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Chapter Text

“Let me get this straight. The Garrison thinks that Sam, Matt, and Shiro were abducted by aliens, and you want to build and/or commandeer a deep-space vessel in order to go looking for them?”

“Count me in!” Katie says from where she, Keith, and Bae Bae are all crammed onto the couch.

“You are very much not in,” Colleen says drily. “Adam. With all due respect. What the fuck?”

Wasan just smiles at her.

“Even if this is true, the likelihood of any of them being alive is infinitely small. You must know that.”

“But it’s not zero,” Adam argues.

She tries a new angle. “The Sýnoro was designed as the best, fastest deep-space vessel the Garrison had ever created, and it still took the crew months just to get to the edge of our own solar system. How long exactly do you think it would take to reach wherever they are, if you can even find them?”

“However long it takes,” Keith says, at the same time that Katie says “We’ll just build a better ship.”

Wasan just keeps smiling at her.

“I’ve been talking a lot with Hunk,” Katie continues. “He’s smart. Like, really smart. I bet he’d help.”

“They paused construction on Tolmirá after the Kerberos news, but it was still mostly completed. Is there a way to use that as a starting point?” Keith suggests.

“Are you listening to yourselves?” Colleen asks in exasperation.

“Colleen,” Adam says, “I know this sounds crazy. I know it sounds impossible. But a couple months ago, aliens seemed impossible, too. A couple years ago, a crew even making it to Kerberos in the first place seemed impossible. It’s going to be hard, and it’s going to be dangerous. But I could never live with knowing there’s a chance and not trying. Even if I really just want to find Takashi so I can punch him in the face for being a selfish bastard. Sorry, Keith.”

“No, I want to punch him, too.”

Katie gasps in excitement. “Can I punch Matt?”

“No one is punching anyone," Colleen says.

There are three nearly identical disappointed groans in response.

What Colleen wouldn’t give for a normal day.

Of course, it's not that simple. They can't just commandeer a ship. Dragging an unconscious teenager out of the science wing is one thing. Dragging an entire spaceship out of a hangar is quite another.

To Adam's dismay, McClain and Garrett immediately jump on board with the "rescue Takashi and the Holts" plan before Katie has barely gotten the words out. They don't have anything to do with this. They shouldn't be out there risking their futures for people they barely know.

But Garrett and Katie have become instant best friends, and McClain thinks of Takashi as his idol (Adam doesn't have the heart to tell him that Takashi barely knew his name). He also suspects that McClain is still trying to make up to Keith for his past behavior.

It shouldn't be worth it, for them, but the one time Adam tries to dissuade them, he gets matching scowls so fierce they rival Keith's, and Adam reluctantly lets it go.

In the back of his mind, he knows how unlikely it is that they will accomplish anything, anyway. If the Garrison hasn't been able to mount a rescue mission, how will Adam and his ragtag bunch manage it?

Colleen understands. The kids, though...

It's all they think about, all they talk about when they're away from the prying eyes and ears of the Garrison. It's given Keith at least something else to focus on, but what happens when they can't actually follow through? When stealing a spaceship ultimately turns out to be a lot more difficult than it is on paper? When something goes wrong?

To make matters worse, Keith has been spending a lot of time out in the shack in the desert. That's all well and good, and probably one of the safest places for him. But lately he's admitted to Adam that he's been feeling some kind of "presence" out there. Like something wants him to follow a trail out into the cliffs.

Adam's first thought is alien bullshit, but this didn't happen before the Garrison had gotten a hold of him. Keith had spent hours on hoverbikes in the desert with Takashi and had never reported any weird sensations like this.

It's most likely the Garrison. They did something to Keith, implanted some weird homing chip into his brain on the offchance he managed to escape, and now they've activated it.

Keith hasn't tried to run yet, hasn't been completely compelled to wander off into the cliffs, but Adam isn't taking any chances. They tell Colleen and Katie, and Adam makes Keith swear that he won't go anywhere without one of them in case the pull gets stronger and harder to resist. It grates on Keith to lose his freedom, after everything, but he goes along with it.

At least, for now. Adam knows Keith. He'll get tempted eventually and wander off.

And in the meantime, Adam needs to figure out how to steal a spaceship, find Takashi and the Holts, fight some aliens, and get everyone home safely.

No pressure.

It's going about as smoothly as one would expect, until one day one of the higher ups pulls him into the Admiral's office.

"Lieutenant, we need to speak with you. Urgently," Sanda says. "It's about Cadet Kogane."

There's a dark glint of something very unhappy in her eyes that doesn't bode well for Adam.

“Oh God, Hunk, we need to do something,” Lance hisses from around the corner. The Lieutenant has been in the office for almost fifteen minutes. There's been a lot of shouting, and some noises that sound like struggles.

“What do you want us to do?" Hunk whispers. "Go in there and just ask really nicely that they let Lieutenant Wasan go?”

And then there's the sound of a gruff cough from behind them.

"Something I can help you cadets with?" Iverson asks as they turn around. He looks even more judgemental than normal.

"Oh. Um. Sir!" Hunk hastily salutes, and Lance grudgingly repeats the gesture.

Iverson seems like he's about to tell them off and force them back to their dorm rooms before a particularly loud shout rings out from the Commander's office. Lance can't tell if Wasan is winning or losing the fight, but there's definitely a verbal battle of some form going on.

"My office," Iverson says instead. "Now."

Lance and Hunk follow. There's not much else they can do.

"Which one of you wants to tell me what's going on?" Iverson asks, looking between the pair of them.

Lance shoots Hunk a look. Hunk looks back.

Neither of them say anything.

"Cadets," Iverson growls.

Lance finally settles on, "They think Lieutenant Wasan knows where Keith is."

Iverson blinks. "That's what's going on?"

"Yes, sir," Hunk says.

"The Admiral said she was preparing to court-martial him. Christ, they don't think Wasan was responsible, do they? Things were rough between them at the end there, but he wouldn't. Not to Kogane."

A court-martial would mean evidence, and evidence would mean someone probably finds where Keith has been hiding. Lance follows the path of events down, as Colleen and Katie are implicated, and probably him and Hunk, and meanwhile Keith is back in the science wing. Lance hasn't seen the videos—Wasan and Dr. Holt won't let him—but Katie says they're bad. Real bad.

And it might be, as much as Lance hates to admit it, that Iverson is their best shot.

"Sir…. Did you…know? Where Keith was?"

"No, no one knew. Wasan updated me a few times on his lack of progress but that was it."

"Some people knew, sir. Some people…here."

"Did you?" Iverson turns a shrewd eye on him. "You've moved up to fighter class with him gone."

"No!" Lance says, automatically offended. True, he hadn't been kind to Keith before this, but he would never wish this on anyone.

"It's scientists, sir," Hunk says.

"What?" Iverson says, clearly not following.

"That security breach a couple months ago," Lance says. In for a penny, in for a pound. "The super secret science experiment that went missing. That was Keith."

"A science experiment?" Iverson repeats.

"Yeah," Lance says. It's all Lance gives him. Iverson doesn't need to know that Keith is an alien on top of everything.

"Is he safe?" Iverson asks eventually. "You don't need to give me details, just. Is he alright?"

"I don't know where he is, but yeah. He's safe." Not a lie, technically. Lance doesn't know the exact location of that old shack.

"Sir, what about the Lieutenant?" Hunk asks. "We need to do something."

"Get out of my office," Iverson says, something steely in his eyes. "When you get the signal, rush into the Admiral's office. Grab the lieutenant, take my jeep and get the hell out of Dodge."

Iverson tosses the jeep keys to Lance and shoves them out the door.

"What signal?" Hunk cries as they land in the hallway. Lance has to agree. A bird whistle? A flash of the lights? How are they just supposed to know-

The loudest alarm imaginable starts ringing shrilly over their heads, and a calm but authoritarian voice tells them that there is an incoming missile headed directly for the Garrison.

"Is that the signal or are we all going to die?" Hunk wails.

All of the office doors open at once and people are suddenly sprinting through the hallways. No one seems to notice two cadets standing awkwardly in the admin wing as officers rush by them.

"Don't just stand there," Iverson says as he pushes past them, and Lance takes that as his cue. He drags Hunk toward the Admiral's office, and Hunk makes quick work of the lock. The office is luckily now empty, save for a very roughed-up Lieutenant Wasan, tied to a chair in the corner.

Not one for subtlety, the Garrison.

"Time to go!" Lance says. Lance and Hunks slice through the ropes with the very illegal knife Hunk has taken to carrying with him since learning that the Garrison is not above harming one of their own. Wasan is bruised, but he's got all his wits about him. It's good, though it does mean he starts panicking about Keith before they've even made it to the garage.

"If they've taken him..."

"I'm sure he's fine," Lance says. "He's with Katie and Dr. Holt, right? Dr. Holt wouldn't let anything happen to him. She's got mom powers."

Lance is babbling, he knows, but he always babbles when he's nervous. And 'breaking out of the Garrison' definitely counts as nerve-wracking.

They're definitely going to take away his scholarship after this.

Chapter Text

Adam wrenches open the door to the shack and there on the couch are Katie and Keith, playing some kind of card game. They both jolt when the door smacks into the wall, and Colleen swears from the shack's little kitchen where she seems to be making a loaf of bread.

Adam doesn't even think about it. He swoops in and grabs Keith off the couch, tucking him close and breathing him in. Adam knows loss. He refuses to lose anyone else.

"Adam?" Colleen asks from the kitchen. Keith is silent; he knows something is up, and Adam hates scaring him like this.

"They know, don't they?" Katie says. Keith burrows his face deeper into the collar of Adam's jacket and starts to shake in a way he never would have before a bunch of so-called scientists kidnapped him and kept him strapped to a table.

"I won't let them. I swear to you, I won't let them lay a hand on you ever again," Adam mumbles into Keith's hair. "They just know that I had something to do with it. They don't know where you are."

Adam hopes against all hope that he hasn't just lied to Keith.

"How did you get here?" Colleen asks. "You didn't...?"

"No, no, we took Iverson's jeep," McClain says. Adam had mostly forgotten about him and Garrett, to be honest.

"You stole Iverson's jeep?" Keith asks, face still buried in Adam's collar.

"He lent it to us," McClain says. "Though to be honest I'm not sure he's getting it back."

There's a story there—the cadets had given Adam a quick overview on the way here, but Adam had been too anxious to pay it much attention. But it seems he might have misjudged the Commander.

"Now what?" Katie asks eventually, once Adam has finally let go of Keith and Colleen's bread has come out of the oven. Colleen had told them they couldn't discuss anything heavy until the bread was done. Adam grudgingly has to admit that she was right. It feels less like the world is ending when you're eating warm bread.

"I don't know," Adam admits. They have a temporary reprieve here, but it won't last forever. And Adam can't just take Keith and run, not when the Garrison is already onto them.

“This is going to make me sound like I’m losing my mind,” McClain starts slowly, “but it feels like there’s some kind of…energy. Out in the cliffs. Like something is calling me.”

"Ha!" Keith says in excitement. "It's not just me!"

"Wait, you feel it, too?" McClain asks.

"Have for months," Keith says.

“Anyone else want to admit they feel freaky energy from out in the desert?” Adam asks. Pidge and Hunk both shake their heads, looking just as baffled as he feels.

Colleen sends him a sharp look over their heads. They both thought the Garrison had been behind Keith's strange pull toward the cliffs. But then, why would McClain feel it, too?

What the Hell. It’s not as if they can stay here, and they don’t really have any better options.

“Fine. One of you that’s connected to the energy source, lead the way,” Adam says as he grabs the go-bags they’ve had stashed in the back room for just such an occasion. Well. Not this exact occasion; weird desert energy wasn’t something he’d factored into their plans. But everything else pretty much tracks.

Keith and Lance both point in the exact same direction, at least, so he doesn't need to deal with them arguing about which way to go.

"McClain, Garrett, you should get back to the Garrison. You weren't prepared for this," Adam says.

"And you think they're going to let us just waltz back in there after the stunt we pulled?" McClain asks.

"Besides, we stowed some emergency bags here, too," Hunk admits, pulling them out from the closet. Katie and Keith do not seem surprised at all. Seems the kids have been conspiring behind his back.

"Colleen, you should stay here," Adam tries. Next best thing. They don't all need to go into the desert and discover who knows what buried out there.

"Not on your life, Wasan," she says. "I know full well Katie is going with you, and I'm not letting my daughter get herself involved in this without some adult supervision."

"Adam's an adult!" Keith argues.

"Yeah, he's like, ancient," McClain adds.

"Thanks, guys. Very helpful."

Besides, there's a tiny part of Adam that does appreciate having an adult come with them. An adultier adult.

"So we're just going to listen to these two and what, follow their 'feelings' into the desert?" Katie asks.

"Have you got a better idea?" McClain says.

Katie does not, in fact, have a better idea. But she does have several choice words for whatever energy it is that's pulling both Keith and McClain into the middle of nowhere. They take the jeep, because they might as well, until they get to the impassable section of the cliffs and they're forced to walk the rest of the way. Garrett spends the trip trying to figure out whether he could engineer a piece of tech to follow the signal while Katie mumbles angrily under her breath and Colleen keeps shooting Adam concerned glances.

This isn't how Adam thought his Tuesday was going to go.

Keith has very, very vague memories of being out here as a child. His dad had brought him out to these cliffs sometimes when Keith was growing up, though he hadn't ever explained why.

'I'll tell you when you're older' he'd said. But he hadn't ever gotten a chance.

The path that he and Lance are both subconsciously following feels similar to the one that his father took all those years ago. Into the cliffs, through the cave systems. If he tries hard enough, he thinks he can remember the paintings on the sides of the cave walls.

Both he and Lance reach out to touch them, but before Keith can make contact, the floor drops out from underneath them, and they're suddenly looking up at a giant.... something.

He definitely doesn't remember this.

"What the fuck," Katie whispers, and Colleen doesn't even scold her.

"I take it this is the energy you were following?" Adam asks.

The pull has stopped, now that they're reached their destination, but there's some kind of spherical shield around the whatever it is. Lionness? Some kind of cat, at least.

Keith puts his hands against it, but nothing happens. What's the point of dragging them out there if it's just to look at this thing?

"Rude," Lance says, nudging him out of the way. "You need to knock first."

Keith will admit to being jealous when the shield drops the moment Lance touches it. The energy has been calling him this whole time. For months. He can almost convince himself that it was calling to him while he was strapped to that table in the Science Wing. But it's actually for Lance?

But then Lance lights up at the now freed Lion-thing, and Keith remembers the conversations they've had in the past few months about how Lance always felt like he was second best to Keith (who had no idea they were even competing to begin with, I mean what the heck, Lance?) Maybe Keith can let him have this one.

At any rate, the Lion-thing moves, leaning down as a ramp descends right in front of Lance. Keith is pretty sure he doesn't have a choice about this one.

You know, finding out your rival-turned-sort-of-friend is part alien? Lance thought that was going to be the weirdest thing that happened to him this school year.

But now there's a giant blue cat statue (?) thing leaning down in front of him, as if waiting for Lance to do something. It's apparently been calling to Keith for a long time, but it's Lance the thing wants.

So Lance does the stupid, impulsive thing and hops into the cat's open mouth.

"McClain!" Wasan yells from behind him, and Keith makes a grab at Lance's arm, but he's already heading up the ramp before anyone can stop him.

It feels like he's supposed to be doing this. Like he has some kind of larger purpose he didn't used to have only a few minutes ago.

And then he walks into what is obviously a cockpit, Keith and Hunk and everyone else filing in after him, and Lance knows what he has to do.

Adam's been coaching him, after all. Lance is a much better pilot than he used to be.

"This is a spaceship," Wasan says quietly, as if speaking any louder will break some kind of illusion.

"You wanted to save Shiro and the Holts somehow, right?" Lance says smugly, despite the fact that he has no idea how to pilot this clearly alien spaceship.

"We should think things through," Colleen says, at the same time that both Katie and Keith lean forward to get a look at the console. "We can't just take off without some planning."

"Why not?" Lance asks. They've got their go-bags, they've got the Garrison on their tail. This is the perfect solution to every problem they are currently facing.

"McClain has a point," Wasan says. "We needed a spaceship. We now have a spaceship. We didn't even need to rob the Garrison to get it."

"Yeah, so let's go already!" Katie says, jabbing blindly at one of the buttons on the console.

The lion roars in response. It's incredibly loud, but it feels like the ship itself is ready to go, too.

Actually, it feels like the ship itself has some kind of....mind? Consciousness? It feels like it's talking to Lance, walking him through the ignition sequence.

And what the hell? They've gotten this far already.

Lance puts in the sequence and the ship comes to life all around them.

"Powerful engines," Keith murmurs behind him.

"More powerful than the Synoro," Wasan agrees. "This ship could get us out farther into space than any of the Garrison's vessels."

"What about fuel?" Colleen asks. "Supplies? We're just going to go without thinking about it?"

"I did try to tell you to stay behind," Wasan says.

"That isn't what I meant and you know it."

Their argument is interrupted by a series of beeps coming from Katie's datapad.

"The Garrison just broke into our house," she says quietly.

"Well. I think that settles it," Wasan says.

"We''re this close, we've got to try," Keith says.

"And I'm pretty sure the Garrison knows we messed up their plans," Hunk says, "so I'm all for something that gets us far away from Admiral Sanda."

"Fine, fine," Colleen waves her hands in despair, "but I want it on the record that I think this is a bad idea."

"Noted," Wasan says, but he's smiling. "McClain, get us out of here."

When Mitch Iverson looks up, six hours after he's given away his jeep, to see a giant blue metal cat streaking through the sky, he just knows that Wasan and his band of cadets are somehow responsible.

Chapter Text

The Lion, not as much in McClain's control as one would expect a spaceship to be, opens up some sort of wormhole and drops them off at a planet that McClain says feels like "going home."

It certainly isn't 'going home' for them. The planet looks somewhat like Earth, if the continents had gotten all smashed together, but it clearly isn't. They're light-years away.

Adam is light-years away from Earth and in command of a bunch of children. He's infinitely glad that Colleen is with them. He's not old enough to be taking care of other children. Most of the time he barely feels old enough to be taking care of Keith.

McClain and the Lion bring them to a giant castle, built into ground of the planet. It looks like something out of a fairytale, and Adam briefly considers whether this entire day has just been a weird dream. He and Keith turn as one to pinch each other.

Not a dream, then.

The castle seems like their destination, or at least, the Lion's destination, and the ramp lowers down onto the ground. Adam has no idea if the air here is breathable for humans (and half-humans, for that matter), but before he can stop him, McClain heads down the ramp to check things out.

"Seems fine!" he calls back. As if the safety of a completely alien planet can be determined within a matter of seconds.

Adam nearly has a heart attack when Katie and Keith descend the ramp and then immediately start heading for the giant doors, despite the fact that none of them are going to be strong enough to open the giant slabs.

The doors open for them. Because of course they do. And all the kids run inside.

Because of course they do.

Adam shares a long-suffering look with Colleen before they both trudge inside, as well. This is not the time to get separated from each other.

"Can I say again that I think this was a bad idea?" Colleen mutters, her voice echoing off the walls of the massive entrance hall they find themselves in.

"Noted," Adam says again. He's beginning to have second thoughts, as well. This had made sense at the Garrison. Now they're in an unknown castle on an unknown planet in an unknown solar system, and if anything happens to any of the kids, Adam will never forgive himself. He should have taken this on by himself. Left Keith with Colleen or shipped him off to stay with McClain or Garrett's families and handled this on his own.

But then Keith turns back to look at him and actually smiles like he hasn't got a care in the world, and Adam reconsiders. Maybe this will be good for him. It got him away from the Garrison, at least. Adam can't imagine they want their science experiment back so badly that they'd launch a mission to deep space. And it means they're hopefully one step closer to finding Takashi.

They wander into a circular room and Adam nearly vaults in front of Colleen and the kids as something rises out of the ground. Two somethings.

They all brace for something horrible to happen, Adam trying to angle his body to get in between everyone else and whatever is coming out of the ground. He's back to thinking this was a bad idea.

It's aliens.

Adam isn't sure what he expected, honestly. Missiles? Robots? More sentient cat-shaped spaceships?

They look mostly human, if Adam ignores the pointy ears and the bright marks on their cheeks and the strangeness of their pupils. Maybe this is the alien race that Keith is descended from. Wouldn't that be convenient?

And then Adam learns that their planet was destroyed ten thousand years ago. So much for that theory.

He feels for them, because they are apparently the last two members of their entire race.

At least, he feels for them until they decide, for some unknown reason, that Adam and his kids are going to become the next iteration of these so-called "Paladins of Voltron."

Adam has no desire get involved in this whole ordeal. They came here to find Takashi and the Holts, not to become the Power Rangers. These are children he's leading, not soldiers. He doesn't care if some princess he's never met before claims they're connected to these Lion ships.

What's to stop them from taking the blue ship they have and running?

Keith can see it: Adam is about to cut and run.

There's a part of Keith that agrees with that plan. Who cares about the rest of the universe? They came out here to find Shiro, and Katie's dad and brother.

But there's a larger part of him that remembers the feeling of being trapped in the basement of the science wing. Of feeling like there was never going to be any rescue. If they can help people stop feeling that, if they can save people who don't think they're going to be saved, wouldn't that be worth it?

"Wait," Keith says, catching Adam's sleeve. "Can we discuss it first?"

Adam stares at him, first in shock, then in resignation. "Fine. We'll have a discussion."

Adam pulls Keith aside, away from the aliens (there are other aliens! this probably should not be a surprise to Keith, but it weirdly settles something in him to not be the only alien in the room). They're quickly joined by Colleen and the others, and Adam gives an exasperated sigh, the kind he used to make when he needed to get Keith out of normal fist fight-related trouble with the Garrison.

"I didn't mean for this to turn into a group discussion," Adam says. Colleen levels him with such a mom look that he immediately backs down and lets her take over.

"We are not doing this," Colleen says.

"Agreed," Adam says. "We're taking the Lion we have and we're leaving."

"I'm not sure they'll let us take the lion if we don't help, though," Hunk says.

"Nah, I think it would be fine. Blue and I are already on a first name basis. I'm not sure how I feel about just leaving, though."

"You named the lion 'Blue?' No, don't answer that." Adam has his head in his hands already. It doesn't bode well for Keith's desire to stay here and help.

"I think we should stay," Katie says.

"Overruled," her mom replies.

"No, I agree with Katie. We should stay. We could help people."

"You are a child," Adam tells him. "And I admittedly have no idea at what age you'll become an adult, but until then, what I say goes, and what i say is that you won't become a soldier in a war you have nothing to do with. None of you will."

"Dad and Matt and Shiro were probably taken by this Galra Empire though. If we stay, we have a better chance of finding them."

"And we'll get all five of the lion ships," Keith points out.

"Plus, saviors of the universe? I bet we'll get parades and holidays and stuff. Count me in!" Lance says.

"And it wouldn't be very noble of us to take the Blue Lion from these nice aliens who just found out their planet was destroyed and everyone they knew is dead," Hunk says.

"I'm not trying to be noble," Adam says, "I'm trying to make sure all of you literal children survive this ill-fated rescue attempt."

"It's four against two," Keith tells him.

"Adult votes count double," Adam says.

"Shiro would want us to do it." Keith hates himself the moment the words are out of his mouth. Adam's eyes flash with something dangerous and Keith braces, ready for an argument, but Colleen lays a hand on Adam's shoulder.

"Boys, not now. Keith, apologize to your brother."

"I'm sorry, Adam. That wasn't fair."

"No, it wasn't," Adam agrees, "but you're also right. He's stupidly selfless like that."

"Good. Now let's get out of here before they figure out we're not going to join up with this Paladin thing," Colleen says.

"I'm staying," Keith says, planting his feet, and Katie grabs his hand.

"I know you don't want us to, but we'll do it anyway. Just watch us. Lance has control of the one Lion we have so far, and he's on our side. Right, Lance?"

"Oh yeah, I'm all for becoming a savior of the universe," he takes Katie's other hand, dragging Hunk along with him. "And the princess? Gorgeous."

"And it just makes sense go along with the nice aliens who seem to know their way around the universe instead of fumbling around in the dark," Keith says.

"Their information is ten thousand years out of date," Adam points out.

"Better than nothing," Hunk shrugs.

Adam stares at them with his 'I'm an adult and I know what's best' face, and Keith knows if Adam really puts his foot down and orders Keith to leave, Keith will do it. He's not separating from Adam, and Adam knows it. That they're even having a discussion about it means that there's some part of Adam that wants to stay, too.

"One night?" Keith needles. "Give it a night and see how it goes?"

"You know exactly what he's doing," Colleen mutters, and Keith grins sheepishly at her. She does have mom powers, after all.

"One night, to prove how stupidly dangerous this plan is," Adam agrees. "And then we leave."

And Keith knows he's got him.

They're not going anywhere.

Chapter Text

Adam sends McClain and Garrett off to get the yellow lion, sends Keith off with Katie in a small Altean craft to find the green one, and wonders if the aliens are aware that two of the so-called Paladins of Voltron have never even stepped foot in a cockpit before. Are they just supposed to magically know how to pilot an alien spaceship? Will the lion talk them through everything, like the blue one did for McClain?

Meanwhile, Colleen keeps shooting him annoyed looks for suggesting Keith and Katie go off on their own and getting roped into staying here in the first place.

But the kids made good points. The more support they can have, the better. They'll see how this one day and night goes, they'll get the other lion ships, and they'll reconsider everything in the morning.

And besides, sending all the kids off lets Adam and Colleen have a chance to grill the Alteans about this war and what might be expected of them.

They're going to get armor, at least. And space suits. Both of which are an upgrade from the mix of civvies and Garrison uniforms they came here in.

The five paladins will also get some kind of magical weapons, which Adam can't decide he's happy about or not. None of them have used any weapons before, except for Keith and his knife and the mostly perfunctory handgun training Adam went through as a Garrison officer. Accepting weapons makes the whole thing feel much more real, but he'd also be an idiot to expect anyone to fight a millenias old war without them.

"What about injuries? Health care?" Colleen asks.

"Oh, we have cryopods for that," Coran says easily. "A couple vargas in one of those and you'll be good as new."

Adam has no idea what measure of time a varga is. A minute? A month? And if the castle and everything in it is thousands of years old, how well will those so-called cryopods work after all that time?

"Food? Nutrition? We're human"—Adam notes that she leaves off that one of them is only half-human—"how do we know what's safe for us to eat and drink out here?"

"It would hardly be the first time we've had someone of unknown origin aboard the castle. We'll just scan you and use that data to determine what you can and can't eat, physiologically-speaking."

Colleen humphs. "You know these are children you're asking to save the universe, right? Children."

"It isn't ideal," Coran allows, "but it's the best situation we've got right now. And inside the lions, the Paladins will be safe from almost every danger."

Adam can't help but wonder, if the lions are also thousands of years old, how well their technology has held up over time. Who's to say that the Galra Empire hasn't come up with something bigger and stronger and faster in the intervening years? Why are Coran and the Princess so convinced that the lions and this Voltron creation will save the universe?

Colleen shares a look with him that turns into a glare, and he can imagine she's thinking along the same lines.

But Adam has already sent four children off to get two more lions - he isn't blameless in this situation either. He hopes the kids know what they're doing and come back safe.

Why is Katie piloting a giant lion ship? She gets that supposedly she has a mystical connection to the ship, but she has also not piloted once in her life. She's never even been in the simulator. And now she's going to be one-fifth of the fighting force against this empire? Seems like someone hasn't done the math on that.

Behind her, Keith keeps making aborted moves like he's trying to pilot them from two feet away, and it is not helping. She's half-tempted to just let him pilot them out, but every time she thinks about it, she can feel the lion ship get angry and frustrated around them.

It's all fine and dandy, but Katie gets the feeling she's not going to have the chance to actually learn how to fly. An evil alien empire won't just sit back and let her (and Hunk, for that matter) practice until they feel confident. And if mom and Adam get their way, they'll all be leaving tomorrow morning anyway.

"Um, watch out for the..."

"I see it, Keith," she says.

"Okay, but you're not actually moving out of the way. The ship might be part-telepathic but I'm pretty sure you're still supposed to actually steer."

"Well, how would you know?"

"Why else would there be a steering system?"

Okay, that's a fair point.

But it was hard enough for Katie to keep the lion steady enough for him to put the Altean vessel they came here with into the lion's hold. Doing any advanced movements like "avoiding asteroids on their way to the wormhole rendezvous" might be beyond her.

Why did she agree to this?

Why did he agree to this?

There are aliens shooting at him. Lots of aliens. Shooting lots of things.

Hunk is down there in the tunnels somewhere, looking for his lion, so Lance has to balance drawing the enemy's fire away from the vulnerable human on the surface and not getting blown to bits from taking too many shots to the lion's face.

This ship had seemed so high tech compared to anything the Earth had come up with, but Lance doesn't know how it's going to hold up against almost constant fire from those Galra fighters. They're smaller than him, sure, but their weapons still pack a punch.

It doesn't help that Lance is still so unfamiliar with the lion's systems. He's dodging too sluggishly, not aiming the few weapons he's discovered very accurately, and he's sure those Galra are just laughing at him.

Just a little more. Hunk just needs to find that lion and then they can blow this popsicle stand. If only Hunk could hurry up a bit...

The four children come back in one piece, at least. And they've found the other two lions, so there's that.

But all four of them look like they've just been through the wringer.

Lance and Hunk both look like they've seen some kind of battle, despite the fact that Coran promised them that the planet they were being sent to was a peaceful one. Keith looks more impatient than she has ever seen him, and Katie looks like someone just heavily criticized her favorite programming language.

This was a horrible idea and it just reinforces Colleen's belief that they should leave immediately.

She gives Adam a glare, and he has the decency to look slightly chagrinned, at least. The glare she gives the Alteans seems to be lost on them, since they're just mostly excited about finding the other two lions in the first place.

"Wonderful!" the princess says. "Now we only need to find the red lion and we'll be ready to take on the Galra Empire!"

Colleen glares again. No one pays attention to it, this time.

She has a very bad feeling about this.

And then Coran reveals that he's discovered the red lion's location.

The red lion is on a hostile warship headed straight for them.

On the one hand, that's great, because they don't need to spend time finding it.

On the other hand, hostile warship headed straight for them.

"Nope," Adam says. "Nope, we're done. We're not doing 'hostile warship' on the first day. Pack it up, let's go."

"But the red lion," Keith says. That's his lion out on that ship. Everyone else got a lion; he wants his turn.

"We have four lions," Adam says.

"Only three of them are working," Hunk points out.

"We have three lions," Adam says. "That's good enough. We don't need all five."

"But without all five, you can't form Voltron!" the princess says.

Keith gets the feeling Adam has never cared about anything less.

At the console, Coran finishes up some kind of scan, projecting it into the open air in front of them. "It seems like there are other life forms beside the Galra on board this vessel, down in these small rooms. This might serve as a prison ship."

Keith and the others turn at once to look at Adam. If Shiro or the Holts are on that ship, then they have to go investigate. And even if they're not, they need to free those prisoners. It's the right thing to do.

"Don't look at me like that," Adam says. "I am not about to let four untested children fight a warship."

"But Shiro..."

Adam groans, head in his hands, and turns to Colleen. "What do you think?"

"You know exactly what I think," she says dryly.

"If Sam or Matt are on board..." he says.

"The likelihood of that is incredibly slim."

"I'll go with you," the princess says. "I've had experience on Galra vessels before, and I was trained in combat as part of my studies. Coran and Colleen can stay here and provide support from the castle."

"Great, so we'll have five children on the warship instead of four," Colleen says.

"Technically the princess is thousands of years old," Katie mutters. Keith would laugh if they weren't getting so far off-track, away from the prisoners on board the ship with the red lion.

"We knew that rescuing them would be hard, and what if waiting means we're too late?" Keith says. "We need to go." They could already be too late. He's not wasting any more time.

"Keith..." Adam says, in that voice that still makes him bristle even after everything.

"Adam."

There's an intense staring contest, but it's Adam that turns away first.

"Fine."

"Fine?!" Colleen says. She sounds scandalized, and Keith inwardly smiles, knowing he's won.

"What can I say, I've become a pushover in my old age when it comes to this kid. Besides, if Takashi is on that ship, I need to be there, too. But we're not going in without a plan. And the three of you that have extra special lion ships working, you're not leaving the cockpits."

Keith feels a little bad, because clearly Colleen isn't happy about this situation, but he'll deal with that later.

They're one step closer to rescuing Shiro.

Chapter Text

"These are direct orders from your superior officer," Adam says again. "Do you understand?"

"Yeah, yeah," Keith says, the little shit. Garrett at least looks suitably concerned, but Katie and McClain look like they're about to fight him on this again.

"You three," he points at them, "will not leave your lions. McClain will drop me, Keith, and the princess off at the warship since he's the only one of the three of you that actually knows how to pilot" (Katie and Garrett share a guilty look between them and Adam feels a little bad, but if he needs to instill the fear of God into them in order to keep them safe, then so be it) "while the other two of you distract the ship and attempt to destroy the canon. Meanwhile, Keith, Allura, and I will find the prisoners, collect the red lion, use it to escape the ship, and then drop me back off here to get the black lion. Then we'll form this Voltron thing, destroy the warship, and call it a day. Understood?"

He gets four nods in various levels of obedience. It's going to have to be good enough.

They all have their armor at least, and the four kids have their magical shape-shifting weapons. Adam apparently doesn't get one, the Black one was "lost" (there's a story there that Allura and Coran aren't saying, but Adam will worry about that later) so instead, Coran has fished some kind of bow out of the armory for him. It generates its own arrows out of energy and it's a little bulky, strapped to his back, but it's better than nothing.

Meanwhile, the princess has also changed into some kind of sleek battle suit, armed with a bo staff she seems very familiar with, so Adam lets himself believe this will be an easy in, easy out. Grab the lion, get out of dodge.

Colleen raises an eyebrow at him from where she's monitoring the ship's schematics with Coran.

Yeah, she's right. Something is going to go wrong. Multiple things, probably. But they can't back out now. Adam is pretty sure they'd have a mutiny on their hands.

The drop is easy; the yellow and green lions' erratic flying patterns distract the Galra for long enough that McClain can leave them at a hangar bay without being noticed.

But then they're inside the ship, and trying to avoid both the robot sentries and the Galra soldiers, and find the red lion, and find the prisoners, and it's a lot to handle, especially because Keith and Allura keep insisting on trying to go different directions while Adam is desperately attempting to keep everyone together. Coran and Colleen are giving them instructions, but Adam has stopped listening given how often they've suggested paths that turn out to be deadends.

Herding cats is an understatement. Adam is herding lions.

Shiro isn't there.

Keith knows it was a long shot, knows that it would have been one hell of a coincidence if Shiro had been onboard.

But it still hurts, a little.

And then one of the prisoners he and the princess are helping out of the cells turns to look at Keith and says,

"You look like the Champion."

"Champion?" Adam asks, his eyes immediately narrowed.

"Yes, the Champion. He fought in the Arena and bested many monsters."

The look he shares with Adam is half-hopeful, half-fearful. Shiro, fighting monsters in some kind of gladiator pit? The same Shiro who got sad when he accidentally stepped on a bug?

But they don't have time to think much about it. They didn't take into account that the prisoners might not be able to travel all over the ship while they look for the Red Lion. They need to send the prisoners back to the safety of the castle, and someone should go with them to keep them safe from any soldiers or robots they come across.

"You and the princess go with them. I can go to find the Red Lion on my own," Keith says, and Adam levels a very strong glare that Keith hasn't seen since he intentionally crashed the simulator to piss off Iverson.

"You will do no such thing."

"I'll go with Keith," Allura volunteers, "and you take the prisoners back to the castle. Coran can walk you through how to use the Galra escape pods."

Keith isn't sure how he feels about going alone with Allura and letting Adam out of his sight. Realistically, it should be fine. The princess seems capable, and Adam is, too. But Keith isn't willing to lose anyone else.

But Adam is nodding and leading the prisoners away before Keith can voice an objection, and the princess grabs Keith's arm and drags him toward the center of the ship. It's at least the direction he wants to go, this time. He can sense something there, similar to the pull he felt toward the Blue Lion. Hopefully, there's nothing in the way before they can reach it.

Allura, Princess of Altea, may have an ulterior motive to searching for the Red Lion with the Keith. Yes, she can sense that his quintessence is a near perfect match for the Lion (and how convenient, that these humans all showed up and each fit a different Lion's quintessence? Allura has the presence of mind to be slightly suspicious) but still. She wants to see the Red Lion for herself. Wants to know if she would be capable of flying it.

It's her father's lion, after all. If anyone should be piloting it, it should be her.

But it's not meant to be.

Keith has barely so much as lifted a finger when the Red Lion's particle barrier drops in acceptance. It's a surprise, how fast the whole process is. She was expecting more from what her father would often describe as a temperamental machine. But it seems this human really is the Red Paladin, and Allura has been relegated to the sidelines.

It's just one more injustice to add to the day.

Adam doesn't know what to think of the Black Lion, there in the lower levels of the Castle. It seems foreboding, almost. Like agreeing to pilot it is accepting a contract he doesn't know the terms of.
He's probably being paranoid. He doesn't think the kids mentioned anything about feeling like that.

Still, when the Lion bows down in front of him and lets down the ramp, Adam hesitates. He doesn't think this is a temporary position. No matter what he told the kids and Colleen, he knows that the moment he walks up that ramp, there won't be any going back. He can feel a connection already forming with the ship and he hasn't even walked inside yet.

"Are you coming?" Keith says over the comms. "We're fighting a warship out here, in case you forgot."

"Yeah. Yes. I'll be there in a moment."

He needs to do this. As much as he trusts Keith to lead the others in his stead, as much as he knows Keith is a competent pilot, he needs to be out there, protecting him and the others.

Fine.

Fine. Okay.

The moment he walks into the cockpit, the ship whirs to life around him and the Lion shifts into position, ready to launch out of the castle and join their comrades. That connection that started forming grows stronger, and Adam sighs into the controls.

"Alright, then. Let's do this."

Hunk was expecting this to be a lot harder than it is. He's an engineer. Taking five separate ships and molding them into one giant ship sounds incredibly difficult.

But bringing the lions together into a giant mecha man is easier than it has any right to be. He just needs to think of his connection to the others, feels them doing the same, and suddenly the ships are changing shape and molding together. Suddenly, Hunk and his ship are a leg.

They work as one to utterly dispatch the warship. He can feel Lieutenant Wasan, Keith, and Lance leading them through the motions of piloting, making up for the slack he knows he and Katie are dragging. But everything still works, and Hunk feels like he's part of something bigger than himself. It's important, and he gets what Keith was saying about needing to save other people and other planets from this Galra Empire.

And he feels Lieutenant Wasan feeling the same thing over their weird psychic emotional bond.

He gets the feeling they're going to be in this for the long haul.

Adam hates to admit it, but he knows Keith and Katie are right. If they're going to find Takashi and the Holts, the best chance they have is staying with these Alteans and liberating planets and ships one by one.

He refuses to accept the possibility that they might already be too late to save them.

"You formed Voltron!" the princess says as they return to the castle, warship having been turned to dust in the atmosphere. "We have a fighting chance in this war."

"Now, hold on, I think we're getting ahead of ourselves," Colleen says, and Adam can't look at her for the betrayal he's about to enact.

"We're going to stay," he says. Keith smirks at him like this was a foregone conclusion, and maybe it was.

"Excuse me?" Colleen says. There's something dangerous and hard in her voice that Adam normally hears coming from his own.

"Colleen, I'm sorry, but it's the best chance we have. I'm giving you veto power if something is too dangerous. But otherwise, we prioritize freeing planets and rescuing prisoners whenever possible, and once we find our missing family members, we're done."

Colleen and the princess are both staring at him with identical expressions of surprised anger, but then Coran steps forward, his hand on Allura's shoulder.

"We agree to these terms."

"Um, Lietenant Wasan," McClain starts, and Adam realizes there's something else he needs to do tonight.

"Listen, if we're going to do this, you should call me Adam. I might be this Black Paladin now, but it's clear we're supposed to be working as a team. There isn't a chain of command anymore."

"Actually I'm pretty sure the princess is in charge of all of us," Keith says, and the princess stops looking affronted for long enough to nod haughtily. "And then Colleen."

She turns a heated glare onto Keith, and he shrinks back.

"Okay, that's fine," McClain says, taking the focus away from Keith in a way that Adam appreciates. "But in that case, you should call us Lance and Hunk."

That's fair enough, Adam supposes.

"And you should call me Pidge," Katie says. It comes out of nowhere.

"Pidge?" Adam can't help but ask.

"It's an old nickname Matt gave me. I thought about using it to sneak into the Garrison as a student and find more info before I discovered Keith."

"You were going to do what?" Colleen says, suitably distracted. Katie - Pidge - winks at Adam.

"Well I didn't, obviously. But I still want to go by Pidge. It's like being one step closer to finding Matt."

"Great, fine, we'll call you Pidge. Anyone else want a name change, or can we finish up here and go to bed?" Adam asks. He's starting to get a headache.

"I don't know," Colleen says scathingly. "Are we done?"

"Paladins! Why don't I show you to your rooms!" Coran says, too loudly, and Adam might love him a little bit for it. Colleen stalks off and out of the room, and Adam knows he'll be apologizing to her for the next several months. Or phoebs. Or whatever.

But that will have to wait until they've all gotten some sleep.

Chapter Text

The kids are all asleep, piled on top of each other in the lounge area like a little pack of baby hyenas. Colleen still isn't talking to him, but she'll come around eventually.

He hopes.

Adam should be asleep, too, but instead of retreating to the rooms the castle has provided them, he searches out Coran. He has some questions for him. Or really, just one, very important question.

It's something that has been weighing on him when Adam had the time to worry about less pressing concerns than the Garrison finding him. What if Keith's physiology needs something that Earth hasn't been providing? Keith's growth has always been a little stunted. Adam had thought it was his less-than-stellar experience in the foster system, but maybe he's actually needed some set of vitamins that just didn't exist on Earth.

Coran seems like he knows his way around the infirmary, or at least like he can bluff his way around the infirmary, so Adam pulls him aside and explains the issue.

"Oh, of course!" Coran says, as if it's perfectly normal to be told that someone is an alien of unknown heritage.

It probably is, Adam realizes. They're out in space and now apparently fighting in a millenia-old intergalactic war. If anything, this might be one of the least odd things Adam does in this war.

He follows Coran over to a computer terminal which had apparently scanned them all when they entered. Nothing creepy about that.

"Ah, here's Keith. He's..."

Coran trails off and shoots a particularly concerned look in Adam's direction.

"He's what?" Adam asks. Is Keith secretly dying? Something the scientists did to him has been slowly killing him?

"Well," Coran says. He gestures to the computer screen as if Adam could actually read Altean script. "It seems Keith is part Galra."

It is very much not what Adam is expecting.

"He's..."

"Yes, fifty percent. One parent must have been Galra."

Keith does not look Galra. He isn't purple and fuzzy with giant ears. But despite the fact that they've only known each other for a day (or a quintant or whatever it's called in space), Adam is certain that Coran wouldn't joke about something like this.

"Is that going to be a problem?" he asks, the steely voice he used to use with the Garrison coming out of his mouth unbidden.

"Certainly not for me. And in fact, you were correct, it seems that there are some vitamin deficiencies that we can take care of with some supplements. I would, however, recommend you... don't tell the princess. I don't think she would take it well."

That isn't ideal, but the more important thing for now is how to tell Keith.

Adam should tell him as soon as possible. This isn't something to keep from him, especially if Coran already knows.

But when Adam returns to the lounge, intent on waking Keith up and explaining everything, he just can't do it. Keith looks relaxed and at ease, and besides, if Adam wakes up Keith, it will probably alert the entire little pile of them. They need their sleep.

Later. Adam will do it later.

"Listen, I know you're angry with me," Adam says—it's a gross understatement—"but I need your parental expertise."

"You didn't seem to want it earlier," Colleen says.

It's easier to hide behind the anger than the hope that this gets them closer to finding Sam and Matt. She just can't logically risk one child to potentially rescue another one. If something happens to Katie, she doesn't know what she'll do with herself. She doesn't know how Adam can do it, can risk Keith to save Shiro.

"I know, I know. I didn't mean to...pull rank on you, I guess. But I could really use your help right now."

She doesn't say anything, but he takes her silence as permission to continue.

"I just talked with Coran about Keith. I need some advice about how to tell him what specific alien he is."

"You seem to be doing fine with that on your own," she says. She doesn't mean it unkindly, but it still comes waspishly out of her mouth. Guess she's more upset than she thought.

"Right," Adam winces. "It's just..."

She has rarely heard Adam at a loss for words. This must be weighing on him more than she expected. What could possibly be giving him this much pause? It's as if he's worried about Keith knowing the truth, or worried about other people knowing the truth. It should be simple enough to just explain what race of alien he is and move on, but Adam is acting like he has learned some awful burden.

Oh.

"He's Galra?" she asks without meaning to. Adam winces again, and eventually nods.

Well. That does make things a little more difficult, doesn't it?

"You need to tell him," she says.

"I know that, but how? If I just tell him, he'll freak out. He already freaked out about possibly being related to the aliens that took Takashi and now I know that he is."

"Just tell him the truth. Make sure he knows that tthis doesn't affect how you feel and think about him, but you need to tell him."

"Easier said than done."

"This is on you," she says. "He needs to hear it from you. Not me, not Coran, and he cannot find out on accident. This is what you get for signing us up for this war. Imagine how much easier this would be if you didn't need to fight this Galra Empire."

"I suppose I deserved that."

"You did. You do. Katie isn't a pilot, Adam. And yet you signed her up for the frontlines of this war. Without my consent."

"We're not on the frontlines. We're just going to liberate some planets and some prisons until we find them," he says, but it's a pale argument. Adam is a strategist at heart. Colleen knows the full power and rage of the Galra Empire will fall squarely on all their shoulders, and so does Adam.

"Do me a favor?" she says. "Don't talk to me again for a couple of days."

He winces, salutes, and leaves her to her own thoughts.

The aliens they rescued stumble out of the healing cryopods late the next morning. Keith knows, because he's been there with Adam since breakfast. He's fairly certain Adam didn't sleep at all last night, and he looks drawn and worried now. Keith thinks about asking what's wrong, but he also knows that Colleen glared at him during the entirety of breakfast, so Keith can take a guess.

Besides, they have bigger things to worry about. The aliens are waking up, and that means they can figure out who this 'Champion' is and whether he's really Shiro. Coran and Hunk are there, too, ready to help the aliens get reacclimated after being in the cryopod things, and Keith knows he can't immediately bombard them with questions no matter how much he wants to. Kaite... Pidge is there, too, because she knows that figuring out where Shiro is gets her a step closer to figuring out where Matt and her dad are. Colleen is tellingly absent, but Keith is sure she'll come around eventually.

"You look like the Champion," the same alien says again once they've been warmed up and fed some of the weird goo Coran tried to force on them last night before Hunk took over and made dinner. "And you look like the one brought in with the Champion," they say with a nod in Pidge's direction.

"Tell us about them," Adam says. He sounds a lot less nervous than Keith feels.

"The Champion told us he was human. Are you human, as well?"

"Yes," Keith breathes. It has to be him. It has to be Shiro.

"We have not seen either of them in several phoebs," one of the others says, and Adam relays that the measure of time is similar to a month. Months have gone by. Anything could have happened to Shiro.

"Why do you call him the Champion?" Adam asks.

"He bested many opponents in the gladiator arena," is the answer. It doesn't sound like Shiro—he was certainly a good fighter, but fighting aliens in a gladiator pit?—but it must be.

"He was full of bloodlust and battlerage," another says. "On his first fight, he took down his fellow human to get into the ring and defeat Myzax."

"Took down?" Pidge says frantically. "What does that mean, 'took down?'"

Keith's heart stops. Had they forced Shiro to fight one of the Holts? On his shoulder, Adam's hand tightens.

"The Champion gravely injured the other human with us. He could not walk afterward."

"What the fuck?" Pidge says, and Adam's hand tightens further.

"It...doesn't sound like Shiro," Keith says. Maybe they've gotten this all wrong. Maybe the aliens are mistaken, and the people they saw weren't actually human.

"He could have snapped! Trauma can do that to a person," Coran says unhelpfully, and Adam shoots him a glare.

"If Shiro hurt Dad or Matt..."

"He wouldn't," Adam interrupts. Keith wishes he could have that level of confidence.

"But Shiro attacked him!"

"I think.. maybe... Shiro saved him," Hunk says from across the room, where he's helping another alien drink something that might be tea.

"How does maiming one of my family members help them?"

"Did you see him again?" Hunk asks the aliens. "The other human, I mean."

"No. They only brought fit fighters into the arena. They probably would have taken the other human to the mines."

"See?" Hunk says. "If Shiro was thinking clearly, then it makes sense he would have wanted to injure whoever it was. That would keep Matt or your Dad from the fighting altogether. Better to walk with a limp than lose a fight in a gladiator pit."

Pidge doesn't look convinced, but Keith grabs onto the thought with everything he has. That sounds a lot more like Shiro, protecting someone the only way he can figure out how.

He's just going to have to hope that Hunk is right.

Chapter Text

It's several days worth of "training" under the instructions of the princess and Coran that leaves them all boneless and exhausted before Adam actually works up the courage to explain things Keith. Colleen still isn't talking to him, but she does laugh at him every time he messes up during the weird training exercises, so Adam thinks she's coming around to the idea.

He finally pulls Keith aside after lunchtime, bringing him to one of the quieter parts of the ship, away from the prying eyes and ears of the princess and the other teenagers.

"Keith, we need to talk."

It isn't the best way to start this conversation by far, but it's true.

Keith looks at him like he's just been told he's going to a new foster home.

"I talked with Coran about your genetics. I mostly wanted to make sure you're healthy and not missing anything the alien side of you needs. You're going to be taking some vitamins now."

"Oh," Keith says. He knows Adam wouldn't pull him aside just to talk about dietary supplements.

"We figured out what race your mother was."

"Oh," Keith says again. He's even more on edge. Adam isn't doing this well.

He...doesn't know how to tell him the truth. He'd thought through several possibilities, none of which had been good. He was hoping that some bolt of divine inspiration would come to him for this conversation, but no such luck.

"I want to tell you that I love you," Adam starts, and Keith's eyes widen in realization.

"I'm Galra, aren't I?"

Adam considers, briefly, lying. But Keith has been lied to enough.

"Yes."

"And you're... okay with it?"

"Of course I am. You're my little brother and I've known you for years. This doesn't change anything."

"I'm Galra, though. They're responsible for so much death and destruction. They took Shiro."

"You're right. They did. Not you. And not, I doubt, your mother, either."

"You can't know that."

"No, but I can take a guess. Why would she have just taken up with your dad? Why was she on Earth alone and not with some invading force?"

"Maybe she was a scout," Keith says mulishly.

"Or maybe she just got lost and ended up there and fell in love. We don't know. It still doesn't change anything."

"I need some time," Keith says, turning on his heel to be alone.

Adam lets him go. It's about as good of a response as he could have hoped for. He's just dropped a bombshell on the kid. If he wants some time alone, Adam isn't going to push.

"Where is Keith?" the princess asks harshly at their afternoon training.

"Training on his own. Give him some time," Adam says in his best 'Black Paladin' voice. The princess huffs but doesn't ask again.

Keith still doesn't know the layout of the castle well, and he knows it even less well now that it's been turned on its side and transformed into a spaceship. He wants to be alone, but his room feels bare, and besides, anyone can show up there looking for him. He doesn't want to be looked for right now.

He jolts as he feels a pulse of something that's hard to pin down make its way into his head unbidden. He's still getting used to feeling random emotions from the other paladins. But this doesn't feel like Adam.

It feels like the Red Lion.

That's as good a place to be alone as any, and he actually knows how to get to Red's hangar. By the time he actually makes it there, Red is all but purring in his head. He settles into the pilot's chair and hesitates before he tells the Lion what he's learned.

She just continues purring at him. It seems like she, at least, doesn't care. If worse comes to worse, he can hide out here and Red will protect him from whatever the others want to do with him.

He must sit there for a few hours, sort of zoning out, turning everything about being Galra over in his head, because eventually Lance, Hunk, and Pidge show up in Red's hangar looking for him.

"You managed to get out of training, you jerk!" Lance shouts up. "There was an invisible maze! Hunk zapped me like 15 times!"

"I'm just indecisive!" Hunk says. "I didn't mean to run you into a wall, I was trying to figure out what the best way through would be!"

"I had to lead Adam through the maze and it was terrifying," Pidge says. "And also the princess is super annoyed you skipped out."

"And now it's almost dinner time and I will not have you missing a meal!" Hunk says.

Keith thinks, very, very briefly, about telling them, and then decides against it. They'll probably freak out. Better to hide it. He's had lots of experience hiding things in foster homes. He's good at it.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming down."

He'll never tell them. It's better that way.

It's surreal, having the Castle full of young, unknown Paladins and not much else. He's used to grand galas and diplomatic events, Alfor and the other Paladins gallivanting off to save a planet from some unknown evil.

It's very... quiet, now.

Coran fills the time by attempting to take care of the new Paladins, even if they sometimes don't seem to know what to do with the food he gives them or the words of wisdom he imparts.

He gets the feeling that Colleen takes offense at this. She is the human in charge, after all, and the parent of at least one of the new Paladins (Coran admittedly can't tell for sure which one or how many). Coran isn't trying to replace her as a parent, but they all remind him so much of Allura that he just can't help it.

When Keith creeps his way onto the Bridge one night when he should definitely be asleep, Coran is ready to give him some warm nunvil and send him back to bed.

"Are you really okay with this?" he asks. It takes Coran some time to even figure out what he's talking about.

Ah yes, his Galra parentage.

"Of course, lad. We don't punish children for the sins of their genetics here."

Keith winces in response, for some reason. They're an odd bunch, these new Paladins.

"Can you tell me anything about this?" he says, holding out a sharp-looking knife. It looks unlike anything Coran has ever seen, with the exception of the symbol on the hilt.

"This," he points at it, "is the symbol for the Galra goddess Marmora. She was a goddess of knowledge, if I remember correctly. But I'm afraid that's all I know."

"Oh. Thanks, anyway," Keith says. It must be something from his Galra parent. Coran wishes he could give him more information, or at least some advice. But Keith is slipping out of the bridge before Coran can think of something impactful to say.

"Do you think Keith's been looking twitchy lately?" Lance asks after dinner one night, staring in the direction of where Adam has pulled Keith aside, again. Nothing seems to be wrong, exactly. But they've been doing that a lot.

"Maybe?" Hunk says.

"Definitely," Lance decides. "Don't you think, Pidge?"

Pidge only nods, doing something on her datapad. Lance will take it.

"I think he needs a vacation. Actually, I think we all need a vacation."

"We haven't done much," Pidge points out.

"Hey, we've destroyed a warship and liberated three planets."

"They were moons at best," Pidge says.

"We liberated three populations of aliens. I think that calls for a vacation. It's been what, four phoebs?"

"That's four months. I think you mean four movements," Hunk says.

"Eh, close enough. Hey, Adam!" he calls over. Adam jolts from where he's been leaning down to whisper something at Keith. Definitely twitchy. "Can we have a vacation?"

Adam stares at him, opens his mouth, closes it. Looks at Keith and shrugs.

"I'll let you have one day off."

"Sold! Can we go to the beach? There's got to be a beach planet somewhere, right?"

"A vacation?" Allura asks, butting into their conversation. "Paladins of Voltron don't take vacations!"

"They do when they're children," Colleen says. "A nice, pleasant beach day sounds like a plan."

"You heard Paladin Den Mom, beach day!" This is working out a lot better than Lance was expecting.

Coran clearly has no idea what exactly a beach day entails, but he's happy enough to lead them to a planet with water and sand where the air won't kill either the humans or the alteans. Hunk helps Lance liberate some tools that could double as beach toys and they string up something that looks like a volleyball net if you squint hard enough.

Luckily, the castle has provided them with color-coded swimwear, and Lance cannonballs into the ocean before anyone can stop him and tell him to act like an adult.

It's freezing.

Ah, well. It's still a good day. They congregate on the beach, tentatively wading into the cold water and reading and just lounging for a change. Even Allura seems like she's enjoying herself, making a little sand palace for the mice.

Of course, Allura can't leave well enough alone, and decides to turn the day into more training with a volleyball game. It's a bit difficult, since Allura doesn't know the rules of volleyball and starts turning it into some kind of Altean version of dodgeball. By the end of the game, all the paladins are exhausted and sporting various welts from Allura spiking a sort-of-volleyball at them for an hour.

Still worth it.

"Are you alright?" Colleen asks, pulling Keith aside after they return from their beach day. Keith flinches at her, which mostly gives her an answer.

"Do you know?"

"Adam told me. How are you doing?"

Keith shrugs unhappily. "It's a lot. And then the thing with Shiro..."

Right, Colleen had heard about Shiro attacking either her husband or her son. It certainly doesn't sound like the Shiro she knows, but anything can happen out here in space.

"Even if Shiro did hurt them, I'm sure he had a good reason." She privately isn't all that sure, but Keith doesn't need her uncertainty right now.

"Pidge is upset about it."

She is. She's hiding it well for the sake of this whole Voltron thing, but she and Colleen have discussed it. Katie has a right to be angry about what seems like an attack on one of her family members.

"She's not upset with you," Colleen tells him.

"Right," Keith says.

Colleen might be losing her touch. She doesn't think she's helped at all.

What she wouldn't give for a few more adults on this spaceship.

Chapter Text

The first time it happens, Colleen barely thinks anything of it.

She's too busy panicking over the fact that Katie was apparently almost hit in the face with a blaster without her helmet on to scold Adam for taking the shot on her behalf. Coran bustles him into one of the cryopods and claims he'll be good as new, and that is that.

The next time it happens, when Adam breaks a leg diving off a cliff to reach Keith (who has a working jetpack and gets himself up the cliff on his own), Colleen gives it a little side-eye but chalks it up to Adam's brotherly instincts when it comes to Keith.

And then Adam nearly gets himself killed when his first instinct is to run toward a bomb to block it instead of running away.

And Colleen realizes.

Adam is constantly putting himself in danger, taking unnecessary risks, stepping in between the younger paladins and whatever danger has befallen them regardless of whether they can handle that danger on their own.

Adam is an adult. He can do what he wants and make his own choices.

Adam is an adult. He should be protecting the children that he got signed up for this.

But neither of those things mean he should be almost dying every time the paladins go out on a mission, and Colleen can't help but feel responsible for it. Guilty, even.

True, she's still not particularly happy with Adam, but he's also doing his best. Juggling the same wants and needs that she is, just in a different way. And apparently his way involves stepping into the path of danger instead of trusting the others to remember their extensive training.

She's partly responsible for it, which now means she's partly responsible to get him to stop doing it.

Just as soon as he gets out of his current stint in the healing pod.

When it's Colleen there, waiting for him to leave the healing pod in the middle of the night, Adam thinks of the worst. Had he not protected the others well enough? Are they hurt? Are they dead?

"I'm sorry," Colleen says, and Adam spirals.

"No, no. The others are fine. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"They're fine?"

"They're fine. You, on the other hand... Coran told me it isn't good for you to spend so much time in the healing pods. Something about draining your quintessence?"

"Oh," Adam says. It doesn't seem all that important. His quintessence feels fine.

"Adam."

Adam gets the distinct impression that he's somehow in trouble, but he has no idea for what.

"I'm sorry," she says again. "I think this is my fault, partially. But you can't keep doing this. You can't keep putting yourself in danger like this."

"Who are you and what have you done with Colleen Holt? I need to keep them safe. I got us into this mess, after all."

"True," Colleen allows. "But if something happens to you, the kids will be devastated."

"What about something happening to them?"

"As much as I hate to say it, that's part of parenting. You can't protect your kid from every single thing."

Adam is far too young to be a parent, even if Keith is his own. But he can understand the sentiment.

"Most parents don't involve their kids in a galactic war. I'm the adult. I know the risks. If I need to put myself in more danger to protect them, so be it."

"Eventually one of those risks is going to take you too far," she says. "And what happens then? I'm certainly not going to become the Black Paladin in your stead. You got us into this war, and I expect you to get us out."

It's a nice idea, but it doesn't matter, in the end. As long as he can find Takashi and the Holts, keep the other Paladins safe, everything will have been worth it. He knows he's just a replacement for Takashi in Keith's eyes, anyways. If he falls in the process?

"I can see you thinking. You need to trust them. They haven't been doing all this destructive training for nothing."

"So what are you going to do, strap me down in the Black Lion and keep me from going on the next mission?"

Colleen's eyes turn sharp.

It's a simple mission, all things considered. They're just doing some recon on a shipping terminal, trying to pin down some movements and see if they can get possible information on Galra prisons. Keith shouldn't be surprised that Adam is sitting this one out, especially since he just came out of the healing pod.

But that's not how Adam operates. Keith has seen him teach their flight class with food poisoning. He hasn't taken his eyes off of any of them in a mission yet, somehow looking in four directions at once.

"Adam and I will be overseeing this mission from the Black Lion's cockpit," Colleen says over the comms. "He can step in if there's trouble, but otherwise, we will be observing."

"Excellent," the princess says. "This will give us a good opportunity to test the other Paladins on their skills."

Keith shares an uneasy look with the others. He doesn't like this. He doesn't want to be tested, and why does it seem like Adam is being benched?

It doesn't help his uneasiness that, for some reason, the other paladins seem to be looking to Keith for instructions on the mission. Why would he know anything about the Galra equivalent of a post office? Do they suspect? Do they know?

He tries not to think about it. They're here for Pidge and Hunk to plug in and get as much data as they can before someone notices them. He and Lance are supposed to be on lookout duty. That's what he should be focusing on.

But there's a problem. The computer doesn't want to boot up. There's some kind of log in prompt, and without that, the system won't let Pidge and Hunk in. The whole mission will be a bust.

"There's a handprint," Lance says, slapping his palm down on the symbol that does indeed look a bit like a hand.

Nothing happens.

Hunk tries it, too, and so does Pidge. They finally look at Keith, and he rolls his eyes but puts his hand down, too.

The computer immediately boots up.

Oh.

Oh no.

"Well that's weird," Lance says, but both Pidge and Hunk have turned a calculating gaze in Keith's direction. They're smart. A lot smarter than Keith. They'll figure it out, and they'll tell the princess, and Keith will be kicked out of Voltron for sure. It doesn't matter what Adam says about it. He'll be outvoted.

"Might have been a fluke," Adam says over the comms.

"Right, we all got it warmed up," Lance says.

Hunk and Pidge don't look convinced, but they start downloading data without any other comments. Seems like they'll wait until the mission is over to rat Keith out.

The minute the Green Lion (chosen for its cloaking capabilities) touches down in its hangar, Keith bolts, heading for the safety of the Red Lion's cockpit. Adam is waiting there for him.

"Allura doesn't know," he says. "She and Coran weren't on the comms for that mission."

It's a small mercy. Hunk and Pidge will certainly tell her anyways, but at least Keith has a little bit of a reprieve.

Adam stays with him for a couple hours before heading out to bring them something to eat. The moment he leaves the hangar, Hunk and Pidge sneak in.

The Red Lion lowers her ramp down for them, the traitor.

"Um," Hunk says. "So we noticed something on that mission, and I don't want to be alarmist, but also I feel like maybe you should know, but also we don't want to, um."

"We think you might be Galra," Pidge says for him.

"Yeah? I know?" Keith says despite himself. He's never been a particularly good liar. "I mean, I am. Galra."

"You knew and you didn't tell us?" Hunk says, looking for some odd reason like he's about to cry.

"Um," Keith says.

Pidge rolls her eyes and elbows Hunk in the gut. "It was probably a sensitive topic." She says it under her breath, but Keith can still hear her.

"He doesn't trust us!" Hunk whispers back.

"It's not that I don't..." Keith trails off. It is that he didn't trust them. He thought they'd see him as Galra and immediately turn against him.

Pidge rolls her eyes again. "I mean, we knew you were part alien. It isn't a huge surprise that you're the part that has spread all over the universe."

"Oh." Keith hadn't thought about it like that.

"Adam knows, obviously," Pidge says, and it's not a question but Keith answers it anyway.

"Yeah. He was the one who broke the news to me. Your mom knows, too."

"We should tell Lance. I know for sure he won't care, but he'd feel bad if he was left out of the loop. What about the Alteans?" Hunk asks.

"Coran knows. Allura..."

"Oh, shit," Pidge says. It about sums up Keith's thoughts on the matter.

"Coran doesn't think she'll take it well."

"Is that why you didn't tell us?" Hunk asks. Keith just nods. "Well, we won't say anything."

It's about the time that Adam comes back, smirking as he does. It occurs to Keith that Adam probably planned this so that Hunk and Pidge could talk to him alone. He must have seen them pass him in the hall on their way to Red's hangar.

"Everything alright?" he asks, as if he doesn't already suspect it.

"Yeah, yeah," Keith says, refusing to smile when Adam nudges him.

At least they didn't kick him out of Voltron.

Yet.