(From Ashes) Chapter 26

 Pride: From Ashes
            Chapter 26
            The First Sentinel

Caught up in a thousand racing thoughts, Romelle had been awake before dawn. She had not consciously chosen to go to the lake. But when she reached it, she knew immediately that she couldn't have gone anywhere else. This was where she needed to be… her talk with Sven a few nights ago had calmed hers somewhat, though the group's discussion yesterday over the books had undone a bit of that calm.

What both had in common was that they'd raised more questions. She understood that to be a theme here, but it didn't make it less frustrating.

"If you have questions, you should ask them."

Spinning towards the lake, startled, Romelle realized a moment later where the voice was actually coming from. Or more to the point, whose voice it was. "Oh, hi… it's you again."

That did not feel like the correct way to greet a mythical robot, but it was what she mustered.

"It is." At least Blue seemed amused.

Part of Romelle wanted to just keep walking, to try to pretend this was all some mistake. Because surely it must be a mistake. But then, that was a question, wasn't it? Might as well find out for sure.

"Okay, questions." Sighing, she turned to look directly into the water, for all the good that was. "Why are you talking to me? I'm not anything like the others. I'm no soldier, and I'm sure as all the hells not… pure."

"If you were anything like the others, I would not be choosing you," the lion answered with a slight, purring chuckle. "As for purity, you jump to conclusions as to what I value… and I believe our definitions of the word may be different."

Romelle frowned, considering that for a minute, then sank down to sit in the sand. "Then… what is your definition of purity?"

"It is a purity of quality, not a condition. To equate purity with innocence is a common mortal mistake. But look to the waters, or to the crucibles which pour rivers of shining steel. It is heat and scouring and pressure which show truth, which create purity. Do you see?"

It did make some sense, she supposed, and her attempts to come up with an easy retort failed. Though what it had to do with her, she still wasn't certain. "But I…" The words didn't want to come out. But something about being here, alone except for a lion in her mind, let it slip forth. "I failed my people." She picked up a small rock, juggling it absently between her hands. I was subjected to pressure, and I wasn't strong enough.

"How so?"

"I left… there, and came here. I…" Fumbling for words, she was distracted by a play of shimmering color in the water. Then there were more of them, glistening spirals bobbing near the surface and shining in the first few slivers of sunlight. "What is… what are those?"

"Those are my friends," Blue purred. "They are called gorcas."

Gorcas. She remembered hearing the name; they weren't quite what she'd expected. "They're beautiful," she whispered, watching them for another minute before remembering what she'd been saying.

The lion growled, cutting her off before she could return to it. "How does your coming to this world equate to failing your home?"

Ask an easy one, why didn't she? But even putting all the bad blood between Pollux and Arus aside, the answer felt clear enough. "It was my duty," she murmured. "Protect my planet through a peaceful marriage, so what happened here wouldn't happen to them." She stilled, looking down at the rock in her hands. "I ran from that duty, and I don't know what will happen now, what might already have happened. To my people." Or to my family.

"Did you choose to undertake this duty?"

She shook her head almost violently, then remembered the lion couldn't see that, then reconsidered. With everything else the lions could do, she quite possibly could. But it felt like she owed the question a verbal answer, and she took a minute to gather one. "I wasn't given a choice. But I did it, because if I hadn't…"

"Perhaps you ordered the enemy to harm your people and your family?"

She froze, letting the rock fall to the sand. "What? No, I—" They aren't the ones I ordered harmed. But a second surge of fear hit on the heels of that thought. The thought she kept trying to push aside by dwelling on other things. "Maybe… maybe I did, by leaving Korrinoth."

"Then you came here with the intention of causing them harm?"

"No!" She hadn't been thinking that, she hadn't been thinking anything. All she'd seen was the opportunity to save herself. She'd been selfish. Even afterwards… becoming part of the team that had rescued her, letting herself feel like she was fitting in when she might have inflicted who knew what horrors on her people. Was she failing them even more?

And… if she were entirely truthful, she might not shed many tears if the Drules punished her father for all of this. While she was still stuck on Korrinoth, she might even have hoped for some misfortune to befall him. No, she'd wished nothing of the sort on anyone else, but—

"Ah, I see." Blue purred gently. "I am afraid I fail to see how you are the one at fault in these fears. You seem to have had very little choice in your circumstances, if any."

Romelle fell silent. How could it not be her fault? But… what the lion said was true, too. She'd had so little choice in the matter. Her only choice, really, had been to finally run… but it was that choice that might have brought punishment to her people. Yet what else could she have done? Remained to be abused? Let the team die in their escape—as they well might have?

"I…" She definitely wasn't feeling pure right now, in any case. Blue's definition of purity seemed to entail knowing what her own thoughts were. "I'm so confused."

A comforting feeling ran over her, like gently flowing water on her skin. "Did you have any other questions for me, my cub?"

"I might?" Watching the gorcas dancing on the surface, she tried to let the prismatic display calm her somewhat. It felt like she needed to get her thoughts marshaled from this conversation before she tried to ask anything else. "But I'm not sure."

"I am here, whenever you do."

Blue wasn't going anywhere, she supposed. Nor was she, for that matter. And she still wasn't entirely sure how she felt about any of that, but… "I appreciate your assistance, Blue."

The lion purred again, and she decided to just watch the gorcas a little longer.

*****

Allura had taken a rare late morning to get a little extra sleep; she'd done little enough of it lately, and she needed to be functioning at her best. And soon enough, she was dreaming. Dreaming of Black Lion was hardly unusual. Though perhaps this dream was slightly unusual. No longer needing to dream of the Great Lions taking to the sky, what drifted through her mind now was a memory.

She remembered, just after turning seven, seeing him for the very first time.

—Her father wanted to show her something incredible, he'd said. She had some idea that her family held a secret; something even greater than the whispered rumors she often heard from other noble families. Now it was her turn to finally learn what it was.

Through a secret door she'd never before seen, her father led her to a vast room with five large tunnels. She remembered the rush of air and lights as they'd boarded one of the shuttles, gliding down a dark tunnel that ended at a dark gray stone room. Hopping off the shuttle, she began exploring before her father could even finish turning on the lights.

"Do not wander far, Allura," Alfor called out; the princess was not really listening.

A dark mass lying in the middle of the adjoining room, glinting in the shadows, was what drew her towards it. With her skin tingling at the mystery of what was before her, she turned her head for just a moment to see what her father was doing. Through the darkness, she could just see him flipping some switches, and light began to flood the stone chambers. As the room lit up, she turned back to finally see what was hidden, and gasped softly at what she saw.

A huge metal lion, its dim golden eyes staring sightlessly back at her.

She knew the stories of her household, the whispers, and knew this could only mean one thing. This must be the Great Lion of Storms… Black Lion.

He didn't look the way he'd always appeared in her head. The lion looked exhausted, hurt… ill, or perhaps wounded. Not in the noble stance she'd imagined, instead slumped over a bit. Wandering close to his jaw, she reached out and stroked it, as if a caring hand might be able to ease whatever discomfort the lion seemed to feel. She even tried her own small gift of healing, one she was only just learning to use, but felt a twinge of rejection.

Maybe because he is metal… I can only help skin. Pouting, she looked up at the motionless lion. Being shut up in this cavern didn't seem fun. Maybe playing with him might cheer him up?

Alfor watched her with a small smile, readying himself to share the entire secret: the history of Black and the other Great Lions, all that he knew. But then there was a ping from the monitoring equipment, a meter dancing about in ways he hadn't seen before. After taking the readings and recording every small discrepancy, Alfor looked up from the distraction to realize Allura was nowhere to be seen.

"Allura? Allura, where are you?"

"Almost there…"

"What? Allura, what are you…?"

"Here I am!" she yelled brightly, standing up on top of Black's muzzle. "Behold, it is I, Princess Allura! Great Defender with my best friend, the Great Lion of Storms. Ready to take on all the villains, pirates, and bad guys!"

She still remembered the look on his face as if it were yesterday. "Allura, how did you get up there? …Never mind, come back down here."

"But we have to take down the bad guys! Stop homework… put an end to naps."

"I think someone is in need of a nap," Alfor muttered under his breath. "Allura, it's not safe for you to be up there. Come down right now!"

"No!" she cried back. And then, to prove how safe it was—surely Black Lion wouldn't let her fall!—she started to dance.

"Darling… please come down," Alfor begged. "If you don't, I won't be able to tell you all the stories about Black and the rest of the Lions."

She paused in her dancing, looking over the tip of Black's nose with a bit of skepticism. "Really?"

"I promise you. We can come again just so you can play with Black. But first I want to tell you why he's here," Alfor said, pointing to the ground. "And for that I need you to be down here with me."

"Mmmm… okay." Allura said after a few moments of careful thought. "Will you catch me?"

"What?"

"Catch me!" And with that, she leaped from the lion's muzzle into her startled father's arms.

Alfor sighed, taking a few moments to let his heart rate get somewhere back near normal before even attempting to speak again. "Allura, you brave girl… may you never lose that fearlessness as you grow."

"Why, Father?"

"Well… when you get older, there will be things expected of you, and they may seem to demand you play things safe all the time. But playing it safe isn't always the best course of action. You need the right balance of caution to risk sometimes, to achieve your," he smiled and lightly tapped a fingertip on her forehead, "goals and get your way from some more stubborn people. But for now… no more jumping off Black's nose."

"Because he might not like that?"

"Yes… that's why." He sighed again. "Now. About our family's history and the Great Lions…"

Allura remembered her father talking for what seemed like hours… and through all her youthful excitement, she'd hung onto every word.—

Waking from the memory, she blinked for a few moments, letting all the grim reality flood back into her mind. But at least now, the dark reminder of Arus' conquest was followed by the wondrous truth…

Soon her people would be truly free.

With a smile on her lips, she got ready for her next task.

*****

Lance and Daniel were in Lance's room again. Lance on the bed reading—or trying to—and Daniel on the floor nearby, complaining again about Kermi always biting him.

Clearly it meant she didn't love him.

Lance shook his head and tried to focus on the book. It was another battle with Flamebearer's ally, who he was starting to suspect was a bit more than a friend. Flamebearer's descriptions of them were always high praise; it sounded like there was a deep abiding affection. Maybe they were a couple? It was interesting to wonder about.

Or maybe he just wanted to distract himself from admitting his past to the entire team. Plus Princess Allura and Larmina.

He inhaled sharply; Daniel heard it and sighed inwardly. He was worried. Lance was obviously upset, and he was fairly certain there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't ask. You didn't just ask people about their dead family—he'd always known there had to be some good reason that Lance had such irritating anger issues towards the Galra. But he'd never thought…

He felt more than heard a purr in his mind, and ended up asking the lion instead. Is he okay?

"Speaking to him might better give you that answer, cub."

"Ha! Not happening…" Shit. He'd said that out loud.

"That sounded like lion ranting," Lance said, looking up from the book. "Red behaving?"

"Hmm, what do you fear about asking him?"

Daniel frowned as they spoke to him, nearly in unison, and struggled to sort the two questions out. It was so weird having a voice in his head. Especially a weird-ass one like Red's. "He wants me to do something I do not want to do."

Lance snorted. "Usually, I want you to not do something and you do it anyway. How'd he manage the opposite?" Red, just so you know, telling Daniel to do things never works.

"Does it not?" Red answered simply, and he frowned. That felt ominous.

"You're different," Daniel told Lance, then went back to talking to Red—or really, mentally yelling at him. I'm not afraid! Having two conversations at once was confusing… and weird, of course. I hate it when people ask me about my family, I'm sure it's way worse for him, I'm not doing it.

"Are you 'people' to Firestriker?"

Red was annoying. I don't know.

It was a lie, and Red wasn't fooled. "You do know."

"What's he want you to do?" Lance asked, noting that the kid's talking-to-lion face had not faded. "Maybe I can help? Unless it's part of the 'you have your own path to forge' blah blah bullshit…" He hated that part.

"It's…" Daniel sighed. "It's about you. He wants me to ask something that I would hate if someone asked me, so…"

"What would you…" he started to ask, but then it hit him. That thing he was trying to avoid thinking about. He'd told Daniel, and the whole team, but maybe he'd been looking mostly at Daniel when he did it. "Oh." Fuck.

"Shouldn't he know, Firestriker?"

"You DO NOT have to talk about it!" Shit fuck fuck fuck I TOLD you this was a bad idea. "I'm not actually asking. Red is just being pushy and I can easily tell him to fuck off…" Don't be pissed, don't be pissed.

This two-conversations-at-once thing might be getting easier. Maybe. Or he was just freaking out too much to worry about it.

"Red doesn't fuck off," Lance snorted, "and he definitely pushes. I had to uh, admit? Face? My grief as part of my bonding. Or at least the therapy session that bonding somehow signs you up for, whether you fucking want it or not…" He studied Daniel more closely. Was he facing his own… baggage? Was this what this was about? "My grief is a fire, by the way. Which, you know, broken cups might attest to that." He still felt guilty. About the cup.

"That was pretty fiery."

"It's more fun being fiery in Red," Lance smirked, thinking about the lava breath.

"I'm sure."

Lance kept smiling but inwardly he was bracing himself. "If you have questions, go ahead. Truth is, I've been thinking about them a lot since we got to Arus. It's weird." And he had, even before Red dredged up his worst memory. Is this about me or him?

"Good question," Red purred. Of course. He rolled his eyes, mentally; he was developing that skill quite nicely.

Daniel considered that, then nodded. "What were they like?"

Lance sighed. "They were my family. It was… I mean I found them all annoying, I was ten. But then you know, you miss things you wouldn't expect."

"Like what?" Daniel asked as he found he did not, in fact, know.

"My dad. He'd take what felt like forever prepping his crop duster whenever he took me flying. Testing levers and switches, checking boxes on this long checklist. I just wanted to get up in the air, get to hold the yoke… but he said it had to be done right. And whenever I think about him, flying with him, it's that time I remember the most. Weird, right?"

Did I ever go flying with my mom? Daniel wondered. He didn't know and it made him look away from Lance, wincing, but he felt Red's curl of warmth wrap around him.

His reaction wasn't lost on Lance, but something told him not to push it, at least not right now. He felt like he was meant to go on, so he did. "My brother…" he sighed as it hit him. Maybe he'd known all along, but it felt like the first time he fully processed it. "He'd be around your age now."

"What was he like?"

"I thought he was a pain…" Guilt for ditching Drew so many times, especially that last time, poked at him all over again. "But he wasn't, not really. He was just a kid, younger than me. Quiet. He didn't like flying. I think he was more like our mom. She was smart, worked as a terraformer." He smiled weakly at the memory. "She was why we lived on Beau Terre."

Daniel nodded again, but he still wasn't sure. He couldn't relate; he didn't have any of that. Having all those people…

Lance didn't miss that reaction either—and he wanted to ask, but he still didn't quite dare. So he tried sharing one more hard truth of his own. Because it was Daniel.

"Okay, so… this was probably the easiest time I've ever had talking about them."

It made Daniel smile. "I'm glad." But he wasn't sure what else to say, and a slightly awkward silence fell.

"Push."

Lance blinked as Red's purr rippled through him, he wasn't sure at all about that. Daniel had started this conversation saying he'd hate to be asked about his family. But his instincts told him to trust his lion. Red always seemed to have reasons, not that he understood them.

It took a long, steadying breath to steel himself before he could spit out the question. "What about you?"

Is this really about him, Red?

"Huh? What about me," Daniel asked flatly. This is supposed to be about him.

"I just, we've both lost… family." Lance sighed, he sucked at this, and Red wasn't exactly giving him a lot of guidance.

"…Oh."

"I'm not pushing." He trusted his lion, but if Daniel wasn't up for it that was that.

"Uh…" Daniel rubbed the back of his head. He would shut this down normally, and a large part of him really wanted to. But this was Lance. He wasn't just people. And he'd just talked about his family, so it kind of felt like he owed him. At least a little. "I really didn't have a family like you did. Or maybe I did, I just don't remember it."

Lance sat up a little straighter. "How young were you?"

"I was 3 or 4 when my mom died. It was around my birthday but the exact timeline gets kind of fuzzy." That's what happens when you're a toddler and grieving. "And I wasn't really allowed to ask about her growing up. I know she was a pilot, and I sort of remember visiting her in the hospital before she died, but that's pretty much the only memory I've got of her." He looked at the ground. "She was a pilot," he repeated, trying not to think about how he was supposed to be one too.

Lance felt terrible. As painful as his memories were, at least he had them. Not having that must hurt like hell. "That fucking sucks. She was a pilot, huh?" The kid had seemed to latch onto that, so he did too. "What did she fly, do you know?"

"She was a civilian transport pilot…" Smirk. "…who raced smaller planes on the side."

Oh, now they were talking. "That is fucking awesome."

"Right?" Daniel's smile faded a bit as he decided to keep going. The next one wasn't worth smiling. "My dad, he's… smart. Like, really smart. Has a bunch of degrees. He's an archeologist, and a professor."

"Archeologist, huh? I feel like I'm meant to make an Indiana Jones crack here."

Snort. "He's not really Indiana Jones worthy. He uh, works for the GA on a contract basis, studying artifacts and dead people from different planets. Or at least he did… he doesn't talk to me."

Lance frowned. Every time Daniel mentioned his father, he disliked the man more. "Well, he's fucking missing out." Both of them heard Red's warm purr in the back of their minds, as if in agreement.

"I guess," Daniel mumbled, but he kept going. Now that he'd started he couldn't stop. "It's not like he talked to me all that much before. I don't think he knew how to handle taking care of me by himself. When I wanted to join the academy…" He winced again. "He threw me out."

"He what?" Lance stared blankly. "For joining the academy? I mean aren't parents supposed to want shit like that? Pretty sure my mom was happy my sister was thinking about joining—when she wasn't thinking she'd be a pop star, anyway."

"That's what I thought! I thought he'd be…" Proud. "But um, I got in trouble a lot as a kid. Like way more than I do now, way more. And uh, he was worried that I would screw up his reputation…" Daniel frowned, exhaling. It hurt, and was exactly why he didn't talk about this whole mess. "Which was probably a valid concern."

"Fuck reputation," Lance said immediately. He's a handful but he's not bad, fuck that guy.

"Yeah," Daniel muttered, hating that he wished things were different. He missed his dad, even if he was an asshole, and it made him feel weak and pathetic. He shoved down a groan. This is why I don't talk about this shit! Red's warmth curled around him then, and he felt himself mentally lean into it. That's nice.

Once again Lance felt like he was drowning. He wasn't at all sure how to handle this, or even what was going on. He just hoped Red knew what he was doing, really—because he felt certain this was more about Daniel than him. Though maybe it was about them both? He sighed and decided to go with what he knew. "Well, you have me, kid."

"That I do…" He was surprised to agree with that so easily, but they had kind of clawed their way there. But he needed to make sure of one more thing, and he hated feeling uncertain. "I'm still gonna have you, even if I say no to Red, right?"

"Of fucking course." Lance said it with zero hesitation, though he hoped Daniel said yes. He really hoped Daniel said yes. But if he didn't… "No matter what, kid, we're a team. We're brothers."

"Cool." Daniel grinned… and then it turned to irritation as Kermi promptly bit his pants leg. "SEE?! I'm literally pouring my heart out and she bites me, I think she works undercover for Red…"

"What? That was just some flirting," Lance smirked. "But speaking of flirting…" He leaned over to grab the book, finding his place from before. "Listen to this, I think Flamebearer might be in love with this Malaya Kala person."

"Say what? Old Red Lion pilot drama!" Forget Kermi and her nonsense. He was all ears.

*****

Pidge found himself on another mission to the forest, and again he wasn't alone. But this one was quite different from hunting down plants, and the company was… well, it was something of an improvement, anyway.

"You should not attend this task alone, Windseeker. Perhaps Earthwarder would accompany you?"

He wasn't really comfortable around Hunk still. Oh, he was trying, and it was easy enough when they had a task to cooperate on—or, he supposed, some new technological impossibility to get overly excited about. When they didn't have such things, it was harder. The big engineer was so damned friendly.

Pidge still had some trouble with friendly.

"So what caste are you from?"

…There was also that. "Is this necessary?"

"You said we could do it later." Grin. "It's later."

It was, indeed, later. They were also trekking through a sacred Arusian forest, sneaking through gaps in the trees that Hunk could barely even fit through, seeking out what Green had only described as an unknown source of 'contamination'; it still didn't seem like the correct kind of later.

"And what of great importance are you doing as you walk to the site?"

…You did this on purpose, didn't you?

"You will need him for your task. This is a bonus."

With an exasperated huff, Pidge took a sharp turn to the north and glanced back at his companion. "If I promise to tell you, will you explain why I'm telling you? This can't be relevant."

Hunk tilted his head, then shrugged. "Because I dunno how it is on Balto or Shinor or whatever, but you can't just throw 'the old scientific Jackal Caste' at a room full of humans and not expect anyone to be curious about it."

That did ring true, really. Especially when an echo rang through his mind beneath it.

I had a lot of questions and didn't know when to shut up…

"…Fine." He shook his head. "Dragon Caste. Agricultural. It doesn't matter though. It's been a lot of thousands of years since our people noticed that assigning jobs by birth was entirely illogical. The castes don't determine much beyond regional cultures now, kind of like human… nationalities, I think."

Hunk ducked beneath a few branches and gave the ninja a look. "You'll be thrilled to know I've got more questions, yeah?"

Pidge looked back at him, deadpan. "Ecstatic. And unsurprised."

"It's not so bad, only two of 'em. For now." That earned him a mild glare, though not one Pidge seemed wholly invested in. "First off, do people get as serious about their castes as some people who might be our Commander get about their national heritage?"

That actually had not been among the questions he'd expected, and he couldn't help a short laugh. "That might not have been a good comparison. But also, yes."

Hunk nodded. "Okay, second question. Your jackals are scientists and your dragons are farmers, that's uh, weird."

"That isn't a question."

"Like hell it ain't."

Weaving around a cluster of vines, he side-eyed the big man and scoffed. "Your jackals are scavengers and your dragons are ill-defined mythical reptilians with nothing else in common, that's weird."

Considering that as he picked his way through the vines, Hunk shrugged. "Yeah okay, can't argue it."

Truthfully, Pidge had kind of wanted him to argue it, because he was perfectly well aware of what came next otherwise. Oh well. "The castes are associated with the elemental gods and their subordinates. Baltan jackals are lightning elementals, they've always been tied to science and technology."

The example he'd used, and the one he hadn't used, were not lost on Hunk. "And there's a reason you're gonna make me ask what element the dragons are, yeah?"

"Yeah." He rolled his eyes. "They're wind elementals, and my lion is unreasonably smug about that fact. Like it proves something."

Green purred, and Hunk gave him a knowing look. "Oh, so am I s'posed to pretend it doesn't?"

Glare. "Why don't you tell me about your nationality or something?" He knew very little about Earthling regional cultures outside of Canada—he'd been sent to Toronto for his Academy prep courses. After, of course, they'd attempted to send him to MIT and he'd been expelled in week two.

After that they'd figured Canada was where he could get in the least trouble.

Hunk had a strong suspicion the ninja did not care about his nationality or whatever, but he'd asked, so what the hell. He couldn't tell him much, anyway. "I'm from Oregon. Mom's Japanese, but less into the swords than Keith is. Pops is half Siletz—that's a Native American tribe—and half 'everything else', his words." Shrug. "I was never real into any of it, yeah? Doin' culture stuff and makin' big kabooms didn't have a lot of overlap, a garage is a garage. And when I was real young I liked to uh, not be around people as much as I could. Only thing I really got into was when we'd go up to the ocean each summer." Grin. "You're lookin' at the four-time Cannon Beach sand castle contest grand champion!"

Those words in that order didn't mean anything to Pidge at all. "Congratulations?" What had meant something to him had been slipped in there almost as an afterthought. "What do you mean you didn't like being around people?"

Hunk blinked. Why had he let that slip? Welp, probably serves me right. "Cuz they all thought I was just a big idiot and I hadn't learned to roll with it yet." Pidge immediately flinched and looked away, which he'd half anticipated; it still made him feel bad. "Oh, don't do that, ninja." Grin. "By the time you met me I was bein' a big idiot on purpose."

"…Komora?"

And you keep talkin'! Did he really want to try to explain that whole mess to the ninja? Could he do it even if he did want to? He tried the short version. "It was a thing." Shrug. "Once I learned to play along it was funny, yeah?"

Pidge stared at him for what felt like a very long time, and was at least long enough for them to squeeze through a couple more clusters of trees. Hunk was none too sure how to take that…

"You're not an idiot," the ninja finally said quietly, "but you are weird even by Earthling standards, kir sa tye?"

Grin. "You know it."

Before that could go any further, Green purred to get Pidge's attention. "You are close, Windseeker. Past the bushes up ahead."

Motioning for silence, he whispered the information to Hunk and crept forward. Stealth was really not their bomb tech's thing, but he did the best he could, following the ninja as they approached a line of… well, trees. That did not narrow things down around here, but presumably Pidge knew what he was doing.

Pidge himself would not have vouched for that, but presumably Green knew what she was doing. And as he drew closer to the tree in the middle of the cluster, he was starting to sense the problem. It just looked like a normal tree, but something about it was making his skin crawl. "Green, what the hells?"

"That is what I wish to know, as well. The contamination is within the roots. You must locate it."

…So that was why she'd actually had Hunk come along to interrogate him. He relayed her words to the other engineer, whose expression had become a mix of confusion and concern, and couldn't help a question of his own. "Do you feel it too?"

"I think so." Hunk had not been particularly at home in the forest to begin with, beaches and open space really were more his speed. But there was a little discomfort and then there was whatever the hell was hitting him here… Yellow was snarling in the back of his mind.

"This is… familiar. Use caution, Earthwarder."

Ain't gotta tell me twice.

Kneeling next to the tree, he put his hand on the ground and closed his eyes. Talking to dirt was probably not much different than talking to rocks; it would probably help if he knew exactly how he'd talked to the rocks. But he tried to focus himself, remembering more what it had felt like than what he'd been doing…

He saw it. Felt it. A solid mass with twisting tunnels cutting through it, like he was building the tree's root system in reverse. Then there was something else, something sharp and cold and wrong. He could tell where it was, but not what, and was pretty sure he didn't want to know.

Drawing back, staring at his hand in confusion, he finally managed to give Pidge a nod. "Found it. What now?"

"I think we're supposed to dig it up."

That sounded… unattractive. But this was Green's show, he supposed. "Okay."

The forest soil was loose, which wasn't too surprising if nothing much passed through here. And whatever it was wasn't buried too deep. In fact, Hunk felt like it hadn't been buried at all. He couldn't explain why he felt like that and decided to just roll with it. But that instinct seemed vindicated as they uncovered what they were looking for.

"This… doesn't make sense." Pidge pulled something dark and glossy from the soil. It was not large, maybe a good-sized bottlecap, and to Hunk looked vaguely like someone had stuck three Batman logos in a trenchcoat. He'd have felt pretty confident it wasn't that even if Pidge hadn't seemed to recognize it.

"What is it?"

"It's Baltan obsidian… the kaimetra. It's a medical symbol."

He was right, that didn't make sense. "So not something that's usually uh, cursed."

"No."

"Cursed is not wrong," Green growled softly. "I feel traces of one of my bonded on that talisman. It may have been lost when we were hidden, but now…" Snarl. "Bring it to me. Quickly."

Neither of them wanted to be here anymore, that much was for sure. They ran for it.

As they stepped into Green's den, Pidge felt the unease from the talisman nearly vanish. "Komora…?" He didn't think it was just proximity to his own lion; Hunk seemed relieved too. "Green? Did you do something?"

"Not precisely." She growled softly, peering down at them. "But it is as I hoped. Our energies saturate these dens; we should be able to neutralize some malignance when it is near enough, but I could not say the extent."

Nodding, Pidge looked at the talisman in his hands. It looked so damned innocent when it wasn't making his stomach churn. "What should we do with this?"

"I would like to say study it, but I doubt we have the resources. For now… hide it, Windseeker. Place it somewhere it cannot be stumbled across by accident, nor leech its contamination somewhere else. We will return to it when we know more."

Pidge relayed that to Hunk with a frown; it seemed like a tall order. It had to be a den, clearly. Hiding it anywhere in Green's den felt likely to just grow some suppressed evil moss or something. But Hunk brightened.

"If you don't have any ideas, I've got just the place."

*****

The brief meeting with the council had been somewhat productive. Allura was happy to get an agreement over improving their own defenses, at least. While most of the council understood the need to rely on the offworlders, the few holding out were starting to grind on her nerves. Her plans of some deep reading and research before the next meal were looking sweeter with each step.

"Daughter of Storms."

The world seemed to waver around her. For a moment her head swayed to invisible winds and streams drifting around her; small globes of plasma floated past her vision. Then she was back in the hallway, blinking.

"Black?" She was curious as to why he was calling her, no doubt—all the more curious why it had manifested like that. For a moment, there was no reply, causing her to wonder if she was perhaps mishearing things altogether. But then what…

Before she could complete the thought, she felt another pull, as her vision blurred again between the real world and another. And again his voice rippled in her mind. "Come to me."

Allura moved forward without hesitation, and her surroundings continued to shift. While she could see the castle walls and understand where she was being drawn, she also seemed to somehow be moving through space itself. As she turned around corners and wandered down hallways, the ghostly glow of drifting starlight, whirling planets and galaxies passed by her as she moved.

Was this what the lions had seen before, when they'd traveled between worlds? Was it something else entirely? She looked at her hand and saw her skin shifting with the light, as though the vision were something deeper than mere illusion. But she was also aware she'd entered the tunnels, and somehow the stone walls and glimmering stars both seemed clearer.

"Your family has stood guard over us for generations. Long enough to forget even the true reason why. Yet in all that time, your word… your honor has remained true," Black's voice echoed. "And in these last few generations, when even most within your bloodline wavered to let us be forgotten completely… you held fast."

Allura had become nervous at the words. Her first, frightened thought was to wonder if any in her family might possibly have betrayed the Lions. Could this be the reason they were not able to be awakened sooner? Making her way as fast as she could walk to the Great Lion, she braced herself for possible bad news; she felt somehow like a child about to be disciplined.

"Fear not, my cub. For I call you to at last take your birthright."

"Birthright?" she echoed softly, watching the stars whirl around her. Didn't Black Lion come from another world, Altea? What birthright could she hold?

"Yes, my cub. You will see."

As she stepped into the den, the visions seized hold of her completely. Instead of the cavern, the endless void of space surrounded them both, and it felt like she could see forever. Then arcs of lightning crackled between the stars, stormclouds filling the clear darkness, and a moment later she was simply standing in Black's den.

Though the images were gone, she could still feel the power of the visions as the lion spoke.

"Your family has been close to us for all these centuries. Our history, while lost, is still there to be reclaimed… your family's quest to reawaken us has not come to an end. I can see the lightning and thunder within you, the ancient storm which your father called upon for aid. It is this birthright which remains, the reason I call you Daughter of Storms."

Allura was still puzzled, though less about the name than the idea that her father had called for some mysterious 'ancient storm' to be with her. Was that what he'd seemingly invoked at Zohar? Before she could ask more, the Great Lion interrupted her thoughts.

"There is much yet to be done, and I will need another by my side, bonded to myself and my Knight. And I believe, with the Defender awakened, I can do what must be done. And so… it is time at last for you to make your choice."

Allura walked up to Black, placing a hand on his cheek. "It is really me that you want?"

"Yes. But again, there would be a price… a sacrifice to bond with me."

"What price? Tell me."

"I cannot say. For it is something different from the ones who came before."

Allura bit her lip as she leaned her head against the Great Lion's jaw. She'd said she would do whatever was needed, and meant it. Now, it sounded like she may have to place her crown—and her neck—truly on the line. Closing her eyes, she thought hard on what past kings and queens might have done in her place. And suddenly, images of an old dream surfaced, a nightmare she'd attributed simply to trauma and cabin fever. The grasping hands of death, the words of ancient ancestors guiding her… and a quiet voice echoed deep in her memory.

Be of new metal…

She sighed. She understood the need for maintaining the traditions and expectations required of her role. Yet the role was also smothering, forcing her hands to some degree. So many obligations. All her life she'd known such obligations might make certain things impossible, might prevent her from doing what she truly wished in her role as a future queen.

Since the Drules, everything and nothing had changed.

Black wished for her to work with him and Keith in freeing Arus, and possibly assist other worlds in need? The offer sounded like a dream, yet her responsibilities weighed heavily. There may be means to balance both… though I fear there may be none. But if I do not strive for it, what are the odds for Arus? The others had been clear. Black Lion was speaking to no one else, perhaps couldn't speak to anyone else.

Allura moved closer to the lion, gathering her thoughts. She understood she couldn't take unnecessary risks. But she also understood the necessary ones. As it had been when she'd fought to reclaim the castle, now she would fight for more. "As High Princess, I am bound to the task of caring for all of Arus. But I feel in order to fulfill my role under these trying times, I must break from some of the traditions. I understand the risks and possible losses I may suffer… and I'm willing to do so if it means my people will live free."

Black gave a small purr. Allura felt his eyes scanning for the truth in her, perhaps offering a second chance to question her resolve. Perhaps she even expected to be rejected. She was inexperienced in so many ways… she didn't even have the slightest concept of what she was getting into, in terms of flying a spacecraft. Even more, she was desperate. The lion had tested Keith by ensuring he didn't take the easy paths. What test was she facing?

"Do not fear, Daughter of Storms; the test is done, and your path is clear. I can sense your concerns. Enter within, and I shall show what you are choosing." With a soft mechanical whirr, the lion's great mouth opened.

For what felt like a long moment, Allura felt like a child again, gazing in wonder at the darkness that invited her to step within. Oh, how much more grief her younger self would have caused for her father had she known she could enter the lion itself…

Black's chuckles brought her back to the present time, and she carefully climbed over his jaw.

Allura felt a little nervous as she walked into the cockpit for the first time. It seemed strange to her. Black never felt like a machine to her. He was always the Great Lion of Storms, yet within there were so many lights and control panels, seats befitting a combat ship. The only ships she'd ever been on were diplomatic shuttles; this was like an entirely different world compared to those.

"The second seat would be yours," the lion purred. "And you can learn all that you need to know, without question. But if you mean to accept this bond, understand that it will not be to me alone."

Keith. She slowly sat in the lion's back seat, considering the possibility. They still hadn't known each other long, yet to call him a near-stranger wasn't correct either. They were already connected through the lions, in a way. But while she might be willing to accept that… "Does he know?"

"Shall I summon him?"

Exhaling, Allura felt the weight of that question. There was no reason to summon him unless she was certain.

She was more than certain.

"Yes."

*****

Larmina had been searching the forest whenever she had time. Not just for shrines to the Usurper Gods, of course; keeping the shelters supplied with food was still part of the job too. If she ran into anything that might help with weird lion mysteries, so much the better.

She had not been asking Green Lion for help; she also had not found anything. Somehow she didn't think those two facts were related. If the lion wanted her to know something, she tended not to shut up about it. So hunting was taking most of her focus, and at least that part was going well. Well enough that even recovering as many as she could, she'd run herself almost entirely out of arrows.

Swinging by the militia's headquarters—really just a side chamber with a table and a couple of large security lockers—to replenish her stock, Larmina found Captain Sarial digging through one of the unsecured chests. A few books were already stacked on the table, and as she watched, the captain retrieved an armful of pamphlets as well.

"What's with all the paperwork?" Though she knew Sarial held herself responsible for all the books rescued from Dolce Vita, only those with immediate relevance to the militia's duties were kept in this chamber. And they'd mostly stopped needing to actually look things up months ago.

"Sven wanted to see our maps," the captain explained with a shrug. "The lion pilots should know the terrain sooner rather than later, it seems."

Arrows immediately became the least of Larmina's concerns. "Need any help carrying the books? And showing him the maps?"

"No." Grin. "But you can come along anyway."

Grinning back, Larmina grabbed the pamphlets and followed her out.

Sven was in the dining room where they'd had their first meal here, reading; he'd started Blue's book from the beginning again. Not that he'd finished it—the books were huge, and he was convinced some kind of magic let them cram in even more pages than they appeared to hold. He'd just wanted to do a more careful read, scouring the entries for any hint about the lions' FTL capacity, and starting over had felt appropriate.

Besides, maybe this time the first pilot's name would stick in his head. He spoke often enough of his copilot—someone named Rapidspirit who was somehow even more frustrating than Blue—but he'd only named himself once in the entire section he'd written. It had proceeded to get lost in the shuffle.

There were too many water names in this book.

As Sarial entered with the atlases and Larmina, she noted the extremely large book Sven was already reading and raised an eyebrow. "No such thing as too much reading material, I see?" It was a compliment.

"Never enough," Sven agreed, smiling as he waved a greeting. "Anaynyo?" He hadn't completely butchered the hello, but he was certain it could've been better, even before the two Arusians exchanged knowing grins. But then Sarial set down the books she'd brought, and he brightened; while he could only read a few of the words on the covers, the illustrations were clear. "Maps, finally!"

Larmina spread out the pamphlets she'd brought and cocked her head. "What's so exciting about maps?" She liked Sven too much to tell him what that slightly missed syllable in anenyo had actually meant.

He gave her a look as if the question didn't quite compute. "What isn't exciting about maps? They allow you to know where you're going before you get there, not to mention letting you figure out how you're going to get there. And it's hard to be a good navigator if you don't know how to get where you want to go."

Hmm. Considering how much time she'd spent wandering the forest with no idea where she was going or how to get there—before and after the sinycka—Larmina could see the appeal, but not the adjective. "That seems practical, not exciting. They're the opposite."

Sarial did her best to hide an affectionate facepalm; Sven just laughed outright. "Join an Explorer Team, your mind will change. You'll rejoice when anything resembling practical appears."

Truthfully, from what she understood of it, Larmina thought she'd have liked to be on something like an Explorer Team. Definitely more than she'd liked, well… shaking the thought of her ill-fated debut aside, she gave him a searching look. If he was going to bring it up, she was going to try again. "I want to know about the murder temple."

Sigh. What was the obsession with the murder temple? First Daniel, now Larmina…

"My siblings' cubs must prefer excitement to practicality." Blue sounded amused.

Obviously. "No."

"Wait." Sarial looked up from where she'd been organizing the maps. "I think I want to hear about this 'murder temple' also." Is it more or less exciting than the lizard kangaroo?

Sven sighed again. "We gave it a name that was too interesting," he muttered to himself, "that's the problem."

"It is the very interesting name."

Fine, he wasn't getting out of it. And he supposed it might even be a fair trade. "It was a temple, apparently Voltron-related, that tried to murder us." Hence the overly interesting name. "I will explain it in all its horrid detail… after maps. Deal?"

Larmina looked at Sarial, who shrugged. "Practicality first. Deal." She handed over one of the packets; if Sven's rudimentary knowledge of Arusian served, the header said CROWN PROVINCE. "This is a regional map of the Crown Province," he let himself smile a little at the confirmation, "that we've been keeping updated as best we can with any changes since the sinycka arrived. The paper maps are all similar, we've kept scouting notes, but of course there are fewer the further they get from here." She paused, her tone becoming more stern. "We do not write in the books, obviously."

It was the first time she'd actually sounded like a librarian, and Sven approved wholeheartedly. Writing in the books? Scandalous.

Opening up the Crown Province map, he looked at the others and frowned thoughtfully. "I imagine it must be difficult to get a good picture." He knew precisely how complicated it could be to translate observations on the ground to a map's overhead view, but he might be able to help with that. If, of course… Blue, would that be possible?

Not having to actually form his racing thoughts into a question really was useful sometimes.

"Quite workable, Icehunter."

Perfect. "The lions can record information while in flight. When we get a chance, I could take overhead images of areas where you don't have much information, to give us a better idea of any changes there."

"That could be helpful," Sarial agreed, nodding. She doubted they had any way to transfer such data from the lions in a usable form—in fact, it seemed fair to question if they could've done that in Arus' prime. The lions were, well, the lions. On the other hand, she was getting the distinct impression Sven would happily draw the new maps by hand if need be.

He would've, too, though he'd been distracted by other thoughts and was now caught up muttering to himself. "I wonder if she has the imaging software to digitally build the map, would be much easier to use the surrounding terrain in a fight if we could pull up the map right then…" Not to mention expecting the rest of the team to memorize a giant map was probably asking too much, at least at first. "They're clearly designed with ground operations in mind, it might be part of their sensor suite—Blue, what kind of mapping software do you have?" The lion gave a mildly bewildered growl and he snorted. Fair enough. Even if it wasn't one of the lions' native functions, and probably not even a high priority, they might be able to build something when they had time. "I'll need to talk to Pidge."

Larmina had been staring blankly at him through most of that; her Common was improving markedly, sure, but she still hadn't followed most of that mumbling. The last part, though, she understood. "That's too bad."

Sven jumped, remembering where he was. "Vinya." He was pretty sure he'd pronounced the apology correctly. "But I love maps. Why is that too bad?"

"No, talking to Pidge is too bad."

Sarial didn't even try to hide the facepalm this time, and Sven laughed again. "Our ninja can be a little rough around the edges. And the inside. But I find most conversations with him to be productive, or at least exciting."

"…But not very practical," Larmina countered, and leaned over the open map. "So, maps? Notes are all in the Arusian."

"I noticed that," he agreed, turning his full attention to the map as well. "Thankfully, I'm better at reading Arusian than speaking it." He'd been the same way learning Common, and if he could learn that he could learn anything. Though study materials and time were still limited, and he wasn't surprised to only be able to make out bits and pieces of the handwritten notes scattered over the paper. "Still not good enough to read most of these, do you mind helping me translate?"

"I can do that," she said brightly, then looked a little sheepish. "And anything I still can't, the Captain can."

"I don't mind being the backup," Sarial confirmed with a wry smile.

Chuckling, Sven nodded his thanks to Sarial and gave Larmina an encouraging smile. "Your Common is coming along great, I'm sure you'll do fine." Looking over the illustrations and what he could read, he found the Castle of Lions easily enough; even if he hadn't been able to read the name, the terrain was pretty distinctive. It looked like they were firmly in the northeast of the province. The nearest city was to the west, and labeled as something to the effect of Falakol, he thought… a few Arusian characters were hard to tell apart. Notes in what looked like multiple people's handwriting surrounded it. "What's this?"

"That's Falastol, the capital." That surprised Sven for about half a second, then he realized how much sense it made. Of course the tiny castle village had not been the planet's actual capital city. "The notes are force reports, and uh… something about damage reports being somewhere else?"

Sarial held up a map of Falastol proper, and the other two nodded their understanding.

As Larmina translated the various landmarks nearest the castle, Sven kept finding his attention drawn by what she wasn't discussing. Or more to the point, by where there weren't any notes. Finally he couldn't take it anymore. "What about this section here? That's the forest where Green Lion resides, isn't it?" It was a huge swath of featureless green, except for the area nearest the castle being shaded and crossed out.

Making a face, and not just at the mention of Green Lion, Larmina nodded. "Forest of Altair. That part," she indicated the shading, "all burnt away by the invasion. Nobody's mapped the rest for centuries."

Sven raised an eyebrow. "Really?" It couldn't be that hard to navigate, if they'd hidden an entire robot lion there. Though maybe the two were related.

"Really. Used to be a road from the Castle all the way to…" She grimaced, and pointed to the northeastern boundary of the province. "The Seven Isles. That's the legend. But the forest is sacred and the banewolves don't like the company, so everyone stays away."

A legendary road through an unmapped forest was the kind of thing Sven desperately wished he had time to investigate himself, but he knew perfectly well it was not a priority. Still, it would be better to know than not know… he started jotting down some notes of his own, in the same papers he'd used for the castle tour. "I've heard they seem to like having you there well enough, maybe you can find out if the legend is true or not?"

Larmina snorted. Searching the forest for legends hadn't gotten her anywhere useful so far, and she'd had that one in mind even before the Drules wrecked things. "I've looked, believe me. But it would be old. Probably not much of a road anymore, if it ever existed."

What she'd never done was ask Green Lion about it, and that thought got her an annoying purr that she didn't care to follow up on.

But Sarial was frowning now; it wasn't the first she'd ever heard of the mythical Altairus Road, but it had never exactly come up like this. "We haven't been able to get much in the way of scouts to the Seven Isles. Access is pretty unforgiving." As the province's name suggested, most of the ground routes there went through the water, and boating with sinycka lurking in the skies had simply never seemed like a good idea. "If there's a path it would be good to know."

Larmina gave her a mildly resentful look, though she supposed it was her own fault for bringing it up. The captain knew she was allegedly royalty now, but not of where.

Of course, Sven didn't know any of this either. What he knew was that apparently a nearby province was still mostly out of contact. "I could take imaging of that area too." The more he offered to do lion scouting, though, the more he was wondering if he'd need to take them along to help whenever they tried this. He was none too confident about his own ability to pilot and navigate at the same time. It was a depressing thought, and he tried not to dwell on it. "Just to get a better picture."

"That sounds—"

"—Like low priority," Larmina said abruptly. She did not want to hear what she had happened in the Seven Isles. She already knew too much.

Sarial eyed her curiously, but also couldn't really argue the point. "There are a lot of provinces we have little to no information on—it's more the rule than the exception, really. We have heard that local Drule authorities are being overthrown in several places as word spreads that their military presence is gone."

That was encouraging, at least. Sven didn't envy the Drules, and he certainly didn't pity them either. "Is there a list or a map of where you have or haven't heard from? If I'm able to sneak a little surveying in after training, I'd like to know where to go first."

That they did have; Sarial produced a planetary map. Each province had one of three labels. "Secure, contact, and no contact," she translated, and he jotted down several more notes. She wasn't wrong, there was a lot of ground. If they did get a free moment he might recruit Lance to help, the man did love any excuse to fly his lion more…

"Anywhere I should prioritize?"

"Nothing more urgent than any other, that I know of. The Princess or Lord Coran would have more input."

Sven nodded. He was probably getting way ahead of himself here, he knew that. But maps. And having a plan made him feel better, even if he wasn't sure when he'd be able to start on it. Drawing an extremely rough representation of the continent they were on in his notes, something else caught his attention. A series of hand-drawn symbols that looked something like a sword and a star. The same symbol had been on the provincial map, mostly in the mountains; it had been drawn on the map's key, too, but he didn't know the words. "What are these markings?"

Larmina tilted her head. "Air bases?" It didn't say anything else.

"Air bases?" Sven echoed blankly. Arus has air bases? Now that he thought about it, Keith had said they were hiding the Falcon in an old patrol base. Maybe he hadn't asked enough questions.

Nodding, Sarial went back to the provincial map. Larmina had not really been involved in that part of the militia's operations; she'd been more valuable elsewhere. "The Bright Angels, our aerospace forces, launched from mountain facilities. We have the main ones marked there, but the smaller patrol bases are only on the provincial maps. Most of the local bases are long since scavenged, but there are a couple we believe to only be accessible by air." She paused. "And since the Bright Angels don't… exist, anymore…"

Both Larmina and Sven grimaced, and he gave a sympathetic nod. Which was a little weird when he was in the middle of writing notes, but it seemed to get across. "Well, the lions should be able to reach those." Possibly-untouched military facilities felt like they might even be higher priority.

Sarial was thinking the same thing. "You're acquiring quite a list."

Wasn't he, though? He decided to not even mention his quest for the lions' FTL method. "Good thing I enjoy lists."

"Lists too?" Larmina shook her head. "If you weren't so cool, you'd be extremely not-cool."

For the third time today, Sarial facepalmed.

Sven briefly considered being insulted, but he couldn't; it actually made sense. And that thought brought a pang with it. The thought of the person who'd helped him—forced him—to be so cool…

"So, what else do you want to know about maps before we can hear about the murder temple?"

Drawn back to the present, he looked at Larmina, who was grinning again. "Fine." He made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a laugh, setting the maps down. "Though for you to truly appreciate how horrid and impractical this temple was, first I'll have to tell you about the best second this team's ever had… and an extremely ornery medic with a language problem."

Her own thoughts drifting back to the memorial, remembering what had been said there, Larmina leaned forward eagerly. All annoyance about offworlders was forgotten, she wanted to hear this.

"Go for it."

*****

Vince was wandering. Again. He'd much rather have had something to do, but then, doing things tended to lead to commentary he didn't want from things he didn't want to hear from. So he wandered. And it didn't take long for his wandering to bring him to the memorial garden, again… he sighed and looked down at the plants, thinking about the last time he'd wandered here. King Alfor had said they might speak again, if he needed an ear…

Jace's words came back to him and he laughed weakly. Needing an ear was not his problem. I can't just…

The unwelcome sound of a lion purring rippled through his mind, and he made a face, wishing he could growl back. How many more ways could he tell this lion nope?

"I am well aware how you feel about this, cub."

Frown. "Then leave me alone."

"Do you think it's so simple? You cannot hide forever."

"I'm not hiding!" He'd tried to yell it with confidence, but his voice somehow wound up as more of a squeak. Oh yeah, way to sell it, Vince. "…And I think it's about time we had some simpler things happen…"

The lion growled softly. "You fool neither of us, cub."

Sensing the lion's retreat, Vince wished it actually made him feel better. Chasing the voice off—if that was indeed what he'd even done—never helped. Not when its words kept echoing through his mind, and he had no argument against them.

Looking at the plants again, he felt a lump gathering in his throat. It probably wasn't a coincidence the lion had spoken to him here; no more than it was a coincidence that he kept ending up here. But he was going to refuse to acknowledge that too, so instead of leaving, he looked around. The patch of dirt they'd claimed for the memorial garden was nice and neat, but it felt like it needed… well, something.

He'd done some gardening with his moms when he was younger. Not his favorite thing; he preferred the indoors, where he could work with his greater interests. Circuits and wires weren't known for tolerating dirt. But the garden hadn't been unpleasant… it was peaceful, and that seemed like something he could use right now.

He remembered there being partitions in the garden, little decorative fences and such to keep the grass out of the petunias. It didn't really look like the grass was encroaching on the memorial garden at all, but it would give him something to do. So with a shrug, he started to shape some handfuls of loose dirt into a small ridge surrounding the plants.

As he was finishing up, he felt something creeping up his spine, and paused with his fingertips in the dirt. He was better at situational awareness these days—thank you, Pidge—but this was different somehow…

"Nice garden."

Even knowing something had been off, he jumped with a yelp, because he sure as heck hadn't expected what. Whirling around, he found himself frozen again… it was a ghost, again. Standing there with a pale aura and a bright smile, as if this were the most normal thing in the world.

Finally, politeness won the battle with shock, and Vince managed a whisper. "Hi."

"Hey, man." Cam didn't seem worried about his rudeness. "What's up?"

What's up? What kind of question was that? From a ghost, no less! "Don't you know?" Jace had seemed to know something of the situation, at least, and Vince was not about to try to explain anything. He wouldn't get very far without running into something he did not want to discuss, anyway.

The ghost shrugged. "Thought I'd be nice and let you spell it out, but yeah. I might know."

He nearly asked how, but thought better of it. He didn't want to know—well, that wasn't quite true. He wanted to know. But he knew the answer would be something he didn't want to hear.

In fact, there was a lot he didn't want to hear. "I really don't want to talk about what's up," he said with a sigh.

"I get that." Cam moved a little closer, and Vince's reflex to retreat didn't quite manifest. "But sometimes you have to. We do what has to be done, right?"

What had to be done… what was necessary. Vince found himself struck by a serious case of deja vu, because Cam sounded exactly like Keith right then. Which, given who he was, probably wasn't an accident and definitely wouldn't have upset him. But it made Vince feel queasy, and his eyes went to the plants again.

"I don't have to," he said finally, weakly. "And even if I did it wouldn't matter." Pulling through despite everything and doing what had to be done was what the others did, not him. He just tagged along and hoped not to freak out too badly, or be too much of a drag…

Cam's eyes narrowed, and he scoffed. "Oh yeah?" Not for the first time, Vince had the suspicion the ghosts knew more than just what he said out loud. "Like when you fried that robeast? Which was epically sweet, by the way—why do you keep being so weird about it?"

That was like an icy arrow to the heart, and Vince looked down at his hands as his blood went cold. "That wasn't…" It crashed down on him, the memory he'd been trying to evade, the silver flame and the jumble of thoughts putting themselves together, or not. "It wasn't…" One thing he could say for sure, at least. "It was not sweet."

"It was, though! You saved the rest of the team."

"Yeah, the rest, not…" It came out before he could stop it, and he looked away quickly. Which only resulted in him looking at Cam's flower instead of Cam, and with a frustrated sigh he looked between the two a bit more pointedly. "We're in your memorial garden! Because I couldn't—"

—NOPE.

Cam followed his gaze and shook his head. "It doesn't fall on you, Vince. We all did our duty in the moment."

Duty. Maybe that made Cam feel better, but not Vince. It couldn't have been their duty to die, surely. If he'd just known how… no. "It's not right," he said quietly.

"Maybe, maybe not. Can't be changed now, though. And I wouldn't take it back." The ghost looked back up at him, and his outline flickered.

He'd seen that before. "You're fading, aren't you?" It was too soon. Again it was too soon. Seeing them like this hurt, but seeing them go hurt worse…

"Yeah. It's… taxing." Cam shook his head. He didn't seem angry about it, like Jace had. Accepting the apparent limitations of ghost-ness, the way he'd accepted his fate in the arena… Vince tried his best to push that thought aside.

At least there was something he could get off his chest, though. "Thank you, you know. For…" For dying for us. No. "For what you did."

"Just doing what had to be done," he said with a grin, and despite it all Vince barely suppressed a snort. He was laying the Keithiness on pretty thick. But he obviously believed it, too. "Now you have to do… what you need to do."

"You shouldn't have had to." He looked away as the rest set in. "I don't think I can."

"You can, though. We all had to be stronger than we thought—to do things nobody thought we could do, right?" He flickered again. "You've got to trust the others, and yourself."

One of those really wasn't the problem at all. The other… felt impossible. He'd been hit by too much since they came to this planet, how was he supposed to trust himself? His own perceptions and capabilities could change at any moment, he was too unmoored.

Too un-grounded, even with an earth lion refusing to stay out of his head…

"You're stronger than you think, Vince. You got on an Explorer Team fair and square, not like me having to ask for it." Cam grinned again, but he was wavering more now. "I've gotta go, I think. Do svidaniya…"

The word wait was on Vince's lips, but he didn't say it. He knew it wouldn't work, for one thing; the ghost was gone too quickly, for another. All he could do was frown at the empty space, think about the words, and wish he could make himself believe them.

Fuzzmuffins.

*****

Keith was reading Black's book again. It was interesting reading, but usable information felt scarce… he felt a little guilty taking the time. Surely there were more useful things he could be doing. But the team needed rest every so often, and he supposed even he did too…

Black Lion's low growl rose in his mind, and he prepared himself for another reminder to take care of himself. But instead, "Stormsoul, come to my den."

…That was new. "Come to your den?" he echoed, receiving a growl of confirmation. "Alright, I'll be there as fast as I can." Marking his place in the book, he pulled his boots on and ran for the tunnels.

What he found was his lion laying down on the rough stone, mouth and hatch open. "What's going on?"

"You need to be here. Come inside."

Static was creeping over his skin as he vaulted over the lion's jaw. The feeling that he was walking into something he wasn't at all prepared for was strong again. Not unusual for the lions, to be fair, but this seemed worse somehow. Maybe because he knew, buried deep in his mind, what he was about to see.

And there was Princess Allura, sitting in Black's rear seat, looking up with wide eyes as he entered.

"Princess…?" He barely got the word out.

"Oh, I…" She flushed, feeling almost like she'd been caught at something, though she knew that wasn't the case. He looked as nervous as she was, if not even more. "The Lion of Storms has asked me to join you," she explained quietly, though surely he had to realize that. It eased her own nerves to voice it aloud. "I mean to accept, if you will have me."

If he would have her? What was he supposed to say to that?! He was already entirely certain he wasn't going to try to overrule the ancient magical lion, but he was also certain this was insane. Even for his team! This went well beyond any burdens of command.

Black, this… this can't be right. She has a planet to lead!

"It is right, Stormsoul, and more than that." Black purred softly. "This is what is necessary, to bring the Defender to its true strength. But you must accept this bond willingly, as well."

I am not going to reject what you tell me is necessary, he retorted. Black knew better than that. But I thought you couldn't even call to Arusians?

Now the lion paused. "I cannot fully explain. She has heard my voice, when most of her world could hear nothing. We have been strengthened by our bonds, by the Defender's reawakening… I do not know precisely what this bonding will entail, Stormsoul. But she has accepted that risk, and I know that the Pride is strong enough."

Accepted that risk. Wasn't that the entire problem with this? Arus wasn't exactly overflowing with other royals if something went wrong. But… he could worry about that, no doubt, but ultimately it wasn't his choice to make. Like him, the Princess had a burden of leadership to carry, and if she'd weighed those risks…

Hell, she barely even knew him, and she was signing on to have his back in battle. To trust him with her life, in a much more literal sense than before. That was something, too, and something he couldn't take lightly.

This is really what you believe is needed for the… Pride?

"Yes."

Keith looked at Allura, who was watching with quietly bated breath. She could understand the shock. If it were up to her, it wouldn't have been like this… if it were up to her, these warriors wouldn't need to be burdened with protecting her world at all. It should fall to her people. In a way, she felt she needed to do this simply because no other Arusian could.

And Keith?

We made this planet a promise. We made her a promise. Honor it.

Honor…

He nodded slowly. "If this is what's needed to protect Arus, then I accept it."

A low growl ran through the cockpit, and the static swirling around them both intensified. "Daughter of Storms, it is time." They both heard that, but only Allura heard his next words. "If you are sure."

"I am sure," she confirmed softly. Giddiness at becoming part of this, bonding to the Great Lion himself, mixed with the overwhelming gravity and weight of the moment. She knew what this meant—perhaps more to the point, she knew that none of them fully knew what this meant. But she was at peace with it. Ready to face whatever would come.

Forged of new metal…

"Then place your paws upon the console."

The static seemed to guide her hands as she touched the cool metal, feeling a shock that wasn't painful and the lion's presence rapidly strengthening. Then light flared, not just from the console but everywhere at once—

—The swirl of electricity raced up her arms, surrounding her, for a split second she didn't see the cockpit or the console at all, it was just her and the lightning and an instant of sharp, familiar pain, racing through her cheeks, and she gave a sound somewhere between a squeak and a gasp as a roar of shattering glass seemed to fill her ears and the pain was gone, replaced by a flood of lightning in her veins—

Allura's eyes flashed open. She didn't remember closing them. But they opened, and a cloud of golden dust was glittering in front of her, slowly drifting down to the console and scattering over her hands. Then, in a few last tiny sparks, it was gone entirely. She was staring at her reflection in the glass, and it was…

Different.

Almost unconsciously, she lifted her hands to her cheeks, brushing her fingertips over where the Golden Mark had once been. The crescent-shaped markings were still in place on her cheekbones, still glowing with the faintest trace of mystical energies.

But they weren't gold anymore.

Keith took a step forward, staring in confusion that almost even outweighed the new weight he could feel on his shoulders. The markings on Allura's cheeks had turned blue, the same blue he'd noticed glowing in her eyes every so often. Black? What just happened?

The lion growled softly. "Not quite what was anticipated."

…Oh, wonderful.

"But it is done." His voice became stronger. "Daughter of Arus… your name shall be Stormheart. Paladin of Balance, Sentinel of Storms."

Slowly, Allura rose from the seat. Her legs were shaking a little—well, her whole body was shaking a little, still tingling with the overwhelming energies of the bond. But she managed to stand straight, and drew in a steadying breath. "I am honored to be in your service, Great Lion of Storms." Turning to Keith, who still looked very thrown, she tried what she thought was an Earthling salute. "And I am honored to work with you, as well."

Keith's attempt to return the salute turned into just running a shaky hand through his hair. "Well, um, I guess… welcome to the team?" He made a face as soon as he said it. "I mean, welcome to the team, I just guess that's what I'm supposed to be saying." What else was he going to say? This is going to be so very interesting.

The princess cracked a small smile. "Thank you."

Even the lion was chuckling. "You are welcome to just call me Black, Stormheart. And now, I'm sure the Pride will have… questions." Purr. "You always seem to ask more."

Oh, there were going to be a lot of questions. Keith felt like he had plenty all on his own, though it did feel like the others should be involved. "Um, yeah. No doubt."

"I'm sure there will be even more from others," Allura agreed, her thoughts drifting to the council. They already had not been taking surprises very well, she doubted any of this would be different.

"Then you may need to go and begin finding answers…"

Oh, sure. Keith suppressed a snort. It felt like after bonding to an alien princess he'd known for whole weeks, Black could provide a few more answers himself. But then, maybe he couldn't… and to be fair, a lot of what they were about to deal with wasn't exactly something within the lions' control.

"Well," he finally said, giving Allura a solemn nod. "Guess we'd better go find the others."

*****

The others—at least the bonded ones—had already heard the news. Sort of.

Lance had been reading another entry from Red's book aloud. Sven had been wrapping up the tale of the murder temple. Pidge and Hunk were in Yellow's den, stashing the talisman in the rubble that blocked off the cave serpent's lair.

A jolt of lightning shot through them, not unlike when Keith had bonded, though not entirely the same either. And as they recovered from the shock, something else—a low growl of memory. Not an answer, precisely, but a new piece of the puzzle unlocked.

"The Sentinels…"

*****

There were four wings that provided material to Haggar's workshop, each tended by a few hooded acolytes. The mortuary, which stored the bodies of the dead: noteworthy warriors felled under significant circumstances, to be sacrificed to Sarga or used in other rituals when the time was right. The vivarium, where flora and fauna alike were studied, raised, and modified to be used as the basis for new occult beasts. The foundry, where the cybernetic components of the beasts were forged. And the chronarium, where those warriors she claimed who were not yet dead were held in stasis until needed.

Her current subject had not been frozen long. Haggar knew far more about the various slave and enemy races who found their way to the arena than nearly any Drule would bother with, of course—it was a matter of professional interest. This one was a Korel; an abbreviation of Korrlæx Ariel-zke, Children of Ariel. Once they had been renowned in their region of space as both warriors and craftsmen… occasionally, some still sought to reassert that first part of their heritage.

Thus the Legend-Killers of Ariel, the only gladiators to even approach the escaped Earthlings in skill, had faced an occult beast of their own. They had been less successful, and only one had survived. But to even survive such a battle was enough to earn some glory—especially when the subjects Haggar had meant to forge into new beasts were no longer available to her.

He would be precisely what she needed.

"Wake this one," she ordered as two hooded figures came up beside her. "Run all of the standard medical checks before you prepare him for crafting. He may not have been here long, but we can afford no flaws in this work. I will give him his charge once you are finished."

"As you command."

Leaving that process in the hands of her acolytes, Haggar returned to the central hub. She'd left Avok in the vivarium, looking through her collection of Polluxian wildlife samples, and he'd probably had enough time to make a selection by now… but as she passed by the entrance to the mortuary, she paused. Something felt off. A faint crackle of necromantic energy that was not of Sarga or her Domain.

That was actually less peculiar than one might have expected. The Ninth Kingdom took enough captives, and from varied enough sources, that some native necromancer might try to reach their dead once every couple of cycles. But again as a matter of professional interest, Haggar knew the necromantic traditions of most of the kingdom's neighbors. Even further-flung civilizations they might encounter on rare occasions were not wholly unfamiliar to her. But this she'd never felt before.

Even as she rushed into the mortuary, she knew she was too late. The connection was long gone, and the last lingering traces were fading. All she could do was take note of the subject…

…An Earthling?

Her eyes narrowed at the three caskets which held the fallen gladiators, considering the implications. Earthlings had scarcely any true necromancy at their disposal. A few niche beliefs and glimmers. Had it been a false trace? That could happen as well. It would be the simplest answer.

"We shall see," she murmured to herself, then returned to the task at hand. It shouldn't matter, really. Soon, the rest of the Earthlings would be dead as well… and they would all be forfeit to Sarga.