Klance: Truth or Dare

Part 14

They all turned around as the door behind them slammed shut, and about half an army of Galra appeared from another door ahead of them. A tall, long eared man led them, and he motioned them to halt, all their guns pointed at the Paladins.

His voice was raspy and calm, but it betrayed a desperate need for violence.

"I would advice you to lay down your weapons, Paladins of Voltron. I really don't want to hurt you."

The tone of his voice suggested otherwise. But Shiro knew they would never win against this many enemies. One wrong movement would kill them all.

Shiro raised his hands, and turned of his mechanical arm. Then he motioned the rest of the Paladins to obey the command as well. The sound of their bayards dropping on the floor broke the silence. Keith looked ready for murder. Lance looked defeated.

"Very good," he mused. He turned to his soldiers. "Take their weapons and tie them up. Lord Zarkon is going to be so pleased. But first, we will need to do a few things."

Lance saw one Galran pick up his bayard, and felt something sharp behind his knee, which caused him to collapse. One of the men had poked him with a spear, and another cuffed his hands behind his back roughly. Lance winced as his arms were pulled back. The wound on his shoulder throbbed painfully. They pushed his face hard on the floor.

He heard the other Paladins struggle behind him and assumed they had suffered the same fate.

Strong hands lifted him up and pushed him toward the others. The tripped over Hunks legs and fell backwards on the floor, unable to catch himself. His head hit the ground with a hard thud.

When his vision became clear again, he sat himself up. He was sitting between Hunk and Shiro. Keith sat on Shiro's other side, next to Pidge.

Keith looked furious. Lance knew he hated being defenseless. "How did you know we'd come here?" he sneered. This was a good question. How had they known they would be here?

The Galra leader smiled a cold smile. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Commander Condo. I am part of a small group within the Galra. We collect knowledge about the Blade of Marmora, and about Voltron and its Paladins as wel.

As for your question. The Galra have spies everywhere. We knew where you were going before you did."

Pidge frowned, and then sighed. "You planted the information. You told them there was a weapon, and knew we would come running."

Commander Condo clapped his hands together. "Bravo, Pidge. You really are the smartest, aren't you? Yes, we meant for you to come here."

"But how?" asked Keith, looking pissed. "How did you get into the Blade? They check for spies thoroughly."

"Ahh.." Condo smiled. "Time, Keith. We were in there long before you joined up. Yes," he said, seeing the look on Keith's face, "We have known for ages you were part of it. Our spies may not have been, but they reported you to be in the inner circle. They said you were at the center of many operations. You have a lot of information, don't you?"

Keith's eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing.

"Why do you know so much about us?" Lance asked, more to lead him away from Keith than anything else.

Condo walked over to him instead. "It is my belief," he stated, "that to defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy. To understand is to control. And so I make it my business to find out everything about everybody."

Lance huffed. "I was hoping for something more interesting," he said, with his signature smile. "But with that speech, you nearly bored me to death."

Condo's lips shook as his face went a little paler. Without warning, he hit him hard in the face. "No!" yelled a voice closeby. Lances cheek burned and turned red.

Condo looked at his own hand, like he couldn't believe what he'd done. He shook it off, embarrassed for his sudden outburst.

"Like I was saying, I know many things about the Blade of Marmora and how they work, but my spies never managed to get into the inner circle. Luckily, one of you has."

He strolled along the line, and stopped at Keith. Keith didn't look away, but stared straight into his eyes, a firery expression on his face.

"I won't tell you anything. Not now, not ever."

The commander smiled softly and raised his eyebrow. "Oh, I'm sure we can find some way to... loosen your tongue. So, which one of your friends are you most attached to. Let me think. You have a history with Shiro, don't you?"

Condo was obviously enjoying boasting with his information. Too bad much of it seemed to be correct.

"Yes, Shiro is like a brother to you. But I'm sure you don't want any of your friends to get hurt, do you?"

Keith still didn't move a muscle, determined not to let Condo see his fear, nor to tell him anything. Keith knew many things that the commander could use. Blade bases, hideouts, their plans, information about the members. But he couldn't tell him, even if he'd kill him.

Condo walked along the line, pointing his blade at each of them in turn, while telling them the things he knew.

"Pidge, or Katie, is of course your genius. She went to space to find her father and brother.

Shiro is your leader. A good fighter, taken by the Galra a couple of years ago, made to fight in the arena, lost an arm there. Then he escaped, flew to earth and managed to reform Voltron. Quite impressive, really.

Lance... Well I'm still not really sure what he does. He seems to be an adequate shooter, but besides that, what does he bring to the team again? We don't even have to kill him, he's not much of a threat anyway."

Condo laughed at his own insult.

"And lastly-, " Condo started, but the stopped suddenly. Maybe it was something he saw on Keith's face, maybe it was just instinct, but he turned back, facing Lance again.

"Lance," he said, aiming his knife at him, but watching Keith out of the corner of his eye. Keith's expression changed incredibly little, but it was enough. Enough for Condo to know that his best chance was this brown haired boy in front of him.