladins and let you make your sales pitch."
"Very well. I find these terms acceptable." Lotor said. " Go retrieve your Lion, I'll wait for you over the east hill."
Pidge looked him up and down seizing him up, They knew that the enemy's keep wasn't the best place to find trustworthy allies, but if this person could help them find Shiro it might be worth the risk.
"All right." They agreed. They followed Lotor's directions to the back door and sneaked out.
Lotor continued assembling his travel pack, "opportunity knocks, still, it's always best to have a contingency plan." He flipped open his communicator. " recovery team hail, change in plans, I'm going after the artifacts alone, follow at a distance and remain on standby."
He flipped his speaker off and smiled.
I've decided to write Pidge as gender neutral. The writers said that their gender is up for interpretation and I don't want to mess with anybody's headcannons so the way I figure it is- If using They as a gender-neutral- singular pronoun is good enough for Shakespeare it's good enough for me.
I haven't seen season three since it isn't out yet but I did watch a few of the old episodes out of order from the old series to try and find a personality to use for Lotor. For the most part he seems like a typical stalker egomaniac 80's villain. So I took most of my inspiration from the episode "Lotor, the good guy?" in that one Lotor tries to assassinate his dad, gets caught, tries to fast talk his way out of punishment, gets locked up, escapes, then helps the heroes escape Zarcon's steely grip out of spite. so that's what I'm going to using as inspiration here.