Survival of the Innocent (A Voltron fanfic) (Book 1 of Fates Entwined)

Earth Ending Part 2

Keith approaches Shiro standing outside the shack at sunrise. He resists the urge to hug Shiro, knowing an experience like that leaves him on edge and likely to lash out on instinct.

"It's good to have you back," Keith grins.

"Heh. It's good to be back," Shiro smiles softly at the kid he took under his wing when they were with the Galra.

"So what happened out there? Why..... did they do that?" Keith asks, still slightly in shock.

"I wish I could tell you. My head's still pretty scrambled. I remember you and an alien ship. My feelings associated with those memories are mixed: mainly happy with you. How did you know where I was?" Shiro puts his hand on Keith's shoulder.

"A friend. Talking about that, I need to show you something," Keith turns and returns to the shack, followed by Shiro.

Inside, Keith pulls up the floor boards and removes the jacket and photo.

"What are those?" Shiro asks.

"A family photo and my father's jacket. I want you to have it."

"I can't do that."

"Please, Shiro. It's all I have left of him and your the only one I trust with it," Keith practically begs.

"Alright," Shiro takes the jacket and puts it on, a small smile on his face, "But that's not everything, right? What have you been working on?"

"I can't explain it, really. After our separation , I kinda... ended up in the area and... felt myself drawn out to this place. It's like something... some energy, was telling me to search."

"For what?"

"Well, I didn't really know at the time... until I stumbled across this area. It's an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings. Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion, but they all share clues leading to some event, some arrival happening last night. Figured it was you," Keith says, vague as always, lying about how he remembers the carvings from when he was a baby and was actually fixing up the hovercraft.

"... I should... thank you all for getting me out. Lance, right?"

Shiro offers Lance his prosthetic hand. Lance hesitated but shakes it. When Shiro offers his hand to Pidge and Hunk, Pidge is the only one who shakes it.

"The nervous guy's Hunk. I'm Pidge. So, did anyone else from your crew make it out?" Keith takes note of her interest in the crew Shiro has told Keith about when they first met, asking Keith to find information on them, which he did willingly.

"I'm not sure. I remember the mission and being captured. After that, it's just bits and pieces," Shiro looks over at Keith who shakes his head, indicating now is not the time.

"Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they at this very moment?" The newly named Hunk asks, showing his nervous side.

"I can't really put it together. I-I remember the word "Voltron". It's some kind of weapon they're looking for, but I don't know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do," Shiro says, scratching his head but stops when he sees Keith look away, like he does whenever he lies or is hiding something.

"Well last night, I was rummaging through Pidge's stuff, and I found this picture. Look it's his girlfriend," Hunk says, surprising Keith at his attitude towards his supposed 'friend' and that he doesn't realise that that girl is Pidge.

Hunk shows everyone the picture and Pidge steals it back, screaming, "Hey, gimme that! What were you doing in my stuff?"

"I wa—I was looking for a candy bar. But then, I started reading his diary."

Hunk pulls out Pidge's diary which she steals back and screams, mortified, "WHAT?!"

"And I noticed that the repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line," Hunk says, surprising Keith that the normally nervous and soft giant is so smart.

"Frown... who?" Keith asks.

"It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only this element doesn't exist on Earth. I thought it might be this Voltron, and I think I can build a machine to look for it, kinda like a Voltron Geiger Counter."

"Hunk, you big, gassy genius!" Lance yells.

"It's pretty fascinating, really. Th-The wavelength looks like this," Hunk says, pulling out a graph of the wavelength that Keith grabs from him.

"Give me that," Keith matches the wavelength's appearance to an array of boulders he saw during his test drive to a picture he assumed his father took.