It is time. At long last, the big reveal is here! I had sort of hoped to get to them actually getting into the base this chapter, but I decided with how things worked out to save that for the next chapter- we'll be sticking around with the Blade of Marmora for awhile to come! Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow! So probably sporadic updates through the next week, if I update at all. No promises!
maroon
chapter twelve
blade
He'd gotten more used to the paladin armor than he'd thought.
It was still clunky in his eyes, but no longer in a way that was cumbersome. He still felt out of place wearing it, but it wasn't as bad as it had been before.
Still, nothing compared to his Marmoran armor.
Breathing out, Keith pulled up his hood. He hadn't had a chance to wear it since Sendak's invasion of the Castle. Even under the circumstances, it still felt like a little piece of home, almost like a second skin, really. It was bracing.
But he couldn't deny that he wasn't still tense.
Pulling out his knife, he studied his reflection in its blade. He hadn't activated his mask yet, so it was strange to see his human face reflected back at him while clad in his armor. He hadn't had many chances to wear it back on Earth- nothing he'd done had ever really required it, it being too suspicious for any infiltration he'd done around the Garrison.
He got the feeling he'd be wearing it a lot more from here on out.
Closing his eyes, Keith let out a long sigh. Slowly opening them again, he sheathed his knife, steeling himself. They were drawing close to the main base, and he needed to be there when they did. With Kolivan knowing that they were coming, they probably wouldn't have any major issues gaining access to the base, but the whole thing would probably go over a lot smoother if he was there to give them his identification number.
It was also a pretty good way to announce that he was a Blade.
Taking one last look at the quarters he had been given as a paladin, Keith frowned. He'd never bothered personalizing it, not as the other paladins had begun to. It was closer to it than Earth, but it still wasn't home.
Probably for the best. In spite of Shiro's reassurances, he knew there was still a chance that he might be removed from his position as the red paladin. He had, after all, lied to and deceived all of them, even if it hadn't been his original intent when he'd first boarded the blue lion.
Then again... even if Kolivan hadn't told him to act as a spy, he still probably wouldn't have come out with it. Admitting that he was Galra? Why would he do something as stupid as that?
Unable to help himself, he let out a snort. Guess he was pretty stupid after all.
Letting out a short breath, he activated his mask before he could hesitate any further. Pressing his hand against the door panel, he strode out into the hall, prepared for the worst.
No turning back.
"Is... that a black hole?"
"No, no, no, no, no." Coran said. "It's two black holes. And a giant blue star."
"That's not better."
Yeah... he'd have to go with Hunk on this one.
Still, if this was what Keith had to deal with just to leave their base, suddenly, his skills as a pilot made a lot more sense. He'd assumed it was just because he was an alien, but no- guess it was because his home was sandwiched between two deadly celestial objects, and set just in front of another.
Looking up, he glanced behind him. Keith had told him that he was going to go and contact his leader, but he still hadn't come back. He knew that he'd planned to tell him that he was going to reveal his position as a Blade of Marmora spy, and he couldn't help but worry that he was getting a hard time about it.
It wasn't like he didn't understand, as much as he agreed with Keith. Maybe he'd never met this Kolivan, but he could sort of see where he might be coming from- secrecy probably was the only thing that had kept the Blade of Marmora alive for this long.
And now they were about to blow that secrecy wide open.
So yeah. He could understand the reluctance.
He didn't have long to dwell on Keith's absence, before a low, electronic beep caught his attention. Facing forward, he felt his brows furrow at the Galran script that popped up on the castle-ship's screens. He might have been imprisoned by the Galra Empire for a year, but that didn't mean he could understand their writing.
Thankfully, he didn't have to.
"Identify yourselves."
Straightening his back, Shiro's face set itself in a stern expression. Even if they knew they were coming, he still should have expected something like this. "Open a hailing frequency, Coran."
Watching out of the corner of his eye as the Altean man quickly complied, he couldn't help but let his thoughts briefly drift to what Keith had told him. Namely, the fact that Coran knew, and had for some time now.
He hadn't gotten the chance to talk to him about it- things had come together too quickly. He still meant to, but he didn't know when he'd get the opportunity.
Opening his mouth to answer, he instead found himself cut off by a familiar, if not slightly distorted, voice.
"Identification code X-381, requesting permission to return to base."
Keith.
Turning on his heel, he half expected his eyes to land on a familiar face. Instead, they fell on a mask, much like the one Ulaz had worn. He barely even registered the resounding wave of shock, too focused on the tension that he could make out in the way Keith held himself.
"Permission granted." The automated voice remained impassive to the situation. "Welcome home, Kyix."
For a long moment, nobody could move, stunned into speechlessness. He didn't know if it was because they had recognized the same thing he had- that the masked Blade on their bridge was Keith, or if it was just because there was a masked Blade on their bridge.
Allura recovered first.
"What," her voice was cold, like ice, "-are you doing on the bridge of my ship?"
"That's him," he could hear Pidge faintly mutter, to no one in particular, "-that's the unknown."
Opening his mouth to say something, Keith caught his eye, shaking his head. Shutting his mouth, he instead forced himself to hang back. This was Keith's secret to tell, not his.
"Getting you access to the base." Keith stated flatly.
"I can see that, but-"
Cutting herself off, Allura's eyes narrowed. Though it seemed she was loathe to take her eyes off of the Blade, she nevertheless let her gaze sweep over the bridge. By the time she turned back towards Keith, her lips were set in a tight frown.
She'd noticed.
And she wasn't the only one, either.
"Wait," Lance's brow furrowed, "-where's Keith?"
Lowering his hood, the Blade's mask flickered, familiar violet eyes revealing themselves. He didn't miss the way that Allura went rigid- and so did everyone else, for that matter.
"...keith?"
He wasn't sure if Hunk meant for that to come out as a whisper, if at all, but it did. The only reason they all heard it was because the bridge was so quiet, they'd be able to hear a pin drop.
The faint smile Keith directed towards him wasn't exactly one of happiness. "Hey Hunk."
"Wait," Lance began, for once sounding uncertain, "-you're? But that's- I thought- how!?"
"Yes," he didn't even think it was possible for Allura's voice to get even colder, but somehow, it did, "-I would love to know how as well."
"We can talk about me later." Keith said. "The path to the base is only going to be open for another varga. After it closes, there won't be another clear path for two quintants."
"Right," as expected from someone who already knew the truth, Coran's recovery time was impressive, "-in that case, we should get a move on."
"Coran's right." Shiro said. "We can discuss this later. Right now, we need to get to that base while we still can."
Narrowing her eyes, it was clear that Allura was not the least bit pleased. "Very well. But if you think for one tick that you are going to get out of this, then-"
"Believe me when I say I'd love to avoid this conversation," Keith admitted, "-but I don't plan on running away."
Holding Keith's gaze for a moment longer, Allura forced herself to tear her eyes away. Resting her hands on the pillars she used to pilot the Castle, she remained tense. "Take us in, Coran. Slow and steady."
"Yes, princess."
Be grateful for small mercies.
That had practically been Cantor's pet phrase, while she was still alive. In a universe that was steadily crumbling under the weight of a ten thousand year old empire, it paid to try and see the positive in any situation- no matter how small. Positive thinking was not always his strongest suit, but it wasn't like he didn't get it.
Right now, he was just grateful that he was standing behind everyone, so that he didn't have to feel their stares on him. The faint glances that they would direct back towards him were bad enough as it was- he didn't know if he'd be able to handle being openly gawked at without snapping.
The only one who didn't look back was Allura.
She was tense. They all were. Even Shiro and Coran were, and they had already known that he was Galra, that he was with the Blade of Marmora. Granted, in Coran's case, it was probably just because he had the task of navigating the Castle on the path that the Blades had sent to them, but still. Tense.
It wasn't like he was the exception. He tried not to look it, keeping his arms crossed in front of him, wearing a mask of impassivity, if not his actual mask. He couldn't even recall the last time he had been this tense. Maybe just before he'd undergone his trials?
Yeah, that sounded right.
He'd be lying if he said he hadn't expected things to turn out like this. Heck, he was just glad Allura hadn't decided to shoot him out of the airlock right then and there.
So yeah- all things considered, this was actually going pretty well.
In the back of his head, he could hear the red lion rumble. Faith.
There was no way to dock the Castle of Lions at the base. The two were probably roughly the same size, so the last leg of the journey would have to be made using something else. He already knew that, and the others soon recognized this.
"We'll need another ship to bring us in closer." Shiro remarked, probably half to himself, before turning on his heel, looking back towards him. "Keith? Do you think you could take us in?"
Allura stiffened at the suggestion, picking up on the implications. He watched as the knowledge that he was piloting her father's lion flashed through her eyes. "Absolutely not."
"The red lion is the best choice." Shiro stated. "It's the only one that can fully withstand the heat of that sun."
Narrowing her eyes, Allura considered her options. "Fine. But not before we get an explanation."
"I, for one, would very much like an explanation." Hunk agreed.
"Ditto." Pidge said.
"Yeah, same here." Lance said. "Like, why did the automated computer lady call you Kyix?"
Unable to stop himself, he stared at Lance incredulously. Did he really not get it? "Because that's my name?"
"Kyix a Galra name." Allura noted. "I suppose the mice were not simply seeing things then, when they said your right hand was purple."
"Wait, his right hand is what?" Pidge asked.
"Guys, one at a time." Shiro interjected. "Give him a chance to actually explain."
Though he shot him a grateful smile, Keith didn't miss the way Allura turned towards Shiro, her brow furrowing. "And why are you so calm about all of this?"
Shiro didn't drop his gaze. "Because I already knew."
"Wha- you knew!?" Lance sputtered.
"For the record," lifting a hand, Coran looked a bit sheepish, "-I actually knew as well."
He could have sworn that Coran had just confessed to high treason, based on nothing else but the way Allura reacted to his confession. "You- Coran, you knew about this? For how long?"
"Since the Balmera, actually." Coran confessed.
"Since the Balmera." Allura repeated. "And you did not think to tell me that we had a Galra spy on board."
The words stung, but she wasn't exactly wrong, either.
"It wasn't my secret to tell." Coran told her. "And besides- he's not so bad, Number Four. The red lion would have never accepted him otherwise."
"Wait, hold up," Lance cut in, "-are you- are we saying that Keith is Galra now?"
"Kyix." Hunk meekly corrected.
"...right. Are we saying that Kyix," and did he really need to stress his name that way, "-is Galra now?"
"For the record, I never said anything about being human." Keith stated.
"Well yeah, but we just kind of assumed that was implied." Pidge stated, looking like she was still trying to work out the logistics of the situation. "You know, what with the whole you being a student at the Garrison and stuff."
"We are all getting off topic." Allura snapped. "Whatever your name is, I would very much like you to explain."
"It's Kyix." Keith stated bluntly. "Keith Kogane was just an alias I made up back on Earth. I know what I look like, but yes, I am Galra."
Maybe he'd look like it soon too. He hoped so.
"Look," Keith frowned, "-I never meant for things to turn out this way. The Blade of Marmora sent me to Earth because they had heard rumors that there was a lion there. I was supposed to find it, so that we could hide it from Zarkon."
"That's why I was at the Galaxy Garrison." He continued. "I assumed that they'd know something about the lion, which, turned out they didn't, but they still had the highest odds of leading me to it, so I stayed."
"Until you punched Iverson." Pidge observed.
"Right, until I did that." Keith stated.
"Wait... you punched Iverson?" Shiro cut in.
"Wait, so you know about Keith being Galra, but you didn't know he punched Iverson?" Lance asked.
"I mean, I knew that he'd done something to get himself kicked out of the Garrison, but I just..." Shiro trailed off, not having much to say to defend himself. "Kind of never got around to asking."
"Is Iverson the fellow who strapped you to that table?" Coran asked.
"Yeah, that's him." Shiro noted.
"Oh well," Coran frowned, "-in that case, good call, Number Four."
Opening his mouth to say he'd done that before he'd strapped Shiro to a table, Keith quickly shut it. Now wasn't exactly the best time to talk about that, not when Allura was getting more annoyed by how off topic they were getting by the second.
Even if he found it strangely reassuring. Veering from one subject to the next- it felt strangely normal, all things considered.
"That still does not explain what you are doing here, masquerading as a human." Allura flatly stated. "If you have an explanation in regards to that, I would love to hear it."
Frowning, Keith turned to look at her. "I was getting to that."
"Then get to it." Allura simply said.
Right. Well, he couldn't say he hadn't expected this.
Allura was... in her eyes, this had to be just another betrayal from the Galra. He'd kept secrets, lied to her. There was no way around that, and she had every right to be angry with him. She wasn't wrong about him being a Galra spy, even if he hadn't exactly been spying on them for the empire.
"Like I said before, I didn't mean for things to turn out this way." Keith told her. "Rescuing Shiro from the Garrison wasn't exactly according to plan, and neither was running into everyone else. After that, things just happened, and I ended up on Arus with the rest of them. I didn't mean to... lying to you wasn't my intention."
"And yet you did." Allura observed.
"Yeah," Keith admitted, "-I did."
For a long moment, there was nothing but silence between the two of them. Before finally, Allura's shoulders slumped. She still looked angry, no doubt about that, but she at least seemed to be willing to consider what he said. "I suppose this explains why you were so quick to defend the Blade of Marmora."
"It's not a trap." Keith told her. "That... probably doesn't mean a lot coming from me, but whatever you think about us, we're not that. We want to destroy the Galra Empire just as much as anyone else does."
Considering his words, Allura didn't break his gaze once the entire time. "Very well."
Turning on her heel, her gaze leveled on Coran. For a moment, she just frowned at him, before steeling herself, doubtlessly reminding herself of the work that needed to be done. "Coran, you are to remain here with the ship."
"I- yes, princess." Coran said, guilt visible on the old man's features. He felt a bit bad, about putting the advisor in this position, but it wasn't like it had been his choice.
Allura's gaze briefly lingered on Shiro, before she turned away, facing him once more. "Now then, I would love to hear what the Blade of Marmora has to say for themselves, putting a spy on my ship."
"Like I said," Keith told her, "-it wasn't intentional."
"Be that as it may," Allura said, "-it does not change the fact that you hid your true identity from us. If you had been honest with us from the start-"
"Would you even have listened to me if I had?" Keith asked.
To her credit, Allura didn't so much as flinch at the question. She did, however, back down.
"Look," Shiro spoke up, "-we can discuss this more once we get to the base. For now, forging that alliance is our top priority. Whatever else is true, this doesn't change the fact that we need allies, and right now, the Blade of Marmora is our best bet. Keith?"
Looking up at Shiro, he gave him a curt nod of his head. "Our leader says he's willing to consider it."
"Good." Shiro said. "In that case, let's not waste any more time here. Paladins, suit up and meet in the red lion's hangar."
It took another long moment of awkward silence for anyone to move- Allura all but stalking off of the bridge first. Pidge trailed after her, her gaze lingering on him for half a second too long to be comfortable, before Lance took up the rear behind her, Hunk scurrying to catch up.
That just left Shiro and Coran.
Only once they were the only three left, did he remember to exhale. Shoulders slumping, Keith felt a bit of his held tension was out of him, if not all of it. That... could have gone worse.
Shiro just smiled. "You did good, Keith. I know that wasn't easy."
"I must say, I'm rather surprised." Coran remarked. "You didn't tell me that Shiro knew, or that you were planning on exposing yourself to everyone like that."
"Things kind of came together last minute." Keith told him. "But uh- thanks. For what you said."
"Oh, think nothing of it." Coran told him. "I imagine the princess will want to have a bit of chat with me when you're all done at the base, but I'll stand by it."
"You made the right choice." Shiro told him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Now come on. We shouldn't keep the others waiting."
Nodding his head, Keith gave him a weak smile.
"Why him?"
Some part of Allura knew that she was being childish, ranting at the red lion as she was. Though she knew it could understand her, it wasn't as if she could understand it. It may have been her father's lion, but she did not have that same connection with it.
Instead, it had forged one with a Galra.
Some part of her knew that Coran was right- that the red lion would have never forged a bond with Keith- or Kyix, rather, the Galra name like a spot on her thoughts- if he weren't true to his desire to remove Zarkon from power. That still didn't make it any easier to accept.
How had she not seen it? They'd had a Galra aboard all along, and she hadn't so much as even noticed. If it weren't for what the mice told her, she might never have even suspected as much. In hindsight, so much made sense now- why he'd been so quick to trust the Blade of Marmora, so willing to leap to their defense. How he never seemed to want to discuss Earth, why he kept himself apart from the other paladins, and outright avoided her.
His so-called psychic gift.
Reazit.
Not only was he Galra, but he was also a reazit. He had to be.
Narrowing her eyes, she stared straight up at the red lion, as if she somehow expected it to give her the answers she sought. It had to have known, all this time, just who and what was piloting it. A Galra. She'd selected a Galra for a paladin.
The red lion, her father's lion, had selected a Galra for a paladin.
Suddenly, the flash of guilt in his eyes when he spoke of her father made so much more sense. Chewing on her lip, she tried not to think on it, nor on the way he had been perfectly willing to throw himself in harm's way to protect them, back on the Balmera. How he had challenged Zarkon himself, just so that Shiro would have time to get back to the black lion.
The sound of his screams.
Closing her eyes, Allura heaved a sigh. She could not, and would not, deny how betrayed this caused her to feel. While she and Keith- Kyix- were hardly close, he'd nevertheless become a part of this ship, of this family, albeit a distant one. It just made the fact that he had been lying to them all, right from the start, sting all the more.
She did not understand how Shiro had accepted it so easily.
Coran, yes. As hurt as the fact that he had known made her feel, she knew full well what he was like. It wasn't in his nature to hold such things against people, not unless they had done something monstrously terrible, as Zarkon had.
And for all her feelings of betrayal, Kyix was no Zarkon.
She knew that he must have been feeding back information to the Blade of Marmora all along. No one had said as much, but it was not exactly hard to guess. That... she did not care for it, not at all- it was hardly a fantastic basis to build an alliance on.
But it did mean that this very likely wasn't one of Zarkon's traps.
Not when Kyix had been aboard the Castle of Lions all along, and they were all still alive. It had been Ulaz who had said that if he wanted them dead, they would be, and she supposed that he was right, in more ways than one. Kyix could have easily finished them all off as they slept, and then hand delivered the lions of Voltron straight to Zarkon.
So yes, likely, this was not a trap.
It still did not mean she fully trusted the Blade of Marmora. Even if it had not been their initial intention to send one of their own to infiltrate the paladins, she could not ignore the fact that they had. Beyond that, there was no telling what kind of ulterior motives they might have.
Exhaling, Allura slowly opened her eyes, staring back up at the red lion. It sat, unmoved by her unstable emotions, waiting for the return of its paladin.
He was not long after her.
Turning on her heel at the sound of opening doors, Allura frowned. Kyix froze, before attempting to act like he hadn't, though she had no idea who he was trying to fool. Reflecting back on it, he had hardly been the most subtle of spies- if it were not for the simple matter of his appearance, she likely would have had cause to doubt him more.
She did wonder at that. Galra were not shapeshifters, not as Alteans were. But then again, he was a reazit, so perhaps he had the gift of it.
Perhaps not. It would seem that the part about him having no control over it was not a lie, not given what he had gone through back on the Balmera.
"Princess." Kyix's voice was level, betraying nothing. "Guess you're the only one here."
Well two could play at that game. "So it would seem."
Saying nothing, he made his way towards the red lion. Frowning, she took this as a chance to study his features- but no matter how she looked at him, he appeared human. The only hint that he might be otherwise were his eyes, but even then, she did not know enough about humans to know if purple was an uncommon color or not.
He must have felt her staring, because he turned back on his heel, looking directly at her. "You have something to say to me, princess?"
"Yes," she replied honestly, "-but if I start, I will not be able to stop."
He said nothing to that, merely turning back to the red lion. In spite of herself, she felt her skin crawl as he laid a hand on it, knowing what she did now about him. Some part of her couldn't help but feel like her father's lion was being defiled by a Galra. That perhaps it had been swayed while in Galra custody.
But she doubted it.
She wondered how her father would feel about this. But he was no longer around, in any form, to ask.
She tried not to think about the awkward words of comfort he had given her in the aftermath of the destruction of her father's AI. She tried not to think about a lot of things, really.
Thankfully, they weren't alone for long- Shiro arrived just seconds later. And while she would very much like to have a few words with him as well, it did serve to make things a bit less tense.
"So what, are we just not going to talk about this?"
Looking up at Lance, Pidge frowned. "About what? Keith being a secret alien?"
They had all sort of ended up crossing paths with each other in the hallway. Which was probably to be expected, seeing as they were all headed to the same place. For the longest time, there had just been an awkward silence hanging between them, before Lance had apparently decided he'd had enough, and blurted out his question.
Guess Keith really had shanked Haxus.
She knew that had sounded like him.
"No, about the pope." Lance rolled his eyes. "Yes, about Keith being a secret alien!"
"Uh, shouldn't we call him Kyix?" Hunk chimed in. "I mean... that's his real name, right?"
"Kyix," Lance repeated, "-what kind of name is Kyix?"
"Galra, apparently." Pidge remarked.
"If Keith's Galra, why does he look so human?" Lance asked. "I mean... I don't know if you've noticed, but he's not exactly big, purple, and hairy."
"Yeah," Pidge said, "-we've noticed."
She was dying to know that, actually. It wasn't just the fact that Keith looked human- but he'd been a part of the Galaxy Garrison. In other words, he would have had to pass both their physical and medical exams, and while sure- she'd passed them both too, but it was a lot easier to hide being female than it was to hide being an alien.
Which Keith apparently was.
So much for being proof that psychic powers existed.
"Maybe... maybe he's not?" Hunk ventured. "I mean, sure maybe he was like, raised by them something, but... maybe he's still human?"
"He did sort of imply that he wasn't, though." Pidge pointed out. "Otherwise I'd agree with you Hunk."
"Oh." Hunk blinked. "Oh yeah, right. He did kind of say that."
"Well, at least Keith being Galra explains why he's so damn grumpy all the time." Lance remarked.
"His eating habits." Hunk added.
"The fact that he practically lives in the training room." Pidge chimed in.
"Not to mention the fact that he never gets any of my jokes." Lance said.
"Maybe you just make bad jokes." Pidge quipped.
"Hey, my jokes are fine!" Lance protested, narrowing his eyes. "It's just Keith who doesn't have a sense of humor!"
"I mean... he laughs at my jokes, sometimes." Hunk said. "So... yeah."
Frowning, Lance glowered back at Hunk. "Wow, Hunk. Wow. And here I thought we were friends."
Giving him an apologetic smile, Hunk chewed on his lip. "So... what do you think's gonna happen? I mean, Allura didn't seem happy. Like. At all."
"That's putting it one way." Pidge noted, arching her brows.
"What, you think Allura's gonna chase him off the team?" Lance asked.
"I don't know." Hunk confessed.
"I'm not so sure the lions work that way." Pidge said. "I mean... the red lion had to have known, right? And we've all seen the way it comes for him whenever he's in danger."
"I wonder if Blue knew it too." Lance frowned. "I mean... she did let him in, back on Earth."
"Come to think of it, Keith's been in all of our lions." Hunk observed. "I mean, except for Shiro's. But I don't think any of us have been in the black lion."
"Huh," frowning, Pidge gave that some thought, "-now that you mention it, yeah, he has. He's been in the green lion like, four times, even."
"So... what?" Lance asked. "We can trust him?"
"I mean... Shiro trusts him." Hunk pointed out. "And Coran."
"Yeah, but he lied to us." Lance pointed out. "Plus he's Galra."
"I mean... so was Ulaz." Pidge said. "And he sacrificed himself to save us."
She hadn't meant to bring about another silence, but guess that's just what they were going to have a lot of today. Funny- she hadn't remembered the path to the red lion's hangar being quite this long. Maybe it just felt that way.
"...do you think he knew him?"
Sucking in a breath, Pidge closed her eyes. Yeah, she'd been thinking about that too. The way Keith had closed himself off, even more than usual after that battle... not to mention the way he'd gotten so gung ho about dragging them all to training after it.
"I think maybe he did."
With that thought weighing on their minds, they reached the red lion's hangar.
Maybe the path hadn't been quite long enough.