Keith had some time to make a game plan, which was what he did to combat the silence. If he was focused on something other than the solitary nothingness of his cell he would be fine. Maybe.
Anyway, Keith decided that he would set all of his cards on the table this time. He would tell this "Allura" about everything, including the Blade of Marmora.
He usually wouldn't even let the thought cross his mind, but this group… He didn't really understand but they seemed like they were trustworthy despite… well… obvious reasons. They just acted too- too good. Almost like they weren't capable of being bad. They are against the Galra, definitely. And if Keith told them about the Blade they could gain allies. Allies they need, because the Blade can't save the universe on its own.
So he would tell them and hope that he wasn't met with opposition. His game plan was made…
And no one was here yet.
Keith sighed and pulled the blanket up higher around his shoulders as he leaned back against the "bed" from where he was sitting on the floor. Not having fur did not make staying warm easy. He could turn back to his Galran form but that would take quite a bit of energy. He didn't want to be interrogated when he wasn't functioning at 100 percent.
Not only that, but Lance and Hunk had both hinted at Allura being very… he supposed racist would be the correct term here. He could understand how someone would feel that way towards Galra seeing as most of them were trying to take over the universe under the order of Zarkon.
But this was going to be a problem for Keith. People who had this state of mind put others in a box and locked them there along with all the chances they may get to become friends or allies. They wouldn't give someone a chance simply because of the fact that they weren't one species or another. These people were stubborn in their ways and hard to sway, but Keith would have to find a way to make her look past that difficult mindset of hers.
He hadn't done it in a very long time but he may be able to change his ears into the stubby hard-of-hearing ears of his human form. It would take a lot of concentration to do so, and there was no guarantee that it would hold, seeing as he hardly ever used them. If he did manage to pull it off he could easily frack it up. All it would take was one thought like, "Why can't I hear as well as usual?" Or, "Why does my head feel so light?" and it was all over. He didn't even have to try to get them back, they would revert without his consent if he forgot for even a second that he was using his human ears.
If Allura really was racist then having his ears pop out in the middle of the interrogation might freak her out more than if he just had them out in the first place. It would be risky, but the less Galra of him that she saw the better, so he got to work.
This time he went more in depth for the changing process. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in through his mouth and let it out through his nose. He did this two more times before he felt completely and truly relaxed. Now when he breathed in he thought of drawing in his Galran ears. When he breathed out he thought of pushing out his human ears. It took about six breaths before his ears had switched, the human ears feeling awkward and out of place on either side of his head.
When he opened his eyes he was alarmed to meet the gaze of an unfamiliar face on the other side of his cell's window. Blue and magenta eyes looked at Keith with poorly hidden disdain. The gaze came from a beautifully dark face with soft pink marks that rested beneath the eyes. A small wrap-around crown rested on a dark forehead and disappeared into elegant mess of wavy white locks.
This must be Allura. Her authority rolled off of her in waves. Her regal posture and her calculating gaze told Keith all he needed to know about her. She was in charge and she knew what she was doing.
He also knew that she had seen him change his ears. The way her mouth was set in a hard line and her brows were drawn in said it all. She had seen it and she had not liked what she had seen.
Keith stood slowly. He didn't want to give her any more reason to hate him and he felt he was already on very thin ice at this point, so he would have to move around this conversation with extreme care.
He placed the blanket on the bed and waited for her to make the next move. She didn't move for a few ticks, just stood regarding him as if he were a dangerous animal in a zoo.
Finally she pushed the button. With his dull ears he couldn't hear the static come on with Allura's voice.
"Do you know who I am?" She asked with a sweetly accented voice. Keith didn't know if he should answer with truth or not. He may get the group that visited earlier in trouble. Hunk had said something along the lines of, "Lance, Allura said no! She's gonna kill you!" When Lance had first pushed the button to talk with Keith almost two hours ago.
"No," Keith answered. He didn't want to throw anyone under the bus when it would benefit no one. Allura would tell him who she was and what Keith should know about her.
"I know Hunk and Lance talked to you against my wishes. They were the ones to come and tell me that you were awake after all, and despite how much it aggravates me, I knew that it would happen. They are not in trouble so you don't have to protect them. I'm sure they told you about me." She says in a tired voice. Keith processes her words and can't help to snort and smile ever so slightly. Allura narrowed her eyes at him. "What's so funny?" She says with a dangerous voice. Keith opts to answer truthfully.
"It's just that, you told me that I didn't need to worry about protecting Lance when I've been doing exactly that all this time and all it has done is lead me to trouble." Keith explained. Allura holds his gaze for a moment longer before letting her face relax.
"That is ironic." She takes a breath. "Why have you been protecting Lance anyways?"
Why had he been protecting Lance? Keith honestly didn't know. As he thought about the reason he had done it just now was different from the reason that he had done it the first time. The first time he had done it simply because he was curious. He fought off the sentries that had been chasing Lance, a stranger at the time, because he had never seen anything like him before. He had never seen a rebel in a Galra ship other than himself incognito on a mission and it intrigued him, so he decided to help him out. The next time he protected Lance was the fight before Shiro knocked him out.
He didn't know why he had done it then. At the time he had blamed it on the silence. Now that he thought about it, it was probably more because of the way that Lance's voice, which had been defiant and angry, had suddenly cut off mid-sentence, the silence replacing it and taking over the entire room. The silence had seemed so similar to that same silence from so long ago. The one that he had been forced to ignore and retreat with. The one that he still regretted to this day.
And then he protected Lance once more just now. Well, Lance and Hunk and Pidge (Even though it didn't seem like she knew Pidge was a part of this) But that was more of a feeling of protecting someone who had showed him kindness. Starvation can do crazy things to a person's mind after all.
"I protected him at first because he was the first rebel I had ever seen on a Galra ship other than myself or others in my group." That was as good an introduction as he was going to get.
Allura narrowed her eyes at him. "Group?"
And so Keith told her. He told her about the Blade of Marmora and how they were working on some high level infiltration of the Galran army. He told her of how they were in the process of tearing them apart from the inside out. He told her of how difficult it was becoming to do so when Zarkon's army had hardly any opposition other than the group itself. That was when Keith saw a smile grace her face. It was slightly dark and just a bit crazy but it was a smile nonetheless.
"That won't be the case for much longer. Voltron will stop Zarkon," she said with such determination that Keith was almost convinced this was the truth right there. She blinked and was suddenly back on track.
"You said that you did deep infiltration missions. How?"
This was a fair question. An important question that she wouldn't like the answer to, but Keith had no choice.
"All members of the Blade of Marmora are of Galra heritage or are like me and have Galra blood in them. Most of the members have either been wronged by Zarkon or have seen firsthand the havoc that Zarkon has been reaping for ten thousand years too long." He paused to check her reaction. Unlike earlier he was unable to read her emotions. When she didn't stop him he continued, "Because we are all Galra we can easily become a part of Zarkon's army. Sentries and droids won't bother us because Galra soldiers are higher up than them, and other Galras usually just ignore us, assuming that we are either a newbie on some trash food run or a higher up checking the place out to make sure that it's up to par.
"But the deep infiltration missions; those are more complicated. Usually a member will actually go through army training and work their way up through the ranks so that no one can question their authority. Once they gain a position of power, which usually takes years, they can't leave and are forced to stay with the army and communicate with the Blade only once a month or less. They decide on their own what moves would affect the Army the most and what has to be avoided so that their cover isn't blown. If they are captured there is nothing that the Blade can do. They die for the cause." Keith finishes with a slight hitch in his voice. He hadn't meant to go so into detail, but he had ended up rambling, one mission in particular coming to mind.
"Mhm," was all she had to say after listening to his story. Keith felt a little bit irritated by that, but knew better than to say anything. He waited for her to ask her questions.
"So you were on a mission when you saw Lance and decided to help him? What was your mission?" She asked.
"The Blade's radar had picked up on something giving off high levels of quintessence. A weapon that had been sitting on a ship in route straight to Zarkon. One part my mission was to assure that he never got the weapon, the other was to recover it so that the Blade could examine it and try to figure out what made it radiate such high levels of something that Zarkon was so weak to." Allura seemed to be deciding whether or not he was telling the truth.
"Your story checks out. It makes sense and-" She looks up from where she was thoughtfully gazing at a panel on the cell door and met Keith's gaze. "It matches what Lance said exactly, so either you have been telling the truth the whole time, or you're a very skilled liar." Keith says nothing in response. Of course she would have talked to Lance. She had said that she knew he would talk to Keith. It would be a highly strategic move to grill a prisoner from a relaxed uncensored state and from one where the prisoner actually chooses his words specifically. Whether this was her original intent or she just knew how to make use of a not completely ideal situation- he didn't know, but he respected the fact that she was able to use this to her advantage.
"This is your human form." She states more than asks. "When you are around myself and the others I would appreciate it if you tried to stay in such. I will let you out of the cell. We have accommodations set up for you elsewhere. You can thank Lance for such. As of right now we are unable to get comms out, so you will be unable to contact the Blade until they are fixed, we ended up being attacked by the Galra ship Lance's Bayard was recovered from. I will let the paladins brief you on the rest but know that the second anything odd happens- anything that could put my Paladins, my friends, in danger you will be blamed and thrown into a cell and shot into space where you will slowly suffocate to death from oxygen shortage," her voice was low and threating and so frightening that Keith felt shivers run down his spine. If he had had his ears out-
Shit.
Allura looked at his Galran ears for a moment, narrowing her eyes before cracking a small sadistic smile. "It's nice to know that I sound as threatening as I really am," her staticy voice sounded prideful. "Lance told me that the ears were difficult for you. I saw you switch them, it looked like it took a lot of concentration." She was still holding down the button as she messed with the panel that Keith couldn't see, but still knew was there. He could hear her pressing buttons, presumably to free him from his cage.
"You remind me of the Laniaki from back home." She said with a giggle and pushed a few more buttons. "I suppose if it really is challenging for you, you may keep them out."
Keith wondered for a brief moment if he had been reading a bit too much into what Lance and Hunk had hinted at. Maybe she had been swayed prior to her interrogation. Maybe Lance really had managed to get her on his side.
Maybe Lance really was helping him.
There was a sudden rush of air and squeak of mechanics and then the door of his cell was open. Allura beckoned him towards her. He took a step forward and almost started towards her, but he turned back at the last moment and grabbed the blanket he had woken up with. He wrapped it up in a ball in his arms and then walked out of the cell. Allura said nothing about the blanket but did tell him that she had things to do and that he should continue down the hall to the left. The others would be waiting for him there.
Well now, he wouldn't want to keep them waiting.