revivalproject | Calibrations Catch-All

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Calibrations Catch-All

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?

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Stars. They were never a motif for Tommy. But vehicles didn't work for him, and he feels like he's seen the house before. Why would he ever consider reaching for it when he could instead find something... Well, he doesn't have the words to explain why he yearned toward the stars, but he does. He does and he reaches up toward them as if he could find something.

Green. He reaches for green. Of course he does. Tommy's a green man.

The green star Tommy reached for was a bit dim. But it flared as his hand got closer, bright enough to momentarily blind him. He was at what looked like a celebration inside a large ballroom. A very... space-like... sleek ballrom with extremely high ceilings, and a large dais with steps. Most of the people there were... tiny. The tallest couldn't even be said to be four feet tall. They had ram-like horns on their heads that were either in singles or pairs and fat tails that were the same length as their legs or even dragged on the ground for some. Some had markings on their faces, the tops and backs of their heads and arms, and their tails. The markings were all in a darker shade of whatever color they were, whether peach with orange, yellow with gold, beige with brown, pale green with dark green, pink with salmon, or a light blue with a darker blue. Some wore glasses. Some were thin. Some had buck teeth. Some were more rotund. It was clearly some sort of race of small beings. They were enjoying food, and celebrating what sounded like a victory of some kind.

On the dais steps, a group of them were performing a play of the battle they were celebrating. There was a group of five all tangled together in some sort of cheerleader pyramid formation and, yet, still managing to move around on the steps. One of them held a makeshift sword and another held a shield. The sword-bearer was swinging their weapon at the other two members of the group as if it was a weapon. A rather rotund being of their race, with a lot of decoration indicating he was a kind of ruler, was narrating.

"The monster fell from the sky! It was an epic battle, but Voltron was victorious!" The two beings knocked over the group of five. The king looked flustered for a moment, stating, "No. I said, Voltron was victorious!" The five quickly scrambled back into their stack, and the other two fell down instead. Standing behind them at the top of the dais, a more humanoid looking woman politely applauds as the little crowd of beings below cheers.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for that... wonderful production." It was clear the woman was trying to be polite. Tommy would notice she had delicate pink crescent marks under her striking bright blue eyes. Those, along with her massive amount of pure white curls, were in stark contrast with her darker skin tone. She wore a pastel blue and pink gown, and a gold circlet with a pale blue gem on her forehead, indicating she was some kind of royalty. "It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe." She handed a small device to the diminutive king.

"Your Highness... please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance." The king held the device above his head to show the rest of the Arusians.

"Hoorah!" he yelled, and the other Arusians answered with a resounding, "Hoorah!" in return.

Tommy would see Keith in his Paladin armor, a few years younger looking, no scar on his face, and his hair a little less overgrown, but still a bit unkempt, standing with Lance, who was also in his Paladin armor, and a larger dark-skinned man in yellow Paladin armor. The other man had his hair mostly short, but his long bangs were parted in the middle to hang down the sides of his very round face over an orange headband tied around his head. The headband's ties were long, and hung down his back. He was the first to speak up as Keith kept his arms crossed and Lance was standing there with a drink in his hand.

"We ought to get something like that."

"Like what?" Lance asked.

"You know, like, a cheer. Like, a team cheer that we do." Lance looked interested for a moment, thinking about the other man's suggestion, before coming out with something.

"Mm-hmm. Yeah, okay. How about, uh... I say 'Vol' and you say 'Tron.' Vol—!" Keith and the yellow Paladin stood there for a second before Keith finally spoke up in confusion.

"Uh... Vol-tron?" Lance looked annoyed.

"No! No, no, no, no, no. The cheer includes the instructions. I say 'Vol' and you say..." Keith was still confused

"... Vol-tron?"

"... We'll work on it," Lance said with a sigh. The party continued, with Lance having a bad gross-out reaction to his drink and almost passing out from it.

At some point, Lance wandered off and and an older gentleman with bright ginger hair and blue face markings like the princess's (as well as the pointy ears) followed him to make sure he was okay. The princess had a conversation with the shortest Paladin, a tiny human with large round glasses, short tawny hair, and hazel eyes, wearing green Paladin armor, and the green Paladin then went to go find Shiro about something. In this memory, Shiro's hair was still mostly black, with only the front tuft of white. He didn't have the floating arm, either, but it was hard to tell if he had his real right arm at this point because he was in his black Paladin armor like everyone else. Eventually, Keith, the princess, and the yellow Paladin found the green Paladin and Shiro having a conversation.

"The download from the Galra ship was enough to at least get me in the right direction to start my search," the smallest Paladin was telling Shiro. "I have a pod all ready to go." Keith didn't like that.

"You can't leave!" he snapped, stepping towards him.

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"If you leave, we can't form Voltron." He got closer. "And that means we can't defend the universe against Zarkon. You're not the only one with a family." He leaned down to be closer to his face. "All these Arusians have families. Everyone in the universe has families."

"Yeah, I have a family," the yellow Paladin added. "They live on Earth. I want to be with them. Is that—Is that, like, a thing that can happen?"

"You want to leave, too?" the princess asked, looking upset.

"Of course I do. Look, Voltron is super-cool, don't get me wrong, but I never signed up for a lifetime in space fighting aliens." Keith ignored the side conversation there and was instead still focusing intensely on the green Paladin, getting right up in his face.

"YOU'RE PUTTING THE LIVES OF TWO PEOPLE OVER THE LIVES OF EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE GALAXY—!" Keith got cut off when Shiro grabbed his shoulder, holding him back.

"—Keith! That's not how a team works. People have to want to be a part of it. They can't be forced." That got him to calm down for a moment, but he was glaring and angry. Shiro turned to the smaller Paladin. "If you want to leave, we won't try to stop you. But, please, just think about what you're doing." That seemed to get the green Paladin to think for a moment, but there was no change in plans.

"I'm sorry. You're going to have to find someone else to pilot the Green Lion." With that, the green Paladin walked away, a yellow bag slung over his shoulder, and a floating pyramid-like robot following along.

"I can't believe it," the princess said softly. "This team is falling apart. How will we ever form Voltron?"

Somehow Tommy isn't shocked to see all of this. He has some brief ideas about the Voltron and all of that. But this is a lot more complicated than he had expected. If there was one thing that he understood more than anything, though, it was the troubles of a new team. He'd heard about the history and tension of the Young Avengers before he had even managed to get among them.

But he wishes this wasn't going to happen. That Keith wouldn't be so stressed and upset.

Oh, it was happening. And Shiro's calm acceptance definitely influenced the rest of the group standing there to let the smaller Paladin go on his way.

Until the Castle was rocked by an explosion. The lights flickered and then died. All the tiny aliens panicked and started running. The remaining three Paladins and the princess were all immediately on alert. The princess waved her hand in the air and, when nothing happened, she looked distressed for a moment before immediately heading to the Castle's control room.

Keith, Shiro, and the yellow Paladin went with her. The green Paladin arrived around the same time, having come from wherever it had been that he'd gone to after leaving the conversation.

The control room was a mess... smoke and debris everywhere. Lance and the older man gentleman were both down, injured and unconscious, but the man was coming around.

"What happened?!" asked Shiro.

"Ugh... I'm not sure." The man managed to get himself to his feet, but the largest Paladin moved in to help him stand. The princess gasped as the smoke began to clear.

"The Crystal!" The large cyan blue crystal that had been in the center of the control room's ceiling was clearly cracked and damaged, glowing extremely dimly in the now darkened room. And then the group spotted Lance. "Lance!" she exclaimed. Shiro moved over to check on Lance, calling his name.

"Lance...? Lance!"

"We have to get Lance to the infirmary!" the green Paladin said, worried. The princess shook her head.

"Without the Crystal, the Castle has no power."

"He doesn't look good," Shiro said. Just then, the king of the tiny race came running into the room in a panic.

"Lion warriors, our village is under attack! We need help!"

"Let's get to the Lions!" Keith said, ready to go, but the princess stopped him.

"You can't. They're sealed in their hangars. There's no way to get them out. We're defenseless."

"Will you not help us?" the king said in a distressed tone.

"We'll help you," Keith said. "We just—" He floundered for words as Lance groaned.

"This is bad." The yellow Paladin was very good at stating when things were bad.

"We have to get a new Crystal to get the Castle working again" said the older man. "But, to get a new Crystal, we need a ship." The green Paladin spoke up.

"The pod I was loading, we can use that! I left the bay door open." That seemed to brighten the man's spirits a bit.

"I can use the scanner in the pod to see if there's a Balmera nearby," he said. He turned to the larger Paladin, who had stopped holding him now that the man seemed okay to stand on his own. "Hunk, you come with me. I'll need someone big to help me carry the Crystal."

"A Balmera?" Hunk asked.

"It's where the Crystals come from. I'll tell you about it on the way!" Hunk followed the gentleman out as the green Paladin took them down to the bay where the shuttle in question was.

"I'll go see what's happening at the Arusian village," Keith offered. The princess turned to him.

"I'll go with you, Keith. I brought this on the poor Arusians."

"I'll tend to Lance and stand watch over the Castle," Shiro offered. With that settled, the princess, the tiny king, and Keith left Shiro alone with Lance, only stopping long enough for the princess to change from her gown into a jumpsuit more suited for going out and potentially dealing with an enemy, as well as tie up her copious amount of hair into a bun. Keith grabbed the helmet for his Paladin armor as well, and they met outside the main Castle entrance. The scenery outside was actually quite lovely. The planet seemed mostly rural, with open spaces, forests, and the castle itself was on a towering cliff overlooking what appeared to be a very large body of water. It would take them a long time without a shuttle or the Lions, but, as the shuttle with Hunk and the other alien gentleman could seen overhead departing on their mission, Keith, the king, and the princess went running across the long bridge from the Castle's entrance and back towards the tiny village where the small aliens were from.

Edited 2023-06-30 04:57 (UTC)

See, now while this was a memory of tension and war, Tommy actually didn't mind trailing his way through it, watching it all play out. In a way it was like being back home. This was what being a super hero was like. When shit happened it happened all at once.

Keith and the princess discovered that the attack on the Arusian village was staged to get them away from the Castle. The "soldiers" attacking the village were damaged robot sentries, completely non-functional, and the fires set in the village had been purposefully set by someone. Keith knew it wasn't the Arusians who'd done it. They didn't have it in them. No, this meant someone had survived from the attacking ship they had taken down the other day, and they were trying to take the Castle and the Lions.

He went back to meet with the princess, and, after they reassured the Arusians that they were safe and Keith gave them the okay that they could put out the fires without risk of being attacked, the two of them started running back to the Castle. As they ran, the Castle suddenly came back to life with power, but instead of a calming and cool cyan glow, its external lighting took on a dangerous looking magenta shade, which Keith knew was Galran. It was the same color that had been on the ship he'd rescued the Red Lion from... the ship they'd shot down and had crashed on Arus.

Someone had definitely survived.

As he and the princess ran along the bridge, the night crawling on further after the cancelled celebration, the particle barrier began to activate. And, like the rest of the Castle's lighting, it was magenta instead of cyan. Keith tried to run faster, but they were at the end of the trip, and he couldn't quite make it before the barrier cut him and the princess off. He banged his fists on the barrier.

"We're too late... No!"

"They have control of the Castle," the princess said, sounding distressed. "They're taking Voltron!" Keith pulled out his bayard, activating the blade form, ready to cut through the barrier if he could.

"Can we break through the barrier?" The Princess shook her head.

"No. And whoever has taken the Castle has a Crystal, which means they'll be able to fly the ship. We have to stop them."

"How are we going to do that?" But, then, in Keith's ear, was the voice of the green Paladin on the comm in his helmet.

"Keith, can you hear me?"

"Pidge! Is that you? Where are you?" Next to Keith, the princess's violet gem-drop earrings actually glowed slightly, picking up the comm signal so that she could hear the conversation and participate.

"I'm inside the Castle. Sendak has taken over and he's preparing for launch. He's got Lance and Shiro." The princess got an idea.

"Pidge, listen. If they've started the launch sequence, then we don't have much time before liftoff to stop it."

"What do I have to do?" asked Pidge, ready to help regardless of wanting to leave the team earlier.

"You have to get down to the main engine control panel and disconnect the primary turbine from the Central Energy Chamber. If you can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to find a way to stop them."

Keith's grip on his bayard tightened from the stress. Now was the hard part... the waiting...

Waiting is always the hardest party. It's the part that makes Tommy's skin itch in a bad way, standing here and waiting. It's worse here and now when he wanted nothing more than to act. To interfere to save Shiro and Lance is what he wants.

"I don't know how you didn't go crazy," Tommy mumbled to himself.

"Yeah. I don't, either." It was like present Keith had been summoned by Tommy's comment. Though, honestly, younger Keith was actually not handling the waiting well at all. He was jumpy... pacing back and forth and looking up at the barrier as he and the princess waited for Pidge to get back to them. As impatient as Keith could be in the current time when Tommy knew him, he'd been worse when he first became part of Voltron.

Thankfully, they didn't have much longer to wait before Pidge's voice came through the comms again.

"Okay, Allura, I'm near the turbine. I think it's started." The Princess nodded, though it wasn't like Pidge could see it.

"Then you'll have to hurry. Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center." Younger Keith got closer to Allura as she instructed Pidge on what to do.

"Okay."

"Now, open the hatch. Find the central computer control hub and enter the following sequence." But Pidge began to panic.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Which one is it? All the labels are--..." But the comms began to cut out. Younger Keith looked worried now as Allura began to panic.

"I've lost connection with Pidge! Oh, no! It's taking off!" The two of them started backing away as the Castle threatened to rip itself free from the ground they stood on.

Tommy yelps in shock at Keith's presence, and jumps about a foot into the air. Dude, don't scare him like that. Especially with a memory still playing out.

"Does everything turn out okay?" he asks. He's pretty sure it does, but heroes don't always win.

"I guess," Keith said with a small shrug. Sure, he knew that wasn't a great answer, but he supposed it did in a way. But younger Keith didn't have the big scar on the right side of his face. "I mean, we stopped them from taking Voltron and the Castle."

And Tommy would see that as the Castle suddenly stopped trying to take off. Though, the barrier was still in the way. Pidge checked back in with Allura, having gotten the signal between them back.

"There's not much time before they get the ship running again," Allura said. "You must shut off the particle barrier so we can get in."

"You got it. Tell me what to do."

"The particle barrier generator is beneath the main hull." There was more waiting, and younger Keith definitely looked frustrated by that. Eventually, Allura spoke up again. "Pidge, have you made it to the generator room?"

"I'm in," came the response. "This technology is so advanced, I don't know if I can figure it out."

"Yes, you can. The lives of your fellow paladins are at stake. You can't give up." While Keith had been sure that was supposed to be encouraging, it was also kind of pressuring. He furrowed his brow.

Older Keith pursed his lips a bit. "Allura was... intense, when we first met her."

"Says the guy with a glare that can cut through steel," Tommy laughs. Their own first meetings had not gone the best. So he can get it. Still...

"She was desperate. I can't blame her."

"Heh... fair." Keith knew that he could come off as a jerk sometimes, and that he often was prickly on first meetings. "But, yeah. Looking back, I get it, too."

"Okay," Pidge's voice interrupted again. "Talk me through it, Allura."

"Shutting down the barrier from this room can be dangerous. Remember, the barrier is also a weapon. So, stay away from the energy arcs."

"Don't touch the giant lightning bolts. Got it."

"Now, what I'm going to need you to do is -" But before Allura could finish, there was a scream over the comm. Younger Keith visibly flinched, itching to get through that barrier. The scream was followed by laser fire. "Pidge!" Allura called over the comm. "Hello? Are you there? Pidge, what's going on?" But then she got an idea. "Wait... the mice. Maybe they can help." Allura closed her eyes, younger Keith watching intently.

To explain, present Keith spoke up again.

"Allura had a connection with four mice on the ship. She was reaching out to them for help. They were super smart, and, being small, she was hoping they could get around the ship undetected and help Pidge," he explained.

"That sounds smart. Though I admit I'd probably have touched the giant lightning bolts," he said. When he was just starting out he was a bit of a contrary asshole.

"Yeah, that... would have been pretty bad." Especially considering they would have been relying on him to get them in.

That said, it took some time, but the barrier did eventually come down.

"It worked!" past Keith said quickly.

"They did it!" Allura was also relieved, and the two of them ran inside. Present Keith nodded his head for Tommy to follow them in.

Inside, the group headed immediately for the control room of the Castle. They came inside to find a massive Galra with Pidge clutched in his giant floating robot hand, dangling the tiny Paladin above the floor. Past Keith drew his blade, red instead of black, and was ready to fight. To the other side of the room, Shiro was bound, visibly injured, and Lance was still unconscious. Pidge squirmed in the Galra's grip. There was a sudden blast of rifle fire, and the Galra was forced to release Pidge. He turned to the source. Lance had woken up for a split second... long enough to fire off a shot from his bayard (which was blue instead of red...) and then pass out again. Shiro made his move then, still with his hands bound behind his back, but he charged in, acting as a distraction to get the Galra to attack him. Keith used that to charge in and attack. He kicked the enemy hard, and got in a few hits on the thick armored suit before the Galra used that massive robot hand to fling him to the side. Pidge had pulled a bayard as well, and came in to cut the blade through the energy arc that connected the robotic arm to the Galra's shoulder after he had thrown Keith.

"NOoo!" he cried out.

While that was happening, Allura had accessed a console nearby and was furiously entering commands. The fight continued with Keith and Pidge doing most of the attacking. Pidge used the bayard's shock rope feature to zap the enemy, giving Keith another chance to charge in with his blade. The Galra caught the blade in his remaining hand, and the two struggled to see who could wrest control of it.

"Keith! Now!" Allura called out. A cyan colored circle began to glow on the floor, and Keith managed to rock the grappled black back and forth enough to get the Galra to lean back. He jumped up and kicked hard with both feet, knocking the enemy back several steps before Allura activated another barrier, trapping the enemy in place. Keith got up, staring at the Galra for a moment, as he beat against the barrier several times in anger over being trapped.

Pidge went to free Shiro from the binds, and Keith moved towards Lance, who had come to for a bit again. They gripped hands, and Lance moved to get up.

"Lance, are you okay?"

"We did it," Lance said quietly. "We are a good team."

At Allura's insistence, they moved Lance down to where the cryopods were at that point. Keith brought him down there. Hunk and Coran would hopefully be back with the new crystal soon. They couldn't trust the large magenta one that the Galra had installed. Pidge and Allura worked together to get that disconnected. Keith did what he could while they waited, helping Shiro and Lance as best he could with their injuries, but Lance was bad off and was going to need that pod...

"You are," Tommy observes. "New, but the Young Avengers by fucked up when they were new too."

And the improvement was what mattered.

Present Keith glanced at Tommy for a moment as they watched the preparations for when they got that new crystal... which, thankfully, the memory seemed to understand was tedious. Soon, Lance was settled in the pod once the Castle had power again.

But Keith nodded a bit.

"Yeah... we did come together pretty well as a team." Honestly, now, it was a bit more than that. And Keith missed them a lot, having been away from home in an alternate dimension for so long now. He sighed a little as the memory continued.

"After a day in here, he should be fully healed," Allura stated as the rest of the team stood there for a moment. Shiro, still a bit bruised a beat up looking, turned to Pidge.

"Pidge, we can't thank you enough for all you did," he said. "I can't help but feel that you were meant to be a part of our team... but I understand if you want to leave." Pidge looked down for a moment and then shifted to a more determined expression, followed by a small smile.

"Dad used to tell me how close he was with his crew members. They were like family. Now I understand what he was talking about. I'm staying with you guys. Let's stop Zarkon for all of our families."

That got a smile out of past Keith. "Good to have you back on the team," he said.

And the memory faded back into the desert scene with the stars. Except now, present Keith was with Tommy outside the shack.

Tommy smirks at Keith.

"I have every faith that you guys were amazing together as a team.

"Eh-heh," Keith chuckled a little, lowering his head a bit with a smile. "Eventually." He shrugged a bit. "It wasn't always smooth, but yeah. We're a family."

As if a hint on where to go next, a cyan star began to sparkle, flashing with various shades of the other colors... pink, blue, red, purple, green, yellow, orange... as if calling to Tommy to be touched.

But, he could still look around at any of the other things that surrounded them if he didn't feel particularly compelled...

"That's the cool thing about a team," Tommy says as he sits up, pulling his knees up against his chest and wrapping his arms around them. "They're the family that comes to choose you. And that feels good."

Until they leave.

But his eyes are still on the stars so he considers them before reaching toward the purple.

Yeah. It's the leaving part that was hard........

When Tommy reached for a purple star, the scene shifted again. Keith was young, a bit younger than the previous memory. In this one, he was wearing a uniform of some kind, military looking, and there were others around him in the same uniform. They seemed to be in some sort of cafeteria, most of the others were gathered at various tables in groups, chatting amicably as they were eating. Keith was by himself, looking kind of sullen and alone.

And then the TV screens in the room switched to a news report. An eerie silence fell over the room, and Keith's attention was focused sharply on the screen. A voice droned in Keith's ears as pictures of younger Shiro, all black hair and no scar or prosthetic, along with an older man and another teen who looked remarkably a lot like Pidge... the reporter on the screen gave the report.]

The Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing, and all crew members are believed to be dead. The Galaxy Garrison has said the crash was presumably caused by pilot error. It is, indeed, a sad day for all humanity.

Shit. He was aware of this whole thing, and it made him wince.

"But he wasn't dead. No one knew, did they?"

"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...

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?"

"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.

"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.

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.

"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."

"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.

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."

"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."

"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.

"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.

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

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