Chapter Text
PART 1: TRIALS
“You’re late,” Kolivan says, looming over the First General. When xe doesn’t move, he shifts to peer over xer desk. “Kozur.”
Kozur startles and blinks up at him. “Kolivan?”
“You’re late.”
“Oh. What time is it?”
“After quintant-shift.”
Xe winces. “Must’ve gotten too caught up in sifting through this.”
“I don’t recall getting a new haul.”
“We didn’t. This is all from the Uduke.”
“You cracked the code and didn’t tell me?”
“It was going to be in my report, but uh…” xe gestures at xer datapad. “I got caught up. Matt sent something from the Rebels side of Enigma Team that only needed a little tweaking for me to get working. I started reading just to see if the translation made sense and this… honestly, Kolivan, it’s fascinating, in a horrifying sort of way. I can barely understand what she’s talking about, barely understand her notes. Like, look at this section.” Xe hands him the datapad and reaches for the water sitting on xer desk. Kolivan takes it and starts skimming.
--It’s still hungry--
--Project Merlin--
--experiment number one lifeless husk--
--still, will feed It--
--the parasite, the symbiote--
--she thinks she is sneaky--
--experiment three better off dead--
--strings--strings--devours devours devours--
--DEVOURS--
--see note on Project Whisper--
--let them take him--
--experiment number five name--
--Zarkon fails to understand. IT fails to understand. But this is all for Its end goal--
--harbingers--
“You understand any of this?”
Kozur nods, grabbing another datapad from a drawer and syncing it to the one in his hands. “Most of what I’ve read through so far is experiment notes from a while ago. Whatever ‘Project Merlin’ and ‘Project Whisper’ were, they must’ve been shortly after the Fall. Haggar seemed to be… making something with the quintessence the Empire stole. ‘Harbingers’. She’d--take people and experiment on them. Most of them died. The Project Merlin ones… judging by the characteristics she did manage to record, they were all altean survivors.”
“This one mentions Marzin.”
“It does?” Kozur flicks the screen to where Kolivan is looking. “Huh. That has… terrifying implications given everything our Marmorait have said about her. I wonder if any of that applies to Galraasa.”
“I believe the Paladins met him in person on Thalia Four. They would have mentioned if he was anything but galra.”
Kozur makes a face. “I will never understand how all seven of our living Paladins managed to run into one of those two within hours of each other. Like, what was going on in the universe that day? Were the filaments just that tangled?”
Kolivan opens his mouth to respond, then pauses. “Kozur, do you think it’s possible she was doing something similar on Thalia or Kusyke?”
“I… don’t know. Why?”
“Just a thought.”
“Hm. What am I late for, by the way?”
“Honestly in light of this, it was unimportant. You should get some sleep, though.”
“Yeah okay.” Xe yawns, setting the datapad down on xer desk. “I’m gonna ask Vanab that question you just posed and let him drag me to bed.”
Krolia yawns and raps her knuckles against Keith’s door. It slides open to reveal a grumpy-looking Keith, in rumpled pajamas and his braid falling out. “Too early.”
She chuckles. “You agreed to come along.”
“I said a simple supply mission sounded like a nice break after the past few weeks of nonstop infiltration missions, not that I wanted to be up at the asscrack of dawn to do it.”
“Mission commander has to be in the hangar early, you know that.”
“But that’s you this time because whatever secret mission this ‘supply run’ is can only be headed by a General.”
“It is a supply run, no matter what impression Vanab managed to give you. That’s why it’s just the two of us, while the rest of the Whispers get to hang out here. We’re just going somewhere… a little special, that only Generals know the coordinates of.”
“The path doesn’t even finish opening for like half a quintant.”
“We’re helping load.”
Keith’s response is cut off by another voice. “You’re just excited because you get to beat the duka out of Nazik again.”
Krolia snorts and turns to shout after the figure walking past, “Good morning to you too, Vanab!”
Keith sighs. “Still too early.”
“Did you sleep at all, vaalví?”
Kozur jolts in xer seat. Xe’s hunched over a desk in ZNTH’s main access room, several datapad connections open in front of xem. “Oh, hey Vanab.”
“I’m going to take that as a no.”
“Sorry. I kept thinking about that question Kolivan posed.”
Vanab sighs and sits down on xer desk. “And?”
“And… I’m not as well versed in quintessence engineering and altean alchemy as you are, but I think he was on to something. Here, look.” Xe stands, waving the datapad in xer hand at the wall display. One part lights up with the heading Uduke Data, while another is labeled Thalia Data and a third Kusyke Data. Smaller headings pop up below them, and between them a set of connection lines rapidly populates. Vanab slips off the desk and taps on a few; they enlarge under his fingertips. The few other people in the room look up, curious as to what the two Generals are looking through.
“Purification catalysts, element twining, grounding methods… filament manipulation? That’s teleduv stuff, why is it in this mess?” He taps on one of the associated files underneath the Kusyke heading and skims through it, muttering under his breath. “Connection between two experiments successful, but given other factors impossible to tell how this would work with primary subject. It is happy either way--It? What’s ‘it’ here--something something--stars, how many times did she type the word devour in here--compared to Project Merlin results; Marzin refuses to cooperate--well that’s interesting--Galraasa more forthcoming, it connects precisely as current connections work--what looks like altean gibberish I don’t understand… okay, back to making sense--filament manipulation complete between subjects ten and one. Seems to have worked exactly as intended--boring numbers--bringing data to the Kuron for further testing on Subject Alpha.”
“The Kuron keeps popping up too.” Kozur taps another set of connections and they coalesce under the heading Kuron. “It’s a ship, but that’s all I’ve got. ZNTH is still populating the search through everything we decoded last night.”
“It’s mentioned in the Thalia files too… this one mentions cloning.”
“Yeah, the Paladins said something about cloning… how did Krolia say it, dinosaurs?” The word suddenly blinks purple, signaling ZNTH has found something related to it.
Kozur and Vanab look at each other. “It’s probably more documents from Thalia, right?”
“No, I set it to turn blue if connections were from only the same data set. It’s purple if it’s found connections between two, and red if it’s all three.”
Vanab reaches out and taps it, then shifts to follow the heading across the wall. Kozur follows him after gesturing one of xer underlings towards the other heading. More files populate underneath the new heading Cloning. Some have the identifier as Thalia, some as Kusyke. Vanab blinks at that. “Fuck, I forgot Krolia said those things looked like clones.” He opens a search box next to it and pulls up the Whispers’ report from Kusyke, complete with helmet cam footage from the Paladins.
Kozur peers over his shoulder. “Huh. They do all look like Ranveig… what’s all that there?”
Vanab opens the file xe’s pointing to. “More on filament manipulation. I wonder if that’s related to the cloning process at all? But if she was cloning Ranveig—there’s never been a successful sentient cloning project. Quintessence just doesn’t work that way. Was she trying? Why?”
The heading Cloning blinks red.
Across the wall, one of the techs says “Uh, sirs? This heading just changed to Project Kuron.”
Kozur grabs one of the files that just populated under the Cloning heading labeled as Uduke Data and opens it, eyes darting through the words. “Oh, holy stars. You!” xe whirls, pointing at one of the other people. “Get Krolia and Keith in here, even if they’ve already left. You, go find Kolivan right now.” Xe barks more orders, but Vanab isn’t listening, staring at the line that sparked the fear he can see in xer eyes.
Insertion into Voltron complete.
Keith walks into ZNTH command on Krolia’s heels and stops dead when he sees everything on the wall. “What’s all this?”
“Very, very bad trouble,” Kozur answers. Vanab has a dark look on his face, while Kolivan has a datapad in hand and is biting his lip. That is never a good sign. “We decoded the Uduke data. And it… just read this file.” Krolia takes it, holding it so Keith can read it too.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 700. Project Kuron will have unexpected benefits with the reconstruction of Voltron. Subject Alpha recovered. Phase two is now possible.
Project Kuron Experiment Log, quintant 720. Subject Alpha has made his resentment of the machine known. Despite the removal of the arm, he still has a punch stronger than a Tnlyandin cransepor. The incompetent fools who failed to provide adequate restraints have thus been dealt with. However, sample has been acquired and matched with previous samples. Phase two shall begin.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 722. Subject one did not survive initial trial. Marzin would like it noted that ‘the goopy mess on the floor’ is possibly the worst thing she has seen in a while.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 725. Subject two will be left for Galraasa to deal with when he gets here.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 750. Current method of filament manipulation is simply not working. Sending Marzin to Kusyke to bother Kreles.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 770: strings
Projet Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 771: subject 45 survived primary status check. All vitals within acceptable levels compared to baseline of Subject Alpha. Subject 45 deemed ready for phase two. All other test subjects being placed in cryostasis in case of potential failures.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 773. Subject 44 survived initial trial manipulation with Thuranial for far longer than others. Believe strings will work when subject connected to Subject Alpha. Subject 45 undergoing tomorrow.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 774. Subject 45 survived quintessence meld, as did Subject Alpha. Tests suggest quintessence of subject 45 indistinguishable to normal sensors. Current accuracy of Spirits’ sensors is unknown, but past records indicate they will not have better resolution than the Castle of Lions’. Filament manipulation stable; Thuranial access steady; vision active. Subjects to be transferred to designated ships for start of phase three.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 800. Marzin informs we do not have enough marthuzitok after the completion of phase two for the construction of Project Vessel. Will have to find a new source… perhaps Project Kuron will lead to results.
Project Kuron Experiment Log; quintant 934. Insertion into Voltron complete. Intel has already diverted important quintessence shipments from strike zones. Interestingly, Red Paladin driving force behind success of insertion.
Krolia freezes next to him but Keith can barely spare her a thought. “I’m--what? Kozur, what the hell is this?”
“That,” xe begins, dread on xer face, “is written by the Witch herself about a project she named after one of Zaiduke’s thralls. Their spy. The Heartdeciever. And if she named it after that myth--Keith, all of the vitals--we’re pretty sure Subject Alpha is your brother, and subject forty-five is a clone created by the Witch, which she’s using as a conduit to make him an unwitting spy.”
There is dead silence in the control room.
“But--the Castle-- Kuro-- that’s impossible.”
Vanab sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “Cloning technology has been around for a couple thousand years, but never with good enough quintessence matching to a normal person, much less a Paladin capable quintessence. Whatever spy manipulation she’s doing… I don’t know. I barely understand anything about filament manipulation myself. But it’s linked to the clones.”
“So the Shiro on the Castle being a clone or her spy is impossible because there’s no way that someone without the right quintessence could get past Allura, Coran, and Kuro.”
“No,” Krolia says, “if she still has the Thuranial, she is capable of so much more than that.”
They turn to Krolia, still clutching the datapad so hard her arm is shaking, something haunted in her eyes. “You know what it is?” Kolivan asks, “It is mentioned, but never explained.”
“What it is, no. But I’ve seen what it can do. A quintessence-matched clone is not out of the realm of possibility for that thing.”
“No.”
Krolia looks up for a moment, studying him. “Keithva--”
“No. I found him floating in space running away from a cruiser in a fighter because Kuro sensed him. The Black Lion knows his own fucking Paladin. I refuse to believe that Kuro would let someone not Shiro pilot him.”
“That’s what we were hoping you could explain,” Kozur gently says.
Keith doesn’t have an answer.
Kolivan looks at him for a long moment. “Either way, we have to inform Voltron ASAP. This isn’t something we should discuss over an open channel, and we must consider our encryptions useless for the moment. It will have to be in person. Keith, Krolia, you’re coming with me.”
“Wait you’re going?” Kolivan turns and just looks at Kozur. Xe blinks at him. “Ooookay, you’re going.”
“Vanab, you’re taking the mission to Daelkir. Take the rest of the Whispers with you; we are taking no chances. Kozur, I want you and every ZNTH tech on this data. Find out everything you can about Project Kuron, about the Thuranial, about anything and everything that could possibly be connected. You’re in charge of Morakiluide while we’re gone. Do not tell anyone about this. Not even the rest of the Coalition; we can’t risk tipping off the Witch before we’re ready.” He gets nods from the two Generals, then opens his comm. “Valin, I need an emergency transmission to Voltron. Route it through ZNTH command.”
“Wait, Kolivan, the path doesn’t even fully open for almost five vargas.”
Kolivan pauses, opens his mouth to respond, but is cut off. “I can get us through.”
“Keith--” Krolia starts, but he insists.
“I can get us through. I know the weather around here like the back of my hand. The equation is conservative with its estimates so we can get bigger ships through; a Nai will fit the three of us and be able to get out within the varga. I know the only sticking point, and I. can. get. us. through.”
And he would do it, if only to prove to them all that it was Shiro on the Castle, and he wasn’t a spy.