#i had accidentally flown out of the solar system while trying to go to. the moon

[zincbot]

i'm loving lots of things about outer wilds. i can Not fly the damn spacecraft

[rainforestgeek]

If you lose your strength to stand (I’m gonna reach for your hand) pt. 11 “I’m Always on Your Side”

Part 10

AO3 link

--

Krolia sat down and gestured for Keith to do the same. He couldn’t begin to decipher all the thoughts and emotions whirling around his head. They almost became white noise, leaving a strange, painful numbness. He tried to look Krolia in the eyes, but if human eye contact was difficult, it had nothing on the sharp and glowing gaze of a galra.

She folded her hands. “Twenty decaphoebes ago, I was under cover in a scouting team searching for the missing Voltron lions. We picked up a matching signature on Earth. I could not allow another Lion to fall into the hands of the Empire. The Red one had long since been found.”

Keith’s heart clenched. He hated thinking about Red’s time under Zarkon’s thumb. His beloved Lion had spent so many long years trapped, and it filled him with hand-trembling rage.

Lance’s Lion, he reminded himself firmly. He may have a lingering connection to Red, but he wasn’t her pilot anymore.

“So I attacked the other scouts, destroyed them, and crash landed onto the planet’s surface. As all Blades are, I was fully prepared to die for my mission. But instead I woke up in your father’s house,” Krolia’s voice quieted, “in pain but alive. He cared for me while I was at my weakest.”

She paused. Keith dared a glance back at her face to find her gaze was still firmly locked on his. He looked away again.

“It took a long while to trust him. But I sensed the fellow spirit of a warrior. He was kind and righteous and he vowed to protect the Blue Lion by my side, once we’d found her. I said I’d stay out of devotion to my mission. Truthfully, I stayed because I already loved him. A Blade’s life is lonely and hard. I believed I’d paid my dues and earned a peaceful life. And then we had you.”

Keith gritted his teeth. “But you left. If you were so done with the war then why did you leave?”

“Keith.” He looked up at her. “More scouts found the Blue Lion. They attacked and your father nearly died. As long as the Empire suspected a Lion of Voltron was on Earth, you both would have always been a target. I left to divert their attention from your solar system. I left to protect my family and the one I love most in the entire universe: you.

“The pain of being apart from you was second only to the thought of putting your life in danger.”

Keith unsheathed his knife. “Is that why you left me this? Did you know I’d find myself in the war? Or did you expect me to find you?”

“I knew,” she said softly, “if you grew to be anything like your father, you would be a fighter.”

“Dad died ten years ago.” The words rushed out of Keith like a dam breaking. “I was alone until Shiro found me and now I’ve lost him again! But I found you and now you’re the only family I’ve got left and I’m so goddamn sick of being angry at you!” He’d accidentally yelled, his voice echoing in the room. Krolia moved her chair closer to where he was rocking back and forth in his and held out her hand. He grabbed it with both of his and started crying the moment her other hand clutched them. She let him cry and scream it out, all the tornado of everything he’d been through ripping from his throat. She stayed and held his hands as tightly as he gripped hers, anchoring him without pushing him.

Once his eyes had nothing left to shed, he calmed himself one shuddering gulp of air at a time. Keith wiped away the tears from his cheeks. He was surprised to find that he felt a little lighter, not unlike stepping onto a slightly less massive planet than Earth.

“I’d hoped, for so many decaphoebes,” Krolia said, voice low, “that I would see you again once you were old enough and strong enough. We can’t get that lost time back, but Keith.” She gripped his shoulder and the touch revived something warm and powerful in him. With a shock, Keith realized he felt safe with his mother. “I’m here now. And I know a warrior when I see one.”

The words made Keith feel strong. Like the day he’d first flown the Red Lion, a sensation of controlled power. He understood what had drawn his righteous and bullheaded dad to Krolia. Honestly, leave it to him to fall in love with an alien spy wielding a knife.

“Nothing was more important to Dad than saving lives. He was trying to drag two people out of a burning building when a gas line exploded under him.”

The day he’d died was the worst of Keith’s life. It began a pattern of losing the only family member he had. Dad, then Shiro. But Keith had been the one to walk away from Krolia, her words ringing in his ears, “I’ll never leave you again.”

“I left my team,” he said. “I need to go back to them.”

Kolivan chose that moment to stride back into the room. “Keith, Krolia. The Red Paladin has just arrived.”

--

[several vargas earlier]

“I knew it.”

Lance stood in his armor in the Black Lion’s hangar, where there was – shocker – no Black Lion. He put on his helmet and commed Allura. “Princess, Keith ran away.”

There was a long pause before he heard “…quiznak.”

He did an about face and stalked past Matt, who was staring blankly at the empty hangar, and made a beeline for the Red Lion. “He took Black with him, so do you think you could magic-find the Black Lion like you did when we first showed up?”

“Yes, I’m on my way to the bridge now. I can’t believe he did this.”

Because he was a mature adult, Lance bit his tongue against an I told you so. “As long as you can get me his location I’m gonna drag Keith back here by his ears.”

“Good.”

“Because you were right, we need everyone right now.” Red’s eyes lit up as Lance approached her and she smoothly leaned down to let him board. He settled into the pilot’s seat of the scarlet-bathed cockpit. “Hey. Uh. I’m really sorry for yelling earlier.”

Allura didn’t even pause with her response. “So am I. Give me a moment to find him.”

Lance was sure there was more that needed to be said between him and the princess, but they had to focus. He booted up the console, feeling the metal walls around him hum with power and magic. The viewscreen blinked to life and quickly enough he was ready to take off.

Except that Red refused to close her mouth.

“Girl, come on, we’ve gotta go get Keith.” She stubbornly kept her jaw to the floor. “What is your deal?”

Then he spotted a figure jogging toward him on the screen. Matt disappeared as he boarded then reappeared behind him. Red finally shut her maw and stood up with a self-satisfied rumble.

“What are you doing?” Lance demanded.

“I’m coming with you to get Keith. I’m worried about him, too, and besides, you might need backup.”

Lance wanted to argue, not least because spending a bunch of time alone in outer space with Pidge’s older brother made him kind of fear for his life. But both his Lion and Matt seemed to have their minds made up. In the back of his head, he felt Red anxiously growling and whipping her tail back and forth. She wanted to find her old paladin. Envy flashed through Lance and he grit his teeth against it.

The console lit up with a comm from Allura. “I found them. Keith went to the Blade of Marmora Headquarters.”

Huh? “So he’s not out looking for Shiro?” Lance puzzled as they launched out of the Castle and blazed through the atmosphere. He glanced at Matt, who was holding tight to the back of his chair to steady himself from the sudden momentum. He didn’t look surprised by the news.

“Apparently not. I want an explanation once you’ve brought him back. Allura out.”

Keeping his eyes on his flight path, Lance asked, “You know something about this?”

“Yeah,” Matt replied. “I think so.”

When he failed to elaborate, Lance sighed harshly through his nose. “Fine. Keep your secrets.”

“It’s not my secret, it’s Keith’s. And if he hasn’t told anyone else about it, I won’t do it for him.”

“No, I get it, some things stay between you and your boyfriend. Speaking of which, one of those things that stays private is definitely bedroom stuff and my bunk is right next to Keith’s, so please for the love of God keep it down next time.” It was difficult to tell with the red light of the cockpit, but Lance noted with some satisfaction that Matt’s face looked unnaturally flushed.

It was a long, awkward flight, them sitting in silence. If he didn’t have piloting to concentrate on Lance would probably have broken out in nervous rambling a long time ago. They were coming close to the HQ and out of the corner of his eye Lance saw his passenger was messing with some gadget or whatever. He worked with the same unblinking, owl-eyed stare that Pidge did on her projects. It made Lance’s stomach twist uncomfortably. He hardly knew this guy outside the context of a battle or when Pidge talked about her brother like he’d hung the moon. Other than that…Matt had this outward appearance of being perfect or something. He was a genius and, apparently, universally likable. He even got prickly Keith to open up.

Lance finally gathered his nerve and broke the silence. “By the way. I don’t want to know about the ins and outs of your relationship with Keith – and I mean that literally, too – but he’s had super rough go in life and if you hurt him I’ll shoot you in the face.”

Matt immediately burst into laughter. Lance frowned. “Hey! Seriously, I’ll do it!”

“Oh, I believe you. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve known Keith for several years. I know what buttons not to push. This just isn’t the shovel talk I pictured us having.”

The back of Lance’s neck felt hot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really?”

“Look, me and Keith might fight a lot but that doesn’t mean I wanna find him someday angry and heartbroken and fighting the gladiator at level fifty.”

“I won’t break up with him,” Matt said tightly.

“Like, so far you seem pretty good to him, but I’m just saying – ”

“Is this what you meant by staying out of our relationship?” Matt demanded. He didn’t shout, but his tone was like icicles threatening to fall from the ceiling and skewer you to the ground. “I…I get that you care about Keith, and you and I don’t know each other.”

Lance snorted. “That’s an understatement.”

“Keith was right, you are annoying.”

“Please tell me I’m not a part of your pillow talk, ‘cause that’s just disturbing.”

Matt resolutely moved himself into Lance’s line of vision. His arms were crossed over his armored chest. “But, he told me you wouldn’t play with my sister’s feelings. And I’d prefer to trust his word.”

Every trace of sarcasm melted off Lance like an ice cube on the hood of a hot car. He stubbornly fixed his eyes on the stars flashing by them as he flew. “Yeah, well, you don’t have to worry about that. Pidge doesn’t have feelings for me in the first place.”

“Oh.”

“She’s too…” Lance debated on the best word to explain how unfathomably out of his league Pidge is. “…special.”

Even just out of the corner of his eye, he saw Matt glaring at him. Holy hell, what did I say to piss him off? The rebel pinched the bridge of his nose and took three deep breaths.

“Two things. First, no matter how unusual she might seem to you, Pidge is still a person who can feel the entire spectrum of human emotion. Quite powerfully, in fact. Second, you can shove that bullshit ‘special’ euphemism right up your ass, autism is not a cuss word.”

Lance jerked the controls in surprise, making Red jolt and list violently. She wrenched control from him and steadied herself, growling irritably. He stroked the console apologetically then turned wide-eyed to Matt. “Pidge is autistic?”

Matt kept glaring and raised one eyebrow, and he looked too much like Pidge right now and it was distracting. Still kind of reeling, enough of Lance’s brain calmed down to sift through what he’d said that was so offensive.

Oh. He waved his hands between them in a time-out, clear-the-air kind of motion. “Dude, dude, dude, I did not mean it like that. Pidge is special. Like one in a billion, way too smart and tough and pretty to look twice at a guy like me. And also – Pidge is autistic? I mean, I kinda figured Keith is, he’s so awkward and confused all the time and you’ve seen his resting bitch face but Pidge – well, I guess that does explain the babbling and the sensory weirdness – not that Pidge is weird – ”

“Lance, you’re rambling.” Matt rubbed the back of his neck, murderous expression thankfully gone. “I just thought you’d put two and two together. She’s…something. Truthfully, we don’t actually know for sure. My parents got her tested for autism and later ADHD but nobody would diagnose a smart girl who looked them in the eyes. I had to watch my little sister struggle in school with almost no friends and no help, so now that she has you guys, I’d rather none of you die or leave or hurt her in any way.”

He gave Lance a very pointed look. The dude apparently didn’t blink an eye at his fifteen (sixteen?) year old sister flying a giant war machine and killing bad guys, but the minute any kind of relationships got involved he went full mama bear. Go figure. Lance knew better than anyone that explosions hurt less than broken hearts. He spun his chair so he was facing the view screen instead of Matt.

“Don’t worry. Pidge is my friend, and I’ve always got her back. I wouldn’t do anything to mess that up.”

There was a pause. “You know I’m not, like, forbidding you from dating her, right?”

Lance huffed in frustration. “Doesn’t matter, it’s not a thing.”

“So you don’t like her? When I ran into you the other night, it seemed – ”

“I do, it’s just – urgh!” Lance stood abruptly and paced to the back of the cockpit, leaving Red to autopilot for a while, and grabbing furiously at his hair. “It’s so confusing! I was just starting to get over Allura and then – then Pidge almost died and – what the hell is wrong with me?”

“I’m not following.”

“There’s a word for suddenly getting feelings for another girl right after getting your heart broken, and I’m pretty freaking sure it’s REBOUND.” Lance slumped against the wall and dropped his head in his hands. “Pidge deserves better than that.”

Matt hummed thoughtfully. “You’re right. But what I’m hearing is that you respect her a lot.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m keeping my mouth shut about this BS.”

“So are you sure the feelings are new?”

Lance side-eyed him. “Have you been listening?”

“Yeah, yeah, the whole princess thing. I’m just saying, maybe you’ve had feelings for Pidge for a long time and you’re just now realizing it. It’s possible to like more than one girl at once, you know.”

The words struck a chord in Lance and it made his stomach turn over. Loving two girls at once? Didn’t matter that he wasn’t dating either of them, the very possibility felt slimy. He jumped back to his feet and got in the chair. Sensing his distress, Red purred at him in his mind. “It doesn’t even matter, okay? Pidge doesn’t look at me like that and I won’t stop being her friend. End of discussion.”

He shrugged. “Okay. Fine.”

“I was serious though. Be good to Keith or I will shoot you.”

--

Keith startled when the doors burst open and a very red-faced Lance stalked inside, Matt hot on his heels. Both Keith and Krolia stood up.

“What the hell, Keith? We thought you’d jetted off on a half-cocked rescue mission in the middle of empty space! The least you could do is tell somebody what you’re doing!”

“Lance, shut up, please,” Matt begged.

“You shut up!”

“Lance. Shut. Up.” Keith agreed. He got a long, brown finger too close to his face for his trouble.

“Keith, one of these days you’re going to give me a stroke.” With that said, Lance looked around, realized who else was there, stood up straight, and cleared his throat. “Oh, hi, Kolivan. Sorry for barging in like that. Did we interrupt something?”

“Not from my end,” the old galra said wryly.

Keith awkwardly cleared his throat and addressed Krolia. “The annoying one is Lance, the Red Paladin of Voltron. And this is Matt Holt.” Keith halted, not sure if he should announce their personal relationship. Probably not. “He’s a leader in the rebel forces.

“Guys, this is Krolia. She’s my mother.”

“Your what? You’re his – ” Lance turned to Matt, mouth gaping open like a fish. “Did you know Keith found his galra mom?”

“Yes.”

“Lance,” Keith said, “I’m sorry for leaving without notice. I didn’t mean to worry you guys.”

Lance had his face buried in his hands. “Dude, you can’t just vanish then drop a bomb like your galra mom popping up and then just move on. You are giving me gray hair. I’m too young for that.” He turned and walked off to lean his head against the wall. Krolia watched him with an eyebrow disappearing beneath her hair.

“He needs a minute,” Keith explained. “Lance’s brain can’t process more than one surprise each day.”

Matt snickered. Lance groaned a little and came back. “I’m sorry for intruding, Kolivan, but could the three of us stay here for the night?  We should get back to the Castle of Lions soon but it’s been a very long day.”

“Certainly. Have you made any progress with General Ezor?” Kolivan asked.

“Annoying progress, but yeah, she’s been talking. Apparently the assassination attempt wasn’t an assassination attempt, but Haggar wanted to kidnap Allura and that’s not even the bad news.

“The Princess and the Emperor were searching for a place that’s like, the ultimate source of all Altean magic. Long story short, we found it in something called a white hole, Allura’s super powerful now, and we’re pretty sure Haggar found it too so the enemy just might be a thousand times more powerful than she was before.”

Lance paused to catch his breath. “Also, Pidge and I think she might still have Shiro. Alive.”

Keith clenched his fists against the small surge of hope that gave him. He felt Matt take one hand and gently smooth his thumb over his knuckles, until Keith relaxed and slotted their fingers together.

Kolivan said, “The Blade has been pursuing what we think may be a major source of the druids’ power. A place that holds extremely potent quintessence.”

Keith turned to his mother. “The same quintessence that made that superweapon?”

She nodded.

“Superweapon?” Lance demanded.

“Are we looking at another Naxzela type of situation?” Matt asked. Deep wrinkles formed between his eyebrows.

“Nothing to that scale. I know how this sounds, but it can wait until morning,” Krolia assured.

Part 12

[naruwitch]

Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron Chapter 7: Some Assembly Required

All was quiet and peaceful in the Castle of Lions as the sun began to rise over the Arusian horizon slowly. No sign of the Galra anywhere and one of the few precious times to relax and process all that happened the day (days...? How exactly did time work in space?) before.

After dinner, the Paladins went to some halls aligned with several bedrooms on the side. It wasn't too far from two large bathrooms, which looked similar to the P.E. showers and locker rooms. One was for the girls and the other for the boys. The bedrooms mostly consisted of a single bed, a simple set of drawers, and a couple of other hidden compartments. From the sheer number of them, the Castle must have had a tremendous amount of servants and workers or hosted a large number of visitors reasonably often. They all decided to pick their rooms in the same hallway. Best to stick together after all. Lelouch's was the closest to the intersection leading off in other directions, with Rivalz, Shirley, Kallen, Rai, Milly, and finally Suzaku taking up the rooms past him in that order.

Shirley sighed as the warm water from the Altean shower streamed down her form. Despite the similarity of the locker rooms, the showers were just as fancy as the rest of the Castle. It took about fifteen minutes for her to make her way through the many buttons lining the shower wall. They varied from dumping flower petals to what smelled like some sort of lemon-lime juice that almost got in her eyes. That would have stung! Despite the confusion though, the Orange Paladin had to admit that the Princess had excellent taste in regards to hair products, taking her sweet time lathering her locks with the sweet vanilla smelling shampoo-

*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*

-Which promptly ended as a resounding shriek echoed through the bathroom, which was joined as one of her own tore through her throat, nearly causing to slip and fall on her face! She only managed to catch herself by bracing her legs on the sides of the stall.

o~o

Rivalz jumped in shock as he tumbled out of bed and tangled himself in his blanket. He struggled to get up for the door, only for the same blanket culprit to trip him by the feet and face plant on the hallway floor.

o~o

"Everybody up! Zarkon's attacking."

Suzaku looked up from mid-push-up, Paladin armor already adjourned, leaping to his feet and racing out the door.

o~o

Milly hummed as she shifted deeper into her cushions, Mozart ringing in her headphones, and a black charcoal face mask soaking up her pores.

o~o

Lelouch tsked and put done the datapad he was looking over. He could tell this wasn't a real attack even without looking at it, but he also was in no mood to get on a 10,000-year-old princess's wrong side.

o~o

"The castle's about to be destroyed!"

Kallen yelped as she all but threw on her turtleneck, snatched up her Bayard, and scrambled out into the hall.

o~o

"Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!"

Rai jumped, and almost hit his head against the cryo-pod he was dozing against, the laptop sliding off his legs. The Green Paladin hadn't even bothered to go to his room, wanting to question the prisoners they'd picked up the second he could.

But considering the urgency in Allura's voice, it would probably be a bad idea to stall any longer. Pushing himself up, he rushed out the door, Rover trailing behind him.

o~o

"Hurry! We can't survive much longer!"

"You've got to sell it a little bit more," Coran said, taking the device out of Allura's hands.

Clearing his throat, Coran wailed, "Oh no! Allura is dead! Oh, it's horrible! Her head fell off!" he collapsed to his knees, still very much in remorseful character, "A-! Wait! He-Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it Allura's head? What are your final words!?" Tears gathered in the advisor's eyes.

"Coran…"

"Oh yes, Princess, I'm listening!"

"It's over." she deadpanned.

Not even realizing what she meant, Coran continued and nearly dramatically collapsed onto the floor again, "Oh yes, I know! Augh! If only Voltron had been fooooorrmmmed."

Coran finally looked up, to see the very annoyed faces of the Paladins waiting for him to finish his soap opera. "Oh! TIME!" he shot up, accidentally tossing the com behind him in the process.

"Can I assume from the theatrics, that this isn't an actual attack?" Lelouch remarked, arms crossed, lips pulled back in an annoyed frown. The other present Paladins looked just as irked. Besides Suzaku, Lelouch was the only one in full uniform and guessing from the state of Kallen's shirt; she had just been getting dressed when the alarms went off. But she had been wise enough to bring her Bayard in her rush.

On the other hand, Rai and Rivalz still looked half-asleep, the former in his casual dark blue shirt, grey jacket, and black jeans, the later only in his pajamas. Shirley was shivering and blushing cherry red in embarrassment. The only garment of clothing she wore was her orange bathrobe with a towel wrapping up her soaking wet, shampoo-filled hair.

Allura didn't seem to notice the annoyance as she stared sternly at them. "And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you- Coran?"

"Seventy-five degrees," he answered. Allura blinked. That wasn't a time slice. Coran seemed to notice too, as he registered the device he was holding in his hand, "Oh! Sorry! No, this is a meat thermometer."

Allura sighed in annoyance, "However long it was; it was too long! You must always be ready to battle against Zarkon. Look at you! Only Lelouch and Suzaku are in uniform, and at least Kallen brought her Bayard! Rai, Rivalz, Shirley, where are your Bayards? And where's Milly?"

As if on cue, the Yellow Paladin came strolling through the door, sporting cute lion-headed slippers, pajamas, and bathrobe, holding a cup of tea in her hand. Her hair was already styled in her signature curls, and her face smooth and pimple free. "Good 'meow'ning everybody!" she greeted with a small yawn, "What's going on?"

"Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order," Allura explained tartly, "We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well." The princess glared daggers at Milly while folding her arms behind her back, "Guess which one failed?"

"Well, you could've given at least a day to process all that's happened!" Shirley blurted out, still flabbergasted from having her shower interrupted.

"Yeah, what Shirley said!" Rivalz agreed, "You-" he yawned, "you got to sleep for ten thousand years! Monday, we were ordinary school kids on Earth, and since then, a magic lion has flown us through space, we've fought some evil alien named Zarkon, and eaten goo in some weird sci-fi castle. that's a lot to process in, um, I don't know what day is it today?"

"It the third quintant of the spicolian movement. Hump day!" Coran cheerfully replied.

'Wednesday,' everyone thought in astonishment. They'd been missing from Earth for two days already!?

"What Rivalz means to say is that this is simply a lot of process for only a couple of days," Lelouch stated in slight annoyance. Though the prince himself had many experiences with only days to process, this was a bit much as well.

Allura sighed again, not in annoyance this time, but more out of concern and fatigue.

"You must understand the stakes of our mission," a holopad appear by her head and pushed a few buttons on the screen. "Over the last ten thousand years, the Castle has picked up distress beacons from the following locations," the screen disappeared to reveal the star map from their first day. Instead of blue planets, stars, and comets, however, ominous red glows covered almost all of them with a few still blue ones in the outer edges of the holograms. "So we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe," she swiped her hand to the right towards the more blue area. She stopped on a small bright solar system only about a foot or two from the red border. "Earth is here, an attack on your planet is inevitable."

"Oh, no!" Shirley gasped in horror, similar expressions plastered on the other paladins' faces.

"Exactly," the princess nodded as the holomap pixelated out, "our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so that we can begin fighting Zarkon."

"The princess is right," Suzaku said, turning to Lelouch, who nodded, "let's get to the Lions and start training."

"Wait!" Rai protested, "But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship."

"Ah, negative Number One-I have you all ranked by height, okay?" he missed the slight wince Kallen and Lelouch gave at the proclamation. "The prisoners need to remain the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow."

"That's right. Now, get to your lions." Allura ordered.

"Uh, hold on!" Rivalz piped up, "What exactly are we going to be doing in them? We're not gonna be shooting at each other, are we?"

"Yeah," Shirley said, trying to tighten her robe to preserve her modesty, "Unlike most of you, we've never even stepped foot in a Knightmare, so how's this supposed to work?"

"GUTS!" Milly suddenly shouted, making Coran and even Allura jump.

"The 'Guts' spell again, Prez?" Kallen asked in annoyance.

"Yep! We may not be in Student Council anymore, but Allura does mean well, we'll never figure out how to work the Lions if we don't practice!"

"Spell?" Coran asked inquisitively, "I did not know that humans were capable so such feats."

"It's just something Prez has done to try to motivate us; it's not real magic per se," Suzaku tried to explain.

"Actually!" Rai grinned, "It's got me going already, Milly!"

"Subtle and willing, that's what I like to see!"

"Very well, now that you're all motivated, get moving!" Allura ordered, pleased to see that some of them were willing to take charge.

"That's not exactly what I was going for Princess," Milly suddenly smirked. The hair on the back of Shirley and Kallen's neck stood on end.

'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?' the Red Paladin asked.

"You're a ten," Allura blinked in confusion. What on Alaaran did that have to do with anything? Then she followed where Milly's eyes were looking. "At least at first glance. For someone who's over ten thousand years old, you're filling out in all the right places, aren't you, Princess?"

Shirley and Kallen turned beet red while Rai and Rivalz struggled to hold back laughter. Lelouch could only pinch the bridge of his nose while Suzaku shared an equally mortified look with Allura.

"Why you-!"

"I am being left out of something?"

Allura's confounded response was interrupted when C.C. trudged into the room — adorned in her straight jacket that she had been wearing the previous day. Lelouch made a mental note to ask Allura for some extra clothes for her. The mysterious woman had been quiet the last day, not even going through the trouble to bother Lelouch before bed. Come to think of it, Lelouch wasn't even sure where C.C. had decided to sleep.

'I guess even immortal witches need time to process chains of events.' Lelouch concluded.

"Besides questioning prisoners," Suzaku said, turning his attention back to Lelouch again, "you still need to explain to us who she is and what she's doing here."

"You do realize I'm still in the room, right?" C.C. asked, now leaning against the wall.

"Yes, I know Suzaku," Lelouch exhaled, "but that'll have to wait. All of you, to your lions now... After, of course, you've changed Shirley," giving a sympathetic look at the Orange Paladin, who only blushed harder in embarrassment.

"No need for that!" Coran said, "once you step through the elevators leading to your lion's hangers, if not dressed in it already, you'll be dressed in your uniform automatically!"

"Okay, uh, handy!" Shirley squeaked. The thought of being dressed automatically like that made her skin crawl for some reason, but a magic alien castle. Who knew?

"Enough," Lelouch said in finality, "to the Lions, now!"

The Paladins each marched into the elevators positioned conveniently next to their color-coded seats. Except for Lelouch. His lift was in the center of the bridge. Lowering the Paladins (all now fully clothed just as Coran said, much to Shirley's relief) down, it took about 10 seconds until an opening appeared, revealing a zip line. They zoomed through a brightly colored tunnel for each respected lion and paladin. The zip line by far was a new experience for all the Earthlings. They'd heard of a couple of famous and fantastic zip lines back on Earth. Some that came to mind were in the continent that used to be known as South America before Britannia took it over and split it into different areas to govern. Ones that zipped through leafy treetops and colorful birds and other wild beasts roamed freely. Some of them lasted for several long minutes with only the wind in your hair, and the green scenery flitting past.

Once the zip line ended, they dropped down through a hatch and into what appeared to be a single-personed motorbike, which drove them up to another elevator specifically large enough for it. The Paladins were lifted up until the bikes themselves disappeared into the chests and lower compartments of each lion. It soon wasn't long until the Lions let out a mighty roar and darted out into the courtyard of the castle.

"Alright Paladins," Lelouch's commanding voice echoed in the comms, "we'll fly in tight formation until we're completely in sync."

Allura's smiling face appeared on the screen within each Lion. "Feel the bond with your lions and your fellow pilots until seven become one unit, and you form Voltron!"

"YEAH!" everyone shouted as their lions leaped into the sky, the same formation as they when they first formed Voltron.

Nothing.

"Yeah!" they shouted again as they swooped back around, trying to connect with the Lions… somehow.

Nothing.

Thirty minutes later.

"...Yay…," less than enthusiastic replies followed. The Lions slowed until they came at last to a distal stop.

"Woooo…. Am I the only one who's still pretending to be excited?" Rivalz asked. None answered as mirrored expressions of frustrations and scowls of annoyance presented themselves on each of the Paladins.

"This isn't working," Lelouch admitted, "Let's set down for a little bit."

"Maybe we should be building Voltron from the ground up." Suzaku suddenly suggested.

"What do you mean?" asked Rai, not quite following Suzaku's train of thought. Wasn't that what they were trying to do?

"I mean, let's try literally building Voltron, like, stacking on top of each other."

"What? Like one of those cliche cheerleader pyramids?" Kallen scoffed. That was a ridiculous idea! What even made the Purple Paladin come up with that?

"Well, if you've got a better idea, Kallen, I'm all ears," Suzaku shot back.

Lelouch sighed. He thought the idea was ridiculous too, but he honestly couldn't think of another thing that they could try. They'd been flying around the Arusian plain for almost an hour, or varga as the Alteans called it. The answer couldn't possibly be that simple.

"Fine! We can give it a try," he consented.

The Paladins quickly moved into a position to try and 'build' Voltron. And it seemed to work. Except...

"Rivalz, what are you doing?" Lelouch asked incredulously.

"What do you mean?" the Blue Paladin replied.

"Rivalz Cardemonde, you're supposed to be the lower leg! Down here!" Milly scolded from almost the bottom of the pile. Currently, Suzaku and Shirley were standing side by side. Then Kallen and Milly were on top of them, Rai and the Green Lion perched on top of the Yellow Lion, and the Black Lion semi on top of the Red and Green Lions. And Rivalz... had the Blue Lion parked on top of the Black Lion's wings.

"What?" Rivalz asked, surprised and confused, "No. No, no, no. I'm pretty sure when we did it last time I was the head. Right?"

"You yelled, 'I'm a leg!'" Shirley reminded him.

"Yeah, last I checked we all were yelling a lot of things!"

"Lelouch is the head," Kallen stated a little aggressively. 'Stinkin' Britannians!'

"All the time?" Rivalz almost whined.

Lelouch let out another sigh, "Let's just try it my way for now!"

Rivalz pouted in defeat, "Okay, but next time I call head!"

The Lions quickly shifted into the correct positions as Lelouch slowly lowered the Black Lion down. Rivalz and Shirley were at the bottom, with Milly and Suzaku on top of them, Kallen and Rai over them, and Black on top.

"Okay. Arms and legs, and I'll form the head." Lelouch instructed himself. He set the Black Lion gently on top of the pyramid. Lelouch blew out, "All right, feel the bonds with your lions. Now, channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus. Focus."

Two minutes later.

"Is everyone bonding and focusing?" Lelouch asked as the Lions had not moved once from their spot in the plane.

Kallen growled in frustration, "Why did this seem so much easier before?!"

"For some reason, I figured this would be more like piloting the Knightmares," Suzaku commented, "but… guess not."

Lelouch breathed out a sigh, "Let's take a break," He needed some time to think about this. Kallen did have a point; it was a lot easier to form Voltron yesterday. Could it have been part of the adrenaline rush and the imminent danger?

His train of thought was cut short though when Allura's face appeared on their dashes again. "Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help. Yesterday, you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle."

Lelouch blinked as that was what he had been thinking. The other Paladins all replied in agreement with the concept. The attack had indeed forced them to have to work together and to believe as one being. Practically an extreme example of the fight or flight method. But… something in his gut suddenly plummeted as well. It was a similar feeling he got when Milly was about to spring some completely outlandish scheme onto them.

"Perfect," the Princess smiled as she pushed a few more keys and buttons on the castle's screen, "Because I need to run a diagnostic test on all the Castle's defenses. This should help!"

Lelouch's suspicions were confirmed as the shield sprang to life on the Castle, and then started shooting blue lasers at them!

"RUN!" Lelouch shouted just as the first lasers hit the field. Clouds of fire and smoke enveloped them as the Lions took off in all directions, frantically dodging the blasts.

"Princess! What are you doing?!" Suzaku shouted.

"Running a diagnostic test on the Castle's defenses," Allura casually answered as if endangering the only hope to the universe was normal for her, "and inspiring you! I believe in you Paladins! Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!"

"Nevermind! I'll take Milly's schemes any time!" Shirley screamed.

"Forget this!" Rivalz exclaimed, "I'm heading back to the Castle!"

"Rivalz, wait!" Kallen called as the Blue Lion bounded up the hill to escape. Upon leaping to the barrier, Rivalz was met with surprise as his lion bounced off it and tumbled back down.

"Princess!" Milly screamed, "Shouldn't you be using a more practical method of inspiration?"

"You think Zarkon's going to be 'practical' with you?" Allura chastised the Yellow Paladin harshly, "He's probably on his way here right now to destroy us all!"

With that final word, the Princess pressed a button on the screen. All seven of the colored dots gained four dark blue arrows pointing at them.

"Auto-lock-on engaged," Allura then left the bridge as the screaming Paladins struggled to survive the new onslaught of 'friendly fire.'

o~o

"You've returned early," a booming voice observed from the main throne room, "Did you complete your mission?"

A trembling Galran soldier knelt before the throne. "Sir, the moon's crust became unstable." he explained with a bowed head, "Staying any longer would have cost half my crew."

Zarkon's scowl didn't leave his face, and only seemed to grow darker, "Hmm, perhaps, but the half that survived would have been stronger."

The commander looked up slightly in shock, "Weakness is an infection, better to cut it off, then let it spread."

The commander blinked. What was the emperor referring to? Two metal arms suddenly seized him and started dragging him from the room, terror filling his eyes.

Not even blinking as the commander was dragged off, Zarkon turned his attention to the woman next to him. "What have you and your druids come up with to capture Voltron?"

"I have been working on perfecting something. Something that will strike fear into the hearts of any that stand against it. Voltron may have surprised Sendak, but he will not be able to overcome my creation."

o~o

"Are we at full power on condenser number five yet?" Allura questioned Coran as the two of them entered the small lounge, both carrying small devices to monitor the Castle maintenance.

"No," Coran sighed, "still just at eighty-four percent."

Allura looked up and was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the Paladins were laid out upon the benches. If they were inside that had to mean-!

"You did it! You formed Voltron!"

"No," Kallen sighed, "The shooting stopped, and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in."

The smile on Allura's face vanished, a scowl now in its place, "What?!"

Coran smiled awkwardly, "Oh right, uh, sorry, Princess, I had to turn off the Castle defenses to test the fire suppressors."

"Considering we were fighting for our lives outside," Lelouch commented, walking in with Suzaku, "we issued a small mental break to recover."

"We know you want us to be training Princess," Suzaku added, "but we're not Alteans. We don't understand the Lions as you appear to."

"Yeah, and when are we going back to Earth?" Rivalz asked, almost desperately.

"I'm not going back until I find my family!" Rai declared cold blue eyes narrowed.

"Did it occur to you that there won't be an Earth to return to until Zarkon is defeated?!" Allura demanded.

"We do understand that!" Shirley protested, looking close to tears with frustration and pressure, "But how do you expect us to do this if we can't even form Voltron?!"

"Well, I'm not surprised," Coran said, a thoughtful expression on his face, "You know, the original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears," he pretended to pull at his mustache to demonstrate.

"Normally, that would be us…" Milly admitted as she flopped down on her back, "But considering the events as of late, all of us are off our game lately."

"During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team," the advisor continued, "but that will only get you so far. You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time. You should try working out on the training deck."

This peaked Suzaku's attention, "There's a training deck?"

o~o

Haggar moved gracefully and with purpose down the hall. She was confident that with the inexperience of the new paladins that her creation would crush them into nothingness. But for this project to come to fruition, she needed some… assistance.

A dark cell door at the end of the hall hissed open as four of her faithful Druids stood guard. Her glowing yellow eyes gazed at the large, boisterous creature in the cell.

"I think I have the opportunity you've been waiting for. How would you like to get your revenge against the Champion?"

Yellow eyes almost identical to her own narrowed in delight before stepping forward. An array of razor teeth shone behind a sinister smile.

o~o

"Two, two, one, two," Coran mumbled after clearing his throat. He was standing in what appeared to be an observation tower, shielded with a thick panel of glass. A Bluetooth-like device with a microphone was attached to his left ear. "Okay, listen up, everyone! The Paladin Code demands that you put your team members' safety above your own."

Coran's voice echoed through the training deck. The seven Paladins were facing outward, away from the others. The training deck's color was similar to the rest of the Castle, consisting of bright blue lights with white and black metal paneling.

"A swarm of drones is about to attack," Coran informed them as a hiss issued from above them. Looking toward it, they saw that a bunch of circular white robots was gliding towards them. It reminded Rivalz vaguely of the drone that Luke Skywalker trained his lightsaber with, in the fourth Star Wars movie. They began to circle them, surrounded.

Kallen, Suzaku, Rai, Milly, and Lelouch all shifted into defensive stances, their blue shields springing to life. Shirley and Rivalz were a little slower but soon followed.

"Get ready," Lelouch ordered, right before the first drone fired right at Shirley's head.

With a gasp of panic, she ducked, covering her head. The blast flew over her, but ended up hitting Rivalz square in the back!

Before the Blue Paladin could even discern what had happened, the floor opened up underneath him, before he fell into it with a shout of alarm.

"Protect your teammate!" Coran ordered again, "Or no one will be there to protect you!" As he said this, another shot hit Shirley in the shoulder, and with a shriek, she fell through the floor as well.

Gritting their teeth, the five remaining Paladins found themselves back to back, shields practically in front of their faces. So far, it seemed to be working though, no blasts hit anyone, the shields efficiently absorbing them.

"Time to increase intensity," Coran commanded as the drones began to spin so fast it became a blur. More shots were firing at rapid speed as everyone struggled to block them.

"You keeping up over there, everyone?" Rai asked with a slightly cocky smirk.

"Just focus on keeping us safe!" Kallen barked back.

"Quit talking and focus," Milly yelled, gritting her teeth, pulling the shield closer still.

The drones then lowered and began shooting at their legs. Most of the Paladins were able to kneel in time, but one shot a very low blast which would've hit Rai's leg, had the Green Paladin not lifted his leg to dodge in his quick moment of panic… which ended up hitting Milly in the back, where she disappeared with a shriek through the floor. Still caught in his shocked stupor, Rai didn't have time to block as another shot hit him in the stomach.

"Rai!" Suzaku yelled, looking behind as the boy fell through. This moment of weakness cost him as another drone shot him right in the forehead, where he crashed into Kallen! After the Red Paladin fell square eagle on her stomach, they both fell through the floor.

Lelouch's eyes widened as he saw that he was now alone. It didn't last long as a shot hit his hand that was holding the shield with enough force to skid backward. And just like with the others, the former prince was joined with the floor.

Coran groaned as he rubbed his forehead. Some of these humans claimed that they were military, but that was anything but military from what he could see. Whatever 'military' experience they claimed to have must be something much different from Altea-

"You know-"

"Yaaaeerrrggg!" Coran shot two feet in the air against the window as a shriek escaped his lips, clutching his chest and gasping for air as C.C. ('How does she sneak around so QUIETLY?!') made her presence known on the control deck. The green-haired human(?) had a playful smirk on her face and looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Madam!" he seethed as he mustache bristled in fury and embarrassment, "Quit doing that!"

"Doing what?" C.C. asked innocently, cocking her head slightly like a curious toddler.

The Altean huffed as the Paladins were all slowly brought back up to the surface.

"As I was saying," C.C. continued, walking up to stand next to him, "if this were real combat, a couple of them would still be standing. Foot, hand, and shoulder shots aren't necessarily fatal unless hit in a specific location, like an artery or vein. The head, back, and stomach I'd understand. But if this were real life, I believe at least Shirley and Lelouch would still be fighting. Also, considering Suzaku's 'corpse,'" she made quotation signs with her hands to prove her point, "fell on top of Kallen, resulting in her falling with him, we'd still have three Paladins standing. Injured, but standing."

Coran stroked his mustache as he saw the logic of C.C.'s reasoning. Hitting a few buttons on the deck, he began instructing them again.

"Alright, Paladins! Let's try again! This time the floor is programmed to open if the blast hits a vital area. If your arm or leg is hit, you can still technically defend yourself and your team. For example…"

One of the drones blasted an unaware Rai in the shin. The Green Paladin yelped as the shocking pain swelled up his leg. He was able to hop on the other for a couple of seconds before tipping backward, bracing himself for the floor to open up and swallow him… but nothing happened.

"Huh?" a confused gasp before registering he was still on the surface, "Nothing happ-" he attempted to rise up but lost balance again when his leg refused to budge. "What the?! My leg!"

"Afraid you lost your limb Number One!" Coran informed, as Suzaku ran over and slung his arm over his shoulder, "you'd have to make do without it if this was a real fight."

Rai grumbled as the numbness soon dissipated, shaking his now working leg of the pins and needles.

"Alright, everyone, shields at the ready!"

o~o

Now for the record, the last sequence went a little better than the first one. Almost immediately, the team clustered together, shields up, and determined to protect their section of the circle. But as shots continued to fly and small mistakes were made, the formation crumble. This time it was Lelouch that fell first, suffering a blow to the head, jerking forward and tumbling headfirst through the floor. After that, though, it wasn't long before the others joined him.

From what Coran could tell, the team seemed to be relying heavily on the Black Paladin as their foundation. While he admired the trust they appeared to have for Lelouch, in other circumstances, this might not be the best case. They would have to learn to rely on not just their leader, but each other as well. There would be situations where Lelouch would be either out of commission due to injury or otherwise.

Hence the reasoning for the next exercise.

Kallen was standing in the middle of the training deck, surrounded by a vast transparent maze, which soon flickered out of existence. Or so she believed.

"To form Voltron, you must trust in each other. This ancient Paladin maze will teach you that trust. Your teammate can see the walls, but you can not. So, listen carefully, if you touch the walls, you'll get a slight shock."

Kallen took a deep breath as she placed her helmet on her head. For some reason, she wasn't looking forward to this exercise. Maybe it was all the practice she'd had of feigning her identity, but she didn't trust most people at all.

"Okay," she sighed, "who is guiding me through?"

"Take two steps forward," Suzaku's voice rang over the comm.

She growled a little, why was she always partnered with Suzaku?!

Coran seemed to have noticed the hostile expression and spoke up, "Now, just sit tight. You'll get your turn."

"As I said, Kallen, take two steps forward, turn right, and take three steps in that direction," Suzaku repeated.

With a huff of annoyance, Kallen took a step forward-

"GAH!" she cried as the wall she hit electrocuted her, "What the quiznack Kururugi?!"

"Kallen, you're not listening to me!" Suzaku said in an exasperated tone.

"You said 'turn right'!" she shot back,

"But before that," Suzaku corrected in a tone he hoped sounded calm, "I said 'Take two steps forward.'"

The Red Paladin growled in frustration, why did this seem more natural when Zero was giving orders back home? "Two steps-" she screamed again as she hit the wall again.

"WE'RE SWITCHING PLACES! NOW!"

o~o

Despite the small hiccup with Kallen and Suzaku, most of the other Paladins made it through the maze with little trouble, much to Coran's relief.

Now the Paladins were back in their lions and soaring through the atmosphere of Arus in tight formation. The Black Lion in the front, the Red, Yellow, and Blue Lions to the right of it, and the Green, Purple, and Orange Lions to the left.

"You'll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong bond with your Lion," Coran instructed from down in the castle.

Rivalz grins proudly, "No problem! Me and Blue and are best buds for life, for real!"

"Perfect!" Coran said, "Then you should have no issues with this exercise. Everyone, put your Lions into a nosedive!"

With almost excited growls, the seven Lions dove towards the ground at the speed of a bullet.

"This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years, but uh, we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go. Activating training helmets," Coran says as another screen pops up with a button that he promptly pushes.

Simultaneously, the Paladins' helmets all went dark. They couldn't even see their hands in front of their faces. Yelps and gasps from all the Paladins resulted.

"Coran, what's happening?!" Shirley screamed.

"I can't see!" Rai yelled.

"You must learn to see through your Lion's eyes. The goal is to pull up right before you crash into the ground. Feel what the Lion feels!" Despite the instruction, most of the Paladins had the same thought rolling through their heads: 'ARE. YOU. CRAZY?!'

Shirley was the first to pull out. Heart pounding so hard she could barely breathe, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Mine feels scared!" she whimpered as she pulled back on the handlebars and slammed on the pedals. The Orange Lion pulled out of formation.

The Blue and Yellow Lions were neck and neck as they continued to charge for the ground.

"You still going, Milly?" Rivalz asked a confidant, but a slightly flirty smirk on his face.

"You know it!" she replied, eyes focused, trying to connect to the Lion, "You?"

"Going? I'm speeding up!" Rivalz challenged as he hurled the handle forward.

Milly raised her eyebrows in amusement, mimicking him, "Oh yeah?"

The two lions rapidly picked up speed as the ground began to get dangerously closer. Due to the Blue Lion being slightly slimmer than the Yellow Lion, Rivalz held the lead by nearly an inch.

"Must be getting close," Rivalz remarked friskily.

"Must be!" Milly replied, smirking almost evilly, "What's wrong? Scared?"

Rivalz mouth dropped, "I'm not scared-!"

The Blue Paladin didn't have more time to protest further as he was almost knocked out of his seat as both he Milly crashed into the dune below, burying them waist-deep, head first!

They both groaned from the impact as the Blue Lion ungracefully tumbled out back down the hill.

"I… win…" Rivalz muttered, his head still spinning. Maybe that wasn't the best idea, after all.

"What was that noise?" Rai asked, alarmed, "Did they crash?!"

Pulse fluctuating, Rai pulled back on the controls, promptly ending the nosedive. The good news was that he didn't entirely crash but unfortunately didn't pull up quite fast enough, and nicked the side of the rocky canyon, taking a good chunk out of it.

Lelouch, Kallen, and Suzaku were the only ones left still participating in the exercise. The three pilots were perfectly calm, eyes closed, and focused. Recalling the sensation they felt when they connected with their lions the other day, they concentrated on reviving the same feeling.

Their eyes then opened, Lelouch's Geass flashing in his left retina. There it was, the simultaneous chill and warmth coursing through them as they felt their consciousness dip into a terrain they never knew existed. The loud purrs of their Lions pulsed through their veins, as they felt their presence overshadow them like a blanket or cape, their souls uniting and lining up with their own.

In a flash of gold, the world appeared before their eyes, racing past them as they continued to dive towards the surface. None of them seemed too concerned about it, though. Flawlessly, as if they had been flying for years, they activated their thrusters, just seconds before they collided with the soil. The thrusters propelled them forward across the plain, dodging over rocks and arches, and riding over dips and hills. They were flying them while their eyes were still closed!

"I think I'm getting this," Lelouch said.

"This is… amazing!" Kallen muttered.

"That wasn't too difficult," Suzaku smirked.

"Lelouch, Kallen, Suzaku, excellent!" Coran praised as they glided back towards the sky.

o~o

After everyone returned to the Castle and recovered from the flight exercise, the Paladins found themselves in the training room once again. This time, the Paladins were sitting in a circle, legs crossed, hands in their lap, and eyes closed. On their heads was a piece of fancy headgear, with blue lights probing their temples and in the middle of their foreheads.

"Now, the most important part of Paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron." Coran calmly instructed in a soothing tone, sounding almost like a yoga instructor.

As the Paladins focused, small screens appeared in front of each of their faces, portraying different things.

Rivalz's showed an image of downtown Area 11 near where he worked.

"Everything else has to fade away."

Milly's showed Ashford Academy's Clubhouse.

"This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron."

Shirley's was the Academy pool.

"So, relax and open your mind."

Suzaku's was an image of a pretty girl with light purple eyes and long pink hair that past her waist, partially in two buns and circles. She was wearing a white and green blouse with an orange skirt and red flats.

"No walls."

Rai had a picture of his favorite park in Area 11.

"No secrets between Paladins."

Kallen's had a picture of her in a yellow tank top and brown shorts, holding some sodas in her hands. She was smiling next to a boy with short auburn hair wearing a red headband, a black shirt, red jacket, and grey jeans. Next to him was another man with curly greyish-brown hair, wearing a light pink shirt and khaki pants, with a light blue towel draped over his shoulders. The picture, though, was hard to make out as it kept glitching.

"Come on, everyone, clear everything."

Finally, Lelouch's showed a young, beautiful girl with long, wavy, light brown hair, eyes closed, wearing a simple green and white dress. She had a lovely, innocent smile on her face and was sitting in a comfortable looking, power-operated wheelchair. A small, barely noticeable tear trailed down the ex-prince's face.

"Now, focus on forming your lion."

The images glitched out until they formed small three-dimensional pictures of the robots in front of them.

"Bring your lions together and- and form Voltron." All the Lions slowly started making their way towards the center of the circle.

"Keep your minds open; work together."

They were almost there, pieces beginning to mold together…

"Good! Keep focusing!"

Well… all except for one.

"Kallen!" Suzaku barked, peeved, "stopping thinking about your boyfriend!"

"I wasn't!" Kallen growled eyebrows arched down in anger, all the images flashing out of existence, "Shirley was rooting around in my head!"

'And for the record,' she added mentally, secretly deeply offended, 'that was not my boyfriend!'

"I-I thought we were open," Shirley hesitantly argued, "you can look in my head hole."

"Everyone has to able to look in everyone's head holes!" Coran reminded sternly from the observation deck above, "Clear your minds!"

Sighing in resignation, Kallen closed her eyes, and this time, the Red Lion's image materialized before her along with the other Lions with the other Paladins.

"Good! Almost there." Coran said as the Lions all began joining together. "Now, form Voltron," Leg joints were attached, a body made up, and arms were slowly locking into place. "Yes!"

Just as the Green Lion was locked into place, though, the Black Lion's images glitched violently.

Lelouch's head jerked up with a violent gasp as if he'd been shocked, eyes snapping open, his left eye glowing red as his Geass flickered. Rai cried out as well as he buckled, his eyes scrunching shut in pain. The other Paladins soon followed as a sharp pain seemed to pierce through their skulls. Their headsets glowing a brighter blue, Voltron falling to pieces as the Lelouch's image overtook it.

When the screen finally cleared an image of a stairway, as if looking down it from the top. Blood was splattered everywhere as three, no, four figures lay in pools of it. Two of them were men dressed in expensive-looking suits. At the same time, the other two, at the very bottom of the steps, was of a woman in an orange dress and long flowing dark hair, covered in bullet holes and blood. Her eyes, presumably a soft, gentle purple, were now faded and dull. In her arms was the trembling form of a little girl, eyes staring forward, traumatized and frightened, hands twitching uncontrollably. Stained glass and the remains of a chandelier were littered all around the sides.

There was screaming, and the Paladins couldn't tell if it was coming from them or this memory. They didn't have time to draw conclusions, though, as they all were suddenly flung backward, the image shattered.

Lelouch blinked, the pain in his head gone. It registered that someone was speaking next to him. Coran's mustached face slowly swam into focus.

"-ladins! Lelouch, are you alright?"

"Coran?" Lelouch breathed, shaking his head to clear it, "What happened?"

"Ah… I wish I could tell you myself. An unexpected glitch with the mind-meld device it seems," the advisor said, doing his best to answer. In all honesty, in his many years of watching King Alfor and the other Paladins train and bond, he never saw anything like this. Though he didn't voice it aloud, he suspected the mind-meld somehow triggered a traumatic memory for Lelouch. And because all the other Paladins were linked to it, they got caught up in it as well, causing some sort of psychic whiplash.

The prince himself quickly realized that the others were talking as well. Anxious and worried expressions plastered on their faces.

"You okay, buddy?"

"Lelouch, what was that?"

"What happened?!"

"Was that Nunnally? What happened?"

"Enough!" Lelouch leaped to his feet, though unsteadily, "I don't want to talk about it, so just leave it OKAY?!"

Every flinched back a little at the outburst but eventually complied.

As everyone watched Lelouch breathe to calm down, Milly and Suzaku were the only ones that looked the least shocked, but no less disturbed. Both of them knew what memory that was. It was one that cost Milly's family their nobility status, as well as what led Lelouch and his sister, Nunnally, being sent to Japan in the first place. Both of them knew the story, but seeing it with their own eyes just now only seemed to amplify the reality of it even further.

The day that Empress Marianne vi Britannia was found shot to death at Aries Villa in the Britannian Palace.

o~o

Coran decided to take the silence as a way to call a break time, handing out small packages of water that looked very similar in design to Capri Suns on Earth. Despite the appreciated rest, Lelouch didn't miss the suspicious and anxious looks that all but Milly and Suzaku were giving him. He even noticed Coran shoot him one before he could hide.

"Fantastic…" he muttered low enough that no one heard, sucking forcibly on his straw.

"You all have been working hard. A small break may help," Coran said, overlooking them.

Their break was short-lived, however, when Allura came tromping through the door, hands on her hips and the four mice perched on her shoulders. "What are you doing lying around?! You're supposed to be training!"

"Just resting a bit," Coran calmly explained, not in the mood to tell as to why they were, "You know, you can't push too hard."

That didn't seem to appease the Princess at all as she shot back, "What do you mean, 'can't push too hard'?" She seemed to miss the exasperated looks that most of the Paladins were giving her, except Suzaku. He was actually quite used to being ordered around harshly like this. Kallen especially looked bitter, almost purposefully slurping her drink loudly.

"Get up, you lazy lumps! It's time you face the gladiator!"

o~o

After her rather harsh order, the Paladins soon found themselves in similar positions for when they were fighting the drones. Their backs were facing each other, but much farther apart now.

"In order to defeat the gladiator, seven Paladins must fight as one," Coran instructed back up in the deck.

A port from the ceiling soon opened up with a hiss, and a giant, slender humanoid bot gracefully fell to the floor, a battle staff clutched in its hands. With a flash of blue light, it charged at the first Paladin it saw, which happened to be Shirley.

With a gasp of panic, Shirley readied her bow and fired a series of shots that she tried to aim at it, only for Kallen to have to throw up her shield to keep them from hitting her. With a fast spin, the gladiator knocked the Orange Paladin off her feet, causing her to fall hard on her back. With the wind already knocked out of her, the gladiator's staff struck her stomach with an electrical spark, knocking her unconscious.

Milly quickly charged it with her kusarigama, only for the attack to be blocked with the staff. It barraged the Yellow Paladin with a series of violent strikes, which she managed to block with the chain part of her weapon. But eventually, with a sharp jab at her ribs, she was also flung backward, hitting Shirley in the process.

Rivalz used this opportunity to fire some shots with his rifle, but the gladiator danced around the shots like a pro, causing Rivalz to have to block and back away defensively. Eventually, it knocked the gun from his hands, and the bot hit him hard on the head before swinging around, almost clocking off Lelouch's if he hadn't ducked.

'How does the Princess expect me to fight?! I don't even have a weapon!' Lelouch ranted mentally as he tried to summon that strange power that he got last time he had fought the weird red lightning. But either that was a one-time fluke or could only be done in specific environments.

The gladiator then hit Rivalz again before also sweeping him in the stomach, twirling him around until he crashed into Lelouch, knocking them both to the ground.

Rai flashed his katar out and knelt in ready position for the gladiator to approach. As it charged, the room suddenly grew dark, bright blue being replaced with vile magenta. No longer a gladiator charging, but a whole legion of sentries. Galra sentries.

With a terrified whimper, Rai froze, eyes blown wide like a deer caught in headlights.

Suzaku managed to jump in front of Rai and block the strike for the Green Paladin with his own Bayard. Kallen was by his side a moment later.

"Rai, what wrong?" she asked, "Are you okay?"

Suzaku grit his teeth as the robot moved, aiming to disarm and trip him, but Suzaku saw the movement and jumped to avoid the strike. Kallen pushed Rai out of the way as the bot leaped over Suzaku for her. Her cestus managed to catch the staff between its claws, and with a quick twist, the staff went flying in the other direction. Suzaku took the opportunity and sliced through the bot's abdomen. With a shutter, it collapsed before dissolving into the floor.

Despite the ultimate victory, though, Allura was not impressed.

"That combat simulator was set at a level fit for an Altean child! You're not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon!"

"Oh, really!" Kallen finally exploded, she'd had about enough with this lady, alien princess or not, "Thanks for a load of confidence! Well, newsflash Princess: We're. Not. Alteans! While we've been in this room working our asses off all day, I haven't exactly seen you participating in any this bull!"

"Kallen!" Suzaku gasped in slight horror, though he had to agree with her partially, his patience simmering as well. But who on Earth was this girl? What happened to the sick, feeble Kallen Stadtfeld they were all used to? From the looks on most of the others, except Lelouch, they were all thinking very similarly.

"Yeah, I said it! Besides, you didn't even give Lelouch a weapon! I get that we don't have his Bayard thingy right now, but you could've at least given him a knife, or a gun, or something!"

Allura, absolutely appalled by the lack of respect, was about to retaliate when another voice beat her to it.

"You know," C.C. casually walked down from the deck she'd occupied with Coran, "if you really wish to know how they'll take this training to the battlefield, I'd recommend a more… strategic approach."

"What are you talking about?" Allura snapped. She'd had just about enough of this nonsense and insubordination.

"Well, think about it," the green-haired woman continued. "Sure, strength and brawn are essential in battle, but they can easily become worthless and overbearing if they know not where to place it. It takes strategy and a sound mind to truly win. All I'm trying to say is that if you wish to know how well they'll survive, you need to test them… mentally as well."

Coran, intrigued with C.C.'s logic, asked for further clarification.

"I'm not exactly sure how your people had risen through the ranks on Altea, but on Earth, it's one's mind and cunning that will get them places. Lelouch, for example, is possibly one of the greatest minds I've ever seen."

"Oh yeah!" Rivalz said in agreement, "All those times I've seen Lelouch play chess, I've NEVER seen anyone beat him."

"Chess?" Coran asked the name sounded familiar, "does this happen to be a game as well?"

"It can be, but there's a lot of people on our planet that play it competitively too," Milly added.

"Hmmm… does it involve black and white pieces that only move in certain directions, depending on the role they play?"

"Wait," Shirley said, voicing most of the paladins' shared shock. "You know what chess is?!"

"Why it's only one of the most ancient games in Altean history!" Coran exclaimed excitedly, "Why I remember when I was a lad, my grandfather, and I would go at it for varga on end! I do recall that your father attempted to get you into the game yourself, Princess."

Princess Allura actually smiled, recalling her childhood. Chess had been one of her father's favorite games. She had never caught onto the game, but she remembered her father would use the game for strategies with the old paladins, calling out individual pieces to represent each of them and other forces they were working with.

"You seem quite versed in the game," Lelouch smirked as he sat up next to Rai.

Coran just grinned, "Ho-oh! Is that a challenge that I'm hearing?"

"Perhaps. Though what Rivalz speaks is true, I can count the number of people who have actually beaten me on the one hand."

"Righty-oh then!" Coran whooped, practically skipping out the door, "Let's see if I can't hunt down that board, and we'll play a round!"

"I'll look forward it," Lelouch chuckled almost deviously.

"What just happened?" Kallen asked, blinking.

"No idea," Suzaku admitted with a nervous laugh.

Shortly after, Coran did indeed find the chessboard, covered in about a foot of dust, but still in one piece and all pieces intact. After setting it up, the Altean was practically shaking in excitement. Lelouch had smirked in amusement, Coran was undoubtedly one of the most enthusiastic opponents he'd ever played as everyone else gathered around to spectate the match.

The match itself had been quite eventful, Coran's attitude was competitive but cheerful throughout the entire game. Lelouch had to admit, despite his silly and overly eccentric demeanor, Coran proved to be quite the adversary on the board.

Ultimately though, Lelouch ended up destroying the Altean, losing only three pawns and a bishop overall. From the start of his signature move with the king, all the Paladins could tell that Lelouch had everything under control. Though secretly, the prince believed the Altean may have been going a little easy on him.

Despite the defeat, though, after the initial shock, Coran openly congratulated the Paladin on an outstanding match and gave his wishes to play him again on a later date, which Lelouch cordially accepted.

"I do have a slight question, though."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"You started the game with the king piece. I assume you understand the risk that takes place by doing so."

"Heh, heh, true," Lelouch had admitted, "however, if a king doesn't lead, how do you expect his soldiers to follow?"

Coran's eyebrows raised in surprise, before twirling his mustache inquisitively. "I see. An interesting mindset you have, Lelouch."

o~o

"Ahoy, young paladins!" Coran said about an hour later. The Paladins gathered around the dining table. In front of them were plates loaded with food goo and even more in bowls along the table as well as small pink packages or what they assumed was… well... more food goo. "I've whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux."

"Smells great, Coran," Rai said on behalf of all of them, "Thanks!"

Before the Paladins could even dip their sporks in for a first bite, Coran threw up his arm, which was hiding a remote control. With a swift click of a button, the Paladins' arms were chained to one another from cuffs that appeared from the floor.

"Hold the phone!" Rivalz protested in shock. Similar expressions marred the faces of the other members.

"I saw a lot of solid individual performances today," Coran commentated, expression and tone suddenly serious, "but you're still struggling to work as a team. So, welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day."

"Coran," Milly said in a warning tone after she and a couple of others pulled on the cuffs to see if they'd budge. They didn't, "I highly advise thinking about what you're doing!"

Coran simply grinned, "Oh, this one's a classic. You get to feed each other, like a pack of yalmors!"

Despite the supposedly optimistic attitude, only glares and groans of frustration emanated from the paladins. This was going to be a long meal.

o~o

A hulking device, illuminated by purple light, stood firm and tall. Wires interconnected it and a small floor port. It was not on as the vital source had not transferred yet.

The tyrannical emperor watched from the floor above. He trusted completely in the witch's creation. The Paladins were still young and inexperienced, and this would bring them to their knees.

The witch herself lifted her bony hand, and a capsule containing the muscular prisoner rose to the surface. It was grinning in malicious excitement. Finally, after all this time, it would have its revenge.

She thrust her hands out with a single grunt, her robes and hair billowing in an invisible wind.

The creature roared in agony before all was consumed in the light. The floor and wiring lighting up with life that transferred into the giant mech behind him. Lights sprang on as it opened it's 'eyes,' one yellow, one a slit white.

o~o

"Ah-augh!" Shirley gasped as her food goo went flying from her spork, her fist colliding with her face.

"Sorry!" Rivalz said sincerely. She groaned as she reached down for another scoop, only her to accidentally bite the Blue Paladin's hand rather than the spork.

"Ew!" he flinched back involuntarily, causing the goo to fly in the other direction. This time he tried to move a little more with the Orange Paladin, only to pull Suzaku with him, the Purple Paladin's hand landing flat in his the green goop. "Oh nice Suzaku, you defiled my food goo!"

"It's your fault!" Suzaku protested, "You moved too suddenly!"

"Urgh!" Kallen growled, "This is ridiculous!"

"Do Earthlings ever stop complaining," Allura asked haughtily. She and C.C. had joined the Paladins at the dining table. Only the Princess's royal etiquette training had kept her from bursting into a long stream of suggestive exclamations as she attempted to eat her platter.

"On good days, not very often," C.C. said, poking and rolling her goo about her plate. She wasn't sure where these Alteans learned to cook, but would it have killed them to at least provide something that looked a little similar to pizza? She was ordering herself a lifetime supply once they got back to Earth. She didn't care if she ran Lelouch's wallet and bank account entirely into the ground.

"C.C., the sarcasm is not appreciated," Lelouch said, glaring at the immortal.

"Can't you just give us a break?" Milly queried, her tone highly annoyed, "Everyone's been working really hard today!"

"Yeah!" Rai jumped up, fed up with her attitude, "We're not some prisoners for you to toy with, like… like…" he was drawing a blank with his insult.

"Like a bunch of toy prisoners!"

"Yes! Thank you, Rivalz!"

"Guys!" Suzaku protested, appalled at the others' behavior, "Look, I get that everyone's upset, but that gives you no right to disrespect the Princess."

"Ha! At least one of you has some manners; he's correct!" Coran reprimanded.

"Oh, the princess of what?" Kallen spat, her face almost going as red as her hair with rage, "We're the only ones out here, and she's no princess of ours!"

Kallen probably would've continued her rant had a giant blob of food goo not hit her smack in the face. The culprit being Princess Allura herself, her spork in front of her and her free hand moving away as if she'd just used it to flick something… which she totally did.

The room went completely silent, and still, Kallen was frozen in place, trying to process what the heck just happened, even C.C. paused in between her bites.

'She really should not have done that!' Lelouch noted, silently panicking. He'd seen Kallen when she was angry, and the Princess was walking on some thin ice right now!

It didn't seem possible for Kallen's face to get any redder, but she grit her teeth and practically snarled at the Altean, her eyes drilling holes into her head.

"Oh, it's on!" She screamed as she grabbed the closest thing she could catch, it being Rai's entire plate of goo. Together with the platinum blonde, they both flung it in her direction.

Allura gasped in shock. Just before it could hit her, Coran batted it away with his serving towel, and with a giant, graceful swoop of a ladle, sent a large glob right back at them. It collided head-on with each Paladin at the table.

C.C. wisely lowered herself to the ground and hid in the safety of the underground table.

'Okay, that's IT!' Lelouch roared in his head, before abruptly rising from his seat himself. Now he was mad; his patience had been strained far enough, "PALADINS! I COMMAND YOU TO ATTACK!"

"YES SIR!" they exclaimed in unison, as they grabbed their weapons (plates and utensils) and started hurling them at the Alteans. Even Suzaku, who usually attempted to be as cordial as possible with royalty had reached his limit, as his food fling hit their adversaries square in the face. Allura and Coran quickly returning fire of their own.

Armageddon quickly pursued. Bowls and plates overturned, green goo hit the walls and chairs, proving to be very futile shelters from the sharp aims from both sides. However, the Paladins still found themselves much more exposed as they were still tied together.

By the time calm fell back on the group, nobody had escaped the wrath of the food goo. Plates scattered over the table, and almost all the chairs overturned. The goo clung to their hair and armor, some of it still dripping and sliding down their faces. They would all definitely need showers after this.

The Paladins all blinked, their minds coming out of a haze of adrenaline. They all looked at each other, confused about what the heck just happened… before bursting into good-natured laughter. Sure, they were all still covered in food, but at this very moment, they didn't care. It was actually even fun!

"Enough!" Allura suddenly shouted, bringing the laughter to a halt. And here came the lecture. Not only had they started a food fight and made a massive mess of the dining hall, but their two hosts had been the targets of their uncontrolled ire. "Do you see what you're doing?!"

Here it comes…

Allura lifted her head, a wide grin on her face, "You're finally working together as one!"

They blinked. What happened to the- wait!

"Hey! She's right!" Rivalz realized with a grin of his own.

"I… actually don't hate you guys right now," Kallen admitted, smiling genuinely.

"Yeah! Totally!" Shirley nodded.

"Best bonding exercise ever!" Milly cheered, yanking her's and Lelouch's arm in the air.

"You all thinking what I'm thinking?" Suzaku asked triumphantly.

"Let's go form Voltron!" Lelouch proclaimed.

"YEAH!" Everyone was jumping in the air…. Before losing balance and falling on top of each other.

After taking some time to untangle themselves and wipe off the goo, the team confidently marched to their Lions.

One elevator, zip line, pod tunnel, and a second elevator later, all the Paladins were situated in their Lions.

"Is everyone ready?" Lelouch asked, gripping the Black Lion's controls, eyes lighting up.

"Roger that!" Rai answered.

"It's on!" Rivalz cheered.

"Yes, sir!" Kallen replied.

"I was born ready!" Shirley grinned.

"Up and at'em!" Milly quipped.

"Ready to proceed!" Suzaku said boldly.

"Then let's go!" Lelouch ordered. With a mighty roar that shook the room, the Black Lion flew up and out of the hanger.

"YEAH!"

Just like with their battle with Sendak, the same feeling of 'oneness' washed over the seven Paladins, as their lions converged with eager bellows, appendages retracting and sliding into place. Arms, legs, knees, and at last, the head. Voltron's strong face shown once again as it flew across the sky and landed gently in the field, Allura, C.C., and Coran watching a safe distance away.

"I told you I could get them to do it." Allura said, "They just needed a common enemy."

"It's true. Like the old proverb says, 'A man can be driven to do anything, if a beautiful woman is just really, really mean to him."

C.C. burst into a series of giggles as a peeved Allura scowled at her advisor.

'Oh, if only they knew how true that is!'

o~o

"Man, that was cool!" Rivalz exclaimed in the lounge later, "I'm so charged up, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to sleep tonight!"

"Not me," Kallen smirked, "When my head hits the pillow, I'm gonna be lights out."

"I just want you to know," Shirley said emotionally, sliding between Rivalz and Kallen, "that I realized when we were in Voltron, we're family!" She slung her arms tightly around the Blue and Red Paladins, pulling them close, "You know? Like, we're totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing. A family all the way. I love you guys!"

"Indeed, we are!" Milly proclaimed, "In this together. The romance of the three kingdoms: 'It matters not that we were born apart, but upon this day we die as one!'"

"Is that your idea of a love quote?" Rivalz asked.

"If one of us goes down, then we all do," Milly smirked mischievously.

"...That's a little dark there, Milly," Rai said, "don't you think Suzaku?"

The Green Paladin gasped as he saw Suzaku's eyes slowly tear up, "I'm glad," he sniffled and wiped the tears that were falling, "that we can all be together, you know like this?"

Lelouch smiled at his friend, very similar feelings rising in him as well.

Rivalz then sprung up and practically tackled Suzaku to the floor, legs and arms wrapping around him, "Oh come on! We're supposed to be unwinding right now!" Everyone laughed at the engagement.

"But that's what's so refreshing about Suzaku, though," Shirley said.

"Yeah, though once in a while, you just want him to get a clue, you know?" Milly answered hands on her hips.

"Oh, sorry about that," the Purple Paladin answered, Rivalz squishing his cheeks playfully.

"Oh, but you love it, don't you puddy tat!" Another round of laughter enveloped them; even Kallen was laughing at the silliness.

"G-forces messing with your heads a little bit?" Lelouch inquired with a grin.

"Maybe a little bit," Rivalz admitted as he and Suzaku untangled.

"Well, I'm gonna head to bed," Kallen said, standing up and heading for the stairs, "see you all tomorrow."

"Yeah, I like the sound of that," Rai murmured, eyes suddenly starting to droop. Most of the team began heading for the exit when Shirley noticed Lelouch still sitting down.

"Aren't you going to bed, Lulu?"

"In a minute," the Black Paladin replied with a small smile.

"Don't stay up too late, Lulu," Milly scolded light-heartedly, "you don't have the excuse of late-night gambling here!"

Lelouch just laughed as everyone exited the room. As he found himself alone again, though, he let out a tired sigh. Lelouch reached into his burgundy pocket and pulled out a small photograph that had been lounging in it since they'd left Earth. He'd only shown this picture to a few select people.

He was about eight or nine years of age in the photo, dressed in a majestic white suit and white cravat decorating his neck. He was standing next to a beautiful woman in a dark navy gown and a large white and blue headpiece sitting on a small bench overlooking a beautiful garden. The woman was holding a little girl's hand, about six or seven years of age in a pale pink dress with puce trimming, her light brown hair tied in two high ponytails.

Two of the space mice that had been in the room with them came closer, squeaking in concern, the smallest, Chulatt, perching on his shoulder and the larger green one, Platt, on his thigh.

"If you plan to keep this charade going, Lelouch," C.C. said, emerging from the shadows, still dressed in her straight-jacket she'd been wearing all day, "you'll have to tell them eventually."

He let out a long, tired sigh, "I know…"

o~o

A ship prepared for launch at Zarkon's main base. Not just any ship. This one carried a weapon that would bring Voltron to its knees.

"This beast will allow us to destroy the Paladins," the emperor himself sneered next to Haggar, "And then, Voltron will be ours."

With a whoosh of fire, the ship took off into the cosmos. The destination: Arus. Target: Voltron.

[thedistantstorm]

A Shipwright Worth Her Salt Chapter 02

He leaves the large hunk of bread and container to go with it wrapped in a piece of cloth and hidden in a nook she had pointed out to him as he passes through to head out beyond the walls for a patrol. He’ll check it when he gets back, and as it’s been the last few times, the little crevice will be void of all food, the container washed and clean with only a crumb or two on the cloth he’s wrapped it in.

It’s barely enough for a little girl to get by on, and he doesn’t make it there for long stretches at a time, but he hopes that she’s thriving, since he hasn’t seen her in person since leaving her at the refugee camp months ago.

It’s weeks later that he happens upon it again, and with a bit more time to spare. He can’t help but quirk an eyebrow at the large piece of a Fallen pike that’s hidden beneath a large, tattered tarp inside the bombed out shelter when he makes his way inside. He lifts the faded cover away and stares down at it. It’s a larger chunk of engine block, and there’s some discarded circuitry on the ground around it. Part of the ether tank is under it, and he realizes she’s probably made some type of skid to get it into this makeshift shelter of hers. Most civilians didn’t enjoy living in the skeletal ruins of what once was, but she seemed to thrive away from prying eyes.

She’s a tinkerer, he learned. There’s little things scattered about the crumbling countertops of what he assumes was a garage or kitchenette. Discarded and reclaimed tools, bits of wire and metal, screws and bolts everywhere. He investigates the one cupboard that has a door hanging lopsidedly from it and discovers she’s created a bunk from the cupboard. She’s small, and the cupboard is likely too small, but he assumes she’s making due, since there’s not much of a roof left on the building to begin with.

There’s a sketchbook under a dirty blanket, and he flips it open to see detailed drawings of all sorts of machinery. The bits of the pike have been broken down, with annotated explanations in steady scrawl across the edges of the pages, as well as a rudimentary sparrow, the typical convoy truck that pulls wagons of refugees, and even some older vehicles he’s only seen the husks of in his journey through the EDZ.

On the third to last page is a diagram of the scout radio she repaired for him in their first meeting. To say he’s impressed with her observations is an understatement. When he sets down the book where he found it, he hears a cough behind her.

“Do ya always go through my stuff when ya come by?”

A brief flit of embarrassment crosses his face before his stoic, business-like demeanor reigns it in. He makes a non-committal hum and she huffs, blowing stringy blond hair out of her face before plopping on the ground in front of him and slinging her pack off. She yanks it open, and pulls out a bagged bundle before dumping everything else onto the ground with a loud clatter. A lot of it is fallen tech, but some of it are pieces of guardian weaponry, badly damaged, as well as a radio that looks even worse than the one that sits in on the shelf above the bunk in his barracks. Saladin had insisted he be outfitted with a better comm as his influence grew over the newer guardians.

“Ya need anything fixed up?” She asks after some time spent organizing her finds, lighting a small, dented lantern to cast light on them. Her head lifts and she meets his eyes when he doesn’t answer her.

He blinks at her, shaking his head without sound and his ghost pops out of thin air between them, whirling and chittering as she spins around the girl who looks up in surprise. “Hi there,” Amanda says shyly. The ghost bobs in front of her, shell spinning as if to indicate that her focus was narrowing.

“You again,” The reply comes, in a strangely maternal voice. The ghost advances quickly, and Amanda recoils at the intrusion to her personal space. “Find anything good out there?” She asks in her own version of a backpedal, the cyan light of her center flickering as she speaks.

“Uhh, well today I found some weapons and ammo,” She replies softly. “Most of the shank shells are from a few days ago. Was hopin’ to trade ‘em for glimmer or a toolset, but there’s lots of them being turned in, so I’ll haveta wait until the market is better since I don’t happen on a lot of ‘em.”

His ghost chatters in her electric way, computing something before responding. “Shank shells are something they’re asking for at the outpost.” She scans the girl’s haul, her lens illuminating the equipment on the ground as she rattles in tones that tell her guardian she’s making an analysis. “Probably could get a couple hundred glimmer for this, and the remains of the pike could be used to fix up your sparrow that you accidentally wrecked on our last patrol when you didn’t listen to me about flying directly into the Captain holding the scorch cannon.” Zavala rolled his eyes halfway, stopping abruptly when he notices the girl’s hopeful expression.

“I could do that!” The blonde chimes excitedly.

“No,” He says to his ghost. “Do not start this. There’s no telling when I’ll be called out, and I cannot act as an intermediary for every orphan in the city getting a raw deal at the Exchange.” The scowl on Amanda’s face was pointedly ignored.

“Yes, but every mechanic in the city has weeks of work to do before they’ll be able to get to your sparrow. It’s practically totalled anyway. May as well let her have at it, and worst case you’ll still have at least two weeks to wait for one of the city mechs to work on it.”

“You two done bickering about it?” The girl’s put away all her findings and sits back down, pulling the wrapped parcel onto her lap. “If he don’t want me to help ‘em, that’s fine, um -”

“I’m a ghost. Zavala’s ghost,” The little light says gently. “We’re partners.”

“That’s good,” Amanda says. “Havin’ someone is important.” The guardian and ghost share a pained look over her head, but the comment had no bite in it. She pulls out a crust of bread, and something that looks like a type of soup or broth. There’s not enough to share, but she offers it to him despite the rumbling he can hear from her belly. He shakes his head and she shrugs, before taking slow, concentrated bites.

He looks at his ghost, and she flickers at him pointedly, watching her try not to rush through the meal despite obvious hunger. He knows what that look and the narrowing of her optics means. Give her something to do. We have the glimmer to pay her for an odd job, that look says. It doesn’t have to be the sparrow, it can be anything. Zavala’s gaze remained stoic and firm, a reminder that it was one thing to leave a little food here and there, but he could not fight her battles for her. The world was cruel, though it felt like an arcbolt grenade to the chest to picture just want that could mean for her. Just the realization startles him. He cares for humanity, all of it. He’s a protector of all. But this is something different.

It could be his undoing. He tries not to focus on it further.

“What’s it like on a sparrow,” she asks when she’s half way done with her meal. She packs it back up, likely to have later to take the edge off. Zavala watches her expression change to interest as she regards him. His chest tightens at her hopeful, guarded excitement. “It’s gotta be like flyin’, right?”

“It is more like riding on one of those wagons people come into the city on than flying a ship,” He says slowly. “Except quite a bit faster.”

“You’ve flown a SHIP?!” Her voice is raised and incredulous.

He chuckles at her amazement, he can’t help himself. “Yes. Guardians have to travel across the globe and even to other planets for missions. I have my own.”

“That’s neat! What’re the specs on it? I watch them sometimes, when they take off from the base,” she says. “That way I’ll know if I see yours!”

His ghost, eager to please, projects an image of it directly in front of her, and she all but scampers into her cupboard sleeping area to grab her pad and pencil. She sketches it quickly as his ghost rattles off specifications that he doesn’t care to understand.

“You are interested in flying?” Zavala asks her, propping his chin up with his hand.

She nods, holding up her sketchpad and comparing it to the projection from his ghost before flipping it closed and tucking it on the ground next to her. “Always wanted to fly. See the stars, the other planets the Traveler’s touched.” She leans back and looks up at the night sky through a large chunk of missing roof. “Reckon I made it to the City, and that’s a pretty big feat,” she murmurs. “I’m good at takin’ things apart and makin’ ‘em right again, so I figure I could learn how to build my own someday. Then, head out and see just what’s goin’ on in the solar system.”

His ghost hums her approval. “That sounds like a good dream,” She says. Zavala nods.

“Not a dream,” The girl says defensively. “It’s a goal. Might take a while considerin’ I’m livin’ meal to meal right now, but I’ll get there someday. You’ll see.”

They stay in relative silence after that, listening to the sounds of crickets and rare peacefulness, until Zavala’s ghost relays a message from another titan, his voice booming and at least five times louder than any other person Amanda’s ever heard. Zavala ducks out of the girl’s shelter, laying a hand on her head as he passes, hesitating slightly - not that she noticed - but following through.

It’s the first time since well before her Pa’s died that she can remember someone touching her with fondness. Pa’d been very scattered and lost at the end, moving about life in a haze. She puts both hands on her head, commiting the warm feeling to memory. She still doesn’t feel safe here, but she sleeps more soundly than she has in months.

-/

Three days later, Amanda hears what sounds like a knock on the brick wall on the far side of her shelter. It’s rather early, and other than the blue-skinned guardian, she doesn’t get visitors. She feels panic wash over her just as she hears someone call out. “HELLO?!”

She recognizes that voice. It’s the one Zavala’s ghost relayed to him when he came to visit. Her shoulders relax marginally.

“Hiya,” She calls back, rounding a wall that separated what she’s guessing was a sitting area from the kitchen. Her gaze is calculating. The man has armor, a helmet with horns and no eye-holes, unlike Zavala who doesn’t wear a helmet - or at least not that she’s seen. He looks kind of important. And also strange, since she can’t see his eyes.

He can obviously see her, because he flicks his wrist and speaks to his ghost, who materializes just above his palm. “ZAVALA, YOU’VE SENT ME TO A LITTLE GIRL. HOW IS A LITTLE GIRL GOING TO REPAIR MY COMMUNICATOR?” His voice doesn’t sound angry, she supposes, just impatient and LOUD.

“Zavala sent you?” Amanda’s head cocks to the side at the sight of the ghost’s lens turning orange.

“Trust me, Shaxx. You will not be disappointed.” She blushes at the undertones of confidence in his voice, relayed by the ghost through a bit of static.

The large man, Shaxx, she committed to memory, sighed. “ALRIGHT, BUT IF THIS GOES WRONG, I’M HOLDING YOU RESPONSIBLE.” The ghost disappeared from sight in a shower of white sparks, and Amanda watched as he removed the armor over his right forearm. She could see the loose wires, and cracked plating. The chip in it was probably bad, too.

He holds it out to her, and his hands rest on his hips. She turns and heads into her main space, the shoddy little kitchenette, and sets it on the counter, before looking through a pile of miscellaneous radio parts she’s got stashed in a broken drawer. A rusty screwdriver, a couple sturdier wires, some salvaged plating, and one chip lifted out of a busted helmet comm later, she sat down and got to work.

“YOU REALLY DO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING,” He said, watching her tongue peek between her teeth as she snaps the metal cover off with a bit of leverage.

“Sure do,” She says with a smile, pulling out her soldering tool to bind the chip to its casing just enough to prevent it from coming loose. “I’ll be done in just another couple’a minutes,” she says, and within five minutes, she’s handing him back the gauntlet. “Made it a bit more sturdy. You look like someone who likes to punch things.”

Shaxx chuckles. “I LIKE YOU, GIRL.” He holds his wrist up to his lips, speaking his authorization code loudly.

“Go ahead,” comes the familiar voice of her guardian friend.

“THE GIRL KNOWS WHAT SHE’S DOING, ZAVALA. SHE MADE IT STURDIER BECAUSE SHE RECOGNIZED THAT I AM A WARRIOR WHO ISN’T AFRAID TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY.”

Amanda laughs, “Somethin’ like that.”

“SHE’S GOT SPUNK. I CAN SEE WHY YOU LIKE HER.”

She can hear the chuckle of Zavala as Shaxx cuts the comm link and wonders if he heard her. Shaxx reaches into a pouch on his belt. “WHAT’S MY BILL?”

“I - uh,” She pauses. Bill? She got to owe Zavala at least ten or fifteen favors by now. How many times has he left her something to eat? “There’s no charge,” she says quietly. “I owe your friend, the guardian, er, Zavala. A lot.” She wipes her hands off on a towel.

“NONSENSE. YOU MAY OWE ZAVALA, BUT YOU DON’T OWE ME ANYTHING.” He pulls out a larger chunk of glimmer than she’s seen. “OUR TECHS WOULDN’T DO THIS FOR LESS THAN 750 GLIMMER, AND THEY’D TAKE FAR LONGER, INCOMPETENT BUFFOONS, THE LOT OF THEM.” He puts 500 glimmer in her hand, closes her fist around it. “I’LL ASSUME YOU CHARGE LESS, SINCE YOU USE SALVAGED PARTS.” She looks up at him and guesses he’s got to be smiling under that helmet of his.

He straps on his gauntlet and nods. “MIND IF I COME BACK, SHOULD I NEED ANY MORE REPAIRS, LITTLE MECHANIC?”

She shakes her head. “Feel free,” she says with a shy smile.

When Zavala came by two weeks later, she’d had enough food to share, and he let her, eager to hear about the handful of guardians he’d sent her way. What surprised him more so, was that Shaxx had also done the same thing. It was rewarding, seeing the spark in her eyes. It reminded him of eager guardians, looking forward to their first missions. She’d found a purpose.

[leonawriter]

Last night I read a Voltron reincarnation AU - basically, they had vague memories of having been in this situation, flown these lions, before. There was a lot of hinting toward DotU compliant ships, too.

I went in thinking ‘hey, this could be really interesting if done well’, and I came out thinking ‘I would have done it differently’.

[cut for length]

The main thing I was unsure of was... well, not the shipping at all (which was only in hints, so that could even have been expanded upon) but the feeling like their ‘past’ selves were pushing them into becoming or wanting to fit into those past roles again, which made them having different roles feel awkward and stilted, sometimes creating tension in the team where in either canon, there isn't any.

There was not enough distinction between the past and present. Or, at times, too much distinction, enough that things were confusing for them.

In a purely self-indulgent version, I’d write it that perhaps DotU happened in an alternate universe - perhaps something like a Beta reality - meaning that we aren’t left wondering when, exactly, this previous set of Voltron pilots flew the lions, if the lions in VLD were only created during Alfor’s reign (as shown in S2 ep Space Mall). 

Not to mention, in VLD? Zarkon has been reigning for ten thousand years, during none of which have there been any other Voltron pilots. No alternate Allura. And also in VLD, Earth has only just started developing space travel to the edge of our solar system. It’s unlikely we had space travel over ten thousand years ago, let’s be real here.

So. With that, we’ve got a starting place.

Going with the idea that if they are reincarnations then they’re the result of, essentially, a doomed timeline - possibly one where they failed somehow like in one of the comics, but with more widespread repercussions. 

Next thing is understanding that the DotU characters and the VLD characters are different people. Sometimes, they might seem very similar! They’re supposed to. The VLD ones are based on the original DotU/GoLion/VF versions. But they are not the same. This is important, because although in the previous series Lance might have flown Red straight from the beginning and Keith was always the leader, here they are not best suited for those roles at the beginning, they’re kids, and if they are going to end up in different Lions (like in S3) then it’s because they’ve grown as people, and they’re better suited to those roles at that time.

Memories and deja vu would still happen, but... not in a way that would have Lance longing for Red, or Keith thinking up plans in way as though he’s the leader! 

Lance is clearly happy and best suited to Blue, and yes, I can see him having moments of jealousy over Red, but it’s more the kind of thing where he’s seeing Keith as getting the most attention again, picked out for the ‘best’ things - ‘hey, I can fly a speedy Lion! I can rely on my instincts and prove myself! I can do this too!’, with a mix in of feeling like he’d done this before. 

And as for Keith... I’m sorry, but I really can’t imagine him strategising competently in the first couple of seasons. I just can’t. We even see what happens when he tries (no, Keith, don’t rush the guards, we need to not hurt the Balmera). Maybe, though, he might look back on things they’ve done, and once the mission is over, be able to see what went wrong, and how he’d do it better next time, and sometimes have a sense of frustration that his mind isn't working like it somehow should, he should be able to do this, to think like this, why can’t he.

Shiro, I can see not having too many issues, though mainly because his memories/echoes from Sven are so similar to his own issues of dying/nearly dying/being imprisoned.

Pidge, I think, would probably try and ignore it all? She’s a scientific mind, down to earth and all, not one to put stock in the idea of reincarnation. Although, I do think she’d maybe have some gender issues here more than in VLD canon, where she really is some form of genderqueer due to DotU Pidge being male - but I think her preferred pronouns would still be female. And because I think it may even have been as early as DotU that introduced the idea that Pidge was from another planet (confirmed, by the wiki! Although in DotU Pidge wasn’t born on Balto, and I don’t know if it’s confirmed whether or not he was in Force), Pidge ends up going to Keith in the aftermath of him finding out he’s actually part Galra, to have some time bonding over being a different species, or remembering you were once - such as how Katie got teased and encouraged by her family for talking about Balto when she was little and it was all awesome.

Hunk might even have his echoes of having been a hotheaded ‘let’s rush straight in’ kind of guy make his anxieties even worse, being like, ‘er, guys, I have a funny feeling if I just rushed into that something bad would happen. Let’s not.’ 

Allura - now her, I can see taking all of her memories and listening to them. She’s attuned to the Lions and the castle, too. I could see her looking back at the castle on Arus and seeing the DotU castle, and hearing/seeing the word ‘Arus’ and thinking ‘I feel like this is safe/home’, and being sad to leave. I can see her becoming more at ease when she hears the new Paladins’ names, because those names feel familiar. I can see her feeling uneasy about Zarkon when she’s growing up, because he’s in her nightmares, but she doesn’t understand why - because he’s also her father’s good friend. She’d also feel a sort of kinship with Blue, which might be part of why she doesn’t just continue after Lance cuts in on her explanations, but she’s so involved in making sure she’s in control of everything that up until it’s needed, the idea of flying Blue is just a flight of fancy. 

And... Coran? Coran I can see having feelings of wanting to keep holding onto everyone as long as possible, not wanting his princess to go into dangerous situations but, at the same time, understanding better than previous versions that you can’t stop her if that’s what she’s got her mind set on. 

The bit I’d call this ‘self-indulgent’ for, though, is my ideas on shipping. 

Like... the VLD characters aren’t just blank slates? You can’t just say that they’re always going to end up with the same people, even in a reincarnation AU. Some of them might even have dated before they find themselves with Voltron, and liked their partners, and split up for reasons entirely separate from ‘I have this feeling in my head that I’m not supposed to be with you and I’m waiting for That Special One In My Dreams’. And they might meet the one they were in love with in a past/other life and just... that’s not who they are now.

Sometimes reincarnation shipping works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it just takes a lot of good writing to make it work. Simple as that.

My own personal take would be that... every so often, Keith gets certain feelings whenever he looks at Allura, and it’s, well, weird? Because it’s really more like he’s seeing someone else, not the Allura he knows. And when the moment is gone, so are the feelings, and it leaves him disoriented. 

Allura even gets something similar, where she’ll sometimes look at Keith and expect him to say or do something other than what he ends up saying or doing, and again - she might have moments where it feels like there’s a crush going on, but then the moment will pass, or she’ll actually look at him, and she’ll go, that’s not the same person. Again, confusion.

I can see after a while, Keith actually asks to have a word with her, after they’ve all agreed that something is going on, and asks if she’s getting this as well. He awkwardly apologises, but explains that he’s, uh, it’s not going to happen. There’s a reason it’s particularly weird on his end. Maybe this other Keith and Allura were involved, but... this Keith? He’s kinda not into girls like that.

He ends up red in the face from having to say this in such a way for such a reason, but even though Allura stares at him for a few moments, she starts to laugh, and then they’re laughing together, because - let’s be honest, the situation is ridiculous. 

After that, they end up as good friends, accepting that although their relationship isn’t the same as before, there’s clearly still some sort of understanding there. 

Partially because of this, Keith is the one Pidge goes to with her gender issues after Keith accidentally admits his ‘other’ self was in a relationship with Allura to the team (and a jealous Lance, possibly in a similar situation to Arc of the Taujeer in S2). They’ve both got memories or echoes of being some sort of identity that they’re not that isn’t just down to where they were born. 

(Lance picked up English far faster than any of his family expected him to, for someone with an often short attention span and some kind of learning disability.  Same with Shiro, whose first language is Japanese, where he picked up English quite well, but also ends up translating Swedish in his head whenever he’s not paying any attention.)