[Video]

[im_a_leg]

Whoa! [Hunk laughs] Holographic interface, awesome! This is way better than possessed mermaid planet tech. A little creepier, though. Uh, no offense. Just.. you know. Being teleported away from people I was standing right next to without being asked is a little rude where I come from.

On the up side, really digging the local food options so far. Tons better than space goo, not that I don't hold a respect for nutritionally dense jello with an oatmeal-like consistency. Here's to hoping it isn't gonna make me start chanting about how safe and warm I am.

And hey, speaking of, fingers crossed that I got tossed into here with my buddies. Anyone seen any other paladins of Voltron laying around? Well, hopefully not laying around. Hopefully, you know, standing. Like healthy non-injured people, which they mostly were like five seconds ago.

Comments

[patchricide]

That just raises more questions. [... IS LIKE THE THEME OF THIS CONVERSATION.] Why would I be mad about mermaids?

That sounds like fun, at least. What were we all shopping for?

[im_a_leg]

Uh, not the mermaid. Pretty sure you didn't care about the mermaids. The Blades of Marmora though was because Keith-- wait, is this one of those things I probably shouldn't tell you? Am I gonna make an accidental space taco out of this? Because I really don't want to mess up time any more than I'm already doing by existing here.

We needed teledove lenses, Coran said it was the best place to find 'em. Or only place. One of those.

[patchricide]

What?! But --- you can't stop telling me there! What happened? Is Keith safe?

[She sounds so worried. So sympathetic. No conflicting feelings whatsoever.]

[And then, the tension drops a bit into a flat disappointment:] ... oh. I suppose the ship did go for a long time without any new parts.

[im_a_leg]

He's fine, he's fine! He's just-- he's--

Augh. I suck at peer pressure. Or Princess pressure. Okay, okay, fine. But you have to promise me you won't flip out. Everyone's safe, I promise.

[patchricide]

Of course. I swear that I am not going to flip out.

[She is definitely going to flip out.]

Please, Hunk. Tell me what happened with Keith?

[im_a_leg]

Okay.

[He takes a deep breath.] So the Blades of Marmora are a group of rebel Galra that are fighting against Zarkon and they're kind of weird but also our allies and not enemies and Keith went chasing after them because of this symbol on a knife he apparently has that matches the symbol that the Blades of Marmora use and he got the knife to do fancy stuff and apparently that means he has Galra blood in him.

[patchricide]

... what?!

Hunk, I think you lost me somewhere back at "a group of rebel Galra"! Since when have there been rebel Galra?! I don't even--

Look-- just-- can you start over, please? And take it a little slower this time? I'm sure that I misheard some of that.

[im_a_leg]

[Hunk is so uncomfortable with this conversation. So uncomfortable.]

Since forever, apparently? Like, thousands of years. They're the ones who helped Shiro escape when the bad guy Galra kidnapped him.

[patchricide]

Shiro's memory started to return, then?

[She looks more worried about that than relieved. As much as she shouldn't want him to be amnesia-prone... it had actually been beneficial that he hadn't recalled details of the last battle before the warp.]

How did we find this kind of group? [She really didn't catch all the stuff about Keith. Her brain overloaded before Keith's name came up.]

[im_a_leg]

Yeeeah. Including the bit about, uh. The black lion's last pilot.

[Awkward.]

One of the guys who saved Shiro showed up. Keith and Shiro went to investigate their colony after he showed us where it was, and it kinda snowballed from there.

[patchricide]

So that did come up... [Slow exhale. Awkward is the word.] He doesn't recall that now, however. And it might be for the best, given that he's been separated from his lion -- I wouldn't want him to worry over it.

[She pauses, before quickly asking:] Your lion didn't happen to come with you, did it?

[And then it's right to talking about the Galra.] 'Snowballed'? What did they do...?

[im_a_leg]

Yeah. It came up. Shiro found out, specifically. [He rubbed the back of his neck.] I... I won't lie to him about it. But I won't bring it up unless I have to either. [It's the closest Hunk's willing to get to keeping something from his team leader.]

No, doesn't look like any of ours did. Mine should still be back in it's dock.

[He took another deep breath] Uh. Shiro and Keith ended up visting them in the space taco, right? And it turned out Keith had a knife with their symbol on it, and he did a lot of fighting and unlocked the knife's magical powers or whatever, and it turns out only Galra can do that so Keith is part Galra.

He's also way funnier now, by the way.

[patchricide]

That's the most I could ever ask of you. Thank you, Hunk. [Especially since she's taken the "If I don't bring it up, I don't have to lie" approach of avoiding the problem.]

[But it's said through gritted teeth, because she's still processing that other thing.]

[That other, dangling thing.]

... you're absolutely sure of that? I mean, the Galra are... the Galra. And Keith is Keith.

[Okay, but more eloquently:] Keith is from Earth like the rest of you, isn't he? The Galra had barely started to probe your galaxy -- why would one be living there?

[im_a_leg]

I mean, yeah. He's just both of those things. Galra and Keith, I mean.

[He shrugs, spreading his hands] No idea. Keith doesn't know either. They never said how much Galra he was either, though, so maybe they were never on earth at all. Maybe a distant human relative wandered out there and came back with a plus one.

[patchricide]

But how much do we know about the knife? Maybe they were mistaken, and he's not Galra at all.

[Allura no.]

[im_a_leg]

I .. don't really think that's what's up. Apparently Keith's had the knife for longer than he can remember, and only a Galra can activate it.

[patchricide]

So -- we trusted all of it, just like that? That a Galra knife would be in Keith's hands, and that the same group of Galra would just happen to save Shiro -- who doesn't have a reliable memory of anything? Please tell me we didn't simply walk into their base and make friends on those grounds.

[im_a_leg]

Listen, I avoid the politics as much as I can. Here's what I know: I trust Shiro. If Shiro says we can trust these guys, I'm with him.

Allura.. it's still Keith. He's the same guy we've all been friends with the whole time. He's the same guy who the red lion chose. That has to mean something.

[patchricide]

[Her heart is full of protest, just at the suggestion that his word is enough. Shiro, for all his strengths, is not known for being critical of others. And while yes, he has directly suffered at Galra hands, there are still other humans around to help him through it.]

I know that. But the lions are not the ultimate test of character. You already know about Zarkon.

[And as far as Hunk or the viewers know, he might not have been the only mistake.]

[im_a_leg]

That's .. true. But I guess what I'm saying is ... there's never any guarantee, is there? People are bad sometimes, and then they're good, and most of the time they're in the middle of that. There's no one real thing that you can do to make sure that someone's absolutely going to be trustworthy. Sometimes you just have to have faith in your friends.

[patchricide]

No, you're right. There are no guarantees.

Even less so with the Lions than with most. The one thing they don't test for is good or evil -- it's up to the pilots to determine that. They decide whether Voltron is the defender it was built to be, or the most powerful war machine of our time.

[Which is something she's never really brought up before now, but you know, it's Hunk. If there's one pilot who's never going to snap, turn evil and join Zarkon, it's him.]

Knowing that, how can I silence a doubt like this one?

[im_a_leg]

[Hunk rubbed at the back of his neck.] I dunno, Allura. All I can tell you is that he's still Keith. He's still the same guy the red lion picked. And isn't the red lion supposed to be like, the pickiest or something? This doesn't change anything about the guy you knew. It's not like he suddenly became Galra. He's just as trustworthy as he was before.

And after everything he's heard about how bad the Galra are it can't be easy on him to deal with either. You have to deal with the fact that your friend is part Galra. He has to deal with the fact that he's part Galra.