#Do you think any of Lance's family is still working in the castle and survived Ccino's purge of non-believers?

[spotaus]

HEY! I am back!

And seeing as you send me a list wiht fluffy stuff about the Knights I decided to send you an ask with the headcanons I have about Ccino's family!

Ccino's parents where both skeletons. His mother, Camellia, Has a VERY strong distaste for Nim. His father, Lance, was from a family who was very much into Nim as their god. But Lance changed his mind after hearing Camellia's reasoning.

Camellia hates Nim because Nim took her dad for her harem. Camellia got her looks from her father. Her father, when Camellia was very young, was approached by Nim to join her harem. He said yes. Camellia has never forgiven him for abandoning her and her mom.

Camellia's mom always said it was a good thing and a blessing but Camellia didn't agree. (her mom didn't truly beleive it either. it was just her way to deal with knowing her husband and soulmate left her without as much of a fight or even ASKING if she could come wiht him.)

Camellia and Lance met when they were very little. Lance already knew about the very pretty girl in his class and Camellia was oblivious to him. Lance however went over to her one day when she was sad. Camellia didn't want to talk about it (her dad had left her) Lance went to grab his cookie from his lunchpack and gave it to her. Because cookies make him happy so he hopes it did the same for her.

Camellia for the LONGEST time had to plan to get a job in the castle to fidn her dad nad punch him in the face nad curse him out for abandoning her.

Camellia is an amazing singer and was taught baking by her parents, her parents owned a bakery and taught her a lot of family recipes. She taught Ccino all of these as well. (her name is Camellia because that is a flower and you need flour in baking... I will show myself out.)

Lance and Camellia didn't get together until like high school ages. Lance always liked her but Camellia wasn't interest in love, she had a father to punch in the face. And well. She saw what happened when someone you love gets an offer from nim and just LEAVES you. She didn't want that.

(camellia had been scouted to also be brought to the castle for the harem. She is pretty after all. But she was already on the heavy side and Nim just couldn't appreciate it. and even with a future sight orb she could see that Camellia wouldn't become thin (Camellia would be too stubborn. she would make herself food and snacks in secret. fuck the rules) So Nim never took her to the castle.)

Ccino may have gotten his mother's looks but he got his dad's personality.

while Camellia is very bossy and assertive Lance isn't.

Lance is very relaxed and chill all things considered. He is from a family that loves Nim. It is spoken about it being an honour to work for her. Problem is that while Camellia is VERY pretty and plain gorgeous. Lance and his family are honestly very average or below average looking. So his family mosty worked as willing servants/maids/guards or soldiers for Nim.

Lance however was never a fighter. He is the type of guy who would be the one to call eveyrone an uber after a party. He would stay with drunk girls/boys to help them to friends or to their ride to bring them home. You want to take a drunk person home? You better prove to Lance that you REALLY are their friend. Lance has taken people to healers and sat with them through the night before. Just to make sure someone is their for them who is a friendly face and who is safe.

Lance is safe and loyal and dependable. So even when his looks were below average. Girls and guys adored him.

Lance had been in love wiht Camellia for a long time. Camellia was aware of Lance because he was jsut a good guy but she never connected the dots that this was the same little boy from long ago.

Lance got Camellia's attention by managing to get pretty far in as talent show, Camellia was planning on winning wiht her singing and getting a chance to perform for Nim at the castle all so she could punch ehr dad in the face. Imagine her surprise when she sees mellow and calm Lance on stage, who proceeds to sing a FUCKING love song for her. (the whole show would be about showing praise to Nim so this was a BIG DEAL) They two of them got disqualified in the half finals because they decided to sing a love song as a duet. The two of them started going out soon after.

Camellia told Lance why she disliked nim so much a long time later. because not liking the king who is a god?! That is VERY frowned and looked down upon. Lance didn't tell her she was wrong and should be happy her dad got that option like many others said. instead Lance held her hands and told her that he understood why she got hurt. because her dad had loved her. and he left her. This is also why Lance started to not want to work for Nim anymore. But he supported Camellia in her plan. (look these two were like 16. neither had good ideas lmao)

The next year Camellia fucking CRUSHED the talent show and got the offer to sing for Nim. Only to get comments about her looks and how she should lose weight to be TRULY in favour. and well... after spending a whole year going on dates with Lance and feeling loved and treasured and being truly happy. She just told them she can't lose weight and to jsut take second place instead.

After school they packed their bags and left their hometown. They foudn a very small town to settle in and started up a bakery together. Camellia did most of the baking and Lance managed the place.

Camellia actually has rather potent magic. it is just all centered in her singing. She uses her singing to make the baked goods taste even better. (Ccino does something simular but with just his intent. When he has low magic it isn't obvious or potent but the healthier he gets the more power this intent has.) Lance has no magic beyond the bare minimum for monsters. (camellia told him he does have magic and that it is the love he gives the world. it is were that joke came from.)

Okay. Next. Why did they settle on the name Ccino?

Because Camellia while pregnant (i know icky sorry.) She had the BIGGEST craving for.... something coffee? But she wasn't sure what. So each day, multiple times a day, lance would try to figure out what the dirnk was that camellia craved. each drink was slightly different until they stroke gold. With a cappuccino with cinnamon sticks and dried lavendel and with extra foam. They laughed and settled on Ccino as a reminder adn insight joke towards that journey and mission.

So yeah... That is what i thought of for those two :D

Oh wait!!

Eventually. After a while some people in Nim's harem retire. (they aren't pretty or young enough anymore for Nim's taste) Ccino's grandfather was one of these (lets name him... Snapdragon, because flower) so Snapdragon was retired and returned to that old town he used to live in.

He got back to his house, a place reserved for him and any of his family as prove of his loyal service, only to find his old soulmate not there.

Snapdragon probably found her dust. (Losing her husband had been one thing.... but losing her grandson and daughter to nim as well? Nim stealing her grandson and killing her only daughter? Ccino's grandmother's soul couldn't survive that and died of grief.) and he was filled with grief. but told himself it would be oaky... maybe he could reunite with his daughter?

He searched the house for any hints and probably found letters of Camellia to her mother. about how she and Lance and Ccino are doing well and looking forwards to having her visit. How Ccino LOVES the sweater she knitted him. and Snapdragon for a moment is so excited to meet his grandchild.

Only to later find a letter to his late soulmate. form the crown... That... that ccino had been chosen for a very special purpose. and because of the traitorous behaviour of Camellia and her husband they were punished.

Snapdragon lost everything before he even knew he had it. knowing that his grandson? was probbaly alreayd IN that castle while he was there. They just never got the chance to meet because servants aren't just allowed near the harem members. Snapdragon does the math in his head and knows his little grandson, onyl 7, was stolen... He stares at the pictures form the letters. Seeing that ccino looks like an exact copy of Camellia from that age.

Is Snapdragon still alive? *Shrug* no idea. THis is all jsut headcanons lmao.

And woops... I went sad again. I need to stop doing that... Either way!! ENJOY :D

Oh. Yeah. Okay just gonna. *Slurping sounds* this is tasty and also has me crying, Ancha these are so good... oml...

Okay so, First off, I LOVE Camellia and Lance! (Forgive me if i mistype Camellia at some point lmao-). The names are peak (I'm sorry but the flower names for the FLOUR for baking? I love it-) and they're so different and yet feel so perfect.

Camellia is so cool... Stubborn, beautiful, talented, headstrong and driven? I understand why Lance fell head over heels, my lord! The idea that her father willing went with Nim for the harem and that, for many years, he motivation was to get in the palace to serve Nim just to deck him in the face???? YES QUEEN!!!! But fr, it's perfect! It feels very much like a goal she should have, and it fits her! Her voice being her magic is sick af too, too fun!

And Lance being such a chill, friendly, responsible guy? Ough I love him too- (I'm stealing Ccino's parents, they're mine now /j) Him being so pointedly caring but so mellow and looked-over by most people seems to fit him perfectly, which makes his confession to Camellia all the better because he went out of his way to do something he thought she would appreciate! (Singing!!! He thought of her and acted accordingly!!!!) Him coming from a family entirely devoted to Nim too, and being willing to change is view when new information arose and he learned how badly his loved one had been hurt? Huge win for Lance, he's a good man!

The two of them deciding to still follow Operation: Punch Dad for a year even after they started dating is actually so sweet, and it's only after Camellia recognizes what she'd lose by just trying to get some rage out on her deadbeat dad that she stops and decides that her love outweighs the old hurt. That she can grow, because Lance will stay by her side.

The split on the bakery is super banger too, Camellia working and making breads/cakes/pastries all day, while Lance focuses on the finances and the trade and the counter and such? Ccino definitely would've had a hayday in the back with his mom, her walking him through every step? Ough... I'm wounded.... (And a LITTLE bonus thought: Maybe some days they had 'special batches' that were a little smaller and cheaper than the usual, because they were the ones Ccino made himself when he was first learning to do it on his own! Sometimes they were a little crispy or a little wonky-looking, but some folks in town would buy them and everyone loved to see the big grin Ccino would get when he would see them sold!)

Uhhh what else.... Shout-out to Camellia frfr. Nim really decided she wasn't worth the fight because Camellia would NOT conform. Proud of her <3. Lance is such a doll, I think I need to give him a forehead kiss. Also picturing them as that meme. "Baby, hold my flower." "I got yo flower baby, go kick his ass." With Camellia about to tell off a rude customer ahah!

And then!!! Snapdragon and his wife (ex-wife?) lore too!!!! Oh the mental image of Snapdragon being in the harem at the same time Ccino was recieving his training? They literally never saw each other, he would've recognized his daughter's face on Ccino's. He would've known. But no one ever told him about his daughter's marriage, or her child! Obv devistating to learn that your wife/soulmate has dusted upon returning home (btw I LOVE that the harem-members get to go free once they age out, that feels like a very Nim thing to do, oddly enough! They were her prized possessions once after all. Maybe they'll reproduce and her own heir might have better pickings-) but learning that your daughter had a happy life with a family? A grandson? And yeah, I'm imagining that the one with the news about Ccino's stealing and Camellia's death was somewhere outside the area of the other letters, so he wouldn't find it until he went searching or wandering. Maybe it was even on the floor somewhere because it had been dropped in disbelief, a bit crumpled with grief by his wife's grip when she realized what she was reading- Okay I'll stop but. Yeah. Heartwrenching.

I can't decide whether it would be more satifying to have Snapdragon still be alive (still under protection of the crown, because Nightmare respects that once wish of his mother, to protect the members of her Harem who were sent home) or dead (died of lonliness much like his wofe, or killed in a freak accident, or just a natural lifespan death?). Because either one could be fun for the narrative. In the first, there could be a moment of Ccino learning he still *has* a living relative. Nightmare looking through old paperwork, asking the knights to go check in on these people and reassure them they're safe, only to come across Snapdragon and recognize the last name. Same as on Ccino's certificate, his mother's maiden name. Ofc it could be coincidence, so he specifically sends Killer out to that house (He KNOWS that nosy beast looked at Ccino's other information) and. Well. Killer's pretty damn confident after going in for tea and having a chat that. Yeah. Ccino's grandfather. So Night broaches the topic. And there Ccino could be given the decision to go and meet him, to maybe learn more about his parents and family (and be SORELY disappointed to learn his Grandfather was a deadbeat) or maybe his mother told him stories, very gently ofc, but explained why pop-pop wasn't around when they visited Grandma. he might not want anything to do with him and just decides to stay estranged. Or, Snapdragon could just be dead. Maybe, again, Killer is sent to check it out for similar reasons, but when the house has a pile of dust in it, and an urn on the mantel, he knows that the dude is dead. But, curiosity kills the cat so he goes snooping because, if this person really was related to Ccino then, well, he better get anything important before Night has people come and collect the dust for a proper send-off and repurposes it. He'd come across the letters, and old photo albums, and only skimming them tells him that they were written by Ccino's mother, so he carefully pockets them (and anything else important he can find) and goes to Nightmare with it all. And Night gives it to Ccino, and it goes from there.

Okay sorry, regardless, I've been rotating these guys in my head non-stop since you sent this one and I CANNOT be stopped <3

[alluraaaa]

46. For everyone

46. the person they most admire

this question is so fucking hard, but i mean that in the best possible way. this team clearly has so much affection for one another, but admiration is a specific word and hard to work with, in a way. no lie, my process was staring at my phone, typing something out without thinking, and then realizing what the answer is

shiro: hunk. as team leader, he makes it his responsibility to look after the team’s mental health and let them use him like a therapist. once he makes that known, hunk is very open about how anxious and scared he is, how he’s kinda always been like that. hunk wasn’t studying to be a pilot, doesn’t have anyone in his family who are pilots. he’s young, and he has no idea what he’s doing! he wants to go home!! but he keeps going, not because there’s no other choice, but because he wants to help people more than he wants to see earth. for shiro, who only survived the pits because it was either kill or die, hunk is endlessly inspiring.

keith: shiro. not a lot of explanation is needed here, it’s the obvious answer. while the garrison trio also look up to shiro as a teacher and pilot, keith looks up to shiro for everything. without shiro, keith would be in some juvy on earth instead of getting to save the world. keith owes everything to his brother, who won’t give up on him, no matter how many times it takes.

pidge: lance. she spent the first months knowing him trying desperately to push him away, because it hurt to look at him. he’s just like matt, and she doesn’t wanna just replace him even if it is nice to have someone who shares his jacket and ruffles her hair and cleans her glasses without her asking. but when she spat vitriol at him, he retorted with something just as piercing, not letting her get away with it. and he stayed. despite the war, despite her, he’s still here, blowing raspberries at her and wading through fountains to collect change. so when their barbs got more and more affectionate, she wanted to be mad at how he wormed his way into her heart. but she’s not replacing her big brother, she’s gaining another.

lance: keith. the infamous rivalry was born from admiration, after all, even if he didn’t know it. he was hoping one day he’d be the better pilot, the better paladin, but once he actually was keith’s equal, he found he actually liked it. them butting heads worked in a way nothing else did. it wasn’t hunk’s hugs or pidge’s snark or coran’s stories, it was difficult. there’s pushing and shoving and hair pulling and wet willies and it’s so fun. in a nearly empty castle with only six others, you get bored. having someone who doesn’t look down on you as a person while wrestling over the remote is really nice. not to mention, keith isn’t nearly as perfect and lance thought. to learn that someone he put on a pedestal has flaws and weaknesses that lance compliments? kind of life changing, to say the least.

hunk: pidge. she’s so little and he’s so big but she keeps up with him easily, and sometimes he’s the one who has to keep up. absolutely nothing stops her once she puts her mind to it, and has a way of thinking through things that just eliminates any possibility of anxiety. if there’s a pidge, there’s a way. there are also times, though, when she’s sad or scared or small, but trusts him to not hurt her, despite him being big. she knows he won’t judge her for not understanding a formula, or needing help with a line of code, or crying on his shoulder when she misses her family. he realizes, one quiet night, that she trusts him not despite his size but because of it. she finds comfort in big brothers.

allura: coran. she turns to him for anything and everything, gives orders and trusts he’ll follow them, and he’s the only parent she has left. she knows that he’s suffering just as much as her, but he doesn’t let it stop him the way it stops her sometimes. when it stops her, he’s the only one who can get her going again. she doesn’t know how he does it. and she offers to help, she’s not stupid, she knows he’s keeping the hard parts to himself while also helping her, and she says it’s not fair. she wants to help him too, what can she do to help? but he just brushes the hair away from her face, kisses her forehead, and tells her all he wants is for her to get a full night’s rest. and… she can’t say no to that. when they’re in her bed and he’s serenely narrating his way through a story of his past, she can curl up to his side, close her eyes, and know that no matter what, he’s the constant in her life.

coran: allura. she used to be so happy, and she’s so young, and so hurt, and so tired. but despite it all, or maybe because of it all, she works so hard to fight a man who betrayed them so harshly. if anyone deserves to shirk the responsibility of voltron and live out their days on a peaceful remote planet, it’s the two of them. but she refuses to give up, so neither does he. he does all he can, despite the weariness in his bones, to help her. he’ll polish her helmet visor, braid her hair, wipe away her tears. he’ll polish the ship’s controls, groom his mustache, wipe away his own tears. he’ll do it all, so she doesn’t have to. and when they find out that they weren’t the only alteans left, when they found a new altea, she doesn’t want anyone else officiating her coronation, and he doesn’t want anyone else as queen. they both cry during the ceremony, and he hugs his daughter, holding her close.

(send a character + a number)

[rocorambles]

Trapped

Pairing: Sakusa x Reader

Prompt: Fantasy

Genre/Warnings: Yandere, Toxic Relationship, NSFW, Fantasy AU, Sorcerer Sakusa, Rape/Non-Con, Mind Control, Manipulation, Obsessive and Posessive Behavior, Degradation

Summary: You should have trusted your gut instincts, the lessons you had learned the hard way about just how cruel powerful men could be. 

Author’s Note: This is my contribution for my HQ Discord Server’s NSFW collaboration. There are so many talented writers on the server and I highly encourage you to check out the collaboration masterlist here to see how everyone decided to run with this prompt. (Masterlist goes live Friday, October 30th 11:00pm U.K. time!)  

You splutter awake, laughing, but also groaning as a wet tongue slobbers all over your face and you lightly shove the fox that’s currently standing beside your resting head, intent on waking you up to play. Blearily you blink your eyes, trying to gauge what time it is based on the light seeping into the cave you’ve come to call your home. Judging by the bright rays of sunlight, it’s already mid-morning and you stretch your arms above your head, petting your furry companion behind its ears before standing up and treading out into the forest, your friend walking right beside you, its tail brushing against your leg. 

The familiar peace and quiet of the wind rustling past branches and the faint chirping of birds wafts through the air and you smile as you continue making your way to the nearby waterfall, various four-legged animals that have come to be your family and friends popping their heads out of grassy patches and from behind trees in greeting. You can’t even remember the last time you’d seen another human being and you grimace at the thought of your last encounter. 

Orphans, especially female orphans like you, rarely survive for long and you bitterly remember the years of being a street urchin, never knowing when your next bite of food would come, never knowing who to trust in a world full of both humans and magical creatures who’d do horrible things to an unclaimed child and you shiver at the thought of possibly being eaten or harvested for ingredients for countless dark magic spells. But life had only gotten harder the older you became and as a single, vulnerable woman, you began to attract a different attention, no longer able to blend as seamlessly as you once had with predatory eyes trailing after you, resting too long on parts of your body that you desperately wanted to hide from the world. 

You tried sticking it out, finding ad hoc jobs here and there as a maid, as a seamstress, as a waitress. But corruption ran deep wherever you went and disgust makes you recoil when you remember all the times you’d been cornered by all types of men and creatures, received unwanted touches in hidden corners and degrading remarks of what your only purpose in life was. And after being left to sob, pain lancing between your legs, your clothes ripped to shreds, knowing no one would ever take your side, knowing that this would just continue happening over and over again, you vowed to never have anything to do with another sentient being ever again. 

You’d heard rumors of the forest, about its enchantment, about the stories of terrible things hiding away in its heart, but you couldn’t imagine any monster worse than the ones you’ve already encountered and you determinedly march forward, never turning back to look at the city you’re leaving behind. And as you step past the border of trees, even you, someone who’s never had anything to do with magic, can feel the surge of power, feel the crackling energy as you delve deeper and deeper. But maybe the forest could sense that you meant it no harm, maybe it knew that you were just a lonely, helpless soul, maybe it felt generous, felt pity for the damaged woman seeking refuge. Whatever the case was, it left you alone and in all the years you’d made a home in its lush vegetation, not once had you met any of the ghastly creatures you’d heard so many horror stories of. And maybe that’s why you let your guard down when you meet him, finding a false security in the wood and grass-filled world you now live in. 

You don’t bother being quiet or stealthy as you walk. Why would you when there’s never been anyone else around? So imagine your shock when black human eyes are staring at you as you round the corner and reach the water’s edge and panic laces through you when you see how masculine and strong he looks, overwhelming fear making you tremble when you take in the staff you see laying next to him. 

A sorcerer. 

You’d learned the hard way that men were never to be trusted and that men with power and wealth were the ones to be even more wary of. Fortunately you’d only dealt with vile wealthy men and as awful as they had been, you know men gifted with an affinity for magic make those nobles seem as harmless as kittens in comparison. You’d seen firsthand the havoc sorcerors could wreak, seen the charred, mutilated, disfigured bodies put on display at the city gates as an example of the fate for anyone who rebels against the crown. To your knowledge, all sorcerors worked for the royal family, rarely leaving the walled fortress unless sent on a mission or task, but never in a place like this so-called cursed forest. So what was he doing here? 

The urge to flee thrums through your veins, but when he makes no move to stand or get any closer to you, curiosity gets the better of you and you stay rooted to your spot and before you can stop yourself, you find yourself asking the first question that comes to mind. 

“Who are you?” 

When Sakusa had ventured outside of the castle walls for a break from the irritating humans inside the cramped corridors and bustling courtrooms, he had purposefully chosen a place where no other soul would be. His hand had immediately wrapped around his staff as the sound of approaching rustling interrupted his thoughts, but when you had made your presence known, he could only stare in awe, staff forgotten as he took you in. 

You’re different from the usual noble women he sees on a daily basis. For one, you’re barely wearing anything, a makeshift dress of strung together leaves, flowers, and grass the only thing covering you and he can feel his face grow hot as he tries not to blatantly stare at your bare legs and arms. But as he really regards you, he can’t help but feel something wild, something primal in you and he blinks in shock when he realizes that you have the same energy as the forest, as if the forest has claimed you as one of its own and he’s so entranced by his realization that he’s startled by the sound of your voice.

From anyone else, he would have scowled at the forwardness and bluntness of the question, but for some reason, coming from you, he finds himself easily answering. 

“Sakusa Kiyoomi” 

People, conversations, human interaction. Those are all things Sakusa abhors and yet, as you tentatively draw closer to him, staring at him in wide eyed curiosity while the two of you exchange words, he thinks he doesn’t mind any of those things when you’re involved. He comes to visit you as often as he can, something warm blooming inside of him as he sees your hackles relax, notices how you inch closer and closer to him every time he arrives, and he can’t help but compare you to a wild animal and behind the warmth in his chest, something darker lurks, and he wonders what it would be like to tame you, claim you back from the wooded forest that had taken you in, mark you as his own. 

And that thought festers and grows inside of him. 

He does his best to keep it at bay, play it off as just a fleeting idea, but when your eyes and body begin to seep into his dreams, into his every waking thought, he can’t keep the desire down any longer and when he strides towards you once more, he drops to one knee in front of you, asking for your hand in marriage. 

In hindsight it probably was foolish to think that you were as smitten with him, foolish to think that someone who had been scarred enough to escape from civilization would easily just return to the place full of painful memories, and yet red hot anger blazes through him when you turn him down. It doesn’t matter how sweet and kind you are about it, gently letting him down and telling him you’re sure he’d find someone much better suited to being his wife, someone prim and proper, someone educated and knowledgeable of court intricacies. 

Humiliation only fuels his rage as he rises back to his feet and he can feel his magic churning, waiting to be used, dancing at his fingertips, and he has half a mind to forcefully drag you back with him, but he retracts it, pushes it down deep inside of him as he takes a deep breath. No, he wants you to come back and grovel at his feet, beg him to take you in, to help you. He wants you to feel the same need for him that he feels for you and he bites his tongue and restrains himself as his mind begins to plan and strategize. 

He tries to remain as normal as possible, still going to visit you as often as before, but his nails dig into the palm of his hands at the pity in your eyes and he clenches his teeth at the way that you tread around him like he’s a wounded animal. But he takes those feelings and lets them drive him late through the night as he chants strange words, flips through old scrolls, experiments with different spells and ingredients and a rare smile stretches across his face when the pieces finally come together. 

It’s time to take set his plan in motion and in the middle of the night while most of the city is fast asleep, there’s a strange flashing light, a rush of something sinister in the air, and the murmurs of masculine chanting swirling in the air, lingering, and foreshadowing the dark days ahead. But you remain asleep, peacefully ignorant of the shift in the atmosphere, naive to just how much your life will change.  

 You wake up, surprised by the lack of a warm furry body or tongue lapping at your face, and you vaguely wonder if you’d woken up in the middle of the night, but the sunlight filtering through tells you a different story. You feel strange, warning bells beginning to faintly clamor in your head, and you gingerly step outside of your lair only to freeze at the dead silence surrounding you. It’s always quiet and calm in the forest, but where there is usually the sound of nature and creatures, now there is only a deathly silence and you stare in horror as the forest seems to decay right in front of your eyes. What used to be green grass is wilting and brown. The trees you’d spent years climbing and picking fruit from are completely bare. But what makes a choked sob get caught in your throat is the corpses of the animals who’d you come to be so fond of littered around you and your slow stuttered amble becomes a frenzied run, as you race through your dying home, hoping to see any sign of life left. 

But days pass and the state of your home only gets worse. Your throat is parched without clean water to drink, all the water sources near you murky and littered with fish corpses indicating just how toxic they’ve become. Your stomach aches with hunger, no vegetation, fruits, or animals nearby for you to ingest. And a deep loneliness churns inside of you and once again you feel as alone as you did when you were just a dirty street urchin trying to scrape together a living off the streets. 

So when Sakusa comes for his regular visit and finds your weakened body slumped on the floor of your cave, it just makes sense to you, survival instincts kicking in, to drag yourself over to his feet, fling your arms around him when he finally bends down, and sob into his chest. You don’t question the way he’s slow to crouch down to your level and comfort you. You don’t see the cruel smile on his face when he sees you pathetically laying at his feet. You don’t notice the glee in his eyes as you beg him to take you with him. And when he asks you if you’d like to come and be his assistant, you eagerly nod your head and cling tighter to him, burying your face in his comforting and familiar presence as he teleports the two of you back to his living quarters. 

Months pass and despite your initial wariness of returning to live among other beings, you find that Sakusa seems to dislike being around others just as much as you, and the two of you find a comfortable way of life mostly holed up in his living quarters with only the other as company. You’d never really been exposed or taught anything about magic growing up, so you’re genuinely fascinated as you watch Sakusa chant, attentively listening as he tells you what each ingredient is, eagerly following his every step as he shows you firsthand how to mix different potions. And Sakusa thinks that your aptitude for learning, the perfect synchronization the two of you have as you seamlessly work your way into his rhythm, preparing and setting things up before he even needs to tell you, speaks volumes of just how perfect the two of you are together, speaks volumes of how you were meant to be together. 

He continues strategizing, gaining your trust, letting you grow accustomed to his presence, smiling at the way you don’t even bat an eye when his hands linger on yours a bit longer than normal when he hands you something, at the way you don’t tense up anymore when he presses his body against you from behind as he physically guides and shows you how to do something. And he knows he’s on the right track when you take the initiative to swipe a strand of his hair behind his ear as he concentrates on a task at hand, when you perch your chin on his shoulder, peeking over his shoulder as he jots down notes. 

But even the greatest minds make mistakes and when he sends you off to find a certain piece of text for him from the bookshelf in the corner of his room, he forgets to clarify where on the shelf to look and not wanting to bother him, you meticulously comb through every book, forehead scrunching in curiosity when you find a notebook tucked behind, as if it was meant to be hidden. You consider just passing it over, not wanting to intrude on Sakusa’s privacy, but having gone through most of the books and not finding what you need, you wonder if perhaps the thing he’s looking for is in here and that this had just been misplaced or accidentally pushed towards the back of the shelf. 

As you flip through the pages you quickly realize this is a book of Sakusa’s own spells and you stare in awe at how much work he’d done, how extensive his own self-created spell repertoire is, but suddenly your heart freezes when you flip to the last few filled pages. You’re not as fluent as Sakusa is when it comes to the ancient magical language, but you know enough after the time you’ve spent with him, the lessons he’s taught you, to recognize ‘plague’ and ‘forest’ and your throat and heart feel both heavy and panicked when you realize the implication of what you’d found. And suddenly you remember the day he had proposed to you vividly, ice cold shock and realization making you shudder when you remember a flash of something dark in his eyes when you had rejected him. And your hands tremble when you see the very last page, taking note of the phrase ‘mind control’. But before you can dwell on it, you squeal in surprise when the book is plucked from your hands and you’re rooted to the spot by dark eyes pinning you down. 

You want to scream angry words at him. You want to escape. And yet, you do neither, frozen with fear when you remember exactly what happened to the victims who’d defied sorcerers.

“Hmm. This spell’s not quite ready yet, but I guess we can test it out early.” 

And before you can even register what’s happening, a firm hand is placed on the top of your head, the other wrapped around your throat to keep you still as magic surges through the air and you vaguely hear yourself pleading for him to stop, until suddenly you feel trapped in your own body, the connection between your conscience and physical figure severed and you stare in horror as your body goes limp and docile in his arms. 

Sakusa peers into your eyes in interest, humming in thought as he scrawls a few more notes in his notebook. 

“The end goal of this spell is for me to be able to completely control your mind, but right now it looks like I only have control of the section that handles your physical functions if that ugly hate-filled look in your eyes is any indication. But let’s test my theory shall we?”

And it feels like a bad dream as your body submissively makes its way to his bed, seductively swaying your hips as you sprawl out on his bedsheets, eagerly wrapping your arms around the back of his neck as he joins you, bringing him down for a kiss. He’s rough and invasive as he tears your clothes off, calloused hands touching and contaminating every inch of you and you feel disgust as he examines you like you’re a piece of prime meat he’s purchased, coldly and meticulously pinching and prodding you as he observes what makes your body react. And for once, you hate how observant he is, how in tune to your smallest shifts he is, how sensitive your body is as your nipples perk up, as little moans escape past your traitorous lips when he pinpoints your weak spots. 

But what you hate most is the triumphant grin on his face when his dexterous fingers swipe against your lower lips and you internally flinch at the glistening slick that coats his fingers when he holds it to your face, evidence of the heavy arousal mixing with your humiliation and hate. And you try to think of anything else, imagine you’re anywhere but here as he begins to wonder out loud while his fingers twist and turn inside of you, reaching and touching places you’d never been able to explore yourself, if he even needs to tweak his spell anymore seeing how you’re a slave to your body’s natural desire for pleasure. Maybe there wasn't a need to completely control your thoughts and emotions as well.

He hadn’t realized what a slut you are, getting off to anyone using your body, and he leers down at you while he continues questioning you, knowing full well you can’t answer or retort to his crude remarks. And he idly wonders if your mind would naturally break without additional magic if he pleasured you enough, transformed you into a warm body that constantly seeks and craves his touch.

The fear in your eyes at his words only fuels his need to completely dominate you and he grits his teeth as he slides into your drenched hole, eyes closing shut as he just stays still and revels in how tight you are, how perfectly you wrap around him. And when he opens his eyes and sees the glassy-eyed lustful look on your face from being filled, he finally releases himself from the controlled facade he so carefully always wears and lets himself dive headfirst into the sultry, dizzying, primal embrace of lust as he pistons his hips in and out of you at a brutal pace, dark eyes never straying from your face as your eyes begin to roll back and your wanton mewls fill the air. 

He can feel his end approaching, but he’d be damned if he didn’t make you fall apart with him, drown you in inescapable pleasure, and his hand slips between the two of you, fingers finding your aroused clit and all it takes is a few rubs and thrusts before your body is tensing up, back arching, mouth opening in a silent scream, body convulsing and writhing underneath him, your cunt milking him as you’re forcefully brought to your peak. And he joins you over that edge, thick white spurts coating your twitching walls. 

You pray that he’s done, that he’ll release you now that he’s thoroughly tasted and had you, now that you’re just sloppy seconds, used goods. But you’re startled when he lovingly kisses you and tenderly strokes your hair, and your stomach churns at the genuine affection you see in his eyes. And your heart drops, any last bit of hope you had extinguished as he holds your body close to him in a mockery of a loving embrace and whispers in your ear about the future he has planned for both of you, a future where you stay by his side as an obedient, submissive housewife, a future where you’re willing and eager to please him, to love him. 

That was always his goal for the both of you, he insists, and a flame of anger burns inside of you at the exasperated and patronizing sigh he directs your way as he blames you for forcing his hands, for forcing him to do this the hard way, for forcing him to resort to magic when you could have saved everyone the hassle by just accepting his proposal all those months ago. 

Hate and anger twist and coil inside of you and yet, when he kisses you once more, your body instinctively leans into the soft touch before obediently going lax as he tells you to sleep, eyes automatically closing at the command, and Sakusa smiles at your slumbering figure. It’s not exactly how he had planned to go about this, the mind control spell being more of a back-up option he had been trying to avoid, but you’re finally irrevocably his and that’s all that matters.  

[heyyyharry]

Chapter 17: The Battle

(from ‘The Winter and The Crown’)

…in which they go to battle. / Warning: DEATH, GORE / 

Word count: 4k

AU: queen!y/n, commander!harry

Description: Y/N and Harry set off on a new adventure to find ‘the cure’ for an ancient curse, meanwhile, the enemies are plotting to take her kingdom.

Wattpad link (Reyna as Y/N aka Peach)

A/N: 

According to plan, we have 2 chapters left.

This chapter is inspired by Train Wreck by James Arthur and Arcade by Duncan Laurence. 

Play these songs for a better reading experience!

.

.

.

As the cold rain whispered over the muddy fields at the southern border, Isolde soldiers started setting up tents for their Queen to have a meeting with her council. Outside lay long horse-lines and wagons with fires stretching every direction. Y/N had heard enough stories of her father’s victories so she’d been able to picture what a battlefield would look like before coming here. Nevertheless, it was a lot different to hear of those tales than to pick up a blade yourself and end a living person’s life. Hundred thousands would die tomorrow. One of them could be her. The thought sent chills down her spine despite her best effort to overlook it.

It was almost sunrise when the last men crowded into Y/N’s tent. Wary looks were exchanged. Everyone was heavy with fatigue. Lance wasn’t with them. He had temporarily returned to Attwell and would arrive later with his own army, according to plan.

“The Northerners are assembling here.” Y/N stood beside a map on the table, pointing to a marshy place. “They are waiting for reinforcements from Orioch, mercenaries from Cianna. We must strike before their reinforcements can come up.”

“By how much do they outnumber us now?” asked an old general named Seren.

Y/N didn’t answer. ��We will form two lines. Here.” She touched the map again. “And use the forest to guard our flanks. We are at a disadvantage because we’re not fighting in the snow–”

“By how many, Your Majesty?”

“Do not interrupt the Queen,” Harry hissed at Sir Seren.

Y/N put up her hand to ask Harry to stay calm. She could not avoid answering the question. “Twice our force.” She sucked in a breath. “Perhaps a little more.”

Muttering passed around the men.

“Have you had any word of the Attwell army?” another general asked.

“They’re on their way,” Y/N said.

The muttering redoubled.

“It matters not,” Harry’s loud voice silenced them all. “We have enough.”

“Enough?” snapped Sir Seren. ”No disrespect to you, Your Majesty, but you might have survived the North mountain and found the magical lake, but what magic can save us, your subjects, when we’re being slaughtered on the field?”

Y/N rose to her feet. Her glare momentarily shut down the men’s murmurs. “Are you questioning your loyalty, Sir Seren?”

“No, Your Majesty. I would not dare. I’ve served your family for nearly two decades. That is why I believe your father would never have blindly trusted a foreigner in a war with Theros. How can we be sure that Lance Devany would not turn his back to us at the last minute?”

“Perhaps,” said a calm voice from the flap of the tent. “You shouldn’t be here if you’re such a coward, Sir Seren.”

Heads swivelled. A few reached for their swords. Y/N heaved a sigh of relief when she saw Lance at the entrance. Sir Seren’s face burned with shame as he bowed his head and slipped to the back for Lance to take his place by Y/N’s side.

“You thought I’d abandon my queen?” he murmured to her with a smirk upon his face. Harry rolled his eyes yet said nothing.

Y/N cleared her throat, grateful for his presence nonetheless. “Now, where were we?”

“Hold on,” Lance cut her off, his brows pinched together. “Why did I just see Mary outside?”

“It’s a last-minute decision,” Y/N said. “It wouldn’t be safe to have left her at the castle. Calanthe wants her. If she knew Mary was there, she’d send people there and my subjects would be in danger.”

“Fair enough,” Lance said, back straight, hands behind his back. “I just wish you’d told me.”

Y/N didn’t know what he was implying, but she could be sure that he was implying something. Did he think she didn’t trust him enough to tell him everything? She just didn’t think it was important, and he’d been in a hurry to get back to Attwell anyway.

By the end of the meeting, Y/N’s concern had been confirmed by Lance not making eye contact with her even once. She wanted to believe he was just tired from the journey to and from Attwell. However, she knew him too much for her own comfort. This wasn’t as simple as that.

The other men followed Harry outside to assemble the Attwell soldiers, and Lance was the last to stay with Y/N.

“Lance,” she called out as he was about to leave.

He turned, an eyebrow arched. “Yes?”

“Is something wrong?”

He regarded her for a second in silence.

She didn’t want to give him a chance to lie. “Did I upset you somehow?”

He averted his eyes, looking quite uneased. “You could’ve reassured them before I arrived.”

“Lance,” Y/N breathed.

“You could’ve just told them you knew I’d not betray the North,” Lance went on. “They accused me of turning my back to you, and you didn’t say anything.” He turned, and they locked eyes. “Do you not trust me?”

Y/N had always assumed that she had always trusted him. Hadn’t she left her kingdom in his hands while she’d been gone for weeks? How could one trust another that much? Still, he was right about her not defending him earlier. She couldn’t explain it herself, and it made her feel even worse.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Lance’s expression went grim. “I know it’s hard to trust someone after all that you’ve gone through,” he said. “You couldn’t even trust your own family, and I can’t blame you, because I’ve lived that way my whole life.” He released an exasperated breath. “But I meant it when I said I loved you and that I would die for you, Y/N. All I ask is for you to trust me.”

Y/N clenched her fists on the table, her chest heavy with tension. “I don’t want you to die for me.” Or love me, she wanted to add, but didn’t. “I want you to be safe.”

Lance smiled faintly before nodding once.“I’ll try. I promise.”

Try. She hated that he’d used that word, for it implied that there were things that were out of their control. She wished she could say with confidence that all of them would make it back alive ,and Isolde would win the war, but all she could manage to do was...try.

“Your Majesty,” came a voice outside her tent, “we found your lady-in-waiting hiding in a wagon with our supplies.”

Y/N whipped her head to Lance, who looked equally dismayed.

“Jo?” he mouthed to her.

Immediately, Y/N bolted past him as she stormed out of her tent. “Take me to her,” she told the guard. To Lance, she said, “Could you check on Harry and my men?”

“Sure.” He worked up a smile and bowed. “Good luck with Jo.”

.

.

.

Jo jumped to her feet as soon as Y/N stepped in. Y/N waved for the guard on either side of Jo to release her and step back. On the ride here, Jo had prepared what she was going to say to Y/N but now that she was standing in front of the Queen, her tongue was tied and her head empty.

Would this be considered treason?

“Your Majesty, I can explain,” she uttered, hands clasped together against her chest.

“What are you doing here?” Y/N asked, her expression hardened. “It was safer in the castle.”

Jo twisted the hem of her jacket as she chewed on her bottom lip and hung her head. “You took Mary,” she said. “You promised me you wouldn’t turn her in, but you brought her here.”

“We weren’t going to turn her in,” Y/N replied calmly.

Jo’s head shot up. “Well, where is she?”

“She’s safe,” Y/N said, her voice soft. She didn’t look like she was about to go to battle, which concerned Jo greatly. She wished she could do something to help, but her being here was already causing trouble to everyone. “We keep her here so she can be safe,” Y/N repeated, emphasising the word. “But you are not safe here. I’ll have someone take you home.”

“I want to stay with Mary,” Jo said fast.

Y/N’s brows furrowed a little. “Jo, don’t be ridiculous.”

Quickly, Jo stepped forward and grabbed Y/N’s hand. “Please let me stay,” she pleaded, looking into Y/N’s eyes. “You wouldn’t let Harry go to battle alone.”

“That’s because I can wield a sword.” Y/N slipped her hand out of Jo’s grip. “You cannot. You’d be dead when the enemies arrive. I’m sorry, Jo. You must leave now. This is an order.”

Jo took Y/N’s hand again before the Queen could turn. “Can I at least see Mary first?”

Y/N parted her lip yet she didn’t say no right away. She spent a moment thinking, then the look on her face softened with sympathy. “Sure.” She exhaled, nodding to a guard. “Follow me,” she said to Jo.

The guard took Jo and Y/N to another tent where they kept Mary. “Hurry up,” Y/N said coldly, not looking at Jo. Jo could tell she was angry and disappointed so she dared not speak, only curtsied to her Queen before she entered.

Mary wasn’t being tied up like she’d imagined. The witch was sitting in a chair. Her face taut with shock and worry when she saw Jo. “What are you doing here?” She jumped to her feet and took Jo’s hands. “This isn’t the place for you, Jo! Does the Queen–”

“She knows. She’s waiting outside,” Jo said. “I was worried they’d turn you in. I was trying to stop them.”

The corners of Mary’s mouth raised despite her furrowed brows. “You idiot,” she chuckled, yet there was sadness in the sound. “It’s safer for everyone when I’m here. They’d attack the castle to look for me. The Queen did the right thing, Jo.”

“I know,” Jo muttered. She’d thought once she’d seen that Mary was unharmed, she’d be at peace. But what she was feeling then was the opposite of peace. Her thoughts were all tangled up together. Even though she wouldn’t be able to help, the thought of leaving Mary here was just too painful.

As if she was able to read minds, Mary released Jo’s hands to cup her face, making Jo flinch, for he wasn’t used to having anyone touch her like this beside Y/N. Mary’s hands were cold and unfamiliar and comforting at the same time. Jo didn’t want her to let go.

“You should go home,” Mary whispered. “You can’t protect yourself.”

“Neither can you.” Jo frowned. “You’re the one they’re after. Not me.”

Mary shook her head. “When they’re here, every life is the same. They’d kill both of us.”

Jo’s stomach knotted. Her fingers were trembling so she wrapped them around Mary’s wrists.

Mary’s expression relaxed with a smile. “But did you really come all the way here for me?”

Jo nodded. “Yes. That was so stupid. I know.”

Mary let out a faint laugh. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t say what for, but Jo already knew. Even though Mary had made a lot of mistakes in the past, Jo believed she wasn’t a bad person. Bad people wouldn’t feel guilty for being bad.

“You are not going to die. I won’t allow it,” Jo said, bringing her forehead to Mary’s.

They both closed their eyes and stood in silence until came Y/N’s voice from the entrance, “It’s time to go, Josephine.”

Jo pulled back, her heart heavy. “Yes, Your Majesty,” she answered.

Mary offered another reassuring smile. “Take care of–”

Not caring what Mary had to say, Jo interrupted her with a passionate kiss, both hands cupping her face. She could tell Mary was in shock at first, then she started kissing back as if it would be their firstand last one. That was the best and worst part.

They broke apart, faces flushed both breathless. “I’ll see you later,” Jo said. Mary squinted her eyes, perhaps wondering why ‘later’ and not ‘goodbye’. Before she could come up with what to say, Jo had already walked out.

.

.

.

The thick mist had begun to burn away.

Y/N was already sweating.

This was happening.

Her whole life had come down to this one moment. Different people were born for different fates. She could not believe this day would decide hers.

With nerves and exertion, she’d riden Thunder here and there to rally and settle and encourage her army before joining the first line of soldiers. On her right was Harry. Lance on her left. There was no sound but the horses’ snorting breaths.

Suddenly, there was a single long blast of trumpet from the distance, and Y/N shifted her attention to the great swampy field. Mist still lay in patches between the two sides, but now the enemies could be seen.

Her heart sank.

There were so many. Their line stretched out as far as she could see; the snorting of their horses was like a rumble from afar. Clouds massed in the north. The first drops of rain started coming down.

Lance, at her side, surveying them, said, “This will be your first battle, Y/N. Do not make it your last.”

Y/N made no answer. In her head, she was praying for them all.

Tension lay thick in the air. In a moment, the mist was gone. The battle was about to begin. A hundred thousand men were about to start killing each other.

Lance let out a shaken breath.

Harry sighed, as though in the most profound grief.

Y/N stood straight, her father’s sword in her hand. She kissed it and lifted it to heaven. “The Gods are on our side!” she called to her men. “To victory! Ride!” And then the men of the North started charging, all screaming in the name of their Queen.

A shout came from the enemy. Y/N leaned forward as Thunder raced across the open field. On either side, the armies were rushing up. Rain was getting heavier, but Y/N wasn’t worried. A disadvantage to one side was a disadvantage to the other.

Thunder and Lightning, light on their feet, cut through the battle faster, but the enemies were closer and it was a race between them. Ears flat to his head, Thunder dodged and sprang and galloped. Isolde’s horses were sturdy beasts, used to running on all surfaces, so the muddy ground didn’t sway them. Wind and rainwater blew into Y/N’s face, almost blinding her, but still she rode with determination. Men everywhere, fighting. Arrows flying from all sides. Harry was riding knee to knee with Y/N, keeping arrows from her while she was doing the same for him.

“The line is wavering,” he said. “We’re going to have to–”

Suddenly, she heard Lance’s voice roaring out over the clash of armies. “Fall back!” he cried.

“Where is he?” asked Y/N in distress. She could hardly see through the rain and mist and the thrash of fighting men. Finally, she spotted Lance, still mounted, dressed in black armour, his sword in his hand. Whooping, he ran a man through, used his white horse’s weight to boost another man out of his saddle. There was blood on his cheek, his arm, his saddle, and the neck of his mare. “Fall back!”

The enemy was advancing. Arrows flew all around. One grazed Y/N’s arm but she barely felt it. “Y/N!” snapped Lance. He looked angry that no one was with her. Harry was busy taking down two Theros soldiers coming at him with spears.

“Protect Her Majesty!” he shouted at the Isolde guards nearby. “All this for nothing if she dies–”

And then Lance’s horse was level with her horse, rearing, forcing another attacker back. His face changed as he leaned over and seized her arm, not minding of her wounds or his. “Where’s Jo? Is she safe?” he asked.

“Yes,” Y/N said. Battle had numbed her.

Lance showed no emotion. Y/N knew he was feeling all sorts of things yet battle had numbed him as it’d done her. He turned to his men again. “Fall back! Join the second line, bring them up!”

It was then that Y/N realised her men were breaking, fleeing, hiding in the second line of battle, which was wavering badly. And Harry was nowhere to be seen.

Lance said, turning to her suddenly, “I haven’t seen Calanthe.”

“I’ll go find her,” she said. “Don’t let Harry die.”

Lance only nodded, turned his horse to keep up with Harry. Y/N’s heart ached when she saw Harry fighting on Lightning’s back. There was mud on his face and blood. A long scratch married the neck of his mare. She pushed away the intention to help him. Lance would do that. She had to do her part.

Quickly, she turned Thunder and cut through the advancing line of enemy in search of Calanthe. Rain was beating down on them. Y/N’s nose was full of the smell of earth and rot and dried blood. The whole scene was illuminated luridly by a flash of lightning.

She found Calanthe standing on a rise, safe and sound, watching the battlefield like a spectator of a show. Vossler was standing by her side, amused by the death of the enemy and his own people. Y/N was charging toward them when a man on a tall red horse rode out to stop her. Suddenly came a black shadow on a white horse riding knee to knee with her.

“What are you doing?” she shouted at Lance. He did not speak. Y/N felt her heartbeat strangling-fast in her throat.

The man didn’t slow down, probably thinking he could take down both of them. His horse threw great arcs of mud with each stride as he dipped in the last moment to catch Y/N in the breastbone. Her blade deflected the full force of the blow. Her sword came down with a clang on his spear.

Then came another Theros soldier, and Lance was too busy fighting him off to help Y/N. She could not help but worry for Lance. Where was he? She could hear the ringing of their swords despite being in the middle of chaos. She tried to locate him, but was unable to do that while wheeling her horse and striking and feinting this man who was keeping her from coming for Calanthe and Vossler. She had blood on her face and she could taste it. Not sure whose blood it was.

Suddenly, Lance cried out. Y/N’s heart was in her throat, but she couldn’t help him. Nor would she. She’d promised him that she would mind her own business. He would be fine. He’d promised.

The flying dirt stung her face as she parried another thrust and scored a strike along the man’s ribs, cutting him open. Blood splashed as he was thrown off the saddle. Even from the distance, Y/N could make out the frightened look on Calanthe’s pale face. Meanwhile, Vossler showed no emotion as he studied Y/N’s every move. A corner of his thin mouth lifted. He was smiling.

Y/N turned her head to another cry, this time, finding Lance on the muddy ground. He had fallen off his horse.

No!

She raced towards him.

He was too near yet too far.

There were bodies lying in the way. She could not get there fast enough. She felt a spark of hope as he pushed himself up.

Yes, Lance, stand up.

He stood straight, gripping his bloody sword. She saw him look around as though to call for his horse.

Except that he didn’t.

And that was when Y/N saw it. A blade going right through his black armour.

“No!”

Lance turned as though he could hear her. He fell to his knees. Y/N screamed. She did not know such a sound was in her. She had stopped thinking of victory. The world was silent for that one second and all she could hear was her violent heartbeats and the heart-wrenching scream of his name. She kicked Thunder into a gallop and jumped right off the stallion’s back into the mud. The man who’d wounded Lance was dead, facedown in the black water. Y/N had no thought to spare for him. Her throat closed in when she watched Lance, still kneeling, shake violently as the blood spilled from his lips.

She caught him right before he fell back. He looked up, his eyelids fluttered. “Y/N.”

“Shh,” she told him, holding him to her chest. “Don’t talk.”

“I am sorry. I meant to live. I did.”

“You’re going to live. Get on the horse,” Y/N said through the tears as Thunder silently knelt in the mud, shielding her from harm. The ground shook from the thunder of two armies, but Y/N felt like there were just them in this moment. Lance could not sit upright but slumped deadweight. Nobody was coming for her. They didn’t want to kill her now even though they could. They wanted her to suffer, just not simply in the way she’d imagined. She could feel Vossler watching with his satisfactory smirk. He knew he was winning.

Trying to control her voice, she said, “We’ll take you to the lake. We’ll take you to the lake. It’ll heal you.”

“Y/N.”

“You’re going to be okay. It’s just a tiny wound.”

Lance chuckled slightly, then came the smirk that she used to hate as he shook his head. “This is not a fairytale, Y/N. Guard this land. Win.”

She stared at him. Wild thoughts darted through her brain.

“I’ll see you again,” he whispered and lifted his hand to graze his thumb across her cheek.

“Promise?” she asked, her voice breaking.

“Promise,” he said and smiled suddenly.

She nodded, unable to speak. She knew her face was crumbling as she embraced him and felt him slipping away in her arms. She did not know how long she wept while the battle raged on. The sound only flooded back in when she felt a presence behind her and looked over her shoulder to see Harry.

He slid from the back of his horse and gazed down at her. She had no words for him, and he knew that gentle speech or a soft touch would have shattered her so he offered neither. He reached out a hand, still smeared with blood and his own. She grabbed it and got to her feet, tumbled back, and bowed over Lance's unmarked body. Her soul was now full of restless violence. She could not bring Lance back. But the thing they had both wanted, she could do.

“Where’s Vossler?” Y/N asked, fuming with rage. Vossler and Calanthe weren’t standing on the rise anymore. They’d either escaped or joined the army. Y/N doubted it was the latter.

“Doesn’t matter. We must win this battle first,” Harry said. All around the wind shrieked. The cry of a storm. They mounted their horses together and wheeled and galloped back to the battle.

.

.

.

Hour by bloody hour, and Y/N did not know how long it had been. Hours? Days?

It was only when a voice shook her that she was brought back to herself. “Peach,” Harry said. “It is over. They are fleeing.”

It seemed as though a haze fell from Y/N’s sight. She looked around and all around she saw only her own men.

Lance, we won.

The wind had dropped. Steadily, snow began to fall.

Snow? At the border?

How?

Not only Y/N, but every standing soldier was looking up, appalled by the scanty flakes drifting down from the sky. A chill wind raced through the field as the falling snow, slowly, thickly, silently, covered dead enemies and dead friends alike.

The cold that touched Y/N’s cheek caused her to flinch. She turned to Harry. “Where’s Vossler and Calanthe?”

Harry couldn’t answer.

A guard rushed up to them on his horse. “The Monks and the Theros Queen are heading to our camps, Your Majesty.”

“Mary,” Y/N said. “They want the witch.”

But why?

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Hey, I saw your post about a head canon world where Lotor becomes the black Paladin, and it made me wonder how you feel about a different head canon, one that I personally don’t really have but find very interesting- the head canon of Lotor as a Blade of Marmora agent. How do you think that would change the plot of Voltron, and what do you think would happen with that? Just curious.

P.S. When’s the next chapter of Adrenaline Rush coming out? I love it so much and I’m at the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens-

Hi, anon. Thanks for the note! I’ve definitely thought about Lotor as a Blade before, and a while back last year, I posted a little drabble called The Awakening introducing that plot bunny. You can read it here as well as access links for other BOM Lotor stories! 

Outside of that drabble, I do think transitioning Lotor to be a Blade pretty heavily shifts VLD. There’s probably a million interesting ways a person could write such a VLD AU, but I guess my initial thoughts would be something like this (heads up, this is a monster outline for a whole series rewrite):

After the disastrous end of the mining colony, Zarkon doesn’t just exile Lotor. He imprisons Lotor with the idea that Lotor either submit to “remedial training” or death.  

When Lotor chooses death over kneeling before his father again, the Blades are convinced that Lotor is in fact truly different from Zarkon. Kolivan moves in to save him, offering him a secondary life in the shadows as an operative.

Lotor rises to the rank of Lieutenant within the BOM and helps establish a surviving Altean colony. In doing so, he discovers the legends of Oriande. He spends his time convincing the Blades that there is deeper knowledge of the universe they could use to defeat Zarkon and his witch.

The Blades share that they are aware at least Blue Lion survived the destruction of Altea, and they suspect that more Lions still exist. Kolivan orders Lotor to stand down from pursuing Oriande in favor of uncovering the location of the remaining lions.

Lotor ends up working with Krolia to better understand how she came to find the Blue Lion on Earth. He grows to see her as something of a mother figure or role model and is aware that she had to leave behind a mixed-race son of her own to ensure the war would never reach Keith.  

Lotor warns that the pull to know one’s own heritage is significant, and that her half-human son will likely go to dangerous lengths to know the truth, especially if his more Galran attributes arise.

Krolia assures that her son’s father would keep the truth a secret and that Keith had no known signs of Galran blood.

Krolia missed that her son could sense things a normal human couldn’t.

All of that would be background information to be revealed in time.

VLD s1 would still pick up with Keith sensing the energy of the Blue Lion.

Lotor has by this time identified the location of the Red Lion, also following legends of a Lion Goddess upon Arus to suspect that perhaps more may exist on that planet. But Sendak has also picked up coordinates for the Red Lion. 

Kolivan orders Lotor to stay hidden and send out squadrons to extract Red Lion, only for the extraction to fail and for the Red Lion to fall officially into Sendak’s hands.

At this time, Shiro crash-lands back on Earth. Sendak’s squadrons were also trailing his escape. The witch Haggar turns her eye to Earth and senses ancient power—the Blue Lion.

Kolivan is at a crossroads to determine next best steps. Lotor convinces him that it’s better to let Red Lion go temporarily than to lose even more to Sendak. Lotor argues that an elite squadron be sent to Earth to extract Blue Lion, and that he receive approval to pursue his lead for a possible lion on Arus.

Kolivan approves Lotor’s plan and realigns assets to Earth and to Lotor’s extraction team. Some Blades on Lotor’s extraction team are in fact Alteans and other survivors of other planets they have rescued over the years. Backup teams suit up for battle.

Krolia volunteers to lead the Earth squadron. She fears that her son and his people may be in danger.

Hunk, Pidge, and Lance follow Keith and Shiro to the Blue Lion. But at this time, the Galra have already discovered the Blue Lion. Krolia is desperately attempting to fend them off, but the Galra had taken out several of her squadron members, and she herself is injured.

The Galaxy Garrison recognizes that alien squadrons have landed on Earth, endangering several cities with their warfare. In fear that Earth is under invasion, they activate various militarized assets to contain the problem and capture any aliens, dead or alive.

Keith, Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance all panic, realizing they’re about to be caught in an alien war, the firepower of their trigger-happy superiors, and the biggest national security breach in human history. 

Krolia meanwhile, desperate, tosses some weapons over to the humans and begs for their help. She tells them that keeping this Blue Lion out of the hands of Emperor Zarkon is imperative to universal safety.

Keith and Shiro move in to assist Krolia. Pidge is trying to contact Galaxy Garrison about the situation, panicking in an attempt to explain that not everyone in the fire zone is an enemy. Hunk is hesitantly like, “Is this a real thing? Am I actually seeing aliens right now? Omg, is this actually a weapon? I don’t think I’m trained for this!” And Lance meanwhile is distracted. He’s sensing Blue Lion, and it’s responding to him, because out of everyone, he’s the only with the tenacity to actually get in this thing and fly it out of harm’s way.

Shiro realizes if they don’t get Krolia and her team out, the Garrison might not be so kind to her either. Once he sees Lance is able to operate controls, he agrees best thing to do is to get Blue Lion off Earth entirely.

The instant Krolia gets a good look at Keith, she realizes that he is her son and panics when she realizes she willingly begged for this boy to get involved in the battle.

Long story short, the future paladins + Krolia and the surviving Blades operatives escape through a wormhole using Blue Lion, which takes them back to the Castle of Lions on Arus. They narrowly escape both death at the hands of Galra and capture by Galaxy Garrison.

Galaxy Garrison is blaring alarms that Earth has experienced what appears to be its first true alien invasion. It recognizes that several cadets were caught up in the crossfire. They assume those cadets and Shiro to be Missing In Action and feared dead. Earth leaders convene to discuss defense strategies, in fear that this will not be the end.

Meanwhile, Lotor has already landed on Planet Arus with his team. But he soon realizes that this isn’t just the location of the Castle of Lions—it’s also housing the Black Lion’s energy force and the long-lost Princess Allura, the “Lion Goddess” that Arusians had seen through the glass of her pod.

Lotor makes the decision to wake up the princess and her Altean advisor, Coran. In fear that he would scare them as a Galran, he keeps his face mask on. He begs the princess to fly the ship to safety, as he does not know how to use a teladuv but understands what they are.

Princess Allura is very confused for a time, demanding to know who he is and what exactly is going on.

Sendak hears from Haggar that she senses new energy on Arus.

Lotor is distracted, attempting to reach Krolia and strategize a full, double-wormhole back to BOM headquarters with the Castle and Blue Lion in tow. The fight on Earth temporarily distracted Sendak, but with Blue Lion gone, Sendak is now racing his way back to the Castle’s position. Time is very limited.

Lotor stumbles a bit at the sight of Allura, who is very beautiful.

Coran is flailing about that Alfor’s plan to hide the lions is ruined—

At this time, the paladins + Krolia and team land on Arus via wormhole.

Keith is helping his mother to rush into the Castle of Lions for cover, as she is still injured.

Princess Allura is beginning to realize that Altea had been completely destroyed, and she is very distraught that Emperor Zarkon has become an unstoppable tyrant, killing and enslaving millions. 

Lotor kneels down beside her and convinces her that if she can operate the castle for just a very short time, then they can save the entire galaxy and take back a Lion from Zarkon, together.

The princess senses his goodwill and agrees, pulling herself together. She admits she knows where the other lions are, as Alfor had tied her life-force to all of the Lions.

Allura is surprised to realize that Blue Lion is just outside.

Lotor’s squadron guides the paladins and company into the heart of the Castle. Princess Allura is surprised again to discover that a human named Lance had bonded with the Blue Lion so easily. She begins to search out the bond ties of the other lions and realizes they are attempting to sort through options for new paladins.

Allura helps Keith with placing Krolia in a healing pod. She senses the energy between them is quite similar, and that they are perhaps related.

The Blue Lion and other Lions communicate to Allura that they need a fresh team that can function as one immediately. A team with new perspectives, a desire to protect, and without the painful history or conflicts of interest that resulted in Alfor’s leniency with Zarkon. They hone in on the humans, and Allura sees their auras as clearly aligned with their respective lions.

She communicates to the larger team that they are in desperate need of paladins for the other lions—and that the lions have chosen these humans who were willing to defend Blue and their home world.

Lotor hesitates, having had plans for those lions that didn’t involve humans. But he acknowledges that alchemical magic is above his understanding. He glances over at Keith, catching that his scent is similar to Krolia’s—and that his prophecy of a family reunion has come true in the strangest of ways.

Princess Allura quickly sets to revealing the location of the other lions and activating wormholes for them to retrieve them.

Meanwhile, the Castle has experienced 10,000 years of rust and degradation of lesser systems. Coran and Lotor team up to fix the particle barrier, anticipating that they may need to provide backup for the new paladins. Coran and Lotor bicker over many things, and Coran warns that he can see Lotor making cow eyes at the princess even beneath his mask. Lotor vehemently denies it.

Krolia, stubbornly moving her way out of a healing pod, pleads with Allura that Keith not be chosen to pilot Red Lion—that he might find a way to go back and be safe with his father.

Allura apologizes that she is not in control of the lions and that they choose their paladins. “If Red Lion chose your son, it is because Keith can save the universe. That it’s his destiny to be a part of this fight with us.” But Allura is unsettled too, as she’s actively trying to test systems with Coran and this mysterious, masked Blade whose name she doesn’t even know yet, except that his title is Lieutenant. Meanwhile, she’s also trying to keep the wormholes open for the paladins.

The new paladins return in time for the arrival of Sendak, who still has Red Lion in his grasp.

The newly minted Team Voltron make a stand with the lions they have available to reclaim Red Lion and activate Black Lion.

The BOM forces assist in the overtake and attempt to suppress the battle from affecting locals on the planet of Arus.

Lotor realizes that Keith is in significant trouble, as Sendak is moving in protect Red Lion himself. Lotor runs to activate his own ship as backup, knowing Sendak’s fighting weaknesses.

The battle ends up with Keith struggling to connect with Red Lion while Lotor fights off Sendak.

Sendak manages to knock Lotor’s face mask loose and startles in surprise to see Zarkon’s supposedly dead son.

Lotor uses the moment of surprise to critically injure Sendak, escaping up to the Red Lion that Keith has taken command of.

All lions and teams retreat back to the Castle of Lions, which wormholes out before Sendak’s forces can catch them.

Sendak haltingly conveys to Emperor Zarkon that his son yet lives, fighting in the armor of an unknown rebel group.

Zarkon whips into a rage that his darkest shame is still alive and fighting against him.

The witch, Haggar, promises to end Lotor’s life once and for all, and to reclaim the lions for Zarkon’s glory.

Team Voltron meanwhile celebrates their first win in a panic-relief that they were able to form Voltron.

Various Blade operatives take off their masks. Some are revealed to be Alteans, including a grown Bandor and Romelle who were rescued long ago and now fight as part of Lotor’s squadron. Princess Allura and Coran are comforted greatly to know that many Alteans yet live, and that there is a colony where juniberries grow too. 

Princess Allura still wants to know who the mysterious Lieutenant is who woke her up and managed to fight off Sendak.

Bandor, a big Lotor fan, nearly breaks the truth that “Lieutenant Lotor is—” and Romelle nudges him to be quiet, interjecting that their lieutenant is a very private person and that no one knows much about him.

Meanwhile, Kolivan is incredibly unhappy that Lotor has revealed himself on an active battle field.

Lotor argues that he did it to protect Krolia’s son, who was chosen to be the paladin of Red Lion—and isn’t that the more important objective?

Kolivan reassigns Krolia immediately to ensure that her ties to Keith do not interfere with Keith’s new mission. Keith still doesn’t know Krolia is his mother.

Kolivan then grounds Lotor from engaging in an active battle again, and admits that it is best if Lotor remain with Team Voltron in his own stylized armor. 

Lotor asks if this is a demotion for insubordination.

Kolivan hesitates and says it’s possibly a promotion, if he can help to keep these human children alive long enough to save the universe. If all goes well, then the Blades will back Lotor’s bid at the resulting Kral Zera after Zarkon’s defeat.

Lotor hesitates, then adds, “And my secondary mission, to search for Oriande?”

“…Approved.”

Lotor then asks if it’s in fact cruel to hide from Keith that Krolia is his mother, but Kolivan convinces him that sometimes, the consequences of knowing outweigh the consequences of ignorance.

Kolivan knows that Haggar is Lotor’s true mother, but corrupted.

He fears what Lotor might do with that information.

Lotor, meanwhile, designs new armor for himself that is separate from that of the Blades.

He appears to Princess Allura, offering to help train the new paladins in the art of war if she can assist them with the spiritual aspects of connecting with Voltron.

Princess Allura accepts, but corrects him to say that she knows quite a bit about the art of war, thank you very much.  

He searches her curiously and asks to see what she can do—as it is imperative she remain battle-ready herself.

The princess very casually grabs for his own sword and holds it to his throat, in a challenge for a duel.

Lotor’s lips split wide in a smile of delight. He likes this princess and her spirit.

He discovers that the princess really can hold her own, and it’s at that point he realizes he will struggle to remain objective about her in his missions.

Allura is not entirely unaffected either, fighting to maintain a level of professionalism around him.

At some point, Lotor’s cat Kova sneaks in from Lotor’s ship to the Castle of Lions. Kova is a lazy, happy cat who likes to hold a mouse in his mouth but doesn’t actually try to eat it. Princess Allura’s mice get used to be carried around in this way. Chulatt often rides atop Kova’s head.

Kova is something of a therapy cat for the whole team. He likes lots of scritches and the way Pidge rubs his belly. He often steals Hunk’s burritos and sleeps on Allura’s comfy pillow when she is busy. 

Dayak, Lotor’s old governess, hears through the grapevine of Galra High Command that Lotor is in fact still alive. Kolivan and other Blade operatives track her, debating if she could possibly be turned to their side. They believe she can be a very valuable asset for future missions. 

Meanwhile, it’s been a long time since Lotor had to train children.

The Castle of Lions still ends up with everyone in a food goo fight at least twice.

Shiro is suffering significant PTSD, and the reality is that this is something Lotor fights as well from his time under his father’s command. He tries to help when he can and forms a deep bond with Shiro too.

Lotor mother-hens the paladins because he made a promise to Krolia that he would keep her child safe, but soon, they all worm their way into his heart. He feels very protective of them, and of the princess, who has not yet had the opportunity even to see the colony of her people, safely tucked away in the Quantum Abyss.

Lotor activates Romelle and Bandor for their assistance in tracking down leads on the existence of Oriande or other helpful relics worth having or keeping out of the witch’s hands. Allura argues that Oriande is just a fairy tale, and Lotor argues in return that Alfor simply had to have advanced knowledge to build Voltron as he did. He begs Allura to at least be open to the possibility that more exists about Altean heritage than she ever thought possible.

Allura pauses, then quietly confesses that she is quite sure she’ll never be the alchemist her father was. That he had a gift no one else had ever seen.

Lotor grows impassioned to say that neither of them have to be limited by what their fathers did or accomplished. That they can be so much more, something different—he can feel it. He gets a little too close in saying this. Coran jumps in, noticing that Lotor’s usual strong command of Altean etiquette slips when around Allura.

In thanks for listening, Allura leaves a little juniberry flower for Lotor.

He spins it in his fingers, face in a flush over what it could mean. But he tries to stifle his emotions, knowing that the Princess of Altea would not accept an exiled son of Zarkon in such a way. 

Occasionally, Lotor feels like Black Lion is watching him. He can’t tell if it’s because he’s paranoid, or if it’s because Black Lion actually knows his true parentage. He struggles to be in the same space as it, often unsettled.

Princess Allura and Shiro both notice this.

Meanwhile, Haggar uses a significant barrage of robeasts to distract Voltron while she completes building the Komar and perfecting other means of quintessence manipulation.

Haggar convinces Zarkon that Lotor is better to them alive than dead, and that if they could simply capture him again for a short time, she could turn him into Zarkon’s most loyal soldier, and undo Voltron’s advantages from the inside out.

Zarkon hesitantly approves. He demands that Lotor still be killed immediately upon fulfilling such a role, as Lotor would no doubt attempt to dethrone him.

Meanwhile, Princess Allura often catches Lotor reading up voraciously in the library of the Castle of Lions while the paladins complete their assigned training. At first, she thinks this activity has to do with Lotor’s fixation on the legend of Oriande. But then she catches him reading a book about Altean cuisines and asking for Hunk’s help in reproducing them—and she starts to suspect that Lotor’s not entirely Galran.

Occasionally, Lotor assists in BOM side-work, whether it’s breaking from the paladins to assist on an Oriande lead or helping Kolivan to unravel Galran records and codes.

Lotor has incredibly strong opinions about modulation.

Lotor is also very good at acting as a representative while Earth flails over getting in contact with its lost cadets and aliens. 

He remains in communication with Krolia often, reporting on Keith’s progress. But Keith is starting to ask questions as well, about how the dagger he found in his father’s stuff one day has the same exact symbol as that of the Blades.

Krolia helps to continue funnel lost people of mixed heritage toward the Blades. As Team Voltron grows more confident in their abilities, Lotor is called away to help train new recruits named Acxa, Zethrid, Narti, and Ezor.

Keith joins along briefly because he wants to learn more about the Blades themselves and why his father would have a Blade dagger.

Lotor discusses Keith’s application for the Blades with Shiro, who tentatively agrees that training with the Blades could be a good way to start ramping Keith up with leadership skills and advanced tactical knowledge. Lotor agrees that the boy is more capable than what his mother would allow him to be.

Shiro was trained to always have a line of command in place in case someone falls. He knows he could very well fall, and Keith as his right-hand is the most worthy in the group to take on the mantle of Black Lion in that case.

Lotor and the Blades agree to train Keith as a Blade, in preparation for a future where Shiro might not be able to fulfill his duties.

Keith sees this as a serious honor and doesn’t want to screw it up.

Meanwhile, Princess Allura discovers a journal from her father, with one of the final notes mentioning that Zarkon had declared he was to have a son soon, and that his chosen name would be Lotor—his day of birth to be on the fourth quintant of the 11th phoebe.

Allura shakily realizes that Lotor’s eyes are Zarkon’s eyes even if they are blue. She keeps her discovery to herself, in surprise that Lotor had so firmly denied his father, and out of respect that he has not willingly shared this history. 

Meanwhile, Lotor keeps eyeing the Black Lion, then Shiro, wondering exactly why Shiro is so insistent about a replacement.

Shiro hesitantly admits that Black Lion has started sending him visions—that something is wrong on the astral plane, and that it will likely take everything Shiro has to burn it out.  

Lotor, fearful, goes to Allura and demands to understand more about the Black Lion, admitting that he’s felt watched by it.

Allura hesitates to admit the old history that Black Lion was once piloted by Zarkon, but that it should not be affecting Shiro’s connection with the lion…unless Zarkon were still somehow connected.

Lotor recalls that Shiro was missing his bayard—that this could be significant if it were still in Zarkon’s hands.

Cue a wild crash of shenanigans involving Haggar crashing in with Komar to drain Voltron while Zarkon attacks the Black Lion to take it over, while various forces of Sendak hone in on Lotor as an asset to capture for Haggar’s experimentation.

In the insanity, Lotor is captured.

Princess Allura, fearful that her team is breaking apart, unleashes a level of alchemical power that digs deep into her connection with Voltron and far outpaces any retaliation Haggar was expecting.

The Komar powers down, and Zarkon loses his connection to Black Lion, with Shiro overpowering him.

Haggar digs deep into Lotor’s mind, attempting to plant a dark entity within him. She extracts memories of his attempts to find Oriande.

Lotor might not have magical abilities, but his cheeks begin to glow with his Altean marks as he concentrates deeply on Blade and Altean practices for preserving the mind. But Haggar is relentless, and evermore curious about his marks.

He realizes he might have to die to protect Oriande and Team Voltron, in the way some Blades have gone before to protect the whole.

His fears do not pan out, as Team Voltron and Allura rescue Lotor from imprisonment, with help from the Blades. Allura is carrying Lotor out as the paladins provide cover. Zarkon is roaring that he will ensure his son dies the worst death possible for his treason.

Lotor is genuinely shaken for the first time since the Blades recovered him from Zarkon all those years ago. His secret is out for the whole of Team Voltron. Allura tries to comfort him that it’s alright, and that they would never leave him behind.

He looks up, and Allura confirms that she knows and accepted that he’s a son of Zarkon a long time ago, and that if he ever tries to kill himself again, she’ll kill him herself. She embraces him.

He as an emotional moment because she is the first outside the Blades to accept him upon discovering his parentage.

Meanwhile, Shiro regains the black bayard in a sneaky trick beneath Zarkon’s nose, cutting off any of Zarkon’s remaining connection to Black Lion. But the team discovers in their retreat that Haggar has all the pure quintessence it’d harvested from Voltron—and that she hasn’t used it yet. Pidge also had hacked into the mainframe to discover that the Galra had located a transreallity comet.  

During the breach into Zarkon’s flagship, Bandor and Romelle stole what they could of Haggar’s things, to keep power out of her hands. They grabbed a strange stone as part of their loot.

Cue another stream of shenanigans where Team Voltron attempts to keep the comet out of Galran hands unsuccessfully. But in the midst of that defeat, Allura and Lotor discover that the item found by Bandor and Romelle provides a map directly to Oriande.

Plot twist that Haggar had still managed to possess at least Kova and use his eyes to access insight into Team Voltron’s movements. She sees Oriande’s location and leaves for it immediately.

It’s Narti who senses something is deeply wrong with Kova and tries to alert the team.

They realize too late that Haggar has probably already reached Oriande.

They desperately wormhole to reach it, while keep Kova locked up, which is a painful thing for Lotor but necessary. Allura promises that she’ll help find a way to purge Kova of Haggar’s influence.

Lotor’s Altean marks light up just as Allura’s do as they reach Oriande.

Upon arriving at Oriande, the landscape has been corrupted entirely by Haggar. Its defense systems had degenerated over the years since no one had visited in over 10,000 years to bond with the larger life force keeping it intact. Because Haggar infused it with her own life force, it took on her personality and interests.

The White Lion is glitchy, sending both Lotor and Allura in circles around the island.

Allura and Lotor both see unnatural visions and experience harrowing dangers in an attempt to reach the summit with the temple. 

Allura isn’t sure that she can gain anything from Oriande if it is so truly corrupt by Haggar. Lotor tells her that he trusts her ability to see through all things, and to discover something that could end the witch’s reign.

Oriande is haunted by phantom beasts.

Lotor chooses to remain behind to fight off those beasts while Allura climbs into the decayed temple and completes the mission. The glitchy white lion is watching him and struggles in some way to assist Lotor before its power wanes. Lotor mourns its loss as a valuable fighting partner, even if it glitched at odd times.

Allura discovers the art of healing and of infusing objects with power, but she also discovers that at the heart of Oriande, Haggar had left an imprint of some of her own self behind.

Allura realizes with a startle that she sees some of Honerva of Altea’s own memories mixed in with Haggar’s imprint. She realizes quickly that Honerva was Lotor’s true mother, 10,000 years ago.

Meanwhile, Krolia has appeared alongside various other squadrons of the Blades, in an attempt to help Voltron hold off increasing numbers of Galran forces from attempting to enter the white hole entrance of Oriande, which has gone dark.

Krolia sees Red Lion take a critical hit. She breaks rank to place herself directly in front of Keith, to protect him while he recalibrates.

In doing so, she reveals that she is so proud of what he’s capable of doing—but that he still needs to learn to watch his six.

Keith is surprised for a few ticks, but then moves to help protect Krolia too, saying that he has a lot of questions when this battle is over, like why she mothers over him so much.

Krolia cannot believe her son is actually this oblivious since she’s been trying to send him messages that she is his mother, but she agrees to talk.

Haggar has at this time returned to Zarkon’s flagship, infusing it with alchemy and the pure quintessence, coaxing the transreality comet to do her bidding to melt into molten ore and cover the flagship. This converts it to a massive transreality mecha, with Zarkon at the helm.  

Voltron is at a disadvantage against the much larger, much stronger mecha.

Allura, in a last-ditch desperation, drops her hand to Oriande and activates its stone, begging Oriande to respond to her need for a second defender. The temples begin to adjust. She realizes that because Lotor had subconsciously infused part of himself in Oriande too, the resulting mecha is actually of his own design—Sincline.

The interface is slightly glitchy from Haggar, and Lotor affectionately calls it the White Lion, sensing that his friend is still somewhere in the stone. And even deeper, he senses the memories of all the Alteans who’d infused their lives into stone—resulting in him feeling a few uncorrupted memories from Honerva, before she became Haggar.

He isn’t quite sure what to do with that, but shoves the emotions down for now.

Allura and Lotor pilot the mecha out of Oriande. Because the stones are connected to the Life Givers and the Ones Who Came Before, it is interdimensional in a way the other mechas are not, even if it cannot take a heavy hit. Their addition levels the playing field

Zarkon accesses the quintessence field, discovering he can do so, and Voltron quickly follows behind.

Lotor and Allura follow to stabilize the rift before it can upset the space-time continuum, calling upon the Life Givers for help in holding the threads of the universe together.

Team Voltron manages to successfully beat back Zarkon within the quintessence field, with Allura and Lotor using Zarkon’s own energy against him in a moment of distraction.

The distraction happens because the rift creatures possessing him realize that they are back in their natural universe.

The rift creatures call in their buddies, who begin to cannibalize the great source of power in Zarkon’s mecha.

The paladins take the opportunity to fry Zarkon out of existence, taking a large chunk of rift creatures with him.

Meanwhile, Haggar is on a small ship trying to escape in the regular universe, slipping between Galran factions and Blade squadrons.

Team Voltron return and pick her up before she can run away.

The battle ceases without Zarkon to provide orders—Sendak orders a full retreat upon seeing Voltron return without Zarkon.

Post-battle, Allura performs something completely novel with quintessence. After being in the rift, she realizes she can see different motivations within quintessence. In doing so, she searches out Kova and purifies his mind of dark alchemy. Then she goes to the imprisoned Haggar and purifies out the rift creatures possessing her, who disappear on the material plane the instant they are outside a host body.

Honerva wakes up, fully confused and largely unaware of what she’s done or how much time has passed. She is very convinced that she should be pregnant with a son named Lotor, and that she needs quintessence to stabilize her pregnancy.

It takes Honerva quite some time to realize that it’s been 10,000 years, and a grown Blade named Lotor is in fact her true son.

Lotor is very hesitant with her but sees she was not in control as Haggar. He still can’t look at her. Honerva promises to find some way to make up for her past.

Allura gets to see the Altean colony, returning Honerva to it in hopes that maybe a larger group and some normality could help her recalibrate and reconnect somehow. Bandor oddly takes pity on her, his parents having died long ago. Lotor cautions to Romelle to keep an eye out on his mother, and Romelle promises she will do so.

Allura works with several others to heal and rebuild Oriande to its former glory, as a place of open learning for any who have a deep enough spiritual connection with reality to grasp its secrets. She realizes that most things in Oriande appear as gibberish otherwise to the unmagical.

The Blades and Team Voltron back Lotor for the Kral Zera, and Lotor becomes Emperor.

The human paladins get to go home and celebrate that everything is okay now. Their voices make the human governments stand down from actively firing on alien ships.

Lotor disbands his father’s enslaved planets from the empire, offering reparations and working with Kolivan, the Blades, and Team Voltron to provide assistance to those planets as they rebuild.

Some Galra remember Lotor mostly as a traitor to his father and a bad overseer of a mining colony. The Fires of Purification rise, in time with increasing concerns over how the Galra will sustain its reliance on quintessence without conquering and enslaving.

Princess Allura—now crowned Queen of the New Altean Colony—works on the strange, quite sentient Sincline mecha that she and Lotor had built. She removes any glitch left over from Haggar’s influence on Oriande and realizes that she has a mobile, self-protecting entity that is a direct connection to the Life Givers.

Allura makes a deal with the Life Givers through the Sincline mecha, that it will open the rift twice a movement for the leader of any planet, so that quintessence can be collected from the rift. In exchange, it would have the right to judge the heart of the leader and enact justice against any who abused such a position. And that its older sibling, Voltron, would continue to ensure that no one else abuse the power either in a way that would harm others.

The mecha agrees to the condition on the astral plane. Voltron softly chimes in, agreeing as well.

Lotor approaches as the first leader to test this new system. He tears up when he hears the voices of the Life Givers sing to him through Sincline and offer him a well of quintessence for his people. They ask that he one day return to Oriande so that they can embrace him.

The Galra grow to accept Lotor and his strange ways of doing things.

Lotor finds himself oddly in the same position that began his entire journey—leaning on Kolivan for guidance. But Kolivan is no longer his only ally in a sea of enemies. As a matter of fact, Lotor has deepened several bonds and made many friends.

Lotor goes to Allura and says they make a pretty good team, and that he’s feeling cute, how about they marry.

Allura says yes.

The paladins cry happily at their wedding, and for once in 10,000 years, the galaxy is united and at peace.

Dayak reappears in time for the wedding, and Kolivan reveals that she had been giving the Blades tips for how to operate in the background to get around Zarkon’s defenses, and that she had even been instrumental in Shiro retrieving the black bayard from Zarkon.

Dayak is emotional about seeing Lotor again after all this time.

She’s not the only one.

Kolivan’s eyes are twitching during the ceremony. He’s fond and protective of his operatives, but there is a lot of space dust in the air as he watches Lotor marry, remembering that fateful day he’d saved Lotor from imminent death.

Lotor one day tries to give his BOM dagger back to Kolivan, recognizing that he has not been in the field for a long time—and that managing a planet and helping with New Altea is quite a lot of work.

Kolivan gently presses the dagger hilt back into Lotor’s hand. “Once a Blade, always a Blade.”

Lotor tears up because Kolivan is probably the closest he has come to a true father figure.

Somewhere, Coran is still crying of space dust, and the paladins crash the scene to demand a beach party. Because once Team Voltron, always Team Voltron.

Krolia and Kolivan are watching over the group. 

There are gratuitous laugh scenes with two mechas standing guard in the distance, gleaming in the sunlight.  

The end!

(Ahhh yeah, so this was yet another unexpected and extensive rewrite of VLD, loll. I hope these long outlines don’t bother anyone asdljfsa. But I enjoyed the ask, thank you for the prompt! Also I’m still steadily trying to work on Adrenaline Rush in the background. For some reason, I’m just having some writer’s block with it. I hope to update it soon, though!)

[cacophony-eg]

What if Haggar had no control over Kuron (Kuro)?

This one question started many other questions like What if Shiro didn’t Die? What if Lotor passed the White Lion Test? What if Lotor’s Colony of Altean’s didn’t exist? How all these things could happen in (mostly) the same universe?

First Lets Start with “what if Haggar had no control over Kuron?”

Kuron’s escape was an accident, also Kuron wouldn’t have any memories past his time as a gladiator.

(Cause sorry the fact that his memories were up to date made no sense to me. Because going by the show’s canon Shiro was gone, he died there was nothing left of him. Then given this as fact, how would they have gotten all of Shiro’s memories?

Haggar had shown no ability to see through or control the original Shiro, so there would be no way to have Kuron’s memories or the other clones memories up to date after original Shiro’s escape.)

Kuron would have no idea he was part of Voltron, have no memory of piloting the black lion.

During his escape, he still runs into Varkala and Remdax, whom Kuron has to convince that he is not a spy, that he’s just escaped from one of their labs. Once Kuron helps the two not so coordinative rebels against a Galra attack there wholeheartedly trust Kuron, though they keep saying they’re going to keep an eye on him.

Eventually, Varkala and Remdax catch an old broadcast from the Olkari looking for a male human. The two are like ‘hey we got one of those’ and they have to convince Shiro that it’s okay to contact the Okari about him and tell Shiro about Voltron. Explain how Voltron is fighting the oppression of the Galra, and how Voltron’s a force for good. They explain that most of the Voltron lions are piloted by humans. (and make a side note that it used to be piloted by all humans but something happened to one of them, though neither could remember what happened.)

Vakala gets in contact with the Olkari saying they have a human male on at their station, but their connection is so static and weak that the only thing the Olkari can confirm is that their’s a human male with them, and relay that information to the Voltron crew.

Pidge is the one to go investigate thinking it might be Matt, and to her shock she finds Shiro. Kuron introducing himself to the green paladin as if they have never met before. This confuses Pidge a great deal.

“Shiro don’t you recognize me?” Pidge asks taking off her helmet and Shiro nearly has a panic attack thinking she was Matt for a moment before he realizes the height and her voice is completely wrong.

“Katie?” Shiro says shocked, and they both tightly hug each other, both almost crying as Kuron starts apologizing for not being able to protect her brother and Father. As she assures him it’s alright that she knows.

Vakala asks Remdax if he thinks that little person was Shiro’s family or if all humans greet each other this way? Remdax can only shrug as they watch the emotional reunion.

Kuron than starts asking her a bunch of questions about how she became a paladin and how in the world do metal Lions fly. Pidge’s blood goes cold realizing Shiro has no memories of being a paladin or finding the blue lion on earth and is only calling her Katie never Pidge.

And when she tries telling Shiro that he used to be Voltron’s leader and the pilot of the black lion he doesn’t believe her.

Pidge gets in contact with Keith telling him she found Shiro but that he’s missing some of his memories and that she’s headed back with Shiro to the ship. Keith is so relieved and concerned about hearing the news about Shiro. Keith relays this information to the other paladins, Allura suggesting that the healing pods could help resort his memories as they did help restore some of his memories last time.

When Pidge and Kuron get back to the castle of lions, Shiro and Keith have a touching reunion. Kuron telling Keith that he always knew Keith was destined for greatness, then have a somewhat awkward reunion with Hunk, Lance, Allura and Coran. (one involving the confusion over who has what loin based on their colours) Shiro recognizes Hunk and Lance as Garrison cadets but not much else.

When Pidge tries to guild Kuron to the healing pods, he freakouts thinking they’re the same pods that the Galra had him trapped in. This surprised the group, Keith and Pidge manage to calm Kuron down assuring him he doesn’t have to go in it, they try asking him about what he remembered from being in the Galra pod and he does his best to tell them all he remembers though it’s not a lot.

Hunk and Allura use more traditional medical supplies to fix some of Shiro’s injuries. Lance offering to give Shiro a haircut, and Kuron agrees. Of course, Lance talks as he’s cutting Kuron’s hair, saying he gets why going into an alien pod is pretty freaking, but Lance explains why he’s pretty grateful for them as he probably wouldn’t have survived an explosion without them. This catches Kuron’s attention, as he starts viewing Lance more like a real soldier than a cadet and they talk about Lance’s experience in the pod and Kuron feels a little more comfortable about the pobs but admits he’s still not ready to go in one. Lance is very understanding and tells Kuron it’s okay for him to take his time.

While Kuron rests, the team starts talking and making theories as to what could have happened and how he lost his memory. (you know to begin the mystory of if this is really their Shiro or not.)

Since Kuron isn’t being controlled by Haggar and has no memory of being a paladin or piloting the black lion he’s not particularly bothered that the Black lion doesn’t respond to him. (The Black lion even goes as far and putting up its shield when Kuron approaches.) So there’s no tension between Keith and Shiro over that, though that doesn’t stop Kuron from getting easily irritated by Coran or argue with Allura and the others. Lance usually the one to step in between Allura and Shiro to settle them down and find a middle ground, cause Keith keeps falling into the habit of fallowing Shiro that it feels like Keith forgets he’s now the leader. Lance feels like Allura and Shiro can’t find compromises and is now the one doing his best to build a bridge between the two of them as now theirs a constant rift between the black paladin and the Princess.

Part 2: What if Shiro didn’t Die?

Keith is continually surprised by how Shiro’s reacting and even when Keith tries talking to Shiro about it the black paladin is unusually aggressive. Pidge ever the suspicious one asks to do a check-up on his cybernetic arm and Kuron wholeheartedly agrees, still calling Pidge, Katie more often than not. Pidge discovering that even though Kuron’s arm appears the same as Shiro’s old one it’s actually a new one made to look like Shiro’s old one.

Pidge takes Keith to the side and shows him this evidence, Keith says the galra could have just outfitted him with a new one to put him back in the gladiator rings or something like that. Pidge counters that logic; if the galra were going to do that they would have upgraded his arm not replaced it with a near replica. She also points out Shiro’s different behaviour and how the Black Lion treated this Shiro as if he was a complete stranger or as if an enemy was trying to pilot him. As if this Shiro wasn’t their Shiro.

Keith at first doesn’t want to believe Pidge, he desperately wants to believe that this is their Shiro, but as the team spends more time around this Shiro the more different he feels to Keith. Eventually, he comes back to Pidge and admits that this might not be their Shiro and if that’s the case they needed to find the real Shiro. Pidge glad he’s finally on the same page as her and shows all that she has found so far.

That point forward Keith and Pidge team up to find the real Shiro, under the guise that Keith is helping her to find Matt. Since her persistence is what leads them to find ‘Shiro’, Keith says it’s the least he can do. This in turn causes Lance to spend more time around Kuron since the other two people Kuron feels most comfortable with are constantly busy.

This eventually leads to Kuron falling for Lance and kissing the blue paladin. Lance goes through all the stages of Bisexual denial, before finally admitting to himself after a long talk with Hunk that yeah Lance likes Shiro and that he wanted to try and build a relationship with Shiro.

(Adds montage of fluffy Shlance or Kuance moments along with snippets of fluffy Kidge moments between hunting for the real Shiro.)

It takes some time but team wildfire eventually finds hints about a human male working with a vigilant team along the far outskirts of the known universe. To Keith’s and Pidge’s relief and surprise, they find both Shiro and Matt.

Apparently, the black lion teleported him to Matt when the male holt sibling was in desperate trouble. (flashback episode that also explains why Shiro’s hair is now completely white now maybe for the simple reason that the two-tone hair was driving Matt nuts. Matt thinking all silver hair looked better on Shiro then trying to turn it all black. Along with some other cute Shatt moments)

When Pidge and Keith come back with the real Shiro and Matt, Kuron of course has an identity crisis stating ‘he’s the real Shiro he had to be’. But to prove to the others who the real Shiro was Keith and Pidge have their Shiro go into the Black Lion, and the real Shiro is able to pilot the black lion with no resistance from said lion.

Kuron feels confused and betrayed the two people he remembered the most ( Memories of Katie and Keith were nothing but fakes.) But like always Lance is there assuring him what they have wasn’t fake that their relationship only started with him, not the other Shiro. Kuron finding comfort in knowing what he and Lance have is real and tightly holds onto Lance.

Lance chooses to step down as the pilot of the red lion, saying Kuron really needed him right now and knows Keith can handle red no problem. Lance comes up with Kuron’s new name to be Kuro.

Then the episode where the team almost gets destroyed by Haggar, Kuron’s the one that almost sacrifices himself before Lotor steps in to save everyone. There’s also hints of Lotor and Lance bonding since Lance is the only paladin not going on missions he’s the one that often tends to the locked up Lotor and gives him something to do besides being board all the time. Which also causes some jealousy from Kuro and Lance needing to reassure his boyfriend that he’s being nice to Lotor because he was the one to save Kuro’s life and that his greatest interest towards Lotor is figuring out what he uses for his hair to be so silky and shiny.

They defeat Zarkon in a very similar way to the show, (expect that Keith is also there this time around) though Pidge never fully trust Lotor since he kept information about her Dad a secret. Later on Keith is given a speical mission from the Blades that involves his mom but this time Pidge is there as well. Krolia silently impressed with how good of a hacker her son’s compion is, and approves of how close the two seem to be.

Part 3 What if Lotor passed the White Lion Test?

Lotor finds his own way of passing the final Oriande test against the White Lion. Doing it differently than Allura had but still passes. This leads to Lotor and Allura developing the White lion, by far the largest of all the lions.

The White Lion is so big that it splits into two smaller lions for movability and can fuse back together for massive attacks. Needing pilots that can completely trust eachother and work together, Lance and Kuro are chosen by the white lion, both of them being gifted with a bayard and Kuro becomes the white paladin.

High jinx ensues as Lance and Kuro figure out how to pilot the white lion as both one unite and two separate units. Lance taking on the teacher role as he tries to help Kuro understand how to pilot a lion. (as again Kuro has no memory or knowledge of how to pilot any of the lions.) And after going between Blue to Red lion and now to White, Lance feels like he’s getting pretty used to handling all different types of lions. (giving Lance a nice character arch about adaptability.)

Lotor learns to be the new pilot of the castle of lions though still feels guilty over killing Narti and it takes time to reconcile with his old team. With Coran and Krolia there to help, now that she’s found her son she is sticking around.

(Tough without the two years on the time whale, Keith and his mom’s reconciliation is slow going.) Eventually Keith, Pidge and his mom all go on a mission together and they discover a puppy space wolf. Keith feeling sorry for the pup that just lost his parents and Pidge encourages him to keep him. Though he says he has to give him a name and Keith is very confused why he can’t just call the pup wolf.

The team all do their part to try and have Keith and his mom have some bonding time. through they both seem to really enjoy the digital training sessions that Pidge makes for them. The first time Keith ever calls Krolia mom is when she strongly suggest that Keith should date Pidge while standing right infront of Pidge and the rest of the team. Getting a very embarrassed ‘MOM!’ out of Keith. Lance coeing off to the side going ‘awe their officially family now’.

And Lastly: What if Lotor’s Colony of Altean’s never happened?

The Altean Colony thing doesn’t happen, Lotor never created it. Lotor has a whole new level of self-respect as he now not only proved his abilities as a warrior when he became emperor he also proved himself as an alchemist by helping to create the White lion. So now their main enemy is Sendak and the Galra who follow him and refuse to become peaceful and still want to follow Zarkon’s original plans of galactic domination.

Even Sendak eventually brushes Haggar (or Honerva) aside which leads to his downfall and Haggar’s heightened desperation. So just as the enemy Galra seems defeated (after sacrificing the castle ship in the last battle against Sendak) They all try heading to Earth, as without the castle all their lions are low on power and having trouble connecting to anyone, and Earth according to their maps is the next friendless planet.

They get to earth but have to deal with being treated like an enemies before they manage to get people to listen to them. Thanks to Sam Holt vouching for the Voltron team. All the Paladins get their family reunion. Lance introduces Kuro as his family saying he’s Shiro’s twin brother, Kuro surprised and grateful for the warm welcome.

Shiro and Adam get to have their reunion though it’s bitter sweet. Adam pretty much stated that they would never work, that there was a bigger gap between them, then before and that too much they didn’t understand about each other. That Adam can’t be the one by Shiro’s side, but points out that there’s clearly someone who understands what Shiro’s been through and gets Shiro in ways he never could. Adam glances over at Matt who keeps looking at the reunited ex-boyfriends and shyly blushes and looks away when Shiro and Adam look at him.

Honerva does find a way to split between relatives, entering the reality the team had been in during the Hole in the Sky. And not only does she recruit the Alteans in that reality, but she also becomes their empress. Bringing an army of Alteans that have had 10,000 years to advance their technology and when they take prisoners they turn those prisoners into mindless allies increasing their numbers with each victory.

This pushes the teams skills and abilities to the max, because they can’t just destroy their enemy when many of them are allies turned against them against their will. It makes the whole team have to ask hard questions and this also gives the Galra a way to make up for past sins as they fight these intruding Alteans from another reality and since these Alteans have never fought Galra before as they were wiped out thousands of years ago. They are completely thrown off by Galra’s way of victory or death. Altean’s not used to alien creatures risking their life for victory. 

Lotor and Allura have to come to grips with their views on altean culture and how all of it is not perfect. Lotor becomes a great leader for the Galra and Allura eventually becomes a leader to those Alteans that wish for a different way of life who don’t wish to conquer others and want true peace with compromises not forced servitude.

This then causes the Altean rebels and Lotor’s Galra to team up, uniting the two races in a way that hasn’t happened in 10,000 years. (Giving greater purpose to Allura and Lotor having feelings for each other and becoming co-leaders to their united people.)

And that’s how all these things could happen in one universe.

(Sorry there was quite a few other plot points I didn’t touch on such as Lotor’s generals, Rombelle and many others but this is long enough as it is.)

[actress4him]

Whumptober 2020 - Day 31

This is it! The very last post of Whumptober, and the long-awaited sequel to Day 8! If you're brand new to this whump party and haven't read it yet, you'll want to go back and do so before diving into this monstrosity. And when I say monstrosity I mean, it's looooooong. I wanted to do it justice and give you guys the ending you deserve, which...I'm hoping I pulled off. I'm not used to posting stuff so soon after writing it, without re-reading and editing over a period of time! Anyway, it wasn't one that I could easily just say, oh and they rescued him and put him in a pod and they lived happily ever after, because there was a whole bunch of emotional stuff everyone had to deal with, too. Thus the length, and the postponing of this post so I could actually finish it. 

That said, this is actually more angst than it is whump, but hopefully there's enough whump to satisfy and hopefully it's a satisfying way to end the month. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

Read on FFN

Day 31 (No. 29 and Alt. 7)  - Reluctant Bedrest/Found Family

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Warnings: fantastic racism, self-hatred, death mention, blood, referenced animal attack, fever, infection, hallucinations, needles, panic attacks, suicide ideation

It had been nearly a week since they abandoned Keith. Discarded him, like garbage. Dropped him off on some deserted planet like some people back on Earth used to drop off animals that they didn’t want to have to take care of. 

Shiro had always hated those people. Now he was one of them.

Except worse, because this wasn’t a puppy they had dumped on the side of the road, this was a hu-...okay, well only partly a human being, but a person, nonetheless. The person that he had seen as the little brother he never had for the past several years that he had known him. The person that he had sworn, even if only internally, to look after, always.

And sure, it wasn’t like it was his idea, but he had still let it happen. Yeah, if he had tried to fight it, Allura probably would have locked him in his room and done it without him. But he should have fought anyway. He should have let them drag him away like they had Keith that day they found out he was part Galra. Maybe they would have thrown him in a cell, too. Maybe then he’d actually be able to look at himself in the mirror now.

They wouldn’t have, though. He was human. He was trustworthy.

So trustworthy that he had turned his back on his brother, all for the sake of Voltron and the universe. 

That was the lie he had been telling himself, the one thing that had kept him from jumping in his Lion and going after Keith for days. The universe needed Voltron. Therefore, the universe needed him. He was the leader of Voltron, he couldn’t just abandon the rest of the team and disobey the Princess’ orders for the sake of one man. Being a defender of the universe meant having to make sacrifices and hard choices.

And maybe all of that was actually true, but it was only half the story. Keith needed him. As the leader of Voltron, he should be setting an example for the rest of the team to follow, and should be able to make decisions for the good of every team member without being threatened and overruled by the Princess. Being a decent person who could live with his own choices meant not going against his own promises and ideals.

He knew all of that. But both sides seemed true, and which side seemed more important changed by the second. 

To top it all off, the team had practically fallen apart since leaving Borulmyte. Not only were they down a Paladin, unable to form Voltron, but hardly anyone was speaking to each other unless forced. Allura was sulking because her father’s Lion wouldn’t accept her. Hunk, who had never seemed all that happy with the idea of kicking Keith out, seemed depressed. Pidge had pretty much locked herself in her room, he assumed furiously searching for any sign of her family. Lance was, as always, hard to get a read on, but he was noticeably quiet and stoic whenever he happened to appear. Coran had barely spoken a word the whole week.

And Shiro? He couldn’t stand to be around any of them. They were the ones who had done this to Keith. Sure, a couple had made weak arguments on his behalf at the beginning, but in the end they had all caved to Allura’s wishes and turned on him. He blamed them just as much as he blamed himself for sitting here in the comfort of the Castle while Keith...who even knew? At the very least he was alone and probably scared, even though he’d never admit that. At the worst, he could be struggling to survive, dying at that very moment, and none of them would ever know.

Whichever it was, he didn’t deserve it.

Coran had called a meeting on the bridge for something he said was urgent. It was probably another distress call, though the last one - the only mission they had attempted that week - had gone so terribly that Shiro wasn’t sure if they should even bother trying again. Running a smooth, successful mission is awfully difficult when no one wants to speak to each other, much less work in sync.

Usually he was the first one to arrive for meetings like this. Well, except for maybe Keith, but that wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on right then. This time, when he finally dragged himself to the bridge, the others were all already there, though none of them looked happy about it. Unlike in the past, when he always tried to keep up everyone’s morale by being focused and enthusiastic himself, no matter how he actually felt, now he didn’t bother. Crossing his arms, he let his face rest in exactly the scowl he was feeling.

“What is this about, Coran?”

“Yes, I would like to know as well.” Allura’s brow was furrowed, clearly not happy at being left out of the loop. 

The orange-haired adviser wrung his hands, staring down at the floor. “Well, it’s...this is difficult to say. But…” Drawing in a deep breath that puffed out his chest, he finally looked up, catching each of their gazes. “I’ve been keeping something from you. It’s about Number F-...Keith. It’s about Keith.”

Keith’s name had practically become forbidden, so of course it automatically caught everyone’s attention. Shiro unfolded his arms and stepped forward. “What about Keith?” he demanded.

Coran’s eyes darted back to the floor. “He gave us messages to pass on to each of you. Before we left Borulmyte.”

“Coran!” Allura hissed.

“No, Princess.” The response took everyone in the room by surprise, including Allura if the expression on her face was any indication. None of them had ever heard Coran speak that way to her, especially not to tell her no. He took another breath and seemed to steel himself. “You know that I have always served the royal family willingly, and that I see you like a daughter. I would follow you anywhere. However...you are still young. A great burden has been placed on your shoulders, and you have done extraordinarily well with it. But sometimes you make mistakes, and this, my dear...this has been a grave mistake.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that we never should have left the boy behind. Galra or not, he has never proven himself anything but the most loyal of paladins, and yet we have punished him for a crime he did not commit.”

Shiro was torn between feeling relief that someone besides him was saying it, and anger that it hadn’t been said sooner. “Why didn’t you speak up when I was trying to convince them all of this same thing days ago?”

Coran flashed him a guilty expression. “Because I was too much of a coward. I didn’t want to speak against my Princess, even though I knew what she was doing was wrong.” Squaring his shoulders, he looked around at the other paladins again. “But regardless of what anyone else thinks or decides, I can do this. I can fulfill the boys’ last request before he was left behind.”

Something in Shiro’s gut twisted at that statement, and he could see some shuffling of feet and shifting of positions around him that pointed to the others feeling the same way. No one liked to be reminded of what they had done.

“Fine,” Allura finally spat. “Do what you must to clear your conscience.” She crossed her arms and leaned back against the console with a huff.

“First to Number Two...Hunk.” Coran gave the Yellow Paladin a gentle smile. “He wanted you to know that he would miss your cooking, especially the brownies you made for him.”

That was all it took for Hunk to start crying, though he said nothing in reply.

“Lance, he said to tell you that he never hated you, that you annoyed him sometimes but were a good friend, too.”

If Shiro hadn’t been intently watching, he might have missed the way Lance’s eyes widened before he ducked his head and scuffed his sneaker into the floor.

“Pidge, your message was that he really, really hopes you find your family. And that he kept meaning to tell you he thinks you’re doing great with your bayard.”

Her eyebrows pulled in tight at the first part, but at the second she blinked as if surprised and looked away.

“And besides his message to the Red Lion that he would miss her, and to us, thanking us for the opportunity to fly her…” He turned to stare at Allura for that, and she couldn’t hold his gaze, either… “That leaves you, Shiro.”

The other messages had already left him ripped open, so he wasn’t really sure how he was supposed to handle one meant just for him.

Coran lips pursed into a sad smile. “‘Just tell him I love him.’”

He felt as if all the walls came crashing down on him all at once. He loved him. Of course he did, he knew he did, they had always treated each other like brothers. But he had never said it. And now he had, and it was after Shiro had allowed him to be kicked out of the place they had all come to see as a home.

Spinning on his heel, he marched toward the door without a word.

“Shiro, wait, where are you going?”

If it had been any of the others, he might have just ignored them. But it was Hunk, so he at least threw the answer over his shoulder. “I’m going to get Keith.”

“Shiro -!”

“No!” This time he whirled around, sending all of his fury in a glare toward Allura. “I’m done letting you tell me how I should treat my little brother! I am going to get Keith, not the Galra, but our friend, the Red Paladin, the strongest and bravest and most loyal person I know, and no one is going to stop me! If you don’t want us back here, fine. I don’t care. Find yourself new Red and Black Paladins. But I won’t leave him down there a second longer.”

It was unclear whether Allura even knew what to say to that, but before she had the chance Hunk piped up again. “I’m coming with you! Erm, if...that’s okay.”

Shiro spared him a small smile. “Of course it is.”

No one said anything as they left the room. Hunk jogged a little to catch up to Shiro’s long, quick strides before matching his pace. 

“I was a coward, too, like Coran said. Which, you know, isn’t really anything new, just...me being a coward isn’t usually at the expense of one of my friends. I was scared, to start with. Of him being, you know. Galra. But that’s stupid, really. Galra Keith is still Keith.”

“Yeah. He is.” He just hoped he was still Keith, still whole and well and not irrevocably changed, when they got to him. “I was just as much of a coward as anyone else, or more. I let the duty I felt to Voltron and the universe get in the way of the way I actually wanted to act. I should have gone after him right away.”

Hunk hummed in understanding. “Well, at least you actually stood up for him.”

They stopped off in their rooms to change into armor, then headed for Black and Yellow’s hangars. The long way, since they didn’t want to risk going back to the bridge and running into everyone else. Shiro had debated whether or not he should take Black, or just a pod, but decided that even if Allura wouldn’t let them stay, returning Black would give everyone a good chance to see Keith again and really make sure they wouldn’t change their minds.

“Since we don’t have a wormhole, it’s gonna take us a while to get there,” he told Hunk over the comms once they were situated in their Lions and starting to take off.

“I don’t mind. Just...how are we gonna find him once we’re there? I mean, he could have traveled a ways from where we...you know, left him.”

“I can track his quintessence.” The new voice took him by surprise, but not nearly as much as spinning around to find Green and Blue hovering over the Castle. “But I’ll have to be pretty close to him first. So we’ll still have to fly around for a while to try to catch a signal, then we’ll be able to narrow it down to a smaller area.”

Shiro was too shocked by their appearance to come up with a reasonable response, so he just ended up echoing, “We?”

Lance’s solemn face popped up on a video screen in front of him, followed by another with Pidge’s. “Yeah, we,” he said, mouth set in a firm line. “We’ve been stupid, and we wanna fix it. If...if we can.”

Clenching his jaw, Shiro sighed. “That’ll be up to Keith, I suppose. What kind of shape he’s in, and...whether he’ll forgive us.”

“We don’t really deserve it,” Pidge mumbled.

“No, we don’t. But let’s go ask for it anyway.”

They talked a little as they flew. It was quiet, and a bit awkward, but it was more than they had talked all week. Lance admitted that he had been having doubts ever since they left, memories of time spent with Keith haunting his thoughts. The message had just sealed the deal.

Pidge shrugged when asked about her change of heart, and quietly conceded that she didn’t think she had ever really believed he was a bad guy. She was just hurting, and he had been the perfect target to take it out on. Her desperation to find her family had blinded her.

They were several hours into a trip that Hunk calculated would take a few days when a wormhole appeared in front of them, seemingly out of nowhere. Every Lion pulled up short, exclamations of surprise echoing across the comms. 

Shiro jerked his Lion around to find the Castle looming behind them. His immediate thought was that Coran had somehow taken over and caught up with them, but Coran couldn’t make wormholes.

“...Allura?”

Her voice over the comms was more tentative than he thought he had ever heard it. “I have not yet decided to trust him. But I...I have seen how passionate all of you are about this, and I am...willing to reconsider my original stance.”

It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but it was more than he had expected. He’d take it. 

“Alright guys. Let’s go bring our boy home.”

The sight of the planet Borulmyte made Shiro’s stomach turn a flip. This was it. This was the place where Keith had been living for the past week. He couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for him. Allura and Pidge had done extensive research on multiple planets before deciding that this was the best one, and they had had plenty of “reassuring” things to say about it. He had always wondered, though, what they weren’t saying. Or what their research hadn’t turned up. There was no way that they could have known everything there was to know about a planet just from reading about it. “Livable conditions” didn’t mean enjoyable conditions.

“Coran and I will stay here with the Castle. Keep us updated.”

Shiro gave a nod. “Pidge, how close do you need to be to pick up Keith’s quintessence?”

“Within a few miles.”

“Alright. We’ll start at the drop off point. I’m gonna guess he would have headed east, into the forest, to find shelter.” That was the one reassurance he had about the whole situation, knowing that Keith was trained in survival skills. “We’ll head there first, and take it mile by mile.”

It took them the rest of the day. Only a fraction of that time had passed when Shiro started to run every possible horrible scenario through his mind of why they weren’t finding it, even though he knew that they probably just hadn’t hit the right spot yet. 

“There!” Pidge shouted. “I’ve got it!”

Relief flooded Shiro down to his toes. “Alright. Mark this location. We’ll have to go land in the desert and fly back in the Green Lion. She’s the only one small enough to fit in that little clearing over there. 

The little clearing, as it turned out, was around a creek that seemed to be clear and safe. His relief grew just a little more. If Keith had managed to end up this close to a water source, then maybe he was doing okay.

“Okay, Pidge. Lead the way.”

Hiking through the woods took almost another full day. A day in which the sun never actually rose. He hadn’t paid attention to start with, when they were still flying, because constant darkness outside had become the new norm, but now that they were on solid ground it was painfully obvious that they had yet to see light this entire time. And the temperature gauge on his helmet display was much lower than he wanted it to be. Livable? Yes. Comfortable without armor? No. He wanted to interrogate Allura and Pidge on whether they knew about this when they had chosen to send Keith to this planet, but it wasn’t the time. He had to focus on finding Keith, nothing else.

After hours and hours of walking by only the flashlights built into their helmets, during which time no one, not even Lance, dared to complain, there was finally a spike on Pidge’s quintessence tracker. 

“Over here!” she shouted, taking off at a sprint through the underbrush. 

The others followed, swatting branches and bushes out of their way. Any second, Shiro expected to run into Keith. Maybe sitting in whatever hideout he had found, or out hunting for food in the never-ending darkness, his eyebrows flying up in surprise when he saw them all rushing in.

Instead, when he stumbled to a halt beside Pidge, she was staring at the ground, and there was no Keith in sight. 

“Pidge? What is it?”

Lifting a shaky finger, she pointed. Even before he looked, Shiro could feel his chest tightening with anxiety. And for good reason, too. The stain that was illuminated on the dirt and leaves was dried, at least a couple of days old, but it was undeniably blood. It was also concerningly large, and with the quintessence tracker crackling louder than they had heard it so far, there was no getting around the fact that it belonged to Keith.

Hunk immediately began babbling his worries, but Shiro’s heart was pounding too loudly in his ears for him to comprehend what he was actually saying. For a long moment he just stared at the bloodstain. It wasn’t until Lance stepped in closer to speak that he was broken out of his trance.

“Shiro? Do you think he’s…”

“No.” Yes. He didn’t know. It was a lot of blood. But he wouldn’t allow himself to believe that Keith was anything but okay until he saw him with his own eyes. “Pidge, is there a trail?”

She tore her eyes away to look at the screen, pacing back and forth a bit before nodding wordlessly and taking off through the bush. If her steps were a bit quicker now, no one blamed her. They just picked up their pace, too, solemn and silent other than Lance quietly updating Allura and Coran on what they had found. 

Every once in a while, a small patch of dark red on a leaf or tree trunk would catch Shiro’s eye. He tried to take it as a good sign. If Keith had been able to pick himself up from whatever had happened and trek through the woods, then maybe he wasn’t too bad off. At the time. Two or more days later? It was impossible to say.

The walk from there only took a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, finally, he spotted a small cave over the top of Pidge’s head, just as the tracker grew in volume and Pidge broke into a run. 

“Keith? Keith!”

He was right on her heels, barreling through the opening, terrified of what he would find. And what he did see was almost exactly what he had feared - Keith, his skin far too pale under their flashlights, lying completely still on the ground next to the cold, charred remains of a campfire. There were rough slashes in his t-shirt, through which bloody scabs could be seen, and his right leg was almost entirely wrapped in large blue leaves tied off with what looked like dried grass. It didn’t take much guesswork to figure out that the sporadic dark stains on the leaves were blood.

“Keith.” Shiro was by his side without really knowing how he got there, sliding down onto his knees next to the unmoving figure. “No, no, no, no, Keith, come on, don’t do this to me.” He carded his hand through the messy black hair. “Keith, please.”

Pale lips parted, and a groan spilled out. Shiro nearly fell over with relief. Somewhere behind him, Lance was exclaiming his own relief in Spanish, while Hunk hovered just over his shoulder. Keith’s forehead, which he now noticed was coated in a sheen of sweat, furrowed, and he turned his head slightly to face Shiro before squinting his eyes open.

“Go ‘way,” he rasped, taking all of them by surprise. “‘re not real.”

“Yeah, yeah we are, buddy.” He stroked his hair again, then yanked off his glove so he could lay his flesh hand against his cheek, trying not to wince at the heat that met his touch. A fever. Whatever that wound was on his leg, it had probably gotten infected. No wonder he didn’t think they were real. “Doesn’t this feel real?”

Keith seemed to consider this, his brain probably having to work twice as hard as usual to process anything. Finally there was what seemed to be acceptance in those glazed eyes, but instead of seeming happy or confused or surprised or any of the emotions that they might have expected, he simply let his head roll back to the side and closed his eyes. “Come to...finish me off?”

“What? Keith, no, why would you think that?” Hunk exclaimed, dropping down right next to Shiro. “We came to take you home.”

“We’ve, uh...we were really terrible to you. It was really, really wrong,” Lance joined in.

Pidge shuffled her feet awkwardly. “Yeah. We, um. We want you to come back.”

“Even Allura is willing to reconsider, but whatever she decides, we're getting you out of here.” Shiro took one of Keith’s hands in his own and squeezed. “I never should have let her dictate how you were treated to start with.”

Silence fell for a moment. Keith cut his eyes up toward Shiro, not moving his head. “Knew you weren’t real.”

Pidge gave an exasperated grunt. “Keith -”

“Don’t worry about it right now.” Sliding his glove back on, Shiro straightened and got ready to pick Keith up bridal style. “He’s burning up with an infection. We’ll have to talk to him later, once he can actually comprehend what’s going on. For now let’s just get him back to the Castle and into a pod.”

Shiro scooped Keith up gently into his arms, causing him to cry out when his leg was jostled. “I’m sorry, bud,” he whispered. “You’re gonna be okay.” He didn’t at all like how light he felt, nor how gaunt his face looked. It had only been a week, but it didn’t seem like he had eaten much in that time.

Now that they knew where they were going, the walk back to the Green Lion went by quickly. Pidge flew them back to their own Lions, with Hunk and Lance towing Black to the Castle so that Shiro could stay in Green’s cargo hold with Keith. He didn’t want to let him go, couldn’t even keep his eyes off of him. He was too afraid that if he looked away, he would be gone, would succumb to his infection or perhaps just vanish into thin air. In the better lighting of the Lion, Keith looked all the more pale and feverish, his breaths coming shallow as he mumbled unintelligible words and occasionally whimpered with pain.

“What kind of injuries are we dealing with here, Number One?”

Shiro barely remembered arriving at the Castle and exiting the Green Lion, but there he was, standing next to Coran and a stretcher. Tenderly, he settled Keith down onto the padded surface. “Not sure. Maybe an animal attack of some kind? I haven’t been able to get a look at his wounds yet. He’s got a fever for sure, though, so they’re probably infected.”

Coran’s face turned grim. “That’s unfortunate. We won’t be able to put him into cryosleep until his temperature is back to normal.”

Gritting his teeth, Shiro found Keith’s hand and held it as they walked toward the infirmary. Poor kid just couldn’t catch a break. He didn’t deserve any of this. And now it sounded like when he was back to himself, they were going to have to go back through a whole three years’ worth of self-esteem boosting...maybe even more. He let out a long sigh. It seemed like he had just finally convinced Keith that he was worth loving, that he was important, that not everyone in his life was going to abandon him. 

Then he sat back and let everyone in his life abandon him.

Coran sucked in a loud breath through his teeth as he peeled back the crude leaf bandages. “Yes, this is most certainly infected. And I would say that your animal attack hypothesis is correct. These look mostly like tooth marks. Quite deep.”

It looked mostly like a mangled, bloody mess to Shiro. His stomach turned, not just from the smell of the infection, and he was glad that Hunk wasn’t there at the moment. “What do we need to do?”

“Well, I’ll need to clean these. You might want to hold him down for that part.”

Keith bucked and writhed under Shiro’s hands as Coran poured antiseptic over his leg, screaming in agony. Shiro was pretty sure his heart was permanently residing in his throat now. He whispered reassurances, hardly knowing what he was saying, well aware that Keith probably couldn’t hear or comprehend any of it. 

After a thorough cleaning, Coran wrapped the leg in clean bandages and pulled a thin sheet up over his waist. Shiro sank into the bedside chair, relieved beyond words that the worst part was over. They spoke very little as they went about the rest of the work that needed to be done, Coran handing Shiro the antiseptic and a clean cloth so that he could work on the claw marks across Keith’s chest, then focusing himself on preparing an IV bag of antibiotics and nutrients. Shiro gently smoothed adhesive bandages over the cuts when he was done. When he looked up, Coran was sliding the IV into place in the back of Keith’s hand.

“That should do it for now. I’m going to get a cool, wet cloth to help bring his fever down, but he should recover just fine.”

It was only then that Shiro finally allowed himself to dissolve into tears, like he had been wanting to ever since finding Keith in that cave. Burying his face in his hands, he let the tears soak his cheeks and the sobs wrack his body, uncaring for once that someone was there to see him fall apart.

A sturdy hand landed on his back, rubbing soothing circles. “There, there, lad. I know it’s been a rough few quintants, but it’ll be alright.”

“Will it?” Shiro scrubbed at his face with his flesh hand. “You should have seen him, Coran. I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to trust any of us again.”

The adviser heaved a sigh. “I don’t know, either. I’m not sure if I would be able to trust us, if the roles were reversed. But perhaps, with time, we’ll be able to prove to him that we do, indeed, care for him.”

Once Shiro had cried himself out, Coran convinced him to go change out of his armor and possibly get something to eat. He was surprised to find all three of the other paladins sprawled out on the floor just outside the infirmary, remnants of snacks scattered around them and expectant looks on their faces.

“Well? Is he...okay?” Pidge asked tentatively.

Shiro sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Physically, it seems so. He’s stable for now, at least, and Coran thinks he’ll be fine. We just have to make sure his fever doesn’t get too high.”

They all nodded slowly, seeming lost in thought. He imagined they were all thinking about the “other than physically” part that he had failed to comment on.

Hunk cleared his throat. “Is he awake?”

He shook his head. “He’s been in and out, but he’s resting pretty peacefully for now.”

“We didn’t want to, you know, be in the way,” Lance supplied. “But you can let us know when it’s okay for us to see him. Or we can take turns watching out for him.”

“Alright. I’ll let you know.” Right now he couldn’t imagine leaving his side, not for longer than he was doing right now. As he started down the hall again toward his quarters, he met another unexpected presence - Allura, lurking just around the corner from where the paladins sat, looking abnormally anxious. He stopped abruptly, not sure he was ready to see her again yet.

“I heard your update,” she stated after a moment of awkward silence. When Shiro said nothing in return, she pursed her lips. “I suppose we have some more discussions ahead of us now.”

“No. We don’t.” Allura’s eyebrows flew up in surprise, but he didn’t give her time to respond. “There’s nothing to discuss. Either you accept Keith back as the Red Paladin...and treat him just as well as the other paladins, or he and I leave. Whether or not the others stay is up to them.” 

Allura’s brow furrowed, and she dropped her gaze to the floor with nothing else to say. Pushing past her, Shiro continued to his room, hurrying through changing so he could be back with Keith.

.o.0.O.0.o.

They would tell Keith later that he had been out of it for around two days before the fever broke. All he knew was that he woke up in the infirmary of the Castle with no memory of how he had gotten there, and assumed he must have been hallucinating again. He was actually a bit surprised that the wounds from that death beast hadn’t killed him yet...or maybe they had. Maybe this was some sort of purgatory or something, though the infirmary seemed like a strange choice.

It made a bit more sense when he turned his head to the right and saw Coran sitting there studying him. Seemed maybe he was going to have to face people he had failed in life before he could move on to whatever came next.

“Are you with us this time, my boy?”

Wrinkling his eyebrows at the strange question, Keith licked his dry lips with an equally dry tongue and tried to come up with something to say, but all that came out was a raspy, “What?”

Immediately Coran went into action, producing a hydration pack from somewhere nearby and holding the straw up to Keith’s lips. The cool liquid hit his throat like a slice of heaven, and he gulped greedily.

“Not too fast, now. Don’t want you making yourself sick.”

Keith nearly whined when the straw was pulled away, but he could already feel the liquid sloshing around inside of him, so it was probably for the best. Clearing his throat, he decided he could try talking again. “What am I doing here?”

“You were in pretty bad shape when the others found you. Something had torn your leg all up, and it had gotten infected. We couldn’t put you in a cryopod until your fever went down, which it seems it now has.”

His eyes darted around the cavernous white room. “So...this is real?”

The corner of Coran’s mouth tilted up. “Yes. It’s real.”

He had kinda suspected after the water. But that left one major question…“Why?”

Before Coran could respond, the door slid open, and Keith turned his head to see Shiro enter the room. The sight of his surrogate brother had him torn between happiness and a strange sense of dread, leaving him to clench the sheets in his fists and wait for some kind of reaction to come. Half of him expected it to be disgust, or anger, or maybe just an apathetic announcement of what his new punishment for existing was to be. 

Instead, Shiro’s face lit up with a happy, almost hopeful expression. “Keith?”

“Wait, is Keith awake?” another voice called from the hallway behind him. Lance’s head poked through the doorway, making Keith’s stomach clench, before he turned and yelled back down the hall. “Hey guys, Keith’s awake!”

All at once the infirmary was filled with almost all the people who hated him, all crowding around his bed and staring down at him with faces he couldn’t read. They were going to hurt him. He knew they would, why else would they have brought him back here? Obviously they had changed their minds and decided they had been too lenient. What were they going to do to him? How much pain would he be in now?

He couldn’t breathe. Suddenly it felt like that beast was sitting on top of him again, crushing his chest, and he struggled to draw in air through an open mouth while tears stung his eyes. His hands shook where they were still gripping the sheets. People were talking, but it sounded as if his ears were stuffed full of cotton and he couldn’t make out any of the words.

He almost didn’t notice when the crowd above him dispersed, but it did help his breaths start to come a little easier. Only there was still Shiro, and he still didn’t know where Shiro stood on any of this. The Black Paladin sat down next to the bed and tried to grasp his hand. Keith yanked it away.

“Don’t...don’t.”

“Okay. I won’t touch you. Do you know where you are?”

Of course he knew, that was the whole problem. “Yes.”

“Okay. You’re safe now, Keith.”

Safe. Yeah, right. There was no such thing as safe, not anymore. He had thought the Castle was safe, that these people were safe, but he had been wrong. “Why?”

Shiro looked at him in mild confusion before choosing what to say. “We made a mistake, leaving you there. We -”

Keith rolled away, tucking his hands up next to his chest, cringing at the pain that still radiated through his leg. He didn’t want to hear it explained, how they wanted to punish him further. Yet at the same time, he needed to know what was coming. 

“Keith…”

“Now?”

It had been a long time since Shiro had needed to interpret his one word sentences, but luckily it seemed he was still good at it. “Now you keep resting and getting better until we can put you in a pod for your leg.”

“Why?”

That one seemed to give him pause. “So...you’ll be well.”

Were they really going to prolong the torture like this? Make him get well before they did away with him? He curled up tighter. “Just...kill. Now.”

“Kill? Keith -”

“Please.”

The chair scraped across the floor, and Keith flinched. Footsteps came around the bed. He tensed, waiting for the blow. The air in front of his face stirred, and Shiro’s voice came from very close.

“Keith, can you look at me, please?” When he didn’t comply, Shiro put a hand on his fists and pulled them down so that they were face to face. “No one is going to kill you. No one is going to hurt you. You’re back on the Castle because we were wrong. They were wrong about you being untrustworthy, and I was wrong about my duty to Voltron being more important than my duty to you. I’m so, so sorry that I let them kick you out, and that I didn’t come after you sooner. You will always be more important to me than the rest of the universe. You’re my brother. I love you.”

Tears welled up in Keith’s eyes despite his reluctance to believe any of it. Tugging his hands out from under Shiro’s, he covered his face again, unable to respond.

Shiro let out a long, quiet sigh. “The others want to apologize, too, at some point. But for now you should try to get some more rest. You’re still recovering from the infection.”

He didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t trust that he wouldn’t be messed with while he was asleep. But his body decided for him that it was ready, drifting off without his permission.

.o.0.O.0.o.

Keith hadn’t really improved by the next couple of days. He slept some, he ate some, and his color and temperature seemed to be returning to normal. But he regarded everyone who came into the room with the wary stare of a cornered wild animal, and he still wasn’t speaking more than one or two words at a time, if that. Just as Shiro had feared, he had reverted back to the year that they had met, except worse. 

He tried to spend as much time in the infirmary with him as he could, hoping that the company would eventually coax him into relaxing. The other paladins still hadn’t gotten their chance to talk to him. Everyone, including Shiro, was afraid their presence would trigger another panic attack. He had already nearly gone into one when Hunk had delivered his breakfast that morning, and had been extra jumpy around Coran, too.

Shiro was eating his own breakfast, trying not to focus too much on the fact that Keith’s was just sitting there untouched, when he heard a telltale sniffle. Keith was sitting up, propped on some pillows against the wall, but his head was turned away from Shiro, as was pretty common. Even so, he could see the shimmer of a tear as it streaked down his face. Setting aside his bowl, he rounded the bed and settled down on the edge, expecting the flinch that followed but still hating it.

“Talk to me, Keith.”

He didn’t expect a response at all, and especially not a long one. But Keith angrily dashed the tears away, forever hating himself for ever crying, and spoke in a hoarse whisper. “Why didn’t you just leave me there?”

Shiro’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”

“I was almost dead. It would have all been over. You should have just left me there.”

Heart aching, he scooted in closer, though Keith leaned even further back away from him. “Keith, no. We don’t want you dead. We want you here, alive and well, with us. If you died, I...I thought you were dead, when I first saw you. And it was like...it was like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I don’t know if I could survive it.”

Keith’s face, passive up until then, creased with a look of emotional pain that Shiro could hardly stand. “But why should I live? I’m...I’m Galra, Shiro. I’m one of them. But not even really Galra, just some cross-breed freak of nature. I never should have existed. Maybe that’s why my mother walked out on me, she knew I was a freak and she couldn’t stand to -”

“Stop it. Keith, stop.” He grabbed his shoulder and shook it, not caring at the moment whether it startled him. “Don’t talk about yourself like that. You are not defined by who your parents or grandparents or anyone else were. You are you. You are Keith Kogane, Red Paladin of Voltron, best pilot at the Galaxy Garrison. You’re a survivor. You’re a fighter. Not because you have Galra blood, but because the universe has thrown every hard thing that it could think of at you and you’re still standing strong.”

“I’m not standing strong, don’t you see me?” Keith met his eyes finally, a tiny bit of his old spark of anger visible. “I’m pathetic. Maybe I was the Red Paladin, maybe I was a survivor and a fighter, but right now I don’t think I can be any of those things. I don’t want to fight anymore, Shiro. I’m tired of surviving. I just want…” He broke down into tears again, covering his face with his hands.

Moving over closer, Shiro wrapped his arms around his brother and pulled him in tight. “You want what?”

Keith’s shoulders shuddered beneath him. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t trust any of them. I can’t trust any of them.”

“I know.” 

For a long time, they sat together like that, Keith’s face buried in Shiro’s chest while he cried out all his tears. Shiro ran his fingers through his hair, trying desperately to come with anything he could say to comfort him. 

“Do you think you could listen to them, if they come and talk to you? Just one at a time, not everyone at once. I know they’re really anxious to speak to you, and I think it might do you some good, too.” Or at least he hoped.

It took him a minute to answer. “I don’t know.”

“Okay. Well, it doesn’t have to be now. But I’d like you to consider it.”

Keith just nodded.

.o.0.O.0.o.

He had been in bed for days. The infection was all but gone, there was no longer any danger in putting him in a pod, and doing so had been brought up a couple of times. But Shiro and Coran must have noticed how he shrank into himself every time it was mentioned, because they dropped the subject and just continued to let him stay there. 

He didn’t want to go in a pod. Being forced unconscious for who knew how many hours or days was just too vulnerable, and he already felt that way far too much, anyway. After all, he was stuck in bed in the middle of a ship full of people who hated him. He was pretty confident that Shiro would try his best to protect him, and Coran might, too. The Altean had taken the time to sit down and apologize to him for his role in the whole mess, and based on the way he had been treating him Keith was fairly sure he could be trusted. 

But that left four others, all who had weapons, one of whom had some kind of weird magic and was literally connected to the Castle. He didn’t feel safe, and he hated it. There hadn’t been many places in his life that he had been able to truly let down his guard and feel safe. A foster home or two, though later on he had become so jaded that even the good ones didn’t feel like they would last. The Garrison to some extent, at least as long as Shiro was there.

And the Castle. Yeah, there was always the chance of an attack, and there had been the couple of times that someone had snuck on board without them knowing. But in all of those situations he had known that there were people around who had his back, people that he could count on. It was the most at home he had felt since Shiro had left for Kerberos.

Now it was those very same people that he was afraid of, as stupid and weak as that made him. The thought was almost laughable. Him? Afraid of Lance, Hunk, and Pidge? But he couldn’t get the hatred he had seen in some of their eyes out of his head. Couldn’t forget the venom in their voices. Couldn’t erase all the times he had watched them, hallucinations or not, show up in that cave with insults on their lips and weapons in their hands, ready to make him pay for the crime of being part Galra.

He didn’t want to talk to them. But he knew that Shiro really wanted him to, and that meant he would have to do it sooner or later. Maybe if he went ahead and got it over with, they’d leave him alone more, and then when his leg was healed enough that he could actually walk it’d be easier to leave. He hadn’t figured out where he was going - definitely not back to Borulmyte - or how he’d get there, but leaving was the best option for everybody.

“Will you...stay? If I let them…”

Once again, Shiro knew exactly what he was talking about, despite the question being out of the blue. “Of course. I’ll be right here with you the whole time.”

Sinking back into the pillows, Keith hugged himself. “Okay.”

Shiro smiled softly. “Okay. I’ll send them a message and let them know you’re ready.”

Hunk was the first to come in. He burst into tears pretty much as soon as he walked through the door and saw Keith, and cried so much the whole time that his many, many apologies could barely be understood. It made Keith uncomfortable, if he was honest. He had never known how to deal with tears, his own or anyone else’s. But Hunk was so obviously genuine and straightforward, and he had always had a hard time believing that there was any part of such a loving person that could have held such malice. 

“I get it.” It took everything in him to force multiple words out, but he knew he had to this time. “It’s hard to...stand up. When...everyone else...disagrees. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay, it’s so not okay!” Hunk blubbered. “I don’t know if it would have done any good for me to say anything or not, but I still should have done it.”

Keith nodded. “Okay. You’re right. It wasn’t okay. But…” He took a deep breath. “I forgive you.”

The way Hunk’s face lit up was totally worth the difficulty of saying the words. “Really, man? Thank you. Like, really, thank you, you don’t know how happy that makes me. I know we’ve never been, like, the best of friends, but I’ve always really wanted to get to know you better, I mean if you’d be okay with that, it’s totally up to you, but maybe sometime when you’re feeling better we can like, hang out? Also I know you haven’t been eating much right now but I am definitely making you brownies when you feel up to eating them. Like, a ton of brownies. All the brownies I can possibly make. Hey, maybe you could help me make the brownies! Cooking is such a good way to bond, I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it before! What do you think, does that sound okay? Or I mean, if you really don’t want to hang out with me at all, I totally understand that, too, I just -”

“Hunk.” Keith’s lips twitched upward slightly as the breathless Yellow Paladin finally screeched to a halt. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

Hunk beamed. “Great! Okay, I’m gonna like, go, and let somebody else come in here, ‘cause, yeah. Feel better, Keith!”

When the room was empty again, Shiro leaned over and squeezed his hand. “How do you feel?”

“Good.” He was surprised to find it was actually pretty true. A small burden had been lifted from his chest.

“Good. You ready for Lance or Pidge?”

Keith’s heart started beating double time again. “Lance.” Even though he had been more active in the process of his condemnation, Pidge’s response had hurt the worst.

The boy that came into the infirmary wasn’t the Lance that Keith knew. He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the floor, or his hands, or anything but Keith and Shiro, and when he spoke his voice was so soft it was barely audible. 

“I don’t know why I did it.” He picked at a loose thread on his jeans. “I just get...so emotional, so caught up in the moment sometimes...I’m really just as much of a hothead as you are.”

If his demeanor and apology hadn’t caught Keith’s attention, that statement did. Lance, admitting he was as bad as Keith at something? “Thought that was because...I’m Galra.”

Lance’s face pinched. “Yeah. I said some pretty stupid things. I mean…” He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe it is because you’re Galra. But still, it’s...you’re just you. And that’s okay. Maybe we don’t always get along, but I don’t really think you’re evil. I mean, I guess I kinda thought you could be. It was stupid, though. I’m an idiot, that’s what I’m getting at. There’s no real explanation, just...I’m sorry, like I said.”

Part of Keith wanted to accept that. Part of him didn’t think he could. “I...thanks. For apologizing. I think...maybe I can forgive you...soon? Maybe not yet. But, yeah. Soon.”

Lance nodded. “That’s fair. I didn’t really expect you to, like, at all, so…” He finally flicked his eyes up to meet Keith’s. “I think you and I could use to work on some things, anyway. Like, you know, not acting like we hate each other. Because I don’t. Hate you, that is. And I’m...pretty sure based on what Coran said that you don’t hate me, either.”

“No. I don’t. And yeah, that...that sounds good.”

“Okay. Good.” A brief smile flashed over his face, then he nodded again and excused himself.

“You still doing okay?”

Keith pressed his lips together. “Think so. I’m nervous, though. About Pidge.”

Shiro smiled sympathetically. “I know. Just give her a chance, ‘kay?”

Pidge shuffled into the room in a very similar fashion to Lance, eyes on the floor. She perched on the very edge of the chair that each paladin had occupied, kicking her feet back and forth since they didn’t quite touch the floor. In a low voice, she said her apology and explained that she had let her hurt over her family get the best of her, but insisted that it didn’t excuse her blaming him. 

It took a moment longer than the others for him to find his words. “I remember what it was like...missing somebody. Believing that they were still out there, but not knowing for sure. I mean, it wasn’t my actual family...unless you count my mom, which...at least I knew she chose to leave. So, she’s...probably fine.” Just didn’t want him. “But Shiro is the closest thing I’ve had to family since...since my Pops. And it’s hard. I mean, I kinda went ballistic, broke into a commanding officer’s office, punched a bunch of other officers, and got kicked out of the Garrison.”

“You what?” Shiro broke in, sitting forward, then realized his interruption and sat back, waving a hand. “Never mind. Sorry. We’ll talk later.”

Pidge snickered a little, and Keith took that as encouragement to continue. “But, yeah. I know how hard it is, and I would never, never wish that on someone else.”

Her head popped up, eyes wide and wet behind her glasses. “I know you wouldn’t. I know...I know you didn’t have anything to do with it, I never should have said something like that. You...you’re right, you understand probably more than anyone else, and I…” She trailed off, ducking her head as tears spilled down her cheeks.

Once again, there was someone crying in front of him, and he didn’t know what to do. But he was pretty sure what any of the other paladins would have offered in this situation, so… “Do you, um...need a...hug?”

The next thing he knew he had an armful of Pidge, curled up on the bed next to him and leaving tears and snot all over his shirt. He patted her back awkwardly. “You’ll find them. I know you will.”

“Why are you comforting me? I’m supposed to be in here helping you to feel better, this is not how this is supposed to work!”

Keith frowned. “Um...sorry?”

Pidge glared at him, not at all intimidating with her sopping wet face. “No, don’t apologize, that’s my job, too!” 

“Sorry!”

She punched him in the ribs. “You’re a good hugger. Why are you such a good hugger.”

Keith was just getting more confused the longer this conversation went on. “I...don’t know? It certainly isn’t from practice.”

Tilting her head back, she narrowed her eyes at him as if she could see into his mind. “Do you not like hugs?”

“No, I...do.”

“Then I’m gonna hug you. Every day. From now on.”

“Aw, can I get Keith hugs every day, too?” 

Keith startled a little bit when he realized that Hunk and Lance had returned to the room, but forced himself to relax. This was okay. They weren’t going to hurt him. They had all been very open with him, and even though it was going to take some time, he thought he could learn to trust them again.

“I...guess?”

“Yay!” Hunk settled onto the end of the bed, and Lance took the now empty chair, folding his long legs up into it. Shiro scooted forward again to be in Keith’s line of vision.

“How are you feeling now? Think maybe you can keep surviving a little longer?”

He felt Pidge tense in his arms, and Hunk’s face froze while Lance’s went carefully blank. Keith swallowed. “Yeah. I think...maybe I’m ready for that pod now. So I can finally get out of this bed and...I don’t know, kinda figure this out all over again.”

Shiro ruffled his hair fondly. “I’m glad. We’ll all be there with you for every step, okay?”

There was one more question, though. “What about Allura?”

Shiro’s face darkened slightly. “I’ve already told her she can either treat you the same as everyone else, or we’re leaving.”

“Nah, we won’t leave,” Pidge piped up. “There’s more of us than there are of her now. We’ll just stage a mutiny.”

Keith laughed awkwardly. “Somehow I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

“I don’t think so, either, because I think she’ll come around,” Lance said. “But the point is, Mullet...we’re gonna support you.”

“You’re part of the Space Family now, dude!” Hunk cheered.

“Exactly,” Shiro smiled. “And Space Family has to stick together.”

The others kept chattering quietly, someone throwing in something about “ohana” in a weird voice, which triggered a whole conversation about some movie that he didn’t care about keeping up with. Closing his eyes, Keith let his body truly relax for the first time since before going to the Blade. 

And he felt safe.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Thanks so much to everyone who joined me this month!!! This was my first ever Tumblr writing challenge, and it was a blast. You guys are what made it so much fun, with all the comments and likes and reblogs! Thank you!

If you want more Keith whump from me sometime in the future, you  can follow me on here, on FFN, or follow the series "In which I whump Keith" on AO3...and if you haven't read Abyss yet (my first Keith whump fic!), you should check it out!

Happy Halloween and Happy Whumping!

[cursesthemusical]

August Sader Headcanons - part two

and here’s part two!

He was pretty bad at it in the first year or two (partly because of his blindness, partly because he wasn’t very accustomed to kids)

He also got shut out from the other professors

It wasn’t because they were mean, it was just that they tended to be a little wary of new people since some old teachers had betrayed the School

Clarissa Dovey (who was not Dean yet, only the Good Deeds professor) took pity on him and invited him for lunches in the Blue Forest with her

They taught each other spells and Clarissa gave August tips for teaching

(dovey august friendship okay-)

In one of his first few years teaching, he got a strong vision that only showed one word, Nicola, with the school behind it

It flashed between images - a ship, rising and falling on turbulent waters - a gold and blue castle, decorated with lions and statues of a boy he didn’t recognize - the school master’s tower, crowded with people and there were shouts from below - Jaunt Jolie, a girl and a boy in a small room, a concentrated expression in the boy’s mouth before he spat out a nut - and then the name of a story: the Lion and the Snake

So he wrote about the vision using his dots system in one of his books 

He also looked up The Lion and the Snake in the fairytale index and read it, but he didn’t see anything in it that related to the images he’d seen, so he just copied it into the book and let it be

Of the places he’d lived so far (the family farm, the travelling after he left the farm, his time with Cassia, his work with the wealthy family) he liked the School best, especially after he and Clarissa became better friends

During his seventh year teaching, he started seeing visions and painting as a way to get rid of them

And he didn’t really realize at the time (blindness and all) but he put the visions into the paintings

He did maybe a painting a year, depending on the amount of visions he had

After he finished the fifth (i think there were five? Someone correct me if not) the visions abruptly stopped and he was like

weird but ok

And he just went on teaching like normal

A year after his visions stopped, Evelyn came to the school, partly looking for him and partly looking for a job

Out of regret for the past and hopes for their future, August asked Clarissa (who was now dean of Good) to put in a good word for Evelyn

So Evelyn became the history teacher at Evil and August taught Good

Evelyn was even more of a loner than he’d been and he tried to get her to make friends among the faculty, but she refused

He had a feeling there was something going on with her and the school master, but he didn’t know what

A few times, he asked Evelyn about it, but she always dismissed him and said she was fine, and he got even more concerned

He talked to Clarissa about it but that didn’t really get him anywhere, since Clarissa barely knew the school master and she didn’t know Evelyn at all

So he went and tried to figure it out on his own but he didn’t find anything damning and was just starting to think his feeling was wrong, because he’d never had an actual vision about it

And then evelyn left all of a sudden, which was really strange

He wrote letters to her for a while, but they always got returned with no mailing address on them and after a while, he stopped trying

Before, he’d disliked his seer powers - they made it hard to make friends and hard to get a job - but now, he actively tried to use them

He even helped Clarissa make a crystal ball, but it didn’t show him anything

He did get a vision of a name - Agatha - that he thought was important, so he told Clarissa to name this Agatha as her Second

Once, he got a vision of Foxwood, but he just thought it was about his parents instead of Evelyn and he didn’t get any more visions after that, so he stopped trying

This is one of his biggest regrets in life, that he didn’t try harder with his sister

(side note: he never wanted a romantic relationship - ace!August for the win - and so he never pursued anything of the sort and he’d always been a loner so he was good with just Clarissa as a friend)

(oh and when lesso came to the school for evil it didn’t rly change much; August basically thought ooh, this’ll be perfect for spending more time on my books yay)

But even though he didn’t want romance, he really really really liked kids

For a while he was thinking about adopting a kid but decided against it, for two reasons

1) the school isn’t a good environment for a kid to grow up in

And 2) he didn’t have any real models of good parenting bc his own parents were usually busy - not that they were bad parents when they were there, just that they weren’t there most of the time

So no

But he still kinda wanted one

Until Agatha came, he just focused on his students, who he thought of as his honorary children and most of them thought of him as a father figure, especially those who had had bad childhoods

When Agatha and Sophie got to the school (when the series started, in other words), he immediately took a shine to Agatha - this girl who didn’t fit in with her people, who was crass and dirty and honestly, gross - she was kinda the opposite of him and any Ever, and he liked that

She represented a quality he wanted - the confidence to say exactly what you want and be exactly who you want, without letting others’ perceptions of you matter

And even if he didn’t like her that much, he would have easily taken a bullet for any of his students

So really, it was a very easy decision to die for Agatha and Sophie’s fairytale

Also, Clarissa had told him what his paintings were of (it was a rudimentary description but a description nonetheless) so he knew that it was v e r y important that Aggie and Soph survive

The ghosts of seers can sometimes come back to the living world and communicate (only to fairy godmothers or fairy godfathers) so a few times after he died, he came back to talk with Clarissa

When he saw the Camelot Years unfolding, he was like ohhhh, so that’s what that vision from all those years ago was

And now he’s just in the afterlife, doing what he loved to do in the living world - reading, mostly, and talking to Clarissa and occasionally Lesso

He’s never seen Evelyn in the afterlife and honestly, he doesn’t want to after seeing the events of AWWP

And that’s it i think!

i’m sorry it’s so long aoiejfsldkfja

also who should I do next? I was thinking either leticia of maidenvale/ snow white, kiko, or lance :)

[transelyan]

Rusted Sword AU 2.0

remember the original Rusted Sword AU? canceled. here’s the new and improved version.

okay so Excalibur is iron. when it’s thrown into the lake it becomes tarnished, which is where the AU gets its name.

most of the basics are still the same: 

Gwen and Leon are part of a secret pro-magic resistance

Elyan left because he has magic

Uther is the main antagonist & physically abusive toward Arthur/Morgana

Balinor was able to hide in Ealdor until Merlin was ten, at which point he left to protect Merlin. Merlin thinks he died until he meets Kilgharrah

Ealdor was attacked by bandits and burned. everyone was killed except for Will, who later died from his wounds. he and Merlin were traveling through the forest trying to get to Gaius.

Merlin gets arrested while burying Will’s body because Camelot Patrol thinks Merlin killed him, which is how Arthur and Merlin meet

Merlin is basically an accidental arsonist. his magic is directly connected to his emotions, so when he gets upset, things light on fire.

the ships are still Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Morgana, and Elyan/Gwaine/Percival. Elyan, Gwaine, and Percival’s lovestory isn’t really part of the main plot but it’s happening in the background while everything is going on.

also,,, the timeline of this makes no sense, but just ignore that lmao

NEW STUFF:

Nimueh is the Lady of the Lake, not Freya (Freya has her own role, don’t worry). when she left Camelot, she used her magic to create a safe haven for herself in the lake. she ended up raising Lancelot. she has no idea how she ended up with a son with such a strict moral code.

when Lancelot rolls up to Camelot, he’s not only lying about being a noble, but ALSO that his mother figure is. y’know. one of Camelot’s top ten most wanted. he doesn’t actually have any magic but he IS sensitive to it so he can easily recognize sorcerers (i.e., Merlin). Merlin knows he was raised by a sorceress, but he doesn’t know anything about Nimueh (until later)

Lancelot is trying to subtly find out more about the resistance so he and Nimueh can help them. he and Gwen immediately flock to each other (they recognize the “responsible with a love for hijinks and tomfoolery” personality type) and Gwen goes. “hmm. yeah alright i could use this himbo” and BOOM, Lance and his secret sorceress mom are part of the resistance.

SIDE NOTE: the resistance’s thing isn’t just fighting Uther. they also help those with magic/those who have been accused of magic get out of Camelot. this is how Freya fits in. she’s one of the people they help escape. SHE SURVIVES and goes to live in the lake with Nimueh. Nimueh can’t undo the curse, but she CAN give Freya free will. so now Freya’s in control over her actions when she transforms.

Merlin still decides to teach Morgana about magic. at first he’s trying to set up actual lessons like Balinor did with him (remember, Balinor left when Merlin was ten) but then he quickly realizes uhh. the reason Balinor’s lessons didn’t work was because Merlin’s magic is connected to his emotions, and thus WAY TOO POWERFUL, and Morgana is,,,, basically the same.

they’re still doing lessons and plotting against Uther, but it’s less “Merlin teaches Morgana” and more “let’s gossip while trying to piece together magic history, heal from our trauma, and figure out how to control our magic.” it’s the literal definition of “let’s fuck around and find out”

enter Morgause. they think she’s like Nimueh and wants to aid the resistance, but she just tries to manipulate all of them. exit Morgause.

Balinor dies at some point (it’s a personal problem) and Merlin becomes a Dragonlord. before that happens though Merlin and Kilgharrah are just. CONSTANTLY yelling at each other. it’s like their canon dynamic but funnier because this time, Merlin DOES actually know what’s going on.

there’s some sort of interlude ghost plotline. Merlin realizes, hey, my parents are dead but they’re happy in the afterlife, and no one blames me for their deaths (which is great). but something fucks up, and now Will is just. a ghost. they find his body buried somewhere in the forest, and use magic to basically make him a zombie. he goes to live in Nimueh’s wayward lake home (which is now a base for the resistance. a lot of sorcerers are relocated there so they’re out of danger)

Gwen and Merlin launch Operation Woo the Royals at some point. at the same time, Arthur and Morgana launch Operation Woo the Servants. these plans conflict with each other and ultimately cancel each other out, to the frustration and confusion of everyone involved. it eventually works out though because before the Final Battle™, Morgana and Gwen confess to each other. because they’re dramatic, Merlin and Arthur confess after one of them nearly dies

AT SOME POINT they all get involved the resistance, Arthur realizes Uther is bad, they start planning, etc. all of the main knights are spies (Leon is their biggest one)

Aithusa is born and Kilgharrah is released at some point. Kilgharrah and Arthur meet and because Arthur is pro-magic at that point, they have a tentative alliance. 

when the Final Battle™ finally happens, there’s a whole bunch of shit going on, but basically all their allies show up. Morgana/Gwen are leading a team and so are Merlin/Arthur. the dragons are causing problems. Freya, Nimueh, Will and Lancelot are ALSO causing problems (are Freya and Lancelot a thing in this AU? i’ll let you decide). Mithian and Elena show up and help out.

Uther dies in a thematically appropriate way (not sure who kills him, but i feel like it should be Morgana). Arthur, Morgana, Gwen, and Merlin become the new rulers of Camelot.

Morgana is the high priestess. she works with Nimueh, Merlin, and the Druids to try to recover all the knowledge, culture, and religion that was lost during the Purge. she also tries to reintegrate magic back into Camelot and make records of everyone who died.

Merlin is the head court sorcerer, head court physician, AND the last Dragonlord (he’s very busy, but basically he’s not the only physician or sorcerer, he’s just the Main One). his first students are Daegal and Gilli and they work with Morgana to recover old healing spells, make new ones, etc.

Gwen is both the leader of Camelot AND the leader of the resistance. the resistance still exists, but it’s now more about reform and reeducation. she helps weed out anti-magic nobles, creates programs to make sure citizens are being educated and fed properly, etc. she also helps find family members/homes for magical individuals that were forced to flee. 

Arthur is the technical Official King™. he does knight stuff. icon ❤️

most of the main characters either end up living in the castle or in Nimueh’s lake, and EVERYONE SURVIVES (except for like. Hunith, Balinor, Morgause, Cenred, and others).

SO YEAH. that’s the Rusted Sword AU 2.0!!!! i just spent like two and a half hours typing all of this out lmao. according to google docs this is over 1200 words so uh,,,, yikes

[alolanrain]

Ash was gone, up and left that Sunday night. Delia knew, she always knew when her son up and left. May it be for a journey or just a simple outing with his friends. What’s strange is that Ash has already been to every Region in the world, there’s nothing left to explore. Plus it was Monday, at ten in the morning no less, and Ash hasn’t shown up to help his mother plant the new flowers he sent her from Galar like Ash had promised the weekend before.

Delia knows her son after all, she’s the one that had to raise Ash mostly all up on her own.

Delia also wasn’t surprised when dead bodies started showing up in the middle of towns and cities, all over the world for every to see. It was quite bloody, in fact, organs on the display for even the youngest babies to see. Nothing was left hidden.

It made it satisfying to her for some reason. Maybe it’s because she knew more than half of the people lying on their back or shoved in a town square water fountain. Or maybe it’s because of the vindictive feeling blooming in her stomach and making Delia smile down into her first cup of Joe in the morning, when she first turned on the current news and at the multitude of giant, or little, ‘R’s stitched into every fabric the corpses were wearing. Always on display.

Instead of whoever was doing this, and she has a pretty good guess who was going out of their way, was working from the near top to all the way down to the bottom. The Admins for Team Rocket were the first to go, all four being placed in their home Region and City or Town center. Stretched or hanged for the people to see, to look upon the traitors of the world and point to them. Scorning their actions as piles and piles of internet doot prints were uploaded everywhere, on what felt like millions of accounts on all kind of apps and forums. No one that was affiliated in any good way with Team Rocket was safe.

Except for two humans, their Pokémon, and a talking Meowth.

Delia woke up at the crack of dawn like she always done, it’s been a habit ever since she opened up her little Deli shop in the middle of Pallet Town. Even though she’s gotten a lot more employees, especially for opening shifts because the older Delia gets the more she finds out how much she loves spending the morning with her Pokémon team since childhood, it’s a hard habit to break.

Leo, her shiny Sylveon, was already walking to the front door with a huff. His silk ribbons wrapping around the door handle while Delia walked up to it with a bit of curiosity and exasperated fondness filling her bones.

“Get in here you three!” Delia laughed. Gently nudging Leo away from the crack with her foot and opening the door up more so that the nervous beings could enter. Her smile was warm and soft as she took in their jump appearance.

“The Twerp said it was okay-“ the purple haired man, James, stuttered our but Delia stopped him.

“If it weren’t for you two, my son would have probably been laying at the bottom of the Primal Current dead and the world destroyed by the three birds and Lugia.” She reached out and pulled them in, kicking the door close with her feet while Delia motioned to Leo to go warm the rest of the tream. “So this home is yours, it’s always been yours since the beginning. Come sit down in the kitchen, I was just about to start breakfast.”

Delia has left them at the table, allowing them to sit in tear jerking silence as she went throug the motion of making breakfast. Delia had, unsurprisingly, no amount of anger towards them and what they’ve done in the past to her son. No, Her anger is directed at the head Honcho of the evil gang that’s been gripping Kanto and Johto long before she was even born.

Delia didn’t say anything, as she left the trio to their thoughts and very full dinner plates and extra in the kitchen, when she found an old tombstone broken and torn to shreds. But marks and cursed purple magic danced a little as she poked the broken cement with a nearby stick. Delia didn’t need to know who, or what Pokémon, went after it. She should have given Ash her team before letting him leave. They really need to get rid of their decades long anger and finally destress after all this.

She chose to ignore the muffled sobbing’s drifting from the kitchen window in favor of kissing Sunny, her beloved shiny Arcanine she had all this time since it was a baby Growlith as her second given starter after her first one was stolen, good morning and letting Miss Blue, Delia’s shiny Ninetails and her most pickiest is Pokenon partners, come between them for her own good morning kisses. Her big fluffy blue tinted tails wrapping around her legs and waist in Miss Blues version of a hug.

She didn’t even think about coming back into her house until all her Pokémon family members had gotten their hellos in and were now actively nudging her back towards the sliding glass door because it was breakfast time and they were hungry.

Soon enough, things changed.

Jessie, or Now just Jess, no longer wears tight fitting clothes and spending hours on end putting her hair up in that ridiculous hair swoop. Delia was proud of how fast she had regained her footing, and just how much faster she and Delia’s Houndoom, Soul, and her Togatic, Spots, has gotten along swimmingly. Jess now joins her for the rare jog-run she does on a few country dirt roads when Delia was feeling up to it. Delia also didn’t question it when an Arbol and a Weezing of all things showed up on her porch the next morning on the following Tuesday.

It also was the first day everyone had singly mindingly read the threat clear: Team Rocket will not survive, their rain is ending now and here. Blood shall run for the innocent who colored the streets by their hands. 

Delia has openly chuckled to herself when her guests were still asleep upstairs in Ash’s old redecorated bedroom. Her cold vicious sneer glared back at herself on the TV reflective screen as she watched the camera pan over Ariana’s cold blood drained body that was hanging off a weird metal sculpture that was in the middle of a Town Square in Johto. Silver had sent her a YouMon link that sent Delia to a video titled “The Witch Is Dead.”

Her laughter was louder and had woken up her guests, Delia made breakfast once more while shooing James our do the kitchen multiple times. Brandishing a spatula the entire time.

James took a little more time, it wasn’t until Tracey came around to study and practice her drawing skill on Delia’s Pokémon and spotted James did his healing transformation started. The poor young man was pulled on by a stubborn Tracey through Oalleg Town and to the Professors Ranch, to then for Tracey to to show James how to use an old polaroid camera and a mission to go talk to a few of Ash’s more friendly Pokémon.

Meowth has been inducted that following Wednesday, when the mutilated bodies of Team Rocket’s loads upon loads of scientist were scattered all over the world, by Gary’s sweet Umbreon. The poor cat Pokémon was picked up by the scruff and was bodily dragged to the ranch with Tracey and James following behind it. Tracey giving suggestions and some smalll pointers to James on how to work his new camera. Meowth was surprisingly greeted with open arms by Ash’s Pokémon, none held too much anger for the cat Pokémon since Ash had expressed time and time again of the trios predicament to them. Meowth has never cried so much in his lifetime, and this is including the moment when his mother had left him on the streets to fend for himself at three weeks old.

Delia has used her money, or just barely a fraction of what Ash sends her every month because he doesn’t know what to do with the money the League gives him besides give it to charity and spending it on his travels, to buy the house next door to her. Not the Oaks house down the road to her left, even when it’s barely used anymore and it’s mostly now just an extra house for Delia to house her sons guests in, no. She bought the one a little less down to her right. It was a two story house with just a smaller yard then Delia’s, though it didn’t stop her from smashing down the wooden fence and expanding her garden into their new backyard for James and Jess to join her getting dirty. It was perfect for them and Meowth, along with their plenty of Pokémon who happily greet her every morning just like her own team.

The following Thursday, over more than half a million Team Rocket members that were spread all over in the upper part of many governments and big name brands were killed or seriously maimed and disfigured in that short amount of time had sent Delia reeling back in over flowing motherly pride and love, Champion Lance and Orange Isles Elite Four Drake had shown up in her door. She had just finished teaching both James and Jessie how to properly set up wet clothes that needed to be hung outside on a clothesline is read of shoving them in a dryer at their new home that Delia practically forced onto them with some slight added Country Morther love.

She ushered them in, shushing Souls quite snarling and nudging Miss Blue our of the way, while asking why they were hear and they were just in time because Delia was about to make dinner!

Lance, ever her dumbest childhood friend, asked where Ash was. Or more like demanded by going off his tone of voice. Stomping his foot and declaring that Ash needed to come to the castle right this second.

Thankfully Gary was out of town visiting some other relatives of his sweet late mothers. He wouldn’t be to particularly angry if Delia had stayed that the newly minted Professor had taken Ash as a support human. It’s not like she’s technically wrong, Delia did know for a fact Ash was the one that’s going to pick Gary up on the incoming Sunday.

She had forced the two League Members into sitting down for dinner, steak with loaded potatoes and seasoned barbecued Leaks, Melony had sent her those in a special delivery when Rose’s shredded corpse was hanging off the Chairman’s main building in front of the sliding glass doors. The roses underneath the glass in the entry way were replaced with Blue Forget-Me-Nots, It was a subtle hint made towards Mr.Goodshow, something Delia had caught extremely quickly.

The next day Friday, where the first and only kill was made in Alola according the the news, the new Galar Head Chairman was appointed outside of all Galars previous Chairmen’s. Delia actually ment Chairwoman, Miss Chairwoman Myoso was a wonderful women from what she appeared on TV already. Maybe now Leon will have a less hectic schedual. That same morning a delicately made box wrapped in the finest of hand painted silk was delivered to Delia’s porch, she knew who had done it but it also wasn’t her place to voice the silent appreciation gift.

Her kitchen has never sparkled so beautifully in the middle of the day during lunch. And all she has to thank were the little flat glass figures of the island Tapu’s closed shells twirling and swaying, hanging from near her kitchen top window.

Delia never liked Faba to begin with when she had met him, while he and Sycamore were both still in college, all those years ago.

More small trinkets were popping up on her doorstep every morning. All wrapped in very nice clothes and one of them in giant thin leaves. They ranged from very beautiful necklaces, to even a few plants and cups, her favorite so far either had to be the colored glass blown Swampert figuring sitting o top of her new fountain in the middle of her garden. One she hadn’t built at all and knew just who exactly did that. Or the little green house but that popped up that morning as well, the only plant in it was a Kalosian flower that was red, white, and black with small pink crystals gently fused into the pot top thick edge.

She had breakfast with the trio on that Saturday morning, they were on the young adults new back patio when a streak for blazing fire crossed the sky. Flashes of green and purples bluish light soon followed after.

Delia chose to ignore it while the other three started to freak out a little. She let them have a few minutes before bringing them back to their cooking breakfast omelets Jess has made for them.

Later that night the reporter stated that multiple unapproved satellites where brought crashing to the Earth crust. Only stopping mysteriously and there were some very blurred photos of a giant green floating snake like Pokémon and two purple floating blurred next to the head. Delia had finally gone for her first and only scotch for that evening, since a thought about getting any more than half a glass had Mr.Mimey skittering out of a random hallway corner and babbling at her while getting Delia a glass of water and a Tylenol before rushing the woman off to bed. 

Sunday was the end all the river full of blood crashing through the streets.

Sunday was the day when the world woke up the sight of Giovanni’s head spreads onto a pole in Pallet Town Square. Directly in the middle of the giant water fountain and the blood slowly dripping down was making the cascading water turn a light pink color like someone just added food dye.

Sunday morning is when she had her son knocking on her door. With Gary, Daisy and her husband, Tracey, Misty, Brock, Ritchie, Professor Oak standing behind him. The trio, who she had fondly started to call them her kids just like Ash and Gary and the wrest of Ash’s friends, Ahmad let themselves in from the slide back door. Everyone ignored when Umbreon and Pikachu both trotted up and twisted themselves around Meowth, the pile for fur and limbs were purring. Especially since Pikachu had grown to half way between Sunny and Souls height.

Sunday was when Ash and Delia walked for an hour and a half out into an old path in the woods. Only to stop by an old broken down house with moss, vines, and even a few small tress growing inside with rubble all around the place. They were visiting Delia’s home before her parents had died, before she had to move in with Lance and his parents if Delia wanted to stay back in Kanto. Visiting a time before her first starter was stolen from her along with her innocence and late teen years as she struggled to get by while pregnant.

Sunday is the day she was reunited with her first starting, the first time she openly cried in front of her son as Delia felt the oh so familiar feeling of a sandpaper tongue licking her hands and face while a deep purring and mewling echoed around the destructed building. amber slots blown wide stared back into Delia’s own amber eyes, before both their eyes closed and Delia leaned forward to plant a lasting kiss onto her sweet Persians glimmering red gem on its silky furred forehead.

Sunday is the day Delia finally starts to heal from her past.

———————————————————————

Or better yet! Known as the Heaven Or Hell!AU where Delia’s first starter was a Meowth that got stolen by Giovanni when he ditched her later down the road and Ash found out and decided: fuck it, time to snap. Because no one fucks away with his mom if Ash has anything to say about it.

[voltrontranscript]

VLD S8E3: The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Season 8 Episode 3: The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: The Voltron Coalition takes over a Galra base on the planet Ryker, where they meet up with a familiar face: Warlord Lahn. They offer him a place in the Voltron Coalition, and are interrupted by a distress signal from a droid on a missing ship. When they go on the search and rescue operation, the heroes get more than they bargained for.

[Google Doc]

Lahn: What’s happening?

Galra Officer: Six hostile ships have entered the system, sir.

Lahn: Prepare armaments and power the satellites. How did they make it past initial detection?

Keith: This is the Voltron Coalition. Lay down your arms and--

Lahn: Open fire!

Lance: Well, that didn’t take long!

Hunk: Fighters launching! Six o’clock low!

Keith: Remember, shoot them down if needed, but try to avoid collateral damage on the ground.

[Cut to the bridge of the IGF-Atlas.]

Shiro: Shield status.

Iverson: Holding steady at ninety-five percent, but the ground cannons have us targeted.

Shiro: Let’s give the Lions some backup. Adjust our heading down to one point zero five.

Coran: Adjusting course.

Shiro: Lock onto the ground cannons. 

Iverson: We have weapons lock.

Shiro: Fire!

Iverson: Prepare for launch. Once you’re locked in, you’ve got three seconds. Anticipate, but don’t jump the gun.

Pilots: Copy.

Griffin: Alright, team, we’ve got to clear a path for the rebel ships. Let’s move!

Keith: Paladins! Let’s take out their reinforcements.

[Cut to the command center of the base.]

Lahn: Damage report!

Galra Officer: We’ve suffered little to no casualties, sir, but half the fleet has been rendered inoperable.

[Cut to N-7 outside the base.]

N-7: Pulse emitters set. Detonation in three, two, one.

[Cut back to the command center.]

Galra Officer: All power is down across the base. Only the emergency power generators remain active.

Lahn: What about the satellites?

Galra Officer: They should still be operational.

Lahn: Good.

[Cut to the IGF-Atlas.]

Shiro: Does anyone have eyes on where these lasers are coming from?

Pidge: I’m not seeing anything on my scanners. Trying to locate point of origin now.

Allura: I’m on it. I’ve got visual on two cloaked cannon satellites.

Hunk: How did we miss those?

Pidge: It looks like we wormholed right past them.

Keith: Paladins, on me! Form Voltron!

Shiro: Great job making quick work of the satellites, Paladins. We’ve successfully gained control of the base.

[Scene change to the command center of the base.]

James: This one says he’s the leader.

Hunk: Whoa! Oh! Holy Kaltenecker, what are you doing here? It’s me, Hunk. Remember? Paladin of the Yellow Lion? We worked together.

Lahn: I remember.

Keith: Wait, you know this guy?

Hunk: Yeah, from the Omega Shield. Oh, that’s right, you were, uh, you were on a space road trip with your mom. Keith, this is our friend Lieutenant Lahn.

Lahn: It’s Warlord Lahn now, and you and I are not friends.

Hunk: Oh. Okay, uh… I guess I just thought we bonded by working together as a team to fix the Omega Shield and save your planet, you know? A Galra-occupied planet, no less. We saved it. It’s cool. No big deal.

Lahn: Sendak only attacked the Omega Shield after we pledged loyalty to Voltron. Then you disappeared and left us vulnerable to more attacks. I vowed to never let that happen again.

Allura: It was not our intention to be gone for so long. But we’re here now.

Lahn: To claim victory over us?

Allura: No!

Shiro: We didn’t come here to argue. Warlord Lahn, we’re asking you to join the Voltron Coalition to help provide stability to the universe.

Lahn: What’s the alternative?

Shiro: If you want peace, if you want to end this war, there can be no alternative.

Lahn: You’ve attained victory, and I accept defeat.

Keith: It doesn’t have to be victory or death. I know it’s the Galra way, but--

Lahn: And what do you know of the Galra?

Keith: My mother is Galra. She’s a member of the Blade of Marmora. So am I.

Lahn: The mutinous Blades have all but perished. Are they so diminished in numbers that they’re forced to enlist a half-breed and his mommy?

Pidge: Guys, I’m getting an incoming communication.

Shiro: Patch it through.

Distorted Male Voice: Yordam bering exus. Yordam bering exus. Yordam bering exus.

Lahn: It’s an emergency protocol built into the sentries when they’re under distress. Has your Voltron Coalition attacked them, as well?

Keith: No, we didn’t.

Shiro: Pidge, see if you can reopen the hailing frequency.

Pidge: I’m trying, but no response. I’m locating the transmission’s origin, but the EMPs we set off have done a number on the communications systems. Huh? E got a comm signature. Do you recognize this ship?

Lahn: Yes, it’s Klytax V-Three. It’s one of the fifteen ships I sent on an assignment six phoebs ago. They all disappeared. We assumed them dead.

Keith: It looks like they’re not dead after all. We need to get out there. Shiro, how long before the Atlas is ready to launch again?

Shiro: Hours. We still need to process all the Galra and prepare the planet to continue operating on its own. This is our mission. We need to see this through.

Keith: Then Voltron will go.

Lahn: Voltron is going to save the Galra? My fleet would never believe Voltron was there to help. They’d fight you until their last breath.

Keith: That’s why you’re coming with us.

[Scene change to open space en route to the location of Klytax V-Three.]

Keith: What was this fleet’s mission when they left?

Lahn: They were out gathering munitions.

Allura: Weapons? Were you buying or stealing them?

Lahn: The Galra Empire is at war with itself. We have to do what we can to survive. But if you must know, they were salvaging weapons from an abandoned Galra base.

Pidge: I have visual.

Keith: Everyone, stay alert.

Lance: What happened here?

Hunk: Uh, Warlord Lahn, didn’t you say there were fifteen cruisers? Where are the rest of them?

Pidge: I’m not detecting any signs of life or biorhythms on the closest two ships, but there are some signals coming from the ship at the end.

Lahn: That’s Klytax V-Three, where the call came from.

Keith: Hailing Galra Cruiser Klytax V-Three. This is Keith, Paladin of the Black Lion of Voltron. Do you copy?

Lahn: This is Warlord Lahn, your commander. Do you copy?

Distorted Male Voice: Yordam bering exus. Yordam bering exus.

Keith: Whoever’s in there, we need to find them and get them out.

Pidge: If I can access the ship’s security network, we should be able to find out what happened here.

Keith: Paladins, Lahn and I are gonna head in first to make sure the entry point is safe. You guys jetpack in behind us.

Paladins: Copy.

[Scene change to inside the ship, where Keith, Kosmo, and Lahn teleport in.]

Keith: We’re all clear. Lahn, open the airlock doors.

[Cut to the Paladins as they enter the airlock, then group up with Lahn and Keith.]

Keith: Pidge, are you picking up any signals?

Pidge: There are multiple biorhythms, but they’re intermittent, almost random. It doesn’t make any sense.

Keith: Okay, we’ll need to split up to find any survivors. Hunk and Lance, clear the aft of the ship. I’ll take the bow and work my way toward you. Pidge and Allura, take Lahn to go through the security logs. Find out what happened here.

Lahn: I don’t like taking orders on my own ship.

Keith: Duly noted.

[Scene change to Keith searching the ship in the dark.]

Keith: Nobody’s here.

[Transition to Lahn attempting to access the bridge’s computer.]

Lahn: It’s useless! The ship is in lockdown and the systems can’t be rebooted. We’ll need to contact my base for the security keys.

Pidge: Okay. Or we could just do this.

Allura: What’s wrong with it?

Pidge: I’m not sure. It appears to be corrupted. Let me see if I can clean this up.

Lahn: Everything I’ve spent years fighting for, taken away in an instant.

Allura: I, too, have lost everything. My planet, my family. But when the Paladins arrived at the Castle of Lions--

Lahn: You’ve never had to earn power. It’s always been given to you! You’re looking for something you once had: security, peace, happiness. Those things have never been part of a Galra soldier’s life. You and I are not the same.

Allura: You want something to call your own. Believe it or not, I understand that, but there are other ways to get it than through force. That’s what the coalition is offering.

[Scene change to Hunk and Lance floating through the escape pod bay.]

Hunk: The escape pods are still here.

Lance: Yeah, but the Galra aren’t. Everyone is gone, but no one escaped in one of these things.

Hunk: Ugh, that’s creepy. Oh, it’s a massacre! We gotta get out of here!

Lance: Ah! It’s all over me!

Hunk: Me, too! Lance, get it off me! Oh--oh, wait. Wait a minute. It’s food goo!

Lance: It’s not coming off!

Hunk: Oh, it’s rotten food goo! Gross!

[Cut to Keith, who finds a large hole blasted through several walls.]

Keith: What could have done this?

[Cut back to Allura, Pidge, and Lahn on the bridge.]

Pidge: I think I’ve got something. The soldier is here, but after the flash, he’s gone. But now the shadow is on the other side of the screen.

Allura: Perhaps it’s from another soldier.

Pidge: I don’t think so. That’s less than a tenth of a second. Hold on, it looks like the trajectory of the lighting angles combined with the proximity to the soldier are distorting the shadow’s shape.

Lahn: What is that thing?

[Cut back to Hunk and Lance as they float further up the ship, where they stumble across Ranveig’s Creature siphoning the quintessence from the Balmera crystal.]

Pidge: Guys, be on the lookout for a giant, deadly monster.

Allura: We believe it’s what attacked the crew. Avoid at all costs.

Pidge: Lance, Hunk, do you copy?

[Cut back to Pidge as Lance and Hunk shriek into the comms.]

Pidge: Guys, are you okay? Lance? Hunk?

Hunk: We’re okay.

[Cut to the Creature zipping through the halls and stopping at a computer.]

Pidge: Keith, we just contacted Lance and Hunk. They saw something. Be advised--

[Cut to Lance and Hunk returning to the bridge of the ship.]

Pidge: Keith? Keith, can you hear me?

Allura: Are you two okay?

Lance: Yeah, we’re fine, but we need to get out of here, now!

Pidge: Why? What happened?

Hunk: It was… monster. Ah. Blue flash. Almost died. I got rotten food goo.

Lance: Wait, where’s Keith?

[Scene change to Keith in a dimly lit hallway of the ship.]

Keith: Hello?

Sentry: What are you? What are you?

Keith: My name is Keith, leader of Voltron, Paladin of the Black Lion. Wait. “Yordam bering exus.” Is that you?

Sentry: Where are the rest of the Galra?

Keith: They’re still on planet Ryker. Why?

Sentry: Planet Ryker.

[Cut to the rest of the group on the bridge.]

Pidge: Keith and I were in communication right before we got disconnected. It must have been that thing. You said you saw the creature, right?

Lance: Oh, yeah! Face-to-horrifying-face!

Lahn: We just watched that thing take out one of my men in an instant. How did you two manage to escape unscathed?

Hunk: What’s happening now?

Pidge: The ship’s moving, and it’s headed towards Lahn’s base!

Hunk: Oh, Keith! Good, you’re here! There’s a monster on the ship!

Keith: The base you sent this fleet to plunder, was it Warlord Ranveig’s?

Lahn: Yes, it was.

Keith: Unbelievable.

Allura: Keith, what’s going on?

Keith: The creature on this ship is a superweapon designed to destroy the Galra, and only Galra.

Lahn: Warlord Ranveig would never create such a thing.

Keith: Ranveig found the creature in the Quantum Abyss and experimented on it with Lotor’s quintessence. He trained it to take out his Galran enemies, but he could never control it. The beast couldn’t differentiate between adversaries and allies.

Lance: Wait, how do you know so much about this super-moster-weapon-thingy?

Keith: Because Krolia and I let it loose so we could escape Ranveig’s base. This is all my fault. I’m sorry.

Lahn: It���s what you’ve wanted from the beginning. Something to get rid of the Galra for you.

Lance: I don’t know what it’s gonna take to get it through your thick skull, but we’re not your enemy.

Keith: Pidge, can you initiate the self-destruct protocol? We need to destroy this ship and the monster along with it. And we need to do it immediately.

Pidge: Okay, I’m on it. Once I initiate, we’ll have two doboshes to exit the ship.

Lance: Two hours? Isn’t that too long?

Others: Minutes!

Lance: What? That’s not enough time!

Pidge: Let’s move!

Sentry: All Galra must perish.

Lance: Oh, come on! Pidge, how much time before the ship explodes?

Pidge: Sixty ticks.

Hunk: We gotta get them out of there.

Pidge: This should do it. That thing overrode my protocol!

Lance: We can take it down with our bayards.

Allura: Keith!

Lance: We’re coming for you!

Hunk: Stand away from the door!

Lahn: Victory or death!

Keith: Do you trust me yet? Paladins, clear the hallway. We’re coming through! Let’s go!

Pidge: Ten ticks!

Allura: The cargo bay where we entered is the nearest exit point.

Pidge: Five ticks! We’ll never make it!

[Scene change to Planet Ryker as Warlord Lahn speaks to a crowd.]

Lahn: The Galra Empire may be decimated, but its warriors are still needed to maintain stability. Twice the Paladins of Voltron have risked their lives for me, and yet I questioned their intent. I was wrong. I pledge loyalty to a united front with the Voltron Coalition and I encourage you all to do the same.

[Scene change to the bridge of the IGF-Atlas.]

Pidge: I downloaded some intel from that cruiser. There might be another one of Honerva’s beasts out there.

Lance: Another one?

Allura: This is just what I feared. Shiro, we need to adjust our mission’s objective and track down where these things are coming from.

Shiro: How certain are you that it’s a robeast?

Pidge: I’m not positive, but according to the message logs, some Galra have spotted a giant robotic mech that fits the description. The logs even refer to a similar weapon.

Allura: There may be another Altean piloting it. We must investigate.

Shiro: Thousands of innocent souls are waiting to be liberated from what remains of the Galra Empire. We can’t just change course.

Keith: Maybe you don’t have to.

Shiro: Keith, what are you saying?

Keith: We’ll split up. The Atlas will continue working with the Galra while Voltron searches for Honerva and her beasts.

Shiro: You’ll be out there on your own, without backup.

Keith: We’ll be okay. Voltron is stronger now more than ever.

[Scene change to a crowd of Alteans standing at the steps of Oriande, where Honerva activates a teludav and opens a large pink wormhole, where an Altean mech flies from Oriande out into space.]

End.

[no-error]

Fantasy Klance Ficrec

Finally new list for fic recs. Hope ya all enjoy these awesome fics. :)

Remember check out tags!

Of Wolves and Wisps

Lance knows not to seek with his mind in the woods. The fae have a habit of twisting the desires sought by those who chase after the wisps. But when given no other choice, Lance makes the decision to alter his path. To change his fate.

He should have known, really, how things would turn out.

Never call out to wolves. One may just answer.

Words: 145,585 AO3

The Criminal Witch and His Knight of a Husband

Series

Under the rule of an unjust king, witches not employed by the crown had become illegal in the kingdom of Altea. Not wanting to work for a filthy murderer of a man, Lance spitefully refused to get his certification at the normal age of sixteen. But that was over half a decade ago. Altea is now ruled by the beautiful and reasonable Queen Allura, and Lance finds himself happily married to her head knight, despite his fugitive status.

Lance struggles with helping hot headed, prone to danger Keith stay alive, while simultaneously keeping his ability to cast spells a secret. He can't have him figuring anything out. After all, the last thing he wants is for his own husband to arrest him.

Words: 80,309 AO3

Star Cursed

A Dragon familiar is the last thing Lance expects to summon when he graduates lowest in the class at the Magerium. All he wants to do is summon a toad or a cat and get to work, but summoning a High Magic creature like a Dragon is something no one has done in hundreds of years. The Dragon, named Keith (why, WHY is he named Keith), is trained to be a familiar for the most powerful of mages.

Unluckily for him, Lance is assigned the task of lesser potions master. Lance has to navigate a precarious balance of grumpy-Dragon-with-nothing-to-do on top of his workload of boring tasks. That’s when he isn’t enduring the ridicule of the other students, who believe him to be “Star Cursed.” To make matters worse, discontent in the Magerium is brewing and it might mean danger for all High Magic creatures, which currently includes one Dragon named Keith

Words: 152,239 AO3

fit the crown to my head

“What’s the fun in a masquerade if you don’t flirt outrageously with the prettiest person in the room?” the young man says flippantly, and then winks at Keith. Keith huffs a laugh, amused.

“You keep saying things like that, but you haven’t seen my face,” he says, gesturing to his mask. “I could have warts under here. I could have spots, or scars.”

“You’d be lovely even with all of those,” the young man says, and he suddenly sounds serious. It takes Keith by surprise, makes his heart twist along with his stomach. “Your eyes,” he continues, tilting his head. “I’ve never seen eyes like yours before.”

Words: 75,705 AO3

Magic Bound & Unbound

Set in a world where familiars and witches are paired to perform magic together, Lance is an aspiring witch who is desperate to find his bondmate. He's dreamed of the day when he would be able to perform bonded magic, but hides a dark secret that could ruin everything. Keith is a familiar who's seen a little too much of the world. He's been paired with witches multiple times and each one has forced and broken a bond on him, so now he swears off ever letting himself be paired again.

When they meet, though, Lance triggers something in Keith and it scares the hell out of him. A part of him desperately wants to be paired, but he's not sure he can take rejection one more time.

Words: 56,345 AO3

Regarding Park Benches and Demon Bites

Lance forces his eyes open, all the way this time. It takes them a second to adjust, and when they do, his stomach plummets to the center of the earth. The man is in a black shirt, the sleeves rolled up on his forearms to reveal the runes inked across his pale skin. There’s a sword strapped across his back, a big one.

“You’re a Shadowhunter,” Lance blurts. Lance’s mother had warned him about getting mixed up with these bloodthirsty maniacs, and here he is, half conscious next to the very people he’d worked so hard to avoid the last two years. He’s fucked. Royally screwed. He isn’t sure what kind of punishment is handed out to warlocks for public intoxication but his mind races through options like indefinite imprisonment, dismemberment, death?

Words: 8,999 AO3

you build your tower (but call me home)

In the land of Arus, the youngest Nalquodian prince—Prince Leandro—is hidden away in a little castle that overlooks the kingdom; a countermeasure to protect him from the Galran assassins that have sworn to take his life.

And in the tallest tower of the castle, behind a grimy rose window and under a dusty sheet, is an enchanting gargoyle that the prince finds himself compelled to visit every day.

Almost as if by a spell...

Words: 63,041 AO3

Wild Magic

The Vastaya are an ancient and proud race, born of magic and man, and they are dying. The spread of humans makes the magic of their homelands run thin. What is left is preyed upon and corrupted by the rising galra influence.

After losing their home, what remains of the Marmora tribe scatters, fighting the spread of corruption where they can. For the last few centuries, this is the only life Keith has known. And with Shiro’s disappearance, he’s more alone than ever. But he keeps going, even if it means losing himself. For the fight. For his people. For their future. For his homelands. For magic.

The last thing he expected to find is another feathered vastaya, one with wings that shine like the sky and move like waves when he dances. He never asked for company, never wanted it. But as Keith finds himself growing fond of Lance’s flippant attitude and determined blue eyes, he thinks that maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t want to fight alone anymore.

Words: 151,776 AO3

A Touch of Magic

"Keith—" He feels his heart lurch as Keith squats down next to him. One hand on his wolf's head, scratching behind his ear. His eyes, however, remain fixed on Lance, and he had really hoped that the whole dry-mouth-lump-in-the-throat-heart-skipping-a-beat thing would've stopped happening when he turned, but here he is. Vampiric and still the flustered mess he was when he was human. "Buddy, I can't breathe—"

"You don't have to breathe," He says, that ghost of a smile still fixed and the whisper of amusement in his voice.

It sends chills down his spine.

Lance huffs as much as he can when there's a large wolf crushing his chest. "That doesn't mean it's not uncomfortable."

"You'll survive." He pats his wolf one last time before pushing to his feet. "Better luck next time, Lance."

"I'll get you one day, Keithy boy." He calls out as Keith walks away, disappearing from his vision and continuing down the path. "Just you wait."

Words: 19,953 AO3

For Fox Sake

Foxtail series

Photography has always been an passion of Keith's. Being able to capture that perfect moment - grant it immortality and unleash it to the world so that the people may decide what stories they tell - is what he lives for.

So when given the opportunity to expand his horizons, Keith finds himself on a month long excursion in the middle of nowhere, with only his camera and his own thoughts to keep him company.

And this forest - this mountainous landscape seemingly untouched by human hands - holds more than just a vast array of scenic landscapes and wondrous wildlife worthy of being captured in film.

It holds a secret. One Keith hadn't anticipated discovering, much less believing. And though they say "take only pictures, leave only footprints", Keith worries that when he finally has to return to his mundane world, he'll be leaving more than just tracks on the ground.

But his heart has always belonged to the woods, and he knows the fox will guard it well.

Words: 80,888 AO3

Ghost on the Shore

After moving into an desolated house in a swamp, Keith finds that the area's not as abandoned as he anticipated. He soon meets Lance, a mysterious boy that apparently lives out in the marsh, and who seems to possess magical powers to a certain degree.

Words: 37,055 AO3

It Never Rains on Saturday

Rain or Shine Series

In the magical kingdom of Altea lies an ominous tower filled with monsters. Every day, adventurers battle through the tower’s levels in a never-ending quest to slay the Demon King who lives at the very top.

Lance, a talented archer, is one such adventurer. However, Lance doesn’t want to kill the Demon King.

Lance wants to marry him.

Words: 22,726 AO3

Nameless

Lance McClain was not pale. He enjoyed the sun as much as any other, and though he was often run down or fatigued, this was due to his steadily amounting college work, not his need to sleep upside down. He was everything a vampire wasn't. Oh, except for his constant cravings for blood, and the name in cursive permanently scrawled over his wrist.

Since the name had appeared on Lance's thirteenth birthday, he'd been desperately waiting for the day he'd finally meet his soulmate. And it finally comes, the first day of his second year of college, delivering a boy that causes everything Lance had fantasized to come crashing down around him. Not only is his mate a human, but he's the kind of human that despises vampires. A hunter named Keith.

But matters of the heart aren't the only thing standing in Lance's way, for a much greater enemy is on the horizon, posing a threat not only to Lance and his family, but to Keith, too. The nameless are coming for them, and soon.

Words: 102,409 AO3

Were-woof

Living off the grid is one thing. Keith had been doing it his whole life. However, now that the mountain he has lived on his whole live is slowly being developed thanks to a ski resort it's getting harder and harder for Keith to keep to himself. Especially when he happens to catch the eye of a rather cute looking townie.

Words: 133,954 AO3

An Eternal Flame

“Do you have a deathwish?” The phoenix answers him with a question this time, apparently intent on dodging the question about its name. Maybe it’s for the best, Lance’s mama always warned him that he tended to get attached to things once he’d named them. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath.

He isn’t going to get attached this time.

Making sure that he’s still holding the phoenix’s attention, he reaches down and pushes his cloak aside, then lifts his shirt. There, bright red and ugly against his hip, are three long slashes. They aren’t scars, they aren’t healed in the slightest, they’re still red and open wounds. They don’t hurt, not in the physical sense, but Lance can’t help the repulsion he feels whenever he looks at them.

“Not a deathwish, a death sentence.”

Words: 63,692 AO3

[sinsbymanka]

4. “I should have told you a long time ago.” May I request this dialogue prompt for Kenna and Blackwall?

@bearly-tolerable I ALMOST did the thing everyone would expect. BUT I wanted to write some shit about dwarf culture instead. I hope you like it! 

“My lady, your mother is here.” Josephine declared smoothly, sailing into the room in a rustle of gold silk as if she hadn’t dropped a grenade into the silence. “The tower solarium has been made into a room for her, per your instructions, would you...” 

Kenna didn’t wait for the rest of the report. She bolted up so quickly she spilled the pot of ink all over her meager attempts at writing. She abandoned it, racing through the great hall, sending a noble squawking as she dashed past. 

Her mother. She hadn’t seen her mother in two years. 

Kenna didn’t stop, even as her lungs burned, scrambling ungracefully down the stone steps. She didn’t stop until she jumped from the bottom step, landing lightly in the muddy courtyard, eyes lighting on the small figure on the arm of a willowy human woman in Inquisition armor. 

Her mother’s blonde hair gleamed in the sun like honey in a jar. She still wore it in the ornate, heavy braids so fashionable among the nobles in Orzammar. Kenna remembered her deft fingers doing it by touch alone each day, humming a song under her breath as she arranged it. As a little girl, Kenna had allowed her mother to do her own less lustrous hair in the same braids. 

Hanelle Cadash was still a beauty, though. Kenna watched her smile, cheeks curling upward, her head inclining to the sound of children’s laughter. That smile, so soft and sweet, made her ache. Made a small part of her want to throw herself into those tender arms and weep like a babe herself. 

Kenna caught her breath instead and approached, half in wonder, as the woman looked up at her escort. She broke into their hushed conversation, rough and unpolished as ever. “Mother?” 

Her mother jumped, shocked, face turning to the sound of Kenna’s voice. She dropped the arm of the scout, reaching out instead with both arms in Kenna’s direction, milky, useless eyes staring ahead sightlessly. 

“I forgot.” Hanelle whispered, tears filling those unseeing orbs. “You always moved like a mouse. Come, where are you? Where...?” 

Kenna reached out to capture one of those fine hands as it searched the air for her. She placed it on her cheek and her mother brought the other up to cradle Kenna’s face in her hands. “I’m right here.” She answered, voice gone harsh with tears she would not shed. Not here. 

Her mother had no such qualms about the water filling her eyes. Underneath the film, they were still the same sharp emerald as her daughter’s. Her hands trembled as she traced her thumb over the curve of Kenna’s jaw, frowning when she encountered the scar running up her neck, a new one. 

“I have missed you.” The older woman confessed. “Every night, I have begged our Ancestors to guide your footsteps.” 

So much for that. She was sure their glorious (or ignoble) ancestors were rolling in their cairns at their roughshod daughter who had humans calling her their Herald. “I’m glad you’re here.” Kenna answered, pressing her own scarred hands over the fine silk of her mother’s touch. 

Safe. Finally. The Dasher’s last hold on her gone, extracted from below to come live in the sun. Somehow, Kenna thought it would suit her gentle mother more than the grit of dust town. “I have a room for you. I hope you like it.” 

“I will love anywhere I am.” Hanelle beamed. “As long as I am here with you.” 

-- 

Kenna made the tea herself. Just the way she remembered her mother liked it. She pointedly ignored the scandalized looks from the kitchen staff when she appeared out of the shadows. They looked even more distraught when she deftly picked up the tray and carried it from the cavernous room. 

She made it halfway across the castle before she found Thom waiting for her at the foot of the stairs leading to her mother’s new room. He unfolded his tall form from where he leaned against the stone with a broad, uncertain smile. “My lady.” He chuckled, indicating the tray. “Allow me.” 

She wanted to do it. She pulled it back to her chest stubbornly and inclined her head up the stairs. “Have you heard?” 

“That the Inquisitor is wearing a smile so radiant the bards across Orlais say she is their only muse?” Thom laughed again, even harder when he saw the flush rise to her face. “I’m glad you’re happy, love. I’m glad she’s here. I had heard... I had heard she was unwell?” 

Unwell? Kenna blinked, confused, staring up at Thom. He grew red under her scrutiny, scratching his beard uncertainly. “She... she has lost her eyesight?” 

Oh. Oh. “She’s blind as newborn nug.” Kenna stated bluntly. “She’s not unwell. She hasn’t been able to see a deep mushroom in the dark since I was thirteen, that’s all.” 

Kenna slipped past him with a smirk as he sputtered, trailing her heels. “I just... I hadn’t realized. I don’t believe you ever said. You’ve hardly spoken of her.” 

That... was fair. Kenna frowned at the tray held steady in her hands before flipping her eyes back to him as he strode up the stairs beside her, pace matching hers expertly. “I didn’t like to. It’s hard. She’s the only family I got and she was... she was far away.” 

“I had been surprised to learn your mother still lived beneath the surface.” Thom stated with a huff. “And you up here.” 

“I came up here to take care of her.” Kenna couldn’t meet his eyes for this explanation. The words burned her throat. “Mother... mother was a noble hunter. Do you know...?” 

He shook his head and she sighed. They emerged into an abandoned hallway and Kenna jerked her chin into one of alcoves. They peeled off to hide themselves in it, like they were preparing to snog. Kenna wished they were preparing to snog. “You can’t think less of her.” She snapped, ferociously protective.

“Love, I won’t.” 

His insistence won her over and she studied the brick wall beside her, pulling the tray into her form even more like it was a shield she could hide behind. “Noble hunters are... pretty women. Girls, really. Casteless from dust town that are... trained to please the deep lords in the soddin’ assembly. The goal is... they give birth to a boy and the lords take the boy, raise him up as their heir. The Carta trains the girls, takes a cut of the presents and wealth that flow her way. Mother... mother didn’t have a son, though. She had me.” 

A boy would have inherited the noble caste of his father. Kenna inherited her mother’s brand. A long time ago, she wailed at the unfairness of it. She was past childishly believing the world should be fair, but it still stung. 

“It wasn’t so bad, though. Mother is sweet. Beautiful. The nobles liked her, kept patronizing her. Then she got sick, and it looked like she wouldn’t recover. She did, eventually, but the fever took her eyes. The deshyrs didn’t want a woman with no son and no eyes.” 

She couldn’t look, but she felt Thom’s kind, sad eyes on her face regardless. “Your father?” He prodded softly. 

Kenna scoffed. “The man who contributed to my existence didn’t do me any favors. I don’t know who he is, and he isn’t my father. I don’t have one.” 

Same as lots of girls in Dust Town. Kenna crashed onward, the confession needing to come out now that the wound had been lanced. “Mother couldn’t earn money, so I had to. I was young enough to train with the noble hunters, and they said I was pretty enough, but I couldn’t... I wasn’t cut out to be a whore. Carta would have let us both starve, except Dasher figured out I was good at stabbing things.” 

So she did. She stabbed her way through dust town, shook down the people who owed him money, rose up to the surface to keep doing his dirty work. All the while knowing she was the only thing between her mother and death. 

“Kenna...” Thom rumbled, dropping one heavy hand on her cheek and pointing her eyes up at his. They were just as understanding as she feared they’d be. “Your mother did what she needed to survive. So did you. And she raised a damn fine daughter.” 

“I should have told you a long time ago.” Kenna admitted in a small, fragile voice. She hadn’t been sure why she hadn’t. Maybe, at first, she’d been too frightened of what he would think. Then after his own secrets were revealed, too scared that she may never see him meet her mother, that they would never pull her from beneath the Dasher’s thumb. “I’m sorry.” 

“I don’t think you need to apologize about that.” Thom brushed his thumb over the brand on her cheek. “Especially not to me.” 

She swallowed, hard. “Would you like to meet her?” She asked, trying to wrestle down the breathless hope she found herself choking on.

“Why do you think I was waiting on you to come up from setting the kitchen staff into a tizzy?” He asked, gesturing to the hallway. “I would be honored to meet your mother, my lady.” 

[four-loose-screws]

FE4 Suzuki Novelization Translation (Gen II) - Chapter 6

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

———————————

Chapter 6 - The Miracle of Darna

"Long ago, during the first holy war, the liberation army's fort was located here in Darna." Lewyn said and looked up as if he was remembering those times like he had experienced them himself. "They lost time and time again against the oppressive might of the Lopyrian Empire's army, and in the end, only had a handful of soldiers left hiding inside the fort. They were all injured, and already knew the next battle would be their last.

“But then, a miracle occurred.

“Gods came down from the heavens and granted strange weapons and powers to twelve of the young soldiers. They were soon named the Twelve Crusaders, and led the liberation army into battle."

"That's the Miracle of Darna of legend, isn't it?" Seliph asked.

"Yes, you're right. And another miracle is occurring now. The Crusaders are once again rising up, this time against Loptous' resurrection."

"Huh? What are you referring to? Shannan retaking Balmung? Ares joining our army and wielding Mystletainn? And what is Loptous' resurrection? Is that really happening? Or are you talking about the child hunts?"

"Yes, it is happening. I think my wording was just bad. But you don't have to think too hard about that. You'll learn in time."

'Lewyn knows things that I don't.' Seliph thought. 'I know he doesn't mean us any harm, but he's definitely hiding something big.'

-

The liberation army, now further south, spread out near the border. Just as they finished their preparations, Bloom's army arrived.

There were only two roads that lead across the border, so Bloom's armored knights and mages chose to each go down a different path. Both roads were narrow, so the liberation army was able to defeat each of them before they could get into proper battle formation.

Two joyful reunions occurred during the battle. First, Arthur found his younger sister.

She'd been kidnapped when she was a child, and Arthur had suspected for a long time that she was a member of Bloom's mage unit. His clue was that if they were siblings, she would have the same pendant he had. 

Arthur concentrated his thoughts and tried to connect himself with his pendant's telekinetic energy. Finally, he noticed a telekinetic wave that was the same as that of his pendant.

He went in that direction, and saw a young female mage coming towards him. Her hair was the same lavender color as their mother, Tailtiu's. And when they got closer to each other, he could see that she had their mother's eyes and nose as well.

'She has to be my sister!’ He boldly rushed up to her and said, "W-Wait!"

She tried to cast an Elthunder spell, but could tell that he didn't want to fight her, and canceled it.

"Look at my pendant. It's the same as yours, isn't it?"

"It is! It's exactly the same!"

"Where did you get it?"

"It's a keepsake from my mother."

 "I knew it! You're Tinny, right?"

"How did you know my name…?"

"We're siblings! I'm your older brother, Arthur!"

"Really!?"

"Your mother's name is Tailtiu, right?"

"Yes!"

"Mother was a member of the liberation army during the Battle of Belhalla. After the battle, she took me with her as she fled to Silesse, but you and her were kidnapped by someone just after you were born, and all that she left behind for me was this pendant. Recently, I figured out that you were taken by King Bloom of Alster, but I also heard at that time that while Mother had already passed away, my little sister… Tinny should still be alive. I wanted to do whatever it took to find you, so I left Silesse. Even though we're in the middle of a battle, I wondered if you were with Bloom's army, panicked, and went searching for you."

"So that's what happened! Mother was forced back to Friege by Uncle Bloom… I didn't know. But your words have reminded me that she always looked sad. You're right. You are my brother."

"Anyway, Tinny, stop fighting us. There's so much that I want to talk to you about."

"Yeah, don't really want to fight, either. I'll do as you say."

And that is how the liberation army gained one more powerful fighter.

-

The battle at the border ended in defeat for Bloom's army, and the liberation army took advantage of the momentum and marched onwards. Along the way, they met with the isolated Prince Leif.

Seliph's father Sigurd, and Leif's father Quan, had been the best of friends, and Quan's wife Ethlyn had been Seliph's aunt. When Sigurd's army was still tiny and fighting in Verdane, Quan and Ethlyn had rushed to his aid with reinforcements, a group that included Finn, who'd still been just a squire at the time.

Right before the Battle of Belhalla, Quan and Ethlyn, leading Leonster's cavalier unit, tried to join up with Sigurd's army. However, while crossing the Aed Desert, Travant, the Thracian king, and his dragon knights surprise attacked them. Because Quan's army had terrible footing in the desert, they couldn't put up a good fight, and no one survived. Ever since then, the Earth Lance Gáe Bolg, which Quan had with him, was still missing, along with Leif's older sister, whom Ethlyn had been carrying at the time.

Because he'd been ordered to be Prince Leif's guard, Finn stayed in Leonster. When he heard that Quan's army had been annihilated, he blamed himself.

'Why wasn't I able to be in the most important place in the world? If even Lord Quan lost, then I don't think my being there would have made a difference. But I might have at least been able to save Lady Ethlyn. Or at maybe the princess…'

He took his Brave Lance and rushed out of the castle. Since he was usually a very reserved man, this change in behavior surprised those around him, and made them wonder what had happened.

Finn took his horse out of the stables, galloped out to the riding grounds, and knocked over the training dummies one by one.

'Why couldn't this lance be of any use?'

He thought to himself countless times, then finally stopped his horse.

'Lord Quan, Lady Ethlyn, I'm so sorry I couldn't help you. In exchange, I'll protect Prince Leif, even if it means risking my life. Then, when he comes of age, I'll help him defeat Travant and Arvis, and avenge you both.'

-

When Bloom's army began to invade, Finn immediately took Leif and fled the castle. He treasured his vow to Quan and Ethlyn more than his honor as a knight.

Since then, Finn had protected, raised, and educated young Leif.

After they failed to raise a powerful enough army and were surrounded by the enemy army, Finn told Leif and Nanna to escape, and yelled towards the heavens, "Lord Quan, with the Brave Lance you gave me, and the fighting techniques you taught me, I will protect Lord Leif! Please watch down on us with Lady Ethlyn."

Finn then rode his horse into the enemy lines and tirelessly wielded his Brave Lance, striking the tip into one enemy after another. Even the enemy commander's thick armor was no match for it. With their commander gone, the remaining enemies fled.

It had been six months since then, and Finn, Leif, and Nanna had now appeared before the liberation army.

Seliph and Leif shook hands and vowed to fight together. Finn also had a joyous reunion with Shannan and Oifey.

After that, there was one more reunion - that of siblings Nanna and Diarmuid. He'd always been searching for her, making this reunion yet another joyous one.

The Liberation Army first recovered Leif's homebase, Leonster, then marched towards Bloom's main castle, Alster. Since he'd lost most of his force at the border, Bloom couldn't put up a proper resistance, and as such gave up on Alster, instead fleeing to Connaught Castle.

At the party celebrating the liberation of Alster, Seliph said to Lewyn, who was sitting next to him, "Hey, Lewyn, there's something I've found strange recently."

"What is it?"

"More and more children of the people who fought with my father are joining our army, don't you think? Some who joined earlier, like Arthur, even knew beforehand… I realized it even when people like him joined us… And the enemy leaders are the same. Their mothers and fathers were our mother's and father's enemies. There's also some blood families split up into allies and enemies. We're repeating our mothers and fathers' war, aren't we? At least, that's what I think sometimes. Is this all related to what you said in Darna Castle?"

"Of course it's related." Lewyn answered.

"But it's not a repeat, though it may sometimes look like one. It is another side of this war."

"What does that mean?"

"This is one of the many times that the people have risen up against the empire's tyranny."

"This is one of many?

"What I mean is, this is the Twelve Crusader's war. So was the Battle of Belhalla. No, you could also consider this a continuation of the Battle of Belhalla. That's why they are so similar. But this will not be a repeat. It cannot be a repeat. We must win."

His last few words were spoken more strongly than any Seliph had ever heard him speak before. 

-

Alster Castle's capture at the hands of the liberation army had a huge effect on the delicate balance of the Thracian Peninsula.

Thracia had already been split in half from the beginning.

The northern half had many rich farmlands, whereas the southern half was made up of rugged mountains and barren wastelands, leaving it to be controlled by the powerful Kingdom of Thracia, with its valorous dragon knights.

Each king of Thracia inherited Gungnir, and in attempts to take the rich lands of the north, had tried to invade countless times. However, they were stopped each time by the Leonsterian king, who inherited the Earth Lance Gáe Bolg.

Right before the Battle of Belhalla, the Thracian king, Travant, had annihilated the Leonsterian cavalier unit, and taken Gáe Bolg. With that, Thracia's dream seemed to have come true, but then, House Friege's Bloom entered the north with a huge army and conquered it. Even the ambitious Travant was powerless against the might of the empire's military, and ever since, for about a decade, northern Thracia remained a territory of the empire's and maintained a strange sense of peace.

Now, the majority of northern Thracia was in the liberation army's grasp. Bloom now only controlled the western regions of Connaught and Munster, but his forces were growing stronger by the day.

And, on top of that, the liberation army would have to be wary of King Travant's movements.

Travant received a request from Bloom to provide reinforcements, but he still had yet to order his dragon knights to deploy.

He planned to let the liberation army and the imperial army fight and weaken each other. Then his soldiers would swoop in and he would take over control of the entire Thracian peninsula. 

-

The first side to make a move was the imperial army. A unit of knights in Alster, led by General Muhammad; and a cavalier unit and the three mage sisters, led by General Ovo; began to march towards Leonster, which Leif was protecting.

Leif's army wasn't strong enough yet, so Seliph needed to send him reinforcements.

"I agree to sending in reinforcements, but that would mean splitting our army into two, wouldn't it, Oifey?" Seliph asked.

"In this case, the enemy was the first to split their soldiers into two groups. If they attacked either us or Leif as one, they'd have very good odds, so why didn't they do that? Perhaps Bloom is panicking. He probably wants to send a good report to the emperor.

"This is a big chance for us. We can meet both units in a place where we can most effectively attack them. If we do so, then I think there's also a chance we can attack Connaught all in one go."

And so, the liberation army split in two for the first time.

"We should split up based on movement speed. If different parts of an army all move at their own speed, then the slower members won't be able to keep up, and everyone won't be able to fight as a group. I think the fastest of us should go to Leonster.”

Soon after, two fights broke out at the same time, one at Leonster Castle, and another in a field close to Alster.

-

After sending out his units, Bloom suddenly began to worry.

'Are we really sure to win? At first, we thought lightly of them as an army like Leif's ragtag group, but this liberation army seems different somehow. If we lose again, then I won't have any excuses left to tell His Majesty. And I won't have an army left, either.'

After thinking it over some more, he decided to send an assassin after Seliph.

'If Sigurd's brat is gone, then the whole army should fall apart.'

The first assassin he called in was a mercenary named Febail.

Febail was known as an expert bowman. He was so skilled because (though he didn't make it known) he was a descendant of Holy Archer Ulir, and inheritor to Holy Bow Yewfelle.

Febail did not know how to respond, so Bloom brought up his younger sister, Patty. "I heard that you are taking care of a large group of orphans. You surely need money for that, so your sister is stealing to make that money, isn't she? Are you really okay with her being a thief?"

Febail was always concerned about Patty's work. Though she said she used the money and objects for a good purpose, stealing was still bad. "She's always thinking of the children. But she certainly wants money."

"Then you have no reason to be indecisive. If you bring me Seliph's head, I'll give you however much money you want. It would make your little sister happy."

"I understand. I don't want to, but I'll help you, just this once." Febail agreed to the proposal.

After that Bloom brought in his daughter, Ishtar.

Ishtar was the next in line to inherit Holy Thunder Tome Mjölnir.

"You called for me, Father? What do you need?"

"The liberation army is coming to attack us. I need you to lend me your power."

"I don't think those words are your own. A ragtag group like this liberation army would never make you panic."

"But they've already killed your brother Ishtor, and your cousin Tinny is missing. Vampa and her sisters also fled and returned home during the last battle. You're the only person I have left to rely on. I want you to kill the enemy leader, Seliph."

"Understood. Then please give me Mjölnir. If I have it, then I will take out the entire enemy army by myself."

"W-What? You want Mjölnir?" Bloom hesitated for a moment.

Handing over his Holy Weapon would mean forfeiting his authority as the head of House Freige. But when he thought about what would happen if they lost this battle, he had no other choice.

"Hmph, fine. You may take it. In return, you must bring me Seliph's head."

"Understood. Please leave him to me."

-

The battle was a grueling one for both sides. 

The mage sisters were particularly threatening to the liberation army, as they vowed not to run home again and fought even more viciously than usual.

However, Leif's army cleverly split the three apart little by little, so they couldn't fight together, then counterattacked once the sisters were sufficiently distanced from each other. Ares and Mystletainn, Finn and his Brave Lance, and Iuchar and his Brave Axe were the ones to take them out. With that, the battle in Leonster was over.

The hero of the battle in Alster was Shanan. He ran deep into the enemy formation by himself and killed the commanding officer, General Muhammad. Then, until his allies caught up, he continued to fight and take the enemies' attacks on his own.

Once the rest of the liberation army arrived, the enemies lost their will to continue fighting, and began to flee. Seliph chased after them and continued to advance forward.

Shannan and Patty stayed close to his side. They were both worried about the assassins sent for Seliph (though Patty was really only worried about Fabail).

And Patty's worries were the first to be proven right when she saw an archer slowly walking towards them among the fleeing enemies.

'That's Big Brother!’ She thought, and immediately ran towards him. "Big Brother, what are you doing here?"

Febail was totally lost on how to respond to her question.

"No way, you aren't working for Bloom, are you?"

"P-Patty, why are you with the rebel army…?"

"It's obvious, isn't it? I'm here to save everyone. And this isn't a rebel army, it's a liberation army! Have you forgotten? All the parents of the children we care for were killed by Bloom. And our parents died fighting the imperial army, right? Working with Bloom is the same as siding with the imperial army, so I won't agree to it!"

"I'm sorry. You're right. I… don't know what I was thinking."

"Anyone can reflect on their actions. If you think you're doing something wrong, then work with us! We can defeat Bloom together!"

"Okay, Patty!"

'She's changed.' Febail thought. 'Her eyes are sparkling. I wonder why?'

"Please introduce me to Prince Seliph. I need to apologize to him.”

"Of course! Come this way!" Patty led her brother up to Seliph and introduced them to each other.

"I may have only been lost over what to do for a moment, but I still tried to kill you. I'll do more than just apologize for it. If you find my actions unacceptable, I want you to do whatever you want to me."

"You said your name is Febail, right? I don't care about that. The present, and the future, are much more important than the past. I want you to think like that, too."

"I was wrong. It was stupid of me to allow the empire to hire me. I'm very embarrassed by it. Prince Seliph, please allow me to make up for it."

"Thank you, Febail. I'm happy you've decided to join us."

"It looks like you already have a chance to do that." Shanan said while staring straight ahead.

A female mage was walking towards them.

"She is no ordinary person, and is probably here for you, Seliph. Stay back."

Everyone obeyed, and stepped back.

"In a battle against two people with Holy Weapons, the first person to attack has the upper hand. In other words, it's all about judging the perfect time to strike. That's what makes it different from a normal fight."

The female mage continued towards them with confidence in her steps.

"Now!"

Shanan and Febail both moved in a flash. Balmung's blade and Yewfelle's arrow hit her at the same time.

"How could… this be…" She muttered, then collapsed where she stood.

At that moment, something strange happened.

A beam of light fell from the heavens, and a young nobleman appeared from within it.

The nobleman picked up the mage. "Ishtar, you will return to Belhalla with me. You cannot die in a place like this."

Her eyes opened in response to his words.

"Now let's go."

Her wounds closed up.

The light shone once again, engulfing them.

It was all so strange to those around them, that none of them could move, and simply stared in bewilderment.

Finally, the light disappeared, and the two were gone.

"Who were they? Does anyone know?" Seliph called out, and looked around to see if anyone would provide an answer.

"The woman was Princess Ishtar." Tinny answered.

"You know her?"

"Yes, she adored me like a little sister."

“And what about the man?"

"He's probably… Prince Julius."

"What? Prince Julius?"

"Yes, I've seen him in Belhalla several times, so I'm pretty sure that was him. Prince Julius and Lady Ishtar are in love, so he probably came to save her."

"What kind of person is he?"

"How can I put it? ...He has a very strange way of attracting people to him… and he's cold, like ice. Those who meet him are both charmed and afraid all at once. It's almost like he isn't human… "

-

Though that event left them feeling uneasy about the future, Seliph and Prince Leif's units merged, then started marching towards Connaught.

Capturing Connaught Castle was no easy feat. The long-range magic users in particular worried the members of the liberation army. But because they targeted each area with enemies guarding the castle one at a time, they were finally able to rush the castle gate.

Febail's vow to atone for his actions were no lie. He rushed to the throne room faster than anybody else, aimed at Bloom, and pulled back Yewfelle's bow string.

"Damn you, Febail! How dare you betray me!"

"Sorry, but after thinking long and hard about it, I decided that I cannot help you. Don't think badly of me for it. This is all the result of the seeds you planted."

Yewfelle's arrow flew through Bloom's face.

-

When Bloom's soldiers learned of his death, they all surrendered.

Meanwhile, at Munster Castle to the south, a mage named Ced and his army of commoners had risen up.

Since most of the imperial soldiers stationed at Munster had been pulled out to fight on the front lines, there were few left. In addition, they'd lost their leader, Ishtar, so they had no interest in putting up a serious fight. Just the news alone of the liberation army coming to attack the castle made them flee, and Munster was freed with little bloodshed.

When he learned of the news, Seliph thought that all of Northern Thracia was freed. 'We should go to Munster next.'

However, things were not that simple.

The Thracian king had finally begun to move.

[crimson-mage-02]

Voltron Legendary Defender Written in the Stars  A Thousand Lifetimes

Summary: Voltron and Honerva come together at the source of all realities in the ultimate battle between good and evil for the survival of the universe. 

Note: Here it is, the very last chapter of Season 8! Hope you had enjoyed all three stories i have made along with making my own character Kaela. Hope you all enjoyed her character. Enjoy reading!  Hope you enjoyed the journey!

@spacelion-loveshermulletson, here it is! The very, very last chapter! Hope you enjoyed the journey! 

The battle against Honerva continues in alternate reality of Altea with many Alteans down below watching the fight. Honerva shoot a blast at the Castle where Zarkon was shielding his Lotor away from the attack and Voltron depleted the attack and saved them from the blast with their sword.

Honerva knocked down Voltron the ground proceeding to attack them. “We have to take the fight as far away from here as—” Keith started as he saw Honerva coming their way and lunged her sword at them but they all moved out of the way, getting away from the Alteans, not wanting to harm them or getting anyone hurt.

They clashed blades together and fought on with Honerva tripping them using the tail and tried to stab through Voltron using her drill. She pounded them into the ground. Allura gritted her teeth as she let out angered battle cry and blasted Honerva off them.

“Now let’s finish this!” Allura growled, preparing to fight back. “This is for Kaela!”

“Incoming!” Lance shouted seeing one of the wings are coming their way and stabbed them from the back. And two came and stabbed in the lower abdomen, falling down on the ground.

Then all of the flaps of the wings were creating a portal up in the sky along taking away the quintessence from Voltron. “We can’t let this happen. She can’t get away.” Shiro said. They all pulled out the flaps of the wings out of them and went after Honerva through the portal.

“Is everyone okay? Allura?” Keith asked. They all responded much to his relief and haven’t heard from Allura.

“I’m here, Keith.” Keith sighed in relief, glad to hear that she was alright.

“Does anyone has eyes on Honerva?” Shiro asked, looking around for her. They all saw strands in front of them and glowed brightly.

“What is this place?” Lance asked.

“I-I’m not sure.” Allura said. They all gasped hearing Honerva from behind them.

“This is the beginning.” Honerva said as she charged at them. “And the end.” She shot one of the strands making all of the paladins seeing the people that lived in another reality.

“Can—Can you all feel that?” Allura asked, looking up ahead where the strands were. “These strands are...”

“The only remaining realities left in existence.” Lance said.

“This place is the source of time, of space, of…” Pidge started as she looked at the strands.

“Everything.” Hunk finished as he held onto the controls tightly.

“I will end this once and for all!” Honerva snarled as she shot down all of the reality strands. Removing them from all of existence. Voltron flew in and then felt the wave of the explosion seeing all of the innocent lives in another reality.

“She’s destroying all realities!” Allura grunted.

Honerva kept on destroying all of the strands until there is nothing left. And there was only one more strands left. “She’s destroyed everything. There’s only one reality left.” Keith said.

“No. Please.” Allura gasped seeing Honerva was going after the last strand.

They all clashed blades with Honerva to prevent her from destroying the last strand. Destroying the remaining reality. Honerva thrusted Voltron forwards towards the last remaining strand.

“If Honerva destroys this final strand all of existence will end with it!” Allura exclaimed. Then Voltron had created extra booster with enough fire power to push Honerva away from the last remaining strand. Then the light appeared and shone brightly coming from Voltron and Honerva’s mech.

(~)

Honerva was teleported in a void with light orbs floating around her. She gasped softly as she saw Kaela standing in front of her with her hair down and was in a white dress. She had this unreadable expression as she walked towards her.

“Where are we?” Honerva demanded.

“The connected consciousness of all existence.” Allura said to Honerva until she saw Kaela in the void and the paladins gasped, seeing Kaela standing in front of them.

“You think you’re safe here? Soon, all will cease to exist.” Honerva said.

“You have to stop this.” Kaela pleaded. “You have to stop all of this destruction.”

“All these worlds, all these realities, they deserve to live.” Hunk said.

“Those realities are flawed and weak, living out the same pathetic cycle of war and pain.” Honerva said.

Allura walked up to her. “There is beauty in their flaws. I lost my father, my mother, my planet, to this war, but I’ve gained a new family and a stronger than any I could have imagined.”

“Humans began very flawed. There were wars, hate. But each with mistake, they learned and grow.” Pidge said.

“Now we reach out to other worlds to pass on those same lessons and spread them across the universe like your people once did.” Shiro added.

“And with every new world touched, the message grows.” Hunk said.

“Every world, every reality. We wouldn’t exist without the others.” Keith said.

“Our differences are what makes us stronger.” Lance added.

“You think your words mean anything to me? I’ve lived multiple lifetimes, and all of them filled with pain and loss. If I cannot experience the simple joys of life, why should anyone else?” Honerva asked, glaring at the Paladins and Kaela.

Allura put both of her hands on her temple and Honerva gasped seeing all of her past memories with King Alfor and her adventures before she was corrupted. “There was a time when you loved more than just your family, a time when your fascination with how vast the universe is gave way to your desire to help others and uplift others.”

Honerva got her Altean markings reverted back to normal as she turned see the memories of Lotor. “You tried to help him. He was happy. He deserved better. You deserved better as well, Kaela. Better than I could give. I am so sorry that I had killed you in cold blood.”

“Honerva, you were as desperate as Zarkon when he tried to save you. And you were desperate to find your son. You loved them. You still have love for your family. And what I did was out of love to save my brother and you did the same when you were trying to find your family.” Kaela said.

“Lotor may be misguided, but, ultimately, he wanted to preserve life. Honour your son. Help me change this.” Allura said.

Honerva felt tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, but the damage is done. There’s nothing left to save.”

“I can change the Quintessence within your vessel. Your son helped me learn how to transform it from a destructive force into a life-giving force. But I cannot do it alone.” Allura said, offering her hand to her.

“But that would require-…”

“I know the risks.” Allura said as she offered her hand, but Kaela’s held hers. Much to Allura’s confusion. She looked over at the young mage princess as she gave her an unreadable expression on her face.

Kaela stood quiet for a moment in silence. She helped Honerva up to her feet and turned to her and the paladins. “I know you knew the risks. But you don’t deserve this, Allura. And…I am the only one who can also do this.” Kaela said.

“W-What are you talking about Kaela?” Allura asked as she stuttered and trembled. Feeling her body going numb all over and clasped her hands together.

“I have broken one of the laws by using dark magic and that my runes are disappearing because of it.” Kaela confessed as she held on to her arm and shown her runes were disappearing.

The paladins gasped with Keith knowing why her runes were disappearing. “But you did that to save us.” Lance said in disbelief after hearing that she had used Dark Magic to save the universe and them. Along with the fact that her runes were disappearing, and she didn’t tell them. Or either of them.

“I had to pay the price, Lance. I…I have to deal with the consequences on my own.” Kaela said. “This is why I never told you what had happened during that last battle on Earth. I wasn’t ready to tell you then. But it is happening right now.”

“You knew? And that was the reason why?” Keith asked sadly as he narrowed his eyes, feeling hurt that she didn’t tell him about her runes were disappearing aside from her telling that she had absorbed Dark Magic. For the very second time.

“Yes. I knew.” Kaela nodded and then looked at everyone who had crestfallen looks. “All I want for you all is to live your lives to the fullest and never throw it away.” Kaela said.

“No, there has be another way.” Allura pleaded desperately as Honerva walked towards her and stood beside Kaela.

“You have a life to live with your family and friends. And with one man you love. I shall use the remaining Quintessence I have left to save all realities. My mission…Our mission ends here, right here and right now.” Honerva said.  

“And I have my last remaining mana to restore all of existence.” Kaela said to the paladins. “I have to take it. It is my purpose. Your paths go on. Mine ends here.”

“There will be no Voltron without you.” Hunk said as tears started to form in the corners of his eyes. He will miss Kaela so much, but he knew that the sacrifice must be made.

“Voltron will always be needed, Hunk. The rest of the work is up to the people and you all. They’ll have you to guide them and bring them together.” Kaela said with a sad smile as they shared their last hug.

Kaela turned to the weeping Green Paladin. “Goodbye, Pidge.”

“I’m gonna miss you, Kaela.” Pidge sniffled as the two girls hugged tightly. They both recalled back to their memories whenever they were helping each other in the Castle of Lions. And how Pidge was the first person to accept her aside from Shiro when they all first met.

“I’m going to miss you too, Katie. Please stay curious and fearless.” Kaela said. “Here, I want you to have this.”

Pidge looked at the green pendant with two purple crystals in her hand. “You sure?” Pidge asked as she was about to take it from her.

Kaela nodded and put the pendant around her neck. “You look beautiful, Katie.” Pidge’s tears wouldn’t stop flowing down as she hugged her again. Kaela broke the hug as she wiped her tears before going to Shiro.

“Most of them won’t know the sacrifice you made so they could live. You won’t be able to see what they had done to honour you.” Shiro said.

“I will always be watching over you, Shiro. I will always be there to guide you. I wish you full happiness and a peaceful life that you deserved and needed.” Kaela said as she hugged him. “Thank you for giving me another chance to meet my brother.”

“You never have to thank me for anything, kiddo.” Shiro said as tears formed in the corner his eyes.

Kaela smiled and moved in front of Lance and looked away for a moment until they looked at each other. “It has been a quite an adventure.” Lance said, looking away from her not wanting to let her see his tears. But it was too late. They were already rolling down his cheeks.

“It has.” Kaela said as her voice cracked and wiped his tears away. “Stay safe and fulfil your dreams, Lance.”

Lance felt a lump in his throat. “And thank you for everything you had taught me. It has been a greatest pleasure to fly with you, partner.”

“At first, I thought you were a nuisance, but you proved me wrong otherwise. You proved yourself that you are more capable to do great things as a Paladin of Voltron. I am proud of you, Lance. It has been an honour to being your partner and sister.” Kaela said as they both hugged tightly. “Take care of Katie, or otherwise, I’ll hunt you down.”

Lance let out a teary chuckle and they broke the hug with Lance kissing her on the cheek. Kaela let go of him as he comforted Pidge, he wrapped his arms around her. Pidge hugged her boyfriend tightly with her arms around him. They comforted each other in a tight embrace.

Kaela saw Allura was in Keith’s arms and they were comforting one another. She noticed how close they were and realized that they are now together. She came towards Allura as she hugged her tightly. “Please, please, don’t go.” Allura wept as she already knew she had died to save them, but she doesn’t want her to go just yet.

“Allura, I have to. And you know what has happened. For the sake of the universe, Allura. I’m doing this for all of you. You deserve to live. And to rule Altea and continue your father’s legacy.” Kaela said as she held her hands. Allura gasped as she saw Kaela taking off the crown. The crown she had given her after her capture. After they declared their friendship that lasted. Kaela was willingly to give back to her.

“I won’t be needing this anymore.” Kaela said as she put the crown on her forehead. Allura’s tears flowed down and Allura smiled. They pulled away from the hug as Kaela used her powers for the last time and got the dark entity out of her with Honerva destroying it. Allura gasped softly and saw that she was free from the dark entity at long last.

“Thank you. I am so proud of what you have done for us. I will truly miss you. Thank you for being my friend, Kaela.” Allura said with tears rolling down.

“And thank you, Allura for everything. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for giving a second chance.” Kaela smiled and held her hands. “You have my blessings.” Allura smiled brightly knowing what she had meant. She had given her blessings for being with Keith. The two girls smiled at each other and hugged each other again before Kaela went over to her brother.

Kaela held his hands tightly as Keith rubbed the back of her hands and he saw her arms were no longer covered by her mage runes. “This was it, wasn’t it? Your nightmares?”

“Yes, it was.” Kaela replied with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“W-Why you didn’t say anything, Ella?” Keith asked as his voice started to crack.

“I still die either way and this is all we have. I know that the lions have enough quintessence in them. The universe will always need Voltron and you.” Kaela said, caressing his cheek, seeing that there were tears forming.

Keith put his forehead against hers. “But you have so much to see. So much for you to explore.”

“I know.” Kaela said as tears flowed down. “But I already have you and mom along with a wonderful family. I had everything I ever needed. You made that happen when you first found me.”

“Kaela, when you accepted me, it helped me to accept myself. I am proud to see what you have become. I am proud of what you had done. You helped us to save the universe. And you saved countless lives with us.” Keith said with a sad smile.

“You have helped me to believe in myself in using my powers and I want to thank you for all the moments we had shared together. And no matter what happens, I’ll always be with you forever.” Kaela said as she put her hands on his shoulders. Both of them closed their eyes with their foreheads pressed against each other.

Then appeared purple and red aura, twirled and danced around them. All of her mana were all transferred into Keith. Kaela pulled away as she cupped his left cheek and brushed her thumb against it. Appearing a new marking on his cheek, while wiping his tears away.

Keith opened his eyes with tears were flowing down his cheeks. He looked at his sister one last time and kissed her on the forehead gently. Once they pulled away, Keith saw a purple diamond appearing on her forehead. He chuckled and he wiped her tears with a smile. It was the symbol that symbolises that Kaela is now a true Master Mage and the Great Ikri. Kaela and Keith shared their last hug one last time until a warm light and the spirits appeared.

The paladins of the Old, King Alfor, Zarkon and Lotor appeared with Serene who offered her hand to her. Kaela and Honerva walked towards them with the paladins watching and all of Kaela’s runes were disappearing one by one. Honerva was reunited with her son and husband at last. Both son and husband were now reunited with Honerva and had warm smiles.

Kaela had tears falling down while remembering her memories with the Paladins. She looked back at them seeing Hunk was being comforted by Shiro, Lance and Pidge were in each other’s arms, smiling at her with tears flowing down their cheeks. Keith and Allura were in each other’s arms, looking at her with bittersweet smiles. Kaela smiled gratefully seeing Allura was wearing her crown. With final look, she closed her eyes with a single tear rolling down and joined into the light with Serene.

(~)

Then the shape of the phoenix appeared and screeching with the wings were stretching out to all strands of realities that were saved and the phoenix light and essence died out. The spirits were flowing around the Atlas and the lions and they were back into their normal form floating in open space as purple essence danced around the lion and the Atlas. “Is this?... Are we?” Keith asked as he opened his eyes.

“Yeah. This is our reality.” Pidge said while wiping her tears away. Allura cried and mourned in her lion as she felt coldness on her forehead and realised that Kaela had given her crown to her. She cried as she held it close to her heart.

“She did it. She saved us all.” Lance said as he looked down at the group photo they took with Kaela in the Castle of Lions. She was smiling and had her arms around Pidge and Allura with Keith, Hunk, Shiro and himself in the background smiling and Coran was looking at all of them fondly with a tablet in his hands.

“I don’t remember that planet being there before.” Hunk said as he wiped a tear.

The paladins all looked out of their lions with Allura gasping softly with more tears rolling down her cheeks. “It’s Altea.” Allura said. She silently thanked her friend for reviving her beloved home planet.

Keith looked down sadly and felt something in his hand and opened it. He gritted his teeth and held the shining object in his hands. It was the bracelet he bought for her when she stayed with them after he saved her. He realised that Kaela added red crystals to the bracelet. He looked out to the spirits and he could feel her essence. She’ll be there to protect us. Forever and ever

In the hangars, James held the locket in his hands as he saw the spirits were shining brightly above them and disappeared. He looked down at the locket in his hands and saw another photo where they had taken in Clear Day, he noticed that she wore the hair pin he had won for her. He saw that Kaela had written something. “I’ll always search for you in a thousand lifetimes.”

One Year Later

“With the return of Planet Daibazaal, the Galra Empire is at a crossroads. For so long, the people of this extraordinary civilization have been manipulated by a dictatorship, that placed a misguided sense of self-preservation above all else. It was a tragic, unfortunate series of events, that led us down this dark, never-ending pain of power and greed. But now…. We, the citizens of the Galra Empire have an opportunity.” Keith said and looked up at a shining star above them.

“To make right all of the injustices set into motion by our forefathers. Because of the sacrifice made by my sister, Mage Princess Kaela, we have been given a second chance, to come together in rebuilding the Galra Empire by joining the galactic Coalition and ushering in a new era of peace.” Keith concluded with the Galra cheering and chanting his sister’s name.

Keith turned to look at his mother who was looking up at an evening star in the sky. He comforted his mother with a smile and a side hug. “I hope she is here with us.” Keith said.

“I am sure she is always watching over us.” Krolia said. “Always.”

(~)

In the Atlas, the chancellors were arguing over the table as Shiro tried to calm them down until Hunk came by at the table with two trays in hand. “Chancellors. Please, sit. Dinner is served.” Hunk said.

He placed the plates on the table to eat the meals. “The filet of bandrillo, spiced with seasoning from the plains of planet Mabo, alongside pilaf of long-grained forlongian brill from the vast fields of Antidoll.” Hunk smiled. “And it’s accompanied by a cider made from the petals of Altean juniberry flowers and Plumberry flowers that Mage Princess Kaela once loved. Bon Appetit.”

Shiro and the Chancellors took a bite of the dish and smiled brightly as they tasted something so delicious. “It wouldn’t be possible without cooperation of all three planets of Xritoo system. Much like my cooking crew, comprised of aliens from all across the cosmos working together to bring you this delicious meal.” Hunk said as he gestured to his crew.

“Mage Princess Kaela, the very person on this day, once said, “We all must not give up hope.” Hunk said proudly. “If the people of your planets work together, so much more can be achieved.”

“Let’s honour her by following in her footsteps and walk in the path towards peace and hope.” Shiro smiled.

(~)

James was walking around Plaht City, wandering around the city as he saw some couples walking in hand and hand. He looked away immediately, almost thinking of his days with Kaela. His best friend and the person he had loved since childhood.

Then a blue petal blew by and looked up, seeing the tree that Kaela had healed and grew. He walked towards it and looked up. He smiled as the blue flowers reminded him of her. He looked at the trunk and saw a flower crown in front of a memorial with writing on it. Everyone had heard what Kaela had done for them and for the universe.

James saw a little girl putting a flower on the crown and ran back to her parents. He walked towards the tree and put a hand on the trunk. He smiled a bit, feeling some of Kaela’s essence from the tree. He turned to the side and imagined her standing by her side, with a smile. With a warm and care-free smile. Her eyes would sparkle every time.

James then fished into his pocket and got Kaela’s locket. With the engraving, “I’ll always search for you in a thousand lifetimes.” He smiled and then decided to wear it, to keep her closer to his heart and he did promise he would try and find her in a thousand lifetimes.

(~)

Lance wiped his sweat on his sleeve, putting the tools down and looked at his girlfriend. “Hey, Katie. Are we almost done? You know we can’t be late.”

“All done.” Pidge smiled as she took out a drive and walked towards her boyfriend and brother.

“So, peanut, have you been thinking of any names?” Lance asked, smiling at her and kissed her on the cheek.

“Yeah, I was thinking of Chip.” Pidge grinned. Matt and Lance looked at each other with smiles on their faces.

“You and your puns.” Matt chuckled in amusement.

“And this is why I love your sister so much.” Lance said, looking at his girlfriend lovingly. Pidge smiled at him brightly and gently nudged him on the arm. Lance kissed her on the forehead and was about to kiss her fully on the lips, but Matt cleared his throat. Last time they kissed he walked into them by accident. Seeing them in uncompromising positions as he referred.

“Katie, your father’s got the teludav all warmed up for you. Better get going. You two don’t wanna be late.” Colleen said, calling out to her daughter and Lance.

“Don’t worry, Pidge, I’ll have chip all ready to go by the time you get back.” Matt promised.

“Just don’t initialize until we return. I want to witness Chip’s first moments of consciousness.” Pidge grinned as she given her brother the flash drive and Lance grabbed her hand to get ready.

Lance and Pidge were in their armours and lions getting ready to visit their friends. “Have a good time, you two. But not too much fun.” Sam said to the two paladins.

“We will, Dad.” Pidge smiled.

“Don’t worry, Mr Holt. Katie’s in good hands here.” Lance said with a charming smile.

“Come on, sharpshooter! We’re going to be late!” Pidge chuckled as they went through the wormhole.

(~)

“Construction is on course, your highness.” Merla confirmed to the new Queen of Altea.

Allura smiled brightly as she watched the construction of the new Castle of Lions in front of her. “Most excellent. How are the preparations for tonight’s birthday celebration coming along? It has to be perfect. This will be the first Altea’s victorious celebration and most memorable birthday.” Allura said as she looked over the preparations.

“It is going along very well, Allura. And the rest of the paladins should be coming very soon.” Merla replied. “And I wish I would’ve met her. She seemed to be a very brave Mage Princess.”

“She is one of the most bravest, stubborn and courageous Mage I have ever met. If she were here, she would’ve taught the Altean children about healing.” Allura said, remembering how she watched Kaela attentively as she healed the paladins with her magic. Allura wore Kaela’s crown with pride and love as she also wore a purple and white dress in the honour of her.

“She sounds like a wonderful person.” Merla smiled.

“She is too.” Allura replied with a warm smile. “A most wonderful and courageous woman I have ever met next to my dearest friend Pidge.”

“Oh, and Allura, we can get access to the location, we can begin set up.” Merla said.

“Perfect. As soon as Coran is finished with something.” Allura said looking at where Coran stood.

“…and had Mage Princess Kaela not seen that there was still good left in Honerva, we most likely would not be sitting here today. She grew to understand that there is good in anyone also seeing the bad.” Coran said to the children. “She would always find a way to save people and bring out joy, hopes and dreams. She could see that in every person.”

“Even her adoptive father, Emperor Zarkon?” asked one of the children.

“Perhaps.” Coran replied with a small smile as he looked at the statue in front of him.

“Do the paladins miss her? And do you?”

“Yes, I do believe that the paladins misses her greatly as well as I. She had taught us to never lose hope. And that her spirit will always be guiding us. Also teaching us on how to move on forward to the future.” Coran replied with a smile.

The children all smiled as they were about to ask more questions. “All right, everybody. I think Coran has someplace to be in a few doboshes. And you all have class to get to.” Said an Altean teacher.

The children groaned with Coran laughing in amusement until he heard three wormholes opening and saw the Black, Red, Green and Yellow lion coming out in front of Kaela’s statue and landed near the New Castle of Lions. Allura smiled and greeted her friends as Pidge hugged her. Lance and Hunk greeted her warmly along with Shiro. She met with the eyes of the man she loves, and she cupped Keith’s face and kissed him passionately on the lips. “Hello, Keith.” Allura said as she pressed her forehead on his. “You have everything we need for the birthday celebration?”

“I have. Mom made me bring other things.” Keith said, showing her a bouquet of blue flowers. “Also, her favourite cake from Earth. It’s a cheesecake. Well, a blueberry cheesecake.”

“Hey, I brought something for her, as well!” Lance exclaimed happily as he pulled out loaded boxes of flowers. “I didn’t even know what was her favourite flowers so I uh, sort of ordered different tons of flowers.”

“Oh, I think she’ll love the flowers, Lance. But Plumberry flowers are her favourite.” Allura smiled, gesturing to the bouquet that Keith had brought.

“What? She never told me that.” Lance said as he scratched his head.

“Yeah, remember how you saw her writing something in her journal and she got mad at you for trying to read it?” Pidge smirked at her boyfriend.

“Yeah, I remember that. She punched you so good that she gave you a black eye.” Hunk chuckled. “Classic Kaela.”

“And that’s why she never shared anything with you or tell you anything about her until you two are friends.” Keith smirked. Lance groaned in annoyance much to everyone’s amusement.

Coran came and smiled at them. “Great, everyone is here. Shall we get started?”

(~)

Everyone laughed out loud as they all sat on a blanket in the juniberry field. Pidge was sitting on Lance’s lap while Allura was leaning on Keith and Shiro was sitting next to Keith. Hunk was munching on some food with a smile. They were watching a vlog that captured Kaela’s most memorable memories. They all saw Kaela pinching Lance’s ear in the kitchen. She was helping Hunk cooking with Pidge in the background fixing something.

And the video changed to where Kaela and Keith were training, and Kaela had Keith pinned down. She had him in a headlock with a brightest smile they all ever had seen. The slide were showing the sibling moments. Keith putting Kaela into bed, Keith reading her a book and Kaela helping him on cooking with Hunk. And another slide shows Kaela with a grin as she pointed at the direction where Keith and Allura were in the hallway gazing into each other’s eyes. Both Keith and Allura chuckled at that memory.

The other slide shows Shiro and Kaela were looking at the stars together in the Atlas. Them dancing in the ballroom while Kaela was in a light blue and purple dress with her hair in a braid. Keith and Shiro lecturing her all night in her study and had a pile of books all over the table.

Allura giggled when she saw Coran fixing the corset for Kaela when she was fitting in a dress for a diplomatic meeting. She could not breath properly during the whole meeting. Later that day, she ripped the corset into pieces with Coran crying over the loss of the dress. Kaela was never going to wear any corset. Ever. She despised corsets ever since then. And in the background, Allura was comforting Coran with a sheepish smile.

It also show where Allura and Kaela were looking at the stars with Pidge at the beach on a planet. The girls all had their arms around them with Pidge in the middle. Then the slide changed to Keith was carrying Kaela in his arms with bright smiles on their faces. Everyone gushed at that memory, but Keith’s expression can be noticed and that he misses his sister every day.

Then the video changed it to where Kaela was speaking. “Lance, no. I don’t wanna do this. Besides we both know you’ll end up being pinned down by my brother.”

“I’ll be fine. I can take it. Come on! It’s fun! Every kid does this to their older siblings.” Lance whispered as he passed the marker to her.

“But this is Keith, we are dealing with here. You know how much he gets mad after that.” Kaela hissed as she looked at Keith who was sleeping in the lounge. Lance beckons Kaela with a grin to take the marker.

Kaela raised an eyebrow and opened the lid. She started to draw on Keith’s face. After a few moments, Keith woke up to seeing Kaela was covering half of her face with her book. “Ella? Are you okay? You look red.” Keith said.

“Uh-huh, I am fine.” Kaela nodded, trying so hard not to laugh out loud.

“Then why are you acting like there is something in my face?” Keith asked as he rubbed his face until he felt ink on his fingers. He looked back and forth at Kaela and the ink on his hands. He heard Lance’s laughing.

Keith growled. “You are so dead!” He chased Lance around the Castle with the rest of the paladins watching in confusion and Kaela laughing in amusement.

Keith glared at Lance who smiled sheepishly. “Okay, I was teaching her the stuff she missed out as a kid. She needed that.”

“Yeah, anything besides that.” Keith said.

“But Keith, at least she was having fun with us.” Allura said as she calms him down.

“Yeah, it is nice to see her smiling again.” Hunk said.

“And she inspired us all. She even convinced my dad to do the impossible with the garrison tech to infuse it with Galran and Altean tech. I mean, seriously, though, Earth has come a long way. It’s a hub for all alien activity now that my dad’s stabilized his teludav technology.” Pidge said with a smile. She was handing him another piece of a birthday cake for Lance.

“That’ll make travel on the Atlas much easier. We’ll be able to reach more sectors with the improved mobility. Not to mention the supplies we’ll save with the shorter journey.” Shiro smiled as he set down the plate.

“Yeah, yeah! We’ll have so much room for the cooking ingredients. People are just so much easier to reason with when they’re full.” Hunk said. “Man, this diplomacy thing isn’t nearly as easy as you and Kaela made it look.”

“I am sure you are doing a fantastic job, Hunk.” Allura said with a proud smile.

“Then you and my sister made everything look easy.” Keith teased Allura as she punched him on the arm playfully. Keith smirked and kissed her on the cheek, making her blush.

“She said she wanted to learn a few things about politics.” Allura smiled playfully at Keith. “She had done a fantastic job. But her strongest point is as a Mage Healer.”

“Speaking of which, how are things in Daibazaal?” Shiro asked.

“We’re calling for an election to select the Galran representative for the Galactic Coalition. So that’s step in the right direction.” Keith replied with a smile.

“Let me guess. They asked you to be their leader and you said no?” Lance asked raising his eyebrow while he had his arm around Pidge.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Keith replied with a smile.

“Classic Keith.” Lance smirked and everyone laughed in amusement.

“I am so proud of your decision, Keith. Kaela and I knew you would always be the key to the Galra’s future.” Allura said as they intertwined their hands together.

Coran smiled at the paladins and the new Queen of Altea. He smiled proudly and thought how they came a long way when they first met and when they first met Kaela. “Just around this table I see so many lives touched by her actions. For some of us she was a healer, a counsellor, a confidante and a sister. But to those of us around this table, she will always be family.” Coran said as he grabbed a glass and raised it high. “To Kaela!”

“To Kaela.” Everyone said as they all looked back at the statue of Kaela from behind them that had photos and flowers in front of her. They also had the statues of the Paladins of the Old along with Mage Princess Serene standing in behind Kaela.

Keith smiled as he hugged Allura as she wrapped her arm around his waist, smiling at the statue. “Happy Birthday, Ella.”

(~)

Everyone went to sleep for the day until Keith woke up and saw a white feather coming into his room from his window and then saw the spirits had appeared. Allura woke up beside him also felt her presence and heard the lions roaring.

The paladins and Allura all went outside to see the spirits appearing before them with the Lions all drifting above them. They all saw different kinds of colours in the sparkling night sky with the spirits lighting up the dark as they all white orbs coming down and two spirits appeared as King Alfor and Queen Melenor. Allura’s tears rolled down her cheeks as she ran to them and wrapped her arms around them tightly. Shiro gasped when he felt a hand on his shoulder from behind him and saw Adam. He was smiling at him fondly. Shiro had tears forming overjoyed to see him.

Keith, Lance, Pidge and Hunk all smiled seeing that Allura and Shiro were reunited with their loved ones. They heard a white phoenix squawking above them and landed in front of them and appeared Kaela in spirit form and wore a white dress. Keith’s breath hitched seeing his sister after a year and saw another spirit appearing and saw their father was standing beside her. Kaela walked towards him smiling as she caressed his cheeks and wiped his tears.

Keith smiled and they hugged in a tighter embrace and she looked back at their father who walked towards Keith. Keith gasped softly as he felt Kaela holding his hand tightly until their father went up to his children. There were no words need to be spoken and he simply nodded, he was proud of what he had done as a Paladin of Voltron and for everything he had done for the universe. The three hugged each other with everyone watched with tears flowing down.

Allura looked at her parents as they began to fade. Her mother and father both embraced their daughter one last time. Shiro looked at Adam who was smiling at him sadly and started to walk away from him. Shiro looked at Keith who had his arm around his sister and father. Their father smiled at Keith one last time before he started to walk away and joined the other spirits in the night sky. The paladins all looked at their lions one last time as they reminisce on their memories as Paladins of Voltron and their memories they had shared with Kaela. The joyous memories they all had treasured.

Kaela and Keith pressed their foreheads together with Keith shedding one tear and let go of her as he watched she running towards the lions. She transformed into a white phoenix and flew with them with the spirits shone bright in the night sky with the paladins smiling and with tears flowing down.

After a year, everything had changed for the better with The Holts family established the next generation of Legendary Defenders. Hunk created a culinary empire, bringing the universe together, one meal at the time. Lance took Kaela’s wishes to heart and followed his dreams as he became a teacher in the Garrison and teach the young generation of becoming great pilots with his girlfriend, Pidge, by his side, Krolia and Kolivan became the Galra representatives to the Galactic Coalition. Keith helped transition The Blade of Marmora to a humanitarian relief organization with the help of his girlfriend. Queen Allura of Altea, who encouraged the Alteans to become peacekeepers and brave diplomats in the universe while respecting Kaela’s wishes as she continued her father’s legacy and ruled Altea. Shiro found happiness with Curtis and finally left the battle behind.

Somewhere in deep space, all five lions followed the white phoenix and led them far away from Altea to a planet with pillars around it, serving as a gate way and the spirits glowed brightly, responding to the white phoenix and the Lions.

(~)

“My lord, we just got word.” Said one of the soldiers, he had his jet black tied up back neatly as he bowed down in respect. “It seems that the Great Ikri has fallen.”

The soldier watched his lord and master swung his spear across the room and then slashed a tapestry that was on the wall, cutting it in half with Mage Princess Serene and her family image on the tapestry. “Is that so?”

“Yes, my lord.” Replied the lieutenant.

The Lord chuckled evilly as he looked at the cut tapestry of Mage Princess Serene. “Hmm, looks like the story and the legend is not ending, after all, Mother. Gaius, begin preparation and summon the Elders. It is time to bring back what is rightfully ours.”

“Yes, of course my lord, Prince Adelram. At once.” Gaius complied as he went and do as he was told to.

“Soon, Mother, I will take everything you have. And then I shall rule Zelza and it will all be mine Looks like the story is not over just yet.” Prince Adelram chuckled evilly as he overlooked his soldiers building and creating weapons of their own in an abandoned mansion.

[sara-scribbles]

Learning to Live (Part 2)

Líf/F!Summoner Note: It’s been a long time, but I’m still working on this AU. When will IS release Líf?!

Part 1 Part 2

Watching as some of the heroes had mock battles, Kiran would sometimes call to some. Most times it was just to make sure they were okay. Other times she offered advice. However Kiran tried to keep from interrupting too much. The heroes needed to learn to strategize without her.

She internally winced when Ike took a hard hit. “Ike! Remember your resistance to magic isn’t that strong even against a green tome user. Take what hits you can, but rely on others to mitigate the damage.”

The vanguard picked himself up. “Right.” He frowned as he steadied his weapon.

Sighing, she made her way across the field. Anna was holding a map out. She was gesturing to something while Alfonse and Sharena nodded. Sidling up to the prince, Kiran rested her elbow on his shoulder. “What’cha got there?”

“Commander Anna is thinking of adding more defenses on the east side,” Sharena explained.

“Well that side is in need of some updates.” Kiran nodded. “Maybe we should spruce up the lookout posts too?”

Anna frowned. “We’ll have to dip into our reserves. We are running low on funds since we haven’t raised any money of late.”

Alfonse sighed. “I know that look. What money making scheme are you coming up with now?”

The redhead shrugged. “Nothing concrete yet. But spring is just around the corner…”

Kiran chuckled. “Does this mean we’ll see a return of bunny Sharena and Al?”

The prince’s face paled. “Anything but that.”

“But you made such an adorable bunny!” Sharena cooed. “I bet Kiran would make a nice one too.”

“Sure I’m up for it.” Kiran grinned. “I haven’t been able to dress up for the festivals before. I think I would make a great spring rabbit.”

Anna shook her head. “I don’t think we’ll have the money for that. Though maybe there are some heroes willing to pay for a photo of Kiran in a bunny suit…” The commander started mumbling to herself and writing. Kiran could see the dollar signs in her eyes.

“Do I want to know who wants to see me in a bunny outfit?” Kiran asked the royal siblings; her eyes darted around.

Alfonse shook his head with a grimace. “I highly doubt that.”

“I would want one! And one of Alfonse too!” Sharena stated unabashed.

Laughing, the Summoner turned her attention back to the training. “Have you guys seen Líf?” Based on the training schedule she had made, he was supposed to be there as well.

Sharena shrugged. “I think he was at breakfast, but left rather quickly. I feel like he’s avoiding me.” She frowned. “I guess it’s hard for him since his world is gone. I wish there was something we could have done…”

“He made a deal with Hel and lost. There isn’t much we can do for those who are gone.” Alfonse looked off in the distance. “I can’t say if I wouldn’t have done the same if I had been in his place.”

Running her fingers through her hair, Kiran sighed deeply. “Alright, enough talk. You guys need to get to training too.” She watched as they took their leave. “Anna?”

“Yeah?” She didn’t look up from her furious scribbling.

“I’m going to take a break. I’ll see you for the meeting tonight.” Leaving the training grounds, Kiran walked through the castle.

Her thoughts wandered to the deadly swordsman. She often wondered if they were just lucky to have met Hel later than Líf’s world did. They were able to defeat Hel because his Askr had failed. If it had been reversed, they would be in different spots. Their Order of Heroes would be gone. Sharena, Anna, everyone would be gone while Alfonse would remain hanging on to his regrets.

So in thought Kiran walked smack into another person. Her head knocked against hard metal and she stumbled back. A slew of swears left her mouth as she touched her forehead. Looking up, her frown deepened as the target of her thoughts stood in front of her.

“Líf...you didn’t come to training.” The bruise on her forehead smarted. She rubbed it, trying to soothe the sting.

He stared at her passively. “I did not want to come.”

“Well you should train some. I don’t want you to get out of shape,” she joked. When he didn’t respond, she cleared her throat. “I realize you’re averse to being around people, but you should try to make some friends.”

“I thought it was up to me to decide.” An eyebrow went up.

She blinked. “Pardon?”

“You said, a few weeks ago, that it was up to be to decide whether I wanted to live or not.” He watched her face for a reaction.

“Huh, I didn’t think you were actually listening to me.” Her brows furrowed. “Okay. Well I’ll leave you to it.” She brushed past him without another word. However, she was stopped by a tug - it was barely even felt - on the back of her cloak. She turned to him, waiting.

Confusion flickered in his eyes. Even he didn’t seem to know why he stopped her. “...I apologize. Never mind.”

Her head tilted to one side. “I was thinking of going to my spot to read. I’ll see you.” Again turning on her heels, she walked off. --------- Kiran sat under her tree with a new book in her lap. She had finished the previous book rather quickly. A part of her had the goal to finish all the books the library had to offer. It wasn’t a likely goal, but she couldn’t resist the challenge. Even Alfonse hadn’t read all the books as of yet. A chilly breeze swept by, but she made no move to acknowledge the new guest.

Líf hovered a few feet away, unsure of what to do. Kiran flipped the page and continued reading. Finally he took a seat under the tree next to her. Staring up at the canopy of leaves, the sun made patterns through them. Minutes passed by as she kept reading and the swordsman observed the leaves.

Eventually Kiran dogeared her place and closed the book. “You know what I love about Askr?” He didn’t answer, but she hadn’t expected him to. “Nature here is untouched by pollution. Where I come from there isn’t much nature around. I can’t even see the stars at night.”

“It sounds very different,” he mumbled.

She leaned her head against the tree trunk. “It is. But where I come from has its perks too. Like modern technology. And my family and friends…” Kiran’s thoughts wandered to her family. She hadn’t thought of them as of late. Yet, when she did she felt a mix of emotions. Some good, some bad.

“...do you miss them?” he asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“Yes and no. I miss certain things about my family and friends. Yet there are some things I don’t miss. Maybe that makes me sound ungrateful, but it’s the truth.” She closed her eyes.

She heard him breath deeply. “I miss them. If only I was the one…”

“Perhaps if things had been different, this Askr would have been the one to fall while yours survived. Perhaps if I hadn’t been summoned, I would be home.” A bird let out a cry somewhere. “We can spend the rest of our lives speculating what could have been. Or we can focus on the now.”

“You make it sound easy,” his voice darkened “I have to live with my choices. The choices that killed everyone. If you hadn’t won, I would have had them all back!” He was suddenly hovering over her. His breathing was heavy and she could feel the weight of his stare.

Opening her eyes, Kiran held his gaze without fear. “You’re right. You do have to live with your choices. We all do. You think your the only one who has regrets? Ask any of the people summoned here, and I’ll bet they all have their own skeletons.” She sat up so her nose barely brushed against his own. “It’s how we decide to live after those choices that define us. You can wallow in self pity, but nothing will change. Or you can live on like Sharena would have wanted.”

“You don’t know what she would want!” he hissed, eyes narrowing dangerously.

“I know my Sharena, and if she is anything like your own, then you know what I say is true. She would want you to live and never blame yourself for what happened. You can move on, but it doesn’t mean you have to forget.” Kiran touched his jaw with her hand; his mask was cool to the touch. “If she knew you were punishing yourself for what happened, I know she would be heartbroken.”

He jerked away from her touch as if she had burned him. Standing he stalked off without looking back. Kiran watched as he disappeared behind the trees. She let out a deep sigh, and leaned back into the tree trunk. Closing her eyes, she sent a small wish to whoever was listening. The bitterness in Líf’s heart weighed him down. He had a lot of burdens to sort through, but she hoped he knew she would help in any way.

---------

“Eliwood, take down the pegasus knight.” The redhead did as he was told and quickly cut down the enemy with slash of his lance. Now that the sword was out, she had more room to deal with the others. She did a quick sweep of the battlefield trying to figure out the best way to get everyone around.

Alfonse was busy taking care of an axe knight while Sharena had just finished off a blue mage. She frowned when she realized that the ninja from before was missing. Turning around, she didn’t spot them. Swallowing nervously, she wondered if the enemy had managed to slip through their defense or was taken down by a different soldier.

“Alright, let’s move on.” Eliwood gave a nod, and started off ahead of her on his horse. She hustled through the forest. A rustling sound off to the side made her pause. A rabbit hopped out of the bushes, sniffed the air, and continued on.

“Just a bunny…” She let out a sigh. Suddenly a cold chin went down her spine as a breeze brushed her cheek. Turning around she saw the enemy ninja jump at her, daggers raised to strike. Eyes wide she could only stare in horror as the blades came down.

Metal screeched on metal as her vision was blocked by a furry black cloak. Líf blocked the attack and pushed the ninja back. Before they could react, he slashed through them with his sword. The sword glowed a menacing purple as it connected. A streak of purple light flew from the sword and hit Kiran in the stomach.

She went staggering back as a gash appeared where the light had hit. Blood seeped into her tunic. Slipping to the ground, she grasped the front of her shirt. The light had hurt as if she had been struck with the sword herself. Gloved hands tried to cover the wound, but the blood just stained her gloves.

The fallen prince sheathed his sword and turned to her. His eyes widened a fraction when he saw the blood. He knelt beside her. He almost reached out for her hand.

“Kiran!” Alfonse bushes through the bushes and runs to her. Líf stands and stepped away as his other self knelt beside her. “Are you okay? We need to get you a healer!”

Leaning against Alfonse’s shoulder, they slowly stand. “I-I’m fine, Al. Just a little cut.” She tries to smile but winced instead.

“You’re bleeding! How did this happen?!” His gaze immediately meets the red ones of his counterpart. “What did you do.”

“Saved her life,” Líf retorted. He ignores the uncomfortable feeling in his gut. “Unfortunately she was in the way of the recoil damage from Sökkvabekkr.”

Alfonse glared at him but Kiran stopped him from saying anything else. “Come on, Alfonse. Let’s go see Sakura.”

Without another word, she limps away. Líf watched them. His hands curled into fists when his younger self had looked at him. The loathing and anger in his eyes was very clear. Following them at a slower pace, his eyes followed the trail of blood Kiran left in the grass.

The wound was healed quickly without a problem, and Kiran was cleared to leave. Though Alfonse wanted her to stay in the infirmary, she had managed to convince him to let her go. They went to the dining hall to eat.

“Be more careful, Kiran.” His brows were drawn together and a frown was firm on his mouth. “We can’t afford to lose you.”

“I’ll try to be more aware of my surroundings. Anyways it didn’t even scar.” She took a bite of her meal. “I’m not going anywhere for a long time, Al.”

He sighed. “I just worry about you. You’re like family and I don’t know what we would do if anything happened to you.”

She grinned. “Thanks! You guys are like family to me too. I promise I’ll try not to get myself killed.” She spared a broccoli. “He didn’t mean to hurt me, and he did save me from getting skewered. Just stop giving him your murder look.”

“My what?” He coughed as some of his drink dribbled down his chin.

“Murder look. You get this very intense look that says “I’m gonna murder you” whenever you’re super angry.” She pointed at his face with a wide grin.

Sitting up straighter, Alfonse cleared his throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mhmmm.” The rest of dinner went without much fuss. 

Kiran took an extra plate of food. Navigating her way through the castle, she came to Líf’s room. She knocked on the door. “Líf? It’s Kiran.” There wasn’t a sound. She went to knock on the door once more, but she realized it was open ajar. “I’m coming in.”

Stepping inside, she spotted him standing near the window. His sword rested on a chair and she noted his gauntlets on the bed. His back was to her as she quietly shut the door. “I brought dinner since you didn’t come.” She set the plate down on the table near the fireplace.

Rocking on the back of her heels, she waited. When he didn’t respond, she spoke again. “Sakura cleared me for battle. So everything is fine.” Again he said nothing. “Alright. Well, I’m heading our. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She turned to leave. “Why?” Stopping she looked at him. His back still to her, she saw that he was watching her through the reflection from the window. “Why are you being so nice to me? I hurt you.”

“But you didn’t hurt me. I was hit by the recoil from your sword.” She frowned. “It’s not like you meant to do that. Plus you saved me from that ninja.”

“I know what Sökkvabekkr is capable of. Yet I still attacked while you were near. I didn’t care if you got hurt.” He was glaring at his own reflection.

“Well,” she chewed on her lower lip “the fact that you’re acknowledging it means you feel some remorse. You’re not as bad as a person as you think.”

Moving away from the window, he stalked over to her. “Did you forget that I tried to kill everyone to bring back my own people not too long ago?”

Tilting her head back, she sees more than just coldness in his eyes. “I haven’t. But your past doesn’t mean you can’t change.”

He closed his eyes. “You’re too optimistic. You won’t always be able to look at the positive side of things. What will you do then?”

Without thought Kiran took his hand. It was cool compared to her own; his eyes snapped open. “When that day comes, I’ll try my best not to forget myself. If I have my friends by my side, I can face it head on. It sounds cheesy but that’s how I feel.”

He gazed at their hands. Without her gloves, Kiran’s hand is warm and slightly calloused. He was so focused on their linked hands that he seemed to forget Kiran. His hand is large and she can feel the roughness of them. His hold is gentle, almost like he might hurt her if he tightens just a bit. She ran her thumb over his knuckles.

A cool hand touched her chin. His eyes were focused on her face. The pads of his finger trace the contours of her jaw. His hand tilted her face up, and she stared into his eyes. In the light from the candles, those ruby red eyes shined. His gaze was observing her face for something. She held still, afraid any movement might scare him away.

Finally he released his hold on her chin and moved away. Her hand fell limply by her side. “I would like to turn in for the night.”

It was her cue to leave. Kiran swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. “Right. Well...goodnight.” She quietly left his room. Hand against her chest, her heart fluttered a little. Shaking her head to clear her mind, she walked down the empty corridor to her room.