"Sooooo its a battle royal," Hunk said, "and the winner is king?"
"I'm getting Lion King vibes only Simba intentionally killed his father instead of Scar," Pidge said.
"That's messed up," Lance said.
"No one asked for your opinion," Lotor sneered.
"Don't have to," Lance grinned, "they come unbidden and free of charge."
"and for our pleasure," Added pidge holding out her hand for a five, and lance gave it to her, "no one asked you to ask."
"If I can solidify my position as ruler, then I can stop the war from the inside," Lotor stressed.
"It really does seem like the simplest option," Shiro agreed.
"Even I have to agree," Allura sighed, "And you know how much I don't want to."
"Then he should claim that right on his own," Lance said, "Like everyone else. Why do we have to go back him up?"
"Because we are fighting for peace, lance," Shiro snapped, "Or did you forget that?"
Lance blinked, surprised, "Excuse me?"
"Its almost like you want this war to continue," Shiro was glaring at him, "I thought you said you wanted to go home, or is this all stroking your ego too much?"
Lance's jaw was hanging open as he stared at him. Finally he snapped it shut.
"Fine, you're call," he said using the same words he had with Keith when he'd been unreasonable.
"That's right," Shiro said, "My call or are you going to trump my orders?"
Lances face burned red and he glanced over at Lotor, the only person in the room that didn't know what Shiro was eluding to.
"Of course not. I already told you why."
"Good," Shiro turned back to Lotor and Allura. Allura looked uneasy as Shiro began to lay plans.
()
"This one is a little too young, don't you think?" Karl pointed trough the glass as the kid sitting at the end of the row. Those beside him were 13, 10, and 13.
Iverson shrugged, "I'm willing to bet he out does everyone else."
"that's not the point," Karl snapped, "There are LEGAL reasons the youngest we can go is ten!"
"the sooner we can start training agents, the sooner we can start integrating them with the other races. Work off world is increasing and we don't have the skill for it. Finding those that wouldn't cave under the stress is hard enough. Children naturally have open minds. They don't really have opinions formed yet. If we can train them while they're still flexible then we don't have to bother breaking them through training and boot camps."
Karl still wasn't sure but continued to watch the four kids in the room.
They were putting together a puzzle that didn't have a specific picture. That morning they had been asked to take a short multiple choice test full of questions like, "what would you do if-" and the occasional true v false.
Lance had seen the other kids and had been a little over whelmed. Even the girl was a head taller than he was. His mother was waiting in a room with all the other parents while he did all the tasks they told him to do.
Most of it was solving puzzles which Lance was actually pretty good at. Sometimes it took his mother a while pick him up, so he would solve the puzzle cubes on the office lady's desk.
The last test was done separately. One by one they were called in and then they were able to leave and go back to their parents.
When Lance walked into the room he saw a table with a knife and pen.
"Choose your weapon," came a voice from the speakers.
Lance observed the knife and the pen for a while. He had no idea what they were talking about. The only weapon on the table was the knife. Then again, he thought, you could stab someone with a pen too…
"Don't wanna," Lance said finally, "I don't want either of them."
There was a long pause, then, "why?"
"Because the weapon I want isn't here," Lance said practically, "I'd rather do things my own way."
There was an even longer pause before, "You may leave, thank you for taking the test."
It was a full week before the McClains found out the results. And when they did, Iverson himself and a tall man with black hair and kind face, delivered the good news.
()
"Is that child even human?" the council member watched the candidates and were as impressed as Iverson had been.
"One hundred percent," Iverson grinned, "I double checked."
"The other three also did remarkably well."
"are you sure you couldn't find a fifth child?"
"I found one, but his parent turned me down immediately," Iverson answered.
"Keep searching then."
"Let's see how this experiment will go…"
()
"Lance?"
"I don't like this…"
"Don't let what Shiro said get to your head," Hunk said, "He's been all out of sorts lately. Did you know he's been drinking three cups of tea a day? I don't think he's doing well."
"Its not about Shiro…I don't think…"
Lance couldn't put his finger on it, but his gut was trying to tell him something. He felt uneasy.
They were flying after the black lion while keeping their communications secured between the three of them. Shiro was even flying with Lotor.
Red flags were everywhere and Lance had no idea where to look!
The black lion was far ahead of them and even Red was having hard time keeping up. By the time they got to the location, the battle was already in progress and Shiro had positioned himself between the majority of the opponents and Lotor.
Large ships and galra cruisers were starting to come in.
"Let's keep them busy," Lance called and asked Allura and Hunk to take one side while he and Pidge guarded the other.
This just wasn't right…
()
They returned to the ship in a haggard state. Hunk was stiff and jumpy and Pidge was having a hard time catching her breath.
"What was that?" Allura shouted as Shiro walked into the room.
"What do you mean?"
"Shiro," Lance tried, "you didn't answer any of our calls."
"You gave Lotor more cover than you gave us!"
Lance tried to calm Allura down because Shiro was looking genuinely confused.
"I did answer you back," Shiro said, "I-"
"We didn't hear anything from you," Allura snapped, "I understand why we were there and I'm glad it all worked out in the end, but please remember who your actual team is!"
She stormed out of the room, shoving Lotor out of the way as she went.
"Did I miss something?" he asked, looking around.