Tales of the Scarlet Kaida

Scarlet Kaida

"Pirates?!" Allura exclaimed, feeling a shudder through her spine. "You can't be serious, Kolivan. Those people can't be trusted!"

"They've been allies of the Blade for a while now and we could always count on them. They'd do anything, anything , to defeat Zarkon. They, too, are victims of his cruelty."

"But still..." Allura's voice came down to a whisper, obviously shocked by the outcome of the conversation.

"Remember how months ago you believed all Galra were ruthless people and none of them could be trusted? And here you are, standing in a Galra rebel base. Planning the revolution with us. You can't say pirates are all the same without meeting them once. They have their ways, we have ours, and you have yours. But we have a common enemy and this is all that matters." She hated to admit it, but he did make a valid point. Even so, the suggestion made her uncomfortable.

"But Kolivan," started Shiro, supporting Allura, "you can't blame us for not trusting them. I mean, we can't possibly ally with such people, who cheat and lie and steal and -"

"Scarlet Kaida's ship crew is different." Kolivan cut him short, his voice leaving no place for doubts or buts. "They only attack Zarkon's troops and bases now."

"Now?" picked up Hunk. "What do you mean now ?"

"This is part of our contract with their captain." Kolivan paused, looking at all the paladins around the table and the two Alteans next to them. Maps and pens were spread across the table, along with empty cups of energy drink that Lance had called coffee. The few days had been tiring, and the sleepless nights had a toll on the Voltron team. They needed to strike Zarkon now. "Plus, they are the only ones who managed to get in and out of Zarkon's fortress without them noticing. We need their help." The statement brought all paladins to snap to attention.

"They did what?!" All the paladins were shocked. Zarkon's strongest fortress invaded by mere space pirates, that was one thing. But the fact that they managed to get out? That was a first. Without them noticing? That was unbelievable.

After a long talk with them arguing back at how reckless the idea was, they reluctantly accepted to meet the crew and their captain. Kolivan was right: They couldn't deny new allies. Not when they were at war. Not when they needed every possible help they could get.

The enemies of my enemies are my friends, right?

And so, they were back in the Castle, heading for the location Kolivan had given them. "Don't be late", he had said before their departure. "They don't like that." His voice had betrayed slight amusement as he had said that... Whatever could that have meant?

"Are we really doing this?" Hunk asked, fidgeting in his seat. "Meeting with pirates in an unknown location?"

Pidge twitched at the word and worked harder on her computer, trying to find out more about the place where they were going to wormhole the whole castle to. Anything about the atmosphere, or about its inhabitants, anything .

But she could find nothing on it. Nothing special, no planets, no recorded space rock fields, or dangerous areas. Just an empty area of space, as if, as if someone had just pulled out a map pointed at a random point and declared it their meeting point, Pidge thought, sulking in front of her screen. She didn't know if the intuition she had meant good or bad news for them, and she dreaded finding out.

"We'll have to trust Kolivan on this," started Allura, "after all, every mission we went with him went good and he often put the sake of his men and his own safety in danger to get us out of tough situations. Let us not start losing trust in our friends again, we've seen the consequences of such things in the past already." She flicked her eyes to Keith, making it obvious she was referring to her reaction when she had learned about Keith's Galra legacy. The red paladin seemed to have forgiven her since then, but she still couldn't help blaming herself for that. And she'd make sure not to make the same mistake twice.