Two

     Re-entry was extremely turbulent. The spatial disturbance had disrupted Arus' atmosphere and stirred up some massive thunderstorms. Luckily Black Lion thrived on lightning, even if the wind shears were strong enough to make him highly thankful for the invention of the seatbelt several times.
     The landing was rough, Black's massive paws digging gouges in the ground for a few hundred yards in the flat terrain nearest the Castle of Lions. He sat for a moment, dazed, and allowed his sense of balance and momentum to stabilize. Even though he didn't want to admit it, that particular re-entry, far too fast, combined with the disorienting waves of the… whatever that was, made him nauseous and dizzy. Enough that he had come very close to rolling his lion on touchdown.
     His com-sys was shot from the near-crash. He sighed very heavily and activated the view screen. That, at least, worked. In the near distance the Castle of Lions beckoned welcomingly. After that, a couple of hours lounging would be less guilty and far more pleasure. First things first, however.
     Shakily, Keith got to his feet, his legs like rubber, and headed for the hatch. Before he could turn, he saw something in front of him that caused him to sink back into his seat. Landing somewhat less roughly, and going into an immediate threat posture, was the mirror image of Black Lion.

     Black hit the ground running. The thing entering Arus' atmosphere had broken up, and he was only able to tail the largest and most threatening fragment that headed for the Castle. His senses were on high-alert, but disoriented by the freakish pulse wave that expelled the phenomenon. When he saw what the largest part consisted of, once it had skidded to a stop in the rocky land near Yellow's den, he had to blink thrice to assure himself he wasn't dreaming.
     "This has *GOT* to be a trick. That or I'm still in bed…" Whatever it was, no matter how much it looked like his own beloved Black, he was still under obligation to protect Arus. And whoever was flying that thing couldn't be in the best of shape given that horrendous landing.
     He waited a few moments, pacing with his lion in front of the other, a heavy, threatening rumble emanating from Black's alloy throat. Both pilot and metal beast were still quirked from the disruption, the former jumpy as a cappuccino addict, the latter giving off inaccurate readings and diagnostics and suffering from a depletion of energy reserves. When no countermeasures were taken over all their posturing, he dropped Black into a reclining Sphinx position and decided to investigate closer.
     The fur all the way down his spine prickled and waved as he somersaulted from the hatch of his lion and landed neatly on all fours on her outstretched front paw. He approached cautiously, cursing himself for not having the sense to stay in his lion and just sit on his curiosity until he was sure he had the situation totally under control… but it wasn't every day another Black Lion just dropped out of the sky, was it?

     Back at castle command, Allura stared as Coran's eyes went wide and his jaw fell open. When she got a good look at the monitors, she near-to mirrored his reaction. The tracking system showed what appeared to be all five lions, plus one, having just re-entered Arusan space. Another scan confirmed that not 50 miles from the Castle of Lions, two Black Lions stared each other down… and the other four were on the move, honing in on them.

     Keith crept closer to the other lion, his ears tilted so far forward that they began to hurt at the root. He was still nervous, and it showed in the agitated lashing of his full brush of a tail and the arch of his neck and spine. There was something very, very wrong here, and he didn't need any extra senses to know that.
     His ears perked up at a familiar roaring whine. Red Lion appeared over the nearest mountain range. It was a bit odd that he approached opposite the volcano, but what did that matter? Keith's greeting smile faded to a look of dawning horror as the crimson cat descended the slope.
     A while ago, for an exhibition, Lance had thought it funny to put a set of steel spires around Red's neck joint, giving the appearance of a spiked collar. He had then tried to convince Keith to install a mohawk on Black, saying how cool it would look when they formed Voltron, then, grabbing two handfuls of his young leader's thick tresses, he'd pulled them up into a mockery of a punk hairstyle. Keith had just laughed and pounced him. Just the night before, he'd elbowed his best friend and asked him when he was going to remove the spikes from his poor lion. Lance had just laughed and pounced him. The Red descending the slope bore no such adornment. Keith finally found the legs to move when it broke into a lope on reaching the bottom.

     Lance could hardly believe what he saw. Two Black Lions? Bad enough his com unit was shot to hell… He banged on his console, trying to beat the bug out of it, but apparently it was showing right. A white and black blur bounced across the terrain and into the one stretched out on the ground like a lazy cat, and in a moment it lurched to life, as well as its feet. Swiveling its massive head towards him, it roared and backed away, then bound out of the canyon and towards the castle.

     Keith was stunned at the speed and grace with which the other lion pilot moved when he saw Lance approach in Red. Whoever it was was not human, that much was clear. His com was still out, and he was still queasy, but forced himself to force his lion up. The other pilot was heading for the castle, and he couldn't allow that to happen.

     Usually when it came to fight or flight, there was no question as to fight, but this was overwhelming. What the hell was going on? He'd get back to the castle and suss it out. Right now his brain was overloading and logic was not high on his priority list. Coran would be able to understand. Yes, he would know.
     Blue and Green came racing up to him, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He realized all too quickly that, like Red, these were not lions he knew. The princess was not the best of pilots, but somehow got her lion to move in a graceful pace or trot, not the stiff, loping run of the Blue before him. Likewise, Green lacked the animal gracefulness of the team he knew. These lions moved like… robot lions.
     The pair hesitated and roared a greeting. He didn't have time to respond before Red and the other Black crested the ridge and boxed him in. He felt like a rabbit in a snare. He had no idea who he was surrounded by, what their intentions were. All he knew was their lions seemed identical enough to his own, and that he was too low on power to fight them all off. His transmission to the castle was broken by residuals from the temporal disturbance, and even further hampered by the speed at which he was speaking, but the uncharacteristic confusion and panic in his voice was all too clear.

      There was something captivating about the Black that turned this way and that, looking for the best possible escape as they held it at bay. Allura was fascinated at how much like a real lion it moved, as if the joints were cartilage and sinew instead of metal and cable. When Hunk finally arrived in Yellow to completely box him in, she could almost read the desperation of whoever was inside reflected in the open-mouthed growl of the black cat. She knew that the ears would be folded back if they weren't rigid metal.
     She watched as the pilot, realizing he was in a no-win situation, brought his lion's pacing to a halt, and brought her down onto her stomach, head low in forced submission. The airlock in her head opened and from it stepped a slender figure who crawled out onto the nosebridge of the great feline and sat, waiting.

     Lance was the first one out of his lion, followed by Keith. It would have been one thing had whoever this was been a Tiger Fighter, but a Lion Knight? And in a duplicate of Black Lion at that?
     A wave of a laser muzzle signaled to the still pilot to jump down. With great hesitancy he did so. The others had filtered out of their lions for a closer look at this strange pilot. This was getting stranger by the moment.
     His skin-tight red and white uniform was no different from theirs, even if the body within it seemed impossibly proportioned for a human. He was leggy and slender in an androgynous way. His stance was one of caution and mistrust mingled with confusion. They saw quickly that what they initially thought was a paler than death complexion was in truth a coat of silvery fur. When he removed his helmet, a cascade of hair so raven it shone with violet and blue in the sun tumbled down his back. Pointed ears were folded back slightly and the tip of his thick tail twitched rapidly.
      Lance moved closer, gun still trained on this strange creature. Cautiously, he reached out a hand towards him, if only to confirm that the animal-person really existed. The furred pilot's ears went flat against his skull, and his tail dipped slightly between his legs, a sound that was not quite a purr growing in his throat.
      "OWWWWWW!" Lance whirled back towards his teammates, dropping his pistol in favor of clutching his left hand to his chest. Flowers of bright blood bloomed through the leather of his glove, "OW! SHIT! THE LITTLE BASTARD *BIT* ME! FUCK!" Lance normally didn't swear, but he felt that the pain in his hand fully warranted it.
     Feeling both brave and diplomatic, the princess scooped up Lance's laser before his furry assailant could grab it. On the contrary, the creature seemed stunned on hearing Lance's voice, which gave her the needed time to get a steady aim on him before he turned to notice her. The growl again, eyes darting back and forth between the gun, Lance, and his lion.
     "M-My name is Allura, and I'm the princess of this planet, Arus… D-Do you have a name?" Another stunned, confused look. Pale lips purse, open to reveal teeth that could have done far worse than just puncture the skin of Lance's hand, then close again. Whisker-shot dark eyebrows furrow, eyes narrowed, midnight blue depths belying a mind desperately trying to work something terribly puzzling out. Jerky head-motions, like a predatory dinosaur, then soft words.
     "A-Allura…?" The voice, his voice… there was a purring undertone to it, and it was not as hard and perhaps a fraction higher, but it was close enough…
     "Yes… I'm Allura. And you're…?" she waited patiently for an answer. Instead she got a lopsided smile, and saw the creature sway slightly. She squeaked in surprise as he slumped to the ground, catching himself hard with his arms. Despite cautions spoken to her by her teammate, in Lance's case shot with blue words, she lay aside the pistol and knelt to try and meet those bewildered, lost eyes. He spoke again, as if questioning his own existence.
     "Kogane. Keith Akira Kogane." Silence was his answer.

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