Sorry again! No action in this one!

XxXxXx

Allura sat on the platform in the middle of the bridge. "There's no point in debating this further. Zarkon is clearly tracking us through me."

"Aww, space baloney." Lance refused to believe it.

"That's not possible." Pidge added.

"For once, I agree with Lance." Celestia said with her arms folded. "Black Lion, if you're keeping something from me, I swear to the Gods, you will feel my wrath!" She threatens.

Allura frowns at them, and folds her arms. "Why would that be so hard to believe? Zarkon's forces showed up on Arus only after I awoke."

Lance folds his own arms. "She's got a point." He said looking at Shiro, then leaned towards Allura with a flirty expression. "I would absolutely travel across the galaxy to find you."

"It's not you, Princess Allura. It's me."

Everyone turned their attention to Keith.

"What?" Celestia questioned, shocked. "Keith?"

Hunk and Celestia looked at each other, then Hunk turns to Keith. "Because?"

Keith looked away from everyone. "I just think Zarkon must've imprinted on me during our fight or something."

Pidge sighed, it was time for a new topic. "Look, the fact is, we don't know how Zarkon is tracking us. It could be through the Black Lion. Every time Zarkon gets close to it, Shiro has to fight him for control."

"That's only when Zarkon is nearby. No Paladin has ever been able to connect with a lion over a vast distance." Coran informed.

Hunk looked around. "So what are we gonna do?"

Shiro turned to him. "Look, it doesn't matter how he's tracking us because we're gonna take the fight to the Galra soon enough. They've been chasing us from galaxy to galaxy. The last thing they expect is for us to come after them."

Lance smirked. "The hunter becomes the hunted, hmm? Awesome! That's the tag line from like six of my favorite movies."

Pidge sat at her station. As it happens, I took our list of recent Galra attacks and analyzed it for both commonalities and anomalies among the attack sites. I was hoping to create an algorithm that would, within a statistically acceptable margin of error, provide a list of target-rich Galra environments color-coded, of course, because what are we, animals?" She pressed a button on her holographic screen, the star map appeared surrounding everyone on the bridge.

Lance stares at the stars that surrounded them. "Cool! What is it again?"

Hunk turned to the youngest. "It's a Galra finder?"

Pidge pushed her glasses further up her nose. "It's a Galra finder? Well, "finder" suggests that it locates the Galra, whereas it would be more accurate to say that my model predicts their likeliest." She trailed off when they all gave her blank looks. She sighed. "Fine. I's a Galra finder."

"So, where are the Galra?" Lance asked the burning question.

Pidge pulled up a planet. "The nearest ones are right here. A planet called Taujeer."

Shiro turned to everyone. "Then that's where we're headed. Everyone should get some sleep. Tomorrow, we'll find that Galra fleet and take it out."

XxXxXxXx

That night, Celestia tossed and turned as she tried to sleep, but couldn't. She sat up and rubbed her head, before shoving the blankets off of her.

A knock on her door, had her turn to it. Standing up, she walked over to the door and it slid open to reveal Keith.

"Keith?" She stepped back to allow him in. "What's the matter?"

"I'm sorry to bother you." He said as he stood near the door.

She frowns. "Don't worry about it. What's going on?"

He took a deep breath, then gently took her face and kissed her gently. After a long moment, he pulled away.

Celestia stared at him. "Keith." She whispered. He backed away and left her room.

Celestia stood there, then waved her hand in front of her face. "Whoa!" She gasped as she made her way back to her bed. "I don't care what he is!"

XxXxXx

"We should be entering Taujeer's orbit soon." Coran told the Paladins after they walked into the bridge the following day.

Shiro walked up to his station. "Raise the particle barrier. Scan for Galra." He looked around. "Where are Keith and Allura?"

Coran quickly ran a scan of the castle. "It appears that one of the pods launched in the middle of the night."

Celestia looked hurt, wrapping her arms around herself as she tried to not let her tears show.

Lance shot up straight in his station, muscles tense. "Wait a minute, Keith and Allura? In the middle of the night?" He leaned forward and gritted his teeth. "You don't think they're sittin' in a tree?"

Celestia turned to look at him. "What does that last part suppose to mean?" She asked innocently and confused.

He looked at her. "It means."-

"Shut up Lance!" Hunk quickly cut him off.

"But she."-

"Sock it Lance!" Shiro ordered, glaring at him, he turned to Coran and ordered. "Contact the pod."

"YES! CONTACT THAT POD!" Lance thundered, sticking is hand up with his index finger extended.

Coran opened up channel. "Princess, Keith, where are you?"

Allura's voice came through the speakers. ""Exactly where we should be, far away from the Castle."

Shiro ran his human hand through his hair, tilting his head to the side. "What? Why?"

"We must know if we are the ones Zarkon is tracking." Allura answered.

Pidge leaned forward. "They're isolating the variable. Well, isolating two variables."

Lance gave her an annoyed look. "In English, please?"

"In order to test a hypothesis."-

"I said English!"

"Never mind!"

"Pidge is right. If Zarkon finds you despite my absence, we will know with total certainty that we are not the ones he is tracking." Allura's voice came through.

Shiro frowns. "Splitting up the group makes us far more vulnerable. Come back to the Castle immediately."

Keith joined the conversation. "If Zarkon does find us, I can pilot us to safety. We're in wide-open space with plenty of room to maneuver. Plus, we'd be able to outrun him. Pidge added that booster rocket."

Coran frowned. "That thing's still on there?"

Shiro is not happy. "We need both of you back here now!" He yelled, just before the castle was hit by something causing them to all jump. The alarms blared as red emergency lights flashed.

Shiro turned to Coran. "What's going on?"

Hunk quickly checked his scanner. "We're in some sort of debris field."

Coran searched his panel in hopes for an answer. "I believe it's coming from Taujeer." He brings up the holographic display on the screen. "Correction: I think it is Taujeer!"

"Coran, what's going on."- Allura's voice comes through, but static cut off the conversation.

Coran turns to Shiro. "Some kind of radiation from the planet is interfering with communications!"

Shiro frowned, not liking what was going on. "Move the Castle away from the planet and reestablish the link. Everyone else, get to your lions." He stood up, and his steps took him to Celestia's station.

He gently placed his human hand on her shoulder and knelt down next to her station. "I have known Keith for a very long time." He told her gently as Lance, Pidge, and Hunk fled the bridge for their lions. "He's not a backstaber."

"Why does it hurt?" She asked, not looking at him.

Shiro pauses. "Because it's real." Standing up, he gently squeezed her shoulder before leaving.

XxXxXxXx

Celestia sat on the floor of her room, hugging a pillow to her chest as her back leaned on the wall behind her. "How could he?" She whispered, eyes looking off into the distance. "I thought we shared something special."

"Princess, please, don't cry." White Lion begged softly. "It'll be ok. Tell her Red!"

"Don't worry, Princess. I'll stomp on Keith for ya!"

"Not that!" White Lion yelled.

"Oh no! Coran is going to try to pilot me!"

Celestia finally blinked. "He ... what?" She looked up at the ceiling.

"Uh, guys?" Coran called for the Paladins. "So, yeah the Red Lion ran away."

"Red Lion, don't hurt Keith!" Celestia cried.

"Yes ma'am."

XxXxXxXx

A few hours went by and now all the Paladins, including Allura were back in the castle.

Celestia stood now stood in the Black Lion's hanger.

"What the devil is going on with you!?" She demanded with anger.

"I'm sorry Princess." Black Lion apologized. "It's Zarkon, and his hold on me."

"Well, break the hold!" She demanded again. "You are stronger then that monster! So break it!"

"If I could, I would!" Black Lion said firmly.

"Break the damn hold, or the next time Zarkon finds us, we'll all be dead!" Celestia hisses, she turns and walks out of Black Lion's hanger.

XxXxXx

Out in the hall, Celestia finds Keith walking up to her. "Shiro wants us to talk." He tells her.

"I have nothing to say!" She walks past him, and continues down the hall, Keith is quick to follow.

"But there is!" He argued. "Look, we can't be a team if there's tension and strain building up!" He stumbles to a stop when she suddenly stops and he almost fell into her.

"You went off alone with Allura." Celestia kept her back to him. "Never said a word to anyone, and refused to come back when Shiro ordered for both of you to turn around."

"I know your angry, but we thought it was one of us."

She spun around to face him, her eyes glittered with tears and he took a step back. "Why?!" She demands. "Allura I would understand! But you?"

Having enough, Keith walked up to her, snatched her hand and pulled her towards the pod room.

XxXxXxXx

"What are we doing in here?" Celestia wanted to know as soon as the door slid closed and Keith let go of her hand.

"I don't want your yelling alerting the team!" He told her, just as hotly.

"I'm not yelling!" She yelled.

Keith pulled out his blade. "I thought Zarkon was tracking us through this!" He showed it to her. "My blade."

She raised an eyebrow. "What is that?" She asked with her arms folded.

"Look at it!" He held it out to her, and she finally did. "I have had this blade for as long as I could remember! It belonged to my mother, at first I thought this symbol was just that, a cool looking symbol." He puts the blade away and walks over to the far wall to lean against it. "And now, years later I find out that it's apart of this Blade Of Marmora."

Celestia looks down, the anger and hurt she felt left her. "Why didn't you just tell us?"

Keith snorts as he folds his arms. "Yeah. That would've gone real well with Allura." He said an eye roll. He stifined as she walked up to him.

"I don't like the fact that you kept it a secret." Celestia said firmly, poking her index finger into his chest. "And now we know it's really Black Lion that Zarkon is using." She folds her arms.

Keith looks at her, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry." He apologized. "I should've told you."

Celestia studyes his face, finally she nods. "You should have." She turns leave, and he watches her leave the pod room.

XxXxXxX

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