The plan was set and the team was ready to go. The group formed Voltron and flew across the universe to the coordinates from the transmission. But something didn't sit right with Novae. This transmission was just coming in now. Why didn't it come in sooner, and why did the voice calling out in the transmission sound so.... off?
"What are you thinking, Young Star?" Zaurelia asked.
"Something about this mission and the transmission... It doesn't sit right with me."
"If that is how you feel, then it would be wise to stay on your toes. Do not let your guard down."
"Not letting my guard down in the sight of danger is one of my greatest abilities."
"And yet your friends were always able to break it down."
Novae chuckled, "No, I just let them in when I needed them."
"What was this fleet's mission when they left?" Keith asked Lahn, snapping Novae out of her thoughts with Zaurelia.
"They were out gathering munitions." Lahn answered.
"Weapons? Were you buying or stealing them?" Allura asked.
"The Galra Empire is at war with itself. We have to do what we can to survive. But if you must know, they were salvaging weapons from an abandoned Galra base." Lahn explained.
"I have visual." Pidge said as everyone looked out at the target location.
Voltron stopped in an instant as everyone stared at the broken and battered ship before them. Bits and pieces of the ship were floating aimlessly around in open space. But for some reason, there were more pieces than there should've been.
"Everyone, stay alert." Novae said.
"What happened here?" Lance asked.
"Uh, Warlord Lahn, didn't you say there were 15 cruisers? Where are the rest of them?" Hunk asked worryingly.
"I'm not detecting any signs of life or biorhythms on the closest two ships, but there are some signals coming from the ships at the end." Pidge said.
"Yes, I can definitely feel something within the ship. And I don't think it's a friendly thing either. We should remain alert and be prepared for anything." Novae warned, her voice aiding in her concern for their safety.
"That's Klytax V-Three, where the call came in." Lahn clarified.
"Hailing Galra Cruiser Klytax V-Three. This is Keith, Paladin of the Black Lion of Voltron. Do you copy?" Keith said, but no one replied, just static crackling on the other end.
"This is Warlord Lahn, your commander. Do you copy?" Lahn tried to get an answer.
The reply was only the destroyed male voice from the the Galra sentry we heard earlier repeating the distress call.
"Whoever's in there. We need to find them and get them out." Keith said.
"If I can access the ship's security network, we should be able to find out what happened here." Pidge said.
"Paladins, Lahn and I are gonna head in first to make sure the entry point is safe. You guys jetpack in behind us." Keith said, unlocking Lahn's restraints and making our way out of the Black Lion.
"Copy!" Everyone replied.
"Wait a tick, Keith. I'm coming along with you." Novae declared.
"Are you sure, Novae?" Keith asked.
"I am. I need to see what that lifeform is in person. Perhaps I could use my powers to help."
Keith sighed and agreed to Novae joining them. Lahn, Kosmo and Keith jumped out of the Black Lion.
"Zaurelia, can you be on your own for a while?"
"For as long as you need me to, Novaleyia." The Gold Lion answered and Novae jumped out of her Lion to join Keith, Lahn and Kosmo. Kosmo quickly zapped the four of them into the ship and they began to take a look around.
Everything was dark, the ship having no power whatsoever. They looked around and saw multiple crates of supplies floating just as they were.
"We're all clear. Lahn, open the airlock doors." Keith said.
Lahn did as told and opened the doors to let the rest of the team inside. The doors closed as soon as everyone was inside, the Gold Lion returning to Novae around her wrist, and gathered around while Pidge scanned the ship for signs of life.
"Pidge, are you picking up any signals?" Keith asked.
"There are multiple biorhythms, but they're intermittent, almost random. It doesn't make any sense." Pidge said.
"Let me take a look, Pidge." Novae said and looked down at Pidge's results. There were indeed different points where the biorhythms were, but it was strange how they were moving without a pattern.
"Okay, we'll need to split up to find any survivors." Keith said, "Hunk and Lance, clear the aft of the ship. I'll take the bow and work my way toward you with Novae. Pidge and Allura, take Lahn to go through the security logs. Find out what happened here."
"I don't like taking orders on my own ship." Lahn stated annoyed by my giving out commands.
"We'll keep that in mind, Lahn." Novae said.
The team parted in different directions to find any survivors. As Novae, Kosmo and Keith went down the bow, they saw no survivors anywhere.
"Nobody's here." Keith said.
"No one may be here, but there is a sickening feeling in this place." Novae said.
"What do you mean? How can you feel something sickening?"
"Since merging with the Seven Deaths, I've been able to do a lot more things. Things that I used to be able to do when I was much younger throughout these past ten thousand years. One of those abilities is to feel certain things from certain people or creatures. Whatever is wandering these halls... it isn't natural, hence the sickening feeling I'm having. Just stay close and stay alert, got that, Keith?"
Keith nodded and they continued on their way through the halls for any survivors in the ship. Just then, they came across a large hole in the wall. Through the hole they saw several Galra sentries broken and destroyed, the hole itself going straight through the next three walls.
"What could've done this?" Keith wondered aloud. The two jumped when a loud banging sound came from the distance. We turned off our lights and floated towards the banging with caution.
They turned the corner and saw a sentry stuck in-between a set of doors. As the sentry struggled to escape, they floated over and noticed the strange markings on the walls. They seemed almost.... animalistic. No, more like beastly.
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Pidge sat at the control panel going over surveillance footage from before the ship's destruction, when she noticed something in the corner of the screen. It was fast and black.
"Okay, I think I got something." Pidge said alerting Allura and Lahn while rewinding the tape.
"The soldier is here, but after the flash, he's gone." Pidge explained, "But now the shadow is on the other side of the screen."
"Perhaps it's from another soldier." Allura suggested.
"I don't think so. That's less than a tenth of a second." Just then, Pidge noticed something off in the footage, "Hold on, it looks like the trajectory of the lighting angles combined with the proximity of the soldier are distorting the shadow's shape."
She took the data and quickly created the shadow's predicted shape. It was large, had powerful arms and thinner yet just as strong legs. The creature had a long tail and seemed to be deadly with the way it moved so fast.
"What is that thing?" Lahn asked.
"Guys, be on the lookout for a giant, deadly monster." Pidge said over the speakers to warn the others.
"We believe it's what attacked the crew. Avoid at all costs." Allura added.
"Lance, Hunk, do you copy?" Pidge asked, but didn't get a clear answer. All they heard was a set of loud screams.
"Lance? Hunk? Are you guys okay?" Pidge asked upon hearing them scream.
"We're okay." Hunk answered shakily while Lance whimpered in the background.
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Keith and Novae got the sentry out from in-between the closed doors and shone their lights back down the halls to continue the search.
"Keith, Novae, we just contacted Lance and Hunk. They saw something. Be advised..." Pidge said before the comms crackled and the signal was lost.
"Hello?" Keith called out, several sentries passing them as they floated through. Suddenly, one of the sentries floated closer, but it had no energy left inside of it to move.
"What are you?" A male voice asked from the shadows.
"My name is Keith, leader of Voltron, and this is Novae. We're the Paladins of the Black and Gold Lions." Keith said, but the sentry didn't respond.
"Wait. Yordam bering exus." Novae added, repeating the distress signal they heard before coming here, "Is that you?"
"Where are the rest of the Galra?" The sentry asked.
"They're still on planet Ryker. Why?" Keith asked as they etched closer to the sentry
"Planet Ryker." Novae's eyes widened at the slight change of voice.
"Keith move!" She shouted and pushed Keith out of the way. The sentry was pulled away, revealing a large beast behind it.
The beast threw the sentry at the two Paladins. Novae summoned my bayard, transforming it into a pair of dual swords to slice through the sentry and grabbed Keith to run away.
They sped off down the halls as fast as they could to escape the beast, but it was getting closer by the second.
Novae took a quick glance behind them and saw a bright light shine from the beast before it shot a powerful laser from its mouth.
Kosmo quickly teleported to dodge it, while Keith and Novae used their shields block the attack. However, the blast was too strong for the shields to withstand and they broke upon impact.
The force of the blast slammed them into the farthest wall. Keith and Novae screamed and groaned from the impact of the blast and wall.
They quickly refocused their attention back on the beast and saw another attack coming. Novae pushed Keith away and the two dodged the deadly attack, but the blast tore straight through the wall behind them.
Keith powered through towards the beast, but the beast dodged his attack and was ready to take Keith from behind.
"Kosmo, get Keith out of here!" Novae shouted. Before Keith could protest, Kosmo did as he was told and teleported Keith away from harm.
The beast turned around and headed straight towards Novae without hesitation. She crossed her blades to protect herself when the beast quickly sped up and slammed Novae into the wall. Her head hit the wall first, her vision now slightly blurry but she was still able to see the creature attacking her.
The beast stood right in front of her, wrapping its large hand around her upper body and squeezed Novae tightly. Its claws dug into her sides, her blood now seeping through the armor and dripping onto the creature. But something strange happened.
The creature growled loudly as her blood turned gold and burned its claws. It howled in pain but wouldn't let Novae go. The beast bounced from wall to wall, never letting Novae go. She could only see flashes of things passing us by as the beast ran through the ship. But then, just for a moment, the beast released just a little bit of its grip when it saw the entrance to the ship.
"Novae!" Keith shouted. Novae, with all of her strength, forced herself out of the beast's claws and now floated in the air while her wounds slowly healed.
"Young Star, are you all right?" Zaurelia asked.
"I'll be fine in just a moment. My healing rate has increased greatly. This should come in handy later on." She said and smiled as the bleeding had already stopped.
"All Galra must perish." The sentry that the beast picked up said.
The beast roared and for an instant emitted a bright purple glow. The beast suddenly jumped from its perch and attacked the Paladins. Thankfully, they dodged its advances and escaped its claws.
Kosmo jumped into the beast and tried to bite it, but the wolf whimpered in pain as he was squeezed by the beast's tail.
"Kosmo!" Novae shouted and rushed to save the cosmic wolf, but she was smacked away by the beast and slammed into the wall.
"How many times am I going to be smacked into a wall in my lifetime?" Novae thought to herself.
Lance shot at the beast, but he had to dodge when the beast fired its own laser at the group.
Novae looked towards the open door and tried to fly fast enough to leave, but the door closed, leaving her, Lahn and Keith trapped inside with the beast. Novae flew closer to Keith and Lahn as they tried to manually open the door.
"Pidge, how much time before the ship explodes?" Lance asked.
"Sixty ticks." She answered.
"We've got to get then out of there." Hunk said.
"This should do it." Pidge said, "That thing overrode my protocol!"
"We can take it down with our bayards." Lance said.
"Keith! Novae!" Allura shouted summoning her bayard weapon.
"We're coming for you!" Lance shouted.
"Stand away from the door." Hunk warned and began firing at the door.
Just then, the beast attacked again. Novae grabbed Keith and pushed the both of them out of the way of attack from the beast.
The beast fired a powerful laser at Lahn, but Novae did something unexpected from anyone. She reached out her hand and a golden string of light shot out from her palm. It wrapped around Lahn and pulled him away from the beast's direction of attack.
Lahn and Keith looked at an equally shocked Novae who stared at her still glowing golden hands.
"Victory or death!" Lahn cried out, snapping out of his shock, but I wouldn't let him throw it all away.
"Well, death is going to have to wait, Lahn!" Novae shouted and used her new power again to bring him back before he could attack the creature. She used her free hand and focused hard. Just then, the bracelet that the Gold Lion turned into, transformed into what seemed to be a fingerless glove with blue stones on the knuckles.
Novae smirked and a powerful beam of light shot out from her palm and hit the beast square in the chest. It roared in pain as it was slammed into the front of the ship.
"Do you trust us yet?" Keith asked Lahn. The Galran said nothing in return.
"Paladins, clear the hallway. We're coming through!" Keith shouted, "Novae, do the honors?"
Novae smiled and fired her new blaster at the door, creating a large hole that allowed them to escape quickly.
"Let's go." Keith said as they sped out of the room. The others didn't waste any time in following them.
"Ten ticks!" Pidge counted down.
"The cargo bay where we entered is the nearest exit point." Allura said. Suddenly there was a low growl from behind the fleeing group followed by a loud boom and a laser. The group turned around and saw the beast following close behind them
"Five ticks, we'll never make it!" Pidge shouted.
Keith held out his bayard weapon at the bay door, the bayard suddenly transforming into a high powered blaster. With his new weapon, he fired. The sudden blast at the bay door created a vacuum that sucked them outside, leaving the beast inside the ship.
Everyone screamed at the ship exploding behind them and the force it had which pushed them all back. The Voltron Lions sensed their distress and quickly scooped them back up, taking them all back to the previous base they took over.
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After everyone had rested and got situated at the base, Warlord Lahn stood in front of everyone and made his speech.
"The Galra Empire may be decimated, but its warriors are still needed to maintain stability." He said, "Twice the Paladins of Voltron have risked their lives for me, and yet I questioned their intent. I was wrong. I pledge loyalty to a United front with the Voltron Coalition. And I encourage you all to do the same."
Novae smiled at the decree and his pledge of loyalty to their cause. Shiro noticed her smile and took her hand, gripping it tightly which only made her smile even more.
Later on, the team gathered on the Atlas to go over what they found in the recently destroyed cruiser.
"I downloaded some intel from that cruiser." Pidge said, "There might be another one of Honvera's beasts out there."
"Another one?" Lance asked.
"This is just what I feared." Allura said, "Shiro, we need to adjust our mission's objective and track down where these things are coming from."
Shiro, conflicted by the decision, turned towards Pidge for an answer.
"How certain are you that it's a Robeast?" He asked.
"I'm not positive, but according to the message logs, some Galra have spotted a giant robotic mech that fits the description. The logs even refer to a similar weapon."
"Is it possible that there's another Altean piloting it?" Shiro asked.
"It is highly likely. I'll have to talk to Luca about this, but if there is indeed an Altean flying this mech, then we have to go see it in person." Novae said.
"Thousands of innocent souls are waiting to be liberated from what remains of the Galra Empire." Shiro reasoned, "We can't just change course."
"Maybe you don't have to." Keith said.
"Keith, what are you saying?" Shiro asked.
"It pains me to say this, but we may have to split up." Novae suggested, "The Atlas will continue working with the Galra, while Voltron searches for Honvera and her beasts."
"You'll be out there on your own, without backup." Shiro said.
Novae smiled reassuringly and walked over to Shiro, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll be all right." She said, "Have faith that Voltron will be okay, and when we will return much stronger than before."
Shiro couldn't help but feel reassured by her words, and they all agreed that Voltron go and find this new second Robeast.
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Later on in the nighttime hours, Novae was finishing changing into her pajamas when she heard knock on her door.
"Come in." Novae called out. The door opened and revealed Shiro, dressed in his pajamas as well.
"Takashi? Is something the matter?" She asked.
"Not much, I just wanted to talk to you for a little while." He smiled and hugged her, but she chuckled.
"This is not talking." She said.
"Well then, I guess I just wanted to be close to you. Since we launched into space on the Atlas, we haven't really spent that much time together alone."
Novae sighed, "I suppose you're right. If that's the case, then will you stay with me tonight? I wouldn't mind the company."
Shiro nodded and the two sat on her bed, their arms around each other, barely saying a thing as their warm touch was all they needed.
"Say, Novae?"
"Hmm?"
"I love you... so much."
Novae leaned closer into him.
"I love you, too. And I always will."