Vrepit Sa

Chapter Seven

Lance glanced about his surroundings as he walked past the training deck. There was no way he was going to just sit around when they had a perfect source of information right below them. Everyone else was going about as normal- but Lance wanted to get answers, and he didn't want to wait for Allura to do so.

  He started on the long trek down into the prisoner holding cells, his footsteps echoing throughout the lower levels of the ship.

  After seemingly walking for ages, Lance slow approached Lotor's holding cell. He looked just as he did when Lance left- sitting, leant up against the wall, his head still hung low with his hair hiding his face.

  The only thing off was how shallow his breathing had become- and Lance realized that the Prince had fallen asleep. Lance frowned and stepped closer towards the barrier that kept Lotor in, and Lance out.

  He hesitantly tapped the barrier with the toe of his boot, causing it to shift slightly with a static-like sound. "Hey," He spoke up. Lotor made no movement to show he had heard Lance. "Hey-!" Lance said louder, kicking the barrier with a little more force.

  Lotor jerked awake, frantically whipping his head around, looking for what woke him up. His eyes finally rested on Lance, and he relaxed, letting out a deep sigh and leaning his head back against the wall, closing his eyes for a moment.

  He let out a low chuckle, glancing back up at the paladin. "That was quite a start you gave me-"

  Lance cut him off. "I didn't come here for small talk, Lotor. I want answers." Lotor gave him a quizzical look, "To what questions?" Lance sat as close as he could to the cell, setting his bayard beside him.

  "What were your orders?" Lotor sighed, looking Lance in the eyes. "My orders, precisely, were to gather some men, follow the coordinates given to me, and take down Voltron, capturing the lions and optionally the paladins as well, to bring back to my father and Haggar."

  Lance narrowed his eyes. "That sounds too simple." Lotor rolled his eyes, "Well, yes, but I was to make a more intricate and detailed plan once I had my army. I opted to just follow the coordinates on my own-"

  "How did you not get caught? Wasn't it obvious that you weren't leaving with an entire army?"

  Lotor smiled slyly, "Have you not ever snuck out of your own home?" Lance thought back to the many times that he had snuck out the window of his bedroom, to go on 'adventures' with Hunk and his few other friends, he remembered the times he and Hunk would sneak out of their room at the Garrison, and them and Pidge would go off doing who-knows-what.

  A knot formed in the pit of his stomach, homesickness welled up inside him as the memories flooded his thoughts. All he could do was nod, not trusting his voice at the moment.

  Lotor nodded as well. "Ah, so you see, it was pretty simple - I just snuck out. No one noticed. Of course, I could only imagine someone will eventually notice I've gone without anyone else, but that isn't my concern right now."

  Lance composed himself, sitting upright. "What's your main concern, then?" Lotor smiled, seemingly giddy, "I've said before, and I'll say it again, as many times as I need to, but I want nothing to do with helping my father. Quite the opposite, really. I want to help Voltron . Anything and everything that will go against him, that's my focus." Lance thought for a moment. "That's pretty sound logic, though I can't promise that the Princess will trust you anytime soon. I wouldn't either, if I were her." Lotor nodded solemnly. "Yes, I understand."

  Lance stood, brushing himself off. "Well, I have all the info I wanted. I should head back up, before the others freak out-"

  "Wait," Lotor interrupted, "Would you mind coming back here? I truly don't believe I'll be out of here any time soon, and it would be nice to have company." He looked up, holding Lance's gaze. Lance's face warmed slightly and he turned away, clearing his throat. "Um, yeah, but for more questioning and stuff, since you're a prisoner and all." Lotor smiled.

  "I have to go." With that, Lance took off back down the long hallway at a fast pace, his steps echoing loudly as he went.

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  Pidge sat at the controls of Lotor's ship, staring down at the foreign symbols and controls, afraid to press the wrong thing unknowingly. She sighed and sat back, thinking. "Maybe I should just go get Keith now," She mumbled to herself.

  Sighing again, she pushed herself up out of the seat and made her way off the ship, then towards the training deck.

  As she approached the doors, she ran smack into someone- or, rather, they ran right into her, knocking them both down.

  "Oomf-" She grunted, rolling over to her side and pushing herself up to a sitting position, then glaring over at whomever had ran into her. To her surprise, it was Lance.

  "I thought you were gonna go to the training deck to annoy Keith-?" Pidge questioned as Lance sat up. He looked at her, surprised.

  "I was- I mean, I did-"

  "You just ran from way down the hall? Not the training deck-"

  "Um," Lance looked panicked. Pidge pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and looked at the older boy quizzically. "Where were you coming from??"

  Lance stayed quiet for only a moment longer, then let out an exasperated sigh.

  "I went to talk to- er, question Lotor. I don't want to wait for Allura, and, I get she needs time to get over it and come to terms with it and whatever, but we need answers now, and-" Pidge cut him off.

  "So, what information did you get?"

  The expression on Lance's face was one of instant relief, realizing that Pidge just wanted to know what he knew.

  "Well, he really, really hates his dad- So much that he actually seems like he really wants to help us, like he isn't lying."

  Pidge nodded as she listened to the information Lance passed from Lotor to her. "I already said it before, but it seems pretty validated. And once I can get Keith to help me-"

  "Whoa, whoa, wait, wait a minute. Why do you need Keith to help you? With what??"

  Pidge rolled her eyes, "He's part Galra. He can help me interact with the Prince's ship." Lance huffed and stood up, holding out his hand which she took, helping her to stand as well. "You know, now that I'm thinking about it, that was kinda impulsive for you to go see Prince Lotor- I would expect something like that more from Keith," Pidge thought out loud.

  Lance's face heated up and he shoved his hands deep into his pockets, "Yeah right- I wasn't being impulsive. It was a well thought out move-!" Pidge snorted.

  "Uh-huh-" The two were then interrupted by the doors to the training deck sliding open, and Keith stopping in his tracks, looking between the two. He gave them both a confused look, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

  "Hey, guys. What's going on?" Pidge glanced briefly at Lance, whom had turned his attention to a particularly interesting spot on the wall adjacent to them. She looked back up at Keith, full attention on him. "Can you help me with some stuff on Lotor's ship? I can do most of the work, but it's Galra tech, so,"

  She  trailed off, looking warily at Keith, waiting for a response. He shrugged, sheathing his knife. "Sure. I'm done with everything I had planned-" Lance snorted at his response, quickly trying to disguise it as a cough. Keith glared towards him, yet decided to say nothing. Pidge sighed to herself.

  "C'mon, then." She began walking, Keith close behind and Lance trailing slightly farther back, walking to Prince Lotor's ship.