Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. I had some massive writer's block, especially after I watched Season 3 and my brain exploded. (Don't worry, no spoilers here.)

Chapter 7

Lance woke up to an armored hand shaking his shoulder roughly. He opened his eyes to see a very blurry Ulaz standing over him. "Paladin, you must wake up. The battle is over."

He pushed away Ulaz's hand and sat up, keeping a hand over his eyes to block out the light. His head was still killing him. "What happened?"

"We used Voltron as a distraction while I remotely sent my ship into the Robeast and activated the space pocket."

"Oh." Lance squinted up at him. "Great." He felt the irrational urge to push Ulaz away and tell him to get the heck out of his lion, but he just couldn't find the energy. Blue growled at him gently, as if offering to do the job for him. She clearly wasn't happy about the situation either.

He suddenly realized that his helmet was missing and spotted it in Ulaz's hand. "Give me that!" Lance said, snatching it back. Ulaz looked a bit surprised at his tone.

"I apologize. I needed the helmet to communicate with the other paladins." Lance shot a glare at him and slowly pulled himself to his feet. "What are you doing? You are in no fit state to pilot your lion." Ulaz sounded genuinely concerned, but right now Lance really didn't care. He really wanted to flip him off, but knew that the Galra probably wouldn't recognize the gesture anyway.

"You said the battle was over, right? I think I can manage to get Blue back in her hanger just fine, thanks. She practically pilots herself anyway." He slid into his seat and grabbed the controls, smiling a little at Blue's purr of satisfaction. He still couldn't see much, but Blue seemed to know where she was going. Lance put his helmet on and winced as the voices of the other paladins exploded into his ears again.

Hunk was panicking. "How do we know Ulaz didn't just knock him out again? We need to get him out of Blue and make sure Lance is okay."

"Let's get back to the castle first, away from these xanthorium clusters," said Shiro. "Then we'll figure out what's going on with Ulaz and Lance."

"Guys, I'm fine," Lance said as he felt Blue start moving. "Well, I passed out for a little bit there, but I'm awake now." The other paladins all started talking at once, making it very difficult for his concussed brain to make out anything they were saying. "You know what, Shiro's right. Let's get back to the castle and then we can figure everything out. Until then, you're all making my head hurt." He removed his helmet and put it on his lap, out of Ulaz's reach. The Galra soldier stayed silent behind him, which was both nice and creepy at the same time. Lance kept wanting to look over his shoulder to make sure Ulaz wasn't trying anything, but he was having a hard enough time staying upright in his seat as it was. He decided to focus on Blue's directions and shut everything else out until they were back on solid ground.


Keith and the others hurried to the blue lion's hangar, only to see Ulaz emerge with Lance just behind him, rifle in hand. Ulaz put his hands up when he saw all of them coming.

"I apologize to all of you for taking over the blue lion. Voltron was about to be destroyed, and I saw no alternative."

Keith ground his teeth together. He had a point, but still, the way he'd shoved into the bond they had as Voltron had been a shock to all of them. They'd quickly jumped to the conclusion that Ulaz had killed or at least hurt Lance in order to take over the blue lion. It was nothing short of a miracle that Voltron hadn't fallen apart right there. Thankfully, the Robeast's near-constant attacks and Shiro's encouragement had kept them focused enough to finish the battle before they separated.

Shiro stepped up to the Galra. "Thank you for your help. I think we should apologize for assuming the worst of you."

Keith stayed silent and contented himself with staring daggers at Ulaz. He wasn't going to be apologizing to him anytime soon, and it looked like Pidge and Hunk felt the same way.

"Great. Now that this love fest is over, I'm overdue for a very long nap." Lance lowered his rifle and stepped forward, only to stumble and knock into Ulaz. When the Galra reached out a hand to help him, Hunk quickly shoved him out of the way and got an arm around Lance's shoulders. Pidge followed behind them, leaving Ulaz with only Keith and Shiro.

Ulaz looked between them. "I see that I am not welcome here. If you will lend me a ship, I will return to the Blade of Marmora and inform them of our encounter."

Shiro nodded. "Of course. It's the least we can do after you took out that Robeast for us. But I would like to be able to meet with your leaders if at all possible."

"Me too," said Keith. Shiro raised an eyebrow. "I mean, if you don't mind." No way was he letting Shiro go in there alone. And he might be able to get some answers about his knife as well.

Ulaz nodded. "Very well." He held out what looked like a flash drive. "These are the coordinates to the central base of the Blade of Marmora. But before you go there, you must figure out how Zarkon is tailing you. He cannot find us or even know of our existence."

Shiro took the flash drive. "We won't let that happen."

Author's Note 2: So we made it to the end of "Shiro's Escape"! Now, before I continue the story, I would like to know what you guys want to see. Would you like me to continue through the rest of Season Two as I was originally planning, or should I move on to something else? I do have plans for the rest of Season Two, but if no one is interested in reading more, than I wouldn't mind moving on to other things either. Please let me know in a review!