The team had just set off for their next destination. Allura had activated the wormhole with the coordinates entered.
However, it was not until they had entered that Coran gave them some bad news.
"Um, Princess? We have a problem. It seems we've picked up electromagnetic interference from a solar flare!"
"How is that bad?" Shiro asked.
"It redirects where Allura plotted our destination. It could send us totally off course!"
"How far?" Pidge asked.
"No telling now," Allura said. "We'll see real soon!"
The event horizon was getting closer and closer. The team braced for possible threats.
Suddenly, the sight upon exiting surprised everyone.
"Is that-?" Hunk asked.
"It must be." Keith said.
"No way!" Lance exclaimed.
"Where are we?" Allura said, staring at the blue and green planet.
"It's Earth!" Lance said. "We're back at Earth!"
"Awesome!" said Pidge.
"Aw man, I bet everyone at the academy is gonna be super pissed at us for going AWOL."
They all took a moment to appreciate the sight. After all they had seen, planet earth still had its own unique charm. Everyone wondered what might have transpired while they had been gone.
Then Shiro turned to Coran. "Coran, how long will it be before we can get back on course?"
"I don't know. It could be a long time, but I have no doubt I'll help us get back soon enough!"
"Allura," Shiro said as he turned to her, "with your permission, I think we should go down to check on things."
"What for?"
"Zarkon's been very ruthless across the universe, and we had a run in with Galra forces when we were leaving earth. I think we should make a quick flyby to make sure the Galra haven't caused any trouble."
Allura paused a moment to think, then turned her attention to Shiro. "Very well. We'll message you as soon as we've figured out our situation."
"Great." He then turned back to the other four paladins. "Alright team, let's move out!"
They all hurried down the ziplines, entered their lions, and blasted off from the castle of lions.
"I do hope they'll be alright." Allura said.
"I'm sure they will," Coran said assuringly. "Besides, it would be rude to not give them a chance to see their own planet. Now then," he said as he turned to the controls, "let's have a look."
All the lions flew closer to Earth. "Let's go back to the base and show them where we've been!" Lance said.
"No," Shiro said. "When I arrived, I barely had a chance to explain anything. People are frightened by what they don't understand, so we should stay out of sight."
"Then why are we going?" Keith asked.
"Because we need to make sure the Galra haven't attacked. We'll do a quick flyby, staying away from major cities." And with that, the black lion led the way.
All the lions flew near Lake Michigan, entering earth's atmosphere and gradually getting closer to the ground until they were a few tens of feet above it. They flew over the lake, over its western shore, and over a dense pine forest.
"Say, is it just me or do things look different?" Lance asked as he looked outside.
"Yeah," said Hunk. "It's hard to explain. But it doesn't have the same feel as things did back home."
"The only things different I'd hate to see are any signs of attacks," Shiro radioed to the other paladins, "Do you see any Galra soldiers?"
"Negative," Kieth said.
"Nope, I don't see anything either," Pidge said while looking around. Suddenly, something up ahead caught Pidge's attention. "Wait, I see something up ahead! It's in the trees and getting closer!" The team looked to see a rustling in the trees that was a directly in front and speeding toward them!
"I see it too," Keith said.
"Where is it?" Lance asked. But soon after that, he saw it.
The rustling stopped as soon as it was in front of the lions. From that spot, a robot shot up from the trees! But this didn't look like anything built by the Galra. It looked like a transparent blue balloon with arms and legs. It had cables inside it, and a single yellow light at its center. It came to the height of the lions, causing them to stop, and then flew around them. Whatever this thing was was zooming fast around the lions.
"What is that thing?" Shiro said.
"I have no idea," Hunk said. "But maybe we should leave now since it-" Then Hunk was cut off. His lion was under attack, as it had come within feet of an explosion.
"Hunk, what happened?" Keith asked. Then Keith looked up and saw that above them was another blue robot! This one, however was bigger than the first one, and didn't have the holographic body the first one had. This one was pure metal with a masculine build and an obviously human face. It had shot at them from a gun in its right arm, and was now about to fire at Keith! He was lucky enough to get his lion out of the way before this robot could deliver the blow. "We're under attack!" The red lion opened its mouth, and shot a blast at it. The blue robot flew out of the way, just barely missing the attack.
"Who are they?" Pidge asked. But Pidge saw a blue beam come within feet of the green lion. Beneath it, the beam had caused explosions in the ground. Pidge looked to see that there was now a third robot! This one was smaller and thinner than the two and it was yellow, but it had a human face on it as well and a feminine body. The yellow one flew very fast around all the lions with its face fixed on them. Pidge couldn't explain why, but it looked like it was seeing with real eyes.
"Enough!" Shiro shouted. He then called out to the yellow robot when it was right in front of the black lion, and it stopped and turned to face it. "Who are you? We are the Paladins of Voltron, the greatest weapon to defend the universe from the threat of Zarkon and his forces! Are you Galra?" The yellow robot looked surprised, even though its face didn't change.
"You can talk!?" It replied with a girls voice. All the paladins were surprised. For a moment, all the lions hovered in place, shocked at what the robot had said.
"Okay, did that thing just speak?" Kieth asked.
"And it's mouth didn't move!" Hunk said nervously.
The other two blue robots flew to the yellow one, and it turned to look at them.
"Octus," the yellow one said to the other robots, "they can talk just like we can! Maybe we can reason with them!"
"Ilana, don't!" The tall one said with a male voice. Its face didn't move either. "It could be a trap!"
"Indeed," the transparent one said, with a deep male voice that sounded more robotic than the other one. "But if it were, they wouldn't have been so obvious on their entry."
"I'm going to attempt to communicate. Stand by just in case," the yellow one said. And she descended to the ground. She then looked up to the black lion.
"I think it just wants to talk," Shiro said to the other paladins. "I'm going down." And with that, the black lion came down to the ground, and was face to face with the yellow robot, the corus armor.
"We mean you no harm," the yellow robot said. "We mistook your team for a threat, but you claim to defend the universe, so you must mean no harm to earth. Where are you from?"
"My team and I are from planet Earth, but we've been travelling space for a long time now. We were chosen by these lions to be their pilots in the fight against Zarkon. Have you heard of him?"
"No, we haven't. But did you say that you're from earth?"
"Yes, we are. And our ship came through a wormhole that brought us here, so we came to check to make sure that Zarkons forces haven't advanced here yet."
"So you're humanoid?"
"Um, yes?"
"Then we're identical!" And with that, the yellow robot glowed for an instant. Once the glowing ended, there stood a teenage girl. She had pale skin and freckles, and blonde hair that stood up on one end. She was wearing a yellow sweater, a red skirt, and green boots. With big eyes and a friendly smile, she looked at the face of the black lion.
All the paladins were in complete shock.
"Wait, she was inside that robot all along?" Kieth asked.
"She's so beautiful!" Lance exclaimed while blushing.
"Ilana, get out of there!" the tall robot, the manus armor shouted.
"No," Ilana said defiantly, as she turned to look at it. "He said they seek to defend the universe, so I trust them, Lance!"
"Wait, me!?" The voice from the blue lion said.
"Your name is Lance too?" Ilana said as she turned and looked up at the blue lion.
"Yep, that's me!"
"Your friend is right," the voice from the black lion said to the manus armor. "You have no reason to be afraid." And with that, the black lion lowered its head to the ground, and opened its mouth. Shiro walked out to Ilana, and greeted her with a handshake. "My name is Takashi Shirogane, but you can call me Shiro."
"My name is Ilana." Ilana smiled as she shook his hand. She tried to hide her surprised look, but something about his hand had an unusually strong grip. "Tell me Shiro, why have you come back to earth in these robotic lions?"
"My team and I came here to check things out to make sure all was well. Has earth been under attack by the Galra recently? We fought them off near earth when we left."
"Galra? We haven't seen anything by that name. The only foes we know are the mutraddi, horrible monsters that come to attack us. If there's any way we can help you, you have our support and our trust."
Shiro then turned to the other lions. "You hear that? You guys can come out!" And with that, the other lions lowered down to the ground, and all the other four paladins walked out. The manus armor and Octus flew down to them as well, landing behind Ilana.
"Hello, I'm Pidge."
"I'm Hunk."
"I'm Keith."
"And I'm Lance." Lance walked over to the manus armor. "That's so cool! Another guy named Lance with a blue robot! Are you also as smooth with the ladies as I am?" Lance asked with a sly look on his face. The manus armor remained still, continued looking onward, and said nothing. Lance stepped back, as he felt oddly intimidated.
"Who are the Galra?" Ilana said.
"They're horrible aliens who are bent on taking over the universe," Keith said. "We've been tracking them for a few months now."
"They're the ones responsible for the loss of the astronauts on the Kerberos mission," Pidge said. Whatever you've heard, it's all wrong!"
"Kerberos?" the manus armor said. By his voice, he sounded surprised.
"Strange," Octus said. "Humans haven't successfully built means of human operated space travel to the outer reaches of the solar system."
"What do you mean!?" Pidge said. "It was less than a year ago!"
"Wait a minute," Shiro said. He looked up and around, then looked at Ilana. "What year is it?"
"This year? It's 2011." (SBT was on that year) All the paladins gasped.
"Is this some kid of joke?" Lance asked.
"We've been sent back in time?" Keith was shocked.
"Okay, no one step on anything!" Hunk said as he looked on the ground frightened and carefully. "'Cause you know, step on a bug and the whole future can be changed!"
"Wait," Shiro said. He then turned to the Paladins. "Coran said that there was a solar flare that affected the wormhole. That must be what brought us here."
"Of course," said Pidge. "It totally messed with the system and threw us way of course, not just in space, but in time! This is amazing! We've discovered a means of time travel!"
"You do realize," said Shiro, "that this gets in the way of our mission. Finding a way back won't be easy, and the universe will be in jeopardy without Voltron."
"Then we'll kick his butt here in the past!" Lance said. "We'll hit him here and now, and the universe will be saved!"
"Excuse me," Octus said. "We have another problem."
"What is it?" Shiro asked.
"We're not the only ones who saw your arrival. The military is arriving, and heavily armed." There were slight reverberations in the ground. Far away but getting closer were several tanks and trucks.
"General Steele, no doubt," the manus armor said.
"Then let's kick his rear!" Lance exclaimed.
"No!" Ilana protested. "If you get into trouble with him, Steele may mistake you for alien invaders!"
"Ilana's right," said Octus. "You'll have to get away from here as fast as possible!"
Suddenly, the five lions sat upright and were encased in particle barriers.
"What the-" Lance exclaimed.
"Our lions must have realized that we're in danger, and we need to take cover," Shiro said. He then turned to Ilana. "You know these guys, can you help us take shelter?"
"Octus," Ilana said, "Can you carry them?"
"I think so." Octus then turned to the paladins. "You ready to come with us?"
"Looks that way," Keith said.
"Okay then. Hang on!" Octus said.
"Hang on?" Pidge asked "What do you mea-" Pidge didn't finish that sentence, for Octus had expanded into a large sphere and engulfed all five of the paladins.
With them in tow, Ilana reactivated the corus armor. She, the manus armor, and Octus with their new friends all flew away, and disappeared into a hole that was closed with a large rock after they were in it.
"Oh no." Lance said.
"What is it?" Keith asked
"We're being plunged into the center of the earth! This was all a trap, and now we're gonna be sacrificed!"
"You're not being sacrificed," Ilana said, "we're taking you to our base. You'll be safe there."
"So why in these tunnels?" Shiro asked. "Couldn't you just fly us there?"
"These tunnels help us avoid the military and not draw any attention to civilians." Octus explained. "I built them not too long ago after a series of unfortunate encounters."
Suddenly, they stopped, and began to ascend a vertical tunnel.
"Is this your base?" Hunk asked.
"It sure is." Ilana said.
"Aw, cool!" Pidge exclaimed. "I can't wait to see what kinds of technology they have!"
As they came to the end, the paladins were surprised to see that they were in what appeared to be an ordinary basement. The hole they had come out of closed up behind them. Octus then let them out to stand on the floor.
"This is your base?" Pidge asked. "I kinda expected more machines."
"Yeah," said Hunk, "since you fly around in robots."
"We live in this house to assume a normal life among the humans so as not to arouse any suspicion," Octus said. He then transformed into a white skinned human with a short haircut, glasses, a white shirt, and brown pants. In a more human sounding, slightly nasal voice, he spoke. "I also am equipped with disguise technology to avoid causing suspicion to myself."
All the paladins were surprised at Octus's ability, especially Pidge. Ilana then deactivated the corus armor once more. "Lance and I only use our armor to fly into battle." (Voltron) Lance was about to ask her why he was talking about him, when he remembered the other robots name. "Speaking of which," Ilana then turned to the manus armor, "you should deactivate your armor, Lance."
"But what if it's a trick? What if they were invading to attack us?"
"If they were, we wouldn't have found them so easily. Besides, they're unarmed." There was a pause.
"Fine." And with that, the manus armor disappeared with a flash, revealing the teenager who had been within the armor. At this time, the paladins of Voltron removed their helmets.
Hunk, Shiro, (Voltron) Lance and Pidge all looked at (Titan) Lance with shock, and then turned to Keith, who was just as surprised. The teenager who was now before them looked just like Keith! The only difference was his clothes, and something else that was hard to put a finger on. Keith took of his helmet, revealing his hair. Ilana and Octus were somewhat surprised, but (Titan) Lance remained stoic. It is unknown if he ever was surprised.
(Titan) Lance turned to head up the stairs. "None of you can leave the basement!"
"Lance, you can't be serious!"
"We can't trust them to go about our house."
"But we just saved them from Steele! We're not going to keep them as prisoners!"
"Sir," Shiro said, "We are sworn to defend the universe from evil. We are grateful for your protection, and we would never do anything to hurt or betray you." (Titan) Lance gave Shiro a judgemental stare.
"Fine, you can come upstairs. But no one leaves the house just yet. Steele and his men may be out there."
"Agreed." Shiro said. And with that, (Titan) Lance went up the stairs.
"You'll have to forgive him," Ilana said. "He can be pretty intense sometimes."
"Sounds like someone else we know," (Voltron) Lance said with a sly smile as he looked at Kieth, who just shrugged it off.
Pidge excitedly ran upstairs, ahead of the others. As Pidge opened the door, Pidge had a big smile of excitement. However, that quickly faded once seeing what the upstairs really looked like. "Aw man! It looks just like a normal house." All the others had just gotten upstairs.
"We try to remain as inconspicuous as possible," said Octus, "should anyone enter our house."
"I suppose I can't blame you," said Pidge. "I'd try to keep a low profile If I had armor that could be contained in a watch. Speaking of which," Pidge looked at Ilana's watch carefully, "how does this thing work?"
"'Scuse me, but where's the bathroom?" Hunk asked.
"Second door on the left," Octus said. So Hunk went to the bathroom.
"To be honest," Ilana said in response to Pidges question, "I'm not really sure myself. I was given this by my father years ago. He never told me how it works, only how to use it."
"So he must know how it works, can he tell us?"
Ilana was suddenly quiet, and looked somewhat sad.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think that-"
"No, it's okay. You didn't know."
"Is he-"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him in a long time."
It was at that moment that Hunk entered the living room. Everyone saw that he had changed out of his paladin suit and in to his regular clothes. (I was always under the assumption they wear their regular clothes underneath their paladin suits.)
"Hunk, why did you change," said Keith. "We need to be ready at all times!"
"Yeah, but we don't know how long that will take. Besides, Lance – not you, Lance – said we should stay inside, so we might as well get comfortable."
"Yeah, can't see the harm in that," (Voltron) Lance said. So he went to the bathroom to change.
"I just hope the lions are okay," said Pidge.