Archive of Our Own

Keith reminded himself to take another breath as he stepped out onto his porch, the sun peeking over the horizon and the breeze carrying the smell of creosote and sage and dust–the familiar scents of the desert. He could hear the three cadets talking inside, something about the Garrison and curfew and transmissions. 

Right now, he didn’t care. He had something more important to deal with.

The past year seemed… unreal. First Shiro leaving for Kerberos, then the bullshit news of the ‘pilot error’ crash, then getting kicked out of the Garrison and moving back into the home where he hadn’t lived since he was a child…

And now Shiro was here. Crash landed in an alien spaceship. With a shock of white hair and scars on his face and a mechanical arm unlike anything Keith had seen outside of science fiction movies.

He hated science fiction movies. They were cheesy and dramatic, no matter who tried to convince him otherwise. 

It was insane . 

But Shiro was alive and here, and not a dead corpse floating in the darkness of space, hundreds of thousands of miles away. Instead he was standing a few yards from the house, looking out at the sunrise, his back to Keith as he looked out on the slowly-shifting dawn landscape. Keith had no idea what he was thinking, wasn’t even sure what to say or do or, or even think , because the world had always taken everything away from him eventually and now it had given something back, someone who should have been dead even though the pilot error excuse was bullshit--

Keith derailed that thought and pulled out his phone. The person he had called hadn’t picked up earlier when he had left a message, but now there was a voicemail--he had probably missed it while dealing with the chaos of the trio currently bickering inside and getting Shiro something to wear other than the rags he had crash landed in. He hit the button and put it up to his ear. Even though it was still a little loud for him, he knew it was quiet enough that no one else would hear.

It would’ve been better if the goon squad wasn’t in the living room, but like hell he wasn’t going to call the only other person who needed to know what was happening.

“Keith, I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about, but I’m getting in my car now and, and I have my computer and I’m driving out, do not do anything reckless or stupid or just… just wait until I’m there, because if someone is screwing with you I’m going to shoot them. I’ll be there soon!”

Keith nodded firmly to himself and put his phone away, feeling more steady, walking down the steps to stand by Shiro. Now he knew what he wanted to say, now. The only thing he could say.

“It’s good to have you back,” he said softly, looking up at the man who was his older brother in everything except blood.

Shiro smiled faintly. “It’s good to be back.”

Keith nodded slowly, and forced himself to take a breath. “So what happened out there? Where… were you?”

Shiro sighed and shook his head. “I wish I could tell you. My head’s still pretty scrambled. I was… on an alien ship but… somehow I escaped. It’s all a blur.” For a moment, his shoulders slumped before Shiro forced them back square again.

Keith studied his face, trying to keep the hair from standing up on the back of his neck. People had always been a challenge for him, like a puzzle he could never figure out, but he had figured out Shiro. Shiro had always made sense.

If he was reading him right, Shiro was deliberately playing the question down, forcibly staying calm, except that there was something tense about him that Keith couldn’t name. 

That scared him almost as much as seeing him strapped to the table in the quarantine tent. Shiro had always told him everything.

Shiro looked at Keith more directly, clearly pushing those thoughts away. Wherever his mind had gone, he obviously didn’t plan on sharing with Keith. “How did you know to come save me when I crashed?” He asked, making Keith refocus on the present as well.

Keith hesitated, wondering what to say now, his previous confidence gone. He really should tell Shiro before he told him everything else, but… well, he wasn’t sure how Shiro would take it given how things stood when he had gone on the Kerberos mission. 

Hopefully he wouldn’t be too angry but… Shiro was Keith’s brother in every way that mattered, but he wasn’t his only family either. Not after the past year.

“You should come see this.”

~

Keith shook his head slowly. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge might be ridiculous, but all of the evidence they were compiling was pointing towards one place, and they needed to get out there. 

Except…

“We’ll head out in a bit,” Keith stated, crossing his arms. 

Four pairs of eyes looked at him in disbelief. Shiro looked like he was about to speak up, but Lance beat him to it. “What?! Dude, if there’s some alien weapon out in the desert we need to find it before the guys after Shiro find it!”

“Yeah, but there’s something else that we have to take care of first.” Keith took a slow breath. There was no way to avoid this now, especially since he would arrive any minute. 

“It’s private,” he added, glaring at the other three teens. “Go outside, I’m gonna talk to Shiro for a minute.”

“Keith, we’re all involved in this--”

“It’s about Adam.”

Shiro froze. Actually froze, and Keith briefly worried that he had stopped breathing. 

“Wait, Adam? Who’s Adam?” Hunk asked, apparently not noticing the tension in the room. 

Pidge was frowning, but to Keith’s surprise, Lance seemed to be the one to pick up the subtext fastest. The blue-eyed boy was looking at Shiro, and then his eyes widened slightly before he shrugged. 

“Fine, mullet-head, if you’re just gonna kick us out with terrible manners like you were born in a barn, I guess that’s your problem. We’ll just go soak up some rays while we wait!” 

With that he grabbed Pidge’s sleeve and wrapped an arm around Hunk’s shoulders, somehow dragging them both out and making sure the door closed behind them. Keith was reluctantly impressed -- he had been expecting to have to shout them out. 

Shiro had managed to start breathing again, although he was almost as pale as the new streak of white in his hair. He slowly licked his lips, and Keith just decided to go for it.

“After the crash was announced, Adam came and, well...made sure I was alright.” His throat felt tight. Stupid dust. “We started talking and he’s been helping me out with research and stuff -- they were calling it pilot error and we both knew that was bullshit, but his clearance wasn’t high enough to get anything real out of the Garrison.” 

Shiro was still silent, although there was a suspicious glimmer in his eyes. Keith forced himself to keep talking. “He wasn’t able to get away last night when the readings for the crash came in, but when I realized you were there… I called him and told him. He’s driving here now. I know it was kind of a mess before, but he deserves to know you’re alive, too,” Keith finished quickly.

Shiro sat down on the couch, his knees apparently giving out. He dropped his head into his hands and took a deep, shuddering breath. 

Keith stepped forward, awkwardly, and set a hand on his shoulder. “I uh. Probably should’ve said something earlier, huh?”

The laugh that came out of Shiro was slightly breathless and hysterical, but it was real. “Yeah, but that’s what makes you Keith.” He reached up and covered the hand on his shoulder, and Keith squeezed, trying to give him back his composure. Shiro always held it together, even when he was stressed or angry he still explained things to Keith and never yelled at anyone, and if he was having trouble now, well, Keith could understand it. 

Keith had seen Shiro in all kinds of situations, but he had never seen Shiro on the verge of tears before.

After a couple of minutes of slow, forced breathing, Shiro looked up, calmer again. “Thank you. That...I appreciate that.”

Keith managed a small smile when he heard something that made him stiffen, the nervousness returning.

There was a car approaching the shack.

~

Lance tapped his fingers on the porch railing. He wasn’t trying to be impatient, but… well, the look on Shiro’s face when Keith had said that name had been kind of scary.

Hunk and Pidge were still theorizing over who Adam was, even if they had partially switched over to talking about tests and scans and the weird energy signatures with the whole Blue Lion thing, but Lance didn’t really want to add his own two cents. For once, incredibly, he was with mullet-brain; Shiro deserved a little privacy if it was about what Lance thought it was about. 

Just then, a car came down the road, definitely above the speed limit. Older model, if Lance was judging it right, and definitely registered to the Garrison. 

Hunk swallowed. “Oh man, we are going to be in so much trouble later,” he muttered, biting his nails. 

Lance quickly grabbed his hands. “Nuh-uh, I’ve heard you complain about shredded nails getting caught on wires before, cut it out.” 

“Did Keith call someone?” Pidge asked quietly from behind Hunk, a hard glint in his eyes. 

“...Probably,” Lance muttered as the car came to an abrupt halt, the engine still running as someone scrambled out of the driver's seat and turned to the house, only to freeze when he saw them on the porch. 

Lance’s jaw dropped when he realized he knew who it was. 

“What—Professor Walker?!” Hunk exclaimed, eyes wide. “What is our professor doing here?! Oh man, we are in so much trouble!” 

Pidge elbowed the taller boy roughly in the side, trying to get him to stop talking. 

The man rushed over, but stopped when he saw them. “McClain? Garrett? Gunderson? What are all of you doing out here?!” 

Lance saw Pidge and Hunk wince and decided to try to cut down how much trouble they were going to be in. “We were on the roof last night stargazing and we saw the crash. We went and investigated and, well…” 

Professor Walker’s eyes widened, but before he could speak the door opened, revealing Keith standing alone. 

“Keith, what the--” 

“It’s Shiro. He’s inside,” Keith said hurriedly. “He’s a little different and there’s a lot going on with those energy signatures we were looking at, but you guys should talk first.” 

Lance paid attention to Lieutenant Colonel Walker’s face as Pidge started asking questions about what the Garrison knew. He had always known that their weapons-systems-in-flight instructor was young and good-looking, but usually reserved and both calm and brutal when it came to test questions. The kind of person who would give you the death glare if you walked into his 8:00 class at 8:15 -- which was definitely not something Lance knew from experience, of course not, Hunk had even covered for him! -- but also had study organizers with subheadings and practice questions and anything else you would need to pass the test if you put the time in and did the work.

The man standing before them was barely hanging onto his composure. He looked like he had grabbed anything he might need, thrown it in his satchel, and broken every speed limit to drive here. Completely different from their normally over-structured teacher.

Huh , Lance thought to himself as the man walked up the steps to the shack. Who knew?  

Lieutenant Colonel Walker--clearly, Adam--took a breath and nodded. “Thanks for calling. Just… give me a minute, then we’ll get things figured out. All of us.” 

Keith met his eyes, then stepped aside and let the man close the door behind him. He sauntered over to the railing and leaned against it, apparently content to ignore the rest of them as he looked back at the door, his only giveaway a trace of worried frown, a gentler expression than Lance had seen on Keith since…well, ever. Apparently this was really important to him. 

Well, if they were going to go look for weird alien energy together, that wouldn’t stand. Keith was obnoxious and snobby and there was no way Lance was going to let him get under his skin. 

“So, I’m gonna take a guess that the prof’s first name is Adam?” 

Keith glared at Lance, who grinned and shrugged as though he hadn’t already figured it out. “Hey, just figured I’d check.” 

And really, he didn’t need to ask more than that. Shiro definitely wasn’t married, that would’ve absolutely made the news after the crash, but anytime there had been an interview he had always requested privacy about his love life. Lance had actually gotten a kick at how he had turned the question around on extra-nosey reporters. 

They’d find out more when it was ok to find out more. 

“So how’d you get started on this whole alien thing, mullet-head? Or have you always been a conspiracy theorist?” 

Keith crossed his arms. “Do you ever stop talking?” he grumbled. 

Lance grinned sharply and leaned on the railing, the familiar burn of competition flaring. “Nope. And either you can talk or I’ll just keep chatting. I can keep it up all day if I have to.” 

Keith tilted his head back, letting loose an exasperated sigh. Lance glanced at the others—Hunk looked amused, but Pidge was still looking at the house curiously. 

Better pull him into the distraction. 

“I bet you watch the same alien shows as Pidge, like the one with the guy with the crazy hair.” 

Pidge quickly came to the defense of the show, and Lance called his mission a success. 

And if Keith was at least a little less focused on his worry… well. Not a bad outcome either. 

Even if he still had the worst mullet ever. 

~ 

Shiro automatically stood up as soon as he heard the door open again, his heart already pounding so hard that he felt like he’d run a marathon. 

Familiar hazel eyes met his. 

Adam. 

The last time he’d seen him, it had been in uniform, all emotions tucked behind a stoic mask, two weeks after the break up and a week before the Kerberos launch. It had been a painfully professional discussion. 

Now, Adam couldn’t have looked more different. His hair was damp and sticking up on one side, the buttons on his green shirt done up wrong, keys still in hand from the car and his satchel askew on his shoulders. 

Abruptly, Shiro realized that Adam was scrutinizing him just as closely too, and was suddenly very aware of the scars and the… well, the very obvious prosthetic arm. He swallowed hard, but couldn’t look away. 

Adam took a step forward. “Takashi?” he asked, his voice so very soft and two steps away from steady. 

Shiro nodded. He tried to speak and ended up having to clear his throat twice. For most people, he went by Shiro, a bit of his own push back against people who complained that his given name didn’t sound right for a pilot and trying to get a little distance from the homesickness that had plagued him when he had first arrived at the Garrison years ago. 

There had only been one person who had insisted on doing differently.

Seeing Keith had been hard enough. He had started as an angry boy who Shiro had taken under his wing, who already had the hints of the incredible young man Keith could become. Keith had become his family. He had started as the angry child who had stolen his car before Shiro had taken him under his wing. Keith was his little brother, the one he loved to challenge with new piloting tricks and tease about his inability to handle anything spicy at all. Thinking about how devastated Keith would have been when Shiro didn’t come home had been so hard.

And this was going to be even harder. 

Keith hadn’t been the one to ask him to stay. 

“Yeah. I… things didn’t really go to plan with the mission, I guess.” 

Before he had finished speaking, Adam was moving forward, and his arms were around Shiro, squeezing tightly. Shiro couldn’t stop himself from embracing back, tears stinging his eyes at the smell of the familiar, standard-issue shampoo. 

“No shit, Lieutenant Obvious,” Adam tried to growl out, but his voice was shaking as much as Shiro’s. 

Shiro managed a watery laugh, leaning into the embrace. “No need to get snippy, Captain Uptight.” 

He slowly realized that Adam was shaking, or maybe that was him. He wasn’t entirely sure. 

Adam pulled back slightly, only enough so that he could rest a hand on Shiro’s cheek. His eyes scanned over Shiro, and Shiro had to look away—he knew that the scar was… obvious. 

Abruptly, he realized he was still holding Adam and quickly let go. Adam seemed to have realized it at the same time and stepped back, a bit of color rising on his cheeks even though his expression didn’t change. The silence hung in the air for a moment before Adam cleared his throat. 

“So what happened? Keith said that you were responsible for the energy surge we measured last night and that you crash landed in the desert?”

Shiro sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Belatedly, he realized it was the mechanical hand and yanked it down, trying to let it hang by his side and not make it even more obvious than it already was.

“Long story short? We got captured by unfriendly aliens. There’s… a lot more. And I’m not remembering a lot of it.” He didn’t mean to admit it, but there were huge blocks of his memories that were smeared like mud on a windshield, and he couldn’t show Keith or the cadets how much that scared him. 

But Adam…even if he was angry, even with their history, Shiro still trusted him. He wouldn’t judge Shiro for a moment of weakness.

He had already seen so many of them.

Adam took a slow breath, and Shiro didn’t miss the way his gaze skipped to his metal arm before hazel eyes met with his evenly again. 

“I can see that.” He hesitated, then spoke again. “What about the Holts?”

Guilt welled up in Shiro’s stomach, closing his throat for a moment before he swallowed.

“I don’t know. They took Sam away pretty early on, and Matt was sent to a mining colony. I think. Those are the last things I remember.”  And god, moments kept flashing through–snapshots of people and places hovering just at the end of his memory. Stark outlines or mysterious machines and violet light and the cry of a familiar voice among alien screams, of the whirring of alien tech and the smell of burning skin, and the pieces were there but he was terrified to put them together…

Shiro!

Please Matt, survive.

Give us blood, Champion!

Shiro shoved those thoughts away as fast as he could, the present coming back into focus. The light was soft and golden, the air smelled like sun-dried wood and Adam’s shampoo, and he was on Earth. Not...not there.

He stared at the floor, his stomach writhing. “What am I going to tell Colleen and Katie?”

A hand settled on his shoulder, and Shiro refocused on what was in front of him. Adam looked concerned, but his eyes were gentle. 

“They know the risks of going into space,” Adam said softly. Paused, and then a crooked smile tugged the corner of his mouth. “This might not have been covered in the mission briefings…”

Shiro managed a rusty chuckle at that.

“--but they aren’t going to blame you. There’s still hope to get them back.” Adam’s eyes grew more serious. “As far as we know, they’re still out there.” 

Shiro nodded haltingly, sucking in a slow breath. He needed to look away from the past for just a minute if he wanted to hold it together in front of the teens outside. He straightened, and Adam’s hand fell to his side. 

“I guess things changed here, too.” He looked around the little cabin. Signs of Keith settling in were everywhere, from the conspiracy theory wall to the ancient-looking pad of leather that Keith used for stropping his knives to the jumbo-pack of ramen noodles in the corner by the hot plate and the microwave. But there were other signs as well -- a pair of blue and gray hiking boots standing neatly by the door, the wrong size and style for Keith. Familiar copies of Lord of the Rings and Dune and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on the shelf, books that he had walked past every day for years. Photos that had once sat on the side table in a standard-issue double unit at the Garrison now sat on the bookshelf in a place of pride, showing Keith and Shiro working on their bikes and hanging out at the Space Center that the Garrison was associated with. “You and Keith got close?”

Adam shrugged, his expression taking on a rueful cast as he adjusted his glasses and looked over at the photos as well. “After the crash announcement, I reached out. I wanted to make sure he was alright. And then he got expelled from the Garrison so I helped him get enrolled in online classes and I make sure he eats a vegetable every once in a while, and then he started to do some research about the crash so we’ve been working together on that.” Adam shrugged. “I didn’t want to leave him alone.” 

Shiro realized he was smiling slightly. “I’m glad you were here for him.” Then he realized what else Adam had said. “Wait, Keith got expelled?!”

Adam’s expression was torn between amusement and disapproval. “Iverson made a… less than polite comment about the crash and Keith ripped him a new one. I watched the recording later and I’m still not sure where he learned that language.” Adam’s eyebrow rose as he looked at Shiro though, and Shiro blushed – he had a feeling that some of the language Keith might have used might have been Japanese and maybe Keith had overheard him when he had tried to repair a cracked tube in his hoverbikes’ engine and it had...not gone to plan.

Shiro pressed a hand to his forehead at that memory and tried not to burst out laughing. Oh, he was angry about the expulsion, and Keith shouldn’t have lost his temper like that, but… it was just so classically Keith Kogane to cut loose at a Garrison instructor without holding back.

And knowing Iverson’s almost literal allergy to tact, Shiro didn’t doubt that he deserved whatever Keith had to say.  

Adam crossed his arms, the moment passing. “We do need to talk to the Garrison.”

Shiro shuddered. “Let’s figure out the energy signature first. I’d rather not end up restrained in a quarantine tent again without more proof.”

Adam opened his mouth, then closed it, paling slightly as he processed that before he got a determined glint in his eye. “Alright, we are definitely not doing that. And the kids?”

Shiro grimaced. “How well do you think it’ll work to tell Keith to stay here, much less all four of them?”

Adam sighed, but nodded in agreement. “And even if we convinced him, I can already tell you that Gunderson will drag the boys out without hesitation no matter what we say.”

“Gunderson?”

“...That’s a little more complicated. We’ll talk about it later, but until we can talk to her privately, that’s Pidge Gunderson, a male cadet from Denver.”

Shiro shot him a dubious look. “And everyone is just...going with it?”

Adam shrugged helplessly, his mouth tugging to the side with faint amusement even through his clear bewilderment. “If you ask Colleen Holt she’ll swear up, down, and backwards that Katie is staying with cousins in Boston because she’s heartbroken over her family and wanted to be away from home for awhile.” 

“...ok, I guess it’ll wait until we can talk to...him.” 

~

Adam slowly shook his head, unable to process what he was seeing and everything that had come before it.

First, it had been Takashi. Alive and returning from abduction by aliens , which just...what the hell?!

Then there had been finding the rock formations that exactly matched the energy readings Keith and Gunderson had been tracking and that Garrett had figured out to measure. 

Then the cave Garrett had found was full of the same lion carvings he and Keith had been researching for months, which had already given Adam a headache given that lions weren’t even native to the continent and had led to way too many late night discussions with Keith about aliens versus tourists and trying to decipher some incredibly dense paleobiology articles that had still ended up being a dead end. 

Except, these lions had started glowing when McClain brushed his hand over one, which had definitely not happened any other time when Adam had found carvings with Keith.

And then the floor had given out and dropped them into a cavern, with a giant, alien, possibly sentient, robotic lion that luckily seemed to like them, and was also probably the weapon the aliens who had taken Shiro and the Holts were looking for.

“This day definitely cannot get any weirder,” he muttered to himself, running a hand through his hair. 

“I’m not betting on anything at this point,” Gunderson replied, voice slightly shaky but eyes intensely focused. 

Adam glanced at the others and made sure they were distracted before leaning forward. He at least needed to give her a chance. “Just as a heads up, I sent a message updating your mom.”

Gunderson suddenly went pale, clapping a hand to her mouth to stop any exclamations before she turned back to Adam. Luckily at that moment the others were inspecting the forcefield and were definitely distracted from the conversation they were having. “What?!”

Adam lifted an eyebrow. “Ta--Shiro and I were in the same class as your brother, and I’ve met you before. Give me a little credit, Katie.” He ignored the stumble over Takashi’s name. That wasn’t important right now, not with everything else that they were currently dealing with. 

Pidge winced and looked down. Adam glanced up and made sure that the others were still distracted examining the...forcefield. That covered the giant robotic lion. What was his life right now?

He refocused on Pidge. “Your mom reached out to me unofficially when you enrolled yourself in the Garrison under a fake name. After breaking into Iverson’s office.”

“I just… I knew they were lying,” Pidge whispered, before a jolt of anger appeared in her eyes. “And if you thought something was fishy why didn’t you say something?! It’s my family!” She hissed at him, her fists clenching at her sides.

“And all we had were weird energy readings and redacted reports,” Adam replied softly, remembering those awful hours after the broadcast had played on the television about the Kerberos mission. “I know you’re brilliant, but it was bad enough that Keith was involved. I didn’t want to risk you either when I wasn’t even sure what we would be getting into.” And with some of the things he found...well. He was glad he had grabbed his laptop bag and hadn’t left it at the apartment. 

Pidge’s eyes softened slightly. She opened her mouth to speak--

McClain knocked on the...forcefield that surrounded the lion, and there was a reverberation through the air as the lion roared, everyone in the room swaying back from the force. For a moment, the air in the room felt heavier, like a pressure change. 

Adam stilled, scanning the room automatically, ready for anything, but nothing else happened. 

“Uh. Did everyone see that?” McClain asked out loud.

“Voltron is a robot! A huge, huge awesome robot!” Garrett crowed gleefully. Even Takashi suddenly looked thrilled.

For a moment, Adam felt faintly nostalgic, a soft warm feeling in his chest. Takashi had always loved mecha movies.

“And this is just one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are…” Pidge mused out loud. 

“What are you all talking about?” Adam asked with a frown, looking over the group.

Everyone stared at him. “You… didn’t see that?” Keith asked carefully, eyes narrowing slightly as he looked back at the lion. 

“Voltron is a giant robot and the blue lion is one piece of it!” Gunderson quickly exclaimed, excitement glittering in her eyes, momentarily hiding her previous fear. 

“...I definitely didn’t see that,” Adam replied slowly. Despite himself, he glanced at Takashi. “You all saw it? Like...like a vision?”

Takashi looked just as confused as he was about why only Adam hadn’t seen anything. “Yes. Five lions, different colors, that all come together to form one giant robot. I...guess the five of us saw the same thing?”

“Yeah, that’s what I saw,” Keith added quietly, slightly wide-eyed as he stared at the lion.

The forcefield disappeared and the lion suddenly leaned down and opened its jaw, but before Adam could say anything the kids were rushing onboard. “Shit,” he muttered, quickly following. 

“Oh man, this is incredible!” Lance sat in what looked like the main control seat, which jolted forward as the panels began to glow. 

“Ok guys, I-I feel the need to point out just so we’re all, you know, aware, we are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now,” Garrett managed to get out, so nervous that his teeth were almost chattering. Adam tried to catch his eye and give him a reassuring smile, even though he didn’t really feel it himself. 

McClain abruptly sat up in the pilot chair. “Who, did you guys hear that?!”

“Hear what?” Keith asked, tilting his head.

“I think it’s talking to me,” McClain replied, stunned. He reached out and deliberately pressed a few buttons, the hum of the engines growing louder. “...Ok, got it. Now let’s try this.”  

Adam almost fell to his knees when the lion started moving, only avoiding falling when Shiro reached out and grabbed his forearm until he could catch his balance. He opened his mouth to say thank you, but instead yelped as the lion started bounding forward and then took off, rockets blasting as it smashed through the roof of the cave.  

“Laaaaaaaance!” 

“Holy crap!” 

“You are the worst pilot ever!” Keith shrieked. 

“Isn’t this awesome?!” McClain yelled back, the grin in his voice.

Adam realized that even with the terror of being in a bizarre alien spaceship, he was also grinning. The adrenaline rush was real. The lion reared back, arcing into the sky and within moments they had cleared the stratosphere. 

“Make it stop, make it stop!” Garrett yelled.

“I’m not making it do anything, it’s like it’s on autopilot!”

...And that was less than comforting. 

“Where are you going?!”

“I just said it was on autopilot!” McClain looked more closely at the screens. “It says there’s an alien spaceship approaching Earth. I think we’re supposed to stop it!”

“What did it say, exactly?” Gunderson said, eyes glinting behind her glasses. 

“It’s not really words, it’s more like it’s feeding ideas into my brain… kind of.”

“The giant robot cat is a telepathic alien weapon?” Adam asked, trying to keep the incredulousness out of his voice.

“I guess?” McClain frowned as something popped up on the view screen. “I think the ship is that way, behind the moon.” 

Abruptly, Adam realized they were in open space. No pressure changes, no intense feeling of gravity fighting their escape from the atmosphere, and arguably smoother than some commercial flights Adam had been on, McClain’s piloting aside. 

He allowed himself to swallow hard. Once. No vessel that the Garrison had put into commission came anywhere close to what this robot lion seemed to be capable of, not even the ships in development. The capabilities of the lion were decades ahead of what the brightest minds on Earth had come up with, possibly even centuries. 

“Well, if this thing is the weapon they’re coming for, why don’t we just like, I don’t know, give it to them? Maybe they’ll leave us alone.” Garett babbled quickly, clearly alarmed as they shot into the sky. The lion shuddered around them. “Sorry, lion, nothing personal!”

“You don’t understand.”

Adam turned with everyone else to face Takashi, whose voice had dropped into an utterly serious, angry tone. 

“These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There’s no bargaining with them. They won’t stop until everything is dead.”

Silence hung over the cabin, and Adam tried to swallow around the lump in his throat.

Takashi, what happened to you?

“...Oh. Never mind then,” Garrett replied, his light voice, betrayed by his very wide eyes.

The lion cleared the atmosphere, circling around the moon and facing open space.

And then the seemingly empty space... shifted. The darkness and stars folded and brightened, like ripples, before a new shape appeared. It was larger than any ship Adam had seen constructed by human hands, dwarfing even the enormous cruisers that chugged between Earth and Mars. It defied every expectation Adam had of a spaceship. 

Even more than the size was the sheer presence of the ship. It loomed, easily dwarfing the giant robot cat they were piloting, emanating an eerie shade of violet that hurt the eyes to focus on.

It was a ship clearly designed for war. The technological sophistication that was on display was beyond anything humankind had cobbled together in their several hundred year history of space travel.

Adam realized that his heart was racing. If this vessel wanted to attack Earth, if it wanted to start a war, Earth had nothing that could stand up to it. 

At that moment, he felt very small in the face of such a force. What were they supposed to do against something like that? How could they hope to stop it if an invasion was imminent?

“Holy crow! Is that an actual alien spaceship?!” Garrett cried out, the teen’s alarm and fear obvious in his voice. 

Shit. Shit . The cadets were just kids and if Adam was scared, how much more terrified did they feel?

Gunderson actually looked as though she had stopped breathing, so he reached out and gently tugged her back so that he could keep a grip on her shoulder. She inhaled sharply, her eyes meeting his, terror and wonder at war across her face.

Adam tried to smile reassuringly, unsure of how successful he was, but at least Gunderson started breathing again, fast but steady.

“Dude that’s what I said!” McClain retorted, his voice a little higher pitched at the sight of the very big and very alien spaceship. “Like literally a minute ago!”

“Look, it’s been a really weird day and I have no idea what’s an exaggeration and what’s accurate now, alright? Work with me!”

Adam realized that Takashi’s face had tightened, paling until he was almost chalk-white. “They found me…” 

Shiro’s voice quivered, just slightly, enough that Adam knew that whatever he was feeling was even more intense than his own reaction to the ship had been.

Realization settled on him like a heavy weight, and suddenly, Adam had no doubt. These were the people who had hurt Takashi. Who had left the scar on his face, who were responsible for the metal arm that he had seemed ashamed of in the shack.

The edges of the fear suddenly burned away against the fury that boiled in Adam’s gut. They had already taken Takashi once. They were menacing his cadets, they were threatening Keith, and they were advancing on his home.

No. They don’t get to do this.

Abruptly, the guns on the warship started moving, Adam was forced to grab the back of the pilot chair as the lion jolted to a halt, everyone on board came to the realization that the weapons were locking onto them .

“We gotta get out of here!”

“McClain, evasive maneuvers!”

“On it, hang on, I think I know what to do!” McClain yelled back, hands grabbing the controls. The blue lion dodged as bolts of energy whizzed past, and Adam grabbed Gunderson and Garrett again, trying to help them brace as the ship moved like a living animal through space.

“Oh god, not more spinning,” Garrett groaned, the pallor of his face now tinged with green. 

“Deep breaths, cadet, just keep remembering to breathe,” Adam murmured back, keeping his voice gentle and calm as he tightened his grip on the cadets and wracked his brain for something to give Garrett if he did get sick, because if he vomited while the ship was spinning they were really going to be in trouble. 

“Be careful, this isn’t the simulator!” Pidge exclaimed, her nails digging into Adam’s arm as she almost went to her knees against the G-forces and the unpredictable motions of the lion moving under McClain’s direction. “Sorry!” She yelped, lifting her fingers away, perfect crescents left in Adam’s arm. 

“Don’t worry, you’re fine,” Adam replied quietly, reaching out to get a grip on her other arm--she was smaller than everyone else, and with how the ship was flying, it would be too easy for her to get thrown around. 

“Well that’s good, I always wreck the simulator,” McClain replied, aiming for cocky but not quite able to hide his apprehension.

Adam was suddenly struck by a memory of Shiro at 15, sheepishly apologizing for breaking the simulator mechanics by attempting what he had called ‘a crewed lithobraking maneuver’ and which everyone else had called a crash. Shiro was even grinning at the crazy maneuvers they were pulling now, the darkness temporarily pushed away.

This was probably not the time for those memories, despite the ache they brought for brighter times, as he refocused forcefully on the present, ignoring the sound of Keith growling under his breath.

McClain swung the lion around and did something with the controls that Adam wasn’t quite able to follow. The mouth of the lion opened to return fire, shredding the side of the ship before spiraling away into space.

“Nice shot!”

“Let’s try this!” McClain’s hands moved the controls again and the lion danced forward, shuddering on impact with the cruiser, a feeling like a triumphant roar in the air as it’s claws slashed through the external hull of the warship, leaving wreckage in their wake. 

“Nice job, Lance!” Takashi complimented.

McClain grinned and leaned forward. “Ok, now let’s get these guys away from our planet.”

The lion rocketed forward, space and planets streaking past. Adam’s eyes widened when he realized that the massive rocks they were flying past was the asteroid belt of the solar system. How the hell…

“They’re gaining on us!” Gunderson exclaimed.

“...That’s weird. They aren’t trying to shoot us, they’re just chasing us,” McClain observed tensely, his hands never leaving the controls.

Shiro had turned, his eyes focused on the small glimpse they could see of the ship racing after them. Keith was also looking back at them, fury burning in his eyes.

If Adam felt this furious at the alien ship, how much angrier did Keith feel about the people who had apparently done their best to try to kill Shiro?

Adam made himself look away. They would survive this first, and then he could talk to Keith to make sure he wouldn’t do something impulsive and reckless, like try to take on an entire alien ship crew with his knife. Most likely he wouldn’t do that...except that Adam had seen Keith pick fights with other cadets, Iverson, Lieutenant Gomez who taught the hand to hand combat courses for the cadets, at least a couple of townies, and one incredibly misplaced skunk. 

...ok, Adam was absolutely going to have to make sure that Keith didn’t try to fight all of the aliens with a knife.

“Since when is aliens chasing us a good thing?!” Garrett exclaimed, almost directly in Adam’s ear.

“Wait, where are we?” Keith suddenly spoke up, eyes darting to the view screens before they widened, taking in the horribly familiar expanse of stars.

Adam felt his heart pound. They had studied these stars. He had stared at them angrily, and then plotted them, and then had to look away as the other instructors used the coordinates to design a salvage mission for the cadets to practice on in the simulator. 

“Edge of the solar system,” Takashi said softly, eyes glued to a small moon they were passing. “That’s Kerberos.” Takashi’s voice was so full of emotion that it hurt. 

Adam was unsure of what to say now, under these circumstances and in front of other people. Keith reached up and placed a hand on Takashi’s shoulder, and the Japanese man shook his head minutely, managing a small, reassuring smile.

Adam was not particularly reassured.

“It takes months to get out this far, and we got here in like five seconds.” Gunderson looked around the lion again, the edge of fear almost disappearing under a new puzzle to be solved. 

“What is that?!”

Everyone looked forward again, just as a wormhole opened in front of them, fractals unfolding infinitely within the event horizon, somehow perfectly outlined but also impossible to actually focus on no matter how Adam squinted at it. They shimmered and rippled, producing light in the void around it, perfectly contained within the circle. He had never seen something like this outside of CGI in movies, and those images on a screen didn’t hold a candle to the incredible sight in front of them. 

“Uh… this is going to sound crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there,” McClain murmured, suddenly sounding much less sure of himself as he stared down at the controls. He curled forward slightly, more unsure than Adam had ever seen him, false bravado nowhere in sight.

“Where does it go?” Gunderson asked, equally soft, uncertain but her eyes full of intensity as though the wormhole held the answers to every question she had ever asked.

And for her, that might have even been true. 

Adam briefly glanced at Takashi, who was looking at Gunderson as though she was going to rip his head off any moment.

They really needed to talk. They needed a plan, they needed time, but they were short on both of those.

“I have no idea,” McClain replied, before turning to look at Adam and Takashi. “You guys are the senior officers. What do you think?”

Adam looked over to meet Takashi’s eyes, finding them already locked onto him with unwavering intent, a question in his gaze that Adam could read as clearly as though Takashi had said it out loud. 

What do you think?

And didn’t that burn, that Adam could still read him so clearly, when before Kereberos--

He stopped, and shoved that thought away. They would find time, make time if they had to, to address the Kerberos mission, but right now they had five kids depending on both of them making the right decision.

On the one hand, he didn’t want to drag teenagers into the unknown, in a mysterious alien ship through a mysterious alien portal to nobody-knew-where. On the other hand…

“You’ve got the intergalactic experience. I think you outrank me here.” Adam knew that tech like this? Outclassed everything on Earth. Turning around and having the hostile alien spaceship follow them back home would end in disaster, and people would die. But if they continued forward, they could be risking not just their lives, but the lives of the cadets, who had even less idea than he did about what they were getting into.

However. Regardless of whatever danger lay beyond that event horizon, they had a duty to protect the people of Earth and they couldn't do that by turning around to go home. The primary mission of the Garrison was exploration, yes, but they had all taken an oath to defend Earth. 

They just hadn’t known that the threats could be extraterrestrial. 

Adam let himself exhale, slowly. They didn't have a choice, not really, but Takashi was the one who knew these aliens the best. He had the best idea of what they were up against, of what these aliens were actually capable of. 

Adam scowled. Fuck the opinion of some giant semi-telepathic robotic cat weapon, he trusted Takashi, even with everything that was still unresolved between them. Adam trusted him to make the right decision. He looked up again.

“I trust you, Takashi.”

Takashi’s eyes widened before he got his features under control, nodding slowly before he looked at the cadets. “Whatever happens, the lion seems to know more than we do. I say we trust it, but we’re a team now. We should decide together.”

Silence hung over the cabin. Nobody refused to move forward. McClain finally settled into his seat. “Alright, I guess we’re all ditching class tomorrow.”

He hit the controls and the lion flew into the wormhole.

~

Keith was still reeling from the information they were being told by… well, an alien princess. After passing through an alien wormhole, going into an alien castle, being fed literal green alien goo, and finding out that Voltron was apparently in the middle of an alien war that extended back for 1,000 years.

...Well, at least it meant that Mothman was probably real. Maybe some of those alien shows that he and Shiro had marathoned together had more than a grain of truth to them. 

But more importantly, it also meant that Shiro was telling him to ‘work as a team’ with probably the most obnoxious person in the galaxy for their survival. Logically, it made sense, because trying to survive out here without any background knowledge?

Yeah. That was like trying to survive in the desert in flip flops and just a bottle of tequila. He couldn’t get away from Lance, Hunk, and Pidge -- but mostly Lance -- until he had a better lay of the land.

He had survived on his own for a long time. Trying to work with other people always ended badly, except for Shiro and Adam, who weren’t like other people. Other people whined and complained and broke promises as soon as they could, but not them. Not Shiro or Adam. 

Keith’s priority was to keep the two of them safe.

He had already lost Shiro once. He wasn’t losing him again, not because of a bunch of dumbass cadets who had no idea about how the real world worked.

Especially since it was Lance’s flying that had gotten them stuck on the other end of a wormhole , and the only reason he was letting it go right now was because Shiro and Adam had both given him that look that somehow they had both mastered. 

It made Keith’s chest hurt, so he stared at the screens and holograms instead, avoiding their gazes.

“How long until the Galra arrive?” Shiro asked, quiet and intent. Subdued. 

Maybe the rest of the room couldn’t tell, but Keith had known Shiro for years. 

Shiro was stressed. And he wasn’t the only one to notice.

Adam was watching Shiro, too. He hadn’t said anything, but he was doing that thing where he had his arms crossed and was drumming his fingers against his left bicep. It was a habit of Adam’s that Keith had first noticed when Shiro had gotten hurt during a training run and had decided to ignore his injuries, going along his day as though he hadn’t almost ended up in traction. Adam probably had permanent indents on his arms from all of the worry-fueled finger-drumming that had occurred during that incident alone, much less any other time he was stressed out.

Yeah. Keith knew that look really well.

“At their speed?” The older alien -- Corn-an? Colan? Keith hadn’t quite caught his name after he had his weird showdown thing with Lance -- did a little math on his fingers. “Probably a couple of solar movements?”

Keith mentally translated that to ‘way sooner than they would be ready to deal with.’

“Good, let them come!” the princess declared, pounding her fist against her hand. “By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon’s empire!”

Keith tilted his head slightly, slightly alarmed by her declaration. That sounded pretty...abrupt. Hadn’t she just woken up from cryo? What was she trying to get them to do?

And then Adam cleared his throat. 

That wasn’t a good sign.

The princess turned to look at him. “Yes, what is it, uh...”

“Adam, and yes, I have a question.” Adam unfolded his arms and leaned forward, his face completely cleared of emotion. 

Keith automatically leaned back. He definitely knew that look.

“What do you mean, ‘you five will reform Voltron’?”

Princess Allura blinked, tilting her head. “Well, clearly based on their quintessence signatures these five are the new Paladins of Voltron.”

Coran nodded, “King Alfor connected the lions’ essence to Allura’s life force, so we can track down the lions for you new pilots faster than you can say--”

“And what, precisely, does that mean?” Adam cut Coran off, eyes narrowing as he looked straight at the alien princess.

Keith saw Shiro’s spine straighten, his eyes going between Adam and the princess. Shiro definitely recognized that tone. 

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Lance leaning towards Hunk and Pidge just a little too casually, as though ready to tug them back. Huh. For someone who seemed ready to chase after the nearest pretty face like an idiot, he was actually paying attention to what was going on. Maybe he wasn’t completely useless.

“Well, that means they will be the pilots of the lions of Voltron, fighting together to free the galaxy from Zarkon’s rule.”

Adam held up a finger, a deceptively pleasant look on his face. “So what you’re telling me is that you’re going to send five people, all of whom are answerable to a different government, four of whom are underage, into an active war zone, against enemy combatants, while you sit safe in this castle?” Adam’s voice rose slightly by the end, and his tone was so obviously furious, that even Keith could hear it loud and clear. 

“...Excuse me?!” Princess Allura replied, her voice switching from polite to outraged in a moment. 

Adam tilted his head towards the view screen where the projection of the lions had been pulled up, scattered along the galaxy. “From the way you’re describing this, they’re taking all the risks fighting your war, for you, while your hands stay clean.”

The princess opened her mouth, but Adam kept going, relentless, as fierce as when he was facing down a new pilot who had done a risky maneuver in civilian airspace to show off for his girlfriend.

Keith had seen that chew-out as well. He still wasn’t sure why the guy had thought it was a good idea when Adam was there to scold him for it. 

“And frankly, princess , we aren’t your subjects, and we have no obligation at all to follow your orders.”

“My father was the pilot of those lions,” Allura hissed, her cheeks darkening with fury as her posture grew even stiffer. “Their purpose is to protect the universe from evil, which means that they are destined to fight the Galra!”

“And there are plenty of ways to fight a war, with or without this so-called Voltron that apparently requires children to pilot!” Adam snapped back, eyes blazing, almost rigid with irritation. 

Hunk had actually taken a few steps back so that he was behind Lance, whose look of stupid admiration was sharpening into something that almost looked...thoughtful. 

Huh. Maybe there was a brain, under all the layers of hot air.

“Forming Voltron is the only way forward, and we know more about these Lions than anyone in the universe!”

“You still haven’t given us any concrete reason why we should trust you!” 

Keith crossed his arms, tucking away his warring stress and irritation under his usual blank mask. These Galra aliens had taken Shiro, and from the look of his scars and the fact that he had a mechanical arm, had tortured him! It sounded like they would be doing the galaxy a favor by fighting them!

At the same time...this was what Adam had always done for Keith. Had stepped in when Keith -- or Shiro -- was ready to rush forward without thinking things through. He had always wanted to clear the way to make sure that they would be as safe as he could make them. 

When he had been younger, it had annoyed Keith to no end. Now, he knew it was just Adam’s prickly, grumpy way of caring, even though it was hard to swallow. 

And this time? Adam wasn’t wrong. They didn’t know anything about these people, and even if they were aliens, there was no guarantee that they weren’t trying to use them. 

Keith might have always felt lost in conversations, unable to tell what was the truth and what was a lie, but Adam could tell the difference. So he would keep watching for when or if Allura slipped, and he would help Adam get Shiro out of there before it turned into a complete clusterfuck.

...and the cadets. Maybe. If they didn’t get the danger, Keith didn’t want to risk slowing down for them, but Shiro would probably go back to save them, so it was probably better to grab them from the beginning.

“Do you doubt my trustworthiness?!” Allura retorted, blatantly angry now.

“Yes, because we just met you, and the only thing we’ve seen so far is that you want vengeance on these Galra people,” Adam replied, his tone as dry as the desert. 

“What I want is justice!”

“Can you tell the difference?”

Pidge’s head kept moving between Adam and Allura, as though their argument had physical weight. Which was fair, the tension was so high that even Keith felt uncomfortable.

“Regardless of if we are considering the question of vengeance or justice, Voltron is needed to fight this war! We need the paladins to pilot the lions!”

Adam’s eyebrow rose. “While you sit back and do...what exactly?”

“Now wait--” Coran started to speak, but Princess Allura spoke over him, striding forward towards Adam, her face darkly flushed.

“Are you accusing me of cowardice?!”

“Perhaps,” Adam replied, eyes flashing dangerously as the princess came eye-to-eye with him.

“How dare you?! Do you understand what Zarkon has done to the universe?!” 

“Do you? Literally an hour ago you woke up after being in stasis for a thousand years! How do you even know that this Zarkon guy is still the emperor?”

“He is.”

Keith turned abruptly to look at Shiro. The man’s voice was quiet, but steady, and his eyes were burning into Adam’s.

“I don’t know how, but he’s alive. He would appear on transmissions regularly.” 

The tone of Shiro’s voice made Keith’s stomach twist, and that was before he processed the content. Out of the corner of his eye, he realized he wasn’t the only one. Hunk in particular had gone pale at the tone, still holding the green goo in his hand, and Pidge was holding his laptop tightly to his chest, his eyes very wide behind his glasses.

Keith looked up and unexpectedly caught Lance’s eye. The other teen grimaced... maybe sympathetically? 

He had no idea how to respond to that, so he looked back at the argument.

Adam huffed a sigh through his nose, his shoulders relaxing very slightly. “Ok. Still doesn’t change my initial point about sending a group of teenagers to fight in a war without any recent, confirmed intel.”

“How dare you?” Allura seethed. “Do you understand what Zarkon has done to my people?!”

“I do,” Adam replied, deadly quiet. “That’s why I’m skeptical that you’ve got a clear head about this. Can you honestly tell me you aren’t asking these kids to fight and possibly die because you’re too angry to think things through?” 

Keith watched as Hunk rocked back and started babbling about fighting, Pidge started yelling about Adam underestimating them, Coran trying to bring everyone to order and Lance trying to help him, Allura shouting again --

“That’s enough!” Shiro’s voice rose over the din, as firm as an angry drill sergeant. Pidge even snapped to attention before he realized that he was doing it, and Adam and Princess Allura both turned to face the pilot, still seething but finally quiet.

“That’s enough, we’re not going to get anywhere by fighting like this.” Shiro turned. “Coran, you said that the Galra are on their way here no matter what, right?”

“Yes, the castle sensors show their warships on a course for Arus and the castle,” the older alien confirmed. 

“Does the castle have any defenses?”

“Several,” Allura replied coldly. 

“The castle has a particle barrier and defensive weapons, but… the Galra fleet has been growing for a thousand years,” Coran replied, any trace of the goofy old guy who had come out of the cryotube replaced by a steady military man. “The castle is advanced, but it may need some repairs.”

“Alright, then no matter what we still need the lions. Can you give us more details about where they are?”

“Yes.” Allura glared at Adam, who ignored her, staring hard at Shiro. 

“Then let’s start there,” Shiro turned to Adam, who would’ve looked utterly impassive if it wasn’t for the fury in his eyes. 

Keith hid a wince. No way was he going to let Lance of all people see him flinch, even though he hated seeing Shiro and Adam fighting. 

At that moment, Adam caught his eye, and Keith was relieved when he very precisely took a step back and exhaled, visibly reigning in his temper as Shiro looked back at the princess.

“Princess Allura, can you please take us through more information about the lions?”

~

“Adam--”

Adam spun on his heel to stick a finger in Shiro’s face. “Are you actually ok with sending these kids into a warzone? You did consider the fact that all of you could die, right?!”

Shiro frowned and crossed his arms. This was definitely familiar in the worst possible way, and it hurt, deeper than he’d thought it would. And even worse, they didn’t have time to really talk about this the way it deserved to be talked about -- Coran was trying to prepare a pod so that he and Pidge could go after the Green Lion, and Lance and Hunk were getting ready to track down the Yellow Lion, while Princess Allura continued to scan space for the Red Lion. Everything was moving too fast and they just needed to survive the next couple of days.

He could see the hurt that Adam was covering with anger as well, how careful Adam was still trying to be by not digging into the last argument they’d had.

-- “you know how much time you have left, and you could be losing most of it if something goes wrong out there!” --

He tried to push it away, focusing on the reality of the current situation. “And we’re going to be sitting ducks with a fleet of warships on their way if we don’t have a weapon. The Galra had no problem opening hostilities before they knew anything about us,” and god, Shiro could feel the aches in his bones, in his shoulder, in his scars as he thought about those hostilities, the idea of everyone in the castle facing that down as well. “We need to get the other lions of Voltron.”

“Which, conveniently, all of you will be flying, and not her,” Adam retorted tightly.

Shiro sighed. “Do you always need to be this paranoid?”

“Do you always have to be this trusting?” 

Shiro gestured towards the bridge of the castle ship, frustration starting to well up in him. “They want to fight the Galra, we need allies. Earth can’t handle an invasion from a force like this!”

“So they’re automatically trustworthy because they hate the Galra?” Adam gestured emphatically towards the wall, encompassing the alien planet outside of the alien castle. “We are light years away from Earth, which means we can’t get any kind of message there to even warn people that the Galra exist, much less that they’re coming! We can’t afford to rely too heavily on one source of information if we want to get a debrief that’s even minimally useful back to Earth.” 

Shiro swallowed, fear twisting in his stomach. “I know. Which means we need to make sure the Galra don’t pay attention to Earth at all. We have to distract them, and Voltron is the only thing that can do that. Zarkon is obsessed with it.”

Adam crossed his arms. Shiro felt a lump in his throat as he watched Adam’s fingers drum on his bicep. How many times had he seen that before?

“Why would Zarkon be obsessed with a millennia-old weapon?” 

“I don’t know. But even with parts of my memory fuzzy, I remember hearing about it. All prisoners were asked about Voltron when they were initially interrogated,” he replied, the words slipping out far too easily.

Adam looked stricken, and Shiro swallowed the urge to curse. He hadn’t wanted to reveal that, he couldn’t afford the weakness of thinking about...everything.

-- strapped to a table, head spinning as the languages glitched between English and Japanese and what sounded like different alien languages but how could he be sure, pain pain PAIN--  

He shook his head, trying to shake the memories away and getting back to the important topic. 

“If they get to Earth, millions of people will die and our home will be destroyed, just like dozens of other worlds that the Galra invaded. We can do something about it.” 

Adam uncrossed his arms, but something in his gaze changed as he looked at Shiro. He was thinking, which Shiro was utterly grateful for, because it meant that he wasn’t thinking about Shiro’s slip, and...well, the more people they had working on these problems, the more it reduced their chances of dying. 

Adam had always been the careful one. The one who looked at a problem from as many angles as he could. When Shiro relied on experience and instinct, Adam prided himself on his ability to process and analyze data rapidly, comparing the possibilities and strategies to move forward. There had been many times when that same mind had its downsides, like the time they’d needed to buy a new vacuum and Adam had refused to commit until he had checked every single review for each of the several models they were torn between, but the man’s stubborn determination to understand everything made Adam a phenomenal strategist, whether it was reviewing logistics or planning flight paths.

When they had gotten to fly together, it had made them the top team at the Garrison. 

Shiro ached when he remembered those days.

“You’re going to be in danger. Leading kids into danger.” Adam repeated, his jaw tense even as his shoulders slumped. His hand came up to push his hair out of his face, and suddenly the anger bled away to reveal the fear.

Shiro swallowed again, his mouth dry. “I’m going to do everything I can, everything I have to, to keep them alive.” 

“And keep yourself alive, too,” Adam added, his eyes burning into Shiro’s. “And I still don’t trust the princess.” 

Shiro sighed and reached up to rub his forehead. “Can you at least call a truce with the aliens who want to ally with us until we deal with the aliens coming to kill us?” 

Adam paused and then, amazingly, a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Remind me how this became our lives again?”

Shiro couldn’t resist a smile of his own, a couple of dry chuckles bubbling up. “Well, we did go to the Garrison to become space explorers.”

“This definitely wasn’t in the pamphlet,” Adam retorted around a soft laugh before he grew serious and looked down to the floor, eyes focusing on some thought in his mind. “You’re right. Let’s get through the next 48 hours.” 

~

Patience yields focus. That was what Takashi always said, a mantra passed down from his grandfather, and Takashi had used it to center himself during trying times, whether it was a difficult exam or a stressful test flight or a worrying doctor’s appointment. He had used it often enough that eventually  Adam had started using the phrase too, finding comfort in it even after the breakup and the Kerberos report, when he had spent evenings digging through raw data from the Garrison or helping Keith sort through theoretical physics papers on quantum energy spectrums or grading finals at the end of the year.

At the moment, Adam was hanging onto that mantra with a stranglehold to avoid shrieking at the aliens in the room.

“Did you just say that they could be permanently stranded halfway across the universe?!”

Judging from Keith’s wince, he hadn’t quite managed his goal.

Allura’s eyes were closed, hands resting on the pillars of her dais, forming functional, stable wormholes with only a thought. Her brow was furrowed with concentration. Light moved around her and Adam could only catch the hint of images -- was this how Allura accessed the castle?

“They are the paladins of Voltron! I have full faith that they will retrieve the lions and return faster than a klraxon call!”

Adam took a deep, slow breath. Patience yields focus . He would not aggravate their allies, especially when they controlled the route that would bring Takashi and the kids back. 

He opened his eyes, turned away, and refocused on what he could control. “How are you doing?” He asked, very quietly. He wasn’t sure how good Allura and Corans’ hearing was, but he was willing to bet that they didn’t know how good Keith’s hearing was. It was amazing what happened when you didn’t blast out your eardrums with loud music.

Keith’s lips flattened, eyes darting towards the Alteans. “Fine,” he muttered back. 

Adam grimaced. He could understand how much Keith Did Not Like being separated from Takashi again, especially with the risk of being marooned on a distant planet. 

...Adam very deliberately set aside that thought so that he didn’t start panicking. It was not going to be helpful right now, at all. 

“They’ll be back.” They had to be back.

The time ticked down, the silence growing heavier, and to Adam’s dismay, Allura was looking more and more strained. And then--

“It’s the Green Lion!”

Through one of the wormholes, another lion emerged, this one smaller than the blue lion, and deep green. It moved with smaller, faster movements, as though it was slightly hyper, bounding forward en route to the castle. 

Allura and Coran cheered, and even Keith released a shaky breath. Adam patted him on the back, and was rewarded with a small, relieved smile. Takashi wasn’t lost again.

“Is there any sign of the Blue or Yellow Lion?”

“Not yet.”

The Green Lion made its way down to the hanger, but the tension was ramping up again. Adam may not have known Lance or Hunk as well, but he had worked with them in school activities and he knew Veronica pretty well, and he did not want to be responsible for losing either of them across the universe. Especially now that he was going to get to know them better--he had already been forced to drop the formality of ‘Cadets McClain and Garrett’ because the Alteans had been puzzled by the multiple names. At this point, the formality from the Garrison wasn’t going to do them any good, and Adam was already attached to these kids. Caring about them wasn’t going to be difficult.

Allura was sweating now, looking stressed by the time Takashi and Pidge made it to the bridge. “Paladins, please hurry back, I can’t hold the wormhole much longer!”

Adam’s heart rate ratched up, and he grabbed Keith’s shoulder. Normally Keith didn’t like physical contact, but he didn’t shift Adam’s hand away, and Adam deeply appreciated being able to hang on to someone at this moment. 

The edges of the wormhole started to waver, crumpling like tissue paper in a rainstorm, when two lions burst through, moments before it closed. Allura leaned heavily on her station, breathing hard, but a grin stretched across her face, and Adam felt Keith relax beside him. 

They had made it.

~

“Do we have any leads on the Red Lion?”

“Allura has tracked it down, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the Red Lion is nearby! The bad news, it’s on one of the Galra ships and they’re orbiting Arus! The good news is, we’re on Arus!”

Shiro resisted the urge to drop his head into his hands. It could never be simple, could it? They had only just recovered from getting the Green and Yellow lions, and even though he and...Pidge had an easy journey, Lance and Hunk could have died in a Galra attack, and Keith was clearly still stressed about wormhole separation.

It wasn’t immediately obvious if you didn’t know him--it was mostly the tightness around his eyes. The eyes always gave Keith away, no matter how good the rest of his poker face was.

“They’re here already?” Shiro managed to ask evenly, not allowing any of his exhaustion show, even though more than anything he just wanted to sit down for a few minutes. Everyone in this room was looking at him as the commanding officer, and he had to lead by example, giving them whatever stability he could provide.

“Yes! I suppose my calculations were a bit off…” Coran explained, his excited expression fading slightly as the gravity of the situation sank in.

“Do you know where the Red Lion was originally hidden? If it was the only lion that was found it’ll be useful for us to figure out how the Galra did it,” Adam spoke up, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. He seemed… slightly more at ease than earlier now that everybody was back, although he was still watching everything closely. 

“I bet we could rig up a better detector version of what Hunk and I built on Earth,” Ka-- Pidge commented, bringing her hand up to grab hi- her chin. 

He really, really needed to talk to her soon.

“Probably wouldn’t be that hard,” Hunk agreed, though he was still twisting his hands nervously.

“Unfortunately not, but that is an excellent avenue to pursue when we are not under imminent Galra attack!” Coran replied brightly, rapidly flipping the controls. The bright cheeriness was grating against the stress and pressure of the situation, but even though it bothered Shiro, it seemed to help the teenagers, so Shiro took a deep breath and deliberately relaxed his hands. He could deal with it.

An alarm blared, followed by a video popping up on the screen. An alien was on the other line, with large purple ears and a cruel glint in his eyes, one organic, one robotic.

Shiro felt his heart start racing. His mouth was dry, and everything was loud around him. 

Breathe. Just keep breathing.

A warm hand rested on his upper back. He jerked slightly. 

Hazel eyes caught his, face neutral and steady even with the calming pressure on his back. Adam took a breath for a count of five, paused, and released. The same way that Shiro had learned, the same way that his grandfather had taught Shiro when he was ten and angry and scared, and Shiro had talked about it with Adam to get through exams and all-nighters.

The ground steadied under him. He could face this. He could hold this together for his team.

“Princess Allura, I am Commander Sendak of the Galran Empire, here on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. Hand over the lions, or you will be destroyed.”

The message closed. Shiro tried to swallow around the lump in his throat. They had come so quickly--how had they found them so quickly? How had they even known who Princess Allura was, she had been in a coma for litera centuries! 

Inhale. Exhale. Exactly what he had done just moments ago. 

No, that wasn’t the important question right now. 

The question was what to do next. 

“Ok. No one panic,” he started, but then he was promptly interrupted.

“Uh, I think now is the time to panic, since we were just told we’re going to be destroyed by an angry purple alien in a big scary battleship if we don’t give them the lions, and we only have four working lions!” Hunk replied, his voice verging on hysterical. 

“Technically only three working lions.”

“Thank you Pidge, that definitely makes this whole situation so much better.”

The teenagers broke out fighting, arguing amongst themselves. It paused for a moment when Allura announced that the castle did have some sort of shielding, a statement that had Adam’s brow furrowing with clear annoyance, definitely irked at how late that fact had come up. Shiro could see him putting together a scathing response in his mind and already dreaded the inevitable fallout, but before Adam could speak, the fight started up again about whether they should stay and fight or run, all four of the teenagers yelling over each other, the cacophony bouncing off the walls. 

Shiro glanced at Adam, nodding towards the group. Do you mind?

Adam glanced at the group, irritation at the princess fading into the same familiar exasperation Shiro remembered from Adam talking about his classes.

Adam caught his eye again, and gave a small smile and nod. 

Sadness and grief and anger and pain all swirled in Shiro’s stomach. He had missed these moments of easy communication, with someone who understood him so well, and it hurt that he had lost this.

“I’m not the one who put us through a random wormhole and got us into this situation!” Keith shouted.

“Maybe I’ll stick you in a wormhole!” Lance yelled back.

A piercing taxicab whistle made everyone jump, especially the Alteans. Allura physically jumped, a hand coming up to her chest, and Coran yelled...something that Shiro didn’t quite catch. 

Adam lowered his hand from his mouth as Shiro stepped forward. “That’s enough! We’re all on the same team here, so everyone needs to weigh in on this.” Hating himself just a little, he turned towards the aliens. “Allura, Coran, these are your lions, and you know the Galra better than any of us. You know what we’re facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?”

Allura hesitated, suddenly looking very young. “I. I don’t know.” She crossed her arms in front of herself, clearly trying to be strong in the face of overwhelming decisions. “I wish I could ask my father about this.” 

Guilt twisted in Shiro’s stomach for putting this on her, a girl who was probably barely older than Keith, but he held firm. She truly did have the most complete understanding of this war right now. 

Coran cleared his throat. “He might be able to.” He gestured to the castle at everyone’s stunned expression. “King Alfor’s memories were stored in the castles’ data banks. I can’t guarantee that they haven’t been corroded, but they could still be there.”

“Take me to him,” Allura asked, hurriedly, a whole whirlwind of emotions passing over her face. “Paladins, we will return soon.”

“Please don’t be long,” Shiro asked as they walked away, turning back to the rest of the room. Keith was still frowning darkly, Pidge was mulish, Hunk was biting his nails, and Lance was still flushed with irritation.

Adam cleared his throat, making everyone look at him. “I just want to make this clear right now. Don’t let her pressure you into this.”

Shiro bit back a sigh. “Adam--”

“No.” Adam cut him off, clearly refusing to be silenced, his eyes blazing. “If they don’t want to fight, we’ll make it work, but I’m not throwing anyone into a battle against their will.”

Shiro met Adam’s eyes evenly. Adam didn’t back down. He never did, and…

This was important. This was something that Adam believed in.

“I’m going to fight.”

Shiro broke Adam’s gaze to look at Pidge. She was pale, and her eyes were wide, but her shoulders were stiff and her gaze was steady. “I have to. I...people need help. I’m not leaving without trying.”

Matt and Commander Holt had both adored Katie, and clearly she returned that adoration back. There was no way she was going to back down from this.

Shiro managed a small smile, before he looked back at Keith. He crossed his arms and glared. “I’m not letting them abduct random people again,” he said flatly.

“Geez, intense much, mullet?” Lance muttered. Shiro turned to look at him.

“Like Adam said, you shouldn’t let someone else force you into this, if you believe something else.” Shiro did not look back at his ex as he said that. “Not everyone gets that choice. We will respect your decisions, all of your decisions, no matter what you decide to do for this.”

Lance looked down, biting his lip and tapping his left foot behind him before he looked back up, the petty snark and goofiness momentarily absent.

“...I’ll fight too. There are people in trouble, and if we can help them...we should.” 

Shiro held back his surprise, but he genuinely hadn’t expected that from Lance. For his part, the teen blushed, avoiding his gaze. “But we can’t just go in there guns blazing -- we need an actual plan or we’re all going to be crispy without sunscreen.” Lance looked around and shrugged at the odd looks the other gave him. “Something my mom likes to say.”

Shiro smiled, quietly relieved, before turning to Hunk. “What do you think?”

Hunk went pale, swallowing hard before looking around the room. “Well...I…” He swallowed again, the fear overtaking the nervous babbling from earlier.

Adam walked next to him and set a hand on his shoulder, his eyes softening. “It’s not a bad thing, if this isn’t something you want.”

“It is kind of selfish though,” Pidge grumbled, blanching when half the room glared at her. Before anyone could speak, Adam cut in, his voice direct.

“Bravery comes in different ways, and not choosing to do something doesn’t mean a person is selfish or cowardly,” Adam stated firmly, turning back towards Hunk, who still looked nervous. “Being involved in something like this is a major thing to ask. I wish you had more time to really think about it, it’s not fair that it has to be so fast, but you’re the only one who knows which decision is best for you.”

Shiro looked down, guilt and sadness and longing all weighing heavily in his stomach again. Under that shell of prickliness, Adam had a core of genuine caring. He guarded it carefully, but it broke through for his students, for his friends, and...at one time, for Shiro.

It was hard to see it here and to hold himself apart from it. He wanted that comfort, but with enemies bearing down on them, he couldn’t look weak in front of the teens, the newly-dubbed paladins that were depending on him to be a strong leader. They deserved someone better, someone who could actually see them through this--

“I’ll help.” 

Shiro looked up. Hunk still looked terrified, but he rolled his shoulders back, trying to look tougher. “I don’t want to lose any of you, so I’ll help.”

“Thank you Hunk. I know it’s scary, but I really think we have a better chance of pulling through this with you,” Shiro replied honestly, letting a genuine smile slide across his face. Hunk smiled back, more uncertainly, but unfailingly honest, and relaxed a bit more when Lance threw an arm around his shoulders in a rough half-hug. 

“We got your back, guapo.” 

Shiro smiled, feeling almost overwhelmed by the trust these kids had in him, before he looked over at Adam, unable to force the question out. Adam returned his gaze, apparently confused for a moment before understanding bloomed.

“...I’m helping too. Not sure what I’ll be doing yet, but this castle has to have useful weapons.”

Shiro felt a smile on his face, relieved. “Thank you.”

“Not for them,” Adam added, prickly again as he nodded towards the door the Alteans had walked through. “I’m staying for all of you.”

Something twisted in Shiro’s stomach. Here was Adam, across the galaxy with his ex and a bunch of teenagers and aliens, promising to stay, when Shiro couldn’t promise to stay for the man he wanted to marry--when Adam couldn’t promise to wait for him to fulfill his dream. 

The door opened again, revealing Allura, no longer in a fancy dress, but now in an armored jumpsuit, clearly ready for war. She came to a stop in front of them, the hesitance and fear banished and new resolve burning in her eyes.

“You were all brought here for a reason. The Voltron Lions were meant for you, and Voltron is the universe’s only hope against Zarkon. We are the universe’s only hope, and we must defeat him.” She met each of their eyes, head held high. “Will you stand with me?”

Shiro stepped forward. There was no turning back now.

“We’re with you, princess.”

The tension around Allura’s eyes eased slightly. “Alright. Now, we need to come up with a plan.”

Everyone remained quiet for a moment, and abruptly, Shiro realized that the teens were all looking towards him and Adam. 

Their eyes met, and he saw the steady, familiar intensity. 

“You’ve got an idea.”

Adam looked slightly startled as the attention in the room focused on him. Even Coran and Allura -- him curious, her cool -- were looking at him.

“...I have a couple of ideas, but I have a few questions first.” Surprisingly, Adam looked back at Allura. “How difficult is it for you to open those wormholes?”

~ 

“Alright, everybody in position?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Hunk, we’ll be fine.”

Keith rolled his eyes at that chatter on the coms. Allura, Coran, and Adam were still in the castle, he was here in the Green Lion with Shiro and Pidge, and Hunk and Lance were getting ready to distract Sendak. 

He...sort of understood why they were nervous, but if Hunk panicked or Lance over-babbled, they were all fucked. 

Shiro caught his eyes, and smiled comfortingly. “It’s going to be fine.”

“Yeah, they’re not doing any stunt flying, so Hunk isn’t going to puke or anything,” Pidge added snarkily, not quite hiding his nervousness as he tapped his fingers on the controls. Keith tried to tuck away his own apprehension at not being in the cockpit -- Shiro was the most experienced pilot, Keith had no problem admitting that, but Keith had been the one to break the records Shiro had set on the Garrison simulators.

But neither of them were piloting, because the Green Lion belonged to Pidge. Even being a passenger, there was something about the lion that just felt...not unwelcoming, but not a place that was his . He felt at home in almost any cockpit, more at peace with moving through air or space, feeling the sudden changes through the controls, but the Green Lion felt a step off. It was like when he had borrowed Shiro’s bike when his was being repaired at the shop, or the time Adam had let him do a test flight in the tiny short-range plane that he and his dad had worked on for years. Something about them had a history, a story that Keith hadn’t contributed to. That was how the Green Lion felt.

Which was ridiculous. It was just a machine, even if the way Allura had described them had made them sound alive. 

But in the back of his mind, he wondered if he would feel the same way about the Red Lion that Pidge clearly felt right now.

Adam appeared on the viewscreen, his face calm. Allura was in view at her podium, hands resting on the controls, and Coran was racing around the deck doing...something at several different panels. “ They’ve made contact with Sendak, you’re clear to go. ”

“Roger that, over,” Pidge replied almost absently, already piloting the lion forward. It was eerie, approaching the Galra battle cruiser and not seeing any sign of alarm. Keith traced the edge of his knife, carefully sheathed under his armor. The bayard-sword might have more reach, but the knife had been everywhere with him for years. It was dependable, trustworthy, familiar in a literally alien environment. 

The Green Lion touched down with barely a shudder. Pidge stood from his seat, rolling his shoulders. “Alright, I guess we’re going in!”

~

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Keith exclaimed, frustrated as he stared up at the exact same stupid symbol in the exact same hallway junction he had just been in. Once he had split ways with Shiro and Pidge so that they could save the prisoners, he had tried to move as fast as he could. Everyone was counting on him to find the Red Lion and not screw this up, but no matter which way he turned it was like he was going in circles. 

He forced himself to take a deep breath. “Ok. Patience yields focus,” he murmured, hearing Shiro’s voice repeat those words as he closed his eyes, trying to let the world fall away as he concentrated on keeping his breathing steady.

He needed to be calm. Running around uselessly wasn’t going to help, so he set aside his frustration and annoyance and concern, and just breathed. 

Shiro had sat with him, no matter how annoyed Keith was at being told to sit still. 

That first time, when he had managed to sit and stay still and focus on his breathing, he had felt...calm. Steady. Like the crackling and itching under his skin had smoothed out, at least for a few minutes, letting him really think things through. 

He needed that now.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

The world quieted around him. The hallways hummed softly, which he was coming to learn was a normal reality for all spaceships. Except…

Except, there.

It was as though he could see the branching halls in his mind, dodging patrols and navigating closed doors, opening up to an enormous hanger bay.

And there, under a forcefield shell, was the Red Lion.

The feeling ended, and Keith abruptly came back to himself, knowing exactly which way to go.

He grinned and started moving.

~

Adam deliberately tried to stop clenching his jaw as Lance and Hunk broke away from stalling the crazy purple imperialistic alien commander and began to engage, dodging lasers and enemy fighters, concentrating on destroying the absolutely ridiculously-sized cannon--ion cannon, that was what Coran had called it. 

“Shiro, Pidge, Keith, have you made any progress?” He asked, carefully keeping his tension out of his voice.

“We found the prisoners,” replied Shiro. Adam frowned -- he definitely sounded off, but there was no way for him to ask over an open channel. Shiro wouldn’t appreciate anyone, including and possibly especially Adam, pointing out a change in composure that openly. “We just loaded them onto a transport and we directed them towards the castle, we’re almost back to the Green Lion.”

“I’ve got a lead on Red,” Keith added, his voice much softer in the mic. Adam hoped he was being even more cautious than usual. Fighting against the Garrison officers and scientists to get to Shiro had been bad enough, much less an enemy alien crew with who-knew-how-much combat experience. 

Keith, I swear if you pick a fight with an alien right now, I am throwing my biggest strategy book at your head, Adam promised to himself. 

“Keep it up, let us know when you get to her.” Adam muted the channel and turned back to Allura. “How are things looking with the wormhole?”

Allura met his eyes, entirely professional. There was definitely an exhaustion there that hadn’t been present before she had opened the wormholes for the Green and Yellow Lions, but she still stood tall and proud, hands steady on the podium. Even the mice, riding her shoulders and cuddling against her neck, were keeping their squeaks to a minimum.

Adam...had decided to accept that the mice were loosely telepathic and bonded to Allura. Today had enough going on without questioning that.

“It’s going to be tight with the coordinates, but it will certainly be manageable. I am ready whenever the paladins give the signal.” A slightly mulish cast came over her features. “Although I still believe we would be better off relying on Voltron.”

Adam squashed the urge to sigh and faced her head on. “You know this technology so well that you can operate it with a thought, while the others have only had their lions for several hours at most. Do you want to trust the fate of the universe to that?” 

Allura actually grimaced, and Adam nodded, quietly relieved that they weren’t going to have to rehash this whole argument. Again. “Sendak’s ship might be formidable, but I don’t think it can stand against a wormhole in the main engine.”

“He has a good point, and it only took a small  tweak to the protocols to allow us to intentionally form another wormhole in an active ship!” Coran added, emerging from the nearest panel, his mustache slightly in disarray. “Oh, the stories I could tell of the accidents that occurred before those protocols were in place, when I was just a student at the Academy!”

Adam happened to catch Allura’s eye, and in that one moment they saw absolutely eye to eye--she was just as concerned about those stories as he was. Thankfully, Coran shook himself out of what was apparently an overly happy memory and turned back to Adam enthusiastically. “I must admit, for your primitive little synapses, all of you have come up with some very ingenious solutions!”

Adam felt his jaw tighten, and he worked to keep his face neutral. Alteans may have been more advanced, but there was a difference between acknowledging it and being rude about it. “Thank you. Clearly, we manage quite well with our primitive little synapses, given that you need us here,” he added, managing to keep his voice very dry. 

Allura flushed with annoyance again, but Coran looked...thoughtful. Before either alien could respond, all of the channels opened again.

“Things are getting a little hectic out here!”

“What, you can’t handle a little firepower?”

“This cannon isn’t a little firepower, I’m doing my best to smash it up!”

Before Adam could call them to order, Shiro spoke up, his voice steadier than before. “Lance, Hunk, fall back, Pidge and I are on the Green Lion. Keith, what’s your status?”

“I’m almost to the Red Lion, start the plan!”

“That could seriously endanger both you and the Red Lion!” Allura replied, fear and frustration evident in her voice. 

“You said it was going to take a few minutes to get the wormhole going, I’m closer than that!” Keith replied, his voice crackling and harsh from the interference. 

Allura hesitated. In the viewscreen, Adam saw fighters starting to pour out of the ship, some harassing the Lions, others converging on the twisted shape of the ion cannon.

“Alright, I’m beginning the sequence, but you must hurry!”

Terror twisted in Adam’s stomach, catching like barbed wire. If Keith had overestimated his abilities, he could get caught in an early unstable wormhole, and that could kill him. 

Even though using the wormhole had been his idea, he didn’t want Keith in so much danger. It made sense to open the portal as soon as Keith was in the Lion though, and if he started endangering the communications now, that distraction could get any one of the paladins killed.

“I’m at the Lion. Come on Red, let’s go!”

“Initiating wormhole.” The dais Allura stood on began to glow, but there was no explosion, no sign of Keith emerging from the ship. The tension made Adam’s teeth creak, his shoulders so tense that he could feel the muscles pull.

Something had gone wrong.

Abruptly, a hanger door blasted open. Adam automatically zoomed in on the viewscreen. Plenty of rubble and drones --

And a figure in red and white, tumbling out into space. 

“He’s not in the Lion!”

“What?! But he said --”

“I can’t stop the sequence!”

Adam opened all of the channels. “Keith is in space without the Lion, I repeat, Keith is in space without the Lion!”

“I’m on it!” The Blue Lion rolled, turning 180 degrees and rocketing back towards the ship.

“Wait, there it is!”

Emerging from the Galra ship was a glint of red metal and gold glowing eyes, and relief filled Adam. They had cut it way too fucking close, but Keith had found his Lion and they were going to be safe--

Allura screamed, crumpling to one knee as she gripped the controls so hard that her knuckles looked like they were carved from bone.

“Princess!” Coran yelled.

“The fail safes are reactivating and interfering with the starting sequence, I can’t stop the wormhole!”

The glow got even brighter, and Adam watched in horror as a wormhole, ragged and uncontrolled and so different from the ones she had opened earlier, fractals crumpling on themselves in twisting patterns scrawled in space, to crumple the metal of the outer hull. 

“Coran, get those failsafes disabled!” Adam yelled, his heart pounding. 

“The codes are already being implemented, I can’t stop the commands!”  

The portal expanded, contracted, and then blew open as a strange spiking ripples, tearing open the middle of the Galra cruiser. Debris was flung away, rocketing in bright streaking patterns, even as more parts of the ship buckled, crumpling in towards the center of the portal. A handful of fighters broke away, firing at the portal, but the flying debris knocked them away, spiraling in zero gravity.

The Red Lion, which had been moving towards Keith, was now being pulled away, roared defiantly as it tried to escape the dense pull of gravity generated by the deeply unstable wormhole. It moved against the pull, as though it was trying to swim, but it was inexorably pulled  backwards, closer and closer to the event horizon, and began to disappear into the shattered light. 

“The Red Lion is going through!” Coran cried out.

“Shut it down!” Adam called, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.

“If I shut it down while it’s in transit it could be trapped in subspace forever!” Energy was starting to crackle across the podium as Allura cried out again, agony on her face as she held the portal open longer, her voice shrill from the pressure. “Just a little longer!”

“Princess!” Coran shouted again, looking terrified as he tried to shove past the light that kept either him or Adam from moving to the dais. Adam grabbed one of the tools, ready to start dismantling it from the edge if that was what it took--

Allura let go, falling to her knees, the wormhole closing and leaving wreckage  strewn across space. Half of the ship was intact, still recognizable as a warship, but the rest caught the light of the nearest star in strange ways, sparks against the black. It was silent in space, and yet the noise must have been incredible. The debris cloud was so thick that he couldn’t differentiate what had been ship and what hadn’t been.

...he couldn’t see Keith.

Where was Keith?

Oh god, what if Keith had fallen through the portal?!

“Keith?! Keith, are you there?!”

What if Keith was hurt--what if he was dead--because of Adam’s plan?

~

He had failed.

He had felt the bond, small and warm and bright like a tiny candle flame in his chest. The closest he had ever felt like that was the first time Shiro had brought him home.

And now the Red Lion had disappeared through the wormhole, and he was tumbling into the darkness of space.

He tried to slow his breathing. Tried to fight the tide of panic that was rising, warning lectures from the Garrison replaying in his mind about the importance of holding on to the equipment if you were working outside in zero-gravity. He had to hold it together so that he could answer the com without panicking, even with debris tumbling around him, even as he saw the planet horizon spinning--

“Hold on!”

He jolted, realizing that a flash of blue and silver was racing towards him, dancing through the debris. He curled in on himself as the Lion’s jaws opened--

And abruptly fell to the ground as soon as the jaws closed, gravity returning with a vengeance. 

Keith took in one deep breath. Then another. 

He wasn’t in the depths of space, helpless against the immovable weightlessness. He wasn’t going to fall into infinity. He realized that he was shaking, and was abruptly furious with himself for it. 

The door slid open, a lanky figure racing in. “Keith! Keith, come on, you had better be ok I do not want Professor Walker to kill me,” the other teen babbled, grabbing Keith’s shoulder and tugging him so that he was on his back.

“I’m fine,” Keith managed, cutting the panicked stream of speech off. “Just a little winded.” And if his hands were still shaking, well, they would stop soon enough.

Lance sat back on his heels, his shoulders slumping with clear relief. “Dude. Holy crow. That was way too close.”

Keith rolled his eyes. Lance might have just saved his life, but just a couple of hours ago Keith had been ready to punch him and he wasn’t exactly ready to let go of that feeling yet. “Go ahead, get it over with.”

Lance frowned, his eyebrows coming together. “Get what over with?”

Keith nodded towards the--well, the wall, but in the general direction of the exploded ship. “Aren’t you going to gloat about how you’re the hero of the day or something?”

Lance shot him a flat glare. Keith was surprised about how steady and serious it was, totally different from the annoying bluster Keith had seen before. “Dude. Mullet. My guy. I know we both got the same horror stories about missions that have gone bad. When they told us about the first human mission to Europa, Hunk and I both had nightmares for a week and I’m not even ashamed to admit it, that’s how bad it was. Just because you’re my rival doesn’t mean I want you dead from vacuum--heck, I don’t want that for anyone,” Lance admitted, his shoulders hunching defensively. 

Keith sat up, wincing from both the protest in his ribs and the reminder about the Europa-1 mission briefing. That had given him a few sleepless nights as well. 

“...thanks,” he muttered. It would be kind of shitty to not thank the guy who had grabbed him from deep space. “I’m glad I’m not dying in the vacuum of space too.”

Lance smiled, not a hint of mockery or annoyance. He opened his mouth to say something--

The entire Lion lurched, knocking both of them off balance. Lance muttered something that definitely sounded like a swear and definitely didn’t sound English before running back to the cockpit, Keith on his tail.

“Are you both alive?! Why isn’t your lion moving?!” Hunk shrieked as Keith grabbed the back of the seat, Lance almost jumping over it in his rush to get back in the pilot chair.

“Sorry, sorry, making sure Mullet was alive, we’re going now!”

On the viewscreens, Keith could see that Hunk and Pidge looked very stressed out, Adam slowly unclasping his very tight fists, and Shiro still very pale as he managed a tiny smile.

“Alright, let’s blow this pop stand!” Lance yelled, slamming the controls forward and pulling the lion into a tight spiral through the debris field, Hunk and Pidge falling in with them.

The aching pain flared in Keith’s chest again. If he hadn’t failed, he would be flying with them.

“Sorry to be a downer, but didn’t we need all four of the other lions to unlock the Black Lion?” Hunk asked over the coms, his voice tense. 

“I’m sure we can figure something out,” Shiro replied smoothly, but Keith knew him well enough to hear the edge of worry in his voice. 

Guilt clawed against Keith’s throat, sitting heavily on his stomach. They wouldn’t need to figure things out if Keith had just done his job and gotten the Red Lion out on time. If he had focused from the beginning instead of running around in circles--

“...are you alright, mullet?”

Anger made Keith grit his teeth as he turned to glare at Lance. “What’s it to you?” He snapped. Of course he wasn’t alright, he had just screwed up everything, was Lance trying to make fun of him or something?!

Lance rolled his eyes. “I know you like being the big action hero who saves the day, but I don’t think there’s anything you could’ve done against a giant worm--”

 “Just concentrate on flying,” Keith snapped, cutting him off before he could keep talking . Except great, Lance was just going to keep arguing and dragging this out...

Except he didn’t. Lance’s mouth tightened, his eyes flashing with anger, but he turned to look forward again, his back stiff with irritation and holding back whatever he wanted to say with more discipline than Keith thought he had. “Right, whatever.”

Keith glared out the window, ignoring how he felt even worse now.

~

“--and if we hadn’t followed your plan this would never have happened!”

Adam closed his eyes, collecting his thoughts and trying to keep his temper at a simmer. The wormhole had been his idea, and it had failed. The Red Lion was gone to who knew where in space, and the only reason Keith wasn’t free-falling through a debris field was because of Lance’s quick flying. He really needed to think over what he hadn’t considered for this plan and how to do better next time.

However, that did not excuse Princess Allura throwing a temper tantrum at him because her precious Voltron was out of reach. Was that all she cared about?!

“Given that this wasn’t how either of us expected things to go, Princess, I understand your disappointment,” Adam finally replied, knowing that he sounded irritated and not quite caring. “We don’t know what would have happened if we had chosen another course of action-”

“What would have happened is that we would have recovered the Red Lion!”

“Or Keith might have died when the Red Lion let him get sucked out the cargo doors!”

“You don’t know that!”

“You don’t know that either!”

A horrible screeching reverberating sound filled the room, and Adam reeled back, trying to cover his ears as he stared at the source of the sound.

“Now both of you, that’s quite enough!” Coran scolded, looking so normal that it made Adam feel literal cognitive dissonance with the sound that had just come out of him. “I shouldn’t have to mimic the cry of a Flightless Katchabi to get your attention!”

Shame curled in Adam’s gut. Losing his temper like that was inexcusable when he was the one who should know better. 

The only saving grace was that the princess looked a bit ashamed of herself as well.

“I understand that you are both disappointed, and I won’t deny that this is a set back,” Coran continued, stepping forward to set a hand on both of their shoulders. “But we will push through this. The most important thing is that the Red Lion is out of Galran hands.” He smiled gently between them. “We’ll work this out, just wait and see.”

Adam managed a small smile. Coran was definitely just trying to make them feel better, but...he couldn’t lie and say it wasn’t comforting.

The Princess’ shoulders slumped. “But what can we do with only three lions?” Allura asked quietly. “How can we stand against Zarkon without Voltron?”

Coran’s mustache drooped a bit, clearly worried about that as well, and Adam decided to try helping. Hopefully it worked this time. Hopefully she wouldn’t explode at him again. 

He already felt drained from nerves and he didn’t really want to get into another yelling match.

“It sounds like the galaxy hasn’t had Voltron for a long time. I think it can wait a few more weeks for us.”

Allura grimaced, before her spine suddenly stiffened, her eyes going distant. “What?” She whispered.

“Princess?”

“What’s happening?” Adam asked, adrenaline starting to kick in again, if there was another attack coming--

Allura raced over and pulled up one of the monitors, showing an enormous vehicle bay that contained all three lions...and a massive door that was opening in front of a single small figure.

Takashi .

“But that’s...that’s impossible!” She whispered, swaying slightly as she held on to the edge of the console. 

Adam opened his mouth to ask what she meant, and then closed it as the bay door continued to open. Light fell on black and silver and gold, eyes shining as the roar echoed through the castle.

The Black Lion was awake.

“I...but...how?!” 

Adam stared at the screen. “Didn’t you mention that the Black Lion would only come out once we had all of the other Lions?”

“Hmm.”

Adam looked over at Coran, vaguely amused that Allura was doing the same thing but with a far more aghast expression. 

Coran looked up, as though suddenly aware that they were both staring at him. “Oh, I was just thinking. Perhaps we are missing the Red Lion, but now we have all five paladins in one place. Not just people who could be paladins, but people who have formed true Paladin bonds with their Lions--it appears as though the contact between Keith and the Red Lion was enough to establish a connection, and they other three have their lions!” Coran snapped his fingers “Perhaps that is what the lion was waiting for.”

Adam turned to look back at the screen. The lion had extended down, mouth open so that Shiro could enter the craft.

Of course, right then, an alarm started going off. 

Allura shifted the screens, pulling up a new image of a fragmenting battlecruiser barrelling down on them, enormous shards of the hull breaking off and smoke streaking through the atmosphere. “They are on a trajectory to collide with the castle!” She opened a channel on her screen. “Paladins, Sendak has set the cruiser on a collision course with us, we need the lions!”

“Coran, you were looking at scans of the battlecruiser earlier, can we update the schematics to figure out their capabilities now?” Adam asked, adrenaline rushing through him as his mind raced with all of the potential options all over again, everyone was tired but now Shiro had access to the Lion so that changed their options-- 

“An excellent idea Number 2!” Coran replied, knocking Adam off his train of thought, the older alien’s hands dancing as he pulled up screen after screen. “The ventral cannons appear to be non-functional, as is the ion cannon, but the dorsal cannons are still effective, and there are multiple fighters being released into the air.”

Adam opened the audio channels as all four lions bounded out of the castle. “Coran and I are looking at the ship, you’ll be under fire from bogeys and the dorsal cannons are intact, focus your attacks on the ventral section of the ship.”

“Roger that! Hunk, Pidge, work on breaking down the bottom of the ship and redirecting it, Lance, you and I will keep the fighters away from them!”

“On it!”

The door to the bridge slid open, and Keith raced in, his face tense. “What can I do?”

“I’ve gotten the particle barrier up, but we’re under fire!” Allura called before a sudden noise exploded through the room. Adam winced at the sheer volume, fire and smoke exploding along the energy barrier as the Galran fighters did flybys, firing all the while. 

The Black and Blue Lions continued to fire on the smaller fighters, explosions ripping through the sky like fireworks, as the Green and Yellow Lions approached the encroaching battleship.

“Got any other advice for how to take this thing down?!” Pidge asked, a note of alarm in her voice. 

Adam zoomed in on the schematic. “There are starboard and port engines, if you can knock out the engines on one side that should take it off course from the castle.”

“Port side looks like it’s got more structural damage Pidge, look at that where the metal has buckled.”

“Oooh, yeah, that sucker is under massive amounts of strain, let’s hit it Hunk!”

“Shiro and I have you two covered, but sooner might be better than later--get off my butt you stupid--” The Blue Lion twisted in the air as three fighters tried to engage it, all locked on.

Keith practically pushed past Adam. “Dammit Lance, concentrate!”

“Does it look like I’m doing something else?!”

Keith growled, and Adam was about to try and direct him to doing something other than antagonizing Lance when the Blue Lion somersaulted, doing a 180 reverse and rocketing back towards the fighters with lasers firing from its mouth, taking down all three fighters in moments.

“What was the mullet? I can’t hear you over my awesome flying skills!”

Adam rolled his eyes, somewhat fondly. Apparently a little prodding from a rival did wonders for Lance. 

He really needed to get a better sense of Keith’s feelings on that whole rivalry.

He turned his attention back to the Black Lion in time to see a spectacular twist through the air, smooth as a knife through butter, as Shiro danced around five fighters, leaving only showers of sparks and metal in his path. 

Adam’s heart thumped. He hadn’t seen that distinctive, gorgeous flying in so long. He quickly looked away at the last two paladins, who had paused as they had quickly decided on a strategy.

“Ready Hunk?”

“Just so you all know, I’m very sorry, but I’m definitely going to yell while doing this!” 

The Yellow Lion fired full throttle, Hunk screaming like he was on a roller coaster as the Yellow Lion smashed head first into the weakened side of the engines, lasers from the Green Lion breaking apart any struts that remained from the powerful charge. 

For a single, frozen moment, the battle seemed like a tableau from an ancient painting, immortalizing the final moments of destruction.

And then the engine fell away, the hull cracking spinning towards the ground as the cruiser entered a lethal tailspin, completely off course from the castle, to smash into a smaller mountain and exploded, so bright that for a moment it was like a second sun had gone off on the surface of the planet, before it dimmed again, leaving silence in its wake.

Adam opened up the com as the Lions regrouped in the air. “Everybody alright?”

“Guys. Guys we definitely just survived an alien attack.”

“Hunk that was awesome!”

“Thanks...it was kind of great wasn’t it?”

Shiro’s weary chuckle was so familiar that it made Adam’s chest ache. “I think we’re all ok. Let’s head back to the castle.”

“We’ll see you soon,” Adam replied before closing the channel, relief making him feel a little weak in the knees. Keith managed a small, tight smile before they turned to look at the aliens.

Coran looked thrilled, but Allura’s happiness was already tempering again as she looked at both of them.

“Today we were successful, but the Red Lion is now missing. We have a lot of work to do in order to find it for you Keith.”

Keith looked away, and Adam automatically set a hand on his shoulder and met Allura’s eyes. “I don’t think anyone here is afraid of hard work.”

Allura looked back, something shrewd and thoughtful in her eyes. “No, I don’t suppose you are.”

Later, Adam would worry about the implications, the future, everything that they needed to plan to get through this. 

But the lions were flying back, and Adam had a bunch of brilliant, relieved pilots to check up on.

~

Adam ran his hand down his face, exhausted. The younger paladins had practically collapsed into their food, adrenaline and exhaustion catching up with them and driving them to their beds, but Adam still felt… jittery. He had stayed long enough for Coran to show them a hallway with rooms where they could sleep, and then he had walked a bit further down until he had found this viewing deck. At least in this room, the viewscreen showed the sunset on Arus. 

The door slid open. Adam sighed. “I’m fine, Shiro, I just needed a minute.”

“Actually, I just spoke to Shiro now.”

Adam jumped, turning. Allura was standing there, still in her jumpsuit, not smiling but not quite frowning either. There was a tray in her hands, holding two glasses and a pitcher of deep green liquid. “He recommended that we...talk.”

“I, uh. Wasn’t expecting you. Sorry,” he added – regardless of his feelings towards Allura, assuming that it was Takashi coming to talk to him and being caught in that assumption was just awkward.

Allura settled gracefully on the other end of the bench, apparently ignoring his gaff, setting the tray between them and silently filling the glasses. 

“If I am honest, I do not like you.” 

Adan bristled, but Allura continued before he could speak. “I find you rude and I do not trust your motivations. However…” Allura set the pitcher back down with a soft clink. “Shiro is the new Black Paladin, and as I will be working with him, it will be beneficial to have a working relationship with you.” She tapped the tray. “While we are sharing qi’cary, all past issues are set aside. If we cannot resolve these problems over the course of the pitcher, then at least we have not been enemies during this time.” 

“Well, you definitely don’t pull your punches,” Adam muttered, surprised in spite of himself.

“It’s a tradition of my people,” Allura replied as she picked up a glass, filled it, and handed it to him. He took a quick sniff of the contents and winced at the pungent odor. 

The princess silently held up her glass, and Adam tapped his against it before taking a sip. It took effort not to gag — qi’cary apparently tasted like pine and cleaning products with a pinch of spicy cinnamon behind it, how in the world did anybody stomach it?! 

With effort he swallowed, and abruptly the taste changed to vanilla and mango. The change was so fast that Adam reared back, looking warily at the drink in his hand. 

“Part of allyship is truth,” Allura stated conversationally, tapping one nail against her glass. “Because although the truth may be bitter, in the end it will be sweeter than the lie.” 

Adam leaned forward to rest his elbow on his knee and turn more towards Allura. “I’m guessing the qi’cary is part of that symbolism?” 

The corner of Allura’s mouth turned up as she took another sip. Adam forced himself to take another with a grimace, now entirely unsure of how to handle the situation. “Look, maybe I could’ve been a little… less rude earlier, so I’m sorry about that.” 

“But not about what you said,” Allura retorted coolly. 

Adam shot her a flat look. “You’re an unknown entity who we knew nothing about and who we frankly still don’t know much about. I’m not going to apologize for being cautious and prioritizing those kids’ lives.” 

“...I suppose I deserve that,” Allura finally said, looking down into her drink. “I know this war down to my bones. You have just discovered it. And we all need to work together if anything is going to change.” 

Adam’s eyebrow lifted, and he made himself take another sip before he spoke. “So why aren’t you with the people who are actually going to be fighting in this war? Aren’t they the ones you should be bonding with?” 

Allura turned her head, her blue eyes sharp as she focused on Adam. “I will be working with them continuously. According to Shiro, to do that I need to work with you.” 

“...What exactly did Shiro say when you told him we were going to have this conversation?” 

Now Allura smiled more fully. “His exact words were that you could be the most stubborn man he knows and that you can hold a grudge until the end of time, but that you are also utterly loyal, brave, and that you care with every fiber of your being.

“He said that Voltron might defend the universe, but you would defend its paladins.” 

Adam looked away, desperately trying to ignore the giant lump that had magically appeared in his throat. Probably a side effect of the qi’cary; that’s what happened when you drank weird alien drinks, right? 

Allura poured herself a little more and topped off Adam’s glass. “If I may be so bold, what is the history between you and Shiro?” 

Adam spluttered, barely avoiding spitting qi’cary all over himself. “What does that have to do with anything?”

The princess leaned back, wide-eyed at his reaction. “Given that we are being candid with one another and we will all be working together, it seems relevant to understand history that could impact Voltron’s function.” Although the words were polite, the tone was cool again. “Voltron is dependent on the paladins’ mental states. If the history between you and Shiro is important, it could affect their ability to form Voltron in the future.”

“They did fine today defending themselves.”

“Under desperate circumstances with almost all of us dying. They need to be able to form Voltron at any moment once we find the Red Lion, under any circumstances. They need to be a team.”

Adam scowled at the floor. Based on what had happened today… she wasn’t wrong. All five of the pilots needed to focus and set aside personal issues to work together. 

And he and Shiro still needed to have a conversation.

...several conversations.

He sighed and threw back half the glass, trying to screw up a little courage. What he wouldn’t give for a glass of whiskey right now. 

He still didn’t trust her, but maybe he could work with her. 

“Shiro and I used to be in a romantic relationship. It ended… in a complicated way.”

Allura’s brows drew together, politely puzzled. “Complicated how?”

“I really can’t say. And it has nothing to do with you even if we’re drinking truth drinks. It’s because it’s not just my history to talk about.” He sighed and sat back, twirling the drink in his hand. Maybe there was something in the qi’cary after all, because he kept talking. “We dated for years, we were going to get married, we ended it, he died, I kept going, and then he came back and we ended up halfway across the galaxy with four kids in an alien spaceship.” He blinked and held up the glass suspiciously. “Does this have something in it to make people tell the truth?”

“Only the tradition inherent in the drink,” Allura replied dryly before her face turned serious. “Do you plan on working with Voltron to help the galaxy?”

“I’m going to help all of them stay alive and stay sane, so if that helps save the universe, I guess I’m in.” Adam threw back the last sip in the glass and set it back on the tray. “But I need something from you in return.”

Allura inclined her head.

“Don’t bullshit them. Don’t lie, don’t hide information from them. Don’t make them do things that they won’t be able to live with after this is over.” Adam held Allura’s gaze until she gave a slow nod.

“I don’t want to harm them. They are the paladins.”

“That might be why you don’t want to hurt them. I don’t want you to hurt them because they’re kids who’ve been thrown into this situation and they deserve to know what they’re getting into.” Adam stood. “Also, we need to gather more intelligence and we need allies. Coran said that the castle has been gathering information since it came to Arus, but we need to know what the state of the Empire is right now, and what other rebel groups are out there.”

Allura choked on her final sip of the qi’cary. “You think there are others who have stood up to Zarkon?!”

“If he’s been around for a thousand years? He’s made enemies. It’s just a matter of finding the ones who are trying to do something about it.” Adam stood. “Thanks for the qi’cary.”

“...Thank you for speaking with me. I suspect we will have more to speak about soon.”

Adam nodded in agreement, unsure of what else to say right now, then turned to leave the room.

There was another conversation he at least needed to start tonight.

~

Shiro ran a hand over his face. After the sheer chaos of the last… he wasn’t sure how many hours, he felt like he could collapse in bed and sleep through any alarms, but even after his walk around the castle he still felt jittery. 

He had a bad feeling he would still be woken up by nightmares, but maybe he would manage to get some sleep. The words of the prisoners, calling him Champion, and the disturbing images flashing through his head, the mystery of what had happened to Matt… he knew parts of the picture that the pieces would make, but he wasn’t ready to deal with it yet. Coran has shown him how to access the castle mainframe, maybe he could distract himself before falling asleep.

He turned the corner, relieved to be back in the part of the castle that contained the sleeping quarters Coran had shown them. Then he stopped.

Waiting outside his door was an incredibly familiar figure.

...He should have known better than to ask for a distraction, because the universe was always listening. See exhibit ‘we joked about aliens and they appeared.’ 

“Hey.” 

“Hi.” Adam pushed off the wall and turned to face Shiro head on, looking him up and down. “...You look like you need sleep.” 

“You look like you want to talk.” 

Adan grimaced and opened his mouth, but Shiro tapped the door panel first, nodding for Adam to go in. 

The room was the definition of utilitarianism, just a bunk and some empty shelves. One door led to a closet, the other to a bathroom… according to Coran. He hadn’t actually looked yet. Another thing for the to-do list. 

…he much have looked every bit as exhausted as he felt, given that Adam was looking at him with concern. He was usually better at hiding how tired he was. 

He sat on the bunk and Adam carefully sat next to him. 

The silence was so many levels of awkward, Shiro wasn’t even sure how to start. Thankfully, Adam was. 

“Allura came and talked to me.” 

“Yeah, uh. She mentioned she was going to do that.” He hesitated. The easy communication that they had shared earlier seemed completely gone, and Shiro already felt the loss like...well, his missing arm. Something he kept turning to look at and, whose absence left him reeling, like he was falling without a safety net. 

Adam had been one of the few people he had never had trouble understanding, but now that comfortable familiarity was completely gone. 

“She mentioned that you recommended we talk.”

“...I did.” Shiro looked down at his hands. “Did it go alright?”

“...kind of better than I expected to be honest.” A wry smile tugged at the corners of Adam’s mouth. “I guess being saved from imminent death is a decent bonding activity.” 

Shiro folded his hands, but remained quiet. He wanted to let Adam organize what he wanted to say -- if he pushed, Adam would just backpedal until he had the time to thoroughly examine his thoughts. 

“As long as she treats all of you well, I can work with her,” Adam finally stated, looking over to meet Shiro’s eyes. “I hate that you were thrown into an intergalactic war without being able to actually choose it, but we’re here now, and we can’t get home until we deal with it.”

Shiro’s stomach twisted, and he looked down at his feet. “I’m...sorry.”

“...for what?” Adam replied, his voice suddenly very cautious.

Shiro looked down at his hands. One was his. The other...was a weapon. A weapon that he still didn’t remember getting, and if he was honest, he wasn’t sure if he wanted that memory. 

“For leading them back to Earth. I should have...I know I’m still missing pieces, but I should have found a way to go somewhere else.”

Silence hung between them for a moment. Shiro tried to stay still. Even if he didn’t remember why he had done that, when he had decided to run to Earth after his escape, he had still remembered that the Galra were trying to take the universe. He should have acted differently, kept Earth safe.

So far, Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge hadn’t realized it was his fault that they were so far away from home and in so much danger, and there was a knot of terror in his stomach at the thought of when they would realize it.

“Shiro.”

There had been plenty of other alien species, there had to have been other worlds the Galra hadn’t reached yet, safe havens where he could have gotten help without leading them straight back to his home planet, full of people who had no idea about the threat they were facing. All because of him.

“Shiro.”

Why hadn’t he gone somewhere else that could mount a defense? Now Earth was in danger as well, and the human colonies in the Solar System--

“Takashi!”

Shiro jumped, abruptly thrown out of his train of thought as he turned to look at Adam, who was frowning fiercely at him.

“Listen to me. You did nothing wrong by coming home.”

“But-”

“No. You are not allowed to blame yourself for this. The Galra took you from Kerberos. The Blue Lion was on Earth. They were coming one way or another, and that is not on you.” Adam’s hazel eyes were intense, as intense as when he was demonstrating a high-risk flight maneuver for the cadets where a mistake meant a fatal crash. “Do you understand me? This is not your fault.”

Shiro looked down, feeling his shoulders tighten. “I…”

“It’s fine if you don’t believe me yet. Just keep thinking about it.” Adam set a hand on his shoulder, and Shiro couldn’t stop himself from leaning into it. 

“It’s a little scary how well you know me.”

He...hadn’t meant to admit that.

Adam flushed slightly, squeezing Shiro’s shoulder once before letting go. “All things considered, not sure why you sound surprised,” he replied, neutral again.

It was painful to see that defensive shell come up again, but Shiro still couldn’t look away. He had assumed he was going to die, millions of miles from home, that he would never see Adam again, but he was here in the flesh, sitting next to him. Bringing him back to reality the way he always had...before. Even with the tension and awkwardness, Shiro couldn’t turn away. He didn’t want to lose a second of the chance to soak up Adam’s presence, not when he had been sure he would never have the chance again. 

Somehow, they were both here, and that was amazing to Shiro.

Abruptly, he realized the direction his thoughts were taking, and quickly tried to divert them. He and Adam...clearly Adam didn’t hate him, but he also wasn’t sure where he stood, and he felt exhausted at the thought of trying to start that conversation right now.

“Takashi…” 

Shiro looked over when Adam didn’t continue. His eyebrows were drawn together, and the line of tension was back in his spine. 

But it wasn’t an angry look. The look on Adam’s face was almost... afraid . Shiro’s heart started pounding harder, suddenly dreading what could be scaring Adam enough that he would show it. 

Adam took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “Have you been having more symptoms?”

Shiro blinked, momentarily thrown off. He had been sure Adam was going to ask him about the war or the Galra or about things he couldn’t remember--

And then he rapidly took stock of how he was feeling, because he hadn’t had medication or the nerve treatment in months, and reduced gravity normally made his symptoms more obvious, and yet…

“I’m...I’m not,” he managed, suddenly looking down at his hands, rapidly opening and closing his left hand, the one that wasn’t mechanical. On bad days, even that action could be enough to weaken his grip, or to cause a spasm to start in his arm, but he hadn’t had one in months.

“I think the last time I had an episode was before we got to Kerberos. I can’t remember having one more recently than that,” he admitted. His stomach was churning, cautious hope warring against sudden terror. Because if the Galra had done something that could have cured him, if it wasn’t hanging over his head any more--

He had to stop the thought, because if that was wrong and it was just a temporary reprieve and it was going to start again--

Warmth covered his hand. “Takashi, breathe .”

Shiro startled and automatically took a deep breath, still feeling shaky from the realization. “Adam, I...what if...could, do you think…” The lump swelled in his throat and he swallowed hard. He couldn’t break down like this, shouldn’t show his panic--

“Stop. Look at me.”

As though Shiro could do anything else.

He looked over, and felt instantly steadier when he met Adam’s gaze. Adam shifted his grip so that he had one hand on Shiro’s, and the other on Shiro’s shoulder. “I know you’ve had a lot on your plate, I didn’t mean to take you off guard like that. We’ll figure it out.”

Shiro managed a nod, inhaling slowly and exhaling slowly. “It sounds like the medical facilities are advanced. Coran might be able to figure it out.” Later. Definitely not tonight. Maybe not for a while after that. Shiro wasn’t sure if he was ready to crush that hope yet, the first he had in this particular area for a long time.

For once, it looked as though Adam wasn’t going to push. He just nodded. “We’ll figure it out,” he said again, and Shiro wondered if he was warring with the same confusing mix of emotions.

Abruptly, the exhaustion hit him like a ton of bricks, and he couldn’t have stopped the yawn if he had tried. “Sorry, I’m just tired.”

Adam hesitated for just a moment, but then let him go and stood. “I think we both need some rest.” He hesitated, looking down at Shiro. “Try to actually sleep, alright?”

Shiro smiled, biting back what he actually wanted to say. Waste of a good night, that’s what he would have said once upon a time.

He couldn’t say it now. Not with how much had changed.

“I’ll do my best,” he said instead.

From the crooked smile Adam returned, he had probably noticed the pause. But he didn’t call Shiro out.

He walked out of the room, and Shiro let him go.

Shiro set his elbows on his knees and let himself slump forward as soon as the door closed. Exhaustion, fear, and resolve all settled on his shoulders, heavy as a physical weight. He allowed himself to sag for just a moment, then sat up, forcing himself to be steady against everything that had happened.

He had already hurt Adam and Keith and Pidge. He had dragged Lance and Hunk away from their homes. 

He would keep them safe. Shiro had failed the people under his protection once, and he would not let it happen again. No matter what.

~

Commander Sendak gasped as he clawed his way out of the rubble. The metal scraped against him, dirt and rubble grinding into his wounds. Even the air of this insignificant planet stung as he pulled himself out of the ruined scraps of his ship, his robotic claw stiff from where dust had ground into the joints and servos, making his grip annoyingly clumsy as he pushed himself to stand.

He inhaled deeply, a strange uneasy feeling in his stomach before he looked out with his functioning organic eye–his robotic eye was currently non-functioning.

There, framed by the movement of this rock’s pathetic excuse of a star, was the Altean castle.

Home of the treacherous Altean princess, and the new worms who believed they could conquer Volton.

Fury blazed through him, a growl boiling out from him. It was unbelievable. How dare those insignificant specks try to stand against them? None could stand against the Galra Empire!

He hit the side of his head, his vision filtering back in as his eye came back online. Without his sentries and warriors, his capabilities were reduced. It would be the height of idiocy to assume otherwise.

But Voltron would assume he was dead. He still had the advantage. 

The castle glinted in the light of the rising moon. Pretty. Impractical. Weak.

Sendak smiled to himself. 

Vrepit Sa .

~