A/N: The last chapter but not the end of the story. Enjoy

Taking Off

It had taken Pidge a while to work out the packets she periodically picked up on her scanner. It was an alien communique, or something, which meant it was meant to be received by an alien computer that operated completely differently than anything on Earth. Pidge had to use the transmissions as a sort of guide for how such a computer would work, and how she would go about reading it on her own.

As it turned out, they were all audio files. When she finally figure out how to properly process it and convert it for human tech, she opened it for the first time alone on the roof. Of course it was in an alien language. By the time she'd figured it out, she'd amassed a small cache of broadcasts so she started listening to all of them listening for any sorts of clues. A part of her hoped that she'd hear a familiar voice or two.

Pidge definitely wasn't a linguist, but she listened to the transmissions over and over again, trying to pick out any sort of anomaly. There was only one thing that stood out. The language that was spoken in the transmission had a sort of harsh guttural intonation to it, and Pidge sort of thought she had an idea of the common sounds, but there was one word that kept popping up in all of the broadcasts that was different from the others.

"Voltron" she sounded the word out to herself.

It was sort of like listening to someone talk in a foreign language and then all of a sudden drop in an English word. It stood out. What had also stood out was the fact that the transmissions were coming back around. It was like they were retracing their steps, and if Katie had any sort of guess, she'd say they were going to be back in Earth's solar system sometime that night. Of course they'd probably pass through, but she was desperate with the hope that they would try to make contact with the Earth. That they had Matt and Dad and Shiro on board and that they could get them back.

"So anyway," Mom said. "Ellain came over and she taught me how to make strudel, so you'd better come with your sweet tooth for Christmas."

"Oh definitely," Pidge said, having no way to just come out and say that Matt and Dad could very well be returning to their solar system at that very moment.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Mom asked. "You've seemed distracted tonight."

"I'm fine," Pidge said. "Just a history project I've got due tomorrow."

"Is it all done?" Mom asked.

"Almost," Pidge said. "Maybe." Maybe it would all be over soon.

"Should I let you go?" Mom asked. "It's getting late there, I don't want you staying up too late finishing your project."

"It's okay Mom," Pidge said. "I could use the company right now. Tell me more about this strudel."

Suddenly the door to the roof opened up and Katie's heart stuttered.

"Actually, just remembered I've got a lot to do, bye."

"Love you sweet-"

Pidge shoved her phone in her pocket and closed her laptop, searching around for Matt's glasses and shoving them back on her face.

"Oh, so this is where you've been hiding?" It was Lance's voice. Thank god it was only Lance. At the very least he was out after curfew too.

"Is that a Petruvian Sensor?" Hunk asked. Hunk was there too, and he was way to nosy.

"So this is all the tech you keep in that backpack of yours," Lance said.

"You build this yourself?" Hunk asked, sounding impressed.

"Yeah," Pidge said. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Lieutenant Dent and Ensign Nigma were blocking up the exit we normally sneak out of. I mean they were just standing there talking. We kept waiting to sneak out and they just kept on gabbing," Lance said. "I thought we could climb down from the roof. Hey, you should join us. You know they've got Mordor Unraveled at the Dungeon right? There's a pretty good dungeon crawl in there."

"You guys go on," Pidge said. "Tonight is really not the night."

"Are you okay?" Lance asked. "You look tense or something."

"I'm not," Pidge said.

"Are you still upset about what we were talking about in the hallway earlier?"

"What were you talking about in the hallway?" Hunk asked.

"Nothing," Pidge said.

"Does nothing have something to do with Voltron?" Hunk asked. He was holding her notebook.

"Give me that," she said snatching it out of his hands.

"Have you been listening to chatter from one of our probes?" Hunk asked, poking at her sensor array.

"Is the Garrison up to something shady?" Lance asked.

"Super shady," Pidge said.

"Wait, for real?" Hunk asked.

"Is this about Kerberos?" Lance asked. "Do you really have evidence of a cover up?"

"What's it to you?" Pidge asked.

Lance shrugged. "Shiro was my hero. Then they blamed everything on him and I… I don't know, I care, okay."

Suddenly her computer beeped and she turned around to find that Hunk had opened it.

"Hey," she said. But what was more important was that she'd collected a new packet. Heart pounding in her chest she unlocked her screen and took a look.

"What's that?" Lance asked.

"An alien ship in our solar system," Pidge said, letting the new packet go through her processing program.

"Aliens?" Lance asked. "Yeah right."

"They just came from Epsilon Indi two days ago," Pidge said.

"Uh huh," Lance said.

Pidge pressed play and yanked her headphones out. The alien voice played out and Pidge hoped with everything she had that this one would be different. She didn't hear Matt or Dad, but this one was different. There was an excited quality to the voice this time, and the word Voltron was said three times.

"Did you say 'Voltron,' Hunk?" Lance asked.

"That's what it said in the journal," Hunk said.

"What was that?" Lance asked.

"That was an alien language," Pidge said. "The Garrison's been tracking them for a while. They were right there at Kerberos when we lost contact with the Heracles."

"Are you being serious right now?" Lance asked.

"Uh, guys," Hunk said, a lot of worry in his voice. "What the hell is that?!"

There was a burning streak in the sky that got closer and closer.

"That might just be an alien spaceship," Pidge said, tension building inside of her.

Whatever it was, it crashed about a half kilometer away.

"Holy crow," Lance shouted.

They waited tensely for something to happen. Suddenly Iverson's voice popped up from loudspeakers around the compound.

"This is not a drill, all Cadets are to stay in barracks, no exceptions."

"What the hell is going on you guys?" Hunk asked.

Two Garrison vehicles started tearing across the ground towards the crash site.

"Come on," Lance said. "We've got to get closer."

Pidge was already packing up her equipment. That could be Matt and Dad. They climbed down the fire escape on the side of the building and started running, keeping away from the street lights. When they got to the closest building to the crash site they climbed on top to get a better view. There were a couple more vehicles and it looked like they'd been busy.

The first thing they'd done was set up a perimeter around the crater and a command tent was quickly erected next to it.

"They're pulling someone out of it?" Hunk said. Pidge looked over to see that Hunk had found her binoculars.

"Let me see that," Lance said.

Pidge ignored them and pulled out her laptop and started scanning the Garrison network.

"The command tent has a security system. They've already set up a camera," Pidge said.

"What?" Hunk asked

The two boys crowded around her. On the screen they could see a person on a gurney surrounded by people in hazmat suits.

"How'd you hack that so fast?" Hunk asked.

Whoever was on the gurney was struggling against them.

"I've been in their system for a while," Pidge said.

"We're not about to watch an alien autopsy, are we?" Lance asked.

"Is there audio?" Hunk asked.

Pidge selected the audio stream and turned it on. Let it be them, she dared to dream, anticipating Matt's or Dad's voice coming in on the line.

"You have to listen to me." That was Shiro's voice!

"Who's that?" Lance asked.

Suddenly, someone else walked into the tent. Their back was to the camera, but Pidge recognized Iverson. The people in the hazmat suits backed away from the gurney to give him a view, and that's when she saw who they had pulled out of the spaceship.

"Maldito infierno!" Lance said. "That's Shiro!"

It really was Shiro. And if Shiro was back…

"Sir! They're coming to Earth. They're aliens. They've destroyed worlds!"

"Calm down son," Iverson said. "You're hysterical."

"Sir, he's got some sort of cyborg prosthetic," One of the hazmat guys said.

"Sedate him," Iverson said. "We don't know what that thing can do."

"What are they doing?" Lance asked.

"No, don't, they're coming. They're looking for a weapon. We have to find it. We have to find Voltron before they do."

"What the hell are they doing to him," Lance said angrily. "That guy's a hero!"

"Where's the rest of the crew?" Pidge asked. "Where are they?"

"This is a god damn coverup," Lance said.

They watched, as on the screen, Shiro was held down and a syringe was stuck into his neck.

"We've got to do something," Lance said.

"So there really are aliens?" Hunk asked.

"They destroy worlds," Lance whispered. He cleared his throat. "Iverson's trying to cover it up. Come on, we need a distraction."

They all got up, to do what, Pidge wasn't sure. There were so many systems she had access to, she could probably spoof their radars and make them think that something else had just landed on the other side of the Garrison. They ducked back down again when explosions went off out in the distance.

"Oh no, what's happening now?" Hunk asked.

Several of the guards outside got in a couple of vehicles and drove off to investigate.

That was when someone stalked out of the shadows. Lance grabbed the binoculars.

"Oh my god, it's Gyeong," he said.

The guy Lance had replaced? Shiro's foster brother?

"Are you sure?" Hunk asked.

"I'd recognize that mullet anywhere," Lance said. "Come on. No way is he rescuing Shiro."

Something was coming, something was going to happen, and he had to be ready for it. On the night ordained by the stars, he waited by the caves. A streak of light in the sky and an impact in the distance, told him he was a bit off. He got on his bike and hoped that he found whatever it was before the Garrison did.

The Garrison got there first. Keith saw an impact site with some sort of landing pod that didn't look like anything made on Earth. The Garrison had already set up a command tent at the perimeter of the small crater and Keith figured whatever he was looking for was probably inside. He needed a distraction, and he figured it was time to use the C4 that had come with his bike.

Minutes later, he was lurking in the shadows, waiting for the explosion to go off. When it finally came, even Keith was surprised, if only for how big it was. The guards went to go investigate, and Keith went into the command tent. He recognized Iverson's voice and was actually excited to get another chance to deck him. He didn't even hesitate when he saw the eyepatch that covered the eye he'd punched the first time. Moments later, and he'd knocked out everyone inside. That was when he got a look at what had come out of the pod.

"Shiro!" Keith exclaimed, rushing over. He was unconscious and strapped to a gurney. There was a wide jagged scar across his face and he was wearing a tattered tunic, and fuck, what had happened to his arm?

Keith started undoing the straps. He had to get them out of there before the guards came back. A rustling at the tents entrance let him know he'd been too slow.

"Holy crow! It really is Shiro," Lance's voice exclaimed. Keith's head shot up incredulously, and a part of him burned to see Lance again.

His damned soulmate, because of course he was there. Of course the universe would thrust them together again, but why the hell did it have to be now? Whatever was happening was dangerous and Lance wasn't prepared for it in the least.

"Oh no, you're not rescuing Shiro, I'm rescuing Shiro," Lance said. He popped up on the other side of the gurney and started propping Shiro up.

"This isn't the time for a pissing contest, cargo pilot," Keith bit out.

"It's fighter pilot now," Lance said. "Thanks to you dropping out." Why did he sound bitter about it?

"Uh, guys, we really need to get out of here." Hunk's voice called from outside the tent. Keith propped up Shiro's other side and started walking him to the exit. Lance at least, in spite of his words, worked with Kieth to carry Shiro out. Hunk let out a sigh of relief when they walked out. "Oh, hey, it was Keith, good eye Lance. He recognized you from your haircut." He didn't want Lance to recognize him by his haircut, he wanted him to recognize the soul behind his eyes.

"Is Shiro okay?" There was a third cadet behind Hunk.

"He's fine. My bike's over this way," Keith said. Why the hell did he look exactly like a much younger Matt Holt? "Come on."

"Wait," the other cadet said. "Was there anyone else?"

"Just him," Keith said. "Now let's go."

Getting everyone on his bike was a struggle, though evading the Garrison units was a piece of cake. They rode out into the desert and Keith took a circuitous route back to his shack to make sure he didn't draw the Garrison right to them. Lance kept up a constant string of chatter as they streaked across the barren ground.

When they got to his shack, he lay Shiro down on his bed and fretted about, checking him for injuries while the three cadets behind him started nosing around his shack.

"Are these calculations for an astral calendar?" the Matt Holt look-alike asked.

"Ooh, let me see," Hunk said.

"Don't you think we have other things to talk about?" Lance said.

"Yeah," Keith said. "Like what the hell were you thinking back there? Are you just going to head back to the Garrison tomorrow? They've probably got you on camera helping me."

"I took care of the cameras," Matt junior said dismissively.

"Hey," Lance said indignantly. "I was thinking that they were trying to silence Lieutenant Shirogane when he'd just heroically returned to Earth to warn us about an imminent alien invasion. Pretty simple math there, hotshot."

"What are you talking about?" Keith asked.

"Pidge hacked into their security feed," Lance said, gesturing to the third cadet. Pidge Gunderson, Keith remembered from the start of his last term. He looked at the spitting image of mini Matt Holt skeptically. "Shiro was trying to warn them about aliens coming here looking for some weapon here on Earth, and they just sedated him."

Keith sighed realizing that Shiro had just been sedated and wasn't unconscious from some injury from the crash he hadn't been able to find. Keith thought about it for a moment. Whatever was going on was huge, and he knew he needed to tread carefully. Patience yields focus, he reminded himself. He looked up at Lance. Whatever was going on, Lance was here. Fate had thrust them together once more at a time ordained by the stars when an invasion was imminent. Keith supposed they would face whatever was to come together, regardless of the fact that Lance still hated him. But he knew that just because they were soulmates didn't mean that they would grow old and die together. He'd faced invasion before; the last time he'd had to leave Lance's body behind on a doomed planet.

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait until he wakes up to find out more," Keith said.

"So do you want to explain the creepy wall of conspiracies you've got going on here?" Hunk asked, pointing to the wall where Keith had organized everything he'd found in the caves and in his research.

"There's no conspiracy," Keith said. He didn't want to talk about it, about the strange pull, but they were all in this together it seemed. "I felt like there was something out there," he said defensively. "I found those star projections next to those cave drawings and figured out they were counting down to tonight. Wasn't expecting ancient cave drawings to be predicting Shiro's return, but… Look, we'll talk about it when Shiro wakes up, alright? He'll know what's going on. Shiro's got some stuff in that duffel over there. Make sure he knows he has something to change into when he wakes up. I'm going to patrol outside." He fled out into the desert and headed to a good vantage point where he'd see anyone approaching from the Garrison.

Gyeong stalked out the door, and damnit, he even managed to make that look cool. Gyeong might rather roam the desert night to avoid answering their questions but there was one person who had some explaining to do.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Lance asked rounding on Pidge.

"Woah," Hunk said.

"I think about a lot of things," Pidge said. "Perhaps you could be a bit more specific."

"There've been hostile aliens in our backyard for how long?"

"For as long as I've had my equipment set up, at least," Pidge said. "The Garrison's been tracking them longer, or at least they've been regularly purging something from SETI databases since at least a month before the Heracles landed on Kerberos. Something that's been hopping around our bit of the galaxy and happened to be at Kerberos when the Heracles landed. I'm pretty sure they haven't managed to decode anything though."

"And you didn't think you should let them know you figured out that they were looking for something?"

"The Heracles didn't crash. All of those sensor logs and satellite images were fabricated. I couldn't even find the originals; they're probably sandboxed. This is a massive coverup," Pidge said. "They don't want anyone knowing about the aliens, and they were just going to make me disappear if I said anything."

"Okay," Hunk said. "Just how deep are you into the Garrisons systems?"

"I've got access to everything that isn't sandboxed." Then Pidge shrugged. "Since its honesty hour, let's just say I never actually went through the admissions process, and I'm not really a transfer student."

"Oh snap," Hunk said.

"Oh, nothing," Lance said. "Alien warships are coming to find something on Earth and no one knows about it. You heard Shiro before they knocked him out, these aliens destroy worlds." Lance wondered if there was any possible way he could get to his family. Veronica was at the Garrison. What would she do if he called her up and told her that there was an alien warship inbound?

"We know about it," Pidge said. "Shiro's going to wake up and we're going to figure it out. The garrison was just going to silence him and hope for the best."

"Well, yeah," Hunk said. "Any species advanced enough to travel between stars probably outclasses us significantly technologically. Even our best projections for the hyper relativistic drive suggest that it'll be a year's journey to Proxima Centauri, and you're saying that these people are hopping from star-system to star-system like nothing. There's no contest if they're actually hostile. The only thing they can really do is start a panic." He paused for a moment. "Oh wait, we're all going to die."

Lance ignored the comment. "Or people could prepare," he said.

"Well, that's not really an option," Pidge said. "The Garrison's chosen their track, and no news station is going to listen to us."

"We've got a dead man right there," Lance said.

"You said it yourself," Pidge said. "They destroy worlds. What are people supposed to do? Stock up on water and canned goods?"

"Well we have to do something," Lance said. "They're looking for this weapon, right, probably means it's powerful."

"Shiro knows what's going on," Pidge said. "He'll know what to do."

Lance sighed. Shiro was still passed out. Pidge was right though. About everything, but Lance still felt betrayed somehow by all the secrets.

"Hunk, go through all of this," Lance said gesturing at Gyeong's wall of crazy. "And go through Pidge's journal with him. See if anything clicks."

"Hey," Pidge protested.

"No more secrets," Lance said. "I guess the fate of the world might depend on it."

The shack was small. Only two rooms. So leaving the others to their work, Lance closed himself off in the next room and pulled out his phone. He called his Mamá. It took a while for her to pick up.

"Lanceito? What's wrong. It's really late," Mamá said. Of course she was already worried.

"I'm okay, Mamá. I'm just having a bad day. I got really homesick. I wanted to hear your voice."

"Oh Lance, do you want to tell me about it?"

"Not really," Lance said. "Tell me about what's happening at home."

And so she did. Of course she did. She told him about Luis's new girlfriend, and about the twins' science fair projects, and Tía Elena's new recipe.

"Have you been talking to your therapist?" Mamá asked.

"She closed my case a month ago," Lance said. "I should have told you. Everything's alright though. I just needed to know that everything was alright at home."

"Of course it is," Mamá said. "And everything's alright at the Garrison?"

"Yes, Mamá," Lance said. "Did you see my pictures from Georgia?"

"I did," Mamá said. "We were so proud of you."

"I always try to make you proud, Mamá," Lance said, knowing full well that his Mamá would have rathered he had been in some other competition that hadn't involved guns and war.

"You always do," Mamá said.

"I'll let you go," Lance said. "I'm sorry I've kept you up. Hug everyone for me in the morning. I love you."

"Any time corazoncito," Mamá said.

Lance considered calling Veronica next, but if she figured out something was wrong she'd probably come looking for him. He frowned down at his phone and turned it off. He went back into the other room where Hunk and Pidge gave him a funny look. He realized he had tear tracks down his cheeks.

"Turn off your cell phones," Lance said.

Pidge nodded and pulled out a shiny bag from his backpack. "Faraday cage. Doesn't matter if they're off, cellphones go in here. Either that or I think I saw a hammer over there."

Lance didn't know what a faraday cage was, but he dropped his phone in the bag. Followed by Hunk.

"You guys find anything?" Lance asked.

Pidge and Hunk shared a look.

"It'll go over your head," Hunk said.

"That's fine," Lance said. "As long as you're making progress. Let me know if you need me to wrangle Gyeong back in here. Any sign of life from Shiro?" And Lance still couldn't believe that the man was laying there in the room with them.

"None," Pidge said.

Lance nodded. "Sorry about before," he said, addressing Pidge.

Pidge shrugged. Lance turned back to Shiro. The man was wearing rags and he looked like shit. Of course, shit did nothing to describe the massive scar that ran from cheek to cheek across his nose as if he'd taken a cleaver to the face. The shock of white hair also spoke to the fact that the last year had probably been terrible. Lance didn't really want to consider what looked like a highly advanced mechanical arm. He started looking around the shack and found some bottles of water and a tin of soup. What the hell had Gyeong been living off of? He gathered up what he could, including a wash rag and a bar of soap and put it next to the bed Shiro was laying on.

He listened to Pidge and Hunk talk techno babble for a while, but eventually they both ran out of steam.

"Things are probably going to speed up rapidly tomorrow," Lance said. "Probably best to get some sleep tonight. Gyeong can wake someone up if he wants someone to watch the perimeter."

There wasn't exactly any sort of accommodations besides the small bed Shiro was passed out on, so Lance took a spot on the floor in one of the corners and leaned up against the wall. No nightly routine for him. All of his stuff was at the Garrison, and who knew if he'd ever be back for it. Pidge may have 'taken care of the cameras,' but Lance doubted that anyone was going to miss the fact that three cadets had gone AWOL on the same night Shiro got sprung from right under the Garrison's nose.

The shack did absolutely nothing to keep the morning light out and Lance woke up bright and early. Looking over, he saw Hunk sprawled out on the floor with Pidge leaned up against him. No sign of Keith, and Shiro was… Shiro wasn't awake, but he was moving a bit, twitching and jerking a bit. Lance got up. He was pretty sure that Shiro was dreaming, and if he was dreaming that probably meant he was capable of being woken up. Reaching out a hand he tried to gently shake Shiro's still flesh and blood shoulder.

Lance wasn't even aware of Shiro waking up. One moment he was hovering over the guy, and the next he was sprawled out on the floor, completely winded. Lance looked up to see Shiro standing over him, his arms out in a fighters stance.

"It's okay," Lance said. "You're safe here. For the most part."

"Where am I?"

"Um, about ten miles east of the Garrison," Lance said.

"I have to warn them," Shiro said.

"You tried," Lance said. "They strapped you to a table and knocked you out. Um, we sort of sprung you and brought you here."

"We're in a shack," Shiro said.

"Yeah," Lance said.

"On Earth," Shiro said.

"You are definitely back on Earth," Lance said.

Shiro just stood there for a moment. He looked like he was trying to take stock of everything.

"Look, there's some stuff here for you," Lance said. "Food and water. Soap if you want to wash up, and Gyeong said that that bag had some of your clothes in it."

"Keith?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah," Lance said. "This is sort of his shack."

Shiro looked at him like he was speaking gibberish. "Where is Keith?"

"Keeping a watch outside in case the Garrison managed to follow us," Lance said. "Um, there's a wash basin in the next room."

Shiro took a couple more minutes before he turned and grabbed the bag, the soap, washcloth, and the bottle of water and walked into the next room without another word. Well, that was exactly how Lance had wanted to meet his hero. Rubbing the spot on his chest where Shiro had shoved him, Lance went over to Hunk and Pidge and woke them up. Going back to the pantry the only other thing he found was a second can of soup and a couple of packets of instant ramen. There was one slightly rusty pot that Lance threw the two cans of soup and the noodles into and then poured in a bit more water to make sure the noodles were covered and put it on the old Coleman stove. He seriously couldn't believe that Gyeong had been living there.

When the soup abomination started to boil Shiro walked out of the side room somehow having spent the past fifteen minutes making himself look presentable. The grime was gone, as was the stubble and in his civilian clothes one couldn't exactly tell that he'd just been pulled out of a crashed alien spaceship after having been missing for a year.

"Keith is where exactly?" Shiro asked.

"Probably somewhere he can keep an eye out on anything coming from the Garrison, which is that way," Lance said pointing.

Shiro nodded and walked out the door.

"What the hell?" Pidge asked.

Lance shrugged and stirred the pot. "Breakfast's up," he said. "Or something. This might qualify as food. Eat quick, and wash up if you need to, I think we're going to be moving out as soon as we can."

Realizing that there was only one bowl and one mug, Lance poured a bit into each and handed them out to a silent Pidge and Hunk. A night to sleep on things only seemed to have brought the reality of everything closer to home. He went into the side room so he could at least wash his face. He emptied the wash basin out the window and poured in some fresh water and started scrubbing. Looking into the mirror over the basin he took a moment to give himself a pep-talk.

So he was sort of a fugitive and Aliens were about to attack. It was just another impossible problem in the simulator. He just needed his team, and maybe his team needed him. If the fate of the world depended on three cadets, a washout, and a dead man, then the least they could do was their best.

"How's the feast?" Lance asked in his best customer service voice as he entered the other room. He grabbed a fork and took a few mouthful of noodles from the pot and figured the rest would be for Shiro and Gyeong whenever they decided to walk in.

"Please never cook for me again," Hunk said.

"Seconded," Pidge said.

"Not even Remy the Rat could have made a better meal from what was in this shack," Lance said. "You two ready to brief the Lieutentant?"

"Brief?" Hunk asked.

"It's just like class," Lance said. "You've worked the problem and now it's time to brief the CO."

"We've still got questions for him," Hunk said.

"We'll work it out," Lance said. "Just make sure your PowerPoint is good."

Pidge rolled his eyes, and Lance smiled. They had this. Lance still wasn't sure what 'this' was, but they had it.

It was a cold night, but he'd been used to those before he'd ever ventured out into the high desert. He watched the horizon for any signs of movement, but most of his time was spent thinking about what they would do next. He wasn't sure what any of them could do about an alien invasion, but he'd have Shiro at his side, and he could do his best to make sure his soulmate survived. With dawn on the horizon, Keith saw a solitary figure leaving his shack. It was Shiro. It was time for them to work out what they were going to do next.

Keith was glad to see that Shiro had changed into some clean clothes and had taken the time to shave. It felt more familiar than the man he had rescued the night before.

"Officially, you're dead," Keith told Shiro, by way of greeting.

"How long was I gone?" Shiro asked.

"They lost contact with you about a year ago?" Keith said. "I told you to watch out for aliens."

"I don't remember much after Kerberos," Shiro said. "A year, huh?"

"Supposedly you said something about an alien invasion last night?" Keith suggested with a bit of trepidation.

Shiro nodded. "They want something," he said hesitantly. "I don't even remember who they are.

Keith frowned. How could he just forget? "We'll figure it out," Keith said. "Come on, I've got some stuff to show you. Might jog your memory or something."

They started walking towards the shack.

"They said this is your shack," Shiro said.

"Uh, yeah," Keith said.

"What happened with the Garrison," Shiro asked.

"Um… I got kicked out?" Keith said with a great deal of trepidation. "Things changed after you disappeared… I changed. Besides, they were treating you like shit, they told everyone you crashed the Heracles, so forget the Garrison. Come on, I think we're supposed to save the planet or something."

That was what everything pointed to. The messages in the cave, Shiro's return, Pidge's talk of some weapon on Earth. Fate had brought him back to his soulmate and it seemed also that it was pointing him towards something greater.

Keith had never really cared for Earth. With all the loss he had experienced, all the rejection; all of the memories of other planets, of warping through the stars, had seemed like such a better life than he could ever have on Earth. The first memory he'd ever had of his soulmate though, had been of his loss. In another life, Lance had died as they'd abandoned their home world. He had lost his soulmate as they had struggled to evacuate their planet as alien warships had bombarded it from orbit. This life might be a wash; he might never connect with his soulmate in this lifetime and he'd just have to wait until the next one, but he wasn't going to lose Lance like that. Keith would make sure of it.

Introductions were made all around and Shiro gave Keith a look when Lance introduced himself. Lance was somewhat starstruck by Shiro, and Pidge had inappropriate questions about his arm but seemed most concerned with the fate of the rest of his crew, which was a bit suspicious as far as Keith was concerned. Unfortunately, Shiro wasn't able to answer any of his questions. They didn't really have time to waste though, so they turned the conversation to the impending alien invasion.

It didn't take long when they all pooled their knowledge to come up with a plan. Pidge had apparently been picking up alien comm chatter for a while (and hadn't told anyone about it?), but they were able to put that together with what Shiro had to say to gather that aliens were on their way to Earth looking for some weapon called Voltron.

"Voltron," Keith murmured in wonder when Pidge first said it.

"Wait, you've heard of it too?" Hunk said.

Keith shook his head. It tickled at the back of his head, a memory from a lifetime long forgotten, but he couldn't tell them that. The thing was, he was certain he'd looked for Voltron before, had spent lifetimes looking for Voltron.

"Just sounds like something out of an anime," Keith said.

They went over everything Pidge had picked up over the comms and Hunk managed to figure out some manner of elemental signature and this stuff went over Keith's head but the long and short of it was that the two techno geeks worked together and jerry rigged a Voltron locator. Not one hour later they were zooming out in the direction of the caves where Keith had found all the drawings. Lance chattered the whole way about fighting off an alien invasion and how popular he'd be with the ladies once he'd saved the day. Keith tried not to be jealous of Lance's hypothetical girlfriends.

The locator took them to one of the caves that Keith had already been over, time and again.

Hunk was looking at the locator in consternation. "Uh, guys, I think it's below us."

Just then Lance touched one of the drawings of a lion and all of the drawings and writings on the walls lit up with a blue light. Suddenly the floor disappeared beneath them, and they all fell onto some sort of chute which plummeted them to a chamber below.

"Holy crow," Lance said. "Did you see that? Looks like I've got the magic touch," he said suggestively.

"Shut up and turn around," Pidge told Lance. Keith himself turned to look.

Everyone stared in silence for a moment at the giant mechanical Blue Lion that towered over them in the chamber they were in. It was encased in a blue particle barrier. Keith knew this lion, he'd seen it before. He struggled to remember as he walked forward and put his hand against the barrier. A memory surfaced of his soulmate dressed in white and blue armor waving him off as he climbed inside the mechanical giant.

"I feel like we're connected," Lance said. Keith pulled his hand away from the barrier, a bitter coil of jealousy forming in the pit of his stomach. He remembered his lion but he didn't remember Keith.

"Well, have you seen anything like this before?" Pidge asked.

Lance shook his head. "I just have this feeling. Is she looking at me?"

"Touch the barrier Lance," Keith said woodenly.

Lance walked up and put his hand up. The barrier disappeared and the great mechanical lion let out a roar that had everyone but Lance taking a step back. The Blue Lion knelt downwards and opened her mouth, a long ramp coming down. Lance let out a laugh and rushed forward without hesitation.

"Wait," Hunk said. "I didn't come here to get eaten by a great big lion."

"It's a ship," Lance's voice called from inside. Pidge took a step forward and then Hunk and the both of them went up the ramp into the jaws of the lion.

"Don't touch anything," Shiro called as he too walked towards the lion's open mouth. He paused and looked back to Keith. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm coming," Keith said, following after.

Lance was already in the pilots seat, controls popping up and panels lighting up. There was very little warning before they took off and somehow, in an explosion of rubble, they were on the surface, running across the desert. There was quite a bit of yelling as everybody except Lance struggled to stay upright.

"Lance we need to stop," said a sick sounding Hunk.

"Alien invasion, my dude, I think we're going to space, actually," Lance called out. "Hold on to your butts."

"No, no, no," Hunk cried out as everything suddenly went vertical and they all literally had to hold on to the pilot seat as the lion rocketed into the sky. In a ridiculously short amount of time, they left the atmosphere and there they were. They were in space. Keith was in space and he stared in awe at the great expanse of stars unfiltered by the atmosphere of Earth. He had memories of it, sure, but he'd never seen it for himself.

"Oh, crap," Lance called out. "Big purple alien ship inbound."

Keith looked up and his blood turned to ice. 'Galra,' he thought at the sight of it. He remembered now whose ships had bombarded his home world and killed his soulmate so many lifetimes ago. He remembered the plasma bolt that had been wider than a sky scraper that had pierced down into the city. Never again. His knuckles were white as he gripped the back of Lance's chair.

"Destroy it," Keith said, swallowing a lump of rage in his throat as more memories flooded him. Lifetimes spent fighting the Galra. Lives lost fighting the Galra. As much wonder that Keith had remembered during his youth, of wondrous lives lived out among the stars there was also lives he could remember now of terror and bloodshed.

"No," Pidge said. "The other's could be on board."

Keith shook his head. "And they could destroy earth. Destroy it," he said again, insistently.

"Negative," Shiro said. "Do not engage."

"We can't let them attack Earth," Keith snarled angrily.

"You're right," Shiro said. "But if they came to Earth looking for this, then we need to lead them away from here. Destroying them will just bring more." He turned to Lance. "Get us out of here Cadet; away from Earth."

"On it," Lance said, and they shot forward, past the Galra ship. Keith wanted to fight, but he knew Shiro was right.

"Yeah, but go where?" Hunk asked.

"Is that a freakin wormhole," Pidge asked as some massive distortion in space opened up in front of them. Keith gasped. This was it.

"It is," Pidge exclaimed. "It is a wormhole. Look at it. Look at the edges. It's a fractal pattern. Of course it's a fractal pattern. Do you know what this means?"

"It means we're making a quick escape," Lance said.

"Bad idea, bad idea," Hunk said as they continued onwards towards the distortion.

"Lion wants to go in. I'm going in," Lance said decisively.

As crazy as everything was, Keith had faith that this was right. He knew it. He wasn't just leaving Earth, he was leaving the solar system. Whatever lay on the other end of that wormhole was his destiny, and he would be going with his soulmate and Shiro. The sum total of everyone he cared about was in this lion and Keith knew he could face whatever was coming.

There was nothing to indicate that they had passed through a wormhole besides the image on the screen.

"That's a planet," Pidge said, and he was right. There was an alien planet below them.

"What's happening, Lance?" Shiro asked.

"She wants to land," Lance said. "It's like she knows where to go."

The descent was much calmer than their take off, and as they approached land they all saw what looked like a futuristic castle, and Keith knew that castle. It was like trying to remember something from a show he'd watched when he was four, teasing at the edge of his memory, but he knew that castle.

'Alfor', he thought though he had no idea what it meant.

"Did they follow us through?" Shiro asked.

"Pidge?" Lance asked.

"I think this panel here's telemetry," Pidge said, pointing to one of the holo-displays.

Lance looked at it. "I'm going to say, no." He looked pleased with himself. "Well, gentlemen, there you have it. Lance Sanchez, the first person from Earth to pilot a ship out of the solar system. Did we just save the Earth? I fell like I just saved the Earth."

"And you'll never be in any history book," Pidge said.

Besides Lance's "Hey!" there wasn't anything to say to that. It had a very ominous undertone to it.

They touched down a few moments later and the five of them look around at each other while they tried to decide what to do next. The lion it seemed, though, had it's own ideas and it opened up and let down the ramp. Keith did a quick look around but there weren't any weapons he could see on board. He tried to unobtrusively stick close to Lance as they disembarked and made their way towards the castle. Whatever was going on, Keith didn't think a palace ball was in their future.

As they walked Keith struggled to remember as much as he could about the Galra. So far he could identify them in memories from at least twelve different past lives. Keith had always yearned for a life amongst the stars, but he was starting to realize that there was a lot worse out there waiting for him and his soulmate than he'd ever suffered on Earth.

A/N: So ends part one. Please subscribe to the series to get notified about part two. Part two will be a few chapters long and it's going to follow the first few episodes with my own spin. Part three will be taking a hard right away from cannon. I really hope you're all enjoying it. Please let me know what you think.