Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

LUCIA

“I…I want to change our people. I want to fix the mistakes that lead us down this path. I want everyone to see that life isn’t just victory or death….like you helped me.” Lucia turned her face to look at the blurred figure sitting next to her. Despite not being able to see their face, she could feel her cheeks turning red at the smile they were surely giving her.

“W-well what else was I supposed to do? Let you wallow in self pity?.” She hurriedly said, turning her face away hoping that the figure didn’t see her flushed face. Strong hands gently cupped the side of her face and slowly she let herself turn towards him. She couldn’t help but let out a hiss of pain when he accidentally rubbed the cut on her cheek. Lucia could practically feel the anger rolling off him but before she could reassure him, he leaned forward and gave her a feather light kiss on her cut. 

If she wasn’t flustered before, she was red as a tomato and struggling to form words. It didn’t help that he continued to give her feather light kisses down her face before his mouth latched on the crook of her neck where she could feel his teeth nibbling her. She arched her back and cried out in shock–or was it pleasure–when he bit down on her neck, before sucking on the wound he created. 

“What the hell!!” She cried as she pushed him away, still bright red but now breathing heavily and thanking whatever luck that her adopted father wasn’t here to witness the moment. “I thought we were having a moment! What made you do that! I’m already banged up as is! Why are you adding another wound!?!” The figure merely lowered his head and wrapped his arms around her, and Lucia lost all her anger as she could hear his voice quiver.

“When….when they had you in that chokehold…I was so scared. So scared of losing the person who opened my eyes…who gave me a reason to live. I…I don't want to live with regrets anymore Lucia.” He looked up at her and despite not being able to see his face clearly, his dark blue irises contrasting with his yellow sclerae managed to pierce through.

Beautiful Lucia thought as the eyes slowly rose to meet her at eye level. Such beautiful eyes…

“Lucia…I…I’m going back with_____And I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. But…I want you to know…there’s no other I want to be with. So please….”

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEEP

Lucia gasped as her alarm abruptly woke her up from her dream sitting up immediately as she struggled to get her breathing under control. She tried to grasp the fleeting memory of the dream, but she was only able to feel the throbbing pain of the animal bite she got on her neck when she was a teen. She tried to stretch out her neck hoping it would provide relief, but she winced instead at the blistering pain.

She didn’t even need to look at it to know how swollen and angry it looked. When the pain was at its worst, the bite mark looked fresh as if she was bitten a couple hours ago instead of 17 years. 

She hated how the pain got worse over the years…

“Fuck it’s going to be one of those days.” She hissed as she felt the pain pulsing angrily and she reached for the ibuprofen bottle on her night stand, swallowing the pills without the aid of water. 

Ever since she got the animal bite on her neck, there were days where it would throb painfully, so much so that she wasn’t able to even turn her head before passing out at the intensity. But if she was able to take medication before it got to that point, she could at least get through her class with a very sore neck. Speaking of classes…

“Ugh I’m going to kill Adam for making my classes on the other side of the faculty building.” She moaned as she rolled out of bed and reluctantly got ready for the day. Luckily spring break was just around the corner, so most of her students wouldn’t be upset if her class was just small drills today instead of the boot camp she was originally going to start. She could have that start after spring break. 

Her phone chimed one last time reminding her that she only had 30 more minutes before she would be late for work and as she looked at her phone to turn off the alarm, she frowned that her last message to her younger brother still remained unread. 

It had been a week since the anniversary of the Kerberos mission and she knew Keith took it the hardest between them but despite taking two days off and waiting at their father’s old cabin he never showed up. 

The only comfort she had that Keith was still alive was that the leftovers she left in the fridge had gone missing and his clothes were neatly put next to the washer as if he would wash them the next time he was back. Quickly she sent out another message, letting him know that she would be back at the cabin for spring break and if he wanted her to bring anything specific for him before closing the door to her room and heading to her first class of the day.

—-------

Evening

“I swear to god, Iverson is getting on my fucking ass with these last minute referrals.” Lucia growled as she sat at her desk in the facility room, reviewing the papers dumped on her desk regarding possible transfers of cadets. Apparently Iverson needed them completed by the end of the week, not caring that she had already put in a request to leave early Friday to make it back to the cabin before dark. She briefly took a look at them before groaning as one of the students that he wanted her referral on was on his personal shit list. “Of course he wants me to write about McClain and then tell him it was me that caused him not to advance. Fucking ass.” 

“It might not all be bad. I also have to write a referral for him as well.” A familiar voice chucked before an energy drink was placed right next to her with a cup of water and pills. “You might want to take the pain killers before you chug your energy drink.” Turning around, Lucia couldn't help but give Adam a tired smile as she popped the pain killers into her mouth without water smirking as Adam rolled his eyes at her.

“Show off…”

“I try…” She tried to smile but cringed as she accidentally tilted her head a little too far. It pulled at the angry skin around her bite. “Fuck….it wasn’t noticable that the pain flaired up right? I don’t need another reason for Iverson to think I’m incapable of teaching.” Adam only chuckled as he took a seat right across from her and took a sip of his drink, tea no doubt. She in turn opened her can of energy drink and savored the artificial sugars and caffeine that entered her system. 

“I only noticed since we’ve been working together for so long. I know your signs.” Lucia could only groan as she slowly lowered her head down on her paper. “They’re the extra strong dose so they should help. I didn’t want to drag your unconscious body to your room and cause another scandal among the staff.” 

“I fucking hate you.” 

“I love you too. Now if you actually want to leave early on Friday give me your assignments you were grading so you can get a head start on the referrals.” Lucia happily moved the large stacks of papers she had procrastinated on grading over to Adam.

“I take my earlier statement back. I love you. Are you sure you're not bisexual? I would make an amazing girlfriend.” Adam only chuckled before his eyes drifted over to a photo on his desk and for a second she could see his eyes crinkle in pain before he gave her a playful smile. 

“Sorry, but dating my ex's best friend doesn't sound appealing. I heard she's a pain in the ass to date. She's barely passable as a friend.” Lucia snorted as she smacked his hand playfully not offended in the slightest. 

“No worries, I heard my best friend’s ex is also an ass. Thanks for saving me the heart ache. What would I do without you?”

“Do you want me to list it alphabetically or numerically?” Adam taunted as Lucia stuck out her tongue at him

“Shut the fuck up West…..I got dirt on you too…I’m just having trouble remembering it.” He only shook his head before he took several stacks of paper from the top of her pile and started marking them. She took it as a sign for her to start on his work and for half an hour the two worked in silence enjoying each other’s company. 

Before the Kerberos mission, she hadn’t been as close to Adam as she was now. To her, Adam was…Shiro's ... .boyfriend ... .possible fiance and co worker. She kept it as professional as she could and only when they were in private would the three of them joke and laugh freely. Then the talks of the Kerberos mission came up and the Garrison was looking for possible candidates who would pilot the spacecraft. 

She and Shiro ended up being the top contenders to be the pilot for the mission. Shiro was the more ideal candidate to pilot the mission since she was older and had an undiagnosed illness–aka her random bite pains–and they weren’t sure if she could make the trip without issues. However, as they did more testing, they uncovered Shiro's muscular dystrophy condition and it started to go downhill for all three of them. 

While it wasn’t a deal breaker for the Garrison, Adam was adamantly against Shiro leaving for the Kerberos mission as it would worsen his condition. More times than not she had to play mediator between the two, taking the role of telephone operator when they needed to inform each other of class schedules. 

Even Keith wasn’t spared from the fighting but he fully supported Shiro’s decision to continue testing for the Kerberos mission and started giving Adam the cold shoulder. It finally came to an explosive end when Shiro was officially chosen for the mission and…he broke up with Adam. The rest was history and for the first two months Adam was rightfully heartbroken and angry but when they had received news that the team had made it to Kerberos safely…Adam broke down in her arms and confided in her that he couldn’t be mad, he was scared for Shiro and he loved him too much and when he came back he would do whatever Shiro needed to show him how sorry he was. 

None of them could have predicted that all three members of the mission would perish so soon after landing and when the Garrison released the cause of death as pilot error...both of them leaned on each other mourning for a best friend and lover lost. They bonded over the loss of Shiro and when Keith found out that she was speaking with Adam so casually, he held a grudge over her and it probably pushed him over the edge and ended up getting himself kicked out of the Garrison program. 

Since then Adam had her back, helping her out trying to find Keith the first couple weeks after he left the Garrison, nursing her to health when her bite mark would flare up during classes, and even gave her additional time off to see her Keith when she finally was able to convince him to stay at their father’s old cabin. She would in turn, make sure Adam wouldn’t drink himself to oblivion when the memory of Shiro became too much and took over his classes when he couldn’t get himself out of bed. She had come to love him as family. She only wished that her younger brother would let go of the grudge against her for being so friendly with him.  

“Adam…thanks again for the help really. I owe you one. I know you needed help trying to set up an obstacle course for your class after the break right? I could come back early from the cabin–” Adam shook his head. 

“It’s fine. You should spend the whole break with Keith…you’re the only family he has.” At the mention of her brother, she winced as she remembered taking a look at her phone during her lunch to still see that the message was left unread causing more anxiety than usual. While he normally took ages to respond, it wasn’t like him to keep her in the dark for so long. She hoped nothing bad had happened to him. 

“Yeah…yeah…I’m just…I’m gonna make a quick call and then start on these referrals. Thanks for the energy drink again Adam.” She stood up to find a quiet place to take her call before she looked at her energy drink and immediately drank the rest of the can before she rushed out of the faculty room and down the halls to a quieter area. Wasting no time, she dialed her brother’s number and waited anxiously as the phone rang.

Pick up, damn it. For once just please pick up. She thought as the phone continued to ring but when she heard the default voicemail, she groaned in annoyance. 

“Hey Keith, I haven’t heard back from you in a while. Not sure if you got my message about leaving for the Cabin for spring break. If you can just either thumbs up my message or even give me a call back letting me know you’re ok….just please? I know…I know you’re probably hurting a lot from last week and I’m sorry I couldn't ... .I'm not the best at comforting, I know but…just please…just let me know you're ok…I love you Keith. Bye.” She whispered at the end before hanging up. She took a deep breath, trying to calm the racing thoughts that were overwhelming her at the moment. 

She knew Keith. She taught him everything that he needed to know to survive in the desert just like his father taught her. And Shiro…he also made sure that Keith had the skills to survive on his own too. He was fine…he was fine…he was fine…

“Come on  Hunk! I saw Pidge go this way!” A voice echoed in the hallway cutting through her thoughts. Immediately, Lucia pushed herself further into the dark hallway, waiting to see which students were out past their curfew. She didn’t have to wait long as Cadets McClain and Garrett walked right past her, aiming for the rooftop access door where “Pidge” most likely had gone. 

Once they had passed her Lucia sighed heavily as she weighed her options. She could pretend that she had not seen any students past curfew and hope the three troublemakers would make it back to their dorms before getting caught by security or she could actually do her job as a professor and take them back but then that would require her to write an incident report and she was already behind on paperwork…

“Why do I have to be an actual professor….all I wanted was an easy day.” She groaned as she slowly walked towards the roof access, trying to see what was so important that the three of them thought sneaking out so close to Spring Break was a good idea. If anything, if it was harmless fun, she would just send them back to the barracks without having to fill out paperwork. They were good kids; she didn’t want to have to write them up if it wasn’t serious. 

Cadet McClain already had a couple strikes on his record along with Cadet Garrett since he usually went along with his roommate. Cadet Gunderson was a new transfer student and while he didn’t have any strikes, a lot of the IT staff did not like it when he was near a computer. They always complained that someone was trying to hack in and while they never could pinpoint it to a certain student, Cadet Gunderson’s constant questioning against authority did not help his case. 

“...Where did you…not garrison tech” Lucia could hear Cadet McClain voice as she inched closer to the roof access door. It was left slightly ajar since it was designed to lock immediately when closed and if they didn’t have the key they would most likely be stuck outside. 

“I built it.” Gunderson proudly proclaimed and Lucia had to take a couple of breaths to calm herself down. Great now there was evidence for the IT team to think Cadet Gunderson was possibly hacking into their system. She could overlook this once…this was the first time she would have to reprimand the cadet so hopefully….HOPEFULLY they would listen to her advice and stop tinkering with Garrison security. 

“….Kerberos…wasn't lost…or crew mistake” Cadet Gunderson’s voice echoed out into the night angrily catching Lucia’s attention again. Kerberos? What reason would Cadet Gunderson be so interested in the mission? The only other family affected by the mission were the Holts. She remembered going to their house for the funeral right after they were given the final mission report. 

She and Keith fought that morning about the details of the mission and that was probably the first time Keith ever told her that he hated her and wished she was the one on the mission instead. That was a rough week for both of them and while they had apologized to each other, there was a slight change to their relationship. No longer did Keith confide in her with his thoughts, he kept to himself more often and she was the one reaching out to him more often than not. She tried to tell herself that Keith was just taking it harder since he was closer to Shiro than her, and that this was part of him growing up, that he needed to be more independent but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that deep down he still believed that she should have been the one who had gone on the mission instead. 

Shaking her head of the negative thoughts, she slowly opened the roof access door, careful not to cause a noise and saw the three teens occupied with the homemade tech that Gunderson had built. While it wasn’t the first time she had personally seen Gunderson, seeing him next to tech he built from scraps reminded her of another friend she lost. Matthew Holt. It was a little uncanny how close of a resemblance he had with the lost Engineer of the Keberos mission.

Now that I think about it…I do recall Matt’s sister getting banned from the Garrison after she had been caught going through Iverson’s computer. If I recall…she mentioned that she wouldn’t let a piece of paper keep her away from this place…Could it really be–

“--And picking up alien radio chatter.” The look alike Matt answered, sending a jolt down Lucia’s spine. Alien chatter? Ok that was getting into dangerous territory and she had to put a stop to it now before it got worse for all of them. 

“I hope you all have a good reason to be out past curfew…and speaking to aliens is not an acceptable answer.” Making her presence known, she frowned as the three cadets spun around, surprised that they were caught. She crossed her arms as she raised an eyebrow. “Well…I’m waiting for an answer.”

“Professor Morales–”

“We were just–”

“The chatter is talking about Voltron–” She raised her hand silencing the three teens as they tried to speak over each other. She pinched the bridge of her nose before giving the youngest cadet her full attention. 

“Gunderson, I don’t think I have to remind you how dangerous it is to pick up radio frequency that is not from our solar system without the proper encryption that the Garrison uses. What if the frequency is meant to cripple our broadcasting system? A way to hack into our firewalls. We would be without any defence if these so-called aliens decide to attack us. I will have to report this to Commander Iverson. You are very lucky that they did not find out that you were listening to their broadcast. I’m very disappointed in you Gunderson. I had expected more from you.” The youngest cadet had the decency to look ashamed before they stared her down ready to defend themselves. 

“But I was careful! I know that it's possible they could reverse hack us so that’s why I didn’t use any of the garrison technology! And tonight the chatter was going crazy! They were mentioning something called Voltron! This could be something big–”

“That you or your team have no reason to get themselves involved in.” Lucia interrupted. “You are students, your only job is to learn, nothing else. Our job is to make sure you can learn in a safe environment which does not include talking with life forms that we have no idea if they are friendly or not.”

“But what if they are friendly?” Cadet Garrett hesitantly asked. “I mean…do we always have to assume the worst?” As she opened her mouth to answer the cadet, the building alarms blared out and the roof access door immediately shut behind them as flood lights began shining out in the distance. 

“Attention students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: All students are to remain in the barracks until further notice!” Iverson’s voice screeched over the intercom just as an object in the sky began to descend faster than any of their ships should be capable of. 

Lucia cursed under breath, she couldn’t even remember the last time they had a security alert this big. Their satellites should have been able to pick up any anomaly before Jupiter at least. The fact that there was an object crash landing in their atmosphere before they could have intercepted it meant whoever was out there had technology much more advanced than theirs and cloaked their arrival just until the last minute. 

Was it a scout? Were they friendly? Were they supposed to have picked up the signal that Gunderson found and responded? There were too many variables but right now she had one job. To get her students back inside where it was safe. 

“Ok you three, there should be ladders down the side–”

“Let's go! We gotta see that ship!” Gunderson cried out as he was already halfway down the ladder that was not towards the direction of the barracks. “Sorry Professor! We will accept any punishment after this!” 

“Hey wait–” Before she could follow them, Cadet McClain had already disabled the ladder by the time she reached the edge. No matter how hard she pushed on the ladder, it would not retract and probably wouldn’t until the security breach was over. 

“Fucking…ok ok….take a deep breath…you need to wrangle back three students and then put them in detention for the rest of the fucking school year for giving you white hairs. But how to catch up…” She looked back at the other ladder that led back to the barracks and smirked as she realized it was right next to the off-road vehicles they stored for training. 

It had been a while since she hot wired a hoverbike but there were several in the garage that could be sacrificed until she succeeded. She could send the bill to Iverson later. 

“The things I do for my students…” She muttered as she made her way down the ladder as quickly as she could. “They better be grateful….” 

After destroying two hoverbikes, permanently disabling another one and crashing the biggest one, she was finally able to successfully hot wire a hoverbike. It sucked that it took her nearly half an hour to do it.

“Finally!” Lucia smiled as she climbed on the bike testing it to make sure nothing else was damaged. Giving it a couple test revs, the bike still stayed on and there was no error message popping up on the small screen. Thankfully it also had a full charge so she should be able to make it to the crash site and back without it dying in the middle of the desert. She gave it a couple more revs before she booked it out of the hanger.

“Fuck sorry Adam!” Lucia barely swerved out of the way as she nearly ran into Adam who had just entered the hanger with several other professors. Probably to make sure none of the students had taken the vehicles to check on the crash site. “I’ll be back! I need to bring back some students! Keep the door open for me!”

“Lucia! Wha–wait! Stop! Let the–” She couldn’t hear the rest as she pushed the hoverbike to the maximum speed, leaning forward to prevent any wind drag. They had a 30 minute head start and she had no idea what had crashed down, but if it was a spaceship and if it turned out whoever crashed were not friendly…she did not want her students to be one of the first casualties. As she sped towards the desert, her head began to throb as a memory began to surface. 

“Wha—No not now..” Lucia groaned, closing her eyes, wincing at the static that came with the new memory. 

“Hurry up Dad! We have no idea if they’re hurt!” Lucia cried out, holding onto her adopted father's waist as they sped towards the surprise crash site they witnessed. 

She had just returned home for summer vacation and the two of them stayed up pretty late watching movies. It was almost midnight when they were about to call it a night when a bright purple light flashed through their window, immediately removing any exhaustion they had. They both ran out of the house to see a flaming ball soar through the sky, descending rather quickly before crashing through some cliffs and landing in the desert about 20 minutes away from them. 

Without even being told, Lucia quickly went back in to grab her Garrison bag that held the first aid kit and passed the keys to the hoverbike to her father as he grabbed his own jacket and a hatchet he kept at the door. Within 5 minutes they were already racing down the desert towards the unidentified object.

“Hurry!”

“We’re going as fast as the bike can Lucia.” Her father muttered, focusing on dodging the boulders that had landed in the valley, ripped off the canyon wall the thing had crashed through before crash landing into the valley. “But you have to promise me, if whoever we find isn’t friendly–”

“Dad…I’ve been trained for this. I’m not going to abandon you with possible aliens.” Lucia mumbled, tightening her hold on him. “I…I’m not going to lose my family again ok?” Her father only sighed but gave her a reassuring smile. 

“Very well…but I would rather have you stay at the hoverbike until I give the all clear? Is that a good compromise?” Lucia thought about it before nodding her head. 

“Good…now do you see where it could have landed? There’s a lot of craters and I’m not sure which one holds whatever crashed here.” She used her father’s shoulder to push herself up, standing on her legs as she scanned the valley floor.

“Over there!” Lucia cried, shaking her father’s shoulder as she pointed towards a crater on their right. She could see a faint glow of the purple light they had seen earlier. “I saw something purple there!”

“Good eye kid. Now hold on tight, it’s a bit of a drop” Her father smirked as he revved the bike at maximum and the two of them flew over the edge, towards the purple crater. 

As her memory faded, she could still hear the echo of her laughter as she continued down the desert. 

“Talk about a blast from the past…” Lucia groaned as she tried to piece together the newest memory recovered. This was obviously when she was a lot younger…maybe 15 years old? Perhaps just a bit before Keith was born. 

She didn’t even remember there being a crash happening near their cabin back then. There should have been a mention of something especially if it had caused damage to the canyon but she couldn’t remember an article about anything. Was that even a real memory or just something she was making up?

“Focus. This is not the time to have an existential crisis about losing your mind.” She muttered as she neared the crash site. “Your top priority is to get the students back to the garrison alive.” 

As she got closer to the crash site, she grabbed a pair of binoculars she managed to snag before she left the vehicle hanger and whistled at the amount of personnel already there. She was impressed how quickly the Garrison had quarantined the area off and how many security guards were already standing at the perimeter. And they were not kidding around, considering most held some sort of heavy duty rifle. That should at least provide a deterrent to keep her students from recklessly breaking in.

She scanned the rest of the crash site and noticed they had also set up a quarantine tent just several feet away from the pod that had crashed. So that had meant there was something in the pod that crashed…or someone and they were running tests on them. She hoped it was the former, no one deserved to be locked up and poked and prodded. 

Taking a closer look at the crashed space pod, she swore that it looked strangely familiar. Could it be that the memory she had before…was it a similar pod that had crashed near their cabin years ago? Could it be…the same people? She hissed as her bite mark flared up, pulsing angrily under her uniform. God she wished she knew what caused her bite mark to just flare up. It would be better if it followed a damn schedule like her fucking period. 

“Just push past the pain,” She gritted her teeth, “What’s important is that the crash site is guarded and those cadets can’t possibly run in. I’ll just find out where they’re hiding and take them back. It’s not like there’s going to be a distraction big enough for them to sneak in–”

BOOOM

Several explosions had gone off in the distance past the crashed prod and Lucia cursed. Of course the universe had to prove her wrong. The explosions diverted most of the attention of the Garrison leaving the crash site with little to no guards standing at the quarantine tent. Lucia pushed the hoverbike faster hoping that none of her students were stupid to use the explosions as a distraction to enter the pod. 

“No no no! Go back!” Lucia shouted out as she saw the three teens sliding down the small cliff they were hiding back and towards the quarantine tent. She was still a good fair distance away from the teens that they couldn’t hear her but she was certain she would be able to catch up to them and hopefully stop them from aggravating whoever was in the crashed pod. She watched as the three of them hurried inside and Lucia quickly began thinking of the quickest way to extract the teens if it got ugly quickly. Would she even have time to save them? Or were they dead the moment they entered the tent? 

Please be ok, please be ok please…wait I know that bike… Lucia thought as she swerved the bike, stopping it several feet away from a very familiar hoverbike that should be locked up in the cabin. No….it can’t be…but why…

“Oh wait, I remember you.” A familiar voice grunted, catching Lucia’s attention as it had been weeks since she heard his voice. “You’re a Cargo Pilot”

“Well not anymore. I’m fighter class thanks to you washing out.” Cadet McClain argued back, their voices getting louder as they were exiting the tent. On one hand, Lucia was grateful that the students were leaving the damn tent but now her brother was involved in this as well. God her night couldn’t get any more complicated. She slowly got off her hover bike and walked towards the quarantine tent and waited for the three…four teens to emerge.

“Well congratulations.” She frowned as she watched Cadet Garrett emerge from the tent first, halting immediately as he noticed that she was blocking their exit. He let out a small whimper as he realized just how much trouble they were all likely in. 

“Hey Hunk what gives?” Gunderson asked as he collided against Garrett. As he fixed his glasses, he too took notice of her presence and immediately began to back track. 

“Oh no you don’t.” Lucia hissed, hands on her hips. “What made you three think you could just run off to a crash site when you were ordered to stay back at the Garrison! What could have been so important to–”

“Lu–Lucia?” A tired voice muttered, halting the next words that would have come out of her mouth. Slowly, Lucia turned her head towards the small voice that she had convinced herself she would never hear again.

Standing just a couple feet away from her, Cadet McClain and Keith were supporting an adult wearing strange purple spandex. His shirt, if you could call it that, was torn and frayed at the edges and she could see that there were dark splotches that frighteningly looked like blood splatter. One of his arms was replaced with a metallic one that looked way too much like a normal arm and she knew there was no way it was made on earth. Slowly she reached towards his face, silently glad that Keith was allowing her so close, and lifted his face. She inhaled sharply as the familiar face of Takashi Shirogane stared weakly back at her. Her supposedly dead best friend.  

“Sorry it ... .took a while ... .but I’m back….” He chuckled shakily before he fully passed out in the teens arms, nearly taking both of them down with him. For a couple seconds she was left speechless at the series of events that just transpired. 

So the unidentified object crashing down to earth was actually Shiro, her best friend.  There was no sign that the rest of the crew arrived…or escaped with him. She knew that the official story that the three of them had died out in space never sat well with her, but she couldn’t prove it. It was obvious now that the Garrison knew something more about the mission and if they were willing to keep Shiro under custody, then the only way they would get the truth is if they escaped. Lucia didn’t want to drag the three cadets into this mess but she couldn’t risk them getting caught by the Garrison and forced to tell them what they saw.

“Are you all able to fit on the bike?” Lucia asked as she moved to the side to allow the three to exit the tent. She noticed that Keith had taken the larger bike, probably anticipating finding someone so it could hold people. However, five would be a stretch on that bike no matter how many modifications he made on it. 

“Uh…probably but why?” Keith asked her warily, as they slowly made their way to this hoverbike. “What are you planning…”

“I’m going to give the Garrison a bit of a runaround while you guys make your escape.” Lucia muttered, taking off her uniform jacket. She was grateful that she had changed into her more comfortable black leggings when she had gone into the faculty room. From a distance it would give her the appearance of Shiro and if she put on the hood they wouldn’t know the difference. “Give me his tattered shirt and put my jacket on him.”

“Wait…are you going to pretend to be Shiro?” Keith asked, as he helped Gunderson and McClain put Shiro on the hoverbike, nearly tumbling back as Cadet Garrett took a seat at the back of the bike and nearly flipped it over. “But–”

“I’ll be safe, unlike a certain someone.” Lucia answered, putting her hair into a low ponytail as she hastily pulled over the tattered shirt over her turtleneck and pulled the small hood over her head. She looked over to Keith and gave him a small smile. “I assume I don’t need to tell you to meet back at the Cabin?” He nodded before reaching out and grabbed her hand just as she was about to run back to her bike.

“I…I’m sorry I didn’t answer before…I…I was…” Lucia squeezed his hand, letting him know she understood. She understood that he was still hurting and the anniversary probably reopened wounds and with their strained relationship it was actually a miracle that he was trying to apologize now. Lucia wouldn’t push him to say more, not when they were currently trying to complete a rescue, but she was grateful for the attempt. Perhaps this was a sign things were going to get better.

“I’ll meet you back at the cabin. Be safe….look after each other.” Lucia smiled as she ran towards her hoverbike, already spying the Garrison rushing back from the explosion, realizing it was just a distraction. “When they start chasing me, gun it! If I’m not at the cabin by sunrise, leave it!” Lucia shouted as jumped onto her bike, turning it on before gunning it just as the Garrison opened fire on her.

“The prisoner is escaping! After him!” Lucia could hear Iverson shout as she dodged several more shots aimed at her. She could only smile as the thrill of escaping Garrison pumped adrenaline through her veins. She wasn’t the combat specialist at the Garrison without reason. 

She knew how to weave through an open field dodging blasts from enemy fire and they were lucky that she did not have any of her guns on her at the moment otherwise she would be blasting back at them. However, since it was a Garrison hoverbike, it lacked the power Keith’s bike had and she could see from the corner of her eye one of the vehicles slowly catching up. 

Damn…I need to give the kids more distance Lucia thought as she pulled the hood tighter over her head before slamming the brakes, letting the vehicle pass her before swerving to the left at full throttle, using one of the larger boulders as cover as bullets flew by her. Jesus…are they trying to capture Shiro or kill him? 

“Takashi Shirogane! Stop your vehicle at once!” She heard Iverson call out just as more bullets flew by. “Damn it, use the stun setting! Don’t kill him!”

Well at least Iverson didn’t want to kill Shiro. That’s somewhat comforting. Lucia thought before grunting in surprise as another hover bike came up behind her and rear ended her. Luckily it wasn’t enough to cause her to lose balance, but she slowed down enough that they were side by side. Using the handles as leverage, she pushed herself up pulling both legs to her chest before twisting her body and with all her strength kicked the soldier off his bike before using the momentum to twist herself back onto her hoverbike. She smiled to herself as she could hear tires squealing as they tried to avoid the fallen soldier and gave her some more space. It didn’t last as two other vehicles started to close in on her, sealing her exit on her right and left and there was another vehicle coming up behind her. 

Fuck, they’re going to close my exits….I need to get them off my back permanently so I can make it back to the Cabin….looks like I’m gonna have to take a leap of faith…. Lucia thought as she could see the edge of a canyon coming up. If she remembered correctly this was one of the canyons that gave the optical illusion that the other side of the ledge was further than it looked. But in truth if you pushed a hoverbike to the max, you could reach a lower ledge on the other side without falling down to your possible death. She…she just didn’t know if she was on the correct side. 

Fuck it. I have no other choice. Worse case scenario, I jump off the hoverbike, get a couple broken bones and hope I don’t get caught by the Garrison. Lucina sighed as she gripped the handles of the hoverbike tighter as she pushed the bike to the max. From the corner of her eyes, she could see the drivers of each vehicle panic as they saw the upcoming canyon ledge and slam on their breaks. She ignored the shouting behind her, focusing on keeping the bike steady and just as she flew off the edge of the canyon, the world around her slowed down. 

She was correct that this was the canyon that had the lower edge on the other side. The problem; she was off several feet and if she couldn’t find a way to juice up the bike to push it towards the ledge she would be falling to her death. 

Come on, Come on, Come ON! Lucia frantically thought as she turned on the emergency thrusters on the bike hoping that it could give it enough boost towards the edge but as she was slowly falling, it was becoming evident she would not have enough power to make it. 

“DAMN IT FUCKING WORK!” Lucia shouted, breathing heavily as her heart felt like it would burst from her chest. She could feel each pulse pushing fire through her veins, setting her body ablaze before traveling down her arms to the tips of her fingers where she felt a jolt of electricity. Before she could even wonder about the sudden pain, her bike lit up with several warning notifications about bypassing the limiter when suddenly the boosters flared up again three times larger than normal and gave her enough boost to barely make it to the ledge. 

She nearly served the bike off the small ledge at the sudden landing but caught herself as she skidded the bike to a halt. Trying to calm her beating heart, she looked back up at the canyon to proudly see that none of them had decided to follow her stunt. She watched as Iverson exited the vehicle before pulling out a set of binoculars most likely to get a good look at her. Deciding that she had given the teens enough time, she pulled down her hood and gave the commander the middle finger, smiling as she could feel the anger coming out of the commander as he realized what had happened.

“Fuck you Iverson.” Lucia laughed as she started her bike again and made her way up the canyon, eager to meet up with her brothers and find out what the hell was going on.

KEITH

Hidden by the large boulder, Keith watched as his older sister jumped onto the hover bike, easily catching the attention of the Garrion crew before racing off into the desert to direct their attention away. He hated how easily Garrison believed her disguised so quickly that they were now shooting at her. Live rounds too.

But he knew she would be ok…she still held the record for never getting a scratch on any of the simulations at the Garrison. It was almost uncanny how easily she could dodge attacks. 

“Are they gone?” Lance asked as he peaked over his shoulder and Keith gave him an annoyed glare. While he hadn’t planned on the extra teens tagging along with his rescue mission, the fact that Lucia had to use herself as a distraction to keep them all safe left a sour taste on his tongue. 

He knew that his sister cared for the students at the Garrison so of course she would put herself in danger to keep them safe. If they hadn’t come, he easily could have saved Shiro, brought him back to the Cabin and let Lucia know afterwards so she could sneak out without putting herself in any danger. He also probably would have let her inform Adam about it as well…he knew the man loved Shiro just as much as them and even though he was an asshole to Shiro before the mission, he didn’t deserve to be in the dark about Shiro’s return. 

“What are we waiting for! Let's go! Before they notice us!” The blond boy hissed, distracting him from his thoughts, as he held Shiro in his arms. Or at least struggling to. Why did they decide the smallest boy to hold onto an unconscious adult? 

“Oh no, I think they saw us.” The larger student squeaked as he pointed out one of the vehicles turning towards them. It was fine. They were hidden in the dark, they weren’t spotted. Still Keith kept his hands on the handles, his thumb ready to turn on the bike at a second’s notice if they were caught. Seconds passed as the vehicle slowly drove towards them, still not indicating they had noticed them and Keith prayed that they would just turn around but it seems his luck ran out. 

“Oh yeah they saw us. Hit it Keith!” Lance swatted his back as the vehicle’s highbeams lit up their location and Keith swore under his breath. While it was better than having the whole Garrison chasing them, with a full load on the hoverbike it would still be a struggle to outrun a couple vehicles. 

“Hang on!” Keith shouted as the bike roared to life and sped off trying to gain as much distance as possible. However, just as he thought, the extra weight on the bike slowed their exit and the vehicles were slowly catching up. God why did he have the worst luck.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Lance shouted, nearly screaming at the sharp turn Keith made to avoid the larger rocks on the road. With the extra weight on the hoverbike, it took a lot of this strength to keep the vehicle from leaning too much to one side and toppling over. He could already feel the strain on his arm as he struggled to keep the bike upright and straight. 

“We could toss out some non essential weight!” Keith grunted, only sparing a glance at the group behind him before cursing himself. He didn’t mean it to come out so harshly, he would never ask any of them to jump off a moving hoverbike and risk injury. Lucia did say he needed to work on thinking before speaking if he wanted to work in a group.

“Oh right ……. .Wait so that was an insult…got it.” He heard Lance grumble. Keith had no time to apologize as he saw a vehicle coming up towards them from the corner of his eye. Looking at the side mirror he could also see another coming up behind him as well. 

“Big man, lean left!” Keith shouted, turning sharply using the extra weight to evade the vehicle and squeezed the brake to pull up behind him before turning sharply to the right. “Now lean right!” He smirked as he heard the squealing of tires and the crunching metal as the two vehicles following them had crashed. 

“Oh man, Mr Harris just flipped Professor Montgomery….wait they’re both fine…” The larger teen commented as if he wasn’t in a high speed chase. Well they wouldn’t be in one any longer if he had any say about it. In the distance he could see a cliff up ahead and he knew Lucia would chew him out for even thinking about jumping off a cliff with a hoverbike but he didn’t have much choice. Not to mention he had been tinkering with it and he was positive it would be able to handle the landing….80% sure. 

“Guys, is that a big cliff ahead!?” The big teen cried out as he also realized where they were heading. He could hear the rest of them panicking behind him as well.

“Oh my god, turn around!!”

“Oh no no no! No Keith No!!” He ignored them and revved the bike even higher to gain as much speed as possible. Ignoring the screaming, he raced over the edge of the cliff and for several seconds they were hovering in the air before the bike began to free fall down the cliff. 

“What are you doing! You’re gonna kill us all!” Lance had screamed as Keith turned his head and saw him holding onto the hover bike while the rest of the teens screamed in terror. 

“Just shut up and trust me!” He shouted, focusing on the controls on the bike, and trying not to panic when the ground was rushing up towards them at a faster rate than he would have liked. 

Briefly he turned off the bike before turning it back on again, pushing the emergency thrusters just as they were a couple of feet away from crashing. The bike jolted roughly as it registered the ground beneath them but none of them had thankfully fallen off. Not bothering to check behind him–he was sure none of them would even attempt a jump like that–Keith pushed the bike forward again, eager to escape the Garrison and to the safety of their cabin where Lucia would meet them. 

“So…How do you know professor Morales?” Lance asked after several minutes of silence. Keith mentally groaned, hoping he could have escaped the inevitable questioning. He really didn’t want to answer personal questions with teens he had just met. Well he might have met them at the Garrison when he still attended, but he didn’t know about them at all to talk about his family. He would like to keep personal things….personal. But Lance took his silence as a reason to push further. “Like…are you guys dating?” Keith nearly crashed the bike at the sudden question, causing the other two teens to scream in terror.

“What kind of question is that!” Keith shouted back at Lance, his face burned red in embarrassment. “She’s not…she’s my sister!!”

“What! You’re lying! She doesn’t even look like you and she doesn't even have your last name!!!” He argued back and Keith wished that he could just leave him in the desert but Lucia would kill him if he left one of her students stranded. 

“I don’t think that’s really important right now Lance.” The blonde teen grumbled as he struggled to hold onto Shiro. “Its not like she would have given you the time of day.”

“Wha–shut up Pidge! She said I was one of her favorite students!” Lance rebutted, his own cheeks red. “I’m almost eighteen! I’m sure Professor Morales wouldn’t be too opposed–”

“You’re not dating my sister!” Keith growled feeling nauseous at the idea of his sister even dating anyone his age. “Not now or ever!”

“Uhh totally don’t want to butt in, but how much farther to the Cabin Professor Morales mentioned? Sitting back here is really starting to hurt my butt.” The larger teen asked. 

“Not much further. Just another 20 minutes.” Keith muttered, grateful for the change in conversation. “And no more questions about my sister. At least wait until she’s here to answer.” He took one last glance behind him, frowning slightly at Shiro’s unconscious face. 

He didn’t look like he was in pain, but he could see the tense lines between his eyes. Something told him that he hadn’t had a good night's sleep since he had disappeared. Not to mention the large scar that went across this nose…almost as if someone had tried to slash his eyes. This was probably the first time he was safe…what had happened to him…

We can worry about that later. Right now, we have to make it back to the cabin and wait for Lucia…just hold on Shiro. She’ll know what to do.

LUCIA

It was just a little past one in the morning when she had finally made it to the Cabin. She sighed in relief when she parked her bike next to Keith’s, eager to finally sleep in a bed. Riding a hover bike for nearly an hour at night in the cold desert was on her never to do again list. Since she didn’t have any warm clothing, after the adrenaline-filled chase, her body was tense during the whole ride to the Cabin as she felt the bite of the cold wind on her body. Shiro’s strange shirt did not provide any warmth and the only reason her legs didn’t freeze was because she wore her warmer leggings that night. Her shoulders were so stiff that it actually helped dull the pain of her bite mark earlier that night. 

“God I can’t wait to lay down and sleep.” Lucia yawned, stretching out her body before making her way to the cabin. Carefully Lucia opened the door, mindful to avoid the squeaky floor board as she entered the house. Even without the lights on, she could hear the soft snoring of the teens coming from the living room. As she peaked into the room, she saw that Gunderson had taken the pull out couch as his temporary bed while Garrett and McClain had found their spare futons and slept on the living room floor. 

There really wasn’t that much space left and if the three teens were sleeping in the living room that had meant Keith and Shiro took the only two bedrooms on the second floor and she was pretty sure Keith had Shiro sleeping in her bed. So she decided to make a small detour to the office where she could sleep. She had some extra bedding stored in a closet there when she would have to bring work home and worked until she passed out, but as she opened the door, she was surprised to see the small office room cluttered with papers and maps. Lucia swore the room wasn’t being used at all the last time she visited but the door was closed if she remembered correctly and she had no reason to actually come in there to actually check if Keith was using the room. 

What were you looking for Keith? Lucia thought as she looked at his maps of the desert before her eyes landed on a pinboard covered in cloth. Slowly, she uncovered the pin board and she was shocked to see several photos of the desert canyons, maps of an area not too far from here and…cave drawings of a lion? 

“Why….why does this look familiar?” Lucia whispered as she reached towards the photo of the cave opening where several strings converged. Just as she touched the photo, her head flared in pain as static memories returned.

“Come on——you don’t want to miss out on the fun right!” A younger Lucia giggled as she reached towards a blurred figure struggling to climb up the cliff. 

“------gave us specific instructions to stay—” Lucia only sighed heavily as she pulled her companion over the ledge before walking towards the entrance of a cave, which her father and his companion just left not too long ago. It could be another dead end but the maps that her father pulled up the night before made it seem they were at the correct location this time. 

“And are you telling me that you are not curious at all to see this weapon they call vo—? Where is your sense of adventure? Not to mention maybe we can somehow activate it and help—-and dad save the world. We would be heroes! Wouldn’t that be cool!” The figure only sighed heavily but he did not leave her side as they made their way towards the cave. 

“If this goes south, I’m blaming you.” Lucia only smiled brightly at him. 

“Of course…..my little scaredy cat.”

“Lucia!” Keith shouted, startling her awake as he shook her shoulders. Wearily she opened her eyes to see Keith’s worried look as he leaned over her. “Lucia are you ok?” 

“Keith…Wha…what time is it?” She mumbled as she rubbed her forehead trying to dull the lingering pain from earlier. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It's just a little bit before 6am. What time did you make it back to the Cabin?” Keith asked as he helped her sit up. Wait, sit up? Wasn’t she standing before? And wait…

“6AM? Shit…” Lucia muttered as she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. Unlocking that memory must have knocked her out and she could feel a nice bump on the back of her head where she must have fallen. “I think it was closer to 1AM? I saw you all sleeping in the living room. I didn’t want to wake you so I came in here to…wait…” She looked out to the living room seeing the three teens still sleeping except for– “Where’s Shiro? That wasn’t a dream right? You found him.” Keith smiled softly at her before nodding. 

“Yeah…I…we rescued him…He’s back Lucia….he’s really back. He woke up not too long ago so I gave him some of Dad’s old clothes to change to. I was about to check up on him when I noticed the office door was open and I saw you on the floor. You're sure you’re ok? You looked like you were having a nightmare." Lucia shook her head. As much as she would have loved to tell Keith about her memories slowly coming back, they probably should deal with one crisis at a time. Preferably Shiro’s sudden return. 

“I’m fine. I was probably tired from earlier. The bite was flaring up yesterday so I was exhausted by the time I met up with you last night. I’m fine really.” Lucia answered as she stood up and winced in pain. Sleeping on the hardwood floor was not doing her back any good. The only upside was that her bitemark was not flaring up in pain. She didn’t think she would have made it off the floor if it did. Keith only frowned as he reached over to her neck and pulled Shiro’s tattered shirt away to reveal the bite mark. She tried not to flinch as he rubbed his thumb over the bite mark checking for any abnormalities. While the pain had significantly subsided from yesterday morning, it still felt sore to the touch.  

“It doesn't look inflamed today but if it does start hurting again let me know. I think we still have the prescription pain killers in the house.”

“Your bite mark is still bothering you?” Lucia’s breath hitched at the familiar voice. Slowly she turned around and she could feel her eyes watering at the sight before her. Out of his strange clothing he crashed into earth with, Shiro was now wearing their father’s old clothes looking more refreshed than when she had seen him with Keith and McClain. She slowly reached out towards him before crashing into his arms and holding him tightly. 

“You’re back…you’re fucking back…asshole. You were only supposed to be gone for half a year” She choked back tears as she felt his arms slowly wrap around her. 

“Yeah…sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you two.” Shiro chuckled softly. “Next time I’ll let the aliens know they have to have your approval if they want to take me again.” 

“There won't be a next time!” Lucia hissed angrily as she slapped his chest, “You are fucking grounded. You hear me. You are not allowed to leave my supervision for any reason! I’m gonna use all my PTO to make sure you stay in this fucking house.” 

“Wha–no I’m an adult! You can’t ground me!” Shiro sputtered as he tried to avoid another slap from her. She could hear Keith chuckle lightly behind her. 

“Actually, I’m with Lucia on this. If she says you’re grounded, you’re grounded.” Shiro only sighed but she could see the faint smile he gave them.

“Well…I guess I can’t argue with that logic.” 

“Damn right you can’t.” Lucia grumbled, poking his chest with her finger one last time to make sure he got the message. He raised both his hands up in mock surrender and that’s when she noticed the mechanical right arm and suddenly she felt sick to her stomach. Her best friend had probably gone through hell for the past year. The scar going across his nose, the large patch of white hair that did not look dyed at all and his arm…his right arm was gone and replaced with a prosthetic those aliens must have given him as a test subject. Was the blood on the shirt she was wearing his, or were they from someone else? Despite having been gone for a year, he still held his muscular physique he had before he left for Kerberos. 

Most prisoners or torture victims are usually very malnourished…they wouldn’t have the same muscle mass as Shiro since they would have been confined in a room…it’s obvious  from the clothing he came in, he was a prisoner of some sort but that happened out there that he got a scar across his noise and lost an arm… Lucis wondered as she slowly grabbed the prosthetic hand and gently rubbed his palm. 

“Does it hurt?” She asked softly as she let go of his hand.

“No…surprisingly  it doesn’t. It almost feels like my actual arm” Shiro muttered, flexing his fingers and Lucia hated how natural it looked. Almost as if taunting her, trying to fool her into thinking it was an elaborate arm sleeve and not a robotic arm that replaced Shiro’s real arm. “I can’t even remember how I got it…”

“What happened out there?” Keith asked as he placed his hand on Shiro’s shoulder, his eyes also briefly glancing at the prosthetic before locking eyes with Shiro. “Where were you?”

The million dollar question we all want to know Lucia thought as she watched Shiro’s face scrunch up in confusion. 

“I wish I could tell you guys. But my head is still pretty scrambled. I was on an alien ship but somehow I escaped. It’s all a blur really.” Shiro shook his head as if it would help clear his memories.

“Don’t worry too much about the details. You just got back, you don’t have to force yourself to remember everything right now.” Lucia whispered as she rubbed Shiro’s back. He gave her a thankful look before turning back to Keith.

“How…how did you know to come and save me when I crashed?” He asked and Lucia couldn’t help but wonder as well. For her, it was just pure luck that she was out on the roof when Shiro’s pod crashed near the Garrison but Keith came prepared as if he knew.

“I would like to know as well.” Lucia narrowed her eyes at Keith. “And does it have to do with your conspiracy board you have going on here?” She pointed to the board she had stumbled across last night.

“It might have something to do with it…” Keith muttered looking away. “I meant to call you about it…” And there it was, the awkward tension they had going on since Shiro’s disappearance. 

There was a time when he wouldn’t hesitate talking to her about the strange things he got into and while she worried about his new hobbies, she was grateful that he felt comfortable talking to her about it. But then Shiro…died..and they had the argument and now it was almost like pulling teeth trying to talk to Keith about anything. The more she tried to push him to talk, the more he pulled away so she reluctantly stopped trying to be so involved in his life. It somehow worked and he would sometimes talk with her when she tried to check in on him. 

It still hurt that he had kept this hidden from her though…if she knew he was investigating something in the desert, she would have helped him.

“I…we can talk about that later.” Lucia sighed knowing there were more pressing matters at hand. “But for now…wake the other cadets up. Gunderson had mentioned something about alien chatter last night and I wonder if it has to do with any of this you found. In the meantime, I’m going to change into something that doesn’t stink.” 

Shiro gave her a small smirk while Keith only sighed but she could see the faint grin on his face as well. Once she was out of their view, she couldn’t help but frown as she recalled all the events leading up to now. The sudden appearance of Shiro, the conspiracy board Keith had hidden away from her, parts of her memory returning and Gunderson’s radio discovery. Everything that happened last night…she feared it was leading to something big. But how big…she couldn't tell. She just hoped it wasn’t going to tear her family apart again. 

Just one crisis at a time. Lucia repeated to herself, One crisis at a time. 

SHIRO

After waking up the teens and having a light breakfast courtesy of Lucia, the five of them were now standing back in the office Keith and Lucia were in earlier this morning waiting for Lucia to finish the dishes before explaining what was going on. 

Shiro glanced from the corner of his eye the three teens that had helped Keith rescue him. He could vaguely recall Keith calling the taller lanky boy Lance. He stood next to the smaller blonde boy who was looking at the photos and maps Keith had pinned on his board with extreme curiosity. Meanwhile the last larger teen nervously looked between Lance and the blonde boy, opening his mouth to speak before closing it. It seemed that none of them really knew how to start this conversion and he hoped that Lucia would return soon to take over.

“Now that the dishes have been put away and I have my drink for the day, let's first start off with introductions, or reintroductions.” Lucia smiled as she entered the room, with fresh new clothes, looking a bit more awake than this morning. He almost frowned at the energy drink she had in her hands. He had tried to get her to stop her caffeine addiction but it seems during his time away she slipped back into old habits. She took a long sip of her energy before pointing to Lance. 

“Shiro, these three are students from the Garrison. Lance McClain,” Shiro reached out with his right hand and he saw a bit of hesitation from the teen before he smiled and shook his hand. “Pidge Gunderson” The smaller boy looked as if he had more he had wanted to say but settled for a nod. “And Tsuyoshi Garrett”

“But we call him Hunk for short,” Lance interrupted as he wrapped his arm around Hunk’s shoulder, easing some tension from the teen. “Cuz he’s Hunkalicious” Pidge groaned while Lucia sighed as if they were unfortunately used to Lance's teasing. He could see from the corner of his eye Keith covering his mouth trying to hide the small smirk that he knew was on his lips. 

“Before we get off track even more” Lucia interrupted before Pidge could reply to Lance’s remark “I’m assuming you all know Shiro and Keith. They were at the Garrison as well before Shiro disappearance and Keith got kicked out–”

“You got kicked out?” Shiro spun around to see Keith quickly looking away. “Keith…”

“It doesn't matter…I didn't want to stay anyways.” He huffed as he crossed his arms. Shiro looked at Lucia and she shook her head before mouthing later. Knowing she would keep her promise, he relented. 

“Yeah, thanks to you, I got into the fighter class–” 

“McClain please. Leave the fighting after we get through this meeting.” Lucia intervened just as Keith bristled in anger. “Keith…we talked about this. You do not need to respond to everything that pisses you off.”

“Uh if you don’t mind me asking…”

“And you all know me as Professor Morales. Combat specialist. I am also Keith’s older sister. His father had taken me in as a child and I never felt the need to update my last name. I wanted to give Keith a chance to shine without having to be in my shadow in the Garrison.” Lucia answered Hunk as he had nervously raised his hand, wondering about the close relationship the two of them had. “Now that introductions are over, Shiro…can you give a brief summary of what had happened during your mission?”

“And did anyone else from your crew make it out?” Pidge had asked, looking at him hopeful. “If you escaped…then were they with you?”

“Amazing! Isn't this exciting Shiro?”

“We could use those clues to become the first people to meet aliens!”

“My life’s work would be complete”

“Run! Come on RUN!” 

“I…I’m not sure.” Shiro gulped as he tried to hide the nervousness in his voice. Ever since returning to Earth, his memory had become choppy and almost unreliable. He couldn’t tell with 100% certainty if they were real or a fabrication that he had made up to make his time on the Galra ship more bearable. 

“I remember the mission…and then getting captured. It’s a blur between then and now. I just get bits and pieces…Sorry if that’s not the answer you’re looking for.” Pidge looked away and for a moment, he swore he could see his eyes glisten with moisture before he blinked it away. 

“If you made it out, then with the combined Holts’ brain power, I’m sure they were able to escape before you.” Lucia answered. “Sam’s brilliant mind would have figured out a way to hack whatever prison was holding you three and I’m sure Matt would have built something that would have both been extraordinary and troublesome to both parties.

“Yeah…you’re probably right”

“So um sorry to interrupt,” Hunk pushed his way towards the middle and started to widely gesture with his hands, “But um back to the Aliens…Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for us all…at this very moment?” 

“Most likely since Shiro unfortunately led them straight here with his escape.” Shiro inhaled sharply as he realized the truth Lucia spoke. Yes he had escaped from the clutches of the Galra empire but in his unstable state, he failed to realize that his return would have also given the empire the coordinates to Earth. He had basically given them a planet to conquer on a silver platter and with no hope to even defend themselves with. 

“It’s not his fault–” Keith rose to defend Shiro but Lucia raised her hand. 

“Of course it’s not his fault, I never said it was. But the facts remain…he arrived on an alien spaceship that they likely can track and they are probably making their way here as we speak. Considering we didn’t even get an early detection warning when Shiro’s pod crashed into the atmosphere means they have the ability to cloak themselves and avoid detection. That being said since there is currently no giant ass ship in the sky they are either taking their sweet time getting here…or–”

“They’re already here…hiding.” Shiro finished as he clenched his fist. Lucia nodded.

“So then now we need to know why they’re here…I’m sure as a planet we don’t have much to offer besides slave labor. Can you recall anything that made them come here of all places?” She questioned as she turned towards him. 

“I..I can’t really remember much. But I do remember them talking about Voltron. It seems like it’s some kind of weapon they’re looking for but I don’t even know why they would want it. They’re powerful enough by themselves. But…” He looked up at Lucia, watching her as spoke his next words knowing he would need her support for this. 

He knew if there were dangerous aliens coming to earth she would put the safety of the students and Keith first, she wouldn’t even bother to try and locate Voltron even though it could help against the fight of the Galra empire. But he needed her help locating the weapon, she was probably his best chance along with Keith. “I do know we have to find it before they do. No matter what.”

“No matter what? Even if it means putting the students and Keith in immediate danger. Finding a weapon the enemy is actively pursuing with no idea how to even use it?” She questioned back. “Shiro…”

“He’s right…we need to find it.” Keith backed him up. “I think…I think that’s the energy that was calling out to me in the middle of the desert.” He pointed to a map he had circled several times over with different markers, pinpointing each strange markings he found. “I stumbled across this area a couple weeks ago. It's an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings.” He couldn’t help but stare at one very clean cave drawing of a lion that was near an entrance he had taken a photograph of. The marking seemed familiar almost, like he had seen it in a dream. “Each marking told a slightly different story about a blue lion…”

“And this blue lion…you think it holds some clue to this Voltron” Lucia mumbled as she stared at the photos as well. “That’s a bit of a grab.”

“Well it gave clues about an event happening last night! And then Shiro showed up!” Keith bristled, turning a bit red. “It might also lead to some clues to whatever this Voltron weapon is too! Just because you’re too scared to look for it, doesn’t mean the rest of us are.” 

“There’s a difference between being scared and being fucking responsible.” Lucia growled back, “I am not risking the lives of my students or yours for a weapon we only know the general location of. It would take weeks to search the entirety of that canyon and by then the aliens might already find the damn thing. We need more concrete data before going off on a stupid treasure hunt or are you that fucking hot headed you can’t even see that!”

Shiro frowned at the sight of the two siblings fighting. In all the years that he had known the both of them, their fights usually never ended in a shouting match. In fact it almost looked like they were about to have a full on brawl in the office with how red both of them were. Just as Shiro was about to intervene Hunk spoke up,

“Well…um I'm not sure how helpful this is, but last night I went through Pidge's stuff–” Pidge rightfully gawked as Hunk pulled out a photo from his backpack and showed it to the group “Look it’s his girlfriend–”

“GIVE ME THAT! What were you even doing looking through my stuff!”

“I was looking for a candy bar, I was hungry,” He answered not looking the least remorseful, “But then I started reading his diary–”

Have teenagers always been this terrifying? Shiro thought as Hunk pulled out a notebook not even looking as Pidge stole it back. 

“What the hell Hunk! Not cool!”

“Cadet Garrett, if you don’t mind get to the point please.” Lucia sighed deeply as she tried not to look annoyed at the cadet. Hunk gulped nervously before continuing. 

“Sorry but I noticed that the repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a fraunhofer line.”

“Frow…who now?” Keith asked, clearly confused while Lucia looked thoughtful. 

“It’s a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only this element doesn’t exist on Earth. I thought it might be Voltron and I think I can build a machine to look for it, kinda like a Voltron Geiger Counter. It could definitely narrow down the location of this Voltron weapon.” Lance smiled as he patted his friend’s back. 

“Hunk you big gassy genius! Now we won't be searching blind”

“It’s pretty fascinating really. The wavelength looks like this.” He pulled out a piece of paper that he had already drawn out and it merely looked like points on a graph. Shiro wished he paid a bit more attention when the Holts were trying to teach him more about the technical science part of the mission. Lucia grabbed the piece of paper before looking up at the photos of the board and then back at the paper. 

“You gotta be fucking kidding me…” She muttered as Keith took the paper, his eyes widened before turning his attention to the board as well.

“What…is it bad? I thought I plotted the points correctly–”

“It’s in the shape of the canyons…” Keith answered as he pinned the graph right under a photo of boulders in the exact shape of the points. “Well at least we know where to start looking for Voltron.”

“And what makes you think I’m still going to let four teenagers look for a dangerous weapon when we are literally on the brink of war with an alien society that kidnapped three of our friends?!” Lucia crossed her arms. “It’s one thing to help free Shiro from the Garrison but it’s another thing to run into danger head on! Do you want me to send letters to your families telling them you got hurt or worse died!” The three teens winced at her words and Shiro knew she was just trying to look out for them but they were running out of time. They needed to find Voltron before the Galra did. 

“Lucia, we need to find Voltron before they do. Please trust me on this. The gadget that Hunk can create will help us locate it faster now we know what area to look at. If we don’t find Voltron, the Galra will use it and then there will be nothing to stop them. It won't matter that you kept them safe this time, once the Galra come no one will be safe.” The two of them stared at each other for what felt like minutes before Lucia groaned before slamming her hand on the table. 

“Fine.” The three teens from the Garrison and Keith cheered as their mission had been clear but quickly halted their victory as Lucia raised her hand. “But you all have to listen to what I tell you. If I feel that the mission is too dangerous we WILL fall back. No ifs ands or buts. Understood?” Reluctantly the three teens sighed before nodding while Keith merely crossed his arms and looked away. Shiro sighed as Lucia’s eye twitched at the defiance. 

“Keith…”

“I didn’t say anything!” 

“Then I’ll take it as you are agreeing to my terms and if you do not, I will use force to bring you back. Understood?” Several seconds went by as the two siblings stared at each other, waiting for the other to fold before Keith growled admitting defeat. 

“Fine.”

“Ok…Cadets…I guess I should call you by your names now.” Lucia smiled softly as she addressed the garrison trio. “Hunk…Pidge…Lance.” The three of them stood straighter although Shiro could see the excitement in their eyes. “This will be your first official mission, we will locate this Voltron weapon, make sure that the Galra cannot access it and find a way to fight back. We will leave in an hour. Take whatever you need for this recon mission and if you still need time, build the Voltron tracker on the bike.” Lance and Pidge quickly saluted Lucia while Hunk nervously nodded before remembering his training and saluted her as well.

“Keith, Shiro. You’re with me. We will grab the emergency bags and prepare the bikes. I do not want to stay out in the desert for longer than a day but if we have to I want to make sure we are comfortable.” She didn’t wait for them as she left the room, most likely going through a mental list of what she needed to prepare.

“And that’s the Lucia I remember..” Shiro whispered, grateful to see that despite his imprisonment, some things had not changed in his absence. “Always on top of everything.”

“We should probably get started. Otherwise Lucia will have our heads.” Keith grumbled but it lacked the bite he usually had when he was annoyed. Shiro smiled as he ruffled Keith's hair and for an hour it almost felt like he had never left home.

—-

Several hours later

“Ok…this is definitely a little freaky…” Lance muttered as they entered the cave where Hunk’s Voltron finder was directing them. It had taken them a little over an hour to reach the general area where Keith had said he felt the energy the strongest but he didn’t know which cave system held Voltron. 

It would have probably taken them a little more than half the day with the amount of ground they had to cover, but the moment they got off the bikes Lucia immediately led them down a certain path, almost as if she knew where to go. In fact, she had been oddly quiet as she was content to let Hunk and Pidge lead the team unless there were faster/safer paths to go through and pointed them out. 

“You seem to really know the desert more than Keith does” Shiro chuckled as she had grabbed Hunk’s collar just as he was about to miss step and fall off the edge. “Are you sure you haven’t been here before?” He waited for the typical snarky remark that she had better eyes than most people but she surprisingly remained silent. “Lucia?”

“It…it feels a lot like deja vu…” She whispered, stopping as they had reached a fork in the road. Hunk pointed the device towards each side but there wasn’t an indication which path was stronger. “We turn left here ... .it'll take us to a small path that’ll lead to a bigger opening.”

“How do you know that?” Keith asked. “I got lost here so many times…”

“I…just do.” She didn’t clarify further as she turned towards the left leaving the group a little confused before they followed her. And sure enough, it eventually led to a small path that made the Voltron locator beep high in frequency letting them know Lucia had indeed chosen the correct path. 

“That’s an understatement…” Shiro barely heard Lucia whisper. He turned around and saw Lucia standing at the entrance, almost as she had been frozen. Her eyes had glazed over for a moment before they cleared up and he could see a hint of recognition and fear?

“Are you ok?” Shiro asked as he reached out towards her. The moment he touched her shoulder, she seemed to have snapped out of her daze and looked around the entrance before clearing her throat. 

“So-sorry about that. Got a little lost in my head. I didn’t mean to make you worry.” She patted his hand before jogging to meet the rest of the group. Shiro frowned at the dismissal. Normally Lucia wouldn’t have hesitated telling him about her thoughts and fears, believing that they should be honest with each other. However, it seemed that his…”death” may have caused a rift since Keith was unusually distant with Lucia and she wasn’t trying to smother him at every chance she got.

Once we secure Voltron I’ll find some time to talk with them, Shiro thought as he watched Lucia move towards the front of the group without even giving Keith a glance. As they walked further into the cave and sunlight wasn’t providing enough light, Lucia turned on her flashlight and he couldn't hold in his gasp. 

She pointed the light towards the wall and unveiled the cave drawings Keith had shown them hours earlier. Even though Keith had taken a good chunk of photos, it was breathtaking to see the cave nearly bursting with the amount of drawing that littered its walls.

“Are these the lion carvings you were telling us about?” Keith nodded as Hunk and Pidge started to snap more photos of the drawings. Even Lance had gone to the other side of the wall to inspect the carvings closer. 

“Yeah…they’re basically everywhere around here.”

“This doesn’t look like it’s part of the lion carvings though…” Pidge pointed out as he held his phone’s flashlight towards a set of…intitals? Shiro stared at the initials that were carved hastily below a lion with some confusion. The letters L + K  didn’t seem hundreds of years old and this area wasn’t close to any camping grounds so the chances of some random teenagers finding this place and then tagging it…it didn’t seem right. Just as he was about to let Pidge know not to worry about it; as if she was summoned, Lucia quietly knelt next to Pidge and inspected the initials herself. 

“Umm professor–” Almost as if she was in a trance, Lucia reached out to the letters and traced over them slowly.

“L...L and…who.” She mumbled. Pidge looked up to him with a questioning look but he was just as lost as him. Lucia hadn’t been herself for the past several hours and if it wasn’t for the urgency of locating Voltron, he would have pulled Lucia out of this cave. Something here was affecting her. 

“Uh guys?” Lance squeaked as all the cave carvings around them suddenly lit up in bright blue. 

“They’ve never done that before…” Keith gulped as he looked towards Lucia who still seemed in a trance with the initials. “Lucia–” Before he could even grab her attention, the ground underneath them gave away and they were suddenly falling into a dark hole. He tried to reach out towards Keith but his fingers barely brushed against his before they were freefalling. 

“SHIRO!”

Coughing up water wasn't the worst way to survive a sudden fall but he could have done without having water go down the wrong way. Not to mention the little light they had earlier from Lucia's flashlight was nowhere to be seen and they were now lost in a cave without any light.

“Everyone ok?” Shiro coughed trying to locate the teens in the dark. “Sound off.”

“I never want to do that again.” Hunk sounded nauseous before he could hear him puking.

“Damn it all my tech got wet!” Several items were tossed into the water before a small light emanated from Pidge's phone. The two of them were a couple feet away from him and he could see the silhouette of Lance and Keith not too far from them.

“Lance, why did you have to touch the cave carvings?” Keith growled.

“Hey I didn’t think they would even glow! You’ve been here before, why didn’t you tell us they glowed?” Lance argued back. Shrio could hear them splashing in the dark and he thanked whatever luck that none of them had gotten seriously hurt. However he hadn't heard anything from Lucia just yet. Pidge's phone light could only illuminate the group around them. 

“Lucia? Where are you? Are you ok?”

“I’m..wet…disgustingly wet.” Lucia groaned a distance from him, water splashing as she tried to make her way toward him. “No broken bones but I lost the flashlight…we're gonna have to rely on Pidge's phone.” He had to stop himself from flinching as a cold hand grabbed his biceps before pulling him down.

“What Lucia–”

“Dont let the kids come this way….I landed on a dead body” Lucia whispered, sending a cold jolt down his spine. 

“Human?” Small droplets of water slashed on him as she shook her head. 

“No….I felt the skull and it was larger than a human's and it had…canines… and a tail…”

“Galra…” Shiro hissed. “But how is there a dead body of one of them here? If they found it…we–”

“I’m not sure Shiro…but for now we have to be careful. It could be that they just weren't able to find their way out…but we can't let the kids see it.” Shiro didn't argue, as they slowly made their way towards the group, thankful that they didn't seem to bothered by their small distraction.

“Lucia you ok?” Keith asked as they were finally illuminated by Pidge’s phone. “You seemed a bit out of it–”

“Just lost in a memory.” Lucia interrupted, “Won’t happen again.” Pidge’s phone flickered and he  sighed as he shook the phone trying to dry it out more. 

“My phone’s probably going to die soon. Were you able to find a way out?” Both Shiro and Lucia shook their heads. “Great, let's hope the light stays on–” As if mocking them, the light flickered once more before leaving them in the dark.

It died….

It fucking died.

“Well…it can’t get any worse right?” Hunk asked and Shiro couldn’t help but pinch the bridge of his nose, a similar action Lucia was probably mimicking right now. 

First rule of any mission…if you say things can't go wrong…it will go wrong.

As if to prove his point, at the edge of the small pond they fell in, a faint blue light pulsed softly before it started to glow brighter. 

“Behind me.” Lucia immediately pushed Pidge and Hunk behind her as he did the same with Lance and Keith. Besides Keith, he didn’t know the combat experience any of the teens had. Probably the most basic, but considering they only had Keith’s knife, and probably one of Lucia’s hidden guns, that didn’t give an edge if they needed to fight any enemies. 

However, the blue light only glowed brightly enough to illuminate a small cave opening, never going any further. When none of them made a move, the light pulsed several more times, trying to gain their attention. 

Almost as if it was trying to invite them in.

He could hear Lucia inhale sharply just as Lance spoke up,

“Does anyone hear that?” Lance stepped forward before Keith grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

“Hear what? We’re in a cave. All I hear is water.” Keith hissed, but Lance pulled his arm free.,

“Seriously? No one hears a voice?”

“Lance…what exactly are you hearing…” Lucia asked, taking a tentative step forward with him. Shiro couldn’t see her face, but he could see her shoulders stiffening. A small tick he remembered whenever she was anxious. 

“Like…someone waiting…they’re waiting for us…to return?” Lance answered, almost uncertain of his words. “That can’t be right…none of us have been here before.”

“Maybe they felt my presence before? I mean I was exploring all these caves for weeks. I just never fell into one.” Keith muttered.

“Well…whatever it is…I feel like it’s friendly. Come on! It’s just beyond that cave.” Lance smiled as he waded through the water, Pidge and Hunk not too far behind. Keith hesitated for a moment, looking back at him and Lucia before he joined them as well. 

Shiro looked at Lucia once more, she had stayed silent once Lance had decided to go towards the light. He would have thought she would have protested but she stayed stiff as a board almost as if she was…afraid?

“Lucia? Are you ok?”

“I think I’ve been here Shiro…” She whispered, her voice shaking with uncertainty. “The voice Lance is hearing… It's so familiar, but I can’t place when I’ve heard it…And I have a feeling that if I go to the light, I’m going to remember something important that I’ve forgotten ... .a broken promise…”

She looked up to him, her eyes wide as she hugged herself. “We have bigger things to worry about and I can’t let myself fall apart right now. They need me to be strong…But…I’m scared…I’m scared of what I’m going to find and what I’ve forgotten.”

Never had he seen Lucia so distraught, she was usually the one who helped calm him down whenever he felt unworthy of the pedestal the Garrison had placed him on. She was the one who held him as he cried over Adam’s breakup, never pushing for details only providing words of comfort. She was their rock whenever they would stumble in life, something he had sorely missed while he was held prisoner. But now…

Now he could see that she wasn’t all that infallible, that she was just as human as they were and she needed someone to be her rock for once. To provide her comfort and a shoulder to lean on. He had to be the older sibling for her. 

“Lucia…you won’t go through it by yourself.” Carefully he pulled Lucia into his chest trying to calm her erratic breathing. “Whatever is happening…we will figure it out. If you have been here before then that’s ok if you’ve forgotten. We will get through this…And it’s ok if you’re scared. I’m going to be with you…I’m not going to leave you or Keith ever again. I’m here…” 

“God your pep talks are still as cringy as ever.” Lucia mumbled but she made no move to leave his arms. Instead she slowly pulled him in tighter  “But…thanks…I needed that…” 

“OH MY GOD!” Pidge screeched forcing the two apart but it wasn’t a cry of danger. No, that sounded a little too much like excitement.

“Shiro Lucia! You got to see this.” Keith called out as he poked his head out of the cave, a smile threatening to break out. He could see the moment Lucia pushed her insecurities down and pushed up her mask. The one that had a bit too much responsibility on her shoulders and not enough people to help carry it. 

“Well…let’s go see this Voltron weapon.” She tried to crack a smile but it came off more as a wince. Before he could reassure her, she had started walking towards Keith and he had no other option but to follow closely behind ... .ready to catch her if she needed him. .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LUCIA

“A giant mechanical cat!” Hunk squealed in excitement and Lucia wished she could share his excitement as she took in the large blue mechanical cat, sitting in the middle of the cave with a blue barrier surrounding it. She hid a shiver as she could feel its eyes following her the moment they entered the cave. She was surprised to feel a wave of emotions crashing into her as she briefly locked eyes with the giant machine. 

Waiting….return…Glad…new cubs…

She could feel the static starting to return just as it did when she saw the initials on the wall. She had nearly lost herself in broken clips of memories and she wasn’t going to let it happen again when they just found the supposed Voltron weapon. 

Her memory crisis could wait…had to wait. 

Instead she pushed the strange emotions deep down, ignoring the small pang of hurt and the small pulses of a blooming headache, secretly glad the rest of the teens were paying attention more to the lion than her. 

“Is this it? Is this Voltron?” Pidge asked, his mouth open in awe.

“It must be. I don’t think the Garrison is even capable of building anything remotely close to this.” If they were then perhaps the Kerberos mission would have gone differently.

“It’s probably what was causing all the crazy energy I felt” Without waiting for her approval to even approach the weapon, Keith ran up to the blue lion and pushed his hands against the blue barrier around it. “Seems like there’s a force field around it.”

“Probably to make sure the wrong people don't get their hands on it.” Shiro chuckled but she could see his eyes narrow after all…if it prevented people from getting their hands on it, how were they supposed to operate the weapon? 

“Does anyone else get the feeling that this thing is staring at them?” Lance asked, moving a couple steps to each side.

Yes

Lucia actively avoided looking straight into the beast's eye once again, not sure if another blast of emotions would increase the pressure in her head.

“No?” Shio tilted his head as Lance stepped the other way, still keeping his eyes on the lion.

“Yeah the eyes are totally following me.” 

“Please don't stare at it too long. We still don't know exactly what this is and I don't want us to accidentally activate it” In reality Lucia wanted Lance far away from the lion. She had no idea what it was saying to him or why it chose him to follow and she would rather have the lion focus on her instead if it turned out to be dangerous

Or maybe its focusing on Lance since you are pushing it out Her traitorous mind supplied.

No hurt…protect….cubs

“I'm fucking loosing it…” She whispered, using all her willpower not to let her face give away that the pounding in her head was getting worse. And it didn't help that the static was growing louder as well. She could feel a metallic hand land on her shoulder helping her momentarily ground her back to the cave.

“Thanks…”

“If it's getting worse we can leave now.” Shiro whispered but she shook her head. She didn't need the team to think she was incapable of leading a simple recon mission to find a weapon. Granted a weapon that was somehow familiar and pushing up lost memories but that was not the issue they needed to fix. 

She was so lost in her thoughts she had missed Lance going up to the barrier trying his hand at opening it up when the blue light suddenly glowed even brighter. The air around them came alive and before she could even grab the closest teen, her vision suddenly changed.

Two teens…one human and alien giggling as they sat next to the machine,  playing games with it looking up at it once in a while, actively talking with it as if it was sentient.

Then her and her father and…baby Keith stood before the lion introducing him to the machine. She had held up Keith to it in a similar fashion as Simba while her father laughed joyfully.

Next it changed to her older…possibly late teens early 20s fighting another alien…spilling his blood as he nearly escaped the cave before she ran off barely giving the lion a glance.

It changed once more, this time showing 4 other lions, a yellow, green, red and then a black one. They stood all before her until they jumped into the air, flying in formation when a bright light blinded her. Once it died down, a large bi pedal machine stood in its place, each limb a different color…the lions had merged into…

VOLTRON

“Whoa….” Lucica whispered as she nearly collapsed as she found herself back at the cave, her vision blurring just a bit her eyes adjusted to the change. This was definitely not a normal weapon if it could project images into people’s minds. 

“Did everyone see that?” Lance shouted,  his eyes twinkling in excitement just as Hunk gasped and shook his shoulders.

“Voltron is a robot! Voltron is a huge, huge awesome robot!” Lucia let out a sigh of relief as none of them mentioned any additional visions. It seemed that she was the only one that received them…but why was she even in them. What was her connection to this machine? 

The static came back even stronger as if it was trying to give her the answer and she nearly kneeled over in pain as it momentarily overwhelmed her, but she managed to grit her teeth and forced herself to push through it. She caught Keith’s worried stare but she looked away. He didn’t need to know that she was slowly losing her mind. He was already overwhelmed with Shiro’s return, he didn’t need to worry about her mental state as well. 

“And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are” Pidge looked around the cave, as if it held any more clues to the location of the other mechanical lions. 

“That’s what they're looking for.” Shiro whispered, his eyes going wide. “They’re trying to find all the lions…and if they find one–”

“They could use it to find the rest.” Lucia finished his thought reaching the same conclusion. It semi made sense. If you needed five lions to form Voltron, then they were all connected somehow and if they had one…they could probably create something to help locate the rest of them.

Then without warning, the mechanical lion kneeled down before them, opening its mouth inviting them in.

Excited…Paladins found…FLY

Fly? Oh no, she had to draw the line then and there. She could not in good conscience have the teens enter an unknown spacecraft if it wanted to fly out of here! Who knows what would even happen. But before she could stop the teens, Lance was already running up the ramp with the rest following behind.

“L-lance! Don’t just enter an alien spacecraft!” She cried as she rushed after the teens, Shiro followed closely behind. “We don’t even know what’s in here!” Just as they safely made it inside, the ramp behind them pulled up and the mouth closed up. 

For a second they were in darkness before the room lit up blue, showing a ramp up towards the cockpit where Lance was already sitting down at what she assumed was the pilot seat, smiling as the chair pulled forward summoning a control panel with strange lettering that clearly did not belong on earth. 

“Oh man, this is so cool!” As the rest of them gathered around Lance, Hunk nervously  played with his hands. 

“Ok guys i feel the need to point out just so we are all ya know aware we are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now” 

“Really? What tipped you off? The color?” Pidge snorted as he looked over the controls muttering to himself about the technology. 

On…fly….control…free

An image of the control panel flashed before her eyes, lighting up in a specific sequence and she closed her eyes as her head pulsed angrily as a feeling of joy nearly knocked her over.  

“Whoa did you guys just hear that?” Lance asked as he whipped his head around trying to locate the voice while Lucia tried to keep her breathing steady as the pain subsided. She could almost feel guilt emanating from the Lion, apologizing for its excitement and its effect on her. However, that was the least of her worries. If Lance saw and heard what she did then…

“Hear what?” Keith asked, looking at Lance strangely. 

“I think its talking to me…hmmm “

“Lance, don't you dare listen to it.” Lucia tried to stop him from pressing the buttons, the ones she briefly saw in her mind but he had already punched in the correct sequence. The Lion roared as it finally went online, standing up abruptly nearly causing Lucia to lose her balance. Shiro quickly grabbed a hold of her while Hunk and Pidge screamed in terror as they held onto Lance’s seat. 

Control…push…run..SUN!

“Ok! Got it, now let's try this!” Lance laughed as he pushed the controls forward and the lion quickly lowered itself onto its front legs, crouching…waiting…before Lance pulled the controls back and the Lion leapt forward, crashing through the cave wall and…out into the canyon?

Free…free…FREE!!

“Oh god…no no no!” Lucia shouted as she closed her eyes, already feeling the ship twisting sharply, momentarily floating in mid air as it did somersaults. “LANCE!”

“You are the worst pilot ever!” Keith screamed as he and the rest of them cried out in terror as they held onto whatever they could, avoiding being thrown around the cockpit at the sudden twist and turns. Lance only howled in joy as the blue lion showered them in a blanket of exhilaration that even Lucia couldn’t help but smile at. 

“Isn’t this awesome!?” 

YES…Amaze!

“Not for the ones clinging for their lives!” Lucia replied to both Lance and the lion. While she understood that after sitting in a cave for probably thousands of years the lion was entitled to expressing itself, she wished she was correctly strapped in for its more elaborate maneuvers.

“Make it stop make it stop” Hunk groaned as his face turned green, putting one hand over his mouth and closing his eyes. 

“I'm not making it do anything, it's like it's on autopilot.” Lance smiled as he pulled on the controls once more–Liar–and they soared high into the air.

“Where are you going?” Keith shouted as the sky around them was dangerously getting darker. Lucia could feel a shift in the lion as the joy from earlier turned into wariness before it transformed into full hypervigilance. 

Found….danger…must stop 

A strange purple and black ship momentarily flashed before her eyes before her vision returned to normal. The amount of visions and emotions did not help her already pounding headache and she felt  just as nauseous as Hunk did. She clamped her mouth shut as she closed her eyes, trying to ride the wave of nausea hoping it would pass soon. 

“I just said it's on autopilot. It says there's an alien ship approaching earth. I think we’re supposed to stop it.” 

“What did it say exactly?!” Pidge asked, as they finally exited Earth’s atmosphere and they were fully out in open space. “What ship? I don’t even see anything!”

“Well it's not like it's saying words, more like feeding ideas into my brain…kind of.” Lance explained and Lucia wondered if he only saw the visions and felt the emotions while she experienced all three? It would explain why he didn’t look as terrible as she felt at the moment.

“Well if this thing is the weapon the aliens are coming for, why dont we just like I dont know give it to them. Maybe they’ll leave us alone? Sorry lion, nothing personal.” Lucia could feel the smallest bit of irritation coming off the Lion at Hunk’s suggestion.

“You don't understand these monsters spread like the plague throughout the galaxy destroying everything in their path. There’s no bargaining with them, they won't stop until everything is dead.” Shiro growled, silencing the cockpit at this tone. Lucia bit her lip as she could see his arm trembling and sweat dripping down the side of his face. He knew too much about their cruelty and it may haunt him for the rest of his life. Despite being on the verge of throwing up, she grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze letting him know that she would never let him get hurt again. 

“Oh nevermind then…” Hunk sheepishly muttered, looking away as the rest of the team also gave him a look. Alarms blared and the lights in the cockpit started flashing red before a purple and black ship suddenly appeared right in front of them. 

“Oh holy cow, is that really an alien ship!” Hunk squeaked as he pushed himself behind Lance while Shiro’s trembling hand shook even more. 

“They found me…” 

Those are the aliens that took Shiro…tortured him…and they think they can take him back…take him, the kids and the lion? Over my fucking dead body. Lucia growled as anger surged around her, amplified by the Lion who surprisingly agreed with her. 

Protect…fight!

“Move Lance!” Lucia ordered. Lance merely nodded.

“Hang on tight everyone!” He shouted as he pulled on the controls, propelling the Lion forward as the ship fired on them. Despite planting her feet and clinging onto Lance’s seat, she collided with Keith and Shiro as the Lion dogged each blast with finesse that almost did not belong on a large mechanical cat.  

Weapon…use…

Her vision blurred once more as she briefly saw the lion’s mouth open, revealing a large cannon before it shifted to the  buttons lighting up at the control to summon its claws to rip the ship's hull.

Well aren’t you full of surprises Lucia chuckled weakly as she could see Lance smirk as well.

“Ah all right ok I think I know what to do!”

“Be careful Lance! This isn't a simulator” Pidge shrieked as Lance barrel rolled out of the way from another blast from the ship. 

“That's good, I always wreck the simulator” He laughed as he pressed one of the buttons the lion showed them, using the cannon to fire back. Lucia couldn’t help but let out a small cry of triumph at the destruction of the ship.

“Let's try this!” As the ship was still recovering from Lance’s earlier attack, Lance maneuvered the lion closer to the ship before pulling back just enough to let the claws drag across the hull, setting off more explosions.

“Nice job Lance!” Shiro congratulated the teen and she could see pink dusting his cheeks at the compliment. However, their victory was short lived as they could see that they hadn’t done enough damage to the ship. 

“Lance, you think you can get this ship away from Earth?” Lucia asked, “If the lion barely made a dent on the ship, I don’t think Earth’s defenses has a chance in hell of stopping it.”

“One chase, coming up Professor Lucia!” Lance smirked as he pulled hard on the controls, sending the lion flying deeper towards their solar system. Lucia spared a glance at the monitor and let out a small curse as the ship was easily keeping up with them…in fact it looked like they were slowly gaining on them.

“Fuck…” Lance muttered as he also took notice of the ship trying to pull on the controls even more, but they were already as far back as possible. 

“Can’t you make this go faster?” Keith’s hand hovered over some buttons but Lance smacked his hand away. 

“She’s already going as fast as she can!” Lance growled back, “Stop touching my lion.”

“Your Lion! I….we found it together!” Keith argued back, “It’s no one’s!” 

“As much as we would love to hear you two bicker, the fact they’re just chasing us is a bit worrying.” Pidge frowned as he looked out at the side of the windshield. “They were fine with shooting at us…what changed?”

“They could be trying to wear us down…make us an easier target to catch. I’m not entirely sure what powers this machine but I think it’s safe to say once we run out of fuel we will be sitting ducks.” Lucia frowned, trying to come up with a plan while her head throbbed painfully wasn’t an easy task. 

“We…we could use the asteroid belt to try and build some distance. It should at the very least slow the ship down. They can’t get through it as easily as the Lion probably could…”

“Well…that could work if we were actually close to the asteroid belt…” Lucia looked at Pidge confused at his words. She swore she saw the Earth’s moon when Lance booked the Lion away from Earth. At the speed they were going they should be arriving near the asteroid belt.

“This Lion is faster than any of our ships so it should be reaching the Belt soon…”

“Then why do I see Kerberos on our right?” He pointed out just as they were indeed passing by the Moon…that should be on the edge of the solar system.

“What the fuck!” Lucia cried out as she raced towards the window, along with Hunk, Keith and Shiro as they stared blankly at the undeniable misshapen moon of Pluto. “How!”

“Yeah it takes like months for our ships to get here!” Hunk squeaked, stepping back. “Months!”

“It only took us like 5 seconds to get here! How fast is this thing?” Before Lucia could even respond, the pulsing came back as the lion spoke to her once more. This time it felt more urgent.

Escape……lend…power?

And how am I supposed to help? If anything you’re doing the heavy lifting. Lucia gritted her teeth looking around trying to figure out what the lion meant by help.

Power…control panel…open…lioness help… 

Once more an image of the panel flashed before her eyes but this time a hand print showed on the digital dashboard and then a bright blue vortex appeared in front of them. She heard Lance gasp as he most likely also saw the vision. They locked eyes for a moment before the dashboard lit up with the hand print the lion showed them.

“Uh…professor…What did the lion tell you?” Lance asked, looking back and forth at the hand print and her.

“Wait, you can hear the Lion as well?” Shiro asked, shaking her shoulders. “Why didn’t you say anything? Is that why you’re getting headaches?”

“Headaches? Why are you getting them? I haven’t gotten any headaches! Am I going to get headaches too!” Lance panicked and chaos descended on the ship.

“Wait, why is the professor hearing the Lion?”

“Oh man, is this a dangerous lion? Are we all going to get infected?”

“Lucia! What is the lion telling you!”

Hurry…time…need help…

She could feel her heart once again throbbing as the pounding in her head grew stronger and stronger, threatening to split her head wide open. She gasped for air as fire raced throughout her body, growing hotter with each pulse, threatening to burn her alive from the inside out. Her world blurred as the world around her faded into bright blue, the same blue that the Lion emitted when she was in the cave. She could see spots of Yellow, Green, Red and black dancing around her but if any got near her, sharp jolts of electricity shocked them both.

Hurry…give help…

Lucia wished she knew more about what was happening to her, why her body felt like it was going to burst into flames. She also wished she knew more about the lion’s plans, she didn’t want to send her students and family into more danger. She could feel the lion’s sending waves of assurance, that she too wished to protect the ones who found her. While it wasn’t ideal, she would have to place her faith with the Lions and the teens to do what was right after she gave help to the Lion

TAKE IT ALL!  She screamed as she slammed her hand down, letting the fire surge through her body once more, traveling down to her hand where electricity spiraled around her hand before the cockpit lit up. She could feel the Lion siphoning the fire from her body using it to power itself up but once the fire had finally died down along with the throbbing headache…she had no strength to keep herself up.

“Trust…in….each….other…” She whispered, her vision fading to black and her last memory before she welcomed the darkness was Keith's distraught face as he caught her. 

Sleep….protect…keep safe.