The Third Sphere Part I: Keith's Redemption

Author's Notes: Personalities and character description will also be loosely based on the Voltron Force TV series (Keith's and Allura's eye color, Lance's physique, etc.) as well as some of their techs (e.g. Voltcoms and Lion upgrades). Back story of the Voltron Force were taken from Dynamite's comic Voltron: Year One.

Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron and its characters. I'm just a fan of the universe. Planet Ryal on the other hand is a name of a planet I came up with…unless it's a real planet somewhere in the outer fringes of the universe and some alien told it to me in my sleep.

-oo-

Chapter 4

"Keith?"

"Focus, Princess," Lance called over the comm channel.

They were at the tail end of their mission. The extraction of the royal family from the planet Ryal was well underway with only the King left to be brought to safety as riots continued at the capital. The mob has already breached the walls of the castle when the King was already being escorted out from their escape route. Lance and Hunk were on ground cover while Allura was their sniper. Pidge was back with Voltron, guarding the rest of the royal family in their shuttle while he fed the rest of the team with information.

"You guys better hurry up," Pidge said over the comm. "The mob is about ten minutes behind you."

"Sorry to rush you, Your Majesty," Hunk said as he ushered the King to move faster. "But we really need to quicken up the pace."

"My apologies," the king answered with a huff. "But this is the fastest I can go. I'm not really as young as I used to be."

"Princess," Lance said over the comm. "Keep our exit open. But set your rifle to stun. We really don't need to increase the casualties."

"Roger that."

As the extraction continued, Allura could not help the nagging feeling that something was wrong. She tried to keep focus on the mission, shooting some stray rioters if ever they came very close to the King and her team mates. But it was really hard to concentrate when you couldn't help but feel something was wrong elsewhere. Twice she almost missed her target as her mind kept drifting back to that strange feeling that Keith was in trouble.

Finally, the King was safely inside the shuttle with the rest of the royal family of Ryal. Allura was then instructed by Lance to head back to Voltron. Once everyone was back and took their proper stations, they followed the shuttle out of orbit. Once clear, Allura quickly locked in their coordinates and finally settled in her seat but the nagging feeling still remained. Everyone else began to relax as they started towards home.

"Um…guys?" Pidge said as he continued to tap onto his keyboard. His voice was somewhat apprehensive. "I have an encrypted message here that you need to see."

"It might just probably be from Garrison," Lance said dismissively. His eyes were closed and his arms above him resting on the backrest of his seat.

"It's an encryption code that can only be decrypted by one of us," he replied.

"So?" Lance retorted. "Keith must have finally swallowed his pride and wanted our help."

"It's not Keith," Pidge answered. "It's from Sven."

At the mention of their former team mate, everyone stood and went to Pidge's area. Pidge had just finished decrypting the message when they gathered behind him.

"Sven's dead, Pidge," Hunk said a matter of factly. "It must just be a message before he died."

"Nope," he answered. "The message was made roughly thirty minutes ago. It's only a text message but it's recent."

"Then obviously someone's been playing a trick on us," Allura suggested.

"Again, that's a negative," Pidge replied. "Before we became the Voltron Force, we had an established decryption between us five guys. It's a way to eliminate false messages within the team. The five of us had established protocols for different type of scenarios. Each of us has a specific code that everyone can decrypt as a signature of sorts. So we know who's sending the message and that the message is legit. And since there are only five of us who knows each other's code, this is definitely Sven."

A couple of taps in the keyboard and the message was shown on his screen:

VOLTRON FORCE, I APOLOGIZE FOR THE DECEPTION. BUT THIS IS URGENT. KEITH IS IN TROUBLE. HE WAS IN COMMUNICATION WITH A CONSCIOUSNESS WHO CALLS HIMSELF ALEXANDER SIGIS WHO NEEDED HIS HELP IN LOCATING SOMETHING THAT HE CALLS THE "THIRD SPHERE". BUT SOMETHING IS WRONG. KEITH IS CURRENTLY UNCONSCIOUS. I BELIEVE HE'S BATTLING FOR CONTROL AGAINST SIGIS. I NEED SOME ASSISTANCE FOR I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CONTAIN HIM IF SIGIS WON THIS BATTLE. HURRY, KEITH NEEDS OUR HELP.

At the mention of the Third Sphere, Allura gasped. Her head was reeling. 'Keith knew about the Third Sphere,' she thought. 'Was this the secret that he was keeping from me and the rest of the team? And how did Sigis got into his consciousness? Keith is human. He would not be able to contain two consciousnesses in one body without destroying himself in the process.'

"The Third Sphere," Allura whispered, shocked that she was able to say it without the magical block hindering her.

"What's the Third Sphere?" Hunk asked looking at the screen and then at the princess.

Allura struggled for control. She was able to say it just a moment ago. She needed to keep her focus so that she would be able to counter the magic that was stopping her from revealing anything. 'Keith! Keith's in trouble! We have to help him. I have to help him! I can't stand by and watch as they take the man I love away from me.'

As she struggled, sparks flew and energy was revolving around her, surrounding her with light. She could feel the magic binding her to stay silent but she fought it.

"Princess!" she heard Lance called out.

'I have to fight this! I have to!' Allura thought as the magic around her continued to bind her but she fought back. A scream escaped her lips as pain shot through her body. She felt like she was being burned alive. She could see from her half-closed eyes the smoke emitting from her body. The struggle continued as another wave of pain coursed through her body. She crumpled to the floor and shuddered uncontrollably.

She could see between her lids that her teammates stood around her, unable to help her with what she's going through. They stood there hoping and praying that she would be able to pull through this.

Another wave of pain sent Allura screaming again. Tears streamed down her eyes as she continued to fight. But the pain was still too much that she struggled to breathe.

'I will break this block. I will break it and save Keith,' was the only thought that came into her head as wave after wave of pain coursed through her body.

Thoughts of Keith swirled in her mind. She focused on that. She focused on him. Allura willed her memories of Keith at the forefront of her mind creating a mental barrier from the pain. She saw Keith everywhere. She tried to remember his touch, his kiss and his embrace. She filled her mind with images of him. Images of when they first saw each other, when he was teaching her how to fight, when he brought her flowers, when he was on duty at the control room, when they escape to a secluded place just to be alone away from the scrutiny of nanny. She kept her mind focused on Keith, his silent strength, his focused demeanor, his love. She cannot lose him. She just can't!

Suddenly, she felt a shift in the force that's surrounded her. The pain slowly subsided and she fought for control. She mentally pushed away the pain and created a vortex in her mind as she collected the pain threw it into the vortex. She felt an implosion within her and she could breathe again.

"Are you alright, Princess?" Hunk hunched over her, his massive arm tentatively reaching out to her shoulder as he helped her to a sitting position.

"The Third Sphere," she said tentatively, testing if the block was still there. It came out freely now. There was no hesitation when she spoke it. She finally broke the spell.

"We need to hurry back," Allura stated, the shrill of her voice matched the desperation in her emerald eyes as she looked from one team mate of another. "I don't know how Keith managed to host Alexander Sigis for this long but humans are not capable of containing two consciousnesses in one body."

"Hold on, Princess," Lance said as he held up his hand. "What's going on? Do you know what this third sphere is? And just how much trouble is Keith really in?"

"The Third Sphere is a civilization in a different dimension," Allura explained as Hunk helped her to her seat. "It is one of the five civilizations that helped create Voltron."

"One of five?" Pidge asked. His interest peaked. "I thought Arus and Earth made Voltron?"

Allura shook her head and continued, "Voltron was created by five civilizations on five different dimensions. Each dimension contributed to Voltron's creation, each provided an element that can only be harnessed there. The Third Sphere is one of those civilizations. We harness Voltron's true power source from them. We harness Voltron's magic from Arus. The technology and raw materials came from three others."

"And where is Earth in all of this?" Hunk inquired.

"Earth was just a factory of sorts for assembling the Voltron of this dimension," she answered. "It was also the test area where we can do a trial run on Voltron being that this Voltron is the first that was created from the five."

"Five?!" Lance exclaimed. "You mean to tell me that there are four other Voltrons out there? Like the one that attacked us on the moon?"

Allura nodded as she explained, "the five dimensions agreed that there should only be one Voltron on each dimension. One Defender of the Universe to be called upon when needed. This dimension was the first to create Voltron as the threat of planet Doom was imminent. When Voltron was successfully created here, four more were made for each of the other dimensions. Not an exact replica of the first but the components are the same but catered to the dimension that would need them. After the Voltrons were created, we have all decided to never create more. We have agreed that one Voltron is enough to defend the universe on each of the five dimensions who helped create them."

"But Zarkon," Allura continued. "He somehow was able to get another Voltron from one of the other dmensions. That was against everything the five civilizations have agreed upon. The Third Sphere has come to destroy us, as there should be no more than one Voltron in a dimension. We were given a chance to stop it on our own. We were supposed to have gotten more time."

"So what changed?"

"Earth created two more Voltrons."

Hunk cursed under his breath. Pidge was speechless as he tried to process the information.

"Now we have four Voltrons in one dimension. That really has fucked us up," said Lance. He started pacing again and continued, "So Keith knew about this. What's he plan to do? Take out a whole civilization all on his own?"

"I wouldn't put it pass the commander to do that," Hunk answered. "But what does Sigis have to do about any of this?"

"Sigis must have told Keith some of the things he was allowed to say letting Keith figure out the rest," Allura guessed. "No one but the core of the five civilizations knows about the secret of Voltron. As heir to the Royal House of Arus I was privy to the information, but for a time, I was not allowed to divulge any of it. An ancient magic stops me from saying anything to anyone."

"The light show from awhile ago," Pidge remarked. "That was the ancient magic that was blocking you from saying anything. How were you able to break it?"

Allura shook her head. She didn't know how she managed such a feat. All she knew was that she was glad that she succeeded.

"If ancient magic prevented you from saying anything to keep this from getting out," Hunk said as worry started to crawl from his face. "Having Keith with this knowledge would surely put him in harm's way."

A look of dread crept up to Allura's face at his statement.

"Pidge," Lance said, his face changed from worried friend to a soldier. "How long 'til we get back to Earth?"

"Voltron is already going at Hypermock 1," Pidge stated. "We never pressed him to go faster than that. We'll reach Earth's atmosphere in thirty two hours."

"Let's try to get him as close to Hypermock 2 without destroying the hull. Let's just hope that Sven can hold off whoever is inside Keith for that long."