Comments are much appreciated

SPOILER! I warned you before, but the ending (at least to me) is very sad.

—In the dinning hall of the mansion—

(Lance's perspective)

"Shiro kidnapped Keith?" Lance questioned when Pidge called him.

She heard the smaller growl. "No,' she exclaimed, her voice buzzing through the line. "Roland transformed as Shiro and took Keith somewhere."

"That's what I just said!" He turned to the next corridor.

"Look, find Keith, and if you find Shiro with him, whack his brains out since the original is with me."

"What about Hunk?" He opened a random door and found a broom closet.

"He's scanning the area with his lion from above,"

"Coran?"

"Slaughter and him are trying to keep things stable. Not raise any suspicion among the executives. But we have to hurry, they can't stall them for long."

Lance rushed up the grand stairs. "So Roland's ability is transformation?"

"Possibly, but we don't know for sure. Call me if you find anything."

"Got it," And he cut the line.

Lance looked around at the balcony before him . Nothing. Where would that mullet be?

—meanwhile—

(Pidge's perspective)

Her leader and her kept running all over the place. But no luck. God, this place was maze!

They opened another random door (which was probably their 35th) and there was no Kate.

Shiro growled, frustrated. "Come on, Pidge," he said, trying to sound calm. "Next room."

"Wait, Shiro," She said, "this is a surveillance room."

Indeed it was. The screen projected different rooms in the mansion. Pidge rushed to it and started to do her thing. "If we do it right, we'll be able to find Keith much faster... There!" She pointed with her finger. She enlarged the picture and Keith was still alive, unharmed. Thank god. Then her eyes snapped at the man she was with, another Shiro, or more specifically, Roland, transformed as him.

Roland was with Keith in a garden somewhere with a grand big tree at the center. There was some distance between them which Pidge was thankful for. Roland hadn't done anything to her…

Yet...

"-I've come to realise something, Keith." Roland said in Shiro's voice as he turned to her. The raven haired looked confused.

Shiro gasped. "We have to get Keith out of there!"

"I've ...fallen for you,"

…

Those words stopped everything. Pidge and Shiro stood there stiff, shocked by what Roland said.

Kate was startled by this. "What?" Her eyes widened. " You...Shiro, are you drunk?"

Pidge stared at the screen incredulously. Seriously, girl? She thought internally, that's your first reaction?

"No," he started to walk towards her. "I'm being honest with you."

Kate, on the other hand, went backwards, getting away as he kept going to her. She still faced him as she was doing this. "I'm serious, Shiro, are you drunk? I saw you drink that time but I thought it wouldn't affect you that—" her back hit the trunk of a thick tree. "-much…" she whispered, panicking that her back space was lost. She couldn't escape.

"Do you...still feel the same about me? I've known you had a crush on me back in the garrison." He reached out and held her hand.

She blushed, her shoulders tensing. "You've...known?"

Pidge sighed and what she was seeing. This could have been a marvelous romantic scene she would have enjoyed watching...that is IF THAT GUY WAS THE REAL SHIRO TO BEGIN WITH! She internally screamed to herself.

Shiro banged his galra hand on the machine. "No! Keith, that's not me!" She saw him clench his jaw, something she never seen him do before. "Pidge," he turned his to her, "isn't there some kind of communication —"

"Of course I did," Roland said to Kate, stopping Shiro's sentence. "Your actions , your behavior, it was obvious. I didn't tell you this before I thought things might have gotten awkward between us and...I was with Adam during that time." His eyes softened. "But after I got myself captured, I realized too late that I have feelings for you, and I regret not telling you this before."

She was silent, staring intently into Roland's eyes. "Why now?" She breathed

He held her hand tighter. God, his voice, his looks, the way he smiled, it was exactly like Shiro's! No wonder Kate believed it was him. "Because I'm afraid I'll lose you," He said. " And I didnt want to tell you after the war because... By then... You'll find someone else. Who knows how long we have to battle the galra and zarkon... And I just can't stand the idea of you being with another guy, like Prince Choal."

Her eyes widened. "...shiro."

Uh oh, Roland really knew how to use his words. Pidge didn't know how Roland knew about Kate's and Shiro's past and relationship , but it was clear he was using it to his advantage, especially the entire crush/love thing! "Not good, not good, Shiro, what are-" she stopped herself when she noticed a strange look in his eyes. "shiro?"

"Keith," Shiro breathed, not listening to Pidge, "please… you should know that's not…"

Roland reached out his other hand and caressed the raven haired girl's delicate pale cheek (which made Pidge gasp, that galra flirt has some nerve doing that!) "I... I love you, Keith... More than anything." Roland continued to say in Shiro's voice. His head dipped down, leaning his face to Kate's.

"I can't look!" Pidge screamed, covering her eyes.

"No!"

Despite screaming that, she peeked through her fingers and found that just inches away from being kissed, Kate attacked him, swiping for his gut with her ruby decorated blade, but Roland dodged it on time.

"You're not shiro" Kate growled baring her sharpened canines.

"Close…" Roland smiled, and transformed back to his original state. His galra form wasn't that bad, Pidge couldn't deny, he was ruggedly handsome, even his eyes weren't entirely yellow. "I was so close to claiming you."

"Cute trick, Roland," Kate pulled her bayard out of her suit, "but you underestimated me. I am not some daydreaming bimbo stupid enough to fall for your charms. But I can see why women that have such a crave for you." She spat on the ground with disgust . "Pulling their heartstrings, and isolating them from the rest of the group. I bet that's how you abducted Sienna."

"Oh? What gave me away?" He said with a smile.

Kate smiled back. "Everything, actually. I couldn't sniff you out sooner since the smell of the alcohol dulled my senses. So I had to keep you talking. For starters, Shiro is a leader. And he knows he has to be alert and not be distracted no matter what the circumstances were. Even if he did want to speak personal things to me during missions, isolating ourselves from the rest of the team isn't something he would do. I love you more than anything?" She chuckled, "Please that's not him talking at all."

"But isn't that what you wanted to hear?" Roland pulled his dagger out from his suit. "You desired him for such a long time."

Kate stayed silent. "Yes, I wanted him," she replied, breaking the silence. "But you misread me. I wanted him to stay alive. I wanted him to live a blissful life, not by my side, but with his fiancé. I never stood a chance from the start."

The galra frowned. "This is how you'll go on living? Accepting the fact that you'll be viewed as nothing more than a brother to him. And you would still protect him with all your life?"

"Yes," she replied without hesitation, raising her bayard at his direction. "I love that man more than I ever did with my life. I'm grateful, and I owe him so many things for what he's done for me... I just felt I could never pay him back. So if there's anything I can do for him, it's to keep him alive so he could be back with his lover. He deserves to have that then die in this war."

Roland snorted. "There's nothing rewarding doing something like that."

"I'm not looking for rewards," She scowled, "but I am going to make you regret. Someone like you..." She started shaking her head," A conceited jackass like you, had some nerve to confront me with his face."

Pidge hadn't realize how silent Shiro was next to her, watching the entire confession unfold before him.

"... Keith…" Shiro said to himself in whispers, " I thought it was a crush... You were... Actually in love with me?"

"She finally said it," Pidge murmured with disbelief. She looked at Shiro, biting her lip. She wanted to tell you that for so long, the smaller girl wanted to say, but the words wouldn't come out.

—meanwhile—

(Lance's perspective)

"Any luck, Hunk?" Lance said over his phone.

"Nope,"

Lance rushed down the stairs. This was his third time searching the entire floor. He just wished the mullet wouldn't keep disappearing like that. Right when he reached the ground floor, something zipped past his head. A dagger had embedded itself to the wall, creating spider cracks on it. He looked at the direction where the dagger was hurled and found himself facing a galra wearing a dark mask and a bloody cloak.

"I suppose I'll start with you," the galra said in an icy voice that sent chills down his entire body. "Prepare yourself, Lance McClain."

How the hell does he know my name? he thought in horror.

"Uhh, Hunk," the tanned boy said weakly over the phone, "I think I found Roland. And he does not look happy…"

A Valcuz woman came by and froze when she saw was happening. she screamed.

—meanwhile—

Kate ducked her head, avoiding him slicing her throat while she gave a round kick that sent him flying. Roland was quick, though. He rolled and had his feet planted back on the ground after his back hit the deck.

"Just give us Sienna and I won't hurt you!" Kate yelled.

Roland chuckled with that insufferable smirk on his face. "Somehow I don't believe you."

And he was damn right about it. She planning to punch out his teeth to make him look attractive so that the ladies wouldn't fall for his charms again. And break his ribs for trying to kiss her.

With Shiro's face!

"I seemed to have got what I wanted," Roland mused looking at the small streak of her blood on his blade. She hadn't realized he cut her a little on her shoulder. Roland took the bit the blood with his thumb and licked it. Kate's body immediately froze. Paralyzed. She couldn't move a muscle as she stood in her place.

"This is my other ability," Roland told her, now walking towards her body," If I drink a bit of blood of someone, I can control them. How unfortunate it had to end this way, wouldn't you agree?" Kate just growled at him as he stood close to her. He raised his dagger to her face, but frowned when he looked at her neck. He reached his hand out, and his fingers pulled out two things. Her heart pendent and her new amethyst crystal Victor gifted to her. Roland stared at them, his mouth left ajar. "Where did you find these?" Roland demanded, looking back into her eyes.

A static kind of sound was heard near his ear, and the galra placed his hand on the transmitter. "What?" He sounded annoyed. "...Zarkon's Assassin is here?" His eyes went wide. "Cain is here?"

Kate was stunned. Cain was here.

Victor's target was here. Oh, that was so not good.

Victor warned her to run if she ever met the guy, never engage in battle with the Assassin.

Roland swore in his galra language and suddenly fled from her. The raven haired girl suddenly collapsed on the floor when she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore. Yes, she could finally move again.

"Keith!"

Kate turned her head to Pidge's voice that echoed. If she called her by her male name, she wasn't alone. Someone who didn't know her secret. The smaller girl helped her sit upright. "Where's Roland?"

"Fled somewhere, I don't know where he—oof!" Kate blinked, and blinked again when she felt a pair of muscular arms embrace her tight. Kate blushed scarlet red. "S-shiro? Are you okay?" Her Empath power still wasn't working since her focus wasn't entirely fixed yet.

"I'm just glad you're fine ," she heard him say as he hugged her tighter.

"Okay?" Kate definitely would have kicked Pidge to stop her giving her that smug.

—later—

When they came back to the main room, everything was a mess.

The tables were turned, chairs were broken, furniture was on fire, yada, yada.

"Where have you been this whole time?" Lance demanded approaching her, his suit torn and bloody.

Kate winced by the sight of all this. "I was fighting. What happened here?"

"A galra with a dark mask and bloody cloak attacked me, then everyone else. I bet he was Roland."

He was wrong, actually. That was Cain. Victor described him to her so many times and warned her to watch out for him, honestly, at times Victor reminded her of her overprotective cousin.

"But I got some good news," Lance went on, "The Blade of Marmora are definitely on our side. A galra with portal abilities saved my life." Kate flinched hearing this, "And Roland was like, 'You! Leave my work alone and let me dispatch the paladins!' Then they fought like crazy fast ninjas , then Roland fled the scene and so did the other guy."

A blade with portal abilities? Victor? Victor saved Lance?

"What happened to the executives?" Shiro asked, she completely forgot her behind her with Pidge.

"Hunk took them all to safety with his lion,"

Shiro nodded. "Alright, let's head back to the castle. We need to tell Slaughter that we're done here."

—later, castle bridge—

"Yeah, I'm cool with it," Slaughter said casually. And they all gaped at him for sometime.

"Wait a minute," Hunk pinched the bridge of his nose. "For the past 2 days, you were all like 'help me save my planet' and 'I don't want to cause jeopardy'. Now that Roland attacked openly in that party and many executives saw him, you're completely fine with us leaving the case and Sienna?"

Slaughter chuckled. "Well, believe it or not," he said in his gruff voice, "it was all a set up." They stared at him, too stunned to speak. "It was all a test to see if you were worthy allies. And you passed. The people of Valcuz would help you against your fight with zarkon."

Pidge frowned. "What?"

Slaughter sighed, getting to the point, "There is no woman kidnapped, no 'ninjas' as they were just friends of mine dressed black, and no galra." He paused. "Well, maybe not 'that galra' that attacked the blue paladin. That was not part of the plan."

"The tea club filled with hostesses, the picture of Sienna?"

"They were all acting, and Sienna isn't real, that picture was a random model,"

"Roland being a courtesan?"

"I lied,"

Lance stepped in. "So there's no Roland?"

"Oh, I am very real and alive," Kate recognized that voice and went stiff when she saw Roland sauntering to them from the entrance of the castle bridge. "Thank you for asking."

Kate's jaw dropped while Allura's eyes snapped at the galra. "What is a galra soldier doing on my ship?!" She demanded, harshly.

Slaughter shrugged. "Don't worry, Princess, he's not one of Zarkon's men. He's one of the members of the Blade of Marmora."

Kate gaped at Roland. "The blade- how do you two know each other?"

"I'm his brother-in-law," Roland replied to her, giving her a smile that made her want to be as far as she get from him, "Slaughter is married to my older sister."

Wow, she did not expect that.

"Everything was a set up?" Shiro demanded, "everything?"

Slaughter rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, Cain's attack was not something we expected, honestly speaking."

"Cain?"

"He's one of zarkon's notorious Assassins," Roland replied, seriously. "The galra that attacked the blue paladin wasn't me, it was Cain. My advice to you is that you should be careful and be cautious." He turned to Kate. "Especially you," he told her, "I don't know why, but I was told Cain wanted you for some reason."

Oh, who wouldn't? Kate thought. Reality just simply loved to torture her.

Did Victor know about this?

"And why should we trust you?" Allura said coldly. "You could be lying for all I kn—"

"He's not," Kate said abruptly, receiving stares from her friends. "Empath, remember?" She could sense lies.

Allura scowled, but said nothing. Boy, was the princess sure gonna hate her once she finds out what she is.

"Also," Roland added, "Cain is an ability user. And since zarkon is tracking you down somehow, you need to leave soon."

Lance sighed. "Great, any more happy news?"

"Yes, you've convinced me that you are worthy to form allies with."

They blinked. "Were we not so convincing before?" Coran asked, stroking his mustache.

"It's not that. We made a mistake making that tyrant the paladin of the black lion. Because that made him power hungry for quintessence which made him conquer countless planets, even now he has control over the lion to some extent, making it difficult for us to take him down. If we managed to overthrow him, would it be for the better? One of the paladins could be even worse than, which is why the Blade of Marmora protected the remaining lions location if we ever came across it."

Roland chuckled, and went on, "I'm fine working with you, but my leader may have different thoughts. Ulaz's actions to free you," He looked at Shiro's eyes, "was not done under authority. He did it out of his will, believing you were the best paladins the universe could ever offer. And I hope he was right."

Ulaz...

Because you are her child. I'm sure you inherited her talents, Ulaz's words echoed in her mind.

He sacrificed so much. No way she was going to let all of that go to vain.

Roland started to walk back with Slaughter to the exit. "We have to go now. Zarkon would find your location soon."

"Let's move out!" Shiro commanded.

While no one was looking, Kate went after Roland.

—corridors—

(okay, ending song Happy ending Avril Lavinge)

"Roland, wait," Kate called after him. Roland halted while Slaughter continued to move on.

"My, miss me already?" He teased.

The raven haired girl huffed. "In your dreams, pretty boy. In your dreams." She sighed, getting to the point of why she came after him, "Look, when you pretended to be Shiro...what part of the story was the truth?"

His transformation powers might have let him have access to some memories. How else would he know so much about Shiro and her?

"Well most i fabricated. "She sighed in relief, thank god. "Except the part when i said he'd known about the crush."

She was shocked by this. Her eyes snapped to him. "He… he knew?" She questioned, it was like some bricks of reality hit her on the face. "He actually knew? For that long?"

"Why, yes. Are you alright?"

She couldn't sense him lying. This was the truth.

Kate took a breath.

Shiro knew, yet he didn't say anything to her. Just why would he…

She remembered the words Choal said to her, and let it replay in her mind…

"So you think you've got me all figured out, huh?"

"Except for one thing." Choal followed behind her. "Are you and Shiro ..."

She halted. She was silent for a heartbeat before she turned back to face him.

"No."

"Does he know?"

Shiro wasn't supposed to know her feelings for him yet...but her behavior lately has been bothering him. He just suddenly asked her if she was okay, and he knew she lied... and...god, she didn't want that kind of attention yet. She wasn't ready to confess, but if he knew about this entire crush...and if he's asking her about this...then...

She hesitated a second too long. "I...No..."

Choal tilted his head. "But the truth is you don't really know," he walked closer to her. "Otherwise you wouldn't have hesitated."

She shook her head. "No, it's just – if...if he did know for a while then...then we've never really talked about it."

"Then he's a fool."

"No, it's – " she looked down to think, to avoid his ruby eyes. "It's just – it's complicated."

"Keith," he said softly, the prince gently pulled her chin up. She looked back into his ruby eyes reluctantly. "There's nothing complicated about meeting a woman like you and knowing what to do."

She opened her violet eyes, now looking less bright.

"Roland," the galra looked at her. "You better not tell anyone about my gender."

Why else would he tried to kiss her? He somehow knew she was a woman.

He smiled. "Your wish is my command, my lady." He bowed to her dramatically.

She rolled her eyes. He may not be a courtesan, but he was definitely a typical playboy.

—later, late night, Pidge's room—

Pidge gaped at her, her eyes focused on the girl sitting before her on her bed. "You're not going to confess to him because you what now?" She demanded, confused. Worried. Stunned by what she told her.

Kate had her head down, staring at the floor, letting her front bangs cover eyes. "I've...I've moved on, Pidge. There's no point of it. There never was from the start. He'd known I had a crush on him."

The smaller girl blinked. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Kate was silent for a few heartbeats, now crossing her arms. "He'd known, yet he didn't bother talking to me about it." She didn't want to sound hurt, but she couldn't help it. "I know he noticed my weird behaviour around him ever since we got blasted into space, but I thought he didn't say anything about it because he didn't know about the entire crush thing." Her nails dug hard on her left arm. "But the fact that he did...the fact that he...it's just...I can't really explain it but...it hurts. Choal thought Shiro was a fool, he thought I deserved better. He might have been right, but thinking logically about it…" she looked straight into the smaller girl's eyes. "...I'm the real fool." And a damn coward, too.

"Kate," pidge tried to comfort her, "girl, don't be so hard on yourself."

She stayed silent for sometime. "Turns out confessing to him wasn't the only method to get these feelings off my chest...I've finally let him go..."

Pidge stared at her before sighing. "Kate, listen, when Roland pretended to be Shiro and lured you somewhere, Shiro and I saw through the security cameras and heard everything...you kind of did tell your true feelings to him indirectly." She weakly smiled.

Kate's eyes softened. Her eyes were getting watery a bit, but she didn't want to cry over this. There was no point shedding tears! She told herself. "What difference does it make? Nothing will change between us..whether I confess to him or not, he's engaged. And Adam is still the perfect guy for him, anyway. My background is…" she hesitated and shook her head. "I'm unclean. "

"You don't love him anymore, Kate?"

Kate stood, biting her lip. "I do...but...not in the same way as I used to." Adam was definitely the better person compared to her. Good, let's keep it that, it doesn't matter anymore. Damn her for trying to change the impossible. "And that's final." She said firmly.

She left the room quietly, and as she did, a piece of her fell apart, too.

But she didn't break...