#polyklance

CLICK HERE FOR THE FIRST CHAPTER

CLICK HERE FOR THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Word Count: 1379

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Those were the first words the girl has said, her head tilted with a blank look. I bet you would expect her to spring her eyes open and ask 'where am I?!' or scream and knock the Cuban dead with a single punch.

"The name's Lance," He gives a very white and luminous smile that shines like the ones in those toothpaste advertisements. "But you can call me--anytime."

"Yup, there's the Lance we know by heart." Pidge slams her face into her palm.

The little white mercat jumps off the table in excitement and pounces over at the girl, licking her cheeks happily followed by a wagging tail fin. The girl giggled and embraced her little kit. "Chika! I'm sorry I've worried you." The Mercat nuzzled her face at her owner's neck.

"Cute..." Lance and Keith mumbled simultaneously right when they exchanged looks, they immediately glared and tore their eyes away from each other with a flustered huff.

"So her name's Chika." Hunk repeated the pet's name in a faint mutter no one could barely hear.

Allura lowered herself towards the girl and offered her a hand. The girl gave a nod and took her hand, being hoisted up.

"Th-thanks..--Oh no." Once she got up her legs begin to stagger. Allura caught her in her arms to keep her standing. Chika panicked by her owner's moves, she jumped off towards Hunk's shoulder.

"Easy there, dear." Allura placed her hands over the girl's shoulders. "May I ask for your name?"  

"Merodii Lee," She answered. "I'm a pilot of the Delta Flight Unit and a member of the sound tactical unit, Walküre."

A few seconds after Merodii's last sentence, her face went blue and began to stammer, "Y-y-you're not going to contact them right? If Reina locates me, Makina-san will totally punish me for sure!"

"Who's Reina?" Pidge raised a brow.

"And who's Makina-san?" Hunk added in.

"So you are a runaway." Keith butted in walking towards Merodii pushing slightly shoving Lance out of the way.

"Huh?! It's not like that, I--!" Before she could say anymore, she was interrupted by a loud growl. Merodii pouts, placing her hand over her stomach. "Darn."

"I think it's best if we continue this conversation in the dining room," Shiro speaks to her with a comforting smile if only she could recognize it.

~~~+~~~

"My name is Allura, Princess of Altea," Allura starts. "This is Coran, my advisor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, miss!" Coran bowed before Merodii.

She smiles in response. "It's nice to meet you too, Coran."

"I'm Pidge, the smart one of the team. The guy cooking in the kitchen is Hunk," She turns her head over to Keith sitting right across of her, impatiently waiting for dinner. "The lonely emo dude over there next to goofball Lance is Keith."

"Yep that's right--wait what did you just say?"

Merodii nods but refuses to meet Keith's gaze. She felt like his eyes have been over her for a long time--cold eyes.

"And I'm.." Shiro pauses for a few seconds then continues to say something else. "I'm Shiro. Together we form Voltron, the last hope of the Universe." From there on, Allura frowns thinking there might be something that Shiro knows more than the others.

"The last hope of the Universe...You too?" Merodii repeated blinking a couple of times. "Now that I think about it, the Lieutenant did mention about a Princess and Voltron a couple of times before to me. Wait, you're familiar with us too right?"

"Welllll..." Lance panned his eyes sideways.

"We were actually trying to figure out who you were by looking for clues within your fighter," Allura answered. "We haven't been familiar with your squadron unit until now."

"Sorry, we have to barge into your property like that while you were still healing." Pidge scratched the nape of her neck.

"No, it's fine. I did expect for it to be examined if someone did find me." Merodii shakes her head. "I'm certain you saw that video from my phone."

Everyone exchanged looks and simply nodded. After a little while of waiting for food to be served, Hunk finally comes and presents a line of dishes for the lady guest and the rest of the team. "Bon Appétit!" Lance and Keith chowed down what was on their plates right away. She takes a bite of the tasty grub and grinned widely with a satisfied hum. A section of her dark blue hair--a cowlick springs up happily matching her gleeful expression. "Mmm~ Delicious!"

"Aww, shucks!" Hunk smiles bashfully with dusty pink cheeks.

"Hey, you should come visit Ragnanyannyan sometime!" Merodii chimed with her mouth still full. "I eat most of my meals over there."

"A restaurant?" Hunk asked while Lance attempts to steal a bite out of his plate. He, unfortunately, fails with a smack on the back of his hand. "That's a nono Lance, you had your share!"

"It's located in Ragna, the planet I live in." Merodii continued with a frown.

"The planet you ran away from," Keith replied almost immediately.

"I've told you before, I'm not a runaway."

"Then how come you we found your bag, a box of pictures and other stuff behind your cockpit? Why did we happen to find you injured along with a wrecked fighter?" Keith resumed with a series of uncomfortable questions.

"Okay Keith, I think that's enough for now," Shiro cuts him off before he could say anymore. He turns to Merodii, her cowlick wilts with a pout. "You left to find something important. Didn't you?"

"That's right," Merodii says, her brow furrowed. "There's a promise I need to fulfill. A very close friend of mine helped me out of Ragna without being caught by anyone else."

Hayate Immelmann. Shiro already knew he could be able to guess who that person was but said nothing about it. "And what would that promise be?"

"One of our Walküre members, Freyja Wion, was mysteriously taken by Galran Soldiers hours before I left." Merodii placed her fork down and looked up at Shiro with a concerned look. "By one Idol short, it will still affect our performance to neutralize the Var."

"That term keeps on popping into my head since we watch that video. If you could, can you summarize what that is for us, darling?" Allura asked.

"Var Syndrome, a mysterious phenomenon that takes away the sanity of many individuals regardless of race or species. It can infect even one of us in this room." Merodii takes in a serious tone. "The Galran Empire takes advantage of the syndrome's effect, causing innocent people to go berserk and lose control of themselves which may result in hurting another. That's why Walküre alongside with Delta Flight, exists. We are the 'cure' for the Var Syndrome."

"So if we don't get rid of this virus, our success rate to beat the Galran Empire will go down." Pidge adjusted her glasses. A straightforward elaboration.

"I'm not going back to Ragna. Not until my promise to bring my friend back is fulfilled." Merodii completes her dish, consuming her last bite.

"It looks like more challenges await us." Shiro placed his hands over his hips. "But now that we have finished our dinner, I think it's time catch some shut-eye for the day."

"Hold on, where's Merodii gonna sleep?" Lance got up from his seat.

"Hm, I'm sure Keith won't mind sharing quarters! It's the only area with an extra bunk." Coran popped in. His statement made Lance, Keith and Merodii all flinch.

"Eh?!"

"CORAN!"

"Y-Yknow, I can just sleep in my Fighter.."

"Unacceptable! Your jet is unstable to be in. But no worries, Hunk and I will tune it up in a jiffy!" Coran whipped a thumbs up.

"Ya sure you wanna do that Coran?" Lance asks glancing at Merodii.

Merodii simply shrugs. "I don't know man, Keith probably seems like he could be the most toxic person to be around." Another cold flash from Keith strikes her spine, but this time she doesn't really care.

"I like her already," Pidge whispered into Hunk's ear.

"THANK YOU!" Lance threw his hands up in the air towards Merodii.

"It'll only be for a few quintets," Allura added. "From there on we'll figure everything out."