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

Chapter 2

It had been almost a month since Keith left the team. 

Violet had been training with her blades, regaining strength in her hands again. She'd mostly mastered them, but she'd never be able to fight as well as she had before, and her hands still looked ... wrong. They weren't injured - the bones were whole, and they worked normally - but when she stared at them for more than a few seconds, she could see the places where the cryo-pod had messed up. It could heal skin and tendons, but it couldn't bring something that had been broken back to life. It just wasn't possible.

Following her lead on her brother, Pidge set off with her lion and returned with Matt Holt, who looked like an older male version of her, save for longer hair and a scar on his cheek.

Pidge ecstatically showed him around the castle. "I don't mean to be a party pooper," he said upon seeing the weapons room, "But what if Voltron is unable to be formed? Then all you have are these." He gestured to the meager assortment of weapons.

"We have the castle," Pidge said, undaunted. "And some mice."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Zarkon has an army."

Violet smirked. "We have a cow."

His brows furrowed. "I think you're either underestimating the force of the Galra empire or severely overestimating the strength of cows."

"You just haven't met Kaltenecker yet," Violet replied, waving him off. "Take one look at all the furious unspent wrath in her eyes and you'll feel sorry for Zarkon."

Coran became the unofficial event planner of Voltron, putting them through propaganda shows that made Violet crack up. When she was bored, she'd play video games with Lance or spend time ranting about her life problems to Kaltenecker, who turned out to be a really great listener, and gorging herself on Hunk's milkshakes. Alteans, it turned out, even half-Alteans, didn't get brain freezes.

That afternoon, they gathered with the coalition.

"We've been tracking Zarkon's fleet movements, and he's traveled to one of the far galaxies under his control. Based on our intel, we can assume he's searching for Lotor," Kolivan was saying when Violet entered the bridge. Her heart gave a jump when she saw Keith, whose eyes flitted to her but betrayed no emotion. Violet wondered if he knew she'd gotten Avatar: the Last Airbender. She'd reread her favorite parts that night, finally going to sleep just before the sun rose.

"Lotor or not, it's the perfect opportunity to strike," Shiro told them. "With the Blade's intel, as well as maps from the planets we've freed and Pidge's tracking device, we can assemble a thorough map of the Galra's control over the universe." He brought up a screen, showing the purple and green dots of light along it.

"I was looking at the streaks of planets we've freed, and I realized that there's a line cutting through a third of the territory," Shiro continued. "As you can see, there's all but one planet left there that we haven't liberated from the Galra."

Allura sucked in a breath. "I know that planet. It's known as Naxzela."

"That's right," said Shiro. "Now, if we retake Naxzela and fortify the line, the Galra on the other side will be sitting ducks for us to swoop in and bring down."

Violet whistled. "We'll have liberated over a third of the universe with a single strike. This could inspire new rebellions much more efficiently than our pathetic Voltron shows."

"They weren't pathetic," Coran said, offended.

"You had Allura play Keith," Violet pointed out. "Furthermore, at one point I distinctly remember you getting high on some random alien drugs and forcing us to battle an overgrown earth mole." She grinned. "Please do that again if given the chance. It was epic."