Lance yawned and stretched his arms as he woke up slowly, hearing a morning greeting from Shiro across the room. The leader was every bit of what one would expect the Black Paladin to be, fulfilling the morning ritual of sitting on the neatly made bed with a bunch of papers and pens, a plan and different strategies on his screen. Lance recognized the folders from the different meetings with the Blade and the rest of the Coalition.
A few days had passed since their first meeting with Kaida's crew and since then, there had been several meetings with the different leaders and paladins to discuss their plan in deeper details and what they were to do for the big, final battle. D-day as they said.
It had never been so close. They had never been so close to defeating the Empire. Never so serious to shade some light on the bleak horizon of Zarkon's reign. Their dreams were becoming reality, and that in itself seemed like a dream.
Lance felt the anxiety levels rising, a well-known warning going off in his brain when his ears suddenly caught a familiar sound.
"Is that-"
No, it couldn't possibly be! They were in space! Light years away from home. From Earth.
"What?" Shiro looked up from his notes, intrigued.
"Is that Eye of the tiger I'm hearing?!" Lance deadpanned in utter disbelief.
"What?"
There was no way in hell Lance was mistaken and as crazy as it sounded, he followed his instincts and jumped out of bed to follow the sound's source.
As he came out, forgetting to put on his shirt in his hurry, he came across Keith in the corridors. The red paladin seemed as confused as Lance. And so was Hunk behind him.
Lance smiled fondly at his best friend. Ever since he'd learned that Keith was part Galra, Hunk had tried his best to always stay with him. Not to spy or watch over him; no, just to make sure he didn't feel rejected or alone. Both had become quite close friends over the weeks, once Hunk had "broke through Keith's walls". Hunk's words.
Keith seemed to have decent music taste, Lance pondered, considering he recognized the song. But who didn't anyway? Any person that heard it at least once was bound to get out of their rooms when it was being sung in freaking space! Or maybe it was Hunk's doing.
But Lance was putting too much thought into the matter so early in the morning. To begin with, that wasn't even their biggest problem right now, so he focused back on his task: following the melody of Survivor's most famous hit.
The sound led him to the main room, the one they ate in on the day of their arrival on Kaida's deck. Voltron team had been staying on board with the crew for different reasons. Firstly because the castle was well known by the Galra now. Secondly, because said castle was getting war upgrades and needed a well fix-up in a secret base of the Coalition. And finally, because the ship had become the meeting point for their meetings with the other representatives of the planets. The captain's ability to hide everyone's presence - or even the ship itself - if needed came in a handy.
When Lance finally traced the sound to its origins, his jaw dropped. Both him and Keith stopped on the threshold, watching in disbelief at the scene in front of them.
A small group of crew members, Bat Captain and Dark Sword Lieutenant were fastening across the table, making breakfast to a very 'top earthlings hits' playlist playing loudly in the background.
"Don't!" shouted a young female in a purple tank top when the lieutenant was about to shake the mixture off in rhythm with the music.
"But Lo!" whined lieutenant Teerah, making puppy eyes.
"Don't 'but Lo' me!" the woman shot back, unimpressed by the display of cuteness.
"We won't let the blondie singer ruin our morning cake once more," declared a woman with aviator goggles.
"Follow the recipes and not the song's lyrics Jiijii," laughed the captain.
"You're no fun," the other one scowled.
If someone had told him that he'd see space pirates making breakfast with Taylor Swift songs playing in the background, he wouldn't have believed it. Not until now, at least. But there he was, witnessing the unbelievable right in front of his eyes.
Lance blinked. Once. Twice. He most definitely wasn't asleep.
Beside him, Keith looked just as shocked.
It's only when a Merryn covered in space flour ran in their direction - the exit's - followed by a barefoot Lieutenant Teerah that the crew members realized they'd been there all along.
"Oooh oops, you guys saw that ?" Julie smiled and ran past their shoulders so she would catch the wild flame hound. "Merryn, come back here !"
Sighs, blushes, and shrugs blossomed in the room, the captain laughing her heart out.
"You should see your faces, guys," she wiped a tear out of her eye, "oh my, your expressions are absolutely priceless!"
More people came in the main room, crew members waking up one by one and coming to get breakfast, not even batting an eye at the scenery. The other paladins had joined them, Shiro never getting an answer to his 'what happened'. Not that any answer could explain the utter insanity that Scarlet Kaida was.
"I'm afraid we haven't been introduced properly," approached the woman with aviator goggles. "My name's Aeris Lopez. Third in command and main strategist."
Now that she was saying it, Lance recalled the woman from some meetings. She'd been standing by the captain's side giving advice and her opinion. Lucy Fair had said Aeris had been a captain before joining her crew and that her opinion was as valuable as anyone else's. Aeris wore a loose white shirt, with Scarlet Kaida's emblem embroidered on its sleeves, as well as brown pants with lots of practical pockets and leather boots. A gun glinted from her belt. 'Former captain, huh?' Lance thought.
"And I'm Lo Polster! Scientist and doctor when needed!" the girl wearing a purple tank top announced, glaring at her lieutenant in the second part of her introduction.
She did look a bit like what Lance associated with the word scientist. Over her purple top, she wore what must have once been a brown cloak- now, it was a collection of patches over patches. She looked like the youngest in the bunch- but then again, Pidge was their genius informatician and she wasn't the oldest of Voltron either.
"The best doc!" called out Lieutenant Teerah behind them, "what would we do without you, Sugar Lo?"
"Surely you'd be dead by now," the girl shot back.
"You're probably right, yeah," she laughed. "Come on paladins, let's go eat! I'm starving."
"Jijii, you're always starving."
"Are you really saying that cap? You of all people?" teased Aeris.
"Lucy you hypocrite! If I had not al-fucking-ways snacks with me to feed everyone, you'd be the most annoying child on board of this ship!"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Jijii," the captain dodged the accusations like a pro. "Is Merryn alright ?"
"Yeah right, Captain Flan, changing subjects does not change the facts!" Julie rolled her eyes. "And yeah she is, managed to snatch the chocolate from her teeth before she'd swallow it."
"Good!"
"Is that all you say when I literally saved our lovely baby from intoxication?" Julie lamented, taking a dramatic stance.
Beside them, Lo rolled her eyes. Lance guessed if Merryn suffered from intoxication, it was the time for the scientist to become a doctor. And yet, Lance - and he bet everyone else as well - could see how she was fighting hard not to laugh at the situation. Lance could only thank the astonishment the scene brought to him for his own self-control.
Breakfast time went off normally after that. If taking breakfast with pirates and aliens could be considered normal that is, but -
"COSMO! COME BACK HERE!" A blonde woman shouted, her long, blonde ponytail floating behind her shoulders as she chased after a gray-haired boy. One more time, the young age of the crew stroke him. The boy in question couldn't have been older than twenty-one.
The boy let his hand fly in the air. Signing. Mute.
"Nah," translated the female beside him.
Deandra, if Lance recalled correctly, was as sweet as her appearance was barbarous. And next to her four, strong and muscly arms that could easily take down Shiro with a flick of her finger, Lance looked like a toddler. And Pidge at her right? A microscopic pidgey - he internally praised himself for the hilarious comparison. Thank god the little gremlin didn't have any mind reading abilities like the captain, or he'd be screwed. Even so, he still gulped when her suspicious eyes fell on him.
"Who are the morning troublemakers ?" asked Shiro.
"Cosmo is our engineer, and growling after him is Aria. Don't be fooled, those two are best friends, they fight together on the battlefield and practice at breakfast." She laughed at the paladins' faces.
"Come and catch me," Deandra kept translating, smiling fondly at her friends.
"Give back our cookies!" another pissed off woman followed after.
"And this," she trailed off, "would be Zamia. Cosmo doesn't have an inch of self-preservation, really." She paused, and whispered dramatically in Lance's ear, causing shivers to run down his spine, "she'd do anything for her raspberry cookies. Anything."
As to back up Deandra's statement, a dagger and a shuriken-like weapon landed on Cosmo's sleeve, pinning his arm to the nearby wall. With their prey now immobilized, the two women approached him with the dangerous and deadly grace of the panthers Lance remembered from the wild life documentaries he used to watch with his siblings.
At the sight, Cosmo's face lit up in a proud and laughing smile. Not an inch of self-preservation.
Like he'd said, space had indeed affected a lot their level of extraordinary tolerance.
"Next time, I'll bring a helmet", mumbled Hunk as Deandra left with a few other crew members to attend their mission of the day. Apparently, not all of them adapted as quickly, Lance remembered. He offered Hunk a sympathetic look and patted his shoulder.
"Enjoying your meal?" A woman at least 6 feet tall stood next to their table, bright blue hair tied up in a messy bun, an apron in her hand and a warm smile on her face. Seeing the puzzled looks of the three paladins remaining at the table, she continued, "Name's Ash. I'm the cook."
"The cook? You actually cook for that many people?!' Hunk exclaimed. Bewildered and amazed didn't suffice to describe his tone.
"And you must be Hunk, the yellow paladin, right?" the woman asked with the same warm smile. "I've been trying out my hand at some of your recipes. They're so tasty I can't wait to cook them for the gang! And yes, I cook for the whole bunch-" she answered, biting back a laugh at Hunk's dropped jaw- "but each day twenty of us are on cooking duty so it's fun. Besides, I love cooking!"
"It must be quite chaotic if what we've witnessed this morning happens every day," Pidge scoffed.
"'Let's go wild' is their motto, of course, it's chaotic!" she laughed wholeheartedly. "Life on Earth was so boring next to that!"
"You come from our planet?!"
"I've lived there for a while, yes. I traveled all across Europe in fact. But well, one thing lead to another and me and my friends, found ourselves here. My life has been full of crazy adventures since I've joined them. That's the beautiful thing about fate- you never know where it's going to carry you."
"So you're the reason why they know Taylor Swift?" Lance posed the real question.
"Oh, so that's what they were listening to this morning? Lucy and Jijii love Earth music, they enjoy the variety of it. I think one of their life goals after defeating Zarkon is to visit Disneyland and Universal Studios and all the wonders of your planet."
"Nice!" Pidge agreed. Lance nodded- Scarlet Kaida wasn't so impossibly crazy after all.
"You've been here for quite some time now, but Lucy realized she didn't give you a proper tour of her ship. I'd be happy to oblige- if you are interested, of course!
"Woah, so cool!" the paladins simultaneously exclaimed.
"I'll let you finish your breakfast then. Come and fetch me from the kitchen whenever you're ready!"
And this is how Hunk, Pidge, and Lance found themselves half an hour later in the company of Ash and Lo Polster for a visit of Scarlet Kaida's corridors. Calling the ship big was an understatement- it was huge! And as if its size wasn't imposing enough, every nook and cranny was filled to the brim with memories. Photos, lists, reminders- you name it- literally everything was there. The three paladins were amazed at how much it felt like home.
In the kitchen, everything was well organized and clean and each member had their own drawer. Some of them even stood out from the rest thanks to notes plastered all over them as proof of everyone's complicity. 'Family' Lance thought once more. It made his heart ache with the memories of his own family, on the blue planet that was so far away.
Pidge laughed when she read the one on the top cupboard's door, bringing Lance back to the present. The previous 'You can't reach that one, Jijii' had been angrily crossed out and replaced by 'BUT I CAN GRAB A CHAIR YOU BRAINLESS OYSTER!'. Lance read through some of the others, the smile on his face blossoming into a genuine laugh. 'Who needs healthy food anyway?' was his personal favorite. He was starting to really like that captain of theirs.
After that they left the kitchen and went upstairs, leaving the orlop deck for the berth deck where everyone's rooms were located. Since the crew of the Scarlet Kaida was outrageously big, most of them were occupied by two or three crewmates.
"Those chambers are very much like yours, paladins. Everyone's free to furnish them as they want as long as they keep it clean and don't store any dangerous entities inside them for the sake of everyone's sleep and heart health," Ash winked at Lo.
"Yeah, thank you very much", she answered crossing her arms, "I'd appreciate not having to save anyone's ass after their roommates' prank degenerated."
"Hehe," Ash innocently laughed.
"Don't 'hehe' me Ash! Your friends' jokes got the captain on edge for a whole week! She wouldn't sleep because of the worry of it happening again! And I'm not even talking about that time when their experiences turned every furniture piece into cats! Merryn nearly died of terror that day!" Lo puffed.
So the big scary hellhound was afraid of cats? Lance bit back a smile. Even their mascot was full of surprises.
Ash sighed, her blue irises overflooding with fond memories. "Ah I miss them sometimes," she cooed.
"Miss?" Lance worriedly asked. The memories looked dangerously close to turning into tears. "Aren't they here anymore? Did something happen to them?"
"Those dorks fell in love and settled on a planet we visited once. We sometimes get news from them on the secured line."
"They left the crew? Aren't you bound to loyalty or something like that?" Lance asked incredulously. The crew members looked so close he couldn't imagine any of them leaving.
"No," Lo defensively answered, "of course not!" She paused, inhaling deeply. "It's nothing like that," she continued in a calmer voice. "The captain offered us a roof and a family to love and care for. Most of us have lost everything we had because of Zarkon and its yoke, so-" she stopped, weighing her words, "-we heal together," she eventually said. "And we will defeat him and we'll find our path back," she added, looking like she was trying to convince herself, too.
"And you bet Lucy was the happiest godmother when she got the pictures of the twins!" Ash lightened up the mood.
"Duh," Lo laughed, adjusting to Ash's bright tone, "her happiness was brighter than the stars in my head, even hours after she got the news. She was practically glowing!"
"In your head? You've got mind powers too?" Pidge asked, her voice half worried, half curious.
"No," Lo laughed. "But every member of the crew is linked to the captain's mind." Seeing Lance's nose wrinkled in confusion, she explained, "She doesn't pry into our minds or anything. It's just her way to know we're safe, and for us to know she's here at any moment. A reassuring presence."
"It's dormant most of the time, like a bridge between our brains," Ash completed. "Strong emotions such as happiness can be felt at both end of that bridge, though."
"So it's a bit like us when we form Voltron. When we have the impression of feeling the other's emotions." Hunk pointed out.
"How cool is that?!" Pidge exclaimed, the stars in her eyes sparkling.
The infirmary where Lo worked with two other crewmembers was at the end of the berth deck; at the other end was the children's quarter, dedicated to orphans that Lucy had welcomed aboard during those three years of sailing. They were twelve at the moment, aged from three to nine. Lance had to will himself not to tear up at this proof that the war was breaking families apart. Those children weren't older than his niece and nephew back home.
One last proof of them being one big of a messy family hit him as soon as they arrived in front of the wall Lance had noticed the first time they landed on Scarlet Kaida - just after Merryn's sudden appearance had nearly caused him a heart attack.
The wall was decorated with a bit of everything. There were printed pictures from previous adventures, depicting exhausted, but honest smiles and ugly bruises- proof of their success. Notes and reminders coloured the wall, each of them in different handwriting and addressed to different crew members: Lucy remember you can't drink anymore, no more Mulan episodes or Lo, you're the best doctor, but don't be such a child and take your fucking meds too when you're sick and his personal favourite, All of you GDI don't make me use my mom voice on you. Other words in foreign languages he couldn't read, old wanted notices showing blurry pictures of some crew members and the ransom attached to their heads, a list of songs the crew loved to listen to, forgotten groceries list, drawings Lance believed were the work of the younger members of the ship and even Harry Potter quotes patched up the wall in a puzzle of identities and personalities that made up the crew of Scarlet Kaida.
"You weren't kidding when you said you had introduced them to Earth culture!" Lance whistled appreciatively.
"You're just as sane as I am, fits the crew so much though," laughed Hunk.
"I swear Keith lived longer than your leaders on Earth and I'm sure they know more of its culture than he does!" Lance teased.
"Wait, is that Captain Future?" Pidge and Lance asked in unison. "How?!"
"We have our ways," Ash winked. "No but seriously, Lucy is trash for those cartoons of the golden age. Albator, Ulysses 31, The rose of Versailles, The Mysterious Cities of Gold? She's seen them all. Could probably sing all of the theme songs, too."
"You're kidding," Pidge asked more than stated.
"They only know the French versions, so that'd be Capitaine Flam for her and Jijii. French is actually pretty close to their mother tongue so they learned it pretty quick," Ash thoughtfully said.
"Wait," Lance trailed off, "so earlier when she called her Captain Flan it was a direct reference to…"
"To Capitaine Flam, yes," Lo answered with a laugh. "Our leaders are clearly a bunch of dorks. They even made us marathon the series with them," she giggled.
"Crazy dorks," Ash pointed out, "and clearly we all are. Though it's a common knowledge that Lo is saner than any of us," she threw the scientist a meaningful look.
"I agree with that," Lo and Lance simultaneously said, before they both burst into a fit of giggles.
"You said earlier that they wanted to visit Disneyland, you made them watch the Disney movies too?!" Pidge curiously asked.
"Oh yes." Both Lo and Ash eyed each other at that moment and Pidge's instincts knew there was some interesting story behind that exchange of looks.
"Tell us," she said, her glasses glinting with mischief.
"Should we really tell them?" Lo weighed her options.
"Oh come on, Lo! If not us, it'll be someone else. And you don't want anyone stealing our fun away, do you?" Ash intently watched as Lo wavered and eventually nodded. "Jijii the first," Ash whipped her head back to them and started telling the story of how she introduced them to the Disney classics. And the history they had with the movie Mulan.
"We legit turned I'll make a man out of you into our own version and it became our hymn," Lo tried to pretend she was annoyed, but she couldn't hide the hint of a smile, "It also explains the nickname we gave our flag and why sometimes you'll hear Aria and others call our captain Mushu girl. That girl's trash for dragons," she rolled her eyes as if in disappointment, but Lance could tell she found it endearing.
"And that's not even the best part yet! Lo, they need to know the most interesting part!" Ash interrupted with an excited squeal. She breathed in, as if sucking in all the air in the room, before saying, "Once, Jijii got our captain drunk and Cosmo had to stop her from cutting off her braid like Mulan. Since then, she does not touch alcohol anymore."
The five of them burst into laughter at that and they lost it for many ticks, unable to stop the tears forming in the corners of their eyes from running down their cheeks. Once they had got their composure back –not such an easy task–, the two women kept on describing what was on the 'memory wall'.
This is how they learned that the slightly burned part of the wall was the aftermath of a cold puppy-Merryn had once caught; Jijii not managing to take control of the fireball that Merryn had created with her sneeze resulted in quite some damage for the ship. Lance made a mental note of never getting on Merryn's bad side.
They also learned of Lamo, an animal the crew had declared their second mascot after they rescued him (the creature really looked like a lama and that made Lance smiled at the punny name). He'd lost his way and Lucy and Jijii had taken upon themselves the task to bring him back to his pack.
"They'd shouted Screw the mission! when Aeris had reminded them they were actually doing something else in the first place," Ash remembered. "That day was hilarious, yet it ended with a broken-hearted Merryn when she was forced to part ways with her new friend at the end of the day."
Hunk loved that story. It was this that he found strange, out of all the nonsensical stories the two women had told them in a few hours. Lance couldn't understand his friend sometimes- And after all, they had a freaking cow grazing inside the Castle, but a llama on a pirate ship baffled him. Space messed with their logic, that was the only thing Lance was still sure of.
They crossed Loana's and Cosmo's laboratory before arriving at the end of the tour, the training room. There, Shiro and Keith were challenging the captain. She had suggested practice earlier, not wanting their first team up moment to be on a shady battlefield.
Lucy - she'd asked them to remove the title - reminded Shiro of Keith somehow, with her petite silhouette and her swift moves: dodging and rolling on the floor, escaping most of his attacks with brio.
But just like Keith, her hair would be her downfall. Shiro smiled, sweeping the sweat from his forehead. He lunged forward to the opening he'd seen and struck.
But his hand met oblivion.
She had disappeared into thin air.
"Wha-"
An arm looped around his neck and her breath tickled his throat. "Hehe, thought it would be that easy, Black?"
"How?! You were just here!" Shiro mumbled, confused.
"She never was, Shiro. She used her powers on you and created an illusion of herself into your mind."
"Hehe, guilty as charged... Smart aren't you Red?" she smiled, "I like that!"
Keith scoffed and Shiro used his given time to regain his composure. He knew she was, much more like Lance, a defensive type on battlefield, preferring long-range weapons to hand to hand combat. He had the advantage with his past as the Galra's Champion and teasing Keith had made her loosen her grip on his neck.
In a fast movement, he took her wrist and she flew over his right shoulder. Her breath was knocked out of her lungs for a few ticks, her wide eyes acknowledging his worth. She had not seen that one coming.
He locked her knees between his own and kept her from moving. For a tick, he swore he saw her face shift and lost focus. Her eyes looked empty, as she was drifting far away. Her body was as tense as when a memory of his past came haunting him.
"Are you gonna move your ass or what Lucy? What are you waiting for to kick his ass?! On real ground you'd be dead by now! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Win this fucking match and beat that grinning black paladin out of the ring! Shows him who's boss!"
At her lieutenant's words, Lucy's eyes came back into focus and she grinned wickedly. An elbow kick in his face, another punch into his chest and she was back on her feet, her disheveled braid falling on her back. Stamina flooding out of her.
The session ran for another hour before they had to stop. Both Aeris and Allura reminding them they had to keep energy for today's fights, plus a meeting was to happen in less than an hour. Just enough for them to attend their wounds into the healing pods and take a sorely needed shower. Jijii's words.
/
"We need an actual plan!" Kolivan repeated coldly.
Hunk could say the restless days had their toll on the Blade leader, too. His calm and usually strict attitude was crumbling under the pressure the mission placed on his shoulders. Hunk would have never guessed the man had a cranky side to him, and the eye bags under his eyes looked unnatural. Sadly, the coffee he and Lance had managed to come up with wasn't working its magic anymore and often made the things worse. Like today.
"But we have a plan!"
"One actually more developed than just 'We get in. We beat Zarkon's ass. We get out. And then have fun for the rest of the years', Lucy!" he growled. Hunk made a mental note of trying to blend some dark tea.
"Oh, come on, Kol!" Lucy threw her arms in the air, sighing. "I don't get why you're getting all worked up on the tiny details!"
"Because that is pretty much the idea," Lieutenant Teerah added, supporting her captain and friend's vision. "Getting in and out, alive preferably, and having beaten Mr. Evil Emperor's ass in the meantime!"
"Easier said than done, though," finished Aeris, already deep in her thoughts. If Hunk had to guess, strategic designs were being played behind her unreadable expression. She was mechanically scrutinizing the dog-eared and crumpled notes one more time.
"You know we can't take this battle lightly! We need to plan it carefully," Kolivan told Lucy.
"Plans always fail Kol! And we, always, need to figure out something else once we're in! We're wasting precious time here and it's been weeks! People are dying and here we are, arguing over that!" She pointed at the disorganized table angrily. Her eyes were burning with a fire Hunk hadn't seen before. Frustration.
Indeed, most of the days went by without them noticing it. The Blade and the representatives of the Coalition were discussing - arguing, mostly - strategies they could use to defeat the Galra Empire. Olkari, Balmerans and even royals such as Queen Luxia wracked their brains in the small conference hall.
Hunk felt like he was going to explode. He was on edge and tired of wasting time now they finally had all the cards in hands. Now, that everyone was willing to fight. Sometimes, he couldn't help but agree with Lucy and Keith- they needed to take action.
And damn, if he was boiling inside, what about the others? Even if they were cool-headed - some more than the others - they were always willing to get onto the battlefield. With or without a plan. Even Pidge was starting to lose her temper.
Living 24/7 in a ship always so full of life and people when they were all used to the coolness and soothing silence of the Castle didn't help. Yesterday, Keith had stormed out of the room, saying he couldn't sit down another minute, losing his time when he could be training and doing something useful. His thoughts on the 'we need a master plan' matter, were mirroring Lucy's. The only difference between them was that, while she enjoyed drama entrances, the red paladin was all about drama exits.
But this time, the meeting had not even gone for twenty minutes that the alert went off, blazing its red lights in the ship's corridors. It wasn't like a movie scene, Hunk sadly thought, and neither Zarkon nor time did stop while they were arguing in that suffocating room