Chapter Two
The blowing sand cut into the skin of Bethie’s cheeks like small knives and she lifted the piece of cloth covering her mouth a little bit higher, yet somehow, the sand managed to find skin. Ahead of her, Jack was hunched over against the wind, one arm up to protect his own face. His other arm was stretched out behind him as she was clinging onto his hand. They had set out to get some fresh water from an underwater aquifer half a mile from the cavern but on the way there, a sandstorm just happened to cross their path.
“Whose bright idea was this anyway?” he groused, his voice piping in loud and clear through the transmitter in her ear.
“I won’t shirk responsibility for it,” she said stiffly. “How was I supposed to know this storm would come down on us this quickly?”
“We can’t keep moving. I can barely tell where we are and we can’t afford to get lost up here.”
“Fine. Set up the bubble then.”
The bubble was another of Hunk’s gadgets and he had shoved it into Jack’s already heavy backpack, saying that they might need it. Bethie was grateful that Jack’s complaining had reached deaf ears. She shielded Jack with her body so that he could see what he was doing as he pulled out the flat oval with the red button in the center of it. He slammed his palm into it and they watched as it inflated itself. As soon as the doorway was visible, Jack unzipped it and shoved Bethie inside, jumping in right after her. Their combined body weight prevented the bubble from blowing away though it did shake when the wind was especially fierce. It was not especially roomy so they sat with their knees bent and their shins rubbing against each other as they sat on opposite sides.
“How long do you think this’ll last?” she questioned.
“Beats me,” he replied. “Hopefully not long because I won’t be able to sit like this for too long.”
“Too bad, Beanpole.”
“This is the only place where you have the upper hand, Short-stuff.”
Bethie tried to smile but it only wobbled on her lips. Jack didn’t even bother trying. As foreseen, life in the cavern had slid steadily towards miserable as they had nothing to do but try to get reports from the outside. The sandstorms that plagued the area for the past week had prevented them from sending messages out though they did manage to receive a few. Lance was in position but there was still no word from the Castle of Lions and whoever was left on the surface was imprisoned in their own homes by well-armed robots. He also sent along a thick report of Pidge's findings and Matt and Hunk found it compelling reading. They began to reconfigure the weaponry on the Lions accordingly, preparing them for a future battle.
Squabbling between the pilots had broken out soon after Lance’s message, the worst between Jordan and Bethie, and they still weren’t speaking. The two strong-willed cousins had always rubbed each other the wrong way and their relationship usually went to either extreme with no middle ground. Ethan, who usually tried to broker the peace between them, didn’t lift a finger when they almost came to blows over who was going to use the bathroom first because he was too busy teaching Olivia how to fly. Of course, all he could do was tell her what the controls in the Blue did, but she was the one person in the cavern who had not succumbed to a foul mood. Jack wanted badly to needle them but refrained from doing so in order not to hurt Ethan’s chances, so he had turned his attention to Hunk…then Matt when Hunk threatened to throw him bodily across the cavern.
When Ethan finally emerged from the Blue with Olivia in tow, he took control of the situation and sent Bethie and Jack out to get water as their filter system had broken down. Even though the water was fine to shower in, it was not drinkable. They hadn’t argued and had left in time to hear Jordan why Ethan had those two sent out instead of two others. His response was that they were causing the most trouble and that seemed to appease his cousin.
“What if we attacked, guerilla-style?” Jack asked suddenly.
Bethie pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Like take out one ro-beast, run away, then come back to take out another one?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure, if we can ensure that nothing else will interfere in the fight. From the pictures in Uncle Lance's report, that’s impossible. Their fighters are always in the air, always circling.”
“Alright, then maybe not the ro-beasts to begin with, but we can start doing some damage on the fighters. Voltron can take out a good couple dozens of those fighters before we’d have to run for it.”
“I’m so sick of planning,” Bethie said, her voice muffled as she buried her face in her folded arms.
“And I’m sick of listening,” Jack retorted. “But what else can we do?”
“Jack…we can’t just wait.”
He didn’t answer but his gray eyes flashed dangerously at her as if to say that he knew that.
“Listen, I know you’re scared…”
“Just let it out before I pop you one,” he mumbled.
“Fine,” she said arrogantly. “I think we should attack. With what Uncle Lance gave us and with what Matty and Uncle Hunk have done, we are ready to make a stand. We have to appear strong and hiding out like this is not exactly conveying that image.”
“They told us to gather information and to move when we had enough…”
“From here? How are we supposed to do that? We can’t even get a decent communication signal and I doubt Uncle Lance has had a chance to walk around Voltronia lately. No, we have to move, Jack, if just to shake it up a little.”
He didn’t respond. She tapped his leg with her boot to draw his gaze to hers.
“Jack? What’s eating you?”
“Besides the obvious?”
“Yeah. Why are you so reluctant to get going on this?”
The look he gave her was hesitant. “For once, I’m considering the consequences of my actions and it’s made me realize why I never really did before—it sucks.”
“That’s what happens when you become a responsible adult. I have considered the consequences as well, despite how I may sound, and I think that the consequences would be more dire if we just sit here and do nothing: Arusians will run out of hope, something might happen to my parents if they hold out on knowing where we really are, and Arus is going to fall to ruins again. It’s been a month…it’s time to stop this. It’s time to stop giving them more ground. We have enough information to know where we can hit them the hardest and we should act on that.”
The bubble suddenly seemed much smaller for the two of them as Jack’s gaze sharpened and intensified on her face. Bethie squirmed under his scrutiny, but didn’t avert her eyes.
“Okay.”
She threw him a look. “That’s it?”
“What do you want? A written statement? I can draw something up on the sand if you want…”
She kicked him again, but this time harder. He winced but gave her a crooked smile.
“If this fails miserably and we’re sent to Lotorian prison, I’m telling everyone this was your idea,” he said, pointing a finger at her.
“Prison?” she snorted. “If we fail, we’re dead meat.”
The storm raged on outside as they outlined a plan of attack using the sand that they had tracked in as a drawing board. Bethie turned out to be a better strategist than leader and she had a better understanding of how fast the Lions could or could not move. However, Jack had a better understanding of what the Lions’ pilots could and could not do and gauging enemy reaction to their actions. By the time the storm died down and they emerged, muscles cramped but determined, they were able to put together a plan of attack that her parents would have envied.
Raised voices greeted them when they went back down to the cavern and they found Ethan toe-to-toe with Jordan, muscles bunched and fists clenched. Jordan’s navy blue eyes were shooting arrows at her cousin and her face had an obstinate look that she’d gotten from her mother. Olivia and Matt watched them as if it were a tennis match, heads going from one to the other as they argued.
“I washed the dishes yesterday,” Jordan exclaimed.
“No, you didn’t,” he said. “I did. You traded your turn with Matty for an extra roll.”
“That means I get to skip my turn.”
“We started up again and now…”
“Shut up,” Jack said, shoving at Ethan’s shoulder. “Everyone sit down.”
“You shut up,” Jordan said, turning her ill-mood towards him.
“Jordan, your attitude is pissing me off,” Jack said warningly. “I swear to god, if you don’t sit down, I’m gonna sit you down. I am sick of having to listen to you pick fights because you’re bored. Go polish the Green or something. Do your hair…”
She took a swing at him and he ducked out of the way. Unfortunately, Ethan had not seen it coming and he got a fist in his face.
“JORDAN!” he exclaimed, a hand over his eye and his nose bleeding. “I AM GONNA KICK YOUR…”
“Nice hit,” Bethie said casually.
“Yes, it was,” Jordan said, shaking out her hand and acknowledging her cousin’s unspoken truce. “Okay, I’m done. Sorry about that, Ethan. It was for Jack.”
Ethan glared at Jack, his own hand curling into a fist, but the other man put a hand up.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said.
Olivia went to Ethan, gently removing his hand and dabbing at his nose with a piece of gauze.
“She didn’t break your nose,” she said, eyes narrowed as she examined his face. “But you’re gonna have a pretty nice black eye in a couple hours.”
“Well at least now he doesn’t look so damn perfect all the time,” Jack pointed out.
Olivia helped Ethan to a seat, though his legs worked just fine as the others followed suit. Hunk came out from behind his workbench, headsets resting around his neck as blasting music into his head was the only way he could get a moment’s peace from the bickering.
“Where’s the water?” he asked, annoyed when he saw that they had brought nothing back.
“Oh…” Bethie said. “Listen to this first, Uncle Hunk.”
“We don’t have much drinking water left,” Hunk pressed on. “We sent you two out there to get more water!”
It was the first time they heard him raise his voice. Behind him, Jack caught Bethie’s eye.
“This’ll be worth it,” she assured him, patting his arm. “Have a seat, Uncle Hunk.”
Jack pulled up a holographic image of the Castle of Lions as seen the last time they got a news clip. Ro-beasts and Lotorian fighters circled it and the robots defended it on the ground.
“Home sweet home,” Ethan said, his voice coming out pinched as he tried to staunch his nosebleed.
“We don’t have nearly enough manpower or Lionpower, for that matter, to hit them where we really want to. Our weapons aren't ready for that just yet,” Jack said. “So Bethie and I got to thinking, how about we hit them...” He switched the scene to the less-defended edges of Voltronia where there were no ro-beasts. “…here.”
“What’ll that do? We’ll just be wasting our time and energy,” Jordan asked.
“It’ll show them that we’re not dead, that we haven’t run away,” Bethie said. “And we have the strength to stand up to them even though they have taken our homes. Not to mention letting the Arusians know that we haven’t abandoned them.”
"Not to mention the weapons depot," Ethan said.
"Good eye, Your Princely Highness," Jack said. "I want Yellow and Blue Lions down there, get us some ammo."
Bethie studied the blueprint of the depot. "It looks like they put the old stuff deep in the basement."
"Tractor beam will take care of that," Matt said.
"We're gonna have to move fast," Ethan said.
"I just need a few samples," Hunk said. "We can replicate the rest."
“Are the Lions ready to fly, Uncle Hunk?” Jack asked.
“They always were. Energy levels are at maximum.”
“So how about it?” Jack asked the rest of them. “You ready to wave your guns in the air?”
“Sounds good to me,” Matt said.
“Did you actually think someone would disagree with you?” Jordan said.
Bethie took out her key, having never taken it out of her pocket. “Let’s go.”
