Attacking the center of the Galran empire is as dangerous a mission as it can get.
Keith doubts that Shiro would have allowed the mission, if not for the flash drive (or whatever the Galran equivalent is). It contained detailed plans of guard shifts, weaknesses in the shields and blind spots in Lotor's ship. All of it was information previously unattainable, and it helped to remind Keith that not all Galra were out to get them.
Allura pointed at a schematic, which blew up in size as turned to face them. "There is a high chance that Lance would be kept here." She taps her chin. "I knew that he'd be cocky, but I had no idea that he'd take Lance because of this." She knows about Keith, he realises as she looks back at him.
She doesn't say anything else until Pidge speaks up. "Because of what?"
Allura steps away from the console, and pictures start to float around them in a lazy circle. Each one of Lance. Lance shooting droids. Lance injured. Lance's lion. Lance. Lance. Lance. As the final picture approaches, Keith isn't sure if he can take it anymore. It's a gross perversion of privacy. The last one is the icing on the cake. Lance, sleeping on an unfamiliar white bed. Gauzy white fabric covers his skin loosely, leaving a large section of his chest visible. Most of the fabric does little to cover him modestly, and with his peaceful sleeping expression, it seems obscenely exposing.
Shiro's voice wavers. "He's...obsessed with him?"
"That's what it appears as." Allura replies quietly.
Keith wants nothing more than to rip Lotor's head from his shoulders. How the hell could he do this? How could they have not seen it? Suddenly it all made sense. How Lotor went after him specifically. How he held him possessively. How he had smiled smugly when Keith failed to reach him.
"We need to get him back now. Today. This instant." Hunk says, his voice going shrill with his anxiousness.
Shiro places a hand on Hunk's shoulder comfortingly. "We will." He turns back to the group. "We have a plan of attack now, thanks to whoever gave it to Keith. But as Pidge has said, they'll figure out what we have soon enough. Pidge and Hunk," They meet his gaze with poorly hidden horror in their eyes. "You'll take the Western half. There are two suites on that side that could Lance could possibly be in. Keith and I will take the Eastern half. There are three on that side. Allura, Coran, you stay back, play defense if we need it."
Keith was slightly uncomfortable with leaving without their lions, but since their rescue required a cloaking shield, an upgraded pod was the only choice. Pidge was lucky enough to have the option on her lion. They would have the added security of a lion waiting for them.
Shiro stepped into the pod, and slid into the driver's seat. Keith sat down beside him.
Shiro knew him well enough to know that there was no reason in speaking. What could be said that they both didn't already know? Shiro had been his only friend for the majority of his childhood, and for the past few years, Keith had thought of him as his brother. They knew each other just as well as they knew themselves.
"We'll get him back."
"I know." Keith says, and he's sure of it. Lance wouldn't go out there and die on him, and they won't stop looking for him. Not until he's safe back home.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Lance isn't sure what Lotor wants exactly. A slave? Maybe, but isn't a slave treated harsher? A companion? He could easily buy one, or force anyone to do that for him. A prince, or rather, a king, seeing as how his father was dead, could get a concubine if he really wanted one. So why bother with capturing Lance? He was a Paladin of Voltron; not exactly the most docile of companions. It was the way that he treated Lance, that really confused him.
Instead of ending their walk in the throne room, for Lance to be shown off to the Generals and to the soldiers of the empire, they stop in an observatory. Lance hadn't expected a room like that to be in a warship. Why should he? It was the kind of thing that the castle would have, not something that raging warlords would have.
Prince Lotor guides him to the center of the room, almost tenderly. If Lance could forget that he was here against his will, and had a chain around his neck, it could almost be romantic. The Galran and Altean hybrid adjusts something, and around them the universe comes alive. He rests his hand on Lance's shoulders and points at a star. Several planets revolve around it, and at least two of them are familiar.
"The third planet." The planet in question is zoomed in on. Lance gasps. It's Earth, in all of it's beauty. A ring of trash rotates around it, but that doesn't detract from it. A few pangs of homesickness struck him as Prince Lotor continued. "It is where you are from. It isn't worth much, and those who inhabit it are not a threat. It is far from where I rule. I have no need to conquer it."
Lance looked up at him. There was a 'but' clause wasn't there? Evil villains didn't just offer something good for no reason. (It still applied, even if Prince Lotor wasn't completely horrible.)
"I don't have to destroy it. All I ask is for you to keep up your side of our arrangement." Prince Lotor dropped his grasp on Lance's shoulders.
"But…" Lance began, hesitating to finish the thought. Lotor looked at him questioningly. "My friends, they need me."
He grasped Lance's chin gently, and turned his face so that Lance no choice but to look into Lotor's haunting yellow eyes. "Oh my dear Blue, of course they don't need you. But I do."
Lance could almost believe him.
He pulled his head away and stumbled back. "The name's Lance."
He could've sworn that Lotor actually looked hurt, before he stepped forward, throwing a left hook right into Lance's face. He hit the floor like a sack of potatoes. His head hurt. Prince Lotor growled and pulled Lance to his feet with a yank of the gold chain. Lance's head spun, but he followed anyways. "Lotor, you know next to nothing about me. Yeah, I pilot the blue lion, but what else? Do you know what my favorite comic book is? Or the names of my brothers, or," Lance surprises himself by saying it. He'd be lying if he said it weren't true, or that he hadn't thought about it while he was held captive, but it was still surprising to see how easy it was to say aloud. "That I'm falling in love with Keith?"
Prince Lotor must've gotten mad, Lance thinks as he primes to hit him again. Only this time, he dodges it, and swings back. His victory is short lived. Guards appear from somewhere, and swarm around him, helping Prince Lotor up, and restraining Lance from even batting an eye. Prince Lotor stands, wipes blood away from his split lip and punches him. In the face, then the chest, the shoulder, his stomach. It hurts like hell, but Lance doesn't mind (he does honestly. He'll be bruised for weeks afterwards if he keeps pretending to be a human punching bag, which screws up his 'pretend to comply so you can escape later' plan.).
He smiles, just as Lotor aims a particularly nasty punch at his mouth. Lance chips a tooth, which cuts Lotor's hand. It only serves to infuriate him further, which Lance doesn't get the honor of seeing. The next punch makes the room spin, and then fade into darkness.