Chapter Text
My earliest memory is being praised for being a pretty good sword fighter, I was maybe eight or seven. I grew up in the empire, not a lot of people had parents either. I didn’t exactly like it there, but I had nowhere else to go. I was found on an empty ship, my parents probably abandoned me. When they found me, I was taken in and raised next to the prince, I was to be one of his generals in the future.
The prince, Lotor, was a character, I have to say. He was two faced yet kind when he wanted to be. I was with him through everything, even when his father destroyed his first planet he had under his control, I consoled him for days after that. I remember how he would look at me when we trained as kids. That look of pure admirement, it was nice while I had it. I had "potential" Dayak would say, a great galra fighter at only the age of 10, unbelievable, right?
Currently, I’m one of Lotor’s generals. I usually wore something to cover my face, after all my skin wasn’t like theirs, instead of blue or purple, I had light tan skin . Acxa was probably my closest friend between the generals, we could talk for hours about nothing important. Narti was quiet and she was unnerving to say the least, while Zethrid was too loud and very aggressive when she wanted to be. Ezor would normally drag me to the mall and go shopping, she was always so excited when she found something she liked.
I missed them, I would trade anything in the world to be with them then these weirdos. Let me explain, Lotor sent me on a mission to get the blue lion on this planet Earth, I thought it would be easy. After all, I just had to look for a lion, a big blue lion. How hard can that be? Well, very hard apparently, because I made a move I shouldn’t have, or something.
So I was on Earth in this small house in the middle of nowhere. That's when I saw a ship falling from the sky, any sane person wouldn’t go into enemy territory like that, but you see, I’m not sane. Plus, I felt the need to see who it was. Turns out, it was that human prisoner, Shirogane I think? I don’t know why I felt the need to save him, but I did. I set explosions (Don’t ask why I know a lot about them) around the base as a distraction.
When I grabbed Shirogane this other earthling came in, “No way!! I’m saving Shiro!” Loud, great, just what I needed. He was accompanied by two other earthlings, a big guy, and a short and stubby guy, maybe a girl? That doesn’t matter.
“Do I know you?” I really didn’t have time for this. These earthlings could wake up any moment!
He scoffed, “No, Who are you anyways? You’re already pissing me off…” I was dumbfounded, who the hell is this guy?
I sighed before answering, “Keith Kogane, we don’t have time for pleasantries. Come on.” I pulled Shirogane along as we ran to a motorcycle I found in the small house I was living in. There was absolutely no space on this fvcking motorcycle!
“There’s no space, maybe if we dump some unessential weight…” I bit back when that annoying guy started to complain. It only made him start whining even more. God he was annoying, wouldn’t shut up! Why did it have to be me on this mission? I mentally groaned to myself as I told the big guy on the end to lean left. These guys are only a hindrance to my mission.
Maybe I could kill the escaped prisoner while I’m at it. It could do good if no one knows about the empire on this planet. We started to reach a cliff side, only making the nuisances on the back of the motorcycle scream in fear. I’m offended, this wouldn’t be a way to actually kill someone, especially not how I do it. “Hold on morons! Won’t you have some fvcking faith?” I yelled at them as we drove off the cliff.
“YOU’RE TRYING TO KILL US!!” one of them screamed as we dived down the cliff, and made a safe landing.
“You were saying?” I glanced behind myself before driving towards the house I was staying in. I walked away from the group, silently panicking over the fact that I now have three random humans and an escaped prisoner of the empire, who seems to have a prosthetic arm. If I remember currently about Zethrid’s insistent rants about the gladiator fights, his name is Takashi Shirogane. He’s an interesting one, I have to say, defeated Myzax. He interested Lotor for a bit, but overall got forgotten over the millions of other things he had to do.
Then there's those other humans, that small unknown gendered person. They could just be a very underdeveloped male, or maybe I just didn’t know what the norm for males on this planet is. Then that big guy, he seemed to have kind eyes and a very cowardice mindset. He should grow a back bone. Least but of course last, That annoying guy, he was pretty and all, nice eyes and cute smile. He was a loud mouth though, never stopped whining.
“Uhm hello?” I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard that small person’s voice. They sounded awkward which, fair. They didn’t really know me, none of them did.
“Yes?”
They stared for a moment before opening their mouth to speak, “I never introduced myself. Pidge, and this is Hunk! That guy over there is Lance.” They pointed at the big guy and then at the annoying guy. So they do have names… “You’re Keith right?” they asked, which I simply nodded to.
“Thank you for saving me. We need to find Voltron before they do” Shirogane said. Damnit, this was becoming more of a hassle then I thought. As Pidge asked Shirogane questions, I started to think of a new plan while they chattered about the mission he was on before going missing.
“Yo! What’s this?” I turned to the shack. What were they looking at? The only thing in there is the board I had to look for the blue lion- fvck. I ran inside to see that Lance (I think that's his name) pulled the sheet off the board, damnit! This guy just always has to be the problem.
“I- I was analyzing strange readings from an area nearby… It’s nothing-” I was cut off my Shirogane
“This could be something, what does it mean though?” he asked, staring at the board before looking at the others.
~{-[(...)]-}~
So, after a lovely conversation, we ended up in a cave. I’ve checked this cave a million times. Yet I found nothing every time. There were carvings in the walls of the caves, all of, I assume, the blue lion. I’ve been studying the markings before I left to save Shirogane. They were all talking about a weird event that’ll happen.
I don't know what event though, that I didn’t figure out. As we walked around, Lance touched one of the markings, making them all glow. What was going on? Before I could ask what he did, the floor crumbled under us and we all fell down. Finally on the ground again, I could ask Lance what he did.
“I just touched it- and then it started glowing, swear! Wait, is that a big blue robot cat?” I turned around at the description, and oh my god. It was the blue lion, why is it now just showing itself? I wanted to run towards it, but I didn't have a communicator, nor did I have a blaster to either kill or stun the earthings, but I do have a dagger, won’t do much though . So I have to play nice for the meantime. We all walked towards the lion, it had a particle barrier around it, probably for protection. “ Is it also staring at you guys? It’s like totally staring at me!” That was strange, for sure, but whatever.
“How can we get in? It has a barrier around it.” I started to inspect the barrier, there’s no weaknesses in it, if only I had my blaster…
“What if you just knock on it?” Lance said sarcastically, knocking on the barrier. Surprisingly, the barrier was actually lowered. I was shocked, I should look into that. Like idiots, we walked into the lion. I didn’t want to go in, but I had to follow the crowd. When inside, the lion’s controls lit up in a blue color.
We shoot up into the sky. Well fvck, how am I supposed to tell Lotor this! Maybe I could steal a communicator from a galra ship. Would the galra even be out this far out in the universe? I doubt it, no one but Lotor actually searched this place. At my thought, this idiot Lance shot down a galra ship before going through a wormhole.
Where were we going? Better question, where did this wormhole come from? We ended up on a planet with lush greens and a castle on a hill facing the shore, it was hard to see the castle from far away, but it was massive. It seemed like a nice vacation spot to be honest, relaxing and quiet, unlike these humans' endless bickering!
“Why are we listening to a robotic lion!”
“It got us away from an alien worship, didn’t it?” Both their points were solid, but…
“I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re in an alien warship,” I rebutted, even if this guy's point was true, this is still a warship.
Lance glanced at me before replying, “What, are you scared?”
“With you, at the helm, terrified.” I didn’t want an inexperienced pilot flying a weapon, he could easily kill us all if he made a mistake.
Shirogane cut in before the conversation became heated, “Calm down, no one wants to be in this situation, but since we are, we need to work together,” he exhaled before continuing, “ Lance, do you know where we’re heading?” We all turned to Lance, waiting for an answer he so obviously didn’t have.
“I-I don’t know… Sorry, the lion’s not talking to me anymore-” he sounded almost sheepish when he answered. I smacked him upside the head.
“So we don’t know where we’re going? Plus we’re on a planet we don’t even know! What are we doing?” I questioned, annoyance seeping into my voice. It has been a very long day, and I just wanted to rest. Before anyone could answer, we landed in front of the castle entrance. We left the cockpit and walked toward the closed entrance. Hunk screamed in object horror when the lion stood and roared, opening the closed door.
“Oh- OH! So the doors open… I guess I was wrong about you-” We all walked through the entrance, it was dark inside. It seemed like the castle was bigger on the inside, but I couldn’t see sh!t. Then, a blinding light came from above. Hold for Identity scan, a mysterious voice spoke. After the scan was complete, the light suddenly came to life, lighting a long hallway in front of us.
The hallway led us down winding stars, eventually opening up to a big hall. Two pods lifted from the ground, one of them opening up, showing a young woman with long, flowing, waist-length white hair with a tinge of blue. She wore formal clothes that touched the floor, the ends of the dress pink and white as the top was blue and gold with long sleeves. There was a golden head piece on her forehead with a blue gem and purple gem earring, she had pink markings under her eyes. I've seen that somewhere, I just don’t remember where though.
She opened her eyes and reached forward, “Father-!” She fell out of her pod, and almost fell face first if Lance didn’t catch her. Lance blushed before trying to flirt with her, typical. “You’re ears… they’re hideous- what's wrong with them?” That statement almost made me laugh, almost. Before anymore talking, she turned Lance around and forced him to his knees. “Who are you! Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle!” she demanded.
Lance, as to be expected, folded immediately, “A giant blue lion brought us here ! That’s all we know!”
She looked around before speaking, “How do you have the blue lion? What happened to its paladin? What are you all doing here?” This girl asks too many questions, I swear. “Unless…” she started, “How long has it been?”
Shirogane, always one to deescalate the situation, spoke first, “ Why don’t we start with your name. Maybe we can help.”
The girl seemed hesitant but answered, “I am princess Allura of planet Altea.” Altea, as in the planet Zornoth destroyed thousands of years ago? If I remember correctly, they’re the ones who created Voltron. She walked over to a podium in the middle of the room and placed her hands on it, a hologram appeared above it, it showed all types of statistics, some I couldn’t understand, probably written in her language. As she checked the settings and everything, the other pod opened, revealing a man with an interesting mustache and slicked back orange hair that didn’t reach his shoulders, but wasn’t exactly short. His outfit was mainly blue, with some white and gold on his top, and grey on his pants. He had light blue markings, now I recognized them as altean markings.
When he awoke, he almost immediately lunged and attacked Lance, which he deserves. As they argued, I mostly panicked, as one does when in enemy territory. If this was really voltron, then maybe when attacking the galra, I can find something to communicate with Lotor, and try to explain how I got in this situation. “It can’t be..” the Princess began, “We’ve been asleep for 10 000 years!” Everyone seemed to take a minute to process this, “Coran- father is gone… our entire civilization! Zarkon..!” Reasonable reaction, really. Zarkon was interesting to say the least.
“Uhm… Question- who exactly is Zarkon?” Hunk asked, unsure if it was a good time. It will never be a good time.
The princess’s expression turned to disdain as she answered, “ He was the king of the Galra, a vile creature! Enemy to all free people!” She wasn’t wrong, He’s not my favorite either, never took care of his own son, not a shocker he was the same so long ago. A dicktator doesn’t change, even after 10 000 years. My thoughts wandered as they talked about Voltron and everything. Will they kill me if the empire found out? Probably, but that's future Keith’s problem. Right now, my problem is how to leave and contact Lotor.
I had a dagger, but against 3 people trained in fighting, and three idiots who might be able to detain me, this wasn’t in my favor at all. Lance’s voice cut through my thoughts, “ Damn… 10 000 years! That’s like 1 000 plus 10!”
“Times 10-” I corrected, which only earned me a glare from Lance. I looked over at Shirogane, he seemed to be admiring the castle’s technology.
“I can’t believe your civilization made all of this 10 000 years ago…” he sounded interested, maybe he wouldn’t want to hear about how their planet was underdeveloped. Coran (I think that’s his name?) looked sad, makes sense.
“Altea was an amazing place, It is gone now though. We’re the last ones alive.” He hugged Allura, before she pulled away and found mice in one of the pods, that was all before the hologram flashed red and showed a Galra ship approaching. Well, maybe I can try to sneak on board, but how…?
“I bet it’s Keith’s fault,” Lance spoke, glancing at me. Now he’s just saying straight bullsh!t.
In annoyance, I replied nicely, “Say whatever makes you feel better after sending us through a wormhole cuz a robot lion told you too.”
“I’ll stick you in a wormhole!!” He turned to me and got really close. Before things escalated, again, Shirogane quickly separated us.
“From my calculations, they’ll be here in a couple of days.” Coran told everyone.
The princess turned to us, “By the time they get here, hopefully you five can form voltron and defeat them! All of the Galra,” She sounded so determined, even if this was too ambitious. We all followed Allura to the control room as she stood in the middle on a small podium.
Coran started to explain, “Before she was put into the cryo pod, King Alfor connected the lions to her life force. She’s the only one who knows where they are.” Did King Alfor ever think the Galra were going to torture her if they found out she was alive, was my only thought. Suddenly, the whole room was bathed in a soft blue light, as coordinates appeared all over the room.
“The black lion looks like it’s in the same place as the blue lion…” Pidge observed.
Allura smiled before providing another explanation, “ That is because it’s locked away in the castle, only if all the other lions are gathered, can it be freed” She turned to face the rest of the group, “The lions pick their pilots. It’s a special bond that can’t be forced. The quintessence of the pilot mirrors the quintessence of the lion,” She swiped her hand, making all the coordinates to spin, “ Black looks to its pilot to know themself and not be burdened by self-doubt someone who’s a leader, someone who will make decisions in hard situations instead of being paralyzed. Shiro will pilot the black lion because of it,”
She paused before continuing, “Green is looking for someone inquisitive and quick on the uptake, someone who is not satisfied with leaving well enough alone, and will be constantly poking and prodding at things.That is why Pidge will pilot the green lion. Now the blue lion-”
She was cut off by Lance, "Needs someone handsome and the best pilot?”
She made a face before moving on the yellow, “Yellow chooses one who cares for others, someone who's reliable. Someone who puts the needs of others before their own. That is why Hunk will be the pilot of the yellow pilot.” Hunk looked confused, which was hilarious. “ Finally, red looks for their pilot to be sure of themself and willing to take risks, and it wants someone who's willing to match wills with it. It is the hardest to master. It’s unstable, needs someone who relies on more than skill. That’s why you will be the pilot of the red lion, Keith. I haven’t found the red lion yet though. You must stay here,”
“Okay…” Hunk started, “How do I turn into a leg-? Is this going to be a long trip? Do you have a bathroom I can use real quickly too?” It was obvious he was anxious.
“We don’t have a lot of time. Pidge and I will go after the green lion, Lance and Hunk, and get the yellow one. Kieth, stay here and help, if you can find the red lion, go after it.” I watched as everyone left, and Allura tested the defenses. This is definitely an interesting situation.