Brighter Than the Stars: A Voltron Fanfic (Keith X OC)

Chapter 5

Zethrid hadn't moved from where she sat in her cell, staring unseeing at the wall, when Violet visited her for a second time.

"This is pointless, Violet," she said dully. "I am beyond saving."

"I won't give up on you, Zethrid," Violet responded, crossing her arms. "You don't have to be like this. We can help you."

Zethrid stood. "Don't you see? It's too late. I tried to kill Ezor, and Acxa, and you." Her gaze fell to the pale jagged line that now scarred Violet's shoulder, between her two stripes. "I wanted to. How can you ever look at me without hate and fear again?" She sat, defeated. "Why did you catch me, Violet? Why didn't you let me fall?"

Violet touched the cell wall. "Life didn't give you a second chance, Zethrid. So I took up the duty instead." She smiled. "We're the same. Acxa and Ezor and you and I - we were all in the same place that you're in now. And we all got out of it. We deserve this. We deserve to be able to move on from Lotor, to have real lives - to have friends. We deserve to have a second chance, Zethrid." She turned to walk away. "We've all forgiven you. Now you just have to forgive yourself."

Zethrid didn't speak, and Violet didn't turn around. But as she opened the door and made to leave, Zethrid said quietly, "Wait."

Violet faced her again. "Are you ... an Erythian?" Zethrid asked.

Violet blinked in surprise. "Yes. Erythians are a shape-changing species. We can manipulate energy - it's how I summoned the gold shield."

Zethrid nodded. "I wondered about your light tricks. Did you have a planet?"

"Erythia. But it was destroyed thousands of years ago from quintessence poisoning. My people were forced to flee."

"That's what I thought," Zethrid murmured. She stood, and her eyes blazed. "Erythia was not destroyed. It still stands, and Honerva has made it her base."

"What? How?" Violet demanded. "Erythia blew up. Imploded. Even if it somehow didn't, it would be a husk. The quintessence would have turned it to ash."

Zethrid shook her head. "I don't know how. But my alchemists found a way to track the robeasts. We figured out that they travel by wormholes. The wormholes all center around one point in the heart of the universe: the place where Erythia once was. I sent scouts there, but they never returned."

Violet stumbled back. "That can't be," she whispered. "It can't-"

She'll reunite us with our people, with Erythia. You don't stand a chance against Empress Honerva.

"Luka," Violet whispered. "She - she wasn't rambling. Honerva gained the Erythian's loyalty by promising to give them back their home." she met Zethrid's eyes. "Thank you, Zethrid."

Zethrid just said, "Go."

Violet didn't need to be told twice. She ran for Shiro.

-

"With Zethrid's tracker, we've been able to monitor Honerva's robeasts," Coran informed them.  "They've entered the atmospheres of three planets in galaxies bordering Erythia and have launched a simultaneous attack." He lowered the screen he'd been looking at, face somber. Violet and Shiro had called an emergency meeting to employ Zethrid's information and use her tracking, and things were dire.

"So what can the Coalition do?" Hunk asked.

Shiro responded levelly, "We stay focused. Coran, I want you to continue monitoring the planets that the robeasts have landed on. Veronica, tell us as soon as they make a move."

Veronica turned her attention to her screen. "About that ... a think they have. I just received another update - the robeasts are equipped with long scimitars that they've plunged into the ground. They think..." she sucked in a breath. "They think they're taking the quintessence from the planets."