Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A/N: so, this is the rewrite of the previous story previously written of FF.net. Looking back on it, I realized I had a few more things I needed to flesh out based on new updates within the game. Like the initial version: Terra and Earth are different planets, Guardians can have kids that can be Guardians, Awoken are a different race from humans, etc.

Now, I should mention that this story does need to follow the line of the main series plot for a while before I can intertwine more Destiny elements into it—trust me I thought about starting later and tried, but, unfortunately, that didn’t work out as I hoped.

Ok, so with that out of the way, I just own my OCs and the story. Voltron Legendary Defender and Destiny aren’t mine.

Ice crunched softly under the boots of several figures moving over the icy landscape, the sound barely being heard in the almost nonexistent atmosphere of the moon they stood on. Two of them stood next to a crane, pulling up something from the ground. “Careful son, this ice is delicate,” one of them warned gently as the smaller figure grabbed the column of ice.

Behind the glass of his helmet, the smaller man gave a smile as he carefully set the ice core into a container. “Amazing, isn’t it Shiro?” he asked, turning his head in the direction to two others standing nearby.

The larger one in a similar uniform laughed, a smile visible through his helmet, “You guys get a little more excited about ice samples than I do.”

By his side, a slender figure in a darker suit made a motion of rolling their eyes. “Give me a fighter mission any day. I don’t know why I was chosen for this of all things,” a feminine voice scoffed.

“Aw come on Jaz, you know you love us,” one whined. “Besides, everyone wanted to be sure this mission had the best pilots in the solar system. Plus it’s probably good for the alliance between our people.”

“True.”

“All right, all of you, that’s enough,” their leader spoke, stepping between them all. “This is history in the making. We’ve traveled further than anyone in our system has before; this ice sample could lead to clues of life beyond our solar system.”

“Think about it! We could be the first to meet aliens!”

Jaz put her hands on her hips, “What? Darvah and I aren’t enough for you?”

“What?” a figure further away spoke up, turning to face them, four red eyes blinking in confusion. “Did someone call me?” Not receiving an answer, the four-armed being shrugged, continuing to type on the computer in front of him.

“Well, unless you want to confirm my conspiracy theories, then you guys lost your cool after the first hundred years. Speaking of conspiracies, what the heck happened to Prince Uldren? His sister vanishes into thin air and he’s nowhere to be found? Did he kill her? I know I heard one rumor that he went bonkers—or was it that he disappeared too? Either way, what happened?”

“Matt.”

“Yes?” the rambling scientist grinned.

“Shut up.”

“Commander Holt,” Darvah called. Jogging over, the others almost stumbled as his heavy steps shook the delicate ice, but thankfully, their chosen location was thick enough to support their combined weight. “We’ve got a problem,” he typed of his pad, holding it out to the oldest of the group, “scanners are picking up something, something big.”

The ground trembled under their feet again, cracks forming in the ice from the sheer force of the vibrations. “Seismic activity?” the commander questioned.

“No,” Matt whispered as he scrambled back to his feet, watching as a shadow began to cover the valley as something began to move towards them. “I’m guess it was that.”

Following his gaze, they all saw a massive purple ship entering the area.

“Back to the ship! Now!”

Turning to run, the ice continued to crack underneath them as the ship fired something at them. A bright violet light consumed the group before all were plunged into darkness.

-.-

Pain, that was the first thing Shiro registered as consciousness began to return to him. His head throbbed with every pulse of his heart, amplified only by his acknowledgement and recognition of the pain. He was vaguely aware he was leaning forwards on his knees. What happened? Did he black out? Did he have some sort of episode?

It was only when he tried to move his arms and heard an angry growl he began to realize something wasn’t quite right. Forcing his eyes open, Shiro blinked a few times, trying to focus on the environment around him. It definitely wasn’t the pristine silvery surface of Kerberos, nor was it the bland gray and orange interior of their ship. No, this place was dark, sinister even. Glowing red-violet light surrounded them, and he could make out a figure talking to a dark shadow with glowing eyes on some sort of holographic screen.

“Eyrolul Zarkon, to tolo ntuwraml nbnroy X-9-Y en uldolod twom to auwmd rwono rlayararo ntaomranrn.”

Shiro blinked, his stomach dropping. He didn’t know that language. Eyes widening he looked to either side of him to see if his crew was alright. Commander Holt and Matt appeared to be unconscious still, meanwhile, both Jaz and Darvah were eyeing their captors warily.

“I dum'r rwamp rwob pmut embrwaml wnoaws,” the one at the screen spoke.

Shiro shivered as the glowing eyes of the shadowed figure narrowed. It felt like that thing—whatever it was—was starting right at him, or maybe right through him. Either way, it felt like this thing did not mean them well. Tepo rwoy vetp ru rwo yeahm asoor aul amrolluleraum. Two dlwadn tass aamd uwr twer rwob pmut.”

Even the voice of the mysterious being sounded sinister. “Please!” Shiro spoke out, his heart pounding in his chest as he felt the eyes of the monster and the others around turn to him. Swallowing his fear, he continued to speak, these people—these aliens—had to know they weren’t a threat, that they were not their enemy. “We come from peaceful planets! We’re unarmed! We mean you no harm! Please just let us go!”

His answer was the butt of some sort of gun slamming into his head, making it spin. During that time, he was vaguely aware of claws digging into his arms, dragging him from the room. His arms hurt as they were pulled back by the men dragging him. Shrio’s boots scrapped the ground as he tried to get his feet under him, but each attempt was met with another hit.

Gasping as the air was knocked from his lungs by the blaster hitting his gut, he gave up on trying to get up. Instead he looked up, watching the others behind him as they too were escorted down the path by armed guards. On either side of them, he could see doors and at moments he swore he saw faces peering out. A lump formed in his throat as they passed a window, he couldn’t see anything familiar. All he saw was rows and rows of endless cells.

-.-

1 year later

The thrum of an engine could be heard in the desert night as a lone young man sat on a hoverbike, a gentle desert breeze ruffling his hair as he watched the sky. By his side, a flash of light came as a small droid of sorts materialized. Its multifaceted shell shifted as the lone blue eye blinked towards the young man, “So…what do you think the carvings in those caves were saying was going to happen?”

Violet eyes glanced its way, and the young man shrugged. “Who knows,” he replied, resting his arm on the handles of the speeder. “All it said is something was supposed to happen today. Hopefully it’ll be something that will let us get off this rock.”

The small droid’s shell shifted again, “We do have our own ships?”

“True, but that won’t help us figure out what happened to our friends.”

The little eye glanced away, before it turned back, “Do you think it has something to do with that weird signal I’ve been detecting?”

“You do know that’s what lead us to this date, right?” the man snickered.

“Oh, yeah.”

“Relax Yorak,” he said, patting the top of the small shell, “It’ll be fine.”

Yorak’s shell twitched, “Do things ever turn out well for us Keith?”

Keith raised an eyebrow as he looked at his ghost. “I thought I was supposed to be the pessimist in this relationship?”

“I am merely stating a fact,” the ghost answered. “We don’t exactly have the best of luck. What are the odds that an unknown alien race would attack Kerberos? Cause based on the data we got from Petra, it definitely wasn’t any of our usual enemies; none of them use tractor beams. Plus, they would’ve left bodies. You know what that means?”

“No, what?” Keith inquired.

“That means we don’t know who we’re up against! It could be anything! What if they’re stronger than us?! What if they’re stronger than the Hive? The Cabal? The Vex? We’re screwed!”

“They could be weaker too,” Keith pointed out.

The ghost blinked, “Well…true. But the fact is we don’t know.”

“Well,” Keith smirked, “we do know that we’re the only ones who can revive. So even if they kill me a hundred times, I’ll still come back to kick their asses. Guardians are hard to kill.”

“True but—” Yorak started to protest before stopping as he spotted something. “Incoming object in atmosphere.”

The small ghost vanished in a flash as Keith’s helmet materialized. Almost immediately, the scanners locked onto a fireball falling from the sky. It soared past the peaks he sat on, the heat radiating through his armor as it moved past. The ground shook as it made impact, sending plumes of sand into the air as it skipped along the desert landscape.

He could already hear the sirens of the Garrison. It wouldn’t be long before they secured the site. His engine revved as he spun on a dime, dust in his wake as he shot down the canyons towards the flats, dropping a few explosives as he went.

Light moved under his hands, spreading over his speeder as the smaller one changed into a larger white one with red racing stripes. While it was slower, it would be easier to use to transport anything he found at the site if it couldn’t go into the subspace storage he normally used.

Cutting the engine early, Keith coasted towards some larger rocks beside the hastily constructed Garrison quarantine. He could see people inspecting what looked like some sort of ship on the outside, which meant whatever of importance was inside the facility.

Several explosions rocked the valley as the timers went off. Leaping from his bike, he crouched behind the boulders, watched as guards scrambled to their vehicles. Doors were barely slamming shut as engines started up and the vehicles were driving away to no doubt investigate what happened.

And their hasty departure made his mission that much easier.

The doors of the quarantine facility hissed open, revealing three surprised techs in hazmat suits standing around two tables. “Hey!” one of them protested, running at him. The man threw a sloppy punch at him, and the young Guardian merely stepped aside, allowing the man to stumble from the momentum. Grabbing his arm, Keith kicked his legs out from under him as he tossed the man to the side. By this point, the other two had seemingly recovered from their shock. One charged at him, and Keith ducked under his hit before swiping his feet from under him. As he fell, the Guardian grabbed the tech’s arm and swung him like a bat into his comrade, knocking both across the room.

Now that the nuisances were out of the way, he could see what had crashed. Turning to the tables, Keith deactivated to make sure his helmet wasn’t malfunctioning. On the table closest to him, a familiar face lied on it, clearly unconscious. The stupid forelock of once black hair had turned to a stark white, once tan skin was now pale, one arm appeared to be robotic, and an ugly scar crossed the bridge of his nose; but it was still easy to identify his friend and brother in everything but blood and light. “Shiro?” he whispered in shock. Head snapping to the other table, he was greeted by another familiar face of one of his closest friends. An Awoken Woman was sprawled on the other table, her once short azure hair now brushing past her shoulders with one silvery streak in it. “Jaz?”

Keith shook his head, revelations aside. He still needed to get them out. Pulling his dagger from his belt, he quickly cut the bonds holding his friends hostage. Now he had to get them both out quickly.

“You?!” a voice exclaimed.

Whirling on his heel, Keith raised his fists, small sparks running over his knuckles as he came face to face with not Garrison officials like he’d been expecting, but three teens, one of which looked suspiciously like Matt Holt. It was probably his little sister Katie, whom, like him, had been trying to figure out what happened to the Kerberos mission.

The lanky one in the front scowled as he stomped over. “No! Nope! No, no, no you don’t! I’m saving Shiro and Jaz!” he growled trying—and failing to pick up Shiro.

Traveler he did not have time for this. “Who are you?” Keith snarled.

“Who am I?” the boy scoffed, as if it were obvious. “The name’s Lance.”

Well that answered absolutely nothing. This idiot didn’t look remotely familiar. Though he did remind him of some idiot back in the Garrison, what was his name? Taylor? “Were you an engineer?”

The other guy’s jaw dropped. “What?! No! I’m not an engineer! I’m a pilot! We were rivals! You know, Lance and Keith, neck in neck.”

So it was the idiot who insisted they were archnemeses for no reason. “Right, the annoying know-it-all cargo pilot.”

“Fighter since you washed out,” he raised his head smugly.

“Tell it to someone who cares,” Keith grumbled picking up Shiro, since it looked like the lankier boy was three seconds away from dropping him. “You and the big guy, get Jaz. Drop her, I break your arms.”

With that threat, Keith tossed Shiro over his shoulder and ran outside to his sparrow. It didn’t take long for the trio carrying Jaz to catch up. Handing Shiro’s limp form to the larger of the group, Keith swung up onto his bike, pulling the two unconscious pilots onto his bike. What he didn’t expect was for the rest of them to climb on the bike as well, causing the end to tip back, landing on the ground with a loud clang.

Keith grimaced, that would be a pain to buff out later.

“Can this thing hold all of us?” Katie questioned.

“No,” Keith grumbled, reactivating his helmet, ignoring the surprised exclamations of those behind him. His scanner flashed, and Keith scowled as he got the signals of the Garrison’s guards returning. As much as he detested having the extra weight, he didn’t have time to argue. They’d be there soon and if they caught him, well, Keith didn’t like to think of that.

The bike roared as he spun it around, creating a plume of sand that would hopefully cover their tracks. However, it didn’t; the red light on his scanner still flashed as the red pinpricks appeared behind him, gaining fast.

“Can this thing go any faster?!” one of the unwelcome sidekicks exclaimed.

“We could get rid of some non-essential weight.”

“Ok!” For a moment, Keith hoped one of them would actually leap off; preferably the annoying lanky guy. “Wait…” he seemed to realize, “that was an insult.”

More of a fact, but Keith couldn’t bring himself to care. Now, they were entering the canyons, where they could have a legitimate chance of ditching their tails. “Big guy, lean left!” he ordered revving the engine. Without waiting for a response, Keith kicked the bike to its highest gear and swung left towards the ledge, leaping across the narrow crevasse onto another natural path leading higher up the ridge.

“Mr. Harris just wiped out Professor Montgomery!”

Good, that meant he only had two more targets to eliminate. Speeding up the ridge, he grinned as he saw his chance.

“Uh…is that a cliff?!”

“Yep,” Keith replied, leaning forwards as they sped forwards. Leaping off the edge, he could barely hear his own thoughts over the sound of the trio’s screaming.

“YOU’RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!”

“Trust me,” Keith hissed. Hitting the brakes, he pulled up, causing the rotors to swerve, creating lift as the approached the bottom of the cliff. Instead of crashing, the bike merely revved as it continued to speed away from the Garrison.

To his relief, the trio of idiots went quiet. Either passed out from fright or processing the fact they weren’t dead, whichever it was, Keith didn’t particularly care. All he wanted was some peace and quiet for a little bit.

Something, his ghost, unlike these three could understand. He could feel a tightness release in his chest as Yorak let him know that the danger had passed. They were off Garrison grounds and on his own family’s private lands. And they wouldn’t dare enter his territory without his permission, not without risking the wrath of his people. Things were tedious between the Guardians and the people of Earth as it was—well, the people that knew they existed.

Keith sighed as he spotted his house on the horizon. Wouldn’t be long now before he was no doubt bombarded with questions and chatter. But that would have to wait till after Shiro and Jaz were fully checked over for injuries. His friends were the priority.

Coasting to a stop, Keith grimaced as the tail end of his sparrow hit the ground with another loud clang, no doubt, if there hadn’t been a dent before, there was now. He slid off the bike, taking Shiro from Matt’s sister as she tried to pull the unconscious man off. Glancing at the other two, he watched as Lance and the taller boy with a bandana worked together to lift Jaz off. Keith sighed, shaking his head as he walked over to the door, unlocking it. The old door creaked open, prompting a grey and orange robot to look up from where it was sweeping. Thankfully, it looked away continuing to do its job as he walked into the Master bedroom and set Shiro down.

Already, he could hear thuds as no doubt Tweedledee and Tweedledumb struggled to figure out what they were supposed to do. Waving his hand, Keith watched as Yorak materialized over his palm, blinking up at him. “Run a scan on Shiro for me while I go get Jaz.”

“What do I look like, a medical droid?” the ghost scoffed.

“Yorak,” Keith grit his teeth, “now is not the time.” He didn’t bother to wait for his ghost’s answer as he stomped out. Thankfully, his ghost knew better than to follow, but he could still sense his irritation across their bond. Keith sighed, feeling a small form of tightness in his chest. He didn’t need to snap at his ghost, it wasn’t like this situation was his fault. And frankly, Keith didn’t like being farther than necessary from his ghost either; especially not after…after what happened.

“Where’s Shiro?” the annoying one—Lance if he recalled correctly—demanded.

“Getting rest,” Keith deadpanned, scooping Jaz from his arms with little effort. “You guys wait out here.”

“Excuse me, who put you in charge!”

“My house, my rules,” he snapped. “Go into the living room, stay in there. Do not touch anything.” With a final warning glare, Keith stomped back to his father’s room, setting the injured Awoken woman down beside Shiro. “Well?”

“Shiro has a minor concussion, most likely from the crash,” Yorak answered. “From what I can tell, he seems to also have a few minor burns as well as some old scars, but…his arm…”

“Replaced with some sort of prosthetic?” Keith finished looking at the limb. It was easy to tell. He’d grown up seeing plenty of people who’d had robotic limbs. Though he wasn’t totally familiar with this design pattern. It definitely wasn’t a Terran, Fallen, or Awoken design, and it definitely wasn’t from Earth. So he hadn’t been treated medically by any of them. The design wasn’t Cabal either—not that they’d leave any prisoners alive. But at least he had some reassurance that it wasn’t any of the normal enemies. Whoever took them, left prisoners alive, which was good. That meant Matt and Commander Holt were likely alive as well—probably injured given the states of his friends, but alive. “And Jaz?”

Yorak’s shell spun as he floated over to the Awoken woman, his eye glowing as a beam of light passed over her. “Minor burns on her right arm, and possibly a sprained wrist. She also has scarring, but it’s not as bad as Shiro’s.”

Keith nodded, nothing was life threatening and required immediate medical attention. But still, handling their burns wouldn’t be much of a problem. Walking to the bathroom, he pulled a first aid kit from the cabinet and opened, pulling out bandages, disinfectant, and burn cream. Closing the case, he moved back to the bed. “Ok, so where are the burns?”

“Shiro’s are right here,” Yorak replied, flashing his scanner over a portion of his arm. He floated over Jaz, “and Jaz’s are here,” he pointed out parts of her forearm and part of her leg.

With a nod, Keith pulled out his knife and began to cut away the cloth covering the injuries. Once he finished this, then he could get some rest. After all, it was going to take a few hours for the drugs in their systems to wear off.

Chapter Text

A/N: hey guys, welcome back! Remember, I just own my OCs and the story, nothing else.

Something was pressing against his face. That was the first thing Keith registered as he woke up. Groaning, he rolled over to see his ghost floating just above his pillow, his glowing eye almost blinding him in the darkness. “You know I don’t like being up early,” Keith muttered, looking to the window. Unsurprisingly, it was still dark outside, which meant dawn was approaching.

“It’s about time for the drugs to have worn off,” Yorak replied, his shell whirling slightly. “They’ll be waking up soon.”

Keith sighed, a small part of him contemplated going back to sleep, but he knew Yorak would wake him up. One of them had to be responsible, and his ghost knew it wasn’t going to be him. Which was proven as Yorak pushed against his face again, his cool metal a sharp contrast from the warmth of his bed. “Fine, I’m up, I’m up,” he yielded, sitting up in the bed with a yawn.

With his victory, Yorak vanished in a flash.

Rolling out of bed, Keith pulled his regular clothes off the dresser, quickly changing before moving across the hall towards his father’s room. Opening the door he was unsurprised to find Shiro starting to stir.

The older man groaned as he slowly sat up, holding his head as if it were bothering him. Though, considering his concussion and the combination of possible drugs leaving his system, having a killer headache wouldn’t be much of a stretch. Shiro looked around the dark room, his gaze eventually meeting his own, “Keith? Is that you?”

“Who else would it be,” he gently jested stepping into the room. “How’re you doing?”

“My head’s killing me,” Shiro murmured. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You’re at my house,” Keith supplied. “As for what happened, I was hoping you could tell me. What do you remember?”

“I was in Garrison—”

“No,” Keith cut him off. “I know about that, I was the one to bust you out. But before that, what happened?”

Shiro looked down, his jaw shifting as he thought. “I…I don’t remember.”

Keith sighed, he was afraid of that. “It might come back as the morning goes on, just give it time,” he reassured stepping over to the dresser and slowly pulling open a few drawers, tossing out articles of clothing. “These belong to my dad, so hopefully they should fit—they might be a bit big though.”

Shiro took the gray shirt, a weak smile forming on his face. “Thanks.”

“It’s no problem. You can get dressed in the bathroom if you want,” he offered, motioning to the walk-in bathroom in the corner of the room. Moving to another set of drawers, he pulled on the handles, grimacing as they scraped loudly even with his efforts to keep quiet. But, then again, it wasn’t like these drawers had been opened recently. It’d been years. Standing up, he held some of his mother’s old clothing; glancing at Jaz, he looked back at the clothes, these would probably be big on her too, but it was still better than the dirty prisoner garb they had on now. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”

Closing the door behind him, Keith walked out into the living room, scowling as he saw the three passed out forms of his uninvited guests. He forgot about them. Sighing in defeat, he moved into the kitchen, opening the fridge looking for something to eat. He didn’t have enough milk for multiple portions of cereal nor enough cereal, so that was out. That also ruled out anything that could be made with milk, which was equally frustrating. But he did find hotdogs and buns.

People did have breakfast for dinner, so he supposed having lunch for breakfast wasn’t too much of a stretch.

“Mmm, is that food I smell?” the largest one of the group mumbled as he sat up, stumbling into the kitchen.

“Hotdogs,” Keith supplied opening the microwave. “One for everyone. Condiments are here too,” he set down the mustard beside the ketchup. Picking up two hotdogs he stepped out into the living room, glancing down the hall, he could see the door was open, which meant Shiro had come out at some point while he’d been making food.

Biting down on his hotdog, Keith held it with his teeth as he used his now free hand to open the door. Like he expected, Shiro was standing outside watching the light of the dawn. Coming over, Keith held out the hotdog, “Hungry?”

“What?” Shiro jumped, looking startled before he spotted the offering in his hand. “Oh, thanks.”

“It’s good to have you back,” Keith said taking a bite of his meal as they stood watching the sunrise.

“It’s good to be back,” Shiro agreed. “Kami-sama,” he took a bite of the hotdog, “I can’t remember the last time I had real food.”

Keith chuckled, “Never thought I’d hear you call a hotdog real food.”

“Better than anything I got…” Shiro trailed off.

“Got where?”

“Back there…on the alien ship,” he murmured. “That’s where we were before the crash. Somehow Jaz and I got out…most of it’s still pretty fuzzy though. Jaz might remember more.”

“It’s still better than nothing,” Keith reassured patting his shoulder.

“How’d you know where to find us?”

Keith sighed, now it was time for explanations. “Come on inside, there’s something I need to show you.”

Leading the way inside, Keith raised a brow as he opened the door and saw the others jump in alarm as they turned from the bookshelf. No doubt they’d been snooping. Keith rolled his eyes, walking past them and opening the office door. Motioning the rest of them in, they stared at a large bulletin board with a massive map. Across its surface there were multiple notes tacked to it and markings scrawled over parts.

Shiro was the first to approach the board. He knew this area it was the desert just by the Garrison, private land if he recalled correctly. Shiro remembered looking at maps like these back in the Garrison, but…the markings weren’t familiar. It wouldn’t be surprising if Keith just used his own symbols cause he didn’t care about the Garrison’s stuff. Looking to one of the post it notes Shiro’s brows furrowed, he knew Keith wasn’t exactly known for having the best handwriting, but he couldn’t read this. Actually, it might’ve been another language. Picking up the note, Shiro moved it into the light to get a clearer view. Yep, it was definitely another language, one he didn’t recognize. The pilot sighed, just when he thought Keith made sense, something else came along to further deepen the mystery of his brother. “What exactly have you been up to?”

“After…the news about Kerberos came out, I got booted from the Garrison,” Keith confessed shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Wait, you got booted?” Shiro interrupted.

Keith tossed his adoptive older brother a glare, “Yeah, Iverson was slandering you and blaming you for the so-called crash. So I kicked his ass and he lost an eye.”

“You ripped out his eye?!”

“No, it’s more complicated than that,” Keith retorted. “But that’s beside the point. So, since I was booted, I moved out came back here to my family’s place. Our stuff began to pick up some signal anomalies in the area and…I dunno, it felt like something was telling me to search.”

“For what?”

“Wasn’t sure. Until, I found this area,” Keith replied tapping a red circle on the map, one that had numerous strings attached to it from various notes and pictures. “A large rock formation with an entire cave system hidden inside it. Its covered with all these ancient carvings of a Blue Lion. All the stories were different, but I managed to piece together some clues in it about something that was supposed to happen last night. Imagine my surprise when you crash landed here.”

Shiro gave a nod, setting the note down. Frankly after everything he could and couldn’t remember, Shiro doubted this was the weirdest thing to happen to him. Sighing, he turned to acknowledge the others in the room. “I should thank you all for helping get me out,” he smiled holding out his hand to the closest one. He looked familiar, he’s was from Keith’s class back in the Garrison. “Lance right?”

The boy nodded, hesitating before he reached out and shook his hand.

Smiling, Shiro turned to the next one. He was almost sure a miniature version of Matt was staring back at him; undoubtedly the little sister he loved to brag about. “I’m Pidge,” she smiled, confirming his thoughts. That was definitely Katie Holt, that was her brother’s nickname for her. “The shy guy’s Hunk. Did anyone else from your crew make it?”

“Jaz,” Keith deadpanned.

“Besides Jaz,” Pidge corrected herself.

Shiro frowned, “I…I’m sorry. I remember the mission and being captured, but after that, it’s all a blur.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Hunk interrupted raising his hand. “But the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Here? To Earth? For us?”

“I…I can’t remember,” Shiro sighed again, rubbing the back of his head. “They were looking for something called Voltron. I don’t know why, it might be some big weapon. Whatever it is, we need to find it before they do.”

Keith frowned at that name. Voltron? It sounded familiar. Going over to his desk, he pulled open a drawer, looking through files his father kept. He’d definitely seen or heard that name before, the question was where?

“What were you doing in my stuff?!” Pidge exclaimed, causing Keith to pause. Looking back at the group, he could see Pidge clutching to her bag as she yanked something from the hands of the stocky one, Hunk.

“Looking for a candy bar,” he answered, like it was a good reason for snooping through another person’s things. “Then I started reading his diary—”

“WHAT?!” she shrieked.

“Anyways,” Hunk continued, “I noticed a repeating series of numbers that the aliens were searching for; it looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line.”

“A what?”

“It’s the number describing the emission spectrum of an element. Only this element doesn’t exist on Earth. It could be this weapon thingy, and I might be able to build a machine to look for it.”

“Hunk! You big gassy genius!” Lance exclaimed hugging the larger boy.

Hunk nodded eagerly, grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil. “It’s pretty fascinating,” he said drawing quickly, “the wavelength looks like this.”

Keith’s eyebrows shot up as he held up the haphazardly drawn wavelength. He’s seen that before. “Give me that,” he said swiping the paper from his hands. Holding up next to a photo of the rock formation, he sensed Yorak perk up.

“That’s it! It’s almost the exact same!” the ghost exclaimed through their bond.

That was all Keith needed to hear. “How long will it take you to build that device?”

“A few minutes.”

“Good. We leave as soon as you finish.”

A loud thud came from the other room, causing Keith to perk up. Pushing past the others, he entered the next room, where Jaz stood leaning against a dresser, a lamp on the floor. “Where’s the name of the Knight that ran me over? Cause we need to have another chat.”

-.-

“Ok…so what are we doing out here?” Jaz muttered crossing her arms as they stood out in the middle of nowhere.

“Tracking a signal I’ve been following for several months,” Keith replied. “The caves are hidden in these rock formations.”

“Which direction are they in?” Hunk asked.

“Follow me,” Keith replied. Taking the lead, he quickly climbed over rock formations.

“I’m getting something,” Hunk replied. Walking past Keith, he followed where his device was pointing into the entrance of the caves. “Whoa.”

“What are these?”

“The carvings I mentioned earlier,” Keith replied, tracing his fingers along the inscriptions. “They run all over these cave systems. The signal is coming from somewhere in there, I’m just having trouble narrowing down the exact location in this maze.”

“Maybe you just have to touch it?” Lance said, tapping once of the carvings in the cave walls.

Keith bristled as he felt the crackle of energy pulse around them. He’d always felt it while in these caves, but now, it was stronger, much stronger. “Yorak! What’s going on?” he hissed.

“Something’s activated,” his ghost replied quickly. “It might be that superweapon Shiro mentioned.”

Keith opened his mouth to ask another question before the ground shook under their feet before it crumbled away. Air rushed past them as gravity pulled them into a freefall, the rushing of wind by his ears barely covering the screams of the others they fell. Keith grunted as he slammed into something, water splashing around them and soaking through his clothes, sending chills up his spine. He could tell they were sliding down with the powerful current as small rocks caught the edges of his jacket and shirt as well as a dim light slowly getting brighter as they moved towards it. Popping out of the waterchute, Keith grunted as he landed on the ground, quickly rolling out of the way as he heard the screams of the others behind him.

Lance was the first to land after him, landing solidly on his ass and sprawling in the water, trying to catch his breath. It proved to be a bad choice as Shiro bellyflopped onto him, which was then followed by the combined weight of Hunk and Pidge.

Out of all of them, Jaz was the only one with any sense. Falling out of the tunnel, she curled up and rolled off the others, springing to her feet with practiced grace.

Seeing they were all alive, Keith turned his attention to the source of the strange blue light in the room. Like in the carvings up above, there stood a blue lion with a glowing blue dome around it. It appeared to be mechanical rather than like a real lion as the carvings suggested, but there was a strong chance ancient civilizations had misinterpreted.

Jogging up to it, Keith spread his palm on the surrounding dome. He could feel energy coursing through it, it felt similar to what he’d been sensing for the past year. “Force field,” he muttered. “Has to be what’s been causing those energy pulses.”

“Scanning for access points now.”

Keith nodded in acknowledgement. Biting the inside of his cheek, Keith considered using his own powers to try to break through. Light sparked along his fingers as he ran them over the barrier, looking for a weak point. He might be able to force his way through it, however….he glanced back at the others, there were witnesses to deal with.

He could trust Jaz, they’d grown up together and she knew all about the Guardians. Her mother and his father worked closely together for years. But the rest of them, they didn’t know shit. Guardians like himself may’ve outranked most officers, but at the end of the day, they were still beyond top secret. Shiro could probably be trusted, he was practically the only family he had on Earth as his father was back on Terra, driving the Cabal from their home and his friends were all in hiding around the system. But the others, he didn’t know them. They could stab him in the back.

And he wasn’t going to risk that.

“Does anyone else feel like this thing’s staring at them?” Lance asked as the others approached the barrier.

“No.”

“Seriously, I swear the eyes are following me.”

“It’s a machine, the eyes aren’t following you,” Jaz deadpanned stepping up beside Keith. “See any way through?”

“Not yet. Yorak?”

“A supercharge might work. But I can’t say for sure without analyzing the systems of the lion itself.”

“What’s he say?” Jaz inquired.

“Not without risking an explosion,” Keith paraphrased. While a normal supercharge wouldn’t be guaranteed to cause an explosion, in his current state, he didn’t like the odds.

Jaz frowned crossing her arms, “Damn. Too bad we don’t have Darvah, he could probably figure this out.”

“No kidding,” Keith agreed. Looking to his oldest friend, he put a hand on her shoulder, “We’ll get him back.”

Jaz gave him a smile, “Thanks. But we can’t do that till we get this thing working.”

“Maybe you just have to knock,” Lance shrugged as he sauntered up, lazily tapping the shield.

At his touch, the shield flashed brilliant blue before it retreated. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Jaz deadpanned. “That’s all it took?”

“I’ve been tapping at the field for a minute,” Keith grumbled.

“Well…what was that about then?” she frowned as the lion rumbled. Metal creaked as the machine moved for the first time in decades no doubt, as the lion crouched down, opening its maw and allowing a ramp to descend.

Rather than wondering what was going on, Lance smirked and ran up to the beast, trotting up the ramp. It took a moment for the rest of them to realize what he was doing and chase after him.

“What idiot runs headfirst into an unknown ship?” Keith grumbled.

“You’re one to talk Keith,” Jaz smirked.

“That was different and you know it!”

“Guys,” Shiro interjected, stepping between his little brother and his friend, “now isn’t the time.” Patting their shoulders, he slipped between them, leading the way after Lance. A door opened up ahead and they could see the boy’s lanky form slip into a chair as they stepped into the cockpit.

“All right, very nice,” Lance grinned, taking the controls.

“Maybe you shouldn’t touch those,” Jaz warned. “We don’t exactly know what this thing can do.”

“Pfft, it’ll be fine Jaz,” he said rolling his eyes. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Do you really want an answer to that?”

“Guys, I feel the need to point out that we’re in some sort of futuristic space cat right now,” Hunk spoke up.

“We noticed, Hunk,” Pidge said.

“And technically, it seems to be some sort of weapon based on the form of a lion,” Keith corrected. “Though that doesn’t seem very effective.”

“I agree,” Jaz nodded. “It’s probably based for ground combat, no way something like this could be aerodynamic.”

“Did you guys hear that?”

“Hear what?” they all asked, turning their attention back to Lance, whom was looking around the cockpit confused.

“I thought I hear something,” he answered leaning closer to the controls. “Maybe it’s talking to me.”

“It’s a ship, it can’t be sentient,” Shiro said.

“Besides, even if it did have some sort of AI, why didn’t we hear it?” Hunk chimed in.

Lance gave a shrug in response as he grabbed the controls again. “Who cares, I wanna see how this thing works!”

“WHAT?!”

Ignoring their protests, Lance shoved the controls forwards. The lion jerked as it leapt to its feet, shaking the floor of the cockpit, causing those standing to stumble and grab onto the nearest thing to keep their balance. Its massive frame rumbled and through the windows they could see the wall approaching rapidly. However, instead of crashing into it, the lion’s head reared back, firing a blue beam from its maw. The rock eroded away under the heat of the blast, allowing the ship to charge through.

The floor beneath their feet rocked as the lion continued to run across the desert and their pilot grinned, “Alright! Let’s see what this baby can do!”

Pulling back on the controls, they were all shocked as the mechanical creature leapt into the air and shot into the sky. It was flying. The giant, mechanical blue lion was flying. Lance whooped in excitement, pulling the controls into loop-di-loops and spins, the g-forces shoving the group around the cockpit like pinballs.

“You are the worst pilot ever!” Keith exclaimed digging his nails into the upholstery of the seat.

“What do you mean?! This is awesome!”

“No, it isn’t!”

“Make it stop,” Hunk moaned, his face slowly losing color.

“Lance, seriously! Stop!” Jaz demanded.

“I’m not doing anything! It’s like this thing’s on autopilot or something!” he protested as they continued to ascend, the sky growing darker as they appeared to be leaving the atmosphere.

“Then where are we going?!” Hunk whined as his eyes widened as he looked to see Earth retreating behind them.

“I just said it’s on autopilot!” Lance exclaimed. “It says some alien ship is approaching Earth. I think we’re supposed to stop it.”

“What exactly did it say?” Pidge asked.

“I dunno, it’s more of feeding ideas into my brain.”

“Wow, you actually have a brain?” Keith muttered. “That’s a shock.”

“Hey!”

“Well, if this thing is what those aliens are looking for, why don’t we just give it to them?” Hunk spoke up. “Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”

Keith didn’t even need the bond to feel his ghost’s rage and hear his angry shouts. Though, he had to agree, handing over a weapon with unknown potential was a very bad idea.

Shiro seemed to agree as he whirled on the nervous teen, “No! You don’t understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path,” he snarled. “There’s no bargaining with them. They won’t stop till everything is dead!”

Keith crossed his arms in annoyance. That explained nothing about who they were facing. It sounded like five different races. Why was it so many of them wanted to either destroy the universe or conquer it? Well, he had his potions narrowed down: to absolutely nothing he knew of. All the alien races he’d known to be bent on conquering the universe didn’t match any of the factors of Jaz’s and Shiro’s capture—plus he and other Guardians would’ve gotten an alert from the Awoken about an enemy fleet in their system.

Which meant they were facing an unknown. He did not like dealing with unknowns.

Several of the monitors began flashing and Keith looked over Lance’s shoulder, trying to figure out what was going on. Symbols in another language flashed across the screens; Keith smirked, finally there was something familiar. “There’s something incoming!”

“What?” Lance asked.

His question was answered as a large warship exited from lightspeed. It was large, violet in color with various purple lights flashing on it. For the most part, it looked relatively normal, save for the giant horseshoe-like structure on the front. It definitely wasn’t a style Keith was familiar with.

“Draaf,” Jaz whispered, her hand clenching tighter on the seat, her blue knuckles turning white from the force.

Shiro appeared to be just as alarmed as Jaz was. Blood had drained from his face as he stared at the ship. “They found us.”

“We have to get out of here!” Pidge exclaimed as she spotted what looked like a cannon powering up.

“I’m on it!” Lance nodded. Gunning the thrusters, they dove out of the way of the first blast. Multiple guns fired from the ship, skimming by the lion as it zipped through the torrent.

“Be careful, this isn’t the simulator,” Keith growled. As a shot came too close for his liking.

“Good, I always crash in the simulator.”

That was the last thing anyone in this situation wanted to hear. “You what?”

“We’re all gonna die,” Jaz muttered.

“Uhh…let’s see what this does!” Lance said pressing a random button. What happened was a blue laser firing from their ship, hitting one of the cannons, causing it to explode. “Cool! What button was that again?”

“LANCE!”

“Oh! Right!” he yelped hitting the thrusters again as the ship continued to fire at them. The lion wove through the blaster fire, approaching the ship. A blast hit the back of the lion, causing it to spin on a collision course.

Fortunately, their pilot recovered. Quickly pressing the controls, the lions claws dug into the metal, creating large gashes in the hull as he leapt off flying away from the ship.

“Nice job Lance,” Shiro praised.

“Thanks, now let’s get these guys away from our planets!”

As the lion flew away, Keith couldn’t help but glance back in its direction. He wouldn’t say it, but he was going to miss it. Earth was his home away from home; it’d been where he spent large swaths of his childhood with his father. There were a lot of good memories back there.

Of course, there were bad memories too. He was more than happy to leave those behind.

“Guys! They’re back!” Hunk called.

Looking at the scanner, Keith grit his teeth. Sure enough, the mysterious aliens were back. And they were catching up.

“Where are we?” Pidge asked.

“The edge of the solar system,” Shiro breathed. “Look, there’s Kerberos.”

“What?! It takes months to get out here! We got here in seconds!”

Pidge didn’t have more time to rant about the speed before a blue glow came in front of them. A ring of blue light with markings on it spread out in the void of space in front of them, a swirling mix of light and dark in the center. But, despite the darkness in it, it didn’t feel like it. Keith didn’t sense anything that would set off his internal alarms. But, he did know enough to recognize a portal when he saw it, even if it wasn’t the ones he was used to.

“What is that?”

“Uh, this may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through it,” Lance spoke up.

“Where does it go?”

“Who knows,” Lance replied. “Shiro, Jaz, you two are the senior officers. What do we do?”

“Whatever’s happening, the lion clearly knows more than we do, I say we trust it,” Shiro replied.

Jaz raised a brow, “It’s a ship?”

“But,” Shiro continued, “we’re a team now. We should decide this together.”

“Going to the unknown is better than leading an enemy to our home,” Jaz commented.

“She’s right,” Keith agreed. “We don’t know what we’re up against. Better to lead them away than put civilians in unnecessary danger.”

“Guess we’re all missing class tomorrow,” Lance said. Shoving the controls forwards, the lion shot into the portal.

Chapter Text

A/N: I just own the story and my OCs, nothing else is mine.

“Wow,” Lance said as the lion flew out of the portal. In front of them they could see the void of space, as well as a planet. It had bodies of water like Earth, but instead of green it seemed to be a mix of yellows and oranges.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have long to admire it as Hunk gagged and vomited right on the floor. Those beside him grimace, scooching away to avoid getting contaminated. “Sorry.”

“Good, you can clean it,” Jaz stated.

“I’m just surprised it took this long,” Pidge muttered.

Shiro leaned forwards, eyes moving rapidly as he examined the stars around them. “I don’t recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long way from Earth.”

“We just went through a wormhole,” Jaz deadpanned, “we could literally be anywhere.”

“Hey guys, I think the lion wants to go to this planet,” Lance said as the world started to get closer. “I think’s it’s going home.”

“Maybe whoever made this thing will have a way for us go get back to our home,” Keith said gabbing the back of the chair, preparing to brace. No matter the ship, entering the atmosphere of a world was always a rough ride.

“Personal space guys!” Lance exclaimed. “And Hunk! Your breath is killing me!”

The other boy didn’t seem to hear as he stared wide eyed as the first glows of the atmospheric fire that occurred upon entry. “Uh, am I the only one having second thoughts about this? You know, flying through a mysterious wormhole? Why are we even listening to a robotic lion?”

Lance scoffed, “It got us away from that alien warship didn’t it!”

“I’m not sure you’ve noticed, but we’re in an alien warship,” Keith reminded.

“Why you scared?”

“With you at the helm? Terrified.”

“All right, knock it off,” Shiro interjected, ending the fight before it could even start, “Look, none of us are happy to be in this situation. But we’re here now. And if we’re going to get through this, we need to work together.”

“So what do we do?” Pidge spoke up.

“First, we figure out where we’re heading,” Shiro said.

“We’re heading towards the surface of the planet,” Jaz deadpanned.

“Besides the obvious,” he grumbled. “Lance?”

“Uhh…I don’t know,” he said. Glancing around he could see them all staring at him. “I’m serious! The lion stopped talking to me—Wait…shh! I think I hear something.”

Everyone went quiet, trying to listen. It was soft, barely audible even in silence. “I hear it,” Keith said.

“It’s kinda like…like a high-pitched squeal?” Hunk added.

The source of the sound came in the form of a wretched stench hitting their noses.

“C’mon Lance!”

“Really?!”

“Aw! That’s disgusting!”

Lance grinned, clearly taking pleasure at their misfortune. “But seriously, there’s a castle up ahead.”

Still covering their noses, they looked to the front, watching with wide eyes as they saw a magnificent white castle on a cliff. Unlike castles of Earth, this one seemed to have a central tower surrounded by four smaller pillars slightly buried under the ground, and it was attached to the mainland by a thin, crumbling bridge.

“I guess that’s where we’re going,” Jaz said as the lion flew around it, getting closer to the ground. The lion landed on the ground, lowering it’s head to the ground.

“Keep your guard up guys,” Shiro cautioned as they moved to the back. Stepping down the very ramp they walked earlier on Earth to the soil of an alien world.

Keith glanced around at the environment. So far, things seemed clear—though he would’ve preferred to see his scanner to know for sure. The prettiest places were always had the most dangers. Besides, he was more than willing to bring his armor out in front of the others if it came down to it. Better to be revealed than to let them die.

Metal groaned and they all turned, watching as the massive lion rose back to its full height, causing Hunk to scream in terror. “I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO EAT US!”

Instead of eating them like the other boy predicted, the massive blue lion merely let out a roar. The ground shook from the sheer force of the roar, and Keith could see parts of the Castle being to light up. Lights on the doors flashed and metal screeched as they forced themselves open, layers of dust and dirt falling off. No one had been in there for a while.

“Oh…guess I was wrong,” Hunk said.

Keith took the lead as they approached the doors of the massive Castle. The inside was dark, which made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Every instinct told him to summon his armor and gun; however, nothing had warranted a violent response or even a reason to make precautions, yet.

If something was going to happen, it would happen soon.

Keith watched the darkest corners as they stepped inside. So far nothing seemed to be leaping to attack them, which was good.

“Hello?!”

The call made them all jump and they turned to look at Hunk, who smiled sheepishly. Keith grit his teeth, if their presence wasn’t noticed before it certainly was now.

But then again, that would only matter if someone were here.

Some of the lights above flickered on around them chamber. One in particular landed right on them, unlike the rest of the lights, this one was blue in color. So...it could have been a weapon of some sort.

“Lurf guh ofipwowa tdep,” an automated voice spoke.

At those words, Keith immediately perked up. He knew that language. It was one of the commonly spoken languages back on Terra. Altean if he recalled correctly. But, what was it doing all the way out here?

“Why are we here?!” Shiro called looking above them for something that could have been hidden in the darkness. “What do you want with us?!”

In response, the lights in the hall head began to flicker to life.

“I guess we’re going this way,” Pidge said.

“Everyone stay alert, this could be a trap,” Jaz cautioned.

Hunk did not appear to hear her as he continued to call out as they walked down the lit pathways, trying to find a response in the darkness.

The lights in front of them continued to blink to life one-by-one as they walked down the hall. Eventually a door was illuminated and it opened. They could all see a large white room, it had a circular drop in the floor and a small console in the center facing several circles on the ground.

“Looks like some sort of control room,” Pidge said adjusting her glasses. Approaching the console, she narrowed her eyes, tapping it curiously. In response, the panel flashed, causing the young girl to jump back in alarm holding her hands in the air. “Wasn’t my fault!”

Two soft hisses echoed in the room and they watched as two of the circles opened, panels pulling back to reveal a blue glow. Before their eyes, two glowing blue columns rose, inside stood the figures of two people.

“Are…are they dead?” Hunk asked hesitantly.

“Stasis,” Jaz replied.

“And I would assume that these two are our hosts,” Keith said. “Depending on how long they’ve been in stasis, it would explain all the dust.”

The blue cover of the left one retracted, revealing a young woman with long white hair, dark skin, and pink markings under her eyes. Her chest expanded with a gasp, brilliant blue-pink eyes shooting open as she stretched out a hand, “Father!”

Lance was the first to react as she fell forwards, catching the alien woman in his arms.

“An Altean?” Keith whispered brows furrowing. What was one doing all the way out here? They were nowhere near his home system where they resided. And he knew they weren’t close enough to be within a single hyperjump, otherwise he would’ve been able to recognize at least a few constellations. Sharing a look with Jaz, he could see her confusion at the situation as well.

“Who…who are you?” a soft voice spoke.

“I’m Lance, Lance McClain. And you’re right here in my arms.”

“Your ears…”

“Yeah?”

“They’re hideous,” the alien woman deadpanned, causing several of them to snicker, “what’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing’s wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!” he protested.

A scowl formed on the girl’s face as she snatched one of Lance’s ears, causing him to yelp in surprise. The Altean woman grabbed Lance’s arm, and kicked his legs out from under him, pinning him to the floor. “Who are you?! Where is King Alfor?! What are you doing in my castle?!”

“A blue lion brought us here! That’s all we know, I swear!”

That apparently wasn’t the right answer to give as he brows furrowed and a glare settled on her face. “How do you have the Blue Lion?! Where is it’s paladin?!”

“I don’t know! We just found it in a cave and it brought us here!”

With an annoyed scoff, the Atlean stood up, seeming to notice all of them. “How long?”

“What?” Hunk squeaked.

“How long has it been?” she demanded.

“We don’t know,” Jaz replied. “But why don’t you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help.”

“I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea,” she declared standing tall, tilting her chin up and looking down her nose at them. “I must find out where we are and how long we’ve been asleep. But first: Who are all of you?”

“I’m Lieutenant Takashi Shirogane of the Galaxy Garrison,” Shiro introduced himself, holding out his hand.

“Charmed,” Allura nodded. Her gaze fell on Lance, and a momentary flash of irritation flashed on her face before she looked to the next person in line.

“I’m Hunk,” he said waving sheepishly.

A small smile crossed the princess’s face. “It’s nice to meet you, Hunk.”

“I’m Pidge,” Matt’s sister spoke up, quickly introducing herself as she continued to look around.

Allura nodded, before stepping up to Jaz. “And you might be?”

“Captain Jaz Venj of the Awoken-Techeun Crow, and Paladin of the Awoken Royal Army.”

“Paladin?” Allura inquired her brows shoot up. “You’re the one who flew the lion?”

“Uh, no, that was Lance,” she corrected. “A Paladin in my people is essentially a general. I report directly to the Queen.”

“You never told me that,” Shiro said.

“I was promoted just a few months before Kerberos.”

“I see,” Allura nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Jaz.” Her gaze turned to meet the final member of the group, “And you might be?”

“Keith.”

“Ah,” she nodded. Turning on her heel, she approached the console and pressed something, allowing a glowing screen to materialize in the air.

“Whoa.”

The second pod hissed open, revealing an older man with pale skin, blue markings, and bright orange hair and a large mustache. Unlike Allura, he took one look and immediately freaked out. “ENEMY COMBATANTS!” Leaping out of the pod, Lance stepped aside avoiding the blue and white blur lunging at him. The Altean man hit the ground, quickly scrambling to his feet. “Quiznak! You’re lucky I have a case of the old sleep chamber knees. Otherwise I’d grab you head like this, wrap you up like so and one two three—sleepy time!”

Keith shook his head as Lance began to say something back. He’d let those two idiots take each other out.

“It can’t be,” Allura gasped, ending the spat.

The mustached man turned away from Lance, his brows furrowed. “What is it?”

“We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years!” she gasped stepping back from the console, a hand reaching up to cover her mouth. “Altea…all of our system…it’s been destroyed.”

Keith glanced away. He knew that feeling all too well. He felt the same way when he learned he couldn’t go back with his father to Terra. Not until the Tower was reclaimed and the Cabal driven from their home. And, it was likely she didn’t know about the rest of her species being alive either. Of course, that was up in the air given the attacks in the city, who knew how many people had died in those bombs. And who know how many guardians and survivors had been slaughtered during the hunts.

“Coran,” Allura whispered rushing to the ginger man, “Father, our entire civilization…it’s gone.” Tears ran down her face as her sorrow changed to rage. “Zarkon.”

“Zarkon?” Shiro gasped taking a step back. He looked alarmed as did Jaz.

“He was the king of the Galra. A vile creature and the enemy of all free people!” the princess snarled, her eyes blazing with barely contained rage.

Keith frowned. Galra…that race sounded familiar. He swore he heard of that race somewhere back when he’d lived on Terra. They weren’t natives of his home system, but they also weren’t one of their many enemies from outside—otherwise he would’ve heard of them for sure.

“I remember,” Shiro whispered, “Zarkon, we were his prisoners.”

“He’s still alive?! That’s impossible!”

“It’s possible it was a name passed down through generations,” Keith suggested. He wanted to believe them, Shiro and Jaz were two of his closest friends. But, he also wanted to make sure they had all the details before making plans. One wrong detail could send everything sideways fast.

“It might be, we can’t exactly be sure what the original looked like,” Jaz nodded. “Either way, he’s looking for that superweapon, Voltron.”

“He’s searching for it cause he knows it’s the only thing capable of defeating him,” Allura stated. “And that’s exactly why we must find it before he does.”

“So where do we start?” Keith asked.

Allura looked down, typing on the monitor only to be stopped by the ginger Altean. “Princess, you must eat,” he spoke, resting a hand on her shoulder, “it’s been ten thousand years.”

“I am not hungry.”

“Man, ten thousand years,” Lance whistled. “That’s like a thousand plus ten.”

“Times ten,” Keith corrected.

“Whatever dropout.”

Keith scowled and punching the other teen across the room crossed his mind for a moment. However, as annoying as he was, he hadn’t done anything severe enough to warrant a hit. Plus, Shiro would chew him out.

“I can’t believe your civilization created such advanced technology ten thousand years ago,” Shiro admired. “It must’ve been an amazing place.”

“Yes, it was,” the ginger Altean sighed, looking down sadly. Tears began to run down Allura’s face, and the older man gently pulled the girl into his arms. “But now it’s gone, and we’re the last Alteans alive.”

A small part of Keith told him to tell them the truth, that there were other Alteans alive back in his home system. But his more rational side stopped him. Last thing his home system needed were more outsiders. Especially ones he didn’t know the motives of.

Allura walked back to her pod, kneeling down. “It looked like we’re not the last after all,” she smiled turning around, holding four small, multicolored mice in her hands.

However, whatever relief she was experiencing was short-lived as red lights began flashing with an alarm. The ginger Altean ran to the console, and he pressed a button. Before their eyes a holographic image came to life, in orbit above, was the clear image of one of the warships that had chased them earlier. “A Galra battleship has set it’s tracker on us.”

“How did they find us?!” Allura exclaimed.

“I don’t know,” Lance muttered, crossing his arms, “but I bet it’s Keith’s fault.”

Keith’s brow twitched as his head snapped to face the annoying teen. “Say whatever you want about to make yourself feel better, after you got us stuck on the other side of the wormhole!”

“I’LL STICK YOU IN A WORMHOLE!”

“BRING IT ON PRINCESS!”

“Stow it!” Shiro snapped as he stepped between the feuding pair. Taking a hand, he pushed Lance away from Keith while resting a hand on the other boy’s shoulder. “This isn’t the time to place blame; it’s the time to work as a team.” Giving them one last warning glare, he turned back to Allura. “How long till they arrive?”

“At their speed?” the male Atlean said, appearing to count on his fingers. “I’d say a couple days.”

“Are you sure about that?” Jaz inquired, raising a skeptical brow.

“Pretty sure!”

“Who cares?!” Allura snarled. “Let them come! By the time they get here, you five will formed Voltron. And together, we will destroy Zarkon’s empire!”

“So, we have the lion,” Lance said.

“There are five lions that make up Voltron,” Allura corrected. “You only have one of them.”

“Oh.”

“So…where are the others?”

“Follow me,” Allura stated. She strode from the room, leaving the rest of them to quickly chase after her as she wove through the winding paths of the palace. She led them into what seemed like a throne room, except there were five chairs in the circular room and a giant crystal hanging above a platform in the center of the chamber.

“King Alfor connected the lions to Allura’s life force,” the ginger Altean said. “She alone is the key to their whereabouts.”

“That seems inconvenient,” Keith muttered.

“Things were probably different ten thousand years ago,” Jaz shrugged.

Before he could retort, a light flashed in the middle of the room before spreading out over them. In its wake, a hologram of the known regions of the galaxy floated around them. “Whoa.”

A few planets had bright lights on them, making them more distinguishable from the millions of planets and stars around them. Pidge stepped up to one, adjusting her glasses. “These look like coordinates. It says here that the Black Lion’s in the same area as the Blue.”

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in your little brain cage!” the male Altean praised.

Pidge, on the other hand, looked like she was debating the pros and cons of slapping him.

“Very observant,” Allura complemented. “That’s because the Black Lion’s secured here in the castle. My father locked it in to keep it from Zarkon; and only with the other Lions present will it be released. And, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the lions choose their pilots. It’s a powerful mystical bond that cannot be forced. The quintessence of a pilot is mirrored in their lion. Together they form something greater than science can explain.”

“So magic? Got it,” Jaz said. “But what does all this have to do with us?”

“Because you all were brought here for a reason,” Allura answered as several holograms of five lions, one of which was the one who brought them here. “The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron, it will take a pilot who’s a born leader and in control at all times; someone whose men will follow into battle without hesitation,” before their eyes the Black Lion began to move, flying around them before coming to a stop in front of Shiro. “That is why Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.”

Feeling a pulse of confusion in his chest, Keith prodded at the bond between him and his ghost. While he couldn’t exactly talk to his ghost here in front of so many strangers, he could still try to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t until his ghost wasn’t answering through his prods that Keith began to worry. “Skoros's pirta?” he whispered, trying to make it seem like he was muttering something angrily under his breath.

“Why us?” Yorak replied. “Out of all the beings in the universe, why us, of all beings in the universe? Plus, they’ve had ten thousand years. If what she’s saying true, why didn’t the Alteans use Voltron to fight off this Zarkon?”

At his ghost’s words, Keith frowned. Yorak had a strong point. There were too many unanswered questions. Why were these two Alteans in stasis? If they truly had the weapon Voltron—which he grew up believing was a myth—why didn’t they use it to fight off the Galra?

Glancing at the Alteans as they continued to explain the lions, Keith moved to Jaz, tapping his shoulder. “Jaz,” he whispered, “Mirros's hen kesīr.”

Glancing at the others quickly, she stepped back with him, crossing her arms. “Skoros gaomagon ao nūmāzma?”

“Ȳdra daor ao pendagon ziry iksos hytugöö bona ēzi iā mökaa konir sagon syddesad naejot sagon mirros hen lagasd se bona pōnta dōrī gaomagon ziry naejot vīlībagon hen rajoo gyus, bona jaelzi īlva naejot vīlībagon?”

Her brows furrowed and she glanced at the Alteans, now seeming to analyze them more skeptically than she had been before. Her glowing gold eyes glanced back at him, “Ao ȳdra daor pendagon issi telling īlva shupim?”

Keith shook his head, “Kessa.  Īlon're daor gaffosg se giez vestriarzir.”

Jaz nodded, putting her hands on her hips, jaw set. “Kesi gaomagon iā laes va zirȳ, sipy kessi daor mass bē.”

“Se lo gaomis,” Keith agreed, “kesi sagon cułulyy.”

“Keith,” Allura called him name, drawing his attention, “you will fly the Red Lion.”

“What? This guy?” Lance grumbled.

Keith ignored the annoying teen as he regarded the small hologram in front of him. Under different circumstances, he would’ve been excited. As a child, he loved it when his father told him the Legends of Voltron. But now, with so many unknowns, he couldn’t afford excitement. No, he needed to keep an eye on things because things weren’t adding up. There were pieces of this story missing, and he was going to find out what.

“Unfortunately,” Allura continued, “I cannot determine the Red Lion’s location as of yet. There must be something wrong with the Castle if it’s not picking up the signal. After ten-thousand years, it might need some work.”

“If they were really trapped for ten thousand years,” he heard Yorak practically growl through their bond.

“But don’t worry!” the ginger Altean interjected, “We’ll find it soon! They don’t call me the Coranic for nothing! Cause…it sounds like mechanic, so Coranic mechanic…no, it doesn’t sound like that, but it’s similar.”

Taking note of the new information, Keith turned his attention back to the hologram, watching as it gave a roar along with the other lions. The small lions soared away from their representative pilots and converged in a flash of light to form of a large robot, each limb composed of one of the lions. “Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known; the Defender of the Universe.”

That comment made Keith raise a brow. The most powerful warrior ever known, huh? He had doubts about that. Voltron had been gone for eons, there was no way this princess could know the dangers that now resided in their galaxy. Plus, from the info he’d gotten so far, it didn’t take much to drive Voltron into hiding; his people had been fending off things far, far worse than these Galra for far longer.

“Awesome,” someone muttered.

“Wait,” Hunk spoke up, raising his hand shyly. “So, we’re going to be in there and flying the lions, I got that. But how do the lions turn into legs? Is this going to be a long trip? ‘Cause I have to pee; do you people pee?”

Shiro then stepped forwards, preventing anyone from answering Hunk’s ridiculous questions. “We don’t have much time. Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you’ll take Hunk and go get the Yellow Lion. Keith, Jaz, you two will stay here. If Allura manages to locate the Red Lion, go get it.”

“And in the meantime, I’ll get the Castle’s defenses ready,” Allura added, “We’re going to need them.”

“I’ll ready a pod and load in the Green Lion’s coordinates,” the ginger Altean, Coran maybe, nodded. Waving his hand, he lead the others away, no doubt towards a hangar.

Keith tossed a quick glance towards Allura, seeing she was occupied on something, he took the chance to slink from the chamber and into a darker room further down the hall. With a flick of his hand, a small burst of light flashed above and his ghost’s eye blinked as he looked around. “Nice place.”

“I think out of date would be more accurate,” Keith replied. “Think you can see where this Coran is taking the others?”

“Sure!” he replied, shell spinning in excitement. Flying over to a panel, a light ran over it, “It might take a bit though, these systems are old—more advanced that the stuff on Earth—but old. I’m going to need time to readjust them. But why are you worried about them? I don’t think these guys will want to hurt them, why else would they use us as their pilots?”

“True,” Keith agreed. “But we still aren’t getting the whole story.”

“Like why all of you verses everyone else in the galaxy?”

“Exactly,” Keith nodded. “And that’s just the first in a long list of questions.”

“Want me to find out?”

“Please.”

Shell twitching, Yorak turned to look at him, “I can also see if I can find your lion using the Fraunhafer-thingy Hunk used to find the Blue one on Earth.”

Keith raised his brows, “You sure? I don’t want you to strain yourself.”

The ghost tossed his Guardian an annoyed glance. “Keith, I will be fine.”

“Keith, if he’s saying he’ll be fine, he’ll be fine,” a new voice interjected before he could protest.

Frowning, Keith tossed a half-hearted glare at Jaz as she stepped into the room. “And how do you know?”

“I know that you’re overprotective,” she replied, crossing her arms. “Trust me, I know Yorak wouldn’t volunteer to do it if he wasn’t sure it’d be fine.” Patting his shoulder, she leaned against the wall, looking at the ghost with a playful smirk, “He worries too much, right?”

“You have no idea.”

Jaz smirked as she saw Keith roll his eyes. “So…uh, Keith…how’s Mom?” she asked hesitantly, wringing the hem of her shirt.

“She’s, uh, upset,” he replied. “I know when you first went missing, I messaged her about the stuff I found the Garrison covering up. And, well, let’s just say tensions between the Awoken and Earth are at an all-time high.”

Jaz gave a hollow chuckle, “Sounds like Mom, she doesn’t like being lied to. Have you talked to her much?”

Keith shook his head, “Not much beyond that, she checks up on me every now and then, but we’ve both been busy. I’ve been investigating the Garrison and the stuff on the lions, she’s back home handling the Red War and the after-effects of Oryx.”

“Yeah,” Jaz nodded in agreement. “With the Queen and Prince missing, she would be the one our people turn to as regent.”

“Yep,” Keith confirmed. “So, uh, you happen to remember anything from when you were captured?”

The Awoken women went quiet, her brows furrowing in thought, “Not much. I know we were taken to some prisons, and probably interrogated. From there…we somehow were separated from Sam, Matt, and Darvah…” she trailed off, starting to pace the room. “Shiro and I, we somehow managed to stay together during the duration of our capture—We might’ve shared a cell, I’m not entirely sure. But, I do remember an explosion, I think that has to do with how we escaped. Everything else besides that is a blur,” she concluded. “What did Shiro say?”

Keith gave a shrug, “Not much else.”

“Figures,” she muttered, putting her hands on her hips. Sighing, she shook her head, running a hand through her hair. “Why isn’t I can’t remember anything? I was trained for things like this!”

“Training can only get you so far,” Keith reminded. “There’s just some things that all the training in the universe can’t prepare you for.”

“Sounds like the words of experience,” Jaz chuckled.

Keith laughed lightly, shaking his head. “No kidding. Most of my teachers firmly believed in learning on the job. So, how’s your head?” he asked, motioning to the scar above her brow.

Jaz grimaced, rubbing the scar, “Still pretty tender, probably got this not too long ago. Though from what I’m not sure.”

“Well, maybe it’ll be a clue to how you escaped,” Keith said, trying to be reassuring.

“Hopefully,” she sighed. Leaning back against the wall, she slid down till she was sitting on the floor. “But enough about me,” she patted the spot next to her, “How are you doing?”

Keith walked over, settling down beside his friend, “Alright. Been better.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

Glowing gold eyes rolled, “Of course you don’t. But seriously,” she leaned forwards, a frown on her face, “how are you?”

“Jaz, I’m fine,” he reiterated raising his hands. “Trust me, thing’s have been easier since I left the Garrison, and it’s definitely less stress now that I know you and Shiro are alright.”

“And have you been releasing pent-up energy?” she questioned, raising a brow. “We both know what happens to Guardians who don’t use their light often enough.”

“I know. And no, I haven’t used it in a little bit, but it shouldn’t be too bad for a little while,” Keith answered. “I was able to release some every now and then when I got bored for fun.”

“Fun huh?”

Keith smirked getting up, “I’ll show you.” His eyes developed a slight blue glow and she watched as thin trails of light moved up and formed what looked like a table and chair. With a proud smirk, Keith sat down on the chair and formed a mug in his hand. “See, it’s fine.” And at that moment Jaz facepalmed as she watched fake flames of light erupt on the table.

“Ancients,” she drug her hand down her face, “you’ve been waiting to do this haven’t you?”

Keith stood up as the light faded away, “Naturally. Plus it’s good practice on control.”

“I know,” she chuckled. “But I just thought you guys outgrew that?”

This time Keith chuckled, shaking his head. “No, trust me. I saw adults use them all the time back home.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

Keith was about to quip back at her, when the door slid open, causing both to jump and Yorak to quickly vanish in a small burst of light. “There you two are!” Coran exclaimed. “Allura and I have been looking for you, the others are back. And we’ve finally found the Red Lion.”

Sharing a glance, Keith and Jaz followed the ginger Altean back to the main room where Pidge and Shiro stood, sharing small smiles with them. “So where’re Lance and Hunk?” Jaz asked. As if on cue, the door behind them whooshed open as the pair stumbled in, their hair disheveled. “What happened to you two?”

“A nightmare,” Hunk muttered.

Lance nodded in agreement, “Yeah, I almost puked, I felt like Hunk.”

“How do you think I felt? I am Hunk.”

Beside them, Shiro and Pidge shared a glance, “Yeah, we had a tough time too.”

“As great as it is to hear about everyone’s missions, the Red Lion,” Keith spoke up, crossing his arms, “you have it’s location?”

“Yes!” Coran remembered. “But…there is good news and bad news…”

“Start with the good please!” Hunk pleaded.

“Well, good news is that the Red Lion’s nearby!” he obliged. “However, the bad news is that it’s onboard the Galra Ship orbiting Arus. But, more good news! We’re on Arus!”

Everyone else did not find that final piece of information to be remotely welcome. “They’re here already?!” Shiro exclaimed.

“You said we had a few days!” Jaz snapped. With a growl, she dug the base of her palms into her forehead. “I knew we shouldn’t have relied on finger calculations!”

“Yeah…I guess my calculations were a bit off.”

Jaz threw her arms in the air, “Nid draaf!”

Keith scowled, ready to help his friend scold the idiotic Altean, when he felt Yorak give him a small pulse of warning. Before he could as to why, his answer came in the form of a holo-screen popping into existence. On the screen, he could see a being that resembled…a giant purple cat. A strangely familiar giant, fluffy purple cat with a cybernetic eye.

“Princess Allura, I am Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I have come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the known universe. I am here to collect the Lions of Voltron. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet.”

Chapter Text

A/N: hello everyone! Welcome back! Hope y’all’re enjoying the rewrite so far. I think it’s going smoother than the original, and I hope to be able to better mix the two genres than I did in the previous version. Anyways, I just own my story and OCs involved, anything else isn’t mine.

“Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet.”

The transmission ended abruptly, leaving the threat hanging in the air in its wake. The room was quiet, each one of them seeming to take their time to register what just happened. Unsurprisingly, it was Shiro who recovered first, “Ok, let’s not panic.”

Those words broke the floodgates.

“What?!” Hunk exclaimed. “That scary purple alien thing is driving a warship right towards us! We only have four lions—”

“Three working ones technically,” Pidge corrected.

“Exactly!” Hunk nodded pointing to her. “Three working lions, one lion we don’t even have access to, another on an enemy warship, and a castle that’s ten-thousand years old!”

“Actually it’s ten-thousand six-hundred years old,” Coran interjected. “You see it was built by my grandfather—”

“Thanks Coran,” Hunk said waving him off. “So see! Now is the perfect time to panic!”

“Wait,” Allura spoke up, her eyes going wide, “this Castle has a particle barrier we can activate.”

“Girl, you already activated my—”

“Lance!” Shiro scolded as Jaz smacked him upside the head.

Turning away from the teen, the Awoken woman put her hands on her hips, “The question is: Does it still work? It’s been ten-thousand years since any of these systems have been utilized. There’s going to be bugs, degradation of hardware and software. We don’t have the time to fix it.”

“Plus the tech of the enemy has no doubt advanced,” Keith added. “Even if we do get that barrier up, it won’t last forever.”

“So can we panic?”

“No,” Shiro said patting Hunk’s shoulder. “We just need to figure out Zarkon’s plan.”

“Easier said than done, Shiro,” Jaz said.

“Well,” Lance started, “I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day!”

“Yes!” Hunk quickly agreed. “I second that! We tried to find all the lions, right? Gave it the good ol’ college try and couldn’t do it. We only have three and we can’t form Voltron—I mean, we could form a snake or a worm—but I vote for leaving!”

“Then it’s settled,” Lance said. “Allura, you can ride with me. Can one of you guys take the old guy?”

“Nothing is settled here Lance!” Jaz snarled causing the boy to jump as her eyes flashed brighter.

Pidge nodded in agreement, “Jaz is right, we can’t abandon Arus. The Galra will keep destroying planets until they get what they want. They won’t stop taking planets and prisoners till we stop them.”

“But if we run then maybe Sendak will follow us and leave the planet alone?” Hunk countered.

“Or he could destroy it anyways just to spite us, leaving the blood of whatever potential natives are here on our hands,” Keith replied. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t really feel like having the blood of millions on my hands by doing something so cowardly.”

“Here’s an option: shut your quiznak!” Lance snapped.

“Don’t use a word you don’t understand.”

“And how do you know I don’t know what it means?!”

“So what does it mean dumbass?”

Lance scowled, “Well, what do you know Mullet?!”

“More than you, you quiznaking idiot! We’re staying!”

“Leaving!”

“Staying!”

“ENOUGH!” Shiro shouted stepping between them. Sending the pair hard looks, he watched as the pair slowly backed off from each other. Now that the situation was diffused, Shiro took a calming breath before looking to their hostess, “Princess Allura, these are your lions, you’ve dealt with the empire before, you know what we’re facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?”

Her brows shot up at his question and she seemed to sputter for a moment, “I’m…I’m not sure.”

Coran stepped up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder, “Come with me, I think I know something that can help.”

The pair left the room, leaving the others in tense silence as they waited for the two Alteans to return. Keith and Jaz moved to the far side of the room, mostly to avoid dealing with the others who wanted to leave. “I can’t believe them,” Jaz muttered.

Keith shook his head, “Neither can I, they’re putting themselves before the rest of the galaxy. And even after knowing what happened to you and Shiro they still don’t want to do anything about it. Are we sure we have the right guys for this mission? I can easily think of a dozen others more qualified.”

“Tell me about it,” she grumbled. “You really think these lions would choose someone more qualified if the fate of the universe was at stake.”

“So you think they’re lying about the whole choosing thing?” he asked quietly.

“They’ve gotta be. Like you said, it’s too convenient that one lion just so happens to show up with all the pilots they need?” she shook her head. “No, I think they’re just using us so they don’t have to get their hands dirty themselves.”

“That’s another thing too,” Keith remarked. “If it weren’t for you and Shiro, I don’t know if I’d believe these Galra were the bad guys. There’d be nothing to go on besides their word for it. The only reason I’m even considering this is because of you two. I believe you more than them.”

“I don’t blame you, if I hadn’t been through it myself I don’t think I’d believe it either. There’s just too many races trying to eradicate each other. I mean, if they’re as bad as these guys say they are, I’m sure we would’ve heard of them by now,” Jaz agreed.

“Well,” Keith murmured, “the guy, Sendak, he looked familiar. I don’t know from where though.”

Jaz nodded, “Krein is a major trade system despite all the conflict. So maybe we have seen some before and just never paid attention. Besides, how do we know this Voltron thing is as good as they say it is?”

Keith frowned, glancing down at the ground, “I know Dad told me a few stories about Voltron. None of them sounded bad, just the Paladins going around and freeing the oppressed and heroic stuff like that. But those could just be embellished legends too.”

“Well, legends have a base in truth,” Jaz commented. “So at least we know this isn’t supposed to be some WMD.”

“Rasputin wasn’t supposed to be a WMD. And we both know how that went.”

“Touché.”

The doors hissed open and they watched as Allura stepped back into the room, her long white hair pulled up into a messy bun and she was in some white and pink suit rather than her gown. “You six were brought here for a reason. The Voltron Lions are meant to be flown by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe’s only hope. We are the universe’s only hope.”

“We’re with you Princess,” Shiro agreed. Though, he didn’t notice his two closest friends share skeptical glances.

The Princess nodded curtly, and motioned with her hand to follow. She led them down the hall to another room. Upon their entrance, the lights flickered to life, revealing five suits of armor with different colors. “You suits of armor.”

Keith stepped up to the red armor, figuring they were going with the color corresponding to their lion. Raising a brow, Keith looked over the armor skeptically. The helmet looked round and bulky, plus it didn’t appear to cover the entire face, which didn’t seem very helpful if they were supposed to be fighting in space. The breastplate covered to just below the ribs, but everything else in the abdomen was exposed, meaning one hit there would probably be fatal. So far, the only things that seemed like they had standard protection were the legs and arms.

“Princess are you sure about this?” he heard Coran whisper. “They aren’t exactly the best and brightest of the universe.”

“And here I thought you believed we were brought here for a reason,” Jaz remarked, causing the ginger Altean to jump.

“Alright,” Shiro said putting his hands on his hips, “time to suit up guys!”

As he suspected, this armor was nowhere near to the stuff Keith was used to. It was lighter, he’d give it that, but he wasn’t sure how to test its durability—well, without leaping headfirst into a firefight. But, if it turned out to be shoddy, he could just switch into more reliable armor.

Of course, that would also lead to the issue of figuring out how to switch everyone else’s armor too. So he honestly hoped it didn’t come down to that, cause he wasn’t sure he had enough gear, let alone stuff that could fit the others.

“That looks comfy.”

Keith frowned, tossing Jaz a deadpan look. “You’re more than welcome to wear it.”

The woman smirked, “Nah, red isn’t my color.”

Well, at least one of them was having fun right now.

Allura beckoned them over, waving her hand over a blue table. In response to the motion, the blue pane flashed brightly, dissolving much like Keith’s own gear did when he was done with it, revealing four curved objects with handles, each one baring a color corresponding to their armor. “The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron,” Allura said as the four objects hovered just above the table. “It takes a distinct shape for each Paladin.”

Furrowing his brows, Keith looked at it skeptically. From what he could tell, it looked like the handle of something that hadn’t been attached yet. There didn’t even look like there was any slots for ammo or a blade to come out of. So…how exactly did this form a weapon?

His answer came as Hunk, surprisingly, was the first to grab his. And in a flash of light the other teen almost fell to the ground as a massive cannon appeared in his hands.

Keith’s brows shot up as he glanced at the little red thing that was his, then back at the massive cannon that had replaced Hunk’s. How in the name of light did that tiny object turn into a cannon big enough to be a turret on a ship? He glanced to the others, watching as they too started taking their little bayard-thingies.

To his surprise, or horror, Lance got a gun. The most irresponsible member of this group had a gun. And he was aiming it randomly around the room, like it was a toy. Did he even know how to use a gun properly? Looking over the weapon, Keith grimaced, he didn’t know this weapon. It resembled a semi-automatic, but it seemed a bit bulkier. Plus it didn’t look like there was any chamber to load bullets, which meant, that this was likely a plasma or energy-based weapon. Both of which could deal serious damage. He did not want to think of what could go wrong with a weapon like that in the hands of a novice.

To his relief, Lance lowered the blaster, looking at Pidge with a smirk. “Aw you got a cute little bay—AHH!” Lance yelped as the small girl hit him with her weapon, electrocuting him.

As he fell to the ground, keith could see Pidge grinning holding her new spade up, “Yeah, guess it is pretty cute.”

Well now at least he didn’t need to worry about someone getting shot. Stepping forwards, Keith grabbed his bayard, watching as it shifted with a dim glow of light into a familiar-looking sword. Smirking to himself, Keith twirled the bade with practiced ease. It was a littler heavier than what he’d been expecting, and it was well-balanced too; better than what he’d been expecting overall.

 “Wait,” Jaz spoke up, “There’s four bayards, but five paladins.” Turning to Allura, she crossed her arms, “Where’s Shiro’s?”

Allura grimaced, “Well, I’m afraid that it was lost with its original paladin.”

Jaz looked like she wanted to ask more questions, when Shiro stepped up, placing a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine Jaz, I can make do.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” she grumbled.

Shiro sighed, rubbing his temples, “Look, I have my arm—”

“And what? You’re going to hurl it at people asking if they need a hand?”

“No!” he muttered. “But, I think it is more than just a fake arm. Just trust me.”

Jaz gave a sigh, blowing her bangs out of the way, “Fine.” Shaking her head, Jaz turned to look as Allura, putting her hands on her hips, “So, what’s the plan?”

“Well, you’ll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak’s ship for starters,” she began briskly leading the way back to the main room and pulling up a hologram of the Galra cruiser in orbit above.

Keith crossed his arms, looking over the ship, it was big—not as big as a hive dreadnaught or Cabal cruiser, but still substantial enough to warrant concern. Even with a full-fledged Fireteam, it would take time to search.

It seemed like Hunk had similar thoughts, “That’s a big ship. How will we know where the lion is? It could be anywhere?”

“Well,” Pidge said pushing her glasses up, “it’s not a matter of ‘we’, it’s a matter of Keith.”

Allura nodded in assent, “Indeed, once you get on the ship you’ll be able to feel its presence and be able to determine its location.”

So, basically, he was supposed to rely on an unknown magic, of course. Looking back at the ship, his brows furrowed, the lions were fairly large ships, larger than most fighters. Which meant, there were only so many places on a warship that size it could be stored in. “Any idea where the largest hangars are on this thing? It’ll be the most likely place to find the lion.”

“Well…” Coran grimaced, “it’s been some time since we’ve seen Galra ships, they could’ve moved stuff around, but, the largest hangars used to be here,” a red blip popped up before it was followed by a second dot, “and here.”

“Well that at least narrows down the search grid,” Jaz remarked.

“Yes, but Keith,” Allura spoke up, “the Red Lion is extremely temperamental; you’ll have to earn its respect.”

“Sounds fun,” Keith deadpanned.

Beside him, Jaz playfully elbowed his ribs, “Shouldn’t be too hard for you, Sparky.”

Keith was about to retort when he stopped himself as Shiro stepped forwards. “Alright, here’s our plan of attack,” he began looking over all of them, “the Galra know we have the Yellow and Blue Lions, but they’re still unaware we have the Green. Hunk, Lance, you two will act as decoys, pretend to give yourselves up. That’ll give the rest of us time to sneak onboard using the Green Lion.”

“Once we’re onboard, Pidge and I will signal you guys to drop your cover,” Jaz continued. “From there you two will need to handle the ion cannon and take it out. The rest of us will be inside the warship, Shiro and Keith will look for the Red Lion while Pidge and I attempt to extract any information we can at the nearest terminal.”

-.-

Keith peered around a corner of a dark, dimly lit violet hall, listening for footsteps as the others sealed their entrance behind them. So far the coast seemed clear, if everything was going according to plan, the Galra would be more focused on the two lions outside. However there was no telling how long that would last.

It was only a matter of time before their cover was blown and things went sideways.

Glancing back at the others he frowned as he saw Shiro and Jaz. His brother looked paler than usual, and Jaz looked on high alert. Muttering a curse under his breath, Keith refrained from facepalming. He just brought two of his traumatized friends onto one of the very ships they’d no doubt been captured by, of course they were on edge. “You guys can go back to the Lion if it’s too much, I can handle it myself.”

Unsurprisingly, Shiro shook his head, “No, I’m fine—we’re fine. It’s just…I think we’ve been here before. After we were captured, we were brought here.”

“Sure it wasn’t a different ship?”

Shiro pressed his lips into a thin line, looking conflicted, “I’m not sure.”

“But still, that means that these ships hold prisoners, right?!” Pidge questioned. “The rest of your crew could be here, we have to rescue them!”

As her voice began to rise, Jaz slapped her palm onto the younger girl’s mouth. “First: keep your voice down. Second: there’s no guarantees that the rest of our crew’s here, we were separated pretty quickly. And third: we don’t have time. Right now we have a clock against us, and the more time we waste the more likely it is that Arus will be obliterated.”

“We can’t just leave the prisoners here!” Pidge continued to protest.

“Look,” Shiro whispered, “no one understands more than me, but sometimes tough choices have to be made and—”

“No!” she snarled shoving him away. “Commander Holt is my father! He and my brother were on the Kerberos mission with you! I’ve been looking for them everywhere and I’m not going to give up when I’m this close!”

Well, at least that confirmed his suspicions that Pidge was Matt’s little sister Katie. But as fascinating as it was, they did not have time for this debacle. “You guys go find the brig and rescue who you can,” Keith said. “I’ll go after the Red Lion.”

“What? Alone?” Shiro sputtered.

“I’ll go with him,” Jaz volunteered, “you two go find the prisoners and get them outta here. You remember where to go?”

Shiro nodded, “I think so.” His gaze traveled to Keith and a hint of a smile crossed his face. “I’ll be alright Keith, just remember patience yields focus so—” a sound down the hall made them all freeze. And now that they were silent, they could hear footsteps getting closer.

“We’ll see you later,” Jaz whispered as she and Keith took off down the closest quiet hall. Their quick footsteps echoed lightly on the metal, and they both came to a stop as they stood in a junction. “Don’t suppose Yorak was able to download a map?”

“Nope.”

“Awesome,” she muttered. “Eeny meeny miny moe?”

Keith shrugged, their odds looked equally bleak either way.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait for an answer as they heard the familiar sound of an approaching patrol down one of the halls. Without a word, the duo raced down the opposite path, away from the footsteps.

-.-

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Jaz muttered as they came to a stop. Resting her hands on her keeps, she looked around, staring at each hall that seemed more imposing as the last. “Weren’t we just here?”

Like her, Keith looked around, his eyes flaring with light for a moment as frustration crossed his face. “Damn, they must’ve designed all the junctions to look the same. We could be running in circles!”

“Well, Allura said you could sense the lion; are you sensing anything?”

“No,” he almost spat out in anger. Taking a breath, Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to calm himself down. As frustrating as all this was, he couldn’t afford to get angry, “Patience yields focus.” With another calming breath, Keith closed his eyes and tried to see if he could sense anything nearby. To his right, there was the familiar pulse of both darkness and light present in the Awoken people; pushing past that he stopped as a presence brush against his own. It did and yet didn’t feel like the Blue Lion. Where the Blue Lion had always felt cold and calming if somewhat distant, this one, it felt temperamental, wild and it was nearby, just several halls down. “Got it!” Whirling on his heel, he started to sprint down the hall, Jaz’s footfalls echoing behind him.

“You found it?” she called.

“Took long enough,” Keith huffed. “Any way you can teleport us to it?”

“Can’t do that if I don’t know where I’m going,” she answered as they raced around a corner and into a large hangar. Unlike the rest of the ship, this room was illuminated with red light, undoubtedly coming from the shield encircling the Red Lion suspended from the ceiling.

“Well, looks like we didn’t need to teleport anyways,” Keith shrugged. Jogging up to the lion, he rapped his knuckles against the barrier. “Ok, we’re here, open up!”

The lion didn’t respond, causing the pair to share a glance. “Didn’t knocking work for Lance?”

“Yeah,” Keith grumbled, knocking on the barrier harder. “Hey! Open up!”

When it still didn’t react, Jaz frowned, “Maybe it’s broken?”

“It better not be, or I’m going to dismantle it for spare parts!” Keith threatened glaring up at the dark eyes of the ship.

Despite the threat, the lion did not respond.

Keith grit his teeth, “For the Light of the Traveler, we don’t have time for this.” Stepping up to the shield he tapped it curiously, there had to be a way to force his way through. Everything had a weakness, he just needed to figure out what this infernal barrier’s was so he could exploit it and get in the damn lion.

“Keith,” Jaz said, “are you planning to do what I think you’re planning to do?”

“Probably,” he replied stepping back.

At that que, Jaz backed away and dove behind a console, carefully peering out. She could already see light sparking off Keith’s fists as he ran forwards and jumped into the air. Ducking back behind her cover, she grimaced as she heard the explosion and felt the energy rush by her. Hopefully his plan worked because that certainly would’ve gotten attention. Slowly, she peered out from her hiding spot and her eyes widened as she saw the particle barrier was still intact. Keith, on the other hand, was getting up from where he’d been clearly blasted across the room by the shockwave. “So…that went well.”

“Shut up Jaz,” he muttered.

Rolling her eyes, Jaz stepped back up to his side, looking over the lion. She would admit, it was impressive that this thing was able to withstand a light-charged blow from a Guardian. Even without their powers, every Guardian Jaz had met had been freakishly strong. Heck, most magic shields only lasted a few blows against them. So for something this old to still be working after that, it was surprising.

However, before they could determine their next course of action, the pair froze as they heard a rush of footsteps heading their way. Turning around, they could see several sentries run un, blasters up and ready to fire.

Both were quick to duck behind the console as they opened fired. “This sucks.”

“No kidding,” Keith agreed peering out for a moment before ducking down, “Your helmet still has it’s space settings right?”

Jaz nodded, furrowing her brows. “You have a plan I take it?”

“Not one that you’ll like,” he answered.

Before she could ask why, Keith stood up and slammed his hand on the console. And then they both gripped for dear life as alarms started and air began rushing from the hangar, sending pieces of equipment flying past and out into the void of space. Both friends could feel the pressure trying to force them out from their chosen spot as they pressed their backs to it, hoping to ride out the depressurization until it stabilized.

Those plans were knocked off course by a hunk of metal flying towards them. Grabbing onto each other, the pair leapt over the console as the debris hit it, tearing the station from its spot, leaving a hole of sparking metal in its place as they flew out into the void.

Spinning in space, Jaz tightened her grip on Keith’s arm, grimacing as he activated his jetpack to try to bring them to a stop and stabilize them. They needed to get their bearings in order to signal the others for a pick-up.

Spotting something from the corner of her eye, she looked to see a lion flying towards them quickly. Before she could identify the color, they were engulfed in its maw and the pair fell into something as gravity kicked in.

“Seriously?! That was your plan?!” Jaz exclaimed ripping off her helmet.

“There weren’t many other options,” he argued.

“What about blowing them up?!”

“It was a split-second decision!”

Jaz opened her mouth to argue when whatever they landed on began moving. And, after a moment, the duo found themselves in a red illuminated cockpit. “Oh…we got the lion,” she said pushing herself out of the chair.

“What was that you were saying about my decision again?”

“Shut up Keith.”

-.-

“You guys alright?” Shiro questioned as Jaz and Keith strode down the Red Lion’s ramp. “We heard an explosion.”

The pair shared a glance, before Jaz pointed at Keith. “This idiot decided to tear a hole in the hull to get the lion out, while—I might add—we were still working on getting in the lion.”

“Hey! My plan worked didn’t it?” Keith reminded.

“You almost killed us.”

Keith turned to her, raising a brow, “Jaz, we both would’ve been fine.”

Shiro shook his head at their bickering, it reminded him a lot of old times back on Earth. Back when things were still good and everything hadn’t gone to shit yet. The ground quaked under his feet and he looked up to see the four gathered lions moving, each rising to their feet and giving a low growl. Almost as if hearing a password, a symbol on the door they gathered before flashed. Metal groaned and dust fell as the massive doors slowly slid back, and inside Shiro could see his own lion being revealed. It looked like the other lions for the most part, however it had gold accents the others didn’t have as well as what appeared to be a pair of wings on its back. Its large eyes flashed gold and the massive ship rose to its feet as if it were actually alive, releasing a powerful roar that shook the castle around them.

However, whatever excitement they all had was short lived as alarms began flashing and Coran popped up on a holographic screen, “Paladins, Sendak’s entering the Arusian atmosphere! We need Voltron now!”

Jaz nodded, putting a hand on Shiro’s shoulder, “You guys go kick some ass. I’ll be helping Allura and Coran on the bridge.”

Shiro nodded, “All right everyone! Let’s move!”

Chapter Text

A/N: hey guys, welcome back! Good to see ya’ll again. Hope ya’ll’re enjoying the story so far, I know I am. So anyways, I just own my OCs and the story, nothing else is mine.

Keith gripped his controls tightly as he felt the ground shake from the force of the blast from the ion cannon made impact onto the glowing forcefield now surrounding the Castle. Already he could see parts of it flicker for a moment, and it didn’t take a genius to realize that it wouldn’t be long before that shield gave way.

Hunk, on the other hand, seemed to be focused on something else. /Man, those guys repair things fast/

Thankfully Pidge seemed to be on the same page Keith was on, /That barrier gets weaker with every blast. Once it goes down the Castle will be defenseless!/

/We can give you cover with the Castle defenses for a short period of time/ Allura confirmed, /But you must form Voltron now or we’ll all be destroyed!/

Well, not like they already knew how to form Voltron. No pressure or anything.

/Listen up Team Voltron, the only way we’re going to succeed is to give it all we got!/ Shiro said. /This may look bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?!/

Keith gave a curt nod. Even if they couldn’t form Voltron itself, there was still likely a way to bring down the ship. Afterall, every ship had some sort of firepower or weapons, so these ones had to have some too.

/I nodded, did everyone else nod?/

/Yes Hunk/ the rest of them muttered.

/Then let’s do this!/ Shiro said.

Shoving his controls forwards, the Red Lion lunged forwards. The ship shook as it charged across the ground, moving through the barrier with relative ease. Blaster fire began to reign around them and Keith moved his lion through, throwing quick glances to the foreign controls. He needed to get this thing airborne if he wanted to really do anything—even if all he knew how to do right at the moment was ram the fighters with his ship.

/So, uh, does anyone know hoe we’re supposed to do this?/ Lance inquired.

/Yeah, I’m not seeing a ‘combine into giant robot’ button/

/This is insane!/ Pidge exclaimed as her lion skid along the ground after taking a hit. /Can’t they just cease fire for a minute so we can figure this out?/

“Pidge, this isn’t football,” Keith admonished.

/What?! It’s not too much to ask!/

“You just can’t call a timeout in war! So yes, it’s too much to ask!” he argued. Pulling Red to a stop, he glared down at the controls, gritting his teeth as he looked at the foreign symbols. Of course these things were programmed in ancient Altean, after being out of commission for a few thousand years it made sense that the language systems weren’t updated, but he needed modern Altean.

For a moment, Keith considered summoning his ghost to fix the issue. However, he was soon reminded on why that was a bad idea at the present moment.

/COMBINE!/

Red shook around him as something rammed into the lion’s side, sending them rolling along the ground. Keith grunted as his side hit one of the consoles before he was knocked from his chair. Various parts of his body ached as he rose back to his feet, quickly leaping back into his chair.

/So that didn’t work/ Hunk muttered.

Keith glared in the general direction of the Yellow Lion. “Hey! You know these things don’t have seatbelts right?!”

/Sorry/

Keith didn’t bother to acknowledge the apology as he watched the next ion blast hit the flickering forcefield. Their time was running out, fast, they needed to bring this ship down.

Looking down at the controls, Keith pushed them forwards and up. Red shifted and leapt into the air, and Keith felt a slight jerk, meaning that the engines had kicked in. Good, at least now that he was airborne the odds of bringing this thing down were better.

Ships fired at him and Keith dove down, out of the way of the blaster fire before pulling up before hitting the ground, smirking as he watched one of the fighters chasing him crash behind him. But that still left two on his tail. Hitting the thrusters, Keith smirked as the lion sped up. Weaving through the blaster fire, he pulled up into a loop and put himself behind the ships chasing him. His thumb brushed a control and Keith glanced at one of the screens, his brows rising as he noticed the schematic showing the jaw moving. A wide grin slowly came to his face, this was going to be fun.

As if sensing his excitement, Red shot forwards, and they began to gain on the Galra fighters. Getting close enough to one, Keith hit the controls, allowing the lion’s jaws to clamp down onto the fighter’s wing. Pulling on the levers, he smirked as he watched the ship go flying through the air into another fighter, not the fighter he was aiming for, but it was better than nothing.

/Quickly Paladins, our defenses won’t hold much longer!/ Allura exclaimed.

Well, this battle would be easier if the controls were legible and the only available weapon wasn’t just a bite.

/Maybe if we fly in formation we’ll just combine?/ Shiro suggested. Though he didn’t sound too sure.

But, it was a better plan than nothing.

The others managed to pull their lions from the ground and Keith flew over to meet them, taking his position on Shiro’s right as they flew towards the Galra warship.

Nothing was happening.

/Hey! I think I feel something!/ Lance perked up.

Keith raised a brow, he didn’t feel anything other than feeling stupid. This formation thing was going nowhere.

/I think I feel it too!/ Hunk chimed in. /It’s like we’re all being pulled in the same direction!/

Keith had a suspicion as to why when he looked up. And, Jaz seemed to see it too, /Look up guys!/

/What the cheese?!/

/Sendak’s ship’s sucking us in like a black hole!/

“It’s a tractor beam,” Keith hissed. “He’s using it to take the lions.”

/Wait, like Star Wars?/

“Yes,” Keith said watching as the ion cannon began to charge. His brows furrowed, if they wanted the lions intact, why would they…oh quiznak. The cannon fired, hitting the particle barrier again, but, this time, it didn’t hold. Instead, the barrier shattered into thousands of bright fragments before fizzling out of existence.  “Shit.”

/I don’t care what you say Shiro! I’m panicking now!/

/It can’t end here!/

/We’re gonna die!/

/No!/ Shiro snapped. /We are not going to die. We are going to survive this, and we are going to win. We just need to believe in ourselves. We can’t give up! We’re the universe’s only hope, everyone’s relying on us. We can’t fail and we won’t if we work together!/

/Yeah!/ the others shouted.

Keith smirked, while it hadn’t been the best call to battle he’d ever heard, it was definitely motivating. Shiro was right, they could win this.

Red shook around him and Keith heard metal shifting and scraping against metal, gears clicking into place, hisses of air being released as attachments were made. With wide eyes, Keith looked back to his dashboard to stare as the schematics of Voltron began to appear. “Holy draaf.”

/I can’t believe it!/

/We formed Voltron!/

/I’m a leg!/

/How are we doing this?!/

Over the comms, Keith heard Shiro give an exhilarated chuckle, /I have no idea, but let’s take out that cannon!/

Voltron shot through the air, blasts from the Galra fighters seeming to bounce off its armor as they soared towards the warship. Slamming onto the back of the cruiser, Keith could see the hull bend under the weight of the impact and he shifted Red moving her down and allowing her jaws to clamp down on the barrel of the cannon, metal crunching as they locked. He yanked the controls back and sparks flew from the cannon as it was torn from its spot and Keith swung out the arm, releasing the clamp, allowing the cannon to fly off into regions unknown.

An explosion rocked the warship under Voltron’s feet, almost knocking them off as the Green Lion extracted itself from the burning hull before Voltron flew back into the air. A button began to flash and Keith raised a brow before aiming his lion towards the ship and pressing it. Keith couldn’t help the wide grin that split his face as a massive laser shot out from the lion’s mouth and tore through the ship.

The cockpit shook as Voltron flipped in the air, diving down towards the smoldering warship and ripping through the remaining engines. Heat filled the air as explosions racked the ship as they landed, and the five Paladins grinned as they watched the firework show.

They just won their first battle against the Galra, and they did as Voltron. For what seemed like for the first time in ten-thousand years, there actually was a threat against the Galra.

-.-

“Great work Paladins!” Allura praised as she and the others ran out from the Castle to meet them on the ground.

“That has to be one of the best space battles I’ve ever seen!” Jaz exclaimed pumping a fist in the air.

“Aw, thanks ladies,” Lance winked. “It wasn’t too hard.”

“You yelled that we were going to die,” Pidge reminded causing the Blue Paladin to deflate.

Keith grunted as a hand slammed into his back. Taking a step forwards to regain his balance, Keith tossed a half-hearted glare at Shiro as the other man smiled and removed his helmet. “We did it.”

Chuckling lightly, Keith removed his own helmet, sighing as his face hit fresh air. “Yeah, we did.”

“How did we do it?” Shiro breathed.

“Don’t ask me.”

“I was just like screaming the whole time, so maybe that did it?” Hunk offered.

Jaz raised a brow, “I highly doubt that had anything to do with it.”

Shaking his head, Shiro stepped to the side, putting a hand on Pidge’s shoulder. “Hey, we won’t stop until we find your father and brother,” he reassured. “Wherever they are, I’m sure they’ll be proud of you.”

The smaller girl gave him a small smile before Allura cleared her throat, garnering everyone’s attention. “The battle may be won, but our war has just begun. I’m afraid Zarkon won’t stop until he gets his hands on these lions.”

“Good thing you Paladins know what you’re doing,” Coran piped up, “cause you’ll have to form Voltron again, and again.”

“What?”

“We barely survived doing it this once,” Lance whined. “Plus we don’t even know how we did it.”

Coran didn’t seem to hear the Blue Paladin as he continued to ramble on, “And, of course, that battle was just against one ship. Wait till you’ll have to fight a whole fleet of them!”

“Eh, it might be some time before we’re ready for that Coran,” Jaz interjected. “But, if it does help, I can practice my magic more, it might give us an edge in the field.”

“Hopefully,” Coran nodded quickly, “But either way it’s not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe. It’s going to be a long, bumpy ride, that’s for sure!”

Shiro chuckled, shaking his head before looking up at the lions. “Defenders of the Universe, huh? That has a nice ring to it.”

Chapter Text

A/N: Hey everyone! Welcome back! Now remember, I just own the story and my OCs, nothing else is mine.

Keith sat on his bed as he looked through the inventory Yorak stored for him in whatever extra-dimensional pocked ghosts used. So far, he wasn’t completely happy with what was available to him. He still managed to bring a couple sparrows with him, but not enough for the whole team to use if needed. As for ships, well, he was lucky to have a couple of his father’s older ones plus his first new ship he got for his birthday before…before everything changed; but given the Castle and the lions, it looked like he wouldn’t need to worry about those for the most part.

No, his main concerns were weapons and armor. He had a few spare armor sets, to use in case the Paladin armor proved to be utterly useless once he had the chance to test its mettle, but the problem was one of them was broken—he’d been needing to break it down for parts—and another was ceremonial, so it wasn’t exactly useful. So, there was no way he’d be able to loan some to the others.

Weapons, though, were at least proving to be a bright spot in his morning. Like any Guardian, he was armed to the teeth. He had a couple swords, a grenade launcher, a couple other heavy cannons, shotguns, rifles, blasters, and even a bow he’d been learning to use. Plus there were a few older weapons he could break down to improve his arsenal. There was also the added bonus that at least he wouldn’t have to worry about reloading any of the weapons that required actual ammunition for some time.

Hopefully they would finish this war before that happened. Judging by the battle the other day, they might be cutting it close, but it should be smooth sailing once everyone was properly trained. Keith gave it about two years to solve this issue, tops.

Before he could do anything else, the Castle came to life as alarms began to echo down the previously silent halls. “EVERYBODY UP! ZARKON’S ATTACKING!” Allura screamed over the intercom causing the Guardian and his ghost to jump. Closing his inventory, Keith leapt across the room, grabbing his jacket and bayard as Yorak vanished in a flash of light. “THE CASTLE’S ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED! GO, GO, GO! WE NEED VOLTRON NOW!”

Keith raced into the hall, nearly ramming his shoulder into a wall as he quickly turned a corner as he raced towards the bridge.

“THE CASTLE CAN’T SURVIVE MUCH LONGER!”

That almost made him stop. Survive much longer? Keith hadn’t even felt anything hitting the Castle, even with the forcefield protecting it. He was sure that if they really were under attack they’d be able ot hear or even feel the shockwaves of explosions. “Yorak, check the scanners.”

His ghost was quiet for a moment, before Keith sensed his annoyance, “Scanners are clear.”

“Oh no!” Coran’s voice rang out over the Castle, “Allura’s dead! Aw, it’s horrible, her head fell off!”

Shaking his head, Keith slowed his jog down to a walk. It was a drill, a very bad, poorly planned drill. He could see the others running into the bridge ahead of him, and Keith slowly followed, crossing his arms as he watched Coran overdramatically try to sell it.

“Coran,” Allura muttered.

“Yes Princess?!”

“It’s over.”

“I know,” the advisor bemoaned, falling onto his knees and throwing his arms into the air, “If only Voltron had been formed!” At that moment, the Altean seemed to spot them all and he shot to his feet, tossing something behind him, “Time!”

“I guess this isn’t an actual attack?” Shiro realized.

“Wasn’t that obvious from Coran’s terrible performance?” Jaz stated crossing her arms.

“And it was a good thing it wasn’t an actual attack!” Allura snapped. “Because it took you…Coran?”

“Seventy-five degrees.”

Several of them blinked trying to process what they just heard. “Did the translator malfunction?” Jaz whispered to him.

Keith shook his head, “Nope.”

“Oh, sorry, this is a meat thermometer,” Coran realized, causing several of them to facepalm.

“However long it was, it was too long. You must be ready to go into battle at any moment,” the Princess scolded, wrinkling her nose. “Look at all of you! Only Shiro’s in his uniform. Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? Keith, where’s your armor? And where’s Lance?”

The doors behind them hissed open and they all turned to see said Blue Paladin saunter in wearing a blue robe, matching pajamas, and Blue Lion slippers. Taking a sip from his steaming up, he raised it to them, “Morning everyone. What’s going on?”

“Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order,” Allura answered, her brow twitching. “We needed to test the alarms and we decided to test all of you as well. Guess which one failed?”

“Hey,” Hunk yawned, “You guys got to sleep for ten thousand years. Monday night I was on Earth. Now, I’ve flown through space in a magical robotic lion, fought some evil dude named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird Castle on another planet; it’s a lot to process in…uh…What day is it?”

“It’s the third day of a Spicolian Movement: Hump Day!” Coran supplied.

“It’s a lot to process.”

The princess sighed, going to the controls, “Then you must understand the stakes of our mission,” she pressed a button and a hologram turned on. Like before, it was of the space around them, however, various parts of the diagram before were highlighted red rather than the blue they had been. “Over the past ten thousand years, the Castle has picked up distress beacons from all the following locations. So we must assume Zarkon’s already conquered most of the known Universe.”

Keith shared a skeptical glance with Jaz. There was no way this was all Galra, not when there were bigger, more dangerous enemies out there. He’d bet a large portion of this was either Cabal or Hive. The trick would be figuring out which ones.

“Our mission is to free all those planets,” she continued. “Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you five must learn to form Voltron so we can take the fight to Zarkon.”

Shiro nodded, “The Princess is right. Let’s get to our lions and start training.”

“Wait,” Pidge protested, “I want to talk to those prisoners we rescued!”

Coran was the first to respond as he slid up to the Green Paladin, “Negative Number 6—I have you ranked by height—they need to remain in the cryo-refreshers until tomorrow.”

“That’s right, so you all need to go to your lions.”

“Welp, that excludes me,” Jaz waved, “I’m going to get something to eat.”

Keith tossed her an annoyed glance before going to his respective…elevator containing his armor. He quickly changed as it descended. It began to slow down, and Keith’s brows shot up as he saw a pair of handles instead of his lion. It was only when they gave a flash and started to move, he leapt at it, grabbing on before it went too far.

Looking down the path he was sliding down, the Guardian wanted to facepalm. It was a zipline. A. Freaking. Zipline. Instead of being taken directly to his lion, he was going on a pointless roller-coaster ride.

A wall began to approach and at the end of the path Keith could see a hole in the group where he was probably supposed to drop down to hopefully enter his lion. Instead, he landed in some sort of speeder. “Oh come on!” he exclaimed as it whirred to life and began moving forwards.

Thankfully, this one seemed to finally reach his lion. The small sparrow raced up a ramp in the lion’s chest and the sides retracted as the chair pulled up to the cockpit.

“Finally,” he muttered, taking the controls and flying out from the Castle.

Unsurprisingly, the others appeared to have taken as long as him as he could see Blue and Black flying overhead towards Green. Joining them, the three lions landed and were ready to start once their final member made it.

After a few minutes, Keith furrowed his brows. Did Hunk get stuck or something?

Lance seemed to be thinking along similar lines as he opened a comm-channel. /So…uh, should someone go after Hunk?/

Almost on cue, Keith spotted the Yellow Lion flying towards them. /I’m here!/ Hunk apologized, the ground shaking as his lion landed unsteadily. /Sorry I’m late. Can’t they park these things a little closer to the bridge?/

Keith agreed, it would make more sense than whatever maze he just went through. If Allura wanted Voltron to be formed in a short period of time, with a process that took that long, she clearly was out of her mind. And, if this place was designed to be so confusing for even the residents to have problems reaching important weapons, Keith was starting to see why the Galra were winning so far.

/Alright guys/ Shiro spoke up, /let’s just fly in formation until we’re in sync/

/Feel the bond with your lions until the five of you become one and form Voltron!/ Allura said, like that explained what they were doing.

The others cheered as they flew into the air. /YEAH!/

It was only after their first few passes that everyone’s excitement began to wane.

/Yeah!/

More passes and loops around the Castle later, several of them were starting to get bored. /Yay/

About an hour later, it was only Hunk who remained cheering with a sad, /Whoo…Am I the only one still pretending to be excited?/

Keith didn’t bother to answer as he glared down at the controls of his lion. What the quiznak? Everything went fine yesterday, so why wasn’t it working now?

He felt a tugging sensation in his chest, and Keith turned his attention the bond with his ghost. “What?”

“Well, you could try building Voltron.”

Keith shrugged, it wasn’t a bad idea. Actually, there wasn’t any others at the moment, so it was the technically, the only idea at the moment.

/Ok, so clearly this isn’t working/ Shiro grumbled. /Let’s land and figure this out/

Reaching out, Keith unmuted himself, “We could try building Voltron from the ground up?”

/What do you mean?/

He rolled his eyes. Wasn’t it obvious? “I mean like literally building Voltron. We have the pieces, maybe stacking them up is he way to do it.”

/Like a cheerleader pyramid?/ Lance snickered.

“You have a better idea?” Keith retorted causing the other Paladin to give an annoyed growl.

/It’s worth a try/ Shiro said.

Well…the first try did not go well. Somehow, they ended up all out of order; and Keith still wasn’t sure how Red ended up sideways on Green and Blue. But he was mostly confused by the fact Hunk, had somehow gotten on the top. He was a leg. Why was he up there?

/Hunk/ Shiro muttered, /what are you doing?/

/What do you mean?/

/You’re supposed to be the leg, where Pidge is/

/What? No. No, no, no, I’m pretty sure last time I was the head…right?/

/You yelled “I’m a leg!”/ Lance reminded, sounding annoyed.

/I was yelling a lot of things/

“Shiro’s the head!” Keith stated.

/All the time?/

“Yes!”

/Let’s just try our way for now/ Shiro sighed.

Even without the video-channels open, he could still tell the Yellow Paladin was pouting.  /Fine, but next time I call head/

That wasn’t how it worked, but whatever. Red’s joints groaned as the other lions dislodged themselves, allowing Keith to move off of Lance and Pidge and settle down beside the others. Hunk and Pidge swapped places, and then the Red and Green Lions climbed up on top of them. Black was the last to move, slowly flying into the air and hovering over them before slowly lowering down onto them. The metal around him creaked, but not as loud as it had been previously when two lions had been on Red.

/Ok, feel the bond with your lions/ Shiro said. /Channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus/

Keith closed his eyes, reaching out with his own energy. A small smirk crossed his face as he felt Yorak’s energy brush against his own. The ghost pressed close against him allow its Guardian to continue to reach out. While he could sense the fiery presence of the Lion, the others…not so much.

/Is everyone bonding and focusing?/ Shiro grumbled.

/Why was this so much easier before?/

A shrill squeal nearly made Keith jerk out of his chair, /I LOVE YOUR CHEERLEADER PYRAMID!/ Jaz called.

There was a loud groan from Shiro and Keith felt Red shift slightly as Black lifted off and landed back onto the ground, which prompted Keith and Pidge to follow suit. /Maybe we should take a break/

/Sorry to interrupt, but Jaz and I may be able to help/ Allura chimed in. /Yesterday, you weren’t able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle/

/Yeah/

/I guess/

/Why?/

/Well, Allura and I are going to test the Castle defenses/ Jaz answered. /Hope this helps!/

Keith’s eyes went wide as he watched the giant blue forcefield come to life. Different parts began to glow brighter than usual and laser blasts began to reign down on them, causing them to scatter. “ALLURA! JAZ! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” he exclaimed as Red wove between the blaster fire.

/Running a diagnostic test and inspiring you!/ Allura cheered. /Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!/

A shadow flew overhead and Keith yanked Red to a stop as Blue slammed on the ground in front of them. /Ow/

/Please! Please have mercy!/ Hunk pleaded as his lion tried to dodge blasts.

/Do you think Zarkon’s going have mercy on you?!/ Allura scoffed. /He’s probably on his way right now to destroy us all!/

/Which is why we’re practicing!/ Jaz chimed in happily.

Keith grimaced, Traveler this was going to suck.

-.-

“That was fun,” Jaz grinned as she sat upside-down on the couch, her long azure hair cascading to the floor. “We should to it again sometime.”

“Nope! No way!” Hunk said rapidly shaking his head. “Not doing that again.”

“You’re no fun.”

“You weren’t the one getting shot at,” he countered.

The doors hissed open, halting further conversation as the two Alteans entered. “Are we at full power on condenser number five?”

Coran glanced down at a pad, “Still at eighty-four percent.”

However, his reply wasn’t acknowledged as Allura looked at all of them, her blue-pink eyes sparkling as a smile broke out on her face. “You did it! You formed Voltron!”

“Nope,” Keith replied, crossing his arms as he leaned back on the couch. “The shooting stopped and the barrier went down so we flew in.”

Her smile was immediately replaced by a scowl as one of her eyebrows began to twitch, “What?”

By her side, Coran gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck, “Oh, right, sorry Princess,” he apologized. “I had to turn off the defenses to test the fire suppressors.”

“What are you guys doing?” Shiro asked as he entered the room. “We’re not taking a break.”

“You were the first to fly in,” Jaz stated raising her head to look at him.

“I had to go to the bathroom!”

The Awoken woman raised a brow, “And?”

Shiro didn’t have the chance to reply as Allura put her foot down, “You all should be training!”

“We’ve been training,” Hunk whined. “When are we going back to Earth?”

“I’m not going back till I find my family,” Pidge answered.

“I’ll go back when I have the rest of my crew,” Jaz agreed.

“Guys, we won’t have a home if we don’t figure out how to fight Zarkon,” Shiro spoke up.

Keith clenched his jaw at that realization. He’d already lost his home. Earth…it was his home away from home, but it still wasn’t the same. He’d been living there for years until his father came back or until word came that the Red War was over. However, Keith would give anything to see his homeworld again. Every day not know what was happening or if everyone he cared about was ok…it hurt. He couldn’t let that happen to his comrades.

“How are we going to fight?” Lance questioned. “We can’t even figure out how to form Voltron.”

“Well I’m not surprised,” Coran replied. “The original paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears.”

“Wow…that’s totally not us.”

“Well, during the last battle your survival instincts force you to work as a team. But that’ll only get you so far,” Coran said. “In order to form Voltron, you have to become a real team. You should try working out on the training deck sometime.”

Almost instantly, Keith and Jaz perked up. “Training deck?” they asked curiously.

Unbeknownst to the rest of them Shiro held back a groan. The others were going to get a very rude wake-up call when put into combat training with Keith and Jaz. Shiro had learned that the hard way—the painfully hard way.

-.-

Keith stood in a circle with the other paladins on the training deck. Looking around the room, a small part of him wondered if this was the right place. Keith had grown up seeing messy training arenas as his teachers wanted to simulate a real mission field so they could learn to use their environment to their advantage. It was also easier than cleaning up every time someone used it. But this…it was too clean. Keith didn’t like it. There was no cover, no enemy entrances, and a strange lack of scorch marks, body parts, metal, and blood. They couldn’t train for the real chaos of a battlefield in someplace this sterile.

The only thing he could tell so far, is that this was a team exercise. Coran instructed them all to be in the same ring, back-to-back. Which meant they’d be fighting against something together rather than against each other. But, that still boded the question: What was their opponent? And where would it come from?

A loud bumping sound echoed in the room, “Check, two, two, one, two,” Coran’s voice spoke over the intercom. “Ok, listen up Paladins. The Paladin Code demands that you put the safety of your team members above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack. Each of you need to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team.”

Keith grit his teeth as his shield popped up and he watched a line of drones exit a small hole in the corner of the room. Of course it was a defense exercise; his least favorite type.

“Wait, wait, what’s going on?!” Hunk sputtered.

And Keith was going to have to protect incompetent teammates, absolutely perfect.

“Did you guys get one of these?” Hunk asked, no doubt looking at all of them nervously.

Keith didn’t bother to respond as he shifted his stance and raised his shield, his gaze travelling quickly to each drone, watching their rotation around them. He heard the first shot fire and Hunk yelped. To his right Pidge was hit in the back and she fell into a hole in the ground at appeared below her.

That gave a opening for an orb to fire and knock Hunk out of the game.

“Protect your teammates  or there’ll be no one to protect you!” Coran iterated.

His shield vibrated with energy with every shot that hit its surface. Taking a step back, Keith found himself back-to-back with Shiro and Lance, the latter of which was surprisingly useful, for now.

The floating sphere’s orbit around them began to speed up, their shots starting to be more random than they had been before. “You keeping up over there Keith?” Lance sneered.

By the fricking Traveler, this was not the time. “Just concentrate on keeping me safe,” he grumbled.

“Pfft, I own this drill, you’re the one that needs to concentrate.”

The drones dropped down and Keith followed suit. However, before he could block a shot, he felt a sting from Lance’s side and the ground disappeared from under him. Keith grunted as his back slammed onto the ground, and he looked up to see the hole he just fell through closing. Well, that settled the fact that Lance was still unreliable.

-.-

“To form Voltron, you need to trust in one another,” Coran said as Keith stood next to the Altean on the observation deck as Lance stood in the middle of the training room. “This ancient Paladin maze will teach you trust. Your teammate can see the walls, you cannot. So listen to them carefully, otherwise if you touch the walls you’ll feel a slight shock.”

Walls fizzled from existence, and a map popped up in front of Keith. Leaning forwards, he examined the map till he mentally mapped out the route.

“Wait, who’s guiding me?” Lance called.

“Take two steps forwards.”

The Blue Paladin immediately groaned loudly. “Aw no, not Keith. Why does he get to be the man on the mic?”

“Just sit tight, you’ll get your turn,” Coran reassured.

Hopefully, that reassurance would quell Lance’s stubbornness for now; at least long enough for them to get through this stupid exercise. “Like I said,” Keith started, “take two steps forwards, then turn right.”

Instead of listening, Lance immediately turned right and ran smack into a wall, shocking himself. “You did that on purpose!”

“You’re not listening.”

“You said turn right.”

“And before that I said take two steps forwards,” he reminded, eyebrow twitching.

Lance growled and turned a random direction before bumping into another wall. “We’re switching places right now!”

Keith rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sighed, this was going to take a while.

-.-

/You’ll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong bond with your lion/ Coran stated as the Paladins flew in formation.

Over the comms, Keith heard Lance scoff, /No problem. Me and Blue are best pals for life!/

/Perfect/ Coran responded. /Then you won’t have any problems with this drill! Everyone, put your lions into a nosedive!/

Keith frowned but complied. His instincts told him something more was going on with this exercise.

/This is an expert-level drill that you shouldn’t attempt until you’ve been flying for years/ Coran explained, /But we’re in a bit of a rush, so here we go! Activating training helmets/

The mask of his helmet turned black. Solid black. He could not see. Keith was piloting a several ton metal lion through the air towards the ground and he couldn’t see. The Guardian had done tons of extremely dangerous exercises over the years, but this took the cake. No mentor or instructor would ever condone something this dangerous and stupid, ever. And that, was saying a lot.

/Feel what the lion feels!/ Coran exclaimed and Keith tuned him out.

This was not the time to be distracted by the shouting of his panicked comrades and their foolish trainer. Reaching out with his light, he could sense the lion’s energy, but as for seeing, he had no idea what the hell Coran was talking about.

/You still going Keith?/ Lance called, sounding mocking.

Screw it, Keith ripped off his helmet, tossing it to the side as he took in the controls. If this was an exercise about surviving, he was going to due it based on logic, not dumb luck. “Yeah. You?”

/Going? I’m speeding up!/

Keith smirked as he saw the lion pick up speed as the ground got closer. Pushing on the thrusters carefully, he kept his gaze focused on the ground. “Must be getting pretty close.”

/You scared?/

A grin broke out on his face and Keith pulled back, “Nope, but you should be.”

/What—/ a loud thud cut off the other Paladin’s answer and Keith smirked as he saw Lance crash into the ground, the legs of his lion sticking up in the sand. The idiot must’ve still had his helmet on.

“I win.”

-.-

Keith crossed his arms as they gathered back on the training deck. It was starting to get rather frustrating that they had to keep going in and out of the Castle to their lions repeatedly for seemingly ridiculous bonding exercises. If they were going to do training, they needed to pick a location, inside or outside. Get all the stuff that needed to be done there out of the way so they weren’t running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

And, more importantly, they needed to stop focusing on these stupid bonding activities. Bonds between teammates couldn’t be forced. Keith had seen it loads of times with Lord Saladin and Lord Shaxx. They did not and would never get along, but they would put their personal issues aside for the sake of a mission. Which, in his opinion, was what the others—Lance in particular—should be doing. Valuable time was being wasted in stupid trust exercises rather than in real combat training, which he knew for a fact three out of the five of them had likely never even been in a real fight.

“Put these on,” Coran said handing out several white headbands with random white and blue branches coming off of them.

“For what?” Pidge asked, raising a cautious brow.

“Bonding exercise,” Coran chirped. “Paladins must be able to melt their minds to form Voltron. No walls, no secrets.”

That made Keith’s hair stand on end in alarm. “Nope,” he said not even taking his from Coran and crossing his arms. “Not happening.”

Pidge nodded quickly, “No way. I’m not letting anyone root around in my head.”

A hand settled on his shoulder and Keith maintained his scowl as he saw Shiro’s concerned but hopeful gaze. “We’re just starting to get the hang of this, it shouldn’t—”

“No.”

Looking slightly disappointed but understanding, Shiro nodded his head. “Ok. Let’s take a break then before we get onto the next exercise.”

That was something Keith could agree to.

It wasn’t too long after that announcement Coran and Jaz came down with pouches filled with what he assumed was water. Taking a sip, Keith glanced to the door as he heard it slide open to reveal an irate princess. “What is going on?!” she demanded stomping forwards. “What are you doing lying about?! You’re supposed to be training!”

“Just resting a bit,” Coran supplied. “You can’t work too hard.”

The royal looked affronted as her head snapped towards her advisor. “What do you mean can’t push too hard?! They aren’t working hard enough!”

“Princess, I’ve literally fainted from training without stop,” Jaz spoke up taking a ship from her pouch. “So believe it or not, overtraining is a real thing. You can push too hard, even if you can’t see it from your high horse.”

Allura rolled her eyes as she looked down her nose at all of them, “Get up you lazy lumps! It’s time you faced the Gladiator!”

Jaz scoffed, “Drey pah Zu’u nunon saag bo avok ek klov?”

Shiro shrugged, taking another sip from his pouch, “Grozah.”

-.-

Once again, Keith stood in the center of the strangely barren training deck. He twirled the blade of his bayard experimentally, trying to feel the weight. It felt as heavy as a traditional yulosite blade, and Keith hoped that this one would stay as sharp and durable. Though he seriously doubted it came with the extra perks of the highly…unusual metal.

Glancing around them room, he could see the others standing with relatively lax stances—save Shiro whom looked more uncertain and more ready for a fight. And, Keith would be too once he knew what they were up against and where it was coming from. He was used to hearing his enemies before he saw them, and he had always been able to observe small details about his opponents before a training match. But this place, it had nothing. No echoing screeches of captured Hive or Scorn monsters, no illuminating light of a screeb, cursed thrall, wizard, knight, or even a Vex on the rare occasion. Keith couldn’t even see a door this so-called Gladiator was supposed to enter from.

It frustrated him to no end.

“In order to defeat the Gladiator, all five Paladins must work as one,” Coran informed, “So good luck!”

A flash of blue came from above and Keith bristled as he saw a large white droid land on the ground in front of them. It was tall, white with golden accents, one blue eye, and had a battle staff; which struck him as odd as so far the Galra seemed more keen on distanced combat rather than close-quarters. It would make more sense to train against stun guns.

But then again, the ends of the staff could be blasters or something. He’d seen and sometimes helped his Uncle Cayde working on a lot of weird projects—most were fun—but some did leave him wondering what was going on in the Vanguard’s head. A blaster-staff did not sound too far-fetched after the gun-sword incident.

The Gladiator made the first move; lunging at Hunk, the Yellow Paladin yelped, trying to raise his heavy cannon to fire it. Only, instead of hitting the droid, the blasts went everywhere else, forcing several of them to dodge the stray blasts. In one swift movement, the Gladiator swiped Hunk’s feet out from under him and jammed the end of its staff into the teen’s gut, sparks flying off the tip.

An electric staff, so that meant it didn’t have ranged combat. Keith could work with that.

However, before he could, Pidge leapt at the robot while its back was turned. It whirled on its heel, and she blocked the staff with her bayard. Landing on the ground she rolled to her feet, deflecting another hit as it continued to swing before it kicked her into a wall.

A blast flew by it as it took a step towards Pidge, and the android’s attention turned to Lance. Ducking under another shot, it began to charge forwards, leaping back and forth in an unpredictable pattern to avoid blaster shots from the sputtering Paladin. Lance raised his gun to block the staff as it swung towards him, however the blow merely knocked his bayard from his hands, leaving him unarmed.

Keith decided this was the opportunity to strike. Charging forwards, Keith raised his blade as the robot made to strike Lance over the head. Only, instead it whirled on its heel and blocked him. The Gladiator shifted and Keith rolled back as it attempted to knee him in the gut before it swung its staff around to hit Lance. The staff’s impact practically lifted the Blue Paladin off the ground and Keith grit his teeth as he watched the other teen fly past him.

Fortunately, Shiro knew that was the perfect opening to attack. His brother in arms raced forwards, the hand of his prosthetic glowing bright violet. He raised it to strike only to freeze just a few feet from their enemy. He was pale, and his eyes suddenly looked glazed.

Something was wrong.

Sparks flew as metal clashed together and Keith deflected the Gladiator’s strike. Keith allowed himself to be pushed down to the ground before he lifted his legs and vaulted the robot off of him. Leaping to his feet, Keith charged forwards and spin out of the way of one of the electrified ends at it made a jab at him. In turn, he swung his sword up, severing its arm. The metal clanged as it hit the ground and, unsurprisingly the machine still tried to continue the fight.

At least until Keith deprived it of its head.

He watched as the robotic head rolled along the ground, its optic dimming as it deactivated. A small part of him wanted to rip a crater into the chest to make sure it stayed dead.

Shaking his head, Keith willed his bayard to fall back into its unarmed state, this thing was no Vex. He turned on his heel, ignoring the surprised looks of the others as he approached Shiro and set his hand on his shoulder. “Shiro? You ok?”

His older brother blinked, looking surprised for a moment before he clearly registered the shredded robot behind him. “Y-Yeah. What happened?”

“I’ll tell you what happened!” Allura snarled as she stomped in. “That combat simulator was fit for an Altean child! And you weren’t even close to working as a team! None of you, save for Keith, was even able to stand toe-to-toe with the Gladiator! You’re not even close to ready to face Zarkon.”

The others looked embarrassed, glancing away nervously and Keith could feel Lance glaring into his back. But he didn’t care, fighting was something he’d grown up doing, it was something he knew since he could walk. Of course the others wouldn’t be able to do this. They weren’t even expecting to be in a war till the other day. “In everyone’s defense, we weren’t planning on being thrown into an intergalactic war. They were part of an exploration program, not a combat program.”

“That’s obvious,” Allura grumbled as she walked away.

-.-

“Ahoy young Paladins!” Coran greeted as he set out their plates. “I’ve set out a big batch of focusing food. After this meal you’ll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!”

“Smells great Coran,” Shiro smiled as Jaz raised an eyebrow sharing a skeptical glance with several of the others. “Thanks.”

As they began to reach for their spoons, none of them noticed Coran’s mischievous smirk as he whipped out some sort of remote. Before they knew it, their hands had been cuffed together with the hands of the people sitting beside them or the arm-rest of their seat. “Hold the phone!” Lance exclaimed looking betrayed.

“I’ve seen a lot of solid individual performances today,” Coran said pointing at the with the remote, “but, I still have yet to see you work as a team. So welcome to the final training exercise of the day.”

Hunk pulled on his cuffs, his brows furrowing as he looking to the advisor. “Coran, I want you to think about what you’re doing here,” he spoke what sounded like a veiled threat.

Coran didn’t seem to pick up as his grin grew wider, “Oh, this is a classic! You get to feed each other! Like a pack of yalmors!”

“Forget it,” Hunk answered as he slammed his face into the goo.

“Damn, that’s what I call determination,” Jaz muttered taking a spoonful of goo before taking a hesitant bite. She covered her mouth as the taste and texture made her gag reflex fight against her as she forced herself to swallow the horrible substance. “Oh Ancients, I thought Eliksni rations were bad, this stuff is nasty.”

“Why does Jaz get to eat without cuffs?!” Lance whined yanking his arm only for the motion to yank Keith’s arm into his food. “You did that on purpose!”

“You yanked my arm into your food!” he snapped back.

“This is ridiculous! Just let us go!”

At the end of the table, Allura scowled as a vein began to show on her forehead. “Do Solians ever stop complaining?”

“Nope,” Jaz grinned. “We pride ourselves on our ability to complain and annoy people.”

“Can’t you just give us a break?” Shiro requested. “Everyone’s worked really hard today.”

“Yeah!” Keith snapped. “We’re not your prisoners!”

“And we’re not your puppets either!” Lance agreed.

Coran gaped, “You do not yell at the Princess!”

“Oh the Princess of what?” Pidge rolled her eyes, “We’re the only ones here and she’s no princess of ours!”

A splat echoed in the room as it suddenly went silent as a green blob splattered on Pidge’s face. All eyes turned to see Allura holding up the spoon used to launch it.

It. Was. On.

“Go loose Pidge!” Keith exclaimed grabbing his plate and hurling it at Allura.

Unfortunately, before his retaliation could land, Coran stepped in, swiping the good aside with what appeared to be a towel before he flung the serving spoon, covering them all in green slime.

A dark smirk began to cross Hunk’s face, “Oh, it’s on now!” Burying his face back in his food, he lifted it up and slammed his hands against his cheeks, spraying their hosts.

Things only escalated from there. Keith was aware of Pidge helping him hurl plates of goo and he also worked defense with Lance. Every now and then he could see Shiro and Jaz join in, blindsiding the Alteans when the opportunity arose—though Keith swore he saw Jaz hit Shiro in the face with a spoonful of goo, so they might’ve been having their own fight. And Hunk…Keith now rightfully had a healthy fear of the Yellow Paladin, in a food fight at least. He’d never seen someone become a living machine gun, it was both disturbing and impressive.

The fight only ended when almost every surface of the room had goo spattered on it somewhere. As green slime dripped to the floor, several of them began to stifle chuckles that threatened to escape. After such a stressful few days, it was nice to feel somewhat normal again.

“ENOUGH!” Allura shouted. “DON’T YOU SEE WHAT YOU’RE DOING?!”

“Good feelings gone,” he heard Hunk murmur.

Keith clenched his jaw, getting ready for another fight. He was sorely caught off guard as the woman grinned at them, “You’re finally working together as one!”

“Oh…yeah,” he muttered.

“I actually don’t hate you right now,” Lance commented before yelping as a clump of goo slammed into his face.

“Thanks Jaz.”

“No problem.”

“Hey!” Hunk chimed in, “You guys thinking what I’m thinking?!”

“Let’s go form Voltron!” Shiro smiled.

“Yeah!”

Hunk seemed to pout for a moment, “Actually I was thinking dessert, but yeah, Voltron works too.”

-.-

Keith stretched as he entered the lounge with the others. It was relieving to finally have formed Voltron outside of a battle; at least now Allura wouldn’t be breathing down their necks all the time and Coran wouldn’t be throwing eighty different bonding exercises at them. Now they could focus on real training.

“Man, that was so cool!” Lance said jumping as he walked. “I’m so charged up, I don’t know if I’m gonna get any sleep tonight!”

“Not me,” Keith said leaning back onto the couch, “It’ll be lights out once I get in bed.”

Hunk slid into the middle seeming to tear up as he yanked them into a hug, “I just want you to know, I realized that when we were in Voltron, we’re brothers, man! You know, we’re like totally connected! No secrets, no barriers, no nothing! Brothers all the way!”

Keith didn’t know if he was more startled by the tight hug or the bright flash that followed. Blinking a few times to see again, he didn’t bother to disguise his horror as he saw Jaz holding what appeared to be a camera. “Aw, you guys look so cute!”

“I’m going to kill you,” he muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t say his threat any louder as Hunk began squeezing tighter, Keith was pretty sure he was crying. “I love you guys!”

But clearly she still got the message. Jaz smirked at him knowingly, a familiar mirth in her eyes as she waved the camera tauntingly as she sauntered from the room.

He was going to throttle her for this later. After he erased that photo and any copy of it from existence.

Chapter Text

A/N: hey everyone! Welcome back! Glad to see ya’ll’re still reading!  Anyways, I just own my OCs, that’s it.

“Great job today guys,” Shiro praised as the Castle doors slid open to let them inside. Popping his helmet off, he huffed a puff of air at his forelock as it flopped into his eyes after being plastered to his head for so long. “I really think we’re starting to get the hang of this Voltron thing.”

“Yeah!” Lance agreed quickly, “Seriously, did you see how far I kicked that broken alien ship? It must’ve been like half a mile!”

Beside the Blue Paladin, Keith raised a brow as he took off his helmet, “Yeah, that’ll come in handy when the Galra challenge us to a soccer match.”

At his deadpan tone, Lance scowled, crossing his arms as he tilted his chin up, trying to look down his nose at him, “Hey, it’s not my fault you can’t handle the fact I did something cool.”

Keith rolled his eyes as he grabbed a plate “Your kick sloppy and put us off balance. We fell.”

As usual, the Blue Idiot refused to take any of the blame form himself, “What?! What was Hunk’s fault!”

“Hey!”

“Alright,” Shiro chided, “Knock it off. Save that energy for fighting Zarkon.”

“Orrr, we could wait to sell tickets,” Jaz spoke up as she slid into the room. “I bet people would pay big money to watch you two duke it out. My money’s on Keith. What do you think Shiro?”

“I’m not getting involved in this,” he muttered.

Beside him, the Awoken woman smirked, “That’s cause you know Keith would win and you don’t wanna hurt Lance’s feelings,” she taunted getting up and high-fiving Keith.

“HEY!”

Before another argument could break out, a door hissed open and Coran walked in with a large platter of food. “Hello everyone, how was the Voltron workout today?”

Shiro sighed, leaning back in his chair, “We’re getting there,” he answered. “Are you guys almost done fixing the Castle so we can leave this planet? I feel like we’re sitting ducks here on Arus.”

“Almost,” Jaz answered. “It’s taking longer than expected cause of how long the systems have been out of commission and how out of date they are.”

“In the meantime, to get those duck seats off your mind, I made this!” Coran set down the tray and ripped the lid covering it off with a flourish. “An authentic Paladin lunch!”

What was in front of them was a smelly, green, oozing thing with weird yellow-green tubes coming out of it.

“And I find myself not hungry anymore,” Jaz muttered shoving her plate away with a grimace.

To her right Keith seemed to agree as he eyed they strange dish, almost seeming to expect it to come to life. “I thought the goo was bad.”

“Coran, you just got me hooked on that goo, and now you’re changing it up on me?” Hunk complained poking the green blob with a look of distain.

“This is packed with nutrients!”

“It smells like a Scorn’s cell,” Jaz deadpanned.

“That’s how you know it’s healthy!”

This did not seem to appease the Yellow Paladin, “Coran, we’re on a planet with fresh herbs, spices, and whatever this is,” he held up a thin orange and green plant. “Now, if you’ll you excuse me, I’m going to the kitchen to spice things up.” Without waiting for a response, the teen stomped off towards the kitchens.

“Oh thank God.”

Shiro glanced around the room, his brows furrowing, “Where’s Pidge?”

Coran’s ear twitched and he put his hands on his hips, “Well, he’s probably checking on the prisoners we rescued from Zarkon. They’ll be waking up soon in the infirmary,” he answered grabbing a spoon and holding it up to the Black Paladin, “Now, open up the hatch! Food lion coming in!”

Thankfully, Shiro was saved by his chair being pulled away from the table as Jaz yanked him to his feet, “We should go check on Pidge.” She put on a fake smile, slowly backing away before she quickly turned and all but raced from the room down the hall.

“You don’t know what you’re missing!” Coran called after them.

Jaz grimaced, shaking her head, “I don’t know what that was, but it wasn’t food.”

Shiro chuckled, “No kidding. Thanks for getting me out of that.”

“No prob,” the Awoken woman smirked, playfully elbowing him. “Someone’s gotta keep your nice butt out of trouble. You hardly ever think straight.”

Shiro rolled his eyes at the playful jab, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. If there was one thing he remembered from his time in Zarkon’s prison, it was definitely his friend keeping him grounded with stupid jokes like that. It was definitely a bright spot in their otherwise abysmal existence.

“But seriously,” Jaz stopped in front of him, putting her hands on her hips, “I know that look Takashi, you’re worried about something. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Jaz’s lips pursed as her brow rose skeptically, “Uh huh?”

Shiro sighed, “You don’t believe me do you?”

“What possibly gave you that idea Taka?”

Shiro huffed at the sarcasm practically oozing from her tone. No way he was getting out of this one. “The prisoners, the recognized me.”

The woman’s brows furrowed, “They what?”

“They recognized me,” he repeated. “They even called me Champion.”

“Champion?” Jaz muttered. Her glowing gold eyes glanced towards the ground, as she tapped her chin in thought. “It doesn’t sound like an alias, let alone one you would’ve picked for yourself. Which means, it was a title assigned to you.”

It was Shiro’s turn to be confused, well, more confused than what he already was. “A title? We were prisoners.”

“It’s probably something the other prisoners assigned you,” Jaz stated. “Stuff like that happens sometimes, I remember from my rotations as a guard in the Prison of Elders. A term like Champion, it’s a title, one you earned somehow, probably assigned by the other prisoners as some sort of warning or inspiration.”

Shiro’s eyes went wide. “Warning?” he sputtered his stomach dropping. What of it was a warning? What on Earth did he possibly do to earn such a terrible title? Kami, he hoped it wasn’t a warning title, Shiro didn’t want to imagine what he could’ve done to make people terrified of him.

“Taka!” Jaz’s voice snapped, causing the Paladin to jump as he was yanked from his thoughts. Her hands were squeezing his shoulders as her gaze locked with his. “Calm down. It’s just as likely that title is something of inspiration, remember that. Think about it, how did the prisoner react when you found him?”

Shiro nodded, thinking back when he and Pidge rescued them on the warship. He remembered they were scared at first, but, the one who recognized him, he wasn’t. “He told the others I could help,” he recalled quietly.

Seeming satisfied with this answer, Jaz gave him one more reassuring squeeze as she stepped back. “See, it’s more likely that people saw you as someone to look up to while we were there. So calm down. I’d tell you to think straight, but we both know that’s not possible,” she smirked.

Shiro rolled his eyes as they resumed their trek to the medbay, the pit that had been developing in his gut feeling just a little lighter. Like usual, the doors gave a soft hiss before they whooshed open, revealing the Green Paladin standing in front of the pods, her foot tapping as she seemed to check the clock periodically.

“You’re as anxious as me,” Shiro mentioned gently, startling Pidge who looked towards them.

“These aliens have to know something about my family,” she said. “They have to.”

“Hope so.”

Jaz sighed, stepping up and setting her hand on the younger girl’s shoulder, “Remember, they were prisoners. Even if they do know anything, it’s likely that they won’t know where they are right now. Just keep that in mind.”

Pidge pouted for a moment, shrugging Jaz’s hand off as she looked towards Shiro. “They recognized you didn’t they? They called you Champion, what does that mean?”

Shiro gave her a shrug, “I don’t know, I can’t remember much from that time. And, from the way those guys looked at me when I freed them, I don’t know it I wanna know.” He crossed his arms, chewing the inside of his cheek. What if the title was a warning? “Jaz, I don’t suppose you know anything?”

Unsurprisingly, she shook her head, “Sorry, most of it’s still pretty fuzzy.”

That meant that they’d have to wait until the prisoners woke up to get the answers they wanted.

-.-

Keith could smell the food before he saw it, however, unlike with Coran’s abomination, this actually smelled good. He didn’t have to wait long as Hunk strode in carrying a tray full of colorful entrees. The Yellow Paladin set the trays down and Keith grabbed a fork and took a bite, eyes widening, he shared as glance with Lance who looked just as stunned as he was.

Finally, there was real edible food.

Needless to say, neither waited long before digging in with gusto. There was no way they were going to waste the opportunity while they had it.

“They like the Paladin lunch,” he heard Allura remark followed by the advisor’s annoyed huff.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

The princess was silent for a moment, no doubt slightly confused; but she seemed to drop the subject. “I just got the final nebulon booster working. We should be able to leave Arus tomorrow and take the fight to Zarkon.”

That comment made Keith pause as he looked to the two Alteans. Yeah…no. No way everyone was prepared for that. They were still figuring out how to do Voltron without Lance messing something up. If they left now, they would probably have their asses kicked in a real battle. Frankly, Keith only thought they won the last one due to beginner’s luck and the fact that Voltron had been gone for thousands of years so no one had the battle experience.

Red light flashed in the dining room as alarms blared, dropping his fork, Keith shot to his feet, bayard in hand as he ran up to Allura’s side, brows furrowed as she pulled up a camera feed. Just outside the Castle, a small yellow salamander-like being with horns peered out from behind a rock. Its small head darted around before it gave a cry, rushing towards the Castle, a sword in hand, leaping behind another rock. “What is that?”

“No idea, perhaps it’s a local Arusian,” Allura offered. “He’s approaching the Castle.”

“Aw, doesn’t look too dangerous,” Lance remarked.

Keith raised a brow. He could easily think of multiple animals that were adorable, but surprisingly dangerous both on Earth and in his system. “You never know.”

Allura glanced at him, her eyes seeming to widen as she saw the bayard in his hand. “No, Alteans believe in peace first. Let us go welcome them.”

“It’s adorable!”

“Maybe we can knit them a little sweater!”

Keith shook his head as he turned to follow them, first the Alteans wanted them to fight a war and now they wanted peace. Frankly he just wanted them to make up their damn minds. “Yeah, I’m not taking any chances.”

The trek to the Castle entrance felt like an eternity due to the endless chatter of the group ahead of him. And once or twice Keith considered throwing himself out the window to end his momentary misery.

“Hello,” Allura called out as the doors opened, the Princess quickly striding to the rocks the small alien hid behind. “We know you are there. I promise, no harm will come to you.”

It came out holding its primitive blade out. Keith had initially thought it had been the camera angle, but now he could see that the alien truly was quite small, it barely even reached his hip. The young guardian had to silent resist the urge to see how far he could punt it. “Drop your weapon,” he demanded holding up his bayard.

“Nobody takes Klaizap’s weapon!”

“Keith,” Allura admonished, “put that away. Please kind sir, accept my most humble apologies.”

Keith gave a deadpan expression as he looked at the Princess. Apologies? For what? Being practical and safe?

“Huh?” the alien muttered tilting his head. It took a moment, before the small being lowered his weapon, “I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors. Our village rises over Gazrel Hill. I come seeking answers, as to why the Lion Goddess is angry with her followers.”

“Followers?”

“Lion Goddess?”

Violet eyes glanced back at the Castle then back to the Arusian. Yeah, it wasn’t hard to see that jump. Advanced alien Castle, primitive race, made sense. Keith himself had heard of it hundreds of times as many alien races revered Guardians as gods.

“The one the Ancients spoke of,” Klaizap answered, pointing to a carving on one of the rocks, confirming Keith’s suspicions.

It seemed Allura had picked up on it too, as an amused smile crossed her face, “What makes you think she’s angered?”

“Destruction is everywhere! In the past few days, fire has reigned down from the heavens, and a giant has danced in the sky.”

“I think he’s talking about Voltron,” Hunk whispered.

Traveler, he really was trapped with idiots.

The princess gave an amused chuckle as she clasped her hands together, looking down at the uninvited guest, “I can assure you, you have not angered the Lion Goddess.”

“How can you be certain?”

“Because I am Allura, and this is my Castle.”

For such a tiny being, it gave a surprisingly loud gasp. Holding out his sword, Klaizap fell to his knees in a bow, “Lion Goddess!”

“Please, bravest warrior, take us to your village, so we may meet our neighbors.”

“I thought you wanted to get off this planet and fight Zarkon?” Keith reminded.

Allura looked at him, “Part of our mission is to spready peace and diplomacy. Arus has been our host for ten thousand years, its people deserve our thanks.”

By the Light of the Traveler, why couldn’t these people seem to pick a mission and stick to it? They could do this diplomacy stuff after they eliminated the tyrant who was busy in an arms race with the Hive and Cabal to conquer and destroy as much of the known universe as possible.

-.-

“So how long have you been a prisoner?” Pidge inquired as she handed one of the rescued captives a steaming cup.

“Some years,” the grey alien answered looking into the glass, “decades maybe. It’s hard to tell, time becomes a blur.”

Despite the depressing tone of his answer, Pidge seemed to perk up. “Then you must’ve been there when my dad and brother arrived! Sam and Matt Holt?”

“I never knew their names, but I certainly remember the other solian that arrived with Champion and Sorceress.”

“Champion?” Shiro repeated. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

Grey eyes met gold and Jaz shrugged, “Don’t look at me, this is the first time I’ve heard Sorceress.”

“You two really don’t remember? Unbelievable,” the alien said, his eyes wide in shock. “You two were legendary gladiators, undefeated in the ring. I was there the day you two earned your titles, as was the young solian. We were all prisoners, forced to fight for Zarkon’s entertainment. That day, were we being sent to fight Myzax, a vile beast many thought would never be defeated. Slaughter awaited us all. This Matt, was the first of us selected to fight. But fate had other plans…you two…you were so thirsty for blood, you injured your fellow solian, before you two turned on each other.”

“You guys attacked my brother!” Pidge exclaimed, her face turning flush with rage.

“What?” Jaz whispered.

“No, no way! There’s no way that happened!” Shiro argued.

“I was there, we all were.”

“After my brother was injured, where did they take him?”

“I know not.”

“There’s no way we attacked Matt!” Jaz hissed, her eyes flashing brighter. “There has to be something you aren’t telling us!”

“Wait!” Shiro voiced, stopping his comrade as she took a step towards the captive. “The ship that crashed, the one we were captive one, there has to be info in the systems!”

Jaz didn’t waste any time, taking Shiro’s hand as she stomped out of the medbay. “Wait! Hold on!” Pidge called chasing after them.

-.-

Keith crossed his arms as he stood in the small Arusian village. The group was surrounded on all sides by more of the tiny beings, all of them staring and talking excitedly around them.

The chatter quieted down as a larger Arusian stepped forwards, wearing a blue robe of some sort, “Oh Lion Goddess, I, King of the Arusians, formally beg your forgiveness. Please have mercy on us and accept our traditional Dance of Apology, as atonement for our wrongdoings.” His pudgy arms stretched above his head as he clapped dramatically and pink villager ran forwards. “Commence Dance of Apology! Hoorah!”

The small alien began the dance, and Keith looked around the village. It seemed quaint for the most part, tiny houses with grass rooftops. It almost reminded him of a mini version of some of the hunting villages on Terra.

“Uh…Keith?” Yorak hesitantly prodded through their bond. “Is that a bonfire?”

Brows furrowing, Keith looked around the village before his gaze stopped at the sight of a large pile of wood. Was there going to be a festival? A feast?

“Please,” Allura spoke up, an embarrassed grimace on her face, “there’s no need for this.”

“Moontow, halt!” the king demanded, and the Arusian immediately froze. “The Goddess has refused the apology. Start the sacrificial fire! We must throw ourselves in.”

The woodpile burst into flame and Keith felt his jaw drop as several villagers rose a pillar of wood with some pour soul tied to it, ready to be dropped into the flames. By the Traveler, they were serious.

“NO! NO SACRIFICES!” Allura exclaimed, waving her hands quickly in panic.

“So…we may proceed with the dance?”

“That’s the better alternative,” she replied shakily.

The music restarted and the dance continued, but Keith watched as the villagers lowered the sacrifice and released them from the pillar. He’d seem some weird things before, but sacrifice…that was a first.

With a final flourish the music ended and the tribe bowed to them. “Oh my,” Allura blushed, “Please, please rise. Thank you for that, but I am not some great being worthy of your worship. It is I who have unknowingly put you all in danger; it is I who should be apologizing to you.” She stepped forwards, kneeling down and gently pulling the closest villager to their feet. “I am Princess Allura and these are the Paladins of Voltron. Although we may come from different worlds, and have very, very different traditions, we wish to live alongside you as friends.”

“But, the mighty metal angel, has it not come to punish us for our immoral ways?” the King inquired.

“What? Voltron?” Allura scoffed. “No, in fact, that mighty robot is here to protect you. Let it be known that Voltron will protect every innocent being throughout the universe!”

The tiny aliens around them cheered loudly as they leapt to their feet. Before long, the small beings began to approach, clustering around them chattering rapidly. Keith bit back a grimace as he pulled away from the dense crowd, wanting to keep a semblance of his personal space.

That did not last long as one Arusian leapt at him, its tiny arms barely managing to lock around his waist. “Uh…well, I normally don’t hug strangers,” Keith sputtered, patting the alien’s head, “but man, you are cuddly.”

“Thank you.”

Keith’s eyes widened at the response as he looked down at his new belt; mostly due to the fact that a voice that deep was not supposed to come from something that small.

-.-

“This looks like the master control board, but there’s no power,” Pidge said as she and Shiro jetpacks turned off, allowing them to land on the ground in front of the sparking machine.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like the ship is broken or anything,” Jaz remarked as she jumped between broken slabs of metal and caught up to them.

“So then we just need to find a power source, one that’s compatible with Galra Tech.”

Shiro’s brows furrowed as he glanced down at his cybernetic hand then to the board. A familiar violet glow began to envelop it as he set it against the panel and, to his surprise, the screens began to flicker to life.

“Guess that solves the power issue,” Jaz muttered.

Pidge didn’t say anything as she activated her holoscreen, and began shifting through the data. “My dad’s, Matt’s, and Darvah’s whereabouts have to be in here somewhere. Once I download this information, I can find a way to decode it back at the Castle.”

Shiro and Jaz looked around as they heard a noise. “Jaz…did you do something?”

“No, I’ll go check it out.” Ignoring Shiro’s protests. She leapt back up the metal slabs. Some slivers digging into her palms as she crawled up to look around. So far, nothing seemed to be approaching from the ground. It was only when she looked up she got her answer, there was a big fireball falling towards them. “Well draaf. We gotta go!”

“What is it?!” Pidge called.

“No clue, but it’s big, probably Galra, and heading right towards us!”

“Shiro don’t move!” Pidge snapped. “I’m only fifteen percent done! I’m not going anywhere!”

God this girl had a death wish. “Unless your family wants you to become deep-fried pancake we need to go!”

Sharing a nod with Shiro, the man scooped the tiny girl up as Jaz crawled out the exit. She could hear the jetpack behind her and Pidge’s shouts of protest. Raising her hand up to the commlink she swiped, she called the others. “Guys! We have a problem!”

-.-

“Jaz?” Allura suddenly spoke, looking up from the Arusians almost as if she was listening to a commlink.

Prying himself away from the clingy critters, Keith approached the Princess, jaw set tight. “What’s going on?”

His answer came as a boom shook the air around them. Looking up he could see the ball of fire falling into the atmosphere. “Yorak, what’re the odds that that’s just part of the ship we took down?”

“Not good.”

That’s exactly what Keith wasn’t hoping to hear. But that didn’t mean he didn’t suspect it. Especially given the odds of a natural meteor crashing onto them. “We’ve gotta get to our lions!”

At his words, Allura and Coran leapt into action, quickly waving their hands and assisting the little Arusians, “Everyone get inside and stay down!”

“I’m on it!” Hunk said running past him.

He didn’t get far as Keith snatched the Yellow Paladin by the back of his collar, nearly causing the other teen to slam onto his back as he legs continued moving without him. The Red Paladin ignored the other’s whimpers as he dragged him back towards the Castle.

-.-

Jaz coughed as heat scoured her throat. Uncovering her eyes, she blinked a few times, trying to see through the haze of dust that had erupted from the impact of the unknown object. Instead of seeing the projectile, she saw the black and white leg of one of the lions.

“The…the lions saved us?” Shiro panted.

Pidge seemed equally surprised as she looked up, “I didn’t know they could do that.”

“Well, you learn something new every day,” Jaz muttered. Standing up, she shielded her eyes from the blinding sunlight brows furrowing as she spotted whatever almost flattened them. Whatever it was, it was definitely Galra, though she would note that there did seem to be some Cabal influence on the design. The lander was huge, bigger than any she’d seen before. There had to be an army in there…maybe something worse.

Her concerns were proven valid as the lander hissed, steam spewing from the seams as the walls began to separate and shake the ground as they collapsed. What was revealed, was something right out of some sci-fi movie or an anime genre Shiro liked that she couldn’t remember: a giant robot, one that, no doubt, was sent to fight Voltron.

“Get in the lions!” Shiro ordered.

Chapter Text

A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome back! Hope y’all’re enjoying the story so far. Anyways, I don’t own Voltron or Destiny, just my OCs.

Dust flew into the air as the Black Lion was tossed of the Galra robot’s shoulders, inside the cockpit, Jaz and Shiro grunted as the impact almost sent them flying around the cockpit. “Ow,” Jaz muttered, getting back to her feet as she tried to pry her white knuckled grip from Shiro’s seat.

“Keith was right,” Shiro muttered, “these things need seatbelts.”

“And a passenger seat,” she added.

/Lay down some cover fire!/ Keith called as Red flew overhead.

/On it!/ Lance’s voice rang out as laser fire began to rain down between Black and the machine attacking them.

/Watch this! Battle-Lion Head-Butt!/ Yellow dove down from the sky, slamming into the robot from the side, causing it to stumble and fall to its knees.

/You guys ok down there?/ Keith’s voice called over the gunfire.

“Still alive, for now.”

/Are the Galra behind this?/ Hunk’s panicked voice asked.

“Who else?” Jaz deadpanned.

Shiro tossed her an irritated glare, now wasn’t the time for sarcasm. “It doesn’t matter, we need to figure out how to bring this thing down.”

/Any idea what this thing is?!/

/Some sort of robot!/ Pidge answered.

Shiro glanced to his right as azure strands of hair fell over Jaz’s shoulder as she leaned forwards, pursing her lips. “What is it?”

“I don’t know, it looks familiar.”

/So what’s the plan? Shoot at it with everything we got? Take out its weapons? Call it names?/

/Hunk! Calm down!/ Lance snapped.

/I can’t! I’m panicking!/

“Listen,” Shiro interrupted, “if we want to take this monster down, there’s only one way to do it,” as if knowing what he was doing, the Lions began to roar and a glow began to eminate from their eyes and seams, moving to cover them, “Form Voltron!”

At his exclaimation, Black launched into the air, grouping up with the other Lions. Shiro could feel the trembling of his lion as parts shifted and he could hear metal scraping and gears whirring and locking as Voltron formed.

“Remember,” he spoke up as the transformation finished, “we’re one unit fighting with one goal.”

Voltron shot forwards, dodging by the glowing electric orb as it soared past them. Red pulled back and then shot forwards in a powerful punch that Shiro could feel shake through the entire superweapon as their opponent stumbled back. Taking the opportunity, Pidge moved Green into an uppercut and Shiro could almost sense everyone get the same idea as they shoved the controls forwards, causing Voltron to leap up and the arms of Voltron swung down for a final blow.

However, that blow was blocked by the robot’s arm. It raised its other arm, the claw beginning to spin before it shot forwards and slammed them onto the ground.

“Guys,” Jaz grunted as she pulled herself back up beside Shiro’s seat, a small trickle of silver blood dripping down her forehead, “the orb.”

Looking at his scanner, Shiro blanched as he saw the warning light flashing as the object approached. The others must’ve done the same because Voltron seamlessly moved to roll out of the way and fly back into the air.

/I thought Voltron was the most powerful weapon in the universe?!/ Keith exclaimed.

/Exactly! How is this thing kicking our butts!/

“It has been ten thousand years,” Jaz grimaced.

/JAZ! Not helping!/ Hunk cried as they ducked under the orb.

Only to turn around and get punched by the robot. The ground under them shook as Voltron slammed through the hill they had been fighting at and had then slammed into the next hill over. Rolling over, Shiro managed to lift the Head of Voltron and paled as he could see small houses in the distance. The village, he’d completely forgotten about it.

“We have to protect those people.”

“Orb!”

Voltron raised its arms, blocking the glowing sphere as it plowed into them. Trenches slowly formed in the ground as the force of the weapon continued to push against them, before they were finally able to push it back and send it flying back to its owner.

“That was close,” Shiro sighed as Voltron flew up into the air flying away from the village.

/We have to get away from the Arusians/ Pidge said, /But we can’t take this thing down!/

“Well we can’t protect them if we can’t protect ourselves,” Jaz retorted.

/I got it!/ Lance exclaimed, /I’m gonna power-kick that orb thingy!/

/No! Last time you did a kick we fell!/ Keith protested.

/Stop living in the past!/

The orb began to fly towards them once again as Voltron began to dive towards the ground. Over the comms they could hear the Blue Paladin’s battle cry as Voltron began the downwards kick. A battle cry that quickly ended as the orb soared past him.

/Oh no/

Shiro grunted, squeezing the controls as the orb slammed into them, sending them flying into the ground. He could hear Jaz grunt behind him along with a few Awoken curses as she pulled herself up, gripping the seat with a white-knuckled grip.

/My point’s proven/ Keith grumbled.

“Now is not the time for your petty squabbles guys!” Jaz snapped.

Shiro agreed, but right now he was more focused on getting Voltron back to its feet. “Pidge, fire lasers now!”

The Green Lion rose up its mouth beginning to glow, however, instead of firing a blast Voltron’s wings detached and form a shield.

/Oops/

“No! Lasers!” Shiro repeated as the orb flew back them. Fortunately, the shield took the brunt of the blow; at least until it came back around and sent them sprawling.

/Every time we focus on the orb we get blindsided by the monster! And every time we focus on the monster we get hit by the orb!/ Hunk complained.

/Then what do we do?!/

/Orb!/

The flying object slammed into them again, and Voltron was slammed back. /Shiro! We’ve gotta move!/ Keith called. /Shiro? Are you there? Shiro!/

Jaz’s brows furrowed and she looked down at her friend; Shiro was pale, sweat beading on his brow as his breaths came in short gasps. She’d been in the military long enough to recognize a panic attack, let alone those of a man she’d shared a cell with for the past year. Reaching out, she set her hand on his shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze in an attempt to anchor him as she relayed orders while Shiro recovered. “First thing’s first: we need to take out that arm. With that out of the picture we can put all of our focus onto beating this thing without being blindsided. That sound good Shiro?”

Her friend jumped, clearly startled out of his flashback, “What?” he panted looking at her.

“You ok?”

He gave her a hesitant nod, his brows furrowing as he looked back to their opponent, “That sound…the one the orb makes, I recognize it from our time in Zarkon’s prison! I know how to beat it!”

“Well tell us!” Jaz exclaimed gripping onto his seat as Voltron dove out of the way of one of the robot’s attacks.

“Ok, there’s a loud sound when the orb returns to the weapon’s base, and every third time it stays longer to charge up. That’s the monster’s weakest point. That’s when we strike!”

/Sounds like a plan/ Keith replied.

/So what do we do in the meantime?/ Hunk voiced.

“You do defense, I do offense,” Jaz replied, “try not to lose balance and break my concentration.” Letting her friend go, Jaz took a step back and pressed her palms together as her eyes began to glow brighter. Slowing pulling her hands apart a thin white line began to form in front of Voltron, energy sparking off of it as it continued to grow.

“Shield!” Shiro ordered and Jaz grimaced as she felt Voltron shake and she had to keep her balance while maintaining the spell. “That’s one! Two more to go.”

The Awoken woman grimaced, she wasn’t sure if she could keep concentration for two more blows like that. Gritting her teeth, she began to curl her fingers inward as she began to push against the energy she created. The line of light began to condense into a large orb, arcs of lightning shooting off and striking the ground as she forced it into a tighter ball.

Under her feet, Voltron jerked violently and Jaz stumbled, her orb momentarily spreading out as she started to lose concentration. Forcing her feet back under her, Jaz’s eyes flashed brighter as she put her attention back on the spell, bringing it back under her control.

/We can’t take much more!/

“Last one!” Shiro called. “Everyone, brace for impact!”

Their opponent’s orb shot towards them and Jaz backed herself up against the wall as it hit. She was glad she did as the impact shook Voltron, nearly tossing Shiro out of his seat as their shield went flying away from them.

But that didn’t matter as their finally opening came. “Now!” Jaz exclaimed thrusting her hands forwards. The sparking white sphere shot out away from Voltron at her command and she could see Keith fire a blast from his lion towards their target.

Both attacks made impact, sending smoke up into the air and obscuring their view. For a moment, they all felt a sense of relief that they had one.

It was short-lived as the smoke cleared.

The beast stumbled back, a scorch mark on its side from where Keith’s blast had hit and the twisted, partially molten remains of its left arm dangling by its side. Jaz gasped as she stumbled forwards, sweat dripping down her brow as she struggled to stay on her feet. She had missed. The weapon—their biggest problem—was still operational.

“Draaf.”

/It didn’t work!/

/What do we do now?!/

“When I attacked him before I had a sword!” Shiro stated.

“Well we don’t exactly have a sword right now, do we?” she muttered.

“Not helping Jaz.”

/Orb!/

Jaz grunted as the impact of the violet ball of pain slammed into Voltron’s chest, sending her flying back into the wall of the cockpit. Landing on the ground she panted, shakily getting back to her feet as she scrambled back to Shiro. “You ok?”

“No.”

/We can’t take another shot like that!/

What made that obvious: the fact that they were having their butts handed to them or the fact they were essentially unarmed?

So much for the most powerful weapon in the universe. The old times must’ve been nice, because clearly that was no longer the case.

/Wait a sec/ Keith chimed in, /I think my Lion’s telling me what to do/

/Well whatever it is do it quickly cause he’s about to hit us again!/

The orb soared overhead as Voltron began to get back on its feet before it changed direction and slammed into its back causing its passengers to grunt as the impact knocked them forwards.

Peeling herself off of Shiro’s chair, Jaz winced as she held her ribs and looked out as they got back up. So far, she was getting more beat-up here than she’d ever been in a cockpit before. Though that wouldn’t matter for long given how well the battle was going. Even with one arm this thing was kicking their asses.

However, Jaz felt the tides turning as she watched Red slam into Green pulling away with a glowing arc of light slashing through the air and clean through the beast as the sword formed.

/Yeah!/

/We did it!/

/How did you do that?/

/We have a sword!/

Jaz smirked, shaking her head as she heard Keith chuckle, /Whoa, thanks Red/

-.-

Pidge sat on the bridge leading towards the Castle letting her feet dangle over the edge. She didn’t want to be present for the prisoners’ departure, it was just a reminder of what she failed to do.

“Pidge, there you are,” Shiro said making her look up as she saw him walking over to her.

“Why did you hurt my brother? You were friends?”

“I did it to save him,” Shiro said.

“What?”

Shiro sat down next to Pidge, “My memory of the event came back when we were fighting the monster. Your dad was being sent off with the weaker prisoners to a work camp, Darvah was being taken for his engineering abilities or his muscle, meanwhile Matt was sent with us to fight in the gladiator arena. Matt was going to fight first, but he was scared. We all were.”

Flashback.

Cheers from the arena echoed loudly through the dark tunnel the group stood in watching violet-tinged light filter in through the barred door. They could see a large figure standing in the center of the gray sands, patches of various colors stained into the dust around him as he held up the pike holding a glowing orb causing the crowd to cheer louder.

“I’m not going to make it!” an auburn-haired boy exclaimed, almost stumbling back from the line. “I’ll never see my family again.”

“Don’t think like that!” Jaz protested.

Behind her, Shiro stepped forwards, putting a hand on his shoulder, “It’ll be ok Matt, you can do this.”

Any further conversation was cut short as the metal bars screeched open and a guard stepped forwards holding up a sword and pointing to Matt. However, it wasn’t the chosen competitor who took the blade.

Instead, the sword practically flew from his hand into the open hand of an Awoken sorceress. Closing her fist around the blade, she slashed at Matt, “No!”

The young man yelped as a gash opened on his leg before he ducked as he heard another yelp followed by the Sword cutting his shoulder as Shiro wrestled the blade from Jaz’s grip and vaulted her over his shoulder. “This is my fight! I want blood!” he exclaimed practically landing on top of both of them.

Matt glanced nervously between the two as he saw Jaz’s eyes begin to glow. However, whatever she had planned next was stopped as Shiro gave her a knowing look, his gaze softening. “Take care of your father,” he whispered as sentries grabbed their friend’s shoulders and pulled him out into the area.

Pidge breathed a sigh of relief, a feeling of uncertainty that had pooled in her gut since the rescue of the former-prisoners. “You guys saved him,” she said, “You both attacked so they’d choose you instead.”

Shiro gave a shrug, “Well how was I supposed to know that Jaz would have the same idea I did?”

“We’ve been friends for how long again, Shiro?” a familiar voice snickered and both turned to see said Awoken leaning against one of the pillars lining the side of what the Green Paladin assumed had been some sort of overhang cover. “But, we wouldn’t have had to do that if we’d gone with my initial plan to move his place in line.”

“They could’ve picked him anyways.”

Jaz raised a skeptical brow, “You don’t know that.”

“Thank you!” Pidge exclaimed, leaping to her feet and hugging them. “I’m so, so sorry I doubted you! Thank you so much!”

“Hey, we weren’t going to let anything happen to them,” Jaz reassured patting her head, “and we’ll find them, don’t worry.”

“And for what it’s worth,” Shiro chimed in, placing a hand onto the younger girl’s shoulder, “your brother and father would be really proud of you Katie.”

Chapter Text

A/N: Hey y’all welcome back! So, I just own my OCs, nothing else is mine.

Yorak talking with Keith.

Flashbacks

“And the monster fell from the sky!” the loud voice of the Arusian king exclaimed as he threw his hands in the air, regaling the story of Voltron’s battle from the other day. “It was an epic battle! But, in the end, Voltron was victorious!”

At his cue, the two pairs of Arusians stacked on each other faced each other and one threw their stick at the other causing them to flop to the ground.

“No! Voltron was victorious!”

The pair that had fallen scrambled back up while the other pair toppled over as the crowd cheered excitedly.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for that wonderful production,” Allura interrupted with a sheepish smile. “While it saddens me that we are leaving tomorrow, we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe.” She turned to the king, holding up a small silver and blue disc, “Your Highness, please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance.”

Taking the communicator with the respectful bow, the small king turned to his people and raised it into the air with a joyful exclamation, “Hoorah!”

“We should get something like that,” Hunk’s voice said somewhere to his left, causing Keith to jump as he turned to see both the Yellow and Blue Paladins approaching.

“Like what?”

“Like a cheer! Like a team cheer we could do.”

Keith raised a brow. Why did they need a cheer?

However, Lance seemed to be on board with the idea. “Yeah!” he nodded, tapping his chin rapidly. “We could—oh! How about I say ‘Vol’ and you say ‘Tron’. Vol!”

By the Traveler this was stupid. “Voltron?” he deadpanned.

“No! No, no, no. The cheer contains the instructions,” Lance repeated. “I say ‘Vol’, you say…”

“Voltron.”

He could see Lance die a little inside at his response. But, frankly, Keith didn’t particularly care. Having a cheer like that wasn’t useful to them, especially one that couldn’t be used to toss their opponents off their rhythm and catch them off guard. If it’d done either of those things, then maybe he would’ve considered it.

“We’ll work on it,” Lance grumbled swiping a cup off a floating plate.

Keith glanced to Hunk and the other boy gave him a shrug. So either this was normal for Lance or he was just as confused about this apparent need for a cheer as he was—though he was the one who suggested the idea initially.

Though anything he could’ve asked about the situation was stopped by the sound of something dying.

Whipping his head in the direction of the sound, Keith’s brows shot up as he looked at the slightly green face of Lance. “Is…is he ok?” Yorak inquired.

“I don’t know,” Keith muttered under his breath as the Blue Paladin shuffled over to Coran as he passed by.

“Coran, what is this?”

“Oh, this is Nunvill, the nectar of the gods.”

“It tastes like hotdog water and feet.”

“Yeah,” Coran replied as if something that tasted like that was normal—but given what he’d tried to feed them earlier it wasn’t too farfetched. “It makes a wonderful hair tonic as well.” As if to demonstrate he reached into his cup and splashed some onto his moustache.

Lance made a retching noise as the advisor walked away and Keith and Hunk shared a glance as they approached the motionless boy. “Is he alive?”

“He’d complain more if he were dead.”

“True,” Hunk agreed tentatively reaching out and tapping his friend’s shoulder. The Blue Paladin collapsed to the ground and his comrades shared a glance. “Walk away and pretend nothing happened?”

“Sounds good to me,” Keith agreed as they parted ways and tried to act inconspicuous.

-.-

“You checking the perimeter too?” Shiro asked as he stepped up to Jaz’s side as she stood outside the Castle watching over the moonlight landscape.

“I don’t want to be caught off guard again.”

“Seems we agree on that,” he sighed tiredly. “So, how are you handling all this?”

Crossing her arms, Jaz shrugged, “I’ve been in a lot of different situations over my enlistment: prison riots, rebellions, assassination attempts, gang wars, interspace battles. But this…” she trailed off, putting her hands on her hips, “I mean, I’ve trained for being a prisoner of war—but this, being abducted by a unknown alien race, that’s something I never prepared for.”

“What were you preparing for? Xenomorphs?” Shiro chuckled.

Jaz gave a slight smile as she shook her head. “Something like that,” she replied quietly. “Let’s just say there’s far, far worse things out there than the Galra.”

Shiro’s soft smile faltered, “Well…let’s hope we don’t have to meet them.”

“Hopefully,” Jaz replied a grim look on her face as golden eyes watched the hills around them, “because as much as I hate to say it, Voltron’s nowhere near ready to handle them.”

Personally, Shiro wanted to disagree. They’d made progress with Voltron, faster than expected too, but the look in her eyes made him stop. He knew his memory of his time in the Galra prisons was fragmented and mostly missing; heck, he’d only just remembered his first battle in their god-forsaken gladiator matches just the other day. The parts he did remember…they weren’t pleasant: there were experiments, long periods trapped in a cell with Jaz, and a few battles in the arena.

One of which, always without fail, always made his blood run cold. He remembered that one vividly, mostly because of how Jaz was acting when they got put in the arena.

The thought made Shiro pause. Had…had she seen one of those things before?

It made sense. When they fought one of those…beasts, she knew exactly how to take it down. She didn’t even need him to explain what happened the first time he’d been thrown against one of those mosters. Jaz took one look at him and somehow knew exactly what happened and what he fought against.

Was it responsible for what he saw just over a year ago? Back before the Kerberos mission?

-.-

Shiro sighed as the door to the apartment he was sharing with Jaz, Darvah, and Matt closed behind him. Setting down a box of pizza, he pulled his jacket off and hung it up tiredly.

“That well huh?”

Jumping slightly, Shiro looked up and met the concerned gaze of Matt as he sat on the couch, a computer in his lap and several open books around him. “Yeah,” he answered walking over and slumping onto the other chair, rubbing his head.

“Well, then it’s his loss.”

Shiro felt the corners of his mouth twitch at the comment. Keith had said the same thing when he’d gone to hang out with his adopted brother after his attempt to talk things out with Adam had gone so well. Although…Keith’s language had been far more colorful.

“So where’d you go after?”

“Just to hang out with Keith for a bit.”

“So how’s the little Nukruu?” Darvah spoke up as he entered the living room, his four eyes blinking as he popped the lid of a bottle of ether.

Shiro blinked as he tried to process the word. Eliksni wasn’t one of his best languages; usually he just left it to someone else to translate cause he found it too complicated. Though it was moments like this he often wondered what exactly he was missing. “He’s doing alright. Though he did tell me to remind you that you still owe him thirty bucks.”

The massive alien gave a loud groan as he took a ship of his drink, “Damn kid never forgets a bet.” Setting his bottle down, Darvah got up and walked over to him, grabbing the paper plates as he used his other arms to grab a pizza slice. “Thanks for the food though.”

“Oh pizza!” Matt exclaimed, scrambling off the couch to grab a slice.

“Has Jaz had dinner yet?” Shiro inquired.

“Uh…” the engineers looked at each other, “I don’t think so.”

Rolling his eyes, Shiro grabbed a slice and put it on a plate before he walked down the hall towards and knocked on one of the doors. “Jaz?”

Not getting an answer, he tried the knob with his free hand and gently pushed it open. She wasn’t on her bed or at her desk; stepping inside, he looked around to see light coming from under the door of the conjoined bathroom. She must’ve been in there.

He stepped forwards, raising his hand to knock on the door when it swung open, revealing Jaz, whom was wearing nothing but a bra and underwear, showing three long scars travelling up her side.

“Uh…I…”

“You are so lucky I know you’re gay.”

-.-

“Shiro?” Jaz spoke up, pulling Shiro out of his thoughts. “You ok?”

“Uh, yeah,” he sputtered. “So, uh, I don’t mean to pry, but is that…” he trailed off, running his hand along his side around where he thought the marks were.

“Where I got my scars?” she finished for him. Her hand drifted her side, as golden eyes glanced away, “Yeah, back home, in the Reef, our military worked on…well, alien threats. Now, before you freak out, we didn’t know about the Galra before our unfortunate encounter. But, other species…that’s another story.”

Shiro’s brows shot up as he stared at her. “Seriously?”

Jaz nodded, “Yeah—technically I’m not supposed to say anything, but given everything that’s happened, why not at this point?” she shrugged. “I got it when Keith and I snuck into the prisons to see what hostile thing they caught, only it got out and, managed to get a lucky hit on me before Keith’s dad shot it and my mom dragged us out.”

“Wait, Keith’s dad?” Shiro said. “I thought his dad was a firefighter? He died in a fire, that’s the story I remember hearing.”

Jaz sighed, “That was the story the public was given. In reality Keith’s dad was Special Ops, he did classified missions with my mom. That’s why we know each other; we literally grew up together.”

It actually made a lot more sense than Shiro liked and explained so many questions he’d had about his foster brother. His dad being in black ops explained why Keith knew Awoken and Eliksni so well, how he and Jaz knew each other, how he was frighteningly proficient with combat and weapons. “That…explains a lot.”

“Yeah, it’s also why the officials at the Garrison didn’t like him much. Technically Keith would outrank them upon graduation,” she replied. “To even know minor details on heavily redacted mission reports, you have to have obscenely high clearance. Like so high not even Admiral Sanda can’t know all the details.”

“Wait, why would Keith have outranked them?” Shiro questioned, his brows furrowing. He understood the clearance thing, but otherwise it didn’t make much sense.

“Well, Keith was going to join,” Jaz answered hesitantly. “He’d already had the training from his dad and other members of the squad. He met all the requirements. The only reason he wasn’t already in was because he had to do stuff at the Garrison to learn the bureaucratic stuff. And, members of that particular unit don’t have to report to anyone except Queen Mara and the Generals in charge. They’re also able to take command of any resources they need. So if needed, a member of that unit could go into the Garrison, take whatever equipment and personnel they needed, and their requests would supersede any orders from another commander. Make sense?”

“No.”

Jaz opened her mouth to probably try to explain further, but she was cut off as Pidge called out to them, “Hey guys. I need to talk to you.”

“Sure, about what?” Shiro answered, barely hiding his relief at the change in topic.

“Uh…well, it might be easier to explain to everyone at once,” she replied, scratching the back of her head.

Jaz and Shiro shared a glance. “Ok then.” Going inside, they gathered the others and stepped into the entrance hall away from the main crowd of the party. “So, what do you need to talk to us all about?”

“I’m leaving. You’re going to have to find someone else to fly the Green Lion,” Pidge stated. “I’m going to go find my family. The data I downloaded from the ship was enough to at least get me going in the right direction.”

“What?” Jaz sputtered, “The right direction? I’m sorry, but do you really think that’s enough for you to go off into unknown space on your own?! What if they aren’t where you think they are? What will you do then? What will you do if you’re attacked? Cause I know that you’re not planning on taking the bayard. Also, what about hacking Galra stuff? Do you have a power source? Tech? Can you even read the language?!”

“I have Rover!”

“Oh great! You have a droid I could blast to ash with a flick of my wrist! I feel so much better about letting you go off on your own!”

“I already have a pod all ready to go.”

“Oh, and do you have enough supplies? Life support? A spacesuit—and no not your armor,” Jaz continued. “Do you realize how stupid you’re being?!”

“I’m going to find my family, you can’t stop me.”

“I bet dying alone in space will stop you,” Keith snapped. “And guess what? If you leave, we can’t form Voltron. Which means, we can’t defend the universe. You aren’t the only one with a family. All these Arusians have families. Everyone in the universe has families.”

“Yeah I have a family,” Hunk interrupted. “They live on Earth, I wanna see them. Is that a thing that can happen?”

“You want to leave too?” Allura gasped.

“I mean, Voltron’s cool and all, but I didn’t sign up for a lifetime of fighting aliens in deep space.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Keith snarled, his dark violet eyes seeming to glow with rage for a moment. “You guys are so selfish! You’re putting your own interests before the lives of everyone else in the galaxy! Tell me, how will it feel having the blood of billions of innocents on your hands?”

“Keith!” Shiro exclaimed putting his hand on his little brother’s shoulder and pushing him back. “Keith, that’s not how a team works. People have to want to be a part of it; they can’t be forced.”

Keith snapped back in a language he didn’t understand as he shoved his hand off, “Kostagonsagon daor skoriot ao māzigon hen.”

Shiro took a step back at his brother’s violent outburst. He didn’t like the prospect of Pidge leaving either, but it was her choice—he just hadn’t been expecting to see Jaz and Keith react so cruelly. Frankly, he’d say their reactions were way, way out of line. “Pidge,” he spoke up, “if you want to leave, we won’t try to stop you. But, please, just think about what you’re doing.”

“I’m sorry,” she replied, “but you’re going to have to find someone else to pilot the Green Lion.”

Without waiting for another word, Pidge shrugged her bag back onto her shoulder and started walking away from them. “This team is falling apart,” Allura whispered, speaking up for the first time since the start of the conversation. “How will we ever form Voltron?”

She didn’t get an answer before the Castle shook with an explosion.

Chapter Text

A/N: hey everyone! Welcome back! Good to see y’all again! Anyways, I just own my OCs and the story, nothing else is mine.

/comms/

Telepathy

Flashbacks

Smoke filled the hall as the group raced towards the source of the explosion they’d heard. Up ahead, they could hear the sound of coughing as a figure seemed to slowly sit up; getting closer, they could all see it was Coran.

“What happened?” Shiro asked, helping the advisor to his feet.

Coran gave another cough, rubbing a bruise forming on his forehead, “I’m not sure.”

“The crystal,” Allura gasped as she looked up into the room, her blue-pink eyes widening as she saw the fragments of the main-energy source. Taking another step forwards, a soft groan drew her attention and she looked down, “Lance!”

Drawn by her shout, the others raced over, Shiro and Jaz being the first to kneel by his side. “Lance?” Shiro spoke, gently shaking his shoulder, “Lance?!”

Frowning, Jaz gently pushed her friend off as she assessed the Blue Paladin’s injuries. He was burned, not severe, but enough to say he’d been caught in the explosion; she would bet he’d fractured something too given his labored breathing. Lying him flat, she pressed her fingers to his neck, almost sagging with relief as she found a pulse. “He’s alive, unresponsive, but alive,” she said. “He has minor burns, a few possible fractures to his ribs, and” she motioned to the blood trickling down his brow, “a head injury, depending on the severity we’ll need to watch for a concussion.”

“We need to get him to the infirmary!” Pidge exclaimed.

“We can’t,” Allura spoke up, “without the crystal the Castle has no power.”

“He doesn’t look good,” Shiro murmured.

“Then we’ll just have to make do in the meantime,” Jaz replied pulling her hair back. “I’m no expert in healing magic, but I’ll do what I can. Hunk, Pidge, go get me what clean water you can find. Shiro, Coran, bandages and burn cream. Allura, you stay and help me move him to a bed or something. Keith, go clear out the Arusians and keep watch; this was a deliberate attack, we don’t want them to get the drop on us again.”

“Lion Warriors!” a voice interrupted and they all turned to see the Arusian king running towards them. “Our village is under attack! We need help!”

“Draaf,” Jaz cursed. “Allura, are the lions available?”

The other woman shook her head. “They’re sealed in their hangars. There’s no way to get them out. We’re defenseless.”

That’s exactly what she was afraid of.

“This is bad,” Hunk whimpered.

“Will you not help us?” the king asked.

“We will, we just…” Keith trailed off. “We’re going to have to redirect duties. I’ll go check up on the village.”

“I’m coming with you,” Allura agreed. “I brought this on the poor Arusians, I must amend that mistake.”

“No, it’s too dangerous.”

“You may need backup,” Shiro chimed in.

“In the meantime, we’re going to need another crystal to get the Castle up an running again,” Coran continued. “But to do that we need a ship.”

“The pod I was loading!” Pidge exclaimed. “I left the bay doors open! We can use that!”

“I can scan the area to see if there’s a balmera nearby. Hunk, come with me, I need someone big to help me carry that crystal.”

“A balmera?”

“I’ll explain on the way!” Coran said as he ran out of the room, the Yellow and Green Paladins on his heels.

“Pidge!” Jaz called. “On your way back, bring me the supplies I asked for. Shiro, I’m going to need you to stand guard, I have a feeling whoever’s responsible for this will be here soon.”

Nodding, Shiro ran out with Keith and Allura. Their footsteps echoed loudly down the stairs as they raced down the dark halls and he came to a stop at the main entrance as Keith and Allura continued their run towards the village.

Shiro could feel his hair standing on end. How? How had this happened? They’d been standing at the only entrance for the whole night, how did an attack slip through?

It couldn’t have been through the hangar Pidge was using, that was facing towards the water and was perched high above sheer, rocky cliffs surrounded by ranging waters and winds. There was no way something small enough to sneak by them would survive the trip, much less make it inside without tripping some sort of alarm. It had to have come through the main entrance.

But, he and Jaz had been watching. The only things going in and out were themselves and the Arusians.

Unless…unless was disguised as something? Or came in while they had been distracted. That was the only way to account for something being able to get in right under their noses.

Though he didn’t have much time to contemplate what happened further as he spotted a group coming towards him from the bridge. And even from where he stood, he could still see the glowing yellow eye and the purple glowing prosthetic he recognized all too well. “Sendak.”

“Stand aside.”

Activating his arm, Shiro settled into a fighting stance, “No. You’re not getting in here.”

“Yes, I am.”

The energy link on the Galra’s prosthetic flared, small arcs of energy branching off of it before the limb came flying at him. Eyes widening, Shiro rolled to the side as the talons dug into the ground of where he once stood.

Unfortunately, he was so distracted by the arm, he momentarily forgot about the owner. Spotting movement out of the corner of his eye, Shiro took a step back as sharp claws arced by his face as Sendak made his move. His fist glowed as he threw a punch, the metal sparking off the limb of his opponent as the prosthetic retracted. Gritting his teeth, Shiro jumped up, vaulting himself off the Galra’s stomach and rolling back to his feet.

The impact of Sendak’s fist hitting his own nearly made Shiro gasp as he felt his bones rattle, a dull ache blooming around where the limb integrated with his flesh. He hoped it wasn’t serious.

Above him, Sendak bared his fangs, his ears pinned back, “I see you spend some time with the druids; they do love to experiment. Too bad you didn’t get the latest model.”

Before Shiro could figure out what he meant, the energy cord flared and Shiro grunted as the limb shot forwards. It sent Shiro flying into the air, and hand him skipping along the ground through the Castle’s threshold into the foyer. Shiro could taste copper on his tongue as he got up, quickly rolling to the side as Sendak’s talons flew down at him again, the metal digits burying themselves deep into the ground. Jumping to his feet, Shiro crouched as Sendak leapt at him. Grabbing the Commander’s arm, Shiro twisted, using his opponent’s momentum to throw him overhead. Taking his chance, Shiro leapt forwards, sliding under swiping claws to level his prosthetic at his enemy’s throat.

However, Sendak had managed to do the same.

Heat rippled from the tips of the massive claws, slowly causing sweat to bead along his jaw, making the Black Paladin very aware of how close the daggers were to his throat. Shiro only hoped that his opponent felt the same way. Being stuck in a stalemate and waiting for back up was better than nothing.

Unfortunately, the sound of a blaster powering up behind his head told him that the odds currently weren’t in his favor.

-.-

Jaz bit her lip as she glanced between Lance and the door. Already she could hear the faint echoes of fighting. The Galra were already there, plus, the noise was too faint for her to tell how many there were or who was fighting.

She just hoped that her team was better off at the moment. Because Lance was in absolutely no condition to fight. The Blue Paladin hadn’t been responsive since she’d started treating him. Though she at least took solace in the fact that her albeit limited healing talents seemed to be keeping him stable, for now.

It might be another story if the Galra made it up there. Jaz had been blown up enough to know Lance was going to have a nasty concussion and there was the risk of internal bleeding. She could also see numerous scratches, bruises, a hitch in his breath that indicated a broken rib, and there was the detail that his leg was currently sitting at an angle most would deem impossible. So, yeah, Lance wasn’t going to be fighting anytime soon. And neither was she as long as she needed use her magic to keep him alive.

Hearing a soft hiss, Jaz reluctantly got up, fire flickering on her fingers as she put herself between Lance and the door. Something that was immediately dropped as Shiro’s unconscious form was tossed into the room, sliding to her feet.

“Well, well,” Sendak mused, his eye gleaming with malice, “so it seems not only have we captured Sorceress and Champion, but also Voltron itself. Perfect.”

-.-

Orange light filled the air as Keith and Allura approached the village, the roar of flames growing louder. Spotting movement, Allura broke away from him, jogging up to the group of small aliens clustering together. “What’s happening?!”

The King pointed, jumping slightly with alarm, “Attackers!”

Following his gaze, Keith narrowed his eyes as he looked through the smoke. Sure enough, in the center of the village he could see a few forms. Probably sentries given that nothing alive would be able to survive in there long without gear. But…something was off.

“Stay here,” he ordered. Not waiting for the Princess’s response, Keith slid down the slope. The fire roared around him as he reached the ground, the creaking of splintering wood nearly making the young Guardian jump as he remembered the last time he’d been this close to flames. It wasn’t helping that the smoke was burning his lungs either.

Slipping out of sight, a small ripple of light passed over him, replacing Paladin armor with Guardian, the scanners in the helmet immediately flickering to life. He could see life signs of the Arusians and Allura behind him, but, there was nothing ahead of him. No life signals, no enemy blips, it was like they weren’t even there.

Sucking a breath through his teeth, Keith immediately leapt from his spot, taking a closer look at the sentries. “Draaf,” he cursed. “Allura! Get back to the Castle! It’s a diversion!”

/Keith—!/

“Just go!” he snapped. “I’m right behind you!”

Turning off his comm, Keith began racing to the edge of the village, jumping into the air as a hoverbike materialized underneath him. The engine roared as it burst to life, and a plume of ash flew behind him as he drove through the flames.

Glancing up at the main path, Keith grimaced as he spotted Allura’s small form racing towards the entrance. If he wanted to get inside without blowing his cover, he’d have to get creative, fast. “Yorak, what would be the best way to get into the Castle—besides the main entrance. We need to avoid the guards and eliminate the commanders first.”

“The hangar Pidge left open,” the ghost replied, “It’s a long shot, but if you go full speed and drive off the ridge you might be able to leap off the bike and grab onto the ledge.”

“And if I miss?”

“Then you fall to your death.”

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.

The engine revved loudly as he hit the thrusters, the bike speeding up as he shot towards his target. Flying off the ledge, Keith grimaced as he flew through the air towards the hangar. Feeling the bike begin to fall towards the ground, he pushed up and leapt off the bike, reaching towards the hangar hoping that his momentum would carry him to the ledge before he needed to try his jetpack. However, he instead ended up faceplanting on the particle barrier.

-.-

“You missed.”

Keith’s head snapped up from where he was sprawled of the ground steadying his breathing as his lungs figured out how to work again. “Gee, I couldn’t tell." Sitting up, the young Guardian looked at the barrier, “Of all the ways I’ve died…that’s been the stupidest so far.”

“Eh that’s debatable.”

Tossing a half-hearted glare to his ghost, Keith got up and stepped up to the barrier rapping his knuckles against it. The energy rippled under his fingers, causing a scowl to form on his face. Even with just a brush of energy he could tell it was going to take hours to even put a measurable amount of damage—even with his light. As outdated as their tech was, the ancient Alteans certainly knew how to build deflector shields he’d give them that.

“…I don’t suppose we’d be able to dig under it?”

“Nope.”

That’s what he was afraid of. Sighing, Keith let a small ripple of light pass over him as the ghost disappeared, replacing his Guardian armor with Paladin. Turning on his heel he began to run up the slope towards the path where he could make out Allura’s form standing outside the barrier. “You got locked out too?”

The Altean Princess jumped, clearly startled as she turned to face him, “Keith! Where were you?!”

“Trying to find an alternate entrance,” he grumbled looking at the glowing dome blocking his way, “I don’t suppose you know of any secret entrances that’ll let us bypass this?”

Allura shook her head, “No, but we have another problem. The fact that the particle barrier is operational after that explosion means that whomever took over the Castle has a crystal. They’ll be able to take the Castle and the Lions off world and to Zarkon.”

This evening was just getting better and better, wasn’t it?

-.-

“Shiro.”

“Shiro, are you ok?” Jaz whispered as she saw the Black Paladin starting to stir.

He winced blinking a couple times to clear his vision. “Head hurts,” he grunted quietly before looking at her. The Awoken woman had a busted lip, a on her cheek, and her jaw was bruised. “You?”

“I’ve taken worse,” she grunted trying to undo the cuffs on her hands before grunting as a sentry hit her in the jaw with the butt of its gun. Spitting out some of her silver-blue blood, she glared up at the sentry. “Fhsusc'hhk'h yrohsus!”

Shiro may have been rusty in Eliksni, but he did not need a translator to know what that meant.

“You ok?”

“Fine,” she muttered. “Believe me, I’ve taken worse.”

That almost made him chuckle. As awful as their situation was, it paled in comparison to their time in the arena. “Sorry, standard question.”

Shiro could see the corner of her mouth twitch with a repressed snicker. “Fair enough,” she shrugged. However, it didn’t take long for the flickers of amusement to fade. “How do you think the others are doing?”

The Black Paladin went quiet, however, before he could answer, there was a loud burst of static before they could hear Allura’s voice over the comms on the terminal. /There’s not much time left before they get the ship running again. You must shut off the particle barrier so we can get inside/

/You got it/ Katie’s voice rang out, /Tell me what to do/

/The particle barrier generator is beneath the main hull/

“She’s telling the intruder how to take out our defenses!” the lanky Galra snarled.

“Good for her,” Jaz deadpanned.

A grin spread across Sendak’s face as his ears perked. “But she’s also giving away his location,” Sendak realized. “Find that room! Kill the paladin!”

“Draaf,” they both cursed as the sentries guarding them left, following after the smaller Galra officer.

However, that did only leave Sendak with them. And, Jaz would bet he was too busy trying to start up the ship to pay attention to them. Furrowing her brows she tugged at her cuffs again, gauging the distance between her wrists. The cuffs were too tight. She wouldn’t be able wriggle her hands past her legs; not even one leg at a time. Not unless she wanted to get stuck in some painful position.

“Piraak naan ofiet?¹”

“Nid,” Jaz muttered. “Dreh hi?²”

The man’s shoulders drooped, “Nid.”

“Kul’vak,” Jaz cursed. Sighing, she sat back on her ankles, looking around them to try to find something to break them free with. Spotting a flicker of purple light in her peripheral, she paused, looking back to her teammate. “Mindol hi dep vey zeim dii dyggt voth hin ehn?³”

Shiro glanced at her, his brow furrowing before he glanced at his hands behind him. “Dii ehn?⁴”

“Nid, dii klov,” she deadpanned. “Grik dep hi dreh nii uv ni?⁵”

Tossing another glance towards their captor, Shiro flexed the fingers of his metal arm. “Hi tyhi? Zu’u duyrf ag hi.⁶”

“Pruzah nii daar med zu’u horvutah? Un ahrk zu’u blodl los wah qhigih do het,⁷” she grumbled, scooching closer to him. The pair tossed wary glances at their pacing captor, pressing their backs together as Jaz pulled her hands as far apart as she could. She could feel Shiro’s hands fumbling to find the cuffs, his fingers tracing the edge of the metal till he found the middle.

“Hiefa?⁸”

Looking to their captor, Jaz watched as Sendak began tapping at the control console. “Dreh nii.⁹”

Shiro gave her a small nod and Jaz clenched her fists, resisting the urge to pull her hands away from the burning fingers cutting away at her cuffs. She bit back a hiss as she felt the metal encircling her hands heat up, warming the skin to an uncomfortable degree.

“Haxus!” Sendak snarled, slamming his claws on the console. “Report!”

Instead of hearing the annoying Galra like she’d been expecting, Jaz froze at the voice responding. “HAXUS IS GONE AND YOU’RE NEXT!” Pidge’s voice snarled.

Clearly, she wasn’t the only one surprised as the exclamation made almost Shiro in surprise, forcing Jaz bite back a pained hiss as his hand bumped into her arm.

Across from them, Sendak bared his fangs, ears flattening to his head as he glared down at the console. “You may’ve slowed me down, but this ship is mine!” he growled. “You will turn yourself over to me immediately!”

“FUCK YOU!”

If their current situation wasn’t so terrible, Jaz almost would’ve chuckled at the affronted look on the Galra Commander’s face as his fur bristled. Hissing through his teeth, Sendak’s gaze snapped up to them, his snarl slowly morphing into a smirk. “Well then…” he drawled, stepping away from the control, striding up to them, “perhaps your mighty leader can convince you.”

Shiro grunted as claws dug into his hair, dragging the man across the floor towards the center of the room.

“Sendak if you hurt him, I swear by the Ancients no one will be able to save you!” Jaz threatened.

On the other end of the comm-channel, she could hear Pidge’s breath hitch. “Jaz?! Shiro?!”

“Pidge!” Shiro exclaimed, “Pidge, don’t listen to—” Whatever else Shiro was cut off with a scream as Sendak’s claws developed a glow similar to his own hand, and buried themselves into his right shoulder. Her friend convulsed in the Galra’s grasp as electricity arched through his body.

“NO!”

“HI FIROK! GETIID ZU’U OFAAL NII BO WAH KRII HI!” Jaz cursed.

“You can make it stop. Turn yourself in. His suffering is in your hands,” Sendak sneered.

Pulling at the cuffs again, her hands came apart with soft snap and Jaz shot to her feet, lightning on her fingertips already as she shot the blast at their captor. Caught off guard by the attack, the bolt struck true, blasting Sendak back against the wall, causing him to drop Shiro. “Pidge! Don’t listen to him! Turn off the barrier!” she ordered charging across the room and kneeing the Galra in the face as he was rising back to his feet. Violet blood spattered out of his mouth as his head jerked to the side from the blow. However, it didn’t take long for him to recover as Sendak tackled her to the ground.

Though he didn’t get to land his own punch before another blast knocked him off of her. Rolling back to his feet, the Galra bared his teeth. With ears pinned to his skull, Sendak growled and lunged forwards swinging with his prosthetic he watched as she rolled under it and rammed him in the gut before he used his regular arm to grab her and hurl the gladiator into the wall. He heard a snap over her pained cry, and he took to opportunity to use his advanced arm to pin her by her torso.

Sendak toyed with the idea of crushing her in his grasp, it would be all too easy, but it wouldn’t make her suffer. Coursing electricity through his arm like he had with Champion, he reveled in Sorceress’ screams, before he released her and she fell to the ground in an unconscious heap.

“Jaz!” Shiro called weakly as his consciousness began to return, eyes widening at spotting his friend lying at Sendak’s feet.

Sendak chuckled picking her up and tossing her next to Shiro, making him wince as her form slammed into the ground next to him. “I’m impressed you two managed to escape. Perhaps it would be worth a trip to your solar system to see if the rest of it has the same spirit as you two. Of course, they’ll all end up broken, just as you were. Now that we have Voltron, every planet, every race, all share the same fate.”

“You’ll never win,” he grunted glaring up at their captor, “not as long as people are willing to fight for their freedom.”

Sendak laughed. “Please, as if that means anything.”

As if the universe was determined to prove him wrong, the alarms on the monitor began beeping incessantly. The Galra Commander’s ear twitched with irritation as he stomped over to the console to figure out what was wrong. However, he didn’t get far before notice the barrier enclosing the castle fizzling away before his eyes. “Deym’ar!” he cursed whirling on his heel only to find the culprit standing in his way.

Shiro watched as Sendak charged out of the room, chasing after Pidge. He hoped she would be ok until Keith and Allura could provide back up. Because as much as Shiro wanted to, he was in no condition to help at the moment. His muscles screamed in protest with each movement as he scooched towards Jaz, wanting to make sure she was ok.

“Shiro!” Pidge’s voice hissed, making him jump in surprise as he turned to see the Green Paladin darting in. “Are you and Jaz ok?”

“Doing just fine,” he chuckled.

“Oh, I’m sure—” Before Pidge could finish her thought, large violet claws wrapped around her torso, yanking her off the ground to come face-to-face with bared teeth and glowing yellow eyes.

“Did you really think your little hologram trick would fool me?” Sendak snarled, his ears flat against his head as he spat in the young teen’s face. “Do I look stupid to you?”

“I would say so.”

Whirling around, Sendak held up the small Paladin as a living shield. “Stand back.”

Sendak had been so focused on an attack from the front, he didn’t realize he’d let part of his guard down until a blast burned the back of his shoulder. He stumbled forwards, dropping his hostage as the Champion kicked his leg out from under him. Springing back to his feet, Sendak dodged the small one’s lunge, kicking them aside into the Champion. A flash came from the corner of his eye, and Sendak turned, barely bringing up his prosthetic up in time to block the sword swinging towards his throat.

The sheer force of the blow made the Galra Commander to take a few steps back, trying to stay on his feet as he watched the metal of the old Altean blade digging into his arm. Had he known any better, Sendak would’ve said he felt something akin to fear settle in his gut—though such things had been beaten out of him ages ago. No, this was something else.

Something was wrong here.

A point that seemed to be proven when he felt a brutal kick slam into his gut, the armor cracking under the blow, his ribs protesting in agony.

This wasn’t normal. Champion and Sorceress had never been able to deliver blows like these in the arena with hand-to-hand combat, not even after Champion got the new limb.

He needed to get out of this situation, fast.

Throwing a punch with his free arm, Sendak’s concerns were further confirmed as the small Red Paladin stopped his fist with one hand, the youngster’s violet eyes glowing with a malice he knew all too well. Sendak really needed to put some distance between himself and this paladin. The energy arc connecting his prosthetic to him sparked as he forced a power surge through it, blasting his attacker away from him.

Before the Galra could consider his next move, he watched in horror as the small Green Paladin swung their bayard, severing the link between himself and his arm.

Though he didn’t have the chance to process it before the Red Paladin was on him again. The blade dug into his palm as he tried keeping it away from his neck, dark violet blood dripping off his knuckles as he stared into the Paladin’s glowing eyes. At first Sendak had thought the glow had been due to the helmet he wore, but it appeared to have fallen off in his last attack, making the violet eyes seem brighter.

Champion’s and Sorceress’ eyes burned with a fiery drive to survive, the Red Paladin’s burned with a fire he’d only ever seen in one place…and Haxus had reported strong disturbances and a near breach in the barrier. There was only one thing Sendak knew of that could do that—whose eyes glowed like that…but it was impossible…

“Keith! Now!” the Altean Princess called.

The Red Paladin, Keith, immediately looked like he just wanted to kill him then and there. However, he merely scowled, rolling onto the ground and kicking him away with enough force that sent the massive Galra sliding across the floor.

By the time he got back to his feet, a particle barrier had encircled him. Sendak wasn’t sure if he was relieved.

Chapter Text

A/N: hey everyone! Welcome back! I know haven’t updated the rewrite in a bit, and that’s cause I’ve been busy with both my other stories and, well, life. Anyways, I just own my OCs, nothing else is mine.

/comms/

Telepathy

Flashbacks

“Ugh,” Jaz groaned, as she stepped out of the cryopod. Trying to take a step forwards, she yelped as her legs gave out under her, but, fortunately, Shiro managed to catch her before she hit the ground. “Thanks.”

“Good to see you back,” Shiro smiled. “How are you feeling?”

“Like my legs fell asleep.” Grabbing onto his shoulders, the Awoken woman tried to stand on her own two feet.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Hunk asked, nervously hovering over the woman.

“I’m not invalid.”

“Of course not,” Allura spoke up. “But are you sure you don’t want to sit down for a while? Cryosleep can have adverse effects afterwards. It’s typically best to let it wear off.”

“I’m sure,” she replied, wobbling a bit on her feet as she began to stand up straight. Holding her arms out, Jaz grinned, “See. So, how’s Lance?”

“Well…” Hunk trailed off as he and Pidge crowded around his pod again, “I can’t tell if he looks healthy or not.”

“I think he’s breathing weird,” Katie commented.

“Really?” Jaz questioned taking a single step forwards and almost landing flat on her face.

“You ok?” Keith asked helping her up.

“My legs are still uncooperative,” she grumbled looking up to Shiro, she motioned him down.

“What?” he asked looking worried. “Did you hurt yourself?”

“No, turn around.”

“Why?” he asked.

Losing her patience, Jaz, grabbed onto his shoulders, dragged her useless legs around to his back, and moved his hands under her legs. “Move it ponyboy.”

Shiro groaned as he heard the stifled snickers of Keith and Katie, he was never going to live this down. Actually, there was a lot of things he would never live down, especially all the stupid stuff he, Adam, Darvah, and Matt had done together.

“Should we open it?”

“Not yet!” Allura scolded, swatting someone’s hand. “A few more ticks.”

“How much better do you think he’s gonna get in a few more ticks?” Keith pointed out.

“He’s got a point,” Jaz added.

“What exactly is a tick?” Pidge questioned.

“You know, a time slice.”

“Like a second?” Shiro asked raising an eyebrow and adjusting his grip on Jaz.

“What’s a ‘second’?” Allura asked turning to face them.

“You know: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one blast off,” Jaz replied quickly.

“Like this,” Pidge said pulling her phone out of her pocket and starting the timer.

“…I think ticks are bigger.”

“I hate time telling differences,” the Awoken woman grumbled as Shiro nodded in agreement.

“Coran, do you have a ticker?” Allura called and they all looked to where the ginger Altean was working on the console.

“Right here Princess,” he replied pulling a small device out of his pocket.

“I think ticks are a little slower,” Hunk commented as he and Pidge looked between the two devices.

“I can’t tell. We have to start them at the same time,” Pidge stated and they started resetting their timers.

“Ok, ready, go!”

Starting their timers, they began watching the two trying to compare seconds and ticks. “I think we’re winning,” Hunk cheered.

“Winning at what? The intergalactic time measuring competition?” Keith retorted.

“I think ticks might be a bit longer,” Jaz muttered, “Shiro move around Coran, I can’t see.”

They got so absorbed trying to figure out whose telling of time was shorter or longer, none of them heard the pod open up or saw Lance stumble over, managing to stay up unlike Jaz, but he couldn’t seem to walk in a straight line.

Peering over their shoulders, Lance tiredly narrowed his eyes. Were they…racing clocks? “…Are you guys having a clock party or something?”

“Aw Lance you ruined it,” Hunk scolded turning around, before instantly perking up and hugging him upon seeing his best friend out of the pod and alive.

“What happened?”

“We can explain it once we’ve gotten you and Jaz something to eat. Are you able to walk?” Allura asked.

“Talking? Eating? Are you asking me out on a date?” he smiled.

“Yep.”

“There it is.”

“He’s ok.”

“Classic.”

“Can we go get food now?”

-.-

“You’d all be in Sendak’s prison right now if it wasn’t for Pidge,” Allura finished explaining as Lance and Jaz happily ate the offered food goo.

“Well, you wouldn’t have survived the explosion from Sendak’s bomb and even Jaz would’ve had some permanent injuries if it wasn’t for Hunk and Coran getting that new crystal,” Pidge stated.

“Wow, thanks everyone,” Lance said. “Sorry you got hurt Jaz.”

“It’s fine, trust me when I say I’ve taken much worse, as hard as it is to believe.”

“Though, it sounds like the mice did more than you Keith,” Lance smirked and the other boy looked offended.

“I punched Sendak!”

“Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot off his arm.”

“We had a bonding moment,” Keith protested looking very miffed, “I cradled you in my arms!”

“Nope. Don’t remember, didn’t happen,” Lance stated. “So what happened to Sendak?”

“Keith and Coran got him into a cryopod,” Allura stated. “We’re keeping him here in the Castle.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“He’s too dangerous to set free,” Allura stated.

“Not to mention we could use this opportunity to see what secrets he knows,” Jaz smirked, cracking her knuckles.

“So what’s the plan now?” Lance asked, scooching away from the suddenly intimidating Awoken pilot.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Hunk who answered. “We have to go back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people!”

“Who’s Shay?”

“Wow, you are really hung up on this chick.”

“No, it’s not like that,” Hunk said. “Look guys, when you see how Zarkon’s treated these people and destroyed their home—They’ve been under his thumb for so long they don’t even know what it’s like to be free. It’s up to us to set this right. This is what being a Paladin of Voltron is all about. It’s time to man up.”

“Then let’s get moving,” Shiro stated.

“Wait,” Pidge said, standing up from where she was sitting, looking nervous, “I have something I need to get off my chest first and I’m afraid this might change the way you think about me. Just so there’s no more secrets between us anymore, I can’t ‘man up’. I’m a girl. I mean, I can ‘man up’ in a figure of speech, I don’t need to be a man to do that, I just need to be tough. But what I’m say is—”

“WHAT?! YOU’RE A GIRL!?” Lance screamed making her jump. “HOW?!”

“Lance, there’s this thing called biology,” Jaz said smirking sinisterly, “you see, when a man and a woman love each other very much—”

“That’s enough from you!” Shiro said putting the woman in a headlock and covering her mouth.

“I’ve known for some time, but I’m glad you’ve decided to share with everyone,” Allura smiled.

“Yeah, I figured,” Hunk said.

“I’ve known since we got Shiro and Jaz from the Garrison,” Keith smirked.

“Wait, we were supposed to think you were a boy?” Coran asked.

“Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better paladin,” Shiro smiled still trying to hold Jaz before she grabbed his arm and hurled him over her shoulder.

“Feels good to get that off my chest,” she sighed. “Now let’s launch this Castle-Ship!”

“Wait, what? Pidge is a girl and the Castle is a ship? How long have I been out?”

“Probably not long enough,” Jaz breathed, “now continuing onto what I was saying…”

“Bye!” Lance yelped sprinting away.

-.-

Keith watched as Hunk paced the bridge, the Yellow Paladin’s footsteps echoed around the quiet room as he muttered under his breath. “Ok, ok, so what do you thing? Do we just roll up and start blasting? Or do we land and have some kind of address system, like ‘Attention Galra, this is Voltron. Surrender now and turn yourselves in’? No, it’s blasting right?”

“Hunk,” Keith said making a calming gesture, “calm down. And yes blasting.”

“Never thought I’d see you calm someone down,” Yorak commented.

“Nyke gīda ao ilagon mirre se jēda,¹” Keith quietly retorted.

“It’s our first big rescue mission,” Shiro smiled defending Hunk. “He’s just excited.”

“Excited to see his new girlfriend,” Pidge sang teasingly.

Hank gasped, looking mildly offended. “She’s not my girlfriend! She’s just a rock that I met and admire very much.”

“Mm-hmm,” Jaz grinned. “You’re awfully concerned about her.”

“She was captured by the Galra! How could I not be?” Hunk replied as the blue-haired Awoken woman began circling him.

“So, when we free her, what are you going to do?” Jaz asked tilting her head innocently. Pausing in her walk, she tapped a finger against her jaw, “Maybe, check for injuries, patch her up and send her on with her family?”

“Well, Shay hasn’t ever seen the sky, so I’ll—hey!” Hunk stopped as he saw her grin.

“Jaz, stop patronizing the cadets,” Shiro sighed tossing her a tired look.

“Back at the Garrison you were worse than I was Takashi,” Jaz quipped. “Or do I need to mention the tribute incident?”

Shiro’s eyes widened and the look of betrayal appeared on his face, “Et tu Brute?”

Lance looked like he was about to press the issue, only to stop as the alarms went off.

“What is it? Are we being attacked?” Shiro called quickly turning around, and darting away from his friend.

“No, it’s a distress beacon,” Coran answered typing on the monitors.

“It’s coming from a nearby moon,” Allura continued, “apparently a ship’s lost power.”

“Does the moon have a breathable atmosphere?” Jaz asked.

“Yes?”

“Then they can wait.”

“Wonder who it is?” Pidge asked.

“I’m with Jaz, whoever it is will have to wait,” Hunk stated, “Shay and her people have first priority. We can help them when we’re done.”

“The Paladin Code states we must help all those in need,” Allura replied.

“Does it specify when?” Jaz questioned, getting a glare from the Altean Princess. “Ok, geez, just a question.”

“Wow, this is so cool, it’s like we’re space cops on space patrol,” Lance said, puffing out his chest and putting his hands on his hips. “Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?”

“Uh, no, but we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that,” he replied and Lance grinned.

As the Blue Paladin began to try to imitate a siren, Shiro turned around and slapped his hand over his mouth. “Nope, not doing that.”

Arriving at the coordinates, they saw a small ship on the surface of the small moon, the light of a fire flickering beside it, casting the shadows to two individuals on the ground.

Allura walked over to the console and spoke calmly into the intercoms, “Attention damaged craft, this is Princess Allura. We are coming to assist you.” Landing the ship, she turned to Coran. “Stary aboard and try to get as many of our systems clear of that Galra crystal energy as you can. We’ll see who hailed us.”

“Yes Princess,” Coran nodded.

“Need help?” Jaz asked walking over to the advisor.

“Sure thing Jaz!” Coran smiled as the pair walked off to work on the Castle systems.

The rest of them went to a landing craft at the bottom of the Castle and went to the small landing pod at the bottom of the Castle. After a short drop to the ground, the doors opened revealing a purple alien male wearing some sort of cropped vest and pants and a yellow alien chick with solid violet eyes, white face, four weird hair thingies, and wearing a blue two-pieced outfit.

“Wonder if that guy’s part Galra, I mean, he’s purple, so he might be,” Yorak commented and Keith paused, tilting his head as he looked to the purple one. While he highly doubted it, he couldn’t deny it was a possibility, but there were plenty of races with purple skin besides the Galra; the Fae, the Awoken, the Alteans—though Alteans could change color at will—and the Alasians, they all had members of their populations with purple skin tones. And those were just some species he knew of, not counting the hybrids of each race. Granted, this far out it was more likely than not he was a hybrid. Unless there was a race with that appearance he didn’t know about, which was a valid possibility. After all, the galaxy was a big place.

“You don’t know how glad we are to see some friendly faces,” the purple guy said crossing his arms.
“Most folks don’t wanna get tangled up with anyone who’s on the run from the Galra.”

“So, you guys are fighting against the Galra?” Keith questioned. The second the words left his mouth, he wanted to facepalm. Of course, after a few thousand years a resistance against the empire would build, people of any race did not like being subjugated to slave labor. Heck, considering most cultural norms of any society there logically had to be some Galra resistance, though with how long Zarkon’s been ruling that would mean they’d either failed, got wiped out, were in hiding, or by this point in time the Galra worship Zarkon as a deity.

“I don’t think Zarkon’s quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can,” the man replied. “I’m Rolo.”

“Like the candy?” Yorak asked and Keith chose to ignore him.

“This is Nyma and our cyber unit, Beezer.”

“Hi,” Nyma said and Keith could hear Lance swoon instantly.

A small blur went passed and they saw Pidge examining the robot with wide eyes sparkling like she was an anime character. “Cool robot!”

“Gōntan ao sesīr ūndegon zirȳla dīnagon?²” Keith asked Yorak.

“No.”

“I didn’t see her move either,” Shiro whispered getting the gist of whatever Keith was muttering as they both stared at Pidge in shock.

“Hi, name’s Lance,” the Blue Paladin said taking Nyma’s hand.

“Skori gōntan ziry dīnagon?!³” Keith said.

“Probably at the same time Pidge did, I’m just surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

Shiro looked away from the surprisingly fast teenagers back to Rolo so they could stay on task, “Was your ship damaged in a fight?”

“Yeah, we’ve really been through it with the Galra, parts are hard to come by, luckily we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn’t pick up our distress signal I—”

“We’re happy to help,” Allura interrupted, stepping forwards. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won’t be alone fighting the Galra. You’ll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at Rolo’s confused expression as he glanced to Pidge and Lance fooling around, before looking back to them.

“Ok,” he replied, seeming a little underwhelmed.

“I don’t think they’ve heard of us,” Shiro said.

“It has been ten thousand years,” Keith reminded. “It’s probably faded into a myth by now, if it was even remembered at all.”

“Voltron? You know? Five robot lions that combine into this big robot…dude?” Lance tried to explain.

“Sounds impressive. I’d love to see it—him—them…”

“Why don’t we just get to work on your ship? I’m sure we all have places to be,” Hunk suggested and Keith looked at him in surprise, he’d never heard Hunk sound so…harsh?

Yorak seemed shocked too because, Keith could feel him itching to come out as his nervousness and curiosity grew together. “Are we certain that’s really Hunk? I could scan him and make sure—”

“Daor.”

“Sure,” Rolo said leading Hunk over to a panel and opening it. “Looks to me that our whole flaxum assembly’s shot. I don’t know what kind of extra parts you guys carry in this rig of yours. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I’m sure we can get you back up and running. Give Hunk a list of what you need, Coran can show you where to find it,” Allura said as Shiro nudged Lance to try and remind him that this wasn’t the time for flirting.

Keith doubted his brother’s attempts would be successful.

“Ok,” Hunk said.

“We can go too. Don’t want you to have to carry all that stuff yourself,” Rolo offered, “Come on guys.”

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Hunk stated crossing his arms. “You can wait out here.”

“Hunk, don’t be rude.”

“Yeah, Hunk, mind your manners. There’s ladies present,” Lance scolded before making finger guns to Nyma.

“Oh, I’m sorry, but does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down? Someone set off a bomb. Remember Lance? You almost died,” Hunk reminded firmly.

“Oh yeah.”

“I agree, we can’t immediately trust everyone we stumble across, that’ll just lead to more disasters,” Keith stated crossing his arms.

“Hunk’s right,” Shiro agreed, silencing Lance’s retort to the Red Paladin, “Sorry, but we have to be cautious.”

“Hey, nothing personal, I get it,” Rolo shrugged taking a paper Beezer printed, “that’s how things are out here. You gotta look out for your own. You’re doing a good job big man.”

“Thanks,” Hunk said taking the paper.

“Sure you don’t need help?” Shiro asked as Hunk walked inside.

“Jaz can help!” he called back.

Nodding, they sat down around the fire to try and get to know these so called “rebels.”

-.-

“…My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive,” Rolo finished. “I managed to escape…but, not before I lost something,” rolling up a pantleg, he revealed the prosthetic limb.

Beside Keith, Shiro grimaced, flexing his own arm. “I know the feeling.”

Keith liked to consider himself a good judge of character, and to him, these guys seemed sincere. But still, something was rubbing him the wrong way. He just couldn’t figure out what it was for the life of him. “Pōnta vestragon naejot sagon ȳdragon se drēje, yn gaoman daor gīmigon. Skoros gaomagon ao pendagon?⁴” he whispered.

In his chest, the Red Paladin felt a warm pulse, “Well…Rolo’s being honest about the story…But, I’m not buying it, the story about the landing. Something about it just seems off to me.”

Keith bit the inside of his cheek as Yorak said that; yeah, that’s exactly what he was afraid of.

There was a loud thud accompanied by the clanging of metal, turning, the young Guardian saw Hunk and Jaz stepping back from two boxes of spare parts. “Well,” Hunk drawled, wiping his hands, “I hope there’s some parts in here that’ll fit. You know how to get your ship moving?”

“Thanks,” Rolo smiled. Though he made no move to get up and look through the crates.

Something of which, Allura didn’t help start as she asked a question, “So what can you tell us about Zarkon’s forces? Where are they concentrated?”

The alien opened his mouth to reply, only being momentarily interrupted by Pidge flying by, riding on Beezer’s back as Jaz chased after them. “Well…” he started, “the command ship sits at the center of the Empire. Zarkon mostly calls the shots from there and lets his minions do the dirty work. Who you get just depends on who’s closest. I know this region’s ruled by real nasty brute named Sendak.”

“Oh, we’ve met.”

“How far are we away from the center?” Shiro inquired, leaning forwards, resting his elbows on his knees.

“We’re way out on the fringes. But—”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt,” Hunk chimed in, crossing his arms as he glared at the stranded pilot, “but I think you’re keeping Rolo from working on his ship. Remember? We’re kinda in a hurry here. You understand, right?”

“Sure,” Rolo muttered, looking annoyed. Pushing himself to his feet, he stretched his neck, striding towards the crates, “Sorry.”

Looking towards the man, Shiro audibly sighed, “Hunk,” he reached out, putting a hand on the other boy’s shoulder, “I promise, we’re going to be going soon, but I think Rolo might have some intel that might be useful to us.”

“Sorry,” the Yellow Paladin said, crossing his arms, “but I don’t trust this guy as far as I can throw him. I think we should leave him with the boxes and say: Adios amigo! Good luck!”

“Damn…never thought I’d hear that from him,” Yorak muttered.

On that, Keith agreed. He also agreed with Hunk. Something about Rolo wasn’t sitting right with him. “Shiro, I’m with Hunk,” he spoke. “Something about their story isn’t right. Remember, back in the Garrison, we were required to have a spare of almost every component in case something happened in the event the normal tools couldn’t fix it. Doesn’t it seem odd they don’t have their own spare?”

“Maybe that was the spare?”

Both the Red and Yellow Paladins glanced at each other before giving their leader deadpan looks. There was a time and place to see the best in people; this wasn’t it. However, before either of them could point that out, they were interrupted once again.

“Hey bud!” Rolo called. “Sorry to interrupt, but do you think you can hunt down a thermal pipe about,” he measured with his hands, “this long?”

Hunk groaned. “Let me check.”

As he went back inside, Shiro strode over to continue speaking to Rolo, “So, are there more freedom fighters?”

“Only those who haven’t been colonized yet, or the lucky few like us who managed to escape. I think I’ve heard of a few rebel cells on colonized worlds, but other than that, there’s not really anything.”

Keith frowned. He supposed that made some sense. In terms of evil alien dictators, Zarkon was on the low end of evil. Yes, he was enslaving and murdering people, but that was sadly a far, far better fate than those awaiting the worlds unfortunate enough to run into the Vex or Hive. At least this way they had a chance to survive.

“If you’re gonna fight out there, I gotta warn you, it’s pretty bad. You don’t know what you’re up against.”

“We’ll take our chances,” Keith replied. “Trust me, there’s much worse out there than the Galra.”

Shiro gave the Red Paladin a glance, raising a brow curiously. He wondered if that comment had anything to do with what Jaz had told him about Keith’s father. It would make sense, that talk had proven just how little he knew about the boy he regarded as his little brother. It certainly explained why Keith spoke so many languages he’d never heard of. It also explained why out of everyone besides Jaz and himself, Keith was the only one who didn’t seem surprised at the presence of aliens.

The sound of rockets pulled Shiro out of his thoughts. Looking up, he could see the familiar form of the Blue Lion fly out of the Castle and off to who knows where.

“Was that Lance?” Jaz asked as Hunk gave an exasperated noise.

“Who else?” Keith growled. Honestly, at this rate there was a good chance he was going to start kicking the Blue Paladin in the balls each time he tried thinking with them. Maybe that would actually get blood flow up to his brain.

Unlike them, Rolo didn’t seem particularly concerned about their departure. “Eh, let them have their fun,” he said, waving them off, “Thanks to you guys, this thing’s just about ready.” He pulled out the damaged component, looking over it with a frown. “Guess there was just one too many miles on this thing.” Handing it to Hunk, Rolo took the new one and began working.

“Yeah…” Hunk replied, his voice sounding tense, “no problem.”

“Anyways,” Allura spoke up, “I’m just sure Lance was just wanting to show our new friends some hospitality.”

“Sure…” Jaz drawled, “I bet that’s what he calls it. His hospitality.”

“I don’t think there’s a microscope powerful enough to find his hospitality,” Keith remarked.

“Guys!” Shiro exclaimed, looking at them aghast as Pidge fell off of Beezer laughing.

They elected to ignore him as they continued staring in the direction Blue flew off in. “So,” Jaz started, leaning against the ship, “how much you wanna bet he’s gonna be in trouble by the end of the day?”

“Thousand glimmer it’s within half-an-hour.”

“We are not making bets on Lance’s safety!”

“You’re just saying that cause you know we’re right.”

As if to prove their point, Rolo popped out of his shift, a wide smile on his face, “I think this thing’s about ready for a test flight.” Closing the panel he’d been working on, he waved over in Pidge’s direction, “Beezer! Come with!” The small robot jerked, knocking Pidge off it as it sped towards the ship. “Be back in a tick!”

Both Jaz and Keith raised a brow towards the Black Paladin. Honestly, if that didn’t set off Shiro’s alarm bells, Keith didn’t know what would.

Shiro sighed audibly, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “I guess we should head towards the Lions.”

“Yes!” Hunk said, stomping towards the Castle. “We should absolutely go after them. Something isn’t right here!”

“How many ticks has he been gone?” Pidge asked, wiping dust off her armor.

“I don’t know,” Allura answered, biting her lip, “hopefully they didn’t break down.”

“Hopefully they didn’t kill Lance.”

/Hello? Guys?/

“Speak of the Devil!” Jaz grinned.

“Lance,” Shiro interjected before she could say something, “what’s going on? Are you ok?”

/Well…not exactly—I’m not injured, or anything, but I may be…chained to a tree…/

“I knew it.”

“Damn it!”

“Pay up!”

/And…/ Lance started again, /I think Nyma and Rolo just stole the Blue Lion/

“I knew it!”

Shiro ignored the pointed looks Jaz and Keith were giving him, “Where are they now?”

/Uh…space?/

“Very helpful,” Keith remarked as they ran onto the bridge moving towards the elevators.

/Ugh!/ Hunk’s voice immediately exclaimed over the comms the moment the doors closed. /I never trusted those guys, right from the beginning. At first it was in my gut! I mean my Mom always told me to trust my gut, but I never felt it as strongly as I did before now/

“We get it,” Keith said, leaping onto the zipline.

/So, imagine my shock when I was replacing that pipe! Yeah, the pipe was cracked, however none of the hardware around it was damaged!/

“Hunk!” Keith exclaimed, swinging off the zipline and onto the speeder. “We get it!”

“Please make it stop.”

“Iksan sylugon’are,⁵” he groaned, throwing his head back. Hunk’s rambling was really starting to get on his nerves. They got it; Rolo and his pals couldn’t be trusted. Keith didn’t hear anyone arguing with him.

But that didn’t seem to stop the Yellow Paladin’s angry chatter, /We should’ve had to replace the entire undercarriage of that reactor. So right then I was like positive that it was foul play/

“WE GET IT!”

Pulling up to Red, Keith had never been as happy as he was now to hear the comms go quiet. And they thankfully remained that way as his lion shot out of her hangar, grouping up with the others. /We’ve got sights on Rolo’s ship,/ Jaz said as a moving blip appeared on the scanners. /Good news: they haven’t gotten far. Bad news: they’re going right for an asteroid belt/

/Aren’t you supposed to let us choose which news we want to hear first?/ Hunk inquired.

/I’m not spending all day playing twenty-questions/

/Thanks for the tip, Jaz,/ Shiro interjected before another fight could break out.

On Pidge’s end, they heard an annoyed growl, /Ugh! We’re gonna have to go around. I don’t think we can fly through this/

/Maybe I can ram through it?/

Keith’s eyes widened in alarm. That was a bad idea if he ever heard one.

Before he could advise his teammate against it, the Yellow Lion shot forwards, ramming into an asteroid. However, unlike normal rock which burst into dust, the asteroid ricocheted off the lion’s hull, sending it careening into another space rock, which then hit another. Setting of a perpetuating chain reaction throughout the asteroid field.

/Nope! That was wrong. Bad idea/

No kidding.

/Keith,/ Shiro’s voice broke through, /you’re the only one who could possibly fly through this. We need you buddy, get in there and flush them out/

Keith grinned, adjusting his grips on the controls as he watched the drifting space rocks. He hadn’t gotten to do a flight this stupid dangerous the Sambrar Canyon maneuvers they practiced back on Terra. Though the asteroids would be more unpredictable than the hydra had been.

Well…as unpredictable as they could be with York keeping an eye out. At least he didn’t have to worry about being eaten.

“With pleasure. See you on the other side.”

Kicking Red into gear, they shot into the asteroid field, weaving between the shifting space rocks with practiced ease. As one drifted too close, he flipped Red, using her paws to vault them off the hunk of rock. Keith could feel Red’s excitement as they continued to bob through the colliding mountains of stone, narrowly missing being crushed. It appeared his lion enjoyed skimming the razors edge as much as he did.

“Below us.”

Checking his scanners, Keith turned Red, pointing her down towards where the small form of Rolo’s ship could be seen desperately darting through the asteroids. There was no way they were getting out of here now. Not in one piece at least.

“They have blasters.”

“Rȳ rietw issi verdagon ra opwihitwopm⁶,” Keith remarked, pulling Red up to avoid the incoming shots. Diving around an asteroid, he fired the lion’s cannon. Now that they were on the offensive, Keith continued to chase them, starting to return their incoming fire as he expertly weaved between the asteroids, using them as cover to block the incoming shots.

He was going to continue his assault before he was stopped by a soft tug on the back of his mind. It felt different that Yorak’s. He couldn’t really explain how, but there was a distinct difference. Following the pull, his gaze landed on a flashing red button on his control panel. Normally all logic said to avoid the big red button. But, it appeared that Red was directing him to press it.

Slamming his fist on the button, he felt a rush of energy travel through the lion, pooling around her maw. However, instead of firing an extra powerful shot like he expected, a blade of some sort materialized in Red’s jaws. The lion seemed to move under its own power, and she swung her head down, throwing the glowing dagger with amazing accuracy. The blade shot towards the ship, cutting through the engines before it boomeranged back to Red, allowing her to catch it in her jaws.

“That was amazing.”

“No kidding,” Keith muttered in agreement. Though, his excitement was short-lived as he spotted the ship below careening out of control, falling towards a nearby planet. They wouldn’t have long before it would be caught in its gravity

Shoving the controls forwards, he kicked Red into full throttle diving towards the crashing ship. The lion extended her claws, burying them into its hull, allowing them to pull the escaping vessel to a stop before they were caught in the planet’s gravity field.

Smirking, Keith leaned back in his seat. “Hey Lance, I got your Lion back.”

/Thanks Keith. Now, can you come and unchain me from this tree?/

“What’s that? I, uh…you’re cutting out. I can’t—I can’t hear you.”

/Come on! I thought we bonded!/ Lance whined. /Keith! Buddy? My man?/

Keith started making a static sound into the comms, only for Shiro to ruin his moment of messing with Lance. /Stop tormenting him Keith!/

/You’re no fun Shiro!/ Jaz whined. /Hold on Lance, I’ll be there in a tick/

/Thanks Jazzy/

/Call me that again and I will leave you tied to that tree/

-.-

Keith crossed his arms as he looked to the abashed group of mercenaries. None of them were meeting their gazes, but they hadn’t made any move to try anything again.

Not that they’d be able to given the condition of their ship.

“Since your ship doesn’t work anymore, you’re going to have to wait for rescue,” Shiro said, his voice almost sounding scolding.

Rolo nodded, looking up to meet his gaze., “Makes sense,” he shrugged. “Anyways, thanks for sparing our lives.”

“We’re not the Galra,” Allura said. “We’re hardly ones to kill over a simple disagreement.”

Keith raised a brow towards the Altean princess. A disagreement? That’s what she was calling this? Those guys had tried to steal one of their ships. And she was calling it a disagreement?

He shook his head. His people wouldn’t have killed them for something like this, but there would be a good chance they’d have to spend a week or two in the Kruziik Prison.

It was hardly a nice place to visit. But it certainly got the message to not do it again across.

“Now that these guys are dealt with,” Hunk interrupted, clapping his hands together, “let’s get to the Balmera and save Shay and her family.”

“Your girlfriend,” Jaz coughed and Hunk tossed her a glare as she smiled cheekily.

“You may not believe this,” Rolo said, stopping them as they started walking towards the Castle, “but I really hope you do stop Zarkon. It’s a lifetime of fighting the Galra that led me where I am today. Good luck.”