Chapter Text
Getting thrown from the worm hole was wholly unexpected. It’s been a few days since then and Keith and Shiro are still waiting to be picked up by the castle.
Shiro’s wound is getting worse and when Pidge comes to pick them up she notices something off about Keith.
“Hey Keith,” She nudges his arm, “Did you know you have… freckles? More like spots. Really.”
“What?” Keith looks over. “Where.”
“Cross your face.” She passes him her phone, which is open to the selfie mode on the camera app.
“Oh… I had Vitiligo or something as a kid,” He scratches at one of the splotches, “Guess it’s coming back.”
“What’s this about spots?” Coran asks leaning over to look at Keith’s face.
“It’s a skin condition,” Pidge answers, pushing up their glasses.
“It’s harmless,” Keith shrugs, “It’s not exactly Vitiligo since it’s adding pigment.”
“Hu.” Coran shrugs, “Is there anything that could have triggered it?”
Keith freezes up, “Well… back at the Quintessence uh place. It got on me.”
Coran frowns, “You should have told us, but given The circumstance you get a pass. Let me know if anything else starts happening.”
And that’s that.
The patches aren’t spreading but they’re not getting smaller either, but since Keith isn’t particularly bothered and the other humans agree that it is normal nothing more is thought about it.
Until they head out to investigate the coordinates in Shiro’s arm. And There’s an intruder on the ship.
Keith is able to match pace with him. Where no one else was able to get close.
Once Shiro intervenes the intruder pulls his hood and mask off.
“Ulaz?” Shiro asks, looking up at the Galra.
Allura slams him into a wall, “What do you want?”
“Stop.” Shiro commands as he steps in between the two, “He freed me.”
A few moments later they gathered on the bridge. Ulaz is bound at the wrist and ankles.
Shiro sighs, “This isn’t necessary…”
“I will not have a Quiznaking Galra soldier aboard my ship.”
Chuffing slightly Ulaz shakes his head, “You would be dead if I wanted you dead.”
Keith blinks, and coughs slightly. All eyes turn to him. “Sorry…”
Ulaz hums slightly blinking at Keith before turning back to Allura.
Shaking her head Allura huffs, “Regardless, where is the base there’s nothing here.”
Ulaz grins, “It’s in a pocket. Fly towards the cluster.”
“That is a horrible idea.”
“It’s there.”
“All right I’m doing it.” Coran grins.
A few moments later they’re on the Blades base.
Ulaz walks ahead of the paladins and shows them the gravity generator.
As they fan out Keith finds himself standing next to Ulaz.
Keith rocks awkwardly on his heels, “Uh thank you for saving Shiro.”
“It was the right choice.” Ulaz hums, “He means something to you?”
Humming back Keith shrugs, “He took me in…” he pauses, “He believed in me. Got me into a good school. He’s like a brother to me.”
Nodding Ulaz shifts his gaze away from Keith. something about this Paladin seems off compared to the others, but he’s unable to lay a claw on it. “Would you like to know some more about the blades?”
“Sure,” Keith answers.
Pulling his blade out Ulaz holds it out for Keith to see.
Keith stiffens up instantly, a quiet, to quiet for human hearing, whine escapes his throat, “I- It’s a nice knife…” he says finally.
That was not the response he expected. Ulaz makes a mental note of this, “You can activate it as well.”
“What do you mean?” Keith asks as he scratches at one of the somewhat purple looking patches that have begun spreading ever so slowly down his arms in the past few hours.
Activating the blade, Ulaz shifts it into a full length sword.
“Whoa,” Keith chirps.
Now it’s Ulaz’s turn to stiffen. That was a kit sound behind those words. Perhaps it’s simply a human sound… sniffing the air he turns to investigate but is cut off by the alarm blaring overhead.
“They found us!” Coran shouts.
In a matter of moments all hell broke loose.
Ulaz shouts something that gets lost to the wind to the ears of most paladins. Then moments later the base implodes.
“No!” Shiro shouts as they lose their connection to the Blades.
Keith sits in the cockpit stunned. Unsure of what happened. Ulaz said he was going to warp to another base. But did he make it in time?
———
Back in the castle Keith sets his jacket on the dresser. Pushing his pillow to the side he grabs his knife.
Unwrapping the handle he hold his breath. Already knowing what he’ll find.
The blade clatters to the floor.
It’s the same as the one Ulaz has. A different style of knife but it’s the same.
———
Keith wanders into the training room. Zarkon’s words echoing in head.
“You fight like a Galra.”
Keith shudders and starts training.
He loses track of time. Repeating drill after drill. Until one of the robots catches him across the chest and sends him sprawling.
“End Training Sequence.” Shiro calls over as Keith sits up from where he rolled.
“Don’t give me a lecture,” Keith groans.
Shiro pauses, “I wasn’t going to. Do you need one?”
Falling back on a crash mat Keith claws at his hair, “I don’t know.”
“You want to talk?”
Keith shakes his head, “No. I don’t know enough about what’s going on. Or if anything is going on.”
Sighing Shiro sits down a decent distance away. Not right next to him but not too far away. “Yeah…”
———
The next few weeks pass with little time to think or even sleep. Hoping all over the galaxy saving worlds and defeating the Galra.
Picking up his bayard he stretches and sinks down into a set.
“Room for one more?” Lance asks.
Keith nods, “you want to spar?”
“Sure, Allura said I should start training hand to hand.”
“Not a bad idea.” Keith nods, studying Lance. He walks over to a closet hidden in the wall, “Here. You might like a staff.”
“Sure.”
Tossing it over Keith picks his bayard up and sinks into position.
Then they start fighting. Keith easily won the fight. Then they slow down and Keith starts showing Lance what to do.
Once he knows more of what he’s doing they bring out a training bot on a low level.
Keith walks over to the wall and pulls his water and phone out.
“Look out.” Lance calls a moment too late.
The staff clatters to the ground.
Keith clutches at his jaw. Hissing he rubs the spot the staff hit.
“You're bleeding.” Lance pulls him to his feet, “Come on.”
“I’m fine.” Keith wipes at his mouth.
“Pretty sure you're not.”
Keith glares, “I’ll go to the med bay.”
“Good.” He rolls his eyes.
Keith walks off towards the bridge and awkwardly stands in the door way as he scans the area for Coran.
Coran pops up behind him, “What are you. Ahh! Your bleeding. Come along then.”
Keith follows him to the med bay.
“So what happened?” Coran asks as he puts on some gloves.
“I was taking a break from training, Lance was still working. He lost his grip on the staff he was working with and it hit me.”
Coran nods, taking Keith’s jaw in his hand he palpates the area.
Keith hisss.
“Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine.”
“I think we’ll need an X-ray,” Coran shrugs, “I don’t think it’s broken. But it’s good to check.”
Keith nods.
“Sit here.” Coran bustles around getting the X-ray machine ready. The first is taken and the first thing Keith hears is a confused hum. “Well thats not good…”
“What?”
“Stay still,” Coran instructs as he takes a few more photos, “good news your jaw is fine. How many sets of teeth do humans get?”
“Two.”
“And when does that second set come in?” Coran asks significantly calmer.
“Uh, takes a few years but around eight years old.”
“Ok so, bad news you have teeth ready to grow in.”
“…”
“I wonder why…” Coran shrugs as he hands Keith an ice pack, “Nothing to do about it now.” He shrugs, “We’re planning on going to the space mall to see if they have scaultrite disks, did you want to come?”
Keith nods, even though his head is spinning with the new information, “Sure.”
———
“This was a mistake,” Lance whispers when Coran hands them their costumes.
Hunk nods in agreement.
Once Coran leaves to find the scaultrite they take off the costumes and split off to find things.
Keith wanders around the mall looking for nothing in particular. It’s a little overwhelming after a few months in the mostly empty castle ship. Walking down the wide hallway he comes across a knife stand.
The vendor is demonstrating the edge of some blades he’s trying to sell. So Keith waits for the presentation to finish. Then he approaches the vendor asking about his blade.
The vendor is wildly unhelpful. Trying to steal Keith’s knife from him.
So Keith takes it back and books it.
Once he’s out of the area and out in the main part of the mall he blends into the crowd of people. Wandering next to the wall he window shops. Looking at products in the shop windows. He passes clothing shops, jewelry stores, what must be space hot topic, game shops, toy stores, a piercing and tattoo parlor, an optometrist, and a dentist. Something in the window of the dentist catches his eyes, a smaller poster advertising what looks like chew rings. It says something about lasting into the adult teething cycles. Then in bright purple letters ‘It’s perfect for the three sets of Galra teeth.’
Keith’s blood runs cold.
Suddenly it’s all a little too much. He ducks around a corner.
All the stress from being Voltron, finding out his blade matches Galra blades, his skin condition coming back, being in space, and finding out his teeth match Glara teeth.
He isn’t able to stop a quiet whine from escaping his throat.
“Oh my,” A voice from behind calls, “Are you alright?”
Keith nods, “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine, I just lost track of where my friends went.” He lies as he turns to look at the voice. A Galra is leaning against the door frame of what seems to be a salon.
She nods, a long tail flitting around her ankles, “Will they be looking for you?”
That’s a bit of an odd question Keith thinks as he shrugs, “Probably… We were going to meet at the food court in a while”
A hand ruffles though his hair. Then a huff.
“You need to clean your fur.”
Keith ducks away from her hand and unconsciously makes a slight growl.
“Apologies.” The hand is retracted, “While you wait would you like your fur fixed? No charge to you.”
“Uh sure?”
The Galra laughs and follows Keith into the large salon. With so many different people around he figures it won't be dangerous. Besides, he does need a haircut. It’s getting a little long for his liking.
Time blurs slightly as his hair is washed, dried, brushed out, and cut. The Galra who washed his hair chirps proudly when it’s done.
“I made sure to keep the shape the same.” She nods as she hands him a small bag, “Keep this, there are fur care instructions and brushes.”
“Thank you,” Keith smiles, he didn’t know the Galra could show kindness like this, which looking back was pretty closed minded, yeah the empire’s bad but not everyone would agree with them.
“No problem kit.”
Keith nods slowly, and waves as he starts to walk away.
That was weird.
“Hey Keith,” Lance yelps as he runs around the corner, “We need to run.”
“Is that a cow?”
“Kaltenecker, she came free with purchase.”
Pidge leans down from Kaltenecker’s back and helps pull Keith and Lance onto the hoverpad.
“What are we running from?”
“Mall cop.” Hunk answers.
_______
Keith and Shiro enter the red lion. Keith has his blade securely tucked under his paladin armor. The Blades has said no weapons but he wants to know where the blade came from.
As they start to enter the Base a Blade walks up to them and deactivates his mask.
“Ulaz?” Shiro asks, “We thought you died.”
He shrugs, tilting his head to the side, “I managed to teleport out in time.”
The meeting begins rather smoothly. The leader of the blades and Shiro doing most of the talking.
Then someone grabs Keith’s blade.
And stuff starts going down.
They argue about where Keith got the blade, then they let Keith take the blade challenge. Where he ends up activating his blade.
Kolivon tells him he’s Galra.
Shiro has to guide Keith back to red since he’s in shock. They manage to get back to the castle ship with little difficulty.
The other paladins ask a million questions, but Shiro waves them off for the time being as he helps Keith get back to his room.
“Can you tell them?” Keith asks. Sticking his hand out to stop Shiro.
“Are you sure? I think it would sound better from you.”
Keith shakes his head, “This isn’t something that can wait… I need to think. But they should know.”
“Ok.” Shiro turns to go, he pauses, “You know, this changes nothing between us. You are still my brother.”
Nodding slowly Keith watches as Shiro walks out the door. Once he’s gone he falls onto his bed and makes a nest of blankets. A few moments later he’s asleep.
__________
“So is it any different now that your an alien?” Hunk asks as he pilots the yellow lion in the direction of the weblum.
Keith glances at Hunk and shrugs, “I guess some things are making more sense…”
“But now you have even more questions,” Hunk laughs nervously, “I feel that.”
Nodding slightly Keith pulls the video Coran sent him up.
After a moment it fills with static.
“Oh that’s not good.” Hunk frowns, “I mean it makes sense it’s ten thousand years old. Course it’s corrupted.”
After a few moments of fiddling with the controls Hunk looks up at Keith, “You know we don’t care right?”
“What?”
“That you’re Galra. Your still Keith.”
“Allura seems to think that.” Keith rolls his eyes.
“She’ll come around.”
————
By the time they return to the ship from the weblum both Keith and Hunk are exhausted.
“Ugh, that was the worst thing ive done in a while.” Hunk shudders.
Keith nods.
________
Crawling through an air vent Keith looks for the control panel. Once he’s over it he drops down.
“You're a paladin.” The Galra nods, “And a blade.”
Keith nods.
Thace hums and turns the panel on, “This should only take a few moments.”
A thump comes from the door.
A rough growl fills the air.
“I’ll hold them off.” Keith hisses as he draws his blades.
Thace nods and watches as Keith barricades the door.
The group of drones break though. Once catches Keith’s arm.
Whimpering slightly Keith throws himself back into the fight.
Thace freezes. That was a kit sound. Sniffing the air he freezes. Leaving the controls he grabs Keith and Jumps down the exhaust port.
The red lion swallows them.
The Base explodes.
Once everyone has regrouped on the Castle Ship. Thace turns to Antok, Kolivon, and Ulaz, “You took a lot into battle?”
“What?” Kolivon turns to Keith, “I assure you we had no idea.”
Ulaz pulls a med pad out, “How old are you?”
Confused Keith shrugs, “eighteen. I’m an adult on earth.”
“Is this true?”
Shiro nods, “Yeah.”
“How long do humans live?” Thace asks.
“Around a hundred,” Pidge shrugs, “We know it’s short compared to other species.”
“I’m still confused, what they mean by kit.” Hunk raises his hand.
Antok flicks his tail, “A pup, youngling, a child.”
The translation finally finds a word that works in English. Kit to the humans on board sounded more like Kith. So they didn’t draw that connection.
Keith’s cheeks flush bright red, “How long do Galra live?”
Coran answers, “They live for around a thousand of your earth years.”
“Woah,” Lance gasps. “So to the Galra Keith’s like a baby.”
“Shut up.” Keith hisses.
Antok pets Keith’s head, Keith pushes his hand off with a hiss.
“Why don't we go into the dining room and get some snacks,” Coran suggests, in an attempt to defuse the situation.
Thankfully it works.
Everyone’s tired from the battle and while no one was lost there were some injuries that needed to get dealt with.
———
A few months after learning he was Galra Keith has mostly come to terms with it. Sure things are a bit weird sometimes and the whole Kit thing is off putting. But he’s learning to accept this part of himself. The Blades have found a balance of the needs of a human and Galra.
So when Keith is caught by some druids after he went on what should have been a simple recon mission. It’s not a war ship, it’s a science cruiser, and things go bad quickly.
After only a few hours aboard the druids drag Keith out of his cell and into a testing room.
They draw some of his blood. Then mix it with some quintessence and a few other things. It’s injected back into Keith’s blood stream.
Whimpering Keith snaps uselessly at the drones dragging him back into his cell. There’s not much he can
“Halt.” A guard barks. “Release the prisoner into my custody.”
The drones pass the Chains to the guard then resume their normal patrol.
“So this is the half-breed.” The Galra snorts his ears perking up.
With a start Keith realizes that the Galra doesn’t know he’s the red paladin, “Do you know why I’m here?”
The gard shakes his head, “All I know is they’ve been doing something to the halfbreeds. Some old method of making them present more Galra trates.”
“Here. Dinner is in a few hours.” With that the guard leaves him locked in his cell.
The restraints fall off a moment later. Clattering to the ground and a magnet pulls them out of the cell.
Standing in the cell Keith frowns, more blankets had been added in the time he’d been getting experimented on.
Grabbing some of them Keith slinks into the corner farthest from the door. He must have dozed off.
The next thing he knows is the guard knocking on the wall outside of the cell. “Are you a… how old are you?”
“Hm? Eighteen, I think…” Keith freezes as his brain catches up with what he was saying.
“You are a kit.”
“Not really. I’m an adult for my other half.”
The Galra doesn’t seem to hear him and growls his tail thrashing angrily.
Chirping Keith clamps his hands over his mouth. That’s not normal.
“I’m not mad at you. The druids aren’t supposed to use children.”
That’s, surprising .
“Although I wouldn’t put it past them…”
The guard doesn’t seem to be sure of what to do. After a while of silence he walks away.
Keith shoves down the feeling of loneliness that washes over him.
A moment later a plate is slid into the room. It looks surprisingly decent.
“Thanks.” Keith mutters.
“This is yours?” The guard holds up a hand held commutator.
Keith nods. Confused as to why the guard is helping him.
Shoving it into the cell. the guard pulls a drive if information out. “I got this out from the druids.” Reaching back he disengages the lock on the cell. “I’ve got some friends coming.” He pulls out a blade.
“You're a blade.” Keith hums as he stumbles out of the cell. His legs are feeling a little weird.
“You know of us?” The guard hums back.
“Names Keith. Red Paladin of Voltron.”
Pulling off his helmet the Guard catches him as he stumbles, “Regris. Your things are this way.”
“You're blowing your cover for me?”
Regris shakes his head, “I was getting pulled out in a few days anyways, the druids are almost done with the research… Where's the red lion?”
“Loading Dock. We got hit by something that drained her power. She should be back online soon.”
“Do you feel alright?”
“Good enough for now,” Keith shakes his head. It’s getting harder to think through the fog in his head. It’s not ‘good enough’.
The ship rocks to the side. Regis flairs his tail out but Keith crashes into the wall.
“They're here.” Regris sighs and crouches down, “Climb on.”
It takes Keith a moment to get what he wants him to do, but a second latter he’s holding onto Regeis piggyback and they’re bolting through the hallways.
They make it to the loading dock where the blade ship is docked. The druids are fighting the blades. Regris leaves Keith behind a crate before rushing in and kicking a druid in the back. His blade is drawn and in a matter of moments they’re taken care of.
“Ulaz,” Regris rushes over to the medic, “The red Paladin needs help.”
Crawling out from behind the crate Keith holds the edge to remain upright.
“Oh dear.”
Strong arms scoop him off the ground and spots dance across his vision. Whimpering he squeezes his eyes shut and hides his face in Ulaz’s neck.
“Shh kit. You’re alright. It’s safe now.”
The red lion’s eyes light up.
“She’ll follow.”
Ulaz nods. “You two. Go find his bayard and armor. Regris with me, tell me what they did. You, get the castle of lions on the line. Keith I’m going to put you on a cot.”
As he’s set down Ulaz backs away and pulls Regris back with him. Keith immediately frowns. Ulaz makes a note.
Pulling the data up Regris explains what they did.
“That sounds like something we had on Altea,” Coran chimes in from the computer. “It was used to help hybrids. It would help them have a life span matching whatever parent lived longer. It’s not good to use later. Creates some sort of clashing instinct.” At Keith’s panicked expression he amends the statement. “Don’t worry number 4, it won’t last to long. The instincts settle after a while.”
“They also did something to bring out Galra traits. Made them dominant.”
Ulaz turns back to Keith, “Stand up.”
He slowly sits up then swings his legs off the table. After standing for a moment he overbalances and toples to the ground trying to catch himself on the bench. He misses. Ulaz catches him before he can hit the ground.
Keith hisses and digs his nails into the counter. Whimpering as he can’t stand up.
The other blades leave the room after sound that Ulaz makes in the back of his throat. Coran hangs up on the castle’s end.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“I suspect you’ll be growing a tail.” Ulaz purrs. As he stands with Keith still in his arms. Keith hisses again, he chuffs in an effort to calm Keith down.
It doesn’t work.
Keith flails and ends up in a heap on the floor.
Ulaz shakes his head and picks Keith up. “If you act like a kit you will be treated like one.”
After depositing Keith in the transport nest room he grabs a data pad and joins him. We are taking off now.
Keith growls, “don’t call me a kit.”
“Very well.” Ulaz hums, “but I do want you staying in the nest until we can get you to the castle’s healing pods.”
“Fine.”
“Good.” He pulls the data pad up and starts working.
Keith burrows under the blankets. After a few hours Ulaz feels something brush his side. Looking down he spots Keith. Curled up in a ball. Having rolled into Ulaz.
Reaching down, Ulaz pets Keith’s hair and shakes his head.
———
Keith opens his eyes to the white interior of a healing pod.
A moment later it releases him.
Lance catches him, “oh wow. You’re really purple.
Keith feels his ear twitch. Then something brush past his ankle.
Shiro rounds the corner into the med bay, “Keith?”
“Uh. Hi?”
Shiro wraps him in a hug. Then helps him over to a mirror.
His eyes have taken the normal look for a Galra hybrid. Human irises and pupils but bright yellow sclera. His skin a light purple. A few patches of his normal skin color remain but the majority is purple. The hair on his arms is soft and more fur like then before His teeth have sharpened into fangs. His ears have stretched into points with thick tufts of fur on the ends.
And his tail. It’s thin. About the size of his wrist at the widest point. Covered in strips of lilac and a dark purple almost black matching his hair.
_______
It takes a few more months to get used to the new look and tail. The tail took a lot to get used to.
Weeks of practice and play fights with the blades to get used to the new balance and movement. It’s strange but all in all it’s not too bad.