Chapter Two

Vince made his way down the hall to the briefing room, he knew Lance and Hunk were in there looking over intel on the remnants of the Drule Empire that were still causing trouble in the outer reaches. Even though there were still several kingdoms still active out there others in the Empire like Hazar's Kingdom had brokered peace with the Galaxy Alliance. Walking in the two veteran Voltron Force members looked up at him. "Uh, hi, can I talk to you two for a minute there's something I need to tell you."

Lance could tell something was bothering the Green Lion pilot and so he motioned him to a chair. Vince decided not to waste time.

"There's something you need to know about Daniel because he's been hiding it from you all." Taking a breath he spoke, "Daniel was infected with Haggarium over a year ago, he didn't want anyone to know because he was afraid he would be kicked off the force."

That explains a lot, Lance thought he'd noticed a change in Daniel recently but couldn't put his finger on it. "Okay," the Red Lion Pilot said, "So how long have you known?"

Vince knew that Lance would be more direct with this, "Almost from the beginning," Vince lowered his head. "At first it didn't seem to be affecting him but more recently …"

"Yeah, I've noticed it too," said Hunk looking from one to the other. "I was kinda wondering what was bothering him."

"You've noticed the change too Hunk," Lance asked.

"Yeah, at first I thought it might have been frustration because he isn't Black's pilot yet," said.

Lance was now starting to put the pieces together. He recalled the events when they ran into Sven on Crydor who had also been infected by Haggarium courtesy of Haggar's cat years ago, and how he too was struggling to keep control. He held on long enough to make sure his son Sven, was safe with the team and now he was missing. What he was seeing in Daniel, was maybe the early stages of what could happen next and his brain was shuttering. Sven's infection was worse by the time they ran into him and he realized, that Daniel was heading down that path. So he looked at Vince, "I need you to describe for me right now how bad it is."

"He's getting worse, He's losing his temper more often now …" He saw Hunk nod. "And a couple of days ago, he was so mad he punched a hole in the wall in the Lair."

"He did that," Hunk looked surprised, "Even I can't punch a hole in the walls down there, make a dent yeah."

"Anything else you two have noticed," Lance asked.

"Yeah, it's like he's on super speed mode with no control," Hunk spoke. "The other day while doing a workout with him, he was out of control for a few minutes I thought it might have been him venting but now that I look back, he wasn't venting, he was in a minor rage."

Lance got up, "come on we need to tell the others."

"Yeah we got another problem with that," Vince spoke. "Larmina."

What about Larmina," the yellow pilot asked.

"She doesn't want you to know that Daniel is infected, she's protecting him. We had a big argument about it a couple of days ago but even I couldn't convince her that we needed to tell you guys."

Oh boy, thought Lance. "Let's go, we'll deal with Larmina later but we have to let the others know about Daniel and fast." The two other Voltron pilots got up and the three headed for control to talk to Pidge and Keith and find Daniel ASAP and get him to medical.

TBC ...