Forming Voltron was much more difficult than it should've been after four years.
Allura was piloting the green lion, which caused an incredibly large amount of issues. Green just didn't want to connect with the Altean, she wanted her old paladin and she made it known often.
It took multiple talks with Shiro and the rest of the team for Green to stop begging for her old paladin before every battle. They tried to explain that Pidge was gone, she'd chosen to search for her family on her own, but Green refused to accept it.
The lion would occasionally have intense freak outs, trying to break free of the hangar and wreaking everything inside of it. They assumed it was whenever Pidge was in danger, which was a good indicator for them to know when she was and wasn't safe.
They tried to use the lion bond to contact Pidge multiple times, see how she was doing, where she was, if she'd be willing to come back. Sure, they got bits and pieces of her emotions from it if they tried hard enough, but never anything solid.
All they knew was that she was happy, but frustrated. That was good though, it meant she was somewhere safe and content.
They kept an eye out for her wherever they went, hoping to spot a glimpse of her and see how she was doing. Keith especially.
It had taken him months to get him to open up to the others and explain that he and Pidge had known each other before going into space. He also explained that they'd be... involved with each other.
Romantically.
Shiro and Matt has known each other after all, and the four of them spent a lot of time together. So the two had started to date, in some sense. Nothing official like most couples, just something casual and testing the waters to see how they felt about each other.
The answer was, they felt very very strongly about each other, and Pidge leaving hit Keith hard.
Galra were the type that kept a partner for life if possible, and Keith was no exception. He wasn't willing to believe that his girl wasn't out there and didn't want him.
"Maybe she'll be there," Lance suggested as they flew towards the planet they were set to defend.
Drule, the Galra were building a base on there and beginning to enslave the population. The Paladins weren't eager on letting that happen.
"If she's there I'd be surprised," Hunk groaned, knowing that Drule was mostly just mountains and forests. No tech, nothing she'd have been interested in.
"Guys! Focus!" Shiro barked, frowning.
"We've got to get this done fast! They establish this base and they'll have a big foothold in this quadrant!"
"The Blade of Marmora will be here in half a varga, we just need to hold things down until then." Keith assured them, smiling as they flew. He could feel Red purring in the back of his mind, giving him some encouragement for the fight.
"There's many Galra on the planet, mostly excavators and builders, but I'm assuming a large amount of sentries as well." Allura murmured, voice strained just a bit as she tried to get Green to cooperate with her.
"Any ideas of who may be leading the operation?" Lance asked, "do the locals know?"
"We think it's Sendak or someone in his squad, all the photos we've seen have had his insignias on the armor." Shiro frowned. That mean things would likely be difficult for him. He still had issues with facing against him.
Too many bad memories, too many open wounds.
Everyone collectively groaned, knowing that Sendak and his crew were a pain in the ass to handle. Especially because of Shiro's issues with him.
"Coran, stay in orbit until we get an idea of what's going on. If it's clear then land far from the city, then we'll get anyone who needs medical attention to you." Shiro ordered, grip on his controls tightening a bit.
"Everyone else, there's a small spot a few miles south of the city, be careful and try your best not to get spotted. We've got to do this carefully."
Everyone echoed their understanding, heading off to do their assigned tasks.
Lance and Hunk were to secure a perimeter close to the city, once that was done they had to help Allura evacuate as many civilians from what would be a battle zone to somewhere safe.
Keith and Shiro had to scout out the Galra base there, get an estimate of their numbers and then what was their main target.
If they were lucky, it would be a quick mission. One that while requiring a great deal of force, wouldn't take too much time.
They landed their lions, Allura struggling for a moment with Green before they all departed to do their tasks.
Keith and Shiro both rushed off towards the base, despite being the quickest of the five and the best suited for combat, they wanted to avoid a fight for the time being.
They cut through the thickest of the trees, removing obstacles with Shiro's robotic hand or Keith's bayard if needed to move as quickly as possible.
The pair eventually reached the base, staying within the trees and observing from a distance.
There was a good amount of sentries, but also a surprisingly large amount of Galra soldiers. Flesh and blood, individuals and not just preprogrammed soldiers.
The Paladins counted them up, sentries and galra, using the small bit they saw to estimate their actual numbers and searching for the general.
Eventually, they found him, and Shiro's heart fell.
Sendak.
It was Sendak.
He was there, giant man of muscle and metal. Arm upgraded with multiple tethers of energy keeping it connected to the port on his shoulder and large sharp claws on the ends of the fingers.
Beside him was another solider, armor signifying that they were a specialized solider who served directly below him. They were small, tiny even. Likely smaller than Keith.
A full helmet was over their head and face, masking their identity despite every other Galra having theirs off.
The soldiers seemed scared of them. Terrified even.
"Is that them?" One of the soldiers whispered to another, barely close enough for the pair of humans to hear.
"Yes, that's them... they took down fifteen sentries this morning," the one beside the solider responded.
"I guess they weren't working efficient enough.."
"And they're female, correct? General Sendak just calls them kit?"
"Apparently, no ones ever seen them without their helmet on either.."
Their hushed whispers were cut off when Sendak came close, the tiny solider sitting on his mechanical solider now.
"Get to work!" Sendak barked, baring his fangs at the two.
"Stop standing around! Kit ordered you to begin terraforming a varga ago!"
They both nodded, rushing off while 'Kit' stared after them.
Just their presence made Shiro and Keith uncomfortable. Something about them was so... familiar, yet hollow.
Keith wondered if they'd ever fought Kit before, perhaps she was some sort of experiment of Haggar's and that explained the odd feeling her presence gave them.
There was a small beep from Shiro's wrist communicator, the two jolting slightly as Kits head shot towards them.
Shiro and Keith both went silent, holding their breathes and staying as still as possible.
"I swear, if I hear one more of those creatures in the woods, I'm gonna catch it and roast it." Kit groaned, head tilting back.
Her voice was muffled by the helmet, robotic due to the filters, but still very clearly female.
"We'll catch one later, Kit. It'll make a good dinner." Sendak chuckled, beginning to walk off, "speaking of, besides one of those, anything specific you'd like to eat tonight?"
Shiro and Keith both let out the breath they'd been holding, looking at the message they'd been sent.
"They've started to move refugees, once the Blade gets here and have a formation made, Coran will bring the castle down and begin evacuating." Shiro mumbled.
"Let's get back and get ready.."
Keith nodded, following after his adoptive brother back towards their established meeting point to see the others and prepare.
They took some time to move refugees to a safe zone and help figure out exactly where Coran would be landing, trying to use the time they had before the Blade arrived to prepare accordingly.
It was a meticulous process, far more complex than any of them could've expected. Things had to be precise since Sendak was there, and since he had Kit, someone that they'd never encountered before and couldn't gauge the abilities of without observing.
Shiro was explaining this Kit to everyone when the Blade arrived, Kolivan coming out of a ship with plenty of others behind him.
They looked stoic as ever, but ready for a fight. Joining them as they Shiro continued on his lecture about their new enemy.
"Sendak has a kit?" Kolivan asked as he listened to the black paladin.
"A... kit..? Her name is Kit..?" Shiro frowned, "She's Sendak's subordinate."
"No one would name their kit, Kit." Kolivan said simply, sighing.
"What's a kit?" Keith asked, confused by Kolivan's insistence that the solider wasn't named Kit.
"A female offspring. A kit. A child. I wasn't aware Sendak had a kit." Kolivan huffed, "That could be a good use for us.. an advantage.."
"So.. that solider... is.. Sendak's child...?" Lance offered, confused.
"That might be why she was so small." Shiro mumbled, "but from what we heard she was capable."
"If she's Sendak's daughter, then it's no wonder. He's a murderous prick, he'd make her become a solider from the moment she was born." Hunk groaned, head tilting back.
"I don't want to fight a kid!"
"We have no other choice, if she puts up resistance then we must retaliate." Kolivan said firmly, "Kit or not."
Everyone nodded, beginning to set their plan into motion.
Moving the entirety of the Blade that had come to aid them through the forest was difficult, incredibly so. They needed to move at a significantly slower pace in order to go unnoticed.
It gave them a good amount of time to observe as well though, able to look through the trees and see the terraforming occurring on the planet.
The destruction was moving at an ungodly pace, entire forests and mountains being ripped up, the resources underneath being harvested and shipped off.
It was a mixture of the planets inhabitants and some sentries, though, the inhabitants were doing almost all of the work.
They finally arrived at the base again, Kolivan and the Blade deciding to wait until the Paladins were inside to get in as well.
It took them twenty minutes to figure out the guard schedule, rushing into the building when they had their window.
They snuck in, all mutually surprised when they realized that it was so warm inside.
Considering how Galra were covered in fur and generally ran warm, every single base had been freezing cold before this. Enough to make them shiver and have their teeth chatter.
But this one was warm, comfortable, even.
But whatever, that wasn't what they were there for. They needed to get to a communication hub, get as much information from it about the plans the empire had, and then destroy the base. Give the planet back it's freedom.
"Let's go," Shiro murmured, leading the way through the halls and making sure to duck out of sight anytime a solider or sentry came close.
Keith could hear dozens of footsteps, though muffled by the helmet over his ears. He could tell which footsteps were sentries, which ones were soldiers, and likely, if he came within hearing range, would be Sendak or Kit.
He could hear that Kolivan and the others were inside by then, barely audible but there if he really tried to hear them.
They eventually reached a control panel, Hunk and Allura going to see if they could bypass the code and then download files.
Keith and Shiro had to watch the door and make sure that they were still in the clear. Lance was patrolling the room to see if there was any cameras or escape routes they could use.
Hunk and Allura typed away, inputting the password an undercover Blade member had given them and sighing in relief when it works.
After about ten minutes they went silent, Keith looking over to see what was going on.
The two were staring at the screen, Lance walking over as well and gasping when he looked at it.
"Guys...?" Keith asked, him and Shiro going to join them.
"What's going on?"
"They... the files..." Hunk whispered, "they... they have files on her..."
"What? On who?" Shiro asked, looking at Hunk with wide eyes.
"Katie Holt, 10,715 files completed, 72 in progress." Allura breathed, hands shaking as she pointed to it on the screen.
"What?!" Keith yelped, the others all shushing him.
"Download all of them! Now!"
"I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" Hunk assured him, "it'll take a minute though!"
"That's why we could never find her..." Keith whispered, "they had her, they had her the entire time-"
He cut himself off, head shooting up.
"Sentries and soldiers are on their way, a lot of them." He growled, whirling towards the door.
He was ready for a fight now, a real damn fight. He was going to rip them apart.
Before Keith could even get to the doorframe, he get hit with the whip. It cracking loudly as he flies back and a burn mark scored itself on the chest plate of his armor.
"So, you all did come."
The others all looked over, Kit standing in the doorway.
She had two whips, crackling with the same type of energy that connected Sendak's arm.
There was one in each hand, retracting to a surprisingly short length as she stood there.
Lance was the first to fire, Kit dodging the shot and pulling out a gun from her hip, shooting Lance's bayard.
He yelped as it began to spark and malfunction, reverting back to its original handheld form.
Kit laughed excitedly, looking down at her weapon.
"It worked! Didn't think that would happen!" She giggled, "oh man, today's been the best!"
"Will you shut up?!" Keith roared, trying to rush her again. Shiro right behind him this time, hand glowing.
Kit ducked underneath Keith's sword swing, kicking out his leg and then jumping on him to had him as leverage before roundhousing Shiro in the gut.
The black paladin groaned, surprised at the amount of force behind it considering how small Kit was.
"Kit!" Sendak boomed, rushing in with some sentries and soldiers.
"Get out of there!"
"I'm fine!" Kit snapped, jumping back as Keith got up again and tried to attack.
The sentries began to fire, forcing Keith and Shiro to fall back and help defend the other Paladins while Lance tried to get his bayard to form again.
Sendak rushed forward, but didn't attack. He went straight to Kit, scooping her up and shoving her behind him to protect her.
It wouldn't do much though, the Blade had arrived and was beginning to attack from behind.
Sendak could barely hit the blade member going for Kit in time, keeping the small girl close to himself and snarling at anyone who came close.
Hunk and Allura were working on milling down the sentries in the room, Lance joining them once he got his bayard working.
Shiro and Keith aided the Blade in their head on offense, managing to get all the soldiers down. In the meantime, Kolivan and his team had managed to get Kit and Sendak separated.
Both were fighting like hell, Kit had gotten twelve Blade members down or injured. Sendak had gotten seventeen.
Still, they got the two overwhelmed eventually. Shiro and twelve or so Blade members keeping Sendak down and dozens of others having him surrounded while Kolivan, Keith, and the others surrounded Kit.
"Leave her alone!" Sendak howled, struggling against those keeping him down.
Kit shakily held her hands up, trying to make herself seem like less of a threat.
"Kit! Run! Get out of here!" Sendak barked, obviously desperate to keep her safe.
"I'm not leaving you here!" Kit snarled, voice shaking almost as much as she was.
"Helmet off, now!" Keith ordered, teeth grit. He wanted to know if she was really a kid or just some ridiculously small Galra.
Kit gulped, hands going behind her head to unlatch the helmet. Lance has his rifle trained on her, making sure she didn't try anything.
They knew she could put up a good fight now.
"Kit! Don't!" Sendak ordered, really struggling now.
She began to pull off the helmet, Keith's eyes widening as he saw auburn hair fall out of it, pale skin flush from breathing heavy reflecting in the light, and dark honey brown eyes glaring at him.
"Katie!" Sendak shouted, "Run! Now! Get back to Zarkon!"
"Katie," Keith grinned, dropping his sword.
"I've been looking for you!"
Katie hissed, reaching back and touching one of the metal ports on her back, something they all just thought was some piece of her armor.
"Activate protocol 9-8-3." She growled, the machine beeping in response, asking her to confirm.
"Confirm." Katie spat, eyes locked with Keith's as a jolt of purple electricity went through her.
Keith rushed forward, both him and Sendak screaming for her as she crumbled to the ground.