#In this chapter Coran is thinking about the original five paladins known as the Paladins of Old

[godestof3worlds]

On The 5th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me... FIVE GOLDEN RINGS

Ah, so it’s going to be one of those days, I guess. My brain is running around with so many thoughts I can’t shut it off. I sigh before I get out bed and look in the mirror to fix my moustache. Once my moustache is acceptable enough for a walk around the castle, I leave my room.

My room was near the princess, so I went to go check hers out first. I typed in the code, and checked on her. Since the battle, she’s been having trouble sleeping, especially with the fight with Haggar and realizing she was Altean. She's also having the pressure of trying to be the perfect diplomat and try to widen the coalition. She reminds me of her mother, someone who was strong willed and did many amazing things for her people.

I smile a little at the thought of the queen. I walk out her room and move to the nearest paladin’s room. They’re not that far from the princess’ and my own chambers, just a couple of turns and you are in the same hallway as the humans.

Hunk is closest, and that is the first paladin I check in. I type out the code, and see the yellow paladin as the door swishes open. He's tangled in his blankets as usual as he snores. He reminds me of Gyrgan. He was the kindest paladin, a leg that kept everybody up. He was somebody who preferred to eat than fight, someone who only fought if there was no peaceful resolution, similar to the current yellow paladin.

I leave his room and cross the room to the green paladin’s room, Pidge’s. I again type the code and it opens. It seems to be one of those nights where number five was actually sleeping in her bed. Her room was a mess, a contrast from the original’s room, Trigel. She was always organized, saying that we weren’t some type of savage who lived in a dumpster. She was very intelligent, just like Pidge, except she always loved nature, found it comforting even. I smirk at the contrast between the two.

I leave her room and move to the next one, Lance’s. I repeated the same code as I did for the other’s room before the door swished open and I found Lance sleeping with his sleep mask placed on his skin. He seemed to be replica of the last blue paladin, Blaytz. He was a ladies man, someone who charmed any female that had a heartbeat. He always tried to look his best and had a similar routine as Lance. I laugh softly with the thought if those two actually met.

I leave his room and move to the last paladin, Keith. I entered the code and saw the red paladin asleep. Usually, ever since Shiro disappeared, he’s either awake searching for him, or training non-stop. It's a little concerning, but it wasn’t something I haven’t seen. Alfor was the same way if any paladin was missing or injured. Shiro told me his plan he had on number four, wanting him to lead Voltron if anything happened to him. I'll think Keith will be a great leader once he learns to talk with his team more, and stops running into things headfirst all the time.

I back out the room and start to make my way back to my room as my mind starts to drift off to Zarkon before he was corrupted. He was a great leader, always listening to others and making sure that everybody survived, just like Shiro. I hope he doesn’t turn corrupted like Zarkon and starts trying to kill everybody. It's a horrible thought process to be thinking about before bed, but that may just happen.

I walk into my room and hope that I can quiet my mind so I can sleep. Instead, I am left awake for about a varga thinking about the paladins of old before sleeping a dreamless sleep.

[goldstonegolem64]

This was a massive pain in the to finish and sorry it took so long to finish this one. But hey better late then Never  there will be an epilogue followed by me moving all the chapters being moved over to my new Ao3 account  but before that I'm going to take a week off of writing . So with out further a due enjoy

Hope returns   Final Chapter Clash of titans By Goldstonegolem64

Allure was sleeping an would be dreaming of Her home. But instead she found herself standing in the cockpit of the blue lion. She wondered why She was here. Maybe Leonidas wanted to talk to her.

“ Alright Leonidas what is it you would like to talk about “ Allura asked but there was no response “  Leonidas ?” Still no answer. But she did hear someone humming coming from the pilots seat . The Voice sounded familiar to her. So she walked closer to pilots seat expecting to see Lance but no She saw herself wearing Paladin Armor with pink as the secondary color. She was taken aback by this. Why was she in the blue lion where was Lance. But then she heard herself Singing

“ Don’t stop me now I'm going haven such a good time. I’m haven a ball” The other Allura sang as she was turning on the blue lion. 

Allure looked out the right eye of the blue lion an saw people wearing what looked like Adams flight suit. She also saw dozens of jetfighter that looked like Adam’ s jet as well. She was confused by what she was seeing. But something About this place felt Familiar . But she couldn't place where she had seen it before. But her thoughts were cut off when Shiro’s voice came over the P.A System 

[ Attention to all Paladins and M.E.F. We will be reach the meet up point in t-minus five minutes be ready for deployment and my we get out of this Alive ] Shiro said Followed by Keith’s voice coming of the blue lion’s comm

{ Alright teen this is it the final fight hopefully Is everybody ready?} He asked 

{ Am a little nervues but that's just me every time we going on a mission so i’m good } Hunk said

{ It would be a bad sign if you weren't worried Bud. Also Red and I are ready to go  } Lance said

{ Me and Green are ready } Pidge chimed in

“ Blue and I are ready “ The other Allura said 

{Good to hear now once we get there will met up with Jay and his team. After that we will be leading the charge .Stay close to each other were still The highest on Haggar’s Hit list } 

{ Got it } They all said 

Allura stood there wondering what was going on. But before she could see what would happen next her alarm went off. She awake back in her room. the lights in the room turned an the Door opened an Coran walked in carrying a tray of food 

“ Good morning Princess I brought you breakfast “ He said with a massive smile on his face as he placed the tray on Allura’s lap 

“ Thank you Coran. What time is it”   She asked as she rubbed Sleep from her eyes

“  It is currently 6:30. will be leave in with in the hour ” Coran said 

“ Good to know “ Allura said still a little confused 

“ Are you alright Allura?”

“ Yeah just a weird dream” 

“ What was It about?” coran  asked 

Allura though back to the dream but she couldn’t remember what it was “ I Can’t remember sadly”  

“ It happens so how are you feeling princess”  

“ I’m fine but just a little nervous.”

“ We all are” Coran said as he put a hand on Allura shoulder. Coran was about say something but held back

Allura noticed this “  Coran what is wrong “

Coran stayed quiet for a few seconds “ You know the among of power need to make the ring work could kill you “

“ I know but that is a chance that I'm willing to take .I know it hurts you to her that but look at it this way. I will dead saving trillions so it will be worth it “

Coran’s smile faded but came back not as bright as before  “ Your father would ‘be so proud of you if he were here” A

“ Thanks for that coran. If I may ask is there anything else I need to know ?”  She asked as she started eating her Breakfast

Coran rubbed his chin and though for a few second thinking about it “ No thing that comes to mind” He replied 

“ Good to know “ Allura replied as the Altean mice walked onto the tray an started eat some of the food on the tray. Allura petted the large yellow an continued to tak to coran

 Thirty minutes later. Allura and Coran walked into the Bridge and Found Most of The paladins minus Adam  and Jay 

‘ Morning everyone Where Is Jay and Adam?” She asked 

“ Jay say good bye to his kids and Adam is staying behind to make sure Izuku as one parent still around just in case we fail the Mission Also Jay said he would meet us in obirt o we don’t have to wait for him “  Shiro replied 

Elsewhere

Jay stood in front of his sons who were half a sleep on the couch each one wrapped in a blanket do to Jay walking them up so he could say his goodbyes and give them a small list of things to do while he was out “ Alright you three . I’m going to be gone for the next two to three hours so I want you three on your best behavior for Ezra and Adam . An when your sisters wake up do your best to play with them and read to them please” Jay said 

“Dad I cant read remember” Fitz said as he was fighting to keep his eyes open

“ Your getting better at” Jay counter  

“ Still “ Fitz replied 

“ Ok Fitz inability to read aside “

“ Hey !!” Fitz said 

“love you bud. Is there anything you guy need to tell me before I head out?” Jay asked as he picked up his helmet off the coffee table.

“ Can you stay here “  Bastion  said softly as he hide his face in his blanket 

 “What was that Bas” Jay Asked 

“ Can you stay Here “ bastion said again as he sunk deeper into the blanket

 Jay walked over to the blanketed Bastion and crocheted down to be on eye level with bastion   “ You know I can’t stay Buddy”

“ I know but still what if you don't come back ?" Bastion aaked

"Then Adam will take you to Marsand you will stay with my dad and my siblings. But me not coming back is highly unlikely so don’t worry” Jay replied as he pulled Bastion into a hug. “ Now I have to go” Jay said as he broke off the hug “Are you going to be alright ?”

“ I’ll be fine and I'm still going worry”

“ Good I would be worry if you weren��t “Jay said as he patted Bastion on the head. He then got up and hugged Fitz. 

“ Stay safe”  Fitz said

 “ I’ll do my best bud” Jay replied He then walked over to the Sleeping Usamu and kissed him on the forehead.” Sleep tight buddy “ 

“Bye Dad have a nice Mission ‘ Usamu said as he opened his eye slightly 

“ I will “ Jay replied as he put his Salvager Helmet on then walked out the Cargo by door and towards the Valkyrie as he walked toward the Valkyrie. He saw Adam with two sentries holding supplies following behind him. In Adam's arms was a Sleep Izuku. The two men didn't stop to talk to each other. But spoke to each other in passing

" make sure you Bring my husband home safely please?" Adam asked

"I'll do my best but no promises "jay replied as he entered the Valkyrie 

Adam smiled a little “try your best I want my Son to have two parents in his life “

“Will try are best Adam don't you worry “ VAl said

“ That’s all I ask” Adam said as he walked into the Prometheus 

“So are we ready to go my Pilot” 

“I'm as ready as I'll very be   “ Jay replied as he sat down and started turning on the engines

“  Alright then let go then” Val saiis as she slowly took to the sky and after slowly going up they  rocketed skywards an after a few minutes of flying upwards. The Valkyrie broke orbit an found itself in the middle of armada of Rebel ships, fighters, smaller olkari Cubes And the Vanguard which spotted them an waved to them before opening a huge wormhole an slowly started letting ships in. the two then looked around trying to find the Castle of lions in the mess of ships an when they finally saw it braking orbit it had the four original Cubes orbiting it. 

“there They are ‘ Val said as  then started moving towards the castle as they did dozens of Fighters started to follow them 

“ I do not like them following us my pilot they might throw the plan if the continue to follow us” Val said as the fighters continued to follow them

“ You worry to much Val they’re just getting a good look at the legendry Valkyries right before it heads off to save the universe.”  Jay said as the fighters started to disperse the closer to the Valkyrie  got to the Castle. “ See Val your worried about nothing “ As the Valkyrie flow past the bridge followed by Allura voice coming over the comms 

[ Are you docking or are you going to follow us through the worm hole?] Allura ask 

Jay was quite for a few second as he turned of the Valkyrie’s Black Box to record everything that was about to go down “ So Val we docking or are we flying through the worm hole  ?” Jay asked his metal friend

“ Wormhole so we can just jump into the fray once were out of the wormhole “ Val replied 

“ Alright then just stay close by. We don’t want to lose you” Allura said as the armada of rebel Ships entered the Vanguard’s Wormhole Followed the cloud of cubes   the planned location After all the ships left. Allura opened up a wormhole an flow into it Followed by the Cubes and the Valkyrie 

As the Group traveled throughout the Wormhole

“ So before we get there Kolivan have we gotten any word from your man on the inside yet ?” Shiro asked 

“ No we tried before leave and we tried to contacted him as we were Leaving Olkarion . But still no answer we believe he has been Captured “   

Everyone felt a chill run down there spine.

“ Do you think Zarkon knowns were coming should we call off the Attack”  Allura asked 

“ No Thace is one of are best we trained he to with stand the greatest of physical and mental Tortures. An I believe that if we pull back are attack know  we might never get a better chance but will need to come up with a plan to turn off Central commands power.” Kolivan said 

“ Jay lets hear your Idea first just to get it out of the way “ Lance said 

{ Ok hear me out} Jay said with a smile on his face 

At the Galra center command

Harley lay in their cell/ room that was given to them by Zarkon for capturing Thace. She lay on her bed looking at the new design for her mech War dog. She didn't  like the new design and as she looked at it the door to the Cell opened and her brother walked int

“ Hello brother how was your two hours of freedom from this room ?” She asked 

“ Yes I did “ Quinn said as he sat on his bed then grabbed the data pad that was on his pillow “ What's this ? “ he Asked as he turned the Data pad on an saw the upgrades done to the halberd. The first being an updated auto pilot. Better armor,  Stronger engines. a Cloaking Device which was surprising but welcome, An new Gauss Rifle along with six chips plus a super sized high powers Plasma pistol made to punch through  heavy armored targets like the Valkyrie’s wings or Voltron’s shield, Then there was his long sword  “ Wow they’re really are gearing us up just to fail. I mean why give me all the gear if were going to lose it once Voltron shows up” Quinn said as he tossed the data pad back on the pillow followed by him scratching the back of his right ear  causing the ear to glow Seeing this Harley scratched the back of her ear causing the same thing to happen but she then returned to looking at the data pad .  this turned on  the psionic implant that the twin had install years before being captured . The implants allowed the twins to talk wordlessly only at close range. It made making  escape plans easier when no one could hear you or even detected then seeing as psionic implants were organic and no cybernetics the glowing ear was just a way for the twin to tell when to use it   

{ So Sister have you finally figure out what the Chip was “ Quinn asked through the psionic implant

{ Yes I have. It’s an override chip it helps Hackers instant control over what they want. I don’  t know what Thace want but I'm guessing it was to disable the stations Defensives for when voltron showed up again } Harley said 

{ Good to know } 

{ So do you still have it ?} She asked 

{ Yes I do.} Quinn opened his mouth an stuck out his tongue an showed off the chip then pulled his tongue back in  {Now what are we going to do with it  }    

{ Don’t know maybe do the same as Thace help Voltron an while everyone is distracted will Kill Zarkon or we leave and go to one of are old friends an asked them for safe haven} harley said as she put the data pad down

{We'll figure that out later right now we need to figure out how we are going to get thace out of prison} Quinn said as he said that the Door to his room to reveal Two guards

“ Lord Zarkon wishes to speak with you two get up ” One of the Guards ordered

The twins looked at each other then got up

“ Where are we going?” Quinn asked 

“ Shut up” The same guard said 

“ Alright alright I was just asking. no need to bite my head off “ Quinn said with a smile on his face. As he an his sister walked out of their Cell/Room an saw two more guards pulling Skyver out of his room  

“Skyver my guy what do you the almighty emperies wants from us this time?” Harley asked 

“ Don’t know maybe he’s sending us to fix Root Rots Fuck up”Skyver said jokingly 

“ God I hope so I want to take another swing at the Valkyrie “ Quinn said 

“ Same here I want pay back “ Harley added 

The three of them continued to talk as they walked to the throne room/ Bridge. The three were lined up in front of Both Zarkon and Haggar

“ Hello you three I have a mission for you to under take “ Zarkon said as he tapped a button on his throne an a screened appeared an showed off a green an blue Planet ‘ This Planet is Called earth, It’s a simple world that house carbon base life living on it called human. They are very interesting race seeing as they were actively give out there location to anyone who would listen an thats how we found this planet in the first place and it’s also the home world of the Paladins of Voltron’ As Zarkon said that several more pictures appeared Show of Lance, Pidge , Keith ,Shiro ,Adam And Hunk with the words missing over the picture of Lance, Pidge ,Keith and Hunk’s pictures and deceased over Shiro’s, Adam’s and Matt’s Picture “ An those are the paladins themselves. Lance McClain, Hunk Garret, Katie and Mathew Holt, Keith Kogane ,Takatsuki Shirogane and Adam Winchester. “   

“ Ok So do we have names to faces and the location of their home world. what is are mission then to conquer this world for you “ Skyver asked  

“ No I want you three to capture the family’s of this four we will use them as a bargaining Chip ”  Zarkon said as he brought up the pictures of Lance, Hunk, Matt Pidge “ After current events I am focused to rethink  my strategy to capturing Voltron and the Valkyrie” 

“ Then why aren’t we kidnapping the Silver Paladin’s Family “ Harley said

“ We have yet to find the home word of the Silver Paladin yet seeing as the drone we sent to was shot Down by an unseen force” zarkon said 

‘ Alright when are we heading out then” Quinn asked 

“ You will be heading out with in the hour” But as he said that Alarms started going of. “ What is going on “

“ Lord Zarkon Something as tripped are scanner “ one of the console workers said 

“ What was it “ Zarkon said 

“ We don’t know something tripped the north east sector.  it was there for just a second then it disappeared an were having trouble location it again” the same worker said 

“  Have ever warship, Fighter War Machen ,and the shipyards on high alert a scrabble the fighters and mechs currently  dock here and in the Carriers. If it’s the Valkyrie then we want to capture both her and her pilot alive same thing goes for the green lion as well. An you three get to you mechs and help in the search. I want them found and their pilot brought to me!!”   Zarkon ordered as he got up from his throne an summoned the black Bayard

Elsewhere

A cloaked Valkyrie slowly moved through the not crowded Void that surrounded Galra Central Command. In the cockpit of the Valkyrie was Jay and  Keith 

“ OK we’ve got them  to scrabble their fighters and mechs that’s a loot of mechs that is a lot of mechs “  Jay said as he piloted the Valkyrie towards a Open Hanger bay that had Mechs coming out of it..  the Valkyrie landed it opened its chest then reached into the chest space and pulled out a large crate sized device and placed it on the floor followed by Jay and Keith Walking out. They both walked over to the device an Jay an turned it on. The device let out a low hum as it came to life. “ Ok Keith I have set this thing to blow in twenty five minute meaning  you have fifteen minutes to get in and out before it before it blow and five minute of wiggle room to work with. so once you find are target contact either me or anyone else  and if shit hits the fan just  head to the nearest come back here I will pick you up. But if you run into trouble or think hit the fan fine another way out  and make sure to tell me what happening so I can active trigger the emp ”He tapped on his wrist computer showing a remote detonator “  even if this thing isn’t at full power it will knock out the power for about half hour maybe less if they can get their secondary power up. But then again I commissioned this think to be able to knock out secondary systems and ever back up systems “ Jay said as he patted the Olkari make  E.M.P Bomb that he had commissioned  During his first trip to Olkari “ Now good lucky and Stay safe “ Jay stuck out his hand 

Keith first set up a timer for how long he had until the bomb went off then he looked to Jay  “ You too  and give them hell ” Keith said as he took Jay’s hand and shook it 

“ Oh we will “ Jay said   as he walked back into the cloaked Valkyrie 

Keith smile a little as he felt the air shift as  the Valkyrie left the Hanger After that he walked toward the door that lead out of the Hanger .Keith turn on his wrist mounted computer and started scanning for luxanite the material that made up all of the Blades knives. He found one trace an started running towards it 

Outside in space a still cloaked slowly moved to one of the Massive octagon   shaped repair station. The Valkyrie moved to the top of it and hover over it by just a few feet above it stood there waiting

“  You ready my pilot?”  Val asked as she Changed the wings from the normal set to the Drill wings and closed them around them an started to spin 

“ Yeah I'm just a little nervous but hey that just part of the Job now lets give them hell”  Jay said as he pushed the engines to there max sending the Valkyrie upwards then Back down onto the Repair bay. the Valkyrie punched through  the Repair bay an caused  a quarter of the repair bay to explode sending massive Chunks of now super heated metal  flying in random direction. Some just moved through space while other slammed into near by warship crippling them of just out right destroyed  them . The Valkyrie continued to do punch through any near by  warship leaving a path of destruction in there wake  

As they did they the Valkyrie notice a small unit of V-types trying to follow them.Some where trying to shoot at them while other were trying to catch up to them and they  wielding either  Swords ,Axes , Hammers  and what looked like a shook baton. Seeing this the Both Val and Jay to make a U-turn and flow right into casing group. But right before the when into the group. The wings opened mid spin and raveled the Valkyrie Scythe in hand they used the momentum from their spinning to become a massive blender as the cut through the first few members of the group. This cause the rest of the group to dispersed but some still got hit by the scythe causing them to lose a leg an arm or a had their weapon destroyed.

The Valkyrie stopped Spinning to prevent Jay passing out from dizziness. As the stood there they looked around and Saw dozens of  V-types robeasts along with hundreds of fighter and a few warships  surrounding them weapon drawn and aimed at them. 

“ Yes it do seem that way my pilot and even if we were to counter this the power absorbed would severely damage my internal systems and you might die from the feed back.”  VAl said as she de-summoned the scythe .As she did that message from the bridge of central command “ We’ve being hailed by the Zarkon himself should I let it through?” Val asked 

“ Let that Ass hat through I want to hear what hehas to sa.” Jay replied followed by the signal coming through.

“ Hello Silver Paladin you were a foul to come here alone. Now give up an hand over the Valkyrie and you and what ever family you have will be Spared . You have a minute to replied .” Zarkon said

“  Ok first off If you ever bring up my family again I will tear you a rip second who said I came alone “ Jay said 

in the Bridge of central command 

“ My Lord we have several  objects moving towards in from the north towards the Valkyrie location “ one of the transmission officers said followed by a screen appearing showing the Green , Blue, Yellow and Black lions along with four huge Cubes that moved along side the lions. followed then by the eight of them opening fire on the fleet that surrounded the Valkyrie 

The sudden Appearance of the Lions and Cube caught the small fleet that surrounding  the Valkyrie off guard. This Gave the Valkyrie enough time to summon up the Twin plasma pistol and took well aimed shots at any V-type robeasts making  sure  that they wouldn’t be bothering the lions

“  Took you guys long enough “ Jay said as he Shot another V-type that was aiming their plasma rilfe at the Blue lion

“ You looked like you were having fun an we didn’t want to stop you” Pidge Said as She destroy a warships 

“Your not wrong ”  Jay replied 

“ Now what is Keith's status and what is the Status on the e.m.p”  Shiro asked 

“ Don’t know about Keith mainly do to the fact that it’s been three minutes since I dropped him off. Also the E.M.P has twenty two minutes until it goes off.” Jay replied 

“ Alright team keep them busy and lets hope those three don’t show up “ Shiro said as he summoned up his Jaw blade an dragged it along the side of  a nearby Carrier 

in the bridge of the Zarkon  watch with fury burning in his eye as watch his entire Armada being complete out done by Nine enemy fighters . He Slammed his fist down on his throne “ How can the universe’s most powerful Armada be turned into nothing more then shooting practice for “ zarkon stopped in his tracks 

Haggar looked at her Husband ‘ My Dear what is wrong?” She asked 

“ Why didn’t they form Voltron when they first showed up . Where is the red lion. Scan The entirety of central command look for the red paladin and look in every hanger bay, Airlock and Trash shot”    Zarkon ordered 

“ Yes sir “ one of the Console worker said an after a few seconds “ Sir we found something in Hanger bay 323.  “ As they said that a screen appeared showing of a lone Black Crete looking object  With a blue light faintly coming from it 

“ What is that ?” Haggar asked 

“ I Don’t know by its giving off a small electro magnetic signal. It might be an E.M.P  " the same console officer said

" So they are planning on cutting off the power then what destroyed this place with us inside but that doesn't answer where the red paladin is." Zarkon stopped middle sentence again "stop looking for the red paladin I know where he's going “ Zarkon said as he started walk toward the Door 

“ Where are you going ‘ Haggar asked confused as to what he husband was doing 

“ I’m going to meet Alfores successor . Now my dear stay here and lead while I'm out ”   Zarkon said as he walked the door

Back with Keith

He was moving through the a vent of the Central command tying to get to Thace’ s location. It had taken longer the expected do to him having to constantly avoid sentry ,Guard drones and Soldier portals along with the fact that he had to avoid using elevators to get to the floor that Thace was on the off chance that someone on the security dealt just happened to see an trapped him in it .Keith looked at his wrist scanned and saw that the location marker he had placed on the luxanite signature was slow getting bigger a s he got closer to what he guess was either Thace or his room where he left his blade . Which if it were Thace's room. Keith wouldn’t have enough time to keep look for him. As he got closer he hear the faint sound someone screaming. Keith picked up the pass and crawled faster through the vent   

As he got closer the screaming got louder he also saw a vent grate  on the floor and a purple Flashing coming from it “ The hell” Keith said to himself as he got closer . An when he got to the Edge of the Vent he looked down and Saw A hooded man sending out lighting through their hand and into an Galra Strapped to A vertically flipped table. Keith watch for a few second then started looking around the room there wasn’ t much in the room beside a Small Deck sat next to the Table bound Galra and on that deck was several from what he guess where surgical tool and also there was A Very familiar looking Blade. An the moment Keith saw that blade he knew he was where he’ s suppose to be. Keith slowly started to get onto his feet it was very cramped has he crouched in the vent followed by him putting his feet onto the vent grate  and kicked out the  open vent cover and jumped down

The druid was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the red paladin and was going to retaliate only to be punched in the face causing them to stumble backward .As this happened Keith summoned his Bayard and thrust it forward aiming for the druid's shoulder but do to the druid tripping on his robes causing Keith Bayard to stab into the druid’s chest. Keith held his breath as he watched the Druid's body started to violently distort the just disappear in a flash of purple light .

Keith had no clue what just happened. Did he just kill the druid or did they just teleport out after being stabbed in the chest . But he didn’t have  time to think about what just happened. So he quickly turned to face The Table bound and unconscious Galra who he now knew was Thace. He did a quick scan of Thace’s Vital signs with his helmets scanner and found that Thace was satiable but he also found out that Thace had a cracked Jaw ,several cracked ribs and a survey concussion. Keith quickly moved towards the table and started to undo the energy cuffs as he did Thace started to wake come too

Thace opened his eye an he saw a buried figure doing something .he couldn't tell who it was by sight but the scent the figure was giving off was very familiar to him   “ Krolia Is that you why are you here” Thace said weakly he blinked a few times letting  his Vision return an saw the red paladin who had just finished undoing his right hand binding while looking at him 

“ uh sorry I'm not this Krolia”  Keith said as he walked over to the left hand binding 

“ I got this just hand me my blade the watch the door “ Thace said as as he undid the left hand binding

“  Alright” Keith replied as he walked over to the medical table and grabbed Thace's blade He quickly handed it to Thace 

“ So the plan as begin then ?”   Thace asked as he took back his blade and used it to remove the lg binding 

“ Yes it as and we have “ Keith looked at the timer “  Nine minute until the E.M.P goes off an this place turns into the universe biggest coffin for anyone still in here “  Keith said as he summoned up his Bayard are and walked toward the door  opening and quickly cut down the two sentries guarding this room 

“ You have An E.M.P set up Good to know. Now  what’s you plan for extraction the two of us “ Thace asked as he followed Keith out of the room then down the hall wall leading Keith toward a emergency stairwell that's was put in place it there was a fire on any level  

“ Same way I got in.“Keith then tapped on the side of his helmet” This is Red -1 I Have secured the V.I.P requesting EVAC “Keith wait a few seconds then 

“ This is Black -1 reading you loud and clear Red -1 the Extraction point will be the same as drop off point .Copy” Shiro said 

“ Copy that Black one “ Keith replied as he and Thace ran up the stairwell

Out in the battle 

“Keith is heading back to the Extraction point “Shiro said 

“ We Heard I’ll get there once I get this Guy off Hunk “ Lance said as he froze a few fighter And a V-type that was tailing hunk

“ Don’t worry I got it “ Jay said as he had the Valkyrie tear out the core of A V-type follow by him slamming that same core into the Face of another V-type that tried t get the drop on them. After that The Valkyrie started flying back towards the Extraction point. But was stopped when Something Slammed into to them Followed by them being smashed against the Hull of Central command.by a Very Familiar Harlequin\  faced Robeast 

 Hello Jay it’s been a while  Quinn said with a very noticeable joy in his Voice as He grabbed onto the Valkyrie shoulders  dragged the Valkyrie along the Hull

“ Yeah it has been and it Should as been long. Someone get Keith I'll handle this one]”Jay replied as he  closed the Drill wing round the two of them again and started spinning send the two off in a random Direction to continue there fight 

“ I’m on it “ Pidge said 

“ I Don’t think So “ A New voice said over the comms as a Massive hand  made out of destroyed warships parts and damaged V-type came out of no where an grabbed onto the Green lion. Followed by it being thrown. The Green lion flow through space until it smashed into the Bridge of a destroyed Warship stay motionless  

“Pidge You alright?” Lance  asked as he flow the blue lion worried bout her 

“I’m fine “ Pidge replied  as the green lion started  moving again 

“Guys look out !!” Hunk yelled as he Flow the Yellow lion in front of the both of them and took the Full force of two ion Cannon round causing a huge explosion  to engulf the Yellow lion

Both Pidge and lance were in stunned by What the just watched  . But as the explosion cloud dissipated The Yellow lion floated there but now it had heavy armor covering it

‘Hunk You alright” Lance asked 

“ Yeah I'm  good thought I was about to die for a second there” Hunk replied with a smile on his face 

“ Well I wasn’t trying to kill you I was aiming to disable or badly damage . But not kill” Harley said as she pushed a side the pieces of debris to reveal the new design of the war dog or as she now called it the Snap Dragon IT was Shorter then the original and was missing two of it’s arms. An it had a weird Turtle like body it had two shoulder mounted Canon and the head was like the gladiator’ s and the face plate looked like a harlequin mask 

“ You Should have aimed to kill then it would have been easier to handle them while their were in Shaken by the dead of their friend. But with your brother handling the real threat I think to two of us can handle four lions  “ Skyver said as he appeared his robeast looked the same as his first. But now it slowly moved next to the snap dragon the massive hand made of junk dismantled itself and it pieces started circling the Polaris making  a two rings of  debris followed by cage of electricity surround all them stopping the Cubes from 

“ Look Alive team.’ Shiro said as he flow in front of the other three lion [Keith you might have to find another way out of there we’ve run into some trouble ] But there was nothing but static “No” Shiro said softly to himself know that Keith had no idea what was going on out here. Followed by the though of { Oh Shit} as he dodged out the way of a wave of Scrap metal  

Back in the Central command Keith and Thace ran through the Hall toward the extraction point . But as they were getting closer to the Hanger something felt off causing him to stop.

“What’s wrong ?’Thace asked 

“ Something fells wrong “Keith then tried to contacted Shiro Only to get Static. He then tried Pidge only static. Then he tried to Jay

“Hey buddy can't really talk right now in a bit of a fight ] Jay said as he parried a sword swing from the Halberd

"Ok what happened to the others then ?"Keith asked worried

“ They are currently fighting two robeast in massive Electrical cage . So you might have to fined away out if I can AH  “ Jay was cut off  followed by static.

‘ Shit looks like we need to fine Another way out .” Keith said 

“ Well the best plan are only as strong as the paper they are written. Good thing i know where my person vessel is now follow me if were quick Zarkon will never” Thace was cut off when he saw Zarkon stranded at the other end of the Hall

“ Will never know what . That you escaped or that in the Hanger behind you there lays an Weapon that will disable the power to the station. Which would Allow you to do something . I don’ t know what your plans is and I don’t care to find out “ Zarkon said as he turned his Bayard into it’s Blade form and took up a fighting stands  “ Now either surrender now or die a warriors death.”  

Keith and Thace looked at each other .Thace was the first to acted and pulled out his Blade and Awoken it. Keith did the same but summoned his Bayard to his left hand  duel weirding his blades.

“ Oh good were doing this the fun way then “Zarkon Charged forwards towards the two of them 

While that  battle was going on The Valkyrie and the Halberd were also dueling it out. Both had land on what remained of the repair bay as their dueling ground

‘Rude of you to talk to someone else during are duel “Quinn said as he blocked a spear thrust

“It was rude for you to interrupt that call “ Jay replied as they parried at Blade strike Followed by then doing another spear strike 

“Well I don’t want my bosses to hear what I'm about tell you” Quinn said as he let go of his shield and grabbed  onto the spear .’ The Families of Lance McClain, Hunk Garret and Parents of the Holt are in Danger and so is the earth. And Zarkon as built himself what your friend in blue calls a robeast he might be going to it’s right now” Quinn said 

“what did you say “ Jay asked as fear ran up himself 

“your teammates familiar are in trouble and Zarkon as a robeast build to take on both you and Voltron on and he might be coming to join the fight soon”

‘Why should I trust you” Jay asked As he pulled the Spear back and jumped back and took up a defensive 

“ Don’t know if I'm being honest just make your decision quickly because were getting some unwanted attention “ Quinn said as he spun his finger around 

Jay looked around  and Saw dozens  V-types surrounding them again. He quickly turned of the comms  “ Should we trust him “

“ No I believe we shouldn't but lets play along with it just in case “

Jay stayed quiet for a bit then turned on the comms again  “Alright you have my trust for now and if you lie to me I will”

“ You’ll kill me I know. “ Quinn said as he grabbed his Shield and Ready himself for a fight. But before he leaped into battle he hit a button on the control board sending a very important 

“ Well killing you isn't what I was going to say but ok.” Jay switched out the spear the scythe “let’s do this “Jay said a little unsure of this new found Alliances as the two charged forwards into . 

Back with the other paladin 

Pidge was the only one currently not captured and she used the green lion’s cloaking to well hide from the two robeasts who currently had the Yellow and blue lions were trapped in Polaris’s Magnetic pull with Metal clapping their mouth shut and keeping the tails locked in places . While the Black lion was in a Choke hold with a Barrel of a massive plasma Pistol pressed into the top of it head  by the Other robeast . An what was she supposed to do. She was now trapped in a electrical cage alone with two robeasts hunting for her 

“ Here Kitty Kitty Kitty all we want to do is talk to you “ Skyver said as he spun the two lions around him as he moved the debris around trying to uncover the location of the green lion 

“ Yeah we just want to talk Green bean ‘ Harley said with a small amount of twisted glee in her voice. As she held the black lion At gun point while she looked for the Green lion. An as she looked a light appeared on the control panel a signal from her brother

As the two looked for the green lion. Skyver got a private Signal from the bridge of central command . So he turned off his comms with Harley and answered the call  

"This is control.  Quinn as turned on us. Immediate termination of his sister is ordered by Lady Haggar "

"Understo " Skyver was cut off when the Polaris had it’s chest blown out io an ion beam . Skyver was confused for a few second before Harley voice came over the comms 

"Sorry Skyver it’s nothing personal" Harley said as she lowered the smoking plasma pistol and let go of the Black loin and moved the Snapdragon  towards the powerless Polaris and turned it around so Skyver   could see the harlequin mask “But we needed you out of the way”She then turned around thinking that the four lion would be there to continue a fight that doesn't need to continue or maybe they were going to thank you for what she did for them. But no they were busy destroying the Disk that made up the cage. making an opening for themselves and quickly used it to escape.

" how rude no thank ungrateful Paladins" "Hey bro Skyver is out of commission and the Paladins are free. But i wasn’t able to tell them about Zarkon's plan."

" Leave warning the Paladin of the possible Attack on their home world to Jay. For now will help the Paladins until we fine a good time for the two of us to escape so cause as much havoc as possible "Quinn said 

"On it " Harley said as she flow out of the opening the paladins made in the cage leaving a powerless Polari to float there . But unaware to her or to anyone there the remaining Disks stopped making the cage and slowly started to surround the powerless Polaris and started moving him back into the central command 

"Ok Shiro what was that ?" Hunk asked as he slammed the heavily armored Yellow lion into A V-type  that was Charging  towards them. The force of the impact caused the V-tpyes chest to cave in and crushed its core .

“ Don’t know . Jay Status  up date “

‘ I’m good made an uneasy Alliance with Quinn “ Jay replied as he slashed through a Fighter 

“ Why he tried to kill you he help whip out a rebel out post and near got us both killed “. Pidge said anger in her voice as she started attaching  a Warship 

”Lance McClain, Keith Kogane , Katie Holt ,Takashi Shirogane ,Hunk Garret , Mathew Holt  and the Planet named Earth. Zarkon was planning on Sending Skyver Harley and Quinn go to Earth to abduct your families and were looking my home world as well”

All four of them were quiet for a few seconds

“How do you know that they’re not lying to you ?” Shiro asked 

“ I don’t but I I'm willing to take the chance and if it turns out he is lying then i’ll just take him out. Now how Did you guys get out of that fight with the two robeasts “Jay asked

“ The Other Robeast Shoot The Polaris in the back and we left not wanting to be in a enclosed area with a robeast like and I’m now guessing that is someone Quinn knows?” Shiro asked 

” His sister “ Quinn chimed in

“ Hello” Harley Add as she rocket passed the Black lion and slammed into a Warships bridge caving it in 

Shiro thought it over as he destroyed a warship with his Jaw Blade. “Alright will work with them for now but if they turn out to betray us “

”It’s on me I know” Jay said as he switched out the Scythe for two new weapon that he commissioned one was a long barreled forearmed mounted ion cannon that rest on their left arm and on the right was what looked like a bigger version of an Olkier Blaster it engulfed the entire right hand Val Then started to unleash a hail of plasma bolts and ion rounds against the armada of Warships fights and what remained of the V-type.

“ Yes it will be now Keith status update” Shiro got nothing but silence back “Keith respawned “ Still silence  “Allure do you have a bet om Keith current location.?”      Shiro asked 

“yes we do he is currently at the extraction point.” Allura state

“That’ s weird I thought he was going to look for another way out something is wrong  “JAy say 

“Pidge”

“Way head of you” Pidge said Cutting Shiro off leaving the rest of them to handle the rest of the warships.

Moments earlier 

Zarkon Stood  in the Elevator heading towards the Hanger where the E.M,P Bomb/ As he stood there he thought back to his younger days when he and the other paladins would train with each other in the Castle of lions It brought a smile to his face as he reminisced about his past. Then he remembered his finally battle with Alfor it hurt him to fight his old friend.But it had to be done Alfor had betrayed him by Not helping fine a cure for Honerva and destroying Drasal. But a small part of himself  wish he could go back to the old days when everything was simpler with no empire no universal wars against him. But it was to later for that. The Elevator stopped and the Door opened.

He walked out of the Elevator and started walking toward the Hanger as he did he wonder which one of the humans was the pilot of the red lion he could Scratch off Shiro do to fighting him in the Astral plane for control of the Black lion and he could also scratch off  Mr.Garret seeing as he was of a more rotund figure and Mathew holt seeing as he was a problem for a few mouths before . Voltron Showed up.  That left Lance McClain Katie Holt And Keith Kogane. he would enjoy finding out he then turned the corner and so Both Thace and  the red paladin standing in front of the hanger bay  door. He just stood there and waited for them to notice him . He hear them talk then Thace turned and Saw him and stopped mid sentence  

“will Never know what that you escaped or that in the hanger behind you there lays a weapon that will disabled the power to the station. which will allow you to do something. I don’t know what your planning and I don’t care to find out “  H said as he turned his Bayard into it’s blade form and took up a fighting stance “Now either surrounded or die a warriors death 

Both Thace and the red Paladin Drew their weapon and readied themselves for a fight.

“ Oh good were doing this the fun away” He said to himself as he charged forwards and Swung at the red Paladin who quickly blocked the strike the blade locked and Zarkon leaned in so he could be face to Face with the red Paladin “  I have to ask  what is your name boy ”They asked as they used their free hand to grab thace’s strike 

Keith struggled to keep Zarkon's blade from slow digging into his armor. “  Why should I tell you” 

“ Because when you and your team  fall here today I want to remember you all "Zarkon said as he pulled Thace forward and shoulder checked  him sending thace stumbling back followed by Zarkon kicking Keith into the Hanger door. Then he swing Keith again.

Keith ducked out of the way of the strike and watched as the blade cut through hangar bay door Keith quickly thrust his mother blade forwards stabbing into Zarkon's gut " My name is Keith Kogane I hope you remember it in what little time you have left."

Zarkon growled in pain but smiled as he did it . Seeing as this was the first time in millennia that someone had actually hurt him " Good to know Keith and I will remember you" He said as he grabbed onto the blade that was in his gut and pulled it out and kicked Keith again but this time at full force sending Keith through the lower half of the cut hanger door. Send both the lower half of the door and Keith in to the hanger. Zarkon then quickly turned and swung at Thace. Who quickly blocked the swing

"Oh Thace I had such high hopes for you. Your record was flawless and I was thinking of making you a canadine for my new Paladins once a captured Voltron "Zarkon said as he took another swing at Thace 

Thace quickly blocked the strike But as he felt a pain shoot up his arm followed by being Slide down the Hallway by the force of the strike . Thace was a bit confused by what just happened but he did have time to process what just happened because Zarkon was Charging towards him and unleashed a fury of powerful strikes against him.  Thace was forced to go onto the defensive again just to survive the onslaught of powerful blade strikes  until Zarkon knocked Thace's Blade out of his hands then grabbed Thace by the faces and processed to throw him down the Hallway towards the hanger door. He then thrust his blade forwards and watched as his chain blade launched itself forwards towards Thace as he was hitting the ground. 

 Thace hit the ground hard but he quickly righted himself to  just nearly avoid being impaled by Zarkon's Bayard. He quickly summoned back his blade well he avoid being cut to ribbons by Zarkon simple moved his hand back an forth rapidly. Causing his blade to  whip around violently his blade craved up the hall. Thace continued to dodge the fury of the attack and moved quickly towards the Open hanger bay door. He ducked into the Hanger and activated the  secondary Blast door and locked it. Hopefully buying Him and Keith enough time to catch their breath he then to see Keith Struggle to get back up. He quickly moved towards him and started to help him up.

“ You alright Keith?” Thace asked 

“ Yeah I'm fine my armor took most of the damage. But It didn’t stop me from getting a few cracked ribs.”  Keith replied as his Bayard and his mothers  blade returned to their original forms “ Still not the worst pain I've been in “

“ What was the worsts ?” Thace asked as he helped Keith walk toward the object in the center of the room it was a lager Red And green  rectangular Device that was giving of low humming sound that was slowing getting louder.

“ My Jaw was dislocated by my teammates eldest Son  .”

“ How did they Manage that ?” Thace asked as the sound of a blade punching through metal could be heard 

“ Long story but my friends kid got a lucky shot in when his dad asked me to train him.” Keith said as he started walking on his own

“ Which friend is this if I may ask”

“ I’ll tell you when were not being attacked by the Emperor of are entire race” Keith said as he reawakened his mothers blade and put back his Bayard “ What’s are plan of Attack here?”  He asked as Zarkon’s blade punched throw the blast door and started to carve away into the room.

“  Can you contact your team and see if can pick us up because I believe that we don’t want Zarkon to destroy this thing here “ Thace asked as he pointed towards the E.M.P 

“ I tried that after I was kicked through the door. But my Helmets comms are rebooting. But my Tracker is on telling everyone where I am  Allura and the others where I am. So it’s only a matter of time until  someone get us Also yeah him destroy this would completely sideline the plan a second time ”  Keith said as he readied himself for a fight as the Blade into the at was carving through the door stopped disappeared followed by a huge chunk of the door was set flying forwards. The hunk of metal hit the ground causing  loud crashing sound to echo throughout the hanger .

“Sorry to keep you waiting “  Zarkon said as he walked through the hole he made . He turned his head to see his both of his foe standing in front the E.M.P Device . “  That looks important .” He said as he thrust his blade forwards it extended itself rapidly towards the two foe.

Thace was the first to act an knocked the tip of the Blade away from the E.M.P . Then Keith Ran .

This cause Zarkon to recall his blade and started blocking the strike of the red Paladin. Zarkon  Parrying each of the red paladin attack with ease .But as he did he saw potential  in him“  You lack form and Focus boy “ He said as he blocked another strike “ Who trained you one of those Gladiator on in the Castle of lions training deck.”

“  Self taught “ Keith said as he Swung again but this time Zarkon Caught the Blade mid swing Causing Keith to panic a little

Zarkon smile” With proper training you could be a master swords just like my son but sadly that I cant let you become that master   “ He then raised his blade and was about to bring it down. When Thace's Blade blocked the Strike Followed by Keith puling his Blade back cutting deep  into the palm of Zarkon hand Then followed by Keith thrust  his blade forwards aiming for Zarkon Chest 

His Blade Punched through the Breast Plate of Zarkon Armor. Then the secondary layer,then the third ,then the Fourth Layers of protection until it finally hit Skin. Keith continued to push the blade deep into Zarkon's Body Cutting through Skin ,Muscle bone and then through a lung

Zarkon Eye widened as something he hadn’t  felt in millennia flowed through his body. It was Pain true pain and it was a wonderful feeling it made him fell alive again. But it was short lived As Keith pulled his blade out causing Zarkon to fall to his knees   he used his blade to hold himself up While he used his hand that had a deep cut in it. to cover the gaping hole in his chest . An from that wound leaked his Blood which was a dark purple . The blood hit the floor making a small splashing sound 

 Thace  held their nose the  moment he smelt the terrible odor coming off of the blood it smelt rotting flesh .”  What have you done to yourself ?” Thace asked

But before he could get his Answer a scream echo through out the halls followed by a bright purple Light appeared next to Zarkon followed by two Bolts of purple  lighting slammed into the two of them electrifying both of  them then lifted them both into the air  “ I’ll Kill you both for what you’ve done to my love” A female voice yelled as they throw both Thace and Keith away from Zarkon. 

Both men hit the ground and quickly righted themselves and looked towards who ever throw them and Saw a women in dark purple robe with yellow lining it. Standing next two Zarkon her hands were cover by a pitch black energy 

“Who is that” Keith asked he dodged an om coming energy bolt the women shot at him,

“ That is Haggar head of Zarkon Science division and Zarkon's Wife  “ Thace replied as he also dodged a bolt of energy .

“ Great is their son going to show up next” Keith asked as he dodged another bolt 

“ Unlikely he was exiled centuries ago “ Thace said as he throw his blade at the stationary Magic user . 

Haggar quickly through up a Dome  to protect her and her husband. An as the Dome Went up the blade hit it and was sent spinning into the air.Thace quick grabbed it out of the air and as he did dozens of sentries ran in weapons raised 

“ Oh great more problems to take care of  “ Keith said 

Inside of the dome 

Haggar was busy catching her breath seeing as  she did just teleport   through six hundred level of metal floor just to save her husband from himself. She then turned around to look at him kneeing on the ground blood dripping from his chest wound

“   You fool you over confident, Prideful arrogant Fool”     She said as she slammed him across the faces a few times before she started healing him

“ Thank you my love “ Zarkon said as the hole in his chest slowly started to close up followed by him vomiting up blood   

Haggar sneered as she saw how much blood was on the floor now “ You true have became complacent if one of those two were able to do that to you”  She said trying to sound Annoyed but her worry peeked through 

“ Sorry if I worried you my love “ Zarkon said as he got back onto his feet 

“ Don’t apologize just let me finish before you started moving again” Haggar said 

outside of the dome Both Keith and Thace had finished  cutting down the last of the sentries that had arrived.

“  More are coming .”Thace yelled as more Sentries and now soldiers were running towards them 

“ Great “ Keith said he moved towards Thace  By as he said that he hear the sound of metal claws hitting the floor followed a sudden Shadow Appeared over top of him. Keith looked up to see the Green lion a few feet away . Then he watch as the green lion fired a Gaia beam towards the door way causing Roots and Vines to erupt from the metal walls and floors blocking of the door . [ Alright you two get in ] Pidge said as she lowered the green lions head to pick up the two 

Thace and Keith looked at each other and started running towards the green lion and as they did the dome opened up and Zarkon's Bayard shot out aiming for Keith . An Keith didn’t have time to react to it .But Thace did and he pushed Keith out f the way and the result of that action had most of his arm .leaving only half of his upper arm to remain Thace hit the ground hard as the blade retracted and return to is owner 

“ Thace”  Keith yelled as he was about  turned ran to Thace's side and helped him up 

“ No just go finish the this mission leave me ”  Thace Said as he held  the bleeding stump of his arm powerless to stop Keith from helping him up and started moving towards the green lion open mouth 

“ Not with out you “ Kieth said as the two of them continued towards their evac.

But as they did The dome opened again an Zarkon Shot out and made his way towards the two slow moving targets . But as he did a Smaller Version of the Gaia beam slammed into the floor in front of him causing roots and Vines to wrap themselves  around him  and tried to pull him down to the Floor. Seeing this Haggar was going to try and stop them but had to quickly through up another dome as the green lions tail quickly pointed itself at her and fired at her  

This Gave Thace and Keith Enough time into the Green lion “ Where on board pidge “ Keith said 

{ Alright } Pidge replied as she stopped firing the tail Gun  she then turned on the green lions cloak and started to heading towards The Castle of Loins.{ Jay were clear Blow it }

“Alright” Jay replied as he tapped on he wrist mounted computer

Back inside of the Hanger Zarkon broke free of the Vine and root that entangled them. He turned to See his wife frantically typing on the device he guess she was trying to stop it from detonating   

“ No No No” Hagar said as she  stop trying and slammed her fists on the E.M.P . She then tried use her magic to disabled the device but stopped when the E.M.P bomb spoke 

[ Remote detonation trigger ] The E.M.P started to glow brightly  an rumble loudly followed by electricity  started arcing of off the bomb   [10,9,8,7]

Haggar quickly teleport towards Zarkon grabbed his  right arm and teleport-ed them to a nearby Lad. Leaving the Bomb behind [  4,3,2,1] Then the bomb active and set out a wave of energy that passed through walls , Floors and ceiling. The wave Shut down every device, Sentry and armor system of ever soldier that the wave passed until it had completely shut down the whole station.

From the Outside the Paladins and Harley and Quinn watched as the light on the outside started turning off  until the lights were all out and the station started to slowly flow in a aimless direction

“ E.M.P Detonated Is the Vip and Keith secured ?”  Jay asked hoping for the best.

“ Yeah they’re secured “ Pidge said as the door to the cockpit opened “ And their hear now do you what to talk to OH MY GOD” Pidge screamed as she turned her head to see a blood covered Keith helping a bleeding armless Thace into cockpit. 

“ What happened it Keith Alright “ Shiro asked

“ Yeah I'm fine just covered in blood” Keith said as he placed Thace the bed that all the lions had at the back of their head for when they were on missions with out the castle of  lions being around.

“ What covered in blood are you alright how bad are you injured  !?” Lance asked worry very 

“  I’m  fine it’s not my blood” Keith replied as he started looking for something”

 ‘ That doesn't make it better. What happened ?” 

“ Zarkon cut my arm off” Thace said as he was trying not to get to much blood on the bed and was slowly starting to pass out from the blood lose 

”  Pidge where do you keep the med kit ?” Keith asked  

“ Here “ Pidge said as she reached under the control console and then tossed it towards Keith . Then return to flying towards the castle 

“ Thank you and thank you for the concern lance   “ Keith said with a small smile on his face  as he opened it and tried to remember  what to grab 

“ If you want to stop the bleed of a recently detached limb you the disinfection spray followed by the Clotting foam” Jay said as he point blanked a Warship with a his Ion canon

‘  Thank you doc” Keith said as he followed jay instruction 

“ Not  doctor yet ‘ Jay replied 

“Keith  finished applying the Clotting foam to Thace’s stump “ Alright were done here. How you doing Thace ?” Keith asked 

Thace opened his eyes a little The looked at the stump that was once his arm “  I’ve been tortured , Lost my arm and lose a good amount of blood but besides that. I am fine or what could be considered fine’ Thace said 

“ Well we can fix you missing arm problem. My Pal Jay can make you a new one once we finish the mission. So don’t worry about that “ 

“I won’t now if you don’t mind I'm going to rest for a bit before we land “ Thace said as he closed his eyes to rest 

“ Alright then “ Keith said he put away the med kit supplies and walked up to pidge to see several screens the team fighting the Armada of warships then he noticed two robeasts fighting along side of the other” Hey Pidge why are those robeasts  helping .?” Keith asked as put the med kit back 

“  Turns out that the twins were planning betraying  Zarkon and their using are attack to follow through with their own plan. “

‘ And we just believed that ?” 

“ well they also told us that Zarkon was planning on holding Lance‘s Hunk’s and my own families hostage. So we would just surrender and Zarkon also as a robeast of his own and was planning on using it against us “ Pidge said as she landed the Green lion in it's hanger 

“ And again we are trusting them ‘ 

“ Yes we are for the time being now lets get Thace here some help and you get in back in your lion”  Pidge said as she land inside of the cloaked  

In the bridge of the Castle

 “The green lion is on board Coran said 

“ Good Coran tell the others to be ready to go “ 

“ On it “ Coran said 

“ Alright Allura you can do this “ Allura whimpered to herself as she placed her hands on the control pillars. As she did this she looked down on Galra Central command “ As Lance would say It’ s show time” she said as DE-cloaked 

Back inside of Galra central Commands Bridge

Zarkon walked into the Bridge and saw that the room was covered in the red glow of the emergence lights, along with the Alarms blaring.

“   What do we have “ The emperor asked as he sat down on his thrown. 

“ Were running on are final back up system my lord all we have short range scanner, Short range comms are still up , Life support in barely running and the artificial gravity only work at half power  “ one of the Console officers said 

“ Status on casualties ?” 

“ We're still calculating.”

“ And what of are attackers?” 

“ They are still Fighting sir “ 

“ Alright before we lose power did you locate the Castle of lions.”

“ No My lord”

“ Alri” 

Zarkon was cut of as the entire Station that was sort tilled from the power lose suddenly right itself followed by a bright blue light Appeared 

“ What was and is that ?” Zarkon asked as he go up from his feet throne and walked toward to one of the console and looked at the screen of it and saw a mass ring that floated above them and in the center of that ring was the Castle of lion. He felt his heart stop for a split second . “ Tell everyone to fire on the ring  before it’s full actives “

But it was to later as a massive wormhole opened up and started to quickly suck in the station .

Out in space 

The team watched as the wormhole opened. An start pulling in command station.

“ Holy Quiznak what is that?” Harley asked as she stopped fighting to look at the six mile wide hole in the fabric of reality and watched as the Valkyrie,her brother and the cube entered into the wormhole 

 “ That’s are exit now get a move on or get felt behind “ Lance said as he rocket the blue lion towards the wormhole followed by Yellow lion and Black lion

Harley shrugged to herself and followed the loins into the wormhole and as she went in she found herself somewhere new. She guessed she was near or inside of a nebula of some sort do to the red tint to the space around them  . She also saw spread out this open area of space was thousands of Ships of various sizes, Modes and types along with hundreds of smaller version oof those for cubes that were along with Paladins  .An all of which were slowly converging on her at first she though they were coming towards her and she was about to start opening fire on them but then The Halberd flow in front of her come 

“ Don’t shot “Quinn said 

“ Sorry reflect” She said as she lowered her weapons and remembered that the Command center was right behind her  

“ It’s alright now follow me the other are waiting for us He said as started moving towards the Castle of lions  

“ Not yet” Harley said as she flow the war dog V2 upwards towards the command station main bridge as she ascended she watched as everyone in the bridge started to scramble out of the bridge. leaving only Zarkon standing their alone in the bridge. A smile creeped on to her face as she leveled her shoulder ion canon and point blanked the fired both of then the two beams completely annihilating the Bridge and hopefully killing The emperor.

But before the smoke cleared Zarkon Charged forwards shield first and shield bashed the head of the Wardog v2 sending it backwards he then switch it back to its blade form and used it to get back to the now destroyed bridge

“ Son of a bitch “ Harley yelled as she righted her mech and was about to retaliate but Couldn’t find the emperor” Where did he go” She yelled as she slammed he fist into the control panel Followed by her unloading her ion canons  on the powerless station causing  explosion to erupted across the surface of the station. Which was followed by Everyone Warship and fighters started to unleash a volley of Plasma rounds , Ion beams , Missiles and M.A.C rounds. All of which slammed into Command Station 

“ Looks like shits popping of without  us  ” Jay said as he watched the explosions go off

“  Then Why don’t go and help then. “  Pidge said as she and the rest of the group waited for Keith

“ What am I going to do none of my weapon wont cut deep enough to do the damage we want “

“ You have a bow that can punch through anything “ Lance said

Jay was Quiet 

“ You forgot again didn’t you “ Shiro add 

Jay stayed silent while he  summoned his Bayard to his hand  then place it into the key slot and summoned the bow and  started to charge it up and aimed it towards the life supports power source” Hey Buddy you in the red lion yet “ Jay said as he unleashed the Arrow. The Arrow punched through the station hull completely destroying the power sources

“ I’m here” Keith said as the red lion flow out of the castle and joined up with the others 

“ Alright team form Voltron “Shiro said 

Jay and Val watched as the team formed Voltron 

“never get tried of seeing  that “ Jay said as the team fnished forming Voltron.

“  Alright team lets finish this “ Shiro said as Voltron Flow past the Valkyrie as it Shot of Another Arrow  

In Central Commanded 

Zarkon ran through the hall of the station as it shook from everything hitting it.. Then the Station shook volatilely as something hit the station followed by a ear shattering explosion causing Zarkon into a near by wall

[ Life support as been disabled. ] The P.A System

“ Dammit it all’” Zarkon said as he got back on his feet and continued to run 

Then Another Station shaking explosion happened 

[ propulsion syst] The P.A was cut off as a third explosion went of   

Zarkon picked up the pace and keep on running until he made to his Wife’s lab where she made her monsters, The door opened when he was close enough He walked into the control room and  Haggar readying  his mech titan 

“Is it full charged ?” He asked as he walked pass her and quickly started to replace his damaged armor 

“ Yes it is “ She replied as she turned to face her husband “ I would try to stop you from doing this seeing as it will be you vs any army of rebel but then Again. we would not have been able to conquer most of the know universe if you were so stubborn. “   She said as she walked up to him and helped him get his new armor which looked the same to his old one “ This armor will allow you to quickly connected the Titans neural link and it will also lessen the pain you take when They land a hit on you  “ 

“ That is good to hear it’s going to be useful in the coming battle only .” He said as he flexed his arm “ Now before I go I have one request of you”

“An what is that my love ?”

“ Go down to the quintessence extractor and if things get to dicey for me I want you to drain  Voltron or the Valkyrie.”

“ Alright just promises you’ll come back to me“ Haggar said with worry very visible in her voices 

Zarkon removed her grabbed her chin and kissed her forehead “I will try my love I will try” He said before leaving the control room and walked down into the hanger. As he did he looked towards the titan . It looked like him But it had massive dragon like wings on it’s back” Now let’s deal with these problems of Are's ” 

Back in space 

The fleet continued to unload on the powerless station While this happened  the Valkyrie, Halberd, Voltron and snapdragon   watched the fleet’s onslaught. 

“ You know I though this was going to be Harder “ Jay said as the Valkyrie fired off another bow  sat on top of a one of the original cubes 

“ Don’t jinx it “ Lance said 

“  I almost died  An thace lost an arm “ Keith said kind of annoyed 

“ Sorry just speaking out loud. Speaking of thace. Beau how is are new guest doing.”    Jay asked 

“ He is stable but do to the extent of his injures it will take about a month for him to fully recover “ Beau said 

“Good to know. Allura how are you doing?’ Shiro asked 

“ I’m fine a bit  tried but fine. Now if I may ask why have you stopped attacking the station?”  Allura asked a little confused

“ While my reason for stopping is because well I fell kind of bad for the people ion there because well there people doing their job it’s not a good job but they were just doing it  for their people after what Your father did to them Also I didn't want to be caught in the cross fire ’“ Jay said as he leaned back in the pilots chair  

Allura winced a little remember that this was in part her fathers fault  “ And the rest of you ?” She asked  

“ Cross fire “  the Hunk, Keith, Pidge and the twins  said in unison 

“ and the fact that it shows the universe at large that this new found coalition can hold it’s own against the empire. ”   Shiro said

Allura though it over and agree” That makes sense” 

Then a voice came over the comms “ This is orange one reporting something is coming out of a hanger from the underbelly of the station . Oh god it Agh” Orange one was cut off and a purple beam was seen coming out from under belly of the station just like they said followed by a purple blur coming out from there as well. It moved quickly and several small scaled explosions going of as the blur moved towards them 

“oh Shit “  Jay was the first to react as the Valkyrie  got off the cube they were sitting on and rocketed forwards towards the blur as they moved they summoned the Scythe to them and was about to swing at it. But before he could the Blur slammed into them. Followed by them being grabbed by the face and being dragged long by this  new foe. 

Jay and Vall had no clue what just happened and could real thing about as the felt themselves no longer moving towards the others but somewhere else. They tried to swing again to cut the hand that was obscuring their sight only to be smashed in to something followed by a short burst of electricity  Disabling their systems. 

“ What the Quzinak is with everyone and fucking electricity”  Jay  yelled  as the lights turned back on but before he could do anything a bright purple light appeared from the hand hold their head “ oh Quiz “

The others had watched their friend disappeared then watched  as a nearby dreadnaught  moved a little from the force of something impacting it followed by it exploding into a ball of fire and metal. 

“Jay report “  Shiro asked but got nothing in return 

“ Don’t waste your time he won’t answer” Zarkon said over the comms. As the smoke suddenly and quickly dispersed and showed the stunned Paladins his robeast The titan and in front of him was a motionless Valkyrie “ I  though he’d be strong enough to survive   “  Zarkon said as he grabbed onto one of the Valkyrie’s wings and brought it closer to him and looked it in the face “ For all the men you killed all the ships and mechs destroyed. All the money you cost the empire.  An all it took was one Shot to termite you “    Zarkon said as he tosses the powerless Valkyrie to the side 

Voltron charged forwards swing their blade wildly as anger took control of all. An it was understandable they had just watched two of their friends who had been there since the beginning had just been killed in front of them and simple tossed a side like they was nothing.

Zarkon was on the defensive as he used his heavily armored wrist gauntlets to Block the furious blows of the now anger Voltron. HE knocked a side another blade swing and landed a powerful right hook to Voltron’s head sending it backwards. But as voltron flow back Dozens Plasma  bolts from fighter and nearby Rebel warships opened fire .Zarkon closed his wings around him knowing that even with all the Plamsa proof metals and alloys that made up the Titans armor it would weaken under this much fire power. So he summoned his Bayard to his  hand an slammed it into the Key-slot  and Activated the wrist mounted Chain blade. He quickly parted his wings Swung his blade as he spun the upper half of the titan in a full Three-Sixty. He spun around rapidly as his blade sliced through Fighters an damaging the nearby warships. Then he stopped spinning and righted himself and was about to look back towards Voltron only to have Halberd kick into his chest at full force pushing him back

He righted himself again but then came the War Zone it’s Massive metal fists They smashed against the titan’s head repeatedly. Each hit pushed the titan back bit by bit . Zarkon tried to swing his blade at the War dog  but the Halberd stopped the blade mid swing . Giving The snapdragon an opening to grab onto The Titan’s other hand and began to spin rapidly and after a few seconds of spinning they throw The titan back towards central command

The Titan stopped itself right before it could hit the hull of The command station. But before he could do anything the Halberd charged forwards Shield first and slammed into them and slammed them into the Command center. The Halberd then attempted Stabbed their blade into the Side of the Titan. But his blade shattered on contact with the heavy armor. 

“ Shit” Quinn said as he Flow the Halberd back but the Titan grabbed onto the Halberd's leg. Then Slammed it against The Hull of central Command. Followed by them being thrown away.  But once the Halberd was far enough away a Volley of Missiles plasma Rounds, and a few ion beams Zarkon brought the Titian’s Wings up to block the onslaught again. The wing were useful in blocking the shots but it left him stationary. But after a few seconds of being fired upon Then the firing stop so He quickly parted his wings and saw that Voltron charging towards him blade first.

Zarkon acted quickly and grabbed the blade before it could make contacted  with his chest.

This brought both of them to a stand still With voltron pushing their engines to the max while Zarkon used all of the Titan’s strength to avoid being stabbed in the chest again. 

“ So much Anger towards me over the death of your friend there “ Zarkon said trying to egg the Paladins on” Who was he to you all . A rival ,friend, Brother, A lover or maybe even a father he was Altean After all their D.N.A never shows their real age  “ Zarkon said with a smile on his face 

“ He was a good man And that’s all you need to know “ Keith said with a growl to his voice 

“ Good such a relative term . Now how many of people as this good man of your killed today. How many have all of you killed. How many men and women die today just so you could get at me ?”   Zarkon asked as he suddenly twisted his hand and sent Voltron’s blade plunging their blade into the Station. Followed by him grabbing Voltron by the face quickly turned around and slammed Voltron into Central command, fired up the titan’ s engines and began dragging then along the side of Station.” How many people have you widowed how many child have you orphaned.“ Zarkon Yelled as The titan and Voltron reached the top of Central command the moment The Station was no longer in the way The titan spin itself still holding onto Voltron and throw them quickly followed by Zarkon point both of the Titan’s hands towards his foe and fired off two high powered Plasma round at Voltron.

But before the two round hit their targets A cube took absorbed the two shots then fired them back on him. So he brought the right wing to block the two shots the two Rounds explode on contact with his wings sending him backwards a bit he moved the wing back and as he did as swarm of smaller versions of those cubes appeared and started to surround him 

“ The hell is with these cubes” He yelled as he active the other wrist Blade and started cutting into the cubes. But that only made it worse as every time he cut it just made more. When he realized this He stopped and the cubes started converging on him. It was like something out of a Horror move as the Swarm of Cubes started to merge together with the Titan in the center of it 

Everyone watched as the Titan frantically tried to rip itself free of the Cubes.But the just kept coming until it slow engulfed  The Titan trapping it in side of a Much Larger then the Original one.

”Is it over ?” Lance asked

But his answers was quickly revealed as crakes started to appear in the Cube that leaked out a dark purple energy. The crakes in the cube started to get bigger and bigger as more of that purple energy leaked through the cube then it exploded . Sending huge chunks of the now shattered cubes flying in random directions and the force of the explosion sent All three of mech backwards  

Voltron quickly right themselves only to have the titan slam into them .

“I’m ending this now !!” Zarkon yelled as he pushed voltron down back towards where they originally came from and into range of the Quintessence extractor. But as he pushed Voltron down A Bolt of energy slammed against the Side of the Titan causing them to let go of Voltron 

See that freed the quickly got away from the Titan and Re-summoned their blade and top up a defensive stance. As they did The Warzone and The Halberd Came down and readied themselves to continue the fight . Then a voice come over the comms

“ Next time you leave someone for dead make sure they're actually dead “ Jay said as the de-Summoned the Bow and Summoned up a Pair of Yellow and white Gauntlet that when they knocked their  its knuckles together caused electricity  to arc between the two of them

Zarkon look from Voltron to The Valyrie then The Halberd then towards the Warzone . Zarkon active his personal comms “ Is everything Ready My Dear?”  He asked 

“ Everything is ready my Love “ Haggar replied 

“ Good once you see either Voltron or the Valkyrie fire on them” He said as he suddenly had the Titan  dive bomb downward. This caused the four mech to follow him. 

“ There is no way your getting away from us “ Val said as she fired up her engines and rocket towards The Titan. They quickly caught up to the Titan and slammed into to the and tried to grab onto the Titan’s Head .But the Titan pushed back and shoulder c the Valkyrie checked  away and quickly fired off a plasma round  that hit the Valkyrie head on and stopped them  only for a few seconds .

So Zarkon pushed the Engines to their limits and made a good distanced between himself and His foes but Voltron Was quickly closing that gap and that's what he wanted as he quickly stopped the engines . .This Caught the Paladins for Guard As they Slammed into the back of the Titan and then was quickly grabbed onto and then thrown down wards by the Titan sending them into the firing Range of the Extractor .

An if on Quo the moment Voltron was in Range Haggar and the two Druids with her fired off a bolt of dark purple energy towards Voltron. The Bolt slammed into Voltron and Drained completely it of it’s energy. Causing voltron split apart 

“ Yes” Zarkon yelled with a smile on his face only to be tackled By The Halberd and Snapdragon

“ Noo” Allura said as she felt the pain the lions felt But she would not let history repeat itself “  Coran Get us in closer” She ordered 

“Yes Princes “ Coran said as he moved the CAstle of lion forwards and Readied the Partical Canon 

As this was Happening The twins tried to  pummel the Titan. But both were suddenly and Violently pushed away by a burst of energy. Both quickly righted themselves and readied themselves to fight the emperor. As they did they both saw that the Titan had a strange dark purple aura surrounding it. But The aura quickly faded away but as it did for a quickly second both swore they saw a small  figure sitting on the shoulder. Then it quickly disappeared. Then Zarkon spoke .

“ I’m going to fi”But Zarkon was cut of by the Valkyrie kicking the Titan right in the head sending flying to the right 

“I’ll will you apart and burn what’s left of you!!” Jay Yelled As he rocket the Valkyrie forwards and started whaling on the Titan. “ You hypocritical piece of Shit. How many innocent people has you mercilessly murder just because they said no to being under your rule. “  Jay barked as he Hit the titan again this time at full force and once the fist made contact  it caused a massive flash of light followed by the Titan be pushed back by massive bolt of lighting. which Pushed the Titan Into one of those tower like structure contented to the main station then explode one the titan stopped moving 

“You like this I call them Odin’s Fury got them off of your Planet Pal. They work like this the more I hit you the more the Kinect energy builds up in then and I can unleashed the energy from one of then  in one of two ways a powerful punch that can rock your world like it did just now or it can do this   “ Jay said as he summoned up their Spear “Now have a taste  of your own medicine.”  Jay said as he throw the Now electrically  charged Spear at the Titan .

Zarkon Quickly Brought up the titans right arm to block the spear only to have it punch through the heavily armor plated wrist Gauntlet  causing pain to shot through his own wrist. Followed by A Massive electrical  surge through out the Titan’s Systems. Leaving it some what disabled .Zarkon Then Watched As the Valkyrie Summoned up their scythe And charged forwards 

“ Reboot All systems now” Zarkon Yelled as  he brought up the Same arm watched as the Valkyrie’s scythe cut deeper into his arm “AAAHH” Zarkon yelled out in pain  as the power came back on. Once back on he proceeded to grab onto the Valkyrie’s wing pulled them in an head butt them and followed it up by using his remaining hand to fire off a point blank plasma round sending them back .Only for a Gauss round to slam into them followed by two more. Then a came  two ion beams but He Quickly countered them .

Jay,Val,Quinn and Harley watched as the two beams were absorbed by The titans wings followed by Bright purple Marks appearing a cross the Titans body Then the wings unfurled  

“ Oh this is going to be fun  “ Zarkon said as the Titan Charged forwards at a unforeseen speed

Back with the lions 

Shiro Awoke and started trying to active the black lion only to find that the power was out “Can anyone hear me Keith, Pidge, Lance, Hunk”   No response” Matt , Allura” No response again “ Leonidas  you still with me “

“ Yes Shiro I am weaken but still and I won’t be leaving anytime soon “ Leonidas said as power started to slowly return

“ And the other ?” Shiro ask

“They are fine contact with them will be reestablished Now “

 “ Paladins are you all right Please responded”   Allura said 

“I’m fine” Hunk replied 

“ I’m still standing “Pidge replied

“I’m not doing so hot but I am still able to fight” lance replied 

“ I’m doing peachy “ Keith said 

“ Good to hear . Now are you able to control your lions ?” 

“ No what ever hit  me has drain a lot of my power and would have killed the Paladin if not for my intervention. It will take time for me to regain a decent amount of power. So someone will need to cover use 

 “Jay and the twins are .In coming” Allura yelled as The Valkyrie slammed into the Yellow lion which sent both of them flying. Followed by War zone smashing another structure leaving a huge dent in it

The Valkyrie righted itself “Hey Guys when are you getting back into the fight shit just hit the fan real hard. Zarkon  can counter shit so we need to end this fast before” Jay was cut off when The Halberd Now missing both it’s legs , half of it’s face plate and a Caved in chest slammed into them

“You alight”Harley asked as she got the Snap dragon  ready for another round with the Titan. She retracted the shoulder mounted ion Canons and replace them with twin Rail guns she then Fired them both then charged forward

”i’m fine just going to sit this one out That last Punch damaged the Halberd’s power core repair system are going to time to. “

“ Alright and you guys?”Jay asked as he placed the Halberd near the Lions Before flying back towards the fight 

“ Still working on getting the power back on so hold out until then” Shiro said as he watched a blur of motion moved passed him and smashed into the same structure. An that blur was the Titan Holding onto Valkyrie that was now being slammed into the Metal Hull of the Station repeatedly before.  rapidly turned around and used the Valkyrie as a shield to block a Rail gun Shot.  from The Snapdragon then whipped his blade forwards and stabbing into the Snap Dragons  Chest and Used the Blade to send as massive Electrical surge through the blade and disabled them then Throw the Valkyries away  .

“ Now with them out of the way time to end “ Zarkon was cut off by a plasma bolt exploded against in the Titan’s face 

“ I’m not dead yet “ Quinn said as he held up a plasma pistol

The Titan raised it’ s right and fired off a Plasma beam that punched through the Halberds chest causing it to explode 

“ Hopeful your are now“Zarkon said as the smoke cleared from the Titan’s Head showing no visible damage to it. ‘ Now if there are no” He was cut of again as a particle beam slammed n to him and started pushing him back. As he was being pushed back he brought up his undamaged arm and used it to block  the beam .This allow him to steady the Titan and saw where the beam was coming and saw the Castle of lions. So he adjusted the Titan’s hand which caused the Beam to reflect of the hand an had it shoot out in to space destroying a unlucky fighter and cut into the underbelly  A rebel war ship severally damaging it. He then  Quickly moved his hand and started redirecting the beam. Baldy damaging Warships an destroying any fighter that was caught in the beams path. Then it cut through a part of the his own Station then head on hit The castle of lions. Causing severely explosions to erupted across the Castle hull and sending The Castle tumbling backwards

All five of the Paladins hear Allura scream through their lion and  watched in horror as the Ship they called home violently tumble through space .

“ Allura !” Keith and Shiro Yelled 

“Coran “ Lance yelled 

“Ryner “Pidge yelled 

“Shay”Hunk yelled 

All five felt their anger flair up and  caused their lions to jump start and Before Shiro could tell the other to form Voltron Lance, Pidge ,Hunk and Keith flow off  

“  GUYS WAIT “Shiro yelled but it was to late as the other started attacking Zarkon head. “ Great “ Shiro turned to look at the Castle of lion as it stopped itself Seeing this  Shiro rocket towards the fight an as he did Matt voice came over the comms

“ Sorry were late”  Matt said as he hundreds of Fighters swarmed the Titan .Shiro smiled as he summoned up the Black lions Jaw blade 

In the bridge of the Castle of lions 

Allura picked herself of the floor With help from Kolivan 

“Are you all Princess “Kolivan asked as he help her on her feet

“ I’m fine Coran damage report “ 

“ Were have several breaches but we’ll  seal them  as fast as we fine them Beau   is keeping us undated ”    Coran said 

“Alright Shay, Rax How are you and how is the Crystal doing?” She asked 

“ We’re Fine and the Crystal is doing  good as well “ Shay said 

“ Yeah were good some of the new crew are a little hurt do to the sudden Jolt Worse thing we got down here a broke hand and a split lip will keep you up dated if we find anything  .”Rax added

“  Ok go to hear “ Allura placed a hand to her forehead and felt something wet. She removed her hand and Saw that there was blood on her hand “   Ok that’s just great can somebody get me a Bandage please  “ She said as she walked over to  an empty seat As blood slowly trickled down her forehead 

Coran quickly  grabbed on a medical kit and Ran over to Allura and started to bandage up the small head wound

“   Are you Alright Allura “ Coran asked worry very much visible in his voice 

“ I’m Fine Coran What off the Paladins “ She asked 

“ They are doing Fine there already back in the battle An it looks like The Valkyrie and are new Allie are get back up had have returned to the battle “   La-Sai said 

“ Good now once “ Allura was cut off when a massive Blinding light appeared from where the Others were fighting Followed by a loud exploding sound and a wave of force hit the castle of lion shaking it a little “ What just happened ?” She asked worried about the others 

Moments earlier 

The Titan was on the defensive as it fought of Another swarm of enemies. He tried to swung the right wrist blade but was stopped when a green beam hit them and caused roots and vines to erupted and jammed the blade in place. He quickly grabbed onto the vines and ripped them off but it was quickly replace with ice by the blue lion. He broke free and tried  to fire on the blue lion only to have a plasma missile to explode against  the titan’s chest causing his shoot to go wide. his anger was starting to boil up. But  before he could do anything in retaliate  several Plasma bolts exploded against the Titan’s back .Which caused him to turn around

“ Stab!!!” Jay yelled as he Thrust the Valkyrie’s spear forwards and Stabbed into The Titan’s Right eye. This caused A blood vassal  in Zarkon’ s eye burst  to causing him to go blind in that eye. This was caused  by the neural link he and the Titan had He  screamed out in pain as he back handed the Valkyrie away. The spear still embedded in the Titan's eye. Then the Snapdragon  slammed into it and pulled it into a crushing hug 

“ . This is for my brother mother and Father. Everybody get clear “ Harley said as She Activated  the Snapdragon’s self-destruct which caused a her mech to start glowing faintly  “ somebody  catch me “ She Said she ejected the control pod she was in and sent it shooting out of the back of the  Snapdragon’s head 

“Alright “ Jay said as the Valkyrie followed and grabbed onto the control pod and sped off at top speed away from the blast zone along with everyone else

Haggar watched what was going on and teleported herself out of their knowing what saw going to happen.

The Titan struggled to brake free of the SnapDragon’s iron  Grip but the Titan’s right arm was pined to it’s side. it used it free hand to try to cut of the  off  the War zones left arm . “ I Refuse to die like this . I Am the Man who conquered the knew universe the immortal emperor and I wont die he”  He was cut off when the Snap dragon’s Exploded.

The light emitted from the explosion was blinding and after a few minutes of not being able to see the light dimed to reveal a massive smoke cloud 

“ Did you get him?” Jay asked as several rebel warships and two of the Queen slayer ship the Master of none and the Hail Mary moved in 

“ don’t know but you should get me some where safe just in case I didn’t “Harley replied 

“ Alright and sorry about your brother I real know him all to well .But If you ever what to” 

“ I’ll talk to someone who knows me . Not someone I was hired to kill thank you for your concern but it not needed “ Harley said cutting jay off 

“ Ok sorry “ Jay replied little offended

“  Uhh sorry to interrupted you little chat but I'm not dead”  Quinn said from 

“oh that's good to know “ Jay said happy to hear that his new friend? was alive “ 

“ Damn I thought I was finally alone for once “ Harley said jokingly as she whipped away a tear from his eye “ Now where are you “

“ Just aimlessly floating away I'm starting to get dizzy here so place hurry up and follow my signal please”

“ On it “ Val said as she diverted the flight path towards the tumbling head of the Halberd

The castle of lions moved in near the small fleet of rebel Warships 

“ Is everyone alright “ Allura asked 

“ Yeah were fine but dose anyone have eyes on Zarkon I want confirm that the blast killed him”  Shiro said as he and the other lions were about to form Voltron but were stopped as a bolt of Plasma flow out of the smoke an slammed into the Black lion pushing it away.

After that the Rebel ships started firing into the dust Cloud. as this happened Another Plasma Beam  shot out of  the cloud and Through the bridge the out the back of a rebel ship this caused a chain reaction that had the entire warship to explode. Then another beam shot out destroying another rebel warship. Then something shot out of the smoke cloud and smashed into a dreadnaught then severally bolts shot out from the inside of the warship then the Dreadnaught  exploded. An just like how he entered the fight in the beginning. The Titan floated out of the ruble of the destroyed warship.

But this time it was severely damaged it’s right arm was missing the wings were destroyed it’s lower jaw was missing , Most of the armor was broken and cracked. An their was a purple aura surrounding it “ IHa HA HAhahahahahaha it as been far to long since I've had a fight this fun. but Sadly I most end this fight

The Hail Mary pointed it’s mac canon towards the Titan and Fired it but The Titan back handed the Massive round away. Sending the round  flying into another Rebel ship Damaging it 

“Oh your next “Zarkon said as he raised his remaining arm aimed towards the hail Mary and was about to fire it only for an Ice beam freezing over the hand. He looked up and saw the blue lion floating there “  Lance McClain I assume’ He said as he melted the Ice off his hand.Lance knew that Zarkon new his name but it still caught him off guard “ I Know The original pilot of the blue lion. Blaytz was a very close friend. I hope your a worthy successor to legacy”    Zarkon said as he suddenly rushed forwards and slammed into the blue lion sending flying back 

Zarkon looked around to see the other three lions flying towards him and started firing on him. Which he quickly dodged each shot and punched the red lion away . Then he fired a shot at the yellow lion as it charged towards him the shot explode on contact with the yellow lion slowing it . But the yellow  lion  still hit him send the titan flying back and int the side of a rebel sip which quikly grabbed onto and ripped off a chuck of the hull. An throw It at the yellow lion . The hunk of metal smashed against the yellow lion’s head stopping it mid charge allowing Zarkon charge forwards and grabbed them and throw them at the blue lion that was coming back into the battles 

After that The Titan started looking around for the black lion know if he could take them out this battle would be over quickly but as he looked a green beam slammed into the Titan’s left side causing roots to erupted and wrapped around the remaining arm pinning it to it side 

“ Ok guys we have an opening use it wise ”Pidge was cut of when the Titan charged it and head butted the green lion in the chest. Sending it back  Then ripped their hand  free of the roots.

Then the titan activated their Chain blade  it whipped forwards towards the green lion wrapping it around the green lions lower half and processed to spin around and smashed then against a nearby warship then recalled the blade and returned to looking for black lion and saw it flying towards him jaw blade in it maw 

“ Found you “ Zarkon said to himself as he charged towards the black lion. only to be shot in the side by a Particle  beam fired by the Caste of lions. Pushing him back towards the station but he quickly flipped the Titan out of the way of the beam and charged up his plasma Cannon  nd fired a full powered beam at the castle .Only to have the Valkyrie stepped in and countered the shot absorbing in then parted their wings and looked straight towards them. Zarkon noticed that those gauntlets called the Odin's Fury  were still equipped  “ Oh Quiznack”  Zarkon said to himself as the Valkyrie instantly closed the gape between the two of them and Punched the Titan  Square in the face  .

“How the hell are you even Alive after that and what is with this weird purple Gas, Mist an illusion of some sort  ?” Jay ask as he kept on whaling on the Titan. Then they pulled back their right hand was about unleash all the kinetic energy that was built up in it .The titan grabbed onto the fist causing a massive shook wave to erupt between the two of them. they Then tried to use the free hand to do the same .

But then the Titan started spinning around and processed to throw them in a random direction. Then the Aura that surrounded the Titan moved to the left arm and fired the same kind of bolt that hit voltron early at the Valkyrie. It hit the Valkyrie head on . Both Jay and Val screamed in pain  as they felt their life force being pulled out of them. but as quickly as it started it quickly stopped  

 Jay Quickly throw of his helmet  and turned away from the control panel and quickly throw up what he ate for dinner the night before

“ Oh god that was the worst pain I’ve ever felt” Jay said as he whipped the spite and vomit from his mouth . 

“ I agree on that one my pilot”  Val said 

Jay sat up ad looked at who saved him and Val and saw the back lion fighting the Titan alone then was punched in head sending it away  “ Oh shit we have to help them” Jay said as he grabbed onto the control sticks and moved them forwards to no avail “ Were out power aren't we ?”Jay ask 

“ Yes we are it will talk a few minutes to help Shiro” Jay said as he slammed his metal hand against the control panel. 

“ Don’t worry the other are here to help “Val said as the other lions and the swarm of fighters flow passed them and started firing on the Titan

“Thanks for keeping him busy no leave the rest to us” lance said as he fired of the blue lions mouth beam and hit the titan square in the face

Shiro righted the black lion am was about to charge  back into combat 

“ Shiro stop before you do something stupid “ Leonidas said 

“ I can’t the others need me “ Shiro said as he tried to move the black lion forwards but it wouldn’t work. " Leo!” His anger starting to get the better of him

“  You need to calm down and focused.”

“ why should I people are dying I cant just float here an  watching as my team in being  tossed around” 

“ I know that but throwing yourself at the enemy will not give you the result you seek” 

“ An what will” Shiro said as he slammed his hands down on the control panel

“First of ow that hurt somewhat second remember what I showed you the day we truly met ?” 

“ Yes” Shiro relived what was about to happen “Were going to do that weird teleport thing with the Angel wings.?”  Shiro asked still not entirely understanding what he had seen that day

“ It’s call Phase shifting  an it will allows you to Fly through solid objects and grab sorted  items”

“ Like the Black Bayard “

“ Your Bayard yes now focus Clear your mind and focus on your target then acted “Leonidas said as he returned control of the  black lion back to Shiro

“ Ok Focus.”  Shiro said to himself as he focused his mind ,steadied his breathing and  felt his bond with the black lion strength followed by the sound of the black lion roaring to life. Then the wings on the Black lion glowed brightly and changed into Angel like wings. Then Shiro Charged forwards straight towards the Titan

Zarkon throw the red lion way and tried to slash at blue lion only for a volley of missiles exploded against the Titans chest sending them back a bit. He quickly righted himself and swung his blade cutting through a Few fighters that got to close. As swung the blade around trying to hit the lions but from the corner of his  eyes he saw a bright blue light  appeared . He quickly turned to see what it was and saw  the Black lion with angel like  Wings full speared out Flying towards him

“  No “ Zarkon Yelled s he push as the Yellow lion and charged straight towards the black lion . He whipped his blade forwards aiming for the head of the black lion but his blade passed through the black lion followed by black lion flying through the Titan’s head and for just a second . Zarkon saw the Black paladin he looked into the Paladins face and saw nothing but death starring back at him. After they passed through him he noticed that the black Bayard was no longer set in the Key hole. Then he realized that for the first time in ten thousand years his death was possible  

The Black lion had stopped phase shifting once it was far enough away from the Titan . Shiro looked at the Bayard in his hand it had a Jagged look to it and in stead of being the usual white like the others were was a dark purple for the base color with black covering top the bottom of it . After a few second of  holding it the Bayard returned to it original colors and form .He smiled seeing this “ Alright Paladins Form Voltron “ Shiro yelled 

Zarkon turned the Titan around and watched as the loins started to converge on each other about to form Voltron again An he could not let that happen . He point the Titans remaining arm and Aimed it towards the Black lion he pour all of the power he had drained from the Valkyrie into this shot it was strong enough severally damage the black lion. Maybe even kill it’s paladin if their bond is strong enough. But before he could fire it A massive explosion erupted against the back of the Titan. He  turned around And saw the Valkyrie Pointing it’s Bow at him . 

“ Got yea Bitch “ Jay said as Val waved To The Titan

Zarkon's eye widen as he Quickly turned around only to have Voltron’s Blade stab into the Titan Abdomen Destroying Already badly damaged internal systems. This caused Him to collapsed to the floor in the worst pain he had felt in years  . This was it. It all ends here his empire, His rule his life it all was going to end here .He was going die in a massive metal coffin  alone   “No I refuse “ Zarkon Yelled  as he  used the titan remaining hand and grabbed onto Voltron's head and poured everyone last bit of power that The titan had an send thousands of  Volts of electricity into the head of Voltron “  It I'm going down I'm taking one of you with me ‘he Yelled 

Shiro Yelled in pain as the electricity coursed through is body . His metal hand had been taking the brunt of the Assault but he felt the hand start to shut down along with any Cybernetic that were  in his body. As this was happening the Control console opened an revealed a key slot an he knew what he had to do. So he summoned up the Black Bayard  Turned his cries of pain into a battle cry as he slammed the Black Bayard into the slot  turned It. This caused Voltron's Blade that was still embedded in the Titan to ignite in a blaze of beautiful red flame. Then the Blade cleaved it’s way out of the Side of the titan an caused a massive blinding explosion that engulfed both

After a few second of shielding their eyes Allura saw the after math of the explosion . The titan was in pieces and Voltron was separated back into the lions and floating 

“ Is everyone ok ?” She asked worried about everyone but that worry was quickly demised when the Yellow, Green , Red and blue lions started to move but then she noticed that the black lion wasn’t moving “ Shiro Are you alright  ?” No response “ Can anyone get in contact  Shiro he’s not responded to me “ 

“ I can’t get in contact“ Jay said 

“ Same here he might  have passed off after Zarkon last attack “ Keith said worried about his brother 

“ Alright Paladins pull back were pulling out “ Allura said as she watched the  Valkyrie grabbed onto Black lion an stated to fly back towards the Castle followed by the other lions an a few rebel fighters “Alright Coran contact Admiral Asmo It’s time to fall back The mission as been completed it time to “ But she was cut off when a Single unknown ship appeared close to where The Titan’s remains were. It was Quickly surrounded by fighters and Rebel Battle ships 

The Ship was a smoother up dated version of A Galra warship. I was also Twice the Size of the Castle of lions which was surprising seeing as castle was the biggest Ship the Aldean's ever built. The ship floated their for a few seconds before opening fire on the ships that surrounded them quickly destroying them . It stopped Firing once the Ships surround it  were destroyed it then slowly started to turn itself towards the Castle of lions. An fired it’s main Cannon at the Castle 

“Shields up” Allura Yelled 

“ We have no time brace for impact” Coran said 

Everyone on the Bridge braced for impact . But before them beam could hit  A bright green barrier appeared in front of the Castle of Lions taking the shot for them 

“ Sorry for the last minute save i kind spaced out waiting for you guys . “Vanguard said as they opened hundreds of wormholes 9in front of the Rebel   Also We need to start leaving now i’ve detected a huge number of Galra warships coming towards us” Van said as a few hundred Galra ships exited Warp speed followed by thousands and thousands  more then they started firing on the now  Rebel ships   

“ Admiral It’s time to leave “ Allura said as she Opened up A Wormhole  in front of the Castle and moved the castle into it 

“ Way a head of you princess” Asmo replied as the fleet of rebel ships started to retreating into the Wormholes the Vanguard. Some where damage as they left others were destroyed or disabled them before they could leave.

On the bridge of the Unknown Galra Ship 

Lotor watched as the worm hole that appeared in front of the Castle of lions  Disappeared to reveal that the Castle of lions was gone.

“Run away little Paladins will me again soon enough “Lotor said with a smile on his face 

In one of the Hangers

“ Come on Come on “ Rolo  said as he, Pidge Matt, Hunk Keith ,Jay, Ace and Lance were trying to pry open the Black lions door. The door had been sealed tightly do to the black lion not having any power it was also trying hard to keep itself to to a safe system that made it when a lion was out of power while in space that it would remain closed until power came back or when the black lion it was on a planet or artificial atmosphere  that the plot could breath. But something was wrong and the door wouldn’t open 

“ Jay are you really pulled at full power here ?” Matt asked as he struggled to help pry on the door 

“ Dude I’m the strongest guy here and I’m struggle to get this open” Jay replied as the door opened a bit more 

“ Don’t start arguing now we’ve almost got it open enough for one of us to slip in” Rolo said As the doors fought back undid a bit of the progress the group had made . ”Dammit ‘

“ Thanks for jinxing it “Pidge said 

As the group struggled to get the door opened Allura ran into the black lions neck compartment an saw what was going on “ What happened “

“Doors stuck we need help” Jay said knowing that if Allura helped this would go a lot easier. “Also what happened to your head Boss?” Jay asked as he noticed the bandage around Allura’s head

“ I Hit my head after Zarkon had hit us Now make room “ Allura said as she rolled up the Sleeves of here dress  and Grabbed onto the door and helped them pull it open. With her help they were able to get the Door open just enough to  allow Keith, Lance, Pidge  and Matt to get in while Allura ,Jay ,Rolo Hunk and Ace to keep the door in place.

Keith was the first one to get to Shiro and Saw him passed out in the Chair. Keith froze up for a few seconds then he noticed that Shiro chest was moving 

“Oh Thank god” Keith said As he started to pull Shiro out of the Pilots seat “ Somebody help me Please”

“ On It” Lance replied as he took Shiro’s other Arm

“ I got his legs” Matt replied 

The three carried the unconscious shiro out of the Cockpit with Pidge following behind them holding onto the Black Bayard. The moment the five were out of the cock pit Allura and the other let got of the door causing it to slam shut .With a loud bang

The loud Noise caused Shiro to suddenly jolt awake and almost kicked Matt in the face 

“ Watch it “Matt snapped as he let go of Shiro legs

“ Sorry “Shiro said weakly

“ it’s alright man” Matt replied a little mad at himself for snapping at his friend

“Ok now i have to ask did we win?” Shiro asked

“ Yeah we won  “Lance replied 

“Yeah the Empire is finished against thanks to You “Allura said 

“ Good to hear now if you all don’t mind I’m going to rest for a bit “ Shiro said as he passed out.. 

In Galra central Command.

Haggar stood over a metal Coffin with dozens of wires and tubes that had a purple liquid flowing through them. The Coffin house the comatose body of a barely A lived Zarkon .As she starred at the Coffin she heard foot steps walking towards them. She looked up to see Son walking towards her 

“Hello Mother it’s good to see you again” Lotor said 

“Hello My Son it has been along time now lets get to work we have much to to “ Haggar said    

To Be Finished in The Epilogue  

[my-one-love-is-music]

If Not In One Life, Then Maybe In the Next ch. 4

So, here's the status of this fic right now. This chapter finishes off everything I had planned and pretty much wraps things up. There is certainly the chance that I might get inspo for just some simple domestic scenes between Keith and Shiro to get a peek at their life, but I'm marking this fic as complete because that's not really guaranteed at this point. I mainly just wanted to work through all of the feelings at the end of season 8 and give Keith everything he deserves and I think I've done that pretty damn well with this fic.

So please, enjoy this chapter because I really enjoyed putting it together.

Also on AO3!

Pidge tightened her grip on the controls as they passed through the first gate. The ship shook and rattled around them and it was so much different from going through the wormholes in the Castle of Lions that she was worried they might shake apart and be crushed in this space between universes. A space where life didn’t exist and didn’t belong.

“Hunk how is the tracker looking?” she asked through clenched teeth.

“Going strong,” he said. “I’ve got a read on a stream of particle discharge. Hold steady on our current path. It doesn’t look as though it’s going to diverge yet and since we don’t know how close we can get to these other timelines, I wouldn’t risk possibly getting pulled into a place we’re not trying to be if gravity exists here.”

She avoided looking at the other Paladins strapped into their seats. Shiro had been tense when they boarded, and she didn’t want to think about what was going through his head. Or what he might do if anything went wrong considering how determined he was to bring Keith back.

“Begin altering course to the right by five degrees,” Hunk said, focus still on the monitor in front of him. “It looks like we’ll be approaching the entrance to the universe Keith went to soon.”

Pidge nodded and carefully shifting the controls to alter course. The ship shook and jolted underneath her and she swallowed, feeling a bead of sweat slide down the side of her temple. She hadn’t been this stressed while flying since the worst of the war.

“And shift another five degrees. It looks as though we’ll be veering strongly to the right up ahead. The portal that has the lavender outline is the one we’re aiming for.”

“Got it,” Pidge said with a nod. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, shifting to the edge of her seat as she directed the ship.

“Turn now,” Hunk instructed.

With less grace than she wanted, Pidge jerked the controls and sent the ship veering towards the opening Hunk had pointed out to her, earning a rude squawk from Lance. The metal shook and groaned around them but still held steady even when they passed through the portal.

She squinted against the bright light they passed through, not wanting to close her eyes completely until they were safely out of the portal and she could see where they were headed. They didn’t come this far only to crash into the side of some building or the ground.

“Did we-are we…” Shiro started.

Pidge blinked, realizing the bright light shining into her eyes had been the reflection of the sun off the large expanse of sand below them.

“The desert?” she muttered. “Hunk, are you tracking anything from Keith’s-“

“He’s blipping again!” Hunk cheered.

Lance let out a relieved sigh and Pidge finally relaxed, loosening her grip on the controls.

“Where is he?” Shiro asked, falling into the role of the commander he’d grown into so well during the course of the war.

“Due east,” Hunk said with a slightly hysterical laugh. “I can’t believe we’ve found him!”

“Get those coordinates uploaded into the system,” Pidge said, redirecting the ship. “Let’s go find our friend.”

The new course appeared in the corner of the screen and Pidge smiled at the small red blip that was drawing closer and closer as they flew over the desert. Excitement and happiness bloomed in her chest. She’d missed Keith. She hadn’t realized it back on Earth since she was always so focused on her research, but after being faced with the possibility of never seeing him again, it was the thing she wanted most. And she was sure the rest of the Paladins felt the same way.

Before long, a lone shack appeared on the horizon.

“I guess we should’ve expected that,” Shiro said, sounding fond. “Of course Keith’s shack wouldn’t be confined to one universe over the rest of them. He was always good about finding his way home.”

Pidge eased off the thrusters as they approached, slowing their speed until she could lower the ship a few feet from the shack without kicking up too big of a storm. She powered down the systems and sagged back into her chair, feeling more exhausted than she expected to be after the short, but undeniably stressful journey.

“Let’s go,” Shiro said. “We need to find him.”

“Shiro maybe…” Pidge started. She glanced at Hunk and Lance and Coran. “Maybe you should go in and see him first. We can wait out here until you’re done talking with him.”

Lance frowned at her, but she narrowed her eyes and he shrugged.

“Are you sure?” Shiro asked.

She sighed and pushed herself to her feet. She braced her hands on her hips and turned to face Shiro, giving him her most confident smile. “I’m sure. We can each have our time with him.”

Shiro nodded and glanced at the rest of the Paladins before he sprinted from the cockpit and towards the back of the ship. He hit the button to open the hatch doors and jumped through, hurrying across the sand to the front porch.

He skipped the steps entirely and jumped straight onto the porch before raising his fist to knock several times on the front door. He shifted from foot to foot as he waited, not hearing anything from within.

“Can I help-” Keith cut himself off as he pulled the door open and found Shiro standing in front of him. He pressed his lips together and swallowed, feeling sadness curl into a lead weight over his heart. “Shiro. What are you doing here?”

“I had to come find you, Keith,” Shiro said, spreading his hands in front of him. “I had to make sure you were okay. We had no idea what happened to you.”

Keith crossed his arms, feeling small and vulnerable. He glanced up at Shiro and behind him to the ship that was waiting. “Maybe you should come inside so we can talk,” he muttered. He moved to the side and let Shiro through the door.

Keith shut the door and walked into the kitchen, nervous energy leaving him unable to stand in one spot.

“Why did you leave?” Shiro asked, voice creeping into desperate territory. Keith nearly winced, feeling he was once again going to have to downplay his feelings so Shiro wouldn’t be completely turned away.

“I had to,” Keith said. “I wasn’t happy, and I needed to find a place for myself.”

“And you had to come here? You had a whole universe of places to go.”

“That didn’t matter,” Keith mumbled. “Even if I went to the farthest reaches of the universe, I still wouldn’t have found somewhere I belonged.”

“How do you know? We were just beginning to catalogue the different planets and cultures. Surely there was somewhere-”

“No!” Keith snapped, his temper finally getting the best of him since Shiro wasn’t getting it. Since he never got it and Keith was always thrown to the side or forgotten because there was always someone more important who held Shiro’s attention. “Even if I went to every known planet in the universe and touched every corner and every star of our universe, I still wouldn’t have had the one thing I wanted the most. Don’t you get that?!”

Keith clenched his hands into fists at his sides, trying to draw in enough oxygen to breathe despite the tightness in his chest. He’d finally found his fucking happiness. He’d finally found the one universe he could be with Shiro in and of course it was the deepest irony that it was Shiro who’d shown up to ruin that for him.

“Keith…” Shiro breathed, looking him up and down.

“Keith?”

Shiro’s eyes slid past him and narrowed. He straightened to his full height and Keith knew the look in his eyes. It was the look he got when he was sizing up an enemy or a threat. Keith turned to look over his shoulder and found Shiro-his Shiro-standing behind him.

“Who’s this?”  the old Shiro asked.

“Shiro,” he started. “This is…Shiro,” he sighed, giving a weak wave of introduction at the Shiro of the new universe.

Shiro cleared his throat and walked up behind him, curling his finger’s around his hip. Keith relaxed into the touch, finally feeling some of his anxiety leave him, almost as though Shiro’s very touch could draw the fear and anxiety from his body. Shiro pressed his lips to the side of his head and Keith watched Shiro’s eyes widen.

“Shiro,” Keith sighed, staring at his old friend. “This is the Shiro from my universe. My friends were just dropping in for a visit.”

“Keith,” Shiro started, eyes wide and pleading as he looked between Keith and the new Shiro’s proximity. “You can’t really want to stay here. You had a whole life ahead of you back home. You had friends and family!”

“Keith came here for a reason,” the new Shiro said, voice dropping low and nearly dripping with venom, his fingers digging into Keith’s hip. “He’s chosen this as his new home. You can’t really expect him to go back with you.”

“His home is back in his original universe!” Shiro cried, taking a step towards them.

“Stop!” Keith shouted, looking between them both.

“I’m sorry,” the new Shiro apologized, shoulders sagging as his gaze softened towards Keith.

Keith gave him a small smile and turned his attention back towards his old friend. “Shiro,” he said, letting out a heavy sigh. “If we were as close as you think we were, and as close as we used to be, wouldn’t you have noticed how unhappy I was?”

“Keith, I…you can still come back,” Shiro pleaded.

Keith shook his head. “I can’t. I can’t come back, because I loved you and I realized that I could never have you. And I found a universe where I could have what I wanted.” He glanced over his shoulder at the new Shiro, earning another squeeze on his hip. He turned back to the other Shiro. “This is where I can be happy. Please understand that.”

Shiro stared at him, his mouth moving as he tried to come up with something to say to the realization that he’d lost his closest friend. That he lost him a long time ago.

“Let me walk you out, Shiro,” Keith said. “I think it’s time for you to go home.”

Shiro’s shoulders slumped and he turned, heading towards the front door like a dejected puppy. Keith made to follow after him but Shiro’s grip on his hip stopped him.  

“Keith,” Shiro whispered behind him.

“It’s okay. I’ll be okay. We can talk later,” he said, waving away his concern and stepping out of his embrace.

The old Shiro glanced over his shoulder as he reached the front door and pulled it open, holding it open for Keith to walk through. The new Shiro walked out behind them, keeping close almost as though he was afraid Keith was going to change his mind and go with Shiro back to his old home.

“Keith!” Pidge cried, running over to him.

“He-ey Pidge,” Keith said, smile pulling at his lips as she launched herself into his arms and he caught her with ease.

“I can’t believe you didn’t say goodbye you idiot!” she said, smacking him on the shoulder.

“I know, I’m sorry, but I had to leave,” Keith said, squeezing her tightly.

“You really think we blame you for that? Come on,” she huffed with a roll of her eyes, “everyone just wanted the chance to say goodbye.” She grabbed Keith’s hands and tugged him over to the rest of the Paladins who were watching him with soft expressions. Coran jumped forward and threw his arms around Keith’s shoulders, already sobbing as Keith pat him on the back.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Shiro huffed, turning towards Keith’s new Shiro.

Shiro shrugged and crossed his arms, eyeing him warily. They walked a few feet away from the group reunion to avoid any chance of being overheard unless their conversation escalated into a screaming match.

“What do you want?” the new Shiro asked.

“You can’t keep Keith where he doesn’t belong,” Shiro hissed, jabbing a finger at him in another attempt at talking some sense into somebody.

“You say he doesn’t belong here,” the new Shiro started, narrowing his eyes. “How many times have you seen Keith smile?”

“What?” Shiro asked, coming up short at the unexpected retaliation.

“Just answer the question.”

“I’ve seen him smile a few times. More than most people since he wasn’t very open with people he wasn’t close to.”

“Maybe before he came here. But ever since Keith arrived, he’s pretty much smiled every day since he’s been here. And not only that, I’ve got him to laugh in the mornings when he’s just woken up. He’s open and happy and relaxed. I think that’s more than you can say you saw from him back in your universe.”

“Well, maybe it’s easier for you, did you consider that? We didn’t have much to smile or laugh about during the war-“

“Even in war, you can still find small moments to be happy. You can still find moments to laugh and smile if you really care about someone,” the new Shiro said, not willing to give him ground. “If I’d gotten the chance to spend this kind of time with Keith during the war, I would’ve cherished every selfish moment I could’ve snatched between meals or strategy meetings or after training. I would’ve made an effort to get him to smile or laugh if it meant the war could slide into the background of our lives for one moment.”

The old Shiro stared at him.

“I may not have lived through as much as you did,” the new Shiro continued, “but just because we stopped the war earlier doesn’t mean that I don’t know what kind of toll it can take on you. Now, can’t you at least let Keith do what he needs to do to be happy? Don’t you care about him enough where you can let him go? He loved you. He probably still loves you, but he can’t go back with you,” Shiro said, glancing over his shoulder at where Keith was laughing and hugging the other Paladins.

The old Shiro sighed, his shoulders sagging under yet another weight that he was being forced to carry.

“Come on,” Shiro said, nodding towards the group. “It’s probably best if we get back.”

He waited for the old Shiro to start walking forward first.

“You’re welcome to visit anytime you want,” Keith said to the rest of the Paladins. “You know where to find me now,” he said with a small chuckle. “And your ship is obviously in much better condition then mine was since it broke up upon entry into this universe.”  

The Paladins pulled him into another hug.

“You’re lucky I’m forgiving you for destroying one of my ships,” Pidge said, making the rest of the Paladins laugh.

“We’ll tell your mom you’re okay, too,” Hunk said.

“Thank you,” he murmured, feeling his heart twist at having left his mom behind.

“She’s happy for you,” Pidge said. “And she understands, so try not to carry too much guilt over leaving.”

Keith’s smile turned melancholy and cloudy like a bleak December day.

“You really do seem a lot happier here then you did back home,” Lance said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Hunk agreed. “I’m sorry we didn’t notice how hard things were for you.”

Keith shook his head. “I was always pretty good at hiding things I didn’t want anyone to see. It’s not your fault. But I am happy now. I’m really so much happier than you could know, and this is where I want to be.”

Their gazes slid past him and he turned to find the two Shiros standing side-by-side behind him.

“We’ll meet you on the ship, Shiro,” Hunk said.

“Yeah, I should plan our trajectory back to our own universe,” Pidge said, backing up towards the ship.

“I’m sorry, Keith,” the old Shiro said as the Paladins made a hasty retreat, having to pull Coran along who was nearly a puddle of tears. “I shouldn’t have…I shouldn’t have said a lot of the things I said.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Keith agreed. “But I need you to accept that this is where I want to spend the rest of my life.”

Shiro nodded. “I guess this is goodbye then.”

“Goodbye Shiro,” Keith said. He hesitated for a moment before stepping forward and throwing his arms around Shiro’s shoulders. Shiro buried his face in his neck and hugged him back tightly, grip nearly crushing him.

Shiro let out a long sigh before he released his grip and stepped back. He gave Keith one last look before he turned on his heel and strode back to the ship, disappearing up the ramp.

The ramp retracted, and the doors slid shut. It took a few minutes for the thrusters to power up and the ship rose from the sand, taking off across the desert before it rose into the atmosphere and disappeared from sight.

Shiro’s fingers wrapped around his own. Keith smiled at him and Shiro nodded towards the house, pulling him back towards the steps. Keith let out a relieved breath once the door shut behind them, feeling something finally uncurl in his chest. The air shimmered and Cosmo appeared at his side. He smiled and ran his fingers through his fur.

“Hey buddy, where were you hiding out during all of that? I’m sure the Paladins would’ve loved to see you, you know,” Keith said, trying to make his voice light.

Cosmo whined and pressed into his fingers.

Shiro tugged him into the living room and sat down on the couch, pulling Keith into his lap as Cosmo settled down in the corner. He wrapped his arms around his waist and squeezed him closer, burying his face between his shoulders.

“Shiro, is everything okay?” Keith asked, feeling worry wrap around his heart. He tried to turn to get a glimpse of Shiro’s face, but he was kept in place by the arms around him.

“I’m sorry, Keith, I…for a second there when I came into the kitchen and saw you with another Shiro-with the Shiro from your universe-I was so worried that you were going to leave. I was so scared that I was going to lose you again. And I don’t…I don’t know what I would’ve done. I wouldn’t have been able to let you go.”

Keith wiggled around in his hold, fighting against the press of Shiro’s arms until he was straddling Shiro’s lap. He framed Shiro’s face between his hands and smiled, trying to ease whatever negative feelings were pulling his thoughts in the wrong direction.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered. “I love you, Shiro. I’ve loved every moment that I’ve gotten to spend with you here. You were right when you said I’ve smiled and laughed so much more since I’ve been here. I was never so happy back home. Not once I realized I was going to feel alone for the rest of my life.”

“I don’t want you to ever feel alone,” Shiro swore, eyes shining with emotion as he searched his gaze.

Keith smiled and rubbed his thumbs along Shiro’s cheeks. “I know. And I won’t. As long as I’m with you, I’ll be full of so much love and happiness that I might be ready to burst. My friends can come and visit anytime they want now that they have a ship that can travel from one universe to another. And maybe I can visit them soon enough once the proper ships have been built here. But I definitely wouldn’t trade the life I have now with you for anything else. This is everything that I want. You’re everything I want; not the old Shiro and not my old life, just you.”

Shiro’s gaze turned watery and he pressed his eyes closed, letting out a long, shaky breath. He tightened his grip around Keith’s waist. “I-Keith, I-“

“I love you,” Keith murmured. “I love you, Shiro. And there’s nothing that’s going to take me away. Never again. I promise. I’m going to stay with you for as long as I can. I want to spend forever with you.”

“I love you, too, Keith,” Shiro breathed. “I love you so much. Please promise me that I can wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life.”

“I promise, Shiro,” Keith said. “Because I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Shiro pressed forward and brought their lips together in a deep kiss, needing it as much as he needed oxygen to breath. Keith sighed and wrapped his arms around Shiro’s shoulders, clutching to him just as tightly and feeling like he’d just reached peak velocity before cutting the engine of his ship and dropping into a freefall.

He’d finally found his place in the universe.

All of the missing pieces in his chest slid into place. He was whole. He was happy. And that was all that mattered. Here and now with Shiro was all he would ever need.

If you enjoy my work, please reblog or consider buying me a ko-fi!

[starboundfic]

Chapter 18

Archive

-for the record, I do not own the concept of Ekkunar. I’m just borrowing it from a game I’ve played because it’s neat. Not going to say who though, because they have lost my respect.

-heavy references and a reiterated line or few from the first VLD comic ahead.

-there may be some inconsistencies with this and Ch12 regarding the Arrow. I intend to rewrite Ch12 at some point, though I have to get it to stop fighting me first.

Chapter 17 -

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There wasn’t a tracking device on the ship.

Over the course of two days, the seven of them had looked through every single room, the mice had checked the entirety of the ventilation ducts, and the Lions had even done their own separate complete scans—and they’d all come up with nothing.

“Maybe it was just bad timing,” Stan suggested finally. “I mean, they’ve probably been looking for those Blade people anyways. We were just there at the wrong time.”

“That could be it,” Shiro agreed, a sigh in his voice. “But I still don’t want to risk it until we know for sure.”

“So what’re we supposed to do until then?” Jordan asked.

There was a pause, before Coran snapped his fingers. “I think I might have an idea. Princess, mind setting a course for the Karthulian system?”

The princess looked puzzled. “The Karthulian system? But why…” Realization replaced the confusion, and she nodded. “Yes, that would be a good place to start.”

Eva was officially lost. “Wait, what’s…there?” she asked, while they were all on the way to the bridge.

Coran just grinned a bit, saying “Now that would just spoil the surprise!”

Red wasn’t much help either. he had a guess on what the surprise was, but he wasn’t too sure about it; there was a sort of an edge to it though, which had her thinking that what the Lion had in mind was something he wanted to get around to doing eventually.

They didn’t set a course so much as they did wormhole there. Once the blue faded, they were greeted with the sight of maybe one of the weirdest looking planets ever, in that it looked like it was in pieces, with fissures that were both large and deep enough to have an orange glow visible from where they were in space. The surface was mostly green, with streaks of blue and patches of yellow-brown in places—and the pieces that looked like they had halfway floated away from the planet were, of course, almost entirely barren.

“I…have so many questions on how that planet even looks like that,” Koji muttered.

“No one’s certain, actually,” Coran replied chipperly. “Whatever fractured Ekkunar happened long before even my pop-pop was around, and the best guess anyone has for why the pieces haven’t just floated away is the planet’s magnetic fields. It also happens to be home to possibly the largest archival system in the universe���” He paused to bring up some screens, before adding stiltedly “Which currently appears to be in flames.”

Said flames were probably caused by the trio of battlecruisers that were still firing down onto what looked like a city carved right into a forest-covered mountain range.

“Looks like we’ll be giving Ekkunar a good first impression,” Shiro said, and Eva stifled a groan. More fighting. Great. Red gave a weird impression that started off as something like a chiding growl that turned into an awkward purr.

He tried, at least.

And they definitely took the first ship by surprise—or at least, Shiro did, with Black’s jawblade cutting right through the ion-cannon’s barrel. Eva kept her attention firmly on the swarm of fighters that had immediately turned their attention to the Lions.

It lasted a few minutes, ending with the last still-in-one-piece decided it wasn’t worth staying around. “Jordan, think you could use the Blue Lion’s ice cannon to put out those fires?” Shiro asked.

“Uh, maybe?” A pause. “Actually, I think she has a better idea.” With that, Blue dove towards where two waterfalls cascaded into a reservoir, vanishing into the water for a few moments before rocketing back up, tail arced like she was going to fire—but instead of a laser, it was a jet of water.

“Well that worked,” Koji commented once the fires were all out.

“It’s all clear Princess,” Shiro reported.

It made sense that the one clearing large enough for all six ships to land was mobbed almost immediately. “Uh…do we really have to go out there?” Koji asked uncertainly.

“Yes, we do,” Allura replied, her voice having a stern edge to it that had Eva rolling her eyes.

The crowd itself looked more curious than anything, maybe a touch disbelieving, and was definitely a lot quieter than she’d thought it would be.

“…can’t be, can it?” she barely heard one of the watching aliens say.

“Sure looks real,” another said. To the side, she saw Allura go from confident to uncertain in maybe three seconds, and Coran having sort of a pinched look on his face while he scanned the crowd—which promptly gave way to surprised glee when his gaze had gone to where the crowd had abruptly parted.

“Well I’ll be a wabble’s plonk!” he exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide. “Kythylian Mu!”

Eva’s first thought was one of the orphans on Bherna (Wayth, if she remembered right), in that he was definitely the same species—but he was also definitely one of the biggest aliens she had seen so far.

“Coran, Coran the gamblin’ man,” Kythylian greeted amiably, throwing an arm around the Altean. “How long has it been since you came around here?”

“Ah, just short of ten-thousand decaphoebs.”

“Ten-thousand,” he repeated, whistling quietly. “My, my. Where does all that time go.”

…and that had an implication that Eva wasn’t sure made sense. Jordan must’ve picked up on it too, given the face he made before exclaiming “Hold on a second, you two know each other?”

“Do we?” Kythylian repeated, snorting. “I don’t have enough scales for the amount of times I had to get him out of trouble in this quadrant.”

At that, Coran laughed nervously. “Yes, well, that was all a long time ago—now, Kythylian, if I may—this is Princess Allura, and these here are the new paladins: Shiro, Eva, Jordan, Stan, and Koji.”

“So I’ve heard,” the alien nodded to them before looking at Allura. “…you’re the spittin’ image of your parents, y’know that?”

If anyone else noticed the brief flash of pain in her eyes, nothing was said. “I’ve been told that a few times, yes. It’s good that we finally got to meet—my father told me stories about you.”

“I bet he did.” And then he looked at the rest of them studiously for a bit, before saying “Kinda scrawny, ain’t they?”

“Wha’��hey!” Eva retorted before Jordan could say something probably along the same lines.

“Well, they just started not too long ago,” Coran said, a touch defensively. “They haven’t gone through the full training regimen yet.”

Kythylian gave him a look. “Wait, don’t tell me—you wanna bring ‘em through the planet run?”

“Yes, actually!”

Now the alien grimaced. “I got some bad news for you then. Zarkon’s got all five of them on lockdown, ever since that stunt you all pulled at his central command.”

Coran’s face faltered, a delicate “Ah,” being his response.

“Yeah. Now, I sure as heck don’t like takin’ trips out to places for no reason, so here’s the deal: you all get free reign in the capital today. No tabs, no nothin’. It’s the least I can offer in return for clearing up that disagreement I had with the new commander for this quadrant. Now if you’ll excuse me, I was bein’ pulled in about eight directions a couple doboshes ago. Lots of important places were just on fire an’ all.”

With that, he turned to head towards an intact road with a lazy wave, the remnants of the crowd that had steadily dispersed taking the cue to return to whatever they’d been doing.

“So uh,” Stan started, voice a little stilted. “If you knew that guy from before, wouldn’t that make him over ten-thousand years old?”

“The Mudranni can actually live well beyond forty-thousand decaphoebs, if they are particularly lucky,” Allura remarked, earning stunned stares. Forty-thousand?!

Coran, meanwhile, had run a hand down his face with a groan. “Of course the traditional grounds would be watched,” he muttered.

“So what exactly is that planet run you mentioned?” Shiro asked.

“Yendailian, Bluve, Niloofar, Griezian Sur, and Talwar-Six,” the adviser listed off in response. “Those five planets have some of the most extreme environmental conditions in the known universe. The original paladins used them as a sort of training course.”

Red had gone full reminiscence mode as soon as Coran had named the first planet; Eva had the impression that Yendailian not only had a lot of volcanos, but was also what Red would consider a vacation spot. As for everything else: “It sounds fun,” she commented.

“Maybe for you,” Jordan said tightly, face pale.

“Oh come on Jordan, you’re getting better at it, right?”

“Well—yeah, but—!”

“It’s not like we can go out to any of them right now, what with Zarkon watching them,” Coran cut in, looking pensive for a moment before adding “That, and now that I think about it, we tended to have to wait for Bluve’s conditions to be favorable anyways. But no matter—how about we hit the archives instead?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The archives themselves was something like a library crossed with a museum, actually, complete with a front desk headed by three gray-skinned humanoids that had cyan-colored geometric lines (tattoos maybe?) crossing their arms and faces, a crest of colorful feathers on their heads, and bright-green eyes; native Ekkuni, according to Coran.

Jordan wasn’t expecting one of them to actually squeal when she realized who they were, though, before the one dressed like they were in charge could even finish his introductory spiel on the place’s rules.

Beyond that…it wasn’t that the place was too boring, it was more of the fact that there wasn’t really anything for him to do there. Eva, Stan, and Koji were off looking for anything they could use to draft up a new engine for the Arrow, he didn’t see where Allura went—probably to do some diplomatic thing, and Coran…well, Jordan didn’t see where Coran had gone off to. Or Shiro, for that matter.

So he went back outside.

The glaring detail of one of the planet’s floating chunks being visible way off in the distance aside, Ekkunar was kind of like those pictures of high-altitude rainforests on Earth. Unfortunately, also like rainforests on Earth, it probably rained here a lot—like now, for instance. He was relatively close enough to where the Lions were when the downpour started to duck under Blue for cover, at least.

Blue herself seemed pretty stuck in memory-mode, offering an idea of what Bluve was like before Jordan could actually ask: lots and lots of snow with near-constant blizzards. Not something Jordan could consider an ideal place to be, but it seemed to be pretty high on her favorite-places list. Well—maybe we could go there one day. Just to check it out.

Blue purred in response, before pausing and directing his attention toward some movement at the base of one of the stairways cut into a slope. “Figures the weather goes sour after all of that,” Kythylian commented, coming to sit by Blue’s other paw. “’Least it’ll put the rest of the little fires out, right?”

“I guess,” Jordan replied awkwardly.

The alien chuckled, taking his hat off to shake it a few times, sending droplets flying back into the deluge. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite. Got a question, if ya don’t mind.”

“Go ahead.”

“Where’re you and the rest of ‘em from? I’ve been all over most of the charted universe, but I can’t say I’ve seen anything like you, aside from Alteans.”

He really should’ve seen that question coming sooner than later. And just saying Earth probably wouldn’t cut it, either, which means he had to think about how to answer it. “Well, uh…we’re from the same galaxy Ōban’s in?”

Before he could start berating himself for making the response sound like another question, Kythylian made some sort of clicking sound. “That explains it. Ya need all sorts of paperwork to even get an idea on what lives in that galaxy nowadays. And don’t even get me started on the black market that came out of that quiznakking blockade. Don’t get me wrong, gettin’ things to sell legally on this side of it is worth a pretty piece of GAC, but when somone gets it into their head to do it illegally, they really go out of their way to hide when they do it.”

Jordan thought about that comment for a moment. “So you’re like a space cop?”

“Ehh…” Kythylian made a so-so gesture. “Could call it that, I guess. Some quintants it’s a more of a headache than anythin’ else, but it’s my headache.” He paused, glancing up. “Got a few mixed feelings at seeing the Lions again, honestly. How much has Coran told you about Alfor and the rest?”

“Barely anything, actually,” Jordan said, feeling apprehensive about the maybe-opportunity.

“Huh…can’t fault him, really. Probably still feels like yesterday to him.” The alien looked distant, before asking “Y’all at least know who the old Black Paladin was, right?”

“Yeah,” Jordan drew the word out, feeling himself scowling more than thinking about it. “Found out at the last possible second.”

Kythylian grunted. “Lemme guess—he’s still got the bayard?”

“As far as Eva saw, yeah.”

“And that’d be the itty-bitty one, right?”

Jordan opened his mouth to make a retort on her behalf, and then considered the fact that Kythylian was definitely taller than Rick at full height.

“Looks like the rain’s clearin’ up a bit,” Kythylian said abruptly, glancing at the sky. “There’s a thing or two I have to talk to Coran about. He’s still at the archives, right?”

“I think so.”

The alien stood, stretching a bit, taking a few steps out in the direction of the path back up towards the building, before stopping again, turning to say, “Y’know—I don’t wanna steal Coran’s thunder or anything, but if you want to know what the old guard looked like, there’s a holo-display doohickey in the central room.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I think this might work, but…” Stan said finally, trailing off. To the side, Koji was frowning slightly, staring at the draft they’d put together for the possible new engine for their star-racer.

In theory, it looked beautiful. But in reality?

There was simply no room in the Arrow II as it was now to even put the necessary equipment for converting the crystal’s energy into something useable, which would mean having to attach an extra compartment somewhere onto the ship—which by itself was dangerous.

On top of that, the fuel tanks would become nothing more than dead weight. And that was saying nothing about how in the world they were supposed to overhaul the hyperdrive.

“Honestly, I don’t think we can even take most of those things out of the Arrow in the first place,” Koji admitted, shoulders slumping. “It’s all too integrated.”

“So what do we do, then?”

“I’m not—”

“Couldn’t we just build another one?”

It took all of Stan’s willpower to not curse at Eva’s sudden words, having not heard her come up to look at the draft too. “Uh, well, we could,” Koji said, stuttering a bit. “But to do that, we’d…huh.” He blinked, brow furrowing. “Actually, we might be better off just doing that.”

Build another one? Stan repeated silently, scowling for a moment—that’d equate to just giving up on the Arrow II. Then again, they did just come to the conclusion that they wouldn’t be able to apply most of the upgrades they had planned out to begin with.

That, and knowing how poorly the materials the Arrow II was made of held up against everything else used in the galaxy, or at least that they’d seen back on Alwas…

There was a sudden commotion from the second floor that jolted him out of his thoughts, sounding like something falling over followed by Coran shouting “Sorry!”

Stan kept the glance up level for a few moments before looking back at the draft with a sigh. “Okay, so maybe that would be the easier thing to do. But where would we even get everything?”

Koji shrugged. “We could probably get a few more things from those defunct shuttles, but not much.” No taking parts from the Arrow II, in other words. Stan wasn’t going to argue.

Time to ask Coran if there were any other storerooms with things they could use, then.

Shiro saw him coming up the stairs first, stopping short in whatever he was saying, which got Coran to turn—he barely got a glimpse of a somber look before it was replaced with a cheery smile. “Ah, Stan! Did you need something?”

“Uh,” he mumbled, feeling like he’d just interrupted something important. “It—It can wait.”

“Don’t worry, Shiro and I had just finished up drafting the new training regimen. Don’t want a repeat of…uh.” He coughed, and Stan had to try extremely hard to suppress a flinch when he realized what exactly he had been about to bring up.

Shiro side-eyed Coran, before asking “Has Jordan come back yet?”

“He went out?”

“So did the princess, I think,” Coran said, looking thoughtfully back down toward the entrance to the building. “Ah wait, there he is! With Kythylian, too!” I guess it’s a good thing we got that draft finished.

Coran paused when Kythylian made some hand gestures at him, nodding almost imperceptibly before heading downstairs and vanishing off into another room with him. Jordan, on the other hand, looked around the room a bit before settling on looking at the darkly-colored small desk toward the back of the central area of the building.

Eva got to him first. “Hey Jordan, guess what? We’re going to build another star-racer!”

“That’s…neat,” he said awkwardly, glancing up at Stan with a confused look for a second, before looking back to the first thing, then to the side at the main desk. “So uh, how does that holo-thing work?”

“Is that what it is?” She turned to look back over her shoulder, curiosity written all over her face. “I’m not sure—but I bet we can find out!”

Have to wait for Coran to get back anyways, Stan thought, shaking his head before following the kids. Eva was already making a face at the controls, which looked a bit like what was on the castleship’s bridge, if simplified by maybe half.

It didn’t help that he still couldn’t read the language it was coded in—Ekkuni, probably—but Yellow could, dubiously letting him know what keys to push to bring up a list.

There was a span of two seconds before Jordan hit another key, and the only warning Stan had was Yellow doing the mental equivalent of taking a deep breath before the platform in front of the desk lit up.

It took a bit for him to realize just what he was looking at, in that the first thing he recognized was what looked like the hologram of Allura’s father, if a few decades (or the Altean equivalent of that) younger. The second thing were what he and the three others were wearing. (There was one missing, but Stan couldn’t fault whoever put this together in leaving the last one out.)

“Is that…?” Eva started uncertainly.

“Yeah,” Jordan mumbled, blinking. “I mean, same armor.”

“What are you guys looking at—oh.” Koji cut himself off with a stifled flinch, maybe from however the Green Lion reacted. “I guess it’d make sense for a place like this to have something like…this,” he said slowly, coming up to look at the screen, Shiro a bit behind him.

Stan had a suspicion about Alfor having been one of the first Lion pilots, but this confirmed it—and while he couldn’t be too sure, he also had a feeling that Eva might’ve guessed at it a little more specifically beforehand.

Details were a little hard to read, given the whole blue-hologram detail, but Yellow’s first pilot had been a big guy, at least Rick’s height.

Same went with Green’s being the shortest of the four and…well, kind of reminding him of a deer in some ways, and Blue’s looking like a humanoid something between a shark and a manta ray, obviously partially aquatic.

Yellow had gone about as distant as…as Coran looked right now, whereas Kythylian just made a huffing sort of sigh before saying “Still feels like it was yesterday, don’t it.”

Stan was pretty sure he and Koji hit the off key at the same time, with Jordan stuttering a bit, though Coran just shook his head with a sad smile. “No, no, it’s fine. I’m honestly not sure if we have any pictures of them on the castle.”

“I already knew about Allura’s dad being Red’s first pilot,” Eva started hesitantly. “But what about the other three?”

“Blaytz, Trigel, and Gyrgan,” was the response, Coran’s gaze going more towards the ceiling. His voice wasn’t quite resigned, more reminiscent with a touch of weariness.

“You said something about Trigel being the one to come up with the blindfold-dive,” Koji pointed out.

Kythylian guffawed, the noise startling all of them and earning a glare from one of the archive’s staff. “That sounds like a thing she’d do. She wasn’t nearly as bad as Alfor though.”

Somehow that conversation resulted in Kythylian corralling them all to a nearby restaurant, before he and Coran really started going on about things the old paladins had gotten up to.

It was when they were maybe halfway through a story involving a case of mistaken identity that happened on some planet called Veldin involving a rogue mercenary and a politician that Stan got his second scare of the day, in hearing Allura say “Is that what really happened there?” from behind him. She was smiling, though there was a pinched look to it.

“Well, uh…yes, it was,” Coran stuttered a little at first, before going fully resigned, and then curious. “I was wondering where you were.”

The smile went drier than a desert. “It occurred to me that we likely wouldn’t have any use for the tax records in the castle’s archives.”

“Ah, no we wouldn’t.”

Koji, ever the perceptive one, picked up on the impending mood switch and changed the topic back to its original track. “It kind of helps, hearing about things like that. That they messed up now and then too.” It sounded about as awkward as he looked (not that the others would probably be able to see, but Stan could kind of feel it) but it was a sentiment Stan agreed with.

Kythylian waved one hand a bit in a gesture that lost context probably between species. “Kid, that’s all heroes are in the end. Some story could start as some guy clearing out a nest of yeilphars and somehow turn into him taking out a pack of Zarellian hellcats without a scratch.”

“Is that something that actually happened?” Eva asked.

There was a snort alongside a smile and fond headshake. “Maybe. Look, give it a few phoebs, and I’ll probably be hearin’ stories about you kids that won’t include all the panickin’ and improvisin’.” A glance up at a clock on the wall got a mumbled curse. “Look, I gotta jet back to Mudranni or the missus is gonna want my head on a pike, but I got one last warning for y’all.

“That little show you put on at Zarkon’s central upped you to top-priority public-enemy status everywhere the empire’s got a strong foothold. You three should still be safe in civilian areas so long as you’re not in armor,” he gestured at Eva, Koji, and Stan. “You, they got a good shot of, so you’re gonna have to watch it everywhere there might be a bounty hunter,” a gesture at Jordan there, who gulped visibly. “And you especially have to watch it.” He leveled a stare at Shiro. “Gladiatorial matches get broadcast.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Coran seemed way too eager to help in planning out the theoretical Whizzing Arrow III more, but that just added to the amount of distraction the activity was to the whole intergalactic-public-enemy status they had now.

That definitely wasn’t a thing Koji would’ve liked to have heard, but he supposed it was better to have heard it then in the form of a warning then finding it out the hard way. Definitely better than finding out the hard way, he corrected himself with a small shudder, briefly glancing back at the Arrow II.

It would be considered a very early retirement for a star-racer, but then again, the Whizzing Arrow line weren’t meant to be star-racers in the first place.

…and it didn’t occur to Koji until that moment that he’d gotten used to the Green Lion showing interest and/or giving input on random thoughts until it didn’t happen. She’d seemed distant ever since seeing the holograms, actually.

It was strange, finally having both a name and face to put to Green’s first pilot instead of having to just piece together little bits of information.

To the side, he saw Stan look up suddenly, before saying “Remember that…weird thing that happened on Bherna? While we were fighting that thing?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I think I know what that was now.” That statement was considerably quieter, with his face paling slightly. Koji caught on after a few seconds.

In retrospect…it made sense. A frankly-horrifying amount of sense. Shiro’s knowledge in close-quarters fighting had to have come from somewhere, and he knew from seeing firsthand that he was on a completely different level than where Jordan was at. (That was saying nothing in comparing him to the rest of them. Koji was actively dreading the next time Allura threw the robot at them.)

Shiro had taken Kythylian’s words with only a barely-noticeable flinch, a shudder felt mentally, and was either still on the bridge or maybe on the training deck.

He actually wasn’t sure about what Shiro did during their downtime, so that was probably another thing they had to work on fixing. “Think he’d mind helping out with all of this?” he asked.

Stan shrugged a little, before saying “I was gonna ask the same thing, except with Jordan.”

Koji thought about that for a second. Jordan had disappeared pretty quick once the two of them and Eva had got started with looking for references on how to put together the type of engine primarily seen in this part of the universe, but he honestly hadn’t really thought about it until now. (There was a brief moment of thinking back to that awkward conversation on Arus.)

“Well, he’d probably want to help with getting the turret put together?” It was a guess, honestly. And that was another thing—the turret wouldn’t need its own battery anymore.

Stan muttered that same thought, before asking “Where are those two, anyways?”

“Uh…”

“I think they’re with Shiro on the observation deck,” Coran piped up, reminding Koji that he was still there. Suspended up near the ceiling to get at a series of wires, yes, but still there.

That wasn’t as surprising as Koji felt it should’ve been, at least in the case of Eva. She seemed to almost have a sixth sense on knowing when someone needed help.

Coran yelped alongside Allura’s voice suddenly being on the intercom: “Coran, I think one of the castle’s barrier-emitters was damaged during the fight for the Balmera.”

There was a groan from the adviser. “Roger that, I’ll put it on top of the list.”

Koji exchanged a look with Stan, who nodded a bit, before asking “How damaged is it?”

Coran stilled. “Ah, you’ll have to ask the princess. The castle’s hull is pretty sturdy, so it probably just has to be reset.” A pause. “Oh, I see what you’re asking. If you could do that, it’d be appreciated.”

“It’s nothing,” Koji said, standing up. “Where is it, anyways?”

“You’ll have to ask the princess. There’s quite a few of them. You may as well get suited up on the way there, since they’re outside the castle and, well, we’re in the vacuum of space at the moment.”

In retrospect, he should’ve seen that coming too.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

If anyone’s wondering, the offscreen conversation between Coran and Kythylian can be summed up as “I don’t want to hear that any of those kids ended up getting killed because of something you chose not to tell them.”

[indecisive-scribophile]

Pink (Was the Colour of Our Souls): Chapter Two [Blue]

DISCLAIMER:  All characters mentioned in this story DO NOT belong to me. ‘Voltron: Legendary Defender’ belongs to DreamWorks. All rights reserved.

Rating: T Warnings: No warnings apply Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Relationship: Shiro X Allura (Shallura) Language: English Originally Written: 09/08/2017 Spoiler Warnings: General Season 3 spoilers, specifically episodes 2-3 ('Red Paladin' and 'The Hunted')

Summary: Before the festivities to celebrate the successful alliance with the Arusians of planet Arus, Allura bonds with Shiro over the colour pink…and what it means to see pink when she’s with him.

Additional Notes: Hey, so I've written half of the sequel! I didn't want to make this an actual series, so the next half of the sequel will be out soon. Hope you enjoyed!

Pink was the colour of our souls. That didn’t change when Shiro disappeared and I became the new Paladin of the Blue Lion.

It didn’t immediately register with me that I was a real Paladin Voltron. For a long while, I felt like I was lucidly dreaming—like I could do a few loop-de-loops, send Blue into a wall, take the Galra head-on, and still be okay at the end of the day. It was oddly surreal, sitting in the seat of the Lion that both Blaytz – the original Blue Paladin – and Lance had sat in, piloting the same Lion as they had. To be in the same space as both boys had battled against the universe in; to share the same link to Blue as them…it was like a dream come true.

I didn’t fully understand Blue until my first close call with death, thanks to Lotor. Up until Lotor leading us into the planet we later recognised as Thayserix, it seemed like Blue was merely tolerating me, as if she needed a stand-in pilot and I was the only one barely capable of supplying that. Though her blue light surrounded me, her controls didn’t respond in the same way the Castle did. Instead of cooperating with me, Blue did the opposite: her sensitive controls crashed us into the other Lions on more occasions than one, and firing her lasers proved to be a problem when they missed more often than not. With both Keith and Lance in new Lions, more than half the team was out of their comfort zone. We were a disorganised mess; a conglomeration of four in-training pilots and one princess who had been in a Lion for less than a quintent.

Though we didn’t understand it at the time, Thayserix was a planet made of dense gases—red syntian nitrate, to be precise. It is universally known to react violently to light, creating an explosive combustion reaction in response. In addition, the planet’s absurd polarity interfered with our Lions’ sensors because they were unprepared for the heavy change in atmosphere, so communication between each other became inadequate and sparse.

This, coupled with Keith’s inability to stray away from his personal morals and properly lead the team, resulted in Lotor further ripping the tears in the already damaged fabric of our team. If he was anything like his father, then he was set out to disband our team and capture Voltron for himself. Our feelings were insignificant in the eyes of that wretched Galran; we couldn’t expect him to care and spare us. He found loopholes in our cooperation and took advantage of the fact—just like any true villain would. And I couldn’t blame him.

It seemed like everything was going wrong: Keith was being impatient and impulsive; he, Lance, and I were adjusting to our new Lions; Lotor was hot on our tails. The hunters were becoming the hunted, and I was doing nothing to help the team. Blue wouldn’t properly listen to me, and it seemed that neither would Black nor Red to Keith and Lance. Pidge and Hunk were the only ones with their own Lions, but that was no help when our means of communication was rendered redundant.

Lotor backed all our Lions into an outward circle, keeping us on edge. I could make out Keith’s growling through the broken static of the radio, and I could tell the others wanted to leave as soon as possible. But with Lotor outsmarting us and Keith as our new leader, we couldn’t.

“As soon as you see him, fire with everything you’ve got,” was what Keith told us to do. I knew the others – including myself – disagreed with his ‘leadership’, but we had no choice. The moment we caught a glimpse of the dark Galra spaceship, Keith yelled, “Now! Fire!”

But the red syntian nitrate wasn’t having any of that. If we hadn’t have fallen into Lotor’s trap, we would have known that upon fire, the light of our Lions’ lasers would react with the gases and cause huge explosions. Alas, we didn’t. We took the bait—and we paid for it.

I was the one Lotor came after. The blasts our Lions created separated me from the others, so I was the easiest target. Recuperating from the blast, I immediately trembled with fear as his ship stared Blue and I down. I acted fast, frantically finding a little cavern to hide in. There was an incessant pounding in my head and chest as if I was about to burst. But I couldn’t afford to be spotted; if I was, there was no doubt I’d be killed on the spot.

In my position in the little hideout, I could hear the low rumble of Lotor’s fighter ship circling the area I was sat in. He flew by painfully slow, the monotonous droning beginning to resemble the repetitive pattern of one of Coran’s tickers. An irritation was building up inside of me, one that spread from my stomach to the back of my throat. I may have sat in Blue for less than five dobashes, but it felt more like a million decapheebs. Time passed by slowly, torturing me with the fact that I knew my friends could be in trouble and I wasn’t there to help them. Even Blue’s lights within herself seemed to dim down, just like my own self-belief.

“Stay calm, Allura. Think,” I breathily muttered to myself. What would anyone else do in my situation? What would a capable, non-Altean princess fighter pilot do if stuck in the Blue Lion with the son of Zarkon encircling them?

What would Lance do?

He would…he would flirt. With the Blue Lion.

I took a deep sigh and put one hand on my hip, leaning towards Blue’s walls. With a faux, shaky grin, I stammered the only pick-up line of Lance’s that I could remember.

“Hey there, Blue Lion! You know, you’re really activating my particle barrier right now.”

When Blue made no response, I groaned loudly with frustration. I gripped the main levers that controlled the movement of her paws extra tightly, hanging my head.

“Nothing works!” I grunted. I closed my eyes, feeling tears well up behind my eyes. I didn’t mean to, but I began talking to Blue out of desperation. “I’ve tried asking you nicely, and I’ve tried commanding you. What do you want from me?” I choked back a sob, my chest heaving. “I can’t do this. Everyone depends on me. The universe depends on me, but I can’t control everything. I need your help.”

With another sigh, I gritted my teeth. Nothing happened. I let go of one of the handles to wipe away the tears that had formed in the outer corner of my eyes. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a Paladin of Voltron. If Lance was there, then—no, it wasn’t his fault. He was piloting the Red Lion just fine. But if Keith hadn’t—no, not his fault, either. Although his means of leadership was questionable, I couldn’t place the blame on him. Then, if Shiro was here, then…

Shiro. My goodness. He hadn’t crossed my mind ever since I hopped in Blue. My tongue involuntarily pressed against the roof of my mouth as more tears welled up in my eyes. How weak. If Shiro were here, he wouldn’t give up. He would believe in himself; he wouldn’t let this get him down. He would…

He would fight.

Suddenly, Blue began to vibrate. I opened my eyes—and as soon as I did, they widened, for I was no longer seeing the thick, musky, orange layer of gases before Blue and I; instead, I was seeing…something. I didn’t know what it was; there was nothing like it on Altea. There was some kind of bright blue liquid that filled my vision, waves of white and other hues of blue washing about. The waves all toppled in one direction: towards a layer of golden yellow, brighter than the Yellow Lion. The waves washed onto the shores of the yellow substance, discolouring it slightly. Humans dotted the yellow surface, some sitting under parasols to shield themselves from the sun. They were all half-dressed, some with peculiar dark glasses covering their eyes.  

I didn’t know what I was seeing, but it sure was beautiful.

But just as quickly as the vision had appeared, it left. The images of waves and the humans and yellow surface disappeared right before my eyes. I was confused for a moment, but I quickly came to realise that I was back in the Blue Lion—and that vision wasn’t mine. No, it wasn’t a vision; it was too vivid. It must have been a memory. But if the memory wasn’t mine, then…

There was no doubt about it. It couldn’t have been Blaytz’s, for he had never seen a human in his entire life. The memory was Lance’s.

The vibrations started again, this time more violently than before. Before I could say anything, Blue began to move on her own. Her neck raised up and she roared loudly. The blue lights that surrounded me became incredibly vivid, and I felt my spirit brighten with it. With relieved tears in my eyes and a wide grin, I gasped.

“I can hear you!” I cried.

Blue. Blue had heard me. Finally, she heard me.

[penguinsocksworks]

See You At Home (1/?)

Read on AO3

Read on Tumblr: Chapter 1

Summary:Keith is just one of those normal teenagers living a double life, trying to balance being a superhero named Red and a boring college kid. Keith also has two major annoyances in his life: his roommate Lance, and his teammate blue. He swears to god, it's almost like they're the same person!

Or

Keith and Lance are roommates who don't know that the other is also part of earth's very own evil fighting squad; Voltron. Shiro and Allura shake their heads a lot, Hunk offers supportive smiles, Pidge laughs their ass off and Coran doesn't get what the big deal is.

SO I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS BUT YOLO AMIRITE? No but seriously, Nessa, Happy birthday and I seriously hope this is what you were looking for.

To all the readers that are reading this: I'm fairly new to this fandom and I haven't been apart for that long. That being said I tried to keep this as in character as I could but... idk. I attempt to be funny too, so warning for bad humor. This was originally just supposed to be a private one shot for my friend Nessa's birthday but it turned into something a little more when I started to think about it more. And so I wanted to share it will the community! I'm not sure when updates will come, but I'm looking forward to working on this. Im scared to call this a miraculous lady bug AU cause it really has nothing to do with that show but it has superhero concepts from the show so like... its not completely but the concepts are owned by them. So I hope you all enjoy!

Nessa requested that this fic contain: HeLL ToNS OF FlUfF, Keith interacting with kids, enough angst to make you need tissues for a year, cute oblivious boys, smartass Pidge, and like five other things. So lets see if I can make it work. Lets play the 'lets guess how many chapters long this fic will be' game.

If you wanna hmu for anything here on tumblr you can! Im currently taking prompts to distract me in between writing this when i need a break.

SO AFTER THAT WHOLE SPIEL ENJOY MY SHITTY WRITING!

Keith will kick his ass one of these days. Seriously, say he won't cause he'd absolutely attack his teammate right in the middle of this fight. He could've gotten the both of them killed!

“Red,” a hand landed itself on his heaving shoulder, “You okay?”

Keith turned to snap at the voice, ready to release his anger all over the black paladin that dared ask him if he was okay. But he didn't. He stopped halfway, because yelling at Black wouldn't do anything but get him in trouble, whether it be in general or having to face Pinks scolding later on about being nice to your fellow paladins.

All these code names were confusing as hell to Keith, but he supposed that they had to keep their identities hidden for their “loved ones” safety. Or so said Pink, aka his brothers girlfriend, ahem sorry fiancé as of last Friday, Allura. She was deemed the leader of Voltron when Coran had come to earth, crashing through the ceiling of Shiro and Alluras nice apartment, and told her that she was the long lost princess of Altea.

In the middle of taco night too.

It started off like any normal night. Keith had to attend mandatory family dinner nights at least once a month or he'd get yelled at by both Allura and Shiro. Keith didn't quite get it, since it was only the three of them that attended these dinners and he often wondered why Shiro never insisted that Lance, Hunk, and Pidge tag along as well.

Shiro probably just wanted a break from all the kids at once. And! He'd get to harass his little adopted brother as much as he pleased in this setting without having to worry about embarrassing him too much. Shiro was thoughtful like that. Call him a saint if you will.

“So,” Shiro had been sprinkling more cheese onto the meat of his Taco Bell taco, “What was Lance up to tonight?”

Normally Keith would just shrug, he would never be able to predict exactly what his roommate would spontaneously plan when he was out, but this time he had received a definite answer to his “so Lance, I'm heading over to Shiro’s tonight, what are you going to do?”

he usually just received a joking “I dunno, just go already. Your presence is making me sick.”

But Yes, Keith actually had an answer for Shiro's inevitable question this time around, “Movie night with Pidge and Hunk.”

Keith would rather be watching a movie with them than be interrogated and made fun of all night by Allura and Shiro, but it was the last day of the month and they hadn't gotten their dinner in. Allura hummed, “So how is school? Getting good grades I presume?”

“Y’know, for someone who claims to not be good with kids,” Keith shot Allura a glare, “You've been upping the mom talk lately. Is there a time constraint on this wedding that I should know about?”

“Haha Keith,” Allura rolled her eyes, “No there isn't. Can I not be concerned for the person I've known for practically all of his life?”

Keith scowled, “I met you when I was five. And you hated me back then.”

“That's because all the foster ladies thought that you were the cutest thing since puppies and gave you extra cookies,” Allura waved her fork. She always used a fork, claiming it was just unnatural to eat tacos with your hands, “Surely you can't blame me for that. I even braided your hair!”

“You are like the big sister I never asked for,” Keith mumbled into his food. His eyes only narrowed further when Allura got that weird gleam in her eyes.

“I'm going to be your actual sister soon,” Allura grasped at Shiro’s hand, “Isn't that right sweetie?”

“That's right pumpkin!” Shiro just cooed back with a sickly sweet look.

They only did this when they wanted to torture Keith. And boy did it work, “You two are the reason I don't believe in love.”

“Shouldn't that be the other way around?” Allura just smiled, head resting on her palm now.

Keith scoffed, “No couple could ever be ask cutesy as you guys. I'm calling BS on all this. It's all fake.”

He didn't like the weight of Shiro's hand on his shoulder, it was the tell tale sign of a serious dad talk, “Keith. You will find someone some day that will make you act like this.”

“Oh god I hope not,” Keith crinkled his nose, “If I ever look this dumb just… shoot me.”

“Who knows Keith,” Allura had a sing song quality to her voice that he didn't like, “Maybe you've already met that special someone. Maybe you already act this stupid with someone.”

“What are you imply-”

And that's when Coran promptly crashed through the ceiling, luckily not causing any major injuries.

Coran had been ecstatic that Allura had managed to find at least two of the paladins. Meaning him and Shiro. It had something to do with the earring and dog tag they had gotten over the years. Keith still played with the single stud in his earlobe when he was nervous. It had become a habit. But after everything that's happened recently, he almost felt like tossing it into a river and never looking back.

“Princess Allura! It is I, Coran, your faithful caretaker all the way from Altea,” Coran bowed in front of Allura, “I have dreadful news of our home planet. But that is not important right now.”

“Who… How on earth do you know my name!” Allura backed away a bit, “I demand you tell me now!”

“I've known you since you were a baby, Princess,” Coran wiped a tear, “I was just as sad as the rest of the royal family when we had to send you here.”

“Send me here?” Shiro looked at Alluras dumbfounded countenance and contemplated getting a pan to hit the guy with.

“For your protection, of course. Ah, Allura my girl! I'm so proud of you!” Coran put his hands on his hips. Keith just couldn't look away from his voluptuous mustache, “You managed to find two Paladins already!”

“Paladins?” Allura squeaked out, looking as shocked as Keith felt.

Coran just tilted his head and grinned, “Yes! And just in time too, Zarkon and a fleet of soldiers should be coming any minute to retrieve Voltron.”

“Voltron…?” Keith felt as if he had heard that name from somewhere before. Had Pidge mentioned it?

All three of them were shocked, Coran just  blinked curiously and explained for the unpteenth time that evil forces were on their way and they needed to find the other paladins. Of course none of them moved.

Except for Alluras hand, sliding over to call for 911.

To be fair, it's not everyday that someone comes crashing into an apartment ceiling, claiming that your flimsy little accessories could turn you into a badass crime fighter. Or that you were the long lost princess of a dead civilization. It was crazy and insane, but as Coran showed them how to summon their weapons and costumes from their respective jewelry pieces, it started to become a whole lot more real.

Either that or someone slipped something into their tacos. Which was possible. Keith had seen the cashier hopped up on something more than once around campus. He was more disappointed about his crushed dinner than concerned about the whole forming Voltron thing.

He had priorities bitch.

When Keith yelled out an embarrassingly cliche phrase to release his outfit, “Red Paladin! Defender of Voltron!” There was a flashing light and he was blinded for a moment. He looked sheepishly down at his armor, admiring the solid almost lightly matted red coloring. the sword was an unusual weight in his palm, he was used to a lighter fencing sword, but the cool metal that seeped through his covered fingers felt powerful.

The helmets on their heads covered their hair and the tinted visors made it hard to make out any sort of eyes. The outfit made it out so that the only feature of theirs that could be really recognizable on their faces were their mouths.  

After that initial transformation, Allura with her pink suit on, felt her necklace chime out. The sweet bells that were released when she first summoned her outfit was replaced by harsh screeching. Coran made an inhumanly high girlish squeal and led them all aboard the ship that he had used to destroy their tacos. Dinner was completely forgotten. Keith had a bad feeling about going onto a strange ship. Shiro always said not to go into strange vehicles. But then again, Shiro was also heading into this strange vehicle so...

Aboard the ship, the three of them were led to a command center of some sort, five chairs surrounding one pedestal. Shiro and Keith sat in what could have been their designated chairs, the ones glowing black and red.

“Princess,” Coran twirled the ends on his mustache, “please place your necklace in the hole!”

There was a heart shaped divot in the plain looking circuit board in front of her. She diligently removed her necklace that she had possessed since she first showed up on the foster cares doorstep and placed it in the hole, probably thinking this was still some strange dream.

The castle ship thing took off and landed somewhere in the middle of their city. Keith could feel himself pale at the sight of it, a beast robot of some sort preparing to take down building after building.

“Shiro…” he looked towards his adoptive brother, “Shiro what's happening.”

The older male just shrugged, awe struck at the sight.

“Chop chop! Let's go you two, your so called earth isn't going to defend itself!”

Coran shouted out, almost gleefully.

Shiro stood, “What? You can't be serious. We don't even know how to fight properly.”

Keith knew that Shiro did. Even just a little bit. He’s in the army, or he was at least. Deployed for only a year and a half and one missing arm to prove his time. He was a fighter, and if it wasn't for Allura, himself, and that therapists disapproval, Keith was sure that Shiro would go and sign himself up again.

“Oh don't be ridiculous! You'll be fine!” Coran started to push on their backs, “Though the ticks are ticking away!”

“Coran!” Allura lurched forward in her chair, closer to a hologram screen that popped up, “What is that?”

On the screen appeared three other figures, looking about as panicked as they all felt. But they had on outfits so similar to Keith and Shiro's that they stood out from the normal civilians, who were panicking and running away.

Coran let out a giddy noise, “Those are the other Paladins! How delightful, they're all in the same area. Good work Princess! We won't have to do any relocating!”

Keith and Shiro looked at eachother, then back at the screen. The yellow one looked like he pulled out a gun of some sort. Shocked himself by doing it too.

“Go on! Don't let all your fellow teammates do the hard work.” Coran ebbed them out of the ship.

By some movie magic bullshit they won without truly knowing what to do. Going into the details of their first uncoordinated and messy battle wouldn't be worth the effort. Just know it was bad and quite stereotypical for a first battle with a new team. The monster that these evil Galra things that Coran mentioned was one of those level one types. So it wasn't like they were smart and sent a boss to strike while the iron was hot, as Shiro put it. Which was good for them. Bad for the Galra. They all followed Shiro and Alluras careful commands to shoot here or stab there or watch out for that falling car Blue or holy shit seriously just watch out.

It was grueling. And by the end of it, Coran released some other magic bull shit, like fucking fairy dust sparkles, and the half destroyed city looked as if it had never been touched. As if a giant space alien thing hadn't just almost blown it to smithereens. As if Keith, Shiro, Allura, and these three other mystery people hadn't almost been killed.

What a day. Definitely one for the journal. And yes, it was a journal not a diary, no matter what Keith's annoying ass roommate said. Journals help keep track of events and important things while diarys were just something girls wrote in hoping they'd get taken so they could live their dreams of being in a cheesy Disney movie.

There was a difference.

“Good work team!” Shiro tried to smile as they all boarded the ship. The new guys marveled.

“Woah!” The green one’s eyes sparkled at the high tech looking castle interior, “What is this place?”

“This is the castle of lions!” Coran smiled waving his arms out, “it's our new base. Welcome paladins!”

The yellow guy tilted his head, looking impossibly innocent for someone of his stature, “b-base? You mean like, we're going to have to fight those guys again? Like. All the time?”

“Essentially yes. Until Zarkon and the Galra empire are taken down.” Coran played with his mustache.

“Sweet!” Keith flinched as the blue guy screamed in his ear, an arm nearly hitting him, “This is gonna be so cool! Imagine all the ladies that are going to be lining up to see a superhero.”

“Ah,” Allura spoke up, “That's probably something we should discuss.”

The newly found princess was startled when the blue paladin bowed and calmly spoke, “We can talk about it as long as you need your highness. Maybe somewhere private? Dinner perhaps?”

Keith figured by the way the Yellow and Green paladins shook their heads and tsked that the Blue one did that a lot. Of course there would be someone with that type of personality on the team. The type of personality that clashed with Keith's own. The type that Keith already had to deal with in his day to day life. He wasn't sure how he would cope with another guy like Lance. That sorry excuse for both a roommate and a reluctant friend.

Okay… he wasn't that bad. But Keith couldn't stand it sometimes.

“Blue’s not really my color,” Allura shook her head and laughed a bit.

“Back off blue,” Shiro’s voice held no malice, he actually smiled at the antic, “This one’s mine.”

The blue guy blushed. Or at least Keith thinks he did, it was hard to tell under the helmet and visor, “Ah sorry ‘bout that man.”

“Don't be. It's fine,” Shiro was never one to pick a fight for no valid reason.

“Idiot,” Keith whispered to himself before he could stop. He hoped that the guy hadn't heard, he didn't want to fight on the first day of making their team.

No luck. The blue ones head shot up, teeth baring slightly. Keith was sure that the guy was going to pounce on him, or yell at him or… something. But he froze for a millisecond before putting on a smile that made Keith's inside move in a funny way. Good funny or bad funny he couldn't tell.

“Well hello,” Blue grabbed his hand, placing a small kiss on it, “Do you have a name, or can I call you mine?”

Keith swiped his hand back wearing a look of shock, the blush prickling at his skin. It only deepened when Green let out a howl of laughter and was bent at the waist trying to catch their breath.

Shiro cleared his throat, clearly amused at how flustered his brother was. He could almost picture Keith glaring daggers behind his tinted visor. Laughing slightly, he tried to veer the conversation back, “We should discuss our identities.”

The blue one nodded, placing his chin in the crook between his thumb and pointer, “We have to be like Clark Kent right? And protect who we really are for the sake of our loved ones?”

Allura chuckled, probably to be polite, “Yes. Like um, Batman…?”

“Superman! How do you not know superman?” The green one exclaimed, the yellow one put a hand over its mouth to shut them up.

Shiro cleared his throat, “Okay. How about we just make this simple and go by colors. I'll be Black, the princess can be Pink, and there on.”

“What a splendid idea!” Coran seemed to brighten, “I can just go by Coran though. If you prefer.”

“Yes. Okay, then that's settled,” Allura breathed out, “We must not reveal our identities to anyone, including all of us here. The less people that know who we truly are the better. That means transforming out of sight and away from people.”

“Okay question though,” Blue interrupted, “How do we transform? Cause I kinda just tapped my ring when it started glowing and ended up like this.”

Coran smiled, “it's simple, just hold it for three seconds and say “ whatever color you are paladin! Defender of Voltron” you should be fine. Just as long as you don't let those things out of your sight.”

Coran gestured to the jewelry before twirling his moustache. Shiro coughed, “Well, then we'll just have to make sure that they're secure at all times.”

“Yes, the Lion spirits have all chosen you,” Coran leaned back on the dashboard and Keith felt like he was about to get a long lecture.

Green, who had been slumped back in their chair, hunched over to look slightly intrigued by the tale, “Lion spirits?”

“Yes! The lion spirits! Each of you has a possession that a lion has chosen specially. They were all sent to this planet with Allura when she was born and they seem to have chosen all of you,” Coran pointed his finger up towards the ceiling and smiled, “All of you must have very good souls if the lions chose you. Their original Paladins were nothing but Noble.”

“Yes but how did we not… not realize that we had their, um… spirits? Is that what you called them?” Shiro waited for Corans confirmation nod before continuing, “How did we not realize that we had them?”

Blue held out a hand too, “Yeah and how did they know that we’d buy these things?”

“Ah that is a fascinating story,” Coran pulled up a diagram in the space between them, the lights sparkling with an unreadable story, “The lions found their homes in your jewellery, as you call it, after you obtained them. They often track their potential paladins for a while before choosing and they have the ability to talk with their paladins and empathize with them. Perhaps they didn’t think that you were ready for knowledge of their existence yet.”

Keith felt a shiver run down his spine and a warming comfort pool in his stomach. Was it coming from his earring? Was that supposed to be Red? Or! Or! A better explanation for this was that Keith was currently stoned out of his mind or drugged and slumped over at Shiro’s from the obviously tainted tacos and this was all an extremely elaborate acid trip.

“Zarkon will do anything to get his hands on these spirits. Send spies or bounty hunters, or as you have seen, giant robots. The transformations should only last about four of your earth hours max before you need to reset them,” Coran nodded, before pulling what looked like a watch up to his eyes, “Which should be coming up soon. Hurry along, we wouldn't want your identities to be revealed. I’ll go over Altea’s history and the destruction next time, I’m sure you want to hear about that Princess. Your parents would've been proud of how you turned out.”

Allura just nodded, but Keith knew that she really wanted to know more than she was letting on. It was something that the both of them had wanted to know about for a long time. Back when he and Allura were both staying at the same foster home before she aged out of that particular home when Keith was nine and she was fifteen they used to sit around and talk about stuff like this. Their origins.

Keith, poor little Keith who was six years her junior was always hanging around Allura. Which was unusual for him, considering that he liked to be left alone most of the time. At first she found him annoying, Keith was almost positive of this, but she eventually warmed up to the lost child. They’d sit outside on the roof after the foster ladies would go to bed and just look at the stars and laugh about how their parents were probably somewhere in space fighting evil and just dying to come back to see them soon. It was Allura who taught Keith how much fun things like gymnastics could be, showing him how to do cartwheels and front hand springs. It was a nice way to pass those summer days at the foster home.

When she left that was the beginning of one of Keith’s dark periods. He hated describing it like that. It wasn't really all that terrible, but he supposed that there wasn't really a better name for it. He completely closed off, fearing that anyone he would get close to would have to be taken away from him again. He just… learned to adapt. It made him tougher in a way, more skeptical. His curious doe eyes didn't gleam with the same childlike wonderment. But he was still keith, and he learned how to live life. It wasn’t until the Shirogane’s adopted him that he started to feel better, he had even made a few friends at school. Lance had shouted at him and resented his “totally awesome and perfect” being at first, but once Hunk and Pidge had taken a liking towards him Lance started to warm up as well. And by the time Allura had come back into his life as his brothers fancy new girlfriend he was relatively… stable, again. Keith couldn't help but smile a bit at that thought, all the coincidences. He also couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of Allura, finally getting to see where she was from. Cause yes, Keith was at some sort of peace, and yes, he had a loving family and close friends… but that wasn't the same as knowing where you came from. Why you weren’t wanted in the first place…

“Thank you Coran,” Shiro gave a firm nod and Keith almost parroted him like a child would their parent. The man being thanked just smiled widely like he knew something they didn’t and he popped open the gate. With that they left, Coran promising to alert them via tacky jewelry when they should meet up again to train.

That was also about two weeks ago. Now Keith was about ready to kill Blue for nearly shooting him while trying to aim for a Galra. Granted it probably saved Keith a nasty blow to the head and grueling trip to those weird healing pod thingys, but Blue still could've hit him.

Slicing through a robot, Keith growled and pretended it was the other Paladin. Yellow whistled, “woah. Nice one there buddy. I think that was the last of them.”

“Alright Coran!” Blue yelled into their intercom, “Were good down here! Release the fairy dust!”

After the town magically regenerated, the paladins all marched back into the castle, Keith instantly turning to Blue, “You could've shot my head off!”

“But see, here's the thing Red,” Blue stuck up his nose, “I didn't. And I managed to save your ass. This isn't exactly the outstanding thank you that I should be getting.”

“Whatever Blue,” Keith's cheeks were hot, from anger of course, not from that confident and amused smile, “just be careful next time.”

The red paladin stomped past and into the castle before the rest of them, heading towards the main room to probably get briefed before going back to his apartment to crash. It had been a long few hours, and this stupid town was just lucky that he didn't have any homework due the next day.

“What's his deal?” He could hear Blue ask Yellow as they followed him in.

Allura was in a rush, her words jumbled as she spoke, “Alright good work today paladins! We are really bonding as a team. Some need more work than others-” she pointedly looked at Keith and Blue “-and I would love to stay and chat but this fight has taken up more time that I think any of us have anticipated. It is drawing on the fourth hour and if we do not hurry, we will transform back soon.”

With that they were all dismissed and scattered. When Keith finally made it to the apartment he didn't even have enough energy to question where Lance was or why he wasn't back. His roommate would show up eventually. Eventually.

~~~

Keith woke up to the all too chipper sound of his phone. He would have to go and get Lance out of bed soon, the guy didn't seem to wake up to his own alarms. Keiths newest task was to get him to classes on time, as strenuous and torturing it can be sometimes. And despite all those things he said, he and Lance were friends.

Ish.

They had their moments, and they lived together! That had to count for something. They also shared the same friends, and a lot of the same classes. A few were differed here and there due to time. In the slots where Keith took fencing and gymnastics classes, Lance took archery and swimming or track (depending on the season). Both majoring in astrophysics.

Keith put two toaster waffles into their little second hand toaster and wandered down the hall to their bathroom to brush his teeth. He frowned at his reflection in the small mirror above the sink, his hair was sticking up in an unattractive way. Running a comb through it and watching it pop back up, Keith huffed. It was going to be one of those days. He quickly tied as much of it up as he could, though it still looked like a mess, and left the lights on as he exited.

He decided to get dressed after eating (not wanting a repeat of the previous morning where he spilt juice all over himself and had to frantically change),  so he skipped his bedroom instead going to get Lance, yawning as he opened the door without knocking, “Lance!”

“Five more minutes,” Lance pulled the blankets over her head, tightening his grip, “The you can drag me to hell all you want.”

“I'm going to go get the water,” there was only a hint of a playful tone in his voice. Because yes, he had once thrown a bucket of water at Lance. Though, being the boy who was always oblivious to common sayings and such, he had actually thrown the bucket as well. How was he supposed to know that you were just supposed to dump the water out? No books ever specified. But regardless of Keiths slight lapse in judgement, it had made a nice bruise form on Lance’s face that stayed for a week or two.

Lance shot up not wanting a repeat, “Don't!”

“Good morning,” Keith rolled his eyes, totally not ready to deal with the image of Lance’s stupid bed head. Ya know, cause he’d just complain about it, no other reason, Keith just trying to save his ears from the barrage of complaints that his roommate would make, not cause it was endearing or any other synonym of the word, “Get up or we’ll have no time to eat.”

Once Keith was out of the room, Lance unwrapped himself from his cocoon of warmth, exposing his skin to the cold autumn air. It was way too freaking early. It was always way to freaking early.

He quickly ran into the bathroom to brushed his teeth, nearly squirting the mint toothpaste everywhere and cursing under his breath. A clean smile is a nice smile. And a nice smile woos the ladies. Pulling on a shirt and some pants that were hanging out of his closet, Lance hopped on one foot trying to get his other sock on while simultaneously exiting his room. He nearly fell over, which wasn't new. That in itself was a daily occurrence. As was Keith's side step to avoid his wobbling on his way into the kitchen. They had learned to work around each other, with each other at times as well.The toaster looked as if it had been done for a few moments before either of them had a chance to enter the kitchen, Keith ran to get plates, “Here. It's still hot be careful.”

Lance slid into the stool at the counter before he gladly stuffed some of the waffle in his mouth, but not without his usual quip, “Truly a nutritional breakfast here Keith.”

Keith  rolled his eyes and turned to pour syrup over his and Lances waffles, “Bite me. If you want something better then wake up yourself.”

“Maybe I will,” Lance took another bite, wrinkling his nose a bit at the fingers that he got sticky, “Do we grab Pidge and Hunk today?”

Keith used a fork, like a civilized person would,  “Nope. They texted earlier that they have to be there early, something about a project.”

“Perfect,” He watched as Keith shook his head at the way he licked the syrup off his fingers and waved his now cleanish hand over at the fridge, “Please?”

Keith stood again to get glasses out of the cupboard above the sink. Why couldn’t Lance just get something for himself? Why was Keith saying this in his head? “Why can’t you get your own drink ever?”

“Because I know you’ll get it for me,” Lance’s smile faltered a bit at Keith’s glare, “Keith… Buddy? Love you.”

The boy in question just rolled his eyes at the dragged out ‘you’ and poured himself a glass of orange juice and got a cup of ice for his friend, “Here.”

“What’s this?” Lance raised an eyebrow at the ice then at the sitting boy, “Ice?”

“Yep,” Keith just turned to dig around in his backpack. He made a small victory noise when he pulled out his phone.

Lance sat there for a moment, waiting to see if Keith would say anything else. But when the other boy seemed to just be mindlessly checking things on the screen, Lance poked him, “Keith I can’t drink this.”

“Wait, it’ll melt,” Keith didn’t look up still, but Lance could see the small smirk making its way to his face.

Lance sighed and forced himself to get up, “I hate you sometimes.”

“Really? I thought you hated me all the time, ” Keith started tapping at the screen, “my how far we have come.”

“Sarcasms really not appreciated,” Lance just poured the ice into a canteen and then filled his glass with Milk, “Nice hair by the way, really goes with the whole I don’t give a shit look ya got going on today.”

He could hear Keith put his phone down and when he turned Keith just had an elbow on the counter and his head in his palm. A small frown adorned his features and he sighed, “I didn’t change yet. I probably should.”

Lance watched as his roommate walked in the direction of his bedroom, leaving a quarter of his waffle untouched. Keith had been wearing a pair of grey sweats that could have honestly been Lance’s at one point, since the pant legs were too long and now had holes at the bottom from stepping on the extra fabric. It wasn’t uncommon for them to wind up with some of the others clothes since they just combined their laundry to save water, though they’d usually notice right away and return them. Usually. Keith had a problem figuring out what was his and what wasn’t since he never really paid attention to which clothes were his. Shiro was always adding hand-me-downs to his collection anyways so it was hard to keep track. Plus the clothes that Lance outgrew he would give to Keith too, if he wanted them. If not then they went to his younger siblings and Pidge to root through. But the shirt that Keith was wearing that morning had definitely been one of Lance’s, the one he had been looking for but gave up on a month ago. It was an old NASA shirt that had paint stains on it from that one time they tried to redo the living room.

Lance chuckled fondly at that memory as he reached over to eat the rest of Keith’s waffle. He had been complaining for about three months after they reluctantly moved in together about the horrible shade of red on the wall.

They had moved in together when Lance had been kicked out of student dorming back in sophomore year of highschool because some shit that his roommate did (and the both of them were blamed for) and Keith had had enough of living with Allura and Shiro. Back then they had barely known each other, having Pidge as their only mutual friend but never had they all hung out. Lance had been whining about having no place to live when he was chilling with Hunk, “Dude! I’m broke and I have nowhere to go. All my stuff is going to be put on the curb in two weeks!”

“That sucks bro,” Hunk said in a totally not sympathetic way since he was too invested in his homework and had been listening to Lance repeat the same thing for the past hour, “Good luck with that.”

Pidge was out with someone they both hadn’t caught the name of and were left in the apartment to fend for themselves. It was a Saturday, and Hunk still chose to do the extra homework that wasn’t due for another two weeks, claiming that he’d forget it by then. Honestly it was a smart idea and he probably should have followed his friend's example, but Lance just groaned again, “Hunk! How did you and Pidgey manage to get this place? It’s so cheap for like, all this room. You gotta hook a brother up.”

“Actually,” Hunk looked up from his writing, “There is this apartment upstairs that’s open for rent. The woman up there is moving to Rhode Island and had to leave almost immediately. She was so nice too, had a tiny little baby and-”

“Okay Hunk! Set it up, I wanna see it!” Lance jumped to his feet, “Imagine if we lived in the same building! All the late night movies nights that we can actually have because we won’t have to worry about student curfew!”

Hunk had just sighed, knowing Lance wouldn’t let up until he called the apartment building super and request a tour. Lance was just lucky that Hunk had fixed the guys radiator once and now they were friends.

The apartment wasn’t terribly big, but Lance was awe struck by it when Hunk unlocked the door. The foyer opened up into a decent sized living area that had two nice floor to ceiling windows. Lance was already planning everything out in his head, his TV that he got as a going away present would go right in between those windows… and the plants he had could go next to it. There was a counter connecting the kitchen area to the living room area, the place was had an open concept. Lance knew his mom would love being able to talk to him from the kitchen while he played video games with his siblings whenever they came to visit. Or if Lance ever got that special someone he had been looking for, they could talk while one of them made dinner or something.

The closet off the side of the living room had a washer and dryer in it, as well as a few shelves for soaps and things.  On the other side was a hallway. The bedrooms were adjacent from each other and the bathroom was at the end of the hall, which Lance gaped at, “Its great!”

The mirror was small but there was a lot of counter space and the tub was big and the shower head was an appropriate height. Lance practically raced into one of the bedrooms. The walls were a baby blue and the closet was a nice size. But what got Lance falling in love with it was the skylight that lined the ceiling in one nice strip in the back, “I want this room. This… is perfect.”

Hunk just rolled his eyes, “Why don't you look at the other room first.”

“Nope. This one. This one’s mine, end of story,” Lance said looking up at the sky, “I’m going to just sit here and look at the stars for hours.”

Then there was the noise. A bam! sound of some sort, like someone had bumped into something. Hunk jumped out of his skin practically, “What was that!”

“I dunno, but I take it back. I don't wanna live somewhere that's haunted,” Lance clung onto his friend, “L-let's go check it out.”

“It came from the other bed room,” Hunk pushed Lance out the door, “You go first.”

Lance rolled his eyes but there was undeniable shaking in his step as he toed the door open. He screamed.

“What! Ghosts? Lance what is it,” Hunk had clamped his eyes shut and hid behind his best friend despite being almost twice his size.

“No,” Hunk perked up curiously at Pidge’s voice, “Just us. What are you guys doing here?”

Lance just ignored the question, “Hunk it’s worse than ghosts, it’s Keith!”

“Keith?” Hunk stood up straight and tried to look past Lance’s flailing arms, “Are you sure?”

“Who are you?” Keith had eyed him, “And what are you doing in my new apartment?”

Lance stopped freaking out for a moment to glare at Keith, pointing a finger at him, “Your new apartment? I don’t think so buddy, I’m buying this place.”

“Keith, this is Lance. He was recently thrown out of student housing,” Pidge sighed, “Lance, this is Keith, his brother’s girlfriend recently moved in with him and his brother and he doesn't want to live with them.”

“I know who this is Pidge,” Lance sneered, “We’re rivals at school.”

Keith just raised an eyebrow, “Rivals? Who even are you?”

“Lance! Ya know… Lance!” He poked his finger into the other's chest harder, “You seriously can’t remember who I am?”

“Oh, you’re that kid that accidentally tripped and dropped acid all over the floor the first week of school, right?” Keith looked genuinely curious for a moment before he narrowed his eyes and swatted Lance’s hand away, “Don’t touch me.”

“Listen, you both need a place to stay,” Hunk intervened, being the voice of reason, “Why don’t you both share the apartment? I know how much you both want it. Need it even. And it’ll lower the cost even more!”

“Fine with me, I’m going to go get the forms and stuff. See you later Pidge,” Keith just waved and headed towards the door. Lance thought he was seeing red, steam coming out of his ears. How dare his rival not remember who he was? Keith had to be the most infuriating, terrible, beautifully ignorant person that he had ever met. Stopping at the door, Keith turned back to the three that were now in the hallway watching him and smirked, “Oh, and Lance was it? Rule one if we’re going to do this, don’t talk to me.”

They broke that rule within weeks of them actually moving in. Keith quickly realized that he and Lance were going to have to communicate somehow, so he went with sticky notes for the first two weeks. They were simple notes like ‘My laundry is in the washer’ or ‘were out of OJ, I’ll pick some up later’. Lance thought he was going to have to build a working friendship with a packet of post-its for the rest of his time in the apartment.To say that their first official meeting, that both of them remember that is, did not go smoothly is an understatement. It wasn’t until Allura and Shiro made a surprise house warming appearance that Keith had to say something.

“Allura, Shiro. This is my roommate Lance,” Keith shook his head at the way Lance seemed to gawk at them. It was hard not to, they were probably the most aesthetically pleasing, photographic people Keith had ever known, “Lance this is my brother, and his girlfriend.”

“You…” For a split second Keith was worried that Lance was going to hit on one of them. Pidge mentioned that he had a hard time controlling himself in front of pretty people. But instead Lance just turned to him and grinned triumphantly, “You talked to me!”

At that Shiro and Allura both gave him disappointed and confused looks, knowing that he could isolate himself it he wanted to. Thus began what Lance and Keith both hated for quite a while, their forced friendship. Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura decided that it was best for all of them to start hanging out in a group, meaning that Keith and Lance would actually have to interact. Lance, personally, had no real issue with it. He definitely didn’t want to live with a stranger, his mother would not approve, and he was open to the idea of friendship. Not necessarily a strong one, but one that was stable enough to say, “Hey Keith, is this your sock?” without the fear of getting punched. Keith didn’t seem that invested in it though.

It took a while for him to open up, the whole group thing was slowly working. Slowly being a key word. They quickly learned that they all liked hanging out together which was great because Lance didn’t have a real group of tight friends since seventh grade. And Keith didn’t have one like, ever.

Lance and Keith had gotten along better, but it wasn’t until Keith came back to the apartment to find Lance trying to pry open a paint can three months after moving in together with a chopstick that things really started to change between them. Keith dropped the groceries on the counter and stared at him, furniture moved and trash bags lining the hardwood floor, “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like Keith,” Lance grunted as he tried to wedge the stick in again, “I’m obviously trying to open this.”

It was silent for a few minutes, so Lance figured that Keith lost interest and went into his room to brood or something like that. But then a screwdriver was stuck in his face and Keith’s hand was attached to it, “Here, try this.”

“Thanks,” Lance blinked for a moment, shocked that Keith was helping him. He smiled at the other boy, “Wanna help me paint over this awful red?”

Keith looked around their living room, the paint was a deep red that he honestly kind of liked, “Why?”

“It’s terrible Keith,” Lance waved his arms around, “I went out and bought this like, weeks ago but forgot about it.”

When Lance popped open the can and mixed it, Keith was slightly mesmerized by the deep blue color. Lance just continued to pour it onto the roller pan and gestured to the roller near Keith. Keith held it up cautiously, “In there?”

“Duh Keith,” Lance responded, reaching for the remote, “Mind if we watch some TV while we work?”

Lance put on one of the Friends DVDs that he had, starting at season one. Keith smiled, “I love this show.”

“You do?” Lance snorted. Keith didn’t really seem like the type to sit around and watch sit coms. Maybe documentaries, but funny little shows like Friends? Nope, never would have guess. Though Lance learned over time that one of Keith's guilty pleasures was to curl up under a blanket and go to town on Lance’s sitcom DVD collection. He caught his roommate once at three am laughing at the TV, which made Keith stutter out an excuse with an adorable blush on that didn’t go away until Lance insisted it was fine and joined him.

Keith got changed into clothes he didn’t really care about and rejoined Lance in his painting adventure. There was only an occasional laugh from one of them for quite awhile. They both decided to start on random parts of the walls, which they later regretted since Lance hadn’t bought enough paint to cover the whole room.

“What idiot doesn’t buy enough paint to paint a room?” Keith raised an eyebrow, his expression filled with amusement instead of annoyance.

Lance just shrugged, “I dunno, what kind of Idiot has paint all over his face?”

Keiths hands flew to his face to check for wet paint, but found nothing, “What? I don't ha-”

Lance smeared what was left in the bucket on to Keith’s cheek, “You were saying?”

That seemed to be the wrong thing to do and Lance was regretting it when Keith stuck his palm in the paint then hit Keith right in the middle of his face. Keith laughed at the shell shocked expression and didn’t stop until Lance sandwiched his face in between two paint colored palms of his own.

“Lance!” Keith cried out through a fit of laughter, which was honestly one of the nicest sounds that Lance had ever heard. It sounded genuinely happy, and unbound to anything. Unrestrained, light.

Lance just smiled as he stood and held a hand out, “Yes honey dearest?”

“Are you getting hungry?” Keith got up as well and tried to wipe his hands off on his shirt. His expression was still bright and if Lance squinted enough, a bit flustered from his last comment. Lance couldn’t help but think that Keith should look like that all the time, undoubtedly and purely happy. He started to walk closer to Keith, which alarmed the other into backing up win matching steps, “Lance? Are you oka-”

Keith’s eyes widened for a moment, realizing that he hd just backed up into a wall with wet paint all over it. Lance smirked, “I’m okay. You good?”

Slamming his hand into the wet wall first, Keith pushed Lance backwards and left a handprint on his NASA shirt, “Perfect.”

“Oh, you are so getting it Kogane!” Lance swiped at the wall, “Get back here!”

Lance tried to grab at Keith, who side stepped and made Lance fall face first into an area of the wall that was still red. Keith laughed, “Too slow.”

“How’s this,” Lance turned to get as much paint all over him as he could before launching himself at his roommate, “For too slow?”

Keith’s entire body shook with laughter as he tried to roll Lance off of him, “You’re heavy. Get off!”

“I don't know,” Lance let himself melt into dead weight, “I'm pretty comfy right now.”

Keith gave one hard shove and it had lance sprawling out on the trash bag covered floor with a hard sounding thud, “mm you comfy now.”

“Jesus okay, you can push pretty hard. So chinese?” Lance sat up and Keith nodded.

When the food arrived Lance paid the guy, claiming that it was the least he could do for making Keith help him paint the walls. Sort of. As they both settled in the middle of the living room, food containers placed in places without paint, they observed their handy work. Or lack thereof.

“We really fucked up these walls didn’t we?” Lance let out a low whistle, “I think I can see an imprint of my face on that one.”

Keith shrugged, “They're one of a kind now.”

It was true. No one else in the world had walls that were painted inconsistently in both blue and red with terrible hand prints and smears everywhere. Probably.

“That’s true,” Lance nodded, “First home renovation and we can’t say that we didn’t make it special.”

Keith just hummed, “Yeah…”

Lance still didn’t know a lot about Keith at that point, and Keith probably didn’t know a lot about him either. Which was fine, they were still growing.

“So, why did you need to move out of Shiro and Allura’s?” Lance asked since he never really knew why, “I had to move because my roommate decided to pull a prank on the dean and I got blamed too. So what was it? Were they being to lovey dovey?”

Lance was worried that he over stepped somehow when Keith went quiet. Putting down the container, Keith leaned back on his palms to stare out the big windows at the stars. His reply was so quiet that Lance almost didn’t catch it, “It’s exactly because of what you just said.”

“What? They were being too coupley?” Lance copied the other's movements. The stars were so bright that night.

Keith shook his head, “No. You called it Shiro and Allura’s. It was never really my home.”

“What?” Lance raised an eyebrow, “I’m sure people called it Keith and Shiro’s before Allura moved in.”

“Not what I meant,” Keith sighed and went silent for another moment, “I never really felt at home there. Like it was mine. It was always Shiro’s place to me. And Allura fits in there now, so it was time for me to start over.”

Lance turned to face him, “So this place can be your home now.”

Lance didn’t really get it. But maybe that’s because he’s always had a place to call his home. Surrounded by people he loved and memories that were irreplaceable. A place where he knew that he could just be himself, a place where he didn’t have to worry about doing things like turning a perfectly painted room into shit and getting kicked out. And Keith… well. Lance had heard enough of his story to know that Keith probably never had any of that.

“Maybe…” Keith’s reply came after a while, his purple eyes still focused on the stars but his expression wistful.

That was about three years ago. Now they were close friends that were going to the same college that was joint with their old high school. Still living together. Still hung out with the same friends. Still had that same crappily painted living room.

Lance couldn’t help but wonder if Keith considered their apartment his home now.

“We promised Allura to stop by to help pick out flowers for the wedding,” Keith walked back in fully dress, “Are you okay? You look dazed.”

“Yeah it’s all good. Just… thinking,” Lance replied, still a bit out of it.

Keith waved a hand in front of his eyes then snapped until Lance blinked, “Don’t hurt yourself there.”

“Shut up Keith,” Lance swatted his hand away, “I’m smart.”

Keith just shrugged, “Whatever you say. Anyways, were you listening? Allura and Shiro need us after school so don’t forget.”

“As if I would forget to help them plan the most upcoming wedding of the century,” Lance tugged on his backpack, “You better not forget.”

“I won't.” Keith laughed, slipping on his shoes to run out of the door. Initiating an unspoken challenge.

Lances legs picked up speed as he chased his friend out of the two story complex and down the street, “Good!”

“Good!” Keith called out from over his shoulder.

Lance let out an aggravated howl. And by the time they entered the school grounds they were panting at Pidge and Hunks feet.

“Why the hell are you guys so sweaty? It's not even seven thirty yet!”

~~~

This paladin stuff required a lot of running since there was no other convenient mode of transportation. None of them owned a car, or rather the ones who did were not confident about not crashing in the haste. Obviously the bus was out, and Lance could pull out his bike but what would he do with it once he got to the fight? Just leave it there? Oh hell no, not after he has kept it safe all those years with his trusty bike lock.

So yes. Lance was extremely happy that his mother had forced her baby flash into running track since fourth grade. No matter how Lance looked at it, he was grateful for his mother chiding him and pushing him to run. Imagine if he didn't! Yeah he had Archery as a sport but that didn't do much for your cardiovascular health.

He remembered the first time he was called into battle. Or, rather the first time that he, Hunk, and Pidge were. They were all over for a movie night at his place, obviously since they do that every week. But this time Keith was over at Allura and Shiro’s for dinner so they were down a person for popcorn.

How awkward would that have been if Keith were there too? They'd all see their glowing jewelry shit and have to leave him there while they were pulled towards the center of town. Or maybe he'd pass out like Hunk almost did when they transformed into their armour. Whatever it was, Lance was sure that it was fate that Keith remained oblivious to the fact that he and Blue were the same person. What would he do if he found out that his friends were also members of Voltron? Probably tell Allura and Shiro… then they’d get the ‘that's dangerous be careful’ speech from their parents away from home.

And that wasn't a conversation that Lance really wanted to have. Again.

The first time he had met Black, Pink and Red, Lance was shocked for a lack of a better word. He supposed that a three man team wouldn't have been that effective against the shit they were facing, but he wasn't sure what to expect. Pink was beautiful, that much was obvious. And of course Lance could see how Black was perfect for someone like her. Only Shiro and Allura’s future children would be able to compete with Pink and Black’s in the looks department. And every other department. Lance thought it was unfair that god or some being out there made two sets of perfect beings.

After hitting on Pink and thoroughly embarrassing himself, not that he really noticed, Lance saw Red. Well, heard him. And yes, Lance had just finished being starstruck over the only female there but there was something about the tiny pout on Red’s lips that made him smile and want to tease him Using one of his classic lines, he was delighted to see a hint of pink on the little bit of skin that the helmets revealed. Lance had to grudgingly admit that Red was something of a looker, adorable even.

Not that he’d ever say anything like that aloud. Not anymore anyways. Not after he and Red developed some sort of rivalry or something.

This whole paladin stuff is fun, trust him. Lance loved being a paladin. Coran had graciously explained to them the next day how everything was supposed to go down. It sounded, for a lack of better words, dangerous. But unique and fun. Might kill them, but fun.

“You will all be responsible for saving not only this world, but many other planets as well!” Coran had smiled widely, clasping his hands together, “You will form the Voltron team! Led by Black and the Princess of course. You’ll all be heros! Defenders of the Universe!”

Lance liked the sound of that. Heros! It sounded daring and cool, like he was. He could finally show everyone that he was good for something, even if that something was putting his life on the line for everyone else.

“Do you ever think it's strange that they wait until after school?” Lance asked, running towards the center of town yet again, “I mean. Do you think maybe the evil mastermind has school too and that's why he never attacks during the day.”

“As important as an education is Blue,” Pidge was slightly behind him, “I doubt that Zarkon waits until after school hours. You probably just jinxed us.”

“Ah Black you're so lucky,” Lance waved his hand, the black paladin turning to him, “You don't have to deal with the woes of school life.”

“Wait until you join the work force,” Black smiled, if they weren't running Lance was sure that he would've crossed his arms, “You're going to beg to go back to school. Try to save up for a wedding on top of college debt too.”

“You're getting married?”

Black looked a little confused by the question. He tried to study what he could from Lance's face. Had he mentioned this before and Lance just forgot or wasn't paying attention? Black slowed down, chuckling awkwardly, “Didn't I tell you?”

“Not that I remember,” Lance blinked. Pidge looked up at him with a laugh.

“But Blue has always been a bit slow.”

“Not funny Green,” Lance squawked, “I remember plenty of things-”

“Sure you do”

“-and, as a matter of fact, I just remembered that I'm missing some wedding planning right now too.”

“You're getting married?” Pidge bit down on their bottom lip at Blacks question, hitting him in the side.

Lance swore he heard Pidge whisper, something to Black along the lines of ‘if he doesn't’

“Nah,” Lance waved his hand and shrugged, “My two friends are. This college kids still single.”

“I wonder why,” Pidges voice was dripping with sarcasm while they tried to conceal a laugh. That was always a weird saying to Lance, dripping with sarcasm. It was accurate enough cause it was as if Pidge had plunged their words into liquified sarcasm and the extra was falling off of it. But still, it was a weird image.

“Guys!” Hunk called from his spot just a few feet behind them, his voice worried, “Guys! Look at that!”

Lance's full attention was drawn to the newest robot contraption thingy. It was huge, “oh fuck.”

“Alright team!” Pink’s voice was kind of static in their helmets, “This robeast is armed!”

Hunk and Red had come up behind them, Hunk panicking, “Armed? Like, he has a gun or like, several arms? Or both, oh god don't let it be both! Princess tell me it's not both!”

“Calm down yellow,” Black commanded as firmly as he could, “We have to just take this step by step.”

The battle wasn't as long as they had anticipated from the size of the monster. It took maybe an hour at most, Red and Pidge worked to cut off its arms (“Its both Yellow. It's arms are infused with rifles of some sort”) and then Lance shot through the plate on its back and it was down.

The easiness of it all made them a little weary. But that didn't stop them from going back to the conveniently hidden spaceship to celebrate.

~~~

“She's just magnificent, isn't she?” Lance was gawking at the new student sitting across the courtyard, “Her name is Nyma, how foreign and perfect.”

Keith scoffed as he stabbed his salad with a little more force than necessary, annoyed at Lance's latest antics. Hunk whined, “Dude come on! Finish eating, we gotta get to the cafe.”

“Why?” Lance raised an eyebrow, “You wanna go see your girlfriend before her shift ends?”

“She's not my girlfriend, she just happens to be a really nice barista that I admire very much and who also happens to be in the same fine culinary arts class as me,” Hunk pointed a finger in a matter of factually way. It was true! Shay was nothing more than a friend (sadly) and he did like hanging out with her in culinary class. The girl knew how to cook, and like people always said: the way to a man’s heart is throughout his stomach. And man did Hunk love those little tartlets that Shay seemed to magically make with ease.

Pidge snickered, they knew that Hunk had somewhat connected with the part time Barista that Allura had hired at her and Shiro's cafe, “Yeah, the blush really helps your case there.”

“Shut up Pidge,” Hunk mumbled, hands hiding his face, “Just hurry up so we can go!”

“Should I go talk to her?” Lance all but ignored Hunks exasperation, “I mean, I am the smoothest, most handsome person here. I should show her around.”

“What you should do is finish eating,” this time it was Keith that glared at him. Lance looked him dead in the eyes and brought his fork full of leftover pasta to his mouth as slowly as humanly possible. Keith growled in response, “Lance!”

“Yeah cupcake?” Lance feigned innocence, batting his eyes to really sell it, “Whatever am I doing wrong?”

Pidge didn't know whether or not the pinkish color on Keith cheeks was from frustration or something else, but they knew that they had to stop Lance before everyone started screaming again, “C’mon Lance. Allura and Shiro need us to go help them deliver the invitations.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance waved them off, finally covering the Tupperware and putting it back in his bag, “I hear you. You guys go first, I'm just going to talk to her.”

Hunk didn't need to be told twice, “Alright buddy. But don't forget to show your face since we have no more classes today, Shiro and Allura will be pretty upset if they find out you ditched for a girl.”

“Mmhm. Got it Hunk, don't piss off Shallura,” Lance waved his hand, “hurry up before you miss Shay.”

Hunk mumbled something along the lines of “for the last time we're not dating!” before Pidge presumable cut his rant off with a pull on his shirt and an annoyed sounding “shut up Romeo and let's just go!”

There was shuffling that Lance barely registered in his day dreams of sweeping Nyma off her feet. The chattering growing quieter and quieter until the faint buzzing was non existent. Lance sighed, finally alone and allowed to shamelessly look from afar for as long as he pleased. Or… so he thought. He jumped slightly when Keith's voice was directly shot into his ear, “What's a Shallura?”

“Jesus fucking Christ Keith! Give a guy some warning,” Lance turned to glare at Keith, the two jumping far apart when their noses accidentally touched. Coughing after choking on what seemed like air, Lance put his hands on his knees to catch his breath, “ how old are you exactly?”

“Nineteen,” Keith deadpanned, rubbing at his nose, “Why? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Shallura is Shiro and Allura's couple name, duh Keith,” Lance blinked. Keith did nothing but stare at him blankly. Groaning and shaking his head, Lance walked back over to sling an arm around his friend, “Y’know like… Brangelina or B-Zee.”

Keith managed to cross his arms, “Okay?”

“You're obviously not getting this,” Lance placed his chin between his fingers, “It's like… well… ours would be Leith. Or Klance. It's our names just smushed together.”

“That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard,” Keith glared, crinkling his nose in a way that was definitely not adorable, “What idiots come up with this stuff.”

It wasn't a question. But Lance treated it as if Keith was genuinely asking, “Me. I come up with this stuff. Personally I like Klance for us, it has more of my name which is obviously better. Keith is such a douchebag name.”

“It is not,” Keith huffed, “But that's fine with me. My name comes first like how I manage to beat you at everything.”

Lance sputtered a bit, “Well there's more of my name in it so… uh… there! I win.”

“That makes zero sense,” Keith just shook his head with a slightly exasperated sigh, “It's just a dumb name.”

“It is not! It's cute and creative,” Lance ran a hand through his hair, “Like me.”

“So it's extra stupid,” Lance hated the way Keith always rolled his eyes. Especially when he did it without any real annoyance, just slight amusement. Like now, why did he have to make that face. It was so… friendly? Endearing? Like he was enjoying fighting. Lance won't deny that sometimes it was fun, and more often than not now a days their arguments had more fond undertones compared to the absolute detestation they held when they first met. But that was also what annoyed him! What gave Keith the right to look like that?

“Rude Keith. I'll prove to you it's not stupid,” Lance mimicked Keith and crossed his arms.

The other didn't look too impressed, “How?”

“Um…” Lance looked around. How was he going to prove it? Ask someone? He could sense that someone was walking past them behind Lance, so he spun around quickly to get the stranger's attention, “Hey! Could you settle something for- Nyma?”

Keith let out a snort at the unnaturally high octave that Lance's voice reached. The girl that Lance had shot his arm out at blinked in surprise, “Hi? Do I know you?”

“Not yet,” Lance regained his posture and winked at her, surprised when she didn't turn away in with that unsure look that most people had, “but we could get to know each other.”

Lance was finally going to get somewhere with someone. This time he'd do everything right. He was going to pull out all of the stops, pull on every Disney movie he's ever watched. Nyma and her beautiful blonde head was going to be his. And they were going to slowly fall in love everyday and use those stupid cliche wedding vows and name their kids something along the lines of Marco and Lucille and die old together in a house on a nice hill looking over the sunset. Yes. He was certain of it.

~~~

Keith was a big enough person to admit that Lance was somewhat good looking. Okay, very good looking. With his stupid eyes and lean tall body and his broad shoulders from all that swimming and… okay off track here. Point is, he was attractive, which made it kind of confusing for Keith who didn't understand why Lance hadn't had a significant other  in a while. It wasn't like Lance didn't put himself out there. And it wasn't like there were no rumors of Sally or Jane or whatever people were named now a days having a crush on Lance.

And don't get Keith wrong. He was secretly grateful there were zero chances of him walking in on something he would want to forget. But he still had to wonder.

There was something more to Lance than just his looks though. Which, Keith figured, deterred some people. His personality was bright and excited and overall big and loud. It wasn't something everyone could handle. He was a self proclaimed flirt extraordinaire and often stated how he was the meme god's gift to the world. Whatever that meant. Some people didn't understand him or ridiculed him for his seemingly too optimistic outlook. They called him naive, claimed he would miss the really important things and do everything for show. People thought he wouldn't be able to handle a real relationship. That he was too out there for most people's taste.

But Keith just thought he was a goofball. A dork with a big mouth. There was nothing wrong with that.

Though many people didn't have to live with Lance either. Keith could sometimes see how Lance could be irresponsible, forgetful or spacey. He thought something along those lines when they first met. But he always did what he had to do and then some when it counted.

It was little things that he did. He still called his mom to say goodnight everyday at exactly nine thirty like clockwork. He looked out for that weird computer part that Pidge desperately needed to complete their super computer whenever they went out shopping. He could instantly tell when any of them needed cheering up, and would just crack a joke and smile. If it came down to it he would always shut up and be a good pair of ears to vent to.

Keith liked the small things he did around the apartment too. Like buying Keith his chunky peanut butter and eating that with Keith in order to save money even though he personally preferred the creamy kind. Or that He often draped a blanket over Keith if he found the boy snoozing on the couch, and if he was feeling adventurous and sure that Keith was in a deep enough sleep he would carry him into his room. Or that Lance had memorized his schedule down to a T and reminds him when he has to do things with a simple “oh Keith aren't you going late for that flipping or whatever practice with Allura?” Or “you have that weird English thing due tomorrow right?” They were subtle reminders that he could have bragged about remembering. Or at least he could have held it over Keith's head that he himself didn't remember some of the times. But he didn't gloat about how good of a person he was for doing these sort of things.

The little things reminded Keith that Lance wasn't actually a terrible person, and that if you got to know him he was actually nice to hang around. They reminded Keith why he shouldn't just kill Lance in his sleep with the knife under his pillow on particularly trying days when his patience was wearing thing.

Nyma was giggling into her palm, “What is it that you needed settled?”

“Oh nothing it was stupid,” Lance waved his hand, trying to play his outburst off.

Keith raised an eyebrow, “So you admit that it's stupid?”

“No,” Lance turned to shoot Keith a look, “it's not stupid, I just don't want to bother poor Nyma over here with our stupid fight that you clearly have lost.”

“Oh I wouldn't want to get in the middle of a fight between…” Nyma shifted her gaze from one boy to the other, obviously trying to find the right word to describe whatever she thought they were.

“Rivals,” Lance supplied at the same time Keith just stated, “Roommates.”

Nyma looked slightly confused, “Rival roommates?”

“Yep… roommates… who are also rivals.” Lance trailed off, “But that's not important. The names Lance, how would you feel about going to get some coffee sometime?”

Nyma eyed Keith one more time, making him squirm a little, before turning to Lance, “That would be lovely actually.”

“Really?” Lance sounded genuinely shocked.

Nyma just nodded and Lance let out a whoop. Keith tapped his foot in slight irritation as he waited for them to exchange contact information. They had to get to Allura and Shiro's okay? So of course he was a little antsy. And this girl… she didn't sit quite right with him. He was a person that followed his instincts and right now, they told him to stay away from this girl. Red flashing lights and everything going off in his mind.

“Oh what a nice ring,” Nyma commented as she handed Lance his phone back.

Lance put on what Keith thought was supposed to be a flirty smile, “Thanks. One of a kind, it's really something special.”

“I can tell,” Nyma waved, smile dazzling, “See you around Lance.”

Lance was just a stuttering mess, “Yea. You see soon. I mean! See you soon!”

Lance claimed he was in love. Keith said he was being ridiculous.

~~~

“I don't get what Keith's problem is,” Lance said as soon as he squeezed into the booth Pidge and Hunk were occupying. They had probably been at Alluras cafe for at least thirty minutes, meaning his was thirty minutes late. Pidge already had their computer out and was typing away at something again while Hunk was looking over at the counter where Shay was wiping down the espresso machine.

“What did he do this time?” Pidge didn't even look up, “you guys were pretty late.”

“Well, since you asked, he snapped at me again,” Lance glared at nothing, “He said I was being stupid when I said I was in love.”

“What?” Pidge turned to him, “You told him what?”

“I told him I was in love with Nyma,” Lance casually stated, “And then he totally flipped for no reason.”

Okay, maybe Lance was exaggerating a bit. Keith didn't scream or anything, just did that stupid pouty mumbling to himself not at all adorable thing that Lance hated. He liked it when Keith smiled at him, and couldn't Keith be happy for his friend? Maybe reward Lances efforts with at least a tiny smile. Pat him on the shoulder and say, good going dude you totally got her in the bag good luck. Except maybe say it in a more Keith way.

“Who is this girl again?” Pidge couldn't help but ask. The people that Lance claimed to love and die for were always somewhat interesting. Or more accurately it was interesting to hear about the different ways someone could be turned down. Pidge had faith in their friend though, Lance would open his eyes and see someone perfect for him one day. And if he was too stupid to use common sense, Pidge would just have to beat it into him.

“Nyma, just moved here the other day. She's breathtaking. Has the prettiest eyes too. Only the most beautiful people on this earth must have that weird purpley color. It's definitely special,” Lance looked starstruck and Pidge looked to the side of him, as if they were on the office, “she has a nice shy smile, oh god. She seems so calm and collected but she's got this fiery bold passion in her, I can tell. She and I are going to go on tons of daring adventures together.”

“Seems like you have a type,” Pidge mumbled to themselves while Lance continued to ramble on obliviously.

“And guess who has her phone number, that's right. Me! I actually got it,” lance looked like he was swooning.

“Wait what?” Pidge snorted, obviously not expecting that, “I mean. Good for you but wow.”

“Don't act so surprised pidgey, I got game,” Lance pointed two thumbs to himself, “She and I are going to live happily ever after.”

“I dunno Lance,” Hunk tore his eyes away from the counter, eyebrows scrunched together, “I kinda have a bad gut feeling about her.”

“Ugh, not you too! I've already had it up to here,” Lance raised his arm as far as it would reach, “with Keith and Red. I don't need this from you too buddy. Please!”

“What did Red do?” Lance looked at Pidge like their question had personally attacked his mother or something.

“What do you mean what did he do?” Lance waved his arms around erratically, “He's so annoying and a know it all! He practically hates me for no reason!”

“I don't see how this relates to Nyma,” Pidge just gave him a blank look, “but you did goaded him into running into a wall the first day of training and you started another stupid rivalry with him like the non-existent one you have with Keith.”

“He's still stupid,” Lance groaned and threw his head back, “Aren't you guys supposed to be on my side, you are my friends?”

“Yeah but we're also Keith's friends if you haven't noticed,” Pidge closed their laptop and scooched out of the booth, “I've just reached my Lance limit. I'll be in the back of you need me.”

~~~

Shiro wanted to shoot himself. Which, in itself, wasn't a rare passing thought (alarmingly enough). But this time it wasn't his well hidden and deeply buried emo side making a surprise appearance. No, it was Keith that was currently making Shiro wish that his brains were splattered about the table instead of inside his head.

In Shiro’s defense, Allura also looked like she was moments from strangling herself. Keith just continued to pace in front of the table, unusually talkative. But that was probably because he was ranting, “Blue is so, Agh! I already have to deal with Lance on top of it! They're like the same person Shiro, except not! How is it that I somehow am stuck with the two of the most infuriating idiots on this planet day in and day out!”

Allura and Shiro exchanged looks. Not quite sure if they should interject. Keith looked at them expectedly and Allura shrugged, “It's fate Keith, what do you want us to do about it?”

“I dunno! Something?” Keith groaned, face in his palms, “Separate us in battle? Let me come live with you guys again for a bit?”

“Keith,” Shiro sighed, he didn't like the nearly hysterical tone his brother was using, the break room in the back of their cafe wasn't the most ideal place for a freak out, “You don't hate Lance. You guys are friends, I'm sure you'll learn to get along with Blue like you have Lance. Working towards things like that will make you a better person.”

“Shiro I'm not sure how much more dumbassery I can take in a day,” Keith waved his arms, “Lance was one thing. I could… ya know, actually see his face. At least I can tell the difference between his I'm joking face and his I'm dead serious face.”

How could they not see that Keith was having a serious crisis? Lance was his friend, he wasn't a stranger. He'd like to think that he knows a lot of Lance trivia since the stupid little facts about him have reluctantly stuck with Keith over the years. The funny way he plays with his thumb and ring finger when he's nervous or how whenever he walked around he avoided cracks at all cost just to be safe. Lance was familiar and… safe.

Blue was a complete mystery. A very Lance like mystery. But still, a complete shadow in the dark. Keith was having a hard time trusting the Paladins his didn't know under the masks. How can you trust someone when you don't even know their name?

“But what do they do that makes it so unbelievably unbearable?” Allura rolled her eyes, continuing filling up sugar containers without much thought, “Sweetie pass me that one?”

Keith watched as Shiro handed over the empty and washed container before continuing his rambling, “They're both just so aggravating! I can't describe it. I thought that I'd only be able to feel this way about Lance but now Blue too. I think my tolerance for stupidity has dropped.”

“Or you are just being sensitive to his- their, taunts,” Shiro sighed, “Why don't we change the subject, why were you guys late today?”

Allura looked up at that one, raising an eyebrow and pursing her lips slightly, “Yes. We've been waiting for almost half an hour, you're lucky Shay came in late today and insisted on staying extra to fill up the time.”

“It wasn't my fault,” Keith pouted, crossing his arms and glaring at the tiles, “Lance was flirting with some girl.”

“Oh?” Allura laughed, head tilted slightly, “And pray tell, why were you there? I'm sure Lance could strike out all on his own without a wingman.”

“I was trying to get his sorry ass over here before you drop kicked him into next week.”

Allura looked like she was contemplating something for a moment, “fair enough. Continue, how did he fail miserably this time.”

“He didn't. He got her number. Nyma, like that's a real name,” Keith was slightly amused by how shocked they both seemed, “But something's off about her.”

“Well, normally i'd agree since I can't picture anyone that actually falls for Lance’s lines being exactly right in the head,” Allura sniggered, “But are you sure? She could just be that one in a million person.”

“Allura, I'm serious,” Keith shook his head, “Something's off! My instincts are telling me to avoid her and that Lance probably should too.”

Allura topped off the sugar and screwed the lid on tight. She shot Shiro the ‘this is your problem now sucker’ look before getting up, “I'm going to go relieve Shay of her duty now.”

Keith looked helplessly at Shiro, “You believe me, right?”

“Well…” Shiro scratched at the back of his head. He was luckily saved by Pidge bursting back in through the door Allura just exited.

“If I have to hear one more word outta Lance's mouth I'm going to stab him with- woah what's with the face? You look like you're also about twenty seconds from murder.”

“Nyma,” Shiro just shrugged and picked up the list of supplies that needed to be bought, “Some girl that-”

“Lance actually got the number of! Yes I've heard!” Pidge groaned and took a seat, “I'm blocking all of this out, I've heard enough about this chick to last me two years.”

Shiro started to check things off the list and there was a brief, wonderful moment of uninterrupted silence. Keith looked between his two friends incredulously, internally freaking out. He had to warn them, or at least get his point across.

“I'm telling you Shiro,” Keith shook his head as his brother did his stock orders, “Something's not right about her.”

“You know,” Pidge called out from the corner where they were huddled up. The break room was small but was the spot that had the best wifi in the cafe, “Normally I would just say that you were jealous or something but-”

“I'm not, what would I even be jealous of?” Keith looked like a strange mix between completely baffled and annoyance, “And I thought you weren't listening anymore.”

“I said but, jeez cool it there,” Pidge waved their hand, “to answer your question first, of her. Duh Keith, and secondly, as I was saying. I would normally just say you were jealous but Hunk had a weird feeling about her too…”

“Hunk?” Shiro finally looked interested, pausing his stock orders, “Why? What did he say?”

Pidge merely shrugged, “Some stuff about his gut not agreeing with her. But then again she was the reason we were late to see Shay so he could've just been upset.”

“No something is wrong,” Keith insisted, turning to Shiro, “Why do you only seem invested when Hunk says something's up?”

“Keith you… you and Lance… you're not…” Shiro seemed to struggle for a minute before he tried to switch gears, “What did she do?”

At that Keith pulled out a chair and crossed his arms, “She was just all giggly.”

“Did she say anything weird though? Or was it just the fact that she actually found Lances flirting amusing that's got you on edge?” Pidge raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“She was all like,” Keith coughed and raised his voice to mock her. Normally he wouldn't stoop to that level of childishness, but he was only human. And he was annoyed so, “that would be lovely. What a nice ring you got there. Ohhh Lance you're amazingly cool!”

Shiro and Pidge exchanged what could've actually been a worried look before the door opened again.

“I am amazingly cool,” Lance threw his jacket onto the table, the room was growing increasingly smaller, “You finally admit it?”

“No,” Keith glared, “In what world would make you think that I-”

Pidge snickered, “He was imitating your girlfriend.”

“Nyma?” Lance looked at Keith kind of shocked, he narrowed his eyes “Good imitating or bad imitating?”

Keith must have had the oddest look on his face, but he ignored the question, “I’m heading back to the apartment. I have a lot of work to do, call me if you need anything.”

Shiro sighed, “Okay, but you have to be here for stuff tomorrow, you know how crazy all this planning is making Allura.”

“Got it.” Keith nodded on his way out, “I won’t be late tomorrow.”

Shiro nodded and Pidge waved as Keith made his way to the back exit. Lance startled them by grabbing his jacket too, “I’m just gonna head back home too. See you guys later. Hey Keith wait up!”

When the door was closed all the way Pidge mumbled, “Shiro, they are two of the dumbest people I have ever met.”

~~~

They convened in the backroom when the shop was closed. Pidge was the first to speak in an ominous voice, “Thank you all for meeting me here. We are here to-”

“Pidge cut it out, it’s creepy when you do that voice,” Hunk pulled out a chair and sat down in it, “What is this all about anyways? Where are Lance and Keith?”

“Well, if i weren’t so rudely interrupted,” Pidge shot him a glare, “You would know that we're here to talk about them.”

Shiro and Allura’s cafe was mostly dark now, the lights having been turned off to tell customers that they were no longer open. The place still smelled like freshly brewed coffee and tea though, which was calming. Allura placed a hand over Shiro’s on top of the table, “Go on Pidge.”

“Okay, firstly, we all know that we’re also those new paladins that have to save the world right?,” Pidge looked at the three others, “Right?”

Shiro blinked, “Oh… So we’re acknowledging it?”

“Yeah I thought we were just going for a ‘let’s just not get into it’ sorta thing,” Hunk added, “It took me a day to realize it. But when I did I was like ‘woahhh this is awesome. And crazy. But mostly awesome cause it’s you guys!’”

“Yeah it took us a week to figure it out,” Allura gestured to herself and Shiro.

Pidge still couldn't believe that it was true. Pidge had seen it from the moment they had all met up at the first battle. Their friend group had turned into a group of superhero fighters.

And people said that they couldn't possibly get closer.

At this point in their life, Pidge wasn't even surprised that it was them that got chosen to make up a weird ass team fighting for a weird ass cause. What Pidge was shocked about was the fact that not everyone immediately figured it out. Sure, Shiro, Hunk, and Allura didn't take that long to piece things together, but it still took a bit of time! To Pidge, the whole thing couldn't have been more obvious from the very start! Hell, Lance and Keith still had no fucking clue what was going on.

“It's literally a helmet. It's not super hard when you're not oblivious and stupid,” Shiro rolled his eyes, “these things don't even change our voices. And we're all friends, we've all basically memorized everyone's mannerisms.”

“Yep you would think that right,” Pidge deadpanned, “Now to the problem with all of this. Instead of complaining about just Keith, Lance complains about his alter ego as if they're two different people.”

“That's cause he thinks they are two different people!” Hunk cried out, “How?!”

Allura perked up, “Well if it helps, Keith still has no idea either.”

“They're just… a little… I don't know.” Shiro sighed, “Should we tell them?”

“No!” Pidge shouted, before coughing to compose themself, “This could Be fun. Don't ruin your kids fun Shiro.”

“I don't know Pidge,” the older male shook his head.

“But think about it. They should discover something like this themselves,” Pidge a smirk grew a little more, “Imagine their faces when they find out.”

“Mm,” Hunk put on a thoughtful look, “Terrified. I bet they'd be down right terrified.”

Shiro sighed, “Okay. But just because I think it'd be hilarious when they find out.”

“Oh I will be so disappointed if I miss it!” Pidge smiled, when something struck them, “That means that Lance hit on Keith technically when they first met as Red and Blue, which means that there was something that caught his eye at first glance.”

Shiro sighed and spoke quietly enough that Allura was the only one that heard, “I thought this was a meeting to talk about how oblivious they were to the whole paladins then. I didn’t know this was to address their refusal to acknowledge other things too.”

“Are you kidding me? Lance was like that when he first met Keith as Keith too,” Hunk shook his head.

Pidge and Shiro both shot him a look this time, puzzled. Pidge started to frantically wave their arms, a giant up to no good grin covering their entire face, “What! When!”

“Yeah, Keith told me that the first time Lance ever talked to him it was something about a rivalry and consisted of just screaming,” Shiro’s face was priceless, “he didn't stop complaining about it for hours!”

“Keith didn't remember it obviously since he didn't even remember Lance when they were looking at the apartment but Lance hit on him, like, the first day of school.”

“Wait seriously?”

Hunk put a finger to his chin, “Well I think it was more like Lance tried to when Keith turned around and it turned into ‘Did it hurt when- u-uh ah, y-you- pretty eyes… I mean. Hi! Hello, names Lance.’ He’ll deny it to hell and back though.”

“What did Keith say?” Pidge was up in his face now, face filled with amusement.

“He was just like,” Hunk put on the most annoyed looking face he could muster, “‘Keith.’ And then he turned back around.”

Allura smiled, “Oh i’m never letting him live this down.”

“Okay, but one more thing,” Shiro coughed, “What do we do about this… Nyma person?”

“Oh yeah, bad news,” Hunk shook his head, “Bad vibes everywhere.”

Pidge sighed, “But Lance thinks that she's his soulmate.”

“Well… I guess we're just going to have to see where it goes then,” Allura said firmly, “Give her a chance.”

~~~

Lance absentmindedly flipping through channels while Keith was on his phone. Homework was done and the clock read somewhere close to three am. He looked up when Lance snorted, “Tch. This show is so unrealistic.”

“Hm?” Keith looked at the screen, “Pokemon?”

“Yeah,” Lance pointed at the characters, “How do they not realize that’s team rocket? They see them like, every day. You’d think that they’d be able to tell.”

“Well, it is a kids show Lance,” Keith shrugged, yawning and clicking his phone off “Kids aren’t that smart, maybe they can’t tell.”

“You’d have to be a special brand of stupid to be that oblivious though,” Lance changed the channel.

“Yeah.” Came another yawn.

A few beats later Lance turned to see his friend’s sleepy looking eyes, trying to fight it. Lance smiled at the content look on Keith’s face once his eyes gave in and closed, “welcome home Keith.”

They fell asleep a little after that, curled up in blankets with the TV still on and empty takeout containers littering their botched up living room.

ech. Should I continue this or scrap it and redo it? I'm still super worried that I'm writing this completely wrong so lmk if I am lol.

Also this is only the first chapter and its like 36 pages (15,162 words) long. So I'm kinda worried about length. Future chapters will probably not be this long... eh. Probably, I have a tendency to over write things. BUT CONGRATS TO YOU, YOU MADE IT THROUGH 36 PAGES OF MY CRAP!

AGAIN  if you wanna hmu for anything here on tumbr you can! Im currently taking prompts to distract me in between writing this when I need a break.

[avidbeader]

Voltron fanfic: “Scattered” Chapter 2

Season 2 AU. No ships, K+ to T rating. Begin at the beginning here.

Keith stared for a moment at the four enormous stone portraits of Mount Rushmore. He was home. He was back on Earth.

He could report! Even though it was unlikely that Earth would attract attention from the Galra without the Blue Lion hidden there, the fact that they had been here needed to be shared.

“Okay, Red. Do you have a way for me to communicate with the locals?”

The lion seemed to poke around his brain for a moment, seeking details on what he wanted to accomplish, then a screen popped up. Keith touched it and immediately heard frantic conversation about the Red Lion’s crash landing.

He took a deep breath and touched another part of the screen. “This is Keith Kogane, former Galaxy Garrison cadet and pilot of the Red Lion. Please respond.”

There was stunned silence for a moment, then several voices began yelling back at him.

“One at a time!”

“This is Lieutenant General Darzi of Earthforce Central Command. You will surrender that ship and yourself for questioning immediately!”

Keith slapped a switch, feeding more power to the defense bubble around Red. “With all due respect, sir, I will not surrender it. It is part of a force belonging to another planet and I’ll be returning with it when I finish reporting what you need to know.”

“Now see here—”

“Keith, this is Commander Iverson. What do you need to tell us?”

“First off, there is an alien empire, the Galra Empire, that has been expanding for over ten thousand years. They first became aware of Earth last year when they kidnapped everyone on the Kerberos expedition with Dr. Holt. The Blue Lion, another piece of the force I’m a part of, was hidden here. That was the mess that happened…how long have we been gone?”

“About six weeks, son.” “Thanks. Six weeks ago. We got separated in battle and I got flung back here by an unstable wormhole. I don’t think any Galra followed me through it, but I recommend increasing long-range scans. I can share known tactical information about their ships, not that it’ll help. Their technology and power is a thousand times greater than anything we have.”

Darzi, apparently through with being ignored, shouted, “Cadet, you will obey the chain of command and report to the squadron that is on its way to your position!”

Keith leaned back in the pilot’s chair, enjoying the feeling of sardonic amusement coming from Red that echoed his own. “Sir, I am not part of the chain of command. Haven’t been since I was kicked out of Galaxy Garrison. I don’t answer to any of you. I’m trying to do you a favor and fill you in on what you need to know. Sam and Matt Holt are possibly alive but prisoners of the Galra. Takashi Shirogane, as you know, managed to escape and return to Earth before he got caught up in the same chain of events I did and we all got sent with the Blue Lion to Arus.”

“Then we’ll get civilian security to take you in!” Darzi’s shout was furious; Keith imagined some gray-haired old man frothing at the mouth. Red stirred and growled.

“Easy there, kitty. They’re just scared.”

“Darzi, let me handle this! What did you say, Keith?” That was Iverson.

“Nothing, sir.” Keith made a snap decision. He would give Earthforce the information about the Galra, but keep Voltron and most of the information about the Alteans to himself. He didn’t like the reaction he was getting. “I need to send messages to the families of the others. Shiro, Hunk Garrett, and Lance McClain. Everyone’s alive, or at least was when we got separated by that unstable wormhole.”

“I can arrange that. Will you meet me at Garrison headquarters? It’s about a two-hour flight from your position.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll head there right away.” Keith didn’t mention that the Red Lion was capable of getting there in under five minutes. Time to think was a good thing.

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Hunk led the Metrean fighters, teaching their pilots as many defensive formations as he could remember from his classes at the Garrison, given that he was trained as an engineer and not a pilot. So far they had picked up four more civilian transports, fourteen fighters, and one mid-size warship on the way to the rendezvous.

The Yellow Lion hovered protectively as the fighters docked in the warship and the transports set down at the rendezvous point. They were south of the equator on a planet near a star similar to Earth’s. Hunk was reminded of a vacation his family had taken the year before he entered Galaxy Garrison, exploring the Pampas of Argentina.

The rendezvous was a grassy plain, with two wide rivers feeding into a large lake. Patches of trees lined the rivers. There would be plenty of resources once the Metreans had the chance to cultivate some crops.

At Luvixx’s request, Hunk set the Yellow Lion down on the outskirts of the rapidly organizing camp and exited the Lion to meet him. Luvixx brought a small delegation of Metreans with him. Hunk got his first look at them and was glad they were still some distance away and couldn’t see his first reaction. They were awfully spider-like, with more arms than Hunk was used to and dark, hairy faces.

“Honored Paladin, I am Luvixx and these are the remaining Representors of Metrea who have made it here so far. We wish to thank you – our transport would not have made it out without your help.”

“Hey, part of the job. Glad I could help. And call me Hunk.”

“Your modesty is refreshing, but we must show our gratitude. What can we do in return?”

“Well, how about something to eat and maybe a dip in the lake? It feels like I haven’t eaten in days and I know I probably smell.”

The other Metreans made a high-pitched wheezing sound. It took Hunk a moment to realize it was laughter. Luvixx clapped him on the back with one spindly arm. “Very well, food and a bath to start, Paladin Hunk. Then we will continue this discussion.”

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As he drew closer to the moon, Lance realized that the Blue Lion wanted him to scan the Galra ship from a distance. He did and his confidence soared to realize it was some kind of freighter, with minimal weaponry. It would be an easy takedown!

Before he could launch an attack, more information popped up. The Lion had continued the long-range scans and found a single enclave of people on the planet. It also showed that the people were a wildly mixed bag of aliens, with no more than three or four of a kind among over two hundred individuals.

“Oh no…it’s a slave camp!”

The Blue Lion sent him a sense of agreement. Lance sat back for a minute, thinking furiously. His experience with the Galra so far suggested that there would be no more than a handful of officers on the ship or in the work camp. The rest would be sentries and drones. If he took out the ship first but carefully, it would provide an escape for all the prisoners. The trick would be doing so without the ship alerting the work camp supervisors, who might be able to call for help.

A new screen popped up to his right and Lance looked at it, trying to puzzle out the Altean script. His Lion was amused and shared the idea.

“A jammer? We can do that? We can keep them from contacting reinforcements?”

Yes.

“Then let’s do this!”

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Shiro gave up on communicating with the others for the moment and continued to fly over the planet’s surface. Everywhere he looked, there was devastation.

No, not devastation. Just death. There’s no sign of anything destroying parts of this planet with weapons. It’s as if something just...killed it.

He had a sudden flash of Dr. Holt telling his son to be careful as they extracted samples of ice on Kerberos. Perhaps that was an answer, to gather samples of the soil and dead plants. Maybe there was a laboratory on the Castle-ship that would give Coran and Pidge a chance to examine them, if he could find a way to collect and preserve them.

That would help him keep moving. He could feel the pain from Haggar’s strike growing slowly, like an infection of dark magic. His cybernetic arm was twitching in response, as if recognizing its origins in the new injury. All he wanted to do was lie down, but his instincts screamed that it would only speed up the poison seeping into his body. Action, as much as it would hurt, was necessary.

Decision made, Shiro looked for a safe place for the Black Lion. He wanted a cave, somewhere out of easy sight, just in case there were patrols. The Lion responded with alacrity, scanning and finding a cave system in the mountains on the horizon.

As they flew, Shiro let his thoughts drift back to the Holts, trapped somewhere and forced to work for the Galra. He thought of the gladiator pits, of his desperate bid to protect Matt by faking a bloodlust and injuring him, just enough. He thought of Pidge, so determined to find her family but honoring her commitment as a Paladin of Voltron.

I promise you, Katie Holt, that the moment we’re back together as a team, we’re going to find them.

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As she approached Arus, Pidge started scanning. There was no sign of any active Galra tech, which was a good thing. She orbited around to where the Castle of Lions had stood and saw that the Arusian village nearby was still a wreck. She landed on the hill overlooking the village and did one more scan at the highest levels to be sure there were no threats nearby.

As she exited the Green Lion, Pidge spotted several Arusians approaching, including Klaizap the warrior. He ran forward. “Paladin of the Green Lion! You’re back! Where are the others?”

Pidge pulled off her helmet. “We were separated in a battle with the Galra. I ended up nearby and came to check on you.”

Klaizap bowed deeply. “We are humbled by your concern. All has been quiet here. But the king will wish to hear your news. Come!”

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Allura tried yet again to enter the repair sequence on the console and yet again it failed, flashing orange and letting out a long mechanical whine.

“Augh!” She slammed both fists on the console, which whined even louder in response. “Why won’t you work?”

Coran moved to her side and put his hands on her shoulders. “Perhaps you should take a break for a few minutes.”

“I can’t take a break! The Paladins are out there, isolated, hurt, and possibly in danger! We need the communication system back online so we can reach them!”

“Princess, think! I’ve got the navigation controls going again. You should be able to trace the Lions even if we can’t speak to the team yet. You do that and I’ll work on restoring communications.”

She looked up as his practical suggestion quelled her panic. “Yes, yes! That will work!” She strode to the pilot’s station and laid her hands on the controls. The star map sprang into view.

Coran looked at the map. “Quiznak, Hunk and Keith are almost on the other side of the universe! Good thing we have the wormholes.” He spun the display for several ticks until the other three lions were visible. “Interesting, Pidge is back on Arus of all places. But both Shiro and Lance are deep in Galra space.”

“Shiro first. He’s wounded and we can’t risk Zarkon getting anywhere near the Black Lion again.”

“Why is that? I saw Zarkon do something to break Shiro’s connection to Voltron, but couldn’t he do that with any of them?”

“No, just the Black Lion. While I was in the Galra base, I could sense the Paladins and their Lions, but after Zarkon forced Voltron apart, for a short time I could sense him in the same space as Shiro. I can’t explain it any better than that, but I know Shiro is the most vulnerable alone. Even if he were unhurt we’d go after him first.”

“All right, Princess. Shiro first. Then Lance and Pidge?”

“Yes. Better to have as many of us back together as possible before venturing to the edges of known space. How long before we can open a wormhole safely?”

Coran squinted at his readouts. “An hour, perhaps?”

“Then let’s get communications back online while we wait.”

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