Nyle POV

After that whole ordeal with Olkarian, we got a bit to rest before the day of the Kral Zera came about. And then it was back to the drawing board. As of now, we were talking with Lotor about what we should be doing.

"I'm telling you, Branko's wanton attack was only the beginning," He starts. "Without an emperor, more and more high-ranking officials will start lashing out and consolidating their power at the Kral Zera."

"Uh, just gonna jump in here," Hunk interrupts. "What exactly is the Kral Zera? Is there food there? It sounds awful fancy."

"It's the coronation ceremony for a new emperor or empress. It's held on one of the first planets we, the Galra, conquered," Lotor responds. "Planet Feyiv, a sacred land."

"Okay, so who all will be at the Kral Zera?" Shiro asked.

"Allow me to show you. May I, Princess?" Lotor asked.

"Go ahead," Allura responds.

Lotor turned to the controls and pulled up pictures of a scary-looking Galra. "Warlord Ranveig is one of the fiercest Galra in the empire. That's why my father sent him to the fringes of the universe. He will already have several fractions pledging their allegiance."

"Warlord, huh?" Lance states. "I'm guessing you don't get that title by being nice."

Lotor then pulled up a picture of another Galra standing with two sentries. "Commander Gnov was one of Zarkon's most trusted advisors. She will be unifying Zarkon's inner circle of commanders. They know what they'll get with her. She's not as reckless as Warlord Ranveig, but she's just as cruel."

The picture went away before showing a picture of a shorter and stumpy Galra. "Quartermaster Janka. He is responsible for overseeing supply routes throughout the empire. Don't let his stature fool you. His power is bureaucracy, and he should not be underestimated."

"He keeps popping up in my database," Pidge says. "His supply chain management is incredible. He definitely color codes."

"So, organized evil. Okay," Hunk responds.

"And, finally, Zarkon's witch Haggar," Lotor responds, putting up a picture of the witch that I think we've all met.

"We've met," Shiro says, venom in his voice.

"She's most dangerous of them all," Lotor starts. "Because she's not Galra, and therefore not eligible to rule, she probably has a puppet already. Someone she can control and manipulate. If the Galra were smart, they'd be working together against her. If Haggar's puppet takes over, then stopping Zarkon's reign will have been for naught."

"Then we can't risk any of them assuming control," Shiro says. "We should help Lotor take command of the Galra Empire."

"Shiro, we've already discussed this. It's far too risky," Allura responds.

"Yeah, why don't we let them fight amongst themselves a while before we do anything?" Lance pipes in.

"You know what we went through on Olkarion, that was just one rogue commander vying for the throne," Shiro spat back. "When the Galra lashes out, everyone in the universe suffers."

"How would we even get Lotor there in the first place without causing a huge ass fight?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll be bringing Voltron," Lotor adds, all of us staring at him.

"Yeah, because Voltron never gets into fights," Hunk says.

"Shiro, we can't allow that to happen," Allura says.

Shiro was quiet for a moment, shutting his eyes before opening them again. "I'm sorry to hear that." He started walking off after that, leaving us there.

"Uh, what's up with Shiro?" Hunk asked.

We all just watched him walk away in silence. We all separated and I did a couple of things before going towards my room where I had left Mereida to play while we talked. 

When I rounded the corner, I saw her babbling with Lotor standing next to her as she showed him her toys. My instincts kicked in and I immediately went over, pulling her behind me.

Lotor looked at me and let out a small laugh. "Stand down, I have no intention of harming her. I found her wandering the corridors by herself. Seems like she was looking for you."

I pursed my lips and sighed softly. "Whatever you say Lotor. What are you even doing anyway?"

"I was looking for Shiro. I thought I might have a talk with him," He responds.

I grumbled and shook my head. "I don't know where he is. You have some idea as to why he's acting the way he is?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't. But that's a reason I want to speak with him, I know he's not himself right now. I'm hoping I can get through to him."

I hum and slowly nod. "He honestly might listen to you more than us right now. I'm sure he thinks we're out to get him."

Lotor crossed his arms and shakes his head. "I don't necessarily believe he thinks that. More like he thinks that no one is on his side and will listen to him."

"Whatever the case, he's not our Shiro. He hasn't been since he came back. Something's off with him," I replied.

"I agree with that yes, something is wrong with him. But we can't know for sure about it yet. And by the way, maybe you should lock your door when you aren't with her. So that she doesn't get into something that could hurt her," Lotor says, smiling slightly at Mereida.

I rolled my eyes and hummed softly. "She's never left before. And this was probably the longest I've left her unsupervised. But thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Lotor sighed slightly and looked at me with a serious face. "I know you are uneasy with me, especially around your child. But I can assure you, I have had no thoughts of hurting her or any of you."

He walked away after and I frowned some before shaking my head, sighing softly. I headed to the Green Lion's hanger and sat with them, letting Mereida play with her toys while I sat down when I heard them arguing about something, Sam standing there almost dumbfounded.

"What the hell are you arguing for?" I asked.

Pidge turned to me and smiled. "Nyle, how would you reconfigure a gendocam?"

I blinked and leaned back. "Well personally I would single-modulating-"

"Hah! See Pidge?? I'm not the only one!" Hunk yelled, interrupting me.

"Come on! Nyle you're my lab partner! How do you not know to double-modulate it?" Pidge wails to me.

I furrowed my eyebrows and rolled my eyes slightly. "Because it takes more time and single-modulating does the same exact thing."

Pidge groaned and leaned back in her seat. "Still! It makes more sense to double-modulate!"

"Ah," Sam pipes in. "Modulating arguments. That's how your mother and I met. Anyway, have any of you seen Shiro? I wanna go over my report for the Galaxy Garrison one last time before I leave."

"Haven't seen him since he stormed off the bridge," Pidge responded.

I blinked some and shake my head. "I haven't seen him either but, I ran into Lotor on the way here and he said he was looking for Shiro. Said he wanted to talk to him."

"I've never seen him like that. That was weird," Hunk says before leaning in a little bit. "It was almost as weird as double-modulating."

Pidge groaned before connecting to a comms line with the bridge where Allura was. "Hey, Princess, Do you know where Shiro is?"

"Let me check," Allura says, looking at a few screens before we heard some beeping. "He isn't on the ship. His lion's gone, too. Where's Lotor?"

I frowned before cursing under my breath. "That son of a bitch lied to me! Princess, he was looking for Shiro when I passed by him! He's probably taking him to the Kral Zera!"

"Get to your lions, we're crashing the ceremony," Allura states before signing off.

Pidge and Hunk quickly rushed to their lions as I looked to Sam. "You think you could watch Mereida while we do this mission, Sam?"

He smiled and laughed softly. "I'd be honored. Now go, you have work to do."

I smiled and ran off to my hanger, quickly changing into my armor before getting into my lion.

A portal was opened as we all flew through, seeing the Black Lion in the middle of a bunch of Galra Cruisers. We immediately started opening fire on them, trying to give Shiro some room to breathe.

"Looks like you could use some help!" Lance exclaimed.

"We got your back, Shiro!" Hunk shouts.

"Okay, team. Let's form Voltron!" Shiro yells.

They went up to form Voltron as I tried to do what I could from up here, seeing Lotor fighting Sendak at the bottom. He's alive, that motherfucker is alive.

They came back down and quickly destroyed most of the cruisers until the rest started fleeing. We landed on the ground next to the giant steps, watching Lotor light up some kind of weird torch. The Galra then started bowing to Lotor. I guess this is a better outcome than what could've happened.