Chapter Eight
Mara closed her eyes and quickly pulled her controls towards herself to pull away from the ground. She soon felt herself flying backwards at a fast speed and had no idea where the walls of the canyon were in relation to her position. Mara's heart was beating so fast she thought that it would just burst right out of her chest. She roughly hit the braking mechanisms and hoped that she would avoid crashing just in time. Her Lion jolted around for a few seconds before everything was still and silent. Mara slowly opened both of her eyes and was suddenly able to see again, right as she saw that she had just barely avoided crashing.
Mara let out a deep sigh of relief and sunk back into her pilot chair as her Lion hovered above the ground. She then fumbled for a moment as she took off her helmet, and let her fall to the ground with a thud. Her hands slowly started to stop trembling and her breathing was slowly becoming normal again. Mara had experienced anxiety in the past, but nothing quite like what she had just gone through. The mixture of fear and confusion, along with an overwhelming sense of not having control over anything had almost made her have a serious break down. Mara hugged her knees closer to her body and in that moment, only a single thought went through her mind: "Am I really going to be able to do this?"
A few minutes passed in silence as Mara thought to herself and continued to calm herself down. With one last deep breath, Mara picked up her helmet and placed it back on her head, only to find herself surrounded by lots of loud chatter. Keith was repeatedly asking if she was alright, Lance was complaining about an injury he had gotten, and Hunk was yelling that the whole exercise was insane.
"I'm fine, just a bit shook up" Mara quickly replied, as she began to readjust herself in her seat and place her hands hesitantly on the controls again. Coran's voice then came over the communicator and asked for everyone to come back to the hangar. Mara blinked for a moment before she slowly began to maneuver her Lion out of the canyon. The White Lion soon emerged and flew over to join the rest of the Lions as they made their way back to the castle ship. The Red Lion was at her side right away, and Mara could feel herself becoming more relaxed by its presence.
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Once everyone had returned, Coran brought the group back to the training deck once more. He then handed out small, white circular headsets for each of the Paladins to place on their heads. Pidge was the one who seemed the most interested in the technology, while Lance was more concerned that the device would mess with his hair. "Now the most important part of paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron. So, relax and open your mind. No walls, no secrets between paladins. Come on, everyone, clear everything."
Mara was able to quickly clear her mind and relax, as her mental landscape projected itself in front of her. It was an image of ancient ruins, similar to the ones from the Mayan Civilization in South America.
Coran beamed at her progress. "Excellent, Mara. That was very fast! Now, focus on forming your lion. Bring your lions together and - and form Voltron."
Mara continued to think of the ruins, and soon found herself humming softly. In a split second, the image of the ruins turned into the White Lion, and had a soft white glow surrounding it.
"Keep your minds open, work together. Good! Keep focusing! Only one to go!" Coran watched and marveled as each of the Paladin's began to mentally form their Lions in front of them.
Keith opened one of his eyes and let out a grunt as he looked across the room so see who was left to clear their head. "Pidge, stop thinking of your girlfriend!" Keith abruptly yelled.
"I wasn't! Hunk was running around in my head!" Hunk frowned at Pidge's accusation and all of the projections of the Lions vanished.
Hunk titled his head to the side. "I thought we were all open. You can look in my head hole, I won't mind." Coran cleared his throat, trying to get everyone back to focusing. "Everyone has to be able to look in everyone's head holes!"
Pidge and Hunk shared a glance, before they closed their eyes once again. The others followed, and the projections of the Lions returned in front of them all. "Clear your minds! Good! Almost there. Now, form Voltron. Yes!" Coran was beaming from ear to ear as he saw the progress the Paladins were making towards forming Voltron down below.
Mara felt a weird pulse of energy moving through her mind. Was this the connection between her and all of the other Paladins? "I can feel it..." Mara said, her voice barely above a whisper.
This time it was Lance who opened his one of his eyes to see who was keeping them from forming Voltron. "Pidge!"
Pidge got up with a grunt and took the headset off of his head and threw it on the ground. "I'm done with this! Look, I don't like everyone grubbing around in my head!"
"Oh, come on, Pidge, we're starting to get the hang of this"
Pidge turned to face Shiro and frowned. "I'm just... I'm just tired, okay?"
Shiro looked around the room and saw that the others were also starting to get tired from all of the mental and physical training they had done today. "Okay. Let's take a break."
Right away everyone got up from their spots on the floor and stretched for a moment. Coran came down from the viewing area and passed out packets filled with liquid to each of the Paladins. Mara tilted her head to the side as she tried to figure out what was the liquid inside of the packet. She looked over and saw Hunk and Lance with relaxed expressions on their faces as they drank the liquid. She then turned and saw that both Keith and Shiro were also holding their packets in front of them with looks of hesitation on their faces. "You have been working hard. Maybe it's time to relax a little" Coran said as he finished passing out all of the packets. Mara was just about to take a sip from hers when she heard footsteps approaching the group. The others soon also heard the footsteps and turned to face who was approaching. Allura had a frustrated look on her face while her hands were on her hips. "What are you all doing lying around? You're supposed to be training!"
Coran let out a sigh. "Just resting a bit. You know, you can't push too hard." But Coran's words only seemed to make Allura more upset as her brow furrowed. "What do you mean, 'can't push too hard'?" she countered, causing Coran's eyes to widen in surprise of her tone of voice. Allura walked closer to the group until she was practically towering over them. Everyone stopped drinking from their packets and looked up at the angry Altean Princess.
"Get up, you lazy lumps! It's time you faced the Gladiator!"
Everyone quickly got up and took a few more sips from their packets before Allura nodded and began to lead them out of the room.
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Allura and Coran were back up in the viewing area while the Paladins were on the training deck below. They each had their bayards in hand, and were spaced out from one another in a circle formation. The bayards suddenly transformed in their hands, revealing each of their weapons.
"In order to defeat the Gladiator, five paladins must fight as one."
Mara ran her hands along her staff, admiring the smooth texture. She also began to notice that it had some strange markings along the sides, to which she made a mental note to ask Allura about later. She then heard Hunk gasp as a robot Gladiator emerged from the ceiling, poised to attack with its own staff in hand. Hunk slowly picked up his gun and fired as the Gladiator ran towards him, but missed almost every shot. Keith pulled up his shield to block himself from being hit. Mara began to move across the room, being as silent and quick as she could while she observed the robot take Hunk down. Just as she was about to run in and strike the robot, Pidge was in front of her. Mara managed to deliver a few blows to the side of the robot but saw that she wasn't causing enough damage. The robot then swiftly turned and swung at Mara's ankles, sending her down to the floor. Pidge continued to fight the robot as they made their way across the room. Mara struggled to get up for a moment before she saw that Keith was now at her side and she hurried to stand up.
"Any ideas on how to take it down?" Mara questioned, as she now watched as Pidge struggled to fight against the Gladiator. Mara saw that while he was doing a good job at blocking, he just didn't have enough power to deliver a blow to the Gladiator, as she soon saw Pidge landing on the ground next to Hunk. Keith was about to suggest something before Lance ran past them with a battle cry and also began to fire at the robot. Keith groaned and began to run behind him, with Shiro on the opposite side. "Still trying to figure that out!" Keith yelled, as he got in a defensive position. Mara continued to linger on the side, trying to figure out a pattern in the robot's movements. She saw Lance's gun get knocked out of his hands and without even thinking, ran over and whacked the gun with her staff so that it began to slide back over to Lance. Just as Lance was about to pick up his gun, the Gladiator staff made contact with his stomach, and sent him flying into Keith before they both landed on the ground with a thud. While Keith was scrambling trying to get Lance off of his body, Mara saw that once again it was only her and Shiro remaining. Shiro's arm began to activate as Mara saw the robot look between them, trying to figure out who to attack next. The robot began to run towards Shiro, but instead of getting in a defense position, Shiro froze up. Before she realized it, Mara was running over just when the Gladiator was jumping to strike, and in seconds, was able to block the blow. Keith moved right behind the Gladiator and had his sword pointed directly at its back. Mara took a quick glance over her shoulder at Shiro as Keith looked around the Gladiator to also look at Shiro.
"You OK?" Keith called out, and Mara quickly nodded to him, but was unsure of how Shiro was doing. Slowly she could feel Gladiator's staff resisting her own, and in seconds they broke contact. The Gladiator quickly swung its staff but Mara managed to jump over it, just as it turned around and delivered a swift blow into Keith's chest. Mara began to twirl her staff in front of herself very fast, hoping to distract or confuse the robot long enough for Shiro to recover. Mara then abruptly stopped and began running towards the robot once again. Their staffs clashed together multiple times while they tried to hit one another. Mara found herself moving swiftly in between the staffs and was even able to jump when the robot made a swing at her legs with the staff. Mara was beginning to feel confident with her movements, but when she glanced over her shoulder again she saw Shiro now on his knees, with all of the color drained from his face. It was Mara's moment of weakness as the Gladiator found an opening and struck, with Mara being unable to block it. She received an electric shock to her body and fell onto the floor, with her staff falling out of her hands and onto the floor beside her.
She could hear the hum of the robot powering down and then heard the heavy footsteps coming from behind it. "That combat simulator was set at a level fit for an Altean child! You're not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon!" Allura yelled at them, causing the Paladins to shudder in response to her words. Mara looked over and saw that Keith was next to Shiro, and that he had appeared to come out of his daze from before. Mara then turned around and looked at Allura, and then quickly looked towards the ground to avoid her glare. "How could a child be able to take this thing down?" Mara wondered to herself, as she and the other Paladins began to get up and leave the training room.
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Mara was the last to leave the room, she was feeling pretty defeated and a bit hopeless in the moment. She noticed that Allura was waiting for her by the doorway of the training room, and quickly picked up her pace. "You didn't have to wait for me…" Allura simply smiled at her. "I didn't want you to be alone".
As the pair began to walk down the hallway, Mara began to have a feeling that Allura wanted to talk to her about something. Mara wondered if maybe now she would be able to talk with Allura about the White Lion a bit further…
"You showed a lot of potential in there with your bayard" Allura suddenly stated, catching Mara a bit off guard. She was not expecting for Allura to be giving her any kind of praise when she still failed against the Gladiator.
Mara then looked down at the object in question in her hand, and held it up to her face. "You mean my staff?"
Allura nodded, before continuing, "Your movements were calculated, and smooth at times…. Have you had past experience with a staff before?" Mara couldn't help but crack a smile at Allura's question. "It's funny you mention that… Back on Earth, I was involved with dance for a while… and then upon entering high school, I participated in Winter Guard."
Allura had a confused expression on her face. "What exactly is Winter Guard?"
A big smile emerged on Mara's face when she heard the question come out of Allura's mouth. "It's a mixture of dance, flags, rifles, sabers and staffs…"
Mara began to explain, as she quickly glanced over to see if Allura was really listening to her or not. And to her surprise, she saw that Allura was nodding along with a lot of interest at what Mara was saying to her.
"And you basically toss or spin the flags, rifles, sabers and staffs… While moving and dancing, and it's all choreographed to music playing in the background…" Allura was now slowly nodding, as if she was able to picture some of what Mara was saying but not the entire picture. "I wish I had a video I could show you…" Mara began to say, but Allura quickly shook her head. "You'll just have to show me yourself one day" she said, with a big smile on her face. Mara hesitated for a moment, before she smiled and nodded back. Sure, she would be able to come up with something and be able to show Allura, to get her more interested in Winter Guard.
Allura then asked if Mara could wait for her outside of her room while she quickly changed, and Mara agreed. Within a few moments, Allura emerged, looking regal as ever in her gown. They began to walk down the hall again when Mara decided that now was the right time to talk with Allura about the White Lion. "Allura… Did you ever want to become a Paladin?"
For a moment there was silence between the two, as Mara looked over and saw that Allura's expression looked conflicted. "My father was one of the original Paladins of Voltron… So I would say that it would be an honor to follow in his footsteps and also become a Paladin."
Mara slowly nodded with Allura's answer, and began to think back to the day before when Allura was telling them all about the characteristics of their Lions. Allura had described the White Lion as representing balance, unity, and focus. Right now, Mara was thinking that maybe Allura would be a better fit for the White Lion. She clearly fit all of the same characteristics, and already had experience when it came to combat. Plus, the added bonus of her wanting to be like her father and follow in his footsteps… What she said to Allura next seemed like the most logical option. "I think you should pilot the White Lion then…"
Allura stopped in her tracks upon hearing Mara's suggestion. Mara continued to walk forward, until she noticed that Allura wasn't at her side anymore. She looked back to see Allura's head hanging downward, as if she was upset. Allura's hand quickly surged out and grabbed Mara's, pulling her in front of the Princess and looking at her right in the eye. "Mara, you were chosen by the White Lion. You were chosen because you embody the same traits that it does, along with your desire to fight for what is right."
Mara was about to protest about her not being at the same level of training or knowledge as the other Paladins, but Allura seemed to know she was going to counter her words and silenced her. "Past experience doesn't matter, you will be able to learn all you need to know to be a great Paladin."
Allura paused for a moment, right as they both came in front of the doors to the dining hall. "I was not chosen for a reason. I still have purpose though, to guide you all and help you with Voltron. And to stop Zarkon and the Galra Empire from taking over the universe."
Allura placed her hand on Mara's shoulder and gave her a re-assuring squeeze. "I know you can do this, Mara. We all do." And with that, Allura stepped aside as the doors opened, revealing the other Paladins waiting for Mara to join them at the table. Allura smiled at Mara and gave her a wave, before she walked down the hallway and out of sight. With one lingering look back, Mara took a deep breath and entered the room.
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The Paladins were now in the dining hall of the castle, sitting down at a large table that was filled to the brim with plates of green food goo. Hunk was the only person who had tried it earlier, and still seemed eager to eat some more of it. The others on the other hand looked at the dishes with a mix of skepticism and disgust. They were all seated side by side with each other, with Coran and Allura on the other side of the table. "Ahoy, young Paladins! I've whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!"
Mara leaned over to whisper in Keith's ear. "For the record, I have no idea what he just said." Keith shrugged his shoulders, agreeing with her response. Mara heard the end bit of Shiro thanking Coran for the food, before they all began to grab their silverware and dig into the green food goo. Coran's eye twinkled as her then produced a remote from out of one of his pockets, and hit a button on it. "Not so fast!" Coran yelled, as he pointed the remote at the Paladins. The cuffs on their armor began to glow and magnetized with each other, connecting them wrist to wrist. They all let out a collective gasp at the current situation. Had they been tricked into doing another exercise?
Lance was the first one to voice his displeasure. "Hold the phone!"
However, Mara found herself moving her left hand closer to her face to inspect the cuffs with one of her eyebrows raised. "Are these handcuffs?"
Coran simply nodded at Mara's question, and began to walk around to the other side of the table. Mara was now waiting for Lance to make some kind of witty response to the situation, but was surprised when he didn't say anything. In fact, it was Coran who spoke next "I saw a lot of solid individual performances today, but you're still struggling to work as a team. So, welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day."
Hunk sent a menacing glare to Coran. "I want you to think about what you're doing." Mara had never seen Hunk so serious about something before, that she actually felt a chill go down her spine at his tone of voice.
But it didn't seem to bother Coran one bit, as he continued, "This one's a classic. You get to feed each other, like a pack of yalmors!"
Without thinking, Mara raised her right hand up high, practically dragging Pidge right out of his seat. She quickly sent him an apologetic glance before she turned to face the Alteans. "Excuse me, but what is a yalmor exactly?"
Coran was about to respond but Allura shook her head, effectively silencing him. Mara pouted and let her hand come down back to her side, and Pidge re-adjusted himself in his chair. "Okay, are you a righty or a lefty?"
Pidge slowly held up his right hand, showing that since he was at the end of the table, his right hand was not bound by the cuffs. He made a small smile at Mara and began to eat using only his right hand. "Righty then... Me too" she said, as she then slowly began to lift her right hand to plunge her spoon into the food goo. Mara wasn't really paying any attention to her left arm, seeing as how Keith was still busy trying to figure things out with Lance on his other side. Eventually, Mara and Pidge had worked out a rhythm to using their arms so that each of them would take a bite of food, then let the other do the same. It made Mara glad that she had decided to speak with Pidge and apologize last night, rather than thinking about what if she hadn't. They probably would have been arguing and struggling like Lance and Keith.
On the other side, Allura was trying to eat her plate of food goo but couldn't help but tense up with every comment or bicker coming from the Paladins. "Do Earthlings ever stop complaining?" Mara sent her an apologetic glance. "Maybe we should try meditating again..."
Shiro let out a sigh. "Can't you just give us a break? Everyone's been working really hard today." Keith then stood up from his seat. "Yeah! We're not some prisoners for you to toy with, like... like..."Lance was there to help him finish his thought. "Like a bunch of toy prisoners!" Keith fiercely nodded, and gave a quick thank you to Lance.
Coran looked taken aback at how the Paladins were speaking to royalty, as he quickly spoke to defend Allura. "You do not yell at the Princess!"
Pidge let out a scoff at hearing this. "Oh, the princess of what? We're the only ones out here and she's no princess of ours!"
Mara was shocked and looked across the table expecting to see Allura in some kind of distress at Pidge's comment, but instead saw her flinging back her spoon full of food goo, sending it flying into the air and landing directly on Pidge's face with a loud splat noise. Mara's eyes were wide open and she waited to see how Pidge would react. She heard Pidge let out a groan before he looked at the large spoon in his right hand. Mara then looked at her left arm, where she saw that Keith also had a large spoon in his hand. The three of them all looked at each other for a moment, Keith and Pidge putting more goo on their spoons while Mara slowly reached for one of the plates. "Go loose, Pidge!" Keith yelled out. Pidge got up from his seat and flung the food goo at Allura, while Mara filled up the next spoon with more food goo. Allura gasped and prepared to be hit, but was surprised to see that Coran had blocked the food goo from hitting her with one of the plates.
All of the Paladins shared a glance with each other and nodded. "Oh, it's on now!" Hunk yelled, and the dining hall turned into a chaotic mess of flinging food goo for the next ten minutes. There were more gasps, cheers, and groans as each side exchanged blows. Mara couldn't help the smile that emerged on her face and the twinkle in her eye as she began to really get competitive, and took the spoon from Keith's hand and flung some of the food goo directly in Allura's face.
When there were no more plates or bowls filled with goo, everyone stopped to catch their breath. The Paladins all shared a glance with each other, and laughed. They were all covered from head to torso in food goo and looked utterly ridiculous, but they had had fun while doing it.
Allura pounded her fists on the table. "Enough! Do you see what you're doing?" There was silence as the Paladins all froze and prepared themselves to be yelled at again by Allura. Instead, she looked up from the table with a huge smile on her face. "You're finally working together as one!"
Everyone shared a glance with one another and smiled.
"You know what, she's actually right!" Keith said.
"Yeah! I actually don't hate you right now!" Lance replied.
"You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Hunk asked everyone.
They all exchanged glances once again and Shiro nodded. "Let's go form Voltron!"
Everyone then lifted their hands in the air and cheered for Shiro's suggestion.
Hunk cleared his throat. "Actually, I was thinking dessert. But, yeah! Let's do it!"
They all shrugged but then cheered again and began to try to walk away from the table, but ended up being off balance and falling backwards onto the floor. A collective groan came out of all of the Paladins. Mara soon lifted her head off the ground and tried to look in the direction of the Alteans. "Hey Coran, could you remove these handcuffs now?"
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A few minutes later, the Paladins cleaned off the food goo from their armor and walked together into the hangar and prepared to get in their Lions. The energy was completely different compared to earlier in the day, as everyone geared up with a determined smile on their face. Mara was even feeling more calm and confident than how she felt earlier when she was piloting her Lion. As she placed her hands on the control, she swore that she heard her Lion make a light purring noise. Her eyes widened in surprise before they softened. She found herself thinking back to her small conversation with Allura. She was chosen for a reason, because of what she believed and the traits she embodied. But what stood out to Mara the most of all, was that Allura declared her support to help her, and that she believed in her. Mara began to smile, and felt an even greater surge of confidence in her system. Sure, she had a lot to learn, but she was going to make it and do her very best. Suddenly Shiro's voice came over the communication channel and snapped Mara out of her thoughts. "Everyone ready to do this?"
"Roger that!" said Pidge.
"It's on!" said Lance.
"Yes, sir!" said Keith.
"Totally ready! "said Mara.
"I was born ready!" said Hunk.
Shiro gave a firm nod. "Then let's go!"
The Lions all roared and came to life, before flying straight out of the hangar and into the Arusian sky. Right away they began to fly in group formation, and soon, with a collective effort and mind, were able to form Voltron successfully for the second time. As the Paladins cheered from inside of their Lions, Coran and Allura were waiting on the ground below, watching them with pleased looks on their faces.
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After flying around as Voltron for a while, the Paladins decided it was time to return to the castle. Voltron split apart into six Lions once again and they all traveled back to the hangar. Upon exiting the White Lion, Mara walked up to Allura and gave her a huge hug, which took the Princess aback for a moment. When Mara ended the embrace, then gave Allura a firm nod. "You're right, I can do this" Mara whispered, causing a big smile to break out on Allura's face.
Spirits were still high among the Paladins, who all decided to hang out and relax with each other before going to sleep for the night.
Currently they were all spread out on the couch, going over their successes of the day. "Man that was cool! I'm so charged up, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight!" Lance exclaimed, as he pumped his fist into the air.
Keith was quick to shake his head at Lance's reply. "Not me. When my head hits the pillow, I'm going to be lights out."
On the other side of the couch, Mara rolled her eyes and smiled at Keith. "That'll be a first" she said, with the sarcasm rolling off her tongue. Keith shot her a glare for a moment before they both smiled and softly laughed at each other. Hunk slowly slid down from the top of the couch and was now situated in-between Lance and Keith. "I just want you to know that I realized when we were in Voltron, we're brothers, man. You know? Like, we're totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing. Brothers all the way. I love you guys."
"Awwww" Mara said, much to the annoyance of Keith and Lance. Hunk opened one of his eyes and looked towards Mara. "Oh, and sister!" And Lance then suddenly grabbed Mara's arm and tugged her over into the suffocating group hug.
"G-forces mess with your head a little bit?" Keith asked, as Hunk relaxed his grip on the three. Hunk shrugged his shoulders in response. "Yeah, maybe a little. I don't know. It's been a tough few days."
Everyone then got up and prepared to go to bed for the night, telling each other goodnight. Mara walked with Keith and Lance as they made their way to their rooms. Mara couldn't help but smirk as she watched Lance and Keith talk about piloting stuff, she was glad to see that they were not arguing with each other and seemed to still be on a good note from earlier in the day. Right when Mara was in front of her door, she stopped in her tracks and looked all over herself. Lance raised an eyebrow at this. "What are you doing?"
Mara sent him a panicked look. "I think I left my bayard on the couch…" Mara said, and then started to jog down the hallway. On her way back, she passed Hunk and Shiro and gave them a quick wave before she came to the main door. It opened almost silently and Mara was able to slip into the room, and right away saw that her bayard was lying on the edge of the couch. She picked it up and smiled, keeping a firm grip on it in her hand. Just as she was about to exit the room, she noticed that Pidge was still sitting in his spot, and seemed to have a sad expression on his face while he was looking at a photograph. Mara wondered if it was the same photo that she saw in Pidge's room from the previous night, and began to silently move along the couch to get a better look for herself.
When she was right behind Pidge, she looked down at the photo he was holding in his hand. Mara was able to see it much clearer than she had the previous night. It was a boy and a girl, the boy looked a lot like Pidge with glasses and the galaxy garrison uniform, and the girl… Strangely enough had the same hair color and eye color as the boy? Mara raised an eyebrow at this, trying to think of who exactly the girl in the photo could be. Did Pidge have a sister back home? Were they close? Or was this really Pidge's girlfriend? And it was just a coincidence that they had some of the same characteristics? Mara decided she would just be better of playing dumb in front of Pidge and wait to see what his answer might be.
"She's cute... What's her name?"
Pidge practically jumped in his seat, and quickly turned around to see who was behind him. "Mara!" he yelled, with a surprised look on his face, as he placed his hand holding the photograph onto the side.
Mara took a step back, while rubbing the back of her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that..." Mara then walked around and sat on the couch right next to Pidge. "So who's the lucky girl?" Mara asked, as she got comfortable in her seat and flashed Pidge a smile.
Pidge titled his head to the side in confusion before he realized that Mara was pointing at the photograph in his left hand. "Oh…Her name is Katie."
Mara nodded her head as she looked at Katie. "Lovely name, Katie... How long have you been together?"
Pidge's eyes widened and he began to shake his head. "Together? Oh no, it's not like that! We're just... Good friends…" he said, as Mara could see that Pidge was getting a little bit nervous with his body language and speech. So maybe it is a girlfriend? Mara decided to tease Pidge a little bit further for information. "Uh huh, close friends..."
Upon hearing this, Pidge rolled his eyes and placed the photo in his sweater pocket. "Honestly, she's just a really close friend of mine" he said, with a bit of a snappy tone of voice.
Mara slowly nodded and decided to stop with her teasing about Katie, seeing that it was beginning to upset Pidge. She then held her hands up as a sign of surrender. Pidge nodded once and began to get up from the couch to leave the room. Mara followed closely behind, and could still see that Pidge's expression was still sad looking. "That photo means a lot to you, doesn't it?"
Pidge stopped in his tracks, and turned around to face Mara. "Yeah, it means a lot to me." Mara smiled and took a few steps towards Pidge, before placing her arm on his shoulder. "You'll see Katie again, I promise" Mara said, her voice sounded determined, bringing back a memory for Pidge from the previous night when Mara promised him that they would find her brother and father. Pidge nodded, and the pair walked back to their bedrooms.
When Mara finally reached her room for the night, she found herself practically collapsing on her bed from exhaustion. She placed her bayard on the night stand along her bed, and began to change into her pajamas. She remembered hearing Keith say that he was going to fall asleep right away, while Lance said that he couldn't even think about going to sleep right away. She wondered how tired Hunk probably was and if Pidge was going to go to sleep on time tonight. But Mara's last thought went to Shiro, as she thought back to how he froze on the training deck when they were fighting against the Gladiator. What did he see that had him so frightened? Mara decided to set that thought aside for another day when she would be able to talk to Shiro about it. And with that last thought, Mara closed her eyes and found herself drifting off into sleep.
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A/N: To those who may be wondering, what Mara was experiencing in the beginning of the chapter was indeed a panic attack. The reason why she is so dedicated to doing meditation is that it helps her cope with her anxiety. This was a little part of me (and my own run-ins with anxiety) that I decided to place into the character, as well as to show that she does have a weakness, she's not a perfect character.
Now, have any of you ever heard about Winter Guard? It's really cool to watch, you can find a lot of videos from competitions on youtube. I thought it was unique enough (I had never heard of it before I started writing this fic) to be one of Mara's skills/hobbies. It will definitely give her an advantage in her combat training.
I still sometimes get emotional with the scene where Mara says Allura should pilot White. Despite the fact that I know Allura will eventually pilot one of the Lions (not for a few seasons though). But it was established in the show that she really wanted to be like her father, so I'm glad she will eventually get to that point.
And in regards to the final scene, Mara does eventually figure out that Pidge is really a girl (and that Pidge is really Katie). She couldn't stop thinking about how similar the two in the photos looked, and knew that it couldn't be a friend, but somehow they must be related….
I do not own Voltron Legendary Defender, but I do own my own original characters. I hope you will give them time and get to know them and love them as I have over the course of their creation/development.
So please, feel free to favorite, follow, and review! I look forward to getting constructive feedback from all of you as the story progresses.
