Summary:

A supply mission to a Galra controlled planet leads to Keith encountering an impossibility.

Sinecline suspects he might not be in his home universe anymore...

Crossover between
Lab Rat
In Every Lost Soul the Bones of a Miracle

Warning: In order to fully understand this one-shot, you will need to read Lab Rat up through "Blank" and all of In Every Lost Soul the Bones of a Miracle.

Work Text:

When Keith piloted the shuttle down to gather supplies for the Castle, that day, he never expected anything weird would happen. After all, he was already as weird as he was going to get as the reincarnated son of Zarkon (not to mention the whole "Haggar-ripped-his-soul-out-of-his-human-body-and-placed-it-into-a-cloned-body-of-his-past-life" thing he also had going for him). But with Allura being ill and Coran needed at the helm, Keith was the best choice for a more covert mission. Scans of the locals showed that they were a rainbow of colors with pointy ears. So, when Keith focused on trying to shift, all he did was go from light purple, to light blue. Hopefully no one would notice the yellow sclera. Though, thanks to the blue color, his Altean eye marks were successfully hidden, unless one were to get really close to his face. Another reason he was being sent and not Shiro or the others was he spoke fluent Galran, and this was a Galra controlled planet, but seeing as how they weren't in ruins, they had cooperated with the Galran subjugation of their people.

Not usually a favorable sign for a planet, but they were desperate for supplies, but they were shrewd enough to have the Castle out of the system, and he wormholed to the edge to appear less suspicious. He just hoped the GAC they had would be enough for what they needed until they found a properly neutral planet.

Keith saw, once he arrived in the market, that he could have gotten away without shifting. There were plenty of galra crossbreeds running about this planet. In fact, he got more odd looks for the length of his hair than the fact he didn't look 100% Galra.

"What's a masc like you doing with hair like that!" He turned his head and saw another crossbreed.

"Takes one to know one," Keith growled.

"Have we met?" I'd swear I've run afoul of your temperament before?" the older man said. Something about his face reminded Keith of his Altean mother. The fin ears, however were Galra.

"I think I'd remember someone like you," Keith said, before he turned to gather more supplies.

"Tell me, how many Alteans are there still alive that you exist, little one," he felt a blade to his back and the stranger's breath by his ear. Keith relied on half remembered instinct to twist out of the way and contorting the other half-breed's wrist, forcing him to drop the dagger.

"Even if I knew that, I'd never tell you," he snarled. The stranger was staring at him as if he were seeing him for the first time.

"Lotor?" Keith snarled at him and shoved him away before stalking through the crowd, quickly. He'd have to try for supplies fast before that loon caught up to him.

Sinecline wasn't an idiot. The moment he set foot on the planet he knew something was off. For one, none of the officers seemed to recognize him. At all. Secondly, there didn't seem to be signs of any sort of competent spy organization. The final nail in the coffin came from the symbol on the banners. It wasn't exactly the same as the one he'd known his whole life. His wormhole had been acting odd and the section of space he'd been worm holing through had repeated reported anomalies but this stranger younger Lotor was the final clue. He was in another universe.

"Shit. I owe Terra a million GAC." If he wanted to find out anything, he'd need to find that other Lotor and fast. Funny. Something about this younger Lotor reminded him a lot of his little nephew Kioreth.

Keith had just finished paying for the food, and delivery to his shuttle whenever he felt the jab coming more so than saw it, dodging back and catching the wrist of the would-be assailant.

"This is getting old," Keith growled.

"When you were a child, your mother called you her Star Sword." Keith's eyes widened.

"How do you know that!"

"Give me five minutes and I'll explain everything," the stranger said. Keith narrowed his eyes.

"You twitch funny and I will put you on your ass," he said. He followed the stranger to a nearby alleyway.

"You are Lotor Leatfolla, aren't you?"

"If I were?" Keith said.

"Why do you look like a half-grown whelp? Should you be 10,000 years old, give or take twenty-two years?"

"Why does it matter to you?" Keith said.

"Because, I'm trying to figure out what is the same in this parallel universe."

"You honestly expect me to believe you're from a parallel universe?" Keith said.

"How else would I know that your mother loved your hair long and that she'd sing her favorite song "The Stars of the Light" to you as a lullaby?"

"Who are you?" Keith said.

"In another universe, I'm your only full blooded sibling," he said, "Sinecline?"

"Now I know you're full of shit! Sinecline was my friend and he killed me!" Keith said.

"You're looking good for a dead man," Sinecline said.

"Your five minutes are up," Keith said turning away.

"Lotor, wait!" Keith looked back onto to take a dart to the throat.

Sinecline sighed. Stubborn to the last in any reality. He searched his alternate brother's clothes and found some GAC, a comm unit —Altean make—, a crest blade, and—

"He's a traitor?" Sincline couldn't believe it. The red bayard! Either this Lotor was a traitor or their father already recaptured Voltron in this reality. He retraced his steps to his own ship and carefully slung the unconscious Lotor into a holding cell.

Keith came too and began to curse in every language he knew. He'd been captured.

"You're still a foulmouthed heathen." Sinecline was by the barrier of his holding cell. Keith snarled at him.

"Now, don't be like that. I did a little test to prove I'm not nuts. See. My blood against yours. Match. We're brothers," Sinecline gestured to a screen.

"That could be faked," Keith spat.

"Lotor, why are you always the hindquarters of an arunlinas! I know things you'd never tell anyone, I'm also a galra-altean crossbreed, what else do you need to convince you I'm not some insane alien!"

"You kidnapped me," Keith said.

"I kidnap my family all the time. If you could go to my universe you could ask our little nephew Kioreth. Ok, he might try to kill you since you're Lotor, but if he wasn't an enemy of the family, you could ask him! He's nearly forgiven me. Sort of," Sinecline said. Keith was not impressed.

"Think about it for a moment here. Is there anyway I could prove to you that I'm your alternate universal brother?" Sinecline said, "Any trivia at all that not even Father would know?" Keith thought about it. There was one thing he knew Zarkon wouldn't know because he'd never told Kiarra either.

"When I was six, what did I draw on my wish paper for the sky lantern festival that year?" Keith said. If there was ever anything he'd share with a brother, if he ever had one, it would be something like that.

"That's easy! A sword just like mother's!" Sinecline said. Quiznak! This guy probably wasn't insane after all! "Ah, you believe me now!"

"I'm starting to think I got off lucky being an only child," Keith said flatly.

"Don't be like that! Sure having sixteen siblings is a bit insane but it was spread out over 10,000 years!" Sinecline said.

"Sixteen?" Keith said.

"Yep, here, take a look!" Sinecline pressed a few buttons and the containment cell forcefield disappeared. On the screen appeared a picture of eighteen forms in a line. One was an older version of himself looking like a stick was shoved up his ass. Another was Sinecline. The rest were various different varieties of Galra.

"He cheated on mother?" Keith said.

"Nah, he didn't start taking on concubines until we were adults and mother was long dead," Sinecline pointed to the small numbers below that indicated birthdates, "Though, you really weren't happy with the fact Father did this at all." Keith's eyes skimmed down the line and he froze looking at the last form.

"Ah, there's our little nephew!" The name was "Kioreth" but Keith could only think, that looked like it could be a full-galra version of himself!

"Is Kioreth the Red Paladin of Voltron?" Keith forced himself to ask.

"He is. Just like you." Sinecline placed the bayard on the console in front of Keith, who snatched it back, "So, are you a traitor like little Kioreth, or does Father have his Lion back?"

"The Lions belong to no one!" Keith yelled.

"Why do you fight Father?" Sinecline asked.

"Because, that thing is no longer the Father I remember!" Keith said, "The man I called Father was virtuous and just. This greed and rage driven monster only looks like him." Sinecline blinked at him and looked ready to cry. He also hugged him.

"I wish you were my Lotor! He doesn't get it at all! The rest of us do! For years we've been organizing to topple the empire but he's solidly with Father and it's just so hard to fight them both!"

"Wait—What!"

"Yeah," Sinecline coughed and brought up a star chart. "Terra figured it out first. At the rate that Father and Haggar are going, the universe will eventually suffer a catastrophic event. She isn't sure what. Maybe a extra super massive black hole might form where it shouldn't or more cracks to other realities might form, but it will not be good. Also, people hate us and I can't blame them for it. Finally, the Empire is already too damn big to support itself. We cannot keep up this expansion for much longer. So, she convinced Malior, who convinced me, who convinced Arlioth, who convinced Merra, who convinced—Ok, you get the picture. So, we concluded we needed to figure out a way to rebel in private. Unfortunately, that meant that we couldn't just bring others into the fold. Druids can read minds, you know, so it'd only happen whenever a sibling started acting rebellious themselves. We sort of dropped the ball with our baby sister Twyla and she thought she was a lone rebel to the cause, she's also the one who had the cub. She left him on some backwater planet and he ended up part of Voltron. Go figure. We've almost got everything in place, but it's just that Lotor, our Lotor, is a much bigger force of nature to deal with because he's full grown and has his own elite armada to deal with and he's my big brother."

"There isn't a way to get him to surrender," Keith said thinking of his past life for a moment, "You could incapacitate him with a gas derived from Iyurian plums, maybe, but you'd—."

"Have to be careful of the dose. I know," Sinecline said, "He's probably already thought of a solution to that if you've thought of it."

"Depends. Is this allergy known to enemies?" Keith said.

"Voltron knows by accident. Their Blue Paladin nailed him with it."

"Of course, Lance would be the one who found that," Keith grumbled.

"The other Paladins are the same in your universe? Of course they'd be!" Sinecline said, "Though, your Voltron is probably worried about you, aren't they?"

"By now, yeah. I was supposed to be back with supplies about 15 quatrems ago," Keith said looking at his watch.

"I should probably find a way back to my own universe," Sinecline said, "I'll drop you off."

"Keith!" Keith nodded to them.

"What happened to you!"

"I ran into something weird," Keith said as he flew the shuttle back to the Castleship.

"How so?" Coran said.

"Ever wonder if there are alternate universes?" Keith said.

Sinecline figured out how to get back after consulting the book Terra had left on board and was rewarded by a flurry of hails from said sister.

"Sinecline thank Aona you're alive! Where were you!"

"I owe you a million GAC," Sinecline said.

"I knew it!" He thought to his alternate brother and sighed. He had to face up to his own reality no matter how painful that was.

MP:

This idea came about whenever I realized my Lotor! Keith would be something of an oddity to my Lab Rat! Keith and his extended family from Lab Rat.
Originally, it was Lab Rat! Lotor who met this version of himself but I went with his brother instead. It flowed better this way.
Otherwise, the Lotors might have tried to murder one another.

Galran Glossary:
masc: cross-breed (derogatory)
leatfolla: cross-breed (more polite)

And as always, these are actually slightly corrupted Gaelic.