The New Prince

Chapter 36

The group assembled in the conference room then waited for doctors Gorma, Driver and Maryann to walk in. When Driver saw the entire Voltron Force along with the princesses and Coran, he looked at them a bit surprised. Allura picked up on his expression and offered him a sympathetic smile.

"Dr. Driver, Keith's well being concerns his entire family." Allura began, "Please speak freely. We all want to know what is happening with him."

Nodding, the doctor began, "The surgery itself was a success. I navigated through the nerves and tissues, finding the object searched for without any major challenges or obstacles. The problem is the chip that I retrieved, as you know, is not the chip that was originally implanted on the commander."

Shaking her head, Maryann sighed, "It's a replica of the one I created, but it's not mine. They must have created their own to control him. There was something in that chip that made him different from the one that was originally implanted."

"Like what?" Romelle asked curiously.

"I think this new chip," Maryann began, "made him capable of killing humans."

"Are you sure?" Allura asked.

She nodded, confirming her thought, "It's the only thing that my original would not do."

"It makes sense." Lance suddenly said as everyone turned to him. "Remember the night of Keith's supposed coronation? We fought and just when I thought he was going to kill me, he hesitated. He couldn't do it and God knows I pushed him."

Romelle then added, "When he shot Coran, I don't think he meant to kill him either. It was just a tactic to throw us of. After he terminated communications with all of you, he told me how to prevent Coran from bleeding out and called MedTech himself."

"And when he killed Throk, I thought he would kill the slave we encountered in his room," Lance voiced out, not particularly looking at anyone. "But he didn't either. He once again hesitated."

"Was the slave human?" Maryann suddenly asked.

"Yes,"

The doctor nodded again, "I'm positive that they changed the chip now. My chip was not designed to terminate human life, only Drule. He killed Drules but Keith never killed humans."

Sven pointed out, "Not until the night that Zarkon asked Keith to kill the prisoner in front of us. They must have switched the chips by then. He wanted to make sure his device worked."

It must have been the night Haggar interrupted us. Allura thought, remembering the witch's words before she struck Keith with her staff. The princess turned to the professor, "Maryann, why didn't he kill me when he had the chance in Zarkon's throne room? I remember her using magic to …get him to kill me."

"I don't know." Maryann shrugged. "Her chip wasn't perfect. The human body has a way of rejecting foreign objects that don't belong to it. Keith's body was rejecting that chip as much as I think he was rejecting mine."

"Come to think of it, I think he did." Lance now offered, "They were times where I thought Keith was in pain. When he took me with him on his mission, I saw him in pain more that once."

The room began to quiet down for a moment, all the occupants lost in thought.

"So, what now?" Pidge finally asked, "I mean, is Keith alright now?"

Maryann and Dr. Driver looked at each other. Driver spoke up, "As you know, the chip that Maryann designed was meant for Drules. However, it was meant to stay permanently in the Drule. Once they were removed, there were side effects."