Smoke and Mirrors

No Choice

On Monday morning, Keith got a message from Shiro to say someone would be there at 10:30am to pick them up and take them to the Garrison. Neither he nor Lance were thrilled about that, but they did as they were told.

A young cadet picked them up and made no effort to even pretend they existed in the back of the car. At the Garrison, the cadet showed them to Mitchell's outer office and walked away.

There was no-one around and they were left standing there waiting.

After twenty minutes, Keith said, 'Fuck this, let's get out of here.'

They were turning to leave when the door opened.

'Oh, there you are,' said Dobree. 'What took so long?'

'We've been waiting here for twenty minutes,' Keith said.

'Did the cadet not tell you to come in?'

'He never spoke to us,' Lance said.

Dobree muttered under his breath. 'Sorry, you were meant to be shown in.' He stepped back from the door and let them into the office to find the others already there. They sat in the two empty seats next to Shiro.

'Thank you for coming,' said Mitchell. 'We appreciate the information you sent through to Shiro about what happened to Princess Allura. The two of you have been instrumental in finding out what's been going on.' He clasped his hands together on the desk in front of him. 'I'm sure you'll agree that Voltron is a valuable asset to this war against the Galran, and the need to keep it operational is of a high priority.'

'That has nothing to do with us anymore,' Keith said. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach he tried to ignore.

'Hmm, we are going to reinstate...'

Keith and Lance jumped to their feet.

'Hell no, not happening,' snapped Keith. 'We were told we couldn't work for the Garrison again, and that's how we want it.'

'We need to keep Voltron active, and we need someone to fly the Castle,' Mitchell said.

Lance shook his head. 'No. We've given all we're going to, to this war. Keith is pregnant and can't be going off into battle.'

'Shiro has informed us of Keith's condition,' Mitchell said, nodding.

'Then you know why we can't be part of this,' Lance said.

He and Keith turned and walked out of the office and down the hallway.

'Wait.'

They turned to see Mitchell striding after them. He opened the door to their left and found an empty office.

'Come in here a moment,' said Mitchell. They reluctantly followed him in and they sat. 'Surely there's some sort of compromise we can come to.'

'We don't want to fight any more,' said Keith. 'We're ready to settle down, have a family.'

'Look, I'm a family man myself so I understand where you're coming from. I've had my life on the line, not knowing if I'd see my family again or not. It's hard.' He sighed. 'We currently have the opportunity to have access to advanced alien technology. Coran is eager to call Earth home in exchange for the use of Voltron, but without the ability to fly the Castle, Voltron is rendered redundant.

Coran thinks that with Krolia's help he can modify the Castle to use the same technology to fold space as her ship. Krolia said that when she ran from Zarkon, she took the rest of the meteor with her. They plan to do the modifications alongside the existing engine so the Castle can still be used.