Disclaimer: I don't own any version of Voltron, past, present or future. The only thing I own is this story, the laptop I'm typing it on, and my own whacky imagination.

Author's Note: This story is one I've been plotting out for a long time now, changing things as the series moved forward to keep it as canon compliant as possible. I had already started writing the story once Season Six came out, and well… Let's just say this goes AU after Season Five, shall we? I'll be bringing in a character from the original GoLion and Voltron, and I may bring back others as this story evolves. Also, I've yet to find anywhere in any canon version of Voltron where Allura's mother was named, so I have named her Selene in this story. And did I say this is AU past Season Five? Yes? Good. Sit back, grab some nunville, and enjoy!

"Well hello there, I'm not seen you in long time."

It was early in the vargas that were considered morning on the castle ship; if they were on Olkarion still, it would be two vargas before dawn. Things had been relatively quiet for at least five quintants, which had given Allura, Coran, and the Paladins time to catch up on repairs, routine maintenance, and most importantly, sleep. But with no immediate emergencies to respond to, and no repairs or maintenance she could attend to, Allura had been restless this night. Unwilling to take anything to help her get back to sleep, the princess had decided instead to roam areas of the castle she had not been in since before the war had begun with the Galran Empire.

Before the war, the castle had been a bustling hive of activity, with several scientists, alchemists, household staff, advisors, and soldiers roaming the halls at all vargas of the day and night. Most of the staff had lived in the castle instead of homes in nearby towns to keep everything running smoothly. Their quarters had been on the lower levels of the castle back then for the most part, so they would be better able to tend to various people coming in and out daily. Others though, had their quarters on higher levels depending upon their particular job. Guests, the original Paladins, emissaries, advisors, scientists, alchemists, her relatives, anyone who came to the castle for an extended visit or had regular business there, had rooms to stay in on multiple floors in the castle, well-spaced out to keep everyone from tripping over each other, but not so far apart for anyone to feel like they were isolated from everyone else. Those halls were eerily empty now, and Allura had quickly decided not to roam those floors after a few dobashes of hearing voices and laughter, and knowing those people were long dead. Many had been friends of hers, her parents. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Casual acquaintances, strangers. All gone now, either directly because of the war, or due to time.

No mortal being was meant to live for several thousand years. Zarkon and Honerva had paid the price for that fateful bargain with quintessence, and one day so would Haggar. What price will Lotor pay, being the son of Honerva and Zarkon? she wondered, even as she walked out on a floor she'd selected randomly while in the lift. Will he be able to resist the lure of harnessing massive amounts of quintessence, if he's able to continue his mother's work in the future? Quintessence that could poison and corrupt him just as it did them?

But all thoughts of Zarkon, Haggar, Honerva, Lotor, and loss, were pushed out of her mind as she realized where her wandering had taken her: the study level. Here on this floor, she had learned science, math, history, art, geography. She had trained for her duties as a princess who would one day be queen. Politics was a tricky business, whether one was a royal, or an elected official. She'd studied the laws of Altea, the treaties signed with other worlds. She learned about their forms of government, their belief systems, and had been in the midst of learning about various traditions of the many allied worlds when Zarkon had declared war. On this floor, roaming these halls, she still heard many voices, but these didn't haunt her like the others had. There had been many happy memories made in the various classrooms with her teachers and her governess. 'Nanny', some had called her, but she had preferred the title 'Royal Governess', Allura remembered with a smile, if anyone was going to be formal with her in those days. "Nanny," she'd said many times, "makes it sound like I should still be putting you down for naps and changing your diaper, Allura. You're much too old for that!"

Allura knew the other reason her governess hadn't liked being called 'Nanny'. She'd heard her recording a journal entry early one morning in her room, thinking Allura wasn't awake yet. "I hate it when they call me 'Nanny', as if it's my name. Or my only job. It makes me sound like I'm supposed to be a babysitter and that's all. Allura is not a toddler anymore, and I have more responsibility to her than to make sure she eats her meals on schedule!" And she'd talked more about the lack of respect some of the staff showed her, though they were always extremely careful not to do it in front of the King and Queen, or Allura. Or Coran, or the Paladins, who were all rather fond of her in their own ways. And, as Allura remembered, she had never once complained to anyone about the lack of respect, or the whispers that even Allura had heard, that her position as Allura's governess was either ceremonial at best, or an unearned job given out of pity by the King and Queen at worst.

You were somewhat like Keith, Allura thought with a fond smile. Always keeping everything in as much as possible, only letting a few of us into your heart. As she ran her hand over her old school desk in what had been the room where she studied history and religion, Allura allowed herself a small chuckle, as memories of her governess helping her with lessons came to her mind. "You were family to me, you were my sister of the heart. And," she smiled more widely, "the only one who ever got away with calling me 'Lu-Lu'." Her smile turned sad then. "I miss you so much."

She had wandered through more of the old classrooms, some having held up to age and battle better than others. Then impulse had driven her to run up the stairs for two floors, to where the old royal chambers had once been located, and searched for her governess' old quarters, which had been connected to Allura's old room. It remained exactly as it had been left, all personal items had been moved to newer quarters once Allura had reached the age of fourteen. And, as Alfor had pointed out back then, the floor the royal family was moving to was more secure. Queen Selene had never quite gotten over the assassination attempts on Allura's life three years earlier, so being more secure – even if that extra security was really only a few more cameras, more difficult passcodes on the private lift to then newly refurbished rooms – had eased the Queen's mind greatly.

"And father knew no one would defend me more fiercely than you," Allura said, running her fingers lightly over the old computer terminal panel. "Oh!" she exclaimed, as the panel came to life, and the room was filled with all the lights on full. Her governess' picture from when she had lived in these quarters winked into existence, and then changed into a life-size hologram of the young woman, who had been all of twenty when she last lived in this room. "Well hello there, I'm not seen you in long time."

"Princess Allura," the hologram said, a polite smile on the young woman's face. A smile that quickly turned impish as the formal greeting powered by the terminal's standard system was overridden by the governess' own programming. "Little Lu-Lu."

"Oh!" Allura exclaimed again, out of surprise and delight, her eyes becoming slightly moist with the beginnings of happy tears. "You managed to leave your memories here like Father did! But how was your AI not corrupted by Sendak's attempt to steal the castle ship?"

"Sendak?" the AI questioned. "Who is Sendak?" The hologram shifted, eyes unfocused and head tilted, and spoke before Allura could answer the question. "Access castle archives and current operating system, connection to isolated system Royal Governess Hys requested."

{Passcode required} the castle's own AI responded in a flat but pleasant voice.

"Royal Governess Hys, passcode RGH-20. Authorization, King Alfor."

{Processing. Request granted, connection complete}

Allura watched at the hologram of her governess flickered, shrank back down to the picture that had first appeared when the program had activated, then after a few ticks, returned back to being a life-sized hologram. "Your system wasn't connected to the rest of the castle, you were completely isolated, Hys?"

"That is correct," the Hys AI answered, a sad smile on her face. "King Alfor was experimenting with a different way of storing memories and I volunteered to help him, so we kept this system, and the one in my quarters connected to your current quarters, separate from everything else. But he set everything up so that my AI could sense if there was a need to access the castle's system, and could request access independently." Hys' AI actually blushed slightly for a few moments, but the sad smile remained. "I believe he wanted to ensure that I could have privacy, since at the time neither of us saw any reason my AI would be needed to be accessed elsewhere in the castle anyway. But he did realize that there was always a chance, so he set everything up to be able to do exactly that, just in case. My AI here is now connected to the one in my last quarters here in the castle, but since it hasn't been activated yet, I do not have access to the memories stored there. Basically, the connection is there, but it hasn't been awakened yet. But once you activate the terminal in my room, the connection between us will be instantly active. From my later AI you will be able to access the memories here, the memories there, and my AI will be able to access the castle's archives and system to update any necessary information we will need." The hologram paused a moment, and Allura was certain she could actually see it take an electronic breath. "I'm so sorry you had to lose the King's AI, Allura."

Allura's breath hitched ever so slightly. Knowing she had done the right thing, the only thing that could have been done, had eased the loss of being able to talk to her father. But the loss was still felt. "Sendak's crystal corrupted the castle's systems. It had to be done to save ourselves, and Voltron."

Hys' AI smiled then, and Allura felt her heart flutter at just how real the hologram seemed, even more real than her own father's had been somehow. It was all she could do not to throw her arms around the hologram to hug her oldest friend, her sister of the heart. "Your father would be proud of you, Allura. You were faced with a difficult choice. Just because it was the only choice that would save everyone, doesn't mean it was an easy choice. Both of your parents would be proud, believe me."

Allura nodded, blinking back the tears that were threatening to fall. She hadn't expected to find anything during her early morning wandering that would trigger such strong emotions, but in a matter of dobashes she was fourteen years old again, and all she wanted to do was sit beside the young woman who had been her sister of the heart, hold her tight, smell the hint of juniberries in Hys' hair that her shampoo always left behind, and simply cry, though she wasn't sure just what she felt like crying about. "They were your parents too, Hys."

The hologram looked down for a moment, and even though she was only a hologram, the sadness and pain in Hys' eyes was unmistakable. "Legal guardians," she said quietly. Then the AI looked at Allura, and now it was the hologram that appeared to be blinking back tears. "But I often wished they could legally adopt me. They're the only parents I ever knew. Or at least this version of my memories. My other AI is the older me, perhaps she found out who my parents were."

"You don't have access to your older AI? No, wait, you already said you didn't, I'm sorry. When do your memories here end?"

"I made my last memory recording on this terminal the quintant before we moved upstairs to the new rooms. A couple of quintants after our move, I know I planned to make the first recording on that terminal, and I do not see anything in the castle's databanks to lead me to believe I wouldn't have proceeded with that plan. I hadn't expected to be able to do it that soon, but the King had everything ready to go even before we changed rooms. I'm honestly surprised I'm still here on this terminal, I had thought the King would want to free it up for other uses. But I'm glad I'm still here too," she said, smiling, any hint of holographic tears threatening to fall now gone. "Because now I get to see you again."

Allura smiled, again fighting the urge to hug her old friend. "I'm so happy to see you again, Hys. There's so much I want to talk to you about! So many things have happened. Well, you know that already, now that you've accessed the castle's memory banks. But so many things to talk about, I'm not even sure where to start."

The Hys AI gestured towards her old bed. "Have a seat, we can start anywhere you want. A girl talk night. Or morning, as the case may be."

"Yes, just like when we would talk all night long until the sunrise. Then I would have to pretend to have gotten a full night's sleep when you and Mother would call me for breakfast," Allura laughed. "I always envied you, how you were able to look perfectly awake, alert, and well-rested after one of our all-night talks. How ever did you manage it?"

"Governess' secret, Little Lu-Lu."

"No fair!" Allura shouted, but laughed and smiled as she settled down on the long-forgotten bed. "I command you as your Princess to tell me how you did it!"

Hys smiled, her hologram now reappearing closer to where Allura was sitting, surprising the Altean royal. "Passcode first, Lu-Lu."

"Oh, you!" Allura giggled, then smiled broadly, her heart lighter than it had been in far too long. "Do you remember when I tried to make a shaving cream for Father, but I mixed up some of the ingredients in the chemistry lab?"

"I remember he had to shave three times a quintant for the entire spring so that he wouldn't have bright pink and green hair over most of his face. Thank goodness he never tried the shampoo you made!"

"No, that was Coran, poor man. Though I do have to say, his hair being blue and purple all spring long - how do the Paladins put it?" Allura thought for a moment, then gave her best impression of Lance. "Dude! He totally rocked it!"

This was how Coran found them both, princess and AI, four vargas later when he realized Allura hadn't come down yet for breakfast: laughing, and sharing childhood memories. Instead of announcing himself, he quietly stepped away from the old, long unused room, leaving his princess with an old friend and happy memories. He would come back in a couple of vargas, he told himself, and remind Allura that she needed to eat something. In the meantime, he would check the castle ship's memory banks for information about Hys' AI. He hadn't known anyone else's memories had been stored on the ship besides King Alfor's, so the appearance of the former Royal Governess had taken him by surprise. He would quietly ask Pidge to run a scan to make sure there wasn't a virus hidden in the AI, just to be safe, but his gut told him everything would be fine. Or at least, that was his hope. It had been too long since Allura had laughed and smiled like she was doing now with her old friend, and he was loathe to, as the humans said, to 'rain on her parade'. Which considering the equivalent of rain on Altea was razor sharp, boiling hot rocks falling from the sky, he could fully agree that raining on a parade, or any happy occasion, was not something he would wish to happen to anyone.