Sky

Keith sighed thoughtfully, the light of the star maps playing several different shades of red across the features of his face as he glowered. What was their game? There had to be some reason. He just had to find it.

"Surveillance?" The tone in Kolivan's question seemed curious, but not pressingly so.

"Yes, Sir." The agent nodded curtly, "We caught a transmission from the ship while we were scouting in the area. We figured they were passing through the quadrant, but when they didn't leave after a while, we started to wonder. We've kept an eye on them since."

Keith's brows furrowed much more pensively than Kolivan's seemed to. The Blade of Marmora recon team had intercepted a transmission and managed to pinpoint the location of the command ship just a few thousand leagues from the atmosphere of a planet called Vartex. A command ship sitting cloaked in the middle of the Out Reaches? Why?

"And that was weeks ago? Has there been any other transmission?"

"No, Sir." The subordinate looked to the smaller figure at Kolivan's side, "It's been complete radio silence since then. Not even scout movement."

"Are they waiting for something?"

"It's hard to say, Sir." The agent shook his head.

"We'll keep it in mind. Thank you for your report." Kolivan waved him off, but not before giving orders of reassignment for the agent's team.

Keith looked at the Galran with some slight surpise, "You're reassigning them? But what about the Galran command ship?"

Kolivan turned back to the console and began inputting coordinates of the ship into the database of Galra deployments. "We have better things to use our resources for than babysit one ship that's been doing nothing for nearly two months."

"But what if it's something we can't ignore?" The fact that the leader of the Blade of Marmora seemed to just shrug off this information pricked at Keith a bit, "Kolivan, what if they know something?"

"Keith, they know a lot of things." He never turned to look at his faction counterpart, "But we need to figure out which things they know that are going to affect us and the rest of the universe in a more urgent nature. This isn't one of those things."

Not yet… Keith thought dejectedly.

He felt very different about the situation.

Some home worlds Keith had come across in his travels with The Blade of Marmora and the Voltron Team had been a little sparse on records. But with a bit of effort from within the group, Marmora always managed to elucidate a bit more on the unknowns before they would be stepping foot on any surface, should it ever be deemed necessary; which had occurred from time to time.

Vartex, however, seemed almost non-existent. They would have deemed it a completely unknown world, but what forms of records they could find did state that it had once been known to someone in the past. But what would the Galra Empire want with it now? Maybe they wanted to use the planet as a foothold outside of possible Resistance detection? But, if that were the case, why hadn't they? The Galra Empire wasn't known for it's patience when it came to taking a planet. Even Lotor's approach was 'shoot first, friends later'. What was the difference with Vartex? And why couldn't anymore information be found on the planet? Was it even still inhabited by anyone? That should make setting up a base of operations a complete snap. And yet…

Keith rubbed his eyes with a hand, as though it would help smooth some of the kinks in his thought process. He sighed deeply again and crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at that blinking red dot in the middle of a grid square, next to a cerulean orb. His eyes narrowed as his lips pursed. Perhaps, if he concentrated enough he could bore into the walls of the ship that pixel represented, straight into the mind of the captain and see every answer he sought. Are you waiting for someone? Are you dead in the water? Are you deserting? You can't be. Not while still communicating with the Empire – even as rarely as you are.

His arms dropped to his sides, "Whatever your secrets are, Vartex, I'm not going to find them standing here."

Kolivan was a good leader. He was a great leader. He knew what things had to be done in order for the Blade of Marmora to be successful; the sacrifices that had to be given. Keith trusted Kolivan's leadership almost as much as he trusted Shiro's. But this time he had to disagree. Perhaps it was simply that the Blade of Marmora was stretched so much farther than it had been in the last few centuries. There was just too much to consider now with taking on so many more duties for the good of emancipation from the Empire. This time, Keith didn't believe Kolivan's decision was right. He had no proof, or even valid reasoning to trump the Marmora leader's orders on the matter. But he couldn't ignore what he felt inside. Zarkon had to be biding his time. He had to want something on that rock. Keith walked out of the command room with every intention of finding it before the emperor could get his hands on it.

Once Keith reached Vartex, he was greeted by a serene aquamarine jewel against the glittered abyss of space. If one were to forget the context of his visit, one could almost truly admire the beauty of it. It was much greener than he remembered Earth's tones to be. It was just as vibrant too, if not more so. His ship's cloaking was already active once it broke out of its jump and he circled about to reach the opposite side of the world from the location of the Galran ship. He kept a wary eye in that direction as he did so, being attentive to any possible activity. So far, stillness.

Even though he would be able to run scans on the planet from his position, he didn't want to risk the possibility of a ship so close picking up any of his activity. He wasn't sure what it was he would be searching for, but he would have to do it from within the planet's atmosphere. He could feel the warmth of his breath against the fabric over his face. No point turning back now. This time he was on his own completely. No Lion, no team, no Voltron, and no Blade of Marmora. He was sure Kolivan would argue against him checking out Vartex and whatever - or whom ever - was there on that planet, Keith didn't want to become a bargaining chip against Voltron for. Even if Zarkon might not have taken the place for his own, who was to say that they weren't in the middle of some kind of stand-off. Should something go awry, he could potentially be the grain to tip the scale in their favor; and with Team Voltron in their pocket to pass on, eventually Zarkon's favor. He would have to be particularly cautious on this personal reconnoiter. But once he found what he was looking for, Zarkon and the Galra Empire would have to be at a serious disadvantage! This has to be something…

Keith pointed the ship into a nosedive and blasted toward a gathering of clouds. He didn't want it to be too obvious an entrance to inhabitants. Once he was into clouds, he pulled back on the throttle and began cruising speed, still at a relatively distant altitude. His eyes widened at the landscape before him.

The surface was covered in foliage. Gorgeous hues of green, shades of brown, and freckles of floral colors that seemed to spread beyond the horizon. It was beautiful. His trajectory had no determined endpoint. Keith merely headed forward as he scanned the land below him. The trees were enormous, every once and a while, breaking into open grasslands and clearings. They seemed similar to the ones on Earth, but the alienness of them was just enough to remind him that it wasn't home. Even the color of the blossoms in the fields were off somehow. The pilot shook thoughts of home from his mind and refocused on his task at hand. He touched the console panel to his right and initiated a surface scan as well frequency detection. In no time at all, the radar chirped a hit. Keith's brow piqued at the quick response.

"It's Galra tech…" the screen showed a familiar blip on the panel. This proved it. The Galra Empire was definitely up to something on this planet. He pointed the nose of his ship to head in the direction of the source and kicked it into a higher gear. Now, he had a heading. No longer than a varga later, Keith figured he was near enough to being underneath the command ship still sitting in the stars. He double-checked the cloaking switch to make sure it was still up. Just as the landscape broke into cragged edges against a black sea, he saw it in the distance. There was what clearly looked to be a city that curled around the bottom of a cliff. On that cliff looked to be a space terminal.

He slowed his approach and cut his altitude by half. Deserted. The visage of a giant lively space hub, upon closer inspection, turned out to be ruins of pale stone, sinking beneath the tide of foliage that crept over the outer city walls. It had been empty for a long time. The landscape worked thoroughly over the centuries to begin to reclaim the city, reaching slender, viney fingers completely across the city's expanse and seemed to claw up at the side of the cliff that overlooked it. The creeping foliage covered every bit of the settlement, though, not enough to hide the remnant grandeur of what it once had been. Peeking out behind leaves and blossoms were the deep, intricate lines of organic designs with rigid intricacies; strong shapes with naturally flowing accents. It was not wholly lost to the planet just yet. The port that sat atop the pedestal seemed very much active compared to the derelict skeleton below. Dark eyes narrowed before scouting out a landing spot perfectly out of sight from anyone perched on the cliff.

Keith exited his ship, checking the security of the daggers on his hips. His outfit was near similar light armor to what he usually wore with the Blade, but it adorned no purple, no accents, and no Mamoran blade. He would miss it, but this was not the time to tie them into what trouble he was getting into. He adjusted the mask on the bridge of his nose and pulled up the hood over his head. He was just going to take a quick look around. This would be easy.

Keith cut around the city entirely and made for the cliff wall. A few dobashes later, he was making his way toward the side. There were several pathways up, making the climb rather quick and painless. When this place was up and running, it was clear that the roads between the terminal and city below were plentiful and well used. Keith made light work of the trek and soon crested the edge. He quietly and slowly peeked around the stair wall, unaware that he held his breath as he anticipated someone possibly standing just around the corner guarding the open entryway. He blinked, surprised. With laxing shoulders he stepped around the corner. Nothing. There was no one there. Empty. Just like the city and not a guard detail to be found.

"What?" Keith took a single step into the open, "But… the scanner."

He surveyed the expanse of the plateau. It was quiet. The only sound was the swirling winds around him whistling passed, tousling his hair across his face and playing at the edges of his hooded cloak. The place looked as though it hadn't seen a foreign space vessel in… ever. Or even a local one. His dark eyes, glossed over the edge of the landing zone and toward the vast carpet of sea that followed to the right of him, then toward the sky as he turned the mystery of why that ship was there, hovering over what turned out to be… nothing.

He looked toward the large building the opposite direction. No. There's something here. That was definitely Galran and it was definitely functioning. The former paladin unsheathed his daggers before making for the hold, swift and silent. He couldn't assume he was alone just yet. Once he got to the first door he found he looked it over. It was not as alien a technology as he was expecting – or perhaps he was expecting it to be Galra. He placed his hand on the block next to the entry way. It strobe to life and the door opened. Bingo. Keith pulled the hood further down and over his face, making sure to duck low as he entered. The dark hall was empty and as eerily quiet as the dock, but the glossy sheen on the floor and walls proved it to rather well maintained. There wasn't a speck of dust in the place; never mind the fact that it was lit well enough. There was a pair of thin strips of green light, parallel to each other, that ran the length of every wall. It was enough to light one's way, but not bright enough to cut down Keith's advantage in stealth.

Everything looked the same. There was no map, no computer panel, no… well, anything. Just halls. Empty rooms. Locked doors to more empty rooms. He tired of working through the doors once the fourth turned out to be more of the same vacant hole as every other open door in the wing. He spent what felt like hours wandering around, not at all sure if he was going to find what he was looking for – what ever the hell it was. At least this particular floor had a couple windows in a room or two. He glanced out of one that looked over the side that he had come up, showcasing a rather breath-taking view of the dock watching over the clash of sea, forest, and city below. If he never made it back to Earth, this wouldn't be a bad substitute. It was a bit of a bittersweet thought in his mind. Earth. Did he even miss it at all? Did he ever really belong there? Was it ever really home? He rubbed his forehead with the back of a daggered hand and sighed. "Maybe Kolivan was right. Maybe there really isn't anything here." His gaze fell just a bit and he saw it. A control room. There. That's where he would find what he needed. If this place had any sort of mainframe system it would be in there. And where there was a mainframe, there were records and intel!

Two floors down and a little walk to the left. He was nearly there when he halted half way between corridors. Movement. And voices. Immediately Keith ducked low and pressed against the wall. He moved slowly, careful not to make any loud footfalls as he stepped, daggers gripped expertly in either palm, ready to strike when the need arose. Two distinct voices. He couldn't make out what it was they were saying at first, but they sounded as though they were heading out of the room. He seeped a deep breath into his lungs and held it, waiting for the perfect time for his ambush. Just as he hear them right around the corner, he pounced and his right hand hooked his blade in an expertly planned horizontal arch striking squarely at – nothing. They were gone. The room was empty.

"What?!" Keith immediately took up a defensive stance and shifted into the control room, making sure to keep his back up against the wall. He made a quick glance back out the door into the hall. Empty. What the hell?! I heard voices! His dark brows knitted together as even darker eyes darted across the room, catching every corner, checking every crevasse he could find. His heart was pounding so loud in his ears he wasn't sure if he would even be able to hear any actual movement in the room if there was any. He had made two full circles around the room and checked beneath every console and found no evidence of where his phantom voices came from. He was the only one in the room. Quietly he shook his head in disbelief, but reached into a slender pocket to pull out a chip drive. He had best make use of his alone time before anyone were to return. Or show up the first time, perhaps. Or, maybe not at all. He grumble to himself in confusion about the entire ordeal as he moved to the main console.

It didn't look exactly like the Galra tech he was familiar with, but there was no question. It took but a tick to find the port for his drive and how to boot up the system. The Galra lettering flickered up onto the holoscreen before him and he smirked. You're secrets are mine now, Zarkon. This could possibly be the key to a way to stop the Galra Empire completely. All he had to do was transfer the intel and take it back to Marmora and it was nearly done. Just a few more seconds and he was halfway home. As he waited, he paged through a bit of info, hoping to at least glean a little bit about what he caught onto, though he never dropped his guard one iota to any lurking company. The mainframe blipped 'task completed' but he continued to sift. So far, he found nothing particularly note worthy. Some intel of other space ports on Vartex, but nothing that indicated a weapon, or a power source, or even some kind of lore or history on this place.

"Why isn't there anything here? What are you hiding, Vartex?" -click- Ledgers. -click- Passenger counts. -click click- Work shifts?! -CLICK- Blackness.

Keith never saw it coming. He never heard it coming. Luckily for him, he barely felt it before it knocked him out cold.

"I didn't think that anyone even bothered to go this far anymore."

Boy, was Keith feeling it now. His head lolled from side to side, pivoting on his chin as it rested against his chest. Fuck, did it hurt. The throbbing at the base of his skull was painful enough to make him want to puke. He groaned lowly and instantly regretted it. The small vibration in his head from that alone was enough to turn his stomach further.

"Well, scavengers and bounty hunters tend to have less sense than most. Usually hard to predict what they have on their minds, so this isn't entirely surprising."

Keith shifted his right arm to reach for his temple. Maybe a gentle massage could coax a bit of the nausea away. It didn't move. He tried again. His brows furrowed as his eyes slit open just slightly. He tried the left with no different result. His eyes opened further as he began to regain his wits about him. He shifted his wrists. They were heavy. Shackles. He was restrained; both wrists clasped behind him. There was a similar sensation on both his ankles. He couldn't move his arms because they were in the grasp of his captors. They were dragging him out of the building. He looked up from the ground his toes dragged across and saw the edge of the cliff getting closer and closer. They were going to toss him off the edge!

"What?! What the hell?" Keith exclaimed as he began to struggle against their hold.

"Oh." The first voice sounded female. "He's awake."

Keith felt the grasp on his right arm tighten as he attempted to thrash free.

"Well, that's a shame." The second was much deeper and had a heavy, gruff rasp to it. "I'd hate to be him when he hits the bottom of the sea. Would have been easier on you if you didn't wake up, scavver."

"Y-you can't do this!" Keith exclaimed, managing his legs in front of them and trying desperately to stop their progress. His only success was kicking dirt and rocks with his heels. They were incredibly strong. They barely flinched at his wrenching.

"Sure we can. We did. We always have. And we always will." If Keith didn't know any better, he almost would have described her tone as sing-song. "Never thought that I would actually ever have to, I must say."

"And you kaegen wonder why we still patrol…" It never even crossed his mind to look up at his captors and get even a glimpse of a face to match the voices. Facing your death over jagged cliff edge tended to make one forget a few details. "Alright. Off with you, then!"

"No! No, wait!" Keith was far too panicked to even think about how much his head ached any longer. His heart raced. His mind raced. His breath was short and quick. He felt a pull back and caught a motion in the corner of his eye. Something dark shifted forward and then so did he.

If he were conscious to such a detail, he would have been able to at least appreciate the fact that the two managed to throw him several wide feet forward, giving him enough birth from the side of the cliff wall. He was lucky enough to have a straight shot down – if you could call it 'lucky' – all two hundred feet of it. Once he hit the edge of his horizontal arch, he felt a hard pull on his ankles and looked down. The chain between his ankles angled down to a second fixed to a solid weight. If this fall wouldn't kill him, the drowning would.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!

"Oooh my gosh…" Hunk's groaning was broadcast across all five lions, each paladin hearing him crisp and clear through the comms in their helmets, "Oooh, I think I'm going to explode."

"Have a bit too much to eat, Hunk?" Pidge's smirk could practically be heard as the group of paladins drifted gracefully toward the Castle of Lions.

"I- I didn't think it was possible. Like, physically possible for me. But it there was just so. Much. Good. Food."

"Yes, the Whallan people are quite renowned for their incomparable cuisine." Allura couldn't hold back a gentle chuckle in her voice as she recalled Hunk's pure joy as they partook of the feast in honor of Voltron.

"That purply, polka-dotted, chewy, bar-ish kind of stuff was pretty good." Pidge really couldn't really find any better way to describe the dish she enjoyed, "It tasted a lot like peanut butter."

"Toh-grak." Hunk answered. "I'm thinking I might be able to deconstruct what's in it and maybe replicate the recipe back at the castle."

"I'm truly glad that you all enjoyed this visit to Planet Whallan, paladins. This was another wonderful success and another step forward for the Voltron Coalition." Allura acclaimed regally, "We are well on our way to truly uniting the universe against Zarkon and his empire."

"Well, that's all well and good," Lance echoed in everyone's ear this time, "But I think we could have done so much more. We need to bring way more pizzazz into our demonstrations. Like back when we were doing all those shows! Now THAT was some serious entertainment."

"We're not supposed to entertain the masses, Lance." Shiro shook his head with a smile. "We're supposed to protect them."

"No, I got it. I got it." McClain nodded, his arms folded over his chest in sagely consideration toward his team leaders point, "And we do! But that doesn't mean we can really inspire people and explode their confidence in us with some A-Class maneuvers!"

"Sorry… explode confidence?"

"Come on, Pidge, visualize!" This time Lance's hands danced across his eyes to emphasize the word, even though no one could see him do so, "The loud cheering, the screaming fans – who doesn't love loving those that love you enough to protect you, am I right? More celebrations and food, Hunk! All the fancy diplomatic parties for the princess and, best of all, the universe can't stop talking about us! Everyone will know that Voltron is there to protect one and all and just breed more love for everyone all around!"

"I think the high decibels of screaming have rattled your head just a little bit, Lance." Pidge snickered.

"Well, you guys go on and do what you want. Red and I are going to hang out here and practice some new choreography." Lance waved them on as they reached the giant ship sitting placidly amongst the stars, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you all have a front row seat to our amazing one lion show once we've got it all nailed down."

"Don't get yourself into too much trouble out here, Lance." Shiro signed off, and once the other lions had docked into their towers Black Lion followed suit with his pilot.

Indeed, the demonstration was successful. Prince Lotor, being declared an enemy of the Empire, wasn't around to push back on their efforts to bolster confidence in Voltron and the Coaltion was doing well in growing its numbers as a result. Even though Lance and the others didn't mind the visits and spoils of their heraldic visits, there was always that back-seated wonder about what the next step would be – for either side. Anything was open at this point, now that Zarkon reclaimed his Empire and the fact, alone, that he had exiled his own son and heir really meant that everyone had to be on their toes. Zarkon was capable of anything, it seemed.

"Alright, Red!" Lance grinned as he slipped his fingers around the lion's controls once again, a confident smirk on his face, "What do you say we try working on spicing things up a bit, huh?"

Lance pulled back on the throttle and slammed it forward, ready to kick his performance into high gear. Now that he and Red had some time together to acclimate to each other, he was really starting to get the hang of how to handle the crazy speed the lion had. Keith was nearly above and far beyond 'natural' at handling this lion. He had the penchant for high fire flying since they first met. But that didn't mean that Lance was deterred from stepping up to the plate himself. If Keith could do it, so could he. Eventually.

This time, he would try and see just how much he could push the lion – and himself – to the limit. Or, at least, he would if Red responded at all. Nothing. Not so much as a flinch. He tried the throttle again. The lion didn't move.

"Red?" he glanced around on his screens looking for a possible sign something amiss, "You ok, pal?"

Suddenly everything went dark. Lights shut down, power went out, and Red's eyes went black. "Whoa! Red! What's wrong?" Immediately, everything powered back on and Lance could feel the uneasiness of his lion. "Talk to me, bud. Tell me what's going on." He was starting to get antsy. Everything was just fine a second ago. What changed? He could feel a low rumble in Red's chest and suddenly the lion turned away from the castle. "I don't know what's going on with you, Red, but if that's where you want to go, then that's where we'll go." Lance made that same fluid motion for a third time, but now, thrusters burst into life and he and Red Lion were dodging stardust and meteor tails as they shot across the galaxy.

Red Lion made quick work of the distance between the orbit of the Castle of Lions and his apparent destination. Lance was curious about the planet shone on the screen before him. He thought that Whallan had been pretty far out of 'universal civilization', but this planet was literally on the edge. What did Red want here? Once the lion had broken into the atmosphere and the cloud line, Lance knew what he wanted there. A vacation. He pulled his helmet off to get a better look. Man, was this planet beautiful! It looked like something out of a painting or one of those really corny romantic chick flicks that always had that stupid meadow or picnic scene. Lance could see a coast line coming into view as Red Lion beelined to their destination. This was probably going to be a place Lance would keep in his back pocket; way off the map, quiet, beautiful. It was kind of a shame that he would miss his adulations far too much to actually put such a plan into action. A few ticks and a couple hundred miles more, Red finally settled into a nice collection of trees rather pointed about staying out of sight.

"Ok then…" Lance mused with a scratch of his head. "I guess I'll have a look around?"

Nothing really seemed at all threatening from his current views in the lion, but he made sure to have his bayard drawn and ready to fire should anything decide things were a little too quiet. Lance stepped out of the lion and immediately shields and cloaking kicked into full. How was he supposed to know what to look for? He shrugged to himself and waded through the brush. Wouldn't find out just standing there. A several yards up ahead, Lance could see a break in the trees and headed that direction. Once he broke the line of foliage, McClain was greeted by the entrance to a walled city. The arch and wall faces were covered in numerous decorative carvings, most of which were worn and faded. The expanse in its entirety was completely swallowed by over growth.

"Whoa…" Lance stepped up to the entrance archway and brushed aside some foliage. He could see the faded hints of geometric frescos against the sun-bleached stone. This place must have been a truly amazing thing to behold in its day.

"No! No, wait!"

Lance picked up the faint echoes of a voice in the distance, reverbating off the stones from the cliffside. He looked toward the plateau in the distance and caught movement. "What the heck is that?" He lifted his rifle and engaged his sight. He zoomed in. Though a moving target was hard to find in a zoom initially, he managed to finally get it framed in and follow it long enough to see just what – or whom – it was. He knew that scowl. Lance knew that scowl anywhere. Keith was falling hundreds of feet from the cliff to the water below and, from the look of him, he wasn't going to make it back to the surface any time soon.

McClain immediately stowed his rifle and re-attached his bayard before breaking out into a dead sprint toward the cliff waters. From that height, if Keith survived, his time was severely limited.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!