Author's Note: ...Yeah, I know, I just updated five days ago. Went a little mad with NaNoWriMo, you know how it is. We're getting close to the end of the fic, for the record- one more chapter left after this!
The Castle shuddered underfoot as it breached Olkarion's atmosphere, rising away from the planet's surface to settle into an intermediate orbit. Keith watched the disc of the planet begin to shrink below them through the bridge's viewscreens, lounging back wearily in his chair.
Olkarion had been exhausting. They'd landed early in Olkarion's day, and only left close to planetary sunset— nearly eight hours later, if he had to guess— and the parts of the day that hadn't been full of dealing with people had been full of fighting shit. The turrets were a pain in his ass, if he was gonna be honest, almost as bad as the stupid robeasts. The Olkari were fine, a little weirdly enthusiastic about stuff sometimes, but fine, and it was pretty satisfying to watch Ryner light into Lubos. Sendak had been right— the former king was a sellout. The Olkari prisoner serving as his attendant had ratted him out immediately.
Not that any of them, aside from Coran, had really been good at paying attention to stuff. Allura, stretched up to seven and a half feet tall, had seemed more preoccupied with helping haul Sendak around. The back of Keith's head was buzzing , had been ever since Pidge and Green came up from the forest. The rest of them could feel it too, he knew just looking— the zoned-out expression on Lance's face, Hunk looking fixedly at the ground instead of talking to people, Pidge's incessant fidgeting, Shiro's jump every time someone spoke to him— the Lions, pressing at the borders of their minds.
Sometimes he thought he'd almost gotten the impression of words from Red, but most of it was just emotion, a sense of bone-shaking satisfaction she'd been unwilling to explain.
The buzzing had mostly faded out since they'd boarded, though, with the walls and floors of the Castle dampening the bond. They'd congregated on the bridge anyway, the seven of them not in healing pods sprawled in flight chairs or lounging near controls, all mostly quiet.
"You did good out there, Pidge," Shiro said at last. Keith picked his head up, turning towards Shiro, who'd turned around in his seat to lean over the back, chin settled on his folded arms. "You kept your cool under fire, and handled everything really well today. I'm proud of you."
Pidge, sprawled sideways over the side of her chair, lifted her head to grin. "Thanks," she said. Then she paused, brows furrowing again. "...Y'know, it's weird. You guys know I've always been a tech junkie—" Hunk gave a good-natured groan from his chair, and Pidge blew a raspberry back at him— "but now, it's like...I dunno. I feel, like, entangled . Like bonding deeper with Green there tied me closer to everything else . I think Ryner was right— I mean, she is right, about the cosmic dust, but I can feel it now where I couldn't before."
Red gave a pleased rumble somewhere in the back of Keith's head. He shifted a little, trying to sit himself more upright.
"Like we're all related," he said, and the others jumped— guess he'd been quieter than he'd thought since they landed. He felt his face heat and spread his hands, almost defensively. "If we're made of the same stuff, right? The ship, the stars, the Olkari...the Galra?"
Felt like testing the waters, a little bit. He wished Sendak was there, if only to offer some kind of dry retort, but the Galra would be in a cryopod for another couple hours at least.
"You're blowing your own mind over there, huh," Hunk said, grinning. That earned a round of giggles, and Keith relaxed back in the chair.
"It certainly was a productive trip," Coran said, once they'd all sobered up a little. "I spoke to the Olkari who dismantled the big cube, and one of them gave me this —"
Another echo cube, plucked from some hidden pocket in Coran's coat. He released it into the air, where it split into a group of eight smaller cubes, floating in a loose semicircle around his head. Keith resisted the urge to groan. They'd seen way more than enough echo cubes planetside.
"Do they do the—" Lance started, seemingly still excited, and Keith rolled his eyes.
"Of course!" Coran said brightly, then lilted out, "Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man!"
The cubes echoed it back tinnily, the circle rotating slowly as it did. Hunk blew a raspberry himself, which the cubes echoed back, and grinned delightedly as Hunk and Pidge laughed. Keith caught Shiro's wince out of the corner of his eye, and couldn't help his relief— he wasn't the only one not thrilled with the cubes.
"Okay, guys—" Shiro started.
The blare of an alarm— the proximity alarm— cut him off, screens all around the room flashing red. Keith jumped, hand flying immediately to his right hip for his bayard.
"What's that?" Coran gasped.
The Castle shuddered again. Not a breach of atmo. The space before them roiled, starfield behind it distorting, as something— dropped out of hyperspace. A broad expanse of grey metal and magenta light, long sharp spires it took Keith entirely too long to make sense of.
Zarkon's command ship.
Smaller shapes fluttered in around it, dozens of cruisers dropping out of hyperspace. Keith's stomach lurched. The space around the ships began to thicken with fighters, leaving red trails of light in their wake.
"...Oh, no ," Allura breathed. "Zarkon— Branko must have gotten back to him more quickly than we thought."
"We need to wormhole, now ," Shiro said. He'd already straightened up, spinning around in his chair. "Everybody ready at their stations. We need to put some distance between us and Zarkon—"
The Castle rocked again, and Keith grabbed for the arms of his chair to steady himself. Magenta lasers streaked past the viewscreens— the fleet had opened fire.
"That's a lot of fighters," Hunk said, voice trembling.
"Allura, can we evade?" Shiro asked.
"I can try," Allura answered, sounding tight with fear.
The Castle shuddered as the thrusters engaged, wrenching them from Olkarion's orbit. Away from the command ship. Coran's hands flitted across his control panel, the particle barrier shimmering into existence as he brought it online. The alarms screamed.
"Keith, Lance, let's lay down some covering fire," Shiro said.
Keith pulled up his controls, fumbling for the remote-controlled defense drone. Red rumbled somewhere in the back of his mind, low and urgent. He tried to ignore her, bringing up the controls for the drone and dropping out behind the Castle, within the particle barrier. If the controls were more tangible than hard-light constructs, his hands would have been slick on them. As it was he spun them, growling with effort, and fired off a salvo at the fighters in pursuit. Pidge called a warning— he only half-heard, spinning the drone again to fire off—
And rammed it directly into Lance's.
"Hey!" Lance yelped.
"Sorry," Keith snapped back, not taking his eyes off the screen. "You gotta be quick."
There was a twitch out of the corner of his eye, and Lance's drone slammed into his. Keith growled and slammed back, shoving furiously and glaring sideways at Lance.
"Knock it off, you two. Stay in your zones," Shiro called, and Keith snapped his head back up and wrenched at the controls, pulling his drone away. He watched Shiro's head lift, turning slightly towards them as he raised his voice to be heard over Lance's squawking. "Pidge, keep calling out those drones! Hunk, how are the defenses holding?"
In the space between responses, Keith fired off another round of shots, taking out a bank of incoming fighters.
"I, uh," Hunk said from behind. "I— ten percent? Fifteen, maybe? Everything's a blur, man, I've been up too long. I got tired eyes."
"I know we just came off Olkarion, but we gotta stay focused until we can jump," Shiro said.
"And when is that ?" Keith asked, spinning the drone again. The fighters were beginning to fall back—
"They're still too close," Coran called from up front.
—Not enough.
"I've got an idea," Allura said, her voice suddenly steel. "Everyone, hold on!"
The Castle jerked abruptly, and Keith bit back a yelp. Inertia yanked him halfway across the chair as the whole ship shuddered, whipping through a turn. They were well away from Olkarion, passing one of the other planets in the system— Allura had banked hard into the gravity well of a moon. The Castle strained, then shot out the other side— Keith vaguely remembered the theory from class at the Garrison, using orbital velocity to launch probes. Mostly he was focused on not toppling out of his seat.
"We're clear to wormhole!" Coran shouted over the roar of the engines.
Brilliant blue light burst from the Balmera crystal overhead. An answering blue bloomed ahead— the wormhole opening in a swirl of light, visible for moments before the Castle shot through and into the tunnel beyond.
The awful G-forces eased, letting Keith sit back upright again and drag a breath into his lungs. His hands, clenched tight on the arms of the chair, felt locked in pace, the nails dug in. Strange energy crackled across the viewscreens, dancing blue behind the red alarm notices.
"How come we're still on alert?" Lance asked.
"Coran?" Shiro called.
"Teludav lens malfunction!" Coran called back. Keith picked his head up again and looked forward— Coran was turned back towards them, his eyes wide and wild. "We're about to exit this wormhole a lot sooner than we planned!"
The other end of the wormhole opened up ahead of them, rippling with that odd energy, and they slammed into it full-force. Keith felt it like a blow to the chest, behind the ribcage, and gasped as they shot back out into normal space, slowing to a stop. The Castle floated above a vast sea of asteroids, translucent bluish-white like ice or glass, all irregular shapes and sizes. The starfield around them was bluish too, and vast and empty, save a few distant, swirling gaseous clouds like the fringes of a nebula.
"Where are we?" Lance asked, breaking the quiet. "Some kinda iceberg graveyard?"
"Coran, what's the status?" Allura asked. Her voice was faint, out of breath; when Keith turned to look at her she'd slumped forward over the controls. Her face was beaded with sweat, and the little cut on her cheek she'd gotten on Olkarion seemed to have reopened, painting a pinkish sheen where blood had run. As he watched, she brought a hand up to rest it against her forehead.
"Checking that now," Coran said. A quiet tapping. "...Well, we didn't make it to our exit point, but we're still several galaxies from Zarkon's fleet."
He started to say something else, but at that moment, Allura's legs gave out under her. Keith was on his feet before he even thought about it— Red hummed in the back of his mind, the bond humming— and he realized a moment later that the others were up as well, all five Paladins converging on Allura. He stopped a few paces away, letting the others move in closer; Shiro and Coran brushed past, the former stooping and the latter kneeling to be level with the fallen princess.
"...Oh, dear, you look exhausted," Coran said gently. "You must rest, you've exerted way too much energy— oh, I knew landing on Olkarion was a bad idea—"
"Olkarion," Allura ground out, "was fine , Coran. This was the jump."
"Are you sure ?" he asked. "I know you enjoyed the mission, but really—"
" Coran ," Allura said again, lifting her head to look up at him. "I'm fine. Please."
Coran sighed, then straightened, getting back to his feet. "...Alright," he said. "I'll go check on the main turbine, see if I can't figure out what's going—"
He'd been moving as he said it, and as he stepped down off the command podium, his foot slipped— on what Keith couldn't tell— and went sliding across the floor to slam into the wall with a yelp.
"Are you okay?" Lance called.
Coran pushed himself back up the wall, and Keith squinted at him. Under the bridge lights, he looked...oddly glossy? A step, a faint squelching noise, and Keith amended his thought. Not glossy. Wet .
"I'm fine, I—" Coran started. Paused. "Look, I— I tell you what, I've probably hit a...slippery spot on the ground over there— someone, please, wipe that up!" His voice had shot up into loud bluster.
"You're sweating," Allura said, rearranging herself to sit up more easily and wiping at her cheek. "You might have a case of the slipperies."
Coran gave an indignant yelp. "That's an old person virus, Allura, and I— I'm not old, I'm young ! Well, young-ish." Yes, definitely wet. There was what looked like a pool spreading around his feet, and Keith hoped his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"What are the slipperies ?" Lance asked.
Allura snorted. "It's a common Altean virus that occurs...ah, later in life," she said, glancing up. There was a twinkle in her eyes. "It's not harmful, and it usually only lasts a couple of days, but it causes one's body to secrete extremely slick fluid."
Keith felt his gorge rise, and very pointedly looked away from Coran, who had stepped out of his puddle and immediately began forming another one. He heard Shiro shift behind him, Lance and Pidge making unified sounds of revulsion. Hunk sidestepped back, behind Allura.
"Yes, it is gross, so it's a good thing I don't have it !" Coran exclaimed, half a protest.
"Coran, it's nothing to be embarrassed about," Allura said, her tone placating.
Pidge made a dramatic retching noise, undercutting her words, and Keith tried not to snort.
"I'm not embarrassed," Coran said, spreading his dripping arms, "because I don't have it! And now—" he turned on his heel to go, boots sliding in the puddle under his feet— "I'm actually going to leave , because I've got to go fix the main turbine—" His boots slipped out from under him, and he slid towards the doors—
Which opened for him, shooting him off into the ship and leaving a trail of slime behind him.
"... Eugh ," said Hunk, breaking the silence at last. Lance hummed in agreement, and Keith couldn't help echoing the sentiment.
"Alright," Shiro said. "Since Zarkon has no idea where we are, we need to take a minute to rest and recoup. I know Olkarion was hard, and I know all of us are gonna need a nap —" this was said with pointed looks at Pidge and Allura, earning a glare from Pidge and— unless Keith's eyes were mistaken, a blush from Allura— "and to just take a break for a little while. We can worry about other stuff once we have our feet back under us."
Keith opened his mouth for a question, but was cut off by the ship's comms blipping, popping an image of a control room elsewhere in the ship— and Coran, slipping erratically across the frame— up on the viewscreens.
"Hello, all!" he called. "I've checked the main turbine!"
"That was fast," Pidge deadpanned. Keith snorted.
"Well, I slipped—" Coran started, overbalanced, caught himself, and started again, "I mean, hurried right down. Anyway, the good news is—" he popped back up into view— "the Galra fighters did minimal damage before we got the particle barrier up. I've flushed the turbine, and it's fine. The bad news is, the teludav— the wormholer for you Earthlings— is in bad shape. Several scaultrite lens-stones in the beam generator are cracked, and until I remove those and realign what's left, we won't be able to generate enough power for a full jump. As it is, we'll need to redirect more power to the teludav until we can replace them to compensate for the lost energy— but it's going to take at least a quintant before I can get it running again."
"...Well, that'll work for us," Shiro said, shrugging. "We'll hide the ship and get some rest while you figure out your work-around, and we can look into getting new parts tomorrow. Sound good?"
"Yeah, that'll work," Coran said. "Pidge, if you wouldn't mind coming down to give me a hand?"
Pidge's expression was nauseated, but she nodded. "...Yeah, I'll be right down."
Keith shot her a look of sympathy as she went, picking her way around the puddles and trails Coran had left on the floor of the bridge.
"...Allura?" Shiro said gently, and Keith looked back up at him. "Do you want a hand with moving the ship? One of the icebergs over there has a hole through it I think we'll fit into, it should help hide us from sensors."
Allura smiled, her expression relieved. "Yes, please," she said, and reached up— Shiro reached down, helping her back to her feet.
Keith caught Lance's eye, caught the irritated look on his face, and made for the door himself. He was halfway down the hall, avoiding Coran's snail trail, when he felt the distant thump of thrusters kicking on. The Castle was moving again, ever so slowly. The bridge doors hissed behind him, and Keith paused at the elevator, letting Hunk and Lance catch up.
"They got it?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah, totally," Hunk said. They stepped into the elevator, evading the puddle on the floor.
"... Man ," Lance said. His expression had soured further.
"...What?" Keith asked.
Hunk chuckled. "Oh, you didn't see it," he said. "Allura and Shiro were up at the front station, and she was like—" he shifted a little more behind Lance, whose face was reddening— " all pressed up against him, walking him through the controls like ooh, Shiro, you've got to be gentle with it ." He'd pitched his voice up a little at the last part, mimicking Allura's accent.
"And he knows I like her," Lance grumbled. "And like, he's already all buddied up with Sendak, and he knows Allura doesn't like him , so what does he even think he's doing , anyway?"
Keith kept his mouth shut . Lance absolutely did not need to know what was going on there, if he was already in this bad of a mood.
The elevator settled out at the residential floor, and the three of them maneuvered back out around the puddle of slime on the floor and into the relative safety of a floor Coran hadn't touched yet. Hunk pulled another face as the elevator doors closed, and Keith couldn't help snickering.
"...You guys got any plans while we have some downtime?" he asked.
"Baking," Hunk said immediately. " Definitely baking. I know, I know, I'm a little fried right now—" he held his hands up, deferring an unspoken question— "but baking always helps me clear my head, and when I'm done we're gonna have cookies, so that makes everything okay."
"Good point," Lance said. "Allura said there's a pool, so I'm gonna go find that , maybe do a couple laps."
"What about you, Keith?" Hunk asked.
They were coming up on the common room by that point, and Keith paused next to the couch pit. Really, he wanted to head back to his bedroom, but if something happened— more Galra showed up, they needed to do something, whatever— he didn't want to be too out of the way.
"...Think I'm gonna take a nap," he said. "Wake me up when the cookies are done?"
Hunk clapped him on the shoulder. "Will do. Sleep tight, man."
"Thanks," Keith said.
"You sure? You're missing out on the pool ," Lance said.
"Not missing out if I drown in it," Keith said, and dropped himself into the couch pit. He forgot, sometimes, how comfortable the cushions were.
"Your loss," Lance said, and took off for their rooms. Hunk grinned, waved again, and turned towards the kitchen.
Keith watched them go, then flopped over backwards on the seat. The Castle's lights were still on the daytime setting, but if he was right they wouldn't be for much longer. And his eyelids were heavy, eyes dry and scratchy...he let them slip closed a moment, staring up at the lights where they painted red shadows through the lids. Just a quick nap, and then he'd be back up and ready to roll again…
The earth rumbles beneath him. He lifts his cheek, blinking at the amber light sprawled out across the wooden floor, and knows every chink and gap in the wood. The cabin is never quiet; the faint hum of appliances, the rattle of wind in the old tin roof. It is rattling now, in fact, and as he sits up on the old, threadbare couch, he realizes the quality of the light is strange too. Not afternoon-amber, lazy golden, but the red of an oncoming dust storm.
Another rumble, shaking the cabin. The equipment stacked in the corner— old EMF meters, his father's ancient geiger counter— begins to squeal, and he bolts to his feet. His hand closes on leather-wrapped metal and he bolts for the door.
Outside, the wind whips down the canyon towards the cabin, and the sand should sting but doesn't, the light blinding. He raises his arm and squints against it.
A dark shape, rising above the canyon. The black battering-ram prow of a Galra cruiser, casting red and magenta light down before it, and the earth rumbles again, shaking at its approach. The metal in his hand quakes and begins to burn, and he lowers his gaze to the knife—
Keith gasped, and his eyes flew open onto darkness. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust— the only light was dim and bluish, radiating down from panels near the ceiling. He sat himself up slowly, blinking and staring around, and scrubbed his hand over his face.
The Castle's common room, right. And he was down in the couch pit, had been hanging halfway off the couch before he roused. His mouth tasted like metal, and his ears were ringing, but there was no sound to have caused it, no alarms blaring, only the quiet of the middle of the night cycle. His heart pounded in his chest, and he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. There was nothing there, nothing happening—
Keith snorted. Hell of a thing to think after earlier, even if they left out Olkarion. He rubbed his eyes, then stretched, reaching for the ceiling. Nothing happening was probably a good thing.
A faint tapping reached his ears, and he straightened, turning in that direction— the door into the common room from the direction of the elevators, now closed. The sound of voices accompanied it, muffled by the door. He tilted his head, straining his ears to listen.
"—Still a bad sign. He hasn't taken the field himself in two hundred and thirty cycles, if he's angry enough to do so now , he won't quit after losing the quarry once." That was Sendak's voice, growing louder and closer with every word.
"It's been a couple vargas, so we're hoping we've managed to give him the slip," Allura answered.
The door hissed open, spilling light into the room. Sendak, Allura, and Shiro strode through it, not seeming to notice him— Sendak's head was bowed, the other two leaning up towards him as they walked.
"How long would it take a Galra hyperdrive to get here from Olkarion, anyway?" Shiro asked.
"A couple vargas," Sendak said dryly. His head lifted, turning towards Keith, and his shoulders tensed momentarily before relaxing. "And what are you doing up, Keith?"
"Oh! I hadn't noticed you were there," Allura said, and flashed him a smile.
"Hey, Keith," Shiro said. His eyes darted, giving Keith a once-over. "Having a good nap?"
"I was, yeah," Keith said. "What's going on?"
"Briefing," Sendak said. He elbowed Shiro in the ribs. "I still wish you'd woken me when Zarkon came calling."
"I think being shot half a dozen times takes priority over your anxieties," Allura retorted, and elbowed Sendak . Keith snorted.
"You've been out for about five hours," Shiro said, turning back to Keith.
"...Guess I needed that nap," Keith said, managing a wry grin.
Sendak slung himself casually over the edge of the pit, settling down on the bench nearby. Shiro dropped in next to him, between Keith and Sendak, and after a moment's hesitation Allura slid in on Sendak's other side, lounging back and flicking a hand at the ceiling. The lights came up, though not to full daytime— maybe half that, reminding Keith of the full moon in the desert. One of her bracelets flashed, and she paused and tapped at it.
"Well, that was Coran," she said. "He's got the worst of the damaged lenses out, but it'll take some time for him to adjust the trajectory of the remaining ones."
"Has he let Pidge back in yet?" Shiro asked, grinning.
"Wait, what happened with Pidge?" Keith asked.
Allura rolled her eyes. " Apparently she made a comment about the slipperies, and he took offense," she said.
"Did he kick her out of the—" Sendak started.
"Out of the generator room, yeah," Shiro said. "She was pissed ."
Keith couldn't help snorting. Sendak chuckled as well, leaning back on the couch.
"So who's been doing damage control?" Keith asked.
"Nobody," Allura said. "They're both too angry about it to be worth dealing with."
" Wonderful ," Sendak muttered. "Precisely what we need with Zarkon breathing down our necks."
"...Are you sure he's coming?" Keith asked hesitantly.
Sendak nodded. "For the Black Lion? Without question."
"Well, let's hope we have enough time for Coran to finish with the teludav before he gets here," Shiro said. He heaved a heavy sigh, sagging back on the cushion and tilting his head back. His eyes squeezed shut.
Sendak glanced up at Keith, then patted Shiro lightly on the knee. "...I think both you and Allura ought to follow Keith's example," he said gently.
"I do not need some uppity Galra telling me to take a nap like I'm a toddler," Allura huffed. Keith shot her a look, studying her face— her hair was bedraggled, and the skin under her eyes was beginning to look bruised.
"I might," Shiro said, not bothering to open his eyes.
"And I suppose you wouldn't take 'concerned commander' any better, would you," Sendak deadpanned, and—
Attempted to poke Allura. She swatted him away, hardly looking at him and Sendak smirked. Shiro, eyes still closed, snorted a laugh.
What the hell had happened there ? Olkarion must have fried their brains.
"No, it is not better, you overgrown hairball," Allura shot back. "In fact, it might be worse ."
"What if I suggested it?" Shiro asked, and that time he did crack an eye open.
Allura opened her mouth to retort, her expression indignant.
Keith cut her off. "...Uh, Sendak, can I...talk to you?" he asked, then shot a glance at Shiro— whose other eye had opened— and at Allura. "...In private," he added lamely.
Sendak's expression softened, his ears tilting up. "Of course," he said, and rose to his feet, nudging Shiro's knees gently out of the way. "Try not to have too much fun without me, you two."
"Oh, you know we will," Allura shot back, as Keith got to his feet. "We'll throw a celebration in honor of being freed from Galra tyranny."
Sendak blew a raspberry at her and sprang up over the edge of the couch pit. Keith scrambled up after him, following him out of the common room down the hall towards the bedrooms. He took the lead then, not looking back at Sendak as he went— the hair on the nape of his neck stood on end under the weight of the Galra's stare. He paused outside his own door, then pressed his palm against the access panel, letting them both inside.
The knife had slipped out from under his pillow again, and Keith's stomach lurched sickeningly for a moment. It must have slid free during the chaos of the pursuit at Olkarion— he supposed he was relieved it hadn't been thrown clear across the room. He sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling the knife into his lap. The doors hissed closed, and Sendak leaned back against it, folding his arms across his chest.
"...So, what's bothering you?" Sendak asked quietly.
Keith took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, then looked up. "...You know how I asked you if the Galra have ever been to Earth?" he asked.
Sendak inclined his head. "You still owe me an explanation for that."
Keith nodded, biting his lip. His hands stilled, and he forced himself to move them, carefully unwrapping the cloth from the hilt of the knife, then turned and gripped the sheath, offering it hilt-first to Sendak.
"...Have you ever seen a knife like this before?" he asked.
Sendak plucked the knife gently from his grasp, turning it lightly over in his hands before sliding it from the sheath. It had always felt overly large in Keith's hands, but in Sendak's it looked tiny, almost delicate. He spun it between his fingers, clearly testing the balance, then lifted it to study it more closely.
"...Keith, where did you get this?" he asked, ears turning in Keith's direction.
Keith took another deep breath. "...My dad gave it to me when I was a kid," he said. "He told me it used to be my mom's, and she wanted me to have it."
Sendak paused, then settled down on the bed beside him. The mattress dipped under his weight. He seemed to study Keith's face, ears twitching and flicking. His brows furrowed.
"...Yes, I have seen a knife like this before," he said, lifting the knife again for Keith's inspection. "This is an Atakai throwing knife— a style of paired blades that date to the first millennium of interplanetary travel among the Galra, before we were even an Empire." He twirled the knife delicately, then caught it again, balancing the blade on his fingers. "They were designed originally by the clan they take their name from— the Atakai were keen on dominating our native star system, and they designed a number of weapon styles still common throughout the Empire to wage battles shipside without risking a hull puncture— this particular knife is designed to punch through weak points in armor without compromising the structural integrity of the hull if you miss, it's weighted so it spins at an interval that decreases the odds of striking a wall blade-first when thrown by an experienced fighter. See how far forward the weight on the blade is balanced?"
Keith nodded. "...So...it is Galra?"
Sendak snorted. "I wasn't finished, Keith," he said, and twirled the knife again. "This style is common throughout the Empire, but— the material of the blade is much, much less common, which is why I asked you where it came from. This is a luxite blade, and those are... incredibly rare." His voice softened. "Luxite originates from one region on Daibazaal, our homeworld. It is difficult to work, and dangerous, and it's widely believed the technique has been lost. Most of the remaining weapons made from it are closely guarded by the most powerful clans in the Empire, and they are few and far between. I've handled a single luxite blade in my life, and...only under Emperor Zarkon's close supervision."
Keith swallowed. "...So what you're telling me is, I have a super rare Galra knife on my hands."
Sendak snorted, spun the knife again, then stopped it— his fingers rested just above the violet symbol on the hilt. "That's exactly what I'm saying," he said. "And this here, on the hilt— it's unused in the modern Empire, but this crest was associated with a now defunct sub-branch of the Order of the Archivists...I can't remember which god's sect it belonged to, unfortunately."
"Ulaz's sword had that symbol on the hilt," Keith said carefully.
"Well, then. There's your answer," Sendak said. He spun the knife again, then slid it back into its sheath and offered the hilt to Keith. "Welcome to the clan, little brother."
Keith swallowed, hard, and took the knife back. The hilt was a little warmer in his hands than it had been before he'd handed it over, even with all the twirling. He ducked his head a little and grabbed the strip of cloth back up, rewrapping the hilt to conceal the symbol on it. Then he peered back up at Sendak, the view half-obscured by his bangs.
Sendak was watching him, ears alert, but his expression was gentle.
"...When they find out, do you think they'll be mad at me?" Keith asked, and tilted his head towards the door.
"The others?" Sendak asked. His brows furrowed, and he tilted his head to one side. "Why would they be mad at you?"
"I mean—" Keith started, then took a deep breath and started again. "The Galra hurt Shiro really badly. Allura and Coran are alone because of what Zarkon did. What if—"
"Keith," Sendak said, and reached out. Keith squeaked as the Galra caught his jaw, closing his mouth gently. "Look at me. Which of us has served the Galra Empire with perfect loyalty their entire life, and which of us is perhaps half Galra at most and didn't even know the Empire existed until six movements ago?"
Keith pulled Sendak's hand away from his face, scowling at him. "I know ," he muttered. "But still, what if they all decide they hate me? What if they think I'm...I dunno. Betraying them or something?"
"They won't," Sendak said firmly. "You are not responsible for the cruelties of the Empire— and you wouldn't be, even if your parent were Imperial, which given your blade I doubt. You are not party to our evils, and have nothing to atone for." He paused, then cracked a smile. "Besides, Princess Allura has decided she doesn't hate me anymore, and I blew up her bridge, nearly killed half her crew, and attempted to steal Voltron twice . You'll be fine, little brother."
"Oh my god," Keith said, and dropped his face into his hands, trying to keep from laughing. "Why'd you have to put it like that?"
Sendak snorted. "Oh, that's only what I've done to her personally ," he chuckled. "Would you like me to enumerate my many crimes, starting with the beginning of my military career?"
"No way ," Keith retorted, picking his head back up to slap a hand over Sendak's mouth. Sendak laughed, and a moment later something rough scraped over his palm. Keith yanked his hand away, letting out a scandalized squeak. "Did you just lick me?"
"Do you want me to answer that?" Sendak asked. His eye glittered, one corner of his mouth quirking up, and before Keith could drop the knife and run for it Sendak had caught him in a headlock, ruffling his hair furiously.
Sendak released him a minute later. Keith tumbled back away from him, laughing despite himself and shaking his head, trying to get his hair back into some semblance of order. He felt lighter , somehow, unable to keep the grin off his face— not even Sendak's smug, victorious expression was enough to bring him back down. He caught his breath after a minute, reaching up to rake his bangs back into his face, then paused to gather his thoughts.
"...Do you think we should tell them?" he asked.
Sendak's head tilted, as if conceding a point. "Eventually," he said. "I expect we'll meet more formally with the Blade of Marmora sooner rather than later, and that seems to me the relevant time to reveal it. The Blade will have information on who last held your knife, and you may benefit from the introduction of a lot of other Galra in distracting the group from your heritage."
"You think I'll need it?" Keith asked, head tilting.
"Look at me and tell me what you think the odds are of the younger three not making jokes at your expense," Sendak deadpanned back.
"Oh, yeah," Keith admitted. Then he paused, looking Sendak up and down, and grinned. "Like they're gonna make fun of Shiro when they find out he's hooking up with you."
Sendak groaned, flopping backwards on the bed hard enough to make Keith's end of the mattress bounce. "Not you too ," he said, exasperated. "I have not , as you put it, 'hooked up' with Shiro."
"You were on the training deck with him in the middle of the night, and he's calling you nicknames," Keith countered.
"Both normal things to do with a friend," Sendak retorted, and picked his head back up to glare at Keith. "Believe me, I have no interest in hooking up with him. You and Pidge can both get off my ass about it."
"You know if I ask Shiro he'll tell me the truth, right?" Keith asked.
"Yes, and he'll corroborate my story," Sendak said. "We were both up and decided a spar or three would make a more productive use of the time than laying in bed and failing to sleep. I wore him out, and—"
"Then you took it back up to his bedroom?" Keith interjected.
Sendak threw one of the pillows at him, clocking Keith square in the face and knocking him over backwards. The mattress shifted again, and he sat back up just in time to watch Sendak make a beeline for the door. His ears were flat with what looked like irritation until Keith noticed the blue blush on the pinnae.
"I am not ," Sendak said, with all the dignity he could muster— which wasn't much— "going to sit here and take this from a void-taken teenager . Go pester Shiro with your sex questions."
Before Keith could say anything, he'd slammed his hand against the access panel and darted out through the opening door and into the hallway. Keith gave an indignant yelp and scrambled back to his feet, shoving the knife back under his pillow before racing after Sendak. The Galra's much longer legs gave him way, way too much advantage, and Keith growled in frustration as Sendak pulled ahead, sprinting for the common room.
He came skidding to a stop just inside the door, narrowly avoiding crashing into Sendak, who'd stopped near the couch pit, and opened his mouth to say something. Sendak hissed quietly at him, holding up a hand. Keith leaned forward, peering around him.
Shiro and Allura were still in the couch pit, but at some point they'd moved to sit next to each other. Allura's head had come to rest on Shiro's shoulder; Shiro's cheek pressed against the top of her head. Both of them were visibly out— neither of them had so much as stirred despite the noisy entrance, breathing deep and even. Sendak gave a soft chuckle, and when Keith glanced up at him, his expression was fond.
"Finally," he said quietly. "I don't think either of them has slept more than an hour since before Olkarion." He lowered his hand, nudging Keith gently back. "...Let's...leave them to it."
Keith took a quiet step backwards— then jumped as the lights flashed red. An alarm began to blare. Sendak went rigid, ears flattening. Allura gave a startled yelp, her eyes flying open— Shiro bolted to his feet, his right hand glowing white hot. He shook the hand out immediately, dousing the light, but the alarms didn't stop.
"What's going on?" Shiro demanded.
"Proximity alert," Allura answered. The Castle shuddered around them. She pulled up something from her bracelet, tapping desperately at the screen. Her face went ashen. "...It's Zarkon," she breathed. "I'm bringing the particle barrier up now— we need to get to the bridge, immediately ."
Shiro launched himself up over the side of the pit immediately. Allura scrambled up after him— Sendak darted forward before Keith could even think to move, grabbing her by the back of her flight suit to pull her the rest of the way up. Keith shook his head and forced himself to move, hurrying to join them as they made a beeline for the elevators. The Castle juddered again halfway up, setting the lights flickering. Keith grabbed in the dark, getting hold of someone's arm— Shiro's, as it turned out, when they came back on and the elevator began moving again. Shiro patted him gently on the shoulder, clearly trying for reassurance.
The elevator doors hissed open, and as one they scrambled up into the bridge. Keith slid sideways into his seat, saw Shiro do the same. Allura hurriedly brought up her controls, then hit something on them that brought up a call. The teludav control room came up on the viewscreen, complete with Coran slipping back and forth in a panic as the Castle shuddered yet again.
"Coran, are you there?" Allura called.
Coran yelped onscreen, sliding most of the way out of frame, then scrambled back up. "I'm here!"
"Zarkon is back. What's our status?" she demanded.
"Wormholing will be a problem," Coran said, sliding nearly out the other side of the frame. "I haven't had enough time to readjust the lenses properly— I'm not sure the teludav will be able to generate enough power!"
"Do whatever you can," Allura said, her voice shaking.
The doors hissed open behind them, and Keith spun in his seat as the other three Paladins spilled onto the bridge. Hunk still wore an apron over his clothes, but Lance had changed into his pajamas at some point, lion slippers at all. Pidge hadn't changed, but she looked completely disheveled.
"They found us again?" Lance yelped, slamming down into his seat. "How is that possible ? That doesn't seem— I mean, it shouldn't be possible, right?"
"We'll worry about that later," Allura said firmly. "Right now, we must figure out a way out of here."
Keith swallowed hard, his throat gone dry. Something out in the starfield had shifted— the looming grey spires of Zarkon's ship glided slowly into view. "...What if we stay and fight?" he asked.
"Not a chance," Sendak said, head shaking. "I know how you all fared at Central Command last time. We can't risk another fight like that."
"Sendak's right," Shiro said. "It's way too dangerous, especially if Zarkon gets hold of the Black Lion again."
Coran's comm panel opened again on the screen— he was sliding faster now, more uncontrollably. "Turbine's up, but I'm still working on—" His feet went out from under him at last, and he crashed down out of frame. "...Uh, guys?" he said, voice more muffled with the console in the way, "I think I'm realizing now that I might, in fact, have a case of the slipperies. I'm sorry I yelled at you, Pidge. I think I may need your help after all."
Keith resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
Pidge popped back to her feet, nearly tripping over herself as she did. "I'll be right down!" she said, turned on her heel, and bolted for the elevator.
The Castle shuddered again— outside, on the viewscreens, a cloud of fighters had begun a descent towards their position. The blue ice of the asteroid surrounding them showed cracks from blaster fire. Allura's hands dropped to the controls, and the ship lurched, then began to move forward, dislodging a spray of white.
"Keith, Lance, let's clear a path," Shiro called, already calling up the drone controls again.
Keith copied him, spinning his drone around as soon as it emerged and firing heedlessly into the swarm. Something blipped on his radar, a flash in the lower leftmost quadrant.
"Lance," he called. "Fighter on your nine!"
"Got it!" Lance called back. "You got one hot on the lower barrier."
Keith nodded— he'd missed that one— and spun the drone, firing off a shot. The fighter burst in a shower of ruddy light.
"Allura, what's our location?" Sendak asked, his voice urgent.
Allura made a startled noise. Keith didn't dare look away from the radar to check her expression. "Ah— core side of the Artos Nebula. Why?"
" Shit ," Lance yelped, cutting Sendak off. "Controls are out on my drone."
"I got it," Keith said, spinning his around— the controls dissolved in a shower of light, leaving his hands empty. His stomach plunged. "Uh— I don't— must have been a system failure—" He scrambled to bring up the control panel, to get the drone back online.
"Nope, that was us!" Pidge called over the comms, and his head snapped up to look at her on the viewscreen. Coran slid frantically in the background. "We're diverting power from all non-essential systems to make up for the lenses."
"Shooting bad guys is pretty essential!" Lance shouted back.
"If they can get us online for a jump, even a short one, I may have a refuge," Sendak said, raising his voice.
"Just lost secondary controls," Hunk butted in. "Thermal regulator's offline— oh shit, the particle barrier—"
Their last line of defense fizzled out in a burst of azure light.
"Sendak, where ?" Allura demanded.
"Where you located Pidge and I after your strike at Central Command," Sendak said. A clunk — when Keith turned to look he'd sprung up behind Allura on the command podium, tapping at something on the screen. "Far side of the nebula. The Artos wrecking grounds. Zarkon may be brash, but he cannot take Central Command there. It will tear his ship apart."
"Hang on, you said cruisers couldn't fly in there!" Pidge shouted over the comms.
"This isn't a cruiser!" Sendak shouted back. Keith couldn't help flinching a little. The Galra shifted, turning his attention back to Allura. "It is a risk," he said, much more softly. "Are you willing to take it?"
Allura took a deep breath, shoulders heaving, and squeezed her eyes shut. "...Yes. I trust you."
"Allura!" Coran yelped.
The violet beam of an ion cannon shrieked past, directly over the Castle, and the entire ship shuddered, alarms screaming.
"Coran, are we clear ?!" Allura shouted.
"Oh, ancients," Coran breathed. His hands moved out of frame, and the comms relayed a dull clunk. "Yes, Princess. We're clear."
The Castle shuddered again. Allura squeezed her eyes more tightly shut, and above her, the Balmera crystal brightened, washing the bridge in brilliant blue. The wormhole bloomed in front of them, wavering amid the chunks of ice. Keith's shoulders heaved with a stifled sob of relief.
"Wormhole's open!" Shiro called.
The Castle surged forward, shooting into the breach. The walls looked even less stable than last time, shuddering with crackling blue energy— and, abruptly, lurched inwards, collapsing in on themselves. Hunk and Lance yelled, and Keith did his level best not to flinch as—
The gate on the other end opened, dumping them out into space. Keith gasped, panting for breath and clutching at the arms of his chair.
The alarms had gone blessedly silent. His control panel hummed, popping up a handful of quiet alerts, letting him know which functions had come back online. Outside the viewscreens, the starfield was painted green and gold with vague swirls of gas. Long strands and clumps of grey drifted slowly past— hunks of metal, the twisted wreckage of ships. The Castle floated, silent, through a graveyard.
Up at the controls, Allura staggered, her knees buckling again. Sendak caught her easily, holding her up.
"Well done," he said, so low Keith nearly didn't catch it.
"Did we make it?" Allura asked, her voice a bit louder.
"Yeah, looks like we made it," Pidge said. "The scans down here are showing crazy electromagnetic fluctuations out there, though, and a whole lot of debris."
"I should go back up—" Coran started.
"We're fine, Coran," Sendak said, ears twitching.
"We are, really," Allura said. "Please, check the teludav. I'm getting an alert up here that says we've lost a few more lenses."
Coran's shoulders lowered, and he seemed to deflate. "...Yes, Princess," he said quietly. "Just don't hesitate to call me if you need me, alright?"
"I will, don't worry," Allura said.
Then she reached up, dismissed the call, and leaned back against Sendak with a groan.
"...You okay, Allura?" Lance asked worriedly.
"I'm alright," Allura answered, waving a dismissive hand in his direction. Lance slumped back in his chair, his face petulant.
"...How does he keep finding us?" Shiro asked. His voice was hushed, faint with worry. "It's like he always knows where we are."
"...Some kinda tracking device, maybe?" Hunk suggested, straightening up.
Allura straightened herself as well, shaking her head, and pulled up one of her control panels, tapping on the screen. "...It cannot be on the ship," she said, after a moment. "The Castle would have detected any tracking devices."
Sendak heaved a sigh. "...Well, I suppose there are three options," he said.
Keith's stomach lurched uncomfortably. "...What are they?"
"...Allura, did you sleep at all while you were in Imperial custody?" Sendak asked.
"Once, briefly," Allura said carefully.
Sendak nodded. "The most mundane option is that one of the three of us— myself, Shiro, or Allura— has a tracker implant that has been activated. If the fleet fails to arrive here, however, we can discount that as our answer; the wrecking ground will prevent any such signal from transmitting properly, particularly as we travel deeper into it."
"And the other options?" Shiro asked.
"The Witch," Sendak said. "I know she was responsible for giving me the coordinates to the Castle on Arus, and...she would have had one or two targets. Either Princess Allura, or the Black Lion."
"...So it is me," Allura said softly, her voice breaking.
"Allura," Shiro said quietly.
Sendak's right arm folded around her, pulling her close. "...Truthfully, I suspect it is the Lion."
"...Wait, what?" Lance asked. "How can it be the Lion?"
"Zarkon got control of it away from Shiro back at Central Command," Keith said, shooting him a look.
"Yeah, but that's up close," Lance shot back. "No way he's getting it from a bajillion light-years away."
"Not on his own," Sendak agreed, shaking his head. "But he isn't alone. He has the Witch , and her fucking Komar ."
"...Uh, what?" Hunk asked.
Allura lifted her head, wiping at her face, and Keith pretended not to notice she'd brushed away tears. "...The Komar?"
"She's been working on it since I located the Red Lion," Sendak said. "I don't know what it is, exactly, or how it works, but the one time Zarkon mentioned it to me in a briefing, he said it was to do with quintessence manipulation."
"An appropriate name, then," Allura said bitterly, and wiped at her face again. "A komar is a demon from Altean mythology that drinks the blood, or the life-force, from its victims. And if this Komar of hers allows her to control quintessence on a large scale…"
An alert popped up on the viewscreen, highlighting a dim grey speck somewhere beyond the clouds. Allura tapped at something on her controls, and her face pinched. Keith bit his lip.
"Zarkon's caught up to us," she said quietly. "His ship is outside the borders of the graveyard, and he doesn't seem to be moving."
Sendak exhaled, clearly a sigh of relief. "So our gamble paid off," he said, and— smiled.
"For now, anyway," Shiro said, sitting himself back upright. "Sendak, you said we should move deeper in, right?"
"Right," Sendak said, nodding. He reached over Allura again, tapping at her screen. "Pulling up the close-range sensors now. Keith, Lance, you keep an eye on yours for anything small that slips past and handle it with the drones, as long as you can keep control of them. I'll watch the main one."
"I can take us in," Allura said.
Shiro nodded. "I'll handle the Castle's artillery. Anything we can't avoid…"
"Brilliant thinking," Sendak said. "Whenever you're ready, Allura."
Allura nodded. Her hands shifted on the controls, and Keith felt the kick of the thrusters low in his gut. The Castle began to move again, drifting gently into the clouds of gas, maneuvering delicately around floating strands of ruined ships and satellites. Sendak's head lowered, speaking softly into Allura's ear, and she nodded intermittently, adjusting the controls every so often.
Keith opened the controls for the defense drone again, then winced— the system flashed a warning on his screen about elevated electromagnetic emissions potentially disrupting his control over the drone. He sighed and shut it down again, turning his gaze back to the viewscreens as Shiro fired off a bolt with one of the Castle's cannons. Up ahead, a stretch of wreck vaporized, letting Allura waltz the Castle through it.
Long minutes passed, spent on delicate course adjustments and occasional precise blasts with the artillery. At last, Allura reached up to tap at something on her controls, opening another set of panels on the viewscreens, then nodded.
"...We're out of range. I can't detect him anymore," she said.
"Then we're clear," Sendak said.
"If he's tracking us through the Black Lion, though, he'll know we're still here," Shiro said. "And he'll know when we leave."
"If Coran and Pidge don't have the teludav fixed, though, we won't be going anywhere," Hunk said. "Right?"
"Right," Allura said. "I'm going to check in on them now."
She tapped again at her controls, pulling up the comms again and opening a channel down to the teludav control room. Pidge was visible at one of the monitors, her back to the camera. Coran glided across the frame, much more slowly— in control?— than the last time.
"Any good news, Coran?" Shiro asked.
"Oh!" Coran said, and pirouetted towards the camera. "Yes, actually! I think I'm finally getting the hang of these slipperies! My mucus glands are working at an incredible rate!"
Keith couldn't help but gag a little at that, and from the looks on the others' faces, he had a feeling he wasn't the only one.
"I meant, about the teludav ," Shiro said dryly.
Coran came to a halt, turning to face the camera properly. "...I'm afraid not," he said. "The last jump overloaded the lens stones, and we lost a few more of them during it. Pidge and I are running some calculations now, to see if we can adjust the beam trajectories enough to compensate for it, but until we can find one that works , operating the teludav will be impossible."
"We've bought ourselves some time for that, at least," Allura said. "Zarkon stopped at the edge of the ship graveyard, and we should have some time before he starts sending his fleet in after us."
"As I recall, the nearest scout-class cruisers are stationed a full quintant away, even burning hyperdrive over capacity, and they're the only thing maneuverable enough to even attempt an attack," Sendak said. "Battle-class cruisers, the ones travelling with Central Command, don't have the shields or the maneuverability to handle in here, and even I wouldn't risk a siege-class cruiser in this kind of debris field. And, on the other hand, fighters and landing craft are too small to handle the electromagnetic distortions. Any he sends in will be torn apart long before they reach our position."
"So we have some time, then," Pidge said, looking up.
"Yeah," Shiro said, nodding. "If you two can't find one that works in the next varga, I'm ordering you to take a break—" he glanced over his shoulder at Sendak, who nodded approvingly— "and tomorrow we'll get the teludav sorted out, and do something about the Black Lion. There's no point in repairing the teludav if he can keep chasing us down like this."
"Wait, what about the Lion?" Coran asked.
"Zarkon and the Witch are using his connection to it to track us down," Allura said. "I think, somehow...we're going to have to try to break his bond."