Voltron formed and flew next to the castle as they flew into the solar system.
"See you in a few days!"
Voltron kicked off as the castle veered off and headed towards the Jermites planet. The slowed as they neared Earth, keeping a look out for Sendaks fleet.
"Now the only question is, do we pick then off from behind, or do we sail in, in all our glory, and start shooting?"
"I doubt we'd be able to pick them off."
"I want to see what's going on Earth, you know? See what they have planned?"
"Yeah, and see what damage Sendak's been able to do."
"Pidge will the cloaking work for all of Voltron?"
"Sure, but for a limited time. There aren't any places on Earth I can think of where we'll be able to hide the lions or their energy signature from Sendak."
The paladins fell silent and Lance cleared his throat.
"….what if there was a lot of…what's that thingy that turns stuff red…"
"Iron?"
"Yeah, would not hiding the lions in metal…do something?"
"Where are we going to find Iron in that amount and quantity in the short time it takes to even land on the planet!" Pidge snapped, "It would have to be flowing from the Earth and we'd have to bathe in-"
Pidge interrupted her self and hunk joined in, "Blood Falls!"
"That'll work!"
"Man, I totally forget Blood Falls even exists!"
"Um, guys?" Keith interrupted, "what does a blog sight have to do with our current situation?"
The explosion of laughter that followed, and Keith spluttering took a while. Allura sat back and waited for the humans to get their act together. They were stressed, that was clear, but they really didn't have time for this.
And she didn't get the joke…she never got their jokes.
()
Jackson bit his lip as they drew closer to a planet about twice the size of Earth. From space and even on a separate…traveling planet, he could see the blues and greens of the Hogros planet.
"I'm so excited," Shey said beaming. Jacked gave a small, nervous laugh.
"yeeeeah…"
()
A3 handed over his pin to the Jermite authorities. They had flown out to meet them and the small techno savy aliens grimaced at the Olkaries.
"You bring strangers."
"I think the council has little to say about strangers since there's been an invasion for almost a year," A3 said diplomatically, "These are the Olkaries. They also have a way with technology and are going to help you rebuild the barrier."
The Jermites wrinkled their flat and wide noses, "the barrier is not the problem anymore. It failed and we must do what we can to assist with being noticed."
A3 nodded, "B1 and I have been able to come up with a plan. We can explain it to you."
"I thought it was the paladins that-"
A3 cut off the Olkaries quickly, "The conference room is over here."
The Olkaries lifted an eyebrow in Corans direction. Coran shrugged and motioned that they should just go along with it. He was sure there was a good reason for the lie.
Coran trusted Lance, and since this man was from the same agency, then the ginger saw no reason to not trust him as well.
()
"Are you sure this is going to work?"
"I told you," Lance sighed, "We have a base below the surface. Pidge just has to send them the code and they wont shoot us."
"You don't seem to be very well liked," Allura commented, "are you sure they wont shoot anyway?"
Lance laughed, "Ouch, Princess, ouch. This is Section O. The O's are…special. I honestly have no patience with them, but they honestly aren't dangerous. I'd actually be surprised if there's a single gun in the whole place…"
"What do they do?"
"Stars only know."
His tone let them know he no longer wanted to answer questions. If they weren't on their way to gaining the answers to their questions already, the would have pushed him no matter what.
Invisible and undetectable, they sailed past fleet after fleet of galra ships. Hunk whimpered while Lance gave a low whistle.
"We either underestimated Harvy, or we weren't given the proper information," Keith muttered, "Let's hope there's still an Earth in the middle of all this."
When they Reached Earth, it was Pidge that ended up gagging.
"My mother always said," Lance muttered, "it doesn't matter who wins the war, the farmer always looses…"
Though the oceans were still as blue and beautiful from space as ever, the land was devastated. From space they could see craters, black where green, where the forests and plains, had once been. Even mountains had not stood against the assault Sendak had waged against its surface.
"Guys?"
"We know."
Keith nodded. He regretted not killing Sendak when he'd had the chance. ALL those times he'd had the chance and he hadn't done it. Now everyone was paying the price for not reacting on his instinct.
The flew and descended smoothly, Pidge and Hunk punching in their data and instructing the others at what angle they should enter.
"If we go in at the wrong angle, we'll attract too much attention. Cloaked or not, we'd still turn into a burning ball of flame."
"A sight to see, I'm sure."
"and making all my hard work pointless, now shush as I finish up these calculations."
()
"What good would that do?" the Jermites asked as A3 told them about how they wanted to Barrier to function.
"The paladins are sure about how they will be able to turn the tide of this battle," an Olkari named Uryer replied, "And they are upset about the attack of their planet behind their backs. Sendak has been a personal thorn in the paladins side since the beginning."
The Jermite snorted, "And they have not dealt with the mess yet? I hear that B1 is among these, these…paladins. Has he finally gotten old enough to be useless?"
A3 would have laughed if the Olkari weren't scowling.
"Is he still refusing to take an apprentice-"
"That is not the topic of conversation," Uryer interjected, "we are talking about accomplishing the task Voltron asked of us in a timely manner."
"What makes you think we need your help?"
"the fact that Sendak made it past your barrier in the first place," Uryer said through clenched teeth.
"That's-"
"Our technology is not for anyone elses eyes!"
"The moment our feet toughed ground we already figured it out! Its not hard!"
"You know nothing!"
They argued back and fourth and A3 stared. He'd never heard a Jermite raise their voice before.
()
Hunk and Pidge "oo"ed and "ahhh"ed as they walked into the secret facility. Everyone wore wither a white or purple lab coat.
"Welcome to O section," Lance said, hand on hips, "this is the agencies research section. You two-"
They weren't listening. They were already engaging the agents there in conversations about topics of interest.
"B1," said a man in a purple coat, "what are you doing here?"
"I'm here on business, O9, or did you not notice the ships attacking earth?! I need to call Iverson. I need a secure line. Get it!"
The man squeaked and ran off. Lance sighed and noticed everyone had stopped to stare at him.
"What?"
"Dude, not cool," Hunk said, "why did you talk to him like that?"
"Because if I don't, he'll talk my ear off," Lance protested, "O agents usually have a talkative streak a few hundred miles wide and few light years long. If you don't order them around, they'll ask you questions till you're dead."
"Not all of them are like that," Allura said, "surly."
"Not taking any chances," Lance shrugged as the man returned with a land line. He grabbed it and walked to an empty room off to one side.
"O9, take care of them while I talk with Iverson. I'll see you all in the photo room in a bit, k?"
He disappeared and Keith clicked his tongue, "rude."
"Oh, he's not so bad," O9 chuckled, "I think…his trainers trainer was a real monster. His trainer was a wonderful man, and he's…special…."
"Ooo," Pidge and Allura got closer, "Tell us more about his trainer."
"Well," the man thought for a moment, "normally B1's have a reputation for being disagreeable and hard to work with, but the previous B1 was always kind and funny, even."
"So Lance takes after him a lot, then," Hunk grinned.
"who? Oh, B1, no, I darsay he does not," the man snorted, "very much the opposite. Very much like his trainers trainer."
The paladins exchanged looks and put that question on the shelf for now.
"You're a bit young to know three generations of agents, aren't you?" Allura asked. O9 blushed and laughed.
"Oh my! I'm not young at all! I just have good genes. But, yes, even the younger agents know a few of the previous B1's. You see, there's a rumor what say's there's never been a B1 that had lived past 30 years old. The previous one waited until he was 28 to start training and died three months before his thirtieth birthday, poor- hello?"
He turned around when he realized he was walking alone. All four of his guests has stopped walking and just stared at him.
"Before they're thirty?"
"Why?"
"Does Lance know this?"
"Of course he does, that's why he didn't tell us!"
"Well, he's gonna live if he knows what's good for him."
"I'll kill him if he dies!"
O9 watched them talk and marveled when it finally hit him that their questions were all because they LIKED B1. Someone actually LIKED the crude and cruel agent! And not just someone, but FOUR of them!
"how did they die?" Hunk asked, "I need to know so I know to keep him away from any spindles or whatever."
"Well," O9 gestured for them to keep following him, "no one really knows about it. The files are never shown to anyone but the head of B section and the council themselves. But one thing we all know is that they always die in the field. Then their trainee becomes the new, solo agent. Only the section head and the council really know what the B section does and how they are trained."
"Then how are we going to keep him alive!"
"I refuse to have any of you die before me."
"Is this why he doesn't want to train?"
Silence followed that question as the implications sunk in.
"What was his predecessors code name?" Pidge asked.
"Oh, it was B1U3, if I remember correctly, like I said, they die so fast its hard to keep them all straight. He was an awesome agent. The best this agency has ever seen in a long time. I still remember how jealous everyone was that a small boy had been chosen to train with him instead of them. His skill was-"
"We get it," they snapped and followed O9 to a room of ceiling to flow photos of space.
"I'll leave you here. I really must be getting back to work. If you need anything, use that phone over there and push seven. An operator should pick up. Please don't touch the pictures, but feel free to look-"
"We got it-" they said again, now understanding what Lance had meant when he'd warned them about the O's talking capabilities.
O9 nodded and turned to leave, then he turned back, "just one more thing, if I may. Are you all really…friends, with B1?"
"Duh."
"Yeah."
"Why not?"
"Of course."
"Amazing," O9 said, "no one is going to believe this."
And then he left.
"Why won't they believe it?" Pidge asked, "This is Lance we're talking about. The human friendship machine, right?"
"yeah, he is now, but what about before we met him?"
They all looked at Hunk, the first one to meet him.
"He was fine," Hunk shrugged, "a normal Garrison pilot, all hopeful of being a fighter pilot. He was pissed when you got in and not him."
Hunk said looking at Keith, "he locked me out of our room for hours!"
"then when was the last time they saw Lance if Lance's personality changed between that time and the garrison, that doesn't leave that much room."
"So," allura said taking a seat at the long table in the middle of the room, "either he faked it all and then then became what he faked, or he's still faking and we're all chumps for believing him."
That was a sobering proposition.
"No one say anything," Keith said finally.
"but keith-"
"Until this is all done, we're not going to badger him about all of this. Let's work together to save Earth, and then we'll tie him up, hang him off of a bridge, and force him to answer all of our questions."
"Sounds good to me!"
"Fine, but I get to push him off the bridge when we do that."
"I'll hold Shiro and Coran off when we do it."
()
"Good to finally hear from you," Iverson said.
"Ditto," Lance couldn't help but grin, "so what's the situation? I have Voltron waiting for me."
"We're at a stand still," Iverson said, "this Sendak person wants the five of you and when he learned that you really weren't here, then he hunkered down and waited. We were able to get most of the population under ground and safe. Everyone else was captured and are on all those ships in our solar system. Our agency and the garrison are our main forces. I'm at the garrison acting as correspondence."
"So we'll need to plan a systematic rescue mission on top of it all. Good thing we didn't go in, sword blazing. That was something we thought of doing."
"Please don't."
"I havn't taken over, boss, and I don't plan to. Keith has a good head on his shoulders, well, NOW he does, but I'm more than happy with the way the team works."
"…team, huh?"
"are you crying?!"
"No, I'm shedding all the frustrations you've given me! Now, hurry and get back to base, that way we can talk. I still don't trust these lines."
"Mmm," Lance didn't trust them either. Which was why he was talking alone. If anything leaked, then they'd know the wire had been tapped.
"Tell Gunderson, that her parents are waiting for her here."
"Sure thing," Lance laughed, "we're on our way."