Collecting the shards

Terran

Forbidden knowledge given freely

"Professor Wallach"

Adam knows that voice, has learned to recognize it in the off chance that something other tries to trick him with an imitation. Koráki, and that's a name Adam's earned and takes great care not to say, is a powerful person, and anyone involved with him is in some level of danger.

That includes Adam, particularly when he has the rare ability to see the world for what it truly is. It's why Koráki refrains from visiting too often, but he's not alone right now, at his side is a uniformed individual with a tag claiming they're from security.

"Captain Valdez, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

The guard seems taken aback, most likely by the use of military roles, anyone would be when presented with Koráki's appearance the first time. After all, the demigod is only 21 years old, and very few people know about the forces that threaten the world.

Still, since the boy did captain a ship, and was one of the smartest people he'd ever met, Adam thought the title extremely fitting, and knew Koráki enjoyed it just as much as him, particularly because of how people reacted.

"My bosses send me to discuss your approaching mission"

That gives Adam pause, as far as he knows Koráki's bosses, the fates, didn't generally get themselves involved in the matters of mortals. And if they had Koráki show himself to the Garrison people then it had to be massive.

"Of course, please come in"

He watches Koráki turn to the guard, straightening his posture, changing instantly into something that reeks danger.

"I thank you for your help officer, but I'm afraid this conversation is above your paygrade"

The guard blinks, and then nods, hurrying away; Adam wishes he knew how Koráki does that. But he's a little busy watching the demigod take a grim look, and sit himself on the visitor chair.

"There's something I must tell you, something you should've known from the beginning but was not told to you"

Adam immediately tenses, he knows better than to be angry at Koráki, devoted as he is to keeping fate going the way it has to, it's not his fault their world keeps trying to divert from course. Koráki must sense his conflicting emotions, because he presses on with upmost seriousness.

"Seven were taken, seven shall return, five to wage battle against the force we couldn't know"

He says this in monotone, like he's reading it off a book, Adam is quick to figure out why, that sentence can only be part of a prophecy.

"Seven taken, that includes the people on the Kerberos mission then"

Koráki nods.

"I told Keith to shoot for the stars because his place is up there"

Adam accepts the explanation for what it is, as much as Koráki sees, he can only say so much; the fact that he's telling Adam means he'll get involved. Koráki absentmindedly taps something into the desk, a string of letters Adam can recognize but not translate; Morse code for a language he doesn't speak.

"But that's not the point, the point is that your mission will be our first contact with the enemy"

Then he digs into the seemingly empty toolbelt he carries on his waist, a magical item tied to his godly blood, and pulls out what looks like a knife fashioned from the teeth of a creature only spoken of in myths.

"We need you to survive that encounter"

Adam bites his lip but takes the offered weapon, Koráki smiles, it's not as reassuring as he thinks.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?"

Koráki looks away, pensively, and the grins like he finds something amusing.

"Space is a reverse time trap"

He then makes an expression, as though he's being called, and offers Adam a regretful look.

"I must go now"

The desk's shadow leaps up and swallows him before Adam can respond. But something is better than nothing.

Something is not right, it feels like static in Lance's head, and it goes beyond the loss they've suffered, but it is connected. All of it, and none of it, in tandem, clashing, unexplainable.

It takes him a bit to figure it out, once he sits down and tries to make sense of the flashes he's been seeing, it's like he's been fed traces of an alternate reality.

One where Akira never met Leo, but still went by Keith, only this time it was because people were assholes about non-white names, Akira wasn't even that hard to pronounce. A reality where Shiro was the be all end all of Akira's support system, the only person he had; and his loss hit him hard enough to crack him.

Some things were the same, Akira was always half-Galran, always worked for the blade for a bit, always ended up piloting black, with Lance on red. Only this Akira had met the blade a lot earlier, after a mission gone wrong were Lance discovered his connection to Red, in a fit to save his stupid ass.

This Akira had been a blade only to get to the root of the whole 'the Galra like Lance' ordeal, which was still very much a thing, particularly with the visiting blades, and that led to Lance knowing more about Galran courtship than he ever wanted. He's also a lot more involved as to why Akira is in Black, as well as with Akira in general.

But this means Lance knows things he isn't supposed to, things that aren't always correct, or perhaps stop being correct exactly because Lance knows and tries preventing them. Still, Akira fits a lot more comfortably as the head of Voltron in this reality, and Shiro's loss doesn't hit them as hard as Lance knows it could have; so, he can't help but be grateful.