The galra walked through the doors to the main deck as Axca joined them finally with her gun pointed at Lotor.
He narrowed his eyes recognizing a Druid standing with their back to him as he walked with who once was his generals.

He stepped forward to the Druid with a scowl.

"Prince Lotor," the Druid lowered their hood as white hair was revealed with altean ears.

"My son," Honerva turned to him with golden eyes.

"Witch, you should've been dead," Lotor stated flatly with no emotion of joy. Only zethrid and lance knew the true identity of the witch who claimed to be Lotors mother but she died at zarkons hands. But she was different now, she looked altean rather than the Druid that crumbled at zarkons feet.

"The anger you feel towards me is to be expected, you father did kill me but failed," honerva explained softly looking at Lotor.

He stayed silent. He didn't feel surprised.

"Understand that the events that transformed me into the witch Hagar, I wish I had more time to explain what this curse has shredded from me, my maternal instincts I may have had for my one and only child," Hagar kept her eyes focused only on Lotor.

"However you have continued the work I started long ago, and have indeed seen it through to heights I could have only imagined, your never ending pursuit of knowledge is truly-" "enough," Lotor finally cut her off as to many emotions swarmed his chest and created a headache in his already concussed head.

"You May have fooled me with mercy once, but that ended in your death, your words change every encounter, but my mother ceased to exist when honerva drew her last breath centuries ago," Lotor told her sternly with a glare.

"I would never accept you as kin,"

"You are a twisted perversion of what was once pure and beautiful, you bring dishonor on the name of my mother, witch,"

"I should've been the one that ended you, not zarkon, for your love for him May have been true but your motherhood never existed, nor shall it ever," he barked harshly with anger.

Honerva looked down disappointed but regained her confidence to look Lotor in the eye once again.

"Take him away," she hissed as it hurt to hear the words come from her child's mouth.

Axca grabbed Lotors arm as they made eye contact for a moment but only for Axca to pull Lotor back for her to shoot her blaster at honerva instead.

But the witch was gone before it hit her.

"Did you just kill her?!" Ezor cried out.

"Are you working with Lotor?" Zethrid gulped wise eyes.

The locked clicked and cuffs fell at the princes feet as he held his wrists.

"I can explain everything but I assure you she is not dead," Lotor told them strongly as Axca stood with him.

"If your with me we need to get to the sincline ships and leave now to regain another asset of ours, Lance," Lotor looked at them calmly.

"We're getting lance?" Ezors eyes lit up. "I'm in, I miss my best friend,"

"Sure.. I'm in too," Zethrid looked at ezor as she agreed.

"Right then, we're headed to the castle of lions to get him at its last known location," Lotor nodded determined.

"Sir the wormhole deposited us on the far side of the thizonian system, we need to make multiple hyperspace jumps and even then it'll take some time," Axca told him.

"Then what are we waiting for? We're getting my hell fire back," Lotor narrowed his eyes.

——

"Pidge what'd you find so far?" Coran stood by her as they found pidge again.

"Protocols countermeasures, I recognize it..." pidge looked at the computer feeling sick to her stomach.

"Recognize it? How?" Hunk stepped over to her calmly.

"From the code I scanned from shiros arm while we were looking for galra installations," she mumbled softly looking down.

"Wait are you saying shiro is responsible for this?" Allura asked confused. Lance didn't look at any of them.

"Yes," she confirmed making some gasp.

"I knew it wasn't lance because there's no way the galra or anyone could've gotten in, because shiros arm was in both systems he could... he could do things I didn't think he ever would," pidge gulped keeping her back to them.

"Lance I'm sor-" "I don't want to hear it, we have more important things, pidge what's our next move?" Lance asked not even looking at Allura.

Suddenly the teladuv lit up as some alarms went off next to Allura making her step back with wide eyes.

"The teladuv is teaching it's critical mass," Allura told them.

"Pidge!" She looked over at her.

"I know I know!" Pidge sweated as she typed over the keys rapidly ignoring the cramps in her wrist.

"It's going to blow any second," lance took a step back as panic rose in his chest.

She focused on the computer not skipping a beat to finish up and press her finger on the computer as the teladuv was turning red and was beeping faster but soon turned blue and everything stopped.

"You okay?" Lance walked over to the small stressed Paladin as she bowed her head down.

"How did you do that?" Hunk asked softly.

"When I was scanning shiros arm I also made a copy of its programming... I created a virus that could terminate all its command prompts in case something like this ever happened," pidge explained keeping her eyes down.

"I never thought Id have to use it," she let out a soft exhale but lance put a hand on her shoulder.

"You did good," he nodded at her as pidge didn't smile but was still upset that it had to be used anyways.

"So what's next?" Pidge looked up at them with determination.

———

"How's it going number five?" Coran asked a little out of breath as he and hunk worked down below.

"I've diverted as much power from the teladuv to the main turbine as I could," pidge replied.

"Nice work, looks like we have the power we need to attempt a system restart, Allura begin the reboot sequence," Coran told her as Allura stood in the main deck with lance, krolia and romelle as she was deep in thought to herself.

"Allura can you hear me? Is this thing on mute?"

"Allura?" Lance quirked a brow noticing her not reacting.

"I-oh right what is it you need?" Allura blinked out her thoughts and looked at lance then Coran on screen.

"The reboot sequence, can you run it again?"

She worked slower as she looked exhausted and confused with herself as her hands pushed the keys slower than usual cause lance to worry a little. He understood they got in an argument but they needed to push aside their differences for now.

There was something wrong in the system still as coran went back to the screen to keep working out the kinks with hunks assistance. Krolia told the others she would join as romelle tagged along with her not wanting to be in the same room as lance from their fight before.

Lance sighed standing and walked to Allura as they had a moment alone.

"You okay? You seem distracted," Lance asked genuinely.

"I'm just so angry with myself for allowing this to happen, I played into Lotors hands," Allura breathed.

"What are you talking about? There was no diabolical plan Allura, I know there's some questions but all you have to do is listen," lance sighed softly as he looked at her.

"I... I didn't trust Lotor at first, I hated him for a while, I've questioned him many times but he's understanding," lance explained looking away.

"It seems bias," Allura glanced at him.

"A little. But we're not the perfect couple, I swear, we've fought and yelled, I've slapped him a once or twice," lance blushed embarrassed.

"But I'm only saying that because we got through it by listening and forgiving, and I still love him for his flaws, but this is a misunderstanding I swear on my life," he put his hand on her shoulder.

The altean almost blurted out her and Lotors kiss, how she betrayed lance and kissed his lover. But she kept it in, this wasn't the time. Not yet. She didn't know if it was better to hear it from her or Lotor..

"I can't help but put us in this situation," Allura hugged her body a little.

"It wasn't just you, it was shiro going rogue and taking down the castle with that virus," lance pursed his lips looking down.

"I helped build and empower his ships, this is my fault," Allura shot back.

"Do not do that Allura, your not at fault... and he's not a bad guy, I know you'll never believe me but you have to trust me," lance turned her to him hoping for her to change a little.

"You all trusted Lotor, but within the snap of your finger you want to hurt him, I don't understand that," Lances voice broke a little looking at her.

"It's not the first time you've made a rash decision like this," he gulped as Allura looked up at him.

"Your right, I don't even know if I can trust myself anymore," Allura felt tears in her eyes.

Lance pulled Allura in a soft hug as she hugged him back keeping her tears in but leaned into the embrace.

"Let me tell you, as someone who made a million mistakes... all you can do is get up and try to make it right, you can doubt yourself now... we need you..." lance told her softly in her ear as Allura sniffled feeling guilt sink in her stomach.

"The universe needs you," he nodded as tears streamed down Alluras face.