Chapter Text
The planet was small, but the natives had planted it well with all the crops they could fit into every nook and cranny. The sun shone bright hot white light down on the closely orbiting sphere, but everything survived just fine. Of the mostly smooth surface one spire of a mountain poked up into the poisonous gas clouds. No plant dared to try living up there, yet there was a swarm of activity despite that.
At the top of the mountain was a hidden door leading straight down. Inside the seemingly solid stone was a hidden base that was illuminated only by deep purple lights. Huge giant beings in dark cloaks and armor patrolled like shadows through the base.
In the largest room in the compound, the eating area, was the most occupied. Dozens of the dark armored beings had lowered their eerie masks to snack and talk with one another. Their skin was lavender, and their eyes glowed a molten gold color.
At a high pitched, happy giggle many looked over to one of the back tables with sharp toothed smiles. A woman with the pale purple skin and a deep violet hair that had been cropped in the front and left longer in the back cooed down at the tiny baby wiggling in her armored arms. “Yes, you’re a cutie,” She hummed down at her little one.
The newborn that the base had gathered to see and celebrate over held little resemblance to his mother. The loose, soft black body suit he had been dressed in covered skin that was a pale white color. Such a strange color. The Galra in the base had never seen such a color on a species in all of their universal space travel. But how pure the shade of the child’s skin was fitting for how innocent he was. A slight fuzz of black fur covered the babe’s head as wide, deep violet-colored eyes sparkled.
The newborn boy wiggled and thrashed with a happy squeal of delight peeling from him. His huge, towering mother chuckled to herself as she placed him down on the table. “Behave yourself,” She gently told him.
A huff of laughter came from beside her. The man that was wearing blue jeans and an electric blue shirt that was so different from the general gathering was barely short of half her height. His skin was a white color that matched the child’s with dark brown almond shaped eyes and neatly styled black hair. “I don’t think he understands yet, Krolia. Just look how cute he is. Hi there,” The human said to his son.
The difference between the parents was huge but their loving smiles towards each other and their little one were apparent. Krolia shook her head slightly with a fond smile as her human wiggled his fingers into their kit’s side. Another peel of laughter came from their son before the stubby little fingers grasped one of Min-jun Kogane’s fingers. The rare human male yelped in surprise as the kit dragged him across the table suddenly.
Min-jun grinned back at Krolia. “Well, he is definitely strong. Just like his mom.”
“Best of both of us. Pretty as you, and hopefully will have the strength of a Galra. A perfect hybrid,” The new mother agreed.
A disturbance in the gathering had them looking up. A thinner physique Blade of Marmora ran and slid through the crowd like he was oil. With perfect precision he came to a sudden stop in front of the table. He held out a pot with a few different kinds of plants growing up from it. “Freaking awesome alien rebels,” Kogane muttered under his breath at the display of the Blade’s training and the Galra specie’s physical abilities. The newcomer smirked at the common human that his friend had found on a backwater planet she had called Earth at Texas. That Min-jun said that his family had come from a place called South Korea did not make any sense, but human was a rare and unique species. And Kogane was surprisingly fun to talk with and caught on fast to fixing their technology.
Krolia took the pot. “They’re lovely, Xeres.”
Xeres waved a dismissive clawed hand. “Yeah. I pulled up a couple plants from below and shoved them in a container. Nothing much.”
Xeres plopped himself down across from the Terran male. “Wonderful party. I’ve never been to one. I haven’t seen this much love in a room since me and some of my squadron discovered the Blade and that Lord Zarkon is insane.”
Kogane smiled at his friend. he grinned, but something tugged at his chest. These Galra, laughing, lounging, gifting plant pots like they weren’t battle-scarred soldiers, was nothing like he imagined. Was this what peace looked like after a ten-thousand-year war? Could he really give that to his son? “I’m more than willing to teach you guys Earth customs on what living actually means. Being forced to be at war for the past ten thousand years or so has got to have killed something practical.”
The little infant wormed his way across the table slightly to grasp the black metal knife that had a glowing blue symbol in its hilt from Krolia’s sheath. Min-jun noticed, “Dear, you better watch where your blade is going.”
“I am. He won’t hurt himself. Let the kit have a little fun,” She replied.
The kit clutched the blade with both hands, eyes wide and delighted. A clang echoed as he smacked it against the table and then froze. A bead of red bloomed on his palm. The room quieted. Krolia didn’t move. Then a wail, sharp and sudden. Min-jun jolted forward, only to stop when he saw Krolia tie the blade to the child’s back like a ceremonial sash. She smiled as she patted her son comfortingly, he could start getting used to it. A Galra child earns their blade through fire, blood, and loyalty. But hers? He would wear his before he could walk.
She stood up and called out into the filled room. “On behalf of our son. We would like to thank you for all your wonderful gifts. It should make it easier to figure out this parenting thing.”
A mumble of conversation and agreement came from the room at the gesture of the pile of things that were needed to raise a Galra kit. Kogane smiled, “Dear, we can’t forget the most important gift.”
Krolia shook her head in amusement, “You just wanted an excuse to keep it.”
Min-jun stood up to pull a large bag out. “Every kid needs a pet, love.” He lifted out a fluffy blue furred puppy. “What human boy can grow up without a dog?”
“Strange Earth customs,” Xeres muttered good naturedly.
Kogane put the wolf like puppy on the table next to his child. “I named him Cosmo, and he’s your friend now.”
The human looking baby squealed as he reached up and grabbed the pup by the ear and pulled it down to accidentally clunk heads with. The extraterrestrial wolf pup barked in excitement before licking the little face. The boy’s lip started to quiver like he was about to cry before the pup cuddled up to him.
The gathering of hardened fighters cooed at the cuteness. The parents smiled down at their son. Krolia softly brushed her clawed hand over her kit’s fuzzy hair. “My kit. My little Keith.”
“How sentimental,” A new voice stated blandly. Instantly the open faces disappeared behind cold, eerie masks before the room turned to look at the newcomer. A tall man that was only a couple feet shorter than the average size in the room leaned against the doorway. His skin was a lavender shade yet there was the lack of hulking muscle, and fur. A light-yellow glow came from his almost normal eyes with long glowing white hair majestically flowing back. “I haven’t been this choked up since my last meal.”
It was dead quiet in the room as they watched the exiled Prince. He was supplying their equipment and such, but no trust was put in him in the least. Empire Zarkon’s son was most likely an enemy, despite all he did to dissuade them from that idea. Lotor frowned at the lack of response. “Is this an audience or a mosaic?”
Min-jun wanted to smile slightly at that but didn’t. It was always terrifying when the Blades went deadly. He stood up with the others with a hand on a laser gun at his side just in case. “Where’s your pet, your highness?” Someone called from the gathering. A dose of pure terror shot through him at the question as he looked around quickly.
Lotor dismissively smiled as he moved into the room. “My Champion thought this would be boring, so he went to explore the planet below. You have no need to fear.”
Min-jun took a breath and held it to keep from shaking as he carefully pulled the gun loose of its holster. He would do anything to protect his wife and son. He had left Earth with Krolia to keep her away from his government, but Lotor’s Champion… He hated watching the arena fights. The slaughtering of slaves to survive, but the Prince’s pet was the worst. He’d watched the Champion tear through ten men like tissue paper, one of them had begged to be shot before the monster reached him.
It would hunt down the others with the grace and agility of a human gymnast or acrobat. Tear them apart, make them scream and suffer horribly for over an hour for the enjoyment of the loyal empire Galra. Only dying of blood loss could be the most anyone could hope for with that blood thirsty monster. And this man took the dark cloaked creature everywhere with him. If it was here… could even the most dangerous Galra soldiers in the Blade kill it?
Everyone was still frozen in readiness. Kogane forced a smile, “Prince Lotor. How nice of you to come. How’s things in your sector of the universe?”
Lotor looked over to him and a creepy chill went up his spine. The man then smiled, “You humans never disappoint in your personalities. Very well. Still destroyed by conquest and a lot of slave bodies dumped there by Haggar. But what can you do?” Kogane swallowed hard. How did the prince know what he was? No one except for the Blade knew about humans.
The Prince had made his way over to look down at the baby. “Ah! Here’s the little star spot. Such a beautiful creature. I’ve always had a soft spot for crossbreeds, since I’m one myself. I brought something. I was told that this was appropriate for a… baby shower? Or something like that.”
He placed down a bag on the table. Krolia did a quick scan on it. “Nothing poisonous or dangerous,” She reported from behind her mask.
Min-jun cautiously reached forward and dumped the bag out. His mouth dropped open then. There on the table was a set of genuine Earth yellow cat pacifiers. “How did you…?”
Lotor picked one up, “I sent one of my generals shopping. He claimed this odd little totem pacifies human kits. If so, its power must be… impressive.” The prince held out the pacifier out to the newborn. Little Keith grabbed on to the purple fingers. Lotor grunted in surprise before yanking his hand back to stare at his fingers. Kogane smiled at that. The prince studied their son for a long moment. “Huh. Powerful little one.”
“He’s going to be a handful when he grows older. Would you like to join the celebration?” Kogane asked.
Lotor declined, “No, thank you. I have a lot to do unfortunately. I’ve got a crazy witch probably snooping around my home ship right now, if I had to guess. And an empire to bring down.”
“You’ve got to slow down. You’re going to work yourself to death,” Kogane stated.
Snorts and muffled laughter floated around the room at that, and the adult human realized that there was something he probably did not know about that. But considering that the prince loved bringing a torturing mass murderer along with him everywhere, it made a little sense. His disguised wife leaned over the table as she tried to control herself. “That’s good. I could kill myself,” She softly gasped through her choked back laughter.
Lotor chuckled with the room, but the second he was out of the base he whispered with a snarl. “If only. If only.”
The second the half-breed prince was gone Kogane collapsed on the bench with his knees trembling. That Prince was very wrong. If it wasn’t that he had a helmeted Champion in the Arena, he would have thought the Prince was a gladiator as well. Krolia gently put a hand on his shoulder. “You did well.”
“He knew I was human, and about Earth customs. How?” Min-jun questioned.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to have to be even more careful. That is rare information and if he has that, then he has the ability to destroy us. After all, knowledge or death.” Krolia said before she sat down to study the Earth pacifiers that even came with the imprint, Made in China.
~
Lotor sulked in his seat as his private craft warped through the black brightness of space. “Attention Prince in the back seat. We will be landing momentarily, and I suggest you buckle up for the landing. You always throw a fit about it,” Came the voice from the cockpit.
Lotor twitched an amused smile as he made sure he was secured. “We made better time than I was expecting. My question is, why can’t you land slow and steady?”
“You bet we made good time. I didn’t become a pilot for nothing. And it’s no fun going in slow.”
The craft zipped past a robeast that was waiting on a nearby asteroid and barreled into the hangar. The pilot jerked the controls around to send the craft into a quick artistic spin that was surprisingly smooth before they came to a stop.
Lotor got up carefully, “Thank you, beautiful.”
“You do know that you still sound like a cheesy movie stalker, right?” The pilot stated seriously.
The prince smiled charmingly, “So? Remember your chores?”
A sigh sounded, “Yeah. yeah. Destroy a couple of your dad’s generals, kill a couple of people.”
“Good, boy,” Lotor replied as he stepped out into the hangar. The ship turned and blasted off again then. The half Galran Prince marched through his ship. Prisoners reached through bars after him desperately. He looked down at them scornfully. With a flick of his hand, lightning crackled out to strike the poor beings. They screamed in agony as he calmly walked away. If the Blade ever got on his ship all their fears about him would be proven correct. True he was not like his father, but he took more after his more cruel and ruthless mother.
The hum of containment cells faded as Lotor passed into the brighter corridors of the command sector. Gone was the screaming, only silence followed him now as he called out. “Ezor! Acxa! Zethrid!”
“Coming!” A blue skinned woman called as she raced around a corner.
A much larger woman with large furry ears pounded behind her to accidentally thud into the wall and squish the first. “Sorry,” She grumbled to the smaller before they ran down to hallway towards an unimpressed Lotor.
The Prince startled slightly when a pink skinned girl and one in a hood appeared beside him as the others caught up. “We’re here. Reporting for orders,” They chorused.
Lotor walked past them. “Great. Just let me know the instant that Haggar arrives.”
“Oh, she’s already here,” Buff Zethrid stated.
Lotor whirled on them, “What?! The witch is here, and you didn’t tell me?!”
“Sorry?” Ezor asked with a bright smile.
Lotor sighed as he walked away. “Memo to me, maim you after my meeting.”
The female generals of differing half parentage in addition to their Galra looked at each other nervously. How was their last general-in-arms lucky enough to keep out of these messes? He better get back soon to save their lives if Lotor didn’t calm down.
~
Hagar picked up an internal intestine from the still living creature she had spread out on a lab table. She cut it in interest. The whimpering being convulsed then went still. The haggard druid witch hummed to herself in thought. “Who would have thought. Throw this one out too.”
Lotor smiled at the woman he had learned from but did not except that he was her child. “Haggar. Sorry I was late.”
“I expected you to be. I can see glimpses of the past, present, and future. In all you are still behind time. When are you not? What secret thing have you been doing now?” She said with a raspy voice.
Lotor walked over to the slab and looked down at the dead being, he riffled through its body cavity curiously as he answered. “Well, I just went to this party. And there is this very strong Galra female. Don’t know her name but I can tell by how she holds herself, but now she has a kit. And the father is human.”
Haggar hummed in thought. “Human. Delicate and easily hurt creatures, but surprisingly determined and adaptable. In spite of their anatomy, they can push beyond it’s limits. If crossed with the perfection of the Galran species, that would be a very powerful child. Perhaps capable of going beyond even Galra limitations.”
Lotor frowned as he flicked the blood off of his fingers. “This newborn kit already has the strength to nearly crush my fingers. So, tell me. Is this brat going to cause any trouble for my rise to Emperor? And taking over all universes?”
Haggar hummed as she stayed still for a while. Reaching with her quintessence for the future. “What is this kit’s name?”
“I think I heard the father call him Keith. A strange Earth name,” Lotor answered.
Haggar smiled after a minute, “Interesting. Keith Kogane. Where is this child? I want him.”
“Telling you at the second would destroy some hard-won trust that I need for my plan to work out,” Lotor stated. “What do you see.”
She smiled coldly at him. “You will hate what I’ve seen.”
The dethroned Galra Prince smiled at her as he pulled the dead being’s eye out of its socket and handed it to her. “Please, my lady. My fate, lies in your lovely hands.”
Haggar still smiled as she held out the eyeball, it rose into the air as a black and purple tinted light engulfed it. Pictures began to flash across it. “In eighteen years, precisely. The Lions of Voltron will finally be found.”
Lotor nodded, “Good.”
“But by those wishing to destroy the Galran Empire. Together they shall destroy this empire. Yet, you will rise. Against Zarkon they shall have advantage, yet you shall crush their allies. Destroy their trust and bring them down. It will then be simple for you to kill your father and take the throne of our empire, and you, Lotor. Will rule all.”
Lotor grinned at the news. “Yes! Lotor rules!” He cheered, as he mused that he had been spending too much time with his generals to be acting like this.
“A word of caution,” Haggar interrupted his celebration. “Should this Kogane fight. You will fail.” With an evil cackle, she disappeared.
Lotor stood still as he thought. Good news and then… “What!” He brushed a hand through his long flowing white locks as he grit his teeth. “I’m calm.”
~
The Galra Prince stepped into a cold, frozen room with his female generals following after him. The walls pulsed with frost. Each breath came out fogged, and even Ezor’s usual bounce slowed, her boots crunching faintly over a thin layer of ice. “Ladies, I’ve got a little riddle for you. How do you stop one’s destiny?”
“I,” Ezor started confidently before growing unsure, “do not know.”
“One’s destiny can be changed by events but to keep them from having one, they need to be dead.” Axca stated.
“Exactly. So that little star spot needs to end,” Lotor stated as he brought up the coordinates for the base.
Chapter Text
As night settled on the mountain’s side of the planet, most of the Blades stationed there settled in to sleep. The newborn child was laid to rest in a small attachment side room connected to his parents. Cosmo was cuddled up to the tiny boy happily as the human seeming boy grasped his fur.
At a sudden cry, Krolia and Min-jun bolted up right in their bed. They blinked the sleep out of their eyes for a few seconds. “He must be hungry,” The taller Galra mumbled with a yawn as she went to get out of bed. Terrified yips started coming from the side room.
“That doesn’t sound right,” Kogane stated, and he rolled out of bed and they ran to the door.
They froze as they saw the small bassinet tipped over and shuffling around. The movement stopped when with a crackle of electricity, the teleporting wolf pup got out from under it. They flipped over the tiny bed to find their son missing. Min-jun’s heart hammered in his throat. Empty blanket. No sound. The kind of silence he’d feared since Earth. Krolia leaped back to her room and grabbed up her com and mask as she sprinted out the door. “Alert! My kit is missing! Someone took him! I know he didn’t just get lost! Lock down the base!”
A small ship blasted away from the mountain just before it locked down. Ezor shoved the controls as far as they could go. “That mother is going to kill us if they catch us!” She screamed in stress.
“I’m more concerned about the Human. Their kind is especially cruel before they kill you. You know that,” Acxa stated as she held the kicking and crying baby.
Zethrid glared at the newborn. “Why did we take him? Could we have just crushed his head in there?”
Acxa shook her head for her dark blue bangs to fall in front of her eyes. “No. It would’ve taken too long to make sure he was dead before we could leave. Besides, that base may be a small outpost, but it still has an up-to-date medical bay. If we did something simple, that four-legged creature would have alerted them so they could take him there and save his life.”
“Great. Then let’s toss him out right now and have him hit the surface. They won’t find him for a while,” Ezor suggested.
The others nodded in acceptance of the idea. Acxa looked sadly down at the flailing baby in her arms. “You really are cute. I’m sorry.” Then she threw the little being out the door. Acxa circled around to watch the tiny being fall. It was perfect until they noticed the natives of the planet below.
~
At a cry the natives looked into the air. A thing falling from the sky took their attention. A rounded female ran forward and caught the thing. She looked down to find it was a tiny being. It stopped crying to look up at her with big purple eyes. “Oh, you poor thing,” She whispered to it as she cradled it close.
Her partner ran up to look at it then up at the sky. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
“We have to take it to the healers to make sure it is alright,” His female said.
He nodded in agreement as he pulled the glowing blue dark metaled knife carefully from the baby. “The poor thing fell from the sky.”
The woman smiled at him. “We’ve prayed so long to the spirits to give us a child. Maybe this is our answer.”
“Maybe. Keith Kogane?” The man said as he looked at the words sewn onto the little one’s clothes.
~
“This is not good,” Ezor said as they watched the natives walk back towards a town with the kit.
“Shoot them and let’s go home,” Zethrid stated.
Ezor nodded before opening up their guns on the couple. After a minute she stopped and pulled out of the planet’s atmosphere. A kit could not live through that.
Chapter Text
Sixteen years later the quiet planet worked. Suddenly down one of the roads a cart whizzed by. A dark-haired young man with black hair that had been trimmed to stay out of his eyes and barely off the back of his neck ran along easily. His simple clothes were much too baggy for his almost skeleton like frame, but he was still much taller than most of the planet’s inhabitants so it was high too so the cream white color of his legs and arms could be seen.
“Keith! Slow down!” The rounded male on the cart called in worry. The male smiled back at him as he pushed off to go even faster. Nothing went faster than a plod or a shamble around here. But Kogane had always known he was different with how he loved to go fast, and that he was fast.
He pulled the cart into town with his neighbors shouting angrily at him as he barreled past. He planted his feet and skidded across the dirt for a second before he could get the cart to stop. He stopped smiling as he felt the stares from the others.
“Thanks son. When our Wols broke its hoof back there, I thought we were in trouble.” The rounded male said as he got off of the cart. He was three times as wide as the other and only came up to his stomach in height.
Keith’s big, purple eyes were kind as he walked over to the cart and lifted the entire bottom board out with all the crops on top. “No problem. The cart is easy to pull.”
“For you, don’t unload just yet. I’ve got to fenagle with Fidisa,” He father said.
“Alright,” Keith excepted as he carefully slid the board back into the cart.
“And Keith. This time,” The rounded creature started.
The boy nodded, “I know. Stay by the cart.”
The round male smiled, “That’s my boy.”
As he walked off slowly Kogane leaned against the cart in boredom. It always took forever for bargaining to finish, and then for them to get back to tell him, and then for Fidisa to show them where to put the stuff. At sounds of grunting, he looked over to one of the shops. His neighbor that made baskets for their crops and bowls to eat on was struggling to get a huge thing onto a shelf that barely came to his hip. Keith stepped over to easily lift it on. “There you go.”
“Thank you,” The rounded artisan said before his smile dropped at seeing who had helped him. “Keith! It’s you!”
“Do you need any help?” Kogane asked.
“Oh no. I’m fine. You run along,” The artisan said desperately.
“Are you sure?” Keith asked.
“Oh yeah,” He said before he pulled the curtain down to close his shop off from the boy.
Keith frowned as he turned away. He had just wanted to help. A perfectly round stone rolled to in front of him. “Hit it to the pillars for me,” Came a shout up the street as a group of youth that he had grown up with shuffled towards him. They froze when they recognized his very distinct physique compared to theirs.
Keith let his lips go up slightly in a smile. “Hello. Do you need another guy?”
One was shoved forward, and he looked terrified up at the white skinned boy. “Uh, sorry Keith. We already have… uh, five! And we want to keep it an even number.”
Keith’s smile dropped as he stared at them. They all began to shake under his eyes. “Wait. Five isn’t an even number.”
The forward one grabbed the stone, and they hurriedly shuffled away. Keith frowned sadly as he leaned against the cart as he caught the words of “Freak, idiot, problem.”
The town emptied around him. For a while he stood in depressed boredom for his father to come back. The round stone went rolling past him then. He smiled slightly to himself as he walked over and kicked it towards the goal pillars. He proudly looked over at the other boys. He could be careful.
The stone clacked against the pillar, and it instantly began to crumble. The dark-haired boy watched in horrified disbelief as it broke apart at what he had considered the slightest tap. The town full of people stepped out to look at the damage. “Not as much as usual,” One commented.
His father ran up to see. The neighbors turned to the ashamed boy that was larger than the rest of them. “That boy is a menace! He’s too dangerous to be around normal people!” Someone called out.
His round father spoke up. “He didn’t mean it. He’s just a kid. He… just can’t control his strength.”
The artisan stalked up, “I’m warning you. You keep that… that… freak away from here!” Keith flinched hard at the usual title that hurt as always. The other people agreed as they left to fix the pillar.
Chapter Text
Sixteen years later the quiet planet worked. Suddenly down one of the roads a cart whizzed by. A dark-haired young man with black hair that had been trimmed to stay out of his eyes and barely off the back of his neck ran along easily. His simple clothes were much too baggy for his almost skeleton like frame, but he was still much taller than most of the planet’s inhabitants so it was high too so the cream white color of his legs and arms could be seen.
“Keith! Slow down!” The rounded male on the cart called in worry. The male smiled back at him as he pushed off to go even faster. Nothing went faster than a plod or a shamble around here. But Kogane had always known he was different with how he loved to go fast, and that he was fast.
He pulled the cart into town with his neighbors shouting angrily at him as he barreled past. He planted his feet and skidded across the dirt for a second before he could get the cart to stop. He stopped smiling as he felt the stares from the others.
“Thanks son. When our Wols broke its hoof back there, I thought we were in trouble.” The rounded male said as he got off of the cart. He was three times as wide as the other and only came up to his stomach in height.
Keith’s big, purple eyes were kind as he walked over to the cart and lifted the entire bottom board out with all the crops on top. “No problem. The cart is easy to pull.”
“For you, don’t unload just yet. I’ve got to fenagle with Fidisa,” He father said.
“Alright,” Keith excepted as he carefully slid the board back into the cart.
“And Keith. This time,” The rounded creature started.
The boy nodded, “I know. Stay by the cart.”
The round male smiled, “That’s my boy.”
As he walked off slowly Kogane leaned against the cart in boredom. It always took forever for bargaining to finish, and then for them to get back to tell him, and then for Fidisa to show them where to put the stuff. At sounds of grunting, he looked over to one of the shops. His neighbor that made baskets for their crops and bowls to eat on was struggling to get a huge thing onto a shelf that barely came to his hip. Keith stepped over to easily lift it on. “There you go.”
“Thank you,” The rounded artisan said before his smile dropped at seeing who had helped him. “Keith! It’s you!”
“Do you need any help?” Kogane asked.
“Oh no. I’m fine. You run along,” The artisan said desperately.
“Are you sure?” Keith asked.
“Oh yeah,” He said before he pulled the curtain down to close his shop off from the boy.
Keith frowned as he turned away. He had just wanted to help. A perfectly round stone rolled to in front of him. “Hit it to the pillars for me,” Came a shout up the street as a group of youth that he had grown up with shuffled towards him. They froze when they recognized his very distinct physique compared to theirs.
Keith let his lips go up slightly in a smile. “Hello. Do you need another guy?”
One was shoved forward, and he looked terrified up at the white skinned boy. “Uh, sorry Keith. We already have… uh, five! And we want to keep it an even number.”
Keith’s smile dropped as he stared at them. They all began to shake under his eyes. “Wait. Five isn’t an even number.”
The forward one grabbed the stone, and they hurriedly shuffled away. Keith frowned sadly as he leaned against the cart as he caught the words of “Freak, idiot, problem.”
The town emptied around him. For a while he stood in depressed boredom for his father to come back. The round stone went rolling past him then. He smiled slightly to himself as he walked over and kicked it towards the goal pillars. He proudly looked over at the other boys. He could be careful.
The stone clacked against the pillar, and it instantly began to crumble. The dark-haired boy watched in horrified disbelief as it broke apart at what he had considered the slightest tap. The town full of people stepped out to look at the damage. “Not as much as usual,” One commented.
His father ran up to see. The neighbors turned to the ashamed boy that was larger than the rest of them. “That boy is a menace! He’s too dangerous to be around normal people!” Someone called out.
His round father spoke up. “He didn’t mean it. He’s just a kid. He… just can’t control his strength.”
The artisan stalked up, “I’m warning you. You keep that… that… freak away from here!” Keith flinched hard at the usual title that hurt as always. The other people agreed as they left to fix the pillar.
Chapter Text
Later that evening Keith pulled the now empty cart back home. He set it down despondently. His round dark brown skinned father took his hand reassuringly. “Son. Don’t let those things they said get to you.”
“But papa, they’re right. I am a freak. I’ve tried to fit in. I really have. I’ve… just never felt like I belong here. I feel like there’s something more.”
The round being listened sadly to his son. “Keith, I…”
“I know it doesn’t make sense. I’ll go check the fields,” Keith muttered as he walked away. His round parent rubbed his hands together sadly as he went.
The dark-haired boy walked through the fields checking on the various types of crops and stages of growth. He had never fit in. Always different looking, stronger, faster. Cravings for something other than plants. As the night set in he looked up at the countless stars above. He did not belong here, but where could he belong? Maybe someday he would find that place. He would do anything to be there.
As he came back to the tiny home he had grown up in, both his squat round parents were waiting at the door. “Keith, your mother and I have something… something we want to tell you,” His father said sadly.
Keith ducked into the low roofed hut and sat down to listen as they explained. “But… if I fell from the sky… what am I? Do I belong to someone else?”
His mother walked over to a cupboard that was for special things, she pulled out some fabric wrapped around an object. She unfolded it to show it was a tiny article of clothing with his name across the front. “This is where we found your unique name from. We decided that that large one on the front was what we would call you instead of the small one on the legs.” Keith looked at the large letters and then at the smaller additions on each leg that read, Akira and Zethik. What did this mean? She then handed him the object that had been wrapped by it.
It was a black metal knife with lightly curved razor-sharp edges on both sides. Set in the pommel of the handle was a glowing blue symbol. “This is what we found on you when you came to us. It’s the symbol of the mountain spirits.”
Keith looked at the symbol as excitement grew in him. “This is it! See!? Maybe they have the answers! I’ll go to the mountain and…” He faded off as he looked back to his parents. They were smiling warmly at him, but there was a sadness to them. “Mama, papa. I love you; you’re the best parents anyone could ever have. But I’ve got to know.”
The next morning Kogane set out. He smiled as he jogged past all the sourly glaring neighbors and their slow pace. He was going somewhere. Maybe for once in his life he would find out where he belonged and wouldn’t have to be ashamed anymore. It took a few days to go almost halfway around the planet to the mountain. At the base, the dark-haired boy stared up at the endless rock he had only heard of but could never imagine. With a deep breath he started up. He stopped often in the never-ending climb.
When he reached the clouds, his lungs began to scream, and he could barely see straight with how dizzy he was but he pushed on faster. At the top he nearly collapsed. Nearly blind he crawled across the completely flat plateau. A depression he had not seen through the dizziness swallowed him and he sprawled on the not too far down bottom. Keith forced himself back up. In his swimming vision he could barely see a misty glow. He grabbed it to force himself up. It lit up and the rock face opened before him. He breathed in the gust of air for some of the dizziness to fade.
It was a tall, narrow cave that was too perfectly square and straight to be natural. Keith hesitantly stepped inside for the door to close behind him. The air in here was good as the pain and dizziness receded. Cautiously he walked through the twisting tunnels. Then he came to a wall that had a glowing symbol in it. He pulled out his knife to find that the symbols matched. “Hello? Great mountain shadow spirits?” The young man called out. No response.
He swallowed in fear as he continued walking. All the stories were of giant shadows with terrifying glowing eyes. They were rarely seen, and they disappeared almost instantly, but it was unknown if they were evil or good spirits. He came to a room with oddly slanted tables.
Keith brushed the coating of dust off of some of them as he passed. Suddenly everything lit up in glows of red and blue. At the front of the room the entire wall lit up with the symbol on his knife. “How did I do that?” Kogane whispered to himself in awe.
“Identify yourself,” A voice boomed through the room.
Keith stuttered unsure. “I’m… Keith.” Then he held out the knife. “Forgive me for disturbing you, great spirits. But I need to know. This knife has something to do with me. Who am I? What am I?”
A light surrounded the knife and Kogane startled at it. It did not feel like anything but after a second it was gone, and the wall’s glow changed. Keith looked around nervously for a moment at the quiet. Now what?
The wall then changed to show a being in a room that was much different than the one he was in. Keith stared in shock at the other being. It was taller than everyone he knew on the planet and was wearing tight black and white clothes that almost completely covered him. His skin was a shade of white with a more red marking across his nose with white and black hair. “Hailing Blade this is Shiro, the Black Paladin from the Castle of Lions.”
“You look like me!” Keith exclaimed in surprise. There were some differences, but they looked the same in body structure and their skin was the same shade.
The man on the wall paused with his dark brown eyes widening. He leaned forward. “You’re human! How did you get out here?”
The boy looked down nervously. “I don’t know what human is. I’m Keith Kogane.”
“Kogane?” The man studied him for a second before looking to the side. “Allura. The Blade signal has someone that looks human and says he is Kogane.”
“Really?” A white-haired woman that was similar to both of them stepped into the wall picture. She glared at him with pink and blue eyes.
Keith then remembered his manners and bowed. “Forgive me, mountain spirits. I just wanted to know the truth.”
The woman glanced at the other. “I’ll call her.” Then she disappeared from view.
The man smiled at him. “You can stand up. You don’t have to bow. So… Keith Kogane, huh?”
“Yeah. At least that’s the name my parents found on me,” Keith replied. “What are you?”
“I’m Shiro. My species is human from Earth. I’ve been out here for a while… unfortunately. But I think it’s been a couple of months since we started Voltron.”
“Voltron! The great spirit of all! You are he?!” Keith exclaimed in excitement. Some of his favorite stories were of the entity. And now he was talking with him!
“Uhh…” Shiro hummed uncomfortably. “Not really. I am just the Black Paladin. I pilot the Black Lion. Pidge and Hunk came with me from Earth too and they pilot the Green and Yellow Lions. Voltron is more giant robots that need to work together as a team. I’m a normal guy. It might be that we are very alike.”
“How?”
Shiro’s smile was warm. “You might be part human. That means that you would be the same species as us. It would be fun together.”
Keith went to ask another question when the white-haired woman spoke up out of sight. “She answered for once. Transferring her over.”
The glowing wall changed then to a darker setting. A new being stood there. The clothes were tight black with glowing marks. A completely smooth face with multiple eerie glowing eyes stared at him. It reached up to tap its face for it to change into a new one. It had purple skin, violet hair, and glowing yellow eyes. It took in a sudden breath with sharp teeth showing. “Oh my… are you…? What’s your name?”
The boy stepped back at the suddenly sharp, commanding tone. “I’m Keith Kogane. At least, I think I am. I don’t know what I am.”
The purple woman’s face softened. “Where are you calling from?”
“The mountain,” Keith answered.
“The Platine system,” A new, energetic voice supplied from out of sight.
Keith held out the knife and small baby garment. “My parents found these on me when they found me.”
The purple being looked at them then closely at him. “Oh, my little kit. You’ve grown so much.”
“Kit?” Keith asked in confusion.
“I am your mother, Keith.” She answered. The world paused at that. She frowned at his slack jawed silence. “Is that any way to greet some one? We’ve thought you were dead for years.”
“Mo-mother,” Keith stuttered out.
She smiled then, “Didn’t know you had a Galra mother, did you? Surprise!”
Shiro laughed at that. Keith stared at her. He didn’t look anything like her, except his eyes were a similar color to her skin. “You’re my mother,” He asked skeptically.
“Yep. Even though you do look much more like your father. Completely human. You have his hair and skin. And I think I see some of my build in you. Are you very strong? You were as a newborn,” She said.
“Yeah. Fast too. What’s a Galra?”
“A species of creature that has spread and conquered millions of stars and their planets. Most species hate us because Emporer Zarkon is slaughtering them. It what I am and you are half of,” She informed.
Shiro broke in, “I think you’re supposed to introduce yourself. After all, I don’t think he remembers you.”
The Galra woman nodded, “True. I’m Krolia. Your dad is Min-jun Kogane. He’s human. We’re both members of the Blade of Marmora, a rebel Galra organization that is fighting to stop Zarkon.”
“Wait,” Keith said as he stared blankly. “I’m half the species that is the Paladins of Voltron, and half a species that is destroying stars. And my parents are rebel warriors.”
On Shiro’s side of the wall the white-haired woman and a bright orange haired man peeked curiously into view. Krolia nodded, “Exactly. The best and worst of both worlds. But you called to learn this.”
The dark-haired boy blinked as he took it in. “But… why did you leave me here? Didn’t you love me?”
“Of course, we love you. Your father and I loved you with all our hearts. But then someone broke into that base you are in and stole you from us. We searched everywhere for you, but we thought that you had either been taken away from the planet or were dead. All the Blades abandoned the base then since it was compromised.”
Keith stepped towards the glowing picture wall. “Do you want me now?”
Krolia’s smile wavered, “With all I have. But you can’t come live with us now.”
“What? Why not?”
Krolia’s jaw clenched. “I would burn stars to bring you home, Keith. But Blade law is absolute. Only Blades or those that have proven to be loyal to our cause and our secrets are allowed to come. We can visit occasionally, but nothing much beyond that.”
Kogane deflated at the news. “So, there’s nothing you can do?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. And the Blade is a pain about taking new blood in. You would kill yourself trying to get in.”
A distracting whisper came from the screen then. The orange haired man was loudly whispering to the glaring white-haired girl. “Princess. He’s a match. We could…” He stopped at the white-haired girl’s glare and everyone’s attention.
Keith stepped forward, “What? What is it? I would do anything!”
“What is it Allura?” Shiro prompted.
She studied the boy hard for a minute. “As much as he’s half Galra, he does have red quintessence.”
Shiro’s smiled then at the boy. “You mean that Keith can be our Red Paladin?!”
Allura frowned, “Could be, but not quite. Red is picky and requires her Paladin to prove himself. I will look past his… heritage, but he has some work to do. Kogane. If you want to try and become the Red Paladin, you have to prove yourself a fighter for the good of the universe and peace. Help us defeat the Galra and Zarkon, and essentially, become a true hero.”
Keith grinned at the words. He could meet his family and help them. “A true hero.” Then the grin faded in confusion, “How does one become a true hero?”
Shiro snorted, “Break out of a military compound, get kidnapped by a Blue Lion, and wake up a Princess as far as I know.”
Allura was staring at him too hard. “I could offer many opinions, but they might be outdated.”
“I think the best way to start is to learn how to become a fighter so you can help us,” Krolia spoke up. “And I know someone that is for the universe and can help you. You have to find Kolivan, the Galra Blade Commander. He will know who will be able to teach you.”
“Kolivan. Got it.” Keith said as he turned for the exit.
“Hold it kit,” Krolia called. She smiled as he looked back. “I think you’re going to need a little help.” With that she whistled. In a second a massive blue furred wolf the size of Keith appeared beside him. “This is Cosmo. You probably don’t remember him.”
A wet lick had the boy retreating fast but as the huge head cuddled against his shoulder Keith smiled. This was great. “He’s a great pet,” Krolia stated. “Dog enough for you father, and with as much ability to focus as lightning.”
Cosmo disappeared to zap to another part of the room then another before going back to cuddle against Keith. The younger Kogane smiled as he grabbed onto the huge creature. “I’ll find Kolivan and become a true hero! Then I can come live with you.”
“That’s the spirit,” Krolia stated.
“I won’t let any of you down,” Keith promised. Then with a crackle of electricity Cosmo and him were gone.
“Good luck, kit,” Krolia whispered before her communications line went dead.
Chapter Text
With multiple jumps Cosmo brought his boy to a large asteroid. The air was breathable though damp and foggy. Dark growth grew around the rock. The two slowly walked through the ruins of what had once been a civilization. “Are you sure this is the right place?” Keith whispered to his friend.
Cosmo nodded vigorously. At the sound of floating laughter, Kogane peeked over the shrubs towards it. Three thin female creatures were playing in a small pool of water on the other side. Kogane watched them for a minute before turning to continue his search. This space rock was inhabited after all.
Glancing down at the ground he barely noticed a boot in the thicket. Interested in the new thing he leaned down and grabbed it. It stayed put but it flinched in surprise. Keith looked up to gasp as eerie yellow glowing eyes looked down at him from far above. He scrambled back as he looked up at the being that was twice his height. He had not even seen him!
At hearing him the girls on the other side ran away. The giant creature he had accidentally found his connected boot sighed. “And I was enjoying watching them.” At Keith’s continued staring at the white braided hair and large fluffy ears he spoke again, “What? Never seen a Galra before?”
“Well, I have. Kind of. But I didn’t know you were so huge,” Keith hurried to say. The dark clothed being emerged from the growth to silently walk away. “Wait! You might be able to help us. We’re looking for someone called… Kolivan?”
The white-haired Galra paused to look at him. “What do you want small one?”
“You’re Kolivan?” Keith asked before rushing over to forcefully shake the huge being’s clawed hand in excitement. “It’s so good to meet you! I’m Keith, and this is Cosmo.”
Kolivan forced his hand back to himself to carefully flex blood flow back into his crushed fingers. Cosmo stood up on his back legs to give the Galra rebel a wet lick. Kolivan grimaced as he wiped the slobber off. “Animals. Disgusting.”
Kogane hurried to keep up as the man walked away. “Listen. I need to become a hero. A true hero.”
At a building with a door, the Blade commander paused to study him critically. “Why did you come to me then?”
“Because I was told that you are part of a Galra rebel band called the… Blade. And that you would know how to help me become someone to fight against Zarkon and the bad in this huge universe,” The dark-haired human boy explained.
Kolivan turned away to walk in and close the door behind him. “Sorry, little one. Can’t help you.”
“Wait!” Keith yelled as he hurried to open the door to follow. Instead, he ripped the whole thing off its hinges and dragged Kolivan who was still holding on back outside. Kolivan studied the hinge in his hand. Not many beings could tear it loose. Fewer still did it with an apology. The Galra blinked at him as he got up and took back his door. “Sorry. Why not?”
“Why not train you? Multiple reasons but I’ll say the ones not focused on everything you are. It is simply two words. I am retired.” Keith quickly counted an extra word as the Blade continued. “I stopped teaching new recruits years ago. I’m too busy with directing an entire universe wide resistance. And you are not Galra.”
“Look, I’ve got to do this. Haven’t you ever had a dream? Something you would do anything for?”
The Blade commander went still for a moment. He sighed, “Kit, come inside. There’s something I want to show you.”
They all went inside. The room was blank with devices and living quarters set up together. Kolivan messed with one of the devices to bring up floating pictures of different Galra. They changed every few seconds. “These are the ones I had hopes for when I trained them. The smartest, the most clever, the skilled, the fearless, the strong, the obedient, the secretive. I thought they would do something worthwhile. Believed that they would become an asset to the Blade. The Blade of Marmora does have stories of them. The great things those would be’s did. You could consider them your hero’s, but the failed ones.”
“Every single one of those fools let me and the universe down. Flatter than an invisible memory circuit. Then there was a fighter. He had it all. Entire armies were not enough against him. He could take a hit and keep on coming. But that stupid confidence of his. He thought himself so good as to attack Central Command on his own. He was torn apart and a few days later executed for the entire Empire to see by Lotor’s Champion.”
“I once had a dream. That I would be the means of creating a being that could aid in the final destruction of Zarkon. And that the creatures across the universe could look at a Galra with trust and say, that’s Kolivan’s boy.” Kolivan sighed as he closed down the hologram. “Dreams are for rookies. One can only handle so much disappointment.”
Keith stepped up quickly, “But I’m different than those other guys, Kolivan! Come on! I’ll show you!”
The huge Galra grunted in surprise as the small human lifted him up and ran outside. “You don’t give up, do you?”
Keith dropped the giant Blade on the ground when they got to a torn apart half a mile wide saucer shaped ship. “Watch this!”
With a groan, the pale skinned boy picked up the edge of the ship and spun the whole thing around before throwing it off the asteroid into the endlessness of space. Kolivan’s blank eyes went wide at the sight. “Quiznak,” He whispered to himself in awe. Kolivan stared too long. His fingers twitched, not from pain, but from possibility. Maybe this one could be worth… he turned angrily away. “I’m not getting messed up with you. I have too many young Galra dying every day.”
Kogane ran after him to pull the twice as tall being to a stop. “But if I don’t become a true hero worthy of the Red Lion, I’ll never get to be with my mother Krolia!”
Kolivan turned to him with a strange seeming, wide smile. “Krolia is your mother?” Cosmo and Keith nodded excitedly before the huge Galra began to roar with laughter. “One of the best Blades there are! She’s huge and deadly compared to you!”
“It’s the truth!” Keith said defensively.
Kolivan calmed down to stare at him. “Right. What you want to be is a myth. I’ve delt with countless block heads like you before. My answer is two words.” Suddenly a buzz came from a device on his belt. Kolivan looked at it quickly with a frown. “Alright.”
“You mean you’ll train me?!” Kogane asked in excitement.
Kolivan sighed as he walked away. “The Altean Princess and the human Paladins of Voltron say you are a hybrid and that they want to have you trained to join them. Anything with Voltron is the Blades’ best interest.”
“Yes!” Keith quietly cheered as Cosmo jumped around happily. “I won’t let you down, Kolivan. When do we start? Can we start now?”
Kolivan only sighed as he went back into his home and came out with a trunk full of various types of weaponry. “We’ll see what you can do.”
Chapter 7
Notes:
From here on out is the story that I enjoy the most.
Chapter Text
Day after day Keith practiced hard. Learning stances and maneuvers for all the different kinds of weapons. Tactics for battles. And learning all the rules for most everything he would most likely do. Including Kolivan’s favorite fantasy of rescuing a female in danger. The old Galra had never had the chance to find a partner that had loved him with his work always in the way. But that did not stop him from watching the thin, beautiful natives.
Hand to hand training was pathetic with how skilled Kolivan was but how he was unable to control his strength was showing. More often and not he would drop from exhaustion as he was pushed far in training and the rest of his time was working out to build any kind of muscle on his twig-like physique.
The dummy for saving beings became battered and destroyed with all the times the half human had accidentally failed his different tests on saving or helping. Slowly through time he grew taller and bulked up to have visual muscle though not so much that he looked like a body builder. He grew more confident and quieter in his personality as he no longer had to prove to anyone that he was like them.
One day after passing one of Kolivan’s difficult courses with getting the pathetic dummy through safely Keith plopped down with Cosmo. He smiled in quiet victory at the Blade commander. “Next stop, Voltron.”
“Settle down, kit,” The Galra stated.
“Why don’t we get off this rock? Get out there and put this training to work. Battle some Empire soldiers, find some being to rescue.” Keith tried. Kolivan stared down at him. “Please?”
The commander sighed, “You want a real practice run? Get your things, kit. We’re going to Ebeth.”
Keith grinned as he made sure his mother’s Blade was on his side.
Soon the three of them were blasting off in Kolivan’s ship. The once farm kid that had no clue about the universe and technology stared at the endless space and worked on trying to figure out how to work the controls to fly. It came decently natural, but he was amateurish. Cosmo paced the cockpit like it was a hunting ground, occasionally nudging Keith's elbow when he pressed the wrong button.
They paused at a planet to rest for a while before they would continue. It was forested with large trees. Keith finally decided now would be a good time to ask. “So, what’s in Ebeth?”
“A lot of crime, and problems. All the refugees from the Empire and the criminals go there. It’s a large tough planet. A good place for one with your goals to start building a reputation,” Kolivan informed. “I lost good operatives on Ebeth. It chews people up if they go in unprepared. You want to be a hero, start there.”
A yell came from inside the forest. They glanced at each other. Kolivan stood up, “That sounded distressed to me.”
They took off into the growth. They slowed as they listened for where any other sound came from. The pounding of feet nearby had them peering through a bush. On the other side was a wide, shallow river with multiple waterfalls trickling. A bipedal being with black boots covered mostly by blue colored pants that had a light brownish loose garment over top of its skintight top white and blue layer ran out of the tree line and jumped down into the water. It looked back from where it came from with the back of its soft brown furred head facing towards them.
A being with four legs that was even four times taller than Kolivan with gnarled blue skin and wiry brown fur laughed as it pranced into view. The smaller being ran through the water away from it. The huge creature stepped forward and easily snatched the bipedal creature up in its large hand. “Not so fast little love,” He growled deeply.
“I swear, Nesses. Put me down or I’ll…” The smaller being replied back as his long legs kicked and struggled.
The four legged being shouted in excitement. “I like them fiery!”
Hot anger boiled through Keith as he watched the poor being struggle to get loose. From the pictures that Kolivan had shown him of common types of beings in the universe, this one had a build similar to his, and in his opinion was one of the best looking.
Kolivan studied the problem, “Now. Remember, kit. Analyze the situation. Don’t just barrel in there without thinking…” The old Galra trailed off as he realized that Kogane was no longer with them and was now storming through the water towards the two. He glared after his trainee. “He doesn’t place for this.”
The smaller male that was in trouble was shoving back against the quadruped’s too close face as Keith shouted, “Halt!”
Both beings looked over at him. The blue one angry as the other turned to look blankly. He looked human except with a tanned shade to his skin and brown hair that was different from his own and… wow. Kogane stared into the blue eyes that were so deep in color that he had never seen a shade like that before. Drowningly beautiful and intense.
Keith scowled sternly as the huge quadruped splashed over and bent down to breathe on him. “Step aside two legs.”
The young man in the thing’s hand pushed and struggled as he was waved about to get loose. “Pardon me my good… uh, sir.” Keith said as commandingly as he could. “I have to ask you to release that…”
“Keep moving junior,” The caramel skinned boy ordered bluntly.
“Male…” Keith finished his sentence lamely as he uncomfortably thought. What was he supposed to do now? He had thought that anyone in danger would be glad for help. “But… You… Aren’t you in trouble?”
The being tried to push himself out of the huge blue hand. “I’m in trouble, and I can handle it. Have a nice day.” With that came a dismissive bright smile.
Keith blinked. Not ungrateful. Not helpless. Just… fierce. He wasn’t used to the idea of rescuing someone who didn’t want saving. Kogane cleared his throat and placed a hand on his knife. “Sir, I’m afraid that you’re too close to this situation to realize the danger…” A monstrously huge blue fist caught him before he managed to finish drawing his weapon from its sheath.
Keith went flying back to splash into the water. Kolivan growled in frustration to himself. “What are you doing?! Get your blade,” He called.
Keith got to his knees in the water as the being stomped over to him. “Blade. Right. Rule number fifteen, a being is only as good as his weapon.” He glanced through the water for where his knife had splashed off to. He saw the dark silhouette and pulled it out of the water. He paused as he realized that it was one of the planet’s plant eating water fish. The quadruped bellowed out a laugh at the fish. The being he was trying to save had an amused smile but was completely unimpressed.
The water creature slipped out of his hands back into the water just before the blue fist slammed into the Galra hybrid. Keith went flying again to crash into a rock, cracking it from the force of the landing. Kolivan and Cosmo winced at the crash. The Blade Commander reached forward to hold the teleporting canine back from charging into the fight. “No. He has to do it himself.” Keith picked himself gingerly out of the water. “Come on, kit! Concentrate!” Kolivan called, “Use your head!”
Keith looked back as an idea obviously struck him. The blue creature was looking over his catch as the thin bipedal tried to talk to him. Keith raced forward toward the distracted opponent. He jumped so his head slammed into his mid-section to send the blue creature flying into one of the waterfalls. Keith looked back for Kolivan to nod. “Not bad,” The Galra stated and then mumbled to Cosmo. “Not bad, but not what I had in mind.”
The being that had been in trouble sat up out of the water he had been dropped into coughing. Keith grimaced self-consciously as he knelt down to pick up the other and carry him over to the solid bank. “Oh. Gee, sir. I’m sorry. That was dumb,” He apologized.
The male nodded, “Yeah.”
Keith nervously rubbed the back of his neck, “So, are you human, or a different species?”
The eyebrows raised skeptically over those eyes. “Human. As you obviously are some part of.”
Kogane went to respond when the furious snorting of the huge creature took his attention. “Excuse me,” He ran back into the middle of the river to try hand-to-hand combat against it. His punches were strong, and he flipped it into the water.
“Better,” Kolivan stated as the young human took off his jacket and was wringing the water out of it.
The young man smiled slightly as he watched. “Is wonder boy for real?” He asked in disbelief.
Kolivan looked over to him. “What do you mean? Of course, he’s real. Woah!” The Galra took in the lean, long physique and features. The water hugged the boy’s clothes tighter to him as he shook his jacket out. For his kind and especially for a male, he was breath taking. Casually the white haired Galra sat down by the human. “And by the way, I’m real too.”
The boy smiled at the flirtation and leaned in. This was the best he had ever been received before. “I’m more than you could handle,” The tanned human whispered before shoving the huge Galra off the bank into the water easily. Kolivan got up soaking wet with a glare.
Keith slammed the huge creature into the shallow river. When it got back up, he sent a blow into its head that sent it crashing back. It wobbled uncertainly up to collapse completely when Cosmo teleported to land on top of it victoriously. Kogane searched through the water to find his knife then waded back onto the shore where Kolivan was trying to dry himself. “How was that Kolivan?”
“Bring it in rookie,” The Commander growled bitterly. “You can get away with mistakes like that in a minor empire arena, but Voltron is the big leagues.”
Keith gasped for breath. “At least I beat him, didn’t I?!”
“Next time don’t let your guard down because of a pair of pretty eyes.” Kolivan instructed. At the mention of the human, Keith looked over to where he was by the river. The water was shining like silver and gold against him as he glanced back at them. “It’s like I keep telling you. You have to stay focused and you…”
Kolivan trailed off as Kogane walked away over to the male he had just saved. Cosmo raised a paw for a high five, but Keith walked right past. They both growled angrily as their boy walked over to the other.
“Are you alright, Mister uh…” Keith stated hesitantly.
The full human stood up straight. “Lance McClain. My friends call me Lance, at least they would if I had any friends.” Lance stated sharply as he dropped one of his black boots into Keith’s hands then bent down to pull off the other one to dump the water inside into the river. “So, did they give you a name with those amethyst eyes, and rippling pectorals?”
Keith’s mind went blank at the question. What was his name? Why couldn’t he speak? This being was completely what half of him was. But he was just so handsome. Keith had trained for weeks against monsters. But one smile from this boy and he felt every nerve forget how to behave. The pleasurable feeling he had right now was almost uncomfortable, but he wanted so much more.
McClain stood back up after the dark-haired boy had stuttered for a minute. He took back his boot from him with an amused smile. “Are you always this articulate?”
“Keith!” The hybrid blurted out. Quickly clearing his throat, he repeated, “My name is Keith Kogane.”
“Kogane.” Lance said as he sat down on a tree root to slip his boots and jacket back on. “I think I prefer Mullet.”
“Mullet?” Keith asked with an open, almost dreamy expression.
The blue eyes rolled at the obviously love-struck boy. “Yeah. Your hair style. One of the worst kind that is on Earth. Though I have to admit that yours is an exception to the rule.”
Kolivan and Cosmo came up to them. The canine teleported to exactly in front of his boy’s view to the intruder. Keith gently pushed him to the side to lean almost non-chalantly against the side of the tree beside Lance, barely managing to keep from falling on his face. “So… h-how did you get mixed up with the…”
“Pinhead with hooves?” McClain filled in. “Well, you know how men are. They think no means yes, and get lost means ‘take me I’m yours.” He empathized his point by fluttering his eyelashes and getting close to the dark-haired boy.
Keith was frozen with how close the other was. He glanced behind him at Cosmo to see if he knew what the other was talking about. The teleporter just shrugged. Lance’s smile slipped away at the obvious innocence. “Don’t worry. The old guy here can explain it to you later.”
Kolivan barely kept his snarl in at that. Lance turned to walk off into the forest. “Well, thanks for everything, Keith. It’s been a real slice.”
“Wait!” Keith called desperately. “Uh, we could give you a lift.”
Cosmo snarled at the invitation and teleported up into the branches far above their heads. Lance looked up at the indignant canine. “I don’t think your space wolf likes me very much.”
“Cosmo? Oh, don’t be silly. He’d be more than happy to… Ow!” A large branch fell down on his head and Cosmo looked away so innocently.
“I’ll be fine,” Lance calmed as he playfully tapped a fist against Keith’s arm. The other boy almost felt like he was about to fall over from the light touch from the decently taller boy. “I’m a big boy. Put on my own boots and everything.” He walked away and waved back. “Bye, bye mullet.”
“Bye,” Keith whispered as he blankly waved back. The other human disappeared completely from sight before he sighed. “He’s… something. Isn’t he Kolivan?”
The older Galra nodded, “What I find interesting is that he’s not scared of me being Galra. But other than that, I agree with you. He really is something. A real pain! Universe to Keith. Hey, we’ve got a job to do, remember? Ebeth is waiting.”
“Yeah. Ebeth,” Keith agreed blankly as Cosmo crackled down to press against them and teleport them back to the ship.
“Get that dazed look off your face, kit. You look like you just discovered gravity with cheekbones.” Kolivan growled as he dragged the boy to the cockpit.
~
In the distance, Lance smiled and shook his head at the trio in friendly disbelief. As they disappeared, he turned to walk further into the woods. The growth grew together to block out much of the sunlight. He smiled into the shadows. “Ah, how cute! A couple of shadows looking for a theme park.”
“Hey! What does that mean?” Came a playful reply before pink skinned Ezor appeared out of thin air. Silent Narti stepped out of her hiding spot slightly.
“It means that your attempts to hide from him are getting desperate,” Acxa stated as she walked up to him with Zethrid.
Lance smiled at them as he could look most of them almost level in the eyes. “I thought I smelled a rat.”
“Oh Lance,” Came a gentle call.
The human’s smile turned into a grimace. “Speak of the devil.”
Lotor walked into their group with smooth sashaying steps. He placed one of his fingers under McClain’s jaw lovingly to tilt his gaze upward. “Lance, my little flower, my little bird, my little plague, my little Lancelot. What exactly happened here? I thought you were going to persuade Nesses and his planet to join my team for the uprising. And here I am kind of… less of all of them.”
Lance generally ignored the half Galran prince and his holoscreen with all the planets he had under his control. He reached out and flicked Nesses’ planet off the screen like a fly. “I gave it my best shot. But he made me an offer I had to refuse.”
Lotor fondly smiled at the human as Lance stepped away. “Alright. Instead of subtracting to your sentence I’m going to add one. Give that your best shot.”
Lance tightened up angrily at the words. He leaned against a tree with his back to the half-breed. “Look! It wasn’t my fault! It was this mulleted wonder boy, Keith.”
Lotor froze as his pupiled eyes shrunk at the mention. The name rippled through Lotor’s mind like a virus in code. He hadn’t heard it in years, but the Quintessence shuddered when it did. Axca nervously tapped at her armored arm. “Keith,” She mumbled to herself. “Why does that ring like my ears after an Arena fight?”
Zethrid shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe one of us owes him money?”
“Not Lance. He would have recognized him if he did,” Ezor pointed out.
Lotor rushed over to be in Lance’s space. “What was that name again?”
“Keith,” Lance stated casually as the Prince’s grip suddenly cracked through the tree’s bark in fury. He stepped away carelessly. “Keith Kogane. He came on with his big farm boy routine, but I could see through that in an Altean tick.”
“Wait a minute.” Ezor suddenly said to the other female generals. “Wasn’t Kogane the name of that kit we were supposed to…”
All four of them instantly froze in terror and looked over to Lotor. He strolled over to them with fury burning in his eyes. “So, you took care of him, did you? Dead as a rock. Those were your exact words.”
Suddenly three other copies of himself appeared to put their hands around each of the girls’ necks. “This could be a different Keith!” Acxa choked.
“Yeah! I mean, Keith is very popular now days,” Ezor barely managed to spit out as her throat was closed off.
“Remember, a few years ago every other boy was named Varkon, and the girls Roeki?” Acxa tried again.
“I’m about,” Lotor said, “to rearrange the cosmos. And the one lowlife Terran that can mess it up is walking around in the woods!”
Lance and his fellow generals ducked or laid flat on the ground as Lotor’s quintessence exploded to set the whole forest on fire. As the flames danced, Axca got up. “Wait. Wait, we can still cut in on his walking.”
“That’s right,” Zethrid agreed. “He’s no one. No Blade to keep him safe. Although I don’t understand how he survived that.”
Lotor thought for a long moment. He looped his arms around all his generals as a smile slowly came to him. “Fortunately for the five of you, we still have time to correct this rather large oversight. And this time… no foul ups.”
Chapter Text
“Wow!” Keith breathed as he looked out the view port. “Is that all one planet?”
“Yep. One planet. One city. A million troubles. The one and only Ebeth. The big fruit itself. If you can make it there you can make it anywhere,” Kolivan stated as he piloted his ship down to land.
They began walking around. Keith going slower to take it all in. “Stick with me kit. This planet is a dangerous place,” Kolivan warned just before a speeder almost ran over him on the sidewalk.
“Watch where you’re going numbskull,” The driver shouted back.
“This is a walking place!” Kolivan shouted back before checking to make sure his hood was pulled up all the way to keep his species more hidden. “See what I mean? Wackos.”
The Blade led the wolf and cross breed through the streets. Keith stared at all the beings walking by and the vendors of food being pushed past. “Is that a food cart or a weapons dealer?”
“Yes.”
As they began to descend a ramp, a questionable being leaped out in front of them with its wings open to show a collection of gadgets. “Do you want to buy a bionic eye?”
“We don’t need one,” Kolivan stated as he shoved the being back and grabbed Keith’s arm to drag him along.
“The end is coming!” Another panicked as it ran past them. It had no clothing on in the least. “Can’t you feel it?”
“Yes, yes. Thank you for the information. Ponder that for a while,” Kolivan stated dismissively as he forced Keith from staring after it. “Just stare at the ground for now. Don’t make eye contact. Beings here are insane. That’s because they live in a city of turmoil. Trust me, kit. You’re going to be just what the medic ordered.”
A speaker blared alien opera from a cracked hover-bus. Something squishy bounced off Keith’s boot and squealed. A vendor handed Kolivan a glowing orb. “It’s edible,” he claimed. “Eventually.”
"Thanks," Keith hesitantly said as he dropped the thing out of sight as fat as possible.
~
They wandered through the streets until they paused to listen at a small water basin. Beings of different species were gathered around with hopeless expressions as they washed their clothes and got their water. “It was tragic,” A female moaned. “We lost everything in the fire.”
“Everything, except old White here,” A thin male spoke up as he held up a charcoaled pet.
“Where the fires before or after the earthquakes?” Another round male asked.
“They were after the earthquakes. I remember,” A female that looked like she was having a seizure stated.
“But before the flood,” The first woman said.
“Don’t even get me started on the crime rate,” The ancient man slurred.
“Ebeth has certainly gone down in our area,” The first woman sighed.
The ancient one agreed, “Tell me about it. It seems that every time you turn around there’s another Galra monster wreaking havoc.”
“All we need now is a plague of bugs,” The one holding the blackened pet mused.
A bug crawled out of the water basin, and they panicked. “That’s it! I’m moving to that Galra conquered solar system,” The old one stated.
“Excuse me,” Keith spoke up before they left. Kolivan had basically disappeared. “It seems to me that what you need is, a hero.”
The group looked blankly at him. “Yeah,” The largest male said. “And who are you?”
“I’m Keith. And I happen to be, a hero,” The boy declared.
The group laughed at the declaration. “Is that so?” The oldest one asked. “Have you ever saved a town before?”
“Uh, no. Not exactly,” Keith said.
“Have you ever reversed a natural disaster?” The largest male questioned.
“No,” Kogane admitted softly.
The group began to walk away. “That’s what we need. He’s just another ship chaser.”
“Why not give him a chance?” Kolivan asked from the shadows. “You don’t have anything to lose by letting him try.”
“What we need is a professional hero. Not an amateur,” A woman stated before they all walked away.
Keith glared after them and leaned back against a wall. Kolivan materialized beside him. “How am I supposed to prove myself if no one will give me a chance?”
“You’ll get your chance. You just need some catastrophe, or disaster,” Kolivan stated.
A cry for help had both of them looking up. “Help! Please! There’s been a terrible accident!” Came the distressed calls. The familiar figure of a brown-haired human boy pushed through the throng of beings.
“Lance?” Keith questioned with a smile as he ran forward.
Kolivan huffed, “Speaking of disasters.”
The human caught sight of the half breed. “Mullet! Keith! Thank goodness!”
McClain gasped for breath desperately as Keith came up to him. “Lance! What’s wrong?!” Kogane asked.
“In the new sector of town! Two little girls! They were playing in the street! Th-the building’s wall collapsed! It was a horrible explosion! They’re trapped!” Lance exclaimed desperately while almost collapsing from the excitement and exercise.
“Kids? Trapped?” Kogane asked before grinning back at his trainer. “Kolivan, this is perfect!”
Lance looked at him neutrally and suddenly completely recovered. “You’re really choked up about this, aren’t you?”
“Come on!” Keith said as he grabbed the other boy by the arm to pull him over to Cosmo.
“Wait! No! You don’t understand! I have a terrible fear of tight and unknown spaces! I don’t like appearing somewhere I don’t know!” Lance panicked before Cosmo blinked away with a vicious grin.
They appeared in the new thriving sector of the planet with a terrified and frazzled Lance clutching onto Cosmo’s fur with all he had. Keith looked over with a grin to become concerned at the haggard appearance, “Are you okay?”
Cosmo barked happily as Lance slowly let go. “I’ll be fine. Just let me go sit down before I ruin your upholstery.” Cosmo frowned and shoved him away.
The sounds of young voices yelled from a huge crowd down the street. “Help! I can’t breathe! Hurry! Get us out! We’re suffocating!”
Keith ran through the crowd to the collapsed wall as the others that had heard at the other area of town arrived. “Easy kids. You’ll be alright,” Keith calmed.
“Get us out before we get crushed!” The girls shouted.
Kogane looked at the monstrously huge stone wall that had fallen over them. With a deep breath he curled his fingers around an edge. He groaned as the wall came up inch by inch. The other beings in the street backed off as he slowly lifted it above his head. Human genetics jumpstarted strength and speed above what Galra were normally able to do.
Lance’s eyes widened in surprise before he smiled slightly as the huge wall completely left the ground. The girls scrambled out safely and a light sound of clapping came from the huge audience. “How are you girls doing?” Keith kindly asked the rescued kids.
“We’re okay now!” Said one.
“Jeepers mister! You’re really strong!” The other thrilled.
“You better head home. Okay kids?” Kogane said.
“We will,” The girls chorused as they ran off. Keith carefully leaned the wall up against the building it had collapsed from.
The girls scampered up to the top of a high rise at the end of the street. “Stirring performance, girls. I was really moved,” Lotor said from his comfortable chair as he snacked.
“Jeepers, mister?” Acxa asked Ezor as she deactivated her hologram projector. “Were you trying to give away that we know Earth culture?”
“I was going for eloquence,” Ezor cheerfully said as she shut down hers.
Lotor smiled over the roof. “And a large round of applause for our star actor. What a performance. What a doll.”
Lance ignored Lotor as he held out huge bowls of crunchy snacks to the four girls. “I brought space popcorn.” Then under his breath as he looked down at the street. “Get out of there, you stupid mullet while you still can.”
~
Keith found Kolivan at the edge of the crowd. “Kolivan! I did great! They even applauded, kind of.”
A bright light in the sky had them all looking up. It was not a ship as it plummeted to crash into the street in front of them. A skyscraper tall coffin shaped object stood in front of them now. “I hate to destroy your enthusiasm,” Kolivan said softly. “But that wasn’t applause.”
The front of the object dropped off and a creature with a huge, long neck, red eyes, and claws emerged. It was essentially a dragon without wings. “K-K-K-K-Kolivan? What is that thing?” The half human boy stuttered.
“A robeast. A creature under the Empire’s control,” Kolivan answered as he backed away.
“How do you stop it?” Keith asked desperately as the monstrous creature stepped closer.
“Two words. Scram!” The Blade Commander yelled as he turned on his heels and took off sprinting. The gathering screamed in terror as they tried to run away from it.
Lotor laughed to himself at his creation. “Let’s get ready to have some fun!”
The creature stepped forward as Keith drew his knife hesitantly and stood his ground. He probably could not do much against it, but at least he could try to hold it off until a ship or something blasted it. The creature focused on him and snapped at him with its huge, sharp teeth. Kogane dodged out of the way and circled around to study what he could do against it.
From a building nearby Kolivan settled down to hope. “That’s it. Dance around,” He muttered to himself like he could give any advice. “Watch the teeth! Watch the teeth.”
The creature bit down on the ground for the human Galra boy to leap out of the way. “Leap to your left. Your other left,” Kolivan groaned at the mistake.
Keith rolled to safety but when he came up, he glanced around for his blade. It clattered to the ground a distance away. The thing drew back its snake-like head for another strike. Keith grabbed part of the falling apart building’s wall and threw it upwards. The thing caught the stone in its mouth and bit right through.
Kogane glanced back at his knife and sprinted for it. The jaws opened on him, and he caught the top and bottom fangs. With his strength he kept the teeth from closing on him. The head pushed for him, only to push him back. Keith glanced over at his knife close by. He slammed the creature’s head to the ground and dashed for his weapon.
As he got the sharp knife back in his hand the thing’s tongue whipped out to wrap around his leg. It flipped its head to throw him into the air. Kogane yelled as he was caught in its huge mouth and swallowed whole.
Lance grimaced at the gruesome death. “That’s a bad way to go. The digestive fluids take forever to kill a being.”
“How do you know that?” Acxa asked before she held up a handful of her snacks to stop him. “Stupid question. When did you find that one out?”
The creature turned its gaze on the horde of beings crowded on the street. It lunged forward to devour. The gathering screamed in terror. Before it could eat someone it suddenly paused. It looked down in confusion at its long neck. The flesh bulged before something pushed through and then sliced through the rest of the neck. The head dropped to the ground with the body as Kogane tumbled out of the throat opening with a long black metal sword in his hands.
The crowd all clapped happily that they were not eaten and at the miracle that someone had killed a robeast by hand. Kolivan was grinning huge under his hood as he ran up to the huge body in the street. Keith was staggering with glowing green saliva dripping off of him in strands. “Key, Kolivan. That wasn’t so hard.” He slurred as the sword in his hands changed back to his normal knife and he missed putting it back in his scabbard as he collapsed to the ground.
“Kit, kit, kit! How many eyes do you see?” Kolivan asked in concern as he stared down at his student.
Keith’s vision blurred so that Kolivan’s golden eyes multiplied. “Six?”
“Close enough,” The older Galra accepted as he picked the still much smaller half breed off the ground by his arm. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
The black, sludgy rain of the planet began to come down on the gathering. All four female half Galrans looked back in terror at Lotor. It had failed. They were going to die. But the Prince just smiled at them. “Guys. Relax. Its only… Lance, I need an Earth term.”
“Half time?” The Latino boy suggested.
“Half time. I believe that might be accurate once you explain what that is,” Lotor accepted.
On the street Kolivan had picked up the Marmorean blade as Keith got up. As they turned to leave the sound of movement stopped them. “That doesn’t sound good,” The Commander stated as they looked back at the body. It got up to its feet then and the remaining neck section split apart to form three new heads. “Definitely not good!” Kolivan shouted as he shoved Keith’s blade back into his hand and dodged out of the way of one of the jaws snapping at him.
Kogane took off running down the street as fast as he could. Cosmo yelped to appear beside him. In an instant they were gone from the street. They appeared on a building beside the creature. The heads noticed and struck upwards. The building went down under them as Keith desperately swung his knife as it elongated into a sword. Cosmo teleporting them out of the way as much as he could.
In a matter of minutes, they stared in horror at hundreds of heads hissing, and ready to strike them. How could someone kill this thing? Kolivan shouted out, “Will you forget the head slicing thing?!”
Cosmo teleported them to a new building for multiple heads to slam into it. Keith yelled as he lost his balance to fall into the mess of heads. “Kolivan! I don’t think we covered this in basic training!” He screamed as he slid down the long necks.
A mouth opened wide to eat him at the end. Just before he shot in, another mouth tried to chomp down on him, biting down on another’s neck instead. Keith got to his feet and ran through the open jaws and across necks until he leaped free of the nest of mouths.
One of the things not multiplying claws grasped him to pin the human looking boy against the side of a destroyed skyscraper. The heads all focused in on the small white skinned being in their claw. Lotor smiled as he leaned forward in excitement. “My favorite part of the game.”
“Yeah. And every other Galra’s that watch the Arena fights,” Lance sarcastically stated.
The heads reared back and from their vantage point they could see Kogane’s terrified expression. “Sudden death,” Lotor purred happily.
Keith desperately glanced around for his gaze to land on the building he was being held against. As the heads rushed forward to eat him, he acted on instinct without a considering thought. Slamming both of his fists hard into the building’s side. The building shook as cracks formed. The wall collapsed down onto the creature. Heads and main body crushed beyond anything that could come back.
The gathering gasped in horror. The robeast was dead, but so was the brave young man. Cosmo barked frantically in hopes of his boy being somewhere. Kolivan let out a sad groan. “There goes another one.”
Lotor’s generals sat quietly in their seats. It was sad that the boy had to die, but it was either him or them. Lance was the only one still snacking on his space popcorn. Zethrid glanced over at him. “How can you be so callus?”
“I make myself be,” Lance replied flippantly.
Lotor was smiling happily as he ate his enjoyment treats as well. “I win.”
Sound of movement and muscle brought the gathering’s attention back to the pile of rubble. A clawed hand that stuck out from under the stone was moving. Everyone held their breath in fear that it was going to come back to life despite everything. The claw came open and Keith fell to his knees outside of it.
The black suit that he had been wearing was shredded and he did not look like he was in very good condition himself. The inhabitants of Ebeth screamed in rejoice at the impossible victory. They rushed forward to help the boy up.
Kogane smiled painfully at his mentor hiding in the throng. “Kolivan. You’ve got to admit. That was pretty heroic.” Kolivan was grinning like a little kid at the small half-breed boy.
Lotor was trembling in anger at the kid’s survival. The female generals had gathered to hide behind Lance’s chair out of direct path of fury. Lance only smiled down at the street. “Well, what do you know,” He said to himself before clapping softly with the rest of the gathering below.
Chapter 9
Notes:
I have finally figured out that it is the fandom you post in and not the quality of the story. I have other stories that I have put more time and devotion into than this one, but they have never been read because they are not a popular fandom. But I have posted these stories for all of your enjoyment and with the hope of having comments on what I did well on and suggestions on how I can potentially improve.
Chapter Text
After that Kogane, Cosmo, and Kolivan became Ebeth’s celebrities. Crimes, difficulties, disasters on the planet they were there to stop and help the ruling government. In no time they had made the planet one of the safest to live on for a refugee planet. More often than not, Kogane would teleport to the Castle of Lions to spend time with the small team Voltron or just spend time with Shiro.
His common apparel changed for all the paparazzi pictures and his battles against the ever-increasing amount of Galra cruisers. Black boots and under suit with a belt were still common but a red earth jacket was added with it. He was always there for peace discussions and public events even if he did not like them. He had gone from a pest on a planet no one knew of and now the universe famed him as one who could help Voltron stop Zarkon.
Whatever planet he went to the females of all the species would scream or swoon. He quickly learned to ignore this while still being friendly. Shops opened in honor of him as producers scrambled to get his endorsement. Everyone knew him as the one that could take any challenge undefeated.
He remained quiet and humble even as he earned so much money that no matter how much he gave to Voltron, the Blade of Marmora, or the other rebels he could not get rid of it all. A creature or robeast came after him on a daily basis for assassins and armies from Zarkon’s forces filling in the rest. While Zarkon just gritted his teeth in frustration, Lotor was pounding his head and tearing apart his home ship in his fury.
~
Lotor snarled at the holoscreen that was showing Kogane standing with the three Paladins of Voltron and Princess Allura during a huge peace meeting that was bringing hundreds of solar systems into the Voltron Coalition.
“Activate!” He yelled.
His generals were training in their armor on the side of the room as Lotor vented in the middle. The little target robots came out of the floor with Keith’s face on them. The Half Galra Prince shot down each of them in a blind haze before turning back to watch the meeting.
Lance stretched as he twisted and bent like a gymnast around the pull up bar Zethrid was hesitantly using. “Nice shooting, Rex.”
“I can’t believe this, guy. I throw everything I’ve got at him! And it doesn’t even…” Lotor stopped in his rant as he caught sight of the towel Ezor had draped around her neck to soak up the sweat. “What… is… that?” He grit out.
Ezor noticed the purple eyes against the white skin and black hair that was slightly smiling from the folds of the fabric. She quickly folded Kogane’s face out of view so that it was just his red jacket showing. “Uhmm… I don’t know. I thought it was colorful and flashy.”
Lotor slowly backed her into a corner as his temper flared. “I only have a few more days left to get rid of this brat until this scheme that I’ve been planning for eighteen years goes up in smoke. And you are using his merchandise!”
Before Lotor could hit her, he noticed the water pouch that Narti was silently drinking from. It was an all too familiar face that haunted him on it. He yelled in fury and smoke billowed out of the training room a second later.
Everyone gathered around to make sure Narti was still alive. Barely and was badly injured but she was still alive. Lance shook his head at their boss as he grabbed a Kogane water pouch from the shelf. “It wasn’t her fault. All the stuff we get now is mullet’s. It looks like your game is over. Wonder boy is hitting every curve you throw at him.”
Lotor glared at the human as the Latino stepped over to watch the screen. His eyes took in the tight black, dark blue, and orange armor that covered over the Terran’s lean, tall form. He loved looking at the boy in his colors, so tight and little to the imagination. He chuckled as an idea came to him. “Oh, yeah. I wonder if I haven’t been throwing the right curves at him, my little lover boy.”
Lance looked over blandly. “Don’t even go there.”
“He’s got to have a weakness, because everyone has a weakness. What? For my father it’s the Black Lion, for Haggar it’s her devotion to a fool. We just have to find ‘mullet boy’s,” Lotor said.
Lance rolled his eyes. “Send a girl then. Everyone knows that girls have the best chance at blowing a male’s mind.”
“Already tried that. He ignored me,” Ezor spoke up.
“And if he can resist females, maybe there is a weakness for a handsome male,” Lotor stated with a sly smile.
“I’ve done my job! Get the others to do it!” McClain brushed off in frustration.
“They couldn’t handle him as a baby.” The Galra Prince stated, “I need someone that can… handle him as a man.”
“Hey. I’ve sworn off relationships,” Lance stated blandly to the suggestive proposal.
“That’s good because that’s what got you into this situation in the first place.” Lotor said quickly as he pulled up a screen of Lance in the middle of a picture with many others that looked similar to him. “You sold your life and being to me to save your family and planet from the Galra. And those loving humans that you cared for forgot you the second you did. Threw you out. Then out here. You kept that female that you were dating out of trouble and safe. And how did that slime thank you? By running off with some thief. What was her name again?”
Lance stared at the floor as he hugged himself at the memories. He had done everything he could for all of them, and they abandoned him. No matter how he dreamed of his mother’s warm hugs or his siblings teasing. They had said thank you for saving their lives and then stopped talking to him instantly. He had stayed on Earth for a few months trying to get anyone to be his friend, but he had left with Lotor when he had realized that he didn’t have a family, neighbors, or anyone that had a kind word. Zethrid, Acxa, Ezor, and Narti were the only ones that had ever cared for him. Then that girl he had thought had liked him… “Nyma.”
“Ah! I remember that now. They hurt you pretty bad, didn’t they?” Lotor prodded at the old wound.
A knife flew through Nyma’s picture head to disrupt the holo screen. Lance was glaring at the wall with another knife in his hand. “Look, I’ve learned my lesson.”
Lotor smiled chillingly as he stepped over to cradle the boy’s tense shoulders. “That’s why I think you’re going to leap at my offer.” He held out a crystal figurine of Kogane and dropped it. Lance caught it easily and looked at it unimpressed. “You give me the key to bring down mullet breath, and I’ll give you what you crave most in the entire cosmos! Your freedom.”
Lance took in a sharp breath at the words as the figurine dropped from his fingers to shatter across the floor. Lotor smiled cruelly at the reaction. The half breed would not survive now that he had set his best hunter on him.
Chapter Text
Laughter floated out of the lit room in the mostly empty Castle of Lions. Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, Allura and Coran sat on the couches with smiles as Kogane and his teleporting wolf animatedly told them the stories of the battles against the robeasts he had defeated by hand. “You should have been there!” Keith said enthusiastically as he wrestled with Cosmo in demonstration.
Shiro leaned forward with a huge smile, “You’re doing great, Keith! You’re doing us proud.”
Allura hummed as she stood up. “I never would have thought that I would have a Galra for a friend, but you are one. And thanks to you the Blade of Marmora almost has made the Castle a permanent base. The universe is starting to recognize that not all Galra are monsters. You’ve proved yourself to me. Why don’t we head down to the hangars and see if the Red Lion agrees?”
Keith smiled at the words. “Really? Let’s go!”
Hunk pounded up and gave the half human boy a hug that lifted him off the ground as they hurried through the halls. “You did it! Just so you know, I’ve always felt like we were brothers. Space brothers! Now you can come stay with us and I can try all my new recipes on you!”
“Allura push you a little hard today in training?” Keith teased the enthusiastic boy.
Hunk shrugged friendly, “Yeah. Maybe.”
“I can’t wait to get a diagnostic read on the Red Lion. I’ve found there are differences in all the Lions. I wonder what Red’s is,” Pidge mused from beside them.
They entered the Red Lion’s hangar. Keith stepped up to the activated particle barrier surrounding the ship. “Alright. Let’s go.” The barrier stayed up. “Uhm… I’m your Paladin. The one that’s supposed to pilot you. We have to save the universe together. Come on. Open up.” Keith prodded unsure as it stayed up.
After a few minutes all smiles were gone. Allura reassuringly hugged the half breed. “I’m sorry Keith. I thought you had done enough. I guess the Red Lion doesn’t think you’re there just yet. You haven’t proven yourself to be a true hero.”
“But I… I’ve beaten every monster and criminal that I’ve come against. I’ve restored peace to dozens of solar systems! I’m the most famous being in the universe! I’m an action figure!” Keith exclaimed in hurt disbelief.
Shiro stepped up to hug the boy that had become a brother to him tightly. “I’m afraid that being famous doesn’t make one a true hero.”
“What more can I do?” Keith sighed.
“Something you’ll have to discover for yourself. We barely know what we’re doing. Unfortunately, we don’t know how to help you,” Shiro said softly.
“Look inside your heart. All Altean stories of heroes say that,” Allura suggested.
“Oh. Group hug!” Hunk called as he crushed them all.
Keith smiled slightly at the care and the friends he had made, yet the sadness and feeling of worthlessness persisted.
~
Crowds of beings wandered past and stared through the gate at the nice home that the Galra Empire fighter had. A cruiser full of beings slowly passed and the pilot stood up and began his practiced speech to the tourists. “On your left is Kogane’s villa. Our next stop is the Pecs and Plex gift shop where you get the great hero’s thirty dobash workout schedule, Buns of Bronze.” A horde of girls were carefully navigating themselves over the fence.
Inside the large house, Keith was posing in what must have seemed a heroic pose for the creature photographing him. Kolivan was in the shadow reading off his schedule for the day. “In a varga you have a meeting with King Obvious. He’s got a problem with his hangar and ship fluids. He even suggests that you wear high boots.”
“Kolivan,” Keith said.
“I told you don’t move,” The photographer ordered. Keith stiffened back up.
“After that you have a meeting with the Daughters of the Galra Rebellion. Then you have some warrior woman coming,” Kolivan read off with a smile at the last one.
“Kolivan! What’s the point?!” Keith shouted in frustration.
The photographer shrieked in frustration as he packed away his equipment. “That’s it!”
“Calm down. Keep your boots on,” Kolivan tried to sooth the leaving artist. The being just left. The disguised Galra rebel looked over to his apprentice, “What do you mean what’s the point? You want to be a part of Voltron, don’t you?”
Keith sighed as he sat down in discouragement. “Yeah, but this stuff doesn’t seem to be getting me anywhere.”
“You can’t give up now. I’m counting on you. The whole universe is,” Kolivan said.
“I gave this all I had,” Keith said as he drooped.
The Blade Commander dropped the long ways to the ground below to sit beside the half breed. “Listen to me kit. I’ve seen it all. And this is the honest to Voltron truth, you’ve got something I’ve never seen before.”
“Really?” Keith asked with a little hope.
“I can feel it in my hardened warrior heart. There is nothing you can’t do kit,” Kolivan said with his full heart.
Keith sat back with a slight smile at the confirmation. Suddenly the door of his home burst open and a group of females screamed in joy at the sight of him. They sprinted forward and dogpiled the half Galra boy that had jumped to his feet. Kolivan stared at the beautiful girls but mostly the young man struggling for survival in the midst of them.
The sounds of cloth tearing came between the shrieks of fanatic adoration as Keith was forced to the ground. Kolivan crouched down to look at Kogane through the web of legs. “Kolivan! Help!” The boy begged as he was stepped on and kept pinned down by the mob.
Kolivan grinned, “Alright. Escape plan beta.”
“Got cha,” Keith gasped for air.
Kolivan stood up to loom over the mob of females. He took a breath and whistled through his sharp canines almost deafeningly to get their attention. The females looked around in confusion to see no sign of the dark-haired boy they had been attacking. “Hey! Where is he?” They asked.
Kolivan pointed out the open door. “There he goes! On the veranda!”
The girls shrieked in excitement as they raced out the door for the area. Kolivan grinned in excitement as he followed after them hopefully. The door closed slowly to reveal Lance in his jeans and jacket who had been concealed behind the door. He smirked slightly at the scene that he had managed to avoid being noticed in.
Slowly he strolled silently through the open space of the lavish home. His sharp blue eyes caught sight of a pair of black and white boots from under a curtain. He smiled as he grasped the curtain. “Let’s see. What could be behind curtain number one?”
He drew it aside for Keith to jump in fright, expecting another attack. “Lance!” The half human boy gasped as he desperately grasped at the torn remnants of his shirt and pants to try and keep some of his dignity in front of one of the few he actually cared about what they thought of him.
McClain laughed, “It’s alright. The sea of raging hormones has ebbed.”
Keith bashfully ran into his room to get changed into something that was not quite so revealing and came back out with the fluttering feeling in his stomach and the pleasurable tenseness in his muscles back in him with the caramel-skinned boy so close. “Gee. It’s great to see you! I-I-I-I missed you.”
Lance confidently explored around the house. He plopped himself down onto a large couch that almost swallowed him with how soft it was. “So, this is what heroes do on their days off,” He offered in conversation.
Keith twisted shyly with a huge grin at the words. “I’m no hero.”
“Sure, you are. Everyone thinks you’re the greatest thing since they put the laser in gun,” Lance replied as he turned over to look at the hybrid and stretched his long body.
Keith laughed almost light headedly at the attention. No one had made him feel so weak and needy as Lance did. Not all the girls or the monsters. Maybe it was a thing about humans. “Yeah. It’s crazy! I can’t go anywhere without being mobbed. I mean…”
Lance sighed in understanding. “It sounds like you need a break. Think your big purple space kitty would go berserk if you played hooky this afternoon?”
“I-I-I don’t know. Kolivan’s got the rest of the day basically booked,” Keith said hesitantly.
Lance got out of the couch smoothly and grasped him by his shirt playfully but with more strength than he had been expecting of the thin, lean figure. “Kolivan. Shmulivan. Just follow me. Out the window, around the dumb bells, you lift up the back wall, and we’re gone.”
Keith smiled at the taller boy that was so mischievous and rebellious yet treated him like a friend.
Chapter 11
Notes:
I really enjoy Meg's song "I Won't Say I'm in Love," but I shifted Lance's internal debate to be less songy. Still fits though.
Chapter Text
The planet had darkened completely with the lights of the city around the quiet, empty garden giving light. The two boys laughed as they strolled through. Free and full-hearted, no nervousness or restraint to be found in their voices. “Wow! What a day. First that restaurant by the bay. That play, that whole mess! I thought I had problems,” Keith laughed with a small bright smile as he and the taller boy walked down a long stairway.
Lance laughed at the dark-haired hybrid as he looked out of the twinkling city planet. A flicker caught his blue eyes to look over. Ezor and Axca were hiding behind some of the greenery. They signed for him to hurry up. They needed his weakness. The latino boy grimaced at the reminder of his mission. He quickly smiled as Kogane turned back to him. “I never knew that playing hooky could be so fun.”
“Yeah. Neither did I,” Lance said as he tried to remain positive sounding, but a sad note still was in his voice. This had been fun when he had not been thinking about how he needed to kill this little half human.
“Thanks Lance,” Kogane said sincerely.
Lance nearly scoffed to himself. “Don’t thank me yet.” Quickly he thought to allow himself to trip on the stairs. “Oh!”
Keith caught him fast before he had the chance to even tumble down one step. “Careful!”
Lance smiled up at the young man that was clutching him to his solid chest protectively. “Sorry. Weak ankles.”
Keith glanced down at his booted feet in concern. “Oh yeah. Maybe you better sit down for a while.” He easily picked up the lean bodied human to take him over to a nearby bench.”
As he was set down and his target did the same beside him, McClain spread a mysterious seducing smile on. “So, do you have any problems with things like this?” He snapped his ankle to be right in front of the other boy’s face. Pointed just so to display how perfect his body was. Keith’s brain visibly malfunctioned as he took in the limb. “Weak ankles, I mean,” Lance queued as he used his foot to turn the ravenette’s face to look at him.
Keith carefully put Lance’s leg back to himself. “Oh, uhm… no. Not really,” he said uncomfortably as the taller male leaned in. Quickly he scooted away, but the bench was not far enough to keep the caramel skinned boy from being close to him.
“No weaknesses whatsoever? No trick knee?” Lance ran a finger along the hero’s knee for him to jerk it away. “Ruptured disks?” He placed a hand over Kogane’s pectoral.
Keith swallowed heavily even as his eyes were blown wide. “Uh… No! I-I-I-I’m afraid I’m a… it is Kolivan.” He quickly stood up to look over a decorative pond close by.
Lance sighed as he slumped in discouragement. There goes his chance at having a life outside of Lotor and the Galran empire, and the girl generals were going to end up dead. “Mullet, you are perfect.”
Keith laughed as he picked up a flat stone. “Thanks.” He skipped the stone across the pool. A crash followed and he grimaced in embarrassment. “Whoops,” He awkwardly laughed.
Lance snorted in amusement as he got up to stand beside the other to look across the pool. “It looks better that way.” A statue on the far side had its arms broken off now. “No, it really does. Looks like the statue art on earth.”
“Earth has armless statues?” Keith asked in surprise.
“It does. You should go sometime and see them. They are very interesting,” Lance suggested. The two smiled at each other. Everything was quiet and peaceful. There was a warmth and comfort between them. A streak of light as a meteorite burned through the atmosphere took their eyes upward.
“You know,” Keith started. “When I was a kid, I would have given anything to be exactly like everybody else.”
Lance’s smile fell into a disgusted sneer as he moved away to stare down into the water at himself. “You wanted to be petty and dishonest?”
Keith blinked in confusion after him. “Everybody’s not like that.”
Lance closed his eyes so he did not have to see himself. He had seen this universe. It didn’t matter the species or culture. Over the slightest difference or even for none at all, they would tear apart others to make themselves feel better. There was not a being that had ever existed that had ever told the truth. His family that had sworn to love him since the moment he had been conceived had hated him for selling himself to Lotor, some envying him for the chance to live with aliens. Others saying they loved him when all they wanted was his position and the protection and power that would give them. “Yes, they are,” he said softly.
A strong hand grasped his shoulder. “You’re not like that.”
McClain turned to look into the violet eyes. “How do you know what I’m like?” I’m the worst of them all. I am lying to your face right now to kill you. Not for any reason other than you exist and are free and kind. You are loved and good and I will never be that. You don’t understand how much I will do to get even a trace of those things.
Keith’s expression was soft and open. “All I know is you’re the most amazing person with weak ankles that I’ve ever met.” Lance smiled at the full-hearted words that were so trusting, not a trace of a lie present. Uncomfortable at his deception and the given affection, he stepped back to give them more space. The mulleted boy thought uncertainly before moving closer. “Lance, when I’m with you. I-I don’t feel so… alone.”
The caramel skinned human looked away as he moved past the hero. “Sometimes it’s better to be alone.”
“What do you mean?”
Clutching at his sage green jacket hard, Lance sat down on the edge of the built pond. His face was down cast with pain of past memories. “No body can hurt you.”
Keith’s violet eyes widened as he realized that someone had hurt the other. He moved to sit beside him and took his hands gently to hold them. “Lance. I would never ever hurt you.”
“And I don’t want to hurt you. So, let’s just both do ourselves a favor…” Lance’s subtle warning against himself slowed as they drew closer together. “…And stop this… before… we…” Their lips were almost touching now.
A light clicked on to blind them both and cut the almost kiss short. “Break it up,” Kolivan snarled as he stormed towards them. “I’ve been searching the entire planet.”
Lance got up to sassily stand in front of the Galra who he came up to just below his neck. “Alright! Calm down, space cat. It was all my fault.”
Kolivan snarled down at the full human with his sharp teeth on display. “You’re already on my list of enemies. Don’t make it worse.” He stormed past towards Keith. Cosmo snarled at the darker complexioned boy. Lance simply reached up to turn off the spotlight between his teeth to spite the canine. “And you,” The Blade commander growled as he grasped Kogane by his red jacket collar. “You’re going to go back to the training room and you’re going to go through the workout of your life. Now grab onto the wolf.”
Keith broke the grip to calmly step back without concern. “Okay. Okay.”
McClain gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry.”
“He’ll get over it,” the mulleted half breed said as he reached over to a thick flower tree and bent the whole trunk down so he could select the most perfect one easily. He let go absent mindedly for the tree the sling shot back into place. He handed the flower to the taller boy before quickly pecking him on the cheek as if that alone was dangerous. But his completely vacant and dreamy gaze as he hardly even moseyed over towards Kolivan and Cosmo spoke of his much deeper feelings. Lance stared after him in surprise as he reached up to touch his kissed cheek. Keith waved back in a lovestruck daze.
“Move,” Kolivan growled in irritation as his trainee seemed unwanting to leave the handsome boy. Cosmo lunged forward to press against his boy and teleport them away. Keith stumbled as they landed at the far end of the gardens. “Hold on. Get your mind back where it belongs.” The Blade commander ordered as he forced the smaller hybrid to hold on. Cosmo blinked to accidentally leave the Galra that had let go for a second behind. “That’s it. I’m flying my cruiser from now on.” Kolivan growled as he began storming through the garden towards the nearest exit that would take him back to Kogane’s home.
~
Lance sat down on the edge of the made pond to smile as he sniffed the flower Keith had given him. In less than a minute his content expression turned to loathing. He recognized this feeling. He had felt it in every caring relationship he had ever gotten into. It had only ever led to pain and suffering. When was he going to learn that no one would ever care or love him and stop giving the same to them. Every being in the universe only wanted to use him. He was nothing more than a pawn, a warrior, an assassin, a life to extinguish to get a hoped for prize.
If there was a prize for rotten judgement and rash decisions, then he had probably already won that prize. No one was worth a second glance or a moment of his time. He was over trying to play those games. He was not going to even say the word love. He was not going to play some idiotic cliché of swooning and sighing over a dude with muscles who thinks the universe belongs to him.
Lance stood up to march around the beautiful garden. It seemed like whoever designed it though had nothing but couples and love on their mind with all the romantic statues. Hadn’t he learned his lesson about feelings? Yes, it felt good at the beginning… Why was he considering that? All this needed to go. He couldn’t even contemplate this. If this little thing became any deeper then he was going to end up crying his heart out. He was not in love and never would be. Especially with that ridiculous mulleted farm boy that was going to be dead soon. A relationship like this would not go any further once there was not even a body to properly mourn.
The boy circulated the garden to come back to the pool. He paused to look down at the flower he had been given. Slowly he reached down to pick it up and smiled. No one would ever have to know. This little connection would be cut short soon. No reason for anyone else to hear about his side of the story. Maybe he was in love, but this time he wouldn’t be crushed and left behind. Keith would have no expectations to live up to and he would not know what he was thinking.
A noise behind him had him turning fast to see Lotor and his four female generals coming towards him. “Hey Lancy Lance. What’s the news? What’s the weak link in wonder boy’s chain?”
Lance glared at the Galra prince. “Get some one else to try seducing him. I’m through with this.”
Lotor looked at him curiously, “Can you repeat that? I don’t believe I heard you correctly.”
“Then read my lips,” Lance snapped at him as he fought to keep his anger under control. “Forget it.” He turned to storm away.
The white-haired hybrid chuckled, “Lance. Lance, lance, lance. My sweet little minion.” He moved fast to stand in front of the human and cradled his face in his hands. “Are you forgetting an itsy-bitsy but ever so important detail? I own you!” Lance yelled in fear as Lotor’s quintessence lashed out at him in his anger.
Kolivan was growling in frustration under his breath as he walked. “That kid’s going to be doing laps for a month. He paused as he heard indistinct voices. His own curiosity and his spy training to always collect information kicked in as he silently moved closer. He peeked around a statue to freeze as he recognized Prince Lotor and Lance. He staid quiet as he could now hear them clearly.
“When I say I want wonder boy’s head on a platter, you say…” Loter prompted as his arms wrapped around the shorter human boy to draw him closer into his body intimately.
“Medium, rare, or well done,” Lance replied.
Kolivan drew back and began to run. He knew that boy was trouble. This was going to break his kit’s heart.
Their spy didn’t get to hear the rest of the conversation. Lotor pouted at the human. “What’s that? You hear that? That’s the sound of your freedom fluttering out the airlock forever.”
Lance turned away stubbornly, “I don’t care. I’m not going to help you hurt him.”
The Galra sighed in exasperation. “I can’t believe you’re getting so worked up over some lowly alien.”
“This one is different,” Lance protested as he moved away from his boss. “He’s honest, and he’s sweet…”
“Please,” Lotor drawled in contempt.
“And he would never do anything to hurt me!” McClain pushed on.
“He’s a living being!” The prince interrupted as if that was enough to prove that his enemy would do exactly that.
A wicked smile was on the caramel skinned boy’s face. “Besides, your greatness. You can’t beat him. He has no weaknesses! He’s gonna…” Lance turned around to finish to stop at Lotor being right in his space with a cold smile.
Gently, the space prince took the flower Keith had given him from his fingers to look at slyly. “I think he does Lance. I truly think he does.” The flower glowed slightly for a split second as its quintessence was drained from it to leave its withered remains.
Chapter Text
Kolivan moved to the training room. He paused at the entrance to watch as Keith ran laps. The dark-haired hybrid had the largest smile he had ever seen on him as he sprinted around the room and dodged obstacles. Now it was his job to crush that happiness. Slowly he moved into the room. Cosmo was happily chewing on a treat as he passed. “Hey Kolivan!” Keith called as he stopped to bounce in place. “What happened to you?”
“Kit. We need to talk,” The Blade commander said sadly.
Keith ran forward to hug the full Galran and spin him forcefully around the room with his greater strength. “I’ve just had the greatest day of my life! I can’t stop thinking about Lance!” He sighed in absolute smitten affection as he spun his trainer away from himself to dramatically flop over a nearby bench. “He’s something else.”
“Kit, I’m trying to talk to you. Will you pay attention and listen?” Kolivan ordered.
“How can I do that when I am so happy?” Keith asked with a grin.
Cosmo watched his boy passively. A high whistle caught his attention. He looked over to the exit curiously. A beautiful wolf of his same species that had a soft pink fur color looked at him. The blue space wolf double checked that the beauty was really there. She was more beautiful than any creature he had ever seen before, and her pheromones smelled so good. She turned and padded away.
Cosmo quickly chased after her. Maybe she would be willing to be his mate. He followed her into a storage side room. She stood still in the far back as he came over to check her out. As he nudged at her head his muzzle passed right through her. In horror, he backed away as she faded away to prove that she had been a hologram. “Gotcha!” Ezor called as the female Generals piled on top of him.
Keith rushed forward to hug the larger Galra again. “If it wasn’t for you, I never would have met him. I owe you big time. I really do.”
“You need to listen to me!” Kolivan said as he tried to get a word in.
“A dream come true?”
“Not exactly.”
“More beautiful than all the deity of love in the universe?”
“Besides from that…”
“The most wonderful…”
“He’s a fraud!” Kolivan yelled over his student. “He’s been playing you for a sap!”
“Come on, stop playing around,” Kogane brushed off.
“I’m not playing around.”
“I know you’re upset about today but that’s no reason to…”
“Kit, you’re missing the point,” Kolivan cut him off.
“The point is that I love him,” Keith stated certainly.
“He doesn’t love you,” The older returned with just as much surety.
“You’re crazy!” Keith said as he turned away as he began to get angry.
“He’s nothing but a two timing, no good, lying scheming…”
“Shut up!” Keith snapped as he whirled around to punch his trainer hard in the face. Even being so much bigger than him the Galra flew across the room and crashed into the wall to put a dent in it. The boy froze as he realized what he had done. Awkwardly he shifted as he tried to decide if helping the Blade up would be a good idea. Kolivan needed no help as he got up. “Kolivan… I’m sorry.”
“That’s it. If you won’t face the truth… fine,” Kolivan marched for the door.
“Kolivan? Wait! Where are you going?!” Keith asked in panic.
“I’m taking my ship and getting out of here. I have work to do elsewhere,” Kolivan said in defeat.
The half breed grit his teeth in hurt and shame at his mistake before forcing anger to come out instead to hide his feelings. “Fine! Go! I don’t need you.”
Kolivan looked back sadly at the exit. Under his breath he whispered to himself, “I thought you were going to be the all-time champion. Not the all-time chump.”
Keith paused in his work out to look at the exit sadly as his trainer left. Maybe he should go after him and apologize for hitting him. He shouldn’t have lost control. The lights in the training room then flickered and went dead. “What’s ruffled his fur?” A smooth voice asked with a teasing laugh hinting.
Kogane looked to the corner to look over a tall lilac skinned male with flowing long white hair. His yellow pupiled eyes were cold even as they tried to possess some emotion. He moved forward to hold a handout to shake. “I am Lotor, Prince of the Galra Empire, how are you doing?”
The half human that was three feet shorter than the other hybrid backed up. “Not now, okay?”
As he moved to leave, Lotor stepped in front of him with a smile. “I only need a few seconds as I am a fast talker. You see, I have this important deal in the works. A real estate venture if you will, and Keith. May I call you Keith? You seem to be constantly getting in the way.”
Kogane shoved past him. “You’ve got the wrong guy.” He wanted more right now to curl up in his bed and gorge on sweets until his guilt over Kolivan was gone.
Loter whipped around to grab him hard. “Hear me out you little! Hear me out alright? I would be eternally grateful if you would just take a day off from this hero business of yours. I mean, warships, robeasts, armies, natural disasters. They can wait a day.”
“You’re out of your mind,” Keith brushed off as he got loose of the taller hybrid’s touch.
“Not so fast,” Lotor said with a smile as he caught the boy again. “You see, I do have a little leverage you might want to know about.” He snapped his fingers with a sly smile. Lance appeared in the room instantly from a billow of smoke and a terrified expression on his face.
“Lance!” Kogane exclaimed in sudden fear.
The other boy ran for him. “Don’t listen to him…” a glowing purple rope quickly wrapped around him from foot to over his mouth. He slammed into the metal floor hard at the previously nonexistent restraints.
Keith ran over to help him. As he knelt down to undo the glowing cord, the boy was teleported away. He turned with his full anger on the Galra prince. “Let him go!” He leaped at him to go right through the Prince. The image faded away for Lotor to appear in the same place again.
“Here’s the tradeoff. You give up your strength and everything extra those cross-bred genes of yours gave you for about twenty-four vargas. Say, the next twenty-four vargas.” He snapped his fingers again for Lance all bound and gagged to appear against the wall. The fully human boy struggled and fought to get lose but was not able to. “And Lance is free as any wild creature. We dance, we kiss, we cuddle, we will all go home happy. What do you say?”
Keith looked at the boy that he cared for and then conflicted back at the Prince. “People are going to get hurt, aren’t they?”
The Prince smiled as he brushed off the concern. “Not at all. Well, it is a possibility. War. What can I say? What do you owe those people anyways?” He stepped around the hero to hug Lance’s shoulders and caress his sharp jaw line. “Isn’t Lance your little make out toy? Isn’t he more important than them?”
“Stop it!” Keith shouted at how close he was and manhandling the one he cared for.
“Isn’t he?” Lotor asked as he squished Lance’s cheeks together.
The half human hesitated, “You’ve got to swear he’ll be safe from any harm.”
Lotor shrugged as he walked back to him. “Fine. I’ll give you that one. Lance is safe, otherwise, you get your strength right back, excetra, all that fine print in the contract. Let’s shake on it.” Keith looked at the offered hand in suspicion and not quite convinced. Lotor pushed harder, “I don’t have time to negotiate this. I have a schedule and plans for the deca-pheob. I need an answer now. Going once. Going twice.”
Keith glanced back to Lance in panic at his decision having to be fast. The other boy shook his head no desperately. “Alright!”
“Yes!” Lotor cheered as he shook the other hybrid’s hand. Light flashed from their combined grip as Keith gasped in pain and slowly crumpled to the training room floor. “We have a deal then.” Lance watched in horror as Keith staggered away. His buttermilk white skin tone was ashen and unhealthy now with purple splotches of a shade similar to a Galra’s bruised around. The Prince was reveling in it though. “You might just feel a little queasy. Its natural after such a drainage.” He picked up one of the huge weights that most beings would never consider trying to lift on a normal basis and threw it at his fellow half-Galra. It slammed into him to pin him to the ground. Keith strained to lift it off of himself to find that he couldn’t even cause it to tilt anymore. “I suggest you sit down. Now you know how it feels to be just like everyone else. Is it not just fine?”
Lotor laughed to himself as he straightened from taunting the boy as Keith slid out from under the weight. “You will love this too.” Then he turned to walk over to the wall where his captive was sitting. He lovingly petted Lance’s chocolate hair. “Lance. Babe. A deal’s a deal. You’re off the hook.” He snapped his fingers for the glowing cords to disappear. “And by the way, Keith. Is he not a fabulous little actor?” He pulled Lance up to cradle fully against his body and dip him.
“Stop it!” McClain hissed as he tried to push himself free of the stronger man’s grasp.
Keith blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Lotor’s smile was nothing good. “I mean that your piece of eye candy here was working for me all along.” The human boy’s expression and posture melted as the one thing that he had hoped would never come out was thrown into the atmosphere by his boss. Lotor was just as harmful as everyone else he had ever been around. Zarkon had been nicer to him than the Prince ever had been.
“You… You’re lying!” Keith shouted in anger as he tried to keep from believing what he was hearing. Lance was too real and above everything in his actions. He couldn’t have been an actor just trying to get close to him. He couldn’t…
Lotor shrugged slyly as he didn’t care but enjoyed the pain that the truth was bringing. The two tiny alien girls that had been trapped under the fallen wall at the beginning of the hero’s career ran up to him. “Jeepers mister! You’re really strong!” Axza and Ezor laughed as they deformed their holograms to jump on him and push him down to the ground. They began to kick him in their glee at his finally weakened state.
Lotor intimately held Lance close to him. “I couldn’t have done it without you, sugar. Honey, sweetheart.”
“No!” Lance shouted as he shoved the Prince back and ran forward to shove the female generals off of Kogane. “Leave him alone. Don’t make me hurt you.”
The four women backed away with understanding and regret in their features. “We understand. Sorry.”
Keith looked up at the other boy with betrayal and heartbreak spreading. “Lance?”
The latino boy looked back at him in shame and guilt. “Its not like that. I didn’t mean to…” Keith turned away from him as tears began to fall down his ashen cheeks. “I couldn’t… I’m so sorry,” he trailed off in defeat. No reply came as the hero’s shoulders began to shake in his repressed sobs. Tears came to him then and trickled down his sharp chiseled facial features as the pain of hurting the other began to grow in him.
Lotor motioned to his remaining generals. “Well, got to fly. There’s a whole universe up there waiting for me with my name soon to be etched on every solid surface. So much for the preliminaries and now onto the main event.” Lance watched them leave before he gave in and curled up in a corner of the training room to sob.
Chapter Text
Lotor’s shuttle launched off of the planet to warp to his immense fleet. He sent a call. On screen the cloaked figure of Hagar appeared. “Yes, your highness?”
“It’s time Hagar. Show me what you’ve been working on these past eighteen years.”
“Yes, my prince,” She rasped before screens changed to monstrous robeasts in cages.
“Slaves. Look at you in your tiny prisons. What have you been created for?” Lotor called to the monstrosities. His generals ducked out of range of the screen at the sight of the hideous things.
“Voltron!” All the robeasts shouted as they tried to break free.
“And now that I have set you free. What is the first thing you are going to do?” Lotor questioned as the cages opened.
“Destroy them!” All the robeasts shouted as they lunged out into freedom.
“Good answer,” The Prince said with a cold smile.
~
“Crush Voltron,” A robeast with two heads that looked to be made of stone bellowed out into the expanse of space as its propulsion pack pushed it on. Its feet alone were big enough to obliterate mountains as its bulbous body was much more than that. Asteroids and other debri that were not moon size and larger were shoved out of orbit as it passed.
“Freeze it!” A more femininely shaped robeast said as she turned to a star and blew on it. The sun began to darken and then iced completely over.
A gigantic blob of nothing more than lava spread over every solid surface while melting it. “Melt Voltron.”
“Blow… it… away…” A being completely encircled by torrential winds rasped.
“Excuse me,” Lotor interrupted their destruction path. “Voltron is in the opposite direction. My sweet Princess Allura has just told me that they are on a planet doing alliance meetings.”
The robeasts paused before turning in the direction of the planet and jetting for it.
Zethrid piloted the ship right up to a flabby and mostly naked monstrosity at her directed orders. “Hold on right eye,” Lotor called to it. The robeast turned to look at them with one big singular eye and two teeth on its tongue that were the only ones. “I have a special job for you my optic friend.”
~
Coran hummed happily to himself as he wiped down the controls on the bridge of the castle ship. Everything was calm and quiet as the paladins and Princess were planet side for the discussions. Everything was perfect. Suddenly the alarms were blaring. He scrambled with his orange moustache frazzled to check the alert. His eyes went big as he saw the four robeasts coming towards their location. “We’re in trouble! Big trouble!” Quickly he pressed on the coms. “Princess! Paladins! We have four robeasts on the monitor, and they’re basically on top of us!”
“Four!” Pidge shrieked in horror.
“We can barely handle one and we only have three working lions,” Hunk began to panic.
Allura’s calm voice came through. “We need to alert everyone to get away from the castle of lions and to safety.”
“We need to get to our lions now,” Shiro agreed. “We are the only ones that can handle that number.”
A deep distorted voice came through unannounced then. “Voltron. This is the Blade of Marmora. We are under attack. All Blades that are in your sector are grouping to you. Some of our bases are compromised and our operatives are being captured.”
“You’re under attack?! But you’re so secretive. How did they find you guys?” Pidge questioned.
“We apparently have a traitor in our midst. We will work on finding them after we regroup,” The Blade answered.
“You are welcome to have sanctuary in my castle, but we might need your help. We have four robeasts about to land on the planet that we are on,” Allura informed as they ran for the castle.
Hunk was gasping for breath. “Is it just me or is everything falling apart a little too fast to be coincidence?”
“Zarkon has been preparing for this,” Allura spat in hatred as they got into the castle.
The three paladins raced off to their respective hangars for their lions. They jetted out just as the robeasts crash landed. Allura desperately opened communication with all allies that could have a chance of helping them. “This is Voltron. We need help. We are being attacked by four robeasts and are outnumbered and outpowered.”
The black, green, and yellow lions blasted at the four elemental robeasts with barely a scratch showing on them as they kept coming.
The Blade then arrived in a swarm. They began trying every secret trick they had as they descended in formation on the things. The wind creature only lifted an arm to suck all the ships out of the sky and into the sickening whirl around its body.
~
Ebeth shuddered as the single eyed robeast landed. The inhabitants ran for their lives as the gigantic thing pushed through their skyscraper buildings. It kicked and punched buildings to cause mass destruction. “Keith! Keith Kogane! Come out! Run! Run!”
“What do we do?” A woman cried as she hunkered down out of sight.
“Where’s Keith?” A man hiding with her asked.
“Yeah! Keith will save us!” An older creature said in certainness as he pointed up at a billboard that displayed the local celebrity. A building crashed into it to completely destroy the image of the hybrid.
Keith and Lance stood on the patio of his home watching the monster rampage. Lance sadly watched the creature destroy as lives were destroyed and snuffed out. Even as he had been forced to do that exact same thing, it was never easy to watch beings suffer. Keith straightened in determination as he began to walk for the gate out of his safe home to go for the monster. The darker skinned boy stared at him in surprise before running down the stairs to stand in his way. “What are you doing? If you go out there you will be kill!”
The violet eyes were tired and emotionally dead. Keith stepped around him and kept going. “There are worse things.”
Lance winced at the reference to his betrayal and the pain that had created. He watched as Keith got closer to the monster. He had faced many aliens and many of Haggar’s creations and won, but he had never faced a robeast with only his regular plain body to work with. There was little chance of him taking down this thing, much less get Keith out of this alive.
Keith stepped onto the street that the robeast was currently terrorizing. A group of escaping aliens shouted in excitement. “Its Keith! Thank Voltron! We’re saved!”
The robeast turned at the call to look down at the boy that was not much more than an ant to it. “So! You mighty Keith!” It laughed at the dark-haired male before kicking him. Keith went flying back to slam into a building and crumpled to the ground. The population that had seen screamed in terror as their hope of their hero saving them shattered.
Lance thought desperately for anything he could do. He pulled a device from his utility belt to eject a cable to the roof of a far over head building. He flipped through the air with the grace and agility of an aerialist before rolling to a stop on the top of a roof. He aimed his cable as the robeast approached to step on the pale skinned half human. Keith had barely managed to roll over at this point to stare at the huge foot descending on him. The cable wrapped around him to suddenly jerk him right out from under certain death. In a blur, he was rolling across the skyscraper’s roof. He forced himself up to see Lance with his usual confident expression that had a hint of a cocky smile. “Its not easy to take hits when you’re normal. Try to avoid taking them. Don’t die.”
Then he back flipped off the building. The robeast paused in bewildered surprise as he landed gracefully on its flabby arm to run up to its shoulder. As it tried to smack him, he leaped off and released his cable again. He couldn’t stop the robeast or the stupid mullet, but there was one that could. He landed on an unharmed street to bust in the sealed door. Inside Cosmo was thrashing against chains holding him down with a specialized collar to keep him from teleporting and unable to be found by any unrelated to Lotor and his schemes to help his boy. “Its alright. Stop twitching,” Lance tried to sooth the furious wolf as he used a small blaster to break through the chains holding it. “Easy lightning dog. I’m trying to help!” He braced himself to yank the muzzle off of the space wolf’s snout to be faced with unrestrained snarling sharp teeth. “We have to find Kolivan! He’s the only one that can force some sense into him.” A minute later Lance’s shrill scream of terror came from the building to be cut short as Cosmo teleported.
~
Black used his jaw blade to slice through a finger of the ice robeast. The female screamed as her finger refroze back into shape. “We can’t stop them!” Pidge yelled as she began to panic as Green was caught in the huge hand of the stone giant.
A blast came from the castle to strike the mountainous robeast. It staggered back and let go of the smallest lion to balance itself. Green crashed to the ground to abort in getting back up. “We’re down! Green has system errors everywhere! We’re crushed too badly!”
“Get to safety,” Shiro ordered as he tried again.
~
Kolivan stormed through the hangar. Ships were taking off hectically in their desperation to escape the planet until the robeast was taken care of. He was calm and precise as he moved through the chaos towards his personal ship. A half started scream suddenly sounded to end. He ignored the foolishness of the other beings. “Kolivan!” His name being called brought him to look back. Lance ran up to him looking motion sick and frazzled with Cosmo at his side. “Kolivan, Keith needs your help!”
The Galra snarled in anger at the human that was the source of all problems. “Why does he need me when he has friends like you?”
“He won’t listen to me,” Lance said desperately.
“Good. He’s finally learned something,” The Blade growled as he turned to walk away. Cosmo was then in his way with his teeth bared threateningly.
“Look! I know what I did was wrong, and I deserve all the hatred every one can give, but this is not about me, its about him,” Lance begged desperately. The Blade continued to walk away. “If you don’t help him now Kolivan, he will die.” The towering Galra froze in his tracks.
~
“Paladins! The castle’s defenses are failing, and we are running out of power!” Allura called through the coms as she tried to stay calm.
“We need to retreat! We can’t handle this right now,” Shiro ordered.
“We can’t abandon the planet!” Allura said desperately as the few Blades that had escaped tried to help her and Coran take care of the castle.
“We don’t have a choice. Hunk, pick up the Green Lion. Every one pull back,” Shiro ordered as he dived into the midst of the robeasts to keep their attention long enough for the others to get off the planet.
“Princess Allura?” Lotor’s smooth voice came through then.
The altean royal nearly sobbed in relief. “Lotor! You came! We need help!”
“I am ready to show my loyalties,” The Galra halfbreed Prince said nobly.
“Yes!” Pidge cheered.
“How did he get here so fast with so many fighters?” Hunk questioned suspiciously.
That was the exact moment that Lotor’s fleet opened fire on them. “Lotor! You’re behind this!?” Shiro shouted as they were forced back down to the planet. The lava robeast surged forward to engulf Black as the ice one breathed her icy breath to cool the molten stone. The Black Lion struggled but was not able to get free as he was entombed.
“Indeed I am. I have waited a long time for this,” Lotor said smugly as the last two lions and the castle hit the planet hard.
A Blade on the control deck of the castle put in. “You were our ally. Why betray us?”
“You never trusted me in the first place, but I needed you to weaken my father for me. Now is the time that I take over this empire and your ideas would not support me any longer in that. You Blades have outlived your use,” Lotor said coldly with a smile.
~
Keith could only groan in agony that he had never felt before as the robeast tossed him around and threw him into buildings. He was bleeding from many places and could feel that something was not right inside. This was awful. How could anyone be fine with being this weak and fragile? He didn’t want to even try moving as he accepted he was going to die.
A snap to his side sounded before Kolivan was sliding to help him sit upright. “Keith!”
“Kolivan,” Kogane said with a pained smile at his friend.
The Galra was quick in starting to patch him up. “Fight back, kit. You can beat this monstrosity. Look at it. I doubt this thing has even seen the arena’s blood-soaked soil.”
“You were right all along, Kolivan,” Keith gasped as he looked over to the human boy that was standing back in the shadows of the city’s ruins. “Dreams are for rookies.”
“No, kit. Giving up is for rookies. I came back because I’m not giving up on you.” Kolivan reached down to turn the lolling head to look up at him. “I’m willing to go the distance. How about you?”
“Move!” Lance shouted in warning.
They all tried to get out of the way as the robeast’s huge hand reached down. Keith was caught in its grasp and lifted into the air. The robeast laughed. “Me bite off head!”
Keith glanced around desperately to see a building close by had rebar sticking out of it. He reached out to grasp one and it luckily pulled free. As he was raised up to the mouth opening to kill him, he thrust the metal rod into the single eye. The robeast shouted in pain as it dropped him to care for its eye.
“Yes!” Those on the ground cheered as he landed in a broken planet craft.
Lance turned to Kolivan. “I think I saw plans for this thing on Lotor’s computer. It can’t die until its power core is destroyed.”
“How do we do that?” the Blade Commander questioned.
The caramel skinned boy pointed to a tall business that was still mostly intact. “Connect cables from that metal support to the robeast. I’ll go divert all power from it into the supports. That should be enough energy to overload this thing’s power core.”
Kolivan nodded as he pulled ejecting cables from his belt. “Go.”
Lance nodded before hesitating a split second before grabbing onto Cosmo. Instantly he was in the building and began pulling electronics out to get their plan going. Kolivan dodged through the wreckage easily as he fired his cables to all attach to the building’s support beams. Keith was barely sitting up as he ran past. With quick momentum, the Galra attached his cables to the robeast and got clear. In less than a minute, a blinding flash came. The robeast screamed in pain as electricity coursed into it. Then with an explosion the light ended.
Lance appeared beside Kolivan with a hand raised. “We make a good team!”
Kolivan nodded, “So it seems when we have the same goals.”
Lance laughed as he reached over to lift the Galra’s hand up to high five his own. “I need to celebrate. You’ll learn.”
Keith looked up at the smoking robeast that was struggling now but still functioning. He grit his teeth to try and ignore his pain as he stood up. Quickly he grabbed one of Kolivan’s abandoned cables to run around the clumsy feet to tie around and then pulled tight. The one-eyed robeast shouted as it lost its balance and tumbled to the ground. The ruins of a building went through its chest before the street collapsed to let it fall into the subterranean levels. Kogane gasped for breath as he crawled over to the hole to look down and make sure the thing was dead. Its final landing shook the planet.
A building began to buckle. Lance saw it and the dark-haired boy with his back turned obliviously to it. “Keith! Look out!”
Keith went tumbling away from where he had been to look back to were the building had collapsed. Most of it tumbled into the gaping hole in the ground. How had he not been under that? Kolivan and Cosmo ran over to the rubble with shock and horror on their differing facial structures. Only Lance that had been with them a second ago was no longer in sight. Realization hit hard. “Lance! No!”
All his physical injuries and pain vanished from his mind as only terror filled him. The hybrid sprinted over to the rubble to begin pushing through it. In seconds, he found a tanned hand lying limp under the stone. Kolivan was fast in helping him clear the small stuff off of the lean young man, but a large beam was on top of him. Without considering his current weakness, Keith began to try and lift it. It barely budged. Then the welcome whole feeling of his true strength flooding back into him had the beam off the ground easily. He blinked up at the beam in surprise. “What’s happening?”
Lance gasped as he rolled over to be on his back. “L-Lotor’s deal was broken.” He grimaced before continuing in a whisper. “He promised I wouldn’t get hurt. Even druid’s can only do so much with their experiments.”
Keith quickly kneeled beside the other boy as he looked him over for injuries. Every part of him was bleeding with abnormal shapes in his skeletal structure. He had been completely crushed. “Lance… Why did you… You didn’t have to…” Why save him when he betrayed him? He didn’t have to do this. He was the hero. He was supposed to save, not need saving. Countless other thoughts that needed to be said fought to come out coherently but stopped each other as he reached up to wipe the blood away from the deep blue eyes.
Lance had a trace of his common confident smirk. “People always do crazy things when they care for someone.”
Hope surged back to life inside the half Galra at the words. Lance did love him then. It was not all a lie. He had been so fast to doubt him without an explanation, and now he was hurt because of him. “Oh Lance. I… I… I…”
“Are you… always this articulate?” McClain teased between shallow gasps for breath.
Keith huffed a laugh before his smile fell away in sadness and grief. “We need to get you a pod. The Castle of Lions has some. They will fix you up to be as good as new.”
Lance grimaced as he reached up to squeeze the pale hand holding his bleeding side. “You don’t have much time, but you can still stop Lotor. He is going to destroy the Blade of Marmora and Voltron. The universe.”
“But you…”
“I have lived through worse. You can’t get me to a pod right now. I’ll be fine,” Lance gasped weakly.
Kolivan knelt down to pull his cloak off to ball up and place under the taller human and began carefully pulling rubble out from under him to make it comfortable to lie on. “I’ll look after him, kit.”
Keith looked down at the blue eyes that were smiling slightly at him through the pain and blinking blood out of their vision. “You’re going to be alright.” Then he pushed himself to his feet and grabbed onto his space wolf. “Let’s go Cosmo!”
Chapter Text
Lotor walked about the bridge of the castle of Lions contently. The Black Lion was locked away in solid stone and his paladin would be dead in at most a year. Everything was going according to plan. “I swear Lotor! When I get free, I’m going to…” Allura spat in hatred as she, the Yellow and Green Paladins, and all the Blades with them were chained down out of the way.
“I’m the one giving orders now, my dear,” Lotor mocked as he sat down to lounge in the Black Paladin’s seat. “I quite like it here. So much of my ancestry at my disposal.” In victory, he began to sip at a cup of Nunvil that he had found lying around.
“Don’t get too comfortable Lotor!” The Prince choked on his drink at the much too familiar voice. He whirled around as Keith teleported into the room with his wolf. They separated to work on freeing his prisoners.
“Keith!” Hunk shouted happily.
“This ought to even the odds,” Coran exclaimed as they were freed to begin taking on Lotor’s army.
“Keith! Yeah! Thanks!” Pidge shouted as she electrocuted Narti.
Keith grinned as he nodded and then Cosmo teleported him outside. “Get them!” Lotor ordered his robeasts as he pointed out their target. Cosmo darted easily between the fire and ice robeasts. Keith let go on the mound of cooled stone lava as his pet continued on to keep the robeasts’ attention. He tore the rock apart with his bare hands as if he was pushing sand aside. In a minute, Black’s head was free and the Lion tore lose.
“Thanks Keith,” Shiro called through his lion.
Cosmo chased down Ezor and Axca that were trying to escape the sudden wave of resistance. “Nice doggy! Our intentions were good. You really are attractive,” Axca tried to calm down the wolf they had seduced.
Cosmo landed on them and huffed in amusement as they flailed in the mud in trying to get out from under him.
Yellow came back up into the air. “Want so see a show?” Shiro asked.
“Any time!” Keith shouted back.
Black jetted at the whirlwind to go in the opposite direction of its gusts. As the wind was neutralized the captured Blade ships dropped free with extremely motion sick passengers. The robeasts backed away in worry at one of their own beginning to faulter. “Go after them! Destroy them!” Lotor ordered.
“Guys! I have a plan!” Pidge called through the comms as she helped get the castle back under their control. “If we can get the other Robeasts trapped inside the wind one then we just have to blast the wind monster to a planet they can’t escape from.”
“Kay, how do we do that?” Hunk asked.
Keith spoke up, “Hunk, Shiro, get the wind thing this direction and I’ll take care of the others. Find us a good planet Pidge.”
The two lions worked together to force the wind Robeast to bend to the side as Keith slammed forward into the mountain one. It staggered back to push itself, ice, and fire into the whirlwind. Then the lions took off the planet with the robeast to get it out of the way. Shouts of rejoice came from all as they had all survived.
Keith and Cosmo teleported back to the castle’s bridge. “You did it! Thank you!” Allura cheered in excitement and relief.
The communication screen came up then with Lotor on it. All stiffened as they realized that he had escaped in the battle. The traitor glared at all of them. “Thanks a lot, wonder boy.” He then smiled slightly. “At least I’ve got one small consolation prize. A friend of yours, that’s dying to see me.” He clicked off then.
Keith thought for a minute trying to figure out who Lotor could harm to get his revenge. Then he realized it hard. Horror and dread filled him, “Lance.” He turned fast to Allura. “Lance is hurt! He needs a pod!”
“I’m afraid we can’t go with you at the moment,” Coran said as he looked over all the damage done to the ship. “But if you bring him here, then we’ll pop him right into a pod for you.”
Keith grabbed on to his wolf and Cosmo needed no more encouraging.
~
“How did you ever end up with Lotor? I don’t recall humans being a common interspace travelling species,” Kolivan questioned as he bandaged up the worst of McClain’s wounds.
“I made a bad deal with Lotor to keep humans on earth instead of in the arena. I ended up being in there instead,” Lance said steadily even as it was soft and airy.
“You were in the arena? I don’t recall ever hearing about another human in that besides the Champion.”
“I wasn’t advertised as a human. Lotor likes keeping my face and species hidden from everyone except Haggar. I’m his Champion. He shoves me into the arena any time he gets annoyed with me or wants to see dramatic deaths.”
“You are the Prince’s Champion?!” Kolivan exclaimed in surprise. “How? Human’s are so weak and fragile?”
Lance laughed to wince in pain. “We are. Attitude, I guess. I didn’t want to die so I fought back. I trained a lot and Haggar experimented some on me to make me better, so there is that.”
“I thought you were a little too tall for a human,” Kolivan noted.
“And you’ve met so many humans to be an accurate judge.” McClain sighed, “I guess I am on the taller side now. Not the tallest humans can get, but decent. Have a few other alterations too. I’m lucky that Lotor liked my limbs how they are, so I still have them all attached instead of prosthetics.”
“I would have thought that you had a couple with some of your fights. You have a horrible reputation for destruction, and many have kept track to see if you ever get hurt or have a weakness.”
“More than your imagination will allow you to have,” the tanned boy breathed.
Kolivan sat back as he had done all he could for the boy. They just need to wait for real medical treatment now. “You are free now. You no longer have to follow Lotor. What will you do?”
Lance was quiet for many minutes as he thought. “Explore the universe, I guess. Stop Lotor, Haggar, and Zarkon. I’m not going back to earth. I don’t belong there anymore. I don’t belong with anything.”
“And Keith?”
“Is sweet and worth more than a monster like me can even be around. I will not hurt him anymore. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll get out of your lives.”
Kolivan studied the terran. “I was wrong about you in some ways.”
“But not in the ones that mattered.”
The Galra shrugged, “If you need a place to stay after this, you are welcome with the Blades of Marmora.”
“Don’t I have to be Galra and trustworthy for that?”
“Considering that most of the empire already considers you to be at least partly Galra, I have no concerns with that. You have proven yourself to be fickle with your trustworthiness, but ultimately loyal. If you swear to work for us alone, then we will be just fine.”
Lance smiled softly and genuine. “Thanks. You were the only one that suspected me, and the one to give me your vote of confidence despite that. That means a lot. If you’re looking for recruits to the Blade, I have four half galra girls that would cut off their arms to get away from Lotor.”
“His Generals?”
“We all hate and fear him.”
Kolivan hummed as he picked up the thin shattered wrist to measure his vitals again. “No promises, but I will keep them in mind.”
“That’s all I ask,” Lance said. “So, word has it that you are looking for someone pretty to love?”
“I believe you of all creatures would know that.”
“I know where there are some good ones. Would you mind me setting you up on some blind dates with Mullet as back up to keep you safe?”
Kolivan smirked, “If you liked me back, you would be my exact type. Good looking, secretive, a good operative, more skilled and dangerous than anyone would ever guess and with nearly the perfect personality.”
“Nearly perfect? What’s not perfect about me?”
“Your bravado and acting. I might consider these dates of yours.”
Lance slowly took a measured deep breath. “You Galra are all the same. You all want the same thing in your mates.”
“If that thing is perfect, why want something else?”
“I like you cat guy. You know just the right thing to cheer a boy up.”
“I am beginning to like you as well. It is a shame we did not come to better terms sooner.”
Lance suddenly gasped in pain as he went rigid. Then the hand that Kolivan was holding went limp.
~
Cosmo teleported as fast as he could. As they arrived at the ruined part of the city, Keith let go to run to the only two in the area. “Lance?” Kolivan was frowning down at something in his hand. He looked up sadly at the hybrid and shook his head. The boy was dead. Kogane grit his teeth as he rushed over. He couldn’t have been too late. The deep blue eyes were open and unblinking with a sightless glaze over them. His warm caramel toned skin had lost its glow of life, but he was peaceful and content seeming. Still as breathtaking and handsome now as ever.
“No. Lance.” Keith begged for any chance as he gently lifted the other boy up to cradle in his arms. The lean body was completely limp as the human’s head lulled back. The half Galra supported his head to search for any trace of life. There was none. Carefully, he set Lance’s now corpse back on the rubble strewn ground before he began to cry.
Kolivan placed his large, clawed hand on his back comfortingly. “I’m sorry, kit. His wounds were serious and would have claimed him soon with out attention, but they did not kill him. It was this.” He held up a small device. “I didn’t find it until after it activated. It was made by the druids. It stole his quintessence and sent it to a quintessence laboratory.” The Galra looked down at the friend that he had been gaining. “There’s somethings you just can’t change.”
Keith looked up through his tears for his grief to be replaced by anger. “Yes, I can.”
Chapter Text
“We were so close!” Lotor screamed in rage. The four women hid themselves away from their Prince’s rage as much as they could as his power and quintessence lashed about the ship, destroying anything it touched. Metal walls were melted and blasted in as anything delicate or flammable smoked and sparked. “So close. We tripped at the finish line. Why? Because our little Lancelot had to go all noble,” Lotor spat as he dropped into his throne.
A rumble sounded then shook the ship before the robeast guarding Lotor’s headquarters slammed through in unattached pieces. Keith stormed in with anger and a demand for battle emanating off of him. “Where’s Lance?!”
Lotor smiled as he tried to seem hospitable. “Look who’s here, Mullet boy. You are too much.”
Keith went right up to the taller hybrid and roughly pulled him off of his throne by his armor. “Let him go.”
The Prince smiled at the threatening as he undid the strong hands on him. “Calm down. Come. Let me show you around.” He led the half human out of his destroyed throne room through the halls. Experimentation labs and prisoners increased the horror of everything. They came to a large laboratory that was illuminated by a soft glow. In the center, a druid was condensing golden quintessence down into the purple that the empire used. Lotor dismissed it as he walked past that part of the energy process. In the far back was a small lake of quintessence of many different colors and hues. Transparent figures were traced out in each color to display the characteristics that each quintessence inhabited in its mortal lives. Aliens of all kinds, shapes, and sizes floated in the huge container. “What a small universe, isn’t it?”
Keith’s eyes caught on a blue figure that had red and other trace colors of quintessence in the vast amount of destroyed life. “Lance!” He dropped to his knees as he plunged his hand in to try and grasp the other boy’s spirit. His hands became even more healthy before they began to wither. Quickly he drew them back to watch them go back to normal. “You mustn’t touch.” Lotor purred happily, “You see, Lance is running with a new crowd these days, and not a very wise one at that. He will be of use to the Empire still. He has so much quintessence in him.”
Keith watched as Lance’s quintessence circled deeper into the pool. A small opening in the bottom was taking the spirits to siphon them into the rest of the energy process to mix into one same thing. No difference, no way to separate them back out. Lance would soon not exist even in this form. “You like making deals. Take me in Lance’s place.”
Lotor hummed in consideration. “The beloved hero of Ebeth and the Universe turned into ion cannon power to use against a planet.”
“Going once,” Keith counted down.
“Is there a downside to this?”
“Going twice.”
“Alright,” the half altean hybrid agreed. “You get him out. He goes. You stay.” Kogane nodded before he turned back to the lake. Without a second of consideration, he found Lance again and dived in. The Galra Prince chuckled to himself, “I forgot to mention. That much quintessence exposure will age you. You will be long dead before you can get out. That’s not a problem, is it?”
Keith swam hard for the drifting blur of blue in the whirls of color. He could feel the life soaking into him as his body became weaker as it aged in seconds what would have taken years. Desperately he reached for Lance as he could feel his body beginning to give out.
Lotor smiled cruelly from above. Sweet revenge. And who would have guessed that his problem would throw himself at his feet? Suddenly his ship jerked, and he stumbled to keep his footing. “What’s happening!?” He demanded calmly.
“I’m checking,” Ezor replied as she tapped fast at her holoscreen. Before she could find out, the laboratory collapsed inwards. Eyes turned upwards to stare in disbelief. The Red Lion of Voltron had her upper body inside the ship. Slowly she raised her head out of the quintessence lake to drop Keith on the dry metal floor. The half human slowly raised himself upright as his body filled back out to its fit youth, Lance’s unmistakable quintessence cradled tightly in his arms.
“That’s impossible! You can’t be alive! You have to be…” Lotor shouted angrily at his plan being destroyed.
“The Red Paladin,” Zethrid grunted as she glanced at the exit out in fear.
“No!” Lotor shouted before trying to salvage the situation. “Keith, you and your fellow paladins are supporters of peace. I am sure that we can move beyond this whole thing. You can talk to Allura for me.” Kogane ignored him as he got up and walked for the Red Lion as she opened her maw for him to enter. Lotor stepped forward to pause him. “There’s no reason for us to fight amongst ourselves. Lance, talk some sense into him” He lifted up the sleeping quintessence that had the faint features of Lance’s face on them as he tried to stir the spirit to wakefulness to speak in his favor. Kogane’s eyes blazed with anger and possessive protection at the other boy being touched. His fist caught the half-altean in the face.
Lotor went flying back to land in the quintessence lake. He swam back to the surface as the Red Lion took off. He snarled in hatred at them getting away as he swum fast for the edge. His body was used to huge amounts of quintessence to remain alive for thousands of years, but it still didn’t feel good. The conscious spirits forced their quintessence up then to begin trying to drag their torturer back with them. “Get off of me! Get your slimy souls off of me!” The Prince shouted as he tried to fight free of them.
Yet the thousands that he had killed to make power out of were too angry to listen as they dragged him under. The four half Galra women watched nervously. “He’s not going to be happy when he gets out of there,” Zethrid stated.
Ezor smiled in merciless glee, “You mean if he gets out of there.”
All of the Generals grinned in excitement at the idea as they looked down into the lake in hopes of watching their boss die. “If. If is good,” Zethrid hummed.
Lotor was pinned to the bottom and being dragged for the small exit at the bottom. He struggled as he was pulled through then out of sight. A minute later. the equipment flashed before a flood of golden quintessence came through with particles of flesh and bone swirling through it.
Chapter Text
The Red Lion gently set down in the ruins of the city. Keith walked out of her with the blue and slightly red quintessence cradled in his arms. He walked over to Cosmo and Kolivan that had removed Lance’s body out of the rubble. They stepped aside and watched as he knelt beside the cold body and placed the quintessence against it. The glow sank out of sight into the stiff form. A warm glow of life came back to the human boy’s skin as he took a shallow breath. All watched tensely as a few more breaths came, then the blue eyes that had been closed opened slowly.
All let out a breath of relief and began to smile as a weak smile spread across the face that was stiff with recently ended death. “Mullet, why did you…”
Keith’s smile was soft and completely love struck as he carefully picked up the boy that was still critically injured. “People do crazy things when they are in love.”
Lance raised an eyebrow at the declaration before smiling as if he was humoring the hybrid. Red nudged at them and opened her mouth for all of them to enter into her. She instantly started off on her own. Kolivan and Keith worked on patching McClain up now that they had some medical supplies. The Castle of Lions came into view then. As they landed in the hanger, they found team Voltron all gathered together in excitement.
Allura stepped forward with a hope filled smile. “Red Paladin, we would love to meet you.”
At encouraging nods from everyone that had gone through all of this with him, Keith stood and exited the Lion. The three human Paladins cheered at him being their new team member and finally being accepted by the Red Lion. Shiro smiled down at the dark-haired boy. “About time. We have your room prepared and everything.”
Keith glanced around, “But I don’t understand. Why did she accept me now?”
“You proved yourself! The Red Lion is picky and requires a paladin with action,” Coran piped up.
Allura was more informative, “When you protected this creature without a second thought to yourself or anything else, you showed that you were truly capable of placing the universe first. The measure of a Paladin is not based on his strength, but on the strength of his heart. Welcome Keith.”
“I’m going to make a huge dinner for you! I’m so glad you’re with us now,” Hunk rejoiced as he crushed the less visibly muscled boy in a hug.
Lance smiled from in front of Red happily for Kogane. He had finally made it to where he would be accepted with friends at his side to protect and care for him. He would get to meet his blood family and relatives and help end this galactic war. The smile dimmed then as he looked away. He didn’t belong here. Everyone he was around got hurt, destroyed, or were the destroyers. There was no place in the universe that he could belong in. Silently he turned and walked away from Kolivan and Cosmo without them noticing. At a pod at the side of the room, he paused to look back one last time at the hybrid he had given his life for. It hurt to leave. Against everything he had tried to do, he still had ended up caring for him. Loving him. The only way he could truly show that he did was to leave to save him from himself.
A genuine soft smile that held a self-bitterness came back to him as he took in the tangled black hair getting jostled around by his celebrating friends as he breathed under his breath. “Congratulations mullet. You’ll make one quiznacking good paladin.” His smile fell away completely as he focused on limping to find a craft to leave in instead of thinking of everything.
Keith turned with a bright smile to look over at Kolivan and Cosmo. Everything was perfect. This was everything that he had ever wanted. He was where he belonged, and he would meet his mother and family soon. He had his Voltron friends and the ones that had gotten him to this point. He glanced around at not finding Lance. His smile lowered as he searched to find the caramel-skinned boy checking a pod without any emotion. He shoved his way loose of the paladins to run over to him. “Lance?”
McClain paused before facing him. “Congratulations mullet. I hope the paladin armor improves you. You’ve needed help on your public image from the beginning.”
Kogane huffed as he took the long, thin fingered hand. “You can help me with that.”
Lance shook his head as he tried to pull his hand back to himself. “Princess Alura will take care of you. You’re in good hands.”
“Lance, stay. Please,” Keith begged softly. “Don’t leave me.”
Dark blue eyes turned away. “I have been helping the empire destroy you, Voltron, and the Blade along with countless other solar systems. I am no hero. I am your villain. If I don’t end up killing you, then those I once worked with will. Only one side will survive. Since you don’t kill if you can avoid it, it will be my own. You might stand a chance without me.”
“I won’t,” Keith said certainly as everyone came over to them. “I won’t stop thinking of you and missing you. You mean more to me than everything I have or Voltron. I know you will fight for me. If you are with me, then no one will ever hurt me. You won’t let them.”
Lance took in their audience to quickly smirk confidently. “What makes you say that? Are they going to drop dead because I am that gorgeous?”
“You died for me, and you fought against a robeast with no armor or real weapons. I doubt you would stop doing that now.”
McClain gazed around at the others watching. “I was one of Lotor’s Generals and his assassin. I’m trained to do that.”
All of team Voltron stiffened at the mention of the one who had betrayed them and nearly killed them. Keith blinked in surprise, “Really? You are good at fighting then. You should help us.”
“I doubt a killer that worked for the Galra belongs with the Defenders of the Universe.”
Shiro stepped forward as his prosthetic hand tighten. “I don’t know who you are, but if you are trying to help others then I don’t care what you have done. I was forced to be a killer for the Galra too.”
Keith’s grip tightened on the tanned hand. “You can stay, but if you don’t, I’ll come with you. This is what I’ve always wanted, but a life without you would be empty. Even a simple life on the run would be fine with me if I can be with you. I finally know where I belong.”
“You can’t go!” Allura panicked, “The Red Lion just accepted you!”
Keith gave her a nearly blank look. “What?”
“Please don’t leave. We need you; the universe does.”
“So, Lance can stay?”
She hesitated as she distrustfully looked over the new wild card. “He worked for Lotor and the Galra.”
“I can speak for him,” Kolivan spoke up. “He is not to be expected, but he is true to what he believes in.”
Lance backed away but Keith would not let his hand go as he followed. “You don’t have to trust me. I’ll leave. Mullet. The idea of love and devotion means nothing. You will do the most good here. Stay.”
“I’m not losing you again. I don’t care what Allura says. I trust you and will stay with you no matter what.”
“Can we just let him stay?” Hunk whispered but loud enough that they all heard him. “He seems nice.”
“Nice does not mean good as we have all learned,” Allura grit out.
Suddenly the particle barrier around the Blue Lion went down. All turned in surprise as the inactive Lion moved over to nudge the tanned boy. “The Blue Lion has chosen her Paladin it seems,” Coran exclaimed happily.
“Now you have to stay,” Keith stated. “The universe needs you too. Everything you’ve done and all.”
Lance looked hesitantly at the Blue feline shaped warship. “That’s not a good idea, but I guess I could try.”
“Great! We’ve been waiting for you!” Hunk cheered as he wrapped them both in a hug. “I’m so glad to meet you. Keith’s told us so much about you! Except for the Galra Lotor part. But it’s great to meet you!”
“You look very human like,” Pidge said as she studied him.
Lance uncertainly patted Hunk on the shoulder as he was released. “I was human. The Galra found earth about seventy to eighty deca-pheobs ago and I came with them to keep them away from there.”
“Deca-pheobs!? As in, years!?” Hunk exclaimed.
“About.”
“Bro! You’re older than all of us! Excluding Allura and Coran, but they slept those ten thousand years. How do you look so good?” Hunk asked.
“Quintessence does horrors and wonders on a body.”
Allura steeled herself. “Welcome to Voltron then Lance.”
“We finally have a whole team!” Hunk cheered.
Keith pulled Lance along with them as they moved out of the hanger with a soft smile. They were where they belonged.
Yumiko_0w0_sama on Chapter 16 Sat 12 Jul 2025 07:49PM UTC
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