Chapter Seven
Jack carefully laced up his boots. He'd been up for the last hour, going about his usual morning rituals, but slowly and with a close eye to detail as if his life depended on how well he brushed his teeth. His fingers were steady as he threaded the laces through the boot holes, making sure that he didn't make them too loose or too tight. When he was done, he dusted his hands off and made sure his flightsuit was zipped all the way up to his chin...then he unzipped it when he felt like he was being strangled by his own uniform.
Bethie sat on her bunk, her hands clasped loosely on her lap as she watched him. Her hair was neatly tucked behind her ears and he could see the good-sized diamonds winking in her earlobes. She wasn't much for jewelry but he could always count on some bauble glittering in her ears. Besides the diamonds, she was rumpled and a little rough around the edges. Datapad in hand, she went over their maneuvers for what he was sure was the thousandth time.
"Are you pretty enough for the Black now?" she asked without looking up.
"I've always been," he replied easily, grabbing the datapad from her.
"Hey!"
"You know all this inside and out. If you don't know it yet, you're not going to know it at all."
Not convinced, she took it back. He shrugged and pushed their curtain back. Olivia was at the long table setting out food, her lips turned down at the edges. Jordan and Ethan were setting the table. Matt and Hunk were standing by the Lions going over some last minute bolt tightening. Jack decided to go for the table because the Yearlings had the look on their faces that ensured he would have little to no idea of what they were talking about.
"It looks good, Liv," he said, sitting down.
"You be careful, okay, Jack?" she said worried.
Jack caught her hand and give it a squeeze.
"We'll be back for dinner," he told her.
She smiled wanly.
Ethan sat down next to Jack.
"Remember how we used to play football when we were younger," he asked. "We always fought over who had Uncle Hunk on their team and we had to make sure Dad was on the opposite team so we'd have a decent game going. He was a great quarterback."
"Yeah. How can I forget? My team always won no matter who was in it...aside from myself of course."
"Of course," Jordan said dryly.
"You're quarterbacking this one, Jack," Ethan said, spooning some scrambled egg onto his plate.
"I know. I know what I'm doing, so don't worry. Just make sure you don't get shot out of the sky and I won't be breaking my word to Olivia."
"You talk about it like it's a game," Olivia said, suddenly angry.
They stopped what they were doing and turned to her, surprised. Two red spots showed on her pale cheeks as she glared at them, hands flat on the table as she glared.
"You're going out there and it's very possible, no matter how well you planned or how good your shooting is, that you will not be back for dinner, Jack. The Lotorians have been preparing for this for years, even I know that, but we've been down here for a little over a month. A month. They are hunting you and they will stop at nothing to destroy Voltron and you. You are going out there to make their job even easier."
Pushing his shock aside, Jack looked at his normally serene cousin doing her best impression of a tornado. He was half-afraid that she was about to reach across the table and give him a good shake, but her hands remained on the table. He opened his mouth to respond, but Ethan stood, drawing his attention.
"Liv, we've trained for this," he said gently. "We've been preparing for this day since we were old enough to understand what Voltron was. We all went to to the Academy, except for Bethie, but she's the best pilot out of all of us. We may have little battle experience compared to our parents when they flew the Lions, but we're not going to shrink from the responsibility just because we're green. I am not afraid of what's out there because I've got good people on my back and I trust my own abilities. You gotta believe in us, too, Liv."
She stared at him, her eyes filling with tears.
"I don't want to lose any of you," she said softly.
A hand over her mouth, she turned and disappeared behind the curtain to her bed. Jack started to get up but Ethan put a hand on his shoulder. Their eyes met and in that second, Jack gave him permission. Ethan followed her, his steps slow. Hunk started to follow but Matt put a hand on his arm, shaking his head. The older man's eyes narrowed, but he stayed. If there was any boy in the universe who would be good enough for his daughter, Keith's boy could come close.
"Liv?"
She was sitting on her bed, her head bowed and her arms folded around herself. Ethan had never seen her more vulnerable and he moved slowly as he went to stand in front of her.
"I must have sounded pretty dumb," she said, her voice low. "You do know what you're doing. I should trust that."
"You're entitled to your opinion," he said. "We're scared, too."
"All of you joke and kid around as if you weren't about to go out there to risk your lives. It doesn't make any sense to me. When I have something important ahead of me, I prepare, I meditate...I don't jump on someone else's back and try to beat the crap out of them. You don't seem like you're ready, like you're taking all this as seriously as it is."
Ethan on the bed, putting a hand on her back.
"I can't speak for the others, but I can tell you that flying a Lion is a blessing and a curse. I've never felt as free as I have when I'm in the Blue and the history and legend that surrounds Voltron only makes me feel even more blessed that I am a part of it. Then, all I have to do is think of when Lotorians fighters are converging on my position and I feel like a rabbit in a trap. But it's all part of the job and I would not want anyone else in that cockpit other than me. The Blue is mine, just like it was my mother's before me. We all feel that way."
"I'm so afraid that one of you won't come back."
He wanted to tell her that they would all be back for dinner, just like Jack had promised, but Ethan knew that it would ring just as hollow now as it did then. It was always possible that a Lion would succumb to the power of the Lotorians and that reality was one they had been trying to ignore. It was why Matty lost himself in the Lions, why Jordan lashed out, why Bethie and Jack poured over every single detail to the point of exhaustion. It was why he turned to Olivia when he wanted to convince himself that he would have a future beyond the immediate.
Olivia saw the emotions dance across his expressive face, the blue eyes that she dreamed of turning dark. Her heart in her throat, she touched a hand to his cheek, meaning for it to be a reassuring touch, but she immediately pulled her fingers back as if they had been burned. The touch of his skin was too much right now, too intense for a situation already full of tension. But she needed to touch him and her hand dropped down to rest on his chest.
"Liv," he said, his gaze on her lips. "I have to do this now."
"This isn't goodbye, Ethan," she said.
Her hand closed on his zipper and she tugged. A corner of his mouth lifting, Ethan felt the faint pull and took a step towards her. Cradling her face with his hands, he drew her to him.
"No...it's a promise."
Her lips had already parted when he touched his to them.
The skies above the Castle of Lions was clear. It was a sunny Autumn morning and had it been a regular day, Arusians would have been crowding the streets of Voltronia for the annual farmer's market, enjoying the live music and good food. The King and Queen would have been there as well as their daughters. The Mayor and her husband as well, leading the festivities as they so liked to do.
Not today.
Lance stood with his soldiers, rifle held at ready in his hands. It had been a long time since he'd held a weapon on the battlefield, but there were few things one forgot in life, no matter how many years had passed. Next to him, Pidge fiddled with his helmet as its rim insisted on making contact with the tops of his glasses. He had been adamant about going despite Lance's arguments that he was too important to risk on the battlefield, but Pidge reminded him that he was a soldier above all else, that he had been the pilot of the Green Lion and he had never run from a fight. It was an argument that Lance himself would have given so he let his friend do as he wished. Behind him, Archent was checking his weapon for the umpteenth time. He was not uncomfortable about the enemy so much as he was about the weapons they had in their hands. All the soldiers had both lasers and bullet-firing weapons, but were told to rely mainly on their older weapons to really make a dent. Few had even seen an ammo wielding gun so much as used one.
They would fight this battle with methods that looked to the past for guidance. Trenches would be dug and slowly they would inch forward from their position towards the edges of Voltronia. Lance had briefed all of them several times a day for the past three days and knew that the Arusians were ready. He had seen it on their faces and had heard it in their responses. They wanted to take their planet back and he was going to help them do that, eager to do it. The ones that had to be left in the base had not been too happy about not seeing any action, but they would do their job as ordered. Most of the troops under Lance's command would be on the battlefield that day but some would stay in the base to defend its entrance. That was the strategy as they moved forward with their plan. Each entrance would be manned to ensure that the soldiers would always have a place to run if they had to.
The sounds of the approaching Lions caught Lance's ear. He had been listening for the familiar sound since he had stepped food outside the base and he was pleased to see that Jack was right on time. The five Lions flew overhead then double-backed and circled the gathering troops.
"Ready to rock and roll, Dad?" his son's voice came over his earpiece.
"Born ready, Kid. Be careful."
"I know it."
"Move out."
Leading the charge, the Black flew ahead, guns firing at the oncoming fighters.
"Divide and conquer," Jack said.
The Green and Blue broke off from formation and did a strafing run on the ground, clearing the way for the charging soldiers. The Red and Yellow stayed on the Black's wing as they engaged the fighters. More Lotorians dropped than ever before as their bullets struck the mark, tearing through the weak hulls and lighting up the skies with explosions. The Lotorians were clearly surprised with the ease with which the Arusians tore through their line, but they compensated quickly, tightening up their formations and increasing the frequency of their firing, even if it was to the detriment of their power sources. Jack could see the Arusian soldiers on the ground push forward, at some points even engaging the robots by hand. They would not be able to keep that up.
"Red, fly ahead and scout," Jack ordered.
"Roger that. Here we go," Bethie added under her breath.
