AN: Sorry it's been so long. Life hit hard and I lost inspiration for a bit. I'll also admit I was slightly distracted by Diablo 3. It took listening to Neil Gaiman's commencement speech to get me back on track. If you haven't heard it it's great advice.

Back at the castle Keith and Allura were working their way back down to the entrance to the castle. Keith was, for the first time in a long time, excited. Allura could see in his dark eyes the mirror to her own excitement. Both felt an electrical anticipation in the air, almost as if Arus itself was holding its breath. Keith's thoughts idly passed to his teammates and hoped that they too, were having the same luck that he had stumbled upon.

Neither of them spoke as they exited the remains of the castle, yet both gasped at the sight that awaited them outside the door. The Black Lion stood proudly before them on the bridge with a look that could almost be called a smile, if a robot could smile. The shear size of the lion made both Keith and Allura feel dwarfed and insignificant.

"He's waiting for you I think." Allura finally broke the silence. Tears threatened to burst through her as she thought of her father. This young captain was going to have a connection with him that she could never gain. "I don't think you should keep him waiting."

He turned and for a moment could see the look of sadness hidden behind her eyes. In a very uncharacteristic reaction he smiled and spoke. "You could come with me if you wanted to. We can't go far anyway. I don't want the blockade to know about them yet."

Just as Allura was going to accept movement to the north caught her attention. She gasped and shook her head as she pointed to what she could see in the sky behind him. "No. I have to go warn the others. Zarkon has sent an attack."

Keith looked towards the north and saw the battle fleet that had just broken the atmosphere. It looked like he was going to get a chance to test the lion out sooner than he had hoped.

"Go. If you see any of my men, put them to work or send them to find the other lions. Do you have any aircraft or pilots?" He started running scenarios in his head. That fleet was huge and they all needed to move quickly.

"A few of both. Nothing capable of withstanding that armada though." She replied.

"Then strengthen the security around the base and tell the others to get moving. We need to do something. Also see if you can find a communications set up that will let you talk to the lion. I want to stay in contact as long as I can."

She nodded and then started to move towards the tunnel entrance. She paused as she saw two blurs, one green and one yellow shoot up from the desert area. They were quickly followed by both a red and blue one.

"Keith!" She shouted and ran back to him. "Those are the other lions I can feel it!"

"Then I better get up to my team." He replied.

She looked at him for a moment and the determination made her heart soar with hope. She gave him a smile and lightly touched his arm. "Be careful. All of you."

Keith looked back at the young leader before him and nodded, in that small gesture his resolve strengthened even more as he gave a small salute and rushed off to the waiting lion.

General Yurak eyed the planet below him looking for the location of the downed Alliance ship. As soon as he located the crash site he ordered the fighters to be launched and began the assault on the planet. Now was not the time to be merciful. Now was the time to raze this puny planet completely. He would leave the people no place to hide. This was his chance to shine.

"Launch the fighters and begin the ground assault! For the glory of King Zarkon!" His voice bellowed across the intership cominications.

Lance was the first to notice the other lion ships approaching the fleet. With a smile and a cry of joy he opened the communications and shouted to the other lions.

"I don't know who's flying with me but welcome to the firefight!" He announced with laughter in his voice. He saw that the battle cruisers were releasing the fighters and began an attack, at first only using the teeth and claws of his fighter and then soon figuring out the other weapons systems.

"Hey Lance! Nice ride you have there." Hunk's voice called out from the yellow lion as he took out two fighters that were trying to get around behind him. "I've got Pidge with me in the little green one. Who's flying the Blue?"

"Welcome to Air Scandinavia." Sven's voice broke through the channel. "This is unlike anything I've ever flown." He quickly took down another of the fighters with the lion's ice breath and quickly shot forward to take out another that had gotten a lock on Lance's lion.

"It's a shame Keith isn't here. I wonder if he even knows that there's an air battle going on." Pidge commented.

They quickly fell into formation as they began decimating the seemingly never ending supply of fighters. The Drule ship swarmed like angry bees around the lions but none of them seemed capable of scoring any real damaging hit.

"We need to know down as many of these things as we can and then see if we can take out a couple of those cruisers. Hunk, Pidge, break left and Sven take the right with me." Lance ordered.

With a round of agreement the others began their assault. As they were working through the ranks Lance noticed one of the ships trying to land. He was too tied up with the fighters that were trying to surround both him and Sven and it seemed that Pidge and Hunk were in a similar situation.

"Can any of you break away and take out the landing party?" He asked. He was swarmed by more fighters, each hit producing a growl from his lion and he wasn't sure how much more the cat would take.

"There's too many of them." Came the reply he didn't want to hear. Just as he was about to give up and worry that they wouldn't be able to stop it a voice came across the comms that filled him with both relief and curiosity.

"Don't worry. I've got it." Keith replied as he steered his lion toward the landing ship. Producing the ion blade he took out the first tank that came from the ship and then proceeded to rip through the landing bay and straight into the engine compartment. He could feel the smug satisfaction from Black Lion as the cruiser exploded behind him.

"Welcome to the party Chief!" Lance replied with a laugh. "Sure you can fly that thing?"

Black Lion took back up into the air and quickly took out a few of the fighters that had Lance's Red almost cornered. "I think you should be worrying less about me and more about your own flank."