Novae's eyes opened to see the familiar ceiling of her Lion's storage area, where she had been sleeping since the team departed from the Atlas. They were searching for even more of the white Robeasts that the Alteans were using to attack others, but so far, not much luck.
After getting dressed in her armor and brushing out her hair, she exited the cargo bay and sat in her pilot seat.
"Good morning everyone." She cheerfully greeted the rest of her team.
"Novae, it's the afternoon according to Earth time." Keith said.
"You slept for a long time. Longer than normal." Allura said worried, "Are you feeling all right, Novae? You hardly ever sleep that late."
"I'm fine, Allura. It's just been a good while since I slept in the Gold Lion. I guess I missed some of her comfort." Novae chuckled, "Pidge, how many more star systems are in this quadrant?"
"This celestial quadrant is 230,000 light-years in diameter." She answered.
"I can't even process what that means." Hunk said tiredly.
"Okay, picture five fleas searching for another flea on a dog that's the size of Earth." Pidge tried to clarify.
"Ugh, all this talk about fleas is making me itchy. Are you guys feeling itchy?" Hunk asked as he scratched himself.
"Pidge, why can't you and Hunk just make a Robeast tracker thingy, you know?" Do some math and science stuff. Then put some components together, and bam, its done." Lance suggested.
"Perhaps we should set our heading for the Altean colony." Allura said.
"We've talked about this." Keith said, remembering the conversation on the colony topic, "To get to the colony, we would have to travel through the Quantum Abyss."
"Plus, Kolivan said the colony no longer exists." Pidge added.
"Traveling through that abyss was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. A single misstep could turn a six-month journey into a ten-year journey. The creatures, the environment, everything in there wants you dead." Keith explained. Kosmo whined, "Except you." Keith added.
"I'm tired of hearing what we can't do and what we don't know." Allura said.
"Allura, we just want to make the best decisions--"
"The Alteans were my people, and the last of them are being exploited as soldiers in someone else's war. You don't understand." Allura cut Lance off.
Lance sighed, "I understand what it feels like to see someone I care about hurt so much."
"And remember, the Alteans are a part of my heritage as well, Allura. I don't want them to be under someone else's control anymore than you do." Novae added.
"I'm sorry." Allura apologized.
"Okay, maybe we head to Olkarion. We're just a few galaxies away. They might have some information of any unusual sightings." Hunk suggested, lightening the mood a little.
"Hunk's right." Keith agreed, "Olkarion is a great spot to regroup and reevaluate our situation."
"And it'll be awesome to see everyone again." Pidge added excited to see the Olkari again, "I wonder what kind of technological advances they've made in the last few years. Oh, man! If they figured out a way to untangle the uncertainty principle, new precision calculations could open the doors to a flood of innovations!"
Novae could practically see the stars in Pidge's eyes as she spoke with so much excitement. And the mention of going to Olkarion made her excited as well. She had missed the Olkari and wanted to see Ryner again.
"I think I understood, like, three of those words." Lance said, "Allura, what do you think?"
"Perhaps a trip to Olkarion is best." She sighed.
Everyone agreed to the stop and began flying towards Olkarion.
🦁🦁🦁~~~~🦁🦁🦁
"Hailing Olkarion. Be advised the Paladins of Voltron are en route." Pidge said to warn them of their approach, but all she got was squealing static.
"This is Pidge... hailing Olkarion. Do you copy?"
"Are they not home?" Hunk asked.
"Probably too busy untangling calculations." Lance added smugly, "Am I using that right?"
"No, not even close." Hunk said.
"I'm guessing there's a delay due to our distance. We'll probably receive their reply on the way." Pidge said as they continued on their way to Olkarion, with the aid of Voltron of course. Novae even pushed some of her blood into Voltron's wings so that they would be able to fly faster.
The team sped through the stars and soon arrived in Olkarion's system in record time. However, it wasn't the same as it was the last they came. There were so many asteroids surrounding them, and even though it had been several years, not this many asteroids would be able to be formed without some kind of aid
"Welcome to Olkarion's galactic neighborhood. Did we ever hear from them?" Lance asked.
"Actually, no, which is strange." Pidge answered, "I'll try to contact then again."
Just then, Novae's screens pulled up a large energy source coming from behind them, and she could feel all too well.
"Everyone, something large is coming towards us, and it's coming in fast." She warned.
"A Galra cruiser? Some kind of weapon?" Lance asked.
"Is it a Robeast?" Allura asked.
"Shield up!"
The team did as Keith told them and activated the shield and sword. But as they prepared to fight, they saw something really strange in their eyes.
"What the heck is that thing?" Lance asked.
"It's a Weblum!" Hunk exclaimed, "Keith, look! We've been inside one of those!"
"How could I forget?" Keith said unenthusiasticly and slightly disgusted.
The Weblum came closer and closer, then suddenly began to open its glowing mouth.
"Um, what is it doing? " Pidge asked.
"Actually, it's creating scaultrite." Hunk explained, "Pidge, you would love it. It's this amazing chemical process--"
"Science talk later! We're in its line of fire!" Lance shouted, cutting Hunk off.
The team quickly pushed their thrusters and flew out of the way just as the Weblum fired its attack.
"Should we go on the offensive?" Lance asked.
"No, no. They may be dangerous, but they're essential for the universe. Think of them like giant space bees." Hunk said, "Keith and I learned about them from a video Coran made. There some rule like, 'If you don't want to killed, stay away from it's gills'?"
"That wasn't the rhyme." Keith said, "It's "If your don't want to be dead, avoid its head."
"We don't have time to listen to you rhyme." Allura said.
Hunk chuckled, "You just--"
"Hunk!"
"Where is it going?" Novae asked as they watched the Weblum float past them, a bad feeling sitting in the pits of her stomach.
Pidge quickly calculated its route, "According to my calculations, it's heading towards.... Olkarion."
"Then we'd better get there first." Keith said.
They formed the wings again and flew past the Weblum and closer to Olkarion.
Once they got close enough, they split back into their separate lions. But, as they approached the planet, flying through the heavy clouds, Novae felt tears welling up in her eyes. They landed and exited the Lions, the wind howling loudly as the Paladins looked over the ruins of the once magnificent cities filled with life and Olkari.
It was all gone. Not a single sign of life.
Pidge looked down, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Novae placed a hand on the young girl's shoulder to comfort her, but even she felt the pain and sadness that this dead planet brought Pidge. They both had a connection to this planet, understanding the planet's interface better than anyone. With the death of this planet, came the death of a small part of the two Paladins.
"They were our allies, our friends." Pidge said.
"It's all gone." Novae muttered.
"Paladins, I know this is a difficult moment, but we need to get to work." Keith said, "That Weblum is headed here right now, so time is short. Our top priority is search and rescue. If there are survivors, we need to find them, and we need to find out what happened here."
"There is only one thing capable of this." Allura said, her tone sharp and angry.
"Then we should confirm it." Novae said.
Everyone split up, searching around the cities and forests for any Olkari survivors. Novae stayed on the ground with Pidge. As they searched the forest Pidge grabbed a withered branch, only to have it turn to dust in her hand.
"There's truly nothing here." Novae said, "There's barely any inkling of quintessence in the core of the planet."
"I think our worst fears have been realized." Keith said as he circled around in the Black Lion.
"What do you see?" Hunk asked.
"The physical wreckage and destruction patterns are just like those on Earth."
"It's the same here. All of the energy in Olkarion was forcibly sucked out of it. There's nothing left but dead leaves and ruins." Novae answered.
"Lance and I took readings." Hunk said, "We picked up trace amounts of Psyferite. That's the same metal the creature on Earth was made from."
"Why did this Robeast attack Olkarion of all places?"
"Maybe because it was a central part of the coalition." Lance suggested.
"Maybe. I just get the feeling there's something more to it." Allura said.
"You might be right. But we have no way to confirm it. Right now we just need to focus on finding survivors." Keith reminded.
Pidge and Novae walked through the forest, but the two of them stopped at a familiar area.
"I know this place." Pidge said. Novae nodded, looking out at what used to be a beautiful forest. The place where Ryner and Novae helped Pidge bond with the forest. Where she learned to understand nature on a completely different level.
"I remember." Novae said, "This is where Ryner and I taught you to bond with the forest."
Pidge nodded, "Yeah. The Olkari people helped me to make that connection, and you helped me build a deeper bond with my lion here. I learned more from them than I ever thought possible."
Novae quickly hugged Pidge to comfort her as she sniffed back her tears.
"Novae, they had so much more to teach the universe." Pidge cried, "And now they're gone."
The two girls fell to their knees, comforting each other in whatever way they could. But just then, Novae and Pidge heard laughter.
All of a sudden, everything was white, but as the area slowly dimmed down, Pidge and Novae looked around to not only see Olkarion brand new, but also see that they were in a time where the people lived happily.
There were children were playing in front of them, two little girls playing with a ball in the forest without not a care in the world as they ran.
But soon, everything went back to normal.
"Pidge, did you see..."
"The forest was back to how it was before." She answered, "There were girls playing. But, why did we see that?"
"There must still be just a little bit of quintessence still left within the planet's core." Novae said, "Maybe I could try to tap into it for just a moment."
"Do your best, Novae." Pidge said.
Novae nodded and closed her eyes, allowing he quintessence to flow into the planet and intensify the quintessence within the planet. She then took her free hand and held Pidge's hand, sharing what she was seeing with the Green Paladin.
When they opened their eyes again, they saw the two little girls playing in the forest again.
Pidge gasped, "Novae, look." She said. Novae followed her gaze towards the sky and saw a large unknown object hurtling towards the planet in a ball of fire.
"We need to get to the city." Pidge said. The world went back to normal and they ran as fast as they could to the now destroyed city.
The two landed on a piece of the ruined city and looked down at the cracked ground. The world went back to the past as the object fell into the ground.
Pidge and Novae shouted from the force of the impact in the center of the city. Both could barely hear the Olkari scream as the object smashed into the ground, causing a panicked uproar. When the dust cleared, people were shouting in shock, and in front of everyone else was a familiar face.
"Ryner." The girls said softly.
From the clearing dust, a white Robeast standing in the crater it created.
"The Robeast! It's here!" Pidge exclaimed.
The Robeast raised its sickles into the air and struck the ground. Novae could almost feel the pain that Olkarion went through as the sickles the robeast used siphoned all of the quintessence it could get out of the planet.
"The robeast is siphoning quintessence, but why would it do this? What could the Alteans need that much quintessence for?" Novae wondered aloud.
"I don't know, but we need to get closer." Pidge said, running with Novae to another part of the city.
The sickles began sucking the quintessence out of Olkarion. The Olkari screaming at the sudden attack and racing to their battle stations.
The two Paladins ran around the area, watching the people run in a panic. The streams and cracks in the ground filled with a terrifying purple light were everywhere the Robeast continued to steal Olkarion's quintessence.
They turned to the right and saw Ryner standing in front of some of the soldiers.
"Ryner!" Pidge and Novae shouted.
Ryner was standing with a group of Olkari, "Get civilians to evacuation pods and launch them immediately!" She ordered, "Have all military personnel report to battle stations. Scramble the mechs for counterattack."
Then she turned towards them, as if Ryner was looking at us directly, "Come with me."
The world went back to normal, both girls with wide eyes and confused expressions.
"Ryner." Pidge said, "Was she talking to us?"
"I don't know, Pidge. But, if we stay right here, we may be able to find some answers about the Robeast and what its next move is."
"Well then, whatever those answers are, we're gonna find them." Pidge said determined.
"Guys, we have a, uh-- We have a major problem here." Hunk said through the radios.
"Hunk released some low-orbit trackers outside of Olkarion on the way in. The Weblum just set them off." Lance explained, "We have just about ten minutes to evac!"
"Copy that." Keith responded, "Everyone to their Lions. Let's go now!"
"Wait a second, Keith!" Pidge said, "We can't leave yet. How long can you hold that thing off?"
"Hold it off?! It's a giant space worm!" Lance shouted, "We can't hold it off! What are you talking about?"
"Pidge and I are getting closer to the truth about what happened here. We just need a little more time to figure it out." Novae explained.
"All right then. We'll keep it busy. Be careful." Keith said.
Novae grabbed Pidge's hand and we concentrated again. The world changed once more, showing us the day Olkarion fell once again.
Several ships were flying away from Olkarion. The two watched Ryner as the people ran to escape destruction. All of a sudden, the sound of a machine whirring echoed behind the Paladins. They turned around and saw the main central building powering up.
It fired an energy beam, but the Robeast came to attention, blocking and diverting the attack.
"Go, go, go!" Ryner shouted, rushing and motioning for her people to escape in the evacuation pods.
"We need to preserve the information from the communications tower! Keep the beast at bay for as long as you can."
Pidge and Novae flew up to the top of the tower and ran inside to see what had happened. The Olkari engineers on the inside quickly tried to find out what the Robeast was and where it came from, but hardly had any luck in getting answers.
"How did we not pick this up on our scanners?" One of the engineers asked.
"It just appeared!" The other one shouted.
"Just like on Earth." Pidge said.
"How could that be?" The Olkari gasped, "Wait, bring up our scanner logs. Those anomalies we detected earlier..."
The engineer did as she was told and brought up the logs. The Olkari engineer gasped as he saw the signs of this attack coming.
"I can believe I didn't see it before. The anomalies are from the warping of space-time."
Novae gasped in shock. Space-time? Impossible, the only ones who bend space-time were highly skilled Alteans.
"This creature came through a wormhole." The engineer said.
At that moment, Novae knew exactly who was behind it all, and this confirmed her suspicions of the mastermind. It was all her Aunt, Honerva. The only Altean alive she knew of that could possibly make a wormhole other than herself and Allura.
Ryner's face appeared on a separate screen, "Transfer all data from this facility to a safe location off planet. Then evacuate immediately!" She said.
"Understood. What we just discovered could save billions of lives."
The engineers worked as quickly as they could. Our breaths hitched when the Robeast turned towards the tower, just as they had initiated the transfer.
In a blast of light, and a shout from the Olkari, the tower was no more. The world changed back to normal and Pidge and I fell ot our knees from the massive shock.
"The Robeast was transported to Olkarion by a wormhole." Pidge said.
"Pidge, Novae!" Hunk shouted, "I'm sorry, but you've gotta get out of there immediately!"
"We need more time." Novae said and held out her gold bracelet, "Zaurelia, go up and help the others."
The bracelet shone brightly and shot off into the air to leave the planet and follow the others to help with the Weblum.
In one more flash of light, Pidge and Novae were brought back to the past. They flew down to the ground, right in front of Ryner as she evacuated more of the Olkari.
"Hurry. Everyone on board." She said, turning to another Olkari, "It came for something. Find out what." Suddenly, she gasped and ground shook with the boomimg footsteps of the Robeast.
The Olkari tried to attack and defend, but each time they tried, more and more of the people were killed. And the more that Novae watched this, the more that she could feel their pain and fear. Even Pidge could feel it through their physical connection.
Just then, the Robeast flew up, taking with it the large Olkarion cubes they once defeated.
"It came for the cubes. Why?" Pidge asked.
"Nothing good, that's for certain." Novae said.
Pidge and Novae turned back to Ryner.
"Ryner, can you hear me?" Pidge called out to Ryner, "Why did the Robeast want to the cubes. Please, talk to us!"
"Hurry, everyone on!" Ryner shouted, not hearing anything we've said.
"Ryner, please. Ryner!" Pidge begged.
Through the sound of destruction and pain and the sounds of a little girl sobbing next to Ryner.
"I'm scared." She said through her tears, "I don't want to leave!"
Ryner knelt down to the girl's height and said, "You mustn't cling to tightly to the past. The Olkari have always been able to adapt and move forward. It is our greatest strength. And it will live on in you."
"But our home..." the girl sobbed.
"The old must give way to the new. The Blue Star once told me that a long time ago. It's the way of the universe. Now, please, go."
The two hugged each other and the girl ran off to the escape ship, her tears being left behind in the wind. The doors closed and the ships took off, leaving behind Ryner and the few brave Olkari soldiers that had chosen to stay and be with their planet.
The world went back to normal, Pidge and Novae thinking about Ryner's last words to the little girl.
"Pidge! Novae!" Allura shouted at the two, "We can't hold this thing off any longer. You two need to get out of there!"
In that instant, the Green and Gold Lions flew down and picked up their respective Paladins before flying back into the air to escape the planet
"There they are. The planet is clear!" Hunk said.
"Everyone, fall back away from the Weblum!" Keith shouted, and everyone did as told.
They all backed away from the planet just as the Weblum shot through Olkarion.
In a flash of light, Olkarion was gone, reduced to space rubble.
"It's... Gone." Lance said in shock.
"I'm sorry, Pidge, Novae." Allura said.
"I wish we could've done more." Keith said.
"Thanks, everyone." Pidge said as she shed her last tears.
"You know, if you think about it, this isn't really the end of Olkarion." Hunk said, "Weblums eating dead planets is just the first step in a process that leads to the growth of new stars, planets and galaxies."
"The old gives way the new." Pidge mumbled and smiled, "We need to contact the Atlas."
"Why?" Allura asked.
"Because it seems that the Olkari left us one last thing to discover." Novae said.