Chapter Text
Pidge could not remember how, could not remember why, for the sake of her sanity, she was standing in the middle of a forest. She presumed it was night, considering how there were not even stars or any celestial object to at least illuminate the place. The forest was something from a standard Earth horror movie – black silhouettes of trees with gnarled branches, red eyes that seemingly stare at her at the corner of her eyes, and her being by her lonesome self. It was a perfect recipe for a cliché, horrendous death. She was not someone easily scared of supernatural things, but something about this place made her blood freeze and unfreeze by itself. That something was not the eerie atmosphere nor the ‘I am alone’ trope, but the silence that enveloped the place.
“…Cold.”
The Green Paladin knew of silence - it was not a foreign concept to her. But the silence that permeated the forest was unnatural. It was the void that swallowed the place, and the one that filled that void, too. It was everything and nothing – all organic and inorganic things existing in this place were nothing but a forced illusion. A delusion of the greedy and wicked. Nothing truly lived here nor died. It was life, it was death.
The silence was the forest itself.
And Pidge wondered how that was possible.
“…Cold…Alone….”
A voice. It was the only sound she could hear amidst the silence. Her bare feet moved against her will, as if drawn by the voice. She kept walking and walking until she found herself standing before a humongous tree. It stood the tallest and widest among all, its ashen black branches reaching the heavens where the others could not. Its ancient roots dug deep into the ground, deeper than the history carved by the natives.
“…Cold and alone….”
There it was again. This time, Pidge was sure it was coming from the tree itself. Even without willing it, her body moved to approach the tree. Four purple, glowing contraptions were dug into the roots of the tree - all of them connected to what seemed to be a purple crystal embedded deep in the trunk of the tree. There was a stench of decay that the Green Paladin could not describe, and she had to cover her nose as she walked closer. A rectangular block made of marble-like stone was installed before the tree, and she had to squint at the words elegantly carved on its stained surface. The words were in a language she did not remember learning but somehow could read.
For the grace of Ninhurgia.
Immediately, a question rose in the youngest Paladin’s mind. Who was Ninhurgia? She paused, suddenly wondering why she would think of ‘Who’ rather than ‘What’ when the voice whispered quietly, as if someone was speaking right by her ear.
“…I am…cold and alone…”
The question spilled from her lips before Pidge could stop it. “Who are you?”
But the voice did not answer, repeating the exact words. Each cycle grew in volume, becoming a screech in her eardrums, like nails dragged against a blackboard. The Green Paladin nearly bent over the surface of the stone block as she tried to block out the voice. The gnarled branches of the trees now crept overhead to reach her.
“…I am cold and alone.”
“… cold and alone!”
“…I AM COLD AND ALONE!”
The voice shrieked, and all hell broke loose. The surface of the stone block collapsed inwardly beneath the smallest Paladin and revealed a deep void below. The voice, no, the voices, were beneath and around her. From the abyss itself, ghastly faces screamed the same words. Their emaciated hands reached out to her, clawing at her skin and trying to drag her down to them. Pidge wanted to scream for help, but the void stole her voice and melded it with the chorus of embodied voices. She wanted to break free, but electrified chains materialized around her wrists and ankles, shackling her to the stone block. Amidst deafening screams, her ears picked up the sound of footsteps, and she desperately looked over her shoulder with hope for help.
The queen of Ninhurgia stood behind her, smiling eerily like a skeleton with her white, jagged teeth. Behind her, white, hooded individuals stood in a semicircle, with the king standing right in the middle. She reached out and placed firm hands on her shoulder blades. “Rejoice, Qelzeok!” She announced. “The Emperor has deemed you fit to serve a greater purpose. You will become one with Ninhurgia. A sacrifice for our planet’s continuing prosperity.”
Queen Ourbele looked up and raised her arms. With a reverent voice, she announced. “For the grace of Ninhurgia.”
The queen’s company clasped their hands and repeated the exact words. With little force, the queen shoved her, and the Green Paladin pitched forward. She managed to look up once last time, at the purple crystal now pulsing like a heartbeat, before falling to the abyss below -
“- een Paladin!”
Pidge jolted awake, her hands fumbling for nothing in the air. She sat up, her eyes flicking wildly around as her body fell into a state of panic and alarm. Rough hands gripped hers firmly to stop her from hurting herself.
“- Green Paladin!” The voice that spoke was different. It was not screaming the same words repeatedly, nor sounded like something from deep under a grave. It was urgent and desperate that the youngest Paladin flinched and turned with unfocused eyes. “Please calm down. You may hurt yourself.”
The fog in Pidge’s mind was thick, but the person before her somehow looked familiar. White hood…pale bark skin…red hair…alien…Ninhurgian. The alien squeezed her hands gently, mint green light glowed from the bark lines on her skin as warmth tingled on the Green Paladin’s fingertips. “W-Who…?”
“My name is Azer.” The Ninhurgian answered. “You have slept longer than I anticipated, but everything has gone well.” She looked up to meet her eyes. “Do you remember where you are right now?”
“I…” Pidge pulled one hand away and placed it on her throbbing temple. Where…? “I…am on a planet. Not Earth…Ninhurgia?” She mumbled. “My team was supposed to get supplies. My team…Voltron. I am a Paladin of Voltron. The Green Paladin.” She winced. “I got sick, I think? I don’t remember much about it….”
“That is correct.” Azer nodded. Her voice was soft and quiet, as if she was afraid to scare her. “And I am the healer sent to look after you.”
“Where am I…? Where’s everybody?” Whether because of the fog clearing in her mind or Azer’s alien magic, the Green Paladin became increasingly aware of her surroundings. She looked around and noticed the interior was nothing like the Castle of Lions’. The walls were not made of polished Altean metal, but solid bark carved from the inside of a tree. There were no windows, but a small door camouflaged against the wooden walls. She would have missed it if she had not squinted hard. The room’s furnishing was sparse – only the basics were placed, including the bed she was sitting on – and was made of the same material as the walls. All of it she could see with a dim illumination in the form of a golden lantern.
“We are on the capital’s outskirts, far from where your spaceship is located.” Azer rose from her stool and walked to a small table stuck in a corner of the room. Pidge could not properly make out what she was doing, but it seemed she was picking through the leaves of a plant. “Your friends are still in the capital, but…” She trailed off for a second before resuming. “They are safe, if that is what you wished to know.”
The Green Paladin watched as she pounded the leaves with a stone mortar and pestle and added what the former assumed to be berries. The Ninhurgian added an unknown liquid to the mix and stirred before pouring some into a wooden saucer. She walked back to Pidge’s bedside and offered her the tiny plate. “Drink. This will help you regain your energy.”
The youngest Paladin eyed the golden mixture in the saucer warily. She expected the same feeling of repulsion she felt toward Ninhurgian food, but it never came. It was strange – the lack of utter aversion she had been afflicted with since setting foot on the planet - and she wanted to turn it down, but the healer was looking at her expectantly. She gingerly accepted the saucer and took a small sip. She anticipated the taste to be bitter, but instead, a fragrant sweetness touched her taste buds. “What is this?”
“It is a simple medicine to regain one’s strength,” Azer answered as she settled on her stool. “The ingredients are Nature’s blessings. The opposite of what my people create.”
Before Pidge realized, she had already drunk all the medicine. “What do you mean?”
Azer sighed and placed her hands on her lap. “My people, my planet…everything is not what it seems, Green Paladin. What your eyes can see is nothing but lies. This planet has been rotting for hundreds of deca-phoebs…and that decay, that corruption was caused by own kind.” She clasped her hands together so tightly that her already pale knuckles turned white. “Forgive me, Green Paladin. This is the best I can achieve. All I can do is get you away from Queen Ourbele. I cannot save your friends.”
The Green Paladin was confused. She could not make sense of what the Ninhurgian was saying, but she was sure that something bad was happening. “Tell me everything.” She demanded. “From the start.” It might be because of the medicine that the pounding in her head dissipated, and she felt warm and full of energy. Her mind was sharp and alert, like she was in peak condition and could kick a Hunk-sized Galra if she wanted to. In fact, she might even win against a Keith-level at this rate.
“Ninhurgia is an ally of the Galra,” Azer started. “And has been since Queen Ourbele took the throne. The reason is that the planet shelters galactic criminals who worked under the Empire and provides information about free planets while disguising itself as one. I was once one of those who transported criminals to the planet, before serving as a healer directly under the queen.” She averted her eyes from the Green Paladin. “I-I was ordered to dispose of you, but instead, I took you away in the pretense of your impending death. It was my own doing that temporarily incapacitated you and placed you in such a false condition. I did it all to deceive the queen and those loyal to her.”
Pidge took it back. She was not completely ready to take whatever revelation the Ninhurgian told her. She expected her friends to be in danger, but not that kind of danger. They thoroughly researched the planet, and she and Coran even checked ten times just to make sure. How could they miss that? She gritted her teeth and gripped the edge of the saucer tightly. “Explain.” Her voice cloaked in the bubbling distrust and anger toward the Ninhurgian, but the healer kept her head low.
“Ninhurgia has become a site for a new experiment of the Galra,” Azer said. “I do not know the full details, but it has something to do with quintessence.”
Of course. The smallest Paladin thought bitterly. It had to be quintessence. “What are they doing with it?”
“They are harvesting it from those who displease Zarkon,” The healer answered. “They are using some kind of equipment - an experimental machinery made by the druids - to collect the quintessence and convert it into something they can use to infect the planet’s life force. This allows Queen Ourbele to control the planet at her own free will.”
“H-Hold up!” Pidge held up a hand to stop the Ninhurgian. “What? Control the planet? What do you mean ‘control the planet’? Like control everything? You know, how the trees grow, the flowers bloom, that sort of stuff?”
“Yes.” The Green Paladin hoped Azer was joking, but the grim expression on the latter’s face easily shattered that hope. “It is as you said. Queen Ourbele is controlling everything on the planet. The experiment has yet to be completed, but it has already let her become the planet itself.”
“Are you fucking serious?” The youngest Paladin asked indignantly. “Why would she do that? And why are you helping me? Why didn’t you tell my friends what is really happening?”
“Because you are our only hope, Green Paladin,” Azer answered. “You are the Guardian Spirit of the Forest. You are the only one who can save Ninhurgia. Queen Ourbele planned to harvest your quintessence because of your bond with Nature, but I interfered.” She lowered herself to the floor and prostrated. “Please, Green Paladin. I beg of you! Free our planet and return it to what it once was. I can sense your distrust of me, but believe me when I say I wish for its freedom.”
The Green Paladin rubbed her palms on her face. A part of her wanted to leave this place, this alien, right now, but another was urging her to listen to the Ninhurgian. She did not know what to do. She might be the Green Paladin, the Guardian Spirit of the Forest, and all that jazz, but what could she do against an alien that was the literal planet? Those were just titles attached to her responsibility as the pilot of the Green Lion. She needed advice, but no one else was here except her and an alien she did not trust. Even the Green lion, who often prodded in her headspace out of curiosity, was being eerily quiet.
“Alright,” Pidge said finally after taking a deep breath. Things might be uncertain for now, but if there was anything she was really sure about, it was that she would save her friends even if she had to fucking burn the surface of the whole planet and nuke its core to pieces. “I will do it. I will save Ninhurgia.”