Summary: As the newly appointed stand-in leader for the Garla Empire, Lotor tries to gather as much information about the new Voltron team as he can and discovers something interesting about the Green Paladin.
A/N: Special thanks to Shiranai Atsune for leaving a review on the last chapter.
Lotor felt a mix of envy and gratitude towards the newest Voltron team for nearly disposing of Zarkon for him.
The Prince may have tried to finish off the Emperor himself if it wasn't for Haggar and her druids' constant watch over his Father's comatose form. The thought of ending the tyrant once and for all was oh so alluring, but the temptation would not aid his final goal.
For the time being, Lotor needed to take advantage of his current position as acting Emperor.
First, acquire as many resources as they reasonably could for his team, and their goals without drawing unwanted attention. Second, twists the inner workings of the Empire in as many ways as he possibly could, and finally disposes of any individual that could compromise his plans.
After all the next time the tides of fortune shifted, they may not be in his favour.
The Prince was fortunate that researching the new Voltron Team could be done without any suspicion from the Witch or those who followed her.
"Have there been any sightings of the Black Lion?" Lotor asked, sitting captain's chair, watching the monitors as he talked with his four head generals. His eyes scanning over footage showing the Red, Green, Yellow and Blue Lions partaking in different missions on a variety of planets. All taking place within the last few galactic phoeb.
Acxa lightly shook her head, "Still no sightings of The Black Lion since their last fight with Zarkon. There are rumours that it is damaged beyond repair, but they have yet to be confirmed."
"Any change with the other Lions?" Lotor inquired.
"There has been a decrease in Green Lion sightings but some suspect that the Green Lion is mostly used for stealth missions," Acxa answered.
"Oh so they could be as active as the others but you just don't" Ezor appearing behind Acxa with a devious smirk. "See them~" the perky general cooed, blowing air over the back of the second command's neck, causing the Axca to shiver.
"Yes…" the second in command hissed out, not so gently pushing a giggling Ezor away.
Acxa brushed her hair back into place as the blue-skinned Galra quickly regained her composure before continuing, "It is hard to confirm how many missions the Green Lion has truly taken part in as they are excellent at remaining undetected"
Lotor nodded, though the green lion wasn't a major concern at this time. They needed to figure out a method to draw out the Black Lion. He would need to see all five lions and their pilots' capabilities to see if they could be used for his purposes. Without a way to confirm The Black Lion's existence or destruction, The Prince couldn't even be sure if these paladins were capable of forming Voltron.
"Any other news about Voltron or their allies?" The Prince questioned.
"It appears that many parts of The Voltron Coalition forces are installing new devices to their bases. Despite our spies' best efforts, we've only obtained fragmented pieces of the device blueprints," Axca explained, as she flicked the screen over to the next slide. Revealing a collection of half-destroyed blueprints or sheets with ink so faded, it was nearly impossible to tell anything was once written on them.
Acxa's voice faded to the background as Lotor's heart nearly came to a stop, it may have been a few thousand years since he last saw such work but there was no mistake he had once seen these drawings in Ori'Auna's Lab.
Acxa sighed "Given the limited information, our scientist can only guess what this device-"
"It's a quintessence booster" Lotor stated, standing up from his chair, wondering how these schematics existed. Ori'Auna and everything she once created was lost, gone forever with her planet. Even if the Galra had taken it from her lab before... no, if that were true, the Empire would have used it a long time ago.
"Prince Lotor, have ya seen this thing before?" Zethrid asked, as all his generals stared at him curiously.
"Yes, but the booster was never completed... The original blueprints and the inventor were destroyed by my Father a long time ago," Lotor replied, not sparing a glance at his generals. Viewing something that so clearly had Ori'Auna's influence after thousands of years, with nothing to remind him of his Ammi but the painful echo in his soul, nearly ripped The Prince's heart apart.
"That's very strange..." Axca hummed. "According to our sources, it was only recently developed and created by the Voltron team"
If that was true then could it be that Ori'Auna's soul wasn't lost forever? Or was that too much to hope for?
"Do you know which member of team Voltron created these blueprints?" Lotor questioned. His eyes glued on the schematics, an irrational part of The Prince felt if he looked away, even for a just moment, he would lose his final tie to his soulmate.
"Reports say that it was the Green Paladin," Acxa answered.
Lotor laughed, but of course! If Ori'Auna had a choice of who she would reincarnate as, who better to choose then the future Green Lion pilot. The one and only Paladin to 'The Guardian of The Forest' would suit her well. Choosing to become one of the only forces in the universe with the potential to stop Zarkon... Yes, that sounded just like something Ori'Auna would do.
"Umm Lotor?" Ezor called out, sounding hesitant as all the generals looked between each other.
"My apologies, but there is a change in plans. Everyone, find out as much as you can about the Green Paladin, I need to have a meeting with them." Lotor declared.
Much to Lotor's disappointment, information about the Green Paladin was sparse. There wasn't even any confirmation whether the Green Lion Pilot was a female or male, not that his soulmate sex mattered.
Lotor wasn't going to waste his second chance with them, nothing would stop The Prince from having his soulmate by his side again.
Lotor knew things weren't going to be the same as they were with Ori'Auna. This person may have the same soul, which according to legends meant the person's 'core' would remain the same. Though what that truly meant was up to debate.
Regardless, the spirit and the personality of the individual would be different. They would have the same soul, but a different life. Filled with different experiences and people that would mould and shape who they became.
Lotor would never forget Ori'Auna or the love he held for her, nor would he give up on his plans to honour her loss. But the fact of the matter remained that he lost his chance for a life with her. Ori'Auna was gone, and nothing could reverse that, but the chance to be with the person that could complete his soul like Ori'Auna once had was still within his reach.
Things were a little more complicated being on opposite sides of a war (for appearance's sake he had to keep it that way, at least for the time being). It was merely an obstacle he had to work around, and Lotor was never the type to turn away from a difficult puzzle or challenge. Ori'Auna would be so disappointed in him if he dared to see this as a limitation.
Lotor sat back in his chair shuffling through information they had gathered on the Green Paladin and Voltron. The Black Lion's lack of presence was growing more and more noticeable, with no answers as to why.
Recently there was a sighting of the Green Lion and its Paladin. They worked with the Red Lion on a mission involving refugee transportation through a tight cluster of asteroids.
According to witness reports the Red Lion alone couldn't hold enough citizens. Since only the smaller Voltron Lions could fit through the narrow passageways between the floating asteroids, the Green Lion was added to the mission last minute.
At least they could confirm the Green Lion was still active during missions.
The Prince had found signs of the Green Paladin searching for two males, both having been captured with the champion. Though nowadays more knew him as the Black Paladin instead of the Champion.
Lotor couldn't confirm if the Green Paladin had been searching for these individuals for personal reasons or as a favour to the Black Paladin. Regardless he couldn't find any current locations for either male. One of them had been broken out of prison by renegades and the other male's location was classified even to him. It most likely involved Haggar or her druids, Lotor would have to search for the other male carefully or the Witch may ask some unwanted questions.
There was no way in the seven infernos he would allow that blasted woman near his soulmate again.
Lotor searched through a seemingly endless amount of pictures, involving Voltron and its crew. Yet The Prince still struggled to find a single picture of the Green Paladin not wearing their helmet. A handful of the Red Paladin and even half glimpses of the Black Paladin, and a fair amount of Yellow and more than he cared to count of the Blue Paladin. Some pictures of the supposedly Altean 'Princess' that had slept for ten thousand years and her mustache Advisor.
Lotor knew he should feel more about discovering that there were other Altean's in existence outside of himself. He just... couldn't bring himself to be joyous about the discovery, mostly because if the Princess really was Alfor's, daughter... Then he sincerely doubted that Allura or the Advisor would be kind to the son of Zarkon; the man that destroyed their planet and their people.
The two of them would just become like everyone else, despising him for his heritage and bloodline.
Lotor's fingers paused over a request form, it seemed simple enough at first, Voltron sending a request to an allied force. The form simply asks them to scan and keep an eye out for a certain kind of frequency on their radars. It wasn't an uncommon request, he had seen other forms similar to this one. Usually, they were about detecting distress signals or ship radios, but the code for this frequency looked eerily familiar.
After a quick look through the Galra Empire database, he knew why. It was the same type of signal to track the Lions. The Lions were created from such a rare material that it was one of the few ways they could be tracked. Though the distance they could be detected was limited ... Even with the many advancements, the Empire had made over the years (or forced others to make). For scanners to even get a blip on the radar, a ship would literally have to be on the same planet or atmosphere as a Lion.
What was the purpose of looking for such a thing? Voltron had all the Lions. Even though the Black Lion hadn't been seen in phoeds, The Galra Empire had footage proving the Green and Red Lions carrying the Black Lion back to Castle Ship. So even if the Head Lion wasn't functional they would still have it in their possession, unless…
They needed more material to repair the Black Lion.
It would explain why the strongest lion had been inactive as of late and why Voltron was looking for a frequency that matched the lions.
This could be used to Lotor's advantage.
Given this new piece of information, and the few types of missions the Green Lion was assigned… Yes, he could craft the perfect 'mission' for The Green Lion, one that he would need to assure only the Green Paladin would show up, and in turn, draw his soulmate to him for a small chat.
A satisfied smile spread across The Prince's lips, Lotor could hardly wait to hear his soulmate's voice.