Vrepit Sa

Chapter Four

Lance sighed and leaned against the wall opposite of Lotor's holding cell, letting himself slide down until he was sat on the floor, criss-cross. Lotor payed him no mind in that moment, seeming to be lost in thought, so Lance took the opportunity of his distraction to take in the features of the Prince.

  He was purple, but not in a traditional Galra way- instead of being covered in fur, Lotor had purple skin, and red marks on his face, similar to the druid, Haggar, but going down across his yellow eyes. He had very long, flowing white hair, that looked so silky, Lance almost had the urge to reach out to touch it, run his fingers through it just to feel it. He shook the thought away, and let his eyes wonder to his most prominent feature, what really caught Lance's attention- his ears, which were Altean.

  Lance frowned and leaned forward slightly, propping an elbow on his knee, and his head rest in the palm of his hand. "You're part Altean." He stated, causing Lotor to jump slightly from where he sat. He looked over at Lance. "Pardon?"

  "You're part Altean." Lance repeated, tapping his own ear with his free hand to emphasize what he was referring to. Lotor looked confused for a second, then laughed. "Oh. Yes, good observation, young Paladin. I am in fact part Altean, and part Galra." Lance nodded to himself and sat back against the wall once more, keeping his eyes on Lotor, who now had his attention on Lance. "So, you said you were here on orders?"

  Lotor nodded and moved himself closer to the barrier that kept him in the cell. "Yes, Haggar summoned me, not long after my father's 'defeat'. Like I said before, I'm supposed to defeat Voltron and bring the Lions to Haggar, but I couldn't care any less of my orders."

  "Then why-?" Lotor swiftly pushed his hair back behind his ear and straightened his posture. "I took the orders as an opportunity to possibly repair the damage I caused to Allura, and, er, team up, I suppose you could say, with you all, the Paladin's of Voltron. I have no interest in doing anything that would benefit my father and his universal domination in the slightest."

  "You say that as if he's still alive?"

  "Oh, he is. The bastard- I could only resent you all for not finishing him off. Sadly, last I saw of him before finding my way here, the druids were doing some work on him." Lotor sighed and Lance cocked his head to the side. "You really don't like Zarkon either."

  "Oh, of course not. I hate him probably more that anyone else in the universe, including those who have had to sadly suffer under his rule." Lotor frowned. Lance mimicked the frown. "I know he's a bad guy, I mean he's tried to have us killed a bunch of times, but he's your dad, and you hate him more than us- that's pretty messed up. What exactly-?" The Prince shook his head. "Can I just say, he ruined my life, and leave it at that? It's not anything I'd like to reminisce about." Lance nodded solemnly and looked away, down at his hands. "What about-"

  "Allura and I? I had figured you'd ask eventually." A ghost of a smile passed across the Prince's lips. "It isn't a pleasant story, either, and may completely turn you against me, to where you probably won't stop Allura from using my own helmet to kill me- Thank you for that, by the way." He smiled at Lance when the paladin looked back towards him, causing warmth to rise up in Lance's cheeks, and he immediately looked away again, mumbling, "Don't take it so personal, I'm just not a 'kill first ask later" kind of guy, cause then we'd get no answers." Lotor chuckled, "Of course. Well, if you'd like to know the regrettable past of your Princess and I, you best hope Coran takes a long time getting back, it's quite a long story."

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  Further up in the castle, in the hangars, Pidge, Keith, Hunk, and Allura were thoroughly searching Prince Lotor's ship for anything suspicious in the slightest.
  Pidge sat distracted at the controls, heavily studying the equipment. "This is way different than Altean tech- you think when we're done searching, I could take the time to figure out how this all works?"

  Hunk looked back at her from where he stood, looking through storage compartments. "Wouldn't you need to be Galra to interact with any of it?" Pidge shrugged. "Keith could help me." Hunk smiled, "Oh, that's right! Maybe while he's helping, you'll get to hear some of his jokes. I swear, Galra Keith is so much funnier than regular Keith." Pidge rolled her eyes. "That doesn't even make since, Hunk. What you're saying just implies that Keith was funny before. He's probably just funnier now because he lost a layer of emo."

  Hunk snorted, "A layer of emo?" Pidge nodded, most of her focus still on the controls. "Yeah, you know, the whole 'not having an identity/ not knowing his true self/ still trying to find himself' emo layer. Now that he knows that part of himself, he's less emo- or something." Hunk chuckled and shook his head, "Yeah I guess..."

  Towards the back of the ship, Keith and Allura inspected every place they could, trying to find, well, something. "I bet Pidge and Hunk are having better luck than us," Keith mumbled, looking in the small compartments. "There's hardly anything back here that isn't actually part of the ship."

  "We have to be sure," Allura argued, inspecting wall panels and tech embedded in the wall. "Everything on here is under suspicion. I don't trust a word from him." She hadn't even said Lotor's name, yet still spat the word 'him' with just as much disgust. "If you don't mind me asking, Princess," Keith closed the small compartment after looking through it for the hundredth time, "What happened between you and Lotor that has you so, well, upset?"

  Allura huffed a breath of aggravation before turning to face Keith. "It isn't pleasant to think about, or speak of, but I suppose you all must know sooner or later. Though, I'd rather only have to tell you all once." Keith nodded. "Understood. Should we head back to the control room? I really don't think we'll find anything in here, if we haven't yet already." Allura sighed, "I suppose, there isn't any immediate threat to us to be found here. You get Pidge and Hunk, I'll go get Coran and Lance, and we'll all meet back in the main room." With that, Allura exited the ship.