(From Ashes) Chapter 25

Pride: From Ashes
            Chapter 25
            Shadows of a Clue

Each victory over the Drules only seemed to increase the feeling of urgency hanging over the Castle of Lions. That seemed very unfair, or at least, it would've if fairness were a relevant concept. Pidge was pretty sure it wasn't, so the feeling of looming danger was just… irritating. Yes, that was the word.

He was trying to catch up on reading. Languages didn't come particularly easily to him—not as easy as math or martial arts, certainly—but he'd memorized the list of Arusian words and phrases. The problem was just producing them in a timely manner in the correct situation.

Languages were kind of like manners that way.

The lion book wasn't much easier. Reading via Green's psychic translation, or whatever the precise mechanism was, gave him a headache after a little while. But he was motivated… though many of the pages seemed to amount to "there were more pirates" or the occasional humanitarian mission, every so often there would be something major. And those reports were fascinating.

And then, as he finished reading a report on Voltron battling some sort of irradiated hive mind, Pidge read something that caused his thoughts to short-circuit completely.

"Okay, that's it." He was yelling down the hallway before his synapses quite recovered. "Listen everyone, we need to have a talk!"

In the room next to his, Hunk quietly marked his place in his own book and wondered if the ninja had gotten to the part he'd seen a few minutes ago—no, he wouldn't be the one yelling about that. Across the hall, Sven looked up reluctantly; he'd been rereading a passage several times now, just to be sure about what it said. Which, if he were correct, would also merit at least some excitement.

Lance had been thoroughly engrossed in his own book, even taking a few notes. Flamebearer's descriptions of battle were amazing. But he immediately jumped up as the shout echoed from the hallway. "Is that Pidge?"

"Sure sounded like him." Daniel was hanging out in his room again, listening to the highlights from the book. Or complaining about Red and distracting him from reading at all, of course.

"We'd better check it out."

"Ugh." The kid got up off the floor with some reluctance. "So much work."

"Yeah, well, it's the ninja, if he's shouting it has to be bad." And Flynn would kill me if I ignored it. It was getting easier to tell himself things like that; he wondered if it was because of the curl of warmth that surrounded him whenever it came up.

Storming to the doorway, Pidge saw confused faces starting to poke out of other rooms. Very confused—almost too much so, he didn't think he'd been unclear…

"Perhaps you should try it in a language they speak, cub?"

…Oh.

Keith was the first to brave speaking. "Is everything okay, Pidge?"

No. No it wasn't. "Meeting," he forced out, in English this time, pointing to their makeshift conference room. "Now."

"Ninja's calling meetings now? Oh god."

"Welp, I'm sufficiently scared."

Though he was pretty certain one of his eyebrows had gone up far enough to actually hit the ceiling, Keith shrugged and nodded. "Okay."

It wasn't only the team's attention that had been drawn by Pidge's yell. The rooms they'd been given were not far from the castle kitchens. Allura was there getting her morning supply of vehka brew, with Larmina checking in and sneaking a little cup for herself. At the noise from the corridor, the princess jumped up, mug in hand. "I think we'd better go see what's happening."

"Maybe they got attacked by space mice?"

Allura couldn't help a chuckle as they ran for it, and they arrived just as the last of the team—Romelle and Vince, both looking suitably concerned—filed into the unused room.

"Still not cool with this ninja calling meetings thing," Daniel muttered; Lance thwacked him lightly with Red's book.

"That might mean it's interesting."

Interesting might actually be worse. It was too early for this; he'd already been awake, but listening to Lance fanboy over his predecessor was a lot less work than… well, whatever the hell was about to happen. "I need coffee," he muttered on some long-forgotten reflex, then his eyes widened. "Oh, fuck. Does coffee even exist on this planet?"

"I could use some too," Keith admitted. Truthfully, he could've used some nearly every day that they'd been here, but adrenaline had sufficed under the circumstances. Still… Daniel just gave him a short nod. It was too early to even be appalled by the fact that they agreed on something.

He hadn't been the only one nodding agreement, either, and Allura tilted her head. "What is coffee?"

Daniel eyed her, hoping that was an offer of help and not just an idle question. "It's a wonderful little roasted bean that's brewed in hot water until it turns into a drink. It's kind of disgusting, but also sensational, because it's caffeinated."

Allura looked at him blankly, then turned to Hunk, who she understood as the team's expert on food. He just shrugged and nodded. The kid had covered it pretty well.

"Everything about that sentence confused me," Larmina said flatly.

"It's hot bean water that energizes you," Daniel simplified. He really wanted to make them understand, because he really wanted some damn coffee.

Looking at the mug she was holding, Allura nodded slowly. She had followed that, and while she didn't know of any beans… "We may have something similar." More of them than just Daniel immediately seemed interested. "Give us just a minute, we'd just prepared a batch." She motioned for Larmina to follow and they disappeared as quickly as they'd arrived.

The team looked after the two Arusians and exchanged confused looks. "Good sign?"

"What do you suppose are the chances we're actually about to get some kind of alien coffee?"

"I hope so, that would make this whole thing so much nicer."

"Right? That or a beer."

Though visibly annoyed, Pidge had quietly settled down in a corner to wait. The others were about to need all the alertness they could get. At the mention of beer, he looked up again and scowled. "If we're getting intoxicated I want in." Baltans couldn't even get drunk—not on alcohol at least, chocolate was another issue—but with the mood he was in right now, hells if he wouldn't make the attempt.

Lance stared at him. "Uh, alright, now I know something is really fucked up."

"Oh no."

"Pidge wanting intoxication cannot be a good start." Keith rubbed his eyes as Allura and Larmina returned with a large kettle-like pot and several more cups. "Let's not do that—Princess, what is this?"

"Vehka brew. It's made from leaves, not beans, but I think it may have the effect you're looking for." She distributed the cups, receiving thanks in both Common and Arusian; it made her smile a bit.

Daniel accepted his cup, took a gulp, and immediately perked up, giving the vehka brew a look of such adoration that his salalizards would've been jealous. "Okay, now we can have a ninja meeting."

Sipping from his own cup, Keith felt vaguely like he'd been hit by… well, not by lightning, he was more careful with that metaphor these days. But the Arusian brew was potent. Nodding his agreement, he turned to their still-agitated systems analyst. "Okay, Pidge. What do you have for us?"

Pidge had not taken a cup. He didn't need it right now. On Keith's word he jumped up and dramatically slammed Green's book down on the empty bed frame that masqueraded as their conference table. "This mission report," he flipped to the page and pointed, "is about fighting something warped by heavy radiation. And it specifically says the lion was checked for any lingering contamination UPON RETURN TO SHINOR."

The only reaction that got him was a bunch of confused looks; a few of the team seemed to be struggling to remember where they'd heard that name before. Not everyone was even doing that. Finally Lance offered, "I think my book mentioned Shinor once too. What's the big deal?"

Pidge gave an exasperated sigh, though he probably should've seen that coming. "Balto. Shinor is the native name of the planet known in Common English as Balto."

Now some jaws dropped. "What the fuck!"

"Balto?" Keith echoed, still not quite sure he was comprehending. "Returning to Balto after a mission?"

Pidge nodded. "The language in this book—I remember where I've seen it." Given context it was easy. Why hadn't he realized it before? But why in all three hells would he have? He'd seen very little of it in his life—and it had no business being here. "It's Chalgana, the Jackal Caste's language. Which makes no sense at all."

That wasn't all that made no sense. "Jackal Caste?" Hunk asked, saving Vince, who'd very much wanted to ask the same thing… but also very much didn't want to draw any attention to himself right now.

"It's historically the scientific caste. The language is only really used in scientific contexts anymore, and it's been that way for a very long time." He frowned, more thoughtful than upset for a moment. "You'd think being involved with a robotic superweapon would be more of a combat project, but—"

"—Wait, you're not from the scientific caste? Which one are you from? Is there engineering?"

Now it was Pidge's turn to stare blankly. "That's none of your—" Green didn't even need to growl at him before he cut himself off. "…Can we do this later, it's not the point."

Hunk supposed that was true, and nodded before taking a long gulp of vehka brew. He would not be letting him ninja out of that later, but they did have bigger concerns right now.

Though Romelle knew effectively nothing about Balto, except that it was Pidge's homeworld, one part of what he was saying rang true. "It's like I told you. My people always said Voltron didn't belong here."

"I don't think it's that simple." Sven frowned. "My book mentions Blue returning to her den on Arus multiple times. I think she, at least, must have belonged here." He'd never found those mentions odd while reading. Now he was realizing what he'd missed. "It never mentions any of the other lions returning with her. I didn't think anything of it, but…"

Lance was skimming through his book, searching for the mention of Shinor. It was as casual as he'd remembered. "Here. 'We spent a few days on Shinor to recover'. Seems like it wasn't an odd thing." Flamebearer tended to describe odd things in much more detail. Thinking about it more, he remembered reading about other locations. They hadn't been his focus, but one had definitely come up more than others… "Flamebearer talks about a place called Darkor a lot. I've never heard of it, but there are a lot of mentions of Red being there."

Pidge perked up a little. "I think my book has mentioned Darkor a couple of times. And Arus once."

Taking a long breath, Keith considered what he'd been reading in his own book. In some ways it might be the least surprising news they'd had, but even so… it felt like finally saying it out loud was important. "My book has made it pretty clear that Black Lion was based on Altea."

Immediately Vince's head whipped around towards him; just as immediately he tried to pretend otherwise. What did he care about Altea anymore? It was old news, the old mission, wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

Several of the others had looked at him sharply too, but it quickly gave way to a round of nods. Altea was a puzzle piece they'd known about, finally put into place. The rest of this, well…

"Mine's still mostly talked about Ariel." Hunk shrugged. "Totally not a mermaid."

Allura had been listening carefully as she finished her own vehka brew, and it was hard to fully grasp what she was hearing. "Then the lions come from five entirely different planets?" Perhaps they should have anticipated as much, after the discovery of the books being in different languages. But there was suspicion, and there was confirmation. This seemed to be the latter…

"It's the only way this makes sense," Pidge agreed. Though he wasn't really confident in his own words, because too much still didn't make sense.

The Arusians exchanged glances; Larmina shook her head slightly. Why would lions from different planets be connected to our Usurper Gods? Auntie was clearly wondering something similar. But asking it out loud felt likely to involve more annoyance than answers, so she kept it to herself.

Draining his cup, Hunk looked up from where he was sitting on the floor and frowned. Each lion being from a different planet was simple enough, no matter how many other questions it raised. But… "Mine also has a lot to say about people that aren't any of these planets, and uh, since we're doin' this, want me to make the other arm flip out too?"

That got him a very blank look from Daniel. What the fuck does that—

"Uh, why would I flip out?" Lance asked, not real sure he was onboard with this idea.

—Oh right. He snorted; this should be good. "Sure."

Keith was also not sure he was really onboard with that, but it also sounded like the information might be important. "What else do you have, Hunk?" He might have looked a little bit nervous as he asked.

Which wasn't wrong. "My book brings up havin' backup every so often. A lot of times it's local forces, but they have some friends who show up a lot too—some dude named Solextha Leth is there a ton—but uh," he gave a bit of a preemptive wince, "the one that might be important is, there's an entry where they mention support from the Galra fleet."

Daniel immediately regretted thinking this could be good. "Oh no."

"Komora sa kye?"

"Support? From their fleet?" The idea that the Galra had once been going around with an entire fleet, when the Alliance had never encountered anything more than single ships, was almost as much of a surprise as the idea that they'd been supporting Voltron.

Almost.

Lance was silent, gritting his teeth and not flipping out. "No." Definitely not flipping out. "NO." Absolutely not flipping—"Fucking WHAT?!" Romelle edged away from him, partially hiding behind Sven. "That makes no sense, those bastards wouldn't help anyone! They just destroy!" With a snarl of fury he threw his cup at the nearest wall, where it shattered.

Okay, maybe he was flipping out a little bit. Shit.

Larmina had whirled around and would absolutely have smacked him, but there were too many people in the way. Should've brought her staff. "Really?!"

"Lance!" Keith snapped at the same time, shooting him his best command glare. "Calm down. Sorry, Princess…"

The princess was staring at Lance with a spooked expression, but it wasn't from his outburst. Not exactly. She'd seen this before from him, though admittedly on a less drastic level, and his reactions were making her understand slightly better—perhaps—why Romelle flinched whenever these Galra were mentioned. Their threat was mysterious, and that made it somehow worse.

Larmina looked slightly irritated when she didn't scold him.

Also irritated was Daniel, who used to be freaked out by this kind of display. Not anymore. "What the fuck? You just wasted perfectly good not-coffee caffeine. And that cup. Arus can't have that many cups, dude."

That thought had occurred to Lance too; a lot of the anger had collapsed in on itself when the cup hit the wall, and he deflated a little. "I'm sorry about the cup."

That was not the greatest of Allura's worries right now, but she nodded her acceptance. "I'm sure there is good reason for your anger."

"There's a fucking good reason… but I'm still sorry. About the cup."

The princess nodded again, but Daniel wasn't done. "Dude, you can't just keep throwing a tantrum every time their name—"

"—A TANTRUM?!" Lance was immediately seeing red again. Metaphorically. Not actual glowy-eyed red. The lions really did mess with some expressions, and in fact, his lion had an opinion on the situation.

"Firestriker… your grief is loud."

It was, at that. Taking a deep breath, Lance made a valiant attempt to count to ten to calm himself down. He only got to five, and it wasn't even because the kid interrupted him. Though he did.

"Oh my god, I'm giving you a lecture? Yes, a tantrum!" Daniel crossed his arms. "You threw a cup against a wall. If I did that shit I'd never hear the end of it."

Keith nearly choked on his vehka brew, and ended up coughing too much to ask what he was thinking. How did we get so far off the rails so early? He supposed Hunk had warned them.

"Little dude, he's gonna throw you at the wall." Hunk apparently needed to issue more warnings. "Pit boss got himself punched like that."

Pidge and Vince blinked, Romelle and the Arusians exchanged worried glances, and Daniel's eyes widened. "You punched Flynn?" And the dude gave him lectures on bad behavior?

"Yeah, well… it felt warranted at the time." Oh yeah, that was convincing. "And he got it! After I explained."

He was the only one who ever got it…

…But then, he'd been the only one to really force Lance to explain it, hadn't he? Usually it was just a lecture on keeping himself under control and getting back in the air, and it sure as fuck wasn't information Lance had been willingly volunteering. Maybe if he tried something other than punching people and throwing innocent cups around… he knew what he had to do, even before Daniel voiced the question that most of the room was clearly wondering.

"Explained what?"

Staring at the kid for a long moment, Lance tried that counting thing again. He still only got to five, but maybe it was good enough. Looking around at the others, he nodded. They were a Pride…

"The Galra killed my family and destroyed my home," he said quietly, and felt a hint of approval as Red's comforting warmth curled around him.

Everyone—even Keith, who'd known that, but certainly never heard Lance say it—froze. Even Larmina was mostly regretting her previous desire to smack him. Romelle had her hands over her mouth; it was the sort of thing her people had known and feared, but against humans? Why?

A very good reason. Allura looked at the Red Lion pilot and reached out to touch his hand, nodding with a mix of understanding and sympathy. She couldn't fault him for his anger at all.

Daniel found his voice first, naturally. "Oh. Okay. I take back my lecture then." He frowned into his own cup. "Except the part about wasting the not-coffee, that was still uncalled for, and someone please make me stop talking because fuck I suck at this." Red, make with the warmth, 'cause I'm really bad at comforting.

He'd just assumed the lion was there to hear him, and he hadn't been wrong; a low purr answered immediately. "He knows I'm here."

Hunk decided he could at least help Daniel shut up, if that was what he wanted. "Catch, little dude!" He tossed his own empty cup at the gunner; the way he was sitting, if he missed the catch it would just end up in his lap. He wouldn't have risked breaking another one. But Daniel did catch it, and after a moment's thought poured half his remaining not-coffee into it and handed it to Lance.

Snort. "Gonna trust me with this one?"

"Well, I figure every tantrum you throw is a get out of trouble card for me." He smirked. "So destroy it all you want."

"Please don't," Keith said wearily.

Still not quite able to look at anyone, Lance found himself half smiling. Somehow, the kid managed to do that… he reached over and ruffled his hair, and didn't even get a protest.

Then he sighed and decided it was time to get back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, support is not in the Galra's vocabulary."

It was a convincing case. Pidge spoke up again, quietly. "Romelle, you said Voltron was hidden specifically from the Galra, kir sa tye?"

She lowered her hands and swallowed, nodding. "Yes. My people believed it was just inviting their wrath when they found out, which is why they felt it necessary to leave Arus. I don't really know more than that."

That fit with what they knew. More pieces falling into place. "The Alliance sent us to search for Voltron because they knew the Galra were searching for it… and destroyed much of what they encountered in the process." He nodded to Lance, unsure what else to say and trusting he didn't really need to; Lance returned the nod and gripped his cup a little too tight. "And that Vex-Cha archivist on Onygrine mentioned them talking about it sometimes. All of this points to a prior relationship." He shrugged. "Maybe they decided they'd rather control Voltron than support it."

"That's very possible," Sven agreed. A giant robot made out of rainbow cats would have to have drawn some attention while it was active; of course it might've had allies. And he knew a little something about how messy political alliances could end up.

"Wanted to take it for themselves?" Lance was processing a little better now, and snorted. "Sounds like them."

Keith nodded slowly. It did make a lot of sense. "It raises the question why they would think they should control it."

"Because they could?" Lance scoffed. Keeping calm was still a bit of a struggle, but he was pretty sure nobody was going to question his hostility anymore.

In a sense, he may not even have been wrong. "Why wouldn't they want control of it?" Sven pointed out. "It's a magical robot with insane powers."

…He had a point. Though Larmina looked away and rolled her eyes; having that magical robot with insane powers had helped Arus so much. Better late than never, sure, but she wasn't going to stop being irritated by all the talking up how great it was any time soon.

What she thought was a purr went through the back of her mind. It didn't improve her mood.

"And the Drules might want the same thing now, based on what Admiral Yurak said during that… talk." Keith frowned thoughtfully. "Though he seemed willing enough to try to just destroy the lions when we refused."

"Mighta just been worth a try, yeah?" Hunk suggested. "I mean, would you wanna fight us if you were him?"

He also had a pretty good point.

"It's possible." Keith steepled his fingers in front of his chin, trying to sort out what they'd learned. "So we have what seems to be confirmation that the lions came from five different planets. And had other allies—possibly the Galra, and whoever else it was Hunk mentioned?"

"Solextha Leth," the big engineer said helpfully.

Ah, yes. Why wouldn't he have been able to remember that name?

"There are mentions of allies in my book too. Someone named Malaya Kala is mentioned a lot, usually going into battle with them." Lance sighed heavily. "Maybe the purple pricks did go from ally to enemy."

"I've seen mentions of allied forces, but my book tends to give force counts rather than where they're from." Pidge shook his head. "So we have Balto, Arus, Altea…"

"Ariel."

"And Darkor."

"Right." It wasn't adding up, as usual. He closed his eyes, envisioning the map in his mind. Just knowing where Arus and Balto were in relation to each other, basing the lions on separate planets in the first place seemed extremely impractical. Never mind whatever had happened since.

"I see we have reached the point where you aren't even attempting to ask me." Green somehow sounded amused and insulted at the same time.

The thought had occurred to him. Can you tell me anything we don't already know?

"The locations were only an aspect. There was something more…"

Pidge considered that, then turned to Allura. One thing they could determine for sure. "Princess, does Arus have any contact with any of these other planets?"

Allura shook her head. She'd only even heard of Balto and Altea from the team, and never the other two. "Not that I know of."

"Maybe Voltron did have to be hidden from the Galra. But why wouldn't the planets involved have kept in touch?" Frown. "…And why hide it here? No offense, but my people have specialized in stealth for about fifty thousand years."

"Oh look," Hunk said in an exaggeratedly cheerful tone. "More questions!"

"We never find answers without more questions," Lance muttered.

"Here's another," Sven said, to a general round of grimaces. "Why hide it at all? Why couldn't Voltron just defeat the Galra, if they were a threat?"

"To protect it?" It was the first time Vince had braved speaking; he couldn't even quite look at Sven, though it was that same unease that made it Sven he tried to answer. He didn't want anyone to notice. But as soon as he blurted it out he regretted it. "Though why would Voltron need protecting, huh." That's stupid, Vince.

Thankfully, Sven didn't seem to notice—or at least think much of—his avoidance of actually looking at him. And he didn't think it had been a stupid comment either; it was correct. "Exactly. From what I've read Voltron is usually the one doing the protecting. So why not fight?"

It was an excellent question. What they'd seen of the Galra so far was formidable, no doubt, but it wasn't 'competing with magic robot lions' formidable. And they wouldn't be so eager to control it if they had more powerful forces, would they? The group exchanged looks—worry, confusion, concern, and perhaps a little bit of annoyance at more. Freaking. Questions.

But at least a few answers were starting to take shape.

"So Voltron as a whole didn't belong on Arus, but it was connected. And the Galra had close contact of some sort. That's something. Maybe reading further will give us more information on what happened between them." Keith leaned forward. "In the meantime, what else do we have?"

He'd actually had something to bring up himself, but Sven had been waiting for that opening and spoke up before his commander could get the next sentence out. "I have something incredible."

Everyone turned to him, and Keith decided they couldn't pass up that kind of endorsement. "Alright, let's hear it."

"One of Blue's pilots—I forget the name, something with River in it," he could only keep so many water-related names straight, "wrote an entry about Voltron battling a space beast that had attacked an inhabited planet. The monster had destroyed one of the planet's two sentient races, and once Voltron defeated it they left a waypoint behind on the destroyed continent."

That sounded familiar. Very familiar. Hunk's head snapped up, Lance made a face, and Keith took a few moments to regain his composure. "Sorthal?"

"It sounds a lot like Sorthal to me. That murder temple—we knew it was related somehow—"

"—Murder temple?" Larmina interrupted. That sounded way more interesting than more unanswered lion questions. Allura gave him a curious look too. She wasn't sure it sounded more interesting, but interesting? Yes.

Sven absolutely didn't want to get distracted. "Abandoned temple, five colors, elemental death traps," he explained, which wasn't much of an explanation but it would have to do. "It must have been the waypoint left by the previous, well, Voltron team."

"Voltron Force," Pidge offered. "They seem to have called themselves the Voltron Force." That name had started coming up not too long into his book, and by now was usually in the headers of the reports.

That sounded vaguely familiar, and he nodded. "Thank you." He was much too excited to remember any names, apparently. "But the implications of this are amazing."

Hunk thought he liked the name Voltron Force; he did not like the murder temple. Which… "Wait, that was a 'waypoint'? Hell of a waypoint."

"Seriously." Lance awkwardly rubbed the scars on his arms. They never had quite faded, like he needed the reminder. He tried to change the subject. "Voltron Force, huh?"

"Listen." Sven was not going to let the subject be changed, either, and cleared his throat. "The entry said they received a report about the situation and were there within days, do you all understand what that means?"

Their navigator was so giddy by this point it was a wonder they even understood what he was saying, let alone what he meant. But the point had somehow gotten across.

"Within… days?"

"Was Blue on Arus when they heard about it? Because wow."

"And Balto is even further from there than Arus. A lot further."

Vince felt like his jaw had outright unhinged, and even his desire to avoid attention seemed to pale in comparison to that news. "That would mean…"

None of this meant anything to the Arusians—nor Romelle, really. She knew what Sorthal was, but not where. But Sven was all too happy to explain it… though whether he was actually doing so for their benefit, or was just on a roll, was impossible to say.

"Right. Arus and Balto are completely across known space from Sorthal. With optimal routing and conditions that's a trip that would have taken the Bolt well over a month. The lions, or Voltron, did it in days."

"…Whoa."

"And this all applies to Terina, also! They're just as far away as Sorthal, and they implied they hadn't been under attack for very long before the lions arrived."

Hunk gave a low whistle. "That ain't possible, is it? Like, I know that's never stopped the lions before but that's not possible."

"It is not beyond your grasp, Earthwarder."

Asking for elaboration on that comment felt like it might get him another talk about metaphysics being part of quantum physics, so he decided to just file it away for later in the 'lion things that don't make sense' column. Which was already a pretty big column.

"The Alliance has never even heard of anything that can move that fast," Pidge said quietly. "Nothing they're putting in their superluminal theory classes, anyway. Except for subspace comms, and I don't really think quantum bridging is relevant here." Hyperspace was in fact one of the fastest known methods of faster-than-light travel; it was why the Alliance used it as their standard, despite all of its complications.

Sven nodded, eyes shining—mostly metaphorically, though they did flicker blue for a moment. "It shouldn't be possible, but sentient robots with mind reading capabilities and magical ties to the elements shouldn't be possible either." He was pretty sure Blue chuckled at that. That or huffed, but he preferred to think positively. "The lions' FTL method must be extraordinary."

"That's incredible," Keith murmured, shaking his head.

"I mean, they are pretty extraordinary already," Lance pointed out. "I don't get all the science but look at them."

Vince thought so too, and realized he still really wanted to study the lions. Groaning, he immediately attempted to make his brain seem as unreceptive as possible, just in case a certain creepy voice decided to get ideas. Or a ghost, for that matter. As nice as it had been to see him again, this didn't seem like a good time…

Yellow Lion's gravelly purr washed over him, and he groaned again. NOPE.

Again Daniel decided to just assume Red was listening. He wasn't sure he liked being right about that, but it was useful for the moment. Bro, how fast are you?

"Am I 'bro'?"

…Oh hell no. It's a… cultural thing.

"Is it. Is 'fuck' also cultural?"

Again with the fucking! "I do not want to explain fuck to you—" Suddenly everyone was staring at him, and he realized he'd spoken out loud. Look what you did!

The lion chuckled. "To answer your question, cub, I believe I am quite fast." Then his presence retreated a bit, leaving him to deal with all the smirks he'd just invited.

Lance looked like he knew exactly what had just happened, so Daniel decided to head this off quickly. "Would you please define the word 'fuck' to your lion, please?"

"Please don't," Keith countered. "Especially not in present company."

Allura blushed at that, but Larmina perked up. "No, explain it, I want to hear." Grin. "Sven says it's very rude."

"Only when it's used to be rude, it's got like a billion definitions… and I'm not Jace, he probably had a swear dictionary but I don't."

Sven snorted. "He probably did." He'd even been planning to write a manifesto on it, after all…

Now Vince was very pointedly not looking at him. Nor was Daniel, who lowered his eyes and wondered when the guilt would go away… he felt Red's warmth and tried a weak smile.

Thanks.

Red purred. He wasn't so bad.

Keith rubbed his forehead; the kind of tiredness he was feeling now was not the kind Arusian caffeine brew could help with. "Can we focus? On something that isn't profanity?"

His team responded with a mix of grumbles and laughs, but Larmina tilted her head. She'd taken one key understanding away from that discussion, and it didn't really have much to do with superlional theory or whatever. "So the Great Lions used to just… flew around randomly saving people?"

She was not who Keith had expected an answer from, and he startled a little. Then he nodded slowly. "It seems like that, Lady Larmina."

That… actually did sound like something Arus would help do. She wrinkled her nose, considered the implications, and heroically refrained from calling the offworlder commander nasty names in return for the 'Lady'.

"We had a purpose," Green Lion murmured in her mind. "It was not random, but our nature."

Their nature? Larmina mentally grumbled something back about how much that nature had helped Arus; she didn't put a lot into it. The lion knew perfectly well how she felt about this, she would just make herself mad again.

"So they have traveled to places so far away…" Allura looked into her long-empty vehka mug, wondering. Were the old tales of things that had occurred on Arus, or other worlds entirely? What distances must they have traveled? And why would so much have been forgotten—seemingly on more worlds than Arus alone? "If this is true, we were part of something much greater than the tales seem to indicate."

A few of the others nodded; the story definitely felt like it had gotten bigger, somehow.

Black Lion purred. "We will find the answers, Daughter of Storms."

Pidge caught her eye and gave her what he hoped was a passably sympathetic look. The lions not all being from Arus was obviously throwing her pretty badly, and he could kind of understand it. Because a lion being from Balto was sure as the hells throwing him.

Romelle's thoughts had drifted to her own people. The legends they'd carried with them as they fled to the unknown stars. But had they been so unknown? If the lions had ventured so far, what might the Arus of the past, the House of Lachesis, have known of their destination?

"Before we slept, we traveled many stars," Blue confirmed. "But not as explorers… I feel we went where we were needed."

Where they were needed… maybe, she mused, they were where they belonged at this moment.

Looking around, Keith gave it another few beats in case anyone had anything else to raise. Then he brought up his own question. "So does everyone else's book seem to include two pilots at the same time? Pidge, I know you said yours did."

Pidge nodded. "I've gotten through a few sets of pilots, and they always seem to be that. Sets. They tend to alternate their reports."

"Yes, I've noticed that too," Sven agreed. "Mine don't alternate, but there are clearly two at any time."

Lance nodded. "I've uh, not gotten past the first pilot yet." A combination of Flamebearer's detailed combat descriptions and Daniel's hanging out in his room had seen to that. "But someone else does make an entry here and there."

"Mine's like that," Hunk agreed, "mostly one person writes. But there's always another who'll occasionally add notes. Usually if they think the main person missed somethin'."

"Yeah, it seems to be that way for mine, too." Keith looked around. He knew this was a subject they'd poked at a bit, especially Daniel with his salalizards. But it felt like they might need to do more than just poke, and soon.

It was Daniel who'd looked up most sharply while those with books made their reports, and now his eyes narrowed. Two pilots?! How does that work? The lions seemed to fly just fine with one. "Do any of these second pilots explain their role?" He didn't even try to sound casual.

Keith shook his head. "I'm not clear on what they do, but it does seem like they're… important, crucial somehow."

The gunner's eyes narrowed further. "You sound like Red, and I'm adding that to the list of things about you that irritate me."

Hunk couldn't help a snicker, though it wasn't as if he had much more help to offer. "The one who does less writing in mine seems to hang with Solextha Leth a lot. They don't explain a lot else." It was odd, actually; through several sets of pilots that name remained constant. He wondered if it was some Ariel-ish armada or something… Yellow gave a growl that did not sound supportive of the theory, and he shrugged.

He could still swear he'd heard of that planet before.

"My second one doesn't say much." Lance gave the kid a sympathetic look. "Just short sentences and talk about how they're honored to fight for the Defender. Flamebearer seems to be the real writer of the bunch."

"There's very little in mine about how anything was done, just what happened." Which, knowing what he knew now, Pidge found completely predictable. Logic. Facts. Data. That was how Shinori did things.

Sven shrugged. "My second pilot mostly seems to annoy the first."

Shaking his head—none of this helped him—Daniel still couldn't help a little smirk at that last one. It was not piloting, and it certainly didn't require any freaky magic bullshit, but it was a skillset he possessed.

"Answers will come."

When? You mean if I bond?

"Hmm… it is a process."

Daniel mentally flipped him off, then glowered in Lance's direction. "Ou—YOUR lion is being annoying." Oh, fuck.

Lance arched an eyebrow and smirked mightily. "I really can't control him, kid."

"I'm adding that to the list of why you irritate me."

Oh, now that was something he'd love to see. "That's got to be a fucking long list by now."

"Yeah, but not as long as Keith's."

Keith sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He did not want to see that list.

Waiting quietly and respectfully for the banter to be finished, Romelle shivered a little as she looked around the room. What Daniel was saying was pretty unambiguous, even if he hadn't stated it directly. And what that meant… "So is all of… Team No Voices now hearing voices?"

"Yeah," Daniel snorted, "it's a blast."

"NOPE," Vince said at the same time; what it lacked in conviction it made up for in volume. Even Hunk arched a doubtful eyebrow when he wasn't looking.

He's totally hearin' you, yeah?

"Yep."

Daniel was not hiding the doubt. "I'm too irritated to comment on you and your denial, but just know that if I didn't have my own lion problems we would be discussing how unconvincing that was."

Glaring back, Vince decided there was nothing he could actually say to counter that. Because saying anything would lead to admitting things, and he wanted nothing to do with admitting things, or with the back seat of that very creepy…

"What are you hiding from?"

He plastered on a nope face that was at least twice as nopey as usual, he thought, and willed the lion to leave him alone.

Romelle gave a sigh that might have been relieved; even she wasn't quite certain. "At least I'm not the only one." The others' irritation and denial aside, it was good to not be alone.

Though, she supposed as she glanced over at Sven, she wouldn't have been wholly alone regardless.

Larmina had started out not liking where this discussion was going, and steadily grew to like it even less with every word. If she had to cooperate with the lion in her forest, fine. That was as far as this was going to go! They had their offworlders, she didn't want any part of it.

The obvious conclusion wasn't escaping Pidge, either. Green, you are planning something I'm not going to like, aren't you.

Green just purred at both of them, and neither was too pleased with that answer.

Looking around, Lance realized the problem with this setup. Daniel, Romelle, and Vince. That's only three back seats filled. He looked at Allura, and then Larmina. The lions said they hadn't been able to bond to Arusians, yet the two seemed so close to all of this…

Allura was staring contemplatively into her mug, but Larmina noticed his gaze on her. So did Pidge, and they both spoke at the same time.

"I'm not involved."

"She's not involved."

"…Uh huh." Nobody but Vince—who might've had some ulterior motives—looked remotely convinced by that.

Despite all his best efforts, Keith was getting a headache. How many new people were talking to lions now? When was anyone going to tell him about any of this? And for that matter—

"I'm still wondering who's hearing Black Lion." Daniel had pretty much taken the reins of what he supposed was now Team New Voices, and he was running with them, thanks very much. Vince and Larmina were obviously involved no matter what they said, and Romelle had as good as confirmed she was hearing Blue. That left Black and his demonic gryphon familiars as the only question mark. "Keith, you might get a random stranger in your back seat."

—There was his last question. He sighed as Black purred. "Time will tell, won't it?"

Lance eyed him. "That sounded super lion-y, dude." Daniel was right, Keith did sound like Red sometimes.

Allura finally looked up from her mug. Her mind was racing. I wonder… who spoke to the Black Lion? Well, she knew of one person. And once again she found herself entertaining an impossible thought… one she didn't feel comfortable even suggesting without knowing more.

This time she was going to find out more.

"So what do we do with any of this information?" Pidge asked finally, sounding a little resigned. "I have a lot of questions for my people that I promise nobody would be willing to answer, even if we had the chance to ask them." He wasn't even touching this back seat nonsense.

"Remember it and wait for more of the answers to reveal themselves?" Sven suggested with a shrug. He was not intending to wait to interrogate Blue on her FTL systems, but he doubted she would give him any answers.

Oh for fuck's sake. Lance gave him a look. "You sound even more lion-y."

Shrug. "I'm easily corruptible."

That earned him a wink; of course Lance wasn't going to let that one go by. "Are you now?"

One of the navigator's eyebrows went up. "Don't start something we both know you won't finish."

Smirk. "Sure about that, Viking?"

Sven smirked right back. "Quite."

Lance burst into laughter, then shook his head. "But really, all of you are clearly spending too much time with your lions."

"We don't exactly have a choice," Sven pointed out. Blue purred rather loudly in his head; he assumed it was agreement.

"True, but the vaguary is getting out of hand."

"If it weren't for vague answers we'd have no answers at all," Pidge protested. Infuriating answers were still better than nothing.

Hunk dramatically cleared his throat. "The Earth is patient!"

Almost everyone—not including Vince, but including Yellow himself—burst into snickers at that.

*****

The team had exchanged a few more minor anecdotes from the books, but that was pretty much all before dispersing. What was left was to wait for a lot of answers, and search for at least a few… Allura waited as the others started filing out of the room, and tugged on Keith's elbow before he could follow.

"May I speak with you privately once the others have gone?"

He startled, but recovered quickly and nodded. "Um, of course, Princess." The request made him slightly nervous; a lot of things could have gone wrong that might require a one on one discussion. But he steeled himself and nodded as the last of the team departed. "What can I help you with?"

…A good question. Allura fussed a little with her sleeves, trying to decide how to even broach the several topics on her mind. She decided to start on general terms. "Hearing about the Great Lions' history… it's a lot to take in."

Immediately Keith felt somewhat relieved; this did not seem like a matter of military urgency. Not that it wasn't important. Black's reminder from their first launch was still in the back of his mind. She's known the lions as legends her entire life.

Unspoken had been the fact that she'd known them as Arusian legends.

"I can imagine," he said, hopefully more gently than awkwardly, "given what you knew before."

She nodded. "This world you've mentioned, Altea… is truly Black's home?"

"It seems like it." He wasn't sure he wanted to say anything more definitive, but Black was purring, which he took as encouragement. "When we were first sent out, we were searching for Altea. It was the only name the Alliance had as a reference point for where to find Voltron. But we searched all over the Interior Expanse and only ever found the slightest hints of its existence."

Allura took a moment to wonder at that. They'd chased rumors through the stars, while even the planet that held what they were searching for had few answers. Which of them even had the more accurate information now? Though one thing was clear enough; they had no more expected this latest revelation than she had.

"It would seem some agreement was in place long ago." She closed her eyes. An agreement with places Arus no longer remembers… had they broken some ancient pact by returning the lions to the sky? Yet they'd had no choice but to do so. "But I know nothing of such, or if it might still be in place somehow. I can't help but worry that the lions… that Voltron might be called away before matters on Arus are settled."

Oh. Keith looked at the floor, then back up at her. His first thought was that Voltron would be going nowhere without the cooperation of its pilots. His second was that Altea, at least, didn't seem in any position to object anyway. "I don't think that will be the case." His eyes glowed briefly. "We made a promise, Princess. And even if we had no say in it, I don't think the lions would be willing to go anywhere while your planet is still in trouble."

With a slightly nervous smile, Allura nodded and breathed deeply. She felt a little silly, needing such reassurance, but at the same time—how could she feel otherwise? "I'm sorry for asking so often, but I'm sure you can understand…"

As he nodded, she heard Black Lion's comforting growl in her mind. "He speaks the truth, Daughter of Storms. This planet has protected us for a very long time, even if the circumstances are unclear. We could not repay you for that protection by abandoning you."

That did lift a weight from her shoulders—not that she didn't trust Keith's word, but with so many unknowns, hearing it from Black himself was the most comforting. "Thank you, Great Lion of Storms," she murmured with a soft smile.

Keith's head snapped up. "Wait, what?"

Allura blinked; had she said something wrong? "I'm sorry to keep making sure of your help?" She felt like she'd fumbled the words a little, but—

"No, not that." Keith really did understand that impulse; it was nothing to apologize for. "You…" We knew she spoke to a lion, or lions. That had been made clear to them from pretty much day one. And Hunk said Yellow didn't speak to her. It had seemed so natural, after the initial shock. Of course the princess who'd welcomed and guided them, who'd told them of the ancient Arusian tales, would have some contact with the lions. Nothing that needed questioning. But in light of the discussion they'd just had…

He'd gotten lost in his thoughts briefly, and Allura took a step closer. "Keith?"

Shaking it off, he stared at her for a moment longer. "You speak to Black Lion?"

Oh! She grinned a little. "Yes." Not quite how she'd planned to raise that topic, but she wasn't sure how she had planned to raise it. This worked nicely. "Before you and your team arrived, I heard his voice and his attempts to awaken."

Before? Keith stared at her, somewhere between puzzled and outright stunned. "The lions… they keep saying something went wrong. That they couldn't call any Arusians to bond to them. But you've been talking to him since even before we arrived?"

"Yes, but… there was nothing I could do but hear his voice." She lowered her eyes. "The pendant that held his key, and his book… I would only feel pain if I tried to open them." Rubbing her cheeks and wincing at the memory, she went on. "It began with something my father was able to do. Just before…" Somehow, she couldn't quite bring herself to say before he died. The reminder of what it had cost would never come easily. "…Before he could tell me."

Grimacing, Keith ran a hand through his hair, as if he could straighten out his thoughts by doing so. "That's… strange, that you could even hear him." He didn't want to think about what else that might mean. Would a complete stranger be better or worse than—no, he was absolutely not going to go there unless he had to.

"I agree, honestly." Allura tapped her chin thoughtfully. "But now there are others hearing the lions also, and the books spoke of two pilots? Maybe as they get stronger, they could be calling for possible backup, in case it's needed?"

…Possible backup. She might not be wrong about that, actually, but not the way she thought she was suggesting. He ran through the conversation earlier; nobody had said it outright, had they? The pilots all knew. Which ironically left the princess, who'd been speaking to a lion before any of them, knowing the least about the situation.

Which certainly should not continue. "It's not about backup, exactly. There's…" He shook his head. "The lions have a second seat. We don't really know any more about their purpose or how the two pilots interact, except for what you just heard. But it seems safe to assume that's why the others have started to hear them."

Allura's eyes widened. "Two seats?"

Nod. "Yes."

In some ways, that was even more puzzling. In others… "The fragmented tale spoke in plural form," she murmured. "It makes more sense now."

Keith couldn't help what came out of his mouth at that. "Making more sense, that's a first." Black gave a surprisingly contented purr, and he exhaled. "…The lions have forgotten a lot, as have your people. Maybe this is a start to bringing some of it back."

"Maybe." Allura felt a bit of a pang. At the fact that the one surviving fragment of that tale was damaged, and the fact that so much more may have been lost forever. "That tale could have offered so much if it were complete. But I should look over what I do have. Knowing what we know now, with so much more to the lions, there may be more heavily coded references. Double speak and other such things that could fill the gaps."

She decided not to bring up the Usurpers just now. It was only a theory, a much slimmer thread than what the books had provided. And they surely had enough to concern them right now as it was.

"Yes," Black growled softly to her. "Much was lost that may yet be salvaged. But many sacrifices were also made, and those of our Pride must be willing to make more, if called upon."

Closing her eyes, Allura thought back to their last conversation. And I stand by what I've said. I will do whatever I can to free my people.

"We will keep this planet safe, Daughter of Arus. This I promise, but I cannot promise we will defend it alone. It is our calling to protect those who need it. Would you help those of other worlds who are in need?"

The question struck hard; she hadn't considered that. That the lions protecting Arus or carrying out tasks elsewhere might not be mutually exclusive. My first duty must be to my people. But she thought of the others. The team who had pledged themselves to a world that wasn't theirs. Lance and his own lost home. All those the Drules must have conquered before. Nobody else should have to go through what Arus had… she nodded slowly. If I can be of help to such people, I could hardly refuse.

The Great Lion's purr rumbled softly through them both, and Keith tore his eyes away from the princess' thoughtful expression to express a thought of his own. You seem very content.

"You are not wrong, Stormsoul. The Daughter of Storms has a greater role yet to play."

Daughter of Storms? He felt a trickle of static running down his spine, and returned his attention to Allura as she looked up. And suddenly he had the overwhelming feeling that something big was going to change, and soon. Something… he wasn't quite sure how he felt about it, but was sure he was wholly unprepared.

Then again, what else was new around here?

We'll do what we've always done. Keep moving forward, somehow. "Is there anything else I can do to help right now?"

She shook her head. "No, but I thank you for your time, and your assurances. And I do want to know what more you learn about the lions. But for the moment, I have some other tasks to complete before the morning is over."

…Was the morning already over? Their discussions had run rather long, but she was pretty sure she still had some time.

"Of course, Princess." Keith bowed his head as she turned, then watched her disappear down the corridor. And slowly, he sank back into the empty bed frame, the full implications starting to set in. Princess. Surely he was misinterpreting Black's statements. Surely they wouldn't risk, she wouldn't risk…

Kuso…

No, he didn't know how to feel about this at all.

*****

Lotor had been summoned to his father's throne the moment he set foot back on Korrinoth. Literally the moment; a steward had been waiting on the shuttle's boarding ramp.

After a month-long diplomatic tour of the most boring planets in the kingdom, even getting lectured by his father felt almost attractive. And no doubt he would be getting lectured; the king had surely heard about the incident on Galkru.

They'd had a traditional dueling chain to greet him, was he supposed to not participate?

It was the only enjoyment he'd had all month. Which had, of course, been the point. Lotor felt he had been quite sufficiently punished for the Polluxian debacle, and with any luck, the lecture he was about to receive would finally be the end of it.

All of his assumptions unraveled as he entered the throne room. It was nearly empty; the usual servants and courtiers had been cleared. Zarkon was sitting on his throne, and at the foot of the dais stood two cloaked and hooded figures. Both turned to him as he entered, and he was not surprised to see one was the witch Haggar.

Displeased, yes. Surprised, no.

The other was Prince Avok—wearing Ninth Kingdom infantry armor beneath the cloak rather than his old Polluxian garb, looking as strong and healthy as ever. Other than the deep, half-closed wound across his throat, there wasn't the slightest sign he was undead.

That was when Lotor lost his temper.

"Father, you can't be serious. If I'm supposed to learn diplomacy and politics, what is defiling your throne room with the witch's newest pet corpse—just to insult me—meant to teach?!"

Avok's eyes narrowed. Bound to Haggar's will he may have been, but little about a jaivur changed beyond their loyalty. He hadn't even liked Lotor before. Being killed by him had certainly not changed that.

"What defiles the throne more, Prince Lotor? Death in battle? Or weakness and failure?"

"Enough," Zarkon barked before his son could respond. "Welcome back, Lotor. I see your tour did nothing to solve the problem of your ego, but my expectations weren't high." He shook his head. "If I only wanted to insult you, you'd still be in a receiving line on Varloth."

…That had been insulting. And utterly miserable. Varloth was home to the kingdom's finest diplomatic training school, and not even the Crown Prince could get away with anything but perfect etiquette. Lotor didn't even want to think about that hell pit.

And if Avok wasn't here to insult him, why was he here? Technically, having a jaivur in the throne room wasn't a protocol breach, because nobody writing the protocol had been thinking about the social status of the undead. But it was unseemly, and Avok's prior status didn't explain it either.

Or did it?

"We have news of the escaped gladiators," Zarkon continued. "They've been found on a recently conquered planet called Arus. All three of you will watch the reports from Admiral Yurak and his fleet, and then we will discuss the matter." A screen sprang to life on the far wall. Usually it was used for ceremony, occasionally entertainment. Rarely to display shaky combat recordings, but that was what filled the wall now. And as Lotor watched the battle footage, the memories of his last miserable month melted away.

"What manner of beasts are those?"

The king bared his fangs, but the gesture was less hostile than frustrated. "We don't know. What we do know is that the gladiators control them. The gladiators who, as you recall, escaped with the help of your a'kuri." He froze the screen on the destruction of the first task force's command cruiser and narrowed his eyes. "Good warriors died who didn't need to, Lotor. Warriors who would gladly have died in glorious combat fell instead in pointless ignorance. Remember this consequence of neglecting your duties."

The unfairness of that nearly made him lose his temper again. "Even if I had anticipated her escaping, I could hardly foresee—"

"—And that is precisely my point," his father snapped, and he fell silent.

Haggar kept her gaze locked in the footage as it started running again. Avok was watching with an expression that was almost inquisitive. Something was tugging at the back of his mind, something he should know about the lion ships. Maybe it had been lost when he died; his memories were just a little bit patchy. Or maybe he wouldn't have known it even when he was alive—Romelle probably would've, she'd always been a better student.

At the memory of Romelle, a surge of hatred and rage tore through his mind, drowning out every other coherent thought. King Zarkon could blame his idiot son for the lion ships all he wanted. Avok knew who was truly responsible for his own death.

No, she was right to escape—

The rage flooded him again, and that small thought subsided.

Haggar didn't speak until the footage from both reports was finished. "You want something to face this lion machine on equal footing, then, Your Majesty?"

"Yes, precisely." Zarkon huffed in exasperation. "Our conventional ships are clearly not up to the task."

"Clearly," she agreed, so calmly it didn't even sound condescending. "Is Prince Avok to fight them?"

"Not unless you think that's best. I want him to advise on the design of the beast. We know there's a Polluxian among the runaways. Use that to your advantage if possible."

The witch nodded. "Of course, sire. And Prince Lotor?"

"Prince Lotor," the king said coldly, "will not be participating in the fight to reclaim Arus at this time. I only wanted him to see the results of his errors." He frowned. "He will be assisting me in diplomatic missions to find out what, exactly, that machine is—I want those answers regardless of my confidence your occult beast will destroy it. And if he performs well in those tasks, I may let him join in the re-subjugation of the planet."

…There it was, then. Lotor snarled quietly to himself, but suppressed another outburst. If those were the conditions to at least occasionally get to do something interesting, so be it.

It would be a shame, though, he thought as he looked at the screen again. Defeating the lion machine was a chance for such glory—not to mention it would no doubt be exhilarating. It was wasted on some beast of occult science that wouldn't even appreciate the honor…

Partly out of the desire to get his own chance at it, and partly out of pure spite, he kind of hoped the lion machine would win.