The massive star outside the ship bathed Colleen's room in a soft blue glow, cast off by the hologram Coran had shown her how to project on her wall to simulate having a window. The surface of the star rippled and flowed, casting off periodic flares of energy, in a chaotic rhythm that was almost hypnotic to watch. Gazing at it, and the dimmer whirlpools of the accretion disks that marked the star's black hole companions, Colleen could almost understand what it was about space that had drawn her family to it all their lives, the siren call that had pulled them out into the void one after another since the earliest days of the space program and into the sky before that. Sam had gazed at the Milky Way with the same soul-deep love she remembered from her uncle, her grandmother, and photos of those that came before them, and it had drawn her in as irresistibly as it had pulled him up. She had known going in that the stars were his first love, and she loved him all the more for it, and for the way he never made her feel the lesser for it.

Her chest ached and she tore her gaze away from the display projected on the wall. She needed to focus on the remainder of her family, not on the still-lingering grief buried in her heart. Focus on helping however she could to ensure that the Galra would not take anyone else from her.

And right now that meant focusing on her reading, not on the pulse of the stars outside. She turned herself firmly away, leaning against the wall at the head of her bed, and used a stylus to take rapid notes on one tablet as she scanned the next section of a book on Galran history on another.

It was a familiar process that she'd used before in building her cases. If you understood where a person came from-their culture, their personal history, the way they thought-it was easy to take them apart on the witness stand and ensure they were punished for their crimes. Granted, this was a little more complicated, since she was dealing with beings that weren't Human, that had unique evolutionary histories shaping their thought process (Matt's specialty, not hers) and complex cultural histories entirely detached from the interconnected web of Earth's, but the principal was the same. All it meant was she had to do a lot more preliminary research.

Right now she was familiarizing herself with Galran and Altean culture and history, as well as the broader strokes of the intergalactic network of alliances and enemies they'd once been part of, working her way forward from early civilizations to the years leading up to the war. Researching the events of the war itself was going to be much trickier, she knew. Aside from whatever records were maintained in the Castle's computers, any records the Empire had permitted to survive this long were almost certainly warped by generations of propaganda and misinterpretation. But even that might be useful in its own way, an insight into the thought processes of the murderers who the Alteans here had once called friends.

The room's intercom buzzed just as she finished the chapter. "Colleen?" Ryou's voice came over the system. "They're on their way back now."

"Thanks, Ryou. I'm on my way." She called back absently, marking her place and jotting down a couple more lines of notes. Sighing, she pushed herself to her feet and stretched, wincing as joints cracked and popped from sitting so long, then tucked the devices neatly away in the storage drawer by the bed. Maybe it was a futile project. People could change a lot in even one year, let alone ten thousand. But it might not be, and that made it worth it. Knowing your enemy was the first step to victory, after all.

00000000

"So, what's the plan?" Ryou asked as he settled in beside his brother on one of the couches in the lounge. After a long day of hashing out combat strategy around a meeting table, no one really wanted to spend another hour or two sitting at the dining room table, so instead everyone had rounded up plates of leftovers and snacks and made themselves comfortable, sprawling out and draping limbs in every direction. Even Allura was letting go a bit, turned sideways with her legs tucked up beside her as she nibbled wearily on a bowl of something purple.

"Continued strategic strikes to liberate prisoners, eliminate tactically-positioned bases, and take out Druids for now." Alejandro ticked off on his fingers as he dropped down to rest his head on Kurogane's thigh. Gentle fingers threaded through his hair and he let out a soft sigh of contentment before continuing. "Tomorrow we head to Sh'raa H'ressnol to see if we can't find whatever information Alfor and Fiorin left behind." He nodded towards Allura. "And once the Blades are fully reorganized and the ones coming with us have integrated into their positions with the Icebringers, we'll modify our strategy as the information we've gained dictates at that time."

Ryou paused, giving him a dumbfounded look at the lengthy recitation. "You were down there for twelve hours for that?"

Kovirak snorted into her bowl of food goo. "I've seen worse, believe me." She hesitated, then fell silent again.

Alejandro hastily moved the topic along. "Yeah, well, it was mostly deciding what level of targets were worth the time and effort of attacking and which ones would be too risky without substantial advance planning. Also figuring out how many Blades were going along in what roles to support us in the field."

"We did also learn some stuff from the files I decrypted, the ones Marmora left." Pidge pointed out around a mouthful of leftover lasagna.

"What, like the fact that Zarkon and Acalli are terrible people? We knew that already." Hunk shot back, then winced as he glanced at Allura and Coran. "Sorry."

Coran simply sighed and waved him off. "Believe me, I've been wondering since this war began how I could have so badly misjudged them both."

Pidge gave a small nod, swallowing her food and straightening a bit. "I know, but I wasn't talking about any of that. I had a look at the last file, the one Kolivan went over while we were waiting. It has a section on the aspects!"

Alejandro's head whipped around so fast he nearly rolled off his partner's lap, his heart pounding in his chest. "Seriously?"

Pidge answered his question with a grin and another nod. "Yeah. It's not a totally complete list, and doesn't go into much detail, but it does fill in some of the holes in our information. I was gonna bring it up after dinner."

"Then that's exactly what we'll do." Shiro directed a proud smile her way.

Alejandro flopped back against Kurogane's leg, exhaling slowly. He found himself oddly torn as he considered the information that was waiting to be discussed. On the one hand, it would be good to know what tools they would unlock, which ones the paladins should focus on unlocking in order to benefit the team. But on the other...he swallowed. What if there was something that, if they'd only known about it sooner, could have changed things before? Could have prevented some of the destruction, saved some of the lives?

"Hey." A sharp flick to his forehead made him jerk. "I can hear you overthinking from here, Sharpshooter."

"Am not." He lied, like they didn't both know perfectly well that he was. Kurogane wasn't good with people in general, but he knew Alejandro inside and out. Kurogane simply snorted and broke off a piece of his sandwich, holding it to Alejandro's mouth. He accepted the bite without protest, savouring the taste-they'd been here almost a full period, but he didn't think he'd ever get tired of having actual food to eat, rather than packaged emergency rations. "...was just thinking how useful some of the aspects might turn out to be."

"Uh huh." Kurogane let it slide. They finished the sandwich between them before Kurogane's fingers resumed carding through Alejandro's hair and he let out a little noise of happiness, nuzzling into the touch and listening to the chatter of the others as they ate and formed little knots of conversation.

After only a few minutes, though, he felt eyes on him. Following the feeling, he found Lance watching them with an oddly thoughtful expression on his face. Alejandro quirked an eyebrow. "Something I can help you with?"

Blushing, Lance ducked his head. "Sorry. No, I was just-thinking."

"It's fine. Something on your mind?" Alejandro gave Kurogane's hand a quick squeeze and rolled back into a sitting position, leaning back against his partner's shoulder instead. He patted the floor in front of him in silent invitation for the other to move closer.

"Not really..." Lance shrugged, shifting over to the indicated spot and tucking his knees up to his chest. "I was just...wondering. I mean, I know you two are together, but you never really told us what you are to each other officially. Engaged? Married? I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He added hastily, putting up his hands. "I was just curious."

Alejandro's eyes widened and he glanced over his shoulder for a moment at Kurogane, who looked just as surprised as he did at the question. Sighing, he turned back to Lance, hands fidgeting in his lap. "No, it's fine. We're...neither. Officially, we never took it past dating. We were going to, but..." He bit his lip, searching for the right words to convey exactly what had happened. "We'd talked about it. Once. Just before Shiro..." he shook his head. "And after that, it just...didn't feel right. Not having him there for that day would have been wrong, after everything he did for us. So we just...didn't." He could feel the tension in Kurogane's shoulder against his back, the subtle stiffness of the uncomfortable reminder. "We, ah, haven't talked about it much since."

Lance could obviously see it too, and winced. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

Waving a hand dismissively, Alejandro shook his head. "It's understandable. Especially with whatever's been happening between you and Keith." He forced a smile, trying to lighten the mood and steer the discussion back to safer ground. "How's that going, anyway?"

Groaning, Lance tipped his head back against the couch behind him. "Terrible. Absolutely terrible."

"Oh come on, I'm sure it's not that bad." Alejandro chuckled, leaning forward to pat him on the shoulder. "What happened?"

"Oh, it really is." Lance muttered. He glanced over at Keith, sitting across the room by Kovirak, and sighed. "He told me how he felt and I rejected him because it was just after I found out about the whole Haggar-Acalli thing. And then when I apologized and explained, he said he needed time to think. And that was on the way to Blue's cave, so I dunno if he's been too busy or just needs more time, or..."

Alejandro glanced over his shoulder at Kurogane again. His partner was more relaxed now, with an amused quirk to his lips, and he rolled his eyes and gave a tiny shrug when he saw Alejandro looking. Alejandro gave a small shake of his head in agreement and turned his head back to Lance, who was tracing patterns in the carpet with a fingertip and had missed the brief exchange. "You miss him, huh?" It was how he would have felt back then, under similar circumstances. Granted, Lance and Keith seemed to be taking a different romantic route entirely, but Alejandro trusted his memories of his own feelings back then.

Lance nodded and bit his lip. "I screwed things up pretty bad. I really hurt him." He said quietly.

Alejandro sighed and reached over to pull Lance closer against his side. "Not on purpose. And you were honest with him about your feelings, and why you did what you did, right?" Lance nodded, and he continued, keeping his voice low for privacy. "That's good. That's important. I think for now the best thing you can do is keep doing that. Be honest, and be his friend. Let him process what happened at his own speed, but continue to show you want to be around him. He's had too many people leave him in the past for him to automatically assume you won't." His free hand sought Kurogane's beside him, giving it a gentle squeeze and receiving one in return. They'd pieced this together themselves, through trial and error, and he could afford to save their past selves a whole lot of heartache by pointing them in the right direction.

"Yeah...I kinda guessed that...He told me once that Shiro's the closest thing he ever had to family. But y'know, whatever happens between him and me specifically, we're his family now too. And I won't ever leave him." Lance's voice was unexpectedly fierce and Alejandro's heart swelled with pride.

"Good." He clapped Lance on the back approvingly. "I know you won't. Just let him set the pace and pay close attention and I think you two will do just fine."

Lance gave him a pleased, hopeful smile, but before he could speak again the conversation was interrupted by Shiro clapping his hands for their attention. "Alright. I know we've all had a long day with a lot of talking. Sorry, but we've gotta do one more round of it before we can call it a day." He chuckled at the grumbles and groans of complaint from around the room. "Relax, guys, this'll be less tedious. Pidge says one of the files has information on the aspects, so we can finally fill in some holes in our information on that topic."

They slowly pulled themselves into positions of at least partial attentiveness while Pidge flipped her laptop open. At a go-ahead nod from Shiro, she cleared her throat. "Okay, so, Marmora's got them organized by aspect category. She doesn't have all of them, but some of the ones she's missing are ones we already have, and there are ones she has here that we don't know. Looking over her notes, it looks like we were right about our theory about different aspect categories having different areas of effect. The natural element ones provide upgrades to the Lions in their regular form, while the combative characteristics give upgrades that can be used in both the Lion form and the Voltron form. The physical analogues are exclusive to the Voltron form, and the personality traits give abilities to the paladins themselves."

"I guess that makes sense in a way..." Hunk mused, resting his chin on one hand thoughtfully. "I mean, the Lions each have an elemental environment they do best in, so it makes sense the elemental upgrade would be only in that form. And the physical analogues are supposed to be about how someone fits together in a group, right? Each Lion's part in the Voltron form. And the combatives go either way, while the personality thing is about us instead of the Lions."

"Yeah, that's roughly what I'm getting from her notes, although she keeps comparing them to things that aren't translating." Pidge huffed in annoyance, blowing a stray lock of hair out of her face and pushing her glasses up. "Anyway, I took the liberty of compiling a combined list of the aspects we've already unlocked, the ones we knew about already but hadn't unlocked yet, and the ones Marmora's list fills in. It's still not quite complete-we're still missing a couple of the physical analogues, but I guess she just never saw those ones in action or had any reason to find out about them until it was too late."

"Well, what's our list look like, then?" Alejandro asked. He tightened his grip on Kurogane's hand in anticipation. This was something he'd wondered about since he'd first learned about the aspects, since they'd first been told about them by an Altean on the Long Wind, the most senior amvel nayeta left after far too many casualties, her own training and knowledge woefully incomplete.

Pidge nodded to him and took a deep breath. "Okay, recapping for the sake of thoroughness, we already unlocked all of the natural elemental attributes. That's Red's rail gun, Blue's sonic cannon, Yellow's heavy armor, Green's plant cannon, and Black's phasing. All of those we got before we knew exactly what they were."

"They're not the only ones." Shiro pointed out.

"No, and I'm getting to that, don't worry. Next is the combative characteristics. We've unlocked Red's ion boosters, Yellow's gravity anchors, and Green's engineering scanner, and we know that Blue's aspect provides extra maneuvering thrusters." She nodded to Alejandro, who shot her a thumb's up in return. "Marmora's list fills in the last one, but it's not very descriptive-most of them aren't, unfortunately. Black's combative characteristic upgrade is something called a 'multi-view combat analysis', whatever that means. I've been puzzling it over all day, and I've still got nothing."

There was a pause, thoughtful frowns on most of the faces in the room as they thought that one over. Alejandro, turning the description over in his head, honestly wasn't sure what it might be referring to. "Some kind of threat analysis system? But then why call it 'multi-view'?"

"That was pretty much my train of thought too." Pidge threw up her hands despairingly.

Coran hummed as he stroked his moustache. "Perhaps something that allows the Black Lion to see through the eyes of her sisters?" He offered.

Matt shook his head immediately at that one. "Wouldn't be useful in Voltron form, unless you needed to see out your toes for some reason." He cracked a grin.

Chuckling, Coran nodded in acceptance. "Quite true, although I can certainly think of a scrape or two that the old paladins got themselves into in which such an ability would have been rather useful."

Shiro sighed and shook his head. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one. Next, please, Pidge."

Pidge straightened and nodded. "Alright. This section is the one that still has some holes in it. Until now the only one we knew about was Blue's Heart aspect that, again, we already had before all this and which allows the merging of bayards in the Voltron form to create other weapons. I've been keeping a list of those, by the way, and it might be a good idea to spend some time training and form Voltron just so we can test and see what the other combinations make. I have some theories about exactly what each bayard contributes to the final results, deriving from the base forms, but I just don't have enough data yet to really-"

"Pidge!" Shiro interrupted gently, offering a smile to take the sting out of the rebuke. "One thing at a time, okay? That is a good idea, but let's just deal with the aspects first. Then later we can see about finding the time to test your theory about the bayards."

Pouting, Pidge nodded and scowled at her screen again. "Fine, fine. Anyway. We have Blue. Marmora's list for this aspect category only included Green and Red, so we're still flying blind on Black and Yellow. Green's is 'rapid repair', which accelerates the damage repair process at the cost of some of Voltron's available energy supplies, and Red's ability is 'energy redistribution.'" The irritation on her face forestalled any questions on the lack of a description of the second ability. "Best guess, those two maybe go hand-in-hand somehow, but if that's the case then it's the first time two aspects were dependent on each other for maximum functionality."

There was a few minutes of quiet discussion, but no one seemed to be able to come up with a more likely scenario, so Pidge was gestured to continue. As she scrolled further down the file the tension in the room seemed to rise slightly in response to what everyone knew was coming.

"Last of the regular categories. Personality traits. We actually already had or knew about all of these already. Blue and Red we know," she faltered slightly, then went on hurriedly without naming either of them. "And Yellow, Green, and Black we have. I think we already have a pretty good idea of how the first two work, but, uh, Shiro, it's possible there might be more to yours than we realized." She glanced up nervously at Shiro, who straightened, his frown deepening. "Marmora's description of it is 'amvel esrelta'."

Allura jerked upright, eyes wide. "Impossible. Such an ability is only theoretical."

Pidge shrugged helplessly. "That's what it says. What does it mean, anyway?"

"That's a class of Altean quintessence affinity, isn't it? I thought there were only three." Alejandro frowned as he struggled to recall the details of that conversation with Malrento. "And I don't think that was one of them."

Coran and Allura exchanged frowns. "That's because it isn't." Allura explained. "The three classes are amvel solta, who can only sense quintessence but have no ability to manipulate it themselves, amvel malamya, able to manipulate quintessence in minor amounts and limited forms, and amvel nayeta, who can manipulate it freely and in large quantities. The amvel malamya can only manipulate their own quintessence, which is why their abilities are so limited compared to the amvel nayeta who are able to manipulate ambient quintessence in the environment around them."

"And the amvel esrelta?" Keith asked, folding his arms across his chest as his brows furrowed in a frown.

Allura sighed, putting her legs down properly on the couch and smoothing her dress. "The amvel esrelta is a purely theoretical being who can manipulate the quintessence of other sapient beings. It's not supposed to be possible-the sheer complexity of our bodies and minds is the reason sapients have multi-coloured quintessence rather than the pure green of animal and plant life. But if such a being were to exist they would be incredibly powerful-and dangerous." She avoided Shiro's gaze.

"...I see." Shiro's voice was soft, and Alejandro saw his metal hand curling into a fist in his lap. "And if, theoretically, one did exist, what might their abilities look like?" What damage might he be capable of doing to the people he cared about? The unspoken question hung in the air between them all.

Allura grimaced. "I have no idea. Again, the concept is theoretical, supposedly. The most obvious possibility that comes to mind, however, is that an amvel esrelta could possibly divert, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with the quintessence-based attacks of an amvel nayeta."

Alejandro jerked. Disrupt the attacks of an amvel nayeta? Something tickled the back of his brain and he tuned out the continuing discussion around him as he struggled to chase it. Something about disruption, and Shiro, and Haggar...

The pieces clicked and he let out a strangled exclamation. "Haggar's mind control." He blurted out as Shiro and Allura both turned to look at him in confusion. "That's how he broke the mind control."

Allura gasped and Shiro jerked upright, looking down at his arm in shock. "That's..." he hesitated, looking over at Allura. "Does that fit?"

Allura nodded mutely, still looking stunned. "Yes...yes, that would fit. Disruption of her manipulation of quintessence. And if that's the case...if your aspect truly is the abilities of an amvel esrelta, then you are probably capable of a great deal that we have yet to uncover."

Shiro exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he nodded. "Right. Guess I'll have to do some training then, figure out exactly what I can and can't do."

"But not tonight." Matt stated firmly, putting his hand over Shiro's still-clenched fist. "It's late. Pidge, is there anything else that needs to be gone over, or can we call it a night here?"

"Actually..." Pidge cleared her throat awkwardly. "There is one more thing in this section. The metaphysical aspects."

Alejandro stiffened, and felt Kurogane do the same beside him. "There's information on them?"

Pidge grimaced, avoiding his gaze. "Sort of? There's a description, at least, of two of them and how they were used. But it's more than we had before."

Alejandro deflated slightly. So much for understanding exactly how the damn things worked, why they did what they did when Alejandro and Kurogane had used them. His chest ached but he resisted the urge to reach for Blue's soothing touch. Kurogane didn't have that luxury anymore, hadn't in months, and he knew how much the broken bond hurt. He leaned his head against his partner's shoulder instead. "True enough. Go ahead whenever, Pidge."

She shot him a long look, but didn't say anything about his shift in mood, instead turning back to her laptop. "Okay, here's what we've got. 'Blue - used by Fiorin to look forward in time to find a future that met certain parameters. When he came out of it, Fiorin had detailed knowledge of exactly what needed to be done to make that future come into being'-she's got a note here about referring to the choreography file for details on what they did."

"So about what we already knew. And it still doesn't tell us how to activate it at will." Hunk waved a hand. "And Green?"

"'As per Fiorin's instructions, used to create a large quantity of stones for the swords to be used by the Blades of Marmora, as well as the linked emergency signal box. Alfor told me to concentrate on the desire of make a way of protecting my followers even after my death, and to focus on creating the entire system simultaneously.'"

"...That's it?" Keith frowned.

"That's it." Pidge confirmed. "I said there was info, not that it was super helpful."

"At least we know Alfor did know something about how the metaphysical aspects worked." Matt pointed out, flopping back against the couch in annoyance. "And that he didn't tell the others even when he told them to use them."

"I expect he must have had good reason." Coran said, but there was a hint of doubt in his voice that was unsettling to hear. "With any luck, whatever records we are able to locate will answer that question for us as well as all our others."

"Here's hoping." Lance grumbled. "'Looked into the future to figure out how to get to a specific one' and 'pulled swords out of thin air' aren't super helpful description-wise."

"She didn't pull the swords, just the stones." Keith pointed out.

"Close enough, but yeah. Stones, then." Lance shot Keith an awkward smile, but the other's cheeks reddened and he looked away. Lance sighed and his smile fell, and Alejandro patted his shoulder in sympathy.

Kurogane hummed thoughtfully behind him, and Alejandro tipped his head back to see a frown of concentration on his partner's face. "Creation, destruction, chaos, and law. Those were the names of four of the metaphysical aspects, right?"

As if either of them could forget that last, desperate transmission, Holt's voice echoing in the cockpits of their Lions hours, maybe days after those same words had been uttered on the other end of a hyperspace transmission. After it was far too late to save her. "Yeah, that's what she said. You got something?"

"Maybe... from the sound of it, they're in pairs. Opposites. We know that Blue, chaos, is time, so maybe Yellow is...what, space? Time and space?"

"It makes sense. And space is governed by natural laws like gravity, nuclear repulsion, and so on." Hunk offered. Alejandro hadn't even realized he'd been listening.

"So, time manipulation and...space manipulation? What would that look like?" Lance's brows furrowed.

"No idea, that's just what I think it might be." Kurogane shrugged. "It seemed to fit."

"Marmora used the creation aspect to literally create the stones..." Pidge pointed out thoughtfully, her fingers flying over the keyboard. No doubt she was taking notes on the discussion, and writing down theories of her own. "And you said Red basically disintegrated those ships?"

"I don't think the aspects would be that literal." At least, Alejandro hoped they wouldn't. There was something he didn't like about an aspect whose only capability was to destroy, no matter how much it was implicit in the name.

Pidge opened her mouth to argue, then paused and closed it again. "...Yeah, maybe not." She conceded after a long moment. "Too easy, and fuck knows none of this has been easy." She threw up her hands in exasperation and flopped over backwards onto a stray pile of blankets. "God fucking forbid the names of the aspects be straightforward, like the 'sense where people are' aspect or the 'healing hands' aspect!"

"I thought you liked puzzles, Pidge." Alejandro laughed, something in his chest loosening as the tension eased in the room.

"Only ones with logical solutions."

"Fair-" he cut himself off with a yawn. "Fair enough."

Shiro sighed and pushed himself to his feet and started to gather up abandoned dinner dishes. "Either way, we're not going to figure it out by staying up all night arguing about it. Why don't you all get settled and try to get some sleep, and we can focus our energy on looking for answers at Sh'raa H'ressnol tomorrow?"

"Sir, yes sir." Alejandro agreed playfully. Kurogane just snorted and dragged a thick blanket over the pair of them.

Shiro rolled his eyes, but there was a playful smile on his face. "That's 'Yes, Black Paladin, sir' to you, smartass." He shot back. "Come on, all of you, time to sleep."