Allura wakes up with petals caressing her skin and a pair of arms catching her as she falls forward.

There are five strangers standing before her, and for a moment she thinks they're Altean. But they don't have any markings in the corner of their eyes, and their ears are all wrong - close to their head, small, with rounded edges like some mythological creature. Of course, it was far more likely they were simply a different species. The one who caught her says something that was probably supposed to be flirtatious, but she isn't really listening, too busy with the fact that there are intruders in her castle. How had they gotten past the guards? Why were the guards? Why had she been in a cryopod? She barely hesitates in taking out the person holding her and immediately starts demanding answers. The others hopefully won't attack if one of their own is on the line. And then they mention the Blue Lion. Nothing is right.

She rushes to the console in order to get some answers, as the intruders don't seem hostile and don't seem to have any information either. She is overwhelmingly relieved when she finds that she wasn't the only one in stasis. Allura quickly releases Coran's pod and he jumps out with as much grace as he usually has. Between trying to confront the aliens so quickly after being in cryosleep and the flowers on the floor, he makes a less than flattering display of his skills. But Coran is a hard man to make falter and he continues to try and appear intimidating and in control. It soothes a little bit of the fear in Allura.

Just in time for the fear to hit her full force as she sees how long she's been asleep.

The memories flood back.

Coran had just returned from the front lines sporting an ugly gash on his side. He'd been rushed straight to the sleep chamber for healing. Allura had looked sadly at the orange flowers on her. They had finally stopped growing and she pulled them off. Her father had a similar clump on his side, but busied himself with helping her. How funny it was, that they had the same soulmate. It made sense though. Coran and King Alfor had known each other for years, were closer than simply advisor and King, and had both mourned over the last flowers they would ever bleed for her mother. When Alfor had found out that Coran was also the soulmate to Allura, he had been pleased. Coran had take in straight to his heart, determined to take care of not just his young charge, but his young solemate.

After the flowers were cleaned up, Allura's father had placed her as well into the cryopods, saying he would hopefully be back soon.

He obviously hadn't ever made it back.

As the memory ended, Allura fell to her knees and wept.

Coran ran over, putting his arms around her comfortingly. It was gone, all of Altea. They were the last of their kind. For this being such a horrible revelation, a terrible thing to wake up to, the room they were in smelt too good. Gentle, foreign fragrances wafted through the air. She had woken up surrounded by flowers, but there had been none in her pod when it'd been sealed on her. Where had they come from?

Allura gently pushed Coran away to inspect them. The aliens were doing the same. They were cradling the blossoms in their hands, matching looks of confusion on their faces.

"Wait, wait, these are mine." The one in yellow said holding up similarly color flowers.

"Same over here." The brown-haired one had his arms filled with blue flowers.

There were five different color altogether: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Allura scooped a few up. It seemed purple was the dominating color out of the lot with many varying shades and sizes. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight. Telling the health of another by the flowers you bloomed was required knowledge on Altea, and some of the flowers were incredibly big with vibrant colors.

"What do you mean by 'yours'?" Allura asked. The five aliens looked at each other before the one black-haired one stepped forward. Her eyes snapped to his arm, metallic and in a style that reminded her of the Galra's technology. He knelt down on the floor so that he was on eye level with her, and despite herself Allura stayed on the ground.

"I'm almost as confused as you are, Princess," He said, head bowed ever so slightly. "I am Takeshi Shirogane. A few days ago, days I can barely remember, I escaped from the Galra Empire. When I returned to my home planet, they found me." Shirogane gestured to the younger ones around them. The blue flower one had now laid down in the flowers and was waving his arms and legs, making an empty space around him and yelling about making a 'flower angel'. "And apparently we're all soulmates. Together. If these flowers mean the same thing to your species as they do to us, then you and the other are connected to us too."

It was a lot to process.

In the end, Allura decides that getting the lions together was more important that worrying about flowers. She pushes it all to the back of her head.

oOo

After the lions are found and Voltron is formed for the first time in over 10,000 years, Coran and Allura return to the sleep chamber to clean up what's left of their time in stasis. The flowers, for all they're worth, have only just barely started to show signs that they are in need of water. Allura starts to make quick work of them, grabbing as many as she can and throwing them away. Coran does so too. If the new human Paladins truly are their soulmates, then there will be plenty more where this came from.

He is about to dump more of the flowers when he sees it.

Coran freezes.

His fingers shake as he reaches into alien flora in his arms picks out a familiar blossom. It was a pastel pink juniberry. Allura and Alfor were both his soulmates, and both had the same flower. This had caused a good amount of confusion and panic for the Altean, who would immediately embark on a mission to find out what was wrong with either of them as soon as he realized the flower had bloomed. But there was a way to tell the two flowers apart. And this one, this was definitely the King's.

"Coran? What is it?" Allura walked over as Coran's arms dropped their burden in favor of holding the flower while the other hand covered his mouth. He didn't answer as she looked at the flower cradled in his hand. He didn't move as Allura started to frantically search through the flowers that still blanketed the floor, making an area as she collected the juniberries. A final piece of Alfor, and if the size of the flowers to be believed, they were from the very wounds that killed him.

Allura cleaned the rest of the flowers by herself and then left Coran alone. He sat there for a moment longer, drinking in the scent of the flowers before finally getting back up. Perhaps there was no better time to mourn than now, but he couldn't. Alfor would've wanted Coran to pick himself back up. They were the universe's last hope, and he'd be damned if let a long-dead king keep him down. Still, there was the question of what to do with the flowers. They had thrown the others away because they were from the Paladin's wounds from long ago, but the usual Altean tradition from thousands of years ago was to burn them. It was said that the smoke would find its way to one's soulmate and give them aid. But Alfor wasn't alive, the smoke would not bring aid to a corpse.

Coran confronted Paladin Number Two, or 'Hunk'. When Coran had question about the flowers earlier, Hunk had taken out a book and showed which ones represented who. Altea had gone nearly completely digital before… well, before. Books were few and far between and those that would be found in the castle were far too old to be used for anything than carefully leafing through.

Hunk didn't comment on the flower, but let Coran use his book to press a few of them. He did give a sympathetic smile and told Coran that within a few weeks they'd be okay to take out and perhaps display.

Coran burned the rest.