In the Forest of No Return

by Dark SpellMaster

When the Voltron team gets a clue that Matt or Shiro may be on the Planet Mezora, Pidge goes out on a limb to try to find them. However one crashed pod later, and she finds herself making a deal with a run away Galra prisoner in order to get off the planet. Can Pidge and her new friend make it off Mezora, or will Prince Lotor wind up catching the Green lion in his own trap.

2. Chapter 2: Lotor's Plot

AN: Copyright for Voltron, Toei Animation, WEP, Dreamworks animation and Studio Mir.

Lotor

The two merchants had hailed the city several vargas ago and insisted upon speaking with Mogor, Lotor's advisor, who was in charge of the city on Mezora, practically foaming at the mouth with excitement and hoping to get in the Prince's good graces. After all, with his father incapacitated, and the likelihood of him never making a full recovery, rumors abound that the young Prince would soon become Emperor. So it was wise, at least to the two merchants, to get in his good graces while there was still time.

Mogor knew the Prince hated that fact. He had been with the young noble since he was a child, barley able to hold a sword, and had seen him grow into the cunning dispassionate man that he was now. Lotor had dealt with fools all his life. Those that would smile to his face, and name call him behind his back. He was used to it, and had learned long ago not to care. Or at least hide that care behind ambivalence. The less people had reason to be around him the better he felt. He trusted no one, save Mogor, and that was how it had been for years. No one quiet knew the Prince's real personality. Sometimes he could come off as charming and witty, other times quiet and reserved, still others scheming and ruthless. But above all else Lotor was a man who didn't like chances to slip from his grasp that was the only reason Mogor had allowed the call to come through.

"State your business," the tall and brutish Galra officer had stated. His gray and black uniform standing out among the men he over saw. Standing at attention, Mogor stared at the screen, watching the two merchants as they seemed to question who was going to talk first. The more they seemed to hem and haw, the more aggravated he got and turned to look at his communication officer.

"Close the link, I have no time for this idiocy. There are important calls that could come through and I would like to keep the channels open."

The officer nodded and was about to cut off the transmission when the taller of the two cloaked figures shouted, "Wait! We have news."

"So you said," Mogor stated, his face showing no indication of his annoyance, nor did his tone shift in the slightest to show any sign indicating he was displeased. "What is it that you have to say? Either speak now, or I will have this call terminated. And you should make it quick, I'm not a patient man."

"Ah, yes, so we've heard," said the shorter one of the two. He looked at his partner who shrugged and the shorter one continued. "We'd like to let Prince Lotor know that we've found three of the Voltron pilots."

Mogor smirked some, unable to hide the chuckle that came upon his lips. His yellow eyes lit up with amusement. "Have you now? And what makes you think you have found them."

"Well we were at a dinner on Eios, when we saw these three young creatures across from us, and we were discussing issues about Mezora when one of them got up to use the bathroom and…"

Mogor had heard enough. This was useless chatter and waved his hand to his officer readying him to cut the call short when the tall one quickly interjected.

"Wait! Don't cut us off yet! We really did see them. One had a dark tan face with a really stupid grin. The other had dark black hair with an orange wrap around the head and quiet chunky…"

"Yes quiet," said the shorter one, "And the last had big round glasses and big brown eyes!"

"That could describe any humanoid being in the galaxy," Mogor pointed out rather board with the discussion. He turned his head to his subordinate, "Cut the link…"

"Wait!" screamed the short one and pulled out the device. "Here! They were listening to us with this!"

Mogor stared at the device and raised his eyebrow, "That?" he questioned, "That just looks like a toy of some sort."

"It's not, I assure you," insisted the tall one and the short one vigorously nodded his head sending the hood violently flapping, making the communication officer cover his mouth so they didn't hear him laugh. "This device let them hear what we were saying in our own language. We think they were spying on us. The one with the orange wrap was watching us, even though he thought we did not see him."

The short one shouted as he pushed up his hood some, "Yes, yes, and they left quickly after the one with the glasses seemed surprised by what we were saying. Something spooked him."

"And I think they had a ship docked at one of the ports." The tall one was now waving his hands around as if trying to draw out a map in the air. "Please, let us speak to Prince Lotor. We're sure that they heard us and know of Mezora now."

Morgor sniffed, this was news, but how good it was he wasn't sure and he wasn't about to let these oafs speak with the Prince. He closed his eyes and cleared his throat. "The Empire thanks you for your excellent work, and is pleased that you did your job as dutiful citizens. We will allow you to keep that object and will let the Prince know of you findings."

"Wait…" started the short one, hopping for some form of payment, but Mogor signaled to his communication officer, who terminated the call, causing the screen to go blank again. Mogor shook his head and muttered under his breath.

"A likely story…"

"Though one I'm interested in," a smooth and calm voice came from the door way and Mogor turned to face an elegant looking young noble. The young man's eyes were a strange set up. Yellow like most other Galra, but they had irises and pupils more in line with his possible other heritage. Blue markings cut by his cheeks and his white hair was slightly pulled back to give him a more mature look. Some locks had come lose and hung lightly like bangs, which he brushed from his eyes as he came into the room.

At once the other officers stood and bowed to the young man along with Mogor. Unimpressed the young noble snorted at the display, pondering if his father were still awake, or if Mogor wasn't in the room, would any of them bow to him in such a manner.

"Prince Lotor!" Mogor said and looked down, "I did not mean to disrespect you, your highness."

Lotor let out a deep sigh and crossed his arms as Mogor glanced up. He was in his custom uniform, with orange and blue tints mixed with the black and light gray of the traditional Galra officer. Lotor was the only one allowed to wear such an outfit, something no other member of the Empire's army could do, and some thought it was garish and out of place, but the Prince had always been that way. Choosing to embrace some of the distain of others and flaunt that as a means of showing control over things that he could. Uniform choice was one of them, and he wore it with pride. It suited him, more so, it make him look imperial when need be. At that moment a cape was draped over his back and it was clear he'd put it on recently as the rest of his uniform showed hints of damage from laser fire. Mogor assumed then that the young prince had gone into the training chamber for practice.

"No, I'm sure you did not," Lotor said with a distant look on his face and motion Mogor to rise, which he did as did his men. They went quickly back to work as Lotor waited for an explanation of what was going on. Mogor stood at attention as he spoke.

"Sire, there was a call from the planet Eios, two unknown merchant hailed with some information regarding a bounty."

"And what does that have to do with us? We have no bounty here, well none that is worth much." He muttered thinking of the young Prince that was in the holding cells on the lower floors of the command center.

"The bounty information was about the Voltron Paladins, my lord," Mogor explained and Lotor, who had been watching some monitors showing off the city and some of the surrounding area (mostly keeping an eye on some of the larger creatures to be sure that they weren't about to break another wall –since one had just been repaired the other quintent), turned his attention immediately to his advisor and stared with some disbelief.

"Are you certain of this? What did they say?"

"Not much, my lord," Mogor explained and relaxed just a little as Lotor fully faced him. The two men were vastly different in height and looks. Lotor with his elegant Altean features and sharp ears, was like a perfect alien prince, and his shorter height stood out among his men as he came up to their chests. Mogor was far more beast like in face, with harsher angles and dark flushed hair. He had very strong chin with a pounced nose that seemed to be slightly crooked from not healing straight after it had been broken. There was an air about the two men that showed a great deal of power and intimidation. No one dared to cut into the conversation.

"However you think that what they did say had some merit?" Lotor inquire, intrigued. Mogor nodded slightly at this and Lotor tapped his chin with a nail. "And what was it that you thought was of use to us?"

Mogor motioned for him to look at the video that they had filmed of the exchange. It was common practice to record any calls that came in from unknown frequencies. He stopped the video and had the technician zoom in on the strange device in the shorter merchant's hand. "They claimed that they had seen members of Voltron and that they had listened into their conversation, then left the dinner that they were eating at on Eios."

Lotor stared at the device and waved at the officer, "Enlarge it."

The Galra officer did so without question and Lotor came up to the screen, and quickly pulled up a console, taking a full scan of the object and started to run various tests on the image. Eventually after a few moments the computer came up with a holographic version of the device. Lotor spun it around and looked at it from all angles and then glanced at Mogor. "Do we have any scans of devices from Olkari on hand?"

"I believe so Sire," the technician said, and looked through the files that he had on the various devices the Galra at the base had taken in over the years. "Ah, yes there are a few. Do you wish me to scan them and the item for similarities?"

"As quickly as you can." Lotor told him as the computer ran over the files, his eyes watching for the proof that he needed. If this was an items from Olkari then he had an idea who designed it, the Green Paladin.

Lotor had taken it upon himself to learn all that he could about the Paladins since he'd been brought back into the fold. He didn't want just words from those that would kiss up to him for a place in the ranks, and their intelligence was tentative at best. Seeing the Voltron crew in action was something that he felt that he needed. After all they were an intelligent group, and he'd seen firsthand how they'd used what they knew to gather scaultrite from inside the Weblum in a risky, but impressive, way. He'd owe them that much he knew, particularly the red one, Keith, for saving him from inside his ship.

He'd watched video after video of captured footage from different locations of fights with the Voltron members, both on the ground from destroyed drones and in space as they'd wrecked ships. Then there were the videos of them in locations where they were in bases and on their own being relaxed. He'd found it all to be very informative, although it only gave him some speculation on how their relationships worked as well as their personalities interacted.

From what he could tell Keith was very serious but also someone who could lead and crack a joke around those that he trusted. He also had issues with himself and longed for answers to his past. Lance was one that was unsure of his role in the team, but when push came to shove he was very efficient and could not only follow orders but also come up with things on the fly. Hunk was one that seemed to be off in lala land quite a bit, but it was damn clear to him that Hunk could be a challenge when he threw himself fully into something as well as being extra sensitive to others and their needs. Something Lotor admired in a fighter. Then there was Shiro, the clear leader of the team and one that seemed to have a strange mix of attitudes. At points he seemed clear and in control, but there were moments Lotor caught something of fear or doubt in his face. He was scared of something, and the others didn't see it. Lotor had found that interesting and felt that if he met Shiro he'd hone in on that factor. Whatever it was, it was something he could use against him.

The last one though was interesting. Pidge was the Green Paladin, and someone who seemed to be heavily involved in his work, however he was nothing more than what appeared to be a child. From the reports after the near takeover of the Castle of Lions, it seemed that Pidge was far more capable a fighter then Commander Sendak had assumed. He'd underestimated the Green Paladin and had allowed for his plans to be destroyed by this Pidge. The more he'd watched of the Paladin the more Lotor was interested in the way his mind ticked. Pidge had the air of someone who could go from zero to one hundred in less than five ticks, and it was clear that he knew what he was doing when it came to hacking and getting into the Galra systems. This fact had bothered him a lot, if a child could get at the systems, was it any wonder that his father's great ship had fallen to the warriors of Voltron.

Pidge was an oddity that he wanted to explore more. Not a full on fighter as the others were, he was more built for stealth, and the fact that he was searching for his brother had been something that Lotor found useful. If he could get this other boy, he could use that to get at the Green Paladin, which could effectively weaken the team.

But at the moment that was not what he was thinking about as the numbers and images flashed in quick succession before him. Lotor's mind was on the way that Pidge had shown a great deal of interest in technology and could reverse engineer things. This bothered him as it meant that he could effectively rebuild something that they had made and this could eventually be used against them. He needed to find a way to deal with that issue first, as he was sure the others would have a harder time dealing with them if he could take out the tech guy in their little group. He was sure that the device before their eyes was something that Pidge had built based on Olkari engineering, the question was what was it?

A beeping noise from the computer signaled that all tests were completed and Mogor's voice called him back from his thoughts. "Sire, I believe we know what the device is."

"Well then," Lotor examined the list of information that lay before him, and carefully combed through it. His fingers danced over the pink screen and he made a faced as he fell into deep thoughts. "So it seems it's a translator, how clever, and one that learns as well…interesting. But uttlerly useless unless the words match something that was already in there, or similar to another language."

"So it appears, Prince Lotor," Mogor agreed and Lotor waved the device screen away, and stepped away from the computer. He muttered to himself as he walked back and forth, as if trying to decode some puzzle that had been placed before him as a test.

"So they listened in and heard a conversation, what were they talking of?" he asked Mogor, who cleared his throat. "Well?"

"They said they were discussing matters on Mezora."

Lotor's brows narrowed and a dark anger entered his eyes, "What…matters…precisely?"

"They did not say. Only that they were talking about the planet…" Mogor said and Lotor scowled.

"I want them found, find out what they know, and if need be…make it clear that if they talk anymore of this planet they will be silenced."

Mogor bowed, "As you command, my Prince."

Lotor closed his eyes and headed for the door, "I'll be in contact. I need to figure out what to do next. If they know of the planet then they are sure to come…but what to do with it."

Leaving the area he ignored the greetings from his subordinates and went to his quarters. Stripping from his clothing he quickly ducked into a shower to clean and think. Closing his eyes he let the water from Mezora's springs run over his sore body. There were scars from where he'd been sliced in combat when he was a child. Training his father's generals had insisted upon, training he'd learned to despise as his height had been a problem and made him an easy target for the far taller and stronger of the new recruits. However his height had an advantage in how he could move, and he was far mobile then the others around him, and his hearing was better than the other Galran officers in his academy. Yet that had not stopped them from treating him as useless, a waste of space.

He clenched his fist, he'd shown them though. The moment he'd come up with his gun he'd proven to be a far greater shot and his studies of strategy and hand to hand combat had aided him to get him out of scrapes a traditional officer would have lost in. He could recall the face of Keith when he'd managed to get over his head. It made him smirk to know that he could still surprise others. He preferred to work alone, but in that case, it had been a bad move. Then again, he was never one to think of plans in the long term, especially when it came to dealing with being ignored or rebuked. So he'd foolishly gone to get the scaultrite on his own. His plans to build a telladove were slowly taking fruition, but it had been hard going, and others had not wanted to help. Even now he felt alone, an outcast among his own people. The only ones that he actually trusted were Mogor and Kossak. Mogor had been his advisor since he was young and Kossak had been a fellow recruit in the academy and had since become the head of his elite squadron. Still, the trust only went so far, and neither were of the brilliant mind Lotor believed himself to be when it came to understanding the science of the universe.

Cleaned, and relaxed, he donned a casual uniform, looser pants and a top that was built more in a traditional Altean garb. He knew that some of the base would be displeased seeing him in such wear, and he didn't care. He would wear what he wanted and damn them to hell if they didn't like it. Taking a seat in his quarters he pulled up the device again and looked it over. It was well crafted, not at all what he figured someone of Pidge's age could craft. It made him wonder what the child's IQ really was.

As he studied it a thought crossed his mind. They would be coming to Mezora, that was a given. There was no way that Voltron would not try to come and see if what the merchants had said was true. If that was the case, then he knew that they wouldn't just rush in, given that Allura was no fool, and Corran was good at planning. They would have to have the element of surprise that was a must for the base.

Lotor steepled his fingers and looked out at the device. "They're going to come, they heard something to interest them, and they wouldn't have wanted to listen in unless there was a reason." He was muttering again to himself, ignoring the drink on the side of the table and the food that had been brought in. He rubbed his chin for a moment and closed his eyes again, focusing on what he'd seen in the videos, trying to think like the Voltron members.

"They're going to send someone down…." He realized this quickly, but the question was who? Did it really matter? Not so much as long as he could get to them first. If he could capture the Paladin then he could use that against the others and possibly take the ship without firing a shot. A smile came over his lips as he got up and hurried out of the quarters, donning his cape again and heading to the command center's main operations chamber. Again he ignored the greetings, and marched in without a second thought to protocol. Mogor was surprised to see him come back so soon and bowed.

"My Prince is there something wrong?"

"No, everything is right!" He grinned and quickly pulled up the console again, pulling Mogor over and showing him his plan. "We can trap a lion, Mogor."

"How exactly, sire?" questioned the larger man as he stood beside his Prince. Moogor had seen Lotor like this before. When the boy had ideas he would stop at nothing till he had what he wanted. There were times his recklessness had caused more trouble than what the plan was worth, but Lotor always was thinking of plans that had merit, so he stood there and listened. If it was something that wasn't feasible, he would just delay the orders and come up with an excuse later, at the moment though he let Lotor peel off his plan.

"If the Lions are coming they wouldn't be dumb enough to just charge in and land, correct? Based on their patterns we can at least say they are smart enough to scout." Lotor moved an image of the Castle of Lion's ship into view of Mezora. Mogor nodded in agreement, as Lotor created another smaller ship. "We know that they wouldn't risk a lion coming for us, so what's the next best bet?"

"A scouting ship?" offered up Mogor and stared at the board before him. "Yes, I do see where you're going with this. But how to deflect it?"

"We don't." Lotor said and smirked. "If the Castle is truly as old as Sendek had estimated, this means that the maps of the systems are no longer up to date. Which means they have no idea of the condition of Mezora as of right now."

Mogor stared at the screen intrigued as the prince went on, moving the ship along a route. "They're going to want to hide from us, so let's not concern ourselves with that right now. Just focus on the pod that would be coming. A craft of that size travels at a slower speed then the lions. They won't be traveling at the fastest speed as a means to stealth in, since they don't know what's down here. So if they're going at a slower speed, they should show up around here." He pointed to a location due west of the city. "More than likely they'll try to go for the city to get some information from the locals."

"And we catch them there?" questioned the advisor as Lotor shook his head. "Then where my lord? Wouldn't it be easier to capture the paladin in the city?"

"No, we don't want them getting into the city, it would cause issues," he frowned slightly looking over the lay of the land. If the Voltron Paladins got into the city they could learn about the guest that they had in the cells and Lotor was planning on using him to get a great deal of resources for work on one of his projects.

He moved around some images. "We can get them to crash over here if possible." He pointed towards an area with trees, far enough from the city to keep the paladin away from it's secrets, but close enough so that his plans could come to fruition. "Then we can capture them while they're not sure what's going on."

"And how do we get them to crash?" Mogor asked honestly and Lotor again pulled up some numbers and worked out a frequency as he applied a mathematical equation. Smiling he showed his advisor.

"Like this, this is a frequency that could disrupt a pod that was too close to the planet's atmosphere. Once that happens, while the pilot is trying to figure out what's going on. We swoop in and strike, causing them to crash."

"And then what, my lord." Mogor saw potential in this idea and Lotor's knowing smirk came back.

"Then…you leave everything else up to me."

It was barely two Quintents had passed before reports of a pod had been brought up. Lotor had been in the command center's chamber for vargas on end waiting. He watched every ship that passed by their area of space, searching for a telltale sign of the Castle of Lion's pod ship that he was sure was going to come. And it did, during daylight of all times, cautiously entering their space.

"Sire, the scrambling device is working," the communications officer told him and Lotor nodded watching with interest as the ship entered the atmosphere and began to have malfunctions. They'd picked some comments from the pod, but the scrambling device made it hard to hear who was inside. He had been sure that the Princess would have sent the Red or Blue Paladin since the Black one seemed to have been missing, or so the reports filtering into him had noted.

As the ship fell Lotor watched with excitement.

"Well, well, isn't this interesting? So it looks like those two merchants were right when they said someone was listening to them. I wonder, just what prize have we caught?" He smirked and his yellow eyes brightened with anticipation of his catch.

With a resounding crash the pod had vanished into the trees and Lotor snorted, his calculations had been right, but he'd forgotten to add in error by the pilot trying to right the ship and the trees. This was going to make things a bit harder for him. Getting up from the chair he'd been sitting in Lotor looked to Mogor and waved at him.

"The rest I leave to you Commander Mogor. Make sure you don't forget what we discussed."

Mogor nodded and bowed his head, "As you command, Prince Lotor."

Quickly he exited the main room and headed to his quarters. He'd instructed one of his servants to get him the garb of a prisoner, which was laying on his bed ready for use. Lotor scowled as he picked it up.

"Not dirty enough," he grabbed hold of the top and pants then pulled them on. Without hesitation he took the drink and food he had in his room, and splattered it all over his clothing, staining it, then wetting the whole thing in his shower. He was soaked but that was only going to make it easier to gather dirt.

Grabbing a tie he pulled his hair back and went out of his room, and ignored the strange looks his officers gave him as he headed down to the holding cells in the lower floors. Here light was dim and designed to make the prisoners feel lost and abandoned. It was chilly and smelled of dry rot, but the place was oddly sanitary. Something he had made sure of. Sick prisoners were useless to him.

Marching at a quick pace past several guards, who were about to ask him questions, he moved over to a cell farther back. Inside a young man of about twenty sat, looking rather forlorn and scared. Lotor opened the cell with a quick hand press and the young man got up to his knees.

"Oh thank the gods, you're here to let me go? Has my father paid my ransom yet?"

Lotor snorted and looked down at the man before him. He was younger then him, by Galran standards, and this young man certainly pulled off being a stuffy prince to a T. He had the soft face, the handsome eyes of a charmer, the well placed smile and the hands of one that had never worked a day in his life. This was vastly different to Lotor himself, whose hands had calluses from the gun he wielded, and the look to his eyes of someone who had known hardship. The only thing they shared was the white hair.

"Not yet, we haven't even sent that out. But…Prince Bokar, I believe you can help me out." Lotor told him and knelt down to stare at the prince's face. He focused for several moments, examining as much as he could and the young prince seemed to become more and more unnerved the longer Lotor stared.

"What…what are you doing?" Bokar asked nervously after several dobashes went by and Lotor said nothing. Then the prince gasped as Lotor closed his eyes and seemed to transform before him. His form shrunk ever so little to match Prince Bokar's and his skin went from a lighter purple color to a pale skin much closer to that of the man before him. Concentrating hard he willed the markings on his face to vanish, leaving not even the slightest trace. When he opened his eyes they shifted around until they were a light brown color. He pulled at his bangs to match Bokar's hair style then smiled in a smugly satisfied way at the Prince that was sitting transfixed before him.

"Well that should do." Lotor stood to leave and Bokar dove to grab at his legs. Lotor moved faster and kicked him in the chin, sending him flying back and crashing against a chair in the cell. Bokar winced and shouted at him as he locked him back in.

"What are you doing? Do you really believe you'll be able to take my place?"

Lotor snorted and looked down at Bokar with an uncaring stare in his now brown eyes. "Hardly. You're useful for a trap I have set for Voltron, and that is all. I would never think to take on your unworthy role. You aren't even qualified to have the title of prince."

With that Lotor turned and stalked out of the prison and went up to the main floor. He waited and watched the guards. If his trap was to succeed then he needed to be sure that the guards believed what they saw. He checked the cameras, and then threw a loose screw he'd picked up along the way, at one, damaging it, knowing full well it would get the guards attention.

And it did just that. At the prisons security center the guards saw what looked to be Prince Bokar escaping from his holding area. Lotor raced along the corridors, ducking and hiding between doors and columns to give the appearance of trying to sneak out. He moved quickly to the vehicle dock and stole what was pretty much a speeder bike from the hanger. The alarms were going off as he took off, allowing the guards to see him, knowing that they would be in alert.

If Mogor keeps up his part of the plan, I should be able to get out and into the forest with them following. Lotor thought as he raced around the city streets, dodging fire and pedestrians. A troop of drones were following him, running at full speed, a few on bikes. He snorted, if he didn't want them to follow him, he would have lost them long ago. Turning several corners, to make sure they were coming, he went for the gate.

The main city of Asora that they were in had a high wall around the body set up for siege war fare which happened six thousand years before. The main gate was a huge thing that had two halves, the top part locked into the bottom through a series of lasers that interwove when they met up. Lotor had told Mogor to slow down the interlocking sequence so he could get out of the city before the guards to keep things looking legit.

"Mogor, don't fail me now," he muttered as he raced at top speed for the gate that seemed to be lowering. He gritted his teeth as he saw the gate going down faster and slid under to avoid the lasers that were starting to lock the two halves together. Lotor watched as the gate closed, and counted several ticks before taking off when he saw the guards pouring out of the reopened gate.

The cut at the gate was a bit close, it bothered him, and Lotor knew when he got back he would talk to Mogor about why he'd not given him room to breathe. Still he had to give the Commander credit. He was good at his job and kept true to his word. Lotor drove the speeder through the rough western terrain of the open meadows around the city limits, and towards the forests.

"Now where are you?" he pulled up a gps to map the location of the downed ship even as a hail of fire blasts were nipping at his heels. One singed his hair and he winced as he felt his flesh heat up. Well I wanted this realistic didn't I?

He wished he had a weapon on hand, but the robots were catching up fast, so if they did shoot him too early he wouldn't have the proper item to deflect their assault. However as it was he was in the forest around the trees and led them on a jolly chase through the trunks and up several fallen trees to higher ground.

As he buzzed around Lotor would glance now and again at the map and how far he was to the pod. Twisting past a number of dead trunks he made sure that the robots crashed into them as he weaved about, making as much noise as he could the closer he got to the site of the crashed ship. He was hoping that the Paladin would hear it and come see what the noise was.

"That's it follow me," he grinned to himself. At that moment he felt exhilarated by the whole pursuit and partly hoped that it wouldn't end. His revelry was cut short when his speeder was hit and the whole thing took a nose dive into the ground, skidding deeply into the mud and throwing him hard into the air and he crashed into some bushes, feeling stinging pain.

Lotor could taste blood by his mouth and tried to get up. Suddenly several blasters came up to his face. He stared surprised at this, and held up his hands, "Hold it…don't shoot. I'm your Prince."

The drones looked at one another for a second, and he used the moment to jump up, and sweep kick two off their feet, forcing them to fall into their fellow guards. Lotor smashed his foot into one of their chest and leapt for a ledge that was just above them. He gained the ground as he pulled himself up, but the robots weren't done and they tracked him now on foot.

He counted in his head, five hundred feet…he moved through the underbrush, pushing aside smaller trees and their limbs as he raced for the pod.

Three hundred feet…he could make out the break in the trees where the pod had landed.

Another few feet, One hundred feet….he was nearly there, and so were the guards. They were firing again and he used his agility to avoid being hit, but again he wished he had a blaster in hand. He missed his side arm, and throwing the robots around would not gain him what he needed. He was supposed to be a weak prince, not someone trained to fight. If the pilot was the Red or Yellow Paladin and saw him firing they would know something was up, and that would ruin his plan.

Fifty feet…he could hear a voice calling out, it was distant but he was sure it was the Paladin, but he couldn't quiet tell which it was.

Twenty…Ten…five…He started to yell out for help. "Help! Oh is someone there! Please help me!"

His screams were loud, loud and scared. He needed them to be believiable and allowed one of the robots to hit him in the back of the leg, sending a sensation through his body that caused him to howl in pain.

Lotor doubled over, stumbling and falling, cluching his wounded leg as the robots surrounded him. He tried to calm his breathing but it was difficult and he could see a burnt mark appearing on his skin, turning it purple and he focused to cover the color. It hurt like hell, and he didn't know if he could sustain the illusion. The guards drew closer and he could make out their hard metal clinks. For anyone else this would be terrifying, but he knew that he could take them. Right then though he had to at least give the Paladin time to find him, so he kept calling out for help.

"Please, if anyone is there! I need help! Please, they'll kill me!"

The pain was starting to get to him, and he gritted his teeth as the drones started to hit him. He could feel their punches and was counting the number of hits, as that would be the number of robots he would destroy in training when this was all over. He was about to drop the farce as the pain from the hits was becoming too much for him to keep the illusion up, when he heard a shout from above.

"Hey leave him alone!" as a blur of a green lighting seemed to take a few of the guards out. In a moment there was a frenzy of black, green and white blurring, and whirling around him. The robots seemed to scatter and rush off, to regroup. A gloved hand touched his shoulder and Lotor looked up into a pair of soft brown eyes that was looking down at him with a worried look.

"Are you okay? Uh…Hello?" the voice was that of the Green paladin, but Lotor had to do a double take, there was no way this could be. He slowly sat up and took Pidge's outstretched hand and looked at it, then let his eyes rove over the form before him. He blinked, he'd not calculated this at all in his wild plan.

The one to save him, the one to come to the planet was the Green Paladin, and to his disbelief, he'd been wrong about the gender. This was no male paladin, but a female.

"Ah, yes, thank you miss…" he started to say, when the pain made him double up and he had a choice, either try to deal with the pain in his real form, or keep up the illusion and let it over whelm him. The choice was made for him by his body though, and he passed out in Pidge's arms to her utter shock.