Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

Sparks flew and the fabric of the universe trembled as the mecha battled. Cracks blazed bright and faded with each impact between blades. On one side, Voltron. On the other, a mech silver-white, winged, haloed and terrible.

“Allura, please! You have to stop!”

Why can’t I have happiness? Came the echoing answer. I’ve lost everything, Lance. My home, my Castle, my crown, my power.  Why can’t I have something in return?

“Because you’re breaking the universe pursing the impossible!” That was Keith.

“He’s gone, Allura. You have to accept that,” Shiro’s voice, calm. Heartbroken.

Why? Why do I have to accept that? You came back, Takashi Shirogane. Don’t tell me what I seek is impossible.

“Shiro wasn’t dead when you brought him back, just his body was. This consciousness was preserved in the Black Lion. This is different. The quantum state of the quintessence field makes it statistically impossible for a consciousness to remain intact this long,”  Pidge countered.

I hear him, Pidge. I hear him every night.

“That. . .that’s not him, Allura.” Hunk.

How could you know? You’re no alchemist.

“Allura. Please. . . please. . .”

If you want to stop me, you’ll have to kill me.

The mechs came together again. But from Voltron, heartbreak. Hesitation. The silver mech had no such compunctions. It pierced Voltron through its core. . . .

-----

Chapter 1

Lance sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for breath. I was awake immediately, with one hand on the Marmoran blade I slept with under the mattress. Some habits died hard.

“Go back to sleep, love,” he smiled tiredly at me. “It was just another nightmare.”

He got out of bed and pulled on his dressing gown. Instead of going back to sleep, I followed him out onto the balcony. The stars shone brightly into the reflecting pool below. Lance leaned onto the railing, one hand trailing along the blue marks Allura had left him as a parting gift nearly two centuries ago. Back when they were new, the marks had seemed unintentionally cruel to me – nothing but a reminder of pain. But Lance had learned to move on, we’d fallen in love, and in time, we’d come to learn that Allura’s parting gift had been more than a reminder of their brief romance.

It had been a parting gift to both of us. I don’t know what I would have done with this Galran lifespan of mine without him to share it with.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked him. Usually he volunteered, but not always. Especially when he was really hurting.

“No, Corazón. It was just a nightmare. Just an echo of things that might have been.”

“You’ve been having more of them lately,” I observed. The first one had come not long after the first report of a Rift opening, eighteen years ago. There seemed to be a connection between the two, but Lance had shot down my first attempt at discussing it.

“It’s fine, love, truly,” he leaned over the rail and planted a kiss.

I kissed him back.

“What do you think Coran will have planned for us this time?” he laughed as he pulled away, pointedly changing the subject.

I sighed. The last visit we’d made to New Altea, he’d had us chasing children dressed as Yellmores. Altean old age – dealing with any old age -- made me profoundly uncomfortable. Lance, however, handled it with the same panache he handled most everything.

I couldn’t help but look over at my nightstand through the open balcony doorway. Shiro’s photograph was there, along with an unlit stick of incense. He had been gone eighteen years now – both a blink of an eye, compared to two hundred years, and an eternity. The Galran modifications to his clone body had cleansed his illness and extended his lifespan, but not indefinitely. I had always assumed I’d have him longer. 

Lance saw where I was looking. He gave me a kiss, and pulled me back into the bedroom. He planted me firmly on the bed, and then lit the incense.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about him, too, lately,” he admitted as he sat beside me. “About his legacy, and our own. . . .”

He hesitated.

“What?”

“What do you think about children?” Lance asked.

The thought had never really occurred to me, honestly. I lived a life as a warrior and a leader. I was so busy with handling dangerous situations that children didn’t even come to mind as a possibility.

They should have, though. Lance had grown up with a big family. He’d been an uncle for lifetimes now. He didn’t visit often anymore, because losing your family more than once over was heartbreaking. But I still saw him among Altean youngsters and IGF cadets, and he did well with them.

It occurred to me he probably would make a good father.

As for myself, I was less sure.

He continued, his words getting faster. “Adopting, I mean. I know that you had a hard time growing up, and Shiro and Adam basically took you in. Well, what if we could do that for some kids out there who need us?”

I kissed Lance again. “I think that Shiro would like that.”

Chapter Text

“Patience yields focus.”

Asteroid after asteroid flew past me, accelerating along with my heart rate.

“Patience yields focus.”

I shifted my weight in the seat, out of old habit. But this wasn’t a hover bike, and the controls didn’t respond the way I wanted them to. I barely missed a piece of space rock twice the size of my little shuttle, and a hiss escaped my lips as particles scraped across shielding.

“Patience yields focus.”

My teeth gritted tight. The distance between bits of debris tightened the closer I came to the target, and I gripped the controls a little tighter in turn.

I can do this, I thought to myself.

1000 meters to the target.

100 meters.

10.

The impact against the asteroid threw me forward against the restraints hard enough to leave bruises as the simulator proclaimed a violent red FAIL across the screen. I let my head hang for a moment as I caught my breath, my hands still wrapped white-knuckled around the controls. When I could move again, I raised my head and reached with shaking fingers for the reset button.

“Patience yields – OH, WHO AM I KIDDING?”

I threw myself back against the seat, limbs spread-eagled in exasperation. I pulled my sweaty hair out of its tail and ran my fingers through it. I’d flagellated myself in the sim enough to pass the basic combat piloting exams, but if anyone let me anywhere near the controls of anything but the most bloated turtle of a cargo ship, they were out of their voided mind.

There was a part of me that knew I should be satisfied with what I had accomplished. I was nearly the top of our class. My academic record was virtually flawless. I had an internship under one of the Garrison’s top researchers. The Garrison staff all respected me. To want to be an ace pilot as well? That was just perfectionism. Hubris, even.

But I wanted this, and I was going to keep coming to this void-ridden sim until it finally clicked.

I took a minute to regain my composure and exited the simulator. It wouldn’t do for anyone to see how frustrated I was; the younger cadets looked up to me, and no one respected an officer who couldn’t keep their (external) cool under pressure. Lucky for me, the training facility was nearly empty; most everyone had either gone home for the semester or was gathered with family for graduation.

I walked a while to cool my head, and ended up in a long hall of portraits like I so often did. The faces of hallowed scientists, explorers, and military officers gazed down on me and my pace slowed as the weight of expectation accumulated with every step. I stopped at last in front of a portrait I’d come to see many times.

Lots of cadets idolized the legendary explorer in the painting, and there was plenty of reason to. Takashi Shirogane had been the pilot of the historic Kerberos mission, and the best aviator of his era. He’d broken every record he’d set his mind to break, and probably would have broken dozens more if he hadn’t died so young. I wondered sometimes if knowing that he didn’t have time was why he had been so prolific.

None of those reasons were why I was drawn to his portrait, though. It was something about the eyes, I think. There was well-earned pride there, of course, but there was also a kindness so many of the others along this hall lacked.

Be the best version of you that you can be - he seemed to say.

“I’m trying, Mister Shirogane.”

I was failing, but by all the stars of the void, I was trying.  

“Cadet Bard?”

I turned and saluted at the sound of Director Sanda’s voice calling my pseudonym.

“Ma’am!”

“Have you seen Cadet Kogane?”

I hadn’t seen him all afternoon, and he didn’t have family that would be visiting for graduation.

“Is he not in the Barracks, Ma’am?”

“No, and I need speak with him,” she sighed.

I mentally tensed. More times than not, when someone was looking for him was because there was trouble. The problem was, Ryo often took the blame for things he didn’t do. There were members of the Garrison staff who felt that a kid with a juvenile record and only an alcoholic aunt for a guardian didn’t belong here, and had gone out of their way to prove it.

Most of the time, Ryo bore the malice with silent acceptance, because he wanted to be here. But sometimes his temper got the better of him, and then there was real trouble. Although things had improved drastically since the time I informed him if he felt the need to fight someone, he had to fight me first.

“I’ll let him know as soon as I see him, Ma’am.”

“Thank you, Cadet.”

We snapped a pair of salutes, and I headed immediately to the astronomy building’s roof. Nine times out of ten, that was where Ryo went when he needed to clear his head – provided he was still on the Garrison grounds. We weren’t supposed to go up there, but thanks to Doctor Holt, my access card had a higher clearance than a cadet’s by rights should, and Ryo had his own ways to get in places I long had stopped asking about.   

He was there, perched on the edge of the telescope window like a cat. He was turning a black-metal dagger over in his hands. He was never without it. It was a momento from the father Ryo had never met, and his mother had passed it on to Ryo just before she died. I heard the story once during a drunken tirade from his aunt. She hated that he had kept it.

For a moment, I just took him in – the tall Asian kid with tousled dark brown hair, dark blue eyes, and strange V-shaped birthmark across the back of his neck he took such pains to hide. His uniform jacket was off his shoulders right now, exposing it along with the lean muscle of his chest and arms. There were a few cadets that would be ogling him if they saw him like this, but he was so shy he never would believe it.

I called out to him as I approached. His eyes went wide with momentary panic as I approached, and he nearly fell. He relaxed a trifle when he saw it was me, but not completely. Something was definitely wrong. He never missed someone’s approach, and I was his best friend.

“Do you know why Director Sanda looking for you?” I asked, praying there hadn’t been an incident.

His eyes went wider and for a second, I thought he might actually bolt. In my mind, I swore. The last thing we needed was someone making an excuse for him not to graduate.

“Whatever it is, you know can talk to me, Ryo,” I said, unfolding my arms.

He let out a long sigh and hopped down from the window ledge. I bit down a twinge of envy at how effortlessly he landed a drop that would have required me to roll or else suffer protests from my knees for a week.

He handed me a datapad. I glanced down at it; they were his post-graduation Orders.

He had been assigned to the Eos.

“Oh.”

The Eos was the newest, biggest, best ship in the fleet. Everyone worth their stripes wanted to be assigned to her, and the long-term mission she represented. It would be the first mission to go out past Kerberos, and she wouldn’t be back for years. For Ryo to be assigned there was surprising. It was a good surprise though. They wouldn’t assign him such a prestigious position if they weren’t finally recognizing his talent.

The problem was, neither I nor our third compatriot had been assigned there. Juni would be working in engineering at the shipyards, and I would be staying to continue research duties here with Doctor Holt.

“I’m going to refuse,” he said at last.

My heart broke for him yet again. I knew how longingly he looked at the stars, like they were where he belonged.

“Ryo, this is your dream.”

“But -”

“No ‘but’. Ryo, if you throw this opportunity away, you won’t get another one. We both know that. Do you want these years of training to be for nothing?”

I touched his hand arm. “Hey. It’s all right to be scared about this. It’s a big change. But I know you can do this. I might not be there, but we can talk. And you just might find the people will surprise you.”

“Caeli, I –”

The touch became a clutch. “I’m not abandoning you, Ryo. Don’t you dare think that. But this is important. Think on it, please.”

He looked away.

I released him. “Hey, I know what will make you feel better. Let’s go for a ride. The Garrison’s wide open this weekend with graduation and all, so no one is going to miss us. Race you to the gorge and back.”

Before he could answer, I took off at run. I knew he’d follow. He always did.

Chapter Text

We arrived back at the Garrison far later than either of us intended, with wind-burned faces and growling stomachs. We’d gone far out into the desert canyons, racing along cliffs and leaving sight and memory of the Garrison behind us until well after dark, when hunger finally  drove us home. I kept a protein bar and water stashed on my racer for just such occasions, but they had proved inadequate for the amount of head-clearing Ryo had needed to do, especially as he had been distracted enough not to grab anything for himself and the two of us had ended up sharing.

“I do not understand how someone as good as you on a racer can suck so badly at aviation sims,” Ryo laughed as we walked in the door, his worries momentarily forgotten.

I’d actually been thinking about that. It turns out, going out had been good for clearing my head, too. “I’m beginning to think it’s an awareness thing. When I’m on that bike, I’m feeling directly what happens when I turn, I accelerate, I fall. I’m engaged with it with all of me. With the sims, I’m isolated. There is feedback certainly, but it’s not the same. Even as good as it is, it’s not like the sim is actually engaging my mind with changes of air pressure or gravity. Now, if I had a way to feel what the outside of the jet was like while in the sim. . . .”

“That just sounds uncomfortable,” Ryo laughed at me, as he went to open up the mess hall doors. His smile vanished as soon as we walked in.  

The mess hall was unusually crowded for this time of night, especially for graduation weekend. Normally families took off for dinner in the city, instead of eating here. I took a closer look and noted that there were far more officers here than usual, including a lot of high-ranking officers with science designations. It wasn’t unusual to have visiting scientists or special presentations during graduation weekend, but Ryo was right. Something felt off.

We just grabbed food and left for the barracks, doing as little as possible to attract attention.

When we arrived, we found Juni – the engineer third of our “training trio” —  sitting outside my door.  She was tapping away wildly on her laptop, and her black-curls bun was slightly more askew than usual. She snapped her laptop shut and glared at us.

“Where have you two been? I have been looking everywhere for you!”  She took a look at our windburned cheeks. “And are you drunk? No, no smell. Then why are you all flushed like that? Ohmygod! Have you two been making out?”

We both glared at Juni. “Juni, first – if that were going to happen, you would be the first to know. But last time I checked, Ryo liked dudes.” 

“Second – what the hell are you doing camped out in front of Caeli’s door?” Ryo demanded. Juni always seemed to have a talent to bring out the grouch in him.

“Because you missed it! That Lunar mission got back this afternoon, and they found something, Caeli! But here’s what’s really interesting – they took it back to the labs, and they didn’t show anyone. It was like they were using graduation as a cover to get it in here without making a fuss. Except they almost always want to make a fuss when they get back from a mission with something. So clearly it must be really interesting.”

Ryo crossed his arms. “Or really dangerous.”           

Juni adjusted her glasses and smirked. I knew that look. Juni was up to something. “Only one way to find out.”

“What do you have in mind?” I asked, dreading the answer. The last time Juni came up with one of these crazy schemes, I’d barely managed to keep the three of us out of the brig. Ryo hadn’t forgiven her for week.  

“You have access to Doctor Holt’s lab,” she pointed at me.

As her lab assistant, I did. The Garrison also tracked the usage of my access card. If it weren’t for the fact that I knew Juni, I would have shot down the idea immediately. But I did know Juni, and her special brand of crazy-good technological engineering skills mixed with just plain crazy.

I also had to admit to myself, I was curious, too.

I sighed the sigh of the long-suffering. “If I don’t bring you, you’re just going to hack your way in and poke around unsupervised, aren’t you?”   

She shrugged. That was a yes.

Ryo’s face furrowed into something between frustration and genuine fear. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Good, that means you’re in, then,” Juni said to him. She turned back to me. “I bet if we leave now, we’ll have time to get a good look before those scientists are finished with dinner and discussions.”

“Fine, just let me shove this food in my mouth and put on some clean clothes. We are not going to the lab covered in desert dust.”  

——-

Juni was right. Despite the number of scientists on base, the laboratory wing was unusually quiet when we arrived. We passed a handful of researchers, but most knew me on sight from my work with Doctor Holt. Even at an odd hour, they didn’t question why I was there. Ryo and Juni stuck close to me and for once Juni kept her mouth shut.

“You don’t happen to know which of Doctor Holt’s labs they brought this artifact, do you?” I asked her as I swiped us in, knowing full well that she did. Juni might be impulsive, but her hyperfocus usually meant she had a wealth of information once you knew how to tap it.

“4B-629.”

I had never done any work in that particular lab, but level 4B was used for radiation experiments. I was beginning to agree with Ryo that this was a bad idea. Juni sensed my hesitation. “I only want a quick look. One last adventure together.”

I glanced to Ryo and he didn’t meet my eye. One last adventure.  

I swiped the card to enter the lift that led to the lower levels.

I made them stop before we entered the lab itself. “Just a quick look, and you promise on all your ancestors that you won’t touch anything.”

“Promise.”

I swiped the card. It let us in.

Instead of a lab suite, the doors opened up into single vast room. A huge containment-and-observation chamber dominated most of it. Nestled in the middle of the chamber was a blue, glowing, softball-sized cluster of crystals. It had been damaged; I guessed about a third of it had been broken away, revealing a dark, slightly metallic mineral at the center. Maybe hematite?  

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Juni breathed. She said that a lot, but this time I had to agree with her. Looking at it made a warm but otherwise indescribable emotion blossom in my chest. It reminded me of the way I felt when I looked up at the stars at night or when Ryo and I went for rides together. Like something in it was resonating with my soul.

Ryo just stared at it with a growing expression of unease.

I walked over to the data console and swiped in as a test. Much to my surprise, the system granted me access. Molecular and radiation scans had already been performed on the mineral inside the containment unit. I brought up the data. Despite the glow, there was no indication of harmful radiation. The elemental configuration of the object appeared at first glance to be nothing other than quartz. Then I saw the numbers.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I said, looking at the energy levels of the elements.

“What doesn’t?” Juni asked from the glass.

I shook my head. “The lattice configuration looks like a quartz. But these atomic distances are wrong. It’s almost like. . .like there is another material that’s part of the latticework, but it’s not made up of atoms. And whatever is in the middle of that cluster. . . those numbers are even stranger.”

“We should leave,” Ryo said, glancing around the room. “Something like this should be under constant observation, but there’s no one here. Where are the scientists, Caeli? Where is security?”  

Ryo was right. Something was wrong. If this were just a rare mineral, it might be left unattended for a short while, but this object was defying the laws of physics. Perhaps it was just Ryo’s unease, but I thought I could feel something watching us from the empty air. I closed out the data console.

“Come on, Juni, let’s get out of here.” I didn’t leave any room for argument in my tone.

“Fiiine.”

She had made it as far as the console when Ryo’s attention snapped toward the back of the room. I followed his line of sight. Was that movement?

“Juni, get down!” Ryo yelled and threw himself on top of me. A millisecond later, the back of the cylinder exploded.

Chapter Text

Purple-tinged smoke filled the air, dispersing the crystal’s light into a luminescent cloud. I lay where I was for a moment, more stunned by surprise than injury. Ryo groaned and pulled away from me. The cylinder had shielded us from the blast’s effect, but not the vapor spreading throughout the room. It stung my eyes. I pulled up the scarf I’d been wearing earlier for the races over my face, got low and tried to breathe shallow.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Fine. You?”

 “Yeah, I’m good.” 

“Juni?” I called out. A moan and curses answered me.

I moved over to the shadow of the console and helped Juni up to her knees. She hissed, grasping her ankle. She must have twisted it taking cover.

Vapor swirled as someone moved into the remains of the cylinder, grabbed the crystal, and bolted past us. I caught a blur of dark-and-violet as they ran for the exit just as alarms began to sound.

Ryo was already running by the time I rolled to my feet. I helped Juni stumble out the door. The moment we were out of the lab, security doors slammed down. I glanced down the hallway and barely caught a glimpse of Ryo’s jacket rounding the corner. I looked back to Juni, torn between helping each of them. There didn’t seem to be any other intruders here, and Garrison officers would arrive soon. She’d have help.

“Find Doctor Holt,” I cried to Juni and ran after Ryo. They were already well ahead of me, but I knew these labs better than they did. I cut through an access hatch and ran down an emergency tunnel toward the big central stairwell. With the security activated, none of the labs would open from the outside. The intruder would have to go there to get out. Air ducts only worked in the movies.

I came through the access just before the intruder came into the stairwell. He didn’t see me as he glanced around, but this time I got a good look at him. At least, I guessed at “he” based on body shape.  He was dressed in a black lightly armored cat suit with purple neon markings, a hood, and a night-vision mask. He was about my height, maybe a little taller?  Through the tight portions of the suit, I could see he carried some muscle, but I’d won in fights against much larger opponents. He’d proven to be competent, but I could tell from the way he held himself that he was nervous. I could take him.

He carried a canister with the crystal in one hand. With the other, he pulled an instrument from his belt and shot a glowing purple cord up the shaft. I took that moment to tackle him.

We both crashed to the floor of the landing. Only instead of trying to fight me off like I expected, he held on to both crystal and grappling hook, and then activated the voided thing. Ryo came into the stairwell just in time to see both of us zip up the central shaft at break-neck speed. I locked my legs around the intruder and held on for dear life.

He — and the intruder was definitely a he, anatomically speaking —  swung us up to the top of the shaft with an ease that put Ryo’s reflexes to shame. The landing was slightly less graceful, given how I’d twined myself around him. He did manage land us with me on bottom, knocking my breath from me. I held on.

“Will you Quiznacking let go?” He said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Somehow, I doubted the guy dressed in a cyberpunk ninja outfit stealing a physics-breaking artifact was here to help.

With a mutter, he dropped the grappling hook and pulled back my arm with surprising strength. We both twisted around and in an impressive motion, he managed to disengage me. He rolled back to his feet and ran for the door.

I grabbed the grappling hook and followed. We’d swung all the way up to the third floor above ground, and he’d gone out the emergency exit to a balcony the scientists usually used for lunch breaks. I just missed catching hold of him as he swung over the side.

Winded, I just watched as he jumped down three stories to land next to a cluster of vehicles belonging to graduation guests. He went to the closest one — a racer bike nicer than mine — and took off for the desert. Lightning flickered in the distance, promising a night storm. Overhead, some of the stars had already been masked by clouds.

Ryo crashed through the exit door seconds later. I looked at the apparent ninja on the racer bike, looked to Ryo and then looked to the grappling hook in my hand. In the history of bad ideas, this one probably wasn’t among the worst, but it probably did at least deserve an honorable mention. I hooked the building, gave the grappler control to Ryo, and climbed on his back.

On the ground, I jumped on the racer that had been parked next to the stolen one and swore profusely with joy that the idiot had left the key and a pair of googles. There was no helmet to be seen, but I was willing to take a half miracle. Ryo climbed on behind me, and I took off at full throttle chasing the dust cloud the intruder had left in his wake.

Behind me, Ryo spoke into his wrist comm. “This is Cadet Kogane, in pursuit of the intruder from lab 4B-629. Headed to the desert, heading WSW.”

Now, I wasn’t the Garrison’s best fighter pilot, and I wasn’t a freaking ninja, but no one except Ryo had ever beaten me in on a hover racer, and I was determined to keep it that way. We chased our ninja into the desert, closing distance the whole time. We headed  toward an old radio communications tower. On the horizon nearby, I could see a light where there shouldn’t have been one.

His compatriots? I wondered.

As we approached, it became apparent the light wasn’t from a vehicle. It was a shimmering luminescence in the air a couple meters tall by maybe a meter wide.

“What the hell is that?” Ryo said behind me.

“It . . .it looks like a door,” I answered. Or a portal, more accurately.

Who knew where it went? We needed to stop that neon ninja before he made it there.

“Ryo! Grappling hook!”

I didn’t need to elaborate. Ryo caught hold of the bike and pulled it closer. Whatever the purple wire was, it was fantastic. The line held. The intruder tried to shake us off, but I was a better racer pilot than he was. Ryo jumped from our bike to the intruder’s. With the intruder struggling to maintain control of the racer, Ryo was able to snatch back the crystal canister. He dove and rolled clear of the bike. Thank all the stars, whatever the foreign substance was, it wasn’t volatile.

In a desperate move, our adversary swung the bike around in a hard turn. Too hard. The edge of the bike hit the ground with a horrifying snap. The intruder was thrown wide. The part of the bike still attached to the tether — and by extension, me — catapulted forward, pulling me in ways I wasn’t prepared to compensate for at our speed. I barely managed to pull the bike sideways and roughly dismount as both bikes skidded out in the dirt.

I rolled to a stop maybe a hundred meters from the strange door.  I lay there for a moment, out of breath and smarting from what would be an impressive set of bruises in a few hours. In my peripheral vision, the air shimmered in a strange way. Overhead, thunder rumbled, and lightning flickered. Somewhere in the distance, I heard the sounds of vehicles. How long would it take the Garrison to find us?

I didn’t end up having time to contemplate. The ninja recovered far faster than I expected, and before Ryo could close the distance between us, he stepped over and hauled me to my feet. He flicked his wrist, and a sword straight out of a comic book appeared in his hand and came to rest at my throat.

“Give me canister.” His voice shook.

“Let her go,” Ryo answered. He still held the canister in one hand, and his black dagger in the other. I could hear the edge in his voice that warned his temper was slipping.

“I don’t want anyone hurt, but I need you to listen to me!” My captor called out, desperation creeping into his voice. “I need that crystal, and I need it now! We’re running out of time.”

The intruder was wearing a mask, but I could feel the tension in his body. His hand was firm around me, but his fingers were trembling. He wasn’t just mission-nervous. He was terrified.

And that was before the look of murder spread across Ryo’s face. “I said let her go.”

And as I watched, the dagger in his hand transformed into a sword similar to the one at my throat.

What?

Apparently my captor was taken by surprise as well, because he took an unsteady step back. I took that moment to slip my foot between his, grab hold of his arm, and turn. He went over my hip, and I ran for Ryo. Ryo handed me the canister and pushed me behind him.

“What do you want?” Ryo demanded. The wind began to pick up. The sound of vehicles was coming closer. Under my arms, I could feel the crystal pulsing with power. My very bones hummed with it, and it made me feel giddy.

“As long as you have that fragment, you are all in terrible danger.”

“In danger from what?”

“There’s no time to explain. I have to be gone before they — oh, Quiznack!”

The air beyond Ryo shimmered for an instant, and then a being materialized out of the dark. Like our intruder, it was wearing a hooded black-and-violet uniform, but this one’s markings were different. Most striking was the mask: instead of a Spec Ops style with googles and breathing slits, this one had glowing eyes that ran down either side of the face, like some Eldritch Horror.

“Hello little Blade,” it laughed.

Chapter Text

“Did you really think you could outsmart me?” It taunted. I couldn’t see its expression through the mask, but I had the impression I’d be treated to a sadistic smile. Our ninja turned to face it, sword held at the ready. Ryo maneuvered himself between me and it.

Some instinct told me to look to my right; I caught a glance of shimmering air an arm’s length away. “Ryo! Your right!” He spun and barely managed to deflect a blow from a third black-clad . . .creature. This one was dressed like Eldritch-Mask but was larger and had clawed purple-furred hands a purple tail sticking out from the suit. I ducked behind Ryo the best I could, alert for more telltale shimmers in the dim light.

Our ninja took the opportunity to go after Eldritch-Mask #1. I let them go at things and kept my concentration on watching Ryo’s back. Sure enough, a third shimmer resolved into another enemy. “Ryo, behind!”

I pivoted around Ryo as I spoke. As I expected, Ryo’s first opponent used the opportunity to strike at his back. I was ready. My pivot turned into a kick and I clipped the enemy at the legs, making it stumble and miss. Unfortunately, the creature was faster than I anticipated, and it turned the stumble into an attack of its own. I turned and barely avoided having my midsection ripped open. The glancing blow of its claws cut still clean through my jacket across my arm and sent me sprawling.

“Void,” I muttered as I tried to pick myself up while keeping the cylinder protected. The ground was not the place I ever wanted to be in a fight. My opponent knew it. It stalked forward as I struggled to get my feet under me again. I was dizzy, and the wound in my arm burned, but I gritted my teeth and managed to stand anyway.

“Caeli, down!” It wasn’t Ryo’s voice, but I reacted anyway.

A small disc flew through the air and exploded as it hit my opponent in the chest. I looked and saw our ninja give me a slight nod, only to be struck by his own opponent. Ryo was similarly occupied but seemed to be holding his own. I took a moment to loop my shredded jacket into a sling for the canister, and then made a run for the racers.

The one I’d borrowed was still intact. I disentangled it from the ruin of the other and started it up. I whirled it around to where Ryo was fighting hard. I bore down on the two of them. They both dove out of the way at the last moment, and I swung around toward Ryo. He jumped up onto the edge of the racer, and I took off. It chased after us, and was fast, but not fast enough to catch a full-speed racer.

“What in the name of the Void are those things?” I said as it attempted to chase after us. It was fast, but we were faster on the racer.

“You’re asking me?”

“You’re the one with the switch-sword like Ninja-boy over there!”

“I didn’t know it could do that!”   

A flash of brilliant purple light caught my attention. We turned just in time to see our ninja get pinned through the shoulder by a glowing purple spear, only a few meters from the glowing doorway. Eldritch-Mask #1 started stalking toward him. Logic told me that this guy had robbed us, we were outmatched, and we needed to get the void out of here, but he’d saved my life. I swung the speeder back around.

“Caeli, what are you doing?”

“Hey!” I yelled, although it probably couldn’t hear me over the engine and the thunder. It certainly saw the racer bearing down on it, though. It turned to face us.

Then it vanished.

Overhead, lightning flashed. It illuminated the steel structure of the ancient radio tower. The pointed end at the top glowed pale blue from the currents of the storm. When the lightning flash ended, my opponent was just to my right.

Razor-sharp nails raked my side, tearing the sling. It grabbed the canister and then disappeared again. I looked wildly around, but between the dark and the wind kicking up dust, I couldn’t see where it had gone.

I brought the racer to a halt beside where the ninja was lying. Ryo jumped off and hauled on the spear to dislodge it. I looked to see if there was anything I could use to staunch the bleeding. My hand came to rest on the grappling gun.

On the tower, Eldritch-Mask reappeared.

The canister began to glow. More shimmers were appearing in the air, and the doorway in the air had taken on a purple tint and a ragged appearance. Like it was tearing. I realized belatedly that there were lines like lightning connecting the tower and the portal. Our enemy began to laugh.

“Better luck next time, Little Blade,” it taunted, purple glow gathering at its fingertips. I took an involuntary step back. Ryo reached for his knife.

Blue streamers of St. Elmo’s fire rose from the tower. The hairs on the back of my neck began to rise.

I fired the grappling gun and let go. Purple cord wrapped around the enemy, connecting it to the tower.

He looked at it in surprise, just as lightning struck the tower.

Everything turned brilliant white.

Chapter Text

I floated in a sea of whiteness. It felt like the space-walk training we’d done, only except instead of dark I was surrounded by brilliance. My mind felt fuzzy, but my injuries didn’t hurt. Was I dead? Was this the afterlife?

“Ryo?” I called out. My voice echoed strangely. I couldn’t see anything here, but I could . . .sense? . .something nearby. I reached out for it. A consistency of the white haze changed, and I caught hold of someone’s arm. At contact, Ryo’s unconscious form materialized beside me. I closed my eyes, searching with my mind again, and felt several other somethings nearby. I tried to move closer to one.

At the motion, Ryo woke up. I gripped him tighter, not wanting to lose him in this strange place. The white swirled again, and I caught sight of another. Our Ninja? He was just out of my reach, but close enough for Ryo to grab.

“Take his arm!” I told Ryo. He did with a moan. “Stay with me!”

Now there were three of us in a chain. I closed my eyes again and felt a strong pulse of . . .power? Weight? Gravity? I didn’t have the right words for it, but it drew me all the same. This time, the luminous fog parted to reveal a hunk of black-silver rock. I recognized it as the core of the crystal-Artifact we’d taken from the Garrison lab. The surrounding not-quartz was gone, leaving only the core.

I touched it, and both it and the white-scape changed in my mind. It became heavy in my hand, and I became aware of breaks in the fog, tears in the fabric of this not-place. I felt a big one closing itself not far behind us. I wanted to go to that one, but the stone was dragging us toward another. On the end of our chain, Ninja-boy stirred. We fell faster toward the tear. I reached out to it —

And we spilled out of a glowing doorway into a cave, along with the stone. I stared at the wire-framed gateway, my back propped up against the pile of Ryo and Ninja’s moaning bodies. While the doorway was a tear in our world, here it was a deliberate gateway framed by wire and a humming box at the base.

Suddenly, a purple claw burst through the doorway, grasping for the stone. I reacted, kicking the base of the portal to push the doorway back. Only instead of pushing back, the box pushed through the portal. There was an electrical arc, a flash, and the sound of thunder. The portal collapsed, severing the arm. I dropped the stone, just as a pressure wave burst from where the doorway had been.

——-

I came to my senses in a pile of crates, with Ryo pulling more of them off me. He was asking concerned questions, but I couldn’t hear them for the ringing in my ears, and I was too exhausted to respond. I was dizzy, my stomach hurt, and my side and arm both burned. I rolled my head to look. The wounds were sealed up like they were weeks old, but ugly purple-red marks radiated out. Infection?

How long had I been unconscious? It didn’t seem long enough for them to have healed. And they certainly didn’t feel healed when I moved.

“Caeli?” Ryo asked, concerned. Well, at least my hearing was returning. He was looking at my arm. “You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine; I’ve had worse” — those were the words that first came into my head, but I wasn’t sure they were true. I settled on saying, “I can manage.”

My head reeled as Ryo helped me out of the pile of crates. He pulled his jacket off and wrapped it around me, then led me over to where Mr. Ninja was staring at the remains of the gateway, the rock that had caused us so much trouble, and the arm still attached to it. I shuddered.

“All right, I think it’s time we got some answers,” Ryo said. “Why did you steal that, and what were those things that attacked us?”

I added, “And what is your name? Because I’m getting tired of calling you ‘Mr. Ninja’ in my head.”

He sat down on a crate. “My name is Azlan. I’m a rebel fighter against the Galra Empire. Those that attacked you are agents of theirs.”

“I’m Caelia, and this is Ryo,” I returned.

“What’s the Galra Empire?” Ryo asked. Whatever they were, they didn’t seem good.

With the mask on, I couldn’t see Azlan’s expression, but I had the distinct impression he was staring at Ryo in disbelief. “You don’t know the . . .how is it possible? You’re Galra. They must have come to your planet.”

Ryo and I looked at each other. Azlan pointed to the knife Ryo carried. “That blade, your ability to extend and use it means that you’re at least partially Galra. At least. . .that’s the way it works in this universe.” 

“So, we’re not in our universe anymore.” I looked over at the smoking remains of what was once the Gate. Oh, void. What had I done?

“No, you’re not,” Azlan confirmed “My plan was to go through, get the fragment, and be back before the Galra noticed. I never intended to involve you, let alone bring you with me. With my Gate destroyed, I’m not sure how to get you home. I’d have to build a new Gate and set it up in the same place, I suppose. But it’s going to take me a while to get all the materials.”

My heart broke for my mom, for Doctor Holt, for Juni. What were they going to think, when they found the destruction out in the desert? They’ think we were dead. Ryo gave me a hug. The pressure on my arm made me gasp and my head spun again. Sweat broke out, followed by chills. Void, I most definitely had a fever.

“And all of you are after whatever that is — ” he gestured toward the rock.

“A material that lets us span universes. We know they’ve been searching for things like it, but we don’t yet know what their plans are. I thought I could get in and out of your universe before they got there.”

“So, I suppose it’s a good thing it’s gone then,” I said.

“It is. Your Garrison is no match for the Empire. Which reminds me — I’ve got to get it contained and hidden before it attracts more trouble. I’ll be right back.”

We waited in silence, and he returned with another cylinder like the one that had been destroyed. I watched him handle it carefully, fascinated. So, this rock had the ability to cross Universes? Amazing. Doctor Holt would be fascinated. I stood up to go over and get a better look, then immediately regretted it. The room spun, and I went down.

Azlan turned around in alarm. “Are you all right?”

Ryo collected me off the floor. “Just got a bit scratched up in our fight back there.”

“Let me see,” He pulled off the jacket to get a better look at the wounds underneath. As he looked down on me, his mask vanished. I found myself staring up at the face of a purple cat-boy.

Oh great, I was hallucinating. A bad fever, then.

No, wait. He said he was a Galra, like the bad guys. Hadn’t some of those things we fought been purple and fuzzy, too? By the stars, were Ryo and I experiencing first contact? I supposed it was first contact even if he’d been human, if he was from another reality.

“Oh, Quiznack. This is bad.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Ryo demanded.

“Xenotoxin poisoning.”

He looked over to where he’d re-contained that dimension-spanning rock. He lowered his voice, like he was voicing a secret. “And exposed the quintessence field.”

“And how do we cure it?” Ryo demanded.

His ears twitched with frustration. Oh, that was adorable.

“I…I can’t. I can slow it, but she needs a real med lab.”

The ears flattened with distress.

“I can send out a distress call, bring you two both back to base, but I don’t know if they’ll . . .” His ears flicked again. “I suppose I need to bring you back anyway. They’ll want to know where you found the fragment. And I can’t leave you here. It’s not like you can go back the way you came.”

Azlan ran his hands across his head in frustration. The gesture reminded me of the younger cadets often made. “Quiznack, I really messed things up this time. Kolivan is going to have my head!”  

“Hey,” I said. I put my hand on his arm, gave him my best reassuring smile. “We’ll figure this out. Take it one step at a time. Step one is making your call, while Ryo gets me to your ship.”

He nodded and ran off behind the crates. Ryo hefted me up. The motion made the dizziness worse. I pulled against him. “I’m warning you, Step one for me might be taking a nap.”

“Don’t you dare, Caeli.” Then as we moved, “You shouldn’t have followed me.”

“And left you with no one to watch your back? Then you would be the one scratched up, or worse,” I made myself smile at him. Oh, void, even that effort was making me dizzy.

“That’s the point, stupid.” He was smiling, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

He brought me into the spaceship — just a tiny shuttlecraft, really. Under other circumstances this would have been amazing. I imagined the look on Juni’s face when we told her we rode in an alien spaceship. Ryo set me down on a bench and strapped me in. I’d normally have protested that. Azlan returned with a handheld monitor screen and a little tube filled with blue liquid.

“I’m sorry about this, but I don’t know any other way to stop the poison,” he said. Then, to Ryo: “Hold her still.”

Ryo tilted my head so I kept my eyes on him, while Azlan jabbed me in the arm. Numbness spread quickly from the injection, and within a few breaths I was out.

Chapter Text

“Adopting a child is a serious responsibility,” Coran announced to us, when Lance told him our intentions. He had more wrinkles now than the last time we saw him, and his hair was a little less vibrant orange, but otherwise he remained much the same.

“Yes, Coran, we are aware,” Lance said. I wondered what kind of story we had just stumbled upon.

“I don’t think you are,” Coran said, his affable expression turning serious and . . .sad? Sad.

“As Paladins of Voltron, you are used to responsibility, yes. But it’s a responsibility for the masses. Protecting, leading, teaching: yes. That is all part of it. But a child is . . .different. A child is the responsibility for all the things in the multiverse, wrapped up into a single package.”

He looked up to Allura’s statue.

“Are you ready for all that comes with it? A child will drive you crazy, be least what you expect them to be. They’ll break your heart. And if you’re lucky, they’ll make you proud.”

“We’re ready,” Lance said softly after a long moment.

Lance was ready. He’d already been through much of that with his many niblings, and then their descendants. Myself, I wasn’t so sure. But if this was something he wanted, I was willing to give it my best.

Even if it terrified me.

Lance reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “That’s why we’ve come to you for advice, Coran. The fact of the matter is. . . I don’t even know where to start. There are adoption agencies on Earth, but I admit I’m stuck on how to interact with them. How does a kid get matched with someone like us?”

“It’s not like picking out a puppy,” I blurted out, and immediately wished I had kept my mouth shut.

Coran just looked at me for a moment, then sighed and rubbed his mustache. “Here on Altea, in the event the parents are lost, the child is raised by a close friend or other relative, and in the rare case neither exist, raised communally. It’s not our custom to hand our children to those the child themself doesn’t know. I’m not as familiar with other cultures customs.”

Coran and Lance looked to me for the Galran perspective but I just spread my hands. “I’ve  never dealt with children.”

“You led the Blades as an aid organization for years, surely you encountered them,” Lance said in wonder.

This time I threw my hands up. “I organized things, I didn’t actually deal with any of the actual orphans!”

Lance and Coran gave me a flat look. “Sorry.”

Great. If I was going to be a father, I would need to work on that as well. Oh, what was I doing? I wasn’t cut out for this. I pushed out my chair. I needed to take a walk.

“Keith?” Lance asked.

I hated when I got like this. “Sorry, I’m just not feeling great right now. I just need to get a little . . .more. . .fresh air.”

I was saved from the conversation getting any worse by the arrival of a young Altean. They bowed to the three of us. “Excuse me, Sirs. Honored elder, please excuse the introduction, but we are ready to start preparations for tonight celebration, and Lady Romelle has expressed your presence is required.”

Coran grinned. “Well, Paladins! Looks like that is the end of today’s tea. Still, we must go onward! It’s not every day you get to turn 808 years old! Come, I seem to recall your enjoying such events of . . .how was it you put it. . .”

“Razzle-dazzle?” Lance laughed.

“Excuse me, Sir?” The page said to me as we started to go. “Are you by chance the Black Paladin?”

“Former. There isn’t any Voltron anymore,” I corrected.

“Mister Former Black Paladin, you have a communication. She says it’s important.”

“You can catch up with us later,” Lance said. We’ll talk then, was the unsaid part. He knew I was having a rough day, and party preparation wasn’t exactly my thing.

I followed the page to a small, private, communications console. A young woman wearing an IGF uniform appeared on the screen. Shadings of violet stripes paired with dark hair hinted at Galra lineage. “Sir, I’m glad I got hold of you.”

Acxa had told me she’d placed a handful of watchers among the IGF fleet. With the war over, offically the Blade of Marmora had transitioned to a humanitarian organization, but it never hurt to be cautious.

“What is it?”

“There’s been another Rift.”

The IGF scientists had identified the phenomena as harmless. Unlike the dimensional tears we had dealt with before, these were always small and self-repairing. Usually, they only lasted a few hours at most before they vanished again. Initial studies declared them to be naturally-occurring, just as the appearance of the trans-dimensional comet that formed Voltron had been.

What I didn’t understand was if they were natural, why had we only noticed them a few years ago? Certainly, Pidge or one of the other Holts would have picked up on them if they had occurred before. And why did Lance start having nightmares he wouldn’t discuss with me around the same time? I didn’t trust these Rifts, so I started tracking them both through official and unofficial means.

The IGF officer continued to report. “We detected it about 0400 hours yesterday morning, Earth-time. As is protocol, we went in a small research team to investigate. We lost communication with them twelve hours ago.”

“What?”

“There’s more. This Rift was reported in what IGF has recorded as an empty system. But it turns out, those reports are incorrect. There is a small trade colony on the edge of the system. We have a contact there, and xe said that there have been rumors of other disappearances in the system for some time now. It’s been considered bad luck for the past decade.”

“But no one has investigated because the system is supposedly empty,” I guessed.  

I didn’t like that one bit.

“Good work, ensign. Expect to be contacted with further instruction shortly.”

“Knowledge or Death,” she said and cut the communication. I hadn’t heard that in a while. But then again, there had been a small resurgence lately of some of the old Galran customs.

It’s like fashion, things come back around every so often, Lance had said.

I didn’t think the Blade of Marmora had anything to do with fashion. But I certainly didn’t like the idea of some of the old Imperial Galran ways coming back.

And I certainly didn’t like the sound of any of this report.

I thought for a moment about telling Lance the news, but I saw the preparations underway through a window into the Great Hall. Lance, Coran, and all the others deserved to have a night of revelry. At this point, a few hours later on my part seemed like they would make little difference. But while the preparations were happening, there were things I could do.

I typed a code I hadn’t used in years to record and send encrypted instructions through the general communications network. “Acxa. Assemble a team and start preparations for an investigation operation. Point of interest is the IGF’s most recently detected Rift.”

My fingers itched to get onto a console and take a look at where the Rifts had been spotted before, to start looking for a pattern. Analysis wasn’t my strongest suit, but it would give me something to do. My gut was screaming that this wasn’t a case of a communications breakdown. We needed to act, and act fast. But I didn’t even have access to the Blades’ network here.

I could leave. The thought occurred to me. But I couldn’t leave without telling Lance why, and that would ruin this evening. No, I wasn’t going to do that to everyone.

Besides, I told myself it will take time to assemble a team and begin preparations. Acxa would have things started by morning. In the meanwhile, I just had to be patient.

“Patience yields focus,” I whispered to myself.

In the morning, I would begin preparations for a trip. Tonight, I would at least make an attempt to enjoy myself, for Lance’s sake. I walked over to the window and glanced at my reflection. I ran my hand through my hair and slicked it back like the young officers did these days. It didn’t suit me in the least, and I didn’t know why I did it, except that it would make Lance laugh.

Tonight, I would do my best to be a prince.

Tomorrow, I would be a Blade again.

Chapter Text

I slept. Voices echoed in the dark of my dream.

“It is out of the question.” A deep voice said.

“It’s only until we can get them back home. They have nowhere else to go.” A woman’s voice answered.

 “Azlan should have considered that before pursing a mission without supervision. He was reckless and now is reaping the consequences of his actions. Perhaps this will teach him to think things through in the future.”

“She saved my son’s life!”

“Your son acted rashly, with disregard to the safety of everyone here. I never thought that you would have been so foolish as to allow it. We know nothing of their motivation, nothing of their character.”

“Then let them prove it.”

“. . . .For your sake, and the sake of his father, I will allow the boy to take the Trials. We will be able to judge his character then. And perhaps if he proves worthy, I will allow her to stay while she recovers. But she will be your responsibility.”

——-

I woke up abed in an unfamiliar place. I sat up slowly. I felt a little groggy, but sitting up didn’t make the room spin, and I didn’t feel feverish anymore. The blanket covering me fell away at my motion, and I looked down at my arm. The angry marks were gone, but the claws had left a set of scars. I assumed I’d have a matched set across my ribs but the garment I’d been dressed in didn’t let me see there.

A new purple alien sat at what served as a desk nearby. She glanced over as I sat up. This one looked more human than catlike, and appeared to be female. Despite the differences in fur, there was a strong resemblance between her and Azlan. I wasn’t familiar with their species so it was difficult for me to judge the exact relationship, but I would hazard a guess they were family.

“Good to see you awake at last,” she said. I recognized her voice from my dream. Had that not been a dream after all?  

“Where am I?” I asked.

“My quarters. I can’t tell you more than that, I’m afraid. Be content to know that you’re safe for now.” That sounded a lot like the attitude the man in my dream held. It would seem that was a real conversation I’d overheard. Which meant that these people didn’t trust us.

I flexed my arm. Honestly, l couldn’t blame them, from what little I knew of their enemies.

She walked over and examined my arm with an experienced eye. “This has healed well. How are you feeling?”

“Still a little fuzzy, but otherwise better.”

“That’s to be expected. We kept you sedated while we treated you. You’ve been asleep a few Earth days.”

“Thank you. I am in your debt.” Embarrassment welled up. Ryo and I had made First Contact, and all I’d managed to be was a burden. Not only had I managed to get hurt, but I’d destroyed the device that would have allowed us to go home.

She walked over to the desk and poured out a portion of green liquid into a cup. Then she pulled out a packet from a drawer and mixed a measure of its contents in. “From what I hear, you saved young Azlan’s life. The debt was ours.”

“He helped me. I wasn’t just going to leave him to die at that weird creature’s hands,” I said.  

She handed me the cup. “From what I also hear, he burgled your home before the fight started. Yet you still chose to treat him honorably.”

I looked down into the cup without trying to be obvious about it. I didn’t want to be rude to the people who had saved me, but I wasn’t exactly keen on drinking strange liquids, either.

“It was the right thing to do.”

I downed the cup’s contents and made an involuntary face. Void, that stuff was awful. She chuckled at me.

“Regardless, I thank you for looking after him. Azlan means well, but he is still young, and his dedication to the cause sometimes causes him to act, when patience or cooperation would be more prudent.”

I thought of Juni. Would I ever see her again?  “I can understand that. Speaking of Azlan. Where is the man he brought here with me?”

“Training,” she said.

“Right then.” I pulled off the blanket and swung my legs out of the bed, determined to join them. If I was going to be stuck with a bunch of rebels in another reality, I had best find a way to get up to speed.

“And where do you think you’re going?” She demanded. I half expected to hear a young lady at the end of the sentence.

“To do some training, myself.” I gestured to my arm. “I clearly could use it.”

I surged to my feet and the edges of my vision started going black. I caught the edge of the bed and managed not to add insult to injury by passing out in front of my benefactor. I stood there, taking deep breaths until my vision cleared. My feet tingled pins and needles.

“I do not think you are ready to train just yet.” There was no sarcasm in her voice, but it still hurt. If there was one thing I hated, it was being useless. I bit my lip to fight back tears of frustration-or at least give them an excuse to exist.

She set her hand on my shoulder in a kind gesture. “I will fetch them.”

I made my way around the room while she was gone, trying to assess how much strength I had lost. Whatever that green drink had been, it was helping me feel better by the minute. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long until I would be back to my normal strength. Unfortunately, if the enemies we had faced in the desert were typical soldiers, I couldn’t afford to be anything but my best to stand a chance.

The door opened while I was attempting to do a set of push-ups. To my surprise, Azlan bounded into the room first, and pulled me up off the floor in a hug. “You’re awake!”

Ryo came in the door while I was still wrapped in awkward enthusiasm. He was dressed in a uniform like Azlan, now, with the dagger he’d kept hidden most of his life strapped proudly to his side. I had to admit, it suited him. This place suited him.

He smiled and Azlan let me go. Ryo stepped forward and pulled me in close. I held him just as firm, my head pressed into his chest. He held me there until I felt wet on the top of my head. “I thought I was going to lose you,” he rasped out.

“You know I’d never leave you without saying goodbye,” I told him, and he crushed me into him.

After a few moments, I wiggled myself free and held him at arm’s length “And what is this? Going and deciding to be a hero without me?”

It was meant to be lighthearted, but pain flashed across Ryo’s face. And then I realized why he had done what he’d done. He really thought I was dying. These people offered him a place, and he jumped on it because he needed something to fill the void my absence left him. I wasn’t sure how that made me feel.

“It does suit you,” I told him sincerely. He smiled at that: that shy, nervous smile that came right from the soul. Then he hugged me again.

——-

Azlan’s mom put me back to bed soon after that, first making me drink another cup of that void-awful concoction. The following day, Azlan and Ryo showed up to take me along with them to train.

At the doorway, Azlan’s mom – who still hadn’t told me her name – stopped me. She pulled out a long strip of dark cloth. A blindfold?

“We gave you aid because of the help you gave my son. But you are not one of us, and cannot have knowledge of this facility. I hope you can understand.”

“But Ryo can?” I demanded. He was dressed as one of them, and certainly wasn’t wearing a blindfold.

“Ryo bears the Blade that once belonged to his father. While you recovered, he took and passed the Trials. He is one of us, now.”

So while I was recuperating, Ryo had undergone some kind of initiation and been accepted. It stung. He had been accepted as a warrior, while I had been useless. Maybe he was right. Maybe he didn’t need me to watch his back. Maybe I’d made a mistake following them.

No, I was going to prove I was just as capable.

“Great. When can I take these Trials?” I said.

She at least had the grace to look apologetic. “You cannot. You are not Galra-born.”

Fantastic. Space racism.

“But do not worry. We have allies among the non-Galra. You will have plenty of opportunity to prove yourself worth of our trust.”

Fine.

At my consent, she wrapped one around my eyes, and the other so I couldn’t hear. I held my hand out, and felt Ryo take it.

“Guess it’s time for you to lead me now,” I said, even though I couldn’t hear his answer.

——-

I spent the next several days in a lesson in humility. I had done well in my hand-to-hand combat training at the Garrison, but it became apparent early on that these Blades were on an entirely different level. The Galra were naturally larger and stronger than I was, and the Blades were intense.

I returned – blindfolded - to Azlan’s mother’s quarters at the end of each training session, covered in cuts in bruises. She would patch me up and feed me more awful green liquid, then give me a few pointers on what had gone wrong with each of the injuries I had sustained. I tried my best to take the advice with an open mind, but my body wasn’t the only part of me taking a beating.

In the evening, Azlan would sneak in gadgets he had been working on, or parts of the Gate he had been meticulously working on rebuilding. He asked me about the Garrison, and I told him stories about the trouble Ryo, Juni, and I had gotten into.

I didn’t see much of Ryo outside training. The Blades had taken a shine to him and vice versa. Apparently his father – fathers? - had been some kind of legend. I didn’t get the full story. Azlan had only been a kit when he’d died, and Azlan’s mom only got a sad smile when I asked, but wouldn’t talk about it.

My best friend’s father had come from another universe and we didn’t talk about it. That hurt more than anything else. But then I remembered how he had reacted to my injuries and thought maybe it was better for there to be more distance between us.

Time passed. I kept going despite my growing feeling of inadequacy, the insult of the blindfold, and the whispers I overhead about ‘the outsider’. In time, I improved. I began to understand my opponents, and even managed to start winning a few of my bouts.

Still, I was never allowed anywhere except the training hall and the Azlan family’s quarters. No one ever told me their name, and my sparring partners never removed their masks. It became clear that while they might come to tolerate me, these people would never accept me. Not truly.

Was this how Ryo felt the entire time at the Garrison? Was that why he didn’t want to go on the Eos? I felt like an ass now for pushing him.

Then one day after a particularly brutal bout partnered with Ryo, an unmasked Galra I hadn’t met before showed up with Azlan’s mom and said, “Kolivan has called for you.”

-----

They brought us to a small room where a holographic map had been set up on some crates. A handful of masked, Blade-bearing ninjas were already there. A couple gave me curious glances. One openly stared at Ryo. An imposing, unmasked Galra I’d not met stood a little apart behind them. He seemed older. His fur seemed faded, despite the vibrant red markings in it. I guessed he was Kolivan.

“Good. Now everyone is here, we can begin,” he said. He walked up to the map, and the others parted for him.

He pressed on the map, and it displayed a small solar system. Markings I couldn’t read identified the planets and satellites. “We have received reports of rift activity near the Imperial work camp on Altizan. The rebel cell in the system reports that prisoners are being taken through a Gate. They have requested assistance to liberate the remainder of the camp.”

He gestured toward me as he said this. He’s passing me off as one of the rebels, I realized. It gave an explanation as to why an outsider was here on the base. I didn’t know whether I was more angry about the lie or impressed by his quick thinking to quiet any protests my presence might have started.

I played along, and gave the group a quick nod. I couldn’t read any reaction from Kolivan, but I thought I caught the ghost of a smile cross the face of Azlan’s mom.  

The map’s image changed to show an outpost and what appeared to be a quarry. Markers presumably showing the locations of interest dotted the map in the same alien script as before. One of labeled locations I recognized as a Gate similar to the one we had come through.          

“Our operations will be two-fold. One team, led by Krolia, will assist the rebels in the assault and evacuation of the work camp, while another led by Lorak will infiltrate the Gate to determine the nature of the Imperial activity on the other side.”

Azlan’s mom and the other unmasked member gestured acceptance.

“This work will require cooperation with the rebel cell, so we will be sending in some personnel from Krolia’s team early to integrate with them and determine the best course of attack.” He looked straight and Ryo, Azlan and me as he said this.  

So not only was he passing me off as one of the rebels, but he was using this as an excuse to get rid of me before anyone started asking questions. That made me angry. Ryo was given the chance to prove himself, but I wasn’t? That was some first-class BS. I met Kolivan’s gaze with a proud stare. I would be glad to be rid of this place with its blindfolds and closed doors.

One of the Blades glanced at me before addressing Kolivan. “How soon are they expecting us to arrive?”  

I spoke up, using my best command-voice. “As soon as you can be prepared to leave. There are considerable preparations to do.”   

The Blades looked at me, then to Kolivan for confirmation. Kolivan gave me the slightest head tilt. “As she says. The more time we can have our advance team on the ground for this operation, the better. I will contact those selected for the advance team in the morning.”

-----

The other Blades filed out of the room. Kolivan went with them. He didn’t say a word to me, but he did recognize me with another brief head-tilt as he passed. The four of us stayed behind.

No sooner had the door closed, than Azlan whirled on me with his fur standing on end. “WHAT THE QUIZNACK WAS THAT? YOU’RE NOT ONE OF THE REBELS!”

“No, but I’m an outsider, and Kolivan doesn’t want me here. He’s using this operation as an excuse to get rid of me. I just played along to let him save face.” I said, trying my best not to let any bitterness through.

“It was well done,” Krolia said.

“But this isn’t right! They’re our guests. This isn’t their fight!” Azlan said, his tail lashing.

I rubbed at the scars along my ribs. “Isn’t it, though? We’re here, and even if those we fought in the desert were outliers, clearly these Imperial Galra are powerful oppressors. You wouldn’t be so secretive if you didn’t have reason to fear them. It isn’t right to just sit here and do nothing if we can help.”

I still felt guilty about destroying Azlan’s Gate. It wasn’t his fault we were stuck here – it was mine. But I wasn’t going to stay as a prisoner here until someone maybe could get another one running to our home universe. That wasn’t a life I could live.   

“Besides, Kolivan said there was a Gate there. You said yourself that rebuilding yours could take phoebs. This might be our best chance to get home.”

Ryo touched Azlan’s shoulder in a big-brother way he’d picked up over the last few weeks.  “She’s right. If we can help, we should. And if this can get us home, it’s a chance we should take.”

“Someone should be there to watch your backs,” Azlan insisted.

Krolia smiled thinly. “Well, it’s a good thing that you feel that way, because Kolivan has made it clear that you are in need of working on your team work, and what better way to do that than working with a rebel cell?”

“Mom?”

“I will inform Kolivan that I have my advance team.”

Chapter Text

“Mmn my head. Can you keep it down?” Lance moaned into his pillow.

I paused momentarily in my packing. Dawn’s first streamers were peeking just above the horizon. We had gone to bed late, but I’d not been able to sleep for long. There were just too many things on my mind. I had tried my best not to wake my partner, but Lance had always had keen senses.

He rolled over, and blinked up bleary-eyed at me, one hand rubbing his temple.

“If I ever see another bottle of Nunvil in my life, it is going to be too soon. What are you doing up so early?”

He blinked a couple more times, and he caught sight that I was dressed. Then he caught sight of my bag on the table. His voice caught.  “Keith. . .what are you doing?”

“Packing,” I said.

That brought him awake. “Packing?”

“I’m sorry, but something’s come up. I need to go home early.” I walked over to him, and planted the gentlest kiss I could manage on his forehead. “You stay and visit with Coran and the others like we planned.”

His eyes narrowed, and he battled my hand away when I tried to pull the bedcover back up. “Don’t you dare.”

He swung out of the bed onto wobbly legs. Clearly, the Nunvil hadn’t completely left his system. Or maybe it was just the lack of sleep affected him more now than when we were younger. Either way, he stood up and jabbed a finger at me.

“Don’t you dare run away!”

I blinked at him. He was angry. I didn’t want him angry. But I wasn’t running anywhere but home. The message I’d gotten yesterday was important, and I couldn’t act on it here.  “I’m not running away.”

More finger jabbing. “Yes, you are. You always do this! When something gets you off kilter, you run. You run away from whatever is bothering you, more often than not by running into something else! Usually a bigger problem, I might add.”

“I do not run — ” I had to stop myself. He was right, of course. I did have a tendency to run when things were bothering me. When Shiro vanished from the Black Lion and I’d been forced into taking his place, I’d run head first into chasing down Lotor, and then I’d run away to join the Blade of Marmora. I’d vanished for three months when Shiro died, and that time I  had nearly run straight into a star. Lance still didn’t know about that part. Hell, when I first met Shiro, I’d been so nervous I’d driven off in his car.

“I – listen. Okay, maybe I do run. But I’m not running this time, Lance! I got word of something, and I need to investigate. I can’t do that from here.”

“You sure about that? I saw the way you looked yesterday when we were talking to Coran. You are terrified at the idea of being a father. Love, if you aren’t ready to be a parent yet, if you don’t want to do this, tell me! I am your partner, dammit. We are in this together.”

“It’s not that!” I snapped. My head spun. Lance was talking too loud, and the sun had just come up into my eyes and maybe I’d had too much Nunvil myself last night.

Okay, maybe the kid thing was part of it. I didn’t know if I was ready to be a parent. I knew better than probably anyone how easy it was for things to go wrong even for the most loving parents, and how fucked up a kid could be because of it. But I couldn’t tell Lance that. This was something he so clearly wanted, and it had taken forever for me to see it. If I shot things down, Lance would give it up. He always put others before himself. Always.

I took a deep breath. Another. Several. “Okay, yes, I’m scared of that. But that’s not why I’m going.”

“Then just what is so damn important?” He demanded. This time he didn’t yell or point fingers.

“I was contacted by one of the Blades. There’s been another Rift. This time, people are missing. I need to see to this one personally, Lance.”     

The anger vanished. Momentarily. Then it came back, mixed with another emotion I couldn’t peg. He crossed his arms and glared at me. “And just when were you going to tell me?”

“I only found out yesterday. I didn’t want spoil the party for you. I didn’t want to spoil our visit. I’m sorry.”

Another wave of expressions too fast for me to interpret. Then, a long sigh. He uncrossed his arms. “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”

“Yes?”

With a dramatic moan, Lance walked over toward the closet. “Well, I guess I need to get packing, too, then.”

No, no, this wasn’t the way this was supposed to work. “Lance, you don’t have to.”

He swung around to face me, a flash of the anger momentarily returning. “We are partners, Keith. You don’t get to leave me behind.”

——-

We arrived in a small space port at the edge of the Ygret System two days later. Acxa had sent in a team to investigate before we had arrived, and we were supposed to meet up with them on their return here. We came dressed in civilian clothes, although the space suits we wore included a layer of concealed armor. I carried my Blade with its insignia concealed, and Lance wore a pistol strapped openly to his hip. The traders at the post didn’t give either a second glance.

The place reminded me of the story Coran had told us about seedy places he’d frequented just before we had inadvertently ended up at a Space Mall. Lance must have been thinking the same thing, because I heard him mutter under his breath, “I miss Kaltenecker.”

I surveyed the place, looking for any familiar signs to identify Acxa’s team. After hours of waiting, a group came in with one clearly bearing Galran ancestry. The patrons gave them a wide berth, and I noticed many eyed the Galran with suspicion. Two hundred years wasn’t a long time to some of the races in the universe, and many still harbored grudges against former oppressors.

I got Lance’s attention and started to head toward the table where the group with the Galra were sitting. There were four of them, all armed. I didn’t see any bearing a Blade, but it could be concealed. I approached the Galra anyway, just to be sure.  

“Sightseeing bearing any golden fruits?” I spoke the passphrase Acxa had supplied us.

The Galra just glared at me, while one of his companions grunted. A third pushed his way over to me, glowering. “Just why you asking?”

That was not the answering phrase I was expecting.

Quiznack, he was big. Bigger than his Galran companion. I caught sight of a series of scars peeking from the edge of his shirt sleeve. They were mostly light, but there were a lot of them. Someone who fought close-combat, then, and fairly capably. A brawler? There was also sign of another more serious injury near his collar bone. Tough, then. I instinctively slid back into a fighting stance.

Lance slid his way between us, with a light kick to my calf. “Don’t mind my friend here, he can just be overly familiar sometimes, especially when he gets nervous. Here, let me buy you a drink.” He gestured toward the bar.

The trader looked down his nose at Lance. “This is our turf, spacer. You two better not be trying to move in.”

Lance made a placating gesture. “Oh, no, no, no! I assure you, no such intentions. We’re just passing through. My friend here just thought you looked capable. He was trying to pay you a compliment, but he’d kind of an idiot. Many apologies for the misunderstanding. You sure you aren’t interested in that drink?”

The thug turned with another grunt. “We got no need of your charity. You just go back where you came from, and tell your friend to keep his nose to himself, unless he wants it broken.”

We headed over to the bar ourselves. Lance let out a deep breath. “That was close. I thought I was going to piss myself. It’s been way too long since I’ve done this kind of thing.”

I looked over his shoulder and scanned the room to see whose attention our little interaction might have caught. A few of the patrons looked in our direction, but no one seemed particularly interested in us now that the threat had passed. There was still no sign of Axca’s team.

The barkeep came up to us. “String of bad luck, fellas?”

“Navigation error. Our nav computer is shot. Our sensors picked up life signs here so we headed in this direction,” Lance answered without missing a beat. “You don’t happen to know if there’s a repair shop specializing in nav recalibration here? Or else a set of directions to the next waystop?”

The barkeep scrutinized us both. Lance had just said something that tipped us off as outsiders to this region. I didn’t trust this place, not with Acxa’s team still missing. My hand slid toward my Blade. Lance just looked up at the barkeep with doe-eyed panic, which might not have been entirely feigned.

Then the barkeep choked out a deep belly laugh. “Really bad luck then, my boys. No one in their right mind would recalibrate here.”

“Why is that?” I asked. I was supposed to be a blabbermouth.

The barkeep gave us another glance as if to decide if we were really ignorant or just really bad at gathering intel. Finally, he leaned in close. “Spacetime anomaly at the center of the system. You two got lucky. This is about as far as you can get without having real problems,  without Boss Aktra’s Galra tricks. But she only gives those out to her lackeys.” He made a gesture toward the table where we’d narrowly avoided a fight.

“Boss Aktra?” Lance asked. I had never heard the name, either. It seemed plausible she was a petty warlord, left over from the days of the war and smart enough to quietly just run her own territory out here on the edge of known space.

I took another look at the group we’d encountered and noticed subtle Galran iconography on their clothes and gear. It brought back memories of the early post-War years when I’d been working with the Blades and the IGF to clean up the remaining Imperial Warlords that didn’t appreciate the entire multiverse had just been saved.

The barkeep caught my looking, and his friendly demeanor began to evaporate. My hand tightened on the handle of my Blade. “If you don’t know about Boss Aktra, you don’t need to. I don’t know why you came here, but if you two intend to keep your skins whole, I would leave. Now. You go to Tiik three doors down, and he can get you directed to the next system. For a price, of course.”

“Right,” Lance said, and got up. He tossed a handful of coins on the table. “Hope you take those.”

The barkeep grunted and swept them up. “From a pair of idiots? Good enough.”   

——-

“Quiznack,” Lance said when we were back to our ship, echoing my sentiment. “That could have gone better.”

It could have gone a lot worse, too. I was more worried than ever now for Acxa’s team and the scientist who had . Who was this Boss Aktra, and what exactly were the ‘Galran tricks’ that the barkeep had referred to? The fact that the IGF still thought this was an empty system and there was this much presumably smuggling activity meant that this Aktra was competent, and therefore dangerous.

“Next move?”

“You contact Acxa and the IGF. Let them know what we just found. Then we go see what we can find.”  Time was of the essence. We needed to find our missing people before this Aktra did. That was, if she hadn’t already.

“And what will you be doing?”

“Taking a closer look at this system. We don’t have time to waste waiting on backup.”    

First, I brought up our ship’s cloaking system. It was an upgraded version from the one Pidge had designed for the Lions. I trusted it to hide us from any scouts, along with anyone that barkeep might have told to keep an eye on us. I didn’t trust how easily we had learned as much information as we just had.

Then, I turned on the scanning systems. The barkeep was right, there was definitely a spacetime distortion in this system. It looked familiar; it reminded me of things I’d seen when I’d spent two years with Mom traversing the Quantum Abyss.

On a hunch, I dug up the information on the Quantum Abyss, and set the ship’s computer to run a comparison against what we were seeing now. Sure enough, there were a number of similarities. This place was much simpler than the Quantum Abyss, though. In fact, it was a simple enough distortion that I was confident I would be able to navigate it.

“Okay, tell me the good news,” Lance said, after he had sent our messages, and the computer had finished running its analysis.

“I think I can navigate this anomaly.”

“And the bad news?”

“After we go in, I either succeed and we likely walk in on a new enemy we know next to nothing about, or I fail to navigate it, and spacetime kills us.”

“Remind me how being able to navigate in is the good news, then?”

“It gives us a chance at answers,” I said, entering in the first set of coordinates of the calculated route.

Beside me, Lance buckled himself in, before flashing me his best shit-eating grin.  “And remind me why I decided to come along on this ride?”

I grinned back. “Oh, that one is easy. It’s because you’re an idiot.”

Chapter Text

I threw myself into studying the map for what felt like the thousandth time. Anything to keep from wondering why Azlan and Ryo had failed to make their check-in. They had both gone under cover to get intel on the base, while I stayed here to prep logistics along with the rebel leader, an insectoid alien named Melek.

At least analysis was something I was good at.

The Galra base dominated a sinking karst valley too small for a cruiser to land, with a river feeding the facility from the north that disappeared into the ground just to the south. There were villages scattered throughout the area that the Galra had been raiding for workers since they arrived. They were digging deep for something, but that was all the locals knew.

It was a terrible area to protect due to extensive cave systems, and even worse to dig, given the instability. Which meant that whatever the Galra were after here, it was specific and important.

Looking again at the geography, I was beginning to suspect I knew what. I was ninety nine percent sure the Galra base had been erected over an ancient impact crater.

A rebel poked their head into our tent. “Melek, the scouts are back.”

I turned around and bit back a where were you? as Ryo and Azlan walked in. I didn’t need to take out my anxiety on them, when they had been the ones in danger. Ryo in particular looked exhausted; his purple makeup was smeared on his hands and nearly became transparent near his temples. He accepted my hug with a tight return.

Melek motioned them over to the table with two of his four green arms.

“Was the scouting sucesskful?” Melek asked.

“Well, we have both good news and bad news,” Ryo said.

“Good newsk firstk,” Melek said.

“We found the Gate and controls,” Azlan said, his tail swishing. “I couldn’t stay long enough to download the frequency data, but I can work it.”

“And the bad news?” I asked.

Ryo spoke up. “The bad news is, we might have to use it sooner than expected. I think they’ve finally found what they’ve been digging for. The whole place is shifting gears. And they’ve started sorting the prisoners, running some kind of scans.” He looked at me. “I wish you had been with us, Caeli. You’re better at seeing through patterns than I am.”

Melek steepled two sets of hands. “If they are sorting the prisonersk, they are in danger. So we move up the operationsk.”

Azlan swished his tail again. “That’s not going to work. The Blades won’t take the risk for an unknown payoff. If we tell them to move up the operation, they’ll back out.”

“So we either wait and stick to the plan, or do it ourselves,” I said, liking neither.

“We move. Our people need usk,” Melek declared.     

-----

Melek split the rebels into three groups. A small group of us would sneak into the base. Half the remaining rebels would create a diversion, and we would use the confusion to organize the prisoners. Then the other half of the rebels would come in from the west and attack in earnest, exploiting a critical weakness I had found. The west wall of the compound was built over a shallow stone dome that was the roof of an aquifer, being held up by hydrostatic pressure. If we could drain the water, the wall would collapse.

Getting into the base from the tunnels turned out to be entirely too easy. Ryo was right that something was shifting; the patrols that should have been scouting the lower levels simply weren’t there.

“I don’t like this,” I muttered as we made our way up into the base proper. Here, we found patrols. I was surprised to find that most of them were just robotic drones. Along with those, we spotted a number of officers and prisoners on the move. Something was definitely shifting; it was a feeling in the air.

By some small miracle, we made it to the prison block without incident. We had one close call when we passed a group headed away from the prison block as we neared it. The officers with them were moving with intention but not fear.

Azlan swished his tail as they passed. “Stick to the plan,” I growled. I wanted to rescue them, too, but the gears of a machine didn’t come together if one went off track.

When we arrived at the cell block we’d been assigned, I ran to the first of the cells, ready to deliver instructions.  

It was empty.

“Quiznack,” Azlan echoed at the cell across from mine.

Up at the end of the cell block, I heard a group of people approaching. I looked over and saw a throng of prisoners shuffling past us down the hallway junction. One of the officers caught movement from Ryo and looked our way.

I froze as he called out, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

Azlan caught me by the back of my collar, and pulled one of my hands around. I took a good swing at him with my other one, and he danced around it. “We caught this spy.”

“Haven’t you been paying attention? We’re clearing the blocks. Just put her in with the rest of this group,” the officer ordered, and began to hustle toward us.

Double Quiznack. They were clearing the cell blocks? Why?

Ryo stepped between the officer and myself, giving me a look. Attack? “No, let’s use this,” I whispered to him.

 I whipped out my concealed pistol and tried to fire it at him. The shot went wide, of course, and Azlan pushed me to the ground. My pistol went flying, and Ryo ran over to snatch it up. The officer came over to assist, and Azlan hit me in the gut. I doubled over, coughing.

The officer grabbed and half-dragged me over to the throng of mixed prisoners, where a drone cuffed me and added me to the line. I glared at him. The prisoner in front of me looked at me with terrified eyes. This one couldn’t have been older than a teen. “Don’t be afraid”, I whispered to them. “Help is coming.”

 “Hey, no talking!” The officer barked. Azlan gave me a little shove, and I gave him a sharp glance. His ears flicked down apologetically when the officer turned back around.

They brought us down to a big room with glass windows on one side, and a pair of wide doors leading outside on the other. The guards were lining up the prisoners, who were being made to pass through a white metal archway, and then were split in one of two directions by a series of techs. Most of the prisoners were being herded to the big doors, but a few were selected and pushed to the window room. Through the windows, I could see the glow of a Gate. They were marching prisoners through it.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Echoes of booms sounded in the distance. An earthquake threw me to my knees. The walls of the room bent and rippled as the weight redistributed. Alarms went off. Somewhere beyond the great doors, an explosion went off.

And then an explosion went off in our room.

“Rebels are attacking!” Someone shouted.

Chaos flooded the room. Ryo and Azlan jumped into action, cutting through bonds to set prisoners free. Ryo tossed me my pistol, and I started firing at drones. I shouted at prisoners in my best command voice, and directed them either verbally or physically to get outside.

I ran toward the Gate room, directing prisoners toward the entrance where rebels had appeared as I ran. I picked off drones with my little pistol until it ran out of charge. Then I kicked a rifle out of the hands of a drone and started using that instead.

Somehow, the three of us made it into the Gate room. “Get the data!” I called to Azlan.

I picked off a couple of the drones, and Azlan and Ryo rushed in toward the Gate’s controls while panicked prisoners scattered. I directed them toward the incoming rebels before backing to the console, myself.

Azlan had just gotten onto the controls when we heard a deep hum. The floor under my feet vibrated with the noise. Azlan stopped what he was doing at the console and looked up. His expression turned ashen.  “Oh, no.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“That’s a cruiser.”

“I thought this valley was too small for a cruiser to land.”

“They don’t need to land to attack,” Azlan said. Outside, there was a flash. A boom followed, and the glass in the window shattered. The room shook hard enough to knock me down.

“This attack hasn’t been happening long enough for reinforcements to arrive,” Ryo said.

“The crusier must have already been coming,” Azlan stammered.

I picked myself up and stared at the broken glass. For a few moments, there was silence. Then, in the other room, flashes of light from blasters began going off again. Through the now-empty window, I could see figures moving our way through the smoke and dust, too rhythmic to be organic.

We all stared.

“Azlan, data!” I shouted, and aimed at the first of the drones coming through.

Ryo’s sword flashed to full length, and he ran at them. Together, we defended Azlan as he frantically typed across the console. The drones started coming through the opened window. How many of them were there, if this many were coming through to us, when the rebels were fighting in force and there were prisoners amok? These weren’t a measly batch of reinforcements.

A horrible sinking feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. They had been prepared for us.

“Got it!” Azlan shouted.

Just in time, too. A stray shot from the fighting hit the console, and the Gate fizzled shut in a shower of sparks, leaving a simple doorway to an emergency exit in its wake.

“Azlan, Door, now!” I shouted at them, pointing to the emergency exit. Blade training took over, and he bolted for the now-revealed back doorway. I started to run toward it, myself.

I took a hit, then. A good one, to the leg. I went to one knee. Ryo cut down the last drone in the wave. I managed to stand, but searing pain nearly sent me down again. Quiznack, this was bad.

“Catch up with Azlan, I’ll cover,” I said, gesturing with the rifle.

“But -”

“I have range. GO.” For a second, I thought he would fight me, but then he obeyed.

I turned back to face the enemy. In the cloud of dust, I caught sight of a set of too many glowing purple eyes.

That was when I realized I wasn’t going to make it out of here. Even if we got out of this room, I would slow them down, and they needed to get away with that intel.

“Ryo! Run!” I screamed, and stared firing.

Purple blurred. I kept firing at the dust cloud, even though the rifle was beginning to overheat. I took painful steps backward, trying to track it.

“Caeli?” Ryo called to me from down the corridor.

“I’ll catch up with you,” I gave him a pained smile. Then I slammed the button to call down the emergency seal, cutting off the escape route.

I swung the rifle around and fired until it couldn’t fire anymore. The monster dodged, but I was expecting that. I tried to run, but my leg gave out. I went down onto my knees, panting. At this point, one of the Blades probably would have found a spare pocket of stamina. But I was only a human kid, pretending to be strong. Tears slipped down my cheeks.

I’m sorry, Ryo.

I looked up into two lines of eyes. I had no fight left in me, but I still had defiance. The monster put its hand against my forehead. I waited for the end to come.

But it didn’t kill me. Instead, it spoke a syllable, and in a wave of pain I passed out.

——-

I came to, strapped to an interrogation table. I eyed various needles and cutting instruments arrayed around the room. A Galra tech drugged me, then walked over to a control podium to one side of me. At my other side, of the masked warriors stood. The same one who caught me? I wasn’t sure. A second Masked figure stood at the back of the room, observing.

“I am going to ask you a few questions,” the Mask next to me said.

“Then you’re wasting your time,” I replied.

The tech pressed a button, and electricity coursed through me. Pain blossomed anew in my bad leg, and old echoes of it rippled through my scars. I tried to stay stoic, but ended up screaming anyway.

“Would you like to try again?”

My vision blurred, and my stomach churned.

“Go to hell.” This time it was worse. I screamed louder. They kept going. I strained against my binds, attempting to get away.

“You were with the rebels, two Blades,” my interrogator hissed when they finally stopped.

“And they didn’t tell me a voided thing! Kept me in the dark!” And now I knew why. They probably expected something like this to happen.

More electricity. More pain. I screamed again. When it stopped at last, I started crying. I hated myself but I couldn’t stop.

“You can make it stop. Just tell us where the rebels are hiding.”

“Anywhere. Everywhere. They move,” I blurted out.

It was the wrong thing to say. They punished me for my reply, then kept going. My insides burned. I screamed and writhed and shouted. Anything to make the pain stop.

“I . . .I’m not one of them. Just. . .just hired help. Please. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

This time, they let it go longer. I stopped screaming somewhere in the middle, and slumped against the restraints. It took all my effort just to breathe.

The tech reached for the controls again, but the second Mask stepped forward and raised a hand. “That is enough. She’s not going to tell us anything useful. I can deal with things from here,” they said with disgust.

They made a gesture, and the tech and closer Mask stepped aside with a brief bow. Once we were alone, they walked up to me.

“Go ahead and kill me if you’re going to,” I murmured.

They put their hand under my chin, and lifted it up so I looked up. “My dear girl, why would I want to do that?”

I started. That was not what I was expecting to hear.

He removed his mask. Underneath, was the most beautiful man I had ever seen — or would have been, if not for his eyes. His eyes were too cold to be anything but terrifying. There was a hypnotic quality to them, though, in spite of it. He stared long and hard into my own eyes, and I couldn’t pull away.

“You were with the rebels, but they abandoned you,” his unfiltered voice resonated. It was the kind of voice that commanded. “You sacrificed yourself for them, and they just walked away.”

No, no, that wasn’t true, I thought to myself. Ryo would have come for me. He would have come back.

“Do you know why?” He whispered to me. His voice compelled an answer.

All the events of the past few weeks snowballed in my mind. “Because I’m weak.”

“But you want to be strong, don’t you?” He murmured. “You admire the Blades. Well, fortunately for you, you are here now, and I happen to know a little secret. Blades aren’t born, they’re forged.”

I felt a pinprick in my arm, and looked down in time to see him push the contents of a syringe into me. Numbness took me quickly. I sagged in the restraints as dark crept into my vision.

He smiled down on me as l faded out.

“Don’t be afraid, XKC31. I am going to make you strong.”

Chapter Text

Small beads of sweat clung to the back of my neck as I banked another turn. The route plotted by the computer looked simple enough, but simple enough was still terrifying when one wrong move would mean being ripped apart by gravitational forces. Ahead of us, a nebulous mass blocked radiation instruments and line-of-sight alike.

“All right sharpshooter, gonna need your eyes for this.”

I slowed the craft to the lowest speed I could go while maintaining the momentum we needed to keep out of the Anomaly’s pull. Then I took in a deep breath and released it, reaching out with a sixth sense piloting the Black Lion had helped me hone. I closed my eyes to better focus on flashes of energy I could sense within the cloud and the pull of the gravity wells surrounding us.

“Clearing up ahead, bank left forty degrees.”

I felt what Lance saw just after he spoke, and moved the craft in that direction. I both felt and saw as we cleared the obstacle, coming out into the outer orbit of a planetoid. A ring of stone debris drifted around us. I kept as far away from it as possible in order to avoid detection. The cloaking on the ship worked wonders to block radiation scans, but would be worthless if sensors picked up the disturbances of the debris instead.

Lance switched on our sensors, and began searching through the scans, while I brought us closer, praying that I wasn’t moving enough space dust to give us away.

“Not much habitation here. I’m seeing traces of a simple structure on the surface at reading 05-20-43. And it looks like there are pylons and a structure for docking a cruiser-class vessel further out. But that doesn’t make any sense.”

There would be no way a large vessel would be able to safely navigate the Anomaly. He and I looked at each other.

“Wormhole?” We said at the same time. Coran could tell us for sure, but I guessed the Anomaly was just weak enough that a wormhole could be generated here safely. Provided it was in just the right spot. And the pilot knew this place well enough to control the momentum of a vessel coming out of it.  

“Well, at least the good news is, it looks like this Boss Aktra or whoever isn’t home right now.”

“Yeah, then let’s make this quick.”

I nudged our ship through the debris field and in toward the planetoid. When nothing on the sensors changed, I brought us in a few hundred meters from the structure Lance had spotted before.

We both suited up and got out. The gravity here was slightly lower than standard, and our steps had a bit of bounce to them. Lance gave me a grin and jumped once or twice a little higher and longer than he needed to. I shook my head at him.

The structure itself turned out to be a crumbling base. The remains of a wall protected it, but it looked like no repairs had been done over the last two hundred years. Finding a hole to slip through was criminally easy. Whoever this Boss Aktra was, she clearly was relying a great deal on the Anomaly for protection.  

“Scout, two o’clock,” Lance whispered to me. We both crouched as a big alien lumbered across the courtyard, toting an even bigger gun. Correction: she relied on the Anomaly and personnel for protection.

When he had passed around the corner, we moved for the door. It was an older model lock, that relied on a passcode which I didn’t how to circumvent off the top of my head short of breaking it. In the past, I had always relied on prior intel, gadgetry, or — a very long time ago — Pidge.

Lance pulled me around the side of the building. Another – guard? Scout? Bandit? – was approaching. As the whatever got up to the pad, Lance snuck over and poked his head around the corner. “Lance, what are you doing?” I whispered inside my helmet.

“Squiggle-set-loopy-triangle-squiggle-squiggle-square.”

“What?”

Lance whipped back around to where I was. In the meanwhile, our enemy went through the door, and it closed. I looked at him incredulously. He grabbed my hand and pulled me around to the door, then pointed at the lock mechanism that was covered in an alien alphabet.

“Squiggle-set-loopy-triangle-squiggle-squiggle-square.”

Oh.

“Which one is ‘set’?”

“That one,” he pointed to one of the characters. I typed in the passcode and the door opened. Lance gave me an insufferable grin.

Inside, there was another door, but this one was locked with a familiar Galran mechanism. Judging from the look of things inside, it hadn’t been updated in two hundred years. Taking a chance, I took off my glove and slipped my hand onto the biometrics pad. The door opened up.

Inside, it was clear that this had once been a Galran outpost. The layout was standard and still familiar, even after all this time. I could hear voices from a room up ahead; once it would have been a guardroom.    

“I hate being stuck here. This place gives me the creeps. Everyone else gets to go off on some big fancy expedition and we get here watching what? Crates?”

“Boss has traders coming in for those crates, and they’re bringing fresh meat. Don’t complain, and don’t touch anything. Or Boss is gonna turn us both into batteries when she gets back.”

There was a groan. “Urgh. Don’t have to tell me twice.”

Battery? What did they mean by that?   

I had a feeling that whatever it was we needed to find, it wasn’t going to be up here. But we still needed to check this place out to be sure. “Lance, keep an eye out for an elevator or a trap door or something.”

“Rodger.”

We found the crates that the guards had been talking about, as well as their barracks, where a half dozen varied aliens were currently sleeping. We left both of those alone. There were standard long-term supplies, but otherwise this place was remarkably empty.

Lance found the entrance to the elevator. “There’s a reason I keep you around,” I told him, as we got in.     

“Besides my dashing good looks, you mean.”

The elevator opened up into a basement. This had not only been maintained, but had clearly recently been upgraded. Lance whistled as we stepped out into a corridor. The style was a variant of an Imperial Galra laboratory.

“IGF is not gonna like this,” Lance said. I had to agree with him. Acxa wasn’t going to like what I would have to say, either.

Following my experience, it didn’t take me long to find the prison cells. But when we got there, they were as empty as the rest of the place. Lance went to look at other rooms, while I investigated the cells. There was evidence that they had been occupied recently – small marks on the walls, bits of food. My blood ran cold with fury when I found a child’s toy, tucked in a corner.

“Keeeith. You need to see this.”

I ran to where Lance had been investigating just down the hall. I swung around the doorway into the room where he was standing, and I just . . .stopped.

Rows of glass cylinders lined the walls of the room, glowing with different intensities. Each one had a person inside. All were in various stages of living decay, with shriveled skin and sunken cheeks and eyes. The only indication that they were alive was the monitoring panel on the cylinder. Indeed, it seemed in many cases the machinery entombing them was the only thing keeping them alive.

“What the Quiznack is this?” Lance whispered, horrified.

Tubes ran from the cylinders to a collection vat filled with sickly glowing liquid.

I knew exactly what this was. I had seen it during the War. “They’re harvesting their quintessence.”

This was what that guard had meant when he mentioned “batteries”. I staggered back, feeling sick. I wanted to smash this place to pieces and rescue them all, but I couldn’t. We only had one small ship.  

We could still do what we came here to do, though. I started looking through the cylinders for familiar faces. Finally, I found one of the scientists from the Rift exploration. She had been forty when she left to investigate, but now she looked ninety. From the readings, I wasn’t even certain she would survive the trip home if I removed her.  

There was no sign of Acxa’s team.

“How?” Lance said under his breath. “How could everyone have missed this?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to get out of here, and we’re going to stop it.”

——-

Together, we got the scientist out of her tube. I pulled stabilizing medical supplies from my pack and prayed they would work. We had expected our team to be in rough shape, but not like this. By some grace, she survived getting out of the tube. Lance prepared her for transport, while I scouted the surroundings.

Suddenly, I felt a surge of strange energy. It was coming from further down the hall.

“What is it?” Lance asked when he noticed me tense up.

“I felt something,” I said.

“Something to do with quintessence?”

I tried to feel it again, but the sensation was already fading.  

“Not sure. I’m gonna check it out.”

I headed toward the source of the energy flicker. Lance set our scientist safely aside and followed, weapon at the ready. I could hear movement up ahead. Voices. We approached quietly, and found one of the rooms had been opened. The voices were coming from inside. Two figures in black crouched next to single cylinder filled with violet fluid.   

This one held one of Acxa’s lieutenants.

I attacked, determined to stop whatever they were doing. My lunge was caught mid-motion by another Marmorran sword, as the first figure spun around. I found myself looking into a distinctly Marmorran mask as we locked swords. In the same breath, Lance turned into the room, and the second figure – another Blade – rolled and launched himself at Lance. Lance fired off several shots that went wide as he got tackled. One hit the control bank. Sparks flew, and the tube holding Acxa’s lieutenant sounded an ominous alarm and started to drain.    

“Stand down!” I commanded.

My opponent didn’t flinch. “What have you done with her?”  He shifted and swung again. I barely caught his sword. Quiznack, this guy was fast. Probably as fast as I had been in my youth. He pushed, maneuvering me toward the corner. He knew what he was doing.

I wasn’t out of tricks yet, though. I kept my sword locked with his, then kicked off the equipment he’d been trying to push me into, using the blades as a pivot point to swing around him. He turned and cut again. Again, I barely blocked it.

“You’re making a mistake!”

Out in the hallway, Lance was struggling with his own opponent. The other Blade had him pinned, with his own Blade extended to Lance’s throat. “Keith, aren’t these guys yours?”

“Knowledge or Death!” I called out, disengaging and attempting to show them my Blade. The one atop Lance paused and looked in my direction. That didn’t stop my opponent. He just came back at me, quick as lightning.  

“Murderer!” He growled.

Quiznack. He lunged. I kicked, making him stumble back. Then I snapped around, with a second kick without holding back. I knocked him into the wall, hard. I winced as he bounced off of it. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt a fellow Blade.

“Ryo!”

The instant the sword was away from his throat, Lance rolled and reached around, countering the pin with one of his own. “Relax, kid. There’s been a misunderstanding!”

I retracted my Blade, and spread my hands, all the while keeping one eye on this Ryo who was currently on his hands and knees, and I knew from experience was most likely trying not to throw up. “I’m not your enemy.”

I disengaged the shielding on my helmet so they could see my face clearly. If Kolivan were still running things, he would have yelled at me for unmasking during a mission. “My name is Keith,” I explained.

“The Red Paladin?” Lance’s opponent said in awe.

“Black, actually,” Lance corrected as he let the young Blade go. “I’m Red. Or was. The name is Lance.”

“My name is Azlan,” the young Blade responded.

“You’re really the Red Paladin?” My opponent said quietly.

“That’s right,” I gave him a smile. I offered him my hand. He hesitantly took it, but refused to look at my face.

“I’m sorry I attacked you. I thought you were one of the people who took my friend.”

“Well, we’re certainly no friends of those bastards,” Lance said darkly.

The sound of the elevator activating caught my attention. Alarms were still going off; my mind had just filtered the noise during the fight. The Blade took my hand up then and flashed his weapon out again.

“Speaking of friends. . . Lance, go get our scientist. We need to get out of here.”

I went to the tank and extracted Acxa’s lieutenant. She was comatose, and her skin had taken on an unpleasant paleness. The smaller of the Blades — Azlan — pulled out a monitor from his pack and checked her vitals: unstable, but not critical. But there was no time for further diagnosis. Our enemies were on their way. I picked her up, and the two Blades went ahead of me.   

Lance met up with us, and we made our way to the elevator. We came around the corner just as the guards from upstairs started spilling out. Azlan threw a handful of disks at the cluster. They stuck and exploded. Then his partner rushed in, sword extended. I pushed the bleeding guards aside and went into the elevator.

Inside, Lance set his burden down and aimed his rifle at the door as it opened. That was followed by a smoke bomb and another rush by the two Blades. I had to admit, I was impressed.

From there, we simply ran. We paused only long enough to get helmets on our rescues. Stealth had long ago lost its priority. The big alien fired on us, but his aim was bad, and another handful of Azlan’s micro-bombs disabled the gun as we passed.

We made it back to the ship, and I threw myself into the cockpit, and yelled for the others to get strapped in. Lance got into the copilot’s chair while the Blades did the work securing the others.

The rest of the escape turned into a blur. I hurled us into the Anomaly, my consciousness flowing into a state of intuition and reaction. I didn’t become consciously aware of what I was doing until we shot out past the waystation Lance and I had visited just yesterday.

Lance got on the IGF emergency comm. “IGF, please come in.”

“This is the Atlas II. What’s your location?”

“We need an emergency wormhole. Coordinates 3452-78-3455. I repeat, 3452-78-3455.”

“Coordinates confirmed. Standby for wormhole.”

“We’ve got critical wounded aboard. Repeat, critical wounded. Have medical standing by.”   

I had to hand it to the IGF. It only took them a minute to respond. The wormhole opened, and we zipped through it. Once we were inside, I set the ship to autopilot and headed to the back. My two Blades were there, watching over our charges and speaking to each other softly.

In a moment of privacy, they had disengaged their masks. Azlan had the blue fur and tufted ears of a more catlike Galra. The other – Ryo? - appeared human, at least from my angle. That was a little surprising; I hadn’t heard of other human hybrids but it was certainly possible.

I cleared my throat and approached. “All right, before we arrive on the Atlas, we should probably debrief about -”

I stopped mid-sentence in shock as they turned and faced me. Azlan’s features looked vaguely familiar. Perhaps I had known a parent?

The other was wearing my face.

The colors were wrong, and he had more prominent Galran markings than I did, but I might as well have been looking at a reflection of my younger self.

Lance ducked in. “Hey Keith, how are our charges do – oh, Quiznack.”

Chapter Text

“Keith, why is your son sitting in the back of our ship?” Lance asked.

He had meant it as a joke. I think. But Azlan’s ears went back with embarrassment, and my – mini me – suddenly flushed, went quiet, and refused to look at me.

Lance caught their reactions, too. “Wait. Holy Quiznack, do you actually have a kid?”

“I have no idea!”

I couldn’t remember anything I had ever done that possibly could have resulted in offspring. But we had fought the Galra and dark magic. They’d made dozens of clones of Shiro. Who knows what else they might have done? That had all been two hundred years ago, but Princess Allura and Coran had been in cryo-sleep for ten thousand when we met, and I’d just seen history trying to repeat itself with quintessence farming, so anything seemed possible right now.  

Azlan’s ears flicked in alarm, and he raised his hands, “Paladin, Sir, we can explain!”

A few ideas were starting to form in my brain, and I didn’t like any of them, so I just started with the first. “Okay, you’re clearly Blade of Marmora, but . . . you’re not actually part of Acxa’s team, are you?”

“Who is Acxa?”  Ryo asked.

That answered that question.

Lance crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. “So if you guys are Blades, but you don’t even know Acxa, who sent you?”

Azlan ran his hand through his fur-hair. “Well, technically, no one sent us. We’re not actually supposed to be here.”

I raised an eyebrow. These two, Azlan in particular, had struck me as young. It was beginning to dawn on me they might be younger than I thought. “So you just snuck into a Spacetime Anomaly on your own? Why?”

“We’re looking for someone,” Ryo said with a quiet intensity I recognized.  

Azlan continued, “The enemy took her through the Gate to here, so we followed. But we couldn’t find her, and while we were looking, the Gate closed behind us. I saw another Blade had been captured, so I tried to wake her up to see if she could help us. That’s when you showed up.”

“Gate? You followed them here through a wormhole?” Lance asked.

Azlan shook his head and swished his tail. “No, a Gate.”

Lance and I looked at each other. Gate?  

Then it dawned on me: the energy I had sensed in the base must have been the Rift that everyone had come here to investigate. The burst must have been it closing. “You mean the Rifts? You two came through a Rift?”

This time it was Azlan and Ryo’s turn to look at each other. Azlan looked at the expression both Lance and I must have been wearing. His ears flicked downward in distress. “You. . .don’t use Gates. Quiznack.”

Ryo shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Caeli is on this side of the Gate. We’re not going home until we find her.”

I had heard  theories that the Rifts might lead to other realities through the quintessence field. Apparently they were true.

“So you two are from another universe,” Lance said with a sigh of relief. I had to admit I was relieved, too. “And in that universe, Keith is the Red Paladin. . .and your dad?”

Ryo nodded hesitantly. “That’s what Kolivan told me, anyway.  I never met my fathers. They died before I was born, and I was raised. . .elsewhere. But I was told they were heroes who died to protect me.”

Azlan curled his hands into fists. “They died to protect all of us. So now we take up the fight in their memory.”

It’s not a great feeling finding out that in another reality, you’ve died fighting. Such an outcome had always been in the back of our minds, but it was different hearing that there was at least one reality where it had actually occurred.

“So in your universe, Voltron was defeated,” Lance said aloud what both of us were thinking.

“Voltron was betrayed and destroyed by one of their own,” Azlan spat. “And now Galran agents are spread across multiple universes. But we’re not giving up. We continue their fight, and we will win.”

——-

I sat in the pilot’s chair and sorted through the story in my brain while we travelled the wormhole. The kids remained in the back with our charges. Lance stared out the window, pale and locked in his own thoughts. He had been silent since the kids had dropped us with their revelation. Who could blame him? Apparently, one of the kids in the back of our ship was our son from another reality – one where we had failed to defend the universe. Worse, it was because one of us had betrayed the others.

Pidge, Allura, Hunk, Shiro. They hadn’t told us who had been the traitor, and neither Lance nor I asked. It didn’t matter. Any one of us could have done it in the right circumstances, if our lives had gone just a little differently. Myself included.

“So, what are we going to do?” Lance asked after a while.

I’d been considering just that. We apparently had Galra from another universe conspiring with some remnant warlord here, kidnapping people to drain their quintessence and doing Quiznack-knew what else.

 “First step is getting our charges into doctors’ hands. With any luck, they’ll recover and be able to tell us something. Meanwhile, we’ll talk with Acxa. Maybe she’s seen more to this. We can establish a pattern.”

Lance gave me a look to say that I was missing his point. “And what about those kids? If Ryo is anything like you, he’s going to be trouble. . . and well. . . I know you’re not ready for kids yet. . . .and he’s not our son, but. . . .”

I sighed, a little hurt by the assumption that I might even think about walking away. Even if he weren’t my son – or my other self’s son in another universe -  I heard how he had spoken about finding his friend. I knew the feeling behind that tone. I would be a hypocrite to ignore it.

 “I won’t abandon them, Lance. I will do everything in my power to help him find her.”

-----

We arrived on the Atlas. After we handed off Acxa’s lieutenant and the scientist to a waiting medical team, we debriefed with her in her private quarters. The Blade of Marmora was a known ally of the Inter-Galactic Federation, and the presence of Acxa or a few of her Blades was a common enough occurrence aboard the flagship that a few masked faces went unquestioned, so long as they were escorted. That had made bringing Azlan and Ryo aboard easy without raising unwanted questions.

When we finished, Acxa crossed her arms and looked down at Azlan and Ryo. They sat in chairs and Azlan in particular reminded me of a misbehaving Garrison cadet about to get a scolding. Considering she was a senior Blade officer, and they had gone off to our universe without permission, it was a reasonable scenario.

“I see. So we have a new enemy under our noses, and two green renegade agents to deal with,” Acxa sighed. “Although perhaps this may give insight to our latest Rift incident. I wonder if these events are related.”      

“There’s been another Rift?”  I asked. Rifts had never occurred so quickly in succession.

“Yes, and it’s quite the case. We had a Rift incident at Garrison Headquarters while you were in the Anomaly. I didn’t want to discuss this one over comms.”

I just stared at her, not sure I had heard correctly. “At HQ?” 

“Yes. They’re in a bit of an uproar right now. As you know, the existence of the Rifts have largely been kept quiet so far. Well, they’re going to have their hands full with that now. As of 02:00 hours Earth Time yesterday, a Rift opened up in the Garrison student library. It only lasted thirty seconds, but this time, there were visitors.”

She gave Ryo and Azlan a pointed look.

I raised my eyebrows; Lance choked on the drink Acxa had provided him. “People came through into the Garrison Library?”

“Have they spoken with them yet?” I asked.

“Yes, they’ve got them in Quarantine right now, along with the handful of students and staff that were present at the time of the incident. Keith, I really think that you and Lance should take a look at this.”

Acxa brought up video camera footage. I recognized the interior of the Holt Student Library in the Garrison Headquarters. As she had said, a Rift opened in the middle of the library and a pair of women spilled through it just before it closed, causing quite a commotion with the handful of students studying there.

One was tall and willowy, with light skin and shoulder length light brown hair. She wore a Garrison senior officer’s uniform. The other was a Garrison cadet of medium height and build with dark brown skin and black curly hair tied in a messy bun. Both carried holstered pistols at their hips. They seemed disoriented when they came through. A few minutes later, Garrison security showed up.

Ryo rose to the edge of his chair.

In the video feed, the tall woman raised her hands when security came. She stepped protectively in front of the cadet. “My name is Catherine Holt. Please, I need to speak to the Director. We come seeking help.”

“Did she say Holt?” Lance asked.

“Keep watching.”

Acxa changed the video feed to show an image of the two of them being escorted to a waiting pair of med cars. In the image, the cadet balked at the entrance of one. Med officers dragged her over to the door.

“No! Don’t you dare hurt her! Aren’t you listening to me? We aren’t a threat!” Catherine yelled, trying to get away from her own escort.

“Please calm down, Ma’am. We’re not going to harm either of you, but we need you to come with us,” the medical officer in front of her said. 

The video feed cut again. This time it showed Catherine on a gurney. For the first time in the feed, we could see her face more clearly. Lance stared at the image, then looked to me. “First you, now Pidge?”

She was far too tall to be Pidge, and her eyes were green-gray, not brown. There was an unmistakable resemblance between the two people, though. Another descendant, perhaps? Or even a version of Pidge. We already knew she came from another universe.

“There’s more and this part is important,” Acxa told us as the clip continued to play.

Catherine shouted from the gurney.

“Damn it all! I need you to listen. Get Retired Admiral Shirogane. Takashi Shirogane. He’ll vouch for me! Get Takashi Shirogane!” The med techs just shook their heads sadly at each other.

What? Why was she asking for Shiro?  

Behind us, Ryo had balled his hands into fists. “What are they doing with Doctor Holt?”

“Do you know them?” Acxa asked him.

“Yes! That’s Doctor Holt. She was a professor of ours at the Garrison. And the cadet with her is named Juniper Ntare. Yes, I know them both!”

“From your universe?” I asked at the same time.

“Yes. Well, no. They’re not from the universe Azlan and I came here from. A different one. I went to the Garrison there before I joined the Blades. It’s a long story. But I know them. Please don’t hurt them!”

I raised my eyebrow. This story kept getting more complicated, it would seem.

Acxa shut down the video. “I will do what I can. But I think perhaps Keith and Lance may have more pull than I do in this case, given the circumstances.”

She meant - why was this woman calling for Shiro? The problem was, I had no idea. I had never seen her before in my life. Shiro had never mentioned her. The first Rifts the IGF had detected occurred about a year before he died, so I supposed it was possible. But why had he never said anything? 

All I knew was that we had four people here from other universes, a new enemy, and a missing girl in the middle.

Chapter Text

After a strained ship ride to Earth, a considerable amount of red tape, a long argument with the Director of the Galaxy Garrison, a longer argument with the medical director, and at least one veiled threat concerning relations with the Galra Republic from Acxa, we found ourselves at the Galaxy Garrison Headquarters.

Lance and I had both taught here briefly, alongside Shiro, while we had been trying to figure out what to do with ourselves once peace had settled across our galaxy. We had abandoned that path when it became clear we would be outliving most of our loved ones, and Earth started to feel strange. The planet had become a metropolitan center for a myriad of alien races, but the Garrison itself was still largely human-centric.

They were holding both Doctor Holt and Cadet Ntare in observation rooms in the medical center. They’d cleared both of them soon after their arrival, but had ended up detaining  them there for security reasons, Doctor Holt in particular. So we went to see Ntare first.

The entire time, Ryo was so anxious even I could see it. But when we got to Ntare’s room, he hesitated at the door.  “What’s the matter?” Lance asked him.

“We went to the Garrison together. She was my training partner along with Caeli.”

And Caeli isn’t here, I thought.  

Azlan tapped Ryo on the shoulder. “So she’s your friend, right? There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Right.”

With a deep breath, Ryo opened the door and came in. Ntare had been pacing and took a step back when the door opened again. Her eyes grew wide and she reached for a nonexistent sidearm when Azlan and Ryo stepped in, wearing their Blade uniforms. Lance and I stepped in behind them, wearing our Garrison uniforms that had been part of our entrance deal. She lowered her hand and looked at the mixed group of us, confused.

Then Ryo pulled down his hood. “Juni?”

“RYO? IS THAT YOU?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said with an awkward smile.

Juni threw herself at him with a tight hug. For a moment, I thought she might actually leap onto him. She laughed hard enough for tears to come to her eyes. Then she disengaged enough to run her hands over his back and his arms, as though checking for wounds.

“You’re alive! You’re okay!” She ran her hands over his arm again and laughed. “And you’re ripped! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!?”  

“Intensive training,” Ryo answered.

“And why are you dressed like that. . . ..” She scrutinized the Blade armor. “Wait. Why does this uniform look familiar?”

Azlan raised a hand. “That would be my fault. I uh, kinda, broke into the Garrison and stole your crystal. Sorry about that.”

“What.” Juni said, turning her attention to Azlan. “Wait, are you telling me you are the one Ryo and Caeli went chasing after? And Ryo is hanging out with you now?”

“It’s a long story, but turns out he’s not a bad guy,” Ryo said.

Azlan disengaged his mask. Juni’s eyes went wide, and she jumped up and planted her foot up Ryo’s leg in an attempt to climb up him. She just stared at him, wide eyed.

“Hi, I’m Azlan.”

Her eyes narrowed at him. “You’re a cat-boy.”

“I’m Galra,” Azlan corrected.

“You are a PURPLE cat-boy,” she stated again. Then she looked at Ryo, back at Azlan, then back at Ryo again. She pointed a finger at him accusingly. “Have you been with aliens this whole time?!?”

 “Uh, yes?”

She climbed back down, and scrutinized Azlan over one more time before looking at Lance and me. She was not the least bit impressed. Not that I could blame her, given her welcome.

“And these are your escort?” She grunted.

“These are Keith and Lance, the Red and Blue Paladins of Voltron,” Azlan announced.

Juni just stared at us flatly. “Vol-what now?”

I tucked that bit of information away in my brain. The Garrison Juni and Doctor Holt knew had never encountered Voltron. Was it because in their universe the Galra had never had reason to come to Earth?

“Giant robot, made of Lions. We saved the universe. At least twice,” Lance said.

Juni’s expression remained unchanged.

I stifled a laugh, and extended my hand to Ryo’s friend.  “Nice to meet you, Juni.”

Juni looked me up and down, before taking my hand with a solid grip. She side-eyed Ryo. “This one I think you can keep. Although I think you sadly might have to fight Blue over there for him.”

“Juni!” Ryo’s cheeks went red.  

She grinned at him, and then looked behind us, as though expecting someone else to walk in any moment. She frowned when she realized it was just the four of us, and no one else would be coming in.

“Ryo, where is Caeli? Let me guess, off on some important mission? Talking down some alien ambassador?” She smiled, but I thought I heard pain in her voice.

Ryo looked at the ground.

Juni’s expression turned to panic and she gripped his arm. “Ryo? Where is Caeli?”

Again, he just looked at the ground, unable to bring himself to answer. Azlan was the one who spoke as Juni’s alarm continued to grow. “We’re looking for her. Those two are helping us.”

“YOU LOST HER?!?” Juni exploded on them.

Ryo bit his lip. She smacked him on the arm. “You were partners! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE HER BACK! The only reason I haven’t torn out all my hair over the last few months is that you two disappeared together! AND YOU LOST HER?!?”

The girl blinked back tears. “HOW COULD YOU?”

I stepped forward to give Ryo some support. This wasn’t his fault.

Azlan was faster. He stepped forward with his tail lashing when Ryo refused to defend himself. “He didn’t lose her! She saved us!”

Juni blinked at him, “. . .saved. . .?”

Ryo looked up then. His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke. “She sacrificed herself, Juni.”

Ryo hugged Juni, as much to ground himself as to comfort her. While he held her, he said, “The monsters that attacked the Garrison. We were fighting them, and she sacrificed herself so we could escape. But I’m going to get her back, Juni. I promise. We’re going to get her back.”

Lance put his hand on my shoulder and we stepped out to give them some privacy.

——-

Ryo came out a few minutes later, leaving Azlan inside with Juni. I raised an eyebrow at that.

“The two of them started talking about Gate workings. They will be distracted discussing it for hours. That, or you’re going to have a jailbreak on your hands. It’s hard to tell with Juni sometimes.”

“She sounds like a handful,” Lance drawled. I think he was still feeling a little stung by his utter inability to impress the girl.

“Trying to stop Juni once she sets her mind on something is like trying to move a mountain with your bare hands,” Ryo drawled back.

“She certainly seems confident,” I observed.

“Yes. Confident. Let’s use that word for it,” he sighed. Then he turned the conversation onto a different topic. “If you don’t mind, I would like to see Doctor Holt now.”   

They had set up Doctor Catherine Holt in an interrogation room. Ryo bristled at the accommodations. I held him back with a shake of the head when he started for the door, and the guard gave the three of us a dirty look.

“Best put your mask up for now,” I told him. By some miracle, he followed my instructions. I was learning that the boy was somewhat better at controlling his impulses than I had been at his age, at least if given clear direction.

Lance walked up first. The guard let him in. I approached next, with Ryo behind me. The guard frowned at him. “He’s a representative of the Blade of Marmorra. He’s with us,” I said. The guard muttered something, but let him pass.

Doctor Holt looked up as the three of us entered the room. She was much calmer now, even slightly chagrined, if I read her expression correctly. Seeing her in person, I was even more impressed at the resemblance to Pidge. I was confident she was either her universe’s version of our friend or else a descendant.

“I apologize for my earlier behavior, Officers,” she said.

Descendant, I decided. Pidge was never that prim.

Lance gave her his best charming smile. “Well, it’s always good to know that even after two hundred years, the Garrison knows how to give someone a warm welcome.”

She blinked at Lance in confusion. “After two hundred. . . .? Oh. OH.” She took a long look at the markings on Lance’s face, then another look at our uniforms that were clearly IGF, but also distinct and color-coded. “You’re Lance McClain! The Paladin of Voltron!”

“At your service,” Lance smiled with a bow. I choked back a laugh.

Then she looked at me, with a look of almost reverence. I began to regret agreeing to wearing the uniform. “Which means. . . you must be Keith! Mister Shirogane spoke so highly of you. Is he here with you?”

Shiro. Even after almost eighteen years, the words hit hard. “He’s dead.”

The shock across her face appeared genuine. “Oh. Oh, no. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. Eighteen years. . . .No wonder everyone thought I was out of my mind!”

“You knew Shiro, then?” Lance supplied the words I couldn’t.

Catherine wrung her hands over the table. “I wouldn’t presume to say I knew him. But he helped us before, and said if we ever needed help again, to come to him. To come here. That’s why I came, now. To get help.”

“And why do you need help?” I asked sternly, stepping into the bad cop role.

“Almost a year ago, the Garrison of my universe discovered a fragment of unknown origin. The same night we brought it back, we were attacked by Galra. Two of my students, Ryo Kogane and Caelia Bard, vanished. When I analyzed the area where they disappeared, I realized there had been a Rift. Our universe is different than yours, though. We don’t know the Galra War, or Rifts or Gates like some do. The Garrison keeps their possibility of existence secret. So they couldn’t help me find my students and they didn’t comprehend the danger those Galra represented.”

So it seemed Voltron’s history was very different indeed, in this universe. I wondered if the Blue Lion had never come to Earth, or if Voltron had ever existed at all.

“You knew about the Galra? And didn’t warn us?” Ryo cried out before I could ask anything.

Doctor Holt jumped back in her seat. Ryo flashed down his mask, and the scientist’s eyes went wide. She practically jumped across the table.  “Ryo! You’re all right!”

Ryo pulled back from her. “And Caeli’s not! The Galra have her! And for what reason? So you could run some experiment? Is that why the Rift opened in the first place?”

She sank back into her chair in shock. “Caeli’s been taken by the Galra? No, no, not again.”

“What do you mean, ‘again’?” I demanded.

She pressed her hands against the table top and looked into its reflection. She spoke quietly. “Nineteen years ago, a Rift opened in our universe. My team and I accidentally went through it. But without a Gate, it was unstable. We got separated. Our pilot, Sofia, and I ended up here. Mister Shirogane found us and helped us. The rest of our team wasn’t as lucky.”

Shiro had never mentioned this. But from what Doctor Holt said, this had to have happened just before he died. Perhaps he just never got the chance to tell me.

She looked up at Ryo. “Yumiko and Hoshi ended up in another universe. One that wasn’t nearly as friendly. Yumiko reappeared back on Earth through another Rift almost a year later. By that time, Hoshi was dead, and she had rescued you.”

“You knew I came from another universe?” Ryo exclaimed. “Why didn’t you ever tell me? All those years I was always so different, so alone. You could have said something! Was my mom even my mom?!?”

Doctor Holt didn’t look at Ryo when she answered. “No, Yumiko didn’t give birth to you, if that is what you are asking. That was a lie to cover your existence in our world. As to why - I was sworn to secrecy about the whole thing. Sofia had already paid the price for our accident; I wouldn’t dishonor that sacrifice! And there was no reason for you to know. Your mother brought you back with her so that you would be safe. So that you could grow up in a universe where you would know love, not war.”

“Oh, and how well did that work out?”

“I didn’t know she was dying!” Doctor Holt yelled at him, slamming the surface of the desk. “She didn’t tell anyone about what she had suffered at the hands of the Galra! We all knew she came back different but. . .dammit, I didn’t know!”

The doctor’s hands shook. She sat back in her seat and put her head in her hands. “And now I have to tell Sofia that her daughter. . . .”

Ryo walked out the door. I looked between it and Doctor Holt. Our duty was to get information from Doctor Holt, but leaving Ryo right now seemed like the more terrible decision.

Luckily, Lance was right there to step in for me. He gave me a shooing motion, then leaned over the desk and draped his jacket over Doctor Holt’s shoulders like a blanket. “Don’t worry, Doctor Holt. We are going to find her. And we will a lot faster with your help.”   

“I’ll do anything.”

“You can start by explaining what you know about making these Gates,” Lance suggested as I raced out the door.

——-

I caught up with Ryo halfway to the exit. “Hey, where do you think you’re going!”

“To find Caeli!” He shouted and started running. Muttering, I shook my head and followed suit.

You run when you’re upset, Lance had told me. Now this kid was doing the same thing. I ran faster, determined to end this before it could become any more of a problem.

I caught up with him and grabbed him by the arm as he was trying to get the door opened. “You’re not going anywhere right now.”

He shook me off. “Fuck you! You don’t get to tell me what to do! Caeli’s not your friend, and you’re not my — ”

He cut himself off before he said ‘Dad’. I lowered my hand. How many times had I uttered the same thing to my caretakers before I’d met Shiro? Quiznack, how many times did I get myself into trouble after I met Shiro? Even as a Paladin of Voltron, I’d been a hothead.  

Shiro, how did you manage us? I wondered.

Shiro.

It dawned on me then that Caeli was Ryo’s Shiro. He didn’t show the depth of what he was feeling, but he was more than upset over the disappearance of a friend. He was utterly lost without her. And I could help him through the pain he was feeling now, because I had been through it myself.

I raised my hands. “You’re right. I’m not your Dad. Hell, we just met. But I know how you’re feeling right now.”

“How could you possibly know?”

“Because I’ve been through it, myself. I lost someone important to me, too. And I can tell you that you’re not going to do Caeli any good by rushing off alone. Not when you have people to help you. We will find her, Ryo. Just take a minute. Breathe. Patience and focus. That’s what Caeli needs from you right now.”

He hesitated. Eyed the door. I wondered if he’d heard anything I had said. I also wondered if I would actually be able to stop him if he got through that door. Quiznack, why was I so bad at this?

I offered him my hand, “Come on back?”

He stepped away from the door, and took a hesitant step toward me. He looked down at my hand. Took it. Then his face crumpled.

I pulled him into an awkward hug as the waterworks started. “It will be all right, kid. Trust me. She will be all right. Because if Caeli is anything like my brother, she’s tough as hell.”  

Chapter Text

Pressing my hands against the glass of a cylinder filled with violet fluid, choking and struggling for breath. Drowning. Fading.

Then: steel against my back. Air. Blinding light.

A voice.

“XKC31 vitals stable. Reflexes normal. Optical response normal. Vessel conditioning phase one successful.”

——-   

I bolted awake on a cold steel bench in a prison cell, gasping from a nightmare of drowning in a sea of purple. I looked down at my hands and breathed a shaky sigh of relief when I saw they had not in fact turned violet. I ran my hands over my body, feeling for new wounds or scars under the long-sleeved unitard they’d stuck on me. Nothing.

I ran my hands through my hair and let out a small laugh. Just a nightmare.

Of course, that meant that the real nightmare had only just started. I walked over to where a slit of a window opened in the cell. I wasn’t tall enough to see much out of it, but I listened. I could hear small sounds like breathing. Somewhere I thought I heard someone crying.

“Hello?” I called out softly.

Nothing. I wasn’t alone, but I might as well be. No one was here to help me, now. I’d really gotten myself into a mess this time.

I curled up with my hands tucked under my knees and took in a shuddering breath as big fat tears started to roll down my cheeks. My body ached, and the cell was cold. I missed my mom and dad. I missed Juni and Doctor Holt. I wondered if they had ever figured out what happened to Ryo and me. Were they still looking for us? Was Ryo looking for me, even now? For that matter, was Ryo okay? I prayed that he and Azlan had managed to get away from the Galra, and that they had managed to use the information we’d pulled from their Gate databanks.

When the tears finally stopped coming, I sat in the cell in silence that became deafening. So into that silence, I thought of my mother and sang the lullaby she’d sung to me as a child:

“The wind sings sweetly soft and true, as Juniberry flowers bloom; my love sleeps softly sweet and true, underneath the moon.”

——-

In what assumed was the next morning, I heard the sounds of drone voices and opening doors. I stepped back as footsteps neared my own cell. The door opened to a pair of drones. One kept its weapon trained on me, while another held a pair of handcuffs and scanned my face.

“Subject XKC31 confirmed. Assigned to Group D.”

They escorted me out into the hallway where a line of other prisoners had formed. They were all aliens of species unknown to me, varying from a mouselike one whose height might reach my waist, to a reptilian one twice my own size.

When everyone was out, they marched us through an archway similar to the one I had seen back at the mining base. Every so often, they called someone’s designation aloud, pulled the prisoner into one of two smaller groups. Most of the prisoners stepped aside without resistance, resigned to their fate. I watched one struggle and try to run. The drones shot him.

The rest of us stayed in line, and they brought to a mess hall, where they uncuffed us. We lined up for a bowl of what looked like purple jello, then were left to our own devices to find a spot at a table to eat. Experimentally, I took a taste of the purple food goo, while I looked for a seat. It was like eating lukewarm savory gelatin.

Urgh, and I thought the green energy drink was bad.

I felt a few gazes on me while I hesitated, calling attention to myself. I was new here, and I was making it obvious. I cringed inwardly. Being obvious in prison was the last thing I wanted to do.

That didn’t last long, as someone else started a bigger commotion.

“Hey, move it, wench!”

I watched the lizard-man I’d seen earlier shove a young adult Galra-born with an impractically long ponytail to the ground. She looked up at him over one shoulder, and pulled away as quickly as she could.

“What’s this? I thought the Galra were supposed to be bloodthirsty.” The lizard-man picked her up by the collar of her excuse for a shirt, and leered. The guards didn’t make any moves.

“You leave her alone!” The mouselike alien I had spotted earlier ran over to him. The lizard dropped the Galra girl, who cowered in place, and turned his attention to the mouse. With a sneer, he grabbed the mouse.

The little guy sank his teeth into the lizard, who screamed, and threw him to the ground, hard. The mouse lay there, stunned. The lizard-man stalked over. Still, the guards did nothing. Clearly, they weren’t going to intervene.

I threw my bowl at the lizard-man. It bounced off his head, leaving a smear of purple goo. “Hey! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

He walked over to me and laughed. “Like you?”

I stared up at him. He reached for me. I kicked him hard in the side of the knee. He buckled, then howled and swung at me. I sidestepped it. As I suspected, he was just a big, strong, bully who was intimidating but hardly trained. I had to give him some credit though. He got his balance back quickly despite the injury.

He took another swing. I moved to the side easily, then stepped in, landing a decent blow to the edge of his belly. It wasn’t enough to double him, so I slid into a crouch. He reacted as I hoped he would. He bent for a grab. I launched and used that downward momentum against him; as he came down, I swung up and connected an uppercut to the soft spot under the jaw.

The big guy went down.

Now all eyes were on me. I flattened my expression, and ignored them. I looked toward the little mouse-alien, but several of the prisoners already were helping him back to a table, including the Galra girl he’d stood up to defend. So I turned my attention to retrieving my bowl instead.

“That was brave, but it is unwise to bring attention to yourself here,” an older man’s voice admonished me.

The speaker was a chest-high fuzzy grey alien with an almost cartoonish gerbil-like face, and bat-like wing appendages along their arms. They’d been badly torn. A scar ran close to one eye that had a milky spot growing in the center. Purple marks like the edges of lightning peeked over the edge of his uniform at his neck and wrists. Despite all this, he held himself like a general.  

“I thank you for the advice,” I said politely with a small bow, and turned to go. If bringing attention was bad, I had brought too much to this group already.

“Those who try to go it alone seldom last long in war,” he said to my back.

I turned around. He walked back toward his table, where the mouse and Galra had already gathered. The mouse waved shyly to me and patted the bench next to themself, so I took a seat there.

I got a better look at the Galra girl. She was a human-like one similar to Krolia, with red markings on her cheekbones. Her eyes were more human than Krolia’s, though, and she had actual hair. Up close, I saw that it was not entirely black, but an ombre that shaded to pale blue at the ends. It was also finely braided into that ponytail.

“I’m Mort, and this is Azura. What is your name?” the mouse-alien said.

The older alien who had spoken to me cleared his throat. “It is rude to ask another’s name, youngling. A name is a trust that must be earned.”

He might as well be one of the Blades, I thought. The gentle rebuke made Mort turn their ears downward in shame. I gave Mort a warm smile, to let them know that I had not been offended.

“It’s all right, uncle. This is a trust I choose to give. My name is Caelia.”

“You . . .you were the one singing last night, weren’t you?” Azura asked.

So we could hear each other between cells, then. I filed that tidbit of information away. “You heard that, huh? Sorry if I bothered you.”

“It wasn’t a bother. You have a lovely voice,” she said, with a hint of a blush.

“And you’re a warrior, right?” Mort said excitedly under their breath.

“No, just a Garrison cadet.” I should have graduated by now. I wondered if I ever would.

“Is the Garrison a rebel cell?” Mort whispered with reverence.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of my life. “No, it’s a space exploration service. We have some combat training, yes, in case we run into hostile situations. But I didn’t join to fight. I wanted to explore space, become a pilot like my mom,” I said.

“Your mom must be the best pilot in this Garrison, then!”

I laughed again, bittersweet. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to share more, but I did. Maybe I just wanted to make sure if I died here, it was without secrets on my chest.

 “Actually, she got thrown out. There was an accident, and someone died because of her mistake. The only reason I got into the Garrison at all was because her best friend has a lot of pull, and even then, I enrolled under a different name.”

I gave Mort a smile. “Speaking of moms, I bet yours is very brave, considering how you stood up to that bully.”

His expression dropped immediately.

“They took my mom away a few cycles ago,” he whispered.

Oh, Quiznack. “I’m sorry.”

“They take a few of us every morning. Most never return,” Azura murmured.

My heart broke for Mort. Anger rose up in me, both at the people doing this, and at myself for so far being so ineffectual against them.

“Then we find a way to get everyone out,” I said just as quietly.

The older alien shook his head. “This isn’t the place for heroics, lass. Keep your head down. Survive. That way when help finally comes, it will be worth the price they pay.”

I thought about Azlan and Ryo as I choked down the remains of my jello. Would they come for me? Alone, Ryo would have scoured the universe for me. But he was one of the Blade of Marmora now, and wasting such effort for a single person was not their way.

A drone came to the table then.

They gathered the table-groups each at one of several doors out of the mess hall. Our group was escorted to a large room filled with crates, where drones directed us to start moving them. I took hold of one along with Azura and the older alien, whom I mentally dubbed ‘Grey’. Azura turned out to be far stronger than she appeared; strong enough that I wondered what had happened to her to make her so timid.

We dragged crates along in companionable silence for a while, while I tried to get looks around. The room we were currently in didn’t tell me much, but I did notice that every so often, the drones pulled aside a group of workers and led them out through a side door. Soon afterward, a new group would cycle into this room from another side door. I noticed the newcomers generally looked exhausted.

After a while, guards and drones called us over and gathered our group through the door. It led to a long corridor with a series of large doors off to one side.

“Where are we going?” I asked my companions in a low voice.

“Testing rooms,” Azura said.

“Testing?”

“Every day, they run us through tests between work-shifts. They take data on us, use it to develop new weapons or protections,” Azura explained further.

“I see.”

“Don’t take them too lightly, lass. They also use that data to select those to use for their real interests,” Grey added darkly.

I saw again the marks at the edge of his uniform. I looked out at the other prisoners with new interest, and noticed that while most appeared normal, there were scatterings of strange markings or prosthetics among them.

“They take those they consider the strongest and weakest among us. That is why you do not want to stand out.”

Sweat prickled my neck as the doors opened in front of us. “Understood.”

——-

Most of the tests were a lot like Garrison training: obstacle courses, simulations, combat sparring. It was almost easy to forget I was in prison, except for the more painful tests. Every third or fourth day instead of the drills, they brought a group of us into a laboratory, where they strapped us to tables and took samples and ran diagnostics, then ran experiments like how much electricity we could withstand before passing out.

I usually couldn’t remember the end of those days.

And always after, the nightmare of drowning in a sea of purple.

I followed Grey’s advice, and did my best not to attract attention to myself. I half-assed many of the trials. Thanks to the showing my first morning, though, some of the other inmates made that difficult, especially during the testing that involved hand-to-hand combat.

The others were there for me, though. Mort always had my back, no matter the trial, and didn’t hesitate to over-exert to throw off rankings. They were fast and cunning despite their naiveté. Grey taught me maneuvers and counters to them that I had never encountered in the Garrison. He had a tremendous dry sense of humor. Azura had an uncanny ability to glean test schedules ahead of time, and even threw a punch or two in my defense, surprising everyone.

Until I could figure out an escape plan, I helped in my own small ways. I made sure to always be there to pick someone up after a trial with an encouraging word. In the mornings, I reviewed with others in my group what we could do to improve our skills — or hide them. Over dinner, I told stories of the trouble Juni and Ryo got me into at the Garrison. Often in the evening, I sang.

The days turned to weeks. Every morning at least someone I had come to know disappeared. Our numbers slowly dwindled. I kept looking for weaknesses, but this was a tightly run operation. I began to realize Grey was right – help needed to come from the outside, or else we needed to get someone inside to turn.

——-

Despite my efforts, one morning they called my number. They put me in a small group with five others, Grey among them. I looked around the other groups for other faces I knew, and to my relief neither Azura nor Mort were among those pulled.

They escorted us to a different wing on another level of the facility. We passed rooms equipped with surgical tables and strange instruments I couldn’t identify. In others, prisoners lay unconscious on tables, glowing fluid pumped into their veins, or else were bled dry.

Once, we passed a room filled with rows of tanks filled with people suspended in purple fluid.  Moments from my nightmare flashed forward, and for just an instant, I was one of those people. I froze where I was standing.

“Caelia? Are you all right?” Grey’s voice snapped me back to the present.

“I’m fine,” I lied, and stumbled forward.

They brought our group to a room with half a dozen tables arrayed in a circle around machine that fed from above by a vat of pearlescent liquid that drew my attention. A medical tech and two of the Elderitch Masks waited for us.

“Druids?” One of our group wailed, and ran. One of the Druids – I finally had a name for them — teleported into their path, and downed them with a bolt of purple energy. They dragged them over to the table and secured the prisoner while they moaned.

“Don’t try to fight them, lass. You’ll need your strength for this,” Grey murmured at my elbow.

I slipped back out of the fighting stance I’d taken without thinking. Grey walked to one of the tables and waited for the technician to get him in place. I constrained my desire to bolt when the tech came to bring me to the adjacent table.

I stared up at the ceiling and took deep, measured breaths. Patience. Focus.

“Vessel Suitability Testing ready to begin,” the tech called out.

The table shifted, bringing me upright so that I looked into the machine at the center of the room. An array of crystals and focusing lenses glowed dully with the same pearlescent light as the fluid above.

“Start the quintessence infusion,” one of the Druids commanded the other.

The Druid called forth violet energy, and the machine came alive. He hit with a bolt, and arcs of white spread from the machine into each of us. The moment it touched me, every nerve in my body came alive. My senses sharpened. My exhaustion and fear vanished, replaced instead with an intense rush of excitement. I felt like I could do anything. A desire to get out and change the world filled me. I laughed. Around me, I heard others do the same.

“Quintessence capacity at 110%.”

But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t rush out. The euphoria transitioned to restlessness as the energy continued to stream into me. My body began to protest staying still. My arms ached in their restraints. I needed to expend some of this energy, but I couldn’t. The lights around me began to become too bright, the noises too loud. The laughter around me transitioned to babbling or grunts of frustration.

“Capacity at 150%.”

Still the energy came. My nerves burned. Fire pumped through my veins. The grunts turned to hissing, and then cries. The influx of white continued, filling up my body and soul until I felt like I would burst like a rotten fruit. I screamed.

“Lass. Lass! Listen to the sound of my voice,” Grey called out beside me.

I had no choice. It sounded like he shouted with a thousand voices.

“Focus, Lass! Control the flow. Picture it holding it. Molding it,” he grunted out.

Focus. I gritted my teeth and did as Grey instructed. I imagined the flood of energy coalescing into a pool at my center. This was my energy now, I could do with it as I wished.

“175.”

The screams around us began to silence. The arcs of power across from me cut off, while mine continued. I didn’t let myself watch or listen. I focused within. I couldn’t stop the flood, but I could redirect it. When the pool at my center overflowed, I pulled it down into my periphery. My arms and legs burned, but the pain at my core began to ease.

“200%.”

Then, it was over. The Druid lowered their hands and the flow of energy stopped. Every part of me – both physical and insubstantial — hurt. I still could feel the pool of energy inside, but it was no longer overflowing. Which was good, because in spite of that pool, I was exhausted.

I looked over, and saw Grey had fallen unconscious, but he was breathing. The other one adjacent to me was not so fortunate. Two others across from me suffered the same fate, their corpses twisted. The last of our cohort lived, but stared straight ahead, babbling incoherently.

“Take the failures to quintessence extraction. Get these two to the Conditioning chambers. Tell His Highness we’ve had two successes at last,” I heard the Druid in charge say.

The Druid walked over to me and laid its hand across my eyes.

I fell into darkness, and dreamed once again of drowning in purple.

-----

I awakened again in my cell.

I couldn’t recall much of what had happened since being pulled aside. I knew Grey had been with me, and they’d taken us to another part of the ship, but everything after that was a haze.

I felt. . . strange. A dim awareness of something I could not identify tugged at the back of my mind. Even the air on my skin of my hand felt strange, like it carried a faint electrical current. I pulled up the wrist of my uniform and looked at my forearm. Faded traces of a violet dendritic pattern ran down to my wrist.

Oh, Quiznack.

I didn’t have time to contemplate it. The guards arrived and escorted us from our cells. This morning, though, something felt different. There was tension in the air, and I sensed nervousness from the living guards. They pulled no one aside this morning. Instead of the mess hall, they brought us all into a huge chamber on a low level of the ship with a massive set of doors on one end.

A staging room?

“Caelia? You’re back!” Mort’s cry from the crowd caught my attention. He threw his arms around me, which was impressive, given we both were still cuffed. The touch of another living thing sent a jolt of warmth through me. For a moment, I sensed an echo of Mort in my mind. I pulled out of his embrace quickly.

“Good to see you, too.”

I spotted Azura in the crowd next, her eyes full of concern. I laid a hand on her forearm in a gesture of reassurance and looked her in the eye. Again, at the touch, I sensed a secondary presence. Where Mort had been a faint echo, though, Azura was a radiance. She looked into my gaze, searching. What she saw there made her draw back.

“I’m okay,” I said.

“You’re not okay,” she murmured, too low for anyone else to hear.

“She’s alive, lass. That’s enough for now,” Grey said from her side. I hadn’t seen him. Forgetting myself for a moment, I bent over and gave him an awkward hug.

“Grey! Thank the stars you’re okay.”

He wasn’t okay, though. He looked tired, and where I had felt the energy from the others when I touched them, he felt empty.

“It’s all right, lass. I always knew this day would come eventually.”

“It’s not okay. They did this to you!”

He gripped my wrist and shook his head. “Don’t.”

Before I could argue, the guards began to call us to attention for inspection. We hurried into order. The ship clicked and clanged, and my stomach lurched for a moment. We were descending.

The motion stopped and the doors opened onto a grassy planet.

A phalanx of flesh-and-blood  Galra stood waiting for us, with a tall, muscular female Galra with full-blooded features in front. Behind her stood a trio of Druids. When she stepped forward to survey us, she wore a look of confidence that bordered on a smirk.

“All hail Commander Aktra,” the major domo called out. The guards on the podium called out a collective salute of “Vrepit Sa!”, as she stepped forward.

The woman addressed the us. “You have been brought here because you have been selected for a very special project. One that has the potential to reshape the future of the Empire. From this day forward, you will be the wards of Arch Druid Artor.”

The middle Druid removed his mask to reveal a beautiful elflike man with white hair and dark skin. I took one look into his blue eyes and recognized him as the beautiful man I had met at my interrogation.

Azura stared as he looked out over us. Her face went so pale, I wondered if she was going to be sick. “No, no, no, no, no. Not him. Anyone but him. I. I can’t. I can’t be here,” she whispered, her breath catching as she spoke.

“Azura?”

She bolted away from us, into the sea of bodies. Mort tried to reach her, but even they were too slow. No one else reacted to her departure.

The object of her terror looked in our direction, but his gaze did not linger. Instead, he gave everyone a smile. “Let us begin.”

The guards came forward and began to separate us. They pulled Grey and me aside along with many other augmented prisoners, while Mort went into a larger pool. I could not see Azura anywhere. I prayed she was okay.

The Arch Druid walked up to Grey and me. He smiled on us. “Ah, XKA42 and XKC31. My beautiful Vessels. You two especially should be proud. You are about to change the course of history.”

Chapter Text

“Keep your guard up!”

I pressed my sword down on Ryo’s, positioning myself to force it downward to create an opening. With a final push, I stepped in and cut across. Ryo dropped back to avoid the blow, stumbled and fell. I put my sword to his throat, and he grunted with frustration.

We were taking a break from sorting through data Acxa and the IGF had sent us about Rift activity. Despite finding more information, we still hadn’t made much progress discovering the whereabouts or plans of our unknown adversary, and I could tell Ryo was getting frustrated.

I offered him my hand to help him up. “Here, let me show you how to counter that.”

The sound of a crash and something exploding in the next room over caught both of our attention. I helped Ryo to his feet, and we both went running through the door to what had once been our living room.

“What the Quiznack was that?” Lance ran in from the kitchen, skillet still in hand.

A cloud of smoke greeted the lot of us. Juni and Azlan stumbled out of it, coughing. Despite the smudges of yellow-green powder covering them both, neither seemed seriously hurt. The same could not be said for our coffee table.

We were back on New Altea in our apartment suite. As luck would have it, the primary scientist Doctor Holt had worked with before was a Teludav researcher, and he had gone to New Altea to study. It had been a bit of a battle to get the IGF to release Juni and Doctor Holt, but in the end they had relented when Lance offered to take personal responsibility for them and whatever secrets they might reveal.

It had turned out that “personal responsibility” meant them staying with us. At least the kids, anyway.

It had been three Movements so far, and Ryo was not the only one starting to feel restless, judging by the collection of mechanical bits, plants, and chemical containers that had accumulated in our living space. I wasn’t certain where some of them had come from, let alone what they were.

“I told you the blue container!” Juni coughed.

“That was the blue container!”

“The elysteth extract?”

“I don’t know, I can’t read Altean!”

“That’s it!” Lance leveled the frying pan at each of us. “You all need to get out for a while.”

Ryo gave me a ‘what did we do?’ look.

Azlan flinched back. “I’m sorry, Sir. We can get to cleaning this — ”

“Nope! No cleaning, no begging, no nothing. Nada mas! Go out for a run or something! Don’t come back for at least three Vargas.”

“Come on,” I guided Azlan toward the door. When Lance was in one of these moods, it was better to do exactly what he said.

I looked at the group of us, dirty, sweaty and exhausted, and decided maybe a trip to the communal baths might be a good first stop. Then maybe the pools.

“What was that, anyway?” Ryo asked as we walked through the Palace halls.

Juni attempted unsuccessfully to clean off her hands on her pants. “We were trying to replicate one of the micro-transformers Azlan used in his first Gate. He realized that the chemical composition of one of the native plants here is similar to a compound he’s missing.”

In the roughly three weeks they had been here, these two had managed to learn Altean botany and found a way to work it into their engineering. I had to admit, I was impressed. Impressed, and a little intimidated.

“We must have missed something about the reaction, though. It’s not usually explosive.” Azlan looked back over his shoulder toward our apartment. “Are you sure that it’s okay to just leave that mess there?”

“Is that elestheth mix toxic?” I asked him, hoping I had pronounced the word correctly. I had not heard of that plant, even though I probably had seen it sometime.

“No, but. . .”

“Then Lance will get it figured out. I’m willing to bet money that he’ll have it cleaned up by the time we get back.” And I was probably going to hear about it for a week.

“We really are sorry about the mess,” Azlan said.

“Don’t worry about it. Just be more careful next time,” I sighed, although I had a suspicion that when we got back, there would be a ‘no chemistry in the living room’ rule imposed.

I really did need to figure something for these two. Ryo had fallen in with me without a second thought, but science was less Lance’s thing.

“I’m sure Coran could arrange for you two to have an actual lab space to work in,” I said, after thinking about it a while. “Doctor Holt is working with the university, I don’t see why you couldn’t as well.”

Azlan looked uncomfortable at the thought. Juni just shrugged. “Doctor Holt is too busy to work with us right now, and we don’t want to impose anyone else to be a chaperone.”

“Why would you need a chaperone?” I kept thinking of them as kids, but technically at least Juni and Ryo were adults.

Juni grunted. “Please. I heard what those IGF folks said. They’re worried we’ll run away and cause them problems without supervision.”

“That’s because you would,” Ryo jibed.

“Says the man who chased a thief into another universe,” she countered.

“All right,” I said, stepping between the two of them. “Let’s just get cleaned up and then go for a swim, and everyone will feel a little better, yeah?”

——-

When we finally got back to the apartment, we were well-exercised and waterlogged, the apartment had been thoroughly cleaned, and we had guests.

Doctor Holt sat on the ‘guest’ couch, and Acxa was with her. The expression on Acxa’s face told me that whatever news they had wasn’t good.

“What is it?” I asked as we walked in. I shooed the kids to take seats wherever they could find one, while I took the seat next to Lance on the other couch, opposite Acxa.

“Acxa has news about the pair we rescued from that Anomaly,” Lance said.

“My lieutenant finally woke up,” Acxa explained. “But she succumbed to quintessence poisoning soon after I arrived. Her mind was deteriorating, so it was difficult for me to get much detail from her. But what I was able to piece together from what she said has me worried.”

I listened.

“She confirmed what you learned in the Anomaly. There is a Galra warlord named Aktra working with a number of black-market dealers, and they’re using the anomaly as a trading post of sorts. But the main base of operations is a Galran cruiser. And she’s not the one in charge. An Altean is.”

“An Altean?!” Azlan’s tail poofed. Then he realized where he was, and cringed. “I’m sorry, in my universe, the Alteans are either dead or aligned with the Galra. Any operation spearheaded by an Altean has the backing of the Galra elite.”

“If it’s backed by the big shots, why operate here? Wouldn’t they have better support in their own universe?” Juni asked.

“Harder to track what’s happening,” Ryo guessed.

“Maybe it’s not the ‘big shots’ running the operation. Maybe it’s a faction trying to gain power,” Acxa suggested.

“Or perhaps they need something from this universe that doesn’t exist in their own,” Doctor Holt surmised.

Silence fell across the room as we all considered that.

“. . .or something that did exist, but was destroyed,” Lance broke the silence speaking in a tone that drew everyone’s attention.

He ran his hand through his hair in frustration and bent over so he wouldn’t look at us. He absentmindedly touched his Altean markings. “Ever since the Rifts started, I’ve been having nightmares about the destruction of Voltron. What if they were a message? A warning?” Then under his breath we added, “It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to tell me something and I didn’t get it.”

I drew his hand down into mine. He was blaming himself for what was happening. I could imagine his thoughts – that if we had known earlier, we could have stopped it before people died.

I said, “We don’t know that. Besides, no one has seen any sign of the Lions in nearly two hundred years; surely if they knew imminent danger to our universe was brewing, they would have come to us.”

He pulled out of my grasp. “Maybe they can’t!  Maybe they are sleeping or something. They were dormant for ten thousand years while Zarkon was out there conquering the universe! Maybe we have to wake them up like we woke up. . . Allura. . . .” He put his head in hands.

 I rubbed his back.

“Maybe Coran will have some insight on what might have happened to them.” I doubted it, but it probably would make Lance feel a little better.

“In the meanwhile, we can check other leads,” Acxa said. “My Blades have started checking Rift-sighted systems for suspicious activity, with a focus on places previously reported to be barren or abandoned. I have one planet in particular I would like to have a good look at.”

I also stood.  “Sounds like a plan then. We’ll coordinate on this end, maybe we can get Coran to get us a ship and we can give you a hand with  — urgh!”

I doubled over with sudden pain. It felt like a spear had just gone through my chest. The room started to spin. I fell from the couch to the floor. An old familiar feeling slammed into my mind. I didn’t recognize it at first, because it had been almost two hundred years since I’d last felt it.

Black? I reached out with my mind.

Another wave of pain washed over me, worse than the first. Something terrible was happening to the Black Lion.

“Keith?!” Lance called out my name, but I couldn’t answer. Every muscle in my body tightened, freezing me in place. My vision blurred. The living room disappeared, replaced with an aerial view of a ruin, carved throughs with city-scale runes. I felt confusion. This was not where I was supposed to be. I could see people below me, dying. At the center of it all, I sensed a powerful Altean alchemist. He was calling to me. He was not Alfor, though. Not Allura.

Pain lanced me in the middle again. Barbs dug into me, pulling, draining.

It felt like when Voltron had been hit by the Kromar and we had our quintessence drained, only ten times worse. I writhed on the floor, unable to do anything else. The edges of my sight darkened. I was fading out.

“Keith!”

I managed to close the connection between us enough to avoid passing out. For a moment, I could only lie on the floor and shake. Lance knelt beside me. He put his arm around me and picked me up enough so that I could lean against the couch.

“Keith?” He looked at me with panic, while Axca started taking my vitals.

“Tell Coran we need to get a ship, and get in contact with the IGF,” I managed to gasp out.

“Why? What just happened?”

I moaned and leaned my head against the couch cushion. “I just found the Black Lion. And so has the enemy.”  

Chapter Text

They brought Grey and me to a circle of ruins, where a huge design based on four intersecting circles of different sizes had been etched into the planet’s surface.

The largest circle was the size of a launch silo. Machines and crystals like the one Azlan had stolen from the Garrison had been embedded into its edge. Grey and I were forced to kneel with half a dozen others on one edge of the circle. Galra soldiers watched behind us.

About half the remaining prisoners had been chained down within the other two circles, which also had been integrated with sets of machines. Druids walked among them, checking connections and securing bonds. I searched the faces of the prisoners for Mort and Azura, but thank the stars they were nowhere to be seen.

A windowed chamber had been built at the center of the intersecting circles. Wires, tubes, and crystals that connected to all four circles fed into it.  

It could only be described as a coffin.   

The Arch Druid stood at the center of it all. He removed his mask and gazed out over us, and I hated that I couldn’t help but stare. Everything about the man radiated power: his posture, his tone, the expression he wore. Even his looks bordered on the supernatural: he almost seemed to glow as he smiled down on us.

He turned and spoke, making sure to address each of us in turn. “You stand here now to bear witness to the making of history! Through your sacrifice, we will make the first step toward the dawning of a new era for the Galra Empire!”

The Galra cheered him.

He walked over to us and pulled Grey to stand. “Come, it is time.”

Grey resisted just long enough to look at me, proud and resolute as ever.

“My name is Albrecht, lass. Remember it.”

“No!” I surged to my feet, but my bonds and guards held me fast. I could only watch as the Druid guided him to the coffin and placed him inside. My mind raced to find some solution to this, but every scenario I pictured ended with my death, so I stayed in place, trembling with rage.

Overhead, lightning crashed as the Arch Druid walked to the center of the smallest circle. He knelt facing the coffin and touched the edge of the design in the ground. Violet light bled out of him, filling the lines and whorls of the pattern. All around, other Druids summoned energy like I’d seen them do before, filling the machines and crystals with it.

The Arch Druid whispered in an echoing voice, “Power of the Sky, I seek you.”

A pulse of violet burst forth as the last lines of the pattern connected, and the entire design flared to life. I felt a violent tug at my core, and I dropped back to my knees with sudden exhaustion. As the pulse passed, the ground cracked and vegetation died. Then the wave of energy returned like a tidal wave, forming a mirrored image in the sky.

“Power of the Sky, I call you!”  The Arch Druid raised his hands to the sky.

Lightning crackled. The design mirrored above us flared and then split open. The two images joined to form a pillar of white. Above, the sky cracked open and darkness poured through, taking on a shape of a giant mechanical lion. Just like when I had felt energy from others when I touched them, I could feel echoes of power radiating power from it. I looked up from my knees in awe.

The Arch Druid made eye contact with the Lion.

“Power of the Sky, I bind you!”  He shouted.

The prisoners inside the circles began to scream and fall to the ground. Where they landed, the violet light of the pattern transformed to purest white. At the edge of the circle, white pooled around my knees as energy bled out of me as well. Little by little the pattern changed, until it shone brilliant.

The ground began to shake. The white pillar shattered into a thousand pieces that wound themselves around the Lion, pulling it to the ground. It roared ferociously as it made contact with the pattern. It glowed with dark light that bled into the design as the living force of the prisoners had. The light of the Lion’s eyes flickered and died.

The Lion’s light flowed up into the Druid. His eyes glowed pure white, and pale lavender marks on his cheeks glowed and bled down his face. He gathered the energy through himself into a glowing ball. Then he thrust downward with all his might.

The ground shook. Where the energy-ball struck, familiar glowing cracks appeared in the ground. The Arch Druid staggered and fell to one knee. His brethren directed their own power or the remaining white energy of the circle into it, causing it to grow.

The Arch Druid connected with the Coffin. Tubes and crackling lines of energy reached down into the Rift. The light of the Rift flowed up them and fed into the chamber where Albrecht had been imprisoned. He screamed as the chamber filled with purest white.

No!

Power echoed back from my own heart, and some of the light from the pattern flowed into me. Incandescent anger wreathed my body in glowing armor. The bonds that held me down melted, and I flashed forward toward Albrecht. Drones stepped into my path, and I knocked them away, punching and kicking through the heavy armor without a second thought.

Lightning struck. The light in the chamber flared and went out. With a shower of sparks, the machines faltered and died.

I reached the Coffin. With strength I didn’t know I possessed, I pried it open.

Nothing recognizable as Albrecht remained inside. A stringy mess that might have once been a living being had taken his place. I let go and stumbled back, choking. The light within me faded and died, leaving me utterly empty. I sank to the ground, lacking the strength to even stand.

The Arch Druid stood behind me.

“Another flawed Vessel, it would seem.”

Clawed hands lifted me up.  “But no matter. The power of the Void is bound, and the Path is open. Get this mess cleaned up. Then we’ll try again.”   

-----      

The Black Lion’s pain continued to echo back to my mind, but I made myself stand up. I managed to keep the connection between us closed enough to convince everyone except Lance that I my initial reaction had just been shock. “I’m fine. But I don’t think we have much time.”   

I gave everyone an ironic smile.

“Good news is: I can guide us there. I’ve been to that planet before.”

It had been during a mission with the Blades during the War. The runes carved into the ground were new, but the ruins had been there before. I remembered them, because they resembled some of the images from the Blue Lion drawings on Earth, and I’d been curious about what civilization had left them behind. Kolivan hadn’t known.

“I’ll prep my ship,” Acxa said. “We can meet up with the Atlas once you send them the coordinates.”

“I’ll inform Coran,” Catherine volunteered.

I turned to the three kids, who were all looking to me for orders. They might be young, but all were capable. Ryo and Azlan were Blades, and Juni and Ryo were Garrison-trained. They wouldn’t voluntarily to sit this out, and I had a feeling we could use all the help we could get. “How are you in a starfighter?”

Azlan looked uncomfortable. Juni shrugged, “Decent. I’m a much better gunner, though.”

Ryo just grinned.

“Right. Doctor Holt, have Coran prep two fighters. Ryo, you’re with Lance and me. Azlan, go with Acxa. Juni, help Acxa prep her ship, then meet us on the launch pad.”

“Yes, Sir!” Juni and Azlan chorused. Ryo gave me a confirming nod.

I leaned up against the wall when the others had left the room. Lance scowled at me. “You’re not all right. What’s really happening?”

“There’s an Altean alchemist. My guess is he’s the one Acxa was talking about. He’s draining Black. Using it to open a Rift. And killing a lot of people to do it,” I growled.

Ryo just stared into the distance. I had no words of comfort. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t reassure him that Caelia hadn’t been among the victims.

I pulled myself off the wall with a groan and started for the back room where we kept our gear. Lance tried to stop me.  “You sure that fighting right now is a good idea?”

I didn’t have the energy to fight Lance about this. “No, but I won’t be okay until we get Black away from him. I’ll manage. It’s just pain. I can handle that.”

Lance muttered under his breath and stalked into the back room.

“Um, should I. . . ?” Ryo asked.

I wanted to go after Lance to explain, but felt it was more prudent to reserve the energy instead. Despite what I had said, the drain on Black was affecting me in more ways than pain.

Lance came back wearing the skintight base layer of flight armor, with two others in hand.

“Fine, but on one condition. I’m flying.”

“Deal,” I groaned. Lance threw a suit at me, and I started to strip down.  

Beside me, Ryo blushed and and quickly turned away.  Lance threw the other suit at his face with a chuckle. “Don’t look away, kid. You gotta watch to see how the pros do it.”

——-

“Caelia? Caelia, wake up!”

Azura’s voice roused me from a doze inside one of the ruins. They’d thrown me into an intact room with a surprisingly heavy door for safekeeping while the Druids prepared to try again with the Rift — this time, using me as their Vessel.

I used the wall to push myself to my feet and meet her at the door. As I moved, the cell trembled. I recognized the cadence of the rumble as an earthquake as it rapidly turned violent. Opening the Rift must have destabilized the planetoid’s local terrain.

When the shaking stopped, I stumbled over to the door. Walking took an effort.

“I’m going to get you out,” Azura said. There was no sign of the guard that had been posted outside.

She leaned down and groaned. I stepped back as part of the door gave way as she pulled it off its hinges. I had known she was strong, but I didn’t think she was that strong. She tossed the door aside with little effort. If I were inclined in that orientation, it would have been damn sexy.

“I won’t let him have you,” Azura said more to herself than to me as she helped me out of the makeshift cell.

Trying to have her support me while I tried to run was too awkward due to my state and our differences in height, so Azura leaned over and I let her lift me onto her back.

“You’ve encountered this Arch Druid before,” I stated as she ran with me.

“Yes. He is incredibly dangerous. And if he needs you, we had best get you as far away from here as possible.”

“I gathered that from what he did,” I said. Then in a low voice I added, “He killed Albrecht — Grey.”

“I saw. I wanted to try and stop it, but. . . .” I could feel her fear like thorns.

“But what could you have done?” I finished for her softly. I’d tried to save him and failed, too. She drew in a breath, but in the end said nothing in her defense.

Another earthquake struck. This one was even bigger than the one we’d just felt. Something deep was definitely destabilized. I recalled the wave of power that had killed all the grass on the surface. I wondered if it was possible to kill a planet. Azura kept moving and protected me from debris.

“Have you seen Mort or the others?” I asked her as the shaking started to subside.

“Yes, I found them. But there are too many of them for me to get out alone,” she answered grimly.

The shaking finally stopped. Azura picked me back up again like I was nothing, and we headed for the edge of the ruins. Two soldiers looked in our direction; they were the first guards we had encountered.  

“We aren’t worth your attention. Just mice,” Azura whispered under her breath.

The soldiers ignored us as we walked past.

I raised an eyebrow. That was a pretty neat trick. I’d never heard anything about the Galra having any kind of magical or telepathic powers, but I had only gotten to know two of them to any extent. Three, if you counted Ryo, but he was definitely not psychic.

We made it back to the edge of the ruins without a single guard paying attention to us. Druids and guards gathered among the stones. In the opposite direction, a shuttle sat in a dead field a few hundred meters away. Azura judged the distance and shifted me in preparation for a run.

The air in front of us shimmered, and the Arch Druid stepped into existence in front of us.

“Ah, just the people I was looking for.”

Azura froze in place.

The Arch Druid smiled at her. “I thought that I sensed your presence. Is this where you have been these last few months? Playing at being a spy? How quaint.”

He stepped forward, came close enough to touch her. He held her pinned in place with his gaze, like a cobra staring down its prey. He reached out and brushed aside a stray hair from the front of her face while she trembled.  

“Now come along like a good girl.”     

“Azura!” I called out to break his hold.

Startled, Azura shoved him back, then broke and ran full-tilt toward the shuttle, fulled by panic. The Arch Druid teleported in front of us, and hit her hard across the face. The two of us went sprawling. The Arch Druid gestured and bands of solid light sprang into being and wrapped around us, pinning us in place. I struggled against the magic, but I didn’t have the strength to break free.

He walked over and stood over her. I expected him to strike her down, but he just looked down on her with contempt. “Did you really think that you could save her? You really are pathetic. I should just kill you here and now, rid the Empire of a festering weakness. But that would displease the The Regent.”

He summoned drone guards. “Bring them both. We have work to do.”  

——-

My memory of the planet proved correct. We spilled through the wormhole alongside the Atlas-II in front of a Galran cruiser. Alerts the went off across the screen of our Altean fighter, triggering off energy signatures from the cruiser and a massive Rift reading coming from the planetoid beyond.

“Unknown Galran cruiser. This is the IGF-Atlas. Identify yourselves and your purpose here,” the ship announced.

 In response, the cruiser fired off a volley at the Atlas.

“Looks like you were right, Paladins,” the Atlas’ captain said over our private comms. “Raising shields and deploying MFE fighters.”  

Another pull at my chest kept me from answering. I broke out in cold sweat. Things were getting worse. I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to fight off the dark force that had burrowed into Black. I had tried once during the journey here to actively connect to her, but she was beyond the ability to respond, and the attempt had almost swallowed me up in the process.   

The captain came back on over broad comms. “Leo squadron, break for the planet. We’ll handle that cruiser.”

Galra fighters started spewing out from the cruiser. I managed to get back my voice. “Acxa, Ryo. Incoming at 45-two o’clock. Shields up. Acxa, stay on me. Ryo, stinger.”

“I see ‘em leader,” Ryo responded, as he zipped off to take a position high to our right.

I turned my attention to the gunning controls. Ideally, Lance and I would be in opposite positions, but this wouldn’t be the first situation we’d fallen into that was less than ideal. Lance hit the thrusters and headed toward a small asteroid field to use for cover. Through our helmet-comms, I heard him laugh.

“Just like old times, eh?”

I fired off a volley at a fighter that came into my sights. The Galra fighter dodged it, and I cursed under my breath. I had gotten rusty at this, and the pain was distracting. Acxa picked him off as I did my best to compensate.

“Don’t get cocky,” Acxa said over the comms.

“Trust me, I’m not,” I grunted as I fired off another round. This time, I connected.

Azlan chimed in on the comms. “Tracking asteroid movements. I’m calculating a safe path through now.”

The path lit on Lance’s flight screen, and he followed it deeper into the field. A squadron of Galra fighters broke off and followed us inside. I sighted on the first one as Lance banked to the right. The shot went wide, but the ship moved to dodge and clipped an asteroid. Ryo swung around the same asteroid, using it as a slingshot to throw his ship into the squadron to split it. Juni took out another of the fighters as he did.

We moved through the asteroids, weaving and firing until we broke through the other side, where more fighters were waiting for us. One fired and clipped us on a wing. Lance cursed and corrected from the impact. Acxa circled around him and laid down a long line of fire in front, using her heavier ship as shield, while Ryo whirled and sniped from the side.

“Hey Leo squadron, why don’t you head for the surface. We’ll handle these guys,” a voice called over the comms, as a squadron of MFE fighters strafed the group of fighters ahead of us to clear a path.

“Glad for the assist,” Lance said as he made for the opening and pulled back on the throttle.

The three of us screamed for the surface of the planet. Acxa took position in the front, and we moved into her wake, raising our shields to double front as we hit atmosphere. The air was thin for a planet but thick enough to be breathable – and thick enough to present a threat as we pierced through it.

The ship rumbled and flame licked the edges of our shields as we broke through. Lance leveled the fighter out. I closed my eyes and stretched out with my senses, looking for Black. As soon as I found her, I put the bearing into the computer for the others to see.

The ruins I remembered came into view before long. As we approached, I could sense the energy of the Rift, and another darker power mixing with it. The echoes of Black’s pain intensified, and I let out a gasp as we approached close.

Azlan got images on our view screens. They’d brought out people and magically bound them to part of an alchemic pattern etched deep into the ground. At the back of the design was Black, and in front of her a machine that sent chills down my spine, and a group of people were headed toward it.

“Ryo! I have visual on Caeli!” Azlan shouted.

Ryo shot off toward the ruins.

-----

They dragged me over to the open Coffin, where the Galra leader was waiting along with the remaining Druids. A smaller group of prisoners had been brought out this time as sacrifices. I saw Mort among them. I lurched in the hands of the guard pulling me, forcing him to drop me. “Mort!”

The guard picked me back up. The Arch Druid placed his hand on my chest, and spoke a word. A pulse passed between us, and all the strength went out of my limbs instantly. All I could do was watch, my mind still fully alert, as they threw me into the open Coffin and finished bringing in the prisoners.   

They made Azura kneel at the edge of the circle to watch, as I had watched Albrecht. She stared at the ground, shoulders slumped, utterly dejected.

“Azura!” I called out to her. “Azura, look at me!”

She did not look up, even when the ground began to shake again.

 “Azura! Listen to me! You are not pathetic! You’re amazing!”

The tremor buckled the ground under her feet. That was enough to shake her out of her stupor, if only momentarily. She looked up and saw my face.

“I know you’re scared! It’s okay to be scared! But you can’t let it stop you!” I called out. “Azura! I know you’re strong! Be strong! For them!”

She just looked back to the ground.

The last of my calls were covered by the noise of a starfighter passing nearby. The Galra commander frowned at them.

“It would seem we have been discovered.”

“It doesn’t matter. We don’t need to stay much longer. Just long enough for me to confirm the process is correct, and then you can obliterate any evidence that we were ever here,” the Arch Druid said, as he put the last of the connections into place.

The ground began to shake again.

He closed the lid to the coffin. The chamber began to hum and vibrate. Outside, I could hear the arcs of electricity as energy began to flow from the Rift into the machine. I could sense the gathering of it, like it had in the testing chamber. In front of me, the Arch Druid raised his hands. This was it. I closed my eyes, preparing to turn my concentration inward.

A boom sounded outside, and sparks flew inside the machine. Part of the flow of energy diverted.

I opened my eyes in time to see the Galra guard standing next to Azura lower his rife. The Arch Druid spun around, furious, even as the Galra commander shot the disobedient guard. Beside him, Azura knelt facing the ground, but I could see her mouthing something. Suddenly, another guard raised his rifle and attacked the Druid standing closest to the prisoners. The power holding the prisoners in place flickered. Mort jumped on the closest drone.

The starfighter returned with two others, and one fired just outside the ruins. Cannons hidden in the ruins returned fire.

All chaos broke loose, as the damaged Coffin-machine reached down into the rift.  

The Arch Druid teleported across to Azura and lifted her from the ground by the neck. He roared at her loud enough for me to hear through the glass and the chaos, “YOU DID THIS! I always knew you were worthless, but treason?”

She looked down on him, terrified. Then she kicked him. He dropped her in surprise, and she rolled. Then she attacked him, using techniques Albrecht and I had taught her. He took three solid blows before he blasted her back with an energy bolt. Fury rolled across his features. His eyes and face markings glowed. He hit her with an onslaught of energy blows, never allowing her to recover. Finally, he blasted her into a nearby side of the ruin.

She slid down back onto the ground, limp. As she fell, her body transformed. She shrank, and the Galra-purple of her skin changed to a pale mauve-brown.

I couldn’t see if she was still breathing.

There was a hiss and a whir, and I felt a pulse of power pass through the chamber. The rifle had damaged it, but not stopped it entirely.  

The Arch Druid teleported back to the Coffin, that was still pulling power and seeking connection to the Rift. He poured his own energy into the malfunctioning machine, redirecting the severed flow of power, oblivious to the goings on around him. There was a jolt, and I felt the first threads of power seeking me.  

The Galra commander shielded him. “Your Highness, we need to retreat! You can try again. Replicate the process elsewhere!” 

“They’re a handful or rebels. Surely you can take care of them!”

“We have incoming, and the planet is coming apart! We are out of time!”

“No, I’m too close. . . .!”

The Galra commander cursed and hit the Arch Druid where I couldn’t see. He went limp, but not before he poured one final wave of energy into the machine. The pattern activated. All around us, I heard screams.

The machine connected to the Rift. I was swallowed in a wave of white.

Chapter Text

Chaos surrounded us. Above, the Atlas and its forces clashed with those of the Galra cruiser. Below, prisoners scattered or fought with outnumbered and disorganized Galra soldiers. We three ships strafed through, providing what covering fire we could while avoiding the innocent.

A column of white stretched up into the sky from the machine at the center of a glowing alchemic pattern. The ground cracked and filled with fissures of light that kept spreading. Prisoners and guards alike dropped to the ground if they came too close to one of the lines.  

“Caeli!” Ryo’s cry tore at my heart.

Again, that awful pulling clawed into my chest. Darkness crept into the edges of my vision. They were pulling deep into Black’s essence now. I clutched at myself. I couldn’t breathe.

“Keith?! Talk to me!” Lance called out, even as he dodged fire from a turret.

I couldn’t speak. I managed to tap his seat and pointed to the outside. He had more important things to pay attention to than me right now.

“Damn it!” Lance cursed, and forced himself to turn his attention away from me.

“What the Quiznack is going on down there?” Juni called into the comms.

“They’re pulling energy from the Rift. But they’ve lost control of the process. Its’ destabilizing!” Azlan answered.

“And that means?” Lance demanded.

“They’re pulling Rift energy into this universe. Once enough crosses over, space-time — the very laws of physics —  of this Reality will begin warp. When that happens, it will be like breaking a dam. The Rift will become a real tear, and just keep growing.”  

“. . . until this universe is destroyed.” Lance finished. We had encountered massive Rifts before, and knew how that ended.

“How long?” Acxa asked.

“The energy flow is accelerating. If the rate holds, I’d say we have maybe a few doboshes before it reaches the critical threshold,” Azlan answered.

Not long enough for a thorough plan.

“All right then, who here has some brilliant ideas?” Lance asked.  

“The whole thing must be operating like a Gate. With a Gate, you use a stabilizing energy to hold open the Rift. This system has to have something like that. And something has to be fueling that machine pulling the Rift energy through. Eliminating one or the other might be enough to stop it,” Azlan suggested.

“So where is the Gate energy coming from?” Juni asked.

“I think they’re using the planet itself for part of it, though I’m not sure how.”

“What’s the other part?”

The pain was an answer to that. “Black,” I managed to choke out.

“Destroy the Black Lion? No way!” Lance cried, horrified. Not only because he was another Paladin, but because he knew the shock would probably kill me.

Acxa said, “We don’t have the firepower to destroy the Black Lion or the planet. We will have to take out the machine itself.”

“No! Caeli is there!” Ryo cried.

“And Caeli is the first person who would tell us to take the shot,” Azlan said quietly.

“How can you say that? She’s your friend!”

No one answered.

“No! Damn it! We are going with one of your Blade solutions on this! We came across a universe to find her, and I am NOT giving up now!”

I hated this. I needed to make the call, take the burden from the rest of them. I looked desperately to see a possibility. I could sense a flow of energy that wasn’t Black feeding the machine, along the alchemic lines etched in the ground. “Focus. . Pat. . .tern. . . .”

“What?” Ryo asked.

Lance understood. “The pattern is drawing the energy! We break the lines, we  disrupt the flow without destroying the whole thing.”

Ryo was already flying toward the column.

I gave Lance the controls to the weapons and watched as we flew lower than any sane starfighter pilot would bring their ship in for attack. Ryo and Juni fired the first shot into a patch of ground devoid of bodies. The pattern in the ground flared and the light stopped flowing. Lance fired next on another patch, between the center and the Black Lion. The light flared and stopped there, too. The pain in my chest eased a little.

“It’s working!” Azlan cried.

We circled and fired. Acxa fired on the parts of the pattern that contained the most people, sparing us the decision. Little by little, the feed of power stopped. The column of light faded.

But the Rift remained.

“No,” Azlan whispered.

“What is it?” Lance demanded.

“We appear to have stopped the energy siphon, but the Rift is still expanding.”

Black was still connected. So long as she was, it didn’t matter that the other power was lost. It wouldn’t close.

I closed my eyes. I knew what I had to do.

The voices of my team faded into darkness as I sank into the consciousness of the Black Lion. The astral landscape had changed since I had last walked here. Black sat in the sea of stars. Thorns twisted up around her, binding her in place and digging deep. Quintessence flowed out of her through the vines, making them glow in a sickly light.

The same thorns had sunk into me from Black, following along pale silver thread – our bond made manifest. I tried to pull free of the vines, but they held me fast.

But I was a Paladin. In my mind’s eye, I summoned armor and a Bayard that became a sword in my hand. I cut through the vines at my side. Where I sliced one, though, it split and became two. The thorns sensed me and attacked, wrapping around my legs and arms.

Fighting them with the sword wasn’t working, but it wasn’t my only weapon. I was the Red Paladin, a chosen of the Red Lion. I was the guardian of Fire. I flashed with it, burning away the vines that had twined around me. I stumbled back, successful but faded from the effort.

So they could burn.

My satisfaction was short-lived. The thorns that remained regenerated in the blink of an eye, drawing on Black’s energy. A new tendril followed along the line of our bond, seeking out my energy source. Then it began to travel along another thread that ran from me down into one of the pools of the sky.

Red.

I realized with horror that the curse of these thorns would follow every connection, seeking out new sources of energy. Once they had consumed Black and myself, they would move on to everything our quintessence touched. There was only one way to be rid of them, and that would to be to burn everything at once. The problem was, doing so would require more energy than I had left.

Still, I had to try.   

I gathered the strength of my soul until I held a tiny sun in my fist. The image of myself in this place flickered and faded, its light channeled into the flame instead. I gripped the hilt of my bayard with both hands. Flame ran down the blade, transforming it into a blazing sword.

“I’m sorry, Lance,” I whispered, and brought my blade down.

-----  

I was drowning in white.

Light pushed at me, flowing both around and into me. My body burned with it. I struggled against it, redirecting as much as I could, but I couldn’t escape. I was bound in place by phantom thorns. The light buffed and tore at me even as it filled me overfull; I could feel tears beginning to form in my being. I wouldn’t last long.

Caelia. . .

Fragments of long-forgotten voices echoed around me, whispers in the white calling my name. Sometimes I caught glimpses of shadows, silhouettes of faces that faded as soon as I turned to look at them. I thought I caught sight of someone reaching for me.

Caelia, you can do this. . . .

“Albrecht?” My voice echoed through luminescence.

Then, without warning, the dark bonds dissolved into ash. The light caught me in its current, but I could move through it, as well as anyone could swim through a flood. The world shifted and splintered around me like a kaleidoscope as I moved through the glow, showing me momentary images of events long past and others possibly to come.

Again, I caught sight of someone reaching for me. I heard my name. It wasn’t Albrecht’s voice calling to me, but it sounded familiar, so when I heard it and saw the shadow again, I reached back if only to have an anchor from the rush.

We made contact, and my rescuer pulled. The quality my surroundings shifted. The white transformed from a river to a fine mist. The mist parted and I found myself staring at my rescuer: the ghostly image of Takashi Shirogane.

He smiled at me. “Hello Caelia. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  

My idol was holding my hand. But he was long dead. I dropped his hand, and he released mine. I realized my own form had changed to something glowing and translucent, but still recognizable as my body. It hit me: This was it. I was dead. I was dead, and I never had the chance to see my mom again or say goodbye to Ryo.

“Whoa, no, none of that!” He said, stepping forward to catch me as I stumbled a step back. “It’s okay! You’re not the one who’s dead.”  

“Who . . What are you?” I blurted out like the village idiot.

“My name is Takashi Shirogane. I’m a former Paladin of the Black Lion.”

Black Lion? “You mean, the thing that the Druids summoned?”

“’Thing’ is a harsh way of putting it, but yes. The very same.”

I babbled out, “Sorry, I’ve never seen a giant mystical mechanical lion before. Can’t say the appropriate descriptive nouns were the first thing to pop into my head.”

He laughed. “No, I imagine it was something along the lines of ‘what the Quiznack’ or ‘arrgh, is it going to eat me?!’”

I blinked round-eyed at him. Just what was going on here? Was I dead, and this was just my mind was trying to break things easily to me? If so, then my subconscious and conscious minds had a serious disconnect on how I pictured Takashi Shirogane would act. Or was I actually alive and . . .apparently talking to a ghost? Or angel? Something.

“Why are you here? And how do you know my name?” I asked in an attempt to make some sense of things.

“Albrecht sent me. I’m here to ask for your help, and to offer ours.”

“Albrecht is here?”

“No, he’s moved on. Before he did, he asked me to keep a lookout for you. Now, take my hand, there isn’t much time, and there is someone else you need to meet.”

I took his hand a second time. The white shifted and I felt a sense of travel. The white cleared away like parting mist to reveal and endless sea under a starry sky.    

Wisps of light swirled together in front of us and took on the form of an elf woman. Whereas Shirogane and I looked like true ghosts in the translucent colors of a human, she appeared to be made from pure starlight. Like the Arch Druid, she radiated power. Except where he was cold and terrible, she was warm and inviting. On impulse, I went to one knee and bowed, like a knight to a queen.

“May I introduce the Lion Goddess,” Shirogane said.

How light could convey an expression, I wasn’t sure, but it did. She glared at him. “I told you not to call me that.”

“Is it not what you’ve become?” He asked in all seriousness.

She sighed. I decided not to step into what sounded like an old argument.

She turned her attention back to me and got to the point. “I am deeply sorry about the circumstances that have brought you here. My vigilance of this universe and understanding of the enemy weren’t thorough enough, and now the universe is in danger. The Rift that the Arch Druid opened must be sealed.”

“How?” I asked.

“I have the power to close it, but to do so, I need a material conduit to work through. Something that can channel a portion of my quintessence from here to the physical world.”

I remembered the word quintessence from the Galra facility. Vessels, the Arch Druid had called us. I was beginning to guess why.

“You need to use my body,” I said.

She looked embarrassed. “I hate to have to ask such a thing. Normally, I might be able to act through one of the Lions, but Black’s connection to me has been broken. Given time, I will be able to reforge it, or summon one of the others but. . .”

“But there’s no time,” I finished. I shook off the growing sense of foreboding in my chest, and presented myself before I could change my mind. “All right, let’s do this.”

“You agree too quickly. You don’t understand the risk,” she said sadly.

“What is the worst thing that happens, I die?” I spread my hands around. “No offense, Mister Shirogane.”

“None taken.”

The Goddess shook her head, sending strands of starlight floating around her. “No, if your mind isn’t strong enough, my quintessence will overwhelm your consciousness. You won’t just die. The very part of you that makes you the individual you are will be lost.”

I had to admit, the idea of utter erasure made the decision a little harder. Still, what choice was there? I had the impression she wouldn’t be asking me if they saw an alternative, and I sure didn’t.

“And if I refuse, an entire universe may die. So do it. Please,” I told her, opening my arms.   

Shirogane laid a spectral hand on my shoulder. “Not quite so fast. We’re not letting you jump into this without any protection. I can show you things I’ve learned from my own experiences that you should be able to use to anchor yourself. If you’ll let me.”

I consented. He lightly touched the side of my face and gestured for me to do the same to him. “Open your mind.”

I took a deep breath and relaxed. The moment we touched, memories flooded my mind. A lifetime of experiences passed through my consciousness in an instant. Most remained dreamlike, more impression than image, but a few stood out. When we parted, I looked at him with awe. I understood what he had meant when he called himself ‘Paladin’. And when I looked at the Lion Goddess again, I saw the person she had been before. I knew her name, and what she had given up.

“Thank you,” I said to her.

“Thank you for your willingness. The true mark of a hero,” she said, and extended her hand.

“Maybe don’t use that term for me just yet. I’d rather not jinx this,” I said as I took it.

Once again, glow swallowed me whole.

-----

I crumbled like ash. Dawn broke across the sea of stars where I lay, hollow and breaking apart. Light washed over me. I closed my eyes. The end had caught up to me at last.

I heard a whisper, then the brush of a hand across my forehead, followed by a second touch over my heart. Warmth blossomed there, slowly filling up the empty space.

“Keith, open your eyes,” A heartbreakingly familiar voice said.

I opened my eyes to Shiro kneeling next to me, his hand resting on my chest. Luminous shadows played behind him, creating the illusion of wings. Tears sprang to my eyes as I asked him, “Come to take me home?”

“Yes, but not in the way you think.” He helped me to stand, first up on his shoulder, then in front of him. He pulled me into a hug.

“I’ve missed you so much,” I said, returning the embrace with all my heart.

He rested his forehead on mine. “I know. I told you to let me go. But you never were very good at that.”

“No,” I laughed.

Then he gently pulled me back to an arm’s length. “But I’m afraid the reunion you want is going to have to wait. There are people out there who need you, and an enemy that needs facing.”

Shiro began to fade. “I love you, Keith. I’ll be here waiting when it’s time. But until then: don’t you dare even think of trying something like this again. Because I will throw you out —  as many times as it takes.”  

He pushed me away.

*

I woke back in my body, with a gasp of breath that came easily again.

“Keith!” Lance called out with a laugh the bordered on hysterical. “Keith, are you okay? What the hell did you just do?”

I looked through the cockpit window. A radiance once again emanated from the center of the design, but it was different than before.

From the light, I felt a presence. Lance must have felt it, too, because put a hand up to his helmet, toward his markings. “Allura?”

A soon as it had come, the light faded. Allura’s aura faded. With it, so did the Rift. I let out a sigh of relief, and heard the others let out cries of their own.

The joy didn’t last. Where the Rift had been, vast cracks in the ground remained. And as I looked, the cracks began spreading. Seismic alerts flashed across the screen. The planet’s quintessence had been used to create the Rift, and the Rift had been the only thing keeping the dead planet together. Now both were gone and it would only be a short matter of time before the shell broke up.

I opened a channel with the Atlas. “Atlas, this is Leo-1. We need a transport down here yesterday.”

The comms from the Atlas lit up with warnings. “Negative, Leo-1. It’s still too hot up here. We’ll send a transport as soon as we get an opening, but that may not happen soon.”    

Above us, the flashes of a space battle continued. That Galra cruiser had come prepared for a confrontation.

I took stock of our situation. The survivors were scattered. Our fighters could move fast, but could only fit a few passengers at most, if we were willing to fly distracted. Acxa’s ship could safely maybe move a dozen or two. There were probably fifty prisoners out there.

But Black could make up that difference.

“Ryo, Juni. I need you to get the survivors as rounded up as possible. Acxa, get down on that field to the east and get as many aboard your ship as you can. Lance and I will get as many as we can aboard the Black Lion.”

“Right.” “Acknowledged.”

Lance swung us around toward Black. I reached out to Black with my mind as we approached.

And felt nothing.

-----

Reality slammed back into me like a lightning strike. I spilled out of the Coffin on top of Mort as someone ripped it open. The contact made me gasp with pain. Allura’s consciousness and the power of the Rift were both gone, leaving me exhausted and my body tender inside and out. The lightning scars on my body glowed soft pink through the remains of my clothes.

Mort helped me to my feet just as the ground started to shake again. It was starting small, but it I had a feeling that this time, it wasn’t going to stop.

“We have to get out of here,” I said to the prisoners gathered around us.

“How? We don’t have a ship!”

Help had come for us in the form of those fighters, but they could only fit a few of us, and a true transport might not be able to get to us before the surface of this planet started to break apart.

I looked behind the remains of a half-melted Coffin and saw the Black Lion lying on the ground where she had been since the Arch Druid had summoned her. “The Lion is a ship. Get everyone aboard!” 

They started to move. Mort, however, pulled on my arm in the opposite direction. He guided me over to a spot the other prisoners were avoiding. Azura lay there. A pair of prisoners had retrieved her from where she had fallen and now stood guard over her still form. Shaking, I reached down and felt for a pulse. It was weak and erratic, but present.

The earthquake started getting stronger. I started to pull Azura to me, ignoring the pain. One of her guardians took her from me, and we moved. Fissures began opening up as we ran for the Lion. I directed Mort to show our fellow prisoners toward the hold. Following Shiro’s memories, I ran up to the cockpit.

I put my shaking hands on the controls. Nothing happened.

Outside, the quake was getting worse. A fissure opened under us, and Black fell a meter down.

I opened my mind and saw the problem. Black magic like thorns had twisted through the essence of the Lion, made to bind it down and bleed its quintessence. The thorns were dead now, turned to ash, but Black had been badly drained. She couldn’t wake, let alone fly.

The power of the Rift and Allura’s quintessence were gone, but I still had my own. I reached deep inside for some of that glowing essence and shoved it into the Lion.

“Come on,” I pleaded, and tried the controls again.

The controls lit up. I let out a whoop. Continuing to feed the Lion, I reached for the altitude thrusters and thanked Shiro for the memories. They were already fading, but they were enough for me to get this Lion off the ground – and not a moment too soon. No sooner had I engaged the altitude thrusters than the ground around us cracked and fell away.

I flicked the internal comms on. “All right everyone. Hang on tight, because this could be a bumpy ride.”

——-

I heard a roar.

“All right, nice catch, Keith!” Lance called out, as the Black Lion came charging up out of the crevasse it had fallen into.

“That’s not me,” I managed to force out the words. My head spun. Black was gone, but she was active. I reached for her again, but once again connected to nothing. The bond between us was gone, like it had never existed.

“What do you mean it’s not you?”

The comms crackled. “Starfighters, this is the Black Lion. I have civilians aboard, and wounded. Requesting escort. Repeat, I have civilians aboard, requesting escort.”

The pilot’s voice was that of a young woman – far too young for the responsibility of the Black Lion. She sounded exhausted.

“Caeli?” Ryo whispered across the comms.

Juni nearly screamed over the comms. “Caeli! Are you piloting a Quiznacking lion??”

Azlan exclaimed. “But HOW? Isn’t that the Red Paladin’s Lion?”

“Fly now, talk later,” Caeli grunted. The Black Lion listed briefly to the left, then corrected and began to gain altitude.

Lance recovered from the surprise more quickly than I did. He moved alongside Black. “Black Lion, this is IGF starfighter Leo-1. We hear your request. Follow me.”

The Lion listed again, and I flinched in my seat. “Urgh. Roger that, Leo-1. Thank you.”

I watched Black, then glanced above anxiously. The dark bulk of the Galra cruiser was still visible along with flashes of light from volleys between fighters and the two capital ships. We were about to go into battle, and Black’s pilot was clearly struggling. It hurt to watch. Black was my responsibility. Those people aboard should be in my hands.  

Acxa called on the comms. “Leo-1, I’m picking up the last of the cargo now. We’ll be in the air momentarily.”

I reached for the comms with a small sigh of relief. At least one of us seemed to be avoiding any major problems. “Atlas, prepare for our return. Put all hands you can on protecting Leo-3 and the Black Lion.”

“Good thing, Leo-1. Because we have a big problem coming our way!”

“Now what?” Lance muttered.

Overhead, a crackling white beam split the sky. I looked up in time to see the Galra crusier glow and then then flash into hyperspace. Whatever it was headed for us, it was enough to make our enemy run.

At least, that meant we weren’t going to have to deal Black in a dogfight. Hopefully.

“All right, that’s the last of them,” Acxa announced.

“Lead us out of here, Lance!” I commanded. 

“Yes, Sir!”

We rocketed toward the upper atmosphere. Black followed us, still not flying entirely straight. Ryo took up position at her flank. Acxa brought up the rear. The four of us broke atmosphere just in time for another white beam to flash by, missing us only by a few dozen meters. Caelia cursed and swung Black wide, overcompensating the turn. Ryo circled around her.

“Caeli, are you okay?”

“I. . .I’m fine,” Caelia gasped out.  

Lance cursed as we got a clear view of the source of the beam.

“What the Quiznack is that?” Juni exclaimed.

A gargantuan grub-like creature with shining plates of eyes running along its sides appeared on the screen. Lance and I recognized the planet-devouring space beast immediately; we had encountered them before and they weren’t easy to forget, even after two hundred years. I let out a string of curses in Galran.

“That’s a Weblum!  Atlas, how did you quiznacking miss a quiznacking Weblum?” Lance said, exasperated.

“I’m sorry, Sir. The battle with the Galra must have been interfering with our long-distance scanners.”

“It’s a giant planet-eating space worm! How close do you have to be looking?”

Our enemy had been clever. They must have spotted it approaching the dying planet and goaded the Weblum into attacking before taking off. Not only would the creature cover their escape, it would obliterate what was left of the planet either by attacking or devouring it. Whatever secrets the ruins and alchemical symbols held down there, they would be gone before we could uncover them.

The Atlas turned to bring its cannons to bear on the Weblum.

“Don’t engage it!” Acxa, Lance, and I all exclaimed at once.

“Atlas, you need to get clear of it! Wormhole us out of here now! Set coordinates for New Altea,” I told them.

By some miracle, they actually both heard and listened. I let out an unsteady laugh as the mosaic pattern of a wormhole appeared in space on the far side of the Atlas, out of the path of the incoming Weblum.

Lance fired his thrusters at maximum. Ryo and Acxa followed suit. Black wobbled behind. Caelia let out an exhausted moan as she headed toward the wormhole. Ryo circled back and flanked her, then Lance and I did the same.

“Hang in there, we’re almost there,” he said.

I couldn’t hear her answer, but she kept going.

At last, we passed through the wormhole to New Altea and safety.  

Chapter Text

I knew from the moment we crossed through the wormhole into space above New Altea that Caelia was in trouble. Black’s flight path became more and more erratic as we approached the planet. Several times, Ryo or Lance had to make shifts to accommodate her flying. Ryo kept giving her reassurance on her skills, but she did not answer.

Then when we broke the atmosphere, Black began to dive.

“Black, level it off,” Lance warned over the comms, while he kept up with her.

“Caelia! What are you doing!? You’re going in too steep!” Juni shouted from her other side.

“I . . .too much. . .I can’t. . . “ Caelia gasped.

“Yes, you can! Caelia, you’re almost there!” Ryo encouraged.

I muttered under my breath and brought up the map of the area. It was clear that we needed to find her a place to land, and we needed to do it fast. We were approaching the Capital. I brought up a path toward a field on the outskirts of the city and sent it to Black’s screen over the communications channel. In response, Caelia made a pained noise, but she curved wide and began to follow the indicated path.

“Keith, is everything okay?” Acxa asked on our private line. “Do you need me to assist?”

“I think we’re going to have to put down early. You go ahead, we’ll meet up at the Palace. I’ll keep comms open in case we need you.”

“Acknowledged.” Acxa went on ahead.

For a few minutes, we continued along the projected path without any more problems. Then, Black started to lose altitude. Ryo called out encouragement without answer. I watched out the side of our fighter, and I saw Black’s power begin to flicker.

Then it failed altogether. Black began to free fall.

“Caelia!” Ryo screamed as we dove alongside the falling Lion.

I searched the Altean fighter’s controls for something that might be used to catch her, all the while wishing desperately that I was in another Lion. If I were in Black or Red, I would know exactly what to do. But Black was still an empty space in my mind, and Red remained lost to us.  

At the very last moment, Black came back to life. The thrusters engaged just in time to level out  about fifty meters above the ground. She swerved hard once to avoid a cluster of buildings at the edge of the city, then plowed into the ground at the edge of the field I had indicated. Somehow the Lion stayed upright through the length of the crash.

Ryo landed next to Black. He was already out of his ship and headed toward her when we touched down alongside it. As soon as our cockpit phased open, I vaulted over the side of the ship and joined Ryo.

Black had opened her entrance, wanting us to come in. I took point. Inside, the emergency lighting barely showed. We heard the cries of people from down in Black’s hold. Ryo started in that direction, but I caught his arm and pulled him in the direction of the cockpit, even as I called Lance on my suit’s comm.

“Lance, there are people in Black’s hold. Can you get to them?”

“Juni and I are on it,” Lance responded as Ryo and I arrived outside Black’s cockpit door.

I pushed the controls. The door started to open, then the last of Black’s power failed. Ryo and I pushed it the rest of the way open. He ran inside, and I followed.

I saw Black’s pilot slumped forward, her hands still on the controls.

“Caeli?” The name barely came out as a whisper.

Ryo gently pulled on her, and she slipped limply into his arms. He called her name, each time becoming more frantic. I brought up the med scanner in my suit, looking for life signs.

On the third cry, she let out a small sound. “Ryo?”

“Caeli.”

“Told you . . . I’d catch up,” she breathed, then slipped unconscious again.

Choking back a sob, he gathered her gently in his arms. I pulled up the comms on my suit. “Acxa, tell Coran that we need a med team down here, and we’re going to need a healing pod.”

“Make that two pods,” Lance added from the hold. “We have an Altean here who’s pretty messed up. Other than that, we have a few broken bones in the mix, but nothing that will keep the rest from getting out on their own.”

“Lady Romelle already has people on the way,” Acxa answered. “They’ve been tracking us since we entered the atmosphere. Black’s arrival has made quite a stir.”

I was sure it had. I touched Black’s controls and reached out with my mind once more. I half expected the controls to activate. At the very least, I thought that this close, I would feel Black’s presence in my mind. But there was nothing. I might as well be touching empty steel.  

-----

Romelle herself came to oversee the teams for Black’s evacuation. After submitting to a quick medical scan at Romelle’s insistence, I threw myself into helping. Throughout the evacuation, I kept reaching out to Black in vain, hoping that she might respond after a while.

When the last of the people were off and Lance and I were alone at last, I made one last attempt at connecting to Black. Once again, I only felt emptiness in response. The times Black or Red had been drained before, I still could feel the connection between us, but this time, there was nothing. I pulled my hand away with a disappointed sigh.

“It’s no use. It’s just. . .gone.”

And I it was my fault. It hadn’t been my intention, but it had happened.

Lance was watched me with concern. “How are you holding up?”

The feeling of fire welled up inside me. I recalled the heat, the pain. My hands shook from the memory of it.

“I’m fine.”

Lance spoke softly, but with force. “Don’t lie to me, Keith. During the battle, I could see your vitals through your suit’s interface with the ship. You weren’t just in pain. Then, just before Allura appeared, they cut out entirely.” His voice dropped. “I was so scared. I thought I had lost you, and it was my fault for bringing you out there in the first place.”

I couldn’t meet Lance’s gaze.

“Keith?”

“You did lose me,” I admitted. “And then Allura brought me back.”

His eyes filled with such pain it made me want to cry. I spoke quickly, the words falling over each other in my rush to explain.

“It wasn’t your fault! It was mine. Just like losing my connection to Black is mine.” 

Lance stared at me, slow horror spreading across his features.

“What?”

“During the battle, I went into Black’s mind-space. She had been bound by some kind of Alchemic vines. They were draining her life and threading into every connection of quintessence she had. So I did the only thing I could think to do to stop it.”

I took a deep breath. If I was being honest with him, I had to say this.

“I burned it. I burned everything: the vines, the threads of my bond, myself. I sacrificed myself to save Black.”

I watched his face and saw the hurt and the horror I so wanted to spare him. He backed away from me. I reached out to him. Lance whirled and slapped down on either side of me, pinning me without actually touching me.

“That’s not okay! How could you possibly think that was even an option?”

“I did it to save you! To save everyone! We needed to close the Rift, and to do that I needed to free Black! So I did!”

Lance looked decidedly away from me. He let go of the wall, pressed his hand to his eyes. “Dammit, Keith. You and Allura. You can save the universe, but you can’t save yourself?”

“What?”

He turned his back to me. He was shaking. His voice cracked as he spoke. “Do you know what it feels like, watching someone you love just . . .walk away? To know they’re in pain, to want to save them, and be able to do nothing? I’ve been so worried about you, Keith. You haven’t been able to sit still since Shiro died. You just keep running from one thing to another, and . . .every time you run, I can’t help thinking: why can’t I give you enough reason to stay?”

Now it was my turn to be shocked. I pulled him around, so he would look at me. He was crying. I threw myself at him. “Are you kidding me? Lance, of course you give me enough! You are everything I ever could have dreamed for! I love you. I thought you knew that a century ago! What I did was for you!”

A laugh bubbled out of him, and he wiped his eyes. “Yeah well, maybe you should think twice about it. It’s a cruel gift, being saved when it means being left behind.”

He was right, of course, about all of it. Shiro’s death had gutted me. The first time, when I’d still thought he was alive, it had still nearly destroyed me and the second time was worse. Yet somehow in the heat of the moment, it never occurred to me exactly what my loss would do to Lance. I guess it didn’t matter how old I got; in some things, I would always be a fool. 

I wrapped my arms around Lance like I would never let go. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to leave you. Next time, I swear I’ll try harder to find another solution. I guess maybe I’m just bad about thinking of myself as part of what I’m saving.”

I pulled back just enough so I could kiss him. Just a soft brush at first, experimental and apologetic. He let me. When he did, I kissed him again, harder.

“Well you should. You are worth saving,” he murmured when we came up for air. Then he leaned in and kissed me back. He shifted so he could run his hands through my hair. Then he kissed me again, pressing both of us to the ground. 

I breathed him in, savoring his energy and every feeling my fingertips encountered. I was overjoyed to be able to feel it all — to still be here. Quiznack, I wanted to be here. He was right. Shiro was right.

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” I said. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad to be back.”

He gave me a crooked smile. “Yes, well, I suppose maybe I was a little hard on you, considering I’m guilty of it, too. All of us Paladins, really.”

I smiled softly and looked up at Black. My voice cracked as I spoke, “I saw him, you know.”

“Shiro?”

I nodded.

Lance asked, “Did he have anything to say?”

I smiled at Lance and swallowed. “That he loved me. . . .And basically, that I’d been a dumbass for sacrificing myself while you were here for me and I still had work to do.”

Lance kissed me once more. “Well, he always was a smart man.” 

——-

In the end, we left Black where she had crash-landed; she was as safe there as anywhere and until she partially recharged there would be no flying her – by me, or anyone else.

When we returned to the Palace, Coran was waiting for us on the landing pad. As soon as we we had exited the fighter, Coran ran toward us surprisingly fast for an eight-hundred-year-old man. He threw his arms around me when he saw us, then did the same with Lance. 

“Thank the ancients! We saw Black come down and assumed the worst. Romelle said you were okay, but when you didn’t come back with the others. . . .”

“Sorry about the delay, Coran. We were just . . .taking care of a few things,” Lance explained with a small cough.

“I’ve been trying to connect to Black, but it’s no use. She’s been totally drained of power.”

“What happened to her?”

“Bound by some kind of Alchemy. By the time we found her, our enemy had used up most of her quintessence to fuel the opening of a Rift. I managed to free her but. . .I’m afraid I haven’t been able to feel her since.”

“If you couldn’t connect to her, then who was flying her?” Coran asked. He looked toward Lance as the obvious answer, but Lance shook his head.

“It was actually Miss Caelia.”

“Young Ryo’s friend? The one they brought in the pod?”

“That’s right,” I confirmed.

“We’re still trying to figure that one out, ourselves,”  Lance said with a shrug.

Coran worried his mustache. “The Lions have allowed temporary pilots before, especially if their Paladin is indisposed. That is likely the case here. What worries me is how the Black Lion appeared in the hands of this new enemy at all! And then to drain her? Such a thing would take a very powerful Alchemist indeed. . . ”

“And someone who knows something about the Lions,” I added.

That was the most worrying part of all this. There were only a handful of people who knew the Lions well enough to attempt such a thing – and except for the three of us standing here, they were all dead. At least, the versions of them that had existed in this universe.

“The other prisoners say Caelia and the Altean girl were right in the thick of things. We’re hoping might shed some light on this matter once they wake up,” Lance said.     

Coran laid his hand on my shoulder, and in true Coran fashion said in a chipper voice, “Then you should go to them. Worry not, Paladins! I’ll see personally to Black. We’ll have them both back on their feet in a spiffle.”

I gave the old advisor a tired smile. Even if we were no longer connected, it was good to know Black had someone looking after her. “We know we can count on you, Coran.”

——-

We made our way to the hospital’s healing pod room. On my way in, I paused by the pod holding the Altean girl Lance had found in the hold. There was something familiar about her, but I couldn’t place exactly what. Lance and I had spent a fair amount of time here on New Altea, so it was possible we had crossed paths before. I figured it would become clear once she was awake and we interacted.

She had other watchers as well. A short mouse-like alien wearing a patient’s robe stood in front of the pod, watching it anxiously, while an attendant stood a respectful distance back.    

Her other observer was Azlan. He stared at her face, his tail swishing.

“Someone you know?” I asked him.

“I’m hoping not,” he said darkly. I waited for Azlan to elaborate, but he didn’t seem in the mood for a discussion. He turned his attention pointedly away from the Altean girl, over to Caelia’s pod. I followed him over.    

Ryo and Juni sat against the wall near Caelia’s pod, shoulder to shoulder with a blanket wrapped around both. Juni rested her head on Ryo’s shoulder, drowsing, and he had draped an arm around her. Ryo looked as exhausted as the rest of us, but I knew he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. He just kept staring at the pod, waiting. I knew he’d been reassured, but couldn’t bring himself to believe it until she woke up.

I looked at the sleeping girl. There was something familiar about her face, too. But mostly, I was struck by how young she looked. I knew she had been a teammate with Juni and Ryo, but from the way they had described her, I had expected her to be at least a couple years older, not the same age. Guilt welled in me. She was far too young for the responsibility of the Black Paladin. While I knew first-hand a kid their age could handle being the Paladin of any of the other four Lions, Black called for maturity and leadership that didn’t belong in a minor’s hands.

I also knew that first-hand.

Lance cleared his throat behind me, and I turned. Doctor Holt had come over.

“I can’t thank you enough for rescuing her. And Ryo, for that matter. You do well with him.”

I shook my head. “Don’t thank me yet. It would seem we’ve run into a complication. It appears  she’s bonded to the Black Lion, at least temporarily.”

“But how is that even possible? Aren’t you the Black Lion’s Paladin?”

“Like he said, it’s a complication,” Lance answered.

“I see.” Doctor Holt pursed her lips.

I extricated myself from that conversation and headed over to Ryo and Juni. Ryo turned to look at me as I approached, rousing Juni with the motion. “You should both get some rest. Sleep if you can. She’ll be in there a day or so, and you watching won’t make it go any faster. Trust me.”

Lance walked over. “I can tell you first-hand that these things work miracles.”

Ryo looked between the pod and me, heart and head clearly at war. I offered him a hand up. “Don’t worry, I assure you someone will come get you as soon as anything changes.”

Doctor Holt added, “And I’ll be right here. She won’t be alone.”

With a nod, he let me help him up. Then he offered the same help to Juni.

In the pod, Caelia twitched. Ryo stiffened.  

“Nothing to worry about. Just a neurological pulse. It can happen as a side-effect of the healing process,” the technician on duty quickly explained.

“She’s just dreaming. She’ll be fine,” Lance clarified.

Azlan twitched his tail and asked what he knew everyone else must be thinking: “Are you sure? We don’t even know what they did to her! Will the healing pod really be able to fix it?”

Lance found the words I was looking for before I did. “A healing pod will heal her injuries, but it can’t change what’s happened. But Black accepted her, and that means her heart and head are both still in the right place. That’s as good a start as any.”

Chapter Text

 “Keith, wake up.”

My eyes snapped open at the sound of Lance’s voice. I rolled off the side of the bed and reached for the Blade hidden under the mattress in one smooth motion. I pulled the weapon up to realize that the enemy was only Lance himself.

“Whoa! Jumpy this morning!” Lance said.

Embarrassed, I lowered the weapon. Knowledge that there was an enemy at our doorstep had awakened old habits. “Sorry, Lance.”

“Look, I get it, we’re all a little on edge right now. There’s someone out there who can make Gates and pull our Lions out of . . . .wherever they’ve been the last two hundred years. I don’t like the situation much myself.”

“What’s happening?” I asked him.

“I just got a comm from Romelle. She says that Altean girl we rescued should be waking soon, if we wanted to be there. And that her name is Azura.”

“Right.” I threw on a set of clothes.

We made our way to the Medical wing, where Romelle was monitoring the status on the pods, alongside the technician on duty. Caelia still slept in her pod. Azlan was there watching over her, although the rest of their circle were notably absent. I hoped that Ryo was getting some rest at last, although Doctor Holt might have just locked him in his room for the time being.

“‘Morning, Sirs,” Azlan said as we walked in the door.

Romelle turned toward us. “Keith! Lance! Oh good, I was hoping you would get here for this. She should be waking any tick now.”

Before we could even walk over, the technician made a noise to get our attention. The blue shield phased open, and Azura stepped out of the pod. She staggered forward for a moment with the daze we had all come to expect. Romelle stepped forward to support her, while she got her feet under herself.

She looked around the room to get her bearings. Then she saw Caelia in the pod across the room, and tensed. She looked at Romelle, really saw her, and sank to her knees. She clawed her hands through her hair, stared at the floor. “No. . . .No, no, no, no, no. . . .”

Lance looked to me, alarmed. That was not the reaction either of us expected.   

“It’s all right. You’re safe now,” Romelle said gently.

The girl looked up at Romelle with abject horror, much to Romelle’s surprise. She stumbled back up to her feet, avoiding Romelle’s touch. The moment her foot touched the pod, her expression changed. She looked out across to where Caelia was sleeping, her expression flat. Suddenly, she dashed forward for the pod control, and grabbed hold of the technician.

I took my dagger in my hand, but hesitated to act. I had no desire to hurt her. Lance raised his hands placatingly, and took a slow step forward.

Azlan was faster. He dashed from the other side of the room, and launched himself at Azura. She released the technician in surprise at the impact, and the two of them rolled. Furious, Azlan flashed his Blade into its sword from and pressed the edge to her throat. She stopped fighting and stared at the Blade, then at Azlan.

“Azlan!” Lance cried out. “What the Quiznack are you doing?”

“Protecting you! This isn’t a prisoner. This is a spy!”

I remembered then that Azlan had said that in his universe, the Alteans had joined the Galra Empire under the Regent. To him, her being Altean made her suspect, just as the Galra were suspect when we first joined the war against the Empire. But not all Galra had been happy with the Empire – a fact that Azlan should be keenly aware of, as a member of the Blade of Marmora – and it was probable there were a few Altean dissidents as well.

“Azlan, stand down!” I commanded.

Azura turned her head in our direction. She saw me, and her eyes grew wide. She looked again at Azlan. She spoke so softly I almost didn’t hear it.

“You. You’re the kit from the cryo facility on Eta-nine,” she whispered.

Azlan growled and moved to strike.

“Azlan!” I snapped.

His arm trembled. He moved like an invisible hand was holding back his wrist. Then, with a disgusted sound, he pulled back the weapon and released her from his pin. Romelle came forward to help the girl up. This time, she did not pull away in terror, but still seemed uncomfortable. The technician kept their distance.

Lance pointed to the door. Azlan flicked his tail, but followed the silent instruction.

 ——-     

Lance and I followed him out. I had expected that there might have been complications with Ryo with the whole situation, but I had not counted on them from Azlan. Of the three kids, Azlan usually was the most even-keeled. Apparently, we had just found what would set him off.

“That was uncalled for!” Lance reprimanded him.

He stopped in the hallway and whirled to face Lance. His lip trembled. “Don’t you get it? I’m trying to protect you! To protect Caelia! Didn’t you see what she was trying to do?”

“It looked like she was trying to take control of the pod,” I recalled.

“Exactly! She was going to try and take Caelia and escape!”

“Are you sure about that? Or are you not thinking clearly right now? We’re all worried about Caelia — ”

“Don’t you get it? She is one of – of them! She’s an enemy!” Azlan spat.

Lance folded his arms. “Listen, Azlan. I know in your universe, the Alteans have made some bad decisions. Some of ours did, too, for a time. Just because she’s — ”

“She’s not just any Altean! She’s one of the Regent’s inner circle!” Azlan yelled, furious now.

“Are you sure? Or might you be mistaking her for someone else?”

“I’m sure of it.”

It was plausible. Azura seemed to have known Azlan. Still, something about this didn’t sit right with what the other prisoners had said. Azlan wasn’t going to like what I was going to say next. I knew my younger self wouldn’t have. Especially when I was already angry.

“Azlan, the prisoners say that she was also one of them, disguised as a Galra. Back at the Rift, she was attacked by the Arch Druid for trying to save Caelia. Why would someone working directly for the Regent do that?”

Azlan threw up his hands, his tail lashing wildly.

“I don’t know! Maybe she was spying on the Druids! Maybe the Druids were doing something they shouldn’t have been. Wouldn’t be the first time there was a power struggle in the Empire! Besides, you saw how she panicked when she saw she’d been captured by us. Why would she do that if she was working with us Rebels?”

Lance sighed, “Actually, it makes perfect sense.”  

I turned to my partner, waiting for his insight on the matter. Azlan glared at him, waiting for the retort.

“Azlan is right. She IS a dark Altean.”

Okay, that was not what I was expecting. I raised an eyebrow.

“Lance?”

“Think about this: she’s one of the Regent’s own, but she’s had a change of heart. She panicked because she saw that she and Caelia were in an Altean facility. She must have thought she was home. And if the Regent is as bad as Azlan says, that would be the worst-case scenario for a traitor.”

I turned to Azlan. “Do you think that’s a possibility?”

“More likely she’s here to spy on us. The Regent plays a long game. And even if she has switched sides — she’s switched sides. You can’t trust that she won’t turn on us just as easily.”

Lance sighed. “Azlan. People can change. They can be better, if you give them a chance. I say we give her a chance.”  

Azlan’s face cracked. Tears beaded up at his eyes. “Fine! Trust her if you want. Just remember: your other self trusted the Alteans. And you died for it.”

And with that, he ran off. I rubbed my temples and looked at Lance.

“Are you going after him or am I?”

Lance groaned. “Normally I’d say you, given the whole Blades thing, but I think maybe you should be the one to talk to Azura.”

“Usually comforting the distressed is more your strength.”

Lance frowned.  “Yeah, but given what we’ve seen, I think she might be more willing to talk to a Blade than someone with, you know,” Lance said, touching his marking.

He had a point. “Right. Guess we switch off, then.”   

——-     

I caught up with Romelle, who directed me to a small room off the medical wing. Given Azlan’s reaction, Romelle had posted a guard at the door, but had left the door open in a gesture of good faith. It had a small round window set high in the wall, a bed, small table, and a chair. When I arrived, Azura was dressed but sitting in the bed, staring at the window and rubbing her thumb across her forefinger.

I paused for a moment on the threshold, trying to collect my thoughts. A short word and a smile to a refugee while distributing supplies was a decidedly different type of interaction than trying to convince an unsure ally. There were reasons I refused to lead the Galra; diplomacy that didn’t involve getting rid of problems wasn’t my strong point and I knew it.

She stopped and looked up when I entered. She stared at me for a moment, as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing, then realized what she was doing and quickly turned her gaze on the floor.

“Hello, Azura,” I said. That was a solid start, right?

“Have you come to interrogate me?” She asked.

It seemed like Azlan was correct at least as far as she was an Altean from his universe. She expected us to be enemies. I tried to think of the right platitudes, then said exactly what came into my head instead. “I suppose in a sense. We’re in need of a bit of information, and the other prisoners think you know something about what happened at the Rift.”

“Because I’m Altean?” She said bitterly.  

“I was thinking more about the fact they said the Arch Druid went after you in particular. In my experience, it’s common practice to target someone who potentially has power over you. And knowledge is power.”

She stopped her movements. “I have no power over the Arch Druid. He was angry with me because I interrupted his precious experiment.”

“To save Caelia,” I said.

She didn’t look at me, but she lifted her head a little at Caelia’s name. “You know her.”

“No, but she’s connected to one of my Blades. And therefore she’s one of mine, too.”

That made her look at me. She stared again, taking in details of my features, before turning her gaze back to the blanket. She knit her fingers together, with bits of cloth lumped between. “May I ask you a question?”

I sat down on the chair. “Of course.”

“Are you really the Red Paladin?”

I almost corrected her to say that I was the Black Lion’s Paladin. “Former,” I said instead.

She continued to fidget with the blanket. “I see. Because Voltron was destroyed?”

“No. In this universe, we defeated the Galra Empire and Honerva, though at great cost. Afterward the Lions left us. No one had seen any of the Lions in two hundred years, up until your Druids summoned Black from wherever she was resting.”

“Then your universe is in danger. The Arch Druid won’t stop until he has his hands on all the Lions. And once he does, he will destroy this place.”

So the prisoners were right. She did know something about what was happening.

I tried my best to meet her gaze. “We will fight him, Azura. And if you help us, I think we can defeat him.”

She balled the blanket into her fist. Her hands trembled. “If I do that, the Regent will kill me. Even now she is searching for me, Paladin. I’ve managed to stay hidden for now, but she will find me. If the Arch Druid doesn’t get to me first.”

“We won’t let that happen. We’ll find a way to help you,” I said.

She looked at me again. Searching my eyes for signs of truth, I supposed. She looked away again. “No one can help me. You should just kill me now and get it over with. At least then, you’ll have justice. At least I’ll be able to give them that.”

I screamed internally. What would Lance say to bring her around? I tried to remember what I had said to refugees as we had helped them. But this girl was no ordinary refugee. If Azlan was right, she was once our enemy, and likely had much to atone for. When I looked at her, though, it wasn’t some monster I saw. I saw myself as a kid, lost and hurt and alone. If I hadn’t met Shiro when I did, who knows what things I would have done?  

“I thought that once, too,” I told her.

“Don’t lie to me, Paladin. Voltron doesn’t accept the unrighteous.”

I thought about Zarkon and snorted. “Maybe in your universe we were all more like Shiro. But in ours, the Lions were willing to accept an awful lot of our mistakes. Maybe you should do the same for yourself.”

She just looked at the floor. “You don’t know what I’ve done. What I’ve allowed to happen.”   

I turned and put my hands on the back of the chair. “No, I don’t. But I do know we do things we don’t want to when we’re scared and can’t see a way out. And that doesn’t mean someone can’t help us. That doesn’t mean we can’t turn ourselves around.”

I gave her a few moments to consider my words, then continued with another push.

“Azura, I know you care about Caelia. You risked your life to help her at the Rift, and tried to help her again in the pod chamber. If you want to make amends for what you’ve done – or allowed - you can start by telling us about what you know about what happened to her. So we can help her.”

She hesitated. I could tell she wanted to help, but she was scared. Rightfully so. Then she said softly, “I don’t know. I know that he was trying to make a being able to survive within the Quintessence field. But I’m not an Alchemist. I tried to learn, but I don’t fully understand the conversion process. I can’t undo it. I’m sorry.”

I was trying to find some words of comfort when her face twisted with anger. She tore the blanket. “I did this to her, Paladin! The young Blade is right to hate me! I’m useless. I knew what the Druids were doing, and I let them take her, even though I knew that every person they took, died in body or mind. Every one. I should have stopped it, but I was too scared. I ran away from the Regent, I spied on the Arch Druid, but I was too afraid to do anything to stop them.”

I rocked back on the chair a little, taken aback by the sudden confession. All right, it would seem that she had at least some trust in me after all. But this was a fragile moment. If I said the right thing here, I could win her over. If I did the wrong thing, she’d likely collapse entirely. I thought about what Shiro would do in a moment like this. What would Lance do?

What would Hunk have done?

Well, I didn’t have any food on me, but I talking to him about things in the kitchen once. That made me recall something Shiro had said. Was it to Hunk? To me? Or had I said them? I couldn’t remember that now, but I remembered the words.

I leaned forward and set my hand on the bed, just to get her attention. When she looked at it, I said, “You can’t be brave without being scared first.”   

She looked at me questioningly.

“You’ve been scared, and you’re scared now. It’s okay. But if you want to make it up to her – to all the others – be brave now. Tell us what what we need to know to fight.”

Chapter Text

In my mind, I was a little girl again. My mother and I sat on a cliff overlooking the sea. I spread my arms wide and grinned at her.

“Mama! I’m going to be the best pilot the Garrison has ever seen! I’m gonna fly all the way out to the stars and back! Just you wait!”

The memory shifted. I was someone else, sitting in an office of a senior Garrison researcher. He  smiled at me, and handed me a datapad.

“Congratulations, pilot. You are going to fly further than any human has ever been from Earth.”

Another place. My house. Ryo and I had just come in through the kitchen door. My parents were in the living room, and I could hear my father shouting. 

“You can’t be serious about letting her apply! When are you going to tell her the truth about what happened, Sofia? The Garrison is dangerous. What Catherine is doing is dangerous! Do you want her to suffer the same fate as you? As Yumiko?”

The scenes started moving faster, blurring together, starting with a man that wasn’t my father, but could be: 

“If you go, don’t expect me to be waiting for you when you get back.”

“Ntare, Kogane, Bard! You’re up next in the simulator. Let’s see if you have a better performance than last time.”

“Champion . . .”

“I am going to make you strong.” 

*

I opened my eyes to a blue blur. I was exhausted, but I felt strangely light. I couldn’t feel the floor beneath my feet. I tried to move my hands, but couldn’t manage more than a twitch.  

I remembered pain. The Rift’s energy flooding through me. Then, being in the Black Lion. I shoved my own energy into it, trying to get it to fly. We were trying to escape the Druid’s summoning grounds. The rest was an exhausted blur. There had been a battle? I remembered dodging an attack. And then. . .a crash? Someone taking me.

My eyes slowly focused, and I realized I was trapped inside some sort of pod.

No, not again.

The blue blurred into purple. I choked on open air as fluid pressed down own me, into me. I had to get free. I had to get out. I couldn’t do this again. I couldn’t —

And then suddenly my feet were on solid ground. I stumbled forward, gasping for breath. Someone caught me. I pushed back on them reflexively, trying to get away, but my weak arms barely made more than a laughable impact. They pulled me against them and pinned my arms to keep me from moving.  

“Caeli, breathe. Just breathe. It’s Ryo. I’m here, you’re safe. They can’t hurt you. You’re safe,” my captor murmured in my ear.

Whether it was the sound of his voice, the steady pressure, or the feel of another heartbeat, my brain fog started to lift. Things came into focus. “Ryo?”

He relaxed his grip on me, and I looked up at him. He looked down into my eyes, and the fear I could read in them was palatable. He swallowed nervously.

“Caelia?” He asked, uncertain.

“It’s okay, Ryo. I’m okay. I’m sorry I worried you.”

He pulled me back into a hug. I leaned my head against his chest, and not just because I was exhausted. His warmth was a much-needed comfort. I didn’t realize until now how much I had missed his hugs. How much I missed him.

“No! It’s not okay! I lost you,” he sobbed over me. “You were gone, and I didn’t know what to do. Caelia, you are . . . If it weren’t for the Paladins, I . . .Caelia, promise to never leave me like that ever again!”

“Believe me, I don’t plan on it,” I told him, just letting him hold me until everything he had bottled up had come out. Once he started to relax, I added wryly, “Besides, in retrospect, it really was not one of my brightest moves. Experimental Galra prison: 0 out of 10. Do not recommend.”

He squeezed me tight, as though he might squish all the pain out of me. It was heartwarming, except for one small problem.

“Ryo, I can’t breathe,” I croaked, tapping on his back.

“Sorry,” he laughed sheepishly, and let me go.

I looked around. We were in a room filled with a handful of pods like the one I’d just come out of, although all the others were empty. The architecture very clearly wasn’t Garrison, and it wasn’t Galra, either. The style was so different I didn’t know how I could have confused this place for a Galra lab.

We also weren’t alone.

“Caelia!”

Juni?

I vaguely remembered hearing her voice while I was in the Black Lion. She came running toward us, with Azlan close behind. Yes, I thought I remembered hearing him, too. Then I did a double take, as I realized Doctor Holt was standing not far behind them. Had they all come to rescue me?

I didn’t have time to contemplate things, because Juni threw herself at me in a flying hug. I fell into Ryo, who managed to hold the three of us just long enough for Azlan to land. The four of us toppled over in a heap. I couldn’t help but laugh. I put a hand on both Juni and Azlan, the best hugs I could manage in this sudden kitten pile.

“You scared us! No more running off and getting captured, do you hear me?” Juni exclaimed at me.

“Yes, Ma’am! Understood, ma’am!” I laughed.

“It’s not funny!” She yelled at me, which of course only made me laugh harder.

Doctor Holt cleared her throat at the foot of our pile. “Mister Azlan and Officer Ntare, that is not how you treat someone who just woke up from a healing pod!”

Azlan got off immediately. Juni followed suit with a mouthed apology to me, and Ryo helped me to my feet. I wobbled a little, and he supported me until I found my footing. I was still feeling a little lightheaded, and quiznack I was hungry. My stomach growled, but first things first.

I saluted Doctor Holt. She stared at me. Too many emotions passed across her face at once.

“Caelia Estella Hedrick McClain.”

I wasn’t sure if I was about to get pulled into another hug or cuffed across the ear for my idiocy. I braced myself for both.

Doctor Holt wrapped her arms around me. She touched me as though I might break into a thousand pieces if she pushed too hard — never mind what my friends had just done.

“Hi Aunt Catherine,” I whispered, and pulled her in for a much firmer hug. Permission given, she squeezed me nearly as tightly as Ryo.

“You are in so much trouble when we get home, young lady,” she whispered in my ear.

“Duly noted.”

She let me go, and announced more clearly, “Now, let’s get you dressed and some food in you, explorer.”

——-

Juni guided me to a changing room nearby and pressed a protein bar that she’d been carrying in her pocket into my hand. I devoured it, then started going through a pile of strange clothes in various sizes that had been left there.

“Juni, how did you and Doctor Holt get here? Did Azlan bring you? And where exactly is here for that matter?” I shook out a black vest that was decidedly too large for me and set it aside.

“Doctor Holt brought us here through a Gate. No, she made it. We’re in the Medical ward of the Palace complex on New Altea. You crash landed the Black Lion not far from here. Which was spectacular, by the way. You were in this nose dive and I really thought you were going to die, but then you caught yourself at the last second and managed to land without killing anybody!”

I didn’t remember any of that. I must have been flying on instinct. I did remember, however, that I’d been carrying passengers aboard.

“Are the passengers okay? There was one girl in particular. Looks like an elf?”

“Altean,” Juni corrected me. “The native species of this planet.”

Altean, of course. The word was familiar. So familiar, I wondered how I had forgotten it.

Juni motioned me over to her and began unsealing the suit I’d worn inside the healing pod. “She’s okay. They had to put her in a healing pod, like you, but she’s already awake. Which is funny, when I think about it because she looked like she had way worse injuries than you, but maybe yours were more. . . internal. . . .”

Juni trailed off as the suit came free. “Oh, Quiznack.”

I looked over my shoulder and caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. A long purple-pink lightning-scar ran down my spine and branched across my back. I turned, and the suit slipped down, revealing matched sets of scars circling my arms from just above my elbows. There were other changes, too. My hair was longer than it should have been, with the bottom third bleached out and stained violet and a handful of vibrant purple strands mixed throughout.

But all that was nothing compared to my eyes.

I stared. The limbal rings around my irises, which had always been prominent, had been transformed to a purple so bright it seemed to glow. I’d seen a similar sheen to Albrecht’s eyes, but I had assumed it was merely a characteristic of his species. I leaned into the mirror for a better look. For a moment, I thought I saw the shadow of lavender markings across my cheekbones as well, but I blinked and those were gone.   

I stepped back from the mirror, and the reflection of my eyes. My decidedly not-human eyes. Oh, Quiznack, how was I ever going to explain that to my mom and dad? Or worse, the Garrison?

The thought of that summoned a troubling memory. I lay strapped to a medical table, while a man wearing a hazmat suit touched my arm — no, not my arm. A metal arm.

No, that wasn’t right.

I sat down, my heart racing. I ran my hands against the sides of my head. What was that just now? That wasn’t my memory. That was . . .Shiro? Shiro’s memory? Quiznack, it appeared there were going to be some lasting effects from my little adventure in the Rift. I took a deep breath to ground myself.

“Caelia, are you okay?” Juni asked, kneeling in front of me.  

“Just a bit of a shock, that’s all,” I told Juni.

“I’m sorry, I should have warned you. I thought you knew,” Juni said. No wonder she hadn’t stared when the others had. She noticed, but she hadn’t been worried about the changes, because I hadn’t been worried. I wondered how long I had been like this.

“Not a lot of mirrors in prison,” I said.

“For what it’s worth, the look suits you,” Juni said. She handed me a tunic, which I was grateful to see had long sleeves. I quickly changed into my provided clothing.  

When I was done, Juni grabbed my hand, “Now, come on! You’ll feel better after you eat. I promise. I’ve got something special made just for you! And Ryo has a big surprise for you, too.”

I wasn’t sure I was ready for any more surprises. But Ryo usually didn’t like surprises, so whatever he had planned for me was probably safe. And I really could use the food. Even with the protein bar, I couldn’t remember the last time I was this hungry.  

“All right, lead the way.”

-----

We walked to a garden. I paused just outside the doorway to take everything in. There were so many plants. Live plants! We were surrounded by flowers. I breathed in the fresh air. That alone made me feel so much better.

“Over here, Caelia!” Azlan called. He, Doctor Holt, and Ryo stood waiting for us, along with two men I had never met before. A table had been set in the middle of the garden, with fancy plates, a huge covered pot in the center, and a kettle boiling for tea.

Ryo stepped up to me, while most of the others settled into seats at the table.

“Caelia, before we eat, there are a couple of people you need to meet.”

We walked over to the new men. I noticed him wipe his free hand on his pants as we approached. Twice. I raised an eyebrow at that. Ryo was shy, but not antisocial. People didn’t usually make him this nervous.

I took a good look at them. I would have guessed they were human if it weren’t for a couple of details. One of them had face markings like Azura’s, only blue instead of red. The other bore a Marmorran Blade, which meant he was Galra-born. They both seemed familiar, but maybe that was because the Blade had a remarkable resemblance to Ryo.  

“Sirs, this is Caelia. Caeli, I would like you to meet…my dads. This universe’s version of them, anyway.”

Oh. That’s why Ryo was suddenly so nervous. Seeing the three of them together, the family resemblance was unmistakable. 

“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Caelia. The name’s Lance,” the one with the blue markings said, extending his hand with a motion like a courtly bow. It was so ridiculous a small laugh escaped me as I took it.  

The touch triggered another memory that wasn’t mine: a brief flash of him when he was a teenager, flashing a similar smile. Along with the image, I remembered facts about this man I had never met. He was the Blue Paladin: pilot of the Blue, then Red Lions. Ranged combat expert. Sharpshooter.

Oh, Quiznack, that was disconcerting. The next time I saw Shiro, I was going to have words with him.  

“Nice to meet you, Sir,” I made myself smile at him. I hoped everyone would chalk up my critter-caught-in-headlights moment to sudden nerves while meeting a hero. Or, you know, my best friend’s not-dead parent.

No one commented on my behavior, but I caught Ryo’s other dad watching me with a troubled expression. Lance turned toward him, annoyed. “Keith! What are you doing? You’re being terrifying. Say hello.”

Keith.

This time I was prepared for the overlay of impressions, but I was caught off guard by the intensity of the emotion that rose up along with them. Shiro and Keith had been close. They had known each other a long time before —

Before he became Shiro’s successor as Black’s Paladin.

Keith was the rightful pilot of the Lion who had been kidnapped by the Arch Druid.

The one I had flown. When he was there.

Oh.

Oh, no.

No wonder he was staring at me like that. I had somehow stolen his ship. He was Ryo’s dad. And a Blade hero. And a Paladin of Voltron. And I had stolen his ship.

Quiznack. Quiznackquiznackquiznackquiznack.

He acknowledged me. His voice was soft but his expression remained intense as he said, “It’s good to meet you at last. Ryo’s talked a lot about you.”  

Right. Patience. Focus. Breathe.

I tried to recover. I extended my hand to him. “Hello, Mr. Keith. I mean Kogane. Ah, Black Paladin, Sir . . I. . .Uh. . .I’ve heard a lot about you.” 

He stayed where he was, so I turned the attempted handshake into an awkward salute, then immediately flushed with embarrassment. Oh, that could have gone better. At least I maintained enough self-control to keep from face-palming myself on the spot.

To make matters worse, my stomach let out the largest growl in the universe.

Lance saw the horror spreading across my face and took pity on me. He put his arm around Keith’s shoulder, and started to steer him toward the far side of the table. “Come on, Keith. What are we thinking, keeping hungry kids from their dinner? We can talk after.”

Azlan pulled out a chair for me next to Ryo.

I sat down and looked at the dish. “Please don’t be jello,” I muttered to myself as Juni lifted the lid for me.

It wasn’t jello.

“Is that Arroz Congri?”

Juni shrugged. “Not exactly, ‘cause of the whole not-on-Earth thing. But Lance found me a recipe that his friend put together as an approximation from local ingredients.”

I jumped out my seat and gave Juni a hug. “You’re the best!”

“Don’t thank just me. Azlan and Ryo helped me make it. None of us could sleep very well last night, and Lance said you’d be hungry when you got out of the healing pod, so we put our heads together to make something we thought you’d like, but wouldn’t be too fancy. . .”

“Thank you,” I said to everyone. I looked around the table and grinned. Phantom memories and lightning scars or no, I had the best friends and family a person could ask for. If my parents had been here, it would have been perfect.  

Much to my embarrassment, I started to cry.

“Are you okay?” Ryo asked immediately.

I wiped my eyes. “I’m fine. Just happy to have all of you. To be here with you.”

To be alive.

-----

The Arroz Congri, or its approximation, was excellent. And Juni was right, I did feel better after I ate. Everyone else’s spirits improved too. I sipped at sweet berry-flavored tea as the sun set, and my friends talked and laughed around me. Azlan and Ryo were trying to impress Keith about some Blade thing, while Juni teased them, and Lance pointed out plants to Doctor Holt.

My gaze wandered. Over the top of the garden hedge, the last of the light illuminated a cluster of statues on a hill. I recognized Allura at the center, and Shiro off to one side. I closed my eyes and traced the lines of the scars running down my arm, remembering the feel of them, of the Rift’s energy coursing through me. I could feel traces of energy even now, flowing through the world around us and connecting us. I’d always had some sense of it, but the sensation was stronger now and had a tangible quality to it.

I could feel the distant pull of another energy as well. I wasn’t sure what it was.  

I looked over to see Keith watching me intently. I gulped the rest of my tea.

He tapped his glass and cleared his throat to get the table’s attention. The table quieted.

“Now that we all have had time to recover and relax, there is some business we need to discuss. Caelia, I am glad to see you are doing well. I hate to ask this of you, but we need to discuss what happened back at the Rift.”

Lance shot him an annoyed look. “Now?”

“Our enemy is still out there. We don’t know when he will strike again. We need to discuss our next steps dealing with them, especially regarding Caelia and the Black Lion.”

I curled my hands into fists and nodded. Heat gathered in my chest and a tingle ran down my scars. I wasn’t sure what was happening with me and the Black Lion, but I was willing to do everything in my power to fight Artor and his Druids. I wouldn’t let them do to anyone else what they did to Albrecht. To me.

Before I could answer, Doctor Holt set aside her tea with a loud clack. “I’m afraid there isn’t much to discuss in that regard. Thanks to your help, we have found Cadet Bard. And thanks to your scientists, we have managed to get a Gate built. Tomorrow, we will be activating it and returning to our world.”  

“What? We’re leaving already? But we just found Caeli!” Juni said.            

“Yes. We have accomplished what we came here for, and now we all need to return home as soon as possible.”

“But the bad guys are still out there! We need to help!”

“Precisely, Juniper. There is a multi-universal threat, and we need to prepare. We have to protect our loved ones. We have a place in this fight, but it isn’t here.”

Beside me, Ryo fidgeted. He was unhappy. Anxious.

“Ryo?” I reached over and touched his hand.

Ryo looked at me with an expression that broke my heart, before turning to Doctor Holt. “Actually, about that, Ma’am. I’ve been giving this some thought over the last few weeks, and I’ve decided I’m not going to return to the Garrison. My family is here. The Blades need fighters here.”

He squeezed my hand once more, before letting go and turning away. “Caelia, I’m sorry.”

We’d just reunited. Would we really be parting ways again so soon? The thought added to the gathering ball of fire there. I’d meant what I had said to Ryo back in the pod room. I didn’t want to leave him again.

“And there is also the matter of the Black Lion,” Lance said, shifting the topic back. “Caelia is her Paladin, at least temporarily.”

I recognized the stubborn set of Doctor Holt’s jaw and wondered if Lance was going to be able to win this argument. “Caelia is still a cadet! A child! You have a military here trained for such events. Surely can find yourselves another pilot.”

More anger bubbled up at that. I might have been a cadet when I left, but the experiences I’d had since leaving my universe were those of an adult. My scars burned, and I felt a surge of energy rising within my core at the thought of it. 

“I was also still a cadet when I became Blue’s Paladin,” Lance argued.

“It’s not that simple,” Keith said at the same time. “We don’t just choose the Paladins. The Lions do. And if Caelia has connected to Black, she has a responsibility here.”

“That’s right, Doctor Holt,” I said, but Doctor Holt wasn’t listening. That made me angrier.

“Has she even truly connected to Black? Or was it just a one-time flight? We all saw how it ended,” Doctor Holt insisted.

“The Lions don’t make mistakes!” Azlan shouted. “Black chose her because she’s amazing! She fought the Druids alongside our rebel forces. She planned missions. She’s the one who kept us alive when the Galra cornered us!”

“And she was taken instead! Hasn’t she already been hurt enough fighting your battles?”

Argument broke out across the table. I didn’t know what to do. My gut told me to stay. I wanted to stay. But Doctor Holt wouldn’t accept that without a solid reason.

On one side, I missed home, and Doctor Holt made a very reasonable argument. This place had established fighters, and our home only had us to protect them. I looked at my scars. I had been changed and maybe those changes could be used against the enemy. I could be our home’s protector in a way others could not.

But I also didn’t know how the Garrison would react to my changes. I couldn’t protect them if I were stuck in a lab, and Shiro’s memories did not give me confidence about my welcome. And I knew I could fight alongside Ryo and Azlan if I stayed, while Doctor Holt and Juni brought knowledge for our defense. Fighting the enemy in itself was a form of defense.

Then there was the Black Lion. If I had truly connected with the Black Lion, I needed to stay here. But that was currently a big ‘if’.

Everyone was shouting, upset, scared. The chaotic energy resonated within me, bringing my own anger about the whole situation to its tipping point. The scars along my arms burned as the fire from my core started to flow down them. I slapped my hands on the top of the table and stood, barely managing to cut off the flow of energy and my anger both before they became a real problem.

“That’s enough.” My voice shook.

Everyone stopped and looked at me.

“Caelia?” Doctor Holt turned to me, shocked. I didn’t know whether she was more shocked by the glow fading from my hands or the fact I was no longer acting like her obedient cadet. I might have broken rules growing up, but I had never disobeyed her.

“Doctor Holt, it is correct we don’t know the exact nature of my connection to the Black Lion. I understand the need to protect our home. I also understand and appreciate your concern for me. However, my place in this fight isn’t your decision to make. Respectfully, Paladin Sirs, it’s not your decision either. It’s mine. And I need some time to think.”

I saluted the table. “Thank you, all, but I’ll be taking my leave now."

Then I left before the frayed strands of my emotions could break completely.

Chapter Text

“Patience yields focus,” I muttered to myself. I could certainly use a little more of both at the moment. I walked as fast as my feet would carry me short of a run, with my will clamped hard over both my energy and emotions. I ignored the voices of my friends telling me to come back. Another word from one of them, either harsh or loving, might be enough to set me over the edge. I couldn’t risk that.

Just moving helped me to calm down. By the time I had made my way to the edge of the Palace complex, the glow had faded entirely. I still wasn’t ready to go back yet, though, so I went in search of somewhere else to take my thoughts.

There wasn’t a desert nearby to take a ride in, but there were hovercraft similar to the racers back home. A Palace attendant let me borrow one, along with a riding suit and helmet, without asking too many questions. I was halfway through figuring out the vehicle’s controls when I heard Azura’s voice behind me. 

“Caelia? Is that you?”

“Azura? You’re okay!” I went to hug her, then remembered she was skittish about anything more than a brief touch. After what happened with the Arch Druid, I had an inkling as to why.

“I am fine. But what are you doing here? I heard you had awakened and were with your friends. Did something happen?”

“Nothing you don’t know about already,” I said, showing her the scar that peeked out from the edge of my sleeve. Well, she knew about everything but the memories, and I wasn’t sure how to talk to anyone about that just yet.

Azura bowed her head. “I am so very sorry, Caelia.”

“Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do this. In fact, I seem to remember you trying to save me,” I said. She started to argue with me, and I cut her off with a gesture. “I’m not blaming you, and that’s final.”

“Why are you so quick to forgive?” she asked with a hint of frustration.

“That’s easy. I like having friends better than I like having enemies,” I said.

“But how do you know they are friends? What if they betray you?”

I wondered again, what kind of life Azura had come from before she got thrown into prison. “Well, how did you know you could trust me when we met? Part of it’s observing people, seeing what they’re like. But part of it’s instinct, too. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut about people.”

“And your gut says you can trust me? Despite the fact you know I was hiding my true self?” Azura demanded.

“Well, yeah,” I said. I knew there was more to Azura than she let on, but my gut told me her heart was in the right place.

I didn’t want the company of those closest to me right now, but I also didn’t really want to I be alone. And it seemed like maybe Azura could use some friendly company right now, too. I walked over to the rack and grabbed another suit and helmet, before climbing back onto the hovercraft.   

“Say, Azura. I’m going for a ride to clear my head about a few things. Do you want to come?” I tossed the second set of gear in her direction. She caught them deftly. She thought about it for a moment, then put them on and climbed up behind me.

“Hang on tight. I drive fast when I’m clearing my mind.”

-----

I kept the speed reasonable as we passed through the city, but as soon as homes gave way to meadow, I kicked things into high gear. Azura leaned into the motion with the ease of an experienced racer, making me wonder again about her past. I wondered, too, about what her future held. Doctor Holt said they’d built a Gate to send people home. Did she have somewhere safe to return to? Or would she join Azlan and the rebels against the fight?

We rode through the fields in silence for a long time as I contemplated my own future. I didn’t have any destination in mind, but I wasn’t surprised when eventually we found ourselves at the site where I’d crashed the Black Lion.

Machines had been set up in a perimeter around the Lion to reenergize it, fueled by crystals whose thrum of energy I could feel in my bones. Engineers had been working to repair the damage Black had sustained, but it was late, and no one was here now. There wasn’t even more than a single guard; Black wouldn’t let anyone inside that she didn’t want there. 

Doctor Holt’s words hung in my mind. Had I really been chosen by Black, or was I just a convenience back at the Rift? I knew that this was Keith’s Lion, and I really shouldn’t be here. But being here, I felt that pull in my chest again, like I’d felt earlier.

“Is this what you wanted to clear from your mind?” Azura asked.

“A big part of it,” I admitted.

I approached and Black let us in. We made our way to the cockpit. Once there, I couldn’t help tracing my hand across the control panel. I remembered the functions of different parts: those were comms, that was for navigation, those were the mega thrusters; that knowledge was easier to hold than the memories about people.

I sat in the pilot’s seat. Again, I knew wasn’t supposed to, but it felt right. Maybe those were just more lingering impressions from Shiro, though. A thought occurred to me: when I had flown Black before, I still had lingering bits of Shiro’s quintessence within me. Had Black responded to that?

Had Black really accepted me? I supposed there was one way to find out. I put my hands on the controls. Azura watched wide-eyed as the controls powered up under my hands.     

“The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation,” she said in awe.

I snorted. I was most definitely not in control at all times. “Where did you hear that?”

“My mother told me that when I was very young.” Azura answered so sadly, I was sorry I’d laughed. She touched the side of the cockpit reverently. “She told my brother and me many stories of Voltron and its Lions. I dreamed of seeing them one day, maybe even getting the chance to fly one. Such a thing was impossible, of course.”

“Why?”

“Voltron of my reality was destroyed.”

Oh.  

“Well, do you want to go for a ride in one now?” I asked her.

“Do you think that is wise?”

In response, Black’s screens lit up. I felt an encouraging push in my mind. “It seems like Black wants us to.”

All right, time to see what this kitten could do. I moved the controls and Black stood. The cockpit lurched upward; Azura grabbed hold of the pilot’s seat. I pulled on levers and pushed petals again, and Black rose up onto her haunches and launched into the sky. I grinned. This was why I joined the Garrison. Beside me, Azura let out a small chirp of startled excitement.

We gained altitude. I pulled Black to one side, and we turned a little wider than I had intended. I tried again, but this time I overcompensated. Azura grunted, and I apologized as we whipped around. I tried again, in the other direction. I gave her a little more altitude and then pushed her forward. Black was heavier than the shuttles in the Garrison simulations, so I pushed for a little more speed than I normally would.

That was a mistake. Black was heavy, but her acceleration was far greater than any Garrison shuttle. We shot forward, straight for the Palace control tower. I pulled her up at the last moment.

A communication window popped up on my screens to my left. I saw Lance and Keith both there. “What are you doing?” Keith demanded.

“Taking Black for a test drive?” I answered, turning her too hard again. I didn’t think it was possible to skid in midair, but I managed to do it.

Lance chuckled under his breath as I did another mid-air skid trying to get the feel for Black’s responses. “Well, looks like we have our answer about whether Black’s accepted her or not. I don’t think Black would let just anyone fly her like that.”

“Caelia, bank left!” Keith shouted as I came a little too close to the control tower. I managed to turn without hitting the control tower.

“Sorry. She doesn’t handle like a Garrison shuttle.”

Lance chuckled. “No, not quite. But don’t feel bad. Especially since I hear Black has a high learning curve. Why don’t you try doing a roll?”  

Keith let out an exasperated sigh. “Not helping, Lance. Caelia, that’s probably enough for now. Bring it in, we can discuss things later.”

I felt the pulse from Black again. An indicator flashed onto my navigation screen, showing a location not far from the planet’s outer atmosphere. “Just a minute. I think Black wants to show us something.”

“Caelia,” Keith warned, but the communication cut out as we shot up through the atmosphere toward where Black had pointed us. Azura hung onto the seat with a grunt. We cleared the planet’s ring structure in the blink of an eye. Not far out from us, I caught sight of a strange light-structure in the sky.

“A wormhole?” Azura said.

I toggled the communication. “Control tower, are you seeing this?”

Again, I felt the pulse from Black. Before I realized what was happening, she flew forward of her own accord into the wormhole.

-----

We came out the other side into the remains of a planetary system. Another indicator appeared on my navigation screen, pointing me toward a large asteroid toward the center of a cluster where a planet had once been. I felt another pull from Black, urging me forward.

I inched us forward. Hundreds of asteroids of various sizes were scattered around us, and it wouldn’t do to run into any of them at speed. I knew Black had decent armor, but even small debris pieces had the potential to do damage at high velocity, and I had failed the simulator enough times to have no desire to experience the result in real life.

I reached for the communications again, then pulled back before sending a message. My gut was telling me that Black wasn’t just taking us sight-seeing. I needed to keep alert. I kept us as close as I dared to the larger asteroids as we approached the target, using them for cover as we approached. Black pushed me forward with a growing sense of urgency.

We approached the target, and I zoomed the scanners in on unusual objects as we passed them. The debris here was more than just space rock. I picked out patterns etched into surfaces that looked like they had once been part of a building. Like the planetoid where Artor had opened the Rift, something civilized had once been here. I snapped pictures of some of the ruins floating among planetary remains.

Behind me, Azura made a small sound.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There’s so little left, I can’t be sure, but I think these are ancient Altean ruins,” she said.

“Why would Black bring us way out here to see old Altean ruins? Didn’t we just come from Altea?”

“It would be more accurate to call them proto-Altean ruins,” Azura corrected. “The civilization that came before the first written histories of the Alteans you have seen.”

I smiled. “That’s impressive Azura, to be able to identify that from just these few ruins!”

Azura, however, immediately went crestfallen. “The Arch Druid and the Regent are both obsessed with them and their workings. You can’t be around them for long without picking up on a few things,” Azura said darkly.

Just how long had she been around them, I wondered. It was clear she knew the Arch Druid, but the Regent as well? A few things were starting to make sense to me now.

“Caelia, slow down,” Azura pointed to view screen, pulling my mind back to the present. I mentally kicked myself for letting my thoughts wander.

I checked where Azura was pointing on the sensor feed. I recognized the edge of a Galra cruiser peeking just beyond the edge of one of the largest asteroids. I ran a more thorough scan of the area, and Black’s sensors picked up indications of several smaller vessels as well. Pirates?

“Quiznack.”   

I felt the pull the same moment I saw a too-familiar glow from our target asteroid’s surface. Azura saw it too, and her face pulled back with the terror of recognition. The Arch Druid was at work again. Anger welled up in me anew, and this time it wasn’t just my own. Lightning sparked within my veins, and suddenly I wasn’t just looking out the view screen. I was seeing through Black’s eyes, and we were both focused on one thing.

“Azura, get us comms. Send coordinates to the IGF. We’re going to need backup,” I commanded as I sank into Black’s mind. I knew I lacked the skill to fight the Galra forces alone, but we couldn’t just stand by and watch. Our sister was in danger, and we weren’t going to let her be hurt like we had been.

Decision made, I abandoned my caution. I pulled back on the throttle, giving Black the speed she asked for. The moment I moved forward, alarms went off as the other vessels caught us in their sensors. Fighters deployed and began to chase us. I dodged their fire, but I didn’t move to engage them. I only had one goal: to make it through to that glowing asteroid.  

My hands and feet moved the controls, dodging cannon fire and asteroids. As my focus narrowed, it became less about moving a ship and more about moving myself. I was racing again, only instead of moving within a narrow desert canyon, I was moving between floating stones. 

Proximity alarms went off as the Galra ship moved to intercept. I twisted and turned to dodge support cannon fire. Once, twice, I wasn’t quite fast enough and we rocked sideways from blast impacts. My armor held, though, and I kept moving forward. Always forward.

On the surface of the big asteroid, the light was beginning to take on shape. We fell through the thin atmosphere like a falling star as a pattern emerged. On the surface, captives fell. I felt a surge of the Arch Druid’s power, and a shimmer like light reflecting off water appeared in the center of the pattern. And all around it, rising thorns.

No. Not again. Never again. Black asked, and I answered. I reached over and put my hand on the Bayard-key sitting in its port; I turned it. My quintessence flowed into her, and wings unfurled as we hurled ourselves at the Arch Druid with a roar.

-----

Space fragmented around us. Black and Azura vanished. I stumbled forward into a sea of stars under an eclipsed sun, with the Bayard still in my hand. The void shimmered around me, and I heard a coughing laugh. The Arch Druid materialized on one knee just outside my reach. His mask cracked and dropped away. 

“So, the Black Lion has a new Paladin,” he hissed, one hand pressed to his side over a glowing set of claw marks.   

I turned to face him. In my hand, the Bayard took on the shape of a saber.

“Are you going to fight me, little Vessel?” He rose to his feet, with a sneer.

I slipped into a balanced stance. “I’m not going to let you hurt anyone ever again.”

“And I thought the Black Paladin was supposed to be wise,” he said. Dark energy shimmered, and a sword like Ryo’s formed in his hand. Without warning, he lunged.

I sidestepped and parried, then shifted the balance of the blade on his to press my attack. For just an instant, I had the better of him. Then he vanished, throwing me off-balance. I stumbled as he expected, but I recognized the tactic and managed to be ready for his counter-blow when he re-appeared. I parried him and kicked him as I rolled.

I got to my feet and we circled each other, both wary now. I’d lost the advantage of him underestimating me, but he still didn’t know me well enough to know how I fought. I didn’t know him either, but I’d seen enough of his work to make a few guesses. He was arrogant, but smart. He’d use his ability of teleportation to full advantage. How could I counter that?

“You know if you die here, you die in the real world, little Paladin,” he said, trying to distract me.

“I don’t intend to die here,” I answered, keeping alert.

Something moved in the reflection of stars below us. I barely dodged the vine of thorns that  burst up through the sea of stars. I slashed at it, and it vanished into a puff of black smoke. I kept going, reversing the angle of my attack as I ran at the Arch Druid. He teleported away from me, but the tip of my Bayard-sword came away dark red.

More thorns burst up through. One wrapped around my leg, and I slashed it away. As my sword moved low, another wrapped around my wrist. A third burst up and wrapped around my other arm. I remembered being held by chains as I watched Albrecht die within the Arch Druid’s Coffin. I dropped to my knees, nausea welling up.

The Arch Druid reappeared in front of me. “You’re forgetting, Vessel. I made you. I know exactly how you work.”

He reached down and touched the center of my chest. I expected to fade out, but instead energy blossomed there, and began pulling. Shreds of star-stuff began to flow into me. Black’s essence. The thorns released me, and I clutched at myself, fighting to control it. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Black. 

The Arch Druid stood over me and his sword rematerialized in his hand. “Pity. You were such a success.”

“Black will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times.”

The words echoed all around us. I felt a rising energy behind me. The Arch Druid took a step back.

Control. That was right: I had to take control. I punched down on the ground and levered myself up as I reached inside to shunt the flow out in counterbalance like I had before. Lightning branched across my shoulder blades, spreading outward in a new pattern. Shaking, I got to my feet. I raised my sword. Black’s energy filled me, but this time it was a giving flow.  

“I am the Black Paladin, and you are not welcome here,” my voice reverberated.  

Star stuff reached up to swallow the Arch Druid. He backed away in fear and vanished. 

-----

“Caelia! Wake up!”

I gasped as I reawakened on the physical plane. My scars were glowing, still weakly trying to pull in energy from my surroundings. I took ragged breaths as little by little I managed to rein it in. Finally, the light died, leaving me exhausted and in no small amount of pain.

A round of cannon fire hit the asteroid in front of us, jarring me back to my senses. I was sitting at controls of the Black Lion. We were on the asteroid, and there was a battle raging above us. The glowing pattern was gone, and Blue Lion lay curled up like a kitten in front of us. The Galra cruiser attacked from above. There was no sign of the Arch Druid.

I had a feeling the bastard had managed to get away again.  

“Caelia! We have to move!” Azura called my name a second time.

“Got it,” I groaned. My everything hurt.

“You all right, kid?” Lance voice called over the comms.

Lance? I looked up at the battle screen and saw another large vessel moving to engage the Galra cruiser. A cluster of friendly fighters branched down from the battle to approach us. I had no idea Azura had even gotten through to anyone, let alone help had arrived. Just how long had I been out of it?

“I’ve been better, but I’ll pull through.”  

“What the Quiznack did you think you were doing?”  That was Keith.

“Trying to save Blue,” I muttered as I concentrated on getting Black up again. One leg, then another. I felt like I was going to throw up.

“Well, don’t you worry about things, because the cavalry has arrived,” Lance said. A moment later, a fighter hovered over the Blue Lion and Lance dropped down onto her. He climbed into a hatch.   

I kept watch as the Blue Lion came online. It would appear that she had been summoned, but not bound or drained. Black and I had managed to arrive in time to prevent that. Lance walked her in front of me. His face appeared on the comms screen, now illuminated by a blue glow. “All right kid, just watch and see how a pro does it!”

Then he jumped into the fray. Keeping just far enough back to watch, I followed.

Chapter Text

“Control tower, are you seeing this?” Caelia asked from Black.

Beside me, a controller brought up an image on the screen from Black’s location. Lance let out a small exclamation. “That’s a wormhole!”

“Caelia, do not go through that!” I called through the comms. Static answered me as Black flashed forward.

“Quiznack!”

I pounded the table with frustration. Of all the impulsive, irresponsible things to do! How had Black chosen someone like this? The girl had barely recovered from her ordeal and had new abilities none of us understood and she barely had in check. Now she had decided to take Black and go – who-knew where!

Worse, we had no idea whether Caelia was even in control of the situation. Black had been taken before, and Azura was with her. I wanted to trust the young Altean, but I had to be sensible about things. Azlan had identified her as an enemy; it was entirely possible she had tricked us.

I turned to the chief controller behind me. “Command, do you have any traces on that wormhole?”

“I’m sorry, Sir Paladin, but it’s not one of ours.”

I let out a string of curses in Galran and stalked out the door. Lance raced to keep up with me. “Hey, Keith. Where are you going?”

“Where do you think I’m going? I’m getting in a ship and going after that idiot.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh? She said Black was trying to show them something.”

“She didn’t have to follow the suggestion!” I exploded. Lance pulled back, hurt. I paused in the hallway. I passed a hand over my face. “Sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

“You’re really worked up about this.”

I started walk-running again. “How can I not be worked up about this? There’s a kid who we just rescued barely flying Black through a wormhole into what very well might be a trap!”

Lance followed me out to the landing platform. My wrist comm flashed, and I answered it. “Keith, we just got word that Caelia and Azura just vanished with the Black Lion?” Romelle said, alarmed. 

“They went through a wormhole. Not one of ours. Has the IGF made contact about bringing any ships here recently?”

“I haven’t heard, but if it’s a part of normal operations, they would not have contacted me directly,” Romelle answered.

“See if you can find out,” I said, and closed the communication.

Lance took the opportunity to get in front of me. “All right, Keith. Time to take a minute to calm down. That wormhole will be closed by now, and we don’t have any leads yet. We can’t just go zipping off without a destination in mind!”

I growled deep in my throat with frustration, but Lance was right. I slowed my pace, but kept moving. Every moment that passed was one more Caelia might be in danger, when she should be here and safe.

Quiznack. How had I managed to screw this up so badly, so quickly? First Black, now this.

My wrist comm activated as we reached the flight landing. Romelle again. “Keith, no leads on the wormhole, but IGF command has detected strange energy readings on the fringe of the Venetian System. They’ll be sending in a cruiser to investigate. We can set up a wormhole for you and your team to rendezvous.”

Team?

In answer to my unspoken question, a squadron of Altean fighter pilots came out onto the platform, ready to fly.  

The foremost of the Altean pilots snapped me a salute. “We’re awaiting your orders, Paladin, Sir.”

I looked them over. It had been a while since I’d been in command of a mission, but I slipped easily back into the mindset. “Lance and I will take point. Form up behind us and be ready for anything.”

-----

We rendezvoused with the IGF Prometheus within the Venetian System. By the time we arrived, action was already taking place. Our instruments were picking up on activity by multiple ships, including a Galran cruiser, gathered near a cluster of asteroids in what might have once been a planetary orbit. Our instruments were also picking up a series of unidentified energies emanating from the asteroid at the cluster’s center.

Behind me, Lance hissed. “Quiznack. I take back what I said about this not being a big deal.”

“What is it, Lance?”

“My markings are active. And I can feel something from that cluster of asteroids,” he indicated the same one my instruments were tagging. “I . . .I’m not sure, but I think it might be Blue.”

That was all I needed to hear. “Prometheus, we have a target and are engaging.” I sent the coordinates of the strange energy.

“Acknowledged. We are also getting what appears to be a distress signal from that location.”

“Black?” Lance asked.

“Understood, Prometheus. Glad to have you at our back.”

We broke from the Prometheus, which moved to engage the cruiser, and headed for the cluster. I twisted and turned, weaving my way through the considerable debris in the system. The Altean fighters followed behind us.  

Alerts sounded on my controls, and I instinctively rolled as a sudden burst of cannon fire came at us. I looked and saw a pirate vessel and a squad of Galran fighters had been waiting in the debris field. They swarmed us now, keeping us back. I cursed and tried to break through, but they forced me to engage. As we fought, I suddenly felt a pulse of power.

For just an instant, I felt Black again.

Below, the glow vanished. Lance gasped again.

“You okay back there?”

“Yeah. You feel that?”

“Yeah. Blue?”

“Blue’s definitely down there. I can feel her, but she’s not responding. I don’t think she’s awake? Dunno if that’s good or bad.”

“Sir, get down there, we got this!” one of our fighter pilots called out over the comms. I had momentarily forgotten that we had other fighters with us. He moved in front of us, forcing the enemy to clear from him and cutting us a path down.

We burst through to the asteroid’s surface. Just as Lance had said, Blue was there and dormant. Black was with her, powered down. She was flat on her side, like she’d tried to attack something and had skidded out. A pattern like the one we’d seen at the Rift site had also been etched into the stone here, and I could see bodies, but there was no sign of the enemy. Just what had happened down there?   

“Black Lion, do you read?” I called out over the comms.

“We’re here and alive,” Azura called out over the comms.

I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “What happened?”

“The enemy was here. We moved in for an attack and something strange happened. One tick we were going after the Arch Druid, the next we were here on the ground and the enemy was gone. Caelia’s passed out, but I think she’s starting to come around,” Azura answered.

It sounded like Black had phased. It was one of her higher-level abilities, and it could be incredibly dangerous to use. I was as impressed that Caelia had managed to tap it so soon as I was frustrated that she could have been so reckless. 

Before I could ask more, a volley of cannon fire shot past us and impacted on the surface of the asteroid near Black. I looked back to the battle and saw one of the pirate vessels had broken through and was now targeting the Lions. Further out, the Prometheus and the cruiser had engaged each other.

“You all right, kid?” Lance called out.

Below, the Black Lion started to move. The eyes flickered as she came back fully online, while the pirate vessel moved around for another go.         

“I’ve been better, but I’ll pull through,” Caelia said. 

I snapped at her, “What the Quiznack did you think you were doing?”

She said something in response, but it was too quiet for me to hear. That just annoyed me more. Another blast went by us, pulling my attention back to the battle.

“Keith, get me to Blue,” Lance said. “I’ll get her up.”

“All right,” I said, and started my approach. Lance connected his suit to the ship’s comms, as he prepared himself for a drop.

“Well, don’t you worry about things, because the cavalry has arrived!”

I dropped Lance. As soon as I saw him get inside Blue, I turned my attention to the pirate vessel being a headache. As soon as I approached one of our fighters fell in at my side. Another two Altean fighters joined in the formation. We harried the pirate ship and landed a few solid shots, which was enough to make them back off. That was a good thing about pirates; most tended not to stick around in a fight once things got threatening.

My sensors pinged with a new object as Blue came online below.

“All right kid, just watch and see how a pro does it!” Lance called out as he launched himself toward the Galra crusier. Black followed close behind.

By now, most of the other pirate vessels had also scattered, but the battle was still heated between the Prometheus and the Galra ship. Lance engaged, firing with his tail laser and then dashing in to tear at the cruiser with his claws. Caelia echoed his motions. Through the corner of my eye, I saw her summon Black’s double-bladed jaw dagger and tear a long gash in the side of the hull, only to take a direct hit from a Galra fighter.

“Caelia, pull back,” I called out.

“I can handle it!” She yelled back.

We both made small noises as our sensors flashed a warning of energy buildup from the Galra cruiser.

The Prometheus hailed us as it powered up its main cannon.  “IGF fighters, get clear of the Galra ship!”

“No! Don’t fire! There are innocents aboard that ship!” Azura called out.

The hesitation was long enough for the Galra cruiser to retreat. I cursed loudly, along with several others. We had been so close to taking them down!

With their leader gone, the pirate vessels hastily retreated or surrendered. The battle was over.

-----

Aboard the Prometheus, I met up with Caelia and Azura as they exited Black. Since the Lions could take care of their own power-down cycles, Lance was already there waiting for them when I arrived. Caelia walked down the ramp, holding herself stiffly and staying close to Azura. Her façade crumbled a little as she tripped up at the bottom of the ramp. Lance rushed over to catch her, even though Azura already had her.

To anyone else watching, it only looked like a small trip, but I knew from experience exactly what she was doing. She might look like she was fine, but she was struggling to even stay upright. It was too much. She had done too much.

 “Easy there, kid. You did good, today,” Lance said.    

“Did good?” The words shot out of my mouth.

“Keith?” Lance looked at me, surprised.

I turned on Caelia as my temper boiled over. “What the Quiznack were you thinking, taking off by yourself like that? You’re still recovering. You barely know how to fly Black! You could have been killed! You know better. Black wouldn’t have chosen you if you didn’t know better!”

Instead of shying away, she straightened herself and shouted right back, “Black knew Blue was in danger! We went to help her!”

That only made me angrier. “You should have come to us, told us what was happening! When you fly Black, you are part of a team! Quiznack, you are supposed to be leading that team! You, more than anyone, have a responsibility to be sensible about the risks you are taking! I don’t know what Black was thinking, choosing someone who could be so quiznacking irresponsible!”

“Keith!” Lance called out. I ignored him.

Caelia looked up at me, resolute and furious. “I didn’t know it was dangerous until we were there, and then I called for backup! But I will be damned, Sir, if I ever turn my back on someone who needs me!” 

“IT DOESN’T HELP ANYONE IF YOU GET YOURSELF KILLED DOING IT!”

Lance stepped between us. “Keith, that’s enough!” He dropped his voice so only I could hear him. “I know you’re mad, but don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing!”

I glared at him, and he returned the look.    

Behind him, Caelia was still staring at me. She had tears in her eyes. She was trembling. But she wasn’t backing down. Not from me, not from dying, not from anything. Quiznack, she was like me. Too like me.

With a frustrated grunt, I took a step back.     

Azura stepped forward, so she was standing just behind Caelia. “Sir, if I may? If we hadn’t gone where Black pointed us when we did, Blue would have been captured. There was no time to wait for backup. And our going there also brought us a vital piece of information about the enemy. I . . .I think I may know now what he aims to do. And I would like to discuss it with you, and your IGF leaders in person as soon as possible.”

“Fine,” I gritted out.

Lance slowly lowered his hands and moved away.  

I turned my attention back to Caelia. My tone came out flat and cold, but that was the best I could do. “Recklessness is a poor trait in a Black Paladin. Don’t let it happen again. Now get yourself down to med bay. That’s an order.”

“Yes, Sir,” Caelia answered, then spun on her heel and left. Azura went with her.

“Keith,” Lance reached out to me, but I shook him off. If I interacted with anyone else right now, someone was going to get hurt.  

“Go see to Blue. It’s been a long time, and I know you’re happy to see her again,” I snapped.

I left, yet again feeling the weight that I was supposed to be the one with Black.  

-----

I went to the training deck while Prometheus got underway, and took out my frustration on training dummies. By the end of it, I had attracted quite an audience. I wasn’t sure how many of them had come to see the legendary Paladin, and how many were fascinated by the sheer destructive capacity of Galra rage. At least I’d been careful not to engage my Blade for any of it. I didn’t need to have to replace half of the room’s equipment on top of everything else.

Lance found me in the locker room afterward. He down on the bench next to me.   

“Looks like the Prometheus is taking the long way out of the system out an abundance of caution, so we’ll be staying the night here. Caelia’s asleep in med bay. Poor kid’s exhausted, but her scans all look good.”

“That’s good,” I sighed. I wasn’t sure what I would have done at this point if she had been hurt.

“Hey, listen. We need to talk about what happened earlier. You were awfully harsh with Caelia. She might have made mistakes, but that was no reason to go off on her like that,” Lance said.

I knew I had screwed up earlier. It had been ages since I had lost my temper this badly; it seemed like all sorts of old bad habits of mine had been cropping up lately along with the new version of our old enemies. Part of my past reminding me of another.

“I know. I’m sorry, Lance. This . . . this is why I didn’t want to be a parent! Shit like this. I’m not Shiro, I don’t have a knack for dealing with kids.”

Lance didn’t answer right away. He ran his hand through his hair and looked at the floor. He was disappointed in me. I didn’t blame him. I should have told him right away about my misgivings when he brought up having children. I wanted to try. I really did. But if this was what I was going to be like, I couldn’t do it.

He sighed, “Keith, we both know that’s not true. Yes, you’ve had a bad day. But you’ve done fine with Azlan and Ryo. Better than fine, really. You’ve even managed to put up with Juni. And how many Blades have you trained over the years? How is this any different?”

He looked at me.  

“It’s because this isn’t really about Caelia, is it? This is about Black.”

I got up off the bench and started pacing. “She shouldn’t have been out there, Lance! It should have been me out there flying Black. I am Black’s Paladin! Me!”

It had been the wrong thing to say. He scowled at me. Stared. Like he was looking for signs of something terrible written in my expression. Finally, he said in a low voice, “Zarkon said the same thing, don’t you remember? Jealousy is a terrible thing, Keith.”

“I’m not jealous!”

Right? I wasn’t Jealous. I didn’t hate Caelia because she was flying Black, right? The very thought of that made me sick to my stomach. Quiznack, I wasn’t Zarkon! Right?

Right?

“Then what are you feeling?” Lance asked me.  

I didn’t have the words for it. Why couldn’t I put things into words? I turned, tried, failed. I paced back and forth. Finally, I slammed myself back down onto the bench. How could I possibly put into words the feeling that I was waiting for some kid to die in my place? Because of a mistake I had made.    

“Lance, flying Black is my responsibility. It’s dangerous! I should be the one in danger. Getting hurt. Not some kid! She’s only there because I fucked up and broke my connection to Black! I fucked up, and now some kid is paying the price for my mistake! She doesn’t deserve that!”

I curled up there, cut by the depth of my guilt. Guilt. That was what I was feeling. The two of us sat on the bench together for a long while in silence, each caught up in our own thoughts.  

“Did any of us deserve it?” Lance said at last.

I didn’t have a good answer for that. It had been different when we had been the kids that got roped into fighting an interstellar war. At least, that was what I wanted to say. But this really wasn’t all that different. Echoes of the past, truly.

Lance got up and stood in front of me. He took both my hands in his.

“Keith, it isn’t about what we deserve. It’s about what we do with what’s in front of us,” he gave my hands a gentle pull to get me to stand. “And right now, you need to be able to put your feelings about Black aside. I hope more than anyone that your connection is restored. But in the meanwhile, you can’t let it eat you alive. Because we need you. You are Voltron’s leader, Keith. Even if you’re not in Black. And the Universe is going to need Voltron again, before this is over.”

My partner had a talent for putting things into words, even when I couldn’t.

I chuffed. “Maybe you should be the one flying Black.”

“Don’t think the thought hasn’t crossed my mind,” he teased me, and kissed my head.

Chapter Text

“Vessel, I made you.”

In my dreams, I could feel his hand on my chest again. Only this time, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. I kept pulling, pulling, pulling everything into me. It didn’t stop with Black. I watched her die and then the destruction spread out from her, consuming the Paladins, my friends. It all crumbled to dust around me while I grew brighter and brighter with white-hot energy until --

I woke up in the med bay, covered in sweat and biting back a scream. I ran my hand through my hair, my multi-hued too-long hair, and panted.

“A nightmare,” I said. “Just a nightmare.”

I tried to go back to sleep. Instead, the events of the last day kept playing through my head. My scans were good, the doctors had said. I was fit for duty. But how could I be fit for anything, when I was a time bomb? Why would Black choose me, knowing this?

I got up and walked out of the med bay. No one stopped me.

I went to Black. She let me in, of course. I climbed up into the pilot’s seat and pillowed my head against the controls. And then I cried.

“What are we doing, Black? Why choose me? I’m damaged goods at best, a time bomb at worst.”

“I can’t count how many times I asked myself that,” Shiro said from behind me.

“What the Quiznack?!” I yelled as I launch-tumbled myself out of the chair and peered over the side of the arm rest. Shiro’s apparition waited patiently for my brain to catch up to my other senses. 

“You seemed like you could use someone to talk to,” he said, as he walked over to the floor an sat down, then patted the floor next to him in an invitation.  

“Are you here or in my head?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“A little of both, I think. We’re both connected to Black, so she’s letting me manifest here,” he said, giving the control console a fond pat. “But I’m not sure if anyone other than you will be able to see me, so maybe don’t tell Keith for now.”

I came and sat beside the ghost.

“Urgh. Don’t worry, I don’t think Keith will be talking to me anytime soon if he can help it. I’m pretty sure he hates me.”

Shiro laughed loud at that. “If you have any doubt that Keith hates you, then you are safe, trust me. He isn’t the type to hide those emotions. He’s hurting right now, though, so he’s going to be a little gruffer than usual. But if anything, he’s worried about you.”

“Seems like everyone is. And they don’t even know the half of it,” I said, wrapping my arms around my knees.  

Shiro’s voice dropped. It went soft and serious as he said, “And that’s why I’m here. You’re worried about what’s happened to you, that you can’t control it. That you’re putting your loved ones in danger.”

“Pretty much sums it up,” I said, staring at my scars yet again.

“You should tell them.”

“But they’re already so worried about me. I don’t want to lay that burden on them, too!”

“It doesn’t work like that. They’re going to worry about you anyway. They’re your friends, and they love you. It happens.” He let out a deep sigh. “Keeping all your worries to yourself won’t help, trust me.”

I thought about that.

“But what if they’re right to be worried? What if I am a threat?” Was it just a trick of Black’s cockpit lighting, or were my scars faintly glowing?

“Then they’ll help you,” he said, laying a spectral hand on my shoulder. “But if you want to know my opinion, I think you have a good handle on things. That Druid triggered them, and you got things back under control once. You can do it again, if you need to. And a hundred times after that.”

Maybe he was right. Maybe I wasn’t a time bomb. But I still wasn’t sure how I felt about things.

“Does it ever get easier?” I asked him.

“I can’t answer for your abilities. My experience wasn’t the same. But as for the rest of it. . . the scars on the inside never go away, not completely. But if let yourself, you learn grow around them. But talking to others. It helps.”

“Like you?”

He gave me a crooked smile. “I’m here whenever you want to come talk.”

I stood up and stretched. Shiro got up beside me. I started for the door, but Shiro stopped me.

“One more thing. About Black. You might not be sure if you’re ready, but Black wouldn’t have let you pilot her yesterday if she wasn’t sure about you. Trust her. And trust your friends.”

I gave him a crooked smile of my own. “Thanks, Ghost Dad.”  

----- 

Azura arrived in the morning just after a doctor arrived with my suspiciously clean discharge form and a message from Lance:

I hope you’re feeling better, kid. We’ll be at New Altea in about an hour, and Keith and I expect you to be in the hangar ready to go in Black by then.

Well, it would seem that Keith hadn’t been mad enough at me to boot me out of Black, or throw me in the brig. Or maybe Lance had overruled him. He at least seemed to like me.

“How are your energy levels this morning?” Azura asked as she handed me the base layer of a flight suit. Anyone listening probably would have assumed she was asking how I was feeling, but I knew exactly what she was asking.  

“Better. Stable. My back sure hurts, though.”

“May I look?”

I slipped off the scrub top and pulled my hair out of the way for her to look.

“There are markings here that appear new. Do you mind if I touch them?”

“Go for it.”

Azura traced her fingers gently along my shoulder blades where I’d felt energy crackle across them yesterday. I closed my eyes as sensations from the fight came back to me.

She stopped and withdrew her hand. “Does it hurt?”

“No, just strange. I know this is going to sound weird but, it almost feels like there should be wings there.”

Azura went quiet after that, which I had learned meant she wanted to say something but wasn’t comfortable about it. She remained quiet as we navigated our way through the ship to the hangar, but I could tell from her expression that something had her truly worried.

“All right, Azura. What’s eating you?” I asked when we were alone in Black’s cockpit. We had a few minutes to chat, since Keith and Lance had yet to arrive.  

“Am I being consumed?” She said, shocked.

“Sorry, old Earth expression. What are you worried about? I can tell you’ve been thinking about something since you looked at my back this morning.”

“I am not sure it is my place to say.”

“It’s always your place to say with me. I thought that should be obvious by now.”

A pause, as I expected. And then:   

“Caelia, you need to be more careful piloting the Black Lion.”

Okay, I should have seen that coming. “I know. I rushed in yesterday when I should have waited for backup. I still stand by what I did, though. Blue was in trouble and Black --”

Azura interrupted me with more force than I was accustomed from her.

“It is not what you do that worries me. It is how you do it. You give too much of yourself to the Black Lion.”

“Too much of myself?” Did she mean when I had given Black my energy yesterday?

Azura took a deep breath and continued on hurriedly like she was expecting me to stop her.

“You have forged a connection to the Lion, and it is good you listen to her, but you must set limits, because the Black Lion will not. It is her way to push her pilots to the very extent of their limits and beyond. The. . .changes. . .Artor made to your body allow you to channel quintessence to a far greater degree than most pilots. Black senses this, and will demand more of you because of it. But you are still adapting to your abilities, and you will harm yourself if you push too far. The markings on your body are proof of this. So you must be careful about how much you allow yourself to give when Black asks. Do you understand?”

Okay, I had been expecting a lecture, but that was not it.

“My abilities, the Black Lion. You really know a lot about all this, don’t you? I guess your mom really made an impression.”

It was meant as a compliment, but Azura bit her lip and looked away, ashamed.

“Azura? What’s the matter?”

“Caelia, there is something you should know. It wasn’t just my mother that taught me these things. I trained as an Imperial Alchemist for decapheobs before it finally became clear I would never manifest the required abilities. And that which is important to the Regent is important to her Alchemists,” she said flatly.

Oh. Oh, Quiznack. Azura had been an Imperial Alchemist? That. . .would explain a lot, actually. Had she once worked alongside the Arch Druid? I wondered again what their history was, and what had driven such a wedge of hatred between them. For that matter, I wanted to know what specifically had driven Azura away from the Empire.

I wanted to ask all these things, but I didn’t. Azura would tell me that when she was ready, if she ever was.

“I see,” I said instead. “Thank you for telling me. And I promise to be more careful with Black.”

Azura must have expected more interrogation, because when I didn’t ask, she just stared at me openly. “I tell you this and you just thank me?”

I smiled at her. “Well yes. That’s not exactly a small secret. I trust you, Azura. And I’m glad that you trust me, too.”

 She shook her head in disbelief. “You are truly a strange person, Paladin Caelia.”

I turned back to Black’s controls. “Heh, wait until you get to know my friends.”  

-----  

We arrived back on New Altea near what I guessed was their mid-day. I still wasn’t sure about the length of their cycle, as I’d been there and conscious less than a full day before Black had pulled us through a wormhole. Lance led the way in Blue with Keith, and I followed close behind.  

A small crowd had gathered at the landing site – a plaza in the shape of a five-petaled flower. The spaces between the petals were just wide enough for one of the Lions, and each had been marked with a symbol. I had seen the plaza last night but hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. Now I guided Black for a spot with a symbol I recognized as hers. This time, I managed not to crash.

I waited inside Black as she cycled down and watched Lance and Keith exit Blue and greet the waiting dignitaries. Once they were well into conversation, I made my own exit. Ryo, Juni, and Azlan were there waiting for me. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Mort there with them. I didn’t see Doctor Holt.

She was probably furious with me, too.

Juni, predictably, came running up to greet us. “Caelia! What happened? Where did you go last night? They said that you’d taken Black and had disappeared with – oh.”

She stopped mid-sentence and stared as Azura took off her helmet behind me. I watched Juni start to blush profusely, wide-eyed.  

“Hello, gorgeous.”

Azura flushed and looked to me with mild panic. Just below, Ryo slapped his hand across his eyes with a groan. Azlan just watched, tail swishing, while Mort cocked their head to one side.

I chuckled. “Azura, meet Juniper Ntare of the Galaxy Garrison. Juni, meet Azura. She’s one of my friends from . . .my adventures. I can see you already met Mort.”

“Oh, this is Juniper?” Azura said, her eyebrows raising.

I grinned. “Yup, this is Juni. That’s Ryo down there. The Galra with him is Azlan.”

Azura briefly looked past Juni’s shoulder and raised a hand shyly in greeting. Ryo gave her a curt nod, and Azlan just stared at her, ears slightly flattened and his his tail swishing. Neither one of them seemed particularly happy at the moment, but that was probably my fault. Azura saw their expressions and lowered her hand.  

“I can see what you meant about him being . . . a protector.”  Azura commented. I thought she meant something more than the surface level of that word, but I wasn’t sure exactly what she was getting at.

“She knows about us?” This time it was Juni’s turn to look at me with rising terror.

Azura clasped her hands one over the other. It was a nervous gesture, but under her quiet demeanor I hadn’t seen Azura this excited since, well, ever.

“Caelia told us all about your adventures at the Garrison.”

Juni swallowed. “She did?”

I put my arm around Juni’s shoulders with a grin. “Don’t worry, I only told her things that are true.”

“You did?”

“And good. Mostly.”

Juni might have run then and there if I hadn’t been holding onto her. “Ah, er, yes. Well. In that case. Nice to meet you, Azura. I’m Juniper Ntare, but my friends call me Juni,” she said, recovering. She flashed Azura a smile as she extended her hand again, this time for a friendly shake.

Azura looked at it uncertainly. “Oh. Um, shall I call you Juniper or Juni?”

“Juni. Please,” she said, flushing slightly again.

Tentatively, Azura took her hand.  

Oh, these two were adorable. I patted Juni on the shoulder and gave Azura an encouraging nod as I made my way over to the others. Mort ran and threw their arms around me. I picked them up and swung them around with a happy laugh.

“Good to see you again, Mort!”

I set them down and they hugged my leg. “You really are better!”

I winked. “Hey, would I be taking Black places if I wasn’t?”

“Yes,” both Ryo and Azlan said in unison.

I sighed, and patted Mort on the shoulder to get him to let me go. He reluctantly let go and ran over to Juni and Azura behind us. Ryo and Azlan both stared at me, arms crossed in a similar gesture. Azlan’s ears were back with annoyance, and I could read the hurt in Ryo’s eyes.

I put my hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Look, I’m sorry I ran away. But I didn’t mean to run away in Black.”

Ryo narrowed his eyes at me, silently demanding more of an explanation.

I debated telling them for a moment, if only to spare them the need to worry about me. Then I decided that they probably would hear about things soon anyway, and it was better that they heard everything from me first.   

“The wormhole thing was a bit of an accident. I knew that Black wanted to show us something, so I let her go through. Turns out, the Arch Druid was on the other side of the wormhole. He was trying to do to Blue what he did to Black, but we managed to get there in time to stop him. I ended up in a fight with him on some weird Astral Plane and he escaped in the end, but things ended up okay.”

“You WHAT?” Azlan’s tail whipped so hard I thought he might break it, and Mort squeaked and ducked behind Azura’s legs. “You took on the Arch Druid in the Astral? Are you insane?”

Azlan was so upset that he didn’t even notice Lance and Keith approach behind him, with Doctor Holt between them. I must have missed her in the crowd with the other dignitaries. I tried to get Azlan to shut up before she heard him, but it was too late.

“Caelia! I don’t even know how the Quiznack you’re still alive! You don’t take on any Druid in a fight in the Astral, unless you have a death wish! They’re way too powerful! And you fought the Arch Druid??”

“It would appear that it is most unwise to leave my student unsupervised,” Doctor Holt glared at me from over the top of Azlan’s head. Keith wore a similar expression beside her.

Oh, I was so dead.

I stepped backward in time to bump into Juni. She gave me an unimpressed eyebrow raise and pushed me back forward again.

I pressed my hands together and took a deep breath to say yet again that it was an accident, then changed my mind. It wasn’t an accident. Black had brought us through that wormhole on purpose. I fought the Arch Druid on purpose. I had saved Blue on purpose. Quiznack, even meeting Black for the first time, I had given her my strength on purpose. I didn’t know at the time I’d been stealing it from Keith, but it had happened.

I was the Black Paladin, now. It was time to own that.

I turned the motion of supplication into a bow of respect and raised my head. “Everyone. I apologize for putting others in danger and causing you worry with my actions. I promise that I will be more conscientious in the future. But I do not apologize for embracing the path the Black Lion has offered me.”

“What are you saying, Caelia?” Ryo asked me.

“What I’m saying is, I’ve made my decision. I’m staying here to be the Black Lion’s Paladin. That is, if the other Paladins will accept me. I know I still have a lot to learn.”

Lance smiled, “More than happy to teach you, kid.”

Keith still looked like he was about ready to murder me, but he said, “That is Black’s decision. If she accepted you, then you are her Paladin, no matter my feelings on the matter.”   

I turned to Doctor Holt. This was going to be the hard part.

“Doctor Holt, I joined the Garrison because I wanted to go among the stars, and you supported me then. Once I was there, I pushed myself to be the best, because I could feel a call to be something more, and you supported me again. Well, this is that call. I ask that you support me now, one more time.”

Doctor Holt reached over and put her hand on the top of my head and ran her fingers through my multi-hued hair, like she used to when I was a little girl. “What am I going to tell your mother?”

“Tell her the truth. All of it. Somehow, I have a feeling she’ll be able to handle it. Dad, too. Though he’ll be mad.”   

Doctor Holt laughed, bittersweet. “Oh, you are your mother’s child. In more ways than you know.”

“Well, if Caelia’s staying, I’m staying too,” Juni chimed in. “I am not leaving my partners behind again. And I know they’re going to need a good mechanic!”

“Especially if Caelia is flying,” Ryo added.

“I’m not that bad!”   

“You crashed a sentient spaceship! That takes talent!” Juni exclaimed.

I groaned. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”   

Ryo grinned as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Consider it payback for running off and having an adventure without us.”

Chapter Text

“I’m sure Keith doesn’t hate you. Sure, he gets intense, but he’s actually really nice,” Ryo said.

We were seated on top of the Black Lion, leaning against each other and watching the sun set. We’d watched a few like this from the Garrison astronomy building. It felt like a lifetime ago, but it had only been. . .a few months? A year? It was hard to keep track. And so much had happened since then.  

“I stole his lion, piloted it extremely poorly, and then ran off to fight the Arch Druid by myself. I’m pretty sure I’m on his shit list.”

“Yeah, that isn’t exactly a stellar record. Now, don’t hate me for saying this, but . . .have you tried talking to him?”

It used to be that talking things out was the first thing I tried. I had been the respectable one of our trio; I couldn’t count how many times I had been the one talking to staff for Ryo, trying to get him out of trouble. Now, Ryo was the comfortable one, and I didn’t know what to say.

“Honestly, I’m a little afraid to. The last two times we interacted, he yelled at me and then pretty much said he didn’t want me piloting Black,” I bemoaned.  

“He’s probably just worried.”

“I don’t want him to be worried! I want him to trust me! I wish there was a way to get him to see what I’m capable of. For him to see the side of me you know.”

Ryo toyed with his Blade as he thought. After a while he said, “Maybe there is. But you would probably hate it.”

“At this point I’d be willing to do just about anything.”

“Then let me talk to him. I . . .have an idea.”

-----

“We’ll be measuring biometrics data during the test. If anything is a problem, we’ll stop. You signal, and we’ll stop. Got it?” Lance said.

He pressed a tab, and the biometrics suit constricted uncomfortably around my neck. Not so tight that I couldn’t breathe, but tight enough I could feel the press of the monitor nodes there, along with the ones along my spine. A few meters away, Azura was helping Juni make the final adjustments for her own suit. Ryo and Azlan were wearing their Blade uniforms as usual. I guessed Keith had a way to interface with them.

“Understood,” I replied. I had no intention of tapping out, however.

Ryo had talked to Keith, and Keith had agreed to letting us prove our skills. If we passed his test, he would treat us like adults. If we failed, then we had agreed to go home with Doctor Holt, and they would find someone else to pilot the Black Lion. I didn’t plan to fail.

With the suit in place, Lance strapped a small device to my left forearm. “That’ll generate an energy shield.” I pressed a button on the side, and a small rectangular shield formed out of light. I pressed the button again, and it deactivated.

Then he drew his Bayard and had me do the same.

“This is the weapon of a Paladin. It will adapt and take a form suited to you. Do you know how to call it yet?”

“I think so.”  I recalled the feeling of it shifting to a saber form from my fight with the Arch Druid. The weapon responded like it had in the Astral Plane, forming a calvary blade in my hand.

“Sword, huh? Keith will like that,” Lance said.

“I’ve always favored hand-to-hand combat, even if it doesn’t make sense for someone my build.”

Lance laughed aloud at that. “Oh, I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I’ve seen people smaller than you do some damage with a grapple line and electric dagger.”

“Can my Bayard make a grappling line, as well as a saber?”

“Oh, yeah. All sorts of things. But usually, it takes a while for it to manifest more than one form. So you’re probably stuck with just a sword for now.”

Satisfied, he stepped back. I gave him a salute with my saber, before stepping over to the others.

Azlan was the first to notice my new weapon. “Oh, hey. Your Bayard form’s a sword! Neat!”

Ryo tapped his dagger to my sword. “Now we can finally have a fair sparring match again.”

“You keep thinking that,” I teased him.

Juni snorted and hefted a blast rifle she’d chosen. “I always thought it was smarter to take down your enemy before they got close enough to make you bleed.”

“You just don’t know how to have fun in a fight,” Ryo flashed her a feral grin.

“You are the only person I know who thinks bleeding is fun.”

The lights in the hall dimmed. “Okay you two. Focus. Juni, inventory. Azlan. Ryo. Do you have standard Blade equipment?”

Juni answered first. “My rifle, a small medkit, multitool. Oh, and Azura gave me this pair of goggles. I think they’re night-vision.”

So that meant everyone but me could see in the dark. Cute. I mentally prepared myself for that little piece fun later. 

“I’ve got a standard Blade kit, and a pistol,” Ryo said.

“I’ve got my usual pack. Oh, and I just installed a new scanner and port into my suit,” Azlan reported. 

I looked through the utility pouch I had been provided and listed its contents out to the others: A length of cord (not a grapple line), an analog multitool, handful of med patches, a compass, a fire starter, a mirror. No sidearm. Ryo noticed my lack of a ranged weapon and handed me his sidearm.

The lights dimmed and an automated voice called out, Beginning Training Sequence.

The room shifted around us, forming risers and barriers from what had been flat surfaces. On the far side of the room, a collection of ragged pillars rose almost to the ceiling, with a wide plateau at the top. A light shone from an object atop it. I looked at the terrain, mentally mapping out a general path to what I presumed would be our target.

Keith’s voice sounded out over the loudspeaker. “You have one objective. Get to the beacon and turn it on. The test begins now.”

The beacon turned off, and the lights in the hall dimmed slightly.

“That’s too easy. Not even a time limit?” Juni said.

No sooner had she spoken than the room shifted one more time, and a sheer wall appeared between us and the goal, cutting off my line of sight. It didn’t quite reach the ceiling but was far too high to jump and too smooth to climb without assistance.

I heard a sound from the back of the room. I turned toward the noise and saw a wall of light cut across the room a few meters away. It started moving slowly in our direction. I didn’t think it would do us permanent damage, but Keith had designed this test, and I remembered how intense the Blades could be about these kinds of things.

“You had to say it,” Ryo said.

A series of clicks sounded, and several doors opened up along the sides of the open space where we stood. A squadron of surprisingly ornate attack robots stared to fire on us. I activated the shield, and gave Juni cover as best I could while Ryo and Azlan scattered. She swung up her weapon and picked off three in neat shots in rapid succession before Ryo and Azlan closed in from the sides. Azlan went to the rear and hit them there, while Ryo sliced limbs clean off using a series of moves I’d never seen before.

Quiznack, he’d gotten strong. And fast. I was really glad we were friends.

Clicks sounded again, and more doors opened, this time from the other side. More robots poured out, and this time there was a variety of them armed with blasters and melee weapons.

I raised the sidearm and took a few shots as the melee ones rushed us, then raised my sword. Juni backed off and picked off targets at the rear. Azlan tossed a handful of his micro-bombs into the far cluster. Most of them went down, smoke billowing through their pretty chest-plates. Ryo moved through and picked off the rest.

More clicks sounded, and yet another squadron came through the doors. “Urgh, more of them,” Juni muttered.

I glanced toward our oncoming attackers and realized while we had been focused on the fight, that shimmering wall had steadily been coming closer.

“Ignore them. The sentinels are just a distraction; we need to get moving! Azlan, take Juni and get to the top of that wall, and see if you can do a scan of the other side. Juni, once you’re on top, you’re our cover. Ryo, I’m with you.”

While Azlan and Juni made for the wall, Ryo and I waded into the newest group. We targeted the ones with the blasters before breaking away and making for the wall, ourselves. Juni covered us as we crossed the distance. I jumped on Ryo’s back and we zipped up the wall, with plenty of time to spare from the light-wall’s advance.

The space at the top of the wall was tight; I wasn’t even sure if I could extend my shield here. We crouched along the top, and Azlan gazed across the artificial valley. He tapped his arm guard, and a small holographic map popped up. “I’m detecting a handful of energy signatures mostly along the center of the path. Could be mines. There look to be turrets here, here, and here.”

I looked where he pointed; I saw the first of the turrets. The level, high parts of the valley were wide open to them, but if we stayed within the lower parts of the artificial valley that wound ahead, we would have some occasional cover despite more difficult terrain. I couldn’t see the mines Azlan had indicated, but from his display it appeared if we stayed out of the middle of the path, we would avoid them. The way through was heavily sloped though, so it would be easy to fall into them if we weren’t careful.

I pointed to Azlan’s map. “Okay, if we stay within this interval of the path, then I think we can get some cover and still avoid -”

“Caeli!” Ryo pulled me toward him and a shot from behind scorched past my shoulder.  

I swore and dropped down to my stomach. Juni let out a little shriek as a shot passed by close enough to singe her hair. Azlan pulled her down, barely avoiding another shot. Ryo dropped just in time to avoid one more.

“Sniper!” Juni said my thought aloud.

I peered over to the side of the wall-top. There was a place to land somewhere between two and three meters below us, so I called to the others and dropped over the side.

No sooner had we dropped down, then I heard a clank in the ceiling, and felt a surge of energy rise to our left. Ryo must have felt it, too, because his head snapped in that direction as the first of the turrets Azlan had indicated came online.

“Move!”

It blasted where we had just been standing, then started to charge up to fire again. “Keep moving!” We ran through the valley, with turret fire chasing us. The targeting and charge time on the cannons were just slow enough that as long as we kept moving, they wouldn’t hit us. The terrain didn’t help us one iota, though. In addition to the slope I’d noted earlier, the ground was rough with hummocks and the occasional jagged outcropping we had to avoid. Before long, I was breathing hard.  

We had just cleared the range of the first of the three turrets when the lights went out.

I stopped where I was and called out to the others. “Quiznack. I’m blind here!”  

“I’ll guide you!” Azlan circled back and took my hand. I moved behind him, followed by Juni and Ryo in the rear.

Suddenly, my ankle twisted on an angled portion the floor. I slipped out of Azlan’s loose grip, and down into one of the “mines”. It didn’t explode. Instead, it let out a burst of electricity that overpowered every nerve in my peripheral. I dropped to the ground, twisting with agony.

“Got you!” Ryo pulled me up onto his shoulder just before a blast hit where I’d been lying.

Juni shouted, “All right, that’s it! I’ve had it with those things! Everyone take cover over there!”

Ryo pulled me down. I couldn’t see what Juni was doing, but I heard a series of clicks and the whine of a blaster charging up. Turret fire hit a crag nearby, illuminating Juni’s crouched form at its edge. Then she released the charge. A heavy blast released from the rifle she’d been carrying, and there was a flash as the turret went down. We shifted, and Juni charged and fired again, taking down the second. I could smell the stench of heated metal from Juni.

For a few moments, there was no sound, either, except our breathing.

Then series of clicks from the room echoed around us. Nearby, I heard skittering.

Juni heard it, too. “What was that?”

“Spider drones,” Azlan said.

“I hate spiders,” Juni whined. Under me, Ryo tensed. He didn’t much care for them, either.

One the size of a squirrel jumped up and bit my leg. I kicked it off with a hiss, hoping that these things weren’t poisonous. Getting hit with toxin once was more than enough for me. Ryo threw off the ones that managed to climb onto him with a string of curses.

Juniper fired off several shots, and I saw their little metal carcasses smoke in the flashes from her fire. She cursed in a string as they kept coming, swarming over her faster than she could fire off shots. Ryo rushed forward and swiped them away with his sword best he could. 

“Flashbang!”  Azlan cried out.

I closed my eyes, and there was a flash and crackle as he discharged an EM charge. The skittering near us stopped, although I could hear more coming in the distance. 

Azlan released another handful of his bombs, clearing us a path forward, and we continued to run. We made it to the end of the valley, where the rolling terrain gave way to irregular pillars. Azlan scrambled up the lowest pillar, then pulled Juni up behind him. Juni reached for me, and I climbed up painfully as Ryo used his blade as a piton.

In this area, the terrain gave off a glow where we touched it, bright enough for me to be able to see the spider drones continuing to skitter below us. The pillar seemed too high for them to jump, and too steep for them to climb. Still, I backed away from the edge with a shudder.

We took a moment to catch our breath and tend to the wounds we’d suffered so far. Thankfully, the spider “bites” didn’t seem to be venomous, just painful.

“How’s your leg? Will you be able to climb?” Juni asked me.

I tested it. It was still a little tender, but I would be able to walk on it. “Okay. I just pulled it a little.”

Azlan said, “Good, because I have bad news. We need to get moving again. That light-wall from the beginning? It’s still headed our way.”

I squinted into the darkness, and sure enough there was a faint glow that spanned across the whole training hall about halfway down the valley.  

Azlan unwrapped his grapple line from his pack and fired it up onto the next of the pillars. He gave Juni a grin and opened his arm for her to grab hold of his torso.  “Ready to fly?”

“Oh you bet I am,” she said.

Azlan pulled them up along the line, much more gracefully than he had when we had gone up the Garrison Lab stairwell. He even did a little flip to disengage the line after setting Juni down.

“Show-off,” Ryo said when we reached the top. 

“I’m not showing off,” Azlan grinned at Ryo as he went to set his grapple on the next pillar. “I am exhibiting my capabili – urgh!”

A shot from far behind hit Azlan solidly in the arm. He hissed and dropped the grappling line to dive for cover next to the pillar. A heartbeat later, a second shot hit the line itself, slicing it in half.

Quiznack, the sniper! The wall wasn’t the only old obstacle that was still haunting us.

I brought up my shield, as Ryo moved for cover. Juni grabbed her rifle and trained in the direction of the shot, but the area remained dark. The glow from our surroundings made it difficult to see beyond the pillars, even with augmentation.

“Where?” she said.

Another shot fired. This time, it cut Ryo’s grapple line. The shots stopped coming. I looked up at the pillar-cliffs. We didn’t have our grapple lines anymore but could still climb. Parts of the pillars were rough enough for hand-holds. Unfortunately, the climbable surfaces of these pillars were totally exposed. Not to mention, we’d be easy targets as shadows moving in front of the glowing pillars.

We had to take out that sniper.

“Juni, do if I draw fire, do you think you can trace it back to get a target?”

“I think so. Maybe? But I don’t have much charge left. Maybe a couple of shots. Overclocking things earlier took a lot of power.”

“Then make it count.”

I moved up and stood, making sure to expose just enough of myself to make it look like I was trying and failing to use my cover. I took a shot into the darkness toward our assailant. If I got a lucky shot, great. But that wasn’t what I was after.

The sniper took the bait. They fired back on me, and Juni used the blast line to align her shot. That was a disadvantage of plasma guns versus bullets.

Juni breathed, fired. There was a flash and arcs of electricity as she certainly connected with something.

Whether we had hit our target or not, nothing attacked us as we ascended remaining pillars. Which was good, because the climb was not easy. By the time we reached the top, the glowing wall was too close for comfort, all of us were breathing hard, and my bad ankle was screaming at me.

But the darkened beacon was against the far wall a few meters away.

The four of us approached, wary. About half a meter from the beacon, Azlan stopped us. With an exhausted look of disgust, he took one of his stun disks and tossed it out in front. It crackled against a force field that pulsed out like the mine I’d hit earlier.

“Of course there’s a force field,” Juni moaned.

“Can you get it down?” I glanced out at the energy wall still headed toward us.

“If I can find a connection to part of the conduit, I might be able to introduce a disruptive frequency. But I need a minute to study it. And find that connection,” Azlan said.

Juni surveyed the room, then bent down and pulled out her multitool. “Leave the connection part to me. Ryo, can you make a cut here?” 

There was another ominous click from the room. I was getting really tired of those.

We looked around, wondering what terrible surprise was waiting for us next. The answer wasn’t just a ‘what’. It was a ‘who’. A single guardian dropped down from the ceiling. They looked like the robots we had fought earlier, but didn’t move like them. I brought up my shield and stood between them and our science nerds.

“I’ve got this,” Ryo said.

Ryo rushed in without the slightest hint of the exhaustion I felt. The guardian’s armor morphed, creating a sword to match Ryo’s. The two went at it. They moved with a similar grace to each other. It reminded me of the sparring sessions I’d endured among the Blades. If I wasn’t convinced this thing wanted to kill us, it would have been beautiful to watch. The two were fairly evenly matched, but if I had to guess I would say Ryo had the upper hand with raw speed and strength.

Then, in a complex move, the guardian caught Ryo up and sent him sailing over the side of the pillar.

“Ryo!”

The guardian crossed the distance between us. They attacked, and I brought up my sword in return. We locked weapons, and I tried to shift my weight to take control of the bind, but they were able to counter it. They pushed hard and locked us “hilt” to hilt, then used their weight advantage against me. I braced against the attack, then slipped as my bad ankle gave out on me. I rolled and barely managed to avoid being skewered.

Ryo swept down in attack with a feral cry. Our opponent only just managed to block it.

I glanced behind me. Azlan and Juni continued their work. Taking a chance, I moved forward. I circled the battle, keeping alert, but all too aware that I was beginning to flag. This fight was two-on-one, but our opponent was fresh and I at least was on the edge of exhaustion. I pulled on reserves within, knowing that I had to make my next attacks count.  

I waited for a moment when Ryo attacked while I was behind our enemy. When he did, I lunged at the guardian from the rear, to take them in a pincer with Ryo. The enemy moved away from my attack, and Ryo followed up with another. We danced, moving with a sync that only came with years of training together. Our opponent avoided, weaved – and then found themselves on the edge of the pillar.

Ryo raised his sword to demand surrender. 

Behind us, Juni let out a pleased squeal. I looked over my shoulder.

“Got it!” Azlan cried triumphantly. With a flash of green light, the barrier went down. He scrambled up and slapped down the igniter to the beacon. It blazed to light.

There was a boom, and the room shook. A pulse of electricity ran through the floor, strong enough to send the four of us to our knees. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes in pain as it coursed through the suit. Alarms went off all around us, and the lights in the pillars flickered. The room vibrated again, and there was the sound of an explosion.

And then the floor gave way.

-----

I woke up surrounded by rubble. Smoke and dust shrouded the air around me. Figures moved through it. Figures in masks with too many eyes. They sifted through the debris, picking up bodies of the injured. I watched one lift Juni and put her on a floating cart next to others. Another picked up Azlan’s limp from, then discarded it. He was dead.  

No.

I bit back tears. What had happened? Had they followed us back here? Had the Arch Druid tracked down Black again? Had he tracked me?

I struggled to get to my knees. I heard voices up ahead. Shouting. Ryo. He was alive! I moved through the haze, stumbling forward. The Druids turned toward me and grabbed hold. I was too battered and exhausted to fight back. They pushed me along, into the remains of a Palace reception hall. Keith and Lance lay on the ground, dead. Azura, too.

Ryo was still alive. They had bound him and forced him to his knees in front of the Arch Druid. His armor was torn apart, and he bled from a half dozen wounds that would have felled any normal person.  

“Ryo!”

He looked at me in horror. I realized now that my own suit had been torn and through the holes my scars were glowing.

The Arch Druid smiled. “Well done, my Vessel. We never would have taken this place, if it weren’t for you. Now, it’s only fitting that you deliver the coup de grace.”  

“Caelia?” Ryo asked in horror.

The Arch Druid pressed against my back, and pushed me toward Ryo.

Once again, I felt the horrible void open up inside me. Awareness of the room began to fade.  Tears streamed down my face as I tried to clamp down again on this power, but I couldn’t. It was too strong. I was a Vessel. I was the Void. I was meant to be filled.

At my feet, Ryo slumped to the floor.

Others dropped, and I felt their ghosts pull at me. You can’t stop it, a voice in my mind whispered. But you don’t have to keep suffering. Just close your eyes, let yourself go. Let the ghosts take you.

“Caelia?” Ryo whispered. He still lived. Even now, he reached out for me.

Resolve closed around my heart. I was a Vessel, but I didn’t need to be filled by ghosts. I was of the void, but so was the Black Lion. So were the stars. I couldn’t be afraid of this. Of myself. Deep within, the pull collapsed in on itself, and in its place, something else ignited.

I heard the Black Lion roar.  

-----

The Black Lion’s roar echoed down into the training room. 

I blinked up at the ceiling of the training room. It was intact. Ryo and Azlan stared down at me, kneeling at my sides. Ryo held my hand. They helped me to sit up. A few feet away, Azura was nursing Juni, who was acting like she’d been hit by a truck. Keith and Lance waited near the door. The room had returned to its original state. Everyone was fine. There hadn’t been an attack after all.

I reached up and touched the node of the suit at my neck. It was warm.

“A trick?” I murmured.

“A Trial,” Ryo corrected, as he helped me stand.

He had a glint in his eye that made me suspicious. Both he and Azlan were also entirely too untraumatized right now, compared to me and Juni. It dawned on me then that it was significant Ryo and Azlan hadn’t been wearing the same suits Juni and I had. I narrowed my eyes at him. “After we lit the beacon. You two didn’t experience that Trial, did you?” 

Azlan wiggled his dagger at me. “Only because we already did.”

“Wait. Does that mean. . ? Did we just. . . This is what they do for the Trials of Marmora?”

“Not quite. Fewer guns, more riddles about doors. The last part’s more or less the same, though, and that’s the important part here,” Ryo said.

“A hallucination caused by the suit you’re wearing, tied to your own mind, but manipulatable to an extent by the elders running the Trial. It’s different for everyone, but it always sucks,” Azlan explained, handing me a drink. 

“Facing part of yourself often does,” I murmured. I looked across the room and caught Keith’s gaze. I wondered how much of that illusion had been his doing, and how much of it had come from my own mind.

“Azlan. If the elders can manipulate what we see, do they see it as well?”

Azlan nodded.

Ryo caught my attention. “Caeli, you said you wanted to prove to Keith what was in your heart. Well, now he’s seen it for himself. What better proof is there?”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. When I had told Ryo I wanted Keith to know my intentions, playing with my mind wasn’t what I had envisioned. Still, I couldn’t really blame Ryo. He did warn me I would hate it, and I had said I was willing to do anything.  

“All right everyone, bring it in,” Lance announced. We all came together at the doors. Juni caught my eye and gave me a tired smile. I wondered what she had seen during the final part of our test.

Lance smiled at us. “Congratulations, everyone. You’ve all impressed us today. Especially you, Juni. Good skills with that rifle.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

Keith nodded to us. He still stood with his arms crossed and wore a stern expression, but there was something softer about his eyes now. “You’ve all passed my tests. Now, go get some rest. We begin training in the morning.” 

Chapter Text

The Black Lion soared over my head after shooting down the last of the target orbs, and the control tower rattled from the sonic boom that followed. Blue circled around playfully, showing off just a little, and then Black shot forward, leaving Blue it her wake. The two of them had been at this daily since Caelia had announced her intentions to remain as Black’s Paladin.

It was strange watching them from the control tower. I didn’t like it, but Lance was right. I needed to accept it. And I needed to be able to lead and support from outside. And as much as I hated the idea of her taking my place, I had to admit Caelia took things seriously and with a great intensity.

Shiro would have liked her.

Well, this morning, things were going to be a little different. I had a little surprise for the day’s training. I smiled at the screen, eyes narrowed, as without warning a Galran armed transport and an experimental Altean fighter launched from a cloaked position, firing much heavier weapons than the previous enemies.

“Lance!” Caelia cried out, honest shock coloring her voice. She’d known about the previous phase of this training, but not this.

Caelia maneuvered herself faster than I expected, and took the shots meant for Lance as well as herself. Electricity arched across Black’s surface, and Caelia cursed as she momentarily lost control of Black’s systems. Black started to fall. Lance grabbed hold of her and slowed her descent with his thrusters, which of course left him open to attack, himself.

The newest fighter zipped in and fired on him multiple times as the two ships descended, pulling in too tight and fast for Blue to be able to target him.

“Oh, he’s good,” Azura breathed up in the control tower.

“Better than good. He was by far the best in our class at Garrison,” Juni said.

Blue dropped Black the rest of the way and circled around to engage with the fighter that was currently toying with him. When Blue tried to engage, he flipped and maneuvered between the Lions, keeping in line with Black so that Blue couldn’t attack without endangering Black. Lance cursed, but didn’t take the bait.

“Too good, come to think of it. I really should have known he wasn’t human,” Juni added.

“I can hear you, you know,” Ryo said over the comms.

He dropped what appeared to be a midair buoy between the Lions as he passed and circled around Blue again to drop two others as Lance attempted to chase him down. The Galra ship engaged the buoys and formed a gravity net around Blue. Lance let out a stream of curses as he found himself caged just as Black came back online.

“Lance, you all right?” Caelia called.

“Just a little tangled,” Lance grunted with frustration.

“I’ll get you out!”

Caelia tried her tail laser, but it was ineffective against the net. The fighter circled around, nipping at her. She took damage, but she ignored the fighter. The Galra transport engage the net, and started to drag Blue away. Caelia fired on it, but the reduced firepower only bounced off the Galra’s shields. Meanwhile, the Altean fighter circled around and charged its primary weapon.

That hit Caelia hard enough for her to back off.

“Kid take care of yourself! I’m okay for now!”

The transport wasn’t firing. But the fighter certainly was.

“Come on and fight me,” Ryo muttered over the comms. I was certain Caelia couldn’t hear his voice, but Black turned her head in his direction anyway. Caelia engaged the wing thrusters and took the fight back to the high air. The two danced around each other, each firing and missing, moving with increasing speed.

Over the comms Caelia called back to Lance.

“Lance, be ready to fire your ice cannon on that transport,” she said.

“Caelia, what are you --?”

Without warning, Caelia twisted Black around from her climbing dogfight, and dove. She fired the wing thrusters to add to her already high speed. Ryo fired, but Caelia was moving fast enough he was having trouble targeting her now. I caught a glint of a Black’s jaw blade moments before it sliced through the buoy closest to the Galra ship, disrupting the net.

“Caelia!” Ryo called out. I held my breath, waiting for the crash. 

She flattened Black’s wings at the very last moment, with a grunt that sounded pained. Dust blasted up from the ground as she nearly grazed it, before pulling up to attack Ryo’s ship. He only just managed to dodge the full force of Black’s claws. The graze was enough to drop the fighter’s shields.

Ryo retreated just as Lance fired on the transport that moments before had been towing him. The front of the ship froze over, and the captain stopped its forward thrusters.

In the control tower, the commander caught my attention. “Paladin, Sir. We have an IGF transport incoming. Admiral Montgomery is hailing us, asking if we have need of assistance.”

I blinked at the controller for a moment, then realized what our exercise must have looked like to the invited Admiral. “No, no! Please tell the Admiral it was just a training exercise.”

I turned on the wide comms. “All right everyone, that’s enough for today. Bring it in, Caelia. And then take some rest. That’s an order.”

-----

I had never met Admiral Montgomery, but we knew each other by reputation. She was the IGF officer who currently oversaw the Defenders program, and Acxa worked with her frequently. As I had requested, she came discreetly. Her entourage consisted of a personal aide from the Prometheus, and the shuttle’s pilot, whom I recognized from the Atlas.  

“So those are the mighty Lions of Voltron,” she admired Black and Blue from afar, as Lance and Caelia returned and set them down in the Plaza to recharge.

“Two of them, anyway,” I said.

“I hear that the Black Lion has a new Paladin. Why haven’t I heard of this pilot before now?” Admiral Montgomery asked. I had a hard time telling sometimes when people meant more than they were saying, but I thought this might be one of those times.

“She’s not from here,” I admitted to the admiral.

She raised an eyebrow at that. “Hm. ‘here’. This wouldn’t be related to the incident that occurred at the Garrison Library a couple months back, would it?”

“In fact, it would.”

“I would very much like to meet this young Paladin. Would that be a problem?”

“None at all,” Romelle answered quickly.

*

We met up with Lance and Caelia in the plaza. Ryo and Azlan had set their fighters down temporarily in spots for Red and Yellow, respectively. A currently unused fighter sat in Green’s spot.

Ryo and Lance were explaining a maneuver to Azlan and Caelia when we approached. Lance was making hand gestures showing the angle shifts to answer some question one of them had. I smiled proudly at my partner; he was a good teacher.

Caelia noticed our approach. She made a motion to Ryo and nudged Azlan with her foot before snapping into a smart salute. Ryo quickly did the same, and Azlan did a moment later, after studying the position.

“Sir!”  

“At ease,” I said. Quiznack, that felt strange to say. Blade protocol had always been different than Garrison, and I’d never been the commanding officer there. I turned to Montgomery.

“Admiral, this is Caelia, the new Paladin. The other two are Ryo and Azlan, Blades training with us. They were both at the Battle of the Rift. I believe you know Lance already?”

“Only by reputation,” she said as she leaned over to shake Lance’s hand.

Montgomery turned to Caelia next, who snapped back into a salute. “Ma’am!”

“Good to meet you, Paladin. I’ve heard stories about your brave rescue of the prisoners at the Rift.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Montgomery laughed. “At ease. This is an informal visit.”

“Admiral Montgomery has arrived to debrief with us. I expect you to be gathered at the Palace by 1400,” I told them.

-----

After lunch, we all gathered in the Palace’s secure sitting rooms. Admiral Montgomery sat in one of the plush chairs, one of her legs crossed over her knee, and her hands clasped in her lap in front of her. Officers from the Atlas and the Prometheus who had accompanied her sat as unobtrusively as possible at the sides of the room.

“All right gentlefolk, you wouldn’t have called me here in person if this wasn’t important,” the admiral said, getting straight to the point.  

I took that as my queue to begin. “It is. And we felt that this is sensitive enough that it is important to keep things small for the moment.”

“And what is this sensitive topic?”

“I’ll get straight to the point. We have been invaded by Imperial Galra threat from another universe. Azlan and Ryo are members of the Blade of Marmorra who have been fighting them. Caelia, Juni, and Doctor Holt came here to seek our help when their own universe was attacked.”

One by one, we went around the room and everyone explained to the Admiral what they had experienced. Together, we pieced together the full story of everything that had happened leading up to the Rift Incident. Judging by some of the reactions of the people in the room, at least some of the information was new to everyone.

Acxa had said that Admiral Montgomery had a level head. The fact that she just raised an eyebrow when we had finished, proved it. “This is all very disturbing, and I will have to inform the IGF council. Paladin Keith, do we know what their objectives are?”

“I believe I can answer that,” Azura stood up. Caelia looked up at her with concern, but Azura just gave her a solemn nod.

“Azura spent time aboard the Galra prison ship at the center of all this as a spy, and as a prisoner,” I explained.

“Not just aboard his ship. I spent phoebs gathering information on the Druids and Alchemists before learning of Arch Druid Artor’s latest obsession,” she said, with a pointed look at Azlan. He swished his tail sullenly at the attention, and flicked his ears back.  

Azura produced a hologram puck, and a shimmering image appeared above the table. A young Altean male stood there, dressed in an Alchemist’s battle uniform, with the robe of a Druid draped over it. I did a double-take, and Lance let out a small gasp. The Altean in the image looked like a male version of Allura, except his hair was shorter, and his markings were lavender instead of pale pink.

I reached over and gave Lance’s hand a small squeeze.

“This is Artor, Arch Druid of the Imperial Galra. He is an extremely powerful Alchemist, in direct service to the Regent. He is the one leading these incursions, kidnapping innocents for use in his research. But what Arch Druid Artor desperately wants from this universe is Voltron. More specifically, its quintessence.”

“Okay, Voltron I get,” Lance said. “But why its quintessence? That’s just the energy that makes it run, right?”

Azura shook her head. “Quintessence is much more than that. It is an energy source, but it also contains a blueprint of sorts about its originator. Arch Druid Artor has a unique ability to absorb and read that essence to gain the knowledge. Voltron is able to create Rifts, and transverse the interdimensional space within. It is this ability Artor craves.”

“But not without potentially ripping apart the universe!” Lance exclaimed.

“And even then, quintessence corrupts anything immersed within its field for long,” Romelle pointed out.

Caelia gripped at her arm and made a call to attention to everyone in the room. A haunted expression crossed her eyes as she spoke. “That’s not entirely true. One of Arch Druid’s experiments has been to . . .modify. . . people so that they can survive the field’s energy injection. Before it was closed, I was forced into the Rift and held there. But to my knowledge, I am the first of his subjects to survive.”

Lance exchanged a horrified glance with me. I watched the others reactions to see if they had known. Azlan and Ryo stared at Caelia in horror. Juni clasped her hands over her mouth, and Doctor Holt looked at the floor in disgust.

“That still leaves the whole ‘destroying the universe’ part,” Lance said.

“Not if you have a Gate to stabilize it,” Azlan pointed out. “We’ve been using small Gates because they’re easier to transport and require less power to use. But it’s possible to build Gates on starship scale. Possibly even larger, if you had the resources.”

I extrapolated on that. “If you combine Voltron’s ability to create Rifts anywhere, with the Gate technology the Empire already has, the Empire will have the capability to invade anything anywhere.”

“And soldiers who can make use of its power,” Caelia added under her breath.

Lanced waved his arms in frustration. “Wait just one second, though. This doesn’t make any sense. Why does he need Voltron for any of this? Didn’t Artor already create a Rift? Isn’t that what we were just talking about?”

Azura gave a subtle shake of her head. “No, Artor didn’t create that Rift. The Black Lion did, while under Artor’s control.”

I let out a low growl in my throat. The idea of anyone forcing Black to create a Rift made me sick. This time, it was Lance’s turn to reach over and give my hand a squeeze.

Azura continued. “But the Black Lion’s ability alone is limited. She can only create a Rift with an extreme amount of supportive energy, and even only in places where the fabric of reality has already been significantly thinned, such as the proto-Altean ruins where he took control of the Black Lion and where he attempted to take the Blue Lion.”

That earned shocked looks from both Coran and Romelle. Coran in particular looked disturbed by the revelation.   

Meanwhile, Admiral Montgomery considered another angle. “All right. This Arch Druid Artor already took control of the Black Lion once. How do we know he won’t just try to take control of it again to create Rifts, limitations considered?”

Azura shifted. “This is where the group of people before you come in. Arch Druid Artor has a degree of connection to the Lions, through which he is able to use his magic. But it is not a strong connection. He was able to bind the Black Lion because she was in a quiescent state. In an active state and with the anchor of a bonded Paladin, I do not believe he will be able to take control of a Lion.”

Admiral Mongomery turned to me. “What is the status of the remaining three Lions?”

“I’m afraid we don’t know. That is where the IGF comes in. You have the resources to help us find them before Artor does.”  

“Forgive my saying so, but the universe is a very big place. If you Paladins do not know the location of the Lions, how do you hope for anyone else to be able find them before our enemy, who clearly has some knowledge about them? Especially given his extremely rapid succession of nearly-successful attempts.”

“You have data on the Lions in your Defender program, and their properties. Pidge may have even left something behind in her files. I’m sure the IGF has resources.”

Azura’s expression darkened. “As for Artor. . .he will not be able to make another attempt to capture a Lion for some time. It takes a great deal of preparation and . . . resources . . .for the Druids to attempt such a summoning. They will need to replenish their supply before trying again, and that takes time.”

“What sort of resources does he require?”

“People,” Lance and I answered at the same time, when Azura didn’t answer. I growled the word.

Admiral Montgomery curled her lip in disgust. Then she stood.  

“I see. I thank you all for bringing this information to my attention. I will bring it forward to Admiral Dos Santos and the IGF council. I do not know if we will be able to help you locate the Lions, but I can send you a list of potential Paladin candidates. In the meanwhile, we will redouble our efforts to catch and stop these pirates. And the Defenders should be put on alert as well, in preparation for an escalating conflict.”

-----

After the IGF officers took their leave for the night, and I had sent Doctor Holt and the kids off as well, I sighed into a chair. “That went about as well as I expected.”

Romelle stretched. “They will shore up defenses, no doubt. But I do not know how much help they will be with Voltron. After all, the IGF has its own Defenders now, and many of the leaders alive do not know Voltron. If anything, it may prove to be problematic, as it upsets the balance that has been attained.”

“We’ll just have to deal with that when it happens.”

“At least it seems that Paladins shouldn’t be a problem. We already have a crew nearly ready and certainly willing,” Lance said.

Yes, they were certainly willing. I would give them all that.

“But that doesn’t matter if we can’t find the Lions! Last time, we had Allura and the Castle. Now they’re both gone. Even the original Atlas has been decommissioned and dismantled.”  

Coran cleared his throat. “As to finding the Lions, I have an idea. If I may have a private word with you Paladins in my quarters?”

*

“What is it, Coran?” Lance asked when the three of us had gathered in Coran’s room.

“Just a moment, number three,” Coran said, as he shuffled through the contents of a chest in the corner of the room.

I hadn’t been up here in years. The old portrait of him and King Alfor still hung on the wall. Beside it was one of Allura. I didn’t know where that had come from; perhaps he had painted it himself. Other small reminders of her were scattered around the room: a bracelet, Juniberry flowers in a vase. I noticed her jewel-less tiara on a shelf in a corner.

“Ah, here it is!”

Coran came out with a small jewelry box. He sat down on an ottoman and had us sit to either side across from him. When we had, he presented the box to Lance.

“I’m sorry, Coran, but I’m already married,” Lance said.

“Open it, Paladin,” Coran said, his voice gone rough.

Lance flipped open the box and gasped. “Is that. . . ?”

Within was a small triangular-cut crystal. The glow was gone from it, but I recognized it as the jewel from Allura’s tiara. Shiro must have returned it to Coran.

“The jewel of an Altean’s crown is given in childhood and is meant to stay with its possessor throughout their life. Over the years, it absorbs part of their quintessence. When Allura gave this up to save Shiro, she also gave him part of herself. It was that essence that allowed him to connect to the power of the Castle of Lions.”

“That was how he transformed the Atlas,” Lance realized. I never would have made that connection myself, but it made sense to me now that I heard it.

Lance offered the box back to Coran. “Coran, I can’t take this.”

“Of course you can, my boy! She – and Shiro – would have wanted you two to have it. I am certain. I’ve just been waiting for the right opportunity to give it to you. And what better time than when you, and her Lions, are in need?”

Lance took the crystal from its box and cradled it in his hand. He closed his eyes, and the markings on his cheeks emitted a soft blue glow. I expected to feel its energy when he did, but I didn’t sense any different energy from it than an ordinary rock. Lance also seemed confused after a moment.

“Coran, is Lance supposed to use that somehow to try and find the Lions?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him it seemed unlikely to work now as it had with Shiro.

Coran laughed. “Oh, of course not! The essence within it was used up long ago.”   

He poked Lance in the chest with his cane, so that Lance would look at him. His expression and tone softened fondly. “The crystal is just a memento. The connection to the Lions and the ability to find them, my boy, is in you. Has been for kilophoebs.”

Lance reached up and touched his markings, which were still glowing. I smiled at him as disbelief crossed his face.

Coran leaned back against his chair and twisted his mustache. “Now, tell me, my boy, how are you at operating a Teludav?”

Chapter Text

“Red, where are you?” Lance whispered to the air, his marks glowing faint blue.

He stood with his hands spread in the twin control pedestals of the Teludav interface. It turned out that when the original Teludav on Earth had been dismantled in favor of the Holts’ adapted technology, Coran had taken back the controls for Alchemists-in-training to use. They’d been used by other Alteans since, but like Coran had predicted, they had recognized Lance’s energy and responded.

They feel like her, he had said when he touched them the first time.

All around us, a projected map of the cosmos flickered. The map was linked to the Teludav system; according to Coran, when Lance concentrated on a target location, the Teludav would open a wormhole to it.

The glow on Lance’s cheeks brightened, and the control pedestals under his hands began to glow in tandem. I held my breath in anticipation as a part of the map began to shimmer. Lance bit his lip with concentration. A portion of the map clarified and for just a moment I thought I saw a pinpoint of red light appear where nothing had been a moment before.

. . .and then it was gone. The map and control-lights both flickered out and with an exhausted moan, Lance slumped down toward the floor.

I was there to catch him.

“Urgh, Allura made this look so easy,” Lance bemoaned as he leaned against me.

“Allura synchronized with the Castle of Lions for decaphoebs. You only just started,” Coran said, giving him an encouraging pat.

“We don’t have decaphoebs! We might not even have a phoeb!” Lance exclaimed.

I helped him up. “Hey, you’ll get it.”

He put his hands back on the pedestals. “Right, let’s give this another go.”

“You sure you don’t need a rest first?” I didn’t like how pale he looked. We had been at this nearly a week now, and between these attempts and training in the Blue Lion, he was running himself ragged.

“I’m fine,” he muttered.

I stepped back, and the map came back online. With a grunt, he forced on the controls again. His marks began to glow, but they were much paler this time. Sweat beaded on his brow. Again, part of the map began to shimmer and come into focus.

Suddenly, the room began to vibrate. All of the lights in the room flared and then dimmed and flickered. The map vanished Lance tumbled forward and swore. Far below us, I felt a momentary surge of energy. A Rift?

Then the energy was gone again, and the lights in the room returned to normal. Coran looked around, bemused.

“I think, Paladins, we should pause a moment. I seem to remember your Doctor Holt saying something about testing the Gate this morning. Perhaps it would be best wait on this until we are certain things are . . .stable?”

“I think it was time for a break anyway,” I said, offering Lance a hand. This time he didn’t complain as I helped him up. He walked over and flopped down on a couch that had been set up on edge of the room for just this purpose.

“Give us five minutes, and then we’ll be down,” Lance said.

“Take your time, Paladin. It is important you do not overextend yourself,” Coran advised as he left. 

“Don’t need to tell me twice. Unlike a certain mentee of mine, I know my limits,” Lance said as he leaned up against the back of the couch. “Urgh. Don’t tell Blue, but I am not looking forward to going into the air this afternoon.”

“Where is Caelia, anyway? Is she helping with the Gate?” I asked as I sat beside him.

“Close combat practice with Ryo and Azura. Never seen a kid quite so intense about their training. You’d think we picked up another young Blade,” he said with the look he always gave me when he thought something was my fault.

“Don’t look at me, she’s doing all this on her own.”

“Hm. Are you sure it isn’t because she’s trying to prove anything?”

“She already did that with the Trials. They all did.”

He made the noise he always did when he thought I was being particularly dense about something, but didn’t say anything more. I wondered about what he was implying. Was Caelia trying to impress me? Exhausting herself and Lance certainly wasn’t going to.

“Maybe you should cancel this afternoon’s flying lesson,” I suggested.

“You’re probably right. I could use more time trying to figure this out, anyway.” Lance threw his hands up. “I was so close, Keith. I almost thought I felt something that time!”

“You will.”  I kissed him on the forehead.

-----

I stared at the Gate, covered in sweat and fresh bruises courtesy of Ryo.

A double ring of silvered metal had been embedded with the crystals I had come to associate with Altean technology. The structure was similar to the one Azlan had built, but larger and decidedly better anchored. Under the sleek exterior, I could feel a faint thrum of power.

Half a dozen Alchemists with still-glowing marks pointed to parts of the structure alongside alien scientists. Several were smeared with sparkling black dust. A faint pall of smoke hung in the air. There was a lot of shouting going on, but no one seemed to be hurt. Doctor Holt stood at the center of a cluster of alien scientists, pointing out something on a data pad. Coran was there, talking with her. I decided not to interrupt and instead went to look for Azlan and Juni.

Those two had been working hard with Doctor Holt and the team of scientists while not training. I actually hadn’t spent much time here, despite my former position as Doctor Holt’s intern. Partially, it was because I was trying to spend as much time as possible with Paladin training. Partially, it was because as much as I liked working with Doctor Holt, something about the Gate unnerved me.

As we entered, I could tell Azura was uneasy, too.

“Can you sense something wrong?” Ryo asked her. Since we had started training together daily, she had started to open up to him and Juni, much like she had with Mort and Albrecht.

“No, it’s just. . .not a comfortable setting for me,” she said, with a quick glance toward the clustered Alchemists. I understood why an Alchemic laboratory was not an easy place for her to be.

Ryo spotted Azlan talking animatedly with Juni, who was half under a control console. His fur stood up on end, and they both were covered with black dust. Juni scooted out from under the console as we approached, with a chunk of half-melted shimmering metal in her gloved hand. She handed it over to Azlan, who frowned over it with flattened ears.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It was a Vexite core,” Azlan muttered. “But it’s useless carbon scrap now.”

He turned it over and over in hands as it cooled, radiating a blend of frustration and despair. Juni gave him a commiserating pat on the shoulder, before asking, “Just how bad is it?”

“Bad,” Azlan said. He looked like he wanted to cry.

After a few minutes, Doctor Holt walked over. “Did you find the problem?”

Of course, Coran was with her. Sometime in the last few minutes, Keith and Lance had arrived as well. Poor Lance looked exhausted. I felt a pang of guilt at that; I probably should have been trying to figure out a way to help with the Lion search instead of sparring.

Azlan handed Doctor Holt the melted component, which had cooled. “Vexite decomposed. We must have had the power flux in the dynatherm coupling too high.”

“We’ll have to replace it, I assume?” she said.

Azlan snapped the end of his tail. “I don’t know how! It’s incredibly rare. The only reason we had any at all was I had this in something I was working on when we went to look for Caelia.”

Coran made a thoughtful sound. “Vexite, eh? You’re right. Been a while since I’ve heard of any of that around.”

Azlan’s ears lifted. “You actually know of it?”

“Worked with a little bit of it long before the War. Hard to say how much is left now. I think the planet where it came from was destroyed a long time ago.”

Azlan slid down the side of the console in frustration, leaving a long streak on its side. “I’m never going to get home, am I?”

Coran raised a finger. “Now, I said I hadn’t heard of any in a while. That doesn’t mean I don’t know somewhere you might just be able to get some!”

Azlan perked up immediately “Where?”

“It just so happens I know an Unilu trader. If there’s Vexite to be had, he will find you a source.”

Keith scowled. “No, not that guy again! Coran, the last time we dealt with him you ended up bargaining half of a vessel’s worth of relief supplies and nearly landed Romelle in indentured servitude for a year!”

“Ah, that was a fun day, wasn’t it? But you got your Luxite, didn’t you?”

“That is beside the point! And I’m still not entirely sure I trust where he got that Luxite from.”

“How can we contact this Unilu?” Doctor Holt asked. 

“Ah, contacting is easy! It’s just a simple trip to the Swap Moon!” Coran said with entirely too much excitement.

Lance clarified, “He runs a pawn shop at the Lunar Mall.”

Juni perked up. “Did you say ‘mall’?”

“Oh no,” Ryo said.

Juni jumped over to Doctor Holt. “Doctor Holt, we have to go! We need to follow any leads we have on this component! And since some of us are going to be staying here a while, we could really use some clothes that aren’t uniforms. Pleeeease?”

“What’s wrong with uniforms?” Azlan said.

“What is a ‘mall’?” Azura asked me on the side.

I heard Juni’s sharp intake of breath. She practically teleported to Azura. “You don’t know what a mall is? Oh, that’s it! We all must go. It’s a very important opportunity for cultural exchange!”

“Oh, yes. Very important to spend eight hours just to find one jacket,” Ryo muttered under his breath.   

“It was a very important jacket, and we both agree Caelia looked marvelous in it,” Juni returned.

“I do admit, I do like the idea of acquiring a human-styled garment,” Azura said.

“That settles it!” Juni clapped her hands with delight.

Doctor Holt considered. “Hm. I suppose a mall trip shouldn’t be dangerous, and Juniper does have a point. Especially with Mister Coran as a guide, I don’t see any problem in taking a trip to this Lunar Mall.”

“You don’t?” Ryo said, incredulous.

I bit back a laugh. As much as I wanted to accompany my friends and see Azura’s reaction to a shopping mall, I felt guilty about neglecting my time with Black. I had made a lot of progress since our meeting, but I still had a lot to learn, and my responsibilities were only going to increase once we found more of the Lions.

Besides, I had an idea that I thought might help Lance have an easier time finding the Lions, and I wanted to run it by him this afternoon, in lieu of our normal training session.

“As much fun as that sounds, I’m afraid I really should stay here and work with Black some more. Juni can pick out an outfit for me,” I said.

“I can stay with you and help, too,” Ryo said all too quickly.

I put my hands on Ryo’s shoulders. “Ryo, I must entrust to you the most sacred duty of looking over Juni this day.”

“Don’t do this to me, Caelia!” Ryo pleaded.

I lowered my voice. “Ryo, Coran is. . .elderly, Azura has never been to a mall before, Azlan gets distracted by anything new even resembling tech, and as collected as she is otherwise, Doctor Holt can’t be trusted anywhere near a games store. Someone responsible needs to keep an eye on them.”

Ryo narrowed his eyes at me. “Fine. But you owe me. Next sparring match, you get to let me try your Bayard. And you owe me a trip with Black. . . And I get your dessert for the next week.”

“Deal.” 

Keith looked over us. He must have decided that it wasn’t worth a battle because he sighed, “Fine. I can see you’re set on this course of action. Just promise to be careful.”

“Oh we will!” Juni grinned with glee.

“And whatever you do, don’t come back with a cow!” Lance called after her as she ran for the door, dragging Azura along with her.

When she was out of earshot, I turned to Lance. “You do realize that somehow she is going to contrive a way to come home with a cow, now.”

A glint came in Lance’s eye. “Oh, I hope so. I’ve been craving milkshakes lately.”

-----

I watched the group go, hoping that I wouldn’t regret okaying it. Caelia watched them with a sad half-smile on her face. I walked over to her, remembering what Lance and I had just discussed.

 “Caelia. I respect your decision to train, but didn’t you want to go with your friends? You may be a Paladin, but you are allowed to rest. And Lance could use an afternoon off from flying, too.”

I shot Lance a glance at that last part.

“Actually, I wanted to do something different today, and it might be easier without the others around,” Caelia answered toward both of us. “I had an idea that might help with finding the Lions.”

“Shoot, kid,” Lance said, curious.

“I was thinking maybe you could try and use the system to find Black,” she said.

I didn’t see how that was going to be a help.

“Lance was never bonded to Black. It should be easier for him to sense Red,” I told her.

“Yes, but Red is probably still quiescent, so the signal isn’t going to be very strong. It’s got to be exhausting learning how to use that system and looking over the entire universe for a weak signal. Black is active. Besides, you said that Lance should be able to connect to all the Lions now,” she said, pointing out Lance’s markings.

“She has a point,” Lance said to me. Then to Caelia: “I assume you have a plan?”

Caelia nodded. “We start and see if you can sense Black here. If you can, I go out in Black to a known system. That way, you can get a feel for the long-distance searching via the Teludav, but you’re only searching a limited area.”

It was a decent idea, but I hated it. “Absolutely not. It’s too risky. We have enemies looking for Black. There’s no way I’m letting you go out to some system by yourself.”   

Lance’s response was grin ear-to-ear. “Actually, I think that’s a great idea.”

I glared at my partner.

Lance shrugged. “It’s not like Black can’t send out a distress signal if there’s trouble, and we’ll have the wormhole coordinates on hand to get help to you right away. Plus, she won’t be going alone.”

A spark came into his eye that always meant mischief. He pointed at me, and his grin widened.

“Because you’ll be going in Black with her.”

“What?” both Caelia and I said at the same time.

Lance sighed, “Listen, Keith. Is it risky? Yeah, a little. But I can use all the help I can get with finding the Lions, you want to reconnect with Black if you can, and Caelia should have been learning from you since Day 1. You are the best pilot we have, and you know Black better than anyone alive.”

He stared at both of us, daring us to argue with him. We didn’t because he was right.

“Fine.” I said.

“Good. Caelia, go shower and get suited up. Keith will be along in a few.”

*

When Caelia was out of earshot, I turned on Lance. “This is a terrible idea.”

Lance answered without the grin, “No, this is an important opportunity, and not just for the reasons I said before.”

I raised an eyebrow at that.

Lance sighed, “Keith, listen. You know as well as I do that as Paladins, the bonds between the members of the team are just as important as those forged with the Lions. And right now, it seems to me that you and Caelia are lacking in that department.”

“But we’ve been training together every day. She hasn’t shown any signs that she’s unhappy.”

She could be a little formal at times, but Ryo had said that Caelia had always been that way with their teachers at the Garrison.

Lance folded his arms. “Let me put it this way: when was the last time you spent any time together that wasn’t group training or other official business – even a conversation? For that matter, when was the last time she came to you for advice about flying Black?”

I realized that the answer to that was never. I hadn’t thought much about it, until this moment.

“. . . that’s what I thought.” Lance said as he watched the expression on my face.

“Did she say something to you?” I asked. Caelia and I had a rough start, so I had been giving her space at first. I had assumed that she had forgiven me for my unfortunate outburst aboard the Prometheus. Maybe not.

“No, but the fact that she seems to be working her ass off at Paladin training and hasn’t gone to the former Paladin of her own Lion tells me there’s a hatchet somewhere that needs burying between you two.”

I groaned. Just what I needed.

“Why didn’t she just say something?”

Lance just gave me another look. “You’re her commander, Keith. And she’s also eighteen. My guess is she’s nervous, or else thinks it’s inappropriate. Which is why you need to talk to her. And now you two have a perfect opportunity. So go play nice, okay?”

-----

I dressed in record time and climbed up into Black’s cockpit. As usual, the controls lit up immediately under my touch, sending a warm tingle of welcome up my hands. I had flown her enough times now that the controls were comfortable and familiar as I settled into the chair.

I, however, was far from comfortable as Keith boarded. When I had planned this scenario in my head, I had thought to see if I could summon Shiro again and ask him for a few pointers. Instead, I had Keith looking over the back of my chair and looking none to happy about the situation.

Maybe I should have taken Ryo up on his offer to help.

“So,” I said, fidgeting with the controls.

“So.”

“So, what first? Um, any pointers about handling Black?”

“Let’s just start slow. Take her up, nice and easy.”

Nervous, I gripped the controls hard and launched Black into the sky. Keith had to hold onto the chair to keep his footing. I grimaced under my helmet; so much for all the work I’d been doing with Lance. Quiznack, this felt like another sim.

“Little fast there,” he grunted.

“Sorry,” I muttered, willing my hands to stop shaking. Why was it I could fly Black just fine when people were trying to kill me, but as soon as I was one-on-one with our leader, I started flying like an idiot?

“Relax your grip,” he said behind me.

I took a deep breath.

“Patience yields focus,” I said to myself as I adjusted my hands.

“What did you say?”

Oh, Quiznack. That was Shiro’s favorite phrase, wasn’t it? I panicked for a moment, until I remembered that I had learned that phrase before meeting Shiro.

“Just a phrase my mom used to tell me when I got frustrated. An old mentor of hers said it to her, and it kinda stuck in my head,” I said. The truth felt strange in my own brain.

Keith made a thoughtful sound, but didn’t say anything more.

We circled the city in uneasy silence. Once we had been around enough times that Keith was satisfied with my basic flying, he reached over and opened up the comms to Coran’s workroom.

Lance’s face appeared on the screen, lit by the glow of the universe map. Someone had wound a heavy strip of dark cloth across Lance’s eyes, so that his markings just peeked out from the bottom. He looked a little like he was playing a children’s game. I would have laughed if the mission weren’t so serious.

“How are you doing?” Keith asked.

“I was fine, until Romelle insisted on this blindfold. If I trip down the stairs and kill myself, it’s going to be your fault,” Lance answered. 

“My fault? You were the one that thought all this was a good idea.”

“Yeah, that was before the blindfold. I do better with things I can see.”

“Well, that’s kind of the whole point of this exercise, isn’t it?”

“Urgh, I hate it when you’re right. Oh! Hey, I think I felt something! Uh, East? East is that way, right?” he said, while pointing in a direction neither Keith nor I could see.

We were indeed east of Coran’s tower. We needed to know that Lance was finding us and not just making a lucky guess, though.  

Keith apparently agreed with my thought. “Gonna need more than that, Lance. Give me coordinates.”

He gave them correctly, or close enough to accept.

“Yes!” I said. This might just work after all!

Behind me, Keith shifted. I glanced over my shoulder and caught him looking at me. I cleared my throat and shifted into a more proper flying posture. “I mean: that’s correct, Sir.”

Keith sighed.

We circled the city and had Lance tag our position half a dozen times. When Keith was satisfied, he called in the Altean central control tower and made the request for a Wormhole. We followed the tower’s flight instructions through the atmosphere. Once we had cleared the planet’s orbital rings, I felt a blossom of energy and a wormhole appeared in front of us.

“All right, Lance. Good luck,” Keith said as we approached.

“Same to you. Be safe.”

Keith turned his attention to me when Lance had signed off. “All right, Caelia. Are you ready for a little more of a challenge?”

“Yes, Sir.” My hands tightened on the controls.

“Relax that grip,” Keith admonished me again.

I tried. My hands were still shaking a little as I pushed the controls forward and we shot through the wormhole.

*

I had expected the afternoon’s flying to get more complicated once we had left New Altea. I did not expect the wormhole to dump us into the middle of an asteroid field. To make it worse, this one could have come directly out of an upper-level Garrison sim.  

“Asteroids. Why is it always Quiznacking asteroids?” I exclaimed as I barely dodged the one directly in front of us. Keith held onto the back of the chair as we twisted around a second and then a third at break-neck pace. I engaged Black’s reverse thrusters, but we continued moving forward far too fast.

“Slow it down,” Keith gritted out, as half a dozen alerts flashed across Black’s screens. More space debris. . . and something else.

“I’m trying,” I called back as Black twisted around another chunk of space rock. “But something’s pulling us!”

The screen’s alerts zoomed in on a gravitational anomaly ahead. Or, more accurately, a set of gravitational anomalies. There was something odd about the configuration; they didn’t look natural.

“This is wrong. Those shouldn’t be here,” Keith said.

He opened a comm channel and was answered by a shriek of static. I flipped the channel closed immediately and popped my ears. Quiznacking EM interference.

“Caelia, incoming!” Keith called as the remains of a huge asteroid drifted into our field of vision. It had been affected by the gravity fluxes and was breaking up, but the pieces were still tightly packed. Again, I tried to decelerate, but my attempts only sent Black into a momentary spin.

“This is probably a bad time to tell you I failed an awful lot of sims,” I said.

Black plotted out a path on the screen. I turned Black into it, biting back terror as memory after memory of failed simulations bubbled up.

Keith leaned forward. “Move as I say. Try to keep your speed as even as possible, unless I tell you otherwise.”

“Yes, Sir!”

I looked at the shifting chunks of rock in front of us and linked as deeply with Black as I could. I took a deep a breath, closed my eyes for just a moment. I felt a brush of energy against my mind, and when I opened my eyes, everything in front of us was just a little sharper.

“Left 35!” Keith called.

I shifted the Lion left 35 degrees.

“Right 10! Up 15! Left 20! Up 45!”  

Keith called, and I moved. We slid through ragged opening after ragged opening, some not much larger than Black. There wasn’t time for me to doubt my ability; I just reacted as Keith called out direction, syncing myself with Black. Little by little, Keiths calls blurred into Black’s motion, until at the end the three of us were acting as one unit.

“Good flying,” Keith panted out as we cleared the last chunk of rock.

I perked up a little at that. I hadn’t expected any compliments.

My joy was short-lived. We pushed through into a clear area, but instead of quieting, Black’s alerts went crazy. I traced them to the anomalies we’d spotted earlier. By now, we had come close enough to see the source: a series of artificial satellites configured in a loop, with crackling energy between them. Debris circled the outside of the loop.

It was not just asteroids. Parts of ships were scattered around, too.  

“Oh, Quiznack,” Keith said.

“What is it?”

“I recognize this now. Gravity net. Pirates use them to catch and dismantle ships.”

“Dismantle?”

“The EM knocks out the systems and anyone aboard, and then the gravity fluxes tear the ship at the seams,” Keith described grimly.   

I tried again to change our course, but it was too late.

“Hold on!” Keith cried as we crossed the threshold.

Energy surged over us. Black roared. I poured extra energy into Black to reinforce her strength as we passed through the web. I could feel the strain on her and pushed more energy in to hold her together, until I passed out.

-----

I groaned and opened my eyes to dark and silence. After a moment, the emergency reboot systems of my suit kicked in, and I could see and hear again.

Black had protected us from the worst of the net’s attack but had taken a strong hit, herself. So far as I could tell, she was still intact, but all her systems were down -- including the gravity and life support. It wasn’t the first time I’d been in a situation like this, but it wasn’t one I had ever wanted to repeat.

Caelia floated near the controls, unconscious. I shifted over to her and shook her arm gently.

“Hey.”

Caelia groaned. “What happened?”

“We made it through that pirate trap,” I said as I guided her over to the wall. “But Black took a pretty good hit. Can you see if you can get her up again?”

Caelia reached out and touched the control panel. I felt a faint energy emanate from her, then fade out. Her shoulders slumped forward briefly, then she turned her attention back to me, worried.

“No good. She really did get hit hard. Now what?” Caelia said.

I considered our options. “It’s too dangerous out there with the net nearby to go try and rig anything external and too much interference to get out a message, so there’s really not much to do but wait for Black to power back up or someone to find us.”

“And hope it’s Lance and not whoever set up that net.”

Caelia didn’t say aloud the part that whoever used something like that net probably wouldn’t be too interested in taking prisoners.  

We both floated in silence after that. Hours passed, and we heard nothing. I began to worry about Lance. Had he found us? He hadn’t tried to come after us, had he? I thought he had sense enough not to, but with Lance it was hard to say. Or worse, had the IGF sent help, only be caught and destroyed by the net?

I didn’t voice my concerns to Caelia, who seemed nervous enough already. Every so often, Caelia touched the controls, but Black remained down.

After one such check, she curled up with her legs tucked under her linked arms and her chin on her knees.

 “I’m so sorry for getting us into this mess. I just wanted to help, but now Black’s hurt, and we’re stuck out here! Urgh, I am the worst Paladin!”

Spending so much time with Lance must have rubbed something off on her. For just a moment, her tone and movements could have come from him. How many times had he berated himself for things beyond his control?

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I didn’t see that trap either, until it was too late.”

“But if you were the one flying Black, we probably could have escaped it,” she muttered.

Maybe. I had been piloting Black in my mind when I had called out the directions for Caelia to follow. I reached out. For just an instant, I thought I felt a brush of Black’s energy. Then it was gone. Maybe I had imagined it.

“What-ifs don’t help anything, Caelia,” I said, with more frustration than was probably helpful.  

Tense silence fell between us. After a while, Caelia broke it again with a question. She spoke quietly, as though uncertain if she should be speaking aloud:

“Are you angry at me?”

“I already answered that question.”

“No. For stealing Black from you.”

What?

She continued, softly. “I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to save everyone. I didn’t know what was going to happen when I . . .”  she cut herself off.

“When you what?” I prompted, making sure to keep my voice even this time.

“When I first met Black at the Rift, I pushed my own quintessence into her. I didn’t know what I was doing, then. Now I can’t help but wonder, if I hadn’t done that, do you think she would be bonded to you still, instead of me?”

It dawned on me then that this was probably why she had been keeping her distance from me.  She probably assumed the entire time I had been upset about losing Black, I had been angry with her. I groaned inwardly. The way I had reacted when we found Blue hadn’t helped that impression at all, I was sure. Nor was putting her through literal torture to prove to me she was ready.

I tried to find the right words. Patience yield focus.

“Caelia, you didn’t steal anything,” I sighed.

“But I –”

“No.”  I cut her off. “Black is her own being. You didn’t steal her from me. She chose you.”

She looked up at me. It was hard to see her expression through her suit and in the dark, but I had a guess or two.

“But what if she didn’t? If Artor was able to use quintessence to force –”

“No.” This time I could tell she was annoyed with me for interrupting, but this was important.

“Back during the War, Shiro and Zarkon fought over Black. Zarkon had magic and a strong bond with Black and tried to force Black back to him, but in the end, she chose Shiro because Shiro trusted her. Your ability wouldn’t override our bond if Black really wanted me to be her Paladin again. She chose you because she trusts you. And so do I.”

This time, I was sure Caelia was staring at me in surprise. I tried to ignore how that hurt.

I took a deep breath. “Listen, I owe you an apology. When we met, I was scared, and I was angry. And I didn’t want you piloting Black. Not because I thought you would be a bad Paladin, but because I didn’t want anyone else to have to have that responsibility. Because I know just how dangerous it is. How every time you get into that Lion, you might not come back.”

“Like Shiro,” Caelia murmured.

I wasn’t surprised that she had heard about that. “Shiro. Allura. Thace. Antok. Ulaz. Regris. So many others, I wished I could have saved.”

Again, the silence fell as I thought about all of them.

“Albrecht,” Caelia murmured.

Caelia clutched at her arm. She stared down at her hand, flexed it, then slowly clenched it into a fist. She spoke with a quiet intensity that reminded me of Shiro. “He saved me, and Artor murdered him. Now I’m fighting for him. I’m fighting for him, and my friends. Doctor Holt. Everyone back home, so they never have to know this feeling.”

I smiled at the bittersweet memories. “Shiro felt the same way. Small wonder Black chose you.”

She went tense again, and I wondered what I had said wrong. Then she said with utter certainty:

“I know.”

It was the tone that threw me off. She sounded like she had known him, but that was impossible. He would have died around the time she had been born.

She toyed with her hands before steeling herself and looking right at me. She seemed terrified.

“Keith, there’s something you should know. My . . .abilities. . . aren’t just the energy channeling you saw during my Trial. When I was in the Rift, I met Allura and Shiro. Allura used my body as a conduit to close the Rift. And Shiro shared his memories with me so I could save everyone. They’re pretty much gone now, but I still remember fragments. And I still remember the kind of person he was and what it means to be a Paladin.”

So that’s what happened. Lance and I both had sensed Allura, but no one knew how exactly the Rift had closed. Quiznack, this also explained just why Caelia was pushing herself so hard. If she had not only her own experiences, but Shiro’s memories of fighting the Galra driving her. . .

She let out a little laugh and made another gesture that strongly reminded me of Lance. “I, uh, also might have a few of his memories of you.”

Okay, that was unexpected. “Of me?”

She waved her hands hard enough to push herself into the wall. “Nothing private or embarrassing, I swear! Just. . .snippets. Fragments. Little moments. . .  OhwhythequiznackamItellingyouthisyoumustthinkI’msomekindofcreepystalker. . . ” She put her head in her hands.

The gesture was so innocent, I couldn’t help but laugh. She bounced softly off the wall and froze as she stared at me.

I gave her a grin. “It’s okay. I’ve seen inside your head, remember? We can call it even.”

She smiled, recovering from her embarrassment. “Yeah, I guess that’s fair.”

The chronometer built into my suit pinged. It had been eight hours now since we had gone through the wormhole. There was no sign of anyone coming. Lance definitely would have noticed by now that something was wrong. Did the IGF know about the net, and was trying to figure out how to perform a rescue? Or had something happened to those who would be our would-be rescuers? I kept the darker thoughts to myself.

“All right. We should try to get some rest now, so we can be ready when someone arrives,” I told Caelia.

“Right.” Caelia nestled into an alcove.

“Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for listening. It . . helps, talking about everything.”

“Any time. You didn’t think I was just here to shout orders, did you?”

She chuckled at that.

I closed my eyes to meditate. Out of habit, I reached my mind out to Black. She’s a good kid, take care of her.

Just for a moment, I felt Black’s affection in return.

Chapter Text

We rested, conserving resources. At some point, Caelia fell asleep. I took stock of our situation, and tried to come up with a plan, but there were too many unknowns. After a while, I slept as well.

I was disturbed by a loud clang sounding on Black’s hull. My attention snapped toward it; that wasn’t the sound of debris impact. Caelia roused as a second clang echoed through Black.

Then we both were shoved into the wall as Black was moved.

We waited in anticipation after the motion stopped. I put my hand on my Blade, and Caelia took out her Bayard. A series of clanks sounded then Black began to vibrate with a low hum. Another few clicks sounded, but I didn’t hear anything like cutting.

Then my gut twisted. I recognized the feeling as a Galra hyper speed jump.

“Quiznack.” Well, that complicated things.

“What’s happening?” Caelia asked.

“Hyper speed jump.”

“Hyper speed?”

“More or less the Galra equivalent to a wormhole,” I explained.

“Quiznack!”

The tech had been salvaged by a number of parties over the last two hundred years, so it wasn’t necessarily our enemies who had nabbed us, but it certainly wasn’t IGF.  “Be ready for anything when we come back out of it.”

“How long will that be?”

“Hard to say. Probably less than an hour.”

It was far less than that. We didn’t go far, by hyper speed standards. I guessed maybe fifteen minutes passed before we came out of hyper speed. There was another series of clangs, and I drew out my Blade, listening for the sound of the hatch being forced.

Caelia swung back into the pilot’s chair. She grabbed the controls and let out a grunt of concentration. I felt the slightest touch of energy under us, and the control lights flickered briefly.

“Come on, Black. We can do this!”

For just a moment, she glowed, and then the controls came back on in earnest. I smiled as the view screen came back online.

“Yes!”

We were in the bay of a Galra vessel, but there wasn’t anyone around. No sentry drones. No guards. The remains of two or three small ships were scattered around the bay. The bay itself was visibly in need of repair. There weren’t any distinguishing markings identifying the owners.

“They’ve only got a small mag clamp on Black,” Caelia told me. “I’m pretty sure I can break free of it.”

So, not anyone who knew anything significant about the Lions.

“Wait for my signal,” I told her. I had a feeling that our moment to break free would be soon.

I wasn’t disappointed. Within a few minutes, the bay doors opened. Through the opening, I could see the edge of a merchant-type vessel. Far below us swirled the brown-clouded atmosphere of a planet. A handful of Galran fighter craft and other small ships crossed the space between the large vessels and the planet; I watched a transport descend into it.

One of the fighter ships approached our bay, and the particle barrier seal dropped.

“Now!”

Caelia pulled free of the magnetic clamp and burst out through the opening. We spiraled around the approaching fighter and made for open space. We had a few moments of clear air before the ship we’d escaped started firing on us. I anchored myself to the side of the cockpit and watched Caelia maneuver between the blasts.

The console flickered briefly. It would appear that Black hadn’t completely recovered from the ordeal with the net yet.

“Come on Black, we can do this,” Caelia murmured to her.

Suddenly, we jerked back as purple light washed over us. Quiznack. From the state of the rest of things, I’d been hoping their gravity beam wouldn’t be operational.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Caelia said in slight panic as the console lights flickered again. Then: “Keith, I have an idea. Hang on!”

“Caelia, what are you -- ?”

Caelia shoved her Bayard into its slot. Energy flowed from her into Black as she turned the Bayard. The control-lights flared with a sudden influx of power. Then everything glowed blacklight-violet as we rushed forward, and reality blurred around us.

We phased back into existence a heartbeat later, near the top of the planet’s atmosphere. A dozen warnings flashed across Black’s screen as it flickered once again. In the seat, Caelia moaned.

“Hey!” I rushed forward and grabbed hold of a control with one hand, and her with the other as she folded forward.  

She roused at my touch and took back control of Black. “Unh. Sorry,” she murmured. “Azura warned me to be careful about that.”

More alerts sounded on Black’s monitors as the Galra ship deployed fighters to chase us. We half-dove, half-fell into the planet’s atmosphere as Black’s energy levels fluctuated. Lightning crackled through yellow-brown clouds, then we burst through them to see a surface straight out of a depiction of some hell. A large volcano loomed ahead of us, surrounded by lava flows that had been spewed by it and its neighbors. 

Something about this place seemed familiar. I could see the remains of a structure nestled about halfway up the big volcano’s side. Was that an old Marmora base?  The more I looked, the more certain I became that it was, and I’d been here briefly during the War.

The place had been modified sometime in the last two hundred years. In addition to the old base structure, vent pipes had been installed along the side of the volcano. It looked like the base had been partially modified into some kind of factory. A handful of transport-class craft had landed on a plateau that had formed from an old lava flow. I could see workers carrying crates to them.

The control lights flickered again, and we bounced through turbulence as Caelia fought to hold Black steady. An image appeared on the screen of the volcano’s rear flank. 

“I think Black wants us to land there,” Caelia said.

She brought Black around and we saw a lava tube big enough to land in on the slope a few hundred meters below the plateau’s edge. She glided Black in as the console lights flickered again. We skidded along the floor of the cave before finally coming to a halt about a hundred meters in.

“Urgh. I swear that one of these days I am not going to introduce myself to a new place by crashing into it,” Caelia groaned.

“Not a bad landing, all things considered,” I said as I picked myself up.  

“Now you’re just being nice to make up for being a jerk before,” Caelia accused, but she laughed as she said it.

I brought up the wrist controls of my suit’s small computer interface and took a look at the galaxy map. I couldn’t remember the location of the Marmora base, but it was easy enough to narrow down where we might be. I guessed from the length of the hyper speed trip that we were only a system or two away from the net trap, three at most. I brought up the information of the one that seemed most likely, based on what little we had seen.

“Well, I have good news at least. I’m pretty sure this place is an old Blade or Marmora base. If we can get into it, I might be able to get into the old computer systems to get out a distress call.”

“It’s not going to be easy. Looks like someone else has moved in.”

“It’s all right. I’m sure I know a few tricks about the place they don’t.”

I stopped Caelia as she started to haul herself out of the control seat. “I’ll scout ahead first. You take a few minutes to rest. Try and see if you can get Black up enough to send out a message. The more ways we can get word out, the better.”

-----

As soon as Keith had gone, I reached out to Black. She wasn’t totally drained, but she was tired. I gave the control chair a reassuring pat. I flipped on the communications to receiver mode as a test. We were deep enough under the rock that not a lot was getting through from the standard channels.

I changed over to the IGF long-distance channel and sent out a distress ping. Ideally, I’d have Black keep sending the signal, but I assumed it was being monitored, and I didn’t want to give away our location to the enemies.

There was something else I could try, though.

I closed my eyes and connected to Black. I let my mind slip into her and found myself standing once again in a sea of stars. A bright blue star shone brightly on the horizon. If I squinted, I thought I could see other points of colored light as well. I concentrated on that blue star, and I thought I saw it flare.

“Lance, are you there? Can you hear me?” I called out, but nothing responded.

I reached out with my mind for Shiro, but he didn’t respond, either. I wondered if the conversation I’d had with him aboard the Prometheus had actually happened, or if I’d dreamed it.

I stared out across the void. This place was beautiful, but lonely. As I stood there, I thought I could hear faint whispers, like I had in the Rift. But when I tried to concentrate on any of them, they just disappeared. Perhaps they were just echoes of memories Black carried within her. It was strange; I knew from Lance’s stories that the Lions had only been active for a tiny fraction of the universe’s history, but this place felt far older than that.

“You must miss the others. Don’t worry. We’ll find them soon,” I said to the void.

Black nudged my mind, warning me someone was approaching. I slipped back into my body, just as Keith arrived.

-----

It took a few false guesses, but I finally found a small lava tube that wound upward in the direction of the old base.  I kept an eye out for signs of disturbance. I knew somewhere near here, there would be a geothermal generator that had been used to power the base. Following typical Galra construction, the computer consoles would be close to the main power shaft once we found it.

Caelia and I helped each other climb up through a series of lava tubes and fissures. The temperature slowly rose around us as we traveled, and after a while, I began to hear the sound of machinery. Finally, the tube we had been climbing through opened up into a huge vent. A series massive pipes ran down through it. I could hear the movement of fluids within.

This wasn’t the geothermal conduit I had been looking for, though. This was something else. It almost looked like a mining operation. I puzzled at the pipes. “Why would they be harvesting lava?”

“They’re harvesting magma brine,” Caelia guessed.

“Magma brine?”

“Under volcanoes there can be deposits of brine with a lot of rare elements, especially metallic ions. They’re decent resources for electronics, battery cells, that kind of thing,” Caelia explained.

When I looked surprised by the unexpected explanation, Caelia shrugged. “I was sciences track at the Garrison. Planetary sciences was my specialization.”

“It’s certainly less obvious than digging out a strip,” I said.

I didn’t like this discovery one bit. First we fall into a trap used for stealing ship-parts, now we find a mining operation for electronics materials? Pirates as a rule weren’t organized enough for something like a shallow-mantle mining. I was beginning to think that the trap we had encountered earlier hadn’t been set up by pirates after all. Or at least, not pirates working alone. We needed to tell Admiral Montgomery about this.

We backtracked and found another vent to follow upward. We came to two more dead ends before we finally came out into a tunnel that led to a hidden back door. I was able to get us through using my old Marmora credentials. The hallway we came into looked like it hadn’t seen maintenance for two hundred years.

I guided us from memory toward the central controls. As we moved inward, the hallways became a little better maintained, but not much. I was at once happy for the unintended camouflage and annoyed by the sloppy maintenance. When we ran into a sentry pair at last, the stealth mode on my suit and deep shadows were enough to conceal both myself and Caelia.

The wing we had been moving though finally ended. The hallway opened up through a pair of heavy doors into a massive cavern. Lava from a lake bathed everything in a sickly red glow. A walkway had been built along one wall connecting to another hallway on the other side of the cavern, and another walkway ran parallel above it.

I backtracked us and found a stairwell, and we took it to the first level with the catwalk. From the higher viewpoint, we got a better look at the activity in the chamber.

A masked-and-robed figure stood at the edge of the lake, while workers set up rods along the shore. They stared out toward the center of the lava. My eyes followed in the same direction; I could sense a foreign energy there, beneath the surface. It drew me toward it, inviting. Without thinking, I took a step toward it. Then the energy winked back out.

“Quiznack, is that a Druid?” Caelia whispered behind me.

“Looks like,” I confirmed.

The Druid turned in our direction, and I pulled Caelia back into the hallway. I didn’t think we had been seen, but I took us down an alternate corridor and circled wide as possible just to be safe.

“Did you feel that back there?” Caelia asked me as we moved. “It felt like something was out there in the lava. Looking. Waiting.”

“Whatever it is, if the Druids are involved, it’s not good news,” I said.

First the net, then the mining, and now this? We really needed to get a communication out. I prayed that Lance had felt something, and that help was already searching for us. We couldn’t count on it, though. It was ironic; the plan had been to train a Paladin, but today more closely resembled Blade missions I’d been on.

We passed more pirate patrols, but luck was with us, and we made it to the control room without incident. Although the squatters had altered the controls to make them accessible to non-Galra, my old credentials still got us through. Dispatching the two workers on duty there was not a problem, especially as they weren’t expecting trouble.

I brought up the main controls and got to work on connecting to the communications network. They had changed the controls to the computer, too, but the underlying system appeared to be the same. The trick would be getting a communication out without altering the enemy that we were here.

“Keep an eye on the security feed while I take care of this,” I told Caelia and got to work.

-----

I flipped through the security feed, grateful for the upgrades to the system that allowed non-Galra to use them. It occurred to me while I did so that maybe one of the reasons the Blade of Marmora were so exclusive about membership was that much of Galra tech was designed to be impossible for non-Galra to use; even if Kolivan had trusted me, I probably couldn’t have gotten around Azlan’s Blade base without an escort. 

It appeared that Keith and I had been successful in our infiltration. No one seemed on unusual alert as I flipped through the images. I paused when I came to an image of what appeared to be a refinery built up in what might have once been an aircraft hangar. The longer I watched that feed, the more certain I was they were harvesting Magma Brine.

I zoomed in closer to that image, trying to discern a little bit more of their processing, and noticed that the pirates were not alone. Some of the people in that room were Galra wearing Imperial-style armor like I’d seen aboard Artor’s ship. They seemed to be overseeing the Pirates.

More Galra showed up in the images that followed. The base seemed to be split between a headquarters of sorts for the pirates, the refinery, and a small barracks of Imperials. The pirates didn’t seem to like the Galra so much as tolerated them. Maybe the alliance between them was not as tight as it appeared.

“Almost through,” Keith muttered at the console.

I kept going. The next set of images were from the brig. I flipped through a series of empty cells, then paused again as I came across an interrogation room. A pair of pirates had dragged someone onto the table and were securing them, while a Galra soldier and Imperial medical technician stood by in my line of sight. I shivered at the memory of cold steel against my back.

“And done!”

I barely heard Keith. As I watched, the pirates stepped back to make room for the med tech to come forward. My fist clenched and I took a step back as I started to sweat. Then the Galra guard stepped to the side, clearing my line of sight to the prisoner, and my blood ran cold in my veins.

Ryo was the one on that table.  

My Bayard sprang into its sword form. I had no idea how he had gotten there, but there was no mistaking him.

“Caelia?” Keith asked, his attention snapping toward me.

“We have to go. Now. They have Ryo in the brig.”

Keith turned toward the screen. He stared for a moment, as confused as I was by Ryo’s presence here. Then he ran for the door.

*

Keith opened the door to the interrogation room, and I ran through the opening and cut down the Galra guard before he knew what hit him. The med tech turned from whatever he was doing to Ryo and faced me in surprise. I clocked him, and he dropped the device he’d been holding over Ryo. The pirates only had time to fire off a single shot before Keith was on them.

“Ryo?” I took his face in my hands, my heart racing.

Please let him be okay. Please let him be okay.

He moaned and stirred at the touch: sedated, but not fully under. I looked him over; it appeared we had gotten there before they could do any lasting harm. His eyes fluttered open as I searched. It took them a few moments to focus properly. When they finally did, they went wide.

“Caeli?”

I could have cried with relief at my name.

Keith released Ryo from his bonds, and we helped him up off the table. “Are you okay? What happened?”  I asked him. They were supposed to have been at the Quiznacking Mall.

“Worst shopping trip ever,” he groaned. “Pirates attacked the Mall, kidnapped a bunch of people.”

“They attacked the Mall?” Keith repeated. It was one thing if they’d had a run-in with pirates enroute, but to attack the Mall itself? It was a ballsy move.

“They hit fast and hard. I fought them off as best I could, but they got me and Juni. I don’t know what happened to Azura. I lost track of her in the fighting.”

“Don’t worry too much about Azura, she’s surprisingly good about slipping away from trouble,” I told him, while I prayed that this had been the case. I knew that Artor had a vendetta against Azura, but I had no idea if any of these pirates would recognize her.

“What about the others?” Keith asked. He handed Ryo back his Marmorran Blade, which had been set aside with the med tech’s equipment.

Ryo hugged the dagger, then his face scrunched with worry. “I don’t know. We got separated. Juni wandered off with Azura while the others were dealing with the Unilu. I went to find them when – oh, Quiznack! Juni!”

Ryo grabbed my arm. “The pirates took her and the others from the shuttle to the Druids just before they brought me here. Said something about a test!”

Keith and I exchanged glances. We had a pretty good idea where they had gone. “Right, follow me.”

I went over to the med tech and removed his mask. I tossed it to Ryo. He caught it and put it on with a grimace. I also pilfered a med kid from his things and stuck it to my suit’s utility belt. If the Druids had their hands on the prisoners, chances were good we were going to need it.

-----   

I navigated back to the big cavern where we’d seen the Druid before. We went out on the catwalk for a better vantage point to plan our course of action. It groaned as we eased our way onto it to get a better view of what was going on. No one seemed to hear it, though. The pirates continued their tasks.

I could see the Druid from before, walking along the row of posts and checking where a series of lines connected them to a circle. A set of chains had been set up there, and a second Druid was connecting a prisoner to them. He walked as though in a trance and did not fight back.  

Nearby, half a dozen pirates guarded the rest of the prisoners behind a small energy fence. I recognized Juni among them. All of them were wearing gelatinous green masks over their nose and mouth, and most sat listlessly. Only Juni appeared to be fully alert. One of the pirate guards noticed and approached her.

I had seen enough to know what our plan needed to be. I gestured for Caelia and Ryo to creep back from the catwalk back into the hallway.

And that was when two hundred years of exposure to volcanic corrosion finally caught up to the catwalk.

We fell as the catwalk gave way with the shriek of tearing metal. It dumped us toward the middle of the room. I twisted and landed on my feet. Ryo and Caelia landed rougher, but didn’t seem seriously injured from the drop. The three of us stood together, back-to-back-to-back as the attention of every person in the room turned toward us.

Quiznack. So much for a stealth plan.

“Free the prisoners! I’ll handle the main Druid,” I said, as I engaged the camouflage mode on my suit.

-----

The pirates immediately started to fire on us. I raised my energy shield and engaged my Bayard. I wished at that moment that I had a rifle of some sort, but the Bayard remained a sword. Ryo ran out ahead of me, not caring about being shot at. He activated his sword and ran toward the nearest pirate. Behind the fence, the prisoners turned toward the commotion.

Juni’s face lit up when she saw Ryo coming to rescue her. By the time I made it to the fence, Ryo had already taken down two of the pirates. I slashed at one of the posts generating the fence, and my Bayard cut straight through. The energy field dissipated. The prisoners looked at me. Juni rushed a pirate through the now-empty fence, and knocked him over.

“Run!” I yelled at the prisoners, using my best command voice. A couple shifted and gaped at me. Juni shot off a round of her newly pilfered pirate rifle. That was enough for them to scatter.

I turned for another of the pirates, but they were already in retreat. The remaining guards fled, leaving the Druids to their ceremony and the prisoners unchaperoned. I wanted to gather the prisoners and herd them to safety, but unfortunately, we had bigger problems to deal with.

At the edge of the lava lake, the first Druid activated the posts. A wave of energy surged over the ground, and the pillars began to pound out in rhythm and fill with light. From somewhere deep in the lava lake, I felt a pulse of power. The ground under us began to tremble. The second Druid raised their hands, releasing arcs of violet magic. Ruddy light flowed from the posts toward the unfortunate prisoner inside the Druids’ circle, who started to scream. Juni opened fire on the closer Druid.

I saw Ryo stumble and wince with pain momentarily as the posts activated. Caught off-guard, a blaster shot hit his arm. He whirled and threw his Blade at the offending pirate, eyes flashing yellow.  

The Druid Juni had attacked turned from their task and refocused that purple lightning on Juni. I interposed myself between them. The energy arced across my shield. Pain erupted down my side as the lightning hit me. Then instincts developed from Artor’s lab kicked in, and I shunted the power harmlessly along conduits he’d formed. When the Druid attacked again, the shield was only for show.

The Druid stopped attacking and stared at me in confusion. I grinned at him. I was pretty sure he’d never encountered anyone before immune to Druid lightning.

Ryo attacked. The two of them grappled, and I caught a glimpse of Keith engaging the other Druid at the other end of the pillar-line. I turned my attention to releasing the unfortunate victim within the circle. I sliced through the chains holding the prisoner in place, but they stood in place, their eyes glazed over and veins glowing red.

A blaster shot from above hit them in the head before I could reach their hand. I whipped up my shield, and Juni returned fire on the pirates who had appeared on the remaining catwalks above us and in the doorways. I cursed inwardly. The pirates were relatively easy to disperse, but we were seriously outnumbered.

Behind us, there was a green flash as Ryo pinned the Druid he’d been fighting to one of the glowing posts with his Blade. The Druid screamed in fury and raised his hands to gather power. The surrounding pillars began to pulse erratically. The Druid laughed, and then instead of attacking Ryo, the Druid thrust the power down into the earth. Ryo grabbed hold of the Blade and twisted.

The ground started to shake as the Druid died.

-----

Concealed, I crossed the distance to the first Druid. He sensed me as I closed and turned toward me just as I engaged my Blade. He was just fast enough to catch my weapon on a jagged sword of his own. My cloaking dropped as our weapons locked together and we struggled for control.

We growled at one another and grappled. Someone tried to shoot at us, but they missed. I kept my focus on the Druid, trusting the others to do their parts. My enemy tried to throw me off, but I hooked my foot around their leg, and we both went down on the ground together. I made sure to keep myself in contact; if they wanted to teleport, they were going to take me with them.

Suddenly, a new bout of blaster scored the ground near us. With a surge of renewed confidence, my enemy coiled and kicked me hard. I hit the ground, and rolled up to my feet, barely managing to avoid falling into the lava behind me.

I ran forward to reengage, and the Druid teleported away.

Over at the edge of the lava lake, there was a pop and a flash of green light as one of the pillars exploded. There was a scream and a huge pulse of power.  

The volcano around us started to shake. The lava started to bubble furiously. From the lava lake, I felt energy rise again. This time, it wasn’t just a pulse, but a continuous build of power. My attention snapped to it, as I recognized the energy at last.

Red.

She was searching, awakened but not yet totally aware. I reached out to her with my mind instinctively, calling out to her. I felt her link to me, and the energy stabilized. I grinned, ecstatic with the feeling of connecting once again to her.

The joy vanished, subsumed by excruciating pain as the crooked edge of a Druid sword emerged through my chest.

-----

“KEITH!”

I had felt the Red Lion’s power rise from the lava lake and turned to look. I saw Keith do the same as well, and the Druid take advantage of his moment of distraction. I screamed as the Druid withdrew their blade and blood spilled across the cavern floor. I raced for Keith, knowing I would never cross the distance between us before the Druid could land its finishing blow. Ryo ran, too -- faster than I was, but still not fast enough.

The Red Lion was faster.

She erupted from the lake, sending bits of cooling lava as deadly projectiles as she launched to protect her Paladin. The Druid screamed as her jaws clamped shut on him, too fast for him to even teleport away. We reached Keith, and the Red Lion stood over us protectively. She roared, and the lava fountained and boiled.

I turned to Keith. He was bleeding out from a ragged chest wound. Training took over and I pulled out the med kit to seal the wound, even as I knew it wouldn’t be enough to stop the damage that had been done on the inside. He coughed, sending a splatter of blood down his lips.

“Don’t move,” I told him. He gripped my arm. I knew he wanted to say something, but I refused to hear it. “And don’t say a word! You’re not going to die. Do you hear me? I’m not going to let you die here!”

This was just supposed to be a training mission. A simple trip to help Lance find the Lions. Ryo and the others were supposed to be taking a trip to the Quiznacking Mall. It wasn’t supposed to be dangerous.

But this was what it meant to be a Paladin.

He had a Galra constitution, but even that couldn’t repair the damage fast enough. But time, matter, energy. All these things were linked. I couldn’t directly change the first two – but the other? I could give him all the energy he needed.

Ryo and Juni stood over us as my focus narrowed to Keith and myself. I closed my eyes and reached inside. I put my hands over Keith’s chest. I felt his pulse under my hands; inside my energy surged in rhythm with my own. Two beats. Two beats, becoming one.

Shaking, I released the tight bands of control I’d placed on myself and opened up the void within. We were surrounded by lava, by geothermal energy. My scars burned as I drained it ruthlessly, then redirected it like I had in the Rift. Only this time, I didn’t just shunt the power. I pulled my own quintessence with it and threaded it through to guide the flow, weaving it through Keith like a needle.

Keith screamed. It had to hurt, I knew it had to hurt. I couldn’t do anything about the pain. All I could do was work to keep him alive.

Over us, Red went berserk. She attacked the remaining pirates in the cave, and when they were gone, she went after the cavern itself, tearing it apart to get at those who would hurt her Paladin. Ryo protected us from the worst of the flying lava and falling debris, but the volcano trembled, echoing Red’s pain and rage. If something didn’t stop her, we were all going to be buried alive, but Red couldn’t see that.

Keith squeezed my arm. “Not. . .fully. . . awake. . .get to. . .controls. . . .” he hissed out, before agony made him pass out.

I pieced together what he was saying. Red had connected to Keith, but only at the level that she felt his pain, not his awareness. A Paladin at her controls would ground her. But I couldn’t move Keith. And Lance wasn’t here.

Ryo looked up at Red. He pressed his mouth into a thin determined line. “Caeli, you got a grappling hook?”

“No, but I have a Bayard,” I said, guessing his plan. I didn’t dare break contact with Keith, but I nodded for him to take it from my hip.

He took it swallowed back terror and gave me a smile. “Wish me luck.”

“Ryo, what are you doing?” Juni asked.

Ryo ran toward Red. In his hand, the Bayard transformed into a grappling line like I’d envisioned. Juni looked at me in panic. “What is he doing?”

“Becoming a Paladin,” I said.

As I watched, Ryo caught Red in the mouth with the Bayard-line. Red swung and thrashed to shake him off, but Ryo hung on for dear life and rode that line. She turned her attention from destroying the cavern to trying to throw off Ryo. She twisted and flew, even going as far as to skim the surface of the lava. Still, Ryo climbed.

Finally, he reached her mouth and climbed inside. Accept him, I prayed.

The volcano shook. The lava rose. Red let out a tremendous roar. Her thrashing stopped. She turned and looked at us. Her gaze met mine.

The volcano around us continued to tremble.

Red turned her attack on the cavern wall. She blasted it with her mouth laser, sending huge chunks of rock down into the lava lake. Juni shielded us from the worst of it the best she could with her pirate buckler. Red rammed herself into the cavern wall, and pushed at it with her claws, until a hole crumbled large enough for a Lion to fit through.

“Where is she going?” Juni asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. It wasn’t what I expected to happen, but I couldn’t think about it. This volcano felt like it was about to erupt, and more enemies would be here soon, but I still didn’t dare break my connection with Keith. Sometime while Ryo had been climbing, he had stopped bleeding and relaxed under my hands, but I didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one. I hoped that it was a good sign, because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this up. I was suddenly all too aware of just how tired I was.

I closed my eyes. “Black? Lance? I don’t know if you can hear me, but we could really use your help right about now.”

Chapter Text

Something was wrong.

It had been too long since I’d sensed or heard anything from Keith and Caelia. I had thought I had sensed the Black Lion briefly after Keith and Caelia went through the wormhole, but before I could peg their location the feeling vanished. At first, I thought maybe I had sensed them before they went through the wormhole and kept searching. The longer we went without contact, the more I told myself that maybe they had contacted someone else, so not to break my concentration.

A whole of lot of good, that.

I gave up and unwound the blindfold. I had a headache, and I knew wasn’t going to make any more progress until I’d heard from Keith. I pulled up the Palace comms and Romelle answered from her office.

“Did you find them?” she answered brightly. Then she saw my expression.

“Have they checked in with you? They’ve been dark for a while now and I’m getting worried.”

She pouted. “I haven’t heard anything, but people have an annoying tendency to ‘not bother me with trifle matters’ these days. You look terrible. Why don’t you go to your apartment to rest? I’ll ask around and contact you there once I get some answers.”

I went back to the apartment, but I couldn’t rest. I checked the time. It had been over four Vargas – a little over five and a half Earth hours - since Keith and Caelia had left. Something was definitely wrong Our Mall shoppers weren’t back yet, either. That was probably just Coran or Juni’s doing, but it didn’t help my growing anxiety.

How had Keith managed to be in charge of an entire organization without going completely crazy with worry over his underlings? Maybe that was the real reason he’d turned down leadership of Daibazaal. I would have to ask him when we found him.

We WILL find them and they will be FINE, I told myself. I had to think that.

I finally gave up on attempting to rest. I donned my old Paladin armor and headed down to Blue, where Romelle found me via comms. She looked upset.

“There you are! What are you doing in Blue?”

“Couldn’t sleep, and she makes me feel better. Any word?”

On the screen, Romelle looked worried. “Not anything about the Black Lion. But Lance, we have another problem.”

Of course we did.

“I’ve just received word that there was an attack on the Lunar Mall. Information is still coming in, but it looks like it was a massive pirate raid. I haven’t been able to make contact with any of our group.”

“What?”

First Keith and Caelia missing, and now this? I gripped Blue’s controls so hard my hands hurt.

“Get me a wormhole, Romelle, I’m going to help,” I said as I brought up Blue’s controls.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’re tired, and the IGF has the situation under control.”

“Sitting around here just waiting any longer is going to kill me, Romelle,” I told her.

The two of us stared each other down across the comm screen. She had known me for two hundred years, and knew that I would run laps around the Palace before I would be able to rest at this point. Finally, Romelle looked away with an overdramatic sigh. “Fine. Just promise me you’ll be careful. I don’t want you getting lost, too.”

-----

I arrived to a cluster of IGF vessels and one captured big rig that looked like a pirate vessel out of a vid. No sooner had the wormhole closed behind me than the comms pinged.

“Unknown, ah, vessel. This is currently a restricted area. Please identify yourself and your purpose.”

Unknown vessel? Didn’t they know the Blue Lion of Voltron? 

“This is Lance McClain of the Blue Lion. I’m here to help,” I grumbled the reply. It might have been two hundred years, but you would think saving the universe would give me some recognition.

“Blue. . .Lion?” The young comms officer said. In the background, I heard one of his teammates say, “You don’t know what the Blue Lion is?”

That was better. At least we hadn’t been completely forgotten about. The thought made me unexpectedly sad. Despite everything we had done, how many people had no idea about what we had done? The sacrifices that had been made?

My markings began to glow softly at the thought of Allura, and Blue gave out a quick roar.

“Oh, uh, looks like you have clearance. Proceed, Blue Lion.”

“Thank you,” I said impatiently.

I made my way toward the mall itself. There was no evidence of any struggle, although I did notice the markings where a large ground transport had landed near the main structure. I maneuvered Blue to land as close as possible to it without disturbing the evidence.

As I approached, another ping came across the comms. “Sir, please stay away from the structure.”

Was anyone going to actually let me do my job without making me argue first?

“What’s happened?” Even this close, I couldn’t see evidence of damage bad enough to keep people out.

“A neuro-agent has been introduced to the atmosphere systems. We’re working to clear it now. We’ll be sending in rescue crews once the area is secure.”

“I’ve got protection,” I explained. The Paladin armor offered some of the best environmental protection of any flight suit in the universe.

“We haven’t yet been able to ascertain the interior is safe. Please wait until –”

“I can protect myself, too. I’ve got clearance, and if you don’t believe me, talk to Admiral Montgomery,” I said, then turned off the comms.

A quick scan from Blue showed me the structure was indeed safe. I landed Blue close to where the other ship had landed and made my way inside. The BLIP scanners showed plenty of life readings, but not a lot of movement. Still, just to be safe, I transformed my Bayard before entering.

A blue miasma hung in the air. I moved with caution, staying close to the walls. There was some evidence there had been fighting here, but it looked like it hadn’t been intense or lasted long. There were a couple of blast marks on the walls, but very little blood, and no corpses. Several storefronts had closed but hadn’t been disturbed.

I took a few breaths to calm my nerves; it had been a very long time indeed since I’d done something like this solo, and sneaking around had always been more Keith’s forte. There weren’t many life signs in this part of the mall, but I was alone, and unlike my younger self, I had no problems understanding the limitations that presented.

I slowly approached the closest life-signs. I caught sight of two aliens lying on the floor. One wore a security uniform, and the other looked like they spent a great deal of time at the gym. Both were unconscious, but neither looked wounded. I pulled up the scanner on my suit. Most of the medical jargon eluded me, but I understood the gist that their brains had slowed down, but they were otherwise healthy.

Right, the officer outside had said this blue mist was a neuro-agent.

I sent the information from my suit to the IGF and continued on, leaving the sleeping victims alone. The next few BLIP pings were much the same, just sleeping shoppers, hidden in alcoves or behind decor. I bit back angry words as I checked the vitals of a child, clutched against their mother.

A clicking behind me made me whirl. I raised my Bayard to attack, but there was nothing there. Another series of clicks sounded, and I realized they had come from the ceiling. I trained my Bayard on the source of the noise, ready for the ambush. The clicks sounded a third time, then became a whirring as the atmosphere systems kicked in to cycle the air.

I lowered my Bayard. The blue mist obscuring things lifted as the air began to cycle. As I turned, I noticed a third victim that the BLIP tech had missed – a young Galra woman. I gently turned her from the supine position in which she’d fallen to her side, and realized that she wasn’t Galra after all, but an Altean shifted with purple skin. I very gently turned her head into the recovery position, and as I did, I got a good look at her face.

“Azura?”

She didn’t answer me. Her vitals were so low, the BLIP tech didn’t register them at first. Like the others, she had no sign of injury except a deeply suppressed central nervous system. Perhaps the gas had affected her more strongly than the rest?

“Come on, give me a sign here,” I said as I held her, my cheeks burning.

The IGF rescue team pinged my comm as they entered the building, and I sent them our location. I called them over to Azura. The medics did a quick check and immediately lifted her onto a stretcher.  I hesitated, torn between staying with Azura and finding the others. If she was reacting to the gas, there was a good chance Coran would be hurt, too. What would it do to an old man?

“Take care of her,” I told them.

“We will. We’ll be moving all the victims to our ship for treatment. You can meet up there.”  

I tore myself away at last, trusting the experts to do their job. I reminded myself that the IGF had Alteans among its ranks now; they would know how to take care of her, and they could protect her just as well as I could, alone. Better.

I ran, chasing down BLIPs and keeping my Bayard out in the case of trouble. I pinged the comms. “Coran, do you read me? Doctor Holt? Azlan?”

More BLIP pings. More unknown victims. There were people unconscious in the middle of the corridor here; the attackers must not have had time to collect them. With the atmosphere cleared, other people slowly came out of shuttered shops. I moved through the growing crowds quickly, searching.

“Lance? Lance!”

I whirled to see Azlan running toward me. I nearly fell over with relief when I saw Coran and Doctor Holt were with him and unharmed.

“Don’t touch the suit!” I warned him as he approached. “I was walking through some potentially nasty stuff earlier.”

“Have you seen the others?” Azlan asked.

“Juniper and Azura went off on their own while we were negotiating. Ryo went to find them just before the pirates attacked,” Doctor Holt explained worriedly.  

“I found Azura. She’s sick, but the IGF medics have her now. I haven’t seen any sign of Ryo or Juni.”

The fact that I’d found Azura near where the action had taken place, but not Ryo or Juni did not bode well. Ryo for certain wouldn’t have backed away from a fight. I just hoped that wherever they were, they had remained together, and whatever had harmed Azura hadn’t harmed them.

“It happened so fast. We were fortunate we were with the Unilu when the attack happened. He sealed us in right away, and kept us safe,” Doctor Holt said.

“The Unilu have a long history with pirates. They are always prepared for trouble,” Coran commented.

“Is that what you think it was?” Azlan asked him.

“The IGF had captured what looked like a pirate ship when I got here in Blue,” I said. Although come to think of it, it was strange that none of the shops near their point of entry had been looted.

IGF officers arrived and started moving everyone toward an exit where they had set up decontamination stations and medical scanners. I mentally signalled to Blue that I might be a little while, but to be ready for action when I returned.

“Lance?” Azlan asked as we walked.

“Yeah?”

“Where are Keith and Caelia? Did they go after the pirates?”

“No, they went off on a training exercise before we got word about this. Romelle is tracking them down now,” I told him, hoping that it was true.

Azlan tucked his ears downward. He was worried, too.

-----

Aboard the IGF’s local flagship, I paced through the crowded hallways, waiting for either word about Azura, the missing kids, or from Romelle, until I couldn’t take it anymore. I tracked down an officer and made him tell me everything they had learned so far: the captured starship was indeed a pirate ship, it was only the largest of several ships, and many of the smaller ones had gotten away.

An IGF doctor approached just as I finished interrogating the officer.  “Paladin McClain?”

“That’s me.”

“I wanted to let you know your friend has stabilized. She is awake, if you would like to speak with her, but I would like to keep her a while for observation. We have noticed that the agent used has a profound effect on Altean physiology and want to be certain she is fully recovered before releasing her.”

I thanked the doctor and followed her to Azura’s bed. She looked like she was still half asleep. She perked up as I walked over, though.

“Lance, you’re here!”

She tried to sit up, then slid back against the bed, putting a hand to her forehead. “It was a raid. They took Ryo and Juni! I managed to slip away. I tried to circle back to help them, but they put something in the air . . .”

I wanted to scream, but I kept my voice calm. “It’s okay, we’re looking.”

She grabbed my arm. “Lance, they were working for Aktra. I heard them. You don’t know what he’ll do to them. To Ryo. We have to get them back!” She tried to get out of bed and nearly fell over.

I caught her and gently steered her back. “You’re not in any shape to go anywhere, right now. Stay here and recover. You’ll be safe here, under the IGF’s protection. Coran can stay here with you, if you want. Or Azlan, or Doctor Holt.”

“They are all right?” She cried out happily.

“Yup. The trader protected all three of them. Don’t worry, we’ll find Ryo and Juni.”

She leaned back against the pillow. “I hate this. Ryo and Juni are in danger, and I am useless.”

I gave her a smile. “Hey, don’t say that! You’re hardly useless. You’ve been a great help to us.”

“But I should have stopped them!” she whispered angrily.

I put my hand on hers and lowered my voice for just her to hear. “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. We both know Ryo is a fighter. If these guys managed to take out Ryo and Juni together, they weren’t just random thugs. They came prepared. And I’m glad you didn’t fight them, and get taken, too. Okay?”

As I thought back to what I had seen, it was clear that this wasn’t a normal pirate attack. It was too big, too organized, and there wasn’t any evidence that had even tried to steal stuff. Just people. It made me feel sick, thinking about it.

She made a fist against the blanket and lowered her voice. “They came for me, Lance. They did not recognize me, but I heard them talking. They knew we were there.”

I felt cold. If the pirates knew Azura and her group were at the mall, did they know where Keith and Caelia had gone, too? There were any number of people who might have overheard our plans at the Palace. And all too easy to slip in an Altean spy.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get them back,” I said as much to myself as Azura.

-----

I marched straight to the others as a pit stop before heading back to Blue.

“Is she going to be okay?” Azlan asked, with a surprising amount of concern. Huh. I hadn’t been aware the two had become friends. Apparently, the group training sessions had done more good than just improve everyone’s flying and fighting proficiency.

“She’ll be fine. She just needs more rest. That gas they used is particularly hard on Alteans,” I told him. Coran stroked his mustache at that. I was fairly sure he suspected what Azura had told me, but I didn’t want to discuss it in public.

“I will stay here with the girl, then. I would feel safer with the IGF until we can return to Altea,” Coran announced.

“Speaking of the IGF, Lance. One of the communications officers was looking for you,” Doctor Holt informed me.

It had to be a message from Romelle. I prayed she had found Black. “I’ll see to that now. Why don’t you three go say hello to Azura? Given everything, it would make me feel better if all three of you stay with her while she recovers, and she’d probably appreciate it, too.”

I didn’t stick around long enough to see if they complied. I needed to hear from Romelle.

I technically could have pulled rank and used an officer’s line, but with Azura’s news, I suddenly didn’t want to call more attention to our situation. So I called Romelle back from one of the ship’s communal communication booths. The moment her face appeared on the screen, I knew she didn’t have good news.

“What is it, Romelle?” I steeled myself for the worst.

Romelle bit her lip. “IGF sent someone to investigate the area where the Black Lion should have exited the wormhole, but they also never checked in. When they sent in a cruiser to investigate, they discovered that someone had set up a malignant gravity device in the location.”

A trap? Quiznack. They knew.

Romelle looked like she wanted to cry. “Lance, their experts are saying a ship the size of the Black Lion probably would have been torn apart by the apparatus. And the area is filled with debris.”

My stomach bottomed out. I pinched myself to change my focus. No, I wouldn’t believe that. Keith was too experienced to have fallen blindly into such a trap, and the Black Lion was no ordinary ship. That didn’t mean that Black hadn’t been damaged by the device though. Maybe that was why they hadn’t communicated.

I looked at the time, again. It had been six and a half Vargas - a little over nine Earth hours - since the Black Lion had gone dark. If they had gotten hit by that trap, how far could they have drifted in all this time? The IGF would be sure to be thorough, but space was big, as I had come to appreciate all too well recently.

“Thanks, Romelle. I’ll do what I can from here.”

“Lance. . . I’m sorry.”

I turned off the comm without another word.

Quiznack, I really didn’t need all this. I was exhausted. Today was supposed to have been an easy day, and now half of our team was injured, missing, or captured. I didn’t know how to find any of them, and worst of all, I had no idea which of our group needed help the most. My mind spun, desperately trying to come up with solutions for everything all at once.

My markings glowed, and I felt the reassuring brush of Blue on my mind.

All right, McClain. You can do this.

“You’re The Tailor, right? You can stitch this group back together,” I said to myself aloud.  

I took a moment to compose myself, then walked out of the booth. I nearly ran into Azlan, who tried his best to look like he hadn’t been listening in on the conversation.

“How much of that did you hear?” I asked him.

His ears flattened. “Keith and Caelia are in trouble, aren’t they? What happened to them?”

My husband might be a Marmorite, but I never had much use for keeping secrets from friends. “I wish I knew. They went off to help me train to find the Lions, but we lost contact with them Vargas ago. I should be able to find them, but the truth is, I’m not very good at this magic stuff.”

“Well, maybe you’re doing it wrong,” Azlan suggested.

“Not helpful,” I muttered.

Azlan swished his tail and flicked his ears. “No, I mean, maybe you’re not supposed to be looking for the Lions at all!”

I raised an eyebrow at that.

When I didn’t contradict him, Azlan continued more and more excitedly.  “I mean, with the Gates, we don’t just blindly search for a Rift to connect to. There’s a resonance between the ore we just and the openings. And your Lions should be able to resonate like that, too. What if when Allura was searching for the Lions, she called to them, and they answered her through their connection? Sure, she used the Castle to actually plot the locations, but the Lions told her where they were. . . .”

“That. . .actually sounds weirdly reasonable. But I’m not sure how to do it.”

“Sure you do! You’ve done it before! When you were fighting the war and Sendak conquered Earth, you called the Lions to you! Back then you were just connected to Blue, I mean Red, but now you’re connected to all the Lions, so you should be able to call all of them! And the distance shouldn’t matter, because they’re connected to you through the Astral! You don’t even need a Teludav. Blue should be able to translate the coordinates and request a wormhole!”

I raised my other eyebrow. That actually sounded like it might work.

“Kid, you’re a genius! Just who told you all these old war stories, anyway?”

Azlan’s excitement faded. “Well, you did. Or at least, your other you told my dad, and he told me.”

I gave Azlan a wink and ruffled his fur. “Well, now, then you should know just how much I hate to disappoint a fan. So let’s call some Lions, shall we?”

Chapter Text

I settled in Blue’s chair, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves and focus my thoughts. I’d contacted the IGF commander and let them know I would be requesting a wormhole soon, and for them to be on standby for the coordinates. Azlan’s face showed on comms. He was suited up to come to my rescue, just in case something went wrong.

He’d wanted to come aboard Blue but I had insisted everyone stay outside, just in case something went wrong.

“Ready?”  Azlan asked.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

I closed my eyes and focused on Blue. I relaxed, let my mind drift like a little fishing boat off Varadero. The cycled air of my spacesuit became the salt tang of Earth’s ocean breeze, and the beating of my heart slowly translated to the breaking of distant waves on sand. I was floating. Warm water lapped at me, soothing. I could feel the gentle pull of the waves and current. Slowly, it pulled me under.

I emerged, standing in a sea of stars.

Across the water, I heard the faint echo of a voice.

“Lance, are you there? Can you hear me?”

 Caelia?

“Caelia!” I called back but heard no answer. The moment brought back the memory of being in Voltron’s shared mind space, and Shiro reaching out to me. He had tried to warn me, and I hadn’t heard him. I wasn’t going to repeat that mistake again.

I concentrated and reached out. Ripples spread out from me, spreading my thoughts far and wide through the Astral. Blue light shone from my core, illuminating the reflected stars like bioluminescence.

“Hear me. Tell me where you are,” I whispered.

All around me, I heard Blue’s roar. The ripples strengthened into waves. In the distance, I heard the answering call of a Lion. A star on the horizon brightened, and I felt a resonance within me. That was Black! I recognized the feel of her essence immediately, even though I had never bonded with her. She was calm but intense, distant but illuminating, simultaneously of the void and thunder and starlight.

I looked out across the starry map and knew where she was. She was distressed. I had the impression of her standing guard over her Paladin, no, Paladins. I tried to reach out to Keith and Caelia, but neither responded.

Then came another roar. This essence I knew, although I had never felt it so clearly before. Red was a volcano erupting, a campfire, a candle flame. She was close to Black, and she was angry. A deep, blinding fury. My connection to her winked out from her almost immediately, overrun by that emotion. My own heart trembled at its echoes.

Keith, hang on. I’m coming.

Faintly in the distance, came two more answers. Green and Yellow had roused from my call, but did not yet have enough awareness to maintain a connection. Their stars glittered brightly and then faded back into the background. But that was okay. I had found Black and Red, and I knew where we needed to go.

Water surged up around me. I sank beneath their surface back into my body. I woke with my hands clasped around Blue’s controls, and systems to fly engaged. Blue was already sending coordinates to the cruiser to open a wormhole. My heart was racing. I was trembling, although I wasn’t sure if it was from exhaustion or anticipation.

“Did you find them?” Azlan asked, wide-eyed.

A laugh escaped me. I hadn’t actually expected it to work, but it had. I guess I was more capable of magical things than I thought. “Yeah, I found them. Black is with Red. But there’s something strange going on. I think Keith is hurt.”

Or worse. I didn’t let myself dwell on the worse.  

“Right, Sir! I’ll get Doctor Holt and –”

“No, I need you to stay here.”

There wasn’t much they could do to help from inside Blue, the way Red was acting, I didn’t have time for the IGF to disengage from their problem and round up a ship for Azlan and Doctor Holt to use. Even if there were more time, neither of them were skilled enough fighter pilots I felt right sending them headlong into danger, but I didn’t say that.  

“You need someone to watch your back!”

“Blue will have my back. While I’m gone, I need you all here to watch Azura’s back. The IGF are looking after her, but we have a spy, Azlan. The pirates that attacked the mall had word that she was there. You are a Blade: you know what to look for, and I know you can protect her.”

“Yes, Sir,” Azlan grumbled.

I noticed activity nearby.

The cruiser hailed me. “Blue Lion, coordinates received. Prepare for arrival of escort and Wormhole jump.”

If I were a smart man, I would tell the IGF what I had learned and let them take care of the trouble I knew was waiting on the other side of that wormhole. But I’d never been known as the smart one.

-----

The IGF sent four MFEs through the wormhole along with me. We emerged near a planet bustling with ships of dubious origins. I spotted one badly damaged Galra cruiser, several heavily armed carrier-class ships that bore no identifying markings, and countless fighter craft of varied origins.

They were currently engaged with the Red Lion. For a moment, I could only stare. Keith had flown her with a deadly elegance, but I had never seen her fight like this before. She moved from ship to ship with a vicious efficiency, dodging their attacks and tearing one apart after another.

She was Fire and Fury personified.

I might have continued to watch, except the Galra cruiser started firing on us. Pirate or Imperial, it was an easy assumption to make that if one Lion was tearing apart your fleet, another one probably wasn’t a friend. Of course, I wasn’t entirely sure at the moment that Red was our friend, either.

“Defend yourselves, but keep your distance from the Red Lion. I’ve never seen her like this,” I told the MFE pilots.

I turned Blue toward the Galra cruiser. My heart pounded with excitement. I now understood too well the tragedy of war, but this? This never got old. As I flew, memories came back to me. I recalled the weak points of the Galran structure and targeted them as I maneuvered Blue toward the bridge. I iced over its port side cannons, before engaging my jaw blade and going after nearby fighters.

Red noticed and came to meet us. I tensed, uncertain of her intentions.

Ryo’s image appeared on my screen. He was still dressed in his street clothes, but they had been cut and torn. Burns dotted his clothes and left ruddy marks down one bare arm, but he didn’t even seem to notice them. I’d have to get the story of how he went from a prisoner to flying Red another time.

“Ryo!”

“Lance! Quiznack, I’m glad to see you! Are the Lions always like this?”

“Red is stubborn until you prove yourself. You can’t let her dominate you,” I answered, although I suspected Red was being far worse than usual right now.   

One of the big transport ships fired on us. The blast caught Red in the side. Ryo cried out as she spun.

“Ryo!”

“’m alright,” he grunted, and turned her around to face the threat. The big ship tried to retreat, but Red pursed. I swooped in ahead and fired across with tail lasers and ice gun, disabling the weapons and then the thrusters. Meanwhile, Red sank her claws into the hull of a big transport ship and began to tear.

“Ryo, that’s enough. That one’s disabled.”

Ryo didn’t answer.

Distress signals flashed across my comms.

“Please! Please, stop! We . . we surrender! We have prisoners aboard! We’ll let them go, we promise! Please!”

“Blue Lion, that looks like one of the ships that escaped the Mall,” one of the pilots chimed in.

“Ryo, stop! There are innocents aboard!”

Ryo didn’t stop.

“You gotta connect with her, do you hear me? You have to take control!”

“Lance, it hurts. She. . .she’s hurting, and she wants to hurt them.”

My markings flared as I reached out to Red across the bond we had once shared. Pain and rage bled up the connection. The intensity of it threatened to overwhelm me. I was amazed that Ryo had managed as much control over her as he had.

I dug in my metaphorical heels and reached out to Red while dodging shots in Blue.  Red, there are innocents aboard! You need to stop! I called out to her through gritted teeth. This isn’t you! Those people didn’t hurt you!

“They hurt Keith,” Ryo said in a low voice.

Keith. Keith was here somewhere, hurt. We had to go to Keith.

Sweat ran down my face with the effort of maintaining an active connection between two Lions at once. Red, have to go back. We have to save Keith.

Blue roared. Red paused in her attack to look at us.

“That’s right, Red! This way!” Ryo called out, and Red shot off like a rocket for the planet.

I turned and followed Red. The pirate ships took a few parting shots at us but largely seemed interested in retreat at this point. Our escorts played their part, protecting us and opening a path through any resistance through the planet’s thick atmosphere.

There were more fighters between us and the surface, but thankfully they were far happier to avoid us than engage. I followed Red through the planet’s cloud layer. She flew fast enough that if I didn’t have a sense of her, we would have been left behind in the turbulence. As I exited the clouds, I saw her fly to the side of a steaming volcano-turned-factory.

A number of ships were taking off from the place, and I caught sight of others being hastily loaded with crates before they, too, evacuated. They ignored us, though, so I ignored them in turn.

Red darted inside the volcano through a hole that had broken in its flank, then back out again to give me space to enter. I caught sight of Black below, crouched in the center of a rapidly disappearing island in the middle of a lake of lava. I used Blue’s ice cannon to freeze the closest lava to form a barrier, and then I added a high layer of ice on top of that and then landed Blue.

“I’ll keep guard out here with your escort,” Ryo said from beyond the cave.

I climbed out of Blue and headed toward Black. She was crouched low to the ground and . . .purring? Her eyes flashed a momentary greeting at me, but she didn’t move. Movement caught my eye, and a laser shot flashed past my shoulder as a terrified Juniper rounded the side of Black’s claw.

“Quiznack, put that down! It’s me, Lance!”

She made a noise that was muddled by the gelatinous mask she wore and lowered the rifle, then bolted back toward Black’s underbelly. I followed. I spotted Caelia sprawled across Keith’s legs and crossed the rest of the distance at a run. Keith had a deep chest wound. It had been patched with stained med-foam, but a small river of blood had dried from under them.

I skidded across lava to kneel at Keith’s side. He was still breathing. Caelia had collapsed against him, one bloody hand still resting on his chest.

“Hey, kid,” I gently rolled her off him into my arms, so I could get a look. She didn’t respond as I moved her. She was pale and sweating, and her heart was racing. Blood stained her hands and front, but her suit was intact. The med scanner at my wrist showed no injuries, but her vitals were failing.

“What happened?” I asked Juni.

Juni made a stabbing gesture and pointed to Keith. Then she pointed to Caelia, patted her chest, and then pantomimed touching Keith’s chest. Then she put a hand to her forehead dramatically and made a fainting motion.

Between Juni’s charades and the fact Caelia had collapsed with no wounds I pieced together what she must have done. She’d given to Keith like she had given to Black, and like Allura had done for me, and countless others. Only Caelia had given too much. Well, maybe I could fix that. I hugged Caelia close as Juni looked on with wide eyes.

Allura, if you can hear me, help me, I prayed.

“Come on, kid. You called to me, and I heard you. I came,” I whispered to her. Warmth bloomed in my chest and on my face. Against me, I felt her chest rise and fall with easier breaths, and her pulse began to even out.

“That’s it, kid. Just like that,” I said with relief. The light faded from inside my helmet. Dizziness swept over me, and I was glad to be kneeling.

Beside us, Keith moaned. “Lance?”

“Keith!”

I was suddenly annoyed that he had worn this Marmora getup instead of his Paladin armor, because I really needed to see his face right now. We’d been through this moment dozens to times, but it never got any easier.

“You found us,” he murmured.  

“Was there ever any doubt?”

“No, never,” he laughed. It quickly turned into a cough and a wheeze.

I gently set Caelia down against Black’s claw, so I could get a med scan of Keith. She moaned, but didn’t wake.

I turned to Juni. “Go into Black. There’s a med station with a transport pod at the back left of the big chamber where we found the prisoners from the Rift. Get it.”

“She saved me,” Keith said softly once we were alone. “I got distracted at a bad moment.”

I turned the med scanner on Keith. “Yeah, I gathered that. Red’s pissed about it, by the way. She’s being a real pain in the ass for Ryo.”

“Ryo’s piloting Red?” He tried to sit up, hissed, and laid back down again.

“More or less. Now stay still so I can get a good enough look to make sense of this jargon.”

That was one Quiznacking awful chest wound. There’d been internal bleeding, but it looked like it had stopped. One lung was partially collapsed. A few decent cuts. Lots of bruises.

Keith groaned, “I’m fine. Just help me up,” and tried to sit up on his own again.

“You stay right where you are, Mullet, or I’m knocking you back out myself!” I snapped at him.

“Gotta get Black out of here. Caelia can’t.”

What?

“I thought you couldn’t.”

Keith’s answer was interrupted by the volcano. The ground shook. Clouds to steam hissed from the edge of my barrier, and Blue roared out a warning. Juni came running out with the floating pod. Together, she and I maneuvered Caelia into it, and then helped Keith to his feet. Keith and I leaned against each other and stumbled into Black, while Juni maneuvered the pod ahead of us. All the while, the volcano continued to shake.

Ryo pinged me again. “Lance? How are things going? Because I really don’t like the readings I’m getting from that volcano.”

“We’ll be in the air soon,” I said with a glance at Keith.

While Juni secured the pod, I helped Keith into Black’s cockpit. He slid into control chair and took the controls with a determined expression. I felt the brush of Black at my mind. Questioning. It felt like she was asking my permission, but that didn’t make any sense. I certainly didn’t tell the Lions who their pilots were supposed to be.

I briefly getting into the chair myself and sending Juni to fly Blue. I had a sense Black would allow it, and Blue was very good with new pilots. But there were still too many enemies out there between us and any chance of a wormhole home for me to want all three Lions piloted by people unused to them.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve flown with worse,” Keith insisted.

“All right. Take good care of him, Black,” I said, and the controls lit up.

Under us, the shaking turned violent. Black and Blue both roared warnings.

Ryo pinged my wrist comm. “Lance, I’m not a scientist, but I’m pretty sure you really, really, really need to leave, now.”

I pointed at Keith. “No dying. That’s an order.”

“Yes, Sir,” he grinned at me.

I ran for Blue. The ground trembled again as I crossed the distance between the two Lions, splitting an unsettlingly large and glowing fissure nearby. Between the shaking and my own growing exhaustion, I lost my footing twice. Somehow, I still got Blue up just before a particularly violent shake brought down a portion of the cavern roof into the rapidly rising lava lake. I looked behind and was relieved to see Black following.

“Oh thank Quiznack,” Ryo said as we emerged. Knowing Keith’s condition, I took point. At Keith’s suggestion, Black and Red moved into formation at my flanks, and the MFEs fell into a defensive position around us. Behind us, the volcano started some serious venting. Even if they were our enemies, I hoped that everyone was out of there.

“BLIP scans show minimal life signs within the structure,” one of the MFE pilots said, thinking the same thing I was.

I set a course for the upper atmosphere. I had no desire to be anywhere near that thing when it finally blew. We were in the upper cloud layer when Blue’s alerts went off.

“Registering warp signature up ahead,” one of the MFE fighters reported.

“Oh, Quiznack,” Ryo said.

We crested the cloud layer to see a Galra cruiser headed toward us with and its main cannon powered up.

“Evasive action!”

We scattered and just barely avoided being vaporized.

“Hey, Ryo. Time to let Red off her leash,” I said, and ran Blue straight toward the cruiser. Black followed.

“Hey, Lance. You still remember the Ice Knife maneuver?” Keith said.

The words sparked a memory. “I think so.”

I fired with the ice cannon to cover their main weapon, while Keith raked Black’s claws along the side of the hull. Old battle instincts took over, and Keith and I moved together like we had long ago. Now that Red wasn’t fighting him, Ryo echoed our movements, learning with frightening speed what to places to hit. The battle turned into a blur. Between the three of us and the MFEs we quickly did enough damage to send the cruiser listing toward the planet’s surface.

I grinned at Ryo’s cheer as we left it behind, and Black rejoined us. Now that we were clear of the atmosphere, I saw that most of the pirate fleet that had been here had retreated. It looked like it would be clear sailing from here. Which was good, because my head was pounding and my vision had started to blur.

“Detecting multiple warp signatures!”

Suddenly, what was once empty space was occupied by half a dozen Galra battleships.

A communication flashed onto my screen, showing a female Galra with solid yellow eyes, and a central shock of long braided hair. She wore the red armor of the Galra Empire under a long duster jacket and – Quiznack, was that a Marmora Blade at her waist? 

Keith’s intake of breath told me that I was right about the detail.  

“Voltron Paladins. I am Commander Aktra. Surrender, and your lives will be spared,” she said.

I heard Keith growl. Red crouched to attack, but Ryo held her back.  

One cruiser we had been able to take. Six was not odds I wanted to gamble on, not with us all exhausted. I surveyed the area for a place for us to retreat to. Unfortunately, the ships had us fairly neatly surrounded. I swallowed hard.

Then behind the cruisers, a wormhole opened up.

“Voltron Lions, please leave this to us!” Admiral Montgomery’s voice called across the comms.

A composite giant robot that bore a passing resemblance to Voltron emerged from the wormhole, followed by the Atlas. I barked out a laugh. It had been a long time since I’d encountered Pidge’s legacy. It saluted us, before flying toward the nearest enemy battleship.

“What is that?” Ryo asked.

“I believe Pidge called its blueprint ‘Vehicle Voltron’.”

“Please enter the wormhole. We will cover your retreat,” Admiral Montgomery commanded.

I turned Blue toward the glowing portal. “Come on, I think we’ve all done more than enough for today.”

Chapter Text

I stood in the Lions’ Plaza in the pre-dawn light and looked up at the Lions there. Three of them sat at attention now – half of Voltron. Before long, Lance would find the remaining two. Then our real work would begin.

I gazed up at Black and wondered, not for the first time since returning here, what the Lions intended my role to be.

The connection between me and Black had begun to return; it had been strong enough for me to fly her out of the pirates’ base. But I wasn’t sure if that allowance was an invitation to the pilot’s seat again, or if she merely allowed me to fly out of necessity.

Just after I’d been severed from Black, I would have done almost anything to take back my role, but now I wasn’t so sure. Voltron needed synergy between its pilots, more than it needed skilled pilots in each of the Lions. I smiled as I thought of Ryo as Caelia’s right hand. The friendship between the two of them ran deep – deeper than perhaps Caelia realized. With Lance providing stability and experience from Blue, the combination was excellent, especially since it seemed likely Yellow and Green would accept either or both of our two young engineers who were friends with the pair.

“What do you, think, Red?” I said aloud.

Her eyes flashed, and she growled softly along with Black. Black’s door opened in clear invitation.

I climbed inside. I slid into the seat and set my hands against Black’s controls. I closed my eyes and reached out to feel the flow of her energy around me. Cool current flowed under my hands, but her controls remained dark.

“I wish you would just tell me what you want from me.”

In answer, the view panels turned on one by one. At first, I thought she wanted me to take flight after all, but the glow of her controls spread, transforming the vista of Lion’s Plaza to deep space.

My hands moved with remembered motions as I flew Black – no, Voltron – against a mech so bright it hurt to look at. I saw the Blazing Sword pierce its heart, and its light flood back into Voltron. That light wasn’t meant to be held by any mortal body. Like I had within Black’s essence, I felt myself burn.    

The image vanished, leaving me gasping for air in the seat. I tried to let go of the controls, but my hands refused to budge. Black wasn’t done with me yet.

The scene shifted back to Voltron again. This time, it was Caelia at Black’s controls while I stood overlooking things, ethereal. Again, we faced the shining mech. The two mechs clashed together, sending cracks through the fabric of the universe. The kids fought well but were outmatched by a seasoned opponent. Desperate, Caelia pulled out her Bayard.

“We have to stop him. No matter the cost,” Caelia whispered. She put the Bayard into its slot.

“Form Blazing Sword!”

I watched from the ether as Caelia suffered the same fate as Shiro.

No. No, Black couldn’t possibly want this! She knew that I would give anything to protect the multiverse – and to protect these kids. I would cede Black to Caelia if that was what she wanted, but not for this. Not for this.

“What do I have to do?” I shouted into the void.

The scene reappeared a third time.  This time, when the moment came to call forth the Blazing Sword, and I reached out and laid ghostly a hand over hers. Two hands guided the Bayard into its keyhole. Once again, Voltron struck, and energy surged back. Caelia’s scream rang out. But this time, the stream was divided. Half through her, half through me.

I found myself back physical space again, panting. The glow of the controls faded out and went cold. I let go.

What was that, just now? In the final vision, had we both been piloting Black somehow? Or had I . . . had I died and fused with Black, like Shiro had? Was Black trying to warn me away? Or was she trying to show me something new?

I reached for the controls one more time, but Black’s cockpit remained quiescent. I had asked Black to tell me what she wanted from me, and she had done so the only way she knew how. Now it was up to me to make sense of it. 

-----

Sensations flowed through me, blurring and twisting together: images and sounds of Galra and pirate ships attacking; the sudden movements and the rushing flow of combat; the pulse of a too-fast heartbeat; burning pain in my abdomen; concentration so intense that it flowed back around to calm.

I found myself standing once again under the eclipsed sky of Black’s Astral plane.

The last thing I remembered, I was trying to patch together Keith from what would be a mortal wound. I had felt myself getting weaker, but I hadn’t dared to stop until Keith showed proof he was stable. I must have connected to her, just before I fell unconscious. At least, I hoped I was just unconscious.

If I had managed to die attempting to save Keith, Lance was gonna kill me. If Doctor Holt didn’t get to me first. Or Juni. Or Ryo. Okay, maybe there was a list.

Things felt different than last time, though. In addition to what I was feeling from Black, I realized there were overtones of other sensations as well.

Fear, joy of reunion; the intense need to support and ease suffering. Worry over others.

Blue. Just as I was connected to Black, Black was connected to her sibling Lions. Thinking about it, I supposed she had to be, in order for the whole Voltron thing to work.

Experimentally, I concentrated again on Black’s sensations bleeding into my mind. This time, I caught impressions that I assumed came from Red:

Barely-controlled rage born of the sting of a thousand cuts and a deadly a wound suffered by another. The need to eliminate the threat.

The intensity of the feelings made me reel. Not only that, but I had felt the presence of yet another echo down the line. Red had a Paladin again. Had Ryo succeeded? Wondering, I reached out with my mind again. The darkness began to take on the faint outline of sun and stars as I consciously merged my mind with Black. Under the Astral sky, I reached out for one of the stars. Once again, I touched Red.

The starlight sky faded out, leaving me in total darkness. Then in the shadows the faintest outline of another person appeared, generated by their own inner light. The shape was faint and flickering. I called out, but they didn’t hear me as I approached.

At last, I came close enough to recognize Ryo. So he had connected to Red! I ran to him to offer my congratulations, then stopped short when he didn’t acknowledge me. Something was wrong. Ryo’s head was tilted slightly down. He was staring at his hands, shaking.

Red light pooled at his feet like blood.

“Ryo?”

This time he heard my voice. He whirled and saw my shadow. I reached out to him, but he stepped back, terrified.

Red responded to her Paladin’s distress, and I was thrown back into total darkness.

*  

I gasped awake back in my bedroom on New Altea, my hand closing on empty air. I was in my bed but dressed in one of those healing pod jumpsuits. How long had been out? The last thing I remembered clearly was trying to keep Keith alive inside the heart of a volcano, while Ryo had gone to tame Red. After that, things went fuzzy for a while.

Groaning, I sat up and disturbed a pile of clothing that had been set on my bed. I recognized the chaos of one of Juni’s sewing projects scattered around my room, along with a book Azura had been reading. On the nightstand, I caught sight of the Red Bayard.

So we had managed to bring Red home after all. Had Keith made it home, too?

Juni poked her head in through the door that led to my adjacent sitting room. She looked exhausted and worried, but chipper enough I was reasonably certain we had avoided a funeral.

“Oh, good, you’re finally awake,” she said with heavy relief. “Azura said you would probably be out of it for a while, but we were starting to get worried,” she said.

She poked at her wrist comm. “Hey everyone! Sleeping beauty is finally awake!”

“How long?” I asked with a gravelly voice. My tongue felt like I’d just licked the Sahara, and my everything was stiff. I pulled off the blanket and swung my legs out of the bed, and the world started to spin. I grabbed the bed with both hands to stay semi-vertical.

Juni rushed over to steady me. “Not so fast! You’ve been asleep for two days straight now. Not counting the time in the pod.”  

“Two days? What happened?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Juni said, crossing her arms and glaring at me. “We went from Keith being all sworded and you being fine to him being strong enough to fly a Lion, and you on death’s door without a wound!”

“He flew a Lion? Which one?”

“Black. But that was not my point. Just what did you do? No medkit is that good.”

“I, uh, channeled energy to stabilize him, using my own life-force as a catalyst?” At least, that was my best guess.

Juni tilted her head to the side. “Like the Alchemists do?”

I hadn’t thought of it like that, but it made a certain amount of sense. Artor was an Altean Alchemist, so maybe he used that ability as a basis for . . . whatever a Vessel was supposed to be.

“I guess so? I don’t fully understand how it all works completely, myself.”

I would have to apologize to Azura, later. And Ryo. And well, everyone. I hadn’t meant to nearly bleed myself dry of energy helping Keith. I really needed to better understand how exactly this channeling ability of mine worked, because finding out my limits the hard way was going to end very poorly one of these times.

“So it wasn’t a Black Lion thing, then.”

“No, it was . . . an experimented on by an Alchemist thing,” I said, rubbing at my scars.

“Oh.”

Whatever other questions Juni might have had for me vanished after that. Juni turned her attention instead on the pile of clothing I’d knocked onto the floor.

“So what did I miss while I was uh, napping?” I asked, eager to change the subject.

“Not too much. Mostly Lance talking to the IGF and worrying about Keith, Ryo and Azura worrying about you, and Azlan, Doctor Holt, and I going over the Gate to see how much damage the spy did to it. We’ve got it pretty much fixed now. Doctor Holt is just making final adjustments and thinks it should be operational by tomorrow.”

“Spy? What spy?”

“The same one that was after Azura at the Space Mall.”

“They were after Azura?” Ryo had said they were split up, but he hadn’t mentioned a target.

As she zipped around the room, collecting sewing supplies, Juni told me about how the pirates had found them at the Mall, and what Azura had told Lance when he showed up to rescue her, and then how Lance had showed up to rescue us from the pirate base, and there had been a big battle to escape it, and a bunch of Galra cruisers had showed up at the end and there had been a giant robot and --  

“I missed a giant robot?”

A chuckle at the door drew both of our attention.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to fly your own soon enough,” Keith said from the doorway.

He edged his way in, carrying a steaming mug in each hand. I just stared at him. The last time I had seen him, he had been bleeding out, and now he was moving as though nothing had happened at all.

He smiled and handed me one of the mugs. “A day in the healing pods fixed me right up, thanks to you.”

I turned to Keith. “Juni said you flew Black. So, your connection’s returned, then?”

Keith confirmed, “She started to let me in when we arrived at the pirate base.”

“Isn’t that great news?” Juni said. “Caelia, you don’t have to fight anymore! When the Gate opens, we can both go home. No more battleships or getting kidnapped by pirates!”

I didn’t know what to say. The dreams I had seemed like I was still connected to Black, but maybe those had just been dreams.

“Juni, do you mind giving us a few minutes?” Keith asked. Juni nodded and stepped out, closing the door behind her.

“Before we jump to any conclusions, I want you to try something for me. Reach out for Black and tell me what you feel.”

I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind to confirm Keith’s suspicions. Black was still there. I gave her thoughts of hugs and felt the mental equivalent of a purr and a head-butt. “We are still connected!” I said, unable to hide my relief.      

Keith smiled. “That’s what I thought.”

“So you think we both are the Black Paladin now? Is that possible?” I asked, intrigued.

“I think it’s a possibility we’ve never explored. Black, Red, and Blue all had bonds to multiple people, but Zarkon aside, whenever there was any chance of competition over a Lion, by circumstance or choice one of us always stepped aside.”

“Well, I’m willing to share if you are,” I said, and raised my mug. Keith tapped his to it, and we both drank.

“There is one more thing,” Keith said after draining the contents of his mug.

“Anything.”

Keith stood up and picked up the Red Bayard from the nightstand. “I know you just woke up, but I would like you to join us this afternoon training. It will be Ryo’s first time flying Red since they met, and I think it would mean a lot to him for you to be there.”

I thought about Ryo from my dream.

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

-----

I watched Lance lead the kids down the hill to the Lion Plaza. Caelia moved with enough energy to dismiss my lingering worries, keeping up with Juni and Azlan. They had asked to come along for the ride, since Doctor Holt had insisted on finishing the Gate calibrations herself, and since chances seemed good one or both would end up as Paladins eventually, I had agreed.

Ryo brought up the rear of the quartet, looking toward Red with trepidation.

Juni poked at him as he paused on the threshold of the plaza. “I don’t get it. You’re usually the first one to throw yourself at a new ship. Why the sudden cold feet?”

Ryo just looked toward Red again in silence.

She poked him again when Ryo didn’t answer, earning herself a glare. “It’s because Red is your Dads’ Lion, isn’t it? Scared you’re not going to impress them? Ha, if Caelia can impress Keith with her flying, you’re a shoo-in.”

“I heard that,” Caelia called back.

“So is Ryo flying Red today?” Azlan asked. “Or is Keith?”

“How do you know it isn’t Lance?” I said.

“Because I am flying Blue. No offense Red,” Lance called out.

I couldn’t resist a small tease. “And how do you know we won’t just swap again? Who knows, maybe this time Black has been trying to get me to pilot Blue.”

Lance snorted, “There’s no Quiznacking way you’re flying Blue. You’re not nearly classy enough.”

“Oh really, is that what she looks for in her Paladin?”

“Among other things.”

I turned back to Azlan. “Red wants Ryo in the pilot’s seat. I’ll be coaching.”

Ryo didn’t say anything to that. Caelia gave him a reassuring smile and a light punch on the arm before heading for Black. “You’ll do great, Paladin!”

“I call dibs on shotgun in Black!” Juni exclaimed ran past Caelia toward the biggest Lion.

“Welp, I guess that means you’re with me, kid,” Lance waved Azlan over toward Blue, who opened up for the young Galra.

He gave Ryo a reassuring pat on the back. “Don’t worry, kid. I saw you flying around that volcano. This is just practice. You’ll be fine.”

Ryo collected himself and we both entered. Dim red glow greeted us – powered, but not yet active. I reached out and touched the cockpit wall as nostalgia made me smile. It had been literal centuries since I’d been in here, yet it only felt like a few days. Vibrations like a purr ran down my arm and through my soul.

Hello, old friend.

“You absolutely sure she’s not waiting for you?” Ryo asked me. He gestured toward the control chair.

I sat in it and took the controls, just as I had countless times before. No sooner had my hands touched the bars, however, then the lights in the cockpit shut off completely, leaving us in total darkness. It was so very Red that I couldn’t help but laugh.

“That answer your question?”

Ryo and I traded places. Red powered up under Ryo’s touch and lurched up to a standing position. I braced myself behind the seat as I’d learned to do with Black.

“All right, bring her up nice and easy,” I commanded once he had brought up the controls and gotten settled in Red’ command chair.

Ryo slowly brought her into the air. It was strange; since we had met, Ryo had rarely shown any kind of hesitation, and never where it came to flying. The oddness of it only doubled that Red had clearly chosen him, and she didn’t strike me as the type to choose a pilot prone to nerves. Although she had chosen Lance, and his confidence in his youth often ran skin-deep.

“So, what are we doing this fine day?” Lance asked us from Blue.

“Caelia, what do you suggest?” I asked. We had been far more focused on her competency flying, but as Black’s Paladin she’d be making field calls and needed practice with that, too.

“Let’s start with some simple formation exercises. We’re going to need them to form Voltron, right?”

“Sounds good.”

Ryo lifted us up, his face tight with concentration. He brought up Red to Black’s 4 o’clock position, and Lance smoothly moved into Red’s flank, forming half a v. Caelia led us around the Palace, and Ryo followed her movements. Subtle vibrations passed through Red, indicating she had different idea than what they should be doing.

I waited for the inevitable.

Suddenly, Red pulled to the side, trying to go into a roll. Ryo pulled her back into position with a grunt. He was holding the controls so tightly I could see the strain of his fingers.

“Relax your grip,” I told him.

Ryo obeyed. The moment the tension eased, Red shot forward and flipped around in the air. I grabbed onto the back of the chair and just barely managed to keep my feet planted in the tracks behind it as gravity flipped.

“Quiznack!” Ryo struggled against the Lion’s will to bring us out of the spin.

“Red!” I called out. She slowly brought us back so that the ground was in the correct direction again.

“She keeps messing with me,” Ryo said with irritation. “Are you sure that you’re not supposed to be in this seat?”

“I’m sure. Red just likes being a little shit until you prove yourself to her,” I said loudly with a small kick to her pilot’s chair.

Red pulled us sharply to the right at my comment. Ryo dragged her back into formation.

“I rappelled up her while she trying to destroy a volcano! What else do I have to do?”

“Maybe it’s what you’re not doing that’s the problem.”

Ryo didn’t say anything to that, but he tightened his grip on the controls again. I frowned, thinking about what might help. An idea came to me and I stepped over and opened up the comms.

“Caelia, Lance: forget the formation exercise. How do you feel about a race instead? First one around and through that rock formation gets. . . I dunno, extra desert?”

“Roger that, Sir!” Caelia said, as she spread Black’s wings and shot forward like a comet. With a laugh, Lance followed close behind as fast as Blue would go.

“Hey! Get back here!”

“Gotta catch me first,” Caelia teased.

Ryo pulled back on the thrusters, and I barely held on. Well, so far, so good. Red chased after her bigger sisters with enthusiasm, but Caelia had figured out Black’s straight-line speed was unmatched by the other Lions.

“You’re not going to catch her that way. But you see that side valley? It’s too small for Black and Blue, and it’s a shortcut,” I suggested.

Ryo brought up a map and saw what I was talking about. “That is very narrow.”

“And Red is the most maneuverable of all the Lions. She can handle it.”

Ryo hesitated, then turned Red toward the valley. We entered, and the first thing Ryo did was bounce Red off an outcrop. Good thing that this was an unpopulated area. I would have to apologize to Romelle later. Ryo growled and hit the acceleration. We bounced once or twice more as the valley narrowed, Red pulled one way, and Ryo over-corrected with a growl.

Up ahead, the valley narrowed into a short tunnel where an ice bridge had formed between peaks.

I leaned forward. “Forget whatever they taught you at the Garrison. The Lions aren’t like any other ships. It’s not about control. It’s about a partnership. You want to fly her right? You need to learn to see through her eyes, feel what she’s feeling. Then fly on instinct.”

“Right,” Ryo acknowledged grimly.

“Close your eyes,” I guided him. “Trust Red.”

“Close my eyes,” Ryo whispered. He took in a deep breath, then exhaled. I watched him relax. His hands loosened on the controls. Red’s movements eased into flow. She twisted and turned through the narrowing valley. I smiled. Yes, this was exactly what needed to happen.

“See through the Lion’s eyes,” I instructed.

“See through the Lion’s . . . !”

Ryo panicked, clutched the controls and turned Red hard toward one of the formations. Red tried to pull him back away, but he overpowered. We hurled forward for an opening in the rock –

And then stopped abruptly as Red caught in the too-small opening. Ryo pulled on the thrusters to get us free, and Red roared in frustration. No good. We were stuck, and didn’t have the power to push ourselves out.

With a curse and a growl, Ryo stopped the thrusters.

Caelia’s face appeared once more on the comm screen. “Ryo? Are you okay? What happened?”

“Quiznack,” Ryo said, and set his head against the console.

-----

Lance and I had worked together to get Red free of her predicament, and Ryo flew her home in sullen silence. I didn’t understand what had happened. Ryo was too good of a pilot to get himself stuck like that.

When we landed at last, far later than intended, Coran and Doctor Holt were waiting for us. Keith had informed them that we were going to be late but hadn’t elaborated. I practically ran out of Black to check on Ryo as soon as Red landed. Juni followed me, tense. She hadn’t said a word on the way home, so I knew she was as worried about Ryo as I was.

“Ryo!” Juni called out as we approached.

“Not a word,” he snapped at her and stalked away from the platform.

“Ryo,” Keith admonished, and moved to follow.  

“I was going to ask if you were okay, Jackass,” Juni called to his back.

“I’m fine. Just leave me alone, okay?”  

I watched my best friend turn the corner out of sight, and Keith follow after. I’d only seen him this upset once or twice before. One of those times had been when my father chewed me out for applying to the Garrison.

I recalled the scene from my dream, when Ryo had been looking down at his hands. That made me remember him strapped to that interrogation table in the pirate base. What exactly had happened, when the pirates took them? Why had they separated him out from Juni?

Ryo, what did they do to you?

Suddenly afraid, I started after them, but Lance grabbed hold of my arm and held me back. He shook his head. “Keith’s got this one.”

-----

Ryo kept up a break-neck pace, forcing me nearly into a run to keep up. I finally caught up to him and pulled him to a halt. I very nearly got myself hit for the effort, but I knew it was coming.

“Talk to me,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder to keep him from running away again. “You’re struggling with Red.” 

He frowned and ran his hands along his arms. “I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong! You and Lance both were Red’s Paladins. Every other ship is easy! Why does she keep fighting me?”

“Is she fighting you, or are you fighting her?”

He stopped to think about that. I could tell from the frown he wore that he didn’t like the conclusion he was coming to.

“I saw what happened back there. You were fighting when Red was trying to take risks. Red goes after what she wants. She doesn’t hold back. If you want to connect with her, you can’t either.”

“If she doesn’t like people who actually thinks before they act sometimes, then why did she pick me?” Ryo said, throwing up his hands.

“Because she sees something in you. You have a fire in you, Ryo. When we met, I saw a boy that was willing to give everything to save his friend. That is what Red sees, too, I’m sure of it. But you have to let her in, if you want to be her Paladin.”

Another thought occurred to me.

“Do you want to be her Paladin?”

“Yes! No!”

Ryo stopped walking. He wrapped his arms around his chest and shivered. “I don’t know.”

“And why not?”

“Because I’m afraid of what will happen if I do!”

I took a good look at Ryo again. I saw the tension lines in his eyes and jaw. He held himself like a coiled spring. There was definitely something wrong here, and it wasn’t just Red.

“And why would you be afraid of piloting Red?” I prompted him.

“Because. . .we’re too much alike,” Ryo admitted miserably. “All that power. All that rage. What if I lose it like she did?”

I walked over to the stonework railing along the Palace Road and waited for Ryo to follow.

He leaned against the railing beside me rubbed the back of his neck, across his Galra markings. “All my life, I’ve always been a little faster, a little stronger than I should be. A freak. Even my own aunt was afraid of me. For a long time, I told myself it didn’t matter, but after I met Caelia, I found I wanted to be around people. So learned to hold back.”

Despite being an additional generation removed, Ryo’s Galra traits were stronger than my own, and were becoming more readily apparent by the day. I’d had a hard enough time growing up. If I had been seen as an outsider even more than I already was as an orphan, I wasn’t sure even Shiro could have saved me.

“But ever since we came through that first Rift, I . . .I’ve been changing. Getting stronger. And I don’t know if I can hold it back anymore.”

I leaned on the railing and looked out across the Plaza, trying to find the right words. I knew Ryo’s situation, but my difficulties with accepting my Galra heritage had never stemmed from my abilities. I’d never gotten it into my head that might even be a problem.

“There’s no reason for you to try to hold it back, Ryo. That strength, those changes you’re feeling? That’s just the Galra in you. It’s perfectly normal, and nothing to be afraid of.”

Ryo grabbed edge of the rail. Spiderweb cracks traced his fingers. “But isn’t it?”

His hand tightened and his voice dropped. “When those pirates attacked, they took Juni, and I lost it. I don’t know exactly how many I took down before they knocked me out, but it was too many. And the worst thing is . . .part of me enjoyed it.”

The expression on Ryo’s face was one I had seen before, a long time ago, but it wasn’t my own. I closed my eyes, and once again saw the glimpse of Shiro staring at his prosthetic hand, haunted by the same question. Was he fated to be a hero, or a Galra Champion?

Shiro, what would you have told him? Ryo was more introspective than I was. Shiro would have figured out something that would make Ryo think about himself and come to his own conclusion.

“Was it the hurting that you enjoyed, or the fighting?” I asked him at last.

“What?”

“You said you enjoyed it. Which part did you enjoy: the fighting or the hurting?”

Ryo considered. “I’m not sure. The fighting, I suppose.”

“Enjoying fighting doesn’t make us evil, Ryo. Red is the most aggressive Lion, but she’s not a monster. She fights to protect others. She fights for her friends. Back at the pirate base, Red’s fury was for me. Not because she liked killing.”

Ryo mulled that over, too.

“Do you know why I think you were able to connect to Red?” I asked him.

He shook his head. I pulled my dagger off my belt and transformed it. “You connected with Red, Voltron’s sword arm, because you have Galra warrior’s instinct. You are a Blade. You know that sometimes to protect those you love, you must attack.”

Ryo took out his own weapon, nearly identical to my own, and stared at it for a long time.

“If really you don’t want this, we can find another Paladin for Red. But running away from this won’t solve your problem, Ryo. You can’t run away from yourself. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

I put my Blade away and put my hand on Ryo’s shoulder. “Patience yields focus. Give it time, you’ll figure it out. And until you do — if you ever feel like you’re losing control, or you just want to talk about things, you can always come to me. We’ll work through it together.”

Chapter Text

“Kick his Quiznack, Caelia!”  Juni called out.

Ryo and I pressed together, Bayard-saber crossed against Marmorran Blade. Ryo leaned against me, but he wasn’t putting his full weight into it. As kids, we had always been evenly matched when we sparred, but now it should have been taking all my strength just to hold my ground, let alone take control of the fight.

“Don’t you dare hold back on me, Ryo Kogane,” I growled at him.

A flicker of guilt crossed his face. So he was holding back.

“Get her, Ryo! Knowledge or Death!” Azlan cried out from atop Red.

We disengaged. I pivoted, and then lunged at him, forcing him to react. He caught my blade and pushed me back hard enough I slipped in the grass. Determined, regained my footing and immediately pressed the attack again, moving fast enough that Ryo defended without thinking. We locked together again, and I looked into his eyes. For just an instant they took on a yellow sheen.

What?

And then I was moving past his sword and sailing through the air, head over heels. I hit the ground on my side hard, tumbled, and rolled before finally coming to rest in a cluster of Juniberry flowers. The Red and Black Lions stared down at me, probably with disapproval.

“Quiznack,” I groaned when I could speak again. I could already feel the bruise forming on my thigh where I’d taken the worst of the fall.

I heard Ryo cursing as he ran toward me from several meters away.

Keith got there first. He reached down to help me up. I reached up and took his hand to show that I was still capable of moving.

“I’m okay,” I groaned to Ryo as he arrived.

“Do you know what you did wrong, back there?” Keith asked me as he hauled me to my feet. 

“Went toe-to-toe with someone with twice my strength?” I muttered, rubbing my thigh.

Keith didn’t crack a smile. “Get used to it. If you’re fighting with Galra, you’re going to get forced into melee and taking hits like that. But you’re going to be taking a lot fewer of them if you fight them correctly, starting with your footing. And back there, you were standing like a fencer, not a fighter.”

“It’s the sword. I always did martial arts bare-handed. Are you sure I should be using this?” I turned the blade over in my hand.

“You need a weapon. If the Bayard took this form, you’re matched to it.”

I weighed the weapon in my hand and slashed it through the air. Even if I wasn’t used to using it combined with a martial arts fighting style, it felt right in my hand.

Keith nodded approval. “Good cut. Now, Ryo, correct her stance.”

He looked at me, then back at Keith, and squeaked out, “Me?”

Keith quirked a half smile at Ryo. “Yes you. Because I need to know you know your stances and aren’t just using your strength as an undisciplined advantage.”

Ryo winced at that.

“You hear that, Ryo? He says you gotta be more gentle,” Juni teased. 

“Shut up, Juni,” Ryo growled.

He stopped growling as he looked me over. He adjusted the angle of my arm, making only the lightest of touches. Although you couldn’t see it, I could feel his fingers trembling.

“Hey, are you doing okay?” I asked in a voice too low for the others – except maybe Keith – to hear.

“I -- I’m really sorry about that throw. I didn’t mean to toss you that hard,” he whispered back. “I guess, I just don’t know my own strength these days.”

I gave his arm a light whap with the flat of my blade. “Hey, it happens. Besides, I told you not to hold back, remember?” 

He pointedly turned his attention back to my stance. I shifted as he indicated. He reached over, and gave my leg a slight push to show me how the weight in the correct places would keep me stable. I let out an involuntary sound as he pressed against the bad spot where I’d landed. He pulled back, distressed.

I put my hand on his forearm and gave it an affectionate squeeze. “Hey, I’m fine, just a little sore. When we get home I’ll just steal some of that skin-healing goo Lance’s got secretly stashed in his bathroom.”

Keith inspected my posture once Ryo was done. Satisfied, he called for a break. Juni and Azlan jumped down from the Lions’ claws. Juni rummaged through Azlan’s backpack and pulled out a pair of electrolyte drink pouches. She held one out to each of us.

I transformed my Bayard back to its key-form and hooked it onto my belt before accepting the drink. Juni watched with fascination. “How does that work, anyway?”

“You know, I have no idea.” I looked to Keith for an explanation. 

Keith shrugged. “Honestly, I’m not sure, either. I know they transform to what best suits their wielder’s natural fighting style, and in time, a Paladin can produce multiple forms and learn to transform them at will,” Keith explained.

“But how does it know?” Juni asked.

Azlan chimed in, “It’s through your connection to the Lion! That’s why only the Lion’s Paladin, or someone the Paladin designates, can use the Bayard.”

Juni turned to me. “Neat. Hey, Caelia, can I try yours?”

“Sure. Um, how do I designate?”

“Just mentally give permission. I think,” Azlan said.

I handed Juni my Bayard, telling Black it was okay for her to use it. She examined it thoroughly, then struck a fighting stance. The Bayard transformed into a shape halfway between a heavy Garrison rifle and a video game arm-cannon, bigger but sleeker than the one Lance normally manifested during practice.

“Sweet!”

Juni fired off a couple of test shots and picked the tops of Juniberry flowers.

“Oooh. The accuracy on this thing is amazing!” she squeaked. “I wonder what the range is like?”

“Oh, me next!” Azlan whispered, with fists balled up like an excited toddler.

I heard Keith chuckle behind us.

“Here,” Ryo held out his Bayard to Azlan.

Azlan took it from him with reverence. For Azlan, it transformed into a curved blade resembling a sickle. He pulled out his Marmorran weapon and slashed the two of them through the air. They complimented each other, and the shorter weapons synced well with his agility as he moved through a series of katas.

“So we have a sword fighter, a gunner, and a knife fighter among you,” Keith observed. “Rounds out pretty well, considering that Lance favors ranged combat.”

“Hey, Ryo, what does yours become?” Juni asked as she returned my Bayard.

“You know, I actually haven’t tried it yet.”

Azlan stopped mid-kata. “You haven’t?”

He flipped over to Ryo and handed his Bayard to him. We all stepped back to give Ryo space to test it out.

Ryo stared at it, frowning. Everyone watched, excited to see what his Bayard would become. Would it be a katar-sword, like Keith’s? I didn’t think so. I couldn’t see him giving up his Blade and he wasn’t a dual wielder like Azlan. It would be something that would complement what his Blade could do. Not a gun. Back at the Garrison, he had been notoriously bad at the firing range.

“I bet it’s gonna be a kanabo or something like that,” Juni said.

“What’s a kanabo?” Azlan asked.

“Like a really long spiked club,” I said.

“No way! He has more finesse than that, and he likes his sword. Maybe a great sword? Or an axe! Oh, I bet he gets an axe! What do you think, Caelia?” 

I didn’t answer. I was watching Ryo, staring down at his untransformed Bayard. I could tell he was feeling self-conscious and getting nervous.

“Don’t try to force it. Just let it be what it wants to be,” Keith encouraged, in his teaching tone.

“Just be you, Ryo,” I said.

He closed his eyes and thrust his arm out. The Bayard morphed into a circular shield. He released, and it slid down to his hand for a throw. He threw it and it angled through the air in an arc. He jumped and caught it in mid-air, then looked at it in his own hand in surprise. I don’t think he was quite expecting that, either.

“Well, that’s not appropriate at all,” Juni pouted.

“Why not?” Azlan demanded.

Juni gestured at me with both arms. “Because she’s team Captain!”

“What?”

I laughed. “Hey, I could be Iron Man. I can channel energy. That’s kinda like an arc reactor.”

“Caelia, the rich playboy? Please. You couldn’t flirt your way out of a wet paper bag.”

“Okay, Bucky, then. I got captured and experimented on, and Ryo is my best friend.”

Juni raised an eyebrow and smirked, “okay, maybe that could work.” 

“I don’t get it,” Azlan frowned. Keith shrugged.

I heard an alert sound from Keith’s wrist-comm. He glanced down at it, and waved us all in.

“All right, everyone. That’s Doctor Holt, calling us in. Looks like it’s time to finally open a Gate.”

-----

I found Azura in the garden amongst the Juniberry flowers just as the Lions returned.

It was good to see Azura out again. She had kept mostly to herself since the Mall incident, only leaving her rooms to watch over Caelia. She had claimed she was still feeling aftereffects from the toxin, but she didn’t fool me. The attack – and the idea of the spy amongst us – had disturbed her deeply. I supposed I couldn’t blame her.

She knelt among the flowers now, looking up at Allura’s statue and holding one of the delicate blooms with a profound look of sadness. Though Azura didn’t look or dress like her, in that moment there was a strong resemblance between the two. My heart ached at the memory of Allura in the Castleship’s illusory garden, remembering the world she had lost.

“She loved Juniberries, you know,” I said by way of greeting.

Azura looked over shoulder toward my approach. “You knew her well.”

“As well as anyone, I suppose. Excepting of course, Coran.” We hadn’t known each other for all that long, in the grand scheme of things. But that short time had been more than enough.

Azura turned her gaze back toward the statue. “What was she like? Was she really as kind as they say?”

“The absolute kindest. But she could be tough too. She was both as sweet and as fierce as they come,” I smiled thinking about her.

“The artist captured that. Her expression is determined. But her eyes are sad,” Azura commented.

“She was sad. She suffered much, though she rarely showed it,” I swallowed down a ball of emotion that threatened to spill out. Two hundred years, and I still missed her terribly. And I still seethed at the unfairness of it all, that someone so beautiful in so many ways had suffered so much during her short life.

I bent down and picked one of the flowers. “But she loved much, too. She loved this place – this universe -- enough to give her life for it.”  

The fact was, New Altea only existed in our universe was because Allura had remade it when she resurrected all the universes Honerva had destroyed in her final rampage.

Azura gazed out beyond the gardens. “Altea is truly beautiful. I can see why she loved it. I shall miss it when I return to my universe.”

“There’s no reason you need to leave,” I told her softly, and offered her the flower. She had been a great help to us so far. She had been a guiding force for Caelia in particular.  

She reached for it, then pulled her hand back.

“No. With Artor searching for me, it is safer that I go,” Azura said with a delicate edge to her voice that made me angry because it broke my heart all over again.

I crossed my arms stubbornly. I’d heard this song before, and it was old the first time.

“Why? Because of those pirates? You’re safe here, Azura. Ol’ Archy isn’t going to make a move on New Altea. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited for you to leave before to send someone after you,” I pointed out.

Azura looked down at the flower, and her expression turned dark. “You do not know Artor like I do. He is willing to bide when it suits his plans. Safety today does not mean safety tomorrow. By staying with you, I am putting you all in danger.”

It felt like Azura was erring on the side of misery, but I didn’t say that. She was afraid, and I got that. What little I had seen the Arch Druid accomplish was terrifying. I would be afraid, too, if I knew he and a Galra army had particular interest in my capture.

“Azura, Keith and I made a promise to protect you when you agreed to help us, and we intend to keep that promise,” I reassured her as I offered her my hand to stand.

She took my hand, but didn’t look reassured. If anything, she looked more distressed. “And how many of you will be hurt or killed doing so? Ryo and Juni were both taken by raiders searching for me. Artor will not stop. He never stops, once he sets his sights on something. And I . . .”

“Then we’re just going to have to stop him,” I said.

She gazed down on the garden, seeing some other time and place. “If only it were so easy.”

“Hey,” I said, giving her my best smile, “If it were easy, somebody else would be doing it.”

*

We made our way down outside the Gate Laboratory. Doctor Holt had cleared out everyone who had been working on the Gate project before making the final adjustments. Romelle had told everyone it was for the sake of safety, but we knew it was because we wanted to avoid our spy finding out where we’d be sending everyone.

Caelia, Azlan and Juni met us outside the laboratory doors. There was no sign of Keith or Ryo, although we had seen both Lions land.

“Where are the Koganes?” Doctor Holt asked, with a decidedly Pidge-like tic. It was still strange seeing someone so much like and yet so different from my old friend.

“They’ll be here soon. Keith wanted talk to Ryo about something,” Caelia explained. I wondered if it had anything to do with Ryo’s struggles with Red.

I attempted to defuse Doctor Holt’s nerves with an easy smile. “Hey, you’ve already been gone this long, taking another hour or two to open this thing isn’t really going to matter.”

“Our tardiness is all the more reason not to waste any more time,” she said crisply.

 “And whose timeline are we on exactly? Last I checked we blew way past your last deadline. There have been quite a few ‘tomorrow’s at this point.”

That earned me a death-glare. “You get to talk about timelines when you have Ph.D. and engineer an inter-reality device.”

I raised my hands in gesture of surrender, and Doctor Holt returned to her notes. She was running through checks on her wrist-computer and was just about to activate the room’s seals without them when Keith and Ryo arrived.

“Everyone inside,” Doctor Holt said as she ushered them in.

“Where were you?” I asked Keith as he approached me.

“Ryo just needed a little extra instruction.”

“Is Red still giving him trouble?”

“No, on other things.” Keith said. I was curious, but didn’t push.

We walked into the Gate room together. The structure thrummed with potential. While Doctor Holt, Azlan, and Juni went to the controls, Ryo migrated to Caelia’s side. Azura kept one eye on the structure the entire time and stayed between me and Caelia.

“I am not sure if I should be here,” she said.

“You absolutely should be here. I want everyone here I can trust with any knowledge of Alchemy or Gates,” Doctor Holt answered. “With the other Alchemists gone, your knowledge may be a critical factor if something goes wrong.”

Azura gave Doctor Holt a grave nod in response.

I looked up at the Gate once more, then over to our three engineers. “Juni, Azlan, Doctor Holt: this is amazing. You three are amazing.”

“Thanks. But I feel like I’m just about to take a final,” Juni fidgeted against the control panel.

“Well, in a way you are,” I said, looking up at the structure.

“Hmmmm.”

“You’ll be fine,” I told her.

“All right, everyone. Let’s get this going,” Doctor Holt commanded. She directed us around the soon-to-be portal near various vital components. Just in case.

Despite Doctor Holt’s authority, Azlan took the lead, pointing out things to Juni and the doctor. When everyone was in place, a spherical particle barrier raised around us, separating the Gate area from the rest of the New Altea Palace.

“Ready?” Doctor Holt asked.

“Ready,” Azlan echoed.

“As I’ll ever be,” Juni said.

“Time to go, then. Beginning the countdown to Gate activation. Ten, nine. . . .”

I took a step closer to Keith, and Azura edged closer to me. On her other side, Caelia reached out and took Ryo’s hand.

“. . .six, five. . .”

Juni brought up the main power, and Azlan and Doctor Holt pulled on levers.

“. . .two. . .one. . .”

Goosebumps ran up my arms as energy flowed around the circle of the metal structure and air within the circle shimmered pearlescent white. My Altean markings glowed softly in resonance. Keith reached over for my hand. As we stared, echoes of another time tinted my vision.

For just a moment, Allura stood in front of us in a silent goodbye.

“Zero.”

All my hair momentarily stood on end as the shimmer intensified to brilliant light. On my cheeks, my markings burned. I heard Caelia gasp, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caelia’s dendritic scars were glowing as well. Thunder crackled around us, and a pulse of energy washed from the gate. The circle of glowing white began to spread beyond the perimeter of the Gate. The edges of it began to reach and spread erratically.

“Something’s wrong!” Doctor Holt said.

Azlan stared into the circle of white, transfixed by something within.

“Azlan!” Juni cried out.

Azlan blinked and stepped back as an arc of white sparked toward him. “Stabilizers! The stabilizers need more input!”

Juni ran for another set of controls and began furiously adjusting at dials and levers, even as Azlan and Doctor Holt frantically made adjustments on the main console. Beside me, Azura pressed a hand against her chest. I could feel a pressure building in my own ribcage. Within the Gate, slips of shadow infiltrated the blinding light.

“Doctor Holt?” Caelia asked, one hand going to the Bayard at her side.

“Hold! I almost have it!”

“Doctor Holt!”

The room vibrated as the portal widened and spilled Rift-energies into our reality. My markings flared with resonance of the quintessence that pushed through. Within the light, motes of darkness formed. Everyone stopped and stared, drawn by the strange movements. My spine shivered from a half-recalled memory.

“No,” Azura whispered. The dark bits within the field of white began to multiply. Azura stared at them, eyes going wide, and then blank.

“Azura!”  Caelia and I both reached for her as her legs buckled. I was closer.

As she fell into my arms, an image flashed into my mind:

Hands pinned me down. A woman in a black and pink mourning dress approached, her face veiled in darkness. Long white hair streamed behind her. She held a mote of darkness in her hand.

“Some day you will understand. This is for your own good.”

I pressed a hand to my chest, panting as a terrible emptiness burrowed into me. Then it faded as fast as it had come, along with the image.

I met Caelia’s gaze, and her expression told me he had seen the same thing.

On the other side of the Gate, the motes of darkness took on distinct form. I recognized them now. These were the same creatures that had come from the Quintessence field that Honerva had poisoned her acolytes and Allura with –  the same creatures that in much larger numbers had devastated Daibazaal and started the Great War.

“Oh, Quiznack,” I whispered.

“Close it!” Keith yelled.

“Almost there,” Doctor Holt murmured, making adjustments.

The dark motes whorled together, taking on the form of a hulking creature. It shifted position, and I had the distinct impression that it was focused on me. Beside me, Caelia took on a grim expression and transformed her Bayard as she stepped in front of us. The shadow-creature turned its attention toward her.

“Close it, now!” Keith shouted, as he pulled out his sword.

“I. . .I can’t! Azlan?”

Azlan had stopped what he was doing, yet again and just stared at the creature.

“Azlan!”

Another surge of power poured through the Gate, crashing into us like a wave. Ryo’s Bayard sprang into a shield form as he leapt between us and the malfunctioning Gate. Ryo knelt and grunted as he braced against it. Juni cried out as heavy power cables snapped loose. The blue glow of the Gate-frame flickered out, but the circle of white continued to expand as shadows threatened to push into our world.

“Someone, help me!” Juni cried out, while trying to dodge arching power cables.

Ryo planted his shield and bolted toward Juni. Before either of us could fully register what was happening, he had grabbed hold of one of the giant cables and shoved it into place, oblivious to the arching electricity. There was a pop and a flash and the smell of singed hair as Ryo went tumbling back. Juni shoved a lever up.

The blue glow of the Gate flamed to life once more.

“Azlan!” Doctor Holt cried.

At the main control, Azlan shook himself loose of whatever trance had held him, and with his help, Doctor Holt wrestled the controls into the position she wanted.

There was another flash and a shriek. The pressure died. When I cleared the spots from my eyes, the quintessence field and shadow-monster were gone, replaced by the clear image of another world.

Juni stared. “Did we. . .did we do it?”

“That’s my universe,” Azlan said. “They can’t come through now. It’s stable. We’re safe.”

Doctor Holt slowly sank to her knees beside the console, laughing with relief.

We all just stared at the portal for a few moments, halfway expecting those creatures to show up again. But the Gate remained stable this time, and the dark motes did not return.

-----

“What the Quiznack was that?” Ryo said as he picked himself up from other side of the console.

“My fault,” Azlan said. “I thought the stabilizers were strong enough, but I overestimated the power flow. I’m so sorry.”

“No, those things! I didn’t see any mouths, but it felt like they wanted to eat me.”

Lance looked over the Gate grimly from the side of the room, with Keith at his side offering him silent comfort. They knew those creatures, and so did Azura. I wanted to ask Lance if he had seen what I did when Azura fainted, but for once he didn’t seem much in the mood to talk.

“Not you,” Azura murmured softly as she stirred from Lance’s arms.

Azlan turned toward Azura with alarm.

“Azura! Are you okay?” Juni cried out.

Azura stood up, keeping one hand on Lance. Lance watched her with deep concern. “I am all right. I am sorry for alarming you all. The sight of those creatures again . . .was a bit of a shock.”

“You’ve seen those things before?” Juni asked.

Azura looked to Azlan. He met Azura’s gaze and held it for a moment, some silent question passing between them. It was answered when Azura looked away, ashamed.

“I have one within me,” Azura admitted at last.

“What? Why?”

Azlan answered grimly, “The Regent uses them to transform people into her spies.”

Silence fell across the room as everyone internalized the meaning of his words. Was Azura the spy that had everyone was talking about? Juni shook her head, refusing to believe it. “Azura isn’t a spy! She’s helping us! She isn’t the reason pirates came after us, right? Right?”

Azura started to answer, then stopped herself.

Azlan lashed his tail. “She doesn’t have a choice, Juni! So long as that mote remains a part of her, The Regent can see what she sees, hear what she hears. She can track Azura using it, even use it to kill Azura if she’s displeased!”

“Is there any way to stop it?” Juni asked. Azlan looked to the ground, and Azura bit her lip, looking increasingly troubled.

Lance said, “At the end of the War, Honerva used these creatures to monitor and subdue her acolytes. Back then, Allura was able to remove them, but it was risky both for Allura and for the host to even try.”

What he didn’t say, was that Allura was gone, and there had not been an Alchemist of her capability born since.

“So . . .is Azura just Quiznacked?”

Azura twisted her free hand over and over. Finally, she said, “No, Juni. I am a special case. Though it still lives within me, the connection between my mote and The Regent has been severed.”

“That’s not possible,” Azlan said.

Azura visibly struggled to find the right words. Lance kept his hand on her, and I noticed that for once she did not flinch away.

“Artor is not the only Altean born with a unique ability. Where he can absorb quintessence, I can project my thoughts and will onto others. I turned this ability on the mote within me and wrested control from The Regent.”

I remembered the way the guards had never blamed Azura when trouble broke out while we were imprisoned, and how the scientists had never seemed to notice her when we were called to their labs. And how the guards had looked the other way when she had rescued me.  

“Project your will . . .as in, mind control?” Juni said.

Azura looked to the ground. Strands of hair fell across her face, casting it into shadow. The look of self-revulsion she wore underneath was enough to confirm it.

Expressions blossomed among our group, ranging from grim acceptance to awe to horror. I didn’t know how to feel about it myself, but I had seen enough to know I trusted Azura, even though she could have been manipulating me this whole time.

“Holy Crow. That’s why the Arch Druid is after you,” Lance breathed.

Azura smiled bitterly. “Precisely, Paladin. He wants his weapon back.”

Chapter Text

“So now you know me for the monster I truly am.”

Azura stood at her window, keeping her back to us. Juni, Caelia, and I had escorted her back to her rooms, while the others took care of the final steps to secure the Gate. It had meant to be a comfort, but our presence seemed to have little effect.

“You’re not a monster! So. . .so you have some kind of mind powers, so what?”  Juni said, gesturing vividly to add more nonchalance to her statement in an effort to counteract the fear in her voice.

“Mind powers I used to strip agency from others,” Azura reminded her. “Azlan was correct not to trust me. The Regent used me once. She would use me again.”

The Regent. I shuddered as I recalled again the vision I had seen when Azura fainted: the woman veiled in darkness, her cloud of white hair and Altean features mostly obscured by swaths of black-and-pink cloth. I hadn’t seen her face, but I knew that hair, that posture.

“Only because you were forced to!” Juni exclaimed, interrupting my horrid reverie. “The Regent could have killed you any time if you didn’t do what she said!”

“Perhaps.”

“You’re not a monster for wanting to survive,” Caelia said softly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her reach over and grasp her right arm with her left. Both hands were shaking.

“Perhaps.”

*

“How is she?” Keith asked as I walked into our apartment, startling me out of another loop of Azura’s memory. He, Ryo, and Azlan sat at the kitchen table with steaming mugs of coffee, going over some data readout. Typical Blades: upset them, and the first thing they did was throw themselves into a plan of action. 

“Resting. Juni’s going to spend the night with her to keep watch. Caelia’s gone to bed, too,” I said. She had declined to come back to our apartments, saying she was feeling unwell.

“Her own people,” Ryo said, slapping the table. “How could her own people turn her into a weapon?” 

“Because The Regent is willing to turn anyone into a weapon. She doesn’t see people anymore, just potentialsand problems to be fixed,” Azlan answered.

That can’t be true, I wanted to shout but that vision had told me otherwise.

Azlan had as much as told us The Regent’s identity when we met, but I hadn’t let myself believe it. I still didn’t want to believe it, but that Azura’s memory had shattered my doubts.

Allura, what happened to you?

“Lance?” Keith asked me with concern.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

Keith didn’t call me out on it. Instead, he turned to the two young Blades. “All right you two. Time to get some rest, yourselves. We can work on this problem in the morning.”

Azlan shook his head. “I’m going back to the Gate. Now that we’re connected to my universe, I’m going to try to contact Kolivan. The Blades should be able to help us with refugees or at least have an idea of what to do with them. They’re not safe here, with this place compromised.”

Ryo stood. “I’ll go with you. I don’t like the idea of anyone being alone right now, especially near the Gate.”

I waved to them on their way out. When they were gone, Keith turned to me.

“All right, out with it. What’s the problem?”

I grumbled and poured myself a cup of coffee. “It’s not a problem, not exactly.”

“Your face says it’s a problem.”

This was the problem with being married for over a century; it was impossible to hide when I was troubled.

“I know who The Regent is.”

Keith raised both eyebrows, then sat down on the couch and waved for me to join him, which I reluctantly did. “Who?”

I told him everything: what I had seen when Azura fainted and all the other clues Azlan had given us. I told him about the dreams where we fought her. Keith listened in silence and pulled me close, wrapping one arm across my back.

“She’s not our Allura, Lance,” he said when I was done. “You don’t need to feel responsible for whatever happened to her. Neither are you responsible for what happened to Azura.”

I knew that. I really did. But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that what happened to The Regent is something that could have happened to our Allura.

“I know, but . . . She took one of those motes into her, like Honerva. I can’t help but wonder, what would have happened to our Allura if she hadn’t – saved the multiverse? What would have happened to her after all this time, having that bit of darkness lodged in her soul?”

She had come so close to doing terrible things while we were fighting Honerva. I couldn’t look away from that now. But maybe if we could just figure out what had finally driven her over the edge in Azlan’s universe, maybe there would be a way to help her.

Keith took my hand and gave me one of those soft smiles that had made me fall in love with him. “I think she would have been fine. She would have had you.”

“Thanks, Corazon.”

“Now come to bed. We’re both too tired to think straight,” he said, and helped me up. I followed him into the bedroom. We lay there curled up together for a long time in the dark, just taking comfort in each other.

After a while, when neither of us had fallen asleep, Keith said, “You’re allowed to miss her, you know. You’re even allowed to want her back. It’s not going to change how I feel about you. Although I’m not gonna lie, she might have to fight me for you. I don’t exactly like the idea of sharing.”

He said the last bit with such a deadpan I couldn’t help but laugh. I leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “I love you, too, Mullet.”

-----

So now you know me for the monster I truly am.

Monster. . .

I stirred half-awake from inside a vat of violet fluid. Blurred features on the other side of the glass resolved into those of the Arch Druid. With one hand, he caressed the glass along the reflection of my face. Then his face blurred, and in his place was a woman with the same brown skin and white hair, but her Markings were blood-red.

In her hand she held a mote of darkness.

“I will make you truly strong,” she whispered, and pressed it forward. Violet fluid bubbled up around me, cutting off my breath and my scream.

And suddenly I wasn’t in the tank anymore. I was standing in an arena filled with cheering Galra. The smells of ozone and blood filled my nose. I looked down, and at my feet, a corpse stared up at me in surprise, its chest sliced open and steaming. I stepped back, unsure of what had just happened, when my arm caught my eye : my cybernetic arm, freshly covered in blood and glowing brilliant violet.

And I heard Her laughter. . . .

I bolted awake, covered in sweat. My stomach roiled. I clapped a shaking hand over my mouth, fearing that I would vomit. The other hand pressed into the bed, confirming that I was on solid ground. There was no tank here. No arena. No blood. Tears leaked at the edges of my eyes and a cry escaped me before I could stop it. My scars glowed softly in the darkness as I hunched over, wracked by silent sobs.

After some time, the glow and feelings both faded until I was wholly myself once more. It had been a while since I’d had one of his memories creep on my like that, and that one was particularly horrible.

“You weren’t a monster, you were just surviving,” I whispered to the darkness, wondering if Shiro could hear me. He wasn’t, and neither was Azura. All three of us had done what we needed to do to survive. How could I get Azura to believe that? I didn’t have the words.

But. . .maybe he did.

Still shaking, I threw a capelet over my shoulders and stepped out into the night. Light reflected off the orbital rings high above, casting a silvery glow as I walked through the gardens on my way to the Plaza. Black was waiting for me there, ever a comfort.

She purred as I sat in the command chair and closed my eyes.

“Shiro? Are you there? Help me, please. You know. You know what it’s like. So please, show me how to make her believe she’s not a monster.”

*

Shiro didn’t answer me.

Instead, I found myself once again standing under the eclipsed sun of Black’s inner realm. But this time, there was something different. Images flicked through the mirrored surface at my feet – horrors Shiro had experienced while held captive. Maybe my connection to Black kept me anchored, but seeing them like this I was able to watch them, register them, and accept them for what they were without being drawn in.

I walked and the images rippled and changed under me. More of Shiro’s memories – only this time, they were positive ones. Conversations with Coran about the fear of becoming entirely Champion. This wasn’t the conversation I had wanted to have with Shiro, but it was the next best thing.

“How are you doing this?” I asked Black. Then I remembered that Black had carried Shiro’s essence within herself for a while. Some of it must have stayed behind when Allura transferred Shiro to a new body, just like some of Shiro’s memories were part of me.

I recalled something Azura had said to me: You give Black too much of yourself.

I had thought at the time that she had meant it in the sense of my energy. But it also occurred to me now that the energy I shared with Black was my quintessence, which was more than just energy.

“Black, do you have some of my memories as well?” I asked her.

In answer, the images rippled again. I saw myself showing off my new Garrison uniform for my mother.

“Are all the Lions like this? Or is just something you do?”

No answer to that.

I continued walking under Black’s eclipsed sky, glancing at memories and contemplating the parallels between us. Allura, the Black Lion, and me: we were all the same, capable of carrying the essence of another, without losing our own identity. Artor had made me like them. But why?

The surface under me rippled and something caught my eye: a vine. The charred remains of a thorn-studded tendril poked up out of the reflection below. This was a remnant of the Arch Druid’s work. Furious, I bent down and pulled at it. It crumbled to dust under my luminous hand, but not before one of the thorns stabbed me.

Whisps of lavender bled into me as vine collapsed to ash, and a memory-vision entered my mind along with it:

I pulled back a curtain with a child’s hands. A woman knelt in the room before me, dressed in battle armor.

“I have to go back for him, no matter the cost,” she whispered with a husky voice to nothing, as she pulled her helmet over a pinned cloud of white hair.

“Mother? What’s wrong?” I asked.

She stood and turned around. I whirled, too, as I felt the approach of another person. A tall Galra woman walked up behind me, blocking my line of retreat. Mother approached us and put a hand on my head as she passed by me. “Artor, go with Aktra. She will keep you safe while I am gone.”

“But where are you going, Mother?”

“I’m going to bring your father home.”

The memory ended, leaving me standing stunned inside Black. That had been one of the Arch Druid’s memories, left in a remnant of his quintessence – and I had a feeling it had been an important one.

-----

Morning came too early. Doctor Holt, Coran, and Romelle had called us into a meeting not long after dawn, about the refugee and spy situation. The only person who seemed less happy about its timing was Caelia, who Keith had found asleep in the Black Lion’s cockpit early this morning.

Romelle spoke up. “As you know, the Inter-Reality Gate is now operational. We have been discussing the best course of action regarding returning Doctor Holt and the refugees to their home universes. We believe we have come up with a solution, which Azlan will explain.”

Azlan?

She looked to Azlan, who fidgeted with his tail. He looked around the table. Clearly, he hadn’t slept. “Ah, yes. Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, Ryo and I managed to make contact with my Blades last night. Kolivan has agreed to escort both Azura and the refugees to safety.”

“And that bad news?” I asked.

Azlan’s expression crashed.

Juni knew from that alone what the bad news was. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

Azlan folded back his ears. “I’m sorry! It’s a requirement from the Blades. Someone needs to guide the refugees through the Gate, and the Blades will only trust their own to make contact. Kolivan has asked both Ryo and me to return.”

“But we still have to find the other two Lions!” Juni exclaimed. “What about the ore detector we were building? And. . .don’t you want to be a Paladin? From what I’ve heard, the Green Lion would choose you for sure! And Ryo – he’s already Red’s Paladin! He can’t go now!”

Ryo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Azlan looked miserable, but he straightened himself. He’d only been with us a few months, but he looked years older now than when we had met.

“It’s not about what I want, Juni.”

The air hung heavy between them.

That was it. Everyone – myself included – had had a rough few days and not nearly enough sleep last night, but I refused to let them fall into the negativity trap here. I’d been there too often, myself. I tapped my mug to get everyone’s attention.

“Hey, there’s no need to get upset. There’s no reason why Ryo and Azlan can’t do both things. They can lead the refugees through the Gate and come back afterwards. I’m sure that Kolivan wouldn’t have any problems with them staying here as field agents. It’s not like our enemies aren’t one and the same!”

Azlan still didn’t seem convinced, so I transformed my Bayard for reach and gave him a tap on the side. “Hey, you’ve built Quiznacking how many Gates, now? It’s not like you need to ask anyone’s permission if you decide to go somewhere.”

Azlan’s face lit up a little. “Well, I guess so, if you put it that way.”

“I know it.”

Keith gave me a fleeting smile, then his expression turned serious again as he said, “I think it’s a solid plan, except for the part about Ryo going. He still needs to strengthen his bond with Red. I can escort the refugees through the Gate in his place. Kolivan can’t complain about that.”

What?

“But you’ve just reconnected with Black!” I said.

“Yes, but so has Caelia. She is more than a competent pilot now, and until we find the other Lions Black doesn’t have to take the lead. You can lead them, Lance, and you can help Ryo with Red. That makes me the redundant Paladin. Besides, I think it’s a good idea to strengthen the ties between our two groups. The best way to do that is for me to go to Azlan’s Kolivan directly.”

Hearing Keith tell me I was a good leader for the team never got old, but I didn’t want to see him go any more than Juni wanted Azlan leaving. Maybe I was just being paranoid after figuring out The Regent’s identity and seeing the Dark Entities again, but I had a bad feeling about our splitting up.

“I don’t like this plan,” I muttered.

“Do you have a better one?” Doctor Holt asked.

“No,” I groused.

Romelle clapped her hands together and stood. “Good! Now that that’s settled, we can get on to the exciting part – planning your send-off soiree!”

“You’re kidding, right?” Keith said.

“Quite serious, actually,” Coran explained. “It’s a matter of morale, my boys. Those we rescued still have quite the journey ahead of them, and it will not be an easy one. Not to mention they also have made friends during their stay. It wouldn’t be right to send them away without an opportunity to make proper goodbyes.”

He made a pointed look toward Azlan and Juni.

Keith crossed his arms stubbornly. “Except for the fact there is a spy still on the loose! Coran, have you forgotten about what happened the last time we opened up the Castle for an event when there were hostiles nearby? I still have nightmares about it, and it was two centuries ago!”

“You still have nightmares? I’m the one who almost died,” I said.

Doctor Holt grinned at Keith with a wolfish grin that was so very Pidge that I did a double take. “That just makes it even better. We can’t keep the Gate’s status a secret for long. So, instead, we give our spy an opportunity that’s too good to pass up to make a move. And we’ll be waiting for them!”

I flinched back a little in my seat. In any incarnation, goblin-mode Pidge was terrifying. “I suppose if you put it that way. . . .”

-----

I wandered around the party, dressed in a black-and-silver Altean gown, and holding a cup of something called Nunvill in my hand. Coran had described it as ‘nectar of the gods’ when he cornered me and poured me a glass. I took a sip, and it took all my willpower not to spit it out all over my pretty dress. I forced myself to swallow with a grimace. Oh, void. I’d just managed to find something even worse than the prison jello.    

Juni found me as I was feeding the remainder of my cup’s contents to a decorative plant.

“Hey, Caelia, have you seen Azura? I wanted to ask her to dance again.”

“I think she went back to her room. She said the crowd was giving her a headache.”

It was an excuse, but I couldn’t blame Azura. If I knew there were a spy in our midst and someone was after me, I would be anxious in a castle full of people, too. I thought the fact that she had shown up at all – wearing the dress coat Juni had made for her no less – spoke to how highly she regarded my enthusiastic friend.

“Oh.” Juni sat on the edge of the planter, crestfallen. She took a big swallow of her Nunvill without so much as a flinch and started playing with the new pair of glowing, levitating earrings she was wearing.

“Are those new?” I asked her, to change the topic.

“Yeah, Coran gave them to me. They float! Aren’t they neat?”

“They are cool. He just gave me a plain non-floaty bracelet to wear,” I said, showing her. It was a simple but expertly made gold band with a tiny engraving of a lion inside. He had said something about a debut tradition when he gave it to me, but we had been interrupted before he’d had the chance to elaborate. I wondered what small adornments he had given to the others, but I still hadn’t caught up with the others to look.

Juni took another swig of the Nunvill. “Do you think Azlan will dance with me?”

So much for distracting her.

“I’ll dance with you, Juniper Ntare,” I said, stashing the cup in the planter with one hand and offering her my other.

“Sure you aren’t going to make Ryo jealous?” She teased me as she took my hand.

“Why would he be jealous of me dancing with my friend? Besides, you know how he hates this kind of thing.”

“Hm, I’m sure he was looking for you earlier and giving those young officers dirty looks for a completely different reason then,” she said.

I’d seen him come in with Lance and Keith, the three of them looking a very handsome family in the style-matched long-tailed jackets Juni had made them. I’d wanted to talk to him, but before I’d had the chance, Azura had shown up with Mort, and then I’d been ambushed by a line of young Alchemists and IGF officers all wanting to dance with the Black Paladin. I’d only just gotten a moment to myself when Coran found me.

“Ryo really wanted to dance with me?” I said, amazed, as I spun Juni around.

“Pretty sure. He definitely wanted to talk to you.”

That made more sense, but it didn’t put me any more at ease. I’d been trying to find the right moment to talk to Ryo since he’d boarded the Red Lion, but it hadn’t happened. I felt a little guilty about that; what kind of friend was I?

The dance ended. Juni spotted Azlan in the crowd and waved him over, insisting that her lab partner couldn’t leave without dancing with her, never mind he didn’t know how to dance. I slipped away, then, to give the two of them some time and to give myself a moment alone.

The evening was cool and clear under the starlight. Out on the veranda, I caught sight of Lance trying to get Keith to dance. Like father, like son it would seem. Suddenly feeling very lonely, I wandered away from the party, politely declining invitations all the way.

I went to the Speeder hangar, where I wasn’t surprised to see Red’s speeder was missing. I climbed onto my own and headed for the Plaza. Red was still there when I arrived. When I approached, curious if Ryo was there, the door opened for me in invitation.

Inside, Red was a lot like Black, except smaller. She didn’t try to stop me as I walked up to the cockpit. Inside, Ryo was at the controls. He had just started to power everything up.

“Ryo?” I asked as I stepped over the threshold.

He spun around from his seat in the pilot’s chair. He had traded his dress clothes for his new Paladin armor. He stared at me. And stared. Finally, he stammered out, “Caeli? What are you doing here?”

“Red let me in. Juni said you were looking for me. Is everything okay?”

“I . . .I thought maybe I’d try to go out in a patrol. Hopefully bond with Red a little. I couldn’t just sit there at a fancy party, when I know someone is out there looking for Azura.”

A small chirp at my neck alerted me to an incoming message. I pressed against the comm Juni had sewn into the dress’ capelet.

“Caelia!” It was Juni, and she was distressed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Azlan can’t dance worth beans, so he and I just went up to see how Azura was doing, and she’s gone. The guard’s been knocked out.”

“Quiznack.”  The escort Romelle had assigned to Azura for the evening was an undercover Blade. They would have been difficult to jump.

An alert flashed on Red’s screen. An Altean two-seat fighter was taking off from one of the nearby landing platforms. Azura missing, and now this? Red roared and pushed back onto her haunches. I grabbed hold of Ryo’s chair to keep from falling down. Ryo took the controls.

“Contact control and ask if they cleared the launch,” I told Ryo as we hit the air.

They hadn’t.

“Juni, get Lance and Keith. We’re pursing in Red, now.”

“We’re? Aren’t you supposed to be in the Black Lion?”

I released the comm button and turned my attention back to the chase. I should have had Ryo bring me back to Black, but there wasn’t time for that; the fighter was making a b-line for the upper atmosphere at its full power, and those new fighters were fast. We’d just passed the orbital rings when a wormhole opened in front of the fighter. Ryo pursued, pressing forward with all Red’s speed. We passed through it just before it closed.

Inside the spacetime tunnel, the fighter accelerated. Red closed the distance between us. Ryo fired a warning shot across its bow, and the fighter swerved. Then it did something totally unexpected: it changed course and plunged through the side of the wormhole.

“Hold on!” Ryo cried as he turned to follow.

-----

“Why isn’t Caelia in Black?” I shouted as I raced up the ramp into Blue and jumped into her control chair. Black was already active on her platform, courtesy of Keith.

“Red just took off. There wasn’t time,” Azlan said from behind me.

“But why was Caelia in Red at all?”

“My fault,” Juni said from my other side. “She went to find Ryo when I said he was looking for her.”

“Focus,” Keith said over the comms. “We need to find them and fast. Juni, did the control tower get a ping on that wormhole? Do we know where it went?”

“No, it was opened remotely, as far as they could tell. No recorded signature.”

Not good. We needed to find them fast. Whoever took Azura probably had powerful allies enroute to the rendezvous. Red wasn’t the strongest solo Lion, and with Ryo still not fully bonded, Red wouldn’t even have access to her most powerful weapons. There was little doubt, she’d still fight though – which is what I was afraid of.

Azlan chewed his lip for a moment. “If we can get the observation logs, I might be able to cross reference. . .”

“No time for that. Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” I said.

I closed my eyes and connected to Blue, then reached out with her through the cosmos. My Markings flared as I searched for the feeling of Red. After searching the cosmos for Yellow and the even more elusive Green, finding the active Red Lion with whom I shared a bond would be no trouble at all.

It wasn’t. I laughed aloud, pleasantly surprised by how little time it took me to get a ping. Maybe I wasn’t half bad at this after all! Blue translated and sent the coordinates to the Altean control tower. A dobosh later, the glittering weave of a wormhole opened into space above us.

“Hang on Azura, we’re coming.”

-----

We burst through into real-space just above the atmosphere of a terrestrial planet. Red reeled from the shock of breaking through the wormhole’s energy field, and I slid hard against the pilot’s chair.

“Caeli? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I groaned. “Where did that fighter go?”

He scanned through Red’s sensors, searching for the fighter. He found it entering the planet’s atmosphere.  

“You got an ID on that planet?” I asked.

Ryo looked at the screens. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Send it to the others and the IGF before we chase after them again. We do not want to back that spy into a corner alone.” I wanted to end up at the spy’s rendezvous without backup even less.

Especially without Black, or even armor for that matter.

Red once again had other ideas. We descended through the planet’s atmosphere, chasing the Altean fighter. From the readouts of Red’s scan data, it looked like it wasn’t inherently dangerous. We wouldn’t be able to breathe it for long without ill effects – too much CO2 -- but it wouldn’t kill us immediately. There were a lot of strange EM signatures, though.

We cleared the lowest cloud layer, and the fighter turned toward a rock formation of tight arches, then dove through. Red barely fit through the first one. The fighter passed through another, smaller, one and then dove down into a nearby canyon.

“What are you doing?” Azura’s panicked voice cracked across the comms.

“Rescuing you! Hold on!” Ryo answered.

Alerts flashed, and a geyser erupted from the side of the canyon. It slammed into us, and we crashed into the canyon wall. I only barely managed to hold myself in place. Ryo cursed loudly as the fighter put distance between us. He pushed up out of the rock and increased speed. I slid over and attempted to get Red’s scanners to tell us something about the occupants of the fighter. How many kidnappers we were dealing with, at least.

I spotted another geyser up ahead. “Ryo!”

“I see it!” He spun under the just of steam and water.

The fighter changed its path again and headed toward a spot where Red detected several potential geysers.

“Give us back our friend,” Ryo growled.

I gave up on doing anything aside from holding on for dear life as we spun, flipped, and circled our way through the geyser field, performing maneuvers I never would have been able to accomplish in Black. Whatever had been blocking Ryo from synching with Red before had been left behind in our pursuit of Azura.

We closed distance once more on the other side of the geyser field. I finally got a sensor fix on the fighter. What I saw changed the game entirely.

“Ryo. There’s only one occupant in that fighter.”

“What?” Ryo flipped on the comms. “Azura, what the Quiznack are you doing?”

“She’s running away,” I whispered as I realized what was happening.

“What? Why?”

Azura answered over the comms. “Artor and the Regent – they won’t let me go. They will come for me. It is only a matter of time. You, the refugees, I’m putting anyone I’m with in danger. I won’t do that to you, after you’ve shown me such kindness. I won’t.”

Ryo shouted back: “Azura, you don’t need to run! I know you want to leave, but we made contact with Azlan’s people! They are willing to help you. Even if you don’t trust us to keep you safe, the Blades will!” He didn’t bother to hide the hurt in his voice.

Azura’s tone went cold. “Kolivan is at war, Ryo, and I am his enemy. I have no illusions of what his ‘help’ for me will be. No, I am better off alone.”

She broke away from us again, this time aiming for one of those strange EM signatures.

“Red, what is that?” I just asked this time, instead of attempting to work the controls tandem to Ryo.

The console focused in on the EM signature and zoomed to the location on one corner of Ryo’s view screen. Shimmering dendritic patterns glittered across a section of the atmosphere. As we watched, a shaft of now-familiar white light began to open into the air.

“Oh no. Please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Ryo said.

“That’s a Rift,” I confirmed. From the dendrites, it looked like it was going to be a big one – big enough for Azura’s fighter. And she was headed straight for it.

“Azura, stop! Your ship isn’t made to traverse the quintessence field!” Ryo shouted at her.

“I can’t stay here! I won’t let you die for my sake. I’m not worth that.”

“Yes, you are!” I said as we both dove toward the newly opened Rift.

“Caelia. You have always shown me kindness. But you do not know me. You do not know what I have done. What I am capable of. I am dangerous. Why can’t you see that?”

To my shock, Ryo answered before I could. “So what? You have power? You’re scared you might hurt us? How do you think I feel, always holding back my strength, terrified what might happen to those I love if I slip up?”

I recalled Ryo’s hesitancy to fly Red, and the look on Ryo’s face when he threw me. I knew that he had been getting stronger, but I had thought it had been through his own training. I hadn’t considered that maybe the changes happening to him might be beyond his control.

“The Regent --”

“You’re not the only one the Druids would turn into a weapon, Azura! You’re not the only one who’s scared! Back at that base, those pirates were going to ship me off to them, said they could use fighters like me. If Caelia hadn’t found me when she did. . . .” He cut off the rest of the sentence with a growl.

 So that was what had been bothering Ryo since then.

“Ryo. . .”

Ryo shook himself. “But we can’t be scared of ourselves, Azura! We can’t see ourselves as monsters!” Ryo cried.

Azura didn’t answer. She just headed for the Rift.

“Azura, you want to protect us, but this isn’t the way to do it! I understand now what Red has been trying to tell me. We can’t run away from who we are, we can’t hold back, because to defeat The Regent and protect the people we love, it’s going to take all the strength we have!”

Ahead, the engines on the fighter slowed.

He reached out to her again. “It’s time to stop running, Azura, and time to start fighting. For yourself, and everyone else. Together!”

For the first time, Azura’s face appeared on the comms screen. Her lip quivered, but no words came out.

“Come home, Azura,” I said to her.

Azura’s image on the screen disappeared. But in front of us, the Altean fighter’s forward thrust engines cut out entirely. Ryo let out a breath and I sank a little against the chair’s back.

Then I realized the shuttle was still moving toward the Rift.

Alerts flashed across Red’s screen as an EM burst spewed from the Rift, then pulled back in. Everything in the cockpit went blood-red with warning as we, too, were drawn toward the Rift with increasing velocity.

The fighter’s engines turned back on, sputtered once, and died. Azura’s face appeared once more on the screen, this time filled with panic.

“I can’t break free!”

The fighter was falling fast now. At Ryo’s command, trajectories traced across the screen for a capture, but all of them ended in failure. If I were in Black, we could boost to catch up, or even phase to rescue her. Red was fast, but we weren’t going to make it to Azura before the Rift captured her.

“Come on, Red! Let me see through your eyes,” Ryo whispered and shoved his Bayard into its slot. As he said the words, I felt the flow of quintessence between him and Red. It went both ways.

Then it dawned on me: I wasn’t in Black, but I still carried part of her within me, just like I carried a fragment of Shiro.

I reached deep inside myself to that glowing core that was becoming familiar. Sure enough, there were bits of glowing darkness threaded through that star. I grabbed hold of one of those fragments and put my hand over Ryo’s. Fire blossomed down my back as I visualized Red sprouting fiery wings.

Reality around us shimmered. For an instant, everything faded out except Ryo and me standing hand-in-hand in the void. Then we shot forward like a phoenix. Red caught hold of Azura’s craft, then blazed away from the still-growing Rift to safety.

*

We landed on a bluff and Azura got out of her craft and came running for Red. Inside, I caught her in my arms and held on as tight as I could. She hugged me back, then started crying big ugly tears. Ryo wrapped us both in a hug like he’d never let go.

In the sky above us, the light of a wormhole spread into existence, and the Blue and Black Lions came through.

“Sir, I see the Red Lion!” I heard Azlan’s voice on the comms.

“I see it,” Keith answered. “Ryo? Caelia? Are you there?”

“Azura!!” Juni yelled.

“It’s all right, Juni. We have her. She’s safe,” Ryo assured everyone.

“Oh, thank Quiznack,” Lance breathed. “Do you know how much of a heart attack I’ve just had?”

“You all came for me?” Azura whispered. The disbelief in her voice broke my heart.

My voice broke as I answered. “Of course they did. Because you matter. Whatever everyone else has told you, whatever mistakes you’ve made, whatever you’ve been forced to do, you’re not a monster, Azura. You matter. We’re not giving up on you. Not now, not ever. I promise.”

Chapter Text

“And you’ve got ration packs with you, just in case?” Lance asked, as he adjusted the hood on my uniform for the fifth time. 

“Lance. Don’t worry. It should be a short trip, but we’ve prepared for trouble,” I said, putting my hands on his shoulders and suppressing a laugh.

He let go of my hood and sank a little against my hands. “Sorry, guess I’m just a little on edge. You know how I feel about this.”

“I do. And you know as well as I do that this is the best thing for me to do.”

“I know. I just can’t shake this feeling. . .”

I cupped my hands on either side of his chin and planted a quick kiss on his forehead. “We’ll be fine. I’ll be gone a few quintants at most. You’ve got this.”

I adjusted the pack of emergency supplies at my back and we headed over to where the travelers and our team had gathered just outside the Gate laboratory. I spotted Azlan talking shyly with Juni, passing along a phone-sized metal object.

Meanwhile, Caelia and Azura were bidding farewell to their friend Mort, with Ryo standing just behind them. He caught me looking and gave me a nervous smile. He looked much better this morning; the tension that plagued him since the pirate base was gone at last. Azura, too, seemed a little lighter.

Red, Black, keep an eye on them for me while I’m gone, I projected the thought toward the Lions as I walked toward the kids. In response, I felt a brush of reassurance from Black and what might have been a laugh from Red.

Ryo came over to me while the girls finished saying their goodbyes. I clasped him at the forearm and he returned the gesture. 

“I promise I’ll protect everyone while you’re gone,” he said. “And I promise to work hard with Red.”

“Good. Don’t let her bully you. And don’t let them do anything I wouldn’t do,” I said in answer, with a vague gesture in both Caelia and Lance’s direction.

“Yes, Sir,” he laughed.

“Caelia?”

Caelia finished giving her friend one last hug, then snapped to attention. “Sir!”

I set my hand on her shoulder. “I’m entrusting Black to you. Do me proud, Paladin.”

“Yes, Sir.”

She immediately broke the dignity of the moment by throwing her arms around me in a hug. “Be safe!” she said. I hugged her back.

A chime went off, and the lab doors started to open. That was our cue to get ready. I stepped aside to give Azlan one last moment with the other kids. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught him giving them all hugs, including Azura, who accepted it with surprise.

“They’ve all come a long way,” Lance murmured beside me.

“They have. But we still all have a ways to go.”

“Yeah, two Lions left to bring home.”

“And then, Voltron,” I said.

“And then, Voltron,” Lance echoed.

-----

Azlan joined us at the Gate after we had finished checking everyone’s space suits and going over the plan with the refugees for the third time. Lance gave me one last kiss, then stepped over to join Ryo and Azura on the far side of the controls. Juni and Caelia stood at attention as Doctor Holt made the final adjustments. She would send us to Azlan’s universe, then recalibrate for her own home.

With a crackle and a flash, the Gate opened. This time, there were no dark motes eager to spill into our world: only a momentary flash of white, before Azlan’s universe shimmered into focus.

Azlan stepped up beside me, with one hand on his dormant Blade.

“You ready?” I asked him as I looped the end of our tow line to his belt.

“Yes, Sir,” he said, raising his mask.

I anchored the other end of the line, and the refugees all clipped on along the way. On my signal, Azlan stepped through the Gate. One by one the refugees stepped through, until only I remained on this side. I took one last look at Lance, then raised my own mask and stepped through the circle of light.

Floating through the space between universes didn’t feel that different from moving through the mundane void, except the faint tingle of energy I could feel seeping through my suit. I recalled the feeling of Voltron pulling all that energy in when we had battled Lotor in this place, and how it had nearly undone us.

Luckily, moving through it didn’t seem to attract the energy the same way as fighting with Voltron. With the anchor rope, the refugees didn’t have too much trouble navigating it, either. I stepped through into Azlan’s universe without any of them suffering more than minor disorientation.

I gave the all-clear, and the Gate closed behind us, leaving only a momentary shimmer in the air where the Rift had once occurred in this universe.

The refugees began to unclip themselves from the line and explore the forest road we had arrived on. Azlan looked through the bushes with increasing agitation. His contacts were supposed to be here to meet us, but there were no other Blades in sight.

“Where are they?” Azlan muttered.

The sound of a fast-approaching vehicle posed a more immediate concern. Azlan pushed the refugees into cover, and I transformed my Blade in anticipation. An open-bed truck driven by a female Blade crossed over a small ridge in the road into view, immediately followed by a second. In the distance, I recognized whine of Galra hovercraft.

The refugees must have recognized the sound as well, because they were already headed toward the vehicles when the first driver brought her truck to a halt with a cry of, “Get on! They’re coming!”

We managed to load the refugees into the trucks just before the first Imperial hovercraft crested the hill and opened fire. Azlan jumped on to the first truck, and a big Blade with a long lizard tail grabbed hauled me up onto the second as the drivers took off as fast as the vehicles could go.

“What happened?” I asked my companion as I swung up onto the deck.

The big Blade reached across his back and pulled off the rifle there. “Galra patrols were here when we arrived.”

“Azlan said this spot should have been clear.”

“Should have, yes,” he said and fired on our pursuers.

The shots either went wild or deflected off armor, and he cursed loudly. From the other truck, Azlan tossed a handful of his bombs while the other Blade fired. Those slowed down the first pursuer, but another was quick to fill the gap.

We burst out from the woods, and the hovercraft spread out to surround us. I counted six. The driver of our truck moved wildly to avoid their blasts. Refugees screamed and hung on for dear life.

One of the hovercraft moved in and fired a grappling line onto the back of the truck. I sliced through the line, just as another craft attached to the truck Azlan was riding. Instead of cutting the line, Azlan ran across it and attacked the driver.

“Oho! So the little one has become bold!” my companion guffawed.

Before the gunner had a chance to react, Azlan pulled the hijacked vehicle hard to one side; it crashed it into one of the others as Azlan jumped to the ground. Azlan’s comrade from the other truck landed a good shot and a third hovercraft veered off, smoking from its side. That left us with three pursuers, and Azlan vulnerable alone in the field.

Another hovercraft approached for another grapple attempt. “Hey, big guy, care to give me a lift?” I shouted.

I had the impression he was grinning under his mask as he grabbed hold of me and launched me into the air like a pitcher would hurl a ball. I landed atop the gunner’s seat, and my sudden weight sent the vehicle into a turn. I pulled the gunner loose, while the pilot used the momentum to peel off in a wild maneuver to try and shake me loose. It didn’t work.

I took the vehicle and broke away from the convoy. I circled around their back. I might not be any better shot with a rifle than my companion had been, but vehicles were another matter. Taking down the last two attackers was easy; I circled back and picked up Azlan, then swung wide to surveil our path for any more pursuers.

The hovercraft were all gone, but a deep thrum sounded in the distance, and I spotted the tip of a Galra ship edging over the horizon. This wasn’t just bad luck with our Blade allies running into a patrol. They were after us.

The two trucks pulled up under a small bluff, where a spaceship was waiting with engines already warmed up. The Blades took no time in moving the rattled refugees from the trucks to their waiting transport. Azlan and I abandoned the hovercraft and got aboard with the last of the refugees.

The Blade from the second truck stalked over to us and grabbed hold of Azlan the moment we came aboard. “What did you think you were doing back there with that stupid stunt? Were you trying to get yourself left behind?”

The captain stepped in front of Azlan’s antagonist, blocking their line of sight to each other. “Argue later! We’re not out of his yet! You two --” she pointed at me and Azlan “—in the cockpit with me. The rest of you get these people secured!”

We pushed to the front of the ship, where the current pilot gave up their seat to her, and moved to the co-pilot’s position.

We ascended as the Galra cruiser approached. They fired a volley of warning shots that our pilot easily evaded. We were just about to clear the atmosphere, when suddenly violet light washed over us and the ship’s forward motion ground to a halt.

“We’re in their tractor beam!” the co-pilot announced.

The pilot reached over to shut down the engines. I put my hand on my weapon. This was bad, but we weren’t going down without a fight.

“Wait, keep the power up!” Azlan called out.

“Our engines aren’t strong enough to break free,” the captain said.

“This shields on this ship – are they grav-based?” Azlan asked.

“Yes, but why does that matter?” the co-pilot asked.

“Where is the access?”

The co-pilot pointed. Azlan slid over and pried off the panel with his Blade-knife and started frantically cutting wires. I came over to help, and Azlan pointed to a set of wires he had just cut.

“Each time I give the signal, I need you to swap the leads that are connected. Mom, at the same time, I need you to boost the engines. Now, give me full power to shields. Ready? MARK!”

I grabbed the wires and crossed the signals. Sparks flew and the power in the ship flickered.

“More power! MARK!”

Again, we swapped the wires.

“MARK!”

Back and forth we went, with Azlan’s marks coming faster and faster. The ship began to shudder violently, and the quality of the violet light began to change. Azlan kept swapping the contacts with one hand and pulled loose another wire with his other. He snapped it and motioned for me to hold one of the set of wires in place.

“FULL THROTTLE!”

He shoved the wire onto the one I had been holding. Sparks flew, the pit of my stomach dropped out from under me, and a horrific screech reverberated down the ship as we suddenly shot forward.

Our captain pulled out from directly under the belly of the Galra cruiser. She kept us at full power, deftly evading the fire from the ship once they had recovered from their shock that our tiny ship had just pulled free of their tractor beam.

The captain flipped on the comms. “Control, Gate rendezvous was compromised. Proceeding to secondary rebel tag up. Repeat, headed to secondary location.”

Heartbeats passed, then a signal appeared on the screen. We veered toward the location, and a wormhole appeared. The enemy pursued, but by the time they were able to maneuver the ship to get another lock on is, we were already through the opening.

-----

We appeared in a new system just outside an abandoned space station, where a small group of mismatched ships was waiting. Under the captain’s orders, Azlan and I stayed on the shuttle, while the other Blades handled passing off the refugees to the waiting rebels. When our team returned, the captain gestured for us all to get into the jump seats for the ride back to base.

As soon as she had gone and the door had closed, the gunner from Azlan’s truck whirled and shoved Azlan against the wall. “Just what the hell were you doing, back there? You could have killed all of us!”

Azlan pushed his hands aside. “I was saving your sorry hide!”

“Which wouldn’t have been necessary if you hadn’t given away our rendezvous coordinates with your sloppy communication!”

Azlan growled. The big Blade who had shared my truck stepped between the two of them.

 “Now, what is the meaning of this, Eraz? Why are you angry at our little kit? The enemy would have had us if not for him.”

“The enemy nearly had us because of him!” The angry Blade shot back. “We never should have been on this mission at all. It is only because Kolivan has a soft spot for Krolia that we are sticking our neck out for these people our little kit stumbled across while exploring a universe without orders.”

Eraz turned his attention back to Azlan. “How many more people have to die, before you stop to think about consequences? You would think losing your own parents would have been enough to teach you that lesson.”

Azlan bristled. I rested my hand on his arm to keep him from saying or doing anything more. We didn’t need to get into a fight here with our allies. Even if part of me wanted to.

The ship lurched, and we hurriedly latched into the jump seats, Azlan and I on one side and the other three Blades on the other. The big Blade spoke softly to Eraz. “He was a kit, Eraz. You must not hold his actions against him. Attar would not want such.”

 “Azlan wasn’t a kit when he decided to build and go through a Gate unauthorized, Ulrick. Not once, but twice. And then to involve outsiders? That is the recklessness I speak of.”

Azlan folded into himself on the jump seat, the way he always did when he felt guilty or uncertain. I gave up on remaining silent, because if I didn’t say something now, I likely would say regrettable words later.

“If it weren’t for Azlan’s actions to reach out to outsiders, our enemy very likely would have control Voltron by now, and those people we transported today would be dead – stripped of their quintessence, or worse,” I growled at Eraz.

“Big words for someone who knows next to nothing of this war. You didn’t even know you were Galra until Azlan stumbled into you,” Eraz sneered, still believing me to be Ryo.

I pulled out my Blade and transformed it in front of Eraz. I fought down the urge to point it at his chin. “You’re right. I didn’t know I was Galra. But I earned the right to wield this weapon, just like you. Just like every other Blade. You would do well to remember that.”

If Kolivan and the majority of the Blades in this universe shared Eraz’ opinion of interaction with “outsiders”, this alliance was going to be harder to build than I thought.

Eraz eyed me. The last member of the team looked up from their datapad, hand going toward their Blade. Ulrick leaned forward to come between us.

“Come now, come now. This fighting ourselves? This must not be. The enemy will win for certain if we do not work together.”

I retracted and put away my weapon, my point made. The other Blades relaxed, and leaned back in their seats. Eraz muttered something under his breath, then leaned back and looked pointedly away from us. Ulrick was quick to fill the uneasy silence that followed.

 “Azlan, tell us about the universe you two have visited!” He looked to me. “You were after a friend were you not? Did you find her?”

For the first time since the conversation started, Azlan perked up in his seat. The third Blade also looked up to listen.

“We did,” Azlan said. “And we found quite a bit more! Ulrick, you’re not going to believe this, but Voltron survived in their universe! They actually beat the Empire and the Alteans! I’ve been training with the Blue and Red Paladins! Well, Black Paladin, actually. . . .”  

-----

Azlan spent the rest of the trip telling the trio of our Marmorran siblings about their search for Caelia and adventures with us, all the while keeping up the charade that it was Ryo behind my mask. When we arrived at the Marmora base, the captain sent her Blades on ahead to debrief with Kolivan, leaving just the three of us aboard the shuttle.

Once we were alone, she dropped her mask, revealing a version of my mother’s face. I thought I had recognized her voice. It seemed plausible Krolia might have been the one leading the mission, but she was just different enough from my own mother that I hadn’t been sure.

“Well, that went rougher than I’d hoped. But at least everyone is accounted for.”

She turned to Azlan, and gave him an affectionate pat. “That was good thinking with the shield generators. Creating a gravity flux to tunnel out? Kolivan is going to want to know about that little trick for the future.”

Azlan dropped his mask and jumped forward to wrap the captain in a hug. “Mom!”

She returned the hug somewhat stiffly. “It’s good to have you home, Azlan. But what is the meaning of this deception?”

“Deception?” Azlan asked, confused.

 She raised her sidearm. “You’re not Ryo. Who are you?”

I turned off my mask. When she saw my face, she took a shocked step back.

“No. It couldn’t be. . .”

I raised my hands in a calming gesture. “That’s because it isn’t. I’m not your son.”

She lowered the gun and blinked back tears. “And yet, you look – sound -- just like him. It’s like looking at his ghost.”

“Well, I am a version of him,” I said. “So, I suppose in a way I am.”

Azlan introduced me. “Mom, this is Keith. He’s his universe’s Black Paladin. Caelia’s been training with him. He came because Ryo was chosen to pilot Red. We weren’t trying to fool anyone!”

I extended my hand to this universe’s Krolia. “Ma’am, I didn’t just come here as a substitute. I came to formalize an alliance between your Blade of Marmora and ours against the Imperials. Azlan has been a tremendous help to us against them. And I think we can do much to help each other.”

Krolia hesitated to take my hand. “It’s true we can use all the help we can get. But I can’t say Kolivan will be happy to see you, especially with today’s complications. If you want an alliance, I am afraid you are going to have to earn it.”

-----

Krolia took us along a winding route through the base to the Operations Room, where Kolivan was waiting. She stopped to make multiple check-ins with other teams along the way, and I took in as much about the base as I could. The base was large but otherwise like many I had visited over the years, filled with warriors and spies training, working, and living together. All wore the familiar uniform. Most kept their masks up, though a few kept them lowered in the safety of the base, like Azlan and Krolia. I kept my own mask raised, to avoid unwanted attention and questions.

Everyone deferred to Krolia as we passed through the hallways. In this reality, too, she was a leader among the Blades. More Blades than I expected reacted to Azlan’s return, sending friendly greetings or cold stares in our direction as we passed them. In fact, he seemed almost as well-known, if not as well-respected, as his mother.  

“The thing about growing up on a base is you end up with eighty nuncles,” Azlan said after yet another shot him an affectionate greeting.

I suspected as much. It explained a lot about Azlan, particularly why he was such a knowledgeable Blade while being so young, and why he felt the need to prove himself.

I wondered what my own life might have been like if I had been raised by my mother within the Galra Empire instead of by my father on Earth. Would it have been better for me? I would have been less lonely as a child. But I probably never would have met Shiro or Lance, and I likely never would have become a Paladin of Voltron.

“Yes, I noticed quite there was history between you and. . .what were their names? Eraz and Uhlrack?”

“Eraz and Ulrick,” Krolia corrected me.  

“I’ve known them as long as I can remember. They were teammates with my Dad. Ulrick helped to look after me when I was a kit. He was the first Blade I ever trained with!” Azlan said. “Eraz. . . .Eraz hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you, Azlan. You just frustrate him, and he was already frustrated today. You know that he likes things to be precise, and today was anything but,” Krolia filled in.

Azlan shook his head, and muttered low, “No, he hates me. And he’s right to. It’s my fault Dad died.”

There was very clearly a history there I would need to ask about later. Perhaps Ulrick or Krolia would tell me.

By the time we reached the Operations Room, Kolivan was more than ready for us. Physically, there was more gray in the fur of this universe’s Kolivan and he had more scars than the one I knew. That was where the physical differences ended. His expression, however, was another story: my Kolivan had always been stoic, but there was a hardness to this Kolivan’s eyes that bordered on ruthlessness. I supposed my Kolivan might have ended the same, if our war had ended with the betrayal of Voltron and the birth of a new Empire.

I didn’t try to hide my identity from him. As soon as we entered the Operations Room, I removed my mask and explained who I was.

Like Krolia had guessed, Kolivan was displeased by my arrival in lieu of Ryo. Yet something of my other self’s relationship with him must have made a long-lasting impression, because he didn’t immediately send me away. Instead, he listened to Azlan’s explanation with a stoic expression.

When Azlan had finished, he waved us over to a map.

“For the last phoeb, have been receiving messages from a new rebel source. So far, the intel has been good. This time, they have requested our assistance. I recalled you and Ryo to provide it.”

“What kind of assistance?” Azlan asked.

“Investigating experimental tech, according to our source,” Krolia explained, bringing up data on the map. A series of dots appeared across the galaxies. “They think it’s connected to an increase in Rift activity that we have seen recently.”

Azlan studied the map, his tail swishing. The dots seemed to increase in density in one region of the map, and decrease with distance from it. “It looks like they’re clustering near the Patrulian Zone.”

Krolia nodded. “Given the complex gravitational anomalies in the area, it is possible the phenomena are natural, but it is worth investigating. Unfortunately, we’ve had our hands full with other Imperial activity lately. Signs are pointing that they’re gearing up for a large-scale operation.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “I don’t suppose you know what.”

“Unfortunately, no. And the Regent’s agents have been increasing their scrutiny of late.”   

Kolivan crossed his arms. “I was inclined to refuse the request, as we do not have any to spare on such a task. But you have become quite the specialist with Gates it would seem, and you seem dedicated to strengthening our alliances with outsiders. So, when you made contact, I told them you would be coming. A fair exchange, for the safe passage of those refugees.”

“I understand, Sir,” Azlan said. He kept his expression neutral as he said it, but I could tell he was angry about being promised as an asset without being asked first. This was a side of Kolivan I did not miss.

Kolivan turned to me. “I thank you for your assistance in crossing the Rift. I can arrange for your return to your home universe as soon as tomorrow. I know you have responsibilities there.”

This was a test, and I knew it. If I wanted to build alliance with this Kolivan and his Blades, I needed to be willing to put myself at risk for them. Krolia had said that my trust had to be earned, and this seemed like the best way to do it.  

“Respectfully, I came here to build and alliance. Your allies are ours, and Azlan has come to be one of my team. I will go as well.”

Kolivan regarded me with those hard eyes, before saying, “Very well. Take the rest of the day to rest and prepare. You leave first thing in the morning.”