When he'd first met Keith Kogane, he'd reminded him of a stray cat. One that was unused to people and wanted to keep its distance.
It wasn't exactly rare for senior cadets to be asked to mentor the younger ones, especially the ones that had shown great promise- and Shiro had always been more than willing to do it. If he had to be honest, there were few things he enjoyed more than seeing that same spark in their eyes that he knew he had once carried in his own.
Keith had none of that.
Talent, yes, not to mention an ample amount of skill- more than he had ever seen before in someone his age. But enthusiasm? He didn't think he even knew the meaning of that word.
But Shiro didn't falter. He had a job to do, and if anything, that was all the more reason to do it. What scant information there was available on the boy was telling- no records of any family members, a prior address that turned out to belong to a long abandoned parking lot, and no records at all of anyone by that name living in the state he claimed to come from.
A runaway, Shiro had thought. It wasn't that uncommon- to a runaway, the Galaxy Garrison was a tantalizing option. It provided a roof over their heads, three square meals a day, and most importantly, the promise of stable, future employment once they graduated. He knew that the Garrison was technically required to report such things, but he also knew just as well that more often, they looked the other way.
All the more so for someone of Keith's talent, behavior issues and all.
When Shiro had first been introduced to him, the officer who had done the introducing had wished him good luck. It struck him oddly as a warning- one that in due time, began to make sense.
While talented as a pilot, when it came to social skills... well, Keith was decidedly lacking. In fact, if Shiro didn't know any better, it was almost like the kid had grown up under some kind of rock. If he was a runaway, then whatever he was running from... well, it was a good thing that he was here now.
Others thought him overly optimistic, but Shiro had confidence that he could be a good influence on the kid. After all, that was what a mentor was for, right?
He didn't expect Keith to open up to him right away- but if there was one thing that he had no shortage of, it was patience. Bit by bit, he slowly managed to chip away at his guard- and while he never got him to drop it completely, by the time it came for him to leave for Kerberos, Shiro was at least confident that Keith would be fine without him.
Hell, it almost looked as if the kid didn't want him to go. He didn't expect him to admit it out loud- and he didn't need to. Guarded though he could be, in some ways, he was like an open book, even if it was true that he could count what he knew about him on one hand. He'd never let much slip about his life before the Garrison, and whenever he did, he'd immediately clam back up again.
Keith Kogane was probably an alias, he figured. There was no other reason he could think of for being so unresponsive to his own name, especially during his first few weeks at the Garrison. English probably wasn't even his first language, and he spoke it far better than he wrote it- though considering the fact that his handwriting was a general mess, maybe it only just looked that way. He never did find out what Keith's native tongue was.
He'd gleaned that Keith's mother was still alive, but that he didn't know where she was, and hadn't spoken to her in years. He seemed genuinely fond of her, and Shiro could only guess it wasn't by her choice they had been separated. And his father... his father was someone Keith didn't like to talk about. He'd seen the scars on the kid, some old and some new, and decided against pushing the topic. Still, he passed on word to the Garrison guard that if anyone ever came claiming to be Keith Kogane's father, that they be redirected straight to him.
He didn't know what he was running from, but he wouldn't let him go back.
But he didn't need to know about his past to know Keith as a person. He was a good kid- rough around the edges, something of a temper, and awkward when it came to dealing with others, but a good kid. Others might not see him the same way, but given time, he knew that they would come to understand him as he had.
Honestly? He was going to miss him. He'd have to be sure to tell him all about Kerberos when he returned. Maybe introduce him to Matt's little sister sometime. Some friends would do him good, and from the sound of it, Katie was struggling to make friends of her own at school.
He never got the chance.
He'd been taken.
He thought he'd never be able to return.
But he did.
He'd tried to warn the Garrison, but they wouldn't listen. In hindsight, raving like a frantic madman probably wasn't earning him any points- but if they'd been through what he had, they'd be ranting too. Even if he couldn't recall concrete memories from the past year, he need only look down at his own arm to know that it had been a living nightmare.
He slept, and when he woke, he was a free man again.
And Keith was there. In fact, from the sound of it, he'd saved him.
He'd actually been hoping a little that the three Garrison cadets that were with him were his friends- but it quickly became clear that wasn't the case, and they had just happened to be in the same place at the same time when his pod had crashed. In fact, Keith had apparently been kicked out of the Garrison during the time he was gone and had been living in a shack in the middle of the desert all this time- and while there were so many questions Shiro wanted to ask about that alone, it would have to wait.
There were more pressing matters.
God, were there ever.
Aliens were coming. God, he knew that made him sound like a crazy man- but it was true. Aliens were coming, and they were coming for something- a weapon of some kind, one that had been hidden away on Earth. And though he didn't know how he knew, he knew that whatever it was they were searching for, whatever this Voltron might be, that they couldn't be allowed to have it.
As it turned out, Keith had been searching for it all along.
Or well, at least ever since he'd disappeared.
And while it was true that Keith didn't seem to really know the three Garrison cadets- Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, he came to learn their names were- when they offered to help, he didn't turn them down. Progress, Shiro noted, a hint of a smile on his face. Maybe they weren't friends yet, but if he gave them time... he might be on to something here.
(He could worry about the impending alien invasion and his mentoree making friends at the same time if he wanted to. He could multi-task.)
Shiro hung back, watching as Hunk and Pidge worked together to create the sensor that they had talked about, occasionally pausing to ask Keith a question or two, to which he readily answered. Seeing this... it was good.
Even if part of him still half believed it was a dream- right up until he landed face first in a puddle of water.
(Not one of his better moments.)
The lions chose their pilots. He knew that.
The lions chose their pilots. It was a bond, beyond the understanding of science. The lions could sense things that others could not- even things that their chosen pilots themselves couldn't possibly know. He knew that.
And yet.
Lance.
The blue lion had chosen Lance.
It was all he could do to bite his tongue, to keep himself from asking if it was absolutely sure it had made the right choice. Who knows, maybe after ten thousand years of disuse, the lion's judgement had gotten a little bit loopy.
At that, he could have sworn that it's energy had turned angry, but honestly? Ancient sentient warship or no ancient sentient warship, he was going to stand by that statement. If it wanted to throw him out into the vacuum of space for it, that might actually be an improvement over his current circumstances.
It couldn't be any worse than dying as a result of this Earthling's incompetent piloting. Up until that moment, he didn't think it was even possible for him to fear death.
And it surely couldn't be any worse than what Kolivan would do to him when he'd learned that he'd let the blue lion fall into the hands of someone who couldn't even fly one of the human's test simulators without crashing it. Sure, it wasn't as bad as handing it over to the Zarkon, but... yeah, it was pretty bad.
Not that he had much say in the matter. The lion was the one calling all the shots now. All he could do was go along for the ride.
Literally. Very, very, very literally.
The blue lion was alive, and it was going home, and like hell was it going to let anything stop it.
(He still couldn't believe they'd gotten away from that cruiser alive, even if he didn't think that jumping through a mysterious wormhole was the best of ideas.)
"But seriously," Lance spoke, "...there's a castle up ahead."
He was right, and Keith felt his breath catch in his throat.
Though their civilization had vanished over ten thousand years ago, well before he was born, he knew at once that the castle, with it's elegant lines, gleaming white in the bright sunlight, untouched by time, was Altean in origin. It called to the lion, so strongly that it crossed galaxies in an instant just to return to it.
Altea, a planet that no longer existed, alongside it's people. The Galra had wiped it from the map- the first of many to suffer the same fate. The only thing that remained of their people, their culture, were some scattered ruins, broken and forgotten, and the lions of Voltron.
"Keith?" Shiro's voice caught his ear, his hand soft on his shoulder. "You okay?"
Drawing in a long breath, Keith swallowed back his own thoughts. He hadn't even realized that they had landed, much less that everyone else had already left the cockpit. So much for being observant. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Shiro wasn't convinced, he knew, but he knew just as well that he wouldn't push it. "Alright. But if you need anything, just tell me. We're in this together."
"Whatever this is." He added, almost as an afterthought, and Keith wasn't quite sure if he'd meant to say that aloud or not.
It was a reminder that Shiro was human too, like the others, and held prisoner for a year on a Galra ship or not, there was still much he didn't know.
"Yeah, thanks." Giving him a curt nod, Keith's hand fell on the pouch where he'd tucked his transmitter away, darting in to switch it off for the time being.
No sense in contacting Kolivan until he knew what they were dealing with here. If this really was an Altean castle, maybe he would be able to learn the whereabouts of the other lions from it. If they knew that, not only would they be able to reclaim the red lion from the empire's hands, but they'd also be able to locate and protect the remaining three lions as well.
And wouldn't that be an accomplishment.
Nodding to himself, satisfied with that reason, Keith followed the others outside the cockpit, blinking for a moment in the bright sun. He couldn't be too sure what planet they had landed on, other than that there seemed to be no Galra presence here.
Good.
Even if he did feel slightly nervous about entering an Altean castle. But since the blue lion had allowed him inside of it's cockpit, it would probably be fine.
"Hold for identity scan."
Or not.
Sucking in his breath, Keith braced himself, half waiting for alarms to go off. The change ran deep enough to fool any human detection, but he didn't know if that would hold for Altean tech. If one looked too close, it would become pretty obvious that he wasn't what he appeared to be- an imposter in human skin.
But no alarm bells rang.
Instead, a pathway lit up, glowing a gentle blue, illuminating the dust in the air. Letting out his breath, Keith allowed himself to relax once more- though not as much as he had been. Who knew what he'd find within the castle walls- it was best to be prepared for anything.
The castle was leading them somewhere, at any rate, lighting their path as they went. He could make out the faint sound of systems booting up after ten thousand years of disuse, groaning here and there. It was like a gentle hum, and not one that he particularly minded- why was it, he wondered, that it sounded so much different than the harsh buzz of a Galran cruiser?
"It's some kind of control room." Pidge observed, as they reached where the castle seemed to be leading them.
Keith picked up on the sound likely before anyone else did- and with it, his tension returned. Cryopod technology was thought to be lost to the ages, gone with the Alteans, but he'd seen records of them in the archives of the Blade's headquarters before.
And they weren't empty.
Alteans.
The Altean princess struck him as naive.
Given the fact that she'd been asleep for the past ten thousand years, he couldn't exactly blame her for being unaware of just how deeply entrenched Zarkon's regime had become. Even the virtual sea of distress beacons didn't truly illustrate the whole picture- there were whole planets that had fallen before they had even had the chance to send one out, entire civilizations wiped out in the time it took their armies- if they even had one- to mobilize.
It was a grim picture.
Voltron had the power to turn the tide of the war, and this princess- Allura- was the key to Voltron, it seemed. Zarkon feared them, just as much as he desired them.
He knew that much.
But he also knew just how firmly entrenched the Galra Empire had become- how powerful their forces had gotten. He'd seen fellow Blades leave on missions, and never come back. It had never phased him- it was simply their way of life, something that they had all come to accept. He'd been trained to look death in the eye and show it no fear- for in a war against a ten thousand year old tyrant, death was inevitable. One had to be ready- ready, if need be, to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the mission.
Knowledge or death.
This was not a battle that could be won on hope or ideals alone. Those things were not without their meaning- but they simply weren't enough.
The Altean princess was naive- but also strong. Though obviously struck by a deep grief at the loss of her people, her planet, even her family, she did not break. Perhaps that was just how royalty was. They had to be strong, to be the backbone of their people- even if their people were no more.
She was strong, but also naive.
The Voltron lions were the key to turning the tide against Zarkon, and she was putting them in the hands of children.
He was a child himself, it was true, but human children seemed all the more fragile, with their round nails and flat teeth (he was ignoring that he currently possessed those very same traits himself). They had known nothing but peace their whole lives, not bred and raised in war as he had been, living in the shadows just to survive. He'd been raised to fight- and though he'd lived in relative peace while on Earth, it wasn't something one's body forgot.
But these... these humans were just children, save for Shiro. None of them knew battle, none of them knew war.
Shiro, the lone adult among them, had tasted it, and it had left him scarred. He'd just come out of hell, and this princess wanted him to go back in?
What made her think that any of them could go to war? Fate? Destiny? They were novel concepts, but they had no place on the battlefield.
But she seemed to truly believe that they had been brought here as paladins.
Himself included.
That, he knew, couldn't be true. He knew the stories of the paladins of Voltron, from long before Zarkon's reign. They were heroes, shining and bright- or were, until everything went south.
But him? He was a solider, not a hero. He took lives, he didn't save them- didn't even know if he knew how. The paladins of Voltron lived in the light, spreading hope and peace throughout the galaxy- but that wasn't the Marmora way.
That wasn't his way.
The irony of being 'given' the red lion was not lost on him. Give the only Galra the one lion in Galra hands. Perhaps the identity scan hadn't come out as clean as he'd first thought.
Especially not since it left him behind, alone in the castle with two Alteans. While Shiro had been the one to split everyone up, Allura had been the one to assign the lions. Perhaps she'd merely been lying about being unable to locate the red lion. Perhaps this was nothing more than a trap. Isolate him from the others, and then see what the Galra who dared to step foot inside her Castle knew.
The princess was naive, strong- and to the core of her being, full of hate.
He could sense it, feel it in the way she talked about Zarkon, her words seething with anger, her shoulders tight, rage and despair intermingling at the mere mention of his name. The way she spat Galra as if it were a curse, more foul than any other.
None of which he could blame her for. If she wanted to turn it on him... so be it. He could handle it.
"So," the princess spoke, barely so much as looking back at him, "...Keith, was it?"
..Keith, was it?"
Though she didn't turn around, she could still feel his eyes fixed on her back. They had been there, ever since she'd left the cryopod. At first, she chalked it up to her imagination, but the longer it went on, the more she was sure of it.
She was being watched.
Her and Coran, really. Even when they were on opposite sides of the room, he would position himself just so, so that he was able to keep an eye on them both at the same time. Never once did he turn his back on either of them- an underlying wariness to him. As if he didn't trust a word that was coming out of their mouths.
It wasn't as if she didn't understand. In fact, it made perfect sense, really it did. He and his companions had been sent hurtling across the galaxy in a ship the likes they had never seen before, and now were being told that they were chosen paladins, brought here to fight a war against an ancient empire that from the sound of it, most of them hadn't even known existed until today. That there would be some level of suspicion was perfectly natural, really it was.
If anything, she was rather surprised by how easily the other four had gone along with everything she'd said. Not so for this one- Keith, she'd learned- who watched her as if he expected her to reveal some monstrous true form any second.
She could certainly understand it, but...
But she was starting to get a bit tired of being watched. His gaze was... almost a little unnerving, if she had to be honest. It reminded her of something, but of what, she had no idea, merely that it made her skin crawl.
Part of her was almost loathe to trust him- ridiculous, really. If he had been brought here as one of the five paladins of Voltron, then she needed to be able to trust him- and he needed to be able to trust her.
Perhaps all he needed was a bit of reassurance- a bit of convincing to ensure him that she was in no way lying to him, or trying to trick him and the others. Were she in his situation, she might very well be having the same reaction.
"Yeah," the boy's tone was curt, as to be expected, "It's Keith."
Well this already wasn't going very well, Allura decided.
"Ah." Momentarily, she wished that Coran hadn't left to check on the turbine- he was always better at this sort of thing that she was. There must be something that they could talk about, she thought, racking her brain for a topic. "The planet you are from... where is it, exactly?"
"Can't say." Another curt response. "I'd have to know where here is."
"A fair point." Allura observed. "Do tell me, what is it like?"
"What, Earth?" Keith asked.
"Yes, of course." Allura told him, wondering what else he could have possibly thought she meant. "If we are going to be fighting Zarkon together, I should at least try and get to know you all a bit better. What is this Earth like?"
"I've only really known the desert." Keith supplied. "Can't really tell you much more about it than that."
"Ah." Allura said, a tight frown on her face. Perhaps Keith simply wasn't much of a conversationalist. Still, she wasn't out just yet. "There were no deserts on Altea."
"You're not missing much." Keith told her, and she could pick up on the sound of fabric shifting just so- he'd shrugged his shoulders. She hoped that perhaps he'd expand on that, however...
No such luck.
This... really wasn't going at all well, Allura quickly deduced. Resisting the urge to sigh, she instead collected herself. Well, if conversation wasn't working, then perhaps a show of good faith would.
"There is no need for you to stay here, you know." Though she only spared a glance in his direction, she found herself very quickly meeting his eyes. So he was watching her. "It might be some time until I can locate the red lion. If you would like to take a look around the Castle in the meantime, you are more than welcome to do so."
Keith's gaze lingered on her for a moment longer- before he shrugged his shoulders again, pushing himself up from where he had been leaning against the wall. He didn't say another word to her- but he did seem to be taking up on her offer, leaving her alone on the bridge.
Well, at the very least, he wouldn't be watching her any longer. She'd seen the way that he had interacted with Shiro, so perhaps all that he needed was some time to warm up to her. Maybe once he got his lion, that would help.
Of course to do that, she first had to find the red lion. Easier said than done, it would seem. Perhaps it was just the fact that the Castle had been sitting, gathering dust for the past ten thousand years, or perhaps the red lion was somewhere it's sensors couldn't locate it. Pursing her lips, she wondered if there was perhaps some way to hide it from her eyes- a rather unpleasant thing to consider, since she couldn't imagine any natural way that could have happened.
Not unless the red lion itself had closed itself off to her. But she couldn't think of any possible reason for it to do so, especially not with it's new paladin here.
New paladin. She couldn't help but feel her heart ache at that, even as she tried to bury it deep, somewhere it couldn't hurt her. Out of all the lions, she was most loathe to hand the red lion over to someone new.
It had been her father's, once.
No longer.
She wondered if it would even take to it's new paladin. While she didn't doubt what she had sensed, Keith's personality... from what she could gather, it left her a little wanting. Really, almost all of the new paladins were young- almost painfully so, in the case of the new green paladin.
But they were the ones who had been brought here, after all this time. There must be meaning to it, she knew.
What else could they be, if not the new paladins of Voltron?
At least it seemed that they had someone who could truly lead them. She could only hope that Shiro would be strong enough to truly take command of the black lion- with Zarkon still alive, she couldn't say if his connection to it had truly been severed or not. It should, given the terrible things that he had done, but she knew full well that the lion's bonds with their paladins simply did not work that way.
But all that would be for naught if she couldn't find the red lion. Without it, the black lion would remain sleeping in the Castle forever- and without it, Voltron could not be formed. Whatever the cost, she had to push forward.
She could only hope that these new paladins would be up to the task.
That... could have gone worse, he thought.
At the very least, he didn't detect anything in the princess' tone but simple curiosity. The conversation itself had been benign enough, so perhaps that was all it was, and his suspicions were nothing more than that- suspicions. Given how she'd spat out Zarkon's name with so much hate, he doubted that she'd be able to maintain such a civil tone with him if she suspected him to be Galra.
Still, it was too early to let his guard down. Though they were well hidden, blended into the architecture of the Castle, he was able to pick out the cameras that lined it's walls. There was still a chance that she was watching him through them, waiting to see what he would do when he thought he was on his own.
In his line of work, suspicion was a survival skill. Trust no one, until they had proven themselves beyond the shadow of doubt.
And sometimes not even then.
In any case, he couldn't risk contacting Kolivan just yet. He didn't know what kind of capabilities the Castle had, and there was still too much chance that his transmission could be picked up. There was always the option of leaving, but wandering too far away could rouse suspicion- and if he wasn't already suspected of anything, then he didn't want to give any cause to change that.
Relaxing his shoulders, Keith drew in a long breath. Kolivan would be furious with him, but perhaps the information would make up for it.
He wondered how Shiro was doing. Had they found the green lion yet?
...though maybe the ones he should be worried about were actually Hunk and Lance. The other Altean- Coran- had said that the planet he was sending them to was peaceful, but Keith knew otherwise. The Galra had a mining operation there- seeking ore for their ships.
Or perhaps more, if the yellow lion was there.
No, if Kolivan's intelligence had learned about the red lion's capture, then it was safe to believe the Galra Empire didn't know about the yellow lion's location just yet. Their mission was of a higher risk than Shiro's, but as a simple mining outpost, the planet wasn't exactly heavily fortified. With the blue lion with them...
Oh.
Right.
The blue lion.
Piloted by Lance.
Yeah, that... that was something to worry about.
"Keith?"
Allura's voice crackled over the intercom, making it clear that it hadn't been used once in the past ten thousand years.
"We need you on the bridge. We have located the red lion."
She sounded troubled. Keith didn't have to guess why.
"I am... afraid there is a bit of trouble."
Unable to help himself, Keith's lips curled into a smile. That was one way of putting it.
The paladin armor felt clunky, unfamiliar, wrong- restraining in ways that his Marmora armor did not. It fit perfectly, but it didn't suit him, making him feel ill at ease in his own skin, as if he were desperately trying to pretend to be something and someone he was not.
Which he was.
He was, but he'd gotten used to that- to having the face of a stranger, to people calling him by a name that was not his own. He'd had two years to get used to it, to become at ease with his deception.
And all it took was one look in the mirror to bring it all back again.
He'd forced himself to look away, drawing in a long, ragged breath, hoping that nobody noticed. They had a mission to accomplish, and he couldn't afford to let his emotions get in the way. Those were a luxury- a luxury that the Blade of Marmora couldn't afford.
(But he was a paladin now- or was supposed to be one. Allura thought so, Shiro thought so- it felt like the only one being honest about this whole thing was Lance.)
(At least they'd all soon realize the truth- that he was no paladin, just as he had.)
Even the weapon at his side felt unfamiliar. Allura had called it a bayard, a weapon that changed shape at the will of it's user. For a split second, he'd nearly formed it into a perfect mimic of his Marmoran blade, before he'd stopped himself short, forcing the sword that formed into a different style. Thankfully, everyone was so engrossed in their own bayards that nobody even noticed.
They knew where the red lion was, and they were going to get it. Fortunately, it was located on the very same Galra cruiser that had locked onto their signal.
Sendak- now there was a name he knew, though he'd never crossed paths with him himself. He had a reputation in the empire, for being so thirsty for power, that he willingly let the Druids experiment on him. His second in command was Haxus- and while he might not have been as bad news as Sendak, he was still, indisputably, bad news.
At least he was back in his comfort zone, even if he was doing it in a clunky, unfamiliar suit of armor, in a body that provided him with limitations. He hadn't realized just how much he had been itching to run a mission- a real mission- until the moment they stepped on board Sendak's ship. He could feel his blood almost sing- in anticipation, with excitement for what was to come.
It was hard not to let it show on his face.
The plan was to sneak a three man team onto Sendak's ship- him, Pidge, and Shiro. They'd locate the red lion, and then escape with it. Simple, clear cut, in and out, no problem. He'd done this kind of thing countless times before, knew the layout of your run of the mill Galra cruiser like the back of his hand.
There was nothing that could go wrong.
Other than the fact that he knew he wouldn't be able to pilot the red lion out of there. Maybe... maybe he could talk it into letting him get it off the ship, at least. It would probably rather let itself be piloted, however briefly, by a Galra rebel rather than allow itself to fall into Zarkon's hands.
From the way Allura talked about it, it had too much pride for that.
The plan, however, ran into a hitch not long after they had infiltrated the ship. When Shiro learned that this was the same ship he had been taken to after being captured, Pidge had insisted they go back for the prisoners, hoping that the other two members of the Kerberos mission might still be here.
(This is war, and sometimes we have to make hard choices, Shiro had said at first, reminding him too much of Kolivan.)
Family. They were family.
No wonder they had been so insistent on asking after the crew, back on Earth. Somewhere out there, their father and brother were still in Zarkon's hands- if they were even still alive, Keith thought grimly.
It was enough to get Shiro to relent. He would go with Pidge, and Keith was to go on to find the red lion, by himself. He wasn't about to put up a fight about it- if he was on his own, he could fight more freely than he could under watchful eyes.
Now all he needed to do was find the red lion.
There were only so many places on the ship it could be- all he needed to do was check them one by one. Which would be great, if he had all the time in the world, and was prepared for a stealth mission.
He didn't, and he wasn't. Great.
Letting out a long breath of air, Keith narrowed his eyes. He knew he should have told someone that Allura had made the wrong choice, but he hadn't. What could he possibly tell them? The truth? That he wasn't who he said he was, that he was Galra? He couldn't just give that up so easily.
Still, he had to try. Even if he didn't believe, the others did- and maybe that counted for something. And maybe... maybe there was a part of him, a small part of him, that almost hoped it were true.
(His mother would be proud. Kolivan would be exasperated.)
They had said something about him being able to feel the red lion. It was worth a try- he'd picked up on the blue lion's energy in the desert after all, and he wasn't even it's paladin. One way or another, he was it's ticket out of here- so maybe it would trust him to that extent.
It started as a faint tug, at first, almost familiar. Trying to follow it's cast out thread, it came to him in a snap, his eyes flickering open. Turning on his heel, Keith cast his eyes down in the opposite direction, mentally mapping out the ship, trying to pinpoint where it had come from. One of the hangar bays- a place he had planned on checking anyways.
It was a good enough place to start. Making his way down the halls of the Galra cruiser, careful to avoid sentries and drones alike, Keith once more felt himself start to relax, the familiar tension of an infiltration mission almost calming. He hadn't realized just how out of his element he had been until now, and in a way, it was like coming home.
The hangar's doors were locked- but that wasn't much of a problem, not for him. Pressing his hand against the access panel, it beeped slightly, his hidden Galra blood enough to allow him to pass through. Heading into the hangar, it didn't take him long to locate the red lion- and for a moment, it was all he could do to suck in his breath at the sight of it.
They'd taken it, particle barrier and all, leaving it suspended inside of it. Slowly approaching it, he kept an ear out for any advancing sentries, well aware that there was a chance he could have tripped some kind of internal alarm. Right now, Sendak's attention would have been focused on the yellow and blue lions, but he shouldn't let his guard down.
Coming to a full stop in front of the red lion, Keith's eyes narrowed. You have to earn it's respect, he'd been told- a more difficult feat than Allura could have ever imagined. He might be able to fool scanners of both earthly and Altean nature alike, but he got the feeling that the lions would be able to see right through him.
The blue lion had still let him in though, even so.
Seeing the red lion in person stirred something inside of him, he couldn't deny that. Maybe... maybe there was a chance after all? He could at least try.
Reaching up a hand, Keith placed it tentatively against the red lion's barrier, closing his eyes. For a long moment, nothing happened, half making him want to give up- the extent of his mission had been to keep the blue lion out of Zarkon's hands, nothing more. And he'd done that- the blue lion was now united with it's paladin. But with the red lion right in front of him, there was no way he could just let it slip from his grasp.
He'd seen all too well what Zarkon could do, what kind of power that he possessed. He'd seen countless Blades sacrifice themselves for the cause, all for one small piece of information. If he were allowed to get hold of the lions, even just one...
...then the entire universe falling to him wasn't impossible.
He couldn't- wouldn't- let Zarkon have the red lion. He'd taken so much, so much from him alone, that Keith wasn't willing to give him anything else.
That, it seemed, was enough.
(It's roar too, felt strangely of home.)
"Keith?"
He didn't respond at first, and for a split second, Shiro thought that perhaps all of today's excitement had caused him to momentarily forget his own alias. He couldn't blame him- just this morning, all five of them had been on Earth, and now they an impossible distance away from it.
A moment later though, he stirred. "Shiro?"
"Hey." Shiro grinned, turning his gaze to what Keith had been transfixed by. From this part of the Castle, one could see the stars- and though try as he might, Shiro couldn't pick out a single constellation that he knew. They really had come a long way from home. "Nice view, huh."
"Mm." Keith noted, falling back into the habit of using verbal cues, rather than words to express himself. Back during his first few months at the Garrison, he'd done it often, before seemingly training himself out of it. Shiro had never minded it, and Keith didn't bother to correct himself and use words instead when it was just him around.
"You're not sleeping?" Shiro asked. "I think aside from Allura, everyone else is already in bed."
"I'm not tired." Keith said.
It was probably true, Shiro knew. As much as he'd tried to break him of the habit during his time with him at the Garrison, even recruiting his roommates (numerous, many requests for transfer) in an effort to help, Keith still only slept for about four hours a day. He'd managed to get an extra half hour out of him, at best- but chances were, he'd relapsed since he'd...
...well, since he'd left.
"You should still get some sleep." Shiro observed. "It's been a long day."
"I've had longer." He'd said it without thinking. Shiro knew from the way his own words made him flinch, from the tight set of his lips after he'd realized, as if trying to seal his own mouth shut to keep him from saying anything more.
"I'll take your word for that." Shiro said simply, deciding not to push him. "So, ever think you'd be piloting a giant space cat?"
He'd hoped it'd get a laugh out of him- not the complex expression that was reflected back in those violet eyes of his. "It's probably just a fluke."
There it was, out in the open. Keith had buried it before, but Shiro couldn't shake the feeling that he'd thought Allura had made some kind of mistake when he'd assigned him the red lion. He'd wanted to talk to him about it, but with everything going on, there had never been a chance to.
He thought things turning out contrary to his expectations would make him happy. And it did, he could tell- but it also seemed to be weighing on him.
It reminded him once again how little he actually knew about Keith.
"I'm not so sure about that." Shiro said. "The red lion doesn't sound like it's the type to make a mistake, not from the way Allura put it. Besides," giving Keith a chance to see his hand before he placed it on his shoulder, he gave him a smile, "...you did good today. I think we've got the beginnings of a good team."
There was a long pause there- and for a split second, Shiro swore that there was guilt in those eyes. Then it was gone, and he was left to wonder if it had simply been his imagination.
"You're right, Shiro." Keith told him, getting to his feet. "I should try and get some sleep."
Shiro wanted to say something more, but instead merely smiled. "Alright then. I'll see you in the morning, Keith."
He recognized the small grunt in reply as meaning goodnight.
He was a paladin.
Him.
A paladin.
Allura had been right. She'd been right.
He still didn't know what to make of it, still trying to process the whole thing. It still didn't feel real.
He couldn't wrap his head around it. It had to be some kind of mistake, right? It had to be- even as he heard a low hum from the red lion, reassurance that there had been no mistake. He tried to ask it why it had chosen him- but it gave him no answer, at least, not any that he could understand.
He'd been given a room in the Castle, all his own, but he went past it, heading down into Red's hangar. Finding his way into the cockpit, he took a seat at the controls, closing his eyes and drawing in a long breath.
They'd even formed Voltron.
He couldn't wrap his head around that either.
And while it had been... strangely joyous, in a way, it still came with it's fair share of guilt. He was the red paladin now- a paladin of Voltron. What would that mean for his future? He couldn't put off reporting to Kolivan forever- he needed to know what was going on, and his loyalty was always first and foremost to the Blade of Marmora.
If it came down to it, he would choose the Blade over Voltron. It was his home, they were his family- he'd been born and raised there, trained from the day he could walk.
Would there come a time when he'd have to choose between the two? What would Kolivan have to say to this, to any of this? Would he call him back right away, or would he have him stay, continue his work here? Continue wearing this false face, or chance revealing himself for what he really was?
Would he become a spy for him, just as he had been on Earth?
It was a thought that made his gut churn. Shiro had said that they had the beginnings of a good team- but for a team to work, they had to have no secrets between each other. And here he was, almost everything about him a lie.
Because he knew if Kolivan asked him to, he would say yes.
(First and foremost, he was a Blade.)