Reawakening
Chapter 1: The Lion Sleeps

It took five scientists, two officers, and about a dozen random aides and whatever-elses to escort Lance from the depths of the Castle to the upper floors. He wasn't quite sure what to think about that. Wasn't this supposed to be a secret? They'd told him when he went under it was going to be a secret. Maybe secrecy standards had changed over the last three centuries. Maybe words didn't mean what words were supposed to mean anymore.

Or maybe it was just that the Alliance grapevine was as wonderful as ever.

The corridors were familiar and utterly alien at the same time. He recognized the corners, the doorways, the general layout of the place. But everything else, including the damn walls, had changed. He traced a hand curiously along the tile, feeling just the slightest bit of give in what seemed to be solid metal. "What is this stuff?"

"That's Flexplate," one of the officers piped up—Captain Parker, a reedy man who as best Lance could tell was supposed to be his handler. Unlike all the others just claiming they were. "It's stronger than titanium, able to bend and bounce back surprisingly well on impact. Better than rubber, better than steel. It's been around for a hundred years or so."

Interesting. His assumption about Parker's role came from the fact that the man fielded most of his questions, and sounded the least patronizing when doing it. If he was wrong in the assumption, he'd be asking for this guy to be assigned. "They make ships out of it?"

"No sir. The microstructure requires gravity to keep its strength. But it's a standard for military facilities."

That was a shame... maybe. As cool as fighters made of this Flexplate stuff would undoubtedly be, it gave him a strange feeling of vindication that the future couldn't do everything. But of course they couldn't, and they knew it themselves. That was why he was here.

He recognized where they were going, or at least what it had once been. The diplomatic wing. Which made plenty of sense if the Sky Marshal was really here to personally welcome him back. "How much of the castle is even left? The old castle, I mean."

"Only the catacombs, sir." One of the younger scientists took this one, and was practically tripping over her words in her excitement—and no doubt her own feet soon, as she paid more attention to Lance than to where she was walking. "Tradition dictates we keep the architectural parameters in place, but the materials have been replaced wholesale several times. And of course the internal fixtures undergo constant revision. I was on the team that last reworked the hand-to-hand simulators, they're now capable of generating a full—oof!" Before she had a chance to start bragging about sim capabilities, she finally went face-first into a corner. It had been inevitable, really.

Though just for the sake of appearances, Lance gave the aide who'd stuck his leg out in front of her a mildly disapproving glare. ...Mildly. "I bet it's fascinating, but you may want to watch your step. Castle layout hasn't changed in three hundred years, you've got no excuse!"

She blushed redder than his lion and fell silent.

Before anyone else could try their hand at impressing him, they stopped at a security checkpoint. Rather than just passing through this one, Parker crossed his arms and eyed the rest of the group reproachfully. "Don't you people have actual jobs to be doing? Unless you want to explain to the Sky Marshal why you're drawing all this attention to the secret recovery project, you might want to get back to them."

It took about ten seconds for the whole lot of them to scatter and disappear.

Lance chuckled a little. "The big boss is that scary, huh?"

"Only by reputation." Parker shrugged as they moved through the checkpoint, entering a short hallway with a single door at the end of it. "Useful reputation to have, though—I imagine you'd know something about that?"

"Pfft, me?" Lance waved that off with a smirk. "Hardly. I made it a point of pride to be very accessible. You never know where you'll find good groupies."

Parker cocked his head. "...You do live up to the stories, sir."

It was hard to tell if that was a compliment or not. "I try!"

Whatever it had been, his handler didn't seem inclined to press the issue, approaching the door and knocking twice before keying in a code on the security panel. "The Sky Marshal's been waiting for you, of course... there we go." He stepped back as the door slid open, revealing a small office with a large desk and not much else... except its occupant.

"Ah, there you are." The woman behind the desk stood as they entered, and Lance blinked back a flicker of surprise. It wasn't exactly because she was female. It wasn't exactly because she was obviously alien. It was just that lacking any other context, even knowing it was ridiculous, his mental image every time the Sky Marshal was mentioned was of someone who looked pretty much like Sven.

To put it mildly, she did not.

He studied her carefully as she approached, intent on figuring something out about the future before it was handed to him on a Flexplate platter. Her skin was marble white, and her silver hair hung over her shoulders in three thick braids; its iridescent sheen gave her away as a Skaerite, though the lack of talons on her hands meant she was probably half human. And considering the Skaerites had been a reluctant affiliate race three hundred years ago, even recognizing what she was didn't make the future all that much less weird.

It did not escape his notice that she was also pretty hot, but he supposed that wasn't relevant.

"Sky Marshal Amelia Kasun." Her handshake was swift and efficient; she was a far cry from the awestruck sycophants he'd been dealing with so far. Lance liked her immediately, and was also pretty certain he'd dislike her within the next half hour. Having an entourage had been cool while it lasted.

"I guess there's not much need for me to introduce myself, huh?"

"Not hardly, Commander McClain. Welcome to the year 3058. There's a great deal of work to be done here; if you've fully recovered from your hibernation, it would be best if we begin."

"Sure, let's get to it." He noticed Parker slipping out the door behind him. Now was where the really top secret stuff began, apparently. "What's first on the list?"

"Truthfully?" She tilted her head. "This is, as they say, your show. I can brief you on the current situation, but if we knew where to begin with awakening Voltron we wouldn't really have needed to awaken you."

...Yeah, that had kind of been the point, hadn't it? But Lance wasn't too sure where to begin himself. They'd put him under for this, but it wasn't as if he had a 'how to bring your robot lions back to life' checklist that had been stashed down there with him. "I'm pretty sure I know what the briefing will be. Bad guys are coming, we need Voltron, the security of the universe is in our hands, let's do this."

Kasun's eyebrows arched briefly. "Yes, something like that."

"Then let's worry about the specifics later." He paused for a moment, thinking about when he and the others had arrived on Arus.

Oh geez, that was almost four hundred years ago, wasn't it? ...Okay. Focus.

Well, where had Coran started? He'd had a whole advanced castle control center hidden away, he'd had the lions in place, what he hadn't had yet were... "Let's start in the crypts, then."

After the Battle of Galra, Voltron had been critically damaged. It wasn't just physical damage, though that had been pretty impressive. The final explosion had sapped Voltron's power, sapped it in a way that not even the Alliance had known the full extent. And try as they might, the Force hadn't been able to restore the lions to their full strength. The decision had been made to seal them in their dens, to give the mystical energies there time to recharge the great machines, and the keys had been returned to King Alfor's tomb.

At least that was how things had been when he'd gone under, but the Sky Marshal looked confused. "The crypts, Commander?"

"The keys are there, aren't they?"

"Ah..." She hesitated briefly. "No, actually. That plan had unforeseen complications."

Surely she didn't think she was going to get away with that. "Such as?"

Kasun made a face. "Space mice."

...Of course. He grinned, which didn't really seem to improve her mood any. "New rodents carrying on the family tradition, huh? Probably shouldn't have surprised anyone. What's the new plan?"

"The keys were removed from the tomb, and have been passed down by the heads of the military ever since. Security was still paramount, of course. Nobody else in the Alliance has even been kept privy to their existence, and each Sky Marshal chooses a new hiding place." She moved to the wall and slid one of the framed charts aside, opening a hidden compartment behind it.

Well that's original. Lance started to say something to that effect, but paused when she simply reached into the compartment and pressed a few buttons. A click echoed somewhere in the room and she moved on, this time moving a framed award certificate—something about exceptional valor in the Third Battle of Elvinon II.

Lance had never even heard of Elvinon II.

This time Kasun appeared to be turning some dials inside the new compartment, mumbling numbers under her breath. Another click, another secret compartment. This one was behind a painting of a mountain stream that looked like she'd stolen it from a cheap hotel. In all honesty he hoped that was exactly where she'd gotten it; it would make her so much more interesting!

Probably not.

Rather than a click, whatever was inside that compartment gave a series of beeps before she moved on. This was getting ridiculous. Lance bit back a disbelieving snicker, only because he was pretty sure he would need it more later. The next stop was another award, written in some flowery pretentious script that was thoroughly impossible to read. Lance had no idea what it was, though a few suspicions immediately presented themselves in his mind.

Amelia Kasun, four time Academy hide-and-seek champion. Bet on it.

Next she moved to the office's thermostat. By now Lance was all over this, of course, and wasn't remotely surprised when she entered a few numbers and instead of changing the room's temperature, a panel popped open beneath it. What did surprise him was that instead of yet another hidden lock, she pulled out a small pentagonal box, carved of white stone with a five-colored star etched in its top.

She turned back to him. "As I was saying."

Despite knowing what she held now, despite his own jolt of excitement, he couldn't help the first comment that came out. How could he possibly help it? "Dude. Was that for real? Did you get that setup from a B-grade detective holo?"

She scowled, but her expression couldn't hide the blush suddenly creeping up her pale cheeks. "...That isn't relevant."

"You know, 'yes' would've been way fewer syllables." He grinned. "Don't worry. I know it's kind of a disadvantage for a Sky Marshal to have a personality, so your secret's safe with me!" He turned his attention to the box, deflecting her glare. "Kind of surprised to see you went to all this trouble though. Who made the box? It's not the average military junk."

"Sky Marshal Holgersson had it commissioned after the original storage plans fell through. He felt it was important to show proper reverence." Kasun raised an eyebrow, but couldn't keep the curiosity from her voice, somewhat belying her annoyance. "Did you tell him he had no personality?"

Lance chuckled. "Regularly."

"I suppose that ought to make me feel better." She shook her head and opened the box, revealing five small discs that gleamed, gemlike, even in the office's dim light. "...I admit, I had hoped I wouldn't have to be the first Sky Marshal to open these."

Well, given the why that was probably understandable. "I'll just choose not to be offended by that."

"Appreciated." She straightened, stepping forward and holding the keys out to him. "Here you go."

Lance took the keys and studied them, just taking it all in for a moment. It had been so long since he'd seen them... the time he'd been in stasis didn't exactly count, but even before then. The keys had been locked in the crypts even before they'd finished sealing the lions in their dens.

His hand closed around the red one, feeling the warmth in the metal. The presence. For a moment he fell silent and just let it soak in.

Much too long...

"Commander McClain?"

"...Yeah, sorry. Just distracted. Let's move on, shall we?"

Kasun gave him a strange look, but didn't say anything about it. Probably for the best. She wouldn't understand—the normal, boring military had never understood. "Of course. You'll want to see the control room, I trust."

Now it was going to get interesting. "You better believe it."

Nod. "Then let's go."

Parker wordlessly rejoined them at the checkpoint, and Lance found himself walking slightly ahead of the two that should've been guiding him. If the castle layout was the same then he knew this, he knew it so well... he'd walked this path a thousand times. This was where he really belonged.

Neither of them even attempted to make conversation. They were probably too busy trying to keep up.

"Hold on," Kasun said finally as they reached a large bulkhead where the main entrance used to be. "They should have programmed your biometrics into the castle's systems when they brought you out of stasis, you'll have alpha level security authorization, but it won't take effect until system rollover tonight."

Lance decided to just pretend he'd followed all that—he was pretty sure "full clearance kicks in later" would've been quicker—and stepped aside to let her open the door.

Whoa...

Control was different, all right. The center of the room was dominated by a three-dimensional holomap of the Denubian; the control panels surrounding it told him what he was really looking at was a tactical display system of a complexity they'd only been able to dream of when he went under. There was a huge flat-panel command screen and console behind the tactical display, about where the old main console had been.

Taking those in for a moment, his eyes were drawn off to the left almost instinctively. And there it still was—a snarling red lion's head and large number "2" painted over a thick bulkhead door, though a door that had clearly been sealed shut for years... or centuries.

"This room has been kept one of the Alliance's most carefully guarded secrets," the Sky Marshal stated after giving him a few minutes to take it all in. "But it's been kept on the priority list for upgrades, as per the original agreement. What you're looking at is the finest command technology we have available."

Lance gave an appreciative whistle. "It's a great setup. Keith wil..." He abruptly fell silent, realizing what he was about to say. Keith will love it. But Keith wouldn't love it. He was gone, long gone.

Keith was gone. Allura was gone. Sven was gone.

Everyone he'd ever known was gone.

He'd been perfectly aware of that, of course. Understood when he agreed to go under stasis that this was what he would be waking up to. The only question had been whether it would be thirty years, or three hundred, or three thousand... he'd known. He just hadn't expected the reality to bite quite so hard.

The Sky Marshal and her aide had both politely pretended not to notice the lapse, which was an excellent choice on their part.

"...Okay." His voice still cracked a little bit and he cleared his throat, trying to force it to behave. "Guess you may as well tell me about the bad guys we're using all this against."

Nod. "We've detected massive fleet movement from the Drule homeworlds. No formal declaration of war, but the Drules have never been much for those niceties." Lance scowled but didn't comment; he knew that all too well. "The Empire has remained in a rebuilding phase for the last three centuries—Lotor did a great deal of damage, and made his people rightfully wary of war. But the current Emperor, Kargil, has been on a much more militant footing since he took the throne." The Sky Marshal shook her head. "We knew it was inevitable that he'd make a move, but didn't expect it to happen so quickly."

"It seems he rushed matters along so that he could launch his invasion on a significant date," Parker broke in. "That being said, his forces are powerful and he has the capacity to field robeasts, and they're heading straight for Arus."

"Seems pretty clear cut," Lance agreed, halting at one of the command consoles. "Love what you've done with this place, but seriously, whose idea was it to paint an even bigger target on the Castle of Lions? We didn't get enough attention with Voltron?"

A brief hesitation as Parker looked at his boss; Kasun tilted her head. "Ah, that would have happened after you went under, of course. It was actually Queen Allura's decision, along with Commander Kogane. An attempt to safeguard Voltron's resting place. Turning the Castle and its military resources into a training complex, rather than an active combat facility, was meant to make it draw less enemy attention than more immediate threats." She shrugged. "We've seen wars since; nothing as organized or powerful as the Drules, but credible threats. The subterfuge has worked thus far."

He nodded. It made sense, and it was the sort of thing Keith and Allura would come up with. "Other wars. Elvinon II?"

That startled her. Maybe she hadn't expected him to actually be reading all her shiny awards, and who could blame her? They were kind of boring. Another military thing. "Ah, yes, actually. The Elvons were the greatest threat we've faced since the Drules... they had spies deep within the Alliance, and still bypassed this facility for much less significant garrisons."

"Fair enough." Lance took one more long look around the control room, then turned away from the console. Suddenly he didn't want to be here anymore. This room, like everything else about the castle, was stark and lifeless. Empty. It needed a Voltron Force, and that was what he was here for, wasn't it? "So now that the tour's over, let's get to work. You have some pilots for me?"

Kasun and Parker exchanged looks. "We have candidates. Choosing the best of them is part of your mandate."

Well, yeah, there was that. "Excellent! Let's go see."