The Journey and Tailing a Comet

On a Galra ship

Shiro, thought to be dead by everyone, had ultimately and mysteriously survived the final battle against Zarkon, with longer hair and facial hair. After escaping in a Galra pod while killing several guards in the process, the commander of the cruiser told his bridge crew. "Notify Command Headquarters: Operation KURON stage 3 is underway."

After crashing on an asteroid planet, Shiro used a blaster to free himself from the strap ins and barely got out of the pod before it fell over the edge of a cliff before he caught his breath and started to look for a shelter from the snow and wind.

Meanwhile

Dark Haggar was talking to a Galra general named Raht, having already known how Lotor was behaving but was secretly using that to further her ultimate goal. "General Raht, I have an assignment for you."

"I serve in the name of Galra." Raht said.

"I fear Lotor's focus wavers since his return. I knew there was a risk at bringing him back after a long absence, and I worry about the path he leads us down. I need you to keep an eye on him. Follow his battle cruiser and report any suspicious behavior to me." Dark Haggar ordered, secretly counting on Lotor to retaliate against her in order to further her own plans.

"Of course." Raht said before walking away, leaving a smirking Dark Haggar behind.

"That's it, Lotor, take the bait." Dark Haggar said with delight in her insane evil mind.

Meanwhile

After Shiro had walked through the freezing weather for some time, he finally made a fire to warm himself up while seeing that he was standing under the bones of a big long dead creature. After traveling through the freezing weather some more, to his happiness, he found a warm place with grass and water to drink before he rushed to it, washed his face and drank a bout before he was attacked by a crab-like creature, which nearly would have eaten him if 2 rebel aliens hadn't driven the creature back into the water before Shiro passed out.

When he woke up, he found himself tied up before the 2 rebel aliens: Remdax and Vakala, came in and questioned him, thinking that he was Galra. But even though Shiro tried to explain who he was and how he got here, the 2 skeptical rebels only laughed as they didn't believe him.

Meanwhile on Lotor's battle cruiser

Acxa picked up an anomaly on her scanner, which had been happening twice today, done by general Raht, who was flying close by. "Prince Lotor, that anomaly is registering on our scanners again." She informed her Emperor.

"Get the coordinates. I want a visual." Lotor ordered, making them do just that.

Acxa checked but found nothing. "There's nothing."

"What are you expecting?" Ezor asked her emperor.

"I don't think 3 anomalies in 1 day is a coincidence." Lotor answered.

"We're being followed?" Zethrid asked.

"We'd know." Acxa reminded her fellow general.

"Not if they had our scanner protocols." Lotor told her. "They could counteract our measures."

"Who would know our protocols besides Galra?" Acxa asked.

"Bring up heat detectors and set blasters to fire around the anomaly." Lotor ordered.

But Zethrid wanted to hit it, being the aggressive person she always was. "Around it? I say we hit it!"

"I want to know who's after me." Lotor said before his generals fired around, Raht's ship, making him get it close enough for its tractor beam pull him in.

Meanwhile, back with Shiro

While Remdax and Vakala were listening on their radio about the progress of the war, the former Black Paladin was trying to escape when he heard Voltron was attacking a Galra fleet. After getting into a fight with the rebel fighters, he finally managed to convince them who he was by sparing them before they helped him by giving him their shuttle and information on how to get inside of the Galra cruiser.

After getting on the Galra cruiser by getting in through the blasters that retracted just before it had entered hyperspace to get to where Voltron was, Shiro got to one of the fighters and, after the command bridge had ordered an abortion on attacking Voltron, Shiro quickly blasted his way out of the cruiser before it was completely blown up and saw Voltron flying away from the battle. He tried to keep up with them but the giant defender was too fast and quickly was out of his sight, much to his dismay.

Meanwhile

Dark Haggar sensed that Lotor was coming, having killed Raht after he told the young emperor everything. Fortunately, she was already prepared as she turned around and saw Lotor throwing Raht's metal arm at her feet.

"Stop sending your cronies after me." Lotor told her.

"I know many ideas are floating through your head, my emperor, just like your pathetic father. But you are different than he is, aren't you? Unlike him, you aren't completely blinded by obsession. And that I can respect. But the Galra empire needs your leadership in these troubling times." Dark Hangar said with a smirk.

"You're right. I am the leader, but I am not my father. And you're also right about his pathetic obsession with Voltron. And that's obviously gotten him where he is now. Quite fitting for him." Lotor said before walking away.

"And soon, Lotor, you'll be lying right beside him. Enjoy being emperor while you can...while I have some… personal fun playing with your inner...lustful desires. And believe me, it'll be fun...for me. And after your usefulness is over, I'm going to drain you of any feeling, thought or memory before you and your weakling father become my personal brain dead puppets. Ahahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha!"

1 week later

Shiro didn't give up and followed Voltron to where it was heading, having sent an S.O.S signal out. But after a week of space travel, he was very close to dying due to getting less and less oxygen, food or water. He'd even made logs to anyone who'd find him in case he wouldn't make it. But just as he was about to pass out, a bright flash of light made his eyes widen before the Castle of Lions appeared, with the Black, Blue and Green Lions in between it and his stolen fighter, making him smile.

"Looks like we've found you at last...old friend." Haggar told her human friend with a smile.

Later

The Paladins were inside a Galra outpost, taking out the android guards very easily as Lance provided sniper cover. As Hunk provided cover fire for Katie, the green Paladin was working on shutting down the outpost's main power source.

"Almost…there!" She said before the power core and the android guards all shut down.

"Great work, Katie." Haggar said to her and her lover's sister-like figure.

"That's the last outpost in this quadrant." Katie informed them.

"Good. Contact the Blade of Molmora and let them know that this outpost is cleared." Haggar told Katie.

Meanwhile in Shiro's room

Keith had told Shiro everything that had happened since he disappeared, including what he did to Allura and Pidge and what Haggar did to him afterwards and especially her being the new Black paladin now. "I don't know. The last thing I remember was Zarkon trying to overtake the Black Lion. It told me to use my Bayard, then...nothing. I woke up and I was back on a Galra ship." Shiro told Keith, who was absolutely thrilled that Shiro was back.

"Well, you just unlocked the Black Lion's ability to teleport. Could it have teleported you? Maybe it was trying to save you." Keith said, thinking that was the case.

"By teleporting me into the hands of the Galra?"

"Maybe Zarkon forced it to. I mean, he was trying to take control of the Black Lion up until the very end, right?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Well, if you're feeling up to it, the rest of the team would be thrilled to see you up and around again. They need you, you know?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." Keith said before beginning to leave the room.

"Keith, I know that they need me, but...I doubt that I wanna pilot the Black Lion again. From what everyone's told me, Haggar's been doing an excellent job as the new leader, possibility even better than I or Zarkon ever did." Shiro told his friend while acknowledging Haggar as a great leader, maybe even better than himself.

A bit later on the Bridge

Shiro entered the bridge, looking proudly at the team. "Great job out there, everyone. You've really turned the tide in this war. I'm glad you never lost sight of the mission while I was gone."

The rest of the team smiled, being glad that Shiro is now all better. Keith was there on the bridge too. Despite not having everyone's trust back yet, the former Red Paladin had been of some good help these last few days. So things were starting to get better for him, even though it was slow.

Haggar then asked Shiro. "I see you've recovered pretty well, Shiro. How are you feeling?"

Shiro gave a shrug while scratching the back of his head. "Good. Just trying to get rid of this weird headache."

Suddenly, Katie/Pidge called the others. "Guys, I think I have something here!"

All gathered around Katie to see what she'd found before the Green Paladin stated. "So, I downloaded intel from the Galra base we just defeated. I untied the quantum-folded encryption, and I found something on Lotor."

"Do you know where he is?" Keith asked.

Though Katie wasn't in the mood to answer Keith's question after what he did to her and Allura, she tried to remain calm and answered. "Not exactly, no." Before she then returned back to her monitor. "But the last three sightings of his command ship have been in the Va-Kar quadrant."

"Nice work, Pidge." Shiro said, before honestly telling. "Although, those quadrants are massive."

Haggar nodded. "Indeed. It's the perfect place to hide. How will we pinpoint his location?" She asked Katie.

Hunk then thought of something. "Hey, that comet is made from the same material as Voltron. Maybe I can scan the emission spectrum for Faunhofer lines, like when I found the Blue Lion!"

"But you know those emissions are subject to free induction decay. Those are exponential drop-offs." Katie reminded the Yellow Paladin.

"Yeah, but if you could find a way to amplify the sensors-" But then Hunk shook his head. "No, there'd be way too much interference." Then he suggested. "What if, instead, we increase the SA magnitude?"

Katie smiled brightly as she knew how to help to make it work. "The spires of the Castle!"

"Genius!" Hunk called before he and Katie ran out of the bridge.

Lance looked confused. "I have no idea what either of them just said."

Haggar then told the team. "Let's set course for the Va'Kar quadrant while Hunk and Katie get started on that detector."

Shiro nodded as he added. "I agree. We need to work fast. Who knows what Lotor has planned for that comet?"

Some time later, in Allura and Haggar's bedroom

While Haggar was meditating in the middle of her and her lover's room, there was a knock on the door. Haggar opened her eyes and called. "Come in."

As Haggar rose up from the floor, she saw that it was Lance who opened the door and entered with a bit worried look on his face.

"Lance. Is everything alright?" Haggar asked.

Lance then stated. "Hey, Haggar. I just wanted to talk with you because... Well, because I've been worrying about something."

Haggar gave a nod. "What's on your mind?"

"Well, I mean, you're the leader now, right?"

"Yes? But what's that got to do with anything?" Haggar wondered what Lance meant by that.

"I've been doing some math. With Shiro back, Keith out and you and Allura in, that makes six paladins. But there are only five lions and if I'm right, that's one paladin too many."

Haggar raised an eyebrow at him. "And your point is?"

Lance sighed as he told what was bothering him. "Look, when Shiro takes over the Black Lion again, that means you need to step aside." Then he crossed his arms. "I know that Keith will not be a Paladin anymore, so he won't get the Red Lion back from me. And honestly, you and Allura have progressed a lot faster than any of us did. You two might even be able to unlock powers from both the Black and Blue Lion we don't know of yet. What my point is... Shiro had always been a great leader and all, but you have brought us even further than we could ever would have ever thought. What bothers me is... I'm not sure if I want Shiro back as our leader. I know that this isn't a participation game. This is war. And you want your best soldiers on the front lines."

Haggar gave a small assuring smile. "Lance, I know that it's gonna take some time to get used to having Shiro back as the Black Paladin, but I'm at peace with that. Either a Paladin or not, I'm still part of the team. So stop worrying yourself about who flies which Lion and just focus on the mission. It'll be alright, you'll see."

After some thinking, Lance gave a nod. "Okay. Thanks Haggar."

As Lance was about to leave, Haggar said. "And, Lance..." Lance stopped and glanced at Haggar, who formed a small smile. "From now on, leave the math to Katie."

That earned a small smile from Lance and he gave a nod before leaving.

Meanwhile

Hunk and Katie were working on developing a sonar device to locate the comet and Lotor, with Allura's pet mice working inside of the control panel before shortly coming out. Hunk then tried operating it but it wasn't working until he gave it a light bang, making it work as it sent a red circle beam out before Hunk informed the others.

While following the trail, Hunk said. "Okay, we're gaining on it."

Shiro then said. "Make sure we stay far back enough to be undetected."

After a minute of flying, the castle entered the system where the signal to the comet stopped. "Looks like the signal stopped in the Ulippa system." Katie then typed something on her monitor. "Activating long-range scanners."

After scanning in on the Galra base on Ulippa, the team spotted a Galra cruiser. But surprisingly, it wasn't Lotor's ship, making Haggar look confused. "But... that's not Lotor's ship."

Hunk checked the scanners better and confirmed what the sonar detected. "But the comet is in there."

Both Haggar and Shiro were about to tell the plan, making them look at each other as they awkwardly tried to lead the team before Haggar apologized. "Sorry, Shiro. Go ahead."

Shiro gave a nod and returned his glance on the rest of the team. "We need to get that comet. They must be transporting it into that base. It'll be vulnerable during the transfer. That's the best time to strike."

But as the castle approached the planet, the team looked surprised as this Galra cruiser that was supposed to 'transport the comet' was suddenly opening fire on the Galra base.

"Who the heck are these guys?" Lance asked confused.

Haggar theorized as she checked the monitors. "I don't think they're moving the comet to that base. We need more information." Before she then glanced at Shiro and told him. "You take the Black Lion. I'll stay with Coran in the Castle and provide support."

"Haggar, are you sure?" Shiro asked, as Haggar was willing to let Shiro have the Black Lion back.

Haggar nodded. "I'm sure."

But as Haggar didn't speak Keith's name, he nervously asked. "Uhm... what about me?"

Everyone gave a glare to Keith, making him sigh in disappointment and was about to leave the bridge.

"You're going with them, Keith." Haggar suddenly said, which surprised the former Red Paladin.

"You... you mean it?" Keith asked.

Haggar walked over to Keith, telling him with a serious look. "We know how reckless you were before, but now we are willing to give you another chance. But let me make this very clear to you Keith, for I will not repeat myself another time. If you ever EVER endanger the team or Allura and Katie again-"

"You'll do something worse to me than you did before." Keith finished her sentence, already expecting what she was going to say. "You have my word, Haggar. I'll keep my head cool this time."

After a short glancing, Haggar finally gave a nod. "Good. Now go."

As four of the Lions left the castle, Shiro was still in the hangar, trying to use the controls of the Black Lion, who strangely didn't respond? "What's wrong?" Shiro asked, concerned about the Black Lion.

Lance then called through their communications. "Shiro, where are you? We need you right now!"

Shiro tried to reform his bond with the Black Lion. But still... nothing. It was then that Shiro realized... that he wasn't the Black paladin anymore. He sighs as he calls out to the bridge. "Haggar, I'm gonna need you to lead this mission."

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Haggar asked, concerned.

"The Black Lion... isn't responding to me. It looks like you're its true paladin now."

Haggar gave a nod. "I'm coming down." She said before she teleported to her room and put her violet paladin armor on with her magic before teleporting to the hanger and entering the Black Lion to join the rest of the team.

When Haggar got inside the Black Lion and joined the other Paladins, they flew to the outpost and used their speeders to move to the ship and investigated it. But inside the base, Lotor's generals were attacking the commander and his guards, easily beating them before Narti took control of him and made him shut off the security of the outpost and open the roof to what was inside it before freeing him and leaving him too weak to move.

While Hunk led the rest to where the comet was, Haggar advised the others. "Be on your guard. I feel that whoever was attacking the base is highly trained and not to be underestimated." Before the others, including Keith nodded.

"The comet should be in here." Hunk said till they all stopped in front of a strange fighter. "Like, right here."

Everyone was getting a bad feeling about this as the comet was not here, only the fighter that seemed to be an experimental prototype fighter.

"Where is the comet? Is it in that ship?" Lance asked confused.

Hunk checked his scanner another time, which went crazy as he pointed it to the ship, making the Yellow paladin come to only one conclusion. "I think... the ship is the comet."

Both Allura and Haggar couldn't believe what they saw. "No, it can't be! He's already made a ship from the comet's ore?" Allura asked in shock.

Haggar shook her head. "This is impossible. How could they build a ship from the comet this fast?"

"Oh, this is bad." Lance said in a way that they were probably at a disadvantage.

"More like horrible." Katie added.

"Guys." Shiro contacted. "There's a piece of the teludav inside the Galra base."

"The one we used to wormhole Zarkon's ship?" Lance asked.

Allura tried to make sense of this. "But they would never be able to operate it without an Altean-" Before suddenly both she and Haggar gasped as both figured one that there was only 1 person in the universe besides them who could operate the teludav.

Haggar frowned as she knew who it was. "Dark Haggar."

Keith, while loading his blaster said what they should do. "Lotor must be nearby. We need to find him and take him out for good."

Haggar disagreed and stepped in. "No. We cannot let Lotor get his hands on this ship. We need to get back to our lions. We need Voltron!"

As everyone else agreed with Haggar's plan, Keith tried to reason with Haggar. "Why take out one ship when we can stop all of this by taking out Lotor himself? We can't let him keep outsmarting us."

Not feeling like having another argument again with Keith, Haggar explained with a serious look on her face. "That is exactly why we can't risk letting Lotor have this ship. If it's made from the comet's ore, it could be nearly as powerful as any of the Lions. It's too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. Lotor or otherwise. We need Voltron to destroy it before it's too late."

Shiro agreed with Haggar and spoke through communications. "Haggar is right, Keith. This is too important."

Keith was nearly getting frustrated, but tried hard to control himself as he didn't want to be mercilessly beaten by Haggar and her powers or be ignored for good by his friends, especially Shiro now that he was back. So reluctantly, he gave a nod and said. "Lead the way, Haggar."

Seeing that Keith wouldn't go against the team again, Haggar too gave a nod and ordered the team. "All right. Let's move."

But as they got to the doors and they opened, Lotor's generals were behind it, who looked at them for a minute before they began to fight. And when Keith and Axca faced each other, they had a moment where they just stared into each other's eyes... before Ezor interrupted it by attacking Keith. And with Haggar at their side, team Voltron were evenly matched against Lotor's followers, while she used her powers to hurt them a bit, especially Zethrid, who was enjoying attacking Allura. But Haggar knew that there wasn't any time for this and they quickly headed out to get back to their Lions.

As the team returned to their speeders, Lance asked. "Okay, seriously, what is going on? I mean, who were they?"

That was when Haggar answered. "I know who they were. Those were Axca, Ezor, Zehrid and Narti. Galra hybrids, but well trained soldiers and loyal followers of Lotor."

Keith then honestly answered. "I've met one of them before, in the weblum. She stole some of the scaultrite."

Hunk then theorized. "Guys, if they have a piece of the teludav, then they must be trying to build their very own teludav so they can make wormholes."

Then Allura said "If Lotor has turned the comet into a ship, we have much bigger concerns."

"I thought Lotor took over for Zarkon. Why is he and his followers attacking a Galra base?" Katie wondered.

Haggar shook her head. "We'll figure this out another time. But for now, we cannot let Lotor get away with both the ship or the teludav."

As Shiro and Coran watched as the comet ship was flying, they engaged the barrier and tried shooting it but it was too fast. And the biggest blaster on the ship was cutting through the barrier easily, getting in 2 hits before Voltron showed up and saved them.

"I'm going to use the Voltron Fighter. With that ship being so fast and the weapon on it, they'll need my help." Shiro said before running to the hanger, getting inside the Voltron Fighter and quickly taking off to help Team Voltron.

Shiro tried his best to support the team. But with the comet fighter being too fast, Haggar then turned their attention to the cargo ship to destroy the piece of the teludav, but the comet fighter nearly knocked them down with its ultimate blaster. That was when Haggar had an idea. So when the comet fighter fired its most powerful beam again on Voltron while forming its huge blaster... Haggar moved Voltron out of the way just in time, as the ray from the comet fighter accidentally destroyed the teludav piece before Voltron was hit.

"Your failure is most disappointing, Acxa! Return before more Galra ships converge on your location!" Lotor said with anger before breaking contact, leaving an angry Acxa to do just that.

Keith wanted to go after them, but Haggar said. "No! There's something going on in Lotor's head, and we need to find out what."

Later

Keith and Shiro walked up to a meditating Haggar, who turned around and asked. "What is it, you 2?"

Shiro suggested. "Haggar, even though I did very well with the Voltron fighter, I still needed a little help, so I thought I could use a copilot and I would like Keith to be my copilot, with your permission as leader, of course."

Haggar seemed to think that was a good idea, as it would make Keith more useful and decrease the risks of him endangering the team again. "Sure, Shiro. I don't mind that...as long as Keith can learn to keep a cool head and stop trying to endanger everyone around him."

Shiro stated. "I'm okay with that. And I don't mind not being the Black paladin anymore. I'm proud that the Black Lion chose you. You're as much as a leader as me and Allura, and we couldn't have asked for a better friend like you."

"Thanks, Shiro." Haggar said before Allura came in. "Now, if you 2 will excuse me, my sweet princess and I need some time alone." She said before the male humans left the room while the Altean princesses shared a passionate kiss as the door closed behind them.

Meanwhile, on the Galra command ship

"I can't remember anything, except that whoever did it had the correct landing codes. You must believe me." The case commander told Dark Haggar, who already knew that Lotor and his generals were responsible for the attack on the outpost, but kept it to herself to further her own insane goals.

"I believe you, but you still must pay for your failure." Dark Haggar said while using her dark power to execute the commander while Lotor was standing a few feet away from them, not knowing what Dark Haggar was planning in her insane mind.

There you go, my dear friends, the Journey and Tailing a comet chapter is complete. Next will be the Legend Begins chapter, with flashbacks of the origins of Voltron and Haggar and Allura 1st meeting each other as babies and not knowing it until Coran explains why. Rate and review and I'll see you next time, my dear friends.