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Keith let out a sigh of relief as the battlefield had completely disappeared from their view, and no more galra ships were shooting at them. The battle had been a success, they had managed to escape while those two galra officers’ soldiers battled each other over who would conquer the base, not knowing that their commanders probably already were dead now, because Krolia hadn’t just given up and given them the weapon. As she put it in her own worlds, she had handed them to the weapon, and Keith had listened and trusted when his instincts told him no.
But now they were here, judgement gone, victory small but there. With no more stress about trying to survive, he could think and talk about the massive reveal this female galra had told him minutes ago, when she had used his blade and then told him that she would never leave him again.
“So, it’s true?”, Keith asked as he looked up into Krolia’s yellow eyes with purple irises. The exact same purple that also lived in his eyes. They were really an identical shade of purple, you saw that from miles. “You’re really my mother?”.
Just saying those words felt weird. All his life he had thought his mother was dead, and that he had been an orphan when his dad died. Then when he found out he was half galra, he thought that his mother must really have been dead, or left him to never return. He thought he never would find out the secrets of her, but here she was, right in front of her now adult hybrid son, that she hadn’t seen for eighteen long years.
She nodded, a few tears began to form, like beads in the corner of her eyes, waiting for the moment until they got too heavy and would fastly rush down on her two-colored purple cheeks.
“Yes I am. Keith Gerald Steve Kroloxe Kogane. I am your mother”.
Hearing his whole name made Keith tense, no one except Shiro knew that his middle names were Gerald and Steve. But he had never heard the third one, the name was clearly galran, so it was no doubt that Krolia had been the one to give it to him unlike his father who gave him the other two, which must have been for the good part. He couldn’t imagine being stuck with yet another weird middle name like Gerald.
“You… know my full name”.
She nodded.
“Yes. Your father and I spent months trying to name you before you were born. You were such a little fighter, always punching and kicking in my belly. I wanted to name you Kroloxe, which means “warrior” but I knew I couldn’t, since that name wasn’t human enough in case you were born with mostly human features. If you were, you would have to fit in on Earth, so when we saw you we decided on Keith”.
“Wait, does that mean… if I had been born looking like a galra...?”.
“Yes, I would have taken you with me. But you were born like a human. I wanted to take you with me, the first time I held you, saw your tiny smile and heard your voice, I fell in love. There is no one in the entire universe that I loved more than you Keith, but I had to leave you with your father. You would be safer on Earth, and I had to return to space. So it was a good thing you turned out as you did, because it would have crushed my heart if both of us would have left your father behind”.
Keith nodded, Krolia’s story seemed reasonable. Coming back to galra with a hybrid that clearly looked nothing like a galra seemed like a bad idea, and so was raising a clearly alien purple child on Earth.
“I’ve always wondered about you, you know. I used to look at the stars and wonder what life would have been like with a mother. I never imagined you would have left to do such important things”.
“It was a hard decision, but I had too, I needed to help the Blade of Marmora. And when I left, I had a tiny bit of hope. Every member is valuable, and I promised myself that as soon the war was won, I would be back at Earth, find my son and tell him everything. When Kolivan told me you of all people were going on this mission, I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t belive that it was actually you”. She let out a laugh. “I mean I shouldn’t have been that surprised, but seeing you like this. The moment I saw your face I knew that you were my son, and that I finally got to meet you again. Something I only thought about in my wildest dreams”.
Keith nodded.
“I know how you feel. I still can’t take this in either. Two hours ago, I didn’t even know if my mother was alive, and now you’re standing right here in front of me”.
“I’ll never leave you again Keith, I promise. We will be together from now on my son, I’ve missed your childhood. You have grown into such a fine warrior and I’m proud of you. I bet your father is too”.
Oh.
“He’s dead”, was all he said, looking down at the ground as he clenched his fists a little as he bit his lip, thinking back at when he found out. “I was seven at the time, I didn’t know all details, but before I knew it he was gone and I was placed in foster home after foster home, feeling like I had no family left. I felt abandoned. But in the end, I guess that had been good, because it made me work my way into a school. Well I flunked out, but after a few incidents I ended up being a paladin of Voltron”.
“You are?”.
He shook his head.
“Not anymore. I gave up my place, to join the blade, we were already one member too much, and Shiro is a better leader then I could ever be. We still talk a lot, and they’ve made real progress. But my place is here now. I had always had a problem with connecting with people, I was afraid they would shut me out or disappear, so I did before they had the chance to do it. I got that fear since dad died and never knew you. The way I grew up, home after home, it leaves you feeling unwanted and unloved”.
Krolia dropped the gun she had been holding, it making a loud sound as it hit the hard metal of the ship.
“If I had known…”, she said, not holding back her tears anymore. “My baby. My son. I’m so sorry”.
“You don’t have to be, you didn’t know this would happened. You did what you had to do for the blade, thanks to you, thousands of lives have been saved, and that is something I admire for you. I am not angry at you for leaving me. You did what you had too, and I knew it must have been a tough decision. But you’re here now, and that’s what’s important to me. We can finally catch up, it feels unreal, I never thought I’d ever meet you, mom”.
“You called me…”.
Before she finished the sentence, Krolia was embraced in a warm hug by her son, both of them crying as their uniforms got stained wet from the salty tears. It was like time stood still and their heartbeats were synchronized.
They were finally together again, after eighteen long years of loss and emptiness. Now those feelings could be traded in, and they could finally be the family that they had always wanted to be.
“I’ll never leave you again, I promise. I’ll do my best to try and be the best mother I can be for you Keith”.
“You already are”.