Because the books have already told the story from Darrow's perspective and Shiro will be spending much of the story hanging with Mustang, large portions of the plot of Golden Son will take place off screen.

12/11/17: Expanded on everything to flesh out the lunch scene and get inside Shiro's head a little more in the second half of the chapter.

Chapter 4: Into the Viper's Nest:

Hyperion

Luna

October 30th, 2840

Shiro was nervous as he and his host walked quietly through the winding corridors of the Citadel, carrying on an utterly meaningless conversation about the weather to discreetly test his highLingo. The Black Paladin fought to keep a straight face as he followed Virginia au Augustus towards the Citadel's dining halls. As they talked, he reminded himself of his cover story of why ArchGovernor Augustus had chosen to hire him. The official story was that, with rising tensions between the Bellona clan and the Augustus family, Virginia's father wanted to employ someone to guard his daughter full time, as insurance against an assassination attempt by the Bellona. As such, his primary duty was to shadow the young woman wherever she went. Today, the first item on her agenda was a private breakfast with the Sovereign. This meant that today would be his first interaction with other Golds and his official introduction to the Society. Given Virginia's notoriety, it was inevitable that he was going to be dragged into the spotlight.

"You'll be fine," Virginia reassured him. "Keep the details of your cover story vague, only speak when spoken to, and you should make it through without attracting too much interest." For the past two weeks, she had quizzed him on his cover story until he could recite it on reflex, while at the same time he had told her stories of his time back in the 21st century on Earth as a Galaxy Garrison cadet. While she enjoyed hearing of the shenanigans he'd gotten into with Keith and Matt back then, she was clearly eager to find out more about his experiences after Kerberos. But he wasn't ready to open about his time as a prisoner of the Galra just yet, and she promised not to pry further until he was. Shiro respected her even more after that conversation, but there wasn't any more time to reminisce.

"Alright, then," Shiro replied, bringing himself back to the present as they approached the two Olympic Knights stationed outside the door to The Sovreign's private chambers. "Let's get this gorydamn over with." After Shiro and Virginia were both searched for weapons, they both walked into the room full of killers. On one side of the table sat Octavia au Lune, with her grandson Lysander seated on her left side. Across from her sat Cassius au Bellona, soon to be the new Morning Knight. After Virginia had been seated, Shiro moved to stand guard from the side of the corner of the room, ready to spring to her defense in the event of an assassination attempt. In the remaining corners, a Bellona lancer and two of the Furies did the same. The Black Paladin took deep, quiet breaths to keep his heart from racing as he realized the gravity of the situation.

Magnus au Grimmus, otherwise known as The Ash Lord, was the ArchImperator of the Scepter Armada, and commander of the Society's military forces. When the moons of Saturn rebelled in the first year of Octavia's reign, Grimmus personally gave the order to destroy the moon of Rhea, incinerating fifty million people in a nuclear inferno. His three daughters were the Sovereign's closest confidants and fiercest bodyguards. At least one of them was by the woman's side constantly. Moira, Lune's chief Politico, sat by the Sovereign's right hand, between her liege and Virginia. Aja, the Protean Knight, stood in the corner directly across from Shiro, while the third Grimmus sister stood opposite the Bellona lancer. From what he'd read of them from the holonet, and from Virgnia's descriptions of them, each of them alone sounded as ruthless a Galra commander. Being locked in a room with all three would be a recipe for disaster if he slipped up.

While his cover story held up under scrutiny, Shiro couldn't help but feel nervous allowing Lune and her inner circle to even know he existed. Just looking at Aja sent bone-deep chills down his spine. Nevertheless, he kept his emotions concealed as he answered Lune's questions about where he'd come from with a brief outline of his fake history. He told her about how he'd lost his right arm in a training accident at the age of twelve, and his parents' debts had mounted high enough that they couldn't afford to have carvers reattach it, barely scraping together enough credits to get him implanted with a cyborg prosthetic. How, after his parents had died, he'd been left on his own to survive in the streets for half his life. While Shiro fought to keep his expression neutral, Aja and the Sovereign were visibly intrigued by his stories of having killed carved beasts with his bare hands.

Mercifully, the topic of conversation shifted away from Virginia's new bodyguard, and the Black Paladin resisted the urge to sigh in relief. From there, the meal passed without further incident or inquiry into Shiro's fake past. They discussed recent Sons of Ares attacks, Karnus au Bellona's victory at the Academy, and Mustang's graduation from the Politico school on Luna. Shiro could tell Virginia was holding back her desire to object when Cassius started trash talking Darrow regarding the man's public beating at the hands of his brother and cousins. Eventually, conversation died down, and everyone began to disperse. Cassius left for an afternoon tournament on the Dueling Circuit, while Virginia remained behind for a private conversation with the Sovereign. Since the authority of the Praetorian Guard outranked his own, Shiro was dismissed for the day to do whatever he wanted until Virginia called him to escort her back to her quarters.

Wanting to avoid too many people asking questions, Shiro headed down to the fitness center for a morning workout. He was a bit nervous at first, but he relaxed as his Sigils, ID chip, and House Augustus credentials granted him access. During their preparations, Virginia had told him that most fitness centers had exercise machines designed to allow people to exercise in different levels of gravity. So, to pass the time, he decided to try one of them out, and set himself up for a simulated jog in normal Earth gravity. As he ran, he started feeling a little homesick as he thought about how long it had been since he'd last set foot on his home planet. When he crash-landed back on Earth after Ulaz helped him escape, he'd left again less than twenty-four hours later. Between Galaxy Garrison trying to sedate him and their race to find the Blue Lion before the Galra arrived, there hadn't been any time to get in touch with his parents and let them know he was still alive. It had been more than a year since he'd seen his family, and they still thought he was dead.

But as he ran, the workout helped him focus his thoughts. Even if there hadn't been as much pressure for time, what could he have done differently? Keith's old house in the desert didn't have cell reception, and while the place was set up for WiFi, the Black Paladin ultimately realized that any attempt to contact his parents would have been in vain. If he tried to email them from Keith's computer, they'd think Keith was mocking them at best, or that Keith's email had been hacked at worst. Even if they were able to double back towards civilization without getting caught by the Garrison and shoved in an unmarked cell with no one knowing where they were, it would have been cruel of him to give his parents hope only to vanish off the face of the Earth when he went back into space in the Blue Lion.

Some things can't be done differently, I guess, the Black Paladin thought to himself as the timer on his datapad went off. After stopping the timer, Shiro adjusted the controls on the machine and slowed his pace down to a walk. Once his run was finished, he did some stretches to cool off before he finally stepped out of the machine. With his workout finished, he grabbed a bottle of shampoo out of the gym bag Virginia had taken him to buy last week and headed into the communal washroom for a shower. Shiro was grateful that no one else was in the locker room with him as he stripped out of his workout clothes. He was already nervous enough speaking to other Golds, to say nothing of standing naked in a locker room with them. Even so, he showered quickly, and pulled his lancer's uniform out of his bag to get changed.

Once he was cleaned off and fully clothed, he headed for the lift that would take him upstairs from the fitness center towards his quarters. As her assigned bodyguard, Shiro had been given a suite right next door to Virginia's. It was the kind of thing you expected to see in a penthouse of a five-star hotel, or the top floor of a mansion. The whole ensemble included a bed five times the size of his bunk on the Castle of Lions, a closet the size of the bedrooms on the Castle, a private sauna the size of his new bed, and a bathroom as big as the Castle of Lion's bridge. The scale of wealth and extravagance here on Luna bounced between making his head spin at the scope of it, and making him grit his teeth in disgust at the excessiveness of Gold aristocrats. Once he got back to his room, he walked into the bathroom to put his dirty workout clothes in the hamper.

Once he finished putting everything away, Shiro turned to leave. On his way out into the bedroom, he looked to the side and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Piercing gold eyes stared back at him in place of his natural dark gray. His once black hair now glittered golden in the overhead lights, and instead of the familiar sight of the white of his front bangs, all he could see was gold. Matching gilded lines traced their way across his black uniform to create intricate patterns on the shoulders and knees, while the red and gold lion of House Augustus was emblazoned proudly across his chest. The back of his left hand still itched and tingled where the metal Sigil had been grafted on at the Carver's shop, and a matching one had been painted on the back of his metallic right arm. A sad frown crossed his face as he realized that he barely recognized himself anymore.

What am I becoming? He thought to himself as it truly began to dawn on him just what he was going to have to do to survive. I'm a Paladin of Voltron. I should be out there trying to fight this oppressive hierarchy, not hiding among the people who uphold it. Even if I do make it home, Keith will have to take over as leader of Voltron. With I'm going to need to do to stay alive, the Black Lion will never accept me as her Paladin anymore. After all that time in space fighting to free the universe from Zarkon's territory, it burned that he had been forced into a situation where he had to help perpetuate the enslavement of humanity in order to keep himself alive. But as much as he hated not being able to act against this injustice immediately and directly, there was nothing he could do at this point.

Even if he rejected Virginia's offer of assistance and chose to take his chances on the streets, what would he be able to do? This wasn't like the Galra Empire, where the team could blow up a few battle cruisers and people would immediately have the resources to rebuild their civilization. This was a system that had been entrenched for almost seven and a half centuries, and if all the ruling Golds were killed today, the entire solar system would spiral into chaos. There were resistance groups like the Sons of Ares, but they had been fighting for two decades now without success. The Society's engine of oppression wasn't going to be brought down by a few epic battles and a revolution among the lower castes. And while he admired Virginia's dream of creating a better world through political reform, that could only go so far. Humanity wasn't meant to be so rigidly divided like this.

But the only person with the authority to dismantle the Hierarchy of Color in a way that other Golds would tolerate was The Sovereign herself, and even if the Sons of Ares managed to overthrow her, there would be thousands of Golds eager to maintain the status quo lining up to take her place. The power base of the reformers in the Senate was too small to have the kind of influence humanity needed. After looking at all of these factors since his arrival in this era, it had become painfully clear to Shiro that lasting change for The Society had to come from within and without. Even if he did manage to contact the predominantly Red resistance group, who would believe him? He didn't have any proof more solid than an eight-hundred-year-old photo, and that wouldn't be enough. He'd never be taken seriously even if he shed the trappings of Gold that sheltered him from Virginia's enemies.

Guess that means I'm stuck here, Shiro finished as his train of thought reached its inevitable conclusion. Until I can find a way to change things, I'll have to settle for doing what I can to help Virginia increase the influence the Reformers have in the senate so that if and when we find a way to return me to my own time, I can at least return knowing that things will be better than when I arrived. His doubts and fears quieted for the time being, he settled down into the room's small commChair to watch the news on the HC.

I know it may seem out of character for Shiro to swear since Voltron is a kid-friendly show (rated TV-Y7, no blood, no cursing, no sex/nudity…), but again, he's gone from that to a society where it's kill or be killed, do whatever it takes to survive. While living with Golds, he must act like one and talk like one. Hence the use of Gold curses to blend in.

The Sons of Ares are a resistance movement dedicated to tearing down the color hierarchy. Although they primarily engage in guerilla bombings, they surgically altered Darrow from his original Red body into a Gold and sent him to infiltrate Gold Society. Their goal is for Darrow to climb the ranks high enough to get himself command over a fleet for the Sons to add to their arsenal. Unfortunately, Darrow hasn't had contact with them since the end of Red Rising and must figure out how to accomplish that on his own.

Terminology:

Politicos:Golds who serve as political and financial advisors to the head of a major house.

Imperator: The admiral in command of a fleet. The ArchImperator is in charge of all military forces in The Society.

Olympic Knights: Space!Kingsguard, only they don't serve for life. There 12 in total, each with their own title: Morning, Rage, Protean, Storm, Wind, Hearth, Truth, Joy, Death, Cloud, Fear, and Love. They serve as both bodyguards to the sovereign and roam the solar system enforcing the laws of the Compact.

CommChair: Recliner chair with built in Holo-screens and communications devices.

HC: Technically stands for HoloCam (camera that projects everything in holograms, essentially), but is also used to describe watching TV the way we do in real life.