"Oh my gods." Katya groaned, throwing her head back in irritation. "Keith, will you please go outside and deal with your stupid dragon?"

It had been about an hour since the argument between Lance and Keith. They'd changed Keith's bandage and Matt had gone to speak to the Alteans as they planned, but apparently Allura hadn't been done interrogating Lotor and snapped at him when he came in. So he retreated back to the hut with instructions for them all to be patient and wait for Allura to finish.

And this would have been fine, if Red hadn't heard Keith's voice when he was arguing with Lance. Now she was pacing around the building, letting out a cacophony of concerned squawks and cries that were apparently driving Katya insane if the look on her face was anything to go by.

Keith sat up and tossed his legs over the side of the bed, wincing just slightly when his wound twinged. The stupid thing was going to bother him for weeks.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going." He grumbled, staggering to his feet. He made his way out of the hut, carefully ignoring everyone's gazes.

He couldn't get that look out of his head. That face Shiro had made when Lance announced that Keith was Galra. He'd pulled his hand away and looked at him like… like he didn't know Keith at all, and that was just too much for him.

The moment he stepped outside Red was upon him, and for a moment he forgot all about Shiro and all of that nonsense, because his dragon was shoving her snout against his uninjured side like she understood that he was hurt, blowing smoke in his face and making her happy warble so many times in sequence it sounded like she was purring.

"Hey, hey, Red." He was saying, barely understandable beneath his chuckles. "I'm ok, you can stop worrying."

She made an indignant sound which cut off in the middle when Keith scratched behind her horns with his good hand.

The dragon that had followed them home from the coliseum was a few yards away, watching them warily but not moving. It kept looking at the hut, and Keith wondered idly if it was worried about Shiro the way Red had been worried about him.

His question was answered when the door to the hut opened and Shiro himself stepped outside. The dragon didn't leap at him the way Red had done to Keith; instead it almost slinked up to him, keeping it's body low to the ground while Keith watched with interest. The dragon shoved it's snout towards Shiro, who got a hesitant look on his face.

Slowly, he lowered his hand onto the dragon's snout, and it closed its eyes like that was all it ever wanted.

"Have you named him yet?" Keith ventured to ask, making Shiro jerk his head up in surprise. He stared at Keith for a second, then his eyes softened and he looked back down at the dragon, who was waiting patiently.

"No."

"You should. He seems pretty attached to you."

Shiro hummed, not looking up. Keith turned his attention back to Red, who kept puffing smoke to get him to notice her again. There was silence for some time as Keith reassured Red and Shiro gave his dragon hesitant pets. Shiro was the one to break the silence.

"I'm sorry for how I reacted in there."

Keith sighed, and Red looked up at him with her big yellow eyes. "It's alright, Shiro. I expected worse, honestly."

"Still. I want you to know that I don't think of you any differently. I was just surprised."

He hazarded a glance up, only to meet Shiro's gentle gaze. He ducked his head again to hide the sudden burning in his eyes.

"And I wanted to say thank you, for coming all the way out here and finding me."

"Jeez, Shiro." Keith's voice came out more choked than it had any right to. "Enough already. I told myself I wouldn't cry when we found you."

Shiro laughed and Keith's heart swelled in his chest.

They stayed out there for awhile. Keith wound up sitting on the ground, back up against the wall of the hut, while Red laid her head contentedly in his lap and let him scratch her. At first he kept his eyes on the hut where Allura was questioning Lotor, wondering when she would come out, but as time dragged on his attention started to drift over to another hut. Specifically, the one Thace had been given.

With the whole rescue whirlwind, he hadn't had time to really think about that situation, but it was starting to sink in now. Thace had known his parents, both of them, and his mother had sent him a letter. He'd helped him, even when it meant going against his own tribe.

Your mothers tribe, his brain supplied unhelpfully, and he forcefully shoved the thought away. Barely a moment later another one occurred to him, this one making him sit up a little straighter with realization.

Maybe he knows how to say my name.

He snuck a glance at Shiro, contemplating sneaking off to talk to Thace. He wasn't sure Shiro would want to come with him, but at the same time Allura might think it was suspicious if he went by himself. The others said she was angry, after all.

Shiro felt his stare and turned to meet his eyes. "What are you thinking about?" He asked softly.

"Nothing." Keith blurted instinctively, only for Shiro to raise a disbelieving eyebrow. Keith huffed and crossed his arms. "I was just… Do you think Allura would be mad if I talked to Thace?"

"Why do you need talk to him?" The question wasn't malicious, just genuinely curious, and even his dragon seemed to be looking at him with questioning eyes.

Biting his lip, Keith averted his gaze back to Red. "When we were rescuing you, he said he knew my mom. And I just… I thought that maybe…"

Shiro wasn't catching on to his stammering, and tilted his head a little in an effort to understand what Keith meant. He took a deep breath.

"Ithoughtthathewouldknowhowtosaymyname."

Shiro's eyes widened for a moment, and then he smiled so, so gently. "Well, we won't know unless we ask, will we?"

He turned towards Thace's hut, and Keith scrambled to his feet so quickly Red squawked and spat an ember at his back in irritation.

"Shiro, wait, we can't just-"

But Shiro was already walking, and Keith had to run to catch up to him.

"Shiro-"

"Keith. You've wanted to know about this your whole life. There's no harm in asking about it."

All Keith could do was follow as Shiro lead them to Thace's hut.

They found him pacing circles around the room, wearing a footpath into the dirt floor, which is something Keith could definitely relate to. At first he didn't pay them any attention, but then he caught sight of Keith emerging from behind Shiro and immediately stopped.

"Keith." He said simply, though the corners of his eyes crinkled in a smile. "I trust you are well?"

"For the most part." Keith answered with a wince. "Are you? Allura hasn't been too hard on you, has she?"

Thace shook his head. "She's been as courteous as could be expected."

"Good- that's good." He fell silent for a second, and the awkwardness almost consumed him right then. He cleared his throat, and Shiro elbowed him, giving him a meaningful look.

"Was there something I could assist you with?" Thace asked, raising a pointed eyebrow.

"Uh, yes, actually. I guess I was wondering, since you can speak the Galra language, if you could tell me how to say something." Keith's heart was beating like a war drum as he took off the sword that hung heavy on his back. He presented the sheath to Thace with his name up, just like his mother had done.

The look on Thace's face as he traced the engraved letters was reverent, "Did your mother make this?"

"Yes, did you know her well?"

"It's beautiful, it is deserving of the grand name you carry. And yes I did, Krolia was one of my dearest friends, and she asked me to tell you your name if ever I found you."

"And?" Thace looked up from his inspection of the sword and spoke the name, but for a moment as Keith was hearing him, he wasn't even there. He was in his mother's hut, watching her mouth carefully as she would speak silently his name. Biting back tears when she told him he said it wrong, being comforted by her warm embrace.

Then just as suddenly he was hearing his name for the very first time, on an island in the middle of a war surrounded by dragons. And it felt right, Keiitmaril, his birth name, his real self; condensed into one word. He questioned how he could have gone so long without knowing it. Behind him he could hear Shiro carefully saying his name, finally his brother was saying his name, and as he spoke it into the hut he felt a piece of himself slot into place.

And then he was hugging Thace with all of his strength, then his brother, who let out sudden laugh of surprise. Shiro opened his mouth to say something to him, but Keith was already talking over him, unable to hold his tongue in his excitement.

"What does it mean?" He asked eagerly. "Names usually mean something, right? Does mine mean something?" Thace smiled at him with shining eyes, looking for all the world like a kindly uncle.

"It means 'firebrand', and from what I saw yesterday, it was a name well chosen."

It wasn't until he tasted salt on the corner of his lip that Keith realised he was crying. He aggressively wiped the tears away with his forearm, though the motion failed to wipe the grin off of his face along with them. Thace handed him back his sword and the next thing Keith knew he was sprinting out of the hut and back towards his dragon.

He exclaimed his real name over and over while Red watched and warbled happily to him, vaguely aware of Shiro following at a much more reasonable pace and chuckling lightly. But when he turned, Shiro didn't look like he was making fun of him. No, he looked like the proud older brother that he was.

"Keith," That was Katya's voice, and Keith spun to see her poking her head out of the hut with an annoyed expression. "What the Hel are you screaming about?"

"My name!" He blurted out. "I know how to say my name!"

Katya's face immediately brightened, and she dashed out of the hut to throw her arms around his waist and squeeze him as tightly as her skinny arms could manage.

"Tell me!" She said, pulling back just enough to look at him. "Tell me how to say it!"

So he did, and hearing his oldest friend say it back to him brought on a new wave of tears. He knew the others were still just inside, and Lance was probably listening in on the conversation and rolling his eyes, but at the moment Keith couldn't find it in himself to care.

For now, despite the prisoner tied up just a few hundred feet away, despite his throbbing shoulder wound, despite Shiro's missing arm, he was happy. And he wouldn't let Lance ruin it for him this time.

Allura fisted her hands in her skirts until her knuckles turned white. She'd been interrogating Lotor for hours, and so far he'd stuck to the same story. The witch Haggar had brought Zarkon back to life with some sort of dark magic, and Lotor was turning on his own tribe because he wanted a more peaceful future for the Galra. And he kept saying it with the most insufferable smirk on his face, like he'd just baited a hook and was merely waiting for the fish to bite.

Allura was not a fish. She was not a fool, and she would not be so easily swayed by Galra lies. Her family had been tricked by them once and she refused to let history repeat itself.

By the time she and Coran abandoned their task for the day the sun had set, night descending upon the valley like a black velvet blanket, the sky above sprinkled liberally with stars. It was beautiful, as always, but Allura was too preoccupied to appreciate it this time.

"What are we going to do, Coran?" She asked, finally allowing herself to feel how tired she truly was. "We can't believe him, I'm sure. But where are we supposed to go from here?"

"I'm not sure, Princess." Coran responded softly. "I suppose we keep working with the dragon riders and try to get them ready for battle."

"They can't go to battle if we don't know where to strike." Allura snapped back, then softened with a sigh. "I'm too tired to keep thinking."

She spared a quick glance over to the Holt's hut, just to make sure everything was alright. As expected, Red and Shiro's green dragon still sat outside. Red looked a bit put out at being separated from her injured rider, but neither of them looked uneasy.

Coran laid a hand on her shoulder, calling her attention back to their conversation.

"Get some rest, Princess. We can continue in the morning."

But even as Coran guided her back to her hut, she knew that there would be no sleep for her that night. Later, when the moon hung high in the sky and she was irritated from hours of tossing and turning in her bed, she rose and snuck her way back to where Lotor was being kept.

The Galra prince didn't look terribly comfortable, curled up on his side in the dirt with his hands still bound behind him, but even in sleep he still looked ridiculously smug.

Allura really did hate him.

Making no disguise of her footsteps, she made her way across the room. By the time she reached him he was already stirring from sleep, and when she hauled him upright by his shoulder he stayed there, blinking owlishly in the light from the torches on the walls.

"Princess Allura." Here he paused as a yawn split his jaw. "A bit late for a visit, don't you think?"

"Say we did believe you." She said, ignoring his statement. "Say we trusted in you and your nonsensical tale. What would you have us do? Where would you have us strike? How do you propose we defeat your father?"

Lotor regarded her silently for a long moment before a slow smile began to spread across his face. It wasn't like the smirk Allura had been seeing all day long; this was a proper smile, thin and sharp like a blade. She resisted the urge to shiver.

"I know exactly how."

The riders were awoken early the next morning, far too early in Keith's opinion. The sun had barely risen before Coran was practically knocking down their door, cheerfully calling for them to join him and Allura outside in ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes later they were all assembled outside, standing together in a small huddle in the dewy grass. Red trailed behind them, though Shiro's dragon (whom he still hadn't named) was content to hang back at the hut.

Allura and Coran were waiting for them outside of Lotor's hut. On one side of them stood Thace, who greeted them all with a simple nod and a small smile for Keith. And on the other, to all of their surprise, was Lotor, standing upright and unbound.

They all balked a bit when they saw that. Keith spared a glance at Shiro, who had his jaw clenched hard and his fingers on his left hand curled into a trembling fist. For a long moment there was uncomfortable silence before Lance spoke up.

"Oh look, it's Prince Lotor, just hanging out with the Princess. Totally normal."

Allura sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I understand your apprehension, riders, but Coran and I have decided that it would be best if we took advantage of the opportunity that Prince Lotor's arrival has given us."

"And what's that?" Questioned Hunk, folding his arms across his chest and affixing Lotor with a suspicious stare. "The opportunity to get ourselves killed?"

"On the contrary." Lotor said, finally choosing to speak for himself. "Rather, it just so happens that I have the perfect strategy to eliminate my father."

Keith frowned to himself and traded a look with the others. He was painfully aware that this whole thing could be a trap, a ploy to trick them into helping Lotor seize power over his tribe, only for him to turn on them at the last minute. On the other hand, if any of them had reason to mistrust the Galra it was Allura, and if she was on board…

"Fine." Katya grumbled, apparently on the same thought process as Keith. "What's the strategy?"

Lotor smile was like a blade's edge. "There's a plan, known only to the most important Galra in the tribe. Even I had to use some more, ahem, creative methods to find out about it. On the surface the plan is simple: Catch dragons, capture riders, conquer the Archipelago. But it goes further than that. Since his resurrection, my father has grown single minded, and in his single mindedness, he doesn't merely desire to control some dragons. He wants to own all dragons- make them work for him, use them to win the Archipelago for him. All of this hinges on a secret he learned decades ago, one he's kept hidden ever since."

Here he pauses and turns to Allura. "Allura, did your father ever tell you about the Island Grave?"

The name itself is vague; they're expecting a frown or a baffled question from her. Instead her face twisted into an expression of stricken horror, making rocks of dread settle in all of their guts.

"You can't be serious."

"Deadly serious."

"Hi, yes, hello?" Lance interrupted, waving his arms to catch the attention of the two nobles. "Can you explain for those of us in the back who missed the memo on the Island Grave thing?"

Lotor pursed his lips, apparently irritated by Lance, and Keith smothered a chuckle into his palm. That was one thing he and Lotor could agree on, at least.

"When the riders of old were first formed," He began imperiously, "The riders took advantage of their dragons to explore the Archipelago to its limits. An endeavor that would have taken us centuries by ship took mere weeks on dragon back. Far to the south they found an island formed from a long dormant volcano, along with the scorched bones of a dragon nearly as large as the volcano itself."

Keith blinked, balancing on the edge of disbelief, but Katya had already leapt off the cliff into question mode.

"Nowhere in any of my research did I see any mention of a dragon that size. What was it called? Was it really that size or is that hyperbole? What does this have to do with Zarkon? Wouldn't we know if a dragon that size was still around?"

"If you'd allow me a word edgewise," Lotor snapped scathingly, "I'll answer your questions."

Keith scowled at him as Katya pouted, but no one spoke up, allowing the haughty prince to clear his throat and continue.

"They named it the Red Death, and after much research they discovered it in some ancient records. It's said it could command thousands of dragons with a single roar, force them to raid nearby villages and turn over their own hunts for its own sustenance. The other riders determined it to be an interesting side project but ultimately unimportant, as the dragon had long since gone extinct. But my father never stopped thinking about it. Now he seeks to find one of these behemoths and use it to grow his rider army."

"You just said it was extinct!" Katya cried, as though personally offended by the conflicting information. The others were quick to contribute their own thoughts.

"How would he even train one?" Asked Keith with a distinct flicker of annoyance. The thing was the size of a volcano, training it probably wouldn't be a walk in the park.

"Yeah, and even if he could, where would he keep it?" That was Hunk's question, of course immediately concerned about the care and keeping of a giant lizard called the Red freakin' Death.

"Are you sure this was an actual plan and not something someone told you just to get you off their backs?" Lance was suspicious but no less snarky than usual, and Lotor visibly twitched with impatience.

Allura seized control of the conversation once more, turning sharply to face Lotor and catching his attention.

"You say he's searching for one. Does he have a lead, or is he merely groping about in the dark?"

"As much as I wish it was the latter, unfortunately he does have a lead. That same carcass had once produced a clutch of eggs, which was told in the archived records the riders found. The legend goes that a cult was formed around them, believing one of the eggs would produce the dragon that would kill all others in Ragnarok. This cult stole one thousand eggs and hid them away, and as far as I am aware, only one has survived. Over time the cult morphed into different groups, most recently taking the form of a Galra resistance group known as the Blade of Marmora. They've been quite the thorn in my father's side since he began his conquest. Their last known whereabouts are a complex cave system- one that we've lost many soldiers trying to infiltrate.

"Just before the lot of you stormed the Coliseum, I had been informed by one of my spies that my father had grown impatient of trying to draw them out of their hiding place, and only days ago ordered ships to sail in all different directions. Their orders were to not return until they were each in possession of a Cavern Crasher."

"Question!" Lance shouted, his hand launching itself into the air. "What's a Cavern Crasher?"

Lotor glowered at him, clearly at the end of his rope. "It's an aggressive species of dragon that invades the nests of others to feast on their eggs. My father is likely hoping they will track down the egg in the Blades caverns, though if he expects them to bring it back to him unharmed, he is a fool."

Lance opened his mouth to ask another question, but Allura waved a hand to keep him silent.

"When will they be on the move?" She asked.

"As soon as they have enough Cavern Crashers." Lotor paused, looking just a tad unsure for the first time. "I'm… not sure how many that will be. My father rarely operates by normal logic, he could get too few or too many. It's simply impossible to predict."

"So how will we know when to attack?" Shiro said, speaking up for the first time. Lotor gave him a cool look, one which Shiro returned. Keith was the only one to notice how his hand trembled at his side.

"We'll simply need to send out frequent scouting missions and keep a close eye on his troop movements, of course."

Hunk, surprisingly, snorted in a distinctly mocking fashion. " 'We', he says. As though he has any say in what we do."

Lotor frowned ponderously. "Well, I am the one who supplied the strategy-"

"You're also the enemy prince." Lance cut in. "Who I'm still not entirely sure is being sincere."

A nudge to his side drew Keith's attention away from the bickering and down towards Katya, who was frowning to herself that way she did when she was trying to figure something out.

"He said the island was in the south, right?" She murmured to him. Mystified, Keith nodded back, and barely a moment later she was gone from his side, dashing back to her hut.

"Riders, please!" Allura was snapping back at the head of their group in an attempt to quiet Lance and Hunk's arguments. "This is not the time to have petty arguments about the chain of command!"

Feet pounded on the dirt, and then Katya was back, a scroll of yellowed paper clutched in her hands.

"Did anyone else realize," She shouted over the cacophony of other voices, "That Lotor's island of death is just a day away from Garrison?!"