Keith was anxiously pacing around the dining area where he and the other paladins had gathered to have dinner. "They should have been back by now. It shouldn't take them this long to complete the mission." Keith voiced his concern. Lance placed a hand on Keith's arm to stop him from pacing. "You heard Coran, Shiro sent a message saying they needed more time and they be back later. We have to wait a little longer before we start freaking out." His attempt to soothe Keith only seemed to make him angrier. "He should have taken me along too instead of just Pidge. I didn't make sense to take her only. What if they get into trouble?" Keith's ranting was getting a little too much for Hunk. "Maybe it makes perfect sense to take Pidge alone…if he wanted to be with Pidge…alone." Hunk said the last part a little quieter than the rest. He promised himself he wouldn't get involved in the relationship stuff going on in the Castle. "Hunk, buddy… what do you know that you're not telling us?" Lance's curiosity was piqued by Hunks words. "I'm just saying if they wanted to go on a date, not that this was like a date. I'm just saying that if it was, they probably wouldn't want a lot of people around that's all". Hunk was rambling, he really didn't want to talk about it but he also didn't want to go on a rescue mission to find the two of them if they weren't in trouble. "Shiro and Pidge? No freaking way" Lance shook his head. "You must be mistaken" Keith added. "I'm not. I've seen them, I mean I haven't "seen" together but I did see Pidge leaving Shiro's room in the middle of the night while I was on my way to get a snack from the kitchen. She looked like she had been sleeping. I can't be 100% sure, but she was wearing PJ's and her hair was all mussed up." Hunk was disappointed the others didn't believe him. "One time doesn't mean anything" was Keith's only response. "It was more than once. I tried to ignore it like I do other night time activities that go on around here but I'm definitely not mistaken" Hunk's words made Lance blush a little. "He has been spending a lot of time with her lately, you said so yourself" Lance mentioned. "She also told me that Shiro was having nightmares about the Kerberos Mission, she couldn't have known that if she wasn't there when he was having them." Hunk felt bad for betraying Pidge's confidence but it was better if the others knew as well. It was so difficult keeping secrets for a straight forward guy like himself, he didn't like to watch what he said or worry that he'd say the wrong thing.
Lance could sense Keith anger building. "They'll be back in a few hours I'm sure of it and then we can all have a nice calm talk about things. Okay?" "There's nothing to talk about, Lance. It's wrong for them to be together. Shiro's an adult and Pidge's just a kid. Have you forgotten that she's younger than all of us? Shiro is our leader, he's supposed to know better than us. He should know how messed up this is." Keith was yelling now. Coran and Allura rushed into the room wondering what the commotion was about. "They have four hours, if they're not back by then I'm taking Red and going to get them myself" and with that he stormed out of the dining are past the confused Alteans.
Keith stormed all the way back to his room. He really wished he had a traditional door so he could slam it shut. His instincts had told him that something wasn't right when Shiro requested to overnight on the planet. He thought that Shiro might be attempting something dangerous on his own with only Pidge for back up. Nothing good could possibly happened after dark on what was supposed to be a simple recon mission. What in the world was going on with the team? Hunk's suspicion that Pidge and Shiro were having a secret relationship blindsided him. He was disappointed in Shiro. Regardless of which one of them initiated it, he was the adult in this situation and should have stopped things before they got out of hand. But what also bothered him was the fact that Hunk knew and never said anything. He was the closest to Pidge out of all of them. The sound on a soft knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts. "Keith it's me Lance. Is it okay if I come in?" The automated door slid open and Lance walked in side and sat beside Keith on the bed. "Are you okay, you seemed the really mad back there. The others are worried about you; I'm worried about you." Lance held his hand. "I'm not fine, I'm worried and I'm angry. How could this be happening?" Keith didn't have to mask how he felt when he was around Lance. "Maybe they didn't want to make a big deal about it, like us" Lance offered. "But it's not like us. I'm only a little older than you. Shiro is maybe 10 years older than Pidge and he's the leader of our team. He commands us and we obey. There's a power dynamic there that puts Pidge at a disadvantage. Unlike you and I, who are on equal footing. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" Keith needed Lance to understand that being with Shiro would hurt Pidge and the team in the long run. "I get what you're try to say, it might be hard for Pidge to say no to Shiro even if she wanted to." Lance understood to some degree, although he never saw Pidge as being the type of person to do anything she didn't want to do. She was stubborn when it can to doing things her way and the chain of command or even basic rules never really bothered her even back in their Garrison days.
"If they're not back soon I'm going to go look for them, and once they're safely back here we can talk about what's actually going on." Keith repeated what Lance had said earlier. "I'll go with you. You know I'll have you back… always." Lance wrapped his arms around Keith's waist, hugging his back and gave him a kiss on the cheek for emphasis. "Thanks I'm glad you're here." Lance was Keith's stability and he didn't know what he'd do without him by his side.
The fourth hour had passed and it was now the 2nd evening that Shiro and Pidge had been away. Keith had prepped the Red Lion for departure and Lance volunteered to accompany him. Coran and Allura were also starting to get concerned that neither Shiro nor Pidge had checked in since the previous day. They set co-ordinates for the last known position of the shuttle and headed down to the planet's surface. Once there they found the shuttle by almost landing on it as the cloaking device was still on. A quick search of the craft turned up neither of the missing paladins. "They could have found accommodation instead of staying in the shuttle. But how will we find them if that's the case?" Lance lamented. Keith had an idea, "Allura, could you send me the location information of the last message sent by Shiro?" Allura responded "I'm sending it to you right now". The location Allura sent turned out to be a seedy bar. Keith's respect for Shiro was steadily declining. "He took her to a bar, Lance!" Things weren't looking so great; they weren't at the bar either but the bartender did recognise the picture of two of them. "Yeah I've seen them. They were here last night for the slave auction but they left as soon as it ended. The little one pulled the big guy out of here in a hurry. And I haven't seen them since."
Slave auction? Why would they attend a slave auction? Keith tried to put himself in Shiro's position, what would he do if he saw something bad happening right in front of him? He'd do something about it wouldn't he? But it was stupid and reckless to go without back up, why would Shiro take that kind of risk? "Hey Mr Bartender, do you know if those auction guys are still in town?" Lance asked mirroring Keith's thoughts. "Nope they probably left by now, but all merchant vessels coming and going usually check a flight plan with the Galra base just outside the city. Wouldn't want to be mistaken for the Resistance you know". "Ha-ha-ha, of course not." Lance replied nervously.
"Argh! None of this makes any sense!" Keith exclaimed as he and Lance walked out of the bar. Lance turned to Keith "So what do we do now? Should we look around some more or head back to the Castle? Coran and Allura must be waiting for us to report back." Keith closed his eyes to focus for a minute. He wasn't the type to make detailed plans, he usually just followed his instincts and right now they told him Shiro and Pidge were in trouble and it might have something to do with this slave auction. "Contact Coran and Allura. Tell them Shiro and Pidge as still missing and also tell them to ready the Castle and the other Lions. We're taking that Galra outpost." Now it was Lance's turn to be surprised "What! We're going to attack the base. Why?". Keith wondered if Lance would have questioned his order if Shiro had given it? "It's just a hunch but I think that slave auction has something to do with Shiro and Pidge's disappearance and the only people who know where it went are the Galra on that base. I don't know about you but I don't think they'll tell us if we just ask nicely. I can't waste time explaining every single detail to you!" Keith didn't intend that to come out has harshly as it did. "Alright, let's get back to Red and explain the situation to the others. It's going to be okay man. We'll find them." Lance encouraged. "Also I forgive you, for snapping at me. This is a stressful situation for all of us but I fully expect you to make it up to me later…" Lance gave him a wink and a smile as he led the way back to the Lion.
The attack on the base didn't last very long even with only three Lions. Just as their intel suggested the base was only manned by a small unit of mainly technical staff and a troop of Galra droids. With a little persuasion and Keith's Bayard they managed to get the flight register for the last few days of incoming and outgoing ships. Hunk pointed to a particular entry on the list. "This one has prisoners and/or slaves listed under cargo." "Great work Hunk, what was listed as its next destination" Keith responded. Hunks faced dropped as he read the next part of the manifest. "It says here that the ship came from a Galra prison colony and its headed to the Galra Arena space station orbiting the Central Command System. That's in the middle of the Galra empire isn't it?" All of the paladin's present shared a look of disbelief. This was the worst possible situation. Keith's heart was racing; how could they even attempt a rescue in the heart of the enemy's territory when they couldn't even form Voltron. They needed to formulate a real plan, he only hoped that Shiro and Pidge could hold on until they could come up with one.