Calibrations Catch-All

[tempredmental]

WHO: Keith, OPEN
WHERE: Keith's Calibration Dream
WHAT: Keith's Calibration Dream
WHEN: During Calibrations
WARNINGS: childhood trauma, bullying, parental death, absent parent, war, captivity, injuries, mind-control, clones, death of a friend, identity issues, emotional disregulation, loneliness, self-esteem issues, hand-to-hand/melee combat, vehicular combat, stranded in space, low oxygen, hallucinations, betrayal, illegal racing, vehicular stunts, enslavement (AND THIS WAS A SHOW FOR KIDS) - will tag each thread with more detailed warnings as they come up, but this is kind of an overview of what might be in here

It wasn't much to look at, just a run down shack in a desert. It looked like it had once been an old ranch house, maybe the first house someone would build before building a bigger better one next to it. If someone looked hard enough, they might find that there was a foundation for something else not that far off, but whatever had been there was gone.

Instead, the smaller one-room shack had what looked like a squared-off cement shelter attached to one side. Next to that, was a hover vehicle. It resembled a motorcycle, but instead of wheels, it had two turbine engines attached to arms that extended to either side on the front, and a large tail fin for stabilization on the back. It was red with white details, and had a large 01 painted on the side, also in white.

Above, the sky was littered with stars, even though the scene seemed brighter than having it be nighttime might suggest. The stars were all levels of brightness and showed in several colors. Red, pink, blue, magenta, yellow, green, violet, orange... and it felt like, if you reached for one, you could touch it...

Dare you reach for the stars? Take the vehicle out for a ride? Or go inside the house?

Comments

[tempredmental]

"Well... that's uh..." Present Keith sighed. "They did, but they covered it up. That report was just what they released."

Clearly, though, past Keith didn't handle it well at all. A few memories cycled through at that point, none of them were exactly pleasant. Keith had never learned to properly channel grief after his dad died, and had a habit of acting out and getting violently angry in response to being upset. Despite his best efforts, that hadn't actually changed. And, any time someone got snarky with him about his attitude or tried to bring him down because he happened to have top scores in his pilot simulation exams, especially without Shiro around, Keith fought back. Literally. Physically.

He racked up disciplinary action after disciplinary action in only a few short months, resulting in him getting expelled from the Garrison.

"I was on my own at that point," he said. "I'd already aged out of the foster care system when I'd turned 18 a few months before, but the remains of Dad's estate had been liquidated when he died, and that money was put into a trust fund for me, so I was able to get by for a while."

But it was then that past Keith found the cave markings near the Grand Canyon that things got interesting. It took some time, but Keith managed to figure out that something was going to happen on a specific night in the future. Prepping for it was hard, because all he could get was that something was going to fall to Earth. If that was the case, then Keith had this feeling that he was going to have to get to it before the Garrison did in order to figure out what it was going to be.

And then, it happened. Keith was ready. He'd managed to predict the date, and, sure enough, a reddish streak appeared in the sky to the north. Time to go...

[doubled_speed]

Of course there was a cover up. Because there was government involvement. They always cover shit up rather than own up to problems. It's about power, about control.

"You know, in a way you're lucky like that. Having some support, and avoiding foster care. I've heard really bad shit about it."

But for now they have to follow that red light.

"What will we find there?"

[tempredmental]

"Yeah... it's not easy. Especially when you're already older," Keith said. He nodded and the memory moved on, giving them the ability to follow along. "I was ten when my dad died, and people seem to be turned off on adopting kids who are that age or older." So, yeah... until Shiro got him into the Garrison and had him living in the dorms with the other kids, Keith had been in a group home. Even individual foster homes hadn't been able to handle him because of how he acted out.

But that was for a different memory. For now, they were focusing on what the light in the sky was. And following past Keith around as he set some explosives he'd gotten his hands on (don't ask) to use as a distraction. They did the trick and Keith landed his speeder behind a large rock by the entrance to an underground bunker. It was clearly a Garrison bunker with very similar grey and orange design elements that matched the cafeteria Tommy was shown earlier in the memory. Keith made his way down, and found an isolation room with a bunch of guys in haz-mat suits hovering over someone. The person was hard to see at this angle, but he was yelling about finding Voltron and that everyone was in danger until someone finally gave him a sedative to knock him out.

Past Keith had pulled a maroon bandana over his face, and, in a very impulsive move, ran into the room. The guys in the suits panicked, but they weren't really fighters. Keith knocked all of them out, and then finally looked at the person on the table.

It was Shiro. His hair was still mostly black, but the tuft of bangs in the front had turned white, and he now had the prominent scar across his nose. His right arm had also been replaced, though it was robotic prosthetic that didn't float like the one Tommy would have seen on Shiro when Shiro had been around on Agra. It was attached.

"Shiro?" Past Keith's voice was quiet as he gently took hold of Shiro's chin to check on him. He was out completely from whatever those guys had given him. Keith looked worried for a moment, and then determined. He pulled a knife from his belt and cut the straps holding Shiro to the exam gurney before lifting him up and draping Shiro's regular arm around his shoulders to keep him upright, looping his own arm around Shiro's waist for support. How 18-year-old Keith was able to carry the much more muscular and larger 25-year-old Shiro was kind of a mystery, but Keith had always been pretty strong for his size.

Then the door opened, and in burst Lance, Hunk, and Pidge.

"Aaand... this begins the weirdest journey of my life," present Keith said.

[doubled_speed]

"Sure looks like it," Tommy agrees with a laugh. "Your boyfriend, a genius, and a chef walk in on you saving a surrogate big brother who was lost in space. Man, you've got a weird origin story!"

And that's before the half-alien stuff.

[tempredmental]

Keith nodded. "Yeah... I guess I do." He gave a wry chuckle. Though, his 'origin story' wasn't quite done, yet.

"Nope," Lance said, stalking his way over. "No you—No, no, no, no, no, no, no you don't." He shoved the gurney aside as he approached past Keith and Shiro. "I'm saving Shiro." Keith stared at him for a split second before speaking.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? Uh, the name's Lance."

Keith continued to stare, not an ounce of recognition on his face.

"... We were at the same class at the Garrison?"

Keith looked confused. "Really? Are you an engineer?"

Lance almost got insulted now, insisting on continuing. "No, I'm a pilot. We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck-and-neck." There were, of course, some animated gestures that accompanied this statement.

"Oh wait, I remember you," Keith responded. He sounded almost annoyed. "You're a cargo pilot."

"Well, not anymore," Lance stated smugly. "I'm fighter class now thanks to you washing out."

Keith's eyes narrowed at the reminder. He turned away from Lance, starting to move now to get Shiro out of the room. "Well, congratulations." His entire tone changed to indicate that he did not want to talk about that.

The group headed outside, Keith and Lance each supporting Shiro from opposite sides while Hunk and Pidge followed. They got back to the hoverbike as Hunk pointed out the approaching vehicles.

"Oh, man, they're coming back and they do not look happy. We gotta go. Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you?"

Keith frowned, but let Pidge somehow manage to muscle Shiro up in front of herself. Keith got into the main seat as Lance stood on one of the outboard motor arms. Hunk climbed up on the tail, and the whole craft tipped backwards for a second, almost dumping Keith out of his seat.

"Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?" Pidge asked. Keith sounded almost like his was pouting when he responded.

"No."

But they all piled on anyway, and, somehow, even with too much extra weight and being completely off balance as Lance clung to the same side that Shiro was sort of dangling towards from Pidge's grip, Keith managed to lift the craft off the ground and start moving away from their hiding spot. They were spotted anyway, and three large off-road vehicles began to give chase.

[doubled_speed]

"ooh, chase," Tommy says in excitement. He loves this so much, the idea of bouncing through a race. He could absolutely just enjoy some thrills like this. And it feels... familiar.

Why does it feel familiar.

"Was that thing Shiro's? The flying thing."

[tempredmental]

"No," Keith said. "That one I bought on my own from a military surplus and then painted it. The one Shiro used belonged to the Garrison. He taught me how to ride it. Though, my dad had one, too. He was a firefighter for the Garrison, and they gave him one because it made for easy travel over the rough terrain in the area."

This particular one, instead of having the typical grey and orange Galaxy Garrison paintjob, was red with white.

"They're the same model, though."

But the chase was definitely on, and, if Tommy saw the memory of younger Keith and Shiro racing through the desert, he was about to get the same tour of the area, but at night instead of during the day. Keith's escape route was exactly the same...

"Why am I holding this guy?" Pidge demanded, drawing their attention back to the little crew piled too heavily on the small craft. Though, Hunk was a bit more optimistic.

"Hey, we did all fit!" he said.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Lance demanded, glancing over his shoulder at the three off-road vehicles closing in. Keith rolled his eyes, keeping his attention ahead of them.

"We could toss out some non-essential weight." he said flatly.

"Oh, right!" Lance looked around, as if looking for bags or boxes or anything he could dump off the tiny craft before remembering that it didn't actually have any major storage compartments. And then it clicked. "OK, so that was an insult. I get it."

"Big man, lean left!" Keith shouted over his shoulder. The extra weight, especially with most of it hanging on the left side of the craft, made it harder to maneuver and keep speed, so he was going to have to dodge back and forth a bit with those trucks from the Garrison. Hunk did as he was told, and Keith pulled the handlebars as the whole vehicle tilted to the left.

"Aw man!" Hunk yelled as two of the vehicles collided, sending one careening off the path and into a rollover. "Mr. Harris just took out Professor Montgomery! ... No, no, he's fine." But they hadn't completely lost their tailing vehicles. Keith spotted the first ravine jump. He'd done this run so many times with Shiro, and, even with the extra weight and awkward handling, he knew he had to risk it if they were going to get away with this. He called back over his shoulder at Hunk again.

"Big man, lean right!" Keith used the extra weight to his advantage again, shifting the craft into a turn to the right this time and sending them over the ravine and on to the ledge on the other side. He banked it hard back to the left again, skimming the wall behind them. One truck made it, the other smashed too hard into the wall.

Down to one chase vehicle now.

The ground began to level out again, and this was the big one... the massive cliff jump. Keith knew that the truck couldn't follow them, and was very unlikely to even try if the driver was smart. Only a hovercraft could handle what he was planning to do. He'd seen Shiro do it so many times, had worked on it himself again and again. Sure, he was a little worried about the balance and weight, but he had confidence he could pull this off.

He could hear the others starting to panic as they realized what was happening, Hunk especially.

"Guys? Is th-th-th-tha-tha—Is that a cliff up ahead?"

"Ooooh no, no, no! No, no, no, no—!" Lance began to crouch, still clinging to the left side of the bike. Keith leaned into it, shifting gears and accelerating into the approach.

"Yup." He smirked, and the other three cadets began to scream and yell in protest.

"What are you doing?!" Lance yelled as the craft went over the edge. He threw himself down on the turbine arm, clinging on for dear life. "You're going to kill us all!" Keith only had one thing to say.

"Shut up and trust me!"

He shifted again, flipping the gear pedal, twisting the accelerator on the handlebar, and revving the engines hard. The vehicle whined a little in protest as it continued to dive towards the ground below, but Keith sat up, pushing his own weight back towards the others behind him, and pulling up as the tail fins twisted to make the rear drop and nose lift. A cloud of dust erupted from the ground around them as they barely missed hitting bottom by scant inches, and then they were off again, dashing into the distance. Keith only took a split second to look back, spotting the last remaining chase truck skidding to a halt at the edge of the cliff above.

They'd gotten away...

The memory faded again, leaving Tommy and present Keith sitting back in that star scape.

"And that was how Shiro came back to me the first time," he said with a wry chuckle. It was hard to keep losing his best friend, his mentor, his brother... but, at least, with having lost him Drift Fleet and again in this place, he knew it wasn't a real loss. It was just that Shiro had gone home. He knew he'd see him again.

[doubled_speed]

Damn. Tommy smiles. It had been good.

"I think, last time... I think I rode that with him too. In another memory."

HE doesn't know. This is all weird.

"I should let you go, get back to real sleep."

[tempredmental]

"I wouldn't be surprised," Keith said. "He went out on them pretty often, took me with him a few times, too." But at the comment about 'real sleep', Keith just kind of laughed.

"I don't think I've had real sleep in a few years, but..." He shrugged. "I appreciate the thought at least." He nodded.

"See you when we wake up."

[doubled_speed]

"See you then," Tommy agrees with a smile. "And come on. Sleep is good when we aren't here."

He hopes. Please, Keith, be getting sleep.

[tempredmental]

"Heh... yeah." It was good when he could get it... which wasn't as often as he'd like, definitely.

But the dream began to fade at that point, sending them back to their own bodies.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy nods and yeah, he's waking up elsewhere. And that's nice.