Voltron didn't move for days.

Kolivan wondered at the sanity to be mourning for a simple AI, but humans were already strange creatures to him. He let them be and offered the area around the base as protection while they got back on their feet.

Zarkon had eased off lately, but that didn't mean he wouldn't start up again. Voltron was in no position to fight as they were.

Keith spent most of his time with the Blades, training and learning. After a heated and awful argument with Hunk, he started to sleep in the base as well.

IN the end, they were splitting up.

And all because Lance had to go and get deleted from existence.

()

"Its all my fault," Pidge muttered into her dark room, "all my fault….i wasn't fast enough…"

It was the only thing she'd said out loud for days and it had also been days since she'd left her room.

The door opened, letting in evil light, and Matt. The brother looked at her and shook his head.

"Get out here, Katie," he said sternly. She shook her head.

"Move it," he snapped, "I already ripped into Hunk, don't make me call you out as well."

She started to cry again, "What can you say that I…I already don't know?"

Matt sighed and picked his way to the bed where his sister was. Her room had always a struggle between her and their mom.

He got to the bed and sat down.

"Apparently you don't know that this is a war. You all came out right in the middle of it. This was never a game. Voltron may be powerful and full of wonderful tech that you enjoy, but it is not about that. It never was. War is ugly, but its necessary at times. What would Lance say if he knew what you were doing right now?"

Pidge had to really think about that question. She was so far into the well of self-loathing that thinking about anything else was a struggle.

"He'd laugh," Pidge said, with confidence, then she got angry, "That little prick would laugh!"

Matt nodded, though he'd never met Lance himself, Hunk had come up with the same answer. Matt truly wondered what kind of person this Lance really was…

"He wouldn't want you to be depressed," Matt said, "He was a jokester. Sadness wasn't his thing, right? He also gave you a ton of information, as much as he could give you. Are you going to waste it now that he's not here anymore? A little insulting, if you ask me."

The words hit pidge all in the right places. She could see Lance being insulted by her lack of use of the info he'd gathered. He'd worked hard to learn how to hack properly.

"So," Matt said carefully, "why don't you get a shower, get changed and come out for some food? I'm cooking."

"All you know how to make are soups and stews…"

"Well, that sounds like something you guys need right now," Matt patted her head and got up to leave.

()

Matt had gone to each member and manipulated them into the same dining room. Serving food to a silent group was nerve wracking, but this wasn't his first rodeo. Matt was the undisputed leader of the rebels. He had seen his share of death and knew that if they didn't get back on their feet soon, they never would.

Shiro and Keith were the first to recover to a functioning level. Shiro because of his time in the Gladiatorial arenas and Keith because of his past.

Coran and Allura next because, truth be told, they didn't have the chance to get to know Lance as much as Hunk and Pidge.

Who were the last to get up.

And no one blamed them, they simply were glad when they were able to get up and go about their days without being dragged out by Matt or Shiro.

()

Lotor drummed his fingers on the arm of his pilots chair.

Voltron had been gone for months and he couldn't find them anywhere. Their communications were off line and they had left him no instructions. The one member of the Reble faction, an idiot named Rolo, had simply told him that Voltron was taking a little time off.

But now was not the time.

Zarkon was up to something and Lotor still had no idea what. Acxa and Nerti had done what they could and the witch wasn't talking. She kept telling him that all would end up as it should. Her reassuring words becoming less so with every reutterance.

()

When Lotor was able to reach Voltron again, it was too late.

Lotor marched onto the ship, ignored their more somber moods, and planted a small device right on their consul. The device brought up a security feed of one of the rebel bases.

"What-"

Garla ships started to attack the base and the rebels didn't stand a chance. They all watched in horror as everyone and every thing was destroyed.

"That's horrible," Allura said, but Lotor raised a hand and pointed to the screen.

The Galra were leading a line of captured rebels, forcing them to kneel. Then one by one they were shot by a person the couldn't see clearly.

"When did this happen," Allura asked, knowing full well they had taken to long to get back up on their feet.

"Two quintants ago," Lotor snapped, "Where were you?"

"We had a death-"

"Everyone has those," Lotor said, "tell me you didn't spend ALL that time grieving."

"Yeah, so what?" Pidge snapped, glancing at Hunk who looked in danger of slipping into another bout of self-loathing.

"This is war, people die all the time as you can clearly see. I see none of you have gone, so who was it?"

"Lance," Hunk said, "We lost and…lost and couldn't save him…"

"The AI?!" Lotor exclaimed, "You're telling me, you spent all this time…over a stupid AI?!"

"HE WASN'T AN AI!" Pidge and Hunk shouted, but pidge wasn't done, "He was a person! A human! ITS YOU WHO'S THE IDIOT!"

Keith stood in between them and tried to calm Pidge down.

"He doesn't know," Keith tried to say, but Pidge wasn't having it. When she'd finally come out of her rut, she realized how badly Hunk was doing. Hunk not only had been blaming himself, just like her, but he'd known Lance longer and felt worse than any of them. Hearing Lotor call Lance an AI, well, it was either Pidge get angry, or Hunk take matters over.

Pidge had only seen Hunk angry once, and had never wanted to see it again.

"You keeps saying he was a person, but how could a person end up inside a computer?" Lotor snapped, "Strange things happen all the time, but even I can't believe THAT without evidence."

Hunk stood. Pidge winced. But all he did was leave the room. They watched him go and then turned back to Lotor.

"You're going to have to trust us that he was real," Allura said sternly, "you think all six of us would lie to you?"

Lotor hesitated. Yes, he did think all six would lie, but that wasn't the right answer.

"I'm sorry," Lotor said instead, "I-"

Hunk came back and threw something at Lotor, which hit him in the face.

It took everything Lotor had to not lose his cool right then and there.

Looking down at the thing Hunk threw he saw it was a brown folded piece of leather with pockets. Inside the pockets were green paper and pictures. All of them contained the same face.

"That's Lance," Hunk said, "He was real! That enough EVIDENCE for you?!"

Lotor nodded, "I apologize. This must be hard for all of you and I didn't make it easier. But this is serious as well. We lost three rebel bases in the last week alone. My contact with the rebels died here."

"Rolo was there?"

Again, they all seemed to get depressed. Lotor panicked a little and tried to think.

"the best remedy," Acxa cut in, "is to get to work. My lord has a plan to stop this commander in his tracks."

Lotor nodded his thanks to his general and continued, "This commander seems to know where all the rebel bases are located, so we wait for him at the next one and take him out. And If I'm going to help, then there needs to be no survivors."

"Then don't help," Hunk shrugged and snatched the wallet back out of Lotors hands, "We've got this."

Pidge sighed but nodded, "oh yea, we got this."

Shiro and Keith exchanged a look. Anger was the next step in grieving, but was this healthy?

"Alright," Allura agreed, "Lotor, you will leave this plan to us. Give us the information you have on this commander and we will take care of it. It will give us a chance to make up for lost time as well."

()

They made quick and direct work of Commander Horon and his ships. Even shiro was surprised even though they, as a team, had never been so focused before. They were all determined to not lose anyone else.

They didn't know if they could stand back up again if they did.

()

Slowly, Voltron moved on, the war continued.

Lotor tried to stay in between, but was forced to fight Voltron head on more than a few times. Though he intentionally made mistakes so that Voltron would win, they had had to be small and look accidental so Zarkon wouldn't sniff out a traitor.

It used every bit of cunning Lotor had at his disposal. With every success, however, his own ego grew, and he started preparations for phase two of his plans.

()

Keith was starting to have a hard time balancing Voltron and the Blades. More specifically, keeping Blade activity from Lotor.

He had to miss a few blade missions because Lotor would be around and would wonder where he was at, and then he had to meet them at a planet that was galra occupied since they had told Lotor that he'd gone ahead of them when in fact he'd been on a training mission.

He didn't blame the Blades for wanting to stay secret, not like Allura, he blamed Lotor for his shifty attitude.

There was just something about the prince that rubbed Keith the wrong way. Heck, he'd gotten along with Lance a lot better than he WANTED to get along with Lotor. But he was still an ally and had not given them any evidence of betrayal…yet.

He was gone and Lotor was with the rest of Voltron when Zarkon sent out a universal message across the entire empire. Every screen in the galrea server showed Zarkons face as he started his message.

"Today, I announce a new beginning," the emperor said, "This is Krye."

The screen panned out to show a smaller individual. Covered head to toe. His helmet was round except for the raised edges as though it were hiding horns.

"Krye has proved himself in battle and has earned the right, to be called a son of the empire. My son. He is to be treated as though I, myself, have spoken. I give him full authority."

The team looked to Lotor as the video ended. He had been using a galra screen to show them his next battle plans. Now he stood, his fists clenched, but his face bland and expressionless.

Keith, with the Blades watched in confusion.

Had this been what Zarkon had been planning? Were the nanites specifically for this? To create the perfect soldier?

Keith thought back to the fights they had had when the galras moves had been unpredictable…had this Krye person been at the helm?

"Wonder how the princeling is taking the news," Regris said with a smirk, "he was banished as a disgrace, ordered back to fight, and then subverted by an unknown and not even invited to the physical announcement…that's got to sting."