AN: I have so many other fics on backburner but I knew I needed to get this out first before season 6 josses me.

"You're my…" The boy did not complete the sentence. He turned away so that he was no longer looking at her.

Krolia allowed the silence to grow between them, waiting for him to make the first move. It seemed only fair. She owed him so much. But she had no compunctions against watching him as he busied himself in the cockpit, running checks that he didn't need. With the masterful flying he had accomplished against Trugg's troops, he had more than proved his mettle.

She spent the rest of the trip drinking in the sight of him, her son, Keith as he piloted the small craft like it was a part of him. Her son is an ace pilot. She held on to that knowledge tightly, a new fact about him that she could tuck among her faded memories, worn out from the innumerous times she had gone over them back when they were all she had of him.

She knew her staring was making him nervous, his shoulders creeping up in an achingly familiar gesture that spoke of his discomfort. But she could not bear to tear her eyes away. Still he did not look at her. Not until they had finally touched down at Headquarters - in what felt like the longest trip of her life, but fleetingly short at the same time and leaving her wishing she had more time just to look at him - did he turn her way at last.

They looked at each other, and it was as if he finally realised that she was waiting for him. Keith's eyes widening as he opened his mouth, paused, and then said, "I'm an orphan, you know."

She could hear the Earth word he was actually using even as the translator overlaid it, a word that meant one without kin. She was not surprised. Since she saw the blade and realised who he was, she had known, somewhere in the back of her head, that he must be gone.

Keith turned away again immediately, clearly not wanting her reply. "I need to debrief with Kolivan."

She let him go. She did not have the right to do anything else. Besides, this would give her time to catch up with her contacts at Headquarters before she had to go for her own debriefing.

Krolia had not been back to the Marmora Headquarters in many deca-phoebs, but it had weathered its shift to the public stage as it had weathered everything else in its long fight against the Galra empire - persistently and unbending in its principles.

Perhaps it was simply mimicking its leader, as Kolivan did not seem to be any more ready to change. There was a familiar stern look on his face as she gave her report, and despite the turmoil seething inside her that he must have noticed, Kolivan merely furrowed his brows as she described Ranveig's weapon. "So you handed it over to Trugg?"

"She will not be able to control it. Ranveig couldn't. That's why he left it there."

Kolivan relented, though the glower did not leave his face. "The fact that it was created from this new type of quintessence is more crucial, I suppose. It is troubling, if it really does lead back to Lotor. I dread what this will mean for the partnership between him and Voltron."

Krolia's eyes narrowed. She could no longer wait. "Why did you extract me, Kolivan?" Except that wasn't what she really wanted to ask. "Why did you send Keith?" The question had been burning inside her since she first marked the little Blade as he skulked unskilfully behind a corner. She had been unimpressed that Kolivan would send someone so untried, for an extraction so risky. And then she had found out who he was.

"So he is your son," said Kolivan, as if he hadn't realised.

"Isn't it obvious?" Krolia couldn't help but spit out. He was so human even as a baby, he still looked so human now; she hadn't thought he would be so much like her.

"Yes," Kolivan intoned gravely, "but he doesn't quite have your ability to defy orders and come out on top despite it."

"So you send him to me on his own." She had been so angry, was still so angry, all her plans out of alignment because Keith had to come first. Kolivan must have known how dangerous the situation was that she had cut off all communication with them. She hadn't even expected him to send anyone, that she would be written off as a loss unless she managed to extract herself. Instead he had sent her son. All by himself.

Kolivan was unmoved. "Did you hear of his last mission?"

Krolia nodded reluctantly. She had borne the brunt of Ilun's ranting as the two of them caught up before her meeting with Kolivan. 'Of course, he's your son. I don't know what else I could have expected. Well, tell your son to accomplish his personal objectives without messing up the actual mission next time. You need to pass on more than just your pretty looks, maverick.' "I heard from Ilun. Is that why? Because his loyalty is to Voltron. Not to the Marmora. Not to you."

"I don't need him to be loyal to me. I just need him to listen."

"So you reunite me with him. Do you think I will make him listen?" She wasn't sure if she would ever ask that of Keith. She wasn't sure if she could ask that of him.

"I think you are my last chance to keep him alive," Kolivan said evenly. "He was with us for the mission when Regris overextended himself, did not retreat when I told him to. He died."

"You have my condolences." Krolia lowered her eyes. "I am surprised that it does not seem to have curbed his rashness. The young ones usually settle down after they see one of the older members die from overconfidence."

"He is very much your son."

Her jaw clenched. "There is an easier way. Give him back to Voltron." Her eyes darted up. "The connection to the coalition that he symbolises is not worth what we'll lose if he dies on one of our missions. Voltron has officially put their support behind Lotor; they don't need us as their link to the Galra anymore. Our worth to them won't make up for losing one of their own."

"This suggestion has nothing to do with the fact that Keith will be safer protected by Voltron." It was not a question, but a statement.

"It has everything to do with that fact," Krolia declared, facing Kolivan fully. "He will be safer; Voltron can protect him far better than any of us can, especially if he doesn't listen to you."

"Oh how the situation has reversed." Kolivan stared back. "I too remember informing a rash, newly minted Blade that she would be safer away from the front lines if she couldn't heed my words."

Krolia scowled, but she could not refute his words.

"But it is not that simple, I'm afraid." Kolivan said, sobering. "I do not think he believes he has a place with them."

Krolia's scowl deepened. "Because they have five Paladins and he isn't one of them? Are their bonds so shallow?"

"From what I know of them, I do not believe so; but it is true that all positions in Voltron are filled. He does not need to be a Paladin to be one of them, and I believe they feel the same. But he will never accept not being out in the field." Kolivan's face softened. "He is very much your son, Krolia."

Krolia could feel her own control slipping at the rare sight of a comforting expression on Kolivan's face.

"This is why I cannot turn him away," continued Kolivan, as if he could not see her fighting her emotions. "But I cannot manage him, so I must leave him in your hands."

"I cannot manage him either," she admitted. "How can he accept a mother who was never there for him?"

"If you cannot manage him, then teach him. Teach him to survive, if he must listen to none but his own council; teach him how to do so and live."

"You ask too much of me." The words rushed out of her unbidden; the weakness that had ate at her for so long. "I who have already failed him."

But Kolivan was unrelenting. "Then will you fail him again?"

Her head shot up. "Never."

Kolivan gave a perfunctory nod. He knew there was no other way she could have answered.

Krolia closed her eyes. 'I left you once. I'll never leave you again.' It was a promise; to Keith, to herself, to the universe. She would not fail him again.