#dream team alfor and coran | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rueitae · 6 years ago

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Once More, With Feeling

For @paliseizy‘s Coran Week! I had this idea lurking in my head for a while, but this event kicked me in gear to finish! Much thanks to @sp4c3-0ddity for her usual encouragement. For the prompts Ship (Coran and an OC, though its not the focus) and AU.

When given the option to try and change the past for Allura's sake, he takes it. It's just a bonus he gets to change Keith's life for the better.

Or, canon compliant Coran time travels and raises Keith in canon divergent AU.

Warning for Major Character Death (of old age, and at the beginning).

Read on Ao3. Roughly 10,600 words.

~~~~~

Coran pauses, arm outstretched to open the door before him.

It hasn’t gotten any easier, his greying hairs an outward expression of his aged body and mind. Although he’s spent the trip from Altea mentally preparing himself for this, it hasn’t helped. Even though everyone has greeted him kindly upon arrival he’s terrified to open the door, not because of who he’ll see - never who - but what.

The grip on the flowers tighten. He must. He’s paid the same to the others, his children by choice, and he’ll be quiznaked if doesn’t give Keith the same comfort.

Taking courage from their memory, he turns the knob, hands sweaty under his gloves.

The hospital room is more cheerful than he remembers them being, painted in a beautiful light orange. Vases full of floral arrangements both Earthly and alien crowd the tables and chairs. Coran’s heart twinges. There’s been no visitors lately, only mailed in well wishes.

A nurse with familiar auburn hair leans over the single bed, and upon his entry rises to greet him with a smile. “Good evening, Uncle Coran. Welcome back to the Garrison.”

Coran nods politely, a smile pushing up on his face. “A pleasure to see you again, Samantha. How are classes going?”

She beams at him. “Aced my last set of tests. I’ll be a doctor before you know it.”

Coran whistles. That soon? Just yesterday it seemed she’d graduated from secondary school. “She’d be proud of you, all of you kids,” he tells her.

Her face glows with the praise, a light flush around her cheeks. Quiznak, she’s the spitting image of her great-great-grandmother.

He misses Pidge so much. And Hunk and Shiro and Lance.

And Allura still.

Her gaze wanders briefly to the bed. “He’s just napping, but you can stay with him until he wakes. He’ll be delighted to see you.”

“Thank you, my dear,” he says, taking her hands in his and giving them a gentle pat. “Give your parents a fond hello for me.”

She gives him a kiss on the cheek and his mustache tingles with joy. He gives her familial hug before she leaves the room.

With great care he sets the flowers aside to sit on the chair at the bed.

Coran’s heart is at ease as he watches Keith sleep peacefully. The man has outlived his fellow Paladins thanks to his Galra heritage, but his white hair, thin arms, and wrinkles are all so human. Time has helped, but it’s still hard on his heart to see the young man he met and nurtured, so full of life, bound to bed at the end of it.

To be the last has been a burden on him, one that Coran must soon carry.

Keith’s eyes lift slowly, but smiles. “Hey Coran,” he says softly. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Coran pats his arm, careful of the IV keeping him hydrated. “I came as soon as I could, my boy. How are you feeling?”

Keith cracks a wry smile. “Been better,” he quips. “How’s Altea?”

“Getting along just fine without me,” Coran jokes back. He hasn’t done much governance lately, a task for the younger generation now.

Keith nods slowly, his eyes focusing on a point on the far wall. “I’m tired, Coran. I thought I’d go out fighting.” He chuckles, smile fond. “I still hear Shiro’s voice telling me to be patient.”

“I think of them too,” Coran tells him. He files them in the same category as Alfor and the original Paladins now, to be remembered for the vitality and joy brought to his life and the lives of all who knew them. “Allura could have used that advice back in the day, she was quite vivacious as a child. I can’t count the times I had to lure her to the duflax pond or juniberry fields while Alfor worked - she wanted so much to help him.”

Keith laughs, an easy one that was so hard to come by when they first met. “She did that and more,” he says sincerely.

Quiznak, he can’t cry yet. “She did,” he agrees as his eyes scrunch shut, holding back the tears.

A hand rests lightly on his. The simple action leaves Keith near breathless, his chest rising and falling heavily. “I want you to do it,” he rasps.

Coran can’t stop the light gasp that escapes his lips. He knows exactly what Keith speaks of, but, “It’s a fantastic dream, Keith. We barely had a chance with all of us, I can’t finish on my own.”

“Lance finished it,” Keith says quickly.

Coran’s eyes threaten to bulge out of their sockets. Lance had been no idiot, but to finish what they’d been working on…

“He learned a lot more from Hunk and Pidge than he let on,” Keith continues. “He applied some old movie logic and it worked, Coran. We used it on a toy. It was the last thing he did before he...”

Died.

Coran remembers the funeral well; family and friends around the open casket while the universe outside mourned. His gifted Altean markings glow too brightly for the naked eye and when they look back, his body is gone.

There’s no wondering where he’s gone. His name is carved at the base of the statue of Allura on Altea, underneath Pidge’s and Hunk’s and Shiro’s - where Keith’s will join them one day.

Coran’s heat thumps with hope. What was once throwaway gibberish from Slav turned into Pidge’s offhanded theorizing and Hunk’s idle tinkering. A chance grew - not just to correct mistakes but to give her a chance, a chance to enjoy the fruits of her labor.

“Time travel is a dangerous beast, Keith. Can is one thing… but should we do it?”

Keith exhales and relaxes into his pillow. He closes his eyes for a long moment. When they open, Coran can tell he’s decided.

“If there’s a chance, we should take it. Please, Coran. Do it for her. Let her live a full life with us. Make sure everyone gets a happy ending.”

Keith coughs, his body lurching forward, the machine monitoring his heart rate going wild at the sudden movement. Coran steadies him, holds him close until he’s finished.

“Do you have everything in order?” Coran asks as he helps Keith back to his resting position.

Keith catches his breath before responding. “Yorak has the blade, you have the key to the lab. I don’t have anything else to take care of.”

Coran nods and takes the man’s hand, squeezing it tight as the intervals between beeps on the monitor become longer.

Keith squeezes back, tears in his eyes. “Thank you for being here. I miss… I miss the team… I miss Mom… and I miss Dad…”

“You’ll be with them soon,” Coran chokes. His own tears filter his vision. Another dozen deca-feebs or so and Coran can start to contemplate when he’ll join them. “I know they’d be so pleased with everything you’ve done in their stead.”

Keith closes his eyes and smiles. “Dad…”

The monitor flatlines, a term Coran has come to despise. He cries, arms trembling as he holds Keith’s hand tight. “Rest easy, Keith.”

Samantha and others come in, but Coran does not move a muscle as they remove the equipment and pay their own respects.

It’s truly the end of an era

~~~~~~

Keith didn’t want pomp and circumstance. Surviving relatives of the Paladins visit while television stations run biopics on all the former Paladins day and night, back to back.

When they close the casket for the last time, Coran doesn’t miss a bright white glow from between the cracks. Coran relaxes. Keith is in good hands now.

After the funeral, Coran finds the strength to enter the lab. It’s mostly unused since Pidge passed on, but one corner clearly has seen more traffic than others.

Coran takes the cut of Balmeran crystal from his pocket, a gift from Shiro.

She’d want you to have it. Don’t mourn me forever, I’ve made the most of my borrowed time.

A platform unfurls, the design lovingly based off of the IGF-Atlas. He places the crystal on the place made specifically for it.

The machine hums to life and Coran takes a moment to glide his hand along the surface of the pod. It looks so much like Castle’s ships and it triggers his nostalgia for Pop-Pop and the days where he traveled with Alfor across the galaxy, and then the universe with Allura.

There’s only room for one, and the trip is one-way.

The young ones of the generation remember Voltron only in the stories of their grandparents, or parents for longer lived species. Alteans do not live as long as they used to.

The universe no longer has a place for him.

It’s time to do something good.

Coran enters the date they’d calculated so long ago, the point where he can enter their lives early without shorting out the machine. He settles himself into the chair and closes the chamber.

It will be too late for Altea and much of the universe.

But enough time to make things right for the Paladins - for Allura.

~~~~~~

The machine does as it’s supposed to. The lab fades away and leaves Coran with a view of the desert outside of Plaht City, the sun setting on what has been a very somber day.

Sparks fly within the machine and Coran jumps out moments before it explodes, engine fried from the trip - as theorized.

Coran gets up and dusts himself off. He can’t introduce himself without looking his very best after all!

Carefully he removes the now blackened Balmeran crystal from its place. It falls to dust in his hands.

Despite knowing this exact thing was going to happen, Coran falls to his knees on the desert sand and mourns. Its an object, he knows, even though it was a gift of the Balmera, but it's his last link to the past.

So eventually, when he’s given himself time, he takes a small vial from his coat pocket and reverently deposits the black dust into it. If Coran wishes to see it in its pristine form, he must see it on Allura’s circlet.

A timeline where she lives. He has his mission. For the universe, for the team, for Alfor.

Somewhere out there the Blue Lion waits patiently for Lance, a meeting that will not take place for another several years. Coran’s destination is the two story house that looms in the near distance.

A woman answers the door - and his breath is taken away. The long lonely week feels far away as he takes in the most beautiful curly red hair he’s ever seen - even his own! He gapes, barely taking in her frazzled and tired eyes. She looks at him as if he’s Voltron itself.

“Oh thank heavens you’re here,” she breathes. Her lips too are a pleasant shade of red akin to the second sunset of Altean equinox-- “Mr… ?”

“Smythe,” Coran says blankly before shaking his head, breaking himself out of a stupor to shake her hand. “Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe at your service.” He chuckles nervously, flicking his round ear. Humans were so strange. “What seems to be the hullabaloo?”

“The boy won’t talk. He keeps himself locked up in his room. He has a knife! Who gives a knife to an eight-year-old?” The woman breathes heavily, near panic. “I was just about to call the police.”

Coran takes her hand in his, gently as if they were delicate juniberry petals. “Fret no more, my lady. I’ll take care of everything,” he says with a wink.

And he means it. At the risk of changing too much of the future, Coran has decided on one variable.

The woman blushes and Coran’s pride swells. He’s still got it. And Lance called himself the smooth one.

(Number Three never did get to Coran’s level of ‘game’, though he tried his best to mentor the Paladin.)

She leaves in relief after making him sign some paperwork. He has half a mind to ask her to stay… but he has a job to do. Coran climbs the stairs and leans up against the only closed door. There’s sobbing on the other side.

“It’s a bit late for a growing boy to be up, hm?” He airs.

“Go away! Leave me alone!”

Coran smiles at hearing the young, but familiar voice again. Inside his heart breaks at how angry, upset, and alone he sounds.

“I don’t have the slipperies at the moment, so I’m afraid I’m staying put, my boy. Are you hungry?”

Tiny feet scamper further from the door. “No!” Keith says, inflection full of anger and tears.

It’s been a very long time since Coran has dealt with a stubborn Keith and even longer since he’s cared for children. Allura always reacted well to a distraction though, once Coran found a suitable topic for rambling. He’ll just have to do the same for Keith.

“I hear you have a very special knife,” he begins. “I’d very much like to see it if you’d let me.”

An almost feral growl permeates through the drywall. Humans wouldn’t recognize it as anything more than primal, but it is most definitely a Galra cry for assistance. He’s heard Zarkon’s more times than he can count - mostly due to Alfor’s reckless tendencies. Coran can barely make out the dialect, but it’s definitely the cry the Blade of Marmora has settled into over the years.

Though he doesn’t know it, Keith remembers Krolia’s voice.

“So you can try and take it away from me too?” Keith spits.

“Not at all,” Coran assures him. “I’m a bit of a connoisseur of weaponry, actually. I could show you a thing or two about your knife. Anyone so protective over their blade is deserving of some tricks of the trade, wouldn’t you say?”

Keith doesn’t speak right away - he doesn’t need to. He steps lightly to the door, and opens it ever so slightly. His violet-tinted eyes watch Coran with caution.

“Are you telling the truth?” the boy asks with, for the first time, hope.

Coran doesn’t plan to disappoint. He kneels and meets his gaze.

“I was knife-throwing champion of the Castle for twelve deca-feebs straight!” he declares proudly. “You’d be hard pressed to find anyone on this planet who knows more than I.

Keith’s brows furrow in confusion and Coran can practically see the wheels turning in his mind, none of them hostile. Perhaps he’s given the boy a little more to unpack than necessary.

“What’s a... deca-feeb?” Keith finally asks.

“A measurement of time for students of the Blade!” Coran winks, leaning in as if making a fine deal in the Unilu black market. “I’ll be able to teach you all that and more. Mind if I come in?”

Keith stares for a long moment before unhooking a chain and opening the door wide enough for Coran to enter. It’s his bedroom. Pictures of Earth-ships hang on the walls and toys lay scattered across the floor. Keith scrambles onto his bed, holding Krolia’s blade close - the business end blessedly wrapped up. A picture of him and his father lies on the disheveled sheets next to him.

Coran’s heart breaks, and is reminded of his mission.

“Thank you, my boy. Mind if I have a seat?”

Keith shakes his head, but doesn’t move.

Coran sits at the edge of the bed, a respectable distance away. “May I see it?”

Keith holds it out to show him, slowly, with an edge about him that still doesn’t quite trust. Coran makes no move to take the blade, and gives it a look over. It’s remarkably well preserved. Krolia must have given Keith’s father the correct care instructions for luxite.

He hums for a good while, though he already knows what to say. “It’s a fine piece of work, perhaps the best craftsmanship I’ve ever seen!” he declares. “It must have belonged to someone very special.”

Keith hardly seems to know what to do with the blade still in his hands. He examines it thoughtfully with the new information. “My Mom. Dad said that I have to take care of it until I can give it back to her.”

“Your mother was an excellent swordswoman then. It’s a rare gift, she must have loved you very much to entrust you with her prized blade.”

Keith holds it close to his chest and looks Coran in the eye. “Is she coming back? I want to go where she is.”

Coran dares to rest a comforting hand on Keith’s back. “Your mother is in a very dangerous place right now, Keith. She wants very much to see you, but you’d be in great danger if she did.”

His eyes widen, but to Coran’s relief he does not flinch away. He’s gaining trust.

“She’s in trouble?”

“Not right this tick, no,” Coran assures him. “But there are very bad people who would hurt her if they knew where you were.”

“Oh,” Keith says, lowering his head, crestfallen. He sniffs. “I want my dad…”

“I’m sorry about your father,” he begins somberly. “He was a good man. He’ll be remembered fondly.”

The boy’s body shakes, eyes clenched shut. “I don’t want to remember him, I want him here.”

Coran tries not to feel guilt. If only he’d had the power to add just one day to his trip Keith could have grown up with his father. Happy, healthy, and prepared.

Coran can prepare him, keep him healthy, and do his very best to make him happy. Most importantly, he can assure Keith that his mother is out there, and that she loves him.

“I know, Keith,” he says softly. “Everything is going to be fine. I promise.”

Maybe it’s because he says it with conviction, like Keith himself in his best of times leading Voltron or the Blade of Marmora, or just the blind trust of a child with whom he’s started a connection with - a re-connection, but the young boy beside him curls into his side and cries.

Coran wraps his arms around him protectively, stroking his back in comfort, and lets Keith mourn.

This time will be better. For Keith and for Allura.

~~~~~

“Who needs pee-butter and jeyl-lo when you can have…” Coran whisks out a napkin, tying it around Keith’s neck. “A classic Paladin lunch!”

Coran sets the loaded plate on the table with flourish, directly in front of a wary Keith. After finally admitting to being hungry, Keith allowed Coran to lead him to the kitchen and cook for him.

After decades of exposure to Hunk’s cooking, Coran is familiar enough with Earth cuisine - but none of it is as decadent as Altean. Keith’s cupboards turn out to be painfully bare of anything he’s used to, but after a taste test or five Coran is able to scrounge together most of the ingredients for the classic Paladin lunch.

Keith's nose scrunches in distaste. "Is it... safe?" he asks.

Coran huffs. It's a good thing he's introducing Keith to his cooking early. "Of course it's safe," he insists. He's using all human food, how could it not be safe? "If it was good enough for King Alfor, it's good enough for young Paladins."

The boy gives him a funny look, confusion etched into his features. He wants to ask who King Alfor is - wants to ask what a Paladin is - it's an expression Coran is all too used to seeing from older Keith during meetings and explanations of long extinct civilizations and their politics. But he doesn't, instead choosing to interest himself in the Paladin lunch.

His small stomach rumbles and Keith gulps in apprehension as he collects as spoonful and inserts it into his mouth.

Green Paladin Keith is not, and Coran is fairly certain humans can't turn green either - not like he can.

Keith swallows thickly, and with tears in his eyes practically inhales his glass of water.

Coran waits with bated breath. "Well, what do you think?"

"It tastes like dirty socks," Keith says, sticking out his tongue.

Relief fills him, and he sighs, resting a hand over his heart. "Good. That's an improvement over the sewage canals of Thravia-4." Or, that's how Lance had described it once. He gives Keith a reassuring smile and a pat on the back. "It gets a bit better once you get to the middle bits!"

"...I don't think I'm hungry anymore," Keith says simply, pushing the platter towards the middle of the table.

Coran sighs. He had years still to get Keith on his side. "It's been a long day, my boy. I think you could use a bath and a good sleep."

This lowers his spirits, eyes downcast. "...I miss Dad," Keith says suddenly, a hiccup in his voice. "He gave me a bath and I had sand in my hair and - and - "

Keith tries to hold back his tears. Coran swiftly drags a chair with one hand over and sits on it next to Keith. He gently places a hand on his back.

"Tears are nothing to be afraid of, Keith," he says. "It is how we show love and grief. You will never stop loving your father, missing him is nothing to be ashamed of."

His stomach takes the brunt of the hit from Keith's tiny head, the boy's arms just able to reach around his waist in a hug. Coran wraps his arms around him, anchoring the boy's trembling, sobbing figure.

"It will always hurt," Coran continues, "losing loved ones."

Melenor. Alfor. Gyrgan. Trigel. Blaytz.

"No matter how long or short your time is with them."

Allura.

"But we are the keepers of their memories, the lives we shared with them are stories we can pass on to others."

Hunk. Pidge. Shiro. Lance.

"So they will always be with us."

Keith.

"Miss him and mourn his loss. I'll be here as long as you need me."

"I don’t want to, I want him here," Keith chokes out.

Coran holds him closer. The Keith he knew never received this kind of attention. Coran is determined to make sure he does now.

“You can want all you’d like, Keith, but we still must live our lives. Stay here as long as you like," he reassures. "Then that bath and bed, hm? I think that’s what your father would want."

Keith sniffs, his voice muffled in Coran's shirt, but no less hopeful. "...Then t-tomorrow you'll teach me how to use my knife, right?"

Coran can do one better than that. He can give Keith a history lesson he normally wouldn't learn for another fifteen deca-feebs and he can do it tonight. A lesson about the Blades and of the Galra and of what to expect - things that his mother really should have taught him, but knowledge that will be crucial for his early years in space

"That and more, Keith." He hopes Krolia won't be too angry with him when they meet again.

~~~~~

"You're a brave, kind man Mr. Smythe," the judge says. "We're glad to have you at the agency."

Coran tips his new hat to her and pats Keith's mop of hair. The boy clings to his pants as if he expects to be separated at any tick. He is doubly thankful for the foresight to bring his papers back to the past; without the knowledge of other beings, humans will see exactly what they need to see on his files. In this case, the fact that he's already working with the foster care unit.

And that's enough now that he can adopt Keith. He'll be able to relax for the next ten Earth-years.

"I'm just doing what I can. Need to settle down after that last assignment, and Keith here seems in need of a helping hand."

She shakes his hand. "The paperwork should be nearly done..."

The courtroom doors burst open and - Coran’s jaw drops, his heart pounds in his ears. Gorgeous red hair, nearly orange in the halogen lights. Coran holds a hand over his chest as if it will slow his racing heart - he can’t believe she’s here again, the same woman he met at Keith's house the day he arrived in the past. She holds a bundle of papers in her hands. "Sorry I'm late - it took forever to find Keith's birth records. They were at the Galaxy Garrison hospital."

Keith clutches him tighter.

Coran laughs it off. Of course Krolia wouldn't have gone to the Plaht City hospital.

"I'm not terribly surprised, eh Keith," he nudges the boy. "After all the house is much closer by hover bike to the Garrison than the city. A stroke of genius of you to look there in the first place," he tells her with a wink.

Her cheeks flush at the praise and hands the papers over to the judge before tucking a curl of brilliant red hair behind her ear. "Of course, I'm glad to help Mr. Smythe. You've been a great help with Keith."

"Call me Coran," he winks. "We're hardly strangers."

"Synthia!" she proclaims as she shakes his hand. "A pleasure to actually meet you properly, Coran. If you need anything at work, here's my personal number." She smiles brightly at him, a love struck look in her eyes that pulls on his heartstrings.

He takes the card and twirls his mustache. "Perhaps I'll give you a ring and we can discuss work over a cup of tea? What do you think, Keith?"

Keith sticks his tongue out. "I don't like tea."

Coran pats him on the back. Keith never did acquire the taste. "That's quite all right, you won't have to join us if you don't want to." He turns back to Synthia. "Perhaps during the school day sometime?"

"I would be delighted," she beams.

A smug feeling wells up in his chest. He's absolutely still got it.

Perhaps he'll enjoy himself in the past more than he thought.

~~~~~

“Make sure you pack a jacket!” Synthia says as she shoves one into his chest. “The desert gets cold at night - surely you learned what while you were stationed in Australia?”

Coran sniffs the jacket with a raised eyebrow. A recent purchase from a local ‘thrifty shop’, it smells of smoke - and not that of a campfire. He attempts to hand it back, but her emerald eyes sparkle with concern.

With a heavy sigh he puts it on, if only to ease her fears. It takes only a tick to shift his internal organs into a Yorlanian - a people who adapted long ago to naturally deal with temperature gradients far more severe than that of Earth.

How is she to know that? He’s Coran the human here, and he won’t be Coran the Altean for another fifteen years.

A deep breath soothes the ache in his chest at that thought. Fifteen years is nothing compared to ten thousand asleep in a cryopod.

“As you wish, my lady,” he bows, earning a delighted blush from his target - enough to hopefully take her mind off his long pause. “Although, it could certainly use a wash…”

“There’s a washing basin at the park you can use.”

Coran whips around, and there’s Keith at the bottom of the stairs, having descended so silently he hadn’t even heard. He’s dressed for the trip, hiking boots and a red jacket over a worn t-shirt. A backpack sits firmly on his shoulders, his knuckles white as he holds the straps.

He's better; not that he ever will be completely fine, nor should he. Krolia often said she saw much of his father in Keith - brave, selfless, kind, helpful, so Coran knows he hurts.

Hopefully this trip will be healing for him.

"Ah, well fortune is with us then!" Coran says cheerfully. He turns to Synthia. "Perhaps you and I could take a trip into the wilderness sometime."

Synthia clasps her fingers over her mouth, a delighted giggle escapes her. "That would be wonderful. I haven't spent a night under the stars since I was a scout camping with my troop." She sighs longingly. "I miss the fresh air."

Keith raises an eyebrow. "You were in the scouts?"

She huffs, hands on her hips. "Of course I was! Granted it was when dinosaurs roamed the Earth," she says with a wink and a laugh.

This gets a crack of a smile from Keith. "You're not that old."

"Old enough to remember Plaht City before the Galaxy Garrison!" She pinches his cheek, and while Keith tries to pull away, he's grinning the whole time. "You boys have your bonding. Come back with some woodwork - Coran says he's been teaching you how to use that knife of yours properly?"

Amazing how a simple blanket phrase 'teaching Keith to use the blade' could mean both woodworking and how to dismantle a Galra sentry in the same breath. Coran chuckles nervously, faking a wide smile. At least it meant Synthia and Keith got along.

"Come on, Coran," Keith says, grabbing his hand. "The park closes at dusk and we have to get the tent set up before then!"

Coran allows himself to be dragged along by a pint sized Number Four (or was he Number Five right now? He needs to see how the other Paladins are faring without interfering)

"I await our next meeting with bated breath!" he calls out as he hobbles out the door.

Synthia waves. "The house will be in good hands while you're gone! Bring back some good pictures of animals or--" her eyes dart around, looking around for anyone else who might be listening "-- aliens. You know what they say about the desert at night."

Coran doesn't have the heart nor the time to tell her.

~~~~~

Coran has the jacket packed away, far from their campsite.

It's just him and a small Keith, no one else for miles. Their fire dwindles, creating a faint glow against their two person tent. The two of them lay on the gravelly ground, comforted only by their sleeping bags, and stare at the stars.

The constellations are different here, but it's nice to see consistent shapes in the stars rather than constantly changing ones as they're on the run from Zarkon.

Another time.

"That one is Andromeda," Keith says, his arm and finger pointed up at the sky. "But I always look for Orion when Dad and I came out here."

...Shiro told him this one, but he can't remember for the life of him. "Ah," he starts, a bead of sweat running down his temple in embarrassment. "And why would that be?" he asks, saving the embarrassment of not knowing Earth constellations.

"He's got a sword. It's cool." His face droops, eyes on his feet. "And, I think about Mom." Dark eyes meet his, and when Keith speaks of his mother and the stars they glow with a beautiful purple - the only clue anyone will ever have that Keith is not entirely of Earth.

"Do you think that's where she is?" he asks earnestly. "On Orion?"

Coran hums as he thinks about where Ranveig's base is located in respect to Earth. "Actually, I think she might be closer to that Big Dipper." That one he remembers. Earth would name their stars after a ladle.

Keith grins. "Then I'll be able to find her one day if I follow the North Star?"

"I'm positive you'll find her one day, Keith. I know she wants nothing more than to be with you again."

The change in mood is complete. Keith's eyes shine with hope and belonging; he holds his blade close, the hilt wrapped in cloth to hide the Blade of Marmora symbol. "I can't wait."

But he'll have to wait many years before that happens and go through many dangers. In the meantime, Coran’s job is to prepare him for them. "Tomorrow we'll start getting you ready. Synthia is right, you'll have to learn to use that properly."

Keith rolls onto his side, facing Coran. "Are you always going to make kissy faces with her?"

Coran gapes. "Kis-kissy faces?" he repeats indignantly. "We have a far more sophisticated relationship than that!"

A tiny nose scrunches in disbelief. "You act like it. She's not mom though, and you're not dad; you promised."

"Indeed! Coran will suffice, or Coran the Gorgeous Man if you're so inclined. I'm sure Synthia would be quite happy if you just called her by her name."

For as long as she was in his life anyway. Did he have time for a relationship when his entire reason for being here was to give Keith a better childhood? He wraps his hands around the vial filled with the remains of Allura’s balmeran crystal - he’s attached it to a string, a necklace to make sure its with him at all times.

Allura - and Alfor for that matter - would have told him to enjoy himself.

Keith smiles and closes his eyes. "Thanks for taking me here, Coran. It feels like Dad is still here."

Perhaps he's already done most of the work. Now comes the fun part.

"Get a good night's sleep, Keith," he says, relaxing his hands behind his head. "Tomorrow I'll teach you everything about blades, the Paladin code, and how to extract scaltrite from a weblum."

"... a... a weblam?"

"We'll work on it."

~~~~~

"Coran, check this out!"

Keith rams through the door like a rampaging klanmuirel, holding his Marmora blade up high for all to see. He doesn't bother putting his backpack down, or even taking off his shoes - that'll be even more to clean later! Oh how Coran misses the Castle's automated cleaning systems. Two Earth-years has been nearly undoable. How is he to survive another eight?

Before Coran can say anything, Keith flips the knife up in the air and, in one heart-stopping moment, is about to catch it with the unwrapped blade in his hands.

"Keith!" Coran leaps forward, digging deep in his old age to catch the blade before Keith cuts up his hand. He takes advantage of his Altean gifts and stretches his arms to grab it by the hilt, flipping onto his back as he lands on the floor the opposite side of Keith.

The boy himself has a loose jaw. "Woah," Keith says. "How did you do that?" He seems to blink away his wonder, driving into anger. "Why did you do that? I totally have that trick down!"

Coran stands and hands Keith back his blade hilt first. "You'd have ended up with a nasty cut otherwise," he scolds. Yet at the same time, he feels some pride in Keith showing him his progress. "You’re under rotating."

Keith frowns. "Oh." He fidgets. "Thanks, Coran. You're the only adult who understands."

"Oh, I can't be the only one," Coran says - though he knows Keith tells the truth in more ways than one. "What about Ms. Norris? She's a brilliant lady."

“She’s my teacher,” Keith replies glumly, averting his eyes in distaste. “Last time she found out I had a knife she called the police, remember?”

Coran winces. “Er, yes, that is true. Perhaps you should stop taking it to school. It’s very safe to leave here at home.”

“I can’t!” Keith protests. “What if Mom comes back and she needs this? Or the bad guys find this place and I need to keep it hidden? I can’t risk it!”

The determination is admirable, and on any other reasonable planet that’s made contact there would be no problem with allowing Keith to keep a family heirloom - no matter how sharp - on his person even as a child. But this is Earth, who still believe the creatures who live on Mars are green or grey with large black eyes.

(They’re actually closer kin with Pidge’s trash nebula friends.

“Keith, listen,” Coran says as he kneels and places a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I swear by Grogory’s beard your blade will be safe with me while you’re at school.”

Keith’s lips curl in, showing his upset face. “But Mom--”

“Wants you to be safe. You aren’t if you get in trouble with school. Promise you’ll keep it at home until the time is right?” Because Keith will need it one day.

Gaze dropping to the ground, Keith sighs. “Okay,” he relents.

Coran isn’t quite ready to believe him. “Promise with your pinky,” he insists.

Keith rolls his eyes. With pride, Coran watches as he creates the Altean royal symbol in the air with his smallest finger; the most serious of oaths.

“Thank you, Keith. That was very big of you. I’m sure you’ll have far less problems now at school.”

~~~~~

The silence in the car is deafening.

Treading down the dirt road, the hum of the (woefully inefficient) engine and tires kicking up gravel seems all the sound in the universe. It’s remarkably similar to the coming of age parties back on Novenia --

Keith huffs loudly from the passenger seat, looking sourly out the window and arms crossed for extra measure. Though his posture is closed off, the huff is Keith speak for ‘I want to talk’.

They have much to speak of.

Coran stretches his fingers and taps them over the steering wheel, looking for the right words. He tentatively gives Keith a side eye and winces even as he speaks with a nervous laughter, “I know you’re wanting to enroll at the Galaxy Garrison soon, but I thought you were interested in space ships, not cars.”

“He stole a Galaxy Garrison vehicle from an officer!”

This is a teaching moment, another chance to cement in Keith that there are people on his side and that love him - but they must talk about it. There’s a silver lining to this incident, one that aches his heart.

“It’s no trouble, Mr. Smythe. I think all Keith needs is a second chance. I’ll chat with him. Bring him by the Garrison tomorrow and ask for ‘Shiro’.”

He hadn’t been able to keep himself from crying as he spoke with Shiro (on the phone, not a video call) - seeing the young man (ever so briefly when picking up Keith, and making sure he wasn’t seen) before Galra captivity changed him. He’s the same, still kind and brave.

Coran can’t find the will to caution him about Kerberos. He’s not supposed to know, and what’s more Coran knows what the mission means to him personally - a dream, a way to prove everyone wrong about his capability.

But it only makes inaction hurt more.

If history is doomed to repeat itself, Coran only hopes it changes in the way that matters in the end. For Allura. For Keith to have comfort through the worst years of his life.

“...Ms. Burnt said I was a liar. She said I wouldn’t do well at the Garrison,” Keith admits softly. His clenched fists tell of the anger hidden just under his skin.

Coran knows why Keith’s teachers say as much. It sends a wave of guilt up his chest; perhaps he’s not been a father figure to the best of his ability; too many stories of space and what he’ll see out there. Keith still found the same schoolyard fights as in the original timeline.

“I have a hard time believing that,” Coran says with a bright chuckle. “You’re a very intelligent young man.”

Keith scowls. “It’s not my grades. The other kids… they don’t believe Mom is fighting bad guys, and that’s why she can’t come home and... ”

Ah here it comes. The other kids pick on him for not having his parents around, his mother having left. Though he’s told Keith a liquefied version of why Krolia can’t be here, it hasn’t made Keith miss her less, or given the other children or even adults reason to believe him.

His eyes flicker in Coran’s direction for hardly a tick, laced with sympathy. “They don’t understand you.”

Coran’s eyes widen and turns to Keith in disbelief. “What the quiznak?”

A car horn honks and Coran barely swerves the car out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. They roll off the side and into the desert, stopping just shy of a very worried looking cactus.

Keith’s classmates are making fun of him?

“Um,” Keith begins warily, his hands clenched around his seat belt, “sorry?”

Well, at least he doesn’t look like a - what was that expression that looked like the bi-boh-bi? Ah yes; a ‘wet noodle’.

But still, why him? He can’t stop Keith from regaling his classmates about his mother’s adventures fighting Zarkon - from what he remembers of them anyway. Keith has been in trouble with that before.

“Well, no offense Coran, but you’re a little… weird,” Keith confesses.

His heart stops; the world turns to dust around him. Coran feels as if he’s transported out of the car to a world of pitch black, a single spotlight on his heartbroken form.

“I’m… I’m not cool?” he manages to gasp. He’s only ever done everything awesome and hip - keeping up with all the trends!

Keith’s eyes light up with worry, shifting in his seat to face him. “I think you’re the best!” he says. “The kids don’t know what they’re talking about! Weblums are real - and so are aliens - they can’t prove otherwise! Mom’s trying to keep them away from here, right? So of course we don’t know about them!”

This isn’t the first time Coran just wants to tell Keith everything - that he’s from the future and in less than four years he’ll meet a different version of himself and he’s half alien and there’s a war out there and he’s going to be a Paladin of Voltron and please do everything in your power to save Allura.

But he’s changed enough by telling Keith stories of weblums and Altean fairytales, by just knowing his face. He’ll have to apologize to his younger self if it comes to that - there are sure to be fireworks when they meet and Sendak will still be on their tail.

Still, Keith’s enthusiasm warms his heart. For now, keep things on track. Shiro will help him get through the Galaxy Garrison just like before. This time though, Coran hopes he’ll make a few friends.

A few specific friends, that is.

~~~~~~~~

“There,” Coran says. He kneels before Keith, putting a finishing polish on Keith’s Galaxy Garrison lapel. “You look smart and dashing.”

The uniform looks good on him, even though he’s not yet grown into it. Coran imagines it in red, like he’s used to seeing on Keith.

It feels like the beginning of the end.

Keith shifts uncomfortably. “Coran, I’m not sure if I want to go back.”

“What? Quiznak, Keith, whatever for? This is all you’ve been talking about since you were yeh-high!” Coran exclaims, holding his hand above the floor barely to Keith’s knees.

At least he gets a laugh out of Keith. “I was not that little,” he protests lightly.

“Well you sure seemed that way to me,” Coran huffs before knitting his eyebrows together in concern. “Why the change of heart?”

Keith sighs, looking away and down. “The other kids are just like in school… some of them are even from my class. James has them all turned on me.”

Coran’s shoulder slump. That had only been orientation!

“I know it’s difficult, Keith, but I’m sure there are some kids who would be glad to be your friend. What about Shiro’s friend, Matt?” he waggles his eyebrows. “Doesn’t he have a younger sister?”

Keith’s eyes go wide. “Katie?” His face scrunches in disgust. “No - I - I don’t want to date anyone!”

Coran knows he shouldn’t laugh, but he does. “I never said anything of the sort. She’s closer to your age though. Perhaps she’d like to be your friend.”

Keith clearly isn’t convinced. Coran grins. It’s only a matter of time.

~~~~

“I made top pilot in my class again,” Keith says with a broad grin.

Coran stirs his tea and sits down at the table, where the video phone shows Keith’s proud face. He looks so young and innocent- but he wears the Garrison colors and every year he looks more and more like the Keith Coran remembers waking up to.

“Well done! I told you that you’d do it again! One more year and you’ll have all five eh?”

“That’s right,” Keith says, though he looks away sheepishly. “The only one who’s ever done that is… Shiro.”

Coran’s gut twists unpleasantly hearing the name of the man who will be leaving on the ill-fated Kerberos mission in less than a week.

Then Coran has one year. One year to say the right things.

“Then you’re in good company. We’ll celebrate with ice cream when you come home for break yes?”

Keith shifts uncomfortably. “Actually, Shiro’s invited me to stay for the launch, if that’s okay… I won’t see him again for a long time.”

Oh he has no idea.

“Ugh,” Coran moans, clutching his heart in fake agony. “Such is the cruelty of teenieboppers.”

Keith looks nervously to each side. “Teenagers,” he corrects. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Spend time with your friends, Keith. I’ve had ten glorious years watching you grow up.”

Keith smiles tenderly, “our families are all invited for dinner. You’re welcome to come. The Holts are coming too.”

“Oh I’m quite fine here,” Coran assures him. Although he misses Sam and their friendship, he isn’t sure he can look at the man in the eye any more than Shiro. “Have some fun. I’ll be right here when you need me.”

~~~

That time is four months later when without a phone call of warning, Keith comes crashing through the front door and falls to his knees with tears in his eyes.

Coran hugs him tighter than a yelmore grip and cries too without so much as a word exchanged between them.

~~~~~~

“I’m not going back,” Keith says when he comes down for breakfast the next morning. Coran barely stops himself from gasping, for Keith wears the same clothing that he brings to space one year from now.

“What will you do?” he asks with no judgement.

He already knows.

“I’ve always had this weird feeling when I’m out here,” he begins. “I never noticed it until I started school at the Garrison and it wasn’t as strong as when I come home for break.” He lifts his eyes, they shine with an alien purple glint, determined. “I think it wants me to find it.”

Coran nods. “I’ll help you.”

~~~~

It doesn’t take long for the house to fill with papers and corkboard. Keith writes math equations in his journal and Coran corrects them by asking pointed questions. The calculus is beyond what Earth teaches at universities, but it’s elementary for an Altean.

He finds the cave of the Blue Lion. Coran aches but comes with Keith anyway. He’s purposefully not come out here; it’s too painful a reminder of what is to come - of what he hopes will turn into a happy ending. He thinks the Blue Lions knows, too, Coran’s true purpose. The Lions were always smarter than they seem, even when Alfor was molding them.

He can’t help himself; while Keith takes pictures and mutters about what all this might mean in relation to him, Coran lays a shaking hand over an image of the creation of all five Lions. A single figure glows blue, a man set away from the five original Paladins and Allura.

The Blue Lion seems to know exactly who he is.

It’s strange even now to realize he was there in this event depicted by carvings over ten thousand years old.

The thought is just as sobering now as it was when he first woke from the cryopod.

“What do you think all this is, Coran?” Keith wonders from another wall. “What’s calling me is definitely here but… I don’t understand what it is.”

Coran pulls a thumb over the young woman in the creation picture. He closes his eyes. “You will one day,” he promises.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Coran,” Keith says softly, with relief.

~~~~~

“I think I’m stuck.”

Keith sits on the edge of the couch, hunched over and elbows on his knees as he reads the papers on the table. He has taken over the living room with his sketches and calculations. “Something is coming on December 14 and I have no idea what it is.” He sighs deeply. “I’m not even sure if my math is right.”

Coran sets down his book; Synthia will want to know what he thinks of it as soon as possible, but his priority is to help Keith. He is perfectly capable of telling Keith that his math is flawless - as Coran has taught him - but there is a better way.

“Why don’t you ask Katie?” Number Three will surely take up the task seeing as how she’s already decided to go undercover at the Galaxy Garrison in the next school year (only weeks away now).

Keith looks up, conflict in his eyes. “I couldn’t. She lost her father and her brother on the mission. Shiro was just a friend, it’s not the same.”

Coran looks at him sternly. Not sharing the same blood did not make them any less family, not between Shiro and Keith and not between any of the Paladins. “And I am a cooked duflax then?” Coran teases. At Keith’s horrified shake of the head, he continues, “Katie is hurting. You are hurting. You two should be supporting each other, not isolating yourselves. Family is family; blood or not.”

Keith smiles. “Maybe I’ll give her a call.”

~~~~~

“You hammered it, Synthia! It was the butler the entire time!”

Coran speaks excitedly into the video phone. Synthia on the other side, holding up the latest crime novel they’ve finished together.

“But you predicted the method!” she says, bending her knee and clasping her face with excitement. She’s curled her gorgeous red hair these days and it bounces around her face like a skipping xalax. Coran sighs longingly, placing his elbows on the table and setting his cheek in his palm - she looks even more radiant than the night they first met.

“I mean, to use the ink from the old printer to create the poison in the paint, knowing there would be a dare to drink it? It’s brilliant! How did you guess?”

“Oh, it was as easy as pi! If you remember--”

The now familiar sound of Keith returning with the hoverbike cuts him off, snapping his attention towards the door.

“Keith is home?” Synthia asks. She frowns, brows furrowed in concern. “I’m worried about him.”

Coran forces a smile. “Keith will be fine,” he promises. “He just needs time to find his place in the universe. Sometimes that can take some looking!”

Her ruby lips curl up the side of her face. “You’re the best thing to happen to that boy. I’m not sure what would have become of him if you hadn’t stepped in.”

“Oh, it wasn’t all me,” Coran admits. No, really his father should take the credit, and Shiro. He’s just repeating it all. “Keith is a good lad, he’ll get there with a little guidance.”

“He is. I’ll let you see to him. See you for dinner on… Sunday, right?”

Tiny weblums swim in Coran’s stomach. This will be a very important dinner - the biggest of his life here in the past. Synthia has been a marvelous companion, and with the days ticking down…

It is time he tells her the truth. She deserves to know.

“Sunday,” Coran confirms. Because he means to be gone before Keith returns home with Shiro and the other Paladins-to-be on Monday night. They will already have a more than capable Coran in space. “And not a tick past seven!”

Syntha says farewell as Keith walks in the door. He’s covered in dust - that jacket will need to be cleaned before tomorrow.

(The Castle washing machines won’t be operational for another week.)

“Did you find everything you need for your outing next week?" he asks.

Keith sets his helmet on the counter and leans into it, exhausted. "I have no idea what's coming, Coran; I'm not sure if I ever could be ready."

Coran hums and takes a sip of his tea. "One is not always ready for what is thrust upon them, but I am certain you will rise to meet whatever challenges that come at you." He winks. "You can be fiercer than a klanmuirel and wiser than a ivorkiv."

A laugh, the first real laugh he's heard in a while. Since before Shiro disappeared. "I don't know how you come up with these things, Coran. Where do you get all your stories?"

Altea won't do, not yet. Coran taps his head. "Right here in the ol' noggin."

"You need to write that book one day," Keith continues. "The one about the princess and the space castle."

Coran smiles. He'd hate to step on Lance's toes. The book will be an intergalactic success. "Perhaps," he affords Keith. "But where's all the fun in letting people look at you like you've grown five heads!"

Keith snorts, and grins. "You'd only need two. You're alien enough as it is, Coran."

~~~~~~

"At least wear a tie," Keith says.

Coran grinds his teeth. Earth clothing is so impractical! The ties on Altea are much more intuitive! "Synthia hasn't minded casual clothing for our rendezvous before and won't mind now."

Keith looks incredulously at him. "This is a big night. If you're going to propose, do it right."

"Who said anything about proposing?" Coran says as he ties the cloth around his neck in a knot.

"What?" Keith spits, surprised. "Coran, you two have been together since I was a little kid."

"And just because two adults enjoy each other's company does not mean marriage is inevitable," he says, slicking his hair back. Pivoting to his side, Coran waggles his eyebrows. Hmm yes, still got the look even with the grey. "I am however, going to ask her to go on an extended vacation with me. She just retired this past year and I want to treat her."

Keith perks up. "Oh? When are you leaving?"

And this is where it hurts. "I'm not sure yet. Very soon. You'll know," he says with a wink. Perhaps its cruel to leave him at this crucial time... but he'll also no longer be needed.

"Did you talk about tomorrow night with Katie?" he asked.

Keith folds his arms, looking away. Sworn to secrecy on her infiltration of the Galaxy Garrison no doubt. "She said she'd be there. I talked her into bringing her flight crew, just like you suggested."

"Oh good," Coran says mildly. Internally he's throwing himself a little party. "More friends for you to make?"

"Oh, I've already met Lance and Hunk," Keith says. He chews his lip. "They were both in my class. We hung out a few times."

Coran fights a large grin. "Oh did you? That's more friends than you claimed to have!"

"We didn't get along at first but... remember when you told me about how being at the top of the class can get on people's nerves? I tried to be calm about it and,” Keith smiles - genuinely happy, “I think we get along now.”

Perfect.

“...You have a good smile, Keith. You should use it more often,” Coran says. Mostly because he isn’t sure what else to say.

Keith chuckles. “You’re being weirder than usual,” he teases.

The car is packed. This is the last time he’ll see Keith before he knows everything. If he has it his way, never again. He’ll have his proper Coran and the other Paladins and Kosmo and his mother with him.

Coran won’t be needed any longer.

But as long as everyone comes home from this war alive, that’s all that matters. And seeing Keith happy has been well worth the wait. He can only hope his lessons come through.

“Tonight’s a big night!” Coran tutts back, wagging a finger. “And tomorrow doubly for you.”

The smile Keith so warmly held evaporates to a frown. He shivers, clutching his arms despite wearing a jacket in the desert heat. “I still don’t know what I’m going to find there, Coran.”

This is the last chance Coran will have to make a difference but…

He gently wraps Keith into a hug. The boy greedily holds fast to Coran’s shirt; as if he knows this is their last talk.

“You are smart and brave and kind, Keith,” Coran says. That part hasn’t changed from when he was a small child. “You will know what to do because your heart will tell you. You don’t need me to do that.

“Be good to your friends,” Coran continues as he pulls Keith closer. “Don’t let them go.”

“I’ll miss you,” Keith says through choked sobs. “You’ll call when on vacation right?”

Coran sucks in deep, and tries not to cry himself. “I will be there for you any time you need me. I swear it. Just ask. No matter what the situation, no matter how busy I may look, you can always talk to me.”

Even if it’s not him, exactly.

~~~~~~

Synthia takes the whole ‘being an alien from the future thing’ rather well - if jumping on him and nibbling on his pointed ears in a quiznakingly fantastic way is any indication.

(She eventually has the breath to say yes.)

~~~~~~

The first stop on their elongated vacation is the nearest national park - the one he and Keith frequented in his childhood. Synthia is in much better shape than he, Coran discovers miserably. Ten years of sedimentary living will do that, even to an Altean.

Coran wheezes, crawling as he lifts a hand to a perfectly nice sitting rock, pulling himself up. Never since visiting Balmera Alpha has he felt such an acute pain to his spine.

But it is nothing compared to watching the Blue Lion lift off into the atmosphere, with five humans in tow.

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Synthia asks, cozy next to him on the rock. “If you’re trying to change the future, wouldn’t it be easier with them?”

“No,” Coran says sadly. “I’d be tempted to change too much. As long as they are loyal to each other, everything will turn out fine.”

She smiles, a wicked one that sends happy chills up his spine, a blessed relief from the burden of waiting. “So then it’s just the two of us then?”

He turns to her and twirls his mustache. “How do you feel about Madagascar?”

~~~~~

Between the two of them - Synthia’s passion for biology and her early scouting days, and Coran’s knowledge of everything else - the two make an ecological home in the jungle.

The Galra don’t find them when Sendak invades. It both relieves Coran, and renews the unsettled feeling in his stomach - for now he knows things are happening in the same way, but also things are happening the same way and people are dying.

Coran sees Voltron for the first time in years, flying overhead to combat Sendak’s fleet.

He isn’t sure what to feel. Pride, for one, they’ve made it this far - they’re still a team.

He’s also anxious, asking the same questions of himself that he has been for the last five years. Did Keith find his mother? What became of Lotor? Of Shiro and his clone?

Did Keith hate him when he realized who Coran is? For not telling him the truth about everything?

Synthia takes hold of his hand and gives it a most comforting squeeze as they watch the IGF-Atlas take a pummeling from the combined firepower of five zaiforge cannons.

What Keith thinks of him hardly matters now, he tells himself.

But it still hurts.

~~~~~

Coran is on the beach two quintants after the Atlas returns home.

He lays back in his hammock, the warmth of the sun no longer bothering him after years of it at this angle. Sunglasses shade his eyes and make spotting the Altean shuttle landing nearby crystal clear to see.

He fingers the vial of Balmeran dust he still wears around his neck. He has only two questions.

Rising, his heart skips a beat seeing Keith again. The boy - no, man now - jumps out of the pod along with Kosmo, a sight that is very encouraging.

Still, even though he knows Keith is not quick to smile, the serious way he stalks up to Coran makes jumbles of his stomach.

Kosmo sniffs him first… and whines in confusion.

Coran kneels scratches the cosmic wolf under the chin, exactly where he likes it. The wolf sits and whimpers in delight.

Then he looks Keith in the eye, the otherworldly purple tint shining through just as it had when he’d talk of space as a child.

“Are you well?” he asks first. “Did you find everything you were looking for?”

And Keith melts, knees hitting the sand and arms reaching around Coran for a hug. “You could have come with us,” he says, nearly sobbing.

Coran exhales. He must have been holding his breath, for his brain and heart feel light. Returning the hug he says, “You had everyone you needed with you. The Castle just wasn’t big enough for two of me.”

His chest tightens - the moment of truth. “Allura?”

Keith squeezes him and Coran’s heart stops. All this for nothing?

No, not for nothing. Not for Keith.

But it hurts. Allura should be alive - enjoying life with the rest of them, her family.

“...waiting a bit impatiently for me to bring you back to the Garrison,” Keith finally says. “She says it isn’t fair for you to be away from us.” A sob catches in his throat. “I agree. You deserve to be with us - your younger self doesn’t mind.” Tears of joy give way to quiet laughter. “He wants to meet you just as bad.”

Coran lets the tears flow - the first time since he said goodbye to Keith in the hospital and came to the past a lifetime ago.

“Honerva and the other realities?” he says as he pulls away, he has to know. This reality is obviously fine but the others…

What did they sacrifice instead?

Keith grins, his cheeks stained with tears, wiping them away with the sleeve of his new black jacket. Maybe to reflect his role as the Black Paladin. Or maybe they never did the Lion swap in the first place. Coran doesn’t care. “Allura tried to sacrifice herself; we wouldn’t let her. The Blue Lion agreed, and so did Voltron. The Lions spit us out and we haven’t seen them again since.”

Voltron sacrificed itself.

Coran can’t help but think back to the day Keith found the Blue Lion’s cave - the glowing blue figure of himself. The Blue Lion knew him - why wouldn’t it also know his purpose.

Forged from the trans-reality comet, it knew, and granted his wish.

“Thank you, Keith,” he says. “Thank you for bringing her back.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Keith grins back, his eyes soft and kind. “Allura still has a long life to enjoy and you’re part of it - and a part of mine too, with Mom and Kosmo, the others and both Shiro and Ryou too. Whatever you did in the future… it was worth it.”

One name is unfamiliar. “Ryou?”

Keith smiles, clearly pleased with himself. “Shiro’s clone. Long story.”

Coran sniffs, inhaling enough snot he’s sure he’ll be sick later. All that’s left is to find Synthia and travel back to the Galaxy Garrison and he’ll be with his family again.

Plus one. He can’t wait to try wrangling yelmores with himself.

If his younger self can pry him away from Allura’s side.

(He has a lifetime and more to make up for.)

#voltron legendary defender #coranweek #vld coran #vld keith #kid keith #vld fanfic #rueitae #my writing #snapshot fic #i hope you all liked it #my first time trying coran pov #tw: character death

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the-lightning-strikes-again · 7 years ago

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VLD and Its Doomed Zonerva: A Copy of The Mummy (1999)?

Villainous romances and tales of ancient curses are nothing new. But as I watched the 1999 movie, The Mummy, I was struck by how excessively similar VLD’s environment and doomed Zarkon/Honerva setup was to Imhotep/Anck-Su-Namun’s. It makes me wonder if VLD creators didn’t take inspiration for Zonerva from this very movie, and here’s why:

They wanted to be together at the full expense of the universe.

What makes Zonerva unique from most doomed romances is that their love isn’t just about dying for the other or betraying colleagues—Zarkon’s love for Honerva ultimate leads him to betray the entire universe and jeopardize the ongoing existence of all things, just to be with her again. He just desperately wants his wife back.

Zarkon’s choice to widen the rift mirrors how Imhotep chooses to kill Egypt’s Pharaoh. Murdering such a king holds huge significance, because Pharoah was considered “god” to his people—the intermediary between the gods of heaven and the people of earth. Imhotep, as High Priest, is therefore willing to create an unbreachable rift between heaven and earth, just to be with Anck-Su-Namun—to betray his own station as High Priest, spiritually kill his own people, and defy all cosmic order on heaven and earth for the sake of one woman.

(Sound familiar?)

Anck-Su-Namun, like Honerva, approves of this plan. She is more than willing to risk her own life in pursuit of what she wants, just as Honerva is willing to risk everything for what she wants as well. Anck-Su-Namun fully believes that Imhotep can resurrect her through his powers—and Honerva encourages Zarkon to go into the rift to save her.

But their words are not empty pleas. Anck-Su-Namun and Honerva both genuinely knew the power at their disposal, through their loves. Ancient Egypt believed in deep religious magic in the same way VLD universe is marked by the properties of “quintessence,” or as Honerva says, ”Life itself.” Ancient Egyptians simply called this “ka” instead (not to be confused with “ba,” or a person’s soul). Anck-Su-Namun and Imhotep believe they can manipulate “ka” to preserve their souls, just as Honerva and Zarkon believe they can manipulate quintessence to defy all natural order.

It is additionally curious that not just Imhotep, but Anck-Su-Namun herself spurns the Pharaoh and is the first to stab him, later saying that she is no longer a temple for this “god.” In a metaphorical sense, Honerva likewise rejects Alfor’s cosmic wisdom regarding quintessence and defies him both in his absence and when he confronts her. In doing so, Honerva separates herself from the one who stands as Altea’s king and the alchemical representative of the Life Givers and the One Who Came Before (the intermediary between the mundane and magical).

But the cost of defying cosmic order is too great for Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun, who like Zonerva, die in their pursuit. For all of their abilities to manipulate ka/quintessence, they cannot override that cosmic order.

Their deaths, however, are only the beginning.

The very forces they sought to control in life (Ka/quintessence) are the very forces that then rule them in death/undeath. Imhotep is "bound by sacred law” to carry out the ten plagues of Egypt by virtue of the curse leveled against him. The terrible manner through which his ka/life force is taken away is precisely what gives him power to rise as the undead and wreak havoc on the world, even allowing him the opportunity to raise Anck-Su-Namun back from the dead with him.

In so many ways, this mimics how Zarkon is brought back by the properties of the rift itself, with an enhanced purpose beyond simply saving his wife. Post!rift Zarkon had his "humanity" stripped from him by quintessence, inspiring him to do terrible things even beyond what he would have done in life. He’s a corrupted, out-of-control version of himself, bound by the whispering fancies of quintessence to pursue power, domination, and immortality.

He, like Imhotep, also requires live sacrifices to exist as the undead, stealing others’ ka/quintessence to forever regenerate.

But while the curse itself gives Imhotep/Zarkon full regeneration, Anck-Su-Namun/Honerva does not have that. In the first movie, Anck-Su-Namun’s consciousness returns to a mummified body, and she requires an additional sacrifice that she cannot obtain herself, in order to be made whole. Imhotep fails to obtain this for her, and then she fails herself to kill her sacrifice, and so she never fully regenerates a whole body.

Likewise, Honerva is brought back by quintessence as the undead, but she is missing a huge part of herself. Zarkon fails to help resurrect her memory, and so she lingers once again in a strange purgatory, a victim to the whims of quintessence and cosmic order.

(As a side note, the Egyptian city of Hamunaptra shares many characteristics with Oriande. The fact that these places are hidden from view, contain deep magic of a past civilization, and stand as the seats of power/resurrection for both Honerva and Anck-Su-Namun is interesting.)

Fast forward to The Mummy Returns (2001). The similarities to s8 grow even more haunting:

This sequel reveals that Evelyn is the reincarnation of the Pharoah’s daughter. This adds more weight to Anck-Su-Namun’s desperate attempt in the first movie to kill Evie and take her life force. It mimics the way that Honerva was willing to force obedience and sacrifice more of Alfor’s people in order to achieve being alive again with her family.

And that’s something even stranger—that somehow, it’s not just Evie who’s affected by memories of a past life. A reincarnation of Anck-Su-Namun now exists, and she is recalling more and more about who she once was.

In doing so, the sequel really fleshes out more of Anck-Su-Namun’s personality and turns her into a major-character big bad, just like Honerva in s8. Anck-Su-Namun is both beautiful and underhanded, a warrior, with a ruthless lack of empathy for others. She threatens with a smile to kill Evie’s young son if he does not obey her. Her general personality and her behavior toward disobedience mimics s8 Honerva, down to even the fact that she threatens to kill child!Lotor when he refuses to accept her. Such behavior cuts straight to the heart of Honerva’s aesthetic—the undead, willing to do anything to get her original vision of happiness back, even at the expense of the happiness she could have in her new life.

Somehow, this reincarnation of Anck-Su-Namun has also managed to accrue quite the operation for digging up Imhotep’s dead body and securing their stability/earthly rulership via the powers of The Scorpion King. There are significant religious implications via Egyptian god Anubis as to the power she seeks—and precisely why so many carry out her orders. This falls in line with how Honerva uses religious tones to convince the Altean colony to martyr themselves for her.

In the Mummy 2, Acnk-Su-Namun's reincarnation spends incredible effort and energy to find the body of her lover, tearing up landscape and everything in her way to do it, just like how Honerva tears up the universal threads to get to the one where she can find Zarkon/her ideal reality.

But they always face resistance. Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun are always plagued by the remnants of the Medjai who seek to keep them from destroying the world and living forever. The Medjai have several similarities in behavior to the Blade of Marmora, just as Evie, Ardeth, and O’Connell express collective characteristics of Lotor and Allura (and Jonathon to Coran/Lance/team Voltron?) in their attempts to stop total universal destruction.

In the very end, Anck-Su-Namun obtains her full memory within her renewed body. But when her and Imhotep's plots are foiled again, she has a breakdown. All of what she had been struggling toward for thousands of years is suddenly taken from her. This woman, whose spirit has felt only unrest, her reincarnation committing great acts of violence and crime to achieve her dream of love and power—is faced with the reality that her dream is impossible. In an attempt to preserve herself, she turns her back on Imhotep, to his deep pain and shock.

This mirrors, in many ways, the negative breakdown Honerva has to realizing that her ideal alternate-reality is not the way she wants it—as well as Alternate reality!Zarkon’s pain at realizing that his wife is a monster.

Both Anck-Su-Namun and Honerva achieve exactly what they want to some extent. But it is not their ideal vision, and so they reject everything. Their love for Imhotep and Zarkon, when ultimately tested at wit’s end, shrivels, and they guarantee their own destruction.

Conclusion

Voltron: Legendary Defender’s Zonerva is actually Space Mummy. The excessive similarities suggest the show writers may have taken inspiration from The Mummy movies.

(Also, both Zarkon and Imhotep are scared of kitties.)

Thanks for coming to my TED talk!

#Voltron: Legendary Defender #Zonerva #The Mummy #Honerva #Zarkon #Imhotep #Anck-Su-Namun #Seriously though I was rewatching these movies and going omg #so many similarities #VLD IS JUST SPACE MUMMY

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ptw30 · 6 years ago

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Regardless of my opinion of him, Adam's death was one of the most horrific turn of events I've ever seen on a kid's tv show. I did not, in my wildest dreams, expect that. As if taking away what Shiro loved wasn't enough, they had to massively screw up the whole kuro plot to turn Shiro into a shell of who he was. They sidelined the man who held the team up up for almost four seasons all for what? To let Keith become the black paladin? When he wasn't there for the team half of the time?? (1/?)

So...I’m going to take your questions one at a time.

They sidelined the man who held the team up up for almost four seasons all for what? To let Keith become the black paladin? When he wasn't there for the team half of the time??

...yes.

(2/?) Now don't get me wrong, I love Keith.

Me, too! I don’t blame him for leaving the team. I also blame the team for not asking him back or even reaching out to him.

...but it was obvious that [he] and Pidge got most of the screen time and attention than the other characters, and I hate that they did Shiro, Lance, Hunk and Allura like that. My perfect ending for Adam and Shiro would have been them reuniting and saying their goodbyes, then moving on (to curtis).

It wouldn’t have been my perfect ending but damn close. Curtis just...was thrown in there. I would have loved Shallura or if Shiro was an older student and not a teacher, Sheith.

But I guess it was hard for them to give Shiro some actual closure. And what about Shiro's family? Did they ever get closure from his "death?" (3/4) does he even have living family?

According to the last interview by the EPs - Shiro had no family. Absolutely none. The EPs never even conceived a family for him. None. So...he has no family who need closure.

All that backstory they gave to Pidge and Keith could have been shared equally. That just goes to show how little they care about the other characters. Coran, who raised Allura, whom Alfor trusted to protect her, didn't get to say goodbye. Keith in the final season felt like a watered down version of Shiro. Did Hunk end up with Romelle or Shay?

No idea. It actually...is that Shay in the background...?

And...Olia is there? Really?

Does [Hunk] and Lance still talk? Lance... does he ever get a happily ever after?

Don’t know, and no. Lance doesn’t get a happy ending.

(4/4)(gosh I'm sorry this is so long, I just have a lot on my mind, hope it's alright.)

No worries! That’s why my inbox is open.

And could they have given up voltron instead of Allura? Would she have become queen of the new Altea?

Here you go. Enjoy.

The finale left me with all these questions instead of answers and I didn't feel like I closed a chapter at all. The reason why lm and jds disappeared was that because they didn't want to face the fans' backlash.

Yup.

And when a new gen get their hands on voltron they more than correct monsantos' mistakes.

Maybe. We’ll see.

#voltron #voltron critical #answered #keith #shiro #lance #xthis-rebelle

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thebiscuiteternal · 7 years ago

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So, let's summarize, shall we?

According to show canon, Coran:

Had to watch as his team of friends self-destructed and started an intergalactic war

Lost his home

Lost his family and friends

Lost his people

Had to watch as his best friend/possible crush went to his death

Spent who knows how long in the castle *alone* before joining Allura in cryo

Woke to find those responsible for all of the above had taken over a huge chunk of the universe

Had to give up the castle, the pride and joy of his family and one of the last relics of Altea

Never got any of his fondest dreams (ie. following in Alfor's wake by piloting a lion) realized

Essentially lost his *daughter* and didn't get so much as a goodbye

Is now the only living pre-war Altean in the entire timeline, a lone alien among his own revitalized people and none of his accomplishments noted

What the *fuck*, Dreamworks

#voltron #coran

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spiftynifty · 7 years ago

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Voltron Season 8 summaries

As promised, here are the summaries for season 8. They are as unbiased as possible. I know I said I would bold the Sheith parts in this season for easy access. The truth is.... there was nothing for me to bold. :/

8x01 Launch Date Lance asks Allura on a date. She goes with the girls (Pidge/Rivazi/Lief) to buy date clothes while Lance gets grilled by Coran and supported in separate moments by Hunk and Keith. Allura meets Lance's family. Outside Allura brings a park back to life and Lance confesses his feelings. They kiss and Beezer pops out to take a photo. Meanwhile the Altean pilot, Luca, is confronted by Romelle. Luca lashes out and namedrops Honerva before Honerva kills her remotely. The Paladins and Atlas take off for space.

Rest of the episodes under the cut because 13 summaries, though brief, get long.

8x02 Shadows A history of Haggar/Honerva and Lotor. We see her learn of Lotor's demise, use her powers to massacre a bunch of Galra at the Kral Zera, dismiss her druids, and go to the Altean colony to tell them Voltron killed Lotor. The colony relocates and sets up shop in Oriande, creating an army of Altean robeasts. In the more distant past, Honerva and Zarkon discuss names for Lotor and settle on one that represents both of their cultures. Honerva doesn't remember who she or Zarkon are when she wakes up after Daibazal is destroyed. When Lotor is born neither she nor Zarkon care. We also see the incident Lotor alluded to with Allura, where he tried to work with a planet rather than overtake it and as punishment, Zarkon destroyed the entire planet.

8x03 The Prisoner's Dilemma The 2nd-in-command from 6x01, Lon gets his base taken over by Voltron/Atlas. They try to convince him to join the coalition and suddenly get a distress call from one of his fleets. Voltron & Lon investigate together and discover the beast from 5x05 has destroyed the entire fleet and has been trained to hunt Galra and only Galra. They trap the beast inside the remaining ship and set it to self-destruct. Lon joins the coalition. Voltron and Atlas part ways.

8x04 Battle Scars Voltron goes to Olkarion and discover it has been completely destroyed. Pidge uses the power within the plants of the planet to see visions of what happened while the other paladins try to hold off a weblum that's heading to destroy the planet. Olkarion was destroyed by an Altean Robeast, but most of the Olkarions escaped and left behind valuable information for defeating the Robeast. The Weblum destroys Olkarion.

8x05 The Grudge On Atlas, Veronica makes a concerted effort to befriend Acxa. Atlas and Voltron plan a rendezvous point but Voltron is tricked to landing on a volcanic planet. There they are tracked by a group of pirates led by a "mysterious" captain (it's Zethrid). The paladins split up and Zethrid corners Keith over the volcano. She wants revenge because Ezor left her. Acxa and Shiro come to save Keith. They capture Zethrid. Ezor reappears and Acxa tries to convince them both to join the coalition.

8x06 Genesis Voltlas heads to Oriande, with Voltron actually making it fully inside. Honerva kills the Guardian and uses its life force to cast a massive spell. With it she folds reality and brings Lotor-Mech back, though he seems fully under her control. Lotormech pulverizes Voltron, causing the lions to separate. Allura tries to take out Honerva, but Honerva tries to convince her to team up and if she doesn't, Lotor will kill Lance. Allura doesn't take the kill. The Paladins escape with Atlas as Oriande's white hole closes.

8x07 Day Forty Seven Kikaide and Rizavi team up to get video footage around the Atlas so it's all shot handy-cam. Things we see/learn: The team fights a giant tentacle monster. Atlas has 6 Atleans captured but they refuse to speak to Allura or Romelle. Lance and Allura share a private moment and a kiss. Hunk bakes stuff and comes up with an Altean recipe that resonates with the Alteans and they begin to open up to Coran and Allura.

8x08 Clear Day It's clear day for that one planet from the Voltron Show and they're holding a carnival. Shiro and the Paladins, minus Allura, head down to participate. Lance and Pidge both try to win Allura a prize, Coran enters a Yalmore shouting contest, Shiro enters an arm wrestling contest, and Keith and Shiro get stuck on a boring ride. Meanwhile on the ship Allura managed to withdraw and quarantine a dark void entity from one of the Alteans. She then has visions of Lance, Lotor, and her mother encouraging her to bond with the entity to link her to Honerva and thus be strong enough to defeat her. She fights the visions but ultimately succumbs to their persuasions and bonds with the entity.

8x09 Knights of Light pt I The Paladins enter the void of Voltron in an effort to utilize Allura's new power and track down Honerva. They arrive at a place just outside Honerva's mind and all Paladins except Keith are sucked into their Lion's astral plane. They each fight a faceless figure who turns out to be a Paladin of Old whose souls were entrapped and corrupted by Honerva. Allura is able to lift their curse and both sets of Paladins, including Allura and Alfor, are reunited. Allura struggles with the darkness of the entity.

8x10 Knights of Light pt II The Paladins go deeper into Honerva's mind. Together with the old Paladins they fight a robeast. They travel through different places and see different memories, including one that reveals Honerva killed the original paladins. Finally the paladins end up in Honerva's vision of Altea, which looks a little different. Zarkon's mech is there and faces them, but they form Voltron and with the help of the other Paladins, defeat him. Zarkon's mech turns into the astral black lion and OG Zarkon as he was before the rift. He's thrilled to see the other Paladins of Old but Allura shows him visions of all the horror he did as Zarkon and he cries. They ask him to help and he agrees, and tells them to blow up the moon in the sky. When they do they see Honerva's visions of her dreams: she and zarkon and lotor, a happy family. Pidge reveals she could achieve this dream... if she warps realities into that one, destroying all other realities in the process.

8x11 Uncharted Regions Honerva now has a mech of her own with a kind of teladuv device that allows her to travel through realities. Team Voltron prepares a plan of attack but Allura is down for the count because of the entity. Keith supports Lance when he worries about Allura, and Allura awakens to Lance when he tells her he can't imagine a world without her. The rebel forces go to investigate the Honerva mech but are wiped out. Honerva appears before Atlas and controls the Alteans to siphon the power of Atlas' crystal to power her runes so she can have more power. One of the Altean robeasts tries to fight Honerva but is killed. Honerva finishes powering up the runes and then her mech and Lotor's merge to become a supermech. The teladuv spins.

8x12 The Zenith Honerva travels through the portal and Voltron follows. Balmeras surround Voltron and Atlas and merge them into a supermech, Voltlas. They follow after Honerva and fight her as realities crumble while Coran and the Blades struggle to power the portal to keep open. When Voltlas is seemingly trapped in one reality and Honerva finally makes it to her perfect reality where Zarkon welcomes her with open arms. However a young Lotor rejects her as his mother, and Voltlas appears. Honerva declares she will end all universes and teleports to her mech to prepare to fight Voltron.

8x13 The End is the Beginning Honervamech fights Voltlas and they fly into a portal together that leads to a mess of flowing paths that represent all the different realities. In her grief Honerva destroys all but one of them and as Voltlas fights to protect it it gets... wings like 10x its size? It pushes Honerva mech into another portal which is the... feelings of all the universe? Or something? Here all the Paladins and Honerva are not in their mechs. Allura shows Honerva all of her happy memories and together they decide they will sacrifice themselves to use magic to "reboot the realities". She says goodbye to each of the Paladins, and Shiro, and kisses Lance goodbye, leaving altean marks on his cheeks. She and Honerva reboot the timelines, and in this reality, Altea exists. One year later, the Paladins reunite in front of Allura's statue on Altea. They catch up on what each other has been doing; it's clear they haven't really seen each other in a while. At night they wake up and all the lions fly away. In the epilogue, Lance has a farm, Keith helps out with Blade of Marmora Humanitarian stuff with Lotor's generals, and Shiro marries a not-quite random dude (one of his crewmembers, not Roy from Macross).

#voltron #voltron spoilers #vlds8 #vldsum

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kcwcommentary · 6 years ago

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VLD2x06 – “The Ark of Taujeer”

2x06 – “The Ark of Taujeer”

We open with the Galra hassling some aliens who look like large tardigrades that speak with a robotic voice. They’re trying to escape a planet that is becoming uninhabitable, but they have only one ship with which to do so.

Allura still thinks Zarkon is tracking them through her. Lance obnoxiously flirts with her despite Allura being clearly in a state of distress. That Lance is like this again and again and there are no consequences for him doing so is infuriating writing/directing/production. How the creators of this show think that it’s okay to behave like this, I don’t know. Keith counters with the possibility that Zarkon is tracking them through Zarkon “imprinting on [him] during [their] fight.” Pidge counters both saying they don’t know how Zarkon is tracking them but that it could be through the Black Lion. You think? Shiro proposes they stop running from the Galra and instead attack them.

Shiro tries to get Keith to open up to him about whatever’s bothering him. It’s a small moment at the end of much larger scene, but there’s actual emotion in it. I wish this show had more, bigger interpersonal scenes like this. It’s one of my biggest complaints with this show, especially the further we go into the show: too often, the characters don’t feel like they’re actually friends. Moments like this are vital to building bonds between characters, and thus giving weight to the events that happen.

Keith dreams that he’s attacked by the Red Lion, that he ends up dressed as a Galra, and that he can hear Zarkon proclaim that he can find Keith anywhere. He keeps pondering the blade and what it means that he has something Galra. He tries to sneak away, only to run into Allura. They both are acting in somewhat self-sacrificial ways, and they leave together to see if they’re what Zarkon’s tracking. It’s a bit odd to me that they go in a pod rather than in the Red Lion.

Of course, Lance responds to Allura and Keith leaving by being jealous. Ugh.

Seemingly out of nowhere, while the crew on the Castle Ship are talking to Allura and Keith on their pod, something from a debris field hits the Castle. How in the world the Castle ship got where it is, with the image of the planet looming large on the giant display screen on the bridge, and neither Coran, nor Shiro, nor Pidge, nor Lance, nor Hunk saw it, I don’t know. This is sloppy direction for the episode.

The leader of the Taujeerians tells Shiro that the planet is “dissolving.” It’s one thing to say the planet is becoming uninhabitable; that’s a simple, easy statement that doesn’t require you to make any scientific statements. But to say the planet is “dissolving” means something specific: that the solid material of the planet is being incorporated into the green liquid. The planet is a rocky one; even with the glowing, green liquid seen on the planet, there’s not enough of the liquid for the far greater quantity of rock that makes up the planet to dissolve into. Also, even if the rock dissolved into this liquid, it would not cause giant chunks of the planet to overcome the planet’s gravity and float off into space to create the debris field. (Potentially, the debris field could be caused by a collision of a really large solar system object into the planet, but that would liquify much of the planet, so there’d be red, hot molten rock all over the surface, not this green liquid.) The episode should have just kept it simple and just have it be a thoroughly undefined something happening rendering the planet uninhabitable rather than trying to act like smaller scale chemistry can be uniformly upscaled for a planet-wide event.

The Taujeerian says, “We’ve known for years that our planet would eventually lose its outer layer.” No, gravity would prevent that from happening. Even if the planet could dissolve into what Pidge says is acid, then the planet would just be a giant ball of acid. You wouldn’t have mountainous chunks of rock floating off into space. This loss of an outer layer suddenly becomes a “shedding process,” per the Taujeerian’s repetition of Lance’s simile. The Taujeerian says that the planet’s population was going to evacuate to the planet’s moon and wait until the “shedding process” was over. So then, the problem isn’t that the planet is dissolving? If it’s dissolving, you’re not going to have a stable, rocky surface post-shedding, but the Taujeerian, through saying they were going to “wait out the shedding process,” sounds like the plan was to return. All of this is inconsistent and nonsensical.

The Taujeerian says this is a plan they’ve been implementing for several years. Why would they evacuate the population in one, single, giant ship instead of multiple relocation missions over the course of those years? And why is this single ship the only sign of a civilization on this planet?

The episode remembers that Hunk is an engineer this time, and Shiro assigns him and Pidge to try to get the Taujeerian’s ship working. Hunk is even confident in himself, declaring that they can get it “flying in no time.” More of this Hunk, please!! Trouble with the surface of the planet beneath the ship causes problems though. For some reason, what looks like insect-like legs of the ship break at the point where they connect to the near top of the ship just because the ground shifts beneath it. I don’t get how the structure is brittle enough to snap like that, but whatever. Hunk’s follow up – “Would you settle for upright?” – is a funny line though.

Keith and Allura remain waiting. It’s nice to get another interpersonal scene like this. Allura demonstrates the weight of responsibility she feels. Keith expresses a willingness to not think any species/race/culture (however you want to define/label it) is uniform in a simplistic declaration of being bad people. He cites Ulaz’s sacrifice, but Allura can’t see past her biases against the Galra and says Ulaz’s death might just have been “a ploy.” I understand why Allura has her hypercritical opinions, but her personal history is blinding her. She declares one life doesn’t mean anything to Zarkon, and Keith retorts, “It means something to me.” Thank you, Keith. Allura effectively says that even if there are good Galra that they’re not worth trying to work with because they haven’t been able to stop Zarkon. Again, I understand why she’s like this, but it doesn’t make her obstinance and short-sightedness less frustrating.

Zarkon has returned to his old ways. Last episode, he had transitioned from standing off in the distance and instead directly challenged Voltron. This episode, he’s back to standing distant and sending other Galra to capture Voltron and bring it to him. That’s a step backward for the greater arc development.

Team Voltron decides to try to stop the planet from “shedding.” Pidge asks, “How do you stop a planet that’s coming apart at the seams?” And Hunk answers, “By sewing it back together.” The plan is to use the Green Lion’s plant cannon to stitch the “cracks in the planet” together. Are you kidding me? Yes, the roots of plants help prevent erosion, but again you cannot take something small scale like that and upscale it. Plants wouldn’t hold a planet together. To deal with the plants being destroyed by the acid, Pidge suggests freezing the plants. Why not just freeze the cracks in the planet then? No need for plants whatsoever. This plot makes no sense.

Keith continues his discussion with Allura, raising the question of what they should do if one of them are how Zarkon’s been tracking them. Team Voltron needs both of them for their respective skills and abilities. These are very good questions for them to be asking. I like that they’re thinking through the situation.

The Taujeerian ship starts to launch only to be attacked by the Galra. Coran moves the Castle to respond and contacts Allura and Keith to let them know Zarkon is not tracking them through either of them. Keith moves to get him and Allura back with the group, but when he uses the booster Pidge added to the pod, the pod’s engines explode, which causes the forcefield that seals the pod (apparently, they can’t make pods with windows and instead use a forcefield) to deactivate, and Keith and Allura are ejected into space. (Why/how they’re ejected, I don’t know. It’s not like there’s air pressure inside the pod to blow them out into space once the forcefield goes down. We know there’s not because Keith and Allura are wearing helmets.) Keith and Allura end up stabilizing themselves and float in space. They try to communicate with Coran, but there’s no response.

The Lions attack the Galra ship with their jawblades, which I still contend are so small that their damage is less significant than when my cat scratches me. I assume the jawblade is a hold-over from the old Voltron show? Whether it’s old or new, it’s ridiculous. The Galra blast the surface of the planet, which in part showers rocks down toward Hunk. How these smaller rocks are being pulled down by gravity to be a danger to Hunk while larger chunks of rock are floating off into space away from the planet in defiance of gravity makes the larger chunks floating off even more absurd. This quite an inconsistency. For that matter, why is the Taujeerian ship even falling down and needing to be held up by Hunk? Why isn’t it just floating away the same as the huge chunks of the planet’s surface?

I admire Coran’s willingness to pilot the Red Lion so that the team can form Voltron. Of course, he changes into a caped costume. What really gets to me is when Coran says, “Finally Alfor, I will walk in your footsteps.” There is so much potential in that one line. I don’t really remember this show doing much exploring such a desire of Coran’s to live up to Alfor’s memory like this. This is very different than Coran looking after Allura or the Castle Ship or working in the effort against the Galra with an awareness that Alfor would want him to do those things. This is much more personal between Coran and Alfor. This one line is very compelling, and I would have loved for the show to have done more with it.

The Red Lion, however, blasts away on its own. This explains why Keith and Allura left in a pod rather than in Red. It’s the writing being contrived. Knowing they wanted to have this moment with Red going to get Keith, they needed to have Red remain behind, so they have Keith and Allura in a pod. It’s not that I dislike Red going after Keith – I like it a lot, actually – but there needed to be something to justify Keith having not gone out in Red in the first place in order to keep this from being contrived. Red rescuing Keith demonstrates, not just that the Lion-Paladin bond extends across significant interstellar distances, but also that Red is bonded to Keith. Red coming for Keith makes Keith becoming the Black Paladin later in the series sad and frustrating because look at how Red cares about Keith! And the show never spends any time on what it means for Keith and Red for their bond to be ignored so that Keith can become Black Paladin. It’s like, what if characters who are close, good friends stopped talking to one another – oh wait, they did that with Shiro and Keith in season 8 too. It’s like this show doesn’t actually respect/understand personal bonds between characters.

The situation causes the Yellow Lion to suddenly develop special claw add-ons to help stabilize Yellow’s grip in the rock. At this point in the show, I’m starting to become numb to the Lion’s waiting until the most plot-dramatic moment to demonstrate previously unseen function. It’s not really a surprise anymore, and thus isn’t dramatic.

Keith, Allura, and Red show up. “Is the Princess with you?” Lance asks, and when Keith says yes, Lance continues, “Like ‘with you’ with you?” Are you kidding me? Lance’s concern isn’t for Allura’s wellbeing but whether she’s in a romantic relationship with Keith? All while they’re all still in the middle of a crisis? Lance’s behavior isn’t cute, and it isn’t funny. Lance has the potential to be a very interesting character, but this is ridiculous.

The Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow Lions all psychically tell their Paladins to use their bayards, and it results in Voltron’s sword becoming huge, which they use to destroy the Galra ship. This upgrade in capacity feels timed so much better than Yellow’s claws earlier in the episode.

With the Galra taken out, Voltron lifts the Taujeerian ship off the planet, and that’s very quickly (a little too quickly) the end of all that.

Allura and Keith apologize for leaving. Allura reaffirms Shiro’s stronger-together perspective. It’s a nice moment that reinforces Shiro as the leader of the group. The episode ends with a statement of confirmation that Zarkon is tracking them through his connection to the Black Lion.

The narrative beats for this episode are solid. Lance aside, there are some nice character moments. I just wish this show wasn’t so scientifically senseless.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #voltron criticism #vld criticism #voltron critical #vld critical #vld season 2 #vld 2x06 #commentary

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voltron-s7-8-rewrite · 6 years ago

Text

“The Journey Within”

This is part of my Voltron Season 7 & 8 re-write. If you are interested start HERE

(Just as a warning, this is not beta’d)

In the vastness of space, the Paladins, all looking terrible, silently drift while holding onto each other, their lions nowhere in sight. An alarm beeps on Keith’s screen, prompting Lance to ask if they should sound off. Keith asks what is the point of doing it again, but despite his question, the Paladins each call their names anyhow.

Silence resumes for a little before Allura speaks up. She begins to talk about a saying her father had for troubled times, but Keith cuts in and mocks Alfor, angering Allura. She asks him what right he has to criticize her father who, unlike Keith, never abandoned his team. Keith sarcastically apologizes for not being as perfect as her father and says that someone needed to actually fight the war, rather than play ice capades for the masses. Lance snaps and says a lot of good that did them, Keith came back and now they are in this situation. He says maybe it would have been better had they left him with Kolivan and the Blade. This prompts Pidge to mock Lance about how his insecurities are showing again, now that Keith’s back.

Tempers rise, and the four all verbally attack each other, intentionally saying things to hurt each other. Fed up, Hunk shouts at them to shut up. The Paladins stop in surprise, and he goes on to scold them for what they’ve said to each other. He knows they are all stressed and scared because they are lost and without the lions, but he stresses that they can’t take it out on each other and asks them to apologize. The Paladins look at one another before stubbornly turning their backs to each other.

~+~

Jumping back in time, we see that the days after Olkarion’s destruction Krolia and Shiro quietly talking in the back of one of the lions. They share their concerns over the fact that the none of the Paladins have been eating or sleeping well, and they have begun falling back into old bad habits and snapping at each other.

For the first time in a long time, Lance has been trying to goad Keith into arguments, which fails because Keith has become withdrawn and silent towards everyone, even his mother and Shiro. Allura constantly tries to inspire the others, though everyone can tell it’s an act, and that she’s struggling with keeping her composure together. Pidge seems constantly annoyed at everyone, and has been cruelly sarcastic with her remarks. Hunk is the only one who has been able to keep a semblance of his normal spirit, but with him constantly trying and failing to keep the peace, even his cracks are showing.

Shiro says he and Coran have tried approaching the others, and Krolia says she tried talking with Keith, but they have all shut them out. Shiro wonders if the Paladin bond might actually be getting in the way right now, as they are likely sharing their negative emotions through it, driving each other further into their bad states. Krolia asks how he thinks they could help when they hear the Paladins start another vitriolic argument over the comms.

As the Paladin’s argument heats up, Pidge tells them to shut up as she sees an anomaly in the distance that her sensors aren’t picking up on. The anomaly hits, effecting the lions and the non-Paladins members of Voltron, freezing them in place. The Paladins try and fail to get anything to respond, but soon realize if they don’t do something fast, they are going to drift apart from each other.

They get out of their lions to try to tether them together, but the anomaly hits again, separating the Paladins from the lions. The Paladins are able to grab onto each other, but are now stranded in the midst of empty space with no hope of rescue.

Back to the present, the Paladins once again float arm in arm and have all had time to think and cool down from their fight. Pidge is the first to break the silence, and apologizing for the way she’s been acting and the things she’s said to the others. She says she hasn’t been able to get the loss of Ryner and Olkarion out of her head, and it’s been affecting everything. Beginning to break down, she tells them about how Ryner reminded of her of her mother, and now all she can think about is how she left her mother without a word; and with what they learned about the Robeast, she doesn’t even know if she, her father, or Matt are alright. Ever since her father was found she dreamed of them all being together, but now she can’t help but feel like she’s lost them again.

As she cries Keith speaks up, he says that it took him a long time after his father died to realize that even though he was physically gone, a part of him was still alive within Keith himself; as he carried on the memories and knowledge his dad shared. He says it’s the same thing with Pidge and Ryner. Ryner is still alive in Pidge, and so long as she passes on what she learned from Ryner, she’ll never really be gone. He then says even though they don’t know the status of Earth, he knows Pidge, and if her family is anything like her, they are all fighting to be together, and nothing will stop them from finding each other again.

All the Paladins are surprised by his openness and comforting words, as Pidge thanks him.

Keith smiles, then also apologizes to the Paladins; both for being so withdrawn, both before he left for the Blade two years ago, and especially over the last couple of days. He says that seeing the destruction of Olkarion also affected him; he couldn’t help but dwell on the thought that he could lose the Paladins, his new family, at any moment. He says he knows he can’t let himself be stuck in those fears anymore; he needs to be there for his team, the same way Alfor was for his own. He apologizes to Allura for what he said about her father, and says he knows Alfor was a great man.

Allura accepts Keith’s apology, but admits she has relied on the untouchable heroic image of her father in the past, and knows that her father made mistakes; some of them being the very mistakes that they are still trying to fix. She apologizes to the Paladins if she ever made them feel inferior by portraying her father as someone they all had to live up to.

She then specifically apologizes to Keith for accusing him of abandoning them. She knows what he did was important, and so much good came from it. Finding his mother, helping Romelle, discovering Lotor’s true nature, and bring the knowledge that Alteans survived to herself and Coran. She says none of them wanted him to leave, but they understood he wanted to leave to go after the Quintessence.

Keith takes a breath and reveals that he actually didn’t want to leave; but there were too many Paladins. At that, Lance remembers their conversation and guiltily asks Keith if he influenced his choice. Keith assures him that he didn’t, and that even if they had never spoken, things probably would have happened this way. He says he knows he wasn’t a good leader at the time; too stuck in his own insecurities and personal issues, he didn’t take a stand as a leader, or rely on the Paladins for support. He says he was still missing pieces of himself and that without that he couldn’t be the leader, or even the teammate they needed.

Allura asks if he has found those pieces, and he says he has. Finding Krolia and learning about his past put the elements that were missing from his life in place. He can actually accept, and fully embrace those in his life, as he no longer expects everyone to walk out on him at the drop of a hat. He knows he still has things he needs to overcome, but he now knows the Paladins, his mother, Shiro, Coran, Romelle, and the others who are in his life would never outright abandon him. The Paladins agree and state that they will all be there for each other until their last breath; which, as the oxygen alarms beeps a critically low warning on Keith’s suit, they fear might come sooner than later.

Keith suggests that they keep talking to a minimum at this point, they agree and hold hands. They float for a little until another warning alarm on Pidge’s suit beeps. Hunk hears this and starts sharing his first impressions of the others when he first met each of them, and how as they've come together and grown, he’s realized they are all so much greater than anything he could have imagined. Keith reminds Hunk to conserve his oxygen, but when Lance’s alarm beeps, Pidge starts sharing her thoughts and feelings for the others too.

Keith, Lance, and Allura realize what they are doing; if they are going to die here they want to die knowing how much they all mean to each other. Lance, Keith, and Allura join in as Hunk’s alarm goes off. They all reminisce of their adventures together, sharing times when they were inspired or in awe of each other.

Lance brings up his rivalry with Keith calling it ‘stupid’. Keith is surprised Lance no longer sees him as a rival, and Lance says of course not, he sees Keith as his friend and leader, the two smile at each other, their rocky friendship fully cemented.

Pidge says they never got to thank Keith for what he did for them at Naxzela. Allura says they ried to contact him after they found out, but he was always on a mission with the Blade, or with someone else.Keith reveals that he figured Matt told them and purposefully avoided them, not wanting to talk about it at the time.

The Paladins let him know that they were deeply moved by his actions, and they each thank and assure him that they would have gladly done the same thing for him if their positions had been reversed.

As they continue talking, ignoring the alarms, their bonds grow stronger, and stronger until they realize they are no longer even talking to each other, but sharing all their memories and love for one another through the Paladin bond. Their bond, strengthened in a way like never before, breaks though the anomaly, fully powering up the Lions, who fly to collect them just in time.

Acting as one, The Paladins form Voltron, unlocking boosters, allowing them to fly out of the anomaly. Krolia, Romelle, Coran, and Shiro return to normal, and are shocked to find that the Paladins are no longer at each other throats, but instead have had their spirits completly renewed.

With the boosters on Keith orders a new course for Earth.

.::+::.

In the canon episode Keith asks the question, “Are we even really friends?” And by the end of the series I was still asking that. There was so much squandered time and potential to develop the bonds and friendships of all the Paladins. Sure, we are shown that some of them like each other, and they can all have fun together, but it never got to the point where I actually believed they were all real friends. I can’t help but think when it was all over that most of them drifted off and never saw each other except for reunions now and then.

This episode was the perfect opportunity for the writers to clear the air between the Paladins and work out their remaining issues, so that’s what I tried. For me, having them all be in a bad place at the beginning, acting more like their season 1 selves would allow us to see the contrast to how they’ve grown and changed each other’s lives for the better by the end of the episode.

This is also where we see the real turnaround for Keith’s character arc. See, we, like the Paladins should have had to get to know Keith again, as we all missed out on two years of his life. Keith should’ve been a bit of an enigma to us, not knowing how he grew or changed during those years with his mother.

Keith coming back at the end of season 6 and willingly taking the role of leader, then openly expressing his love for Shiro during their fight should have been signs of a change in him. Yes, he took command here and there , and always was more open with his feelings to Shiro pre-Krolia, but we never saw it to the scale or conviction seen in the end of Season 6.

Now, this episode furthers that, in it not only does he verbally embrace his role as leader, but also who he has and is trying to become as a person, and what the team means to him. Admitting his past faults, the issues he still struggles with, along with his desires to keep growing, and to be there for, as well as rely on the others shows how much he’s matured and changed.

He is no longer closed off, hurt, and angry. Instead he’s willing to be open, love, and be at peace. Sure, there will still be things he struggles with, and areas he needs to grow, but we now know he’s willing to work through them, not ignore them.

Keith’s overall story should have been learning to grow and move past his trauma and issues and embrace the strong, brave, and caring leader he was meant to be —the person Shiro always knew was inside. And this episode should have shown that that’s where he was headed.

Now, a little opinion piece on the subject of the Naxzela incident.

I’ve seen many people talk about how they wanted that handled, and most seemed to want the Paladins to be horrified and outraged by Keith’s actions, and for them to have a huge spat and resolution over it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure had they had a confrontation immediately after it happened, that’s exactly what would of happened. However, at this point they all would have had time to have processed Keith’s choices and come to understand his actions for what they were; an act of authentic, sacrificial love.

See, I don’t see what Keith did as being a sign of being broken down by the Blade of Marmora’s worldview, nor some sort of suicidal mindset that he’d fallen into. In actuality, it was the exact opposite of both of those things. Heck, it was a full rejection of the Blade’s rule of leaving others behind to fight another day.

Keith chose to stay and fight, willingly surrendering his life not only for his friends, but for anyone who was going to be killed in the blast. That’s not a dispirited reaction doctored into him, nor was it an act of suicide, it was a deliberate act of love.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

A person being willing to give up their own life in order to save another is the most loving act someone can commit. Just look at real life stories of soldiers during war. Would you consider those acts of suicide or a broken spirit? Sacrificial love beautiful and should not be condemned or demeaned, it should be praised and revered. Even in the worst case scenario, that Keith ended up sacrificing himself, but the shield was undamaged, dosen’t diminish the beautiful act for what it was.

I do believe that each and every one of the Paladins, had they been in his position, would have done the same thing. I don’t think anyone of them would be angry at him for making that decision, just the circumstances that forced him to make that decision.

So, that’s why I didn’t put some big blow out over his actions. I just wanted the Paladins to share their gratitude, acceptance, and love for Keith in response to his act of love for them.

#voltron #keith voltron #Allura #lance voltron #voltron pidge #hunk voltron #MyVoltronSeasonSummary #mywritings

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astrodances · 6 years ago

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In the Dead of Night

Adashi is awesome and I love them! It was an honor to be able to write for the @confirmedloverszine! Check out the free PDF download of the zine here, and if you want to support The Trevor Project by purchasing some optional merch, you can do so here!

Really proud of all the amazing and talented contributors that I got to work alongside with for this zine! Great job everyone!

Summary: Some things can only be said in the dead of night, when everyone else is asleep...and you're millions of light-years apart...

Shiro paced back and forth in his quarters, his sometimes-glaring stare never losing sight of the little alien recording device perched on the edge of his bed. His thoughts kept oscillating between wanting to use the device and wanting to chuck it in the air and slice it with some fiery-hot robot-hand action.

Just pick it up already! his thoughts yelled at him. Record now, decide later.

With a sigh, Shiro began to reach for the recorder, but his hand fell short and he dropped it against his leg with a smack as he groaned.

He wanted to do this, but at the same time, he so did not want to.

It’s not that he was nervous about recording or anything—he was the leader of Voltron; he didn’t get stage fright. It’s just that the potential viewer of the recording made him nervous. And a whole other mix of emotions, too. Regret being at the forefront of them.

They’d been fighting so much when he left...

At an impasse, Shiro settled onto his mattress and buried his head in his hands.

Everything he wanted to tell Adam was on the tip of his tongue, and now he had a chance to tell him without actually telling him. None of the other Paladins knew he had a recording device. The only other person who would even know would be Sam, and that was just because Shiro needed him to deliver his message to Adam. It was a perfect set-up all around, so why couldn’t he just pour his heart out already?

A beep at the door broke his internal debate, and he welcomed the newcomer with a frustrated, “Come in.”

Coran entered after the doors parted for him. Shiro side-eyed him expectantly.

“Ah, Shiro, there you are! Lotor wanted me to give you this report.” He held out a holographic tablet, which Shiro took with a quiet thanks and placed on the bed next to him. Silence ensued, broken only by Coran asking, “Something wrong?”

Shiro eyed the advisor again, not really wanting to get into it with him. Yet he found himself asking, “Do you ever...wish you could go back and tell someone what you really feel about them? Before...it’s too late, I mean?” His eyes grew wide at his choice of question, but it was out there now and he couldn’t take it back.

Coran looked confused as he processed the question, before realization dawned on him. “Ah, is this about the recordings everyone is making for Sam to take back to your planet?”

Shiro shot up like a tree as he stuttered, “What? No, I-I mean, I only meant...what gave you that idea?”

Coran held up a hand to stop him before walking over to sit down next to him on the bed, pushing the tablet further back towards the wall and crossing one leg high over the other knee. He nodded past Shiro as he finally answered, “You have a recorder right there next to you.”

“Oh. Right...” Shiro reddened at the obvious giveaway.

Coran watched him before turning his stare to his hands on his leg, his voice softening. “I do wish I could though, yes. There wasn’t much time, but if I could go back, and tell King Alfor everything I wanted to before...” He took a steadying breath. “...before he left to face Zarkon, I’d do it in a tick.”

A chill ran down Shiro’s spine. When he thought about it, Coran and Alfor’s situation was similar to his and Adam’s, in its own way. Only he supposed he was in Alfor’s position, having gone on to fight Zarkon himself. “I’m sorry you didn’t get that chance,” he nearly whispered.

Coran shook his head. “Don’t be.” He placed a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “Just promise me you’ll use the chance you have, alright?”

Shiro picked up the recording device and gripped it in his hand.

“I promise.”

Click. Begin recording.

His first words were awkward as hell.

“Heeeeeey, Adam... Good news, I’m not dead!”

Shiro shrugged nervously towards the recorder held up in his hand as he scratched the back of his neck.

It was the middle of the night now, and everyone else was asleep. He’d taken station at the foot of his bed, his legs crossed underneath him and his back leaning slightly against the wall. He needed to relax; the talk with Coran had helped, but now he had to actually record the message.

“Sorry I couldn’t see you the last time I was on Earth. Iverson and then Keith beat you to the punch.”

He laughed a little, feeling some of the tension dissolve from his muscles as he imagined Adam groaning at his sense of humor.

“So, I’m not dead, as I’ve established, and...I’m still in outer space! Like, way, way, way out there. Out here, I should say. Kiiiiiind of been fighting an intergalactic war against an empire of purple aliens, the Galra...” He let that thought settle at the back of his tongue. Never would he have guessed that his boyhood dream of spaceflight would end up like this.

Shiro shook his head, plastering on the biggest smile he could manage, as if it could hide everything he’d seen, everything he’d been through. But the moment he started to speak again, the smile began to unravel.

“Sam will explain the war to everyone, but before I came back to Earth, I was their prisoner, along with Sam and Matt. I don't know what you heard, but–" He sighed as he looked away from the recorder, his eyes falling closed with the sound. He whispered his name, "Adam..."

He was alone. He could let his guard down just this once.

"Th-they took my arm."

The pain in his voice surprised him. He'd come to terms with what the Galra had done to him, and had even come to appreciate his arm's weapon capability in battle. But ever since his last imprisonment by the Galra after the fight with Zarkon, he'd felt confused, and hurt. The pressure was building, but there was no one he could turn to. He had to be the team leader.

But he could tell Adam. Even if he didn't understand, he could tell him.

Switching hands on the recorder, Shiro brought his right hand into view, wiggling his robotic fingers for emphasis. He then stared at it as he continued, his fingers curling into a ball.

"They made me fight. They made me kill just to survive, and they treated it like a sport. They were using me and I think they were trying to make me into some sort of weapon for them and they kept doing experiments on me and I couldn't move and-" He sucked in a choked sob, forcing himself to stay grounded in the present even as the tears fell freely. "I-I just wanted to see you again in those moments and get away from the pain and tell you I'm sorry. I thought that was going to be my last thought every single time and just...I'm sorry, Adam! I'm sorry I left and I'm sorry we fought and the worst part is, I'm sorry I would still leave if I had to do it all over again!"

His frustrated cry echoed in the nook of his bed as he slumped forward in exhaustion, his hands holding his head up against his knees as the recorder fell to the mattress, the lens now focused on the ceiling and the very tip of Shiro's hair.

That really was the worst part. Knowing what he knew now about the universe and the war and his role in Voltron, he would do it all over again. Except for one thing.

Through strangled breaths, he whispered, "Only this time, I-I would let you know how much you mean to me...before I did..."

Eventually, Shiro's sniffles subsided into silence, and he dried the tears from his face before picking the recorder back up with a tired, awkward grin.

"I've got a headache," he announced. He'd been having a lot of them lately, but this one felt even worse. "I'm going to go get some water, but I'll give you a tour of the Castle of Lions at the same time."

Shiro got up and shuffled into his Black Lion slippers and tied his Paladin robe around his waist, then went to the door. He poked his head out with a quick glance either way to make sure no one else was out and about. The last thing he needed besides someone catching him with his own recording device, was someone catching him with tear stains on his face in the middle of the night. Luckily, the coast was clear.

As he made his way to the kitchen, Shiro quietly relayed a summary of how they had found all the lions and formed Voltron, and how he was the Paladin of the Black Lion, the leader. He explained how they met Allura and Coran in the Castle, how they now had an alliance with the former emperor's son, and how the tides of the war were finally turning their way.

After getting a cup of water in the kitchen and taking a nice, slow sip, he noticed the food goo wall panel, and his eyes lit up as he grinned towards the recorder.

"Oh, you'd love this!" he insisted as he took the nozzle out. "The Alteans have what's known as 'food goo.' It might sound gross at first, but it's actually pretty good, and best of all-" He blasted a shot of food goo into his mouth as if it was a can of whip cream. "-there's no cooking involved! Perfect for me, eh?"

Shiro tiptoed through the rest of the Castle, showing off various rooms and features, including the Black Lion's hangar. The Black Lion purred for him when he gave a loving pat on her paw, making him smile through a wince at the noise she was making.

"Pretty loud, right?" he asked the recorder proudly.

The final stop was the observation deck, arguably Shiro's favorite room in the whole Castle.

He took a moment to pinpoint the general direction of the Milky Way and Earth on a star chart, then turned and crouched so he was facing the recorder with Earth's position just over his shoulder through the window. He pointed to the spot and said, "You're somewhere right about...here. So if you're out looking at the stars, give a little wave our way!"

Straightening out and turning back towards the window himself, Shiro took a moment to take in the raw beauty of space and, without thinking, reached his free hand out towards Earth, his fingers settling against the Altean glass.

"I wish you were here..." he confessed to the darkness. His face fell with a sigh but his gaze never strayed from his home planet. "I really do. I...I miss you, Adam. I think about you all the time and I don't know when we're coming home, but when we do, I...I just really want to see you again, okay?"

He looked back at the device in his hand, ready to end the recording. There was just one more thing he wanted to say, but given how they'd left things off before the Kerberos mission, he wasn't sure if Adam would want to hear it.

Still, there was no point in keeping the truth to himself. He just wished he didn't feel like he was saying it for the first time all over again when he finally did say it. At least Adam would probably get a kick out of the goofy, hopeful grin plastered on his face, if nothing else.

"I love you."

Click. End recording.

Shiro didn't bother sleeping for the rest of the night, or what little remained of it. Instead, he paced quietly outside the quarters of the one man he knew would be up before anyone else, the recording device tucked safely into the pocket of his robe.

Sam was set to depart for Earth that morning in an Altean pod. Everyone would see him off, and he’d get everyone else’s recordings then, which was why Shiro needed to give him his now. He didn’t want or need anyone else finding out about this.

When the doors to the quarters finally opened and Sam let out a surprised, “Shiro?,” the man in question stumbled in his footsteps before straightening himself out with a barely-dignified salute and a rushed, “Commander Holt, sir!” He’d been in the middle of a daydream of days past at the Garrison, when he and Adam would go for late-night strolls around the grounds. In his dazed state, it felt like Sam had caught them sneaking out. Perhaps he should’ve gotten some sleep while he had the chance.

Coming to his senses, Shiro shook himself out of it and offered an apologetic, tired grin. “Sorry, sir– Sam. Just got caught up in some thoughts. But good morning.”

Sam watched him, then relaxed into a smile of his own and answered, “Good morning. Can I help you with something?”

"Ah– yes." Shiro walked over to Sam and reached into his robe pocket, running his thumb along the device's edge. He pulled it out and stared at it in his palm, then thrusted it out towards the commander nervously. "Can you please...give this to Adam when you get back to Earth? Y-you know, if he wants it?" he rambled.

Sam peered at it until understanding dawned on him, and he glanced up at Shiro with gentle eyes. "Of course." He took the device and pocketed it, then placed a hand on Shiro's shoulder. He'd seen how he'd missed Adam during the Kerberos mission, how their final days on Earth had followed him out into space, even if he thought no one else had noticed. And here he was, still thinking about him. Sam wanted to chuckle at how sweet the sentiment was, but right now he knew the man needed a distraction. "Come on," he prompted. "Why don't you join me for my last breakfast in space?"

Shiro nodded and let Sam's arm loop around to his other shoulder as they headed to the kitchen. With the device out of his hands, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders. Sam would deliver the message, and whether or not he actually watched it, Adam would have it.

All Shiro had to do now was get back to Earth himself.

A knock against Adam's open office door tore his attention away from his computer, and he did a double-take when he saw his guest.

"May I come in?" Sam asked with a cheery smile.

"Commander Holt!" Adam immediately stood up from his desk chair and saluted. He'd heard of Sam's return to Earth and the Garrison, but hadn't gotten to see him yet. "Of course, sir! And welcome back."

"At ease, Adam." Forgoing all formalities, Sam rounded the corner of his desk and pulled Adam into a hug. Despite how he'd gone with Shiro into space after their fighting, Sam still saw Adam as the man Shiro had brought to family dinners before anything else. To him, he was family. "And thank you. Grateful to be back."

As they pulled away from the hug, Adam's throat burned with a thousand questions, all of which were silenced as Sam reached into the pocket of his uniform and pulled out a shiny metallic device.

"Listen, I'd hate to hug-and-run, but I have a presentation to prepare for you all. I just wanted to say hello and give you this. It's a recording from Shiro," Sam explained, offering it to him.

Adam's hand froze mid-reach. "Shiro? He's...still alive?"

Sam nodded, and Adam felt a tidal wave of emotions roll over him. All the hurt and betrayal he'd felt when Shiro took off for Kerberos mixed with a sense of relief coupled with fear. What did Shiro have to say to him after all this time? Was he mad? Adam wanted to be mad himself, but the anger drowned underneath everything else.

His hand fell to his side, his fingers numb.

Surprised, Sam stepped back and placed the device on the corner of his desk, and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, if you do want to watch it, just press the button on the side. I've gotta go, but Colleen and I would love to have you over for dinner one of these nights."

Adam hummed some sort of agreement, eyes glued to the device now.

As he left, Sam paused in the doorway and looked back. "He still cares about you, you know."

Once alone, Adam felt a stab of selfish guilt enter his thoughts.

If Shiro has survived all these years, does that mean he's okay?

He felt terrible for thinking it, but it almost felt like they had a blank slate. He'd missed Shiro, of course he had, but the notion of Shiro risking his life by going into space in his condition had been too much to bear, and he'd forced himself to get away before they both got hurt, which had done little in the end.

But if Shiro was still alive, if he was okay, did that mean...they could be okay again?

Sam's parting words finally caught up to his brain. He still cares about you.

That was all the push Adam needed to shut down his computer and pack up for the day, keeping the device close to his heart as he hurried to his quarters. Locking all the doors and turning off the lights, he kicked off his boots and settled onto the couch.

He had no idea what was on the device, but a glimmer of hope sparked him to push the button on the side, and suddenly Shiro's face was floating right in front of him on a holographic screen.

He's okay.

“Heeeeeey, Adam... Good news, I’m not dead!” the recording played.

Adam choked out a laugh of relief through the tears welling up in his eyes. "Hey, Takashi," he heard himself say.

Shiro wasn't dead, and perhaps their love wasn't either.

#Confirmed Lovers Zine #Voltron #Voltron: Legendary Defender #VLD #Shiro #Adam #Coran #Sam Holt #my fanfics #hopeful angst

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