Arc I: Race's End
Innocence
No one moved or said anything for what felt like hours after the screen had vanished, until Stan said "Well this can't get any worse."
"I'm afraid it can." Allura looked grim. "Sendak has the Blue Lion on his ship. That's why I couldn't find her."
"Oh, well that's just great," Jordan exclaimed sarcastically. "Now what are we supposed to do?"
"Now, we come up with a plan." Shiro did a quick scan of everyone's expressions—it was borderline panic all around. "And we need one quickly."
"Well, they have the Blue Lion on that ship, so—maybe we can just sneak on and get her?" Molly suggested hopefully.
"That's a decent idea in theory, but realistically it'd be suicide," Koji replied flatly.
"We can't just run, though!"
"Running might be safer," Stan argued.
"And they'd probably just follow us again!" Jordan retorted. "I say we take 'em on!"
"That's enough!" Shiro cut in sharply, before the situation could devolve even further, and turned to Allura. "Princess, you've dealt with the Galra before. What do you think we should do?"
"What we're not going to do is abandon Arus," she said sternly. "Even if we did flee the planet, I wouldn't put it past one of Zarkon's commanders to destroy the planet either way."
There was no further protest from the other four, having paled at Allura's statement. Shiro had a nagging feeling that she wasn't wrong, too. "In that case, infiltrating the ship looks like the best way to go," he determined after a moment's thought.
"Well…how are we supposed to even get up there?" Koji asked. "It's all the way out in space."
"We have three Lions," Molly pointed out.
"Three sentient giant robotic cats against one alien warship that's both bigger and has more firepower," Stan summed up, sounding cynical. "I don't see how that's going to end well."
"It will if we play it right," Shiro asserted. "I'm guessing it was the Galra giving you two trouble with the Yellow Lion?"
"They didn't give us that much trouble," Molly said. "I could've out-flown those guys with my eyes closed."
"Good, because you and Stan will be acting as decoys."
She sputtered a little at realizing what exactly he'd said. "What?! Why?"
"The Galra know about the Red and Yellow Lions already, but they don't know we have the Green Lion," he explained. "Sendak will have to be kept distracted so the rest of us can get on."
That, and he wanted to actually see how she handled piloting before even putting her close to being physically in harm's way. The times prior to arriving to Arus showed that she definitely had the basics, but both situations had been far from ideal for an actual assessment.
"I…I guess that makes sense," she muttered irritably in response, crossing her arms and looking off to the side.
"Once we're on board, do whatever you can to take out that cannon." That was the secondary reason why Stan was also on the distraction half: breaking things went along with putting them together. "Does anyone have any questions?"
"Uh, yeah," Jordan spoke up. "How are we going to find the Lion? That ship's gigantic."
"I can set up a tracking device to lead you right to her," Coran piped up. Jordan still didn't look convinced, but he didn't protest any further.
"Okay, but that doesn't solve the problem of how we'd even get on there," Koji reminded. "We don't have any equipment, either."
"Actually, we do," Allura said, eyes gleaming. "Follow me."
Down the hall and a few sets of stairways was an open room that seemed to be an armory of sorts, with a short hallway on one wall and five cases along another, each holding a uniform that were all nearly identical, save for their colored accents, ranging between black, red, blue, green, and yellow.
First and foremost, it looked more like some futuristic armor than a flight-suit, and felt like it too. Shiro wasn't sure what the white outer parts were made of. While light, it felt pretty solid.
And while he'd seen a lot of alien tech over the past year—at least, what bits and pieces he could remember of that year—self-fitting armor was a new one. The red-accented one would not have fit Molly otherwise.
Sentient ships were new, too. It sounded like it was right out of a sci-fi/fantasy book or movie, but now that Shiro was thinking about it, it would explain more than a few of the things that they'd experienced with the Lions, with the primary example being the Red Lion reacting to Molly specifically.
"I feel ridiculous," Stan muttered, pulling at one of the gauntlets a bit, before glancing back over his shoulder. "Koji, what're you doing?"
"The helmet won't go on right," was the response given, the words sounding clipped.
Coran seemed to realize what the issue was in seconds. "The visor will compensate for any ocular deficiencies you have. They can also act as binoculars if the situation calls for it!" Koji returned from the set of smaller rooms down the side corridor shortly after, looking more awkward about it all than anything else, with his glasses held in one hand.
Allura was standing by a horizontally-set container, which opened at her touch to reveal four semicircular objects. "The bayards were specially crafted for the Voltron Paladins. Each one takes a distinctive form, unique to its wielder."
Jordan peered dubiously at them, muttering "They sure don't look like much," before picking up the blue one. It flashed brightly moments later, changing form near-instantly into a standard handheld laser-cannon, albeit white with black and blue accents. His face lit up once the initial shock had passed, adjusting his grip on it; he clearly knew exactly how to handle a firearm. "I take it back—this thing's awesome!"
The green one took the form of a dagger, which Koji held more like it was a shard of glass. The yellow one seemed to be some sort of blaster, vaguely resembling a scattergun. Stan seemed more resigned about it all now, if also uneasy.
The red bayard became a recurve bow, complete with a fluorescent string. Molly regarded it with a distant look, until a snarky-sounding comment of "Oh, now where have I seen that before?" from Jordan earned him a full-blown glare.
There didn't seem to be a black bayard, and Allura confirmed it: "Shiro, I'm afraid your bayard was lost with the former Black Paladin."
"I guess I'll have to make do," he replied, smiling a bit—he remembered enough from the self-defense classes in the Garrison, and he could probably pull off one mean left hook now.
"Your bayards can be stored in your suits until you need them," the princess said once they'd arrived back on the bridge, which earned four bemused looks.
"Just think about putting them away," Coran added, twirling his mustache. Still seeming mystified, the other four paused, and startled when the bayards vanished in blinks of light.
Sensing that the conversation was about to veer far off-track, if the expressions of the two mechanics were any indicator, Shiro intervened. "Alright, so we already went over the start of the plan. Stan, Molly, you both are going to act as a diversion—pretend to give yourselves up. The second things start looking hairy, get out of there." They both nodded in response.
"It looks like your best option for getting onto the ship would be through the engine room," Coran noted, pointing at a section on a hologram of the Galran battlecruiser he'd pulled up. "While they're a lot faster than what they used to be, it looks like they haven't changed the design much, if at all. The hull shouldn't be too thick there."
"Then that's our entry point," Shiro decided. "Let's get moving."
They'd made it back to the courtyard before Koji paused, hesitating before saying "You guys just—just be careful, okay?"
"I think we'll be okay," Stan replied, gesturing at the Yellow Lion before adding "That guy's practically a tank."
"They'd have to catch me first," was Molly's confident-sounding remark. "You guys just worry about not getting caught."
It felt like everything was going by too fast to even think about at this point, at least for Koji, what with all the new information that had just been dropped on them.
Like the Lions being sentient. It sounded absolutely ridiculous, but the faint, detached sense of amusement that was nipping at the back of his head clearly indicated otherwise. (And there was a little divot in the dashboard with a clip on it that was a perfect spot to put his glasses that DEFINITELY hadn't been there before.)
Ridiculous, but it somehow made sense at the same time. That he already had the basics on how to even steer the Green Lion down was one thing, but having a vague idea on what each button on the keypad did was another. It definitely explained the ease with which Molly had figured the Red Lion out.
Coran had continued to go over some of the various functions the outfits they had been given had over the comm, with one of them being put to use as soon as the Green Lion was in position on the underside of the Galra ship—the visor of the helmet automatically extended into a mask right before the Lion's mouth opened, coinciding with a sudden lack of artificial gravity.
Koji nearly panicked when there was suddenly nothing around him, until he saw Shiro maneuver himself to the surface of the Galra ship's underside with the assistance of the jetpack, AKA the other thing Coran had been very clear about mentioning. It was honestly a miracle in itself that this uniform was so lightweight.
"Just jump," Shiro called up to them. "It's not as scary as it looks."
Jordan audibly swallowed before doing as such, the jetpack sputtering a bit. Koji waited a few seconds before tentatively doing the same, yelping a bit in surprise when he was propelled forward without much warning. The other two reacted just quickly enough to catch him before he smacked into the hull of the ship.
Psychically-activated functions were another thing to add to the list of actually-possible things he'd encountered so far today. Then, all he could really do for a few moments was just stare at everything around them, because he was actually in space and not in a ship of any kind.
There were no alarms going off or anything, which was a good sign, but he hadn't realized just how colossal the Galra ship was up close. It was easily twice the size of a standard skyscraper, if not larger than that.
"You guys in yet?" Stan asked over the comm.
"Not yet," Shiro replied. "Fly a little slower."
"Got it."
Shiro was studying a schematic on the holoscreen provided by one of the gauntlets—they were miniature computers with holographic display screens, linked directly to the castle's computer systems, hence how they even had a schematic of the battlecruiser to begin with.
Maybe he and Stan could help Coran with some repairs after all of this. It'd give him a chance to look at how everything was coded, for one. Then again, that was if they all lived through this.
There was a near-physical sensation akin to someone nudging him lightly no sooner than that thought was through his head, accompanied by what sounded like purring.
Then he found his attention directed to the look both Shiro and Jordan were giving him, and it took a few seconds for it to click. Out of the three of them, he was the only one with a sharp object.
The bayard pretty much jumped into his hand as soon as he thought about it, the fluorescent green blade materializing moments later. In the dimmer lighting, Koji could see the edges of it crackling faintly with the threatening promise of an electrical shock. It was also extremely sharp, as proven with how easily it cut through the metal.
Through the misshapen hole was indeed some kind of generator room, with large, violet arcing bolts of electricity to the left and a jagged cylindrical object to the right. "How about now?" Stan asked again, sounding nervous.
"We're inside," Koji confirmed quickly, before asking "Why?"
There was a minute's pause before the answer came. "Came close to the plan getting screwed up." Koji had a pretty good (not good) idea on what Stan meant by that.
The only way out of the generator room led into a hallway, lit by a purple light that was somehow both too dim and too bright at the same time. "Now what?" Jordan asked once they reached an intersection, glancing at the tracking device. "The most I'm getting from this thing is go right, but...uh, Shiro?"
Shiro jumped a bit at hearing his name, having been staring almost blankly down the hall, before replying, "I've…I've been here before. After my team and I were taken by the Galra cruiser off of Kerberos."
"Wait, seriously?" Jordan had whirled around to stare at Shiro with wide eyes. Shiro nodded mutely in response, which got a question of "Then, you think the rest of your team might be here?"
"We don't have time," was the curt response.
Jordan sputtered a bit before exclaiming "So what, you're just gonna leave 'em here if they are?"
"There's too much of a risk for us to be caught if we get sidetracked. Our priority is to find the Blue Lion, and get back to Arus." Shiro's voice seemed to gain strength as he spoke, like he was trying to convince himself, too.
Jordan looked conflicted for a few moments, before saying, "Not to go against you or anything Shiro, but I really don't want to leave anyone with these guys. I mean—with what happened on Alwas, I'm not sure I wanna know what they do to prisoners."
Koji caught himself side-eyeing Shiro's prosthetic at hearing that. Something wasn't adding up about that, now that he had a reason to think about it; he had a nagging feeling that it wasn't an act of goodwill.
"B-Besides," Jordan stuttered a bit now. "If there're prisoners here, maybe they'd have some info we could use."
"Jordan's right about that," Koji agreed, managing to keep his voice level. Correction, he had a sinking feeling about their entire situation now.
Shiro looked between the two of them for a few seconds, and then sighed, conceding. "Alright, you have a point there. Jordan, you go find the Blue Lion. Koji, you're with me. I have an idea on where the prisoners might be."
Jordan tensed. "H-Hang on, I'm going by myself?"
"Just be aware of your surroundings, and run when you have to. Try to stay undetected for as long as possible, alright?"
"But I—"
The sound of a door hissing open cut the conversation short; they immediately bolted in the two directions the sound hadn't come from. When they reached a point where the hallway branched again, a small gray pyramidal robot hovered in front of them. It stopped, the small light acting as the lens in front of it blinking once.
Shiro was quick to launch a small plasma bolt at it via the wrist-mounted blaster, which caused it to fall to the floor with a shower of sparks. "That thing will have alerted the security system. We need to get moving."
Or Koji could just deactivate it before it rebooted and bring it back with them. It might be a good idea to familiarize himself with how these things worked, after all…and it took a few seconds for him to realize that the Lion had just suggested that somehow.
Maybe this thing would be useful, anyways. "Just a second," he muttered, crouching and opening the panel on the side of it. "Maybe I could…oh, wait."
If there was one thing he really hadn't been expecting to see here, it was a layout he recognized. One part of the machinery was obviously a transmitter, so that definitely had to go. If his theory was correct, all he needed to do was reset the controls, via the button on the core part of the drone. The lights of it blinked a few times once the panel was closed, before glowing teal instead of burgundy.
"What did you do to it?" Shiro asked, perplexed.
Koji moved his hand to adjust his glasses out of habit, only to flinch when he instead tapped the visor. "I recognized the general setup of it," he explained. "I honestly thought they would've made their security system a bit more complex." Shiro looked lost, still, so Koji clarified it with "Let's just say that they won't be hearing anything from this thing anymore."
"Nice thinking." There was one heavily-reinforced door at the end of the hall, and Shiro visibly suppressed a shiver when they got closer to it. The repurposed drone floated up to the panel beside the door, which flashed green before the door itself slid open.
Inside were half a dozen individuals, who all flinched away—save for one of them, gray-skinned with a singular antenna on top of his head, who gasped a bit in surprise. "Champion?" he asked, sounding incredulous.
A look of disquiet crossed Shiro's face, and it was one Koji has seen a few times already—he was trying to remember something, but couldn't. "What did you call me?" The alien ignored the question, or maybe didn't hear it; he whispered something too quietly for Koji to hear to the others instead.
The drone chirped from behind them, and then Shiro was back to attention, giving the suggestion/order of following them. Koji looked over the other occupants carefully, but none of them looked even remotely close to human.
Shiro shook his head, ordering for them all to follow him down the hall. It only made a perfect amount of sense that things went wrong as they reached what was assumedly the escape-shuttles, in heavy footsteps coinciding with a mechanized voice saying "Halt!"
There were guards. Robot guards, but still guards—of course there would be guards here—
A low buzzing sound that quickly rose in pitch snapped Koji out of his thoughts, and he looked sideways toward the source to see that Shiro's expression had gone eerily blank. At least, up until he lunged toward the guards, his prosthetic arm shining a bright violet not unlike the highlights the ship they were inside had.
Koji wasn't exactly sure what happened between then and several seconds later, but the next thing he knew, all four robots were in pieces strewn across the floor.
"I—uh—wow," he managed to get out finally, stumbling over toward Shiro. "Where did you learn how to do that?"
Shiro didn't reply immediately, looking blankly at the no-longer-glowing prosthetic/weapon. "No idea," he replied finally, frowning at it.
A sensation like something nipping the back of Koji's head accompanied the recollection of the prisoners, but they both turned in time to see one of them waving from a then-launching shuttle. They could've at least waited, Koji thought, bemused.
The nagging feeling came again, this time with some nervous urgency. Oh wait. "They know we're in here now," Koji blurted, looking at Shiro, who nodded a bit before taking off back down the hallway.
Koji stifled a groan. As if today hadn't already involved enough running.
At that point in time, Jordan was seriously beginning to wish he'd had an actual map of the ship's interior. There was one large space that looked promising, and the tracking device was pointing him in that general direction, but the matter of how to get there was the main issue. The map he had up on the gauntlet's holoscreen only did the outermost areas of it.
He'd already lost count of just how many times he'd run into a dead-end, or wound up going in a circle, or had to duck around a corner to avoid being seen.
It was either just him, or most of the grunt work on this thing were done by robots—they looked just like the thing that had been in the ship Shiro had crashed on Alwas in, and the way they walked seemed a little too stiff.
Considering what they might just have to do to the battleship as a whole, that was probably a good thing.
Jordan stopped to take cover in another hall when he heard footsteps approaching, and kept going once the sound was gone, glancing at the tracker again. Straight ahead, now.
What he'd been trying to think of earlier had finally come around and hit him after they'd split up—they might've just gotten yanked into a war that had been going on for a long time.
(Something was weird about that, given that they were just learning about it now.)
He walked by a larger doorway that had been left open, paused, and then backtracked to look in—and promptly gulped anxiously, mouth going dry all of a sudden.
Jordan had been spot-on in the assumption of the Blue Lion being the same size as the yellow one. At the same time, though, it seemed more streamlined in design.
But that didn't change that it was still the fourth giant robot lion-ship.
C'mon Jordan, he told himself as he walked toward the ship, attempting to take a deep breath. You can do this. Just…go up to the giant robot lion that an alien princess thinks you can fly.
He was not going to think on the fact that the Arrow II would probably look like a toy next to the Blue Lion.
The forcefield gave everything in the hangar a blue sheen, though there wasn't really anything else in there to begin with, apart from some equipment that were probably how and why the Lion was seemingly suspended in the air, though it (she) was still close enough to the floor for him to be able to easily reach the edge of the forcefield around it (her).
"Uh—n-nice kitty," he mumbled, stepping back while trying to dismiss the sheer awkwardness he was feeling in regards to the fact that he was talking to a giant metal lion. "I'm, uh, here to get you out of this place." Nothing happened. Maybe it…she's asleep or something? The Lion's eyes were dimmed, so that could be it. "Are you awake?" he tried then. No response came, of course, and after a few seconds he mentally shrugged before knocking a fist against the barrier a few times.
Amazingly, it worked—the Lion's eyes lit up, and something not unlike a chill went down his back. Then a distinct idea of back away starting pinging away in the back of Jordan's head, which he decided to listen to—with the amount of weirdness that had been dropped on them already, it was probably the better idea to just roll with it.
Seconds later, the barrier vanished, and the oversized ship dropped to the floor. They probably heard that, part of him noted after barely managing to keep his balance, glancing over his shoulder before heading up the ramp that the Lion had let down.
The difference in coloration aside, it was identical to both the Red and Green Lions, and probably the yellow and black ones too. It took a bit of self-convincing to actually sit down in the chair, and cerulean holographic displays came up as soon as he'd put his hands on the steering handles.
What had Molly done with the Red Lion again? Or, heck, Koji with the Green Lion? Jordan briefly took the helmet off to wipe some sweat from his forehead, looking between everything from the monitors (not that it helped, because they were all in Altean) to the console to the handles and pedals.
The Blue Lion looked insanely more complicated than the Arrow, and all that thought did was send a jolt of panic through him, because if he couldn't fly a star-racer right, then how the hell was he supposed to fly this thing without wrecking it?!
Not even a moment later, Jordan found himself letting out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding; a wave of calm had swept over him, and he blinked a few times before looking around warily. Where did that—oh, wait.
Magic alien ship that was somehow alive…and could maybe read minds? As creepy as that idea was, that was probably a fantastic first impression he'd just given. "Uh, thanks," he said, feeling awkward now. Jordan heard what sounded like a very big cat purring in response, accompanied by a distant feeling of appreciative happiness in the back of his head.
The impression that followed wasn't him either, also coming from the very foreign presence that was suddenly lurking in his head. It was vague, but the meaning was clear: the Blue Lion wanted to get out of this place.
Jordan stared at the steering console again. Now that he was taking another look at it, the pedals looked like something a vehicle on Earth would have. So there was one familiar thing, at least.
"Alright, now what?" he muttered, meant to be to himself, but as if in response a blurred image briefly overlaid his vision—both handles forward. The purring sound came again, rising and falling steadily in a calming way.
It was a thing. The living, psychic lion-shaped spaceship that thought he could be a pilot was actually a thing.
The alien princess was not kidding about anything when it came to the Blue Lion…which meant he had to surrender a point of merit to her.
She was better than Beetle Boy, at least.
He regarded the hangar's doors. A few good laser shots should put a decent hole through them. Jordan threw one final wary glance at the handles, and took a deep breath before gripping them a little tighter.
If the Lion thought he could do it, too…then maybe this wouldn't be so hard. Maybe.
The sound of laser blasters and flickers of light on the display screens made him jolt, his head snapping to the side. A whole cluster of Galra-robots were in the hangar now, all shooting at the Blue Lion with handheld weapons. Jordan got a vague impression of amusement from the Lion's presence, as if their attempts were hilarious to her.
Clutching the handles nervously, he was about halfway to having his nerves together enough to move them, when an alarm started going off, coinciding with Jordan seeing the hangar doors slowly opening. Which was weird, because he didn't remember touching anything that could cause them to open. (To be honest, he probably should've thought about that himself beforehand.)
Though as weird as it was, he wasn't really one for looking a gift horse in the mouth.
For a second, he reached for his dogtags, before remembering that he couldn't exactly do that, what with them being under both the armor and its undersuit. He settled for taking another deep breath instead, and then pushed both handles forward.
"C'mon, any time now," Stan muttered to himself irritably, not quite glaring at the translucent purple bubble around the larger ship's cannon. He really should've expected that they would put some kind of security measure on the thing, given how much of a probable punch it dealt out. He already knew what the aforementioned punch looked like, too.
A streak of red in the background momentarily had him glance up—Molly was busy leading the many smaller ships on a chase through a nearby asteroid field, and had only needed one reminder to make sure they stayed away from the Yellow Lion.
And the underside of the battlecruiser, of course; it would be bad if Sendak found out that they had the Green Lion too.
Stan had only heard the guy talk once and already didn't like him. Then again, what he'd said wasn't necessarily endearing by any means.
The barrier decided then to splinter and disintegrate. Finally, Stan thought, moving onto the next part: actually wrecking the cannon. The Yellow Lion himself seemed partial to just ramming the barrel—at least, Stan assumed that was why something kept dragging his attention to it.
At the same time, the base of the cannon probably held whatever powered it. Realization flickered over from Yellow at that thought, followed by agreement. Not even ten seconds later, the latter structure had a sizable crater in it, as did the barrel for the heck of it.
Alright, that's done, Stan thought, giving his handiwork a once-over before turning his attention to the ongoing chase. If they way some of the gray ships were splintering off and going around in different directions was any indication, Molly was sticking to a pattern in which way she was going, and they were starting to get wise to it.
The difference between this situation and the situation of not even two hours ago (how was it still the same day?!) was that they were both in a giant metal cat-shaped ship. Well, Shiro did say those things were robot-piloted.
That didn't mean that the act of the Yellow Lion slamming into one and making it break apart into shrapnel didn't make him shudder a little.
The Lion would definitely win most games of bumper-cars. If not all of them.
"You broke the thing?" Molly asked, the Red Lion curving around an asteroid to stop by Yellow.
"They definitely won't be using it for a while," Stan replied, frowning a bit before asking "Did you hear anything from the others?"
Something green racing by interrupted her before she could reply. More specifically, the Green Lion had raced right by them, and was followed by what could only be the Blue Lion.
Which proceeded to fly right into an asteroid.
Though it bounced off undamaged, there was something of a mental wince from the Yellow Lion at witnessing it, before both he and the Red Lion flew after them.
"Jordan, are you okay?" Molly asked.
"Yeah," Jordan replied, and a display appeared of the Blue Lion's cockpit; he had one hand to his head with one eye half-shut, probably out of reflex, and the other hand was on one of the Lion's handles. "I think I'm just gonna let the Lion deal with the flying part."
"That's probably a good idea," Stan remarked, thinking back to Jordan's disastrous attempt at flying the Arrow II. "Hey, maybe you can practice flying out here in space. There's less things to crash into…well, except for what you just hit."
He counted to three before there was a sarcasm-laced "Oh, very funny," from Jordan.
The re-entry to Arus's atmosphere was silent for the most part, at least until the castle came into view. "Uh, what's with the bubble thing?" Jordan asked cautiously, the Blue Lion slowing marginally.
"Don't worry, it's just the castle's particle barrier," Coran replied brightly. "The Lions will pass through without issue."
"Particle barrier," Koji repeated numbly, and Shiro took the time to look sideways at him. He didn't look as winded now—he'd been nearly falling over by the time they'd made it back to the Green Lion—but he still looked a bit pallid.
"You did a good job back there," he said, tensing involuntarily before the Lion passed through the barrier. It felt weird, in a way that it was like a full-body static shock, but not in a painful way. Koji started a little in response to the statement, giving him a confused look, so Shiro elaborated. "I'm—assuming you've never been in a situation like that."
There was some hesitation before he answered. "Well…no, not really. But there was when we were getting ready to go to Alwas, though. All I know is that there was a Crog trying to keep us from leaving."
And there was the ugly reminder that Earth already had unfriendly neighbors. He recalled Jordan bringing them up before, but it hadn't really stuck then. Last Shiro knew, things were still at cold war level.
Hopefully, it stayed that way.
The Green Lion angled down into the castle's central spire at Allura's direction, coming to a landing between the Red and Yellow Lions. The Blue Lion was much slower to come down, boosters flaring erratically before finally dropping to the floor on the other side of the red one.
Shiro stepped out of the Green Lion, stopping just shy of the staircase that led up to a towering door. "So now what?" Stan asked.
"I just put the command in," Allura said, her voice tense. "It should go through any tick now." As if prompted by her words, the cyan highlights of the Black Lion's hangar door seemed to shine brighter, in accordance with the eyes of the four Lions flashing gold.
(Why would the princess be tense about this?)
Slowly, the door began sliding upwards, and Shiro became aware of what could be described simply as a presence—and the air the aforementioned presence had definitely complemented its owner.
Like her name implied, the Black Lion was primarily a deep ebony in color, also sporting yellow accents along with a cyan V-shape on her chest, and had a very notable design deviation in that she had a pair of red wing-like protrusions on her back. Shiro heard Stan whistle over the comm, and a quiet "Oh wow," from Molly. Shiro didn't miss the envious note in her voice.
For a moment, Shiro felt as though the Black Lion was looking right through him. Then, with a sense of acceptance, the Lion roared, with the sound being taken up by the other four as well.
It also raised the detail of the helmets probably having some sort of audio-dampening tech built into them.
Shiro had barely taken five steps into the cockpit proper before he heard an alarm blaring throughout the hangar, followed by a hasty warning from Allura: "Sendak's entering the Arusian atmosphere!"
No sooner did she finish speaking did the screens all immediately light up in a shade of pale purple. Of course it was purple, because purple was the color black light emitted, but the Lion didn't have the same feeling that the Galra ships had. Not by a long shot.
The Lions all rocketed up through the tower, the gateway at the top opening to let them out, all five coming to a heavy landing outside the castle—just in time to see an ominous glow from the battlecruiser culminate into a beam of solid light. The force of the impact caused the ground to shake violently for a few seconds, the castle's barrier being enveloped in flames for that same timeframe.
The reticle on Black's front screen zoomed in on the source of the light once the air had cleared, focusing on the very-much-intact ion cannon.
"What the—how did they fix that thing so fast?!" Stan exclaimed.
"Well, the damage you did has it at half its firing power," Coran said. "The castle's shields still get weaker with every blast though, so we really do need Voltron right about now!"
That sounded like a plan, but there was one glaring problem.
Apart from the fleeting vision the Red Lion had shown them all, Shiro had no idea what Voltron even was. At first he had been thinking it was just all five Lions together as a team, but Allura and Coran were implying that it was something…more.
There was another blast from the cannon, and the castle's barrier was blinking opaque red in multiple places now. "Hey, um, Shiro?" Molly started nervously. "What—what should we do now?"
"We take down that battleship," Shiro replied, and Jordan nodded slightly in response Maybe the cadet had figured it out beforehand.
"Take it down?" For a second, Koji looked almost something bordering exasperation, before being near-instantly replaced with muted comprehension. "Wait, but—we're not—?"
"I understand that none of you expected to get dragged into something like this," Shiro started carefully. "But sometimes life throws you curveballs and you just have to deal with them. We'll all be done for if they get these Lions.
"Ignore the fighters unless it's absolutely necessary. Jordan, let the Blue Lion take care of the flight controls, and you handle the weapons—see if you and Molly can disable the engines."
"Uh—okay but—where are the engines?" the latter asked uncertainly.
"Somewhere around the back of it," he replied, before continuing. "Stan, Koji, you're both with me. We need to knock that cannon out for good this time." Stan hadn't said anything, and was doing a great job at keeping a straight face through all of this.
The Lions all charged out into the fray—only to be set upon by what had to be at least half of the Galran fighters that were in the air. Shiro reacted immediately, with Black firing straight ahead and subsequently destroying three of the ships. The other four had all scattered, though in the same general direction toward Sendak's ship.
"Oh of course that thing's back," Stan grumbled irritably when a particle-barrier flickered around the ion-cannon. "Just—things just can't be easy for us, can they?"
"Things rarely are," Shiro remarked wryly, pausing in assisting trying to break through the shielding to wipe out some more fighters.
"Um, Shiro? I'm—I'm not sure how we're supposed to do this," Molly said uncertainly. "I don't even think it's working!"
"Just keep the Red Lion's fire on it, Molly," he reassured. It took an absolutely-stupid amount of effort to keep his voice even—Molly couldn't have been any older than Matt's little sister, and Shiro had pretty much just dragged her into a war. Karma was going to get back at him for that for sure.
Then things got worse, in the fashion of a sound not unlike a giant bug-zapper being heard, before Allura warned, "Our shields are down. I'm redirecting all remaining power to the weapons system, but you must form Voltron!"
There was a two-voiced shriek of "HOW?!" in response; the Green Lion was flying around in a haphazard manner, narrowly avoiding a small swarm of fighters, with her pilot having sounded dangerously close to hysterics now; Shiro also now had a suspicion on why exactly Jordan never learned how to pilot while with the Garrison, if how he was randomly hitting buttons on the front console was anything to go on.
A smaller laser fired at the Black Lion from the battlecruiser, and Shiro had to swerve to avoid it, nearly crashing into the Yellow Lion in the process. "Okay, I don't know about you but I don't think this is going too well," Stan said through grit teeth.
A few things happened at the same time after that, the first being the ion-cannon starting to light up again. The second was that the barrier around the cannon finally gave way.
The third was an idea hitting Shiro, even if it wasn't the best one. If he'd said something, he didn't remember what exactly it was, just that all five Lions rammed the barrel: Black, Red, and Green from the left side, Yellow and Blue from the right.
Now the barrel looked vaguely like a crumpled straw, rather than a cannon. A large, hollow, metal straw that was filling with active plasma that now had nowhere to go.
"Everyone, scatter!" Shiro ordered, admittedly unnecessarily, because the others had already veered away.
The cannon fired, and rebounded spectacularly: the trapped plasma tore through the ship, sending it crashing to the ground as a flaming wreck. The remaining fighters promptly went dark before also plummeting.
Shiro sighed heavily, before giving the others a once-over. For two people who looked so different at first glance, Stan and Koji did a very good job at matching each other's expressions. "Did…did that just happen?" the latter asked faintly.
"I think so," was Stan's uncertain response.
"It did," Shiro affirmed. "We did it." Halfway, at least. Jordan visibly sagged in the Blue Lion's cockpit at hearing that, though he still kept a white-knuckled grip on the control sticks.
Molly was staring off to the side over the monitor, which Shiro deduced to be at the flaming heap of metal when he'd looked at how the Red Lion was positioned. It was all too easy to tell that she was pale-faced, even with her Lion's lighting, though she snapped out of it before Shiro had a chance to say anything, asking "Is there anywhere for us to park these guys?" in a tight voice.
"Each Lion has their own hangar," Coran supplied. "the Red Lion's is the first one to the right, with the Blue Lion's being behind it. The Green and Yellow Lions are in the same order to the left."
Shiro already knew where the Black Lion's hangar was, of course. The Lion herself had seemed vaguely concerned about Molly earlier as well, and now seemed almost like she was trying to ask something.
"I know about as much as you do right now," Shiro replied, glancing at the Red Lion's tower before Black had dove into her own.
Eva was pretty sure she'd gone in circles a few times, before the Red Lion had finally given her directions on which turns to take.
It was weird. Definitely, undoubtedly weird, because the Lion didn't exactly use words. It was more like a series of impressions and feelings that added up to a clear-enough idea—which in this scenario, was a sense of whether or not to go left or right.
She hadn't been the only one to need the directions, at least; she'd almost walked into Stan on the way up to the bridge, and they'd met up with the other three at the last turn. Allura turned to look at them when they stepped into the room, saying "Good work, paladins." She sounded relieved, but there was a barely-noticeable stiltedness to the words.
Eva had heard it (or something close enough to it) so much in the past week that it was impossible for her to not miss it, but at this point she just didn't care.
Now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off, she was realizing just how much had happened today. Jordan muttered something under his breath, at the same time as Stan wearily asking "There's a place for us to clean up and crash, right?"
"Ah, yes!" Coran held one finger up as he spoke. "I'll show you to your rooms—right this way!" A few twists and turns preceded a flight of stairs that went up in a spiral, which led out to a short dead-end hallway with five rooms, two on the left and two on the right, and one at the end. "These rooms haven't actually been used by anyone before, so there's not much too them aside from essentials at the moment," he went on. "I took some time to stock the closets a little as well. I'm not sure what any of your preferences are, so there's a little bit of everything!"
Mostly-empty or not, it was still a giant step up from the glorified broom closet of a room Eva had back on Alwas, with this room being a lot more spacious. It was also a departure from the color scheme the rest of the place followed, with the walls and ceiling being a shade of red a bit paler than the Lion of the same color, whereas the carpet was a dark-red that bordered black.
Eva found that the aforementioned carpet was also as soft as it looked, after she'd figured out how to get the suit's boots off; putting it on had been one thing, but taking it off was another. She left the white parts in a haphazard pile by the bed before looking around at the room a little more.
Aside from the bed, there was also a floor-length mirror on one wall, by what she assumed was the closet, given that the door was open and she could see some clothes hanging up in there. The door on the opposite side opened up to a bathroom, a shower included. She thought it over for about five seconds before deciding that it was worth trying to figure out.
In grabbing the nearest clothes that looked like they'd at least vaguely match, something else in the closet caught Eva's attention. Namely, a pair of fuzzy-looking slippers that had an uncanny resemblance to the Red Lion. The good news was that they fit.
The shower's controls were on the weird end of the scale, in that there was an on-off switch and two separate dials for temperature and water-pressure, but ultimately simple. The control pad to the side was left untouched, at least for now.
Eva wasn't really sure how long she spent just appreciating the hot water, but the fact that she hadn't eaten anything at all that day eventually convinced her to turn it off, get dressed, deposit both her team uniform from Alwas and the undersuit to the flight-uniform in the laundry chute that was set into the wall, and find her way back to the bridge.
At least, that's what her intent had been—she hadn't expected to nearly walk into Jordan when she stepped into the hall, who was wearing a two-toned blue shirt with matching pants, looking slightly damp. "Thought you got lost again," he said, frowning slightly.
"Wha'—I didn't get lost!" she retorted hotly, though she faltered when she felt something that could maybe be described an a psychic eye-roll.
"Hey, all the halls in here look the same to me too," Jordan said, holding his hands up a bit. "Shiro asked me to find you, and Coran's getting food for everyone."
"What kind of food?"
"I have no idea."
Well, there was practically no chance of it being cup-ramen, and that automatically made it sound appealing to her. As they were nearing the dining hall the others were waiting in, Eva noticed something else. "You have 'em too?"
"Huh?" Jordan glanced down, face flushing a bit. "Oh, these? I, uh, found 'em in the closet. They're—really comfy. And the—the floor's cold."
"Sure," was her dry-toned response. Maybe all five of them had matching Lion slippers. It'd be kind of neat if they did.
The others were there already, and Eva picked the nearest empty chair. Then she did a double-take. "Um—where did…?"
"Long story," Koji muttered, glancing back at the small pyramid-shaped robot hovering a ways behind him, which chirped at the movement. Eva looked past him at Jordan, who just shrugged a little.
Then she noticed the smell. It was definitely floral, though Eva couldn't put a name to it. And it was definitely coming off of the technician.
"You, um, smell nice," she commented, mouth quirking into an awkward half-smile, though all the comment did was earn a withering sort of pouty glare.
How, though? Aside from the shower, there had been a sink-stand and a mirror above it, but no cabinets or anything. Nor had there been anything that looked like soap anywhere, for that matter.
Her confusion must have shown, because she saw a faint pinkish flush cross Koji's face while he muttered something about buttons. Then Eva remembered the keypad, and had to bite her cheek to keep from smiling. Given that the embarrassed blush became more noticeable, that probably hadn't worked very well either.
Stan just reached over to pat Koji's shoulder a bit, while Shiro was watching them with a confused sort of amusement. Allura, who was sitting at the head of the table, didn't seem to notice any of it, with how her attention was fixed on a holographic screen.
Coran swept into the room shortly after, somehow managing to balance seven plates all at once, and he slid them all down the table smoothly. As for what it was…
"What even is this stuff?" Stan asked after a few moments, eyeing it warily.
"Synthetic emergency rations," was Coran's response. "Typically reserved for longer trips where perishables wouldn't be a wise decision, but, weeeelll…" He smiled sheepishly. "Even the preserved perishables couldn't hold up for ten-thousand decaphoebs. I'll have to make some time to make a run to the nearest supply station that'd be friendly to us."
"So they're MRE's," Jordan summed up, before giving a sarcastic "Great."
The "rations" looked something like lime pudding, or maybe jello, or something in between. And Shiro was eating it like it was just one of those things and not space-goo. "What?" he queried at seeing their looks. "It's edible."
Eva gave the stuff one last dubious look before giving it a small try. In terms of consistency, it was definitely in between, but flavor-wise?
She now had some concerns for how much Shiro could actually taste.
"Where is Arus, anyways?" Koji asked after a few minutes, looking at Allura, who had just finished hers. "I mean—where in the galaxy is it?"
"Arus is a fringe planet," she replied. "Though I suppose you're wondering where we are in regards to your homeworld." A few nods were given in response, and she pursed her lips. "While we may have your planet's coordinates, it would probably be under a different name. You'll have to help me find it."
So commenced another walk up two flights of stairs, which brought Eva's attention to the detail of the adrenaline from earlier being completely gone now.
Which was to say, she was starting to feel like she would fall over at any second by the time they'd reached the bridge again.
Jordan was squinting at everything on the starmap this time, and Koji pointed out Alwas, near the center of what was currently displayed. At least, it might have been Alwas. It could also be the two other equidistant planets that Eva's dad had been talking about that last night on Earth.
Eva couldn't read Altean, but she has a good guess on what the symbols by the one planet in the center of the display meant—Ōban. (Where they'd never get to.)
Shiro stepped toward the back of the room and points at one of the multiple clusters of dots. "Can you zoom in on this one?" The images blurred once, twice at Shiro's insistence, and then Eva saw a more-familiar set of dots: their own solar-system. "Right there," he said, pointing at a specific one. "That's Earth."
"That one?" Coran eyed it before going over to the console. "Well, we didn't even have a proper name for it in the system here until now." For a moment, he'd gone wide-eyed, but it had vanished quick enough to have Eva wondering if she'd just imagined it.
"Where's Arus on this?" Stan asked. In response, the orange-haired Altean zoomed out, and the specks all receded into a spiral shape. Eva promptly felt like the floor had dropped out from under her feet.
"Earth is there," Coran was saying. Then he started scrolling. "And Arus is aaaaaaaaaaaaaall the waaaaaaaaaaaay ooooveeeeeeeer…here!" The map zoomed in on another vaguely-spiral shape, and he pointed to a highlighted dot toward the edge.
"Wha'…?" Jordan muttered, a look of muted fear crossing his face. "But how—why are…h-how are we…" His voice steadily got quieter, shaking his head slowly as he spoke.
"Well now, that's quite a long way away!" Coran commented, sounding impressed. "That wormhole jump must've been a bumpy ride, given the distance between…" He trailed off when he turned around, seeing their expressions. "Is something wrong?"
"Not—wrong, really," Shiro replied, voice distant even though he was standing only a few feet away. He had the look of a sudden realization on his face: he knew about this already and probably only just remembered. "It's just…our species just started getting out of its own solar-system fifty-three years ago. I don't think anyone's considered there being life outside our galaxy yet."
"But surely you would've had at least some indirect contact with at least one other system," Allura exclaimed doubtfully, before her face fell. "Unless…the Aenidesian Blockade, of course…"
"The what?" Koji looked faint, ready to faint, or maybe both. To the side, Stan had muttered something too quietly for Eva to hear, looking slightly ill.
"It was a law enacted up by the natives of the Aenides complex to protect Ōban, after the war with the Galra began," Coran explained. "They all have the firepower to enforce it, and they're rather fond of the idea of not interfering with the development of other races. Granted, given what's happened, I don't think the blockade itself is holding up that well…"
Eva didn't hear the rest. The distance between Earth and Alwas had been some twenty-five million light-years. On the night they'd left Earth, she'd thought that distance had been huge, but the distance between Earth and Arus?
It had taken nearly fifteen seconds for Coran to scroll to where Arus was on the map in relation to Earth.
They weren't even in the same galaxy.
(endnote)
It's implied in OSR that the Earth, while aware of alien life in the Milky Way, doesn't know about other galaxies yet. I am taking full advantage of that implication.
