#there's another shot where you can see him and a very blue holoscreen so they didn't just desaturate the scene for the trailer

[probadbatch]

Thinking about Hunter's nearly black armor in that one trailer... the boys are really going through it, aren't they? Hunter's not taking care of himself at all when he's worried about Omega. Makes me really worried about him. Well, all of them, really.

This season better end with everyone safe and in one piece happily repainting their armor somewhere peaceful or I'm gonna riot.

[musewrangler]

In honor of OT Week here’s a little one shot I wrote a while back. My favorite film is The Empire Strikes Back.

This story is entitled— Piett’s Promotion

(In my work, the Lady is sentient and Veers didn’t die on Hoth)

He lost track of how many hours he had spent on the bridge, ruthlessly clamping down on his emotions. He had hated the man, it was true. And had suffered at his hands. But he had not ever wished that death upon him. He could still hear Ozzel’s wet chokes and see his bulging eyes, mere feet from himself. That last, desperate gurgle as he turned toward Piett-- as though the Captain could do anything against the Force. The thud of his body---it sounded like someone had dropped a bag of meat on the deck.

Lord Vader on the holoscreen, dispassionately squeezing the life from the man and calmly informing Piett what he wanted done with the fleet.

You are in command now, Admiral Piett.

So he went through the motions of being in command. Of taking reports. Checking duty rosters. Speaking to the morgue about the disposal of Ozzel’s body. Force . Writing to his family, because someone should.

Then---the asteroid field. His Lady, his fleet now, going to their destruction. And he had tried.

Three years he had worked with Vader and he had watched the obsession for finding Skywalker grow. Say what you would about Vader, and people did, he had seemed to genuinely care about Death Squadron, about the men and ships that served him faithfully. And he was being ordered to take that Squadron to their deaths, throw all that away, to find that damn ship.

So he had tried. He knew his life was forfeit. He went to Vader. His bridge crew clearly believed he would not return from that meeting. Veers had commed him as he walked to Vader’s quarters and begged him not to go. But he had to. For the sake of the men. For the sake of his Lady. And was told it was not an excuse. Vader was willing for the Lady, the pride of the fleet, his flagship, to be horrifically damaged, if not destroyed, in this obsessive quest.

The only moment in his entire career that Piett appreciated hearing from the Emperor happened just in time.

They had moved out of the asteroid field and Piett had an entirely new burden as damage reports flooded his datapad and alarms blared around the Lady’s bridge. So he did what he had to---he ordered repairs, he checked casualty reports, at one point, he personally had his hands in some of the Lady’s wiring, repairing damage to her bridge deflector shield.

And then…..

Avenger reported they had her.

Piett had served with Needa at one point. They weren’t quite friends, they hadn’t had time for that, but he liked the man and thought he was a good officer. And a good man.

So good that he felt he needed to shield his men from Vader’s unpredictable wrath. And for the second time in 48 hours, Piett had to stand by as another larynx was crushed and this time, Vader mocked his prey.

Apology accepted Captain Needa.

And all of Piett’s emotions must be silenced. Because he had his own men to think of. If he was to die, some other poor bastard would be Admiral. He would rather kill himself trying to save them than have Vader crush his throat.

At some point, and he genuinely couldn’t say when in the eternity he experienced, Captain Kelly had walked up to his side, carefully removed the datapad he found he’d been clenching in his hands, and quietly murmured, “Admiral, I have the bridge. Please sir, go and rest.”

Piett had stared at him a beat and then realized that he was being given a reprieve.

“You have the bridge, Captain,” he’d said in automatic tones that must have been his and then he was turning to walk as straight and confident as he could toward the blast doors.

First hurdle cleared, he made it to the turbolift where he allowed himself to lean against the wall for support.

There had been a time when he thought that Vader actually gave a damn about his men. That he was building something which Piett was proud to be part of. But this consuming obsession…..

His deck. He felt as though he was watching someone else as his boots moved slowly toward the Admiral’s quarters---his quarters.

Someone other than himself (perhaps Captain Kelly) had ordered his things transported here, and Ozzel’s removed. He could still smell the chemicals that the cleaning crew had used, to prepare it for their new admiral. He wondered if the smell would have faded by the time the next admiral was installed here. For he had no illusions. His death was coming swiftly in this mad chase for Skywalker.

One of his miniature trees was tipped over. In automatic response, he carefully righted it, scooping the dirt back in with his fingers. They were trembling.

Force. He needed a drink. He didn’t care if he was commed---he was going to die anyway, might as well add some liquid courage to face it.

He stumbled to the cabinet and found his liquor collection neatly put away. He found the strongest one he had--something from Dathomir--- and a glass, and poured it full, cursing the shaking in his hands as it spilled on the floor.

He stumbled to his sofa and sat, taking a long fiery drink, and then set the glass on the table, and managed to remove his hat and gloves. He unfastened the top of his duty jacket and found himself gazing at his very gleaming brand new Admiral bars.

Kriff it. He’d hated Ozzel but this had not been the way he wanted a promotion. Six hundred men had died today as a direct result of travelling through an asteroid field.

Dear family, I’m so sorry to write to you to inform you of the death of your son/father/brother. They were pulverized by a completely unnecessary asteroid trip because our commander has lost his kriffing mind over a Rebel pilot.

Piett took another long drink and poured another. As he made a good start on it, the lights of his quarters dipped into indigo.

He laugh/sobbed. “Yes lady, I am sad. That word…….doesn’t begin to cover what I’m feeling I’m afraid.”

Icey blue light--her color for fear. “Yes, literally afraid. I’m likely going to be dead soon….” He put the glass down again and buried his face in his hands.

The Lady. What would happen if he died next? Would Vader take care of her? Today’s actions didn’t seem to indicate that he would. Piett had to find a way to survive. Someone had to try and stand between Vader’s madness and this ship and crew.

The icey blue was flashing at him as he lifted his face and he realized that she was frightened at his words.

“I’m sorry….I’m sorry, Lady, I will do my best not to be. Lord Vader is….can you sense that he is not….right?”

Her regular lights flashed. <Yes>

He finished his glass and his head swam.

“Lady, if…..if…..I can’t, then you must take care of this crew. Do not let Lord Vader hurt you, do you understand?”

And that was dangerously close to treason, even in his rather intoxicated ears.

She flashed her lights and gave him indigo again.

“I’m sorry, Lady, but you need to be prepared, if I……” he reached for the bottle again, and suddenly strong hands were taking it from him, and he followed the hands with his eyes up to the deeply compassionate gaze of the General.

“Enough, Firmus.” He set the bottle somewhere out of sight and came around the sofa to kneel in front of Piett and begin undoing his duty jacket.

The Admiral’s swimming brain was struggling now, between the alcohol and the exhaustion of terror.

“Max. You’re in sickbay.” He raised a finger to point at him. “You will be in soooooo much trouble with Henley.”

“I discovered today, much to my shock,” Veers began, helping Piett shrug out of the jacket and reaching for his boots next, “that underneath multiple layers of baked on cynicism and appalling condescension, the Doctor might possibly have a heart. When he heard you were on a path to throw yourself between Vader and this crew, he let me go early. And your Lady got my attention a short while ago by blinding me with that white light she’s chosen for you.”

The General had finished wrestling off his boots and Piett noted the still pink and healing lines on his face from his injuries on Hoth.

“Now,” said Veers firmly. “I would say congratulations, but this is not the time and I’m so kriffing sorry that it happened this way, Firmus.”

“He was right next to me,” Piett whispered, and found himself irrationally angry that his hands were still shaking. “I need one more drink, Max, I’ve got to keep it together….”

“You do need one more drink, Admiral, but not alcohol.” The General rose and procured a glass of water which he came back and handed carefully to his friend. “That’s an order, drink it all. I found out how long you were on the bridge, and you are no doubt dehydrated. Drinking that much….” he looked back at the bottle, “damn when you go for it, you really do, don’t you? Dathomirian vodka? Yes, more water it is.”

Piett did not like the feeling of crumbling, but it was happening and he couldn’t make it stop. He tried anyway. “Techina---telechni---kriff, technically , I outrank you now, General Veers.”

He saw Max pause and glance at him with an eyebrow raised. “Well. Even plastered, trust you to know your military protocols by heart. That is true, Admiral .”

Piett flinched at the title. Veers relented, getting more water silently and snagging the duvet from the bed in the other room.

Don’t be comforting Max. I can’t. I will break utterly and I don’t think I have time for that.

Another glass of water was shoved into his hands and then his duvet was draped around his shoulders. Veers seated himself close to his friend.

“I know you pretty well now Firmus, would you agree?”

Piett just nodded, drinking the water, letting it slide down a throat that was feeling tighter by the moment.

Like Ozzel’s, like Needa’s.

“So I hope you can trust me enough to believe what I’m going to say.” Veers paused, considering. “A great deal of bantha poodo has occurred in the last several days. Hoth was a success in some ways. But I lost three walkers.”

“I’m sorry, Max I should have….”

“You should have nothing, Firmus. You haven’t had a single second to breathe until now and I know it. My point is, that our commander is…..not what we had hoped. But we both have men under our command and I know that you care about that. If what I overheard you telling the Lady is any indication…..you don’t expect to make it much longer.”

Piett shuddered involuntarily and in a rare move (he must look pathetic) Veers got an arm around him.

“I’m here to tell you, that you must . Keep your head down, follow orders, do your best as you always do, and hope that Lord Vader remembers that you are one of his most competent and loyal officers.”

And he would like to find some shreds of hope in that, he would, but….

“Did you…..” he cleared his throat and gave another attempt. “Did you hear about Needa?”

A pause. Veers sighed. “Yes. Kriff it. Were you there for that too?”

And the throat that was now unbearably tight wouldn’t work for him to make any words, and Piett leaned forward to hide his face in his hands as his shoulders shook.

Veers’ arm tightened around him.

“Get it out here, Firmus, it won’t help to try and bury that. I’ll be here as long as you need.”

You are in command now, Admiral Piett.

[gospelofme]

Ponds Has A Potty Mouth

Disclaimer: YES I know Star Wars doesn’t use a ton of our swear words. But I’m too lazy to look up some good replacements. And this is supposed to be assuming anyways.

Installing the new holoscreen

Ponds was getting frustrated. They had hooked up and unhooked this screen at least 10 times already and still nothing. Aren’t these things supposed to be smart? Why didn’t the delivery guy set it up himself?

“Poor bastard probably doesn’t know how...” he muttered to himself.

“What?” He heard General Windu ask.

“Nothing sir.” Ponds grumbled, placing his head against the back of the screen.

“In the delivery man’s defense, the motherfucker probably didn’t want to be trapped on this floating bitch with a bunch of grumpy clones and their ornery General.” His General spoke up. Ponds snorted a small laugh.

“I thought you didn’t hear me you old man.” The Commander teased. He and his General had a very close relationship. When General Windu was with his clones, he showed a bit more of his personality. When with other Jedi, he felt the need to set a good example. Particularly with General Skywalker. In private, Windu had a bit of a potty mouth and it was something his clones had picked up on.

“Sometimes there are no other words to describe how you feel. And sometimes those words help release pent up emotions. It’s safer to call someone a bowl of pickled dicks than punch them in the face.” That was some of the wise wisdom of the General Windu that his men were privy to.

“Okay, let’s consult those goddamned instructions. Don’t tell Kenobi and certainly not Skywalker.” Windu sighed, opening the small booklet that was included with the shipment. Ponds walked over to him to look over the instructions as well.

“Son of a bitch! Motherfucker sent us the ones that are all in Rodian!! This damn piece of shit had better not all be set in Rodian! I can’t read that!!” Windu exclaimed.

“It shouldn’t be sir. Jax can read Rodian.” Ponds informed him.

“Of course he can. Jax!” Windu barked into his comm, “get your smart bitch ass up here!”

“Kay.” Came Jax’s reply. A few minutes later, their explosives expert arrive.

“The smart bitch ass has arrived. You’d better make that my new fucking call sign.” Jax announced.

“Yeah yeah, read this shit for us and then we’ll talk.” Windu smirked, throwing the booklet to Jax.

The butt dial

Obiwan, Anakin, Yoda, and Plo looked concerned at the holotable. The check-in from Master Windu had been cut short due to an ambush. They anxiously awaited a call back. Suddenly, like the Universe heard them, the call was reestablished, but it was hard to see what they were looking at. It was dark, but there were flashes of light and it sounded like something would bump against the holodevice at times.

“What’s happening?” Kenobi asked.

“I think-“ Anakin started, but was interrupted by a very annoyed Ponds.

“Son of a bitch, that spark shower singed my blacks!” Ponds scolded.

“Hahaha, well at least it was your arm and not your dick!” Windu replied.

“Fuck yeah, poor Chaser.” Ponds pitied the shiny.

“Oh damn, we got some of those metal fuckers coming in from the right!” Windu alerted his troops. Blaster fire and the sound of a lightsaber deflecting shots took over for moment.

“Haha!! Did you see Chaser cunt-punch that battle droid!!” Windu laughed. “They don’t have cunts son!! You gotta just shoot ‘em in the head.”

“Or where the dick would be!” Ponds added. Windu laughed.

“Cover me General, gotta get another blaster charge.” Ponds said, there was suddenly a burst of light in the holomessage and they saw gloved fingers search around.

“Oh fuck fuck fuck, sir...” Ponds seemed to have discovered the transmitting device. The device suddenly showed the gathered Jedi the surroundings of where Windu and Ponds were, it looked like a forest.

“Motherfucker.” They heard Windu mutter. They heard him clear his throat, and then,

“My apologies you heard that Masters.” Came a very dignified Windu.

“Very animated you are.” Yoda noted, giggling a little.

“Er, yes Master. I’ll check-in officially after we subdue these droids.” Windu promptly shut off the device and stowed it away in a backpack.

“There. That should keep it from snitching on us.” Windu gave his Commander a nod.

“Fuck yeah! Hey you droid! Yes you! Do you know me?”

“Uh no?” The droid replied.

“Why not? Your mom was yelling my name last night!!” Ponds yelled!! Windu busted out a laugh as he deflected a blaster bolt over at the confused droid.

Yo Mama Jokes

Ponds and Windu loved trash talking droids. They usually didn’t the get opportunity, but sometimes the Universe saw fit to reward them. The two often alternated yelling some very colorful jokes.

“Yo mama’s so fat, when she skips a meal, the stock market drops!” Windu yelled.

“Yo mama’s so fat, I swerved to miss her in my speeder and ran out of fuel!” Ponds added.

“Yo mama’s so fat, she can’t even jump to a conclusion!”

“Yo mama’s so fat, she was overthrown by a small militia group and she’s now known as the Republic of Yo Mama!” Ponds called, Windu busted out laughing.

“Tell the Admiral one!” He wheezed.

“Oh yeah! That’s a good one! Yo mama’s so fat, if she was an Admiral she’d be called Admiral Snackbar!!!”

“AHHHHHH AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!” Windu laughed, doubling over.

“Yo mama’s so stupid, when they yelled ‘Order in the Court!’ she asked for fries and a shake!!” Windu wheezed out.

“Yo mama’s so depressing, blues signers come to visit her when they’ve got writers block!”

“Yo mama’s so dumb, she though a quarterback was a refund!”

“Yo mama sucks so much dick, her lips went double platinum!” Ponds yelled.

“Damn son, I like that one!” Windu complimented.

“Thanks! Just thought it up!” Ponds explained.

Their banter went back and forth for a few more minutes. Obiwan and Anakin quietly listening in on the Vigilance due to another unfortunate butt dial.

“Should we say something?”

“Ahaha, Admiral Snackbar!!” Anakin giggled.

Tag list: @jgvfhl @simping-for-fives @xalvy-zen @nelba @leias-left-hair-bun @showmetheclones @carlycrays

[annoyinglyjovialbird]

Voltron: Next Generation

Dangerous Clashes: III

Word Count: 3245

AN: A little longer chapter today since its my birthday. Thanks!

Whether it was smart or dumb, the guards delivered the armor to Kova's makeshift cell. She spent a few minutes looking it over, then started working. The bodysuit was like a second skin, completely different than the street clothes she wore before.

The tech on the suit was older than anything she had ever seen, but that was the privilege of attending the intergalactic hub on Earth. We mean the Garrison if you're lost.

She was attempting to use a paperclip as a pair of pliers on the location tracker when the door reopened. Ezrid, or Vhix, stood in the doorframe. Kova spared him a glance before returning to her work. 

"Are you not going to say anything?" Vhix asked, crossing his arms behind his back. 

"Should I?" Kova glanced at him again, noting the scowl that crossed his face. 

"You should be grateful for everything we've given you." He hissed. "Most prisoners rot in the cells below, never seeing their home planets again."

"Ooh, how scary." Kova mocked him. "I should be grateful for being put in a janitor's closet. That's rich."

"What are you doing to the suit?" Vhix asked, noticing her position. He was about to cross the boundary. He was about to trigger the explosion before she was ready. 

"NO!" She yelled. "Stay away from me!" Vhix stepped back, shocked at being yelled at. "I don't want you anywhere near me!" Vhix found his voice, fixing his dark blue cape.

"Aren't you overreacting, Kyla?" He smiled, talking in the tone you would talk to most children with. She stood up from her place on the floor to at least be eye-level with him. 

"I'm not the one our parents chased across the galaxy." She cocked her head. "Am I overreacting?" Vhix had no words. He only looked on with wide eyes. Almost like he didn't know what her parents had done. Without another word the door closed, leaving Kova alone once again. 

She had to finish the suit.

Right. Now. 

——————

"Cake, cover me!" Caleb yelled over the intercoms. 

"You got it!" Cake yelled back, moving his controls. The Coeus had taken another hit. This time, there was a small platoon of ships striking. The Red and Yellow Lions were deployed, against Shiro's orders. The Lions were taking heavy hits, but at least there was no attention at the Coeus. 

The Red Lion was zipping past the cruisers, all their shots missing. The Red Lion was fighting its pilot, but Caleb was having none of it. The Yellow Lion, as the densest lion material-wise, was ramming into the cruisers head-on. 

Liz and Kenny were readying the Coeus for defense, while Allie cowered in a corner. She would have to come out eventually, but for now, she was staying put. 

The Yellow Lion zoomed past the cruisers, either ramming itself through them or leaving them alone for later pickings. 

A communication link request was sent to the Coeus, which Liz immediately refused without looking at it. She glanced at Allie, who was covering her pointy ears with her hands, hoping to silence the gunfire. 

"Can you guys stop playing and knock them out already?" Liz yelled over the intercom to the boys, who weren't quick to respond. The Red Lion was drawing fire towards the enemy ships while Cake used their distraction and fear to ram them down. In the end, all but one of the ships were destroyed. 

Seeing the last cruiser fly away, the Red and Yellow lions released a deafening roar and returned to the Coeus. The Coeus had activated their particle barrier and it would be up for the next few hours until it deactivated itself. 

"Now that that's taken care of," Caleb said. The screen on the bridge appeared, showing the paladins inside their respective lions. "What's next?" 

"We're going to have to double-check every point we travel to if we're going to make another jump."

"Ugh, seriously?" Cake complained. "That will take way longer than whatever we were doing before!" 

"Well, its the only thing we've got right now." Liz was at the head of the bridge, Kova's place, typing away. Kova's console, as it turned out, was the only console with complete access to all files and consoles onboard. 

"Griffin's right," Caleb spoke, leading the Red Lion to fly underneath the Coeus. "If we want to avoid another encounter like that, we're going to have to be more careful."

"But that will take ages!" Cake groaned, rolling his eyes. 

"It's better than not doing anything," Caleb said. 

"Right, 'cause we're still looking for Kova while trying to keep the Coeus intact." Neither Liz nor Caleb were amused by Cake's comment. "Easy enough."

"Speaking of Kova, Griffin, how are we doing?" 

"The tracking is still activated, and it shows we're about one full jump away from reaching her." Liz looked away from the camera and console for a minute, staring at something off-screen. She turned back with a sigh. "I have to take care of something now, but all systems are stable and shield will deactivate in a few hours. Until then, just hang on tight." The connection between the Coeus and the Red and Yellow Paladins was cut, and Cake and Caleb were now left alone with only each other to talk to. 

Where do we even begin with these two? Cake and Caleb were on different teams since they started as cadets at the Garrison. Kova and Caleb had similar leadership tactics, but they weren't on the same level. Caleb was maybe a few months behind Kova's level of understanding. At nine years old, she repaired a major issue on the Achlys. An issue the top engineers couldn't figure out. Kova was the only thing Caleb and Cake had in common. Beyond that, there was nothing. Cake was half-Balmeran. Caleb was completely human. Cake was raised by his biological parents. Caleb was adopted by the Shiroganes at three years old. Cake lived on Earth after ten years old. Caleb hadn't even been to space. 

"This might seem like a weird question, and you don't have to answer," Cake began. Caleb raised an eyebrow. "But didn't Keith have a dog?"

"I, uh, don't know, actually," Caleb said. "Dad and Uncle Lance used to stories, but I don't know if they ever mentioned pets."

"Really? I could've sworn my dad mentioned a dog."

"Huh." Caleb sat back in his chair. If there was a dog, why wasn't it ever mentioned again? "Maybe we could ask Keith about it."

"Maybe." Cake agreed. "Hey, uh, where are you?" 

"Under." /Please say it/, Caleb thought. Kova always switched her words and Cyrus copied her. No one did it. 

"Under /where/?" Caleb erupted in laughter, while Cake looked around confused. /Then/ he realized the joke. 

"Ha ha, okay, very funny, Caleb." Cake said sarcastically. 

Onboard the Coeus, Keith and Shiro were sequestered away in Shiro's office. While Caleb and Cake disobeyed orders, Shiro was getting Keith up to speed on everything they had been doing. 

"The Fire of Purification was terminated as a threat years ago." Shiro had activated a holoscreen, showing the progression board the team had been working on. They were at the beginning of the current threats when Keith spoke. "I killed Sendak!" 

"I know." Shiro took a seat across the desk from Keith. "It seems that some of their former members resurfaced with a vengeance, and began recruiting."

"The Fire of Purification wanted to wipe out every species in the universe if it meant conserving the Galra." 

"And that mission changed with the times." Shiro leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. "The Fire we're fighting today was led by a half-Galra and is currently being led by a different one."

"The one that might've taken your daughter." Shiro's eyes widened a little, shock written on his face. As quickly as it came, it left. 

"Yes. Her status is the reason for the bounty on her head."

"She's half-Galra?"

"Yes, but that's not the only thing." Shiro turned off the holoscreen progression and removed it from his desk. Taking out the tablet Kova had given him when they began this crazy journey, Shiro logged into the Garrison's database. "The students have given her the nickname 'Jax'." Shiro turned the tablet to show Keith the screen. A picture of Kova was on it. Her eyes were like steel, and her features were cut from stone. Her uniform jacket was crisp, and her hair was pulled away from her face in a bun. That was all that could be seen. Shiro turned the screen away from Keith and swiped to view the next picture. It was Kova's log. Her entire school history was there for the men to see. 

"Why do they call her that?" 

"Her teachers would call her a jack of all trades, then it became Jack. To be fair, most instructors thought she was a boy when they heard about her capabilities. Eventually, the student body would call Jack, then Jax. It stuck."

"Teachers? Instructors? Like, she had multiple people teaching her?" Keith was astounded. Even he didn't require that much instruction, and he was considered the best pilot of his generation. 

"Programming, engineering, piloting, was offered private instruction with Commander Holt but declined, and still had time to spend with Lance and our family. Before we left Earth, she was being scouted as an instructor by other schools." 

"With someone like that," Keith began. 

"She could win wars if she stood on the front lines." Shiro finished Keith's sentence. "Caleb is capable of it, too, but he isn't as hyper detailed as Kova." 

"So the Fire wants your daughter, Kova, on their side?"

"More than anything." Keith sat back in his chair, staring into the void. Shiro turned off and put away the tablet while Keith contemplated everything. 

"What are we waiting for, then?" Keith said, standing from his chair. A hand rested on his hip with an iconic smile on his face. "Let's get her back." 

—————

"C'mon, c'mon!" Kova muttered under her breath. "Change color, you stupid light!" She stood on the dirty mattress in the furthest corner of the room. The garbage bag that held her street clothes was propped against the wall closest to the emergency toilet. The dark gray armor fit Kova almost perfectly, but if she wasn't careful, there could be an opening. Her hair was tied in a braided bun at the back of her head, her helmet screen open. She was trying to change the color of the insignia on her chest plate, but for whatever reason, it didn't. The top of the insignia was blue and the bottom was the original purple.

The sewer was emptying, and her window of opportunity was going with it. Let's all say it now: NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE COLOR OF YOUR STUPID LIGHT!

Heavy footsteps rang through the room. The metal grate was horrible like that. The steps became heavier, the metal groaned louder, and Kova's heart raced faster as they approached her room. 

"Screw this!" She finally exclaimed, throwing the paperclip aside, grabbed her plastic bag, and stood at the mouth of the gaping hole. The footsteps had stopped just outside her door. Indistinguishable words were being exchanged between the guards and the newcomer, but Kova wouldn't be around to see it. First went the bag, making a disgusting brown splash on the sewer walls. It was carried only a few feet from the weak current before coming to a standstill. Activating her helmet screen to completely cover her face, Kova took a deep breath. 

May Allura give her strength. 

She jumped feet first into the hole. The brown, maybe green liquid splashed under her feet, but there was no time to consider what it could or couldn't be. As soon as her boots made contact with the bottom of the pipe, Kova ran, grabbing the plastic bag on the way. 

In her now empty room, the door opened to reveal the maniac himself with his second-in-command in tow. 

"Where is she?" Yorak asked, staring at the empty room.

"Let me see," Vhix said, pushing past Yorak into the room. His step into the room triggered the boxes of yeast the guards had brought Kova to fall into the buckets of peroxide and dish soap at their feet. As the yeast fell into the buckets, the white foam quickly overfilled the buckets, spilling onto the floor. The metal grate didn't allow the foam to stay very long, but the results were worth it. Vhix was quickly overwhelmed by the foam, slipping on the metal grate. Yorak was fuming, his expression dark. He turned his stone-cold eyes to the guard at his right. The guard, for what it's worth, was rusting their armor at the glare. 

"Search the ship," Yorak growled, whipping his head to meet the stare of the second guard. "If she isn't found, it's your lives." Vhix had somehow stood and walked away from the foam. Thankfully for him, yeast doesn't stain. The guards ran down the hallways like their lives depended on it, because they did. 

"I told you we should have kept her in a prison cell," Vhix muttered, trailing foam. Yorak sighed, staring at the mess Kova had caused. 

"If we did, she would've discovered our plans before she was ready." Yorak stalked away from the room, heading for the bridge. Vhix strode after him, still trailing foam. 

"She isn't going to switch sides so easily." Vhix shook his shoulders, then aggressively shook his cape. "She's been taught to be a paragon of power."

"As am I." Yorak turned to meet Vhix's eyes. Vhix was one of few to meet the stone-cold gaze of the Emperor and not shake in fear. The others were either dead or changed. 

Down below, Kova ran, drifted, and jumped over pipes, large lumps of something, and tight corners. She simply followed the current. Kova's sloshed steps grew faster as voices grew louder overhead. The desire to live was starting to become her. Out of some misfortune, there was no exit to the sewer. At least, no exit she could use. The water escape through a small vent at the bottom of a wall. 

Kova looked up at the metal grate, searching for a means of escape. Another hole was torn into the metal grate directly above the sewer. Another emergency toilet. Tossing her bag through the hole, Kova jumped to grab hold of the edge. The sharp, torn metal pierced her skin through the bodysuit, but it did not break. 

She was in yet another janitor's closet, but it was worth it. If the map on the wall is correct, she's about ten feet from the closest exit.

Activating the helmet's shade, Kova walked straight for the doors that led to her freedom. The door opened up, four armed soldiers running past her without a glance in her direction. Quick as can be, she slipped through the doors. 

The room was a loading bay, stocked with wooden crates and small cruisers. If she could hotwire one, it would make her escape all the better. 

"Hey! You!" A voice yelled from above Kova's head. It didn't sound like either Yorak or Vhix, so at least she was safe. "What are you doing here? This ward is restricted to—" Kova turned to face the man yelling at her. He noticed the blue on Kova's insignia. The light is pretty hard to miss. The man yelling at her stared at the faceless armored soldier with surprise, then anger. "Hey! I found the runaway!" 

With a salute, Kova booked it to the doors. The man, completely caught off-guard, panicked, climbed the railing, and jumped to the floor twenty feet below. He didn't chase after her. At least, not immediately. 

Three armor-clad soldiers marched in, holding their weapons up. Kova had made it to the wall on the other, the door that should lead outside. One of the soldiers had fired on her, hitting the door three feet from Kova's head. She ignored it, searching for the control switch. It required a password to open it. Another blast was fired, only inches from her face. 

Kova turned to see the firing squad. They wouldn't kill her. Of course, they wouldn't. That's a death wish waiting to happen. Yorak and Vhix still want her alive. 

One of the soldiers aimed at the wall next to Kova, hoping to ricochet a blast to knock her out without completely damaging her. The soldier's stance wavered, the gun along with it. Kova held her hands up in surrender, but the soldiers made no moves to apprehend her. Not until they were sure they wouldn't be attacked. The soldier's finger was prepared to pull the trigger. It wouldn't take much, just a little push. 

The entire ship took a blow, and everyone took a fall. Kova held onto the frame of the door closest to the control panel. She connected her armpiece to the control panel, uploaded her code, and the door opened. As the oxygen was being sucked into the nothingness of space, some of the lighter boxes were being thrown out as well. Kova hoped it was food so they could slow down their pursuit. As the suction pulled everything, Kova braced herself and threw herself out into the nothingness. 

Curled into a small ball, she spun until she wasn't sure which way was up and down. Is there even an up and down in space? Kova had been pulled so far away from the ship, she could see what had caused the blast. 

The Coeus had come to the rescue, firing heavy blasts to the side of the enemy ship. A particle barrier had been activated, glowing orange. Two figures were dancing in front of the barrier. It took Kova a tick to realize they weren't just any figures. It was the Lions. 

Red sped past the entire length of the enemy ship, firing on the windows of their bridge. Yellow was clawing the side Red had left unscathed. Escape pods began to leave the ship, and Red noticed. It took after them, preparing to fire again when a small blast hit their snout. Red turned its head to look for the culprit. 

Kova fired again. She was so glad the arm piece had a laser, or she would have been a goner. 

Red was hit again between the eyes. Forgetting its original prey, it flew towards the source of the blasts. 

As Red got closer, Kova hung onto her bag for dear life. She was floating into nothingness. She didn't want to be like Keith! Lost for ten years until the new generation of Voltron came to find her. They haven't even formed Voltron!

Red stopped before Kova, staring at her figure. What was wrong? Didn't he recognize her? Then she remembered she still had the shade on. Deactivating it, she stared at Red again. Red opened its mouth, and Kova floated into it. The depressurization left Kova lying on the bottom of Red's mouth staring at the top of it. Eventually, she stood and joined Caleb in the pilot seat. He was updating the Coeus on the mission. 

Kova placed a hand on his shoulder, to which Caleb lay his own over it. They shared a look, and Caleb turned Red around to return to the Coeus. Kova slept in Red's cockpit until the barrier deactivated a few hours later. 

[justheretobreakthings]

Remember Me - Chapter 18

(First Chapter) (Previous Chapter) (Next Chapter)

Word Count: 3,386 (Total Word Count: 71,103) Read on AO3

Story Summary:

It was strange enough for the paladins of Voltron to have found another human this far from home, locked in a Galra prison. But it was stranger still when this human insisted that he knew them, and even that he was the former red paladin of Voltron.

That couldn’t possibly be true, could it? After all, if this Keith was actually a part of the Voltron team, then why does nobody remember him?

Chapter Preview:

“Something wrong, Lance?” Shiro asked.

“Nah,” Lance answered. “Red got spooked because she thought Keith was too close to her flamethrower, I think.”

“Really?” Keith said, sounding genuinely surprised. “She - was she, like, worried, or - ?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, pretty sure she just didn’t think the newbie could handle the heat.”

“Very funny. I’ve landed at least as many shots as you have in this battle, and I’ve been dodging just as well.”

“Yeah, easy to dodge when you’re that tiny a target.”

“Should be easier to hit the other ships when you’ve got that big a weapon.”

“Red says you’re a weenie, Keith.”

The first stop on their dreaded tour of new planets who seemed to be good potential sources of vehicles and transportation technology for the Coalition came around all too soon, and it wasn’t easy for any of the paladins to keep their eyes open as Coran went over the choreography for their air show. Sure, there had been a bit of a gap since their last one, but the basic structure of the show was so ingrained in all of their heads that it would probably take years for them to forget. Lance still occasionally found Coran’s charts popping up in his dreams at night.

“Coran,” Lance finally groaned, cutting Coran off mid-sentence after he’d been talking for what felt like phoebs on end. “We already know all of this. We’ve done these show-of-arms things before.”

“You don’t know all of it,” Coran said. “If you hadn’t interrupted me, you would know that this show includes almost a full twenty ticks of new choreography for you paladins to learn.” Pidge and Hunk joined him in groaning this time, and Coran harrumphed and turned back to his chart. “You know,” he said, “Back when we first did these shows you all were plenty enthusiastic about them. Especially you, Lance.”

“Yeah, but we were like little kids being excited about school on the first day of kindergarten,” Pidge said. “We didn’t know what sort of horrors were in store down the line.”

“Kindergarten?” Coran repeated, brow furrowed.

“It’s school for little kids,” Hunk said.

Lance nodded and added, “They put like thirty little six-year-olds together in a pit armed with rocks and make them fight for dominance to teach them the laws of the jungle.”

“Good gods, that’s barbaric!” Coran cried, his face instantly turning a shade paler.

“He’s joking, Coran,” Shiro said hastily. “Lance, what have we said about scaring Coran like that?”

“That it boosts creativity,” Pidge answered.

“No, Pidge.”

“Hmph,” said Coran. “Let’s get back on topic, shall we?”

“How come Allura doesn’t have to be here?” Lance asked.

“Because, Lance, she is currently piloting the castle,” Coran replied. “Besides, I already went over the new choreography with her while you were all on your sleep cycle. Honestly, the amount of sleep you humans need is utterly absurd. How you lot manage to fall asleep every single quintant is beyond me. In any case, I need you to stay awake for the time being. Thotirn will be invaluable to us as an ally - their spacecrafts and the fuel to run them are the chief intergalactic exports of their whole quadrant, and they’ve got plenty to spare. But they’ll only let us dip into their supply if we put on a good show! Now, back to where we were before I was so rudely interrupted. I want Yellow and Blue to be mirroring each other in a bell tailslide right here, so Hunk, follow closely…”

Lance sighed and slumped back into the couch cushion as Coran continued, only adjusting himself to keep from leaning against Keith’s shin. The latter had perched himself on top of the couch, feet on the cushions, in his armor, although still in the Altean armor rather than the paladin armor the rest of them wore. He wasn’t part of the air show, of course; Coran had asked if he’d be interested in taking a turn with the microphone, but Keith had declined, although he had still, after some hesitation, accepted the invitation to join them at the dinner party scheduled to take place afterward. In the meantime, he had joined them in the lounge for Coran’s choreography lecture simply for lack of anything better to do.

Lance noticed, though, that Keith’s eyes were just as glazed over as the rest of them, and didn’t seem to be following Coran’s movement, just staring off into space instead. “Bored?” Lance asked, quietly enough that hopefully Coran couldn’t hear him.

Keith nodded. “A little,” he muttered.

“You remember having to do these in your version of Voltron?”

Keith shrugged, by now long past the point of physically flinching whenever ‘his’ reality was brought up. “Some,” he answered. “A lot of the shows were probably after I had left, though. And before that, I kind of, um, missed some due to - I was busy.”

“You got to skip them?” Lance huffed. “Lucky.” Keith didn’t reply, so Lance continued, “So was it for Blade stuff or other missions or, like, ‘personal’ issues or - ?”

Keith shushed him and nudged him with his foot. “I can’t hear Coran,” he whispered.

Lance raised a brow. It wasn’t as if Keith needed to know any of this stuff. Still, assuming that it was just Keith’s socially incompetent way of ending the conversation, Lance moved his focus back to Coran and his holographic charts.

After another quarter of a varga that dragged on for an eternity, Coran finally turned off the charts, declaring that it was time to move to the bridge, as they would be reaching Thotirn shortly. The paladins stretched and did their requisite amount of grumbling before following him, moving to take their usual seats around the bridge.

“Do we have an estimated arrival time?” Shiro asked Allura where she stood at the castle’s controls.

“We’re on course to break their atmosphere in just under ten doboshes,” Allura answered. “After that it’s just a couple more to get the Lions to our planned landing site and - ”

She was cut off by a loud beeping as something red popped up on one of the holoscreens before her. Coran rushed to join her at the controls, and the other paladins were immediately on the alert, all their former boredom forgotten. “What is it?” Shiro asked.

“Is something attacking the castle?” asked Hunk.

“Not the castle, no,” said Coran. “But something’s attacking Zondrivis. The Thotirnian city we’re visiting,” he added in response to the paladins’ puzzled expressions. “We’re getting a distress signal from them. I’ll see if I can get a visual.”

“You think the Galra knew we were coming?” Pidge asked. “Is this an ambush?!”

Another holoscreen expanded from the control panel with a magnified view of the surface they were flying toward. “Hmm, doesn’t seem to be an attack for us,” Coran said. “Those ships look like Holvarthan craft. I’m sure if they’d known Voltron was going to be making an appearance here, they would have sent Galra ships after us.”

“Holvartha is currently under Galra’s thumb, though,” Allura said. “So they’re certainly no friends of ours.”

“Doesn’t look like they’ve got too big of an invasion force going here,” Coran said. “No reason Voltron can’t take care of this.” He turned around to face the others. “All right, paladins, looks like there’s been a change of plans. That distress signal was only just sent, so the Holvarthans probably haven’t done much damage yet. Thotirn has a large vehicle supply, but little by way of weaponry, so taking them down will be our job. Focus on pushing the invading forces away from industrial areas and civilians, then we’ll take them out. All in all, should be a fairly easy job.”

“Oh, this is wonderful!” Allura cried in delight, clasping her hands together with a smile.

The others stared at her.

Face reddening slightly, she hurried to say, “I meant, it’s wonderful that this should be a relatively simple victory. And, of course, taking down an invading force will be a far more productive way of demonstrating our skills to the Thotirnians than the air show… which we, erm, won’t have to do now…” She cleared her throat. “I wasn’t calling the attack itself wonderful, because, of course, a potential ally being invaded is… it’s not wonderful - ”

“Good save, Princess,” said Pidge. “We heading to the Lions or what?”

“Yes, yes, the Lions,” Allura said with a fervent nod. “To your hangars, all…”

Lance got up from his seat and started toward his zipline, and the others all did the same, save for Keith, who approached Shiro and tapped on his shoulder. “Um, Shiro?” he said. “The, uh, the cruiser’s been fixed up, and - and you and Allura said once I’ve done some training with, um, with you guys, that I could join on the - ”

“On the missions, yeah,” Shiro said. “Sure, go for it. This should be a good starter mission for you.” Keith’s face lit up, and he turned to the bridge’s exit before Shiro grabbed him by the arm. “But if I, the team, or Coran gives you an order, you follow it, okay?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah, I will.”

“And no unnecessary risks.”

“Okay.”

“Intentionally crashing your ship into another ship counts as ‘unnecessary’.”

“Shiro!” Allura said. “We’re going!”

“Right, right.” Shiro released Keith’s arm, and the latter raced out of the bridge with what Lance was almost certainly would be classified as a spring in his step.

Lance got to his own zipline, sliding down the wire until he reached his seat and sank into Red’s cockpit. Her dashboard lit up as he put his hands onto the controls. “All right, girl,” he said. “Ready to get some exercise?”

He interpreted the speed at which she bolted out of her hangar as a ‘yes’.

Red was the first in the air as usual, but the other Lions were quick to follow, with Keith’s little cruiser joining the chase after an extra half a dobosh before the castle returned to its own route to find its landing site. “Got a visual on a couple of them,” Lance announced into his comm as his viewscreen zoomed in on the moving ships on the horizon. “What’s our strategy?”

“Don’t do anything until we’re close enough to aim more precisely,” Shiro said. “We don’t want to hit any Thotirnian crafts by mistake.”

“Well, duh,” said Lance. “I meant, in a minute or two, when we’re closer, what’s our strategy?”

“We’re aiming to get the Holvarthan ships away from any areas where a proper battle could harm industry or civilians,” Coran said. “I’ve no doubt any Thotirnian ships current holding the fort are doing the same. The fighting seems to be concentrated near Zondrivis’ eastern border, so if you can push them eastward, you’ll have the space to take them down fully. Hunk and Shiro, your Lions are big and sturdy enough to push them physically; Lance and Keith, try to either corner them or see if any will give chase. Allura and Pidge, you can do the same, and disable any exterior weapons or thrusters if you’re able. Disable, don’t destroy.”

A chorus of assents sounded over the comms, and by this point they were close enough to the battle site to start splitting off and facing the various Holvarthan crafts head-on. Coran was right in that the Thotirnians had a few of their own ships in the air as well - judging by the blue-green accents on some of the ships as opposed to the purples that indicated the invaders’ Galra affiliation - but they wouldn’t have lasted long on their own, as those ships were outnumbered and absurdly tiny, looking to be merely half the size of Keith’s cruiser.

The Thotirnian ships made way as the Red Lion entered the fray, and Lance couldn’t help but let a little grin spread across his face. It was hard not to feel a bit like some sort of superhero whenever the Lions of Voltron entered a battle, the almost mythical presence swooping in and saving the day with apparent ease.

“Hello, little mouse,” Lance muttered as he set his sights on a Holvarthan ship that was racing toward one of the Thotirnians. “Kitty wants to play.” He shot Red’s flame out in front of the ship, blocking it from the smaller vessel it had been pursuing and turning its attention toward him. Immediately he sent another beam its way, careful not to actually hit its nose, but get close enough to force the ship to alter its course.

The Holvarthan fired back, and Lance easily ducked Red under the blast. “That really the best you got?” Lance asked, pulling Red around and firing again, forcing the ship to sharply bank left and still catching a bit of its wing. “Ooh, you’re gonna have to be faster than that if you wanna - ”

“Lance,” Pidge cut him off. “If you absolutely must trash talk this much, do you think you could turn your mic off first?”

“Oh,” said Lance. “Sorry. Just having a little fun with this one. I’ve got it chasing me.”

“Attaboy, Lance,” Shiro said, and Lance took a moment to be glad their conversation was audio-only, as otherwise Pidge and Hunk would never stop ragging on him for the way his chest instinctively puffed with pride. “We’re pretty close to some open space on your two o’clock, so you can take it down once you’ve got it readied.”

“On it,” Lance said. Tongue between his teeth in concentration, he set to toying with the other ship, keeping Red close enough to let the other think it could catch up to him, occasionally sending blasts back toward its tail as a little shove of encouragement to keep its sights on him.

Once he had lured the ship sufficiently into the safe zone, he rounded on it, positioning Red to take it down in one final rush of flame. Right before he had the chance, though, another sharp blast shot toward the ship from his nine, splitting the Holvarthan’s vertical stabilizer straight down the middle and knocking it off its center. The ship rolled in mid-air, then a second blast caught its impulse engine dead-center. The engine burst and took the surrounding craft down with it.

“Keith!” Lance snapped into his comm as the little cruiser darted across his viewscreen.

“What?” said Keith.

“You just stole my kill!”

“What are you talking about?”

Lance huffed. “I’m the one who got that guy over here! You shoot down the ships you push out here, I shoot down mine.”

“What the hell does it matter? As long as the ship is taken down, what’s the difference who hits it last?”

“You can’t just - ”

“Keith, Lance, not the time to argue,” Shiro said. “Keith, Lance has a point, you’ve got to be sure to communicate with us so we know what the team is doing.”

“Sorry.”

“And Lance, Keith has a point too. Our priority is just getting these ships out of commission quickly, so it’s not the time to call dibs or keep score. It’s not a competition.”

“If sort of is,” Pidge said. “The Holvarthans are losing.”

“Not a competition between us, I mean,” said Shiro.

“Eh, whatever,” Pidge said, and Lance could practically hear the shrug. “On the topic of communicating positions, got a big one here and we’re approaching Red, wanna help bring it down?”

“I’m on it!” Lance said, swiveling Red’s gaze until he spotted the Green Lion approaching, dragging behind her with a mass of thick vines a decently large Holvarthan ship, the cannon atop it frozen over with Blue’s ice.

“If you need any - ” Keith started.

“Nah, we’re good, you take care of your own targets,” said Lance. “Go ahead and move Green out of the way, Pidge, I got this guy.”

The ends of the vines broke off from Green as she flew off, and Lance sent a stream of flame toward the ship from Red. He let out a whoop as it hit the target dead-on, the flames moving along the vines to curl around the ship as they brought it down. “Nice!” he said. “I get bonus points for style on that one! Game highlight right there.”

“Lance,” said Allura. “Please keep in mind that there are real Holvarthan people piloting those crafts. Taking down invading forces is a necessity, yes, but let’s not be crass about it.”

“Right, uh, sorry Allura,” Lance said.

“They’re Galra allies,” Pidge muttered. “Seems like a waste of politeness.”

“Uh, if we’re not too busy arguing about battle decorum,” Keith said. “Some of these ships are trying to make a break to the west.”

“Not on my watch, they’re not,” Lance grunted, veering Red around to take off toward the escaping Holvarthans.

Overall, the remaining battle managed to be more or less uneventful - or as uneventful as an airborne battle on a foreign planet between an invading alien armed force and a bunch of giant magic lion robots can be expected to be. There was one minor incident, during which Lance had set to fire a blast from Red’s flamethrower toward an oncoming Holvarthan ship, only for her not to respond.

“C’mon, Red,” Lance growled. “I thought we were past this! Why are you - ”

In the back of his mind Red redirected his attention toward movement on his viewscreen, where Keith’s cruiser was pulling around from behind the ship. “Are you kidding me?” Lance muttered, trying the flamethrower again, and relieved to see that Red was cooperating again now that Keith was out of the line of fire. “He would have dodged that, no sweat. What’s your deal?”

“Something wrong, Lance?” Shiro asked.

“Nah,” Lance answered. “Red got spooked because she thought Keith was too close to her flamethrower, I think.”

“Really?” Keith said, sounding genuinely surprised. “She - was she, like, worried, or - ?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, pretty sure she just didn’t think the newbie could handle the heat.”

“Very funny. I’ve landed at least as many shots as you have in this battle, and I’ve been dodging just as well.”

“Yeah, easy to dodge when you’re that tiny a target.”

“Should be easier to hit the other ships when you’ve got that big a weapon.”

“Red says you’re a weenie, Keith.”

“Must you guys do this now?!” Hunk finally interrupted.

They both gave their requisite apologies and brought their focus back to the battle at hand, and said battle wrapped up fairly smoothly not too much later. Once the sky was clear of threats the Lions and the cruiser went back to make their landing near the castle ship, the pilots worn out but otherwise unharmed and the Lions no worse for wear.

It was usually nice to get a bit of rest and quiet in after a battle, but descending from the Lion’s jaw to be greeted by the applause of a gathering crowd of the population you’d just saved was a pretty decent substitute, as Lance was reminded as he and the other paladins disembarked. He removed his helmet and waved to the spectators, beaming brightly. “Yes, thank you!” he called. “You’ve been a great crowd! Don’t forget to tell your friends about Voltron!”

“Take it down a notch,” Shiro’s voice said in his ear as his human hand landed on Lance’s shoulder. He smiled politely at the onlookers, lifting his Galra arm in his own perfunctory wave.

“It’s the adrenaline, Shiro,” Lance said. “These the people who were here to watch the air show?”

“Seems like it,” Shiro said. He gestured with his thumb, and Lance looked to see that Allura and Coran had approached a couple of particularly well-dressed Thotirnians and were in conversation with them. “I think they’re seeing about rescheduling the show.”

“In the meantime, then…” Lance trailed off to blow kisses toward the crowd and begin waving again.

His wrist was just a little sore by the time Allura and Coran returned to the others and gestured for them to gather around. “We spoke with the directors who had been overseeing Voltron’s press appearance,” Coran said. “This whole affair with the Holvarthans ran clear through the time we’d blocked out for our show.”

“However, the dinner and fellowship gathering is still right on track,” Allura said. “So we’ll want you to remain in your armor for that, but feel free to take the time to eat up and stretch your legs.”

“Hang on,” said Hunk. “Does this mean we’re definitely not doing the air show?”

“Correct,” Coran answered with a nod. “The Thotirnians seemed to agree that our taking down the Holvarthan invasion was sufficient performance from Voltron.” He smiled. “They seem quite eager to see about joining forces. Congratulations, paladins, you put on an excellent show.”

“So,” Lance said slowly. “That whole giant review of our flight choreography…”

“Was a total waste of time, yes,” Pidge finished with a solemn nod.

“Fantastic.”

[takadasaiko]

Second Chances Chapter Twenty

FFN II AO3

Summary: Obadiah shows Tony what he's capable of while Pepper fights for her family.

Chapter Twenty

Howard felt his world spin around him, and it had nothing to do with the blow to the head. He couldn't do anything but watch as Obadiah Stane - a man that he'd counted as a friend once - guided Tony out of the house with an arm around his shoulders as if the threat of what he'd do to them all wasn't left hanging thickly in the air. He watched the thugs that lingered behind, waiting to see if they'd leave with him or if they would remain at the house as insurance to make sure Tony cooperated with whatever Stane had planned.

It took a moment, but they followed after their boss without a word, leaving Howard alone on the kitchen floor. He stumbled his way up, and the SUV was pulling away from the house by the time that he made it over to the window.

"He went with them." Howard spun, finding Pepper already halfway down the stairs. Her expression was carefully guarded, but it hadn't been a question. She knew. She probably knew before she'd come out of the bedroom. He opened his mouth to respond and she shook her head. "You weren't going to be able to stop him. Trust me. Did they all leave with Obadiah?"

"As far as I could tell."

Her blue gaze swept over him, assessing something that she didn't bother sharing with him. Instead she started for the door. "Tony started designing this place right after we found out we were pregnant. Even retired and with half the population gone he knew there was always a chance of an enemy or two popping up, so he made sure Morgan had a safe place to hide if there was ever a worst case scenario."

Okay. So Morgan was safe. That had to count for something. He followed her out and across the yard. "How're we gonna find him?"

"We need to start by reconnecting to FRIDAY." Pepper frowned at the keycode on the garage and started searching the outside of the structure. She seemed to know what she was looking for, but she wasn't too quick to share. "Obadiah's group hit a SHIELD base, didn't they?"

"A storage facility, yeah. Cap, Peggy, and Bucky checked it out and got attacked on their way out."

Pepper loosed a frustrated sigh as she pulled a small device from where it was tucked out of immediate view. She held it out to give Howard a better look at it. "Tony's design. He put it together a few months ago for Fury when he asked."

Howard took the little disk, squinting in the dark at the red lights showing that it was active. "What's it do?"

"It's a localized EMP. The way it was positioned, it had everything in the garage knocked out. Our computers that connect to the Stark Industry's servers, FRIDAY's mainframe…"

"And the suits," Howard murmured. "All the defenses set up."

"Most of them, yeah." A slim finger moved over the edge and red lights faded. As they did the keypad on the door flickered and finally jolted back to life. Pepper keyed in her code and the doors opened. "Obadiah must have made modifications to it. After…." She grimaced a little, and Howard knew she was trying to decide how much to say. He might know it was Obie, but there were still a lot of gaps there. Finally she pulled in a breath. "After a security breach a few years ago he made sure to put safeguards in. Anything he gave to SHIELD shouldn't have worked on our systems."

"Did SHIELD tell you they'd gotten it?"

His son's wife snorted. "Oh no. That would have made things too easy. FRIDAY, are you back online?"

"Working on it," the AI answered.

"I need a secure line and I need you to pull any of our satellite footage that might have caught the vehicle Obadiah came in."

A holoscreen appeared in front of Pepper with a digital keyboard in front of it. Half of the screen showed a progress bar. "Pulling the images now. The line is secure."

"Thank you, FRIDAY," Pepper managed, and she reached for the keyboard. Just as she did a sound drew both of their attention towards the still-open door.

"Any chance Morgan got curious?" Howard managed.

"She can't unlock it from inside."

"Shit."

"Just get behind me."

Dark eyes blinked owlishly at that. "Listen, that's uh…." He jumped as blue and silver metal flew by, a piece of it nearly slamming into him as it did. It fastened around Pepper, encasing her in a suit not too unlike one of Tony's, and he let out a low whistle. "Whatever you say."

She put herself between him and the door, the charging repulsor beam in her glove the only sound as they waited.

                                            _________________________

The entire car ride felt like he was one turn away from the driver pulling over to put a bullet in his head. He hadn't felt quite like that since the humvee in Afghanistan sixteen years before. It didn't help that the same man that had organized the attack then sat next to him in the back of the SUV now.

"You look tense," his former mentor said and reached forward to a small storage area in front of them and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of amber liquid like it was old times.

"Couldn't imagine why," Tony murmured as he loosed a breath, dark eyes taking in every inch of his surroundings. "Not like you dragged me out of bed and threatened my family or anything."

Obadiah chuckled and shoved a glass into Tony's hand. "I would have let you change, Tony," he said, motioning to the fact that he was sitting there in nothing but a t-shirt, sleeping pants, and his own bare feet, "but you seemed to be in a hurry to get out the door. Cute kid you had there though. She was very persistent that I didn't touch Howard. That's gotta be a story there."

Tony pushed a frustrated breath out his nose. "What do you want, Stane?"

"It's been a long time, and I understand that you were, uh…. heavily involved in bringing back everyone that was snapped out. I suppose I have to be grateful for that. It looks like it left a mark." He motioned at the scarring along Tony's right side and the younger man's eyes narrowed dangerously. Stane snorted. "Consider it an olive branch discussion. I think we can help each other. I'd like to help each other."

"If you think I'm going to give you anything, you never did know me very well, did you?"

"We'll see. Everybody has a price. Even self-righteous little pricks like you."

Tony finally cracked a smile. "You really think that getting me out of the house means you've won, huh? Let me guess. Your people are going back for Pep and Morgan. You think you'll be able to leverage them like you did Howard." He watched the older man's expression harden just before he hid it behind a sip from his own glass. Tony chuckled. "You're about to be disappointed."

"So this is how it's going to be?" Stane asked.

"You're not getting anything from me. You should have known that coming in."

Stane hummer lowly and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small disk that Tony recognized as one of his own designs. A localized EMP. He lifted one dark eyebrow. "You planning to kill your car engine?" he asked flatly.

"Something a bit smaller."

The question never made it from his lips as Stane flipped the device on and the blue light under his white t-shirt suddenly went out. Tony jolted, head slamming back against the rest, and his whole body seized up as his heart desperately tried to beat without the reactor to support it.

"Do you like the modifications?" Stane asked almost pleasantly. He must have deactivated it again because there was another shock to his system and Tony felt his heart shudder back into a healthier rhythm.

"How?" he managed after a long moment.

"I assumed that if you were willing to produce this little gem for SHIELD that you would put safeguards in to protect yourself. I found a kid that can reverse engineer almost anything. Smart boy. You'd like him." Stane chuckled. "I'll tell you, he's a big fan of yours."

"What the hell do you need me for then?" Tony choked out, hand finally making it to his chest and his fingers wrapped around the glowing ARC reactor.

"Even he has limits, and your AI systems are beyond him. We can shut it down temporarily like we did at your house, but getting into it, accessing those files and protocols…. that's all you."

Tony snorted and leaned his head back against the seat behind him as the vehicle continued forward. He didn't dare close his eyes or he thought the exhaustion would pull him under. Instead he focused on the darkly tinted windows and his own drawn reflection there. They'd been in the car for…. a couple hours at least. He'd lost track of which way they were driving. It was like having a bag over his head. Completely disorienting. "You know, the terrorists you hired to kill me years ago tried to torture me into giving them my tech, and I'll tell you the same thing I told them." He turned, meeting those dark blue eyes he'd once known well. "I refuse."

Stane made a small, amused noise, almost like he was accepting some sort of challenge. Well, Tony had never shied away from one before, and if worse came to worst his family would be safe. Pepper had everything at her disposal to make sure they'd be okay. At the end of the day, that's what really mattered.

                                           _________________________

Data flashed across her screens. Five men incoming. Heavily armed. Not as heavily as she was though. Whatever Obadiah's people had been told to expect, Pepper was fairly certain that she wasn't part of the warning. They came in guns blazing, which was useless against the Rescue suit. Howard had jumped for cover in the back room, and as long as she could hold them, this would be over as quickly as it had started

Bullets pinged off her armor and she returned fire, precision blasts taking down one, two and three, and four managed a head shot that rattled the helmet painfully as it sent her tumbling. Well that wasn't a normal gun.

Pepper picked herself up off the ground, ears ringing and trying to shake off the fuzzy feeling that threatened to distract her. Okay. This was how Tony always managed to come out of the suit beaten and bruised despite the countless upgrades he'd made to better protect himself inside of it. Getting slammed hurt no matter how well insulated it was. It didn't help that her experience fighting in the suit had been out in the open and not in as close quarters as her husband's workshop was turning out to be.

"Time to stay down."

She looked up at the man that had come after her, temper flaring. "No." She was on her feet again and the blast from her chest piece met and overpowered the energy blast from his gun, slamming him back hard. He didn't get up, and according to the vitals that flickered across his screen he wouldn't for some time.

Pepper turned, scanning for the last man standing and found herself alone in the front of the workshop. A blast and the loud crash that immediately followed sounded from the back and she felt a cold chill sweep through her. Howard.

The suit moved before she'd realized she'd given it the command, scattering papers and loose debris all around the tables. She blew through the opened door to find the room was strangely quiet in the aftermath of the violent, albeit brief battle. She saw the intruder first, laid out like he'd been thrown into the side of the car that Tony and Howard had been working on since Howard's arrival, but the misplaced Stark was nowhere to be seen.

A groan caught her attention from the other side of the room and after a quick scan of the downed attacker her helmet snapped back and she made her way towards it. Howard was picking himself up, one of the Iron Man gauntlets strapped to his arm, and she choked on the relieved laugh that escaped.

"Glad you think it's funny," he huffed. "Damn thing threw me across the room. How do you and Tony do that?"

Pepper pressed her lips together, desperately trying to keep her amusement to herself and failing as memories danced across her mind. "Tony did the same thing the first time he tried it."

"Guess I'm in good company then." He motioned with his left hand towards the front of the workshop. "What 'bout the others?"

"None of them are going anywhere fast. FRIDAY?"

"Should I put the call through that you were trying to make earlier?" the AI offered.

"Yeah. Call Steve Rogers."

                                           _________________________

He'd been trying to make a call for the past ten minutes. He would dial, put the phone to his ear, and then Tony would sit back and watch the frustration build. Stane tried three times before Tony finally chuckled. "Your people aren't gonna answer."

That pulled an irritated glare his way. "What did you do?"

"Oh, not me. I'm right here."

"Howard then."

Despite his own precarious situation, Tony couldn't help the amused smirk that tilted his lips up as the SUV pulled to a stop. "You know, you always underestimate people, Obie. You use them and throw them away when you think you're done with them, but you don't see what they can be. It's the reason you couldn't kill me and it's the same reason there's no way in hell you're getting your hands on Pepper." He met the other man's careful gaze. "She's not going to let your people leave the property, much less get anywhere near our daughter."

Obadiah sat there for a long moment, the vehicle idling as he held Tony's gaze. Finally he tucked his phone away in his suit jacket. "Then I guess I'll just have to make sure you understand the stakes."

The only warning Tony had was the brief glimpse of the EMP disk before his body rebelled, the reactor going dark and his heartbeat trying to keep up with the new burden until everything went black.

                                           _________________________

TBC

Notes: Obadiah should already know not to mess with Pepper Potts. She's the one that blew him to hell sixteen years before... and she'd do it again in a heartbeat to protect her family.

[esamastation]

Buncha Crap I tried to write today and failed

Firstly, second chapter of Sky Walkers which got, like... 300 words in before i got bored

Sky Walkers Ch. 2

The first time CC-2224 saw Kenobi was in space, and he was on the deck of one of the new Venator-class star destroyers. Over a kilometre in length, the Venator-class ships aren't exactly small, having good hundred meters over the Separatists' Dreadnoughts in length and even more in width. It's experience to be on board one of the things, never mind being on deck and seeing the full, arrow shaped length ahead of them.

Kenobi, when he appeared right next to them without as much as hyperspace blur, dwarfed the capital ship entirely. There is no way to put the sheer size of him into words – other than incomprehensibly vast maybe. No one has the precise measurements of a fully grown Jedi, of course – no one has any idea where the Jedi stop growing, if they ever do – but Kenobi is on the larger side of the Jedi; what the Jedi themselves refer to as Councillor.

Whether it's a size classification or an actual title, no one is entirely sure, but all the Councillor Jedi are beyond impressive – and Kenobi, even then, seemed to CC-2224 like the most awestriking thing he'd ever seen. He wasn't the only one on the deck struck speechless that day – wasn't the only one whose heart skipped a beat.

And that was before Kenobi spread out his wings and lit his dark shape in glow of that strange bioluminescence, with a bright blue horn at what CC-2224 eventually came to know as the front of the Jedi. The Lightsaber of a Jedi.

And then, they heard him.

Hello, there, the Jedi spoke with a warm male voice right into their heads. I am Kenobi, member of the Jedi High Council. I am here to assist you with the liberation of Ryloh.

It was the mind-blowing start of what would be a very short recapture of a Separatist occupied planet.

-

So that was a meh. Then I tried to write a thing with Obi-Wan and Cody where Cody too gets his chip removed and stuff changes and decided to start it with Rex telling Obi-Wan about the chips, but BECAUSE NETFLIX IS A POOP HEAD I havent actually seen season 6 if Clone Wars because it’s not available in finland and yes i’m salty, it didn’t turn out so good so anyway.

-

Chip thing

"Sir, do you have a moment?"

Obi-Wan's eyebrows arch and he looks up from the holoscreen, taking in the clone trooper at the doorway. It's Rex. That's a little odd, he hadn't even been aware that Rex was on board the Negotiator, which is rather curious. Usually he is promptly informed about such things. And not only is Rex aboard his ship un-announced, but he looks deathly serious.

"Of course, Rex, come right in," Obi-Wan says slowly and motions the clone trooper to enter. He closes the holoscreen, turning away from the table. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm – aware this is a little unusual, General," Rex says. "But this is important – and General Skywalker…" he trails off with a frown and shakes his head. "I'm not sure if you're aware about incident with one of the clones of 501st company?"

"Incident?" Obi-Wan asks and narrows his eyes a little. "You mean with General Tiplar?" he asks. "That was nearly a month ago."

Rex bows his head a little. "Relating to that incident," he admits quietly and takes something from his hip pouch, holding it out. "There was an investigation, and one of the clones of the 501st Batallion was involved. ARC trooper Fives, I don't know if you're aware of him, sir."

"The name rings a bell, yes," Obi-Wan admits and accepts what he's being handed to. A plastoid film, containing a small… organic looking little thing. "What am I looking at, Rex?"

"The clone trooper who shot General Tiplar – malfunctioned," Rex says taking as deep breath. "Because this thing in his head shorted out. It's a biochip, sir. All the clones have it."

Obi-Wan frowns, looking between the plastoid film and the clone captain. "I see," he says slowly, noncommittally.

"Fives learned about it during the investigation. There was another incident, during which it was said he tried to kill the High Chancellor," Rex says and doesn't quite look at him. "Fives was taken down eventually, it was branded as mutiny, but before he was shot and killed… he shared with some particulars with myself and General Skywalker. Including the existence of this chip inside all clones."

Obi-Wan says nothing for a moment, turning his attention to the chip. He'd never heard anything about it. "And what does the chip do?" he asks slowly.

"It overrides our brains, sir," Rex says and his eyelids flicker with some barely restrained emotion. "And makes us do whatever people of certain high rank order us. There are hundred and fifty specialised orders programmed into it. Tup – CT-5385 – was executing one of them when he shot General Tipler. Order 66 – all Jedi are branded as Traitors, and are to be… executed immediately."

Obi-Wan stops in the act of flipping the chip over. "That's…" he narrows his eyes. "Quite the thing, Rex."

Rex doesn't answer – staring at mid distance with carefully blank expression. He's made no accusations, Obi-Wan thinks, he's pointed no fingers. "Anakin knows about this too?"

Now Rex's eyes flicker shut just for a moment, and his expression hints at pain. "ARC-5555… implicated the High Chancellor in his tale, sir. Which, considering the previous incident where ARC-5555 was said to have held the High Chancellor hostage… General Skywalker dismissed ARC-5555's words, stating that he like CT-5385 was unwell and not talking sense."

Obi-Wan narrows his eyes, looking away. "Hmm," he answers. "Where did you get this?" he asks, looking at the chip.

"From my own head, sir," Rex says and finally meets his eyes. He turns his head a little and shows a small incision mark behind his ear, already mostly healed. "I – reprogrammed a medical droid to do it – and erased it's memory afterwards."

-

So that was also a bit meh, so after that I just got a word generator thing and had it spew out buncha words at me to use as prompts for snippet thing because I was getting bored and wrote this

-

1. stuff

Obi-Wan doesn't have much in way of possessions when he settles down on Tatooine.

A ship, which he quickly sells. The most of the money he got from selling it goes to purchasing a small plot of worthless land, it's only value being the little sandstone hut on it – and it's proximity to the Lars farmstead. Too rocky and too uneven for any sort of moisture farming and far too removed to be of interest to even the worst of local lowlifes, it's perfect for dissappearing. The rest of the money go to buying an eopie which, he suspects, he will end up selling soon as well.

Set of clothing, which thankfully fit Tatooine's local fashion well enough. Jedi aren't so commonly seen here that people would immediately recognize Jedi tunics – but the rough, simple material it's made of, now that is common. It's what the slaves wear. And like his, theirs is un-dyed as well. He fits right in, so as long as no one takes a closer look at the expect craftmanship of his utility belt and the high quality of his boots.

And then there are two lightsaber. One of which goes into a roughly hewn drawer in is new hut, and will stay there for the next several years if he has anything to say about it.

 2. satisfying

There is strange sort of gratification in getting his little, insignificant life in order. His little sandstone hut has a single moisture vaporator in bad need of maintenance, and air conditioning unit which lets out a puff of smoke when he turns it on for the first time. The cooling unit for food stuff, that has a abandoned nest of something long dead inside it.

It takes him weeks to get the place into liveable state and even after that, it will be constant struggle against the elements, to keep them from claiming what little comfort he's managed to pull together in the place. Tatooine's atmosphere and the specific quality of the twin sun's radiation makes the daytime exhausting to people and corrosive to machinery – to live here is to strike a delicate balance of constant maintenance.

It's a welcome distraction from the constant hurt of absence and betrayal. At this point he's not sure which one is the worse, they vie for top place in his nightmares daily. One day he will learn to live with them. For now, he will avoid them as much as he can and any time he can push them aside in order to grab a wrench instead…

He almost learns to enjoy the work, even if it will never, ever compare to the life and duties of a Jedi. The first glassful of water he gets from the moisture vaporator is one of the sweetest he'd ever had.

 3. tiny

His universe slowly coalescence into that small space. Into Tatooine's twin suns, into Tatooine's deserts and dynes and eventually, into the cramped interior of his hut. The Republic and it's grand spaces, it's open halls and it's vast hyperlanes fades into the distant past and Obi-Wan's existence becomes a small, inconsequential thing.

Maybe somewhere someone is looking for him… but he doubts it.

There's not much of him left to be found, these days.

 4. daughter

Bail sends him one communication, a year into his isolation. It has an actual message on it, which Obi-Wan listens to once before deleting it. The less he knows about the rebellion Bail is building… the better.

The holographic photograph of Leia Organa he keeps.

- - -

Except this turned out to be just “obi-wan just like being in tatooine?” and not the interesting timetravelly AU i was thinking and I got bored with that too

So yeah this is what a bad writing day for me looks like :|

[mischiefandspirits]

Scales and Arpeggios

Part of the Cat of a Different Color series

While Allura’s resting from the Balmeran ceremony, the paladins go on a training mission. Meanwhile, the cats run into an old friend and see an enemy.

Part 4: Mind Over Meow-tter

Pidge undergoes the sphinx's tests while the cats catch up with an old... friend?

<Ugh! We’ve been flying forever! How much farther?>

<Don’t you mean, are we there yet?>

<Are we there yet? Are we there yet?>

<Merla, Chip, enough. Blue, don’t encourage them.>

<Yes, dad.>

<Gross, could you imagine Ryou being our dad!>

<That’d make Blue our aunt and you’d be->

<Yes, Chip, thank you for that.>

<Knock it off you two.>

<Oh, come on, Ryou. They’re just keeping busy. The last thing we need is those two getting bored.>

<Might I remind you the last time I got bored, it resulted in all of us figuring out how to separate from our metallic forms? I’d say me getting bored is very profitable!>

<Merla, love, that is literally one moderately good instance tucked within millions of terrible ones.>

<Kiss a kwaila!>

<We’re flying right now, I can’t kiss you.>

<BURN!>

<I’m going to kick your->

<I’m surrounded by children. Honestly, can we have five minutes of quiet. Just five.>

…

“Anyone else tired?”

<Ha! Pua’s human spoke first!>

<Hunk didn’t count. Besides, it wasn’t a competition.>

“No.”

<Keith, I’m tired! Tell them I’m tired!>

<No, you’re not.>

“Okay, just asking. It’s been a while since we’ve, you know, not been fighting or adventuring or anything.”

<Point.>

<Better point, the three of us got blasted out of the sky an hour or so ago. I think we’re due for a nap.>

“You think we have it bad? At least our life force wasn’t sucked out to fuel an entire planet. Princess Allura still hasn’t fully healed.”

<Listen to your paladin, Merla.>

<A good mother listens to her children, but that doesn’t mean she has to obey!>

“Speaking of Princesses, didn’t Malocoti say we’d find this zigg-a-whatever here?”

“Ziggurat. It’s a step pyramid.”

“Then why don’t they call it a pyramid?”

<Probably because most people think of the Egyptian pyramids when you just say pyramid. Ziggurat’s look much diff- Oh! Pidge!>

“Just keep looking. Wait, I’m getting a reading! There!”

The lions landed and everyone walked out towards the ziggurat.

“It’s massive! So inside is where we’ll find this sphinx guy that’ll tell us where the pearl is?”

<Not exactly.>

The paladins jumped back with a shout as the ziggurat came apart, rearranging itself into the shape of a creature with the four-legged lower body of a feline and the upper body of a winged humanoid.

<HI ZYLIN!!!> Chip chirped.

<Chip, flirt with your soul-bound later,> Pua huffed.

<He is not my soul-bound anymore!>

<Hello, Great Pride. It is good to see you all again after so long,> the sphinx hummed before announcing, “I am the Great Universal Sphinx! Why have you disturbed me?”

<Why is your soul-bound always so dramatic?>

<PUA!>

“Wow!”

“We’re looking for the Yalexian Pearl. We were told you could help us find it. We need it to rescue our friend.”

<Can you just tell them instead of being your usual difficult self?> Ryou asked.

<No, My King. There are rules and traditions that must be followed, even by you and yours,> he answered. “I am a repository for great research. I have been analyzing life throughout the cosmos for over a million years. Of course I know where the pearl is; however, I do not know whether you are worthy of the information. Tell me, who is the most knowledgeable amongst you?”

“Her.”

<Chip.>

“The green one.”

<Her.>

“The short one.”

<Pidge.>

“That’s Pidge.”

<Chip.>

“Me.”

<Me.>

<Six, four, in favor of the human.>

Chip shot her sister a glare, which was met with a completely unrepentant look.

“It is decided. Your body, mind, and spirit shall be tested. Enter to prove yourself… and save your friend.”

Zylin collapsed back into Ziggurat form.

<Nice going, Merla,> Pua huffed.

<What?>

<We would have been better off allowing Chip to face the trials,> Ryou growled as the group began heading inside.

<Psh, Pidge will be fine.>

“Why’d he ask for the smartest person if there’s going to be a test of the body?”

<You were saying?>

<Come on, am I the only one that has faith in Chip’s palain?>

“You’re the smart one. Shouldn’t you know that?”

<I have all the faith in her. That doesn’t change the fact that we would have had much higher odds if I’d been the one selected.>

“Commence test of body.”

Suddenly mushrooms jumped off the walls and attached themselves to the male paladins. Their cats shivered as they felt the connections between them become clouded.

“What are you doing!?”

“The spores control your friends.”

<Keith!> Merla shouted, running for her cub, but a cyclone of sand rose up around the cats before solidifying into a glass dome.

The paladins rose up, glaring at Pidge with eyes covered by a white film.

“You must defeat your allies in combat. Without the assistance of the Great Pride.”

Shiro’s hand lit up with energy and he charged Pidge.

“They will fight exactly as your friends fight.”

Pidge brought up her shield, but the blow was still strong enough that she was knocked back into Keith’s arms.

“Let’s see if you’re smart enough to defeat them.”

Pidge kicked off Shiro’s chest, launching herself and Keith into a pillar. Taking the brunt of the impact, the Red Paladin released her on instinct. Freed, Pidge darted to the side, only to receive a kick to the side from Shiro that knocked her to the ground at the other paladins’ feet.

<Pidge!> Chip yowled.

<That’s it!> Merla hissed. She faded into quintessence and shot forwards.

The glass held her back just the same.

There was a thundercrack and she lit up with a wave of blazing blue flames that rolled across the dome.

<Merla!> Ryou roared as the four ducked under the assaulting heat.

The flames died back into quintessence and Merla collapsed into her cheetah form, panting and shaking with anger as she glared up at the unaffected glass.

<Zylin, let us out!> Blue growled.

<I apologize, Princess Salia, but I cannot. The rules must be followed. I will not control you out of respect, but you cannot be allowed to interfere.>

The five refocused on the fight, just in time to see Pidge bring a boulder down on Keith.

<I'm going to kill him,> Merla groaned.

Pidge scrambled out of the way as Shiro appeared behind her. She shuffled backwards as she brought up a holoscreen on her gauntlet.

<What’s she doing?> Blue asked.

<Using her brain,> Chip said.

<I thought this was a test of body,> Merla sighed.

<Well, the brain is a part of the body.>

<I thought Chip was supposed to be the know-it-all, Pua.>

Shiro stood over Pidge and bought back his fist. Suddenly his arm locked up and the glow died away. The shock even snapped Shiro free of the mind control for half a second.

Pidge used the pause to slip forwards and-

<By the Anodites! Did she seriously just deck Shiro!? You go Pidge!>

Pidge dropped to her knees, panting. “Sorry I had to hack your hand, Shiro, but I’ll turn it back on.”

The glass dome collapsed into sand as Zylin said, “Impressive. You will rise to the next level.”

<Keith!> Merla called, shakily rising to her feet before she and the others rushed over to their paladins. She froze as she saw the skin around his eyes slowly fading from lavender back to normal.

“Hey girl,” Keith said, reaching up to pat her on the head.

She flinched and focused in in time to see the last of the film disappearing from his yellow eyes.

“You okay?”

<Fine. You?>

“A little sore, but alright,” he groaned, sitting up. Merla helped him to his feet as the lavender faded from his skin and his eyes began to shift back to purple.

“Sorry, Pidge. We couldn’t control ourselves,” Hunk told the girl as she and Pua helped him to his feet.

“How’d you beat us all, anyway?” Keith asked, rubbing his side.

“I keep running files on all of your weaknesses. I exploited those weaknesses.”

Everyone except Chip stared at the girl.

“Our weaknesses?” Hunk asked incredulously as the group started heading up the stairs to the next room of the ziggurat. “How could you keep a running tab of our weaknesses?”

“Yeah, that’s messed up,” Lance agreed.

“Smart if you ask me.”

<Hate to say it, but me too,> Pua chuffed. <It would help us better cover the team’s weaknesses.>

“It worked, but if that information were ever to fall into the wrong hands…”

“Look, I’m sorry. I know it’s weird to do, to keep all that information on you all, my friends, but it’s just how I am. It’s my nature.”

Chip growled softly and nuzzled her side.

The group reached the top of the stairs to discover… a giant chessboard?

“The second challenge will be a game of chess.”

“Chess, huh? How do we both know about chess?”

“This is not the first time your species was tested. They failed, but remembered the game.”

<Seriously?>

“Wait, what!?”

<You’re kidding?>

“I visited Earth long ago. The game remained with your kind. Even though they got it wrong for a while, trying to make the king the most powerful piece, but eventually your society corrected itself.”

<Oh my- that explains so much!>

“That’s crazy!”

<How long were you there? How many humans did you interact with? When->

“Can we get back to the test. Please?”

<But->

<Chip.>

“Fine.”

“A draw will be considered a loss for you.”

“Doesn’t sound too hard. Who am I playing?

“Yourself.” Another mushroom hopped out of the shadows and latched onto Pidge before jumping across the room.

“Pidge! Are you okay?” Shiro asked, stepping forward to help support the girl.

“Yeah, but I feel like I stayed up all night not studying.”

“The spore has absorbed your mind. It will use your skills against you. And to be certain there’s no interfering…”

Holes opened up beneath the cats.

<Not again,> Merla hissed as they fell down. The sand of the tunnel swirled around them before shooting them out onto the chessboard.

Ryou landed in the spot of the white king, with Blue next to him as a bishop and Pua next to her as a knight. On his other side, past the Queen, Chip and Merla were also a bishop and knight respectively.

“You will have thirty ticks for each move. Begin!”

<Yeah, I’m not doing this.>

<Don’t move.> Chip snapped at her sister’s paw before it could leave her square.

<Why?>

<Have you never seen Harry Potter?>

<Harry what?>

<By the Anodites! Just stay on your square unless Pidge tells you to move.>

<Great.>

<Remind me again why I can’t just kill the king? It’s right there.>

<Once again, that’s not how knights move,> Chip sighed from off to the side where she and Blue were lounging after having been taken out.

<But if I have this chance why shouldn’t I just take it?>

<Because you’re a knight, not an assassin.>

<Not in this game, at least,> Blue snickered, rolling back to her feet and yawning. <Give her a break, Chip. She is the one in the room with the most experience attempting to kill a king.>

<Thank you, love, that’s very helpful.>

<She’s also the one with the most failed attempts at killing a king.>

“Checkmate!”

<Thank the Anodites!> Merla chirped, running over to the stairs that were rising up to allow the cats to reach their paladins. <Are we almost done with this nerd stuff?>

“Now to the most difficult challenge of all…”

The moment all the cats had made it onto the platform, it shot upwards. It carried them up to the top of the temple before knocking them down the side. Once they’d reached the ground, Zylin reformed into a sphinx.

“What can be totally broken apart and yet reform stronger than ever?”

“Oh, I actually know it!”

“What is it?”

“It’s Voltron!”

“Incorrect! You have failed!”

“What? Then what is it?”

“Hope. The correct answer was hope.”

“But Voltron is applicable! And very relevant!”

“I’m sorry, but the answer was hope. And now I will never tell you where the pearl is!”

<Are you kidding me!>

<ZYLIN!>

“I mean, like a lot of things could have been the answer if you think about it. Like love.”

<A kingdom can be stronger once it’s brought back together,> Ryou offered.

“I’ve heard of people breaking swords and then smelting them even stronger.”

<Bones. Bones are stronger after you break them!> Merla hissed.

“My heart is stronger than ever, despite it being broken many times.”

“Isn’t that love, like Hunk said?”

“Oh be quiet before I break you and see if you reform stronger.”

“I think Pidge’s answer should be honored,” Shiro said, stepping between the two fighting boys.

“Well that’s not how it works! I make the rules! And I’m not helping you at all!”

<Zylin!> Ryou roared.

<I’m sorry, My King, but the rules say the test of spirit is mine to set and this is the one I’ve chosen. The human has failed,> Zylin growled. “Now get in the lions and leave!”

“I’ve always hated riddles,” Keith growled as they all returned to the lions.

As Pidge passed the Red Lion, she turned back and pointed up at Zylin. “You know what? You want to test my spirit? Try standing between me saving my friend. You’re gonna have hoped that you hadn’t!” She jumped inside Chip and grabbed her controls in a white-knuckle grip. “Mind if I say it, Shiro?”

“Go for it.”

“Form Voltron!”

Pidge relaxed as images flickered past her eyes, her mind linking up with Voltron’s system. Meadows, forests, cliffs, hills, wrenches, whisks, storms, thrones, charts, shields, volcanoes, wildfires, swords, stars, glaciers, rivers, paintings, and sweaters all flashed through to leave her feeling connected.

“Tell us where the pearl is!”

“You are more foolish than I thought! I will crush you!”

The sphinx hit them right in the jaw.

<Ow! Zylin! Dim!>

They crouched down and Pidge called out, “Keith, help me stabilize. Hunk, lock it up. Lance, do your thing!”

“Oh yeah! Finally! Voltron Leg Swipe!” the Blue Paladin cheered as they spun about, swinging their leg out.

The sphinx lifted into the air before the could hit.

<Whoops.>

“Oh come on!”

They shot into the air, then body slammed him to the ground.

<YIELD!>

“Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you, ” he groaned and they got off him. As he stood, he said, “ I’m sorry. I know it was a horrible riddle. I just do that so people can’t answer correctly. I do it to make myself feel superior.”

<Never changes… Not my soul-bound anymore!>

“It’s pathetic really.”

“I’ll say,” Lance snorted.

“Hey, I saw in your mind. Do we really want to get into who’s more pa- ” he cut off with a flinch. He knelt down and ducked his head. “ Apologies, Blue Paladin.”

<Go Blue!>

“Uh, what just happened?” Hunk asked.

“I think Blue just told him off,” Lance said, sounding awed.

“She did. I spoke hastily and without thought -”

<The usual.>

“- and should not have said what I did. From your response, I can see that you all have come far in such a short time. I can tell you will do great things as the Great Pride’s chosen knights.”

“Great Pride?” Pidge questioned.

“The pearl is in the Evershadow or our moon. But it is a dangerous place and darkness lurks below.” He stood up and began to collapse back into a ziggurat. <Take care, Great Pride. And farewell sweet Dansa. Until we meet again.>

<Shut up.>

“So… that’s it then?” Hunk asked.

“Apparently.”

“I think Blue still wants to kick the pyramid.”

“I know Merla wants her to.”

“Alright, let’s head out. Looks like we’re heading up to the darkside of the moon.”

“Do you think they’ll have cookies?”

“Cookies?”

<Merla!>

“I’ll explain on the way,” Lance sighed.