" - Do we know why the garrison was built here, actually? Could be related? But yeah if it's not, it's really weird."

"Yeah, I've wondered that too. It's almost like they knew it was here, but I've never seen any signs of Garrison activity in the caves." 

The caves in question turn out to be less than two hours away by hoverbike, at least at the speed Keith drives. As before, all of them somehow pile on, Pidge holding the modified scanner on his lap. 

After a certain point, the terrain becomes too uneven for the bike and they have to walk the rest of the way, picking a path between the large boulders that litter the floor of the canyon. 

The scanner continues to think they're going in the right direction. 

This is at least a very pretty area! The blue lion people have good taste.

Akira's helpful with Gunderson but is mostly quiet on the drive and subsequent walking.

"We're close!" Pidge announces. "The scanner says it's in this cave up ahead." 

He points out the mouth of a cave that seems no different from the other openings they've seen in the rock as they walked. 

"Then let's go take a look."

As promised, the walls of this cave are covered in ancient carvings. Lines etched into the rock depict the stylized lion they saw in the photos, over and over again in combination with a variety of other glyphs. Keith has clearly been here before; he brought a torch. The beam doesn't do much to illuminate the cave's interior, but it's better than nothing. 

Do the other glyphs look at all meaningful? Like, does anything resemble a person even vaguely, or repeat often... She's not gonna be able to do an in-depth analysis but she might get a sense of like 'are these numbers' or 'are these words' or 'are these drawings.'

They seem to be pictures. Lines of people waving weapons march around the base of the walls, some kind of vaguely kangaroo-like animal hops along on several of the walls, and there's something on a slab near the entrance that could be either a mushroom or a UFO.

Another repeating design is a large circular ring with lines radiating out from it. The centre of the ring is empty, and the rim has triangular detailing that almost suggests arrows pointing towards the hole in the middle. 

Pidge shuffles around the cave, waving the scanner about and watching the readings change. 

"According to this, it's directly below us..."

She's pretty sure you're not supposed to poke ancient carvings, but also her low-light vision's not that good.

"Hey Akira, make anything of these?" she asks.

He comes over to squint at them, brushing his fingers over one part that's faded heavily.

The carving lights up beneath his touch, the lines glowing a bright electric blue that spreads out through the whole cave until every groove carved into the rock holds the same phosphorescent glow. 

A second later, the cavern floor starts to shake and crumble under their feet. 

"Akira you're officially the first to die in a horror movie!" Nuray shrieks.

Akira tries pulling her away from the crumbling.

Too late. The whole floor falls away, sending all five of them sliding down...a waterfall? 

(Pidge still screams like a girl.)

They land in a pool of water at the bottom. 

Nuray yelps.

And then: "Where did this water even come from!"

"There are underground rivers all over this area," Keith says, picking himself up and looking around.

"I have a more important question. Where did that come from?" 

The cave they're in is bathed in the same blue light as the one above, only brighter. Its source is a glowing spherical forcefield made of interlocking hexagons. (Pidge's scanner didn't survive the waterfall, or it would be going crazy right now.)

Within the forcefield is a massive blue robotic lion with red and silver accents, sitting on its haunches. It looks large enough to fit several of them in its mouth at once, but it sits inert and unmoving. 

The 'eyes' of the lion are flat yellow panels with no lights or detailing, but nevertheless Akira might get the sense that it's watching him. 

That's creepy, and he's watching it right back.

"Do you think this is 'Voltron'?"

"It...must be," Shiro replies in a hushed tone. Like everyone else, he's staring at the lion in awe. 

"This is what's been causing all the crazy energy out here." 

Keith wades out of the pool and heads directly towards the forcefield to investigate, Pidge not far behind. When he reaches it, he puts his hand right on the barrier, which ripples but doesn't give way. 

"I wonder how we get to it."

Akira comes up to investigate the barrier as well, trailing his hand along it after Keith's actions fail to cause any more cave-ins.

At Akira's touch, the forcefield flashes brighter then starts peeling itself back, vanishing one hexagon at a time. The lion's eyes light up and begin to glow yellow. 

A moment later, all five of them see a vision of another giant robot, this one in the shape of a person with winglike protrusions on its back. The robot's body, arms and legs are each made up of lions like this one, five in total, with the blue lion forming the right leg. This, they somehow know, is Voltron. 

"We're in a giant robot anime? Awesome!" is Nuray's takeaway. "You're lucky this isn't a horror story yet, Akira."