Chapter 3 - So, Uh, Voltron is Badass
"I know the Princess said this is supposed to be my lion," Pidge was rambling to Shiro, unsure of what would happen, "but what if she's wrong? I mean, she's probably not wrong. She's a princess, but I'm not a pilot, even though I've always wanted to be a pilot. I mean, I've read all the fighter manuals, but never got to fly the simulator. I'm pretty sure Nat has more experience in the simulator and she's not a pilot either. But hey, I can't be that worse than Lance. He crashed all the time. But what if I get in there and it doesn't respond? What if I get in there and it's too big and my feet don't touch the pedals? What if there aren't even pedals?"
"You're rambling," Shiro manages to interrupt, "Listen. Our Commander on the Kerberos Mission, your father, is the smartest man I ever met, and he always said, 'If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great.' I think you've probably heard those words before."
She had, her father used to say that to her and her older siblings all the time. She smiled thinking about him. That's when she saw it, a massive temple where the river ended. It was covered in vines and the canopy above it was thick, blocking out a lot of the sunlight.
They got out if the canoe when it pulled up on the shore and waved to the creature before it left. When they got closer, carvings just like the ones in the Blue Lion's cave lit up green as if showing her the way. They arrived at the stairs and paused, but then she turned when Shiro spoke, "Go. Be great."
With those encouraging words to propel her, she ran up the stairs, climbing over large vines whenever she needed to. When she reached the top, she was confused because there was nothing up here. She stood to look around her when she heard it, growling coming from below her. Then there were lights coming from within the hole in the centre and she knew, the Green Lion was down there. So without hesitation, she jumped down. "Woo-hoo-hoo!"
Using the power of the Green Lion, she burst through the vines, making her way down to grab Shiro.
Lance was still flying around, trying to dodge incoming fire while also worried about Hunk. "Hunk, come on! Please, buddy!" he was calling to the air, hoping his friend would appear.
He ended up taking a few too many hits in that moment, sending him down, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Going down! We're going down!"
He tried pulling up, but they just rolled along the ground, shaking Lance around in his seat. When they steadied, Blue was in bad condition if the alarm and blinking red lights were any indication. With the incoming ships, things were looking bad, "Oh, no!"
The one at the front fired two missiles and he looked away. Then out of no where, the Yellow Lion burst from the ground, taking the missiles to its heavily armoured back. Then it was running on the ground, before it jumped and landed on the ships, flattening them. "You okay, Lance?" Hunk's voice came through the comms.
"Hunk!" he calls excitedly, "I thought you were dead! You jumped in front of those shots to save my life!"
"Well, actually, I was trying to get out of the way," Hunk admits while a view screen popped up on the dashboard, showing Hunk inside his own lion's cockpit. "Thankfully, what this lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in armour. Man, can it take a beating! Ooh."
That last noise was because more Galra fighters had arrived, firing on them. "We've got incoming," he points out unnecessarily.
Another screen popped up to Lance's right, this time with Allura, "Paladins, please hurry back. I can't hold the wormhole much longer."
"Let's get out of here," Lance calls as the screen disappears.
As they were flying up, Hunk was hit, making him spin out of control, thankfully, he still got through the wormhole before it closed despite spinning his way through.
Natalie and Keith were still on the Bridge, now joined by Pidge and Shiro who had returned a short while ago with the Green Lion. They were all waiting for Lance and Hunk to make their way up now that Hunk had the Yellow Lion in its hangar. They entered a few minutes later, both groaning and massaging their muscles. "You made it," Allura says joyously.
"Yeah, just barely," Lance comments, stretching his shoulders, "That was a nightmare. I almost puked out there. I felt like Hunk!"
"Think how I felt," Hunk cuts in, "I am Hunk."
"Yeah, we had a rough time too," Pidge throws in, sharing a knowing look with Shiro.
"Did we find the Red Lion yet?" Shiro asks, turning back to face the Princess.
Natalie allowed herself a nervous chuckle, "Huh, about that."
"Allura just located it," Coran explains, "There's a bit of good news and bad news. The good news is, the Red Lion's nearby. The bad news is, it's on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus. But wait, good news again. We're Arus!"
Natalie just face palms as Shiro disbelievingly says, "They're here already?"
"Yes," Coran concurs, "Guess my calculations were a bit off. Finger counting…it's more of an art, than a science. Hmm?"
The screen above them lit up, and in the feed appeared a..man? He was most likely Galra, considering the circumstances. He was covered in purple fur and one of his yellow eyes was replaced with a cybernetic replacement. He wasted no time on speaking his demands, "Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet."
"Charming," Natalie found herself muttering to herself from where she was gripping Keith's sleeve, that Commander Sendak or whatever had been imposing.
"All right, let's not panic," Shiro cuts in.
"Not panic?" Hunk questions, "The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us. We only have four lions."
"Technically, only three working lions," Pidge adds unhelpfully.
"That's right," Hunk agrees, before moving around the room, "Thank you, Pidge. Three working lions and a castle that's, like, ten thousand years old."
"Actually," Coran interjects, "It's ten thousand six hundred years old. You see, it was built by my grandfather—"
"Thanks, Coran," Hunk interrupts, continuing on his rant, "Thank you for that. See? Now is the perfect time to panic!"
"Wait!" Allura suddenly calls out, "This castle has a particle barrier we can activate."
"Girl, you're already activated my par—" Lance started.
"Lance!" Shiro admonishes, interrupting him.
"A particle barrier you say?" Natalie says thoughtfully, "So how exactly does that—"
"Nat," Keith cuts her off, "Now is not the time."
In the mean time, Coran was investigating Sendak's ship, eventually finding a bit of a problem, "The particle barrier won't hold Sendak's ion cannon forever. The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last."
"Yes, well, they have had ten thousand years to advance their technology and that is a very long time," Natalie reminds them.
"Panic now?" Hunk throws in.
"No," Shiro says, "We've just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly."
"I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day," Lance throws out his suggestion.
"I second that," Hunk agrees, "We tried to find all the lions, right? We gave it the old college try. Couldn't do it. We only have three. We can't form Voltron. I guess we could form a snake. Or a worm! To go through that hole, Lance, that you were talking about."
"Then, it's settled," Lance decides, "Allura, you ride with me. One of you take the old guy."
"You cannot be serious, guys," Natalie says, shaking her head in disbelief.
"We can't just abandon Arus," Pidge adds, agreeing with her sister. "The Galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them."
"Okay," Hunk tries again, "If we run, then maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth. We form the snake-worm thingamajig and we," he hisses, "out of here."
"Sendak could destroy the planet, then come after us anyway," Keith argues. "Staying is our only option."
"Here's an option; shut your quiznak," Lance says back to him, Allura and Coran pulling a face at that.
"I don't think you're using that word correctly," Keith counters.
"What do you know, Mullet?"
"We're staying."
"Leaving!"
"Staying!" Pidge joins in.
"Snake!" Hunk does too.
"Guys, stop!" Shiro yells at them.
Natalie grabs Keith, pulling him away from where he was pressing his head against Lance's while they glared at each other and also pulling her sister away from where she was trying, and failing, to intimidate Hunk. As happy as she was to see both her boyfriend and her sister on the same side, now was not really the time for any of this. Now that the four of them were separated, Shiro turned back to face Allura, "Princess Allura, these are your lions. You've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?"
"I…I don't know," she admits, turning her head down.
"Perhaps your father can help," Coran suggests to her.
"My father?" she asks in confusion.
With no explanation to the others, Coran led Allura out of the Bridge to who knows where, but it was obvious it had something to do with her father. In the mean time, Keith and Lance as well as Pidge and Hunk, were staring each other down again. Shiro and Natalie shared a look, and sending a signal to each other, they both grabbed a pair and took them to opposite ends of the Bridge. Natalie, of course, grabbed Keith and Pidge while Shiro grabbed the other two. "For all your suggestions to stay and fight, it's going to be hard to do that when the team is glaring at each other."
The both of them just sighed as their only response, and she continued, "So no matter what the Princess decides, let's try not to antagonise each other. By that I mean, Keith, stop letting Lance bait you."
Keith looked about ready to throw back a retort when Coran re-entered the room without the Princess. Natalie took the chance to escape from whatever Keith was about to say, "Coran, what exactly was it that you wanted to show Allura?"
He walked over towards her as he explained, "We have technology that can download a person's memories, their entire being as it were, into a computer. It can create a holographic projection of the person in which you can communicate with. So currently, Allura is talking with King Alfor."
She knew she must have that look in her eye, because she heard Keith's 'oh no' from beside her, "Really? You can download a person's memories into a computer? And it can talk to you as if it was the person itself?" she asks excitedly, practically bouncing on the spot. "I have to know, how does it work? How does it process the information? Making binary into a thinking, feeling person? Does the hologram feel? Or does it just compute with the knowledge of the person it is replicating?"
"Okay, that's enough of that," Keith cuts in before she could go on, putting a hand over her mouth.
"Wow, rambling is actually genetic," she thought she heard Shiro say from where he was still standing with Hunk and Lance.
"I'm glad you're so excited by our technology," Coran eventually says, a bewildered look on his face, "but I don't think now is the time for us to discuss that so, uh, in depth."
She frowns at that, but ultimately knows he has a point, so when Keith carefully removes his hand, she decides not to continue her inquiry. The timing turned out to be perfect, because at that moment, the doors opened and Allura stepped through. The only difference was that she had removed her gown and replaced it with a space suit of some kind and her hair was now piled on her head in a rather large bun. "You five paladins were brought here for a reason," she addresses the room, "The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. We are the universe's only hope."
"We're with you, Princess," Shiro decisively assures her.
"Good, then come with me," she says, turning around without waiting.
She leads them to another room they had yet to see, an armoury, Natalie guesses by the armour along the walls. As they all took it in, Allura says, "Your suits of armour."
Natalie observed as they admired their armour, laughing at the various comments they had. Hunk appeared to be a little worried about the shape of his armour, in that it looked too small. As it would seem, Pidge's armour looked too big for her.
"Princess, are you sure about this?" she heard Coran ask Allura. "They aren't exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer."
She tried really hard not to glare at him for that comment, but knew he was only concerned about whether or not they were up for the task. "No," Allura agrees, "but they're all we've got."
"Guys," Shiro calls out, "it's time to suit up."
In the end, Pidge and Hunk's suits did fit, changing shape to fit their different sized bodies. Another marvel of technology that Natalie tried really hard not to drool over. That being said, they all looked ready to kick Galra butt, that was for sure. Allura held her hand on one of the weapon cases, opening it to show four very strange handle looking things, "The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron," she explained as they floated on their own and went to their corresponding paladin. "It takes a distinct shape for each paladin."
Sure enough, when Hunk caught his, it turned into a massive gun, something only he and Shiro would most likely be able to lift. Keith's turned into a sword, something that Natalie thought to be very fitting. Lance's also turned into a gun, but a much smaller rifle than the giant thing Hunk's became. Pidge's though, hers did not change much, it appeared to turn into some sort of arched blade. She played around with it a little before Lance walked over and opened his big mouth, "Aww, you got a cute little bayard."
He got electrocuted for his troubles by said little bayard, "Yeah, it is pretty cute," Pidge says fondly.
Natalie had taken to holding Keith's sword between her hands while he still held it. She was trying to figure out how it worked, but the technology was flawless and she could not make out any gaps or lines to show her where the weapons came out from. She would have continued to study it if he had not gently removed it from her hands and made it change back to its original form. She pouted at him, "You aren't letting me have any fun."
"Seriously, Nat, you can have all the fun you want," he assures her, "Just..later, when we don't have some alien warlord trying to steal the lions and threatening to destroy an entire planet."
"Shiro," Allura said, Natalie turning to face her, "I'm afraid your bayard was lost with its paladin."
"I guess I'll just have to make do," he shrugs it off.
They had returned to the Bridge now that everyone was suited up and it was time to plan the mission. They were currently looking at schematics of Sendak's ship, the system focusing on the ion cannon. "You'll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak's ship," Allura tells them.
"That's a pretty big ship," Keith points out, "How are we gonna know where the Red Lion is?"
"Well it's not a matter of 'we,'" Pidge chimes in, "It's a matter of 'you.'"
"Pidge is right," Hunk says, "Once we get you in, you'll be able to feel its presence and track it down."
"Yeah," Lance agrees, "You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert?"
"Yeah, you made fun of me for that," Keith says.
"And I'm proud of that, but turns out it's exactly like that mumbo-jumbo."
"It also explains why I never felt it," Natale says from her place beside Keith, "I was never going to be a paladin, but you were, so that's why you felt it and I didn't."
Keith thought about it, he remembered how it felt, so hopefully it would help him now. "Keith," he looked up to face Allura as she addressed him. "Remember, the Red Lion is extremely temperamental. You'll have to earn its respect."
He felt Natalie squeeze his hand in reassurance as he looked down, and then felt Shiro's hand on his shoulder for the same reason as he spoke to everyone, "All right. Here's our plan of attack. The Galra Empire knows about the Blue and Yellow Lion, but they don't know we have the Green Lion, too. Hunk, Lance, you'll act as a decoy by pretending to give yourselves up. While Sendak is distracted, Keith, Pidge and I will sneak onto the ship in the Green Lion. Keith and I will find the Red Lion while Pidge guards our exit. Hunk, Lance, find some way to take down that ion cannon. Nat, you should stay here, you're neither protected by amour nor armed."
"No problems here, Shiro," she says, "I'd much rather be here inside the castle anyway."
Keith recognised that twinkle in her eye, "You are not staying to study the ship, Nat, you're here to stay safe."
"Yeah, yeah," she mumbles, waving her hand back and forth, "No studying the technology, I got it."
He just rolls his eyes in response. "All right, let's go!" Shiro calls, all of them running out to get to the right lion.
"Good luck!" Natalie called after them.
While Pidge was flying the Green Lion towards the Galra ship, you would have been able to hear a pin drop. The three of them were quiet, holding their breath as if breathing would give away their position. They waited for Hunk and Lance to begin the distraction before they flew up to the underside of the ship. They left the Green Lion and found the nearest air lock so that they could get in. They were just climbing inside when they heard Lance through the comms, "Pidge, what's your ETA?"
"We're in," she replies quietly, looking around.
Now that they were all in, they made their way further into the ship, Keith looking around corners to make sure the coast was clear. They eventually found a long hallway, going far in either direction. Pidge knelt down near where they came in, where she was going to wait until they found the Red Lion. Shiro started to observe the hallway when he suddenly gasped, "I've been here before. After I was taken by the Galra cruiser off Kerberos, they brought us here."
"So, that means your other crew members, they might be held captive here," Pidge says, "We…we've got to go rescue them."
"Pidge, we don't have time," Shiro explains, "We have to get the Red Lion and get back to Arus."
"But we can't just leave them here!" she argues, getting desperate.
"Look, no one understands that more than me," Shiro reasons, "but in war, we have to make hard choices. Now, let's get moving."
"No!" she shouts, "Are you forgetting they're my father and brother? How could I even face Nat if I don't even try? I've been trying to find them from the beginning, and I can't just give up when I'm this close. I won't!"
"I'm coming with you," Shiro asserts.
"What?" Keith has to ask, he would have to go alone?
"I remember where the prisoners are held," Shiro explains. "Keith, you go find the Red Lion."
"By myself?" Keith says, not feeling confident enough that he could do it alone.
"Minor change of plans," Shiro says, putting a hand on one of Keith's shoulders. "You'll be fine. Just remember, patience yields focus. So-" a door opened nearby, "run!"
While Shiro and Pidge went one way, Keith went the other, hoping to find the Red Lion. Sure, he was not too happy to have to do this alone, but he knew that if Pidge found anything to help her find her father and brother, then that would also make Natalie happy. So he tried to ignore the anxiety of being alone inside a large enemy battleship.
He kept running until he found a T-junction, "Great. Now which way?"
He stared at the symbol of the Empire above him for a few seconds before he heard footsteps approaching, he had no choice but to make a hasty decision and went right.
Natalie was standing near Coran as they finally went to engage the particle barrier, "Particle barrier up!" Allura called as she activated it.
Natalie watched in amazement as it went up, it was awesome, but then it flickered and disappeared, causing her immense confusion. "Is that what's supposed to happen?" Coran asks, taking the words right out of her mouth.
"I don't imagine so," she says instead.
She followed as they moved over to one of the consoles, opening a little hatch and peering inside. "Ah, the barrier crystals are out of alignment," Coran explains.
At the thought of seeing some of the amazing technology that ran the castle, Natalie managed to squeeze her head between the two of them and seeing inside. It was mostly wires and machinery, but further back were two crystals with cylinder housings. A blue one was lit up and appeared to be in the right place, but behind it was a yellow one that was falling over. "We have to fix it immediately," Allura says, pushing her way back to see inside. "Without the particle barrier, we'll be defenceless."
"All three of us are too big," Coran points out, "What can we do?"
In that moment, the mice that had been in the pod with Allura, made their way inside the hatch. All three of them knelt back down to see and somehow found a way for all three of them to see inside. "The mice!" Allura said in excitement.
"How do they know how to do this?" Coran asks.
"I can hear them talking to me," Allura explains. "I think out minds are connected. It must be from sharing a sleep pod for ten thousand years."
At this moment, the mice manage to get the crystal in place, the dull yellow now a glowing blue. Sure enough, when they went to activate the particle barrier again, it worked. Allura turned to face the mice, "Thank you, friends."
Coran then put his index fingers to his temples and stared at the mice while groaning; he honestly looked like he needed to go to the toilet. Like, really badly. Both girls gave him strange looks before Allura had to ask, "Coran, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to get them to make me a sandwich," he answers, still doing it.
Of course he was.
After running for several minutes, Keith felt like he had to be running in circles, getting absolutely nowhere. Sure enough, around the next bend proved him correct as he was right back where he started making him groan in frustration. "You've got to be kidding me!"
He breathes heavily for a while, trying to calm down as getting angry was not going to help in this situation. Then he thought about what Shiro had said to him, "Patience yields focus," he whispers to himself, closing his eyes to concentrate.
After a few moments, it happened, he could feel the Red Lion! "Gotcha," and with that, he made his way towards it, now that he knew which way to go.
He followed the path he had seen in his head and eventually, he found the Red Lion, particle barrier up and suspended in mid air, "Bingo," he then placed his palm on the barrier. "Let's get out of here. Open up."
When it refused, he tried talking to it some more, "It's me. Keith. Your buddy. It's me! Keith, your—I am your paladin!"
He would have kept trying if he was not immediately fired upon by Galra sentries, causing him to take cover behind his arm shield. He turned back to face the lion, "I'm bonding with you. Hey! Come on! We're connected!"
When that still did not work, he activated his bayard and attacked the sentries, "You're not getting this lion!"
He managed to defeat one, slicing through its legs, but then more appeared, knocking him off his feet. He looked and, noticing he was next to the control console, activated his mask in full and released the air lock. He grabbed onto the console as the bay doors opened below and the sentries were sucked out into space. He held on for as long as he could, the vacuum of space trying to pull him out, and he probably would have lasted a little longer if he was not knocked off by cargo that flew right at him. He was drifting out in space now, his heart racing as he looked around at the nothingness, having no idea what to do. Then right before him appeared the Red Lion, swallowing him so that he could get in the cockpit.
As he sat on the chair and rolled in, he grabbed the handles, "Good kitty. Let's roll."
He flew out from under the ship and saw that Pidge, with Shiro, was also done with what she was doing. Hunk had just managed to disable the ion cannon. "You guys made it," Hunk called happily.
"Kitty Rose has left the stage!" Pidge says jokingly.
"Let's get the heck out of here!" Lance suggests.
Keith could not agree more with that sentiment as the four of them flew back to Arus. "I hope I stopped that cannon," Hunk says, "I could barely make a dent in it."
When Pidge had told her what they had done inside the ship, Natalie had not known how to feel. So they had once been on the ship, their father and brother, but they were there no longer. She could live with that, knowing they had come one step closer to finding them even if it had not been much. So when the small shuttle had arrived with the rescued captives, though the male members of her family were not aboard, she led the others happily to the healing pods; some of them could definitely use it. After that, she went back to the Bridge to discover the others had all returned, all four lions outside the hangar locking up the Black Lion.
Allura and Coran were watching as the presence of the other lions steadily unlocked the doors to the final one. Allura clasped her hands together, raising them to her face, praying this would work. Natalie stepped up to be beside Coran, sharing a hopeful look with him before they turned back to the hologram. Then she heard it, the roar of the Black Lion as it shook the castle, followed by the resounding roars of the other four in tandem. They finally had all five lions!
"Woohoo!" Coran cheered beside her while Allura sighed in relief, Natalie herself could only manage a very wide smile.
They had no time to enjoy it when the alarms started blaring. "Oh, what now?" Natalie found herself asking.
"Oh, quiznak!" Coran grumbles as a screen lights up showing the arrival of the Galra battleship into the atmosphere.
"Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere," Allura informs the others. "We need Voltron now!"
As the particle barrier was being buffeted by incoming fire from the small Galra fighters, Natalie saw the alert that the lions had left the hangar for the Black Lion. That is when the battleship fired the ion cannon, hitting the barrier dead on and causing the whole castle to shake along with the ground inside the barrier. Natalie found something to hold onto while shouting, "I thought Hunk damaged that thing, what the heck?"
Hunk must have heard her, "Man, those Galra guys repair things fast."
Normally, that kind of feat would spark her boundless curiosity, but seeing as it meant their enemies had a big weapon that could do some serious damage, she was none too keen about it right now. "The barrier gets weaker with every blast," Coran informs them. "Once that shield goes down, the castle will be defenceless."
"I can give you cover with the castle defences for a while," Allura tells the others, "but you'll have to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!"
"Geez, no pressure," Hunk said through the comms, causing Pidge to roll her eyes.
The Galra fired the ion cannon again, and this time, she could see the signs of the barrier weakening as it flickered in places. "Listen up, Team Voltron!" Shiro calls out to them, "The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?"
Pidge nodded in response and somehow she knew, the others had as well. "I'm nodding," Hunk clarifies, "Is everyone else nodding?"
A collective 'yes' of frustration followed.
"Let's do this!" Shiro shouts and they all follow behind as he takes off.
"Uh how?" Lance asks.
"Good question," Keith replies, "Does anyone have any ideas of how to form Voltron?"
"I don't see a 'combine into giant robot' button anywhere on my dashboard," Hunk adds.
They kept running along the ground while under fire from Galra fighters, they still were not sure how they were going to go about forming Voltron. How exactly did one turn five robot lions into one even bigger robot that could kick butt?
"This is insane," Pidge felt the need to throw out, "Can't they just cease fire for one minute so we can figure this out? Is that too much to ask?"
Getting fed up, she turned around to face two incoming fighters. Biting down on one, she threw it at the other, taking them both out before she rejoined the others. "We've got to do something," Keith yells, stopping behind them.
Hunk then threw himself at Keith, knocking the Red Lion to the ground as he shouts, "Combine!"
"Hey!" Keith groans out.
"Okay, that didn't work," Hunk points out the obvious.
The two of them are under fire again and have to run away. Allura opens a line to them, her image appearing on their dashboards, "Quickly, Paladins! Our energy levels are getting low!"
"Yeah, it's getting a little too close," Natalie adds as she sticks her face beside Allura's.
Another hit to the barrier causes static in the feed while the two of them groan and grab onto something. It then cuts out, Shiro saying, "Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just combine. Take off on my cue. One, two, three, Voltron!"
They all took off, flying straight up into the air, "Here we go!" Keith shouted.
"Come on, come on!" Lance chants.
"Nothing's happening," Shiro says after a few moments.
"Hey, wait, wait, wait!" Lance calls out, "I feel something!"
"I do too," Hunk says, "I feel it. It's like we're all being pulled in the same direction!"
"Uh, guys, I think I know why," Shiro reveals, "Look up."
When Pidge looked, she saw it, and it was not good.
"What the cheese?" Lance asks.
"Sendak's ship is sucking us in like a black hole!" Pidge explains, shouting it out.
She then watches as one final blast from the ion cannon obliterates the particle barrier around the castle and her heart sinks into her stomach; her sister was in there! They had to do something. "Oh no," she hears Shiro mutter from his lion.
"I don't care what you say, Shiro," Hunk yells, "I'm panicking now!"
"It can't end here," she shouts.
"This is it!" Lance resigns.
"It's been an honour flying with you guys," Keith throws in.
Things were starting to look really bad, Pidge could only think about how her sister was probably about to die and that she had yet to find her dad and Matt. They had barely even done anything since getting all the lions.
"No!" Shiro suddenly shouts, "We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves. We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together!"
With a collective yell of 'yeah!' it finally happened, the lions roared and they started to form Voltron. Pidge watched as the arms and legs of her lion folded in on themselves and was then attached at the back to the Black Lion's left shoulder. Wow, she really was an arm. It was definitely a weird experience now having control of a single arm instead of a whole lion. It was amazing all the same. Thankfully, they had done it on time to push the ion cannon away from the castle, making it miss, but barely.
She let out a sigh of relief, at least Natalie, Allura and Coran were okay. For now at least, they had to deal with Sendak before they could celebrate.
As the shot from the ion cannon went directly over the castle, Natalie and the other two were in a world of confusion, they thought they were goners for sure. The screen then zeroed in on something standing on the hull of Sendak's ship; they had done it. She found herself laughing in relief, they had actually done it. Voltron was every bit as amazing as she imagined it to be.
"I can't believe it," Keith shouted out, his lion, now the right arm, pushing the cannon out of the way.
"We formed Voltron," Pidge shouted in amazement.
"I'm a leg!" Hunk yelled excitedly.
"How are we doing this?" Lance asked in wonder.
"I don't know," Shiro admits, though he's clearly happy, "but let's get that cannon."
Keith and Pidge followed Shiro's commands as the two arms grabbed onto the cannon and ripped it right out of its holding before throwing it to the ground. Try repairing that in a hurry, Keith thought to himself. He then had the Red Lion puncture the hull and as soon as he was in, he fired right inside it causing that entire section of the ship to explode. They then smashed as a whole right into the ship, Pidge having a turn at destroying anything she could fire upon, which was literally everything. For one final attack, they flew into the air and, while yelling, they flew right into the ship and out the other side. It destroyed what remained of the ship.
They landed back on the ground and as soon as they straightened, Sendak's ship exploded behind them. They had done it, they formed Voltron and defeated their first Galra Commander. It was an amazing feeling that Keith was sure would be with them for the next several days because not one of them could say they had ever felt this victorious in their life until today.
Eventually, they disengaged Voltron and landed their lions out the front of the castle. Natalie, Allura and Coran ran out to meet them, Allura excitedly calling out to them, "Good work, Paladins!"
They were exhausted, Hunk had even laid down on the ground. "Thanks pretty lady," Lance says to her as Shiro gave Keith a rough pat to the back.
Keith then watched as Natalie ran up to her sister, squeezing her tight against her, "That's my little sister, the amazing left arm of Voltron."
"Nat…you're..squeezing me…too tight…can't…breathe," Pidge managed to say between gasps of air.
"Oh," Natalie mutters, letting her go, "Sorry, just too excited."
"But I'm sure Keith would love a massive breath stealing hug," Pidge suggests, giving him an impish grin.
Uh oh, he thought to himself, and had no way to dodge as Natalie jumped him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. "How amazing is this?" she calls, muffled from her face being pressed against him, "My sister is the left arm and my boyfriend is the right arm. Like, what are the odds?"
"Hehe…he," he laughed nervously, looking around at the mischievous looks he was getting from Pidge and Lance.
Shiro decided to just ignore it, well mostly, he had sent Keith a wink, "We did it."
Keith took his helmet off, before putting one arm around Natalie's shoulders as she lets him go enough to only have one arm around him, "Heck yeah, we did," he adds, smiling all the way.
"How did we do it?" Shiro asks in amazement.
"I was just like, screaming the whole time," Hunk admits while also taking off his helmet. "Maybe that did it."
Pidge looked down after taking off her glasses and Keith watched as Shiro put a hand on her shoulder, "We're not going to stop searching until we find you brother and father," he says to her, causing Natalie to tighten her hold a little and so he squeezed back, "Wherever they are, I know they'd be proud of you."
"I certainly am," Natalie adds, sending her sister a comforting smile.
"We won the battle," Allura cuts in, "but the war has only just begun. I'm afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these lions."
"Good thing you paladins know what you're doing," Coran adds, "because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again."
"Totally," Hunk says and then realises what he said, "Wait, what?"
"We barely survived forming Voltron this one time," Lance points out.
"Oh ho, and you only had to fight one ship," Coran continues, making things even worse. "Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them! It's not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe."
They all widened their eyes, taking in his words before Shiro finally speaks up, "Defenders of the Universe, huh? That's got a nice ring to it."
They all turned around to look at the lions as they thought about what this meant. Keith felt Natalie squeeze him again and when he looked down, she was giving him an encouraging smile. He returned it before turning his gaze back to where the others were facing. Yeah, they could do this.
A/N: omg done, finally
So yes, these three chapters took almost a week to write, I was writing other fics amongst them, but it is certainly monstrous. Why did the first episode have to be feature length? Why DreamWorks? Why?
Anyway, this is indeed a retell of the cartoon, so a lot of things are going to be the same or similar. I'm just creating a 'what if' scenario with Pidge having another older sibling who also happens to be dating Keith. Because yes, I totally went there. Keith already has a girlfriend. I may or may not write a story around how they met, got close and, of course, how they got together. It might even include their time in between leaving the Garrison and the beginning of the series. We'll see. Also, you will notice they're not going to be mushy mushy. This isn't a romance. Sure, there will be romantic scenes, they're teenagers, they're going to happen, but it's not the point of the story.
As I've said or will be saying in the other fics, I am currently writing 3 simultaneously, this fic and two others. So already this fic wasn't going to be frequently updated, now even less so. I used to focus on one story at a time, which caused me to put other incomplete ones on the back burner. So I'm trying to keep more people happy by working on a few at a time. So I can't say for sure when the next chapter will be, but hopefully not too long away.
The plan is to write it out in three parts, this is Part 1 comprising of Seasons 1 and 2. Part 2 will be 3-6 and Part 3 will be 7 and 8. This works out to be 26 episodes per part. I still honestly have no idea why the episode counts for each season are 13, 13, 7, 6, 6, 7, 13, 13. Like why? Again DreamWorks, why? I was watching it while it was still airing and those 6 episode seasons were killing me, they weren't enough. I was so happy when the last two season were 13 again.
Well, until the next chapter.
Seza, out.