I make no claims to Voltron or any WEP characters.

Origins: A Legend Unfolds: Chapter 4

Walking down a long, man-made tunnel, Keith listens to Coran explain, "This is a service tunnel leading to the lion's cavern. Each kingdom has one to their lion and as the princess explained earlier, there are tunnels between the caverns. Since the death of the king, we have built a launch system from our control room leading out here to enable a pilot to reach it quickly."

"Wouldn't that have already existed?" Lance asks in confusion as he continues walking.

The advisor smiles back at him as he replies, "No, the kings had the ability to disappear and reappear at will. So when they needed to reach the lions, they would just appear there." Shaking his head in disbelief, Lance looks over at Keith to find him gesturing for him to be quiet.

Keith looks ahead and finds a bright light at the end of the tunnel coming closer with each step he takes. As they walk through the opening into a much larger cavern, his jaw drops as he looks up. A giant, black, mechanical lion sits on its haunches in front of them. A crest lies against the chest, showing each of the kingdom's individual emblems. Keith continues to look up at the robotic beast in awe as he listens to the advisor continue to explain, "The Black lion is the body of Voltron and therefore the largest of the lions. It contains the main controls for him. The Red and Green lions attach as arms and hands while the Blue and Yellow lions make up the legs and feet." Gesturing upward, Coran finishes, "The mouth of Black lion opens to reveal Voltron's face."

Forcing his own mouth shut finally, Keith looks over to find the equally awe struck expressions of his teammates. Hunk and Pidge seem to recover the quickest and glance at each other excitedly before rushing forward. Soon they are crawling up the back of the lion and examining different sections. Keith watches as Lance moves around the lion, pausing to touch different surfaces before moving on. Glancing next to him when Sven approaches, he hears, "It's like nothing you've ever seen before…is it?"

Shaking his head, Keith starts to reply then stops when his eyes fall on a door off to one side of the huge cavern. A lion standing on his haunches with a bolt of lightning in his mouth is carved into the door. As he studies it from afar, he notices the eyes of the lion glowing, a pale yellow color.

As Sven moves forward to examine the lion, the commander walks away from the others. He continues to stare at the door, almost in a trance, as he moves toward it. The sound of a lion roaring draws him forward until he reaches it and grabs onto the handle.

From across the room, Allura smiles as she listens to Hunk and Pidge talk while examining the lion. Hearing the roar of the lion, she shifts her gaze then calls out, "NO!" as she watches the commander open the door and walk inside.

Hunk and Pidge stop mid-conversation to look down in confusion. Lance quickly moves around the backside of the lion to ask, "What's going on?" Twisting around from the place where he was studying the lion, Sven sees a flash of Keith's uniform just before a door on the other side of the room closes behind the commander and seals. Upon seeing the princess rushing in that direction, he follows, quickly catching up to her as she tries to pull on the handle of the door to no avail. "Princess! What is wrong?"

The others catch up as well, with Lance demanding, "What the hell is going on?"

Allura turns to face them, her face pale and her eyes full of fear as she quietly utters, "The commander…Keith…entered the key room." As they look at her in horror, Coran's voice echoes from behind them, "The trial has begun, there is nothing we can do now but wait and pray the commander returns."

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Walking into the dimly lit room, Keith once again hears the roar of a lion and stops moving as the sound echoes in the room. He shakes his head as if to clear it then looks around in surprise. The room is simply a carved out section of the tunnel with a few torches along the walls, giving off a small amount of light. In the center of the room, the emblem of the Storm Kingdom is carved into the floor. Glancing around, the commander spies several sets of human remains near the walls, mostly skeletal in nature, of the past key seekers. His eyes continue to move about the room curiously, noticing various weapons lining the walls until he reaches the backside of the room.

An altar rests against the far wall with two torches on either side of it. A royal blue cloth covers the altar and lying suspended above it, looks to be a key. Moving forward slowly, Keith continues to look around for something to attack him. As he steps onto the emblem, the torches flash brightly and a ball of light appears before him. A deep, male voice asks, "What do you seek?"

Taken aback, Keith stares up at the ball of light in astonishment before finding his voice, "The key to the Black lion so that I may protect Arus."

"It takes more than the key to be considered worthy of the Black lion."

Keith's eyes widen in surprise as the ball of light changes while lowering to the ground, growing larger until it forms the shape a lion. Completely white, with a long mane of hair going down its back, the lion roars at him, the sharp teeth visible in its open mouth. Crouching into a fighter's stance, Keith's eyes move to the various weapons on the walls around him as he wonders, 'How the fuck am I supposed to defeat a lion?'

He looks back up to find the lion pacing back and forth in front of him as if waiting for him to make the first move. Moving slowly, he takes a step to his right only to find the lion keeping pace with him. Swearing softly, he moves back to the center and watches the lion move back as well. His eyes move over the creature again, noting even though the animal seems impatient, the lion is still waiting for him to move again. Shifting his gaze, Keith looks at the weapons around him once more then at the bodies lining the walls around them as he realizes what happened to them. 'Shit…if I try to grab a weapon, he will pounce…'

Studying the lion again as he searches for its weakness, Keith finally looks into its face. He is shocked to see familiar eyes…eyes that he had seen in a painting earlier that day. A bright, sapphire blue in color, they study him closely while the lion continues to pace as it waits for him to make another move. A sense of hopelessness at the situation fills him as the commander struggles to come to a decision. 'Damn it…I can't stay here forever.'

Taking a chance, he takes a step backward toward the door only to have the lion's head come up and a growling sound emit from it. Keith swears loudly this time, the sound echoing in the cavern and moves forward once more to his original spot. The lion goes back to its pacing and the commander groans as he thinks over his options. 'This is impossible. I can't beat the lion without a weapon and it will kill me before I reach them.' A sudden thought comes to him and he thinks, 'Would it work?' Dropping to his knees, Keith bows his head in submission as he says, "King Alfor, I humbly ask for the key to Black lion."

The sound of the lion's breathing pauses for a moment then he can see the feet of the lion moving as it comes closer to him. Keeping his head bowed, Keith fights against every instinct to stand and fight or run. Fear runs through him when the lion roars once more, the sound deafening with the beast right in front of him. Suddenly, a pair of shiny boots replaces the lion's paws. Looking up, he finds the ghostly image of the king from the painting, only older looking, in front of him as he states, "It takes intelligence to recognize that sometimes even a brave man must bow to an unbeatable force. The key is yours…" then disappears.

Releasing the breath he had not realized he had been holding, Keith rises slowly to his feet and looks around to find the weapons on the walls gone, as well as the bodies. The room is bright with light as he moves toward to the altar. Stopping just before it, he stares at the key for a moment, waiting to see if something else would happen. The blade of the key is gold in color. The bow of it is red and blue and a golden cross with a crown above it rests in the center.

Keith looks away from the key again to look about the room. Deciding that there is no other threat, he reaches forward, his fingers enclosing around the key. The sound of a lion roaring echoes around the room once more as Keith feels a type of energy moving through his body. As it leaves him, he stumbles slightly, his free hand holding onto the altar to keep him on his feet.

Feeling his strength returning, Keith stands upright then looks back down at the key in his hand. Turning around, he heads back to the door he had entered only minutes earlier. Stepping out of the room, he is grabbed by his teammates as they all seem to talk at once.

"We thought you were dead!"

"What happened in there?"

"Did you get the key?"

"What was the trial?"

Holding up the hand that contains the key to show it, Keith calls out, "Stop! One at a time…" He hears a gasp from behind him and turns around to find Princess Allura staring at him in shock. She steps forward and grabs the hand containing the key. She does not take the key from him however. Instead, she turns his hand over to look at the back of it. Keith looks down in surprise at the mark on it that wasn't there before. A lightning bolt streaks across the skin, starting near his pinky finger and ending near his wrist, toward his thumb.

Allura runs her fingers across the mark then looks back up into his eyes, "The last time I saw this mark was before my father died…it was on his hand as well."

"It is the mark of an Arusian King."

Coran's voice can be heard as he steps forward to examine the mark as well. He looks up at the commander in surprise, "I am not entirely sure what this means, but each king had the emblem of his kingdom on his right hand."

His voice failing him, Keith looks back down at the mark again. Silence fills the cavern for several long minutes until he hears Pidge's tentative voice behind him a moment later changing the subject, "Can I see the key, Cap?"

Fighting against the hysterical laughter he feels bubbling up inside him, Keith turns to look at the youngest member of the group. Wordlessly, he holds out the key so the others can look at it. However, when Pidge makes to take it, Keith's fingers close around it once more. Not understanding why he does not want anyone else to touch the key but needing to justify his action, he finally says, "I would like to try it first if you don't mind…"

He pulls away from the group and walks over to the lion. Gazing up at the robotic beast, Keith mumbles to himself, "How do you get in?"

"Over there Cap…" Hunk appears by his side, gesturing up near the head. "Pidge and I discovered the hatch just as you walked into the key room." Nodding his thanks, Keith moves over to the lion and starts climbing up.

From behind the group of men, Allura watches as the commander climbs up the side of the lion then presses the button near the head to open the hatch. He disappears inside a moment later. She finally looks away, finding Coran studying her closely. His voice is steady as he quietly tells her, "Your father's prophesy is coming true, they are the ones." Nodding silently in reply, the princess turns her attention back to the lion.

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Inside the lion, Keith looks about the cockpit in wonder as he moves to sit in the command chair. His eyes move about the various controls until he spots it, "The key goes there…" Leaning forward, he sets the key into the lock then watches as it slides into place and the controls all light up. Reaching forward, he touches the control handle then gasps as the mark on his hand lights up as well.

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From the ground, Sven takes a step back as he watches the lion suddenly stand up, a roar escaping it as its eyes flash then the crest on its chest ignites, the emblems from each kingdom briefly flashing in unison.

"Wow…" Hunk and Pidge speak together as they stare up in awe at the mechanical beast.

"Unbelievable…"

Allura turns to find Lance staring up in wonder as the Black lion steps forward and Keith's voice echoes down to them, "It feels like I'm in one of the Garrison ships…only better." The feet of the lion lift up off the ground and hover as the head of the lion nears the ceiling. It sets back down a moment later, and goes back to its resting state. She watches as the hatch door opens and the commander jumps back down to the ground. As he moves toward them with a smile on his face, Pidge exclaims, "You aren't taking it out to see what it can do?"

Shaking his head, Keith replies, "We only have the one lion Pidge. If the Drules see it and attack, I would be grossly outnumbered." Caving into the wisdom of the commander's words, Pidge nods, but the look on his face is one of vast disappointment.

"So what would you like to do next, Commander?" Coran steps forward, his eyes shining with an excitement he has not felt in years. "Do you still want to do an assessment first or do you wish to go after the remaining keys?"

Keith does not get to answer as his men all speak at once, "Keys!"

Giving into the wishes of his men, the commander looks back at Coran, "The masses have spoken. We go for the keys and see what we can find out about the remaining kingdoms as we go."

The advisor smiles, "I recommend we start with Fire Kingdom. It is the closest one and we have better contact with the princess of that kingdom."

"There are more princesses?"

Keith rolls his eyes as the advisor turns to answer the lieutenant's question, "Yes, Lieutenant McClain, Princess Maia survived the invasion much the same way Princess Allura did. After her father was killed in the lion, her advisor led her into their underground base as her brother raced out with their fighters to try to stop the invading forces. Prince Malik did not survive however."

"She was betrothed to my brother," Allura speaks quietly, interrupting the conversation as she looks at the men.

They do not say anything in reply for a moment until Keith clears his throat, "How do we get there?"

"Through the tunnels," Coran answers simply. "When do you wish to leave?"

Keith looks at the other men, who nod at him. Turning back to the advisor, he replies, "Now."