(A/N) this takes place (almost immediately) after the end of season 3-obviously there will be spoilers)

Chapter One (approximately 10,150 years later)

"He does this a lot?"

Allura sighed. "At least once every few quintants. Turns the maze on, walks to the center, and sits there for hours on end sometimes. He does the maze blind, too." She adjusted her weight, and rested her chin in her hands, her elbows propped up on the control board for the training room. "Father always said that he was meditating. Sometimes I think he is, but I can't help but feel that it isn't always the case."

Beside her, Lance folded his arms over his chest and hummed. "What would he be doing, then?"

"I wish I knew. For all his chatter, Coran has always been very private. Not even his own sister knew why he does this."

"Coran had a sister?"

Allura laughed. "He did. She was younger than him by a few decapheebs, and they were always really close. She was definitely the brute strength in their relationship. She died defending the castle, not long before Coran and I were put to sleep. I never knew her very well, and he doesn't talk about her much." She shook her head dismissively. "Not that there's anything we can do now, as much as I hate to say that." She stood up and stretched her hands above her head, groaning satisfactorily when her back popped. She glanced through the screen to the floor of the training room, where the faint blue walls of the invisible maze simmered and cracked around Coran, who was seated cross-legged on the floor, hands palm-up on his knees, eyes closed, and his face a perfect deadpan. "We should leave him be for now. I can't imagine what he would say if he found we had been spying on him."

"Now, Princess, I wouldn't exactly call it spying, would you?" Lance asked as he followed her out the door.

She laughed. "I would actually. Don't try to make us sound any better than we are."

"Whatever you say, Princess."

...

Coran did, in fact, spend most of his time meditating in the center of mazes. It relaxed him and helped him gain a clearer view of everything that had happened, was happening, and would happen, eventually. He could see it in glimpses, if he tried hard enough-or didn't try, depends on how you look at it. That was never the reason he went into the mazes, though. It was the only way to get to the Garden. He didn't always make it, but on the times he did, he wandered the paths of the garden, trying to find the man in the dark robe with the book (Destiny. He found that out when we was younger, before the fall of Altea). They would walk together-Destiny always greeted him warmly-and sometimes they would talk. Not always. Coran always spent much of his time staring at the sky, and he fancied that he could see everything in it (perhaps he could). He knew so many things because of that place. He knew Altea would fall, he knew where and how the lions would be scattered, he knew he and Allura would sleep for several millennia before the lions would be regathered and he would witness the fall of the Galra Empire. He knew all of this, and could say nothing of it (what would he say? That he knew a man in a world that didn't exist that held every secret in all of existence?).

He hadn't made it to the Garden today. In all honesty, he was not sure if he even wanted too. Destiny had been somewhat on edge as of late (since Coran woke up) and talked less. The sky showed him less (or the same, possibly more. It was all so convoluted that he couldn't tell anything end from end), and Destiny would never meet his eye (as much as a blind man ever can). Sometimes when Coran arrived to the garden there would be others there talking angrily, worriedly, or despondently. They always stopped as soon as Coran got within earshot, and Destiny never explained. The whole thing left Coran in a dizzy, frustrated mindset, which he knew could only be remedied by spending time in the garden (and yet, the garden was at the root of all his problems. How perfectly paradoxical), but he didn't really want to go there.

Perhaps that is why he has not made it back in at least 10 quintants.

He sighed and ran a hand down his face, breaking his heretofore perfect meditative composition. Perhaps if he went back with the real intention to get answers, it would calm some of the fear he felt welling in his chest. Then again, perhaps it would only make it worse. He stood, and began walking out of the maze, his footsteps falling perfectly in line like they knew instinctively where they needed to go. Coran watched the ground in front of his feet-still lost in thought-and didn't quite notice when the white, semi-reflective floor of the castle turned to stone. A breeze caught his hair and forced him aware of his surroundings. He looked up and into the ever-familiar expanse of grass and cobblestone pathways.

"You have come to terms with your fear?" Coran would have jumped at the voice that appeared suddenly behind him, but somehow he expected it.

He turned to face the man (taller than him, probably taller than Alfor). "I-yes." He nodded. "I have."

"Good. Walk with me. My siblings will be here shortly. They will want to bargain."

Coran fell into stride with Destiny and locked his hands behind his back, sparing glances at the book Destiny held in his hands (it was open, though in a script Coran could not read). "Bargain over what, exactly?"

"Your life, and the lives of your friends."

"Oh really?" Coran quirked an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Because you were chosen to be our representatives in the waking world. Except things have not gone...exactly as planned this time," Destiny said. Coran could hear the masked hesitation in his voice. "You will know more as the time passes. That is all I can say at this time."

Coran hummed in response, and they fell into a comfortable silence. He looked up to the clouds, more out of habit than anything else. They told him that the voltron paladins were happy (stressed, but coping well) and that currently they were having sock-skating competitions in the corridors of the castle. They also told him that Death was coming, (waiting in the garden for them, just up the path) and that she would want to talk. They told him he would not like what she had to say, though he could not make sense of why, or any of the events to follow. Not that that surprised him; the clouds had been eluding him for years.

"They're not eluding you, you just don't want to hear what they say," Destiny said. "You've been ignoring them for some time now."

Coran found himself staring hard at the ground. "I…" it was useless lying, he knew that, "have. They didn't make sense before, and now…"

"Now you don't want to accept them. It happens to the best of us." Coran looked up to the source of the new voice. A young woman with ashen skin and dark, frizzy hair. The marks under her eyes seemed to glow with a faint, lilac light. "It's good to see you, Coran. How have you been holding up?"

"Fit as a fiddle, my lady. The kids are a little worse for wear, but nothing that we can't fix with elbow grease and a healthy dose of team bonding." He rocked on his feet. He knew it added a sort of "spring-in-my-step" effect, but at this point it was more of a nervous tic than anything else.

She laughed. "That's good to hear. It's so nice to have someone refreshing in the garden for once, eh Destiny?"

"Your joke about my seemingly stiff nature did not go unnoticed, sister."

"Well it wasn't very cleverly disguised."

Destiny sighed (a rare occurrence). "Death. You had something to say?"

"Yeah yeah," she said. "This whole thing is just really bad timing for everyone."

"I am well aware."

"Yeah, well Desire isn't happy about it. I think they have plans to "fix" it," she made air quotes with her fingers, "Or foil it, whichever terminology you like better. Either way, they have plans to involve themself in the affair."

"This does not surprise me," Destiny said, his chains rattling as his weight shifted.

"Yeah me either. They do this a lot. The problem here is that, well, Dream might be joining them."

"Daniel?"

"Yeah him. He's been with us for less than a century, and what with Morpheus' death and all, he's just uneasy. To be honest, so am I. We've never done one of these so...spread out before."

"I agree that the timing is...unfortunate. Is there any way to pacify them?"

Death shrugged. "I tried talking to Desire, but they seem pretty set. Their stead, what was her name?"

"Pidge," Coran offered.

"Right. They're pretty attached to her, and seeing as how she's firmly rooted in Desire's realm, I don't think it will be easy to sway her."

"What about Dream?" Coran asked. "Is there any way to get him to play along? I know that Morpheus was typically pretty passive about these things, but Daniel…?" he glanced up at the clouds and shuddered at their implications.

Death shook her head. "I don't know. I wish I knew but I don't. This whole situation is way more complicated than it should be."

"I know, sister."

"No, you don't know. I know you know everything but you really don't. I should be down there. I should be mortal for this and I'm not." Death rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "Shit's about to hit the fan and that poor girl is going to have to face it herself and I hate it." Her hands dropped back to her sides. "But you knew all of that, as always. I just thought I'd tell you; this round of the universe's sick way of making us reevaluate ourselves is going to go worse than usual."

"If it's any consolation, the paladins are holding up very well so far. I can see each of them taking their roles and they're shouldering the burdens very well." Coran said, smiling and hoping that it would lift the mood. (he knew it wouldn't)

Death smiled weakly back at him. "Thanks darling. I needed that." she looked down at her wrist, where the sleeve of her black, ornately embroidered dress met her hand. "You should probably be getting back. We've keep you for too long."

"Noted, miss. Should I tell the paladins yet?"

"No-"

Destiny cut her off. "Perhaps it is time. Owing to the unusual circumstances, perhaps it will be better if they know beforehand."

"Perhaps? Did you just say perhaps?" Death said, mouth agape. "Approximately how many rules are you breaking right now?"

"None, I have no knowledge of how this plays out. You know that. Coran is my stead in this-I cannot act but for his instruction and approval." Destiny said. "Coran, it us up to you."

"Oh good joy. I never. I should… I should think this over for a while." Coran stuttered, twirling his moustache. He dared another glance at the clouds. They were rather insistent, weren't they?

Death smiled. "You do that. I'll escort him out, Destiny. If you don't mind."

"I never do."

"I know you don't."

"My lady," Coran said, offering Death his elbow as he began walking down winding cobblestone path (he swears it wasn't there before, but he was used to this kind of occurrence).

They walked in silence for a while, and slowly the scenery began to fade. The ground grew smoother, the stones disappeared, only to be replaced by the smooth white floors of the castle. "Tell me," Death said, turning to him, the last strands of the garden hovering around her edges. "Allura, how is she?"

"She is a very strong woman, I would never entrust anyone else to this task but her." Coran smiled and clasped his hand over Death's own. "I care for her as if she were my own daughter, and I will do everything in my power to keep her safe," he said.

Death's features softened. "Thank you. If things go south, I don't...I don't think I could go through with it. So thank you, Coran. And take care, the coming months won't be easy for anyone." She stood up on her toes and kissed his cheek, before slipping her hand out from under his and turning away. The blurred edges of the garden disappeared with her, leaving Coran and the front of the invisible maze in the Castle of the Lions.

He looked around the whitewashed walls and the seemingly empty room. It was almost poetic, really. "End training simulation." He flicked his wrist and walked out the door.

...

"Look. All I'm saying is that we need to think this through. I would love to make the Voltron alliance as big and powerful as possible- oh hey Coran," Hunk hardly spared him a glance, and continued stirring a bowl of some new cooking experiment while Pidge, Lance and Keith sat on/around the counter (respectively, to no one's surprise). "But the speciest tension we've already encountered with the marmorites is a little high and I don't think the Xalon rebels are particularly keen on working with them."

"But the Xalon have contacts all over this whole sector! Allying with them is our best of liberating the people here." Pidge said as she tried to stick her finger in the bowl, only to be swatted away.

"Did we decide "people" is a species inclusive term?" Lance asked.

"Yeah." Keith crossed his arms. "And it sounds a hell of a lot better than 'beings' or 'life-forms.'"

Coran took a seat next to Lance. "What are we discussing today?"

"Well you see, I was just trying to make cookies-I will succeed one day, Pidge," Hunk threw a dirty glance at the girl in question, "but then these guys showed up and we started talking about whether or not it would be a good idea for us to hunt down the Xalon rebels and ally with them."

"The Xalon? They're still around?" Coran asked. "When I was just a boy, I had a friend who was Xalon. I figured the Galra would have taken them long ago, they're known for their stealthiness! Their scales can change color and reflect light to keep them perfectly hidden from sight. Of course it never worked on the Galra."

"Why not?" Pidge asked.

"We can see infrared light," Keith said, shrugging.

"Wait, you have heat vision?" Lance said, slamming his hands on the table in surprise.

"Uh, yeah? It's not super strong, at least for me, but things just look… brighter? when they're hot. Like stoves or incandescent lights or warm-blooded animals, like people. You all sort of...glow."

"Dude, that is so cool!"

"Oh man, Galra Keith is way cooler than normal Keith."

"I told you, Hunk, I'm not any different now than I was."

"Yeah, but you are open about it, which is kind of cool," Pidge said, making another sly lunge for Hunk's unfinished kitchen creation. (He dodged and swatted her away, to her disappointment).

"We were talking about the Xalon though," Keith said. "Not me."

"Oh right."

"I figured they were all wiped out or enslaved by the Galra very early on in the war," Coran said. "We all lived in the same star system, and their races never did get along very well."

Lance hummed, drumming his fingers on his knee. "So maybe some of them survived. Maybe it's a code name. Like they're drawing on the camouflage-i-ness of the Xalon to express how well they're hiding." (with how fast his fingers were tapping, it was easy to miss the dried blood on his cuticles)

"Well, whether they lived or died, the Xalon rebels are a very real, if very quiet organization. We need to ally with them. Voltron can't be everywhere at once, and Lotor is taking back worlds that we've liberated. Also, they've got contacts everywhere. It will be way easier to keep track of him and figure out what exactly he's trying to do," Pidge said.

"And I'm just saying that I don't think they'll want to work with the Marmorites. They might turn on us, and then we'll have that whole organization on our bad side, instead of quietly fighting the empire, like they're doing now." Hunk huffed, dropping the bowl onto the counter with a quiet bang (Keith flinched). "We just need to think about this realistically is all I'm saying." He turned to the far side of the kitchen and started fumbling for a cookie sheet.

"Well, Keith's galra and everyone has been fine with him leading Voltron so far," Lance said. "We'll just explain the situation. They don't have to talk to each other if they don't want. We're all fighting for the same thing."

"But not everybody knows that I'm part galra. We're not exactly open with it," Keith said.

"True…" his finger-drumming sped up.

"I say we bring this up to the Princess and Shiro. They will certainly have good input," Coran said, standing up and stretching. "It's getting rather late, I'm going to go find Allura and shut the castle down for this rotation."

"Okay Coran, see you tomorrow," Pidge called after him as he walked out of the kitchen. He could see her rooting herself further into Desire's realm with every passing Quintant. It made his heart burn, with pride or fear, he did not know.

He was halfway down the hall when he heard the door whizzing open again. Footsteps-they were running for him. "Coran!" Ah. Lance.

He turned and smiled at the boy. "What can I do you for, my boy?"

"I, uh…" Lance skidded to a halt and immediately began fiddling with the hairs at the base of his neck. He seemed particularly fixated with something on the floor. "I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately, and I was wondering if you had anything for that?"

"Insomnia, eh?" Coran clapped Lance on the shoulder and began walking down the corridor again. "Don't worry about a thing, I'll get you fixed up right away." He leaned down. "Between you and me, I had to get King Alfor through one too many sleepless nights back in the day. Comes with the job, I think."

Lance laughed. "I don't doubt it.

.

They stopped by the infirmary and Coran located some water-soluble tablets for Lance to try. Our physiology is similar enough that these should work. Don't take more than one a day though, and if you start to feel weird at all, come find me. Lance had laughed and replied that he would be sure to keep Coran informed, then scurried off to his room hopefully to actually get some sleep tonight. He wondered if it wouldn't be a bad idea for Allura to take a few.

He stood in the doorway to the bridge, arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe. The princess and Shiro were deep in discussion. Allura had expanded the map and highlighted certain points on it (recent sightings of lotor? Possible locations for the rest of the teludov pieces? He couldn't be sure) and she was gesturing to it, spinning the map occasionally. Shiro's eyebrows were furrowed, his weight all on one leg, and he tapped his chin absently with his galra arm, gesturing it occasionally when he spoke.

He really did seem so put together. So in control.

They both did.

(too bad it wouldn't-couldn't-last forever)

"Coran!" he'd been spotted. Allura waved him over. "I was hoping I'd see you. How long have you been standing there? Never mind that, I need your thoughts on something."

"Anything, Princess. What's on your mind?" he walked over to where they stood, dodging the holographic stars that hung between them.

"The Teludov. Do we know exactly what happened to it? Shiro and I were trying to track it down, but we were both a little distracted during and after the battle with Zarkon to know where and why it broke."

"We were hoping you would know a little more since you helped engineer it," Shiro said. The dark circles under his eyes were awfully pronounced today.

"Ah yes. It is possible that it took a hit during transport, seeing as we didn't stay cloaked as long as we would have liked. However, it's more likely that it imploded from stress or was targeted by anyone who didn't make it through the wormhole." Coran said, pulling the map over to where the teludov was originally set up.

"Seeing as the galra had a piece of it on that base, that seems the most likely," Shiro said.

"Uhp, uhp, uhp!" Coran wagged a finger in Shiro's face. "Not so fast! If they had, they would not have held that piece separately from the rest. And come to think of it, if it had taken a hit before or mid-transport, there's no way the whole fleet would have made it through."

"Leaving only the second option-it simply imploded." Allura nodded. "Meaning that the pieces could realistically be anywhere."

"Anyone could have them." Shiro's hand fell from his face. "You're the only one who can operate it though, right?"

Allura shook her head. "Any altean could. Since Haggar is altean she could operate it as well."

"Not to alarm you, but she could probably operate it with significantly more power than you, Princess. Her access and exposure to nearly unlimited pure quintessence is staggering, especially compared to your natural supply." Coran rocked on his feet, his eyes widening in realization. "No offense intended, princess. You are incredibly powerful you just-"

"Coran, it's okay. I understand." she smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She turned back to the map. "There's so many pieces to this puzzle, I'm not sure if I can realistically put them all together, even if I had the time. Even if I didn't have the galra empire breathing down my neck." Her hand dropped down to her side.

Shiro rested a hand on her shoulder. "I think you should get some sleep. We'll talk about it with the rest of the team in the morning"

"Excellent thinking. I'll put the castle into sleep mode for you, Princess." Coran leaned forward and made a show of "whispering" to her (and Shiro, by extension). "The paladins were down in the kitchen baking a late-night snack, if you wanted a cookie to help settle your mind."

"That actually...sounds really nice." Allura's shoulders relaxed and she exhaled deeply. "Shiro?"

"I think I'll pass. I haven't shaken this headache yet, and I'll probably just catch some shut-eye."

"The kitchen is on the way to your rooms, walk with me?" Allura asked, cocking her head toward the door.

A small smile flickered across Shiro's face. "I'd love to."

Coran watched them go. They fell into easy conversation-thankfully not on the topic of the war. Allura's smile almost reached her eyes. Almost. He'd swing by her room in a few minutes and see if she wanted any of the sleeping medication.

He turned his attention to the console. The ship responded to his touch, and hummed pleasantly. "It's going to be a ride, old girl." he mumbled. The map collapsed back into its console, the holographic stars whizzing toward him and leaving the room open. Empty. "I just hope they can take it." He cast a glance over his shoulder to where Allura and Shiro disappeared through the door. "I was going to tell them. I should tell them." he tapped a few things on his console, dimming the lights, cloaking and "anchoring" the castle for the few hours they would all be sleeping.

"If only I had that book." He exhaled heavily. "It says everything, doesn't it? Everything that happens? When do I tell them? How will they take it?" he looked up through the nearly impenetrable, clear walls of the bridge into the vastness of space. "They're all dealing with so much right now, would this just make it worse? The clouds didn't say anything about this, about my role in what needs to happen."

He looked back down at the time table on his console, and forced a laugh. "Look at me, talking to myself. I must be getting old." He double-checked a few more systems (alarms, scanners, life-support), and closed down his console. The empty chairs of the paladins seemed almost threatening as he walked across the bridge toward the door. Allura's controls glowed a dim, dark blue, like the midnight, moonlit sky on Altea. Like the night. The death of the day.

He wouldn't tell them yet. Allura had lost so much, she didn't need any more burdens on her young shoulders.

She didn't need to know that she would carry the heaviest burden of them all.

He'd told Death that Allura was strong, and he hadn't lied. She had as much fire as her father and the steadfast resilience of her mother. That didn't mean that he didn't worry about her, though. That every time he saw her, ever since she was born, that his heart lurched. Alfor always wondered why Coran never spent as much time with young Allura as he did the other Altean children. Coran never had the heart to tell him (hardly had the heart to admit it to himself) that every time he looked at Allura, all he could see was Death.

She was the child born to bear that burden.

Only the second one, in the history of time, born to be Death itself.

And it broke his heart.