The flight pod glided lazily through space as Korrin navigated her way back to where she lived. It wasn't home, but it was enough. She pulled the pod into the abandoned ship she had been occupying most of her life. It was large and parts of it were still functioning. And being in a desolate part of the galaxy kept her off the radar. The lights would occasionally flicker on and off and the doors had to be manually pried open. Who it had belonged to, she didn't know and didn't care. She had found it when she was following a group of thieves.
Gravity shifted as she made her way deeper into the ship toward her room and her feet touched the ground. A small map hung above her bed with several marks on it. They marked where she had hoped to find someone who could help her. The red marks showed where there wasn't anyone and the blue circled areas were where she had yet to find out about. She heaved a sigh and fell backwards onto her bed, staring up at the map, not even sure if it was current. Then she turned to look out her window. The sky was black and nothing could be seen. It was empty, much like herself. She stood up and gazed at her reflection in the window. She had a human body, but she wasn't human. It was a shell, a vessel, only to contain her true self and her true purpose. There had been several doctors she had spoken to on different planets. But as soon as she had told them about herself, they turned her away, saying it was disaster-level dangerous.
I guess human biology is more complicated than I thought, she thought to herself. But what happened when Shiro touched me? I could trust them...? Pidge seems smart. Maybe they'd be willing to help me. A glimmer of hope sparked inside of her. Who am I kidding? I ran away from them. And even if I did stay, as soon as they find out, they'll treat me like what I really am...a freak.
It was something Korrin knew all too well. She would try to live somewhere with other people but it didn't take long for them to notice she was different. Then they would avoid her at all costs. It happened every time. So she decided to live on her own, surviving any way she could. She didn't like to call herself a pirate because pirates were greedy. She only took what she needed from thieves or people who had too much. Still, perhaps it wasn't the best way to live. She found herself putting the search for a doctor on hold.
"Shiro was right, this isn't a way to live..." she admitted out loud. But she couldn't just go back. She had nothing to contribute to the team. For now, she would keep to herself and hone her skills. The control she had over her abilities was constantly improving and always kept her combat skills sharp.
A few weeks had passed since Korrin had left the paladins and she had been using her time to increase the limit on her powers. She practiced in the lower part of the ship, where gravity was more difficult to manage. Using her powers, she anchored herself to the ground while attempting combat. It proved difficult but it worked. Soon she was doing it with ease. Using her powers for defense and offense at the same time was the next hurdle she wanted to tackle. She didn't know exactly what her limit was, but she was determined to push it. But after what happened to her right before she mat the paladins, she cautioned herself against going too far.
Taking a deep breath, she kept her feet rooted to the ground. She concentrated, then she lifted her hand towards her imaginary opponent. With a thrust of her arm, she sent a small energy blast across the room. She smiled, pleased with the outcome of her effort. But she wanted to be stronger so she did it again, and again; each time the blast was bigger and stronger. The final time, she really concentrated, wanting to extend the limit. She felt her arms twitch against the strain. She was reaching her limit, she could tell, but she wanted to get keep going. Pushing harder, she knew this would work. Just a little more, just a little bit more. All of a sudden an explosion of energy ripped out of her and she lost control. She fell upwards, no longer being anchored to the floor. She floated for a minute, regaining her thoughts and processing what had just happened.
"Ugh, damn it!" she cursed herself for not being more careful. She tried to bring herself down but her power was expended. "This is just perfect." She brought her right arm in front of her and pushed a button on her wrist that engaged her jetpack on her back, both items she had recovered before she had left the Castle. She glided up through the ship, back to where gravity was more normal. She switched off her jetpack and landed lightly on the floor, heading towards her room. She had failed to extend her limit and it had caused her to lose control.
As soon as Korrin reached her room, the entire ship lurched to the left, causing her to stumble. She didn't have to see what was outside to know that a Galra ship had found her. She had hoped this place was off the radar enough for them not to be able to find her even with her energy surges. How wrong she was. Without giving it a second thought, she rushed to where her pod was just as another blast hit the ship. Engaging her jetpack, she managed to get to her pod before another blast hit, rocking the entire ship. Quickly booting it up, she exited her occupancy just as a large purple beam tore through the abandoned ship, slicing it in half. Korrin frowned, everything she had gotten from the past few years was now gone. But there was no time to reminisce as the enemy ship pointed it's guns at her.
"This thing isn't really built for battle.." Korrin said to herself, examine the controls. "And I can't rely on the paladins to get me out of this one." She sighed, trying to figure out was to do. Guess it's time to see how fast this thing can go, my only option is to outrun them. She switched on the main thrusters and it zoomed forward, faster than she anticipated. She tried to maneuver, but it wasn't as easy on the handling as she would like. She was able to effectively dodge the attacks from the Galra ship as she flew past them.
"Ugh, I'm in open space! There's nowhere to lose them!" Korrin cursed, looking for anything she could use to her advantage. She kept an eye on her radar, noticing her enemies creeping closer. Two small Galran fighters were on either side of her, blocking any sideways escape routes. Her screen started beeping as it picked something up ahead of her. She nodded, "Perfect, I can lose them in that asteroid belt." Though it probably wasn't the smartest idea.
She tried to put as much distance between her and the enemy as possible before entering the field. She struggled to maneuver easily around the large floating rocks. Several times she came too close for comfort. Keeping her eye on the radar, she noticed the Galra ships had fallen back so she slowed her speed and carefully made her way to the open space. Taking a deep breath, she relaxed her grip on the controls. Just as she was about to completely exit the asteroid belt, a large rock hit the rear of the flight pod, sending it spinning out. Struggling against the rapid movement, Korrin fought to get the pod back under control. With a bit of trouble, she was able to halt the dizzying rotation. Exhaling sharply, she pulled up the schematic of the vehicle and notice that the thrusters were in pretty bad shape. Luckily they were still decently operational. But for how much longer, she didn't know.
"Guess I don't really have a choice at this point, do I?" She said to herself as she pulled up the GPS. She found the Castle of Lions saved to the drive and the coordinates popped up. "Time to go back..."
---
"Look, all I'm saying is that a kitchen that is trying to attack you is much scarier than a practice dummy that doesn't know when to quit," said Hunk, folding his arms.
"What! I could've died because that damn machine wouldn't shut down!" Keith argued.
Pidge sighed, exasperated. "Can we just stop this petty argument and agree that at least we didn't have to destroy our father's AI?"
The three of them looked over to where Allura stood at the teludav, talking to Coran.
"I'm alright, Coran, honest," the princess assured her friend for the thousandth time. "Now, we need--" Just then a beeping dot showed up on the screen, alerting everyone to an incoming vehicle. "What is that?" she asked aloud.
"It looks like one of our flight pods," Pidge answered, getting a better look on her screen. "It could be a tra-"
"Let them in," came a deep voice from behind them. They all turned to see Shiro standing near the back. "I know who it is."
After doing as Shiro told them, they all went to the bay where a banged up flight pod landed with a heavy thunk. They waited in anticipation to see who it was that was piloting it, surprised when they recognized Korrin as she leapt gracefully onto the ground.
"I didn't expect a welcoming party," she said, looking around at everyone. She furrowed her brow. "I want you all to know that I had no intention of ever returning here."
"How very...honest of you," Allura said, trying to decide if that was a compliment or not.
"Then why'd you come back?" Pidge asked, eyeing her carefully.
Korrin looked at the pod. "Well as you can see...I've kind of had a rough time out there. I was hoping you could fix my pod for me..." That was only half of the truth. But she didn't want to tell all of them her true intentions. "If I'm welcomed here...I would like to stay for a while."
Allura smile. "Of course you're welcome here as long as you need."
"Thank you," Korrin smiled with a nod.
Allura let Korrin stay in the same room she had previously occupied before she left. As Korrin settled in, she debated whether or not to tell Pidge about herself. Moreover, the question was when rather than if. As she changed into more comfortable clothing, she decided to pay Shiro a visit. He had hardly said two words since she arrived.
She wandered the halls, not really sure where his room was but she was hoping to stumble upon it. She turned a corner to find the person she was looking for walking toward her looking distracted--or stressed, Korrin really couldn't tell the difference. He walked by her without so much a glance in her direction. Frowning she turned around.
"Hey Shiro," she said. He stopped and turned around, noticing her for the first time.
"Oh, hey, Korrin. I'm sorry I didn't see you there," he responded.
"Is something on your mind?" Korrin asked, walking a few paces over to him. "You seem really distracted."
Shiro smiled forcibly. "No, everything's good. Just been a weird couple of days. That's all."
"What did I miss?"
"Oh, you know, the usual. Kitchens throwing food at people, training bots trying to kill you, zero gravity, and people getting stuck in cryo-chambers."
Korrin chuckled hollowly. "Guess I missed a lot. Good thing I'll be sticking around for a while."
"Yeah, its good to have you back. Which brings the question, what the hell did you do to our flight pod?"
Korrin pursed her lips. "It's not really that big a deal, just bumped into some asteroids..."
"Asteroids big enough to completely damage the back of the pod and then some."
"The asteroid belt was my only option.." Korrin mumbled.
"Asteroid belt? Why would you deliberately go into one of those? They're dangerous and there's nothing worth going into them for. Who were trying to outrun?"
"Look, I just stumbled upon what I thought was an empty Galran ship. I had to turn tail and run but I couldn't escape unless I went into the asteroid belt. End of story." Korrin lied. Shiro eyed her, unconvinced.
"Well what you were doing is your own business. But I'm glad you're okay," he said putting his prosthetic hand on her shoulder.
Korrin immediately felt a pulse throughout her body and she took half a step back to steady herself. It wasn't a feeling like the last time. This time it felt like something was fluttering inside of her. It was a pleasant feeling.
"Hey, you okay?" Shiro asked, keeping his hand on her shoulder, watching her carefully.
Korrin put a hand on her abdomen, taking a deep breath. "Yeah...yeah I'm fine. Just got a little...lightheaded all of a sudden."
"You should probably have Pidge take a look at you," Shiro suggested.
"Uh, yeah, maybe later..." Korrin replied, removing Shiro's hand from her shoulder. But the feeling didn't go away immediately like the first time he had touched her.
"See that you do, we'll talk later." Without another word, Shiro turned and continued on his way.
"O...kay..." Korrin said, confused as she watched him walk away. He seemed a little off, for sure, but she had no idea what for. As she started to make her way to the bridge, the feeling inside her started to dull until she was completely numb again. Clenching her hands into fists, she didn't slow her pace.
Once arriving at the bridge, she found who was looking for. The green paladin was bent over her console, clearly engrossed in studying whatever was on it intently. She walked over to Pidge and peered over her shoulder, trying to get a glimpse what the screen's contents. She tilted her head to the side, not sure what she was looking at.
"What are you studying?" Korrin asked.
"Wah!!" Pidge near jumped out of her skin at the sound of Korrin's voice. "What are you doing?!" She put her hand over her heart, trying to calm down. "You can't just sneak up on people like that!" After she took a few breaths, she straightened herself up and adjusted her glasses, turning back to her screen. "Well, I was going through Sendak's memories, hoping to find anything of importance."
"And?" Korrin asked.
Pidge sighed. "Nothing yet. It's all stuff we already know or is irrelevant."
"Who is Sendak?"
"He's one of Zarkon's higher-ups. He's a commander and nothing but trouble. We had him in our custody for a while, but..." she hesitated, "He was released..."
Korrin's eyes widened. "Released? As in set free? By whom?"
Again Pidge didn't answer right away. "It wasn't technically on purpose...but...Shiro did it."
"Shiro..." Korrin said quietly. "What caused him to do that? That doesn't sound like him to let go of a valuable asset. Which brings me to ask...is he okay? I've noticed since I've been back that he's...distracted."
"I can't say anything for certain, but a couple days ago we had an incident in the castle, here. Everything went haywire. It was a mess. Shiro was interrogating Sendak while everything was going on. My guess is that something happened. Maybe Sendak got into Shiro's head, I just don't know."
Korrin crossed her arms in thought and made her way over to the large window, looking out at the space drifting by. That makes sense, she thought to herself. What could Sendak have said to him? Korrin wanted to help but she just didn't have enough information and she didn't think she was close enough to the paladins yet for them to tell her any details.
The doors to the room opened and Keith, Lance, and Hunk all walked in.
"Pidge are you still going over that?" Lance asked.
Pidge grunted, annoyed at his disruption. "You want to sit here and do this, Lance? Then be my guest."
The blue paladin put his hands up defensively. "Calm down, all I'm saying is that maybe there's a faster way to do it." He caught a glimpse of Korrin staring out the window and he frowned suspiciously. "What's she doing up here?"
Korrin turned around, glaring at Lance. "You got a problem with my being here?"
"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do!" Lance crossed his arms. "I don't trust you as far as Blue can throw you."
"Oh, come on, Lance. Lighten up," Pidge said. "She hasn't done anything."
"Yeah, man, where's your proof?" Keith chimed in.
Lance cleared his throat in an exaggerated manner as if he was preparing for an important speech. "Well allow me. First! We found her floating amiss a Galra ship attack. All alone. Why were they 'attacking' her. It could've easily been a ploy to lure us there."
Pidge rolled her eyes. "That's ridi--"
"Second!" Lance continued, allowing for no interruptions. "Pidge, you even said yourself that her tests looked funny when you ran them. But yet you couldn't figure out why. Preeetty suspicious if I say so. Third! She's very skilled in combat! She can hold her own against Shiro without a problem. A trained Galran fighter if I ever saw one."
"Lance, this is getting really ridiculous," Keith said irritably. "Just leave her alone."
"No, it's okay," Korrin spoke up. They all turned to her and she locked eyes with Lance.
Keith raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You can tell him off you know."
"I know," she responded, not looking away from Lance. "I want to hear what he has to say."
The blue paladin seemed thrown off slightly by her reaction. But nonetheless, he continued. "Fine. Next example. You left without a good reason. Then you get 'attacked' by another Galra ship and just barely make it back here. Sounds like the enemy wants someone on the inside. And here Pidge goes babbling to her about who-knows-what, completely oblivious to the fact that we have a traitor in our midst! Plus, she looks funny."
"Lance! You can't just say something like that!" Hunk exclaimed. "Especially to a woman!"
"It doesn't matter if it's the enemy!" Lance argued.
"Are you done?" said Korrin in a low, impatient voice.
Lance turned to her, hands on his hips. "For now, at least."
"Good." She took a several step towards the tanned teen until their faces were inches apart. She instantly could see the look of discomfort that he was trying to hide, but he didn't recoil. Her eyes darkened and she stood on the balls of her feet, grasping his jacket with one hand while leaning up to his ear. "I would watch your words around people," she said in a low, threatening tone. "You may get yourself seriously hurt, or even killed. I'm too skilled for simple infiltration and reconnaissance." She traced a finger down Lance's shirt. She felt his body tense, and she smirked. "I know the human body well. Well enough to kill someone with one little flick of the wrist." He looked down at her hand which she flicked up to his nose.
Lance couldn't take it anymore. He broke away from Korrin, sweat beading on his forehead. "Y-you're crazy..."
Korrin gave an indifferent shrug, satisfied with the reaction she got.
"Well Lance, I'd say you didn't deserve that, but I would be lying," Keith said, slightly enjoying Lance's discomfort.
"Plus you should have stronger points if you're going to argue something like that," Pidge added.
Just then Coran and Allura entered the room followed by Shiro.
"Did we miss something?" Allura asked looking between everyone.
"Nothing important," Keith said, waving the incident away.
Allura blinked questioningly but didn't press it. She turned to Pidge. "We've come to see where you're at with Sendak's memories."
Pidge nodded. "Well while Lance was making a fool of himself, I was able narrow some of it down." She motioned for everyone to come take a look.
They all crowded around her chair, peering a the screen. Korrin stayed off to the side, simply listening and observing.
"Somewhere inside Sendak's memories we should be able to find the inside information that gives us the key to take down Zarkon," said Allura.
"I don't think your father would approve of searching through an enemy's memories," Coran said.
Allura nodded slightly, understanding. "I know, but we have to do everything we can to defeat Zarkon."
"If we learn all his weaknesses, we can drive up to his front door and challenge him to a fight. Winner gets the universe," Lance chimed in.
"Like it's that easy," Korrin mumbled.
"Hey! No one asked you!" Lance snapped.
"Did you find anything yet, Pidge?" Shiro asked.
"Only bits and pieces," the green paladin replied, keeping her eyes on the screen.
Keith sighed. "At the moment, we don't even have a decent map of the empire to work with."
"Who needs a map?" said Lance. "I could shoot my bayard at any random point in space and hit a Galra ship. They've only be conquering for ten thousand years."
"Unfortunately, you are correct, Lance," Korrin spoke up, the group turning their attention to her. "The Galra are everywhere. They have strength and numbers on their side. I doubt going directly to him would be a good idea. I believe there needs to be a more strategic way to get to him. But...that's just my opinion."
Shiro nodded in agreement. "We could start to free planets one at a time if we were able to find troop positions or supply routes, small targets we could attack and run from.."
Lance yawned. "Boring. I want the big kaboom."
"Zarkon's been building his empire for ten thousand years," Shiro said. "Five inexperienced pilots and one support ship aren't going to take out the base overnight. Hitting him where he lives would be a huge mistake."
Korrin smiled; at least Shiro listens.
Pidge clacked away at her keyboard. "Okay, so I've checked Sendak's memories against the information I got from the downed ship on Arus. Despite the jumbled mess most of it was, it kept repeating something called a 'Universal Station'."
Hunk tilted his head, curious. "'Universal Station?' Like, the kind of station that controls the entire universe?"
"It may be 'Galactic Hub' since it is translated from Galra,'" she added.
Lance's eyes widened with excitement. "Or 'Space Base'!" Everyone looked at him. "What?"
"I will display your Universal Hub-Station-Base on our screens right now," said Coran as he walked over to his main control panel. The giant window immediately lit up as different things appeared on the screen.
Korrin looked in amazement as Coran plugged in the coordinates. Although, the pinpoint was an empty place.
"So...where is it?" Lance asked.
Coran replied, confused. "I don't know. Unfortunately, our long-range sensors didn't find anything at those coordinates."
"It might have been a mistake in his memory," Keith suggested.
Pidge looked thoughtful. "It could be that we stumbled upon a top-secret base in Sendak's memories."
"Only one way to find out," said Allura. "Let's go take a look."
The ship revved up its engines and it took off to coordinates. Korrin made her way over to Shiro, who was keeping an eye out incase he spotted anything.
"Hey," she said, coming to stand next to him. She only came up to a little past his shoulders in height, although she felt rather dwarfed by his large frame. "See anything, interesting?"
Shiro shook his head. "Not a thing."
"Look, Pidge said you were with Sendak when the ship was going crazy," Korrin said. "She said something might have happened while--"
"Nothing happened," Shiro cut off.
She looked up at him. "Okay, I'm just saying that if you need--"
"I said nothing happened." Shiro's tone was curt.
The two of them stood there in silence for a while.
"What happened just before Allura, Coran, and I showed up?"
Korrin chuckled. "Lance was getting in my face so I told him off." She noticed a small smile on Shiro's lips.
"I'm going to go see if I can help Allura with anything," Shiro said and started to walk away.
"Shiro," Korrin called after him. He turned around. "Really...if you ever need something, don't hesitate to ask."
Shiro looked at her for a moment then turned back around and went over to Allura without a response. Korrin sighed and shook her head, folding her arms. He seemed almost mad at her.
"Don't be offended," said Keith, taking Shiro's place. "He can be a bit..."
"Difficult?" Korrin finished.
Keith smiled. "I was going to say 'withdrawn', but that works too."
"I just feel like he's upset with me for some reason."
Keith put a hand on her shoulder. "Give him time. He'll come around."
The ship started slowing down and Coran's screens changed.
"In order to get a good scan, we should be close but far enough away not to be noticed," Allura stated.
The ship flew closer between two of the large planets that lay before them. Soon what looked like a Galran air base appeared into view. Korrin's eyes grew wide at seeing it. It was much larger than anything she had seen before of the Galra.
"There it is," said Shiro from his chair. Everyone stood, staring at the discovery.
"The gravitational interaction between the two planets appears to warp the electron emission spectrum to keep the planet from being detected by deep space scanners," said Coran, pulling up some specs onto the screen.
"Unless you know where to look, you will not be able to see it," Pidge noted.
"All of Galra's shipments must come to this location," said Shiro as they observed the coming and going of Galra ships.
"What makes it so secret if this is a large airport where shipments come and go?" Pidge asked curiously.
"We must be missing something in this," Shiro replied.
Allura nodded, "We should then go down to check it out."
"How and where will you get in?" Korrin asked. "I mean, not to burst anyone's bubble but no one here exactly looks Galra..."
"The central control building is out entrance point." Allura said. She enlarged the image and highlighted the location she was talking about.
Keith looked at Allura. "Wait, back up. Did you say "we", Princess?" Everyone else looked at her as well.
"I'm going with you," the Princess said matter-of-factly. "Before the war began, my father and I traveled through the Galra transportation hubs several times. More than any of you, I know what they are like."
Korrin noticed Shiro immediately stood up, looking very concerned.
Coran wore a look of concern as well. "It would be better for you to stay here, Princess."
"I'm a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone. I'm going. Are there any problems with that?" Allura's voice left no room for argument as everyone twiddled their thumbs. Korrin could see both sides of the party's concerns but she wasn't about to stop the headstrong princess.
Coran turned to Shiro hoping, as leader, he would have her stay.
Shiro merely raised his arms indifferently. "Fine. Suit up."
A look of complete shock and betrayal came over Coran's face while everyone else looked unsure of this decision.