Chapter Text
Keith didn't like thinking about his early childhood. Between his mother's leaving him when he was too young to have more than the vaguest impressions left of her and his father's death not too long after that, there was not much good to recall about that time of his life. Thinking about it, Keith wasn't sure if he had any truly good memories of Earth. The only thing he could come up with was the event that immediately preceded leaving.
He was seven years old. He had wandered away from the orphanage, out into the desert, following a pull he didn't understand. Now Keith had come to some kind of cave filled with strange pictures unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Childish curiosity overriding what common sense a seven year old may have, he touched the pictures. To his amazement, they lit up in bright blue. His joy didn't hold long though, as the ground began to shake and rumble menacingly. Keith thought he was surely going to die when the floor began to open under him. Right before he could fall to his doom, strong hands grabbed his sides and pulled him away from the hole in the ground. Something large and dark curled around him, shielding him from the cave. Through a silver curtain, Keith watched the wall markings go dark as a roar sounded through the cave - coming from what seemed like everywhere at once - and caused it to shake once more until parts of the ceiling collapsed, closing the cave floor as if the hole had never been there.
When all was silent again and the ground had calmed, the "something" unfurled from around him, turning out to be a person in what looked like some sort of armour. Stranger than the weird armour thing though was that the stranger didn't really look old but had white hair. Oh and also that his skin was purple. And he was sooo tall. To the rather small boy, the stranger seemed like a giant.
"It's alright now. The danger has passed, little one."
It was only with the stranger's soft words that Keith realised he was shaking.
The proximity alert of his ship pulled Keith out of the memory. With the flick of a switch he disengaged the auto-pilot and the turn of a dial activated his ships cloaking as he passed Neptune.
That quintant in the cave had been the start of a new life. The stranger he had met that quintant had turned out to be an alien by the name of Lotor, prince of the very militaristic Galra despite being only half-Galra. And, as it turned out, so was Keith. Part Galra, that is, not a prince. Lotor had offered him to come with him when he left, had offered him a place where he was wanted, a family . The decision hadn't been a difficult one, even for his seven year old mind.
With ease born of decaphoebs of experience, Keith landed his small but fast craft in a cave close to where his quarry lay hidden in the rock.
***
Setting up the mobile equipment in all that was left of his parents' house made Keith consider what his life had come to.
So much had changed since he had last stood on this planet. When he left, he had been a tiny, lonely orphan constantly on the brink of malnourishment. Now, he had friends that truly liked him, a family that loved him, a brother who supported him. He had food enough to sate his hunger and then some, he had food that actually sated him - a side effect of being half-Galra, Lotor had explained to him when Keith had finally worked up the courage to ask. He needed some trace elements that just weren't naturally found on Earth - his life was good.
Despite the dark memories lingering in this place, Keith couldn't help but smile, idly playing with the small communicator his brother had given him.
***
Keith had been monitoring the galran and human comms channels in the nearby systems when the escape pod entered the atmosphere. Identifying it was not really possible from the ground but as far as he was aware no-one but him was supposed to be in this solar system. Then again, he had picked up some comm chatter on galran frequencies.
He racked his brain for the closest Galra fleets. Prorok was at Central Command, so was that arse Throk, Branko in the Olkarion System, Ladnok and Trugg were both at the other side of the Universe. Bogh was at Omega Shield Station, and, lucky for Earth, Ranveig was at the wilder fringes of the Empire far, far away from Milky-way. With Sendak in the Javeeno System, that left Morvok, Sniv, Gnov and Tarnok. No, wait, Morvok was supposed to still be in the Tau Jar System. So Sniv, Gnov or Tarnok.
But the more immediate threat was the humans getting their hands on what- or whoever was in that pod. Grabbing some small explosive charges, Keith was on his way to the crash site.
Distracting the Garrison personnel was far too easy. A few small explosions and they all swarmed in, leaving no protection at the crash site, unless you were inclined to count the medical staff. Which, considering they were non-combatants and he half-Galra, Keith was disinclined to do. He only wished he could wear his armour, but that would be a dead give away and his brother had been very clear on remaining as inconspicuous as possible.
The scientists were easily dealt with, leaving Keith free to turn his attention to the crash survivor. He was human, though his right arm had been replaced by an obviously galran prosthetic. If that had not been enough to clue Keith in, the survivor’s clothes made it plainly evident the man had been a prisoner of the Galra - as if the escape pod from a galra cruiser was not obvious enough.
It seemed luck was on his side today, as Keith’s touch roused the escapee to at least drowsy consciousness. Hoisting him up, the half-Galra pulled the human’s arm over his shoulder and turned towards the exit. Only to come face to face with three juveniles (Or at least he thought they were juveniles. Keith wasn’t exactly sure he could trust his estimation of human age though, considering he had only himself as comparison.), a big one wearing a yellow shirt, a short one with glasses and a slim one in a green jacket.
“Nope. No you—No, no, no, no, no, no, no you don't. I'm saving Shiro.”
A brash , slim one in a jacket , Keith corrected himself.
“Who are you?” he asked as Jacket lifted the escapee’s - Shiro? - other arm over his own shoulder.
“Who am I? Uh, the name's Lance.” Jacket - Lance - said as if that explained everything. After a moment of waiting for more of an explanation, Keith finally replied:
“Am I supposed to know you?”
“I’m, like, the top pilot in the Garrison?”
Was that supposed to impress him? From all that Keith had seen of the Garrison so far, none of it had been worth mention, let alone bragging about.
“Congratulations?” He really wasn’t sure what he was meant to do with that information.
At least Lance was marginally helpful - or at least not much of a hindrance - in getting this Shiro out of the improvised facility. Just as they reached Keith’s hoverbike the security staff returned.
Took them long enough , Keith thought. His amusement was cut short however when the three Garrison cadets (at least that was what Keith assumed they were, judging from Lance’s words) decided to hitch a ride from him, hopelessly overloading his bike.
“Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?” Glasses asked.
“No.”
He wanted to tell them to get lost or growl at them until they got the point but there was no time for any of that. So with a rev of the engine he took off.
Normally, the bike, old as it may be, would have no problem losing the tail. Overloaded as it was, Keith was glad he kept any manoeuvrability. But the Garrison personnel in pursuit were steadily gaining ground.
“Can't this thing go any faster?” Every time Lance opened his mouth, Keith liked him less. When utter indifference was the starting point, his patience was running thinner by the dobosh.
“We could toss out some non-essential weight.” Surely there was no way to miss the acid in his tone. The message should be clear. Get off or shut up.
“Oh, right!” Apparently he was wrong. Or Lance was denser than Keith had originally assumed. Maybe humans developed faster physically than they did mentally? “OK, so that was an insult. I get it.”
Do you? , Keith couldn’t help but think. So far, the boy didn’t seem very bright.
Their pursuers were still gaining on them.
Time for some evasive manoeuvres.
“Big man, lean left!” he called out. Yellow-Shirt complied, causing a sharp turn in the bike’s course that the more unwieldy Garrison crafts could not copy without two of them crashing into each other. He tuned out the chatter behind him as best he could while he pulled the bike almost parallel to a cliff. Then, when the moment was just right…
“Big man, lean right!” The movement turned the bike over the cliff from where it sailed on a small outcropping, seamed on one side by cliff wall and on the other by a steep drop. The bike handled the sharp turn easily, but it took out another of the rovers. The cliff was coming up, and with it the chance to lose their last tail.
Just a bit closer…
“Guys? Is th-th-th-tha-tha—Is that a cliff up ahead?” Yellow-Shirt asked.
A smirk crept onto Keith’s face. He shouldn’t enjoy this so much. But he rarely got to fly like this without someone shooting at him.
“Yep” he replied as he increased speed, flying right off the cliff.
“What are you doing?! You're going to kill us all!” Lance screamed in his ear.
“Shut up and trust me!” he shouted back, the screeching from behind was starting to hurt his sensitive ears.
As the ground drew closer, he waited for the perfect moment. Too soon and it wouldn’t work and the crash would kill the humans. Too late and they’d hit the ground nose first and the crash would kill them all.
The ground came closer. And closer. And closer. Now!
He pulled the throttle, drawing the bike back upright from its nosedive just in time for the hoverfield to make contact with the ground at the right angle to get traction. As they drew farther and farther away from the Garrison staff stuck on top of the cliff, Keith relaxed his tight grip on the controls slightly.
***
Originally, Keith’s plan had been to try and get some sleep as soon as he got back. Having not just one but four unexpected guests made that impossible. So he just made sure his tech was hidden away before withdrawing into a corner to play with his knife while the three juveniles looked around his place or hovered over the unconscious escapee. By the time dawn approached, he felt at least secure enough to go outside for a few moments to look towards the stars.
Staring up into the brightening sky, Keith allowed his mind to wander to his family. His brother was out there, movements away, and so were the girls. He missed them. Even if all the diabolic duo ever did was annoy him. Right now he would gladly take all their needling (and needlessly destructive tendencies) if it meant he got to be with his pride.
Soon , he reminded himself, soon we’ll all be together again.
He didn’t like being so far away from his family. Missions were fine, usually. Then again, what little actual missions he’d had so far were almost exclusively in short range comms distance and all short term. And if he hadn’t been the only one of them who could blend in on Earth, that'd still be the only type of mission he’d get.
Sensing a presence next to him, Keith turned his attention away from the sky. It was the escapee.
“Finally awake, I see.”
The escapee nodded. “Thanks for saving me. I’m Shiro.”
“Keith. So, how did you end up out there?”
“I wish I could tell you. My head's still pretty scrambled. I was on an... alien ship but... somehow I escaped. It's all a blur. How did you know to come save me when I crashed?”
Keith sighed. He really wished he had his brother’s silver tongue right now.
“That’s… complicated. You should come see this.” He really didn’t want to have to explain this twice.
Back inside the shack, Keith found the cadets all with pretty much the same question of what the hell he was doing here and how he was involved in this. Using pulling a sheet from a pinboard full of notes (though most were in galran short-hand and therefore little more than scribbles to the humans) as an excuse to gather his thoughts, he finally took a deep breath and turned to the group.
“I’ve been on my own for a while now. I thought about leaving, but every time I tried, something… some sort of… energy, called me back. There’s a series of caves nearby. They’re covered in these ancient markings. Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion, but they all share clues leading to some event, some arrival happening last night. Then I saw the ship crash through the atmosphere.”
Most of this was the truth. When he’d still lived on Earth, he had always been drawn back to the caves. And Lotor had told him what he had been able to put together about the glyphs (though it wasn’t all that much. Which, considering how old Lotor was, was really telling regarding their obscurity). But seeing the ship crash had nothing to do with that and the alone part was a flat out lie. It had been only a few movements so far.
Shiro’s curiosity seemed sated for now. At least he drew the topic away from the caves.
“... I should... thank you all for getting me out. Lance, right?” The man reached his prosthetic out for the boy to shake. After a brief moment of hesitance, the metal hand was accepted. Next Shiro offered his greeting to the other two. Now that he looked at them, Yellow-Shirt seemed to be simultaneously deep in thought and incredibly nervous.
“The nervous guy's Hunk. I'm Pidge. So, did anyone else from your crew make it out?” Glasses - Pidge introduced the two. It was good to have names to go with the cadets. Referring to them by physical attributes prolongedly felt wrong to Keith. He had often enough been on the receiving end of that kind of treatment before. Pidge was… interesting. He - at least that seemed to be Pidge’s preference, as far as Keith could tell - was a lot smaller than the other’s. Younger, too. That could just be a biological quirk though. It didn’t necessarily mean anything.
During his musings, the conversation had moved on.
“Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they at this very moment?” Yellow-Shirt - Hunk sounded so nervous, Keith wondered what the hell he was doing in the Garrison. Wasn’t that some kind of military or paramilitary institution?
Shiro answered the cadet. “I can't really put it together. I-I remember the word "Voltron". It's some kind of weapon they're looking for, but I don't know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do.”
The moment Shiro mentioned Voltron, the only thing in Keith’s mind was Quiznak!
If Shiro had heard of Voltron during his time with the Galra and been close enough to make it to Earth in an escape pod… They were way too close for comfort. He had to tell Lotor. His instructions had been clear. Under no circumstances are you to involve yourself in any active fighting. If a situation turns hostile, contact us immediately.
Oh quiznak!
Hunk began rummaging through a backpack.
“Well last night, I was rummaging through Pidge's stuff, and I found this picture. Look, it's his girlfriend.” He showed a picture of two very similar looking juveniles around. Personally, Keith thought they looked like siblings, but again, that didn’t have to mean anything and his knowledge of humans was… limited.
Apparently his notions of privacy were at least not opposite humans’, judging by how defensive Pidge got about his backpack.
“Hey, gimme that! What were you doing in my stuff?”
“I wa—I was looking for a candy bar. But then, I started reading his diary.” Again, Pidge interrupted to take back his belongings. “And I noticed that the repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a fraunhofer line.”
Keith had no idea what that was. Seemed he was wrong about human bodies developing significantly faster than their minds. “Frown... who?”
“It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only this element doesn't exist on Earth. I thought it might be this Voltron, and I think I can build a machine to look for it, kinda like a Voltron Geiger Counter.”
What ever is a Geiger counter? , Keith wondered. From the context, it sounded like some kind of locator or sensor.
“Hunk, you big, gassy genius!” That came from Lance. Did they have to take him with them when they went to the Lion? Couldn’t they just leave him here?
“It's pretty fascinating, really. Th-The wavelength looks like this.” Hunk pulled out a graph that looked like a very familiar line of boulders.
“Give me that” He pulled the paper from the boy’s hands, matching it to a picture on the pin board. Yep. Definitely the boulders. Quiznak.
***
“These are the lion carvings I was telling you about. They're everywhere around here.”
Returning to the cave with the glyphs was a strange experience. The last time he was here, he had almost died. Would have died, had Lotor not been there. This time, when he touched the glyphs, nothing happened. He'd have wondered about the why had the ground not given way a few moments later after the obnoxious one - Lance, was it? - touched the glyphs too. Now he was more annoyed than curious. Falling through a hole and being dropped into a shallow pool of cold water weren’t exactly high on his list of preferred activities. Admittedly, they were also far from the worst that he had lived through but still. Coming face to face with what could only be a Lion of Voltron though definitely made up for getting wet. The blue robot was imposing. Not just because of its sheer size and the intricate force field surrounding it but in its presence. Ancient wisdom seemed to permeate the very air around it.
“Is this it? Is this the Voltron?” he heard Pidge ask.
“It… must be.” Shiro answered.
Should he tell them it was only one part of five? But no. That would reveal too much and only lead to questions he didn’t want to answer.
There was some more talking among the humans but Keith was transfixed by the Lion. Almost reverently he reached out to touch the force field around it. It felt solid under his hand. Could he reach the Lion? How? How could you get past the force field?
“I wonder how we can get through this” he muttered.
“Maybe you just have to knock.” Lance’s suggestion was ridiculous. The Lion would only allow its paladin through. Knocking or not.
So when the force field disengaged and the carvings under the Lion began to glow, Keith couldn’t quite believe his senses. This was one of the Paladins of Voltron? This brash, obnoxious boy was meant to pilot one of the most dangerous weapons in the known universe?
His thoughts were interrupted by a vision of the five Lions forming Voltron. Seeing the legendary robot in his mind was like nothing Keith had ever experienced.
“Incredible” It was all he could do not to hiss at the Lion in shock.
The Blue Lion lay down and opened its mouth to allow them inside. And going by the cockpit’s reaction to Lance, the human really was the Blue Paladin of Voltron.
Great. Just great. This quintant is going wonderful. Keith felt like growling but he knew that would certainly spark questions.
When Lance started pressing buttons after the Lion connected to him, Keith really hoped that the Blue Lion had been precise in its message. Otherwise, all manner of things could happen, most of them not good. But if Lance was a pilot, shouldn’t he know that randomly pressing buttons in an unfamiliar ship was a dangerously foolish idea?
The Lion roared and, with a move of the main controls, took off into the sky.
In the hands of a skilled pilot, a Lion of Voltron was the most advanced ship. Faster and swifter than the best galran fighter, with controls that reacted to the slightest movements and allowed complex manoeuvres to be executed with grace, speed and steadiness.
Lance’s jerking of the controls had them all but thrown about the cockpit.
Top pilot of the Garrison my arse , Keith thought. If this was the best the Garrison could do, they were utterly useless. “ YOU ARE. THE WORST. PILOT. EVER. ”
At least I don’t have to worry about the humans finding the Lion anymore. If they didn’t notice this, they won’t notice anything.
After some more flying and running along the desert ground in great leaps, the lion took off into the sky again, heading towards the outer atmosphere.
“Where are you going?” Keith asked. He was getting really fed up with this. All he wanted to do now was get out of the Lion, get back to his shack and call his brother about coming home.
“I just said it's on autopilot! It says there's an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we're supposed to stop it.”
Lance’s reply made Keith’s worst fears about this situation come true. The only aliens that could be in the system were the Galra. And if the Galra were here, they were here for the Lion. The Lion that was currently headed towards an aerial battle. The Lion he was currently in. His brother was going to kill him.
“What did it say, exactly?” That was Pidge.
“Well, it's not like it's saying words, more like feeding ideas into my brain . Kind of.”
“Well, if this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just, like—I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone. Sorry, Lion, nothing personal.” It was very obvious Hunk had no idea how war worked. Or empires. The Galra would not just take the Lion and leave Earth in peace. They would use the opportunity and add Earth to the empire. Not to mention what they could do to the rest of the universe with a Lion of Voltron in their hands. If they found someone to pilot it… The outcome would be terrifying.
Shiro seemed to agree. “You don't understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead.”
They left the atmosphere right as a Galra battle cruiser dropped out of hyperspace.
“Uh... Holy crow! Is that really an alien ship?” Hunk sounded close to panic yet somehow mildly amazed.
“They found me…” Shiro said.
I’m not sure they were looking for you , Keith thought. More than likely it was the Lion they were tracing. Which brought to question how they knew what to look for, now, after 10 000 decaphoebs that Voltron was gone.
When it came to aerial battles with Galra cruisers, Keith would have preferred a pilot with more experience handling a Lion. Or more experience in general.
“Be careful, man! This isn't a simulator!” Pidge cautioned and Keith almost did a double take at Lance’s reply.
“Well, that's good. I always wreck the simulator.”
They were all doomed.
Luck seemed to be with them though. Lance managed to get a handle on the Lion’s primary weapons system in time to do some minor damage to the cruiser. Enough, at least, to stop the onslaught of laser fire for a while.
“OK, I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet.”
For once, Keith had to agree with Lance. Best get the Galra as far from Earth’s meagre defences as possible. It would not guarantee the planet’s safety, but with the Lion very obviously gone, there should be nothing of interest enough to warrant a return.
And follow, the Galra did. They weren’t shooting at them, just steadily gaining up. Chasing. Toying. Hunting. The cruiser had only one goal right now, Keith knew, capturing the Lion for the Emperor.
They passed Kerberos. The humans were amazed at the Lion’s and cruiser’s speed.
“It takes months for our ships to get out this far. We got out here in five seconds.” Pidge’s voice shone with amazement. Keith didn’t feel quite so excited. This speed was nothing. The cruiser was only gaining on them because Lance didn’t know how to pilot the Lion properly yet. Either that or the legends of the Lions of Voltron were wild exaggerations. But he knew there were ships faster than the cruiser pursuing them. Ships that were lighter, more efficient, made for the hunt.
A dark, swirling vortex opened before them. It took a moment for Keith to realise what it was. Lotor had shown him a schematic once, when he had been teaching him about rare or lost methods of space travel. This was a wormhole.
“What is that?” Hunk asked.
“Uh, this may seem crazy, but I think the Lion wants us to go through there.” Lance said.
“Where does it go?” Pidge seemed to have the most inquisitive mind among them.
“I-I don't know. Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?”
“Whatever's happening, the Lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together.”
Keith almost rolled his eyes at that. These were juveniles with no military experience and only very little military training from what he could guess, involving them in the decision was stupid. But since it didn’t matter much which part of the universe he contacted his brother from (though he would have to ask him to send someone to pick up his stuff and collect the fighter), he stayed quiet.
An unspoken agreement seemed to pass between the humans.
“... All right. Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow.”
And Lance steered the Lion into the wormhole.
***
Wormhole travel, as it turned out, was quite a bit… rougher… than Keith had expected. Not as rough as aerial battles were (what few he had been in so far, at least) but certainly not the smooth traversing of galaxies his lessons had made it out to be. Though maybe that was due to the pilot.
That Hunk had promptly emptied his stomach in a corner had not helped matters. And once again Keith was left wondering why Hunk had signed up for the Garrison. Especially when Pidge’s next words suggested it was a somewhat regular occurrence.
“I'm just surprised it took this long.”
“I don't recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth.” Shiro said.
We travelled through a wormhole. Does this really surprise you? Keith thought but refrained from saying. No need to antagonise them needlessly. Wherever they were, he couldn’t identify it either. It had to be somewhere on the fringes of the empire, or outside it entirely.
“The Lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think... I think it's going home.” Lance said as the Lion steered towards a point on the nearest planet’s surface.
Their entrance into the planet’s atmosphere was no more comfortable than the wormhole jump. The force of the entry had them all pressed close to the pilot’s chair as the only fixed point in the cockpit that was safe to hold onto, much to the pilot’s annoyance.
“Guys, personal space! Hunk, your breath is killing me.”
“Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious Wormhole? Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?”
Something in Keith wanted to ask whether Hunk had a better idea. But he really shouldn’t be needlessly antagonising.
“It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?” Lance said.
And there went Keith’s tenuous restraint.
“I don't know if you noticed, but we're in an alien warship.” His sarcasm, Lotor had once laughed, was as biting as his blade.
“Oh, are you scared?” Lance just had to egg him on, didn’t he? A low growl escaped Keith, though thankfully, no-one seemed to have noticed.
“With you at the helm? Terrified.”
“All right, knock it off! No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together.” Shiro stepped in before the situation could escalate.
“So, what do we do?” Pidge asked Shiro.
“First, we find out where we're headed. Lance?”
“I don't know. I'm sorry. The Lion's not talking to me anymore. ... Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shh! Listen. I think I hear something.”
Keith could hear it too. Hunk defined it as a high-pitched squeal - imprecise as that was. As it turned out, Lace was just making a childish joke out of his less polite bodily functions. Keith wished he could hit him for it. But unfortunately he knew never to hit the pilot of a ship in flight, no matter how annoying.
“But seriously, there's a Castle up ahead.” Lance finally pointed out.
The castle was certainly impressive, though it seemed at odds with the complete lack of visible civilisation around it. The Lion’s approach seemed to trigger some kind of process before it landed in the courtyard.
“Keep your guard up.” Shiro said and Keith had to admit it was sound advice. They knew nothing of this place or its potential inhabitants.
“Something wrong?” Why was it always Pidge to ask questions, Keith wondered.
“My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again.”
They disembarked and a roar from the Lion opened the castle gates for them. The connection between the castle and the Lion was astonishing. Keith wished Lotor were with them. He’d probably know exactly what this place was and what its connection to the Lion stemmed from.
Tentatively, they made their way into the dark halls of the castle, their steps echoing in the high-vaulted entrance hall.
“Hellooo?” Hunk’s echoing voice had Keith turn on his heels, crouched and hissing from the shock. Righting himself quickly, he glared at the human. If it went on like this, he might as well put a sign around his neck proclaiming “ALIEN” in glowing letters.
“From the size of the Lion, I expected these steps to be bigger.” Pidge said.
Why though? , Keith wondered, it isn’t like the cockpit was particularly large.
Suddenly some kind of crystals in the ceiling started to glow and a beam of light fell on them.
“Hold for identity scan.” a computerised voice proclaimed. As rings of blue light surrounded them and began to ascend their bodies.
This isn’t good , Keith thought, actually this is really bad. What if that scan notices I’m half-Galra? What if the results of the scan are proclaimed aloud?
He really didn’t want to have to explain his being half-alien. Absent-mindedly he wondered how the computerised voice managed to speak to them in English. Did the castle operate with some sort of low-level telepathic field to translate everything? He had only heard of it theorised. He’d have to see if there was anything he could read. If he could, that spoke for some sort of telepathic circuitry. If it didn’t, then the translation was only spoken. But in that case, he had no idea how it would know to talk to them in English instead of Imperial Basic - or, if it predated that (which was very possible) Interstellar Trade?
“Why are we here?” Shiro demanded “What do you want with us?”
The voice did not reply. And neither did it reveal any secrets learned from the identity scan. The only thing that happened, now that the scan was complete, was that lighting fixtures with the same kind of crystal as the ceiling lit up, illuminating the entrance hall they were in as well as the hallway straight ahead.
“I guess we're going that way.”
Yes, Pidge, it would seem so.
The farther they went into the castle, the more lamps (torches? They had no fire but as they lit up they looked like they were set aflame for a brief moment) lit up, leading them ever onward through the empty castle. No matter how far they came, there was not the slightest sign of life. It was… eerie.
Finally they reached a circular room. In its centre was some kind of control terminal, surrounded by a circle of hatches in the floor.
“Where are we?” Lance asked.
Pidge examined the terminal. “It's some kind of control room.”
A hissing sound like hatches opening had Keith turning towards it. Two pods, likely cryo- or stasis-ones, rose from two of the floor hatches. One seemed to house a female, judging by the shadowy form the fogged up glass (if it was glass) revealed, the other seemed male.
“Are these guys... dead?” Hunk asked, trying to hide behind the console.
The first pod opened to reveal indeed a woman, who, calling out for her father, fell into Lance’s arms.
She must have been in there a long time for it to have depleted her strength so much , Keith pondered.
“ Hello. ” Was Lance trying to flirt? This was not the time for that.
The woman seemed more confused and suspicious than open to advances.
“Who are you? Where am I?”
Not that Lance seemed to notice that, as he went right on: “I'm Lance. And you're right here in my arms.”
Keith rolled his eyes. He can’t be serious. That woman just woke up from cryosleep, I doubt she wants to have to deal with your fumbling advances right now, moron!
“Your... ears. ” the woman said “They're hideous. What's wrong with them?”
“Nothing's wrong with them!” Now Lance was offended. Serves him right . “They heard exactly what you said about them!”
The woman reacted so fast, Keith almost had trouble following it. More due to surprise than the speed, admittedly, but there were not many species that he knew of that could move so fast. From one tick to the next, Lance was on his knees on the floor, the woman holding him restraint by the ear. Keith would have laughed, had this not been the first good look he’d gotten on the woman. The pointed ears were familiar, but there were many species that had them, his own weren’t round either, though his hair thankfully covered that. But there was no mistaking the markings beneath her eyes. Blush pink crescents that stood out far more prominently against her dark skin than the purple ones he’d seen before had on the purple face they adorned, proudly proclaiming the woman before him an Altean. But how could that be? Just how long had the Altean been asleep for?
“Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my Castle?” the Altean demanded to know.
King Alfor? Keith thought. Now, history had never been his favoured subject unless it was about pointy or sharp things but Lotor had not allowed him to slack on it just because he didn’t find it particularly interesting. And as far as he remembered, King Alfor of Altea had died in the early movements of the War, 10 000 decaphoebs ago.
“A giant blue lion brought us here! That's all we know!” Lance tried to defend himself.
“How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to its Paladin?” Shock abating, the woman let go of Lance’s ear. “What are you all doing here? Unless... How long has it been?”
Keith wondered if he should tell her his theory or feign ignorance. On the one hand, the Altean was clearly distressed and confused, not a pleasant state nor one he wished to force her to stay in longer than necessary. On the other hand, saying something would betray knowledge he simply should not have, had he been raised on Earth, therefore betraying secrets he really shouldn’t let anyone know even existed. In the end, Shiro beat him to it, making any further musings obsolete.
“We don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help.”
“I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea. I've got to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep.”
Keith almost did a double take. Princess Allura? And she’s alive? This quintant is getting weirder by the dobosh.
Of course he knew who Princess Allura of Altea was. His brother had loved talking about her legend during his lessons on Altea and the early decaphoebs of the war. Keith had once joked she was his celebrity crush and it had been especially entertaining to watch his brother’s face change colour. The ensuing beating in the play fight had not been so entertaining anymore.
Princess Allura, meanwhile, had called up the terminal's interface and opened the second pod. Another Altean jumped out, though he carried himself with a lot less grace and poise than the princess. Upon seeing them, he got into some kind of jest of a mock battle - Keith really didn’t know what to call it, but it was appalling (and frankly, embarrassing) to watch. He crossed his arms, hoping it would be over soon. It was only the princess’s voice that finally put an end to the farce.
“It can't be…”
“What is it?” The male Altean asked.
“We've been asleep for 10,000 years!” The princess sounded so distraught. Then again, if he were to suddenly wake from cryosleep only to find his family and home gone entirely, he’d be distraught to. “Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilization…”
He could, too, understand well the rage that filled the next word with a unique malice seemingly universally reserved for one man in the entirety of the cosmos.
“ Zarkon!”
The name seemed to spark some sort of recognition in Shiro. Keith wasn’t sure if that was good or bad though. Allura didn’t seem to notice.
“He was the King of the Galra. A vile creature and enemy to all free people.”
Keith could have remarked that technically, even 10 000 decaphoebs ago his title had been Emperor, or that in all honesty, the Galra and most local elites were as free as any people in a monarchy, especially if they had been part of the empire a long time and where more useful paying taxes than being actively suppressed and exploited. But neither did he think that would go over well with the princess of a planet Zarkon had famously eradicated (especially when to her it had likely been only quintants if not vargas ago that her planet was still alive) nor was he very inclined to defend the emperor.
“I remember now…” Shiro spoke up. “I was his prisoner.”
“He's still alive? Impossible!”
Not nearly as impossible as we would all like, Princess , Keith thought acerbic. Oh the wonders of Quintessence.
“I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a super weapon called Voltron.”
And let’s pray he never gets it. Then we’re all doomed.
“He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him, and that's exactly why we must find it before he does.”