Chapter Text
More than two vargas later, things finally begin to calm down again.
After safely escaping and returning to the Castle, both rebels had been immediately whisked off to the infirmary. Vakala was still there two vargas later, and Coran estimated with his injuries he would be until well into the next morning.
Remdax, on the other hand, had only needed about two vargas in a pod to repair his comparatively minor injuries. It had still been more than enough time for Ryou to get cleaned up, changed into civilian gear, and even mess around in the kitchen.
Matt would be responsible for meeting with Remdax immediately for debriefing, as the only rebel agent on-hand. But he had graciously agreed to allow both Shiroganes to be present—Shiro as the head of Voltron, and Ryou for his role in rescuing the rebel in the first place.
Ryou is glad enough for the invite. Once both Remdax and Vakala are healed and debriefed, Matt will take them back to the closest rebel base. The small chance to catch up with with two rebels before they leave is welcome.
“Here,” Ryou says, plunking a bowl down in front of Remdax in the debriefing room. “They’re no dried noodle rations, but even so...now we’re even.”
Remdax blinks at the bowl, and then takes a deep, appreciative sniff. “Hmm...thanks. Been eatin’ the same flavors for almost five years. Smells different...but good.” He digs into the bowl of fresh noodles Ryou had put together, slurping them up greedily while they wait for the others.
Shiro is the last to arrive, still in his black paladin armor but now minus the helmet. “Sorry for the wait,” he says, nodding to Matt, Remdax and Ryou and taking a seat. “Notifying the Blade took longer than anticipated.”
Ryou chuckles a little. “The duties of a leader never end.”
“Tell me about it.”
Remdax stares at them as they chat, before finally setting down his bowl and rubbing his one unscarred eye. He blinks, stares at them again, and finally shakes his head. “Now I know that place made me crazy,” he says. “I’m seeing double.”
Ryou blinks back in confusion, but then shakes his head. “Oh. You haven’t seen us together yet. Right, you had to go into the pods before he got back.”
“You’re not crazy,” Shiro assures. “We’re identical twins.”
Remdax stares back and forth between them in confusion. “Really? Is that common, whatever planet you’re from?”
“Earth,” Ryou supplies, “And it’s not common, but it’s not unheard of.” Even if it’s not even remotely applicable to him and Shiro.
“Let me introduce everyone,” Matt offers. “Remdax, you’ve already met me, but I’m the official liaison between the rebels and the Voltron coalition. I’ve already shown you my officer’s transponder as proof. This here is Shiro, the leader of Voltron—” he gestures to Shiro specifically, “—and you’ve already met Ryou.”
Remdax narrows his eyes. “No, I met Shiro.” He glances at Ryou. “How come they’re calling him Shiro, Shiro?”
Crap.
They’ve prepared a standardized lie a long time ago for similar situations, to explain Ryou and Shiro looking the same. But that cover story doesn’t extend to situations like this, for people who had already met Ryou when he’d still thought he was Shiro, outside the context of Team Voltron. It’s far too late for them to pretend Shiro had been the one the rebels had encountered. Ryou’s mind is blank as he scrabbles frantically for some kind of excuse.
Shiro, fortunately, is ahead of him here. “Shiro is actually a version of our surname,” he supplies easily. “Our full surname is Shirogane. People use Shiro as a nickname for both of us. My actual given name is Takashi, and his is Ryou.”
“When they’re both in the same room, it’s usually him that gets the Shiro nickname,” Matt jumps in helpfully, gesturing to Shiro. “But you can apply it to either of them.”
Remdax glances back and forth suspiciously between Shiro and Ryou for a moment. Ryou does his best to not let on that he’s holding his breath.
But after a moment Remdax just shrugs and shakes his head, returning to his noodles. “Earthlings are too damned complicated,” he mutters to himself. “Look the same and the same name, what a joke. We really should’ve just eaten him.”
“Excuse me?” Shiro says, a trace of alarm in his voice.
“He’s joking,” Ryou says hastily. “I think,” he adds, under his breath. He’d never been entirely sure if it was a joke or not the first time.
“So, what? Am I supposed to call you Ryou now?” Remdax asks, staring Ryou in the eye.
“That would probably be a lot less complicated for everyone involved,” Ryou agrees.
Remdax snorts again. “Crazy,” he repeats. He swallows the last of the noodles and sets the bowl aside, before adding thoughtfully, “Good kind of crazy though, I guess. Maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t eat you. Seeing as you came back and saved our hides.”
They begin the debrief, and once down to rebel business, Remdax is much more serious. He explains what he’d told Ryou before about how they’d been caught, but in more detail, now that they aren’t under immediate attack.
According to Remdax, their tracking systems and feelers had made it clear the Galra were coming for them specifically, and they’d had enough time to start preparing. Vakala had been in charge of downloading and saving the most important data and intel they’d collected, before destroying the rest. Remdax would set the place to blow so they could hopefully have a distraction while they ran.
“There’s lots of other hidden caves and things, on that planet,” Remdax explains. “As long as you know how to avoid the predators, like the snick—” he nods to Ryou pointedly, “—we could’ve holed up for another couple vargas, bought time for the rescue to arrive.”
Unfortunately, the Galra had arrived faster than anticipated. Though their outpost was remote for rebel territory, their quadrant did have a major Galra throughway used frequently for transporting supplies and fighters. That was why the rebels had wanted a listening outpost there to begin with. A second cruiser had shown up while the first was hunting and had been able to double the manpower needed, cutting down on the rebels’ chance of escape significantly.
“I figured we were dead. But then you showed up. Good timing,” Remdax finishes.
“What about the data? Do you know where it is, or what it entails?” Matt asks.
“Lots’ve stuff on it,” Remdax says. “It was in Vakala’s pouches. He’s got a second disc with the important things. But you’d need his password or a higher up officer’s to override it.”
Matt could probably hack it, and if he couldn’t Pidge certainly could. But it’s probably not so urgent at this point that they can’t wait a few more vargas for Vakala to wake. Still… “Do you remember what’s on it at all?” Ryou asks, curious.
Remdax shrugs. “Not really. I logged plenty’ve intercepted transmissions on the klygarg, but puttin’ it all together was Vakala’s thing more than mine. He could probably tell you more than I could.”
“Alright,” Matt says. “That should be enough for now. The Voltron coalition will house you on the Castle of Lions here tonight and tomorrow. Once Vakala is out of healing and has also debriefed and had a chance to recover, we’ll head back to the Ashstone base. That’s where you would have returned after your five years, right?”
“Right,” Remdax agrees. “Nearly got there, too. Only five feebs left. Well, can’t say I didn’t try.” He scowls. “Hope I don’t get stuck on another listening outpost again after this, though.”
Matt snorts. “I know the feeling. But there’s been a lot more activity recently….it’s possible you’ll be stationed in a more active setting, what with the introduction of the coalition.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Remdax says, looking—for Remdax—positively cheerful. “And Vakala’s going to be ok?”
“He’s already on the mend,” Ryou promises. “I spoke with Coran earlier—the pods are working on schedule. He should be out in the morning.”
Remdax nods. “Good.”
“I’ll show you where you can stay for the night,” Matt offers. “The princess has graciously provided one of the spare rooms for you until we can get you back to base.”
“Be weird to sleep on an actual mattress again,” Remdax says, as he hauls himself to his feet and follows after Matt.
Ryou waits for the two of them to leave the room completely, before letting out an exhausted sigh and sinking in his seat. “Thank goodness. I wasn’t sure that was going to work.”
“Same,” Shiro admits. “Most people are easy enough to trick with the twin story, but most people haven’t met either of us outside Voltron, either.”
“Quick thinking, though,” Ryou says. “Thanks. I was at a loss.”
Shiro grins. “I’ve got you covered.”
“I’m glad,” Ryou says. “It would have been embarrassing as hell to get caught out after all this time by Remdax.”
It’s very late by the time the debrief passes, and most of the team elects to head for bed. It’s hard to imagine they’d been in the middle of dinner when the distress signal had come; it feels like so much has happened in so short a span of time. Although sleep doesn’t always come easily to Ryou, tonight he’s out almost as soon as his head hits the pillow, only just realizing how exhausted he’d been.
In the morning, as Coran had predicted, Vakala steps out of the healing pods good as new—and thoroughly confused. He had been unconscious through the entire rescue, after all.
It takes Remdax’s explanation to convince Vakala he hasn’t been captured. But once that’s worked out, he’s much less suspicious of the rest of team Voltron, enough to willingly sit down for his own debriefing with Matt, Shiro and Ryou.
That had also been complicated, at first. Like Remdax, Vakala had also been equally confused about the presence of not one, but two Shiro’s, and just as suspicious of the naming situation. But he’s given the same explanation that Shiro had offered last night to Remdax, about the single nickname based on their surname.
Vakala stares thoughtfully at both Shiro and Ryou for a while, glancing back and forth between them as Shiro patiently explains. It takes him longer than Remdax to accept the reasoning, and he does ask once how it doesn’t get confusing for them. But ultimately, although just as baffled by ‘strange Earthling customs’ as Remdax, he too seems to buy the story. Ryou is relieved by that, at least.
Once that hurdle is cleared, the actual debrief is simple by comparison. Vakala’s story is more or less the same as Remdax’s, with a few additional details.
“The sentries got in too quickly,” Vakala says. “I didn’t have time to recover all the data from the klygarg before I was forced to destroy it, or risk it falling into Galra hands. But I did get the important bits.” He holds up a palm-sized flat black drive with orange trim, recovered from one of the pouches on his uniform that had been returned to him when he’d left the pod. “Everything here should be useful to the rebels.” He glances over at Shiro and Ryou. “And Voltron too, I guess.”
“What kinds of information are on the disc?” Matt asks, curious.
“All kinds of things. Our outpost was way inside Galra territory on a major Galra thoroughfare. You wouldn’t believe the kind of stuff they’d spit out over their comms because they figured they had secure enough connections behind their own lines,” Vakala says, smug. “Encrypted coordinates, major supply lines or resource planets, secret projects, future targets. All places to look into further. Hitting any of them could hurt the Galra hard.”
Matt grins. “That’s excellent. Even names and coordinates gives us a place to start. You did a great job saving this.”
“I just wish I could’ve gotten more,” Vakala says, muttering to himself. “I’m sure there was a lot more that the rebels and the coalition could’ve used.”
“You did what you could,” Ryou says reassuringly. “If you’d stayed any longer you’d probably be dead, and the Galra would have recovered an operable klygarg. It sounds like you got us plenty of data to work with.”
Vakala stares at Ryou for a long moment, thoughtful, before he finally nods. “I guess you’re right,” he finally agrees. “And with Voltron on our side, maybe it’ll be enough.”
“Can we get a copy of that data before you head back to the rebel base?” Shiro asks, glancing between Matt and Vakala. “Obviously the rebels need to review it too. But if I can take a look sooner rather than later, we might be able to target some of these places with Voltron, before the Galra can fortify in response to their failed capture attempt.”
Vakala hesitates, staring at Ryou for a moment. Considering Ryou had sort of forced him into revealing rebel data last time, he’s not surprised. The rebel fighter glances to Shiro next, and then finally turns to Matt. “Sir?”
“I think it’s okay,” Matt says. “We’d be sharing the information right away, anyway. Rebel forces are strong, but it will take a while to organize and prepare any strikes based on this data. Voltron has better maneuverability and raw power. We don’t want to waste the opportunity.”
“Alright then. I can make a copy before we leave.” Vakala’s stomach rumbles, and he adds sheepishly, “But maybe after eating? If we’re done debriefing?”
Matt nods. “I think we’re done here. I’ll radio ahead and let them know when to expect us.”
Ryou grins. “Perfect timing. Hunk should just be finishing up breakfast. I wouldn’t be surprised if Remdax was already there.”
“He’s a bottomless pit,” Vakala agrees. “And he can sniff out cooking rations from the other side of the outpost. He’s already there for sure.”
Ryou laughs.
Remdax is indeed already there, as is the rest of the team, when the four of them show up in the dining hall. Matt makes the introductions quickly, going around the table. The more alert members of the team wave or say hello, while the more sleep deprived paladins stare like zombies at the latest visitor.
“Don’t mind them,” Ryou says, as he gestures for Vakala to sit. “They’ll wake up. Eventually.”
Both Vakala and Remdax are a little slow to warm to the rest of the team, at first. Nearly five years of isolation behind enemy lines have made them both a little icy towards new people, and it has nothing to do with the frozen planet they’d just been rescued from. But they do eventually start to come around, thanks in no small part to Hunk’s breakfast spread.
“This is delicious,” Vakala says, slurping up a bowlful of food. “What is it?”
“Fresh fruit,” Hunk says, a little incredulous.
“No wonder it tastes so good,” Valaka says. “It’s not dried!”
“It’s amazing what a little not being dried does to food,” Remdax agrees, hoovering up his own breakfast, to the bewildered stares of everyone else.
Once they’ve become a little more friendly, besides eating the majority of what had been on the table for everyone, Vakala and Remdax are more than willing to recount the time they’d met Ryou.
It’s not a story Ryou had gone into deeply with most of the team, and they had never pried too deeply into it on their own. At the time, he’d thought he’d been Shiro, and he wasn’t the type to explain his own hardships to anyone. And they’d found him dying in a Galra fighter, so they’d been happy enough just to have their missing leader back in one piece.
As Shiro, he’d only ever told Keith parts of the story, mostly because Keith had stubbornly dug it out of him. And as Ryou, he’d never really needed to recount it again to anyone, even the real Shiro.
So the story is fresh to everyone involved. They listen with rapt attention (and at some points, alarm) as Vakala and Remdax recount how they’d found Ryou fighting an enormous tentacle-crab creature called a snick, assumed he was a Galra spy, and captured him. Ryou recounts how he’d escaped, only to double back and recruit them for their assistance. And all three switch off on the last part, explaining how they’d worked together to help Ryou escape the planet to a Galra cruiser so he could steal a fighter to get back to Voltron.
“This guy’s crazy!” Remdax finishes, jerking a thumb in Ryou’s direction. “But the good kind of crazy. Real glad we didn’t eat him. Can’t believe we thought he was a Galra spy!”
“I’m glad you were able to overcome your miscommunications and work together,” Allura says quickly, with her best friendly diplomat voice. The rest of the team is very carefully silent, and those with poor poker faces hastily stare at their plates or stuff something in their mouths as a cover up.
After all, every single other person at the table knows exactly how right Vakala and Remdax had really been. But they all understand how important it is to protect Ryou’s actual identity, too.
For the benefit of Vakala and Remdax, Ryou briefly explains how he’d used the fighter they’d helped him get to in order to follow Voltron until he’d found the rest of the team. Both are delighted—in their own way—to hear their assistance had brought so much success. The rest of the team adds their own side of things, and then eventually they conversation moves on to explaining several other interesting adventures with Voltron. By the time breakfast is over, the rebels are much more comfortable with the rest of the team, enough to share a few funny anecdotes or small adventures of their own from the ice planet they’d been stationed on.
“Alright,” Shiro says finally. “This has been entertaining, but it’s time to get to work. We’ve got Voltron training today, so everyone suit up and be in their hangars in ten doboshes. Allura, Keith and Lance, we’ll be training with all Voltron configurations today, so we’ll rotate the three of you in and out as needed.”
“Just as well,” Matt says. “I need to get started on the copy of Vakala’s data, and notifying headquarters we’re coming.”
Ryou nods. “I’ve got another diplomacy mission in a quintent, so I need to prepare for that.”
“Good,” Shiro says. “Everyone has their tasks, so let’s get to it.”
The rest of the paladins groan, but get up from their seats to shuffle off for their uniforms, followed by a gently cajoling Shiro. Coran begins whisking the dirty dishes away off the table to be cleaned, and soon disappears into the kitchen.
Ryou gets up to head for his own research, but Vakala calls out to him first. “Hold up. Ryou, got a tick?”
Ryou blinks, but obligingly halts. “What’s up?”
“You too, sir,” Vakala says, nodding to Matt. “You should probably hear this. Hey, Remdax—can you radio ahead and let’em know we might be a few doboshes late?”
“I hate communications,” Remdax grumbles, but he does pull out a rebel transponder and starts fiddling with the controls.
Vakala nods, and heads for the far end of the enormous dining hall. Matt and Ryou exchange glances, and Matt raises an eyebrow. Ryou shrugs. He knows these two rebels better than anybody else here, but that still doesn’t mean he knows them well. He has no idea what Vakala wants to say.
Vakala waits until they’re both over in the corner with him. He glances back and forth between them, observing. Matt and Ryou exchange glances again, but just as Ryou is finally ready to break and ask what this is all about, Vakala answers that very question with one of his own.
“You’re not really twins with that other guy, are you?”
Ryou’s heart rises into his throat.
“What are you talking about?” he asks after a moment, fighting hard to keep his face politely bemused. His voice is just a little too strained to pull it off, though.
“He’s identical to Shiro,” Matt agrees, voice also just slightly too strained to be natural. “What else could he be?”
“Look, I’m not stupid,” Vakala says, now staring firmly at Ryou. “And I was on that listening outpost for almost five years. Heard a lot of things, like I said in my debrief. Including transmissions about something called Operation Kuron.”
Ryou’s heart drops from his throat to his stomach like a crashing ship. It thuds so loudly he’s amazed Vakala can’t hear it. Through sheer force of will, he keeps his expression blank. “And?”
Vakala snorts. “Like I said. The Galra had lots of secret projects going on. Never got full details, but sometimes you could pick up enough clues to get an idea of what it was about. And one of those we’d pick up on sometimes? ‘Operation Kuron.’ Near as I could figure, it was some kind of superweapon the Galra were building. A game changer that was gonna defeat Voltron itself. Exactly the kind of thing we were on that outpost to listen for.”
There’s a sick twist in his stomach as Ryou listens to himself being described like that. Not for the first time, he’s disgusted and a little ashamed of what he’d been made for. Even if he’d never asked to be that, even if he’d rejected all of it, it still hurts.
“And then,” Vakala continues, still keeping a wary eye on Ryou, “the quintent before we found you on our outpost planet, we intercepted a transmission to headquarters. ‘Operation Kuron Stage Three Underway.’ And then you crash-landed on our planet in a Galra pod. We figured, couldn’t be a coincidence, right? The super weapon’s just been activated.”
Belatedly, Ryou realizes that Vakala had led them into the corner in such a way that both rebels could block him from running. Matt wouldn’t, of course, but Vakala’s caution and his suspicion is clear. His heart pounds even harder, but he doesn’t dare say anything. Matt is silent too, just as stunned.
“When you crash-landed, we wondered if maybe you had this super weapon with you, or the pod,” Vakala continues. “We hunted the pod down and searched the wreckage but didn’t find anything. We figured maybe the pilot kept it, so we tracked you, and found you fighting the snick.
“We figured you’d use this crazy super-weapon to save yourself, so we watched, figuring we could report on it once we saw it in action. But you didn’t save yourself. We still figured maybe you knew about it, so we drove it off and captured you. But you never talked about it, and you never hurt us even when you had us good as dead.” Vakala shrugs. “Seemed clear you weren’t involved at that point, at least to me. So we helped you.”
If only. He was absolutely right, but not even Ryou had known it at the time. That was the cruel brilliance of the project. He could never give anything away, and he’d been designed to be trusted.
“I monitored for a time after that,” Vakala finishes. “Never heard about a prisoner being recaptured after you left us. But then maybe eight feebs later I intercepted something again. ‘Operation Kuron has been compromised.’ Right after some big battle that the Galra were real excited about—enough to restrict sixty-five Rebulon zones of territory because of some detonation that would blow up the whole quadrant. And based on the chatter...Voltron was in it.”
Vakala stares Ryou in the eye. “I don’t know the specifics, but…you’re connected to that, aren’t you?”
Ryou swallows.
“That’s a jump to conclusions, don’t you think?” Matt cuts in. “It really could just be a coincidence.”
“Weird sort of coincidence,” Vakala says. “And weird other things, too. You didn’t know if you’d been captured or not when we captured you.”
“I knew you’d captured me,” Ryou says weakly.
“You didn’t know if you were captured by the Galra,” Vakala clarifies. “You knew you escaped. You couldn’t remember how you got on that cruiser to begin with.” He shrugs. “And there’s other weird things, too. That story about you both being Shiro is fishy. Seems kind of confusing. And some of the stories you guys were telling at breakfast make it sound like one of you wasn’t always around.”
“Shiro was lost on a mission into space, back on Earth,” Ryou tries, spitting out their standardized story. The excuse sounds hollow even as he says it. “I left Earth after to try and find him and joined the team later.”
Vakala doesn’t look like he buys it this time, and frankly Ryou can’t blame him. The rebel shakes his head. “What I can’t figure is how everyone else factors in,” he finishes. “You look the same as that Shiro guy, but you can’t really be family, unless you’re a traitor. If you were, then why wait so long? And why would you have even the same scars?” He gestures absently to his face and his arm. “But if you’re connected to Operation Kuron, then you don’t really belong here, so why would everyone act like you do? Unless…” His eyes widen, and he stares at Matt. “You already know?”
Matt frowns. “This isn’t enough evidence for an accusation like this—”
“Matt,” Ryou says, very softly.
Matt sighs, but finally, grudgingly, nods. “Everyone at the table today knows,” he states. “It is absolutely confidential information everywhere else. Not even Olia or the other officers know. If they did, Ryou would be taken, interrogated, and possibly executed.”
Vakala frowns. “But you know he’s in on some super-secret Galra operation?”
“Was,” Matt corrects. “He was in on it, but not knowingly.”
“I was being used,” Ryou says, still very softly.
It’s painful to even admit to it. He’s not sure Vakala understands the full extent of how, exactly, he was involved; he doesn’t think Vakala has come to the ‘clone’ conclusion. Ryou wouldn’t blame him for that, since it’s not exactly common practice.
So he doesn’t go into details, but this is enough. “I didn’t understand how, but I was being used to try and destroy Voltron. It’s not an excuse. But as soon as I learned, I rejected all of that.”
“It’s true,” Matt agrees. “We have confirmed— all of us, with Altean, human, and rebel technologies and magics—without a shadow of a doubt that Ryou no longer has any dangerous influences or connections to the Galra. Operation Kuron was compromised and terminated, just like you said. Ryou is a paladin of Voltron now. He’s risked his life and done dozens of heroic things to protect the universe. That’s all that matters.”
Vakala looks back and forth between them for a long moment, eyes narrowed suspiciously. He doesn’t speak for a long time, and Ryou’s heart thuds so hard it’s as though it’s trying to smash his way out of his chest.
What do they do if Vakala doesn’t accept the truth? With this kind of information he’d be fully within his rights to report it to the rebels. Ryou would, as Matt said, be captured and interrogated. At best he’d receive a swift but merciful death as a traitor that had endangered the lives of trillions of people, due to the Naxzela incident. At worst, he’d be picked apart as a lab rat, studied extensively to learn the Galra’s cloning tricks so similar tactics couldn’t be used again. Ryou is terrified of either of those ends.
And what would the team do, if it came to that? He can’t see any of them sitting idly by, or letting Ryou be taken without argument. Shiro in particular would become viciously protective, and probably Keith as well. Even more passive paladins like Hunk wouldn’t take such a turn of events so easily; he’s usually one of the most adamant about rescuing others.
Ryou doesn’t know to what extent any of them would go to try and protect him, but he imagines it could get violent. And the rebels would be less likely to ever trust Voltron again, once they learn the team is sitting on such a secret. Is it really worth starting a divide within the coalition over him?
Ryou’s stomach twists uncomfortably again as Vakala stares at them, considering. Then the rebel finally speaks. “You know, it’s a real shame.”
Ryou doesn’t think it’s possible for his heart to sink any lower, but he’s proven wrong. “What is?”
Vakala shakes his head. “It’s just, when the sentries attacked, I thought I got more information than I did. But now that I think about it, I think I lost a few more data sets from the klygarg.” He sighs, and holds up the black and orange data disc, looking at it with exaggerated disappointment. “Well, I think it was about a terminated project anyway. Can’t be that important.”
Ryou’s eyes widen, and for the first time, the dread in his chest starts to recede, and a little flutter of hope grows. Matt takes a sharp breath.
“That’s too bad,” Ryou says cautiously. “But you did your best to get as much as you could.”
“Yeah,” Vakala says. “I tried, at least. It’s just real frustrating. I got a nasty crack on the head while we were escaping, so I just can’t remember what I even missed.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Matt says, with just the slightest ghost of a smile on his face now. “Altean technology healed the bump, but sometimes those memories just never come back.”
Vakala gives an exaggerated sigh, but he’s smiling a little, too.
Ryou’s not quite ready to smile just yet, though. “Why?” he asks, still soft. “Why are you doing this?”
Vakala considers for a moment, and shrugs. “Honestly? I’m not sure what this is all about. Or even if this is the right thing to do. Or if we even did the right thing helping you the first time. Maybe things worked out, but maybe they might not have.
“But you saved our hides this time. And everyone here obviously trusts you. Including one of our own officers.” He nods to Matt. “I figure they’ve probably got a better idea of the situation here than me. And I figure it’d probably cause more trouble than it’s worth to break that up.” He puts his hands on his hips. “So. Now we’re even.”
Ryou’s anxiousness gives way to relief. “Thank you,” he says. “You have no idea what this means.”
“Probably not, and I don’t want to,” Vakala says flatly. “Less I know, the better.”
“What about Remdax?” Matt asks, nodding to the other rebel, still fiddling with his communicator on the far side of the room.
Vakala snorts. “Don’t worry about him. He can’t even remember his own damn password for the klygarg most of the time. He was mostly there to shoot things. I doubt he’d put it all together, and I won’t tell.”
Ryou chuckles softly. “I...see. Well. I still appreciate it.”
Vakala nods. “Now if this is actually gonna work, I need to get rid of the data on this disc before we hand it over, or we’ll all be in trouble.”
“I’ll help with that,” Matt promises. “I can delete it without any trace. But we’d better get moving. We’ll need to leave soon.”
“Thank you,” Ryou repeats, this time to the two of them. He really doesn’t deserve this—he has a lot of things to atone for, even if he’d been unconsciously doing most of them, and probably doesn’t deserve to have it buried. Not when it’s putting these two at potential risk, as well. But he appreciates that they’re willing to take the risk for him, anyway.
Matt grins at him. “No problem.” Vakala just shrugs indifferently.
They head off to get to work, collecting a complaining Remdax along the way. Ryou turns to head to his own diplomatic research, but even once he gets to the bridge and brings up all the data, he finds he just can’t focus. Even if today’s events have a positive ending, it had still stirred up a dozen anxieties that Ryou would rather have stayed buried. After half a varga he gives up on the diplomatic prep.
He’d like to sit in the Black Lion for a while, and just talk to it. But the Lion is out today in training, working with Shiro and Keith, so that’s not an option.
In the end, he retreats to his room, where the soothing scent of his recently acquired dream ivy helps to settle his nerves a little. He absently rubs one of the leaves between his left thumb and forefinger, and the calming scent gets stronger, as though the plant senses his distress.
“No one’s ever figured it out before,” Ryou says out loud, half to the plant, and half to himself. “I’ve never felt like I’ve been hiding before.”
He’s always been aware of the danger of being found out, of course. That was why he and Shiro had concocted the whole ‘twin’ story to begin with, as a cover. And of course there were others that knew about him. The Blade of Marmora had been instrumental in rescuing Shiro, which meant all of them knew what he really was. Slav had known, but was surprisingly decent at keeping a secret. There were even, presumably, Galra scientists and Haggar herself who knew what he really was, but revealing it would cost them just as much as it would cost Voltron.
But this was the first time anyone had called him out directly on what he’d been made for since the team itself had done it, when he’d first discovered what he really was. Vakala had never used the word ‘clone,’ but he’d seemed to know Ryou didn’t belong, and wasn’t an actual biological twin of Shiro’s. He’d been agreeable, but it could have been so much worse.
Ryou doesn’t like considering how much worse it could have gotten. He doesn’t want to be a prisoner, ever again; not like Shiro had been, and not like he had been. He doesn’t want the others getting in trouble on his account. And for the first time, he feels like a fugitive, instead of a family member.
He mulls over that for far longer than he should. Not even the dream ivy’s quintessence-affecting scent can settle his nerves completely.
He doesn’t really feel any better by the time Matt asks over the comms to borrow Allura for a wormhole, so he can take the two other rebels back to base. But he does give up on stewing for the moment to go see them off.
“I’m glad you two are okay,” he says, as Vakala and Remdax get ready to board an Altean pod with Matt. “And I’m glad we could get you out in time.”
“Mostly thanks to you,” Vakala says. “Thanks for your help.” Remdax grunts in agreement.
Ryou shakes his head. “It wasn’t just me. But you guys helped me out in a time of need when I didn’t have anyone else to rely on. I appreciate that. So now we’re square, I think.”
“Sounds about right,” Remdax says. “Thanks for the noodles.”
“I’m sure we’ll see you again at some point,” Vakala adds. “With the rebels and Voltron collaborating so much.”
“Long as we don’t get stuck on another listening outpost,” Remdax grumbles.
Ryou laughs. “Good luck with that. I’m sure Matt can put in a good word for you. I’d offer myself, but I don’t know how much mine counts for.”
“I’ll mention it to the higher ups,” Matt says, amused.
Remdax boards the shuttle. Vakala turns to climb in as well, but Ryou catches him by the shoulder real quick. “Thanks,” he says softly.
Vakala nods. “Like you said. Now we’re square. Keep looking out for Voltron. Your ideas are crazy, but they work.”
Ryou smiles softly. “You can count on it. And if you ever need my help with anything again—you let me know.”
Vakala nods, before turning away and climbing into the shuttle. Ryou backs away as Matt activates the ship and seals the cabin, and it soars away. Within moments it’s gone, disappearing into the wormhole Allura opens for them.
Ryou doesn’t really know what to do with himself after that. He tries the training deck for a bit, but his heart isn’t in the exercises. He’s listless at lunch and not particularly hungry, nor is he terribly involved in the paladins’ excitable conversations about the day’s training exercise.
Inevitably, Shiro notices. He sends the team off for their next set of exercises with Keith leading at first, and pulls Ryou aside. “Okay,” he says. “What happened?”
Ryou pauses for a moment, but there’s only so long he could avoid sharing. Matt was sure to tell Shiro when he got back. “Vakala knows I’m a clone.”
“What?” Shiro’s eyes widen. His metal fingers twitch almost imperceptibly, as though ready to defend. “How? What happened?”
“They intercepted some transmissions about...about Operation Kuron,” Ryou says. He stumbles over the project name, and it all but burns on his tongue. He hates it, and the memories it brings back. “I guess...the day they let me escape, there must have been a transmission about it. And there were others later, for Naxzela. He put most of it together from that. I don’t know if he knows I’m a clone, exactly, but he knows I’m not actually your twin.”
“And we just let them go back to the rebels?” Shiro asks, worried and angry at the same time. He knows the dangers of the rebels learning what Ryou is. And just as Ryou had been afraid of, he can already see Shiro’s protectiveness rising.
“He agreed not to share,” Ryou says quickly. “He and Matt even deleted the….the transmissions he’d gotten about me from his data sets. He promised not to say anything, and Remdax didn’t know.”
Shiro sighs with relief. “At least that won’t get out.”
“No,” Ryou says. “But even so...that was close.”
There must be something uncomfortable in his expression, because Shiro puts a hand on his shoulder. “You know we won’t let anything happen to you,” he promises. “We didn’t fight this hard to get you a second chance just for this to happen.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Ryou mutters. “One wrong move and what I am can put everyone in danger.”
“The whole team is a family. It’s a risk they’re all willing to take for you. They’ve all said as much.”
“I know. The threat just never felt this real before. It didn’t seem like anyone could figure it out.” Ryou shakes his head. “And if they can figure it out, it’s possible others could, too.”
“If that happens, we will figure out a way to deal with it,” Shiro promises, squeezing Ryou’s shoulder.
“I know you’ll try,” Ryou says. He doesn’t know how successful they’ll be, but he knows they’ll try. “I’ve just never felt more like a fugitive than today. And that includes that time that I was you.”
“Well, then you’re in good company,” Shiro says, with forced lightness. “Matt and I are both escaped Galra convicts, Allura and Coran are the last Alteans alive, we’ve got four displaced teens—one of whom is half alien—and every single one of us are wanted by the Galra because of Voltron. We’re a family of fugitives. You fit in just fine.”
It’s hardly a funny situation, but Ryou snorts at that anyway. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I am,” Shiro says. “You did a good thing here by rescuing those two. It sounds like they aren’t going to cause any trouble. Don’t borrow more—you’ll just worry yourself sick.”
“Right.” Ryou takes a deep breath. “You’re right. This was a weird case, anyway. We did a good job covering everything up. No sense worrying over nothing.”
“That’s it.” Shiro squeezes his shoulder one last time, and finally lets go. “You good?”
“I’m good. Go ahead and get back to training.” He offers a weak smile. “Don’t want to leave poor Keith to deal with the rest of them alone for too long.”
“That would be mean,” Shiro agrees with a soft laugh. “Alright. I’ll see you at dinner then. And seriously—things will work out. We’ll make them, if we have to.”
“Right.”
He watches Shiro walk away, thoughtful. He doesn’t feel better exactly—still a little shaken. He’s so used to being camouflaged so perfectly, even in the new life he’s built for himself, that being found out at all is eye-opening and a little scary.
But Shiro’s right, too. There’s no sense borrowing trouble. There’s always a very real possibility that one day, somebody might figure out what Ryou really is, and what he’d been made for. And that somebody might have the best interests for the universe in mind, but they won’t match Ryou’s. It’s a frightening thought.
But it hasn’t happened yet. And when it does—if it does—they’ll deal with it when the time comes.
Ryou just has to believe in that, and believe in the team, and hope he never does see that day.