Ilana had brought over several board games and a bowl of apples for her, Octus and the paladins. It took a tad longer than she expected, but they finally found a game they could all play.
"Okay then," she said having just read the rules. "Now then, let's choose our pieces. I'll be the convertible!"
"I'll be the sports car!" (Voltron) Lance said.
"I'll be the s.u.v." Hunk said, still eating his third apple.
"I'll be the small car." Pidge said.
"I'll be the pickup truck," Shiro said.
"I'll be the sedan," said Octus.
Ilana paused a moment to think. She then turned to Octus. "Octus, could you go check to see if Lance is gonna come over.
Before Octus could say anything, Keith spoke. "I'll go."
"Are you sure?" Ilana asked.
"Yeah, I'll get him." And with that, Keith walked upstairs.
Keith felt strange about walking through this house. It hadn't been that long ago that they set foot in an alien castle, and now here they all were, in an alien house hidden in the ancient suburbs. He walked down the hall, and stopped to peak in a door. He saw (Titan) Lance sitting on a bed, with his back to the door. Keith paused to observe him, and then knocked on the open door. (Titan) Lance looked up, surprised.
"Oh, it's you," (Titan) Lance said in a way that it seemed as though Keith wasn't exactly welcome, yet not the last person he wanted to see.
"Sorry. Ilana wanted me to tell you that we're all playing a game downstairs and she wanted me to make sure you were coming."
"All of you?"
"Um, yeah? Me, Hunk, Shiro, Pidge and Lance – not you, the other one." Lance got up to face Keith
"She invited you to play a game?" Something about this made Keith finally snap.
"Yeah, unlike you, she trusts us! We've been through a fair mess of trouble, we've seen bad guys, and we're not one of them!" (Titan) Lance was taken aback by what he had said. Keith could see that. "I'm sorry, I just-"
"No, it's okay. I just want to keep Ilana safe." Keith saw that all along, (Titan) Lance had been holding a picture of Octus's 'dad' form standing still while he and Ilana are surprised to see Octus's Newton form hovering above the ground. (Titan) Lance then held it up to look at it. "I haven't had it easy either. My dad was a scientist back on Galaluna. One day, he was testing a rift gate, a portal to cross vast distances across space effortlessly. He walked through it, and I never saw him again. I spent years in military training, and they were the hardest of my life. I never felt like I fit in. Then, one day, when no other option was available and time had run out, the king gave me the honor of keeping Ilana safe. And when we came to earth," he then turned his glance to a picture of him playing the guitar in a band and a picture of him, Ilana and Octus's Newton form posing for a photo with two other girls and a boy in their living room, "I've been given a new life. A new family."
Keith was shocked. "I – I'm sorry. I've had a hard life too."
"Really?"
"Back where we're from, we train very hard to travel to space. I was in an academy to learn how for about a year. I went because I wanted to go to space, but also because I never knew much about my family. I hadn't seen my dad in years, and I don't remember my mom at all. But I never could stay focused after Shiro went missing, and I dropped out about a year ago.
"Then, I was out in a desert, searching for something that I still can't explain, but it almost felt like something from beyond earth was calling to me. I researched the area, and discovered symbols of a blue lion hidden in a series of caves. Once I met Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, we found the blue lion. It took us to planet Ares, where we met Princess Allura and Coran, the last Alteans in the universe. Princess Allura then gave us the responsibility of piloting the lions her father built, and we became the paladins of Voltron.
"I know what it's like to want to protect someone. The universe looks Voltron as a symbol of hope, and if anything happened to my friends, then all we've worked for would be lost."
(Titan) Lance paused to take in what Keith had said. "Yeah, that's the way it is for us too. Octus said that the fact that these monsters keep fighting us is because whatever took over Galaluna wants to crush all hope they have. If Titan falls, then all we know," he then looked out the window up to the sky, "and love will lose all hope."
"You know, you and I aren't so different after all."
(Titan) Lance smiled as he turned to Keith. "Yeah. Sorry if I seemed rough on you guys before."
"It's okay, we all understand. We actually had a similar experience not too long ago."
"What happened?"
"Well, it's actually quite a story."
Meanwhile, everyone else was waiting to start the game. (Voltron) Lance, Hunk, and Ilana were growing impatient. Pidge, however, was watching Octus intently as he ate an apple
"So you can eat food like a normal human?" Pidge asked.
"Yes," Octus said as he turned to face Pidge.
"And you can taste it?"
"Yes."
"How is that even possible? I mean, no offense, I just never expected a robot to have these capabilities. Why were you made with this function?"
Octus paused. "To be honest, I don't know entirely why myself. I was made to be more than just a robot, as I'm the one programed with the sym-bionic defense mode for forming titan. I believe that this part of my programming for keeping Lance and Ilana safe here; to provide companionship as well as defense."
"Wow." Pidge said. "That is so cool! This raises so many questions about Galalunian technology and engineering! I mean, if they could contain robotic armor in a wristwatch and artificial intelligence with the ability to taste foods and understand human emotions, who knows what else their capable of!"
"Speaking of which," Octus said as he looked upstairs "where's Keith and Lance?"
(Voltron) Lance waved his arm "Uh hello?! I'm right here, Octus!"
"He meant their Lance, Lance." Hunk said.
"I'll go check on them," Shiro said as he stood up. Pidge stood up too.
"I'll go with you. Y'know, to make sure Keith didn't cause any trouble." Pidge then turned to the others "You should start playing, we may be a while." So the two walked to the stairs, and up the stairs. As they walked down the hallway, Pidge took a passing glance at a door that was open slightly ajar to see inside. Pidge then turned back and ran to the door. Shiro saw Pidge and walked over to see what was so amazing.
"Pidge, why did you-" but Shiro looked at what Pidge was looking at, and was interrupted by his amazement. The room was filled with hovering blue balls that had a blinking light yellow at their centers. All the balls were connected by thin wires. The balls that were at the end of their wires were all smaller than the ones the wires came from. "Incredible." Pidge then walked into the room to get a better look. "Pidge, come back!"
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna touch anything. Besides, we've been trusted with Altean technology, so they surely won't mind if we have a look at their Galalunian gear."
Shiro reluctantly followed. "Okay, but just a quick peek." He walked in.
Pidge looked at all the orbs, pausing to adjust glasses to get a better look. "Look at all this! How did they even transport this in here under the eyes of normal 2011 civilians?"
Shiro also looked around the room. "What purpose do they serve?"
"An alarm system," Octus said. Pidge and Shiro then turned to see Octus standing at the door! Pidge gasped in shock.
"I-I didn't touch anything! Honest!"
"We didn't mean any harm!" Shiro said.
"It's alright," Octus said with a reassuring smile. "We use these to warn us for when we're under attack by the mutraddi."
"I remember Ilana mentioned them when we got here," Shiro said. "Who are they?"
"It's better if I show you." And with that, Ocuts created a holographic projection in the air in front of them. All the mutraddi, including Tashy 497, the fire megabeast, Xishi, and others in action were shown. Shiro and Pidge were in awe at the sight of them. Suddenly, the film clips showed a gigantic robot, in all its power and glory, fighting off each one.
"Is that-?" Pidge asked.
"Titan." Shiro said.
"Yes, it is." Octus said.
After Pidge and Shiro had wandered into Octus' alarm room, (Titan) Lance and Keith walked out of Lances room.
"So what happened to those guys?" (Titan) Lance asked.
"Still have no idea," said Keith. "We had to get to the Balmera as soon as possible." They headed down the stairs. From there, the heard the others playing the game.
"Three, four, five!" (Voltron) Lance said. Keith and (Titan) Lance entered the room
"But look at your space," Hunk said. "You landed on 'popped tire,' so you loose a turn."
"Wait, what?! Aw man, this game is rigged!"
"My turn," Ilana said as she shook the dice. She rolled it, and it rolled a three. She then moved the car figure over three spaces on the path on the board. "Oh look! I landed on the insurance plan space, so I get to skip the next accident I encounter!"
"Oh, she's gaining on you," Hunk said.
"Alien princesses get all the luck," (Voltron) Lance grumbled. This line got Ilanas attention.
They all looked to see that (Titan) Lance and Keith entered the room.
"You're back!" Ilana said cheerfully.
"You wanna play?" Hunk asked.
"Sure," said (Titan) Lance. "But where are Shiro and Pidge?"
"And Octus?" Keith asked.
"They went off to look for you two," Ilana said. "They should have been back by now. Why don't you take their places?"
So Lance and Keith sat down. Ilana then turned to (Voltron) Lance to aske him something she had been meaning to for a while.
"So Lance, – not you, Lance, - you said before that you met another alien princess. Is she somehow connected to your lions?"
"Yeah," (Titan) Lance said. "Keith told me about Princess AlLura. What happened to her people?"
"Well," (Voltron) Lance said, "it's actually quite a story. Keith, Pidge, Hunk and I rescued Shiro when he crashed to earth after having been gone for a year. He tried to tell these guys from Galaxy Garrison – that's the center where we train to be pilots," he added for the sake of (Titan) Lance and Ilana, "but they didn't listen. Then Keith told us about the signs that pointed to the blue lion, and when we found it, I could feel it talking to me. It then took us up into space and through a wormhole planet Ares and the castle of Lions for the first time. That's where we found Allura and Coran, and we woke them up from being asleep for 10,000 years."
"That long!?" Ilana was surprised.
"Her dad put her and his assistant, named Coran, into some kind of chamber that kept them in a state of stasis for that long."
"When she woke up, she found out that the lions were scattered far across the universe and we had to retrieve them to form Voltron," Hunk added.
"But why was she sent away?" Ilana asked.
"Because her home world was attacked by Zarkon and his forces," Kieth added. "He knew that it was the only way to keep her safe."
Ilana was surprised. This story was all too familiar to her. Suddenly, Ilana was very quiet and looked down. "I know how hard that must be. I know because it happened to us." She then looked up again. "One day, Galaluna was under attack without warning. There were shots of weapons, gigantic monsters, and casualties everywhere. My dad sent me away so that I would be safe, and trusted Lance," she turned to (Titan) Lance to smile at him, while he too smiled back at her, "and Octus to keep me safe."
Hunk and (Voltron) Lance were amazed by this story. "Whoa," said (Voltron) Lance. "So quickly? Man, that's crazy."
"Yeah," said Hunk. "We're so sorry."
"But it's okay," Ilana said. "Living here on earth has given me a new life entirely. I've learned so much from interactions in the teenage earth culture, and I hope to bring them back upon our return."
"You'd love Allura," Keith said with a smile, just imagining the enthusiastic conversations they would have together.
Suddenly, there was a faint beeping upstairs. Hunk, (Voltron) Lance, and Kieth looked upstairs. "What is that," Hunk asked. "A fire alarm?"
"No, it's too faint." Keith said. They all looked at (Titan) Lance and Ilana, but to their surprise, they had taken off and ran upstairs.