18 「A Fox in the Lion's Den」

As large as the Black Lion, a beast comes crashing down upon the landscape below the formation of the Castle of Lions. The Arusian Dirt trembles and shakes, giving those awake a startling quake. The Paladins had just formed Voltron for the first time, mere hours after Pidge had left the vessel above.

Shiro and the others, except for Pidge seemed clueless for who the robotic creature was or belonged to. "What is that?!" The Black Paladin spat out, spun Voltron around to the blackfox.

Allura who was looking over the computer systems of the Castle, couldn't quite get a lock on the fox. "I'm... I'm not sure. Our sensors are picking up energy similar to that of the lions, but that's impossible... The Lions were the only things ever created with Altean Alchemy at this scale!"

The Fox remained on all fours, barely making a move. It was situated directly between the Castle and the Lions which had formed Voltron. It didn't appear hostile, yet no one could believe it was passive either unless they knew who was behind the wheel.

Pidge on the other hand was curious of what was going on. She knew it was Nemoi, yet didn't quite say anything. She was waiting for him to say hello, or something along those lines. Yet nothing seemed to come out with those words.

The head of the fox raised slightly, its sharp teeth becoming much more apparent.

"Could it be an enemy combatant?" Coran wondered aloud as he stroked his chin and twirled his mustache. "Or is it an ally?"

Keith of course was ready for battle, "If it's looking to fight. We should give it one!" He suggested recklessly. Lance seemingly ready to agree as he cheered.

Hunk however was undecided. "It hadn't attacked us yet, so we should be fine. Unless it does attack us..." His eyes narrowed on the teeth, there were many and much sharper than that of the lion's teeth.

Pidge seemed to giggled quietly, leaning back casually in the chair within the cockpit of her lion. "Guys, that's not an enemy." She said as she shook her head, watching as the tail of the fox idly shifted side to side, the front end of the robotic beast lowering its front half of the body as if getting ready to play.

"Pidge? Pidge, Do you know something that you're not sharing with the rest of us?" Allura asked over the communications, frowning and sounding as pompous as ever.

"So... What do we do?" Hunk asked as it seemed Pidge wasn't responding. This was strange, since they all had the same objective, they were working as a team, why wasn't she saying anything?

Shiro stared out towards the fox. He moved Voltron to the side, the fox moved with it. It mirrored his exact movement in paces. It moved like a wild animal, like a fox playing with a rodent. With all of the lions combined, they could kick it, but that would be equivalent to a man kicking a dog.

That was just a depressing thought.

"Wait, Allura. You said it was created by Altean Alchemy, right?" Shiro seemed to be piecing things together. "How many people do we know can use that kind of ability?"

Allura paused for a moment as she was asked this question and thought back to Nemoi. She immediately slapped her hand down on the nearby console. "We only know of one as of right now, that is nearby. That would be Nemoi," She lulled her head back in frustration. "Gah! Where have you been keeping that thing?!"

The moment she lifted her head back up, she seemed starry eyed despite the initial frustrated feeling. "How did you make it? When did you make it? Where did you get the material?"

The head of the fox moved up and down as it began to laugh, or chuckle. It sounded akin to a raddle, or teeth chattering together, combined with a gurgling sound. Compared to the lions, it seemed the fox was a bit more verbal and expressive.

"So many questions," Nemoi snickered over the communications after a short period of silence and lack of audible response. "It's been kept in a sub dimension of some sort... I summoned it using Magic."

Hearing that he had summoned it using magic, Allura raised a brow. "Magic...? Then you used Quintessence to..." She looked upward as if giving the Galra ship a gander. "You used them." She believed she was beginning to understand his question earlier, pertaining to seeking out his enemies quintessence.

"Yes, your highness. Everything, including one's enemies have a use, no matter how gruesome." He looked over at the holographic display which showed her staring at him with an indifferent expression.

"You only left their ashes behind." Allura let out a sigh.

Pidge froze at that moment since this conversation was on the same channel as they were. She did find it strange that there was very little evidence of anyone ever being on board. She found it even more weird that there had been ashes present in the hangar bay; that there were no bodies.

"He... Cremated them?" Keith raised a brow asking this, not entirely understanding.

Shiro wasn't too pleased to hear this. He was a righteous individual, he believed sacrifice to be necessary. Yet the means Nemoi used to obtain power, was the exact same way as his enemies.

"You're being no different from the Galra, draining them of their Quintessence, reducing them to ash." He gripped at the control of his lion, he was clearly bothered. The Galra had drained entire worlds and civilizations, and here Nemoi was with a beast brought into existence because of it.

"My means are very different Shiro. They were dead, or never living to begin with, when I drained them of everything." Nemoi informed as he lowered his head partially. "I will only take what I need, not forcefully take what I want unless it's necessary."

"And what deems it necessary to drain the Quintessence of the dead, or the living?"

"To Protect. To Serve. For Power. For Order. Altea of old is gone, the last Princess has not taken up the mantle of Queen, so as the last Noble of Altea, I will take the mantle of King." Nemoi proclaimed what had been on his mind, in which shocked everyone this time around.

Left with her mouth open, her pupils dilated, it started to sound as if he knew of surviving Alteans. Why didn't he tell her about them? Was that the reason why he was so shaken? So anxiety ridden? "What about the..."

She was cut off as he snapped at her over the comms, "the Universe!? Voltron will need all the allies they can get. Altea is gone, but the descendants of the people absent still breath."

"What is your plan?" Allura wanted to know what he was planning on doing. They were still her people, even if she wasn't taking up the mantle of Queen. She doubted she could run a Kingdom, unite all of her people, while fighting a personal war with Zarkon.

"I will show them the true nature of the savior, his true intentions. I will take everything, everyone, from him. Then, I will kill him." His tone was passive aggressive, as if a warning not to get in his way. He didn't go into detail of who or what, when or where.

"Their savior?" Allura asked this single question. Who had saved her people? What kind of nefarious intentions did they have for using them? There were many thoughts going through her head.

"Lotor, Prince Lotor, of the Galra Empire created a personality cult out of surviving Alteans and their descendants. In turn, he wished to harvest their pure quintessence like clueless cattle to the slaughter."

Allura's eyes and likely everyone else's, blew to disproportionate sizes. Shiro almost had to take back what he said to him earlier, about how he was no different than the Galra. "How do you know this?"

After a brief silence, she sighed. "Nevermind, I don't want to know." Her eyelids were twitching, anger and mental anguish. Coran wasn't faring any better than her with the thoughts going through their minds.

Pidge leaned forward, "Didn't you promise to be beside me, to help me find my family?"

Nemoi licked his near chapped lips slightly as he heard her speak over the comms. "I will always be beside you Katie. You just won't always know it. Always look in the corners, where the shadows reach the furthest. You may just find the sliver of light, that might just be me."

"Is this what you meant by disappearing, Dramatically, being nowhere to be found?" Pidge didn't have that great of an expression on her face, her nose was all scrunched up in disappointment.

"No, no. Not yet. Not leaving yet, at least, not until you get your father." He waved his hand in dismissal before the Fox peered up towards the sky, sitting on its hind legs as it did so. "Your brother on the other hand, is going to be a lot harder to find I'd imagine."

Nodding slightly, she relaxed a little in her chair. She still didn't want him to just ghost them all of a sudden at a time of his choosing without saying anything. It was clear however, that was how he was going to be.

"But the longer you wai–" Allura started talking again, only to be cut off by Nemoi.

"The longer I wait the more Alteans will be harvested? True, but I don't have a solid plan yet, on how I'm going to execute these conditions." This was true, he didn't have everything thought out, only the outline. He needed details.

Shiro was thinking to himself, his gaze moving towards the forest where the Chimeras Castle was situated.

"I will be transferring instructor Adam W. over to the Castle of Lions in the meantime." It was as if he was either reading his mind, or knew exactly who he was thinking of. A small smile crossed his lips.

"In the meantime, let's have a friendly spar... I have a strange feeling that you'll be in live combat soon," Nemoi grinned widely as he spoke, cutting the transmission between them.

As the Fox jumped back up onto all fours, it began to move in an encircling approach, much like the wolf had against him earlier in the forest. It was clear he was going to imitate the beast, yet there was a distinctive feeling behind his tactics.

Voltron took a step backward, arms ready and held outward in an attempt to fixate a defensive stance. However they didn't have any weapons as of current. Just what were they going to do?

"Charge'm?" Hunk suggested a somewhat aggressive idea, one which most of them agreed upon.

Charging him wasn't a bad idea, but it wasn't a good one. They didn't know the maneuverability nor capabilities of the blackfox. It's menacing appearance however was very intimidating compared to the lions themselves.

"It's likely he has the maneuverability of the individual lions, or greater. He's also smaller than us, it'll make it harder to get a hold of him." Shiro was clearly picking out the obvious, but it still helped to give those details out to his team. "The question is, what is its durability?"

That's when the voltron charged towards the Fox and as they closed in, Hunk lifted a leg to jump kick him. However as he neglected to inform Lance he was doing so, they had both lifted the legs and came crashing down directly in front of the fox.

For a few moments the fox just stood there, no longer circling, just apparently dumbfounded. That was until it chirped a few times, shoving Voltron onto its side as they attempted to get up from the fall.

"Really Hunk?" Lance and Keith groaned as Voltron vibrated from the impact, they felt like the insides of a lightbulb being shook.

"What? I tried!" Hunk complained as he put up his hands in defeat.

As Voltron tried to get up again, the Fox pounced on Voltron and caused it to roll once more. Shaking up the insides of the cockpits without a care in the world. He wasn't letting them get up without a fight.

Shiro groaned slightly, but chuckled at the antics. Having Voltron sit up as the Fox began encircling them once more, he activated the Jetpack, sending them straight up into the air.

However just as he did so, a red light began to alert them as two sleeves of rocket launcher tubes popped out of the sides of the Fox robeast. "Oh you gotta be kidding me..." Lance whined as both of the arms of Voltron moved into a defensive formation to protect their face and central mass.

The rockets launched, eight rockets each sleeve. All of these rockets converged on their location.

They quickly entered evasive maneuvers, Shiro twirling and moving about the nearby mountainous landscape. The rockets would clash into one another here and there, exploding, consuming some of their neighbors.

These explosions left white clouds of smoke in the air once the fire and debris cleared.

"We have two more left! Let's sha–" Shiro were cut off as the Fox appeared in front of them, having leapt from the ground. "Oh crap..." The fox pounced the face of Voltron, tipping the body back enough for them to briefly pause in their movement.

The last two missiles collided with the back of Voltron just as the Fox jumped off its shoulders, and began hovering through the air.

Voltron crashed upon the ground, causing a tiny quake. Pidge groaned slightly as she had clenched her teeth together from the force of the impact.

Seconds later the Fox turned off its thrusters and landed on all fours, directly on top of Voltron's back. This caused the ground to quake once again with the added gravitational force behind the weight of many tons.

Pidge began to slap the green hand of Voltron against the ground, as if issuing a surrender during a fighting match in wrestling. "We surrender!" It was rather laughable. His tactics were more playful than anything. The strategy was simple and convenient.

Keith was clearly angry, Shiro was disappointed and Pidge just wanted to get some rest. Hunk wanted out of Voltron so he could eat and avoid getting hurt, while Lance was more on the same side as Keith. He was angry and embarrassed.