Hey, Brother? {a Voltron fanfic}

Chapter 2

The door to her compartment opened and she hopped out, Simplicity on her shoulder.

"Stay here, okay Ace?" She said "I don't want you to be stolen and I need you to keep watch for attackers."

Ace spoke through her helmet Sure, whatever, leave the effective war machine behind. I'm not mad.

Kiera sighed. Sometimes she would question her decision of programming him with passive aggressiveness "If you see anyone coming, shoot them once or twice then warn me. Then come to my location. If they're hostiles, we can take them out together. Sound good?"

Yes. Ace sighed I'd rather stay with you while you go running off into an enemy ship though.

"I know." She said, placing a hand on the robots makeshift hand "Ill send my location to you if I need help. And we talked about this Ace. We don't technically have enemies. We don't really have allies either. We're on our own side."

Ace spoke Right. Lone wolves. A badass ninja girl, a war machine and a useless dogcat robot.

Kiera laughed as Simplicity whined "Don't call Simplicity useless. He's comic relief. We need it." With that, she turned and dashed off down the hallway.

The deactivated bodies of Galra robots were scattered everywhere. Kiera jumped over them and dodged low hanging ceiling beams with ease. Not that she had much trouble with the beams. She was quite short. Especially compared to the Galra.

This time, when she landed from a jump over a robot that had been cut in half, her foot landed on something that wasn't the usual metallic sound. It sounded hollow. Kiera bent down and  Simplicity hopped off her shoulder. She dug her gloved fingers under the plank of hammered metal and lifted. Simplicity loosened the sheet with a good amount of jumping. The metal dipped in the centre, causing the edges to be pulled away from their neighbours.

"Oh, yes!" Kiera yelled "Score!"

Underneath the panel was a bunch of wiring. She touched a wire and sensed the electricity. Ace was right, some of the circuits were working.

She pressed a little button on her helmet and said "Ace! Come quick! I found electricity. We can leech off it until you're fully charged."

On my way. He said.

Kiera prepared the wiring to leech it into Ace. Simplicity hopped around the hallway, popping and just generally being an annoying little robot.

When Simplicity bounced near her, she reached out and pinned him to the floor, his limbs spreading out under him. He popped loudly in surprise.

Kiera smiled fondly at him "I know you're excited, but you need to be just a little calmer. If someone is on board, they may here you."

Simplicity whined a response and Kiera unpinned him. He stood and walked to her, bumping his head against her like an affectionate cat.

"I love you too." She giggled a little and scratched him under the chin.

What about me? Ace said. Kiera turned and saw him marching towards them.

"Well, I might love you." She said "I might not."

Oh, come on, Kiera. He sighed, sounding exasperated You of all people should recognize a joke. You know I hate you.

"I hate you too." She said affectionately.

Ace laughed.

Then he walked over and Kiera flipped a panel open on his ankle and set up the wires. Then she said "Okay, ready to leech. Ace, shut yourself down."

I hate this part. Ace grumbled.

"Yeah, whatever. Just do it." She said. Ace shut down and the wiring in his ankle sparked from the new source of power. Kiera watched for a minute to make sure it didn't set on fire then stood up. She couldn't really leave Ace undefended. He'd either be stolen or pulled apart for parts.

The second option was more likely. Space pirates and thieves like her could easily sell parts like these on the black market. They sold well and were decently valuable. You could get at least a months worth of food for just one of Ace's hands.

Food. Kiera's stomach rumbled. She hadn't eaten in, what, a day and half? She couldn't really afford to eat everyday, let alone three meals a day with some snacks in between.

She remembered the first year she was out here in the galaxies. She had nearly starved to death on multiple occasions and had almost frozen to death a couple of times. Kiera knew better now. She had to know better or else she would die.

The scratch on her neck throbbed "Wow." She said aloud "I've almost died so many times, I've lost count." Simplicity looked at her as if she were crazy. Then sat down in front of her. He liked to hear her stories of her near death experiences.

So, she told one of her favourites (could you have a favourite near death experience?). It had been trying to get any information on the whereabouts of the person that was the whole reason she'd been out here so long: her brother.

She'd walked into a bar with her mask on and she'd sat at a table. A drink in her hand, to put out the impression that she was here to stay for a while, and a knife on each firearm, concealed by her suit.

Her informant had walked in, spotted her and sat down. She'd offered no hand to shake as the woman sat down.

"You're the one looking for her brother huh?" The woman asked, fake sympathy was clear in her voice. This woman wasn't much of an actress.

Kiera nodded and said "And you have information. Give it to me."

"Now why would I do that?" The woman leered at her.

Kiera had casually pulled a knife from her forearm and started carving something into the armoured pad on the top of her forearm and simply said "Oh, no reason."

The woman looked uneasy, as if she were new to the whole 'bounty hunters and thieves carry weapons' thing. Then she said "I heard that there was a mysterious appearance of a dark haired man in the space mall that used to be an old swap meet. There's your information. Now give me my reward."

Kiera had tossed her a piece of polished metal; pure, weapon grade iron, and had stood up.

Then, from across the room, she'd heard a fight break out. Two men had started fighting over some pretty thief girl and were starting to get violent. The thief girl just looked annoyed as she walked out of the room.

There had been a massive fight with swords and guns alike. Few people escaped and even fewer actually escaped with their lives.

Kiera finished the story and showed Simplicity the scars on her cheek from the fight. Simplicity wiggled his ears and popped.

Then, a voice behind Kiera said "Who are you?"

Kiera turned to see five people in suites of armour standing in a line with weapons in their hands.

"This should be fun." She whispered.