A/N: Alas, this chapter is on the shorter side, but some important stuff happens here along with some foreshadowing. Hope you paladins enjoy and figure out what on earth could be coming, or really what in the galaxy.

Summary: Allura has been hiding a secret from the Paladins, something painful from her past forced her to remain quiet. However that all changes when she finds a beloved object of someone she held dear. A simple pendant that hangs around the Blue Paladin's neck. Altean!Lance

Chapter 11

Lance felt wrong. His 'talk' with Haggar had been less than desirable, honestly there really wasn't much talking to go off of except her muttering to herself about what she was doing. He barely understood Altean, but he could decipher a good amount thanks to his past memories and Allura's present talks. It was weird that she was muttering to herself in Altean, but that wasn't the worst of what he heard. Barely he managed to learn that she planned to make him a child again, but take his memories away from a certain point in the past. What point exactly, Lance couldn't be sure, but he had an idea it was likely before Zarkon defected.

He looked in the mirror to study his new appearance. When he first started to look like Casimir, his hair was mostly brown with sparing white locks. Now it was inverted where it was practically all white except for a few brown spots. It didn't look awful, but Lance was starting to miss his old appearance and when he couldn't really feel the sickle marks on his cheeks. And he definitely missed his tall height, now he and Pidge were exactly the same size. It was incredibly weird and disconcerting.

Coran was looking through the scans to see if there was a way to reverse it, but his attention was split between helping Lance and working on the massive Teleduv. Lance understood that, he told Coran to put his energy there instead. Once Zarkon was defeated, then they could worry about his change in appearance. As it turned out, in this state Lance was now fourteen rather than seventeen. This had made things rather irritating at first, but he tried not to pay attention to it as best he could.

There was a mission coming up, he needed to focus. However that was difficult with Allura's eyes constantly glancing at him as if he were some ghost. He sighed to himself, he knew he shouldn't be so hard on her for it, but it couldn't be helped.

"Allura," Lance said with slight exasperation, "Just take a picture, then you can stare at it as much as you want."

The princess made herself known with a frown, Lance watched her in the reflection, "I'm sorry. It's just, so odd to see you like this. I had wondered how you might have looked had you gotten the chance to grow up, but seeing the real you opposed to an imaginary one…"

Allura looked away then, unsure of how to continue with the aching feeling in her chest. Shew knew that she should have been focusing on the mission at hand, the one that would take down Zarkon and defeat the Galra once and for all, but she couldn't. All she could think about was her brother now looking much younger and more like an Altean than before.

There was something new, a development Coran had discovered not too long ago before she had sought Lance out. Whatever Haggar had done, there was no way to tell how to reverse it. However Coran found that the scans he had completed compared to follow up ones a few minutes later showed Lance was still getting younger. Whatever process Haggar had started, there was no way to stop or reverse it. Allura didn't want to tell Lance that, but she knew he deserved to know.

"There's something I have to tell you," Allura said shakily.

Lance turned around to look at her, "What is it?"

"The scans Coran had made," Allura started slowly, "It appears so far, we don't have a way to stop or reverse this process. Whatever Haggar did, we cannot undo it."

Lance visibly swallowed, "So what? I'm stuck like this?"

Allura inhaled, "The process she put you through has your age reversing. I don't know when it will stop, only that it will keep shrinking you and we can do nothing to help."

Lance leaned back against the wall, as if the news had pushed him back. Part of him in all honesty had expected this, he just had a feeling it was a strong possibility, but now that he knew it was real… He didn't know what to say or how to respond. Though his eyes began to burn, he wouldn't dare shed a tear.

He inhaled sharply, "Well uh, we'll have to worry about that later. This mission is more important than me."

Allura was prepared to argue, to tell him that nothing was more important than him, but she held her tongue and didn't dare say a word. Likely her saying such things would have only upset him, besides she knew as the Princess to a dead race with the universe waying on her shoulders… it was all too true that there were more important things she had to be concerned with. Even if she would have rathered give all of her attention to her brother, she and the blue paladin were needed elsewhere.

Allura took her brother's hand and squeezed it, "We will get through this, I promise you Lance."

Lance looked at her, his eyes looked confused for a moment before they went back to normal. Allura wanted to ask what happened, but the shake of Lance's head told her he didn't want her to ask. A shame she wasn't going to listen to that request at the moment. She turned him to face her and bent down slightly until they were eye level.

"Lance, what happened," Allura asked, her tone concerned.

Lance shook his head, "It doesn't matter."

Allura replied sharply, "Of course it does. Now tell me, what happened?"

"I forgot," Lance muttered as his eyes looked away from her.

Allura frowned, "A parrot?"

When Lance looked at her again, she saw the pain in those usually bright eyes, "I forgot my name! You said Lance and, and I didn't recognize it for a few moments. Earlier... I couldn't remember... I forgot about earth for a bit... When Shiro and Pidge came to get me, I forgot them... It keeps happening in small moments since I got back."

Allura felt her throat tighten, "Why didn't you say anything when it happened again? You haven't been back long and already this sounds like it has been going on too often."

"Because we need to focus on the mission," Lance said through clenched teeth, "I'll be fine."

Allura placed both hands on his shoulders, "Lance, you are still important to this team and to me. Everything is getting set up for the mission, but make no mistake that once this is all over, we will fix this."

Lance couldn't look at her, "And what if we don't?"

"We will," Allura said sharply.

"What if I forget anyway, isn't that what you want," Lance said, the tears fell from his eyes as he looked at her again.

Allura shook her head, "I don't want you to forget who you are and where you came from. I won't let you lose sight of Lance, okay. Do you trust me?"

Lance nodded mutely.

"Then trust me now that I will fix this," Allura pleaded, her heart aching at the look on Lance's face.

The blue paladin couldn't speak, he chose to nod instead before pulling his hand from her grasp and walking away. He needed to get away for a bit, he had to get away. He found himself in the main command room of the castle, it was the bridge. It looked like Shiro had left already to get in position to begin the mission and bait Zarkon to their location.

Everyone got to where they needed to go, but soon issues quickly came about. While Zarkon had taken the bait, one of their men on the inside named Thace had yet to make contact. The Marmora wanted to abort the mission, Allura wouldn't have it.

"Abort," she said incredulously, she felt her anger rise, "No, we cannot back away now when we are this close!"

"The Blade of Marmora does not take chances," said one of the Galra, "It is how we have survived for so long."

Allura barked, "It's held you back. Your caution is the reason Zarkon is still in power."

The commander spoke, "We would rather wait than jeopardize everything. Besides, it's too late to get someone else on the inside."

Keith exhaled and stood up, "I'll do it."

"What," Allura said in surprise, she glanced back at Lance to see his horrified face.

Keith nodded, "I'll sneak onto Zarkon's ship. I'm Galra so I'll be able to interact with their technology with little to no problem. Pidge, you can rig up one of the pods with a cloaking device right?"

Pidge hesitated, "Well. Yeah, I could."

The commander would not have it, "Going to Zarkon's ship is a suicide mission. I would never command someone so inexperienced to go on a mission so dangerous."

"No one's commanding me," Keith countered, "I'm doing it."

Lance spoke then, "Keith, are you sure? Not that I doubt you, but that sounds a lot like a susicide mission."

Keith replied, "I've got this. Besides, we are this close to putting end to this war. We have to take a chance."

Shiro spoke for the first time since the conversation began, "Pidge, get a pod ready. Keith, radio me when you're on your way so I can cover you."

Keith nodded and left with Pidge to get to a pod. Lance watched the two of them leave with a fearful gaze that he quickly schooled when he saw Allura watching him. The talk the two had about her treatment of Keith was a bit fresh, however that was not on the princess's mind exactly.

While she knew Lance would never admit it nor did he even know about it, but she knew and could feel there was something there between the Red and Blue paladins. Neither of them seemed aware of it, which Allura was partially grateful for. However as circumstances were changing, she knew she would need to act soon.

After leaving Keith and Pidge down there for awhile, she decided now was the time to speak to Keith alone before he left. Pidge wasn't sure if she should listen to Allura and leave them alone, after all her treatment of the red paladin had been less than pleasant. However she knew whatever was about to happen was not something she needed to be apart of.

Pidge awkwardly glanced between them before walking away as she said, "Sure, have all the moments you like."

When Pidge was gone, Keith spoke flatly, "Is there something I can help you with?"

Allura steeled herself, "I- I just wanted to say the Galra, they've done terrible things. Destroyed entire civilizations. They took my family. But, in time, I've grown to consider you and the paladins my family. Even before Lance turned out to be Casimir… When I learned you were Galra, I I didn't know what to think. I wanted to hate you, blame you for something you had no part in."

Keith felt his shoulders sag, he understood what she was saying and where she was coming from, but that didn't lessen the sting he felt.

"But it's not you, it's me," Allura continued, "My anger has blinded me for too long. I'm so sorry I misjudged you. Please come back to us, come back to Lance."

Keith frowned at calling out Lance specifically, "What- why did you say that?"

Allura glanced away for a moment, "Neither of you seem aware of it so I don't believe it's my place to say anything. When you come back, you can find out more. For now, focus on your mission and proceed with caution."

Keith wanted to question her further, but he decided now was not the time, "I will."