Chapter 4

Arrival

There was no end to the amount of pleasure Keith had felt upon head butting the Galran prince. However, in hindsight, it wasn't one of his most brilliant ideas. His head felt like it was going to explode off his shoulders and float away in space. Head butting someone shouldn't cause that much of an extreme reaction but then he started to recall why he was feeling so much pain and disorientation. Lotor hadn't taken the head butting very well and had responded with slamming the back of his head into the floor. Lotor must have only had to do it once or twice and the poor former paladin had went out like a light. Not surprising due to his current condition. Rolling over on his side took a little effort to get into a sitting position, "Geez." Keith mumbled softly, wondering briefly how long he had been out.

Lifting his uninjured hand to feel around near his ear and around the side of his head, he would sigh in disdain. The small ear piece that acted as his mask and communicator was gone. Lotor must have taken it while he was unconscious. Great, just great! So he lost his weapons, his luxite blade and his mask all in one go. He could only picture how much fun Lance would have teasing him about that. Leave it to him to lose everything before he even made it out the door. Lance would never ever let him forget it too if he found out.

Scooting backwards he leaned back against the metal wall, taking it easy but also frustrated beyond belief. He needed to get off this ship before they landed at whatever destination was in mind. But how? He had a broken arm, a screwed up leg, weaponless, and now mask-less. He was screwed from the get go but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to escape on his own.

It wouldn't take long for whole Galra Empire to hear of his capture and even worse, make its way back to his friends. What would Kolivan do once he got the news and what of Shiro and the team? A part of him wanted to fully believe they would come for him but it was also reasonable to consider none of them would. He wasn't as important to their cause anymore. He wasn't Allura who they needed to be able to pass through wormholes safely. He couldn't pilot a lion nor did he have the leadership skills Shiro insisted that he had. He was just a half-breed in a group of gorillas. It would be in their best interest to forget him. It would be best if Shiro forgot about him.

The more he thought about his situation the more angry he was becoming. Everything was out of his control with no one to anchor him down. There wasn't a single person he could speak too, no one to put a hand on his shoulder or call him back into reality. Bringing his hand to the bridge of his nose he would pinch it roughly.

"Patience yields focus." Keith repeated the phrase to himself many times as he took a deep breaths tosettle his nerves and thoughts. Thinking too rash would get him killed here or worse. He needed to focus on the task at hand while being patient. Taking one last breath the former red leaned his head back and took in his surroundings. Surrounded by only four metal walls looked rather hopeless but the more he looked around the more his brain started to worked around the visual information. Above him was a ventilation though far too high up for him to reach and this suit had no thrusters unlike his paladin armor. There would be no way of reaching that. To his left and to his right was nothing of interested. In front of him was a single electronic door with a window slide in the upper most part of the door. Well, it was a start he supposed. Using the wall as support he pushed himself up with a grunt. Cringing he stood there for a long moment before limping his way to the only exit of this cell.

Reaching out, he braced himself on the exit and stared at it. He couldn't see any seams that were worn or any components out-of-place. Someone made sure to stay up to date on their maintenance. Still, his hand felt around the side of the door, above, and then to the center of it. Not a single thing was out-of-place for him to tinker with and he didn't have anything to pry stuff apart. His hip pouch was empty thanks to a certain long-haired prince. Frustrated, the former red turned and roughly threw his back at the door. However, it seemed there was no longer a solid surface to catch him. At some point during his twisting around the door had opened with a quiet Whoosh. Startled, Keith tried to regain his balance but utterly failed at having cat-like reflects and fell backwards into the comforting arms of the said prince he wanted to pop between the eyes.

Lotor looked as surprised as Keith felt but instead of looking as wide-eyed as his captive he merely chuckled. Having the most coy smile he could muster he would reply with just as much emphasis in his voice, "My, falling for me all ready? I didn't think bashing in your skull would lead to such affections." His gaze drifted to the side with all charm lost as quickly as it came, he casually dropped Keith.

"I'm flattered." Lotor ended.

Luckily, a sentry was there to catch his fall and jerk him to his feet, painfully, but at least he wasn't sprawled out on the floor. The idea of struggling free came to mind but it was quickly banished from his thoughts. The sentry had seen to it by shoving his gun up into the boy's lower back and another joined in on the fun. Keith took a moment to glare over his shoulder before limping forward all while doing his best not to stumble.

"That is the worst pick up line I think I have ever heard." Actually, no, Keith had heard worse from Lance on multiple occasions. The blue paladin would have so many horrible pick up lines that he used that he was certain he could quite possibly write a book on, 'How Not To Pick Up A Lady' and make a million. Alas, he would have to save that idea for another day.

Lotor merely glanced over his shoulder with no intention of replying. Keith, however, was promptly glaring at his backside the whole way. Even when Ezor joined them and phased into existence he continued to glare. Though he had to admit that Ezor scared the shit out of him when she did that.

"So, where are you taking me?" asked the former paladin.

Lotor seemed to think on an answer but decided not to answer. Instead, Ezor rotated on her heels and grinned a bit too large for Keith's liking. "Oh, you'll find out soon." She declared happily. Keith never so badly wanted to just smack someone in all of his life but he had to say, he was most satisfied with the bruise on Lotors head.

A single galran helmet sailed through the air as if it was a football being kicked out to a field goal. The item gained much distance and made a satisfying clack into a pile of debris. The star kicker sighed. While it felt good to send a helmet flying it did little to ease the tension in the air. Lance turned to view the mess they had landed in, the plant was in disarray and the false base was nothing more than a large pile of hideous rubble. "Pidge," Lance stated with some doubt. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

A voice perked up on his headset, "Yes, Lance. Kolivan confirmed this is the place."

"Really? Is he sure?" Lance questioned with some doubt. "We haven't seen any Galra. Not even a single fighter anywhere near or on this planet. I thought it was going to be crawling with those guys."

Pidge sighed over the com unit, "It looks like they didn't stick around long. We can only assume they left after they lost sight of the Blades. This supply base was only a ruse after all. They would have no reason to remain here."

Another voice cracked in to join the conversation, "So, then why are we here?" Hunk asked in curiosity. "If the Galra isn't here and neither is Keith, what's the point? Shouldn't we be, you know, trying to get closer to his, erm, dot?" Hunk added after a moment.

Pidge moaned, "Guys, come on. If we can get inside we might be able to find out where their ships might be heading to next. Thus, we can find Keith a hole lot easier than playing Pin the tail on the donkey."

Hunk made a sound of understanding while Lance just stood there, looking at his side of the base in disapproval.

"That's all fine and dandy but I don't see an entrance into the base anywhere." To help with Lance's statement he opened his arms wide to display the area in front of him as if the others could see his motions. Of course, they would be unable too as each one as at a different point of the building. "This is like finding a needle in a haystack. The place is trashed. We are just wasting time."

"Lance." Shiro warned with a sigh. "We all want to find Keith as quickly as we can. But Pidge is right, we need to know where they might be heading off too. So, keep looking. There has to be an entranceinto the base."

"All right, I'll see what I can do." Lance continued to roam the side of the base he was given. He wasn't sure why they where even bothering with this place. Keith's signal wasn't even showing up here and so he definitely wasn't on this planet. Sure, he understood Shiro's intent on trying to find some evidence to Keith's location but he doubted they would find anything here. His hands shifted across the outer wall of the base as he continued his search for an entrance. Again, there was nothing he could find. No seam or vent to bust or crawl into. The building had suffered major damage and half of it was destroyed while some of it remained standing.

Pulling away, he took a few steps back and stared upwards to the roof. It looked like the waves of the ocean with some of the building pressed upwards and others down. Hmm, maybe he could find something up there. Using his thrusters, he reached the top and Jak's joined him from the opposite side. It seemed the other had the same idea as him. Together the moved across the surface, looking for anyway inside the hazardous base. Using short burst of his thrusters Lance would look much like an uncontrolled bunny hopping from side to side. Moving over cracks that looked dangerous and landing in safer areas but still nothing. Doing one final thrust he turned in the air to face Jak as he went to land. "Man, this place just doesn't have an enteran-whoa!" As soon as he touched the surface of the roof with force of gravity at his side it seemed he had located a weak spot in its structure.

He went down with a startled cry and the roof crumbling down with him in small amounts. Jake merely stood there with a tilted head as if he wasn't sure what he just witnessed. "It appears the paladin of blue has found created an entrance for us on the roof."

In minutes the rest of the team would join Lance and explored what areas they could. Half of the walkways were heavily blocked off with debris that it wasn't worth clearing out. Others they could maneuver around. Finding doorways that aren't blocked or destroyed was difficult but eventually they came across a half closed door that took Shiro's arm to open. Jake stepped into it and looked around. The floor had a gaping hole in the center, the console destroyed. "This is where we took the information."

Lance just sighed, "That's great. But it doesn't help us. The console is busted and we aren't going to get anything from that." He pointed out with a heavy frown that would match Shiro's.

"Lance is right, let's see if we can't find another somewhere." Shiro admitted with a heavy sigh. The team moved on while Jak lingered there for a moment and rejoined them without a word. It would be another few doboshes before they would eventually come to another room. Nothing of use and moved on. Lance lost track of how long they had been in this place but it was starting to get to him. He didn't like leaving his lion by itself outside and he didn't like the time they were wasting. He turned his gaze to the left and caught what looked to be light peeking through a half opened door. Curious, he pulled away from the group that was trying to figure out what to do next. The door was just big enough for him to squeeze into and upon entering he saw the flood of light was coming from an opening in the ceiling he hadn't seen pryor too.

What he had stepped into was a large storage room with containers busted open, their contents dried up. Shelving units busted at all sides with some teetering dangerously. Taking a few steps forward he continued to investigate the room. He was so intent on his surroundings that when he felt something brush against his leg he screamed and backed away. He felt his heart leap out of his chest and float away as the group called out his name. It only took seconds for the door to be busted open fully and the team entering to find Lance on the floor. He packed right up into a shelf and finished tipping it over. His right hand pointed to a large pile of fallen ceiling, finger waving. "Something touched my leg!" He declared in wide-eyed panic.

It was Jake who approached the rubble and bent down to investigate. What had touched Lance was a gloved hand poking out. Jake knew instantly who it was, "Yukari…" He placed a hand on the pile and lowered his head for a moment.

"Jak?" Shiro questioned but then found his own answer when he joined the blade member. He said nothing more. Lance got back to his feet as he realized what had touched him. "Oh. My. God. Is that a hand? That's a hand! It's a hand isn't?"

No one said a word. Pidge pulled in front of the team as soon as she took note of the dented console. The youngest Paladin glanced with a sad expression at the hand but she knew there was little they could do for the dead. Keith was alive and right now, far more important than the fallen Yukari. Her fingers glided against the keys and was thrilled to see it still working. Violet screens popped up though fuzzy and flickering from the sheer damage done to the system. Jake would join her to the side with Shiro on the other. The rest of the team stood a bit back while Lance made sure to fully avoid the buried corpse.

"No, really. Guys?" Lance would ask with a weaker voice and not receive any answers. He just stared down at it, feeling sick to his stomach. other than that Lance tried to find something else to settle his attention on such as Shiro, Pidge, and Jak at the screen. It seemed the three were trying to pull up the camera system and Jake was shaking his head, speaking to the two paladin's in a small voice. He couldn't hear them but it seemed Jake had destroyed most of the footage to protect everyone involved. A lot of good that had done.

Shiro shared a few words and Pidge hunched over the controls seemingly not willing to give up on finding some kind of evidence. They knew the Galra took Keith but not who. It could be anyone. His gaze would turned away from the fuzzy screens and ventured around the room. There really wasn't anything of interest. Just rocks, building pieces, broken shelves, spilled containers and a mask on the floor. Wait. He knew that mask. Moving towards it he ignored the curious glance Hunk was giving him.

At the time he picked up the mask, Pidge exclaimed and pointed at the screen. It looked like Jak didn't get all of data taken out because their on the screen was Keith though there was no sound to the video. He looked like shit. Huddled up behind the fallen rubble and flipping on his-no, that wasn't his mask. Lance was holding the shattered object in his hand. The blue paladin looked the screen and then towards the each member as they watched the events unfold.

Hunk looked heavily concerned when Lotor landed next to his general. Jak he couldn't read for obvious reasons, Pidge looked concerned but calculating as her gaze went to the screens. She was looking at another screen, reading the data only she could understand. Shiro though looked as if he was somewhere between being ill and angry. It was like he couldn't decided on what emotion to feel as Keith was taken away and the video ended. Silence filled the room.

"Pidge?" Shiro would ask with a voice with a surprisingly steady voice that Lance wasn't prepared for at all. From the rigid look of their leaders voice he figured the older man would have a crack in his voice, concern, or anything other than even tones. It made him difficult to read.

"Give me a tick." She responded calmly, shifting between screens as they flickered off and on. Jak seemed to catch on what she was trying to do and assisted her by taking one screen to shift through something that looked like alphabet soup made from some unknown language. "Bingo." Pidge would remark with a sly grin with a shift tap of the bottom screen. "I got it. I know where Lotor's ship was heading too and um, you aren't going to like this…"

Everyone turned their eyes towards the tiny paladin as if she had the secrets of the universe. "It seems Lotor's ship was heading out for a recon mission but that's changed. Guys, he's going to Central Command."

Lance could have sworn the whole room just dropped to below freezing.

Keith felt like someone had just sucker punched him in the gut repeatedly. It seemed like the whole universe was out to get him and he didn't know why. Sure, he was a bit of a trouble maker as child, got kicked out of the Garrison, wasn't a team player, and the list seemed to go on. So there might have been some justification for the world disliking him but he didn't think it justified him to be on forced on his knees for the past thirty minutes as Zarakon debated his fate. His leg was killing him, his arm was swelling up in his suite and he was pretty certain he was going to die right here and now. But the damn emperor had just kept staring at him as if he was a generous helping of steak. In short, it was down right uncomfortable. Lotor and Haggar had been going back and forth over him and the uses he could have. He doubted Lotor meant anything he said but was merely using him as a point of distraction. Lotor never did anything for his father and had always been looking out for himself.

"He will offer you much entertainment in the Arena, Father." Lotor said brightly as he held a hand out towards Keith. "Why not make a show of power by displaying a most grand show of humiliation of a Paladin of Voltron?" He spoke so formally that it almost made Keith want to vomit. He never heard Lotor use such pretty language.

"He is useless to me." Zarakon finally spoke in dismissal while he leaned the side of his face against his gloved hand. "He holds no bonds to the lions nor do I wish to have another paladin in my arena." Short and sweet.

"My lord?" Haggar questioned.

Lotor turned towards him in confusion as Haggar looked towards her emperor with interest. "The red lion does not have the same fierceness it one had nor does the black." He further explained to fill in the blanks. He had fought with this man before and understood each paladin's fighting skills and temperaments. He was a hardened warrior that analyzed his opponents. "He is no paladin."

"However, he might prove to be of some use after all." He ended with a second thought. Golden eyes turned towards the witch. "He will be your new toy, Haggar. I wonder how the rebels will react to seeing their former comrade in pain."

Horror spread through Keith's body. He had seen the witches handy work on the robeast victims and those that she took out with her druids. He had no intentions of becoming like those poor souls. He would die rather than fall into her hands. Keith leaned managed to get one foot under him to push himself up only to be slammed back down on his knees by Lotor. Looking up he caught Lotor's amused expression. "Now, now, don't be so hasty." Claws dug into his shoulder painfully.

Keith shot him the most nasty expression he could manage before he blurted out, "I am so going to crack open that skull of yours, Princess."

Lotor blinked, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Princess." Maybe he should watch his mouth a bit better. Shiro always warned him it was going to get him into trouble. But then again, maybe he secretly enjoyed the taste of floors? After all, his face seemed to love getting smashed into them recently. Still, he tried to fight back as Lotor shoved his foot into the small of his back, sending him face forward into the floor. Somehow, by the grace of God he avoided further damage to his arm. Through clenched teeth he demanded to be sent to the Arena.

"Send me to the Arena! I'll give you a show all right!" Not to mention he would be armed and could find a way to get out of here. Regardless of his injuries he would die trying to get out or dying fighting.

A small husky laugh came from Zarakon out of what looked to be amusement, "I think not young one. You will serve me far better outside the Arena, no matter how tempting it is to send you there." Zarakon turned towards Haggar and Lotor and made a motion for them to disappear with the former paladin.

This was going to prove to be highly entertaining. If he played his cards right he might just be able to get his hands on the Black Lion or maybe something better than that. He would just have to wait and see what kind of hand he was dealt. One thing for sure though was he was going to enjoy tormenting Voltron and their annoying Coalition.

Hey guys!

We are finally getting ready to dive into the good parts of the story now that most of it is set up and ready to roll. Prepare for some tissue moments and probably needing ice cream on the side. I know I will need it XD.

I hope switching view points/groups was easy to follow. I am trying to make sure its flowing good in that aspect as I know that can get a bit confusing at times.