#starfield is big but it's so empty and what is there is the same thing over and over again

[madegeeky]

Epic Free Game (til 26 Dec 2023, 10am ct)

Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the colony. Explore the various planets and locations of Halcyon, including the mysterious Gorgon Asteroid and delightful distilleries of Eridanos. As you encounter various factions, all vying for power, the character you decide to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds. (Includes all dlc.)

(Geeky note: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. This game isn't for everyone but considering that this is free, you should definitely grab it if you're interested. It's made by the people who did Fallout New Vegas (which was not Bethesda) and it's got a quirky sense of humor. While overall I think it's a great game, I think it's real strength is in the character-work for the npcs.)

[averagereviews]

Starfield and the problem in general

Intro

Hello fellow gamers out there in the galaxy. This will be my first ever review I done in the first blog I ever created so dont expect much there, but there is just so much fustration piled up in me about the gaming industry, that I have to write it out of me.

Disclaimer

First thing first, there are far worse games out there than Starfield, but this game was the trigger point that made me do a blog, so I will make a honest review from the game. I will only focus the problems here, as official platforms are not highlight them out enough, and since I did not played the game I cant say much about the story either. My review is based on what I seen from Youtube and other streaming platforms so if you want to hear an in depth version, you might look somewhere else.

But hey, you did not play the game, how can you do a review about it, you might ask the fair question. Well my answer to that, you dont taste poop either to know its gonna be bad. I will belive to my fellow gamers that this game has some potential and has good moments, but generally it is another product that was not created with a soul, with the desire to be good.

Technical issues

First of all lets state the obvious, this game was in development for 5-7 years. In 5-7 years they came out with a core game that can be done in about 30 hours, if you focus on the main story quests only. They used the same engine as they are using since eternity and was out of date already at the time of Fallout 4, so it shows its mark on bugs, glitches and on performance as well. While the game runs on a steady 30fps on consols, the PC version suffers a lot. With an upper mid range setup like an I5-10400F+RX6700XT and 32GB ram + an SSD the game barely runs at 40 fps on ultra at 1080p during city walk and gunfights. This is just ridiculus to say the least, while better looking games like CP77 and BG3 or RDR2 runs way above 60 fps all the time. You might think that it may be my system that is weirdly not compatible with the game, but even better rigs suffer from this.

What is more funny in a bad way, that Todd Howard said in an interview, that they put a lot of effort into optimalization and that you may need a better PC to experience this game to the fullest. I dont know about this guys, for me its just feels as a big fat lie onto my face, as said before, better looking games runs better than this. Its not ugly or anything but more like a buffed up Fallout 4 in space theme. Here is some examples:

While you may find better looking areas, your major part in the game will live with this.

Lazy work

Another point I would like to highlight is the use of AI. It was a bad idea back then at No Man's Sky and it was certanly a bad idea here as well. They put 1000+ planets into the game that was generated by the AI depending on where you land on the planet, and most of the time its barren, empty, lifeless. It feels like they gave out the order to the AI, to use these assets on planets and create 1000+ of them. What you can find on them are most of the time rocks, some creatures put into the area randomly and without any real purpose. And yes I admit, if you would travel to 100 planet you would probably find rocks and barren lifeless areas, but as a gamer its boring. It may be fun and interesting for the first couple of times, but it gets boring to the eye very fast. What I would love to see is more planets with life on it, more vegetation, more creatures, better and meaningfull stuff on the surface or marks of a fallen civilization. And we might see this later like 7 years or so just as in No Man's Sky was very bad at the start and they hammered it until it became a good space exploration game. As of right now however this game is without a soul. Also the harsh reality why they do not changing the engine they use, because they know they can create a base game, with a lot of empty suff, and then rely on modders whom will do the hard work and fill up the empty or missing elements for free. They say its a gamer/modder friendly attitude, but its just about saving money and resources which is unacceptable in my book. Create a good game then let the modders live out their hobby, but do not rely on them to make your garbage playable while only you profit on it.

Marketing vs Reality:

This game was marketinged as a very good space exploration + RPG game where you can freely explore hundreds of systems and planets and find interesting stuff on most of them. While on reality this game restricts you from exploring, since you cant land manually on a planet just everywhere (like in No Man's Sky for example), but you have to choose your landing location from a planet view, then loading screen, and you are there in your 4x4km barren field that you can explore with some point of interest you can visit on foot (Because if they would give you wehicle, then you would realise easier that how small the area they let you "explore") These point of interests varies between "kill some pirates, or creatures", "explore this cave with 3 loot nodes inside" or "scan this or that" "Explore the lab" type of activity. Again maybe the first 10 will be interesting, then why would I want to do stuff like this for hours? Where are the crypt like systems that Skyrim offered with full of interesting puzzles? Where are the npcs that did something in previous games around you? Where are the secrets you can discover? Where is the wilderness? Where is life? Its a game its not a space simulator that offers you the same kind of experience you would do in real life. It should be full of fantasy to sell itself. Again it was marketinged like this and not as "Empty planet viewer simulator 2023"

And after all of this, we arrived to the real problem that is not Starfield's only fault. Its the era where we live and what we get for our money. Im sure some of you have much better gaming rig than me and you dont even have to care what you spend on your 70-100 bucks, but there are people, whom like to do gaming and has to think twice where they put their hard earned money. And this game with many others in my eyes are not worth the full price. The general problem is that developers are probably forced to make the games to deadlines that are way too short. I accept that creating an AAA game is not 1-2 years now, especially if you want to make it uniq in some way. Developers are pushed to their limits, they dont have enough time to create something that has a soul nor they have the time to test the games properly looking for bugs and glitches, and they rely on technologies like FSR and DLSS to avoid the need of optimizing. All because the publishers are not gamers, they only looking for money, they dont care about you people. They put a lot of investment to marketing/false marketing to generate hype, and when they got their paycheck they are happy and get the conclusion, they can sell games this way too, why bother with all the details and polishment? Fanbase will always buy it, defend it, as I encountered this with Starfield too. I asked people, what makes Starfield better than even Fallout 4 if it has so many flaws and missing elements? They could not give me a correct answer. All they said it has a good story and ship and base building is very fun, and modders will make this game better anyways, so I will belive them that story may be better, but again its not up to the modders to polish a game or make it playable, interesting, especially not for free even if this was the general case with Skyrim, Fallout series in the past (except that those games had more content by default than Starfield). In other cases I was immediately banned from some forums for said reason "I was trying to generate flame" Well if asking the hard questions is flame generation then yes I was doing that. Is this what we will get from now on? That companies will sell their leftover soul for more money and the gaming industry will only have 2-3 games per 10 years that are really outstanding and was created with passion? What are your toughts about this? Tell me in the comments below.

[pooepw]

i have traveled the ends of the world

i have played and talked about the greatness of arcanum, and now, in a masochistic fever dream, i played a bit of starfield. i am midway through the story, and i have not paid attention to a single thing that is happening. yet somehow, i still comprehend what is happening: acquire many mcguffins. omg! now there is someone here to take away our mcguffins! oh! we have to steals the mcguffins? the story mode is just a bunch of glorified fetch quests. you know the story is bad when at some point you are playing the single player of among us as one of the quests. i just click random shit with every dialogue prompt since nothing really feels like it matters. characters still interact with you regardless of what is happening. the quest where you were supposed to steal an artifact? i was so done with the bs that i just immediately went for attack and kill. does barrett still team up with me? YES.

though i have not gone through the entire game, i assume that there are no intelligent alien races that the player interacts with (otherwise the player could have had the cool choice to BE those races). it is disheartening that bethesda decided to choose the hyper realistic approach to sci-fi in assuming that there are next to no aliens that humans could interact with within a large sect of the galaxy. what is the point of constructing a game around sci-fi if one of the coolest parts of the fi is absent? dumb ass game.

the story and the lack of cool aliens is really small pebbles to the big boulder that is the content held within the game. and when i say big boulder, i mean the crater that such a boulder would cause upon impacting a surface. this game is empty. with this game, bethesda seemed to be determined to top their previous huge empty world, daggerfall, only, when i play daggerfall, i can at least instant transmission wherever i want to. now every single thing is a cutscene. enter chair of cockpit? cutscene. go into space? cutscene. sit in chair inside office? cutscene. the ingenious thing about the cutscenes is that the skip cutscenes mod cannot even skip some of the cutscenes because the game breaks when you try to skip them. i recall that the landing cutscene COULD be skipped if you pushed certain buttons, but doing this would crash the game.

back to the subject matter of emptiness, planets can be summed up into two categories: ones with life and ones without. ones without life are pretty bland; obviously if there are no signs of life on the planet, that has to be boring. however, the ones with life are functionally equivalent to the ones without life because all alien life in this game is the same. just animals varying from small to large. and all of them feel like they simply come out of the game spore. plant life already becomes inherently samey because of the materials being mostly the same across planets, but did they have to go ahead an copy and paste them across different solar systems? did plants discover the perfect form to take in any environment?

the final thing i have to say before i enter truly unhinged territory is that the procedural generation used for the planets is garbage. the content of the planets outside either lifelessness or existence of life can easily be categorized as follows: cave, raider place, worthless structure with shit held inside of literal shit. the caves in this game are the worst things i have ever seen. they are equivalent to the mines in skyrim, except there are no npcs within them. just ore. on the off chance there is a lifeform within, it is usually an easily dispatch-able spore creature. there is no point in entering these randomly. going a bit out of order, the worthless structures are a slight step above caves; rather than going into a chamber placed behind a loading screen, the player can find resources by looking for the local dung pile in these structures. you can also get experience from these, but the reason i dub them as worthless is because they parallel the experience of the plants and the animals. they are copied and pasted across the galaxy, sometimes figuratively and sometimes literally. if i am to believe that there are no sentient beings for me to interact with, then why are there so many structures that are shared across the galaxy? there is probably some dumb reason like a human did it, but it would have been cooler to interact with aliens. finally, the raider places are the only other part of planets. i would have said interesting, but these are completely copy and pasted. once the player has completed a single uc base, they have done all of them. enemy npcs in this game are stupid and boring, and the experience of going into these places reflects that.

i actually lied when i said that those were the three categories. there is a 4th category for areas on a planet, and that final category is the places where npcs exist. with the big towns, there is some amount of fun to be had doing the quests. but the real issue with the big towns is how few and how harsh it is to be in them. this game is not well optimized; every time i enter new atlantis, the experience is either that my computer has no trouble, or that my computer thinks this is crysis. i AM in fact using high power specs, but also i am not running this game with super high graphics: no raytracing, no 4k; just 2k with ultra.

so if there are few huge towns to get immersed into, how else do i interact with npcs? the other way is to find the preston garvey like settlements that need your help. i cannot believe i have to say anything good about fallout 4, but, by some miracle, settlements in fallout 4 are more interesting than the ones in starfield. where fallout 4 forces the player to go to an interesting location in the world, starfield's npc settlements will send the player to one of the many copy pasted structures on the planet to do dumb bullshit that can easily be messed up. my experience can be summed up by this anecdote: i was given the quest to find someone in a random spot on the planet (i believe it was a cave), and when i found them, they followed on me. walking back (yes indeed the adventure is over already, nothing interesting happens in this game), the guy i had to save dies to the local wildlife. when i say dies in this scenario, i really mean, walks headfirst into danger and pauses so that it may take him. it was not even funny at first, just aggravating.

there is a slew of other issues with the game that i have not gone over yet like the lackluster spaceship usage, the lack of good npc combat, the lack of cool weapons, etc., but i wanted to enter unhinged territory with this last point. i rarely play sci fi games. the biggest one i enjoy is fallout, but the game does not lean into sci fi involving space for the most part, but rather post apocalypse. a game that i do enjoy that is entirely about space is star control. so it was to my great dismay that when i entered the procyon star systems that there was no reference to the chmmr, chenjesu, or the mmrnmhrm. not even the smallest thing like silicon based life or a seemingly abandoned space station. instead this game had references to among us (yes i consider the quest where you do chores on the eye to be a reference to among us; heck the imposters come soon after and kill a main character (trying not to spoil)!). and for this reason, i consider this game to be below the mariana trench in terms of quality. every turn where bethesda had the choice between making a good decision and a bad decision, the company chose the bad path.

i implore you, do not buy starfield. this might be one of the moments where it is more ethical to steal this game rather than pay for it if you really want the experience, and i reserve this action for few games (actually it is just one game: the sims 4 and all of its dlc; also, just wait for starfield to go on a huge sale before purchasing it. a game of this caliber does not deserve to be $70 when games like arcanum and fallout 1 are single digit prices.). (I WILL ALWAYS STAND BY THE CONCEPT THAT IT IS MORALLY CORRECT TO STEAL ALL OF SIMS 4. IT IS SIMPLY EVIL THAT A COMPANY CAN CHARGE LITERALLY OVER A THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR WHAT IS FUNCTIONALLY A COUPLE OF MODELED ITEMS, MAPS, AND CLOTHES) the hinge on the door is broken now.

edit: just in case there is one last screw on the hinge holding the door, i am going to leave a batshit insane prediction on what bethesda is going to do with the game with its dlc. after the absolute tease that is the several mech ruins, but the lack of mechs in the game in general, bethesda is going to release a dlc that lets you have a mech, but it is not going to be interesting in any way since there is nothing interesting to kill with such a cool mechanic. it will use the same system as the spaceships in terms of constructing them and will have the same issue in that there is nothing interesting to do with them. if you want to have the illusion of fun, you better pay more!

[athenaalexandria]

Ok so stories. Why are some stories kind of empty despite great stakes and plot and characters? Because of scale. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, especially around the current Multiverse hyperfixation the media has.

Ok so like humans are what make good books. And I don’t just mean AI writers are bad. I mean your book will not be good if it doesn’t have a human element. Honestly I don’t think it’s even possible to write a story completely devoid of the human touch simply because the language we use to communicate our ideas inherently puts things through the human lens. But more human equals better story. So let’s think about this in a few ways.

If we go with movies, let’s do marvel and everything everywhere all at once. Both have multiverse. Marvel has big epic fights with crazy special effects, super blockbuster. But the problem with say end game is the sheer scale. You can’t feel the humanity in time travel and half the universe being dead and a war of CGI armies. You can even see this in the memes and favorite scenes. People like nebula and Tony at the start. We make memes of hope giving a taco to antman. Because we resonate with those character and human moments on the small scale.

Now compare this to everything everywhere all at once. It also has crazy fights and super cool special effects and multiverse shenanigans. But the difference, and why it’s the better movie, is that it’s not actually a multiverse story. It’s a story about a family, generational trauma, being queer, how love can save you, letting go and trusting your loved ones, and so much more. It’s a family drama with a multiverse background.

And this even carries over to other media as well! Video games is a big one, and the best example in my mind is Skyrim VS Starfield. They are made by the same developer with the same engine and the be same design philosophy. But Skyrim is just so much more loved. Why? Because Skyrim may have dragons and wars, but it’s also a much more human story of a people in the north battling to keep their ways in a changing land with an existential threat to their way of life with only you as protection from this threat. Starfield is jumping across barren moons for 3 hours. It’s too expansive, there’s not human touch, and you can’t connect with this world when it’s at such a scale. Skyrim is the Nordic lands, Starfield is thousands of planets. The scale, THE SCALE.

I first got this opinion when I started reading Xianxia and other Asian stories online. You can think of this through the lens of dragon ball. It starts with fighting in fighting tournaments where people kick hard, and ends with spirit bombs that can destroy a planet. Xianxia is the worst offender (I’m looking at YOU “I Eat Tomatoes”) where at the start you find a pet rat and learn to move fast at fight good with a sword. By the end you’re controlling the very fundamental laws of the heavenly dao to wipe out universes with trillions of lives just snuffed out because some dude said you had a small dick. Like shit is crazy.

Anyways I kinda lost the plot and focus went whooeee but basically write your books to be about people, keep the world and crazy rules in the background. Make us care about your characters and use the eye divine cybermancy background to make your characters and their arc even cooler and better. Also metaphors and shit with background but my thumbs are hurting so I’m gonna stop typing now.

[gikairan]

I've been playing Starfield properly for a week now, and some thoughts:

I think the most important thing to say is: I am having fun. I am enjoying playing this game.

But i do worry about the games... legs so to speak. I played Fallout 4 for like... a whole year. By the time i felt like i was running out of base game, the first expansions were dropping.

Starfield is... a different beast. It doesnt have one big, large, handcrafted map. Its got a lot of procedurally generated maps, with random bits and pieces. And so there isn't much exploring. And its the exploring i kinda like with Bethesda? The only other games i've played that have made an open world feel so alive are.... BOTW/ TOTK. Like, open world is a dime a dozen these days, but most of them are empty Ubisoft-likes (what i call "checklist open worlds").

But Starfield, by virtue of being a space exploration game, cant quite have that handcrafted touch I know and love from Bethesda. Like, theres only a handful of ways to do a space exploration game and thats: - you limit the exploration to a handful of locations, each with a handcrafted map. But you lose the feeling of the vastness of a galaxy (This is what ME: Andromeda and The Outer Worlds did) - You lose the open world maps, and go with more focused areas. You get a chance to show more planets, but you lose the exploration feeling. (.... This is what the first ME Trilogy did, and theyre not exactly exploration games) - You procedurally generate as much content as possible, and only add handcrafted touches when theres a specific quest. You get the vastness of the galaxy, but it loses many places of actual interest. This is what Starfield has done.

And so... one atmosphere-less planet is kinda the same as another? The colours may change, but largely youre only there because you have a quest there, or you need a specific resource that that planet has in abundance. The places of interest just arent that interesting. And most of them are atmosphere-less planets (Because... thats most planets we've discovered after all)

The game also does take a whiillle to start to open up. I've got over 24 hours of playtime clocked up (though i imagine a good 3-4 hours are just idling on menus as i do things like... cook) and i've largely just travelled between Alpha Centuri and Sol.... I've just made the trip to Akila, i've spent all of 5 minutes in Hope Town, and I have no idea where Neon even is. Theres nothing really between those places, its just fast travelling everywhere. And i'm usually a fast travel abuser, but sometimes the best moments in a Bethesda game are when you slow down and take the scenic route, yaknow? Locations needing fast travelling between them kinda ruins that a bit. And theres generally not 2 settlements on the same planet, despite that probably making a lot of sense (if Jamison is good for human habitation, why is New Atlantis the only settlement we can visit?), so theres not exactly any real random encounters on the ground maps.

My hope that the roleplaying in this game was better than FO4 because they ditched the voice protagonist was in vain. Theres kinda 2 options to continue most conversations, and anything below the first 2 (maybe 3) options are Questions to learn more - but not to move the conversation to the next part of the tree. I havent seen a huge number of skill related dialogue options, except like... medicine? Thats the one ive seen pop up the most.

Performance wise, i've largely not had any issues. Couple of crashes, but thats par for the course with Bethesda. .... But i noticed some obvious frame rate dips in Akila. Like, something in that location the xbox just did not like. But nowhere else. I also paid for a month of game pass ultimate so i could swap between my pc and xbox and see what i liked. ... I havent even tried to play on pc, because i'm happy enough on xbox. That, and the pc keybindings are... uuhh a problem. The game has so many different controls going on that i cant move WASD to any other controls without breaking some other system. Arrow keys are vital somewhere else. IJKL is vital somewhere else.... I'm not playing with WASD, because thats uncomfortable (i'm using the wrong hand for it!). And theres no point in playing on a controller on my pc, lol. I may as well play on the comfy sofa if i want to play with a controller. Will probably mess with my ability to play many mods, but honestly... i'm still uncertain about how much i'll care about the game by the time people start making some real good mods.

IDK man. I'm having fun, i'm enjoying the game. But it probably is a 7/10 game, yaknow? Theres a lot of things holding it back, but those things are also fairly central to the actual vision Bethesda had. Jurys still out on how much blorbo thoughts i can get out of this, mostly because I still dont quite know enough about the world to get a backstory going on. And thats going to be the thing that really makes everything else click. But even then, I could get an okay enough backstory out of The Outer Worlds and that never clicked, because the game just didnt have enough content for me to Really Care.

[chancellormatt]

Voltron Rewrite Episode Nineteen - The Singularity of War

    (Warning...this thing is a monster. Seriously, I really got carried away here. If you’re planning on reading this in one go make sure you’re comfortable first, because this is the big boy. Enjoy.)

    The blazing light of explosions flashes across Coran’s face. He stares out at the carnage spread out across the Castle of Lion’s viewport. The forces of the Coalition and the Black Paladins tear into each other, energy blasters and ion cannons causing untold destruction. But his gaze looks past all of that, to lock onto the form of Voltron approaching that of Darktron and Sincline. He strokes his mustache nervously. 

    “Coran?” 

    He is shaken from his study of the monitor and turns to find Romelle standing on the bridge behind him.

    “The Castle is in full combat configuration.” She reports.

    “Ah yes. Very good. Very good…” His gaze shifts back out to the starfield, where the forces of Zarkon and the Coalition smash into one another. He sees a team of Garrison fighters swoop along the side of a Galra cruiser and unleash a payload of energy-bombs that cripple the enemy ship.

    “You wish to be in the thick of it?” She ventures.

    “Yes. This has been my battle for a long time and it pains me not to be backing up the Princes and other paladins. Also...if I’m being honest, I’d really like to show these galra what for one last time. But…” He looks back to the alteans manning stations around the bridge. 

    “...Princess Allura left all of you in my charge. And risking the Castle unnecessarily will help no one. So we will hang back and fire from afar. We will not directly engage until we are needed.

    “And if we are called upon?”

    “well...we’ll just have to show them just what the ship my grandfather designed can really do with a full crew of alteans.”

    Romelle smiles. “Aye aye, Captain.”

    He returns the smile, then turns back to the viewport. Voltron and Sincline finally meet Darktron in a blaze of brilliant light.

    “I leave all my hopes with you, Paladins.” He says in a voice just above a whisper. “Finish this.”

***

    Voltron swings, tearing a blue streak through space. Darktron blocks, blade crackling with violet lightning. Sincline thrusts, blade a blur of purple light. Darktron parries and ripostes, knocking the other mecha back. The three mechas strike at each other,  blades are a storm of glowing blurs, faster than the eye can keep up. 

A powerful clash knocks all backwards. Darktron pulls back, quintessence burning down the blade. It lowers the blade towards them in silent challenge. Sincline makes to move forward.

    “Wait,” Keith starts to say,  “we should pull back and try to-”

    “You don’t scare me, Zarkon!” Sincline Lotor bellows, charging towards the other mecha. Keith curses, and Voltron bursts forward to join Sincline.

Darktron, Sincline and Voltron swing their blades at the same time. When the blades meet a wave of energy explodes outward. The force of the blow flings both Voltron and Sincline tumbling backwards through space.

    Darktron did not give an inch from the blast.

    Jets of energy erupt from Darktron’s wings, thrusting it after the two tumbling mechas. It goes after Voltron, the closer target.

    Voltron’s shield is thrown up at the last second, but Darkon’s swing is powerful enough to the breach the shield, sending two halves spinning.

    Sincline appears behind Darktron, twin swords raised to it's exposed back.

    Darktron doesn’t even turn to raise it's sword overhead and block both of Sincline’s blades. It reaches the other hand behind to blast Sincline in the chest. As Sincline spins away, Voltron swings for Darktron’s head. But Darkton deflects with it's sword then tosses Voltron behind it to crash into Sincline.

    “Get out of my way!” Lotor snarls, shoving Voltron aside.

    He charges at Darktron again, curved swords spinning. Before he can reach the other mecha, Darktron's shoulder cannon materializes and fires. The wave of raw energy hits Sincline like a train. It rockets backwards to smash through a galra cruiser. The cruiser explodes into pieces, while Sincline continues to tumble backwards.

    Darktron turns on Voltron. Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Allura get uneasy expressions. 

    “...it's alright to be afraid.” Keith says in a low voice. “They’re incredibly strong. We’ve all seen it. But we’re also not the same people we were the last time we fought them. We’re stronger together now. Not just on our own, but as a team too. This isn’t going to end the same way as last time.”

    The uncertainty leaves the other paladin’s faces, replaced by resolve.

    Darktron bursts into motion.

    “Here we go…” Keith takes a breath. “...form shield!”

    Voltron’s shield reforms a moment before Darktron’s sword strikes. Violet energy blazes against brilliant blue. 

    “Is that all you can muster?” Prince Lotor of Darktron says, sword beginning to blaze brighter. Pidge grits her teeth, the shield wavering, on the point of breaking once again.

    But then, Lance, Hunk and Allura’s bayard ports slide open. They allow only a moment of surprise before slamming each of their bayards into place.

    The shield, on the verge of splitting, suddenly blazes, multiplying several times its former size. Darktron’s sword is repelled, hurling the mecha back in a flash of lapis light. 

    Darktron rights itself after a moment, and all is still.

    “...so,” Zarkon finally says, “you are not quite as pathetic as you used to be. You’ve acquired strength from resolve. Good. But how is your finesse?”

    Darktron’s dual swords materialize. 

    Inside Voltron the bayard ports of the red and green lions pop open.

    Lance smirks. “I dunno, how are we doing with finesse?”

    Pidge lets out a sigh. “Well, until recently I thought we were doing an excellent job with subtlety.”

    “Subtlety is overrated.”

    “You would say that.” But she returns the smile.

    Both slam their bayards into place. Voltron’s dual blades shimmer into existence.

    Darktron swings for Voltron’s neck first. Pidge blocks, straining against the other blade. Lance parry’s the next attack, and counters with a thrust for Darktron’s gut. Darktron twists, blade sparking off it's side. Darktron replies with a kick, but Lance and Pidge cross their blades, blocking the strike. However it gives Darktron a chance to throw a quick jab for Voltron’s chest with one blade, followed by a second with the other. The first is completely deflected but the second grazes the green arm.

    The two mechas fall into a back and forth, blades striking against one another in clashes of blinding light. 

    “You’re keeping up! Impressive! But for how long!?” Zarkon taunts, blades moving so fast they’re barely visible.

    Keith grits his teeth. “I think-”

    “Zarkon!” Sincline Lotor bellows. “I found something of yours!”

    Both turn just in time for a galra cruiser to smash into them. The front of the ship crumples as they are buried in it's innards. 

    A burst of energy from Darktron obliterates the entire cruiser, sending Voltron flying out of the wreckage.

    As soon as Darktron is freed, Sincline, hovering above, unleashes it's chest beam. Darktron’s shoulder cannon appears, firing at the same time. 

    The two beams collide, bleeding off waves of energy that vaporize any of the fightership unlucky enough to be nearby. The cockpits of the respective mechas tremor under the enormous pressure. Lotor throws his levers as far as they will go, intensity of the beam growing in response. 

    Darktron’’s beam inches backwards, starting to be overwhelmed by that of Sincline.

    Zarkon only grins. “You have an impressive machine. It has only one flaw…”

    Paladin Lotor, Honerva and Raimon slam their bayards into place.

    “...it's not Voltron.”

    Darktron’s blast engulfs Sincline’s blasting it away. But Darktron doesn’t leave it there. The harpoon gun materializes and fires after Sincline, spearing the other mecha. Darktron pivots, swinging the tethered Sincline to crash into the recovering Voltron.

    They’re flung backwards, smashing through an errant asteroid, pulverizing it. 

    Sincline shakes off the damage, and moves to charge Darktron again. His arm is caught by Voltron’s grip. 

    “Stop.” Keith commands.

    “I don’t take orders from you! Now get out of my way!”

    “You’re being an idiot, Lotor! I know you want to take down Zarkon, but has it really been so long since you’ve had to work with a team?”

    “I don’t need help! I’ve never needed help.”

    “Do you want to get yourself killed!?”

    He doesn’t reply.

    “...are you trying to get yourself killed?” Allura is the one to ask this time.

    Still he remains silent. Darktron advances on them.

    “...I want to kill Zarkon, no matter the cost.”

    “Then help us do that.” Keith says, “By working with us.”

    Darktron gets closer.

    Inside the cockpit of Sincline, Lotor closes his eyes and squeezes his throttles. He lets out a breath and opens his eyes back up. Darktron is nearly upon them, sword pulled back.

    “If you have a plan…then take the lead.”

    Keith quirks the faintest of smiles. 

“Spilt!”

    The two mechas dash in opposite directions, Darktron’s sword slashing through the empty space. 

    “We’ll constrict their movement, you go in close!” Keith declares.

    Voltron’s cannon appears, erupting in it's spray-fire mode. Dozens of destructive motes of light spray after Darktron. The mecha’s boosters burn into overdrive as it spins away from the energy motes. The motes follow, blue lines trailing after fleeing mecha. Darktron zigzags, losing some of the motes into the faces of asteroids, and others into the sides of galra cruisers. Sincline blocks it's path, blades spinning. Darktron simply forces Sincline back with a blast from one of its hands and changes direction again, motes still following. The chase takes Darktron towards one of the planets orbiting the nearest star. It loses more of the motes by leading them into the side of one of the planet’s moons. 

    Sincline cuts off Darktron’s path again, ducking the hand-blast this time and going in for the kill. Darktron deflects the twin blades with it's sword, while using it's free hand to activate it's shield and block the remaining motes. The shield endurs the rainfall of energy against it, but a moment later a secondary impact hits the shield.

    Voltron’s harpoon. Voltron jerks the tethered Darktron to the side, opening its defenses wide. Sincline swings again, and this time the swords strike true. 

    A flash of violet light burns when the blades with Darktron’s chest.

    Darktron plummets down into the surface of the moon below. It's crash creates a crater, massive chunks of rock flying upwards. 

    “Now! Hit ‘em with everything you've got!” Keith yells.

    Sincline charges up it's chest beam while Voltron materializes it's arm cannons. Both let loose on Darktron below. 

    The beams of energy collide with Darktron, washing over it. More chunks of rock and debris fly up as Darktron is driven deeper. The crater widens, cracking a significant portion of the moon’s surface. Then, the stone around Darktron begins to glow. It melts under the constant heat and pressure from the waterfall of pure energy, swallowing up Darktron. Molten rock bubbles up, spraying droplets across the surface. Still, they keep firing. 

    Finally, the two mechas let up, spent.

    The Paladins and Lotor struggle to catch their breaths.

    “Did...we get...them…?” Lance pants out.

    “I’m not-” Keith starts to say before he is cut off.

    “You children…” Zarkon says, “...deserve commendation. I hate every single one of you and will enjoy ripping your bodies out of your lions, and your organs out of your bodies, and then putting them on display for the whole universe to see. But you have forced me into a corner, and for that you have my highest praise. Supremely stupid and futuile as it was, you have graduated yourselves from a minor nuisance to a wrench in my plans. So congratulations…”

    Under the lava there is a burst of violet light. Then a massive form begins to move under the surface. 

    “...you will get the honor of dying as few others have.”

    Darktron, in it's massive armored form rises out of the pool of lava, molten rock dripping off it's armor. 

    “Well,” Keith says, “Quiznak.”

***

    “So…you think they have a chance?”

    Skriel asks the question from within the Paladin Crusher 2.0, defending from a team of robeasts’ relentless strikes. Matt is dealing with the same from Luca’s robeast. The two mechas fight back to back, surrounded as they are. 

    “A chance? Sure, there’s always a chance.” Matt replies, using the Atlas’ armblade to block one of Luca’s strikes. The swing is deflected but the glowing blade still lands a glancing blow on the Atlas’ armor.

    “Yes, but what precisely would you put the odds at?”

    “Dunno, maybe like thirty percent?”

    “THIRTY PERCENT!?”

    Matt smirks as Luca drives forward to press the attack. She knocks aside the armblade and thrusts for the gut of the Atlas. She isn’t prepared for the second blade that slides out of the Atlas’s other arm. The bladed spear is turned away and before Luca can pull back she receives a glancing blow on her robeast’s arm. A match for the one she left on the Atlas.

    “Yep. About thirty percent. But I’ll tell you what, if it was only one percent, or even one tenth of a percent, I’d still bet on my sister and her friends. Because they’ve been beating long odds ever since they stepped in those lions. None of us would be here right now if that wasn’t true.”

    “Well, I guess I can agree with that, human.” 

The Paladin Crusher catches one robeasts’ blades along the haft of it's axe, but is driven backwards by it's twin, bumping against the back of the Atlas.

“You need a hand there?” Matt asks.

“We most certainly do not!” Skriel declares. “I think it's time to show these whelps what the Crusher 2.0 can really do! Mutava?”

    “Yes, this battle is getting a little too close for my tastes.” The other galra replies, throwing a lever from within his cockpit.

    The Paladin Crusher’s head splits open, a large barrel poking out from within. It fires, violet beam melting through the head of one robeast. Armor breached, the pilot is thrown free of the broken mecha. The second robeast pulls back, spinning it's spear to deflect the head-beam’s second shot. 

    “Ublok!”

    “I’ve got him.” The large galra grunts, throwing a lever of his own.

    The Paladin Crusher raises an arm and it's fist fires off the arm, propelled by a jet of purple flame. The robeast keeps it's spinning spear up to block the projectile, but the fist diverts downward, slipping under the makeshift shield, then tilts back up to smash the robeast in the chest. The robeast is flung backwards but the fist isn’t done. It grabs a hold of the robeast’s head and rockets in reverse, jerking it back towards the waiting axe of the Paladin Crusher. The robeast is sliced clean in half, systems going dead as the pilot rockets free.

    “Ohoho! That’s what you get for trying to challenge Skriel the Great and his Mighty Lackies!” 

    “Mighty Lackies?” Erva says with disdain.

    “Yes, feel free to be honored by the title.”

    “You little...oh forget it.” She sighs. 

    “I’m glad you’re having so much fun over there, but do you mind giving us a hand?” Matt asks, trying to defend not just from Luca, but two other robeasts flanking her. And more are on their way to the skirmish.

    “Certainly! It's time to show just how superior the Paladin Crusher is to your silly earth machine!

    “...Huhuhu. Paladin Crusher you say?”

    The four galra warlords freeze at the sound of the new voice over the comms. 

    “...a bit gaudy, but that always was your style, Skriel.”

    “That voice…” Skriel says.

    Across from them the galra formations split, opening a rift in their previously tight lines. Through that rift comes a massive galra ship that dwarfs those around it. Its armor is pitch black, broken only by thin lines of glowing purple running up and down it's length. 

“Human, I’m afraid you’re going to have to deal with these robeasts on your own.” Skriel says in a low voice. He and Erva throw their levers, axe splitting into two hatchets.

    “What? Why?”

    “That ship headed towards us is commanded by Ru’vak the Unbroken.”

    “Who the heck is that!?”

    “He is considered one of, if not the greatest Galra Commander in the entire Empire. His title comes from the fact that in his entire career, he has never once lost a battle.”

    “How come I’ve never heard of him?”

    “He was sent into exile before The Voltron Coalition’s war with the Empire began. No official reason was ever given for his reassignment. However, the rumor was that Zarkon grew...uncomfortable with how respected Ru’vak was in the fleet.”

    “An unfounded worry,” The voice, Ru’vak, says. “I am and always have been loyal to the Empire. Unlike you scum. Honestly, I thought I taught the four of you better.”

    Skriel sighs. “He’s also the man that trained us…”

    The ship begins to glow and split apart.

    “Oh.” Matt says.

    Metal plates separate, revealing joints and limbs. It all pulls apart and comes back together in a bulky humanoid in shape, and even larger than the Paladin Crusher. In one hand it holds a large round shield with a serrated edge. In its other, a great hammer. The pitch black armor creates the visual effect of there being a silhouetted emptiness in the space before them. The only source of light on it is a single blazing violet eye at the center of its head.

    “This is Ru’vak, tell the reserves to jump in now behind the invading forces. We have the other mecha-class vehicles engaged, their forces should not be able to avoid being encircled.”

    The dark armored mecha spins its hammer in one hand. 

    “Now, let us see how your Paladin Crusher fares against my World Bane.”

    ***

    Coran watches the enemy’s reserve force jump in behind the Coalition ships. In seconds the enemy galra ships spread out, locking in the Coalition back line. Enemies in front, enemies behind. Nowhere to run. 

    “We’re between a hammer and an anvil!” Ryner cries over the radio.

    “Not if we’ve got anything to say about it!” Coran declares.

    He turns to Romelle, a slight grin on his face.

    “Arm the Castle’s primary weapon. It seems the battle has come to us.”

    She nods quickly before letting her fingers fly across the console in front of her.

    “Weapons ready!” She says as a cloud of galra fighters begin their assault on the Coalition ships. 

    “Well then let’s see how those dastardly galra like a mouthful of this!” Coran shouts, slamming his fist into the console. Energy crackles throughout the ship, surging to its zenith at the tip of the castle’s primary tower.

    A beam of pure energy tears across space, ripping a line through the cloud of fighters. Explosions in the form of bright orange orbs appear anywhere the beam meets an enemy ship. 

    “Multiple direct hits! Enemy fighters scattering!” Romelle reports.

     “Excellent! Now let’s see about engaging those cruisers!” He turns to Vatta who mans another console. “Prime the barrier.”

    Vatta nodded, doing as he says.

    Coran sends the Castle forward, another beam firing. It takes a galra cruiser in the side, cracking the armoran eliciting an explosion, but not a fatal one. The cruiser, along with several of it's companions turn and fire back at the Castle.

    A series of violet beams slam into the Castle’s particle barrier. The Castle shakes but remains unharmed.

    “Status?” Coran asks. 

    “Barrier holding, but I’d avoid getting shot more than necessary.” Vatta reports.

    “This is a battlefield.”Coran says, narrowing his eyes. “That may not be possible.”

    “We’ll just have to destroy them first, then.” Romelle remarks.

    “I like the way you think, lass! Let’s give them a little more to chew on!”

    Coran slams his fist into the console again.

***

    Admiral Sanda cruises through the battlefield in her fighter, flanked by her wingmates. They dip and dodge through a sea of enemy fighters, tearing a burning swath through their number. 

    They move towards one of the enemy cruisers.    A team of fighters break off, engaging them. 

    “Crab formation.” Sanda says, driving forward to bait the enemy fighters before pulling back, to let her wingmates pull around to catch the fighters in a pincer attack. They blast the enemy fighters to smithereens.

    “Now let’s bomb the crap out of them.”

    They fly over the top of the cruiser, releasing bombs. The magnetically charged capsule lock onto the surface of the cruiser, before detonating their payloads. The fighters drop an explosive trail across the top of the cruiser, weakening it's exterior armor. 

    A Coalition galra cruiser fires it's ion cannon, finishing off the cruiser in a massive explosion.

    “Alright! Sanda says, voice almost nearly a cheer. “Let take on the next-”

    She is cut off, when she and her wingmates are caught in a stray enemy ion blast. One of her wings is clipped, one engine showing warning signs of being damaged. 

    She goes into an uncontrolled spin. Despite this, rather than panic, Sandra cringes. 

    “This is gonna be a bumpy landing…”

***

    A beam of energy erupts from each of the Armored Darktron’s hands. One smashes into Voltron, the other, Sincline. Both mechas are flung backwards, plummeting down to the planet below. Bright orange plasma envelops them as they burn through the planet’s atmosphere.

    Darktron chases after their falling forms, tearing a violet trail through space. It rips it's sword into existence mid-descent. Still in the upper-atmosphere, Darktron swings it's massive blade.

    The shield Voltron throws up may as well not exist. Both halves go flying and the energy from Darktron’s blade slashes against Voltron’s armor. The Paladins scream, threatening to break back to five lions. They hold together. Barely. 

    While Voltron is hurled back to plummet back even faster by the blow, Darktron turns on the other mecha. Sincline crosses both swords to block Darktron’s swing. There is a crackle of blinding light when the blades meet. 

    Sincline is sent spinning, one sword cracked and leaking quintessence. 

    The Paladins and Lotor tremble under tremendous G-forces as the surface races up to meet them. They all make one last effort to pull up their machines before striking the rocky surface.

    Darktron swings again. It doesn’t matter that the mecha is a mile higher in the air than that others. The energy from its blade carries, swinging down in a bright arc to slam into the backs of Voltron and Sincline. They smash into the surface at full-force, sending massive cracks across the stone.

    A moment later, Darktron hits the ground in a crouch, shattering the ground even further. Multiple sun hangs in the sky above, varied in color, casting harsh and uneven light on the scene. Voltron and Sincline both try to rise. Both fail.

    “...there is an old galra tale, about a soldier who wanted to be emperor.” Zarkon begins, “His dream brought him strength in battle. Soon the Soldier was the most famous warrior in the Empire. Finally the Emperor bestowed upon him the title ‘High Commander of Legions.” A position in the Empire second only to the emperor. But the Soldier was not content. He could not live with being the second greatest. So he challenged the Emperor to a duel for his position. The Emperor accepted. Their battle lasted all day,  from sunrise to sunset. Finally, one fell and one remained. The Emperor had prevailed. As he lay there bleeding out, the Soldier asked how, how after rising to the greatest of soldiers, could he still have lost? The Emperor replied, ‘the greatest of soldiers, is still a soldier. The least emperor, still an emperor. Your blade was just a sword. But mine, was the blade of an empire. Soldiers simply die. But emperors live on forever in their empires.’ You see Paladins, you have grown strong. But your strength has reached its ceiling. And all you can do now, is look up.”

    Keith lets out a cough. “N-nice...story. I bet emperors love telling it. Makes ‘em feel safe. I’ve got one for you too: At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.” 

    “Perhaps. Kings and pawns, emperors and soldiers all end up in the ground once they die. Except that I have no plans to die. Not now, not ever. When I’m done with you, I will finish what I began so long ago and remake this universe as it should be.  I will ascend beyond any other being before me. And there be nothing, no kingdom or empire and no memory for you to live on through. That children, is what you earn for your struggle.”

    “This fight...isn’t over...yet!” Keith declares.

    The five paladins strain, forcing the prone Voltron up onto all fours. Then, with a great effort, it shakily rises to two feet. 

    “Defiant to the end?”

    “Sure am.”

    “Admirable, if useless. If you’re so eager to see your comrade, that former Paladin...then I’ll send you on your way.”

    Keith’s eyes burn, melting away the pain an exhaustion of a moment before. Not just his, but all the paladin’s eye blaze with anger. 

    “Lotor...you still alive?” Keith asks. 

    “...unfortunately.” His reply comes a moment later.

    “Good. Because we’re about to kill Zarkon, and I didn’t want you to miss that.”

    “Not not if I do first…”

    And with that Sincline is suddenly back to its feet. Darktron turns back and forth between the two mechas. Zarkon lets out a chuckle.

    “Paladins…” Keith says, taking in a breath. “...use everything!” 

Pidge’s arm-cannon materializes and fires. Darktron raises it's sword blocking the blue beam on its edge. Voltron jets forward, Lance activating the sword. Darktron swings its own sword, energy from the blade leaping out in an arc. Keith drives Voltron low, narrowly dodging the slash of energy. The blade of energy continues past to slice off the top of a mountain in the distance, causing an avalanche. Hunk’s shoulder cannon appears. Darkton raises it's shield to block. Allura slams her bayard into place a moment later. They shift the aim of the cannon down at Darktron’s feet and fire. A blast of icy energy erupts from the cannon, freezing Darktron’s legs to the ground.

    On the other side, Sincline lets loose with it's chest beam. Darktron swings it's shield around to block the blast. Voltron seizes on the opportunity, driving forward with it's sword. Before the sword swings, Pidge Hunk and Allura slam their bayards into place, expanding the sword into its greatsword configuration. The Paladins let out a collective battle cry as they swing.

    Darktron deflects with a casual flick of it's sword.

    “Pathetic.” Zarkon says.

    Voltron tears the sword apart into its dual blades, Lance and Pidge swinging in tandem. Darktron easily turns both blades aside. 

    “Useless.” Paladin Lotor chimes in.

    Keith slams his bayard into place, and both swords burst into flame. Darktron swings at the same time as they do. They catch the much larger sword between their two blazing ones. The ground beneath Voltron shatters from the impact. But for a moment they resist being forced back. 

 Sincline drives forward, spinning with both blades outstretched. The blades rattle harmlessly against Darktron’s shield, but the mecha’s bladed tail slips around the guard making for Darktron’s head. 

“Thoughtless.” Honerva remarks.

    Daktron twists, wrenching Voltron’s blades to the side, then slamming it's shield into the mecha as it brings its blade around to deflect Sincline’s tail.

    The impact of the shield sends Voltron crashing back to the ground. Sincline snarls and unleashes a flurry of swings at the larger mecha. 

    Darktron releases the shield, as if completely unconcerned. It deflects blow after blow, easily keeping up with Sincline despite the blinding speed. No matter how close the blade comes to hitting home, it is always turned away. 

    Voltron surges back to its feet, and Allura summons the harpoon gun. 

“I don’t think they seem to understand...” Sendak says as Darktron’s feet rip free of the ice. 

    Allura fires. Sincline swings at the same time, seeing an apparent opening.

    Darktron releases its sword and catches the harpoon with one hand, and the blade of Sincline’s sword with the other. Sincline struggles to drive the blade forward but it doesn’t budge an inch. Allura is likewise unable to reel in the harpoon.

    “...even working together, you will never defeat my Voltron in this form.” Zarkon says.

    And with that the hand holding Sincline’s blade clenches down hard. The already cracked blade shatters into purple shards. Sincline stumbles back, Lotor in its cockpit, shocked.

    Allura, Hunk, Pidge and Lance are equally taken aback. 

Only Keith manages to remain focused. He slams his bayard into place, causing Voltron’s tether and the harpoon at its end to burst into flame. The flame licks up Darktron’s arm, briefly stunning the mecha’s occupants. That fraction of a moment is all they need. Allura reels in the tether, but rather than draw Darktron towards them, she uses it to fling Voltron at it. A moment before they collide with the other mecha Keith yells out an order:

“Hunk, Cannon!”

The shoulder-cannon appears, inches from Darktron’s face. It fires point-blank.

The entire upper-half of Darktron is engulfed in the monumental burst of energy. The light from the pure quintessence meeting Darktron’s armor momentarily blinds all present.

Darktron is forced back a step.

Hunk’s cannon burns until it is completely dry. Finally, spent, Voltron stumbles back, hardly remaining upright.

    Waves of heat radiate off of Darktron. For a moment it, and everything else on the battlefield is still.

    “...a nice try.” Zarktron’s voice says, to the disappointment of all paladins.

    Darktron surges forward, snatching Voltron by the neck and slamming it into the fractured ground.

    “But that wasn’t really a cannon!” Zarkon snarls.

    Sendak slams his bayard into place. A cannon nearly as big as Voltron appears on its shoulder.

    “This is a cannon!”

    “P-pidge!” Keith managed to get out.

    Pidge manages to pull the shield in between the two mechas. 

The Armored Darktron’s cannon erupts.

    The blast of energy that follows is so bright it can be seen by the warring ships out in space. Voltron is blasted straight through the middle of the planet. Through the crust into the burning mantle below. It rips through the core like a stone dropped into the sea. Finally, Voltron is blasted out the other side of the planet, into space beyond. There it shatters into five lions. Each of them, limp and powerless. 

    Back on the planet, Darktron hovers in the air as the cannon is dismissed. Below the mecha, is a hole wider than a galra cruiser and as deep as the planet itself.

Zarkon lets out a satisfied chuckle. 

Sincline launches itself at Darktron’s back, ferocious as a wild animal.

Darktron backhands the other mecha so hard it flies into orbit. Zarkon watchesas its form disappears into space.

“My love, I must tell you, we are nearing our limit in this form. The cannon does use up quite a lot” Honerva informs, “We have perhaps two dobashes, even with no more major expenditures of energy.”

“That is fine. This battle is over.”

Darktron takes to the sky.

***

    Bolts of energy fall across the star-filed like drops of rain. Ships belonging to the Coalition and Dark Paladins alike burn and die. The Castle of Lions takes the brunt of many of these blasts, having earned the attention of a half-a-dozen galra cruisers. 

“Particle barrier down to twenty-percent!” Vatta reports.

    Fighters swarm the Castle, chipping away further at the barrier. 

    “We should pull back!” Romelle says.

    “To where?” Coran replies. “If this backline falls the Coalition formation collapses!” 

    “Fifteen percent!” Vatta updates.

    Coran slams his fist into the console. Another beam flies free, another enemy cruiser destroyed in a ball of plasma. Two more take its place.

    “Ten percent!”

    Coran scans the battlefield. Their allies are held back too far to offer support. The Castle is the primary force staving off the enemy ships attacking their backline. They show no sign of letting up on their assault of the Castle. Coran takes in a breath.

    “Five percent!”

    Coran sets his jaw, fingers flying across the keyboard of his console.     “Attention all alteans onboard!” He yells through the intercom, as periodic small palm-sized pads appear near alteans all over the Castle. “I call upon you in this time of great need! If you wish to contribute to this battle in your own way! If you wish to help fight to free your enslaved brethren! Place a hand on one of these panels and lend us your strength!”

    Across the ship alteans look at the pads, dubious. One does not hesitate even for a moment. Romelle slams her palm down immediately. She nods to Coran with a determined look. He smiles and nods back. One by one, the other alteans start placing their palms down. Finally, Coran places his own palm down. A green button pops up on his console. 

     “Let’s hope you’re the genius you always claimed to be grandpapi!” 

    “We’re down to one-percent!” Vatta reports, shortly after placing her own palm down.

    “I do love dramatic timing!” Coran declares, slamming a hand down on the button.

    The Castle is immediately wreathed in a blinding white light. There is a lull in the fire from the galra ships, uncertain of this new development. Seams appear in the Castle’s armor. It begins to split apart and reform. It's four exterior towers rearrange, and break at the formation of new joints. They become legs, ending in clawed feet. Meanwhile the main tower reforms into a torso. Finally a feline head bursts out of the front of the body, while a spiked tail stretches out from the back. 

    The White Lion lets out a mighty roar.

    “Transformation stabilized!” Romelle reports.

    “This is Dramor in the engine-room. Our output is up three-hundred percent!”

“It worked...” Coran says, looking near on the verge of tears. “My grandfather’s design worked! The White Lion lives!” 

    The enemy ships, recovering from their shock, resume fire. But Coran drives the White Lion into motion, dipping and dodging around the blasts. It opens its mouth and unleashes a blast of blue-white energy that rips a hole clean through one of the galra cruisers. It explodes in a ball of orange flame. 

    A holographic display of weapons appear above Coran’s console. “Let’s try this one…”

    A long bladed knife appears in the jaws of the Lion. It bursts forward, cleaving through the side of another pair of cruisers. Armor ruptured, the cruisers collapse in on themselves before exploding into shards of space-junk.

    “Now then...who’s next!?”

***

    The Atlas trades blows with Luca’s robeast. They clash back and forth before she pulls back and two of her allies trade in. The pair swing their weapons in unison, assaulting the Atlas’ twin-bladed guard, forcing it back. The moment the Atlas pulls back for a counterattack swing, they disengage and Luca dives in to slam a spear into the Atlas’ chest. Immediately it begins its energy drain of the Atlas’ power.

    Another squad of robeasts move towards the group, but they are waved off by Luca.

    “We have this one. Go help restore the Array, that is the priority.”

    “Yes ma’am!” 

    They race off into the distance, where the Array of rings is quickly being repaired by the remaining robeasts. 

Luca continues to drain the Atlas.

    “Stealing our energy, how rude.” Matt says, fingers flying across a projected keypad over the wrist of his control fixture. Alarms blaze across the Atlas’ screens but he ignores them.

    “Sir-” An officer starts to say.

    “Yeah, I’m aware we’re getting our power sucked dry! Isolate the location of the breach and cut it off from our core!” 

    “Yes sir!” 

    The officers work furiously. The spear’s drain cuts out a moment later. Luca scoffs. “You think that’ll stop me!?”    

She splits off the other side of the spear and thrusts it for the Attlas’ head.

    “Nah,” Matt smirks, “Just delaying you long enough to get a leg up!” 

    With that Matt kicks Luca’s robeast in the chest letting it's boosters erupt. The two mechas are hurled in opposite directions from the burst of propulsive energy. 

    The Atlas rights itself, just as the other two robeasts swoop in. They trade turns battering the Atlas with strikes, slipping several sparking cuts past it's guard. Matt is unconcerned at the damage chipping away at their armor.

    “Has that predictive algorithm finished algorithm finished figuring these guys out?”

    “Yes sir!”

    “Then let’s start kicking the crap out of them.”

    Atlas catches the next spear-thrust by the haft, shocking the pilot. Matt heaves, swinging the robeast into it's companion. He then ejects one of the Atlas’ arm blades to sink through one robeast and out the back of the other. Both beasts explode, flinging out pods. 

    Letting out a battle-cry, Luca takes her spear in both hands and swings for the Atlas' head. But with the attack clearly telegraphed by the Atlas’ display, Matt easily dodges the swing. He dodges the next one, and the one after that.

    “How!?” Luca exclaims.

    “With a bit of math.” Matt says, dodging another swing before, snatching hold of Luca’s spear. He twists the weapon, wrenching it free of the robeast’s grip.

    The Atlas levels its arm-blade at the robeast’s chest.

     “With logic and odds, I can predict any move you’re gonna make. You’re done.”

    The shoulders of the robeast slump. Matt sighs.

    “Don’t feel too bad. We’re really just trying to help-”

    Luca’s robeast suddenly burst forward, letting the Atlas’ blade sink into its side. 

    “And what if I just take the hit!?”   

    The blade crackles in the robeast’s side, narrowly missing the core. She is still able to lock the Atlas into a powerful embrace, holding its arms down.

    “Your systems are compromised!” Matt says.

    “Doesn’t matter.” She shoots back.

    The robeast’s chest begins to glow, gathering energy for a blast. Matt can’t help but grin.

    “This girl...has got spunk! You remind me just a little bit of my sister when she’s being stubborn. So while I’m not gonna hold back...I will feel a little bad about this!”

    He swings the Atlas’ head down to smash into the robeast’s. The blow jars Luca in her cockpit, and the embrace loosens. The Altas throws both arms up, breaking the grip entirely, then takes the stolen spear in a two handed grip and swings.

    The blow cracks the robeast’s already breached armor, flinging it backward with bleeding quintessence leaking out in its wake. He raises a gauntlet to fire a finishing blast, one that Luca doesn’t seem capable of dodging.

    Before he can let loose, something slams into the back of the Atlas, sending it spinning forward. 

    “What th-

A battered Paladin Crusher hangs in space, lights quite a bit dimmer than before.

“S...so strong.” Ublok says.

    “And fast.” Mutava adds.

    Matt swallows as a worried clamor rises on the Atla’s bridge.

    The World Bane approaches at a leisurely pace.

    “Oh, I do hope I didn’t break that toy already.” Commander Ru’vak rumbles. “I was just beginning to have some fun. But look, here comes another…”

    Matt narrows his eyes, twirling his claimed spear.

    “Take your best shot, old-timer. This thing isn’t held together by hopes and dreams like the galra’s finest over here.”

    “Hey!” Skriel objects.

    “And I’d say the odds are on our side. I should know. I’m pretty good at math.”

    “Very well, youngster! Show me you best! Make my blood boil with the glory of battle!” Ru’vak says with glee, driving the World Bane forward, shield-first. 

    The Atlas swings the spear, but it scrapes harmlessly against the shield. The World Bane replies by swinging its hammer in an overhead arc. Matt barely dodges out of the way. As the Atlas pulls back, the World Bane twists, swinging its bladed shield. Matt managed to block with the haft of the spear, rotating blade of the shield sending out sparks and shoving the Atlas backwards.

    The World Bane drives forward again, swinging the hammer once more. But this time as the Atlas starts to pull back a jet of energy erupts from the back of the hammer, accelerating its arc to a blinding speed. It smashes down against Atlas's head, cracking the armor.

    The bridge is shaken from the blow. Still Matt drives the Atlas into motion, barely dodging another swing of the bladed shield.

    “Please tell me we’ve got a read on that thing!” Matt yells.

     “Yes sir, I believe we do!”

    “Then throw it up.”

    Immediately a predictive outline of the World Bane’s future attacks appears.

    “Okay…” 

    The Atlas dodges another rocket-hammer swing, then blocks a shield blow. The World Bane pulls back. The Atlas makes an attack for its head, causing the World Band to raise its shield, but it's a feint, instead jamming the spear low under the shield’s guard.

    The spear’s blade rakes against the World Bane’s armor, shoving it back slightly.

    “Impressive.” Ru’vak says.

    Matt grins, moving forward, already dodging a blow that hasn’t even been swung yet. A fist buries itself in the Atlas’ face. The mechas sails back, Matt shocked.

     “Zepta Fo.” Ru’vak says. The World Bane’s fist is outstretched, shield having retracted.

      He drives forward, sinking a knee in the Atlas’ gut. Then takes the hammer in both hands, and swings it down onto the Atlas’ back.

 “He’s switched tactics, adjusting!”    

The Atlas readies itself itself for another attack, predictive outline appearing again. But rather than lead with a fist as it would suggest, The World Bane goes low, swings and let’s go of its hammer, 

“Reyna Sin.” Ru’vak says as the rocket drives the hammer forward to smash into the Atlas’ chest. The Atlas is flung backwards, clipping a Coalition ship. The hammer rockets back into the World Bane’s waiting hand.

“Do you think a commander as experienced as I know only one style of fighting?”   

He swings the hammer into an underhanded grip while pulling the shield back out.

“Vintas mor. Still like your odds, youngster?”

    “Liking them less…”

***

    The five lions of Voltron hang in space, battle raging around them. The paladins are as limp as their lions, not one of them conscious. A nearby explosion pelts the Black Lion with debris, shaking it.

    Keith begins to stir. His eyes flicker open and he winces with pain. With an effort he manages to sit up. 

“...is everyone alright?” 

There is a pause.

“I don’t think I've ever been less alright in my whole life.” Lance says, “But I am alive.”

Keith cracks a pained smile at that. “Allura, Hunk, Pidge?”

“N-not dead yet.” Allura stammers.

Hunk lets out a groan. “...did you have to wake me up?”

“Pidge here...for the good that is.”

Keith tries the throttles of his lion. No response.

    “Can anyone move their lions?”

    He’s met with a chorus of refusals. Keith sighs, but nods as if expecting this.

“Level with us...this fight is over isn’t it?” Lance asks.

Keith hesitates before replying.

“It does look bad…”

The other paladins get sullen looks.   

    “...but I’m not giving up yet. We can’t give up yet. If we do...well then there really is no chance. Our friends are still fighting. We’ve just got to hope they’ll last long enough for us to get our lions back online.”

    “So we can get curb-stomped by Darktron again?”

    “So we can find a way to win.”

    None of the other paladins say anything but they do straighten in their seats and grip their throttles a little tighter.

    “Alright, anyone got any ideas?”

    Everyone is silent for a moment.

    “If...if that armored form is so powerful, why don’t they always use that right from the beginning?” Hunk asks.

    “Pride?” Keith suggests. “Zarkon wanted to beat us on skill alone?”

    “Zarkon is proud but he’s not stupid.” Allura points out, “He wouldn’t put his entire plan at risk simply to satisfy his desire for an even battle.”

    “Then...maybe there’s a limit to it?” Lance says cautiously.

    “That...might actually make sense.” Pidge says with realization. “Think about it. Voltron, our Voltron can only use so much energy at a time. Look at us right now. It took every drop on quintessence we had just to survive that blast and we only just barely did that.”

    “If there is a limit...then what do we do? Just wait for it to run out?” Keith asks.

    “All we really can do. That and hope they don’t kill us in the meantime.”

    “That...may be too much to hope for.” Hunk says, “Look.”

    Darktron rises up from the planet’s atmosphere. It heads towards the lions, in no particular rush. For the first time, Keith looks defeated.

    Darktron draws its sword.

    “I’ll make it quick. I believe you’ve earned that much.” Zarkon says.

    Darktron raises its blade.

    Keith frantically tugs on his throttles. No response.

    “And just who said I was done with you!?” Lotor yells from within Sincline.

    His mecha tears across the starfield, brandishing the remaining sword in both hands.

    Darktron doesn’t even turn too look, casually swinging its blade to the side, deflecting Sincline’s strike. He swings again, Darktron deflects once more, then punches Sincline hard enough to send him crashing into the side of a Coalition cruiser. Another slash of energy from Darktron’s blade and the cruiser explodes around him. Keith winces at the loss of life.

    Panting, Lotor, drives Sincline after Darktron again. It's a futile gesture, each strike easily blocked. 

    “He’s going to die…” Allura realizes.

    “We’ll have to hope that Darktron uses up too much energy to keep up the armor.”

    “He won’t last that long.”

    As if to prove the point, Dark kicks Sincline into an asteroid, shattering it.

    “He...probably won't.” Keith admits.

    “If he had some kind of edge…”

    “What about all that teleporting he did to rough us up back when we fought?” Lance asks.

    “No, that’s far too dangerous. It compromised the space-time barrier last time.”

    “Actually…” Pidge says, fingers flying across a keyboard. “That was more about the way he did it, than what he did.” 

    “You think…”

    “If I’ve got this right then...”

    She keeps typing for a few more moments, then sends a file.

    Inside the Sincline cockpit, a mathematical equation appears on the side of his screen.

    “Lotor!” Pidge says. “If you control your energy output, I think you could safely slide back and forth to the unlimited quintessence field.” 

    His eyes widen at the mention of the field. His facial muscles twitch with horror.

“It might be the only way to-”

    “No!” He snarls, dismissing the equation to drive his mecha after Darktron again.    “I’ll never step foot in that place again! Never!”

    He unleashes a series of powerful blows, one after the other aimed at Darktron’s head. The swings are batted away as if they’d come from a child.

    “Really, I’m not sure I can believe you’re really me from this reality.” The Lotor inside Darktron mocks. He knocks aside Sincline’s  blade and swings Darktron’s sword at the other mecha’s chest. The blade carves a deep gash in Sincline’s armor. Undeterred, Sincline drives forward to swing again.

    “I consider myself a smart man. So how can you be so stupid as to join the side of this war doomed to fail? What possessed you to make such an idiotic choice?”

    “At least I made a choice! Instead of bending to Zarkon’s will yet again!”

     The response catches the Paladin Lotor off-guard enough that Sincline nearly lands a blow on Darktron’s head. Paladin Lotor blocks the thrust by the narrowest of margins. Honerva then blasts Sincline in the chest, hurling him backwards. His ragged breaths can be heard over the comm.

    Allura watches with a pained expression, as Lotor drives Sincline into motion one more time. Her knuckles are white on the throttles. 

    “We can’t just sit here!”

    “This is Keith, do we have anyone available to assist?” Keith says over the comm.

    “A bit tied up at the moment…” Matt says with a strained voice.

    “We are much the same, I’m afraid!” Skriel reports.

    “On our way!” Coran reports, “We’re almost done mopping up this backline!”

    “They won’t get here in time…” Allura says, almost to herself. “...if Lotor falls here, we really do lose.”

    Her expression hardens. She draws in a breath. She begins to glow with a light blue hue. Her hands crackle as energy drains from her into her lion. A flicker of light races across her console. 

    Sincline, cracked armor, one sword remaining charges at Darktron again.

    “We’re about to lose this form.” Honerva reports.

    “Then let’s take care of one last thing before we do…” Zarkon says.

    Darktron raises it's sword, the blade burning with violet flame. Still, Sincline charges, sword held before him.

    “Come on...come on…” Zarkron says with anticipation as the other mecha grows closer. Darktron swings blade fall down at Sincline one last time.

    The Blue Lion’s sonar cannon fires. Assaulted by the vibration of energy, Darktron's swing is thrown off ever so slightly. It misses Sincline, blade throwing an arc of energy that destroys several galra ships in the distance. Sincline uses the opening to thrust for Darktron’s face. Zarkon throws the mecha into motion, twisting it to avoid the blade. A grazing blow slides against Darktron’s cheek. 

    Furious, Zarktron drives Darktron forward and Sincline is flung backwards by a punch to the chest. Whirling on the Blue Lion, Zarkon shouts:

    “Raimon! Spear her!” 

    Allura tries to move her lion, but what little energy it’d regained had been spent by the cannon. 

    Raimon slams his bayard into place and the harpoon gun appears on Darktron’s shoulder. He moves to fire, but something stops him. 

    He stares at the Blue Lion, as if really seeing it for the first time. An image of Allura appears in his mind. He shakes his head, as if trying to dismiss the thought.

    My father...King Alfor would always fight to the bitter end to stop men like Zarkon! 

    He shudders at the memory of the voice, putting a hand to the side of his helmet.  A series of flashes: Altean burning. Zarkon standing over Alfor. Allura’s body in space.

    You belong to Zarkon! A voice screams in his head.

He fires but at the last minute shifts the aim. The harpoon goes well off course, missing The Blue Lion entirely.

    “You missed!?” Zarkon says, incredulous. “Why you useless little-”

    “Zarkon!” Honverva suddenly says. 

    He turns, a fraction of a moment too late to see Sincline swing. It's blade tears a horizontal line across Darktron’s body.

    The outer armor shatters, breaking into shards of violet light before disappearing. Darktron’s smaller unarmored form beneath is blown backwards.

    Everyone, the paladins, the dark paladins, even Lotor who struck the blow are completely taken aback by what just happened.

    Then a manic smile crossed Sincline Lotor’s lips.   

    He starts swinging.

    The Dark Paladins are still too stunned to block Sincline’s first swing. The blades flashes, scoring a violet scar across Darktron’s chestpiece. Darktron’s sword rises just barely in time to block the second swing. Sincline follows the swing up with a punch to Darktron’s face, sending the other mecha reeling.

    The Paladins for Voltron watch with astonishment. 

    “He...he might actually do it.” Allura says, eyes glued to Sincline’s assault.

    “I’m not so sure…” Keith replies, expression uncertain.

    Darktron shrugs off a kick from Sincline and drives it's blade forward, arcing for the other mecha’s head. Sincline blocks, but is still driven backwards. Darktron tries to press its advantages but Sincline wedges one arm under the blade into Darktron’s gut and lets loose with an energy blast from it's forearm.

    Darktron is rocked backwards and Sincline manages to land a glancing blow on Darktron’s shoulder.

    “What’s wrong!?” Lotor tauts from within Sincline. “Nothing to say now!? You were so confident earlier, what happened? Not so scary once I tore that armor off you are you!?”

    Taking his sword in both hands, he hammers his blade down against Darktron’s shield, driving the other mecha back with each blow.

    In spite of this, Zarkon’s face is unpaniced.

    “Raimon,” he says, “I trust you...momentary lapse was just that?”

    The other dark paladin hesitates before replying.

    “Raimon.” Zarkon says more forcefully. “Who is your master?”

    “You, Zarkon.” He replies immediately

    “Hm. When I tell you to use the harpoon you damn-well better hit the target this time.”

    “...yes...my lord.”

    “Now…”

    Sincline’s assault on Darktron’s shield has not lessened. In fact it's only increased, attacks growing in speed and ferocity. His unhinged laughter can be heard over the comms. Each blow drives the shield and Darktron back.

     And so he’s somewhat caught off-guard when Darktron drops the shield entirely. The mecha twists to the side, Sincline’s blade narrowly missing it's head. Darktron drives a fist into Sincline’s chest as it goes past. Sincline reeling, Darktron moves in, thrusts it's sword for Sincline’s head. He deflects and moves to retreat back and gain some breathing room.

     “Raimon!”

    The harpoon gun appears on Darktron’s shoulder and fires. It's harpoon sticks into Sincline’s chest and reels him in. He throws a haphazard swing as he’s drawn close but Darktron’s own blade knocks it aside. The two mechas smash together, spinning through space.

    “I think you’ve miscalculated Zarkron!” Sincline Lotor spits. “From this distance, I can’t miss!”

    With that declaration energy begins to build in Sincline’s chest.

    “I have made…” 

Darktron’s green arm reaches out to the side as Honerva slams her bayard into place.

    “...no miscalculation.”

    A dagger with a blade as dark as space itself appears in Darktron’s hand. It's driven point-first into Sincline’s gut.

    “You’ll have to do more than that to bring down my…”

    The energy gathering around Sincline’s chest fades. A new glow appears. Where the dagger stabs into the mecha’s armor, violet quintessence bleeds out, all sucked up by the blade.

    Alarms pop up all over the screens in Sincline’s cockpit. Lotor’s eyes widen with panic.

    “What did you think we based the robeasts spears on?” Honerva states.

    Sincline struggles to break free of the fatal embrace, driving a fist over and over into Darktron’s face. It fails to disengage the two. Each blow from Sincline lands a bit weaker than the last one.

    The Paladins watch the life bleed away for Sincline.

    It is then that the White Lion rockets towards the scene.

    “Paladins!” Coran says. “We’re here to assist!” 

    “Coran! The White Lion!”

    “Yes Princess! It worked! Now let’s see what we can do about those drained lions!”   

     “No wait, do not endanger yourselves!” 

    “With respect Princess, it's time for us to do our part in this fight.”   

    She hesitates. “...very well.”

    “Now then...initiate energy transfer!” 

    The White Lion opens its mouth and five tendrils of white energy shoot out to embrace the Lions of Voltron. 

    “Hold tight, Paladins. This might take a tick.”

They continue to watch the battle before them.

Darktron’s jets fire, pushing both mechas through space. Lotor watches Sincline’s energy-levels dwindle. They speed towards an asteroid behind Sincline. Making one last struggle, Sincline manages to pull his sword between the two of them and slice the tether holding them together. Then he kicks Darktron back, finally breaking the dagger’s vampiric connection. 

    Sincline hits the asteroid in a crouch, surface cracking underfoot. A quick consultation of energy-levels shows Lotor just how truly bad a shape he is in. Darktron hovers just above.

    “One last chance.” He says, gritting his teeth, brandishing his mecha’s sword. 

    Letting out a battle-cry, Lotor drives Sincline into motion, kicking off the asteroid to swing his sword with all the power he has left. The blade is a blur, almost too fast to be seen.

    Darktron is faster.

    It catches Sincline by the sword-arm mid-swing. 

     Darktron smashes Sincline back down into the asteroid, shattering its surface. Sincline tries to swing a punch with it's free-arm, but Darktron slams a foot down on that arm as well. 

    “It seems the Zarkon of this reality never quite managed your discipline properly. Allow me to rectify his mistake.”

    Darktron drives the blade down through Sincline’s shoulder. Zarktron slams his bayard into place.

    The Sword erupts into violet flames. The join shatters into molten bits, arm breaking free of the body.

    Lotor screams in pain as if he’d just lost his own arm. Still, he struggles to break free, Sincline writhing under Darktron’s foot.

    Darktron raises its other foot and slams it down into Sincline’s head.

    “You…” 

The foot slams down again, driving Sincline deeper into the asteroid.

    “...are…”   

    Again. Paladin Lotor winces. Honerva’s face is like a stone.

    “...NOTHING!”

 At the third hit, Sincline no longer struggles.

    Darktron raises its sword.

    “If you see your father wherever you’re going, tell him I’m going to take good care of this universe he left behind.”

    “Go to hell.” Lotor spits out, barely conscious.

    “I think you’ll be getting there first.”

    Darktron lets the sword drop.

    A blast of blue energy slams into Darktron hurling it off the asteroid. It takes only a moment for the Dark Paladins to right Darktron and turn to see who deprived them of the kill.

    Voltron, reformed, hovers across from then, Castle of Lions just behind. 

    Zarkon sneers. “Is everyone in this reality really so keen on being the first one to die!? Fine. Can we actually finish what we started this time?”

    “Sounds good to me.” Keith replies, eyes narrowing.

    Both mechas prepare to fly at each other.

    “Lord Zarkon!” Luca’s voice suddenly breaks out over the comm.

    “What is it!?” Zarkon demands.

    “The Array is ready!” 

    For a moment, all is still.

    The paladins of both Voltrons stare at each other, then at the distant Array, beginning to crackle with energy.

    Voltron and Darktron booster wings both materialize and erupt with fiery energy  as they race towards the Array.

    ***

    Admiral Sanda crawls from the wreckage of her broken fighter, atop an enemy galra cruiser. Her magnetic boots fasten her to the surface of the galra cruiser. In her hands is a Garrison-issue Las-gun. She’s making for the command tower. Long before she can make it a hatch opens and a galra sentinel climbs out. Sanda puts a hole in the first one’s head. It's replaced by another a moment later, gun blasting. She swears and takes cover behind a groove in the cruiser’s armor.

    More sentries climb out. A squad of five of them approach, blasting at her cover, keeping her pinned down.

    “Dammit.” She sighs. “Always knew I was gonna die in space. Couldn’t have been on a beach, could it? This is what I get for not taking my early retirement package.”

    The only reply comes in the form of more energy-blasts raining against her cover. Sanda sighs again. She checks her gun and gets ready to pop back out from cover. The sentries grow closer, stepping past another entry hatch. It opens behind them. 

    At the same time as Sand leaps out from behind cover, the new figure pounces from the hatch. She blasts a sentinel in the chest. The figure decapitates one from behind. She shoots another in the head. The figure cuts down the final two with a pair of swift delicate cuts. 

    Sanda lands in a crouch, panting. She studies the figure.

    The figure is a galra, clad in traditional military armor. But he holds a mamoran blade.

    “You one of our alien spies?” Sand sniffs.

    “I am Pavok, a Blade of Marmora. And you, are fortunate to have landed on this ship. We only managed to get agents on a few of them in advance of this attack.”

    Sanda scoffs. “I’ll count my lucky stars. Seems to be plenty of them around here.” She gestures to the cluster around them. 

“So...what now?”

    “I can help you secure a fighter from which to escape...”

    “Or?”

    “Or, I suppose you could join me in attempting to take the bridge.”

    “How’s our odds?”

    “Poor. We will likely perish.”

    Sanda considered. “Well, I’m already a day away from retirement.”

    “Ma’am?”

    “Might as well push my luck a little further, eh?”

    The Blade smiles. “Very well.”

***

        The rings of the Array crackle with energy, filtered through the robeasts and their altean pilots. The altean’s screams are unrelenting over the comms. 

    Voltron and Darktron rocket towards those rings, past the storm of warring ships around them as two blurs of light. They clash every few moments, blades meeting as they each try to throw the other off course. Neither give an inch.

     “Why must you make this so difficult!?” Zarkon demands. “Don’t you get tired of being beaten over and over!?”

    “We’re just stubborn like that! Never learn our lesson!” Keith retorts.

They clash again, waves of energy from their blades, blasting apart any fighters unfortunate enough to be nearby. 

    “For all the good it’ll do you! I am going to remake this universe in my own image!” 

    “No, you won’t! Because we’re stopping you right here! Allura!”

    The harpoon gun appears on Voltron’s shoulder. Darktron is unable to dodge from the close range and is speared. Voltron then stops suddenly, jerking the other mecha back before swinging it into the side of an enemy galra vessel. Votlron lets loose with hand-bladers obliterating the ship around Darktron.

    Voltron bursts back into motion, leaving Darktron behind in the debris. 

    Growling, Zarktron drives Darktron into motion after them. 

    “Sendak!”

    Darktron’s cannon fires, aimed straight for Voltron’s back. Voltron manages to dodge to the side, but is still grazed by the blast, throwing it into an erratic tumble and clipping the side of an asteroid. Darktron uses the opportunity to speed up and backhand Voltron through the center of the asteroid. Darktron takes the lead. 

    Keith drives Voltron back into maximum speed. But Darktron closes in on the Array.

“Hunk are we in range of those rings?”

“Yeah?”

“Turn ‘em to scrap!”

    Hunk’s cannon appears and fires.

    “No!” Zarkon refutes, pulling up to summon the greater shield and reflect the blast back at Voltron. Voltron doesn’t slow or dodge, instead taking the energy along the blade of its sword. Voltron swings, but rather than block, Zarkon allows the hit to cut into Darktron’s shoulder-armor. The Dark Paladins feel the pain of Voltron’s blade bringing through their armor. But by taking this hit Darktron is able to gain an opening to summon and stab its dagger into Voltron’s side.

    Immediately Darktron begins to drain Voltron of its quintessence.

Pidge dismisses the shield and clamps down on Darktron’s green arm, trying to pry it loose. But Voltron’s fading strength does not allow it to overcome Darktron’s own growing power.

    “That is game, little ones.” Zarkron says, triumphantly.

    Pidge doesn’t give up on trying to pry the other arm away. The other Paladins throw all their strength into disentangling the other mecha.

    “I’ve run the calculations.” Honerva says with a sigh. “You’re out of option.”

    Straining, Pidge cracks a pained smile. “I think you forgot to account for one irregular variable.”

    “Such as?”

    Pidge’s bayard port opens. “Us!” 

    She releases Darktron’s arm and slams her bayard into place. Voltron’s dagger appears in its hand, stabbing into Darktron’s side.

    The two mechas hang there in the space in front of the array, draining and recharging on each other in an unending loop. 

    “Think you said something about that being game!?” Keith taunts.

    Zarkon doesn’t reply at first, straining to pry away from the Voltron. It is just as futile as it was for Voltorn before. 

    But something catches his eye. He grins with malice. 

    “...and it is.”

    Luca’s robeast slams into the side of Voltron, tearing it off Darktron. Voltron knocks the robeats aside, but a new one behind slices Voltron’s back, throwing it into the strike of yet a third robeast.

    “We have them my Lords!” Luca declares as all three unleash blasts on Voltron.

    “...excellent.”

    Zarkron lets out a satisfied sigh, then turns to the Array, unimpeded. 

***

    From across the starfield, inside the battered and broken Sincline, Lotor rouses. He spits glowing purple blood from his mouth and sits up. Even that simple action causes him to grimace.

    He hits a few keys on his console and the viewport magnifies, showing Darktron and Voltron’s struggle. And he sees Voltron knocked back and forth by the robeasts. Watches as Darktron flies up to the Array and stretches out a hand towards the innermost rings. Energy crackles, ready to drain into Darktron unlimited power.

    He tries to force Sincline to rise. The mecha lets out a shudder of grinding metal and manages to get halfway up from rising before falling back down to the asteroid. 

    Lotor lies back in his seat, looking totally and completely drained.

    “So that’s it then…” 

    He closes his eyes in apparent acceptance. 

“...Zarkon wins...”

His brow twitches. He grits his teeth.

 Then suddenly, he sits back up, fingers flying across his console. He brings up Pidge’s calculations from earlier. He keys in the algorithm but stops before typing in the last number.

    He hesitates, then looks back across the starfield at Darktron about to receive the payload of the rings.

    Then drawing in a shuddering breath and wincing in anticipation of pain, Lotor keys in the final digit. 

    Sincline vanishes in a flash of light.

***

    The crackling energy throughout the rings swell. 

    “Yes…” Zarkon says with glee. “...the field is opening.”

    The energy traces down one ring after the other, finally it comes to the last one. A breach in the space above the ring opens, blinding light bleeding out. This flash of pure energy can be seen throughout the entire star cluster, dwarfing even that of the stars themselves.

    “Finally! Give it all to me! Unlimited-”

    Something flies through the breach. Trailing burning energy behind it, Sincline, blazing with quintessence flies down the middle of the ring and swings its one remaining fist into Darktron.

    Force of the blow, supercharged with quintessence, flings the other mecha halfway across the star cluster. The collective forces of both sides seem to pause in their relentless battle, universally gaping at the display. 

    And then, the Array unleashes its payload. It has only one place to go.

    Into Sincline. A storm of pure quintessence funnels into the mecha. 

    “...yes!” He says, laughing madly. “This absolutely agonizing ecstasy!”

    The fractures in its armor armor seal up. It gains a new arm, materialized out of raw energy.

“This wonderful euphoric pain! Just as magnificent and terrible as I remember! No...no that’s not right. More concentrated than before! It magnified! Such blissful torment!”

    The Paladins of Voltron watch with horrified awe. 

    “We’ve got to do something!” Lance says.

    “Agreed.” Keith says. “We don’t know what he plans to do with that power, so we’ve got to pull him out of there asap!”   

    Voltron moves towards Sincline. Before they can even get within arms reach a wave of energy releases from Sincline, blasting Voltron backwards.

    “Stay back! This power is mine!” 

    His face is contorted into anger for a moment, but quickly changes back to awe as he stares off at something seen only to him.

    “With this power I could do...anything.”

    Sincline glows brighter, more quintessence funneling in.

    “I could purge the galaxy of Zarkon’s influence. Undo every dark design he ever made. Change worlds for the better. Change every world for the better...”

    “Allura can you pull him out of there with the harpoon!?” Keith asks. 

    She stares at Sincline, glowing ever brighter. 

    “Allura?”

    She closes her eyes and sighs. 

    “Let me talk to him.”

    “But-”

    “-Keith. Do you trust me?”

    “...of course I do.” 

    “Then let me talk to him.”

    Keith looks like he wants to argue. He studies the other mecha and chews on his lip. Finally he sits back and nods. “...alright.”

    “Thank you.” She smiles gratefully, then opens a private comm channel. 

“...Lotor.”

    “I could fix it all...it's so simple…”

    “Lotor.” She says, more forcefully this time.

    He breaks from his reverie. “Allura...don’t you see?”

    “See what, Lotor?”

    “I could do anything. I could even bring them back.” 

    She hesitates. “You mean...the atleans you…”

    “The alteans I betrayed and murdered.” he says mournfully. But his voice quickly regains strength, taking on an almost manic tone. “I could undo it all! I could finally make it right, Allura! Maybe then...it’ll all have been worth it. Maybe then I’ll be able to sleep right. I...I could even rebuild altea itself!”

    For a moment she seems almost as taken with the idea as he is.

    “I could finally make up for-” His voice cracks. “-for all of my mistakes.”

    That breaks Allura from her musing. 

    “...no, Lotor. That isn’t right.”

    “What!? Why?” He demands.

    “Because this power is so much greater than you are. Don’t you see that this is what started you on your path to begin with? You’re still trying to gain enough power to fix everything you see wrong with the universe. But that isn’t your place Lotor. It's not up to you to decide who lives and who dies. No matter how powerful you are, you’re not a god. You’re just a man. 

    “And what’s so wrong with wanting to be more than a man!?” His voice takes on a pleading tone. “What’s wrong with just wanting things to be right? With wanting an end to all the suffering? Suffering that I had a big part in.”

“I know you’re trying to make those mistakes right now. But this isn’t the way. You don’t know what this power will do. To the things you change. To you. Look at what just a fraction of this did to Zarkon.”

“But…” his voice grows weak. “...they trusted me, Allura. They trusted me. If I don’t try to bring them back how will I ever live with myself?”

“By taking responsibility for what you did. Not trying to make it so it didn’t happen.”

His face grows somber. 

“I just...just wanted to take care of them. Just wanted to do this one thing, to finally put things right for my people.”

“I know...and part of me wants to tell you to do it. To rebuild everything our people lost. To bring back all those wrongfully killed. But a deeper, more honest part of me, the part that my father taught, knows that it would not turn out like you plan. That power, even if used for good, would corrupt you. Just let it go Lotor.” 

His face is a mask of warring emotions. “I...I’m not sure I know how. I’m not sure I even know how to do the right thing.”

“Yes you do. No matter what you’ve done, no matter what I or anyone else has said before, you aren’t Zarkon. You can still let this go.”

“He gives the slightest of nods. 

“And Lotor?”

“Yes?” 

“One more thing: The altean people aren’t your responsibility. They’re mine.”

He hesitates, then smiles. 

“...as usual, you’re right. Alright, Princess. I guess it's time for me to recognize my own responsibility...”

And then he opens the comms to everyone.

“Attention to all alteans listening!”

Allura’s eyes widen. 

“My name is Lotor. And I am not that imposter that has been using you these past months. I am the real one. I know you. Vatta, Dramor, Lagmor. Romelle, Sahan, Merv. Venjya, Astras, Leynor...and Luca.”

    Luca’s eyes widen.

    “...and so many others. I’ve known you your entire lives. I brought you together when you were exiled across the galaxy. I built you a home in a place where Zarkon would never find you. I watched you raise a statue in my image, and I did not stop you. And then I took your own from you bit by bit, in the promise of a new, greater home. I gave you hope in the darkest of times…

He takes in a shuddering breath.

“...and it was all lies.”

    The faces of alteans all across the battle grow shocked.

    “I tore them away from you to use for experiments. To get more quintessence. I told myself it was in the name of building a better home for alteans. But in truth I was draining innocent alteans of their life force...until they died. I killed dozens of them for the ‘greater good’. I betrayed and murdered those who trusted me the most. I said I cared, but In the end I used you for my own goals.” 

    He stares down at his hand, reflecting on his own words.

    “...and the imposters you serve now are no better! Those dark liars are not here for your salvation! They’re just more opportunists come along to use you, just as I used you! Look at your brothers and sisters stuck in this Array you built for them! Do you not hear their screams? Do you not feel their pain!?”

    The screams seem to grow louder. Prince Lotor, inside Darktron racing back towards the Array, looks almost as haunted as his counterpart. Inside her robeast, Luca’s hands weaken on her controls. 

“...but there is someone here, someone fighting in this very battle who has never once done anything except for the good of you. Someone who would give her own life and suffer a thousand pains to prevent even a single altean from experiencing what I put them through. It's Princess Allura, of the true Voltron. She’s struggling to help you even now, as you fight her tooth and nail. I will not tell you to fight for her. I won’t tell you to do anything any longer. I just ask that you look inside and see the truth of what I say! You know. You’ve felt it. Decide who you really want to fight for!”

He lets out a sigh and closes the comm. 

    “You’ve done the right thing, Lotor.” Allura says.

    “I...suppose I have.”

    Sincline’s glow continues to grow brighter. The alteans in the Array continue to scream.”

    “...now, how do I stop this?! It's killing them!”

    He tries to push the energy back through the rings of the Array, but it is like trying to stem the tide of the ocean with a hand. It washes over his efforts and drains back into Sincline.

    “I can’t seem to stop it!” 

    “That won't do it!” Pidge says. “The breach is open now. Even if you could stop it from flowing into you, the tear would just grow and grow until it rips reality apart!”

    “Do you have a suggestion of how to avoid that then!?”

    She runs some calculations.

    “...you need to turn it back in on itself. Make the energy work to contain the breach.”

    “You mean…”

    “You need to make a black hole. It's the only way to keep the breach from growing in size.”

    Lotor chuckles. “Then I shall make a black hole.”

With that Sincline throws both of its hands back through the Array, and unleashes the energy it's gathered back directly into the breach. At first the flow starts to spill past, but he redoubles his efforts, and soon an orb begins to grow where the rift opens to the array.

    “He’ll need a lot of mass to toss into the black hole.” Hunk points out. “Otherwise it won't be able to sustain itself and will just invert again.”

    “Attention all Coalition Forces!” Keith orders. “We need uh...mass. Anything you can get. Asteroids, debris, enemy ships. Shove it all into the orb. We need to turn it into a black hole. This is priority number-one. Now to get those alt…”

    Keith’s voice trails off as Luca and the four remaining robeasts approach. Voltron and the robeasts are both still for a tantalizing moment, light from the orb dancing across their armor. 

    “...what do we need to do to save them?” Luca finally says.

    Allura allows herself the slightest of smiles. 

    “Start pulling them off one by one! But it's going to get harder, and more dangerous as each one is pulled off. The energy draining through will get more and more concentrated. So you’ll have to pull off the last five in sync or the strain will kill them.”

    “Understood.” 

Luca makes a move past them, but hesitates.

“...you saved me. Even after I betrayed you.”

“I’d do it again.” Allura replies.

Luca ever so slightly nods to herself. She and the other robeast move past Sincline, sparing not a glance for the mecha or it's pilot. They each grab another robeats on the widest ring, and strain to pull them out. The energy crackles around them, trying to keep them within the Array. But after a time, they are able to rip several of their comrades free. A few of the screams die down. They move onto the next ones.

    Keith sighs with relief. “That’s one thing out of the way. Now-”

    Darktron smashes into Voltron at so fast a speed that it's sent hurling back through space. 

    “...you ignorant, childish, FOOLS!” Zarkon bellows. “You took what was mine! You think just because you delayed my plans that you’ve stopped me!? You will never stop me! Even if it takes me a thousand years, and I have to bleed dry a thousand realities, I will have what is mine!”

    He lets loose another blast upon Voltron. Voltron throws up it's shield blocking the blast, but a second impact drives into Voltron.

    The World Bane hovers behind, hammer outstretched.

    “Go on my lord, do what you have to.”

“Try to keep those children occupied.” Zarkon says, as Darktron plunges it's dagger into the nearest robeast. The energy begins to bleed into Darktron. “I’ve some energy to recover.”

The energy drains not just from the robeast’s core, but from the young altean boy in the cockpit as well. He starts to scream. Inside the red arm, Prince Lotor stares at the scene, disturbed. He glances at the alteans still suffering inside the Array, then over to Sincline. His gaze falls.

    “...I’m sorry.” He says quietly.

    He is not the only one who watches. Raimon does as well. And his hands grow tighter on his controls.

***

    Sanda and Pavok crouch in the corridor leading into the bridge. They trade shots with the ship’s bridge personnel. The blasted remains of the door lie on the floor in front of them. The clanking of metal boots sounds behind as a team of sentinels approaches their rear. 

    Pavok passes Sanda a grenade which she promptly tosses behind her. There’s an explosion followed by sentinel parts rattling across the floor.

    Keith’s voice comes over the comm. “Attention all Coalition Forces! We need uh...mass. Anything you can get. Asteroids, debris, enemy ships. Shove it all into the orb. We need to turn it into a Black Hole. This is priority number-one.” 

    Sanda shares a look with Pavok. “Did he just say they’re trying to make a Black Hole?”

    “He did.” Pavok confirms, throwing his blade into the chest of a bridge officer, before shooting another.

    Sanda shakes her head. “You know I still remember a time when we didn’t even know for sure that aliens even existed?”

    “Life takes you strange places.” The Blade says, dashing into the bridge.

    Sanda gives him cover-fire as he makes for the blade he threw. He wrenches it from the chest of the officer and swings it in a wide arc, dispatching the remaining officers in a single sweep of his blade. 

    Sanda steps inside, keeping her gun on the hallway she just exited. She eyes the remains of the door.

    “Wish we hadn’t had to blow that thing. We won’t be able to hold this location for long.”

    As if in agreement, the sound of more metal boots rings out from somewhere further down the corridor.

     “Then we’ll have to make our time here count.” 

Pavok goes to the controls. On the viewport at the front of the bridge, a display of the battle is shown. Darktron struggles with the robeasts, while behind, the glowing orb grows larger. Countless cruisers from both sides still blast away at each other.

    “We might be able to get one shot off and destroy or cripple another ship. That’s about the best we can hope for.” Pavok says. 

    Sanda considers. Then, a smile grows on her face.

    “...can you put us on a collision course?”

    Pavok gives a quizzical tilt of his head.

    “That ship over there looks mighty close to that big orb, there. They said they needed mass. What’s say we give them two cruisers worth of it?”

    Pavok smiles. “I’m starting to like you, human.”

    “Then I must be doing something wrong.” She replies flatly, though a tinkle of a smile still enters her eyes.

     Pavok keys in a series of commands into the control, then throws a throttle forward. The ship lurches with the sudden forward momentum. It makes for a nearby sister-cruiser, hovering not far from the orb. Sanda then shoots the console, rendering it unusable. 

    Pavok nods in approval. “Now, we really ought to get off this ship.”

***

    The commander of the enemy galra ship realizes what the approaching ship is doing far too late. The hijacked cruiser smashes into the other, driving both towards the orb. Sanda and Pavok watch it from a galra fighter, racing away from the scene.

     The two ships, upon contact with the orb, rupture, armor melting to slag. Then their internal frames begin to warp, drawing in towards the orb. Finally, they break apart into shards. Shards that are swallowed by the orb. 

    The orb then dims, not satisfied by just the solid material it consumed. It must feat upon the light itself too. It grows darker, light around it starting to distort. Yet the bright scar of the breach remains where Sincline still blasts into it. 

     Sanda whistles.

    “Hot damn. They really are making a black hole.”

    The change seems to go unnoticed by Darktron and the battling robeasts.

    “Should we provide aid?” Pavok suggests.

    “I think...we should stick to more conventional fighting. We’ve tempted fate enough for one day. Let’s let the giant robots fight the giant robots.”

***

The World Bane brings it's hammer down on Voltron a second time, smashing it to fall towards one of the nearby planets. Voltron pulls itself up before plummeting into the atmosphere, but the World Band smashes it's hammer again, trying to drive Voltron down further. Voltorn resists the blow with its shield, struggling to hold its ground.

    “We don’t have time for this!” Keith exclaims.

    “Huhuh, really? Because I do.” Ru’vak remarks. A blast erupts from it's single eye, taking Voltron off-guard. Voltron, struck in the face, falls back with it's guard slipping open. The World Bane raises it's hammer to swing once more, but before it can attack further the White Lion swoops in to let loose a mouth blast. The World Ban blocks with it's shield, energy washing over the dark metal. Before it can mount a counter-attack the Atlas and Paladin Crusher both smash into its back.

“I’m surprised. I thought after the thrashing I gave you two, you’d have the good sense to stay down.”

The two mechas are indeed battered, armor cracking or even ripped off in some places. But still they struggle.

“You’ll-” Skriel lets out a hacking cough, “H-have to do more than that to keep up down!” 

“Y-yeah we’re stubborn like that!” Matt adds. 

They do their best to restrain the larger mecha while the White Lion sprays it with energy-blasts.

“We’ve got this, go on!”   

“Thanks guys!” Keith replies

    Voltron rockets back towards where Darktron is attacking the robeasts.

    The World Bane tosses the Paladin Crusher off it's arm, then swings the Atlas in front of the White Lion’s blast, forcing it to take the blow. Then it launches forward and swings it's bladed shield for the Lion’s neck. White Lion manages to block with its jaw-blade. Barely. It is still flung back, tumbling in orbit over the planet.     

    The Paladin Crusher is the first to recover. It throws itself at the World Bane. It grapples the other mecha to try to keep it from using its powerful melee weapons. The Paladin Crusher opens it's maw to fire it's mouth-blaster while the World Bane fires it's eye-blaster at the same time. The two beams of destructive energy meet, equalizing for a moment in a torrent of glowing light. But the World Bane’s soon overcomes that of the Paladin Crusher. The blast smashes into the Crusher face, tossing it backwards. Meanwhile the Atlas tries to thrust an armblade into the Bane’s exposed back.  

    “Vinas Perth.” Ru’vak utters as his mecha swings a roundhouse kick into the Atlas sending it spinning back. “Ancient galra martial arts form.”

    Finally, the White Lion makes another dash at the enemy mecha, this time swinging an energy-wreathed claw. The World Band simply tilts it's hammer and drives the back of the haft into the White Lion’s underbelly. 

“Dalas stuk, modern galra military staff-fighting.”

    Alteans go tumbling inside the White Lion as it is thrown backwards again.

    “So undisciplined.” Ru’vak sighs.

    “Things-” Matt coughs, “Looking pretty bad, huh?”

    “Sure seems that way, oho.” Skriel says weakly.

    “Well then,” Coran says, oddly still chipper. “What say we use that secret weapon we’ve been saving.”

    “You wanna use that eh?” Matt muses.

    “If you must.” Skriel scoffs. “Though I resent having to team up with a bunch of humans and alteans in such a...uncomfortably close manner.”

    “No time for that now, it's time to get snug! Coran?”

    “Right away! Initiating combination!”

    Coran slams both hands down on the controls. The White Lion begins to split apart. Meanwhile Matt activates something on his own fixture, and the Atlas’s armor opens up in an accommodating manner. Thirdly, the Paladin Crusher splits back to four individual pieces. The White Lion wraps itself over the Atlas’ head and shoulders. The four warlord ships then each attach themselves to one of Atlas’ limbs, making them longer and thicker. Finally, everything seals together and the armor takes on a golden lustor.

    “Presenting for the first time ever: Leon Guardian!” 

    The new mecha rips a glowing lance into existence. 

    “...well now, huhuhu!” Ru’vak says, sounding excited. “Finally, and interesting development!”

    He bears his hammer in both hands. “Let us dispense with the tricks and tools and simply pit strength against strength!”

    “Fine by us!” Matt declares.

    The two mecah change at each other, Leon Guardian with his Lance, World Bane with it's hammer. But right before the two meet, The World Bane suddenly reactivates it's shield, deflecting the lance, opening the Guardian up for a sidelong blow with the hammer.

    “Vintas sen, pit-fighting, naive ones!” He bellows in victory as the rocket-powered hammer swings for the Leon Guardian’s head. But the guardian, already in motion, twists to spin a backfist into the World Bane’s face. The World Bane hammer soars over the Guardian’s head, thrown off-course by the blow. Ru’vak is stunned.

    “Altean fisticuffs, my good man!” Coran declares.

    Ru’vak tries to swing an elbow into the other mecha’s side but it's blocked and countered by a knee to the abdomen by the Guardian.

    “Garrison combat training!” Matt yells out.

    As a last ditch effort, the World Bane’s eye glows, preparing to fire.   

    “And this!...well I guess you’d just call it galran drunken brawling technique!” Skriel cries as the World Bane is grabbed by the neck and the Leon Guardian smashes it's head into the other mecha’s.    

    The armor on the World Bane’s head cracks, single eye bleeding energy.

    “Th-that…” Ru’vak stammers. “...was really quite impressive.”

    Coran, Matt and Skriel grin. “Glad you thought so!” they say in unison. “Now…”

The Leon Guardian back it's lance once more, glowing with a golden light.

    “Starlight-Lance Attack!”

    It drives the lance straight through the World-Bane’s chest. It busts out the other end, the World Bane’s core impaled on it's tip. The Guardian flicks the core off to spin out and explode in the planet’s atmosphere, while the World Bane goes limp behind.

    “You sure were tough...but you were fighting the combined power of humans, alteans and galra today.” Matt says.

    “Ohoho and most importantly, the great Skriel!”

    Coran chuckles. “Yes, one cannot forget that.” 

     “Well played…” Ru’vak says, smiling. “...very well played.”

***

        Raimon watches Darktron finish draining a robeast. He is greeted with memories of a burning altea, screams of the pain mirroring that of the altean they drain. But the image vanishes, replaced by an image of Zarkon’s glowing eyes. 

    You belong to Zarkon. Honverva’s voice says in his mind.

    Darktron casts the sapped robeast aside, and launches at the next one. They take evasive action, pulling away from the advancing mecha and firing blasts of energy. Darktron blocks the blasts on it's shield.

    “They think they can run? Alteans. Raimon, reel one in.”

    Raimon immediately summons the harpoon gun and takes aim. 

    Voltron dashes in front of them. 

“No! You’ve done enough to them!” Allura cries. “You will hurt no more of my people today!

My people...

    Raimon is confronted by a series of images. A youthful Allura. Her mother. Alfor trying to stop Zarkon. Alfor failing. Altea burning. Everything burning. Zarkon laughing. 

    She fought to the end...too much like her father…

    An image of Allura dead, in the void of space.

Honerva with a hand over his face.

    You belong to Zarkon. 

    A pulse of pain in the form of violet lighting.

    You belong to Zarkon.

    More pain.

    You belong to Zarkon. You belong to Zarkon. You belong to Zarkon!

Zarkon! Zarkon! Zarkon!

    The voice screams at him.

    ZARKON!

    Then, silence.

...if you’re Alfor, then I know there must be some part of you still fighting him!

His body stiffens.   

“Raimon!” Shouts Zarkon, the real one, not a memory. “What are you waiting for? Spear them now!”

Raimon stares out the viewport at Voltron. He reaches out towards the blue leg as if feeling something from there. Then, he looks up at the sword held in Voltron’s grip. He remembers when he held that blade. His eyes clear, as if from a fog. His hand tightens into a fist. 

“Raimon!” Zarkon yells again.

“...Alfor.”

“...what did you say?” Zarkon asks, voice as cold as the vacuum of space.

    “My name...is King Alfor.” His voice gains strength, “And I do not serve you, Zarkon!”

    All is silent for an eternal, chilling second. Allura's face goes from disbelief to tearful amazement.

    For the barest moment Zarkon seems lost for words. He shakes himself.

    “I don't have time for this.” He shoves Darktron into motion, aiming for the next robeast. Alfor throws his throttles in the opposite direction, resisting Zarkon. But the other Dark Paladins join in to overwhelm Alfor’s resistance. Voltron moves forward.

    “You’ll have to get through us!” Keith declares.

    “Will I?” 

    Darktron turns, cannon appearing, but rather than aiming at Voltron, it takes aim at Sincline, still forming the now-dark orb. Keith curses under his breath throwing Voltron into motion. It barely gets the shield up in time to take the brunt of the blast meant for Sincline. Voltorn is still sent hurling blackward by the force of the beam.

    Darkon launches itself at the next robeast, sinking the dagger in. 

    “That’s it…” Zarkon says. “...just a little more.”

    Luca swings at Darktron’s back. Lotor blocks with the sword.

    “I can’t let you do that, my lord.” She says the title with disdain.

    Prince Lotor winces. She drives forward, thrusting for Darktron’s chest. Lotor’s hesitance, along with Alfor’s sudden jerk of motion lets her land a glancing blow across Darktron’s side. It forces Darktron to release the robeast, but by that point the mecha has been largely drained.

     Luca swings again. The blow is deflected by Lotor, but at the last moment she splits her spear and plunges the additional blade into Darktron’s shoulder.

    She smiles in a self-satisfied way, waiting for the energy drain to begin. It does, but the energy does not flow into Luca’s robeast.

    “Did you really think we would design weapons that could be used against us?” Honerva says.

    Luca’s energy begins to bleed into Darktron, from her very own blade. Then Honerva plans the dagger in, draining the mecha even faster. She howls in pain, as her lifeforce begins to be extracted.

    “Stop this!” Alfor demands.

    “Never!” Zarkon snarls.

    Prince Lotor looks sick.

    “...is this what you want, Lotor?”

    The Prince looks struck to have been addressed.

    “Is this to be your legacy? The man who never raised a hand?”

    “Shut up you old fool!” Zarkron barks. “That boy will never step out of line, not for this or any other reason. Do you know why? Because unlike you he understand that I am the most powerful-”

    Lotor swings his sword into the dagger, breaking the connection. Luca stares in shock.

    “...enough.” Lotor says, eyes hardening. “We’ve done enough harm. To this reality and to the last.”

    Zarkon says nothing, fury burning so hot it seems to radiate off him. Alfor smiles widely. 

    Voltron races towards them once more. 

Zarkon tries to push Darktron into motion again, but both Prince Lotor and Alfor resist him this time.

    “...is this truly how you feel, son?” Honerva askes in a quiet voice. 

    “Yes. Do what you must.” Lotor says, sounding both exhausted and relieved.

    “I will kill you for this.” Zarkon says, matter-of-factly.

    “No you won’t.” Honerva decides. “Sendak, it's time.

    And then she and Sendak both hold back Darktron. All four limbs of Darktron splay out all in different directions, crippling the mecha’s movement.

    “What are you doing!?” Zarkon demands.

    “Choosing my son.”

    “Sendak…”

    “Is mine. Always has been. Or did you forget who gave him that arm?”

    Zarkon’s hands tremble with unmitigated fury.

    “Traitors! Every single one of you!”

    “I’ve been called worse.” Honerva says.

    “It's over, Father.” Lotor says. “We ought to split up and go our separate way. Perhaps if we’re lucky they won’t find us.”

    “Coward! I’m to be ruler of the universe! You think I would settle for hiding in the shadows!?”

    “You won’t be anything when we’re done with you!” Keith says, approaching in Voltron. He shakes his head at the display. “Even your own Paladins turned on you. Reap what you sow.”

    Lance summons the sword. “Wanna take care of ‘em?”

    “Yeah.” Keith says, narrowing his eyes.

    Voltron moves in to swing down for Darktron’s head.

    Time seems to slow for Zarkon. Everything he’s ever done, the expansion of the Galra Empire, commanding Voltron, descending into the Quantum Abyss, ripping apart his own reality to gain further power. He sees all of it blowing away in a pitiful gust of wind.

    “NO!” He bellows, voice reverberating throughout Darktron. Dark tendrils of violet energy crackle across the mechas. The tendrils wrap around the limbs of the other Dark Paladins, searing into them.

    “Wha-what is happening!?” Lotor asks.

    “His...connection to our Voltron…” Honerva says, voice strained.“...too strong...he’s subverting our own connections....” Her voice descends into a cry of pain.

    A moment before Voltron’s blade can strike Darktron, the tendrils force the Dark Paladins into motion. Five bayards slam into their slots.

    A flash of blinding violet energy engulfs the scene. Voltron swings.

    The Armored Darktron catches the blade in its hand.

    Zarkon cackles madly. Tendrils tie the other Dark Paladins to their throttles. Voltron strains to pull its sword free of Darktron’s grasp. It is a futile effort. 

    “Did you traitors really think you could turn Voltron against me!? And you children, thought you could match a fraction of my strength!? I am Emperor Zarkon! And all bows before me!” He cries, voice growing in it's mania. “A-and now that you...you took my chance at victory, I’m going to take everything from you! I will tear all of you apart! Slowly, painfully until you beg for death!”

    Darktron punches Voltron so hard it sends a shockwave rippling through space that sends the robeasts flying in every direction. Voltron rockets backwards, but  Darktron launches forward and snatches hold of the mecha again, dragging it's momentum back to a jerking halt.

    “How shall I do it!? Should I rip you apart limb by limb and crush you slowly one at a time? Or maybe…” He turns towards Sincline, “...I’ll just make you watch your reality die in front of you!”

    “No!” Keith yells, trying for all his might to drive Darktron backwards. But a blow from Darktron rattles Voltron so hard it nearly knocks all of the Paladins unconscious. Zarkon then drives Darktron into motion and they both start rocketing towards Sincline.

    “Are you ready to feel that blissfully sweet pain of the quintessence field before you watch it rip apart everything you’ve ever loved!?” Zarkon cackles to himself.

    They race forward in a blur, ready to smash into the mecha that is the only thing hiding back the raging tides of the unlimited quintessence field.

    A golden blur smashes into the side of them, knocking Darktron off-course and throwing Voltron free. Zarkon turns to see the Leon Guardian, lance outstretched. 

    “Hope we’re not interrupting.” Matt says. 

     “Is there no end to you miserable whelps!?” Zarkon rips Darktron’s sword into existence and clashes with the Leon Guardian.

    Meanwhile, Voltron shakes off it's earlier damage and makes as if to move into the fray.   

    “Wait!” Pidge says, drawing them to a halt. “If we just keep throwing ourselves at that think we’re just going to get trashed again.”

    “You got a better suggestion?” Keith asks. “Because I don’t think we’re gonna get lucky enough to wait out that armor a second time.”

    “I do, Keith. Because we now know how they get the armor: it's about power. Zarkon couldn’t form the armor again until he’d drained enough quintessence from Sincline and the robeasts.”

    “But how are we supposed to get that kind of power? The White Lion is a little occupied at the moment.”

    “...we’ll do it.”

    Luca, her two remaining robeast lieutenants, and a small handful of robeasts recovered from the Array approach.

    “We’ll give you everything we have left.”

    “We can’t let you-” Allura starts to say.

    “-Princess. This battle does not leave us with much choice.” 

    She hesitates, but sighs and nods, “...I understand. Do as you will, brave ones.”

    Luca nods to her compatriots and they thrust their spears into Voltron’s armor. Blue energy pulses from their own mechas down their spears into Voltron.

    Meanwhile, Darktron continued to clash with the Leon Guardian in brilliant displays of gold and violet light. 

    “Another fine machine of war!” Zarkon declares, knocking aside a lance thrust. He movies in for a decapitating swung, but the Guardian narrowly dodges.

    “But do you know the problem with it!?”

    He swings his sword in an overhead arc, forcing Leon Guardian to block. He swings, once, twice, three times. The golden lance cracks. The Guardian fients for a counter with the weapon, but then swings a high kick for Darktron’s face. Zarkon bats the blow aside and brings the sword down one more time. 

    “It's not VOLTRON!” 

    The lance shatters, and the resulting blast of energy flings the Leon Guardian backwards across the starfield.

    “Almost there…” Luca says, energy continuing to drain into Voltron. On robeasts falls back, spent.

    Darktron turns once more towards Voltron. A pair of robeasts break off and try to slow him. They are batted away like insects. Two more fall limp, energy spent into Voltron. Only Luca remains. Darktron surges forward.

    “Do me a favor, if you all truly wish to save my people…” Luca says. “...win.”

    Her robeast goes limp, energy spent. All five of the paladins bayard slots open.  

Darktron swings.

    The Five Paladins of Voltron slam their bayards into place. A blinding blue light shines out in the cluster. And Darktron’s blade meets it's twin.

    Voltron it it's own Armored Form, locks swords with the Armored Darktron. And while the two great mechas only paused for the barest fraction of a millisecond, it seemed an eternity for those watching. An instant, that could last forever. 

    Keith smirks. 

    “Too late, Zarkon. You’re about to experience something you never have in your entire life: A fair fight.”

     The instant ends.

    Voltron and Darktron seemed to disappear for a moment. They reappear again off to the side, blades clashing in destructive waves of energy. Vanishing and appearing again up above with another clash of swords. So quick their moment, nearly instantaneous to the onlookers. Clash, vanish. Clash, vanish. Waves of destruction, rippling out through the fabric of the reality itself. The universe watches with bated breath. The battle between the two Voltrons, a singularity of war. 

    Matt is the first forced out of the trance, when he thinks to move the Leon Guardian out of the way of one of the destructive waves of light. And with that the universe seems to remember it's still at war with itself.   

    The cluster, lit up once again with the hailstorm of energy-blasts and rains of ion beams. Throughout it all, Voltron and Darktron fight. 

     ***

    Darktron smashes it's blade against Voltron’s shield, sending the other mecha to crash down into a small planet, rupturing it's surface. Lava spews out from the cracks Voltron’s collision left. In a fraction of an instance, Voltron launches itself back up in orbit, pummeling Darktron with its reply: Three strikes in such quick succession that they may as well happen at once.

     Darktron rockets back to smash into the sister-planet of the one it tossed Voltron into. Voltron follows at a blinding rate. A moment after Darktron hits the surface Voltron crashes into it. 

    It grabs the other mecha, dragging it across the planet’s face, ripping up a massive canyon in the ground. Zarkron lets out a mighty bellow and pushes his boosters into overdrive, forcing both mechas back up. They cruise back out into space, still entangled.

    “You need to think bigger children!” Zarkon cackles, “Much bigger!”

    He drives Voltron backwards, towards the nearby sun. The Paladins try to resist, but their strength is equal.

    “He’s got gravity on his side!” Pidge notes.

     Indeed they’re close enough that the sun’s own gravity begins to draw them towards it. They fall deeper into the star’s clutches, entering it's corona, burning hydrogen surrounding them.

    Warnings go off on all screens, Paladins beginning to feel the inconceivable heat even through Voltron’s armor.

    “What’s wrong Zarkon, giving up on winning and just trying to kill us both!?” Keith taunts.

    “No, just betting you die first!” Zarkon barks in reply. 

    The Paladins throw all their power into their throttles, but they can only slow the inevitable. Armor of both mechas glow red in the heat as they sink deeper.

    “There!” Pidge indicates a swelling in the star’s surface. “A coronal mass ejection!”

    The Paladins shift gears, moving their efforts away from resisting Darktron’s push and into diverting their path. Unprepared for the sudden shift in motion, Zarkon is not able to stop them from the sudden change in direction. A burst of pure plasma blasts both mechas far out of the sun’s reach. They tumble, power of the ejection finally disentangling them.

    Voltron is the first to recover, shooting towards it's enemy.

    “Try this on for size!” Lance yells, swinging Voltron’s sword with all his might.   

    The slash catches Zarkron off-guard and sends the mecha soaring back. Voltron follows, making for another slash.

    But nanoseconds before the blow would have landed, Zarkron summons the shoulder-cannon and fires. Voltron takes the blast in full and is forced back by the wave of pure energy. It rockets back, clipping a moon, tearing a sizable chunk off it's surface. Finally Voltron smashes down to the planet the moon orbits, leaving a massive crater.

    Darktron plunges down, sword poised to impale Voltron and pin it down to the surface. Allura activates the harpoon gun and fires. Darktron straits to the side, narrowly missing the harpoon.

    “You missed!” He says with glee, the sword pulled back to land home.

    “Did I!?” Allura replies.

    Zarkron, glances behind him, too late. The moon, speared by Voltron, smashes into Darktron’s back. Voltron barely manages to jet out of the way, as Darktron is crushed between the planet and its moon. Shards of stone the size of cities fly out as the moon is pulverized against its mother planet. A cloud of dust is blown into the atmosphere. Where the moon struck, an ocean of lava bubbles up where the planet’s crust was so thoroughly sundered.

    Darktron lays in that molten sea, still for a moment. It begins to stir. 

Voltron doesn’t give it a chance. It smashes into Darktron, full force.

Both are buried deep into the planet’s mantle, but Voltron isn’t done, blasting it's booster wings to drive them further. They cut through impossibly hot liquid metal, tearing through the core itself. They pass back through the mandle, to smash out the other side of the planet. The two mechas rocket back out into orbit, dripping magma.

    There both pause for a moment. All the Paladins are panting with the exertion of the previous task. Zarkron’s breath comes labored over the comm.

    “Not...bad. But not...good enough.”

    Darktron shakes itself, spraying droplets of magma into space. 

    “This bout...has cost us both much of what we gained.”

    “H-he’s..right.” Pidge pants out in confirmation. “Running low...on power...can’t maintain this armor...too much longer.”

    “So, instead of simply waiting each other out, why don’t we finish this in a more...dramatic location?”   

    With that, Darktron rockets off towards the growing Black Hole. Voltron follows. 

***

    The Leon Guardian shoves another asteroid into the dark maw of the Black Hole. The asteroid quickly breaks up and turns to dust. The light-distorting midnight orb is developing a blazing accretion disk where matter moving too fast to get sucked within the Black Hole collects. 

    “How much more does this thing need?”

    “J-just...a...bit!” Sincline Lotor says, voice strained.

    “That was the last of the larger asteroids.” Coran points out.

    “Hmm…” Matt ponders. “Think we could get enough thrust to move a moon? No, forget that. It would take us too long to speed it up fast enough to break one out of orbit.”

    “Enemy ships?”

    “They’ve all pulled back from the breach by now. They aren’t in full retreat yet, but they might as well be.”

    “I’ve got an idea.” Skriel says, the smile on his face clear through his voice.

    He points.

    “Oooh, I like that idea.”

    The broken World Bane still hovers in orbit of a nearby planet.

    “Ohoho, Ru’vak! I sure hope you installed escape pods in that thing!”

    “Wait what are you…” Ru’vak’s voice pauses over the comm. “...oh stars.”

    “This is for all that cleaning duty you made me do back in basic training!” 

    And with that the Leon Guardian grabs the World Bane and hurls it at the Black Hole. A handful of small pods jettison out before the World Bane reaches the point of no return. It crumbles in on itself, before fracturing into smaller and smaller pieces. It begins to be ripped into atoms, from front to back, as the spaghettification effect does it's dark work. Soon there is nothing, at least nothing that can be perceived by the onlookers, as even the reflected is swallowed by the Black Hole.

    “That...should be enough for n-now!” Lotor says, still blasting with Sincline. The breach is still just barely visible, as a dim scar where what little of it's light and energy can still escape the Black Hole’s appetite. “I can hold it by myself now. Get those last alteans out of there before this thing gets too big!”

    “What about you?”

    “This mecha is still a part of the breach. I need to hold it until the very end.”

    “Oh…”

    “Get them out of there.” Lotor repeats, more forcefully this time.   

    “...alright. Hate to say it but let’s split up, gang.”

    “It was a pleasure fighting together with you all.” Coran says.

    “Until the next time we need to sully our hands by joining with our lessers!” Skriel agrees.

     The Leon Guardian splits back into the Atlas, the Paladin Crusher and the White Lion. One by one they start pulling robeast out of the Array. With each one they pull out the crackling energy of the Array tries harder to keep the robeasts in its grasp. Finally they get to the final ring and the last five robeast. 

    Coran in the White Lion turns back to the robeasts they just pulled free.

    “Are any of you in any kind of shape to help us?” Coran asks.

     After a pause, a pair of them raise shaky arms.

    “Good enough. We’ve got to pull your brothers and sisters out at the same time, or they won’t survive the strain. Matt?”

    “I’ll count us down.”

    The Atlas, Paladin Crusher, White Lion and two robeasts, each grab one of the remaining robeasts from the Array. 

    “Three...two...one...pull!”

    They pull back in opposite directions, crackling energy screaming in protest. Then, with a pop all five are released. The remaining energy, unfiltered, streams down into Sincline.

    “G-g-good…” Lotor says in a shuddering voice. “N-now get them out of h-here…”

    “You got it chief…” Matt says as they all pull back out of range of the Black Hole.

***

    Voltron chases after Darktron, right up to the glowing accretion disk of the Black Hole. There Darktron pulls to a sudden stop, spinning around to face Voltron. It's blade is held out, in a two-handed grip. Voltron skids to a stop a span away. Drawing its own sword and shield. The two stare each other down, as if trying to read the other. 

    They move at the same time. Twin blurs, swinging for each other. They clash in a storm of blades and energy. Bit by bit Voltron focing Darktron back.

    “We’re doing it!” Lance cries out triumphantly.

    “No...he’s baiting us.” Keith.  “Drawing us closer to the Black Hole. Trying to get us to make a mistake.”

As if in answer, Darktron pulls back further, and takes off, shooting down across the top of the Black Hole.

    “The gravity is incredible. If we’re not careful we’ll get sucked in!” Pidge reports.

    “That means we’re pulling back?” Lance asks.

    “...no. Let’s finish this.”

    Voltron and Darktron become twin trails of energy. To onlookers it looks almost as though the Black Hole is forming additional rings. One blue, one violet. The trails disappear just in time for new ones to tear into existence around it. Blinding flashes burst up over the Black Hole, wherever Voltron and Darktron clash. They go faster. 

    Hunk fires the cannon, in an effort to drive Darktron into the Black Hole. he dodges, light of the amazing blast quickly eaten up by the Black Hole. Zarkon tries to hook with it's harpoon, but it's deflected by the sword. They clash again, the force throwing them in opposite directions. They burst back into motion again, lest being dragged in by the gravity.

    Time seems to slow for them, yet becomes impossibly fast for the onlookers. Voltron and Darktron race around the Black hole in opposite directions, gaining speed with each rotation.

    “We’re...almost...out of energy!” Pidge says, forced back against her seat in spite of Voltron’s inertial dampeners.

     “Then...this...is it….everything into this last...swing!”

    They make one last rotation, both mechas driven faster than the speed of light by their metaphysical properties. Voltron sword begins to charge with a blinding blue light. Darktron’s shines it's equal in violet. 

    The Five Paladins of Voltron let out a battle cry in union. Zarkon roars in reply.

    The swords meet.

    Everything goes white.

    Keith blinks, disoriented. He looks down to find that he no longer sits inside his cockpit in Voltron. He stands in a sea of stars, cosmic clouds swirling. Those stars seem impossibly close, both small, yet near enough to touch. They rise above and below him, with a thin strip of darkness separating up from down. He seems to stand on nothing at all. His body has an unnatural glowing hue. 

    “...It has been a very long time since I’ve seen this place.”

    Keith whirls to find Zarkon standing beside him. The Emperor makes no move in reply. He doesn’t even look at Keith, instead staring out at the ethereal realm around them. He glows, same as Keith. 

    “...where are we?” Keith asks, cautiously.

    “A metaphysical plane of existence. It seems our battle knocked us into the realm reserved for Voltron and it's lions. I remember when Alfor first showed me this place.”

    Keith says nothing. Zarkon goes on. 

    “He insisted we all train here. Said it would strengthen our bond both with our lions and as a team. Said that once we master our skills here, we’d be unstoppable as a team inside of Voltron and out. I sometimes miss that naive optimism that I had to tortue out of him. He was right about one thing. This realm is useful.”

    Without warning Zarkon swings a backfist for Keith’s face.

    Anticipating the move, Keith dodges. He does not dodge the kick that follows it. Keith is blasted backwards to tumble across the floor of nothingness. Zarkon leaps into the air, foot poised to crush Keith’s skull on landing. Keith scrambles out of the way, barely in time for Zarkon’s foot to slam down. He leaps to his feet, drawing his bayard into existence. Zarkron summons his own.

    “This realm is honest, boy. Here your power is at its most pure. No giant machines to aid in the fighting. Here, we are men, with strength equal to our own will!”

    Zarkon swings his blade for Keith’s neck, Keith blocks, force of the blow still throwing him backwards. He slides back, nearly falling.

    “I’ll admit, you might have had the slightest chance in Voltron. But here? I’ll crush you the same as before. But this time I’ll kill you, just like that former Paladin of Black.”   

    Keith’s eyes flash with anger and he launches into a series of attacks against Zarkon. The Emperor turns away every single strike, then slams a fist into Keith’s side, tossing him across their celestial arena.

    “Without your Voltron or your lion or you friends to help you, you're nothing! You’re alone!” Zarkon bellows, charging after Keith.

    Keith meets his charge and their blades lock together. For a moment they struggle against each other. But Zarkon soon drives Keith backwards, step by step. He forces his weight down on Keith, dropping him to one knee. Zarkon grins with satisfaction. 

    Keith looks up and smiles back.

    “But that’s what you never understood, Zarkon. It’s not about what you can do alone. Voltron is about what you can do together. It's about trusting the people around you enough for them to be your arms and legs. And you’re wrong about one other thing…” He closes his eyes and begins to focus for a moment. 

    A blast of energy hits Zarkon the back, causing him to stumble. Keith uses the opportunity to force Zarkon off-balance, and swings, nearly taking his head off. Zarkon leaps back, and whirls looking for the source of the surprise attack.

    Lance stands behind, rifle held in a confident grip. Grin on his face.

    “...I'm not alone.” Keith finally says.

    “Man, Keith, do I always gotta be the one to  pull your butt out of the fire?”

    Lance starts peppering Zarkon with shots, while Keith advances on him. The Emperor is forced to shift his bayard into it's shield mode to block Lance’s shots, while dodging and batting away Keith’s attacks with his freehand. Keith scores a cut under Zarkon’s shoulder.

    “If I can be here, that means the other Paladins can too!” Keith says, “We’ve got a connection, all of us, through Voltron!”

    Zarkon kicks Keith backwards, then shifts his bayard into a cannon to fire at Lance. He howls in pain as green electricity surges through him. Pidge has planted her bayard behind his knee. 

    “Hope that stings.” She says.

He spins, trying to backhand her, but Keith barrels into Zarkton, shoving him into a stumble. Lance lands another shot on Zarkon’s shoulder, causing him to twist and fall to one knee.

     The three paladins advance on him. Zarkon shifts his bayard into it's bladed whip form and cracks it at them. He grazes Lance, misses Pidge, and Keith blocks with his blade. He cracks it again, tangling it around Keith’s sword.

    “You think a couple extra bodies will save you!? I’m Zarkon! Three children are nothing to me!” He jerks on the whip, pulling Keith to his knees.

    A blast slams into Zarkon’s back throwing him to the floor of nothingness. Hunk hefts his cannon. “Count again.”

    Zarkon leaps to his feet, shifting his bayard into a cannon. He blasts Hunk, forcing him to shift into shield. The blast still knocks him off his feet. Then Zarkon shifts back to whip and flings it at Pidge, who’d been aiming her own bayard at him. Lance steps in front, knocking the whip aside with a stroke of his sword. Pdige smiles, firing her bayard’s tethered blade at Zarkon. Zarkon shifts back to sword to block and leaps at them.

     Keith and Lance meet his charge, swinging their blades against Zarkon’s. They clash in a series of quick precise blows.

    “You can call us children, or weak, or useless. But the fact is, we’re a team, Zarkon. And that makes us strong. Because we’ve got each other.”

    Keith and Lance lock Zarkon’s blade with their own and together manage to force him back a step.    

    Keith narrows his eyes. “Who do you have Zarkon?” 

    Zarkon bellows with rage and throws a knee into Lance’s gut, then grabs hold of Keith to throw him into Hunk, who was preparing to fire another blast. Both go down. Zarkon raises his blade to bring down on Lance. 

    Allura’s energy whip wraps around the blade, pulling it back before it can fall. He snarls and tries to yank her towards him, but she shifts the bayard into a spear and charges him.

    “Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Allura. They’re my arms and legs. And I’m the head. I’ve got them and they’ve got me.” Keith explains, launching himself at Zarkon again. “Who’s got you, Zarkon?”

    “It doesn’t matter!” Zarkon growls, forming his bayard into an oversized gauntlet. “I need no one!” 

    He smashes the gauntlets down, sending a shockwave that knocks the paladins off their feet. He then throws himself at Keith. 

    Keith is back on his feet just in time to block a swing of Zarkon’s sword. The two struggle against each other once more.   

     “Unlike me, no one’s coming to help you, Zarkon. You’ve got no one. You did, but you drove them all away!”

    “Shut up!” Zarkon throws a punch, but Keith twists, and the effect is negligible.

    “You turned on every person who ever cared about and trusted you. Because you thought you didn’t need them. You used them, then cast them aside. Because you thought you were stronger alone.”

    “I am stronger alone! Stronger than all of you!”

Zarkon lets out a roar and by force of will shoves Keith back. He raises his blade to deliver a killing blow.

“...no, Zarkon. You aren’t.”

Lance slips to the side, slicing Zarkon’s arm. Zarkon’s attack goes wild, missing Keith. He tries to whirl on Lance, but Pidge’s tethered blade wraps around his other arm and pulls him off balance. Hunk leaps forward, swinging his hammer for Zarkon’s head. Zarkon managed to divert the blow to his shoulder, one leg going out under him. Allura knocks out the other leg with her spear. Zarkon, on his knees, faces Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Allura lunging for him. In an explosive burst of willpower, he manages to swing his sword in a powerful wide arc, that forces all four of them backwards. But their efforts provided all the opening Keith needs.

    He slips under the swing, and thrusts forward with his bayard. He buries the blade in Zarkon’s chest. 

Zarkon lets out a surprised gasp.

    “There’s one other person I haven’t mentioned yet. Someone who was always there for me,” Keith says, twisting the blade. “The man you killed. His name was Shiro. And this bayard belonged to him!”

    With that Keith rips the bayard free. Zarkon screams.

    Everything goes white again.

    Darktron’s blade shatters. Voltron’s sword carries through, cutting through the armor, to the mecha below, and further.

    Darktron’s armor shatters, and the mecha itself breaks, splintering into five lions, all shooting in different directions from the explosiveness of the separation. Black flies backwards, towards the Black hole, with a terrible rent gut that bleeds violet quintessence.

    “I...lost!?” Zarkon chokes on the word, violet blood flying from his mouth. Zarkon clutches his chest, the pain of the invisible wound searing him. “N-not possible! I-I-I c...can’t...l…”The words die on his lips.

    The Black Hole seems to surge, growing ever so slightly larger. The Black Lion descends towards it's dark embrace.   

    “N-NO!” Zarkon yells in defiance, forcing his lion to fight against the pull. He only slows the inevitable. “I do not die here! It doesn’t end here for Emperor Zarkon!”   

    With a surge of all the strength he has left, Zarkon summons the wings of his lion. 

    Before he can activate them, Alfor’s lion smashes into his, driving them both downward towards the void below.

    “NO! Alfor you fool! You’ll kill us both!”

    “I know.” Alfor replies, striking a weak smile.    

Allura, watching the two descend cries out. 

    “Father!”

Voltron begins to move forward but shudders, lurching awkwardly.

“It's too much!” Keith says. “If we get any closer we won't be able to get out!”

Alfor gazes over at Voltron, then closes his eyes and his body begins to take on a blue glow.

“No!” Allura yells, summoning the harpoon gun. “I have to-”

She blinks. When her eyes open she is standing in a field of juniberry flowers. On altea. She looks around, amazed. Alfor stands across from her, smiling down at the flowers.

    “F-father...what is this?”

    “Just a vision, I’m afraid. Altea as I remember it.” He studies the flowers for a moment before looking up at her. 

    “But you aren’t as I remember…you’ve grown. As beautiful as I remember but...stronger.”

    She smiles, but it is pained.

    “Father please, let me help you. I’ve only just gotten you back. I don’t…” her voice cracks. “I don’t know if I can lose you one more time.”

    “I know it's cruel. But at the same time, I am unbelievably grateful to have seen the woman you’ve grown into. I only wish your mother could see you…”

    “Please!” She begs. “It doesn’t have to end like this. We could still-”

    “Allura.” He says softly. “Don’t risk yourself and Voltron to try and save me. I had my time in the universe. Now I just have one thing left to you: Make sure Zarkon doesn’t hurt anyone ever again.” 

He grins.

    “You on the other hand, have quite a lot to do.”

    She stares at her feet. “The alteans...I don’t know if I can lead them without you. I’ve been so lost. I don’t know if I can be as good a ruler as you were.”

    “Then don’t.”

    She raises her eyes, surprised.

    “Be better. I made countless mistakes. Learn from them and be better. I know you’ll be a great queen.”

    She hesitates, but then straightens her back and nods firmly. Her eyes begin to well up. 

    He smiles, reaching up to touch her face. She smiles back, well and truly this time. Then she grabs him in an embrace. The two of them stay like that for an eternal moment. Finally, they separate and Alfor stands back, getting one last look at his daughter.

    “Well, it's time I finally joined your mother.”

    She swallows hard, but nods. “I love you, papa.”

    “And I love you, my little juniberry…”

    The vision fades, and Allura is once again in her lion. She stares down at the quickly vanishing lions of her father and Zarkon. Tears stream down her face.

    Voltron lets out a tremor. The two lions disappear.

    “Allura? Keith says, voice strained. “Either take the shot or…”

    She shoots one last look at where her father’s lion used to be and dismisses the harpoon gun

    “...let’s go.”

    Keith nods, slowly, understanding. Then, all five paladins throw forward their throttles, and Voltron jets away from the Black Hole.

    Below, Zarkon screams in protest.

“Alfor listen to me! You’re throwing everything away! We could start over! You’ll be my right hand this time! You can be with your daughter! I-”

    “-Zarkon.” Alfor cuts him off..

    Something in his voice silences the Emperor. 

    “We’ve both lived long enough.”   

    Those simple words take what little strength Zarkon has left away from him. He slumps back back, and lets out a sigh that sounds almost relieved. His lion continues to bleed quintessence. 

    “...I should have known it would be you to finally kill me.”

    “Would you have it any other way?”

    Zarkon considers. 

    “No...old friend. No I wouldn’t.”

    Silence overtakes the two. 

Zarkon surprises Alfor by breaking it. 

    “Do you suppose...out there in the multiverse, there’s a reality where it didn’t come to all this? Where the two of us never crossed swords, and instead built a stronger universe together?”

    Alfor smiles weakly. “You know I do.”

    And Zarkon smiles too, without a trace of malice or deceit. 

“So then, in the end, I even failed in that regard. Despite everything I still couldn’t kill that optimism of yours after all.”

    Alfor laughs. “I guess not. I just...forgot it for a time.”

    The two lions tremble, cracking under the tremendous force exerted upon them. 

    Zarkon closes his eyes. “And so it ends, Alfor.”

    Alfor closes his eyes as well. “Stardust to stardust...old friend…” 

    And then the Black and Blue lions are torn apart, turned to dust before finally being sucked away by the singularity of the Black Hole.

***

    Lotor blasts the breach, the dim scar now barely visible, the energy feeding back into him, barely a trickle. Still he blasts it, feeding all the energy he can into it. As this happens, he watches a static-filled image of Voltron’s struggle with Darktron. Finally, there is the blinding flash of light, followed by Darktron’s destruction. And still he watches as the Dark Black and Blue lions disappear into darkness. 

    He smiles.

    “So they did it after all….”

The Black Hole surges, widening. The scar of the breach, overwhelmed by the darkness, finally disappears, overcome. The rings of the Array are pulled off one by one, then finally ripped apart, swallowed by hungry shadows. 

    He lets out a relieved sight. 

Sincline drops its arms, energy spent. It starts to descend deeper into the Black Hole. it's armor begins to tremble. Lotor makes no move to stop this. He leans back in his chair and closes his eyes, as if about to rest.

“-Lotor!” A static-filled voice crackles over the radio.

He sits up, looking annoyed. He brings up the display. A grainy image of a Coalition fighter cruising through the Black Hole’s accretion disk. A feed of Acxa’s face pops up next to it.

“Lotor, you need to get out of there!”

He smiles slightly, but shakes his head.

“My work here is done. The breach has been turned in on itself. Zarkon is dead. The alteans know the truth. The universe is safe. This...this is how it ends for me.”

    “You idiot!”

    He's slightly taken aback by the reply.

    “You really think I’m just gonna let you die like that? After everything we’ve been through!?”

    “It's...better this way. Besides, Sincline is almost completely spent. I’m not sure if I could get out if I wanted to.”

    “So you’re just going to call it quits!? Give up? That’s how the great Lotor dies?”

    “The universe doesn’t need me anymore. Maybe it never did. This way at least, I can pay for my sins.”

    “Then pay for them by living! Dying is the easy way out!”

    He winces at that. “...maybe it is. If so...well, I guess I’m being selfish one last time. I won’t have to feel guilty about it for very long.”

    Acxa is silent for a moment. “...I have someone else here with me. If I can’t convince you...maybe she can.”

    Lotor has a confused look, when suddenly there is a flash of light inside his cockpit.

    Haggar stands in front of him.

    “Hello son.”

    He scowls. 

    “Come here to try and twist me to your schemes one final time?”

    “...no.”

    He raises a skeptical brow. She sighs.

    “I know I've been a poor parent to you. I can’t help but think that many of your mistakes would not have been made if I’d been a better mother to you. If I’d shielded you from the brunt of Zarkon’s cruelty.”

    Lotor hesitates but shakes his head. “No. My mistakes are my own.”

    After a moment she nods.

    “So...why are you here?” 

    “To give you a choice, for once. You’ve always seen me as a force to twist you and bind you to my will. But here I’ll simply give you the options and whatever you choose I will respect.”

    “Go on.”

    “I can save you. Pull you out of here, and we’ll fly away in Acxa’s ship. Ask me and I’ll do it.”

    “To what end?”

    “To whatever end you wish. I’m done with plots and plans. I just want to preserve you from this fate.”

    “And if I refuse?”

    She lets out a sigh. “Then though it will pain me beyond belief, I will respect your wish. I owe you that much.”

    “And what will you do after I perish?”

    She shakes her head. “I plan to stand here with you. I’m not going to live in a world without my son. I’ve already lost everything else that ever mattered to me.”

    He stares at her. She stares back. Sincline’s armor trembles again. 

    He finally closes his eyes. Haggar nods, taking this as a sign of his decision.

    “...alright.”

    She straightens. He looks up at her.

    “Please save me...mother.”

    Her eyes widen. Then she cracks a wide smile. She leans down and hugs him. And though hesitant and stiffly, eventually he hugs her back. They disappear in a flash. 

    Moments later, Sincline is swallowed by the Black Hole, all traces of it gone forever. 

***

    The Paladins of Voltron watch the Black Hole give one final surge before finally stabilizing, feeding now on the streams of plasma given off by the nearby stars. It hangs there, a distorted black spot on the universe, surrounded by blinding light.

    “All enemy forces have thrown up surrender codes!” Matt reports with glee.

    Keith sits back and smiles. “It's over...we won.”

    There is a cheer, not just from the other Paladins, but the whole of the Coalition. From humans, galra, alteans and countless other species. 

Keith lets out no cheer himself, content to sit there with a tired smile on his face. Eventually he shakes himself and sits up.

    “Alright everyone! There’s just a few things left to take care of…”

    Stay tuned for the finale...

[foxgirlintestines]

Which one is the best monowhite budget commander? Can you build a list?

Well this is a tad bit vague. There is no definitive best budget mono-white commander as you can build white in different archetypes. Mono White is usually associated with aggro and equipment. There is a problem with those in budget. Good equipment can get expensive, same with their support cards. Stoneforge Mystic was just unbanned in Modern so that will definitely make Voltron White a bit less accessible. Aggro on the other hand is cheap, but also very soft in Commander. White weenies turning sideways often is just too slow to get there when you have three opponents and life totals start at 40.

(Decklist at the end)

That makes me want to build a Mono-White deck in one of two ways if I had a pretty low budget in mind: Stax and End the World control. Of these two options, Wrath tribal does not overlap witrh Modern in the types of cards you want so it will probably be cheaper. So, first off, we want our Commander to synnergize with the idea that every permanent is temporary, so there are three creatures that really catch my eye: Heliod, God of the Sun, Oketra the True, and Mageta the Lion (honorable mention to Avacyn who would be here if she was budget). The two gods are indestructible allowing them to safely live through the end of the world, and Mageta is a Wrath of God on legs. The problem Mageta runs into is the lack of card draw in white limits how well you can use him, you can simply run out of cards to discard. The other problem is since you are going to be running a lot of wraths he will be caught in the crossfire. That narrows it down to the two gods.

Heliod and Oketra operate pretty similarly. They are creatures that are basically turned off until you add permanents to the battlefield. One cares about white symbols, and the other cares about creature count. They both produce an army of creatures, but Oketra can animate herself while Heliod cannot. Heliod on the other hand makes larger creatures and has Enchantment synergies. You can honestly go with either one, but I will choose Heliod for the ability to have an enchantress subtheme as a way to keep him animated with permanents that aren't creatures and as another control element.

I'm going to try to limit all the cards in this deck to $5 or less unless they are important for the deck to function (some cards to save up for).

So, first off we need the removal suite. 1-for-1 removal should be kept to a minimum as you can't really keep up trading like that in a multiplayer game especially with less than ideal card advantage. Swords to Plowshares and Generous Gift will be the targeted removal suite outside of the ones that will come from enchantments. Next up is the big kaboom. We want to be able to really be the old testament god on one hell of a rampage. You should be able to control the board by having access to a wrath when needed after you hit 4 mana. Now to make the numbers work you need to kind of factor in how much card draw you have at any moment's notice and that will not be a super high amount. Somewhere around 10 with 12 being more comfortable is what you will need to have a wrath on hand at most times. If people are rebuilding fast and you need multiple wraths to stay on top of the board you'll need around 15. Lets just see how many we can fit in: Wrath of God, Austere Command (I found a copy for less than $5 so it counts), Day of Judgement, Rout, Fumigate, Cleansing Nova, Hour of Revelation, Akroma's Vengeance, Planar Collapse, Sublime Exhalation, Phyrexian Rebirth, Planar Cleansing, Myojin of Cleansing Fire, Nevinyrral's Disc, End Hostilities, Mageta the Lion, Martial Coup, Waking Sun's Avatar, Descend Upon the Sinful, Hallowed Burial, Urza's Ruinous Blast, Winds of Abandon, and Tragic Arrogance. Whats that? 23 but we only need about 15? I SAID THE OLD TESTAMENT HELIOD! If it bleeds it can die, and if it doesn't we'll send the whole fucking planet into oblivion! You made a black mage make a mono-white deck so its your fault for thinking this would end any other way.

Ahem... That seems decent enough. Some card draw, pillow fort, and mild stax should help round it out from there.

The enchantment package should be mostly defensive and geared towards stalling, but some heavy hitters to end the game should also be included. First off the payoffs for enchantments: Sigil of the Empty Throne, Mesa Enchantress, and Sphere of safety provide control, creatures, and card draw off of your enchantments giving you engines. Parallax Wave can temporarily mess with creatures, or save things from your constant wraths, it also forms an infinite exile combo with Starfield of Nyx. Oblivion Ring, Banishing Light, Ghostly Prison and Aurification provide you with some early defenses, and Phyrexian Unlife combined with Solemnity create temporary imortality. They can be peiced together with Plea for Guidance, and on their own they are decent though narrow. Rule of Law, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Curse of Exhaustion, and Spirit of the Labyrinth will help against the unfair decks that otherwise ignore your wraths. Overwhelming Splendor can help if someone really needs to just stop. Nevermore and Gideon's Intervention can pinpoint cards that might take you down or lock a commander thats problematic out of the game. Martyr's Bond can be a heavy Stax engine acting as a Grave Pact on steroids. Finally True Conviction, Starfield of Nyx animating the Enchantments, and Ethereal Armor on Heliod can close out games.

The deck has solid "meat" but will need support from card draw and ramp. Draw is limited, but Endless Atlas is pretty good and Mind's Eye is slow but solid for budget reasons. Mentor of the Meek and Skullclamp can turn Heliod's Activated Ability into card advantage but they are a bit slow. Staff of Nin is expensive but you can't get picky. Though it only grabs lands Thaumatic Compass is good for consistent mana and its flip side is excellent for a deck like this. Treasure Map will filter draws and provide cards after it flips. Sadly some of White's best answers to its limited card advantage are quite pricey. Your main advantage will come from depleting your opponent's resources with a single card answering their full boards and breaking up their own card advantage.

Ramp is also limited, but since the best ramp is actually artifacts it’s not that bad. Sol Ring is the always present auto-include. Smothering Tithe is one of the few out of budget cards but its honestly one of the best white cards for commander and synergizes as it’s an enchantment so it’s one of the few cards to go out of your way to get. Starfield Mystic will discount your Enchantments and Pearl Medallion will discount all your colored spells. Solemn Simulacrum just got a reprint and is a decent land ramp. Most of your ramp should take you from 2>4 though so you can get your wraths online so you should stick to 2 cost rocks like Mind Stone and Marble Diamond. Arcane Signet will be an option but it might end up a chase card from the brawl deck.

Finally we can use Sun Titan as a random finisher with value attached.

Lands will mostly be basic, but we will have Emeria the Sky Ruin (another budget stretch that you can justify), Myriad Landscape for ramp, Mistveil Plains for recursion, Flood Plain and Grasslands as extra cards for Sun Titan recursion and to find the Mistveil Plains. Arch of Orazca and Cryptic Caves provide a little flood protection. Hall of Heliod's Generosity will return your destroyed Enchantments or create a loop of apocalypses with Planar Collapse. You could add more utility lands as you like, but otherwise its a simple 28 plains from there.

I learned from this exaercise I am terrible at budget decks. I wanted thios onbe to be less than $100, but...

As for how to play, its pretty simple; it is tap out control. Cast your cards sparingly, ramp and get in card advantage when you can, but most of the time you are the demolition crew. Most of your wraths will be one sided as you run very few creatures andmost of your spells only hit creatures. There are a few that hit everything and that exile which will catch Heliod. Basically you want to either try to cast those before you set up other permanents or as a last resort.This deck is a budget deck, its obviously not going to dominate a table of competitive decks or your standard pub-stompers. However, it should be solid in a meta that is reliant on creatures and combat. Lower power pods tend to resort to creature strategies, so thats where this fits in as a control deck. Sadly, the lack of interacting with the stack makes this deck very weak to combo or some other types of control like Superfriends. Either way, if you enjoy seeing a nice orderly clean table with no pesky permanents on it you should have some fun with this.

Upgrading this deck would be pretty standard. Take out the clunkier wraths, and add in the higher power Enchantment cards like Serra’s Sanctum, Academy Rector, Idyllic and Enlightened Tutors, Greater Auramancy and so on. Start adding the heavier stax cards and the Armagheddons.I purposely did not include land destruction as budget groups have less options to handle them so its just going to make people not enjoy the deck, but as power level goes up its one of the few ways White can really contend with the other colors through mana denial.The deck should look something like this:

Commander: Heliod, God of the Sun

-Creatures:

Myojin of Cleansing Fire

Mageta the Lion

Waking Sun's Avatar

Mesa Enchantress

Eidolon of Rhetoric

Spirit of the Labyrinth

Mentor of the Meek

Starfield Mystic

Solemn Simulacrum

Sun Titan

-Artifacts:

Nevinyrral's Disc

Endless Atlas

Mind's Eye

Skullclamp

Staff of Nin

Thaumatic Compass

Treasure Map

Sol Ring

Pearl Medallion

Mind Stone

Marble Diamond

-Enchantments:

Planar Collapse

Sigil of the Empty Throne

Sphere of Safety

Parallax Wave

Starfield of Nyx

Oblivion Ring

Banishing Light

Ghostly Prison

Aurification

Phyrexian Unlife

Solemnity

Rule of Law

Curse of Exhaustion

Overwhelming Splendor

Nevermore

Gideon's Intervention

Martyr's Bond

True Conviction

Ethereal Armor

Smothering Tithe

-Instant:

Swords to Plowshares

Generous Gift

-Sorceries:

Wrath of God

Austere Command

Day of Judgement

Rout

Fumigate

Cleansing Nova

Hour of Revelation

Akroma's Vengeance

Sublime Exhalation

Phyrexian Rebirth

Planar Cleansing

End Hostilities

Martial Coup

Descend Upon the Sinful

Hallowed Burial

Urza's Ruinous Blast

Winds of Abandon

Tragic Arrogance

Plea for Guidance

-Land:

Emeria the Sky Ruin

Myriad Landscape

Mistveil Plains

Flood Plain

Grasslands

Arch of Orazca

Cryptic Caves

Hall of Heliod's Generosity

Plains x28

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Star Trek Episode 1.16: The Galileo Seven

AKA Lord What Fools These Humans Be

Our episode begins with a captain’s log telling us that the Enterprise is traveling to a planet called Makus 3, or Mockus 3 according to the subtitles. Specifically they’re going there to deliver some medical supplies, but they happen to be passing by a phenomenon called Murasaki 312, which Kirk describes as being a quasar-like formation, and “a priceless opportunity for scientific study.” It’s pretty, I’ll give it that. Especially in the remastered version.

[ID: 1. A swirl of bright blue-green vapor glowing in the middle, in the midst of a starfield. 2. A large green cloud with a disc-like formation in the middle of it shot through with a beam of white light.]

Also, they have onboard one Galactic High Commissioner (now there’s a hell of a title) Ferris, who’s overseeing this whole medicine delivery business. Ferris has just now come up to the bridge, where Kirk is communicating with a shuttlecraft (you know, those shuttlecraft that they’ve definitely had all this time) about to launch, and boy, he looks like a fun guy.

[ID: Ferris, a white man with very short graying brown hair, wearing a blue uniform with an elbow-length cape on the back. He is standing just in front of the lift doors on the bridge, looking off to the side and somehow managing to look both grumpy and smug at the same time.]

Ferris is not happy about the Enterprise stopping to look at the glowy space cloud when they’ve got medicine to deliver, and on a tight schedule too. They’re supposed to be having a rendezvous with...somebody...to hand over the supplies so they can be transferred to the New Paris colony. Kirk says that that’s all very well, but he also, for some reason, has standing orders to investigate all quasars and quasar-like phenomena. Anyway, it’s a three day trip to Makus 3 and the rendezvous isn’t scheduled for another five, so they’ve got a two-day window, time enough for a roadside stopover.

This whole thing strikes me as odd. Not that such a formation would be scientifically interesting, I’m sure it would be. But the way Kirk talks about it, it’s as if this was some unexpected opportunity that they have to take advantage of because it won’t come again. But quasars (and, presumably, quasar-like phenomena) aren’t exactly the kind of thing that pop up one day and are gone the next. Also, they’re pretty hard to miss, and there’s no indication that they’re out in unexplored space or whatever. You could perhaps pass this off as the writers not knowing what a quasar is—likely--except that the thing has a name, which indicates that whatever it is, it’s been officially noticed and has stuck around long enough to be cataloged. So there’s no apparent reason why the Enterprise wouldn’t have been well aware, in advance, that this thing was going to be along their way, and no apparent reason why they have to study it right now. Are Kirk’s ‘standing orders’ so important that they supercede anything else the Enterprise happens to be doing at the moment? If the Federation cares about quasars (and quasar-like phenomena) so much, why not have dedicated science ships out there studying them instead of just making other ships stop and look at them whenever they get the chance?

To compound the problem, Ferris tells Kirk that he doesn’t want to take chances with this medicine delivery because “the plague” is out of control at New Paris and they really need these supplies. We’re obviously supposed to view Ferris as your standard unpleasant interfering bureaucrat, and he certainly doesn’t exactly have a charming personality, but to be honest, I think he kinda has a point on this one. It’d be one thing if the Enterprise was delivering some non-time-critical supplies and he was just being a grump about meeting a schedule, but, assuming The Plague lives up to that name, they’re delivering crucial life-saving medicine, and Kirk is being real dang cavalier about it. Yeah, they’ve got time until the meet-up—even though there’s no given explanation as to why the rendezvous has to be at that time and they couldn’t make it earlier, which would surely be preferable under the circumstances—but a lot of things can go wrong in space, which Kirk oughta be very well aware of by now. One would think they’d want to leave that window open in case they’re delayed by something unexpected, but no, let’s just go fly into a quasar, I guess, what could go wrong. This is like if they stopped in the middle of Balto to investigate an active volcano.

Kirk waves Ferris off and tells the shuttle, Galileo, that they’re cleared for takeoff, so off they take. Inside the shuttle is Spock, flying it; a male goldshirt; a female redshirt; Scotty; a male blueshirt; McCoy; and a male goldshirt. That’s seven alright. Seems like a bit of an odd selection. Given it’s a scientific expedition you’d expect a primarily science-focused crew, but here we’ve got Spock (makes sense), one blueshirt (cool), McCoy (for...whatever reason) two goldshirts (one is helping fly the shuttle, which makes sense, but the other one is just...there), a yeoman (who frankly has no business being there whatsoever) and Scotty. Scotty’s always good to have along, but what, specifically, they thought he would need to be doing on this trip, I don’t know.

As they fly towards the big green glowy thing, one of the goldshirts—Latimer—gives Spock a reading, then takes it back, saying the indicator’s gone crazy. The blueshirt, Boma, says that this is because quasars are really disruptive like that. The yeoman then reports that radiation is increasing.

With things already going wrong real bad, Spock tells Latimer to stop their forward momentum. Latimer gives it a shot, but nothing happens. Spock then tries to call the Enterprise, but gets only static. Man, it sure didn’t take long for this trip to go belly-up.

On the bridge, Uhura is likewise having radio trouble, unable to pick up anything from the Galileo except scattered fragments about them being pulled off-course. Kirk wants them to get a fix on the shuttle, but Sulu says the scanners are blank and that they’re getting “a mass of readings I’ve never seen before, nothing makes sense.” So...they’re blank or there’s a mass of readings? Which is it?

The ship computer chimes in with some technobabble that apparently means Murasaki 312 has ionized the entire sector. In a nutshell, their sensors are out, along with your choice of plot-relevant ship systems. Kirk looks mournfully out into the void and says, “At least four complete solar systems in the immediate vicinity, and out there, somewhere, a twenty-four foot shuttlecraft, off course, out of control. Finding a needle in a haystack would be child’s play.” What, you mean sending a lone shuttlecraft out to investigate a giant mysterious and dangerous space phenomena that said shuttlecraft was never equipped to handle, while on a time limit, didn’t turn out well? Who could have guessed!

After the titles, Kirk gives a log that just reiterates the situation: Murasaki 312 ate our shuttlecraft and now we can’t even look for it because our sensors are busted. Ferris is going on about how he told them so, which obviously is not endearing him to anyone. Kirk says they still have two days to find it, but as Ferris points out, you can’t search four solar systems in two days. At that point Uhura interrupts to say that there’s one inhabitable type-M planet in the solar system (she does not specify which solar system). It’s called Taurus 2, and it’s right in the middle of that big glowy mess out there. Oh, that’s convenient. Of course, they have no evidence that the Galileo landed on any planet, let alone that one—it could be anywhere in the vast amount of empty space in those solar systems, or it could have landed on one of the uninhabitable planets and they’re all going to die if they haven’t already. Lots of lovely possibilities! But they gotta start somewhere, so it’s off to Taurus 2.

By sheer coincidence, it turns out that in fact the Galileo has landed in the one place survivable enough to make an interesting episode out of. The outside of the shuttle looks okay, but from the inside it’s clear they had a rough landing. Everyone’s tossed all over the place clutching their heads and so forth, and a control panel is sparking pretty badly. McCoy goes into doctor mode and starts checking everyone out, but it looks like the only casualty was a bloody nose for Boma.

So what happened? Over a handkerchief, Boma says his best guess is that “the magnetic potential of the effect was such that as we gathered speed, it was multiplied geometrically,” causing them to be shot into Muraski 312 like a bullet. Scotty’s got a hell of a job ahead of him getting the shuttle back into shape. Man, it sure is lucky that they brought the chief engineer along on this trip. For whatever reason that they did.

McCoy does a scan of the atmosphere outside and says that it’s breathable—you wouldn’t want to run a marathon in it, but it’s breathable. Spock says they’d better clear out of there so Scotty has room to work and tells Latimer and the other goldshirt, Gaetano, to take some phasers and go scout around. They do, but no one else leaves. So much for giving Scotty room to work. Instead, McCoy sits in a chair the wrong way to talk to Spock.

[ID: McCoy and Spock sitting inside the Galileo. McCoy is sitting sideways with his back to the wall and one arm propped against the back of the chair, looking over at Spock, who is sitting forward and looking at his tricorder.]

McCoy, sitting sideways in chairs like a man after my own heart.

Spock and McCoy talk about their chances of being found. They don’t look good. Spock figures  the ionization effect that hit them is going to be widespread enough to affect the Enterprise too, leaving them without instrumentation to search with, which is going to make it damn hard for them to find the Galileo.

Sure enough, back on the big ship they’re still having no luck with the sensors, even after Sulu tried hooking them up to auxiliary power. Kirk calls the transporter room to see if they’ve got the transporters back online but the operator says that they beamed down some test material and it came back “in a disassociated condition” so they don’t dare try sending any humans through it yet. Yeesh. Yeah, I quite prefer being in an associated condition myself. In the meantime, Kirk tells the flight deck to get the other shuttle, the Columbus, ready to fly out and do a search of the planet’s surface.

Having a shuttle named Columbus is a bit unfortunate, since the most prominent explorer-type person named Columbus that comes to mind was an enormously terrible guy and one would hope we would have stopped giving him any kind of honor this far into the future. But then, the show never specifies that the shuttle is named after Christopher Columbus. Three hundred years from now there could easily have been another person named Columbus that did something significant, like a really cool astronaut or scientist. That’s my theory and I’m sticking with it.

While the Columbus gets ready, Uhura regretfully tells Kirk that communication is still impossible as both their transmission and reception are out. Ferris is still hanging around making a nuisance of himself, asking whether Kirk really thinks they’re going to find anything out there. Kirk says that he’s going to keep looking until the last possible minute and damn the odds (never tell Kirk the odds!), and Ferris says alright—but only until the last possible minute and not one second after.

Columbus heads off on its search, while down on the planet Spock goes outside to do some readings or whatever. McCoy follows him and comments that for as lousy as this situation is, it’s Spock’s big chance to get his command on. Spock says that he isn’t particularly enthused by the idea of being in command, but he’s not afraid of it either; it’s just a thing, neither good nor bad. But since he is in command now, he’s going to do it logically.

Inside, Scotty is elbows-deep in the shuttle’s dashboard. Things aren’t looking good. It seems they’ve lost a lot of fuel, so much that they don’t have any chance of reaching escape velocity and making orbit unless they lighten the load by about five hundred pounds. That’s the weight of three grown men, Spock points out. McCoy is all “uhhh how about we drop some equipment instead of some people” but Spock says that there’s just not that much non-essential equipment on the Galileo to begin with. The passengers are pretty much the only excess weight they have to lose, so either some people get left behind or it’s time to go build a refinery.

Boma is not happy with the turn this discussion has taken and asks who’s going to decide who has to stay behind. Spock says that, well, he’s in command, so it’s up to him to make that call. And no, despite what Boma suggests, he’s not planning to draw lots; he’ll make a logical decision based on logical means, logic logic.

Leaving the conversation on that cheerful note, Spock says they better go outside and make sure they haven’t overlooked any minor damage. Boma watches him leave and says, “If any minor damage was overlooked it was when they put his head together.” “Not his head, Mr. Boma,” McCoy says in the most dramatic manner possible. “His heart.” Thanks Bones.

Meanwhile the goldshirts are off scouting around in a ravine while some scary growling noises echo all around them. They decide to climb up the rocks nearby, because you know what would be a great idea right now: to expose themselves as much as possible. Sure enough, as they get to the top, something big and furry throws a giant spear at Latimer, impaling him in the back and knocking him into the ravine.

The rest of the party over at the Galileo hear Latimer’s scream and Spock and Boma go running to investigate. Gaetano climbs down the rocks while shooting his phaser wildly in various directions, as poor Latimer lies dead in the ravine with the spear shaft sticking up like a tree.

[ID: Gaetano, a white man with short dark hair, sitting on an outcropping in the side of a ravine and staring at a spearhaft that extends out of frame in both directions, while Spock approaches from around the corner.]

After the break, Spock and Boma arrive on the scene to find Gaetano sitting mournfully on a rock and staring at Latimer. He says he didn’t see the attacker clearly; he only knows that it was “something huge and terrible.” But he thinks he got it with one of those phaser blasts so Spock goes off to investigate. Gaetano tells Boma that the thing was “like a giant ape” and then, when Boma says, “Poor Latimer,” Gaetano optimistically says that at least Latimer was fortunate enough to die quickly. Thanks man. Really keeping up the team spirit there. But hey, on the plus side, now we only have to pick two people to leave behind.

Spock comes back and says that he didn’t find anything. Gaetano insists that there was something there and he’s sure that he hit it, which is more certainty than he had about one minute or so ago; Spock says he’s not doubting Gaetano, but the fact is there’s nothing there now. Then he pulls the spear out of Latimer—honestly I have no idea how the thing was even staying up in the first place—and examines it, saying that it resembles a kind of ancient Earth spear, but cruder and not very efficient.  Boma gets upset at this, irate that Spock can focus on things like the efficiency of the spear when there’s a man dead on the ground. The nerve of the man, gathering information about a dangerous and unknown situation. Spock points out that no amount of mourning is going to bring Latimer back to life. Gaetano, now also ticked off, says that they at least shouldn’t leave Latimer’s body there. Spock offers to help them carry the body back, but the two men coldly refuse and haul him off themselves.

[ID: Gaetano and Boma, a black man with short hair, carrying the body of Latimer between them through the ravine. Latimer’s shirt is pulled up exposing a black undershirt.]

Well, there’s at least one goldshirt who wears an undershirt.

On the Enterprise, Kirk notes in his log that their searching has turned up nothing, and he’s beginning to feel “a sense of utter futility, and great loss.” The transporters are still not safe to use, and Engineering is working on getting the sensors back online, but without Scotty around they’re real short on miracles, and not making much progress. But Kirk, of course, is not about to give up, and as soon as the Columbus comes back from searching a quadrant he orders them to start on the next one. Ferris is still hanging around pointedly reminding Kirk of how little time he has left, kind of like an annoying quest marker in a video game that pops up every five minutes to remind you to do the thing that you’re already doing.

Kirk orders the Columbus to expand its search radius by two degrees. Sulu points out that means they’ll be overlooking a dozen miles with each loop they make, but Kirk responds that it’s the only way they have a fighting chance of actually covering the whole planet in the time left to them. Ferris exits the bridge, but not before turning around in the lift and saying, “Twenty-four more hours, Captain,” as dramatically as he can.

Down below, Spock is offering some jury-rigging suggestions to Scotty, but of course Scotty’s already thought of all that and says it won’t work. Meanwhile, McCoy and the Yeoman are hauling some stuff out of the back of the shuttle, which should take off about fifty pounds of weight, and the yeoman thinks they can clear out another hundred pounds. A hundred and fifty pounds? What happened to there being nothing nonessential on this shuttle? Sure, that might not be much compared to the overall weight of the shuttle, but it’s a heck of a lot when you’re talking about having to leave people behind. Still, as Spock points out, even if they lose all that they’ll be another hundred and fifty pounds overweight. Hm, okay, if everyone loses twenty-five pounds we’ll be good.

McCoy can’t believe Spock is still planning to leave someone behind now that they know there are big dangerous furry guys out there with spears, but Spock points out that it’s a matter of saving one life, or six. In other words, the trolley problem. Or the shuttle problem, in this case.

Boma sticks his head in the door and says that they’re ready. Spock is confused about what, exactly, they’re ready for, and Boma says they’re doing a service for Latimer. Spock doesn’t want to lose any of their very limited time, but Boma insists that he should at least come and say a few words. In some desperation, Spock says that perhaps McCoy would be better for that, but McCoy insists it’s Spock’s place to do that, and Spock turning it down is met with hostility from everyone (except Scotty, who has bigger fish to fry, and the yeoman, who doesn’t seem to have any opinions on anything).

Call me a Vulcan, but I don’t entirely understand why this is a problem. McCoy would be the best person there to give any kind of funeral service. He’s a doctor, so he surely has more practice speaking about the recently deceased in a compassionate but formal way than anyone else there; he would be generally familiar with human funeral customs, unlike Spock, who would have an entirely different cultural background for such things; and he can more afford to spare the time because he’s really not urgently needed for anything at the moment. It might not be the most orthodox way of doing things, but under the circumstances I think we’re gonna have to skip the full formal ceremony with honors anyway.

But we don’t find out exactly how they resolved the funeral situation, instead skipping ahead to some time later. Spock and Scotty are still in the Galileo, Scotty digging through the innards of the shuttlecraft while Spock watches. Scotty grimly announces that a line has broken, meaning that they now have no fuel at all. So uh. Yeah, that’s bad. Spock tells him it’s time to start considering alternatives, to which an incredulous Scotty replies, “We have no fuel, what alternatives?” “Mr. Scott, there are always alternatives.” Like what? Black magic? “Alright, squad, I didn’t want to do this, but we’re gonna have to sacrifice Gaetano.”

At that moment, McCoy and the yeoman come running in, saying there’s something happening outside. Everyone runs outside, except Scotty, who can’t be bothered with any damn aliens or whatever when there’s an engine to be fixed. Gaetano and Boma are hiding behind a nearby rock while unsettling scraping kind of sounds echo all around them. Spock says it’s the sound of wood rubbing on leather, which Gaetano thinks means the aliens are about to attack. Boma points out that this could just be some kind of simple tribal rite, but Spock says that the artifacts prove these guys are too primitive for that. Um, artifacts? You have one. Or had one, more likely, that you looked at for like, fifteen seconds, before Boma started pitching a fit about it. There’s only so much anthropology you can do in that amount of time.

Boma thinks that if the aliens have any kind of tribal system, attacking one of them might drive the others off. Spock is like “oh, now we’re okay with having no sentimentality about life?” But Gaetano, raring to go phaser some cavemen, insists that “at least we’re practical about it.” Practical. Sure. You haven’t been practical about a damn thing since y’all landed on this rock, but now you want to start, huh?

When asked, McCoy says that Boma’s plan seems logical to him, which is a bit unusual—he’s usually the last one to be okay with any plan that involves killing, though at least he doesn’t exactly seem enthusiastic about this. Boma tries to invoke majority rules and Spock has to remind him that this isn’t a democracy. Man, Starfleet crewmembers seem to have to be reminded of that a lot. You’d think they’d go over this at the Academy.

Obviously they’ve gotta do something, but Spock is still uncomfortable with the idea of murdering the locals and decides to take a third option. McCoy and the yeoman (whose name, we finally learn, is Mears) are sent back to the shuttle to help Scotty, while Boma and Gaetano are to go with Spock. He tells them very sternly that they’re going to follow his orders to the letter and fire only at the targets he designates, which, again, doesn’t seem like a concept they should need a refresher on but here we are. Boma and Gaetano are all over this plan until Spock says that they’re only going to fire to frighten the aliens, not to kill them, at which point they go right back to sulking.

So the three of them head off into the Emyn Muil over there, skulking along through the ankle-high mist with phasers at the ready.

[ID: Spock, Boma and Gaetano approaching cautiously through the ravine, the floor of which is blanketed with white vapor.]

“Careful, boys, we’re in the land of dry ice machines now.”

Another giant spear comes flying at them, but luckily this one doesn’t hit anyone. They dodge behind some rocks and Spock fires his phaser, causing a nearby giant to drop a shield into the ravine. A shield that rather dramatically changes size between shots.

[ID: 1. Spock stands in the ravine with his phaser out, Gaetano and Boma crouched at his side. A large, crude leather shield has fallen to the ground in front of them. 2. The three men crouching in front of the shield, which is now so large all three of them can stand alongside it with room to spare.]

They get into position at Spock’s specifications, and he tells them to fire at designated angles on his command, but even now, Gaetano still wants to argue about it. His protests notwithstanding, Spock has them fire for a bit. Figuring the giants should be frightened off for now, he goes back to the Galileo with Boma, leaving Gaetano on sentry duty. He seems a bit too far from the shuttle to be serving as effective sentry duty, but maybe Spock just wanted to not have to deal with him for a while.

Back at the Galileo, Scotty has, what do you know, conjured up an alternative: he thinks he can adjust the shuttle’s main reactor to function with a substitute fuel supply. What substitute fuel supply do they have? The phasers! Of course, if they use all their phasers to fuel the shuttle, they won’t have any means of defense, but if they don’t, they’re all gonna die anyway, so there’s not much of a choice in the matter. Scotty says that if he uses up all the phasers he can achieve orbit with all remaining hands, although he won’t be able to maintain it very long.

As Spock points out, the Enterprise is going to have to leave in less than twenty-four hours now, so if they don’t achieve orbit in that time they’re screwed anyway. The general assumption seems to be that they have no chance of surviving on the planet long enough to be rescued, even if the Enterprise came right back. Which could well be true—I doubt they have much in the way of survival supplies on the shuttle, and there are hostile aliens all around. On the other hand, they haven’t yet tried actually defending themselves to their fullest capability, and the presence of those big guys would seem to indicate that there’s something to eat around here. I’m not saying they could definitely survive long enough for a later rescue, it just seems odd that everyone takes it for granted that staying on the planet will be a death sentence.

So Spock tells McCoy to hand over his phaser, which for some reason prompts a dramatic musical sting, even though they literally just went over their plans to do that, and anyway it’s not like McCoy gets a lot of use out of the thing. Scotty takes McCoy’s phaser along with Spock’s and sets about transferring their power to the shuttle reactor, which he seems to be doing by just sticking the phasers down in there and firing them at said reactor.

Up on the Enterprise, the transporter guys run a test on some objects that come back intact, and the operator tells Kirk that in his opinion, the transporter is now safe for humans. Which is not a statement that I think I would find terribly comforting if it was me going through that thing. Kirk seems alright with it, though, because he immediately orders landing parties to start going down. The transporter operator points out that he’s talking about searching a planet on foot in less than twenty-four hours, which, y’know, is really unlikely to work, but Kirk isn’t interested in hearing it.

In the ravines, Gaetano is stumbling around nervously amidst sounds of growling giants. A rock comes flying at him, hitting his hand and knocking away his phaser, followed by another spear. Rather than attempt to pick up the phaser, Gaetano tries to climb up the cliff wall, a course of action that very quickly peters out. He falls back down and cowers against the cliff while a giant slowly approaches from the end of the ravine.

I question the decision to actually show the giant onscreen because, frankly, he’s just not that impressive. Sure, he’s big, but he’s like, Andre the Giant big, not as big as you would be thinking from the size of the spear and shield. Seriously, that spear was like three times the size of Gaetano.

Also, for some reason he’s walking with his arms straight out like Frankenstein’s monster.

[ID: Gaetano backed up against a cliff wall in fear while a large furry man with arms extended walks towards him.]

Gaetano just kind of sits there whimpering while the giant slowly closes in on him and grabs him. He screams as the scene cuts to black, which is probably for the best because I don’t think there was ever a good way to resolve that particular bit of choreography.

After the break, Spock, McCoy and Boma are examining the ravine, where there is now no trace of Gaetano except his fallen phaser. Spock retrieves the phaser and gives it to McCoy to take back to Scotty. Boma is, shockingly, outraged by how Spock is “acting like nothing’s happened at all.” Yes, thank you, Boma. Spock then gives McCoy his own phaser as well to take back in case he doesn’t return—he’s going to go look for Gaetano, alone. The other two men watch him head off into the ravine. One might expect this to prompt some “oh I guess he really does care” response, but instead McCoy is just kind of like “yeah I don’t know he’s weird” and then they leave.

Spock heads through the land of fogginess and soon discovers poor ol Gaetano dead and laid out on a rock. The seriousness of this situation is somewhat undercut by Spock’s reaction, which is not so much that of a man discovering a dead comrade or even the stern stoicness of an inscrutable alien, but more a look that suggests that he just spilled a drink on the floor and is annoyed about having to clean it up.

[ID: Gaetano’s dead body slumped over a rock while Spock stands over him with his hands on his hips.]

Nimoy, my man, I love you, but why

Well, no man left behind and all that, so Spock hoists Gaetano into a fireman’s carry and takes him back to the Galileo. Along the way the giants return to throw more and more spears at him, but fortunately they are all terrible shots so none of them hit and despite having to go slow Spock makes it back just fine.

McCoy and Boma help him get Gaetano into the shuttle, and they’re not happy. McCoy points out that Spock’s super logical plan of frightening away the giants didn’t work out so well. Spock expresses open confusion about this because logically the giants should have retreated in the face of superior weaponry. McCoy snaps back that Spock’s downfall was only considering the possibility of a rational response and not an emotional one.

The whole conversation is, to be honest, kinda stupid. Spock’s handling of the situation is portrayed as a downfall of his prioritizing logic and not considering anything else (the writing of which doesn’t really fit Spock’s actual character, but we’ll get to that later). He expected the giants to react logically and the episode lets us know that that was the wrong option. The problem is, they’re dealing with a completely unknown, unstudied, alien race here. There’s no way, logically or emotionally, to know how they would react to anything. Sure, Spock assuming that they would retreat in fear rather than retaliate in anger turned out to be wrong, but they have absolutely no way of knowing whether following Boma’s plan would have worked any better. It’s entirely possible the giants would have been more angered by one of them being killed. Hell, it’s possible that none of this had anything to do with either fear or anger; it could have been motivated by something else entirely. For all they know the giants are just hungry. McCoy’s response isn’t necessarily surprising; McCoy’s always going to have a strong reaction to someone dying while he’s around, which he often expresses by lashing out, and Spock’s the closest possible target. But in the context of the arc of the episode we’re clearly supposed to take this to mean that Spock screwed up, when really, any choice in this situation was always going to be a gamble.

Anyway, things are quiet for the moment, and Yeoman Mears wonders why. Spock thinks the giants are probably studying the Galileo. Of course, as soon as he says that, the shuttle starts to shake. Aww, it’s like a mini Star Trek Shake. Adorable.

Turns out the shuttle is shaking all over the place because a giant is hitting it with a rock.

[ID: The shuttlecraft Galileo sitting among cliff walls while a giant stands over it with a large boulder poised to strike.]

Spock is just really surprised by all this, musing that he’s “made the correct and logical decisions all along...and yet two men have died!” And now the giants are attacking! And McCoy and Boma are mad at him! How strange! He seems to just be kind of mildly perplexed about all this, as if it’s a crossword puzzle he can’t quite figure out.

Up on the ship, there’s a brief interlude in which Kirk laments that the landing parties haven’t found anything, the instruments still aren’t working, there’s really nothing they can do, and then Ferris reminds him of how much time he has left. About the only purpose it serves is to tell us how much time has been passing, which I’ll admit is helpful because there’s absolutely no way to tell that from the rest of the episode. Apparently it’s been almost two days, but you’d never guess that if you just watched the sections taking place on the planet, which really give no indication at all that they’ve been down there that long.

Back in the still-shaking shuttle, Spock abruptly seems to get an idea and asks Scotty what shape the shuttle batteries are in. Scotty says they’re fine, but the batteries aren’t going to be making that shuttle take off in any circumstance. That’s not what Spock is up to, though. He wants to know if the shuttle batteries could electrify the exterior of the shuttle. Scotty immediately catches on and gleefully says that oh yes, they can. Really? Why can they do that? Who designed this?

So while everyone huddles on the floor carefully not touching anything metal (good thing this shuttle is carpeted), Scotty takes a panel off the wall and whacks the batteries with a wrench a few times. Sure enough, this causes quite a lot of electricity to go sparking across the outside of the shuttle. The giant is remarkably persistent even while being electrocuted, but eventually the shaking stops.

They’re clear for the moment, but there’s no telling how long the giants will stay away. In the meantime, Spock tells them to keep on clearing out the shuttle and lighten the load as much as absolutely possible. Of course, there’s one non-essential thing on board that comes immediately to mind: Gaetano’s body. It’s unfortunate but they’re going to have to leave him behind.

Boma insists on at least having a burial for him, but Spock points out that’s a big risk since the giants are not very far off. They’d be risking the safety of those who are still alive. But Boma starts getting really worked up about this, coldly telling Spock that, “I would insist upon a decent burial even if your body was back there.” McCoy and Scotty immediately reprimand him for going too far, but Boma doesn’t seem deterred.

Seriously, you gotta wonder what the deal is with Boma and Gaetano (or what was the deal with Gaetano, rather). Of course the situation is bad and they have every right to be uncomfortable or upset about it. But throughout the episode the two of them act like this is the first time they’ve ever had to even consider that they might have to make sacrifices or do hard things for the sake of getting as many people out alive as possible. If they were civilians thrust into this situation it’d be understandable. But we’re talking about trained military personnel. You’d kind of expect them to have at least some familiarity with ideas like “sometimes you may have to leave a dead man behind for the sake of those who are still alive.” Spock’s decisions throughout this episode are sometimes harsh but they are, well, logical for the situation they’re in. Sure, he could be more tactful about it. But tact is not a priority here! Boma and Gaetano seem to have just decided in advance to take issue with everything Spock does, and we’re supposed to see this as some conflict of emotion versus logic instead of them just being totally unwilling to deal with anything they don’t like.

On the Enterprise, one of the landing parties beams up with one dead crewmember and two injured ones. The leader of the party reports to the bridge over a viewscreen and tells Kirk they ran into some big furry cavemen; the dead crewmember got speared while another one somehow dislocated their shoulder. If the planet is populated by such aliens, the party leader points out, things don’t look real good for the Galileo crew.

Kirk is still loathe to give up hope, but at that point Ferris comes onto the bridge to tell him that the forty-eight hours are up and he’s assuming the authority granted to him by a special ordinance. In other words, they gotta go. Kirk doesn’t want to, but he has no choice but to call the search parties and the Columbus back and lay in a course for Makus 3.

After the break, Kirk gives a quick log to say that I don’t wanna leave but I guess we HAVE TO UUUUGHH. Uhura says that their sensor beams are now working, but everything else is still dead. Their course is set, and they have twenty-three minutes left before the Columbus gets back onboard.

On the Galileo, the yeoman is trying to contact the Enterprise, but predictably is not getting an answer. Scotty tells Spock that if they take absolutely everything they can out of the shuttle they can achieve orbit for a few hours, and if they’re real careful they might be able to manage a controlled re-entry—but, of course, the only place they would be re-entering is this dumb planet, so that’s not really an appealing backup plan. At any rate, Scotty figures they can take off in eight minutes—precise--so Spock gives the rest of the crew ten minutes to bury Gaetano. Not much time for a service, but it’s the best they’re gonna get. Meanwhile the Columbus has returned to the Enterprise and everyone’s ready to go, so it looks like Kirk can’t delay any longer. He tells Sulu to proceed to Makus 3...at space normal speed (whatever that is). Oh, and to direct the sensor beams behind them as they go. After all, he has to leave, but he doesn’t have to leave quickly. I mean, except for the plague victims and all that.

The Galileo crew gather in front of a couple of mounds, all set for their speedrun funeral service. (I have no idea what they dug the graves with.) Before anyone can even break out a eulogy, though, the proceedings are disrupted by the return of the giants. Oh, it’s almost like Spock was right about this being dangerous. Fancy that.

Spock yells at everyone else to get back inside the ship while he throws one of the spears back at the giants in an extremely last-ditch move that fails to accomplish anything. He promptly gets hit by a boulder that pins his leg, and tries to order the rest of the crew to leave him behind. They don’t, of course; McCoy and Boma run back to move that terribly heavy and definitely not polystyrene boulder off of Spock, and the three of them beat it back to the Galileo.

As soon as they’re inside, Spock immediately chastises them for not leaving him behind, as if McCoy would ever let anyone out-martyr him that easily. Unfortunately, the delay has given the giants time to surround the shuttle, and now they’re holding it down so it can’t take off. Spock has no choice but to activate the boosters, which gives them enough power to break free...but the spent fuel cuts down on the amount of time they’ll be able to maintain orbit. As he grimly tells McCoy and Boma, by saving him they may have destroyed their own last chance for survival. McCoy tells him to zip it.

Incidentally, I note that for all the talk of lightening the shuttle as much as possible, they didn’t remove the seats. I’d say that was for safety reasons, but since the things don’t have seatbelts I don’t really know how well they’re actually going to keep anyone from bouncing around the cabin.

According to Scotty they can make one orbit and then they’re going down, and since they used the boosters, they don’t even have enough fuel to make a controlled landing. That is one heck of a quickly decaying orbit. I’m no astrophysicist, but I think once you actually make it into orbit you’re usually good for a while.

Yeoman Mears protests that she doesn’t want to die up there. Well, no. I doubt anyone else does, either. Scotty reminds Spock of that thing he said about how there are always alternatives, and Spock admits that he may have been mistaken about that.

[ID: Spock sitting in the foreground while behind him McCoy, one hand on his chin, looks off to the side and says, “Well, at least I lived long enough to hear that.”]

For all that McCoy is usually the first one to protest at length about how space is gonna kill them all, when it looks like he actually is going to die in space, he’s remarkably calm about it.

They reach orbit, and Scotty says they have forty-five minutes, so you’ve about got time to write a will if you don’t own too much. Spock makes one last effort to contact the Enterprise, but nothing. Then he notices a switch. What’s this? ‘Fuel jettison’? I wonder what that does?

Spock flips the switch, jettisoning and igniting all their fuel. Naturally everyone is all wtf man. But on the Enterprise, Sulu looks up and sees a bright green line suddenly streaking across the planet behind them. Kirk immediately tells him to TURN THIS SHIP AROUND MISTER.

[ID: The viewscreen of the Enterprise, showing a rocky planet shrouded in green clouds, with a single bright green line trailing across it near the equator.]

All our sensors still no match for looking out the window.

As the crew of the Galileo waits for their doom, Scotty realizes what Spock’s idea was. It was well done, he says, but Spock doesn’t think there was anyone there to see. Their orbit begins to decay, and things start burning.“It’s getting hot,” Mears says. Thanks, Yeoman Obvious.

But then, amid the smoke filling the cabin, there is at the last moment a sparkle of gold. On the bridge of the Enterprise Kirk sits tensely in his chair, waiting, waiting—and then the transporter officer reports in. Moments before the Galileo disintegrated entirely, they beamed up five people.

Five people. It’s good news, of course, but seven people went out on the Galileo. I wonder what went through Kirk’s head in the time before he found out who didn’t make it back.

Well, we’re never gonna know about that. They head off to finally deliver that plague medicine, and sometime later McCoy’s up on the bridge chatting with Kirk, seemingly quite chill about that whole near-death experience they just had. As Spock walks by, Kirk flags him down to ask about that whole igniting the fuel business. After all, there was virtually no chance of them being seen. So it had to be an act of desperation, and desperation is an emotion, right? You did something emotional, right?

Spock says no, it was a logical act. And, well, it kinda was? Sure, it had barely any chance of working, but they had absolutely no other options, and it was the only thing that had any chance of working at all. It was either do that and risk dying soon, or not do it and definitely die in about forty minutes. But everyone is all ha ha, we got ya, you did something emotional! And the episode ends on a group laugh. Could be a stress laugh, I suppose, but it feels distinctly awkward considering we’ve still got two men dead, whose families will never get their bodies back.

No one really gets served well in this episode. The writing for Spock especially feels skewed distinctly out of character. Yes, he’s all about the logic, and sometimes he struggles to understand humans and their whole deal, but this episode takes it to an extreme. Spock’s far from completely ignorant of emotions—much as he might like to claim otherwise—and he’s certainly not stupid enough to think that doing things logically always guarantees success, not when you can’t control all the variables. His bewilderment that rational thinking didn’t automatically work just comes off as outright silly. The episode tries to set up this whole arc in which Spock tries to solve problems only with logic, fails, and then finally succeeds by committing an emotional act, but it fails for multiple reasons: first, because most of the emotion vs logic conflicts in the episode feel contrived and overwrought and make everyone else look way more unreasonable than Spock; secondly, because the final ‘emotional’ act is actually pretty logical; but mostly, because it feels far too simple a lesson for Spock to need to learn at this point. Yes, it’s his first command, but he’s an experienced Starfleet officer who’s been living and working with humans for over a decade. I could easily see him having some difficulty commanding humans for the first time, and that would have been a good episode if it was done more subtly, but as Spock Learns That Some Things Are Illogical For The First Time Ever, it just doesn’t work.

Meanwhile we’ve got Kirk, for whom arguing with bureaucrats and bending rules to save his crew is hardly out of character, but the urgency of their larger mission makes his flippancy about it seem uncharacteristically callous. McCoy complaining about things and arguing with Spock is perfectly on track, but some of his comments edge uncomfortably out of ‘vitriolic friends’ territory and into just plain vitriol, especially him being willing to go along with some of Boma’s nonsense. Maybe I’m biased about that, but this episode feels as if the writer was given descriptions of the characters but didn’t really understand what made them actually work in practice.

Well, except for Scotty. Scotty was alright.

TREK TROPE TALLY: We have two goldshirt deaths in this episode with Gaetano and Latimer. Next time we’re in for some serious fop with a side of dandy in The Squire of Gothos.

[paranoid-fighter]

It has been a strange, strange week...

I never thought a simple walk through the woods would lead to this. 

"Such a long road we have to travel," she sang into my ears as my feet carried me down the road I had walked countless times before, "will you walk with me for some of the way?"

I am walking, I thought as I made my way through the humid night. I'd walk with her, even though I had no idea where she was going - and, for that matter, I had no idea where I was even going.

No, that wasn't completely true. I had several ideas of where I was going, but I didn't know which route would be best.

After all, it was late for a work night and I needed to wake up early to go walking before work. I had some leeway with tomorrow, but only because I was working at home so I could let the repairman inside. Southern summers without air conditioning were absoltuely miserable. With a shake of my head, I kept walking - around the neighborhood, out to the main route and then follow the sidewalks, that'd be the way to go. It'd give me at least two miles and some hills to climb.

"There's a picture hanging on the wall; reminds me of somebody that I knew. I think I want to turn my head and look away. Is the picture of me or is it of you?"

I don't know, I thought as I glanced down at my hands, at the skin jaundiced by the streetlamps overhead. That wasn't my skin and that skin didn't belong to me. I don't know who it belonged to, but it definitely wasn't mine. At least, I was pretty sure it wans't mine; the hands looked the same and the tattoo was still there, but those arms didn't look like they belonged to me. And, for that matter, I didn't even know who 'me' was at this point.

In fact, I Hadn't actually known that for weeks now.

It wasn't entirely surprising, but the realization was far from comforting.

I raised my head as my feet suddenly angled downward - where was I going?

I looked around and saw the trees rising up around me as my shoes crunched over the rough concrete. Into the woods I go, apparently. What could go wrong, walking through swamplands on a high-walled, unlit bridge at ten o'clock at night, I scoffed as the crunching turned into muffled thumps from the wooden beams below my feet.

I wasn't unfamiliar with walking through the woods at odd hours, but it wasn't something I wanted to make a habit of. But, if I did decide to make it a habit, I'd have a knife on me, instead of a neon-yellow safety vest that was several sizes too big. The vest fit wonderfully over several sweaters worn under a parka, but it purchased for traversing snowdrifts of New England and was hardly suitable for the sleeveless shirts required for Southern nights.

"I was born to be a dreamer," she lamented as I tried to adjust the vest, "dream these long nights away, oh! Such a long road we have to travel..."

Yeah, it was. It really, really was; I turned left at the intersection as my eyes stared down at the walkway. I'd walk over the bridge, to the end of the path, turn around, take the bridge to the other end and then walk through that neighborhood before heading home. There wouldn't be any real hills to walk on this route, but it'd be nice to be in the trees. Even after spending two hours tending to my indoor garden, I still felt the pull to be in nature.  

Nature was one of the few things that I still understood.

Not much else was making sense at this point.

I didn't know why, either. It wasn't like I had never fallen into a depressive rut before, but I couldn't shake it off. I tried - oh, gods, how I had tried! - but the harder I tried, the deeper and deeper I fell. I was still reeling from the events of the previous week, too, and felt the faint stirrings of what I supposed were positive emotions. I hadn't felt many of those in a nice long while, I grumbled as I began down the path.

I raised my head, breaking pace as I stared up at the trees.

There were fireflies.

Hundreds of them.

They filled the trees that framed the bridge, graced the branches that formed a canopy. In the dark night, they shone like tiny suns, illuminating the void that surrounded us.

My pulse quickened as my gaze rose further up.

Overhead, the sky was alive with lightning - heat lightning, I told myself; it had to be heat lightning. There was no thunder and, besides, heat lightning wasn't like regular lightning, therefore it was totally safe to keep walking, yes. Exactly. Completely safe.

With my neck almost fully bent backwards, I stared up at the moon - a half moon, either waxing or waning. I still couldn't tell - despite a B in astronomy, the phases of the moon were still a mystery to me. And, besides, even if I didn't know which way the moon was going, it was still beautiful.

It filtered through the canopy of leaves, through the starfield of fireflies, as it bathed the path in silver light. Occasionally a cloud would obscure its light and would throw the world into further darkness, leaving me with only the fireflies and my own memory to guide my feet.

With the light of the fireflies all but blinding me, I resumed my normal pace...

...only to falter as I stared at a patch of moonlight.

Well, no; I wasn't staring at the moonlight.

I was staring at the... the... thing in the moonlight.

I couldn't see it with my eyes. My brain screamed that the air was empty. I knew it wasn't, though; there was something in front of me, ethereal and vaporous, like tendrils of mist drifting in the moonlight.

I hesitated to put my foot down, to keep on my current path. Rationally, I knew there was nothing there, but I could not bring myself to walk forward. Walking forward would mean walking directly through it and I knew I couldn't bump into the earth-bound auroras that danced beyond the edge of my vision.

Gods only knew what would happen if I were to walk through that galaxy...

My raised foot veered a few feet to the left, landing awkwardly but assuredly as the other foot came to join it. Balanced again, I resumed walking. I forced myself to stare ahead at the fireflies. I knew better than to look over my shoulder at the swirling golden clouds, but I didn't know how I knew.

With another shake of my head, I took a breath as I kept walking.

The air wasn't as humid now; the realization of such broke my stride as I inhaled deeply, trying to take in as much of the world as I could.

I could breathe easily here - a rare occurrence nowadays. I took another deep inhale as I swept a hand through my hair, only to blink when I caught a glimpse of my skin in the moonlight. Gone away was the streetlight-induced jaundice. All that remained now was ivory that shone in the light of the silver moon. Even the angry red patches were soothed under the pale glow.

I raised my arms and looked at my skin, smiling at what I saw. It wasn't often I liked my own skin, when viewed in the moonlight, it could almost be considered pretty.

With a growing smile on my face, I lowered my arms and kept walking as a warm breeze began to blow...

Something wasn't right.

The path wasn't ending.

It wasn't that long - not even a quarter of a mile. I could walk that in just minutes. But the path wasn't ending.

The world had grown darker.

My pace quickened as I looked around. I could barely see my own hands now - just the fireflies. I could only see the fireflies.

I kept walking as a cool wind whispered around me. The atmosphere was growing colder; I didn't feel welcome anymore.

I kept walking.

I heaved a sigh of relief as the end of the bridge finally came into sight. It was harmless, just wooden beams meeting concrete out in the woods. It wasn't anything more.

But I couldn't step on the concrete.

I stopped only feet away from the edge, pausing for just a moment as my thoughts raced through my head. There weren't many ways to get home now. I could walk a little further down the path and then go through the small shopping center and along the road, but that wasn't safe - it wasn't lit, there were no sidewalks and everyone sped on that stretch of road. I could keep walking down the trail, walk another two miles and then loop back to the main road and get home that way. Or...

I turned around before my feet touched the concrete. I squared my shoulders as I stared out into the darkness. I was going to walk back.

Walk. Not run. Running would be stupid.

Asthma, I told myself; I couldn't run because I was having issues with my asthma and I didn't have my inhaler on me. That's why I couldn't run.

It surely wasn't because it felt like it'd be insulting to whatever was with me.

I kept walking.

My pace quickened as I moved through the shadows. They were just shadows, nothing more. That shadow in the moonlight was just a shadow, too. Sure, it looked like a giant bear making its powerful way along the edge of the bridge, but it was just a shadow. Just a shadow.

I kept walking, vaguely realizing that I could no longer hear her singing into my ears. I absently fumbled with the button on my headphones, changing the song to something I barely heard. I wanted to listen to whatever was playing, but I couldn't hear it.

I couldn't hear anything except my own pulse thrumming in my ears...

I kept my gaze on the fireflies as I kept walking. The world was dark around me, darker than what I knew it should be. There was no way that it could be this dark - only caves could be this dark, not nature trails in the middle of the night.

Where was the damn moon?

And, for that matter, where was the intersection on the bridge that'd take me home--oh.

There it was.

...And there it went.

I kept walking, walking down the rest of the bridge. There were fireflies here, fewer now. They still sparkled and shone in the trees, but they were just fireflies. Just fireflies...

The rest of the walk passed by, a blur of shapes and colors. I made it home faster than I should've, but I wasn't going to question it. I wasn't going to question anything right now.

That'd be for the morning. I'd think about all of this in the morning during my walk.

...Except I didn't.

And that walk went by faster than it should've, too.

Everything went fast, except for work. Work didn't go by fast. But it didn't normally anyway.

I probably could've done more during the day, though, but I couldn't focus. I couldn't do anything except stare out of the window and look for the repairman.

I was just waiting for the repairman, nothing more. I wasn't thinking about the woods, not at all, just like I wasn't thinking about the shadows or the shining mist or the fireflies. Nope.

Just waiting for the repairman...

They didn't come until that night. 9:30, actually.

Sure, I was annoyed - I wanted to be back out at the woods! - but I was pleasant. After all, they were fixing my air conditioning. And boy, oh boy, did they ever fix it. Within minutes of them refilling the coolant, cold air began to fill the townhouse for the first time in weeks. They were pleasant, too, even when they accidentally let a moth inside.

I didn't mind, though; I liked moths.

"Don't worry," the repairman said as he and his partner walked the door, "he'll go right outside in the morning."

I nodded and watched as the moth settled itself on the light fixture in the kitchen - I should clean that, but it was just so hard to reach...

I swept the floor after they left before dressing into something more suitable for going out into the woods. Well, for a walk, at least. Shorts, sleeveless shirt, giant neon vest and shoes, but there were some new things going with me this time around. Things that totally weren't offerings for the woods. Things that weren't suggestions from a witchy friend of mine about. Not at all. There totally weren't small sweets and a polished piece of hawk's eye in my pocket, just like I wasn't carrying eggshells filled with cream and honey. Nope.

Nothing out of the ordinary here, I thought as I made my way down the street and back to the woods. Hello neighbor with the asshole loud dog that just barked and made me jump and spill cream on myself; just ignore the weirdo wearing the safety vest holding something in their hands. Don't pay me any mind; just making a beeline for the woods at almost ten at night. Nothing strange here...

I hurried down the path, eyes scanning the trees as I went.

There were fireflies here again tonight, shining just like they were before. It felt different on the path tonight - there was a little of the strangeness, but it seemed normal. I tried to ignore the sinking feelings as I carried the honey and cream down the trail. Why should I feel what I felt the previous night? I had felt it once, had basked in beauty I didn't know could exist in such a common place - or even in this world - and that should be enough. I was just being greedy...

I kept walking until I saw a small patch of moonlight along the edge of the bridge.

I had pushed through more spiderwebs than I ever cared to walk through as I came to kneel before the circle of light. I carefully placed the cream and honey down on the edge of the bridge, leaning them against the railing, before reaching into my pocket. I placed the polished stone down next to the cream, followed by a favorite cookie of mine - shortbread filled with matcha cream - and then drew a small box out of my pocket.

I opened it and pulled out a small apple pie. "An elf I know loves apple pie," I whispered to the night, "and I figured you'd might like it, too." I broke it in half, placing one half next to the cookie. I turned and sat down next to the little treats, my back leaning against the bridge. "I wanted to come back and say thank you. You showed me something last night I had never seen before, nor did I ever think I could see." I drew my legs up to my chest as I took a bite of pie. "I wanted to come and sit and have a meal with you, too. I... I just wanted to say thank you."

And I did.

I don't know how long I sat out there, talking to the trees. Fireflies drifted before me; their lights left spots in my vision as they drifted away. I idly brushed cobwebs off of me as I sat with my humble offerings and spoke into the quiet night.

The words tumbled from my mouth, all without a single conscious thought.

While I spoke, my eyes scanned the woods for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I strained to see in the dark night, but everything appeared as it should. Just quiet, normal woods, filled with crickets and cicadas and fireflies. "It's beautiful," I said, "it's all still so beautiful."

I finished the last bit of pie and turned to face my offerings. "Thank you," I whispered as I knelt before it. "I... I just wanted to say thank you. I don't know if you know what this meant to me, but..." I paused, thinking through my words - it was funny; I fancied myself a writer, but words were escaping me now. "...you made me feel alive again. So..." I kowtowed, my head resting on the wooden beams, "thank you."

I stayed there for a few moments before slowly standing. I turned and continued walking down the path, making my way to the edge of the bridge.

Just like the previous night, I stopped before I stepped onto the concrete. I raised my gaze and stared out over the concrete path, only for my eyes to widen as I saw a faint glimmer of golden mist drifting ahead of me, floating above the concrete as it made its way back into the trees. I smiled and bowed my head before turning on my heel and walking home...

[teamrealitystanza9]

Doctor Who: Dalek Attack

SO! MANY! WORDS!

Check under the read more for this super in depth ride description love! [ written by the brilliant Pi on my Cake featuring art by the sharpie queen Tegan pilots a chicken]<3

~Loading Platform/Ride System~

Guests exit the TARDIS and enter into the cargo bay of a Dalek spaceship.

This serves as the loading station for the ride. Guests go forward and see Team Members in Torchwood Institute uniforms here to help them into the ride vehicles. [ The Torchwood Institute is a team of alien hunters and paranormal investigators based in Cardiff. They have helped the Doctor a few times before. ] The ride is a mini-EMV style system similar to Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Although both for capacity reasons and to add more motion/rotation, the ride vehicles are a bit larger. One other difference from Pooh is the use of showstops throughout to increase the ride time and enhance the experience.

Visually, they look like Daleks. The story reason for this is that we are using the shells of old, broken Daleks to be able to sneak through the ship undetected.

~Scene 1~

Guests begin their journey by being almost immediately stopped by a Dalek. The vehicles rotate to face the imposing, yet simple animatronic figure.

“HALT! THE DALEK SHIP IS ON FULL LOCKDOWN! ALL DALEKS MUST BE SCANNED!” - Dalek Guard

The Eleventh Doctor’s voice can be heard over a radio assuring us that the shells we are riding in will pass any scan. The Dalek’s weapon begins to charge as if he is about to shoot.

“Well, in theory they can pass any scan.” - The Doctor

“SCAN COMPLETE! CONTINUE ON, FELLOW DALEK! MORE GUARDS ARE NEEDED TO WATCH THE PRISONER AND THE ULTIMATE EXTERMINATOR!” - Dalek Guard

“Ultimate Exterminator? Don’t like the sound of that. But let’s focus on finding me first.” - The Doctor

~Scene 2~

Guests then continue on through the foreboding ship. A few other Daleks can be seen standing guard. Weapons seem to follow us.

This appears to be an armory of some sorts. Decommissioned Dalek shells broken down and scrapped for parts mixed in with new weapons and GunSticks [ the little laser doodads that Daleks have. ] This is a quiet scene. A calm before the storm. But tension is rising and seeing the Dalek armory raises the tension and establishes just how dangerous they can be.

~Scene 3~

Next is the Dalek Prison Block. Most of the cells are empty since Daleks don’t typically take prisoners. But we do see the 10th Doctor in a cell!

This is another showstop as our vehicles park in front of a large screen showing the 10th Doctor.

“Sending the calvary in repurposed old Dalek shells, brilliant! I am one smart fellow! Well, I will be one smart fellow. Well, I am one smart fellow and my future regeneration will be too. You know what, you all get the gist. Open this cell we have work to do.” - 10th Doctor

The cell opens up and The 10th Doctor steps out holding out the Sonic Screwdriver to scan the room.

“Now, the Daleks have some sort of super weapon and I’m gonna need some back up. One smart fellow is great, but two! That’s when things get crazy. Of course, the calculations required for two versions of myself to exist in the same time and place take a very long time. But if I start now I should be done in…” - 10th Doctor

The ride vehicles turn around to face a different screen where a TARDIS is appearing. As it is appearing, the Eleventh Doctor’s voice can be heard.

“...137 years, 2 months, 4 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes, and 42 seconds. Hello, me. Long time no see.” - The Eleventh Doctor

~Scene 4~

Alarms start to blare! Dalek troops are everywhere [ optical illusions and screens are used to make this section of the ride look much larger and much more full of Dalek. ] We see the two Doctors going around on the screens outsmarting and tricking Daleks to save us. It can be stuff as simple as basic pranks [ like the 10th Doctor tapping a Dalek on it’s right “shoulder” when really he’s on the left side ] to more aggressive stuff [ like the 11th Doctor knocking a lubricant on the floor and “This is Sparta” kicking a Dalek down down the slippery hall. ]

This scene is pure fun crazy chaos and absolutely captures the spirit of light-hearted, epic adventures that make Doctor Who so great!

~Scene 5~

Next we enter the room with the Ultimate Exterminator! A giant Dalek Super Weapon! Both Doctors are standing nearby gloating and exchanging some fun, cocky banter. This is another showstop in front of a large screen. They explain that the reason they captured the 10th Doctor was that they wanted to use the Temporal Energy generated by Timelords to power the weapon. But what they don’t understand is that time isn’t linear, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

Since time isn’t simple and linear, anything using it as a power source can have that power taken away. A weapon made for explosions, can instead cause an implosion! All they need to do is reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!

This whole scene works as an homage to the technobable filled inspirational hero speeches the Doctor is known for!

Guests then follow a glowing pipe towards the engine of the Ultimate Exterminator.

~Scene 6~

As we head towards the engine for another show stop in front of a large screen, we see it already pulsing with energy and getting ready to implode!

Suddenly there is a big blast and wind blows through the room! A hole was blown in the wall of the ship! Daleks are seen flying out into space and the ride vehicles use it’s motion base to simulate the feeling of trying to hold on!

“Allons-y!” - 10th Doctor

“Geronimo!” - 11th Doctor

The scene quickly becomes a short simulator type sequence as we get sucked out into space! Daleks out in the void with us as well as a lot of debris. We see the TARDIS flying around in the distance. Although as we get a bit further from the ship things start to slow down leading to another slower scene.

~Scene 7~

This scene has a bit of peaceful stillness as everyone is calmly floating out in space. Lights line the room creating a beautiful starfield. A miniature of the wrecked Dalek ship is here creating the optical illusion of it being off in the distance. A couple of Dalek figures are floating in space [ the supports are hidden in the darkness. ]

The peacefulness is interrupted by the Eleventh Doctor’s voice over the radio.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? I’ve been travelling through here for a thousand years and the sight of the stars still hasn’t gotten old.” - 11th Doctor

The sound of the Doctor’s voice alerts a nearby Dalek that was aimlessly floating out in space. It starts to flail and panic and shoots it’s laser wildly hoping to “EXTERMINATE” the Doctor! 

With a flash of light and a sudden jerking motion from the vehicle, it seems like the guests were hit! The vehicles start spinning as they careen into the next room!

~Scene 8~

This scene uses a speed tunnel effect [ basically a wrap around projection tunnel ] like Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. This allows the guests to be surrounded by a high speed space battle and hurtle through the stars as Daleks try to EXTERMINATE them! The vehicles are turned backwards here to help add to the chaos and excitement of this sequence.

Among the space debris flying by during this scene on the projections, Jmmy Neutron’s ship and George Jetsons’s ship can be seen as Easter Eggs to the past inhabitants of this showbuilding.

After a bit, the star projections give way to a time warp tunnel! With two TARDISes flying through it! The Doctors rescued us and we are now warping safely back to earth!

~Scene 9~

Guests then head to one final show stop facing the TARDIS in an alley behind the museum that served as the queue. The door opens and behind it is a screen with the Eleventh Doctor standing in the doorway here to say goodbye.

“You’ve done splendidly. Absolutely breathtakingly fantastic. Fantastic. Faaaannnntttaasstic. It sounds weirder when I say that then when I said it. Oh well. Point is, you did an amazing job and you saved a lot of people. Now, go treat yourself! You earned something special. Maybe get a nice fez. Fezzes are cool.” - The 11th Doctor

The TARDIS then disappears [ What we saw was just a Pepper’s Ghost reflection, so making it disappear is easy. ] After that, guests head towards the unload station which continues the alley theming. The voice of beloved Doctor Who side character and star of the Torchwood spin off, Captain Jack Harkness, comes over the radio.

“Before you head home, me and my buddies at Torchwood wanna check in with you. Just a quick debrief and you can be on your way. And I’m a master at debriefing.” - Jack Harkness ;)

This short message sets up the story for the gift shop and gives a nice segue for guests exiting the ride and heading to the store.

[lifeofaliterarynerd]

Anticipated Releases: April 2017

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