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Shiro comes to Keith’s school on Wednesday.
They meet at the hangar on Thursday.
On Friday, Keith skips school.
He knows he will get in trouble, he will get a lecture both from the teacher and the headmaster of the orphanage, but he doesn’t care. He takes his father’s hoverbike, that keeps hidden in a local garage, and heads to the desert at the end of the city.
Being there, in the sand and the sunlight, with wind in his hair, is the only moment Keith feels like himself. He smiles as the familiar silhouette of the cottage appears at the horizon. He parks the hoverbike in front of the door.
“Mom? Mom!”
She’s in the garden backwards and she raises an eyebrow at him.
“Haven’t we talked about you skipping school?”
“I know,” he answers, “but this Saturday I can’t come and Sunday it’s too late.”
“Too late for that?” Her lips move in a smart smirk. “You’re happy. What happened?”
“I got a recommendation for the Galaxy Garrison!”
Her face falls. It’s just a second, before she recollects her thoughts and smile. “Come to the house and tell me everything.”
Keith sits at the table as she prepares lunch, telling her about Shiro’s visit. She chuckles at him stealing Shiro’s car, but overall she doesn’t look at him. She keeps herself busy so her face is concentrated into other things.
“I want to go,” Keith finishes.
“I know,” she replies. She sounds exhaust.
They talked and talked in the past about the war, about Voltron and the Blue Lion. His mother comforted him many times about the Blue Lion rejection, but this doesn’t stop Keith from trying. His mother is giving her life hiding, in a planet that doesn’t recognize her existence, and for a good reason.
She wants to keep him safe. Keith isn’t a child anymore; he doesn’t dream anymore about saving the universe with Voltron. He just wants to become better, takes the Blue Lion and let her returns to a place where she doesn’t have to be alone.
“I’m not going to stop you,” she says. “But becoming a space pilot won’t guarantee you to become the pilot of the Blue Lion. Don’t let your hopes up.”
His mother isn’t try to put him down. The lions have consciousness, they choose by themselves, that’s it. “I won’t,” he assures him, “but I still want to become better. To be prepared if… something happens.”
She nods. Finally, she sees at him as she serves lunch and that reassures Keith. She passes a fingers on the magazine Keith brought with him, with Shiro’s photo on it.
“So this is Shirogane, uh?” she asks.
Keith nods. “Best pilot of this generation.”
“Until now.”
***
“Officer Shirogane, a word.”
Shiro frowns. Iverson is there, alongside with Doctor Magellan, the head of the Scientific Department of the Garrison. Shiro hasn’t much in common with him, because they have different field of expertise; still, even if he isn’t the main responsible for the Kerberos Mission, it’s still the superior officer of Sam Holt and there is a possibility they’re still trying to convince him not to go.
“This is about Cadet Kogane,” Iverson specifies, and Shiro’s frowns grows even more.
Keith hasn’t gotten in any trouble recently. His grades are good, and his sim results astonish. Shiro hasn’t worry about him for a long time now.
“Have you see him today?” Magellan asks.
“No,” Shiro replies. “He doesn’t have class with me anymore this year.”
“But he’s your friend.”
Shiro doesn’t like the tone in Magellan’s voice. “I was the one recruiting him.”
Iverson nods. “Officer, Cadet Kogane refused to take a medical test yesterday, he didn’t return to the dormitory and nobody has seen him since.”
Shiro’s face darkness. Keith has no reason to run away. And a part of Shiro believes he wouldn’t have without talking with him first. Nothing of what they’re saying make sense.
“Something happened. I don’t know why, but…”
“It’s fine,” Magellan interrupts him. “Cadet Kogane is still a minor, so he’s under our responsibility. We need to find him first and foremost. If you know something, Officer Shirogane, please tell us.”
“I don’t know anything,” Shiro answers, and he isn’t a lie. He hasn’t see Keith in almost five days, too busy with the test for the Kerberos mission, and Keith has his own lessons and tests. Now he regrets not having looking for him earlier.
“If Cadet Kogane contact you, inform us. We count on you.”
“Of course,” Shiro says, and this time it’s a lie.
***
He doesn’t lie anymore, because Keith doesn’t contact him back. Shiro tries to make some investigation of his own, but there isn’t nothing really to discover. The only lead to Keith is his shakles on the desert and Shiro knows the Garrison is already investigated it. Shiro is disappointed more by Keith not contacting him than Keith’s escape.
And a part of him fears Keith hasn’t escape at all.
He can’t do much but sulking and seeing if he can discover something. He doesn’t expect news coming from Adam. Shiro meets him after one of his classes, and with mixes feeling. The break-up is still to recent, and that brings with him happiness and regrets and anger all together.
“Can we speak?” Adam asks.
“Now?” The answer is too sudden, too angry. He can’t help it.
“It’s not about us.”
Shiro feels the weight from his shoulder disappearing. They are still colleagues, they need to be professional. Shiro wonders if Adam is calm as he shows. A part of him hopes not.
“It’s about Keith.”
Immediately, Shiro lets all his worries about his broken loves story disappears. “They found him?”
Adam shakes his head and he makes a small nod with his head, towards an empty class. They enter and closes the door behind them.
“What is it?” Shiro asks.
“What do you know about Keith’s disappearance?”
“Nothing.” Shiro rolls his eyes. “Did Iverson or Magellan asked you to interrogate me? They hoped I will be open my heart to you?” It’s petty from Shiro’s side, he knows, but he’s too angry to care.
“No.” Adam licks his lips and Shiro realizes that he isn’t calm as he tries to show. “Listen, I came here to help, but if you prefer I can leave.”
“No,” Shiro sighs. “Just… I feel something’s wrong with this entire story.”
Adam nods. “Do you know Keith was supposed to take a drug test the day of his disappearance?”
Drug test are common at the Garrison. They are random, so cadets and students know they can’t lower their guard down and indulge not even in a small amount of cannabis. But Keith… Keith has other vices, like racing with the hoverbike in the middle of the desert. For what Shiro knows, Keith never tried drugs. He cares enough at his well-being not to.
And Magellan… Why would the head of the Scientific Department be so worried about a drugs’ case? And why did him and Iverson tell him a different story, talking about a simple medical test? Something is still off.
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, that’s all I know,” Adam says. “But it makes the entire story different. Keith could escape for not being expelled because of the dugs addiction.”
“Well, he ran away, so it doesn’t really make sense.”
“A drug addicted not always thinks clearly,” Adam reply. “Takashi, if Keith is on drugs, and he’s out there alone, he can be in danger.”
Shiro doesn’t correct him, neither enlightens him of his suspicious. Still, he’s happy Adam is still kind enough to come and talk about it with him.
“Thank you.”
***
Sam is the only person Shiro can ask. Iverson may be on his side, but he’s also too much rigid. He respects rules even if he doesn’t like it. Sam… makes exception. He made one when he refuses to go to Kerberos without Shiro, even if he knows about Shiro’s disease.
He may make a second exception.
So Shiro goes to them and asks straightforward about it. “Why is Magellan so interested in Keith? Even if it’s a drug problem, it shouldn’t be the Scientific Department concern.”
Sam knows, Shiro realizes by the way he twitches a little his lips. “Cadet Kogane didn’t contact you? Be honest with me.”
“No, he didn’t.” Shiro shakes his head. “I’m worried about him.”
Sam nods. “Let me try.”
He leaves him alone in his lab as he calls someone from his office. Shiro can’t hear the words from the outside, but he understands it’s an animate conversation between Sam and the person at the other side of the phone. It tones down at last, and then Sam hangs up.
When he returns to the lap, he takes off his white coat and says to Shiro, “come with me.”
Shiro doesn’t ask but follows. Sam brings him at the very end of the Scientific Department: after that, there are the reserved section. Only people with the higher authorization can access to it. It is understandable, since it is the area where the new technologies are developed and they can’t be make public before they are tested and confirmed effective and not dangerous. They take the glass lift to go downstairs and Shiro can’t help but take a look to see the new pods being built. Maybe he will pilot one of it one day.
They don’t stop at the mechanical area, but heads for the chemical ones. Shiro starts to feel a little bit wary. It’s a drug problem after all? Has Keith ended up with drug dealers that also stole secret from the Garrison? Or the Garrison is studying a new drug that going around and Keith takes it by mistake? The possibilities are endless.
He is very worried.
Magellan wait for them at the entrance of another reserved area. “Officer Shirogane,” he greets him. “I decided to accept Sam’s advice for your help. But please be informed that what you’re about to see is strictly confidential and no information can be spread outside. Otherwise, you’ll be accused of treason.”
“I understand,” Shiro says.
“Well, I suppose you’re not Garrison’s Golden Boy for nothing.” Still, Magellan looks like he wasn’t convinced of it. “Let’s go.”
He opens the door: there was a dark hallway, with three doors. They enter in the first one on the right. It looks like a surveillance office, but with only a giant screen on the opposite wall, with two people observing it and taking notes. Two other people are at the desk, tapping on their computer. None of them move as they enter.
It isn’t what Shiro is expecting.
Magellan nods at Shiro to look at the screen and he obeys. The screen shows a small room with white wall, only one small bed on a corner. It’s a closed room without window, like the one in the psychiatric hospital. There is a person sitting on the edge of the bed, completely still, wearing a white hospital dress.
Shiro squints his eyes. The skin looks… purple. He wonders if it’s an effect of the light, but then the person lifts his face and Shiro gasps a little, noticing the color and the form of the eyes and the ears.
“What… what’s that?”
“This is, Officer Shirogane, the first time we can say conspiracy theories are true,” Magellan says. “We have an alien on our basement.”
“Are you sure he’s an alien?” Shiro asks.
“Positive. She has a very similar form to humans, but her DNA is totally different. Too much for a simple evolution or mutation.” Magellan enlighten an overhead projector and shows Shiro a couple of radiographies and a confrontation with the human DNA.
Shir watches it baffled. “She…?”
“Her physical structure made us think she’s a female from her species, whoever it is.”
Shiro exchanges a look with Sam, who shrugs a little. It’s a lot to take in. Shiro has a million of questions, too much for sorting one out, so he remains silent.
“We found her in the desert, almost two week ago,” Magellan continues. “He lives in an abandoned shack there, cultivating and hunting. But we also found some technologies that, despite utilizing human mechanism, they aren’t human creation. We are investigating, but we still don’t know what they do.”
“Do you think she tried to contact her people?”
“It’s possible,” Magellan nods. “We have no idea if she ended up on Earth by mistake of she’s supposed to be there to investigate on us. We don’t know if she’s a treat.”
“She doesn’t talk?”
“She has vocal chords, and there are recent newspapers in the shack. I suspect she doesn’t want to. We tried to keep her without food and water for a while, but nothing was enough to make her talk.”
Shiro is about to say it sounds like torture to him, until he remembers the real reason he’s there in the first place, so he sucks his protest behind just a grit of his teeth. “What this all story has to do with Keith?”
Magellan’s eyes dart a little, before returning to Shiro. “The shack in the desert is owned by Cadet Kogane, as it was his father’s property. Well, of course, until he is a minor he can’t access to it, but the orphanage has the documents t attest it.”
Shiro remembers Keith talking about living in the desert with his father. They never went until the house though.
“At first, we thought Lucy – that’s how we call her – used the shack because it was abandoned, since Cadet Kogane couldn’t use it for now,” Magellan says. “But after a better investigation, we realized that there are traces of at least another person in the shack, a person that have access to the human world.”
“Can’t be her?” Shiro asks. “Maybe with a masked or something…”
“Maybe, but unlikely. There are things that it could difficult to gain if you’re not a human.”
“And you think this person is Keith.”
“I think Cadet Kogane might be Lucy’s son,” Magellan states.
Shiro’s jaws drops. “Keith is human.”
“He looks human,” Magellan replies. “But so does she, at a certain extend. We can’t say how a mixed blood can appear. And there is something in Kogane’s record that looks inhuman.” Shiro is about to protest, but Magellan shows him another slides. “Incredible sights, incredible resistance, and also his reflexes are overdeveloped. We found the same characteristic in Lucy.”
“There are humans with the same talent,” Shiro replies.
“It explains how Kogane can have those scores at the sim,” Magellan comments, as he didn’t head Shiro speaking, and Shiro wonders if it’s a way to reach his nerves. It won’t work, because Shiro doesn’t envy Keith a little bit. He appreciates his talent.
“You believe it, Sam?” he asks then.
“I believe in science,” Sam replies, and it isn’t an answer. “We can confirm it only if we can run some test on Kogane’s DNA.”
“The test,” Shiro understands. “It wasn’t for drugs.”
“Exactly,” Magellan confirms. “Even if Kogane isn’t Lucy’s son, we wanted to check his healt. If he entered in contact with her, he could contract some disease or something. But Kogane refuted the test and run away.”
Magellan shows Shiro a video of the event. Keith looks nervous and, as soon as he realizes they want to take a blood sample, he reacts. Two people try to grab him, but Keith kicks one in the leg and escape. The video ends.
“He left the Garrison with a hoverbike. It’s a damn good pilot,” and Shiro can’t say if there is real praise in Magellan’s word, “and we still have to find him. We found her a couple of days before this event. If he was in contact with her, he probably knew about her capture and understands the reason behind the blood test.”
“This entire thing doesn’t make any sense.” Shiro shakes his head. Keith isn’t an alien. He’s not possible. “His mother is dead, just like his father. He told me so.”
“Well, there is no record of it. There is no record of his mother at all.” This time, Shiro catches the hint of amusement in Mangellan’s tone. “He lied to you. Understandable, giving the situation.”
“I can’t believe it.”
Sam places a hand on the shoulder. “The first thing is to find the cadet. He’s out here all alone, with no place to go. Alien or not, he’s our responsibility.”
“I don’t know where he is.”
“But she may,” Magellan comments.
“Can I… speak with her? Try, at least?” Shiro proposes.
Magellan smirks. “That’s the reason you’re here.” He moves to the door. “It’s the last one.”
Shiro looks at Sam, who nods, and then follows the direction. He finds himself in a big room divided in two by a glass bulletproof wall. He is on one side, the other is the alien’s room. She doesn’t even look at him as he enters.
He gets near the wall. She probably can hear him, since Magellan hasn’t specified anything about the behavior Shiro need to have. He places a hand on the glass.
“Ehi,” he says, with a little smile. “Hi.”
She lifts her head and look at him. There is a blank expression on her face.
“I’m… Takashi Shirogane. I’m an officer here at the Garrison. And a pilot.” He’s blabbering because he has no idea what to do. “What’s your name?” He can’t bring himself to call her Lucy. She has her own name.
She doesn’t answer. But she stands up and reaches for Shiro. She tall, taller than him, and Shiro’s height isn’t average too. Makes Shiro wonders if she is an exception, or all the aliens of their species are like her, or bigger.
Keith is small, smaller for his age. He can’t be an alien. And yet, there are some species where the male is smaller than the female. Shiro can’t believe it, but there is a slightly similarity with Keith’s. It’s all about the form of the face, still it’s here.
She lifts her arm and places her hand on the glass, in the same position of Shiro’s. He notices then that her fingers end up in claws. And the skin isn’t skin, but a very short fur. Cattish. She looks cattish. Keith is a cat-person too.
“I’m looking for a friend,” he says then, since she isn’t talking. “Keith. I can’t find him and I’m worry about him. I want to help him. Do you have any lead for me? He’s not in trouble,” Shiro adds. “Not here, at least. He may be in trouble outside and I don’t even know.”
She looks at him for a couple of second, expression still blank. Then, she moves and she returns in her position on the bed, not paying attention to Shiro anymore. If it isn’t possible, Shiro can say to see a glint of disappointment in her.
“Officer Shirogane, please come back,” the voice from the loudspeaker calls him, and he obeys.
He leaves reluctantly the room and returns to the office. “It didn’t go well.”
“On the contrary,” Magellan looks excited. “This is the only reaction we managed to get from her until now. And you did it.”
“Did I?” Shiro doesn’t look convinced.
“Sam, you’re right, as always. We can get something now. Officer Shirogane, I hope I can count on you from now on to get through Lucy.”
“I just want to find Keith,” Shiro answers.
“She knows where he is, I’m sure of it.” Magellan moves one of his man out of the desk and sits down. “I’m going to look at your schedule and organizing your work here according. You’ll be informed.”
Taking that as a sign for them to leave, Sam makes a goodbye gesture and heads for the door. There, Shiro asks, “and the other room?”
“It’s the laboratory. For analysis and everything,” Magellan answers absent-minded.
Shiro leaves the restricted area with a lot of question and only one certainty: he wants to find Keith without the Garrison knowing it.
***
Magellan puts a lot of faith in Shiro, even if the next three try to speak with ‘Lucy’ he doesn’t make any progress. Shiro, on the other hand, is too busy finding a way to communicate with the alien without the others know it. He still has problem believing she and Keith can be related, but until now she’s the only lead Shiro may have.
For the fourth try, Shiro proposes something different from usual, and Magellan agrees. He orders they places two tables in front of each other, on the opposite side on the glass wall, so that Shiro and ‘Lucy’ can eat together. Of course, Shiro isn’t sure she will agree to it, since she hasn’t move yet but the first time.
He sits down on his part of the table and throws a look at the alien. Her tray has been placed on her side of the room, but she makes no move to reach it. She’s looking at Shiro, though. Shiro greets her and then dedicates his attention to his lunch. A couple of minutes later, she joins him. She has fang, he notices, as she bites her meat.
“Good appetite,” Shiro smiles. “We think it’s lonely to eat alone every day, so I hope you can enjoy my company. Do you like the food?”
She doesn’t reply, and Shiro doesn’t expect her to. He prepared a lot of mundane discourses, but his attention is focused to another task. He eats using his right hand, and with the left he taps a little on the table, in an area that isn’t visible from the camera.
He’s using Morse code. It’s a try, and a stretched one. She’s an alien, not a Russian spy. Still, there are communication devices in the slack and maybe she learned something about earthling’s communication system too. Easy words from Shiro’s part: Keith and help.
Shiro is sure she notices his tapping, still she makes no move to reply, not even in Morse code. She eats her lunch in silence and, after finishing it, she returns on the bed, as if Shiro’s presence and his blabbering don’t even exist.
With a sigh, Shiro is about to stand up and leave, when he notices something. She didn’t eat everything. She left something in her tray, and each piece is separate so it forms a number: one piece of meat, six carrots, eight crumbs of bread and the three drop from the yogurt. They look awful as coordinates and Shiro hopes he isn’t looking too much into things.
Magellan isn’t happy with the result and Shiro understands his time is limited. He needs to find results before Magellan decides he isn’t useful anymore. He excuses himself from the afternoon lessons and returns in his room. He combines together the four numbers and checks where the four coordinates bring him. One of them points at a point in the desert of Arizona, just where the Garrison is.
It can’t be a coincidence.
Excited, Shiro reaches the garage and takes his hoverbike, heading in the desert following the coordinates. In the far, he notices Keith’s shack and the fact it is still under the Garrison’s surveillance. Shiro takes a large route to avoid being spotted and finds himself in a street inside two canyons.
The coordinates indicate the entrance of a cave between the rocks of the canyon. Shiro frowns, thinking it isn’t save to explore one of it without back-up and without even knowing if it’s a trap. But she couldn’t tell him more, so Shiro has to try.
He takes his torch and adventures inside. The cave goes down and down: after a couple of hour of walking, Shiro is about to give up when he hears a sound. After a corner, the cave ends up to a river. The level of water is low, so Shiro can still walk forward. On the opposite side of the river, there is a small entrance and a blue light comes from it. So Shiro crosses the river, water splashing around his boots. He waits a second and, when he’s sure to not hearing any rumors, he enters.
He can’t say what he expected to find, but definitely he doesn’t expect…. That. In front of him there is a giant mechanic lion-shaped robot. It’s the alien ship? Maybe. Shiro can’t say how other planets, other culture, built their transports. Around it, there is a blue circle that looks like a barrier. It’s the blue light Shiro saw from outside.
He places a hand on it. It’s strange at the touch, not looking like solid material but it still prevents Shiro to get near. He is so surprise by the mechanical lion that almost forgets the real reason he’s there in the first place.
A sound distracts him from his exploration, and Shiro turns around, closing his hand in a fist, ready to fight if the situation requires it.
“Shiro…?”
Keith is there, in front of him, a knife in his hand. He looks paler than usual, skinnier than usual, and there is a mixture of relief and shock in his expression. He still wears the Garrison uniform, dirty as his face.
A smile appears on Shiro’s mouth. He closes the distance between the two of them and hug him. Keith doesn’t reciprocate, but Shiro’s feels his rigid muscles relaxed in the hug.
“I was worried about you,” he says,
Keith nods barely. “How do you find this place?”
Shiro waits a second before answering, “your mother told me.”
Keith’s eyes widen. He takes a step backwards. “So they know.”
“They suspect it, especially after your escape,” Shiro says.
“Is she okay?” His tone is affectionate.
“They didn’t hurt her,” Shiro tells him. “But she’s locked down in the most reserved part of the Garrison Scientific Department.”
Keith grits his teeth. He turns around and walks away.
Shiro follows: there is another small cave, a small pod places there. It’s similar to the earthlings’ ones, but the style and the material are definitely alien. Keith adapted the cave into a temporary hideout, with a blanket as a bed and a small camping fire. There are also alien weapons in a corner, and Keith, after hanging his knife at his belt, grabs a couple of gun and what look like a bomb in a backpacks.
“Keith,” Shiro calls, “what are you going to do?”
“Free her, of course,” he answers, in a growls. He put the backpack on his shoulder.
“Keith, be serious. You can’t go inside the Garrison alone, armed like that. They’ll kill you before you can step inside the Scientific Department.”
“Do you have a better idea?” Keith snaps back.
“To be fair hones, yes, I have.” Keith blinks, surprised, and Shiro continues, “Magellan trusts me, for now. I have access at the restrict area. We can plan an escape route.”
Keith lowers his head. He takes a deep breath. “You aren’t disgusted by me?” he asks at last, not looking at Shiro in the eyes.
“No. Not at all.” Shiro sits down on the blanket. “I’m surprised, of course. You don’t discover every day that your best friend is an alien, but… wow. Seriously.”
A small smile appears on Keith’s lips. He lets the backpack falling in the ground. “It doesn’t happen every day to have a friend like you either.”
“Oh, well. I’ll do my best.” He pats the blanket next to him, to point at Keith to sit down next to him.
Keith obeys. “Sorry if I lied to you. About my mother.”
“Don’t worry, it’s understandable.” Shiro throws a look at the blue light that comes from the biggest cave. “But now, will you tell me about that giant lion over there?”
“It’s the reason my mother is here,” Keith answers. “It’s kinda of a long story.”
“I have time.”
Keith looks at him, and Shiro realizes he sounded bad. He’s curious, he hasn’t see such a technology in all his life, and he also wants to know why Keith’s mother is on Earth. But there are most important matters to take care of. He isn’t there for questions.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter. You’ll tell me later.” He stands up. “Let’s go back and find a way to save your mother.”
***
Shiro isn’t as well-behavior as Iverson likes to believe. When he was a cadet, he did a good amount of stunt himself. He just didn’t get caught, especially because he was smart enough to learn how the camera works and how to enter and exit at night from the Garrison without being spotted.
And so, Shiro is able to let Keith inside his room without anyone noticing. Keith looks around, unsure how to do.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe here.”
“What about Adam? He lives here, doesn’t he?”
“Not anymore. We broke up.”
“I’m sorry.”
Shiro shrugs. “Thanks.” He takes one of his t-shirt from the wardrobe.
“I don’t have anything of your size,” he says, “but you can use mine while we wash your clothes. And you can take a shower. I go get something to eat.”
Keith looks at the t-shirt before nodding. Shiro waits for him to disappear in the bathroom before leaving the room. He reaches the hall and grabs a couple of sandwiches and soda from the vending machine. When he returns, Keith is done with the shower and sits down in the couch, brushing his hair with a towel. The t-shirt is big enough to cover him.
“Here.” Shiro throws him a sandwich.
“Thanks.”
Keith eats the sandwich in small bits. “I changed my mind,” he says.
“About what?”
“This entire situation. I can’t involve you in this.”
“I’m already involved.”
“Not so much,” Keith replies. “If you help my mother escape, and they find out, your career is over. I can’t let it happen.”
“Well, looks like the solution is for me not to get caught.”
“Shiro, please…!”
“No, Keith.” This time, Shiro’s tone is serious. “I promised you once I won’t give up on you, and I won’t. Let me help you.”
Keith’s lips stretches in a smile. He nods. “Thank you.” He takes the last bit of the sandwich. “Do you already have a plan?”
“Unfortunately, no. We need your mother’s help on this, I think. What’s her name, by the way?”
“Krolia.”
Definitely not a human name. “Tomorrow, I have another appointment with Magellan. I’ll manage to tell her you’re safe, and we’ll see.”
“Mom will know what to do,” Keith confirms.
“Let’s go to sleep now. You need rest and I have to get up early tomorrow.” Shiro takes his pajamas and heads to the bathroom. “Take the bed, I can sleep on the couch.” When he returns in the room, Keith is already on the bed lying down.
“The bed is big enough for the two of us,” Keith says. “If you don’t mind sharing, of course.”
“No, I don’t. Do you?”
Keith shakes his head and put himself under the sheet, back towards Shiro. Shiro slides next to him, be careful not to touch him, to give him space. It’s still reassuring earing the soft sound of Keith’s breath next to him, and feeling the warmness of his body.
Keith might be an alien, but he’s still his Keith. Shiro doesn’t know what will happen tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and when Krolia will be free, but for now Shiro will just be at his side.
“Thank you, Shiro,” Keith whispers.
“Every time, Keith. Every time.”
***
Magellan sets up another lunch for Shiro. The first one wasn’t positive, but Magellan feels they can have another try. Shiro knows it’s Sam’s doing, because Magellan looks more nervous than the first time. Understandable: they have an alien in the basement and no idea of the reason.
Shiro is just happy to have a possibility to talk to Krolia. She doesn’t wait this time, she sits down in front of him immediately. She is eager too to know if her giving information to Shiro had been a good idea.
Keith. Okay. There are the first words Shiro says to her. Her face remains impassible. Krolia, he adds, always with the Morse code. It’s the proof he actually spoke with Keith. But they can’t elaborate an escape plan without her help and without communicate: the Morse code with the fingers is too slow, and too risky.
“Talk to me, please,” he says, and it sounds almost like a plea. “I can help you.” The stares at each other for a long second.
“Hi.” Her voice is low, and Shiro isn’t sure to hear it for real. “Takashi Shirogane.”
She doesn’t add anything: she stands up and sits down back on her bed. For Magellan, is more than enough. She actually talked! She understands the language! She remembers names! Shiro realizes he gets his free pass for the restricted area even more than before, being the only one she speaks with. It gives him an advantage.
“Ask her where she comes from,” Magellan orders. “We need to understand why she’s here and if she’s alone.”
“Can I ask about Keith too?”
“Of course. We’re still looking for him.”
Shiro thinks back at Keith still in his room, and remains silent. He speaks with Krolia a couple of time each week. Krolia doesn’t answer at his questions, but she says a lot of things. Things about planets Shiro never hears about, and about alien races that looks coming from a sci-fi book. She doesn’t referee at herself with her true name and she affirms to not knowing Keith.
Magellan writes down all the information and put his men to investigate on it, try to find a lead on something. It is enough to keep him occupied. On the other side, Shiro goes back to his room and talks to Keith.
Most of the thing Krolia says are lies. Keith has all time to tell Shiro about the Galra Empire, about the war, about Voltron. Especially, he tells him about the code he and his mother creates for situation like that. Shiro knows how to ask to mean something else entirely, and Keith knows how to translate his mother’s answer in something that makes sense.
“You know,” Shiro says once. “At first, I believed your mother would be against the idea of freeing her. To keep you safe.”
Keith nods. “She would, but the Garrison sequestrated all his devices and this means nothing is prevented the Empire to find the Blue Lion. This is bigger than me. Millions of lives are at stakes.”
Shiro has still problem to register all the information Keith gave him about Zarkon and the Galra. The idea of an evil tyrant going around the universe conquering planet looks definitely like a fairy tale. But Keith believes it with every fiber of his body and Shiro discovers that the real reason of him being at the Garrison is to become worthy of the Blue Lion.
“You’re a better pilot than me,” Keith states, “still the Blue Lion doesn’t let you in either. He’s prickly.” He sounds annoyed.
“You’ll be better than me in no time,” Shiro replies.
Keith smirks. “Maybe. But I won’t be able to pilot the Blue Lion then.”
He doesn’t explain further, but it isn’t necessary. They both know that, once Krolia is free, she can’t remain on Earth anymore, and Keith will go with her in space. Shiro will stay back.
In five days, they have an escape plan.
***
When the alarm call arrives, Shiro is ready. He rushes outside the rooms and reaches the reserved area. Magellan and Sam aren’t there yet.
“What is happening?” Shiro asks to one of the guards.
“I don’t know,” he answers. “She never does that. She just…”
Shiro looks at the screen: Krolia is making a very good impression of a hysterical fit, screaming and throwing his head against the wall. “We should stop her.”
“I prefer to wait for Doctor Magellan before…”
“I’ll try speak with her,” Shiro interrupts him. Without waiting for authorization, Shiro storms in the cell room. He places both hand on the glass, near to the door. “Please, calm down. Speak with me.”
Krolia doesn’t seem to have noticed him at all.
“Officer Shirogane, stand back.” Magellan’s voice comes from the louder speaker.
A doctor and two guards enter in the room. Shiro moves a step back as the guards open the door: one of them approaches Krolia and, in that instant, she regains her composure. She kicks him in the chest, throwing him at the other guard. The she jumps forwards and grabs the doctor’s wrist, twisting his arm against his back and smashes him on the wall.
Shiro looks at him with his mouth opened. Keith told him that the strength of Galra is superior to humans and that Krolia herself is pretty strong, being a trained soldier from a secret revolutionary organization. But seeing it is a different matter.
Krolia steps on one of the guard’s gun, destroying it, and takes the other one. He points it at Shiro.
“Let’s go, Takashi Shirogane.”
He lifts his arm and nods slowly. “Please,” he says.
She nods, and Shiro walks towards the door. In the hallway, there are other guards. The hallway is small, and they occupy all the space. Krolia places an arm around Shiro’s neck and presses the gun against his cheek.
“Drop your weapon,” one of them orders.
Krolia looks around: in a second, he leaves Shiro and push him forwards, against one of the guards. The distraction is enough for her to disarmed a couple of guards, enough to free the path to the exit door. She grabs Shiro again and drags him with her, gun against again his neck.
“Open the door,” she orders.
The guards freeze. “Do it,” Sam’s voice comes from the surveillance’s room and, a second later, the buzzing sound of the door arrives at Shiro’s ears. Krolia walks backwards until he’s outside the secret area. The she shots two times at the control panel at the entrance, blocking the exit for the guards.
The alarm starts ringing.
“We have just five minutes, then this area will be full of soldiers.”
Krolia has still his hand firm on his shoulder and the gun aimed at him. “Tell me where to go.”
Shiro nods and starts walking. In the Scientific Department there is some hangar door for the flying test of the new creations. It’s not an exit for people, because there is a discrepancy of at least ten meters until the ground. Shiro takes the lift and brings Krolia there, then opens one of it. She looks outside, the wind moving her hairs.
“He’s coming,” Shiro whispers.
She nods. “You stay here.”
“But…”
“No.” It’s an order. “Thank you for everything, Shiro. But this is enough.”
He takes a long breath. He knows she’s right. She’s trying to protect him, as Keith said. “Okay. Just tell Keith…”
The sounds of the motor of the hoverbike comes from upstairs. There have no more time. “Just remember, Shiro, where the Blue Lion is. It’s the only hope of the universe.”
And then, Krolia jumps. Shiro manages to catch only a glimpse of Keith looking at him, a satisfied smirk on his face, before the hoverbike keeps his failing. Shiro looks as Keith imitates his moves and lands perfectly, then leaves the Garrison’s field disappearing in the night of the desert.
The soldiers reach him. Magellan is with them, yelling orders around. Sam gets near and touches Shiro’s arm.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I guess… she doesn’t arm me. Just a little shaken.”
“Understandable. Come to the infirmary.”
Shiro nods and follows him, not before having thrown a last look at the desert behind him. He will miss Keith, the boy that comes from the stair. He will miss his look, his smile, his talent, and his breath next to him at night.
At that moment, he’s sure he won’t see him again.
***
Remember the Blue Lion.
It was Krolia’s last advice, despite Shiro thinking it won’t be necessary. From time to time, Shiro enjoy losing in fantasy, and imagining Keith and Krolia fighting in the special war, keeping the Empire very far from Earth. Some other time, he imagines to be chosen by the Blue Lion and flying in the space, joining them into saving the universe.
He never returns to see the Blue Lion.
He prepares himself for the Kerberos mission. He doesn’t see Magellan that often anymore, and the entire Krolia incident passes as it never happens. Life returns to normal.
Then the Kerberos mission happens, and the kidnapping from the Galra Empire. Shiro is separated from Sam immediately, without the possibility to tell him what he knows. He can see recognition and fear in his eyes as the guards dragged him away. Shiro understands it’s obvious for him to believe Krolia is part of the invasion, while Shiro believes it was Krolia’s disappearance from Earth that lures the Empire to them.
Then Shiro ends up in the arena, becomes the Champion, and Haggar’s experiment. At night, dreams and nightmares mixes together. In one Keith is fighting outside with the resistance, and comes to free him with his hoverbike. In another, Keith is lying all along and he appears at the Colosseum next to Zarkon, Galra armor on himself.
Time passes, and Keith doesn’t appear, in any roles. Shiro doesn’t know if being happy about it. For all he knows, Keith and Krolia might have died returning to space. He can’t count on anyone else but himself.
He discovers he’s wrong when Ulas comes to his rescue. He doesn’t have much time to enjoy having an allay, because the thought of Zarkon finding the Blue Lion is worrisome enough. But he can’t leave without at least an answer.
“You’re a Blade of Marmora?” he asks Ulas.
Ulas stops for a second, surprised.
“I know a Blade. Krolia. And his son Keith. I…”
“You have to go,” Ulas replies.
Guards are coming and there isn’t much time anymore. “Tell them what happened,” Shiro says, before running away in the pod Ulas prepares for him.
Remember the Blue Lion.
Shiro doesn’t expect to be something that will turn out useful. He doesn’t expect the Blue Lance to choose Lance, a cadet from the Garrison. He doesn’t expect to end up in space again with other two cadets and to find the castle of Keith’s legends. And finding out that the legends are true, that the Princess Allura from Altea is alive and well.
And definitely doesn’t expect to be the one chosen to pilot the Black Lion, the head of Voltron, for the battle against the Empire. He’s pretty fine with that though. He tries to concentrate on the mission and not of the thought of being in the same galaxias of Keith. Difficult choices had to be made in war.
“The only solution is to escape,” Hunk says. “Sendak has the Red Lion, and we don’t even have a pilot for it.”
“But if we escape, Sendak will take the castle and the Black Lion,” Pidge replies.
“We have a pilot for the Red Lion,” Allura states. “It’s me.”
“You, Princess?” Coran exclaimed. “But…!”
“My father was her paladin, once. It’s only natural for me to take his place.”
Shiro nods. Allura’s wish remembers him of Keith’s one to pilot the Blue Lion, so he understands. They manage to sneak on Sendak’s ship, but they split up there. Shiro isn’t happy to leave Allura alone, but Pidge needs her help, and so does the prisoners. Matt and Sam aren’t there, unfortunately, but Shiro swears to find them.
There are a lot of people he can meet in space. Unbelievable.
“Come back to the Castle, we have the Red Lion,” Allura’s voice arrives in his transmitter.
“Allura did it!” Pidge smiles, and for a second the thought of her brother and father disappears.
Allura doesn’t do it.
They find out as they return in the castle. Coran is about to congratulate her, but she shakes her head. Her expression is disappointed, Shiro can see it under the glass of the paladin helmet.
“The Red Lion didn’t choose me.”
“The who piloted it?” Hunk asks.
From the cockpit of the Red Lion, a figure appears. Tall almost like Allura, a black armor covers him entirely, including his face, with a hood to complete his suit. At his belt, a knife is hanging.
No way.
“And who the hell you are?” Lance yells.
“Keith…” Shiro whispers.
The figure lifts his arm to take off his hood and make his helmet disappears. Black, long hair turns around a pale face and two bright blue eyes. The cadets at Shiro’s side gasps.
“Keith?” Lance is shocked. “How the hell are you here in space?”
“Wait, you know him?” Pidge asks.
Keith isn’t pay attention to them. His eyes are fixed on Shiro, and they are trembling a little. It’s Shiro that moves first, reaching for him, and takes him in a hug. He gets taller, and more muscular, even if not as much as Shiro. Keith reciprocates the hug immediately, hand gripping Shiro’s paladin armor.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t…”
“It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m glad to see you again.”
“Sorry, Paladins,” Allura coughs a little. “But Sendak is still out there, ready to attack the Castle. Now that we have the Red Lion, we can have the Black Lion too and form Voltron.” She turns her gaze on Keith. “Come. You need your Paladin armor too.”
A small lips appears on Keith’s lips before he hurries to follow her outside the hangar.
“I can’t believe it,” Lance grumbles behind them.
“Can you explain why Keith is in space?” Hunk asks.
“Oh,” Shiro shrugs. “His mother’s an alien.”
“WHAT?”
***
Shiro finds Keith in the hangar, staring at the Red Lion, still with his armor on. It isn’t a surprise for him. He approaches him and Keith shows no sign to not expecting him, his face still firm on his own lion.
“So… Paladins of Voltron, eh.”
Keith chuckles. “So it seems.”
“None of us got the Blue Lion though.”
“Stupid lion. I can’t believe he preferred Lance at you.”
“For what it counts, he’s the easiest lion of all them.”
“It makes me feel a little better, yes.”
“How’s your mother?” Shiro asks.
Keith nods. “Fine, I guess. She’s in an undercover mission under General Rainveig’s command, searching for a particular source of Quintessence. I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Rainveig?”
“It’s one of Zarkon’s men,” Keith explains. “The Blade collected a lot of information about Zarkon’s army and territory. It can be useful for us all.”
“For sure.”
“Kolivan, who is the head of the Blades, is preparing a plan that will need Voltron. But first, I think is better if we become a little better as Paladin.”
“Agree.” Shiro nods. “But we should tell the others about you and your mother. They’re curious and the more we wait, the more they become suspicious.”
“Okay.” Keith’s head turns for the first time on Shiro. “Listen, Shiro… I’m sorry. About what happened to you. Ulas warned him only after…” He trembles a little and the arm he’s lifting stops midair.
“It’s okay, Keith. It wasn’t your fault.”
“You helped me and my mom back then and I wasn’t able to come and help you. And the Galra…”
“It’s not your fault,” Shiro repeats. “The situation is completely different.” He smiles. “Even if, I admit, I dreamt about you saving me sometimes.”
Keith swallows and this time his hand grabs Shiro’s arm. “I should have. I would have, if… I’m so sorry…”
Shiro pull him close in a hug. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” Keith whispers. “It’s good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back.”
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