Episode 11

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Honerva's boots echoed through the spacious control centre as she strode towards the Alteans feverishly working the switches and computers.

"Exit at coordinates beta-four-X-seven." She stared into the stars flying past, casting flickering purple light over the ship's interior. "He is with the paladins." She turned away from her companions. "I will see you again soon, my son."

***

PIDGE POV

We all sat around the long table, everyone slightly on edge. Allura still hadn't woken up. Without her, we didn't stand a chance against Honerva.

"Honerva has been off the grid until now." Shiro started. We all stared at the information around us, hoping that it will reveal the answers we need. "We've detected a wormhole signal at coordinates beta-four-X-seven." He sighed. "But without Allura, our ability to wormhole is gone."

Keith shook his head. "We'll never get to Honerva. Allura needs to wake up. Soon."

"We now know why Honerva retrieved Lotor's mecca. Lance and I figured it out." I spoke up, trying my best to ignore Lance's distracting grin. "It is made by the same comet ore as Voltron, which means it has the ability to pierce realities."

"Honerva is going to use Lotor's mech to find her version of a perfect reality." Lance finished explaining. "If it's out there, she'll find it."

"The problem is, this trans-reality ore travelling through realities is natural, but Honerva forcing the process will have catastrophic side effects on any reality she goes through."

"But what's the point?" Keith asked. "We know her plan, but we can't get to her."

"Even if we could, she can just wormhole away." Shiro sighed again. "Without Allura, we can't chase her and you can't even form Voltron."

"There are other things we can do. Prepare for battle." Keith suggested. The team began to plan, pushing the problems out the way and focusing on what we can accomplish. Everyone was talking, except for Lotor. He stood at the back, staring at his shoes. We were all dismissed, and everyone started to disperse. Lance sauntered over.

"Hello, my fair-"

I held up a hand. "Can I catch up with you?"

"Sure," Lance looked puzzled. "I'll meet you at the workshop? We can help with building the new weapon." I grinned and before I could stop myself I pulled him down for a tiny kiss on the cheek. His whole face burst into flames, and he smiled sheepishly. "Uh- okay, I'll- I'll see you," He managed to get out before he basically sprinted out of the room.

Lotor didn't move as everyone else left, so it was pretty easy to get to him.

"Hi."

He looked up. "Oh. Hello." He sighed and slipped into one of the empty chairs. The last of the MFE's closed the doors behind them. "What is it?"

"Just wondering if you want to talk." I shrugged. "It must be pretty hard to listen to a whole ship of people talking about defeating your mom."

"What?" Lotor laughed. "That's the last of my problems. My mother has never cared for me, and now she has got it in her evil head to destroy realities that don't please her. I feel nothing for her."

I frowned. "So what's the matter?"

"What if Allura doesn't wake up?" He asked worriedly.

"She will."

"I hope so. I would have never got to tell her -" He sighed and started to get up. "Never mind. But thanks for caring, Pidge." He left the room quickly, the door drifting shut behind him.

***

LANCE POV

Pidge and I sat side by side at the work table. Sam had assigned us small components of the prototype weapon to design and then left us to talk to Slav. We worked in near silence, and she kept glancing at me when she thought I wasn't looking.

"Could you pass-" I passed Pidge the blueprints before she could finish. She smiled. "Thanks."

I took a deep breath. The hard part was over, right? "Hey, Pidge. When all this is over, do you want to go, like- on a date?"

"Where shall we go?" Pidge put down the papers and spun to face me on her chair.

"Oh. Well, I was thinking we play some Astrostar, and then eat some peanut butter cookies, maybe take a lion out for a spin?"

Pidge grinned. "It sounds like you've really thought this through." I rubbed a hand behind my neck.

"I guess so," I smiled. "But there also aren't a lot of different activities to do on a spaceship."

She leaned close enough that I could count each individual eyelash. "Now that, my friend, is where I prove you wrong." She turned back to her work. "And anyway, why wait? We need something to distract ourselves from... well, everything. Meet outside my dorm at seven?" I couldn't help noticing her cheeks redden.

"Oh I get it," I slipped comfortably back into my usual drawl. "The sooner you get to hang out with me, the better." She shot me a glance.

"How did you know?"

We were interrupted by Sam.

"C' mon. You two should go. The scouts we sent out to find Honerva were in trouble. We've lost connection, and at least two ships were destroyed. I can finish the weapon my myself."

Pidge and I exchanged looks. "We should go see if there's anything else we can do," Pidge said. I followed her out.

***

LOTOR POV

I felt like an idiot. If Allura were awake, she wouldn't have wanted me here. So why do I keep coming back? Not that I really enjoy it. The two medics are around Allura all the time, checking everything constantly.

"Okay." One said, running a hand through her hair. "We're finished. We'll... um, leave you to it."

"Enjoy!" The other whispered as they hurried out the door, chattering to each other at one hundred miles an hour. I sighed and turned back to Allura.

"I know you wouldn't approve of me saying this, but those two are beyond annoying." I watched expectantly for any kind of response to my voice, but there was nothing. Her face remained serene, the perfect picture of a princess. I sighed again and took her hand. At least she was still warm.

"Look. I don't know if you can hear me, but we need your help. My mother could rip our reality apart at any moment." I clasped her hand between mine and rested my chin on them. "Your team needs you. I mean- our team needs you." I took a cursory glance around to see if anyone was watching us. Unsurprisingly, the curtains over the window to the medic's office twitched as I looked over. Whatever. "Please. This universe needs you, every reality needs you - and most of all, I need you." I scoffed miserably. "I can't imagine this stupid world without you." I sat back and started to extract my hands from hers, ready to leave, but her fingers tightened and her eyes fluttered open. She took in my face and our entangled hands. Her eyebrows narrowed.

"Lotor?" She pulled away. "What are you doing?" I shook off the hurt and shrugged.

"Just waking you up. I'll go and get the team. We have a lot to talk about." I stood up and walked out, trying to gain back some control of my wildly beating heart.

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