16 「Nevermore」

Zarkon sat on his throne, stone faced as usual. His sinister glowing eyes, glaring forward. He was expecting a series of status updates from his most loyal of soldiers, Commander Sendak. However for the past several hours there had been nothing. He had been expecting something at most.

He squinted his eyes slightly and looked over at the hag beside him, the leader of the druids. She remained standing there. They were both wicked individuals, powerful in their own right.

That's when a soldier barged into the hall, it was clear he appeared nervous. Though he was far from physically inferior. He was large, larger than the typical Galra. He had a scar over his right eye, which had been damaged blind. If anything because of his low cut fur, he appeared very much like Pathero from the Wild Cats.

Rushing to the center of Zarkon's grand hall, he fell to one knee, one arm rested as he bowed his head and looked up at his Majesty. "M'Lord Zarkon!"

Looking down at his subject, he frowned prominently. Clearly he was upset before the news was even brought to his attention. This was clearly going to be about the Commander whom failed to give him a status report. One of his many grand commanders which he believed capable, loyal merciless and cold.

"We have lost direct contact with Commander Sendak over Arus in the Arusian System. His Friend or Foe Indicator is still broadcasting and responding as we ping it, but there is no other form of communique otherwise."

The Emperor rose his hand slightly, this didn't put the soldier at ease. However it did allow him to stand. "Your report has been duly noted. Leave my presence."

"Yes, your Majesty!" The Soldier quickly shuffled out of the room, trying to stay out of sight. The last thing he needed was to be sentenced to death. Fear was something that the Emperor used to govern his subjects and even his family. Lotor, the Prince of the Empire, had even been put out on the frontier due to his 'eccentric' behavior.

"Haggar..." The Emperor summoned his Witch and looked at the frail powerful woman before him. His eye lids flexed slightly at her gaze which was hidden beneath the edge of her hood.

Suddenly without warning a holographic screen appeared in front of Zarkon. It was similar to how Commander Sendak had done at the Castle of Lions. One way transmission, open channel, direct connection.

The Emperor turned and looked at the hologram and paused for a moment. It was a young man with white hair, pale blue eyes and had Altean markings under his eyes. "Ah, Papa Zarkon, mornin' to ya."

He gave a light nod up at him. He had a package of freeze fried mangos in his hand, picking, peeling and popping pieces into his mouth. "The Quintessence you sent to Arus to obtain the Lions was spectacular." He licked his lips slightly, as if he had just finished a good meal.

The Emperor fixated his eyes on the face of the Altean, "Where is Commander Sendak?"

Reaching down to the floor, he picked up what looked like a handful of grey sand and tossed it into the air. "Dust on the wind, I'm afraid." The man appeared be smug, proud and looked as if they were someone with nothing to lose and everything to gain. He showed no fear towards Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe.

The Emperor growled a low growl, angry and disappointed. His eyes rounded over the body of the man who claimed Sendak was no longer amongst the living. There was blood, lots of it, all over his armor. It appeared that he had slaughtered the bridge crew?

Haggar stared at the Altean, confused of why she hadn't sensed his emergence. That and rather surprised that he had slaughtered the crew and appeared very much blood thirsty. Alteans were known for approaching with peaceful intentions.

"You wish to wipe my foul race from existence... However, the woman beside you... You call her Haggar. She herself, is not only your Empress, but is too an Altean. An Altean Alchemist, mother of Lotor your son."

Emperor was seemingly getting angrier and angrier with every word he spoke aloud. The arm of his throne was about to give way to his strength. The woman beside him, not only confused, but reminded.

She placed a hand on the side of her head as a strange feeling passed over her. Memories of pushing away and rejecting her son. Of her experiences before being poisoned by the Quintessence Field, she remembered her love for Zarkon, something he would see as a weakness. Yet, that would be the foundation of his strength. Her love would be able to keep him alive.

"You deny yourself weakness, you deny yourself love, and yet you desire so much material wealth and control. Are your desires a weakness? Isn't your immortality a weakness? Your cynical objectivity?" The smug appearance in which Nemoi seemed to have in the beginning of this conversation seemed rather dark. Darker than before. He knew this was at the point, just prior to them sending the robeast.

"I will not listen to this insol–" Zarkon was cut off by the chuckling of Nemoi, which caught his attention once more. What was so funny? No, this wasn't someone laughing at something funny.

The chuckling had a strange eerie quality to it, almost animalistic. He centered his gaze on Nemoi's face, yet there was no indication of such a thing, until he smiled and revealed his pearly whites.

"You know the lions, Zarkon? Of course you do... You used to be the Black Paladin, the Hero! Aflor's best friend... My dad's friend..." There was a wide spectrum of emotions, hand gestures as he spoke. He clapped as he called Zarkon the Black Paladin, held the gesture as he recalled him being a Hero.

Then his mentality changed as he continued to the next subject, his reintroduction. "Zarkon, my name is Nemoi Vargon. Viscount of the planet Ariel from the Altean System." Haggar's memory shifted once more, having seen him playing as a child, learning as a teen. Honerva had been his mentor prior to her going over to the homeworld of the Galra to continue her studies.

He continued to speak, becoming serious even more so as tears began to moisten his eyes which were otherwise dry. "The Lions have a pride, they're proud entities. The question is, if a lion has pride, then what does a fox have?" His head lulled to the right ever so slightly, "Why does the fox imitate a prince in order to get a rabbit out of its hole?"

At this point Emperor Zarkon's eye was twitching. He felt as if he was appeasing this weak rat, by just listening to him. The corner of his eye caught the movement of Haggar's hand, who paused and relented. It appeared as if she wanted to place a hand on his, he didn't understand.

"What are you getting at, miscreant?" His voice seemed a bit off, as if his own mind was running a thousand miles an hour. Zarkon was shifting through the thoughts of his past. Ten thousand years of memories, burying the ones he should be cherishing the most.

"You have lost yourself Zarkon. Voltron has returned and in this reality, there's a fox. And this fox, believes you're a rabbit." Nemoi quickly made a very human like gesture, flipping the bird as it well, as he clashed his forearms together. "Vargon out!"

The Communique ended. There were various things this interaction could have done and will cause later on. It will definitely muddle the Empire's attempt at fighting a resistance. It's likely Zarkon will have everyone who witnessed what happened to be killed to supersede any rumors from spreading.

...

Several hours of training to form Voltron had been fruitless. They tried stacking on top of one another like a cheerleader pyramid. Nothing happened. They flew information, cheered together and attempted to form Voltron and yet the Paladins continued to fail.

However these hours of work, were rewarded with a short period of grace. A self decided break.

Pidge who had been distracted by her own thoughts of family, mainly her brother and father, whom she hadn't seen for over a year. She decided she would visit with Nemoi, considering she hadn't heard from him since the whole attempted attack on the castle by Commander Sendak of the Galra.

She had a new companion, Rover, a Galra drone. It continued to hover around her, something in which wouldn't have been if he hadn't done what he did.

When she had stopped over at the Chimeras Castle, she only found Adam alone. When she asked where Nemoi was, he didn't exactly know, but believed him to still be on board the Galra cruiser in orbit.

She found it rather strange, no one had heard from him. According to the last conversation the Princess had, he was talking about ethics, or something along those lines. Though when they described his behavior, it sounded like either he regressed or was going to decide to go on some sort of manic streak against his enemies.

The Green Lion would be seen leaving the Chimeras Castle, alone, towards the Galra Cruiser in synchronized orbit above the Castle of Lions. Hailing it on the frequency that Allura had assigned for their group, Pidge attempted to get Nemoi's attention.

"Nemoi, this is Pidge. Do you read?" She asked as she leaned forward in her seat, the lion closing in on the ship. There was no response over the frequency. There was no open channel broadcasting either.

She wiggled her fingers slightly, pursing her lips in thought. What could he be doing? That was until she saw something move in the corner of her eye. Like a beast in pitch darkness running amuck in space.

She turned her head to look, but initially saw nothing.

Her lion made a low growling sound, warning her of something being nearby. Something of unique nature, similar to their own. It wasn't a lion, but it was something just as sentient.

Pidge opened an open channel, something for anyone in the area to hear. "This is Pidge, are you there?" Her brown eyes traced the stars. She abruptly lost track of one of them which had just been in her sights. Yet, a second later, it became visible again. It was as if it was an light bulb which blinked in and out for a moment.

"C'mon girl... How close is it?" Pidge talked to her lion as she navigated around the Galra vessel, finding one of the hangar bays open. It was clear something had left, it wasn't the same hangar which the red lion had came out of on the bottom.

The abrupt sound of gekkering and chattering could be heard over the comms. She immediately made a furrowed and confused expression. It was weird, and since she was in the middle of space, a bit creepy.

"Fox?" She recognized the sound because she lived on Earth, and she spent time outside at night in the desert. There were foxes out there, though not many made their presence known as this one did.

"Space fox?" Pidge called out over the communications array, looking out the viewports of her cockpit. Suddenly it made an appearance, as if space peeled away in the shape of hexagons, a massive robotic fox about one and a half times larger than her own Lion, became visible. "Where did that come from...?"