Chapter 2 - We Only Went Through the Wormhole Because the Robot Lion Told Us To

It took them about an hour to get to the outcropping and sure enough, it looked exactly like the Fraunhofer line Hunk had drawn. They all took a moment to just stare before Lance spoke first, "Okay, I admit it. This is super freaky."

That's when the device in Hunk's hands started buzzing, "I'm getting a reading."

He started moving around, trying to get the general direction of where to go. When he was certain he had it, he started walking off, everyone else following silently. They were not walking long before the device started going faster, causing them to jog slightly until they found it, the entrance to a cave. "Whoa," Hunk said softly.

They wasted no time going into the cave, though Natalie, and she could guess Keith as well, was a little disappointed, they had already been here. The others looked around them in awe, at the carvings on the wall. "What are these?" Shiro asks.

"These are the lion carvings I was telling you about. They're everywhere around here," Keith answers as they start to wander around a little.

Natalie watches as Lance brushes his hands over one of the carvings, having a closer look. That is when the carvings suddenly started glowing blue, every single one of them. "Whoa," Lance shouts, "Whoa!"

"What?" Hunk gets out.

"They've never done that before," Keith admits.

Natalie started to feel the ground beneath her rumble and when she looked down, the ground was glowing blue, crumbling beneath them. She walked closer to Keith, grabbing his hand and he squeezed it back as all of them plummeted down the new hole in the ground. It was like a slide in a water park, thankfully, so at least they were not falling straight down. She could hear her sister screaming the loudest and turned to see her on Hunk's shoulders, pulling at his hair. If she was not so scared of the falling right now, she may have burst into laughter at the sight.

Eventually, they reached the end, a little pool at the bottom, only a few inches deep, caught their fall. As luck would have it, they all landed in different spots, no one crushing each other underneath them, though she did land half on Keith, winding them both a little. Lance is the first to regain his wits, and he kneels where he fell, looking up and gasping, "They are everywhere."

Everyone stood up, Keith helping Natalie up, and eventually just stared at what they were seeing. It was a gigantic blue mechanical lion surrounded by some kind of spherical shield, "Is this it?" Pidge wonders aloud, "Is this the Voltron?"

"It must be," Shiro answers, though hesitantly.

"This is what's been causing all of this crazy energy out here," Keith adds before he walks forward, everyone else then following. "Looks like there's a forcefield around it."

Lance was moving side to side, looking at the lion weirdly, "Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?"

"No," Shiro says, looking at Lance strangely.

"I think you're imagining things, Lance," Natalie concludes.

"Yeah," Lance agrees with himself, ignoring them, "The eyes are totally following me."

When they reached the forcefield, Keith was already touching it gently, trying to figure it out, "I wonder how we get through this."

"Maybe you just have to knock," Lance suggests, walking up to the shield and doing exactly that.

Surprisingly, it works as the whole shield disappears, the ground underneath the lion glowing like the carvings had. Suddenly, she had a vision of this blue lion and four others of different colours, merging together to make one giant robot.

There was a collective 'woah' around the cave. "Uh, did everyone just see that?" Lance asks.

"Voltron is a robot," Hunk shouts out, "Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!"

"And this thing is only one part of it," Pidge adds, "I wonder where the rest of them are."

"This is what they're looking for," Shiro concludes.

"Incredible," is the only thing Keith could manage to say.

Natalie on the other hand, she had no words for this, she could hardly believe any of it was real. They all flinched and jumped back, with the exception of Lance, as the lion suddenly came to life, leaning down and opening its mouth in front of them. Well, more accurately, in front of Lance. While everyone else is still unsure, Lance hardly hesitates as he walks right up the ramp and into the lion's head. When everyone finally followed him, he was already in the pilot's seat, the systems coming alive around him.

As the front screen activates to show what it looked like outside, Lance laughs as Hunk and Pidge let out another 'woah.' "All right, very nice!" Lance exclaims.

"Okay, guys," Hunk hastily cuts in, "I feel the need to point out, just so we're all aware. We're in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now."

Natalie watched as Lance suddenly stiffened before turning to face them, "Woah. Did you guys just hear that?"

"Hear what?" Keith asks.

"I think it's talking to me," Lance elaborates. "Hmm…"

He looked over the controls, trying to figure out what to do. He pressed a few buttons in succession, causing the lion to stand and roar, creating various reactions inside the cockpit. "Okay, got it," Lance affirms, "Now, let's try this."

He pushed the controls, making the lion take off and smash straight through the rocks around them. There was a lot of out of control spinning, everyone trying to gain purchase on anything they could grab, including the chair, the ceiling and even each other's hair. Pidge and Hunk were screaming while this was happening as well. "You are the worst pilot ever!" Keith shouts at him.

They were then doing a flip and then the booster jets were activated, making them go even faster than they already were. Around and around they went, not really getting anywhere, and while most of them were clinging or screaming, Natalie was clinging and observing. Her grip on Keith was probably crushing him, but she had no focus on that when she was looking at this marvel of engineering. It was technology the likes she had never seen before, different from Shiro's new arm, and if they were not struggling just to stay standing, she might have appreciated it a bit more.

The lion was then running along the ground and Lance turned to look at them, a wide smile on his face, "Isn't this awesome?"

Hunk looked about ready to puke, "Make it stop. Make it stop!"

"I'm not making it do anything," Lance argues, "It's like it's on autopilot."

That was not in the least bit reassuring. Especially when it suddenly shot into the air, Keith screaming out, "Where are you going?"

"I just said it's on autopilot," Lance shouts back, "It says there's an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we're supposed to stop it."

"What did it say, exactly?" Pidge asks, a frown on her face.

"Well it's not like it's saying words," Lance tries to explain, "It's more like feeding ideas into my brain, kind of."

Oh, now that was interesting, Natalie thought to herself, I wonder how it does that.

"Well, if this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just like, I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone," Hunk suggests. "Sorry, lion. Nothing personal."

"You don't understand," Shiro argues, "These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."

Everyone but Shiro was now glaring at Hunk for his suggestion that they just give the lion up to them. "Oh," he mutters, "Never mind then."

They were all silent after that, just waiting to see what would happen while the lion continued to fly them out to space. Everyone was tense, knowing the lion had told Lance about an incoming alien ship. It had not been long before a ship, completely dark grey with glowing purple lights, suddenly dropped in out of no where. It came out of hyperspace, or whatever they called it out here, and was heading right for them. None of them could even believe what they were seeing, though obviously, Shiro was not as surprised as the rest of them. "Holy crow," Hunk almost yells, "Is that really an alien ship?"

They flew to be beside it, observing it from a different angle. Shiro finally found his voice, "They found me."

No one could even agree or dispute that as the alien ship fired on them, purple laser like beams coming right for them. "We've got to get it out of here," Pidge shouts at Lance.

"Hang on!" he yells back, taking control to fly the lion away.

Lance was doing everything he could to dodge the lasers, though that of course meant they were all being shaken around again. After a while, Lance was beginning to get the hang of it, "All right. Okay, I think I know what to do."

Pidge leaned over to be almost right in his face, "Be careful, man. This isn't a simulator."

"Well, that's good," he replies jovially, "I always wreck the simulator."

Wait what? That did not instill Natalie with much confidence that they will live through this. Just in case, she wrapped her left arm back around Keith's waist, pressing most of the rest of her body against his back. She was not taking any chances. It was only a few moments later that Lance pushed forward and it happened, he fired one large blast right out of the lion's mouth, wrecking the side of the alien ship. "Let's try this," Lance mumbled to himself, pulling up on the controls.

As it so happens, the lion's claws were not for show as he used them to tear through the ship, setting off countless explosions. "Nice job, Lance," Shiro shouts.

"I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet," is Lance's only response.

So they took off, leading the ship away from Earth, but speed looked like it would be an issue. "Oh, no!" Hunk moans.

"They're gaining on us," Pidge points out unhelpfully.

"It's weird," Lance says, "They're not trying to shoot us. They're just chasing."

"Pretty sure they don't want to damage the lion," Natalie guesses, shrugging as she does.

"Okay," Hunk cuts in, "seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good? I am not on board with this new direction, guys."

Everyone just ignores him, Keith trying to figure out a more pressing matter, "Where are we?"

Shiro looks and realises pretty quickly, "Edge of the solar system. There's Kerberos."

"It takes months for our ships to get out this far!" Pidge exclaims. "We got out here in five seconds."

Sure enough, Kerberos was right outside the window, so to speak. This reignited Natalie's engineer brain, thinking about what could possibly be powering the lion to make it go so fast, not to mention the alien ship which was right behind them. "Uh, Nat," Keith says down to her, "Now is not the time to geek out over this stuff, I know that look in your eyes."

"Spoil sport," she pouts.

The others had ignored their exchange. Understandably, as a large mystical looking circle suddenly appeared in front of them, "What is that?" Hunk asks, his voice trembling slightly.

"This may seem crazy," Lance interjects, "but I think the lion wants us to go through there."

"Where does it go?" Pidge asks softly.

"I don't know," Lance admits. "Shiro, you're the the senior officer here. What should we do?"

"Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do," Shiro begins. "I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together."

The six of them share a few looks amongst each other before the others eventually look to Lance, letting him know they were all behind him. "All right," he finally says, "Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow."

So Lance flies them right into the circle…portal? It is a strange and very rough experience, going through whatever this was, and they were all trying to find something to hold onto. Pidge and Hunk were grasping tightly to Lance's seat, Keith and Shiro at the back holding onto whatever they could find. Natalie, well Natalie was doing what she always did, holding Keith like a lifeline. This continued until eventually, they came out the other side and it occurred to her that it had to be some kind of wormhole, that was the only explanation she could come up with.

"Woah," Lance mumbles, "That was…"

He is interrupted by Hunk finding the nearest safe place to throw up his lunch, the sound of his retching making Natalie not feel too great. "So sorry," he gasped out before turning back around.

Pidge just plays with her glasses as she calmly admits, "I'm just surprised it took this long."

"I don't recognise any of these constellations," Shiro says, taking a look at their new surroundings. "We must be a long, long way from Earth."

"The lion seems to want to go to this planet," Lance explains, pointing towards said planet, "I think…I think it's going home."

The planet looked similar to Earth, made up of mostly water, but had a decent amount of land. It also had an atmosphere similar to Earth's, seen by the scattered cloud cover. Something else Natalie observed was that the distance from its star was similar to Earth as well. Whatever the lion was made of was definitely more than durable as reentry into the atmosphere had no effect on it, continuing as if nothing was different. It was still shaky though, everyone crowded around Lance's chair, holding onto something, making the boy very uncomfortable, "Guys, personal space. Hunk, your breath is killing me."

"Um, is it just me," Hunk says, ignoring Lance's comment, "or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole?"

So Hunk had also deduced it was some kind of wormhole, good to know her hypothesis was correct. She listened as Hunk continued his questions, "Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?"

"It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?" Lance reminds him.

"I don't know if you've noticed," Keith cuts in, "but we're in an alien warship."

"Oh, are you scared?" Lance teases him.

"With you at the helm? Terrified," he teases back.

"Alright, knock it off," Shiro reprimands them. "No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together."

"So, what do we do?" Pidge asks.

Shiro takes a moment to think, "First, we find out where we're headed. Lance?"

"I don't know," Lance admits after a few seconds, "I'm sorry. The lion's not talking to me anymore."

He suddenly perked up as if he heard something. "Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shh!"

This got their attention as he continued, "Listen. I think I hear something."

They all listened, and that is when the sound started coming through, "I'm hearing it, too," Keith says.

"It's uh…It's kind of a…a high-pitched squeal?" Hunk says, trying to explain what he was hearing.

It was at that point they heard the tail end and smelled exactly what it was. Lance had just passed wind. Every single one of them grabbed their noses to try and block out the smell, poor Natalie felt she might finally bring up her breakfast. There was a collective, "Come on, Lance!"

"But seriously," Lance says as if nothing happened, "There's a castle up ahead."

When they looked out, sure enough, there was a castle on the next mountain. It was mostly white and looked to be made from some kind of metal alloy. It had a central tower, larger than the four pillar like towers around it. Natalie knew her eyes had to be sparkling at this point because it was beautiful. She wanted to dismantle and study every last panel of it. "Wow," was about all anyone could say.

As they approached, the five towers lit up as if it knew they were arriving. Lance brought them down to land right outside the doorway on the central tower. "Keep your guard up," Shiro suggested when they had landed.

"Something wrong?" Pidge asks.

"My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again," he explained, causing the two sisters to share a look, yeah, they understood.

It was after that joyful exchange that they made their way out of the lion, stopping just outside of it. As they looked at the castle before them, the lion suddenly stood up, causing them all to gasp and for Natalie to jump in the air. "No!" Hunk shouts, "I knew it was going to eat us! No!"

All it did was stand to full height and roar. It seemed to be knocking because the door to the castle, glowed and opened. "Oh, the door is open," Hunk observes from his place hiding behind Shiro, "Guess I was wrong about you."

Without further ado, they made their way into the castle and it was massive on the inside. They were barely a few feet in when suddenly, "Hello?" Hunk called out to the room, causing them all to look back at him while his voice echoed.

They turned back to face the stairs, Pidge commenting on them, "From the size of the lion, I expected these steps to be bigger."

"They're probably designed for whoever it was that built the lions," Natalie suggests, looking at the stairs herself.

A light above them lit up, before they were circled by walls of light. "Hold for identity scan," an unknown female voice ordered.

They were all lit up by rings of light, travelling from their feet to their heads, Shiro calling out to the voice, "Why are we here? What do you want with us?"

The only thing that happened was that the lights on the walls turned on around them. The lights then trailed towards a hallway that steadily lit up like a path, "I guess we're going that way," Pidge says slowly.

So they followed the light trail and everywhere they went, the lights would turn on just ahead of them. Hunk continued to shout 'hello' hoping to get an answer. Natalie was not so sure he would get one. They took many hallways and travelled down a few flights of stairs before they reached a door that opened to a high chamber with pillars reaching all the way to the ceiling. "Hello?" Hunk tried again.

"Where are we?" Lance wondered aloud.

They made their way to the centre of the room where some kind of console was waiting in the middle, surrounded by several circles on the ground. Pidge headed straight for the console, Natalie right behind her, and looked at it, "It's some kind of control room."

The console lit up slightly, making the two girls gasp, before they heard a noise behind them. One of the circles had opened up, some kind of pod rising from within. A second one rose only seconds later. It was clear that there were people inside them, some kind of stasis pods, Natalie gathered. "Are those guys…dead?" Hunk asks from where he was hiding behind the console.

No one answered as the first pod opened, revealing a young woman, with long white hair and tanned skin. Her ears were pointed and she had small pink markings under her eyes. She was wearing a floor length blue and white gown, a circlet on her forehead and had medium sized purple drops in her ears. As she opened her eyes and gasped she reached forward calling "Father!"

Unfortunately, she had clearly been in there a while, because she fell forward. Lance, who was closest, quickly ran to catch her. Getting an up close and personal look at her had Lance blushing, "Hello," he said, trying to be chic.

"Who are you? Where am I?" she asks, ignoring his ridiculous greeting.

"I'm Lance," he answers, still using the same tone, "And you're right here in my arms."

"Your ears," she randomly says.

"Yeah?" he asks curiously, where was she going with this?

"They're hideous," she eventually says, "What's wrong with them?"

"Nothing is wrong with them!" he shouts back, losing that earlier tone, "They heard exactly what you said about them!"

He screams as she grabs one of his arms, twisting it behind his back while also twisting one of his ears. She had him kneeling on the ground in seconds, "Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?"

"A giant blue lion brought us here," he strained from his position, "That's all we know."

"How do you have the Blue Lion?" she asks, letting him go, "What happened to its paladin? What are you all doing here? Unless…How long has it been?"

"We don't know what you're talking about," Shiro speaks up, "Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help."

"I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea," she answers, before heading for the console, "I've got to find out where we are and how long we're been asleep."

Both Pidge and Natalie paid close attention to how she turned it on, her hands placed on either side, bringing up a holographic screen, "Okay," Pidge says, "That's how that works."

Natalie was practically drooling at this point, watching as the Princess worked the console. Keith came up beside her, leaning towards her ear and whispering, "Nat, your nerd is seriously showing now, tone it down. I'm sure you'll have a chance to play with all of this…uh…this, later."

"Fine," she mumbles.

At this point, the other pod finally opens up, revealing an older man with red hair and a mustache. He wore pants and a coat, also in blue and also with the same strange style as the princess'. Instead of pink, his markings under his eyes were a light blue. His first thought upon seeing them was negative, "Enemy combatants."

He jumped out of his pod, right towards Lance, but Lance easily dodged. He landed near Allura's pod and wobbled. "Quiznak!" he shouted. Was that a curse in their language? "You're lucky I have a case of the old 'sleep chamber knees.' Otherwise, I'd grab your head like this, wrap you up like so…and one, two, three, sleepy time!"

"Well before you did that, I'd," Lance counters, showing off weird moves.

It was at this point, Natalie stopped listening and went back to watching the Princess work the console. She was frowning, at what she was seeing on the screen or what she was hearing behind her, it was hard to tell. "Man, these guys are good," Hunk commented from where he stood on the other side of the console, causing Natalie to raise a brow in question.

The console started beeping, causing the Princess to frown harder, "It can't be."

"What is it?" her companion called from where he was still behind her.

"We've been asleep for ten thousand years," she exclaims, her eyes wide in dismay. "Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilisation…" she frowned before saying one final word angrily, "Zarkon."

This caused Shiro to freeze, as if he was remembering something, "Zarkon?"

"He was the King of the Galra," Allura explains, "A vile creature and enemy to all free people."

"I remember now…" Shiro reveals, "I was his prisoner."

Natalie shared a look with her sister, this Zarkon was the one who took their father and brother. Allura seemed appalled at the news, "He's still alive? Impossible!"

"I can't explain it, but it's true," Shiro insists. "He's searching for a super weapon called Voltron."

"He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him," she explains, "and that's exactly why we must find it before he does."

She turned back to the console, searching for who knows what. Coran made his way over to her, "Princess, you must eat. It's been ten thousand years."

"I'm not hungry," she says, not looking away from the screen.

"Man, ten thousand years?" Lance said from his place beside Keith, "That's like one thousand plus ten."

Natalie looked at him blankly from her place on Keith's other side as Keith replied, "That's times ten."

"Whatever, dropout," Lance responds, causing Keith to frown and Natalie to roll her eyes.

"I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving," Hunk says, standing with a floating plate of food goo before him.

"Yeah, but you've thrown up, like, five times," Pidge reminds him dryly.

"Hmm, good point," he replies before taking a bite of the food goo, making faces as he went.

Shiro was ignoring them, "I can't believe your civilisation created such advanced technology ten thousand years ago. It must have been an incredible place."

"Yes, it was," Coran says sadly, "but now it is gone and we're the last Alteans alive."

He walked over to comfort Allura, but she jumped into his arms, sobbing with that realisation. Eventually, Allura seemed to perk up, like she could hear something. She walks over to her pod and looked in, "Looks like we're not the last, after all," there were Altean mice inside.

She had little time to appreciate it before the alarms went off. The console screen turned red and Coran looked to see what was on it, "A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!"

"How did they find us?" Allura asks.

"I'm not sure," Lance answers slowly, "but I bet it's Keith's fault."

"Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better," Keith's replies. "After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!"

"I'll stick you in a wormhole," Lance shouts back, getting in Keith's face.

"Stow it, cadets!" Shiro intervenes, pushing the two away from each other, "This is no time to place blame. It's time to work as a team. How long before they arrive?"

He had directed that question at Coran as Natalie had reached for Keith's hand, sending him a comforting look. He squeezed her hand in response as they listened to Coran, "At their speed? Oh, well, carry the two…" he was using his fingers to try and count, "I'd say probably a couple of days."

"Good," Allura says, a determined look on her face, "Let them come! By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron and together, we will destroy Zarkon's empire."

Hunk burps, "Sorry, food goo."

"Ahhhh," Natalie verbalises, holding up her hand as if in the middle of a class, her other hand still holding Keith's, "There are six of us, Princess, you said five."

"Yes, I did, because the others are going to be the ones to form Voltron," Allura explains, "You, however, won't be."

"Then what am I going to do?" she asks, scratching the side of her head.

"You're an engineer, are you not?"

"Well, yeah, you could tell?"

"Yes," Allura admits, "I could see it by the way you looked at the technology in the room, you were more interested in that than anything else."

"Okay, you have me there, though I hadn't realised you'd noticed," Natalie agrees, nodding her head before throwing a pointed look at Hunk, "but Hunk is an engineer too."

"While that may be true, Hunk is to be a Paladin of Voltron," Allura reminds her, "your role will be different. Coran can't operate the castle all on his own and he needs someone with a sharp mind who already has an idea of what they're doing, to help him. I believe that to be why you're here."

"Pretty sure she's only here because her boyfriend is," Pidge mumbles behind her hand, purposefully loud enough for the room to hear her.

Natalie sent her sister a glare, though decided to ignore her in favour of looking at Coran, "I would be honoured to help you with the castle. I've wanted to learn everything about it since we got here."

"I'm glad to have your assistance," Coran says, a wide smile on his face.

That sorted, Shiro turned back to the matter at hand, "Princess, there are five of these lions. How are we going to find the rest?"

She did not bother answering as she turned to walk out of the room, Coran asking for them to follow before he walked out as well. They all shared a look and decided following was the only thing they could do, so they did.

They had followed Allura and Coran into another large room, a room that could not be anything other than the Bridge. Natalie quickly came to the conclusion that this was not just a castle, there was a lot more to it than that. They watched as Allura made her way to the centre, where a small platform was. Lights lit up above her as soon as she stepped onto it, and she closed her eyes. "King Alfor connected the lions to Allura's life force," Coran explains, "She alone is the key to the lions' whereabouts."

Allura suddenly opened her eyes and the light that was above her, spread around the room into something absolutely amazing. A holographic map of the universe!

"These are coordinates," Pidge notices, realising exactly what Natalie had.

The lions were lit up where they were located, little holographic figures depicting where they were. Pidge looked at the one in front of her, "The Black Lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue Lion."

"Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage," Coran chimes in beside her.

"Very observant," Allura cuts in, "That's because the Black Lion is in the castle."

"To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon's hands," Coran explained, "King Alfor locked it in the castle. It can only be freed if the other four lions are present."

"As you have found, the lions choose their pilots," Allura continued, "it is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence" oh, what's that? "of the pilot is mirrored in his, or her, lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain."

She then used her hands to move the star map around, placing the Black Lion before Shiro, "The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation. That is why Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion."

She then continued, moving the Green Lion before Pidge, "The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion."

"That's my little sister," Natalie cheered from beside her, making Pidge blush from embarrassment.

No one else paid attention as Allura moved on, "The Blue Lion—" but was of course, interrupted.

"Woah, hold up, let me guess," Lance says, "Takes the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?"

Allura chooses to just ignore that and moved on to place the Yellow Lion before Hunk, "The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together."

Hunk just points questioningly to himself, not believing she was talking about him. Allura, though, just kept going, "The Red Lion is temperamental, and the most difficult to master," she said, the Red Lion appearing above her hands, "It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable."

She move the image of the Red Lion to be in front of Keith, "Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion."

"What? This guy?" Lance says in disbelief.

The two of them just glare at each other, making Natalie just roll her eyes at them again as Allura ignored Lance's words, "Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion's coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the castle. After ten thousand years, it might need some work."

"Don't worry, we'll find it soon," Coran assures her. "They don't call me 'The Coranic' for nothing. It's because it sounds like 'mechanic.' So…Coranic, mechanic. It's not…it doesn't sound…exactly like it. It's similar."

Completely disregarding Coran's strange self-praise, the lion holograms roar and converge, "Once all the lions are united," Allura says as the lions merge to create Voltron, "you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe."

"Awesome," Lance calls out.

"Wait, okay," Hunk suddenly says, "we're going to be in there and flying lions. Got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee. Do you people pee?"

"We don't have much time," Shiro says, ignoring what Hunk was saying, "Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you and Nat stay here. If you locate that Red Lion, go get it."

"Oh ho," Pidge mumbles, giving her sister a strange look, "Are you sure we should leave those two unsupervised, cause you know…umpf."

"Nope, not another word out of you," Natalie said while using her hands to cover her sister's mouth.

"In the meantime," Allura goes on, but still gives the sisters a strange look, "I'll get this castle's defences ready. They'll be sorely needed."

"I'll ready a pod," Coran says, looking towards Shiro, "and load the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion."

As they were getting ready, Coran felt the need to add, "We can only keep the wormholes that lead to the other lions open for two of your Earth hours, so you'll have to be quick about your work. The good news is that according to my readings, both planets are relatively peaceful. So if you do get stuck, they could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives. Enjoy the trip!"

"Wait! What? No! I did not receive the memo on this."

Without further ado, Lance was off in the Blue Lion, taking Hunk to the Yellow Lion, while Shiro and Pidge were off through a different wormhole to get the Green Lion. This left Keith and Natalie, who was giggling a little, still on the Bridge, Allura setting up the defences. Natalie walked over to Keith, placing both hands on his arms where he had them crossed, "So, you get the temperamental, unstable one huh?" she says, grinning impishly, "Fitting that is."

He raises his left eyebrow, "Tell me exactly what you think of me, please, don't hold back."

She laughs as she leans forward to peck him gently on the cheek, before she heads off towards Allura, "Hey Princess, let me help you out over there, might as well get started on learning all about this amazing castle-ship."

"How did you know this was a ship?"

After Shiro landed the pod, Pidge followed him out onto this strange new planet. It was one made predominantly of land mass, most of which was thick jungle. Something that made her cringe just thinking about all the things she was probably allergic to out here. She decided to ignore it, pulling out the device Coran had given her to help her locate the Green Lion. Shiro followed silently behind her as they walked through the jungle. They were walking for a while when they came across a river, beautiful, but in their way. She did not need to look around long before she saw it, a little wooden boat, "Look!" she points it out to him.

They both observed the lion head carved into the front of it, they had to be on the right track. She looked to her left and there was suddenly something standing there causing them both to shout. Pidge would deny it later, but she was so startled that she used Shiro like a jungle gym, climbing onto his back to escape from it.

It just looked at them, "It's just a…" she had no idea how to finish that sentence, it honestly resembled a sloth, only larger and walking around on two feet, and it was taller than Shiro, "Whatever that thing is."

As it walked away, she climbed down from Shiro's back. It turns to face them long enough to gesture for them to follow.

"I uh…I think he wants us to get in his canoe," Pidge says.

"Then I guess we should go," Shiro decides.

"Huh," she mutters, looking at him weird.

"I've been locked up by aliens for a year. This is nothing," he explains with a shrug before walking to follow the, uh, creature.

So, she decided to just go along with it. A few minutes later had them sitting in the canoe, observing the amazing jungle around them as they were rowed down the river. They eventually came across a tunnel made out of rock, the inside riddled with the same ancient carvings as the cave where they found the Blue Lion. Pidge could only stare in wonder, her mind going to the others, "I wonder if Hunk and Lance are having as good a time as us."

As it turns out, no, Hunk and Lance were not having as good a time as the other two, because as soon as they exited the wormhole, they were attacked by Galra ships. Relatively peaceful went out the window at some point in the last ten thousand years, because this was not what either of these two humans would consider peaceful. They continued to scream as Lance dodged the lasers as best he could while trying to adapt to the fact that, yes, they were under attack. They avoided most of the missiles sent their way, though they did explode next to them, causing some turbulence. The last one, however, hit the Blue Lion, sending them out of control to the ground. "I thought Coran said these planets were peaceful!" Hunk shouted.

"Maybe 'peaceful' means something else in Altean!" Lance shouts back, pulling up in time to not crash into the ground.

Hunk stood up so that he could look at the device Coran had given him, checking to see where the Yellow Lion was, "According to the coordinates, we're right on top of the Yellow Lion. It's below there, where they're mining for the ore. They don't even know the lion is there. Or maybe they just got here and they're digging for the lion? What do you think Lance?"

"Who cares?" Lance shouts at him, "Just go get it! I'm dropping you down there."

"Me? Down there?" Hunk protests, "No. No, no, no."

"Yes," Lance asserts, "I'll cover you!"

So Lance goes straight for the mine, dropping on top of Galra sentries, smashing any that got in the way. He had the Blue Lion heading straight for the mine entrance, trying to ignore Hunk behind him. "What if the Yellow Lion doesn't work? What if I can't get in the mine? What if I start crying? Too late. I'm already crying!"

"Sorry, no time for questions," Lance says, turning to face him, before ejecting Hunk out of the lion.

He placed the Blue Lion between Hunk and the incoming Galra to allow him a chance to get into the mine. While Hunk went down into the mine, Lance tried to keep the Galra away from it, but it was getting harder to do with every new one that arrived. He ended up taking back to the skies, hoping being in the air would be more helpful. He resorted to using the lion's jaws to bite down on the ships, ripping them to shreds. He then spotted a few ships heading back for the mine, "Oh, no!"

He turns around to chase them, hoping to get to them in time. Though he managed to destroy one of them, it had already fired on the mine entrance. "Hunk!" he shouted, watching as the missile hit just above the entrance, collapsing it.

What was he going to do now?

A/N: chapter twooooooooo

So yeah, again I say, the real A/N is after the next chapter, so see you there.