I saw a post over on Tumblr a while back (that I apparently didn't reblog like I should have, because now I can't find it) suggesting the idea that with Matt being rescued by a group of rebels, it might be possible that we'll be seeing Rolo again in Season 3, what with his apparent ties to Galra resistance. The idea kind of stuck with me, so here you have a little three-part drabble to expand on that notion...
"The information I found on my brother says he was taken by a group of rebels. He's still out there."
"Matt's a lot like you. He's a survivor. We'll find him."
"Rolo, I swear, if you ever try to pull a stunt like that again, you're going to have to find yourself another copilot," Nyma threatened her captain as he slouched along ahead of her.
"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya," he waved his hand in acknowledgment, then heard her huff to herself and stride off in a different direction. Probably in search of a shower with water that hadn't been recirculated twenty times in a day and was warmer than tepid. He probably ought to look into getting that fixed, actually, while they were in a safe port...
He might not have noticed the small group of people entering the common area across the way from him had it not been for Beezer's sudden agitated blipping. Startled, Rolo looked around first at his cyber unit, then in the direction it was...well staring isn't exactly the right word...focusing. Beezer was, in fact, focusing very intently across the room and when Rolo looked up to see what it is that had caught its attention, he actually had to blink and rub his eyes a bit.
"Is that...?" he muttered, half to himself and half to Beezer, but he didn't think the cyber would have caused a fuss if it weren't processing the same thing he was thinking. "What's with the slave outfit, though? What happened to those guys?" He couldn't help the note of concerned urgency in his voice as he made his way across the crowded room, Beezer following in his wake as he cleared a path. Once they reached the group, he started to raise his voice to address them, "Hey you guys, hold up! Paladin, wait!" But while the escort around the tawny-haired individual slowed and acknowledged Rolo, it wasn't until he laid a broad hand on their shoulder that they turned around, startled.
"Hey! What-?" the young man shrugged off Rolo's hand, backing away as his amber eyes widened in alarm. "Who are you?"
Rolo was confused as well. Even up close, this guy looked strikingly similar to the Green Paladin he had met on that moon so long ago, but there were enough differences to tell them apart, too. Height, for one, which he hadn't been able to gauge until they were facing one another. Voice, too, along with just enough little tells in the structure of his face and the shape of his eyes. And then Beezer was making its own whirring assessment, its audio receptors sliding down the side of its cranium, indicating the robot's disappointment.
The awkward silence grew as Rolo continued to stare in confusion until the young man in front of him shifted just a little bit farther away. The pilot cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Oh, um, sorry about that. It's just...I thought you were someone else I met a while back. I tell you what, but you look a whole lot like one of the Voltron Paladins."
"You probably think all humans look the same," the pseudo-prisoner grumbled. "How many humans could you have met, anyway? It's not like we've ever traveled this deeply in space."
"Humans? Is that what you're called? But yeah, I've met a few, and I swear you and that other one look a lot alike. The whole bunch were with that Altean princess giving the Galra a hard time with Voltron. Anyway, sorry again." Rolo took a step backwards, turning his body to go with a vague wave of farewell. The human reciprocated the wave, though his eyebrows were still scrunched in confusion. A couple more seconds, though, and he was herded away with his escort to places unknown in the complex. Rolo finished turning around to walk away, the strange encounter bouncing around in his head a bit. He felt like there was something he was missing, but he didn't have all the pieces to put the puzzle together. Beezer also made a discontented whine at his side, its central optic cast down. He laid a hand on its cranium, saying, "Yeah, I know. Sorry, Beez. Weird, huh? What are the odds...?"
With that said, they merged back into the hustle and bustle of the crowd, Rolo deciding to get some repair work done on his poor old freighter.