This is... yet another fic that I have already posted on AO3. I have a lot there, tbh, someday I'll post them here too alsfjkalfI'm just gonna copy and paste the first a/n
If you're familiar with Zelda, BotW or not, you'll know there are a lot of races in the games. I moved things around from both Voltron and Zelda to better fit this universe, you'll see what I mean. And places - most places mentioned in the show became a village/province of this version of Hyrule. Almost every character that has been relevant at some point makes an appearance. This is more developed than any project or work I had to do back in college and I'm not even kidding.
I took Breath of the Wild's story as base, but some things from the game I skipped and others I changed completely. So if you've played, you will recognize dialogue lines and some elements, but you won't see a lot of stuff, like shrine/side quests.
I don't have much of this written yet, but I have a lot planned and decided, and since I know myself, I'm not going to promise any kind of updating schedule.
Also, I can't stop picturing Shiro saying "yahaha! you found me" at the end of s6 fml
A big thanks to my friend Mari for helping me with a lot of stuff!
i. a chancellor's request
The distant voice is the first thing he hears in what feels like years.
Up until now, he hadn't realized it was quiet, very much so, and dark. He tries to move his fingers, but doesn't know if he accomplishes something that simple. His body registers nothing, only a faint echo in his brain and something that flickers in the darkness of his mind.
"- eyes..."
A luminous dot appears in the distance and steadily grows to a vibrant sparkle. Where is he and why is it so dark? He tries to remember, but finds that he can't, his mind still struggling to catch up with his awakening. Then the light explodes in a blinding yellow and, for the first time in forever, his body moves. His heavy lids part, white consumes all of his vision, there is an unending ringing in his ears and a pounding in his head that matches its tempo.
"Open your eyes…"
He blinks the whiteness away, slowly dissipates and reveals the soothing blue lights on the ceiling. Something tickles his bare skin, seeping away and leaving only a ghost of a sensation in its place. The ringing has faded, a long hissing sound taking its place as the air that had been surrounding him rushes out of the confined space.
"Wake up, Keith…"
Keith stays there for a moment, staring up at the overhead lights and waiting for his brain to register what his eyes see. The room is too big to house only one person at a time, yet there is no one else here with him. Very sparsely furnished, but well decorated; white constellations glow on the walls, and the structure that glows blue above the pod blooms from the ceiling like roots.
Craning his neck, Keith looks around the dimly lit room, at the intricate patterns on the pillars and the pod he'd been sleeping on, if one could call it that. Bumps rise on his flesh caused by the slight chill of the room, and he brushes away hair from his face before unsticking himself from the back of the pod to step out of it. His legs wobble a little, but he can move without just fine. Keith checks his limbs, finds himself to be unscathed and whole, and mostly naked save for a pair of dark spandex shorts.
The voice has been quiet for a while now. It wasn't something that he heard coming from the room, but rather it was inside his head, which feels odd. Keith thinks he should remember this place, for he wouldn't have come to an unfamiliar place to sleep, but he can't recall. It's disturbing how the memory escapes him. Perhaps it's because he has just woken up?
Another two smaller, glowing structure are just ahead, small pedestals, and he decides to investigate them rather than think about it. One of them reacts to him once he approaches, the round surface on top whirls and rotates, presents him with a black rectangular device.
It's a tablet, he realizes upon further inspection, the name coming after a few seconds of examination. Smoothing his thumb across the screen, it flickers to life. The figure emblazoned on the back alludes to a V and shines silver. Keith holds it at arm's length and lowers it down to look around him once more. What is he supposed to do with it? Why was it left here with him? Can he call anyone with this?
He brings it closer to his face, squints his eyes at the tiny letters on the side of the screen. "Voltron?"
What does it even mean?
"That is the Voltron Slate." The foreign voice supplies, deep and strong, yet gentle somehow. Keith looks around him, but the voice really is just inside his head and it tickles at something, at all the empty spots he notices as the seconds pass. "Take it. It will help you find your way in your journey."
Keith holds it in his hands gingerly as if it's made of the finest glass and moves over to the other pedestal. "Bring the Slate closer to the pedestal." The voice instructs and he does that, watching as the V in the center splits in two and a knife rises from within the structure.
He picks is up, twirls it around in his hands, inspecting the blade against the pad of his thumb and S shape on the hilt, and holds it by the hilt, uncertain, due to a lack of where to keep it. A door he hadn't noticed before opens once the knife is out of the pedestal, the ground humming beneath his feet. On the other side he finds crates and chests, and a worn out, dusty outfit he puts on top of the spandex shorts. There is a pouch to keep the Slate and a holster he straps to his leg and slips the knife inside. Now he's dressed, but no less lost than he had been five minutes ago, and Keith still doesn't know who is talking to him and how they are doing it.
A pedestal is by another larger door at the end of the hall, and he brings the tablet close to it just as he thinks he hears that someone taking in a breath. The blue of the pedestal shifts into silver, and a sound comes from within it, robotic and genderless, before the door opens again, letting in a blinding stream of light that makes Keith shield his eyes.
"Keith. I ask you to finish what I started. You are Terra's only hope." The voice says. "I believe in you. Now, go. Be great."
"Wait!" He calls out, a touch of desperation seeping through. "What is going on? What do I have to do?"
But his calls are met with nothing. The voice doesn't answer him and all he hears are the echoes of his own questions in this place. At least, Keith has the knife so he isn't completely defenseless, even if he can't remember for the life of him if he knows how to fight. He will have to trust his instincts, even if they are more jumbled than his thoughts in this very moment.
The only way to proceed now is to go up the stairs and face whatever is waiting out there for him. Whatever it is… And though it was less than clear, it's not hard to guess the voice gave him an important task. Terra is where he is, isn't it? It has to be a town or a province or… Maybe a kingdom. Can Keith put together an entire kingdom by himself when he can't remember what happened yesterday? Why does it even need his help anyway? Keith shakes his head and goes outside, fists clenched by his sides in determination. He won't get any answers stuck alone in a room, and he hopes someone out there can help him bridge the gaps in his memory, which aren't few.
His senses are overloaded the moment he steps out of the underground room. There are birds, lots of them, singing on nearby trees swaying in the wind, tall grass brushing along his hips, the sun on his face after so long. If the sensations are too much, the glimpse of the unending stretch of land before him makes Keith feel instantly overwhelmed. He knows deep in his heart, despite the lack of proof in his mind to back it up, that Terra is much bigger than what he sees. There's a castle in the distance and, beyond it, impressive mountains he will have to explore at some point.
Doubt starts creeping up his spine. Where should he go? There is nothing but ruins in this area and a disturbing lack of smoke that would indicate a fire and thus, other people. Keith pats the knife on his thigh; they gave him a weapon and a vague order, but no map and no location to go.
"Now's a good time to talk to me, you know." He says to the air and gets no answer, not that he had hoped to receive one. It seems like a one-way connection, so he will be left in the dark until the person decides to speak again.
Keith looks down at the ruins, spots an abandoned, decaying temple still standing, and thinks it's the perfect place to search for clues. He follows the trail down a slope and weaves through debris and broken buildings, minding his steps and keeping his eyes open for possible danger. Wildlife can attack him, or maybe something else, but what, he doesn't know. He doesn't know anything and he's getting more and more irritated as he searches around every crook and nook of his brain and finds absolutely nothing but metaphorical dust and cobwebs.
The staircase is uneven, some steps are broken, others are angled oddly due to roots and destruction, but Keith makes it to the top. The towering building has one side completely collapsed and destroyed beyond repair, and vines and cracks litter the surface of what is still standing. Grass has taken over the ground, hiding broken glass and leaving few glimpses of stone uncovered. There's an altar at the back with a faceless statue on it, flowers blooming by its feet. He rushes towards it, trips on his own feet, but finds nothing that can be of use there.
Keith fights down an exasperated sigh and rubs the inner corner of his eyes. Okay. He has a tablet, and tablets have features, right? It has to have a map or a GPS, a tracking system, anything that can lead him to someone else, someone that preferably has answers. He touches the screen, taps a few more icons until he finds a faded white grid on black background and two glowing dots. One is round and yellow, the other is a blue arrow. He takes a few experimental steps in a random direction; he's the blue one.
"Now we're talking," he murmurs to himself, exiting the old temple and heading in the general direction of the yellow spot.
It is a fairly lengthy walk, full of inclines and more debris, and the occasional gap he has to jump over. This place seems forgotten, ancient even, but the tablet in his hands is proof that Terra isn't this obsolete. He encounters some beings he steers clear from, not in the mood to fight for his life when he doesn't know what he should be doing in the first place, and by the distant whirring they make as they move, he can tell they aren't of flesh and blood.
After some long minutes of sneaking around, as this portion of Terra isn't as small as he had expected, he makes it to a pile of boulders that seem to be stacked too perfectly to be work of nature. "Oh great." He exhales noisily through his nose and steps over some smaller rocks on the ground to look into the little alcove beneath the boulders. "Another pedestal."
This one is much like the first one he saw in the room where he woke up. Keith sets the tablet in the middle and crosses his arms, letting the pedestal do its magic. It flashes silver again, like all the others. Olkari Tower activated, it says. Please watch for falling rocks.
A curse escapes him as soon as the ground rumbles beneath his feet. Keith crouches low by the pedestal and holds on to it as the tower - a tower? - breaks through the boulders and rises, stretching upwards far enough until he is sure it rivals the height of the abandoned temple. Keith allows himself a moment to wonder - why did I have to wake up? why is this happening? - and pushes himself to stand on his feet, wiping his hands on his pants and looking around the entire expanse of land he can see from the top. Seven other towers are visible from here, and who knows how many others are out there hidden behind mountains.
Keith turns back to the tablet once the robotic voice sounds again, picks it up to find that a detailed map of the area has been added to the previously blank grid. "Oh, thank god," his shoulder sag in relief. These towers can help him somehow. Finally something that is willing to lend a hand.
"Try to remember…" That voice again, louder and clearer in his head. "You have been asleep for the past one hundred years. Zarkon… You need to stop him before it is too late."
"Who are you?" He asks to nothing in particular. "Who is Zarkon?"
This time, he gets an answer. The ground shakes again, nearly knocks him out of balance, and Keith lifts his gaze, locks it on the white castle in the distance, on the black and purple fog - no, the black and purple magic that swirls around the structure. Zarkon. Another bright, brief flash of light from its middle, the highest tower. The mysterious person.
Once the earth has settled, he risks a glance over the edge of the tower and sees he's too far up from the ground. He can climb down the side of the tower easily, but would still be stuck in this plateau with no means to get to the field down below. The person stuck inside the castle can't help him now, so Keith will have to use his brain and find a way out of this by himself.
Keith spends the rest of the day walking around, but all he finds are small forest animals, some fruits that he wolfs down, famished, and more sentries scattered about. Most of them protect treasures, some of which he can lay his hands on by being light on his feet and silent. Not a memory to his name, but apparently he's skilled enough to be a thief. There is no map to be found, but if these robots are up here, then it means there is a way for him to leave. He searches for it for hours, treading through woods and plains and climbing rocks to find a way, any route out of here, but there is none.
The voice doesn't speak to him again.
With a sigh, he sits down on a flat portion of the rock formation he'd been climbing and rubs his temples. Okay… Okay, maybe he can find something on the tablet. This device is supposed to help him, right? Keith taps another icon, messes around the screen for a while and manages to zoom. Great, it works as a scope of sorts.
He spends some good five minutes snooping his surroundings through the device in his hands, but doesn't find anything eye-catching - until he aims at the top of the temple and spots a faint white glow. That is worth checking - anything at this point is worth taking a closer look, so Keith pockets the tablet and makes his journey towards it, picking his way down the rocks. Sunlight is slipping away as he reaches the temple again, weariness settling in his bones as he circles around the building once, trying to find a way up. He climbs the partially broken ladder to the roof as quickly as he can, afraid the mysterious glow will disappear come night. It's still there once he's standing on broken tiles and begins to take shape the closer he gets.
Keith stops a few feet away from the place where a bell should've been set. It looks like a person.
Dressed in regal robes, the man across him has an eye closed, staring him down with lips pressed in a tight line and hands clasped behind his back. Keith can feel him sizing his worth with one single look, an act that teases at something in the back of his mind.
"You are finally here," the man says, all gruff voice and no friendliness, white flames dancing by his feet.
Keith bites down a retort. He's been looking all over the place for another living soul and this person, whoever and whatever he is, has been here the whole time watching him make a fool of himself, instead of talking to him like the person in the castle did. Yeah, he can't complain if he didn't bother to help. "Who are you?"
"I am Chancellor Iverson, responsible for overseeing Terra during the Prince's absence from the castle. My life was taken away from me when Zarkon appeared one hundred years ago, and since then I have been waiting here for you to awaken and finish what was once started."
This Iverson is dead, but has information, and there is a prince somewhere out there. Keith waits for him to go on as patiently as he can, but after a long day, his patience is running thin. He's tired, hungry, annoyed, and he wants to know what it is he needs to finish and get the hell out of this place.
"Zarkon is an ancient evil, time and time again defeated by the Chosen Hero and the Prince of Destiny. Stories of him are passed down through generations, call them legends if you will, depicting past encounters that vary greatly from one another, set in different intervals of time with no apparent pattern to predict his return. The late King and Queen decided to prepare for this should it happen. By uniting with provincial leaders of Terra, they created five mechanical Lions that merge in a super weapon known as Voltron, meant to be piloted by chosen warriors from these provinces.
"However, apprehensive that it would not be enough, the Prince threw himself into an extensive training to unlock the sacred power from the legend, and his Champion was worthy enough to be chosen as pilot by the Black Lion herself. The Prince chose the four remaining pilots, and together under his lead, the Paladins of Voltron were to fight against Zarkon."
Iverson pauses and turns in the general direction of the castle. Keith can feel something stirring inside him. The tablet and the knife seem to weigh twice as much now, their meanings heavily linked to this story. "However, Zarkon seized control of the Lions, no one has heard of the Paladins since the attack, and a great portion of the population and everyone in the castle died. The Black Lion was sealed away at the time, waiting for the Champion to return and pilot her, so Zarkon could not take control when he struck. Having defended the Prince until his last breath, the Champion was separated from him and taken to the Shrine of Resurrection. As for the Prince, he hid the Black Bayard in a secret location and went to the castle to face Zarkon alone."
Something flashes behind his eyes. A silhouette against the light, muddied skin, warm tears falling on his face, a plea for him not to die. Keith knows what Iverson is going to say before he opens his mouth again.
"That Prince was Takashi Shirogane, a man who I raised and watched over since his parents' death. And the Champion, the Chosen Hero… Was you, Keith. You gave your life to protect him, and to this day he waits for your return, holding Zarkon inside the castle with his newly awakened sacred power until you go defeat that vile creature." Iverson fixes him with a stare. "He has been speaking with you from the moment you awoke."
Mind spinning out of control, Keith tries to puzzle together what he can in so little time. He's a knight, a leader, tasked to save a prince and his entire kingdom. "What should I do?" He asks at last, looking up at the translucent image of the chancellor. "How do I save him?"
Iverson's lips twist ever so slightly. "Going to the castle now would be suicidal. Your best course of action is to go East after the Blade of Marmora and speak with Kolivan, your former mentor before you took the role of the Prince's bodyguard. He will point you in the right direction, but I am afraid you will have to find the location of the Black Lion and her Bayard by yourself. The Voltron Slate should have marked where the Blade headquarter is."
He has a plan; it's a simple, underdeveloped one, but a plan nonetheless, and for someone lost like Keith, it's like a beacon of light in the darkness. But there's one thing left to solve before he can tackle that. "How do I leave this plateau? Do I climb down the side of the cliff?"
"That is what I would have told you a hundred years ago." Iverson's smile is rueful, gaze looking back into memories only he knows. "But we are short on time, so I will get you out of here before my time is up. You should find a mean of transportation once you contact them."
The white flames swirling around his feet grow brighter, and Keith shields his eyes as they stretch towards him. They make him feel lighter, weightless.
"You must save him…" Iverson's voice rings in his ears as he opens his eyes and finds himself at the base of the plateau, the vast expanse of the field just ahead. "Save Prince Shirogane and destroy Zarkon."
"I will," he promises, but Iverson is already gone.
Keith is alone now, the night animals the only things keeping him company from a distance. He sets off East, checking the tablet every now and then to make sure he is going in the right direction. There is a tower up ahead, a group of machines at its base. Now that he knows his purpose, they seem like a good target to access and evaluate his fighting skills. If Keith is meant to save Shirogane, and by extent the rest of Terra, then he needs to be in top shape.
He stops at a distance, unsheathes his knife and examines the blade. It's a little too short, but it will have to do. Keith slinks towards the enemy group, mindful of staying in the shadows, away from the glow of flames nearby. They carry guns, some of which he can see lying on the ground by the burning heap of junk. One final critical glance and he's off, running faster than he knew he could, faster than someone asleep for a hundred years should, cutting through the darkness of the night and throwing his knife at one of the androids. It glows and extends, shifting into a longer shape - a sword. Keith yanks it away without pause, pushing the thoughts and wonders aside for later, and takes care of the remaining three robots with a series of seamless strikes. He is good, maybe a little rusty around the edges, but good.
Good enough to save the Prince? He doesn't know.
There is no time to think about that, and thinking isn't going to solve it in the first place. He can practice by taking down as many robots and whatever else Zarkon throws at him, by running some of the distance to the Blade of Marmora, by climbing this tower to strengthen his arms. Keith has no recollection of Prince Shirogane aside from that fleeting, blurry memory, has no idea of what he means to the Prince, of what the Prince means to him, of how well they knew each other before the downfall. It seems impossible to work against a legendary evil together and stay as mere acquaintances, and while Keith doesn't want to assume they were close, the yearning feeling in his chest tells him he might just be right.
A new section of the Terra map is uploaded into his Voltron Slate once he interacts with the pedestal at the top of the tower, and it shows the area around where the Blade is located. The small town, Marmora, is not too far, and he estimates that he can make it there in a few hours.
Keith looks again at the castle, at the ominous darkness swirling around the white structure. Whoever Prince Takashi Shirogane really is, Keith is going to save him.