Ernesto's POV:

As Keith fled the room, I turned to the Allura girl with rage filled eyes, my fists clenched tightly at my sides. How dare she give up my brother! After everything they'd been through together, she was just giving him up! I would never get to see Lance alive again, because of her!

"Y-You... I can't believe you!" I roared, lunging forward and grabbing the girl by the arms. Allura yelped and looked up at me fearfully, her eyes wide. I was trembling with anger, my teeth bared as I resisted the urge to show her just how much I hated her at that moment.

"I thought you were his friend! Why are you giving up this chance to save him? What the hell is wrong with you?!" Coran let out a cry of rage and came forward to tear me off of Allura, but she held up a hand to stop him as best as she could since I pretty much had her arms pinned. She glared up at me and I blinked slightly in surprise.

"Nothing is wrong with me! I just don't want to get everyone's hopes up and then have it not work! Do you want to become a paladin and be able to heal Lance, and then have it not work, how would you feel if that happened; how would you feel if you couldn't heal your brother?!" Allura shouted and I let go of her, taken aback. She had a point... Of course she had a point! Stupid girls and their minds... I closed my eyes and tried not to get angry again, but I was starting to have a really hard time with it.

"We have to at least try! Please, Allura, let me help my brother," I said, casting my eyes down. I was begging, and it probably looked pathetic, but I didn't know what else to do! "Please... Let me do this. If I don't bring Lance back, you can always take over as the paladin still, or I could do the job," I added. Allura looked at me skeptically, her hand twitching slightly in either annoyance or hesitation.

"You have a point, I suppose. There's no harm in trying. But, you can be the only one in the room, and no one can know when you do it! And who knows, you might not even be able to do it. Blue has to accept you as her paladin first," Allura said, looking a little too smug. I gritted my teeth, opening my mouth to retort. Shiro quickly put a hand on my shoulder, shaking his head quickly. I sighed and shrugged his hand off, turning back to the so called "Princess".

"Fine! I'll go talk to the lion right now! Someone want to show me where it is? I have a general idea and I know where the other lions are, but I probably need someone." Allura's eye twitched and even Shiro seemed a bit offended. "Blue is a she, she's not an it, okay? The lions are machines, but they have emotions. They might as well be really alive. Got it?" I nodded quickly, seeing the slight anger blazing in Shiro's eyes as he spoke. His glare quickly turned into a smile and he nodded.

"Great! Pidge, why don't you take him down? I need to have a bit of a talk with Allura," Coran said with a strained smile. Pidge, the small girl with brown hair and glasses that looked a little bit too much like a boy, nodded and took my arm, dragging me out of the room. I tried to protest that I could go just fine on my own even though I honestly had no idea where the hangers were, but the expressionless look on Pidge's face kept me silent.

"This isn't going to work," Pidge said quietly, not even looking at me as she let go of my arm. "How do you know?" I asked. I'd been thinking the same thing, but I hadn't wanted to say anything. With tears in her eyes Pidge replied, "Lance won't want to come back."