Chapter 9

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The thunderous boom that came after the purposeful hit against Lotor's and Anelia's joint ship, shaking the whole structure. As he struggled to stand up right through the shaking, concern ran through Lotor as he saw Lance's eyes squeeze shut, trying to grip the underside of the bench. Even if he tried to move closer to comfort the paladin, it would be more effort than it was worth after the shaking stopped.

He needed every bit of energy he had to combat the Voltron team if he wanted to keep Lance as a pawn to destroy them. (Or to have someone he cared about deeply stay close to him.)

Once the shaking started to go away, Lotor quickly made his way around the bench to kneel near Lance. The red paladin still held on tightly to the bench and shook slightly as if the ships were still shaking. Softly as he could, he put a hand on one of Lance's legs and started to speak quietly.

"Lance, is it alright that I pick you up? We need to get you away from the battle that will occur. I need to make sure you'll be alright." Lotor said. He waited for Lance to slowly open his dark blue eyes and for one moment his heart stopped at the sight of them.

In that moment, they just stared into each other's eyes, reading what the other was feeling. And then another boom snapped them out of it. Lance closed his eyes again as the ships shook once more. When the shaking stopped, Lance gave his answer as best as he could.

"Yes. Take me somewhere that'll keep me safe." Lance answered quietly.

Lotor took one of the paladin's hands and gave them a light squeeze. Then as carefully as he could, Lotor picked up Lance underneath his knees and cradled his head as best as he could. Feeling how tense Lance's body was from both being abruptly ripped out of Gabriel's power and experiencing the two massive ships shake, it was a wonder that the red paladin could even move.

He lifted the other up and gave orders to Anelia and Gabriel to command their troops against Voltron. Their expressions steeled at his voice, giving him a nod that they heard his order. They followed him out of the small garden before heading towards their bridge.

Lotor headed in the opposite direction from them, quickly making his way out of the Faird warship. He could feel Lance gripping at his armour, almost like he was afraid that Lotor would abandon him in his weakened state. All he could in response was tighten his grip a bit more, to make sure Lance wouldn't fall from his hold.

When they went onto the Galra warship, the hallway lights were flashing and Axca was giving orders for the troops to get to their stations over a sound system. He was thankful for Axca in that moment as he weaved his way through the halls.

Then he entered the meeting room that the both of them were in before the Farids had arrived. The table and chairs were where Anelia and he had left them when they had had left the room earlier. Walking over to the table, he could see through the window that only the Black Lion fighting against both of the warships. Despite how stupid of a plan that would be if Lotor was in charge of Voltron, he knew that team was desperate against both his and his father's effort to take over the universe.

As he gently put Lance into one of chairs, he let himself have a moment to think of a plan. He would need one if he wanted to keep Lance from gaining any further injuries.

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Keith took another sweeping beam over the two ships, watching as there was damage finally being done. While he was used to being an offender in the battle plans that the team came up with, it was oddly harder to do by himself. Still he pushed on, wanting to damage the ships as much as he could before he could quietly slip in to rescue Lance.

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