「Confliction」

The Chimeras Castle was all but deserted. Everyone was in the Castle of Lions, including Nemoi.

Resting on the infirmary bed, he was all but conscious. His eyes were closed, the world itself was dark. The only thing he had for the moment was the collection of this thoughts and two sets of jobbled memories. As time was going on, he was continually forgetting his origins. They no longer made him who he was, as he had been entirely reborn from rebirth to now.

His brows flexed, creased as he rolled onto his side. His ear twitched as he could hear talking. From the patterns and the tones, he could easily tell who it was. The foot steps is what gave away their identities however. He had spent a week with the four paladins, and spent a short time with Shiro.

He knew the general rhythms, the muscle memory they expressed.

They were further down the hall, so he couldn't quite pick up what they were saying. Rover seemed to be watching over him, per Katie's orders. He could hear its mechanical inner workings and the use of its hovering hardware.

His eyes peaked open just a crack, narrowing his sight on the wall. Just what were they talking about out there. He winced as he tried to concentrate, his head began to pound and everything ached.

Out of all of the Paladins, it was him who had been hurt the most, and he wasn't even one of them. He hadn't even had to join in the fight against the Gladiator, and yet he did.

"...You can't keep lugging him around like that," it was Shiro's voice, the conversation began to drone into earshot. "He doesn't seem stable. First you say he's going to help you regain your family, then he says he'll claim the throne of Altea and leave finding your brother to you?"

Katie was walking beside Shiro as they were walking down the hall. They were going past the infirmary, Rover hadn't notified them that he had woken up.

"The first thing he did when he woke up, was confess to me." She turned and stood in front of Shiro. The Black Paladin knew the general story about what had gone down from Lance and Hunk, about how she had been alone with him for a short period of time. "He knew things about me, that no one else ever should have known, especially an Alien who had been supposedly asleep for ten thousand years."

Shiro paused hearing her say this, placed a hand on his chin and nodded his head. She was acting differently than when she was around him. While she did seem generally caring and genuine towards Nemoi, she was suspicious of him. She didn't trust him.

"During the week I spent on the Chimeras Castle before you arrived on Earth, I went through the security logs. His father locked him in the command center and vented the atmosphere, killing the remaining Galra onboard. He was forced into becoming the sole survivor."

The back of Shiro's head tingled slightly as he imagined the feeling of having lost everything. And as it appeared he was familiar with Katie, even though she wouldn't have been born until 10,000 years later, he clung to her likeness.

He slowly nodded and looked in the direction of the infirmary. "With all his added up behavior, he isn't mentally stable. He's using you as an anchor," Shiro knew what it was like to have guilt, he had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on top of the whole survivor's guilt as he had escaped and her family didn't.

"I know," Pidge looked to the side as her shoulders sulked, her eyes were locked on the wall mere feet away. "And part of me wants to use him, but he dropped down into the beginning of a fight like that, and ended up being wounded. All he could do was smile at me and hold my hand as I lead him back to the Lion."

Shiro nodded in agreement, "That... Was a bit offsetting. He ignored the rest of the Paladins, only giving a reaction to Keith's remark." He wore a shallow smile across his lips, but it was definitely an expression of conflict on his face. "And I remember you saying that he collapsed after boarding?"

Pidge curled her lips in, nodding to reconfirm what she had told him earlier when the conversation was out of earshot.

That's when Adam came walking around the corner, his hands folded behind his back. He stopped at the sight of Pidge and Shiro, smiling professionally once he was noticed. "Hey there," he said with a kind chuckle, approaching his friends and his lover man.

Shiro smiled at Adam, "Hey." The two of them hugged once they were close enough, but both of their attentions quickly turned towards Pidge.

"I couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about. While he was absent from the castle, I also did a little snooping on our 'seer' of a comrade..." Adam looked over at Katie, "The painting of you as an Altean, that was painted a couple days prior to his hibernation, during the end of the Altea–Galra War according to the date written on the back."

Katie wasn't surprised by the date and time, since she already had that information. Though that still was offsetting, he knew her likeness so long ago. "I know," the tone of her voice jumped up and down with her response.

"There were also multiple other small canvases hidden in a repository on the command deck of the Chimeras Castle. According to what I found, I'd be dead if I didn't accompany you from Earth." He spoke of paintings he had found which were based from Nemoi's memories of Voltron. "In addition, he's in none of the paintings that displayed the Paladins."

"Did... You bring them?" Shiro asked with a brow raised, looking at his boyfriend.

Adam shook his head, taking a handful of burnt canvas from his pocket. "After I put them back, the Repository combusted. It was rigged to burn should it be opened and closed by a non-Altean."

Pidge's right lid twitched slightly as she heard this. "When were these paintings made?"

Adam sighed, "From what I saw. The same day he went into hibernation."

Allura entered the corridor from another room adjacent from the Infirmary. When she noticed her friends in the hall, she blinked a few times and smiled. Approaching she could hear them resume their talk about Nemoi.

She also had noticed his behavior, when asked if she knew what he was up to, she informed them what he had said earlier on the Galra vessel before it exploded.

"He said his intentions with Pidge were genuine, honorable. Same with raising the Altean Banner under himself." Allura said with her arms crossed over her chest.

Nemoi simply laid there in the infirmary as this was going on, staring at the wall now, without much focus. He was rather annoyed that they were all gathering there of all places, in addition, talking about him in the process.

"Doesn't he seem a bit all over the place though?" Shiro asked as he looked over at the Princess with a brow raised.

"Of course he does, that's why I kept questioning him. Apparently he sees me as a spoiled brat playing soldier." The moment she said this, the small group outside the infirmary chuckled a bit. In a sense, Coran was outdated when it came to information and the Princess wasn't a military commander.

"Well, lets go check on him." Pidge pointed out that the door was open. They all nodded simultaneously and began to walk towards the door.

Nemoi, as they had turned their attention to the infirmary, placed his helmet on which was on the stand beside the bed. After a few seconds, he activated the invisibility setting and stood up from the bed.

The moment they walked in, they all stopped in their tracks and looked around. They saw nothing, he was nowhere to be found. Even as Allura listened to the surroundings, she could hear his breathing or movement.

"Where did he go?" Shiro said in a calm tone, trying to make sure no one overthinks the situation should he had heard the conversation.

Pidge took a pad which was attached to her hip and turned it on. She brought up a map of the castle and paused. There was dots which represented each person on board by color. Her eyes gazed over the neon green circle with a dark grey graphite outline.

It was moving down the corridor, as if it had gone around them without them even noticing.

"He... Was awake the entire time?" Pidge narrowed her eyes on Rover who was just hovering there by the bed, innocent and yet not moving. "He somehow got around us, I think he has a stealth module installed on his armor."

Shiro nodded as he face palmed in annoyance as it seemed that conflict had just begun to brew. Mainly because they had chosen the wrong place to talk about someone. "He really likes his invisibility gadgets, he has them on his castle and the fox."

"It'll probably be safer for him, if he leaves." Adam stated as he looked over at Shiro, that was his opinion based on what he had seen. Yet when he had taken in Pidge's expression, he felt as if he had to reevaluate his thoughts.

"He's unstable, emotionally and he's been hit pretty hard on the head. Being left alone isn't the safest path for him, especially if he abandons his prior commitment. He knows he needs our support, more than we need his."

...

Nemoi was walking into the hangar of the Castle of Lions. His eyes narrowed on the fox which was partially repaired and was repairing itself. The machine had already taken its original form, becoming only forty five meters in length rather than ninety. He laid on its side, not moving all that much.

With the mouth open, he crawled right on inside and got into the cockpit. Pulling himself up onto the arm of the chair, he would access the status of the robot. It was sixty five percent complete. it had a few more hours left until it would be completed.

"Hm..." Using his system, he placed the Fox back into his inventory. It made the item virtually disappear from view, with him now standing where it once was.

Lance and Keith whom were both in the Hangar with Hunk, who was working on one of the shuttles at the time, stared at where the Fox had once been. They couldn't see Nemoi, so it was as if the Fox had vanished into thin air for no reason.

"What in the..." Both of them gasped and Hunk looked up from what he was doing before raising a brow.

"Where did the fox go?" Hunk asked as he sipped some liquid through a straw from what seemed to be a pouch of juice.

"That's what we want to know." Their eyes immediately locked on the hangar door which was open. They swore they could hear the sound of a jetpack going, but there was nothing. They didn't see a thing. "Hm..."