The Gold Paladin

Blood Duel

Zarkon was on the screen with Lotor's generals, Commander Holt held in front of them to show that he was alive. He was extremely thin, his beard and mustache overgrown and his hair was shaggy. He was wearing the standard Galra prison rags, and he looked so weak that he was hardly able to stand up without Lotor's generals holding him up.

Everyone stared at the screen in shock and horror seeing Commander Holt in the hands of their enemy.

"Bring me Lotor and and Novaleyia, and the prisoner is yours." Zarkon said, "Meet my demands if you want to see the Earthling alive."

With those final words, the screen disappeared and left the group to their thoughts.

"He's alive! Our dad is alive! We have to get him back!" Pidge shouted already making up her mind on a decision.

Matt quickly agreed, "We're going to. What's the plan, Shiro?"

"We can't rush into anything." Shiro said, "We have to think this through."

"What's to think through? It's my dad! We're doing this!" Pidge shouted back.

"We need to operate under the assumption that Zarkon will try to double cross us." Shiro tried to reason.

"We have Voltron! We can do anything!" Pidge shouted back.

Matt looked down at his younger sister with worried eyes, "Pidge." He said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"No!" Pidge shouted, violently shrugging off his helpful hand, "We can't let this opportunity slip away! We're too close! Our father is too close!"

"I agree with Katie." Novae said, "This may be only chance to rescue Samuel."

"But Novae, he asked for you too. We can't-"

"Takashi!" Novae shouted, "I cannot let this chance slip by. And if it means that I have to be sacrificed in order to Katie and Matt to have their father back, I will take that chance." Novae smiled and turned around to face the Holt siblings.

"Let's go talk to Lotor." Novae said, her frown fading as she walked past the group down to the prisons where Lotor was waiting for them.

🦁🦁🦁~~~~🦁🦁🦁

The group went down to the prison hold and spoke with Lotor about his father's deal. After they explained the deal to Lotor, he stood up with a glare in his eyes.

"My father has held the universe in a death grip for millennia, but he sees it slipping from his grasp because of your efforts and because of mine." Lotor said, "With our forces combined, we would provide the greatest threat Zarkon has ever faced. He knows we could topple his empire, so this is his attempt to tear us apart. But united, we could forge a new path, open doors to new worlds and crush the tyrannical ways of an old regime."

"A regime you ran." Pidge said angrily, "We can't listen to him. He just wants to save his own skin."

"If you return me and Novae to my father, he would surely see to our demise. And with his most legitimate threat to the throne removed, he would only grow stronger and he would have an unlimited supply of quintessence, seeing as Novae is not able to die and stay dead." Lotor said.

"He's not going to take Novae. We won't allow that to happen." Pidge said with a nasty bite to her tone.

"Pidge be calm. We need to see clearly." Novae said to Pidge, taking the girl by the shoulders to try and calm her down. Pidge immediately stepped back into Novae's arms, the girl pulled back so that she wouldn't get too heated. But Novae understood her anger, she wanted Zarkon to pay for everything he had done to the universe, and she wanted no more fathers to be taken from their children, much like what happened to her. Only this time, a father wouldn't die in front of his children.