It's funny, Lance thinks, how time doesn't seem to move in space. Back on the castle, there was artificial lighting that simulated sunrise and sunset, and clocks, with both Earth and Altean time. But here in his cell, there's nothing. No clocks, no changing lights. Just dim constantness. He's learned to mark time, in some way at least, by when Lotor arrives to visit, and by the changing of the guards. To be fair, the room he's kept in is by no means uncomfortable. Just boring.

Everything in the damn room is white. The floor is covered in plush rugs made of some kind of animal fur (or person fur, but Lance would prefer not to think about that), and the room has a large, fluffy bed in one corner, both of which are spotlessly white. Hell, even the food he's been served has been white. It's pretty bare, other than that, but definitely not as bad as it could've been. Lance has been bored out of his mind since he got there. The only change in his day is when Lotor visits, five times a day, if he counts correctly (if a sleep counts as a night anyways; Pidge would be better at figuring this out then he is.). He's literally the only thing in the room that's not white, other than Lance of course, which makes it hard to ignore Lotor when he comes in.

So instead of resisting like he did the first few times, he lets himself stare unabashedly in the hopes of figuring him out. Why the hell did he want Lance anyways? If he wanted to use him for information, he would've been tortured by now, but other than that boredom, he's been treated (mostly) alright. Not to mention, Hunk or Pidge would've been the better choices for information gathering. Lance was pretty sure it was something along the lines of ' I'll capture the pretty one for a pet' cliche, like in Star Wars and pretty much every other space opera out there, but he wasn't too sure about that either. If the point was to brag that he had caught Lance, why keep him in what amounted to solitary confinement when he could parade him around the empire to all of his Galra buddies? All he ever did was come in, and force him to dance, or talk to him, or touch him.

Lotor confused him. A lot.

Lance was pulled from his thoughts as the door slid open again. He didn't move from the bed, where he had been hanging upside down off of for the past hour (he guessed. It could've been less or more.)

"It's polite to stand when your superior enters the room." Lotor says almost angrily.

Lance blinks as Lotor crosses the room in a few strides; it kinda looks like he's walking on clouds.

Lotor yanks him off of the bed in a single rough movement. Lance lands uncomfortably on his stomach.

"Hey-" He starts to complain, only to be interrupted by another rough grab, this time forcing him upright and then to his knees.

"You will respect me. I am your superior. I am the only reason why your friends are still alive right now. We made an arrangement, and you will keep it." Lotor hisses. His white hair curls around his face, contesting with the red marks under his eyes. He's similar to an Altean, Lance realizes. The hair, the marks. How did he not realize it earlier? But the only surviving Alteans were Allura and Coran. Except….

Which meant that Haggar had to have been his mother.

Lance didn't have time to dwell on his realization.

Lotor slapped him. Lance almost fell back at the force of it. His face stung from the impact, and as he raised a hand up to touch it, it came away wet. Damn. He'd forgotten that Galra had claws. Lotor grabs at his expensive collar (it's gold or something, and hurts like hell cause of how much Lotor's been yanking it.) and pulls his face close to his.

"Blue, I don't want to hurt you." His free hand cups the cheek that he slapped. Lance knows that spitting in his face is a bad idea. Just like pulling away or trying to run is a very bad idea. So he keeps his mouth shut and stays still. He stays very still, like a deer caught in the damn headlights. "But I will if I need to."

He releases his grip on the chain and stands up. His demeanor changes again. His flashes a bright smile at Lance and offers his hand. "Let's go for a walk."

Lance wants nothing more than to run past him or slap him away or yell 'No!' at the top of his lungs, but he knows better than that. If he ever wants to escape, he'll have to play along. So he stands, and takes Prince Lotor's soft hand, and does nothing but smile as he walks through the ship.

OoOoOoOoO

Keith may have underestimated how intricately careful the decoy is. There are twenty ships per cluster, each one with two human life signals each, along with a stronger one from the General's ship in the center. There are traps in every out of the way or slightly hidden area. There are cameras everywhere and guards in each room.

For once, Keith is really glad that he didn't do the stupid impulsive thing (he hadn't really thought one out, but if he had, he would've died or been captured before even making it this far.) Thankfully, Pidge had managed to figure out a loophole on their defensive system. Their own scanners can't tell the difference between the decoy human signal and a real human signal. By smothering their own life signals, the scanners can't pick up the signals of the Paladins when they get on the ship. The cameras were easy enough to send a loop to, or so Pidge said when she handed each of them a flash drive that would handle the coding for them (and thank god for that. Keith sucked at anything electronic, which was why he failed the computer class at the Garrison.) The only thing that Keith would have to personally deal with was the droids and the actual Galra, and Pidge had found a way to deal with the droids, at least.

She had attached ultraviolet lights to their helmets, which prevented the droids from identifying them as an enemy. It was a great plan, Keith had to admit.

Keith reached the next cell cluster. A droid walked past the cell, then turned the corner. He dashed across to the cell and peeked inside through the feeding slot. Nothing. Just a simple black cube that blinked irregularly. The signal amplifier.

He turned around angrily, only to run right into a droid. He froze for a moment, before realizing how guilty it made him look. He straightened up. "Watch where you're going." He growled, doing his best to impersonate a Galra soldier.

"Yes sir." The droid replied before returning to his post by the door.

Keith sighed in relief. He still had five more cells to go, which still meant that there was a chance that he would find Lance. He followed the map that Pidge had provided (without pidge this whole mission would've failed.) to the nearest unchecked cell.

He repeated the previous process, minus the interaction with the guard. Four left to go.

"He's not there." An unfamiliar voice said from behind him.

Keith spun on his heel, sinking into a defensive stance with his sword extended. The Galra walked out of the shadows. His face was familiar; maybe they had met at the Blade of Mamora. Nonetheless, he kept his guard up.

"You did pretty good in making it this far unnoticed, but Prince Lotor," the Galran spat the name bitterly. "Has planned for your attempt to rescue the Blue paladin. He has succeeded in splitting you up and distracting you." He pulled something from his pocket and tossed it. Against Keith's better judgement, he caught it. A small rectangular hard drive, he realizes as the Galran disappears the way he came.

It's only after he has checked the last three cells and returned to his lion that he realizes that he hadn't asked for his name.

OoOoOoO

They are at the castle when they realized that all of them had the same experience. Nothing has been accomplished but a waste of time.

Allura doesn't believe that there will be a ransom video, showing a tortured Lance to force their hand in some unpredictable way. Coran hopes that there will be; at least that would be something concrete. They could track it without any uncertainty.

Shiro wants to hope; but he knows the Galra too well to believe it to be true. From what Allura has told them about Prince Lotor, he is petty and spoiled, but not to be underestimated either; he had grown up to be Zarkon's replacement. Shiro figures that Lance is still alive; Lotor wouldn't have bothered to let them go, or have gone through so much trouble otherwise. Which meant that Lotor wanted Lance specifically.

Keith thinks he knows why. The possessive way that he grabbed for him. How he had smiled smugly when Keith had run after him. His face had mirrored Keith's, when he had rescued Lance from Allura's psycho father or when Lance chose him to train with.

Prince Lotor had fallen in love with Lance.

And where would someone as powerful as Lotor bring the person that they had fallen in love with? Back to their home.