Chapter 1:

The noise of blaster fire came out of no where as the training room came to life with simulated drones. The goal of the exercise was to destroy 35 drones before your opponent did. So far in the match, Keith had twenty three and Lance had sixteen."

"Check this out!" Lance called out from in the middle of the training room. He had managed to do four back hand springs, all the while taking out drones which were made to simulate Galra sentries. He had been working on his hand to hand combat ever since their last encounter with Zarcon at the Command Center.

Secretly though he was trying to impress both Shiro and Princess Allura.

"Quit showing off, hot shot," Keith destroyed four more before taking his sword to the fifth, "You'll only get yourself killed! And besides, I've already destroyed about ten more of them."

Lance froze in place for a few seconds before returning the fire to two more drones about to fire at him. The comment from his rival teammate enraged him and caused him to be more focused.

"Training simulation complete," The onboard computer simulator called out to the two combatants, "Keith has won the match. Score Keith, 35, Lance 21."

Keith smirked at Lance.

Lance just stalked off in the direction of the Princess and Shiro who were sending their own smirks right towards the young hot head. This only enraged him even more.

"He's got a long way before he is going to be able to defeat Lance," Shiro turned towards the Princess, "Is there anyway that we can use that game to be able to strengthen certain weaknesses for each one of us?"

"I honestly have no idea, I'll have Pidge look into it," Allura turned towards Shiro and smiled, "Now, I think it's your turn in the simulator! You haven't fought at all since we created the new game!"

Shiro's face contorted into one of surprise. In truth, he didn't really want to because he was afraid that fighting them would cause unwanted flashbacks from his time in the Galra arena. He had felt that he just got a handle on not dwelling on the past and he didn't want it to come back in full swing.

"Shiro, are you with me?" Allura waved her hand in front of Shiro's face. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts of his worry.

"Oh...um yeah...um. Who will I be battling against?" Shiro rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. He hardly ever zones out unless it had something was caught in a flashback.

"Me!" Allura pulled her staff from the nearby wall and proceeded to walk into the training room.

"Ooh! This ought to be interesting," Lance said as he leaned up against the control console. Keith, Hunk, Pidge and Coran followed soon after.

"Pidge will you up the count from 35 to 50 for me please?"

"You've got it Princess!"

Shiro readied himself by starting up the Galra tech in his arm. He then turned his back towards the Princess who was readying her staff in her hand.

"Simulation will begin in three...two...one," And with the countdown complete, solid holograms appeared in front of them. But no one was expecting Allura turning around and striking Shiro in the back with the end of her staff. This caused the Black Paladin to stumble forward and miss the drone he was about to attack. He turned towards Allura with a confused glare, but quickly recovered to attacking the drones.

Shiro now went after three of the drones which were approaching him with great speed. They seemed to be faster than normal which made him wonder if Pidge also upped the level of them. He dispatched them quickly but was then struck in the head with the staff again.

This made Shiro a bit angry as he was trying to focus on the objective, but it didn't seem like Allura got the game at all. Allura seemed to take the hint that Shiro didn't know what was going on so she decided she was going to explain her intentions.

"Shiro, I'm fighting you too now. But in order for you to dispatch me, you must first destroy 49 drones without getting hit by me," Allura took another swing towards his head but this time, Shiro dodged it without a problem.

He used the added attacker to his advantage now that he knew what Allura was up to. Every time he dodged one of her attacks, it seemed to put him in a great position to destroy the drones.

It seemed like it was yesterday that he was fighting in the arena when he was a prisoner. He remembered all the fights that he had against swarms of creatures or beings that he'd never seen before. It seemed as if the fight was fresh in his mind as he swung his Galra enhanced arm around to dispatch as many drones as he could lay his hands on.

And he finished destroying the 49 drones Allura instructed him to destroy with ease and then he readied himself to finish off his final opponent.

"Who do you think will win this?" Lance asked his friends as they watched the two seasoned warriors among them make their way around each other, sizing one another up.

"My bet is on Shiro," Keith commented quickly. Pidge agreed with Keith and both turned their heads back towards the battle at hand.

"Allura's staff isn't one to be messed with so my bet is on Allura," Coran stroked his mustache as he made the comment. Hunk then agreed having been on the tail end of that staff more times than he could count.

Shiro felt like he had enough time to size Allura up. He then pulled his mechanical arm back and began to run forward. He was going to try and knock the princess's weapon out of her hands.

But all of a sudden, his vision flash to the face of the Druid Witch Haggar. She wore a menacing smile on her face and then a vision of some people cowering in their homes as the Galra attacked them invaded Shiro's mind.

"They will die if you don't come and save them!" Haggar spoke just to Shiro, "You are their only hope for survival, champion!"

He could feel the blood drain from his face as the image of the witch and the people in danger became ever clearer.

Shiro then felt electricity hit him like a ton of bricks. He then focus on the actual reality and realized that Allura had hit him with a fully charged staff. He looked into her eyes for a few seconds and then collapsed to the ground.

Everyone rushed to him, especially Allura.

"Shiro, are you alright?" Pidge called out. Allura sat the black paladin up and silently whispered a word of thanks that her staff was only set to a paralyzing blast.

Shiro shook his head in confusion as the images of the destroyed homes and cowering people played over and over again in his mind. But for some reason, he couldn't remember who it was that planted those images in his mind. Even for the lapse of memory however, he also managed to piece together what planet was in trouble.

"Shiro, you look like you've seen a ghost, would you care to tell us what's going on?" Allura rubbed his back in a manner conducive of a parent comforting a child.

"I..." Shiro struggled to find words for what he was seeing. It wasn't like him to be at a loss for words, "We need to go to planet Pollux immediately."

Shiro sluggishly tried scrambling to his feet, but was met with protests from his friends and a firm push to sit back down on the ground.

"And what makes you say that?" Pidge sat down on the other side of her friend and held onto his mechanical arm.

"I...I had a vision," Shiro lower his head into his hands in despair, "I saw the people of the planet cowering in their homes in fear. All the while, Zarcon and his men set about destroying the place."

Everyone just sat in silence as Shiro just sat there looking terrible.

"We need to go now!" Shiro once again tried standing up. But the moment, he did, his face got ghostly pale and he almost fell back over.

"Shiro, that blast from my staff has weakened you. Give it an hour and you should be back to normal," Allura took Shiro's left hand and guided him back towards the training room floor. She then got Keith to help rest Shiro's back against her shoulder, "Then we will go see if your vision is true."

She rested her free hand on his shoulder and soon found herself sitting beside a sound asleep Paladin.