AN: I'm back! With a NEW chapter!
Special Thanks to Unknown Miko and 14 for leaving a review on the last chapter.
Chapter summary: Things continue to not go according to plan but at least it leads to a face-to-face between the two soulmates.
Lotor's communicator buzzed and screeched as his ship's sensors went wild, only able to make out broken pieces of words from his soulmate.
"Repeat Green Paladin!" Lotor called through his coms, thanks to the new fog he could barely make out the glowing eyes and markings of the Green Lion as it leaped off the vines and out of view. The Prince gripping his controls tightly preparing for the worst.
The vines gripping his vessel suddenly released him and tightly trapped two insect creatures that lunged at him, their long pincers missing his ship by only a few feet.
The Prince was already revving his engines as The Green Lion came up from under his small ship The Loin gripping the left wing of Lotor's ship in its mouth as it whipped him around 180 degrees back the way they came.
A crack of his soulmate voice "G=go==g=g=go=go" screeching through his coms.
The Green Lion's metal tail smacked another of those insects as it bounded forward to follow him.
Lotor's ship bolting forward, The Prince glancing back long enough to make sure his soulmate was alright, relieved to see their Lion following close behind his ship.
A wave of frustration twisted in The Prince's gut. Not because of the danger but because he couldn't fight back. His small ship only had laser-based weapons and with no idea as to how they may react to this purple fog, he could only run.
Lotor pushed his ship to go faster, he couldn't help protect his soulmate, so the least he could do was make sure to lead the way out of this thorn maze having memorized their way in.
Lotor swiftly bobbing and weaving his ship through the tight passageways, making sure every swoops that his soulmate hadn't fallen behind.
The Green Lion pouncing off the walls to keep up with his ship, firing the vine cannon to capture and halt their insect pursuers, thankfully that weapon still seemed to work in this purple fog.
The Green Paladin was a better pilot than Lotor had first anticipated, but he shouldn't have expected anything less from his soulmate.
"bov= ou" The Green Paladin's voice cracked through his communicator.
The Prince barely caught the sight of dark round spheres slipping out between the cracks of the thick thorny vines and falling down towards his vessel. His skills allowed him to miss more than a dozen of the spheres, all half the size of him before one hit and stuck to his ship. The things weighing down his ship enough for two more to hit his vessel, the spheres popping open into pill bugs, the slime on their legs eating away at his ship.
"E=ect, E=ect! Jump!" His soulmate called out through his helmet, with no other choice on hand. He put all his trust in his soulmate as he pulled the eject lever, hearing the echo of his ship crashing behind him as Lotor and his ship's seat flung through the air. Shards of his ship fly past him and rip through parts of his suit and armour in the moments before the Green Lion caught him in its mouth. The back of his seat sliding through the inner compartments of the Green Lion before coming to a sudden halt against the back wall.
"If you can move, get up to the cockpit" The voice of The Green Paladin echoed around Lotor. The Prince assuming it was coming from some kind of intercom system.
Pulsing green lights glowing along the walls, presumingly gilding him to where the cockpit was.
It took more effort than Lotor cared to admit, as he unbuckled himself from his ejector seat, pulling a particularly deep piece of metal out of his left arm that had ripped through his armour and undersuit. The Prince choosing to ignore the other rips in his suit and pieces of his old ship sticking into his armour. Medical care and assessments could wait till after they were safe.
Pushing himself up and making his way towards the Green Lion's cockpit. "Here" Lotor grunted out, staying near the back corner so as not to distract his Soulmate from the task of escaping and surviving.
"Good," They acknowledged not looking towards him, keeping their focus on piloting through a forest of thorns and fighting the insects bent on making this their grave.
"Brace yourself," The Green Paladin warned, "I made a digital map on my way in, from this point on, we have a straight shot out of here, but Green can't outrun all these things. According to my sensors, we should be reaching a thin layer of the red fog before reaching the blue fog again, once in the blue fog I'm going to fire Green's tail cannon at the red fog to ignite it. The following combustion will fire Green through the rest of this passage like a bullet through a barrel, stopping or at least delaying those insects. The velocity and heat will also pull off any possible stragglers on Green." They clearly and precisely explained, just as they started flying into the red fog.
"Understood," Lotor replied, gripping onto the curve of the door frame leading into the cockpit and the ceiling to help brace himself for the rough ride soon to come.
As soon as the Green Lion reached the blue fog, its tail fired, the red fog ignited and they were catapulted forward. The paladin's arms shaking as they kept their Lion as steady as possible under the force surrounding and pushing them. The Green Lion shooting out of the planet like a cannon.
Stars looking like nothing more than streaks of light, as they kept flying forward. The loins' front paws thrusters turn on to avoid a large asteroid. The green bayard; which was embedded in the console, glowed as two vine shots were fired at two far but quickly approaching asteroids one on the left and one on the right, the two sets of vines reaching out to the other twisting together and creating a net.
The Lion twisted around slamming its side against the middle of the vine net, slowing them down considerably before gradually ripping apart from the force. They tumbled for a few unpleasant seconds before Green Lion's claws dug into the surface of a small moon, rubble and dust kicking up in their path before they finally came to a stop.
The Green Paladin let out a single breath before their fingers were dancing over their monitors checking their Lion's system.
Lotor took the chance to slide onto the floor, giving his aching legs and bleeding left arm a break. The Prince couldn't recall the last time he had been in such an audacious flight where he wasn't the pilot.
When the adrenaline calmed down his soulmate was bound to be angry for luring them to such a dangerous place.
"A few systems have minor damage, such as Communication, a few far range sensory and weapons, but all major systems connected to movement and life support are still online and functional. Plus no detection of any stragglers, so for now, we should be good." The Paladin declared with a pleased nod, looking back at him. The green glow of their cheeks against their helmet's visor prevented him from making out any of their facial features.
Now that he thought about it his cheek marks were glowing as well and wondered how long it had been happening.
His soulmate started cursing under their breath as they looked him over and scrambled onto their feet, opening a hidden compartment against the lower right wall, swiftly pulling out a first aid kit.
"It's not as bad as it looks" Lotor assured, he had been through much worse and survived.
"The blood says otherwise" The Green Paladin argued, taking off their helmet as they slid down in front of him, revealing their face to him for the first time.
Any counterargument died in his throat as he could only stare at his soulmate who he could now confirm was female, his eyes drinking in her features.
First, it seemed he underestimated how tall the other members of Voltron were, as the Green Paladin was much shorter than Lotor expected, if he was standing up she would just barely reach the middle of his chest. Her hair was short, fluffy, light brown and oh so tempting to touch. Her skin looked like porcelain with small dots scattered across her nose and cheeks.
The soulmarks on her cheeks glowed a deep green much as they did in her past life, the major differences being that the paladin's marks were not as large as Ori'Auna's. They were smaller, shallower, much more Altean like.
The Paladin's fingers snapping open the kit and shuffling through the medical supplies. She looked over at his injury, down at the kit then back up at him. "Hey stay with me, don't pass out" The Paladin voice filled with urgency, as her bright eyes gazed up at him shining with concern.
The colour of the Green Paladin's irises was as if the shades of Ori'Auna's deep brown iris and golden sclera merged together to create the beautiful honey brown eyes staring up at him now.
"Atem, Talk!" She ordered, lightly pushing against his chest as she swiped a swab over the green substance that was splattered over the cut on his arm. Hmm, he hadn't noticed that before.
"I apologize," Lotor replied taking another long look over her form as she put the swab in a vile and began to shake it, "I was momentarily memorized by your beauty."
The Green Paladin gave The Prince a double-take as she kept shaking the vile, the liquid inside slowly turned into a blue colour as her facial features shifted into confusion. "Are you… flirting with me?" She questioned.
"Merely stating a fact" The Prince answered, watching the confusion on his soulmate's face quickly slide into annoyance.
"Don't flirt when you're hurt" she grumbled, looking back at the colour of the vile, bringing up a holographic monitor over her left arm, typing something in it before aiming her wrist towards him as a blue light washed over his form.
"Looks like that green stuff is reacting like a sedative in your body, though I don't know how long it will last, biological chemistry isn't one of my expertise" She explained, reading over the information her scan had given her. Nodding slightly when she finished reading and started shuffling through the first aid kit.
Well, that explained why he was feeling so sluggish.
Once the Green paladin found what she was looking for she seemed to double-check the writing on a small vial with her monitor before returning her attention to him.
"Hey Atem, I don't know if you trust me enough yet but I need you to take one of these capsules, it will help prevent any other side effect while that green gunk works its way out of your system." She explained, showing him the vile filled with small green pills.
That was interesting, not the offering of a pill to help with his ailment but asking about his trust in her. It was understandable given their limited interaction, but he knew from experience that only someone that had a difficult time trusting others or at least dealt with a lot of people with trust issues; phrased a question like that.
The Prince briefly wondered if this was a subtle hint towards her culture or her personality as he reached up to remove his helmet. Lotor's long silver hair flowing out as he lifted it off his head, her smaller hands gently taking his helmet from him. Putting it next to her own as his soulmate's eyes seem to scan over his facial features.
Maybe she was mesmerized by his beauty just as he was by hers. Lotor thought as he took one of the pills she originally offered him. Hoping a show of trust would earn some of her's in return.
Her honey-brown eyes seem to linger longest on his cheek marks "Wow, you really do have a lot of Altean features" The Green Paladin commented as she moved to grab more supplies from the kit and shuffling herself closer to his injured arm.
"I'll take that as a compliment" Lotor replied, watching as she started cleaning up the green substance around his wound.
"I didn't mean it like that, it's just that the only other half Galra I personally know looks way more hu-" She caught herself, probably from saying the species name, HER species name Lotor assumed. "He looks way more like his father's species than Galra like his mother. I had guessed that maybe with Galra genes that the father tended to have a more dominant role in a child's appearance but now seeing you... I'm thinking that maybe only the skin colouration is the dominating feature in mixed Galra breeding."
"Do you think about Galra breeding often?" Lotor teased, smirking down at The Paladin as she paused in her work. A delightful red started blooming across her cheeks. When her eyes glanced up at him the red seemed to intensify before glaring back down at his injury.
"Not in THAT way,'' She huffed cleaning his blue blood a little rougher than before "more about how different species genes in general work, and how mixed breeding with different planetary species works on a more fin point level. Heck, before finding the Lions I had never left my planet, or met any other planetary species"
So planetary travel was uncommon on her homeworld, it would make it harder to figure out what species she is and where she's from. That was probably Voltron saving grace, as the Galra Empire could not find it and target their homeworld or possibly destroy his soulmate's planet once more.
"You've taken on a lot since becoming a Paladin," Lotor stated, it was commendable for what she had accomplished in a short time but wistful for the amount of stress and pressure that must have been suddenly thrust upon her.
"Yeah… including an Altean soulmate that lured me to a dangerous planet just to talk" She stated with a dry tone, "this might sting" she warned a moment before making Lotor hiss as she disinfected his wound.
Ah, he had anticipated her anger over the situation he had trapped the two of them into.
"I apologize for causing such an incident, I was unaware of that purple fog or the creatures it triggered."
"Probably 'cause we're the first to survive them" The Green Paladin replied, the corner of her lips twitching slightly. Lotor wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign.
"Yes… that very much may be the case," Lotor agreed, with a tired nod. "but I do not regret reaching out to you, or doing so in such a secluded place. I...I needed to meet you."
Her gaze flickered up to him before back to his wound as she began to bandage his arm. "I kind of get that... if I knew you from my dreams was real and out there, I would probably go pretty far to meet you too" she quietly confessed, as if it was a secret only he was allowed to hear about even though it was only the two of them in the cockpit.
A fond smile spread over the prince's features as a gentle warmth filled his chest. Lotor thankful his soulmate; if the roles were reversed, would reach out to him too. For a moment he believed that… just maybe... the universe didn't hate him as much as his father did, that maybe some kind of higher power still believed he deserved a soulmate, some form of love in his life.
"Though, there was probably a few dozen other ways you could have connected me" She pointed out, finishing the bandage on his arm to start plucking some shards of metal and other debris out of his armour.
"I devise six other methods of contacting you, but none of them provided the same amount a seclusion, or insurance that no one would see our meeting," Lotor replied seriously.
"Why was that so important?" The Paladin asked, the way her intelligent eyes curiously gazed up at him, gave Lotor the impression that his soulmate had already thought of several reasons and was trying to narrow down his motivations.
"I didn't want the past to be repeated" He confessed with a soft sigh, her honey-brown eyes widening, "And I was fearful that if other's found out about our interaction, about us being soulmates..." Lotor's words fell his mind swirled with the memory of waking up to Ori'Auna's planet on fire and her blood staining his armour.
A failure that had haunted his waking and sleeping hours for most of his life.
The way his soulmate pulled her hands away from his arm snapped Lotor out of his mind and back to reality. A twisted feeling forming in his stomach as he looked upon the Green Paladin small form trembling. The back of her hand pressed against her mouth, tears pooling out of her honey brown eyes as her green soul marks glowed brightly along with his own.
At that moment Lotor realized he had no idea what his soulmate's name was and had to fall back to the old name of endearment he used with Ori'Auna. "Ammi, what's wrong?" Lotor questioned, his tired voice filled with concern, slowly raising his good arm and reached out towards her.
The Green Paladin grabbed his hand with her other hand before he could touch her cheek, lightly squeezing his hand as she closed her eyes and took in a shaky breath. "Sorry… I just had a flash-a vision I…" her voice cracked more tears trailing down her spotted cheeks.
"It's okay Ammi, take your time" Lotor offered, curling his long fingers around her smaller hand.
"Ori-" she hiccupped out, "Ori'Auna… she was killed for being your soulmate"
Lotor's blood ran cold, had the green paladin seen her past life's death? The last moments of Ori'Auna's life, moments he had wondered about and fearfully imagine what happened between being knocked out by his father and waking on his ship.
"Yes… she was," Lotor chocked out, his chest feeling tight just thinking about how he was responsible for Ori'Auna's death, and the thousands of ways he could have avoided her death. If ONLY he had just realized his Father's would never change... even just a day sooner. "It's why I needed to make sure no one saw us when I met you" The prince answered, gently holding her hand against his chest as he turned to face his crying soulmate.
Lotor could handle the pain as he used his injured arm to gently wrap around her frame and pull her a little closer. She didn't seem to oppose this form of comfort as she rested her forehead against his shoulder, her crying form leaning into his hold.
Asking for details about the vision would only harm her more, and he doubted any answers he got would soothe his soul about what transpired that day.
The Prince could only imagine how intense a vision of a past life death could feel, or how bad it was to engrave so deeply into her soul to be triggered so easily by his words. Lotor would need to take more care not to trigger more bad memories from Ori'Auna's life. His soulmate's current life already had more than enough responsibilities and pressure without her past life mixing into all that.
Lotor already greatly pitied the individual that would get his soul in his next life.
"You know" The Paladin sniffled out taking a few slow deep breaths before pulling herself away from his shoulder "I'm not sure you need to worry too much about me gaining the empire's ire" she hiccuped whipping her eyes with her free hand "I got a pretty big target on my back just being the Green Paladin." she pointed out with a half-laugh, the glowing marks on her cheeks fading as she calmed down.
"I'm aware" Lotor exasperated with a long sigh, somehow having the witch focus on his soulmate did frighten him way more than having the bulk of the Galra Empire after her, "forgive me for not wanting to add to that."
"You don't need to apologize for your intentions. Your actions on the other hand… Sorry still haven't forgiven you for tricking me into a giant bug nest" The Green Paladin lightly teased, with a mix of annoyance in her tone. His soulmate seeming to recover from the vision she saw, but Lotor could tell by the way she still tightly gripped his hand and the slight quiver in her shoulders that she was still shaken by what she had seen.
"I do not blame you as I haven't forgiven myself for that explosive blunder."
"Do you mean literally about your ship or about our escape cause I own that last one, or do you mean the bug situation in general?" She questioned.
"I greatly apologize for the last one, I never intended to put you in such danger" Lotor promised, lowering his head in submission.
"Don't worry about it" The Green Paladin assured leaning herself closer to him to be in his view. "I have a few ideas how you can earn my forgiveness" she stated, with a devious smirk and a calculating gaze that sent a thrill up Lotor's spine.
Was it too soon to say he loved his Soulmate and… was it just him or was everything getting fuzzier?
"I will do anything within my power to earn your forgiveness" Lotor softly smiled lifting the hand in his grip up to his lips, giving the back of his soulmate's hand a kiss.
Huh, his Soulmate's face was getting blurrier, but why? She was so close...
"Atem?" The Green Paladin said, her voice sounding a little concerned, hmm did she not like the kiss on her hand. Why was her hand slipping out of his hand… or was he letting it go.
"Atem!" she called out a little louder.
Lotor tried to console her but the words fell away from him, much like how his world fell to darkness hearing his soulmate's voice loud and panicking in the distance.
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