Kayleigha's POV
After the event of the Galra crystal's corruption in the Castle, Allura and Coran make sure to clear the ship of the infection completely. Once everything is brought back to normal, we can finally get back on track to fighting the Galra.
Everyone has gathered on the bridge where Pidge is going over the information that we've gathered from Sendak's memory.
"Somewhere inside Sendak's memories we should be able to find the inside information that gives us the key to take down Zarkon." Allura says as we stare down at the screen in front of Pidge.
"I don't think your father would approve of searching through an enemy's memories." Coran says, uneasily.
"I know." Allura sighs, "But we have to do everything we can to defeat Zarkon."
"Once we learn all his weaknesses, we can drive up to his front door and challenge him to a fight. Winner gets the universe." Lance says as he looks up, his mind is in a sort of daydream.
We look at him curiously before turning back to Pidge and her screen.
"Find anything good, Pidge?" Shiro asks.
"We were only able to salvage bits and pieces." Pidge replies.
Keith sighs, "We need something to work with. Right now, we don't even have a decent map of the empire."
"Who needs a map?" Lance asks, "After 10,000 years of conquering, I could probably point my bayard at, like, any random point in space and hit a Galra ship."
"If we could just find troop locations or supply routes, small targets we could hit-and-run, then we could start to free planets one by one." Shiro suggests.
"Boring. I want the big kaboom." Lance says and makes a strange pose.
"That would only end in disaster for us, Lance." I say, "None of us have any idea what is at Zarkon's base or what he could have in store for us if we attack him head-on."
"Kayleigha's right," Shiro agrees, "Zarkon's been building his empire for 10,000 years. We're not going to tear it down overnight with five inexperienced pilots, one dragon, and one support ship. Hitting him where he lives would be a huge mistake."
"Okay," Pidge says, getting our attention back to her screens, "I've crossed referenced Sendak's memories with the info I got from the downed ship back on Arus. Most of it was a garbled mess, but one thing kept repeating, something called a 'Universal Station.'"
"Universal Station?" Hunk asks, blocking Pidge's view of the screen, "Like, the station that controls the entire universe?"
Pidge pushes him away, "Well, we are translating it from Galra, so it could also be 'Galactic Hub.'"
"Or 'Space Base!'" Lance jokes.
We stare at him for a tick, unamused.
He blinks at us, "What?"
Coran walks over to the control panel. "I'm pulling up the location of your Universal Hub Station Base on our screens now."
The screen comes up and displays three planets far away from us. But there is no base anywhere in sight.
"So, where is it?" Lance asks.
"I don't know. Our long range sensors are unable to find anything at those coordinates."
"Maybe he remembered it wrong." Keith suggests.
"Or maybe we just stumbled across a top-secret base in Sendak's memories." Pidge adds.
"I think Pidge is onto something." I agree, "The Galra wouldn't leave an important base exposed for someone to find so easily. And I have heard them mention a station when I was in prison. Perhaps this location is the same place."
We turn to Allura, silently asking for her opinion.
"Only one way to find out. Let's go take a look."
The Alteans fly the Castle towards the coordinates through space. Our destination isn't too far away so we don't need a wormhole to approach.
We end up flying for a while, Hunk even falls asleep in his chair.
Soon enough, the planets we're looking for are in our view.
"We should be close enough to get a good scan, but far enough away to avoid being detected." Allura says.
The Castle moves carefully around one of the planets and we get a visual on the Galra Station. It's been built on an asteroid in the middle of the three planets. Galra cruisers are flying in and out of the place.
"There it is." Shiro says.
"It appears the gravitation between the two planets warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the planet off the deep space scanners." Coran says, pulling up a closer scan of the station on-screen.
"So you can only see it if you know where to look." Pidge says thoughtfully.
"This place must handle shipments from all over the Galra Empire." Shiro says.
"If this is just some big airport where shipments come and go, why is it hidden?" Pidge asks.
"There might be more about the base than what meets the eye." I say, "This place could have information and cargo that is vital for the Empire."
"Then, we better go down and take a look." Allura says.
The princess pulls up a map of the main structure of the station.
"We'll need to enter here: the central control station." She says.
Keith's eyes widen and he turns to Allura with confusion.
"I'm sorry, Princess, did you say 'we'?" he asks.
"I'm going with you." She says, "I've traveled through the Galra transportation hubs many times with my father before the war began. I know more about them than any of you."
"Princess, I'd rather you stay here." Coran objects.
Allura gazes at him firmly, "I'm a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone. I'm going. Does anyone have a problem with that?"
No one else makes any objections to the Princess.
I don't want to argue with her logic, since I've been allowed to accompany the Paladins before. And it would be better if she gets to do more than just fly the Castle all the time.
Coran looks toward Shiro nervously, hoping he will say something against Allura coming along. But Shiro just shrugs.
"Fine. Suit up."
Coran screams and the humans look at Shiro like he is crazy.
After we all put on our suits of armor, we discuss our plan of infiltrating the station.
"We'll go in low, fast, and hopefully undetected." Shiro explains, "Coming around the dark side of the nearest planet should keep them from getting a visual on us. Thanks to Pidge's modifications to the Green Lion, we'll have 30 seconds of cloaking."
"I can flood their short-range sensors with a radiation burst." Coran says, "That should buy you a minute or so, while they assume it's cosmic interference. But, after that, it's up to you to be out of sight."
>>>--->
Just like we planned, we make it to the control tower in the Green Lion unnoticed. We quietly go inside the building and make our way to the control room.
We find the place is only occupied by a soldier and two sentries. They have no clue that we're here.
"Psst! Hey!" Shiro says from behind the soldier, gaining his attention. He hits the guard in the face, knocking him out. We then take out the other two guards with ease.
Pidge begins hooking up her computer to Shiro's metal arm and the control board.
"How's it look out there?" Shiro asks Keith and I as we keep watch out the window.
"All clear." Keith replies.
"Same on my side." I add.
"This shouldn't take too long." Hunk says, finishing on the last cable.
"We'll have all the information we need in a few minutes." Pidge says, starting to download the information, "Hunk and I have made some improvements since the last time I tried to download Galra info. We should get a nice, clean translation immediately. Hunk had a great idea about how to do it."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you guys remember when we studied algorithms at the Garrison, and Mr. York told us that joke about the ghost learning symbolic logic and innumerably infinite sets?" Hunk asks, chuckling at the memory of the joke.
"Boring!" Lance says.
"Right, yeah, totally, it was boring. Anyway, the joke goes..."
"Hey, guys, sorry to interrupt, but I think we got company." Keith interrupts.
We look back outside to see a cruiser docking at the base. Everyone quickly ducks to stay out of sight.
"Think we should get out of here?" Keith asks.
"We just need a few more seconds." Pidge says, typing on her computer.
"Stay low. We need this intel." Shiro says.
Just then, the main console beeps and a screen comes up.
"Get down!"
Everyone quickly moves out of view of the transmission. We stay low as a Galra soldier appears on the screen and looks confused when he sees no one on the other side.
"He's still looking. I think he's waiting for a signal or something." Lance whispers.
"I got it." Hunk says as he crawls out and grabs one of the damaged sentries. He holds the drone in front of the screen and does a couple of waves with its hand before doing a thumbs.
Surprisingly, the Galra nods and ends the transmission.
We all sigh in relief when we're clear.
"Nice job, Hunk." Lance says.
"Thanks." Hunk says. They do one of their Earth hive-fives, only Hunk uses the sentry's severed hand.
"That was really good thinking, Hunk." I praise.
"Okay, download complete." Pidge says.
"What's it say?" Keith asks.
"Nothing." Pidge replies, "This place doesn't have any useful information. Just a schedule of ships coming in and out."
"Well, I guess this mission was a bust." Lance says.
"Let's head back to the Castle." Shiro says.
"Wait." I speak up, "We can't leave just yet. We all knew the Galra would have a reason to hide this base. They wouldn't do that without having something to hide. We might be searching in the wrong place for answers."
"Kayleigha is right." Allura agrees, before turning her gaze to the ship outside, "Pidge, do you know where that ship is headed?"
"Um, it's scheduled to be here for about half an hour, then head off to Central Command."
Allura stands up straight, "That's where they have the information we need, and I'm going to sneak aboard that ship and get it for us."
Her words have everyone looking at the princess in shock. It's no puzzle why I'm not nervous about her plan. If she fails to get out of the ship before it leaves, she'll be taken straight to Zarkon.
"What? No way!" Lance denies.
"How are you going to get in?" Keith asks.
Allura smiles as she takes off her helmet, "I'm going to walk right through the front."
She closes her eyes and her appearance suddenly starts to change. Her brown skin turns purple as she begins to grow taller.
The Paladins and I gasp in awe and shock when Allura reaches up to the same height as my snout whenever I'm standing tall. Despite her silver hair, blue eyes, and Altean markings, Allura now looks much like a Galra.
"How the heck did you do that?" Hunk asks.
"The Alteans are chameleon-like people who can blend in with the local populations." she explains, "It's the ability that's made us great explorers and diplomats throughout our history."
"That's incredible, Princess." I say.
"So, can you turn into, like, a balloon?" Lance asks.
"How many colors can you be at once?" Pidge asks.
"Aren't you afraid you'll rip your pants?" Hunk asks.
Allura looks at the three unamused, but replies calmly, "No, just one at a time, and I will need a change of costume." She looks over at the unconscious soldier behind her. "I can use his uniform as a disguise."
"I can't let you go in there alone." Shiro says.
Allura looks at him offended, "Excuse me? I do not need your permission."
"It's too dangerous. I'm going with you." Shiro steps forward.
"You will stick out like a Choferiak's nose."
"You're going to need that nose, Princess." Pidge says, holding up Shiro's metal arm and waving it, "Shiro's hand is made from Galra tech. It's the only thing we have that will allow us to interface with their systems and gather intel. I can monitor the download remotely from here."
Allura sighs, "Fine, you can come."
"Uh, you guys better hurry up if you want to get on and off before the ship leaves for Zarkon Central." Hunk tells them.
Shiro and Allura start to leave until Keith speaks up.
"How are you going to get Shiro on board?"
I begin to think about the question; How is Shiro supposed to sneak onto the ship with Allura?
Then it hit me.
"I've got an idea."
>>>--->
One moment later, Allura, fully disguised as a Galra soldier, is walking towards the ship with a crate, which Shiro is hiding in. The rest of us watch them from the tower, hoping the Galra won't feel suspicious.
As they get closer to the ramp that leads inside the ship cruiser, the soldiers guarding it suddenly stop them. I hold my breath with anticipation. But when two cylinder containers come off the ship, the guards let Allura through. I sigh in relief when they get inside.
"They're in." Lance says.
"Good call on using the crate, Kayleigha." Hunk says. I smile at him in response.
"What do you think they have in all those giant containers?" Keith asks.
"Well, I suspect that it's sporks." Hunk suggests. We all turn to the Yellow Paladin confused. "What? This is an advanced race we're talking about here. Surely, they've learned that it's foolish to have forks and spoons when one tool will efficiently do the job."
Even though I can't understand what he's talking about, I'm sure that this 'spork' isn't something the Galra would find of value.
"Maybe this guy will tell us. What is coming in and out of this station?" Pidge asks a sentry that she hooked up to her computer.
"Interrogation detected. Initiating lockdown." The sentry says before going limp.
"Not talking, eh?" Pidge swiftly taps the keys on her device, determined to override the protocol.
"Whoa. Check out this guy." Keith says.
When I turn my attention from Pidge to outside, my breath hitches. Standing in front of the strange containers is a Druid.
Images of the experiments they did on me rapidly flash in my mind. The sudden shock of them even brings back the pain I felt during those times.
I groan as I put both talons on my head, trying to push through the painful memory.
"Kayleigha?" I hear Lance ask.
I don't answer for a couple of ticks until the headache starts to fade. "I'm fine."
"What's wrong?"
"I know that cloaked figure. That's one of Zarkon's Druids."
"What?" Keith asks.
I look down at the Druid darkly, "They're dark sorcerers that are loyal to the Empire. With the power they possess, Zarkon relies on them just as much as his soldiers, if not more. They conduct experiments to create machines and weapons to improve Zarkon's power over the universe."
"How do you know that much about them?"
I turn to the boys, "Because they had me and Shiro as their test subjects. They're the ones who took his arm."
The Paladins look back at the Druid as they start to walk away.
"Yeah. Maybe it'd be better if we stayed away from that guy." Hunk says nervously.
"Maybe not." Keith says, "She just said they build weapons to improve the Empire. Whatever's happening here that requires the base to be kept secret must have something to do with that scary dude. I'm going to go check it out."
"What?" I say, shocked. Keith ignores me, he's already heading for the door.
"How about we just lay low and you don't blow our cover?" Lance asks sarcastically, but frowns when he receives no response, "Keith, think about what you're doing. Don't walk through that door!"
Keith continues to ignore him and walks straight through the door. Lance stares at the door before looking at Pidge, who is looking back at him unamused.
"I think I told him." he smirks with his hands on his hips.
"You are a paragon of leadership, Lance." Pidge says sarcastically.
I shake my head in annoyance before going after the Red Paladin.
"Kayleigha? Oh, come on! Not you, too!" Lance shouts, but I'm already out the door.
I run through the hall leading out of the tower, following Keith's trail. It doesn't take long before he is in my sight.
"Keith!" I say softly, getting his attention.
"Kayleigha? What are you doing here?" He asks.
"Following you, of course."
"No, you should go back to the others. You might just slow me down." He says, I glare at him.
"On the contrary, I might be the one you need if something goes wrong. And in this situation, it mostly likely will." I say.
"What are you talking about? Even you should know I can handle myself."
"I'm not trying to argue with you, Keith. All I'm saying is, I know more about the Druids than you do. I'd rather you didn't get anywhere near them, but I know I can't stop you. And if this one sees you, then you're definitely going to need me because he will not hesitate to attack you."
Keith is silent for a minute, thinking over my words. Then he looks at me reluctantly.
"Fine. Let's go."
Keith and I hurry out of the control tower and follow the Druids and the strange containers as soon as we spot them. We follow them on a higher level and keep ourselves out of sight.
Soon enough, we follow the Druid to a large door. The door opens wide, allowing the cloaked sorcerer and the drones carrying the containers to enter. As they begin to close, move quickly off our ledge and rush through the door. I flap and dive straight through the opening while Keith uses his jetpack. We make it inside just as the door shuts behind us.
We make our way through the strange building. Of course, the halls are guarded by sentries, but they are no challenge for the two of us to take them out. Leaving the disabled sentries behind us, we walk towards the end of the hall, toward a light revealing the opening of a room.
As we creep closer to the light, I have a strange feeling in my chest, a small twinge that grows after each step I take. I ignore it and focus on the task. Stopping at the edge of the opening, we hide behind the wall as we look inside, only to gasp in shock.
The room is large and is filled with multiple rows of containers with the same strange yellow liquid in them. In the center of the room is a conveyor belt, which is transporting one of the containers over a big orb floating in the center.
The Druid stands on a platform in front of the conveyor belt as the canister locks into place. The yellow liquid flows from the bottom of the container and into the orb, swirling around inside it. The Druid holds out his hands and violet lightning emits from them to the orb. Purple electricity sparks around the orb as the yellow liquid changes. It becomes purple before it oozes out of the orb and into an empty container underneath.
I'm too distracted by what I'm watching, I barely notice my heartbeat rising and the pain in my chest growing during the transformation.
"I don't like this." I say softly.
"Coran, you need to see this." Keith whispers, sending a visual link to Coran and the other Paladins.
We hear Coran gasp, "I've never seen anything like it."
"What is that?" Pidge asks.
"The material is quintessence," a robotic voice says, "the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe."
"Quintessence?" I repeat. That word sounds familiar.
"Hey, nice job, Pidge! You made him work for us." Lance says.
"What? Impossible!" Coran says in disbelief.
"Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements."
"Did you guys hear that?" Pidge asks.
"I can't believe it! They've found a new way to acquire quintessence!"
"Guys, I'm going to steal some of this quint-whatever." Keith says as he turns to walk away.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Keith?" I ask, following him.
"Not really. But maybe this stuff can be useful to us. Are you going to help me or not?"
I know he isn't going to change his mind and he could be right. So I nod.
We head to the conveyor belt that is transporting the refined purple quintessence. We quietly wait for the platform carrying the canister to pass by us. When it gets close enough, Keith leaps over and grabs the container, before stopping on the other side of the tunnel.
As Keith holds up the quintessence to examine it, the humming noise from the Druid's magic stops. I carefully poke my head around the corner to find out why.
The Druid's not there. He's vanished!
My eyes widen with fear.
"Keith, we need to run. Now!" I say, but it's too late.
The Druid suddenly appears next to Keith and knocks him down, forcing him to drop the canister. The Druid then looks at me and holds his arm out. On instinct, I jump sideways to dodge his attack. I snarl as I face the Druid, only to be knocked backward by another blast.
The Druid teleports to the container Keith dropped while we quickly recover.
"Okay, plan B!" Keith yells as he summons his sword and begins to charge.
I follow his lead, activating my tail blade as I charge at the Druid, roaring.
Keith tries to land a hit on the Druid, but he keeps disappearing and reappearing in different places. I keep trying to swipe at the Druid with claws and blade when he is close, but only to be hitting nothing as well.
After another miss, the Druid vanishes again, only we don't see him anymore. We look around vigilantly for him.
"Where did he go?" Keith asks.
I sniff to find a scent. Then I look up.
"There!" I shout, pointing my snout at the Druid standing back on his platform. He shoots a blast of purple electricity at us. We both run to evade the attack. The bolt follows Keith as he runs for cover when I notice the Druid is about to do a second bolt. I react fast and shove Keith to the side, barely avoiding the purple electricity from hitting us.
The room is full of smoke, the Druid can't see us at the moment.
"Thanks." Keith whispers.
"No problem." I whisper back, "Listen, I'll draw his attention to me. You strike him from behind while he's distracted."
Keith nods and we split up.
I fly out of the smoke cloud toward the Druid, I blast a blue fireball at him, which he blocks with his magic. Then I attempt to strike him with my claws as I fly over his head. He disappears and reappears to dodge. I land on the platform behind him and fire another blast, but the Druid turns around in time to protect himself again.
"Starblaze." The Druid says, "I shall spill every last drop of blood that you have left in you!"
The Druid holds out his hand as I get into my battle stance.
Suddenly, Keith flies up with his jetpack and attempts to strike the Druid from behind. Though he is caught off guard, the Druid shields his attack. I use this opportunity to blast a stream of fire, but his shield blocks the flames as well.
All of a sudden, Keith and I are flung backward by the Druid's electric blast. We both crash into the yellow canisters, Keith landing on a higher level than me.
The impact from the crash makes it hard to move, but I push through the pain to get back up. However, Keith looks more hurt from the blast than I am. I can hear him moaning from the other side of the room.
"Pidge, we need an extraction now! Hurry!" Keith yells.
The Druid continues with his attack on Keith. The Red Paladin dodges his purple electricity the best he can, using his jetpack to jump from shelf to shelf.
I grunt as I stand. Then I take to the air to get to Keith.
Keith activates his shield in mid-jump, which protects him from one of the blasts. He gets knocked onto the conveyor belt as one of the yellow containers is moved onto it.
The Druid teleports onto the conveyor, his hand emitting violet electricity. As the Druid moves closer to Keith, I land in between them and growl at our cloaked opponent.
"What are you doing?" Keith asks.
I ignore him and stand on my hind legs with my wings spread out, my fire ready to be released. I don't know how long I can keep this up, but I'm willing to do what I can to protect the Red Paladin.
But before the Druid and I can attack each other, the room starts to cave in. The shaking forces me down to four talons. The falling debris causes the Druid to accidentally hit the canister behind us. The glass shatters, splashing quintessence on us.
The Green Lion comes crashing through the ceiling, its mouth opens right in front of us.
"Get in! We've got to get Shiro and Allura!" Pidge yells through the speakers.
We look back at the Druid, only to find that he's disappeared. I hear Keith growl before we run into the Lion's mouth.
As the Lion takes off, Keith stops in his tracks and looks at his right hand. Curious, I turn to see that his hand is burnt, most likely from one of the Druid's attacks. But the moment I see it, the burn marks on his hand suddenly disappear. Not only that, but I also notice that my aching from earlier has stopped.
I can tell Keith is as shocked as I am. All I can do is shrug when he looks at me in question.
We ignore the thought for later and head to the cockpit with the others. Pidge flies the Green Lion onto the control tower as the Galra cruiser begins to depart the station. We watch nervously as the ship begins to glow, readying to blast off.
"Come on, you two." I mutter.
Just then, an escape pod shoots out of the ship right before it goes into hyperspeed. I sigh in relief as the Lion flies toward the pod for it to dock.
We all look relieved as the door opens, but then our relief turns into confusion when we see Shiro entering the cockpit alone.
"Where's Allura?" Keith asks.
Shiro remains silent with his head down as he rests his arm on Pidge's chair.
"Shiro?" Lance asks.
"She sacrificed herself to save me."
We all become shocked by his answer.
"So, she's still on that ship?" Pidge asks.
"The ship that's headed to Zarkon's Central Command?" Hunk adds.
"The place that's way too dangerous for us to attack?" Keith adds.
Shiro clenches his fist and looks up, "It doesn't matter how dangerous it is. We can't let Zarkon get Allura."
"But you said going there would be a huge mistake." Hunk points out, "You and Kayleigha said for us to attack that place head-on would be the dumbest possible thing we could ever do."
"I know, but now we don't have a choice."
I almost want to disagree with going to the Center of the Empire. But I refuse to argue with Shiro. This has nothing to do with me. This is about saving a friend, no matter how difficult it will be.
We're going to get Allura back.
We're going to have to face Zarkon.