"Again." Kaede said walking around the training room. The training robot stopped and re-positioned itself. "Again? Kaede, I've done this move for the last hour!" Keith shouted. Kaede shook her head. Crossing her arms she looked at her brother. "Well you should have had this down by now." she teased.
Kaede was in charge of their training session today since it came to light that she could 'kick ass and take names' as Lance stated. They had only discovered this because the group interrupted her training. She didn't like to be interrupted during her training. Like at all. It was her form of meditation and she really needed it after yesterday.
Lance chuckled from behind her. Kaede turned and looked at the Cuban teen. "Would you like to try Lance?" she asked tilting her head. His face turned red and looked away. "No." he mumbled. "That's what I thought." Giving Keith her attention again, she saw him stand up straighter. "Now, run the set again." she said sternly. Keith nodded as the training dummy came to life.
"You are scary." Shiro said from beside her. "Well, when you've been around Kolivan all your life you learn a few things." she said with a smile. There was chatter happening behind them. Turning around quickly, she saw Pidge, Lance, and Hunk sitting around. "Keith isn't the only one that should be training." Kaede walked over and stood over the three.
"Pidge. You need to work more on your hand-to-hand. Go over there and work with that training bot." The teen got up and ran over to the bot.
"Hunk. You need to work on your guarding. Coran can set up a training bot to come after you." Hunk shot up and ran to the other end of the room.
"Lance." He shot up and saluted her. "I know! Practice my shooting. I'll get Coran to set up some flyers." he said running off.
Kaede chuckled as she looked around. "How did you know they needed to work on that?" Shiro asked. "I didn't. I just took a shot in the dark." Kaede giggled. Shiro shook his head and smiled. "You could command an army." he whispered. "Well, I did watch my dad command the Blades for fifteen years." Kaede said.
Shiro raised his eyebrow. "Fifteen? You don't look fifteen."
"I'm not. I'm eighteen." she said shrugging. "You weren't with the blade during the first few years?" Kaede shook her head. "Kolivan said that we lived somewhere else during the first few years of my life." she said. Shiro nodded, "Where did you live?" Kaede tensed. Did Shiro figure it out? She didn't see how. Yeah, in her human form she looked just like Keith, but in her galra form, she looked kinda like him.
"Idon'tremember." she said quickly. "Ah." Shiro replied. "Yeah. I-No, Keith!" Kaede walked over to him. Keith watched as she walked over, which was a wrong move as the sentry hit him in the side. Falling on his knees, he looked up at Kaede. "What do I keep doing wrong?" he asked through his teeth. "You are sloppy. Yes, your hand-to-hand is amazing, but you are just sooooo sloppy."
Kaede stuck out her hand. Keith hesitantly grabbed it and got up. "No Blade member would want you to join them as sloppy as you are. Take it from me." She pulled out her blade and transformed it into a sword. "Get into a swing poistion." she said. Keith looked at her as he moved. Kaede shook her head and examined his position.
"When you are swinging your blade you are keeping your other arm behind you. That isn't good because," Kaede grabbed his free arm and pushed him on his knees, "someone can come up and grab it." She put her sword against his neck. Leaning into his ear, she whispered, "Then you'll be dead." Releasing the blushing teen, Kaede walked to the sentry.
The red on Keith's face was blinding as he got up. "Don't be embarrassed. I had the same problem too when I was learning. You don't know how many times I got my arm broken because of it." Kaede said as she put her blade up. "Got your arm broken?" Keith asked. Kaede looked down at her arm. "In the Blade, they do not take too kindly to half breeds. So, when training I got the brutal end of it." she said with a smile.
"Oh..." Keith said looking down.
"Did Kolivan not do anything to stop it?" Kaede jumped at Lance's question. She hadn't realized the teen was behind her. She turned around to see all the Paladins surrounding them. Kaebe rubbed the back of her neck and smiled, "Not really. I normally just told him I did it by climbing around the base."
"So you lied?" Hunk asked.
"Well, I had to. The person training me was Aroshik, his second in command." Kaede said. "That's wrong Kaede. You should have told him." Pidge said. Kaede let out a sigh, "I couldn't. Aroshik was well respected among the Blade and my father. Yes, the man absolutely hates me with every fiber of his being, but it was okay. It made me stronger." Kaede nervously chuckled.
Shiro shook his head. "That is a horrible way to train your people. That doesn't garner respect. It instead enforces fear." he said.
Kaede shrugged. She had taken his abuse over and over again the past fourteen years, but she respected the man in some way. He made her into the best fighter they had. Everyone wanted Kaede with them when they went on missions even if she was half galra. It made her feel like part of the Blades. So, if going through some abuse meant it then she would do it.
"Kaede..." Coran said from behind her.
"I don't want to talk about it okay." she said walking toward the exit. She didn't think this is how her morning would have gone. Kaede was hoping that she could train away her frustration and then join the team for their meetings. But no. She ended up training them and confessing that she got her arm broken over and over again because she was a stupid half breed.
Kaede didn't need or want their pitty. She took care of herself and she was an amazing fighter.
Slamming her hand on the door panel, she felt hot tears forming in her eyes. Wiping them away quickly she walked out of the room and straight into Allura. Great, the last person she wanted to see.
The princess looked at the galra teen, her eyes showing nothing but dislike. "I'm sorry." Kaede whispered. She turned her face away so Allura couldn't see her tears. "It's fine. Do you know where my paladins are? There are a few things we need to discuss." she asked.
Kaede motioned her head toward the training room. "They are in there."
Allura shook her head and began walking. Before she entered she turned to Kaede, "I expect you to be there too." Then she disappeared behind the door.
Kaede couldn't help but give a small smile. Even though her and the princess got off on the wrong hand, she seemed to be okay with her attending meetings. That was always a start in a new direction.
Kaede took a quick shower before their meeting. Shiro had called her beforehand to let her know that they were meeting with someone to discuss plans to defeat Zarkon. When she asked who, he kept alluding to who it was.
Stepping out of the shower, Kaede removed the steam from her mirror. She had changed into her human form so she could fit in the shower. Kaede loved her human form. She wasn't tall and lanky like with her galra one. Instead, she looked pretty with her soft cream color skin. It caused the purple in her black hair to stand out. It even made her galra marks a light pink color. Which Kaede thought was cool. The only bad thing about her human form was you could see the scars from her years of training and fighting.
Drying herself off quickly she tried to overlook the scar on her eye. It was long and ragged. As a galra you couldn't see that her eyes were two different colors cause of the scar. But now you could.
Kaede caught a glimpse of her pastel purple eye in the mirror. She slowly reached her hand up and touched the long scar. Kaede tensed at the memory.
Aroshik had gotten mad at Kaede for saying standing up for one of the trainees. He had relentlessly gone after the trainee for vargas. Kaede got tired of it and got between them and Aroshik. The older galra did not like that at all. For doing that Kaede was forced to fight the skilled man. At the time Kaede was only ten years old and barely had fighting under her belt.
Aroshik kept dodging her attack time and time again. Kaede could still hear his laughter. He had waited until she was tired before he finally attacked her. Kaede didn't have time to blink as he cut her eye.
The pain of it coursed through her eye. Cursing, she grabbed it and looked away.
Kolivan had been mad at his second in command and was going to take action against him. But Kaede told Kolivan that she just wasn't fast enough and that he shouldn't take action. She was tired of her dad being talked about behind his back, about how he became weak once he got Kaede. Kolivan wasn't weak. He was an amazing leader.
A knock on her door stardled Kaede. "Who is it?" she asked. "It's Pidge. Are you ready? The meeting is about to start."
"Yeah. Let me get dressed and I'll meet you all up at the bridge." she yelled. Giving herself one last look, Kaede sighed as changed into galra.
Kaede through on the last of her Blade uniform as she entered the bridge. "Nice of you to join us." Kaede froze at the rugged voice. Her eyes grew wide as she saw where it came from.
Aroshik.
His smile didn't reach his dark yellow eyes. She felt frozen to the ground as the senior officer walked over to her. "It is so nice to see you Kaede." he said reaching out his hand. Kaede slowly stuck her shaking hand out. "Nice to see you again." she said with a smile.
"I was shocked that you were gone when I came back from my mission." he said pulling his hand away quickly. "Yeah. I am training a new member of the Blade." she whispered. Aroshik laughed, "Hopefully they aren't as bad as you." Kaede glared at the man.
"Aroshik." Kolivan said as he walked through the door. Kaede turned to see her father with the princess.
"Hello father." she said. "Kaede." he said. She watched as her father and Aroshik joined the others. Looking at the group, she saw that Keith was standing off to the side. Kaede decided to join him, because she didn't want to be anywhere near Aroshik.
"So that is the man?" Keith whispered. Kaede shook her head. Her nerves were fried and she hadn't been here that long. Aroshik was sure to make her look bad in front of the Paladins and she had just started gaining their respect.
"He is very intimating." Keith said under his breath. "Yeah. Just wait until you see him fight." Kaede snapped back. Keith turned away as soon as the words left Kaede's mouth. She hated that she sounded rude, but with Aroshik around she couldn't think.
"I am Kolivan. The leader of the Blade of Marmora. This is Aroshik, he is my second in command." Kolivan said looking at the group. "You all have met his daughter Kaede. She was a pupil of mine when she was training under the Blade." Aroshik said. "Oh, we've heard." Pidge said quietly. Lance elbowed her in the side.
Aroshik raised his eyebrow and looked at Kaede. She crossed her arms and glared back at her old teacher.
"Anyway," Kolivan said, "the Blade over the last hundred years has gathered data that we think Voltron would find useful. We also believe that it could lead to taking down Zarkon."
Author's Note:
I'm starting to get a feel for how I want this to go. Hopefully it isn't too bad.
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