The next morning at the Castle of Lions attended to usual protocol, minus lion practice which had been cancelled for obvious reasons. A casual conversation filled the breakfast table from only a few members of the Voltron Force. Hunk and Pidge had been arguing over whose lion was faster, and the Princess at the far end of the table conversed playfully with her mice, keeping a half-perceptive eye on the quiet man next to her. Although their captain was usually quiet during mealtime, this particular morning proved to be even more so. However, the fact was quickly overlooked. After all, he had just sustained an injury that would have killed any normal man.

“Boy, Keith, I can’t tell you how glad we were to hear that you had woken up. I mean, we knew you’d be okay and everything, but it’s still a huge relief to already see you at breakfast.” Pidge tried to sound cheerful, but his wearied concern was more than obvious.

“Thanks Pidge.” Keith put down the fork that he had been using to casually move the food around his plate and sat up straight, like he always did when he wanted his team’s attention.

“Everyone, I have something to say concerning this incident.” Again, he made sure to avoid the gaze of the Princess. “I’m so sorry that my own carelessness brought about so much worry. I guess my riding skills have become a bit rusty. From now on, we should all make sure to be more careful about telling the others where we plan to be if we have to leave the castle.”

Keith paused a moment and turned toward the Princess. “I am truly sorry, Your Highness. My own lack of foresight could have resulted in…”

“But it didn’t.” Allura, already knowing what he was about to say, refused to let him finish. “We’re all just happy that you’re safe.”

Coran who had also been quiet since the meal had begun suddenly interjected. “Yes Commander, you can not help those things that are out of your control. The Princess is right. We are all just very relieved that you were not hurt any worse than you were.”

Just at that moment, the two swinging doors of the adjacent kitchen flew open to reveal an intent woman, an expression on her face that would scare even the largest, most fierce robeast. Everyone except for the Princess seemed to jump a little in their seat. Luckily, her target seemed to be the unsuspecting captain, who had yet to take two bites of his now cold waffle. Nanny leaned over to inspect the situation. Just as she looked as if she was about to bring on the usual Hell fire, her expression softened considerably. “Well, Captain. Not too hungry today? That’s all right. Maybe later you’ll eat some lunch for your old Nanny.” She then leaned over and kissed his injured head, removed his plate, and retreated into the kitchen.

To Keith’s dismay, no one seemed to have missed the uncharacteristic gesture. They sat with silent gaping mouths, Pidge being the first and only one to comment after the silence that ensued. “Is that what I have to do to get on Nanny’s good side? Get myself thrown off a horse?”

Allura was the only one who chuckled. She smiled inwardly at this sudden, yet welcome display of affection by her Nanny toward Keith. Allura had always known that deep down, Nanny held a degree of liking for the captain, or at least a measure of respect. If it were not for him, Allura knew that Nanny would never have let her pilot the Blue Lion in the first place, no matter what the circumstances. Nanny trusted Keith…and Nanny trusted few.

Keith rose to excuse himself. He was getting tired of this charade and needed a break from it all. He nodded in Allura’s, and then in Coran’s direction. “Excuse me, please. I should probably lie down for a while.”

Hunk, who had made an effort not to badger his captain with unnecessary questions, could not hold back his concern. “You okay, Cap?”

Keith smiled for the first time that morning. “Yeah, Hunk. I’m just not hungry today.”

Lance glanced up from his almost devoured plate and spoke with an eerily quiet air. “I would lose my appetite too…if I was lying to all of my friends for no good reason.”

“Lance, stop it right now.” The warning came from the woman who sat at the head of the table. The chastised man only smiled. He finished up the last bite of Arusian berry pudding and pushed his plate aside. “You got a package this morning,” he said in the direction of his Captain. “I put it in your office.”

“Package.”

“Big, yellow envelope,” his First Officer replied. “You expecting something?”

Keith shook his head but felt a ball of anxiety begin to form up in that part of the gut that tells you something’s badly amiss. And then he did that thing he’d done countless times before – he gathered his wits and steeled his best unremarkable appearance. He was faltering, and at least Lance could see it. That the situation could be exposed before he himself even had a chance to evaluate it was dangerous. It was a good bet that everyone, namely Coran and Nanny, would overreact. A threat against the planet Arus was one thing, but a threat against the Princess’ life was another. This entire situation was starting to roll, and for the first time in his life, Keith had no idea as to what to do about it. He needed to be alone.

Keith’s reaction did not escape Lance’s notice, but it would be futile to pursue the issue in lieu of present company. Maybe once he got him alone, Lance could get Keith to cough up some answers. “One more thing, Commander” he added, stopping his friend as he was almost to the exit. “I still have to finish filing that report for Garrison, so I’ll be by later to finish up a few things.”

Keith met his First Officer’s gaze with something of finely tuned contempt. “I’m sure you can’t wait.”

After the sliding doors of the dining hall closed behind Keith, the Princess abruptly dropped her fork. “Lance?! What did he mean by that - ‘I’m sure you can’t wait’?”

Lance, neither surprised or annoyed by the verbal assault, leaned thoughtfully back into his chair. “Princess, don’t you think it’s a little strange that Keith made up some story about going to the village on business?”

Allura pondered that question all of the night before but hadn’t concluded a thing. If only Keith’s story and the circumstances of his brief disappearance added up, but nothing she could come up with had him coming up squeaky clean. “Maybe Keith did mislead us as to where he was going, but we don’t know the whole story, Lance. I’m sure that Keith will explain himself when he is good and ready. Don’t push him. He’s been through enough in the past couple of days.”

Lance thought he could see the Princess’ expression betray her own words. He knew that of everyone, she was the most concerned of all, but of course she would never consciously mistrust anything that Keith ever did or said.

“I’m sorry, Princess. It’s just that it’s my job to make sure that Keith is doing his job well. I’m sure it’s nothing, but it’s not like Keith to lie about anything.”

Allura leaned forward, her frustration evident from across the table. “He is not lying!”

Hunk spent the entire conversation in silence, but this was getting to be a bit much for his sensibility. He stood abruptly, both fists thunderously pounding the table. “That’s it! I won’t sit here while you talk about him behind his back. He’s not even here to defend himself. Lance, why don’t you just talk to him about this before you jump to conclusions?” He stood, nearly throwing back his chair. “I won’t be a part of this.”

Pidge then did the same, albeit with less hostility. “I can’t either. Lance, you of all people should know Keith better than that.”

The dining room doors slid shut once again, leaving Lance to contend with the heavy stares of one angry Princess and her advisor. How could he explain to them that he wasn’t trying to discredit Keith? To accuse one’s superior officer without proof was literally criminal, at least by Garrison standards. But they were on their own here. There wasn’t a Garrison to set the rules. They set their own, and they only had one another. The five looked out for the five, and that’s the way they’d been doing things. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Keith, but he still couldn’t ignore that feeling – that one that told him that something wasn’t right. He was never wrong…IT was never wrong.

Lance took a deep breath. “Allura, like I said, it’s probably nothing, but I have a responsibility…”

She rose from the table, essentially cutting him off mid-sentence. “You don’t trust anyone, do you Lance?”

Not waiting for a reply and not wanting one, she strode out into the hall and proceeded at a moderate pace in the direction of Keith’s room. Her only thought was that of making sure he was alright. He had appeared exhausted at breakfast in spite of his ordeal, and she wouldn’t be able to get on with her day unless she knew him to be safe and well and within castle walls.

Lance leaned forward, his folded hands resting uneasily on the table in front of him. He shook his head. No one felt more uncomfortable about this situation than he did. This was his best friend, for God’s sake. But Lance had experience enough not to ignore his instincts when it came to situations of similar natures. However, it appeared (as was usual) that he would be alone in his suspicions. The others could not, or would not, see it.

If Coran hadn’t cleared his throat, Lance might have forgotten he was still even there. The aging advisor was like that – so unobtrusive that you could step on his foot and he might not even yelp. Lance glanced in the direction just right of the table’s head, but he just as quickly looked away.

“So, I suppose you’re going to yell at me too? Tell me that I’m jumping to conclusions?”

Coran rose from the table and made his way to the exit. As he spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically quiet, almost as if he was about to share some sort of dreadful secret. “Go and see what you can get out of him. Let me know what you find out.”

And just like that, he nodded and left the room.

Lance lowered his heavy head to rest it against the table.

It was probably nothing. But in itself, Keith had never mislead him about anything, or at least he didn’t think so. His friend was the master of hidden emotions, but the actual facts surrounding Keith’s life were not particularly mysterious. Even Keith’s feelings for Allura were not kept particularly hidden….that is, when it was just the two of them talking. He didn’t discuss it much, but he didn’t try to hide it either, and this, as far as Lance knew, was the biggest of Keith’s skeletons. The fact that Lance was privy to the most intimate details of his friend’s life gave him even greater cause for worry. Keith wouldn’t hide something unless it was big.

Lance sighed. Someone had to watch Keith’s back. Perhaps it was nothing, or something nearly-nothing. But unfortunately, ‘nothing’ wouldn’t prove to be the case.

Keith quickly wound his way through the maze of hallway that led from the dining hall to his office. In the past, he had not much occasion to spend time there, as most of his commanding duties kept him on the battlefield or the training ground. As much as this war took its toll on him, at least it kept him from pencil pushing in some dark office at the Garrison, glued to a chair all day. After the war, he would have to find some way to avoid such a mundane existence.

Keith paused briefly in front of the door before keying the access pad.

So desperately, he wanted to believe that it had all just been some terrible, fictitious nightmare, but the reality was too real – the ceaseless bounding of his injured head was too real. What made the situation worse was that his own best friend had already breached his ill-constructed alibi. Lance knew that he was concealing something, and Keith would not be able to hide his secret for long.

But then again, why was he trying to hide this? This was a security issue of utmost importance, and he was breaking more than ten different Garrison protocols by not reporting it immediately. Was he jeopardizing the Princess’ life by not reporting it, or by reporting it?

Keith had been trying all morning to remember every minute detail of his encounter with Zarkon, but certain things remained clouded – probably a result of the blow. One thing was for sure; Zarkon has something big up his sleeve to make the journey to Arus himself. But what was it? And better yet - why was Keith still alive?

These two questions had plagued him, even as he lie unconscious in the medical wing. In the worst possible scenario, Zarkon was trying to get to the Princess, either to kill her or in order to hand her over to Lotor. But if that were the case, why didn’t Zarkon just kill him the other night while they were alone and when Keith was defenseless? Then Zarkon could have rid himself of his biggest threat AND Voltron all with one easy stone. Arus would have been his for the taking.

Keith shook his head. Zarkon wasn’t that stupid to not have thought all of that through. It must be something else he was after.

At least Keith knew one thing - Zarkon was obviously trying to rattle his sensibilities by involving this issue with his parents. Fortunately, Keith knew better than to believe that Zarkon knew the true fate of his parents. The Garrison didn’t even know if they were alive or dead. Zarkon had taken the little bit of information he had on him and used it to pull him out into the open. The worst part of it was that he succeeded. Now it was up to Keith to stop the manipulation before it distracted him from the issue at hand. That was probably what Zarkon had intended when he pulled his parents into the equation. But unfortunately for Zarkon, he had crossed two unequivocal lines…one being his parents, and the other being the Princess.

Keith rarely displayed anger away from the battlefield, but at this particular moment, he thought as if he would explode. Knowing that no one would be around to hear it, Keith kicked the metal door of his office as hard as he could with the flat of his foot. The sound echoed through the empty corridors as if it were his own anguished cry. It stung his shin a little, but the pain was welcome. It was better than the pain he was feeling inside.

Keith paused and took a deep breath. He simply could not afford to lose his wits. He would need them if he was going to find a way out of this situation. Keying the access code for the door release, he made his way inside the musty, dimly lit office. Housekeeping never cleaned this room – they weren’t allowed inside.

Just as Lance indicated - a large, yellow envelope set prominently on the center of his desk. He’d seen one exactly like just a day ago.

Taking a conscious effort to secure a measure of calamity, he took a seat behind the large oak desk and carefully slid the envelope open with a fingernail that most likely deserved trimming. He slowly pulled out the contents, looked them over briefly, and reaching half-heartedly into his pocket, he pulled out a communicator. He took brief pause before switching it to the ‘on’ position, and then spoke loudly. “Lance?”

“Yeah,” came a simple acknowledgement.

“Call everyone into the briefing center. I’m calling an emergency meeting.”

“Is everything alright?”

Keith fought desperately to keep his voice from breaking. “No.”