Keith's PoV:

Keith's heart was burning in his chest. He was in pain. At the same time, he wasn't allowed to show it and he felt terrible. Lance's hand felt warm in his hand, dragging all his attention to the physical contact that only worked because Lance LET him touch his hand. Because Lance chose to be solid and he chose to be there for Keith and he chose to spend the day with him.

But their feelings couldn't be more different. Ever since Lance mentioned that he used to have a crush on Keith, as in, past tense, Keith's felt a little like he was dying on the inside. He had already been struggling with Lance's weird conclusion that this date wasn't a serious one and blamed himself for ever thinking he would never date anyone until after the war. Keith was already blaming himself for not being direct enough, for being too much of a coward to just TELL Lance how he felt.

But now?

Now, Lance's feelings were established to be zero for Keith. He'd been too late, waited too long and ruined all his chances by leaving the Garrison all those years ago.

Keith had never regretted punching Iversion until today.

Keith bit his teeth and tried to calm himself. Then, he made a decision. If this was the only date he'd ever get with Lance, he would pour his entire heart into it, hoping that it would be swallowed and disappear. Keith had far too many emotions to keep them hidden all day. The least he could do was enjoy what was offered to him. Lance was doing him a favour and besides, Keith could simply go back to his initial decision not to risk Voltron because of his stupid mushy heart. He'd know what it was like and pine in secret, knowing that Lance would not be any wiser for it.

That thought helped Keith breathe a little easier.

"Look, that poster said they have sharks! Wanna go to the Aquarium?," Keith suggested as they passed the same ad for the third time, while Lance talked about the different buildings and fantasised who and how the decorations were made. They did look rather reminiscent of victorian stone sculptures but Keith wasn't sure if the stone here was the same as it was on earth and if they really used it to make buildings.

"They have SHARKS?!" Lance was immediately fire and flame. A second later, Keith was being dragged through the mall and towards the Aquarium. Lance was doing the thing where he was neither looking at Keith nor anything in front of him and Keith immediately knew that the boy was scanning the building to find the quickest short cut to the place.

Keith relaxed. He was just glad that Lance didn't take the shortest short cut and just teleported himself towards the place. Alone. Without Keith.

They spent the day in a similar fashion. While Lance watched the sharks and the shark show with childish awe and tried to ask the manager of the place where they had gotten the sharks from (apparently they called them blåhaj and got them from a planet named IKEA), Keith watched him with a fond expression. They didn't need to talk. Or rather, Keith didn't like talking much, he much rather enjoyed Lance being his most excited and happy self.

In the same fashion, they went to get smoothies, Lance a blue one, Keith a red one and Lance led them to a shooting stand next. Apparently, the mall really enjoyed earth sports and offered everyone the chance to shoot a moving target with a bow. Of course, Lance excelled greatly while Keith missed nearly every time. Until they allowed him to try again by throwing a knife. Then, the challenge suddenly seemed rather fair.

When Keith got hungry, he nearly hesitated to ask Lance to sit down with him, since the man couldn't stomach any food, but Keith then decided that Lance would probably scold him if he didn't. And so, they got Keith some food from a restaurant that was ... well... Keith supposed it ws decent. Maybe he had just gotten too used to Hunk's cooking. While he ate, Lance kept talking about how the swap moon felt to him.

"I mean, it's not like I have much to compare it to. But it feels somewhat colder than Kainen. Less cramped and it tastes a bit like marmalade. Is that weird?"

Keith ate his space spaghetti with reluctance. "Not weirder than Spaghetti that tastes like Garlic knots."

Lance's eyes widened. "Really?" His expression fell. "That's so mean, I MISS garlic knots! They are just ... urgh!" He looked rather hungry.

"Quick question, if we found a planet that tastes like garlic knots, could you eat it?" Keith wondered if that was a thing Lance could do now. Could he eat planets? Would he maybe someday have to? He could turn anything into water, and could create anything from water... In a way, Lance was controlling quintessence in a very specific way. In Zarkon's hands, this power would become incredibly dangerous.

"Excuse me?!" Lance held a hand to his heart. "If I would TERMINATE the taste of garlic knot if I could? Are you CRAZY?!"

Keith held out his fork with rolled up spaghettis on it. "Are you sure you can't eat them?"

Lance's expression turned even more miserable. "I can't savour it anymore. It's not that I couldn't eat it... it's just that I get so connected to all the water in the room, that it distorts the taste. I could technically separate myself from it all but you know how it is. I'm not supposed to strengthen my borders to that extend. I have to keep myself in motion, otherwise I'd overflow. If I reach out too much and just absorb everything, then I can't fully differentiate between the things anymore. It's like it was with Kainen. I felt the planet as one unity with thousands of emotions all at once. So, I CAN eat it -," he pointed at Keith's food, "but it would taste like the rest of the planet to me. Because it's part of it, does that make sense?"

Keith wanted to think that he understood it, but he wasn't quite sure he did. "What about me, then? When you merged with me, you were already connected to Kainen. Didn't you manage to separate me from the planet?"

Lance considered it for a second, then he shook his head. "No. All I did was separate myself from everything else. You're a person, Keith. You have your own mind and as long as you don't doubt who you are, then you wouldn't get lost in the planet." He hesitated. "I'm glad that you do know who you are. Or that at least in that moment, you were able to differentiate. I'm not sure that I could have brought you back."

"Oh." Keith looked at his plate, his heart thudding a bit. "Maybe you should try to figure out how things work then, to be able to separate them better."

Lance played around with his glass of water by swirling it around with one of his fingers. "I'm not sure that that's a good idea. Last time, when I thought too much about the difference between myself and the water, I got lost in the in betweens and lost my sense of self."

Keith nodded. "But that's different, isn't it? It's always harder to figure out who you are than what you think of other people... or things. With other things, you'd be more objective, I suppose."

Lance grimaced. "Not really... I mean, everything I see can become an extension of myself, you know? It's like... I explained it to myself with wearing clothes. Clothes become part of our self expression, right? So, after we selected them and put them on, we forget we wear them. They become like a second skin or something. That's kind of how I view planets."

Keith considered that for a while as he ate, then, eventually, he spoke up. "Well, you know your powers better than I do. But normally, you'd still be able to tell where your skin touches the fabric, right? The way you describe everything around you, feels like you're sort of digesting it. You describe it by taste and feeling, right? Like you just ate."

Lance watched him for a moment. "By that logic, I'd have to wear food to taste it and eating planets to understand them." Lance smirked at the idea, then broke into laughter. "That's so backwards!"

Keith smiled at him fondly, then held out another bite for Lance. "You could try it out if you want."

A slight gleam entered Lance's eyes. "What if it doesn't work?"

The challenge hit Keith's nerves with glee. "If it does work, then you'll get to taste Garlic knots. If not -" Keith's heart hammered in his chest. "You get to kiss me."

Lance's eyes widened, but more with amazement than hesitance. "You're that sure it'll work?"

Honestly, no. Ah, well, fuck it, it's not like Lance would understand it. "No."

Lance blinked, hesitated, then sat up more straight. "Well, here goes nothing, then." He seemed to be contemplating something then, when his glance met Keith's and he finally took the bite. For a moment, Lance didn't do much as he chewed on the spaghetti. In the meantime, Keith's stomach was summersaulting backwards out of his body. Until Lance grinned widely, his eyes watering slightly. Instead of answering, he held out his thumb before he swallowed and declared: "This was the best thing I've eaten ever since I got these powers! I could cry! I can eat Hunk's food again!"

Keith shoved over his plate and handed Lance the fork. "You can have it. These aliens eat twice as much as I do anyway."

Lance sniffed at him, clearly touched. "Keith, I know I lost, but I could kiss you just for that! These taste exactly like my mom makes them! Even if the texture is so different!" Then, he stuffed his mouth full of Keith's portion.

Keith flushed and cleared his throat, not daring to comment on that particular bit.

Not that he ever got the chance because this was the moment, a commotion directed their attention to the opening restaurant door where a man entered in wide strides.

Keith's eyes widened comically. He had seen pictures of this man before. You couldn't very well travel through the universe and not hear stories and gossip about the space royal family. Not that Keith had minded it very much...

But the man in front of them couldn't be harder to miss. And not only that, he was flanked by two very familiar faces. Keith froze to his seat, while Lance looked up with a stuffed face.

In front of them stood no other than the allegedly missing Prince Lotor. And to his side, two figures that were causing Lance to choke on the garlic knot spaghetti.

"The signature can't be mistaken. Karak'nirir is definitely inside of this restaurant!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Allura's POV

Allura had decided to spend her day taking a spa. It hadn't been her intention to have everyone else join her. Lance's words had left a deep impression in her brain, making her question how exactly they had treated their fellow paladin. And it seemed the other's found to have the same guilty conscience and decided to join her, hoping the physical rest would give them enough time to think over it all.

They had been treating Lance like the butt of a joke, hadn't ever valued his intel and ignored his feelings while relying on him for their own mental health. That's how she felt. Regardless of whether or not it had been intended or not, the mere fact that Allura had been trying to change how she acted just because Lance was now a god spoke volumes on how ill she had behaved. She hadn't realised she'd been hurting him for so long and she hadn't questioned it until Keith mentioned it.

HE had noticed. Keith had noticed and apparently, out of all of them, he was pretty much the only one whom Lance didn't spent significant hours at night talking to. Allura had shared all her feelings on losing her home to Lance, not even caring whether or not he understood the language and he had made the effort to LEARN it and she hadn't bothered to notice! She hadn't let him talk about HIS feelings, despite knowing he was missing his family on earth too.

"Allura, I can hear your thoughts from over here."

Allura was laying on a lounger between Shiro who was being massaged on her left with cucumbers on his eyes, and Hunk who was applying lotions on his arms on her right.

"Well, excuse me for taking this seriously and thinking about what I did!"

"I think you misunderstood the assignment, then." Shiro sighed. "Lance told us to relax, so that when we come back, we'll treat him as usual."

"I don't want to treat Lance as usual!" Allura hissed in his direction. "I want to do better!"

"And why do you want to do that?" Shiro's voice was muffled and it looked like he was about to fall asleep. "Are you scared to offend him?"

"Well, because he's our friend!" Allura growled at him. "And he deserves better!"

"Good." Shiro took off one of the cucumber slices and put them in his mouth to chew on them. "Then you've learned the lesson."

Allura opened her mouth, then clapped it shut again. "I don't understand." Why would she stop thinking about it if that's literally what she was supposed to do?

Shiro frowned. "Lance is a god now, Allura. Whether he likes that we see him that way or not, doesn't change the fact. We have no idea what he can do now and he didn't trust us enough to tell us. Our worries are justified and I think that Lance is just scared that this will change everything. This break is as much for us as it is for him. We have to accept that some things will now be different, but Lance wants us to keep seeing him as our friend and not a powerful entity. And that means not to overthink the way we behaved and even less to beat us up over it!" Shiro sighed. "I'm also pretty sure that he saw how tense we were around him and just wants us to catch a break."

Allura pulled in her legs to hug herself around them. "I know that. But if he expects us not to change how we behave, and at the same time how we behaved sucked -"

"Tell him that." Shiro now munched on the other cucumber slice. "Tell him you realised that you've hurt him before and that you want to do better. Just be honest. What's the worst that could happen?"

Allura frowned. "He'll take it the wrong way and think I'd flirt with him or something."

Shiro laughed. "Then you reject him like you always do." He let out a relaxed hum. "Though I don't think there is a right answer for this."

"Don't you regret anything you said to him?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I do." Shiro looked up, scrunching his brows. "But mostly I am MAD. He's been helping and listening to me every time I had a nightmare and he tells me not to bottle it all up, and then he turns into a god and leaves all of us out of the loop! It makes me regret thinking he didn't have any problems. I regret never asking how he felt! I used to think he kept himself together because he doesn't worry about stuff. I didn't know that he was struggling too. And I'm MAD he didn't practice what he preached! And next time I see him, I'll tell him precisely that!"

"Same." Hunk suddenly spoke up and both Shiro and Allura turned to him. "I'm mad too! He always talks so much, but says so little! And he thanks me for helping him out and listening to him but I can't remember single time he told me anything about knowing Altean or being good at languages or ... anything!"

Suddenly, Pidge as well perked up. "He's been picking me up at night when I fall asleep and made me waste his time, and not ONCE has he told me to go to bed myself! I want to punch this kid!" Pidge crossed her arms and then turned to Allura. "And you should be mad too! There you are, trying to make things right and Lance has the GALL to cut you off and order us all around! And he doesn't even realise that the way he's treating Keith is literally torture. Keith pulled himself together just to confess and then Lance just completely tramples over him and treats it like a joke!"

"Well, it's not really surprising, is it?" Coran, the man himself, was sitting in a striped neoprene suit on the nearest bar stool slurping some cocktail, with a creature in his hair that was probably nesting there. "Lance does consider helping others his only purpose on this team. He knew me for only a couple of days and already jumped in to save me from a bomb like some kind of Chobernackle!"

Everyone went quiet and strangely mad at that. "No one-," Pidge eventually said, "gets to treat Lance wrong, not even Lance."

"I'm so going to kick his butt!," Hunk muttered.

"Me too," Shiro said with emotion and Allura finally relaxed. Maybe, she thought, that would be for the best. Another part of her wondered if perhaps this was exactly what Lance had been waiting for, aware of his own mistake and expecting them to be mad at him for it because that's what friends do.

She didn't find the time to think about any further though, when her communication device buzzed on her arm. "Allura, please come in."

Almost scared, Allura picked up. Keith and Lance weren't supposed to call in until tonight. They had several hours of free time left. "Keith? Did something happen?"

"We've made an encounter. Someone followed HER signal to our location." Keith was whispering and the other paladins quickly gathered around her to listen in.

"Who is it? Where is Lance? Are you guys okay?"

Keith hesitated for several moments. It's prince Lotor." There was a pause, in which Allura's inner alarm bend went siren. "And Pidge?"

"Yeah?"

"Your father and brother are with him."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lotor's POV:

It was never easy to be the son of Zarkon. Part of the reason was, of course, the expectation that came with his heritage. Lotor could tell you a tale about how he was never good enough, never strong enough, never smart enough to be considered a worthy heir... but that would simply be a lie. He may have struggled achieving anything that's been expected from him, but Lotor had been ready to rule ever since he turned 21 and won his first war over quite a huge quadrant of a huge galaxy by talking himself through a dinner meal.

Lotor had been ready to rule the galaxy the day he'd realised his father's reign didn't JUST bring stability and peace to wide parts of the universe... it was built on the lives and labour of countless innocent planets and Lotor promised himself to free them.

Lotor had been ready to inherit the throne for nearly 10000 years and therein lay his biggest problem.

An immortal king didn't NEED an heir.

It was as simple as that. Lotor was a thousand things. First of all, he was a couple thousand years old, he was wise, he had experience, he was skeptical and curious and he knew how to gain followers, among other things. What he couldn't do was KEEP them for long.

You have to imagine the complexity of the universe. How vast and diverse it is, how far apart everything is. You have to imagine yourself in a complete void of space, not even able to see stars because that's how vacant such quadrants could be... you have to imagine travelling for days in giant space ships, covering millions of lightyears in days to meet entire scholar systems with complex cultures and languages and systems, and then imagine that a single person managed to keep his reign over two thirds of that universe for over 10000 years. Lotor had inherited his wisdom and power from his father, but Zarkon's own hadn't weakened and the man had thousands of years of successfully reign over the goddamn universe to show for it, while Lotor had been marked as a rebellious teen.

You have to imagine strolling through the space mall, knowing these used to be criminally infested swap planets, now cleaned and in order and Zarkon's face printed on every poster because he PROVIDED that order. You have to imagine the Galra police who keep these posters in their offices, striving to make him PROUD. You have to imagine children roaming these places, people of all cultures travelling and exchanging stories and talking about the peace that Zarkon's politics brought and then imagine telling them that their peace was built on ashes. Try telling these people that they had to give up that order, that peace, because people far, far away in random galaxies are suffering for their benefit. And then try telling them those people you were trying to protect were sentient rocks.

You have to imagine that these people see propaganda released by Zarkon himself, showing his own triumphs and marking Galra rebells as murderers and assassins. Then, on the other hand, the people who DO fear the Galra, are now supposed to trust a Galran prince? The Galra fanatics are supposed to lay down their racism for a half Galran who could only TALK of his experiences? Who had nothing to show for him because Zarkon marked Lotor's successes as his own?!

And anyway, what could the lowly people do? They couldn't fight, they grew up in peace and now Lotor suddenly told them to go to war for no benefit for their own and an uncertain outcome. Either that or years of chaos while the universe adjusted to Lotor's reign. It was messed up, but that was how it was and Lotor was more than aware of it and didn't wish to cause unnecessary casualties.

This was the mere reason why Lotor didn't approach Voltron. Because Voltron was, to him, a wasted attempt to overthrow a very successful monarchy. He understood the reason behind it, of course. Heck, he even believed that they had a chance! The problem, however, was Haggar and her druids who's magic practically ensured Zarkon's reign. The POSITIVE aspects at the risk of losing were the problem because there were a lot.

If Voltron overthrew Zarkon from one day to the next, there would be chaos and uncertainty. Entire planets would be orphaned without leadership, or worse, crumbled leadership. Leadership that was untied from the morals Zarkon required from his followers and yes, for planets who's support mattered to Zarkon, they kept a high standard for honour and equal rights. The swap moons were only one example of such important planets.

It added significant weight that Voltron used to be lead by Zarkon, marking them TRAITORS, not freedom fighters. The different planets already didn't trust that Voltron was more than a legend, nothing more than a lonely figure fighting for freedom one planet at a time. Planets who's destruction Zarkon's propaganda managers marked as a necessary evil. The people living on them? Terrorists and bandits and evil breeds that want nothing but chaos. Adding dirty fuel to the fire wouldn't help. So, Lotor simply didn't believe in Voltron's cause. And last he heard, Voltron was lead by a random group of humans lead by a supposedly dead Altean. What's next? A Voltron show to gain allies?

No. The reason why Lotor had disappeared was a different one. First of all, he needed allies within Galra command, he needed people he could trust, he needed to free people who could help him slowly replace Zarkon, take over the reign as intended for an heir, without making it look like a regicide. And first of all- he needed to find HER.

"Matthew, are we any closer on her signal?" Lotor stood straight and proud inside his battle cruiser, an arm placed on the backrest of Matthew's assigned seat.

"We're getting closer, but she's moving." Matt was chewing on a chocolate bar as he typed away on his computer. His expression stern and serious.

Lotor gritted his sharp Galran teeth. "That woman hasn't moved in over 4000 years! Let alone released such amounts of trails in her wake. What on earth is she doing?!"

Matt didn't respond at first, though he did keep typing on his computer. "You know I can't answer that."

Lotor ran a hand through his lush white hair, sighing deeply. "I know. Just talking to myself."

"You've been doing that a lot lately." Matt looked up from the computer. "Just how long have you been searching for her? Have you even met her before?"

Lotor didn't answer immediately, considering carefully whether to answer that question. Then, he decided, that honesty would prevent later conflicts within his small team. "A couple thousand years. She'd been keeping her energy levels mashed with the planets she hid on. She's been... hiding from me, I think."

Matt raised a brow. "Is she like... your ex or something? Because stalking is really strange, man."

Lotor's expression didn't shift. "I'm not interested in her like that. I only met her twice. One time on a backwater planet in the Tenaria quadrant. She seemed... out of place there but I didn't really think about it other than that I got weird feeling seeing her. She left that planet shortly after and that's when the people on the planet told me who she was and what her power entailed.

It made me wonder why she'd be hiding and running away if she had the power to overthrow my father on her own. So, I searched for her."

"And the other time?"

Lotor didn't like that question. He closed his eyes. "I can't explain what happened. But the planet I found her on doesn't exist anymore."

Matt looked up, eyes a little wide and his fingers freezing in mid air. "Did she destroy it?" His voice sounded incredulous and Lotor could understand that.

Yet, he shook his head. "It almost killed her too. I have no idea why." That part wasn't entirely true but it didn't make a difference to him. What he learned that day was far more important. Karak

nirir was powerful enough to defeat Zarkon on her own. But- she was was afraid of Haggar.

"Prince Lotor!" Samuel Holt's voice interrupted their conversation. "We're closing in on one of the swap moons! Matt's signal says it's right ahead!"

Lotor blinked, and hurried to the control station. "The swap moon? Why would she go to a swap moon? And this one?" Lotor straightened his back and opened his communication device. "Axca, please come in."

It didn't take long for Axca's pale complexion to appear on the holo screen. "Prince Lotor, how may I assist?"

"Axca, we're closing in on the swap moon in sector three of the Bolnuscian galaxy. Where exactly are you?"

Axca didn't hesitate to give her report. "I'm hovering right ahead. As I reported last time, we detected Voltron on our scanners and have been keeping a watch over them ever since they entered Bolnuscian borders."

"That can't be right." Lotor frowned. "If this is true, then Karak'nirir may get in contact with Voltron soon. I'm sure even a princess who slept for ten thousand years would know about her and ask for help. Once they get into contact, I'm sure she'll flee, so we have to be faster. Tell Zethrid and the others not to let anyone or anything leave the planet!"

"Vrepit sa." Axca disconnected from the channel.

Lotor gnawed on his thumb. "This is strange. Matt, can you scan the castle of lions for any anomalies in the past couple movements?! And check their route. I got the strange feeling that this might not be a coincidence."

"Got'cha." Matt said quickly and hastily typed at his computer. Normally, it wouldn't take him long to run a scan or hack into anyone's systems. But this was taking long. Concerningly long. Frowning, Matt's fingers slowed down, his eyes roaming over the thousands lines of codes like he were reading a book. "Actually, not got'cha. I can't run a scan and I can't get in. Whoever is in charge of the shields of the castle of lions is a genius. I can't find any holes."

"Just what we needed." Lotor clenched his fist around Samuel's seat. "Alright, no time to waste then. If she's on the planet, we're going in regardless."

"Okay. Get ready for landing then." Samuel said and a moment later and dipped the ship into a nose dive in direction of the planet.

. . .

"Are you serious."

Matt seemed confused but Lotor had the strange suspicion that it had more to do with the castle of lions than the goddess who was apparently sitting right inside of a restaurant. A RESTAURANT. That woman doesn't fucking eat! What the HECK?!

They opened the door to the restaurant confidently. "The signature can't be mistaken. Karak'nirir is definitely inside of this restaurant!," Matt said finally.

Several eyes perked up at the name. It wasn't an unfamiliar sight. Her name was known all across the universe, written upon shrines and prayed to by people at night. Of course, her disappearance also meant that some people doubted her existence but religion could be a powerful thing.

"I'm sorry, but from this point on out I can't say anything anymore. The readings are off the chards. She could be anywhere in here," Matt finally concluded and put down his scanner to look around. His eyes trailed around, taking several people in. Lotor too, let his eyes wander around to search for the familiar face.

Yet... he didn't find her face. It trickled something deep inside him, making him wonder what on earth was going on. He knew from stories that she was evasive and liked to hide... but then, why did she lure him here? She KNEW her tracks could be followed, was followed. She KNEW that Lotor had been chasing her for years, why did she call for him.

Then, suddenly, Matt gasped. "Holy shit, dad, is that -"

"Keith Kogane!" Samuel Holt gaped.

Lotor frowned but turned to them anyway. "Is there someone here you know?"

Samuel nodded and then pointed at a small table in the corner of the room where two humans turned to them with wide eyes in complete shock. The pale one had jumped to his feet, the tanned one was currently choking on Pentercions.

"MATT?!" The pale one shouted over their heads and before Lotor knew it, Matthew stormed forwards to embrace the small man. Lotor could only frown at such behaviour but he'd learned long ago that physical contact was normal between humans. It was to Galra too but not in such public spaces. Samuel too, suddenly abandoned their mission to greet the newcomers.

The tanned one slowly rose up but his eyes met Lotor's, rather than the one of the other humans. Lotor froze, instantly stunned by the intensity of the blue in the boy's eyes. Even from afar, they seemed to pierce right through him. Lotor steeled his expression, refusing to be intimidated by such small fry, when the boy reached out his hand with a quick smirk and smile. "Hellooo," he stretched the word in what was likely meant to be a smooth greeting. "It is nice to meet you. I must say, you're even more beautiful in real life. What hair lotion do you use?!"

"Lance-," the pale one gave him a stern look and the Lance waved off his hands.

"Right, sorry. Just a habit."

Keith rolled his eyes but his glance at Lotor seemed almost like a warning.

Lotor swallowed around the gulp in his throat. He'd never been called beautiful before. He shook his head, and cleared his throat. "It is nice to meet you too, - acquaintances of the Holts." He turned to his comrades. "I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion but we need to continue searching for-"

"No." Matt's eyes were wide with determination as he turned to Lotor. "You can't tell me that you believe this is be a coincidence!" He turned to Lotor. "May I introduce to you, this is Keith Kogane, best pilot at the Garrison. I told you about the Garrison. The other boy is -"

"Lance McClain." The pretty one answered suasively and winked at Lotor.

"Right." Matt nodded at him apologetically. "These two are human! Human technology isn't advanced enough to reach this far into the universe! And I doubt that Iversion would have started another Kerberos mission with them when they were still in training! Then the chances of them being abducted as well AND somehow getting out of slavery are very low! Now we've been following the trail of a goddesses right into a restaurant where we run into them?!"

Lotor had to agree. "And I'm sure that it's no coincidence that Voltron is here as well. You two are paladins, aren't you?!"

"YOU ARE PALADINS?!" Matt squealed while Samuel tried to keep him down. "SO COOL!"

Keith's eyes widened, yet he seemed to hesitate with his answer. The other one, Lance, however, snapped his fingers at them. "We sure are. Let us introduce ourselves again. This man here -," he pulled the black haired man by the arm and waved a hand at his confused expression, "is our resident emo, the red paladin. And I am the one and only blue paladin!" He proudly gestured at himself.

Lotor didn't know whether to be suspicious or find this man adorable. He certainly did have some kind of charm to him. The pale one frowned even further. "Lance, are you sure we should just tell them that?!"

"Oh, come ON, man! That's Matthew and Samuel Holt! They wouldn't freely join a lunatic! They are too smart for that! And Lotor has been said to be rebelling against Zarkon. I think we should give him a chance! Besides, think of Pidge's face when she sees them."

"Pidge?!" Matt's eyes widening did not go unnoticed by Lotor. "My SISTER is here?!"

"Jap!" Lance's smile widened. "She's the green paladin!"

Matt covered his face. "REALLY!" He laughed. "Oh, holy hell, my little sister. THAT'S why I couldn't hack the -"

Samuel punched him in the shoulder, thankfully. Lotor took note of that too. The Holt's... all of them geniuses... in some ways... it seemed. Although, even Samuel had tears in his eyes and it seemed like he wished to say something. Yet... Matt's words echoed in Lotor's head too. None of this could be a coincidence.

Lotor stepped forward again, addressing the blue paladin. Why he chose him to confront was simple. Lance had introduced the red paladin to him, so he assumed that Lance was in charge here and as he stepped closer, the blue paladin straightened as well. He wasn't much smaller than Lotor, but his gaze remained firm and calculating.

"I didn't know one of your own was family to my comrades. We didn't come here to find her, we came for someone else. Did Voltron, on your way to this planet, encounter a woman entirely in blue? She should have been ... tall? And made of water."

The blue paladin's expression didn't shift. "I heard you earlier. You're speaking of Karak'nirir. The goddess of creation."

"You know who she is." Lotor wasn't sure whether or not to be surprised about that. On the one hand, the earthlings had assured him that they had never heard of Karak'nirir before, their idea of gods being quite different from the rest of the universe. On the other hand, they travelled with princess Allura of Altea who might have mentioned the story to them. Matt and Samuel had asked a dozen questions when HE did, so-

"We met her on Ilianiar. The people of that planet worshipped her and we had an audience with her."

"Lance, I really think we should ask Allura about this first!" Keith's whisper was entirely too loud and slowly, the restaurant seemed to break out in hushed whispers.

Lotor frowned. "Let me guess, she refused to help."

The blue paladin nodded slowly, still meeting Lotor's gaze head on.

Lotor's mind then rattled for logical conclusions. If Karak'nirir was supposed to be on Ilianiar, then why in the universe did her signal send them here? Had she left and coincidentally arrived on the same planet that Voltron was headed towards? It didn't make sense. Whenever Karak'nirir fled, she made sure not to be followed by the people she rejected. "I would like to speak to your princess, if that is alright."

The blue paladin cocked his head, assessing Lotor once more and Lotor felt for a weird moment like something was prodding at his mind. "Fine, Keith, let's call for Allura and ask for her opinion. And Pidge. She'll want to know she doesn't have to fret about her family anymore." His gaze turned soft at the last line, clearly excited for his friend.

Keith nodded and sighed a frustrated sigh before he tapped at the communication device on his wrist. In the meantime, Lance put a number of GAC on the table. "We should probably move outside."

Lotor bit his lip, eyes trailing over the restaurant once more. He was so close to finding her, and now he had to step away? Yet, the paladin had a point. In here, they'd start a commotion if they kept talking for much longer. And she didn't seem to be here. But if his guess was right and she did somehow connect to Voltron in some way, then he probably had higher chances finding her with the help of the princess of Altea.