Chapter Text
Allura stepped into the room with a smile that could slay, her eyes sharp, her posture straight. That was the thing about Allura; She had a presence about her. She walked with all the grace and power of royalty. It was those small things that were a reminder of the princess she had once been. In all other ways she was barely recognizable as such; her armor had seen better days, her hair was shorn short and wild, her eyes had seen too many sleepless nights.
Even in appearance, she was not the missing Princess Allura, but a normal human, a guise she wore only when forced so far from the confines of their ship. Her hair was the color of wheat, her eyes brown, the blue markings on her face buried beneath the human mask she wore.
Her face was plastered across half the known universe. None of them could afford to take risks, least of all her.
Keith trailed in behind her, hands shoved deep in his pockets. Lance would have groaned except it would have given away his position. He was tucked into an air vent of the warehouse something like fifteen feet above them, the butt of his rifle pressed firm into his shoulder, sights following his two crewmates as they strode into the room.They were met in the middle by Sendak, flanked by his own Galra lunkie, and Lance shifted just so and fixed his gun onto his head and it’s stupid mouse ears.
“Princess,” Sendak said, giving her a nod. Allura’s human disguise wasn’t for him. He knew very well who she was.
He stood a good half a foot over her; she was unperturbed by the height difference. He stared her down only briefly before flickering a yellow eye to Keith. “I told you to come alone.”
Allura quirked her lips up into a smile. Lance shuddered at the sight. “You are an idiot if you thought I actually would,” she said. She gave Keith a quick look and he shrugged. He looked more or less as if he had been dragged along.
Anyone else would have been preferable to him. He was too much of a hothead, too quick to knock heads and take names. But Hunk was squeamish; Lance didn’t shoot to maim and brain matter was gross. Coran was good in a pinch but the situation didn’t quite suit him. And Pidge was the reason they were there to begin with, which only left Shiro. Shiro, though—
Allura would have brought no one before she brought Shiro.
It didn’t speak much of Keith that he was the one brought along via process of elimination.
Sendak considered them for a moment, his mechanical eye whirring about behind its lense. “Do you have what I asked for?” he asked at last.
Allura pressed her mouth into a thin line. Behind her, Keith shifted ever so slightly. Maybe Sendak wasn’t hoping for violence but Lance’s rifle said otherwise. There would most definitely be violence. The tilt of Keith’s shoulders agreed with him. “That depends,” Allura murmured at last. Her voice was laced with a certain kind of danger. “You have something of mine. I want to see her, first.”
Sendak gestured without taking his eyes off of them. “Bring her out,” he called, and there was a flurry of movement from the adjoining room. Lance kept his gun trained on Sendak even as he glanced over to see two Galra pulling Pidge along behind them. She was unfazed even as they drew to a stop and pressed a gun to her temple. She managed a small wave even with the cuffs around her wrists.
Allura gave her a smile that was soft. It stood stark against her interactions with everyone else in the room. “Number Five,” Allura said smoothly, but Lance could see her relief in the slight sag of her shoulders.
Pidge rocked forward on her toes and grinned. “And hello, Sendak. Nice to see you again, even though you’ve kidnapped me and all.” The Galra with the gun to her head bumped its muzzle against her skull in warning and she fell silent with a roll of her eyes. Typical Pidge to be in a life or death situation and only feel inconvenienced by it.
Allura, though, was now only concerned with the weapon pressed to Pidge’s head. “That is unfair, is it not, Sendak? You know weapons are not allowed on board.”
Sendak fixed her with his dead eye. “I’m well aware,” he told her. “Do you want me to believe that you did not bring weapons with you? I’d ask if you thought I was an idiot but we both already know how you feel on that front.”
Lance’s legs were fast going numb, his elbow aching where he braced himself on it. Still, he managed a smirk. Keith wasn’t armed; he didn’t need to be. He was a one man army and he was as dangerous with his fists as he was with any weapon.
All the same, Allura had a point. Weapons weren’t allowed where they were, which was what made the situation so tricky. Especially given that Sendak so flaunted his own. He had chosen their location for its neutrality, specifically because weapons were not allowed on board.
They were on an Unilu Planet Ship, one of hundreds of satellite cities throughout the galaxy, the only places of peace within a universe torn apart by war. There was a cost for that peace.
Weapons weren’t allowed in the inner cities of the planet ships, and they were currently in Mid City. Those coming in were search heavily, but there was still a seedy, thriving black market, and Lance knew a guy. He loosened his grip on his weapon, moving just so, lining his sights up with the man whose gun was pressed to Pidge’s temple. He waited.
Sendak was talking again, mouth twisted into a grin. “Let’s see it, Princess .” Lance had been looking forward to blowing his brains to kingdom come but Allura had been very clear about him not doing that. His finger toyed with the trigger.
Allura gestured to Keith, who reached into his jacket and produced the object in question. It was akin to a disc, but with a handle in the middle, giving it a horseshoe shape where the prongs opened on one end. It was a weapon; Even in this form it was clear, as nonthreatening as it looked. It was the weapon, the weapon to top all weapons.
Lance felt the thrum of energy from it as it was revealed and Keith handed it over to Allura without a word. It wasn’t just any bayard. It was the Blue bayard. It was Lance’s bayard, and he could feel it tug at him, a reminder of the bond it now had with him.
“The Blue Bayard,” Sendak hissed, reaching for it. Allura took a step back, moving it from his reach. He narrowed his good eye and, behind him, the grunt with the gun to Pidge’s head pressed it harder into her skull. Allura’s eyes glanced her way but she seemed wholly unconcerned.
Sendak, it appeared, decided to humor her. He nodded to the weapon in Allura’s hand. “Heard you stole that from your father,” he said. “Heard he’s looking for you.” His eyes danced with mirth and Allura smirked, eyes flickering to the bayard as she moved it from one hand to another.
“Funny,” she said. “I heard I was kidnapped.”
Lance grinned.
Sendak barked out a laugh. “ Funny ,” he agreed.
She made a non committal noise and Sendak snarled. He was done playing her game. “Warmongers, all of you,” he snapped and now Allura’s eyes were on him and him alone, cold and calculated and he stepped back in a moment of weakness.
“On Altea, we call it peacekeeping.” She smiled and Sendak scowled, for all he was cowering in her presence. “And the Galra are hardly any better, are they, Sendak? Maybe Zarkon learned that from King Alfor. Maybe it was the other way around.”
“Evil doesn’t think it’s evil,” PIdge said suddenly and Sendak shot her an angry look.
“Who the fuck knows?” he said.
Pidge shrugged.
Allura held out the bayard, looking it over as if she hadn’t a clue what it was. Lance knew what it was. Allura knew what it was. Sendak knew what it was. “Why do you want this so badly?” she asked after a moment. “The reward for finding me is large enough to make you a rich man.”
Sendak considered her for a moment and Lance knew he had no doubt thought about it. King Alfor would be generous to whoever brought Allura to him, even if they were a Galra. Allura would lead him to Lance, as well. The bounty on Lance’s head far outweighed the reward for finding Allura, though. He’d ‘kidnapped’ her, after all. Funny, because she was the more dangerous of the two of them, she just hid it well behind dresses and fake smiles. Sendak saw through it.
“What you’ve got there,” he said after a tick, “It will make me a richer man.”
“Is Zarkon really offering such a high reward?” Allura asked and Sendak narrowed his eyes.
“Quit playing games with me,” he snarled and Allura snapped her eyes up to meet his. He took a small step back, alarmed.
“I asked you a question,” she said softly.
“I would think the answer to it would be obvious,” Sendak said in lieu of an answer.
Allura grinned wide. “I see,” she murmured. “So this is about the power , isn’t it?”
That’s what the bayards were, after all: power, unlike the world had ever seen. They blurred the lines between technology and something more , something akin to magic. And the Blue Bayard was one of five bayards that legend said would unlock Voltron, the great weapon of the universe. The end all, be all force to be reckoned with. A treasure trove of power unlike anything to ever have existed and to ever possible exist.
Whatever that meant. Wherever Voltron even was . No one knew. It was just a legend, afterall. But the bayards had been legends, too, and there Allura stood with one in her hands.
And Zarkon wanted them. They wanted them more, though.
Allura continued to look it over, her expression one of boredom, and Sendak looked angrier. She was clearly done with the conversation and she quirked her lips and Lance held his breath, counting the ticks. One, two, and on three he fired. The Galra with the gun dropped to the ground and Pidge moved, fluid, and dropped the other guy with a kick.
That only left Sendak, standing calm and collected, eyes still locked with Allura’s.
“You’re an idiot, Sendak,” Allura told him. He didn’t even try to fight back as Allura threw herself at him, slamming him hard onto the ground. His skull hit with a loud crack that made even Lance flinch, far away as he was.
Lance dropped from the vent, when it was all over, kicking it open and flinging himself out, hand catching the edge before he could fall downwards. Pidge laughed. “Nice shooting, Lance!” she called out and Lance grinned, shooting her a thumbs up before pushing off the edge and dropping to the floor. The side of her face was covered in a splattering of blood.
There was a shot and Lance jumped, looking over at Allura. Just past her was a smear of blood across the ground. “Let’s go,” she said, standing. “Before the Unilu get here.” Pidge was the first to move, limber and fast, and Allura wiped blood from her hands coolly before following after. Always a Princess, even with the blood and the gun, which she wiped across the folds of her dress where it spilled from beneath her armor. She tossed it onto Sendak where he lay behind her and Lance cast a look backwards. He wasn’t dead, but he was unconscious, one arm mangled and bleeding out.
Of course Allura wouldn’t kill him. That would be too easy.
Lance tossed his rifle down next to him before falling into step beside Keith.
They were calm as they left. That was the key, Allura had always told them. Be collected, throw off suspicion, and they were the epitome of it.
Pidge strode onto their ship with her hands linked behind her head, strolling as if there wasn’t a care in the world. She’d been kidnapped, mostly through only a bit of fault on her part, but she only grinned. Allura didn’t bother to berate her.
None of them were really careful. Every screw up was a lesson learned.
Shiro, though, had stern dad eyes and Pidge sighed and grumbled at the lecture he was giving her even as they walked onto the ship.
“—wanted criminals, Pidge, we can’t just wander around like—” Lance tuned it out, rolling his eyes. Keith followed him down the hall, slinking about in his shadow.
Allura strode past the arguing pair, head high, her cloak billowing out behind her. “We undock in thirty minutes, makes sure everything is loaded.” Her eyes locked with Pidge and it was enough of an excuse for her to pull herself away from Shiro. “Pidge, go help Hunk get the engines ready. His resupply should already be by the engine room.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Pidge said, saluting, and then she was gone before Shiro could lay into her anymore.
“And Shiro?”
“Yes?”
“Help Coran get us ready to depart.”
He nodded and with a final glance her way he was gone. Which left Allura and Lance and Keith and she rounded on them, eyes warm the way they were when she wanted something in particular. Lance groaned, huffing.
“Come on, Allura,” he groaned. “Isn’t it enough we just saved the day and what not again?” Keith hadn’t actually done anything, but Lance didn’t bring that up.
Allura smiled. “Lance,” she said and he sighed. That was her ‘I’m your Princess and you’re going to listen to me’ voice. He hated that voice. Keith was immune to it though and he simply stared at her, mouth creased into a frown.
“At least don’t put me with Keith again,” he said, gesturing wildly. “Come on, anyone but him, what about—”
“The engines need repair,” she told him curtly. “Hunk will be staying. Pidge will be helping, she’s the best suited to give him the assistance he needs.”
“Okay, but like, what about Shiro ?”
Allura’s look turned dark. “You know very well why I won’t send Shiro.”
Lance fell quiet and cast a side glance at Keith. “Man we’re the only ones who do anything around here,” he complained and Allura laughed.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ll stop piloting the ship. I’ll let us fly into a sun, our engines broken, directionless. Next time you get hurt I’ll tell Coran not to help. I’ll let you bleed out.”
Lance shuddered and even Keith looked a bit unnerved. “What do you need from us?” he asked, arms crossed.
“I need you two to break into a prison,” she said. Lance groaned.