Hello, children! I will confess...I literally haven't posted anything for almost 2 years now :/. Yes, I suck, I know. I apologize. And I have no idea when I'll decide to update my other stories, so I apologize again. HOWEVER, to you Voltron fans who clicked on this because of the weird and confusing summary...welcome to sheer chaos. Just kidding.
My friend (SilverDewDrop, go check her stories out) and I realized just how similar the paladins were to the Titans and so...we made this. Keep in mind that this is a collab. She pretty much wrote the whole thing but since I am an avid fan of VLD and she had watched only up to like S2... I was the one that provided show information. And the ideas you see down here were a mix of mine and hers. Warning: THE EVENTS IN THE SHOW DO NOT FOLLOW THE CORRECT TIMELINE! By that I mean... they all have their original lions but there are events referenced from like S6 and S7. And another warning: DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE WATCHED TO AT LEAST S7...and later S8 probably. Just letting you guys know.
Summary: After a rather devastating attack to team Voltron, leaving the Castle severely damaged, the small makeshift family retreat through a mysterious wormhole. They exit into a world so familiar yet so foreign to them. And who were these teen super heroes who lived in a giant T?
Now read this extremely strange but amusing story (if I do say so myself). And remember, leave a review! We want to know what you guys think!
"WE HAVE TO RETREAT!" Coran exclaimed, furiously typing into his control panel. The whole castle shuddered as they took another hit from Galra drone ships. "Paladins!"
"Coran! Allura!" Shiro's grimacing face appeared onto the screen. "We can't- UGH!"
"There are too many!" Lance shouted, furiously shooting one Galra drone ship after another.
Allura quickly typed in coordinates into the castle controls only for an error message to pop up. "Oh no!" She tried a different set of coordinates, only for the same error to pop up. She paled and turned to Coran. "Coran! How are the defenses holding up?"
"The castle can't take any more hits!" Coran yelled in panic, trying his best to maintain the castle's barrier. "We need to retreat! And quickly!"
"The teleduv won't be able to sustain enough power for a wormhole jump!" Allura desperately typed in coordinates again, only for the error message to pop up again. "Agh!" The whole castle shook again as another onslaught of attacks from the Galra hit the castle.
"There's a glowing portal thing right there!" Lance shouted, pointing at the large glowing rift.
"Are you crazy?! We don't know where that goes!" Pidge argued, letting out a yell as her Lion was hit with a surprisingly strong ray. Her Lion spun in the air and despite her efforts to stop it, it made contact with the rift. "Quiznak!"
"PIDGE!" The boys yelled. They watched in dismay as the Green Lion disappeared into the glowing rift, taking their friend with it.
"Pidge? Can you hear us?" Shiro asked. There was a tense silence as everyone awaited for Pidge's familiar high-pitched voice to respond. Nothing. "Pidge!" Shiro cried out, more desperate this time.
"Sh… Shiro?" There was a collective sigh of relief at the youngest Paladin's response. Her voice was fuzzy and broken as if the communicators were malfunctioning, but it was still there nonetheless.
"Are you alright?" Shiro asked, brows furrowing in worry.
"Gu- th!" Pidge said excitedly.
"What?" Lance asked blankly, frowning.
"Rth!" Pidge said again, sounding more excited than before.
"... Pidge, this is exactly what I hear everytime you start sprouting technology at me," Lance said exasperatedly, groaning, "nonsense!"
"Lance," Shiro said sternly. "Not the time."
"Ance… iot!" Pidge muttered. Lance snickered as even he could understand what Pidge meant to say.
"Paladins!" Coran's alarmed voice brought their attention back to the situation at hand. Without the Lions protecting the castle, all Galra drone ships were focused on firing at the castle.
"Quiznak!" The Lions raced back to aid the castle, when with a shudder, the castle began breaking apart.
"Earth! GUYS, IT'S EARTH!" Pidge's voice finally became clear and all the Paladins' eyes widened.
"Earth?" Shiro echoed. It had been so long since they had last seen their home planet.
"You mean that weird, glowing, suspicious rift leads to Earth?!" Lance asked happily, wanting to turn his Lion around and enter that rift immediately. But right now, they had to get Allura and Coran out of the castle before it broke apart completely.
"Guys, go through the rift!" Shiro's face popped up and behind him were a frazzled Coran and Allura. "I have Allura and Coran!"
"What about the castle?" Allura asked urgently, gripping the back of Shiro's chair.
"What castle? It's destroyed," Hunk pointed out, his voice steady through sheer willpower, as Lance was too busy yelling with delight and streaking towards the rift at top speed.
"They're aiming an ion cannon," Keith warned, speeding up in the direction of the rift.
"Quiznak!" The four Lions quickly entered the rift and disappeared just as the Galra fired. They hit the rift, but the ions dispersed as soon it made contact with the glowing portal. The rift closed before any Galra ships could attempt to go through.
"Pidge, where are you?" Shiro asked as their Lions tumbled out of the rift and above a city not unlike San Francisco.
"Right here!" The Green Lion flew up next to the other three and Pidge waved at the other Paladins cheekily. "It's Earth! It looks like San Francisco or something!" Her tone was a mixture of awe and longing as they stared at the city right under them.
"Paladins, we should find a place to land where we won't be discovered by other humans," Allura said grimly. "If they find the Lions-"
"Yeah, yeah, princess!" Lance waved her warnings off flippantly. "We'll land and then we can go explore! This doesn't look anywhere near the Garrison anyway."
"Lance." Shiro sighed.
"C'mon, Shiro! It's Earth! Aren't you excited?" Blue flipped in the air happily. Lance sheepishly smiled, however, as he saw the exasperated look on his leader's face.
"I found a spot just over there we can land! It's in the forest and just on the outskirts of the city!" Pidge gestured with a paw the small forest to their right.
"Doesn't something look different?" Keith asked, frowning at the city. "Doesn't something feel off about this place?"
"You mean that it looks like Earth and humans rather than the weird aliens we've seen everyday? Remember that one alien race with six eyes and eight arms?" Lance argued, waving his arms to mimic the actions of the octopus aliens.
"Those were the Molluscaius. They're a very influential race," Coran interjected. "It's a good thing we managed to convince them to join Voltron."
"Well yeah, I love Earth and all, but I agree with Keith. Maybe… maybe we shouldn't go down there. I mean… none of us have ever been here before, you know?" Hunk looked at the tall buildings jutting out at them nervously as he flew between the quarreling Blue and Red Lions.
"We're bound to be spotted if we stay here, though," Shiro reasoned, putting an end to the argument. "We should land and scout from there. It's our only option right now. Stay together, team. Let's move out. Pidge, lead the way."
Pidge led the other three through the sky, across the city. They passed a number of odd looking buildings including a giant T on an island right outside the city.
"Is this place like T City or something?" Lance asked, staring at the giant T just sitting there on the island.
Keith scoffed. "What city is called T City?"
"Do you not see the giant T?" Lance frantically gestured at the T just sitting there staring at them.
"Just because there's a giant T doesn't mean this place is called T City!"
"Guys!" Shiro scolded. Keith and Lance immediately quieted down and stared in opposite directions of each other, sulking.
"He started it," Lance grumbled.
"Lance," Shiro said warningly. He pinched the bridge of his nose at the answering pouts.
"Here it is!" Pidge announced, squeezing Green through a few trees to reach a clearing. The Lions followed, carefully navigating in order to avoid slamming into trees. "We're pretty close to the city and we're concealed."
"Alright!" Lance pumped his fist and immediately exited his Lion.
"Wait, Lance!" Pidge warned, but it was too late. Lance was out of his Lion.
"Let's go into the city!"
"And what were you planning on doing in Jump City?" A short black-haired boy asked casually, twirling a long pole.
"Exploring, of- WHO THE QUIZNAK ARE YOU?!" Lance screamed, jumping back and pointing a finger at the newcomers.
"Lance, you need to change clothes in order to be-" Hunk stopped short upon seeing the five teens staring at him and Lance. "Uh… Lance, what did you do?"
"Nothing! They-" frantic gesturing at the colorfully dressed teens, "-appeared out of quiznaking nowhere!" More gesturing of the air around them.
"Oh. One is green." Hunk stared at the short green colored boy who looked suspiciously like a short version of Lance. "I guess this isn't Earth after all," he said disappointedly.
"Maybe he's an alien trying to blend in with his surroundings," Lance suggested, still staring suspiciously at the new teens. He looked closer. "But wow…" He stared at the floating, orange-skinned beauty in front of him. He immediately was in front of her, holding her hand flirtatiously. "The name's Lance." He winked. She gave a confused head tilt.
"I am Starfire," she answered with a giggle. Lance was shoved away from Starfire with a pole as the black-haired, shorter male stood in front of her protectively with a glare at Lance.
"Hunk, did you get Lance, that idiot, to change?" Pidge asked, walking out of Green.
Her eyes landed on a human that looked infused with a robot with his blue body parts and metallic body. "Wow!" She raced to the surprised man and started examining him vigorously. "Look at that beautiful wiring and metal quality!"
Alarmed, the other teens tried to get the excited Paladin off of their friend, but she was literally attached to his chest. so any attack would have hurt him as well.
"Hey!" The short, green Lance yelled. "Get off of our friend!"
Ignoring him, Pidge continued to ramble, "This is the best power source I've seen for cyber technology—not including the Balmera crystal, of course, but that's alien so it doesn't count—and this craftsmanship is amazing! Look at how easily the limbs move!" She moved the robotic limbs up and down as if to demonstrate. With sparkling eyes, Pidge climbed quicker than humanly possible onto the still surprised robot man's shoulder and grasped his face in two hands to examine it. "Even the machinery on the face is-"
"Pidge." Shiro, changed out of his armor, walked out of Black's mouth and stared disapprovingly at the girl hanging off of the cyborg.
Reluctantly, the girl slowly climbed down from the shoulder of the cyborg and sighed in disappointment. "Shiro," she grumbled with a slight whine.
Shiro surveyed the five teens staring at them with a critical eye. "I don't think this is Earth, Pidge. They don't look fully human."
"Why wouldn't this be Earth?" Green Lance whispered loudly to his friend. "Do you think they're a little…" he made a swirly motion towards his head with his pointer finger, the universal sign for crazy. Even the other aliens the Paladins had encountered knew what it meant. They found that out the hard way when they were nearly executed when Lance did that motion while gesturing to the queen of a particularly sensitive race of aliens.
"Who are you people?" the teen who appeared to be the leader of the little gang asked.
He had short black hair that was gelled up to defy gravity in spikes. His outfit was comically mismatched with green tights, gloves, and sleeves, but a red shirt with a giant R on it. He also had a black and yellow cape on and an eye mask that concealed his eyes marched with large combat boots.
Lance snickered quietly. "He looks like a little boy playing dress up," he whispered to Hunk. Hunk sighed at his friend and elbowed him to quiet him so they could listen to Shiro.
"We are…" Shiro hesitated, debating on whether or not to reveal their identities and risk compromising the Lions.
"Who are you?" Lance butted in, looking down—literally—on the teens. Shiro sighed at Lance, but was grateful for the distraction as he tried to gather his thoughts.
"We are the Teen Titans! How do you not know who we are, dude?" Green Lance gave normal Lance a confused look. "We're the good guys! Everyone knows us! Even villains like you!"
"Villains? Us?" Lance scoffed. "We're the good guys! We're the-"
"Shut up," Pidge grumbled, shooting the teens a cautious look. She noticed Keith exiting Red and called out, "What took you so long, Keith?"
"He probably had to spend time making his mullet look nice," Lance taunted with a smirk. Keith growled at him.
"You're one to talk! The bathroom is filled with your makeup!"
"Um… guys?" Hunk asked nervously, glancing between the two boys. He quickly moved so he wasn't right between them when they lunged at each other.
"It's skin care! It takes a lot of time and effort to look this good!" Lance gestured at himself proudly.
"Alright!" Shiro chided the two. "Knock it off!"
Lance and Keith huffed and turned away from each other, arms crossed.
"Paladins shouldn't fight amongst each other!" Coran and Allura stumbled off of the Black Lion. Coran patted down his mustache and stood straight, twirling it. "The Paladins of Voltron must get along in order to form Voltron and destroy Zarkon!"
"Paladins?" the robot man echoed.
"Zarkon?" Masked boy scoffed.
Shiro sighed. No point in hiding anything now. "We are the Paladins of Voltron."
"Pfff." Green Lance laughed. "What a stupid name!"
"Hey, it's better than your stupid Team Titanic!" Lance argued, glowering at his green twin.
"It's Teen Titans!" Green Lance yelled.
Lance rolled his eyes. "Team, teen, titan, titanic, what's the difference?" He shrugged with a smirk.
"Lance, that's enough." Shiro interrupted before Lance angered the strangers any more than he already had. Shiro sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He turned to the five teens. "We are the Paladins of Voltron. We defend the universe."
"The universe? In these… giant robot lions?" the cyborg asked skeptically. Shiro nodded.
"I am Shiro. I pilot the Black Lion." He gestured to the largest Lion towering over them. She seemed to look down at them critically, causing the Titans to take a few steps back.
"I'm Lance!" Lance pointed to himself with a prideful expression. "I fly the best Lion! Blue!"
Blue purred her happiness, making the Teen Titans look around in surprise and slight fear
Keith stepped forward next. "I'm Keith." He was interrupted by Pidge who held up a hand to stop his introduction. This was the perfect opportunity to do what she had always wanted to do but never had a chance to.
"I'm so emo," Pidge imitated Keith's voice, laughing at the offended expression on Keith's face. Lance giggled and Shiro turned away to hide a smile forming on his face.
"I'm not emo!" Keith glared at Pidge and elbowed her. She continued quietly snickering and patted his arm in mock conciliation. "I pilot Red."
Pidge's laughter died down and she turned to the Titans. "I'm Pidge and I pilot the Green Lion." She fixed her glasses, making them glint.
"I'm Hunk and I fly Yellow." Hunk waved at them.
"They are the Paladins of Voltron." Allura smiled at the Titans. She had changed so she looked more human so her cheek marks were gone along with her pointed ears. "I am Princess Allura of Altea."
Starfire frowned. She knew Allura and the last time she had seen her, she hadn't looked quite as… human.
Green Lance had hearts in his eyes as he stared at her dreamily. Lance huffed and burst those hearts with beams of jealousy from his eyes. He hissed at his green twin threateningly. Green Lance snorted and made a face at him.
"I am Robin, leader of the Teen Titans," the masked boy said confidently. "This is my team, Starfire," the alien girl waved, "Beast Boy," the green Lance puffed out his chest, "Cyborg," Pidge's favorite robot member smiled, "and Raven." The hooded female simply stared at them.
"What is the use of these Lions?" Starfire inquired, looking at the five giant robotic cats surrounding them.
"They form Voltron, this powerful weapon, needed to defeat Zarkon and defend the universe," Coran answered, twirling his mustache.
"What is Voltron?" Robin asked. "And what do you mean 'defend the universe'?" He put air quotation marks around the last phrase to show his skeptism.
"We battle aliens to stop them from taking over!" Lance said proudly, smirking at his cool and awesome job.
"Voltron is this robot that is formed by each of the Lions acting as certain body parts. Shiro is the head, Keith and I are arms, and Lance and Hunk are legs," Pidge explained, pushing up her glasses.
"How does that work?" Cyborg wondered. "There would have to be complex technology and configuration to make five different entities combine into one. And then I assume they then uncombine."
Pidge nodded excitedly. "Of course but this is alien technology and I've been studying it and it's actually very similar to…" she and Cyborg got lost talking about the algorithms and machinery needed to make Voltron. Hunk eventually joined in after listening in order to correct and add on to Pidge's theories and observations.
The other non-technological members of both parties backed away slowly from the enthusiastic duo and Hunk.
Robin turned to Shiro who seemed to be the only sane and focused one here. "How did you get here?"
Shiro sighed. "Long story."
Robin gestured for him to follow him to the side where they could speak in private and with a bit of hesitation, Shiro followed. "Let's talk." They huddled together in the corner, unaware of the chaos happening between their teammates. After a while, Shiro got Allura and Coran to join in on their huddle and the four discussed the situation and what it would entail for them.
Lance, on the other hand, had a different plan in mind. Pidge and Hunk could get lost in their nerd talk with Cyborg and Shiro could go off and do his leader duties with the other leader. He had a better plan. He sidled up to Starfire while her boyfriend spoke with Shiro, taking this chance to flirt with her uninterrupted.
"So," he smiled charmingly, "How about a tour of the Blue Lion?"
"That sounds awesome!" Beast Boy stuck his face between a disgruntled Lance and a giggling Star.
"W- I'm not-" Lance sputtered, slightly annoyed at the boy interrupting his flirting.
"The Lions sound so cool!" Beast Boy gushed, eyes sparkling. "Even on the outside they look awesome, dude! I bet the inside is also cool!"
Ego growing, Lance tossed his head arrogantly and basked in all of the attention he was receiving. He guessed he could let Beast Boy ride along with him since he was such a big fan. "They are, aren't they? I guess I could give you a tour…"
"What are you doing? Last time you let someone into your Lion, you ended up chained to a tree and had Blue stolen," Keith growled, frowning at Lance's carelessness.
"Ah, come on! It'll be fine," Lance said waving off his worries. High on the thrill of attention, Lance started leading Beast Boy and Starfire to Blue. "Stop worrying your little emo head," he called to a fuming Keith.
Raven glanced at Keith uncaringly. "... This is pointless." With a flick of her cloak, she disappeared into a puddle of darkness.
Keith stared at where she once was and looked around helplessly. He had no idea what to do now. He hesitantly joined Pidge and Hunk who were still chattering in techno terms to Cyborg. Noticing Keith standing awkwardly to the side, Pidge tugged Keith over and asked him to explain the functions of his Lion to Cyborg. Hesitant to explain everything about the Lions to a stranger, Keith was quiet for a bit before Pidge and Hunk assured him that no matter what he told Cyborg, the information about the Lions weren't really of any use anyway. Slowly, Keith opened up to Cyborg about Red's functions, unaware of the fistbump Pidge and Hunk exchanged behind his back.
Blue let her head down to let the three teens in and Lance stood to the side with a gesture for Beast Boy and Starfire to enter first. "Ladies and guests first," he said.
Once they had entered, Lance led them into her head where all the controls lay. "This is Blue!" Lance gestured around the lavish interior of the Lion. He took Starfire's hand. "We could go for a ride if you'd like," he said flirtily, winking.
"Ooh!" Beast Boy hopped into the pilot chair and mimicked flying around Blue. "This is awesome, dude! Can we go for a ride?"
"I don't know," Lance said hesitantly, "I'm not sure if Shiro is okay with it."
"Aw, come on! Pleeaaaaseee?" Beast Boy looked up at him with big pleading eyes. Lance grimaced. Maybe if it was a pretty girl who had done that…
"I would like to ride in the big mechanical kitty!" Starfire agreed, smiling at him. Lance felt his face go red. He thought about it and looked out of Blue's screen.
Lance felt Blue's discomfort at Beast Boy in the pilot chair and smiled comfortingly. "Relax, beautiful. It's fine," he said reassuringly. His Lion sent another wave of discomfort, reminding him of the last time he showed people around her.
"Who are you talking to?" Beast Boy asked dryly, watching Lance talk to nothing.
Startled, Lance turned to look at him, forgetting that they couldn't hear Blue. "Oh, sorry. We can talk to our Lions. Or sort of talk… it's complicated. But Blue here," he patted the wall, "is still a little skeptical of anyone in the pilot chair after the last time I gave a tour."
Star looked at Lance curiously. This was the second time someone had mentioned something bad about looking in Blue. "What happened to make this Blue feel so?"
Lance laughed nervously, not wanting to bring up the embarrassing time he got tricked and ended up handcuffed to a tree. "It's a long story. So uh, you said you wanted to go for a ride?" Lance stuttered out, trying desperately to change the topic.
"Ooh, yes!" Starfire said, clapping her hands.
Lance pat Blue's wall. "What do you say, Blue? Wanna go for a fly?"
Blue rumbled hesitantly, expressing concerns about Shiro's opinion. Lance smiled and stroked the wall reassuringly while Beast Boy and Starfire watched Lance communicate with the Lion in awe. The way he spoke with such ease and confidence and how the Lion answered him back with what almost sounded like purrs was mesmerizing. Lance really seemed to be at ease with the Lion, forgetting their existences.
"Come on, Old Blue. It'll be fine! I'm sure Shiro wouldn't mind. Plus, you want to too, don't you?"
Blue purred in amusement and reluctantly agreed.
Lance smiled victoriously and nudged Beast Boy out of the pilot's seat. He started Blue up, Starfire and Beast Boy watching in amazement as controls lit up and everything seemed to come to life. "Alright!" Lance cheered. "Blue's on board! Hang on tight!"
"Yipee!" Starfire shouted as they took off. They soared over everyone and onto the water, skimming it.
"Dude!" Beast Boy yelled joyously, "This is awesome!"
Lance smirked smugly. "Going up!" He pulled hard on the controls and Blue streaks up to do a backflip. Beast Boy yelped in fear while Starfire's laughs grew louder.
Keith, having seen this coming, was ready and dismissed himself from Pidge, Hunk, and Cyborg to hop into Red. He flew to Lance with an angry expression.
"Lance! What the quiznak are you doing?!" Keith's face popped up onto Lance's screen making Lance snicker and Starfire and Beast Boy to jump in surprise.
"Oh, hey, Mullet!" Lance taunted.
"Did you forget what happened last time?" Keith asked, irritated as Lance ignored his words.
"Of course, not," Lance answered flippantly. He smiled happily as Starfire pressed herself against his chair.
"Shiro won't be happy," Keith grumbled, resigning himself to the fact that Lance was not going to listen and that Lance was going to keep doing as he wished until something bad happened.
"Hey, Keith," Lance said with a devious grin, "whose Lion do you think is faster?"
Keith stared at him blankly. "Red. She's the fastest of all the lions," he deadpanned. There was an implied insult of Lance's intelligence woven through his words.
"Psh!" Lance snorted. "Doubt it. Let's race!"
"Ooh, that would be so cool, dude! Race him!" Beast Boy cheered, excited at the prospect of being in a race with giant mechanical lions.
Pidge popped up on their screen now. "Lance, Keith, you idiots. Shiro is going to kill you both. Get yourselves back on the ground!"
"Oh, are you in the Blue as well, Friend Pidge?" Starfire asked, leaning closer to Pidge's image on the screen.
"Uh, no." Registering Beast Boy and Starfire begins Lance, Pidge's annoyance grew tenfold. "Lance! You took more people in your Lion after the last incident?!"
"Yeah, yeah, Pidge. It'll be fine." Lance waved Pidge away and against her protests, blocked her from his screen.
"Sorry, Pidge. We'll be right down. I only came up here to drag him back," Keith said with a sigh. "I'm not going to race you, Lance."
"What? You scared?" Lance taunted. As expected, a vein popped out and Keith growled.
"Grr… I'm not scared!"
"Then prove it!" Lance pushed the controls and zoomed off, Keith following close behind.
The two Lions looped around the water several times and landed again in the clearing with Keith, of course, winning the race.
"Oh my god, dude, that was amazing!" Beast Boy rambled as he faced Lance with stars in his eyes. "We went so fast and there was the other Lions and racing and…" He continued gesturing wildly as if trying to make up for the lack of words he had to express his excitement.
"Yes, that was quite enjoyable! Please, we must do it again later!" Starfire said happily as she flew around.
Lance winked. "Anything for someone as beautiful as you."
Starfire giggled and Blue playfully growled threateningly. Lance laughed and pat the chair. "Don't worry, Blue. You're still the most beautiful of all." Blue let out a satisfied purr.
"Guys!" Shiro called.
"Titans!" Robin also called.
"Come down here, we have things to discuss!" Shiro gestured for Pidge, Hunk, and Keith to join them and stared directly at Lance with an unsurprised yet peeved look. "Lance, get out of the Lion! I can't believe you and Keith just did that!"
"Coming!" Lance replied quickly, exiting Blue along with Starfire and Beast Boy.
After giving Lance the stink eye, Robin looked around. "Where is Raven?" Robin asked, looking around with a frown.
Raven appeared from the shadows behind him and answered monotonously, "Here."
Jumping in surprise, Robin turned his head to face her slowly. "O-oh. There you are," he said weakly.
"Keith, Lance, I'll deal with you later," Shiro said with a dark tone as he turned back to make his announcement with Robin. Lance and Keith shuddered in fear of potential punishments their dad- leader would deal out.
"This is all your fault," Keith whispered angrily.
"You had fun racing, didn't you?" Lance countered with a smug expression. "I think it was worth it."
Keith frowned. "Let's see what you think after the punishment."
They turned their attention back to the two leaders as the others gathered around.
"Robin here has decided to let us stay with the Titans temporarily," Shiro began, addressing the Paladins more than the Titans. He sighed, pushing grievous thoughts of the castle out of his mind as they tried to surface. "We don't know how long that is considering our current predicament… But we will graciously accept the offer and be on our best behavior." He shot a warning look to Lance and Keith who promptly stiffened and avoided eye contact. "I'll let Robin explain the living arrangements."
Robin looked at all of the people gathered around him. "We don't have enough rooms for all of you," he said frankly. He paused for a bit and reluctantly added the next part. "We will have to share rooms," he said with a tinge of annoyance. "Everyone," he said, looking irritated. "Including me."
Lord knows how much Robin valued his privacy. And to have to share rooms with strangers was a very unpleasant thought, but it was necessary in order to fit all seven newcomers. "Because we have seven guests, there will now be twelve people in the tower. We have six rooms." He watched everyone's expressions as he let that sink in. "We will pair up. Shiro and I have decided the pairings already so don't get any ideas," Robin said threateningly, eyeing Lance who was staring at Starfire. Lance smiled innocently and waved at Robin.
With a growl, Robin started announcing the pairings. "The pairings will be… Shiro and I," the only person he could stand, "Hunk and Cyborg…"
Robin, upon seeing the next pairing let out a sigh. Smiling sheepishly, Shiro understood the need for a sigh as even he could tell the next two would be a horror for everyone around them.
"Lance and… Beast Boy." Robin watched the two boys cheer and express their excitement after his words with growing horror. Quickly, to divert their attention, Robin announced the next pair. "Moving on. Pidge and Raven. Allura and Star. And Coran and Keith will share the extra room."
The Paladins and Titans stared at their new roommates with mixed emotions. Beast Boy and Lance were ecstatic, Hunk and Cyborg were happy to continue their technology discussion in their rooms, Allura and Starfire were already hitting it off with each other, and Raven and Pidge just stared at each other awkwardly.
"Wait, why is Pidge sharing a room with Raven?" Beast Boy asked, staring at Pidge with an annoyed expression.
"What do you mean?" Robin asked with a raised eyebrow. He saw the underlying jealousy in Beast Boy's tone and had a feeling he knew why Beast Boy was riled up.
"Pidge is a guy and he's sharing a room with Raven! A girl!" Beast Boy said, waving his arms with wild gestures at Pidge.
Pidge adjusted her glasses, making them glint, meeting the teen's eyes with a blank look. "I'll actually have you know that I'm a girl," she deadpanned.
Lance snickered quietly to himself. "At least I'm not the only one," he muttered, nudging Keith who glanced at him only for a moment.
Beast Boy stared at the ma- female standing in front of him with wide eyes. "Wait… You're a girl?!" He exclaimed, jaw dropping. Pidge sighed. His reaction was exactly how a certain Cuban Paladin acted when he found out her gender.
"Don't worry. Shocked me too the first time," Lance said with a smirk.
"That's just because you were too dumb to see it," Keith retorted. "It was pretty obvious."
"Hey!" Lance cried indignantly, glaring at Keith.
"Lance. Keith. For the third time, knock it off," Shiro said sternly.
"Well, now that that's over with," Robin looked up at Shiro. "We should be getting to the tower. I assume you will be riding your Lions."
"Yeah. We'll need to find a place to park them while we stay here too," Shiro responded with a nod. "You're welcome to ride back with us, if you'd like. I don't know how you get out here, seeing as you're… on an island," he finished, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly with his prosthetic and hoping he wasn't crossing any boundaries with these new, and hopefully, allies.
"Star carries me, Beast Boy changes into some flying animal and sometimes carries Cyborg, and Raven… has her own method of traveling," Robin said with a shrug. He also sometimes wondered why they were located in such an inconvenient location. But it did have the best view of the city, so it was probably easier to spot crime from there.
"Yeah!" Beast Boy cheered. "Let's ride in the Lions!"
"Last one to Blue's a rotten Clorbnapper!" Lance announced, sprinting to the awaiting Lion with Beast Boy hot in his heels. The short green teen chose to ignore the Blue Paladin's analogy in favor of not falling behind. However, it was a lost cause as Beast Boy's short legs were no match for Lance's longer ones. He quickly changed into a cheetah and picked up the pace, overtaking Lance who was first in shock and then outraged.
"Wh- You can't just change into a cheetah!" He sputtered. Beast Boy snickered.
Starfire gasped at the term. "A Clorbnapper?" She said in horror.
"You know what that is?" Pidge asked with a raised brow. Of course, she knew, as she had lived with Lance and two Alteans for almost a year now, but she was rather surprised that Starfire knew as well. Then again, she was floating, so she couldn't very well be fully human, if at all.
"A Clorbnapper is the most bad of all Clorbnapkles!" Starfire said with a grimace.
"Right," Pidge said tiredly, not wanting to be bothered with all of the alien terms out there. "Uh…" She turned to Raven who stared at her dispassionately. "I guess you're riding with me…?"
Raven shrugged carelessly. "Apparently," she said dryly.
"Alright, well, this is Green," Pidge said, attempting to ease some of the awkward tension as the Lion lowered her massive head and opened her jaws wide to allow entrance. She walked in and Raven trailed behind her silently.
"Come on, Robin," Shiro said, gesturing for Robin to follow him into Black. However, Robin was frozen, glaring at Lance and Starfire. But mostly Lance.
"Friend Lance," Starfire said cheerfully, "I am the happiest to fly again in the giant mechanical kitty!"
Robin literally caught on fire. Panicking, Shiro tried to save his new friend from burning, but he couldn't seem to extinguish the flames of jealousy.
Lance felt his cheeks heat up as he ignored Blue's amused chuckle in the back of his mind. "You… want to ride with me again?"
"Indeed, I wish to experience the same joy of flight with this blue cat again!" Starfire answered with a beam.
Lance was quite oblivious to Robin's current atmosphere as he took the girl's hand and led her and Beast Boy back into Blue's cockpit.
Using his prosthetic to avoid burns, Shiro dragged the still burning Robin into Black.
Shiro gave the Lion a comforting pat on her console as Black seemed to scoff at the new presence, already sizing up Robin who could almost feel her palpable distaste. "It's alright, girl, he's with me," Shiro said, slipping into the pilot's seat as Robin made his way to the corner of the chair and gripped it securely, struggling to shake off the feeling of being judged that radiated all around him. The ominous feeling put out his fire and Robin sat there awkwardly as Shiro began to prep for takeoff.
Without a word, Keith walked into Red with Allura and Coran following him with an unsurprised expression at his stoic attitude.
"Hey guys," Lance said, popping up on everyone's screen, "do you guys want to-"
"We are not racing," Shiro said with a frown.
"... Aw, Shiro!"
"No."
"Lance, you're already in trouble for racing earlier," Hunk said with an affectionate sigh at Lance's usual antics.
"Oh, right," Shiro said with a slightly sadistic expression, "I still have to punish you two for racing without permission earlier."
Lance swallowed nervously. "Hunk!" He cried, giving his friend a betrayed look. "How could you?"
Hunk gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry…"
"No, don't apologize, Hunk," Shiro said calmly. "They should have known better."
"I still say it's Lance's fault," Keith grumbled as Red lifted off the ground, flying up higher to allow room for the others to lift off as well. Black followed close behind, pursued by Blue, Green, and Yellow before they all began flying towards the T from earlier, continuing their conversation along the way.
Robin looked around in amazement as they flew. "This is what you guys do every day?"
"Yup," Shiro said with a smile. "With the addition of dozens of Galra fighting aircrafts and battle cruisers…" he trailed off, hissing under his breath at the reminder of why they were here in the first place.
Robin noticed his discomfort and chose not to pry further, just sitting back enjoying the short ride to the Tower.