Archive of Our Own ^beta

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" Why are we out here again?" Came the rather tired voice of Lance over the comms. Again. Keith rested his face in his palm.

" We're just looking for outposts. The Galra are spread thin out here, so we should have better chances of helping anybody out here fend off invasions." Pidge informed, the mild annoyance in her voice clear. They'd been out for days, and they really hadn't found much. Just a few planets inhabited mainly by giant globs of slime, a couple of VERY aggressive groups, and little-to-no Galra. If they were in this Galaxy, they definitely weren't in this corner of it. 

" We've still got a coupe, of stars, so keep up your guard. We don't want to be caught by surprise." Shiro told them, piloting his lion to their right, it's vision caught on something. A strange ringing filled Keith's ears. It was clear, and very annoying. Evidently, Red had noticed it as well. As they drew closer to Black, the ringing grew louder, and he could feel Red grow restless. 

By the time the others had joined them, the ringing was calming, it's cause, whatever that might have been, drifting away. Red was still on edge, though, and she urged Keith to move forwards, back into the sound. 

" Hey, guys, do you hear something?" Hunk asked, an anxious tinge to his voice. The Yellow lion was nearest behind him, eyes glowing softly. After a quick check of their surroundings, Keith was sure that there wasn't anything else around them.

" I've been hearing some sort of ringing. I think Green wants to go after it." Pidge replied. The ringing was very quiet now, an occasional resurgence here and there, but it was fairly subdued now. 

Suddenly, Red jerked to the side, facing a nearby star. It wasn't massive by any means, but there were a few small planets circling it. The sound grew louder, and Keith realized that he was moving. Slowly, but moving.

" I think that whatever's out there, we should find it. At least we won't be facing off against slime again." Lance added. The fights against the slime hadn't really been a bright spot in the over-all record of adventures in space. 

" I agree. If the lions think it's important, then it must be." Shiro said, piloting his lion towards the small star and it's planets, closely followed by the rest of the team.

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About a half hour later, they had arrived. The ringing was almost gone now, only a faint memory remaining.

There weren't a great deal of planets around this one, only five. Lance wondered what they would do if the ringing actually did lead somewhere. Every once in a while, the lions would try to go after something, but by the time they got there, it would already be long gone.

One of them brought back a light ringing, but it faded quickly. Still, he was sure that there was something creepy about this solar system.

" Guys, I'm getting life readings for one of these planets." Pidge called over the comms, her voice seeming a little shocked. Not surprising, considering that there have never been any reports of life in this sector before, at least according to the princess.

" Which one?" Shiro asked. The Paladins and their lions stopped, waiting to hear.

" It's the second one." She responded, piloting Green towards it. The planet itself was fairly small, about the same size as most inhabited planets in this sector. As they got closer, Lance could tell that there was one massive continent towards the middle, with both poles frosted over. There was a large crescent shape of islands which seemed to be Volcanic in nature, too. And strangely, there were two massive rings towards the northern edge of the greater mass, one inside the other. Clearly, they were not natural occurrences, the land around them was a vastly different color than the greens and icy whites that took up the rest of the planet.

" Should we go in?" Hunk questioned. Lance waited for an answer,and got one when Shiro moved Black closer to the planet, followed by the others.

They landed in a small river valley on the main continent, high rocky cliffs framing either side and a comically bright blue river through the middle, cutting deep into the rock. There was a small cave opening on the left hand side of the valley, where they managed to hide the lions. So far, there had been no signs of hostile life, but Pidge had thought it would be safer to keep them hidden. According to her, no reports of life often meant a primitive civilization that might not exactly be friendly to strange giant robot lions.

No signs of any phantom ringing so far, although the lions did seem a little bit excited. Well, whatever. Their first goal was to find the source of the strange attraction to the planet, and that meant finding settlements. As they had seen when coming down, their area was relatively clear, but downstream by the cost was densely populated, with little cities and towns dotting the shore line.

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From the cliff where they now stood, Pidge could see several small towns and villages along the coast, all overlooking a raging ocean. Weirdly enough, they all seemed to share the same color scheme; a mass of green tiled roofs, with light tan walls surrounding them. In the middle, there was frequently a large red building, which seemed to have been made more recently than the others, though there was a chance they were just better kept than the others.

" Should we try to go in?" Came a question from Lance.

" I think we need to see what the people here look like, first. If our guesses are correct and this is a more primitive planet, then a group of strange aliens like us would probably through a town into chaos. We'll need to at least try and look like them." She told him, preparing for a long climb.

Now that they were close to civilization, they would have to be more careful with their movements, if they planned on not causing absolute chaos. Their descent was easier than expected, and they reached the base of the cliffs after about fifteen minutes. As the circled the settlement, Pidge could see that here was some sort of insignia on the defensive walls of the town, a dark circle with a light square in the middle. The walls were fairly tall and built in a way that was too perfectly circular, but what really caught her attention was the gate. It was a large, metal contraption, with a large image of a flame of sorts in the middle. The entire piece was a deep red color, and seemed entirely out of place.

Lance stepped forwards, apparently having not listened to what she had just told him five seconds ago. She tried to signal him back, but he just kept on going. She grumbled, hoping that none of the place's inhabitants would show their faces before she had him back with the group.

" I think I see something down there." He said, finally coming to a stop and pointing down at a lower area. From behind the large bush that Hunk and Keith were behind, Pidge was pretty sure that she heard swearing.

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Lance was well aware that people (read: Keith) weren't going to be all too pleased with his move. But they did have to know what the locals looked like, and nobody else seemed all that interested in going ahead and doing it. Plus, he didn't think that the guy (he thought it was a guy, anyways) could see him from where he was. 

Pidge leaned over his shoulder, apparently trying to both pull him back behind the bushes with the rest of the team, and get a look for herself. Lance looked back at the person over the field, and found to his absolute shock and horror, that he was being looked straight back at. Worse than that, it looked like the guy had moved a bit closer. Pidge shot him a 'you absolute moron' look, and started walking fowards.

" What are you doing?!" Keith hissed, popping his head up from behind the bush.

" We've already been spotted. It'll probably just seem suspicious if we don't try to say hi." Pidge answered, gesturing with her arm for the others to follow. " Or do you want to be the next cryptids for these guys?" Well, that was pretty good reasoning to Lance not to want to follow her. Being a cryptid would be hilarious, right?

About 20 minutes later, they and the person, whom they now could actually see, looked remarkably human. The guy was relatively dark skinned, a bit taller than Lance, and apparently green was his favorite color, 'cause he was wearing nothing else.

He was looking at them like they were Aliens. Which was fair, since they literally were aliens from another planet to this guy. There was a short silence where both parties just sort of looked at each other. Eventually, the guy said something.

" What are you doing here? I thought the war was over."

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" What are you doing here? I thought the war was over."

Hunk did not like the implications of that. Had these folks already faced the Galra?

" War?" Lance asked, apparently realizing that the words had left his mouth a moment too late. The native gave him a 'are you really that thick' look.

" You know, the war with the Fire Nation? Which lasted a century? The one that ended two months ago? That one." Oh. Well, that was a relief? As long as the Fire Nation wasn't just some sort of title that they gave the Galra, that was.

" No, actually. We're new around here." Shiro was doing his best. The man, however, was clearly unimpressed.

" How could you-" The guy paused, thinking, before asking, " Are you by any chance from Ba Sing Se?" 

" Ba Sing Se? Was that place not involved with the war or something?" Hunk wondered. The man sent him a dirty look, and he realized that he'd spoken aloud. Whoops.

" We're not from Ba Sing Se. It's fine if you don't believe us, but we're from out there." Pidge pointed up at the sky. The guy startled, looking kinda  like he was halfway through a party and he'd forgotten to turn off the stove. Not pleasant, basically.

" You- You're spirits?" He asked. Oh no. Well, they'd had a good run of not being cryptids. 

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" You- You're spirits?" 

Oh. Oh no. Well, that certainly wasn't the reaction Pidge had envisioned. It involved a lot more screaming. And accusations that they were all insane or lying or something. Then, a new thought struck her. What if they were already under Galra control? What if they thought that they were the spirits? It likely wouldn't be the first time in the past 10,000 years of Galra imperialism that such a thing had happened.

" Depends on your definition of spirits. What do yours look like?" Lance had already fired out. Well, they'd know soon enough? The guy, however, looked at him as though he was a complete and udder moron. Which, to be fair, Pidge often found herself thinking that as well.

" Well, they can look like pretty much anything? Some of the even have multiple forms. But seriously, you've got to be spirits, right? We aren't being invaded by some hidden sky civilization now?" Huh? Well, at least that cleared out the Galra option? They never seemed to have anybody non-Galra in their ranks. 

" We're not invaders. And we got a pretty good look at this planet, I don't think you've got any 'Sky civilizations' to be worried about." And there was Keith's single line until somebody pissed him off. 

" I'm sorry, you what?"

" ...Is this a good time to tell you that we're actually Aliens?" Lance asked, looking as though he'd just made the greatest joke of all time.

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" You're kidding me. You've got to be kidding me." Said the man. Pidge shook her head. The man (Lance really needed to find a name for him) looked worried. Understandable, really. They just stared at each other for a few moments before:

" So why come here?"

" Well, there was thing... Ringing? That we heard, and since the Lions thought it was important, we came here." This answer, curtesy of Shiro, only seemed to confuse the man more. 

" Let me get this straight. You heard ringing while... Somewhere not on the planet, and your lions thought it was important? So you came here? Do you need me to 'Take you to our leader' or anything else?"

" Yes, actually. Getting in touch with leadership would help a great deal." Pidge chipped in. The man cast her a glance that was somewhere between amusement and shock.

" Well, this is probably the worst place to come, if you wanted to get into contact with leadership. This place is a bit of a mess, now that the governors are leaving." Governors leaving? Had there some sort of revolution- No, wait, he said 'Firenation'. Maybe the coast had been under foreign control.  

" Then where can we find it? We have a lot to tell them." Green-guy nodded.

" Well, Ba Sing Se, Omashu, or the Firenation Capital (he said the last with a tinge of disgust) would be a good place to start." 

" Right!" Said Pidge. "And where can we find them?"

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"Y- Oh, spirits help me. What are your names?" He asked, his hands covering his face.

"I'm Shiro. These are Pidge, Lance, Hunk, and Keith. We're the Paladins of Voltron." He said, gesturing at each of them in turn. The man let out a sigh.

"Right. I'm Chun. Nice to meet you people? Anyways, if you really did come from the stars, you probably already saw at least one of those places." Shiro wasn't sure. He had seen a strange looking pair of circles, but he didn't think that could be right.

"If we did, we didn't notice. Could you hook us up with a local leader?" Pidge said, straightening her glasses. Chun looked vaguely uncomfortable for a moment, but shrugged it off. He took a step forwards.

"Let's get moving, then. Town's fairly far off."