A/N: Hello. I couldn't wait to get it started, so here it is. :) Also, this is where the Paladins will suffer major changes during their adventures. For example, for those of you who have seen the ending of my last story, Jenny would no longer be the happy, cheerful girl she once was, and she would become distant from everyone she loves. Not only that, but later on in the series, there will be major M-rated stuff that will occur, mostly concerning Jenny and Lotor. But we'll get to that bit later. Also, there's an additional character in here named Amy Patterson. She was the blonde-haired girl who tried the simulator in the past back when Keith was still at a normal school and will be voiced by Daveigh Chase, most famous in my opinion for Chihiro from Spirited Away. Loved it! I'm sure she's gotten much older since then, so I incorporated this factor. Anyway, enjoy. :)
Chapter 1: A Little Adventure
At a school building, the school's principal, along with Mr. York was introducing to the class, including Keith, who was staring out the window, to Shiro and Belle as they stood in front of the class.
"I've brought some special guests along with me today. I'm sure you all recognize them. They're the youngest pilots ever to lead a mission into space, Takashi Shirogane and Belle Shaybon!"
After the statement was delivered, the class clapped towards the two as they smiled with Shiro speaking first.
"Thanks for having us."
"It's a pleasure to be here."
As the class stood (or more accurately sat) in their presence, the students exhibited excitement as they whispered before Mr. York spoke.
"Wow, it's really Takashi!"
"I'm excited!"
"Settle down, everyone. Now, as I'm sure you're aware, they've just broken the record for the fastest orbital velocity, bearing the old heliocentric speed by about 50 kilometers per second."
As the class applauded towards the two, Shiro spoke out to the crowd as Keith maintained his gaze to the horizon.
"The Galaxy Garrison sent us to schools in the area to help find the next generation of astroexplorers. Who's ready to find out if they've got what it takes?"
At that moment, the entire class raised their hands up in excitement and their shouts of volunteer overlapped before Belle and Shiro smiled as the former spoke.
"Oh, I know! I could do it! Me!"
"Okay, guys. Settle down. In order to do that, we're going to give you a test."
As expected, it made the crowd shrink and moan as they expected it to be a written test.
"Aw, man."
"A test?"
"Not a test."
Belle then spoke up to lighten the mood.
"Except... this test isn't like the ones you take all the time. Because you're going to take it by playing a video game."
Hearing this, the students' voices began overlapping in excitement as they smiled before looking to Keith, seeing him watching out the window. As they noticed him, however, Shiro saw how distant he was and wondered why he looked so sad.
Outside, Shiro was speaking to the children about the "test."
"Introducing the Orbit Axiom X, the Galaxy Garrison's most advanced flight simulator. Cadets not much older than you use simulators just like this to train to become the next generation of space explorers. Let's see what you got."
At the front of the crowd, a young man with brown hair, parts of it in front of his face, and blue eyes opened his eyes and gasped in anticipation.
"Wow!"
First up on the simulator was a young boy with blonde hair as he made it past the first level as the boy with brown hair gave his support.
"Cool! You made it through the first check point!"
At the second level, though, he failed to get past the meteor and crashed into it before the same boy who supported him felt bad for him.
"Oh, man!"
Up next, a young man tried it, but with no better success than the first. With that, one after another, the mark of failure popped up with each meteorite they crashed into. For example, a girl with blonde hair got upset that she didn't make it as the brown-haired boy blushed while Shiro and Belle gave smiles to her. Up next, a boy was shouting in frustration as the blonde girl, the brown-haired boy, Shiro, and Belle tried to stop him from breaking it. Finally, the brown-haired boy proved to fare no better than the others. Later on, Shiro gave out the statistics for the game.
"We've had some great tries, but nobody's made it past the third level yet. Looks like you're the only one who's left. Think you got what it takes?"
As Shiro said this to Keith, he became surprised as he looked up to him before a young girl spoke up from in the crowd.
"Wait. I didn't go yet, either."
Upon looking to her, Shiro saw a girl with short raven hair and glasses on her face with the same eyes as Keith but wore a green jacket with a grey hood before he spoke.
"Oh. I see. And who are you?"
"My name's Sandra Kogane. But you can call me Sandy."
As Sandra shook hands with Shiro, he inquired of her about the test.
"So, you wanna go ahead?"
"Oh, no. I'd probably flunk it like the others."
With that, she looked to Keith before she spoke, knowing he stood a better chance.
"But I know Keith would like to try it."
What initially resulted in a brief refusal afterwards eventually got Keith to try out the simulator as he got the joystick out and dodged the incoming meteorites as quickly as he could. This, apparently got the kid's' attention as one of them spoke as the others gasped in awe.
"That emo kid's doing it!"
As Keith managed to get by the meteorites with a hard pull on the stick to his right, he swerved away from the meteorites and completed what was apparently level five as Sandra smiled at Keith before the boy popped up next to Keith.
"No way! Keith made it past level five? Thing's gotta be broken."
As this went down, Belle looked to Sandra before she spoke.
"You sure you don't want to try it?"
"Yeah. I'm good. I really don't need to do this."
"Aw, come on, Sandy. What's one try gonna do?"
As Belle said this to Sandra, the crowd looked to her before she gulped, feeling an intense amount of pressure on her.
"Well... I'll try my best."
As Sandra tried the simulator, the principal spoke with Shiro and Mr. York about the candidates.
"I've compiled a list of students who I think would make the best candidates for the Garrison."
As Shiro looked at the simulator, he watched as Sandra tried to swerve the meteors in a panicked way at first, but as she flew through them, she got used to it as she smiled to Belle.
"Hey... this isn't so bad."
"See? What did I tell you?"
Seeing their progress, Shiro pointed to Sandra and Keith.
"Are these two on there? Looks like they're just about ready to fly the real thing."
"Well, I can understand Sandra in spite of her shyness, but Keith? He's a bit of a discipline case. I don't think he'd necessarily fit in with the rigid Garrison culture."
Unbeknownst to the three of them, Keith was listening to every word they said as Mr. York spoke to her.
"Then you obviously don't know what we do outside of piloting. I'm more than sure that Mr. Kogane will come around, given time."
"I understand your view, Mr. York, but I wouldn't recommend him, nonetheless."
As he heard this, Keith gritted his teeth before the principal introduced two students to Shiro and Mr. York as she introduced them, one of them being the brown-haired boy who supported the others who tried while the other was one who tried it herself but failed.
"This is James Griffin and Amy Patterson. He has the highest grades in school and she demonstrates proper judgment calls in any situation."
With that, Amy spoke up before James as they held their hands.
"Hi. How are you doing?"
"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Shirogane."
At that moment, just as the simulator whined before showing failure, with Sandra having been unable to clear the ninth level, she looked around for her brother as she spoke.
"Wow. I didn't think I would get that far. What about you, Keith? Keith?"
To answer her, the Garrison vehicle's engine began roaring as it took off, leaving a trail of dust as Shiro, Belle, Sandra, Mr. York, James, Amy, and the principal looked on as she spoke to Shiro, Belle, and Mr. York.
"Is that your car?"
At that moment, Mr. York, surprised as he was, looked to her before he spoke casually.
"Like I said. He'll come around, given time. I never said how much time we would need."
As he noticed this, Shiro turned to Belle and spoke.
"Belle, you can take it from here. I have something I need to do."
Later, Keith was just being picked up from the Juvenile Detention Center by Shiro as he exhibited confusion from his decision as he got inside the car.
"I don't get it. I steal your car, and you respond by helping me out?"
"Yeah, so you owe me one."
With that, Shiro handed a card to Keith as he spoke further.
"Be at this address tomorrow at 0800 hours. You're getting a second chance."
With that, Shiro drive off away from Keith as he watched.
At the planet they stopped at to recover after their fight with Lotor, the Paladins, Xarnas, Rogue Thrust, Krolia, Allura, Babak, Coran, Romelle, Sapphire, Cilia, Sandra, Belle, and Xanthia stood over Shiro's Capsule inside the Black Lion. Shortly after Shiro got in Kuron's body, he was being given the rest he needed, but heaven knows what could happen as Hunk spoke up to Allura.
"Is... is he gonna be okay?"
"Only time will tell if this body will accept Shiro's consciousness."
Seeing him in this state was enough reason for Ayame to worry, but not knowing whether or not the body will reject him was too daunting for her to take as she spoke worriedly.
"Takashi..."
As Ayame placed her hand on his Capsule, Lance spoke to Pidge and Lapis before they ran their calculations.
"Is there anything we can do to help?"
"I've tried contacting the Voltron Coalition, but I can't get through to anyone."
"I'm having the same luck with the Blade of Marmora, too. It doesn't make any sense. Maybe there's some distortion we're not picking up on."
"Maybe we need to get into the upper atmosphere for a better signal?"
Regardless, Hunk knew it wouldn't make any difference as long as they were stuck.
"The lions aren't going anywhere without recharging their power cores."
Allura knew the reason why as she spoke while Jenny looked with a glance of slight hate towards Lotor, knowing what he forced Alphus to do.
"The battle with Lotor severely depleted them. If we had the Castle of Lions, we could recharge them, but..."
"But it's gone. And... and her, too."
Hearing this, Lance turned to her and spoke, trying help her any way he could.
"You okay, Jenny?"
Hearing his voice, Jenny snapped out of it as she wiped her tears before she responded and feigned her smile.
"Yeah. I'll be okay. Don't worry."
As Lance turned around and felt otherwise, Pidge spoke to Babak on that topic.
"Okay."
"Is there any other way to recharge them?"
"They can recharge naturally given enough time and ambient energy, but that would take phoebs."
Not willing to accept this, Keith and Ayame spoke out to Coran about another solution.
"There's gotta be something we can do."
"We can't just sit here doing nothing."
"We are on the Dalterian Belt, Home to the element faunatonium. We may be able to use it as a temporary solution."
This made Adea and Luzria confused as they spoke.
"Faunatonium?"
"How will that charge the power cores?"
"Well, you see, it involves gluon field fluctuations—"
Not understanding how any of it worked, Adea dismissed Coran from speaking about it.
"You know what? Never mind. I'm guessing it has something to do with magic, right? Right."
"Not far off. We're going to use the element to expand the energy particles within the cores. But first, we need a Yalmor."
Hearing about them, Hunk began speaking to Coran.
"Wait, wait, wait, there are Yalmors on this planet?"
"How do you think we find the faunatonium? Those Yalmors have a nose for the stuff."
Knowing that they've found the solution, Keith spoke to the others about what to do.
"Okay. You guys find a Yalmor and get this faunatonium stuff. I'll stay with Shiro."
As Keith said this, Ayame knelt down by him as she spoke.
"Me, too. He's my brother. If I lost one more of the people I cared about, I'd... I don't know what I would do."
Belle then joined in before Krolia and Allura as she and the Altean spoke.
"Same here. Shiro means more to me than anything in this universe. Well, almost anything, but you get the idea."
"I'll stay as well. I may have exhausted the limits of what I learned on Oriande, but I might still be able to help in some way."
With that, Jenny spoke up timidly, not sure what to do about the situation.
"Well, you can count me out. Even with my alchemy, I'll just be in the way. I hope Shiro can come back from this..."
As Jenny said this sadly, she began to walk out as Lance looked at her with concern as he spoke to Keith.
"And I'll see what I can do to cheer her up in the meantime while we look for this faunatonium."
With that, Coran spoke up, knowing the order was decided.
"Alright, then. We'll get started."
As the group walked out, Romelle became confused about the situation and voiced her thoughts.
"Wait, you just fought Lotor, defeated him, dropped an explosion that could have destroyed reality, took your friend's consciousness from the Black Lion of Voltron, and put it inside his clone, and now we're simply moving on?"
Hunk knew better than anyone how she felt as he spoke to her.
"Trust me, I'm always saying the exact same thing, but these guys like to move on."
Hearing those last two words, it was clearly the last thing Jenny wanted to do as she barked at him.
"Shut it, Hunk! Can't we just go already?!"
As she walked out, Hunk could tell she was very, very upset with what happened as he spoke.
"At least, one of them used to."
As the group walked out, Allura could tell that Ayame, Belle, and Keith were concerned about Shiro as she spoke before the Black Paladin replied.
"He's going to be okay."
"I hope so. You can't imagine all he's done for me."
At the Garrison, Shiro was giving Keith a tour at the Air Force base as he looked at the Jet in front of him before Shiro spoke.
"That's the Calypso, the first ship to carry astronauts to the moons of Jupiter."
Keith knew about its history already and showed it as he spoke.
"It took them three years to get there. Longest voyage of its kind."
"That's right. Reading about that mission was what made me wanna be a pilot. Those astronauts braved the unknown. People can accomplish incredible things if they're willing to put on the time and effort. I wanna help you, Keith. I think you've got a lot of potential. But what you decide to do with that potential is up to you."
Later on, Ayame was moving boxes into her dorm with Kumiko as they grunted before setting the box on top of the bed before Ayame spoke.
"Okay, that's almost all of them. Let's see if I can't get one on my own."
"Are you sure you can handle it alone?"
"It's just one more box, Kumi. I think I can manage that much."
As Ayame picked up the box, however, she was showing to have incredible difficulty holding it together as it proved heavier than she thought as she stumbled for a moment before it started to fall, only for Keith to rush in time to help her out as he steadied it.
"Easy. I gotcha."
"Oh, thank goodness. That was too close."
With that, the two of them got into her dorm before setting the last box on the floor by the bed as Ayame sighed.
"Thanks for the help. What's your name?"
"I'm Keith. And you?"
"I'm Ayame. It's nice to meet you."
"Same for you."
With that, after a brief silence, Keith spoke up to her as he walked out.
"Well, I better get going. See you around."
"See you later."
As Keith walked out of the dorm, Ayame looked to Kumiko, who showed a smile on her face as she spoke.
"What is it?"
"Looks like you're crushing on someone already."
Ignoring Kumiko's singsong tone, Ayame only gave her own smile as she spoke.
"Don't read too much into it. He just helped out with the boxes. That's all."
"Yeah, sure."
In the present, the group that went out to search for the faunatonium were taking in the views of the forest while Jenny ignored it and kept her emo gaze on, making Lance worried as he spoke, earning her unenthusiastic answer.
"You okay, Jenny?"
"Yeah. Just fine."
Before Lance could reply back, confused by the tone of her voice, Coran suddenly sneezed before wiping his nose after sniffing the flowers prior to the sneeze.
"This looks like a Yalmor patch."
At that moment, Coran licked at the flower he sneezed on before he slurped and walked away before he spoke.
"Yep. Yalmors definitely sprayed here."
Immediately, this earned a groan of disgust from the group as Xarnas and Babak spoke up.
"Well, that was unsanitary."
"Get used to it. It happens all the time with him."
Coran, ignoring their words, put his hand by his mouth and made a yell in the forest to locate the Yalmors they're searching for as Jenny grew irritated while covering her ears. Fortunately, she didn't have to endure that any longer as they heard a faint grunting from far away before going to the source of it, finding an anteater-like alien walking on the ground. As they caught up to it, Coran knew what it was.
"There's a Yalmor!"
Seeing it up close, Lance, Jenny, and Pidge voiced their opinions on it.
"Wow. They're a lot uglier than I thought they'd be."
"As ugly as anteaters can get, I guess."
"I think it's kinda cute, you know, in a creepy, hideous sort of way. Like you, Lance."
Hearing Pidge say this, Jenny gave a scoff at Pidge's comment, stupefying Lance as she showed that she didn't care what she thought. Usually, well, there's not much difference there, but the tone she used signified it all.
"Whatever."
Despite this, Coran shushed the group before he spoke in whispers before it showed him towering over a Yalmor as he snorted steam out of his nostrils.
"Shh! Yalmors are extremely aggressive. Any sign of weakness and they attack. You've gotta corner it, and make it think that you're the bigger, meaner Yalmor."
To demonstrate this, Coran tiptoed near a Yalmor as he spoke.
"Alfor and I used the Squelzian Technique to wrangle us up some Yalmors."
As Coran did this, Romelle became confused as she spoke to Pidge.
"Are all ancient Alteans like this?"
"Well, we only know four. Of course, it's three now, but—"
Before Pidge could finish, she noticed Jenny next to her and saw how dismal she was making her, and refrained from making it worse.
"Never mind."
Despite this, Cilia and Sapphire enjoyed his silliness as the former spoke while the latter giggled quietly.
"Well, I think Coran's funny. I like that about him. And I know Sapphire does, too. Sometimes, I wonder if he does this on purpose."
As Coran squealed at the Yalmor and moved his hands back and forth in a clawing fashion, it retaliated with a whip from his trunk at his head, just missing him. Now that the Squelzian Technique had failed Coran, he leaped into Cilia's arms so suddenly, she staggered back, inadvertently knocking Lance into the thorn, poking him in the butt before he screamed and hopped while holding his wound before falling to the ground in front of another creature as he screamed again before seeing it in front of him.
"Oh, hi, there, little fella."
What Lance didn't know was that in the creature's eyes it saw a grotesque blur of him, and instead of words, it heard shrieks before it squealed and puffed out rainbow-colored smoke in self-defense, making him, Jenny, and the rest of the group cover their eyes. However, when the smoke cleared, everything looked bigger than they were as they were surrounded by grass the size of towers before Romelle spoke her inquiry and Pidge and Babak answered it.
"What the quizacker just happened?"
"Um, it's pronounced 'quiznak', and I have no idea."
"Everything looks bigger than we are. I think we can safely that we've shrunk."
However, there was another question to worry about as Hunk heard thumping from far away.
"Uh, what's that sound? Lance, what did you do?"
Knowing his role in their situation, Babak spoke callously to him.
"Yes, Lance. What did you do?"
"Nothing! I just bumped into the—"
Before Lance could finish, Coran and Cilia spoke up.
"What's that?"
"I don't know. But it looks like—"
Before she could finish, the now gargantuan Yalmor leered down at them as it blinked before it prepped its trunk for whipping, or in this case thwacking, as Coran spoke.
"Oh, no! It's the Yalmor!"
Meanwhile, in the Black Lion, Allura was giving Keith, Ayame, Belle, and Krolia an update on Shiro's health as the blue wolf lied by the Capsule.
"His levels are getting dangerously low."
As they heard this, Ayame became saddened as she and Keith spoke while Belle held her hand on Ayame's shoulder.
"No... we can't lose him again. We just can't."
"Fight. We won't give up on you."
At the Garrison, Belle was speaking to eight pilots recruited by the Garrison (Keith, Ayame, Kumiko, Lance, James, Amy, Hunk, and the same boy who flipped out on the simulator before) as they flew in the simulations.
"Bank right and maintain heading at 0,27 degrees. Increase throttle by 35 percent and bank left."
As this happened, Keith yawned at the normal routine of this as Shiro spoke next.
"Increase elevation, 15 degrees."
As this happened, Hunk began to have an upset stomach as he spoke.
"I'm getting dizzy. I knew I shouldn't have eaten so much. Oh, make it stop."
As one of the planes wilted to the left, another began boosting up, knocking another a little off the course before he growled before Commander Iverson spoke.
"Fall in line, cadet."
"Sorry, just testing my controls. Stick's loose."
At that moment, Lance and James spoke out as the group looked to him.
"Keep this up, and you'll be stuck as a cargo pilot."
"Yeah, Keith, you're gonna get us in trouble."
With that, Belle spoke up next.
"Decrease elevation by 22 degrees."
Having had enough of people telling him off, Keith actually pushed the controls further down than he should, causing the craft to go down swiftly as they all spoke his name, some out of concern being Ayame and Kumiko, and the rest out of frustration as they knew what would come next.
"Keith!"
As the plane took off, Iverson thought he knew who Keith was as he spoke.
"Looks like we've got a showoff."
As Iverson walked away, Shiro and Belle looked at the simulation as well as the look on Keith's face as the former had a look of worry.
Not long after, the cadets were now standing in single file as Iverson chewed them out.
"Hope you all like it in the simulator. You can thank Pilot Fancypants over there for the privilege of spending the next three weekends in here running drills!"
As Iverson walked away, the boy who flipped out on the simulator had a bitter look on his face before he heard James speaking to Keith.
"Thanks a lot."
"My pleasure."
"We all know the only reason you're here is because of Shiro."
Unbeknownst to them, not only did that earn Hunk's concern as he gritted his teeth and showed a panicked look on his face as Ayame showed a curious look while the boy became interested as Keith spoke out to him.
"I can outfly anyone in this building."
"Oh, yeah? Is that what Mommy and Daddy told you before—?"
Before James could finish, Keith retaliated with a lunch on his face, shocking Ayame and Kumiko, as well as the other students before he aimed to mercilessly pummel him, only to be stopped by Iverson who pulled him away.
"Hey! Hey, break it up!"
As he dragged Keith back, Ayame looked at him with concern as James wiped the blood from the resulting punch as the boy looked on in a sinister smile.
Later, Keith was shown to be sitting out on a chair, bruised and battered along with a teenager in the same condition adjacent to him returning a glare as a teacher spoke of his misconducts to Shiro.
"The only reason this kid is here is because you vouched for him. You need to make sure this doesn't happen again."
"Understood. I'll handle it."
With that, Shiro walked out before the other kid went in as he spoke to Keith, who was beginning to have no faith in himself.
"Hey."
"Look, I know I messed up. You should send me ack to the home already. This place isn't for me."
"Keith, you can do this. I will never give up on you. But more importantly, you can't give up on yourself."
This made Keith look up at him in wonder, as if his words entered his heart and touched it. All the same, Keith didn't feel he was worth it as he spoke.
"You don't even know me."
"You're right. I don't. But sometimes, we all need a hand."
With that, Shiro extended his hand out to Keith, who then took it, accepting the help he's willing to give him.
Later after that, James was sentenced to a degradation as a consequence of picking fights, especially to someone who'd lost his parents. The position of pilot would've been his, but instead, Kumiko Nakamura has that position as a result of his actions. However, his grades should be granted him this position instead of her, or at least, he felt that way.
"I can't believe it! That showoff doesn't even deserve to be here! He's only here because of Shiro! He doesn't belong in here, and he never will!"
Hearing James vent his frustrations, the boy immediately took interest in him as he stopped and spoke to him.
"I'm glad we agree on something."
Upon hearing his voice, James turned to see the boy who had flipped out on the simulator at school before as he recognized him.
"Huh? Zach? What do you want?"
"It's not about what I want. I'm just here to talk about you, what you want."
"I don't have time to talk with you."
As James tried to shut the door and Zach, he stopped him by holding the door as he spoke.
"I want him out, too, James. That's why I'm here. We can't have some orphan from who-knows-where show us up. That just— Ugh. It doesn't seem right to me."
"I don't want to get rid of him, as much as he deserves it. I just... I just wanted that position so badly. I'd worked so hard to get it in the Garrison. But what did all that matter? All that work for nothing."
Knowing he's got his hooks into him, Zach smiled before he spoke.
"You know, there is a way to get your position back."
"Huh? Really? How?"
"It's really simple. All you have to do is to remove the person who holds that title from the equation."
"You mean... to run her out of the Garrison?"
As an answer to his question, James gave a sinister look his way before he spoke.
"Sure. Whatever works for you."
Meanwhile, at the planet, the group was running away from the giant Yalmor as Romelle spoke to Hunk.
"Adventures are not fun!"
"Thank you! That's what I'm always saying!"
And as if the Yalmor wasn't enough, the few drops that were on the grass was flicked away, acting like water bombs that set off on impact to scatter itself on the ground as the group panicked while the Yalmor used its trunk to mow the grass, causing the blades to fall on the ground near them as Coran shouted.
"Watch out for that grass!"
As they ran, Lance spoke to Jenny about the event.
"We're not running fast enough!"
"Forget that! Just run at an angle!"
"How can I run at a—?"
To answer his question, Jenny grunted as she ran left before Lance spoke.
"Oh."
As they evaded the blades, they were confronted with another obstacle: a dead end. As such, Adea squeaked in fear before she spoke.
"We're trapped!"
As the Yalmor got close to them, Lance took notice of a pine cone up on the tree before getting out his bayard and converting it into a rifle before shooting it down and knocking the pine cone onto its head, making the Yalmor get a bump on the head before it went away as it splashed on the water, creating tides of it that went towards them as Adea began to shout.
"Son of a—!"
Before she could finish, the water swept over them.
About a moment after, the group was revealed to have survived the tides as most of them groaned while Romelle looked around, amazed that she survived before she noticed Sapphire swimming in the water droplet that remained before Cilia pulled her out and caused the droplet to give way before Lapis sighed as she spoke.
"Okay. That was a disaster."
With that, Pidge attempted to speak to Keith with her gauntlet's communicator.
"Keith, do you copy? Ayame? Belle? Allura? Krolia? Anyone?"
Unfortunately, she received no answer before she stood up and relayed it to the Paladins.
"The miniaturization must've caused our communicators' range to drop exponentially. Nothing's getting through."
Hearing of this, Coran became a bit frightened as he spoke.
"We're so small. It'll take us forever to get back to the rest of the crew."
As Romelle began to panic, so did Adea as they spoke.
"What are we going to do?"
"We can't be this small forever! How will I get to fly the Violet Lion?!"
As they were presented with such an odd difficulty, Lance looked to Jenny before he spoke.
"Well, at least we know how an ant feels."
"Yeah. I guess..."
As Jenny walked back to the group, Lance showed a look of concern before he spoke to her, making her stop in her tracks for a moment before she reiterated her answer.
"Jenny. What happened to you?"
"Nothing. I told you I'm fine. Just drop it, okay?"
"I can't just drop it, Jenny. Remember what you told me back on Arus? You told me that you were faking being happy most of the time. I know you don't want us to feel sorry for you, but it's okay. You can tell me what's wrong."
"That's just it. Nothing's wrong, Lance. I'm just peachy."
With that, Jenny continued her walk back to the group as Lance sighed to himself.
"What's it going to take to get you to smile for real again?"
Meanwhile, in the ship, Ayame was looking at Shiro with concern as well as Keith as they remembered different flashbacks.
One day, Shiro and Keith were riding out on hover vehicles as the former chuckled.
"Come on, catch up!"
As per Shiro's advice, Keith did so with a smirk as he revved on the engine, zipping past the rocks. However, Shiro was still very much ahead of him before he sped up with the two of them racing on canyons before Shiro sped up over the edge of the cliff, much to Keith's surprise as he only stopped just before falling. However, Shiro wasn't out yet as he sped up just before hitting the ground as he looked on in surprise.
"Whoa...!"
Later, Shiro watched as the sunset settled in before Keith caught up and spoke his surprise as he chuckled.
"Whoo! All right. You won this round, but I'll get you in the next race, old timer."
"I don't doubt it."
"How'd you do that dive, anyway?"
"You liked that one, huh? It's all about timing. You pull up too soon, you won't have the momentum needed to create lift. You pull up too late, and there won't be enough lift to avoid the crash."
Becoming interested in trying out such a risky maneuver, Keith inquired to Shiro about something.
"You think I'm ready to try that?"
"What do you think?"
Hearing this, Keith decided to give it some thought before he spoke.
"Maybe I should be patient and keep focusing on the basics first."
"You're learning. So you grew up out here?"
"Yep. Just me and my pop."
Hearing about what happened to his father, Shiro tried to give his condolences as sincerely as he could.
"He was, uh... he was a fireman, right?"
"Yeah. He was a real hero. Hmm. Everyone told him not to run back into that building, but you couldn't tell him anything."
"Sounds like someone I know."
As Keith smiled, Shiro felt a faint beep coming on and felt a pressure on him as he grunted before Keith spoke.
"What are those?"
"Oh... those are just some electro-stimulators to keep my muscles loose."
"What's wrong with your muscles?"
"Ah, nothing. This is just what happens wen you get to be an 'old-timer.' Come on. We should get back to the base."
Later, that same night, at the Garrison, Ayame walked into the bathroom to see an utterly frightening sight: the lifeless body of Kumiko Nakamura lying on the bed with pills spilt onto the floor next to her before she covered her mouth with a frightened gasp and shouted for help as she held Kumiko in her arms.
"Help! Someone please get help!"
Later, the next day, Ayame was at the doctors office and received the worst news she could possibly have heard: Kumiko was already dead. Upon hearing such a destructive report, Ayame didn't want to believe this news and wanted to hear from her.
"No. I don't believe you."
"Ma'am..."
"Kumi can't be dead! She can't be!"
"Ma'am, please calm down."
"Let me see her!"
Immediately, Shiro and Keith held her back as she cried out while her brother spoke.
"Ayame, stop! She's too far gone already!"
"You're wrong! You've got to be wrong! She's got to be alive! We can still save her!"
"Look at me, Ayame! She's gone."
Hearing this, Ayame began to shed tears and sobbed her heart out on her brother as he tried to comfort her with a hug.
"I'm so sorry."
As Ayame wept, the group didn't notice James looking on at the scene, feeling upset about his role in what she did to herself.
Meanwhile, the group that went in search for the faunatonium huddled under a mushroom before a creature passed them as Jenny sat by herself in the rock before Romelle spoke up to Hunk.
"What if we're this 'quizacking' small forever?"
"It's 'quiznacking,' and yes, thank you, Romelle. What if?"
As Hunk popped his boot open and let all the water out Lance looked at Jenny, seeing her all alone by the rock next to the mushroom as she shed her tears and wiped them away. As much as he wanted to help, she would just ask him to go away as she did countless times. She hasn't been this dismal since Belle went missing. And he knew of one solution that would work, but home is too far away to enact that plan. With that, Lance is caught in a bind as Pidge spoke to Coran.
"Coran, you said the faunatonium works on gluon field fluctuations, right?"
"Correct. It expands atomic distance."
"Well, maybe it'll work to make us bigger."
Hearing this, Lance turned his attention to the group before Coran spoke.
"You might be on to something."
"But how are we gonna get the faunatonium?"
"With a Yalmor. We'll lure one back here."
Romelle already didn't like his plan one bit before Hunk spoke up in surprise.
"Lure a Yalmor? To us? Like this?"
"I mean, it's like, I think it and you say it."
"It will be incredibly dangerous, and Hunk's our only hope."
Getting his attention, Hunk blinked his eyes.
At the Garrison, Admiral Sanda spoke with Belle and Sam about a topic of importance.
"No, absolutely not!"
"But why?"
"He's cleared all his physicals."
"I don't care what the doctor says. This man is sick and he shouldn't be sent in another mission, especially as far away as Kerberos. I have to report this to flight command."
As Shiro tensed at this, Sam spoke up in favor of him further, surprising him.
"Shiro is among the best pilots in the Garrison by far. He's saved my bacon in deep space more times than I can count. If he didn't go in this mission, neither do I."
Little did any of them know that Keith was listening by the door about the situation as he showed a look of worry on his face.
Meanwhile, Ayame was walking through the halls with an angry look on her face, catching the nearby students' attention as she got a certain someone in her sights: James Griffin. Upon noticing her, he was getting nervous as he spoke.
"Uh, hey. W-What's going on?"
"Are you really that dense? Did you really think I wouldn't find out?"
"Find out what?"
"You know the answer. What did you do to Kumiko?"
Hearing her name, James was frozen like a deer in headlights. He was caught.
"You framed her for things she didn't do."
As she said this, she pushed James backwards before speaking her next sentence, the force of the push becoming stronger as her anger boiled up.
"You covered her in the dirt."
As Ayame got James staggering back, she began to show little to no hesitation in pushing him down.
"You humiliated her in front of the whole Garrison!"
With that one final push, Ayame forced James to fall to the ground as the students clamored in surprise as Ayame stared daggers at James before she spoke with venom.
"You killed someone. And you didn't even flinch."
With that, leaving her words hung in the air, Ayame walked over James, who looked back at her before looking at all of the students who watched before they all glared at him back before turning to see Zach with a sinister smile on his face before he casually walked away, leaving tears on his face as he realized now, how badly he hurt the Garrison with his actions.
At the same moment, Shiro and Belle went in the commander's room and passed a man with brown hair and glasses as he spoke to them.
"Everything okay?"
As he set the bag down, Shiro explained to the boy the situation.
"Iverson thinks I shouldn't go on the mission. Called up the big guns. Admiral Sanda showed up and tried to convince Sam to remove me from the crew."
Hearing this, the boy thought they were doing their best to keep him alive.
"Well, maybe he's right. Maybe you shouldn't go on that mission. You'll only be putting yourself at risk."
Hearing this, Belle became outraged at his opinion.
"So what, Adam? Shiro's taken bigger risks than this, and he's still fine.
"Belle's right. You know how important this is to me. It's worth the risk."
Adam didn't believe this as he clinked his cup of coffee on the coaster swiftly.
"Takashi, how important am I to you? Every mission, every drill, I've been right there with you. But this is more than a mission. This is your life at stake."
"Don't start that again, Adam. You don't need to protect me. This is something I need to do for myself."
"There's nothing left for you to prove. You've broken every record there is to break."
Hearing that from Adam, Belle went over to Shiro before sitting by him as she spoke.
"You honestly think that's what this is all about? You know the condition he has. For all we know, he could die this very minute. He wasn't breaking those records because he wanted to; he did all that because he needed to. To prove that one disease can never define him as just another patient zero! Or did you forget?"
As Belle said this, Adam looked to them before he spoke.
"Trust me, I haven't. But I just want to keep him alive as long as I can, to be with him longer."
"And I don't blame you. None of us do. But... Shiro needs this. You've supported him before. What's one more time gonna hurt?"
Adam only gave a deep sigh before he spoke to Belle and Shiro before the former tried to change his mind.
"I know I can't stop you two. But I won't go through this again."
"Adam—"
"So, if you decide to go... don't expect me to be here when you get back. I've got a class to teach."
With that, Adam took his bag and walked out, leaving only Shiro and Belle in the room as she looked on while he looked to the floor.
At the Black Lion, Keith, Ayame, Belle, Krolia, and Allura still kept their vigil over Shiro before the White Paladin spoke to Belle.
"Shiro wasn't the first person I lost, you know."
"Kumiko Nakamura. I know. And I'm sorry."
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault. Besides, it's not me you should worry about."
"I know about that, too. Ever since what's happened, Jenny's hated Lotor with a vengeance. Who knows what she could do if he ever wakes up?"
"It's not just that. She's getting distant, closing herself off from her friends, snapping at them any time she could. If she keeps that up, she... she'd be doing the same things I did."
As Ayame teared up at this memory of how closed off she made herself before Shiro was believed to be dead, Keith felt bad for her as she sobbed before looking to Shiro.
Meanwhile, as the group held onto a rope, Romelle was stating her disbelief in this situation as they hovered Hunk over a tree.
"I can't believe we're doing this."
"Oh, you can't believe it? I am literal bait! How could I let this happen?!"
As an answer, Coran spoke to Hunk.
"I told you, Hunk. You're the biggest meal and you scream the loudest."
"I don't care that I—"
Before Hunk could finish his protest, the Yalmor roared before Hunk stopped himself.
"Okay!"
As a result of Hunk's shouts, the Yalmor was attracted to him before Coran spoke again.
"Now keep up that panicked yelling. That's what we need to attract the Yalmor."
"Seriously, guys—!"
Just then, the Yalmor was directly in front of Hunk, making him panic as e wriggled about.
"Oh! Oh! Oh, no! Oh, no!"
With that, the Yalmor prepared to chow down, only for the group to run on the tree bark as Pidge spoke.
"Now!"
At that moment, Hunk was pulled up quickly while the group that pulled landed on the Yalmor's back before Romelle spoke.
"We've made it much further than seems possible!"
At that moment, Hunk screamed as he fell from the rope and landed on the Yalmor's head, showing Hunk dizzy-eyed as he groaned before Romelle spoke as Sandra helped him up.
"This is going well."
"You okay, Hunk?"
As an answer, the Yalmor began to take off as they clung onto its hairs while they shouted.
At the Black Lion, Keith watched over Shiro as Ayame knelt against Belle as they did the same before Keith whispered to Shiro.
"Shiro... I couldn't just tell her. She already lost one person she cared about. If I told her what's going on with you, I'd end up making her worse off than before. I didn't want that. Ever..."
Outside, Shiro was brushing the sweat off of him before Keith caught up to him as he spoke.
"When were you gonna tell me?"
"Oh. Hey, Keith."
"So what is it? Are you sick or something?"
"I-I'm not sure I follow—"
"I was outside your office. I overheard you, Belle, and Commander Holt talking with Admiral Sanda. Tel me the truth. Tell me what's wrong. I'm by a little kid. I can handle it."
For a moment there was silence until Shiro sighed before he explained.
"I... have a disease... and it's getting worse. I'll only be able to maintain my peak condition for a couple more years. After that... The Garrison doesn't want me out there. Neither does Adam."
"So, what are you gonna do?"
"I'm going on the mission."
Meanwhile, the group on the search for faunatonium ended up piggybacking the Yalmor as Hunk spoke before Romelle and Sandra.
"This is worse than being bait!"
"Yes! At least then, you were the only one in danger!"
"Knock it off, Romelle!"
Suddenly, the Yalmor stopped as they all jolted to the front before a total stop as it began digging in the ground. After that, liquid matter began levitating into the air as the group the Yalmor began to bellow, calling others like it to its aide before Jenny spoke up to Coran.
"What's going on now?"
"More Yalmors! If they link at the ears, we're sitting on a faunatonium wizplute!"
As they dig at the ground, they began to suck at the ground with their trunks while linking at the ears before bellowing as they shot out bubbles of faunatonium from their snouts before Coran shouted.
"Whoo-hoo! Yalmor time! Pay attention, Paladins! This is how you work together!"
Seeing the opportune moment, Pidge spoke up.
"Alright, lets go."
Immediately, this got Hunk and Lance's attention as they turned to her.
"Wait, what?"
"Huh?"
"Look, is we wanna get back to our regular size, we have to jump in there."
With that, the group began to jump off one by one as Romelle began to get confused.
"Are we actually doing this?"
"Unless you wanna spend the rest of your tiny life on the back of a Yalmor."
"Wait for me!"
With that, they all slid down on the Yalmor before leaping off of the trunk and into the faunatonium bubbles before they all grew bigger and collapsed in a pile as Romelle and Lance spoke.
"Oh, quiznak."
"My back."
As Lance said this, Jenny started to give a little giggle before she went back to a frown, knowing what could've happened if they didn't succeed and sighed, making Lance worried even further as he held his face down.
Meanwhile, at the Black Lion, Keith, Ayame, Belle, Krolia, and Allura were watching over him before Belle spoke to Allura.
"How's it looking?"
"I'm afraid the clone body is rejecting Shiro's consciousness."
Hearing this, Keith began to panic.
"There must be some way you can help!"
"There's nothing I can do."
As Ayame heard this, she began to shed tears before she remembered too well the mark of loss that plagued her as she slammed her fist on the glass, nearly to the point of breaking it, but thankfully the Capsule didn't reach breaking point.
"Fight, Takashi! Please! You can't do this to me again! Please!"
As Ayame wept on the Capsule, Keith and Belle tried to encourage Shiro as well before they spoke.
"We can't do this without you, Shiro."
"You've helped us to become better than who we are. Let us do the same for you..."
For a moment, their pleas went unheard until the body on the monitor was shown to be glowing yellow. After that, a faint coughing cane from Shiro as the Capsule went away while the group looked on in surprise before Keith spoke.
"Shiro!"
"Keith...? I was dreaming. Keith... you saved me."
With that, Keith, Ayame, and Belle hugged him before they spoke.
"We saved each other."
At that moment, the group that sought the faunatonium arrived in the Capsule bay before they all turned to see them as Lance and Keith spoke.
"Shiro's looking better. Alright."
"Where were you guys? We couldn't get a hold of you."
"Well, we were shrunk by a magic skunk, but we ended up using that sparkly dust that makes electricity bigger or whatever. Used it to unshrink ourselves. So, ready to charge up the lions?"
For a moment, Shiro and Keith showed looks of confusion before they smiled as Shiro spoke.
"It's good to be back."
As Jenny showed a dismal look, she spoke to the group as sadly as she had left.
"Yeah. Just great."
With that, Jenny began to walk away, leaving Ayame worried before looking to Lance.
"I thought you said you'd see what you can do for her."
"I tried. But she's just not getting over it. No mater what I do, I just... I can't get her to smile again."
Hearing this, Ayame knew just what exactly she was going through as she bore a look of determination. However, Belle stopped her as she spoke.
"I know what you're thinking, but let me take care of this. She's my sister."
With that, Belle walked away from the room to follow Jenny.
Inside the White Lion, Jenny was beginning to vent her bottled up feelings as she tensed her hands before yelling as she smashed her hands on its wall, releasing her tears as well before she sank to the floor and wept as she recalled what Alphus did for her as she spoke.
"Why?! Why did you leave me?! I NEEDED YOU!"
As Jenny said this, she continued her sobs for a moment before she wiped her tears away before looking to her stuff and tensing her hands once again. Moments later, Jenny was taking her belongings in her pack before she got out and was surprised to see Belle standing in front of her as she spoke.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Away from here, and away from Voltron."
"What? Why?"
"If no one is going to even take one moment to give a damn about Alphus, why should I stay?"
Hearing her use such a curse, Belle gasped at her before she spoke.
"Did you just use that language with me?"
"You bet I did. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go."
Having had enough of Jenny's passive-aggressiveness, Belle began to snap like a twig.
"No. You're not going anywhere, Jenny."
"Leave me alone. I can't deal with any of this right now."
"Oh, no, you can, Jenny. You really can. Everyone's trying their best to make things better than they are, but all you want to do is make things harder than they should be!"
Frustrated with this conversation, Jenny still had some emotions to let out from being bottled up as she practically shouted.
"Just because you've moved on doesn't mean I have! You don't know what it's like to lose the person that's always stuck by you, and you never will! You can't possibly have any excuse for trying to fix what's already broken! Alphus is dead, and she's never coming back! The worst part is you don't even care about her after what she did!"
"That is not the case at all, Jenny, and you know that."
"Really?! Then why aren't any of you bleeding like I am?!"
"Because we've bled enough already!"
As Belle said this to Jenny, she was shaken as she never heard Belle raise her voice against her little sister.
"We all know Alphus is gone, and that she won't be coming back. But don't you ever think that she means nothing to any of us. You may be right about me not knowing what it's like to lose someone I cared about, but everyone else does. Like Ayame. She told you before about Kumiko, and she wasn't even the first person she lost; she lost her parents, too. Keith lost his father. Shiro lost both his parents. They were Ayame's, too. Allura, Coran, Romelle, even Pidge: they lost their families and friends. They know about everything you're going through."
"What about Hunk?"
"Well, maybe not. Regardless, you're not the only one who lost someone you loved so much. You really had no place or time to say that. We're all still recovering, Jenny. We never forgot about Alphus, Jenny. And we never forgot what she did for us, and you shouldn't either. The loved ones we lost in our lives, we lost because they gave their lives for us. We wouldn't be where we are right now if it wasn't for them. Don't ever forget that. Okay?"
Hearing this, Jenny's tears began to overflow like a waterfall as she tried to answer, but was unable to as Belle spoke.
"Come here."
With that, Jenny didn't hesitate to hug Belle as she sobbed on her before Ayame, Keith, and Shiro walked out of the Black Lion to see Belle comforting her sister as Jenny spoke to Belle amidst her sobs.
"I'm sorry I swore at you. I-I'll never leave you... I promise..."
"That's all I want to hear. Now, let's all go home. They would've wanted us to."
"Okay..."