"First, you're going to sit there and I'm going to sit over here," Iverson said, "and if you could, no matter how upset you get, stay seated? That would be wonderful. I need my other eye, you see."

Keith felt himself turn a little red, "sorry, about that…Lance explained what you were trying to do and I did over react."

"I'm not too upset. Your reaction was actually pretty normal. You should've seen McClain when I told him he'd be moving up to take your place. I thought HE would be the one to take my other eye."

"A little paranoid?" Keith asked, this laid back view of Iverson making him comfortable enough to jibe a little.

"Oh, you've seen nothing," Iverson nodded, "Paranoia is now my middle name, which is why I felt the need to come clean and give you full disclosure."

Keith wondered if he would be expected to come out and tell Iverson everything as well. He understood Lance had been sending messages back, but he couldn't quite see Lance intruding on his privacy and telling Iverson that he was half-Galra…

"We know you are part…Galran," Iverson said, crushing Keiths beliefs like a ripped off bandaid that wasn't supposed to hurt 'that bad'.

"We've known you weren't fully human since you entered the states social services. It gave us a shock and a lot pof trouble trying to hide it from the general medical community. Your blood work was vastly different from normal. Ever since then we have placed our own agents as your doctors and they've been watching you until you came to the garrison."

Keith held a hand up, stopping Iverson. He needed to let this sink in a little. When he could finally come to the conclusion that Lance had NOT told on him, but had instead KEPT the fact that he knew a secret…

How was he supposed to feel about this?

"The reason McClain came to the garrison was to…well, I wanted him to be your friend and keep an eye on you. Then I realized my mistake there."

Keith snorted and shook his head. Lance had said he'd hated him, where was the effort there? Lance, according to Keith, had made no effort at all to be his friend.

"Seems you two were far too similar to get along," Iverson said, saying what he'd told Lance before, "you two ended up butting heads instead of bonding."

"We're nothing alike and never were," Keith snapped, "we may be a team now, but that's-"

"Lance hasn't taken over, right?"

Keith stopped and scowled. Iverson continued.

"we are trained to take over any major operation outside our atmosphere. Especially if we find the rest of those involved to not know what they are doing. Truthfully he should've taken over from the beginning, but he backed off and let Shiro lead. Then he let you lead. Kogane, I know my agent very well. I was the one who recruited him in the first place. He would never take orders from someone he did not trust with his life. Which is why, you are going to get full access to our operations inside the agency. Only you. Then you can lead your team the way you see fit, after having all the information we have to offer. Do you understand?"

"What, there's more?!"

Iverson laughed, "I can only get away with this now because this is not only an emergency, but the council has been disbanded. So there's no one for me to ask permission from."

Keith bristled, "YOU'RE in charge of the whole agency?!"

Iverson shook his head, "Each head of the sections form their own type of council. We ah…agreed that Voltron will fall under B section."

He gave a crap-eating grin and seemed to invite Keith in on the whatever was funny. But Keith didn't see anything funny about any of this.

"You knew I was half alien when I was a KID and you said nothing?!"

"Of course."

"'Of COURSE?!"

"Kogane, look how you're behaving right now. How would you have reacted to that kind of news right after you had lost your dad? It would have been cruel. If we had told you then, we would have had to put you into confinement. In fact, we tried to recruit you into the agency as an agent when we recruited Lance, but your foster parent at the time was a jerk."

"which one?"

"The first one."

"oh."

"Thing is, a few in the council was firm in the belief that if you showed to take after more of your Galra nature, our enemies nature, then we would have to take action. Hence why we asked someone your same age to watch you."

"Are you sure you ordered him to be friends?"

Iverson gave Keith a dead-panned look, "I witnessed him try to talk to you multiple times…you brushed him off every time."

Keith blushed. He couldn't remember a single one of those times.

"After a while, you'd hurt not only his personal pride, but his professional one," Iverson said, a smile sneaking back onto his face, "I've never seen such an angry child wonder so angrily why another angry child wouldn't talk to him. He even said becoming friends with a brick wall would be easier than being yours. And now look at you both, makes me so proud."

Keith scowled, "really?"

"There's so much I could tell you about my wo's as McClains second parent, but I'll digress. Walk with me to the agency's main building and I'll fill you in on everything."

()

"So what are they talking about?"

"I honestly don't know," Lance said for the hundredth time. He really didn't know, but he could guess. And his guesses weren't half bad.

"McClain!" Some garrison cadet…no longer a cadet, ran up to them, Lance swore, "McClain, my buddie! My pal!"

"How in the ever livin' HELL did you get in here?" Lance growled, the boys face fell.

"What? With the invasion you think I wouldn't do something? You think I'd be a coward forever?"

"Nooo," Lance sighed, "I just really don't like seeing familiar faces that I've been told I never would again."

"Touchy," the boy grimaced, "you changed. And here I thought I'd be able to at least thank you this time."

Lance blushed a little, "sorry. But I really don't want any thanks. Everything turned out fine."

"That's when Iverson told us," the boy nodded and for the first time noticed the others with him, "Hi! I'm Melvin! You can call me Vinny if you want. McClain and I used to be trainees together."

"Seriously?" Lance snapped, "You just spout that out?"

"They're with you and you're matching!" Melvin snapped back, "Obviously they're in the know!"

"What section are you in?" Allura asked and Melvin laughed.

"I quit after about a year and a half. The fact that this kid," he wrapped an arm around Lances shoulder, "is still in it all, means he's got balls of steal!"

"Let go before I undo what I did," Lance said and glared, making his point clear. Melvin raised his hands and stepped back.

"Is that the way you speak to someone you owe a knife to?"

"I figured the knife for the favor was an even trade," Lance shrugged, "I owe you nothing."

"Fair enough," Melvin grinned again, "good to see you're still on your toes, even after you've been off world for so long. Here, let me show you all around!"

"I can do that," Lance sighed, but Melvin wasn't listening.

"So, we converted ALL the classrooms into what we call 'Assembly rooms'. Each room is dedicated to creating a part of the whole. We've come up with some really awesome fighter jets! They are even better than the ones we used to go off world in! As for the noise you're hearing right now, the Jermites are fighting with the graduated engineers."

"That's my cue," Hunk said, and passed by them to head in the direction of the slow rise in volume from the opposite corridor.

"I'll go with him," Pidge said, reluctantly, giving Lance an evil eye, "don't talk about stuff I wanna know while I'm gone."

"Not if I can help it," Lance said, and looked tired.

"They just ship at the front of the tour," Melvin complained.

"yeah, that's what they do," Lance said, "Come on, Allura, I'll show you around."

"Wait, you're not allowed to go that way!"

"Why not?"

"Because the-"

"Melvin," Lance said smirking and mimicking the arm around the shoulder move the other boy had done to him, "Melvin, Melvin, I'm a B1, which means I get to do whatever I want. So long as Earth is safe in the end, I can even kill whomever I want. Savvy?"

"Ummm, I don't think-"

"That's alright, I'll do the thinking from now on, you go back to your toys," Lance shoved him back the way he'd come, "Good to see you~!"

Lance then grabbed Alluras arm and hot footed it away from the boy.

"What was that about?" Allura asked, curious about what Lance had said more than how he said it.

"I didn't lie," Lance chuckled, his good old self again, "I really can do whatever I want. Actually, I can do whatever I want to a point, then I have to write a request, get it passed by Iverson and the council, and then wait for the ok, but its basically the same thing."

"Uh, huh." Allura stopped and folded her arms. She had noticed Lance was struggling since the clone incident. She had been there before as a princess. It was hard to balance your professional side and the side you saw as your real self.

"What's up?" Lance asked noticing the look.

"Look, Lance, I get that this is hard, but do try to cool it, just a little. If you're irritated, that's ok, but don't take it out on random people."

"I really don't like how perceptive you are sometimes," Lance scowled, "its creepy."

"The same to you," She chuckled, "if anyone understands I do, and I can teach you some tactics I've used that have worked for me."

"Actually, that-"

"What are you brats doing here?" a man in a pin stripe suit came marching down the corridor at them, "this area is off limits."

Lance pointed at his pin, which he'd fixed to his armor while they had still been in Antarctica, "I'm-"

"I don't care if you're a trainee or not, where is your trainer?"

Lance turned an imploring look at Allura. Sighing she gave up, and nodded.

()

"Where did they go?"

Hunk had an engineer by the ear and Pidge had a Jermite tangled up in her bayard. They dragged the two of them around, looking for Lance and Allura.

"This isn't any of your busi-ow!"

"It IS my business," Hunk said absently as they chose a corridor at random and walked down it, "you guys are embarrassing the department."

"Its not my fault!"

"KNOW YOUR PLACE!"

The shout came from around the corner and, recognizing Lances voice, they sped up.

Lance stood over a man well into his twenties, bending over so their noses where almost touching. Lance did not look happy. Allura was standing back with a 'he kind of asked for it' expression.

"When another agent identifies themselves, especially if its me, you back off. I don't answer to you or anyone else in S section!"

"Hey, Lance! Can you help us out here?" Pidge called.

"One minute," Lance said not looking up, "I'm schooling a puppy."

"I'm no 'puppy'!" the man said, trying to gain back some dignity, "I've made it past my year mark!"

"chihuahua then," Lance corrected, "go back to your computer and leave hard working agents alone."

"That was rude."

Another man appeared on the other side of the corridor. His hair was more grey than pepper, but the lines on his face didn't seem too deep.

"Rodrik!" Lance stood straight and actually smiled, "Don't tell me this is yours?"

"Yes, actually," the older agent said, "With you off world I seemed to have been remiss in informing him about B section."

"Oh, well, if its you, I'm sure it ok," Lance backed away from the other guy, "next time put a leash on your chihuahua."

Rodrik sighed and moved to help the other man up, "he's not a bad sort. We've just been a bit stressed and understaffed."

"A lot didn't make it, huh?"

Rodrik shook his head, "it was like they knew where our facilities were. Every section has decreased by half."

Lance sighed, "do they know who yet?"

"We were kind of hoping you would know."

"I'll get on that then," Lance shrugged, "its good to see at least you made it."

"High praise."

"You deserve it. You're the only one in S section that never felt the need to lie to my face when there was bad news," Lance grinned.

"Ah, I see," Rodrik let his eyes wonder and they landed on Pidge, "holt, you're parents are down the hall and to the left. I apologize that they weren't there to greet you when you arrived. We've been keeping them busy."

Pidge didn't need telling twice, she dropped her bayard and bolted down the hall without a word.

"What did they do?" Lance asked, noticing Hunk and the prisoners for the first time.

"They were instigating the fighting between the Jermits and the department," Hunk said, "Since one is part of your alliance thingy, I wanted to know if it was ok to punch them both in the face."

"They human you can," Rodrik said with a smile, "the Jermite might break if you do. They are not very…sturdy."

"then what do we do?"

Lance grinned at the older agent who sighed, "cruel, but effective. Hele."

"Yes?" the Jermite asked, worried.

"You come with us and help us with coding for a while."

"NO!"

The Jermite struggled as Lance bent over and untangled the alien from Pidge's bayard. Then he took hold of his long ear and tugged, leading him over to Rodrik.

"But..MY PROJECT!" Agent Hele complained.

"Shouldn't've started a fight."

"As for the former cadet," Lance said turning back to Hunk, "You found yourself a personal slave."

"WHAT?!" Both Hunk and the engineer shouted.

"Hunk is the best when it comes to tinkering," Lance said, "he takes it very seriously. If you dare come in between him and his project with something stupid, no one could punish you better than him."

"Is that a compliment?" Hunk whined.

"You were going to hunker down in that hallway anyway," Lance said, "Now you have a constant slave to do your bidding!"

Hunk looked down at his new shadow.

()

"Feel better?" Allura asked since Lance hadn't stopped smiling as they wandered around the garrison some more.

"Oh, much," Lance said and laughed, "Hunk is a lot more hard core than anyone gives him credit for. I can't wait till they realize that."

"Well, you sure put the other guy in his place."

"That?" Lance thought for a moment, "Rodrik was right, I've been gone for too long. I keep telling you guys that I have a reputation. If I go soft all of a sudden, then the other sections will walk all over me. I'm the only B, so I've got to stand on my own like that."

"Oh, I get it," Allura nodded, "I remember complaining to my parents about them not giving me an older brother first."

They laughed and Alluras Com unit buzzed.

"Lotor is asking about what's going on," Allura said and blushed, indicating that wasn't all he was asking, "I'll go talk to him and let him know."

"Allura," Lance said, unable to see her like this, "Be careful with him. Ok? I know you like him, but you have to keep in mind that he wasn't always the good guy, k?"

She scowled at him and walked away.

()

"Why is this even a thing?" Keith asked as he looked at the large laser that was going under repairs, "how long was this here?"

"About 50 years? Give or take five years," Iverson said, "It was dusty, but it worked a little bit when we were attacked. We're getting it up and running again, but probably wont mass produce it. Not with all the new ideas coming from Commander Holt."

They continued the tour and by the time they finished it was late.

"Let's wind everyone together and get something to eat."

()

Everyone was already in the caffitria when they arrived.

"We saved you some and a spot," Hunk said, a stranger sitting next to him.

"Who is this?" Keith asked sitting down.

"Hunks slave for the day," Lance sighed, "was going to sentence the kid for a week, but Hunk just looks so sad, I couldn't punish Hunk too."

"What did he do," Keith asked, amazed that someone would be punished by Hunk. They all looked at the new kid.

"I started a fight," the kid muttered, "and stop calling me 'kid' we're the same age. I think I might be older."

"Whatever, kid," Lance said taking a bite.

"I'm so happy your view on training has changed," Iverson said and Lance froze, "You're already assigning other people, progress is so important."

"Boooossss…."

"Keith is your trainee," Iverson said, like ripping off a bandaid.

"NO!" Both boys stood and glared at each other and then at Iverson.

"You didn't say anything about that!" Keith snapped.

"Think about what you're saying!" Lance said at the same time.

"I've thought about it, and if this is going to work, B1, you will have to either quit the Agency to join Voltron, or quit Voltron, and continue with the agency with a trainee that the Section Council will choose. This way, you can be part of Voltron AND a B1 AND I get to choose on my own who you train."

"But Boss…I can't…no way!"

"So you'll choose by tomorrow who you will join and who you will quit," Iverson said, ending the conversation. Lance left, storming away like a child being sent to his room.

"Now look whose the kid," the engineer said and got Hunks fist in his face.

()

Keith sat next to Lance, who was hiding on the roof.

"I really hate you," Lance said.

"Ditto."

"you know how hard doing my job was after you punched Iverson in the face?"

"We've been over that already, its getting old."

"We'll, it still pisses me off. I refuse to train someone like you."

"I refuse to be trained by someone like you."

"So, oh Red Leader, Order me to either leave or stay," Lance said.

"Hell no, this is your choice."

"You and Iverson are the same person, you know that?"

"He said the same thing about us."

"Yeah, I know, I said he was wrong and an idiot."

"I said about the same thing," Keith shrugged.

They sat in silence for a while.

"I can't teach you," Lance muttered, "B1 training isn't like the others."

"You told me already, remember?"

"Yeah well, its needs to be repeated."

"So what will you do?"

Lance laughed, "die?"