Chapter 16

A/N: alright, next chapter! Yay! Who's excited? Anyways, sorry about the chapter mix up in the last chapter. Guess we all have one of those days, I've fixed the mistake.

Once again, I just own this story and my OCs, otherwise, it ain't mine.

/comms/

"Bold is intercoms"

Flashbacks/Yorak talking to Keith alone

"Let's hurry up with these repairs," Shiro said as he, the other Paladins, and Jaz floated just above the hull of the Castle, "Zarkon could be here at any moment."

"Shiro, I'm pretty sure he and that witch have to sleep at sometime, they're both pretty old," Jaz remarked putting a hand on her hip. "Not even you can keep that up forwever, no matter how hard you've tried."

"Ok, panel's off," Hunk said making the two adults focus as they saw the blue tube sticking out from the hull, "now what?"

/Very simple. Just loosen the blaxums on the somoflange/

They all looked at each other, seeing if anyone knew what he was talking about. "Could you be more specific?"

/Sorry Hunk, he means the poklones on the agroclams/ Allura replied.

"No, that doesn't help."

"Allura, I don't think your part names are translating for us," Jaz called.

"Don't worry guys," Lance said gently moving Hunk aside as he cracked his knuckles with a smirk, "I got this." Looking at the board for a moment, Lance pressed a few random buttons and turned a knob, that should do it. Hearing a whirr he grimaced when it turned red and the alarm began blaring. "That can't be good."

/No! Not the smalters! The poklones!/

/No! No! it's the blaxums!/

"What are you talking about?!" Keith exclaimed. He'd been fluent in Altean since he was a kid and even with that he still had no idea what they were talking about. The names must've changed over the past few millenia.

Pidge shoved Lance aside and scanning the board calculatingly. Pressing a button, she turned two knobs, and grabbed the top, twisting and pushing it down. "There fixed," she said as the alarm and lights powered down.

/Well done Pidge!/

"The tech on this ship never ceases to amaze me," she admired, stars practically shining in her eyes, "it's so mathematically elegant. Its fit is a hundred-times more frictionless than any of the exoskeletons we have on Earth! It's beautiful!"

"It's not a sunset, Pidge," Lance deadpanned.

"You're right," she nodded. "A billion sunsets happen everyday. Some genius engineer actually built this."

"That kinda looks like a big delicious curly fry," Hunk commented as the tube went back into the hull. Looking up at the others, he grunted as something hit the side of his helmet, coving half his vision with a glowing blue-ivory color. "What the…?"

Turning ahead, they watched as the Castle flew into a field of particulates of a similar nature.

"Alright," Shiro smiled, summoning his shield, "we're prepared for this, remember your rouge projectile cluster training from the Garrison. First we need a temporary shelter—gah!" Shiro turned as one of them hit the back of his head, making him spot Lance who was still in a throwing position and Jaz who was stifling laughter.

"Sorry Shiro!" Lance winced.

"Who cares!" Jaz grinned hugging the Blue Paladin, "You have no idea how close I was to doing that! You made me so proud!"

"…Uh, thanks? Anyways, I was aiming for Keith," he apologized before his helmet was covered in goo as Keith chuckled.

"Like that."

"SQUISHY ASTEROID FIGHT!" Hunk shouted and all except Pidge grabbed an asteroid, hurling them at each other. Lance and Hunk were working together, as were Shiro and Keith, leaving Jaz as a one-woman army.

"Alright guys!" Shiro said only for Jaz to hurl several of the gooey asteroids at him. Wiping it off, he smirked, "It's on!"

"Hey!" Lance protested when Jaz threw a ball at him only to laugh as Keith hit her with two more. Unfortunately he didn't get to see her retaliation because Shiro hit him and Hunk again.

"I don't think these are asteroids," Pidge said grabbing one. "Coran, I'm gonna need a containment unit."

/Just a tick/ he called and a small container flew out towards her. Catching it, Pidge put the unknown object in, letting a scan get run.

/They aren't asteroids/ Allura confirmed /They apper to be some sort of hyper-resilient spore/

"This bioluminescent pulsing doesn't seem natural," she stated. "It looks programmed, I think it's a code."

"A code? From who?" Hunk asked before one of Keith's fast-balls hit him.

"I don't know. It makes no sense. You can't program a spore," she grumbled narrowing her eyes at the spore in the container.

Shiro lowered his shield to look at the Green Paladin, "If there's anyone who can figure it out, it's you Pidge," he smiled before Jaz and Lance hit him at the same time making him spin.

"Nice one!" Jaz grinned high-fiving him.

"Right back at ya, gorgeous!"

Jaz glared at him and crossed her arms. "You had to ruin a good thing, didn't ya?"

/Everyone, come in for decontamination. Then we can figure out what that spore is/ Allura ordered.

Flying inside, they stood in the chamber, all but Keith and Jaz jumping around as the hot water hit them. Without warning a tide of cooler soapy water washed in, letting Shiro and Hunk scrub as Lance clung to Jaz in surprise, Pidge floated around, and Keith remained firmly in place till more water came in, making them foat around. Eventually the waters drained and a vent blasted on, making Lance cling to Hunk to keep from getting blown away, Jaz began sputtering as her hair tried to smother her as Shiro let his floof fly in the wind, Keith stayed grounded probably on sheer stubbornness alone and watched as Pidge was blown away.

Getting released, Keith went to his room, following the others' lead in getting some rest before going to meet up to see the spore results. Changing never took long for him since Yorak could just switch out and replace whatever he was wearing, but at least he could take the time to gather his thoughts.

Sitting down on the bed, he pulled his knife out of his father's sheath, looking at the symbol. Questions burned through his brain: How were the Guardians connected with the Galra? Were they with the empire or the rebels? What was his mother doing with this? Who was she? Why did his father never talk about her? Was she Galra? Did that make him Galran? Could it just be a coincidence? How would the others react if he was Galra?

"Keith—" Yorak began as the door started opening, startling the Red Paladin out of his thoughts before they took a darker turn. Shoving the knife under his pillow, he sat up and looked expectantly at Coran as the advisor appeared in the doorway.

"Did you happen to see a mouse come through here? He has something of mine."

"Uh…no?"

"I'll find you Platt!" Coran grumbled turning away and Keith got to his feet, if anyone could answer his questions it seemed to be Coran. Besides Allura, Jaz, and Shiro, he was the only one who knew about the Galra tactics, and the only one who wouldn't present bias or unwanted questions unlike the others.

"Wait!" he called jogging up behind him as he continued searching for the elusive mouse. "Do you think the Galra ever went to Ter—Earth?" he questioned. Earth was close enough, it was possible to end up in the Krein System from the Sol using the natural wormhole connecting the two areas. And unlike the Krien entrance, the Sol one was not as heavily guarded so it would've been possible for a Galra ship to end up in his home. Though, his dad owned a house on Earth too, so they could've met there. "They would've taken it over, right?"

"I think you'd know if the Galra were there."

"The Blue Lion was there," Keith reminded. "Did a Galran pilot the Blue Lion too?"

"Actually, Blue was flown by—"

"Hey," Lance interrupted opening the door wearing pjs, a robe, Blue Lion slippers, a towel on his head, and a facial mask, "why are you asking about my lion? How many lions do you need?"

"What? No, I-I was just—"

"Don't 'What? No' me!" Lance snapped shoving a finger to Keith's chest accusingly, "you've had your eye on the Blue Lion since day one!"

"It was calling to me out in the desert, and it was the first one we found," Keith defended.

"Ah! Bah-bah-bah-bah! The Blue Lion's with me! and we're very happy together! Very happy!" he called as his door closed.

"…He made it sound like they were married."

Keith's eyebrow twitched at that comment, but he kept his cool, he still needed to ask Coran some questions.

"Guys! Check this out!"

They all gathered in Green's hangar looking at the spore hovering in the container.

"Oh, I've seen this experiment," Hunk grinned, "but quick question: Why do we need to get electricity from a potato?"

"Because they can be mass-produced and don't harm the environment?" Jaz shrugged.

"What?" Pidge asked looking at them, "No, I was able to crack the sporse code."

"The sporse code?" Jaz said raising an eyebrow.

"You're just mad because I came up with it first," she said sticking her tounge out at the older woman. Adjusting her glasses, she began typing on the monitor again. "Anyway, I ran the bioluminescent pattern through a variety of code-breaking sequences uncluding this homemade Turing machine. Of course I had to make a few tweaks to the original design because obviously there've been several advancements since he designed it. Though you have to admit Turing was a shining light in the world of science in an age when far too many were still—"

"Pidge!" Keith snapped making her yelp. "What's it say?"

"Oh, right: 'Under attack. Galra. Help.' And then there are coordinates."

"Sounds like a distress signal to me," Jaz huffed putting her hands on her hips.

"Good work Pidge," Shiro praised. "Get those coordinates into the Castle-Ship's navigation system."

-.-

"The signal came from Olkarion, home to the Olkari," Coran explained as they flew towards the blue-gold rocky planet with two moons. He pulled up an image of an advanced city that reminded some of them of Mesoamerican pyramids. "They're a proud class of engineers. They were builders of vast cities they could shape at the whim of their creators."

"The Olkari have an ability to control metal," Allura added, "with a wave of their hand the Olkari could build a supercomputer inside a block of steel."

Keith grimaced, and he could sense Yorak's unease at this as well. Putting something that could manipulate technology so close to his ghost was not something he'd say he was excited to do.

"Note to self: Keep distance," Yorak said quietly and Keith nodded in agreement.

"Whoa."

"And Olkari once gave me this!" Coran said holding up a floating box.

Lance looked at the others before looking back at the box, "What is it?"

"Hello? It's a floating cube!" he laughed. "Oh, this guy. And watch this! My name is Coran and I'm a gorgeous man."

"My name is Coran and I'm a gorgeous man."

"Why would a society of literal tech-wizards use spores to send a distress signal?" Keith questioned. "And how were they captured? If they can create anything they want, why didn't they create weapons to fight back?"

"Maybe it was an ambush?" Hunk suggested.

"Or a trap," Jaz said.

"Who cares? When can we see that city?!" the younger girl exclaimed.

"Actually Pidge, the distress signal isn't coming from the city," Allura supplied. "It's coming from…the forest!"

"…Oh."

-.-

/Why doesn't anyone send a distress signal from a cool place?/ Pidge questioned as they flew down towards the forest. /I hate the outdoors. Nothing but sunburn and poison oak/

Keith smiled looking out the window, Traveler, when was the last time he saw a forest? He didn't even realize how much he missed the mountains and trees till now. "I like it out here. It's quiet, peaceful, and you never know what you could find."

"Left."

"Hmm?"

Turning his head, Keith raised an eyebrow. Were those…arrows?

Before he could ponder further on what this meant, Red jerked and gave a growl, she was not happy about something. Neither was Keith as she began flying towards the ground, the controls in his hands remaining unresponsive.

/What was that?/

"Are we being attacked?"

/I don't know, but something's dragging my lion down to the surface/ Shiro called.

/Yeah, something's pulling Blue down too/

Landing on the ground, they found themselves looking at a bunch of pale green bipeds, with pointed darker-colored heads, white marks around the eyes wearing robes and holding guns of some sort as wooden…tanks stood behind them?

/Are those…wooden mech suits?/

/Did we seriously get taken down by a bunch of tree people?!/

"We come in peace!" Shiro called down to them.

"Seriously?" Keith muttered.

/Did you really just do the cliché trope?/ Lance questioned.

One wearing a hood walked up, lowering it revealing it to be probably the elder. Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, Keith looked and saw Katie getting on top of green waving the spore yelling something. Whatever it was, it was probably right because then the tree people began cheering.

-.-

"When the Galra attacked, only a few of us escaped the cities," Ryner explained as she led them into the forest-city.

"How long have you lived like this?" Shiro asked.

"Many decapheobs," she answered. "But as you can see, our people are resilient. We never stopped evolving. Instead we adapted our skills to the environment."

They walked through the massive city, and Keith couldn't help but smile, it reminded him a lot of the Farm back home. A few small houses, a smaller city built into the caverns within the cliffs where they harvested some of the crops needing a specialized environment. God it felt so nice to be in a forest again, light breeze, shade, all the things he didn't have back on Earth.

"Wow," Pidge admired watching as a wooden dragonfly-drone flew passed, "Coran was right, you really are the best engineers in the universe. To be able to switch from working with precision machinery to a bunch of sticks!"

Keith glowered, he happened to prefer a bunch of sticks over an overcrowded metal pyramid. That just made him think of the Vex on Hevno.

"Nature's designs are far superior to any device we could devise," Ryner said.

Katie scoffed, "No offense, but I'll take a computer over a tree any day."

Note to self, never let Pidge near the Vex, Keith thought, shivering at the possible consequences. She'd probably try to keep a Goblin, or a Minotaur, or even God-forbid a Hydra as a pet! She already took a Galra drone for herself, she'd probably take the chance with a homicidal robot from another dimension.

"You two can talk science later," Shiro interrupted. "Let's assemble Voltron and get rid of these Galra invaders."

"It's not that simple, I'm afraid," Ryner sighed. "The Galra have our leader, Lubos."

"Lubos," all the Olkari around them echoed sadly.

"If you attack, who knows what they'll do to him?"

"Then we'll just have to rescue him," Shiro stated.

-.-

Keith furrowed his brows and looked around in confusion. Ok, so they were going to rescue the king, but the lions were too obvious so they were going to the armory…and now they were here in a grove? Something wasn't connecting here, because last he checked a forest was not the ideal place to find weapons—unless there were enemies to drop loot, then it was perfect.

"Uh, Ryner, where are we?" he finally asked.

"This is the armory."

Uh…what? According to his ghost's scans there weren't any enemies around here that dropped weapons or ammo, and there weren't any vendors…so how exactly was this an amory?

His answer came as two of the Olkari put their hands near the plants and there was a shift in the quintessence in the air. Before their eyes, the two flowers formed usable blasters.

"…That's new."

"Whoa."

Ryner walked up to a tree, placing her hand on it. Green light flowed up and into one of the seeds hanging from a branch high above. It glowed for a moment before dropped down, the ground shaking slightly as the wooden-mecha landed in front of them.

"Whoa!"

"Cool!"

"Can I get one of those?" Keith asked.

"Of course," she said walking to a bloom and pulling out some headbands, "you can each have one. Now, the kew to operating it is understanding that the nanocellulose responds to electrical impulses from the neural pathways connected through this."

"Do what now?"

Hunk tapped his headband with his tongue, "It makes my tongue itchy."

"…Why are you putting random things in your mouth?" Lance questioned.

"That's your interface?"

"Of course, all commands need to come as binary coded messages."

"So, like this?" Pidge asked putting her hand on the tree. It glowed for a moment before a mech landed next to her.

"Well done Pidge!" Ryner praised as Keith walked over to a tree and placed his hand on it ignoring the commotion around him as Lance complained about something.

This couldn't be that hard? It involved quintessence…though he wasn't too sure on how to send commands through binary code, but Yorak could probably help there. It couldn't be too different than getting a crystal from a Balmera. Closing his eyes, he slowed down his breathing and funneled a trickle of quintessence down his arm, through his hand, and into the tree, sending the image of what he needed to mold the wood into. A loud crack sounded above, and Keith pulled back, stepping aside as a burnt and fried pod crashed beside him in a smoldering heap.

Keith grimaced noticing they were all looking at him; Hunk looked perplexed, Lance was laughing, Ryner, Hunk, and Pidge looked surprised, and Shiro looked concerned. Guess those kids at the group home were right, he really was only good for destruction.

"Pidge, how were you able to do that?" Lance asked.

She shrugged, "I just did."

"You must have a deep connection with nature," Ryner commented and the youngest Paladin shook her head.

"Not really."

"Pidge is our resident tech expert," Shiro stated.

"Well that explains it, you understand that at the deepest level: these trees, metal, you, me…we're all made up of the same cosmic dust, all arranged by the laws of mathematics."

"Does this mean I should start gardening?"

Ryner chuckled. "You're going to need to give your friends a ride."

Keith got in the pod with Ryner and Shiro to avoid the others' teasing for blowing the pod up, it wasn't like he meant for it to happen. He didn't even use that much quintessence, heck, he'd already recovered it by the time the pod exploded.

"We'll go this way, to the egde of the forest! To save our king!" Ryner cheered as she began leading the way as they drove in the wood-tanks.

-.-

"Their headquarters are impenetrable from the ground," Rynver said as they all looked through scopes at the city, "however, there's one way in: a small opening in the roof. It goes all the way down to an open courtyard."

"That's quite a drop."

"But there you will have total access to the building. The hard part will be getting onto the roof undetected."

"That won't be a problem," Shiro stated as all their thoughts simultaneously thought of the Green Lion.

"Hey, hey, what's that?" Hunk pointed motioning to a big black box resembling Coran's flying cube. "Is that part of a building or something?"

"My Lubos!" Rynver gasped. "It can't be!"

"That looked the the cube Coran gave me," Pidge said holding ip the little cube.

"I haven't seen on of those in many decapheobs. We used to play with them as children, but only King Lubos could've designed one that size."

"Why would he do that?" Keith questioned looking over the box. What would the Galra need with a flying cube that echoes voices? Entertainment broadcasting?

"They must've forced him to reveal his designs and reconstruct it as a weapon," Ryner scowled. "From the looks of it, I'd say its almost finished."

"How could that possibly be used as a weapon?" Yorak voiced his confusion and Keith shrugged, like he knew the answer to that.

Shiro nodded and looked over the city, "We need to act fast. Everyone back to base. I have a plan."

Getting back in the mechas, they turned around and listened as Shiro began explaining.

"First, we need to get to the top of that tower. Since the Green Lion has stealth capabilities, Pidge, you're the drop ship. You'll take Keith, Hunk, Lance, and me to the roof, then drop back to a safe position. After the drop we'll use a sensor to scan the building for any Olkari biorhythms."

-.-

Green flew out of the trees towards the city, activating cloaking, they hovered over the roof and the hatch opened, allowing the four men to jump out and freefall towards the ground.

About half-way down, Keith gave a short burst from his jetpack, and he could hear the others doing the same to slow down their momentum before falling further. Getting closer to the ground, they activated the packs again, slowing their descent for landing.

Placing the sensor on the ground they activated it and after a moment, Pidge sent them the results of the scan, giving them directions on where they needed to go.

Crouching behind a corner, they let a group of sentries pass before quietly jogging down the hall towards their destination. Coming to a door, they lined up on either side of it, readying their weapons just in case there were Galra on the other side of the door with the Olkari prisoners.

Hearing sobs and moans, they nodded to each other and quickly opened the door, rushing in…where a movie was playing?

The Olkari King was sitting on a chair in front of the screen sobbing as a servant stood beside him. "Betrayal!" he wept shoving some food into his mouth, "But she loves you!"

"King Lubos?" Shiro questioned.

"Yes?" the overweight ruler questioned, turning to look at them in confusion. "Are you the jesters I requested?"

"Um…we're here to, like, rescue you?" Lance answered.

Keith narrowing his eyes as the being frowned, he didn't look too excited. Lubos pressed a button and the alarms went off, some of the wall pulling back to reveal a group of sentries storming if followed by a Galra with metal arms and a cybernetic eye.

"You could've just said 'No thanks,'" Hunk whined.

"Looks like someone came to rescue you Lubos," the Commander sneered.

"You turned your back on your people to save your own skin?" Shiro said looking shocked.

"I'm doing this for my people," he stated standing up. "They wanted to fight the Galra, but they're too powerful! The Galra could destroy us!"

Keith glowered at the statement, more like Lubos was a coward. He damned his people to enslavement just because he was afraid to fight! They were literal tech-wizards, they could build any weapon they could imagine; that was more than enough to fend off the Galra! If they wanted to, Keith would bet that the Olkari could create fake Hive or Vex robots, that'd be more than enough to drive anyone away.

Instead, Lubos was living in luxury as his people starved as slaves.

"So you helped enslave your people and build a super-weapon?!"

"Don't make me the bad guy! He forced me to do it!" Lubos accused pointing at the commander.

"Did he force-feed you too?" Lance hissed.

"Uh…"

Keith had enough, Lubos was obviously useful to the Galra and he proved himself to be their enemy, so he could just be leverage. The best designer was useless if he was dead. "You're no king," he said lunging.

Seeming to realize what he was doing, the slower Olkari trued to run only for the enslaved servant to shove him back into Keith's arms where he kept the bayard close to his throat. "Alright, we're leaving! If anyone gets in our way, then your best designer's dead."

"Whoa, K-Keith," Shiro stuttered.

"That came out of nowhere!"

"La-sai, what are you doing?" Lubos questioned trambling in Keith's grasp, seemed the king never did think the consequences of his little scheme through. Eventually, his actions would end in something like this from the people he'd betrayed.

"You betrayed our people, I can't live this lie anymore!"

Keith sneered, glaring at the commander tightening his grip when the king tried struggling against him, "You don't want me to kill your genius engineer right?"

The Galra Commander grinned, "Oh, be my guest, it'll be one less thing I have to do. His work is done, the cube is complete."

Keith grit his teeth, that was so not according to plan. From what he understood the Olkari King was the most intelligent or had the most ingenuity out of all the others; if the Commander was ready to toss hims aside that meant they'd gotten all the weapons they needed out of him.

Or that's just how poweful his latest work was.

"What?!" Lubos gasped. "But-But I thought we had a deal!"

"Guards! Put them all out of their misery!"

The wall exploded inwards as Green's massive head burst in opening her jaws. "Your ride's here!" Pidge called as they all rushed onto the ramp. Pulling back, Lance and Hunk returned fire before Green turned away heading back towards the forest.

"The Cube's operational!" Shiro called and they all turned, seeing it lifting off the ground. "We need to get back to the lions and form Voltron!"

"On it!"

-.-

Walking out of Green, Keith unceremoniously tossed Lubos at Ryner's feet despite protests from the others about his harshness. In his opinion, traitors didn't deserve to be coddled.

"What's going on?" Ryner asked stepping forwards.

Shiro growled, glaring down at the Olkari ruler, "While your countrymen starved, King Lubos was well taken care of by the Galra. He willingly helped them build that cube, willingly helped enslave his own people!"

"Lubos…"

"I know you're devastated, but it's time to be strong and use your Olkari spirit to fight alongside Voltron and take back your planet!"

Ryner sighed and looked down at the man. "Lubos, how could you?"

"I…I was only trying to—"

"ENOUGH!" Ryner interrupted not wanting any of his pitiful attempts for an excuse as she whirled towards the crowd behind her. "WE MUST AND WE WILL FREE OUR PEOPLE!"

Rushing into Red, Keith took off into the air with the others close behind. They could see the cube coming closer, so they'd need to form Voltron fast.

Thankfully the transformation didn't seem to take too long, because before long they were flying high above the cube, looking down at it. /Alright team! Let's take that thing down!/ Shiro cheered.

Flying down towards it, the cube somehow began firing at them, which was impressive considering that it didn't even have a cannon.

/Form shield!/

Watching the protective barrier form in front of them, Keith narrowed his eyes as they shot down towards the cube. "Let's see how tough this magic cube is!" Pushing Red forwards, he fired the lasers, getting a direct hit.

To his surprise, the cube only seemed to absorb the impact before reflecting it right back at them, forcing Voltron to duck under the blast.

/Did it just absorb our lasers?!/

/We need to increase firepower!/ Shiro ordered. /Hunk! Use your blaster!/

"Wait!" Yorak protested. "If this thing is really absorbing our attacks then that might be a bad idea!"

That made Keith's eyes widen, Hunk's cannon was the most powerful, so if this thing could absorb and reuse the energy…oh quiznak.

/I'm not sure this is a good idea!/ Pidge voiced.

"Wait!"

/Got it!/ Hunk said plugging in his bayard.

The cannon formed on Voltron's shoulder and Keith moved Red to support it and keep the weapon in a straight line as it fired. Hopefully this thing would be strong enough to destroy the cubem because he really did not want to be on the receiving end of this.

/I think it's working!/ Hunk cheered.

The blast stopped and the cube remained floating. The face closest to them glowed blue and then a powerful blast slammed into their shield, sending Voltron sliding back as they attempted to resist the pressure pressing against them.

/It's giving back whatever we fire at it/ Shiro grunted.

/That's what I was trying to tell you guys!/ Pidge exclaimed. /It's learning; making it's own versions of our weapons to use against us!/

/We can't just sit here! We need to move!/ Lance called as a surge started rolling down the line.

Flying out of the way, the beam followed and they hit the ground, making Voltron roll to its knees before blasting off again.

/How to we beat this thing?/ Hunk complained.

/Maybe if we form our sword, we can cut through the surface and cut right to the center thinking point place thingy/ Lance suggested

Keith furrowed his eyebrows, that wasn't a bad plan. The cube could reflect shots, but it didn't seem to have the capabilities to form a sword or a similar weapon. "Can't be any worse than what's happening now."

/Let's do it/ Shiro agreed, /Form sword!/

Slamming his bayrd into place, Keith turned it activating Voltron's sword. Flying towards the cube again, they wove between shots before flying up and Keith moved Red to cleave down, slicing right through the middle.

/It's working!/ Pidge said only for the sides to turn black, now they were facing two cubes instead of one.

"You two just had to say something."

"Ala fhau facosg ossdoloafoes rlem fha Vex [Are they taking inspiration from the Vex]? Keith muttered in Alasian, another native language of the Krien System.

"Possibly, it would explain the adaptive learning patterns," Yorak remarked, "The Vex would learn during battle and take data from it for future strategies and attacks…though, I've never seen a Vex replicate like that. At least it can't teleport at random."

"Flya [True]."

/It's still operational! Re-engage!/ Shiro commanded.

Flying up, Keith slicked sideways along the glowing violet line. Now he had to have hit the CPU of this thing, there was no way he could've missed it.

/We did it!/ Hunk cheered /They're going down!/

As if to contradict him, the four cubes had violet lines activate and they began flying.

"HUNK!"

/Uh-oh/ Lance said before they began shielding themselves from the onslaught.

/We gotta move!/ Shiro ordered as Voltron flew up as a cube flew into their way firing and slamming them back before a blast from another one hit them. /We can't fight them like this! We have to split up back into lions!/

Following orders, Keith and Red sperated from the others flying around the cube looking for a way to take it down.

/Let's see if I can freeze thses guys!/ Lance said firing the ice-cannon. It seemed to work, as ice covered the cube, but an energy spike shattered the frozen water and it fired back, resulting in Blue's head being covered in ice. /So cold. So cold. So cold/

"I got ya," Keith said flying over and using Red's fire to melt the ice locking Blue's jaws shut.

/Thanks Keith!/

"Duck!"

Flying Red down, Keith watched as a beam chased Yellow. /Shiro! What are we gonna do?/

/There doesn't seem to be any way to stop them/

"That's reassuring."

/But we can't let this weapon get into Zarkon's hands/

"Then what's the plan?!" Keith called driving Red under a cube using her jawblade to cut part of it. looking back he groaned as he saw it self-repair. He really hated robotic weapons.

A scream rippled across the comms, and Keith snapped his head over to where he could see the Green Lion falling from the sky and he heard Red's angry growl in his mind at the sight of her wounded sister.

/Pidge!/

/Pidge! Are you ok?!/ Hunk asked.

Keith bit his lip, Pidge wasn't responding. That meant she was either unconscious from the crash or Green's systems were down, both of which were not good situations to be in at the time. They'd have to make sure to keep the cubes distracted from the easier target.

Turning Red, Keith let a fireblast hit the cube he was facing, making it fire back at him. "That's right, focus on me," he said barrel-rolling and diving under the cube, dragging the jawblade along the bottom trying to do some damage.

Coming out from under it, Keith grunted as a blast hit Red, coming from one of the other cubes and shorting out Red's systems. Bracing for impact, Keith cried out as his ribs snapped as he made contact with the console before he was tossed back into his chair as she skid to a stop.

Seriously, where were the seatbelts in these things?

Hearing impacts next to him, Keith turned the monitors to see the others making similar crash landsing beside him. Traveler, these guys were kicking their butts.

/Hang on!/ Pidge exclaimed and Keith felt a wave of relief, both his and Red's.

"Pidge!" Keith called excitedly with the others, thankful to hear her voice and knowing she was ok.

A green blur flew above and around the cubes, forcing the flying boes to try and keep up.

/Whoa Pidge! What's going on? You're booking!/

/I'm not sure, but I feel more connected to my lion than ever!/ she exclaimed. /I know what I have to do!/

/Then what are you waiting for?!/ Lance called.

Green flew up and turned, a cannon similar to Red's own railgun forming on her back with a roar. Firing, she hit the first cube and Keith got worried, what about the rebound? He saw the charge loading but instead of a laser coming out it was…vines. Massive, vines exploding out and covering the cube, focing it to the ground.

/Whoa, how'd you do that?!/

/That's right! Circle up everybody! Come get some of this!/ Pidge whooped firing at the next cube, not even stopping before she shot by, hitting the third, before sliding along the top of the one she just hit, firing at the last one before jumping off as vines overtook them as well.

/Huh…well that's not the way I thought a giant cube of death would go down/ Hunk remarked.

-.-

"I want to thank you all," Ryner said standing in front of them, "you helped us get our home back. and for that, we will never be able to repay you."

"Just promise me when it's time to take the fight to Zarkon, we can count on the Olkari for help," Shiro said holding out a hand.

"Now and forever," the new Olkari leader said shaking his hand in return. Turning to Pidge, the older woman looked down on her with a smile. "And you. The spirit of the Olkari resides in you, the bond between you and your lion has grown stronger than ever."

"Without you I never would've been able to unlock my lion's hidden power," she smiled. "Thanks."

-.-

"PIDGE! THAT WAS SO AWESOME!" Jaz cheered, pulling the youngest into a tight hug.

"Nice job Pidge," Shiro grinned watching as she struggled to get out of Jaz's grip.

"You know it's weird," Katie said popping her back when Jaz released her, "I've aleways been a tech junkie. That's how I connected with the world. But for the first time, I feel connected to everything. I guess it's like Ryner said: We're all made up of the same cosmic dust."

"So that means we're all related," Keith murmured more to himself than anyone else. "This ship, those stars, the Olkari…even the Galra," he smiled slightly, maybe there was a chance it wouldn't be so bad if his growing suspiscions were correct. If they really were made up of the same cosmic dust then maybe the others could accept him, maybe he finally wouldn't be the freak child that the foster care system had labeled him…Maybe he could tell them about being a Guardian.

"Uh-oh, I think Keith blew his own mind," Hunk teased.

Keith crossed his arms, but kept the small smile on his face despite the teasing. It felt nice to be part of a family again after going so long without his.

"Well that was a productive trip, look at all these cubes they gave me!" Coran said pulling out the cube again and tossing it up in air where it split into eight. "Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man!"

"Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man!" they sang back.

"Ah, sounds pretty good."

"Ah, sounds pretty good."

Hunk made a fart noise, and they all chuckled as the cubes relayed them back.

Then their peace was broken by the alarm going off. "What's that?"

"What's that?" the cubes repeated.

To their horror, Central command and a dozen fleets emerged from hyperspace right in front of them.

Jaz cursed, "Draaf."

"Draaf."