A dull thud echoed off the walls as Pidge collided with the polished wood floors of the massive ballroom. Seemingly defeated, the young Paladin decided to simply lie, face to the floor, groaning like a zombie.
"Are you okay Lady Holt?" Duchess Merlin asked from across the room.
"Why is this dress so hard to walk in? I spend three hours yesterday getting it fit, why is it so uncomfortable?"
"Because, if it was comfortable, it wouldn't a gown."
"That doesn't really make me feel better." She said, still face down on the floor.
"Well, you can't say I didn't try. Come on dear, let's give it one more go."
"Do I have to? Haven't I fallen on my face enough for one day?" Pidge asked as she sat up. Her voice was a mixture of sarcasm and defeat.
"Clearly, you haven't spent enough time with the Duchess." A familiar voice called out from behind her. She recognized it as the voice of Sun, one of the few people around here she considered a friend. "Falling on your face is part of the experience." The young captain said as he made his way over to the seated paladin. After helping the young woman to her feet he turned his attention to the Duchess bowing his head before addressing her. "The perpetrations have been completed just you requested ma'am. My men are patrolling the complex as we speak, if anyone does manage to get in here we'll find them."
"What about the green lion?" Pidge asked, concerned.
"Your magical green lion has been safely stored in the Duchess's private hanger," Sun said, struggling to remain serious while saying such an absurd sentence. "You don't have to worry about keeping it safe either. I swear I'll guard it with my life." He said tapping the handle of his sidearm.
"You won't be attending the Gala?" Pidge asked, clearly concerned. The thought of facing a bunch of snobby nobles without her new comrade by her side honestly worried her quite a bit. It was bad enough she had to go through this without her team now she had to face this challenge alone, it was a little overwhelming. "If it's all the same with you I'd prefer if you attended the party with me, for support."
"You'll be fine," he said, placing his hand upon her shoulder. "the Duchess will be right there by your side the whole time. I trust her with my life and I assure you she'd die before she let anything happen to you." He said, his words managing to lift the young girl's spirits.
"Besides" Amy called out as she made her way over across the room. "Sun doesn't exactly thrive in social situations."
"It's true, I'd take a stint aboard a starship over a party any day. Besides, with all the extra security running around someone needs to coordinate the patrols to make sure there are no gaps. Especially if we're planning on letting a bunch of random people just come walking in here."
"They're not a bunch of random people Sun," the Duchess said as she threw her arm over the young captain's shoulders, "The only names on the guest list are those of people I know quite well."
"No offense ma'am, but I've seen the guest list, I've heard you say on a number of occasions you can't stand most of these people."
"I knew them, I never said I liked them." The Duchess said, her comment managing to get a small chuckle from her two guests.
"Well, if it's all the same with you I'll be taking my leave now," Sun said as he made his way towards the door.
"Leaving so soon old friend? I'm starting to think you don't like spending time with me." The Duchess asked.
"I mean nothing by it, ma'am. Honestly, I wish I could stay, but there's a magical green lion in your hanger bay and it's not going to protect itself." He said once again struggling to keep a serious tone. He had a feeling he'd be doing that a lot in the perceivable future.
"Actually," Pidge chimed in "Most of the time it actually does protect itself. If it worked right now there'd be a magical energy bubble surrounding it making sure no one but me could get inside. It's rather interesting really, the systems behind it are pretty advanced. I can explain it to you if you like." Pidge said, obviously excited to share what she'd learned with her new friends.
"Why don't you accompany Sun to hanger bay then? You two can talk on the way." The Duchess said, a massive smile plastered across her face.
"Really?" Pidge asked wide eyed. She'd been dying to finally take a look at her lion. For days now her mind had been racing thinking of just why and how her lion had lost power. In fact, as far as she knew it should have been impossible for something like that to happen. And yet it had, a fact which perplexed the young paladin to no end. The mere idea of getting to solve such a technological conundrum filled her glee. In fact, the only reason she wasn't working on her lion at this very moment was Amy's insistence on preparing her for this Gala.
"You've been working hard over the past few days, you deserve a break. Go ahead, besides, I wouldn't mind finally getting to see one of the legendary Voltron lions in action. But, if you're planning on doing any mechanical work, I would suggest changing into something more appropriate." Amy said, gesturing at the elegant gown the young paladin was wearing. With that, Pidge took off down the hall after Sun smiling all the way. Once she'd managed to catch up to the young captain she began what would soon prove to be a rather one-sided conversation concerning the various advanced magical technologies involved in the function of her lion. As the pair made their way towards the hanger bay the cheerful words of the young paladin echoing throughout the long halls of the estate.
...
"So they were, rock people?" Sun called up to Pidge as she sat atop her lion tapping away at a large tablet. The young paladin, now adorned in her normal armor, was reviewing a wide variety of measurements and readouts roughly translated from Lincar to English. A task she found rather difficult thanks to the rudimentary understanding her new friends had of her native language. Never the less she reveled in the opportunity to overcome such a challenge. If there was one sure fire thing to make her feel better, it was talking a seemingly impossible feat of technical engineering.
"Well," she responded her eyes still fix on the screen before her. "I don't think they were actually made of rocks. I mean they certainly looked like rocks but really, sentient space rocks. The thing just sounds ridiculous. But yeah, there was an entire civilization living on that Balmera. The Galra basically used them as slaves to help mine the crystals, it was actually pretty depressing. Some of them had never even seen the sky before we showed up, can you image that?"
"Actually, I know exactly what that's like," Sun mumbled as he leaned up against the leg of the magical vessel.
"What was that?"
"Nothing Miss Holt. It is rather strange, you and your team finding sentient life on a Balmera."
"What do you mean?" she asked leaning over the side so she could look down at her friend.
"Well," he responded as he nervously stared up at the young Paladin. Most of the Balmera I've visited didn't even have an atmosphere, let alone an ecosystem. The fact that you managed to find one with a whole civilization living on it is, incredible."
"So, you guys use Balmera crystals too?" Pidge asked still precariously leaning over the side.
"Not all of them, but a lot of bigger ships do use Balmera crystals as a power source."
"Like the Corsair?"
"No, not the Corsair, as you know battleship class Balmera crystals are pretty rare. Thus, we've been doing research into ways of replacing them as a power source. The Corsair is actually the first in a new class of ship designed to take advantage of that research. It's actually state of the art." He said worriedly. In the back of his mind, all he could picture was Pidge slipping and falling from her perch. "Miss Holt, if you wouldn't mind. Could you please tell me again why you're currently sitting on top of a giant robot lion? Can't you just perform your diagnostic from down here, on the ground?"
"I already told you, since I can't get in the cockpit I have to access the lion's technical systems from here. What are you worried about? You afraid I'm gonna fall or something?" she asked, sarcastically.
"Honestly Miss Holt, yes. I'd rather not go down in history as the Captain who let one of the Voltron Paladin's fall to her death."
"Well, if you're worried so much, I promise if I fall I'll aim for one of your soldiers on the way down to help break my fall. You certainly have enough of them to spare." Pidge said as she looked around at dozens of soldiers patrolling the hanger bay floor. They looked like ants marching amongst the countless craft stored in the massive hanger.
"The Duchess wants this place to secured that means double the standard guard, especially in here. We wouldn't the Galra Empire getting their hands on this now, would we?"
"Why, it's not like they'd be able to do anything with it. For some reason, I can't seem to find out what's wrong with this thing. Something seems to be suppressing the systems, almost like its being by strangled." Pidge said perplexed. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't figure out what in God's name was going on.
"How can you strangle a giant mechanical lion?"
"Maybe strangle was the wrong word, more like it's being, poisoned," Pidge said, pausing ever so slightly before speaking the final word. "That's it, I can't believe I didn't see sooner. The castle of lions uses the same energy to generate wormholes that the lions use as power. If the blast that destabilized the wormhole during our escape was able to destabilize and corrupt the wormhole it might have a similar effect on the lions themselves. If my lion absorbed enough of that energy when I got ripped out of the hanger bay, it might have corrupted the system. Yes, that's it! That means all I have to do is flush the corrupted energy from the system, and it'll be completely fixed!"
"Okay, so how do you that?" Sun asked, obviously confused. In fact, the young captain had been lost for a while now. The young captain had never really been all that well versed in the more technical aspects of space travel, and the rapid way in which Pidge spoke didn't help much either.
"I have absolutely no idea!" Pidge shouted, her words echoing throughout the hanger. It was actually so loud she'd drawn the attention of a few of the patrolling soldiers. Feeling defeated the young Paladin slumped over and began to glare up at the ceiling.
"Well, I'm afraid you'll have to worry about this later Miss Holt. I believe it's high time you get some rest; you have a busy day tomorrow." Sun said in a manner Pidge found surprisingly similar to that of her friend Shiro.
"What are you, my babysitter? I'm fine, I'll just sleep when I'm done."
"You've been at this for hours now, Miss Holt, you need rest. Especially, since you're hosting the Gala tomorrow."
"I'm a Paladin of Voltron, I've fought off whole fleets of Galra ships before. I'm pretty sure I can host a party while a little sleep deprived." She said chuckling as she did so.
"Trust me, fighting the Galra is nothing compared to one the Duchess's parties," Sun said. At first, Pidge thought this was a joke, but then she remembered the what he'd said back on the ship about the last party he'd been to. The thought of being attacked by a pair of homicidal waiters actually spooked the young Paladin quite a bit. Combine that with the conversation she'd had with Amy about how Galra assassins were coming to kill her, and she was starting to think it was a good idea to get a little extra sleep. Conceding, she stepped off her lion's head before activating her jetpack and safely floating to the ground. Once there, she followed Sun out of the hanger bay and started the long walk back to her quarters. The whole time her mind was racing about not only her lion but her friends, her family, her mission everything. It was a lot for a fourteen-year-old girl to handle. Unfortunately, she didn't have much of a choose. She was a Voltron Paladin and whether she liked it or not that fact was going to shape the rest of her life.
...
As Sun made his way down the dark hallway he couldn't help but notice the sound of footsteps following him as he went. They weren't loud footsteps; in fact, they were so quite most people would never have never even noticed them. Especially since Sun's own footsteps were echoing off the wall. But Sun wasn't most people. He'd noticed the tale hours ago, a few minutes after he'd left his room. It was actually the reasons he was wandering around the massive estate in the middle of night. He wanted to make sure he wasn't just being paranoid and that he was, in fact, being followed. Of course, that wasn't his initial reason for leaving his room. The young Captain had always had trouble sleeping in unfamiliar places and while he'd known the Duchess for quite some time, he'd never spent the night at her estate before. So, he'd decided to go for a walk to help calm his nerves and, oddly enough, it had actually worked. His tail was closing now; they couldn't have been more than a few yards behind him now. Time to act. In one fluid motion, Sun drew his pistol, spun around, and fired three times in rapid secession. That's when he saw him, a tall hooded figure lurking in the shadows. His first shot went wide. The second hit the man square in the shoulder. And his final round took his head clean off. The body hadn't even hit the ground before Sun realized what was going on. The young captain tried to turn around but it was too late. He'd been tricked. Suddenly, another figure leaped from the shadows, knocked away his gun, wrapped its hands around Sun's neck, and tackled him to the floor. Sun started thrashing and kicking wildly, trying to get his attacker off of him. But it wasn't working. That's when he saw it. A knife on the assassin's belt. Without hesitation, Sun ripped the weapon from its sheath and jabbed the blade between its owner's ribs. Then he kicked the stunned assassin off of him before jumping to his feet. Unfortunately, the assassin wasn't too far behind. He tore the knife out from between his own ribs and lunged at Sun, swinging wildly at his head. He managed to slash Sun across the cheek before the captain grabbed him by the wrist. The pair then began to wrestle over the knife. Trying to gain the upper hand Sun slammed his fist into the assassin's stomach. Stunned and breathless he dropped the knife allowing Sun to gain a hold of it. A split second later he buried the knife in the man's kneecap crippling him. Unfortunately, the poor bastard barely had time to scream before Sun grabbed his head and slammed it against the wall causing crimson blood to be splattered across the polished marble. Sun slumped over exhausted. Unfortunately, he couldn't relax. The next thing he knew someone was rushing down the hall towards him. Quickly he snatched his pistol off the ground and leveled it at the newcomers. He almost fired, but luckily before he did he realized the people rushing towards him were members of his crew, part of the group he'd brought to patrol the estate. He'd have to have a conversation with them about this later but for now, he was just happy to see them.
"Are you okay Captain? We heard the shots and came running as fast as we could. What happened?" They asked as they ran up to him, their blaster rifles pointed at the now lifeless corpse.
"I'm fine, just decided to go for a little midnight stroll is all." He said holstering his sidearm. "I want this body out of here now, and no matter what, do not tell anyone about this. Especially not Miss Holt."
"Aye Captain we'll get on it right away. Permission to speak sir?"
"Go ahead."
"I just like to say we're sorry about this, Captain. I don't know how this Galra scum got past us." He said as he watched Sun remove the assassin's mask.
"You didn't."
"Excuse me, sir?"
"You didn't let this Galra scum sneak past you,"
"What do mean sir?" he asked, utterly confused.
"Our friend isn't Galra scum," Sun replied as he stared into the assassin's cold, blue eyes.
Author's Note: I would like to take a moment and thank jim1195 for all his help editing these first few chapters. Some of you may have noticed that the numerous spelling and grammar mistakes that once plagued this story have been removed. This is due in no small part to jim1195 and all of his help. He will be helping me edit my work from now on so that I can avoid a lot of the more embarrassing errors I've been known to make. I strongly suggest you go check out his Star Wars story entitled Marczak over on his profile.