(From Ashes) Chapter 27

Pride: From Ashes
            Chapter 27
            Fighting Fair

Walking back through Black Lion's tunnel, Keith couldn't help but steal the occasional uncertain look at Allura. He'd accepted this, yes, but he could still feel a little torn over the whole thing. And he did. It was just a lot to take in—to try to even fathom what had just happened, never mind what felt like a whole new level of responsibility on his shoulders.

Our shoulders. He should get used to thinking of it like that.

Allura noticed the glances but paid them little mind; she understood her role was still something of an unknown, and couldn't fault his trepidation. She felt a bit herself, having stepped irreversibly onto this path, though it was balanced out by awe and excitement.

Sentinel of Storms.

What did it mean?

Every so often she reached up and rubbed the blue markings on her cheeks. They didn't hurt; really they didn't feel any different than before. But the changes in her reflection were still taking some adjustment, and she kept glimpsing herself in the tunnel windows.

Be of new metal…

When Black had told her she would need to sacrifice, the loss of the Golden Mark hadn't even been something she'd imagined. But now, the more she thought about it, the more she wondered… the Polluxians were known to have markings in many different colors. Romelle's were lavender. And it was a common convention in ancient artwork to depict Arusians with golden skin and colorful marks; it was generally accepted to be an allegorical style that had fallen out of favor.

Perhaps not so much. The lions were ancient as well, was there some other deep magic at play?

She was drawn from her thoughts as Keith stopped short at the mouth of the tunnel. "Well, at least I don't have to call you all."

The other lion pilots were arrayed in the central hub; Lance crossed his arms. "Actually boss, I think someone did call us. With fucking zaps." It had been an effective summons, but maybe not the one any of them would've preferred.

Sven was looking especially surly. He was so over being electrocuted.

"We gotta get better comms," Hunk muttered; Keith managed a weak smile as he nodded.

"Yeah, probably."

"Fuck yes."

Pidge's gaze had drifted to Allura; since he could see better in the dark, he was the first to notice something was off about her. "Komora?"

Though he hadn't specified exactly what he was what-ing at, Keith felt like the general question was valid. Stepping out into the main chamber, he waved back towards Allura and exhaled slowly. "Meet my copilot."

As she stepped into the light behind him, the others saw it too; Lance cocked his head and blinked. "Huh. You're blue."

Sven's eyes widened a little. "You are blue."

"I'm what?" Allura asked blankly, looking down at herself. She didn't think anything else had changed—

"Your markings," Lance clarified quickly. "They're blue."

"…Seems thematically inappropriate," Pidge muttered. "But yes. Blue."

"Oh." Grinning a little nervously, she suddenly found herself wanting to hide the markings as everyone stared at them. Need to get used to it. This was not going to be the last time… and there were certain cultural implications the offworlders wouldn't understand. Things could get messier later. For now, though, she nodded. "That, yes. It seems the bonding did that."

"Then it can be done," Green growled, and Pidge jumped slightly.

What? And don't you dare say you don't know.

"What went wrong can be undone."

He decided there were more pressing matters to worry about than what the hells that meant. No doubt he would find out sooner than he wanted.

The other three had exchanged shrugs at the princess' explanation; color changing cheek markings didn't seem appreciably crazier than, say, glowing eyes. "More fucking lion weird, got it. Welcome to the team, Princess."

"Welcome aboard!"

"Yes, welcome."

Which brought Pidge to the more pressing matters. "Can I welcome you to the team and also ask what in the third hell Black Lion is doing?" Isn't she the princess?! This seemed incredibly impractical.

"Being a fucking lion," Lance suggested before either person actually bonded to Black could try to answer.

"Lions gonna lion," Hunk agreed.

Keith shook his head; they weren't wrong. "I wish I knew, Pidge. But he seems to have his reasons, just like all of them."

Oh, boy. Allura was not wholly excited to be the subject of this discussion—she was standing right there—but it wasn't unexpected. She'd be getting this worse from her own people, too. I have definitely gotten into it. "He called upon me to carry my family's legacy with the lions forward," she said quietly. "And I will do so to the best of my abilities."

"This is her planet," Lance pointed out. He understood the issues, but it all came down to that. Nobody should have to just hide in a hole while other people fight for their world. "She should get to help protect it, fight for it. She deserves that." Justice.

"I thought we were supposed to be protecting her." Pidge shrugged helplessly. Loyalty. "If she's on the team that's good enough for me, I'm not saying she shouldn't be able to fight." He'd gotten used to the fact that they'd picked up one civilian princess, he could get used to another. "I just hope Black knows what he's doing."

Sven found himself agreeing with Pidge, almost despite himself. Intellectually he wanted to agree with Lance, but this just seemed unwise. Arus had lost far too much as it was without risking their heir. But maybe that was his mother talking; wasn't he the last to insist on staying safely hidden away in the name of politics? No matter his apprehension… Purity. "It is her life to risk, I suppose."

"She's standin' right there," Hunk grumbled, earning a small grin. "And I think you'll rock it, Princess." Faith.

"I'm just as shocked as any of you," Keith agreed. "But we are supposed to protect her planet, and Black says this is necessary. And Lance is right too; she deserves the chance to fight for her people. She had to accept the bond, and you all know that's nothing to take lightly." He looked over at her. Honor. "And I know you wouldn't take these risks lightly, either."

Allura sighed heavily; much as she understood it, she was pretty well over this discussion. "No. I understand the risks, and mean to arrange contingencies with the Council as quickly as possible." Frown. "And I'm not exactly a stranger to combat."

Now they were all staring at her again. Though the surprise didn't last long; on its heels came the thought of what had happened to this planet, and it made perfect sense.

Still, Lance couldn't help the first question it invited. "Flight combat?" Nothing would surprise me at this point.

"No… ground." She looked back towards Black's tunnel. "I don't know about spacecraft." Yet. "But I did lead the attack when we reclaimed this castle, and I left arrows in quite a few Drules in the process."

That drew a couple of low whistles, and Pidge looking at her with a whole new respect. Maybe he could reassess the civilian part of it outright.

"Well I mean, it's not like we're totally used to fighting in lion-shaped ships either." Lance snorted. "Never mind giant robot limbs. We can train you for flight, no problem."

"That we can," Keith agreed with a nod, then cracked a grin. "We do have two of the best pilots in the Alliance here."

The other pilot gave his cockiest smirk. "Fuck yeah we do."

"If I can learn it anyone can learn it," Hunk chuckled. "And I don't think any of us knows what a 'Sentinel' has to do yet anyway, yeah?"

"Flight combat experience may not even be relevant for the back seat," Sven pointed out. "Hunk is right, we don't know their purpose." Left unsaid was the point that flight combat experience hadn't even been a requirement for the front seat. On one hand, they'd all at least had a basic familiarity with cockpit functions.

On the other hand, magic robot lions.

It was true, in any case. "I think flight training would still be a good idea. If something were to happen to the pilot," sure, Kogane, talk about yourself in third person, "it couldn't hurt to have someone else available."

"The most obvious purpose for a second pilot is backup," Pidge agreed, then frowned slightly. "Doubt it'll be the only purpose, but it's a start, kir sa tye?"

They'd gone from questioning having her in combat at all to discussing her actually flying Black Lion remarkably quickly, and Allura couldn't help the grin spreading over her face. She'd have been content to bond, to fight for the lion of legend. To actually fly him? Even for a few moments?

Lance took note of it and grinned too. "I think she wants to fly." The princess nodded eagerly.

"Well, we'll need to focus on… whatever the basics of the back seat are first." Keith was nodding slowly. "But we will start on flight basics sooner rather than later, too. We're going to need some more training sessions, and soon."

"Why not right now?" Sven suggested with a shrug. They were already all in the tunnels.

"No time like the present," Lance agreed.

They had no idea how right they were.

Coran was racing down the hallways as fast as his legs would carry him, completely abandoning even pretending to use his cane. He wasn't the only one; he had several people looking for the lion pilots, including people who couldn't have even spoken to them if they'd found them. There had been little choice; the offworlders had decided to all disappear at the exact wrong time.

There was one place he knew of that nobody else would know to look, and after their rooms had turned up only their other teammates and some cryptic mentions of lion things, that was where he went. Sure enough, all five of them were gathered by the shuttles.

So was Allura, and he spared about half a second to take note of her blue cheek markings, but there was no time to really do more than register the fact. "Commander!"

Everyone spun to face him; the urgency in his tone was unmistakable. "Uh oh."

"Yes, Coran?"

"There is a… a beast." He wasn't sure how else to explain the thing that had arrived. "An extremely large monster on the east side of the castle."

Immediately, all five offworlders tensed. That was not what they'd expected; it was worse.

"A beast?" Lance echoed.

"A robeast?" Hunk amended worriedly.

"I do not know what it is, exactly, but it seems the Drules have brought it. We picked up one of their ships momentarily, but it left our detection range after only a minute or so. The beast appeared shortly after." A robeast. He only knew the word from what the team had described from their time in the arena, and it didn't bode well, that was for certain. "It's a ways out from the castle and hasn't moved, as if it's waiting for something."

"Kuso…" Keith's eyes had widened throughout that; now he swallowed hard. The urge to ask for confirmation just to buy himself a moment was strong, but he knew damn well the older man hadn't stuttered. "Alright. We need to get to the lions. Princess…"

Their commander was not the only one on the team who had some thoughts about Drule timing right now. She can't go now. Not without any training. Black growled in disagreement, but he still wasn't sure. There was accepting her as his copilot and then there was, well, this.

Allura didn't even let him start the question, or whatever he was about to say. "Coran, I will be joining in the battle."

The old knight blinked. Then blinked again. Then blinked one more time for good measure. Somehow, clearing his eyes didn't change what his ears had told him, so he tried the more direct approach. "I'm sorry?" He'd misheard, obviously. It was all this running around, a man his age shouldn't be moving like this—

"I know I'd given my word not to put my life on the line needlessly. But this is not needless. The Great Lion of Storms has called, and I have answered." Her eyes glowed briefly as she spoke; not the bright blue of her Arusian magic, but the electric-blue of Black Lion's energy.

Coran did not recall the word needlessly being part of that promise, but he supposed it could've been interpreted that way. Especially after she'd led the liberation of the castle. But still. "Arus' heir, and one of the few surviving members of any of our royal families, going into battle with no training in the area is highly unwise." He knew perfectly well Allura didn't know how to operate a spacecraft.

"She is completely untrained," Pidge agreed, keeping his tone neutral. Did loyalty require being okay with just throwing her in the deep end immediately? Maybe—but it felt like it was at least worth noting the issue.

"But she's also bonded," Lance countered. "And what if we need her, or whatever the back seat does?" Maybe the other fights would've been less dicey if they'd had a Sentinel, whatever a Sentinel was. "If it was Romelle we'd be letting her. Similar situation."

"…Would we, though?" Pidge didn't feel the situation was all that similar, either. But pointing out Allura was clearly more important to Arus than Romelle had been to Pollux wouldn't be manners, and wasn't really the point.

"We would?" Considering Romelle was speaking to his lion, Sven had some thoughts on that too. But it wasn't the point either.

Lance gave them both an annoyed look. "I would. She's proved herself. Allura's kept herself and her people alive, right? And I trust the lions." …Sorta.

Red huffed a little.

"We did kinda just talk about how we're not experts ourselves," Hunk pointed out. He'd been ready to back her either way; if she hadn't wanted to enter battle untrained, he had a feeling they'd still be having a debate over whether she should. If she did, well, that should be that.

Listening to his team, all making complete sense for a change, Keith let out a long breath. He was the commander, and the person in Black's front seat. Could he actually order her to stay behind? Did he even want to?

Black's low growl ran through him again, and he made his decision. "I'll keep her as safe as possible, we all will. But we can't stand here arguing while there's a robeast out there. We have to defend this planet, and she's part of that now."

Allura nodded her agreement. "I promise to return, Coran. And when I do, remind me of all the dangers then."

"…As you wish, Princess." It was less acceptance than resignation, but the Commander was right about one thing. They didn't have time right now for him to argue about this absolute madness the way he would've liked.

He would be taking her up on that reminder, though. He would be making a list.

"You heard the man." Keith's command tone left no room for any further argument anyone might have made. But he was pretty certain nobody meant to make them. They might have qualms, but… they were a Pride, and now she was part of that too. It would have to be enough. "To the lions!"

*****

None of them were quite certain what to expect, and not just because of Allura.

A robeast.

They didn't know much about the Drule monsters, even having destroyed one before. Were they all the same, standardized? Was 'Demonspine' a model name or a unique creature? They had no idea. All they knew was that rumor did say the beasts were deployed to the battlefield on occasion.

Great, they were an occasion now. Probably fair.

Dropping into Yellow's front seat and bringing the lion's systems up, Hunk couldn't help a glance over his shoulder. He could almost hear Vince yelling NOPE.

Sven paused for a moment before taking Blue through the water, looking back himself and thinking about Romelle. Would it feel different for them when they formed Voltron? Was Keith feeling different already?

Keeping Green in her den until he saw all the others go active—her forest was east of the castle, he didn't want to run into this thing alone—Pidge was pointedly not thinking about how what went wrong could be undone. Or whatever.

Lance would've rather been heading to the meadows for a picnic, personally. Or if not for that, he'd rather have had Daniel at his back. Would it be much longer? If one copilot had bonded…

Settling into her seat, Allura felt the glow in her eyes flare to life, and the alien words on the console began to make sense—to be legible, anyway. She still was none too certain what most of these controls meant. But as Keith dropped into his seat and looked back at her, she nodded; she was as ready as she was going to be.

No. She was ready.

"Hang on, Princess." Sliding his key into its slot, Keith pushed Black forward immediately, and the lion shot into the storms of Thunder Ridge with a roar.

The robeast was waiting calmly. It was forged of a gladiator, after all—twisted, warped, but retaining a certain understanding. Its orders were to destroy the lions, to bring glory to itself and the Ninth Kingdom; the crumbling castle was an unworthy target.

More worthy ones were about to arrive.

"Holy hells." Coming around the mountains, Keith was the first to catch sight of the beast. Behind him, Allura made a noise somewhere between shock and fear; they'd had no idea the Ninth Kingdom possessed such things. Whatever else Arus had faced, they'd been spared this… until now.

"What the fuck is that?" Lance demanded, keeping to a safe distance.

"…A robeast," Pidge offered dryly. It was the best answer he had.

This beast was, in fact, nothing like the Demonspine. It was a spindly, long-snouted monstrosity with way too many arms—three extra pairs of them, arrayed on its back, tipped with sickle claws instead of hands. Its carapace was rough and heavily armored, mostly an iron gray, though they could catch glimpses of maroon and turquoise underneath.

That it would be easily at height with Voltron didn't even seem like a surprise. Of course the Drules could build the damn things bigger.

"It's the arena all over again," Sven murmured, remembering their reaction to that one. Scrambling to learn its capabilities, but not fast enough… this time would be different.

Hunk snorted; hell no, this wouldn't be the arena all over again. "Looks like a spider and an alligator loved each other very much."

"And made one hell of an ugly spigator," Lance agreed.

"…Spigator?" Sven highly doubted that was the correct name, but it worked. He guessed.

As the lions came into range, the robeast had clearly taken note of each of them; it didn't seem overly concerned. "Let's get its attention," Keith ordered. "We need to draw it away from the castle."

"It doesn't look very interested in the castle," Pidge muttered. On one hand that was a good thing, considering the time it had taken for them to get out here. On the other, he didn't necessarily care for these monsters being intelligent.

Though Pidge was right, they all knew they couldn't rely on that, and Keith fired a blast from his ion cannons directly into its side. "That should do it."

It had definitely done it. Moving without any particular urgency, the robeast turned on him, reaching over its shoulders and ripping two of the arms free with a slight pop.

"…Ew?"

"Ugh, that is gross." As the others opened fire, the robeast seemed as calm as ever, and clamped the two arms together with a flicker of energy. It whirled what was now a bladed battle staff with a flourish, and Lance pulled sharply away at the last possible moment. "And unfair!"

"Things have been quite unfair to the Drules up until now," Sven said as he launched waves of missiles at the robeast.

"I'd like to keep it that kind of unfair!"

"Yeah, unfair is totes fine when it's unfair to them."

"We already know these things are unfair, kir sa tye?"

Ignoring the team's banter—they were getting the robeast further from the castle, and not too long ago trying to talk and fly lions at the same time had been a problem—Keith darted in for another ion cannon blast. The beast didn't seem quick, maybe they could use that…

He'd barely finished the thought when it lunged at him, every bit as fast as one of the lions could pounce. "Kuso!" Okay, it's quick too. The beast took a wild swing at Black with its staff, and it was all he could do to get them out of the way in time. "Too close…"

Allura gripped the sides of her console and gritted her teeth at the sharp movements, keeping her eyes on her own screen. She could see a set of crosshairs moving as Keith fired Black's shoulder cannons, and knew instinctively she had access to the same thing. But she was certainly not going to try to take it over when she'd never fired a weapon like that in her life. Instead she tried to focus on studying what he was doing, tracking the tactical situation, hoping she might see something of use to the team.

The lions were reorienting, and Lance decided the spigator's weapon should be the first thing to go. He unleashed Red's lava breath at the staff, hoping to melt through it; barring that, gluing its only opposable thumbs to the weapon couldn't hurt.

It worked for about three seconds. Obsidian coated the robeast's hands and part of the staff, interrupting its pursuit of Black and causing it to snarl in annoyance. Then it simply pulled its hands and the staff apart in a flurry of volcanic glass shards, replacing those arms and pulling another pair free.

This pair fired plasma, and Lance backflipped Red out of the way as the blue-hot streams shot just above him. "Holy fucking shit!"

"Are all of its arms weapons?" Sven asked. The beast had broken out of Lance's obsidian easily enough, but Blue could do better than that; narrowing his eyes, he fired her elemental cannon at the monster's legs.

"We need to assume so," Keith decided, firing with Black's lightning breath at the same time. It was flashier than Blue's, and got the beast's attention, but those weren't the correct priorities. The lightning shot through its armored skin and drew a snarl of pain, true. But the water impacted dead on, encasing its legs together in a good two meters of solid ice—enough to make even a giant robeast stumble.

Hunk decided to help it with that, and landed a claws-first tackle straight into the robeast's chest; it tried to intercept, but unbalanced itself further and went down with a roar. "Nailed it!"

"Nice!"

That victory lasted more than the lava breath's three seconds. Maybe closer to ten. Then the monster managed to break its legs apart, launching itself into a surprisingly graceful roll and kicking Yellow hard to the side.

"HOLY FUZZM—" There was a crackle of static as Yellow slammed to the ground hard enough to disrupt comms.

And make a small crater.

"Hunk!" Keith fired Black's wing rifles at the monster to stop it from pursuing; looking back at the impact site, he saw Yellow Lion pop up out of the hole.

"All good! Ish."

"Perhaps mostly good."

Yeah, probably better. Yellow seemed agitated—well, more agitated than being kicked into the dirt by a spigator could fully explain. But there wasn't time to ask about it now, they needed to move.

"I hate these things," Lance grumbled as he fired a full volley.

"You can say that again."

Pidge had cloaked while the robeast was otherwise occupied, and was hovering behind it waiting for an opening. It didn't seem like Green's tactical pods would be much use against this thing, and her plasma blasts were doing the same as anyone else's. Which was to say, not much. But he might be able to do something helpful here…

As the monster paused to break itself free of the remaining ice, he darted in and clamped Green's jaws down on one of the arms that had made up the robeast's staff. Then he wrenched back, trying to tear it loose.

That maneuver didn't break Green's stealth, but it still got the robeast's attention. Whether it knew one of the lions could turn invisible, or just knew a powerful force tugging on one of its arms was bad, probably didn't matter. Either way it reached back, detaching that arm again just long enough to swing violently with it.

"Mijtairra!" His track record with stealth lion ambushes was really becoming not what he'd like it to be—he managed a few more curses before he had to shut his mouth as the lion flipped out of control.

"Uh, ninja?!"

"Pidge?"

"Pidge, you alright?"

Their answer was another massive impact, not too far from the crater Yellow had left; Green's cloaking did not persist through that. Pidge fought the lion to her feet as quickly as he could. "Okay, so disarmament doesn't work."

"Under fucking statement."

"It does have a lot of 'em." Hunk lunged to intercept as the robeast fired its own plasma torches again, and what had to be no fewer than half of his own lion's alarms started shrieking as huge swaths of armor melted away. But at least Yellow had the armor to give. Green, not so much.

The team scrambled to regroup, and Sven launched a full flight of Blue's claw missiles—smaller than her mainline warheads, but guided, and the robeast was on the move. "We don't seem to be causing much damage." It was easier to avoid getting hit by a single robeast than by a couple hundred warship lasers, but the monster also seemed much more durable. "Perhaps we should make this a little more unfair?"

"I'm with the Viking."

"Let's."

"Oh yeah."

"Then let's do it." Nodding, glancing back at Allura, Keith took a deep breath. "Form Voltron!"

As the lions shot into the sky, the robeast attempted to take advantage, firing an extended plasma blast directly into the crackling energy field surrounding them. It was a stationary target—but it also quickly became clear the attacks weren't penetrating the barrier. So it stepped back, growling, replacing the plasma arms and drawing the final pair: a set of long, sharp blades.

The instant Voltron landed, the beast charged.

The team was getting better at regaining their wits after the formation, and they broke into a run just as quickly. "Alright, let's see what we can do now."

"Let's squash this thing."

"Wish we had a giant flyswatter."

"We do have two badass boots!"

Allura had not gotten back to her senses after the formation—or more accurately, she was focused on different ones. She could feel mystical currents running through the robot that hadn't been there before, an awareness of all five lions as Voltron moved. Still wary of fussing too much with her console, she'd started concentrating on those traces instead. Perhaps they would tell her something, teach her something…

"Lance, Pidge, jaw blades. Let's take some chunks out of this thing."

"Slice and dice!"

Pidge said nothing as he activated Green's blade. He wasn't sure melee with this thing was the best of ideas; they certainly hadn't been able to practice hand to hand combat. But they seemed committed, so he just hoped he'd get to punch the robeast in the face.

A panel lit up on Black Lion's rear console, and Allura leaned forward to study it. A status display of some sort, she thought. But there must be a reason her attention was being drawn to it now… she bit her lip in frustration. Black needs me here for something, but what? She wasn't going to brush it aside. Maybe there really wasn't anything she could do here without training, but if there was something she would find it. This panel. I don't know it yet. But… taking a deep breath, she rested a hand on the screen.

Images sprang to life in her mind, a pattern weaving itself from energy and shadows and space. She saw jagged silver lines like complex circuitry, wreathed in lightning and Black Lion's energy, and things wrapped up within the circuits. Things that could be used somehow, though she wasn't sure how. Looking further she could see where the energy became green and red, and two of the… items? there were aglow, seemingly alive. Awed by the vision, feeling the lions' movements, she fell into a near trance and opened herself to what she was seeing.

It had all taken place in mere seconds, and then Voltron and the robeast were in range of each other. Lance and Pidge both aimed for what they were pretty sure was the beast's face; it had about five eyes there, at least. Both landed solid punches and the monster roared in fury, then leaped up and brought its swords down on Voltron's shoulders.

Feedback flooded through Red and Green, rattling the cockpits. "I really fucking hate this thing!"

"Agreed." Pidge tried another punch, but didn't have very good leverage. Nothing useful came of it.

Staring directly into the monster's eyes—all five of them—Keith couldn't disagree either. Dammit. They had definitely not trained for facing something like this.

"Brace us, bro," Hunk called to Sven as the spigator tried to drive Voltron backwards. "I owe this guy." Sensing Blue holding as solidly as could be expected, he kicked Yellow upwards, squarely between the robeast's legs.

The monster went flying with an indignant roar, and he briefly wondered if even for robeasts being kicked there was particularly bad news. Or maybe it was just mad because it hadn't wanted to be used as a football. Probably valid, but then it shouldn't have shown up on Arus.

"No, it shouldn't have." Yellow still sounded agitated. "Something about this creature is… wrong. It must be put to rest."

That seemed like another understatement.

"Well that worked," Lance crowed as the beast landed in an undignified heap. It was up again a second later, growling with rage.

"Did it, though."

"For a nanosecond."

"We did some damage," Keith said, noting a couple chunks of armor on the ground at the monster's feet. "Good work, now don't get cocky."

"Lance, get cocky?" Sven took a potshot with Blue's laser eyes as the robeast oriented for another charge. "Never."

"Born cocky," Lance snorted. He had time for a heat blast, then Voltron stepped back as Keith brought up the wing rifles.

The metal slugs shot forward in a wash of magnetic energy, taking only a split second to cover the distance, but that split second was enough for the beast to dodge. It drew its staff again, taking a sweeping stab with one of the blades. Voltron sidestepped, but took a superficial scratch to one thigh.

"Whoa, that was close."

Not a bit satisfied with superficial, the robeast tried again, leaving a matching scar on the other thigh.

"Too close!" Lance tried Red's lava breath again. It was even more impressive when Voltron did it; lava coated the monster's arm, and it roared in pain before the molten material cooled. This time the obsidian left behind didn't break as easily, leaving its arm more or less frozen in position.

What that still left it with was a large glass-coated club to smack them with, and as it pressed its advantage it was doing just that, alternating staff strikes and clumsy but powerful straight-arm blows. One of those finally connected, shattering the obsidian and sending Voltron almost to its knees.

"Melee isn't working," Pidge said, though he felt like everyone s should have noticed by now.

"No, it isn't. Anyone have any other ideas?"

"…No." Sven landed a quick kick on the monster's shin, buying them a moment of breathing room, but only a moment.

"Uhh. Not melee?" Hunk braced them as the robeast retaliated, then shrugged to his own cockpit. He wasn't the tactical expert here, but that seemed obvious enough.

Though he'd been hoping for something a little more specific, Keith decided Hunk wasn't wrong. "Sven, lasers. Hunk, plasma. Let's get some distance and go from there."

"Yes sir." Blue's laser eyes flared to life again, burning deep into the robeast's ankle. He was really getting to like this flying a foot thing.

"Pew pew!" Yellow's plasma cannon launched a smaller mortar—they didn't want Voltron caught in the blast, but even a smaller one would do some damage.

If it hit.

It didn't. The beast pulled back, dodging the plasma, then lunged forward with a howl. Blue's lasers hit it again, but didn't impede it a bit as it slammed a fist into Voltron's chest.

Keith cried out as he was thrown back against his seat, and was certain he could hear Black's armor plates crunching under the blow. "Hell's bells…" He was going to run out of curses before they finished this battle.

Lance wasn't. "We need an actual fucking plan!"

It wasn't going well. Allura could tell that through the trance she was in, and was feeling overwhelmed by what was going on outside as well as inside. Items were lighting up everywhere in her vision as Voltron fought, and harsh wavering within the circuits when they took a hard blow. It was too much to make sense of, but she still felt she needed to be there. To find something.

At the heart of Black Lion's energy, something particularly large and bright was sleeping. She could feel it calling to her, calling to them, but she couldn't fully make it out.

Focus…

"Okay, not-melee not workin' either!" Hunk tried another kick, but this time the robeast twisted itself away; Voltron nearly went down just from unbalancing itself. "Uh, can this thing learn?"

"Great, it's a smart spigator!" Lance fired more lava, and this time didn't even connect. He swore up a storm instead, which wasn't doing much for their combat effectiveness but did ease his frustration slightly.

"Then we need to outsmart it," Keith answered, though he had no clue how they were meant to do that. Knowing the full capabilities of their own robot seemed like it would help. And that, at least, was an advantage they did not have.

"Jalekya…" Pidge attempted a punch, just grazing the beast; firing off a flurry of plasma bolts, he managed to leave a nice trail of scorch marks across its chest, but it didn't seem to slow the thing down any.

"Here I thought we were making things unfair by forming Voltron, we're barely evening the odds." Sven yanked his control sticks back, giving ground as the robeast drew its swords and pressed the attack again. "Anyone have any other ideas?" Asking you too, Blue.

"There's something still hidden." She gave a comforting purr, though he could sense her frustration as well. That always seemed to be how these situations went.

Lance had no ideas. Red?

"I can't quite remember…"

He rolled his eyes and fired a heat blast. "Helpful."

"There has to be something else." Green?

"I think… we did not fight with our bare paws, but…"

"Yella Fella?" Got any more of that faith stuff? We could use it right now!

"There was more. It… waits…"

Fending off a few sword strikes, taking a few more glancing blows, Keith swore profusely in Japanese and struggled to keep himself centered. "Black, what can we do?"

The lion purred reassuringly. That was not an answer.

Behind him, Allura was also struggling for calm. She had to see. She had to find whatever was calling to them, had to find…

Balance.

Taking a long, slow breath, she tried to tune out the panic. There were too many things. Too many choices, too many objects she couldn't identify—they didn't need all of that! They needed an answer.

There. In the heart of the swirls and circuitry, the shining object calling to her became clear.

A sword…?

A sword!

In her vision she tried to reach for it, but her fingers couldn't seem to grasp the hilt. "Come on… we need this, now!"

The others weren't feeling any less desperate.

"Red, fucking remember!"

"I am unsure it's mine to remember."

With our bare paws… "This thing knows what it can do, and we don't."

"We are gonna have so many more trainin' sessions after we make it through this…"

"Yes, after."

Realization struck Allura as the words of the others echoed somewhere in the distance. The battle felt somewhere else; she was too disconnected. The lions were a team. The pilots were a team.

"Keith!" Closing her hand in the vision, she opened her eyes, letting her focus fall back on the cockpit around her. She felt the hilt of the blade for a split second, and a rumble of thunder shot between them.

Keith gasped, eyes flashing with lightning as something sprang to life in his mind.

"Jyu'oúh'kien alnae!"

Voltron shook violently, and this time it wasn't from anything the robeast had done. "Holy fuzzmuffins!" Hunk gripped the controls with all his strength. He could feel Sven doing the same opposite him, fighting to keep them steady as the people up top did, well… something.

Pidge and Lance felt static, a trail of sparks drawing their attention to a new panel. Neither had any clue what Keith had just yelled, but both knew instinctively what to do, yanking down on a lever and hearing their lions roar.

Keith blinked, staring at his main panel. "What the hell did I just say?" he whispered as Voltron brought its arms together.

"Sword, I hope." Allura leaned forward, feeling the storm. Watching. Knowing.

Energy crackled between Red and Green's jaws, lightning and silvery tendrils weaving together. Battered by a wave of electricity, the robeast sprang back, drawing its plasma torches and watching warily.

A long, crystalline blade coalesced with its hilt in Red's mouth, and Keith stared in awe for a split second before a grin spread over his face.

"I can work with this."

"…How exactly did the lions forget that?" Sven demanded, and heard Blue growl a not-wholly-satisfactory protest.

"Yeah, Red and I will be having words." There wasn't time for words now. They were moving.

The robeast seemed to debate for a moment, then fired a blast from its plasma torches. It used the attack mostly to cover itself, drawing its staff again, but Keith knew the plasma could still do some serious damage if it landed.

On some instinct, he lifted the sword to block instead of dodging, and watched as the crackling plasma met the lightning wreathing the blade… and vanished into it. Sapphire ions joined with the silvery arcs, creating a glowing, burning cloud around the blade.

No time to be impressed. They had to offload that energy quickly—to ground it somewhere. And the robeast was right there.

Keith took a swing, feeling Lance ensuring its precision as the others kept them steady. The beast tried to counter, but the sword sliced easily through its staff, and it gave a snarl that may have been rage or may have been panic.

"Is this to your liking, Stormsoul?"

Yes. Yes it is.

Black purred again, and he took another swing.

The monster ducked beneath the strike, mostly; the sword clipped one of its weapon arms. From the resulting explosion, Keith assumed it to have been one of the plasma torches. It unbalanced the beast, and he wasn't giving it time to recover, pushing forward and slashing again. This time it managed to get its swords drawn, only to have them immediately shattered too.

"I think I like this," Pidge decided.

"I fucking love this," Lance countered. Even if it is a sword.

Though Keith was in full agreement, he also knew better than to count a robeast out until it was completely down. "Let's finish this."

"Let's." Sven, too, was appreciating a sword more than he ever had before.

"Totally." Hunk grinned. This was awesome.

After losing its own blades, the robeast had stopped its retreat. It could see what was happening here, and gladiators didn't die running away. With a bellowing roar, it lunged, taking aim with a two-handed blow at the damaged part of Black Lion's chest.

The sword hit first.

Voltron slashed diagonally, slicing from shoulder to hip, and the blade spit a shower of sparks as it cut through with almost no resistance. Some of the sparks were from the sword itself. Others were from the robeast; circuits broke and biological components burned away, a combination of energy feedback and physical damage rupturing its power source. A massive thunderclap echoed over the meadow—appropriate enough—as the detonation vaporized what was left of the beast, and then there was nothing but smoke and dust.

"…Holy cats." Keith let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding and sank back into his seat, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Yeehaw." It wasn't as fun without Daniel to mock him, but Lance felt this definitely called for a yeehaw.

"That was…" Sven didn't have the words. The lions were, as ever, unbelievable. "…Well, I'd say it was pretty unfair."

"The best kind of unfair, yeah?"

"Fucking fantastically unfair."

Opening his eyes, Keith looked out at the sword, still clutched tight in Red's mouth. It was a beautiful weapon, though he'd never seen anything styled like it before… the silvery, crystalline blade tapered to multiple points, and though they'd worked off the absorbed plasma it was still surrounded by a few dancing tendrils of lightning.

Pidge was also more interested in the blade than the unfairness, tilting Green's head to get a better look. "Does the sword have a name?" he asked after a few moments; Keith had yelled something unintelligible. And it felt like such a weapon just… ought to have a name.

"Jyu'oúh'kien…?" Keith remembered saying it and knew it was correct, but couldn't fully wrap his brain around the alien syllables.

Allura closed her eyes, trying to fall into sync with the lions again, and the vision returned. She could see it now, the sword no longer buried and hidden but shining bright. And she could see the Altean characters beside it, Black's bond allowing her to read them for what they were.

"Blazing Sword," she said softly, and Keith felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Yeah, what… what she said."

"Blazing Sword," Lance repeated, grinning. "I fucking like it."

"Of course you do," Sven said wryly. "Blazing sounds more fiery than…" He blinked, his vocabulary was suddenly failing him, but he'd already gone this far now. "…Lightningy." Definitely not a word, but maybe if he said it with enough confidence no one would notice.

"Nothing wrong with fiery."

"There's some overlap with the concepts, kir sa tye?"

"Certainly seems that way."

"I suppose, yes."

"And it does look pretty lightningy." Hunk thought it was a perfectly good word.

Silence fell for a few moments, the team just enjoying the fact that they were alive and the monster wasn't. But they couldn't stay out here forever, and finally Keith—not without reluctance—searched his consoles for whatever would dispel the sword. "Alright, we should probably head back." He found it off to his left, and the blade vanished in a bright flash. "Let's disengage."

In another wave of energy, the lions broke apart, returning to their dens. They were going to have some things to take care of on the ground.

*****

The others had not heard exactly what had happened, but they had a pretty good idea. First the lion pilots had run off muttering something about lightning. Then a panicked Coran had come looking for them, and strongly recommended the others get to shelter.

They had done that, though not before stopping by a door to see what was going on and quickly regretting it. Then in the shelters, well…

It would be a wonder if the entire tunnel network hadn't heard Lady Hys' yelling, which Romelle had dutifully translated.

"The Princess is where?!"

Romelle herself had quietly followed the others to the shuttles to wait, and her skin was crawling. She was more than happy herself to not be out there; the beast was more than just horrifying on its own merits. It looked entirely too much like a Polluxian swamp hunter: ten-legged dog-sized spiders that were the stuff of nightmares well beyond childhood.

She kind of wondered if that was a coincidence.

Daniel had questions. So many questions. He'd dragged Vince along behind him; denial was something he could only tolerate for so long.

Vince hadn't protested as much as he'd maybe wanted to. He did want to check in on his team, that was only polite, and when Daniel started glaring like that it was really just easier to go with it… especially when, after Cam's visit, he couldn't quite look at Daniel right now. Besides, it was probably better than staying in the shelters listening to Lady Hys yell, and hearing the mildly panicked whispers of some other Arusians. Whispers he couldn't understand, but could tell weren't good.

There were also more Arusian ghosts down there.

Larmina had gone along too, and she also had questions. Most of them she wasn't too sure she wanted to ask. Maybe Daniel would ask them for her, though he probably wouldn't get to the one she really wanted answered.

There was no way to tell what was going on outside from here; they should've thought to bring a commset. Then again, listening to battle they couldn't do anything about kind of sucked. Daniel started pacing in front of Black Lion's tunnel instead, keeping himself distracted with questions.

"What do you guys think she's doing up there?"

"I don't even know what the rest of them do up there," Vince muttered.

"Me either." Larmina shrugged. "Bet it's something Coran won't like though."

"…That is not helpful, but kind of entertaining."

Romelle had found a stray rock to sit on, and gave Daniel a confused look. "What's entertaining about it?"

He returned her look with one of mild disappointment. "It's like you don't even know me."

"I think he gets to be concerned," Vince said meekly. "She is the princess of this planet."

"Yes, and she's the last survivor of her house." Romelle grimaced. "That's… not a good thing, for her to be putting herself in danger like that."

Daniel's disappointment became a little more pronounced. "Aren't you a princess who's constantly putting yourself in danger these days?"

Wince. "Don't remind me." Am I the last, also?

Don't be hypocritical was about to come out of Daniel's mouth, but he bit it back when he saw her expression shift. Just barely. He did roll his eyes, though. "Well I mean, she rules the planet, right? So if she wants to fly around in a giant robot doing something, she can."

Larmina snorted. "Not how royalty works. But she was shooting sinycka in the hallways when we retook the castle, being in a big robot seems safer."

"She wants in the robot, she should get to choose," Vince agreed. Hear that, creepy voice?

He heard the annoying, creepy purr again. "The wisest choices can only be made once all of the facts are understood."

…That was not an invitation to speak! Stupid, Vince. Though he found it interesting the lion was talking to him right now. Did that mean the battle was over? Or could they have infuriating conversations with other people while they were busy with combat?

Yellow Lion didn't speak again, but Daniel did; he was way too on edge to be dealing with these people right now. But he'd dragged Vince along so he had only himself to blame. "Coming from the guy who's pretending he doesn't have a choice to make at all, that's rich."

Vince looked mildly resentful, then went to stand closer to Romelle. Moral support, and all.

How is she even out there? Larmina kept the thoughts to herself, for the moment. Our people can't fly lions.

"Circumstances change."

She wasn't sure if that made her less or more confused. For that matter, she wasn't sure if it made her less or more irritated. But a moment later, it didn't matter much as Romelle raised her head.

A glow of heat was approaching through the nearest tunnel. "They're coming."

"Finally!" Daniel stopped pacing, but he was still practically bouncing with excitement. Vince came up next to him, though only because he wanted to see if the team was okay. Battles were stressful like that… Larmina looked up quickly, then just as quickly pretended she hadn't.

Red chuckled in Daniel's mind, and he rolled his eyes again.

Lance was the first to the central hub, and the first thing he noticed was Daniel standing in front of the wrong tunnel. "Yo, kid, was that awesome or what?"

Black Lion's pilots arrived at about the same time. Allura was bracing herself for Coran; no question he would have a thorough lecture prepared by now. He'd have one of those even if she hadn't invited him to, and truthfully she could understand it. Didn't mean she was looking forward to it.

But Coran wasn't there, and her mild trepidation gave way to just a little bit of actual dread. If he hadn't come to wait for her, it could only mean he was with Nanny…

"ALLURA!" She was getting pounced on by someone, anyway, as Daniel rushed forward—wait, should he call her princess? "Can I call you Allura? I'm gonna call you Allura. What was it like?!"

Lance snorted, as Vince facepalmed and Larmina snickered despite herself. Not wanted. Rude.

"The cub has questions, Firestriker."

Which you aren't answering, I'm sure.

"That is what it is."

So, no.

"Hi, Daniel," Keith said with a slight sigh. Leave it to him…

Allura had stepped back, quite possibly more startled than she had been at any time in the battle; it gave way quickly to a slightly bewildered smile. "Well, it was very… interesting?" How could she even begin?

"How so?"

"I really need a chance to stop and grasp what I had access to." The thought of what she'd seen was still a bit overwhelming, though without the chaos of battle surrounding her she felt she could do better at sorting it out.

Daniel's eyes narrowed; he was tired of waiting, he wasn't good at waiting. "Well what did you do up there?"

Mostly sat there and looked at things. That wasn't the answer he wanted, of course, and she knew it wasn't even the answer to his real question. "I seem to be able to access certain things that are buried within the lion, different… items?" She had no Common vocabulary for what she'd seen, or more precisely, no context. Even in Arusian she would've had trouble expressing it. "There's so much to become familiar with."

It was all Daniel could do to keep himself respectful; it wasn't her fault the lions were weird and confusing. Maybe he wasn't asking the right questions. "Okay, so what was your role? I mean, do we have any more information on the back seat? Like, at all?"

"Kid, let her breathe." Lance was grinning, but he gave the princess a sympathetic look too. He knew exactly what being subject to a Daniel barrage was like.

"But…" Daniel shot him a glare, but then sighed and backed off; it wasn't her fault the lions didn't answer shit, and wasn't his either.

Allura didn't wholly mind it, though. Maybe if she tried to answer his questions, they would help her sort through her own thoughts. "I think I need more time and training to grasp my full role back there. But it seems I can allow us access to things that Keith couldn't awaken on his own, like the sword. And there are a lot of manual controls, I think some weaponry and scanners, but they weren't something I was trying to puzzle out in battle."

Gritting his teeth, Daniel nodded again. "Thank you." He hoped she knew it wasn't her she was mad at, not really. And at least it was a sliver of information. The back seat had something to do with weapons controls… "Wait, what sword?" Maybe they should've gone out to watch again.

"Voltron has a sword," Keith said with a shrug, and Daniel scowled at him; he'd gotten that.

"Which was fucking handy." Lance gave him a nudge. "New to her, too."

"She did go up having spent what, five total minutes in the cockpit before?" Pidge pointed out, shrugging too. "She did more than anyone could expect with that experience."

"She rocked it," Hunk agreed with a huge grin.

"We'll figure everything out." Keith was inclined to give Daniel an encouraging pat on the shoulder, but knew he wouldn't appreciate that and decided discretion was the better part of valor. Or honor. "It's what we do, right?"

"I'm eager to learn," Allura said with a smile. And once she did, she'd be happy to tell Daniel more about it… though from what she'd gathered, it might not be her he needed to learn it from by then.

Then she looked at Larmina, who'd been surprisingly quiet; she had honestly expected her niece to have some sort of outburst. But she was just staring blankly, and so was Romelle…

"What happened to your markings?"

…Oh, right. She was definitely going to need to get ahead of being asked that by everyone. "I'm not completely sure. The gold broke off when I bonded to Black Lion."

"It broke off?" Larmina echoed, not sure that answered a damn thing. She couldn't help but reach up and scratch her own Golden Mark, and winced a little as her nails dug into the skin. The gold wasn't solid, it did not break.

Except when it did?

Pidge was eyeing her skeptically. What went wrong can be undone. She noticed and caught his eye, and they exchanged brief nods. A silent mutual agreement that whatever was going on with the lions, she was not involved.

But Green Lion purred in her mind, and she found her thoughts drifting to the Usurpers again.

"It…" Romelle didn't really know the full significance of the marks being gold herself; she knew it was a difference between her own people and their distant cousins, and she'd certainly never heard of any Polluxian's marks changing. But she also understood how things went around here, and slowly nodded her understanding. "Weird lion things, got it."

Several of the team shot her appreciative grins. Their first princess had the hang of it. The second one was on the right track.

Vince retreated to stand next to Hunk, thinking about what he'd just heard; he'd listened despite himself. It would've been rude not to. Weapons? That was most of what he'd gotten out of Allura's report too, and he shook his head slightly. Definitely not a me thing. Nope. The other things she'd said sounded both fascinating and terrifying…

No. He wanted no part of it at all.

Daniel was still frustrated; he hadn't even noticed Allura's markings, he'd had other things on his mind. And he still did. It was all he could do not to start pacing again; Red purred, and he tried to glare in his brain. Unless you wanna give me some answers, I don't wanna hear it.

"Answers aren't always clear."

Then fuck off.

"Alas." He could've sworn he could hear the lion smirking. "I have yet to know what that means."

…He wondered if Black Lion had driven Allura this fucking crazy before she bonded, but somehow he doubted the question would get him anywhere. So he sank back against one of the shuttle docks and sulked as the pilots started to fill the others in on the battle… but he was still listening carefully, for any possible extra fragment of information.

And, he supposed, because as infuriating as the lions might be… Voltron was really freaking awesome.