Chapter Text
When Keith exited the Altean ship he had piloted he was greeted by the paladins.
"Hold on. How do we know you're the real Keith and not his bigger, cooler, more grizzled, older brother"
"I don't have time for this Lance," Keith sounded impatient which given the circumstances he has all right to be.
"Hey everyone Keith's back" Lance had an almost smile but still was slightly upset about Keith's automatic dismissal of his joke. Keith walked past Lance seeming to basically not care. That's the furthest thing from the truth, Keith wanted to care in the moment, he wanted to hug Lance and talk with him but stopping Lotor was more important than talking to his friend who he thinks is hot.
"Where's Lotor." Keith asks walking up to Shiro.
"Keith what is going on?" Shiro asks Keith seemingly kind of worried.
"Yeah Mullet, you show up, after months of you disappearing, with a Galran, space wolf, and another Altean and your asking where Lotor is?" Lance says still processing the fact that Keith just walked past him and ignored him.
"I'll explain everything after we deal with Lotor"
"Well we can't get to him" Pidge says.
"Why." Keith doesn't say it as a question more like a demand causing a chill to be sent down most of the paladins backs.
"He's in the quintessence field with Allura." Coran chimes in.
"Fuck." Keith mutters, "This isn't good"
"Keith, what's going on?" Pidge asks, "Yeah and who are these people or well people and a wolf" Lance adds as he touches Keith's shoulder.
Keith sighs. "Well the Galra is Krolia" He pauses, "She's my mother."
"Woah woah woah woah wait a minute, you just found and brought your mom back" Lance asks seeming so confused. Shiro was the first one to actually approach Krolia, extending his actual arm for her to shake.
"It's nice to finally meet Keith's mother." Shiro says as Krolia shakes his hand. "You must be Shiro, Keith's told me so much about you. Thank you for helping raise my son and being there for him." Keith looks away when she mentions Shiro being there for him. No one notices except for Lance who doesn't say anything and just continues on like he didn't see it.
"The Altean is Romelle and the wolf I met while riding on the back of a space whale for 2 years." Lance looks at Keith like he's crazy for a moment before snapping out of it when Coran speaks.
"How did she survive the destruction of Altea? Only, Allura and I escaped"
"That's a story for Romelle to tell." Keith says as he sits down his wolf coming next to him and standing at his side.
"When Altea was destroyed most of us were off planet on trading ships." Romelle starts. "After the original survivors heard news of our home planet being destroyed by Zarcon most went into hiding."
Most of the crew sat down on a crate or the floor, leaving Romelle, Krolia and Lance being the only ones standing still. "Years had passed and Lotor had found where they were hiding. He talked the Alteans into coming with him and that he could guide them to safety away from the ones who wanted to hurt us. Multiple generations had passed and the Alteans had grown to love and worship Lotor as our Savior. The Altean couldn't have been more wrong."
"So what happened that means we shouldn't like him?" Hunk asks, his heart being too kind for this world.
"After he had brought us to our colony on the safe planet we had built homes and Lotor would come visit us every so often. Eventually he had told us about his hopes to build another colony on a different planet so we could survive even longer in the war with Zarcon. So every time he would come to our planet he would put us through a test to see if our body was worthy of the travel. It was the ultimate honor to be chosen. Eventually my parents were chosen leaving me and my brother alone on the planet. Once my brother was able to be tested he had passed the test and was sent to the other planet, I pleaded with him to not go and tear our family apart but he went in the end. He gave me a communication device that he wasn't sure if it would work."
"So why are we supposed to hate Lotor? It sounds like he helped the Altean survive." Pidge asks.
"My brother had been taken to the colony. After some time he had crashed a transporter back on the original colony. He died in my arms because of Lotor. I had lost all faith in Lotor and all that he had built for us. The colony was a lie but I knew that if I were to tell anyone about that they wouldn't believe me." Romelle continues, as Hunk has gotten too engrossed in the story that he fell out of his seat. "When Keith and Krolia had shown up I saw a slight hope in the situation I found myself in. So I told them the story of how my brother died in my arms. They helped me find out the actual truth. I showed them an old Altean ship and thankfully Keith could pilot it. Keith had noticed that with the shape my brother was in when I found him he couldn't have made it far and then Krolia had said mentioned one of the moons surrounding the planet. We made it to the moon to find a bunch of containers which held dying Alteans."
Everyone was in utter shock.
"Lotor was harvesting the quintesence from the Altean people." Keith speaks up, "Which is why he must be stopped. Can't Voltron go into the Quintesence Feild and stop him already."
"Hell no. Alluras in there with him, we can't risk her life." Lance says sternly from behind Keith.
Keith turns around to face Lance. "Fine but once they get out we are getting Lotor, whether hes alive or dead."