Well, this one took a bit of time to write but I think it was worth it XD. Season 2 is closing in so I want to try and get as many chapters in before the 20th. So thanks for sticking around and reading what I have so far!

Song suggestion: Vicetone ft. Kat Nestel - Angels (Two Friends Remix)

On to the story!


Over the course of 3 days, the Bulmera had made a considerable about of progress in recovering its health thanks to the efforts of Alura, Coran, and the resident Bulmerians. Their ever diligent work in performing the rejuvenation ceremony for the mighty beast allowed for new crystals to form across its surface and its body was no longer brittle and fragile.

During this time the paladins spent a bit of time training but the more of their time was spent on their own endeavors. This marked the 4th day of their stay and Pidge was working with her tech projects, Lance was busy butting heads with Keith as they both tried to outdo each other in the training room and Hunk was enjoying as much time with Shey as he could.

Meanwhile, Latia was more set than ever on figuring out how to pilot her lion. Their time on the Bulmera was coming to a close and she wanted to get in as much 'safe' piloting practice as she could before they'd have to take off. So, while the other relaxed around the ship she was busy making her way through the various halls of the castle to the spare hanger that was housing her Lion.

Once she was standing about 30 or so feet in front of it, she looked up at it with a childish smile. "Ok then, so, you're sort of alive right?" She asked the lion getting no response. She frowned a bit but continued to talk aloud anyways "What do you say to a practice run then, you and me." She offered and sure enough, the lion gave a shake as it stirred to life before letting out a roar and lowered its head to open its mouth and make an entrance ramp.

With the ramp set up for her, Latia's smile returned as she put her helmet on and hurried over to the lion then got into her seat. "I'll take that as a yes," She stated as she pushed a few buttons one of which opened the hanger's large exit. "So I guess I should think of a name for you huh." She stated knowing that she was more or less talking to herself even if the machine was sentient. "How about Blache? Roar for yes, Stay quiet for you don't really care and toss me out for no." She offered with a curious tone as she tightly closed her eyes while silently praying that she wouldn't be ejected. To her surprise, she felt the jostle of the white lion letting out another roar which caused her to laugh, "Ok then Blanche it is."

Once the door was completely opened she grabbed on to the controls, adjusted her hold a bit then pressed both levers forward causing the white lion to very quickly run out of the castle. It then took off at full speed as she gave a few hoots and hollers in her excitement. "Ok let's see what we can do," Latia stated with a childish grin on her face as she tried a few maneuvers since she was starting to get comfortable with piloting.

"You know I never took you for the adrenaline junky kinda person," Said a laughing voice over the communication system. Hearing Shiro's comment caused Latia's expression to quickly contort to one of embarrassment and dread. She had thought she was alone.

"Sorry about shouting in your ear like that. I didn't realize you were out here too." She apologized making a mental note to ask Pidge where the mute button was later.

"I was just doing a perimeter check. Don't worry about it, I'm getting used to it because of Lance and Keith" He joked though it only made Latia feel more embarrassed. "It's good to see that you're starting to get the hang of piloting your lion, though."

"Thanks, that's actually why I came out here, I wanted to get in as much practice as I can before we have to head off to the next distress call," Latia explained as she shifted her controls to have her lion coast to a stop for the time being.

"I see. Well, if you're looking to practice, Why don't we have a race? The Bulmera has a lot of different formations close to the ground, so if we agree to not fly over them it can make for an interesting challenge." Shiro suggested though Latia took the offer as him joking around.

"A race huh? Heh, so what do I get if I win?" She asked in her attempt to joke back, the last time someone had suggested a race to her was back on the playground when she was a kindergarten tot.

"I just figured it would be good practice. But I guess if you're feeling confident enough add a wager to it that's fine by me." Shiro replied which caused Latia to slowly realize her mistake. "Winner does the losers chose for a week?" He suggested which caused her to go pale. Great either she was going to look like a huge snobby wuss by back peddling on her suggestion or she was going to look like an overconfident dork, Crash, lose, and end up doing double chores for a week.

"Fine by me," Latia replied, figuring it was better to try and stick with the over confidence she accidently implied. Her silent hoping that he was still joking faded away as she saw him maneuver the black lion to be closer to the surface.

"Ok then, we can start here," Shiro suggested as Latia piloted her lion down by his and silently observed all the different wave-like cliffs and overhangs in front of them. "First one to reach that large crystal in the distance wins?" He added after as he sent a marker to her lion's display.

"Right, on the count of 3?" Latia agreed after shaking her head. She needed to snap out of this. She still had a chance right? The black lion was much bigger, so maybe her smaller lion would be able to handle the obstacles better? She wasn't sure if that was the case or not but that didn't stop her from putting all her chips on that hope.

"1" Shiro started.

"2" Latia continued waiting for the signal.

"3!" Shiro called and with that they were both off, winding, swerving and weaving through the different formations of the Bulmeria's hardened outer shell. Latia managed to generally do well with avoiding crashing her Lion into anything. Until she got a bit too cocky and ended up clipping the black lion, causing it to fall behind and inadvertently allowing her to take the lead.

"Crap, Sorry!" Latia called back through the communication system though that didn't exactly stop her from continuing to make her way to the finish line. If she could get out of chores for a week out of a happy accident she'd take it.

"So it's that kind of race huh?" Shiro asked. It was the then that Latia knew. She done goofed. Before she could get another word in the black lion pounced, landing on the white lion and causing the two mechs to tumble toward the finish lined.

As the mechanical beasts slowed to a stop Latia let out a sigh of relief only to be jettisoned from her seat and into the air about as gracefully as a dyslexic goose that had somehow gotten drunk.

Once she realized what was going on Latia had her jet pack activate hoping to soften the blow as much as possible before tumbling across the ground. she had wanted to practice the whole getting ejected thing too at some point but this was not really what she had in mind. As Latia got up she looked from the lions to the crystal and knowing it would be too late by the time she got back to hers. Instead, the white paladin opted to run the last bit on her own two feet trying to formulate some sort of plan as she ran and the black lion got back up.

"Now what are you doing," The black paladin asked confused as he had his lion quickly pass Latia and the crystal stone that they'd designated as their finish line. She didn't actually think she could outrun him did she?

"I win" Latia stated out of breath as she pressed her hand against the Bulmerian crystal and looked up at the black lion. "I'm the first pilot to make it to the crystal." She added as she was mentally split on whether she should be mortified by her childishness with this simple race or pat herself on the back for finding a loophole.

"That's cheating." Shiro counted with a surprised and mildly frustrated tone as he had the black lion land.

"Is it?" Latia genuinely asked, She was not really willing to argue with him on the matter but she really couldn't tell when he was joking. A sigh could be heard over the communication system before Shiro spoke again.

"Let's just go with it's a draw." He offered with a short chuckle.

"Oh thank heavens, I really didn't want to have to do your chores. I wouldn't have enough hours in the day." Latia admitted as she allowed her shoulders to dropped from relief. "And I am sorry I clipped you, I didn't mean to do that. It looks like I still have some practicing to do." She added since she still felt some guilt for that.

"I know you didn't mean to, don't worry about it," Shiro assured with an amused smile as Latia stared up at the black lion with a confused expression.

"Wait. Then why'd you? But if." She tried to ask though she found herself tripping over her own words as she tried to figure out what she wanted to ask.

"I didn't want to have to do your chores either. I didn't think you'd go for that deal," He explained as he also began to relax.

"I suggested it because I thought you were joking about racing in the first place," Latia finally admitted as her face burned a bright red though she felt a bit lighter from telling the truth.

The two were silent for a bit before Latia broke the silence as she tried to muffle her laughing causing Shiro to snicker as well. "I don't think it's a good idea for us to bet with each other anymore" Latia suggested through her giggle fit as she allowed herself to lean her back against the large crystal so she could rest.

"Agreed" Shiro replied having already gotten his laughing under control but he was still smiling. "Let's get back to the castle, Alura and Coran should be back soon. I wouldn't be surprised if they want to take off as soon as possible." The black paladin suggested in return.

"Right," Latia agreed as an idea came to mind that caused her to smirk to herself. "Race you back?" She offered only to feel a gust of strong winds whip around her as the black lion took off towards the castle.

"Fine by me" She heard through her helmet's speaker as she watched the black lion quickly shrink into the distance.

"Hey, now that's cheating!" Latia called before running back to her lion, she knew she wouldn't be able to catch up at this rate but it was fun all the same. By the time Latia had made it back to the castle and changed into her earth clothing, Coran and Princess Alura had returned. Latia gave a quiet wave in greeting as the two walked past her.

"Let's get you back to your room princess, you should rest." Coran stated gently as he helped steady Alura so she could walk while he used his free hand to wave back.

"I'm fine Coran, we still need to take off, and there's so much more work to do." She countered thought she knew she was very weak.

"I'll worry about that so you can work on getting well again. The rejuvenation ceremony took a lot out of you even breaking it up like that." The advisor replied hoping that his offer to oversee the castle while she rested would help her take the time she needed to heal.

"Very well…" Alura finally agreed which caused Latia to smile as she continued on her way. It was heartwarming to see how well those two got along. Latia continued meandering around the castle, bracing herself as it took off before looking out a small window and giving a half-hearted sigh.

She didn't mind being in space, but she was getting homesick. Her family probably noticed she's gone by now. And she'd probably been fired from her job. She'd been away for what, a week and a half by now? The police had probably moved her to the cold case file. The thought of her parents trying to find her and the chance of them wasting their money on hiring people to look for her made her feel sick to her stomach. Latia was quickly pulled from these thoughts as she heard Coran's voice over the intercom.

"Everyone please come down to the detainment room" Coran announced causing Latia to lightly shake her head and pull herself back to reality. She started walking back the way she came when what was said finally hit her.

"Wait… detainment room? Does this castle have some sort of dungeon in it?" She thought, feeling a mixture of concern and amusement by the idea of the castle ship having such a medieval feature to it. After a few wrong turn and backtracking once or twice Latia finally made it to the detainment room to find the group standing with Coran in front of one of the many tube-like chambers. As Latia approached she curiously craned her neck to try and see what was inside only stare at the armored purple man beast with a mix of fear and confusion. "What is that?"

"This is Sendax, he's a General for the Galra. A nasty one at that" Coran explained as he began attaching devices onto the glassy exterior.

"So this is what a Galra looks like." Latia thought having never actually seen one before. It was strange having a face to put to the name now.

"There we go, Sendax is all hooked up now, though I feel I should warn you this technology was used to keep Altaian memories alive, not to interrogate prisoners," Coran stated hesitantly as he turned on the memory transferring device

"Coran, We understand this isn't what the technology was meant for. But if we can extract Sendax's memories we might gain valuable intelligence on Zarkon's troop locations" Shiro replied in a matter of fact tone as he felt on edge being in the same area as the Galra general.

"Yeah and then we can be like 'knock knock' who's there 'the avenging fury of Voltron son!' " Lance added enthusiastically.

"When you transfer someone's memories like this. What happens to the body?" Latia asked as she began to feel uneasy about what was occurring. Extracting and transferring were not the same as copying and she understood that well enough to know there had to be consequences with it.

"It's best not to think about that," Coran advised looking to Latia with some amount of sympathy.

"Fascinating, so how exactly does this work?" Pidge asked unphased by the idea that at best Sendax would have lost all his memories, or become a living vegetable. Coran went on to explain the system further, resulting in some nonsensical squabbling between Keith and Lance per the usual. Eventually, one by one the members started to leave the area since nothing was really happening.

Keith and Pidge had left by the time that Latia had thought to do the same. "I need to go and check on Disney, page me if you guys need me," Latia replied before walking away. She was grateful to finally be able to leave that place it gave her the creeps. Sure this was a war and there were costs with that but it didn't mean she wanted to watch some guy get their memories forcefully pulled onto a giant glass equivalent of a USB drive.

Latia let out a disheartened sigh as she opened the door to her room, only to smile as she found Disney sitting waiting for her at the door with his tail happily wagging behind him. "Hey, fluffy butt how are you doing" She stated as she kneeled down to pet the fluffy dog before getting back up to walk into the room and start her routine for taking care of the pup. After an hour or so of playing fetch, tug of war and generally just relaxing in the small room she figured a walk around the castle would do the young dog some good. Latia walked over to her door causing it to open before whistling to signal Disney to follow. They didn't get very far on their walk when Disney started to bristle and growl as they hunch their shoulders and slowly stalked forward.

"What's wrong bud?" She asked as she looked around but found nothing to be out of place. Disney however, took off running before Latia could call him back. "Not this again, Disney wait!" Latia called as she chased after the dog. As she followed after she realized that the path was very familiar and eventually found Disney barking at the entrance to the detainment room. "Disney hush." She whispered as she could hear talking from behind the door, while it was quiet and muffled she could still make it out.

"I know you have all the answers. Give them to me." Shiro said in a tone that was darker than usual. Latia waited in silence to try and overhear who he was talking to only to jolt from surprise as she heard him give an agitated shout. "You're a broken soldier, you can't hold out forever," He said as his tone became somewhat more aggressive. This was enough for Latia to put the pieces together that Shiro was talking to the imprisoned general.

"But, he looked comatose how is Shiro talking to them," She thought before letting it go to focus on listening once more. She shouldn't be spying on the guy like this but something weird was going on and she wanted to find out what it was.

'What was the first rank you held in Zarkon's army,' 'Where did you find the red lion,' 'What is Zarkon's greatest weakness'? the questioning continued but no matter how hard she strained her ears she never heard any sort of replying. As the one-sided interrogation continued on it was becoming clearer that Shiro was becoming more and more distressed.

"No, I'm not like you" "That's not me" "I'm not listening to you" "Stop it!"

The sound of cracking glass was the last straw as Laita hurried over to the door letting both her and Disney through to find the panicking leader with his mechanical fist pressed against the broken glass of the container. His already pained and fearful expression contorted further before he practically fell forward to eject the comatose general from the ship.

"Are you ok?" Latia worriedly asked as she and Disney hurried over.

"I had to get him out of here, I was hearing his voice, he can't be trusted on this ship" Shiro replied not answering the question directly but seeing him get up to put his back to the wall was enough for Latia to gather that he was not ok.

"You did what you thought was right" She replied in a quiet voice recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack choosing to step back a bit to give him more space since he was cornering himself.

"He's gone now. How about we sit down and take a few deep breaths." She offered, trying to keep her voice as calm and even as possible as she struggled with not knowing what else to do to help him. she didn't want to tell him it was ok. she didn't know how much of what was going on was in his head and his imagination could quickly make a liar out of her.

"Have you had anything to eat recently?" Latia eventually asked after allowing some time of silence to pass as Disney leaned into her leg.

"No" Shiro replied shortly as he moved to hold his the side of his face in his hand.

"Why don't we go to the kitchen then and get you some food..." She offered thinking that maybe getting him away from the area that was stressing him out would help.

"I don't recommend that the kitchen is on the fritz" Hunk stated as he and the others made their way over as well.

"Yeah more like the Whole castle is out to freaking kill us. It tried to kill me twice!" Lance shouted which caused Latia to wince.

Before Lance could continue the sounds of the warning alarm filled the air causing everyone to look at the bright red monitor that announced that the situation had gone from bad to worse.

"What, how is that possible?"Coran asked quietly "The ship is starting a wormhole jump" Coran stated in a frightened tone. Fearing the worst the group hurried up to the main controls to find Alura standing at the helm and driving the ship through the wormhole.

"Alura, What's going on?" Shiro demanded having not completely recovered from his panic attack.

"We're going to Altaya. We're going home. My father is taking us" The princess replied as she calmly looked back to the others.

"Oh 'foop' to the 'hell' to the 'no'." Latia thought as she started to loose her cool, it wasn't like the princess to act like this she seemed possessed!

This answer did not sit will with rest of the gang either as they quickly tried to rush over and stop Alura. A defensive barrier quickly appeared to block them from her as 3 large screens showed the face of a bearded man with white hair.

"Stay away from my daughter!" they demanded causing Latia to stare in disbelief.

"Alura, Wake up" Shiro called trying to jar the woman from her trance.

"The crystal must have corrupted King Alfor's artificial intelligence, it's taking over!" Coran explained putting a name to the face for Latia as the ship finished traveling through the wormhole, placing them in front of a dark red star.

"That star is about to explode!" Pidge stated fearfully as the ship continued on it's path to its fiery grave.

"Alura, Alura! Wake up! What you're seeing isn't real" Coran called as he got as close to the barriers possible. The cries seemed to be in vain as Allura's hallucination continued and she proceeded to act as if she was picking flowers. Coran's continued pleading eventually got Alura to question the validity of what she was seeing enough for her to wake from her dreaming state.

"That's not Altaya" She finally stated as she came to her senses feeling the same dread as the others as she looked into the massive star.

"When that star goes supernova it will be enough to wipe out the entire system. Alura you must reset the course and get us out of here." Pidge pleaded. Once she understood the severity of their situation Alura hurried to the controls to try and reset the course only to be thrown away from the panels and out of the barrier.

"Father I beg you to turn this ship around. If you don't we will all parish" Alura begged as the others watched feeling powerless.

"I know, that is my intention" The king stated gravely sending chills down Latia's spine as she feared for her life.

"What? Why?!" Alura cried out in a mixture of anguish and confusion.

"Don't you see dear daughter, Zarkon can never be defeated. He's been ruling for 10,000 years."

"But we must continue to fight!" She countered still torn from grief over what was happening. The two continued to argue before her father's image disappeared and Alura turned to face the paladins. "I've got to get into the AI chamber to disconnect my father's power source manually." She stated, having made the difficult decision on what she must do.

"Paladins get to your lions, I need you to slow the castles descent into the star." She ordered as she walked past to start making her way to the chamber. This was not exactly what Latia had in mind but if they were going out there, she should too. The 6 rushed to their respective lions and had them press against the ship to slow the descent as much as possible.

"It's getting a bit hot out here" Pidge called as everyone had begun sweating due to the heat of the star. Before long Alura appeared on all of their screens.

"Paladins, get back to your hangers. We're getting out of here." Alura announced much to the joy of the paladins. Everyone quickly got back into their hangers and before they knew it they were back into the wormhole away from the destructive forces of the star.

Once everyone had made it back to the main control room they found Alura sitting with Coran. "I'm so sorry about your father princess," Shiro stated as he walked over and sat next to her to put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"We all are," Hunk added as the rest of the group moved to stand around her.

"Thank you… but that was not my father. The real King Alfor was a great man, And a great father." Alura replied though some sadness could still be heard in her voice. "He may not be here with us anymore but his dream lives on in all of us and his legacy is Voltron." She added giving her a strong eulogy for her now completely departed father. "If you'll excuse me a moment. I have other business to attend to." She finished as she rather briskly left the room. The others stood, wondering what to do for the hurting woman and Latia let out a soft sigh.

"Well, you guys heard her. There's work to do." Latia stated before heading out as well and back to her room to get out of her suit. Once she'd finished changing she made her way to the kitchen only to grimace upon finding it covered in green goop. "Dang it all guys," Latia grumbled through a sigh as she scratched at the back of her head. She stared at the mess a moment longer before finding a rag and getting to work on cleaning up the mess, figuring that her meal could wait a bit longer for her to clean this up.

Coran was probably too busy comforting Alura to worry about something as comparatively trivial as a messy kitchen. She'd just about finished cleaning the floors when somewhat familiar footstep made their way to the kitchen and paused a moment. Latia looked over to the entrance to see Shiro silently walk over to the device that held the hydration packs. He didn't exactly acknowledge her being there so she wasn't sure if she should just let him be or if she should say something. In the end, she decided to leave him be and focus on cleaning.

"Hey, Latia," He eventually started causing the white paladin to turn and looked at him curiously."About what happened back at the detainment room. I'm sorry you and the others had to see me like that." Shiro stated as he rubbed the back of his neck with his mechanical arm.

"You don't need to apologize" Latia replied as she shifted to stand and thought for a moment longer on what to say. "Look, I don't know you that well. I don't know your life or what you've had to go through." She added as she continued to try and pick her words carefully. "What I do know, is that your name is Shiro, you're an amazing pilot that everyone here looks up to. While you're serious you still like to goof off every once in a while and can even have a bit of a childish streak. You care about everyone and you try to do what's right." She listed off inadvertently getting side tracked as she tried to list off positive aspects about him.

"I've forgotten where I was going with all that but, just, try and not be too hard on yourself." She finished giving similar advice to him to what he'd given her before about training.

Shiro looked to Latia stunned for a few moments and left at a loss for what to say."Thanks." he eventually replied with a relaxed smile.

"It's no problem," Latia said in a gentle tone before going back to her Food goo removal project.

"Would you like a hand with the cleaning" Shiro offered curiously which caused Latia to smile.

"I'd appreciate that." She replied before going to look for a spare rag for her friend.


Tadah~ boy this chapter was a long one hehe hopefully it was fun for you guys to read.

before I wrap this up, I feel like I need to address this. there was a point with the story that I could have used to write a "cute" scene between Latia and Shiro where he was freaking out by having her be more forward with comforting him. I ultimately decided against this because that's probably one of the worst things you can do to someone you barely know that's going through a PTSD induced panic attack. Sure for some people physical contact like hugs do help but that really only is the case with people they know and trust. however, I didn't feel it would be proper for me to abuse the mental situation of a character like that just for the sake of a few 'Awww' and giggling gushing.

so yeah with that PSA out of the way, this chapter wasn't as "cute" but I feel like it was best to go with what a more realistic way to deal with someone having a panic attack and it made for a more sincere character bonding moment later on because I felt it was important to include this part of Shiro's character.

Commentator Corner:

SinfullyOffesive: I'm really glad to hear that you like the concept for my story quq 3 I was worried that the idea of an extra lion might come off as kinda mary-sue-ish so it's a relief to hear that it's interesting.