(From Ashes) Chapter 39

Pride: From Ashes
            Chapter 39
            Unity

The word had gone around via the lions; by the time the militia's warning made it through, the team was already preparing for launch. Clarification on what exactly they were launching for still helped, though.

"So this is definitely a robeast?" Pidge felt on edge, which was only natural, but it somehow felt worse than usual. "Did we get… the jaivur, last time, after all?" Behind him, Larmina frowned; it felt like that would be anticlimactic, somehow. But it was a fair question.

"I don't know, Pidge." Keith was edgy too, and he could feel Black's wariness. "I hope so."

"Oh, um." Vince was hunched in Yellow's back seat, trying to look everywhere at once and nowhere at all. He was in a lion. He was in a lion! But the question…

Hunk glanced over his shoulder as best he could, fighting his initial wince into an encouraging grin. "Yeah uh, 'bout that." It was weird having someone behind him, but he couldn't complain. And he would've tried to field the question, but his new backseater waved him off. This was his responsibility now.

"I uh, may have gotten him just now. But I'm not sure."

"What?!"

"Huh?"

"…Komora?"

"Uhhh?"

Those had been about the reactions he'd expected. Vince wondered if it was more the revelation that the jaivur had appeared again, or more because he was the one speaking up… not that he'd have blamed them for the latter, either. He was still very much feeling it himself. Sliding down a little further in his seat, he clarified, "He uh, found me at the garden and asked me to end it. So I tried."

Maybe that hadn't really clarified much.

Keith actually wheeled Black around briefly so he could stare at Yellow Lion, still a glimmer in the distant sky as the team assembled. Oh. He… they'd all felt the tremor. They were used to these things enough that Vince's voice on the comms wasn't a surprise, and of course there would have had to be a hell of a story behind that. "He asked you to… end it?" he echoed quietly.

"Flynn did?" Lance's whisper was barely enough for the comms to catch.

"Yeah. Something happened." Your lions did something. Vince didn't feel he was qualified to elaborate, and doubted they'd have had time even if he did. "He was fighting, was desperate. And I sparked full on like in the arena. Wanted to save them, but I'm not sure I did."

What did it mean that a robeast was attacking so quickly?

"Shit," Daniel muttered, reaching forward and touching Lance's shoulder. His frontseater was having a little trouble remembering to breathe.

"Komora sa kye…" Pidge had a distinct urge to stab someone, though he had no idea as to the appropriate target. Though, exchanging looks with Larmina, he couldn't help thinking this revelation made a surprising amount of sense. Anything that could get Vince into a lion had to be serious.

Sven had not yet found words, but was doing some extremely eloquent things with his eyebrows that Romelle wasn't sure were going to help his piloting—or his mental state, really. She gave his shoulder a squeeze, and he nodded, wresting his composure back.

Much as Keith wanted to say something encouraging or heartfelt here, his sensors were lighting up as they neared the western flank of the mountains. Not the same direction the spigator robeast had come from—as far as they knew, anyway—so now they had to assume at least two major blind spots. Then again, the Arusian sensor network was about ninety-five percent blind spots.

Either way, they had to prioritize the immediate issue. "I know it won't be easy, but we can't focus on that now. We're about to have company."

Behind him, Allura bit her lip, her focus refusing to fully move away. The jaivur and the robeast had to be connected somehow, all of her intuition was screaming it. But how? All the time her people had spent fighting the Drules, but they didn't know enough about these monsters. Either kind, really. The frustration was real, but there was nothing to be done for it now. Worry about learning new things later, right now is the issue at hand.

Right. Priorities. Sven huffed a little as Blue reached the others, grumbling only to his own cockpit. "More mountains, more hills, of course, one battle being underwater isn't really all that much to ask for…" His sensors painted something just beyond the next ridge, and he shook his head. "Definitely company."

"They mighta set it all up this way from the start, yeah?" Hunk's side twinged as he pulled Yellow into a hover. "Had the jaivur soften us up?" Or worse. If Flynn hadn't missed that shot, where would they be?

"Probably, Hunk." Keith did see the strategic wisdom in it. "Even the Alliance uses those tactics." Minus the intentional psychological trauma part.

"It would make sense," Pidge agreed.

"I don't feel softened, I feel pummeled," Lance countered. And worse. His eyes narrowed as the signal approached; he exchanged nods with Daniel and drifted his hand over the elemental cannon, ready to give the incoming monster a nice warm greeting.

"The Alliance uses what tactics, exactly?" Daniel demanded as he readied his own weapons. "I get a one-two punch but I'm pretty sure we would not have been part of any zombie bullshit, even if—"

The robeast rounding the ridge silenced him. Though the explosion of furious rage in his head became very, very loud.

"No, not…" Even Romelle found herself keeping a death grip on her controls.

"Fuck."

"Kuso…"

"Fucking fuzzmuffins."

"Those fuckers."

Pidge felt like the others had covered the profanity angle, and tried for something more concrete. "I think it's safe to say this is exactly how they planned it."

Behind him, Larmina was mostly just confused. This one wasn't even as ugly as the last one, though it was ugly enough—it was sleek and spiky and deadly-looking, sure, but didn't seem as horrifying as a spider-gator. "It's very pointy?"

"Yeah, it is." Pidge spared her as much of a glance as he could. "We've seen this robeast before."

…Oh.

Turning to face the stunned lions, the Demonspine gave an echoing roar, and its eyes flared with sickly pink-purple energy. Then it launched a barrage of spines.

"MOVE!"

The lions scattered. Most evaded the spikes, though Blue had done it by inches; Sven still felt like a water battle wouldn't be too much to ask. The universe owed them something after inflicting this fuckery.

Yellow Lion didn't evade at all, as Hunk turned into the attack instead. Three spines crumpled against the lion's heavily-armored flank, and the entire hull shuddered violently.

"I knew I didn't want to be in a lion!" Vince yelped, nearly thrown from his seat by the impact. "But I think our armor is okay." Dented, but trying to fix itself, at least. Maybe he could spend this fight focused on scans and data and it wouldn't be all that bad.

Unlikely.

Whipping Black around to face the monster again, Keith gritted his teeth and forced his churning thoughts to calm. Slightly. "They want to repeat their old tricks, let's try the same tactics and end this thing."

"Luck?" Lance vaguely remembered having tactics in the arena, but didn't feel like it had been the most important part. "Or did you mean the fucking unstoppable rage?"

"Hit and run?" Pidge frowned, thinking about the spigator. They hadn't done a lot of damage with the lions, but this was also a very different beast—literally. "Worth a try."

"Hit and run," Keith confirmed. "Keep your eye out for those spines and keep moving." He pushed Black higher into the air, and Allura took a couple of shots with the tail as they moved. Just to test the beast's defenses, which seemed to take it without difficulty.

Hunk was watching his damage readouts, which weren't returning to normal with the speed he would've liked. "Uh, will 'hit and get hit' work, cuz Yellow doesn't do running."

"We don't run?!" Vince repeated, a little indignant. What was he doing in this lion, again?

"…I am not that slow."

"Yeah, but I am," Hunk muttered grimly, watching the robeast ready another barrage. "Hang on, little dude!" At the last second he wrenched the lion downward; pain stabbed through his side and a spike clipped Yellow's paw anyway, but he supposed it could've been worse.

Sidestepping the spines, Lance spared a glance behind him. "Ready to do this?"

"Hell yeah." Daniel genuinely did not remember most of how they'd fought this thing before—even if he'd wanted to think about the arena, he'd been pretty incapacitated. But hit and run he could do.

"Perfect." Smirk. "Alright, Spiny, let's play." As the monster unleashed a new barrage, he pushed Red forward at full speed.

Watching the lions spread out, the robeast's eyes flared again, energy swirling and seething for a moment. It had known they would do that, of course. It knew this fight. Those within it knew this fight…

The energy spike caught Pidge's attention, and he nearly missed dodging the third wave. "Was that…?" He kept the whisper off the comms.

"Um, sure looked like it." Larmina snapped off a shot with Green's tail blades as they circled around the side. She didn't say anything else; she didn't think either of them really wanted to dwell on what he'd just asked.

Dodging better this time, Sven took Blue around to the Demonspine's right. "Ready for this, Romelle?" They'd trained as well as they could for this, but that hadn't been very much, and the first time copiloting in combat would surely be difficult regardless.

But Romelle was angry; she felt Blue's name for her churning in her blood. Tidefury. "Yes." The cruelty of the Drules only got more and more clear… eyes narrowing, she fired Blue's freeze tail directly into the robeast's face.

That was distraction enough for the beast to stumble, and Red Lion swooped in to take advantage. "Take us over to the left." Daniel brought up the inferno missiles, sighting in as the monster reeled.

"Already on it." Who did this kid think he was talking to? Lance knew an opening when he saw it; he was already banking as hard left as the lion could go. A barrage of missiles erupted from the lion's shoulders as Daniel held the trigger, covering the monster with Red's burning compound, and the lion raced by unscathed.

Then the robeast literally returned fire, launching barrages of spikes that just so happened to now be wreathed in flame.

"Wonderful," Sven growled as a burning spine hit Blue head-on, robbing her of momentum but not penetrating the armor. He returned fire with her elemental cannon, dousing the rest of the volley and watching them clatter to the ground.

Romelle winced. "Ouch. Sorry, Blue." What she was supposed to have done about it, she wasn't sure—but she was sorry anyway, and the lion gave a short growl of appreciation.

Yellow took another hit too, and Vince yelped as he was thrown around in his seat. "Why do we not have seat belts?"

"Dude, I could not do a seat belt like this." Hunk fired back with Yellow's sand breath, though it didn't seem to do much. "You'll get the hang of it, just get comfy in the chair."

That sounded patently ridiculous to Vince, and yet, the way these lions worked he might be onto something. Gritting his teeth, he tried to relax… and might actually have felt slightly more stable. He'd take it.

Daniel made a face as Red weaved around the spikes—mostly, anyway. The thing was a good shot, adding injury to insult. "It just shot our own fire at us! What a dick."

"Seriously. Ready for another hit?"

"Do you even have to ask? I'm feeling cluster bomb-y."

Green Lion dove silently in on the right as Red streaked back from the left, following the bombs with a flurry of plasma. Pidge didn't like what he was seeing… well, he had not liked what he was seeing this whole time, obviously. But he was starting to dislike the results of their attacks as much as he disliked the robeast itself.

Or rather, the non-results. The beast didn't seem to see them as much of a threat, based on how content it was to just stand there and keep shooting spikes at them. And so far they weren't doing much to prove it wrong.

Keith was thinking something similar, watching the battle carefully as he darted Black in and out of close range. Every time he moved in, he triggered the lightning breath, scorching a new swath of the monster's armored hide but failing to do any lasting damage. Allura was following up with more precise blasts from the tail, hoping to eventually hit something that would leave a mark.

So far, not so good.

Ranged attacks weren't doing much, and melee with something with that many spikes just seemed silly. Then again, it had seemed silly on Korrinoth too, and Hunk remembered having some success with a heavy blunt object. Which, helpfully, Yellow had one of! "Okay little dude, I'm gonna get us close and you clunk him with the tail hammer, yeah?" Dropping Yellow to the ground, he charged for the monster's leg without waiting for a response.

"Clunk him…?" Vince's eyes glowed brighter gold as he studied the panels in front of him, and one of the controls seemed to jump out. "On it!" The monster didn't even seem to be paying attention to their approach; it was busy exchanging fire with the lions in the air.

Sven was really not a fan of dodging. Any hope that Yellow might provide a distraction was ended by the robeast launching a full array of spikes in Blue's direction, and he tried the elemental cannon again. It worked better…

Then Yellow was in range, and Hunk took a couple of claw swipes at the beast's ankle. Vince followed up with a solid clunk to the knee.

For the first time, the Demonspine snarled in pain. And that was gratifying for about half a second before it whirled around, grabbed the fleeing Yellow Lion by one paw, and flung it at the next nearest enemy.

Sven had just enough time to resolutely not notice how familiar the move was.

"NOOOOOPE!"

"So many nopes!" Injury forgotten, or at least ignored, Hunk leaned forward and wrenched the controls as hard as he could; he almost got control back. If Blue Lion hadn't been right there, he might've. Instead, they both went down with a deafening clang.

"I believe you were meant to dodge that, Icehunter."

"Thank you for the insight." Fighting the control sticks a bit, Sven launched a full salvo of missiles from the ground. Just to give the robeast something to think about. Certainly not because mashing the trigger was more cathartic than dodging.

"Hard to dodge an entire incoming lion," Romelle pointed out in his defense, and got in a few more shots of her own as Blue regained her paws. "Stupid—ugly—spiny—thing!"

"Don't hold back, Romelle. Tell it how you really feel." Larmina launched a few more blades in support.

Getting Yellow back in the air, not without difficulty, Hunk studied the robeast grimly. He'd known that move too… and that energy swirling from its eyes. They're in there, aren't they?

"Yes," Yellow confirmed, equally grim.

Well hell. Nodding, he fired another sand blast and decided to keep it to himself for now. Nothing they could do about it but ruin this thing's day, and that was already the plan.

They were sure as hell mad enough already.

Black and Red combined to land a solid energy assault on the robeast's tail, stripping it of most of its spines. But in a matter of moments they were replaced by a new set, which the monster promptly fired at them.

"This isn't doing anything!"

"We're all just getting pissed off and pissing it off."

Circling around hard, Pidge fired Green's wind cannon at the same part of the beast's tail, watching as the cyclone ripped several of the spines from their sockets. A mix of purple energy and electrical sparks were visible for a moment before new spines extended to replace them, and he nodded slowly. "Those spines aren't just weapons, they're functionally armor. Attrition tactics will only work if it has a limited supply."

That seemed unlikely. The Demonspine on Korrinoth hadn't run out of spikes until Vince fried it, and this one sure wasn't acting like it needed to conserve their use.

"Sven, what about the particle cannon?" Romelle looked at the forbidden trigger with a slight wince. "Would this be the time for it?"

"It would rob us of all of our other weapons." He shook his head. "Not that they're doing us much good against the robeast anyway, but…"

"…But it's better not to be defenseless against those spikes." She nodded her understanding.

She hadn't really expected the point to be proved immediately.

Much as the pilots were getting frustrated, the Demonspine was as well. The lions weren't dying. Weak, but elusive targets. It knew this fight, knew that letting them survive long enough to adapt was dangerous… and if the arena weren't enough proof, the jaivur within knew everything. They were an Explorer Team, holding out and finding a solution was what they did.

But the Ninth Kingdom could also adapt to defeat its enemies. And this Demonspine was no mere copy of the one that had failed.

As the lions maneuvered for position, it snapped new clusters of spikes at each one.

Black Lion was closest; Keith barely managed to leap out of the way. But rather than breezing harmlessly past the lion, the spikes turned sharply in pursuit. "What th—" Cutting himself off he pushed them into evasive maneuvers, and the spines continued to follow.

"Oh no you don't," Allura growled, opening fire. Lightning washed over the spines and crackled between them, sending several crashing to the ground, but a few slammed into the lion nonetheless.

Green got it even worse, as Pidge was operating on reflex and partly distracted by running scans. Seeing another batch of spines was almost welcome under those circumstances—he darted the lion to the side, and tried to take what should've been a moment's respite to cloak.

Larmina was still watching. "Um, Pidge?!" Doubting the tail blades were equal to the incoming threat, she attempted to wrench Green's turret around. But that weapon's range of motion only went so far.

Snapping his head up at her warning, Pidge saw and tried to move much too late. "Mijtairra sa kye!" Half a dozen spines drove into Green's side, piercing her armor and knocking her out of the sky.

"Oh hell no." Hunk dropped Yellow to the ground again. The lion certainly didn't move as fast running as flying, but it made him feel better. "Little dude, batter up!" He started charging for Green, trusting his new copilot to do the rest.

That was not a level of trust Vince felt like he deserved at this point. He was new here! "Batter up? Is that a baseball or pancake reference?"

"Cub, the projectiles!"

It took him another moment, then the controls seemed to call to him again. "OH." Eyes narrowing in focus, he took a swing with Yellow's tail as the spines homed in, shattering most of them with a solid blow.

As Vince smashed the rest of the spikes with a second swing, Hunk skidded Yellow to a halt beside the fallen Green Lion, yanking the spines from her side in his jaws. "You okay, Pidgey?"

"…Is that nickname wise?"

Hunk gave a one-armed shrug and a wink over his shoulder. "Probably not, but what's he gonna do about it right now?"

Pidge was, in fact, staring blankly at his comms. He wasn't okay, Green wasn't okay, what had Hunk just called him? But the robeast roaring and unleashing a second barrage reminded him there were bigger problems, and he accepted Yellow's assistance in getting up and out of the way.

"The fuck!" The first ones had been bad enough. Lance had dodged them, of course, but they'd made it hard as hell. The second wave came in at a nasty angle; he'd had to flip Red end-over-end to evade the last of the first wave, and his first instinct was to spew lava at the new cluster. That didn't work nearly as well as he'd hoped. Oh sure, it knocked out a few, but the remaining ones were now coated in volcanic glass and still on the hunt.

Fortunately, Red's tail laser was not actually a laser-laser. Daniel hadn't foreseen that ever mattering, but the concentrated flame cut through a few more spines easily rather than partially reflecting. It didn't really improve his mood though. "Since when does this thing have tracking spines?!" One made it through and smashed hard into Red's hind leg, spinning them off to the side. "Ahh!"

"Fucking tracking spines," Lance snarled as he wrestled the lion back under control. "I hate spiky things."

Red, whose radiator fins were rather spiky themselves, gave a mild growl of protest.

Daniel protested too, as he took out the remaining spikes with a few last shots. "Hey! Don't hate on spiky things. Porcupines are fucking cute, my hair—when cut properly," it hadn't been that for awhile, "is adorably spiky, and what would Pidge do without his emotional support knife?" Red growled again, slightly more emphatically, at not being mentioned. "…Yeah I guess that's just pointy, not spiky."

The lion huffed indignantly.

Lance raised an eyebrow, keeping a sharp eye out for another barrage as he settled them at a safe distance and fired more magma. "Next time your hair is wonderfully spiky, I'm calling you porcupine boy."

"Find me some hair clippers and it'll happen." The robeast was reorienting. "So when exactly are we going to change the plan? Because I already said it and I'll say it again, this isn't doing anything!"

"Agreed." Sven was pacing Blue Lion at range, firing off staggered volleys of missiles just to give the monster a little something more to think about. Between himself and Romelle they'd managed to shoot down all the incoming spines, but it had been a close thing; he didn't dare move them any closer. They needed space. Dodging was questionable even when the spikes didn't try to chase them down.

Larmina was keeping Green's turret over the monster, mentally cycling through the tactical pods. She was pretty sure she was forgetting one, but doubted it would be any more useful than the ones she remembered. Daniel was right. This wasn't working. "Um, I know I'm new at this, and not to tell all you offworlders your business or anything, but isn't there a thing these lions can do that works a little better against a giant monster-person-thing?!"

Scowling, Keith nodded. The last battle was the last battle. They had better weapons now, and they damn well ought to use them. "Form up, team."

"Fucking finally, Keith."

"Ditto."

As the lions regrouped, the robeast bristled and snarled, launching a massive new wave of spines. And the flashback raced through him, the arena, the beast launching that same attack as the team made their plans. The attack that had only hit one of them…

This time will be different.

"Form Voltron!"

*****

As the lions streaked into the morning sky, a barrier of silvery energy incinerated the spines behind them. Snarling, the beast tried again, then retreated. Whatever was happening had to be waited out.

Whatever was happening…

In the whirlwind of activity since the Sentinels had started to bond, there'd been precious little time to practice together. Sorting out how to use their own lions had taken priority, and even that had been tenuous once the jaivur appeared. Of the backseaters, only Allura had ever formed Voltron before. The frontseaters had more experience, but even most of that was from training runs.

As the lions began to transform, it might as well have been the first time for all of them.

Lightning crackled and arced through Black Lion's cockpit, and Keith briefly lost his grip on the controls as he watched it dance. Illuminated by the energy, Allura met his gaze with wonder; it felt different. The last formation had been something that happened around them, a magic that connected them through the lions. This time it seemed to be running through all of them, as equals…

It was like Red Lion's curls of warmth but a thousand times more so, and everything in the cockpit seemed to be alight. Lance turned to Daniel, blinking through the crimson light of the flame, feeling even more comfortable than in the volcano. They could feel the others…

There was wind in the cockpit. Larmina had grabbed for something in panic, finding herself hand in hand with Pidge for a split second as the safe little cocoon whirled into chaos, but they both calmed just as quickly. Everything was shifting, yet it wasn't a feeling of danger. Quite the opposite; there was something oddly calming about the constant motion. And beyond the winds, the other elements were stirring…

Formation had usually been an intense experience, the echoing clangs of the interlocks and the wonder of a patently insane process. Sven would never have called it calming, until now. With no other frame of reference, Romelle could only gasp softly at the feeling, the temperature in the cockpit dropping to a point that surely would've been uncomfortable in another situation. But now it was simply… serene. And as the clear waters danced around them, they could feel beyond themselves with clarity…

The Earth was the foundation, or so Yellow's pilots had been told. Hunk had never felt it so clearly; Vince had never felt it at all. But now the elements were alive, and they could sense every one of them, all of them grounded against that foundation…

With more context, it was the Knights who recognized the new formation's rightness. Their past experiences felt almost hollow by comparison. Something had been missing all this time—they just hadn't realized it until it wasn't.

"This feels different than before."

"Feels… whole."

"…Which is true, kir sa tye?" Pidge was viscerally uncomfortable with how comfortable this was.

Daniel wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. "A little touchy feely for me, but you're not wrong."

"Embrace your emotions, kid."

"No thanks, old man. I've had enough emotional embracing on this mission for like three lifetimes."

Several of the others laughed at that, as the odd sort of tension broke. He was right; it wasn't necessarily easy. They'd all been pushed to embrace more than they'd imagined, from the moment the lions had first whispered to the aliens arriving on their world. But they could all feel it now. Why they'd gone through it all, why it had mattered.

It is within our bonds where true strength lies. It is why our pilots must be a Pride…

Keith wasn't sure if Black was speaking at that moment, or if the words were only a memory. Either way, as Voltron landed before the robeast, he felt their truth more than ever before.

"Alright. Let's do this."

*****

Staring the robeast in the eyes was unnerving, especially when the energy there flickered and sputtered briefly. Surprise, or something more? Keith had been trying not to notice certain things about this iteration of the Demonspine, but the discomfort remained, crawling over his skin.

Only one way to end it. If it was distracted for a moment, so much the better. "Lance, Pidge. Elemental cannons."

"Fuck yeah, let's breathe fire." Lance hit the trigger; behind him, Daniel absently wondered if he could actually breathe fire.

"Salys sa kye…" Pidge had scans running even as he hit Green's wind cannon. Voltron's sensors were more powerful too, and what he'd been trying to avoid was becoming too clear.

A cyclone of flame erupted from Voltron's arms; the robeast vaulted out of the way. It distinctly remembered fire being bad for it, a memory not from the arena, but from the jaivur's more recent battles. It didn't quite evade the attack, and a swath of spines were reduced to ash in an instant—but they came back quickly, and the beast returned fire with a full volley of its own.

Keith's eyes narrowed, and Voltron took to the air. "Sven, Hunk, do your thing." As the spines scattered below them, he brought the wing rifles into firing position.

"Welcome," Sven muttered to Romelle with a little smirk, "to being a foot with eye lasers." She giggled.

Opposite them, Hunk reached for Yellow's plasma mortar and fired. It might've been his imagination, but movement seemed to hurt less than it had a few minutes ago.

Though the robeast tried to evade again, lasers weren't particularly dodgeable. It did manage to sidestep Yellow's plasma sphere, taking only a glancing blow—but that took it directly into Black's gauss rifles, the two slugs putting small but visible dents in its metal hide.

With a howl of rage it launched more spines, their vacated sockets once again aglow with toxic purple light.

"This thing has a very different energy signature than the last robeast," Pidge reported as they mostly evaded the new attack. "Let alone any of the Drule warships we've seen. It's pretty heavily obscured, but it almost has to be that jaivur magic."

"Fuck that jaivur magic," Lance growled, clenching his jaw and firing Red's heat wave. It didn't do a lot.

Daniel frowned. "What does that even mean?" But his voice was tense, because he knew. They all knew. They'd known all along; Pidge's words just meant they couldn't pretend anymore.

"It means they're in there," Hunk said quietly.

Gritting his teeth, Keith tried another rifle shot, knocking the monster slightly off-balance but not doing a great deal of damage. "Then we get them out for good this time. Somehow."

"We free them." Him.

"Yes."

He could feel the others nodding, the determination filtering through the bonds. It felt correct, somehow, that everything had led them here. Every encounter had taught them something. Now they had to use it all.

This time will be different!

"There's a concentrated source, but I can't isolate the signal." Pidge was paying more attention to his consoles than anything. "Try the deep scan."

Nodding, Keith edged them closer, ducking a spine barrage as the other lions continued to fire. Blinding light flared in Voltron's eyes, the scanning beams engulfing the beast and causing it to stumble briefly. When the light did nothing but distract it, the monster growled in annoyance, breaking out of their wary standoff and lunging forward.

Shit! They tried to move and almost managed, but the monster compensated quickly. It smashed into Voltron from the side, landing a couple of punches enhanced by the shorter, tougher spines on its hands.

"Fuzzmuffins!" Vince was surprised to not be flung out of his seat this time. This thing was fast.

It was fast then too. The thought was less demoralizing than enraging. "Get off!" Keith snarled, fighting the controls a bit as he struggled to get them free. Then he felt the others—Sven and Hunk keeping the legs stable, Lance and Pidge lashing out with arms and fangs in return—and instead of fighting the controls, was able to bring them more smoothly out of the danger.

Though they weren't her preference, Allura saw her opportunity and took the wing rifles. Her shots missed; they still felt so unwieldy, especially close in. But they grazed the monster closely enough to prevent pursuit.

The Demonspine howled its anger and retreated instead, showering Voltron with still more spikes. They weren't doing as much damage as to the lions, but the volleys weren't harmless either.

Better than being tackled. "Let's not let it fucking do that again!"

"Agreed. Keep firing with everything we've got."

Daniel went for the tail laser controls, eager to see just how badass the weapon was as Voltron, and blinked at the sight of a darkened console. Though, thinking back to what Voltron looked like… he could see the damage schematics, and sure enough. Turned out an arm did not have a tail. For that matter, most of Red's weapons that he could actually fire seemed inactive. Well that was great. What am I supposed to be doing right now?

He didn't like feeling useless, and especially not when he was in a freaking badass giant robot!

Larmina was having the opposite problem, because Pidge was still focused on the sensors. The deep scan hadn't given them anything useful, but attempting to isolate the jaivur energy was hinting at something else. "Larmina, take the turret."

"Oh sure, I'm qualified for that." She gamely took aim and fired some plasma well wide of the monster; the weapon's range of motion seemed even more restricted in formation. Though judging from the energy readings, if she could land a hit it would hurt.

They kept trading salvos, each robot landing a few strikes, each always just missing anything that might have been a significant blow. Voltron's armor repair functions were not keeping up quite as well as the Demonspine's regeneration, though—and the team had no idea how quickly this might exhaust them, never mind the lions they were piloting.

Once again, Sven really hated dodging. It was bad enough when he was flying Blue as Blue. Trying to stabilize and balance a million-ton robot overhead? Forget it. A pair of spikes slammed into Blue's cheek, sending Romelle flying backwards with a yelp; she'd been half standing trying to watch what Sven was doing, since her own weapon options also seemed limited.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so." She scrambled back into her seat, panting, and fired off a small flight of missiles in return. The robeast didn't seem overly concerned.

Yellow was having similar problems. This must be why we've got all the armor. Hunk was definitely noticing a reduction in how much his side was bothering him, but it still hurt more than enough, especially when they actually took a hit.

"I'm not sure I like being a foot." Vince still had the armor readings up, hoping the lack of any actual holes would help keep him calm. It was kind of working.

"You get used to it." Another impact. "Probably. Ow."

"We've got to get those damn spikes under control." Keith led them into a charge, darting past the monster and landing a couple of decent hits as they broke into more open ground.

They'd taken it by surprise that time, and Lance took note of the damage as they reoriented. "Well, it seems a bit less spiky."

"Pathetic," Daniel snorted. If he couldn't shoot he would snark. "The truly spiky never lose their spike." Then under his breath, "Unless they're cut off from normal civilization and forced to grow out their hair."

"Kid, I'll find you a stylist when we finish this."

"A stylist? What do you think I am, rich and thirty?"

"Or I could do it myself?" He managed a smirk as he landed another heat blast on the robeast's shoulder, clinging to the banter to not think about anything else.

"Ha, no thanks." Daniel had brought up some monitors, at least he could feel like he was doing something. "The only sense of style you have is leather."

Shaking his head, Keith landed another couple of rounds from the wings. "Less chatter, more firing!"

"I can do both, it's a specialty." To prove it, Lance took aim with Red's elemental cannon, pouring magma into the dents the gauss rifles had left. A flurry of emerald plasma punched in right after that, Larmina finally landing a solid shot.

Part of the armor plate gave way, clattering to the ground amidst a scattering of white-hot slag, but there was still plenty more where that had come from.

With a roar, the robeast lunged at them again, landing a couple more familiar-looking blows before darting just out of reach of the lions' fangs. Then it spun around, slamming its spiked tail into Voltron and launching the spines nearly point blank.

It was the roaring that was somehow the worst part, despite what they might have expected. It wasn't like when the jaivur used Flynn's body, corrupted but recognizable. Their friends were trapped in this monstrosity, but it wasn't them at all. Just feeding on their memories, using their skills, as if ghosts and souls were nothing but a program to be installed in its cybernetic depths.

"This thing's gettin' re-spiked just at fast," Hunk pointed out as they staggered, "no stylist needed!"

"Land some more shots." Pidge's hands flew over the consoles, refining and isolating results. That tail strike had hurt, but it had also been incredibly useful. "I've almost got it."

"Yeah I'll get on that," Daniel grumbled, "OH WAIT." He felt Red give a short, encouraging growl, but that was all and it didn't tell him anything. He sat back and let his eyes flare brighter red, searching for anything he could actually do as the others continued their attacks.

So far, one trick the robeast hadn't used was the damn jump. Keith supposed it wouldn't have been very useful in these circumstances, but he was wary of it anyway—and when the beast suddenly sprang into a retreat, he pulled Voltron back sharply as well. But it wasn't the trick from the arena. Instead, after getting some room for itself, the beast dropped to all fours and launched five tight clusters of homing spines their way.

It had aimed for each lion's head, and the team reacted to that threat as their monitors screamed new warnings. Voltron's firepower reached out to counter the attack, and it might've worked. But for whatever reason—the spines' own tracking system, whatever that was? The robeast performing a feint? They couldn't know—the barrages shifted trajectory in midflight. As elemental blasts harmlessly bypassed them on all sides, the spike clusters came together and smashed squarely into Voltron's chest.

They all felt that.

"Kuso!"

"Son of a fucking bitch."

"I am quite over this thing," Sven growled, wrestling with his control sticks to get Voltron's right leg solidly beneath it.

"So over it," Hunk agreed, pushing Yellow up off the ground in response to Sven's anchoring. Voltron performed what would've been a kick into empty air, except a sphere of burning plasma followed the motion and forced the beast to retreat further.

Pidge spit a bit of blood onto his sleeve—he'd been hunched a little too far over the consoles when that barrage had hit, and it turned out taking a monitor to the mouth was suboptimal. But the scan results were finally burning solidly on his screen. "I've got it. Power spikes from these locations every time it regenerates spines, either from damage or from firing." He transferred the readout to the others as he spoke.

"Targets?" Lance grinned as the display came to life. "I fucking love targets!"

"Hit them with everything we've got!" Keith took aim with the rifles, glancing slugs off the indicated spot on one of the robeast's shoulders.

Though Daniel had been the most vocal about it, Allura was also struggling with the frustration of inaction. She doubted she was alone. What more could she do to help, though? They never had quite answered the question of what the Sentinels did for Voltron. Last time she'd unlocked the sword, but how much more could there be to unlock?

…Well, if the strengthening of the bonds was any hint, there could be plenty. And if anything was certain about the lions, it was that the team had no idea what they didn't know. Perhaps including what they were meant to do when they weren't unlocking things.

"Sentinels, check your panels. See if there is something more we can use."

"Check our pan—" Daniel sputtered indignantly. "What do you think I've been doing? They look like panels!"

"Would this be the 'look harder' kind of checking?" Larmina asked, only half sarcastically. "Or the 'do magic things only Auntie understands' kind of checking?"

"Oh, if you tell me to focus and control, I'll lose it."

Allura sighed. "Perhaps…" Larmina wasn't wrong. How did she explain? But then, Red's Sentinel had found his own way before. They all had to find their own way—to combine their strengths into a whole, not just mimic each other. "Do what works for you, Daniel."

"Just do you, kid," Lance agreed, unleashing a lava blast against the robeast's tail. Two people had said it now, it had to be right.

Glancing back at Larmina, Pidge gave her a quick nod. "I've got the turret, do what you need to do."

"If I knew what I needed to…" She stopped, shaking her head. No. She'd done this before! Feeling the rush of the wind, but she couldn't focus on that because of the chaos… no, wrong. The formation surged back in her mind. Paladin of Spirit. Green had named her that, and why?

The untamed winds all sing as one.

She felt it, and this time she fully understood. The rush of the wind accompanied even the enemy's attacks, the spikes breezing by with mere inches to spare. If the storm was focus and the fire was a furnace, the wind was the chaos. Because they fought to not be tamed…

As she slammed her hands down on her main panel, feeling every air current whirling past, she gave her own nudge of encouragement to the Sentinel across the way. "Lizard boy! Less focus, more furnace!"

"…She's my fucking favorite," Daniel declared, eyes widening as he felt the pressure burning to life.

"HEY!" Lance was mostly focused on hitting the spine generators, but he wasn't going to let that one past.

Red purred. And as Daniel focused himself channeling that pressure and emotion into the console, the lion's purr only intensified.

Magic… Romelle closed her eyes. Polluxians were familiar with ghosts and gods, but the magic of Arus had been left behind. Looked upon with suspicion, even. A relic of who they had once been, a decadence their new world couldn't afford to maintain.

But it wasn't true. And here she sat in an Arusian lion, concentrating on the water, the serenity she'd felt as the great robot came to life. The ebb and flow of Blue's engines and circuits hummed beneath her fingertips, like the lake water lapping at the shore. She didn't fight it. No, she was far beyond that. And the sensation of the water responded to her thoughts, the consoles feeling cool and almost damp beneath her fingertips as she let her mind plunge into the unknown.

Feeling a chill from behind him, Sven spared the briefest of smiles before returning his full attention to the battle. For all the doubts she'd struggled with, his copilot seemed to have a knack for this.

"How…?" Vince had been staring at the panels since Allura spoke, barely even registering the ensuing discussion. None of it felt terribly pertinent, not to him. The earth was steady beneath their feet, and he was finally feeling stable in the cockpit, but… magic.

Looking at his hands, he saw the sparks dancing around his fingers. Had all his incidents been this? A power he didn't understand reaching out for the connection it was meant for? Or were they unrelated, simply one source of magic reacting to another?

"Time to embrace it, isn't it?" he murmured.

Yellow purred. "As I have told Earthwarder, we are not conventional."

"That's the truth. Go get it, little dude." Hunk paused a moment, aiming another mortar blast, then flashed a quick grin over his shoulder. "Whatever 'it' is."

Nodding, Vince rested his hands on the console, immediately feeling more anchored to the lion. More grounded. His thoughts churned, and he struggled to direct them—to ask his bond and the power within him to show him the way. As he watched, the sparks around his fingers coalesced, forming silvery tendrils that sank deep into the screen and relayed what they found into his mind.

They could all see it—each Sentinel tapping in their own way into the same bonds, watching in awe as a landscape of circuits and magic spread before them. Weapons flashed and the vision rippled as Voltron and the Demonspine traded blows, and they struggled to make sense of what they were seeing. To explore beyond the conventional.

The answers had to be here.

On the outside, the Knights were still locked in the deadly struggle, dancing around the robeast and landing strikes with whatever they could. Their targets were well-protected. But as Blue's laser eyes and Green's plasma turret combined in a strike on the tail, they hit some sort of threshold. Explosions rippled somewhere beneath the robeast's armor, and when it snapped off a volley of spines in return, the ones on the tail didn't come back.

"That's one!"

Firing another heat blast, Lance watched similar explosions run beneath the monster's left shoulder. He didn't want to think about—couldn't help but think about—what they must be feeling as the monster was wounded. But this was the only way, and he shook it off as best he could.

Maybe the fucking Demonspine could just feel extra pain for all of them.

Also resolutely not thinking about that, Hunk gripped the control sticks and braced himself. The robeast seemed to understand what was happening, and was carefully shielding the last target on their screens. Good tactics. But Keith was having some ideas, and they were filtering through the bonds, like an instinct he could almost grasp.

Voltron sprang back into the sky, flying forward, and Yellow landed a spike-crunching kick to the last weak point.

"Got it!"

No time to celebrate; the monster was still damn fast. For the second time today it grabbed Yellow Lion and threw it, but this time the entire rest of the robot was along for the ride. Voltron slammed into a cliff face several hundred yards away, and the monster pursued with a roar.

"Let's not do that again either." They got back to their feet quicker than they probably had any right to… at least some of that practice was paying off. But they had no intention of being cornered here. Voltron lunged forward, meeting the robeast's charge, trading a few punches before getting back into the open.

They'd robbed the beast of its ranged attacks and regenerating armor, but it still had plenty of spikes and steel. But Voltron hadn't used all of its tricks either, not even the ones they knew. Keith had a definite opinion on what their next step should be.

Strangely enough, so did the robeast. As Voltron oriented itself, the monster reached back and drew something new from underneath its back plates. What looked at first like a particularly long spine… but when the angle shifted, the bladed edge and hilt became clear.

With a snarl, it lunged for them, raising the sword high for a deathblow.

"Oh, shit. Move!"

"The FUCK?"

"Mijtairra!"

"Fucking—"

Voltron's dodge wasn't particularly graceful, but avoiding outright bisection seemed like the priority. That much they managed, and the monster stumbled forward a couple of steps. It had overcommitted, yes, but that risk had been worth taking—the team was in no shape to take advantage before it recovered.

"Well that's new." Hunk was entirely over this thing's upgrades. The first one had been more than bad enough. "Why would they give that thing a sword? Ain't it got enough pointy as it is?"

Pidge exhaled slowly. The original Demonspine hadn't had a sword, no. But the original Demonspine hadn't had all the resources this one possessed, nor the mission it had been made for. No doubts remained. "This thing was made for them," he said quietly. "It was made for us."

"Your spirits were meant to be broken," Green agreed.

Keith felt chills running down his spine, both from Pidge's words, and Black softly echoing what Green had said. It made sense now, what the Drules had done here. "And they know how to use it." His eyes narrowed. "But we can do this. We will free them."

"We fight for all of us," Lance hissed, his jaw clenched painfully tight. I won't let it win.

"Like always," Sven agreed, his own voice a low growl. They think this can kill us?

"They messed up big, yeah?" Hunk braced himself against the controls, eyes glowing bright. "We don't break."

"Damn right we don't." Keith pushed them forward, feeling the lightning. "Form Blazing Sword!"

This felt different too—something stronger, deeper, more than before. The crystalline blade flared to life, and for an instant the jaivur energy behind the robeast's eyes seemed muted.

Of course it has a sword. The jaivur's thoughts were one part admiring, two parts sarcastic. Then the toxic energy took over again, and the beast lunged with its own sword leveled.

Voltron sidestepped and brought the Blazing Sword up to block, and Keith absently noted that the movement was a little sluggish. This was another thing they hadn't had much chance to train with. Of course, the weapon's demonstrated effectiveness the last time had been—

CLANG.

Before he could even finish the thought the monster proved him wrong, countering the block and landing a solid blow to Voltron's arms. "Chikushou…" Keith spat a few more things in Japanese, most of which he certainly wouldn't have said in front of the Princess in English, as he fought to recover.

"Boss, when we get outta here I'm gonna tell everyone what you just said."

…Right. He kept forgetting that little detail about Hunk.

"I can already guess."

"I mean, nobody's gonna disagree with him."

They were still trading slashes with the robeast, and fortunately enough, Keith's furious blushing did not impede his reflexes. His reflexes just weren't the problem. The last time they'd used the sword, it had sliced through their enemy's defenses so easily it couldn't have exactly been called a fight. This one's weapon was better, and it knew how to wield it. Whereas they…

"Hindsight being what it is," Pidge growled as he was rattled around in his seat, "we should've practiced coordinating the combining robot swordfighting a little more, kir sa tye?"

"I'll put it on the list!" Keith dragged them into a successful block through sheer force of will, feeling the others' bonds reacting to his leadership. They were getting better already, they could learn this in time.

Did they have enough time?

"He's fucking up my armor," Lance reported as the next block failed completely.

"Yours?" Red growled.

"You know," Daniel had nearly been shaken loose from the Sentinel vision entirely, "it's very hard to concentrate on being magical when you guys are losing!"

"Can you not both backtalk me while I'm trying to swordfight?" Lance retorted, wrenching the blade up and landing a pretty decent shot against the beast's side. But it left them open, and the monster landed a vicious stab to Voltron's right shoulder in return. "Fucking…"

"Sure. I'll just let you be bad without comment next time." Daniel shook his head, he probably should do that. Back on task, magic, focus… oh great, now I'm telling myself to focus!

Every time they made physical contact with the robeast, Larmina felt a flicker of something. And that wasn't very useful, but it felt like it ought to be useful. She diverted her focus almost entirely from the vision within Voltron; it felt like the answers were elsewhere.

"I feel it too," Green agreed warily. "The creature does not live, and yet… something resonates. Keep searching, Lifebinder."

Lifebinder. The name still felt weird. But she nodded and tried to concentrate harder, to see more. To feel.

The legs had it easier since the swords had come out, but they were still struggling to maintain the robot's balance as the enemy drove them back. Always back. There wasn't much choice but to give ground.

"Romelle, I hope you're getting somewhere," Sven muttered under his breath. Not expecting or even wanting an answer, just hoping that hoping out loud might make him feel better.

"Did it help?"

Kind of. He didn't have time for anything else as they retreated another couple of steps.

Romelle did feel like she was getting somewhere, though she couldn't have fully explained where. It felt almost like the battle was a waterfall… forever moving forward, crashing relentlessly, yet flowing endlessly. And somewhere behind all the raging currents, if she could just get through to it, lay peace…

Vince was getting frustrated, and his sparks were responding to it. Silvery glimmers skittered across his console, but it wasn't doing any good. Most of what his powers had ever been good for was setting things on fire, and he really didn't know how to use them for anything else. But he had to. You can do this. They need you, they all need you.

"You are close, Stonespark. Believe…"

Nodding, he took the lion's words to heart, focusing on the memories of the ghosts. Seeing them as they had once been, trying to find them within this monster.

For a split second, he was certain he felt an answering echo…

"Uh, we keep backin' up and we're gonna run out of up to back here." Hunk was paying close attention to what was behind him—not the seat behind him, but the looming cliff face that was getting uncomfortably close as Voltron continued to give ground. "Come on, sword people!"

"Tell me something I don't know," Keith muttered in Japanese, then cleared his throat and tried for confidence. "We've got to work on this more, when we survive this." It was miserable. He could read this fight perfectly, but the others were too sluggish to respond. It wasn't their fault. The effort was there. The skillset was simply something new.

"We need to work on it now," Pidge pointed out grimly.

"We can do this." Lance felt the pull of an instinct that wasn't entirely his own, and working with Pidge managed to block a strike they'd seen—and let past—twice before. But it wasn't going to get them the initiative back…

"Stormsoul. There is a possibility…" Black's words were accompanied by a different tug of instinct, and Keith's eyes flickered to his weapon controls. Something next to the deep scan was lit up in his mind. "Brace your Pride, the weapon is disruptive for both sides."

Huh? That didn't sound all that encouraging, actually, but then another slash from the robeast's blade cut deep into Voltron's side. Okay, I'll trust you. Like they'd had a choice in that this whole time. "Hold on, team, Black says this might be messy." Dropping the crosshairs directly over the robeast's heart, he slammed down on the trigger.

A wave of static and white noise filled the cockpit, blocking out all his monitors but the main screen. That was briefly washed out by a flare of multicolored light, then beams of color that mirrored the sigil on Voltron's chest splashed out over the robeast. A second after that, the entire screen was washed out in silver light.

"Holy fuzzmuffins!"

Slowly, the interference and the light began to fade, revealing the Demonspine roaring and clawing at ephemeral silvery traces swirling around it. Those seemed to be fading too, but even more slowly, and for a moment the monster seemed rooted to the spot.

"What the hell was—" No, later. "Move!"

With its own systems still recovering, Voltron lurched into a truly ungainly disaster of a sprint. But it was enough to reach open ground again, and Sven and Hunk somehow kept them on their feet as they whirled around.

"Pretty sure that," Pidge said breathlessly, "was a weaponized system overload."

"Um…"

"…You know what? Nothing about this robot surprises me anymore."

"No kidding." Keith raised the sword as the robeast recovered, ready for the next round. It was getting better. If they could just keep this up… they might survive, but they didn't feel any closer to winning. Shaking his head, forcing that thought aside, he guided Voltron to meet the Demonspine's blade as best he could.

But something else was happening behind him.

The Sentinels had felt the power spike deeply. Allura's vision had washed out not in silver, but in stars. An endless void dotted with pinpoints of light, the swirls of distant galaxies… she'd seen this before. In a dream, but more than that. When Black Lion had called her to bond, she had followed this same spacescape to his den.

What are you trying to tell me?

Something was unfolding in front of her. A star that burned relatively close, a shadowy planet caught in its embrace. Tendrils of energy that swept through the void, tethering it to another world beneath another star. This one was bright, familiar. She saw the essence falling through the Arusian sky, wrapping around the beast in front of them like strings…

"It's a puppet," she whispered.

"What?" Keith barely had time for the question before the robeast landed a punch beneath the sword. "Kuso!" Voltron staggered back, and an alarm warned of dangerously thin armor in the spot it had hit. Their enemy was learning too, and they were running out of time.

"This beast is connected to Korrinoth somehow. There's a line of that jaivur energy… several threads of it, connecting it to somewhere on the planet." She was struggling to keep the vision, to make the threads clearer. "I can see it."

"What are we supposed to do with that?" Pidge didn't see anything on his sensors and didn't have time to try a more advanced scan. The robeast wasn't letting up.

But the other backseaters were feeling it too. The energy spike, and whatever Allura had seen…

"Sentinels, we can do this. Join with me. See through my eyes…" Allura shook her head slightly as soon as she said it. "See through the lions' eyes, bring our strengths together!"

In that moment, she understood what they were searching for. What needed to be unlocked wasn't a weapon, a function.

It was Voltron.

The lions had slept for so long, been robbed of so many of their memories. Voltron had not stood at full power for centuries. It was the Defender that yearned to be fully awakened once more—they'd all felt it in the formation. The bonds were complete, but the rest had yet to follow.

It's time.

Once again, lightning flashed through Black Lion's cockpit, and the whispers of distant stars flickered around her and Keith both.

Daniel felt it. The pressure, the flame, the determination—he was going to make this work, whatever the fuck it was. He didn't care what it took. The conviction he kept feeling with the magic, but it wasn't just conviction. What had Red said? The Flame speaks to War… and war he could damn well do.

A sense of flame erupted both inside and out, Red's cockpit washed out in the light of the volcano.

The flickers Larmina had been sensing were only getting stronger, but she was no closer to knowing what to do with them. Not until Allura spoke, anyway. A puppet. Her eyes widened. It isn't just the robeast. As the next blow connected, she could feel the others. The bonds themselves were alive, trying to connect with the last traces of life they knew had to be in their enemy.

Again the wind surged, and this time there was nothing scary about it at all.

Romelle felt it too. Something reaching desperately for a connection, someone struggling not to drown in the waterfall. Was it the spirits in the robeast? Was it her teammates? Was it all of them? That she couldn't tell and in the end it didn't matter. She reached out to meet it, whatever it was, willing herself and whatever she touched towards the peace beyond the churning waters.

Frost crept over the screens in front of her, and yet somehow she felt warm.

For Vince there was a sudden clarity. Not the clarity of his own powers, something adjacent to Voltron but different. He felt completely grounded, embraced by the earth, and the presence of the others was strong. Somewhere beyond lay a million other presences, the ghosts of the past, the dead in Yellow's domain. But only a few presences mattered in this moment, and he let the sense of those others make the bonds he had feel all the more precious.

The cockpit was trembling, but it wasn't from anything happening in the fight.

"Be as one," Allura echoed softly, feeling the Sentinels come together. But it still wasn't working, still wasn't quite enough…

It was getting hard to focus on not getting impaled with all the magical what-the-hell going on behind them. And just as he'd been the first to bond at all, the first to accept this path as his own, Hunk was the first to understand what was still missing. The Sentinels might have more magic, but they weren't the only ones who had any.

"The lions ain't conventional…"

Tightening his grip on the controls, he remembered tapping into his own powers. Whatever exactly those were. But he'd spoken to the stones, felt the earth, even seen the ghosts in the desert… acting on instinct, he let all those memories flood into the lion, and felt a fierce tremor in return.

The tremor seemed to call to the others. It wasn't just his own backseater Sven felt as the frost gathered. They were all calling, and even as his adrenaline spiked from a close dodge, the chill and the sense of the waters helped calm him.

"We aren't conventional either." Explorer Teams weren't conventional units; that was the whole point. The Voltron Force took it to an extreme, no doubt. But what hadn't the 686 ever taken to an extreme? With a small smile, he joined into the bonds completely.

As the call settled on Pidge with all the weight of a whirlwind, he nodded slowly. Understanding it. For as much as everything in his life had taught him not to trust, all of it had led him to this. He'd made the decision to move forward already. Now they had friends to save, and he had friends to accept, and it all came shockingly easily. He chose to be one with this—he chose, at last, to live.

The hair on the back of Lance's neck was on end. Usually a warning sign, now something entirely different. He felt the call of war, the promise of justice that he'd screamed out a hundred times since they arrived. He'd sworn justice for everyone else. But he needed it for himself, too, and accepting it brought the flame fully to life. They would all win this battle.

Keith almost tried to fight it. The lightning was everywhere, the energy was overwhelming, and he was trying to command a swordfight in a giant robot here! So often the team's bickering had to just wash over him, because someone had to stay focused, and though the absolute opposite of bickering this felt strangely the same. But as Black growled softly, he saw his error. He remembered the lion's test before he could bond at all, insisting he allow himself his own feelings…

Because it was the same. The team's banter had always been an expression of their bonds, as surely as the magic happening now. And for once he let himself relax, let himself simply connect to what was around him.

Something snapped.

Like a chain stretched to its breaking point, the strain within the bonds shattered completely. Centuries of dormant silence gave way in an instant. Voltron surged forward, slapping the robeast's attacks aside easily, its movements as fluid as if they'd been training for as long as it slept. The sword arced again and again, ringing furious blows against the Demonspine's blade. No longer sluggish, no longer disjointed. Their instincts were strong and clear.

But it wasn't over. "We still have to free them," Keith growled as they forced the beast back. Power and skill weren't the only questions. If this monster was tethered to Korrinoth, would even destroying it be enough?

"We will." Allura's eyes were crackling with the lightning. "Don't pull back." She could feel the initial power spike settling down, becoming something more enduring. Focused, yet wild. Pressured, yet steady. And most of all… united.

They all heard the lions roar.

"The Earth claims Death."

"The Waters hold Peace."

"The Wind bears Life."

"The Flame brings War."

"Through Storm and Space…"

With each of them already channeling their energy, one last push was as simple as a thought. The Blazing Sword erupted with new swirls of energy, the glow of each lion's power wreathing the blade.

And as one, they struck.

*****

The Demonspine tried to block the strike. But something was wrong. It could feel the rush of the elemental energies, weakening all of its systems. It could feel the conflict of life and death, both assaulting a monster that had been raised up and torn between the two. The conviction of war, the clarity of peace, all of it combining to awaken the spirits trapped within. Through a hundred faraway stars, the distant bonds keeping the jaivur imprisoned gave way to the bonds before it.

In a flare of blinding energy, the Blazing Sword pierced the beast's stomach, catching briefly between two armor plates. And though every physical instinct of self-preservation told the jaivur to back away and break free, they refused.

Haggar was watching. This battle had not gone as intended at all. They were supposed to break, they were supposed to fail! But it didn't matter. She still had this weapon, and there were many ways she could yet employ their enslaved friends… feeling the resistance from the jaivur, she snarled and squeezed the phylactery in her hands. This tool's nonsense would not be tolerated, not anymore.

"You will serve until it is finished!"

The phylactery suddenly burned in response, flashes of silver churning deep within, and she gasped as the human vessel's spirit snarled back at her.

"I will not!"

Both the robeast's clawed fists reached up, seizing the blade. The jaivur energy flickered out completely as it met the Black Lion's eyes… and it yanked the blade deeper, through armor and internal structure, guiding it towards the prison in its heart.

The last thing Haggar heard before all hell broke loose was the jaivur's scream of defiance.

"WE will NOT!"

*****

—Controlled chaos. It was the essence of a team, wasn't it? Especially an Explorer Team. To each bring something different, to bounce off each other, to not even necessarily always like each other. But to come together, to channel their differences and chaos into one purpose. To fight for each other, their friendships and their bonds. It was the only thing that had ever mattered, what had brought them through so much.

Voltron's bonds were something unfathomable. The intangible force they'd lived on given mystical form. They could no more be understood or explained than any emotion, any connection. But in the churning mass of chaos, the brilliance of the bonds, one thing was certain.

Nothing had changed.—

*****

Within the heart of Voltron, the depths of the bonds, three new presences flared to life. New, and yet not, because in so many ways they'd been there all along.

"Is that…?"

"That is."

Romelle felt them too, as strongly as the others, and understood it immediately. She could feel the tears gathering on her cheeks, remembering when she'd last seen them alive. For Allura, it was a feeling of hope. The energy of the one she'd touched and the two who'd stood behind him, fighting against the corruption. It could only mean victory.

More strangers? Larmina cracked a small grin. Eh, there's worse things.

Three more tendrils of light—white, green-gold, and violet—sprang to life along the Blazing Sword's blade, weaving along with the others. Something lit up not on their sensors but in their minds, a crystalline structure at the heart of the robeast. Every one of them could see it now, the sputtering threads of the jaivur energy reaching from the beast to the faraway stars.

"Now!"

Keith wrenched the blade upwards. He could feel the others moving with him, putting everything they had—physically and mentally—into the strike. The target was small, yet they struck with flawless precision, piercing the sickly crystal with the blade and shattering it in a massive flare of Voltron's silvery energy.

For an instant, they all saw the energy streak into the sky. Into the distance…

Where the second Demonspine had once stood, only a shower of glittering dust remained. And as it scattered over the craggy ground, three spectral forms flashed into view.

*****

Flynn hit the ground first, dropping to his knees with a sharp gasp. To his right, Jace landed on his feet; to his left, Cam assuredly did not. Not that anyone was going for style points right now.

As their presence faded from Voltron's bonds, the three ghosts looked up at the robot in awe.

Keith choked on his breath as he saw them, slumping over his consoles and still panting from the exertion. "Flynn… Doc… Starr…" It felt for a moment they were staring straight at him, even through the unknown tons of metal and armor and, well, giant robot. But they'd already discussed this whole unconventional thing, so he didn't bother to question it. He just smiled, not even fighting the tears.

"Oh…" Allura felt a tear or two herself, and reached up to squeeze Keith's shoulder. With her other hand she waved a greeting to the ghosts, feeling a whisper of acknowledgment in return.

Our team is yours now. And it was okay… they were okay.

Lance couldn't look away, could barely breathe. Not until Flynn's gaze shifted to meet his, and he finally let out a long sigh of relief that turned into a slight sob along the way. "They're free." There was no mistaking it. Not those eyes, not that warmth that the jaivur had stolen. It was him, it was them.

As Cam locked eyes with him, Daniel laughed with real joy. He couldn't help it. "Dumbass." He missed that moron so damn much, but they'd done it. They'd connected for that last moment. They were staring at each other one last time, and his friend laughed too, giving a little wink as though he'd heard him. Probably had, Daniel decided. He hoped so.

More ghosts, too? But Larmina knew what she had to be looking at, and the fact that Pidge was practically frozen to his seat served as confirmation enough. Actually he looked like he could use a little nudge out of that state, so she gave it to him, shaking his shoulder. "Is that…?"

"Yeah." Pidge was more grateful than he would ever admit to be snapped out of the stupor. "Yeah, that's them." He was shivering, not quite believing. Things didn't work like this. You don't just get one last chance to say what you should've said before. And yet, there they were…

Whatever composure he'd had left completely broke as Flynn's eyes met his. And he could only get the whisper out in Baltan, but somehow knew the ghost would understand.

"Thank you…"

Sven felt the waves of relief crashing over him, and couldn't stop smiling, even though he was pretty sure he'd let a tear or two fall somewhere along the way. Or it might have just been some of Blue's water energy, they had just used an awful lot of it. Either way, his smile only widened as Jace's eyes flickered over to Blue. He could just imagine, even hear in his voice, a hundred wisecracks about you're a foot?

Jace smirked as if he'd heard that thought, and Sven was struck by the certainty that he had. And was agreeing with it. Which made him smile even more.

Romelle had her hands over her mouth, fighting back a few more sobs of her own, when the one who had to be Jace was suddenly looking straight at her. And somehow, she was quite positive she was being told to take care of Sven or else.

She thought maybe she could handle that.

Relief was flooding Vince, too. He looked over each of the ghosts, feeling the familiarity still. It was them, they were themselves. The way he'd seen them before the witch got involved, the way they were supposed to be.

Hunk was entirely unable to stop the grin from splitting his own face. It hurt, but it felt good at the same time. They'd won, they'd freed them, they'd punched the Drules and their strategic sadism right in the damn mouth. But most of all they'd earned—all of them, together—what had been taken from them the first time around… the chance to say goodbye.

"Catch ya on the flip side, guys," he murmured, and felt a weight lift from his shoulders with the words.

But exhaustion followed the words; it was all they could really hold on for. They were all exhausted, ghosts and pilots alike. Jace turned to help Cam up, and both helped pull Flynn back to his feet. It was time to go…

It's over.

They're going to be okay.

With a last couple of smiles, and a casual salute from their medic, the ghosts vanished in a few last glimmers of silver.