White Lion was suddenly hit, and was sailing down to the ground. White Lion's cockpit hit with red flashing lights as Sakura screamed, the other Paladins screaming her name. Voltron flew at a fast pace towards the Lion, and catching it.
Taking heavy and deep breaths as she tried to calm down, Sakura opened her eyes. "Guys?"
Shiro's image appeared on her console. "Are you alright?"
"I ... I don't know yet." She admitted.
"It appears that all of the planets we've engaged have been pacified, if not liberated." Coran informs, the castle's alarms are going off and the all the cockpits inside each of the Lions are going off. "Wait. There's another Galra cruiser approaching Naxzela."
"Can one of the cannons shoot it down before it reaches us?" Sakura asked, and grunted as Voltron dodged another ION cannon, making Voltron drop White Lion.
"Sector Car Niomofor is clear!" Matt informed. "Let me see if I can get a line on the battle cruiser."
Sakura groaned. "I'm getting sick again!" She jumped out of her chair, just as she heard Matt.
"Zaiforge cannon Senfama, are you still operational?"
"Negative." Keith answered.
"That incoming battle cruiser must have shut them down remotely." Coran theorized.
"I didn't know they could do that." Sakura sat back down in her chair, then paused. "Can they do that?" She added as an afterthought.
"Well they just did." Keith replied. "Sorry guys. That's it for artillery support. What should we do about that cruiser, Shiro?"
Voltron destroyed another energy pillar with Green Lion, and it crumbled to the ground.
"That cruiser's gonna be too late. Naxzela is almost secure." Shiro answered.
"Guys! That cruiser's coming back!" Sakura cried as everyone's cockpits rang with alarms. She tried to freeze it with her freeze ray, but it just missed her.
"On our left! Shield up!" Shiro ordered, and Voltron's shield appeared in the nick of time, blocking most of the laser's energy, but it still pushed Voltron back and into White Lion. The team stayed on them until they were able to reflect the laser back at the enemy, exploding the cruiser in the process. Voltron took to the sky.
"Uh oh." Sakura tried to move the handles on her Lion. Then winced as she felt an energy beam slam down on her. "Shiro! I can't move!"
Suddenly Voltron landed on the ground, next to White Lion creating a loud crashing sound and lifting up dust everywhere, but once Voltron was down the ground began to shake violently.
"Whoa!" Lance exclaimed. "Did we cause that Earthquake!?"
"I don't think so!" Pidge responded.
Everybody's cockpits lighting in red as the alarms are going off.
"Guys! Look over there!" Hunk exclaimed.
Pillars, even bigger then Voltron, began to rise from the ground and reaching up towards the sky, they were cylinder in shape and their sides had glowing purple veins that pulsed light.
"Uh ... guys, what are those?" Lance asked.
"We've never seen anything like this from the Galra before." Pidge added.
"Are they weapons?" Hunk asked.
"They look like some sort of generators." Pidge tried to answer.
"What do we do now?!" Sakura cried.
"Stay alert." Shiro ordered.
"I say we get out of here." Lance suggested. "Pidge, plot a course for our escape."
"Hold on." Shiro said. "We should find out what these things are."
Suddenly the beams shot purple beams towards the sky, creating some type of barrier.
"They're trapping us like rats!" Sakura cried as the blue sky turned a luminescent purple color that covered the entire planet.
"This can't be safe." Hunk said.
"Do you feel that?" Allura asked. "That wave of darkness."
"I feel it all over!" Sakura cried, then screamed when a strong force began to push against White Lion and Voltron.
"I can't move red!" Lance yelled.
"Yellow won't budge, either!" Hunk grunted as the intensity of the force is so strong that it brought Voltron and down to its hands and knees. White Lion is lying on it's side and unable to move at all.
"This energy field is holding us down!" Pidge exclaimed. "Gravity levels are spiking!"
"We have to get outta of here!" Shiro grunted. "If we stay here, we'll be crushed! Everyone, we have to focus. Give everything you've got, and maybe we can fight through this energy field. Ready?"
The team closed their eyes to concentrate, taking deep breaths. "Ready!"
White Lion growled as Sakura tried to push on the handles of her Lion, but wasn't getting anywhere. She watched as Voltron flew upwards to the sky, but the hard force of the gravity caused Voltron to plummet back down to the ground, the team screamed with the impact.
"Is-is anyone else able to move around?" Hunk asked hopefully.
"Barely, but the gravitational pull is worse on Voltron." Pidge said, grunting loudly. "Maybe if we go down to the surface, Hunk and I can figure out a way to interrupt this energy field."
"That sounds good." Lance said. "Except for the zillion robot dudes still kickin around down there."
"We're gonna have to stay in tight formation." Shiro said. "Watch each other's backs! Let's move!"
Sakura slid out of her chair, and fell to the floor of her Lion. Crawling over to her Lion's hatch, it took her a few times before it opened and she slid out of her Lion. She used her jetpack, but tripped and ended up somersaulting down and landed on the ground.
"That wasn't too hard." Sakura tried to smile, looking at her friends who were waiting for her. "Wait." She frowned. "Where's Lance?"
"Here." Lance groaned as he lifted his hand, Sakura blinked before looking down - she had landed and was now sitting on him. She quickly jumped off and helped him up.
"Sorry Lance!" She cried as she held his arm. "Are you ok?"
Lance shook his head rapidly. "I'm fine! Let's go!"
The team hurried over to a ledge and jumped off, using their jet packs to reach the other side.
"Pidge and Hunk, do your thing and do it fast." Shiro ordered.
Both Lance and Sakura summoned their bayards, and picked off the sentries one by one, the sentries fell off the ledge and landed into the unknown.
"This rod seems to go all the way down into the planet's core." Pidge informed. "But I'm not detecting any kind of energy source on the planet the could be causing all of this."
"Then we'll need to follow it down to the core." Allura said.
A beeping noise came from behind Sakura.
"It's open!" Pidge exclaimed. "Let's go!"
The Paladins quickly ran in. They free fell into the tunnel ignited in purple tendrils that glowed in the darkness. "When are we gonna hit bottom!?" Sakura asked as she at one point had grabbed Hunk's hand.
Pidge pulled up her communicater from her wrist. "Just a few more feet and we'll be down straight to the core."
The ground soon came and the team activated their jet packs to slow down their decent. The team quickly landed and moved to a pair of metal doors. Once they were open, a bright magenta light seeped out of the room. In the middle stood a giant glowing orb.
"Whoa!" Lance breathed. "What is that?"
The team walked further into the room, analyzing their surroundings and staying alert for any sign of danger.
"This is Zarkon's witch doing." Allura said. "The energy I felt ... this most be the source."
"Allura, this facility ... it looks Altean." Shiro commented.
"I'm afraid you're correct Shiro." Allura said as she moved closer to the orb, the other Paladins were close behind. "This is the decommissioned Altean terraforming planet. Somehow, the witch has been able to reactivate it remotely."
"Can you shut it down?" Shiro asked.
"I can try." She reached out to touch it, but an energy force slammed into the team, sending them flying backwards towards the doors, at the same time something had grabbed Sakura around the waist - shocking her and she screamed in pain.
Sakura could feel hot boiling heat go through her as she screamed, then settling onto her stomach, she could barely hear Shiro calling out for her as she felt faint. Suddenly, the energy let her go and she fell to the floor.
"Sakura!" Shiro was quick to her side, falling to his knees and pulling her into his arms.
"This soil is weird. It's so white and powdery, like ground up rocks or earth ... and heximite!" Hunk cried.
The doors to the room opened, flooding the room with laser fire. The Paladins summoned their shields deflecting the on coming fire. Shiro had to set Sakura down, and leaned her against a wall and summoned his shield. Lance reflected one of the lasers sending it back to a sentry and taking it out, Pidge followed his lead, summoning her bayard and and her rope dart to the nearest one, cutting it in half.
"What's heximite?" Lance asked over the commotion. "Some of us may have slept through chemistry."
Sakura slowly started to wake, groaning in pain, she can hear Pidge.
"The whole planet is a bomb. One that's big enough to wipe several solar systems!"
"It's under increasing pressure." Hunk added. "And when the pressure reaches a certain point, it's going to explode."
"How long do we have?" Sakura asked, groaning in pain as she grabbed her stomach from the pain, catching Shiro's attention.
"Maybe twenty minutes." Hunk answered.
"We have to get off this planet and warn everyone!" Lance exclaimed.
"Anyone within ten solar systems of us is going to get blown to pieces." Hunk said.
"They could take out Voltron, the rebels, and the Blades Of Marmora in one full swoop." Allura replied.
Sakura soon blacked out from all the pain she was feeling. Shiro turned and scooped her up into his arms.
XxXxX
Sakura awoke long enough to know Shiro was setting her down inside her Lion. "Shiro?"
"Hey." He smiled as he was knelting down in front of her. "We have no time. We have to get out of here, like yesterday."
Sakura pushed herself up. "Right." She watched as he ran out of her Lion. "Guardian, what happened to me?" She groaned, she forced herself into her chair and grabbed the handles.
"Coran! Keith! Do you copy!?" Shiro yelled. "Anyone!? Hello!? We've lost communications! Pidge, can you boost our signal?"
"No, there's too much electrostatic repulsion!"
"Seventeen minutes left!" Hunk informs.
"Isn't there anyway to send out a distress signal!?" Sakura cried.
"We have to get off this planet immediately!" Allura stated, she moved Blue Lion making Voltron lift its knee up. Voltron began to slow move to a standing position, but suddenly the ground gave out, dropping them further down the planet.
"No!" Sakura cried, watching as Voltron dropped down. "Guys!" All she could do was watch. "Oh, come on!" She looked around her controls, and rapidly stabbed at the com links. "Keith! Kolivan! Coran!" She rapidly stabbed at it. "Keith!"
Nothing.
Suddenly, Sakura yelped when Voltron grabbed White Lion and they were out of Nexzela's grasp and were now in space.
"Thank you Lance." Allura said.
"That was all you." Lance told her.
"We still need to defuse that bomb!" Hunk cried.
"Keith, can you hear me!?" Shiro called.
"Shiro!" Keith's relieved voice came through the com links. "Where are you? Is everything ok?"
"Not for long if we don't stop Zarkon's witch." Shiro told him. "She has to be on that cruiser that popped up on radar awhile ago."
"I'm way ahead of you." Keith said. "And I brought some backup."
"Rebel squad is en route." Captain Olia informed.
"Good to have Voltron back in the fight." Matt added.
Shiro opened a visual com to the Castle Of Lions reveal Coran. "Coran, you need to get as far away from Naxzela as you can immediately. Pick up any members of the coalition who are nearby, but go!"
"Wh-what's happening?" Coran asked with worry.
"Naxzela is a bomb." Allura answered. "And it's about to go off."
"But what about you!?" Coran shot back.
"We'll stop it, if we can, but we need you to do this." Allura told him.
"Yes, Princess." Coran responded before he closed the link.
"Thrusters are at max power!" Lance yelled.
"I sure hope we can make it in time." Hunk said with fear.
The planet began to get brighter, and brighter as Naxzela looked ready to explode.
"Keith! No!"
Lance's shout brought Sakura, out of her of focus.
"Keith!" She pulled hard on her Lion's handles, it slid to a stumbling and shaky stop.
"Sakura, what are you doing!?" Shiro demanded. "Sakura!"
White Lion turned and turbod towards the lone cruiser that was heading towards the very dangerous planet. "Keith!" Sakura screamed.
Suddenly Voltron blocked White Lion's path, White Lion grinded to a stop and Sakira flew out of her chair and raced out of her Lion, then jet packed out and past Voltron.
"Sakura!"
She ignored Shiro as she put more power into her jet pack, but suddenly a hand grabbed her arm, stopping her.
"No! Let me go!" She cried as she struggled against Lance.
"Sakura, he made his choice!" Lance tried to pulled her back, this time both his hands held her arm. "We have to respect that."
"NO!" Sakura screamed, tears flooding down her cheeks as she struggled harder. "KEEEEEEEITH! Lance, please, let me go!" She pleaded as she choked on her sobs.
During the struggle, neither noticed what had happened.
"Naxzela is returning to normal! You did it!" Coran's voice came through.
Sakura instantly stopped struggling against Lance's grip. "No." She sobbed. "No, no, no, no!" She allowed Lance to pull her into his arms and she clung to him tightly.
"You did it Keith." Shiro said quietly. "You saved us all."
"It wasn't me." Keith's voice came through their link coms. "It was Lotor."
"What?" Lance asked confused.
"The cannon on his ship was the only thing powerful enough to take down the shield." Keith continued.
"Attention, Paladins of Voltron and rebel fighters. I know we've had our differences in the past, but I think it is time we had a discussion." Lotor's voice came through the link coms.
XxXxXxX
A few hours later, back in the Castle Of Lions. The door to Sakura's room opened and Shiro walked out, followed by Coran with am an arm load of healing potions.
Sakura laid on her bed, spooned as she hugged her pillow and her face stained with tears.
A soft knock came to her door, but she ignored it. The door slid open and a familier figure walked into the room and the door slid closed. "Sakura."
She slowly moved her eyes, and watched as Keith walked over to her, then knelt in front of her.
She started to sob, before throwing herself at him, her arms locking around his neck.
"Lance contacted me." He told her gently as he wrapped his arms around her waist tightly. "He told me everything."
"Everything?" She whispered, and felt him nod.
"Including the lose." He held her tighter. "Baby, are you ok?"
"I, I will be. Shiro is not happy with me. I was mostly scared of that bomb, then you were willing to."- Sakura cut herself off with a sob. "I had only found out this morning, wasn't even showing." She whispered. "Doesn't mean it still doesn't hurt."
"I know babe." He tightened his hold on her. "I love you."
"I love you more." She cried, before barring her face into his shoulder.
XxXxXx
I'm sorry guys! I had this planned for awhile.