Chapter six is a go! Now we're getting into the thick of things, and I'm quite excited to write what's coming! Here's to hoping that it all comes out on paper as well as it plays out in my head, because in my head, what's coming in the next few chapters is pretty damn awesome. Alas, the struggles of being a writer.

Until next time!

cosmic dust

chapter six

black market

"I think-" Matt said with a frown, as if he were not entirely convinced of what he was saying himself, "-that we may have forgotten something."

"Forgotten what, exactly?" Pidge asked. "We've got the red lion, seeing as we're currently in the red lion, and we've got, you, me, Keith-" who raised his hand at the mention of his name, like he was being called on in class, "-the princess, and-"

Oh.

Three pairs of eyes turned back, fixing their gazes on the princess- before three pairs of eyes turned towards each other, each silently asking a question that they really should have considered a little sooner.

"Did, uh- did anyone like, tell anyone that we were leaving with the princess? Or like, anything about the whole, go to the black market to secure a Balmeran crystal so we can use it to find the green lion plan?" Matt ventured, already getting a feeling that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Not... really?" Pidge told him. "I thought you'd said something, Matt."

"See, that's the thing, because I thought one of you said something." Matt told her, before casting a hopeful glance towards Allura- who was just about realizing what they had all just collectively realized. "...princess?"

"I only told them I would be heading towards the hangar your leader's ship was located in." Allura told him, shaking her head. "Pidge?"

"Keith and I aren't used to having to tell anyone what we're up to." Pidge supplied. "Space pirates, remember?"

"So what you're saying is-" Keith said, turning in his chair so that he could glance back at all three of them, "-that we just accidentally kidnapped the princess."

"Yes." Matt said. "Yes, that is exactly what the three of us just did."

"Oh, that's not going to make Flos happy." Pidge said. "Matt? Any chance you can get in touch with Te-Osh?"

"I uh- I might have left my transmitter back on the ship?" Matt ventured. "Everything kind of happened in a real hurry, I didn't have time to go back for it!"

"Great." Keith said. "So we accidentally kidnapped the princess with no way to let anyone know about the accidental part."

"Or the voluntary part." Allura quickly supplied, frowning when they all turned to look back at her. "Well, it was my idea to come along with you all. You could hardly call that a kidnapping."

"Wow, we really should have planned this better." Matt muttered. "Okay, new plan- we get back to your ship-" he said, looking between Keith and Pidge, "-and I contact Te-Osh once we get there, and explain the whole thing to her. And then we go to the black market to find a Balmeran crystal so we can find the green lion."

"Maybe." Pidge added. "So we can maybe find the green lion."

"Right, maybe." Matt said. "And then maybe the rebellion won't put all three of us on some weird black list?"

"Too late." Keith snorted. "I'm pretty sure I'm on every black list in the known universe by now."

"Aw, Keith, you're not on my black list." Pidge told him.

"That's not what you said when I took the last piece of fudge." Keith reminded her.

"Oh no, it wasn't the peanut butter fudge, was it?" Matt asked. "Because if it was the peanut butter fudge, I'm surprised she hasn't like, killed you in your sleep yet."

"Trust me, I might be crazy enough to steal from the Galra Empire, but I'm not nearly stupid enough to keep Pidge from her peanut butter fudge." Keith told him.

"What is... peanut butter fudge?" Allura interjected, a curious expression on her face.

"Guys, can we maybe get back to the whole accidental princess kidnapping situation?" Pidge asked. "Because that's kind of important."

"It's okay, I'm sure Te-Osh is covering for us right now, as we speak." Matt reassured her- then paused. "...also does this mean I'm a space pirate now?"

"Well, you're apparently helping us kidnap a princess, so I guess that's as good as an initiation as you're going to get." Keith told him. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Pidge was going to ask me to make you a part of the crew anyways."

"Pretty much." Pidge said, nodding her head. "Welcome to the crew, Matt."

"So am I a part of the crew then?" Allura inquired.

"No, you're the kidnapped princess." Pidge told her. "Try to keep up, princess."

"Man, the transmission home to mom is just getting wilder and wilder." Matt couldn't help but observe.

"Eh." Pidge said with a shrug. "This is actually pretty normal for us."

In the back of her mind, Allura couldn't help but wonder just what, exactly, she had gotten herself into.

"-and now you're both officially in the system!"

"So you were actually able to reprogram the empire's genetic sensors?" Matt asked, unable to help but marvel at his sister's work. "I've been dying to take one of those things apart for ages."

"Trust me, it wasn't easy." Pidge told him, not even trying to stop herself from beaming. "And definitely not something that can be done on the fly. I had to use like, five different workarounds just to get into the system in the first place, nevermind altering it so that it would keep out any unregistered profiles. Can't have the Galra stealing our ship back, can we?"

They had managed, at least, to get back in touch with Te-Osh, who had assured them that she would do what they could in their absence to explain, well, their absence. She'd had that kind of look on her face that gave Pidge the impression that she didn't know how well this was going to go, so it would probably be better if she hedged her bets.

Perhaps it would be for the best if they avoided returning to the way station at all. Who knew what wild theory about Keith that Flos was concocting as they spoke.

"You have got to let me go over your notes sometime." Matt told her, reaching out to ruffle her hair, a distinct note of pride in his voice.

"Anything, for my best brother." Pidge told him.

"Unless mom's been keeping some secrets, I'm pretty sure I'm your only brother." Matt remarked. "But I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless."

"I don't know, I'm pretty sure mom's unofficially adopted Keith." She told him, her grin make it hard for him to determine if she was being serious or not. Peeking out from around him, Pidge fixed her gaze on the aforementioned half Galra. "How'd you like a last name of your own, Keith?"

"Got one already, thanks." Keith responded from the pilot's chair, not even so much as looking back at them.

"Ah, so the cryptic back story continues." Pidge said to herself- her tone was low, but she knew Keith could hear her anyways, judging from the faint snort he let out. "Don't worry, we can always hyphenate!"

"Pass." Keith told her. "Princess done changing yet?"

"She left like, a minute ago." Pidge told him. "I don't think she can get out of that dress that quickly. We're just lucky we have something on board that she can actually wear. My clothes would definitely not fit."

A change of clothes for the princess had been necessity- not only would the gown she wore make her stick out like a sore thumb, it would also hinder her mobility. She was not, it seemed, at all interested in waiting around with the ship.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're the same height you were when I left." Matt observed.

"We can't all have freakish growth spurts, Matt." Pidge told him, not even trying to mask her glower. He really had gotten a fair bit taller since she'd seen him last- looks like that hoodie he'd bought before leaving Earth really would fit him now. "What the hell have they been feeding you out here anyways?"

"Oh you know, space rations." Matt told her. "They're actually pretty tasty when you get used to them."

"Matt, anything you have to get used to isn't actually tasty." Pidge said. "That's just the food equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome."

"Better than what they serve you in Galra prisons." Keith noted.

"Oh definitely better than what they serve you in Galra prisons." Matt was quick to agree. "I'm not even sure that stuff was food, so much as it was like, vaguely food-like."

She tried not to cringe too much at the mention- she knew that Matt had been a prisoner of the Galra Empire, it was why she'd started looking for him in the first place. But while it seemed like Te-Osh had broken him out not long after he was captured, she didn't doubt that the experience had impacted him in ways that he wasn't fully ready to talk about just yet.

That he could joke about it was... encouraging, she thought. Or at least, she hoped. Even Keith sometimes cracked the odd joke about his time as a prisoner- and he'd been held for much longer than her brother, and was that much worse off for it.

"What, they don't give you a special menu at Central Command?" Pidge asked.

"If by special menu, you mean laced with compliance drugs, then yes." Keith told her, his tone dry. "You get a very special menu."

Crinkling her nose, Pidge turned her focus on Keith- as much as he seemed to be almost joking about it, she didn't miss the way his expression had become nearly unreadable. She hadn't exactly forgotten the starved way that he had destroyed the bag of snacks that she had brought him that first day- and suddenly it sunk into her that he had likely been eating as little as humanly possible during his time as a captive.

Christ, no wonder he'd been skin and bones. Mom had made the right call.

Opening her mouth to say something, she instead missed her chance, the sound of the door to the bridge sliding open cutting her off. Averting her gaze, she fixed it instead on the Altean princess, who seemed to have finished changing into something that was a little less attention grabbing than the Altean gown that she had been wearing before.

And more mobile, too.

"How's the fit?" Pidge asked. "Not that I'd know how to adjust it if I tried, but-"

"The fit is fine, thank you." Allura told her, giving her a soft smile. "We will be arriving at this... black market soon?"

"Should be." Keith told her, sparing a quick glance back in her direction, expression once more decipherable. "You might want to keep your hood up. No offense, but an Altean is going to stick out like a sore thumb."

"Oh, like you don't." Pidge quipped.

"Oh, like you don't." Keith repeated, eying Pidge- and damn him, he had a point.

"I can alter my appearance, if that would help." Allura told them. "Alteans are a chameleon-like race, able to blend in with local populations."

"Wouldn't advise it." Keith told her. "Some of these folks can tell when you're trying to hide what you look like, and they don't take kindly to it. Better not to start any unnecessary fights."

"Just the necessary ones, huh?" Pidge asked, arching her brows.

"I only start necessary fights." Keith shot back, even as he faintly grinned. "I can't help it if every bounty hunter from here to the Javeeno system wants to pick a fight with me. What am I supposed to do, not fight back?"

"Eh, fair point." Admitting that much with a shrug, she turned back to the princess and her brother. "So? You two ready for your first outing at the black market?"

"I was born ready for this." Matt assured her. "So what's the plan? We go in, look for the Balmera crystal, get out?"

"Something like that's not going to be easy to find. Most of the ones on the market are probably Galra crystals." Keith told him. "Fortunately, I think I know a guy who might be able to help us out."

"Oh no, don't tell us we're going to Rolo again." Pidge said. "The last time we dealt with him, he tried to make off with the red lion so he could pay off his own bounty."

"I don't think he's going to try that again, not after what I did to his ship." Keith told her- and there was a glint of amusement in those yellow eyes, as if he'd been merely playing a game back in that asteroid field. "We've come to an arrangement, since then."

"See, when you say arrangement, all it does is make me nervous." Pidge told him- before heaving a sigh. "But you're probably right. Rolo is pretty well connected around these parts, so if there's anyone who can help us find a pure Balmera crystal, it's him."

"Who is this Rolo?" Allura asked, a slight frown on her face.

"Former freedom fighter." Keith supplied. "He and his partners, Nyma and Beezer, mostly work as transporters for black market goods these days. Been known to do a little bounty hunting on the side. Or well, Nyma has."

"Former." Matt noted, arching a brow. "That's a word that carries a lot of weight. You said he tried to steal the red lion once?"

"Once." Keith said. "Like Pidge said, he wanted to pay off his bounty. Didn't work out too well for him."

"And you are certain you can trust him?" Allura asked.

"Not at all." Keith said with a shrug. "But he's the best chance we've got to find what we need."

"If he tries anything shifty, I'll give him a good shock." Pidge muttered, hand straying to the stun gun hanging from her hip. She still didn't like the idea. She was still mad them- but most especially at Beezer, for betraying her trust like that.

"Counting on you, Pidge."

The black market was... well, almost entirely what she'd expected of it, and then some.

Which was to say, dingy and not the sort of place one would ever expect to find a princess at. While she had never been to one of the Unilu's swap moons, from the photographs that Coran had taken on one of his many expeditions to them, it gave off rather the same kind of vibe- just with a lot less natural light. Indeed, she didn't fail to notice that there were no shortage of Unilu among those gathered here.

There wasn't much shortage of anything gathered here, really. There were even a few Galra, but from the looks of the way they dressed and how they carried themselves, she suspected that they had very little to do with the empire. She did, however, notice that they watched Keith with unkind eyes when he passed, catching one of them muttering something under their breath that she knew was a very rude word for one of mixed blood.

Not with the empire, but not rebels, either, she thought.

The entire thing was underground- they'd needed to give a pass code to even get in through the first door, and even that had been well hidden- built like some kind of labyrinth. Though she was confident in her sense of direction, she nonetheless stayed close to Pidge and Keith- if she got separated from them, she surely would have found herself quickly lost.

Not an appealing thought, in the least.

For their part, the two pirates navigated the labyrinth-like market with practiced ease, lightly conversing in that strange Earth language. They each were carrying a bag- of stolen goods, she'd gathered, but had decided not to dwell too much on where they had come from. She'd seen the insignia of the Galra Empire on no small amount of them, but not on all- clearly, stealing from Galra Empire was not their only source of income.

And these were the new paladins- two of them, at least.

Pirates. Coran would surely have a few things to say about that, were he here.

But whatever the case, it was clear to her that they had both been chosen, so she would simply have to put her faith into the lion's choice. The red and green lions- the arms of Voltron. Perhaps it was fate that had drawn them together.

If they worked this well together, it at least meant good things when it came to forming Voltron. She just had to hope that the other paladins would mesh just as well with them.

"Princess," Keith's voice caught her attention, and she raised her head, "...we're here."

Here was a dingy looking shop, much like all the others. Ducking inside of it, they brushed past the main storefront, making their way down a staircase away from the main bustle of the shop. A hidden store inside of a hidden store- as expected from the black market, she thought, her nose crinkling.

"Now there's a face I didn't expect to see again."

The man who greeted them must have been Rolo, Allura thought, from the glower on Pidge's face.

"Looks like you picked up a few new ones too." Rolo observed, his gaze lingering on herself, as well as Matt. Thankfully, it dwelled more on the latter- perhaps noting the resemblance between him and his sister. "Pick up a few new crew members?"

"Something like that." Keith told him, removing his bag, all but slamming it down on the table in front of him. "Got some fresh goods, if you're interested."

"I'm always interested." Rolo remarked, getting to his feet, wasting no time in going through the assortment of ill gotten gains. "Trying to dump some goods? Word on the street is that you've gone and ticked off the empire."

Had word truly spread that fast? Granted, Allura was not certain how much time had elapsed between the retrieval of her cryopod from the Galra ship, and when she had been woken up, but she didn't think it had been that long.

"Pretty sure Keith's always ticking off the empire." Pidge observed. "And we're not just here to dump goods today, Rolo. We need something from you."

"Oh?" Rolo asked, arching his brows. "Always happy to help."

"Yeah, like you helped yourself to Red last time." Pidge snorted.

"Hey, I did what I had to do. Nyma and I had too much heat, we had to do something to try and shake it off." Rolo told her, lifting his hands. "Not everyone has the guts to stay so heavily out of favor with the empire like the two of you."

"We need a crystal." Keith told him, his tone curt. "Balmeran. Pure."

"A pure Balmeran crystal, huh?" Rolo asked. "What size we talking about here?"

Sensing that was a question for her, Allura lifted her hands. A smaller crystal seemed as if it would be easier to get, but it would not suit their needs as well as a somewhat larger one. "Big enough so that one would need to hold it with both hands, at the very least."

"That's a pretty tall order." Rolo observed. "The only thing harder to get your hands on would be a battleship class crystal."

"You're telling me you don't know where to find one?" Keith asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I didn't say that. Just that it might be worth more than what you've brought me today." Rolo told him, dropping his gaze downwards. "Unless you're willing to part with that luxite blade of yours, that is."

"It's not for sale." Keith hissed, and Allura didn't miss the way his body tensed, the hair- fur, she now realized- on his head seeming to raise.

A luxite blade? Her eyes following Rolo's gaze, they fell on his knife, sheathed behind his back. Even ten thousand years ago, such a thing would be a rarity. How was it that Keith had managed to come by such a thing, then? That he'd stolen it would be the obvious answer, but he seemed to be rather attached to it, if he was getting that defensive over the idea of selling it.

Something more personal then, she thought.

"Come on now, there's no need to get that upset." Rolo told him. "I might know a guy who can get you a pure Balmeran crystal, but he doesn't take too well to Galra. Might not like one nosing around in his shop."

"Well as you can see, we've got two new crew members." Keith said, jerking his head back to indicate Matt and Allura. "So I don't think that'll be a problem."

Rolo seemed to consider this for a moment- before he shrugged his shoulders, dropping back in his chair, folding one leg over his knee. "Fair enough. Shop code's 0492-94. He can strike a pretty hard bargain, though."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that-" Pidge spoke, almost beaming, "-we can drive a pretty hard bargain too."

And somehow, Allura truly believed her.

"Hm." Tilting his head, Rolo merely arched a brow. "In that case, don't tell him I sent you."

"You keep your mouth shut, and we'll just keep that to ourselves." Pidge told him.

"Sounds like a fair deal to me." Rolo observed, before pausing, a slight frown on his face. "There is one more thing though- if the rumors are true, then your bounties are about to get hot."

"Nothing new there." Keith said with a shrug.

"True." Rolo admitted. "But Nyma came across some interesting information the other day. Seems the Galra Empire has gotten itself a new bounty hunter in their employ. From the sound of it, they're pretty tough, so you might want to watch your backs, get somewhere you can lay low for awhile."

"New bounty hunter?" Keith asked, brows furrowing. "You know anything about them?"

"'fraid not." Rolo told him, shaking his head. "Just that they're the type you should steer clear of."

"Seems awfully kind of you to tell us this." Pidge observed.

"Hey, what can I say?" Rolo shrugged. "You two are interesting. Would be a shame if anything happened to you."

If she had to describe herself, she would most likely call herself a woman of science.

Computer science, mostly- but science in general held a deep fascination for her. It was where she most excelled, and even if she did sometimes get called a nerd for it, she'd learned to wear it as a badge of pride. After all, it had been her brother's brains that had gotten him into the Galaxy Garrison, so why should she be ashamed of hers?

(Though in hindsight, getting into the Galaxy Garrison? Probably not the best thing for him in the long run.)

In that regard, going into space was like a dream come true. Sure, the reasons behind it were the stuff of nightmares- but she couldn't deny that she spent every day surrounded by tech that was light years beyond their own. It was basically the rough equivalent of being a kid in a candy shop, with all the money in the world to spend.

But every so often, she found herself running into things that didn't seem like they could be explained by science alone.

Like, for example, the red lion.

So it really shouldn't have surprised her too much that this bled over into Allura. After all, from the sound of it, the Alteans had been the ones to create the lions in the first place, so why wouldn't they follow the same basic rules?

Still, she had to admit... she'd expected something a bit more scientific than 'using a crystal to amplify vibes', which sounded exactly like some kind of new age bullshit that she'd find in one of her Great Aunt Gertrude's books.

And okay, maybe it wasn't vibes, per say- the princess had called it quintessence. That still didn't make it any more scientific.

There was nothing scientific about sitting in a circle around a strange crystal and holding hands. And yet, that was where she, Katie Holt, child of technology, found herself.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" She asked, unable to keep the doubt out of her voice.

"No."

Well, at least she was honest about it. She kind of got the impression that Allura was making this all up as she went along- and honestly, she probably was. But hey, if it meant that she might be able to get a robotic flying lion of her very own, maybe she could deal with a bit of new age bullshit.

Although... from the way the lions of Voltron had been talked about, she kind of had to wonder if she was really the best choice for it. It sounded like there was some kind of heavy duty tied to being a paladin of Voltron- one that she wasn't really sure that she was ready to accept.

All she had come out here to do was find her family- not to take part in an intergalactic war. Keith despised the empire, so he might very well go along with whatever was asked of him as a paladin, if it meant taking down Zarkon. But her?

She wasn't so sure. All she really wanted to do was find her father, and bring him and her brother home.

But she wasn't blind either- she'd seen what the Galra Empire had done to the universe, how the people of it were struggling underneath Zarkon's reign. It would probably only be a matter of time before it turned its attention towards Earth. Who was to say that it wouldn't be within her lifetime?

"Pidge." Allura's voice broke through her thoughts, "Focus."

"Right, sorry."

Drawing in a long breath, she moved to banish her own thoughts. Allura had told her that she wanted for her to try and call out to the green lion with her thoughts- which normally was something that she would discuss as more new age bullshit, had she not seen Keith do the same thing with the red lion again and again.

Closing her eyes, she took in and let out another long breath. Even with her eyes closed, she could almost still see the glow of the Balmeran crystal, soft and warm. Keith had once explained to her how he was able to call to the red lion, even from a distance- so she found herself attempting to replicate just that.

At first, nothing.

And then...

It came to her with a gasp, such a surge of energy that her eyes snapped open, her hands slipping from Allura's. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, still faintly feeling the tingle of that energy, so strange, and yet somehow, so familiar.

The green lion.

She'd felt the green lion.

"Did-" She began, trying to steady herself. "Did you feel that?"

Allura opened her eyes, a soft smile on her face. "I did."

"So do you know where this green lion is?" Matt chimed in- startling them both, who had forgotten that he was in the room with them.

Matt had wanted to watch the ceremony, as Allura had called it- but Keith had turned it down, claiming that someone needed to stay at the ship's controls, to keep an eye on things. It sounded strangely like an excuse, even though she knew it was true.

"I do." Allura told him, rising to her feet, with an almost impossible amount of grace. "Tell Keith to set a course for the Saltus system."

With a mock salute that she knew harkened back to his days in the Galaxy Garrison, Matt gave the princess a quick grin. "Consider it done, princess."

Across the galaxy, there was another who sensed something.

"Sire," she began, her voice impassive, "-there has been a resurgence of Altean energy. The princess has been awoken."

"Good."

There was a long pause before he spoke again, but none dared say anything in the wake of silence his words brought.

"Contact Commander Sendak."