Throk couldn't help but smirk when he stood on the bridge of his very own battleship. Once he thought the bridge of a battleship would be the final major step of his career but now… the battleship was nothing more than another steppingstone.

If he took Voltron, taking the throne would be simple enough.

Once he had conquered the Castle of Lions, no one would remember that Lotor had shot down the Blue Lion. Besides, even if someone raised objections, it wouldn't matter. He who controlled Voltron, controlled the universe and Voltron was as good as his.

All mine.

When he sent out his fighter pilots, he had been prepared to face four Lions. Seeing only three Lions fly out to face his armada was almost disappointing. Even with the Castle's defenses backing them up, they were nothing more than bugs trying to hold back the tide. The Lions were formidable, but they were no Voltron, and three ships could not beat an entire army.

When Voltron is mine… when the universe is mine… I will root the half-breeds from my empire. The empire will have a pure-blood heir, Throk thought.

There would be no more relying on witchcraft. No more advice from mystic. No more treating conquered people as anything but slaves. He would return the empire back to its glory days when it had been great.

His musings were interrupted when an officer entered.

"General Throk. We are ready to begin the infiltration." The officer said.

Throk smiled. He could see his reflection on the window, and he was smiling like a victor.

"Then begin the operation." Throk said.

"Yes, sir."

Those poor, ignorant fools. They didn't even know they were about to be attacked from the inside. Whatever alarms would go off from them breaching the walls would be drowned out by the constant bombardment of his armada.


While the Paladins were fighting outside, Krolia manned one of the Castle's railguns with Coran and Kolivan. Managing rest of the Castle's defenses fell on the princess and all of it was putting a terrible strain on her. She did not understand Altean magic but even then, she knew that a Castle this big was not meant to be operated by a single person. Even Haggar had needed help from her fellow mages to conduct her most demanding spells. The princess was carrying the world on her shoulders.

Not that there was time for her to worry about the princess. Not when her son was out there. She knew she should have been cold and professional, but she couldn't stop herself from giving Keith extra coverage. The last part of Trevor was fighting out there and she couldn't bear the thought of losing him. The universe would be empty to her without him.

Meanwhile Kolivan was racking up more kills than her and Coran combined. If they could have cloned Kolivan with all his skills and experience intact, the Empire wouldn't have stood a chance. An army of million Kolivans strong would be fiercer than even Voltron. But even with Kolivan on their side, it wasn't enough. There were too many enemies, and their escape route was cut off. The Lions were doing enough damage to give any commander pause but whoever was in charge of this mission didn't seem overly sentimental about sacrificing his troops. And… shooting down her own people stung. Were they like her? Idealistic kids trying to make their families proud? Trying to do their duty to the Empire?

"Victory or death." Krolia whispered to herself.

The battle was all but lost. If Shiro had been here… she knew he would have come up with something to pull them out of the fire but… it was just them. Losing the Black Lion had been bad enough but losing Shiro had been crippling. Kolivan was a soldier that came only once a century. Shiro had been a living legend. If someone had called him King Marmora Reborn… she would have had a hard time disputing it.

Then the princess sighed.

"Coran." The princess said.

Coran turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

"Could you see that the wounded are evacuated and that our guests get to the escape pods?" The princess said.

"What?!"

Kolivan's ears flinched, and he kept taking aim and shooting down enemy combatants, but he was listening intently.

"The Blades can't lose their leader and the remaining Lions need a place to fall back on. We can't win this so I will secure your escape." The princess said.

"… what about you?" Coran said.

"If I am captured… I trust you will come and save me." The princess said.

"Two of the Lions would be left behind." Kolivan said.

"Better two than all five." The princess said.

"Princess…" Coran said.

Weary strength hardened the princess's features.

"Coran, this is an order."

Krolia put her hand on Coran's shoulder and felt like a hypocrite. She knew what she would do if their positions were reversed, and it was Keith telling her to go while he stayed behind… and now she was going to tell Coran to do the exact opposite.

"You heard her. It was an order and… we need to get Lance out of here." Krolia said.

Using love against someone was a low blow even during desperate times. She had seen how Coran looked at Lance. With a mixture of fatherly pride and mild exasperation. There might not have been a blood tie but that didn't mean Coran didn't see the princess and Lance as his children. And here she was… asking him to abandon her daughter to save his son.

Krolia looked at the princess.

"Stay safe, princess. We will come back for you." Krolia said.

The princess closed her eyes. She was so young. Barely more than a child.

"I will."

When Coran followed them, he couldn't bear to look at the princess and he moved like a man who had just torn himself in half. She could understand his pain all to well. It had been the same when she had left Trevor and Keith on Earth to get the Empire off their backs.

I am so sorry, Krolia thought.

The ship rocked when the Galra armada fired upon its defenses and a lesser ship would have been torn in pieces a long time ago. When they got to the sick bay, Lance was sleeping in a healing tank. A patchwork of half-healed injuries in the shape of a man. Bandages covered his ruined eyes but even then, she could see the edges of the scars. The Blue Bayard was resting against the tank.

"Is it safe to take him out?" Kolivan asked.

Coran's movements were robotic. Mechanical. His body was moving but no one was home when he studied Lance's vitals.

"He's… stable enough." Coran said.

They opened the healing pod and Krolia helped Lance out. When the regenerating fluids were drained, Lance stirred.

"Come on, Lance. We need to move." Krolia said.

"… Keith?" Lance whispered: "… can't see… eyes hurt…"

Coran took Lance's hand.

"Don't worry about it, Lance. We will fix you right up but for now we need to move."

Kolivan picked up the Bayard and placed it in Lance's hands.

"Take this."

Touching the Bayard helped calm Lance down.


Even with his enhanced reflexes, there were too many enemies for Keith to keep track on. No matter how many he shot down, more kept coming. Their ships were not match for his Red Lion and do only chip damage, but it all added up. Pidge and Hunk weren't in much better shape. The Lions were designed to work as a unit and this large-scale battle revealed all their weaknesses.

The Yellow Lion was nearly an unstoppable force but now Hunk looked like a bear trying to fight a swarm of wasps. Pidge was doing a bit better, but she was only able to move so nimby at the cost of defense. Hunk could soak up blasts, but Pidge needed to be hit only once. Twice tops. They needed the Black Lion to lead and the Blue Lion to cover for their weaknesses.

"Goddamn it!"

The Red Lion roared when an enemy pilot got a lucky shot in right in his back and for a moment Keith wondered if this was how it would all end. Then he managed to straighten his Lion and fire back but that shot had made the other Galras bolder. The honor of taking down the Red Lion made them use tactics that were near suicidal.

"Don't mess with me!"

It was at that moment she got a message from Allura.

"Paladins! Be prepared to fall back! Kolivan will send you coordinates where you can regroup once he's safe!"


"Just a bit further." Krolia said while helping Lance to walk.

Reassuring Lance would have been so much easier if she had felt more confident herself. Everything had gone to hell so fast. Just a few weeks ago victory had seemed more than an impossible dream but… the Empire could survive a hundred mistakes. A thousand incompetent leaders. The Empire was too big to fail. They only had to make one mistake. Only one bad decision. That was all it took for everything to unravel.

Then every muscle in Kolivan's body tensed up.

"Stop." Kolivan hissed.

"What's…?" Krolia said.

Kolivan's warrior instincts were without peer which was what saved them from walking straight into an ambush.

"Am I in luck or what? Not only did Voltron fall into my hands but the head of the Blades of Marmora as well."

The leader of the strike team was a lean and fit Galra who looked very pleased with himself. He had brought a unit of battle droids to watch his back and they seemed to be the latest model. Coran and Kolivan raised their blasters at the same time. Coran might have been even a bit faster. It was easy to forget but under Coran's gentle nature was a career soldier with even more years of service than Kolivan.

When they started trading shots, Lance flinched and cowered. Battle was terrifying at the best of times but being blind had to make it so much worse. Krolia did what she could and pushed Lance to safety before pulling out her own weapon. She put the Bayard in his hand.

"Lance, you need to get to your Lion. She will do the rest." Krolia said and placed Lance's hand against the wall: "Just follow the wall."

"… Krolia?" Lance whispered.

"I'll be right behind you." Krolia said.


When the Galra forces realized, they were trying to run, they did was Keith would have done. They surrounded the slowest of them and started bombarding him, in this case Hunk, and trusted that his friends wouldn't bear to leave him to die.

They didn't.

Keith flew to his aide with Pidge but being clustered like this only hurt them. Neither of them could soak up hits like Hunk. He had always known it might end like this. Dying in a fight with impossible odds. Once it hadn't mattered all that much. Not like he'd had much to live for.

But things weren't the way they had once been.

I want to live! Keith thought.

He wasn't alone anymore. He was in love and loved in return and he wasn't alone. He wanted to see Lance again. He wanted him to see him. He wanted more time. More time to listening to Lance's dumb jokes that… were actually kinda funny if you lowered your standards enough. He wanted to sleep in with him on his days off. He wanted to go to long walks and eat in places they never had before. He needed more time!


Lance struggled forward and wished he could see. His eyes hurt so bad. Or did he even have eyes anymore? Keith… why couldn't he be here? He needed Keith with him. More than ever. Someone had to keep an eye on Keith and… well… looked like he'd need a seeing eye dog.

Good thing I like dogs, Lance thought.

He felt like crying and screaming. Not just because of the battle raging behind but… if he survived this… he would have to face his family like this. He imagined mom breaking down crying and it was enough to make him shiver.

"Where do you think you're going?"

The voice was oozing with condescension.

"Is this what a Paladin of Voltron has been reduced to? A blind man running from a fight?" The Galra said and chuckled: "How sad but this will be over soon. I am general Throk and thanks to you, I will soon be Emperor Throk the First."

Lance turned around but only managed to fall over. It wasn't just his eyes… there was something wrong with his balance and his legs felt like they were full of sawdust. Even then he managed to raise his Bayard and it turned into a blaster in his hands. He took a shot…

… and when Throk started laughing he knew the blast had gone harmlessly over his head. Throk laughed harder than Lance had ever heard anyone laugh.

"Oh, paladin. You deserved so much better than this, but I will remember you."

Throk kept talking but Lance was no longer listening. He was busy aiming with his ears. When Throk had been laughing at the blind man, he had revealed his position perfectly. Lance raised his Bayard again and without hesitation he shot towards the laughter.

This time there was no laughter. Just someone falling over and the smell of burning meat and bone.


Battle droids were simple creations that were meant to overwhelm an uncivilized planet and were rarely a match for trained soldiers but there were just too many of them.

Just my luck, Krolia thought. Killed by a glorified washing machine.

Then she realized that the leader of the attack had managed to slip past her… and had gone after Lance. Meaning… she had failed Lance. She had failed her son. Again.

"Can you hear that?" Coran said.

"… what?" Krolia said.

"Someone is calling me." Coran said.

"… what are you?"

There was a rumbling when a Lion… the Blue Lion came running to the hangar. It crushed the battle droids under its steel paws or sent them flying with a single swipe. Kolivan wasn't one to let an opportunity go to pass and used the distraction to take down the remaining droids.

When the droids were down, Coran looked horrified at the hallway.

"Lance!"

Coran ran like a young man. When Kroalia's and Kolivan's eyes met, he just nodded as a sign that she should go with him. He would deal with clean up. Krolia ran after Coran, terrified what she would find.

They found Lance unharmed in the hallway… with the dead Galra commander. Coran hugged Lance and almost lifted him off the floor.

"Lance!"

"… Coran?"

"I'm here, my boy. I'm here."

Krolia looked at Coran… hugging his adopted son and then at the dead Galra. He looked surprised more than anything. Surprised that he had been shot and killed by a blind man.

"… not over yet. You still… gotta help the others. Blue… it heard you. I can hear… Black calling too." Lance said.

Coran looked at the direction of the Blue Lion.

"It… answered to me? I…" Coran said before realization made him look at her: "Can you hear it too?"

"… what are you?"

Then she heard it too. A Lion calling her name.


Give me more time! Keith thought.

He needed more time with Lance! His mother too! He couldn't die here! He was only getting to know himself! There was still so much left to learn! He needed to…

"Everyone! Form Voltron!"

For a moment he thought it was Shiro. Somehow, he had beaten even death and come back to them… but then he recognized his mother's voice. His mother… who was piloting the Black Lion… and the Blue Lion was flying right at her tail.

"… Lance?" Keith whispered.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Keith, but you have to make do with me." Coran said through the intercom.

"Coran? Lance… Is he okay?!"

"Yes. You can see him when this is over." Coran said.

They formed Voltron… and just the sight of it was enough to kill the enemy's morale. The rest… was over soon enough. Voltron was the most powerful weapon in the universe and a single Galra battleship was no match for them A single slash with Voltron's sword cut the ship in half… and Keith couldn't help but wonder how many people were just doing their job had been killed. Guess Lance's more poetic temperament was infectious.

But he didn't have time to worry about that now. It had been kill or be killed… and they had come out on top. The Galras had been soldiers. They had to know what they were getting into.

When the Lions splintered and returned to the Castle, Allura didn't waste time getting them as far away from there as possible. Hunk and Pidge rushed to Coran's and Krolia's side when they got out of their Lions but Keith… couldn't bring himself to do it. Not when he was needed elsewhere.

There was only time for one guilty look at his mother… and she nodded as a sign of understanding.

Running to the sick bay took an eternity. When he got there, Kolivan was standing by the door.

"What are you…?" Keith said.

"I am acting as an honor guard. It seemed fair. It is rare for a Galra general to be killed. Lance might be the first one to do it blind." Kolivan said and actually held the door open for him.

The sick bay was entirely at Lance's disposal, and he was sleeping on a bed. The bandages were still covering his eyes, but the rest of his half-healed injuries were there for all to see. The old scars on his back that reminded Keith of butterfly wings. The fall had done a lot of damage to his looks and left him crooked, but Keith could still recognize him.

He sat by the bed.

"Lance?"

Lance stirred in his sleep and turned his face towards him.

"… Keith?"

"Yeah."

Lance's hand tried to find his and Keith held on to him.

"… guess we're still alive." Lance said.

They sat like that for a moment. In silence. Hand in hand.

"Are you…?" Keith asked.

"Blind? Yeah, but still a better shot than you." Lance said and then sighed: "Blue… that hussy… didn't want a blind guy and ran straight to Coran. I swear… these hoes ain't loyal."

Keith snorted and marveled how natural his hand looked holding Keith's.

"We'll fix you up. You know that right? You'll be able to see again. Soon."

"I better. Someone needs to keep an eye on you but until then… I'll be getting the best parking spots." Lance said.

"Lucky you." Keith said when Lance touched the bandages covering his eyes: "You okay?"

"Besides being blind? Just peachy. These bandages just itch like the Dickens."

"Then… maybe we should take them off."

The suggestion made Lance shiver.

"… you sure?"

"Yeah."

Lance let his hand fall to the side, and he nodded.

"… if you're sure."

Keith undid the bandages covering Lance's eyes and then with great care peeled them off. Lance let out a sigh when the bandages were gone, and he opened his eyes.

"How… do I look?" Lance asked.

Tiny scars surrounded Lance's eyes. His eyes were still blue but now the pupils were a faint shade of grey that had spread to the irises. They were like a painting where the artist had let the colors mix together to create something new and beautiful. It might have been a flaw, but it was a beautiful flaw.

Keith smiled and touched Lance's face.

"Still good." Keith said.

"I guess… that's not so bad then. At least I'm a sexy cripple." Lance said.