Enjoy this, fellow fans of Voltron and Steven Universe, and let me know what you think.

...

Chapter 1: Gem Glow

"What!?" At the look on the two girls' faces, Keith's own face flushed with embarrassment. "I mean, what?" Ezor looked up from the counter. "Sorry Keith. I guess they stopped making them."

"But why? Katie's Kookies n' Kream Ice Cream Bars are the best dessert ever."

Narti looked up from the register, and pointed at the large freezer in the corner. Inside were small tubs of Balloon Brand Bubblegum Ice Cream.

"Who picks medicine-flavored crap over cookies and cream?" Keith questioned.

Keith was in a particularly bad mood today. (Most people would argue that he was always in a bad mood, but that was beside the point) He had woken up to an empty house, and found no food in the fridge. This lead to him having to walk for thirty minutes to the nearest grocery store, forty five if you account for bad traffic and jerk wads not letting him cross.

After picking up some bread and peanut-butter, he realized he was starving, and simply could not walk another ten minutes to his house without something to eat. So he decided to grab a snack at the Comet Café. Was it really too much to ask for a simple ice cream bar?

"If you want one so bad, why don't you make one with your magic belly-button?" Ezor jabbed.

Keith's face heated up, realizing that that last bit had been out loud. Ezor smirked at the blush. Keith hated it when Ezor smirked. She was a pretty girl, (tall, dark skin, pretty eyes, hair red and always in a ponytail) but she looked so sinister when she smirked like that.

"That's not how it works," Keith shot back. At least, I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. Keith looked at the Quartz gem on his naval. No, that's not how it works. He walked over to the mini-fridge where they kept the K&K bars. "Why do things never work out right for me?" He questioned.

Then, he heard a tap on the counter. Turning his head, he saw Narti, who was sadly mute, signing something. Keith didn't really know sign language, but he did get,

"You can have the freezer, if you like."

"Really? Aren't these things expensive"

Narti gave him what he thought was a look. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." So Keith unplugged the freezer, picked up his grocery bag, said thank you, and then made his way home.

…

Keith lived next to a small town called Garrison. It was a nice town next to Lake Baku, which was roughly a third the size of Salt Lake. Surrounding them was nothing but dessert and mountains, which was fine by Keith. The desert was quiet.

Most of the time.

Keith lived in a house built at the base of the mountains closest to Garrison. His house was built into the mountain, on a wooden base built on top of a small sand hill. In front of the house was a beautiful view of Lake Baku, which the large statue carved into the mountain was facing.

Keith didn't know much about the statue, but it was shaped like a giant lion sitting on its haunches, with large wings carved out on the sides of the mountain. Keith's house was tucked in between the lion's front paws.

As he hauled the freezer up the hill, Keith heard a faint noise from inside the shack. I wonder if the others know how to make ice cream. Keith set the freezer on the porch, and walked in with the groceries.

"Hey, do you guys know how to make -" but Kieth didn't get to finish his sentence, cause a giant, bug-like robot jumped on him. Keith let out a little yelp. The Beatle made a grab for his face, nearly taking out one of Keith's eyes in the process.

But before it could do any damage, there was a flash of light, and the beetle exploded into dust.

"Hey Keith," a cheery voice called out. Keith looked over to Hunk, who currently had a large gun out that he was firing at more of the beetle-things. Not too far away was Shiro, who was slashing away with his glowing gauntlet at any beetles who were close to him. And the last person in the house was Blue. She was busy fighting off the beetles with a giant scythe.

"So, what are these things?" Keith waited for one of them to answer, and, unsurprisingly, it was Shiro. "Sorry Keith," he said as he picked one up awkwardly. "We'll get these ro-beetles out of the house. We think they were trying to get into the Temple." Shiro gestured at the Temple door. Keith had never been in the Temple before, even though he had lived with his friends for many years.

The entrance was a cave that the interior of the house was connected to, and it had a smooth floor with a staircase that led up to the warp pad. Behind the pad was a black door with a blue V on it. The V was the sign for the Paladins of Voltron, defenders of the universe.

"What are you going to do with them?" Keith asked. Then the one Shiro was holding coughed out some purple oil. The oil melted right through the floor.

"You know what? I don't care."

As Hunk continued to shoot at the ro-beetles, he felt the need to point something important out. "Hey guys!" He turned to look at the others. "These things don't have gems."

"That means there's a mother nearby." Blue spoke as if was common knowledge that minion ro-beetles never go far from their "mother."

Still, Keith loved the idea of fighting a giant monster. "Can I help?" He wasn't trying to sound like a child, but he knew that that's what he sounded like.

Shiro shot him a smile. "Keith, until you learn how to command the powers in your gem, we'll take care of protecting humanity." And then he snapped the ro-beetle's neck.

Keith always enjoyed watching his friend battle. The way they moved was amazing. It looked so thought out and planned, but at the same time, it was spontaneous and sporadic. Sadly, Keith had very little training when it came to fighting, as the gems would always tell him they would teach him when he was older. They just never seemed to specify what age was older.

Don't get him wrong. Keith was happy to be a paladin of Voltron.

Their leader was Shiro, a pearl, with his gem right on his forehead, white hair and wise eyes. His mystical weapon was a gauntlet that resembled one a knight in Old Europe would have worn, and it lit up purple when he wanted to slice through something. Shiro's skin was almost as pale as his hair, and he had what looked like a scar across his nose. He wore a grey, short-sleeved shirt with a V on the sides of the upper arms. He 6' 6", at least a foot taller than Hunk, two feet taller then Keith, and exactly 1' 3" shorter than Blue.

Up next was Hunk. A citrine located on his chest. Dark yellow skin, orange hair. He had a vest on over a yellow shirt, and wore his V on his headband. His weapon was a gun that could shoot about a million different things, from lasers to nets to water balloons. He was the only one of the gems to have a longer range weapon, and was probably the most fun to be around.

And then there was Blue. A pyrope-spessartite garnet, with her gems on her hands. Her "armor" was an aviator jacket in various shades of blue and under that, a skin tight uniform that was blue and black with the blue V smack dab in the middle of her chest. Her light blue skin was flecked with little spots of purple here and there, and she had beautiful blue hair that always seemed to be switching shades. It was done mostly in a top knot, but she had thick bangs that hid her eyes from everyone. Don't ask how she could see through them. And her scythe could go from the size of an axe to a telephone pole. She preferred to keep it a few inches longer than herself.

When all the ro-beetles were taken care of, Keith assessed the damage to the house.

"Great, they trashed the kitchen." Keith started picking up the spoons and other utensils the monsters had spread all across the floor. As he stood up to put up the spoons, he noticed something in the freezer.

"Wait. Are these Katie's Kookies & Kream Ice Cream Bars?" He questioned. "I thought they stopped making them."

Shiro smiled, "Well, we heard that too, and since they're your favorite…"

"We went out and stole a bunch!" Hunk cried out happily.

An annoyed look passed over Shiro's face, "I went back and paid for them."

"The whole thing was my idea." Everyone turned to Blue. She didn't talk much, and when she did, it wasn't with much emotion.

"It was everyone's idea," amended Hunk.

But Blue was too stubborn. "Not really." A small smirk made its way onto her face.

"All that matters is that Keith is happy, right Keith?" Shiro asked.

Keith's face flushed. "Yeah. Th-thanks guys." He said with a hesitant smile. Everyone smiled, and let out some tiny giggles. Keith didn't really know what to say, so he grabbed a bar out of the freezer, and bit into it.

But then, something unexpected happened. Keith's gem started to GLOW. That never happens.

"Uh, Keith?"

He followed Hunk's gaze to his naval, and his jaw hit the floor.

"What do I do!?" He cried. "Try to summon your weapon," Hunk encouraged.

But I don't know how. "It's fading! What do I do?" Keith was scared, what could he do?

"Stay calm." Shiro always knew how to keep his cool.

And then the glow was gone. Darn it. I was so close. "Can one of you explain how to summon a weapon?" Keith asked. Sadly, he had no idea what can of worms he had just opened.

"I call first," Shiro said suddenly. Uh oh.

…

Next thing he knew, Keith found himself next to a waterfall. "Look at this river, Keith. The river falls in exactly the same direction, but it is willing to bend and change at any given moment so it can complete its task. It changes based on the physical properties of itself and its environment!"

Keith could not remember the last time he heard Shiro so excited. "With practice," he told Keith, "hard work, and dedication, you can master the magical properties of your gem and carry out your own tasks."

And as he said this, Shiro summoned his gauntlet in a flash of purple light. "Like so," he smiled warmly, leaving a confused look on Keith's face.

…

"Did Shiro tell you the river thing?" Hunk asked. "Yeah," he told him, "I need to practice hard so I can… Be a waterfall?"

Hunk snorted, and took a bite out of the doughnut in his hand. "Listen Keith. Whenever I need to summon my weapon, it just happens." Hunk's gem began to glow, and he pulled his gun out, and shot at a dumpster until it caught up in flames. "See? Didn't try at all," Hunk laughed, and took another bite out of his doughnut.

This just made Keith feel even more confused. And then, he felt panicked when he heard Ezor's voice cry out, "Again!? Really!"

He and Hunk sped out of the Comet Café's back alley at the speed of light.

…

"So I'm supposed to work really hard, and not try at all at the same time?" Keith asked skeptically.

Blue stared at him for a moment. "Yes." She told him simply. Then she smiled.

"or… YOU CAN LINK YOUR MIND WITH ALL EXISTING MATTER, CHANNELING THE COLLECTIVE POWER OF THE UNIVERSE THROUGH YOUR GEM! Resulting in…"

Blue's gems began to glow, and from them came her scythe. "At least that's my way of doing it."

But the advice went right over Keith's head. That makes no sense.

…

"Soooooo, I think my best bet is to recreate what happened right before my gem glowed." Keith told the others his plan, and they carefully retraced all their steps.

"Hunk, your arms were crossed." Keith said to the citrine, who looked bored. But he smiled and crossed his arms anyway.

After Keith had moved just about every object in the room, and when he fixed Shiro's hair so that all the strands in his bangs fell to the right, Shiro finally intervened. "Keith, I don't think this is how it works."

Keith looked over to him. He reached into the freezer and grabbed another K&K bar. "Okay, then we should probably get started. Um..." So first, I said thanks for everything.

"Uh, thanks f-for everything," he felt like he should say more, but he found that he was chocked up. "Keith, you okay?" Hunk questioned. Then Keith realized he was crying. It wasn't much, the tears didn't even leave his eyes, but it was enough for the others to notice. "It's just... How can I be a Paladin of Voltron if I can't figure this out?"

"Keith, your one of us," Shiro told him, "even if you can't use your gem yet, your still a Paladin."

Hunk chimed in, "Plus, it's nice to have you around, even if you are a bit of a pessimist!"

"We aren't the Voltron Paladins without you," Blue said.

Keith felt embarrassed. Why did his face always turn so red when people said nice things. But he smiled anyway, and took a bite out of his bar. Then, unexpectedly, his gem glowed, and from it, came a bright, sparkling weapon.

"Keith, it's a shield." Shiro gasped.

And it was amazing. A large, rosey-pink shield in an cross between a coffin-shape and a kite-shape.

But when Keith reached out to grab, mostly so he could hide the embarrassed look on his face, he ended up launching it right into the TV next to his bed. "Crap," he muttered. "So, I can summon my powers… By eating ice cream."

Shiro picked up the wrapper and read the back of it. "What's in these things?" He asked no one in particular.

Then there was a rumbling, and the Paladins saw something crawling across Keith's window. They all rushed outside. "It's the mother!" Blue confirmed, and she jumped up to try and grab it. "Stay the in the house, Keith!" Shiro commanded. No way, I'm coming too.

…

Keith didn't know why he thought fighting a giant robot beetle armed with nothing but a few bars of ice cream sandwiches and a mini-freezer was a good idea. But it seemed like a good idea at the time.

He got to help the Paladins take down the ro-beetle, even if all his did was accidentally electrocute the ro-beetle with a broken mini-fridge.

Keith felt kinda ashamed for thinking he had his powers all figured out just because he summoned his shield one time.

"Guess your powers don't come from ice cream." Keith knew Hunk was trying to make feel better, but it didn't really help. What Shiro said helped though.

"Of course your powers don't come from ice cream. Don't worry Keith," he got down to Keith's level. "I'm sure one day you'll figure out how to activate the powers in your gem."

"Yes," Blue said, "in you own, Keith-y way."