born to kill

❝ I think I’d argue it was more VOLTRON that helped with that but uhhh… yeah, guess so. ❞ Keith’s brow furrowed and lips pursed in thought, never having quite considered it was the presence of HUMANS that changed anything. He’d just sort of assumed after learning Zarkon was the previous black paladin that they couldn’t fight Zarkon without someone in his place- which they didn’t have back then.

Though, when Antok continued it did draw a snicker out of Keith. Earth may not be perfect and some humans had lives that were PLENTY DIFFICULT which Keith could attest to but it wasn’t exactly a hostile planet.

❝ Actually Earth isn’t that scary. I mean it can be, I guess, but not in the way that you’re thinking. Not every part of Earth is as advanced as far as the nicest places have advanced but we have cities and we don’t have to fight off other predators or anything. In the past we did because we do have a lot of animals that are really big and scary with a lot of TEETH and CLAWS and uhh-… Well, actually some of them remind me of Galra. They’re not capable of intelligent thought or invention but like… the look of them sometimes is GALRA-ESQUE. 

❝ Lions actually are Earth animals which is kind of-… it’s weird when I really think about it now that aliens built giant robot lions. ❞

antok thought voltron wouldn’t exist without its human paladins, but chose to remain quiet instead. humans were odd --- or maybe it was only keith who was odd. instead of taking compliments with pride like some galra would, he deflected it or at least tried to play it down as nothing.

it was odd. endearing.

and every stories about earth was always a treat. a planet’s biodiversity was unique one from another and all of them were equally interesting, in antok’s opinion. but earth was special, somewhat. perhaps because it was where keith came from, and keith always had something to tell about earth’s biodiversity in particular.

his interest piqued when keith mentioned galra-like animals on earth. “do those galra-like animals still exist?” he asked. “and--- wait, did you say there’s animal species that resembled the voltron lions?”

❝ Oh I’m quite certain he’s an enemy to much more than just your Blade of Marmora. Tyranny has way of doing that: GAINING YOU ENEMIES. A reason I never agreed with his methods once I was old enough to begin understanding the universe on my own and found other ways of achieving my goals. ❞ Lotor continued, pretending Antok wanted to listen even if Lotor was certain he did not.

He had many enemies on the Castle of Lions- or at least people who considered him an enemy and found his approaches to be antagonistic.

❝ And that is why I am here of course. My father or not, Zarkon’s reign has gone on for too long and while I cannot restore the civilizations and planets he has destroyed I hope to at least bring those lost souls some PEACE. ❞

antok  didn’t care what kind of game lotor was playing, nor did he care about his goals --- perhaps some kind of evil scheme to resume the subjugation of other beings. 

not that he cared about that too. even before the galra empire began its diaspora, history proved again and again that destroyers and colonizers of worlds had always existed. those who couldn’t fight back would be eradicated. those who could... eventually would become destroyers and colonizers themselves.

civilizations fell and rose whether the galra empire existed or not. sentient beings from all over the universe had gone extinct whether by the hands of the empire, the hands of others, or even by natural occurrence. that was just how the way things were. 

but of course, if he said that, he was cold and uncaring. unsympathetic of others’ misery.

and what did lotor care about restoring lost civilizations? the archivemaster guild had been trying to do just that and they hadn’t been successful.

“In my defense, I have been stranded with much less before. I have sent out a distress signal and the blade or voltron shouldn’t be that far away. We have enough rations and water to last us at least a day. We’ll be okay.”

“Plus, if we are stranded for over a week or two you can survive longer than me. If I die first, you’re welcome to eat me.” He said in a joking manner as he worked on repairing the holes in the walls of the ship to help keep the oxygen field stable and in place.

“What’s the name of this planet? Is there a blade base nearby? I know it’s unlikely I’m just wondering.” He asked as he finished his repairs on one hole and moved to another.

antok’s frills made an unamused twitch at sendak’s rather pathetic attempt at jokes. he’d rather not explain to kolivan why he was eating their mate --- whether both of them survived their current predicament together or they didn’t, there was no other option.

instead of answering the joke, he lifted his head up to the sky, trying to remember the last logged location they were in. by observing the celestial bodies and matching them with the star map he memorized, he would be able to estimate where they were stranded at. 

“we’re in tirnak system, close enough to the headquarters. you can even see torvost black holes there”, he pointed at the brightest dot on the void-black sky. to unaware eyes, it might look like a supergiant star, even though it was actually two black holes and a blue supergiant star.

he turned his gaze to the horizon, and found that he could see it curved. "and we’re not on a planet. a planetoid, at most, but likely a satellite. bigger than an asteroid, though.”

whatever it was, thankfully it had enough gravity to retain its atmosphere. it kept them anchored to the ground, though antok didn’t want to risk breathing in it.

Blinking wearily, Krie paused their work to look up at him as he set the cup on their desk beside them. A tired smile brightened their features the moment they lay eyes on him. “I certainly could stand to take a break,” they admitted - in fact, they could not recall the last time they had done so: a sure indication that they were due a short respite.

Their chair swiveled around to face him. They carefully held the cup in both hands, pausing to breathe in the soothing aromatic steam wafting from the surface of the liquid. The blend was unfamiliar, but its scent was sweet and vaguely earthy. “Mmmm. Smells wonderful.”

After taking a slow appreciative sip, they looked up at him. “Thank you, Antok. This is just what I needed.” Another little smile, then they added somewhat bashfully, “Would you…like to sit with me for just a few moments? I’ve actually just stumbled upon some information that might interest you.”

antok might or might not have his own ulterior motive about the tea.

well, yes, the tea was just a tea --- he knew which kind of tea that krie favored and made sure that it was the exact same brand of tea that they usually consumed, as he had no way to taste if it was the correct one or not. tannin was really... not suitable to his physiology, to put it mildly.

alright, he might also have abused his position as the sub-leader to snoop into the shipping details to acquire that information and in hindsight, it might be a little bit creepy. kind of creepy. very creepy? he simply hoped that krie would never find out. 

so yes, the tea was a bribe. kind of.

he reached a conclusion about his feelings very recently --- romantic feelings, more precisely, towards the small undine scientist that he had grown fond of lately. it was rather bizarre but antok had decided that he wouldn’t let it impact their friendship and concocted a plan to confess about his feelings. his romantic feelings. hence, the tea.

he perked up slightly when krie told him that they had something that might interest him, unable to hold his happy glow as he sat down on the seat across them. he wondered if krie was also harboring a similar feelings --- he noticed that they had been rather withdrawn as of late, just as he had been withdrawn while he processed his feelings.

that would be great. hopeful and somewhat impossible, but great.

‘takes one to know one’, antok wanted to say. but he refrained his tongue as he stared at the commander in the eye.

he was feeling many things, at that moment, but mostly he was scared. of his brothers and sisters-in-arms. of the blades’ continued existence. of his own life. he was afraid of dying and causing death of those he cared about.

the pain wasn’t that bad and his bruises and injuries were starting to heal. he didn’t know how much time he had until extraction or if his fellow blades managed to get themselves to safety --- his mask was broken in the fight, revealing his face to his enemy. he was, practically, on his own.

❝ Ice-… what? ❞ The question entirely threw Keith off guard, visibly recoiling a second as the cogs needed a moment to turn and provide him with an understanding of these simple words he definitely knew. He supposed it wasn’t so out of left field because the Blade of Marmora was spending more time around Voltron and human things were bound to be picked up on… BUT IT STILL THREW HIM FOR A LOOP.

❝ Okay uhh… Well, they’re food. ❞ Keith began, pausing a moment. There were definitely a lot of descriptors to use that were also human and henceforth wouldn’t be understood so he had to go about this a certain way.

❝ Ice cream is-… it’s a dessert and it’s really cold. It’s uhh- it’s made from milk which is a drink and we harvest it from animals- COWS ACTUALLY, like Kalteneker in the Castle of Lions if you met her. It’s sweet and it can come in a lot of flavors and it’s a favorite treat in the summer which is a time where it’s hot. That, and it’s a favorite of sad people in movies, I’m not really sure how it became a comfort food but it is in some cultures on Earth.

❝ Pizza… is a little more complicated? It’s usually shaped like a circle and it has a base of bread with toppings layered on top of it and there are all kinds of toppings to use and sometimes those differ based on personal taste or culture or location. There are also dessert versions of pizza that have sweet toppings, it’s a pretty versatile food. ❞

the way keith described it, ice cream sounded like a combination between horti and hraljata --- cold and sweet, but also thick and kind of a comfort food? he tried to imagine cold and sweet hraljata, which normally tasted somewhat savory, and failed miserably.

antok even had a harder time trying to imagine pizza. breadmaking was not very common in the base as it required very specific gravity and temperature for the raising agent to cultivate --- and the radiation from the black holes, apparently, was not the perfect environment for the microscopic gremlins. not even the synthesizer could perfectly replicate the texture of a bread.

he did have his taste of a bread, though. it was rather plump and gnarly. he tried to imagine that topped with horti and hraljata, and immediately made a disgusted face. combine that with the milk from the blasted ‘cow’ and the painful indigestion he had after consuming it...

“i think... i will save my judgment until i can properly taste them myself. because what i had in mind... does not sound very appetizing.”

That made sense - the Galra were, after all, a race known for their endurance. Still, Krie worried for their companion’s health, and for the other Blades. Surely it was difficult to find time for sleep when there was so much to do, so much at stake.

“I know.” The undine wrinkled their nose and giggled softly. “I would expect nothing less from an elite intel-gathering organization. I’m only surprised to find you reading the news like us common folk.”

Another little laugh. They studied the screen, but the script was one they did not understand. “So what’s the latest? Any good news? Maybe ‘Emperor Zarkon Abruptly Drops Dead, Empire Dissolved’?” A heavy sigh. “If only, hmm?”

"well... nothing that spectacular.” antok let out a small amused chuff. if only such miracle would happen, then they wouldn’t have need for voltron or the coalition. “but i do know what kind of scandal the fleet commanders are in right now.”

yes, he read gossip news. it was a rather guilty pleasure of his. of course, he also read politic section, but it was rather refreshing to know that even the fleet commanders were not paragon of perfection the propaganda made them.

“do you want me to switch to the science section?” he asked, his tail curled affectionately around their waist.

As subtle as he’d been trying to be, Keith couldn’t quite ignore Antok’s tail swishing in front of his face, eyes following it curiously until it’d flicked his nose causing his face to scrunch up. Whether Antok liked the tail or not, Keith would always find it intriguing just as he was sure there were at least SOME things about him that could be interesting in kind.

❝ Well we don’t have much else going for us on Earth so that might be our ONLY tactic that’d keep us above water. We’re not exactly technologically advanced the way you guys out here are. ❞ Keith mused with a shrug of his shoulders.

❝ Though I can say not all humans are as… DRIVEN as I am. I mean Shiro would probably call it STUBBORNNESS but that’s all semantic and, anyway, while not all humans are willing to fight the way I do the ones that will would definitely give it all they’ve got. Human history is pretty chock full of adapting to survive and just sort of never stopping. ❞

“that is very impressive, i should say.” antok’s tail swayed again, though this time it was in the manner when he was deep in thought that excited him. “your civilization is not as advanced, as you already said, and yet the presence of your species is what turned the tide of this war.”

of course, he knew about the black paladin’s abduction from their edge of solar system. antok thought it was pretty funny that when the galra abducted three primitive beings, thinking they were puny and harmless, four more shot into space and maimed the god-emperor enough to kill him.

and antok was curious about why the humans became as dangerous as they were. what kind of dangerous environment they lived in that necessitate their evolution? what made them such a fearsome apex predator that even matched hyperdrive-capable beings such as the alteans and the galra? 

the galra had ten millennia to adapt and evolve into the life of interstellar warlords, but the humans had no such luxury --- they hadn’t even ventured beyond their solar system. well... the majority of them, at least.