The next morning, everyone was awakened by a very angry screech.

"WHAT THE QUIZNAK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Lance yelled, pointing at the intruder rudely.

"What's going on?" Shiro asked, running into the lounge with everyone on his heels. He was stunned at the person standing in the middle of the lounge, casually sipping a cup of tea.

"Lotor!?" Pidge cried, much to the Titans' confusion.

"Wait… why's Lotor here? Did the Galra somehow follow us?" Hunk asked, hating how he didn't have his armor on him to summon his bayard.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked, suddenly even more tense at the Paladins knowing this new presence.

"He's-" Lance pointed furiously at the white haired alien "-Galran! He's Prince Lotor, son of our sworn enemy Zarkon! And he's a lying snake!"

"But...how?" Allura inquired as the Titans brandished their respective weapons at knowing the true threat before them. All but Starfire.

Lotor made eye contact with Allura and nearly choked on his tea in shock. "Allura?!" He asked, bewildered, "What are you doing here?!"

"What do you mean?" Allura asked, raising an eyebrow as the Paladins moved closer to her protectively.

"Why aren't you at home taking care of our kids?" Lotor frowned and crossed his arms, expectantly awaiting her response.

"My...my what?" Allura cried, taken aback.

"Our kids," Lotor repeated slowly. He wondered why his dear wife looked as if she was about to faint.

"Woah, woah," Hunk drawled, putting up his hands and shaking his head in a confused gesture. "Something's not right here."

"Like I said," Lance hissed, his metaphorical hackles rising, "he lies!"

Lotor raised an eyebrow at the hostile human. "I have never met you before. Why are you so hostile? Is it a human thing?" He turned to Allura with a disapproving look. "And you still haven't told me why you abandoned our children to follow me here."

"I...we...don't have any," Allura managed to say through her fog of incoherency. "I would never… with… The Galra destroyed my home, Altea! We've been fighting with you for months now...none...none of this makes any sense!" She cried, stumbling back into Coran who reached out to hold her steady.

"I don't trust him," Keith said, having been the only one with his bayard, pointing his sword in the alien's direction.

The Titans remained speechless, not really knowing what to make of this with their limited knowledge.

"Friends!" Starfire exclaimed, coming between the Paladins and Lotor. She turned to Allura with a furrowed brow. "Allura… do you not remember Lotor? He played with us hundreds of years ago."

Allura looked at Koriand'r with wide eyes. "What…?"

Koriand'r looked at her sadly. "It appears you do not remember. Lotor was always fond of you and you were fond of him. Once you reached mating ages, you were betrothed," she explained, saddened even further at the growing horror on her friend's face.

Allura shook her head as if trying to wake herself up. She opened her mouth to say something further, but something caught her eye. Lotor's eyes were not yellow but orange. She frowned and looked at Princess Koriand'r. Her eyes were green.

"I see…" Allura murmured. "You are not my Koriand'r." She turned to Lotor. "And I am not your Allura. Nor yours," Allura said, addressing Starfire. She couldn't think of her as her Koriand'r anymore.

"What? Now I'm even more confused," Beast Boy said with a groan.

Shiro, having caught on to where she was going, suddenly looked at the Galra in a new light. "Please don't tell me this is an alternate reality," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as annoying memories of Slav flashed through his mind. Boy was he glad that the creature wasn't here at the moment.

"An alternate reality?" Robin repeated. His eyes widened in realization as everything suddenly clicked.

"So you're saying that we passed through a rift made by the Trans-Reality Comet?" Pidge said, sighing. No wonder everything was weird here.

Lance didn't seem to be surprised, much to the shock of all the Paladins. "I knew it," he mumbled sadly. From the moment they had arrived, he knew something was off.

Lotor's only sign of surprise was the slight raise of the brow. "I see," he said shortly. He rubbed his temples tiredly. He turned to Kori with a charming smile. "Kori, would you like to chat?" At the sight of everyone moving to follow them, he added with a glower, "alone."

Starfire and Lotor walked off, Starfire chattering happily with Lotor's occasional hums of agreement.

"... So he isn't evil?" Hunk asked, still looking lost.

"Apparently not," Pidge answered, pushing her glasses up. "If he isn't evil, then I would like him to do a few things for me." Her glasses glinted ominously.

"Pidge!" Lance yelled. "You can't trust him!"

"Why not?" Pidge asked. "He could be of great assistance when we're renovating the training room."

"Because!" Lance exclaimed. "He's him! Galra! Evil! Remember?!"

"We're in an alternate reality. Apparently here, he's married to Allura and friends with Starfire. He can't be evil here," Pidge reasoned.

Lance sputtered some more, but at Pidge's annoyed look didn't say anything more and sulked, crossing his arms. Pidge rolled her eyes at his immaturity.

"Lance, relax. He's not evil in this world."

"You don't know that," Lance mumbled.

"Why don't we do a bit of bonding to distract ourselves from this?" Shiro asked cheerfully, slinging an arm around Lance's shoulder. Immediately, all of the Paladins had the same reaction.

"NO!"

"... You didn't have to be so violently opposed to it," Shiro mumbled.

A day after Lotor's arrival, Lance was pacing around in the lounge, still fuming.

"Lance," Hunk said, bringing him a plate full of steaming food, "I thought you would be hungry."

Lance accepted it with a nod of thanks, but didn't touch anything as he still sulked about Lotor's presence.

"Are you still sulking?" Pidge asked incredulously as she left her room for the first time that day. Hunk had obviously been delivering food to her, as shown by the empty plate in her hand.

"I-" Lance huffed angrily. "Lotor is here!" He gestured frantically in the direction of Starfire's room where he was staying (much to Robin's horror).

"He's good in this dimension," Pidge said, sighing as she had repeated that fact countless times. "Why don't you do something more productive rather than pouting about Lotor's presence? I don't think Shiro and Keith like him very much either. But they're taking their frustrations out on each other in a spar."

"But…" Lance grumbled to himself as he gave up on arguing and started angrily shoving food into his mouth.

Starfire's animated voice suddenly grew louder and she appeared in the doorway. As did Lotor, much to Lance's contempt.

"Lotor!" Pidge called out, much to the disgusted shock of Lance.

The Galra prince turned his gaze to her. "Yes?"

"Pidge!" Lance yelled, feeling betrayed by the Green Paladin.

Ignoring him, Pidge asked, "Do you happen to have any Galra sentries or drones that I can take apart and use?"

Lotor looked at her curiously but slowly nodded. "There are defective and damaged sentries that are in my ship to be repaired. But I suppose you could take them. We have plenty more."

"Pidge," Lance hissed, "what are you doing?"

"I'll tell you later!" Pidge whispered as she thanked Lotor. Smiling brightly, Pidge immediately followed Lotor to his aircraft parked on the Tower's roof.

Lance turned to Hunk who looked as surprised as he did. Hunk shrugged at his friend's outraged expression. "Maybe she's asking for Galra metals for the Gladiator."

"From LOTOR?!"

"Yeah…?"

Lotor led Pidge to his aircraft that looked eerily similar to the one he had attacked them many times with. A sentry stood guard at the entrance and saluted Lotor as they walked by. Lotor led her into a suspiciously small room filled to the brim with sentries that had missing limbs or drones that looked like Rover, making Pidge miss the drone that had been so helpful to her.

He made a sweeping motion with his arm. "You are free to use all of the things in here," he said, "I'll tell my sentries that you are to be allowed to come and go as you please."

Pidge's eyes sparkled at all of the metals and Galra technology readily available to her. She grinned at Lotor. "Thank you!"

Lotor examined the human in front of him. She didn't seem to have any bad intentions towards him like her taller darker-skinned companion he'd seen giving him rude gestures or the short black-haired one that glowered at him when he saw him with Kori. He couldn't help but sympathize with her. As someone who was looked down upon by the other Galra because of his size, he felt a bond with the small boy. Even as someone who was smaller than the average Galra male, the little Paladin didn't even amount to his chest. His brethren could easily crush him with one hand with his small stature. Maybe he could connect with this small creature. Kori did encourage him to make friends with other people, after all.

"It was nothing," Lotor answered, putting a hand on Pidge's head as he had seen the tallest human do to the short male. His hand enveloped his head easily and Lotor felt a sense of awe towards the small human.

"This is really helpful," Pidge said, beaming. She had gathered all of the metal she could carry and now stood in front of him, ready to go. She noticed how he stared off into space for a while before responding, but decided not to comment.

Lotor hesitated as if he wanted to say something, and Pidge tilted her head. "Pidge… was it?" Lotor asked in his posh accent.

"Yup!" Pidge chirped, still happy from all of her loot. She couldn't wait to share her findings with everyone.

Lotor noticed the trouble Pidge was having carrying all of the things in his hands and called a sentry over. "Help him carry this," he ordered.

Pidge blinked in surprise for two reasons: one, he thought she was a boy (though that didn't surprise her much), and two, he was helping her out a lot more than she had expected.

"Um… Lotor?" Pidge said hesitantly. He looked at her in surprise before giving her a small smile.

"Yes?" Was the young male about to ask him for friendship? Lotor smiled to attempt to give him a reason to desire his friendship. It seemed to work and Pidge seemed ready to ask him for friendship.

"... I'm a girl."

"... What?"

"Pidge!" Lance hollered at the small girl when she and Lotor returned. He looked aghast to see her happily chatting and smiling with his arch-nemesis. Followed by a line of sentries with arms full of broken sentries marching after them. The small Paladin stopped short and looked at her friend with an arched brow.

"What?" She asked, noticing his angry visage.

"You-!" Lance sputtered at her before turning his indignance to the bemused Lotor. "YOU!" He raved angrily, shaking his finger in his direction. Pidge rolled her eyes at Lance and turned to Lotor with a smile.

"Lotor, can you and the sentries dump all this in the training room? If Keith and Shiro are in there, kick them out." It took a great deal of effort to ignore Lance's angry huffs and stomping in the back, but Pidge managed as she gestured in the direction of the training room with a semi-straight face.

Lotor frowned. "Will they not be angry?" He was also ignoring Lance, but more successfully than Pidge was. Maybe because he got used to the huffing and puffing every time he neared within a twenty foot radius to the Blue Paladin.

"Tell them it's on my orders and, if they want to get angry, to blame me," Pidge said, waving off his concerns easily. Lance let out an outraged screech at their ignoring before settling on glaring a hole in Lotor's back sulkily. Ignoring the glower burning a hole in his back, Lotor shrugged before telling his sentries to do as she said and began walking towards the training room. "Also, Lotor," Pidge called after the Galra prince, "if you could organize the piles by parts?"

Lotor nodded with an amused smile. It had been a while since anyone other than Allura, his wife Allura, had had the guts to order him around so easily.

"Thanks!" Pidge shouted. She turned to Lance and pulled his fuming self down to sit on the couch. "Lance, steam is starting to blow out of your ears," Pidge said in amusement, watching his reddening face.

"You're conspiring with the quiznaking enemy!" Lance snapped, finally blowing up. Pidge flinched in surprise, taken aback. Hunk poked his head out in concern, but thinking it was just one of their disputes, he shrugged it off and went back to baking.

"Quiznak, calm down, Lance." Pidge shushed him as she tried to placate him while glancing around nervously. Lance was having none of that. No one was listening to him about Lotor and the last time they didn't take his word for him, he betrayed them all and tried to kill them!

"CALM DOWN?! HOW CAN I-" Lance's words of righteous fury were muffled by a pillow Pidge shoved over his face. Lance took the pillow off of his face and inhaled to unleash more of his wrath when Pidge held up a hand to stop him.

"I have a plan," she said quietly. "So, since he's good in this dimension—"

Lance growled. Define 'good.' Last time they thought he was 'good', he broke Allura's heart and almost killed them all. "GOOD?!" He seethed, scowling. Good, she said. Good. The prince of the quiznaking Galra. The one who was both deceiving and using them the entire time he was in the castle as well as harvesting Alteans for their quintessence. "THIS IS EXACTLY HOW HE ACTED LAST TIME AND WHAT HAPPENED THEN, HMM?!"

Lance scowled, feeling hurt that everyone was brushing aside his concerns so easily. Was his opinion so insignificant to them that they ignored the fact that one of their biggest enemies was sleeping in the same vicinity as them?! Even though they were in an alternate dimension, he could still be evil!

"Lance," Pidge hissed, "shut up!"

"SHUT UP?!" Lance howled, his hurt intensifying at her demand. Why couldn't they see that he was just being cautious—especially since Lotor had pulled this act of his before. "I'VE BEEN SHUTTING UP FOR AN ENTIRE DAY DEALING WITH HIS SLIMY GAL-"

"Lance, shut up and let me explain my quiznaking plan!" Pidge yelled, stuffing another pillow over his face. It surprised Lance into silence as he mulled over her words. She had a plan. She didn't really just brush off his worries. She was using him and she wasn't just blinded by his silver tongue. A sense of relief washed over him and he quieted.

It was at this point that a disgruntled Shiro and an annoyed Keith made their way into the lounge.

"Pidge, why did Lotor just kick us out of the training room on your orders?" Shiro asked, Keith moodily walking behind him with his hands stuffed in his pockets. Pidge looked at them and sighed.

"Good, you're all here. This will save me the effort of telling you all separately later on. HUNK!" Pidge shouted at the kitchen. Hunk popped his head out along with a steaming batch of cookies. He was worried since Lance seemed angrier than usual and shouted more than he usually did in their arguments, but they seemed to have made up now.

"Yeah?" He asked. "Anyone want some cookies?" He held up the plate of steaming chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. He set aside a different batch for Robin, Starfire, and Raven in a few containers to give to them later on. He knew Beast Boy and Cyborg would eat them all so he hid them and made the two boys entire separate batches instead which he just placed on the counter with their names scrawled on a piece of paper.

"Hunk, come here with the cookies," Pidge commanded, gesturing at the sofa. Confused, Hunk brought the cookies over and sat down hesitantly. Pidge glanced at the door to make sure no one was coming. She took a cookie and made a face at it. "Also, make peanut butter cookies next time," Pidge grumbled, but still biting into it.

Hunk smiled at her softly. "Will do, Pidge."

Pidge finished off the cookie and looked at the patiently awaiting Paladins seriously. "So the reason I sent Lotor over to the training room was to distract him and bring you guys here," Pidge said quietly.

"Distract?" Shiro asked, furrowing his brows.

"Yes. Because I plan to spend some time examining the Galra metals he brought over and preparing for when we have to fight them again," Pidge explained. It was implied she meant when they returned back to their original dimension.

Lance, whose mouth was full of cookies he had moodily shoved in his mouth looked at her.

"Waf oo mee?" He mumbled around the mouthful of cookies. The Paladins gave him a disgusted look, but Pidge continued, still checking to make sure no one was listening in.

"If I can learn the codes and how the Galra technology works, I can do things such as infect them with an infectious virus or power them off forcibly by the masses. Plus, if I can get information out of Lotor about how their airships and drone ships work, I can find weaknesses and program codes into the Lions to make us invisible to them," Pidge said, fiddling with her shirt sleeves.

"..." The Paladins looked at Pidge blankly. She fidgeted, waiting for their responses nervously.

Lance was the first to react. He swallowed all the cookies in his mouth with vigor and lunged at the surprised Green Paladin.

"PIDGE!" Lance screamed happily, hugging her tightly to him. "YOU AREN'T A TRAITOR!" The seed of hurt he had felt at her brushing him off previously shriveled up and died as he now knew that she had actually listened to his angry rants and taken him into account when she looked at Lotor.

"Ack! Lance!" Pidge flailed, losing her balance and falling back on the sofa, taking Lance with her.

"Wow, Pidge..." Shiro said, eyebrows raised. He smiled at the currently immobile Pidge and cheerful Lance in amusement. "That's a really smart move."

"Thanks, Shiro—Lance, get your quiznaking hands off of me!" Pidge shoved at the hands wrapped around her waist in an effort to get the too elated Lance off of her. She was glad he cheered up, but did he really have to be hugging her so tightly?

"PIDGE!" Lance sobbed happily, squeezing her tightly and ignoring her hands pushing at him. Shiro watched his kids- Pala- no, his kids, proudly before noticing that Pidge was losing air.

"Lance, she's turning blue!" Shiro warned, horrified at the unnatural color their youngest was turning. Keith and Hunk looked at each other and decided to intervene and pull Lance off of Pidge. Lance protested as they pulled him off of her and reached back for Pidge, who was sitting up and taking in large breaths of air.

"Pidge!" Lance whined, grabbing her by her arm and pulling her back towards him.

In fact, he also decided to grab Hunk and even Keith for a large group hug that Shiro also joined with a slight pout at being left out on.

(He would later deny pouting, but all the Paladins saw and they would never let it go).

In the hug, they blocked out everyone else in the world. In the hug, the Paladins felt their worries and the weight of the universe fall away. For this brief moment, it was just them. Just Team Voltron. And nothing else mattered.