Just a Drop
Allura hopped out of Red, boots hitting the ground with a reassuring THUD before she reached up to help Acxa down.
“It seems stable,” she promised, twining their fingers as Acxa leapt from Red, “and the fire does not reach this far. According to Red’s readings, there is even air within. Maybe your wind following would have worked after all.”
Acxa rolled her eyes, a smile light on her lips though as she squeezed Allura’s hand.
“Please, only your quintessence following would have found that stupid route. Astral plane levels of insanity is the only reason we’re here.”
Allura laughed, shaking her head lightly as she patted Red, who was still purring because I showed that puny gate fire power!
Acxa landed with a hand on her gun and the other in Allura’s, her eyes flickering over the landscape suspiciously as her princess removed both of their helmets gently, placing them on Red’s paw.
“This doesn’t make sense though,” Acxa muttered, glaring at the fire raging all around them. “We are only halfway through the gate from the look of it; the flames should be consuming everything here, and fire drinks up air. By all logic, we can’t breathe.”
“Since when does alchemy follow logic?” Teased Allura, shaking her head as she marvelled at the way the flames rolled around the asteroid, the red light merging with the golden quintessence trail running across the surface of the rock. “Excellent, the trail was not mistaken! This way!” She called, catching Acxa’s hand and spinning with a smile that outshone the flames raging around them. “I cannot wait to explore Oriande with you!”
Acxa couldn’t stop the smile from spreading like wildfire over her own face, laughter trailing behind them as they raced along the asteroid’s quintessence trail. It was simultaneously more normal than she had ever dreamed of and far more insane than she would have thought possible, but it was everything Acxa could ever want because Allura was there with her. So, no matter what they faced next, they would get past it together. They would win this war and the larger one at their doorstep.
And, maybe, when it was over…
Acxa tightened her grip, speeding up to run alongside Allura, eyes catching the light off the flames as she threw her head back with a whoop of laughter. And if her old hairpieces were blown off, abandoned to bounce against the rocks, letting her hair fly free, she only watched them go with a smile. They may have been all she thought she was worthy of for decaphoebs, of scorn and disdain, but if Lotor, Ezor, Zethrid, Narti, Voltron, and, most of all, Allura thought she deserved more…
Then maybe it was time for her to take some pride in herself.
So she dashed onwards, tearing through all the you’re-not-good-enoughs, through the acting-high-and-mightys, through the taking-advantage-of-the-princes, through every voice, every shout, everyone who had ever turned and given her a you’re-useless, you’re-a-failure, you-can’t, you’re-in-the-way, you’re-a-disgrace, you’re-a-waste-of-space, you-don’t-belong-in-this-place, you’re-never-going-to-make it out, and, you’re-just-lucky. Acxa leapt through the air and smashed through them, splintered pieces of their condemnation raining down on the asteroid they had found, abandoned to be forgotten because lies weren’t worth remembering. But the truths of her friends—of her family—those should be prized above all else. After all, she prized them above all else. And there was one in particular that she wanted more than anything to express how much she adored.
Acxa pulled Allura to a stop, cupping her princess’ cheek, and kissed the girl that she loved more than she had ever thought possible. Her lips were unbearably soft, just slightly chapped, and as warm as the heartbeat matching her own. Their noses brushed, Allura’s hand sliding along Acxa’s back to steady her, and the world melted away. It was just them, just two girls who loved each other more than any fairy tale could even conceive. It was just Acxa and Allura. No generals, no princesses, no Galrans or Alteans, no war or alchemy, just them.
No wonder it was perfect.
“I love you, Allura,” breathed Acxa, tears pricking her eyes as she pulled her princess into a hug. “I love you with all my heart.”
Allura squeezed her so tight her bones rattled, burying her face in Acxa’s shoulder and letting out a shaky exhale.
“I love you too. More than I have words for.”
That was fine by Acxa; those few words were more than enough. Any more and she would cry.
“Shall we get back to finding that entrance?”
“Mmmhmmmmmm.”
“…Five more dobashes?”
“Mmmmmmhmmm.”
“…I don’t recall fire being the core element of Altea; I thought it was wind,” managed Acxa, staring at the tiny gate of flames blocking off the entrance to a cave just big enough for the two of them. “Was it a big ceremonial thing?”
“No,” replied Allura, rubbing her forehead as she glared at the flames mocking her once again. “No, you are right about our core element, and our ceremonies reflected that. However, the quintessence trail ends here. It is not offering me any sort of path through the flames,” she admitted with a faint growl. “I am not sure how we are supposed to get past.”
“Well, are they real flames?” Asked Acxa, stepping towards the mini inferno between them and the cave. “I like to make sure flames are real before being scared of them; illusions are most common in alchemy from my understanding of it.”
Allura tightened her grip on Acxa’s hand.
“And how do you propose we test—”
Acxa stuck her hand into the fire. Allura shrieked, eyes flashing with the destruction of Altea, the fire that had burnt away her friends and family, the thing that had taken so much from her, that was now on her loved one’s hand! Willingly! Acxa didn’t blink as the flames spread to her glove with a fury, licking over the fabric and dissolving it even after the general pulled it out, staring at it for a tick before dumping a water canteen over it.
“Definitely genuine fire; illusions can’t spread past the space they are created for,” she stated, capping the canteen and sliding it back into her bag. “Now, as for how to get past it—”
“What sort of test was that?!” Cried Allura, snatching Acxa’s wrist and jerking it over to her, lips contorted in pure rage. “There were plenty of ways we could have accomplished that without putting your physical wellbeing at risk! Why on Altea or Daibazaal would you do that?!”
Acxa blinked, transfixed by Allura’s wrath as her princess inspected the burns rapidly healing on her skin, crystalline eyes glowing with tears. “You cannot just throw yourself in the line of fire and expect everyone to be fine with that! You matter more than that, Acxa!”
“Allura, fire doesn’t do more than sting me,” replied Acxa with a soft chuckle as the last of the burns melted off her skin. “I am only half-Galra, remember? I am also half-Tevanian; we are immune to the pain of fire and any long-term effects from it. You need not worry, I would never have done that if it had left me with only one hand to help you with. After all,” she added, brushing a hand along Allura’s cheek with a tender smile, “I need one hand to hold yours while the other fights alongside you.”
Allura let out a breathless, hitching laugh, and pressed a kiss to the formerly burned hand as a single tear fell against the skin.
“Thank Altea,” she murmured, nuzzling her cheek into Acxa’s palm. “So, the fire isn’t an illusion?”
“No.”
“Okay,” said Allura, squeezing Acxa’s hands as she glanced around. “Well, I am sure we are simply missing something. Perhaps there is a clue somewhere? An alchemical secret I need to unlock, a pattern in the flames, or a code? Or,” she burst out, a grin exploding across her face and into her eyes like fireworks. “This planet seems rather well-protected against fire, wouldn’t you say?”
Acxa grinned, glancing at the flames leaping around them, never once touching them, encircling the asteroid as if the fire was cradling it.
“Yes, but I thought you said alchemy didn’t follow logic,” she replied, smile dropping. “How are we to figure out a solution that is devoid of logic?”
“This asteroid has the solution; we just need to find it,” insisted Allura, flexing her fingers as she eyed the rocks beneath her feet; they seemed strangely familiar.
She pursed her lips, kneeling beside the flicker of blue that had caught her eye and running her fingers over it to clear away the dirt. Acxa was beside her in a tick, her claws making short work of the dirt, throwing it to the side in a cloud of dust as she gave Allura a deep nod. Allura’s heart quickened, and she flashed her love a grateful smile as she pressed her palm to the blue crystals just barely hidden beneath the layer of dust covering the asteroid. Because, no questions asked, Acxa would always support Allura. And Allura refused to let her down.
The crystals lit up an ocean blue under her touch, flashes of light filling the void around them, and Allura’s Altean marks blossomed into an orchid pink as it blended with the light. Acxa sat, bewitched by the glow spreading across the asteroid, and Allura smiled softly.
“Thank you,” she murmured, closing her eyes and bowing her head until the crown of her forehead touched the dirt.
A wave of blue exploded out from her forehead, washing over the asteroid as Acxa gaped and Allura smiled. She would recognize the energy of the Balmera anywhere. And while she didn’t have the Castle of Lions here to amplify her strength, the asteroid was barely one-fifth the size of the Balmera, so her own quintessence should suffice. She forced her palms to stay light on the surface of the asteroid, pumping energy through her fingertips as it branched out across the rocks, coating each with a faint blue glow as the crystals reacted to her faint graze. She didn’t need to hold the stream, after all. She got plenty of water with just a tap.
Allura could practically feel the streams of it weaving around her, glowing a bright blue as they swam through the rocks, dancing across crystals and racing back home, home, home, home. Just like the streams of Altea. Allura bit back tears as her mother’s words washed over her, flashes of matching purple dresses, white flower crowns, and the royal gardens flickering behind her eyes.
“You don’t have to hold the stream, Ally,” said her mother with a laugh, tucking a wave behind Allura’s ear. “Just reach out and tap it. You’ll get plenty of water.”
The tiny girl blinked in confusion, cocking her head before giving up and giggling. Silly mother, there was never enough water. She laughed, plunging both hands into the water with an echoing SPLASH, spraying her mother and herself with tiny droplets. Then she threw her head back and laughed even harder, whooping with delight. Her mother just sighed and shook her head, smiling indulgently at the tiny girl.
“Oh, alright,” she said, trailing a finger in the waves caused by her daughter. “Just be careful not to fall in, Allura.”
“I will not fall, mother.”
The crystals pulsed under the asteroid, veins of precious stone cutting through the thick slabs of rock that shielded them from the flames, that protected them, that made up the core of the asteroid that was their home, that had been carved solely to keep them safe. Allura’s forehead grew cold against the crystal, her eyes shut resolutely, and her fingers trembled as light bloomed across the asteroid. Crystal tunnels flashed behind her eyelids, a trail of light sparkling through the heart of the rocks, setting the core of the asteroid ablaze in an oceanic glow that bled into the carving imprinting itself into Allura’s mind. A rippling shield, a shining set of fiery squiggles, and a blocky V underneath two short, horizontal lines linked with a vertical one, all three carved so deep into the asteroid that Allura felt dizzy at just the glance, each symbol pulsing with unfathomable power.
“Thank you,” breathed Allura again, drawing her fingers from the dust with a final press of her forehead to the dirt as the quintessence flowed back into her. “I will honor this knowledge.”
Acxa knelt nearby, one knee raised and her gun out, eyes flicking over the asteroid’s surface with the faintest yellow glow in case anything decided to sneak up on them. Her shoulders were high in warning, teeth slightly gritted and power lining every curve of her body. Allura smiled gently as she rose, scuffing her boots pointedly in the dirt, and Acxa’s tight mouth eased slightly at the sound.
“I believe I have the solution,” admitted Allura, kneeling beside Acxa to trace the symbols she had seen in the dirt. “But I do not understand it. I mean, I know that this is fire, and this is shield,” she added, gesturing to the first two symbols before tapping the final set of squiggles, “but I haven’t the faintest clue what this means. It looks perhaps like a palace?”
Acxa’s eyes raked over the drawings scratched into the asteroid, her gun still cocked as she gave the terrain a final scan. Her lips pulled up into a smile.
“Or maybe it is a reference to some ancient planet? I guess, if we turned it a bit, it looks kind of like our word for riches, or maybe flight? Or do you think it is a rune that activates Altean alchemy?” Rattled Allura, tugging at her ear as her markings wrinkled in thought. “Perhaps there is another language for Altean alchemy altogether, and this is one of their keystone words?”
“It’s rocks, Allura,” Acxa said gently, a nostalgic tinge to her eyes with the faintest shine of pain. “It’s a drawing of rocks. That’s…that’s street code from Ularian, where I grew up. It’s the one we used to talk about caves with because it was drawn all over them along with suns and what I only came to understand later were lions. I believe you’ve been there,” she added with a faint smile, spinning her gun back to its holster, “home of the Yellow Lion and all.”
Allura’s eyes widened, a breath catching in her throat, and her eyes shot away.
“No, not recently,” she admitted. “I sent only Hunk and Lance to retrieve the Yellow Lion. I had to find the Red Lion at the time before the Galra Empire attacked Arus and, by the time we were ready to lift off and rescue planets, Ularian had already been liberated by the rebels.”
“Oh,” replied Acxa, biting her lip and looking down. “That makes sense. Well, it’s extremely mountainous and is a massive mining gem for the Empire. Most of us spend our time underground, so we were rather familiar with those symbols.”
Allura smiled, taking Acxa’s hand gently and kissing her knuckles.
“It sounds like a very strong and steady community,” she replied, her markings giving off a faint glow. “You’ll have to take me there sometime.”
Acxa chuckled, tracing a finger around the symbols, and squeezed Allura’s hand, one eyebrow raising as she smirked.
“Not an ideal honeymoon spot,” she teased, savoring the frantic flashing of her love’s markings and the spluttered protests spilling from Allura’s lips, “but I’d be more than happy to show you around.”
Allura’s face lit up brighter than the flames bombarding the asteroid around them, and she turned back to the symbols with a ferocity shimmering in her eyes that almost seemed to make the drawings glow. Acxa grinned, pressing a kiss to Allura’s cheek and turning back to the drawings.
“You can do it, love,” she murmured. “I believe in you.”
Allura took a deep breath, nodding, and traced the symbols with her finger once again, letting the thoughts spill from her lips as they came into her head like Lance used to do.
“Well, these symbols seem to directly translate to shield-fire-earth, and it is clearly an alchemical enchantment. From what you said about the caves,” she continued, dropping a kiss on Acxa’s cheek, “we can guarantee it is ancient Altean. That means that it is closer to meaning ‘earth is fire shield’ since our subjects go at the start of our sentence.”
She bit her lip, frowning as she studied the fire symbol. It reminded her of something…something she should know like the back of her hand, like her own breath, like her heartbeat, like her own mind—
Red giggled, tail flicking over Allura’s face as she circled through her mind. She rumbled low in her throat, curling up around her paladin’s feet and purring contentedly as Allura bent to scratch under her chin. Red was endlessly itchy under there and across her back.
“What is it, girl?” Murmured Allura, spinning lazy circles over to Red’s back with one hand while the other attended to her Lion’s neck. “Why do I know these symbols?”
Red just purred, batting at Allura’s hands as she reached her back, and rolled over until her soft underbelly was tangled in Allura’s fingers. She turned glittering golden eyes on Allura as if in challenge, and her paladin’s shoulders rose to the dare instantaneously. Allura rubbed her fingers along Red’s belly, the symbols still flashing behind her eyes, and Red purred as her paladin’s hands rubbed along her stomach, whiskers flicking Allura’s cheek slightly. Allura sighed, cracking her neck to the side as she let her eyes drift over her Lion’s pure white stomach, over her tail, flicking like a little flame dancing through the air…
Allura jerked back to her own body with a sharp intake of breath, Red’s fur vanishing from under her fingers to be replaced with the symbols suddenly so clear to her in the ground.
“Earth is fire’s shield,” murmured Allura, Altean marks glowing a searing white that had nothing on her eyes as she continued talking. “Earth is fire’s shield! That’s it! Alchemy does have logic! It has a system, a set of fundamentals and rules!”
Acxa raised an eyebrow as Allura dug her finger into the ground, swirling in the Black Lion’s symbol alongside Red’s fire and Yellow’s earth. She arched Green’s arrow into the ground, curved Blue’s lines through the dirt with a soft smile of homecoming, and turned to Acxa with a pure sunshine smile and a half-hysterical laugh.
“They’re all connected, just like the Lions,” insisted Allura, drawing an arrow from earth to fire. “Earth is fire’s shield; it can deflect fire, just like what we’re seeing here. The spell we saw didn’t give these rocks the power to deflect fire; it just enhanced their natural ability to do that by creating a barrier around them! The spell is set up just like a sentence: shield is what must be done, fire is what that is being done upon, and earth is what is doing. That means that earth is strong to fire, which makes sense, because Yellow is the one Lion whose defenses can withstand Red’s attacks,” continued Allura, drawing an arrow from fire to Green’s plants, “but Red’s fire is strongest against Green’s weaker defenses because she is the only one who can catch Green. In contrast, Green’s speed outclasses Blue’s and puts her at a disadvantage,” theorized Allura, drawing an arrow from plants to Blue’s water, “while Blue is the only Lion whose pinpoint accuracy can disable Black’s defenses, and she is fast enough to catch them. But Black,” added Allura, drawing one arrow from the water to Black’s air, “is the only one whose attacks are too strong for Yellow to withstand. Every element has a weakness that is another one’s strength, and every single one of them has a strength that is another’s weakness,” she finished, a faint rasp in her voice by the end.
She glanced up at Acxa, gesturing to her web of element weaknesses and strengths with a flushed grin. “It’s just like the paladins themselves!” She insisted, writing down their names and cackling as she remembered the way she had once nearly despaired at the dysfunctional level of insanity that their team had once possessed. “Hunk got along with Keith amazingly even from the beginning because he could get Keith to lower his guard, but Keith and Pidge struggled for a time because she couldn’t stand that there was someone who would fight with her regardless of her prowess because he had just as much talent and dedication. Pidge is able to figure out counterarguments so quickly that Lance is left defenseless in debates, but his quick wit always throws Shiro off his game and allows Lance to win a laugh and usually a couple of points from him. And, from the start, Shiro was the only one who could make Hunk back down from even his strongest of instincts because of Shiro’s sound logic.
“Back then, they all saw each other’s weaknesses and covered for them, only bringing them out when they were seeking victory. Now, though,” she added with a soft smile, pressing her palm into the center of the symbols, “now we have grown together. We have taught each other how to cover our own weaknesses with our strengths, how to bring out each other’s best, and how to rise to the challenge as a united front of equals. We are not just teammates or companions or the Paladins of Voltron or even friends; we are so much more than that,” she stated, standing and dusting off her hands as she reached out to Acxa. “We are family.”
Acxa caught her princess’s wrist, and Allura’s strong fingers yanked her to her feet as she grinned. “The elements, though? Those have never grown. So if we enhance one of them, another becomes weaker. It is all about equivalent exchange, just as Shiro joked when I first told him about Oriande,” she continued to practically squeal as she dashed back towards the smaller gate of flames, “except it is not about what is put in coming back out! It is about what is given to one force being taken from another. We can mold the flow of energy, but that means that if we divert the flow into one spot, then it will take that away from another! So we must only nudge the flow of quintessence, nothing more. A tap is more than enough,” she said, nearly laughing as she pulled up right in front of the cave entrance with a fresh spark in her eyes. “More than that, and we might fall in.”
Acxa rammed into Allura’s back, bouncing off with a little giggle as she squeezed Allura’s hand, her face practically aglow under her angel’s enthusiastic fire. It was like she had finally found what she was born to do.
“You’ve got this, Ally,” she said, snapping a knife from her gauntlet and passing it gingerly to her princess with a soft smile. “May I present the esteemed and upcoming alchemist with her writing utensil?”
Allura giggled, bowing as she accepted the knife before holding it like a pen above the ground just to hear her love erupt in a torrent of laughter. Then she pulled a marker from her pocket that Nadia and Sylvio had given her when she left (“for good luck!” Insisted Sylvio, a faint pout to his lip as his Tía Allura got ready to board the ship. “It’s my favorite marker!”) and pressed the pink tip to the dagger.
“The rocks that this was made from should react to this, theoretically,” she said, holding up the luxite blade with a battle grin and squeezing Acxa’s hand tightly, “and it should serve as a suitable counterspell. Shall we try it?”
Acxa beamed, intertwining their fingers, and holding them up in one fist that, combined, could break through anything.
“No time like the present.”
Allura stepped forward, flipping the dagger into the air and pressing a kiss to Acxa’s lips before she caught the hilt and slashed through the gate of flames locking them away from Oriande in a single motion.
The flames sputtered against the blade, hissing away from the runes as they glowed a stinging yellow, and Allura let out a whoop as a line of the darkness beyond broke through the wall of fire. She cut out a square in the flames, spinning to throw a glowing smile at Acxa as the entrance to Oriande opened up in front of them. Allura twirled Acxa with a breathless laugh, dipping her before pulling her into another soft kiss. She would never get used to getting to kiss Acxa whenever she wanted.
“And this is yours, I believe,” said Allura, pressing the Blade of Marmora knife into Acxa’s hand with a soft smile. “Thank you so much, Acxa.”
“Anytime, Allura,” murmured Acxa, a dreamy glow to her eyes that nearly put Allura into cardiac arrest. “Anytime.”
And, hand-in-hand, the two future queens leapt beyond the flames and into Oriande. Right into the jaws of a very large, very angry, and very distinctly glowing white lion spirit.