Keith sat in his room and tried to write the start of their adventures. However, every time he got a few sentences in, he would remember something and start a little earlier.

When they found the Blue lion.

Then when Shiro crashed.

Then when he illegally bought the C4 charges.

Then he sat back and thought about his research.

How had he known that shiro would come to that spot? Blue wasn't his lion, so how was he able to feel its presence?

Keith dropped the tablet he'd been typing on and stood.

He needed answers. He needed to understand these things first before he could write them all down.

()

"So you don't know where Kolivan is, but you wanna go looking for him so you can ask a question…" Pidge scowled at Keith and then shrugged, "Seems ligit to me."

"Can't you just call him on the communicator?" Shiro asked, "What if we need you here?"

"I shouldn't be gone long and Kolivan never finished setting up the communications line before Lance…disappeared."

Shiro sighed and nodded.

"Am I the only one who wants to know what the burning question is?" Hunk asked raising his hand, "Like, spill."

Keith shook his head, "I can't talk about it."

"Bull," Hunk narrowed his eyes, "spill."

"I can't," Keith shrugged, "The Blades have a few secrets that should remain secrets. They aren't dangerous or anything. If you trust me, then that should be enough for you."

They glared at each other before Hunk shrugged, "Fine."

()

Kolivan was a little less than pleased to see Keith show up uninvited.

"You should be catching up on your recordings," he said, "did I not stress the importance of these records to you?"

"Yes, you stressed," Keith said, "but I remembered a few things and I need to ask you something. Why is it that I could feel the Blue lions energy without it even being my lion? And how did I know something was going to happen the day shiro crashed? I knew a lot more than I should have and I was pretty freakishly accurate."

Kolivan handed the object in his hand to the other Blade member and gave his whole attention to Keith.

"Quintessence is strange," he said, "it behaves erratically and affects people differently in different situations and sometimes never again. There is not explanation for it. We only use what we are given and are thankful for what we do understand."

Questions exploded in Keiths mind and he had no idea what to ask first. What ended up stumbling from his mouth was, "and what is it that we understand?"

Kolivan actually smirked, "very little. And you are still too inexperienced to learn more."

"So…the reason I could learn all that stuff was because of quintessence?"

"In a sense, yes."

"How?"

Kolivan sighed, "Fine, I'll teach you."

Keith scowled. He hadn't really twisted the guys arm or anything, so he must've wanted to teach in the first place, right?

Kolivan told everyone to leave the room and everyone seemed more than happy to leave. In fact some left before they were even told to.

Keith fidgeted, wondering what he'd gotten himself into. The Blades were very much a hands on society and weren't shy about teaching the hard stuff first.

"Have a seat," Kolivan instructed and they both sat on the floor, "I want you to first find your quintessence. find the flow of it in your blood, find its gathering places, and then really get to know it."

"…how," Keith dreaded the answer he knew was coming.

"We call it Keetor, but I believe you would call it Meditation."

Keith held back a groan. Shiro had once signed him up for anger management and meditation was one of the things that they swore would work.

It didn't.

At least not for him.

"Do you wish to learn about your abilities or not?" Kolivan said.

"…yes," Keith made his decision and took a deep breath. Trying to remember the mind emptying tactics in the class, he settled into his meditation.

After a while Kolivan sighed.

"What are you doing?"

"…you said to meditate."

"I said to search."

"What?"

Kolivan sighed again, "you can not search with an empty mind. You can not learn with an empty mind. You must keep it active and actively search and learn."

Keith was totally lost. He had no idea how to meditate the way he was taught and then search for a mystical substance within himself at the same time.

Kolivan watched the confusion on the younglings face and stood. He walked closer and sat directly in front of the boy.

"First," Kolivan raised a finger in front of his face, "Focus on your breathing, then gradually ask your body where the breath is coming from. Then ask where the oxygen is going. Follow the flow this one thing that gives you life and see if you can't follow it back to your own life force."

Keith tried to not roll his eyes and instead closed them so Kolivan couldn't see.

He did as he was told. Relaxing his breathing into a steady rhythm. He felt foolish "asking" his body the questions, but, in the end, it helped him focus on the answers to those questions. He began to imagine the pathways of the red blood cells and how his blood flowed in his body.

Kolivan was completely silent, waiting for the boy to find it on his own. After a long while, he brought up a quintessace shield and waited.

A sharp shockwave blasted from the youngling and slammed into the walls. Kolivan grunted a little with the effort it took to protect himself from the onslaught.

"I see you've found it."

Keith blinked, looking down at himself. He felt more full of energy than he'd ever had before.

He could do anything.

He could be anything.

He could DO anything!

ANYTHING!

"Stop," Kolivans voice cut into his thoughts, "just because you feel better, doesn't mean you need to act on it. Now that you've discovered your potential, let's train it and actually make it useful."

()

Hunk burst onto the bridge and froze. Lotor was there with Shiro and Allura.

Bitting back what he wanted to complain about he turned to leave.

"What's wrong?" Shiro asked and Hunk shook his head.

"Keiths being an idiot, that's all," Hunk snapped and left the room. Shiro and Allura shared a look. Keith had been gone for several quintants and they had no luck in contacting him.

"Where is he?" Lotor asked, "I've not seen him recently."

"Scouting ahead," Allura said, "I think he likes the solitude, but Hunks a little nervous about letting team mates out of sight for too long."

"Understood," Lotor nodded, "But back to the topic at hand. Krye needs to be stopped, at all cost. Remember when I told you about Commander Shup?"

"That's the one you said was close to joining you and supports your ideals, right?"

"Yes, and Krye just killed him a while back. No doubt Shup refused to join him and he was insulted."

"Do you know this for a fact?" Shiro asked. He was fine with Lotor, but the half galra always seemed to make blanket statements and assumptions to pass them off as fact.

"Krye is in the middle of building his influence," Lotor explained, "he's gathering Generals, Commanders, Captains, and subordinates to function in his fleet. I can't think of any other reason why Shup would be killed. He was a good person."

"Well, maybe we should look into it some more. Really get to know this guy," Shiro said, "you've still not met with him. How are we supposed to get ahead and win if we don't know what moves he's going to make?"

Lotor didn't like the accusatory tone, but hid it well, "I have an opportunity here soon. I'll use that to get to know him a little and get back to you. Just showing up and starting a random conversation would be strange."

"True," Allura said, "then get back quickly. Its been a while so I'm afraid we'll meet up with this new threat soon."

Lotor and Shiro nodded and they went their separate ways.

()

"Now that you are familiar with your quintessence and how it works, you can manifest it and control it," Kolivan instructed, "this is what makes Zarkon so strong and why he's harvesting Quintessence from other life forms and planets. The more quintessence you have, the stronger you are. Most formal duels begin with a show of such strength, and often ends there. Some are killed simply by being too weak."

"What's a normal amount?" Keith asked, wondering how much he had compared to others. Sensing the reason behind the question, Kolivan answered.

"You have more than the average amount, from what I can sense. Which means you have even more than that. You will be a formidable opponent when you are completely trained."

"Do you use supplements like Zarkon?"

"Absolutely not," Kolivan snapped, insulted and angry at the question, "one should only use the quintessence life has deemed to give them. Alteans and the Galra were two races where we could manipulate life energy at will. The Galra manipulated their own while Alteans manipulated the quintessence around them. Together the Galra and the Alteans were powerful and peace keepers."

"Until Zarkon."

"Until Zarkons wife died and he lost his mind," Kolivan said, "History is powerful and can teach so much, but now is not the time to share what I'm sharing with you. Zarkon was once a beloved ruler and a good man, but he suddenly went insane when his wife died and Daibazaal was destroyed. He'd lost too much and went on a rampage that has not ended to this day."

Keith thought about this and understood. For a split second, he felt pity for Zarkon, not hatred.

"That's still no excuse," Keith said the second gone, "for all he's done."

"That is correct," Kolivan said, "He should've stepped down many feebs ago. Now, let me teach you how to create a shield. Defense first, then I'll show you how to attack."

()

Lotor bowed before Zarkon, Krye did the same not five feet to his left.

"Because Lotor has failed to accomplish the task I've given him, that task will be given to you, Krye," Zarkon announced, "Bring me Voltron."

"My Emperor-" Lotor started but was stopped as Zarkon manifested his arura and applied preasure to Lotors head, forcing it back down into a bow.

"You have failed and will go back to being banished. I have no use for the weak and pathetic."

"My emperor," Krye spoke, his voice soft and buzzed slightly, hiding his real voice, "I'll need Lotor if you wish to have Voltron."

The pressure let up and Lotor gasped. He knew better than to rub his neck, but he still turned his head slightly to look at Krye.

"And why would you need the weak when I have no need of it?"

"Even the weak have knowledge, sire," Krye replied, "he's been fighting Voltron for longer and I will have need of his expertise. It will take only one battle and I will have Voltron here, under your command."

()

Lotor wasn't given a chance to warn Voltron at all.

From the moment Zarkon gave his consent, Krye never allowed Lotor out of his sight. Lotor, according to everyone else, owed Krye for his belevolance in keeping Lotor around. Lotor was the only one who saw it as the insult that it was.

"Tell me about Voltron as we walk," Krye commanded as Lotor walked beside him. Acxa and the other three followed Lotor while only Qaltok followed Krye. If it came to a fight, Lotor was sure he would win, but it didn't seem to be the time.

"Voltron has five members," Lotor started but Krye waved a hand at him.

"Please, brother, if I wanted facts I could glean from the fairy tales I would read those, I want information that only fighting against them will reveil."

"You fought with them before," Lotor said and stopped walking, "should you not know already?"

"I've kept them at bay while doing my job in weeding out the weak and stupid," Krye said, "I've not fought them head on. You know as well as I that that is a different strategy angle. You DO have to help in their capture."

"I'm aware of that and I'll let you know," Lotor said, "Acxa and Narti will you-"

"Oh, no, brother," Krye started walking again, "I need you to talk to me directly. Your generals can speak to mine. Qaltok, please take these ladies to the ship and organize a meeting with Romak, Jakal, and Greshik."

Lotor kept his face unreadable, but wondered at the names. He didn't recognize a single one. The only general in Kryes corner that had any kind of reputation was Qaltok.

He gave his generals a nod and they followed Qaltok to the hangers. All four of them were the best of the best, he didn't worry about their safety.

"Let's discuss starting moves," Krye said, "If under a surprise attack, what would be Voltrons initial reaction?"

()

"This way, Generals," Qaltok stepped back and lead them into a conference room where the other three already sat.

"You set us up," Zathrid went for her weapon. But Qaltok raised a hand.

"Not at all," he said, "we are here to talk. Lord Krye simply saw ahead and prepared for the likelihood that we would need to talk."

"But this is sketchy," Ezor smirked, "You passed up Lotors good name for an upstart?"

The three generals in the room stood and hands went to weapons. Qaltok shouted.

"ENOUGH!" To Ezor he said, "Yes, his price for my loyalty was a bit more in my range."

"Fair enough," Ezor shrugged and took her seat lightly, smirking the entire time.

Greshik and the other two sat slowly, looking to Qaltok, who took his seat at the head of the table.

"Now let's exchange information on our forces."