Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender. Please not sue me.

The Red Lion of Earth

Chapter 1

The Red Lion


"Garrison Command, this is Keith. Three emergency distress beacons have been detected on the Kerberos surface. We're coming in- Err, I mean, we're inbound for extraction. We'll report back once we've got confirmation of the ship. Crew status is still unknown. We'll be within comm range of the Kerberos in two minutes."

After finishing, Keith paused the recording.

A few key taps later and the missive was being transmitted to Earth-based command via data dump.

Keith gave a sigh of relief.

The hardest part of any simulation wasn't the flying.

It was the formalities.

There was no question that he was the best pilot-cadet in the Garrison, but it didn't let him off the hook for unprofessional system logs. The last thing he needed was another lecture by some admin who never flew a day in their life getting their panties in a knot if all the t's weren't crossed and the i's weren't dotted to exact Garrison-approved specifications.

Besides, Shiro would have wanted him to be more professional. His mantra kept repeating in Keith's head:

Patience yields focus.

Keith flicked some switches and checked the mission log status. The upload was complete. The message would take several minutes before it got data-dumped back to command. Until then, they were on their own.

'They' being him and his team.

Keith glanced back at them. The Engineer was a big - really big. He must have been at least three or four times Keith's size. His name was Punk or Junk or something. Punk suited him. The Comms Spec was a talentless hack who talked big and was about as useful as a wet napkin. The guy probably couldn't call in a pizza delivery, much less handle the comm lines. He was apparently trained as a cargo pilot, a fact he wouldn't shut up about. Keith didn't bother to remember his name.

And lastly, in the pilot and Commander's chair was Keith.

He tilted his head towards the crew. "Comms Spec, what's the sitrep on the ground?"

There was a groan from the back. "Would it kill you to use my name?"

"Pants," Keith addressed again. "What's the sitrep?"

"My name is Lance. Lance. L-aaan-ce."

"Cut the chatter, Mance. You'll bite your tongue." There was some debris. Keith adjusted the trajectory slightly. It was going to get bumpy.

"My name is Lance! L-A-N-Ow!"

Keith didn't look behind him. "Engineer, what's the status on the Comms Spec?"

"He bit his tongue, Commander," Punk answered diligently.

"That's what I thought," said Keith with a hint of a smile.

Mance retreated into a pout. Let him be, Keith figured. Piloting a ship in simulation was the closest thing he could get to home right now. It was simple. Dodge a few wayward space rocks, watch the fuel gauge, and try not to damage the ship. The process was mechanical.

Uncomplicated.

It kept Keith's mind off other things, like the the actual Kerberos Mission.

News was still trickling in, but one fact was clear: Kerberos had gone silent.

Less than 24 hours had passed since Commander Holt, Science Officer Holt and Captain Shirogane first failed to respond to messages from Earth Command. Their last recorded data dumps hadn't been released yet. What surveillance imagery that had been released showed explosions and damage. It seemed like multiple simultaneous malfunctions had occured all at once. Garrison Command had already developed a rescue simulation based on what scattered pieces of intel they had.

But one thing they kept repeating was the cause of the disaster:

Pilot error.

A rescue was impossible - it'd be months before they could send rescue drones, much less a manned craft, to Kerberos. The Jupiter Supply Fleet were scrambling to put together recon fly-bys due in a few days.

Keith's grip on the controls tightened. Shiro had known the risks. If something went wrong then it was unlikely any rescue could be attempted in time. He'd never talked about it - the catastrophic possibilities.

Shiro was going on the Kerberos Mission, even if killed him.

Keith adjusted his trajectory slightly. The simulation was a feel good measure, something to keep the cadets focused.

He had to stay focused.

It's what Shiro would've wanted.

"Team, we're about three minutes out. Prepare for landing procedure." Keith looked behind him. What he saw didn't impress him. Punk was rubbing his stomach, looking on the verge of lubricating the controls with vomit and Mance was sneaking looks at a mirror to admire himself. "Comms, any signal?"

Mance jumped and began frantically flipping a few switches and pressing buttons trying to look busy. "Err, negative. All I'm getting is- Hunk! What the heck is your wrench doing in my station?" Mance tossed the wrench to Punk who fumbled it by the tip of his fingers before finally catching it.

"Whoops, almost lost it there, ain't that right my precious?" said Punk as he lovingly stroked his wrench. "Thanks, buddy!"

"And is this your fork? Ew! It's used." The Comm Spec held it up, dangling between his fingertips. "You can see the tiny little food bits! And it smells!"

"Hey, I've been looking for that too!"

Keith groaned.

"Of course I would get paired with the two worst cadets in the whole Garrison," he muttered.

"Hey!" Mance took offense to this. "I'm not that awful! I'm better than Garrison Security at least. Did you guys hear that last night some girl broke into Iverson's office? Little girl walked straight into most heavily guarded office on campus like no one's business!"

"Oh oh oh!" Punk raised his hand excitedly like it was his turn to add to the discussion. "I heard she got in, disassembled Iverson's computer into an oven and baked a cake. I heard it was strawberry tiramisu…"

"Hunk, that was your dream," Mance corrected.

"And a delicious dream that was," Punk said dreamily before his face turned green. "Oh no. Cramps. They're returning. They're returning!"

Keith felt a vein pop in his forehead.

"Look, you two," he began. "We need to prepare- Wait. Why is everything flashing red?"

Bright red warnings popped up on every possible console. Problems were everywhere: engines, wings, and even the circuitry. Keith gripped the controls, finding it unresponsive. The engines were dying and fast.

The Engineer checked his console.

"Uh. Seems I miscalculated the calibration sequence for the landing thrusters… among other things."

"Like?" Keith snapped.

"Oh, you know… I might have just maaaybe neglected to top off the main engine fuel lines…"

Keith could feel the inertia acting on his body. His chest began to tighten from the accelerating forces compounding exponentially. He gripped the handle, desperately pulling it upwards. There was no response from the controls.

"I'm feeling nothing from the engines! How much fuel did you put in!?"

The Engineer did a quick count with his fingers.

"One carry the nine plus five… uh, zero."

"YOU STUPID-!"

The ship fell into a death spiral.

"We're crashing!" was the last thing Comms Spec Klance said before the blackout.

An hour later, Keith was sitting outside Colonel Iverson's office.

Sitting outside the dean's office wasn't anything unusual for Keith. Neither was sitting outside the office covered in bruises with a bloodied lip. In fact, there was a time when it was a daily routine.

He used to roll his eyes and excuse himself to the dean after every scuffle. He hated the room. It smelled too sterile; too clean. Iverson liked to use the strawberry-scented Garrison-standard air fresheners that smelled like rotten tomatoes. The counter had the same stupid magazines on astro-exploration on top of it for the past ten years.

But, this was the first time Keith was banged up from both fighting and a simulation crash.

"Keith."

Keith looked up. Colonel Iverson was by the door.

"Come in," he said gruffly.

Taking a seat, Keith crossed his legs and arms, waiting for the usual verbal lashing.

But, Colonel Iverson said nothing. Instead, he straightened some folders and signed a few forms. For a while, the only sound in the office was that of the Colonel scribbling on his paperwork. Keith looked around, wondering if anything was going to happen. The Colonel simply continued filling his forms and sorting documents in silence.

"This is different," Keith finally said.

He had expected a stern lecture by now with the usual catchphrases. 'Shape it up!' or 'Quit the showboating!' were the Colonel's favorites for Keith. All of this would be punctuated with 'Cadet!' to remind Keith of his lowly rank.

Colonel Iverson scratched his scraggly chin and sighed, putting down his pen. "A lot of things are different." He took off his hat and laid it on the table. "For one thing, our office security is a joke."

"Colonel!" a voice crackled over the intercom. "Alpha Company has finished securing the perimeter at the excavation site-"

"Get off the open channel, you donkey!" Colonel Iverson shouted into the intercom before ripping out of the power cord. He gave Keith a sideways glance before adjusting himself back into his seat. "Forget you heard any of that."

Keith blinked. That was weird. "What was that about? Excava-"

"Nothing," Colonel Iverson cut him off sharply. "They're just doing a geological survey. But, back to the matter at hand. Cadet… Keith." Folding his hands, he leaned forward. "Do you think Shiro would want this?"

"Want what?"

"You, punching a fellow cadet, for what? Mentioning his name?"

Anger began to boil over. "That idiot said that Shiro-"

Colonel Iverson interjected with a raise of his hand. "The Comms Spec said, and I quote, 'If Shiro was our pilot, we never would have crashed.' End quote. You really punched him over that?" Leaning back into his chair, he smirked. "Can't say he's wrong though."

"I'd do it again," Keith growled.

"This isn't what Shiro would have wanted-"

"What the hell do you know about what Shiro would want!?"

"Look, kid," said Colonel Iverson in a low growl. "You got the talent, but you're the worst discipline case in the history of the Galaxy Garrison! If Captain Shirogane didn't vouch for you, you'd still be stuck at the orphanage waiting the rest of eternity for a pair of saints who could tolerate your lousy attitude. This world's got rules, kid, and I've tolerated your insubordination for long enough! But since I've got a lot bigger problems on my plate today… and out of respect for Shiro, I'm going to give you one last-"

"What the hell can I learn from a washout?"

The words were out of Keith's mouth before he could even think about pretending to regret them.

Colonel Iverson's face turned red.

"Oh! You think you're too good for Galaxy Garrison, eh?" Putting on his cap, he resumed his authoritarian self. "Then get out! Scram! I don't care if you're the best pilot - you're a hothead with no discipline and no respect for the chain of command! Pack your bags! You're expelled! I'd court-martial you but you ain't worth the paperwork! Get the hell out of my school! Out. OUT!"

Within seconds, a pair of soldiers flanked Keith.

Stares and whispers from other students weren't anything new. He wasn't deaf to the rumors and kids loved to gossip. Usually, it was about a fight from last week or Keith correcting some desk-jockey instructor. On rare occasions, it'd be admiration for beating the latest flight sim.

But, today was different. Today, Keith was being escorted out by armed guards.

It was annoying.

Keith cleared out his dorm room. Anything he didn't bring with him would be destroyed. Everything he owned could fit into a duffel bag. He had to return the Garrison uniform, though. They made it clear it would be burned upon disposal. Keith didn't mind. He preferred his red jacket anyway.

The bus was commissioned and had to be driven out. They wouldn't give Keith the satisfaction of leaving in a car or something respectable. No, instead they made him wait outside in the hot desert, with no shade, under the watch of armed guards. Students walking by would point and whisper. It was deliberate and designed to be humiliating.

What did Keith care?

Nothing really mattered anymore.

This bus was an old prison bus. Keith had seen it a few times. Most cadets getting sent home were usually the homesick-types, those failing physical or mental standards, or repeat curfew breakers. Illicit relationships were also forbidden on Garrison property. Keith figured he might be the first cadet to get expelled for a real discipline issue instead of getting caught with a girl in the boy's restroom.

The guards carelessly tossed his bags into the storage compartments.

"Get in," one grunted.

Graffiti was everywhere. The green seat cushions were sliced up with the stuffing sticking out. A few red blotches resembled puddles of blood. Keith wondered if they were from stabbings or vomiting or both.

"What you staring at?" a guard growled. "You think this is some kind of princess picnic? Take a seat, civilian."

Keith winced. He already didn't like it when the instructors kept barking at him as a 'cadet'. And now here they were, flexing their superiority by calling him a 'civilian'.

After taking a seat, the bus rumbled, moving forward. The guard who'd barked at Keith sat at the back and couldn't have looked more disinterested. Keith leaned against the window, watching the familiar mountains and desert plains pass by.

He remembered the first time he came to Garrison Command. Shiro had driven Keith there in an old muscle car to visit the campus and show him around. Shiro had sworn he'd fix it up one day. It had been one of the few times Shiro had talked so passionately about something that wasn't about space. He'd wanted to rework the engine, get new rims, and a fresh coat of black paint with some red flames. Shiro had joked that Keith could wax it as a summer job.

Keith would have taken Shiro up on that.

With his head against the grimy window, something caught the corner of his eye.

In the distance, there was a dust cloud. It could have been a sandstorm but the wind was weak today. Yet there was a gigantic column of sand spiralling into the air. Squinting, Keith could see a large formation of rovers circling the area and bunkers being set up.

"What's going on over there?" he asked, a bit loudly so that the guard could hear.

"Routine training exercise," answered the guard. "Now shut up. I want to take a nap."

Keith focused his gaze back to the dust cloud fast disappearing in the distance. There must have been a full battalion over there. In the sky, multiple fighters were doing flybys and recon drills. Colonel Iverson had mentioned a geological survey. And now the guard said that it was a routine training exercise? What kind of 'routine training exercise' for a 'geological survey' required that many troops and armed personnel?

Shiro and the Kerberos Mission had disappeared less than a day ago and yet the Garrison was going to throw that much material and manpower into setting up a perimeter instead of working on a way to find them?

What was out there? It had to be something big, right?

He'd already been thrown out. What else could they do?

He needed to see it.

Sorry Shiro, Keith thought. Patience yields focus, but my gut is telling me to do it.

The bus dropped Keith off at a shack in the middle of nowhere a few clicks away from the Garrison.

Home, sweet home, he guessed.

The house was pretty much how he'd left it: full of junk, red speeder in the back, and everything covered in dust. The windows were boarded up and covered in tarp. But that didn't matter right now. Combing through the house, he found a pair of binoculars. Before long, he was his speeder gunning towards the site.

The dust storm had faded when he got there. Stopping on a peak a distance away, Keith began searching through his binoculars. He couldn't see much. There were bunkers and command tents set up, but most of the guards were further out in front of what looked like a cave doing patrols in their rovers.

Keith frowned. For a routine training exercise geological survey, they were armed to the teeth.

A prickle went down his neck. He quickly looked around. There wasn't anyone there, which was strange. He could have sworn he felt someone's eyes on him. Regardless, he couldn't stay much longer. Not unless he wanted to be caught for real.

Back at the house, there was nothing there that could get him to Kerberos. All there was, was a lot of fireworks in the basement. Keith's dad frequented a year-round fireworks store on tribal territory north of the shack. They were the 'no questions asked so long as the money is good'-sort of folks.

There was some fertilizer, ammonia, and other chemicals leftover in the shack. Keith thought it was funny. He had never seen his dad as much of a farmer, especially with nothing to grow out in the desert. So why was there all of this bomb-making material?

He shook the conspiracy theories out of his head, returning to his task. He then realized what he was doing and acknowledged he was living a conspiracy: finding out what the Garrison was hiding would be his manifesto.

A small workshop was set up in the basement: a desk, some tools, and all the ingredients for bombs. As he worked, Keith's thoughts drifted to Shiro. He would definitely advise against this.

But, the Garrison was hiding something, and Keith needed to know what. What could be more important than the Kerberos Mission? What was with all of this secrecy and bad cover-up stories? Colonel Iverson had ripped out his intercom over it.

Shiro and the crew had oxygenator suits that could produce enough oxygen to last two days without recharge. The Kerberos ship had enough oxygen reserves to last for hundreds of recharges, far more than they'd ever need during the scope of the mission. A year's worth, at least.

Command Holt and his son were also the most brilliant engineers and scientists ever produced by the Garrison. They'd requested enough freeze dried peas to last them for a year. Shiro had even bragged how they could power up a rover using a toenail clipper, some copper wire, and duct tape.

So, what was it?

Why did the Garrison write them off? They were the best damn crew that Earth had!

They could be alive! They had to be!

Shiro was the best pilot to graduate the Garrison. There wasn't any way that the crash was his fault. Even if every newsreel in the world kept blasting the same headline, KERBEROS MISSION SILENT: PILOT ERROR, Keith just didn't believe it. He couldn't. They had all of the means to survive. So then, what if they were stranded? What if they were unable to communicate? What if Shiro was stuck in the emergency life-support bunker with nothing but a noisy oxygenator and freeze dried peas?

What if they could still be saved, but the Garrison had other priorities to attend to?

Keith looked at the assortment of explosive rigs in front of him.

The answer was whatever they were doing inside that cave.

Geological survey.

Routine training exercise.

… Excavation.

Keith needed to see it.

He needed to see what was more important than the lives of Shiro. Keith owed that much to him, at least. Besides, he mused, it didn't hurt to get a chance of destroying a bit of Garrison property.

With the chemicals and fireworks, it was possible to create explosions. Tremors from the explosions could resemble an earthquake and force them to evacuate the cave as was standard Galaxy Garrison protocol. Failing that, Keith had also made a few smoke bombs. Smelly colored gas would make them think it was a chemical agent attack. Luckily, his dad left plenty of canned peaches, which had definitely gone rotten, to mix in with the smoke bombs. The horrid smell should clear the tunnels and their bowels.

Then in the ensuing chaos, Keith would slip in.

As the sun began to set, he looked up to the stars and gave Shiro another thanks. Who knew a summer course in bomb-making (technically, how to not make bombs) would actually be useful for a former astro explorer cadet?

The night before his plan was set in motion, Keith waited with the speeder a few clicks away from the excavation site, just outside the security perimeter. He was kicked out the Garrison yesterday morning and already he was preparing to blow up school property.

The bombs were set to explode at the crack of dawn.

The timers were primed. Keith disassembled a couple of old egg timers around the house for them.

He didn't have a gun, but he had a dagger. He'd found it in his room, wrapped in cloth. His dad had said it was his mom's. It was light and made of a metal unlike anything found on Earth. There was a glowing purple mark on the hilt that looked like a lightning bolt. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

Putting down his binoculars, Keith gave his speeder one last pat for goodluck. In all likelihood, old rustbucket was going to be captured immediately. It was a shame. He'd taken it out of the shed for a spin last night and already he was sentimental. It reminded him of all those times when he and Shiro-

"Hey!"

"Wuahhh!"

Keith nearly toppled off his speeder. He swung himself off it. Drawing his dagger, he was ready to fight whoever was dumb enough to try to get the jump on him-!

"That wasn't a very manly scream."

It was a girl.

Keith lowered his stance. Standing in the early dawnlight was a short but harmless enough looking girl. Since she wasn't wearing a uniform, so she probably wasn't Garrison, instead wearing a green sweater and grey shorts. A pair of glasses was on her face and her long brown hair was in a side ponytail. Antennae, wires, and computer stuff were sticking out of her overstuffed backpack. She looked like someone ready to go on a techno-camping trip.

Keith stepped back a bit. He didn't like the idea of flipping a kid onto her back.

"You're going to get past those Garrison guys, right?" the girl asked. "Let me join you! Please!"

And she clapped her hands together and lowered her head into a bow.

Keith quickly composed himself. "W-who are you?" he asked. "How do you know that?"

"I'm Kat- I mean, Pidge. Pidge Gunderson!" The girl quickly ran up to Keith's speeder, already mounting it before he could stop her. "You're going to get inside that cavern, right?" she asked. "Where the alien ship is? Let me hitch a ride with you, yeah? Please, Keith. Please!"

"Get off my speeder!" Keith shouted. "And how do you know any of this? How do you know my name!? Wait." He paused. "What alien ship?"

"I've been watching you. Duh. Also, yeah, it's an alien ship." She looked at him like he was the class dunce who failed a simple 2 + 2 problem. "Haven't you seen heard the radio chatter? They couldn't encrypt a frequency even if Turing headbutted them in the face with it."

"No," Keith answered sharply. Alien ships? Was this girl for real? "What do you mean you've been watching me?" He was part-surprised, part-exasperated. "And you still haven't answered my question. How do you know my name?"

The girl, Pidge, rolled her eyes. "Because the Garrison guards are too lazy to actually do their patrols. And come on! A red speeder? In the desert? You stick out like a sore thumb!" she scoffed. "Also, your student info is still in the Garrison database and that was a zinch to hack. Just had to check flip through a couple of student ID photos until I recognized the mullet." Pidge crossed her arms, obviously pleased with herself. "But seriously, we're both heading over to that cave base, right? Let's work together!"

Keith's eye twitched. He pointed her off his speeder.

"Get off."

"Let me come with!"

"Get off!"

"Please! I'll behave and be quiet!"

"Kid. Just get off my speed-!"

Boom!

A series of explosions rocked the ground. Keith quickly pulled out his binoculars again, scanning the base area. A large black mushroom cloud filled his sights. Below it, he could see a convoy of Garrison rovers dispatched from the excavation site towards it while other personnel were being evacuated to nearby bunkers.

"Those are your bombs, right? Your diversion?" Pidge leaned off the speeder, using her hand to cover her eyes as she squinted into the distance. Colorful rockets whistled into the sky. "Fireworks supplemented with a chemical cocktail, huh? It sure works wonders."

"Yeah," Keith grunted as he jumped in front of Pidge. Time was short and the window to slip in was fast closing. "Hold on!" And with a rev of the speeder's engine, they were off.

"Ahhh!" Pidge screamed into Keith's back. Her thin arms wrapped themselves around his waist. "S-slow down!"

"Shut up! You'll bite your tongue!"

As the explosions shook the valley, Keith swept by on his speeder. The moment they hit the lip of the cave, he took off in a sprint, but not before giving his speeder one last short salute. Pidge followed close behind.

"Here!" He tossed a few smoke bombs with peach satchels tied to them to Pidge. "Pull and throw!"

The smoke bombs that rolled deeper into the cave as the two of them dodged and avoided evacuating scientists, technicians, and engineers. Nobody seemed to mind two people was actually running deeper into the cave. The air was soon full of the pungent smell of fermented peaches.

"This smell is disgusting!" Pidge shouted, pinching her nose.

No one was stopping the pair of plain-clothed civilians. Everyone was too concerned with saving their own hide to notice them. While Keith was grateful that getting was easy, he realized there was a major problem with his plan:

"Do you know your way around?" asked Pidge.

Keith had assumed the tunnel network would be a straight forward line going straight to the alien ship. Instead there were side tunnels and passages and random rooms cut into the rock itself that lead to dead ends. It didn't help that walls were littered with cave paintings of a red cat thing prowling around.

"They keep adding tunnels and closing them off," continued Pidge, "so I couldn't get an accurate map of the place the past few days. They must really want to protect that alien ship."

"How do you know that it's an alien ship?" Keith asked. He didn't buy the existence of aliens, but this girl seemed convinced that they exist.

Pidge smiled, patting the equipment on her backpack. "Garrison radio chatter has been talking about it nonstop. Carbon dating on the rocks says it predates human civilization! The metal can produce its own energy and-"

Keith raised a hand to stop her.

"Can the thing fly?" he asked. "Fly us all the way to Kerberos?"

The girl tilted her head. Then, her eyes widened.

"You want to get to Kerberos, too!? That's great!" She stuck a hand into her backpack as she fished out her laptop. "I don't know if it can't fly, but it's an alien ship, right? It gotta be able to fly! Here, lemme show you-"

"No time," said Keith as he grabbed her arm, pulling her deeper into the cave. She shoved her laptop back into her backpack, trying to keep up with his pace. All the while, the shouting and angry orders grew louder in the distance.

"Do you even know where you're going!?"

"No!"

Pidge glanced behind her. "Those Garrison guys are going to be on us any minute now!" she shouted. "And you have no idea where we're going!?"

Keith ignored her and just kept running.

He didn't know how he knew this, but it felt like something was guiding him.

A gut instinct. Just like before.

It was crazy, but it was better than nothing.

The cave grew brighter as Keith and Pidge ran further in. Light seared Keith's eyes as they broke into a large area. Flood lights were set up all around them, illuminating the cave walls and ground, but he paid no attention. The instinct - it was getting stronger-

"Keith, stop!"

Pidge's hand yanked him backwards. He blinked and gasped. His feet dug into the ground, his face stopping barely a few inches before a roaring lion. He jolted backwards, raising a hand to defend himself-

… Wait.

It was just a drawing. A drawing on a dead end.

Pidge was behind him, gasping for air. "I should have never, ever, skipped out on gym class," she coughed. She'd taken her hand back to place them both on her knees as she hacked her lungs out.

Keith frowned. It was weird… He hadn't even realised… It had looked so real… Up close it was just an abstract picture…

And still-

"There's a shortcut here," he muttered. "I can feel it."

It sounded stupid out loud, but it was true. There was a feeling swirling within him that told him that there was a faster way to his destination through here.

"Well, I see nothing! Except all these cave paintings," Pidge snapped back. She walked around, scanning them. "They're ancient," she observed, running a hand along the images. "Each of them tells a different story about a red lion… this one shows it hunting, this one's jumping through the stars…"

That detail didn't interest Keith. He looked around. "Where's the ship?"

There was no sign of an alien ship. No flying saucer. No weird cube-thing. Not even any geometric shapes.

Pidge shrugged before turning around behind her towards the route they had taken. "I don't know, but I definitely hear angry Garrison guards coming." She frowned. "Why are there people bowing to it?"

"To what?"

"The lion!"

Keith crossed his arms and growled in frustration. "Who cares?" he snapped, drawing his leg back. "Right now we're stuck here, and this stupid- Wuahhh!"

Just as his foot made contact with the rock, the ground beneath him glowed red and gave away beneath his feet.

"Keith!"

Pidge reached out, trying to grab his jacket-

"Whoaaa!"

-only to end up tumbling in with him.

They both slid down and were thrown forward, landing in a pool of water.

"Ow… ow… ow…" Pidge moaned, rubbing her head. "Why did-? Oh!" She stiffened. "What… is that?"

Following her gaze, Keith looked up to see a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring back at him.

This was what Keith was looking for. The thought was unshakable.

This was-

"The Red Lion," Pidge breathed. "The one from the drawings…"

It was a towering giant but looked thin and elegant. The curves of its armor were fluid. Around it was a red forcefield made up of honeycomb-shaped plates.

Keith ran up to it, banging on its spherical forcefield.

"It's some kind of particle barrier," said Pidge. She tapped on it a few times, eliciting a soft hum as her hand was repulsed. "This stuff's way more advanced than the ones at the Garrison. Look at the size of it!"

"Hey! Open up!" Keith called out, expecting the voice to answer. He got silence instead. He continued hammering his fist away at the particle barrier. All it did was send harmless ripples through it. It was as solid as granite.

The footsteps and shouts grew closer and closer. The Garrison soldiers must have figured out the smoke bombs were harmless. But, from where was that noise coming from? And how? Keith looked around. Where could there have-?

He scowled.

The hole they'd fallen through was still open but there was nothing he could about it. It wasn't what caught his attention, either.

Just a couple of meters from the hole was a Garrison made tunnel. It was still wide open, easily accessible, and well-lit. If that hole wasn't closed up, there'd be captured in seconds. No, there had to be some way to slow them down. Keith checked his bag. All he had were a couple of smoke bombs, some timers, and some fuses.

"If I could just collapse that tunnel…"

"You want to collapse the entrance?" Pidge pointed towards some cracks on the side of the cave wall. "You can try sticking the bombs in those cracks. If you can set them just right, a synchronous timed explosion should cause the support beams to shudder at juuuust the right frequen- Yeah, you know what?" She held out her hands. "Your face tells me that I should do it. Give 'em here."

Keith dumbly handed the last of his ordinance over as Pidge ran into the hole. She set the charges, flinging the peach satchels to the floor as she did so.

"Uh, do you know what you're doing?" he asked hesitantly.

"Totally!" Pidge replied, casually waving him off. "I'm just reconverting these gas bombs to more conventional explosives by sealing up with expulsion tubes with some of the peach-gel paste." Keith looked down the hall. He could see the flicker of flashlights and movements of shadows at the far, far end. "I've seen videos of this on the internet. How hard could it be? It's just applied physics with a bit of thermochemistry right? Wait." She turned back to him, a look of disgust on her face. "This timer setup is primitive! It's just an egg timer!"

"I was on a budget," Keith growled. Here he was, getting defensive over his homebrew explosives.

And the guards' footsteps continued to get louder.

After a few seconds, Pidge clapped her hands. Apparently pleased with her work, she jskipped back to Keith's side. The timer was ticking away.

"I readjusted the timer so it does the ticking noise," she explained. "Makes it feel more authentic, you know?" She began to hum as the seconds ticked down.

Keith sighed.

"Hey!"

A rough voice shouted down the tunnel. It was one of the guards, his rifle out and aimed at them. Behind him were several more guards, all armed and ready to take the intruders down.

"Keep your hands where we can see them!" he called out. "You're both under arr-!"

"Seeya," Pidge said with a wave.

Four explosions shook the cave in sequence. It was like Pop, pop, pop… Pop! Bits and pieces of rocks fell from the ceiling. Keith grabbed Pidge and pulled her further away, shielding himself on top of her.

"Cave in!" came the guard's muffled scream. "Evacuate!" The warning was echoed to the entire force as they made a retreat.

"That worked!" Pidge cheered. "Ha! I knew it! Wasn't that so cool? Tell me that wasn't the sickest display of controlled demolition you've ever seen! I mean, granted we should have worn goggles, hardhats, and probably have stood waaay farther back, but still, preeetty cool, am I right?"

"Err, yeah," said Keith. "It was definitely something."

"Also, um, can you get off me now?"

Getting to his feet, Keith held out his hand. Taking it, Pidge stood next to him, and together they surveyed the damage. The hole was most definitely closed now.

"So," Pidge began slowly. "What's phase two?"

"Phase two?"

Pidge looked at Keith with a questioning eyebrow. "You… do have a phase two right?" He continued to look confused. "Don't tell me you don't have a plan. Oh come on! You look like a guy with a plan! You came up with setting up diversionary bombs and everything! How could you not have a plan!?"

"I didn't think the alien ship would have a force field around it!" Keith said defensively.

"First off, particle barrier. Second, it's an alien ship! What did you think it was going to have around it? Tomato sauce!?"

"I don't know! I didn't even realize there was an alien ship down here!"

Pidge sucked in a deep breath. "Okay, okay. Do you at least have an exit strategy? A way to get out?"

"No?" Keith's eye drifted upward in thought. "It never really occurred to me."

"It never really occurred to you to think of an exit strategy!?"

"I just wanted to see what was down here..." Keith murmured before turned towards the Lion. "I think if we could open that Lion up, I think I can pilot it and, you know… fly away… maybe?"

A scrutinizing 'are you serious?' look swept Pidge's face.

"So, you're telling me that you were banking on waltzing in here, with no exist strategy and now your new plan is to climb aboard an alien ship that you had no idea was even in here in the first place - an alien ship I might add that looks like a giant metal cat - getting inside with no understanding of the alien language, alien control systems, or even if alien anatomy was compatible for a human pilot's and just… fly away?"

Keith thought about it.

"Well, any plan would sound stupid if you use 'alien' that many times."

Pidge's lips contorted into a horrified smile.

"No. No, no, no! How am I supposed to find-? No. Oh no. I'm going to jail. I am going to jail!"

She began to pace back and forth as she rambled.

"Or worse! They might send me to prison! Federal and state! Probably even Super-Max! I'll be charged with high treason - if they charge me at all! The Garrison would never confirm aliens exist. We'll be kept on black sites! They'll toss us in an offshore interrogation facility wearing bags over our heads! They might even, even..."

Pidge's eyes widened in horror, her mouth a stuttering mess.

"WHAT IF THEY TELL MOM!?"

Then she screamed. A lot.

"Screaming isn't helping!" Keith yelled. "We're stuck in here and the last thing we need is your panicking."

The screaming stopped.

"Guess we're all in, then," Pidge said quietly. "Except we're stuck in a cave with a giant cat that won't let us in! Oh great. I'm panicking. I'm panicking aren't I? I'm definitely panicking. What are we going to do? What are we going to d-!?"

Keith's hand covered her mouth.

"Calm down. There's a way out of this," he said. "And it's through this stupid cat!" he shouted, scowling at the mecha-cat thing. "If this cat can fly us out of here…"

Pidge mumbled something.

"What?" Keith turned back towards her. "Oh. Sorry." He removed his hand.

"Thank you." Bemused, Pidge took a deep breath. "I meant to say, assuming alien cats fly, of course." Keith looked at her blankly. "What?"

He groaned.

On the other end of the debris wall, the sound of feet colliding with rock could be heard. Then, several drills started up. Garrison guards were almost there to take them in.

Keith walked towards the big, ancient alien cat thing.

"Hello? Anyone home?" he asked. "Oh come on! What do you want? A song!?"

"You could try singing…?" Pidge suggested. Keith shot her a glare. "What!? I'm just trying to be helpful!"

"An alien cat-ship isn't going to open up to us because of my singing."

"Okay, okay, okay." Pidge rubbed her temples. "You could try to figure out the alien voice commands? Aliens have to have voice commands right? Like abra kadabra or alakazam?" she suggested with accompanying hand motions.

"Those are magic words."

"Well they're better than nothing!" Pidge defended. She peeked back at the debris wall. Some more rocks fell away. The drilling sound was growing louder and louder. "Uh, Keith? Those Garrison guys are almost here!"

"Alright, fine!" Keith yelled at the alien cat-ship. "Stick down here in your stupid cave! I need to find Shiro! He needs me! And if you're not going to help then you can just stay down here!"

He turned around to leave. Well, the problem was the leaving part. They were kind of sealed in. All they could do was wait for the Garrison guards to break through the debris. He then needed to think of a plan to take out what was possibly several dozen armed Garrison guards ready to shoot to kill. Keith closed his eyes. On the plus side, they'd have to funnel in at first. On the minus, they'd break through the rest of the rock and storm in eventually. Also, there was, what? One, maybe two hundred guards on the other side?

All Keith had was a dagger and a teenage girl with a geeked out backpack. Those weren't exactly optimal weapons.

He really hoped that no one got the bright idea of falling down that stupid lion hole…

"Patience yields focus," he told himself. He repeated the mantra, hoping Shiro's spirit would provide some guidance all the way from the cold void of space. "Patience yields focus, patience yields focus, patience yields focus… Argh! Okay nothing's happening." Keith gave Pidge an angry glare. "Look! Here's the plan! You listening?"

Pidge's eyes brightened.

Keith pointed toward the far side of the cave.

"Go hide in the corner. Keep your hands up. At least they'll take you alive if you don't move."

"Wha-?"

"I'm going to wait for them to break through and then take out all the guards. If I move in close enough then they won't be able to get a clear shot. If I somehow to manage to knock them all out, follow me out. If not, just sit there and let them take you." Keith bent over, his eyes focused at Pidge. "Don't. Fight. Them. Are we clear?"

He didn't need the blood of some little girl on his hands. He didn't know a lick about her, but he knew enough that Shiro would never approve of him putting some random kid's life in jeopardy. If this was the end of Keith's road, then he didn't want to bring anyone else with him.

Pidge's mouth was slightly agape. Then she raised her hands in the air and screamed.

"That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard!"

Keith rolled his eyes and began to tune her out. He didn't need Pidge listing out every single thing stacked against him. It was enough that everything in his mind screamed 'stupid plan!'. Of course it was a stupid plan. One teenager with a mullet and a dagger against a small company of the most heavily armed and well-trained soldiers on Earth?

It may as well be a death sentence, like a gladiator running a never-ending gauntlet.

But there was a feeling, a raging instinct swirl in his gut - something stirring within his very soul. Keith had to do it this way. Either he would succeed or die trying. There was no other option. It was the ultimatum he had placed on himself because every other outcome was unacceptable.

"Look," he said. "I know that it's an awful plan, alright? Just shut up and do it!"

"But why-?"

"If there's a way out of here, I'll find it," he growled. "And if I can't find it - I'll make one myself!"

And a roar filled his ears.

"W-wha-?" Pidge gasped. "What was-?"

The air pulsed.

Keith whipped around.

The Red Lion's eyes gleamed yellow. Mechanical groans clanked as it slowly began to shift.

It roared again.

The honeycomb force field surrounding it fell, slowly dissipating into the air. Pidge squeaked as the lion repositioned itself, each of its paws causing a small tremor. The beast appeared ready to pounce.

It lowered its head, openings its mouth, beckoning Keith to enter within.

"U-uh… H-hi, Kitty?"


Chapter 1 Fin

Season 1

Editor: Olivier Roux

Next Chapter: Into the Abyss

A/N: Thanks for reading.

This is a 'what-if'-fic where Keith and Pidge stumble into finding the Red Lion. Their personalities complement each other well and I liked the idea of those two having their own wacky adventures and slowly finding the other Paladins and Lions, similar to most JRPGs stories. There are other divergences down the line but the goal is to stick as close to canon as possible and use only locations, characters, alien racesfrom established canon. I'm more flexible with intangible worldbuilding concepts since I'm not a fan of named original characters in fanfics.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you liked it, feel free to fav/follow. If you have any thoughts on the fic, feel free to leave a review.