Okay, this was one of the oddest interactions I have ever written but I did it. And I rather enjoyed writing it – Krolia is a very fun character to write, and Hunk truly gets along with everyone. Have fun and happy reading!


5. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Shiro wished he knew where he, Krolia and Romelle were being held. Romelle was unconscious and no matter what they did, she didn't wake up and he couldn't hear Keith or any of the others. How had Lotor even survived? Sure, he had not been around in the battle with Lotor, but he did have memories of…his clone, that was still bizarre to think about. Still, it meant he wasn't completely out of the loop – he knew about Lotor and Allura's former relationship and if Lotor thought Keith had ruined that, then…

"I think I may be able to find us a way out," Krolia said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "But whether it'll lead us to Keith or the others, it's difficult to tell from here. We may have to fight. Shiro, are you feeling okay enough to?"

"I'm fine," Shiro said, almost as if it was an immediate response, programmed into him causing Krolia to raise an eyebrow at him. Sheesh – how was she able to see through him? Keith could tell now as well knowing him long enough, but Krolia's gaze made him feel as if he was a deer caught in the headlights.

"I have to help Keith," Shiro said, averting his gaze. "I know…I don't have my arm anymore but I'm still…" He trailed off. He couldn't call himself Haggar's Champion in front of Krolia. Keith didn't even like it and he didn't even know most of the reasons behind the title, other than it referring to his strength.

Krolia was quiet for a moment, and he thought she wouldn't reply to him at all when she spoke.

"You're not strong because you were her Champion," Krolia said finally. "Shiro, to Keith, you're strong because of your heart. He looks up to you."

Shiro stared at Krolia. "Did…did Keith say this to you?"

Krolia smiled a bit. "In not so many words. He talked very fondly about you, Shiro. He talked about all the Paladins too…but you and the Princess were the ones he talked the most about."

Right…of course Keith would talk about him. At least the him that he remembered before he had been kidnapped by aliens. But after their fight, Keith had seen so much – the clone bodies and probably had a good idea now of what Haggar had done to him, had that opinion still not changed?

"Is that still the case now?" Shiro asked, watching Krolia. "I mean, my hands…they still tried to…" He glared at his human hand, feeling as if there was filth crawling down it as he watched it.

"Why don't you ask him?" Krolia suggested simply. "Keith isn't the greatest at lying, Shiro and I don't think he can lie to you either way."

Shiro chuckled a bit at that. That last part was probably true – he had raised Keith, after all so it was easy for him to know if his little brother was lying to him. But still, now was not the time to worry about that.

"How are we going to take Romelle?" Shiro asked. Krolia smiled a bit but pulled the younger girl onto her back.

"We're not sure what Lotor has done to her that she won't wake so I can carry her," Krolia said. "Don't worry, I'm able to multitask. Our focus is finding the others. The more of us that are gathered together, the easier it will be to overpower Lotor."

Shiro nodded. "I'm right behind you." If Lotor wanted to hurt any of his family, he was going to have to fight for it. He may have been away from the arena for a while, but he knew he still had it in him. One did not commit murders so easily if a monster did not already live within them, after all. And for Keith…for any of them really, but for Keith, he was willing to become that person all over again. Lotor would know why he was Haggar's Champion in the end.

Krolia opened a trap door, leading to another room. "Lotor sure didn't put in many protections for us."

That was true – he had not even handcuffed…although their room had taken a little bit to find a way to exit from. How much time had passed? Hours? No, it had to be longer than that. It definitely felt like it, but he couldn't be sure. Lotor did have food sent to them…just enough to survive and Krolia had tested it to make sure it wasn't drugged with a device she had. He stayed on guard – there was no telling who could come from where and if Lotor doubted they had escaped, he would find a way to prevent it.

They were clearly not his target – the Paladins were – but like hell, was he going to let Lotor get away with that. They were still his team even if he wasn't the leader of Voltron anymore. Still, this room they had come to was weird – carpeted – it almost seemed comfortable in a way, something which he had not expected. His eyes scanned the room and they fell on Hunk, who was leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, breathing slightly shaky.

Shiro exchanged a look with Krolia before quietly approaching Hunk.

"Hey Hunk," Shiro said quietly, making sure not to be too loud but he needed to see if the other had any injures that needed tending to. "Hunk, it's me Shiro." He made his voice slightly louder, and Hunk shifted a bit, opening his eyes.

"Shiro?" Hunk said blinking. "But how…how did you escape?"

"Lotor doesn't view us as a threat as much," Shiro said simply. "Probably going to be his downfall in the end."

"He's too focused on us," Hunk said quietly. "Especially Keith and Allura. He blames Keith for what happened."

"I figured as much," Shiro said sighing a bit. Keith had come in just the nick of time after all before Lotor's relationship with Allura could be taken any further. A relationship that had been encouraged by Haggar and his clone. He had put both Keith and Allura in this situation. If they got hurt because of him, he really wasn't worth forgiveness.

"Can you move, Hunk?" Krolia asked him gently.

Hunk groaned a bit. "Yeah, but I'm starving and I'm really tired. I feel like I haven't slept much these past few days. Pidge…I heard her screaming. She sounded like she was in a lot of pain too."

Shiro's blood went cold. Pidge had been all about giving Lotor to Zarkon if it meant saving her father and he had promised Matt and Commander Holt that he'd take care of her. but Had he failed already? 'Focus, Shiro!' He scolded himself and shook his head. This was not the time to be blaming himself – he'd pull everyone down like this. He needed to keep it together. Hunk had said he was hungry. He pulled the sandwich from his pocket – he hadn't been too hungry himself lately but did wish he had something better to offer him.

"I'm sorry this isn't too much," Shiro admitted. "But it should be enough to give you a little bit of energy."

Hunk took it, opening it and beginning to munch into it. "Don't worry about it, Shiro. This is more than enough. My friends are in worse condition than I am right now but once we're out of here, I'll treat everyone to a nice meal."

Shiro smiled at him. "I don't doubt it." He tensed a bit as he heard footsteps and moved closer to the wall to listen in while Krolia got ready to fight, her Blade appearing in her hand.

"You realise the more you run from me, the more I'll take my time to kill and keep the princess for myself," Lotor called out. "I'll watch the light leave your eyes, Keith."

It was as if everything disappeared around him in that moment. All he saw was red – Lotor was closing in on his brother and if he didn't do something, he would kill him. Like hell Shiro was going to let that happen. He would watch the life leave Lotor's eyes if he even laid a hand on Keith. A growl ripped through his throat – one that he didn't belong to him, one that did not even sound like it came from him but as he moved, arms restrained him, and he thrashed wildly. He needed to kill Lotor! He needed to watch him suffer for even trying to threaten Keith – how dare he even think of threatening him?

'It's because you let yourself go' Haggar's voice taunted in his mind. 'If you had truly become my Champion, your brother would have been safe. You have no one to blame but yourself right now.'

"How? How do I save him with these barriers in my way?" Shiro growled out in frustration. "How?!"


Krolia's heart ached a bit for Hunk who seemed pretty worn out but had instantly brightened on being given the sandwich by Shiro and she sighed in relief, but her eyes drifted to Romelle. She had tried every form of healing she had learnt over the years, but nothing seemed to be working. And yet, all her vitals appeared to be normal so what exactly had Lotor done to her that she wasn't dead but also was not regaining conscious no matter what her and Shiro tried?

Her questions were cut off as she saw Shiro's expression change, and she tensed.

"Hunk," Krolia said immediately and Hunk, who had finished his sandwich looked up.

"What is it?" Hunk asked but Krolia didn't explain before passing Romelle over to him.

"I don't think Shiro's okay," Krolia said. "Can you please watch Romelle?"

Hunk glanced over at Shiro, and his eyes widened so he immediately wrapped his arms around Romelle. "What do we do? Why does Shiro look so scary?"

"I have a decent idea," Krolia said softly, having heard stories of the Champion in her time but she didn't tell Hunk any of that. Instead, she moved in a flash and quickly restrained Shiro, who began struggling against her. She frowned at this – she had heard Lotor's words, having good hearing but at the same time, this wasn't the way to go about it. Lotor could hurt Keith more if they got caught here. She may not have been around to raise her son but there was no way in hell, she was going to let Lotor touch him or Allura. With how fondly her son spoke of the princess, she did have the feeling that her son may have feelings for her but not know it himself yet. His father was quite dense when it came to feelings, after all. And he took after Akira a lot, in more ways than one. The thought would have been an amusing one if they were not in the situation they were in currently.

"How? How do I save him with these barriers in my way?" Shiro's voice was a low growl even with his struggles and she could tell just from the tone that he wasn't talking to her, but she wasn't sure what she could really do to help. She didn't really know him too much beyond what Keith had told her. "How?!"

"Shiro," Krolia's voice was firm. "If you do this, you'll get us caught and you won't be able to help Keith." The footsteps outside had stopped after a while – which could mean multiple things of course but she had a feeling if she didn't make a quick decision, she would not be able to help Keith. So as Shiro was about to scream again, she pressed a pressure point to his neck – something she had learned about humans while being on Earth. She didn't think it was something she would ever have to use though, especially on someone who was so important to her son. As she watched Shiro fall unconscious, she hoped there was a way to help him too.

"Is he going to be okay?" Hunk's voice asked worriedly and Krolia sighed.

"I just knocked him unconscious, he would get us caught otherwise," Krolia said simply. "I need you to run, Hunk. Lotor could possibly be heading in our direction."

"One, I'm not leaving you," Hunk said firmly. "And two, I couldn't carry both Shiro and Romelle anyway. If we're fighting, we're fighting together, ok?"

Krolia saw the passionate look in his eyes – it was clear why he was the leg of Voltron. How could she even say no to that? Keith's friends were just like him in so many ways, why was she not surprised?

"Alright, but I need you to focus on your lion," Krolia said. "If he can help us then there must be something we can do."

Hunk nodded. "Okay."

Krolia set Shiro against the wall as the door was shoved open, she tensed before blinking as she realised it wasn't Lotor.

"Acxa?" Hunk said, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard what happened about the Paladins being captured," Acxa said simply. "I can cause a distraction so you guys can get to the other Paladins and help each other."

"Lotor is hunting down Keith," Krolia said urgently, not having time to mince any words because her son was in a lot of danger right now. "Possibly Allura too but I can't be certain about that. I can help you draw Lotor's fire to us, that is if he doesn't have any minions here of course which we also cannot be certain of." There were too many questions and not enough answers and as a Blade, that wasn't so easy to deal with.

"I think Ezor and Zethrid may be here somewhere, I caught a glimpse," Acxa said. "We don't have the time to find out right now. I'll cause a distraction, meet me there when you can because we don't know how many we're fighting."

"Right," Krolia said, watching Acxa run off before pulling Shiro onto her back and making sure Hunk had Romelle. "Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be in this kind of situation," Hunk said simply, beginning to follow her as she moved. It was as if was a building with way too many open rooms and no one in there. She had been on various prison cells in her time as a member of the Blade of Marmora but nothing like this.

They kept walking but there was no exit moment. She couldn't hear Lotor anymore, nor the sound of anyone else's footsteps. It was so silent that one could hear a pin drop. As they kept walking, the furniture began disappearing and she stopped while Hunk's eyes widened.

"Whoa, whoa," Hunk said staring. "Are you seeing that or am I going crazy from food and sleep deprivation? Not that it's not possible to go crazy from that but I'd rather not go space crazy before I see my family again."

"No, I see it," Krolia said softly. "Lotor may have picked up some abilities whilst being trapped in the quintessence field. Whatever he wants right now, he has the upper hand. We need to accept we may not get there in time."

"We shouldn't think that right now," Hunk said with a shrug. "Yeah, maybe things look hard, but we have to keep trying even if we fail and we have to try while truly believing we can still win."

Krolia smiled a bit at that and chuckled. "Your thoughts are similar to how Keith thinks. He's just not as expressive as you are." It was nice that Keith had found himself a good family and she also made a note to herself to get to know the Princess once they all escaped from this – she meant so much to her son, after all, they all did but especially her. The princess was a lot harder to get along with than Shiro was, being more reserved but she would still try her best.