(From Ashes) Chapter 3

Pride: From Ashes

Chapter 3

Unseen and Unheard

Neither scout team had wanted to hang around long outside after meeting up again, and they'd returned to the Falcon in uneasy silence. The conversation they were about to have was better held on the relative safety of the ship, even if none of them knew precisely how weird it was really going to be.

Being an Explorer Team was supposed to make them the kind of crazy that didn't know what was impossible—not the kind of crazy that was actually hearing voices nobody else could hear. It didn't seem fair. But here they were. Lance kept listening for the voice to return, wondering why the sudden silence in his mind made him feel impatient. Sven was quietly debating how to raise what they'd 'found' to the team, half expecting to hear another amused growl.

Darkness was falling as they reached the ship, grabbing some water and gathering on the bridge; if the Xaela had any kind of proper conference room, it was well-hidden. Hunk and Pidge came up from the engine bay, looking various shades of disgruntled. That also seemed like an odd sign—well, for Hunk anyway. Everyone seemed on edge.

Keith sighed as he sank into his command chair. Time to make some sense of things… or try to. "Okay. Anything to report?"

"We found an empty village to the south," Sven said immediately. And then, in precisely the same matter-of-fact tone, "Also, I might be schizophrenic."

Everyone swung around to gawk at him. "What?"

"Or just crazy. Not sure which."

Well that was easier than Lance had expected this to start out. Score one for Viking directness. "What makes you say that?"

"I'm hearing growling. And voices."

"Oh, does that make you crazy?" Hunk asked, frowning. "Cuz I might be crazy, too." Next to him, Pidge snorted; he shrugged. "Okay, crazier."

Lance stared between them. Sven they'd known, expected, intended to ask… Hunk? He hadn't even left the ship! "Well fuck," he murmured, then remembered he probably ought to mention his own voice. "That's me too."

"I heard a growl," Keith agreed quietly.

"Mine was definitely a voice."

Vince looked between them and shook his head slowly. Other than Sven, they'd always been crazy. He was somewhat relieved to hear Sven wasn't actually losing it, apparently—but it did also mean half the team was hearing things nobody else could hear. And if it wasn't insanity, it meant there were actually mysterious voices out there somewhere. So happy it's not me.

It didn't look like their navigator was all that thrilled to have company; his thoughts were tracking along similar lines to Vince. "I'm not sure if this is better or worse than just me being crazy."

"Explorer Team, bro." Hunk was going to cling to that as long as he could, because he really wasn't a fan of the alternatives.

"What did yours say?" Lance asked, leaning forward a little. He was much more interested in that; wasn't like any of them were qualified to make a psychiatric diagnosis here. Not even Jace had been, as he would've been loudly reminding them. "Was it helpful? Mine was not helpful."

"No." Sven rolled his eyes. "I got 'in time you will learn'." And there it was. The amused growl, just a hint of it, as if it had just been waiting to laugh at him. He pinched the bridge of his nose and it faded.

"Huh. I got something similar." A rush of warmth and… annoyance?… flooded through Lance and he startled slightly, trying to determine if the annoyance was his.

"Mine was, uh… not not-like that," Hunk said sullenly.

Keith shook his head. "What does it mean?"

"Means we're nuts, boss." Though he said it easily, Lance was starting to seriously doubt it was the case at all…

Pidge was still standing in the hatch from the engine bay, listening and growing more and more uncomfortable. His mind kept running back to what he'd felt earlier, the sense of something vaguely voice-like glancing off his barriers. He didn't like it. He didn't like it at all… "Does this conversation concern those of us who aren't hearing voices?" he asked sharply. More sharply than he'd intended, even; Vince jumped, and he felt slightly guilty.

Frowning, Keith looked from Pidge to the others. The ninja might have a fair point. Operating on the margins they were, they needed to take any chance for a moment of rest; if half the team wasn't hearing voices, that half of the team could be doing something else with this time. "Unknown. But for now… unless any of you have heard other voices, you can try to get some rest. We'll catch you up afterwards."

A little too quickly, the ninja was gone. Vince shrugged and followed; he had enough weird in his life without going out of his way to hear more. Romelle left as well, still not feeling like it would quite be her place to stay even if she wanted to.

Daniel was the last to go, flipping a mock salute. "Enjoy the voices in your heads!" Keith snorted.

"Like they ain't crazy in their own way, but that's alright." Any laugh they could get from this was good with Hunk.

"Totally," Lance agreed. "What did your voice say, big guy?"

"It said 'the earth is patient'," he snorted, rolling his eyes. And asked things you don't need to know about… the growl almost immediately crackled in the back of his mind, and he fought down a scowl. You shut up! The growl scoffed in response—how the hell did a growl scoff? But it did, and it didn't improve his mood any.

"What is it with ominous voices telling us to be patient?" Sven asked, shaking his head.

Lance didn't look much more impressed. "What is that supposed to be? A riddle?" The big engineer shrugged. If he knew what it meant it would be slightly less annoying.

Slightly.

They were quiet for a few moments, just looking at each other. They had to talk about it, sure, but what could they really say? They didn't know anything, and the voices were being awfully uncooperative about changing that state of affairs.

Finally Sven decided he might as well get things restarted. He'd started them off, it was only fair. "I heard the growling again a minute or two ago. Though quieter than before."

"Yeah, I think I felt…" Lance blinked. It felt weird even by their standards, but it was the only way to describe it. "Warmth. Kind of… grumpy warmth." He wondered if the grumpiness had been because he'd called the voice unhelpful, or something else…

"My sleep has been long."

His eyes widened. The voice felt distant, more than it had at the mountains, but it was unmistakable. It was there. And it had actually told him someth—no. No, he decided as he considered the words, it really hadn't. "Great, now I think I'm getting riddles too." Either a riddle or just a cryptic vaguery, neither of which helped them, but…

"Uh, so, I know this is super psych, yeah?" Lance's mention of warmth had jolted Hunk's memory to all the things he'd resolutely been trying to put aside. "But that relic we swiped? The one that uh, felt like earth?" The feeling, the symbol, the temple… fuzzmuffins.

"Yeah, why?" As all eyes turned to Hunk, Keith felt something too. A sense of being watched, and a low, purring chuckle that sent a shiver down his spine.

"Just… the earth is patient? Weird coincidence, yeah?"

It was not a coincidence. They all knew that. It wasn't if it meant something, but what, and what it meant for their mission…

"Yeah." Lance shook his head slowly. "Um, I keep feeling that same warmth I got from the metal. Only it's stronger, or maybe getting stronger."

It was Sven who finally put voice to what they were all pretty certain of. "So what we're saying is, it wouldn't be a large jump in logic to say that this has something to do with Voltron." The metal and the relic had both been connected and he, well… he'd never had any mysterious feelings from an unknown inanimate artifact, and it was making him feel the tiniest bit left out.

Which was in itself very weird, if he thought about it. He resolved not to think about it.

"At this point, we can't rule it out." Keith wasn't ready to say yes. He didn't know if it was prudent caution or outright denial. Either way, he sure as hell wasn't saying no.

"But speaking in our heads?"

"We still don't know what this thing is, 'cept for lions."

"The tech said the metal was magic."

"She did. But she didn't say sentient." The other thing they'd learned—sort of—from Turoa Tek popped into his mind. The metal had given the same readings… "And are we hearing the same voice, or different voices?"

They all paused a moment, looking around at each other, then Sven gave a slight shrug. "What do all yours sound like?"

"I'm still only hearing growling." Keith paused. "Well, a couple of minutes ago there was something more like a… purring laugh?"

Lance frowned. "Yeah I'm getting gruff, low… uh…" He looked at the commander. "Purrlike…"

"Kinda sounds like gravel in a cement mixer?" Hunk asked.

"No, more like fire—" Lance fell silent, blinking. "Huh…?" It had just come out, kind of instinctively. But he felt the warmth intensify, and realized it was true. The gruffness of the voice was like the crackle of flame in his mind, and the warmth was comforting like a cheerful fire on the coldest day…

Hunk looked at him, deadpan. "So mine's rocks and yours is fire. That ain't killin' this theory at all. Viking?"

"Mine doesn't sound gruff or gravelly." Nor did it give him the sense of flame or earth. If anything the cadences felt calm, like the gently flowing waters of the fjords back home. "It's more…" Elegant? It was the first word that came to his lips, but it didn't feel like it offered much in the way of useful information. "Soft." That wasn't a lot better.

"Soft," Lance repeated, considering it. The voice he was hearing was also soft, but he didn't think Sven had meant it in terms of volume. "Does it purr? …The fucking things I am saying."

"No kiddin'," Hunk snorted.

Sven thought back to the growling. Amusement yes, but… "No, she didn't really purr."

"…She?"

"SHE?"

Oh. He blinked. It had felt right somehow, natural. And the soft growl had not objected, which it felt like it—she?—would have if he was wrong. "I think so, yes."

"Alright." Lance shrugged. He was over pointing out with every fucking sentence how insane this was. It was what they had and it wasn't going to help anything not to roll with it. "I definitely have a man, er… male… I don't know what word to use for a possibly sentient robot lion but…" He felt a low chuckle in his mind and decided that must be an agreement.

Nothing about the rough, rocky voice in Hunk's mind screamed female. "I think mine's a dude…" And it was definitely laughing at him, right on cue.

"I'd guess with as dark and deep as mine sounds when it laughs, male also…" Keith scoffed slightly as he realized what he'd just said. Why am I calling it mine? "I can't tell for certain."

The genders of what were looking more and more like sentient robot lions inside their heads did not matter much, in themselves, Lance decided. He shook his head slowly. "So we've got warmth, soft, gravel, and… dark? Okay."

"Sounding like different voices."

Again they all fell silent. Finally, Hunk exhaled slowly. "Anyone else startin' to think we shouldn't have come here after all?" This was too much. It was too far out of his comfort zone—either Big Dumb Hunk's comfort zone or his actual comfort zone…

"You hide too close to the surface."

Scowling, he did all he could to just push the words aside. He didn't want to hear it.

Nobody else was with him, though. "I'm still undecided," Sven said, vaguely irritated by that in itself. He'd been undecided since they first decided to come here, trying to go with the flow of things, and he would appreciate actually knowing something sooner or later. Though the voice and the growling felt right, somehow—like something he'd been waiting for.

"We should be here." Lance was certain of that. Fuck me if I know why, though.

"Fuck you…?"

His eyes widened. Oh no. No, he was not explaining that to a mysterious disembodied voice in his brain. "I'd get used to hearing that," he muttered under his breath, and the voice seemed to accept it for now.

"I wouldn't mind some answers." Keith was feeling very Sven-like on the subject. Fitting, he supposed; it was always good to agree with one's second. "All we keep getting are more questions." This entire mission had been like that, but now it was that much more immediate. What he knew was that they wouldn't come up with any answers if they just left.

They were close, so close. Weren't they? They had to be, surely…

"So uh," Lance was shaking his head again—or maybe still. "We think the talking voices in our heads are Voltron for sure, right?"

"Anyone tried askin' em?" Hunk suggested with a shrug. His voice seemed to have plenty of opinions on him, it could answer a few questions… but when he tried to direct the question all he got was a low growl. "Mine suddenly got way less chatty."

Lance tried the same, and had better results. Sort of. He heard, felt, the voice brighten. "Ah! Voltron…"

What about Voltron?

"It is far too soon."

"He perked up about Voltron then told me it's too soon," he relayed as the others noted his expression. "What the fuck."

"I asked mine who she was earlier, that's when I got the 'be patient' answer, but…" Sven closed his eyes. He didn't really think he needed to close his eyes, but it felt like he may as well. Are you Voltron? There were no words in response, just a soft growl. It felt reassuring somehow… he let himself accept the reassurance, even if it wasn't quite an answer.

Keith got nothing but another low, purring chuckle. It was really hard not to read the lack of denial as confirmation, though. If the voices weren't Voltron, what the hell else had they wandered into on this seemingly dead planet? It just seemed unlikely. "We should proceed under the assumption that it is."

Hunk sighed. "I don't like this at all, my dudes."

"I…" Lance didn't not-like it. But he could sympathize with Hunk, too. "We definitely weren't fucking trained for this shit."

"I don't think it's a bad thing," Sven murmured, almost more to himself than the group.

Keith looked around and grimaced. He was chewing on his lower lip to try to keep himself from pacing, and wondered if it was worth the effort. Pacing hurt less. "I don't know that I like it, either. But let's look at it as a positive. We came here to find Voltron…" Frowning, he looked at the door from the bridge. "Why us, though?"

"Why not us?" Lance asked, following his gaze. "It's been us all this fucking time, the unit, the temple, those fucking trap pits…"

"That's a great reason for it not to be us," Hunk countered. "We've been through plenty." But he was seeing the yellow part of the temple again, the symbol on the relic…

"It can only be you," the warm voice murmured in Lance's mind, and he frowned. He couldn't tell if it was talking to him specifically, or about the group as a whole. Either way… it felt safe. The warmth had been there this whole time, calling to him. Waiting for him?

It sounded insane, of course. But saying things sounded insane hardly even had meaning anymore.

Nobody had answered Hunk and he looked around, almost pleading for backup. "We're s'posed to grab this thing and take it home and hand it over and go back to nice normal missions, right?" A scornful growl rumbled through him and he narrowed his eyes. "Right?!"

"That was the mission." Keith heard the dark growl again, and this time it definitely wasn't laughing.

"I don't think it's that simple anymore," Sven agreed, a hint of anger creeping into the growl in his own mind.

"It's not like we can grab disembodied voices," Lance pointed out. "And I don't think they mean us harm…"

"Your instinct is strong." The warmth pulsed softly through him, and he shivered a little.

Hunk just stared around at the others, trying not to explode. It wasn't harm he was worried about, exactly. He was not supposed to be the person on this team who wasn't okay with being crazy! It was practically his damn trademark, but here they were—and it felt like he was supposed to be the one most excited by this, the quickest to embrace the absurdity. Maybe he would've been, if his voice were just a little less…

"What are you hiding?"

…like THAT.

"I don't think it's that simple either," Keith finally acknowledged. "And I don't know what to think about that."

"We'll figure it out." Lance said it to the group, but was looking at Hunk, who sighed in frustration.

"So we're hearin' voices in our heads that might be ancient robot lion superweapons." He didn't sound exactly defeated, but definitely resigned. "And we're stickin' around for it cuz reasons. That's the deal?"

"I think we have to."

"That is the deal," Sven confirmed, nodding.

"I think so, Hunk. At least unless something else changes." Their commander swept his gaze over the group. "We have a duty to fulfill. And the one thing we can be certain won't help us fulfill that duty is running away. We'll do the best we can, same as we always do…"

Hunk nodded slowly, then decided to take a shot. Couldn't hurt anything at this point, probably. Focusing on the gravelly voice he asked, don't suppose you'll tell us where you are? He didn't even get a growl in response—not even the courtesy of being laughed at. He snorted in annoyance.

Misreading his snort, Lance took a steadying breath. "We have to do this, Hunk. For… for…"

"For them," Keith agreed softly.

The big engineer hesitated. And something washed over him—a flash of annoyance that they would be invoked like they wouldn't be—

"—Okay fine, but Jace would be yellin' for us to fuck on outta here in so many words, yeah? He's not here to call it a bad idea, someone oughta."

Immediately he froze, half expecting Sven to punch him. Which he might actually deserve. But Sven just looked at him. Everyone was just looking at him…

"Your mask shifts. They see it. You will see…"

"…Flynn would want to stay," Lance whispered. He had no doubt about that. Flynn would love this, he'd… no. He tried to shove the thoughts away and the soft growl filled him.

"So much grief…"

No. He wasn't thinking about it.

"Flynn would," Keith agreed, smiling sadly. "And Cam… Cam would…" Cam would back whatever Keith wanted to do, and he bowed his head sadly. But he'd refused to back down in the end, as well, when everything had gone wrong. "He'd want to see this through."

"Jace would be screaming," Sven agreed with an affectionate smile. "But he'd also be very proud of me for rebelling in any fashion, and admitting that our mission might be… changing would certainly count."

"…And it's not like he'd be expectin' us to actually bail," Hunk admitted. He'd been right there beside them for everything, surly and angry and completely reliable. Images of the temple flashed through his mind again, their medic looking over the green section next to his, and…

Wait…

He looked around and counted just to be absolutely certain, though he'd been certain already. It wasn't exactly all that high to count. This is only four voices for five lions…

No, he did not want to bring that up right now.

"Jace would never bail," Lance snorted, voicing his earlier thoughts. "He'd just bitch about it."

"True that."

Sven chuckled and the soft growl flooded through him again. It was a good feeling, cool and comforting, and he didn't fight it.

"So… what do we do now? I asked mine where he is and he totally ghosted until it was time to get all cryptic and annoying again."

"Mine would just say it's not time yet, or something close, if I ask that."

"Well, there's not much else we can do tonight." Keith rubbed his forehead and wondered what time it even was. All he knew was it had already been getting dark when they returned to the ship.

Sven couldn't help a sardonic chuckle. "Be patient?"

"The earth is patient." Hunk snorted. "They better be, when's the last time we made a report?"

That sent a wave of mixed winces and chuckles through the others. "Hawkins must be knocking heads."

"Especially if they got our panic squawk."

"Oh, you know it."

"He and…" Sven's laugh abruptly cut off. "Fuck. My mother…"

Keith eyed him. "You keep using that word, maybe you really have lost it."

The navigator shrugged, just the slightest bit defensively. He didn't need to explain himself—he'd lost something. If succumbing to a little corruption was how he chose to honor that, he didn't owe anyone an explanation. They'd figure it out.

"She'll knock heads with Hawkins?" Lance asked with a small grin. He had a suspicion about why Sven was swearing these days; the thought of his mom rampaging through the Garrison was a much more fun subject.

"She'll knock everyone's heads. I didn't get my violent streak from my father."

"Oh no." Hunk snickered. He'd definitely rather think about Sven's family than his own—would they have been notified that the team was out of contact? Hopefully not yet. They were used to not hearing much from him on a deployment. He'd just keep hoping.

"Viking Mom!" Lance grinned. "Of course she fucking will."

Keith shook his head. Even he was amused at that thought. "Surely we'll find a way to get a message back… eventually."

"Have to find civilization first. Or where the lions are." Lance didn't specifically ask, but he hoped for an answer. All he received was a low purr.

"We did find that village," Sven reminded them. "Hopefully that leads to something."

"Hopefully. A lead or even a person."

"Yeah. I think we'll try looking at that village tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan." Hunk stretched, wincing; he'd been standing in one spot for a really long time. "Anyone for dinner?" Cooking would make him feel better. It would definitely be stress cooking.

"I could eat."

"Yeah, same."

"Sounds good."

Leaving the bridge, they took the elevator to the upper deck, and Hunk led them forward into the common room. "Yo! Team No Voices, time for—" He fell silent as he realized he wasn't yelling to anyone. "—Huh. Guess they're all asleep already."

Somehow, Lance did not think that would prove to be the case. At all. He walked over to the room he shared with Daniel, opened the door, and was wholly unsurprised to find it empty. "Oh, fuck. Daniel."

Sven frowned and went to the other bunkroom, the one he shared with Keith and Pidge. There was no ninja. He didn't even say anything, just sighed in resignation. He was not surprised, either.

Nor was Keith, who sighed as well. "They didn't." He said it with no conviction.

"Oh he did." Lance knocked on the doors to Romelle and Vince's staterooms, expecting no answer and receiving exactly what he expected. "And he dragged them with him."

The four of them just stood there, looking at each other, wondering why exactly they hadn't seen this coming to begin with. Of course the others had…

"…Guess they can make their own dinner?" Hunk shrugged.

Lance snorted. "We going after them, or…?"

"I'm sure they'll be fine. They're all capable, Daniel seems to operate at his best when he's doing something he's not supposed to do, it's dark and Pidge is with them…" Sven crossed his arms. "And I'm hungry."

Keith snorted too, but nodded his agreement with his second's assessment. They had to trust their teammates, even when their teammates pulled things like this. "They can take care of themselves, and it's not as if they're undermanned compared to our previous scouting. It'll be alright."

It was almost comforting, really. After the discussion they'd just had, it was nice to know they still had good old-fashioned Explorer Team crazy to worry about too.

*****

"Larmina… Can I have a moment with you? Alone?"

Larmina gave her aunt a slightly irritated look. She didn't want to give her a moment; she wanted to be out helping Coran hunt down the alien ship. But she'd volunteered for—insisted on—remaining in the castle before, so here she was. She'd hoped there would actually be something useful to do here, but so far, not so much. Just being held out of things, again.

So she acquiesced, joining her aunt in a small room deep within the ruined part of the castle. If she wanted to convince her to let her join a scout team, she'd have to humor her as much as possible.

When Allura was sure they were alone, she took a steadying breath. "Since you are in the know about the Lions now, I thought it would only be fair to share what little history I know about why—"

Larmina interrupted, because this was exactly what she hadn't wanted to hear about. She didn't care about excuses. "I don’t see the point of—"

"—I think you might, or at least, you could see part of my problem if you'll let me explain."

Humor her and maybe you can do something useful. "Fine."

There was a small mural in the room, one that couldn't be pried from the wall. Lions. Allura walked up to it, looking at it, running her fingers reverently over the smooth enamel. "It was decided many generations ago that all information about the Great Lions would be held by the High King or Queen. Their power was great, too great to be entrusted to any other. Supposedly some other family members knew once, but over time most if not all forgot about the secret. Even within the House of Raimon, they became mostly a curiosity."

"Right." Larmina wanted to ask about the war, about the other legends, but decided to let it go for now. "Ancient forgotten weapons, got it."

"It was my great grandfather who started to reclaim information about them. He believed there might be a need for the lions to be awakened someday. What he found was that nearly everything had been lost. And many discouraged his search, saying they were only fairy tales. That the Crown couldn't be seen pursuing such nonsense. He kept searching, but quietly. Were it not for his efforts, and my father's continuation of them… all knowledge of the lions could have been lost entirely."

"But why not tell people now? You could have more people looking for what you need."

"Think about it, Larmina. Would you tell the people that the Great Lions of legends are real, not fairy tales… but they are asleep, and you have next to no way to wake them? Would you give them that hope and crush it at the same time?"

Her niece frowned. She'd spent enough time in the castle workshop to feel like this should be easy. "So at least bring Danor and the royal engineers in on it! They're just machines."

"They are not!" Allura said sternly, almost personally insulted by her tone. Her father hadn't searched and died without considering something so simple. "It might be hard to see from the glimpse you got, but they are much more than that. You just can’t push a button on them and have them spring to life. We've tried. It takes something more, and until I know how they fully wake… can't you see how it would be cruel to give empty hope?"

Larmina sighed; she supposed she could understand that. If the lions couldn’t wake up, it could undo so much of the morale Allura had managed to keep alive in the shelters. And if just kicking them in the right place wouldn't do the trick, she guessed working in the dark was what they had. Though she wondered how exactly Auntie knew that these new arrivals they hadn't even found were important… secret lion stuff? Sure, why not. Secret lion stuff.

There was a giant metal cat in a cave in the mountains, secret lion stuff was obviously an actual thing. Aside from the annoyance, wrapping her head around that was still taking a little work.

"Okay, Auntie." She sighed again and nodded. Much as she still felt like sulking, she'd resolved to be useful, too. "Just… keep me in the loop, okay? Whatever you learn about the lions from now on, I want to know too."

Allura nodded. "I promise." It would be so good to have someone else she could talk to about such things, especially if they were really as close as she thought…

"Great." Larmina looked at the mural and stood. "Now let’s go find whoever it is that's going to help you with waking sleeping kittens."

It got her a small, affectionate chuckle. "Coran will find them. We have to wait here. Just in case."

"Auntieeee…"

"I know." Allura pulled out one of the notebooks she kept with her. "Would it make you feel better if I told you some of the tales my father found, in the meantime?"

Larmina considered that, then nodded and sat back down. It was better than nothing.

*****

It had taken Daniel roughly five seconds after leaving the bridge to start rallying Team No Voices to his cause.

"Hey ninja! You can go out in the dark, right?"

Pidge blinked. "Yes…?"

"Awesome." Their gunner turned to Vince. "You remember where that village is, right?"

Vince had been considering actually going to bed, and even kind of looking forward to it after how much walking they'd done. Now he turned to Daniel, knowing exactly where this was going. "Oh no. Nope."

Nobody really thought that meant he didn't remember where the village was. Though Pidge did think that perhaps—just perhaps—Daniel might have left out a key element of his first question.

"Come on. While they're figuring out if they're really bonkers or not, we should do something productive."

"It isn't really that hard to find," Romelle said with a slight blush. Vince gave her a betrayed look; Daniel grinned.

"Perfect!" He turned back to Pidge. He actually had intended to ask the ninja—he had a healthy respect for his stab-happy-ness. But there wouldn't be much point in extending an invitation if they couldn't follow it up. "Wanna get off this ship and explore a village?"

"That's a bad plan," Vince objected.

"It's a terrible idea," Pidge agreed, then shrugged. He was sick of being on this ship. "I'm in." Vince gave him a betrayed look too, and sighed.

"My terrible plans tend to work."

"By sheer luck, if I recall them all correctly."

Daniel waved that off dismissively. "Is it really luck if it happens over and over? No. That's talent. Let's go."

Romelle blinked as they headed for the nearest hatch. It felt like they'd missed a step. "Shouldn't we tell the others where we're going?" Immediately the gunner whipped around on her.

"Romelle, has anyone ever explained to you the concept of tattle-taling?" All it got him was a confused look.

"Tailing?" Pidge echoed, looking almost equally confused. "We haven't even seen anyone to tail yet."

"He means snitching," Vince muttered.

"Oh."

That didn't help Romelle one bit. "Snitching?"

"Telling the others would be considered snitching," Daniel explained. "It's something that's very frowned upon in Earth culture. Huge no-no."

That still didn't actually explain anything. "But if we run into trouble?"

"That's why this is a bad idea," Vince muttered; Daniel just shrugged.

"We have a ninja."

"…Well, point."

Pidge wasn't wholly convinced either, though. "I think what you're calling 'snitching' is actually 'proper notification of command', which is not frowned upon…"

"Pidge, do you want to leave the ship or not?"

"I didn't say I won't come with you."

"I still don't even understand what snitching is," Romelle muttered.

The ninja looked at her and offered helpfully, "Snitching is asking for permission when you expect the answer to be no." Vince opened his mouth and shut it again; no way was he going to try to correct that. Explaining nuance to Pidge was a lost cause, and poor Romelle didn't need this nonsense.

"Well the answer will be no. And then we won't go. Which means in this instance, proper notification of command is very frowned upon."

Their resident Baltan saw no flaws in that logic, and just shrugged again in acceptance.

Shrugging and accepting it usually seemed like the best course of action for this team, so Romelle did the same. "Well, you'll need me to go with you. In case we find anyone who doesn't speak Common." Her Arusian was better than her Common, truthfully; Polluxian still bore a strong resemblance to its parent language. And she had no way of knowing if the Alliance had ever even made contact with Arus.

"Oh, yes," Vince grumbled. "Running into someone in the dark deserted village would just be brilliant."

"No more pessimism out of you!" Daniel scolded, checking his gun. "You guys ready to go, or do you need to grab stuff?"

Romelle and Vince still had their own weapons with them, and Pidge had his usual knife. "If we run into Drules, do we kill or capture?"

"Situational," Daniel answered in his best imitation of Keith. "Use your best judgment."

With that, they were gone, slipping out a cargo hatch into the darkness. It was spooky, even more than the fog had been; it was actually a bit louder than during the day. Some kind of nighttime insect was chirping through the foothills and echoing off the mountains, a haunting sound.

Nobody was too upset to leave it behind as they crossed the bridge. It was an uneventful walk, but peaceful, the lake water beside them shining in the light of two moons. Or it was peaceful until the half-ruined buildings appeared on the horizon, looking almost like shadowy monsters lying in wait.

Not even theoretical monsters held much particular fear for the team anymore, and Vince's tone was completely deadpan when he spoke. "Yay. Behold a creepy village."

"It is spooky," Romelle agreed softly, shivering. It had been ominous in the daylight, and now it was worse.

"It is kind of spooky," Daniel admitted. He'd been planning to suggest they split up once they arrived, but now he was rethinking that. No, he'd rethought it. Not happening.

Pidge didn't see anything particularly spooky about it, but he was used to dark and empty settlements. The moonlight here was about as bright as Balto ever got, and most industrial districts were fully automated, leaving them deserted under normal circumstances. What was unusual about the village was how… small and rustic it seemed. Quaint? He thought the word humans liked for these things was quaint.

And how damaged. As he moved forward, he could see chunks torn from some walls, scorch marks on stone pathways. The others followed him into the ruins; following the ninja always seemed like the wisest course in a situation like this. There was no sign of any other movement, except…

Something flickered just at the corner of Vince's vision, something pale and bright glinting in the darkness. But when he turned to get a better look, nothing was there. He shrugged it off; probably a trick of the moonlight.

"Aren't we near to the castle?" Pidge whispered as the wind whistled between the buildings. "This is an obvious point to occupy to secure the meadow, but it's so quiet. No patrols evident."

"Yeah, I guess that is weird…" Vince looked over his shoulder. No patrols evident. He was pretty sure what he'd seen, if he'd even seen it, wasn't a sign of a patrol.

Romelle saw a flicker inside one of the buildings, a relatively undamaged house with an open door. She approached and poked her head in. "Hello?" It got her an annoyed look from the ninja, but even she was accustomed to ignoring those by now. Nothing greeted her, though… in fact the house seemed scoured of everything. Cupboards hung open, drawers were pulled out, even the cushions had been taken from a large couch in what looked like the living room.

"Who are you saying hello to?" Daniel whispered, walking over to join her. Whispering felt like the only safe way to talk here. Seeing the village as it was—ransacked and lifeless—was making his chest tighten up. It was too creepy and sad to be cool, and it was sucking all the fun out of misbehaving.

"Thought I saw something, that's all." She stepped back, shaking her head.

Vince spun around, certain he'd seen something else too. Nothing. "Urgh." Between sparks and visions and everyone else hearing voices, maybe he was just too certain something terrifying was lurking around every corner. "Really not liking this feeling that we're in a horror movie."

Daniel snorted. He felt like he'd said something similar recently.

As they moved deeper into the village, Pidge crouched and sprang up onto a rooftop; their gunner watched him and shook his head slightly. "He's like a frog."

"A frog?" Vince echoed, eyeing him.

"The way he just jumped up onto the roof like that? Totally froglike."

"I guess." Another flicker of motion caught his eye, and again it wasn't actually there when he turned. Maybe the wind was blowing things around; it was low and constant, though he wasn't too sure what it might be catching. This place looked pretty well scavenged.

"He is impressive," Romelle acknowledged, watching Pidge disappear from view. He kept low to the roof, crawling to the edges and studying the streets. Still there was nothing but silent darkness.

Shaking his head, he stood carefully and vaulted up to the top of the chimney. He could see a lot of the village here—the ground was flat, and very few of the buildings were more than two stories high. There was no sign of motion.

The wind ruffled his hair, and he heard a low growl. He found his eyes drawn to the west. There was a forest—or had been at one point, anyway. He could see the trees, but also a scorched swath of earth. Burnt stumps and broken metal hulks littered the darkness. But it was the trees themselves that drew his attention.

The growl…

It wasn't the faint sound he'd been able to shove aside on the ship. It was strong and clear, seeming to be carried on the winds. His psychic barriers seemed to do nothing.

"I don't see anything," he informed the others as he jumped back to the ground. "Or hear anything, except the animals." Yes. Animals. Nighttime wildlife. They were near a forest. He refused to entertain the possibility of anything else.

Vince was on edge, watching for more flickers, and tried to spin in the next one more quickly. It didn't help, and he groaned. "I'm either joining in the craziness back on the ship, or I'm seeing things… wait, that's the same thing."

"Well," Daniel offered, "they were hearing things, not seeing them."

"Comforting."

After a few moments, they moved on. Even if the village was empty, they might be able to find some information.

It wouldn't take long.

Passing by a small house, Romelle caught a familiar scent. Before she could place it, she turned to look down the alley, and brought her hands to her mouth with a gasp.

The others sprang into action immediately; Pidge came up next to her with his knife drawn, covering her as she dropped back. Vince did not want to know what had caused that reaction, but dropped a hand to his gun and readied himself nonetheless. Daniel had his halfway drawn as he approached to have a look, but stopped as he came into view of the alleyway. It wasn't a threat…

"Eww." He was very glad it was dark. "Bodies."

"Arusians?" Vince asked sadly, but the gunner shook his head.

"Nope. Finally found some Drules."

"Komora…?"

The bodies were stacked three high, scattered with something powdery silver that glittered in the moonlight. Romelle recognized it as sancah, an herb that promoted decomposition while keeping wild beasts and scavengers at bay. It was the sancah she'd smelled, an overly flowery scent that partially masked the smell of decay.

Sancah was not something the Drules used. It was native to Arus—and here, apparently, employed to grant even their enemies the small courtesy of some dignity in death.

"Sorry," she whispered as the others relaxed. "It just startled me."

Vince saw no reason for her to apologize for a pile of dead bodies startling her. "What killed them?"

"How are we supposed to know that?" Daniel asked with a scowl.

"Question seems pertinent, that's all."

"…Fair." Even not being able to see them, Daniel was still very much over looking at dead Drule bodies. And the sweet smell that filled the alley was cloying, turning his stomach. "Ugh, this is disgusting." Covering his nose, he turned and walked away.

"The Arusians probably killed them," Romelle said softly. Even without the sancah, it seemed like the most logical answer. "I know they resisted for a long time."

"When did you say this planet was attacked?" Pidge asked quietly. The bodies didn't look like they'd been there for—

"—Months ago. I was sent to Korrinoth shortly afterwards."

He looked back at the bodies, nodding slowly. Something more was going on here. Something they weren't even imagining as a possibility…

Vince screamed.

"What?!" Daniel had his gun out again, and Pidge sprang forward to lunge at… nothing. There was nothing there. But Vince had raised his arm and was pointing at the nothing with a shaky hand.

"Nope. Nope." He was staring at a person. Except it wasn't really a person. It was an old man who seemed to be shaped from the moonlight, watching him with an expression of idle curiosity, and the buildings behind him were faintly visible through his body. "Nope, nope, NOPE." He shook his head furiously and stepped back, and the old man vanished.

"Vince? What do you see?"

"Dude, what is it?"

He just shook his head with a faint squeak, and Pidge crossed his arms. "Well," he said dryly, "if there is anyone in this village, or otherwise within earshot, we're about to find out. Good thinking, mechka."

Vince shot him a mildly resentful look. "There was a… a see-through person!" There is a word for that, Vince.

"A see-through person," Daniel echoed. "A ghost?"

That'd be it. "Ghosts aren't real!"

"They are," Romelle said softly. "My mother could see them. It runs in Pollux's royal family, though I've never had cause to…"

"They can't be real. That couldn't be real." On some instinct, he stepped forward again, to exactly where he'd been standing before. The ghostly old man immediately faded back into view. "…It's right there," he whispered.

Daniel looked between Vince and Romelle. One of them was taking this way too in stride, and the other was way too certain it was a thing. "Ghosts are real?!" he repeated, shaking his head vigorously. "Oh no. No. Nope. I'm out."

Vince whirled on him. "You're out?" he demanded, adrenaline spiking his voice into an outright yell.

"I'm out!"

"I'm the one seeing it! I want out!"

Pidge wanted out too—he wanted about as much to do with ghosts as he wanted to do with voices—and since they seemed quite busy yelling at each other, he took the opportunity to turn and walk away.

As their ninja removed himself, Romelle stepped forward, standing right next to Vince. She could just see the flickering outline of the ghost, which turned to face her with the same expression of vague interest. "Hello?" she whispered in Arusian.

"You see it too?" Vince asked, not sure whether to be relieved or freaked out more. Either way, she nodded, and he decided to just step back and let her deal with it. "I did not ask to see dead people." Sparks, visions, now dead people, what the hell is with my life?

"Can you speak?" Romelle asked the ghost as Vince stepped back. He just frowned at her slightly; she wondered if he could even hear her. Or if perhaps he knew a Polluxian when he saw one, and simply had nothing to say.

Though he couldn't understand what she was saying, Daniel was pretty sure he got the gist of what was going on. Me and Pidge are the only normal ones here, sheesh. "Is she talking to dead people? Should we really be talking to dead people?" It felt like the question had come out too casually. Why am I not questioning this more?

"If she wants to talk to the ghost like it's not a big deal, I'm not gonna stop her." Better her than me.

"I'm pretty sure communicating with spirits is where people in horror films start to go wrong…"

As they debated the wisdom of talking to the ghost, very little talking to the ghost was actually getting done. Romelle tried to coax it with a couple more greetings, but eventually the old man turned and faded away. "He's gone…"

"Do you think there are more?"

"I don't know, but I wouldn't doubt it. Just be aware of them…"

Be aware of them. That was literally exactly what he didn't want to do. "I'd really rather go back to my ignorant bliss of not knowing ghosts exist at all."

"Me too," Daniel agreed, looking around. He'd been meaning to ask Pidge for agreement, but there was a small problem with that idea. "Where'd ninja go?"

Vince rubbed his forehead. "Great."

"I was scouting the area." The voice came from inches behind him, and he jumped with another scream. "Still nothing."

"Would you not?!" Vince demanded, whirling on their characteristically unrepentant ninja.

"Shit, ninja!" Daniel agreed. "We already got ghosts!"

"We are in an abandoned village on a hostile planet." Pidge crossed his arms. "You failing to maintain situational awareness isn't a me problem." Vince glared at him, but he heard a laugh—soft and almost bell-like as it rang through him. "What was funny about that?"

Maybe fortunately for him, Vince was too busy being annoyed to catch that question; he turned and his gaze landed on Daniel. "We done having fun yet?"

This had stopped being fun the moment they'd arrived, but Daniel bristled with indignation anyway. "Don't blame me for you seeing ghosts!"

"I wouldn't know about it if you hadn't dragged us out here!"

"You might not know right now, but you would have sooner or later! It's not like we weren't gonna come here eventually, and it's definitely not like we're leaving any time soon." Daniel paused. "And I didn't drag you, I encouraged."

"I did not need to start seeing dead people any sooner than necessary, I have enough weirdness in my life." Vince matched his indignant look. "And I only came because we have to stick together."

"Who said that? I had ninja and runaway princess," really have to come up with a better nickname for her, "you didn't have to come."

"Like I was gonna leave her alone with you and Pidge!"

Pidge blinked. "Wait, what did I do?" Is this about the knife again? He'd gotten so much better about that.

"You take off and then pop up out of nowhere."

…Oh. "True."

"Well that's very nice of you," Daniel scoffed, "but that was your choice! Don't go blaming me for your choices." He did plenty of stuff he actually deserved to be blamed for, he didn't need extra.

While they bickered, Romelle had followed a soft flicker into a small, single-room hut. This one was completely cleaned out as well, down to the mattress on the bed. The moonlight spilling in the door was just enough for her to see a few dark stains in the floor… on some instinct, she knelt and touched one.

A ghostly woman appeared, and she gasped softly. "Hello?"

"Caution," the ghost whispered in a voice that flowed through her like a frigid stream. She swallowed hard and forged on; they still needed information.

"What happened here?"

"Drules attacked. Died there." The ghost gestured to the dark stains. Blood? "Knights returned… fought back. Drove away… Drules… gone."

Romelle's eyes widened. "The Drules are gone?" The ghost nodded, beginning to fade, as if exhausted from the exertion. "I… thank you." Pulling her jacket tighter, she watched the ghost vanish fully, then returned to the others.

They were still arguing. "Look, I'm blaming you for the ghosts and I don't care how irrational it is."

"It is fairly illogical, mechka."

"I know!"

"Fine!" Daniel groaned. "If you need to blame me for the ghosts do it, I'll live…" That hadn't been the best word choice, and he winced. "Uh, sorry, ghosties."

Vince snorted, then caught sight of Romelle, on the tail end of her conversation. "Fuzzmuffins, she's found another one."

"Wonderful."

It wasn't all bad. As she returned to them she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering a bit. The village still gave her an eerie feeling, but… "We should be relatively safe. The Arusians fought the Drules and drove them away from here. They're gone."

All three of the others gawked at her. "They what?"

"They fought off the Drules?"

"Wow…"

"That's what I was told."

"Wow."

"Good for them!"

Pidge looked around again. It made sense. Everything suddenly made sense… well, okay. The status of the village and the environs made more sense. Everything else, still an issue. "From the village? Or…" He looked to the sky.

The soft winds seemed to wrap around him for a moment, and he heard it. A voice. Unmistakably and undeniably a voice, sharp and fierce with a chiming lilt to it. It was so far away he could hardly hear it, so immediate he couldn't block it out in time.

"It is only beginning…"

No. He glanced back in the direction of the forest and forced it aside, locking his mind down with every slim fragment of psionic ability he possessed.

Mercifully, Romelle answered his question quickly, shaking her head. "I don't know that. Only that they fought and drove them away."

"Not an easy thing to do," Vince murmured, "even if it is only the village." The others nodded in agreement.

Then Daniel realized the problem. They'd had success in their scouting mission. They'd acquired actual important information. Which meant… "We should probably start heading back." He sighed heavily. "We're gonna have to snitch on ourselves."

…Oh. Yes. Yes they were. Vince nodded, and a pang of guilt ran through him. He really hadn't put up much of a fight about coming here. "Uh, sorry about all that, Daniel."

"'Bout what…?" The gunner blinked. The news had briefly knocked everything else from his mind. "Oh! No problem, dude."

Vince couldn't help a slight laugh. "Yeah, it's just ghosts, right? Come on, let's go snitch on ourselves."

"Let's call it a mission report," Pidge suggested. He vaguely felt the voice trying to get through again, but this time he was ready and brushed it aside.

"A report! Totally." Daniel shook his head in disgust, and groaned. "Can't believe I suggested that. I'm turning into a responsible person."

That drew a short laugh from Pidge and a snort from Vince. "I don't think there's any real danger of that."

"I hope you're right…"

As they left, Romelle turned back to the village and sighed. "May Kistrial watch over you," she whispered almost unconsciously… then abruptly realized what she'd just said. Kistrial… she looked at her gaive'llar, the sign of the goddess glinting on it.

It felt wrong, and yet… she'd asked Kistrial to protect her from Lotor, hadn't she? And here she was. Free from the Drules…

Kistrial protect us all, she thought with a small nod, and moved on.

*****

Coran squinted as the morning sun started to peek over the horizon, just slightly. He and his small team of scouts had started their mission as early as possible without it being pitch black outside. They walked as silently as they possible, not knowing when they might encounter their target, just knowing it might be any moment and they would need to be ready. The Princess seemed positive that the key to waking the lions was aboard the strange ship he'd seen. While Coran wasn’t one to question her about such things, especially when she was this certain, that didn’t mean the ship’s crew wouldn’t be hostile. He wasn’t one to take any unnecessary chances, either…

That thought had the old knight pulling his cane closer, craving a little security, which was moderately successful. It wasn't exactly stability he was getting from the cane; it was far more deadly than it looked. Coran was quite proud that he didn’t actually need the cane for walking, which was fortunate because they had been traveling a very long time in search of the alien ship.

They began moving more precisely and at a much slower pace as they started maneuvering through the thicker brush near the foothills. Though it made moving quietly much harder, Coran was soon grateful for the cover.

"Is that it?"

"Has to be it."

"Definitely not Drule, I've never seen anything like that."

They stopped entirely, keeping to the brush, watching for signs of movement. The ship was a little ways in front of them, in a large clearing. It was small for a spacecraft, dull silvery-black, with a pronounced engine section and stubby wingtips that poked out of armored sheaths on its side. It looked like the wings might extend when needed. Coran had hoped for at least a clue of who its occupants were, but he'd never seen a ship design like this either…

Well, so be it. He signaled his scouts to spread out and remain hidden. Storming the ship would be worse than foolish, and they had every advantage out here; they would wait until the crew revealed themselves before moving.

He hoped they weren’t waiting too long.