The tension hanging over their heads was almost palpable. Instead of the usual merry prattling or the detailed rehashing of a strategy, dreadful silence filled the Lions' intercoms, which had been left open out of habit alone. While each of them knew that they were all most likely thinking the same thing, no one wanted to give voice to that suspicion and thus make it undeniable. However, on the other hand, if someone didn't say something soon and bring the suffocating quiet to an end, Hunk was certain that he would completely lose his mind.
"...Mmmm - I can't take it anymore! I'm just gonna say it! Lotor has to be the one behind this, right? It's the only thing that makes sense."
"Except for the fact that he was comatose when we found him and is now securely locked up onboard the Atlas." Pidge remarked, though the comment came off a little more blunt than she had intended. Fortunately, Hunk either didn't notice or mind her curtness as he continued to theorize.
"What if that's all part of his plan though? To make himself the least likely suspect, what if he purposely stranded his ship and knocked himself out because he knew we would be looking for survivors on that planet and would take him into custody-"
"There was nothing in his system except for some traces of pure quintessence, and all of his external injuries fit with a crash landing after a long battle. If you can somehow explain all of that away, there's also the minor detail of how he couldn't have known for certain that we wouldn't just kill him upon discovery after what he did."
"Well who do you think is behind it then?"
"A few divisions of the Fire of Purification are still scattered across the galaxy. They might not be capable of much while separate, but if they banded together and planned carefully, they could've pulled this off. The question is who would be able to convince them to join forces?"
"Well, it would have to be someone who's pretty persuasive, right? Even if they're all Galra, getting the different factions to agree on a common goal is easier said than done."
"Definitely. Whoever it is would probably need a lot of experience as well in order for the others to readily receive him or her as the leader…" Pidge's nose crinkled in aggravation as she realized she had unwittingly just played herself right into Hunk's hand, and while she couldn't see her comrade's face, she didn't need to in order to know that he probably had a catlike grin stretching from ear to ear. She should have seen this coming. "Okay, fair point. Maybe we can't totally dismiss Lotor as a suspect just yet."
"One of the Fire of Purification's main goals was to get rid of half galra because they were 'impure.' Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but I don't see them abandoning that ideology so easily even if it meant their survival." Keith chimed in, catching Pidge and Hunk offguard.
"It isn't impossible though!" Hunk exclaimed. "If Lotor managed to unify the remaining members of the Fire of Purification and fake both the crash and his blackout-"
"That's a pretty big if, Hunk." Though he outwardly scoffed at the idea, Lance was in fact listening rather intently to everything his friend said and turning it over in his mind. It sounded crazy, but the thought of Lotor being alive after the fight at the Rift or of Lance fighting in an intergalactic war while piloting a ship shaped like a lion might have seemed crazy once upon a time as well.
"-getting himself captured would make sense because it would divert any accusations away from him!"
"Why not let someone else take the fall for him and continue to operate from the shadows though? It's kind of hard to run a group of insurgents from inside a cell."
"He could be trying to psych us out; you know, knock us off our game so that he can stay one step ahead-"
"It doesn't matter." Like icy serpents, Allura's terse words wound their way down the other paladins' spines in torpid spirals before sinking their fangs into the small of each person's back in order to drain away their warmth. Muscles tense and senses alert, the others finally noticed the grim aura radiating from the Blue Lion, and Hunk began to wonder if he should have just kept his mouth shut and endured the stifling silence after all. Allura was scary when she got upset.
"While I agree that it would be foolish to dismiss Lotor as a suspect, we cannot allow ourselves to become so obsessed with one theory that it blinds us from other possibilities." A shrill ping drawing her eyes back to Blue's windshield, Allura tightened her grip on the lions steering as she squinted at the warning flashing in her right peripheral. "We're about twelve dobashes out from our target, so I suggest we save the speculating for later and focus on the mission at hand. Everyone, prepare to link up, and Pidge, get that cloaking mechanism ready."
Keith should have been the one to give the order, but the other four paladins all seemed to come to a silent agreement not to correct Allura. Energy surged through the five ships and the veins of each pilot as well while the whirring and clicking of different mechanisms shifting and locking together left the air abuzz. No matter how many times they experienced this transformation, there was always something riveting about five different units joining together and operating as one, but this time, the magic of the moment felt a little stale as the lions seemed to take a little longer than usual to merge together into the infamous mech defender of the universe known as Voltron.
"Cloaking is up and running! Waiting on your cue, Keith."
"Alright team, let's move in."
Once again, stifling silence swamped the cockpits of the Voltron lions, broken only by an occasional, apprehensive whine from Hunk as he fidgeted in his seat like a small child. Not far ahead of them, a dense field of asteroids extended as far as the unaided eye could see, and while this offered them plenty of cover in the unlikely event Voltron's cloaking mechanism malfunctioning, it also obstructed their view. Although neither of them said a word to the other, Lance and Pidge simultaneously drew their bayards so they were at the ready if the need to fight arose. However, for the next several, long dobashes, everything remained calm and quiet as they cautiously wove their way through the maze of lifeless rock with no difficulty.
"Hey, maybe we'll get lucky and whoever stole all of that Galra technology will just hand it over without a fight when they realize the paladins of Voltron are after it."
"Hunk, don't say that! You're going to jinx us!"
Not a moment later, as if indeed summoned by Hunk's tepid expression of optimism, a single red dot appeared on the sonar display located towards the bottom right corner of each paladin's screen. A moment later, another one appeared, followed by a third, and in the blink of an eye, three had morphed into three dozen.
"We've got multiple crafts inbound from all sides, probably a squadron of fighters!"
"Great, nice going, Hunk!"
"I'm sorry!"
"Everyone, calm down!" Keith growled. "Pidge, is our cloaking still intact?"
"Yes."
"Then they are probably just completing a routine sweep of the area. Let's slowly maneuver out of their path and then keep moving forward."
Hunk didn't even dare to breathe as Voltron banked to the left just in time to squeeze between two asteroids before they collided, terrified that one all too forceful breath would be all it took to disable their cloaking and expose them to the enemy surrounding them. While the others weren't wrestling with quite as much apprehension as the Yellow Paladin, a grimness had settled over each of them as their eyes darted back and forth between those blinking red beacons and the asteroids ahead of them, their minds running calculation after calculation in the background all the while in preparation of things suddenly going south. As per usual, things did.
"Uh Keith? They're changing course. I'm starting to think this isn't a routine patrol."
"Yeah, I got that, Lance!"
"Well, what do you want us to do, oh great leader?! Are we engaging or not?!"
"If you could stop nagging me for five ticks, maybe I could decide on a plan!" Clenching his jaw so tightly that the pain travelled up into his already pounding temples, Keith arched forward in his seat while sinking his heels into the floor. "Alright, on my signal, we split and scatter. Once you manage to shake your pursuers, rendezvous in the shadow of the Taujeerians' moon three leagues from our original meeting spot, got it?"
"Got it!"
"And...now!"
In a flurry of colors, the five lions broke away from each other and streaked away in different directions, weaving complicated paths through the sea of floating rocks to confuse the ships on their tails. Keith practically threw himself out of his chair as he slammed the the lion's controls down as far as they would go, the ship tearing across the stars in response; however, while the Black Lion came with its own perks, its speed paled in comparison to that of the Red Lion. The slightly larger build of his lion also made it a little harder for Keith to fly his way around sharp corners and through narrow crevices, but he managed somehow. Unfortunately, somehow apparently wasn't good enough because Black was still reading at least two of the three dozen ships behind him that were steadily closing the gap between them. Whoever these marauders were, it seemed that he was their primary target.
"Don't you guys know that it's rude to tailgate?" Grip still tight of the controls, Keith lurched back as hard as he could, guiding the Black Lion into a tight flip before charging straight back at the horde of fighters. The ships hurriedly dispersed to let him through, but in the blink of an eye, they were back on the Black Lion's haunches again, entirely unphased by the narrowly avoided collision. As they crept closer, some of the ships broke away from the rest of the cluster to flank the lion on both sides, and as the first few ships managed to shoot up in front of him, Keith got his first clear glimpse of these rather impressive fighters.
These spacecrafts were unlike anything he had seen before. The vibrant purple body of each ship, along with the stripes of pink, red, and darker purple that branched out from the tail to the wings, meant it stood out against the inky expanses of the universe, so stealth obviously wasn't one of their main concerns. The narrow build of the fighters and their broad wingspans were also quite unique, which probably contributed to their remarkable speed and maneuvering. However, their lack of bulk offered Keith an advantage. It was time to put those bumper car skills from his childhood summers at the fair to use again.
One sharp jerk to the right sent the fighter closest to him on that side into a wild spiral that dragged down two of its brethren with it. However, the gap they left was soon filled by others, and just before they tumbled into the path of a rather large asteroid, the three pilots managed to regain control of their ships and soared up underneath the Black Lion's belly. Apparently, these fighters were more resilient than they looked, and when Keith tried again with another thrust to the side, the ships swerved just enough to avoid being hit while still keeping close enough to restrict his movements.
He recognized what they were trying to do. By surrounding him on all sides, they could herd him along to wherever they pleased, most likely their mothership. One option he had left was to fire on the fighters, but while they were persistent, their actions couldn't quite be considered aggressive, particularly since they had yet to shoot at him even once. In one final attempt to shake himself loose from their hold, Keith again threw the Black Lion into another backflip and bolted straight at the ships directly behind him, but this time, the fighters held their ground, leading him to falter in his surge before colliding with them. In a little less than a tick, he was completely surrounded.
When the pinging of the Black Lion's intercom alerted him that one of the other ships, Keith kept one hand firmly on the ship's controls as he begrudgingly accepted the transmission.
"Paladin of Voltron, we've been expecting you. We mean you no harm. Our leader merely wishes to have a word with you."
Keith's nose wrinkled in disdain. "And what if I refuse?"
"...That would be unwise on your part."
The fighters may have been new to Keith, but the Galra cruiser resting near the center of the asteroid field was an all too familiar sight. Once upon a time, he had braved entire Galra fleets without ever breaking a nervous sweat, but now the sight of one lone ship sent his innards plummeting into a bottomless abyss, leaving him feeling cold and hollow. However, unlike most Galra cruisers, this particular ship had streaks of scarlet that snaked along its exterior like veins of fresh blood, which only added to its ominousness, and as they drew closer, Keith noticed clusters of dozens fighters like the ones escorting him whizzing around the cruiser in what appeared to be different attack formations. However, he only caught a brief glimpse of some of these flight configurations up close before the squads all hurriedly banked to either side to allow the Black Lion and its convoy to pass.
Eventually, Keith was guided into an open bay with even more fighters lined up inside along with the other four Voltron Lions parked in a half circle towards the center of the room. After touching down in between the Red and Green Lions, Keith swiftly exited his ship only to be immediately met by a troop of at least six aliens, each brandishing a weapon of sorts, before he could even make it all the way down the ramp. Between their diverse attire and their rather unconventional body language, Keith certainly wouldn't have guessed that these rough-looking goons were actually an elite fighting force if he had not witnessed them in action firsthand, and though he jerked away when one of the men grabbed him by the arm, he decided the best course of action would be to quietly cooperate. The rest of his team, however, apparently wasn't on the same page.
"You have motion sensors set up throughout the asteroid belt, don't you?! That's the only way you could've known our exact location while we were cloaked." Pidge was badgering an aquatic, red headed alien with a spear who had to be at least six feet tall, her size making Pidge look even shorter and more gremlin-like than usually.
"Reiya is mute, paladin, but even if she did speak, she wouldn't be foolish enough to share the secrets of our operations with you." Widget quipped dryly as she picked herself up off of her stomach and climbed out of her fighter.
Hunk noticed a devilish smirk spread across Lance's lips, but the blue paladin had already begun to run his mouth before his friend could stop him, "Look guys! It's a Martian!"
To be fair, Widget did closely resemble the stereotypical Martian with her shorter stature, dark, almond-shaped eyes, and her pale green skin that almost looked like it was glowing, but she hardly seemed amused by Lance's comparison nonetheless. However, a quick kick in the shin from Allura wiped the smirk right off of Lance's face.
"Lance, not the time! Please, forgive my comrade's rudeness."
"I am starting to wonder if you Paladins of Voltron are truly as formidable as your reputations claim...but I guess that doesn't really matter at this point. You're already here and the captain has been kept waiting long enough. Move it."
With Widget assuming the lead, the horde of thugs ushered the paladins along, Lance slipping his hand into Allura's and giving it a tight squeeze while Hunk huddled a little closer to Pidge and Keith. They did not pass many faces as they made their way down a series of dimly lit hallways, but just because they didn't count enough people to pilot all of the ships in that bay alone did not mean that they weren't scattered all throughout this massive cruiser. Had this ship been teeming with Galra soldiers like they were used to, the paladins would've already taken control of it and forced all on board to surrender. However, this legion of warriors was completely new to them, and only an amateur would be foolish enough to attack an enemy he knew nothing about while on their turf. However, it would be equal as inane to not make use of their situation by manipulating it to serve in their favor, so Keith took mental notes of everything he saw. Some of the weapons that he noticed the other troops carrying were Galra weapons that hadn't been a part of the black market stockpile that they had located, so they had either gotten ahold of them when they took over this ship or acquired them from another source. The diversity of the crew also indicated that they were not a supremacist group as the Galra Empire had been. Based on these facts, the most reasonable deduction seemed to be that these people were procuring Galra technology to use for their own means, but what those means were was something he couldn't quite figure out. Perhaps this captain who they were going to meet would be kind enough to enlighten him.
Eventually, the set of sturdy double doors leading to the bridge of the ship rose up to block their path, parting only after Widget had punched in a code and closing immediately behind the group after everyone had been ushered through. Everything was alarmingly quiet now aside from the shuffling of feet and the occasional chatter of the computers lining the platform, and the weight pressing on the paladins' shoulders seemed to double as they were led before the pilot's chair and first laid eyes upon this infamous captain, who immediately rose to greet them.
"So these are the infamous Paladins of Voltrons. Thank you for sparing me a moment of your time." she crooned with an exaggerated bow that was practically dripping with acrimony, her wings extending to their full height behind her to make her look larger and thus more intimidating. When she rose, she locked eyes with her subordinates and gave them a dismissive wave. "Widget, Reiya, and Torc, please stay. The rest of you return to your stations."
"It's not like we had much of a choice in the matter." Pidge grumbled rather sourly once their handlers had cleared the room, her attention shifting between the three remaining lackeys and their leader. "I'm still waiting for someone to tell me how you managed to find us while we were cloaked."
The green paladin's question seemed to pass over Klara's head completely as she instead approached Allura, who had been silently gawking at the captain since her arrival. "You must be Princess Allura, one of the last Alteans. Is something wrong, your highness?"
"You-You're a Lepidoptan," Allura breathed, her words slow and staggered as her mind struggled to make sense of the input it was receiving. "Your people are supposed to be a peaceful, primeval race who do not venture far beyond your own planet. What are you doing as the captain of a warship?"
"The tyranny of the Galra Empire forced us to adapt to avoid being completely wiped out." Klara crooned with an icy tinge to her voice and she casually eased back down to lounge in her chair, the dark metal and red, satiny cloth of her armor catching the light. "Everyone aboard this ship was wronged by the Galra Empire in one way or another and decided that they were done letting those monsters walk all over them. If you think about it, we are not all that different from your little Coalition."
"The Voltron Coalition strives to protect the universe from all threats, not just Galra-related ones." Allura's gut churning uneasily inside her; something about this woman didn't feel quite right. "The Galra Empire is dead-"
"The Galra Empire may be gone, but it is far from dead, Princess." Klara sharply cut her off, eyes glinting like the steel of her armor. "You paladins have yet to snuff out the many factions of Galra insurgents like the Fire of Purification. If they were to become united under one leader, the universe would be threatened with the rise of a new empire more cruel than the last. We must ensure that that doesn't happen."
"I don't understand…"
"Still playing ignorant, Princess? Fine, I'll be frank with you then. I know that you recovered Prince Lotor alive and that you currently have him in your custody. As long as he lives, so does the chance of the Galra Empire regaining its former glory. He must be put to death as payment for his crimes and to ensure the safety of the universe."
The air is the room must have been replaced with cyanide because it suddenly became very hard to breathe as Klara's words rang in each of the paladins' ears.
"How do you know about Lotor?" Lance demanded, nostrils flaring as he instinctively shifted to insert himself between Allura and Klara. "No one outside the circle of leaders in the Coalition are supposed to be aware of that information!"
"News like that can never stay under wraps for long. Someone always blabs."
"To execute Lotor so brashly would be unjust, even after all he has done." Allura stated sternly while pushing past Lance, as much as she appreciated his desire to protect her. "He will be put on trial at the end of which the Coalition will take a vote to determine his fate. You are more than welcome to air your grievances before the jury, but I cannot promise you a particular verdict."
"Is that so? Well, I hope they see things my way, for if Lotor is allowed, there will surely be chaos."
Keith's lips curled back into a snarl. "I'd say that sounds like a threat."
Klara merely smile a sinister sneer of a smile before shifting her attention over to Widget. "Provide the Paladins of Voltron with our communication codes so that they can share the information for the trial with us. Oh, also give them those Galra weapons that we snitched from that black market on Tizidad; we already have more than enough for our troops."