**I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender (duh)


When Bozi and his crew finally returned to Vurelle, they were the bearers of good news: Kraydah's moon base had been evacuated with few casualties and their supplies had been successfully delivered to their rebel allies thanks to the Green Paladin. Te-freya had reunited with her sister, and they were currently at one of their hospitals where Te-osh was being treated for an injury she had sustained. It was unknown when Te-freya would return to Vurelle, but Bozi and the others were more than ready to teach Mari the ropes in their leader's stead.

But that wasn't the end of the good news. Before being whisked away for surgery, Te-osh had given Pidge her brother's transponder code to locate him. She found him in a remote listening outpost where he had been logging and decoding Galra transmissions. Finally, after months of tirelessly searching for him, Pidge had been reunited with Matthew Holt.

The Green Paladin was absolutely beaming with joy as she relayed the story over video chat. She introduced Matt to each and every one of her friends on Vurelle, bragging about Scarlett's inventive skill and mind-reading prowess, Mitsubishi's rainbow hair and his rapidly growing engineering knowledge, and Mari's strength and courage as the newest member to Matt's group of rebels. He was fascinated by it all and was eager to meet them all in person one day.

"It's an honor to have you join our cause," Matt grinned from ear to ear.

Mari gave him a polite smile in return. "We're looking forward to helping in any way that we can."

For the rest of the day, her heart felt lighter. Lost family had been reunited. On Te-freya's behalf, Bozi gifted her with a new suit and helmet that were better suited for their work in the planet's dust and heat: a dark under suit equipped with an unfailing cooling and heating system, armored jet boots that went up to her knees, a chest plate, a utility belt to hook her staff, gauntlets that connected her to the Kintsugi and the palace comms, and pauldrons with the Voltron 'V' painted over them. Construction was proceeding quickly and smoothly on the base, and as Scarlett and Mitsubishi poured over the blueprints, they wondered if they could incorporate some sort of particle barrier. Everyone was enthusiastic and ready to work. Their new life on Vurelle had officially begun, and it was looking good…

…Until they received the universe-wide announcement of Zarkon's return.

Vurelleans, rebels, and refugees alike crammed into the palace communications room as Scarlett tapped into the broadcast. His deep and even voice boomed over the speakers, making children hug their parents tighter and adults shift uneasily from foot-to-foot. Mari's heart skipped a beat at the sound of it and a chill ran down her spine as she was brought back to that horrible throne room when she had first met the Emperor, had first heard him speak and condemn her to Haggar's torture. Icy and devoid of any kind emotions, it was unmistakably his voice.

"Attention citizens of the Galra Empire. From this day forward, my son, Lotor, is to be regarded as a fugitive criminal of the Empire. All citizens are authorized to use deadly force to stop him or any of his soldiers," he ordered, deadly serious. "I repeat, Prince Lotor is an enemy of the state. Engage with extreme prejudice. Kill on site."

With those final ruthless words, the transmission ended. Hushed murmurs of alarm spread like wildfire across the room. Zarkon was back. Despite that destructive battle all those months ago, right before Shiro had disappeared from the Black Lion, Voltron hadn't killed him. Lotor was now a wanted criminal, targeted by his own father. He was no longer their biggest threat.

"Why is he suddenly turning on his son?"

"Are they fighting for the throne?"

"What's going to happen to the coalition now?"

Everyone looked to Ellosh uneasily, searching for answers she couldn't possibly have. Her brow furrowed in concern, but she didn't hesitate to console them.

"There appear to be new disturbances amongst the Galra forces. But our goals remain unchanged," she said, speaking loud enough to be heard throughout the room. "The coalition will not waver at Zarkon's return. While the Galra fight amongst themselves, we will continue to build up our forces to help Voltron bring down the Empire."

Her words, full of fearless confidence, seemed to calm the crowd. As they slowly began to disperse to continue with their evenings, Scarlett nudged Mari in the ribs to grab her attention.

"Do you think Zarkon found out about the comet ships Lotor's making?" she whispered, careful to keep her question from finding any lingering ears.

"Maybe," Mari shrugged, her own head buzzing with questions. "It sounds like Lotor's basically making a weapon to match Voltron. Why wouldn't Zarkon support that?"

"If their end goals for ruling the empire don't align…then yeah," Scarlett replied. "I can see why Zarkon would want him dead."

Mari frowned at the thought. The announcement all but reaffirmed how dangerous Zarkon was — power and immortality would always come first to him, and he'd get rid of anyone and anything to get it. Including his own son. His only heir. He really was pure evil, just as Coran had said.

"Well, if there's a bright side to any of this, it's that he won't be coming after Voltron right away," Scarlett continued, her antenna twitching nervously. "Hopefully his chasing after Lotor will give us enough time to prepare for his first attack."

Mari nodded in total agreement. This time, things would be different. Voltron had an army on their side now and it was growing every day. They had to be ready to face the Emperor. And this time, for sure, they'd take him down.


The following weeks were a flurry of training, learning, and construction as Vurelle's rebel forces grew. Scarlett and Mitsubishi were kept busy working on damaged ships and the bases defenses, particularly the cannons and their plans for a shield. Teol, Korlis, and Treble introduced Mari to the tunnel system beneath their feet, mapping out and venturing down the important passages and emergency exits until she had them all memorized. Bozi introduced her to the rest of his team and they taught her how to wield and shoot a blaster, how to contact their rebel allies, and how to tap into Galra radio lines and log transmissions. In turn, she shared her martial arts knowledge with them, as well as the Galra attack patterns.

She drew out the layouts of enemy cruisers, pointing out their weak spots and which cannons to take out first. She described different formations the sentries and fighter ships took on during attacks and how to best break them apart. At first, she was surprised by how easily the information came to her. But after having watched Voltron battle the Galra so many times and after having Shiro take entire hours discussing strategy and flight formations with the team, it was no wonder the information was drilled into her brain.

When she wasn't at the shooting range, venturing beneath the surface, or plugging away in the comm room, Mari was tending to refugees, handing out supplies and preparing them to travel to Olkarion if they wished to go. Dario's wife and daughter, whose names she learned were Yauqeil and Danua, were regular assistants in this task as they also provided medical attention. They kept their distance and rarely spoke to Mari, but they often exchanged appreciative nods and smiles with the human girl, letting her know that they, at the very least, respected and accepted her presence.

Other times, Mari would go through the market, meeting new people and helping them set up shop. Zemphis, the nervous Flouwan from the gladiator arena, had established his own storytelling booth where children would gather round and listen to him sing tales about the heroes of old, Voltron included, of course. Whenever Mari or Scarlett came by, the kids would flood them and go absolutely nuts with questions about the paladins and the legendary defender: What was their favorite lion? How many stacked cafigers does it take to make one? Have they ever been in Voltron before? Can Voltron's mouth open? Does Voltron have a butthole? Why does the Blue Paladin wear pink and why does the Red Paladin wear blue? Is Humorous Hunk always so gassy? When will Mari and Keith get married and have babies?

These last few questions stemmed from the more recent Voltron shows. Somehow, Coran had begun televising them, turning them into enormously flashy spectacles. Entire arenas were filled with people who watched the paladins perform in a variety of action-comedy skits that recounted their various adventures across the universe. Throughout the shows, Coran had labeled the paladins with specific personas of themselves: there was Lover Boy Lance, Science-Wiz Pidge, Lone Wolf Keith (portrayed by a rather unamused Allura), Shiro the Hero, and Humorous Hunk. In the later events, he even began to include Mari and Scarlett, as portrayed by actors of an alien race that resembled noodles with limbs. Dubbed Scarlett the Mind Reader and Martial Arts Mari, they brought more antics to the shows. The performances were so popular, someone had even started making and selling merch of it. Action figures and stuffed toys of lions and paladins alike found their way to Vurelle's market, and the kids absolutely loved them.

Sure, the silly and basic labels helped younger viewers remember and connect with all the characters. But what bothered Mari the most was how Coran decided to portray all of them. Hunk, precious and smart and unbelievably sweet, became a flat character centered around fart jokes. Pidge was forced to spew strings of "science" terms in an attempt to sound smart. But her pained expression as she read her scripted lines always gave away the fact that she was feeling rather stupid, especially since she knew that none of what she was saying made any accurate sense. Shiro became the ultimate hero straight out of a comic book — he always won, he was never scared, he was handsome and strong. He was perfect. Too perfect for someone who had endured an entire year of torture as a prisoner of Zarkon. And Lance…well, Lance seemed to be enjoying his role as the team's Lover Boy. The Red Lion became his stage as he dangled from ropes connected to its neck, flaunting and twirling through the air as he performed some rather questionable dance moves. Allura's role as Keith was fairly normal for the most part. Quiet and grumpy and hotheaded, she caught his likeness to a T. The problem was when Mari's character was thrown into the mix.

Despite having a title like "Martial Arts Mari," her character did little fighting. Rather, as a side character, she was always playing a damsel in distress whenever she shared a scene with "Keith." And in response to her dramatic helplessness and her pitiful pleas for assistance, "Keith" became a raging emo Romeo. He was always rescuing her. Always protecting her. Always going ballistic and willing to put his life on the line for her when even something as small as a paper cut afflicted her. And to make things worse, "Mari" always responded with sappy and teary-eyed remarks, endlessly thanking him and swooning as she cried out, "My hero!" It was extremely embarrassing to watch, and Mari imagined Allura felt just as humiliated having to act it all out with a living breadstick in her likeness.

"Was Coran on space crack when he wrote this crap?!" Mari shrilled, an angry flush coloring her face. She had just shut off a particular performance that portrayed her falling from Arus' cliffs, only for "Keith" to swoop in and catch her. "None of this happened! It's one big, fat, stupid lie! What the hell is he trying to imply?"

Scarlett leaned back in her seat, unsuccessfully trying to stifle her laughter. "Hehehe, oh I think we all know what he's implying." She grinned as she wiggled her eyebrows, a little demon in the guise of a Utearen preteen. "I wonder if Keith's seen any of these. Quiznak, I should've recorded them for him."

Mari hoped to every god in existence that he had not. There was no way Kolivan would let his troops get distracted with television, let alone allow them to watch this garbage, right? "I'm gonna murder Coran the next time I see him," she growled.

Scarlett giggled. "Aww. But I kinda like my character. Scarlett the Mind Reader is cool."

Scarlett the Mind Reader was even more inaccurately portrayed than Mari. "She" was a guy, an incredibly buff guy with a rumbling bass voice. There was no mention of her engineering abilities. Instead, "Scarlett" kept focusing on releasing sonic waves from her mouth to read the minds of others, resulting in her constantly dancing across the stage screaming.

Still, despite the cringe-worthiness of it all, Coran's shows had gathered more people to join their cause. With their forces growing and Zarkon still searching for Lotor, the Voltron Coalition was taking back more and more territory from the Galra at an alarming rate. It would only be a matter of time before they were ready to take some serious action and could deliver a heavy blow to Zarkon's Empire. All they had to do was keep working, keep recruiting, and wait for the right moment to strike.


Their moment came just a few days after the completion of Vurelle's base. Gathered in the central control room of the new facility, Mari, Scarlett, Mitsubishi, Bozi, and Ellosh received a direct call from the Castle of Lions. The screens illuminated with two live video feeds, one of all the paladins assembled on the bridge of the Altean ship and the other of Kolivan and Keith from the Blade of Marmora headquarters.

Shiro smiled, small and formal as he politely welcomed them. "Ellosh, Mari. Congratulations on completing the Vurelle base. I'm glad to see everyone's doing well."

Ellosh nodded in return. "Thank you, Paladin Shiro," she replied, ever the courteous monarch. She wasted no time as they got straight down to business. "What is the status of the Galra fleets? Are they still out looking for Prince Lotor?"

"Yes. They've been mobilized and have been searching for movements without any success," Kolivan answered. "It is chaos amongst the chain of command."

"It's only a matter of time before he gets the Empire back in order," Shiro said. "We need to take advantage of this moment."

"What are you getting at, Shiro?" Allura asked, a frown tugging at her lips.

"Now is the time to assemble the coalition that Voltron has been building," he elaborated. He pulled up a holographic map of green and purple dots. A line of planets had been highlighted where the two opposing colors met. "With the intelligence gathered by the Blades and the coalition observers, combined with Pidge's Galra-tracking software, we now have a detailed map of the Galra Empire. I've identified an intermittent line of coalition planets that runs through the territory. If you look closely, there's one Galra-occupied planet left on that line."

"Naxzela," Allura realized, the name already dripping with an ominous foreboding.

"Exactly," Shiro confirmed. "If we capture Naxzela and solidify that line, we can cut off all the Galra troops behind it from central command and use our position to defeat them."

"Wow! We could take back a third of the Galra Empire in one fell swoop!" Pidge exclaimed, a hopeful glint in her eyes.

Hunk remained cautious though as he asked, "Do we have a plan?"

"We attack several locations across the region…at once," Shiro explained. "First, we'll have to cut off communications between the region and Galra central command by striking the satellite relay station orbiting Vantax Five."

"Pidge and I can handle that," Hunk decided, unable to hide his confident grin.

"The Blades have informed us of two Galra defense systems coming online called Zaiforge cannons," Shiro continued, bringing up said cannons on the map. "Now, these cannons can strike any target within our combat theater. The first, in high orbit around the planet Teq, will be attacked by coalition air forces led by Matt and Captain Olia. Kolivan will lead a Marmoran strike team against the second cannon, located on the surface of Senfama, which is vulnerable to a covert ground attack. We intend to take control of these cannons and use Zarkon's own firepower against him. Once the coalition forces and Blades neutralize these targets, Galra defenses will be weakened, allowing us to take down the remaining Galra-occupied planets in this area. While our forces are taking control of the planets, Naxzela will already be under attack."

"By Voltron?" Scarlett surmised and Shiro nodded.

"By Voltron."

"Awww yeah!" Lance cheered, throwing his arms around Hunk and Pidge in giddy camaraderie. "Team Voltron's gonna drop in Naxzela, form Hunk's giant laser cannon and be all like POW POW POW! Easy peasy."

Lance grinned, his confidence exuding as he waited for someone to agree with him. When no one said anything, Shiro decided to let him down gently.

"Unfortunately, not that easy," he admitted and Lance's smile twisted into a disappointed pout. "Naxzela will be tough. It's heavily fortified with Galra. Our attack must be swift enough to neutralize the Galra forces before they have time to contact Galra headquarters. Because if they call reinforcements, we'll be caught in a fight on two fronts."

There was a long pause of silence as everyone absorbed this plan of action. It sounded solid enough. Shiro had thought it out well.

"If this works, the Voltron Coalition will possess a third of the Galra Empire's territory. It will be a massive victory," Kolivan concluded, his tone careful but sure.

"And it will inspire a whole new wave of rebellions," Allura added.

"There's no time to waste," Shiro prompted, ready to wrap up their meeting and get started. "Gather your teams and get ready. We begin in forty-eight vargas."


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