The New Paladin

75: Arenas And Play Dates

"How do you know?" Keith demanded shoulders tense as his eyes glared up at Lotor.

They had moved this conversation to the castle where they could contain the emotions slightly better.

Or hide them from the universe, either or.

Kolivan and his team had stayed on Puig to help them settle and get their lives abck in order.

Kolivan had warned that that they might be recieving more news of another companion soon.

Lance didn't know what that meant. But it was quickly discarded by what Lotor had to say.

They would face whatever Kolivan had said later when they all had their wits about them.

Lance's head pulsed where he had been hit, all this thinking was giving him a headache.

"He has been seen." Lotor explained his voice steady as he tried to calm the clearly agitated black paladin. "Not by myself but by Narti, she still holds rank in the Galran empire mostly because she can trick anyone near her."

Lance glanced towards the Galran lizard like woman standing next to him. Her tail flickered almost in annoyance before she tilted her head to look at Lance.

She had arrived only a short while ago and Lance had to admit she was a wild card.

Completely silent and stealthy and imposingly tall.

Was everyone in space so stupidly tall?

"You work for the Galra?" Lance asked keeping his posture relaxed. He didn't want to sound accusatory because he knew what it was like to be accused of something you couldn't exactly control or change.

She shrugged.

"Narti is my inside woman, she keeps tabs on the galra and reports directly to me." Lotor defended almost immediately.

Lance held his hands up in as a form of surrender. "That's cool, glad to know there's some people out there who know what the Galra are up to."

"It is of great consolation." Allura nodded. "But I must know, are you sure it was Shiro?"

Narti nodded.

"Prove it." Keith said firmly.

Narti lifted her clawes hand to show a holo-pad, it glowed brightly as it cast a hologram image above it.

Not an image.

A video.

It showed a prisoner being led by a group of armed Galran sentries through a long corridor on a dark Galran ship.

Lance shuddered.

"It's him." Keith nodded shoulders dropping with either relief or acknowledgement. It was difficult to tell in the heavy atmosphere of the room.

"Okay, where, how and why?" Hunk asked, crossing his arms.

"You're not going to like the answer." Lotor admitted.

"Where is Shiro?!" Keith growled.

"He's in Zarkons personal arena." Lotor sighed.

Lance's eyes widened.

"What's Zarkons personal arena?" Pidge asked looking around the table.

"A battle ground." Lance whispered. "I only heard rumors about it, two walk in, only one walks out."

"Precisely." Lotor nodded. "Shiro has been entered into two fights so far, his next fight is due tomorrow."

"He's up against an opponent called Zax." Axca added. "He's an enhanced alien that Haggar has been experimenting on."

"The poor thing." Hunk breathed.

"He was a Galran criminal before he was thrown into the arena." Ezor said shaking her head.

"Oh... I don't feel so bad now." Hunk mumbled still looking a little on edge.

"So Shiro's in an arena where he has to fight?" Pidge frowned. "And it's tomorrow."

"We're getting him out of there." Allura said firmly.

"The fights tomorrow, that doesn't give us a lot of time for a plan." Lance pointed out.

"We're not leaving him there." Keith almost growled making the room go tense.

Lance lifted his hands again in a show of surrender. He noticed the apologetic look in Keith's eyes and offered a small smile in response.

"I was hoping you would say that." Lotor said clearing his throat as he held up another hologram revealing a large ship. "This is the arena, and while the auditorium is filled with Galran's, my father has little to no personal guards."

"Why do we need-"

"You want to kill Zarkon," Hunk frowned cutting Pidge's question off, "during a rescue?"

"It would provide you with an adequate distraction for you to rescue Shiro." Lotor pointed out far too casually.

Lance found himself sceptically imagining Lotor's attack resulting in them all being captured or killed. It wasn't a pretty thought.

"And it would cause enough chaos for our escape." Coran added tilting his head. "That and you would damage the entire hierarchy of the Galran forces."

"That's a good point." Hunk mumbled.

"Meaning we might get time to reinforce the coalition and the rebels." Allura eyes were sparking as if the war was already over.

"Okay." Keith nodded he looked too tired to argue. "Let's do it."

"Hold up." Lance said frowning at the hologram in front of him. "We've got the specs, great, but what about guard patterns, we're not going to be able to get in if there's guards around the lower levels."

"Lance makes a good point." Coran nodded. "Without that knowledge we will be in constant danger."

"Do you have the guard patterns?" Allura asked curiously.

"No," Lotor frowned looking to Narti, "but we can get them."

Narti nodded her tail flickering to the side again.

"Good."

"Are we going to need Voltron?" Hunk asked, meeting Keith's gaze.

That question hung heavily in the air, the fear and uncertainty of what might happen to them all if this battle didn't go their way.

"Possibly." Keith sighed heavily rubbing his face.

"Is that a problem?" Lotor frowned looking around them all.

"Without Shiro we had no black paladin, now Keith is the black paladin and now we don't have a red paladin." Pidge explained rolling her eyes. "We're figuring it out."

"Well you had better figure it out fast." Lotor said cautiously. "We might only have one shot at this."

"Give us everything you've got and we'll get the rest done." Lance assured. "Right guys?"

"Yeah, we can do this." Hunk grinned.