**Author's Note: No one added a new review (sadly), but to honor our favorite Ninja Sharpshooter on his birthday, here's a new/early chapter anyways! Yay! Happy (a little bit late) Birthday, Lance!

**I do no own Voltron: Legendary Defender!


After Allura had donned her disguise and departed with Shiro hidden inside the cargo bin, the remaining four paladins plus Mari peered nervously outside the central control tower's windows at the docking bay below. Minutes later, Allura came into sight with the crate and everyone waited with bated breath as she was halted by one of the guards at the battleship's entry ramp. Two sentries, each carrying a glowing golden vat, exited the cruiser and passed her and the guards, carefully setting the containers down on the ground for transport into the hub without so much as glancing in their direction. The path clear now, the guards waved for Allura to enter the ship and the paladins simultaneously let out a sigh of relief once she was out of sight.

"Good," Lance breathed out softly. "They're in."

"I'm glad that actually worked," Mari said, and beside her Lance smiled proudly to himself.

"Hey, what do you think they have in those giant containers?" Keith nodded to the large tubular basins the two sentries had unloaded from the cruiser just moments ago.

"Well, I suspect that it's sporks," Hunk stated matter-of-factly and his suspicion earned him looks from the others that translated to 'Seriously?'. "What? This is an advanced race we're talking about here," he tried to defend his statement. "Surely they've learned that it's foolish to have forks and spoons when one tool will efficiently do the job."

"It looks like it's some sort of liquid though," Mari pointed out, squinting at the cargo and noting the bubbles that sloshed sluggishly and popped when the vessels were moved. "Or maybe it's a goo? I don't know, it's hard to tell from this distance."

"Galran food goo?" Hunk pondered thoughtfully. "Ooh, or maybe it's space lemonade?"

"It's more likely to be the blood of Zarkon's enemies," Lance said grimly.

"Why would he package and transport that?" Keith scowled at the Blue Paladin.

"I don't know! I mean, it's more likely to be that than space lemonade. Zarkon's wiped out and enslaved a ton of planets, it wouldn't surprise me if all his ships and tech and stuff run on the bodily fluids of his enemies!" Lance shrugged defensively and Hunk cringed at the idea.

"Ewww…But yeah, he seems evil enough to do that," he agreed, and Pidge rolled her eyes at their conversation.

"Maybe instead of letting your imaginations run wild, we can have this guy tell us what that stuff actually is," she said, gesturing to one of the disabled sentries that she had hooked up to her laptop in an instant. "Okay, Mister Robot. What is coming in and out of this station?"

The sentry beeped and its lights flashed. "Interrogation detected. Initiating lockdown," it droned flatly before going silent once more and slumping forward.

"Mister Robot seems just as stubborn as you, Pidge," Mari teased and Pidge stuck her tongue out at her.

"So, you're not talking, eh?" she smirked challengingly as she turned back to face the droid. Then without missing a beat, she began to type away like a madwoman on her laptop in an attempt to hack the sentry's systems.

"Whoa. Check out this guy," Keith said, pulling their attention back to the loading deck below. A cloaked figure had appeared in front of the mystery containers and appeared to be giving the sentries orders on where to take them in the base. "Whatever's happening here that requires this place to be kept secret must have something to do with that scary dude."

Glancing over at him, Mari saw his scowl deepen and fiery determination light in his eyes. It was a look she knew all too well from their time spent decoding the Blue Lion carvings back on Earth—he always looked like that when he was about to do something risky by himself.

"Keith, don't do it," she warned, her tone chiding.

"I'm going to go check it out," he decided firmly, ignoring her and turning to head towards the doors.

"Dammit, seriously?" Mari groaned. "You can't just walk around here on your own!"

"Yeah, yeah! You're gonna blow our cover, man!" Lance pitched in, and Keith whirled on them with irritation radiating off his features.

"I don't have to listen to either of you," he snapped back, a dangerous bite to his tone. "Neither of you are the leader so stop telling me what to do."

Before anyone else could argue with him, he spun on his heel and disappeared through the doors.

"Ugh! That idiot is gonna get us all caught," Mari growled and she scrambled to her feet to follow after him.

"Wait, no, not you too, Mari!" Lance protested as she scooped up her helmet and slid it onto her head. "We need to stick together and lay low until Shiro and Allura come back!"

"I know! That's why I'm bringing him back here," she affirmed quickly before hurrying towards the exit. "I'll only be a few minutes. Keep me updated if anything happens, okay?"

"No! Mari, think about what you're doing," Lance pleaded. "Don't walk through that door!"

But she simply tapped the side of her helmet and gave him a curt wave before she was gone as well, leaving him, Pidge, and Hunk alone in the control tower.

"I think I told them," Lance decided after a moment and Pidge sighed loudly.

"You are a paragon of leadership, Lance," she muttered sarcastically. "You know Shiro's going to be livid if anything happens to them, right?"

"Let's hope nothing does then," Hunk piped up anxiously and the others nodded in worried agreement.


Keith was annoyingly fast. Carefully creeping around every corner and straining to keep her footsteps light as she moved, it took Mari what felt like forever to find where he had run off to in the facility. When she had finally caught up to him, he was trailing the hooded individual and the sentries as they carried the glowing cargo deeper into the base. They hadn't seemed to take notice of either of their presences, thank goodness, and Mari let out an inaudible sigh of relief before quietly hurrying along an upper platform near the wall and ducking out of sight when needed as she met Voltron's mulleted hothead. Upon seeing her, Keith's eyes flashed with a mixture of anger and alarm and the pair dove behind a large panel before conversing.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed through clenched teeth, glaring daggers at her momentarily before peeking around the corner so they wouldn't lose sight of their targets.

"I'm making sure you don't get caught, or worse, killed. You shouldn't just go running off by yourself," she scolded quietly.

"I told you not to tell me what to do," he grumbled in reply. "Just go back to the others already. You'll be safer there."

"Okay, one: you're such a hypocrite! I don't have to take orders from you either!" she scoffed, her voice just barely an angry whisper. "And two: 'I'll be safer there'? We're in a Galran base, Keith! Nowhere inside this facility is completely safe!"

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" he huffed exasperatedly. "Shiro is going to be pissed if anything happens to you."

"Nothing will happen to me," she rolled her eyes, growing impatient. "And he won't be mad because he doesn't have to find out that we did this."

"I said no, okay? Just go back already!" Keith continued to insist, but Mari wasn't anywhere close to giving in yet.

"No. Not unless you're coming with me."

"Well I'm not going back until I find out what that stuff is."

"Then I guess you're stuck with me then."

"Mari!"

"You shouldn't be wandering around by yourself here!" she emphasized once more. "But if I can't stop you, the next best thing I can do is go with you for backup…Plus I don't know if I'll be able to find my way back to the control room."

"I don't need you as backup. I can handle myself in a fight," he snorted and she bristled at his cockiness.

"Okay, look," she whispered, taking a deep breath to calm her elevated anger. "There are sentries scattered all over this place and you don't know what that thing down there is capable of." She pointed a finger at the hooded figure beneath them. "I don't care how good your skills are, you're freaking screwed if you get found out and they call for backup. Having another fighter by your side in that sort of situation is better than fighting alone."

Keith's eyes narrowed slightly but he said nothing as he mulled it over. Below them, the sentries and the cloaked creep passed through a massive door at the end of the hall and the dull screeching of gears echoed throughout the hall as the entrance was slowly beginning to close. There was no time to lose before their target became unreachable beyond the towering metal doors, and Keith let out a frustrated groan.

"Fine! Let's go," he relented finally, waving for her to follow him as he jumped off the platform and sprinted for the narrowing entryway, using his jetpack to give him additional boosts forward. Grinning in satisfaction to herself, Mari hurried after him and the two slipped through the doors just as they locked shut.

On the other side, the two sentries that had been carrying the vats of mysterious substance had been reassigned as guards, their backs to the human intruders. Without a sound, save for the swift swish and crunch of blades slicing through metal, Keith and Mari cut them down easily. Staying close to the walls and holding their weapons at the ready, the duo silently crept towards the end of the hall where it opened up to a vast room full of glowing golden containers.

"What is all of this?" Mari murmured as Keith raked his eyes over the row upon rows, stacks upon stacks of identical vessels.

They watched as one of the containers slid down to the end of a conveyor belt that protruded from the upper half of the wall and came to a stop above a large, glass-like orb that was being held up by supports in the the center of the room. Locking into place, the bottom of the tube opened and the glowing liquid cascaded into the glassy ball in a singular swirling stream. The cloaked figure they had been tailing now stood on a raised platform in front of the glowing orb and as he raised his hands in front of it, purple lightning spewed forth from his palms, encircling and electrifying the orb. The golden substance turned an eerie shade of purple and it poured out from the bottom of the sphere into a much, much smaller tube.

"Definitely not space lemonade," Keith muttered without so much as even cracking a smile and a dry chuckle escaped Mari's lips. "Coran, you need to see this," he barely whispered as he activated his helmet communicator and visor cameras.

From the other end of their link, Coran inhaled sharply in surprise. "I've never seen anything like it," he said, the concern and confusion evident in his tone.

"What is that?" Pidge inquired over the comms, having received the live video feed from Keith as well.

There was a curt beeping sound followed by a monotone robotic voice intoning, "The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe."

"Hey, nice job, Pidge! You made him work for us," Lance complimented, and Mari could only assume he was referring to the sentry Pidge had been trying to reprogram.

"What?" Coran gasped disbelief. "Impossible!"

"Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements," the robot continued.

"Did you guys hear that?" Pidge asked.

"So it's some sort of magical energy being used for fuel…I guess your prediction wasn't too far off the mark, Lance," Mari noted.

"All right! I'm on a roll today!" he gloated happily and she suppressed the urge to sigh and roll her eyes.

"I can't believe this!" Coran exclaimed dreadfully. "They've found a new way to acquire quintessence!"

"Guys, I'm going to steal some of this quint-whatever," Keith decided and he nudged Mari to follow him back down the hall they had come through.

"So, what's the plan here?" she asked as they trekked down another corridor that ended up leading to the other side of the chamber full of quintessence.

"Once that stuff's been transferred into another container, it gets sent out through this door," Keith explained, nodding to the track running along the floor next to their feet. "The next batch that comes out, we'll grab it and get out of here."

"Okay," Mari nodded. "And what do we do if the hooded guy notices us? Fight or flight?"

Keith frowned and diverted his attention to the cloaked figure in question. "We fight."

"…That's it? We just fight?"

"Yes."

"Wow. Such a solid plan, Keith," she commented sarcastically and he scowled.

"Shut up. We're not leaving without this stuff now that we know what it's being used for."

The next container of purple quintessence was sealed and it slid swiftly along the track to be stored elsewhere. Just before it passed the pair, Keith dove for it and grabbed it, landing on the other side of the track and quickly hiding from view again.

'Good job,' Mari mouthed to him, giving him a thumbs up. Keith flashed her a small grin and motioned back down the corridor for them to leave and head back to the central control tower.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of their necks stood on end and a shiver ran down Mari's spine. Then appearing out of nowhere, the hooded being materialized right behind Keith, and before either human could react, a blast of purple energy sent them flying across the room. The case of quintessence slipped from Keith's grasp and it clattered to the floor several feet away from them, allowing the robed villain to casually pick it up and return it to the track to be carried away with the next batch.

"Okay, plan B!" Keith growled, quickly regaining his footing and manifesting his bayard before charging the cloaked creature. Just as he brought his blade down on his opponent, the enemy disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke before reappearing seconds later at the other end of the chamber. With an angry war cry, the Red Paladin tried attacking again, only for the magical being to dodge once more via teleportation. Keith looked around the room frantically, waiting at the ready for the being to show himself.

Groaning softly, Mari finally picked herself up off the floor, wincing slightly as her newly bruised chest and rump ached at the movement. Nevertheless, she whipped out her staff and activated the spear-tip blade, taking a defensive stance as she moved to stand back-to-back with Keith.

"I'll distract that guy when he reappears again," he barely uttered their new plan of action, his eyes continuously scanning the room. "You take one of those quintessence cases and get back to the others. "

"What about—look out!" she gasped as the cloaked individual came into sight on the platform above them. Purple lighting shot forth from his hands, blasting the ground where they stood, and the duo shouted in alarm as they split up to evade being obliterated by the powerful and relentless attack.

Dust and debris filled the air, and Mari stumbled to a halt, tripping over one of the newly made protrusions in the floor. The smoke was so thick and dark around her, she couldn't even see two feet in front of her. The lightning strikes had ceased for the time being but she was sure that their attacker was only waiting for the air to clear so he could pinpoint the location of his targets again. Or maybe he was just waiting to confirm their deaths by seeing their limp and lifeless bodies on the floor below him. Either way, the enemy was just as blind as her in this very moment and she had to take advantage of it.

The dim teal lights of her helmet visor flickered on and she scanned the room for the next batch of quintessence that was due to leave the room, the computers in her headgear indicating the location of the last tube being filled up beneath the large glass orb. Crouching low to the ground, Mari moved carefully and as quickly as she dared towards it, her heart racing in fear of being spotted before she could snatch it away. Just as the last bit of purple quintessence dripped into the container and it was set on the track to be whisked away, she reached out to grab it when a bolt of energy incinerated the ground where she stood.

A curt scream escaped her lips as she was flung backwards, her weapon flying out of her hands and the wind knocked out of her as she landed roughly on her back. She could see the cloaked creature still standing on his platform above her, his head titled slightly as he stared at her and his expression covered by the narrow bone-white mask he wore on his face.

Suddenly, Keith flew out of the smog, being propelled towards their attacker by his jetpack. The Red Paladin brought his sword down on the enemy with an infuriated grunt, only for the being to teleport himself out of harms way again. When he reappeared, he was standing directly over Mari, a glowing purple hand reaching out to grab her.

"Don't touch her!" Keith spat, his tone radiating absolute rage, and he threw himself off the platform at the hooded figure, ready to impale the guy upon impact. Whirling on the paladin in an instant, the creature held up an energized palm and blocked the bayard's blade with a concentrated ball of purple lightning. Fear flashed across Keith's features for only an instant before the overwhelming power blasted him backwards, sending him flying into a row of the golden quintessence containers with a solid crack. He slid down to the ground and hunched over with a groan as he held out his shaking right arm, his eyes widening as he took in the ripped and melted armor and the new purplish burns that had charred the skin on his hand.

"Keith!" Mari gasped, sitting up and trying to stand despite the soreness of her limbs. His bluish-gray eyes immediately flicked to her, his expression one of panic.

"Run! Get away from him!" he yelled and she rolled out of the way just as a glowing hand swiped at her head. "Pidge! We need an extraction now!" Keith barked the request into his helmet comm. "Hurry!"

"I'm on my way!" she affirmed before the line went silent.

With Keith unable to hold his bayard with his injured hand and with Mari's weapon out of reach, their original plans to fight instantly shifted to flight as they dodged about the room, avoiding the lighting attacks as best as they could while they waited for Pidge to pick them up in the Green Lion. Keith should have had the advantage out of the two of them: he was able to use his jetpack to quickly propel himself from platform to platform as he evaded the blasts, while Mari on the other hand was pinned to the ground with nowhere else to run except forwards and backwards. But despite this, the creature was solely adamant on bringing Keith down first, ignoring Mari for the most part unless she tried to dive for her weapon at his feet. And even then he'd simply keep her at bay by blasting warning shots at the ground near her feet.

Why make it harder on himself? she vaguely wondered as she tried to sneak around him once more. Why not just shoot the deadly beams at both of us and kill two birds with one stone? Is he trying to preserve the quintessence supply or something?

Another bolt of lightning flew Keith's way just as he was mid-jump and he barely summoned his shield as the shot slammed into it. The force from the impact sent Keith spiraling through the air and he landed roughly on one of the upper platforms, rolling onto the conveyor belt that was moving a new vat of golden quintessence towards the glassy ball in the center of the room. The hooded figure teleported again and materialized in front of Keith, trapping the paladin between the quintessence tube and himself. Keith gripped his bayard in his left hand and raised it protectively in front of him as the cloaked being prepared to fire another deadly volt at him.

Then without warning, the whole building began to rumble violently and the creature lost his balance as the ground shook beneath him. His finishing blow misfired and it struck the quintessence tube behind Keith, the glass shattering and the golden substance spilling all over the paladin. Above them, the ceiling was cracking rapidly and Mari inhaled sharply as chunks of the metal plating began to crash onto the floor around her. She dove for the exit and pressed herself against the walls just as the entire ceiling exploded open and the Green Lion burst into the room. It landed on all fours, sending massive tremors through the ground and fracturing the floor around its paws.

"Get in! We've got to get Shiro and Allura!" Pidge called down to them as the Green Lion lowered its head to the ground and held its mouth ajar for Keith and Mari to enter.

Keith jumped down from the conveyor belt, snatching up Mari's staff before stomping up Green's boarding ramp. Having to run around the rear end of the lion and pick her way through the debris and thick black smoke, Mari hurried as fast as she could to the lion's maw. When it finally came into view, Keith was waiting for her at the top of the ramp right in front of the entrance to the cockpit.

"Hurry up!" he pressed, gesturing for her to pick up the pace with his good hand. "We've still got to help Shiro!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" she spat back, beginning to pump her arms even harder. She was going to make it, the ramp was just a few steps in front of her. She'd get on the lion, they'd rescue Allura and Shiro from being captured, and then they'd all be safely back on the Castle with Coran in the next hour.

Suddenly the back of her neck prickled and there was a whoosh of air behind her. A blast of scorching hot purple energy pounded the floor in front of her feet and she yelped as she stumbled backwards…right into the arms of their robed and masked attacker. A pair of cold and dry hands slowly wrapped around her wrist and throat, each one glowing purple and pulsing with an energy that seeped deep through the fabric of Mari's space suit into her skin and paralyzing her.

From the safety of the Green Lion, Keith's eyes widened in fear and his bayard manifested in his left hand again as he began to charge back down the ramp towards her. He was screaming her name and he desperately reached out his right hand to grab her, but it was too late. She and the hooded being were enshrouded in a dark and chilling mist that sent tingles all throughout her body and Keith and the lion slipped out of sight. The last lucid thought she had before blacking out completely was fascination at how quickly Keith's right hand had healed from those burns.


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