Prologue
Ten thousand years before the Paladins from Earth fight against the forces of Zarkon...
"I'm sorry daughter, if all goes well, I will see you again soon," Alfor stretched forward, catching his daughter, as she went limp from the burst of quintessence he had passed through her hind-brain. "I love you," he said as her crystal blue eyes fluttered shut in forced sleep. He had already lost his wife to Zarkon's betrayal, he would die before he let Allura be taken from the world. Yet, despite his words of comfort, he had little hope he would ever see her again.
Coran's eyes widened in surprise as the princess collapsed. "Sire!" he stepped forward "what are you doing?" He paused, calming himself, before reiterating his question, "What is the plan?"
"Zarkon's forces are too strong, we will divide them, by sending the castle and lions as far away from each other as we possibly can, we can hide them," Alfor shuffled his daughter into a careful carry. "Please open up one of the emergency cryogen pods for me, Coran, my hands are a little preoccupied."
Coran nodded solemnly, "Of course." He activated the pod control panels, opening one. "Where will the Lions be hidden?" he asked, glancing at his old friend.
King Alfor pondered that for a minute, as he carefully arranged Allura inside the sleeping chamber. He did not notice a small collection of snoozing fur, before activating it. His daughter's face blurred behind a protective sheath before the entire pod vanished into the floor.
"Planets that can support life, as far from Zarkon as I can manage," Alfor said with grim determination, stepping back up to the controls as he began to pour his quintessence into the castle's systems, charging it for opening wormholes. "I'm going to be relying on you for the timing..."
Another volley of Galra fire rocked the castle.
"I'll help however I can." Coran nodded, bracing himself at the impact. "But, why does the princess need to be..." he glanced at the pod. As he spoke, Coran opened the doors to the Lion Hangars. Blue, Yellow, and Green Lions did what they could to distract the Galra forces.
"The lions... will be looking for new paladins..." Alfor said in defeat. "They don't trust us as they should, not after Zarkon's betrayal. I will be searching for new paladins wherever I land, but there's no guarantee it will happen in my lifetime... I would not let my daughter whither and die waiting for the impossible."
Coran's breath caught as he turned to stare at Alfor. After a few moments he nodded wordlessly, turning back to the control panel.
Five suitable worlds chosen. Alfor hung his head, "Once you've found somewhere safe to land, you should take a pod as well." The king looked to the man who had been his closest friend, "Allura will need a wise advisor."
The teludav system was primed, and Alfor stepped back, or rather, stumbled back from the amount of quintessence that the charging had taken from him.
Coran rushed to help steady Alfor, and check the planets. "Goodness! that one is far off!" he declared, pointing at one of the planets, far too the edge of the screen. He suddenly paused as a thought struck him, "Is… that's why we uploaded your consciousness to the holochamber, isn't it?" he asked softly.
King Alfor opened his mouth to reply, when another volley knocked him over and made him bite his tongue. "For quiznak's sake! You couldn't stop shooting for maybe... five minutes!?" Alfor briefly snarled in annoyance at the attacking fleet. "I'll signal you from the Red Lion," he told Coran, already heading out of the command deck.
Coran nodded. "Good luck Alfor," he said, hoping that it would not be the last thing he ever told the man face to face.
The doors closed, and King Alfor let his mind slip briefly to what more he could do to ensure his family's future happiness.
Raible, Coran's son, was tucked away in a secret medical wing. He had been gravely injured in one of Zarkon's first attacks against Altea, when they found him he was only barely clinging to life. But Coran had already begun mourning. King Alfor had kept the boy's survival a secret, if only to spare Coran the emotional turmoil of losing his son twice. He was only just barely stable now. But, presumably, he would be well enough to be woken around the same time Coran was.
They, at least, could have the happy family reunion that Alfor could not.
Who would Allura need? The first person to come to mind was her self-appointed 'bodyguard' Larmina. Although officially she held the title of handmaiden, her spurts of rage made her rather effective at close combat. The same spurts of rage were less helpful when the enemy was in distant warships. Larmina had been ready to attack the Galra - through the screens - when Zarkon's fleet had attacked. Allura had wisely sent her on a pointless fetch quest to occupy her time, commanding the girl to get tea and biscuits, so at least King Alfor knew where to find her.
In the kitchens, Larmina was frantically preparing some fresh Junaberry tea for the Princess. She wasn't particularly sure why Allura needed tea and biscuits in the middle of a battle, but if her princess requested, she would do so! Larmina's hands were still shaking slightly as she served the tea, and flinching with every crashing boom that hit the castle.
Then King Alfor burst into the room, "Larmina! Allura needs you, follow me!" He didn't bother to turn and look, he knew Larmina well enough to know that the command would be enough. It wouldn't be long before Larmina realised they were headed towards the medical wing rather than the command deck or Allura chambers. King Alfor cringed in anticipation of her questions, while he tried to ponder what Allura's future ought to hold.
True to the King's beliefs, Larmina grabbed up the entire kettle of hot tea, chasing off after the man. "Yes, my king!" she called uselessly as she ran after him. There was no time for cups, and the biscuits lay forgotten on the countertop. She flat out refused to feed her princess the 'sludge' that Coran found so appealing, and would find various delicacies from other planets to offer the princess. These particular cookies were from a far off planet, where even the air tasted sweet.
Mind racing, Alfor considered who else he might put into stasis. There weren't enough cryogenic pods for the whole staff of the castle, but logically he needed to tuck away at least enough Alteans to pilot Voltron if the need arose. If Allura were engaged, or at least harbouring some crush, Alfor would be shoving the young man in a pod. Unfortunately all her romances to date had only been little fledgling things, ended, usually, with the declaration of the boy in question being a "ponce". Well, if Allura was harbouring a crush she hadn't yet spoken up about, Larmina had a better chance of knowing about it than Alfor would. He turned around to ask, but saw that Larmina was struggling to keep up with his pace.
Knowing these hallways better than she knew the -truthfully much shorter- ones of her own family home, it took no time at all for Larmina to realise they were going in a DISTINCTLY wrong direction. "Sire," she called ahead, running as best as she could while holding a pot of scalding liquid in one hand and holding up her ridiculous skirts with the other. "I don't mean to suggest that you don't know your own castle, sire, but this path won't take us anywhere near the Princess Chambers, or back to the command deck!"
"For crying out loud, put the tea down! It's going to be cold long before Allura could make use of it."
Larmina glanced down at the pot in her hands, then threw it off to the side to bundle her skirts to her hands, scurrying off after the man. "Sorry, sire." she said automatically.
"More importantly, is there anyone in the castle who might be suitable marriage material?"
Her mind caught up with his words, stumbling for a moment though she managed to catch herself before she fell. "Um." she flushed, going pink in the face for reasons that had nothing to do with her shape-shifting. "I'm sure that you could find a suitable mistress without my help, sire!" she squeaked a little, than shook her head. "My apologies, sire." she repeated.
The king flushed, his mind racing back to younger days before he contained himself. He had barely finished the traditional period of mourning his wife, "Not for me, for Allura!" He turned to continue walking down the corridor towards the medical centre. "I've placed Allura in a cryogen pod to await the next generations of Paladins, if there's anyone you imagine she'd want with her speak up. Or with yourself, for that matter." Alfor tried to imagine Larmina hiding behind the potted plants with some young fellow, probably from the kitchens, but he couldn't think of anyone who wasn't already scared of her temper.
"King Alfor!" Larmina squeaked in abject horror, honestly tripping on her skirt, and on his words, for a second. She swore under her breath, then scurried after the man again. "I couldn't dare betray Allura's confidence!" But then she paused, brows furrowing. "You've...put her into cryosleep?" she asked. "But why?" At this point, forget 'protocol'. She would question the king if she wanted to! "What do you plan on doing, sire?!" she demanded as fiercely as she dared.
Ah, here were the questions. "I'm leaving to find the next generation of Paladins," Alfor said, trying not to snip back, and somewhat failing. "So will my daughter wake up alongside the same girl that she grew up with or would you prefer to grow up without her?" If Larmina answered the latter he might just spike her hind-brain with a shot of quintessence too.
'I doubt there'd be much growing left to do...' Larmina mused internally as another blast shook the castle. They were by the medical centre doors now, so if Larmina didn't have any particular input it would soon be too late to fetch someone else. "I want to be with her, sire. I have to be by her side. To protect her." The blonde girl grew determined as she spoke. She took her 'job' very seriously.
"Good," King Alfor gave Larmina a quick nod of approval before he stepped into the medical centre.
His mind was getting a little frantic, but his eyes did stop at a young Altean male. Alfor wasn't sure if he was medical staff, or someone here to get a wound bandaged up, but if it was superficial enough that he wasn't put into cryosleep then it would be mended by the time he was woken up. At the very least the fellow wasn't a confirmed ponce. Alfor grabbed the young man by the back of his shirt as he stomped towards the hidden door to Raible's secret wing.
The young man in question was actually part of the kitchen staff, named Melrin, and rather low in the totem. He had been sent to the medical bay to collect some bandages as several members of the kitchen staff had gained minor injuries during the various explosions that had been ripping through the palace. He gave a squeak of protest as he was grabbed rather unceremoniously.
"H-HEY!" Melrin barked as he felt himself being dragged. Turning his head sharply to see what was going on he tried to regain his footing only to stop fighting when he recognised the king. "Sire? I- well- that is- do you require assistance with something?" he managed while trying to twist himself so that he wasn't being dragged backwards.
Alfor barely registered the respectful tone of the young man he was dragging, "Busy," he merely supplied. Rather, he was finding the entrance.
The control panel on the wall was carefully disguised, little more than a faint square outline, half tucked behind a shelf of medical supplies. The door itself was hidden too, disguised by the natural seems in the exposed sheet metal walls. Then it slid open, and the five pods of the secret medical wing were exposed for all the staff to see. They didn't slide into the floor here, as the secret room hadn't been made for that. So Raible's face, only barely obscured by the misty glass of the cryogen pod, was easily recognisable.
"Raible..." Larmina gasped out as her gaze fell upon the middle pod. Breaking free from the king's grip with ease, she stumbled forward. Frozen there, in cryosleep, was the boy a little younger than her, who had been supposedly died months earlier. "Sire?!" she demanded, turning back to the man. "Does Coran know?" She knew that Allura didn't know, the Princess would have told her. And she, in turn, would have told Coran. Someone would have told Coran that his son was alive!
"Coran will know when Raible is better," King Alfor said, as he began prepping a couple of other pods. He had it set to open only on executive order, only himself, Allura, Coran, or a Paladin's Bayard, would be able to wake them up - just in case the onlooking staff had their own ideas. "Now, hop in, Larmina... and... you..." he had failed to get the young man's name, "we don't have a lot of time."
'Ohoho, if this was anyone BUT the king, we would be having words right now!' Larmina fumed inwardly, though her expression remained neutral. "Yes, sire." she ground out as politely as she could, supposing that she should only be grateful that the king had chosen her to save. She moved over to the pod and stepped inside, calming her breath as she awaited the cool sensation she was sure to come. 'Some hot tea would really come in handy, now!'
Melrin had obeyed his Majesty's command, though he was more than confused as to what was transpiring and why he was now standing in a cryogenic pod. It was something he recognised from his interest in the sciences though he had never seen one outside of his books.
"Is someone going to explain what's going on?" he inquired after the back and forth of the other two Alteans had ended, a rather perplexed expression on his face.
King Alfor was not going to explain, or even answer, and only partly because he felt awkward for not knowing the young man's name. With the push of a button Larmina's chastising glance and the young man's confused eyebrows were frozen for the foreseeable future. Then he stalked away from the room, leaving it open for all to stare at, because there were more important things to do than control the fate of the remaining two pods.
Making his way to the Red Lion, Alfor took off from the castle. Once out if open space, he issued commands to the other Paladins as Zarkon once did, before opening the channel back to Coran. "We're in position, Coran, open the wormholes, minimum safe time interval."
"Yes Sire!" Coran nodded, opening the wormholes. As the castle sank into one he let out a final plea, "May the Ancients guide you in your journey." Unspoken went Coran's desire for the King's eventual return.
King Alfor and the Red Lion disappeared through the quintessential fold in the fabric of space, before the wormhole closed behind him.
He stared down at a small jewel-like planet, lush with greenery, despite the fact that the surface showed several active lava flows. Then he realised something important, neither Coran nor Allura knew anything about the secret medical wing.
Truthfully, Alfor wasn't even certain that the lions would be able to choose new paladins while their current bonds remained. The Black Lion had accepted no one, despite the number of brave knights, clever generals, and even other paladins that King had been brought before it. Allura might end up sleeping until all the current paladins had died off. It was quite possible that someone would be foolish enough to close the hidden door in the time between, and Coran and Allura would have no idea that there were others waiting to be awoken.
"Quiznak."