The team’s eyes widened and they all warned, “Kallur!”
The boy in question pouted and crossed his arms and turned away from their reprimanding eyes and just stared at his father’s white armor. Keith kneeled down and looked into his son’s blue eyes sternly, “Even though people may be mean, we don’t call them names. Especially something as vulgar as that.”
“Well,” Lance started, everyone turning to look at him as he leaned against a wall, “He isn’t wrong.”
Keith glared at the Red Paladin, eyeing Kallur’s admiration for his uncle’s defense, and he warned, “Don’t encourage him, Lance. He shouldn’t be using such strong words. He’s just three.”
Lance shrugged and winked at Kallur before turning away from Keith and continuing his failing attempts to free them. Allura, from her spot beside Lukeia playing with Keilu, agreed with Keith, “You are right, Keith. “Buttholes” is much too vulgar for you, Kallur.”
Kallur pouted, but this time he seemed more guilty now that his mom was chastising him and Keith looked at her with a look of gratitude. At least, until she spoke again.
“We call these kinds of people little quiznakers.”
Keith’s jaw dropped, Shiro facepalmed, Pidge struggled to keep her laugh hidden, and the rest looked surprise, yet they all gasped, “Allura!”
Just then the prison door slid open and they all fell quiet as two familiar figures stepped inside. Keith furrowed his brows in recognition and asked, “Zethrid? Ezor?”
The two women didn’t even look in his direction. The first thing they looked at were at the kids standing in between Allura and Keith. Zethrid chuckled and stood in front of the kids.
Lukeia cocked her head in curiosity and asked Ezor, “Why is your hair a tail?”
Ezor laughed and took a step closer to the little girl but Lukeia leaned closer into her mother’s thigh, and she quickly grabbed her baby brother into her arms as well. Kallur, however, merely stood still and threw his head back trying to see Zethrid’s head. When he almost stumbled backwards he mumbled, “You’re too big to be a little quiznaker.”
Allura and Keith just about died.
Zethrid and Ezor merely chuckled and Ezor crossed her arms and cocked an amused eyebrow towards Keith and Allura, “You two sure got busy. Acxa’ll be disappointed to hear the emo one is taken.”
Keith and Allura merely stayed quiet but Keith took a step closer to the two, hoping to be able to move before they do anything to his kid.
Ezor bends down and smiles at Kallur, who just looks at her owlishly, and asks, “Hey buddy, have you seen Prince Lotor recently?”
Kallur scrunched his face, “Who’s Price Motor?”
Ezor glares at Lance once he starts laughing behind Kallur. Kallur smiles at hearing his uncle laugh and Ezor sighs, “No. Prince Lotor. You know, big and tall with light purple skin, white hair, and ears like yours? You’ve never seen him?”
Kallur shakes his head, “I don’t know who Lotor is.”
Zethrid scoffs and bares her teeth at the team, “He’s lying.”
Allura glares at her and takes a step closer, “My son is no liar. He has never seen Lotor. We left him in the quintessence field between realities. He’s dead.”
“That doesn’t add up. Why aren’t you dead?”
“No,” Allura replied sternly, “Lotor went on a rampage and he was knocked unconscious. He’s dead.”
Zethrid pounded on the walls with her fist and spat, “Lies.”
Kallur looked up at the threatening woman with wide, fearful eyes and Zethrid picked up the child from his collar and lifted him up into the air.
There was a chorus of ‘No!’s ringing through the air and Keith threw himself at the pair to get his son away from them, but Ezor expertly kicked him in the abdomen, successfully throwing him across the room and on top of the team, disabling them for a second as Zethrid glared at the kid in her hand and asked, “Where is Prince Lotor?”
The child kicked in her arms, though it did nothing, and yelled, “I don’t know who that is!”
Lukeia, crouching over her baby brother, had wide eyes as she looked at her family groaning on the floor in pain and her little brother in danger.
Zethrid step closer to her family threateningly and she ran in between the tall woman and her family and screamed, “Get back!”
Zethrid stopped midstep and looks down at the child in front of her and chuckles wryly, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Keith, trying to free himself from the pile of people, screamed, “Lukeia get away from them.”
Zethrid sneers, “You should listen to your parents, kid. You might just get hurt.”
Ezor took a step closer to Lukeia, but Lukeia’s hand suddenly began glowing a bright aqua blue and she held her hand up in between her and the enemy. The two women stepped back in surprise and the team watched the little girl in awe. Lukeia glared and she demanded, “Put Kallur down!”
Allura and Keith were finally free and they both ran towards Lukeia. Both were forced to stand a few feet away from the intense brightness of Lukeia’s power, but they were able to make out Zethrid letting Kallur down gently on the floor. Kallur immediately ran away and ran behind Keith’s leg and peered at the scene unfolding. Lukeia started glowing brightly all over, her blue altean marks glowed as her mother’s had when they were near Oriande and her purple irises turned a ghostly blue.
“Lukeia, stop! You can hurt yourself and us if you attack!”
Lukeia, however, didn’t stop glowing, “Ummm… I can’t?”
Keith took a step closer and yelled, “Just relax!”
“I can’t relax if you’re yelling at me, dad!”
“Lukeia, you do not speak to your father with that attitude!”
“Are we really doing this now?” Lance questioned as he lifted Pidge up from under Hunk in the pile, “We’re all going to die!”
Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the ground and a loud alarm sounded throughout the room and the rest of the ship. The whole group froze and Ezor and Zethrid looked towards their men behind them, all of them running out of the room and towards the offense.
“Hull breach in hangar one. Lockdown sequence initiated.” The monotone voice of the speakers filled in the confusion inside the room and Ezor and Zethrid bolted for the door and locked it, leaving the team trapped inside with Lukeia’s glowing hand...quintessence...weapon continuing to glow.
“Lukeia, sweetheart, I need you to relax your hand,” Allura urged, speaking to the spooked child with a soothing voice.
Lukeia took a deep breath and relaxed her hand and let the quintessence go. The force of the blast threw her backwards and her father caught her in his arms. The team looked at the door and gaped at the huge hole steaming from it, seeing a row of holes in the walls in front of the door.
Allura and Keith looked down at their daughter and smiled and Allura passed a hand through Lukeia’s silver hair, “Thank you, my little juniberry.”
“Allura,” Krolia interrupted, who was rocking baby Keilu in her arms and trying to calm him down. Allura looked up at the older woman and saw her pointing at the ground in front of the steaming door.
There, fazed and shivering in fear, were the mice. Allura chuckled as they all ran towards her and onto her shoulders, “It’s alright. We’re fine.”
The mice then began squeaking and squeaking, the team peering over Allura’s shoulder and still wondering how she can understand them.
“Where?”
“What are they saying mommy?” Kallur asked, the child holding the tiniest mice in his hand and petting him.
“Coran’s trying to save us and he’s got help. Acxa.”
His face turned soft and whispered a soft ‘what?’ and Allura felt a weight on her stomach, though she didn’t know why. “Come on,” Keith began, taking Lukeia into his arms and leading the group, “We’ve gotta get out of here and into our lions.” Quickly, the paladins started running towards the hangar, running into Coran and knocking out the Galra cornering him and returning to their jog.
Nearby, they heard pair of Galra messing around with their Bayards and they hid behind some walls.
“Great,” Lance whispered, “They’ve got our Bayards. What are going to do?”
Suddenly, Kallur jumped out and took out his Bayard and yelled, “Let me at ‘em!”
Lance and Pidge quickly grabbed Kallur and hid him behind the wall again, Lance’s hand muffling the little boy’s mouth and Pidge sighed in exasperation, “There goes the element of surprise.”
Then, Keith’s bayard was in his hand in a flash, surprising the team, and he jumped at the two guards, defeating them in exactly five seconds. Kallur peered over the wall and his eyes sparkled with admiration and gasped, “Dad’s so cool!”
Keith slipped on his helmet and turned towards the team with orders, “Lance, lead the way. Keep the team together.”
The team rushed to get their equipment and to get moving and Lance stopped Keith for a second, “Wait, where are you going?”
“Acxa saved our skin. I’m not going to leave her behind.”
Allura turned around to watch Keith leave and smiled fondly when she saw Keith ruffled Kallur’s head as he left the team to go help Acxa. Kallur looked at his mom next, and rose a confused eyebrow when he saw her watching his dad walking off and he tugged on her hand, “Mom you’re looking at dad all lovey-dovey again.”
Allura shook out of her daydreaming and she looked mortified as she saw the team smiling at her knowingly. She backed up in surprise, “N-No! I’m not!”
“Alright, kiddo,” Krolia plopped a helmet Kallur’s head, saving Allura from his oblivious teasing, “We need to get you suited up.”
As Krolia dressed Kallur, Allura dressed Lukeia, who was still unconscious, and Shiro, Romelle, and Coran struggled to find a way to fit baby Keilu in a tiny suit and helmet they found in one of the crates.
“Let’s get to the Lions,” Lance ordered as Keith’s right-hand and began moving towards the hangar.
Kallur beamed and rose his right hand, “I call dibs on riding with dad!”
Allura looked up at Shiro, who was running beside her, and asked, “Would you take him with you?”
Keith lifted Kallur up on top of his shoulders and smiled reassuringly, “I’ve got him.”
Kallur laughed and rose up his hands in excitement, “Yay! Uncle Shiro!”
Lance ran up to the controls beside the hatch of the hangar and pulled down a lever, the door immediately opening and the team was sucked out of the ship and into space. Kallur was laughing and enjoying the ride with his uncle, gazing up at the sky and the red nebula nearby.
Behind the team, a group of Galrans ganged up together and began firing on them, Shiro having to swerve out of the way to avoid getting hit and Kallur whooped and cheered him on. The Black Lion was kind enough to open its jaws and let them in but it would not power up and it waited for Keith to return.
Allura entered her lion once she made sure her son was safe inside and she gently laid Lukeia on the pod inside her Lion. Romelle braced herself against Allura’s chair and held onto baby Keilu tightly as Allura powered up the Blue Lion.
“Guys!” Keith’s voice sounded through their helmet, “Zero in on my location and fire on the ship!”
Allura’s eyes widened and reluctantly prepared the Blue Lion to fire, “Are you sure?”
“Just do it!”
Allura took a deep breath and prayed to the ancients that Keith wasn’t pulling anything stupid in the ship and did as she was told, seeing the rest of the lions fire on Keith’s location as well and she hoped for the best.
Her eyes widened in worry when she saw an intense explosion erupt and multiple explosions throughout the ship followed after. The Black Lion rushed towards the ship and a wave of relief overtook her once she saw Keith fly through a thick black smoke. However, once she saw him holding Acxa’s hand, another feeling overwhelmed her and she tried to convince herself that it wasn’t jealousy. Once Keith was inside the Black Lion, it turned around and left the ship to destroy itself, the rest of the lions following close behind.
When Keith walked into the cockpit, he was bombarded by a little tornado and almost fell backwards when Kallur jumped into his arms.
“You were so awesome dad! I want to be just like you when I grow up!” Keith chuckled at the little kid in his arms and smiled softly.
“Thanks, buddy. I’ll teach some moves when we arrive on Earth, alright?”
“Yay!” Kallur punched his fist in the air and something caught his eye. He turned around and saw Acxa behind his father and he asked her, “Who are you?”
“Acxa,” the woman replied curtly and Keith noticed her gaze kept shifting between him and Kallur in his arms before she asked Keith, “Is this your son?”
“Yep!” Kallur answered proudly and he beamed.
Keith wanted to say the truth so that Acxa wouldn’t be confused, but it wasn’t the right moment. Kallur didn’t need to know the truth yet. Not when he already lost his universe. Keith put Kallur down and headed for the pilot seat sending a curt, ‘thank you’ to Acxa before sitting down and taking the controls.
“You can send your team these coordinates. That’s my hideout for now. You can rest up there,” Acxa sent coordinates on over to Keith, who later passed it on to his Lion to send it to the team and offered her another ‘thank you’ before making plans with the team.
Acxa stood behind in a corner, seeing that Kallur wouldn’t stop looking at her but she didn’t really know what to say to him so she stayed quiet. Right up until Kallur decided to say what he thought.
“You’re pretty.”
Acxa’s eyes widened at the compliment and she looked down at the kid in shock. He had a completely innocent face gazing up at her. “Uh, thank...you?”
She looked over at Keith, hoping he would save her from the awkward conversation with his child. But, alas, that was not the case since he continued making plans with the team.
“Have you met my brother and sister? They’re with mommy now.”
“No. I haven’t.”
“That’s okay. I’ll introduce you to them when we see them again. My older sister’s name is Lukeia, she’s bossy and grouchy sometimes but she’s cool and looks just like mommy. My little brother’s Keilu. He’s just a baby so he just cries a lot. Oh! And he uses the bathroom a lot too. Gamma said that we both look like dad but we have mom’s eyes.”
Acxa nodded along and ate up all the information, “And… who’s your mother?” She asked it, but she felt she already knew judging by the boy’s altean marks.
“My mom’s the Blue Paladin! Allura!”
Acxa nodded in understanding and looked at the man piloting the Black Lion. She was too late. But, judging by how Keith handled the child in his arms, she was glad that he’s happy. That’s all that matters.
