"Its not FAIR!" Romelle burst onto the bridge, interrupting Shiro, with Krolia close behind. Allura started to smile, excited to see another Altean and to hear about where she'd come from. But Romelles eyes were red and she was furious as she stormed up to Keith.

"I knew Galra break their word all the time, but is it also a human practice?!"

"First of all," Keith said through clenched teeth, "I never gave you my word. Second, I'm sure I can find a very good example of Alteans who have gone bad."

"That's not the point!"

Keith shook his head, "I'm just about to explain to them our plans, would you like to join?"

Romelle stepped back and folded her arms. Keith nodded for Shiro to continue.

"In short, Black isn't going to accept me. Keith, do you think you can take over again?"

"I doubt the Blades will miss me," Keith shrugged, "if the three of you are ok with me coming back."

"Just wondering what was taking so long," Allura said and moved to hug him. Romelle hissed and turned her head.

Her initial excitement had cooled with Romelles explosive entrance and now the princess turned those cool eyes on her kin.

"And now, you can explain what you were talking about, preferably WITHOUT insulting a member of Voltron."

"Rome-" Keith tried to cut in, but the girl took off.

"I come from a planet of Alteans! We've lived there and built our lives back up, but we've been hunted by-"

Poof.

A pillow engulfed her face and forced her to stagger back.

Lance stood in the door was and yawned. His hair stood strait up and there were sleep creases on one side of his face, and he did not look happy.

"I can hear you screeching…down five hallways, and a locked door."

"Its all your fault!" Romelle shouted throwing the pillow down on the floor, "I demand justice!"

Lance rolled his eyes, "carry on like this and this morning will be for nothing."

"I was promised justice!"

"SO WAS I!" Lance roared making everyone jump, "You will get your justice, and a healthy dose of revenge, but it will be on OUR terms. Do I make myself clear?"

Romelle refused to cower, but she did start to cry again. Lance sighed and rubbed his face. He hadn't woken up with a temper in a long time. It mostly came from his mothers side of the family and Lance knew he took more after his father. But every so often his mothers morning blood would take over and he'd have mornings where every face he saw was incredibly punchable.

"Why are you crying…"

"Oh, I don't know," Pidge said, "perhaps screaming in her face has something to do with it."

"You'd think she'd run out of salt water by now," Lance muttered darkly, "this is how the other Alteans situation will be handled. Krolia, Romelle and the Blades will transport all the Alteans to a safe planet out of the way of anyone who might discover them as soon as possible. The Agency should already be in contact with Krolia and they will work together to get a planet set up for them. We have this witch to take down and we are NOT going to be dragged off course and leave our back completely unattended! Now, if you have a problem with that, then go ahead and discuss it till your face turns blue, I don't care. Whatever Black Leader says, I'll do, but so help me Romelle, if your actions put anyone in danger I will end you myself."

He stormed back out of the bridge, looking like a madman. Then he came back in, stomped up to Romelle, who flinched, snatched his pillow off the floor and stormed back out.

In the silence that followed, Frok turned to Hunk and Pidge, "See? I told you he takes these things seriously."

()

Allura did her best to comfort Romelle as they talked. Keith told them that Lance had wanted to hook them up with the agency that morning, and that's what it was all about. He said it was a plan that they had come up with together and that it was the safest way to accomplish all the tasks that seemed to be piling up on their plate.

"We can't be in three places at once," Keith said, using his most gentle tone to offset Lance as much as possible, "Voltron may be the defender of the universe, but the universe is a really big place and its got a lot of problems."

"Patience is hard," Allura said, now somewhat understanding why the girl was so angry, "especially when its something close to you."

"Yeah, Lance really isn't like that," Hunk said, "I've seen him be a morning beast only once. Back at the garrison he woke up, cursed everything he came in contact with and then went back to bed."

"You never told me that," Pidge said.

"I didn't think about it until now," Hunk shrugged, "Like I said, it only happened once."

"Lucky," Frok said, "he was like that for three days in a row while we were on a stealth mission. It is difficult to be stealthy when your partner wants to strangle everything he sees."

"you can't expect me to believe THAT BEAST has any kind of heart!" Romelle sniffed an rubbed her face, "He listed to everything I said and then ignored HALF of it! Telling me that my problems had to come second and maybe even THIRD!"

"With sound reasoning," Keith replied, "You know this. We discussed this."

Angry, and pushed to her last limit she snapped, "I don't CARE if he killed his last partner! I don't care WHY he had to kill him! That has NOTHING to do with THIS situation!"

Keith felt his blood freeze. Frok clacked his teeth together in barely controlled anger of his own.

()

When Lance woke up again he felt much better. He had a dim recollection of Romelle making a scene…or did he make the scene…well, he'd find out eventually. He should probably apologize though. Frok and his sister had once recorded one of his bad temper mornings and showed it to him. Honestly, he'd scared even himself.

He sat down and poked around a small box where he kept all the odd things he liked to pick up and collet from time to time. He'd been sure he had a pair of earrings in there somewhere. He'd got them for Allura, but then thought better of it when she refused to give him even a moment to present them to her.

Romelle didn't look like the type to be swayed by gifts, but he hoped it would at least give her pause enough for him to get a proper apology out.

Finding them he pocketed them, fixed his hair, washed his face, and left to face the aftermath of his bad temper.

Or so he thought. He entered the bridge to find Keith with his blank, tight lipped, 'you can't make me' face firmly in place. Frok and Romelle were having a stare down and as he entered, they all looked at him like they didn't know him.

"Umm, ok," Lance said as he walked up to Romelle, this was the largest and strangest reaction to his temperamental mornings that he'd ever had, "Hey, Romelle, I'm sorry I was so harsh and, here-"

He held out the earrings and watched as she turned her head, stubbornly defiant of his apology.

"I shouldn't've yelled," Lance continued, still holding out the present, "I know its hard to wait for things to come about the way you want them to, but this really is the best idea we could come up with."

"Lance…" Pidge started to reach out, then hesitated.

"What?" Lance said, "are the earrings too much? I just thought-"

"She told them," Krolia replied, her arms folded as she leaned against the consol, "told them that you killed your last partner."

The air in the room tensed as they waited for his response.

"…that's all?" he asked, and Krolia nodded, "Then good, this is a non-issue right now. That can be addressed later."

"But-" Coran tried to protest but Shiro held him back.

"Does the news stop you from trusting me?" Lance asked.

"An explanation would be nice," Hunk confessed, "but right now? No, we're sure you had a good reason."

"I did," Lance said and turned back to Romelle, "I had a very good reason."

He stepped up to her and pressed the earrings into her hand.

"I don't want this!"

"Then throw them away, I don't care," Lance shrugged as he made his way over to Keith, "Am I correct in assuming you're the leader again?"

"…yes."

"Good, what's the order?"

"We changed a few things."

"Just tell me what to do," Lance grinned, looking totally at ease.

()

"Are you very upset?" Frok asked once he was able to talk with his partner alone.

"Not as much as I thought I'd be," Lance confessed, "you know…this morning was the first time I'd said any of that stuff out lout since I told you and Iverson what happened for the report. I'd almost forgotten a lot of it. I mean, it was eight years ago."

"Not many people, even in my own race, have vivid nightmares about events that happened eight years ago."

"Because your race, and most other people, would've just died," Lance winced after he said it, "Sorry."

"It's the truth," Frok grinned, "if a little uncouth."

"We'll get this done," Lance said flopping down into a seat by the table, "we'll get rid of the Wicked Witch and imprison Snow White shortly after for his crimes against humanity. After everything is manageable once again, we might have time for war stories."

()

The change was that Frok would be leaving with the Blades and Romelle. Krolia would stay as their contact into their situation. The others waited for Lance to object, but he didn't. He helped his partner ready a ship and said good-bye without any complaint.

"So how ARE we going to deal with the Witch?" Hunk asked, "I know we all said that we need to, but I'm at a loss as to how."

"We'll wait until Allura and Coran get back," Keith said, "we'll send her a message and invite Lotor to this meeting as well. With his support we should be able to get this done a little bit quicker."

"I'm just glad he's on our side," Hunk sighed, "Can you imagine how hard everything would be if we had to fight him AND the witch at the same time."

Lance nodded, "makes me tired just thinking about it."

"Its just a good thing he hates her as much as we do," Pidge said, "maybe even more so."

"We were able to get the movement of Haggars ships and all those that are allied with her," Krolia replied, "I should have everything ready and organized by tomorrow."

"So rest up," Shiro said, "last time before we go back to the grind."