Loving You to the Stars and Back // Keith x OC //

The Disclosure

89

~Athena~

"What's going on?" Allura asks as she takes a couple steps forward into the room. From behind, the rest of us quietly surrounded Lotor with our weapons.

Lance takes out his Bayard and points it at Lotor. "Allura, step away from Lotor," Lance commanded. His piercing eyes did not come off Lotor as he continued to point his weapon at him. Knowing I should be on guard, I reached for my Bayard, holding it tightly in my hand. I didn't have the heart to activate it and point my weapon at Lotor - I just couldn't.

"I will do no such thing!" Allura exclaims, "Tell me what's happening here!"

"Lotor is a monster," Romelle called out from the other side of the room, grabbing Lotor's attention her way. His eyes grew wide, seeing that it was Romelle. "He has been harvesting Altean quintessence for generations!"

Allura's jaws dropped as she took notice of Romelle. "An Altean!" The words fell from her lips in disbelief. The princess then turns to Lotor who had this sullen expression on his face as if he was guilty. In fact, there was no use for Lotor to hide from Princess Allura. The thing is, would Allura fall for it?

"You killed my brother and thousands of others!" Romelle continued on, ratting my cousin out in front of Allura. The princess was still in distraught hearing such things from us. I could only imagine how she was battling whether to believe the truth or not.

"Lotor has been lying to us the whole time," Pidge raised her voice, taking Allura attention away from Lotor. "He's a murder, just like his father!" Then, Lotor straightens out his back as he puffed out his chest to stand against Pidge's statement.

"You know nothing about what you speak!" Lotor replies angrily.

Allura looks at the ground in front of her, daring not to look back at Lotor as she was trying to process everything that was going on. "What are they talking about?" She mutters under her breath.

"He's making us a fool out of everyone," I called out, not wanting this conversation to confuse Allura even more. She knew what was right. It was only the matter of time that Allura would believe us - the ones who have had her back since the very beginning of this journey.

Lotor turns and looks over his shoulder to make eye contact with me. His eyes grew wide at sight, "Athalia, is that you?" He does a complete turn so he would be facing me, which caused Keith and Krolia to move even closer to him. Despite their defense, Lotor kept his eyes on me. "You disappeared when we were being attacked. How did you end up here?"

"Don't you dare take another step towards her," Keith growled as he held pointed his blade at Lotor. My cousin halts in his tracks before he could reach me, seeing that Keith was ready to pounce if he actually tried to get close to me.

Lotor's shoulder drooped as a mournful look appeared on his face. It hurt to see that kind of expression on him, seeing that both Allura and I were being taken away from him. If anything, this was for the best - not just for us but the rest of the Altean civilization that was left.

Then, Lotor turned back to Allura who was still trembling in her spot. "Allura, listen to me," he calls out, bringing Allura's attention back to him. "I've dedicated my life to preserving Altean culture. Now that we have unlocked the quintessence field, all of your people, who would have been hunted down long ago had it not been for my intervention, can live in peace."

"Peace?" Romelle scoffs. "Does killing my people bring peace?" A shocked expression filled Allura's face as she continued to look at my cousin.

Lotor, who was disturbed by Romelle's morbid comment, continued on in trying to persuade Allura into believing in him. "Were some lives lost in the process? Yes." Allura turns to Romelle, seeing the anguish and frustration written all over. Then, the princess looked back at me. Immediately, I gently shook my head, hoping that Allura would get that Lotor was not someone to be trusted even though I still cared for Lotor.