Here's chapter three! Finally, it's time for some backstory. I just want you all to know I spent this entire chapter mentally comforting Keith with the fact that there's a (step)father out there who will one day love him... and he spent nearly a year living unknowingly in a shack he owns. Someday, Keith, someday! But until then, the long awaited backstory! And what could Lotor be planning... is that an original arc coming over the horizon I smell? It might very well be!


crimson

chapter three

father


"Attention, paladins of Voltron. This is Prince Lotor, son of Zarkon, Emperor pro tem of the Galra Empire. Surrender now, or you will be destroyed."

For a tick, all Keith saw was red.

Hate coursed through him swiftly as if it were venom, to the point that for a time, it was the only thing he could feel. When it began to give way, in slipped anger, which quickly escalated into rage, and before he knew it, he was pushing the red lion to her absolute limits, completely ignoring the fighters that had launched from the ship, his tunnel vision refusing to acknowledge or even see them.

A deep growl ripped itself from his throat, a sound which gradually became more intelligible, if only a little. It was Lotor's name, spoken with every ounce of fury he could muster.

The red lion responded to his anger at first, roaring just as he did. When he called forth its railgun, it came to him without hesitation, clearing a path through the swarming fighters until it impacted with the shields of Lotor's flagship. Though it had decimated the fighters in its path, the shield held steady, causing him to growl in frustration, baring his fangs.

Lotor was right there. He could kill him, make him pay for what he had done. He had made his father into a traitor, and because of that, countless children were dead, an entire generation lost. If he could just finish him off, then he could rectify his father's sin, put an end to the chain of suffering that he had started. Prove to the world that he wasn't his father's son.

He poured more power into the railgun, striking the shield again. The red lion was taking fire from all sides, and the paladins were yelling at him, but he drowned it all out, focusing on destroying the shield of Lotor's ship. If he could just channel a little more power...

The shield shattered, but at the same time, the red lion's railgun abruptly vanished. It took him a few ticks to even realize it, and only then did he slowly start to snap out of the haze of bloodlust the sound of Lotor's voice had thrown him into. Alarms were blaring, and they probably had been for some time, but there was still too much rage in him to care.

Even worse, Lotor was getting away.

Growling, Keith pressed the red lion forward, giving it every ounce of throttle it had. If he thought he could just run away, then he had another thing coming.

Then all at once, the red lion shuddered and jerked, then just stopped- just as Lotor's ship slipped away, into hyperspace. Keith swore, trying to get the controls to work, but his lion refused to move, refused to do what he said.

"Kyix!" Allura's sharp voice broke through the red haze of anger. "Kyix, you have to stop!"

"That was Lotor!" Keith spat, his words half growled as if he just remembered he could talk. "He's getting away! We have to go after him!"

Deep down, he was aware that Lotor had already gotten away- and that it wasn't a matter of we, it was a matter of he. He was the one who wanted to go after Lotor, who needed to go after Lotor. He couldn't have the Galra prince right in front of him just to let him slip away like that.

"Kyix," Allura began, a clear note of caution in her voice, "-the red lion cannot pursue. It's been damaged."

Keith blinked, something in her voice causing him to finally emerge from his haze. He drew in a shuddering breath, finally properly taking in his surroundings- and realized that the reason the red lion wouldn't respond to him was because it was completely dead in the water. Even after he'd been spat out of that corrupted wormhole, it hadn't been this bad.

He hadn't even noticed.

He swallowed, caught between the last of his rage and guilt. He'd completely let it get the better of him- all of his pent up feelings coming out at once, blinding him to anything else. All he had wanted to do was kill Lotor- he hadn't stopped to think about anyone or anything else. He couldn't even feel his bond with Red, he realized- and that was enough to banish the very last of his anger.

"Keith, buddy," Hunk's tone was just as cautious as Allura's had been, and he vaguely realized that maybe they were afraid of him as much as they were afraid for him, "-are you like... okay?"

"No." Keith whispered. "No, I'm not."

"Okay." Hunk said slowly. "That's okay. How about we just get you and the red lion back to the Castle? Then we can sort this all out, okay?"

Keith nodded, before dimly realizing that nobody could see him right now. With the red lion dead in the water, there were no video links, just the coms in his helmet. Swallowing, he bit down on his lip, purple blood welling up where he bit down too hard and cut himself.

"Yeah," Keith said slowly, his own voice sounding hoarse, "-that sounds good."

He heard Allura let out a long sigh over the coms, and winced. Now that he was back to his senses, he realized that his behavior had been completely unacceptable. Even worse, his single-minded focus had gotten the red lion damaged somehow, and at such a delicate time too. Until the repairs were finished, they wouldn't even be able to learn if they could form Voltron or not.

If they would even want to form it with him, after that display.

He was still thinking that as Hunk towed him back to the Castle, bringing them both into the yellow lion's hangar. He knew that he should probably leave the cockpit- the other paladins deserved an explanation for his behavior, but he couldn't make himself move.

"Keith?" Hunk's voice carried through the red lion. Guess he had decided to come find him instead. "You in there?"

Keith made a faint noise in response. He could pick up the sound of Hunk shuffling awkwardly by the entrance to the cockpit, like he didn't know if he should come in or not. He must have decided to, for a few ticks later, he heard the sound of his footsteps, so much more distinguishable now that he could hear properly again.

"Hey, buddy." Hunk said, his voice soft, calming. "You want to-?"

Hunk abruptly stopped talking, causing Keith to finally look up at him. He'd grown pale, his attention fixed on his back. Blinking, Keith turned his head to look at it the best he could, only now becoming aware of something wet staining his undersuit.

Oh. The scar from his surgery must have ruptured.

He didn't even remember blacking out.


Allura swore she didn't even remember to breathe until Kyix was safely loaded into the healing pod. Her first outing as black paladin, and it had gone terribly.

When Hunk had emerged from the red lion with Kyix cradled in his arms, she had feared the worst. Thankfully, while it appeared that he had lost quite a bit of blood, it was nothing that a few vargas in the healing pod wouldn't solve. It would even heal the scar properly, so that something like this couldn't happen again.

Allura bit her lip. She still wasn't quite sure what something like this even was. She knew that she could contact Kolivan and ask, but that somehow seemed underhanded, however eager she was to question the Blade leader about his knowledge regarding Prince Lotor. Not mentioning that there was an heir to the Galra throne seemed a fairly large oversight on his part.

Though given Kyix's reaction... perhaps there was good reason for that.

"I'll look after things here, Princess." Coran told her. "You should probably go check on the others."

"Good idea, Coran." Allura managed a faint smile. "They are probably all concerned after... that."

Coran's expression grew grim. He might not have been with them, but the Castle was linked up to the lions. What they had heard, he had heard. "Yes. I imagine they would be."

Allura's gaze dropped to the floor, where it remained for a few ticks, trying to sort out her thoughts. Eventually, she heaved a sigh, realizing that this was getting her nowhere, and she was only putting off what needed to be done.

"Tell me when he starts to wake up." Allura said, looking back up towards Coran, and then towards Kyix's pod. Seeing him lie motionless somehow didn't sit right with her, even though she had grown up around the pods. She wasn't used to seeing him so still.

"I will." Coran promised.

Allura gave him a curt nod of her head, collecting herself before she departed the med bay. She wasn't surprised to find that the paladins had gathered right outside, each of them looking up at her as she entered the hall.

All save for Shiro.

"Is he-?" Hunk asked.

"He will be fine." Allura replied. "A few vargas in the pod, and he should be good as new."

All those gathered let out a breath of relief, for which she could not blame them. Kyix's paladin armor would have to be thoroughly cleaned to rid it of all the blood. How had he not even noticed just how badly he was bleeding? If they could have begun treatment sooner...

She supposed it didn't really matter now. The important thing was that Kyix would recover.

"So... what exactly was that?" Lance asked. "I mean, I've never seen Keith like that before."

"I have." Hunk said, his gaze fixed to the floor. "It's just like how he was back in the Weblum, just... just worse. I think whoever this Prince Lotor is, he has some kind of serious issue against him."

"He is Zarkon's son, exactly as he claimed." Allura said, narrowing her eyes. "Or at least, that was the Prince Lotor I knew."

"You knew him?" Pidge asked, looking up at her in surprise.

"Not exactly." Allura admitted, shaking her head. "Honerva- Zarkon's wife- was still pregnant with him when the war began. I didn't think he'd survived."

"Yeah, well, the Blade must have known about him." Lance pointed out. "There being an heir to the Galra throne sounds like the sort of thing that would be important to mention."

"While I agree, I fear there is more to it." Allura said, her gaze darting back towards the med bay. "And whatever that reason is, I fear that Kyix is right in the middle of it."

Everyone fell silent at that, doubtlessly thinking of the display they had all witnessed. She had even been able to feel it, the feelings of hate and rage so strong that even though she had never even formed Voltron with any of them, she could still pick up on it. She imagined it had only been worse for the rest of them, and it showed in the way they had flown their lions. They were just lucky that Lotor's interest did not truly appear to be the conquest of Puig, otherwise they would have been done so for sure.

They had tried their best to protect the red lion and themselves- but in the end, a single shot from Lotor's ion cannon had been able to get through. Normally something that powerful would have severely damaged the red lion, rendered it inoperable, but Kyix had pushed it beyond its limits, in his frantic chase to kill Lotor.

And it had been to kill Lotor. They could all feel it. Hear it, too. Useful as they were, she almost regretted the universal translators that were installed in each of the paladin helmets. Without them, she alone would be the only one to understand the harsh Galran words that Kyix had spoken. Words of murder and curse, and a deep, deep hatred that she was all too familiar with.

It was the same way she felt about Zarkon.

"We will speak to him about it once he recovers." Allura said finally. "Whatever his reasons are for his behavior, we owe it to him to hear him out until the end."

"Do you think he'll tell us?" Hunk asked.

Glancing back towards the med bay, Allura frowned. "Yes."


Keith groaned, awareness returning to him slowly. Once again, his head was in a fog, but this time it was one born of the cold, rather than the burning heat of rage.

That thought was more than enough to snap him out of this one, suddenly recalling exactly where he was, and how he'd gotten there. All at once, he became keenly aware that he wasn't alone, and that in fact there were several pairs of eyes staring at them, some of them more wary than others.

Right. He couldn't say that he didn't deserve it.

He still barely remembered the battle with Lotor's flagship. He'd been so focused on taking down his ship, that he hadn't stopped to think of anything else. He was starting to recall a bit more- Red taking a massive hit, something which he hadn't even noticed in his haze. He had pushed her past her limits, and she'd-

"How's Red?" Keith asked, the words tumbling out of his mouth.

"She'll recover." Pidge said. "Coran, Hunk, and I have been working on repairs. She took a bad hit, but she should be able to bounce back. It just might take some time."

Keith sighed in relief, letting his shoulders slump. The cryosuit itched against his skin, making him feel exposed, but he ignored it. There were more important things to worry about.

"I... probably have some explaining to do, don't I?" Keith asked.

"You do." Allura said. "But that can wait, at least until you get a bit of food in you."

"I brought your clothes." Hunk told him. "And your knife."

Keith looked up, giving him a grateful smile. Pidge and Lance were somewhat keeping their distance, but Allura and Hunk were a bit closer. He guessed this wasn't the first time Allura had seen a Galra lost in their own bloodlust, and Hunk... well, Hunk had seen him get angry before, back in the Weblum. It hadn't nearly been as bad as this, but at least it had probably prepared him for... well, that.

"Thanks." Keith said, gratefully accepting the bundle from Hunk. "And... I'm sorry. I know my behavior was unacceptable, and it won't-"

He cut himself off, unsure if he could make that promise.

"I'll try not to let it happen again." Keith finished.

"We'll give you some privacy so you can change." Allura said. "Once you finish eating, we will all be in the lounge. We would like to hear more about this... Prince Lotor."

Keith winced, covering it by ducking his head and nodding at Allura. Apparently that was good enough, because she and the rest of the paladins left the room, one by one. Once they were gone, he let out a held breath, suddenly almost grateful that Shiro wasn't here.

He hadn't meant to lose control of himself like that. No matter how much he hated Lotor, and no matter how much better the universe would be with him dead, it didn't mean he could just fly into a rage like that. He had lost focus of everything except Lotor- he hadn't thought about his fellow paladins, his lion, or even himself. He could have gotten them all killed.

He had to be better.

Changing out of the cryosuit and into his Earth clothes, Keith tugged his jacket on. He hesitated when it came time to pick up his knife, wondering just how much he would have to tell them. If possible, he wanted to avoid having to tell them about the decision Kolivan had been forced to make that day, but he knew that without it, the story would be incomplete.

He shouldn't have even known about it. But it was what he'd seen during his trial, a vision of the past. Thinking about it made his throat burn, and he forced himself to swallow, grabbing his knife at the same time and sheathing it in a hurry.

He went straight to the lounge, without stopping to eat anything. Everyone was surprised by his sudden appearance, but nobody protested as he sat down, across from where they had all gathered. The faster he got this over with, the better.

Ugh. Now he wished Shiro was here. Would it kill him to make up his mind?

"Whenever you wish to begin." Allura told him. Her tone was... less harsh than he expected, but it wasn't kind either.

Twining his fingers in front of him, Keith stared down at the floor. He wasn't sure where to begin. With his father? With Lotor?

Suddenly, a thought struck him. He must have been in that pod for a few vargas. That was more than enough time for Allura to put a call out to Kolivan.

"Have you spoken to Kolivan yet?" Keith asked.

"No." Allura said. "We wanted to hear it from you."

Keith blinked, not quite expecting that. Part of him was grateful for the chance to tell his story himself, but the rest of him... the rest of him just wanted to pass this off to someone else. But that was the act of a youngling, and a spoiled one at that- and he could hardly act like one after he'd spent so long protesting that he wasn't.

Taking in a deep breath, Keith squared his shoulders, having settled on where to begin.

"Prince Lotor is Zarkon's son." Keith explained. "But I guess you know that part already."

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Lance asked. "How can Zarkon have a son?"

"Lance." Allura warned, shooting him a glare.

"It's fine." Keith said. "Lotor was born at the very start of the war, ten thousand years ago. He was a part of the Empire up until nine thousand years ago, when he was exiled."

"Exiled?" Allura frowned. "Whatever for?"

Keith shook his head. "Nobody knows for sure. The Blade of Marmora only existed in a rudimentary form back then, and we don't have any Blades left alive from that era. Some say it was because he and Zarkon disagreed over how to extract quintessence."

"And that was enough to exile him?" Allura asked.

"For Zarkon?" Keith asked. "Yes."

"Guess there's not much of a familial bond there." Pidge muttered.

Keith narrowed his eyes, staring back down at the ground. That was what he didn't get. If Lotor had been exiled, then what was he doing here now? And what was that emperor pro tem business about anyways? He thought he remembered Lotor saying something like that, just before the haze of rage took over.

But they could talk about that later. Right now this wasn't about Lotor- even though it kind of was. No, this was about him- and about his father.

"Ever since his exile, Lotor has remained elusive." Keith began. "Even we don't know that much about him. Kolivan sent countless Blades to try and track him down, but none were successful. At least, not until my father."

"Your father?" Hunk asked. "Did... did Prince Lotor kill him?"

"I wish." Keith mumbled, more to himself. "No. He didn't. My father was able to infiltrate Lotor's command. He wasn't exactly in the inner circle, but he was close enough to Lotor to be able to monitor what he was doing, and where he was going. But that also made him vulnerable."

"To exposure?" Pidge asked. "I thought you said Lotor didn't kill your father."

"He didn't." Keith stated plainly. "Kolivan did."

There was an uneasy silence on the bridge then, half born out of pure confusion. Keith sighed, suddenly wishing he could be anywhere but here.

"My father's closeness to Lotor left him vulnerable, yes, but not to exposure." Keith forced himself to continue. "He left himself open to influence. My father chose to betray the Blade of Marmora. He was going to reveal our existence to Lotor, and expose countless Blades to the Empire."

The paladins paled, color draining from their faces. He couldn't exactly blame them. Now they knew the truth- or a part of it, at least. He was the son of a traitor, something that had followed him for his entire life. While the main base was full of Blades who didn't judge him for his father's sins, he knew that there were others who reviled him for it, cursed him, even. Those who despised the fact that he was the only one to have survived, even though it was his father who was the cause of all of this.

He couldn't blame them. Sometimes he asked himself that question.

He had never known the answer- not until Voltron, anyways. Sometimes he wondered if the only reason he was alive was so that the red lion could have a paladin. If it weren't for that, maybe he'd be...

The burning returned with a vengeance, causing him to gasp for air. Grasping his throat, he desperately tried to suck enough in, briefly succumbing to panic before he managed to remember that what he was feeling wasn't real, and that he could breathe. At that point, everyone had gotten to their feet and were halfway towards him, concern evident in their expressions- only to stop once he managed his first, shaky breath.

"Sorry," Keith whispered, his voice still a little hoarse, "-I'm fine."

"That happened before." Allura said. "You said it was nothing then."

"It is nothing." Keith promised. "Just... bad memories."

Allura frowned. "If this is difficult for you to talk about..."

"No." Keith cut her off, shaking his head. "You should know. I promised you I would tell you the truth when I revealed that I was Galra, but I was lying. I didn't... I didn't want to tell you about this. About any of it."

"There's more?" Pidge asked.

Keith nodded, one set of fingers rubbing the corresponding jacket cuff. "My father didn't just intend to defect to Lotor. He wanted to give him proof of his word."

"Proof?" Hunk asked. "What kind of proof?"

"A few phoebs before I was born, the Blade recovered a shipment of reazit children." Keith began, swallowing hard. "They weren't able to find out where the ship they were on was headed, so they never found the facility- all data was erased the moment they tried to access it. But they were still able to recover at least six reazit children. Kolivan made the decision to raise them, and had them brought back to our nursery base."

Allura frowned, her brows knotting together. "I thought you said that the nurseries were a part of your bases, not separate from them."

Keith nodded. "They didn't use to be. For much of the Blade of Marmora's existence, children were raised on a separate base. That's... actually where you found me, after the corrupted wormhole split us all apart."

Hunk frowned, his brows knitting together. "I thought there was something kind of funky about the gravity on that asteroid. Are you saying there's a Blade base in there?"

"Was." Keith corrected. "It's been defunct for eighteen deca-phoebs."

"Deca-phoebs is years, right?" Lance asked, squinting in his direction. "Wait, aren't you eighteen?"

"Last I checked." Keith managed to crack, even though he couldn't find any humor in it. No one else did either.

"So... what happened to it?" Hunk asked, clearly nervous to hear the answer.

"My father wanted to present Lotor with the reazit children, as proof of his intentions." Keith said. "But when Kolivan brought them into the Blade, he messed with the data, so no one would know exactly which were the reazit children rescued from the shipment, and which were just the children of actual Blades. He also replaced every Blade working on the base, so nobody there knew which was which."

"That sounds like a lot of trouble to go through." Pidge observed.

"Kolivan wanted to give them a chance to be raised as real children of the Blade." Keith explained. "He was going to assign them parents, once the caretakers at the nursery base got a better grasp of their personalities. But until then, he didn't want them to be treated like outsiders, so he instructed those who were a part of the rescue mission to not say a word about it."

"So when my father couldn't figure out which were the regular children, and which were the reazit, he just... decided to take them all." Keith said, his eyes downcast. "Except for me."

"But you're reazit." Pidge pointed out, squinting at him as if she doubted herself. "Right?"

"He didn't know that." Keith said. "He just thought I was aket, a runt. I guess Lotor wasn't the only part of the Empire that he'd been influenced by, because he thought that was something he should be ashamed of. That before he could leave the Blade, that I was something he had to rid himself of."

His words were met with silence, but even without looking up, he could feel their eyes on him. He closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath, steeling himself to look up- and was met with exactly what he thought he would be- or almost. There was horror, just like he thought there would be, but instead of the pity he'd expected, what he'd found instead was sympathy.

Somehow it made the rest of the telling a little easier.

"He tried to poison me." Keith admitted, his voice quiet. "He would have succeeded too, if it hadn't been for my mother."

"That," Hunk stammered, his face pale, "-that's awful."

"Who tries to poison their own kid?" Lance asked, aghast.

"You were right." Allura said, each word carefully measured, but he could sense the fury building underneath her otherwise calm demeanor. "It is good that he is dead."

"So that's why you hate Lotor so much." Pidge said. "That... actually makes a lot of sense."

"Yeah, I'd be pretty angry at him too." Hunk agreed.

"Be that as it may, you still put yourself and the red lion in extreme danger." Allura told him- and he winced, knowing she was right. "Not to mention the rest of us, as well as the Puigans we were sent to protect."

"I know." Keith admitted, ducking his head. "I let my anger get the better of me, and ended up putting all of you in danger. I shouldn't have done that."

Allura heaved a short sigh. "I just wish you had told us all of this sooner. Lotor is one thing, but your father..."

Keith winced, fearing the worst. His claws dug into the fabric of his jeans as his grip on his knees tightened. Maybe they had been sympathetic to his story, but that didn't mean they hadn't realized what a liability having him around was. He was the son of a traitor. He'd already lied to and deceived them twice now, and he'd nearly gotten them all killed today. If they wanted to find someone better to fill the role of red paladin, he couldn't exactly blame them.

And yet, he still found himself wanting to stay here. He'd found something here, it dawned on him- though he still didn't quite understand what. Maybe it was just the thrill of being able to interact with people close to his own age for once in his life. Regris was one of the youngest Blades around, and he was still ten full deca-phoebs older than him.

"I won't end up like him." Keith said, resolute. "I promise."

There was a silence at his words, but he didn't dare look up. He was too afraid of what he might find.

"Kyix," Allura began, "-nobody thinks you're going to become your father."

Keith blinked, looking up at the paladins in surprise. That hadn't been the words he'd expected, even if they were the ones he'd been yearning to hear.

"You... don't?" Keith asked, dumbly.

"Of course we don't." Lance grinned. "I mean today was kind of terrifying, not gonna lie, but nobody thinks you're going to turn traitor or anything like that."

"Honestly at this point, we're kind of used to you pulling crazy stunts." Pidge pointed out. "That's like, your thing."

"Which maybe is something we should work on." Hunk added. "You know, have some team building exercises and all that. Or some anger management exercises. You know, just a suggestion. Might help."

Keith winced. "Was it that bad?"

"You were growling, so yes." Lance said. "It was that bad."

Keith bit his lip, staring at the floor, feeling his cheeks heat up. He was caught somewhere between revulsion and embarrassment, because the latter didn't feel quite strong enough a response to having lost himself in his own bloodlust, and the former seemed just a little too strong. He hadn't meant to do it- to do any of that. He'd just... he'd heard Lotor speak, and everything had gone red.

Not the comforting kind either, like the red lion. He winced again as he thought about her. How was he ever going to apologize to her? What if she didn't want him to be her paladin anymore? He shouldn't have pushed her like that, should have listened- but he just... hadn't been able to hear anything. He'd been too focused on Lotor, too angry to see anything around him.

And he'd very nearly paid the price for it.

He wouldn't do that again. He didn't know if he could control his temper to that extent, but he could at least try.

It was what Shiro would have wanted him to do anyways.

"I'm sorry." Keith said, with more resolve this time. "It won't happen again."

"Good." Allura nodded her head. "And I hope from now on, you won't feel the need to keep things from us."

"Speaking of things you kept hidden from us," Pidge hesitantly began, "-what happened to the children? The ones your father tried to kidnap?"

Keith closed his eyes, unable to keep himself recalling what he'd been shown during his trial. Namely Kolivan's expression, as he realized what needed to be done in order to keep the Blade of Marmora hidden. It was the face of a man who was about to be forced to make the most terrible choice he'd ever faced- even though he'd had a lifetime of being forced to make terrible choices.

"They didn't make it." Keith swallowed, opening his eyes. "Kolivan attempted a rescue mission, but the hull of the ship my father stole had been rigged with explosives to prevent just that. There was no way in, and he... my father had also stolen vital Blade intelligence, so he- Kolivan was forced to make a decision."

"The ship had to be stopped." Keith said. "At any cost."

Allura, who was the closest to him, grew pale. "Do you mean to say that he was forced to shoot down his own ship?"

"He tried to minimize damage, but there were no survivors." Keith told her, settling on the most blunt approach. "Lotor showed up about a varga after the explosion, so they were forced to abandon the search."

"That... that's horrible." Allura half-whispered.

Keith nodded, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. Aside from Allura, everyone else had been rendered speechless- which he could hardly blame them for. It wasn't an easy topic of discussion, and even those who had been directly involved with it didn't want to speak of it to this day. It was the single darkest day in the history of the Blade of Marmora, and not one that anyone wanted to repeat.

But if even Antok had forgiven Kolivan, then no one else dared to hold it against him.

"You know what?" Lance asked, finally seeming to find his voice again. "I think I hate Lotor now too."

"Ditto." Pidge and Hunk quickly agreed.

"Then it is a good thing that it is now our mission to put a stop to him." Allura said, looking towards him. "But it is one that we will accomplish together."

Unable to say anything, Keith simply nodded.


"Have you finished the damage assessment yet?"

"The red lion's railgun decimated our shielding system." Acxa reported. "It will probably take several quintants to properly repair it."

"Ion cannon's fried too." Zethrid grumbled, audibly frustrated. "Those vines are going to take awhile to clear out. We won't be able to use it until the sentries get rid of the last of them and repair the damaged parts. I mean, we could, but it might just blow up in our faces."

"But other than that, we're in pretty good shape!" Ezor chirped. "Better off than the red kitty, at any rate. What did you even do to make him so mad, Lotor?"

At Ezor's inquiry, Lotor felt his brows knit together. He wished he knew. He didn't enjoy being left in the dark when it came to information pertaining to him. The red paladin's fury towards him had been amply clear- somehow he doubted those were simply the actions of a rebel who loathed the Empire. There was something deeper there, more personal.

He just didn't know what it was.

"Nothing." Lotor said simply. "At least, nothing to my knowledge."

"Well you must have done something." Zethrid said. "He came at us to kill."

Acxa glanced up at him from her control station, a single, silent question carried in her eyes. Lotor merely sighed. He supposed she was right- negotiation was very much off the table, if that was his response to his appearance. He was more likely to stab him in the heart, than he was to listen to anything he might have to say- but he supposed that sort of anger wasn't unexpected in one of Galra lineage.

He had never been prone to that sort of fury, but then again, he had his mother's blood to dilute it. The red paladin must be pure Galra then, in spite of what his height might suggest.

"What about that Blade who tried to contact you?" Ezor asked. "You know, the one from a few deca-phoebs back?"

Lotor blinked, looking up at her. He'd nearly forgotten about him, truth be told. His actions he remembered, but the man himself had been largely forgettable. He'd ultimately gained nothing useful from him- though he supposed that wasn't entirely true. When he had arrived to examine the wreckage, he'd discovered a single containment pod intact.

From it, he'd gotten Narti.

And from Narti... well, he'd gained quite a great deal indeed. So he supposed that he had to thank the Blade in question- even if he'd never received any of his promised information.

Thankfully, Narti was currently absent from the bridge. The shock of the explosion had caused her to lose her memory, and he'd rather she remain unaware that she carried any possible Blade lineage. She was loyal to him, of that he was certain, but family was a factor that even he found difficult to control.

Although, now that Ezor mentioned it...

"I suppose they do bear a resemblance." Lotor mused, glancing over towards Acxa. "You mentioned something about him having red markings, just underneath his eyes?"

Acxa gave him a curt nod of her head. "Yes."

"Red is... rather uncommon." Lotor mused aloud. He'd largely forgotten the Blade's face, but his red markings had stood out. "Perhaps they are related."

It would certainly be worth looking into, he thought. He had never considered that the Blade who had attempted to betray his own might have had a child. And for that child to grow up to be the red paladin... now that was interesting.

Perhaps he shouldn't be too hasty in dismissing any held interest he might have in this Kyix. It would simply require a bit more caution and forethought on his part.

"I believe," Lotor began, a slight smirk forming on his face, "-that I have an idea as to our next move."