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Once upon a time, there was a boy. After he was born, he seemed normal in every way. He lived a normal life with his grandparents, for his parents died in a terrible accident. His father’s parents were as human as anyone, but his grandparents on his mother’s side were special. Magical, even.
It was those two who raised him, revealing to him his true unearthly heritage-he had been born with purple skin, after all, and he had to change shape to hide this. His grandmother was a beautiful elf from a faraway kingdom, and his grandfather, a terrifying beast from a place beyond the stars. When they had been young, the grandfather had been a soldier, cursed to hurt those he came across. His grandmother was a maiden, trapped in a cage, desiring to see what life was like beyond the boundaries of her prison. When they met, they instantly fell in love, and after long nights of plotting and planning, they ran away together, until they reached the only place they believed they would be safe from their enemies. The wicked witch and her evil emperor, after all, spared no cruelty towards their victims.
So it was, and every night, the child would be told grand stories about his people both and shown how to use his special powers for good, even while he kept his magic and heritage secret. But all children become adults and must move on beyond their home to venture into the unknown, even those with purple skin who lived in the magical realms. So, one day, he left his grandparents after a long, tearful goodbye, searching for his place in the world. He found his place in the stars, but one day, he was pulled back down to earth, losing his wings. He could no longer fly, and so he disappeared into the crowds, looking for a new purpose in life.
Finally, after years of wandering, he at last traveled to the far-off, mystical land of…Orlando, Florida.
…
The fairy tale version of his life always sounded much better in his mind before he got to that part, Shiro decided as he clocked in with a sigh. Running a hand through his thick dark hair, he trudged to his locker, quietly staring at his reflection in the little mirror accompanying it. The bags under his eyes were that much more obvious, that much darker, compared to the day before. He’d barely slept, and, of course, it was always for the same reason.
Pilot error.
It should have been him on the Kerberos mission. Instead, he was drummed out and working at Disney World, of all places. Disney World. One of the few pre-war places left intact after everything that had happened on Earth, all wrought in some way by man. It made sense-no matter how heated the Nuclear Wars had gotten, no matter how bad climate change got, not even the most depraved world leader would have ever dared to attack the Happiest Place on Earth. So it was that Disney World remained, enclosed inside a massive dam wall, all seven parks a beacon shining towards a great, big, beautiful tomorrow that…well, technically didn’t happen.
Still, it was one of the biggest employers left in the world, and one of the few willing to hire Shiro after his very public attempt to rebut the Galaxy Garrison’s official story on the Kerberos expedition. It helped that Iverson had been a former cast member, so the old man put in a favor to get Shiro the job before he’d been forced by the admirals to cut off all contact.
It was barely above minimum wage, he’d been forced into the intern housing because otherwise he’d have been homeless, and he got jeered by people when he was recognized. There was also the fact that, in order to make ends meet and not dip into his meager Garrison savings, he had to work double-digit shifts from sawn to dusk, if not longer, with the hot sun roasting him alive in his costume. But a job was a job, and not only that, Disney World had something that he was very interested in-
“Morning, space cadet!”
Behind him, Shiro watched in the mirror as the cute blonde girl popped into frame, waving. Brittany. He managed to give her a small smile as he turned around.
“Hey.” Other cast members walked by, giving him looks. He ignored them as he kept his smile plastered on his face. “I take it you’re playing a princess again?”
“I’m playing Aurora at the Old France pavilion, of course,” Brittany grinned, flipping. “And because of that, I know what you’re doing today!”
“Oh, do you?” Shiro rolled his eyes semi-playfully. “I’m going to assume it involves me being your assistant again?”
The grin on the girl’s face widened at this.
“Noooope!” She responded, a singsong tone on her lips. “Because Yolande was just put on maternity leave!”
Yolande. She was the fur expert for the front of their park region, specifically for playing Figment and directing people to or from Spaceship Earth. Shiro’s eyebrows went up at this.
“You mean-”
“SHIROGANE!” From the nearby cast member access tunnel, he heard a shout. “Front and center, you have an hour to get ready with Alan and your team! Raoul is your on-point guy for your shift!”
Alan, then Raoul. Shiro nodded as he quickly slammed his locker door shut. He could do that. He had to. There wasn’t much choice.
It was his mission, after all-and never let it be said that he, a Blade of Marmora, didn’t give it his all to complete his mission.
Shiro…I’m so sorry about Keith.
When Keith disappeared during the Kerberos mission, he’d blamed himself. His illness had been uncovered by Admiral Sanda, and despite Sam’s attempts to keep him on, Shiro had been kicked off the mission, replaced by Adam. When Adam also got sick mere days before the launch, Shiro had managed to convince Sam to get Keith on board as the pilot. The young man had been an astute cadet, and the natural pick to succeed Shiro as the best pilot at the Garrison. More importantly, Keith had been researching and practicing the Kerberos mission in the simulator in his down time. It was the only way for the mission to go on, as far as Shiro was concerned-and as far as the Garrison was concerned, once they realized how much money and goodwill they would waste by scrubbing the mission altogether.
Not that Keith was completely sold on it. In fact, he'd initially resisted.
“But Shiro,” he had protested. “This isn’t fair. You should be on this mission! You’re not sick!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Shiro sighed. “I’ve taken my case as far as it can go. I…already knew this would happen eventually. I made my peace with it.”
“Shiro…” Keith had looked so hurt, so scared. “I still don’t know nearly enough about piloting into deep space, and-and there’s no way I’ve really proven myself to anyone, much less the admirals-”
“You have, though,” Shiro had insisted-foolishly. “You were already on a shortlist for Europa. Sam and Matt can vouch that you’re a hard worker and competent pilot. More than that…you’ve proven yourself to me. I know you can do this, out of everyone else here.”
So, on Shiro’s reassurances and support, Keith went to the edge of the solar system-and disappeared without a trace. Pilot error, they said. But Shiro knew better. He looked into every scrap of information he could get his hands on, compiling anything that hadn’t been hastily classified in the aftermath. He made charts, took notes, even made a public statement challenging the higher-ups to provide evidence that it was pilot error. After all, their answers were so vague that there was little doubt a cover-up was happening.
Unfortunately, Shiro couldn’t say exactly why he truly thought pilot error was a lie or present any proper evidence without complications, and the Galaxy Garrison had been looking for an excuse to get rid of him. So, they arrested him after his public statement, and gave him a choice: be court-martialed for and jailed for revealing classified information, or accept an OTH discharge due to lying about his medical condition-both designed to damage, if not outright destroy, Shiro’s credibility. It was an outrageous offer, and Shiro was more than ready to face trial, if it meant someone could at least defend Keith in some kind of court of law.
The reason he ultimately backed down and accepted the second choice-a choice that stripped him of his rank, his benefits, his career, his life, his long-term purpose-were twofold. The first was that Katie Holt, Sam’s kid, had been caught snooping around Garrison facilities for evidence. She, too, faced criminal charges for trespassing on a military base-and she could face life in prison for it. No matter what he did, Katie was like a sister to him. Shiro wouldn’t, couldn’t, allow Ellen Sanda to punish her for trying to find out the truth. In the end, he managed to get her off scot-free as part of upholding his end of the humiliating bargain forced on him.
The second reason had been a phone call from his grandfather.
The world believes Keith caused the Kerberos expedition to fail. But you and I both know what really happened to him and the Holts. My people are coming closer, boy. It’s quite obvious why. You know what’s hidden out in the desert.
After checking out his costume, Shiro slipped into a changing room and out of his normal clothing, changing into the Disney-approved skivvies that clung to every crevice on his body. Then, after a deep breath, he began to step into the massive furry pants.
There’s something I need to tell you-when your grandmother and I came to this world, we hid my spacecraft, the Astghashogh, in a place where few would think to look.
After stepping into his lilac clown-size shoes, he slipped into the torso. After staring at the creepy reptilian countenance of his head covering, and with one final glance at the sweater-clad torso, he finally squeezed it over his head.
This will be a rather…odd request I will make of you, Shiro, but we cannot enter the parks to access the ship. My looks would attract too much attention, and your grandmother was banned for life decades before you were born. The why of how she did that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is this…
“Looking good!” He gave his main attendants-Raoul, of course-a thumbs-up sign to let them know he was fully in the costume. “Ok, let’s get you into the park, Figment. Your fans are waiting for you! Remember, Spaceship Earth is still closed for refurbishments if anyone asks, right?”
With a slow nod, Shiro slowly lumbered next to his attendants, allowing them to walk him through another tunnel to his destination. After five minutes of slow, hot walking, Shiro looked up through the eyeholes of his costume to see the bright sun beating down on him-and the massive visage of Spaceship Earth eclipsing the bottom third of it.
…if anything should happen that requires it, you must secure the Blue Lion. Your grandmother worked at Disney as an Imagineer before your birth to ensure this would be possible. If…or even when…the time comes, you must be there to access the ship. It-and the Blue Lion-must not fall into enemy hands, no matter what.
Why can’t I just do all this right now? The Holts…Keith…they’re all in danger!
Patience yields focus, child. The mission must come first, no matter what our personal feelings.
Shiro huffed at the memory. It was pretty rich coming from his grandfather, given his and his grandmother’s romance, but-no. His grandfather was correct, regardless. It was time to put aside his personal feelings and old ruminations. He had a job to do-and a Figment to play.
The place he was slowly guided through had once been called something else-just EPCOT, still the name of the old pre-war district that Shiro was being guided towards-but while the C had certainly stood for City, the E had stood for Experimental. what now stood on the grounds of this theme park was anything but. Old EPCOT been a promise, after all, and even before the turn of the millennium had been seen as a pile of zeerust delusion, a throwback to a time where people believed that, within a generation or two, they would live in sky-high apartments and driving flying cars, planning weekend vacations to Mars on their floppy computers with one press of a button. It was always quaint, if not surreal, for Shiro to walk past the old rides and World Showcase that promised an Earth that could never come to pass, and now never would or could be.
Beyond Old EPCOT, however, was the expanded Great Universe Center, with 126 rides and attractions fashioned from the vast expanse of franchises tucked in The Walt Disney Company’s pockets. Where Old EPCOT could be traversed in a day, maybe even less, this new park couldn’t be fully explored in a week, which suited the higher ups who ran the Disney Parks just fine. More days at one park meant more money made, be it from booking more nights at the park hotel, racking up more food than the meal plans allowed, and of course the souvenirs. Not that Shiro would be seeing much of that money, but that ultimately didn’t matter.
Surrounding that, though, was the Crescent of Progress, officially called Buckminster City by the powers that be within Orange County. This moon-shaped expanse was the true community that Disney had likely envisioned, albeit with less great big, beautiful tomorrows and decidedly much more security to keep unwanted tourists out and the real customers safe (though there was an augmented Omnimover and APM on the main streets for those lucky VIPs who got the guided tour of the neighborhood). It had been given its name because every building that dotted the landscape were small geodesic domes in the style of the late, great architect. Houses, apartments, supermarkets, hotels, schools, dog houses, tree houses for the kids-they were all domes, accessible by those families who had been quick and rich enough to buy into the multi-generational scheme decades before. Even the nondenominational church, police station, post office and hospital were domes that happened to be colored differently as befitted their functions.
Shiro never went into Buckminster City proper. Most cast members didn’t-only those who were bestowed the blue Legacy, red Essential, or gold Legendary tags with the EARidescent borders had the token honor of living and working with the residents therein. Again, though, that didn’t matter to Shiro. What mattered was that he managed to get a job at the Disney Parks, and that he somehow got to be a fur character at EPCOT when backup was required, after a long and arduous year trading off fursuit training and assisting various princesses in warding off unwanted attention. That he happened to be assigned to Old EPCOT was just the serendipitous cherry on top. It was the least visited part of the park despite its storied history, and it was Old EPCOT that held the most personal significance to Shiro’s family-and their mission on Earth.
Being a fur character at EPCOT, as well, also meant Shiro was inside a suit that completely concealed his body for multiple spans of time during the day, where no one could see who or what was inside it. Outside of those who scheduled the character actors, no one was ever the wiser as to anyone’s identities outside of the ones portrayed. As far as everyone was concerned, Figment was in the park, not Shiro.
“All right, here we go.” He stopped the moment Raoul let go of his hand. “Jamie’s on break now, so you’re on for the next half-hour. You still good?”
Shiro gave Raoul the thumbs up in response. Then, when he saw through his eyeholes that the attendant wasn’t looking, out of an overabundance of caution. He took one step forward, then two. Turned at a right angle to his left away from where the other man was facing. Lastly, he took a deep, calming breath.
And he changed.
If only he could show Ellen his nails growing into sharp black talons while his teeth became long sharp fangs that could tear through bone. If only Iverson could see his skin turn amethyst, sprouting fur along with the newly-pointed, cat-like ears that flattened against his skull. Sablan would likely gasp at the sight of his eyes bleeding gold and his hair turning white, the silvery locks shining with the slightest sheen of pink. Ryu would probably shoot at him while taking in the sight of the long, armored tail that began to quietly curl around his right leg. The cadets would probably start wondering why he had the strange marks under his ears.
The answer was simple. It was his true form, a mix of Galra, Altean, and human. It was a form he could only take on at his grandparents' lair-and now, inside the Disney-issued costume he wore to entertain kids.
He felt his hearing sharpen as he completed his shift, and he could hear parents and children discussing which ride they would do next while standing in front of the ancient The Land pavilion. Meanwhile, the colors of the park beyond his eyeholes exploded to life, with the blue sky taking on hues that human eyes could barely perceive. He could smell the cooked yellowfin tuna and radishes from the high-end Centauri Station restaurant, and the orange chicken from the seafood restaurant that was far closer to his location. It nearly made his eyes-and mouth-water.
He could also feel the old pain of his disease lessen to nothing, and-just like when he was in space, even when in the guise of a human-Shiro felt free. More like himself. It was a shame he couldn’t reveal the truth about himself, either outside of the suit or the comfort of his grandparents’ home across the sea. If only the Galaxy Garrison knew that, for all of their searching for extraterrestrial life, that it was right under their nose, courtesy of the Golden Boy himself.
More like Complementary Color Boy, given his true skin color compared to his Figment suit. But-semantics, Shiro inwardly shrugged.
“Well, what have we here?” Then he heard Raoul speak. “Hey, Figment, is that who I think it is? Look over there!”
“Mama! A dragon! A real dragon!!”
Slowly, Shiro turned to look around. He immediately brought his hands up in faux surprise as his eyes fixed on a little girl, her little Hatsuka costume flying in the wind as she skipped over to him. He then leaned over and balanced on one leg, giving the child a little claw wave as he posed.
The Disney princess from Cat Vs. Mouse. Don’t see those often around here outside the Old World Showcase. The little mouse ear headband on the little girl’s head flew off as her skip turned into a run. Oh boy, okay. Brace yourself. Both feet on the ground-
“Oh, Padma-” He was lucky to get his other foot planted before the little girl bowled into Shiro’s leg. The force nearly knocked him back; if he’d been on one leg, he’d have been screwed. Behind her, the girl’s mother let out a tired sigh. “Come back here, don’t hug the dragon. He might eat you.”
The little girl’s head shot up to look at him in shock and fear, and immediately Shiro brought his hands up to his cheeks, miming abject horror as he adamantly shook his head. Figment was a lot of things, after all, but in the character’s century-and-a-half-long history, a human eating monster was never one of them.
“See?” The little girl’s expression changed into one of innocent smugness. “He won’t eat me. He’s a nice dragon!”
“All right, all right.” Shiro emphatically nodded in agreement with the little girl, clapping his hands together in what he hoped looked like childish excitement. “Let’s get a picture, then, if you don’t mind, Mr. Dragon.”
Of course, they didn’t know his character’s name-despite it being on the freaking sweater the costume had-but it didn’t matter. The girl was happy to see a real dragon, and ultimately, making the magic happen was his job. Clapping his hands again, he then threw his hands out, giving a little wave to the camera and leaning his body just so. Beneath him, the little girl giggled.
“Three, two, one…” The click of the camera, inaudible to human ears, was akin to the closing of a door as Shiro’s ears flicked inside his costume. “There we go. How about we go to the aquatic ride now, hmm? Something we can sit down in since Spaceship Earth is closed for maintenance. Again…”
“Yay!” The girl hopped up and clapped her hands, and Shiro followed suit, resulting in a faint chuckle from the mother as well as from Raoul. “Fishes!”
“Yes, fishes…you like fish, Mr. Dragon?” Shiro shrugged; Figment only ate imaginary food. “Not a fan? Ok. Let’s go, Padma, come on!”
The girl began to skip away, her mother putting away her camera with visible relief on her face as the child drew away from Shiro. Then, without warning, the little princess abruptly stopped and started to shriek, jumping and pointing while Shiro’s poor Galra ears rang from the pitch of the screech.
“Mama! Mama, look!” The child’s finger pointed up towards the sky as she vibrated with such unmitigated excitement that her costume crown fell out of her hair and onto the concrete. “A shooting star! Take a picture of that, too!”
Curious, Shiro looked up to where the little princess pointed. High up in the sky was a contrail, its smoke dark and thin. To say such was unusual was an understatement-all of the parks were no-fly zones, and those who flew over risked arrest and jail time. For a moment, Shiro pondered whether the pilot of the aircraft above was lost, or whether they were working for the Conglomerate, Disney’s primary rival after the Animation Wars and the owners of the other big theme park owner left in the state. It wouldn’t have been the first time in this business someone working for the other side tried for one-upmanship for their corporate masters, though it would have been the first time Shiro saw it.
Would have been, because in the next moment, Shiro could see, even from a distance, the flames surrounding the craft in the sky as it incrementally grew in size. His eyes widened as the fire spread, turning whatever was up there into a fireball that got closer and closer to the theme park.
No. Not just whatever. That was either an ablating meteor that just entered the atmosphere, or-
“The heck?” Behind him, Raoul put in his two cents, and the woman let out a gasp as she brought her camera back out. “What is that? I-is it getting closer!?”
It was, and as it grew ever larger, Shiro could see more detail. There was a sheen to the surface of the object as the flames began to dissipate off it. A metallic sheen, one that grew dark as it finally entered the atmosphere. A sheen that had the vaguest border of deep violet as it fell ever closer, a streak of darkening smoke in its wake as it let out a faint hiss.
There was no doubt in Shiro’s mind, and the high-pitched chirping sound that came from his mouth betrayed his shock at the sight. It wasn’t a meteorite he was seeing; it was a space pod. A Galra space pod.
And if the calculations he was mentally racing through were accurate, it was headed right towards Old EPCOT.
“Figment?” It appeared Raoul was thinking the same thing, for he felt a tug on his arm. “Um, m-maybe you ought to go inside for a little bit? You know, go see Dreamcatcher and all that and tell him what's up?”
Shiro shook his head.
“Figment, seriously, I think we should get insi-hey, wait!”
Shiro paid poor Raoul no heed and began to run. His mind raced through every possible trajectory the pod could be going on, doing his best to calculate how much damage control he’d have to do. He’d have to contact his grandfather immediately to let him know, regardless. Most importantly, he’d need to be the first one on scene to see what-or who-was in that pod in order to secure it. It was going to be a daunting task regardless, given how, even in Old EPCOT, there was a great deal of security watching the premises both within and without.
And the task was going to be even worse, Shiro realized, because the pod was headed right towards the worst possible place it could go-Spaceship Earth.
Oh no. His grandfather’s briefing echoed through his mind as his feet picked up speed. He didn’t care that, because of how stubby the suit’s legs were, he ended up having to trot like a Derby horse more than run. Or that he looked ridiculous like doing it. That didn’t matter. Please hold. Please don’t destroy the building. Please let the inner core hold-
The pod slammed into the geodesic dome with a loud, quaking BOOM, and Shiro’s heart stopped at the sight of the massive hole, smoke and flames pouring out. With the way the craft had hit, he truly did expect the pod to go straight through the attraction and into the ground below. Already, maintenance workers were falling from their positions beneath the dome from the impact, and within seconds he could see a score of cast members fleeing through the emergency exit nearest him, followed by a trail of black smoke. If the dome was further compromised, Shiro knew that, at the very least, he’d be screwed.
Yet the pod didn’t blast through. The core must have held. Shiro breathed a sigh of relief as he pushed past frightened and confused cast members and visitors, his eyes catching sight of the emergency exit he needed to access the inside of the Project Tomorrow lobby-
“Hey! Figment! STOP!”
Shiro stopped despite himself, turning to see Raoul behind him, wide-eyed and sweaty.
“What the heck are you doing?!” His poor attendant wildly gestured away from ride. “This isn’t what we’re supposed to be doing, you know the emergency regulations! We need to get back to the tunnels and call security-”
“No.”
Raoul froze at Shiro speaking underneath his costume, his eyes widening with incredulity. Of course Raoul would be scandalized-furs were, under no circumstances, allowed to speak while in costume. It was a cardinal rule that, if broken, guaranteed immediate dismissal from Disney. But at that moment, Shiro didn’t care. Nor did he care that he was still in his Galra form as his clawed costume hands flew up and pushed the purple head off his collar, letting it fall to the sidewalk with a thud.
“Y-” Incredulity turned to horror as Raoul took a step back, his voice squeaking. He brought a shaky hand up to point at Shiro’s very furry, very purple face. “You-oh my god, alien, alien-?!”
He could hear a scream, and he looked to see a maintenance worker staring at him. Behind her was a father and daughter, the child dressed as Oči, pointing at him. The father, meanwhile, was fumbling with his free hand for his phone.
He had no time for this. Patience may yield focus, but now the moment he’d been waiting for had come.
“I’m sorry.” Shiro flashed his fanged teeth in a grim smile. “Tell Mickey I quit.”
Raoul had been so focused on Shiro’s face that he didn’t notice the fist coming for his face. He pulled his punch, of course, as he always had to when it came to humans. Raoul wasn’t a bad guy, and having the guy's head fly off his shoulders from the force of Shiro's normal blows would have been a bit too much for anyone, much less the little kids that tended to populate Disney World, to witness. As it was, Raoul flew down the ramp, skidding several feet on his back as he stared with wide-eyed horror at Shiro.
Ignoring the frightened crying of the little girl, Shiro immediately turned and entered the lobby through the emergency exit door, tossing his Figment gloves behind him as he slammed the door shut. He then punched the corners of the metal door frame as hard as he could, watching with relish as they dented even while his knuckles started screaming at him. It wasn’t foolproof, but it would slow down whoever tried to get in through that door.
No time for the sliding doors. His eyes flitted up towards the ceiling. I need to get up to the shield panel right now!
A single leap up the secret staircase near the Omnimover exit that led to the executive lounge took him halfway up; the next leap had his feet pounding on the LED-lit border. His hand immediately began brushing the walls, up and down, left and right. The panel was in this room, he knew it had to be. His grandmother had been an Imagineer, she had redesigned the attraction specifically to hide-
The touchscreen panel to change the color of the lights in the floor flashed purple, then blue, then purple again at his touch.
Ah-!
Immediately a new screen popped up, with fine lines of Altean script hovering over a cyan touch keyboard. Immediately Shiro typed in the code his grandfather had taught him, along with the number indicating the Galra escape pod’s presence. There was a beep, then a hum. Then silence as the computer processed his request.
Finally, after what felt like an eternal moment, the screen flashed green.
Yes!
He immediately felt the hum of energy from within the core of Spaceship Earth. The pod hadn’t damaged anything vital, and now, the doors to the attraction were closing. He could hear the clicks, the buzzing of the Project Tomorrow sliding doors, and the clang of the inner door which barred anyone from getting in through the designated entrance to the ride. All of the exits were being locked from the inside, to the point where even the skeleton keys designed to open any stuck doors would no longer work.
Of course, there was always the possibility that someone might try to break through the glass of the Project Tomorrow doors or attempt to jimmy an emergency exit somewhere. Perhaps there were even workers still within the attraction, confused as to what was going on.
The bright purple particle shield that was forming over the geodesic dome and its surrounding environs would take care of that. Anything and anyone either not keyed to the acceptable bio-signatures programmed into his grandmother’s override system-or inside the Galra escape pod-would be gently pushed out and allowed to leave, but once the humans were bumped away and the doors closed behind them, the barrier was impenetrable. Not even a hundred Erlang ICBMs could do anything against the superior alien technology employed by her people, his grandmother had claimed.
Not that he planned on staying long enough to find out, of course. Immediately Shiro moved down the hall, making his way to what the humans believed was a simply corporate VIP lounge. And…well, it was, for the most part, being one of the few places left unaltered. It was also a perfect vantage point to see everyone outside the fully formed shield. Some were banging uselessly against the translucent wall, while some watched the scene unfolding from further back, their eyes wide with confusion and shock at the sight before them. Still others were taking pictures, or their fingers were hurriedly flying across their phone’s touchscreens.
The world was about to know about the crashed pod, and the Garrison would not be long after. Shiro’s tail lashed inside the costume as he proceeded back out of the lounge and down the stairs to the Project Tomorrow lobby. His nose immediately caught the sent of slightly burnt metal as he went closer to the Omnimover exit, and his ears twitched.
He had to move, and fast. He had to see what was in that pod and evacuate before the Garrison came to Orlando.
That meant getting to the pod and opening it, but that was easier said than done. His nose brought him to where the Phoenician partition had been. Had been, because there was a small, blackened hole where the animatronic inventors of the modern alphabet once stood. In the center of it was a Galra escape pod, its purple accents flickering through the smoke, clearly hot to the touch.
“…the birth of a high-tech life we enjoy today…the ancient Greeks were great inventors of the future we live in today.” Behind him he heard the celebrity narrator drone within the next section of the ride. Shiro’s ears flicked back, irritated, as he tried to look for the pod’s door. It appeared the maintenance workers had kept the ride in maintenance mode, if the slow moving carriages he hopped over were any indication. “First, they established public schools, and then begin teaching an intriguing new subject called mathematics. With math comes new mechanical technology, and the birth of a high-tech life we enjoy today…the ancient Greeks were great-”
“Activate Juniberry Corollary!”
Shiro grit his teeth as the narrator was suddenly silenced, and the Omnimover rumbled to a halt. The lights of the attraction immediately changed from gold to ultraviolet, swiveling over towards Shiro’s body. He watched as the light thinned, then washed over him from head to toe from all directions.
“Blade not found.” His grandmother’s voice echoed through the ride’s public announcement system, her timbre warm, her tone firm. “Please give your callsign and password to continue powerup procedure.”
“My callsign is Serval.” Shiro swallowed, belatedly hoping his grandparents had been able to remotely key it in at some point during his life. “My password is, uh, Velveeta.”
“…Callsign accepted. Password…” A pause as Shiro heard a hum deep beneath his feet. “…accepted. Juniberry Corollary is active.”
From somewhere deep within the superstructure, Shiro heard a ding.
“Knowledge or death, Blade Serval. Welcome aboard. I am Program Juniberry, the primary AI of Blade Spaceship Earth, and its primary spacefaring component, the remnants of Blade Explorer Astghashogh.” The tone of the voice became familiar-this part was definitely, somehow, keyed in recently. “Dear Takashi. Has that time finally come?”
“Thank goodness.” Shiro let out a relived sigh. “And it looks like it, Juniberry. I need an updated status of all Spaceship Earth functions, please.”
“Scanning…primary and secondary systems are functional and online. Omnimover and EPCOT amusement protocols are now offline. Particle barrier is at 99.28% efficacy. Teludav programs and core spacecraft systems of Blade Explorer Astghashogh are booting, currently at 97%-” Immediately a holographic sphere popped up in front of him. A large red hole near the top of the hologram began to blink. “Warning, geodesic hull layer has been breached by unknown object. Activation of nanite repair sealant is strongly recommended.”
“Seal it up, then!” Shiro turned towards the pod. “And scan the pod. I need to know what’s in there before I open it.”
“Nanite seal is now being applied to the breach. Identifying and scanning Galra escape pod…applying coolant to lower core temperature…” The lights on the ceiling focused on the pod, swishing up and down as a gentle spray of green goo washed over it. The surface of the pod hissed with steam as it was doused once, then twice, from unseen hydrant systems above the attraction. “One individual identified inside. Species designation: human…”
Human. Shiro’s heart began to thump. A survivor of Kerberos was inside the spacecraft. He’d suspected that was the case-
“…and Galra hybrid.”
Wait, what-
“Luxite blade detected.” Shiro’s eyes widened as another hologram popped up, revealing the outline of a knife and identifier gem secured in the hilt. “Bloodline: Adilhan.”
Adilhan. One of the founders of the Blade. No, that…it couldn’t be. How could it be? None of the Kerberos crew were Galra. Surely Shiro would have figured it out, especially given he knew all three men personally. Sam and Matt were…well, Sam and Matt. And Keith was Keith. None of them indicated they were part of the Blades, much less that they had any Galra blood in them. Had he even suspected, Shiro would have found a way to make discreet contact with them about their lineage and purpose in the Galaxy Garrison.
Shiro felt his heart threaten to pop out of his chest as he threw off the went to grip the sides of the pod’s door, his claws digging in to try and rip through the hermetic seal. Someone he knew was in there, and they were a Blade like his grandparents. Like him. He wasn’t sure how he was going to approach it. He wasn’t certain as to how he should feel.
Shocked? Certainly. Betrayed? Maybe. Then again, he hadn’t exactly been honest about himself, either. After all, he’d been human guise for years during his time at the Garrison. Heck-his own dad had been unaware of his mother’s heritage throughout their marriage, and any chance he might have learned the truth died with both of his parents when their car crashed Maybe he didn’t need to throw those stones at whoever was in the pod just yet. Not until he fully ascertained the situation.
But first things first, he had to open the pod, grab whoever was in there, and get to the core. His claws finally punctured the seal on the door, and with a satisfying snap he pulled the door off its hinges to reveal what was inside.
“Nnngh…”
Shiro froze at the sight before him. The figure in the pod was slumped in a corner next to a discarded luxite blade, knees up to their face, arms long and limp at their side. What little skin could be seen with their prisoner garb on was worryingly pale, almost ashen, and when the figure looked up, a long, hideous scar marred their cheek, the edge barely missing his eyes. His big, bright amethyst eyes, framed with locks of jet-black hair that went down towards his waist, stared out blearily, blinking several times as they shook the cobwebs out of their head.
There was no mistaking who it was anymore.
“Keith.”
The word came out choked as Shiro immediately went to grab him. The younger man let out a grunt as he neared, trying to get up on his own as he futilely tried to grab onto something, anything, that the smooth surface of the pod’s interior might provide. His legs shook, as did his arm, and as a result Keith nearly fell forward on his face as he tried to grab the border of the pod’s door.
Instead, he fell straight into Shiro’s fursuited chest, letting out a few mumbled curses as he planted where Shiro’s pecs were.
“Easy there, cadet.” Shiro flushed even as he tried to keep his voice-and Keith-level. “I’ve got you.”
“…Shiro…” Keith let out a confused grunt as he tried to push away. “Shiro, I have to warn the Garrison. I don’t care who I have to talk to, I’ll even talk to Sanda if I have to. Voltron, the Gal-”
Then Keith looked up at Shiro’s face, and suddenly, Shiro felt foolish for not shifting back into human form before grabbing Keith. He felt the skin beneath his Galra fur go cold, his mind flashing through a myriad of possible reactions as he stared back at Keith’s widening eyes, flashbacks of Raoul from moments before playing in his mind at the fear that leaked into the younger pilot’s expression.
Regardless of what Keith might know about his own heritage-really, the cadet Shiro remembered had lost his dad and had never met his mom, didn’t even know if she was alive-Shiro was a completely different story at that moment. He looked like the enemy of all that was good and decent, after all, a soldier of the Empire. There was no way Shiro could hide it anymore. He could easily see Keith running away from him to try and warn the Garrison, or even Keith grabbing the blade from where it lay inside the pod and stabbing him in the face. He tensed up and waited for what was no doubt inevitable.
“Wh-” Finally, Keith’s mouth dropped. “Shiro, you’re…you’re purple…why are you p-purple-your ears are-!?”
Keith’s arms began to lift from his side, and Shiro tensed even more, ready to parry whatever Keith was about to throw at him. Indeed, one of Keith’s hands shot upwards-and began to tug hard on Shiro’s ear flap.
“Ow-hey-!” It wasn’t the flex Shiro expected, and but he immediately grabbed Keith’s hand nevertheless, pulling the fingers away from his now-sore ear before the other man could rip it off his skull. “What the heck, Keith!?”
“…Oh my god, I’m not having a stroke or dying.” Keith began to hyperventilate as he kept staring at Shiro. “You’re real. You’re a Galra. You’re…oh my god.”
There was hurt in Keith’s tone, hurt and disbelief both. Shiro couldn’t blame him. He’d kept this from Keith. Keith, who had opened up to him when no one else would listen, revealing his own secrets and hurts. Yet each time Keith had tried to pry open Shiro’s past, he’d managed to keep hid biggest skeleton in the closet out of sight, if not out of mind.
“I’m sorry, Keith-”
“Don’t you sorry me, Shiro!” Suddenly fists were smacking against his suit, and even though they weren’t really hurting him, Shiro winced nevertheless. “You knew! You knew the whole time about the Galra, about-why didn’t you tell anyone!? Why didn’t you tell me!? I thought you trusted me!”
Shiro closed his eyes, looking away from Keith. He could feel the anger rolling off the younger man. His own shoulders sagged as he let out a sigh.
“I trusted you. I still do, really.” Keith’s initial reaction to him echoed in his mind as he spoke. A stroke indeed. “But even if I could have told you, would you have believed me?”
“Of course I would have!” Another smack. “Especially if aliens were coming to Earth! Which they definitely are now, and-we’re not ready!” Keith’s anger shifted to panic. “Did you know they were coming!? Are you working for them?!”
“No. Never.”
The answer was immediate, and Keith nearly jumped as Shiro let out a defiant growl. The very idea that he would ever willingly associate himself with the cruel tyranny of Zarkon, his witch or their cabal of generals and druids was anathema to any Blade. After all, they caused the destruction of the old home world before destroying those of their allies. Then, in the ensuing endless conquest, they destroyed Galra culture and society as it had been, favoring a caste-based military industrial system that did nothing but feed their personal perpetual power trip. Clan life, truth, honor, knowledge, fealty and mutual trust-all of the good things their people once had were swept away according to the Marmora’s secret, true histories of the Galra, the one the empire tried so hard to suppress after the destruction of Altea. To work for Zarkon was to work for, not just the oppressors of the universe, but the oppressors of the Galra themselves.
“My family came here to protect the universe.” Shiro clenched his fists as Keith stared back up at his face. “…The Blue Lion is on this planet.”
“…You know about Voltron, too. Seriously?!” Keith began to sulk, his fist hitting Shiro’s chest one more time. “I am so going to smack you, Shiro. If that’s even your real name-just…do I even know who you really are? Were you ever even sick!?”
Shiro’s ears flattened at this.
“Everything you learned about me was true, Keith. My name, my illness when I’m in human form, my favorite food, all those things are real. I swear it.” Keith let out a scoff, but Shiro continued. “And my father’s family was completely human. I just…didn’t mention anything on my mom’s side. Like I said, I couldn’t. It would have jeopardized my grandparents and their mission.”
Keith let out an exasperated groan at this.
“And it could have put everyone else in danger,” Shiro insisted. “And you in more danger when you went out there. If you’d known I was a Blade before leaving for Kerberos, the empire would have already been here and Earth would be destroyed!”
“Oh please,” Keith snarled. “I kept your illness hidden, I could have kept silent on something like this too. No one could have gotten it out of me.”
“Not even the druids, Keith?” Fear sprang into Keith’s eyes at the mere mention of the witch’s goons, and Shiro felt his heart drop at the thought of those things getting anywhere near the younger man. Gently he brought one of his clawed hands to Keith’s face, knuckle grazing against his cheek as he shook his head. “No. The druids torture Blades and anyone who associates with them. I already had a hard time living with myself knowing the Galra had you and there was nothing I could do to save you.”
“Not even telling the Garrison?”
“You’ve seen their extraterrestrial protocols.” Shiro almost shuddered at the thought of looking through the pamphlet they gave him on his last mission-the same one they surely gave to Keith as part of his Kerberos briefing. “Imagine if they knew we were here.”
Keith stared at him, eyes slightly widened at the we. Whether Keith was thinking about the members of Shiro’s family, or whether he had connected the dots as to his own alien heritage, Shiro couldn’t know. And if Keith wasn’t aware of his heritage…
“Warning.” The computer’s voice suddenly echoed through the ride. “Scanners indicate Garrison personnel are being notified of an alien sighting at Old EPCOT.”
“Quiznak-!” Well, so much for telling Keith he was part-Galra as well. That could come later. They were about to be busted. “Keith, we need to go.”
“Go where?” Keith slowly stepped back, still eying Shiro warily as he reached into the pod for his knife. “We’re stuck inside an amusement park ride.”
“That’s what my grandmother wanted you and everyone else to think.”
“Wait, what-”
“Juniberry.” Shiro looked up towards the purple lights. “Requesting access to Blade Explorer Astghashogh’s navigation bridge.”
At this, the floor around them began to rumble.
“Shiro, what-!?”
“Access granted, Blade Serval.”
An animatronic began to move in the Greek scene; Shiro watched as it jerked, its hands raising to the sky. It was the oldest animatronic still used on the ride, the only one left over from the very first incarnation of the Spaceship Earth ride. It was once meant to represent an actor who played Sophocles’ Oedipus, a puppet that was literally faceless until they replaced its head sculpt, transforming him into a mathematician-perhaps Ptolemy, though the animatronic was never given an explicit name. His grandmother had insisted on keeping it on stage when she re-Imagineered Spaceship Earth.
Not that she didn’t make her own alterations to it, however. After all, the Astghashogh needed to be locked away, hidden from the world in order to conceal what Spaceship Earth had become. But when the time came to fly, Shiro would need access to the bridge. Several loud bangs later, and that access became available to him, as the animatronic’s platform rose up towards the ceiling, revealing a vacuum elevator beneath.
Keith stared at the construct as the glass door slid open, its lights glowing a bright violet.
“What…the…”
Shiro didn’t waste time. He grabbed Keith’s wrist and pulled him into the elevator, squishing them both as closely together as possible to fit. He could feel-and hear-Keith’s heart pounding rapidly in his chest as they were closed inside the tube; within five seconds they were flying, gravity failing them as the elevator shot them down through the center of the geodesic dome and into complete darkness.
Then, the ride down was over as fast as it started. Shiro managed to fight the urge to vomit as the door slid open, and he let Keith go in favor of stepping into the blackness they had plunged into. Blackness which, upon Shiro stepping out, burst into purple and cyan light, revealing the cockpit of what Keith would know as a Galra ship. Quietly Shiro walked over the center console, his fingers gently gliding over the metal.
“My grandmother-my Altean grandmother, not my human one-she worked at Disney.” His hand found the scanner, and he pressed his palm against it. “She and my grandfather knew that one day the Empire might come, and if they did, the Blue Lion would need to be protected.”
The console began to light up, with a diagnostic hologram of Spaceship Earth blipping to life. The condition of its amusement ride and true space-worthy components hovered atop the console as the bridge came to life. Shiro could hear Keith let out a small gasp as the power controls and viewing panes lit up, revealing itself to be a 360° viewscreen, revealing everything around the ship beyond the geodesic dome.
There were now hundreds of people surrounding Spaceship Earth, Shiro realized. There was no way the Garrison wasn’t on their way. Immediately he began shucking out of what was left of his costume, tossing it to the side as he went for the pilot’s seat at the stern of the bridge. His tail was certainly grateful for the release, and it unwound itself from Shiro’s leg and began to happily sway back and forth behind him.
“Oh my god.”
“Keith? What’s wrong now?”
Shiro turned to see Keith staring at him. Instead of being horrified, though, Keith was turning bright red, his hands over his mouth. Oh, right. The Disney skivvies. He forgot about them. He also forgot that when he shapeshifted, he got bigger in general, so what was a form-fitting shirt on a normal human now looked like a molded tank top over his pecs. And the jock strap was…well, it left even less to the imagination as a Galra then it did when Shiro was human.
“Oh…you like what you see? Er-” Shiro’s own face was flushing hot as he realized his mistake and immediately flopped into the pilot’s chair, cursing internally all the while. Now was not the time for that. “Never mind, just strap in! We need to move!”
As if on command, a second chair slid out of a panel on the floor next to Shiro.
“First, I’m going to pick my grandparents up.” Shiro’s fingers flew across the navigation board. “Then we’ll grab the Blue Lion. After that, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“It’s been centuries since Voltron was seen. Millennia, even.” Shiro’s hand grasped the controls. “We’re supposed to rendezvous with the Blade with the Blue Lion in tow, but Grandpa’s also told me that the old stories would have the Lion choose its rider, and its fate. So…”
Next to him, Keith slumped into his seat. Beneath him, a counter started to tick.
“I don’t know.” The ground began to rumble. On the viewscreen, people began to flee from the particle barrier as the inside filled with bright rainbow light and smoke. “I just know this is what has to be done. Ever since you and the Holts disappeared, I knew it would only be a matter of time.”
Sure, he could have just taken the ship and looked for Keith right after Kerberos disappeared. But that wasn’t how it worked. That wasn’t how the Blade of Marmora or Disney worked. He had to bide his time and prepare. Patience yields focus.
“I couldn’t have lived with myself if I did something that got you killed, ok?” Shiro’s head hung down. “I knew you were alive and I couldn’t do anything about it. You have a right to be mad about that. I don’t blame you.”
“Liftoff in 10 ticks.”
“…Like I could stay mad at you.” Shiro’s head came up as Keith grumbled. “You were doing what you thought was right, yeah? I…I know you wouldn’t abandon me. Not on purpose.”
“Never.” Shiro’s tail thumped against the floor. “If I thought I could take down Zarkon to save you I would. In a heartbeat.”
“Of course you would.” Keith’s voice softened. “You definitely owe me for keeping this from me, though. No more secrets, got it?”
Shiro smiled, finally, and the rumble of the ship was echoed in the rumble in his chest and throat.
“Got it.”
“Liftoff in five ticks.”
“…Are you purring?!”
“No.” A pause. “Yes.”
Keith let out a groan, head in his hands.
“Liftoff in three ticks.”
“Juniberry. Patch to my grandparents once we’re up and out, and set a course for their house.”
“Confirmed.” The two were jolted back as all of the lights went purple, then red. “Zero ticks. Liftoff.”
A loud boom echoed through the ride, and everything within the cockpit began to shake violently as the two were plastered by g-forces. For a moment, Shiro was worried that perhaps having a state-of-the-art alien cockpit and thrust engines unused for decades affixed onto a modified amusement park ride was a bad idea on his grandmother’s part. Everything was shaking violently and Shiro’s bangs kept flopping up and down into his face from just how hard everything was vibrating. Next to him, he heard Keith grunt as Spaceship Earth seemed ready to tear itself apart.
Then, without warning, the ship’s speed picked up, and the amusement park rapidly disappeared, as did the particle barrier, leaving nothing but the stars on the starboard and the North American continent on his port. Shiro’s breath caught in his throat as he watched the world move beneath him. And the person next to him, watching it all, eyes wide in surprise and wonder.
Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time. The narration of the Spaceship Earth ride echoed in Shiro’s head. And for a brief moment we have been among its passengers.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Shiro can’t help but smile as Keith watches. “Beautiful. The view from up here of the real Spaceship Earth never gets old.”
“…Yeah, well,” The lump in Keith’s through moved as he swallowed. “I’d like to be able to make sure we never lose this view, or the Earth, if you catch my drift.”
“We won't lose it.” Shiro’s tail thumped against the leg of Keith’s chair. “I promise.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, then.” Keith watched as Shiro pressed several more buttons. “Now, let’s get going.”
Shiro nodded. First, his grandparents, as a static-filled holoscreen popped up, trying to connect to their hidden lair in Japan. Then, the Blue Lion. Everything else was in the future. And-thankfully, he thought as the small island nation began to appear, then grow larger on the planet beneath them-that future included Keith.
With a smile on his face and a purr in his throat, the boy with the purple skin and Keith were once more about to head to the stars-and, with luck, to Voltron. Then maybe, just maybe, that dream of a great, big, beautiful tomorrow-not just for Shiro, or Keith, and certainly not for Disney World, but for the whole universe would finally begin.
Two weeks later, two-thirds of Figment outfit was delivered to the Walt Disney DPEP HR office in Lake Buena Vista. There was no return address, but there was no doubt who sent it.
After the theft, all Disney Parks were closed while rides were tested for any more hidden alien technology or tampering in general. None were found, and the parks reopened two months later.
For his bravery in standing up to an actual alien, Raoul was promoted to fur shift manager. He was also awarded a blue Legacy EARidescent badge.
Yolande would give birth to a healthy baby boy a week later. Hilariously, she named it Keith.
Brittany would eventually become Elsa at the Old Norway pavilion. She would leave Disney Parks to go to college, majoring in bioengineering.
For stealing Spaceship Earth from park premises, Takashi Shirogane was banned for life from all Disney properties.
Keith would eventually learn he was part-Galra and was very annoyed and conflicted about it. He eventually got over it, with help from Shiro, and he eventually found his mother, Krolia.
Shiro’s grandparents would return to the ruins of Daibazaal and Altea, scooping up soil from both to bring to their new shared home world, along with the Altean survivors of the colony Shiro’s grandmother came from.
Voltron would ultimately go on to save the universe-and after they married, Keith and Shiro had their honeymoon at Universal.
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NOTES ON DISNEY FILMS IN THIS UNIVERSE: Cat Vs. Mouse is, in this universe, a Disney film based on two Japanese tales combined into one: The Picture-Cats and the Rat (aka boy draws magic cats that eat mutant mice) and The Husband of the Rat's Daughter (albeit in its original Indian form where the mouse is turned into a human). In this film, a modern take on both, the mouse-girl and the cat-boy fall in with each other, trying not to reveal to the other their true identities as a mouse and an art bum.
In this universe, Oči is a character from a modern superhero-based retelling of the Czech fairy tale Long, Broad, and Quickeye. In this iteration, a trio of unusual superheroines help a young lady free her secret crush from an evil wizard. Like in the original tale, said character has such incredible eyesight that they can not only see anything from a near-infinite distance, they break things or set them on fire. They can even forge rock into diamond.