Chapter 5

The paladins had been captured, and their lions as well. Zephrid and Ezor were preparing to interrogate them.

Lance was moving his ear along the wall of the cell. "Lance, what are you doing?" Hunk asked his friend. "I'm feeling for a secret passage."

"You've watched too many movies. There's no secret passage." Keith replied. "Oh, really? Then how do you explain this?" Lance kicked the wall and cried out in pain. "I, uh, meant, this." He did it to the other wall, with his other leg, and again, nothing but pain. "Will someone shut him up?" Krolia was annoyed. "There's only one guard patrolling out there. If we can get this door open, we can overpower him." She told the group. "Hey, what happened to Coran?" Pidge asked when she realized he wasn't there. "He must have managed to hide when we were captured." Krolia guessed. "At least we have one ally out there still able to fight for us." Allura said. "Are you saying," Pidge began, "our fate rests in Coran's hands?" Everyone looked at each other. "I'll help you look for that passage now." Krolia told Lance.

Back at the black lion, Coran was trying to get out of the cargo hold of the Black Lion. He was talking to himself when he saw the mice. The mice got him out using the vents, they opened the door from the outside. He saw the injured wolf as well. He began to sneak out. The mice, went to scare off the guard, and Coran slipped and landed on top of him, knocking him out. Coran was talking to some guards. Axca came down from a vent and helped him before he was shot.

Back in the brig, the door began to unlock. Two guards, Ezor, and Zephrid walked in. Much to the groups surprise. "Look who's here. It's team Voltron." Ezor taunted. "We're going to have a little talk." Zephrid punched her fists together in order to intermediate while she said this. "Hey, you're the guys that Lotor shot into space." Lance shared his observation out loud. "And the ones that were trying to kill us." Pidge added. "Yeah, sure, but we're all friends now, right? I, for one, am glad you survived." Hunk told them. "I'm glad you survived, too." Ezor began. "It's no fun torturing a dead person." Hunk flinched.

"Where have you been all this time? What happened to Lotor?" Zephrid demanded of them. "What are you talking about?" Shiro asked. "We're talking about you little disappearing act." Ezor explained. "Now answer the question! How did you survive the explosion?" Zephrid demanded again. "Don't you know? You were both there?" Hunk replied. "I believe there's a little confusion about how the 'we ask questions, you give us answers' scenario works." Ezor told them. "Enough of your games. Where is Lotor?" Zephrid demanded again. "Lotor is dead. We left him in the Quintessence Field." Keith told them. "Yeah, you see, that doesn't really add up. Why aren't all of you dead?" Ezor asked. "Because of the power of teamwork?" Hunk replied unsure. "I'm going to ask you one more time, and then we're going to have to take a more extreme approach." Zephrid began. Ezor interjected. "The fun part."

"What happened to Lotor and where have you been al this time?" No one replied, having no other answers. "If you insist on maintaining this charade of ignorance, you gave us no choice but to apply pressure."

"Finally. Who's our first victim." Ezor was more excited that should be normal. They looked over the group. "The blue one." Lance pointed to himself. "I bet the red one has a soft spot for his right-hand man." Ezor grabbed Lance and held him in the air with hand. Her grip grew tighter, and Lance was struggling and failing to fight back. Some of the others tried to attack Ezor, but Zephrid stopped them. "You give us answers, we let him go. Simple." Ezor smiled. "We already told you. Lotor is dead." Keith told them. "Try again."

"Let him go." Keith yelled. They continued to try and free Lance but were having zero luck. Lance's face was almost blue. "Answers!" Ezor yelled. "We told you..." Keith began but then an alarm went off. "Lockdown sequence initiated." A robotic voice said over the intercoms. Zephrid ran out of the cells. Ezor dropped Lance and followed. He began coughing and gasping for air. Krolia and Shiro walked up to the door, while everyone else checked on Lance. "I'm fine." He told them. "This is it." Krolia began. "The next time that door opens, overwhelm the guard." She commanded. The group went against the walls and prepared the carry out. They then heard a thud, and the door opened. They were confused, so they looked out. The guard was knocked out, thanks to the mice. Allura ran up to them. "Hello little friends." After some squeaking, Allura said, "What? Where?"

"Where? What are they saying?" Keith asked her. "Coran's trying to rescue us. And he's got help. Axca." She replied. "What?" The group ran off to find Coran after getting their cuffs off. They found him getting pounded by a big pirate. Allura grew in size and punched him, knocking the pirate over. Coran groaned and his skin turned back to its natural color. Keith and Lance helped him up. "See? You got lucky." Coran taunted the downed pirate. "Coran, where's Axca?" Keith asked him. "I don't know. Where am I?"

"Are you okay?" Shiro asked concerned. "Never better. Now let's get our belmards and hayards."

"Don't worry. We got you." Lance reassured Coran. "Oh, thank you, Princess Allura." Lance frowned. Keith and Lance helped Coran walk by slinging one arm over a shoulder each. They came across the room where their stuff was being held. "How do I look." The one guard asked the other after setting Hunk's helmet on top of his head. "Kind of stupid." The guard took the helmet off. "Do you think there is a switch on here or something." The other guard was playing with Pidge's bayard. "I cannot wait until that thing turns on and cuts your head off." The paladins we just outside the door trying to figure out how to get their stuff without any weapons. "Unhand those bayards, you scallywags!" Coran shouted at them. Lance covered his mouth. "So much for the element of surprise." Pidge complained. Keith closed his eyes and focused. His bayard appeared in his hand. The moment he had it, he went and took down the guards. The group watched in awe. Keith grabbed his helmet. "Come on." He told the group as they just stood there. They ran in and each grabbed their weapons and helmets. "Lance, you lead the way. I'll meet you at the lions."

"Where are you going?" Lance asked. "Axca saved our skin. I'm not gonna leave her behind. I'll meet up with you guys soon." Keith said and walked away. Lance watched, he wanted to say something but couldn't form the words. They all grabbed their stuff. "Let's get to the Lions." Lance told the team. They found an air lock and opened it. The jet packed over to their lions but were shot at by pirates. Lance and the others fired back.

When Keith found Axca, she was being fought by Ezor and Zephrid. Before Ezor could land the kick, Keith jumped in and blocked it with his shield. "Oh, look, Axca, it's your favorite Paladin." Ezor teased. Neither of them looked amused. "So do you guys actually know each other?" Zephrid asked confused. "Yeah, don't you remember how she never wanted to kill him?"

"I guess it is true love." Zephrid teased. "He's not really my type." Axca replied. "Can't we just fight." Keith asked annoyed and ran to them with his sword ready.

The other paladins were avoiding the shots fired by the pirates. They were able to fight some of them off. Hunk shot a lot of them with his cannon. Two went to attack Coran. "Huh? Oh, you wanna go?" Coran asked and put up his fists. The pirates shot off. "That's what I thought." Coran put his hands on his hips. He looked behind him and there was the Green Lion. It opened his mouth and let him inside.

Keith and Ezor were fighting. Zephrid had Axca pinned up against a wall. Ezor kept hitting Keith, but Keith was able to dodge a lot as well. Axca was able to push Zephrid off her and knocked her against the other wall. She punched Zephrid's jaw, then kicked her. But Zephrid stopped the kick. She and Ezor knocked their opponents into a wall, and the went straight through into a room with Synthian nitrate. "Guys, zero in on my location and fire on the ship." Keith told everyone. "Are you crazy." Lance asked. "Just do it." Keith yelled back. They did as they were told. The nitrate exploded. Keith and Axca flew out. Black flew towards them to pick them up. They flew in and the lions flew away. They went to a nearby planet to rest the lions.

The group was in a cave. Hunk just came back from grabbing firewood. "I just looked at the Lions and they're in worse shape than ever. We should give them some time to recharge before we head back on our way." The group nodded. "Wow," Lance looked at Axca, "a lot of things have really changed over the past few weeks." She just looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

"The last time we saw you. You were fighting us alongside Lotor." Allura replied. "That was three deca-phoebs ago. No one has seen you has seen you since your fight with Lotor."

"That's impossible." Keith told her. "But it's true. After Lotor jettisoned us, we managed to make it to cover on a meteoroid. There we saw Voltron and Lotor disappear. Eventually Voltron re-emerged... alone. But then there was an explosion, and after that... nothing. That was three deca-phoebs ago."

"Whoa." Lance was in shock. So was everyone else. "So, as far as everyone else in the universe is concerned, Voltron has been gone for three deca-phoebs?" No one said anything for a minute. "That explains the discrepancies in the start charts in our Lions. I thought they were off because of our inter-dimensional jumping, which I guess it is related. Because when you think about it, that must have been the cause of the time slippage between our experience that of the rest of the universe." Pidge told everyone.

"So how did you end up here, helping us?" Keith asked Axca. "Zephrid, Ezor, and I were marooned on the meteoroid for days. Finally, a Galra ship came to investigate Lotor's last known whereabouts. We took it over. With Lotor gone, it was clear that there was a power vacuum in the Galra Empire. Zephrid and Ezor wanted to exploit that for their own gain... but I knew I had to find my own path. And it led me to you." She looked at Keith. "Thank you... For saving us." Keith replied. "I hope that this makes up, in some way, for the wrong I've done. I realize now that Lotor wasn't who I thought he was. He preached unity, but in the end, he sought only power."

"I understand how you feel. I fell for Lotor's lies as well." Allura sympathized. "I'll do everything I can out here to help the Voltron Coalition."

"Wow, so, everyone that was helping us thinks that we're dead." Hunk pointed out. "Wait." Pidge began. "I haven't been able to get ahold of my dad on Earth or Matt and the Rebels. What's happened to them in the last three years?"

"And if Ezor and Zephrid became warlords in that time," Allura interrupted, "what else has changed?"