Chapter seventeen! We say goodbye to the Blades with this chapter- for now! Next chapter, it's time to go troop around in the digestive system of a giant space worm. You know, for fun! I'm definitely looking forward to writing it, especially since there's going to be a pretty noteworthy change that's going to take place, other than you know, Keith being visibly Galra. So look forward to that~!
maroon
chapter seventeen
determination
"So uh, I heard I'd find you here."
Lifting his head, Keith turned to look behind him. He hadn't expected anyone to come join him out here, least of all Hunk.
"Thought I should spend some time with Red." Keith told him. "Haven't seen her since... well, you know."
"Since you got your weird disguise chip removed?" Hunk asked.
Nodding, Keith stared up at the red lion. It wasn't like he was afraid that she would reject him, not after all this time, but it felt... well, important, that they see each other. Even if he was wearing a mask right now- not wearing it outside of the base wasn't exactly an option. Not if he wanted to be able to breathe, which, incidentally, he did.
Didn't matter. She'd know.
Rising to his feet, Keith turned on his heel, vaguely wondering what Hunk wanted from him. From the sound of it, he'd been seeking him out specifically.
"Everything okay?" He asked.
"Oh uh, yeah, everything's fine, just..." Shifting on his feet, Hunk gave him a weak smile. Unlike his own mask, the paladin armor had helmets with face plates that could been seen through, even when enclosed. "Pre-mission jitters, you know."
"Hunk, we don't leave until tomorrow." Keith pointed out
"I know, I know." Hunk said. "I'm just really starting to think that I get like, the short end of the stick here. I mean, not only is my lion on a Galra occupied planet, but I also had to go fetch a crystal from a Galra occupied Balmera. And now I have to go get some weird mineral or something from the inside of a giant, planet-eating space worm? All I'm saying is that there's something of a trend here, and it is not one that I enjoy."
"There's also the time you had to keep the Taujeerians from falling into that pit of acid." Keith added mildly.
He was almost sort of grateful for the fact that his mask obscured his features. He could have saved Hunk an awful lot of trouble by owning up to what he knew, but he hadn't.
"Yes, thank you Keith, I forgot about that one." Hunk said. "That sucked."
In spite of himself, Keith let out a snort. "I mean... sure. But at least you bonded with your lion, right?"
Hunk frowned, considering it. "Hm. Yeah, that is true."
"Besides," Keith lied, "-the Weblum won't be that bad."
"Keith, buddy," Hunk told him, and he felt himself perk up a bit at the use of the word buddy, instantly chiding himself for it, "-maybe I wasn't able to pick up on the whole secretly a space alien thing, which uh, in hindsight I really should have, because no offense, it explains so much, but I'm pretty sure that's a lie."
Keith winced. He'd take offense at that, but he was pretty sure Hunk had a point. "Okay, yeah. It's going to be that bad."
"How bad are we talking here?" Hunk asked.
"Whatever you're imagining," Keith told him frankly, "-it's worse."
"See, I can imagine a lot." Hunk said. "That's kind of the problem."
"Fair enough." Keith admitted. "But look- I've been in one before. We can just get in, get the scaultrite, and get out. Easy."
It probably wouldn't actually be that easy, but Hunk didn't have to know that.
"You've been inside a giant space worm before." Hunk deadpanned.
"It's a training mission." Keith explained with a shrug.
Hunk winced, appearing sympathetic. "You know what? I'm never going to complain about Shiro's training regime again. That's rough, buddy."
Folding his arms in front of him, Keith frowned. He didn't exactly see it that way- going into the Weblum had been disgusting, sure, and if the other option wasn't breaking Slav out of prison, he never would have agreed to it. But it wasn't exactly that hard- or at least, not compared to some of the other training missions he'd been sent on, it wasn't.
But then again, Keith suspected that the difficulty level of most of his training missions had been nearly twice that of your average Blade.
Which was fair- he had missed out on a lot of the training he would have otherwise gotten throughout his early childhood, so they had to make up for lost time. Besides, he'd survived, so while they had been difficult, none of them had been impossible.
"So... is that what brought you out here?" Keith asked, gesturing absently to the literal space around him. "Worries about the mission?"
"Mm, part of it." Hunk told him. "But uh... nobody's seen you since your fight with Allura, so I just thought... I don't know. She hit you pretty bad in that last bout."
Keith grimaced. They had gone best two out of three, and while he had won the second bout, it turned out Allura hated losing just as much as he did, a fact which he learned the hard way. He had never known what the humans meant by the expression seeing stars until, well... he was on his back, staring at stars where there should be no stars.
It also struck him that Hunk was worried. He didn't quite know what to do with that piece of information, so he just put it aside for the time being. He was very slowly starting to accept that the paladins did care about him, but he was struggling to grasp the depth of it.
"I'm fine." Keith assured him. "Just came out here to think, that's all."
"Hey, you'll get the princess next time!" Hunk assured him. "But uh, next time I think I'll skip out on watching. That was a little too violent for me, no offense."
Keith snorted. "None taken."
"You sure, because-"
"Hunk," Keith cut him off, "-I lived on Earth for nearly three years. Believe it or not, I did actually pick up on a few of your cultural norms."
"Hm," Hunk frowned, "-yeah, okay. Fair enough."
He wanted to be a bit annoyed at the faint doubt in his voice, but he fought it back. Hunk had the right of it. He hadn't exactly adapted to life on Earth as well as he could have. He'd never wanted to.
"So... where's everyone else?" Keith asked.
"Uh, Shiro's with Kolivan, I think." Hunk told him. "Probably going over leader stuff."
Keith snorted, a faint grin touching his lips. "Leader stuff."
Hunk just gave him a look- and chose to actively ignore him. "I think Pidge is basically pouring through everything the Blade of Marmora has on Shiro. I think she's hoping to use that to find a lead on her family."
Sound plan. He kind of doubted that they had anything that might help, but Pidge was the type who wouldn't be satisfied until she had gone through every bit of data herself.
"And Lance said something about a nursery, or something like that?" Hunk said, sounding a bit uncertain.
Keith froze a bit at that. "A nursery?"
"Yeah, uh... Allura mentioned it, I think." Hunk said. "Kind of weird that we weren't shown it during the tour, but hey, guess that's kind of private."
Right. Of course. Lance had mentioned something about having a niece and nephew back home. It really shouldn't come as a surprise to him that he might be interested in playing with the kids. Which was fine, it was just...
He didn't know how well Naveera would take to that.
"Is... is that bad?" Hunk frowned, seeming to have picked up on his mood.
"It's just- the caretaker, she's not wild about strangers." Keith told him. "Which means we'd better go and save Lance from her before she wrenches his arm off or something."
Underneath his helmet, Hunk paled.
Yeah. This was about how he thought he'd find them.
Lance, for his part, looked immensely relieved to see him- probably a first. If he was going to be honest, he was kind of savoring that reaction just a little. He'd been tied up and shoved in a corner- definitely not the most dignified of positions, yet somehow still less embarrassing than when they had freed him after he'd been tricked by Nyma.
Naveera, meanwhile, remained blissfully unbothered by the blue paladin's predicament. Probably because she had been the one to put him in it, but still.
She'd even gone so far as to gag him. Knowing Lance, he could sort of guess why.
Nose twitching, the four armed Galra caught his scent on the air, seeming to brighten. "Kyix! It is good of you to come, especially since I missed you yesterday."
"Naveera," Keith began, "-I see you uh... caught an intruder."
He couldn't tell what Lance was saying past the gag, but it sounded offended.
Naveera hummed. "He claims to be the blue paladin of Voltron."
Biting down on the edge of his lip, Keith tried to keep himself from laughing. Lance was obviously in one piece- a little ruffled, but otherwise fine. His pride was probably more bruised than anything else.
Hunk, for his part, just looked like he was trying to keep as quiet as possible, like he was trying not to draw the looming Galra's attention towards him. He didn't have the heart to tell him that Naveera had already caught his scent, and that if she thought he was a threat, she probably would have already moved to subdue him.
There was a reason they left her in charge of the base's children.
"That's because he is." Keith told her. As funny as it was, he should probably throw Lance a bonnet.
(...that probably wasn't actually how that phrase went.)
Naveera's smile fell. It was safe to say that she blanched. Seeming to recognize her error, she quickly moved to untie Lance, who wasted no time in ripping the gag out of his mouth the second he was free. "Thank you! That's what I've been trying to tell her this whole time, but she wouldn't believe me!"
"You had a strange scent." Naveera supplied. "You could have been a uiqup."
"I don't even know what that is!" Lance protested.
"It's an old Galran folktale." Keith supplied. "They're tricksters who steal younglings."
To steal and eat their faces so that they could take their place, but something told him he was better off leaving that part out. He was pretty sure that Naveera was the only one left who actually believed in that kind of superstition anymore.
"I wasn't-!" Lance sputtered. "I wasn't going to steal any of the children! I just wanted to play with them!"
Keith snorted, shaking his head. Naveera was nothing if not an excellent caretaker, but that could sometimes be her downfall. She had obviously heard that the paladins of Voltron were on base, if his confirmation that Lance was the blue paladin was enough to convince her to free him, but it wasn't that unusual for her to be so devoted to her task that she drowned out anything that wasn't relevant to it.
It would have been one thing if Lance had come here with him, like Allura had yesterday, but to come alone... yeah, he could sort of see how this had all happened.
Especially since Naveera was blind.
The four armed Galra merely let out a snort, crossing her two lower arms. "What sort of caretaker would I be if I let someone whose scent I did not recognize in to play with the younglings? That is what gets them killed."
He flinched a bit at the comment. He knew it wasn't directed at him, but it still stung. He knew just as well that she hadn't meant for it to.
And it wasn't like he should. He'd just been a baby at the time. The one at fault was his father, not him.
"Look," Keith began, "-why don't we start over again. Lance, Hunk, this is Naveera. She's the caretaker of this nursery. She used to be a deep cover agent, before she lost her eyesight."
"That was many deca-phoebs ago now." Naveera hummed. Her face was still badly scarred from where an explosion had torn it open, and would likely never heal properly. Her scales had never grown back. "Ulaz offered to replace them, but I do not trust prosthetics."
"What, afraid they'll hack your brain or something?" Lance asked.
It was amazing how well someone with no eyes could glare. It was enough to make Lance shrink back.
Heaving a sigh, Keith folded his arms in front of him. "Naveera, these are Lance and Hunk. They're the blue and yellow paladins. They're humans."
Taking a whiff of the air, Naveera frowned. "That explains the strange smell."
"Hey," Lance protested, his voice hitting an offended high note, "-I do not smell."
"I'm pretty sure she doesn't mean it like that, Lance." Hunk finally spoke. "And uh... hi. I'm Hunk. Nice to meet you. Please don't tie me up."
He got the feeling that he hadn't meant to say that last part out loud, but Naveera simply responded to it with a bark of laughter. "Now that I know who you are, I shall not. My apologies, paladins."
"Finally." Lance muttered.
Naveera took it in good humor. "By way of apology, perhaps you would like to hold our youngest?"
It was impressive how quickly Lance perked up at that. "Yes, please."
Not that he wasn't interested himself. Youngest had to mean the baby, right?
Naveera hummed, making her way towards the crib that had been set out in the middle of the room. Using her two upper limbs, she carefully scooped up the fuzzy bundle that had been sleeping inside, the infant barely so much as stirring. She couldn't have been more than a few phoebs old- and beyond that, was tiny.
"Is she...?"
"Ahlet, yes." Naveera answered. "Antok found her. He could hardly leave the poor dear behind after that."
"Found her?" Hunk frowned.
"Yes." Naveera said, using one of her lower arms to lightly poke the infant's nose, causing the baby to squirm lightly. "She was to be discarded."
He didn't miss the way Lance and Hunk both paled at the statement, and he had to remind himself that wasn't normal, not to them. But that was the society that Zarkon had cultivated- one that valued strength over all else.
"That's... that's awful." Lance whispered.
"That is the way of things, at least among the Empire." Naveera told him. "Now, be careful of her head. She still has much growing to do."
Lance was too stunned by the revelation to even reply, but he did let Naveera place the infant in his arms. He took great care in holding her- he suspected that even if she hadn't advised him to be careful, he still would have been extremely gentle.
For his part, Keith frowned, tilting his head. This was a side to Lance he hadn't seen before- something beyond the brash, often annoying blue paladin.
Guess he really was good with kids. Huh.
"She's so cute." Hunk cooed, staring down at the infant. "How could anyone not want her?"
"The Empire values strength, above all else." Naveera replied. "Those who are born in anything but prime condition are immediately deemed as defective, and are often killed."
"Or worse." Keith mumbled.
He felt Lance and Hunk's gaze on him, and he kind of wished he hadn't opened his mouth. Ignoring it, he turned to Naveera. "What's her name?"
"Eira." Naveera answered. "Antok named her. He has grown rather attached."
At the sound of her name, the infant's eyes fluttered open, Galra gold. She stared up at Lance and Hunk, before making a content mewling sound, raising fluffy arms still chubby with baby fat, as if to grasp at them.
In response, Hunk lowered his head, letting her grab at his cheeks, chuckling a little. "Oh man. She's got tiny claws, but they're like, little pinpricks. Doesn't hurt at all. Are all Galra babies like this?"
"Usually they are larger." Naveera noted.
"Nuv was almost twice her size." Keith observed.
"Even you were a bit larger, at this age." Naveera observed, causing his cheeks to flush.
"Oh man," Lance whispered, barely containing his laughter, "-tiny baby Keith. I bet he still had the mullet and everything."
Grumbling, Keith glowered at him, but it had no effect. Hunk, for his part, tried very hard to look like he wasn't picturing it, but failed. Badly.
"Why do they call you Keith?" Naveera inquired.
"It's the name I used on Earth." Keith replied. "Kyix isn't exactly a common Earth name."
"Ah," Naveera hummed again, nodding her head, "-I am glad that you have returned to us. And as a paladin! Your mother would be proud."
He smiled at that, ignoring Lance's faint snicker and Hunk's not so subtle attempt to shush him. He wasn't going to let that ruin this moment.
"It was kind of a surprise." Keith admitted. "But a good one."
It was. Even if he hadn't believed it at first, thought that it had to be some kind of a mistake... looking back on it all, it really had been a good surprise. It didn't mean that he didn't still have his doubts going forward, but if he had to be honest, he didn't regret becoming the red paladin at all.
Maybe it had actually been the universe itself that had made that choice for him, but for once, Keith didn't think the universe was wrong.
He spent the bulk of the afternoon with Hunk and Lance, as the latter was subjected to intense instruction on how to properly care for a Galra baby. At least, by Lance's standards, it was pretty intense- she could be superstitious and old-fashioned, but Naveera still wasn't wild about the concept of palen-bol, unlike others.
By late afternoon, Lance had said his tearful goodbyes to baby Eira, promising that he would come back to play with her for sure. He wondered if he just really liked kids that much, or if it was because he just missed his own family, and was using her as a substitute.
Hunk, on the other hand, had opted to give Naveera a hand with other tasks, once they had ironed out all of their issues related to her having tied Lance up. It kept his mind busy and off of the Weblum, which was probably for the best. He'd left part way through the afternoon, leaving just him and Lance.
He parted ways from Lance a varga or so later, deciding to head down to the archives. He wasn't sure if Pidge would even still be there, but he had the best odds of finding her there.
Besides, if she was still there, that was all the more reason to go and drag her out. He knew how fixated she was on finding her family, but he hadn't exactly failed to notice how she sometimes forsook sleeping and eating if she thought she had anything close to resembling a lead.
He hadn't exactly spied on them all for movements for nothing.
(He'd have to remember to remove all those bugs.)
Before he even got to the archives, he made out the sound of voices. One of them was definitely Pidge, but the other...
"...regris?"
It was Regris. To his surprise, the Blade was leaning against the console closest to Pidge. He'd caught them in a middle of a discussion about... honestly, he didn't exactly know. He wasn't terrible with computers, but next to Pidge and Regris, he just seemed dumb in comparison.
"Kyix!" Regris greeted him. "Why did you not tell me that the green one was so smart?"
"Uh," suddenly wondering if he should be worried about this combination, Keith shifted on his feet, "-I didn't think- what are you even doing here?"
"Regris has been helping me look through imperial records." Pidge supplied, and then promptly grinned like an imp. "And telling me some pretty interesting stories while he was at it."
Shooting Regris a glare, the Blade simply looked pleased with himself. He could only imagine what kind of stories they were, and he wondered what it would take to bribe Pidge to keep them to herself.
"So did you find anything?" Keith asked, deciding just not to approach that subject at all. It was bait, and he wasn't going to take it.
"Unfortunately, no." Pidge said. "But I'm hoping that I'll have more luck when we rescue Slav."
At the mention of Slav, Keith couldn't help but grimace. Last he'd heard, he'd been hiding out on one of the moons of Hasperion, but he guessed sometime between him leaving for Earth and returning to the base, he'd been captured. He wished he could say that surprised him, but... no, it really didn't.
Pidge frowned. "You keep making that face every time Slav is brought up."
Keith just stared at her. "What face?"
"That face." Pidge told him. "The one you're making right now."
"Slav and Kyix do not get along." Regris helpfully supplied.
"Huh," Pidge said, "-so... what's he like? Slav, I mean. Other than the fact that he made that gravity generator- which, by the way, was amazing- we don't know that much about him."
"And you're better off for it." Keith stated. "Look. Trust me when I say you'll know him when you see him."
Pidge just hummed in consideration. "Guess I'll take your word for it. Anyways, what brings you down here? I thought you were sulking after losing to Allura."
Grumbling, Keith narrowed his eyes. He hadn't been sulking. Besides, he'd won the second fight.
"Heard from Hunk that you were down here." Keith told her. "Just wanted to make sure you'd ate."
Pidge blinked, before a sly smile spread out across her face. "Wow. Never thought I'd hear the day you admitted you were worried about me."
Opening his mouth to protest that of course he worried about her, she was tiny, he quickly snapped it shut. He'd never hear the end of it if he said something like that with Regris around. "Just... we're all paladins, right?"
Pidge arched her brows, looking amused by his statement, but opted to say nothing. Somehow that just made it worse.
"The red paladin of Voltron!" Regris proclaimed, throwing his arm around his shoulder. A faint noise of surprise escaped him, which caused Pidge's brows to shoot straight up in response. He chose to ignore it. "Who would have thought that one of our own would be granted such an honor? And little Kyix, at that!"
Pidge snorted, eyes darting away when he glared at her. So much for solidarity.
"You know," Regris began, "-I helped train him."
Snorting, Keith rolled his eyes. It probably wasn't very effective now that he was back to normal, but he couldn't seem to shake the habit. "You and half the base."
"A fair point." Regris admitted. "You leave tomorrow?"
Instantly sobering, Keith nodded his head. He had sort of been trying not to think about it, but it wasn't like he could avoid it. Part of him knew that they had a war to fight, and that the faster they got started on their plan, the better. But part of him... part of him didn't want to leave.
It was selfish. He knew that. The paladins had all been torn away from their homes, and here he was, rubbing the fact that he'd returned to his in their faces.
Hell, Allura didn't even have a home anymore.
But he just... look. He'd missed this place. More than he thought he would have. Maybe everyone was right- maybe he was still a youngling. Some Blades were sent away for decades, and here he was complaining about a mere three deca-phoebs or so.
He'd been just fine while on Earth, and on the Castle. But now that he was actually here, actually home, surrounded by people he had known growing up, the idea of actually leaving was just... it was harder to grasp than he would have thought. And if he was going to be honest, it made him feel a little pathetic.
"Yeah," Keith swallowed, pushing those feelings aside, "-tomorrow. Hunk and I are headed for a Weblum."
At that, Regris made a face. "Truthfully, I would chose rescuing Slav over the Weblum."
"Well, you'd be wrong." Keith shot back.
"I'd say you're welcome to join us, but given the fact that Hunk's mission involves the insides of a space worm, I'm going to have to say you should probably stick with him." Pidge observed. "He's not exactly wild about blood."
"I mean, we'll be going through the digestive system." Keith observed. "So... no blood. Hopefully."
Just bacteria that would try to kill them.
"Yeah, because stomach acid makes everything better." Pidge quipped, pushing her chair back from the console. She stood up, pausing to stretch, her joints cracking from what had to be vargas of disuse. "Speaking of which, I'm so hungry I might even want some of those horrible rations you guys call food."
Regris frowned. "What's wrong with our rations? Are they not nutritionally sufficient for humans?"
Pidge just groaned. "Oh my god. You're all like this, aren't you?"
Regris caught his eye in confusion, to which Keith just shrugged. He still didn't get what the big deal was. He knew food culture was a big thing on Earth, but they could get pretty ridiculous about it sometimes.
Guess every race just had their own quirks.
Before he could say anything, Pidge had him by the arm, tugging him along with a surprising amount of force. "Come on, you're eating with us tonight."
Opening his mouth to protest, Keith quickly shut it. He kind of wanted to eat with the rest of the Blades, but he guessed they'd all be eating in the same place, so it wouldn't really matter.
He was wrong.
He didn't know how Hunk had done it, or even when he'd found the time, but somehow, he'd talked the Blade in charge of food preparation into lending him the kitchen. The end result was a table full of food, with Keith dragged over to the circular couch and shoved into place next to Shiro.
And right across from Allura. He didn't miss that, and neither did she.
He had spoken to Kolivan, just like he promised. He wasn't wild about the fact that he'd issued a challenge to the princess, but he was willing to hand over the chip in question. He hadn't spoken with Allura since then, but he didn't really have to.
Things weren't completely settled between them, but they were better than they had been.
"This might be the last chance we all have to gather like this," Hunk had said, "-so I wanted to make the most of it."
There had been at once a solemn and festive mood to the gathering. Hunk was right. Once the plan to defeat Zarkon was put into full swing, there was no telling when they might have another chance to do something like this. There was even a chance that they might not come back from that battle.
He knew it was a thought that weighed on everyone's minds.
"Not staying?"
Shiro's voice was soft, so as to not wake Pidge. Lance was starting to drift off too, but Pidge had actually fallen asleep, splayed across one of the couches. He watched as Allura carefully scooped her up, pulling off armor plates as she deposited her in her sleeping hole. Hunk helped guide Lance to his own, still muttering under his breath about something inconsequential.
Keith just shook his head. "I have my own quarters."
"Fair enough." Shiro said. "But you're always welcome to stay."
Giving the black paladin a weak smile, Keith looked across the room towards Allura. She met his eyes, and this time, gave him a faint smile. Clearly, the offer was unanimous.
"Thanks," Keith told him, "-but I really should get back."
Resting a hand on his shoulder, Shiro smiled. "Once this is over, maybe you can go find your mother."
"Maybe." Keith told him. He didn't have the heart to say that he probably wouldn't be able to. Even if they defeated Zarkon, all that would do was leave a power gap that needed to be filled- but he was sure Kolivan was already making plans for that.
Wishing Shiro a good night, Keith ducked out of the room before anyone else could stop him. The walk back to his quarters was a silent one- he didn't run into any other Blades, and before he knew it, he was alone in the dark room.
Heaving a long sigh, Keith stared down at his fist. Tomorrow. Tomorrow they would start their plan in earnest. If even one of them failed, the entire mission would fail.
He wouldn't let that happen.
Shedding the chest plate of his armor, he unsheathed his blade, resting it on the stand. His fingers brushed lightly against his mother's place, eyes narrowing.
Find your mother, Shiro had said. But if Zarkon fell, and a Kral Zera was called, then Commander Ranveig would surely attend. Without Sendak around, he would be the likely favorite. If he ascended to power...
He swallowed. He didn't want to think about that.
So instead he shed his gauntlets, making his way over towards his sleeping hole. Collapsing in it, he stared up at the ceiling, at once too tired to stay awake, and too awake to want to sleep. Anticipation flooded his veins, making his blood sing- it wasn't quite the same bloodlust that he had honed since he had been able to hold a blade, but close.
If he could use it to put an end to the Galra Empire... what better thing was there for him to do?
But right now, if he had to be honest... he was a bit lonely. Turning his head, he looked in the direction of his mother's sleeping hole. With a frown, he rose to his feet, grabbing his sheets and pillow, lugging them over to the other hole.
Nobody had to know, right?
Curling up, he sniffed the air. It still smelt a bit like her, even after all this time. It was comforting.
With thoughts of his mother in his head, he drifted off to sleep.
"Kyix."
Turning on his heel, Keith looked back. Their sendoff was predictably smaller than their reception had been, with only Kolivan and Antok in attendance. They would meet them on Olkarion, and would join them for the duration of the actual plan.
He'd already said his farewells in private, but he hadn't had a chance to speak with Kolivan yet. So when the Blade leader called out to him, he didn't hesitate to pause.
Extending his arm, Kolivan stood with his back straight. "It was good to see you again."
Grasping Kolivan's forearm, Keith looked up at him. Even if he didn't have his mask in place, he knew that his expression would likely be difficult to read. The mission before them was a dangerous one- they all knew that.
Probably no one knew it better than Kolivan. He'd been fighting against the Galra Empire for centuries. He knew exactly what Zarkon was capable of.
And they were going to face him.
"It was good to see you too." Keith told him. "I'll get that scaultrite and come back safe."
"See that you do." Kolivan said, his tone stern.
Nodding, Keith turned on his heel. Gazing up at the red lion, he drew in a long breath, steadying himself. Whatever happened, there was no turning back.
Do or die.
And he didn't intend to die just yet.