Chapter 3

Edward Graham watched his ward sleeping under the giant maple from his backyard window. The summer heat was enough to slay his usually disciplined and strong headed ward's staunch resolve to stay inside and read when the weather was so nice. It couldn't be helped.

'Soon there won't be such great weather to enjoy.' He thought to himself.

His eyes turned back to the visibly red cover of the book on the twelve year old's chest and sighed. He knew the book was on Advanced Physics, one he had been forced to buy because of the boy's unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Eight years ago when he had first brought the boy to his home, he found him cowered in the corner of his living room. The fear etched in the four year old's obsidian eyes spoke volumes on the unspeakable trauma he had obviously gone through. He remembered that night oh so clearly.

"Idiots. They think they can get away with stealing from me." Graham thought as he trampled his way through the deep mountain forest, tracking the three men who'd run away with his money and the swords he'd sold them.

"I'll make them squeal for their mothers by the time I'm through with them." He said, mumbling as he went along. The full moon of that night made it easier to track the hoof prints and the broken twigs on the damp earth of the forest floor. He knew he'd catch up to them by morning.

Taking a slight detour in order to fill his canister with some fresh water from a nearby stream, shock shot through him as his eyes met a horrific sight.

Lying on the ground near a moss covered rock outcrop was a cut up, wet, bleeding man curled up on his side. He was not moving, and Graham, against his better judgement, decided to check on him.

'Must have rolled down from the top of the mountain.' He thought to himself as he looked up at the broken shrubs and branches above where he stood looking over at the man. Bandits, most likely. There was no way to survive such a fall from that height.

As he turned to walk away, he heard a small sound come from the man. He suddenly turned back him and crouched closer to him.

"Please…" It was a barely a breath of a whisper.

Graham saw the arrow protruding from the man's chest and the blood surrounding it. This man didn't have much time left. His lung had collapsed.

"Don't stress yourself, friend. It'll be over soon." He told him. No one deserved to die alone. Military life had taught him that.

"My son…please…" The man spoke again. Barely moving to uncurl himself, Graham saw the stained dark blue robe bundled protectively to the dying man's chest. The man slowly pulled the robe down to reveal a mass of dark hair. Graham carefully checked the child, believing he was dead, and was relieved to see that he was breathing. His warm breath proof of the life still in him A small miracle considering the state of the man that held him.

"Please, protect him. He's all I'm leaving behind…" The little boy stirred and whimpered in his father's arms. He turned his obsidian eyes to the man holding him, to Graham and back to the man holding him. He started crying when he saw his father crying.

"Gomen, Akira. Daddy has to go…" the man whispered. The little boy's quiet cries became gut-wrenching sobs as he felt his father slip away from him.

"Don't cry. Please, don't cry…"

Graham's eyes landed back on the boy outside. He had grown in the last eight years and gaining his trust had been a huge factor in seeing him open up. He had let the boy cry for his father for hours, begging him to wake up when the man was already gone. After he had exhausted himself, Graham had convinced the boy to help him bury his father in the shadow of those rocks. His little hands did not tire and neither did he say a word as they worked quietly. After piling on the last of the rocks, Graham said a little prayer and carried the little boy home.

It had been a fight to give the boy a bath and cut his mattered hair as he proved he did not want to be touched. Eating had been no problem as the child had been starving. He was a novice when it came to children, but torture? No. He knew the signs. The cuts on the boy's back spoke volumes as to the monster he had been freed from. He was sure the man in the forest was the child's father. The unruly, midnight black hair, the physical appearance and the love between the two was pretty clear. But the answers he sort were in the little boy.

After weeks of responding to hand signs from the boy, one morning whilst he was watching him eat he started digging.

"You know you're going to have to speak to me sometime. I'm your guardian, not by choice, I might add."

The boy froze for a second, eyes still on his plate of eggs before he continued to eat. Graham sighed. He knew getting up this little mountain was going to be difficult. Very well.

"Why did your father hurt you?"

He heard the clanging sound of metal hitting the floor. The kid had dropped his fork. Graham did not look up as he continued to sip his coffee, leaning on the counter nonchalantly.

"Most fathers that I know take care of their kids, not travel in dangerous places with the…"

"My daddy was the best! He didn't hurt me, so don't lie about him!" Graham looked up to see the furious four year old standing from his makeshift seat, that was overturned, with blazing eyes. His little face was red and puffed from the anger he felt and his dark eyes were gleaming with unshed tears.

"Then why were you in the forest with him?"

The little body crumpled onto the floor as the tears he had been holding back got the best of him. From the mouth of a little boy, Graham heard the all too familiar tale of power, deception, pain and betrayal. He was quick to catch the name of Sir Aidan, and it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"What did they want?", he asked the little boy.

"I don't know. They wanted something daddy had. He said he would stop cutting me if daddy gives him." The little voice huffed between breaths.

"Him? Who's him? Aidan?" He knew the little boy was exhausted, but dragging this out would affect him more than just letting it all out there. He was still a child and all this pent up emotion wasn't good for the boy.

"Kuro."

Graham was confused. Who the hell was Kuro and why was that man willing to risk his son to save him? His understanding of Japanese was extremely limited considering how often he had travelled to the Eastern provinces. Why was this Kuro so important anyway? There were too many questions and he doubted that this four year old child would know the answers.

"Alright. It's okay. You're safe now." He said quietly and in what he hoped was a gentle, sympathetic tone. The little boy had calmed down a bit after that.

"You know, I've been calling you 'boy' and 'kid' for the last few weeks and it's probably uncomfortable for you. More so for me. Your father called you Akira. Is that your name?" he asked quietly.

The little boy sniffed one last time and nodded.

"Uh huh. My name is Akira Keith Kogane."

A knock on the door disturbed his thoughts and he turned to see Sven, a friend of Keith at the door. The tall, dark haired, hazel eyed boy was the son of Sven Holgersson the Second, the nephew of Lady Serena Auschwitz, one of the Arusian council's members. Raised away from the politics that surrounded his family by his grandfather Sven Holgersson the First, he was a very down to earth young man and good company for Keith.

"He's sleeping out back." Graham said, not waiting for a greeting.

"Tell him I have an important meeting to attend and the two of you should behave whilst I'm away."

"Yes sir." Sven replied, jogging lightly as he went around to the garden.

"The world is definitely about to end. The brilliant Keith Graham, lounging in the afternoon, not reading, not practicing and not playing his piano. Yep. It's definately about to end." The thick accent broke through Keith's dozing, interrupting his peace afternoon.

"Haven't you heard, my friend. The world is coming to an end. For us any way. And I'm done reading for today because I had the spare time since the grouchy old man didn't want me to practice in the house and my sparring partner was late for practice, again. So let me sleep." Keith replied smugly, turning onto his side pretending to ignore his friend. The next thing he knew, he felt a weight across his side as Sven had decided to plop down and use Keith's side as a foot stool.

"Might as well join you then. Oh, your old man left. He said you should behave."

"Impossible with you around, dude."Keith said quietly, making it clear that he always got into trouble when Sven was around.

They had been friends since they were seven. Sven at the time was friends with Jeff Aki, the village bully and terrorist. Jeff's dislike for Keith was because of his apparent crush on Lisa who liked Keith and since Sven and Jeff were friends, this had brought the two together. Coming home from school one afternoon, Keith heard a loud crush near the lake. Curious, he'd gone over to check what had caused it, only to see the back of Jeff's tan jacket as he was running across the frozen lake back to town. Keith looked at a hole at the center of the lake and saw someone struggling. He went onto the lake and tried to help the person out before he also fell through the frozen ice. If it weren't for Graham who was coming from the house using the same path, they'd have died.

"Next time you try to play hero, make sure that you can at least save yourself." Graham said to the two sniffing boys sitting in front of his fire buried under heaps of blankets.

"According to grandfather, we have to go under soon. The drules are said to heading our way." Sven said quietly to his friend.

Keith remained quiet for a bit, reflecting on the meaning of his friend's words. They had no choice in the matter. That much was obvious. He had felt the cost of this war and he knew that it would take great sacrifices in order to survive it.

He lifted himself into sitting position, passing a hand through his unruly shoulder length mane that had escaped its band, trying to keep it in check.

"We're running and hiding, but it won't be enough to stop the drules from hunting us down. We need to fight back to even survive this." He said, looking at Sven.

He was wearing a white gi and hakama just like him. As soon as Graham knew who he was, he started teaching Keith self-defence and enrolled him in other training with some of his military friends. Luckily for him, Keith loved martial arts since his father had started teaching him since he was three.

"I don't intend to hide forever, Keith. That's why I'm training to fight. At some point, they're not going to have enough men. I heard the desert people lost half of their forces in a single attack. Just one. They already are underground with only half of the people in the villages they expected to have. The royal family's three sons are said to have been on a mission there as emissaries for the King. No one knows whether they made it out or not."

"What we need is are the Lions. With their power we can stop this once and for all." Keith said vehemently, looking at the empty space beside him.

"You think the Voltron Lions exist? That's a joke. Where have they been up until now? Even if they did exist, Zarkon might have them." Sven said.

"No. They exist. If they didn't the King wouldn't have called for everyone to go underground. We would have fought this war out to the bitter end. And if Zarkon had them he would have used them against us already. Not only would it be a physical blow on our forces, but a blow on the people's hope. The King is biding his time. He's waiting for something." Keith said, strategies running through his mind.

"You believe in the legend that much, don't you? Well, I believe in this fist. The one in front of me that can break something. This fist is going to change the world, Keith. Not legends." Sven said

"I think this world needs both, my friend. It needs both." Keith replied, looking at the disturbed air beside him that was otherwise invisible to his friend.

…..

"We've done a full assessment of the all the catalogued goods and services within the underground bunkers and the caves. All of our preliminary security checks have been tried and tested up to seven times in the last week. All bulkheads, waterways, air pipes, and utility works have been rechecked. All water, air and energy purification systems are ready. We have established that our time of entry into the caves be two weeks." General Aki said to the town elders of his region.

Mumbling and quiet conversation could be heard in the large town hall of Dispa as they met for their weekly review. Lady Serena Auschwitz was also in attendance at the meeting, awaiting for the final report.

"Well, if there isn't any query, we can mov…"

"Don't you think waiting two weeks is stretching it?" Graham spoke up after what seemed like an eternity.

"I do not believe so, Mr. Graham. According to our scouts and the intel my men have gathered, it will take roughly one month before we can expect a drule attack on our villages," Aki said smugly, rolling up their bunker plan maps.

Graham and he went way back, to the jungle training and civic wars in the Southern provinces. Aki hated Graham's superior airs and even more so, the fact that he had been his General, who had put him in his place countless times.

"I don't agree," Graham countered. "According to such intel, because of the location and barrenness of Lord Myria's province, it should have been attacked last. But as we've all heard, they lost most of their defense and over half of the general population."

"Are you saying my intelligence is wrong?" questioned Aki, his annoyance quite obvious to everyone in the room. Graham couldn't have cared less.

"I suggest we err on the side of caution. If the bunkers are ready, why wait for the two weeks. Not only do we test out how we live down there, but it gives everyone the time to adapt. More importantly, there is a chance of an impending attack no matter how you look at it. We should have moved yesterday."

"Mr. Graham, as much we are looking forward to living in security, we want to spend as much time as possible on the surface. Who knows when we'll see the sun again" Old Betsy, Keith's third grade teacher chimed. She was smirking at him too.

"I say, the lady is right. Also, if the General's information is correct, we still have time. We have confidence in him. He'll protect us." A village elder said, a number of people nodding in approval of what he'd just said. Aki smirked when he saw that most of the people that mattered agreed with him. The days when people listened to Edward Graham had long gone.

Graham knew the fools would come to regret it sooner rather than later, but who was he to tell them to not waste their lives.

Lady Serena, who had been quiet up until this point, made her final decision.

"As happy as I am with the completion of the bunkers, I would like to stress why these were built in the first place. We are at war. We are being exterminated. We need to survive." Sweeping the grim looking room with a single glance, her gaze rested on Graham.

"I agree with you Graham that we do not know the drules' attack pattern up until this point. And if we wait, the chances of an attack are increasing at every moment. Therefore, I am going to respect the wishes of those who want to stay outside and those who will enter the bunker. There will be two groups. The first will enter the bunker in 24hrs. I believe all our citizens have been informed on having their provision bags packed. In 24 hours, one group will enter and will not leave the bunker under any circumstance as this could lead to vulnerabilities. The second, will enter if there is an attack any day after the first group, or in the two weeks stated."

Seeing no opposition to this statement, Lady Serena continues.

"A quarter of the guard is to enter the bunker as well as the administrators of the facilities. This is non-negotiable. All personnel involved in the bunkers are expected to be within the bunkers in 3 hours. Cave entrances only. Also I would urge everyone to encourage the elderly and the youngest of children to enter tomorrow. These would be our most casualties in an attack."

"The second most important thing on our agenda is the Lions of Voltron. As you may have heard, the rumors that their royal highnesses Prince Alistair, Prince Alaric and Prince Alexander have passed. It is true."

Shock at the news surged through the room, and a few tears could be seen. The people love the royal family and they are their guardians since ages unknown. The news had suddenly shifted focus onto the truth. They were at war. Seeing the room had calmed down, Lady Serena continues.

"The news is terrible, yes. But there is hope. His Majesty would like for you to know that the Blue Lion has chosen her half. It is her royal highness, Princess Allura."

"Is that really true, my lady? The lions are real?", voices could be heard around the room, questions flying toward her, too numerous to make sense of. Excitement permeated the atmosphere, cutting through the gloom.

"Let the lady speak!" cracked General Aki's voice throughout the room, instantly bringing the room to order.

"Yes. The Blue Lion appeared before the council next to the princess and swore fealty to her. She has been chosen for years, it appears. Not only that, but she has sworn to protect Arus against Zarkon and his people. Arus will be restored.

Unimaginable joy reigned throughout the room as people celebrated the return of their guardian protectors. Others were hugging and dancing, smiles and tears on many faces. Graham, however, was sitting quietly, contemplatively.

"The princess, she is only ten years old. How can she and the lion protect us? Won't they need the others?" Old Betsy asked, bringing with her airs of doubt. Everyone waited for her ladyship to speak.

"Yes. Her highness is ten. But with the blood of Ariella flowing in her veins and the wisdom of the lion, we pray she will be ready to protect Arus in a few years to come along with the other loins and the chosen four." Seeing the slight dampening of the joyous atmosphere, she gives them hope.

"The hope we need to take back our planet resides in the children we are trying to protect. Out of them, four more protectors will be chosen. It is their destiny. That is why I encourage you to love them. That is why we need to protect them with every breath we have."

Protect him

Graham's eyes shot wide open as he heard the voice of the man he'd met only once. He shot up stiffly in his set, eyes wide open as he looked at the wall in front of him. Aki noticed his weird behavior, and so did her ladyship, apparently.

"Graham, are you alright?", she asked, quite concerned. Graham looked at the petite, long silver haired lady in front of him as if she had just sprouted horns and he was seeing it for the first time.

"My apologies, my lady. Please continue."