** Shiro **

The three men stood on Kerberos, the moon of Pluto. Shiro held the instrument carefully as his teammates lowered it into the ground to collect ice samples, and tried to focus on the task at hand as the other two chatted carefreely about the microorganisms within the ice.

"Isn't this exciting, Shiro?" His boyfriend, Adam, asked him. Shiro chuckled.

"You guys get a bit more excited about ice samples than I do."

"Just think about it!" Sam Holt grinned. "We've travelled further than any human ever has. The organisms in this ice could give us clues about life outside earth. My life's work would be complete."

There was silence before Sam spoke up again.

"I wonder how old Matt and Katie will be when we get back."

Shiro closed his eyes for a split-second longer than he should have, and Adam noticed.

"I wonder if Keith has gotten with that boy he always talked about yet."

That made him laugh. "Or even decided to talk to him."

Shiro smiled sadly at his accomplices and noticed Adam's shaking hands as he held the cylinder of ancient ice. "Careful, dear. We don't want to have to draw up this ice again."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, that took forever. How many more do we have to... Shiro?"

Adam stopped when he looked up in the same direction as Shiro was staring, eyes wide. His jaw dropped as the ground started to rumble violently.

"Seismic activity?" Sam frowned before looking up at the quickly darkening starscape.

"What... what is that?" Adam gaped as the black mass hovered hundreds of meters above the planet's surface.

"Whatever it is- RUN!" Shiro yelped as a massive purple beam grew from the ship. "RUN, COME ON, RUN!"

Adam dropped the ice sample as they sprinted away from the purple laser. They didn't make it far. The last thing Shiro remembered was Adam screaming his name as the purple beam lifted them off their feet.

***0***

"...appear to be primitive...planet...not far away. ... Sir?"

Shiro jolted his head up with a gasp. He couldn't see much from where he knelt, but he could see Adam and Sam's orange Garrison spacesuits next to him, heads lolling, unconscious.

"Interrogation." A booming voice mentioned, "...what they know."

"Please, we come from a peaceful planet!" Shiro gasped. "We-we're unarmed!"

He cried out as a huge metal object hit the back of his head and everything faded to black.

***0***

** Lance **

One year later

Lance kicked back in his chair as they prepared for landing on Kerberos.

"Galaxy Garrison flight log 5-11-14. Begin descent to Kerberos for rescue mission."

He gently pulled the lever left, but it slipped out of his hand and fell forwards.

"Ugh. Man, can you keep this thing straight?" The mechanic of the team, Hunk, yelped.

Lance sighed as he tried to concentrate on the difficult task he had on his hands, the lever slipping out of his grasp again. "Buddy, you know I can't keep anything-"

"GOT IT! Just make sure we don't crash!" Hunk groaned.

Then Pidge spoke up, "We've picked up a distress beacon!"

Lance grinned. "All right! Look alive team. Pidge, track coordinates."

The ship pitched left. Alarms blared. Hunk screeched, "Lance, please!"

"Oh, this one's on you, buddy," Lance grumbled, "We've got a hydraulic stabilizer out."

Hunk pulled a monitor, like a tray table on a passenger plane. "Oh no." He gulped.

"Fix now, Hunk, puke later!" Lance suggested.

"I've lost contact," Pidge warned, "The shaking is interfering with our sensors!"

Lance wailed, "Come on, Hunk!"

Hunk swallowed again as unbuckled the belt holding him to his seat and launched out and across the ship. "It's not responding. Ah-"

Lance sighed as his monitor blared for a second. "Oh, never mind, fellas, thar she blows. Preparing for approach on visual."

"I don't really think that's advisable with our current mechanical and..." Pidge glanced at Hunk, who was still groaning next to the gearbox, "Gastrointestinal issues."

Hunk swallowed. "Agreed."

"Stop worrying! This baby can take it. Can't you, champ?" He patted the dashboard lightly and the ship creaked loudly.

"Uh- see? She was nodding. She was nodding. Anyways- Pidge, hail down to them to let them know their ride is here, will ya?"

Pidge reached for the comms device but narrowed her eyes when he couldn't reach it with his short arms. He quickly unbuckled his belt and grabbed the chair arm for stability and the communications device.

"Attention lunar-!" Pidge screeched as he was thrown to the ground as the ship shook more.

"What are you doing! Buckle your belt!" Lance cried. "And Hunk, stop that shaking!"

"I'm try-in- oh-oh no-!"

Lance and Pidge grimaced as Hunk threw up into the main gearbox, which somehow stopped the ship from shaking. Lance shrugged and muttered, "Well, it worked," and Pidge rolled his eyes and grabbed the communicator.

"Attention lunar vessel, this is Galaxy Garrison Rescue Craft One Victor Six Three Tango. Coming in for landing and extraction," Pidge narrowed his eyes and glanced at Lance, "Against crew recommendations."

Lance coughed. "No time for your mutinous comments now, Pidge. We're going in and I am not crashing another ship."

He pushed the control forward and quickly stopped it before it went too far, but then everything started to go wrong.

"Look out for that overhang!" Pidge yelled.

"We lost a wing!" Hunk shrieked as alarms blared.

"Oh, no," Lance grumbled as the ship shook even more and the lights blacked out as they crashed into the hard ice on the planet below.

***0***

The whole ship rocked as the airlock was ripped open suddenly.

"AH- IT'S THE ALIENS." Hunk screeched, which was followed by a groan as he noticed their simulation instructor, Commanding Officer Wise.

"Everyone out!"

"I wasn't even wearing my helmet, we would've died if that was a real alien. The simulator didn't even have helmets in it!" Hunk mumbled as they stepped off and walked away from the simulator and the janitor cleaned up Hunk's lunch before another three of their classmates entered.

After class, Commander Wise asked to see the three cadets.

Their simulation instructor was a substitute, as their previous teacher was away with an eye injury for a few months. Thankfully, Wise was kinder to their trio than Iverson would have been for their disaster in the simulator, mostly because he was one of Hunk's close relatives. A first cousin once removed, or something. But also because he was just nicer than Iverson.

The commander stopped for a second, before turning to the three cadets.

"Your simulation trial would have given you a fail for a grade, most likely even individually graded." He sighed.

"Mr McClain," He started. "You crashed the ship. You need to focus more on piloting the ship and less on instructing your teammates on their jobs. That's why you crashed, you should have listened to Pidge and waited until Hunk... ah, fixed the ship and flown over the overhang."

"Gunderson," Commander Wise nodded. "You did well overall, although you should have loosened the belt instead of unclipping it."

"Mr Garret," Their instructor turned to the downwards-looking cadet, "Vomit is not an approved lubricant for engine systems. I know you have gastrointestinal issues, as Pidge pointed out, but we have bags provided, and we have some resources available to help you with it. I suggest you see to that."

"And to all three of you, you need to build your teamwork skills. You can start that at break. Now go."

Lance, Hunk and Pidge thanked Commander Wise before heading out the door to the hallways of the Garrison.

***0***

Hunk stiffened as Professor Montgomery's voice echoed through the halls. "LIGHTS OUT IN FIVE! EVERYONE BACK TO THEIR DORMS, NOW."

"We shouldn't be doing this."

Lance rolled his eyes. "Oh, you heard Commander Wise. We need to bond as a team! We're gonna grab Pidge, hit the town, loosen up, meet some nice girls, or maybe some nice boys-"

Hunk cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Okay- I'm just- I'm just saying this here, right now, for the record: This is a bad idea."

Lance sighed softly and took off down the hall. "Ya know, for someone in a space exploration program, you have no sense of adventure."

Hunk pulled Lance back behind a corner as Professor Montgomery walked past, thankfully preoccupied.

"Well," He whispered when Montgomery was finally out of earshot, "All of your 'adventures' end up with me in the principal's office! And that one time, you managed to get the whole class in detention for a month! You weren't very popular after that, remember."

Lance frowned. "Yeah. But this time, Keith isn't here!"

"How was that Keith's fault? You knocked down the-"

Lance jerked his finger to his mouth, silencing Hunk. He bobbed down and crawled under the window to the instructor's lounge, unnoticed.

Finally, they arrived at Pidge's dorm wing. "What now?" Hunk asked.

Lance hadn't thought that far.

They quickly stopped talking and ducked further behind the wall corner they were hiding behind as the door to Pidge's dorm opened with a rush of air, and Pidge stepped out.

Lance sighed a breath of relief. "Well, that was easy," He muttered to Hunk.
As Pidge started down the hallway opposite to them, Lance frowned. "Where is he going...?"

***0***

** Pidge **

At least she had heard correctly.

Later in the day, after the complete failure in the simulator, she and her classmates had been given a few hours off for free time. She probably should have been hanging out with Lance and Hunk, her new annoying teammates, but they had gone off to the cafeteria to eat. At least Hunk had. Lance had probably just tagged along to flirt with some of the cute girls there. To Pidge, that would just seem awkward, and she really wasn't hungry, so she went off to find something to do.

After stumbling around for a bit, she found herself back at the cafeteria. She looked around for her teammates, having nothing else to do, but first laying her eyes on her older brother, Matt, who was talking to and his best friend Veronica at a table close to her. She quickly turned a corner and flattened herself against the wall, out of view of the general public and unseen by Matt or Veronica, and listened in to their conversation, as all good little sisters do.

"...Voltron. Tonight, something big is gonna happen."

"This is crazy, Matt. How... have you been..."

"...and I have no idea what's happening. But ... down there, so we need to be on that roof tonight... speeders, and this is the opportunity of a lifetime, whatever it is. ... have to be there, Veronica."

"Got it. Thanks, Matt."

Pidge scrambled out of her hiding place and into the hallway as Matt and Veronica got up, and walked a bit down the hall before turning back to the cafeteria doors and casually walked towards them.

"Oh, hey Pidge!"

Matt stood in front of her. Pidge waved, trying to seem like this was a coincidence that they bumped into each other.

"Hey, Matt! Hi, Veronica."

"What're you up to?" Matt

"Eh, I was going to hang out with my new teammates at the cafeteria."

"Yeah, how's class going?" Veronica questioned, smiling.

"That was my question!" Matt pouted, elbowing Veronica in the side.

"Going... well, I guess. We finally got in the simulators today, and my teammates are kinda jerks. Well, I mean Hunk seems nice, but Lance..."

Veronica laughed. "Nice to see you finally met my brother."

Pidge guffawed. "/That's/ your brother? I should have recognised him!"

Veronica shook her head then smirked, "You are not hanging out with my brother when we're going to play Killbot Phantasm 23: Cloned."

"Oh. My gosh." Pidge almost let out a loud and probably embarrassing shriek, but Matt covered her mouth before she did. "You have it? How did you get it? When did you get it?"

"That's top secret intel," Veronica laughed. "C'mon, you're playing with us. At least for the next two hours you have off, right?"

Pidge nodded quickly and was pulled down the Garrison halls towards Veronica's dorm.

They didn't talk about Voltron, or whatever was going to happen that night.

***0***

Pidge opened the door to the roof of the Garrison and went through it with a *bang*.

"I want to help. Whatever this is, if you're doing this I need to help."

Matt and Veronica looked up from the computer screen they were studying.

"Pidge! Pidge- I can't let you-" Matt frowned and Veronica nodded.

"No! This could be too dangerous. We can't let you- You're only fifteen-"

Pidge crossed her arms and frowned in anger and confusion. "And you're only nineteen! I'm in a space exploration program for high school kids who are at least two years older than me apiece, what could possibly be more dangerous?"

"How did you find us?" Matt kept glancing at her, then back to the horizon, like he was waiting for something.

"I overheard your conversation in the cafeteria. You weren't that quiet. If you're doing this, whatever it is, Voltron thing? I have to. Matt- Veronica, tell me what's going on!"

"Is this a bad time?"

Two figures were standing at the door where Pidge came onto the roof. Or, at least, Lance was. Hunk was hiding behind the door.

"LANCE?"

"Who is this? What's going on?" Lance inquired.

"Jerk Teammate and Hunk, Matt. And Lance, I guess you know Veronica already." Pidge sighed. "How'd you get up here?"

"Followed you. Commander Wise wanted us to bond, so I wanted to do some bonding." Lance wandered over to where the rest of the group was, and Hunk followed, crawling.

"Adam?" Matt frowned. Adam Wise was presumed dead in space.

"No. Curtis. Adam's dead in space, remember?"

"What's this about... Voltorb?" Hunk spoke up.

"Voltron. And... ugh," Matt looked at Veronica, who pulled a face.

"And where'd you get this stuff? It doesn't look like Garrison tech."

"I built it," Matt stated plainly.

"Lance! gimme a sec!" Veronica glared at her brother. Pidge could see the physical resemblance between the two- tall, lanky darker-skinned siblings with short brown hair and sharp eyes, which stood out in the dark.

"Matt-" She rubbed her temples.

"You built all this?" Hunk inquired, and then proceeded to poke the satellite, and Matt slapped his hand away.

"Ah, stop it! And yes, of course. With this thing, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system."

Matt tried to think of a response when Hunk tapped the screen of the computer.

"Hunk! Second warning!"

"Aw..."

Veronica placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a look*TM, one that could only mean, 'Should we tell the younger siblings all our secrets?'

Matt sighed and responded with, 'Sure, why not?'

"Look, Pidge, Matt, Veronica. If we're going to bond as a team, we can't have any secrets."

Matt and Veronica simultaneously glared at Lance, who held up his hands and backed away.

"Just getting to that! Fine. The world as you know it is about to change." Matt sounded uncharacteristically ominous, and Veronica looked on gravely. "The Kerberos Mission wasn't lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake... And I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter."

Hunk shrieked. "Whoa, what? Aliens?!"

Lance still looked uncertain. "Okay, so you're insane. Great, got it."

Matt took a deep breath and Veronica punched her brother's shoulder. "I'm serious! They keep repeating one word: "Voltron". And tonight, it's going crazier than I have ever heard it."

Lance narrowed his eyes. "How crazy?"

Suddenly, Professor Wise's voice rang out from speakers all over the Garrison and everyone jumped.

"Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: All students are to remain in barracks until further notice."

Veronica was staring at the sky over the desert, wide-eyed, and tapped Matt's shoulder. When he looked over, he screeched.

"Keep it down!" Pidge warned, and jolted her head in the direction they were looking as she saw the reflection of the red streak in Veronica's glasses when she looked at the pair.

There was a massive object in the sky, fire forming at the head and narrowing at the tail, similar to a comet. Except it was heading straight for the desert very near to them.

Hunk gasped. "What's going on? Is that a meteor?! ... A very, very big... meteor?"

Pidge grabbed for the pair of binoculars at Matt's feet. "It's a ship!"

Lance grabbed the binoculars and held them up to his eyes, Pidge still holding onto them. "Holy crow! I can't believe what I'm seeing!"

Veronica nodded as she snatched the binoculars from Lance, and Pidge grunted as she was thrown around again as she stubbornly held on to her binoculars. "That is not one of ours!"

"No," Matt as staring agape at the ship, still hurtling out of the sky. "It's one of theirs."

A shockwave erupted from the explosion, sending waves of small chunks of sand and dirt all over the five cadets on the roof.

***0***

They raced off the roof of the building as they attempted to get closer to the crash site, but stopped on a cliff nearby to stay hidden from the group of Garrison cars quickly closing around the site.

Pidge held the binoculars to her face once again, squinting through her glasses which got in the way of the oddly shaped eye-holes on the binoculars. She could just make out two figures; one of which was slung over the shoulder of the other, sho obviously couldn't handle his weight, probably because of his weakened state.

Then the figure standing upright collapsed.

"Whoa. Who is that?" Matt grabbed for his binoculars.

"We gotta help them!" Veronica encouraged, but Matt held up a hand.

"Wait... the teachers are going down there."

They watched as the Garrison teachers hastily set up a tent and brought out two stretcher tables, then clipped the figures to the restraints on the table.

Lance squinted at the ship in the distance. "Man, we'll never get past all those guards to get a look."

Hunk nodded. "Aw, man. Yeah, we—yeah I guess there's nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right?"

The rest of the group glared at him.

"Okay, so that's a no then?"

Matt cleared his throat "Wait. They set up a camera in there and I grabbed its feed. Look!"

One of the men was conscious again, while the other's head lolled to the side on the table.

Takashi Shirogane and Adam Wise.

Shiro thrashed around in his restraints. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Professor Montgomery looked at Shiro and put her hands out in a defensive gesture. "Calm down, Shiro. We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests on you."

Shiro wasn't taking a word of it, still struggling to get out of his restraints. He didn't look... evil, really, but instead he looked frightened. "You have to listen to me! They destroyed worlds! Aliens are coming!"

Lance gasped. "That's Shiro! The pilot of the Kerberos Mission. That guy's my hero!"

Matt nodded. "And Adam. They were on the Mission with Dad!"

Hunk blinked at the screen. "Guess he's not dead in space after all."

"If Shiro and Adam are there... where's Dad?" Pidge realized, sharing a wide-eyed look with Matt.

On the screen, Montgomery interrogated Shiro. "Do you know how long you've been gone?"

"I don't know. Months? Years? Look, there's no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They're probably on their way. They'll destroy us! We have to find Voltron!"

Matt gasped. "Voltron!"

One of the technicians got Montgomery's attention. "Ma'am, take a look at this. It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic."

The professor studied it. "Put him under until we know what that thing can do."

Shiro gasped. "No- don't, don't put me under! No! No, there's no time! Let me go!"

Pidge frowned. "They didn't ask about Adam. Or Dad."

"What are they doing? The guy's a legend. They're not even gonna listen to him?" Lance stared.

Matt nodded in agreement. "We have to get him out."

"Ah, I hate to be the voice of reason here, as always," Hunk pointed out, "But weren't we just watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?"

Veronica adjusted her glasses, which were slipping down her nose. "That was before we were properly motivated. We've just got to think."

Pidge nodded. "Maybe we could get some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs."

Matt noticed something on the horizon and nudged Veronica in the side. "...No. What we need is a distraction."

The explosions rocked the earth, and Matt and Veronica picked up their equipment and stood.

"Get ready. I'd prefer it if you'd go back to your dorms, but I can't tell you what to do. We have somewhere to be."

Pidge, Hunk and Lance watched in confusion as Veronica saluted a 'goodbye' with two fingers up to her forehead. Then the pair sprinted back towards the Garrison.

They turned back to the site of the crash. "Those explosions were a distraction, for him!" Pidge realised as she watched the commotion through her binoculars.

A figure jumped off a familiar-looking speeder and snuck towards the tent holding Shiro and Adam.

"The Garrison's headed towards the blast, and he's sneaking in from the other side!"

Lance grabbed her binoculars and shrieked when he saw the figure up close.

"No way...! Oh, he is not going to be us in there! That guy is always trying to one-up me!"

"Who is it?" Hunk questioned.

"Keith!" Lance yelled as he ran off towards the site.

Pidge frowned "Who?"

"Are you sure?"

Lance laughed. "Oh, I'd recognize that mullet anywhere!"

"Who's Keith?!"

***0***

** Keith **

Keith entered the tent, prepared for a fight, the lower half of his face covered in a bandana. He reckoned it was pretty pointless, though, as his hairstyle and eye colour were pretty unique, and anyone that had ever met him would probably recognize him. Still, he held up his fists, prepared to attack.

When the figures in the tech suits noticed him, one yelled, "Hey!"

He quickly knocked out one of them and threw another across the room into a chair. The third he pushed into the table where the unconscious people lay.

He pushed his hair out of his eyes and ran to the table, immediately recognizing his adoptive parents.

"Shiro? Adam?"